Psyche's Links
Esoteric Subjects on the Web | annalsofevil.org   [ * ]
250,000+ Links for General Reference and Esoteric Study
Qabala and Related Material
[ Search ]   [ Links Menu]   [ Newtab ]

Psyche's Links: 2012 : 12,937 Links

123112
India Gang Rape Case Sets Off Debate Over Women's Rights (what rights?)
Victim's brother wants Indian gang rapists hanged - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Ed Broadbent on rising inequality and the threat to the Canadian dream - thestar.com

Obama signs renewal of foreign surveillance law - seattlepi.com President Barack Obama has signed into law a five-year extension of the U.S. government's authority to monitor the overseas activity of suspected foreign spies and terrorists.

Hillary Clinton treated for blood clot in her head - CNN.com The clot was located in the vein between the brain and and the skull behind Clinton's right ear and did not result in any stroke or neurological damage, her doctors said in a statement.

Barney Frank 'Strongly Opposes' Chuck Hagel As Defense Secretary

Connect The Dots For Democracy, Connect The Dots USA
Awful People - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money It’s like 1990s-vintage Clinton derangement. Generating a conspiracy theory from the Benghazi faux-scandal, a passel of wingers argued that Hillary Clinton was faking an illness. (Glenn Reynolds, needless to say, was in the lead.)
Senate Benghazi Report Faults State Department, Intelligence
Al Qaeda In Yemen Offers Bounty For U.S. Ambassador Gerald Feierstein Or American Soldier

'Journal News' Advertisers Could Get Boycott Over Gun Map
Piers Morgan: I Would 'Seriously Consider Deporting Myself' Over Gun Control Piers Morgan made yet another call for gun control on Sunday — and threatened to deport himself if America's gun laws do not change.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Gun nuts: please stop protecting us. Really. We mean it. On Wednesday evening, Gary Quackenbush, 61, turned up at the theater seeking his missing gun, “like it would be in the lost and found with lost eyeglasses and other things,” said Long.

SCOTUS in 2012: It Coulda Been Worse The Court handed progressives a major victory in upholding the Affordable Care Act, but next year there might be a lot less to celebrate.
Let’s Give Up on the Constitution - NYTimes.com

Debt Reckoning: The Fiscal Deadline in Washington - NYTimes.com (cliff ticker)
Conceder In Chief? - NYTimes.com So Obama has set himself and the nation up for a much uglier confrontation than we would have had if he had set a negotiating position and held to it ... whenever the president says that there’s an issue on which he absolutely, positively won’t give ground, you can count on him, you know, giving way — and soon, too.
Democrats' Cliff Compromise Is Bad; But The Strategic Consequences Are Disastrous | The New Republic
Obama’s Deal Is Possibly Not a Terrible Deal -- Daily Intelligencer
The Cliff Deal in the Offing | Jared Bernstein | On the Economy Those fears will be realized unless the President really and truly refuses to negotiate on the debt ceiling and is willing to blow past those who would stage a strategic default. If he is not, and if this cliff deal passes, then I fear the WH may have squandered its hard won leverage.
Fiscal cliff: Major progress toward deal - John Bresnahan and Manu Raju and Jake Sherman - politico.com closing in on an agreement that would hike tax rates for families who earn more than $450,000 (Obama caves)
Why Is Obama Caving on Taxes? -- Daily Intelligencer (he always has)
Dems’ Mystifying New Fiscal Cliff Strategy | TPM Editors Blog (give in to terrorist Republicans)
Fiscal Cliff Deal Growing More Likely, Would Raise $715 Billion In Revenue
Kill This Deal | The New Republic Dear House and Senate Democrats, Your president has sold you out. (you don't undertstand; he was always a Republican in it for himself)
Tom Harkin On Fiscal Cliff Talks: 'This Looks Like A Very Bad Deal' Harkin said the $250,000 level already seems like a compromise. He called that cutoff a "tough pill to swallow," as that income level is already far above the income of middle-class Americans.
Unemployment Benefits Lapse 'An Absolute Travesty,' Democrats Say
Fiscal Crisis Impasse Long in the Making - NYTimes.com “Something has gone terribly wrong,” said Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, “when the biggest threat to our American economy is the American Congress. Republicans”
An Afternoon On The Cliff - Esquire Harkin got up on the Senate floor today and rained on the whole parade. Ever since light dawned over the Potomac, and dawn broke over the set of Morning Joe, faint trumpets of glory were said to be sounding
Earth to Fiscal-Cliff Pundits: $250K Does Make You Rich - Politics - The Atlantic Wire
People who make 400K A Year: Very Affluent - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money A central problem with the idea that 300 or 400 grand a year doesn’t go as far if you live in a desirable urban location is that living in a desirable location is something you’re getting with your money.
Mauve Gloves & Madmen, 2010 Version - James Fallows - The Atlantic
Rep. Raul Labrador: 'Democrats Are Like Bank Robbers' for Wanting to Raise Taxes | Video Cafe

New Left Project | Articles | Work, Learning and Freedom - In this often personal interview, renowned linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky outlines a libertarian perspective on work and education, arguing that freedom is the root of creativity and fulfilment.

Markets aren’t sweating the fiscal cliff
Glenn Hubbard, Leading Academic and Mitt Romney Advisor, Took 1200 an Hour to Be Countrywide's Expert Witness | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone (terrible people dept.)
Trump Tower Woes Signal Top of Toronto Condo Market - Bloomberg “It turns out that the hotel had nothing to do with him and that it isn’t a good investment after all.”
Public Funding for Stadiums Jumps the Shark in Miami - Arts & Lifestyle - The Atlantic Cities The end result: a total public bill of $2.4 billion over 40 years. And you thought $600 million sounded expensive. (rich sports owners stick it to the taxpayers, who are stupid)

Gerrymanders, Part 1: Busting the both-sides-do-it myth (Rethugs have always been better at cheating)
U.S. on Pace for Slowest Decade of Population Growth Since 1930s - Bloomberg (wimminz failing their patriotic duty to pop more babiez when they have no moneyz)

Political commentator Sean Hannity was one of the big losers in the 2012 election - NY Daily News The right-wing Fox News host lost half his audience in the weeks after Obama's win (Inhannity tuned out)

MTA continues to stand clear of the closing doors as security system flounders - NY Daily News Proponent of safety doors claims agency botched the most recent attempt to secure a system that killed nearly 60 people this year - Safety doors on subway platforms are a feature on transit systems all over the world, as in Hong Kong, above. But in New York, decades of effort to install them have come to naught.

Sperm donor for lesbian couple’s baby ordered by court to pay child support, vows to fight ruling  - NY Daily News A Kansas judge has decided that a contract between William Marotta, Angela Bauer and Jennifer Schreiner is void because the insemination wasn’t performed by a licensed physician.

‘Training Day’ director defends Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained,’ calls Spike Lee to task   - NY Daily News Antoine Fuqua defends controversial slavery-era western. ‘I don’t think Quentin Tarantino has a racist bone in his body

How a Simple Smartphone Can Turn Your Car, Home, or Medical Device into a Deadly Weapon | Vanity Fair
Archaeologists Think Hidden Imperial Tomb May Be Too Deadly to Explore
SEE IT: South African leopard cub has moves that would make Psy envious - NY Daily News

123012
Israel lobby should not have veto over US president's cabinet - Opinion - Al Jazeera English Hagel's presence in the Obama cabinet could easily, in some circumstances, make the difference between war and peace
Australia condemns Japan for whale hunt - Asia-Pacific - Al Jazeera English Environment minister threatens Japan with diplomatic action unless it stops 'scientific' whaling programme.

Rape in India - NYTimes.com India, a rising economic power and the world’s largest democracy, can never reach its full potential if half its population lives in fear of unspeakable violence. (pot, kettle ...)

Drone War Spurs Pakistan Militants to Deadly Reprisals - NYTimes.com (who could have predicted?)

Obama Pledges To Push For Gun Control Measures If 'American People Decide It's Important' | ThinkProgress (otherwise, fuck it)
MapStory : School Shootings in the US
On Living Armed - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic
The Surprisingly Tangled Politics of 'Gun Safety,' Starring Wikipedia - James Fallows - The Atlantic (Fallows discovers his "gun safety" reframe already applies to classes for 5-yr olds to use guns safely)
Political Animal - 500 murders in Chicago in 2012; 435 of them gun-related

Daily Kos: Hillary Clinton in hospital with blood clot

New York Times Pushes Obama On Climate: 'He Needs To Do A Great Deal More Than...Foster A Conversation' | ThinkProgress (he's always "fostering conversations" that go nowhere)

Daily Kos: The national debt? Republicans built that (never reported fact)

Worry Less About When A "fiscal Cliff" Deal Comes And More About What It Entails. | The New Republic (Obama can't wait to give in)
GOP Senators Want To Take Debt Ceiling Hostage In Order To Raise Retirement Age | ThinkProgress Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) introduced a plan today that would raise the federal debt limit by $1 trillion in exchange for $1 trillion in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security (of course)
Sorry, Folks, We Don't Just Have 'A Spending Problem' - Business Insider
Tax talks hit serious setback as GOP seeks Social Security cut - latimes.com
A Vicious Assault on Retirees | MyFDL There is no other way to describe the machinations in DC today. The median Social Security benefit is $1229. The median net worth of retirees is about $160K, including home equity according to the 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances.
Bob Cesca's post on Politics | Latest updates on Sulia why do the Republicans want to screw old people out of their benefits? The irony is that old people *love* the Republicans. In fact, a supermajority of seniors voted against President Obama in the election, so in a way, seniors voted for the party that's hell-bent on cutting Social Security. Fortunately, the congressional Democrats aren't going to vote for the CPI chaining. You're welcome, seniors. (dementia)

Luitjohan Contractors, Illinois Business, Can Defy Obamacare, Not Cover Workers' Contraception: Court Couple says contraceptives provision violates their faith * Court found "substantial burden" on religious exercise (it really burdens their religion to let their employees believe something else)

Study Says Carbon Nanotubes as Dangerous as Asbestos: Scientific American (not surprising)
German Archaeologists Discover World’s Oldest Wooden Wells | Archaeology | Sci-News.com 7,000-year-old water wells unearthed in eastern Germany suggest that prehistoric farmers in Europe were skilled carpenters long before metal was discovered or used for tools, made water wells out of oak timbers

xish077 comments on What are the must have medical/first-aid products? (bug out, emergency, or recreational camping preparedness)

The Lives They Lived - NYTimes.com< - Paradise Park, N.J./a>
Charles Durning, Character Actor in ‘Tootsie,’ Dies at 89 - NYTimes.com
The Lives They Lived - NYTimes.com - Ethel Person
women on women in love - bookforum.com / syllabi
2011 Reading Resolutions: “The Price of Salt” | Malinda Lo

Hey, 2005? Your Meme Is Calling | Writing | SPLICETODAY.com
Jörg Friedrich | Why Facebook Doesn't Have A Dislike Button - The Approval Bias | The European Magazine - The Debate Magazine Facebook's lack of a dislike button is no surprise: our public sphere is structured to favor approval and consent over disapproval and dissent.
Mark Cuban: Facebook Is Driving Away Brands - Starting With Mine
Why Are Dead People Liking Stuff On Facebook?

122912
Syrian refugee influx could break Lebanon and Jordan, UN envoy warns | World news | guardian.co.uk Lakhdar Brahimi calls for political solution to prevent the 'hell' of further violence destabilising neighbouring countries

India gang rape: six men charged with murder | World news | guardian.co.uk Death of student gang-raped by six men and thrown from a moving bus in Delhi two weeks ago prompts mass protests
India Gang Rape Case: Attackers To Face Murder Charge The tragedy has forced India to confront the reality that sexually assaulted women are often blamed for the crime, forcing them to keep quiet and discouraging them from reporting it to authorities for fear of exposing their families to ridicule. Police often refuse to accept complaints from those who are courageous enough to report the rapes, and the rare prosecutions that reach courts drag on for years. (rape culture everywhere, not just Muslims and America)
Political Animal - How Many Rapes Go Unreported in India? So India, with about four times the population of the U.S., has fewer than a third as many rapes reported. (underreported in US also)
The Main Point: "Getting Home"... a Missive from India by Anuradha Roy

David Cameron 'risks leading Britain out of EU by accident' | World news | The Guardian Veteran of Maastricht treaty negotiations says PM has misread EU leaders' willingness to concede to his demands
France's constitutional council rejects 75% tax rate | World news | guardian.co.uk Government proposal to tax those earning more than €1m at 75% has divided public opinion and led some to leave France (they were all going to the UK)

Paying Dividends: The U.S.-India Nuclear Deal Four Years On - The Diplomat Four years after a historic nuclear deal was signed, many in American policy circles deride the agreement as a failure. They're wrong.
Congo Siasa: The delusional peace: How has the UN failed in the Congo?

George Entwistle's Severance Package, Other BBC Payouts To Be Investigated after a group of British lawmakers accused the BBC of being cavalier with taxpayers' money by paying 450,000 pounds ($730,000) in severance to George Entwistle – double the amount he was entitled to

Yours, Mine, but Not Ours | Jacobin: Why the politics of national security means that we’re all living in failed Hobbesian states: Corey Robin
Lawyers, Guns & Money - Corey Robin’s essay in the new Jacobin is quite brilliant.
National Security and Civil Liberties meet Securitization and State Formation » Duck of Minerva

The 8 Craziest Job Openings in the Military-Industrial Complex | Danger Room | Wired.com

Activists voice dismay as Senate renews government surveillance measure | World news | guardian.co.uk Two amendments that would have provided basic oversight for US government's warrantless surveillance program (Di-Fi atwork)
GOP and Feinstein join to fulfill Obama's demand for renewed warrantless eavesdropping | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The California Democrat's disgusting rhetoric recalls the worst of Dick Cheney while advancing Obama's agenda
Senate to Intel Agencies: We Don't Need to Know How Often You Spy on Americans | Mother Jones - "There is a view by some that this country no longer needs to fear an attack," Feinstein said. (at least she didn't say "aid and comfort to the enemy")

The Deadly Fantasy of Assault Weapons - NYTimes.com Gun owners once talked about the need for personal protection and sport hunting, but out-of-control ad campaigns like Bushmaster’s have replaced revolvers and shotguns with highly lethal paramilitary fantasies.
Alan Colmes: Right-Wing Freaking Out About Dianne Feinstein's Gun Control Suggestions
THE GUN.

Potemkin Filibuster Reform - Lawyers, Guns & Money : For your convenience, I’ll highlight what makes the proposed McCain/Levin filibuster “reform” (sic) worse than useless: Point two is particularly priceless — “filibusters will proceed only in circumstances where the minority party wants them.” Yeah, that will solve everything!
Weak Filibuster Reform Offer Rejected By Progressive, Labor Coalition A broad coalition of nearly 50 progressive and labor organizations that have been actively lobbying for filibuster reform rejected a new bipartisan proposal out of hand, calling it a "recipe for continued Senate gridlock."

Obama’s Final Ultimatum To GOP On Taxes | TPMDC
Everything You Know About The Deficit Is Wrong: Fixing It Is Painless - Business Insider (jobs, but Obama hates them)
US port shutdown averted as talks with longshoremen continue | World news | guardian.co.uk Longshoremen group had been preparing for strike Sunday that could have deprived US economy of billions of dollars
GOP Governors Deny The Poor Health Care In Opposing Obamacare's Medicaid Expansion (they aren't "job creators" so screw them)
Presenting the second annual Wonky awards Wonk of the year: Grover Norquist
Political Animal - The No-Government Lobby Need more evidence that today’s conservatives have drifted from a relativistic “let’s rein in government excess” to an absolutist “let’s gut government” posture? Check out this quote from right-wing war horse Michael Medved (the rich have their own "government")
Eschaton: So It's Basically Blackmail Then. "I can't stay here (FreedomWorks), I can't work with people like this, and I can't afford to leave with empty pockets," Armey said. (with a gun)

Bats Left/Throws Right: Thursday Olio: Can't We Deport Piers Morgan And Convict David Gregory For Their Actual Crimes? Edition • Do you see what I see? Okay, so I understand that Bad Timing happens; I suppose there's no way that the Times' former Style editor and go-to guy on all things Dressage Bertram "Trip" Gabriel III could have known that the WaPos were about to tell the tale of Dick "Dick" Armey, his wife, and his heat boy stomping into Freedom Works' offices to extort $8 mil. (Mssrs Riley and Pierce are really good at intros like that +WaPo had the story, Times had the puff piece)
Supreme Court Is Cool With Jesus Scrapbooking Ladies Slutting It Up | TBogg

Daily Kos: Poor in Georgia? Don't expect anything but humiliation from the state
Daily Kos: Michigan Republicans brag about their hard work trampling democracy and cutting corporate taxes (how Republicans run their states)

Costa Rica: Where the Locusts Are | Thomas Friedman Op/Ed Generator (generates random Tom Friedman columns)

Mississippi's low levels could halt river traffic | The Des Moines Register | desmoinesregister.com A shutdown of commercial use could come by next week, a group says (but "economic needs bar action on climate change" -- Obama)

Florida's Long Lines On Election Day Discouraged 49,000 People From Voting: Report

Brad DeLong : Liveblogging World War II: December 29, 1942
1812now (1812now) on Twitter (200 yr anniversary of Constitution vs Java)
PM's Question Time: Structure Induced Equilibria in Everything, Peloponnesian War Edition

Fossil Evidence Shows That Sabertooth Cats Did Not Die Out Due to Starvation | Cleveland Leader

The NYU Hookup Board by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly NYU Hook Ups just exists to arrange sexual encounters. Those questions to ask answer are really basic, along the lines of gender, sexual orientation, “dorm on campus or live off campus” and then, apparently, you’re off. Kaufman described the service as “fast, convenient, kind of icky.” (girls will really go for this)

Belgium To Prosecute Scientology As Criminal Organization; Church Faces Charges Of Extortion, Fraud The church of Scientology -- which is not recognized as a faith in Belgium -- and several of its top-ranking members face charges including extortion, fraud, illegal practice of medicine and violation of privacy laws, according to Flanders News.
The Madness Of A Lost Society 3 - YouTube

Quick Thoughts on Django Unchained — Jamelle Bouie
Django Unchained Trilogy and More: Tarantino Talks to Gates
Now I Know – Mickey Attempts Suicide Walt and his brother Roy struck riches when their animated movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, grossed $8 million (well over $100 million in today’s dollars) in its first release. The brothers bought a new house for their parents, but their mother, Flora, complained about the furnace not working. Walt had it fixed, but the repairs were inadequate, and on November 6, 1938, Flora Call Disney died of asphyxiation from the furnace’s fumes.

Woody Guthrie's wonderful list of New Year's resolutions for 1942 | MNN - Mother Nature Network
Hot-Housing the Orchid - YouTube

Steve Jobs' yacht impounded over pay dispute - CNN.com
Bruce Sterling on Why It Stopped Making Sense to Talk About 'The Internet' in 2012 - Alexis C. Madrigal - The Atlantic Five simple reasons: Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft.

122812
Pakistan Seeks Help To Rescue 23 Missing Police Also Friday, missiles fired from unmanned U.S. aircraft killed four suspected militants at a training center elsewhere in the remote frontier area, the main sanctuary for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in the country, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
Mridul Bhattacharyya, Assam Tea Estate Owner, Killed In Fire By Workers In India Hundreds of tea estate workers surrounded the plantation owner's home in India's northeastern state of Assam and set it on fire over a labor dispute, killing him and his wife, police said Thursday.
India Gang Rape Victim's Condition Deteriorating: Hospital
India Teen Commits Suicide After Police Pressure Her To Drop Gang Rape Case, Marry Attacker
VA finds sexual assaults more common in war zones
Nicaragua's San Cristobal Volcano Activity Prompts Evacuation
What China Learned from the Soviet Union's Fall - The Diplomat Why the process of assessing blame for the collapse of the USSR is still a hot topic in Beijing

Counterfeit medicine from Asia threatens lives in Africa | World news | The Guardian Malaria is one of the diseases affected by unscrupulous traders in fake and substandard drugs
China says it isn’t producing fake anti-malaria drugs for Africa | The Raw Story China has denied allegations that it has been exporting huge amounts of counterfeit medication to Africa, threatening public health in east Africa, five days after The Guardian published a front page exposé on the phenomenon. (un-huh)

Matt Taibbi: Libor Scandal Is 'The Biggest Financial Corruption Case In History' (video)
Finance Stocks Dominate The Market In 2012 Despite Continuous Fines, Scandals And Fraud (chart) (Obama takes care of his own)

Senate votes to extend warrantless wiretapping powers | The Raw Story
Shorter Dianne Feinstein: Oversight Is Fine, As Long As It’s Toothless - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money With Lieberman about to retire, would that officially make Feinstein the most useless deep-blue-state senator who caucuses with Democrats? Hard to think of another candidate with her credentials.
Senator calls for oversight of agencies that might be monitoring Americans - The Hill's Floor Action Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on Thursday said Congress should require intelligence agencies to provide estimates of how often the emails and phone calls of Americans are collected during the surveillance of terrorist suspects overseas.

Daily Kos: Another day in the (gun crazy) U.S.A.
Daily Kos: NRA backed law allows civilians to kill police officers Indiana is the first U.S. state to specifically allow force against officers (NRA lobbied for law to kill cops)

Narrower Tax Deal Floated as Lawmakers to Sit With Obama - NYTimes.com
112th Congress Set To Become Most Unproductive Since 1940s (Republicans sabotaging America, which they hate)
GOP Governors Deny The Poor Health Care In Opposing Obamacare's Medicaid Expansion

Is Growth Over? - NYTimes.com But our current travails will eventually end. What do we know about the prospects for long-run prosperity? The answer is: less than we think. (income inequality and our dystopian future)
Simon Johnson: The S.E.C. at a Turning Point - NYTimes.com The Obama administration should press for the appointment of Neil Barofsky, former special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, to this position. Unfortunately, the administration has given no indication it will do so, leaving the impression that it is likely to be business as usual for the next four years, with regulators who are less than tough on the industry. (it's always business as usual for the strangely out-of-touch Obama)
Longshoremen Strike Would Cost $1 Billion Per Day: Economists (another fiscal cliff)
It's Do or Die for Sears, Best Buy, J.C. Penney and RadioShack - WSJ.com

How polarisation in Washington affects a growing feeling of partisanship | Harry J Enten | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Legislators may no longer feel they have reason to play to the middle making Washington seem more divided than ever (no swing districts left)
The top five polling lessons from the 2012 election | Harry J Enten | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Cellphones, internet tactics and other vital things we should take with us as we close the books on last month's election

Daily Kos: Hobby Lobby to defy courts over contraceptive ruling and impose religious views on workers
Daily Dot | Campaign to label Westboro Baptist Church a hate group shatters records A recently posted petition to legally classify the Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group has quickly become the most-signed petition in the 15-month history of the We the People program

Markey declares candidacy in Senate special election - Boston.com
Massachusetts Senate Race - The Return of Scott Brown - Esquire (thanks, Barry)
Political Animal - Worst Year-End Column? - Margaret Carlson (delusional beltway thinking)

When Community College Enrollment Declines by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly More job growth means fewer people want (or need) to attend community colleges.
For-Profit Colleges Manage Student Loan Default Rates, Senators Call For Investigation

Higgs boson theorist criticizes Richard Dawkins over anti-religious ‘fundamentalism’ | The Raw Story
Why Can’t We Say What Color Our Skin Is? — Crooked Timber
Hoaxes of Dreams | berfrois
Chris Mooney | Conservatives versus Science: A New Scientific Validation of the Republican War on Science (and Republican Brain) Thesis
Cocktail Party Physics: dinosaurs, mars, and kareem abdul jabbar: science books for the kids on your shopping list

the untold story of the concorde disaster

The White Race Cannot Survive Without Dairy Products - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money a quote from Herbert Hoover
Dairy cliff and the plot against the white race.

Italian priest’s Christmas flyer: Women incite domestic violence with cold dinners | The Raw Story

Facebook shares fall as Instagram loses millions of users | The Raw Story over the past week the number of daily Instagram users fell by 3.5 million to an average of 12.4 million users per day.
Operating system market share
Chinese '.catholic' will be the first top-level domain considered in ICANN expansion | The Verge
Qualys BrowserCheck
Tablet PC Reviews - Best Tablet PCs

122712
Markey - Lawyers, Guns & Money - One of Obama’s many weaknesses is his belief that leading elected politicians are the primary proving ground for leading administration jobs. He’s gone to this well time and time again, effectively destroying the political careers of top Democrats in red states for no real reason.

U.S. Fiscal Cliff: House To Return December 30, John Boehner Says

Timeline Photos | Facebook - Democrats on the Fence of Filibuster reform

Ruth Marcus Is Outraged by Overly Generous Social Security Checks | Beat the Press (Villagers at work starving granny; Marcus says her mother can just turn down the heat)
The Austerity Dance - Esquire (Ruth Marcus and the courtier press)
'Fallout from Budget and cyber abuse' troubled late Minister - National News - Independent.ie This respite care thing, they are destroying me,' McEntee told friends days before taking his life
Retail Sales & Excuses - Business Insider - The Media Excuses Are Missing What's Really Behind Weak Retail Sales (no money, you idiots)
2013 Is the Year to Go to Work, Not Go on Disability - Bloomberg (souless economist speak: you have the "work option" and then you have the "starve option")
You Can't Spend What You Ain't Got - Esquire

Changing History | TPM Editors Blog Some fascinating findings from Pew’s on-going number crunching of the 2012 election. African-Americans, for the first time ever, may have voted at higher rates than American whites. (game-changer)
The Growing Electoral Clout of Blacks Is Driven by Turnout, Not Demographics | Pew Social & Demographic Trends

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Justice Sotomayor Rejects Hobby Lobby’s Emergency Birth Control Benefit Appeal
James Knight, Dentist Who Fired 'Irresistible' Worker, Gets Slammed On Yelp (the internets has its revenge; now if only Yelp would review the Iowa Supreme Court)
Philadelphia High Schools Are Getting Free Condom Dispensers The condoms will be available to all students unless their parents signed an "opt out" form, although, in a move that will surely piss off your Fox News types, the "opt out" apparently won't be enforced by the school or its nurses.

A Plague Upon One House - Esquire Now, after carefully nurturing for 40 years the notion that government is bad, the Republican party has developed within it a legislative core that believes that, if government is bad, then governing is worse, that holds as an article of faith that the only legitimate function of government is to do nothing -- loudly, if possible. (Dept. of Logical Conclusions)

Kentucky Man With Obama Eating Watermelon Statue: It Seemed Like It Might Get Hungry (not racist at all, Danny Hafley claims)

Boy Scout files on suspected abuse published by The Times - latimes.com Viewable online: about 1,200 previously unpublished files kept by the Boy Scouts of America on volunteers and employees expelled for suspected sexual abuse. (a dent in block and obstruct)

Tagg Romney Quote Mitt Romney - Tagg, You're It - Esquire (Mitt didn't "want" to be President, he deserved it)

This strange neo-Victorian desire to save prostitutes and porn actresses

Spanish flu mystery: Why don’t scientists understand the 1918 flu even after digging up its victims? - Slate Magazine Spanish influenza killed about 50 million people (estimates vary), including 675,000 in the United States, and up to 40 percent of the world’s population was stricken with the flu

One In Four Americans Owns A Tablet, Overtaking E-Readers, As Printed Book Consumption Continues To Decline: Pew | TechCrunch
Amazon Sees Its Biggest Holiday Season Ever, Tops Online Shopping Survey While Apple, Dell & JCP Decline | TechCrunch
Re: hmm...: PC Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review (Win 8 improvements)
Windows 8 vs. Windows 7 Performance - TechSpot
Under the hood of Windows 8, or why desktop users should upgrade from Windows 7 | ExtremeTech

122612
Syria military police chief defects to rebels | World news | The Guardian Major General Abdelaziz Jassim al-Shalal says army has 'committed massacres against an unarmed population'
Mohamed Morsi signs Egypt's new constitution into law | World news | The Guardian Egypt's president make divisive new charter legally binding shortly after referendum result showing more than 60% support (of the 33 percent that voted)
Georgia’s war against the poor: The southern state is emptying its welfare rolls at the same time that poverty is soaring. - Slate Magazine Fewer than 4,000 adults in the southern state receive welfare, even as poverty is soaring. How Georgia declared war on its poorest citizens—leaving them to fight for themselves.

Charting the state of the U.S. economy: EPI’s top charts of 2012 | Economic Policy Institute
US markets take hit from poor Christmas spending figures | Business | guardian.co.uk Major retailers among the market fallers as traders fail to take seasonal cheer despite encouraging US housing data

The Interview: Stephen M. Walt - The Diplomat Stephen M. Walt discusses American alliances in Asia, U.S. - China relations, Iran and more.

Six die in US storms as states brace for further woe and travel chaos | World news | guardian.co.uk High winds, tornadoes and icy conditions ground more than 300 flights and leave tens of thousands of families without power
2012 Tornadoes: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi And Alabama Report Christmas Twisters (the Deity is pissed at something)
Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog : Top Ten U.S. Weather Events of 2012 | Weather Underground

Obama's gift to al-Qaida, support for tyranny, and FBI monitoring of dissent | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Numerous individual events from this week alone signify important trends in US government policy (learned nothing from 9/11 except to make more of them)
Daily Kos: If we policed the U.S. the way we do Afghanistan

Newtown Police Officers, Traumatized And Not Working, At Risk Of Losing Pay Some of the police officers who responded to the school shooting in Newtown are so traumatized they haven't been working, but they have to use sick time and could soon be at risk of going without a paycheck, a union official said Wednesday.
Jay Nixon: Arming Teachers 'Would Put Our Children At Risk' (moar gunz!)
Michael Nutter: NRA Armed Guard Proposal A 'Completely Dumbass Idea'
Frank Luntz, GOP Pollster: The NRA Isn't Listening With Proposal For Armed Guards At Schools
A history of the Second Amendment in two paintings (the KKK took over defending us from Redcoats ) Blacks)
Ronald Reagan: Gun Control Advocate - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money It’s also very much worth noting that the NRA traditionally supported gun control as well. The organization’s current extremism only dates to the 1970s, a period where not coincidentally, conservative whites were increasingly nervous about the direction of the country, what with t
Daily Kos: Meet the Press broke gun laws; America debates whether to care
Gun homicides and gun ownership listed by country | News | guardian.co.uk With less than 5% of the world's population, the United States is home to roughly 35–50 per cent of the world's civilian-owned gun

Ross Douthat Explains It All To You - Esquire Apparently, when I was off dancing at the Fezziwigs' annual Christmas Ball, young Cardinal Douthat unlimbered himself on the topic of guns, and what we do with them. First, though, the Connecticut-born, prep-school-nurtured, Harvard-educated, New York Times ideological affirmative action hire had to give voice to his inner peckerwood. Hilarity ensued. (national treasure, Charles Pierce)

U.S. Mental Healthcare System Failing Patients, Advocates Say “The place is something out of the 1920s,” Missouri State Rep. Jeanne Kirkton said of Fulton State Hospital, the state's first. “Have you ever seen ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’? It’s that, but worse.”
A Cleared Bill of Health This year saw conservative attacks on reproductive rights, and the Affordable Care Act make it past the final hurdles to full implementation.

Political Animal - Chuck Hagel, the Multi-Faceted Symbol
Political Animal - Cabinet Rope-a-Dope? (let the Rethugs go nuts on your leak; propose someone else)
Thousands Of Vets And Military Families Sign Petition Rejecting 'Neocon Smears' Against Hagel | ThinkProgress (not everyone thinks AIPAC/failed Neocons/Netanyahu should run American foreign policy)

Obama stump speech strategy of conciliation considered harmful | Corrente (2007 prescient)
Hullabaloo: Holiday Fundraiser Greatest Hits: Bipartisan Zombies (2007 it was clear back then)

Brad DeLong : Yes, It Looks Very Much as Though the Austerity Bomb Is Going to Go Off...
For Republicans, it’s not about deficit reduction (it's about destroying government)
A gallon of milk could cost $8 in 2013. Here’s why. (Republicans)
Balloon Juice » Abject Surrender is the Best Negotiating Strategy Kent Conrad was on Fox News Sunday and offered to “split the difference” on the fiscal cliff negotiations: (last bark of the Blue-Dogs that Rahm loved so much)

If Boehner goes, look outside Washington for a new speaker - The Washington Post ? Go to Article I, Section 2: The Constitution does not say that the speaker of the House has to be a member of the House. In fact, the House can choose anybody a majority wants to fill the post. (Karl Rove! Dick Armey! Jeb Bush!)

Top Dem moments of 2012: Mitt Romney, the gift that kept on giving — MSNBC
Daily Kos: Editorial says it's 'unfair' to judge Sen. Mike Crapo for being drunk-driving liar You might think now is a great time to point out that holier-than-thou Crapo is just a typical, hypocritical, law-breaking Republican. And in most circles you'd be right. But according to an editorial in the Idaho Statesman, that wouldn't be fair:

Organized labor: a bad year (with a few bright spots) — MSNBC

Tea Party, Its Clout Diminished, Turns to Narrower Issues - NYTimes.com
Dick Army FreedomWorks: Getting paid millions for a failed coup. Armey took a dispute in which there was some chance of him ending up with nothing, and ended up with a sack of money far larger than anything most people will ever see. He did pretty well. (Teafucks at work)
FreedomWorks tea party group nearly falls apart in fight between old and new guard - The Washington Post (armed insurrection! tons of money!)
Political Animal - Loudest Teapot Tempest Yet (both sides, of course, are nuts)
Dick Armey FreedomWorks - Dick Armey's DC Shakedown - Esquire Dick Armey walks into the Wingnut Welfare equivalent of NORAD, and he brings along an "aide" who's packing, and he walks out with eight million bucks? You do that at a Gas 'n Sip and walk out with $50 in quarters and you do 10 years. The rich are different from you and me. Many of them are morons.

Bonus Quote of the Day "I couldn't believe the kind of people who had come and taken power. Many of them had never had any government experience. They had no respect as it were for government per se. I mean, I don't know why you run for government office with the intent to close up government." -- Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), quoted by Southern California Public Radio, on leaving Congress to become Mayor of San Diego.

There are four ways to get fired from Caesars: (1) theft, (2) sexual harassment, (3) running an experiment without a control group, and (4) keeping a gambling addict away from the casino « Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
Afghan Light Air Support saga continues: Chuck Wald flies the Tucano - The DEW Line

Brad DeLong : Does Thomas Nagel Reject All of Quantum Mechanics as Well as Evolution and Cognitive Science?
Mind and Cosmos, by Thomas Nagel
Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False // Reviews // Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews // University of Notre Dame
Thomas Nagel: a philosopher who confesses to finding things bewildering
Boston Review — Elliott Sober: Remarkable Facts (Thomas Nagel, Mind and Cosmos)
Do You Only Have a Brain? On Thomas Nagel | The Nation
A Philosopher Defends Religion by Thomas Nagel | The New York Review of Books

Best Space Photos of the Year 2012 | Wired Science | Wired.com
Engraved Stone Dating Back 30,000 Years Found in China | Archaeology | Sci-News.com Chinese archaeologists have discovered a stunning 30,000-year-old engraved stone artifact in a collection of stone tools unearthed at the Paleolithic site of Shuidonggou in 1980

Media Tip: How to Eliminate Your "Uhhhs" and "Ummms" Caroline Kennedy said "you know" 168 times during a single 30-minute interview. After being roundly mocked by the local press, Ms. Kennedy removed herself from consideration.
J. Geils Band - Centerfold - YouTube

Mark Zuckerberg's Sister Complains Of Facebook Privacy Breach (live by the lack-of-privacy, die ...)

122512
Syria opposition activists expect rocky transition after Assad’s fall - The Washington Post (not going to be pretty)
Egypt's new constitution approved in referendum | World news | guardian.co.uk President Mohamed Morsi wins support for measure amid growing fears for Egyptian economy
Israel approves another 1,200 settlement units around Jerusalem | World news | guardian.co.uk Plan brings total approvals to 5,500 in just over a week as right urges Binyamin Netanyahu to drop two-state solution pledge
Israel to Review Curbs on Women’s Prayer at Western Wall - NYTimes.com ("review")
In India, police shoot dead journalist covering protest - Committee to Protect Journalists

Gunman in Firefighter Ambush Left Chilling Note - NYTimes.com
William Spengler's Note Before Killing Webster Firefighters: 'Do What I Like Doing Best, Killing People'
William Spengler, Killer Of 2 New York Firemen, Had Bushmaster Semiautomatic Rifle
New York Journal News Publishes Gun Owners' Names In Westchester, Rockland Counties
Mixed Reaction to Call for Armed Guards in Schools - NYTimes.com (not "stupid" and "reckless" and "delusional")
Guns Kill Young Children Daily In The U.S. Between 2006 and 2010, 561 children age 12 and under were killed by firearms (the price of freedom!)
U.N. To Reconsider Arms Trade Treaty Blocked By NRA Conspiracy Theories | ThinkProgress
Petition To Deport CNN Host For Gun Control Support Reaches 60,000 Signatures | ThinkProgress
Police probe NBC's David Gregory on gun clip - Katie Glueck - politico.com When pressed on what the police department was investigating, Alali added, “The ‘Meet the Press’, David Gregory incident.” (think about this for a few seconds)

Salon's David Sirota To Don Lemon: If Majority Of Mass Shooters Wasn't White, 'Conversation Would Be Much Uglier' (video) Sirota said, "I think we should ask the question why is America 30 percent white guys, and 70 percent of the shootings in the last many decades have been at the hands of white guys
Time to profile white men? - Salon.com My interview with MSNBC ignites a conservative media firestorm -- and exposes America's dangerous double standard
Grover Norquist Claims 20 Percent of Americans Say They Belong to the NRA | Video Cafe This is the importance, the NRA is built on myths at this point in many ways. The NRA has 4 million members. It is essentially a lobby for gun manufacturers, not for its members (4 million = 20% of 300,000,000 ... Norquist would like to overstate their influence since he's one of their board members: nexus of evil)

MSNBC Panel Goes After Democrats for Putting Social Security Cuts on the Table | Video Cafe They go along with cutting benefits and we can look forward to ads from Republicans saying that Democrats hate seniors and went after your Social Security, just like they did with their Medicare ads during the last two elections. Never mind that they're the ones who actually want to destroy the programs. (as usual, Obama only thinking of himself)

Brad DeLong : In Which Greg Mankiw Pretends to Be Puzzled... Mankiw did his best to join in the process of taking the work that we in the Clinton administration had done in the 1990s to restore America's fiscal balance--work that was very well done, very important, and work that we were and are very proud of--and casually smashing it on the floor.
Eschaton: But They Will Always Smash It On The Floor Liberals should spend their time in office figuring out how to implement a sticky liberal agenda, one which is hard to dislodge, not figuring out how to create a pot of money for Republicans to steal when it is their turn.
Paul Krugman: Deficit Hawks Are 'Remarkably Foolish'
Dean Baker: The Myth of the Wealthy Elderly ... This is the group that the Very Serious People in Washington want to target for their deficit reduction. While the Very Serious People debate whether people who earn $250,000 a year are actually rich when it comes to restoring the tax rates of the 1990s, they somehow think that seniors with incomes under $30,000 a year must sacrifice to balance the budget. There is a logic here, but it ain't pretty. (Obama, granny starving because he is oddly un-curious about real economics)

The National Memo » watch: Norquist Upset That Obama Has ‘Not Been Negotiating’ (Mr "No Negotions, ever" is upset at Obama negotiating all over the place)
Tea Party, Its Clout Diminished, Turns to Fringe Issues - NYTimes.com Tea Party activists in the middle of the country are skirting the fiscal showdown in Congress and turning to fringe issues, raising questions about whether the movement still represents a citizen groundswell to which attention must be paid.

Oklahoma Planned Parenthood Deals Can Be Terminated: Judge A federal judge on Monday denied a request by Planned Parenthood to temporarily block Oklahoma from terminating a contract with the agency to provide nutritional services to low-income mothers.

Inflammation can trigger depression | Videnskab.dk Inflammation in the body gives two to three times increased risk of depression. It shows a large Danish study involving 73,000 Danes.
Elevated Levels of C-Reactive Protein Appear Associated with Psychological Distress, Depression - For the Media - JAMA & Archives
Metal Chunk Ditched for Silicon Sphere to Measure Kilogram | Wired Science | Wired.com

Netflix Crippled On Christmas Eve By AWS Outages | TechCrunch
Everything you need to know about Windows 8 upgrades (FAQ part 2) | ZDNet
The ultimate Windows 8 upgrade FAQ | ZDNet
Two must-have downloads that make Windows 8 more bearable | ZDNet

Jimmy Fallon, Mariah Carey & The Roots: "All I Want For Christmas Is You" (w/ Classroom Instruments) - YouTube

122412
Senior Syrian official in US and co-operating with intelligence agencies | World news | guardian.co.uk Guardian understands that US intelligence officials helped Jihad Makdissi to flee, though details of journey are unknown
India gang rape protests: Manmohan Singh appeals for calm | World news | guardian.co.uk A day after police quell rising anger with teargas and water cannons, PM calls for calm and promises justice for victim
UP rape victim raped by cops probing case - The Times of India A gang-rape victim from Uttar Pradesh's Ambedkar Nagar, who was again violated by the investigating officer (IO) probing her case, has now alleged that she was also raped by the inspector in charge of the police station where she had lodged her complaint.


Political Animal - The Atlantic declares death “a good thing” (Jeffrey Goldberg wanks! moar gunz! +John Lott!)
The answer is not more guns - Salon.com - A trendy argument suggests we'll be safer if more people carry guns. It's dangerous, wrong and terrible policy - the “Slate pitch” genre of contrarian counternarratives
American Public Health Association - Investigating the Link Between Gun Possession and Gun Assault
Miscellaneous - Firearms Research - Harvard Injury Control Research Center - Harvard School of Public Health 1. An armed society is not a trusting society
The Declining Culture of Guns and Violence in the United States — The Monkey Cage (NRA, lobbyists for violence and death)
Newtown and the Madness of Guns : The New Yorker Whatever satisfaction gun owners take from their guns—we know for certain that there is no prudential value in them—is more important than children’s lives. Give them credit: life is making moral choices, and that’s a moral choice, clearly made.
Why America Can't Pass Gun Control - Steven Hill and Robert Richie - The Atlantic Looking ahead to 2014, control of the House once again will come down to the outcome of 35 or so close races. To earn a House majority, Democrats will need to sweep nearly all of them, largely in districts where a pro-gun control position doesn't play well.
Political Animal - Bullet Vote By their estimation, we have terrible gun laws because of a series of small factors that add up to a big conclusion: “bullet” voters (pun intended) opposing gun control or anything like it who happen to exercise disproportionate power in districts with disproportionate influence over the U.S. House.
NRA press conference: The lesson of Newtown—when gun nuts write gun laws, nuts have guns. - Slate Magazine We are living in the world the NRA has made.
Shorter NRA: We Demand the Freedom to Live In a Permanent Police State - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Balloon Juice » Games Gun Nuts Play - Our Zombie targets are life-sized; three-dimensional tactical mannequins that “bleed” when you shoot them, using Zombie Industries’ Patent Pending proprietary technology. One of the female “zombies” is named “The Ex”.
Daily Kos: The Second Amendment: Or, taking up arms against U.S. troops (any weapon you can lift is "bearable")
Twitter / Jane_Roh: The look @CoryBooker gave Peggy ... The look @CoryBooker gave Peggy Noonan as she blamed #gunviolence on video games was priceless
Balloon Juice » Your Sunday Show Sideeye Cory Booker versus Nooners on gun violence and Newtown:
Bats Left/Throws Right: For The Sake Of The Country, Would It Be Possible For You To Just Be Fucking Insane Somewhere Else For A Week Or Two? Which brings us to Douthat, now humping along toward a monochrome middle age with the same teenage facial hair and the same teenage hand-me-down politics. Is there a single example of organic development in what we'll call, for lack of a thesaurus, Douthat's thought?
Political Animal - Don’t Let Scientists Get Near Your Guns! Restrictions on research were later extended from the CDC to all parts of the Department of Health and Human Services. And similar efforts have affected other federal and state agencies.
Police: Webster gunman set 'trap' for firefighters - World & Nation - The Buffalo News
The Horror Continues - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Clearly, the problem is that not every American firefighter is armed, preferably with another armed guard for when they’re actually firefighting. We can pay through all of this with minor reductions in the foreign aid outlays that constitute 95% of federal expenditures.
Gun owners vs. the NRA: What the polling shows

Obama: I Would Be Considered Moderate Republican In 1980s - ABC News - More Moderate Republican Than Socialist

It Actually Matters | TPM Editors Blog Hagel would likely lean toward putting some pressure on Israel on the peace-making front (a good thing) and would likely resist a move to war with Iran (also a good thing). Washington neoconservatives don’t want either; ditto for AIPAC and the Israel lobby. And now it seems they’re going to win this one. Which is really unfortunate. (Israel is your boss)
Grow A Pair, Mr President - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast
Hey Obama: Defend Chuck Hagel! - The Daily Beast

When Prophecy Fails - NYTimes.com The key thing we need to understand, however, is that the prophets of fiscal disaster, no matter how respectable they may seem, are at this point effectively members of a doomsday cult. They are emotionally and professionally committed to the belief that fiscal crisis lurks just around the corner, and they will hold to their belief no matter how many corners we turn without encountering that crisis.
Fareed Zakaria is Unhappy That "The American Left" Chooses Arithmetic Over Peter Peterson | Beat the Press (as delusional as Obama)
Bankster Justice Very Much Delayed | Consortiumnews •The Obama administration has made it official policy not to prosecute fraud. Indeed, the “watchdogs” in D.C. are so corrupt that they are as easily bribed as a policeman in a third world banana republic.

Fiscal Cliff Deal Seen As Elusive By Lawmakers
Search for Way Through Fiscal Impasse Turns to the Senate - NYTimes.com
FreedomWorks Feud: War Inside Tea Party Group Gets Nastier | Mother Jones (couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of goons)
Fiscal Cliff Leaves John Boehner A Wounded Speaker
All I Want for Christmas Is a New GOP - The Daily Beast You call that governing? Amid dismal fiscal-cliff talks and an even worse reaction to the shooting in Newtown, Mark McKinnon throws cold water on his wayward party - Nothing on taxes. Nothing on gun control. Nothing on climate change. Nothing on gay marriage. Nothing on immigration reform (or an incremental, piece-by-piece approach, which will result in nothing). It’s a very odd situation when the losing party is the party refusing to negotiate. It may be how you disrupt, but it is not how you govern, or how you ever hope to regain a majority.
The National Memo » This Is Why Speaker Boehner Has Lost Control No Taxex: This is like an obese man saying “I have an eating problem, not an exercising problem. Thus I will NEVER exercise.” Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS, Vandal, poster-child for idiocy) (no taxes because ... freedom!)
A Dispatch From the 'National Review's Post-Election Cruise -- New York Magazine Steaming past Guantánamo, en route to the Cayman Islands, a boatload of Republicans ponder the plight of a party at sea. (Romney victory cruise)

Daily Kos: Romney campaign caught off guard by fact that Obama staffers worked
Daily Kos: How did Mitt Romney decide when to concede defeat? By watching Fox. And listening to Karl Rove.
Some Lies Are So Transparent They Remain Lies Even If You Believe Them - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Shorter verbatim son of Mittens: “[Willard Romney] wanted to be president less than anyone I’ve met in my life.” Yes, clearly this always unambitious man was in it for the principle, and because the Republican base was begging him to run. At any rate, the title principle remains very important when considering pretty much anything about the Romney/Ryan ticket. (I'll never wanted you anyway, nah-nah)

Idaho Sen. Crapo, charged with DUI, faces Jan. 4 court date; says he’s ‘deeply sorry’ - The Washington Post (drunk Mormon)
Daily Kos: Pope gives special holiday hate speech against gays because it's Christmas

Political Animal - News flash: “good men” do not commit rape a controversy that has developed between feminist bloggers and a site called the Good Men Project.

Should Harvard start admitting kids at random? « Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science Tyler Cowen links to an article where Ron Unz provides evidence that Jews are way overrepresented at Ivy League colleges, with Asians-Americans and non-Jewish whites correspondingly underrepresented.
A Modest Victory in the Struggle Against Academic Fecklessness » Duck of Minerva The URI administration has issued a new statement (David M Dooley walks it back)

Hydrogen Sonata Forum wrap-up » Duck of Minerva

Why Do We Blink So Frequently? | Surprising Science . The average person blinks some 15-20 times per minute—so frequently that our eyes are closed for roughly 10% of our waking hours overall (micro-nap to refocus)
Stanford creates flexible, high-efficiency peel-and-stick solar cells | ExtremeTech

122312
Egypt Constitution Likely Approved: Muslim Brotherhood

Why the US media ignored Murdoch's brazen bid to hijack the presidency | Carl Bernstein | Comment is free | The Guardian Did the Washington Post and others underplay the story through fear of the News Corp chairman, or simply tin-eared judgment? (WaPo put it in the "Style" section, ha-ha)

New York's top court highlights the meaninglessness and menace of the term 'terrorism' | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk A fascinating new ruling unwittingly illustrates the separate system of 'justice' invented for Muslims in the US after 9/11
The Israel Lobby's smear campaign against Hagel and Zero Dark Thirty | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Discussing the potential new Defense Secretary and the highly-celebrated pro-torture film, on MSNBC's "Up with Chris Hayes"
FBI Investigated 'Occupy' As Possible 'Terrorism' Threat, Internal Documents Show
Newtown kids v Yemenis and Pakistanis: what explains the disparate reactions? | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Numerous commentators have rightly lamented the difference in how these childrens' deaths are perceived. What explains it?

JAMA Network | JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association | Silencing the Science on Gun ResearchSilencing the Science on Gun Research The nation might be in a better position to act if medical and public health researchers had continued to study these issues as diligently as some of us did between 1985 and 1997. But in 1996, pro-gun members of Congress mounted an all-out effort to eliminate the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (the best way to deal with gun violence is the make sure you don't know about it)
NRA Blames Media During National Press Conference: Journalists React On Twitter (see, if they didn't tell you about it, it wouldn't be a problem)
NRA’s Wayne LaPierre: ‘Call Me Crazy’ | TPMDC
The N.R.A. Crawls From Its Hidey Hole - NYTimes.com - The organization’s very existence is predicated on the nation being torn in half over guns. Still, we were stunned by Mr. LaPierre’s mendacious, delusional, almost deranged rant.
The Scourge of Concealed Weapons - NYTimes.com
Semi-automatic firearms are weapons of mass destruction - The Washington Post
Pitts: Confronting America’s unholy gun love - Leonard Pitts Jr. - MiamiHerald.com And our choice could be not be more clear. We can continue with acts of moral masturbation. We can harrumph and pontificate about how the problem is video games or the problem is a lack of prayer or the problem is too few guns. Or we can finally agree that the problem is obvious: too many people who should not have guns, do.
New York Post, New York Daily News Slam NRA's Wayne LaPierre
From Apocalypse to Dystopia - NYTimes.com Wayne LaPierre and his fellow N.R.A. officials have hunkered down to wait for the “emotional period” or “hysteria,” as they call it, to pass. They rule in the back rooms on Capitol Hill and rein in panicked senators and congressmen who fret that they should support some measly legislation to pretend they are not pawns of the gun lobby.
Bloomberg, LaPierre and the Void - NYTimes.com ("both side are crazy" un-huh)
Brad DeLong : Can We Please Keep Ross Douthat from Writing Again? What kind of a sociopathic nut writes such a lead?
Wayne LaPierre's Claim That 'Most' Of Media Is Protected By Armed Guards Rejected By Media
Piers Morgan Deportation Petition Posted To White House After His Gun Control Rants (occasionally, they have a good idea)
If You Want to Regulate Guns, Talk About Guns. Period. | Mother Jones (not how nuts Wayne is)
How Much Would It Cost to Put Guards with Guns in Every Public School? - Matthew O'Brien - The Atlantic - Most people think it's the best approach ("most people" are stupid; $4 billion or so when you factor in benefits as well; free after you cut teachers salaries some more, or use "volunteers")
Private Gun Sale Loophole Creates Invisible Firearms Market, Prompts Calls For Reform
Brownells, World's Largest Firearms Supplier, Sells 3.5 Years Worth Of AR-15 Magazines In 3 Days - Brownells' 30- and 20-round magazines are selling quickly (you need those to survive an attack of a herd of deers)

Brad DeLong : Department of "Oh Dear!": Basic Macro Briefing Weblogging f it is indeed the case that Obama does not understand the basics of the economic situation he is trying to manage, how likely is it that he can make good decisions? If, as Bob Woodward claims, Tim Geithner really is in there analogizing the U.S. to Greece, things are not good at all… (not that smart, not that curious, either)
Maya and the Vigilantes - NYTimes.com (Maya MacGuiness is the queen of the deficit scolds (only the Teabaggers prevented Obama from agreeing to a plan to right of Simpson-Bowles, for chrissakes) br />
How Party of Budget Restraint Shifted to ‘No New Taxes,’ Ever - NYTimes.com The conservative revolt against that 1990 legislation — and against President George Bush, who violated his own “Read my lips” vow not to increase taxes — was a seminal moment for Republicans. The party of balanced budgets became the party that opposed tax increases.

Still Bitter About Election, Republican Opposition Unwilling to Compromise with President - NYTimes.com
Political Animal - Cliff-hanger: what will happen once we fall off the fiscal cliff? Not much, apparently Could the fiscal cliff be the 2013 version of Y2K?
Fiscal Cliff Blowup Caused By GOP Policies: Analysis
Fiscal Fail: Government Agencies Plan Few Significant Changes For January, Despite Cliff Hype
Daily Kos: The bottomless pit of arbitrary accounting

Don't Count Boehner Out Just Yet The House Speaker suffered a humiliating defeat with the failure of "Plan B," but he has survived far bigger messes over the course of his long career.
Send in the Clowns - NYTimes.com Republican politicians today have a choice: either change your base by educating and leading G.O.P. voters back to the center-right from the far right, or start a new party that is more inclusive, focused on smaller but smarter government and market-based, fact-based solutions to our biggest problems.
Dana Milbank: In the House, a beaten Boehner accepts defeat - The Washington Post In Boehner’s House, the animals are rampaging. (House=Jurassic Park)
John Boehner Favorability Hits Record Low In New Poll (how low can he go?)
2012 Polling Accuracy: Right Winner, But Different Trends
Eschaton: It Never Occurred To Me That They'd Pay People To Actually Do Stuff Don't they know it was all just a big grift? , it's clear the grifters on the Romney campaign were in it for the grift. They had enough money to do whatever they wanted, and they chose to... pay themselves.
Daily Kos: Mitt Romney's transition team spent $8.9 million in government money, $740,000 on furniture $1,480 in furniture, $60 in office supplies, and $11,200 in computers, cell phones, and IT services for each member of Romney's transition team.
The story behind Mitt Romney’s loss in the presidential campaign to President Obama - News - Boston.com

Acknowledgements | FDL News Desk (David Dayen - dday - quits blogging)
News Corp. Says Publishing Arm Lost Money
Newsweek's Last Print Issue Cover Released (Tina Brown's latest failure)
The 11 Worst TV News Fails Of The Year (video)

West Antarctica Warming Twice As Fast As Previously Believed: Study
Cadaver stem cells offer new hope of life after death - health - 21 December 2012 - New Scientist (side-stepping the "all cells are babies" problem)

Daily Kos: Texas legislator prepares bill to allow Nativity scenes in schools Rep. Bohac apparently came up with the idea because he was miffed that his child's classroom was putting up a "holiday tree," (but no "Muslim Trees)

Grapefruit and Drugs Often Don't Mix - NYTimes.com (full list as PDF)



122212

Billionaires Dumping Stocks, Economist Knows Why - It’s very likely that these professional investors are aware of specific research that points toward a massive market correction, as much as 90%.
5 Signs Stocks Will Collapse in 2013

CIA Disputes 'Zero Dark Thirty' Accuracy: Acting CIA Director Issues Public Statement The film creates the strong impression that the enhanced interrogation techniques that were part of our former detention and interrogation program were the key to finding Bin Ladin. That impression is false," (torture didn't really help that much)

U.S. Shooting Deaths Since Sandy Hook Top 100
Connecticut School Gunman's Downward Spiral - WSJ.com
Lawrence O'Donnell: NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre A 'Desperate, Cornered Rat,' 'Lobbyist For Mass Murderers' (video)
New York Post, Daily News Blast NRA Speech (PHOTOS) | TPM LiveWire (they've lost the Post and the News)
National Shooting Sports Foundation, Newtown Gun Lobby, Keeps Military-Style Guns Legal
Asa Hutchinson: The Man Leading The NRA’s Push For Guns In Schools | TPMMuckraker (Wayne La Pierre's brilliant plan to sell more guns)
Rhode Island Prof Learns Only Wingnuts Allowed To Use Violent Metaphors (when metaphors are outlawed, only wingnuts will have metaphors)
Bats Left/Throws Right: At Least We Now Know What It Takes To Get Some Of The Nation's Top Conservative Intellectuals To Mention Gun Restrictions
Please To Put Armed Guards Outside All Pennsylvania Churches Too, Also (guard everything!)
Stock Up Now On Your End Times Accessories For Dorks And Paranoids

Political Animal - Yet another terrible idea from the NRA (your therapist will report you to the national nut database which will be shared with the NSA, TSA, FBI, CIA and your local police dept)
A Misguided Focus on Mental Illness in Gun Control Debate - NYTimes.com Only about 4 percent of violence in the United States can be attributed to people with mental illness.
Shakesville: An Observation About Mental Illness
The Problem's Guns—Not the Mentally Ill Tracking everyone who could hypothetically go on a shooting spree would only discourage the mentally ill from seeking treatment.

Christmas comes slowly to austerity-hit Europe - Yahoo! News
The incredible shrinking stimulus President Obama’s concessions to Republicans on taxes and Social Security have grabbed the headlines, but there’s another big area where the White House has shifted considerably in the GOP’s direction: direct stimulus to revive the short-term economy.
Guess Who Still Believes in Invisible Vigilantes - NYTimes.com Oh, dear — does the president still believe that failure to reach a Grand Bargain will cause an attack by the invisible bond vigilantes, and that this is the reason we should fear the fiscal cliff? How many times do we have to show that this notion is wrong both in theory and empirically (he never was that smart, or curious)
Wall Street Journal Claims President Obama is Delusional About Economy | Beat the Press - If President Obama really thinks interest rates will spike because of a big tax increase coupled with the cuts in the sequester then he badly needs some new economic advisers. (but he does have his delusions)
Hullabaloo What we have to look forward to - For a White House which everyone says has all the leverage, they sure are willing to compromise their allegedly most cherished priorities

How the Fiscal Cliff Talks Stalled At one point, Boehner told the president, "I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?" Replied Obama: "You get nothing. I get that for free."
John Boehner’s failure and Wayne LaPierre’s defiance are two signs of just how far the Republican Party has fallen. - Slate Magazine Why today was a very bad day to be Republican.
Obama Waking Up From Dream of Grand Bargain -- Daily Intelligencer (he's going to lose his chance to starve granny and is very sad)
Enough! - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast the Republican slide into total epistemic closure and political marginalization has now become a free-fall. This party, not to mince words, is unfit for government.There is no conservative party in the West - except for minor anti-immigrant neo-fascist ones in Europe - anywhere close to this level of far right extremism.
Tax fight sends GOP into chaos - The Washington Post
The National Memo » What Americans Should Learn From The ‘Republican Apocalypse’

Hullabaloo Why they turned on Hagel (because he believes in foreign policy +the anti-semitic smear)
Political Animal - How about a simple rule for Democratic cabinets: no bigots need apply (Obama loves his rightwing always-wrong bigots)

Dave Pruett: Science and Faith: Reconciling After the Divorce

Political Animal - Discrimination against Asian American students in Ivy League admissions
Lawyers, Guns & Money - The idea that firing a woman, after sexually harassing her, because you want to have sex with her isn’t gender discrimination is the same kind of sterile illogic that holds that discriminating against pregnant women isn’t gender discrimination, because the law in its majestic equality allows employers to fire men and women alike for being pregnant.
Iowa Supreme Court Decides It’s OK To Fire ‘Irresistible’ Workers If You Really Really Want To Bone Them

The Very Best GIFs of 2012

122112
Syria conflict: Assad fires more Scuds - Friday 21 December 2012 | World news | guardian.co.uk US and Nato say Syria has resumed firing Scuds at rebels • UN's anti-genocide envoy warns of reprisal attacks
Dozens killed in raid on village in Kenya | World news | guardian.co.uk Farmers armed with spears and AK-47 rifles attack village of herders as cycle of tit-for-tat killings continues

High court rejects challenge over UK link to drone strikes in Pakistan | World news | guardian.co.uk Drone strike victim's son to appeal against court's refusal to bar British officials from sharing targeting intelligence with US
The coming drone attack on America | Naomi Wolf | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Drones on domestic surveillance duties are already deployed by police and corporations. In time, they will likely be weaponised

NOAA: 2012 to rank as second costliest US year since 1980 | Environment | guardian.co.uk The 11 billion-dollar extreme weather events across the US include hurricane Sandy, which alone will cost about $100bn (Republicans will de-fund the climate)

NDAA Indefinite Detention Bill Passes Senate After Rand Paul Calls It An 'Abomination'

NRA Newtown Shooting Press Conference - Today's NRA Press Conference - Esquire - The National Rifle Association today held a press conference today at which it was determined that there would be no questions asked or answered, but the organization made it quite clear that they would be open to media questions next week, between Christmas and New Year's. Then they trotted out Wayne LaPierre, who had bats flying out of both ears.

NRA's LaPierre slips into performance art - The Maddow Blog To call this a press conference is to mislabel what transpired. The NRA's Wayne LaPierre decided to give a speech, and the group refused at the outset to consider questions from the reporters that had been invited to the event.
News from The Associated Press NRA calls for armed police officer in every school
The NRA's instantly inflammatory post-Connecticut press event - The Week "The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," claims the NRA's Wayne LaPierre
House Democrats Slam NRA Press Conference: 'It Just Doesn't Make Sense'
NRA School Proposal Is 'Irresponsible And Dangerous,' 'Delusional,' Teachers Unions Say
Richard Blumenthal: NRA 'Irrelevant' In Gun Debate After Sandy Hook
NRA Full Prepared Statement Of Post-Shooting Press Conference | TPM LiveWire
Daily Kos: Today's fringy NRA, out-of-step with America and gun owners
Marine veteran outside Hughson school lied about his service record - Local - MercedSun-Star.com
Eschaton: What Could Go Wrong 100,000 unpaid people with guns "working" full time at your schools.
Daily Kos: No Child Left Unarmed: Red Dawn Schools
Joe Scarborough Destroys Rep. Tim Huelskamp: 'We Can't Even Talk About [Gun Control] Without You ... Insulting Me Personally? (video)

Party Identity in a Gun Cabinet - NYTimes.com If they identify as Democratic voters, the chances are only about one in four, or 25 percent, that they have a gun in their home. But the chances are more than twice that, almost 60 percent, if they are Republicans.
Ray Kelly Interview Rampage Shooters - Why We Can’t Stop Rampage Shooters - Esquire (big data)
Police Dept. to Use Internet to Try to Stop Shootings - NYTimes.com

Sandy Hook Shooting Thrusts ‘Preppers’ Into Spotlight | TPMDC Broadly speaking, “prepper” is a catch-all term used to describe people who are preparing for the worst in every way they can. Adherents advocate maintaining large caches of food, water, and emergency supplies, as well as a personal arsenal, all with the goal of surviving a cataclysmic event. (when SHTF; Nancy prepped for "The Road" which will happen after Obama destroys the country)
Beyonce and Jamie Foxx release video for Bloomberg's anti-gun campaign | World news | guardian.co.uk More than 40 celebrities appear in spot for Mayors Against Illegal Guns to urge Obama and Congress to end gun violence


Republicans have a message problem, not a messenger problem A majority of Americans (53 percent) say the Republicans’ problem is that they are overly conservative and unconcerned “with the welfare of the people, particularly those in the lower and middle income levels.” By contrast, 38 percent say the bigger issue is that Republicans “need a better leader to explain and win support” for their policies.

Daily Kos: White House said to be considering smaller fiscal cliff package
Daily Kos: House Democratic leadership: Obama's 'more than halfway' offer is the new starting point What happened to not negotiating with terrorists?
Pelosi Puts The Squeeze On Boehner In Fiscal Cliff Debate | TPMDC
In Stunning Rebuke, GOP Won't Deliver Votes for Boehner's 'Plan B' : Roll Call News
Boehner's Plan B: "For Backing Out" | Mother Jones CAP reports that Boehner's plan would raise taxes on millions of middle class and poor families, "seriously damage" the economy and do precious little to address the long-term deficit. "Other than that, it's a great idea," snark authors Michael Linden, director for tax and budget policy and Michael Ettlinger, vice president for economic policy.
Plan B: Job Losses, Middle-Class Tax Increases, and Trivial Deficit Reduction | Center for American Progress
Harry Reid: 'Gee Whiz' Is John Boehner Taking A Battering spurred to incredulity by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who blamed Democrats for killing the House speaker's 'Plan B."
How Boehner’s Plan B for the ‘fiscal cliff’ began and fell apart - The Washington Post
John Boehner Plan B Mess Leaves Few Fiscal Cliff Options
Boehner Plan B: House Republicans humiliate their leader This sort of display suggests Republicans are not capable of governing. What was an argument by Democrats (They are unreasonable! They only care for the rich!) is now a political reality (Jennifer Fucking Rubin)
Boehner Budget Failure Followed Pressure From Conservative Groups
Quote of the Day "It weakens the entire Republican Party, the Republican majority. It's the continuing dumbing-down of the Republican Party and we are going to be seen more and more as a bunch of extremists that can't even get a majority of our own people to support policies that we're putting forward." -- Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-OH) (dumb and dumber)

John Boehner Over The Fiscal Cliff - Wherein Democracy Mocks Itself - Esquire - There is no possible definition by which the Republicans can be considered an actual political party any more. They can be defined as a loose universe of inchoate hatreds, or a sprawling confederation of collected resentments, or an unwieldy conglomeration of self-negating orthodoxies, or an atonal choir of rabid complaint, or a cargo cult of quasi-religious politics and quasi-political religion, or simply the deafening abandoned YAWP of our bitter national Id. But they are not a political party because they have rendered themselves incapable of politics.

Playing Taxes Hold ’Em - NYTimes.com Nonetheless, the concessions he offered were breathtaking: He was willing to accept huge spending cuts, not to mention a rise in the Medicare eligibility age, in return for a vague promise of higher revenue without any increase in tax rates ... would have been a huge victory for Republicans ... their intransigence saved Mr. Obama from himself.

History’s Greatest Martyr: The Sociological Significance of it All - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money This collection of quotes from Robert Bork, the towering intellect whose defeated Supreme Court nomination was the greatest injustice in known human history, is another sad manifestation in the politics of personal destruction. If there’s a dirtier form of politics that quoting Bork’s own words, I don’t know what it is.
Robert Bork: In Memoriam - Waggish

John Kerry Secretary of State Nomination - Kerry's Nomination And The Return Of The Swift Boats - Esquire But the key is the Swift Boats. If some senator brings it up — or, worse, if some of the old poolroom liars are trotted in front of the Senate committee sitting on Kerry's nomination — and if the courtier press doesn't emphasize at every moment that everything that was said about John Kerry and Vietnam in the 2004 presidential campaign was a lie and an embarrassment to American politics and the American media, then we have on our hands yet another case of journalistic malpractice, and we have had enough of those, thank you.

Hillary Clinton’s Career of Comebacks | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press
Judge Rules Against Texas In Dispute Over Planned Parenthood (they wanted to eat their cake and have their federal funding too)
For Scott Brown, a Third Round in the Battle Against Partisan Gravity - NYTimes.com

Right-wing author: Jon Stewart part of the culture that led to shootings - Salon.com Rosenberg cites the ongoing so-called War on Christmas, and how “We are, in many respects, in a moral and spiritual freefall in our country, and we are paying a terrible price.” Rosenberg, who has previously linked Hurricane Sandy to abortion rights, is an evangelical who writes about End Times, and wrote in his latest book, “The Tehran Initiative,” that “[m]illions of Muslims around the world are convinced their messiah—known as ‘the Twelfth Imam’—has just arrived on earth.”
Fox n Friends Santa Loves the Ladies - Interview Mashup - DoucheChillz.com esterday Fox & Friends found out that Santa loves Christmas but DoucheChillz did some research and discovered that their Santa also likes to get his fuck on.

Teen Marijuana Use May Show No Effect On Brain Tissue, Unlike Alcohol, Study Finds - ome studies have suggested one component, cannabidiol, may actually have neuroprotective effects,"
DEA warns: No free pass for medical pot | Boston Herald (Obama keeps his war going)

Black Hole Firewalls Confound Theoretical Physicists: Scientific American

NRA Full Prepared Statement Of Post-Shooting Press Conference | TPM LiveWire

Onion Invading Real Life | TPM Editors Blog The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled that a dentist was within his rights firing an assistant who he found attractive simply because he and his wife thought she was a threat to their marriage ... KM notes that ‘you’re so hot my spouse is threatened’ is something the federal courts have generally been okay with as a cause for termination, which is bizarre, but there you go …

122012
Park Geun-hye becomes South Korea's first female president | World news | The Guardian Daughter of dictator Park Chung-hee narrowly beats liberal Moon Jae-in election that has fired national imagination
Putin 'not that preoccupied' with fate of Syria's Assad | World news | The Guardian Comment by Russian president seems to indicate that Moscow now accepts that Syrian leader's days are numbered
Thailand to extradite pizzeria drug money banker | World news | guardian.co.uk Vito Roberto Palazzolo to be sent back to Italy for laundering mafia drug money through New York pizzerias in 70s and 80s
Jimmy Savile scandal: BBC branded 'incapable and chaotic' | Media | The Guardian Senior executive resigns and three others moved after damning report on shelved Newsnight exposé of TV star's sexual abuse of children (you know, the coverup Mark Thompson knew nothing about)
Eighth man arrested in Savile sex abuse inquiry | UK news | guardian.co.uk Operation Yewtree detectives arrest former Radio 1 producer Ted Beston on suspicion of sexual offences
Israel Looks at Tougher Gun Control Laws - Forbes (too many ultra-orthodox with assault weapons)

Defense Bill Nixes Ban on Indefinite Detention for US Citizens | Mother Jones In a closed-door negotiation, top Republican and Democratic lawmakers have killed a ban on detaining American citizens without trial. (top lawmakers onboard with Obama's plan to put you in jail forever and not tell anybody)
FISA Warrantless Wiretapping Bill Poised For Renewal Despite Unanswered Questions
True Believer: Petraeus and the Mythology of Afghanistan ("managing perceptions" with "lies")
Pentagon, CIA likely approved “Zero Dark Thirty” torture scenes - Salon.com Senators are up in arms over "Zero Dark Thirty." The real outrage is how the government helped make the film

Julian Assange: expect more from WikiLeaks | Media | guardian.co.uk Founder of whistleblowing website marks six months' confinement in Ecuadorean embassy with bullish speech (a million new dirty secrets)

U.S. Economy Grew 3.1% Last Quarter, More Than Forecast - Businessweek (depite Republican efforts to make America a third-world country)
New York Stock Exchange sold to derivatives company in $8bn takeover | Business | guardian.co.uk Sale of nearly 200-year-old institution to Intercontinental Exchange comes amid historic shift to electronic trading

Kerry defends diplomacy over military at Senate hearing on Benghazi report | World news | guardian.co.uk Senator Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, noted that while $200m was cut from the State Department security budget, the Pentagon spent $388m on military bands. (of course)
Daily Kos: Chuck Hagel's friends mount counteroffensive as he seeks top Defense spot He's not well liked among Republicans, and Democrats are baffled at the continuing bizarre fixation, in Democratic administrations, with putting a Republican in the position. On, and he was a strong supporter of the ban against gay members of the military, and even against gay Americans holding positions as U.S. Ambassadors because being openly gay wouldn't properly "represent America." No, really.

NRA’s allegiances reach deep into Congress - Sunlight Foundation Blog Just over half (51 percent) of the members of the new Congress that convenes next month have received funding from the National Rifle Association’
Newtown gunman Adam Lanza: what we know so far | World news | guardian.co.uk In the wake of the Connecticut shooting, many apparent facts have turned out to be false. So what do we know for sure? Adam Lanza, pictured, had never been a student at Sandy Hook elementary, as initially reported, nor had his mother Nancy had anything to do with the school ... There are 36 gun shops and shooting ranges within a 10-mile radius of the Lanza's home, where his mother became the first of his victims, shot with one of her own weapons.
Obama puts gun control centre stage as Biden appointed to lead task force | World news | The Guardian President pledges to force action on gun control as politicians implored to summon 'courage' in wake of Newtown massacre (talking to himself, again)
Senator Dianne Feinstein Gets To The Ugly Truth About Assault Weapons | MoveOn.Org
Ed Rendell: Bob McDonnell 'coward,' 'wuss' - Kevin Cirilli - politico.com
Adam Lanza's Barber Says Newtown Shooter Never Spoke During Haircuts "He would just be looking down at the tiles ... the whole time," Skuba said.
U.S. Judge Larry Burns Makes Conservative Plea For Gun Control | TPMMuckraker
Bushmaster Rifle: History Of The Sandy Hook Killer’s Gun | TPMMuckraker
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Joe Biden Being Awesome
Not Safe For Work Corporation | From "Operation Wetback" To Newtown: Tracing The Hick Fascism Of The NRA

Study Finds Voters Can't Accurately Assess Politicians A new study in the American Political Science Review suggests the average voter doesn't have the ability "to make an accurate judgement of the performance of their politicians, showing that voter biases appear to be deep-seated and broad."

Daily Kos: Boehner loses. Massively. This isn't just a massive, incredible, insanely embarrassing loss for Boehner. It's all of those things. It wasn't just losing a vote by a hair. It was totally having to abandon his strategy. And in the process, being completely neutered. The House is in utter shambles.
Daily Kos: Cantor's walk of shame House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, after the vote on the fiscal cliff/curb "Plan B" alternative was called off. Enjoy.
Nancy Pelosi Says Social Security Cut Proposed By Obama Would 'Strengthen' Program (Dems agree with Republicans to unnecessarily to starve granny)

Republican Party Too Extreme, Majority Of Americans Say: Poll
Eschaton: Apparently Liberal Policies Are Awesome I went here and clicked on all the most liberal shit, and we get to budget surplus in 2016 and close to 4% growth in 2013, over 4% in 2014, and 5% in 2015. (stuff Obummer/Rethugs would never support would save us all)
Yet More Bork - Lawyers, Guns & Money : “It says something about Bork’s constitutional vision that accurately restating his public views has become synonymous with the dirtiest of dirty tricks.” Along similar lines, Jeffrey Toobin gets right to the point: “Robert Bork, who died Wednesday, was an unrepentant reactionary who was on the wrong side of every major legal controversy of the twentieth century.”
Political Animal - Allen West Takes Whackjob Benghazi Theory to New Height of Ugliness Yesterday, on Fox News, the Islamophobic bigot and soon to be former legislator suggested that Hillary Clinton’s recent concussion was part of the grand Benghazi cover up that is being played out in the minds of paranoid wingnuts:
George Will Voter Suppression - George Will Joins The Voter Suppression Debate - Esquire In his heart, George Effing Will now is one of those cats who dresses up in camo, runs around upper Michigan with their Bushmaster .223s, pops off a few dozen rounds at an unfortunate oak tree, and then goes home and broadcasts on their shortwaves about how they will be the last redoubt against the tyranny of the UN when it descends on the U.P. to shut down all the deer camps.
Brown Would Be Heavy Favorite in Special Election A new WBUR poll in Massachusetts finds defeated Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) is in a strong position should there be a special election to fill Sen. John Kerry's (D-MA) seat next year with a favorability rate of 58% to 28%.

The 50 Worst Columns of 2012 - Politics - The Atlantic Wire

Hack List No. 1: Politico - Salon.com Home of the campaign's loudest, least essential journalism
Hack List No. 2: The Washington Post - Salon.com The capital's daily paper is the one with the worst opinion section in the country
Hack List No. 3: Newsweek - Salon.com Tina Brown's magazine trolled itself to death
Hack List No. 4: The Sunday Shows - Salon.com Where the same few hacks and camera-seeking lawmakers have the same discussions every. single. week (70% old Republican white guys)
Hack List No. 5: The Drudge Report - Salon.com Inaccurate as always, but thankfully more irrelevant than ever
Eschaton: Hack'd At least for liberals, doing this kind of media criticism is essentially creating a list of "publications and outlets that will never hire Alex Pareene ever."

George Will: You Know Who Else Had High Voter Turnout? | Blog | Media Matters for America George Will argues in his Washington Post column today that what he terms the Justice Department's "drive to federalize voter registration" is an unnecessarily complex answer to "the non-problem of people choosing not to vote," and that high voter turnout isn't all it's cracked up to be, citing the German elections of the early 1930s that resulted in Nazi dictatorship (Dems are "Nazis" for wanting a functioning democracy; George Will has been an idiot for 50 yrs)
Misinformer Of The Year: Rush Limbaugh | Blog | Media Matters for America

Political Animal - Charlie Rose Settles Intern Class Action for $250,000 When one thinks of labor exploitation, PBS doesn’t typically come to mind. (also, Harper's Bazaar)

New Orleans Schools Ban Creationism, 'Revisionist' History Course Promoted By Texas The Texas State Board of Education in 2010 adopted a statewide social studies and history curriculum that amended or watered down the teaching of the civil rights movement, religious freedoms, America's relationship with the United Nations and hundreds of other topics.

Lonely Street (A Metaphorical Lonely Street. Not an Actual Street With No One On It. Or a Street With Just Me Walking Alone) - Lawyers, Guns & Money (wayne (Pimp for Assault Weapons) Lapierre's "head on a stick" and Michelle Malkin's flying monkey and David M Dooley's complicity +Crooked Timber stands up for metaphors)

Climate Change And Fish - Fish Are Fleeing Our Waters - Esquire (climate change)


Key Apple patent used against Samsung under fire | Apple - CNET News A key Apple patent used against Samsung in court is under close scrutiny by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office after a re-examination. (pinch-to-zoom thrown out; key in case against Samsung +"rounded corners")

121912
State Benghazi Report Is Harshly Critical Of Department, Busts Many Right-Wing Myths (and doesn't mention Republicans gutting State Dept. security budget)

Political Animal - FHFA Report: Fannie & Freddie Should Consider Suing for $3 Billion LIBOR Loss

Civilian analysts gained Petraeus’s ear while he was commander in Afghanistan - The Washington Post Frederick and Kimberly Kagan, a husband-and-wife team of hawkish military analysts
David Petraeus And Kagans - The Man Behind The Curtain - Esquire We have the wandering Little Petraeus to thank for many things. The fact that this guy clearly had national ambitions, and that only the wandering Little Petraeus may have saved us from a national security apparatus helmed by the half-bright chickenhawk denizens of Neocon Dogpatch, is definitely one of them.
All in the Neocon Family | Alternet Contrary to appearances, the neoconservatives do not represent a political movement, but a small, exclusive club with incestuous familial and personal connections.
Political Animal - Answers About Benghazi Emerge - But Are We Asking the Right Questions?

Some Came Running: "Zero Dark Thirty:" Perception, reality, perception again, and "the art defense"
Jessica Chastain in ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ - NYTimes.com Jessica Chastain in ‘Zero Dark Thirty’
While I’m Waiting For Zero Dark Thirty… - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Obama Announces Gun Violence Task Force, Presses For Policy Changes After Shooting
Demand A Plan Campaign: Support Swells Following Newtown Shooting
Gun Deaths Cost U.S. Billions Each Year While Firearms Makers Thrive
Adam Lanza's Motive: Did Fear Of Being Committed Lead To Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting?
Adam Lanza's Smashed Hard Drive Doesn't Erase His Digital Footprint, Experts Say
Joe Manchin and Joe Scarborough On Newtown Shooting - On Our New Friends Named Joe - Esquire
Bats Left/Throws Right: Okay, So What Have We Refused To Learn So Far? ... Nancy Lanza was 52. That means she was forty years old when the Columbine massacre screamed across the headlines. Yet she had an emotionally disturbed child, semi-automatic weapons, and she taught him to shoot.
Rick Snyder vetoes bill that would allow guns in schools
The First Victory Over the Gun Nuts - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Fancy Coastal Elite Conservative Writers Explain Guns to Real America - Politics - The Atlantic Wire
What is “violent rhetoric”? Redux - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Academic Administrative Fecklessness » Duck of Minerva - (Dr. David M. Dooley, President, URI, asshole)
Statement on Erik Loomis — Crooked Timber
Jane Smiley: A Few Remedies for the Right to Bear Arms
A Sensible Proposal For Combatting Gun Violence - Esquire
The Arms Race of Stupid | TPM Editors Blog
We’re stuck with guns. But… - Salon.com That doesn't mean we can't ban some, make them a lot harder to get -- and maybe even tax the hell out of them
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Utah Sixth Grader Brings a Gun to School and Other Gun-Related Shenanigans Yesterday, a Utah sixth grader brought a gun to school to protect himself from a Newtown-esque mass shooting, or so he claimed. He brandished the weapon in front of some friends at recess, as gun-toting 11-year-olds are wont do, and, pointed it at a girl’s head and threatened to kill her
Balloon Juice » National Review Author Blames Shooting on Sandy Hook Elementary School Being Too Girly
Down With Big Gun (fuckheaded asshole Ron Cohen, pres of Sig-Sauer)
Bats Left/Throws Right: Principles, Not Principals This was the Conservative answer fifty years ago, when George Eff was a Goldwater supporter, and it's still the answer today, thirty years since the Republican party started tailoring the laws to its own vision of social defects. It sounds like principle; in practice it acts like anything but. (George Will was a Goldwater guy)
false dichotomy by charles davis: I like this tweet
From Newtown to Kabul, the sounds of freedom « BTC News

Daily Kos: It wasn't Obama's negotiating style that won him reelection. It almost cost him (terrible leader, no vision, always giving in to appease his lost, drunken, rejecting father)

Fiscal Cliff 'Plan B' Gets Veto Threat From Obama The White House says President Barack Obama would veto House Speaker John Boehner's `Plan B' proposal for extending tax cuts for people making up to $1 million. (he already caved on $250,000)
Is John Boehner Throwing In The Towel? | TPMDC That sounds like he’s giving Obama a choice between Plan B or the fiscal cliff. No more negotiations over a broader deficit reduction plan.
Boehner Plan Addresses Taxes but Delays Fight Over Spending Cuts - NYTimes.com
Chained CPI is a middle-class tax hike.
Grand Bargain Sellout - The Grand Sellout Emerges - Esquire So here's where we sit. The Democrats, led by the president, who never is going to need to depend on Social Security, are prepared to concede on an issue that has absolutely nothing to do with the deficit. They are going to make life harder for millions of seniors. Social Security is now squarely "on the table" in any future budget negotiation. (Hey, who unplugged the third rail?)
Rumors of a Deal - NYTimes.com
Political Animal - “Fix the Debt” - Defense Contractor Ties Exposed According to The Public Accountability Initiative, the group Fix The Debt - which advocates for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security cuts while pushing corporate tax reform - has 38 leaders with “ties to 43 companies with defense contracts totaling $42.3 billion in 2012.”
The Washington Monthly Earlier this week, President Obama floated a Social Security-cutting proposal for fiscal cliff evasive action that shocked the Democratic Party. And by “the Democratic Party,” I mean Dems who didn’t watch the first Presidential debate. (it's one of his favorite things)

Hack List No. 6: CNN - Salon.com The flailing cable news pioneer could be less dumb if it wanted to be -- but it doesn't want to be
Hack List No. 7: The Huffington Post - Salon.com The great liberal community's infuriating founder embraces both the center and the fringe
Hack List No. 8: MSNBC - Salon.com Believe it or not, the liberal answer to Fox actually makes for worse TV
Hack List No. 9: The Atlantic - Salon.com The eternally unsurprising magazine may just be an excuse for the obscene "Ideas" events
Hack List No. 10: New York Times - Salon.com We're kicking off our annual list with the best paper in the country -- which could do a lot better than these two (Friedman and Kristoff)

Robert Bork - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money The Bork nomination, of course, marked a watershed moment in American politics — American conservatives whining that there’s no dirtier pool than accurately describing their ideas and their consequences
Paula Broadwell: Officially Not a Stalker! | Vanity Fair the U.S. Attorney’s office in Tampa has not yet announced a decision on whether knowingly describing someone as “Tampa socialite” qualifies as libel, though that court case, preemptively titled Haha Sucks vs. Oh my God, Gross, is expected to be kicked up to the Supreme Court.
Limbaugh On Obama's Desire For Power: "Think Sauron In Lord Of The Rings. That's What We're Dealing With Here" | Video | Media Matters for America
Sam Donaldson Arrested for DUI in Delaware: Cops | NBC 10 Philadelphia Police say the 78-year-old ABC reporter and political correspondent was pulled over on December 1 in Lewes, Delaware. (rich guys driving drunk)

Let’s make Obama regret his war on weed - Salon.com The president's Justice Department won't let Washington and Colorado smoke up in peace. Can we change his mind?

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Stay Classy, FRC The former director of women’s and reproductive health at the Family Research Council, a prominent Christian conservative advocacy group, is suing the organization, claiming it retaliated against her and fired her after she filed a sexual harassment complaint against her boss. (dept. of unsurprising)


Netflix Applauds House Vote On VPPA, Paving Way For Facebook Streaming | TPM Idea Lab The new amendment would explicitly allow companies like Netflix to share customers’ viewing history, per a customer’s informed consent.
FCC Boss Julius Genachowski Has Been a Timid Failure - Engaged in Pro Consumer Theater, Folded When it Counted | DSLReports.com, ISP Information (another Obama wimp)
'Nice Guys of OK Cupid' Are Not Really

121712
Syrian army tanks close in on Damascus Palestinian camp | World news | guardian.co.uk Residents fear Assad loyalists will enter in search of rebel groups after refugees become drawn into conflict in Syria
Afghan bomb blast kills 10 girls | World news | guardian.co.uk Ten girls aged nine to 13 killed and one seriously injured as they gathered firewood outside their village in eastern Afghanistan

Berlusconi Marrying Girlfriend, 27 - Francesca Pascale once founded a Silvio support group

Pressing Issues: 2nd Thoughts
Newtown Before Obama's Visit Essay - The Night Before The President Came To Newtown - Esquire
Gun Control Legislation From Frank Lautenberg Would Ban High-Capacity Magazines Post-Sandy Hook
Harry Reid Open To Gun Control Debate After Sandy Hook Shooting (McConnell offers prayers, more guns)
The Newtown massacre: Fake tears | The Economist The killings in Newtown, of course, appear just as "senseless", if one insists on ruling out the idea that such episodes might be forestalled by limiting people's access to firearms.
Most Back Ban on High-Capacity Clips; Many See Societal Issues in Connecticut Shootings - ABC News 54 percent of Americans favor stricter gun control laws in general, numerically a five-year high, albeit not significantly different than in recent years. Fifty-nine percent support a ban specifically on high-capacity ammunition clips
Nancy Lanza to Sitter: Don't Turn Your Back - Those who knew her recall a generous, fiercely private woman . "Looking back at it now, I guess there was something else going on.
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Why The Second Amendment Rulings May Make a Ban on Assault Weapons More Likely
In Newtown, Conn., a Stiff Resistance to Gun Restrictions - NYTimes.com (their children paid the price for their "freedom")
In Search of the Guns & Freedom Unicorn | TPM Editors Blog (because, freedom!) Analysis: Fewer U.S. gun owners own more guns - CNN.com A decreasing number of American gun owners own two-thirds of the nation's guns and as many as one-third of the guns on the planet -- even though they account for less than 1% of the world's population
Dylan Myers Politico Newtown Shooting - Some Crazy Talk About Guns From Politico - Esquire Dylan Myers, the ace media reporter for Tiger Beat On The Potomac, fresh off back-to-back TKO losses at the hands of Nate Silver and reality, calls "stunningly candid" the argument from the bright children at National Review that allowing Adam Lanza to arm himself like Judge Dredd and shoot a bunch of toddlers to ribbons is just part of the price we pay for living in the exceptional freedom provided here in exceptional America.
Newtown Conspiracy Hoax Spreads Fast Across Fringe | TPMDC
The Freedom of an Armed Society - NYTimes.com
McArdle Wins Worst Newtown Reaction Award -- Daily Intelligencer - Unless I am missing a very subtle parody of libertarianism, McArdle’s plan to teach children to launch banzai charges against mass murderers is the single worst solution to any problem I have ever seen offered in a major publication.
The Most Farcical Conservertarian Reaction To Newton: The Competition Ends Prematurely - Lawyers, Guns & Money (McArdle clears the field)
Whistling Past the Gun Lobby - NYTimes.com the pro-gun fanatics are basically the kind of people who think that Obama is a Kenyan socialist atheistic Islamist, and the urban hordes are coming for their property any day now. People, in other words, who already vote 100 percent Republican — and lose elections. (Krugs reads Digby)
Hullabaloo Sacrificing thousands of kids on the altar of racist rightwing fantasies
I Am Adam Lanza's Mother "They told me I could wear these," he insisted. "You're a stupid bitch. I can wear whatever pants I want to. This is America. I have rights!"
Why is the shooter always male? - Salon.com Stats don't lie. Instead of asking why America is so violent, perhaps we need to focus on one particular sex
Adam Lanza, Newtown Gunman, Had Hundreds Of Rounds Of Ammunition (actually, it was his mother's bullets)
There’s a Reason We No Longer Live in the Fucking Medieval Age. - Lawyers, Guns & Money : It took less than 24 hours, but the NRA-sponsored argument to “arm the teachers!” is being field-tested,
“As Charles Manson Once Argued, Personality Cults Are Completely Harmless.” - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Ah, yes, William Burroughs (Instafuck)
Idiot of the Day - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Eugene Volokh, for arguing that we should arm public school teachers.

Why does Obama keep raiding the Senate for his cabinet? - The Week Not since FDR has a president transformed this many senators into secretaries (it's all he knows)

In Budget Talks, Dems Warm To GOP-Backed Social Security Benefit Cut | TPMDC (yeah, it's a "concession" back "on the table")
Assimilated by the Peterson Borg - NYTimes.com (the cut-the-deficit crowd doesn't give a shit about deficits)
Senate Filibuster Reform Closing In On Majority
Kristol's lame attack on Chuck Hagel | Stephen M. Walt - The art of the smear (failed neocon: because, Israel!)

Political Animal - Who Will Succeed John Kerry in the Senate? Former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, may be headed back to the political spotlight as he’s considered a likely interim replacement for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).

Political Animal - “Right to Work” States Employment Rates Deserve Scrutiny, Receive Some Here real wages in open shop states are 4% lower, rendering workers there with less money to spend, and the state with weaker aggregate demand.


How GERM is infecting schools around the world - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post (teach to the kid, not the test)

Revved-Up Protein Fights Aging - ScienceNOW genetically engineered mice that make extra BubR1 are less prone to cancer.

Scientologist banned from treating grandson The grandfather had subjected the mother to an "intrusive and abusive" upbringing, the court heard, including two years of "emotional release therapy" to supposedly help her through bullying at school. One treatment involved "reliving her birth".

ISP Walks Out of Piracy Talks: “We’re Not The Internet Police” | TorrentFreak A leading Australian Internet service provider has pulled out of negotiations to create a warning notice scheme aimed at reducing online piracy.

121612
Freedom Of The Press Foundation Launches To Support WikiLeaks, Increase Transparency

Three lessons from the near-final popular vote - latimes.com Obama’s margin has grown steadily. From just over 2 percentage points, it now stands at nearly 4. Rather than worry about the Bush-Kerry precedent, White House aides now brag that Obama seems all but certain to achieve a mark hit by only five others in U.S. history – winning the presidency twice with 51% or more of the popular vote. (and the 47% voted for Romney)
Political Animal - Sen. Kerry Likely Secretary of State Nominee - Expect WikiLeaks Flip-Flop to be Brought Up

Immediately address the issue of gun control through the introduction of legislation in Congress. | We the People: Your Voice in Our Government
Dianne Feinstein To Introduce Assault Weapons Ban On First Day Of Congress
Justice Dept. Shelved Ideas to Improve Gun Background Checks - NYTimes.com
'Gun Safety,' Not 'Gun Control' - James Fallows - The Atlantic
Our Moloch by Garry Wills | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books Few crimes are more harshly forbidden in the Old Testament than sacrifice to the god Moloch (for which see Leviticus 18.21, 20.1-5). The sacrifice referred to was of living children consumed in the fires of offering to Moloch. (Moloch=Guns/NRA)
China Watches Newtown: Guns and American Credibility : The New Yorker - this special brand of American madness lies not in the banal fact that deranged men attack children, but in the shame that the rest of us, all of us, allow our laws to enable it. “
National Shooting Sports Foundation Is Just Three Miles From Newtown Connecticut School Shooting | The New Republic (it's a real gun-nut town)
Balloon Juice - What we do not do–ever–is talk about all the political organizations on the Right–like the NRA–that fuel paranoid delusion and the manufactured outrage 24/7 as their core reason for existence.
Political Animal - Not the Video Game Blame Game, Again!
As Video Game Sales Climb Year Over Year, Violent Crime Continues To Fall - Forbes
87 Gun Deaths a Day: Why the Colorado Shooting is Tragically Unsurprising - The Daily Beast view an interactive map of the U.S. shooting epidemic.
Political Animal - GOP History of Opposing Post-gun Massacre Safeguards (serving Moloch)
Political Animal - Everyday Heroism - A Silver Lining in Newtown (see teacher pay)
David Gregory: No Pro-Gun Rights Senators Would Go On 'Meet The Press' - "We reached out to all 31 pro-gun rights senators
AP: Chief: Ind. man wasn't serious about school threat (just kidding, ha-ha)
Fashion Island shooting suspect reportedly 'unhappy with life' - latimes.com Details began to emerge about the gunman who allegedly fired more than 50 shots in the parking lot of the Fashion Island shopping center in Newport Beach on Saturday.

Not Safe For Work Corporation | You Hate "Right To Work" Laws More Than You Know. Here's Why (the counter-revolution succeeded)



Two Higgs Bosons? CERN Scientists Revisit Large Hadron Collider Particle Data Instead of one clean peak in the data, they have found two.

What Would You Be Willing to Sacrifice? | On Being
Learning to Speak American by Tim Parks | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books


121512
Tensions rise as Egyptians vote on new constitution | World news | The Observer Troops out in force amid opponents' claims that document favours Muslim Brotherhood
Egypt Votes On Constitution

Quote of the Day "The truth of the matter is that my policies are so mainstream that if I had set the same policies that I had back in the 1980s, I would be considered a moderate Republican." -- President Obama, in an interview with Univision. (duh, and you still are, dude)

Hillary Clinton Faints, Now Recovering After Concussion Clinton was dehydrated from a stomach bug.

Names Of Elementary School Shooting Victims Released | TPM LiveWire (all children 6-7 yrs old)
Political Animal - Newtown: Forcing America to Stare Into the Abyss
Obsidian Wings: Watering the Tree of Liberty - Have some predictions (6 of 6 so far)

Bats Left/Throws Right: A Note On Usage "Well regulated". It means, first of all, regulated. And well. If you want to argue that "not at all" constitutes the wellest form of regulation, okay. But that's not the same thing as unfettered.
Thoughts on the Newtown Elementary School Tragedy | FDL News Desk One side says that “today is not the day” to talk about gun laws. And that’s the side that includes the President! ... …we also have a complete failure in this country to deal with mental health issues. While recognizing that violent crime has actually dropped, the continuing occurrence of these spectacular mass shootings suggests something is wrong with that area of our health care system.
Hullabaloo Obama's army of dead voters and welfare queens ... You want to know what taking something off the able looks like? It looks like a congresswoman being shot in the head by a lunatic and her political party celebrating when she recovers enough to lead the pledge of allegiance at their convention --- but never even mentioning gun control. That's what taking an issue off the table looks like.
Funny how that works - Lawyers, Guns & Money : The phrase “you don’t think something like that would happen here” is always uttered by white reporters about mass shootings in white neighborhoods, and the implication is that “you” would “think” something like that would happen black or brown people in the inner city. Only it never happens to black or brown people in the inner city. It’s always a white person in a white neighborhood.
Re-Defining the Gun Argument | Balloon Juice
How to prevent more mass killings - The Week - One is easy access to firearms capable of killing lots of people quickly. The second is the perpetrator's having a history with mental illness. (the third is white people)
Obama Brings Gun Debate to Fore Politico notes that "this time, the immediate, impassioned calls for new gun-control measures far outstripped the reaction to a series of other recent shooting sprees across the country, including at a Colorado movie theater, a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and a shopping mall in Oregon."

Huckabee Blames Shooting on Removing God from Schools (Huckafuck)
Where Mike Huckabee Needs To Go | Balloon Juice n other words: Twenty-eight deaths, including the murder of twenty kids, was the fault not of the shooter, nor of a gun lobby that portrays military weapons as household tools. Rather, said Huckabee, it was your fault and mine for having failed to appease his angry god by public worship in school.

Connecticut Shooting And We The People - The Horror Goes On - Esquire And the winner for most bloodthirsty schmuck of the year is... Christianist lunatic Bryan Fischer, who was first out of his restraints with this commentary on the horrors in Connecticut today.
Eschaton: Oh Jeebus A drunk William Burroughs killed his wife while playing a game of "William Tell." (instapundit selective quoting)
Michael Bloomberg: Gun Control Needs 'Immediate Action' From Obama In Wake Of School Shooting
Peter S. Goodman: Gun Control Reform Is Long Overdue (assault weapon lobby at work)
On Gun Control, Jerry Nadler Explains What Congress Could Do Right Now "We lose 9,000 people a year, roughly, to gun violence in this country," Nadler said. "We're at war, and we haven't recognized that. We have to go to war against the people who enable the gun violence, the people who stop us from keeping guns out of the hands of mentally unstable people, of felons, and that means the NRA leadership."
Piers Morgan: 'How Many More Kids Have To Die' Before New Gun Control Laws ... (video)

The Least That We Can Do Is The Most That We Will Do | TBogg his is what “we already have plenty of gun laws” looks like: Connecticut allows possession of assault rifles, except those with certain features, such as a fixed bayonet type lug ... Because, Pistol Packin’ Jesus forbid, someone should be able to affix a bayonet to their semi-automatic assault rifle. I mean, that would make it all sharp and pointy and pretty darn dangerous. Well played, legislators, well played….

Adam Lanza School Shooter Suspect Had Personality Disorder, Report Says The brother, Ryan Lanza, 24, told authorities that Adam Lanza, 20, is autistic or has a "personality disorder," ... had a "checkered past" and was a "troubled youth, (so his mother thought it would be a good idea go have a bunch of guns around the house)
Sandy Hook School Shooting: Adam Lanza Kills 26 And Himself At Connecticut School
Connecticut School Shooting 2012 Facts ... Lanza's mother had four weapons legally registered, and his father had two
Connecticut Shooter Adam Lanza's Guns Were Registered To Mother Nancy Lanza: Official (she kept a real arsenal in her house)
Adam Lanza, Newtown School Shooter, Was 'Nerd,' Honors Student He was an honors student who lived in a prosperous neighborhood with his mother, a well-liked woman who enjoyed hosting dice games and decorating the house for the holidays.
Dawn Hochsprung, Sandy Hook Principal, Had Implemented New Security Measures
Alabama Hospital Shooting: St. Vincent's Gunman Wounds 3 Before Being Killed By Police

Obama’s Pot Comments Leave Door Open For Crackdown | TPMDC (iwll not use drones against individual pot-smokers; leaves option "on the table" to target dispensaries)

Fiscal Cliff Talks Stalled
Is Obama Punishing the GOP Because He’s Mean? -- Daily Intelligencer - The psychology on display here is familiar to anybody who has seen a petulant teenager, who assumes that any restriction that causes them to feel anger must have been intended to produce that emotion. Republicans are feeling humiliated and divided, so Obama’s goal must have been to humiliate and divide them.
Is the conservative dream in its death throes? - The Week Liberal critics gleefully gloat that the Right's 30-year project to end the welfare state may be in shambles
Republicans Say There's No Budget, And Use That To Stall Senate After complaining much of the year that Senate Democrats have not passed a federal budget, Republicans are now using the budget they say doesn't exist to block legislation.
Obamacare: Florida GOP Gov. Rick Scott Won't Implement Health Care Reform
Amid fiscal cliff debate, Bachmann keeps low profile | Minnesota Public Radio News Bachmann's slim victory last month might have shown her that being loud can be counterproductive,
Kvetch And Release | TBogg What if sanctimonious homunculus Joe Lieberman gave a farewell address and nobody came?
Conservatives Crush Dumb Liberals With Popular Political Hashtag, Not So Much With Ideas, Candidates, Campaigns, Message
Alabama Suit Cites FBI Tapes As Proof Of Lawmaker Racism | TPMMuckraker
Are Voter ID Laws Here to Stay? | TPMMuckraker
xs
Very Few Doubt Global Warming - 78% of Americans now think temperatures are rising and 80% say global warming will be a serious problem for the United States if nothing is done about it.

America’s Disappearing Restaurant Chains - 24/7 Wall St.
Nike Expansion Tax Deal Approved By Oregon Lawmakers A deal proposed by Nike Inc. to create hundreds of jobs in Oregon in exchange for a guarantee that the state won't change a favorable corporate tax structure has prompted state lawmakers to approve emergency legislation.

Bats Left/Throws Right: Friday Olio: Excrement Retains Its Buoyancy Edition Typical example: the gleaming new Lucas Oil Stadium, where the Colts perform, was funded by $615 million from Indiana taxpayers and $100 million from the NFL, yet all profits generated in the stadium are converted to the private luxury of the Irsay family, the Colts' owners. (Greg Easterbrook is still getting paid to write bullshit, apparently)
Bats Left/Throws Right: Let Me Count The Ways .. And then, for whatever Mysterious reason, He could create a chain of evidence designed to fool every thinking person since the invention of the telescope. (more Easterbrook, but mainly about religion)
Lake of Fire - Nirvana (Unplugged)(HD) - YouTube

Man Robs Bank Wearing Romney Mask A man wearing a Mitt Romney mask robbed a Virginia bank yesterday -- the same bank hit by a robber in a Hillary Clinton mask two years ago

Sara Reedy, the rape victim accused of lying and jailed by US police, wins $1.5m payout | World news | The Observer Pittsburgh woman raped at gunpoint and charged with fabricating her story has won a settlement after a marathon legal battle, changing federal law along the way (cop still has his job, of course)


Microsoft Battles Google by Hiring Political Brawler Mark Penn - NYTimes.com (always failing upwards)
First Windows 8, Now This | Balloon Juice
Why Microsoft redesigned Windows | Microsoft - CNET News New Windows chief Julie Larson-Green explains why the company felt the need to rethink the basic interface of its popular operating system (wonder if she ever used a computer for anything other than web/email?)
Windows 8 Survival Guide: PC Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review
Where Is Windows 8.1? | John C. Dvorak | PCMag.com Microsoft did away with the "point step" upgrade years ago, but it should reinstate the convention immediately. We want Windows 8.1!
Goldman Highlights Microsoft's Shrinking Market Share | News & Opinion | PCMag.com (includes phones/tabs)
Which Windows is right for you? - Microsoft Windows
Buy Windows - Microsoft Windows (until Jan 31)
Stop Your Data Hoarding! | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

121412
Avigdor Lieberman, Israeli Foreign Minister, Resigns - NYTimes.com Facing indictment for breach of trust and fraud, Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, resigned his post Friday afternoon amid mounting political pressure, upending the campaign landscape five weeks before national elections.
Israeli Soldiers Assault Two Reuters Cameramen
Boozy Britain – why do we drink so much? | Hannah Betts | Comment is free | The Guardian Most things I know are bad for me, I don't do. So why is drinking alcohol the big exception? The "new normal" drinking – the half a bottle of vino most nights sort – would translate as a woman's consuming eight days' worth of calories a week, or 52 surplus days a year. (why Britain is getting fat)

Eurozone Recession Likely Worsened This Quarter, According To Closely-Watched Index (more austerity fail, so more austerity)

'Covering Torture' Study Looks At How Media Refers To Torture
Michael Calderone: Torture and the Times The New York Times, which tied itself in linguistic knots during the Bush years to avoid describing waterboarding as torture, splashed this headline on Thursday's front page: "Portrayal of C.I.A. Torture in Bin Laden Film Reopens a Debate."
Robert Scheer: The Shameful Exploitation of Bradley Manning
Torture and Bad Faith - Lawyers, Guns & Money (Freddie deBoer)

CIA History With Iran And Iraq - The CIA's Ironic History With Iran And Iraq - Esquire
Susan Rice Not Running For Secretary Of State Nomination - The Defenestration Of Susan Rice - Esquire

Children and adults gunned down in Connecticut school massacre – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs
Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting: Newtown, Connecticut Administrators, Students Among Victims, Reports Say - Police reported 27 deaths, including 20 children, six adults and the shooter, according to the Associated Press ... the gunman died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and that one of the victims was the man's mother, a teacher. (how many more times will we do this?)
Police Identify Gunman In Deadly Connecticut Elementary School Shooting (UPDATE)
Connecticut School Shooting: 3rd-Grade Witness Saw Children Screaming At Sandy Hook Elementary (video)
Newtown Teacher Saved Boy From 'Bullets Going By Him' In Elementary School Shooting
White House On Newtown School Shooting: Today Not The Day For Gun Control Debate (or tomorrow, either)
Connecticut school shooting: President Obama, today is the day to talk about gun control. - Slate Magazine We don’t need you to cry at the podium. We need you to do something.
Every Day is the Day to Talk About Gun Control - The Daily Beast
Lisa Belkin: Gun Control Is A Parenting Issue White House spokesman Jay Carney says today is not the day to talk about gun control. I disagree. That's all we should talk about today.
Connecticut Shooting Media Coverage Follows Tragically Familiar Script
Andrea Mitchell On Connecticut Elementary School Shooting: Gun Violence Is 'Epidemic' (video)
Sweeping changes in Michigan's concealed handgun law go beyond allowing weapons in 'gun free zones' | MLive.com (Rethugs at work)
Reporters Interviewing Children In Connecticut School Shooting Adds Little News Value, Experts Say
Mike Huckabee: Newtown Shooting No Surprise, We've 'Systematically Removed God' From Schools
Peter S. Goodman: Gun Control Reform Is Long Overdue
Responsibility - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money At what point do we start holding the National Rifle Association morally responsible for all these shootings?

American Exceptionalism: The Shootings Will Go On - James Fallows - The Atlantic Twenty-two children injured. Versus, at current count, 18 little children and nine other people shot dead. That's the difference between a knife and a gun.
Twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States 2. Eleven of the 20 worst mass shootings in the last 50 years took place in the United States ... Only with gun violence do we respond to repeated tragedies by saying that mourning is acceptable but discussing how to prevent more tragedies is not. “
The Tragedy is Already Politicized - Lawyers, Guns & Money (comments)
Connecticut Shooting And We The People - The Horror Goes On - Esquire

The revealingly substance-free fight over Susan Rice | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Her record of war advocacy and close ties to tyrants is notably missing from the debate over whether she should be Secretary of State (Brookings ... outspoken and aggressive advocate of the attack on Iraq)
Why to Say No to Susan Rice | Consortiumnews Dec. 20, 2002, Rice joined the bellicose chorus, declaring: “It’s clear that Iraq poses a major threat. It’s clear that its weapons of mass destruction need to be dealt with forcefully, and that’s the path we’re on. Blinded by the limelight, Rice seems to have blundered into the controversy, giving little thought to the possibility that she was being put out front by then-CIA Director David Petraeus and Obama’s counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan. (Neocon war monger recruited by Obama to max his tough-on-Muslims cred)
Susan Rice and Africa’s Despots - NYTimes.com
Secretary of State Candidate Has a Major Financial Stake in Canadian Tar Sands | OnEarth Magazine - about a third of Rice’s personal net worth is tied up in oil producers, pipeline operators, and related energy industries north of the 49th parallel
Andrea Mitchell On Susan Rice: 'This Is Not Going To Help Republicans ... A Woman Of Color Has Been Forced Out' (video)
'Fox & Friends' Bash Andrea Mitchell On Susan Rice: Race And Gender 'Have Nothing To Do With It' (video)

The G.O.P.’s Existential Crisis - NYTimes.com - We are not having a debt crisis. No, what we’re having is a political crisis, born of the fact that one of our two great political parties has reached the end of a 30-year road. (more of an insanity crisis)

Standing and Delivering - NYTimes.com Is it heretical of me, or merely quirky, to find myself nearly as fascinated by the procedural game the Supreme Court is playing in the same-sex marriage cases as I am by the underlying merits of the two appeals the court has agreed to decide?

Line for line, US income taxes are more complex than ever - Quartz

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg Doused, Maybe With Bleach, in Williamsburg - NYTimes.com
Brooklyn Man Charged in Bleach Attack on Rabbi - NYTimes.com
Nechemya Weberman Found Guilty of Sexually Abusing Girl He Counseled - NYTimes.com
Ultra-Orthodox Jews Shun Their Own for Reporting Child Sexual Abuse - NYTimes.com (Jewish Taliban)

Anti-left? - Lawyers, Guns & Money : What does it mean to be a leftist? 1. Make recognition of the state of Israel dependent on moving the boundaries back to the 1967 lines and destroying the settlements. 2. Repeal the 2nd Amendment
Four Futures | Jacobin
A cultural thought experiment - Charlie's Diary

Boy Scout Child Sex Abuse Files Must Be Surrendered, Court Says

Obama: Pot Users In Washington And Colorado Not A 'Top Priority'
Where Pot Is Legal, Dealers Brace For Corporate Takeover

Judge Derek Johnson's Rape Comment: If Sex Isn't Wanted, Body 'Will Not Permit That To Happen' "I'm not a gynecologist, but I can tell you something: If someone doesn't want to have sexual intercourse, the body shuts down. The body will not permit that to happen unless a lot of damage is inflicted, and we heard nothing about that in this case," Johnson said.
Fired Wingnut Komen Lady Karen Handel Challenges Planned Parenthood To Bitch-Slap Contest ... First of all, “Planned Bullyhood.” This woman is obviously a literary genius ... Also, she thinks Planned Parenthood stole the color pink.

The best (and worst) media errors and corrections of 2012 | Poynter.
New York Times column about oversharing had dodgy sourcing | Poynter. Roger Cohen’s Dec. 6 column about “oversharing” now includes a gruesome editor’s note:
Kansas City Star Tells Two Reporters To Decide Which One Gets Laid Off
Report Reveals Major Gender Gap In 'Notable Deaths' Coverage Mother Jones' Dana Liebelson examined lists from various newspapers—including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and Denver Post—and found that men considerably outweigh women as publications report on the most notable deaths of 2012.
Advertising FAILS 2012: The 9 Worst Ads For Women This Year
News Outlets Battle Romney Campaign Over Expenses $812 for one meal? Media organizations are telling their credit card companies not to pay until they see a price breakdown. (grifters on every level)


121312
Syria Regime On The Brink Of Collapse, NATO Chief Rasmussen Says
Russia admits Assad may be ousted by Syrian opposition | World news | guardian.co.uk Kremlin acknowledges Assad is losing control of the country but laments 'bloody price' that must be paid for president to go
Egypt Referendum Violence Warned Ahead Of Constitution Vote
Afghanistan Women Prison Eyed Amid Rising Violence (video) (photos)
Ukrainian Politicians Fight In Violent Brawl On Parliament Floor (video) The Wall Street Journal’s Tom Gara tweeted that it was “maybe the most vigorous punch to the groin ever caught on camera.”
Shining a Light on North Korea’s Human Rights Crisis North Korea has committed genocide as defined by the UN Genocide Convention, stating that there is "ample proof that genocide has been committed and mass killing is still underway in North Korea."

Eurozone crisis live: EU clinches breakthrough deal on banking union | Business | guardian.co.uk Finance ministers have agreed to hand the ECB powers to police eurozone banks in a new phase of closer integration to underpin the euro

News Corporation spends £100m on management and standards committee | Media | guardian.co.uk Team set up to probe alleged illegal activity after phone-hacking scandal is costing more than £1m a week
Rebekah Brooks took £10.8m compensation from News Corp | UK news | guardian.co.uk Accounts at Rupert Murdoch's firm reveal payoff to former chief executive of News International

CIA 'tortured and sodomised' terror suspect, European court rules | Law | guardian.co.uk Landmark European court of human rights brands CIA treatment of wrongly detained Khaled el-Masri as torture - CIA agents tortured a German citizen, sodomising, shackling, and beating him, as Macedonian state police looked on
Government pays Libyan dissident's family £2.2m over MI6-aided rendition | UK news | guardian.co.uk Sami al-Saadi, wife and four children were secretly flown from Hong Kong to Tripoli where he was tortured by Gaddafi police
Greg Mitchell | The Nation
A Big Victory For Torture - Esquire - the military judge presiding over the trial of accused 911 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has granted a government request to treat as classified any testimony or discussion about the alleged torture of Mr. Mohammed and others
Daphne Eviatar: Military Commission Judge Rules Against Transparency in 9/11 Case quietly issued a ruling ensuring the public won't learn any information about the men's torture at the hands of the U.S. government. The ruling itself was filed under seal.
Drone Strikes Draw Congress' Ire Over Lack Of White House Transparency even as lawmakers rejected a measure that would require the administration to share more data about drone strikes with Congress.

Bradley Manning's long quest for justice | Amy Goodman | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk History will judge harshly the US military's mistreatment of the alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower, who turns 25 this week

Susan Rice Withdraws Name From Secretary Of State Consideration (O wimps out; he could have stood up for the truth)
On Rice | TPM Editors Blog But a totally cooked up smear campaign against Rice seems to have worked. My sense was that the President was personally deeply offended by the attacks on Rice. And yet it worked. I’m curious to find out what really happened.
Chuck Hagel Secretary Of Defense Nomination Looks Likely: Report (we need more Republicans in positions of power!)

Political Animal - Supremes’ Inadvertent Gift To Medicaid

U.S. Census Bureau Projections Show a Slower Growing, Older, More Diverse Nation a Half Century from Now - Population - Newsroom - U.S. Census Bureau
Political Animal - Party of Angry Old White Folks Won’t Go Away - Overall, non-Hispanic whites will lose their majority status in 2043. But the transformation is not so fast among old folks (dead-end honkies)

Lost Decade Watch - NYTimes.com This means that the Fed is projecting elevated unemployment nine full years after the Great Recession started. And, of course, the Fed has been consistently over-optimistic ... Faced with an economic crisis where textbook macroeconomics told us exactly how to respond, people of influence chose instead to obsess over budget deficits and generally punt on employment; and the result has been a huge economic and human disaster. (thanks, VSPs)

Hullabaloo Fiscal "cliff" FYI - Raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 is "something that's been floated," Obama said, not dismissing the idea outright. (grand bargainer still doing his Republican thing)
Reasons for optimism about the Medicare age? Durbin: White House won’t increase Medicare eligibility age
The Great Political Mystery of Social Security Reform | Mother Jones

Politico flunks economics - Salon.com A new piece examining how to spark the economy reveals how stale conventional wisdom in D.C. really is
The Onion's Plan For Solving The Fiscal Cliff Crisis | The Onion - America's Finest News Source STEP ONE: Eliminate school breakfast and lunch programs, Medicaid, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, Medicare, PBS, New Mexico, elk, the Coast Guard, and all dams.
Why Republicans Can’t Propose Spending Cuts -- Daily Intelligencer - Republicans demand that President Obama produce an offer of higher spending cuts, and Obama replies that Republicans should say what spending cuts they want, and Republicans insist that Obama should try to guess what kind of spending cuts they would like. Republicans think government spending is huge, but they can’t really identify ways they want to solve that problem, because government spending is not really huge ... The Republican understanding of government spending is based on hazy, abstract notions that don’t match reality and can’t be translated into a workable program.
The Strange Republican Shift on Taxes Why is the GOP retreating on tax rates, when you'd expect them to take just the opposite position? General Electric, not only paid no taxes on its $14.2 billion in profits in 2010 but got a refund from the Treasury of $3.2 billion.
High-End Tax Hikes Would Have 'Negligible' Impact On Growth, Revised CRS Report Says (but, the jobs creators!)
Grover Norquist: GOP Will Keep Obama On 'Short Leash,' Leave Him To 'Blow Up Small Countries' - “He's not going to have any fun at all; he may just have to go blow up small countries he can’t pronounce because it won't be any fun to be here, because he won't be able to spend the kind of cash he was hoping to.” ("can't pronounce")

Eschaton: The Greatest Deliberative Body In The World I obviously don't have any sympathy for Joe Lieberman, but the reports that he gave his farewell speech to basically no one makes me think: god senators are selfish assholes. Comity!
Tomgram: Jeremiah Goulka, Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Republican Titanic | TomDispatch
The Republicans are in a bad place - The Insiders - The Washington Post A recent Wall Street Journal-NBC poll found that when people were asked to use a word or phrase to describe today's Republican Party, 65 percent of responses were negative and just 17 percent positive. Democrats were split at 35 percent positive, 37 percent negative ... The Republicans are in a bad place: stuck between the rock of a dying brand and the hard place of a band of fanatics.
Throwing the Bums In Despite record low approval rates for Congress, Bloomberg finds that 90% of House members and 91% of U.S. Senators who sought re-election in 2012 were successful.
Daily Kos: Michele Bachmann is back and is, if possible, even crazier than ever (Muslims are the offically-sanctioned group to hate)

Nate Silver: 'Punditry Is Fundamentally Useless' (or worse)
Daily Kos: Best presidential predictions of 2012, updated (I still win)

Best and Worst Of the 2012 Campaigns: Part I : Roll Call Politics
The Ten Worst Video Media Disasters Of 2012 | Mr. Media Training Honorable Mention: Kathie Lee Gifford: How’s Your Dead Wife?

Progress for Women Continues Flatlining at the Top Ranks of the Private Sector | The Nation
Karen Handel, Former Komen Executive, Issues Warning To Cecile Richards ... Handel, who is rumored to be considering a run for U.S. Senate in Georgia
Kentucky Miscellany - Public Policy Polling If Hillary Clinton was the Democratic candidate for President in 2016, she could win Kentucky

Balloon Juice » Open Thread – Elections have consequences

Scientists May Have Finally Unlocked Puzzle of Why People Are Gay - US News and World Report Lesbians get it from fathers, gay men from mothers? homosexuality seems to have an epigenetic, not a genetic link. ("it" is the gay disease +orientation!=gender)
Kayan Loris, New Species of Primate with Toxic Bite | Biology | Sci-News.com U.S. biologists have discovered a new species of slow loris in the jungles of Borneo.

It's Time to Fix the Pitifully Slow, Expensive Internet Access in the U.S. | Wired Opinion | Wired.com

Drama Button
Google Porn Just Got More Difficult To Search For

121212
US invites Syrian opposition leader for talks after backing new coalition | World news | guardian.co.uk Invitation to Moaz al-Khatib comes at meeting of world leaders in Marrakech but formal US recognition criticised as insufficient
North Korean rocket launch condemned internationally | World news | guardian.co.uk Move by communist regime expected to boost rightwing candidates in forthcoming elections in Japan and South Korea
Egyptian protesters claim they were tortured by Muslim Brotherhood | World news | guardian.co.uk
Rwanda's genocide and the bloody legacy of Anglo-American guilt | Chris McGreal | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Failure to intervene in 1994's horror means the US and UK have refused to rein in President Paul Kagame's excesses in Congo - Eighteen years ago, President Bill Clinton watched passively as the Hutu extremist regime in Rwanda oversaw the murder of hundreds of thousands of Tutsis. His administration refused even to utter the word genocide for fear it would oblige the US to intervene.

Jimmy Savile accused of 31 rapes as police warn of more child abuse arrests | UK news | The Guardian BBC presenter is the suspect in 199 crimes in 17 areas of the country, while NSPCC says allegations have 'left a deep scar'

Political Animal - Obama’s Mandate Redux President Barack Obama won the public argument over taxes so decisively that almost half of Republicans now say he has an election mandate to raise rates on the rich.

Don't Cut Social Security—Double It - Steven Hill - The Atlantic Fiscal cliff chatter about slashing the venerable program ignores its fundamental potential and underlying strength.
Minnesota Health Care Voucher Failure - Further Proof Voucher Systems Don't Work - Esquire You may have thought that zombie-eyed granny starving took a break after America decided that zombie-eyed granny-starver Paul Ryan should not be vice-president of anything like America, and sent him back to Janesville, where he is also cordially despised at the ballot box.

Why has Pete Peterson’s expensive campaign against the deficit failed after more than 20 years? - Slate Magazine It was a little bit sad, and a bit more revealing. For 20 years, a coalition of wealthy people—Pete Peterson chief among them—has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build public support for austerity ... “The Clinton plan doesn’t come close to balancing the budget, even in the near term,” wrote Peterson. “Inevitably, Clinton’s deficit path will mean a much larger public debt.” Five years later, Clinton was presiding over a balanced budget and a smaller public debt. (always wrong, with no consequences)
Hullabaloo Hoyer says cutting debt will be the "single largest stimulus package that we could get for the economy" (up is down)
Attack of the Giant Killer Debt Limit Tomatoes III « The Reality-Based Community do it by zipcode. The constituents of Congressmen on board for fixing the limit get paid in full. Constituents of holdouts – from Medicare providers to defence contractors – get paid in IOUs,

Rick Snyder Didn't Want to Sign Right-to-Work Legislation Until He Signed It
Harold Meyerson: Unions still matter, in Michigan just as in China - The Washington Post Of course, if China permitted the establishment of unions, wages would rise. But for fundamentally political reasons — independent unions would undermine the Communist Party’s authority — unions are out of the question (Chinese Communist Republicans)
Michigan enters women's health fray with move to limit abortion access | World news | guardian.co.uk Protesters turn out alongside right-to-work demonstrators against bill activists say ignores message sent by election result
The Republican Bait-and-Switch Voters, apparently, can't handle the truth.
Twinkie CEO Admits Company Took Employees Pensions and Put It Toward Executive Pay | Alternet Hostess’ CEO, Gregory Rayburn, essentially admitted that his company stole employee pension money and put it toward CEO and senior executive pay (aka “operations”). While this isn't technically illegal (stealing your employees' pensions and putting the money in your pocket is "technically" ok)

Obamacare: Pennsylvania Governor Rejects Health Insurance Exchange (more Rethugs screwing their citizens)
Sandoval supports Medicaid expansion - News - ReviewJournal.com
Brian Sandoval Nevada Healthcare Act - Brian Sandoval's Smart Health Care Decision - Esquire announced that Nevada would conform to the Affordable Care Act and that he would accept the increase in Medicaid coverage that comes with it ... I predict that, within a couple of years, and even by the Republican standards for looking like idiots, which are considerable, the Republican governors who refuse the Medicaid money because of, you know, FREEEDOMMMM!, and who also engage in what we used to call "massive resistance" to the ACA are going to look like the biggest idiots in two shoes
Idaho Guv Opts To Build Obamacare Insurance Exchange | TPM LiveWire

Justice Antonin Scalia In Hot Water Again Over Homosexual Comments - The Daily Beast Of course Scalia is biased against gays—but that’s not the real problem with his tactless homophobic screeds

The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Navigating Debates about Redistricting

Politico Accidentally Exposes Beltway Elite -- Daily Intelligencer - “VandeHei and Allen…understand their role here not as exposing the insider nexus but as uncritically transmitting its point of view….. It should be preserved for generations as the early-21st-century cri de coeur of an incestuous, self-satisfied economic and political elite.” (Tiger Beat on the Potomac)
GOP Pollster: Republicans Have ‘Run Out Of’ White Voters | TPMDC Republicans need to dramatically improve their standing with Latino voters or risk becoming a “regional party” of disaffected whites, according to a study released Wednesday by a GOP pollster.

Political Animal - Schools Without Accountability Aren’t “Public” (Jindal's "public" private Christian charter schools)

Huge news out of the Federal Reserve
Fed To Keep Rates Near Zero Until Unemployment Drops Below 6.5 Percent
Rein In The Rich: How Higher Taxes Could Lift The Economy | The New Republic
cab drollery: Too Big To Jail (corps are special kinds of people who can never go to jail)
HSBC Drug Money Transfering - HSBC Let Off Easy For Transfering Drug Money - Esquire
Walmart CEO Mike Duke: 'We Do Pay Competitive Wages' (you just can't live on them)

PolitiFact Awards 'Lie Of The Year' To Romney Jeep Ad
Drudge Uses Tarantino Film Review To Blast Out A Series Of N-Bombs | Blog | Media Matters for America

Brad DeLong : Hoisted from Comments: Cass Sunstein Smackdown Watch by Bloix - What he’s writing about is civility. No matter how evil, corrupt, thieving, or stupid people are, it’s not really proper to say so.
Cass Sunstein Strange Column - The Strangest Newspaper Column Ever - Esquire former Obama administration regulatory panjandrum Cass Sunstein,

Chasing Ice movie reveals largest iceberg break-up ever filmed - video | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Gun-selling website Armslist.com faces lawsuit in woman's shooting death | World news | guardian.co.uk Lawsuit has potential to become test case that could have widespread ramifications for burgeoning internet trade in guns
Political Animal - Can the Era of Mass Incarceration Finally End? And even the “experts” who backed mandatory sentencing policies back in the 1980s and 1990s are calling for their reversal. (soft on crime)

Catholic University: No Gays by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly The Catholic University of America has again rejected a petition from its students to form a gay-straight alliance student group

John McAfee deported to US after week spent in Guatemalan detention | World news | guardian.co.uk Software pioneer fled to Guatemala from Belize after being named as a person of interest in the murder of his neighbour
2012 On The Web: Google, Facebook, Twitter Release Year-End Round Ups | TPM Idea Lab

121112
Syrian rebels to take step towards legitimacy with aid plan | World news | The Guardian Millions of dollars worth of humanitarian aid to be moved rapidly into the most deprived areas, says Syrian National Coalition
Iran’s ‘Cyber-Jihad’ Claims Another Victim | The New Republic The gruesome murder last month of Sattar Beheshti in a secret prison in Tehran is a stark reminder that the use of the word jihad—holy war—was not a metaphor, but a warning to the opposition. If they ever attempted to use social media in service of democracy, their blood would be shed in the name of God.
Obama accused of failed policy over Rwanda's support of rebel group | World news | guardian.co.uk Letter signed by 15 organisations calls on US to impose sanctions on Rwanda over human rights abuses in DR Congo

Monti resignation announcement causes fears of renewed euro turbulence | World news | The Guardian News sees Italy's borrowing costs rise and share prices fall, and EU leaders worry about possible spillover into Spain

US military 'kept Bradley Manning on suicide watch against medical advice' | World news | guardian.co.uk Manning lawyer says in closing arguments that military's refusal to listen to experts amounted to unlawful pre-trial treatment

Lying About Torture, Hollywood Style | Mother Jones
Two Cheers for Zero Dark Thirty's Torture Scenes | Danger Room | Wired.com - Bigelow is being presented as a torture apologist, and it’s a bum rap.
On Bin Laden Killing, Ex-CIA Torture Chief Contradicted by…CIA | Mother Jones (Bushies will always lie)
alicublog . I hate to get on Glenn Greenwald's bad side but his claim that he isn't really reviewing-without-having-seen Zero Dark Thirty, when his hostile non-review contains phrases like this --
Simple Answers to Questions Posed To Imaginary Liberals - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money I noticed this expansion of the old vastleft strawman while reading deBoer’s argument about how all liberals are secret torture apologists: (ticking time-bombs!)

Ex-NASA Scientist’s Effort to Protect Privacy Is Frustrated by Courts and Thieves - NYTimes.com The very thing he and advocates warned about had occurred. A laptop used by an employee at NASA’s headquarters in Washington had been stolen from a car parked on the street on Halloween, the space agency said.

The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Raising the Medicare Eligibility Age Isn’t Harmless just can’t believe we’re still talking about raising the eligibility age for Medicare from 65 to 67.
Raising The Medicare Eligibility Age Is Not The Solution To The "Fiscal Cliff" | The New Republic
Yank The Chain: Washington's Terrible New Social Security Fix | The New Republic

Political Animal - Obama Refuses To Help Wreck Obamacare

No, Obama’s campaign wasn’t all that negative
RNC to Investigate What Went Wrong However, BuzzFeed reports that two of the people leading the effort -- former Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer and Republican committeeman Henry Barbour -- pushed the narrative that the polls were skewed, and Mitt Romney would ultimately prevail.

Poll: Most suspect Santa Claus is a Democrat - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room 44 percent of people in the United States believe that Santa Claus is a Democrat, versus just 28 who say St. Nick would cast his ballot for the GOP. An identical 28 percent say they're not sure of Santa's political affiliation.

Antonin Scalia Defends Legal Writings Some View As Offensive, Anti-Gay
Antonin Scalia: Not Neutral on LBGT Rights - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Just a tip: people who talk about the “homosexual agenda” are not actually neutral on the question of gay and lesbian rights; they oppose them.

Political Punishment as Policy The implications of what being a right-to-work state means for Michigan

Republicans And Presidential Election Loss - The Republicans Still Can't Grasp Why They Lost - Esquire This is my opinion — your party, in a perfect expression of everything that it has stood for over the past three decades, threw up a collection of nutballs, thereby making it inevitable that the guy with all the money whom nobody liked got to be the nominee. There. Can I have 150 large now?
Worst Politico Piece On Corporate Tax Rates - Things In Politico That Make Me Want To Guzzle Antifreeze - Esquire In short, Messrs. VandeHei and Allen have decided that the way to a "rocket-propelled" economy is to cut corporate tax rates to almost nothing, close a bunch of loopholes that will reopen under new rubric in approximately 11 seconds, and essentially do away with the American middle class,
CNN Anchor Denounces GOP Senator For Balancing Budget On Backs Of 'Nation's Poor Children' | ThinkProgress - Jeff Sessions, R.Asshole (which is true, and seldom said on teevee)
Fox's Hume: If You Have "An Ounce Of Compassion This Christmas Season, Save It For John Boehner And House Republicans" | Video | Media Matters for America (Hume weeps for the tan man)
Jim DeMint: The Fireman Ed of Politics | | Rolling Stone - ("He's the biggest douchebag in Washington," is how one congressional aide explained it to me, "and this is the douchebag capital of the world.")

Why Hillary Clinton Would Be Strong in 2016 (It's Not Her Favorability Ratings) - NYTimes.com

Gold coin boom: Worried Republicans stocking up. (and guns and ammo)

Kristof Won’t Even Acknowledge that the Poor Can Feel Love | The Raw Story this quote really summed it up for me: "Antipoverty programs also discourage marriage: In a means-tested program like S.S.I., a woman raising a child may receive a bigger check if she refrains from marrying that hard-working guy she likes" (what planet does this asshole live on? +they have microwave ovens!) .
Nicholas Kristoff Social Security Fraud - The Voices Missing From The Safety Net Debate - Esquire Comes now Nick Kristof in The New York Times with the latest true story of waste, fraud, and abuse in the SSI system, this one from West Virginia. (+depriving the military of cannon-fodder for the wars of the rich)
Texas: Likely Increase in Births Has Some Lawmakers Revisiting Cuts - NYTimes.com When state lawmakers passed a two-year budget in 2011 that moved $73 million from family planning services to other programs, the goal was largely political: halt the flow of taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood clinics ... poor women will deliver an estimated 23,760 more babies than they would have (white male Republican lawmakers at work)

The Supply and Demand for Dental Hygienists by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly (PHd now required)

Healthiest State Rankings Of 2012 (Vermont, of course)

Bill de Blasio proud of his marriage with former lesbian - NY Daily News The mayoral hopeful and his wife, Chirlane McCray, spoke out in a series of TV interviews in the wake of revelations that McCray identified as a lesbian in the 1970s.

Florida reform school abuse scandal widens with discovery of more graves | World news | guardian.co.uk New investigation puts deaths at nearly 100 since 1900 – many young, black males sent to the institution for minor infractions
US prosecutors launch civil rights investigation into fatal Little Rock shooting | World news | guardian.co.uk Department of Justice to look into claims that Arkansas police used excessive force in death of unarmed Eugene Ellison, 67

philebrity.com » Blog Archive » Inquirer And Daily News Will Split From Philly.com, Set Up Paywall (will work out really well)
I wrote a response to Jack Stuef's BuzzFeed article about me - The Oatmeal (pwn'd)

121012
Why Obama Will Ignore Israel - Newsweek and The Daily Beast The administration’s new Mideast strategy: benign neglect.
Israel suspected over Iran nuclear programme inquiry leaks | World news | The Guardian Western officials believe Israel may have leaked information from IAEA investigation in bid to raise global pressure on Tehran - diplomats believe the leaks may have backfired, compromising a UN-sanctioned investigation into Iran's past nuclear activities and current aspirations (anything to get Netanyahu re-elected)
Egypt army given arrest powers before referendum | World news | guardian.co.uk President Morsi decree sets 'dangerous precedent' warns Amnesty amid fears civilians could be subjected to military trials

Dominique Strauss-Kahn settles sexual assault case with hotel maid | World news | guardian.co.uk Hotel maid who alleged sexual assault by the former IMF chief settles civil action case, bringing end to lengthy court battle (rutting chimp finally settles for maybe $6M which he borrows from his wife)

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Pride Fucking With You Margaret Sullivan, the Times public editor, took that paper to task yesterday for not having a reporter at the trial of Bradley Manning - " Private Manning was one of its most important sources of the past decade."

Zero Dark Thirty: new torture-glorifying film wins raves | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Can a movie that relies on fabrications to generate support for war crimes still be considered great?
The Senate Report on CIA Interrogations You May Never See | Occupy America But the Obama administration has argued in courts that details about the CIA program are still classified. (As we have reported, this has led the administration to claim in some cases that Guantanamo detainees' own accounts of their imprisonment are classified.)

INFOGRAPHIC: We Could End Homelessness With The Money Americans Spend On Christmas Decorations | ThinkProgress (Jesus wept)

Lawyers, Guns & Money - On the other hand, it’s obvious that opposition to the treaty is drenched in a particularly noxious brew of stupidity and mendacity. (they play to their own insanity)

Battleground Poll: Hike taxes on rich - James Hohmann - politico.com

Daily Kos: Right-Wing Extremism and Obama’s Reelection: Will There Be Blood? You may have seen the Public Policy Polling survey showing that 49% of all Republicans polled believe ACORN, an organization that hasn’t existed since 2010, stole the 2012 election for Barack Obama. 16% of all American voters – one in six – refuse to acknowledge that Barack Obama is the lawfully elected president of the United States. (Billmon)(some call it treason)
Doonesbury Comic Strip, December 10, 2012 on GoComics.com (Texas)
Capture.PNG (post-election racist tweets by location)

Why Not Push the Pentagon off the Fiscal Cliff? - Robert Wright - The Atlantic (couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of thieves)
The Nonsense About a Demographic Crisis | CEPR Blog In short, under any plausible scenario the potential gains to living standards from increased productivity swamp any potential negative impact from a declining ratio of workers to retirees (yeah, another fake "crisis" so they can steal your retirement)

Obama: Right-To-Work Laws Mean 'Right To Work For Less Money' | TPM LiveWire
Michigan prepares for mass protests against right-to-work legislation | World news | guardian.co.uk Supporters and protesters of the law, which curbs unions ability to collect fees, will gather at the state Senate on Tuesday
Political Animal - Why Michigan Republicans Had To Race To the Bottom
The Long Tail of 2010: Why Michigan Republicans Can Get Away With Their Last-Minute Anti-Labor Push
Michigan Democrats Warn Of Chaos If Snyder Signs Labor Law | TPMDC

Raising Medicare’s age: Saves feds $5.7 billion, costs you $11.4 billion (and kills people; will Obama go for the grand sell-out?)
Eschaton: Jeebus It's Not High School No it's not personalities and grudges and Jon Chait gave me a wedgie once so now I'm gonna be mean to the poor defenseless guy. It's that people have hard fucking lives and raising the Medicare eligibility age will cost money, not save money, and also kill people. (more Chait blow-back)
Sell-Out of the Century? « The Reality-Based Community If this is true — and right now it is a very big if — then it represents the greatest sell-out of a winning political coalition since LBJ ran on “not sending American boys to Vietnam.”
Hullabaloo Jonathan Chait and the Goldilocks principle
Heighten-the-Contradictions: From the Center, It’s No More Convincing - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money I still have a some things to say about Jon Chait’s call for a pre-emptive surrender on raising the Medicare eligibility age.
Jon Chait’s Miserable Endorsement of Raising the Medicare Eligibility Age | FDL News Desk
Political Animal - Keeping Calm About Fiscal Talk Strategy But color me appalled by David Dayan’s piece at FDL early this morning barbecuing Chait as a sell-out peddling “idiocy,” among other choice epithets. Atrios piled on by naming Chait his “Wanker of the Day (Ed misses the boat here)
Medicare eligibility age: Compromise only makes sense if it strengthens Obamacare.
Brad DeLong : Raising the Medicare Eligibility Age Is Not Good Politics
Medicare Age Increase and Alzheimer's - The Actual Cost Of Washington's Clever Debt Deal - Esquire Make this deal, and what do all these people and their families do? Shop for private insurance for another two years? Does that sound remotely practical to anyone who are not: a) members of Congress enjoying the benefits of a government-run, single-payer health care system?, or b) well-remunerated pundits who can afford a Cadillac plan of their own. (yes will get demented, spend all their families money, and then die)
Political Animal - The “Entitlement Reform” Nobody Really Wants
GA Rep. Price: Opening Health Insurance To People With Pre-Existing Conditions Is A 'Terrible Idea' | ThinkProgress (ACA flashback)

Brad DeLong : Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? Nick Kristof of the New York Times Edition Erik Loomis sounds the intellectual garbage alarm - A simple change to the New York Times's op-ed columnist policy: have an editor ask each of them "do you know what you are talking about?" before publishing... (Kristoff is not an "expert" on anything except low-info wanking)
Wanker of the Day - Lawyers, Guns & Money Evidently Kristof is only interested in poverty if he can personally fly in and rescue women from sex slavery. Otherwise, he’s happy to channel the arguments of Gilded Age social Darwinists.
Nicholas Kristoff Social Security Fraud - The Voices Missing From The Safety Net Debate - Esquire Something there is about the Supplemental Security Income Program of the Social Security Administration that seems to drive putative liberals to embrace their inner DeMint.

Five Republican Brush Fires - NationalJournal.com
Sunday Talk Shows On Tax Loopholes - What Are The Gobshites Saying These Days? - Esquire Willard Romney stopped by and, prior to the fight, visited Pacquiao in the fighter's dressing room, dragging the thick mist of failure and abject loserdom along with him. And, of course, the inevitable occurred. And it drew a reaction from our hero at ringside that we everlastingly will refer to as The Ohio Face.

Robots and Robber Barons - NYTimes.com (rch looking forward to worker-free economy)
Political Animal - Return of the Oligarchs Paul Krugman had a much-discussed column today that discussed record corporate profits and weighed the effects of technology and sheer corporate power in keeping those profits from benefitting workers via more jobs and higher pay.
Tarullo Telegraphs Fed’s Plans to Cap Bank Size - Bloomberg
Daily Kos: Hostess took workers' pension money to fund itself . In August, 2011, the company just stopped contributing to its workers' pensions, and is now acknowledging that it instead used the money for operational expenses. The money that didn't go into pension funds was money that the workers had bargained for and chosen to take as pension instead of wages. (they just stole the money, and of course, no one will go to jail)

At Least Seven NFL Players Turn In Guns Following Murder-Suicide Tragedy | ThinkProgress Studies show that having a gun in the home increases the chances of homicide two to three times, and gun death rates are seven times higher in states with high household gun ownership rates. The presence of a firearm in the home also increases the risk of homicide for women by five times and two-thirds of women killed with guns each year die in domestic disputes. (the right to shoot your wife)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Anti-Choice Message on Wire Hangers? Dude, naw. a dry-cleaner outfit in Cincinnati, Ohio is splashing its Forced Birther message on wire hangers, either blissfully unaware or blissfully not giving a fuck about the optics of putting a Forced Birth message on a goddamn wire hanger:

Ban helium balloons this Christmas, academic warns - Telegraph Helium balloons should be banned at Christmas as the party favourites are wasting a scarce resource that it vital for modern medical equipment, according to a leading academic.
Keeps Ticks Off to Prevent Lyme Disease - weather.com
Lysergic acid diethylamide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Some studies in the 1950s that used LSD to treat alcoholism professed a 50% success rate,[31][32] five times higher than estimates near 10% for Alcoholics Anonymous.[33] A 1998 review was inconclusive.[34] However, a 2012 meta-analysis of 6 randomized controlled trials found evidence that a single dose of LSD was associated with a decrease in alcohol abuse, lasting for several months.[35]
Breakthrough: compound generated by low carb/low-calorie diet blocks effects of aging | KurzweilAI (says Mr Ketogenic)
marogaeth comments on If someone did manage to build Jurassic Park, would the dinosaurs be almost immediately killed by bacteria or viruses that had tens of millions of years of evolutionary advantage on them?

#IkeaMonkey: what we know about Canada's most famous shopper | World news | guardian.co.uk A press conference in Toronto revealed new details about the Canadian monkey with a taste for Swedish minimalism

The Antivirus Era Is Over | MIT Technology Review
Wasting Hackers' Time to Keep Websites Safe | MIT Technology Review
A Computer Infection that Can Never Be Cured | MIT Technology Review “If someone puts a single rogue firmware on your machine, he basically owns you forever,” Brossard told an audience of fellow hackers and computer security professionals at Black Hat.

120912
Egypt: Mohamed Morsi cancels decree that gave him sweeping powers | World news | The Observer Annulment of measure that sparked days of protests comes after military says constitution crisis could drag Egypt into 'dark tunnel'
Karachi, Pakistan's Largest City, Rocked By Wave Of Violence
US military facing fresh questions over targeting of children in Afghanistan | World news | guardian.co.uk Outrage grows after senior officer claimed troops in Afghanistan were on the lookout for 'children with potential hostile intent' (well, their skin was brown)
Afghanistan Teenagers Detained By U.S. Military The U.S. military has detained more than 200 Afghan teenagers who were captured in the war for about a year at a time at a military prison next to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, the United States has told the United Nations. (worst of the worst)
Sheik Khalid Bin Abdel Rehman Al-Hussainan Dead: Al Qaeda Leader Killed By U.S. Drone In Pakistan's Tribal Regions (137th Al Qaeda leader killed)
The world's deadliest road | Global development | The Observer Seven years ago, the World Bank paid for a road in Bangladesh to be upgraded, but without demanding basic safety features. Now people are dying by the score.
Pirate Bay Founder Released From Solitary Confinement | TorrentFreak After three months in solitary confinement Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm will be released from custody.

It's Official: Austerity Economics Doesn't Work : The New Yorker (so, more austerity!)

Doha climate change deal clears way for 'damage aid' to poor nations | Environment | The Observer EU, Australia and Norway also sign up to new carbon-cutting targets as fortnight-long conference in Qatar closes

Ken Auletta: The Heiress : The New Yorker The rise of Elisabeth Murdoch. ("You've fucked the company, James")

Drug War: Fail - TalkLeft: The Politics Of Crime - Branson: Here we are, four decades after Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs in 1971 and $1 trillion spent since then. What do we have to show for it? The U.S. has the largest prison population in the world, with about 2.3 million behind bars. More than half a million of those people are incarcerated for a drug law violation. What a waste of young lives. (but Obummer loves his wars)

'Since Democrats took control of the Senate in 2006, Republicans Have Mounted 380 Filibusters'
Bob Corker: Debt Ceiling Is Republicans' Leverage In Fiscal Talks (R. Asshole)
Tom Cole: Middle Income Tax Cuts Would Pass The House | TPMDC

Jim DeMint and the Heritage Foundation : The New Yorker Yesterday, Heritage decided to double down on bad, with stained-glass windows.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Retreating, Not Surrendering: Soon-to-Be-Ex-Senator Jim DeMint Moral Majority was based on the concept, or fantasy, that the bulk of real Americans were white Judeo-Christian paternalist-authoritarian Republicans who needed only proper direction to take over (“reclaim”) their rightful control of every important political office - " I’ve said it often and I believe it—the bigger government gets, the smaller God gets."
DeMint: Farewell, Filibusteringest Senator | The New Republic
The Evolution of Jim DeMint : The New Yorker

Billionaires Warn Higher Taxes Could Prevent Them From Buying Politicians : The New Yorker - While the American family has seen increases in the cost of food, health care and education, Mr. Adelson says, “those costs don’t compare with the cost of buying a politician, which has gone through the roof.”
How to Save the Democratic Party | The Nation American progressives and principled liberals need to face an essential truth: the Democratic Party, as now constituted, is no longer an agency for realizing their ideals ... party of “bipartisan compromise” with an increasingly right-wing Republicanism
NOM Boycott Damages Starbucks So Much They’re Opening 1500 New US Stores | The New Civil Rights Movement ... NOM's secret donors, widely believed to be the Mormon Church and the Vaticans

Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries | Conservative News, Views & Books (#4: Kinsey Report; #7: The Feminine Mystique! #10: Keynes!)
Sundays With The Christianists: A ‘World History’ Textbook To Ward Off Dangerous Modern Thinking
Russia’s Anti-Mormon Campaign - The Daily Beast An influential young pro-Kremlin politician is trying to get the Latter-day Saints banned from the country.
Of Cancer and Crony Capitalism in Texas | Firedoglake Republican Gov. Rick Perry and his cronies in and out of public office have diverted funds intended for cutting-edge cancer research into the campaign pockets of Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.

Country Club Sopranos - Page 1 - News - New York - Village Voice American banks are on a massive crime spree. Obama and Romney hope you won't notice. (Obama has been looking the other way for four years)
Heritage, Chicago, and the Fiscal Cliff - NYTimes.com (if their policies really worked we wouldn't be in this mess)
Should Dems be thoughtfully considering broaching means testing for Social Security eligibility? - Democratic Underground (millionaires running to their SS offices to collect $2200/month)
Brad DeLong : Aaron Carroll: Raising the Medicare Eligibility Age Is Really, Really, Really, Really Bad Policy

Financiers Bet on Rental Housing - NYTimes.com The Blackstone Group, the New York private-equity firm run by Stephen A. Schwarzman, has spent more than $1 billion to buy 6,500 single-family homes so far this year. The Colony Capital Group, headed by the Los Angeles billionaire Thomas J. Barrack Jr., has bought 4,000.

Volcanoes, Not Meteorite, Killed Dinosaurs, New Study Suggests Volcanic activity in modern-day India, not an asteroid, may have killed the dinosaurs, according to a new study. Tens of thousands of years of lava flow from the Deccan Traps (the size of Europe)

NRA: Despite Living In House Full Of Guns, More Guns Could Have Saved Kasandra Perkins

The Ring House – Karuizawa Japan | The Versatile Gent

FCC urges FAA: Let passengers run gadgets during takeoff | PCWorld
Verizon DVR Will Know What Your'e Doing And Saying - Business Insider (it will watch you make out on the couch and give you contraceptive commercials; what could go wrong?)

120812
President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt Said to Prepare Martial Law Decree - NYTimes.com
As Egypt’s Crisis Deepens, Morsi Turns to Muslim Brotherhood - NYTimes.com
Egypt Terror Leader Possibly Linked to Benghazi Attack Arrested - Yahoo! News
William Hague confirms 'evidence' of Syrian chemical weapons | World news | guardian.co.uk Foreign secretary says he has seen some proof that Assad's forces are preparing to launch chemical attack against rebels
Afghan Spy Chief’s Attacker Hid Bomb by His Groin - NYTimes.com
Russia - Prosecutors Investigate After Exhibition Draws Complaints - NYTimes.com “numerous citizens” had complained that the exhibition “offends the feelings of Orthodox believers and contains actions directed at degrading the dignity of citizens who profess Christianity.” (religious liberty to be offended)

The PSY scandal: singing about killing people v. constantly doing it | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk "The US military is facing fresh questions over its targeting policy in Afghanistan after a senior army officer suggested that troops were on the lookout for 'children with potential hostile intent'".

In Private Manning Case, Jailers Become the Accused - NYTimes.com

Bubba, Bare Feet And Ringing Bells | TPM Media

Air Force Orders Inspections of Facilities for Pornographic Material - NYTimes.com (your Christian Air Force has porno and sexaul harrassment everywhere)
Twenty and Counting - NYTimes.com up to now there have only been 39 women senators in all of American history

Dinosaurs and Denial - NYTimes.com Finally, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida — a Tea Party darling and possible 2016 presidential candidate — admits that dinosaurs and humans didn’t co-exist ... most Republicans (58 percent) believed that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years. Most Democrats and independents did not agree ... only 6 percent of scientists identified as Republican (because they are "discriminated against" in academia)

NY mostly ignored reports warning of superstorm - Yahoo! News (reports, but no plans and no money)

How Corruption Is Strangling U.S. Innovation - James Allworth - Harvard Business Review
Insider Trading Persists, and Gets Stealthier - NYTimes.com

Hullabaloo Raising the Medicare eligibility age and Saddam Hussein (Chait was crazy on Iraq, too)
Political Animal - Medicare Eligibility Age on the Table? But the added cost is not the trigger for the invective; that comes from this: Raise the eligibility age and PEOPLE WILL DIE. (a point often overlooked by Very Serious People)

PLOS ONE: Anatomical Brain Images Alone Can Accurately Diagnose Chronic Neuropsychiatric Illnesses In MRI datasets from persons with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Schizophrenia, Tourette Syndrome, Bipolar Disorder, or persons at high or low familial risk for Major Depressive Disorder, our method discriminated with high specificity and nearly perfect sensitivity the brains of persons who had one specific neuropsychiatric disorder

It’s Hard to Be a Hero - NYTimes.com On Monday, the 49th Street subway platform was full of people, each possibly thinking that someone else was closer, someone else was stronger, someone else should be responsible for the heroic act. As a result, no one acted.

Online Education Invites New Ways to Cheat by Jamaal Abdul-alim | Washington Monthly - A common form of online cheating is referred to as contract cheating or cyber-pseudepigraphy (neologism alert)

120712
Philippines typhoon death toll passes 500 | World news | guardian.co.uk More than 400 missing and 310,000 homeless after typhoon Bopha strikes southern island of Mindanao
Egypt opposition rejects Morsi's call for talks amid thousands-strong protests | World news | guardian.co.uk National Salvation Front says president has lost legitimacy as opponents and supporters take to the streets again
US military facing fresh questions over targeting of children in Afghanistan | World news | guardian.co.uk Outrage grows after senior officer claimed troops in Afghanistan were on the lookout for 'children with potential hostile intent'

Libya Attack Report Imminent, John Kerry Says (and McCain's gaze of doom)

Blood & Treasure: and then they can be ordered to shoot

Classifying Of Government Secrets 'Fraught With Problems', Study Says The federal government is classifying information at a rapidly increasing pace, and every time the CIA, FBI or National Security Agency stamps a document "Top Secret," it's risking the public's right to know, says a report released Thursday by the Public Interest Declassification Board.

Supreme Court On Gay Marriage: Prop 8, DOMA To Receive Hearings
Marijuana Initiatives in 2 States Set Federal Officials Scrambling - NYTimes.com (Obama's endless wars on everything)
Let It Go - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money The Obama Administration needs to let Colorado and Washington have their legal marijuana. Just let it go.
Political Animal - Old Democratic Position on Drugs Going Up In Smoke
Mr President, Don't Even Think About It - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast Charlie Savage reports on the Obama administration's response to the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington. Balko is discouraged:

Photo Of The Day | TPM Editors Blog Obama taking Romney’s concession call on election night.

Bob Cesca: The Crazy Base Won't Let the Republican Party Change The problem this creates, of course, is that the Republican Party has been consumed by misinformed idiots with no substantial connection to the real world, and the first post-election PPP poll only serves to amplify this conclusion ... Half of all Republicans told PPP that ACORN stole it for him. 49 percent of Republicans believe ACORN, the evil nonprofit organization, rigged the election for the president somehow. (the non-existent organization they killed with their lies 4 years ago. this is serioiusly insane)
Dan Froomkin: How the Mainstream Press Bungled the Single Biggest Story of the 2012 Campaign campaign coverage in 2012 was a particularly calamitous failure, almost entirely missing the single biggest story of the race: Namely, the radical right-wing, off-the-rails lurch of the Republican Party, both in terms of its agenda and its relationship to the truth ... Mann said. It was clear then that the Republicans would "do or say anything" to hurt Obama, even if it was overtly bad for the country and false to core Republican values. (the new normal is insane)

EmployRecNov2012.jpg (scariest chart in the world, updated)
November Jobs Report: U.S. Economy Adds 146,000 Jobs As Unemployment Rate Drops
Jared Bernstein: November Jobs Report: First Impressions
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Percentage Growth in Government Jobs vs. Private Jobs vs. Population Growth; Facts and Consequences
Jobs Report Sets Stage For Congressional Debate On Unemployment Benefits The declining jobless rate could give ammunition to Republicans wary of the $30 billion it would cost to keep the benefits through next year. But Democrats have said repeatedly that Congress has never dropped federal benefits when the unemployment rate is above 7.2 percent.

Why People Are Confused About the Fiscal Cliff - NYTimes.com So what’s going on with the subhed? The answer is that the Very Serious People — and there’s nothing as VSP as the WaPo — have spent years crying Deficits! Debt! Danger!, and staff at the Post can’t wrap their minds around the fact that suddenly it’s a too-rapid fall in the deficit that has those very same People terrified.
The Forgotten Millions - NYTimes.com Let’s get one thing straight: America is not facing a fiscal crisis. It is, however, still very much experiencing a job crisis.
Simon Johnson: The Real Fiscal Risks in the United States - NYTimes.com First, the main risk is that in the near future the government will do too little by way of fiscal adjustment

GOP Resurrects Plan to Rig Electoral College | Mother Jones After Romney got walloped on November 6, Republicans want to change how electoral votes are awarded.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Early Morning Open Thread: I Love A Woman Who Knows What’s What Now that Senator Elizabeth Warren (I still loving saying that) looks to be joining the Senate Banking Committee, here’s a look back to an interview she did with Charlie Pierce for Esquire before the election: This was not a natural disaster. The crash of 2008 was manmade.
Defense Contractors Seek Fiscal Cliff Relief, Budget-Busting Tax Breaks At Same Time
Another Goldman Creature Given Vital Government Post | | Rolling Stone
Matt Taibbi: Banks Needs 'Boring' People, Not 'Coked-Up Wannabe Big Shots'


Fox News adjusts to new reality as it faces four more years of Obama | Media | guardian.co.uk Fox News chief Roger Ailes. Producers must ask permission from senior management if they wish to put Karl Rove or Dick Morris on air. Photograph
The Hill Reporters Speak Out On "Laughingstock" Columnist Dick Morris | Blog | Media Matters for America
Dick Morris, Con Artist And I mean that literally
Minority Senators Say Independent Democratic Conference Robs Them - NYTimes.com Yet all of its statewide elected officials are white politicians. And in Albany, Republicans and a group of dissident Democrats have taken control of the State Senate by forming a coalition that would consist almost entirely of white lawmakers. (white power and Cuomo is facilitating)

Inside The Koch Empire: How The Brothers Plan To Reshape America - Forbes

Limbaugh Blames Feminism For "Ruining Women" | Video | Media Matters for America
Shorter Eric Cantor: “The Rights of White Men to Sexually Assault Women of Color Shall Not Be Abridged!” - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money For all intents and purposes, Eric Cantor is coming out as the defender of (mostly) whites raping non-white women. I’d say this is especially reprehensible. But it’s Cantor so it’s par for the course.

Balloon Juice » Sorry, Charlie Charles Murray has a sad about Asians (and lives on another planet)

Ken Gonzales-Day's "Erased Lynching" - NYTimes.com - Lynchings in the West, Erased From History and Photos

What Men Want: Male Gaze Can Tell You The Answer, Study Says Men's gaze reflects their underlying sexual motivation, the researchers found. A woman's gaze, on the other hand, does not seem to match her sexual thoughts as clearly.

2012: The Year in Photos, Part 1 of 3 - In Focus - The Atlantic

News Corp.'s The Daily Just the Latest General Online News Failure Why Buy a Cow when Milk Is Cheap?
Tablet PC Reviews - Best Tablet PCs
The first flexible, fiber-optic solar cell that can be woven into clothes | ExtremeTech

120612
Mohamed Morsi calls for dialogue in attempt to quell Egypt's anger | World news | guardian.co.uk Violent street battles stop – for now – but country remains locked in confrontation
U.S.-Approved Weapons Transfer Ended Up With Libyan Jihadis - NYTimes.com The Obama administration secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar last year, but American officials later grew alarmed as evidence grew that Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants, according to United States officials and foreign diplomats.
Nato forces 'attack Afghan health clinic' | World news | guardian.co.uk Aid group Swedish Committee for Afghanistan says Nato and Afghan troops damaged its building and used it as jail
Mexican Court Rules in Favor of Same-Sex Marriage - ABC News Mexico's Supreme Court has ruled that a law in southern Oaxaca state that bans same-sex marriages is unconstitutional, paving the way for same-sex couples to marry in that state and possibly in the rest of Mexico.

Austerity Pushes Europe Into Its Second Recession In Four Years | ThinkProgress (nothing succeeds like total failure if you the elites)

Richard O'Dwyer's two-year extradition ordeal ends in New York | UK news | The Guardian TVShack founder avoids prosecution under copyright laws and says: 'It is a pity the UK government didn't try and resolve this'

Jon Stewart: Have Republicans Hit 'Rock Bottom' With Failed United Nations Disability Treaty? - "It's official. Republicans hate the United Nations more than they like helping people in wheelchairs." (there is no "rock bottom" for them)

Obama to Request $50 Billion for Sandy Relief | FDL News Desk
Austerity - First Draft - Sandy: "Unless an austerity-minded Congress adds to the president’s plan, state leaders would have to figure out other ways to finance tens of billions of dollars of storm-related expenses or do without them." - Can we start using the word cheapskate instead of meaningless village-phrases like "austerity-minded?"
Staten Island's Hurricane Sandy Damage Sheds Light On Complicated Political Battle
Stuart Stevens: 'I Never Had A Good Feeling' About Romney Win After Hurricane (blame it on Sandy)

Obama Approval Rating Reaches Three-Year High In Poll A month after the election, President Barack Obama's approval ratings are at a level he hasn't seen for years, with contentious negotiations over the upcoming "fiscal cliff" so far not dampening his support.
Debt Ceiling Bluff Called By Harry Reid, Leaving Mitch McConnell To Filibuster Himself (mu-haha)
John Boehner Fiscal Cliff Proposal Opposed By Powerful Conservative Groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks stated their disappointment and opposition to the proposal put forward by Boehner

Jim DeMint To Heritage Foundation: Senator To Leave Position To Run Think Tank s president of the Heritage Foundation (more wingnut welfare)
5 Republicans Who Could Replace Jim DeMint In The Senate | ThinkProgress
Salaries of Top Think Tank Leaders - Think Tanked
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie Vetoes Bill To Create Obamacare Health Insurance Exchange (but wants Fed money to bailout his storm victims)


Villaraigosa urges 'fiscal cliff' solution, defends Fix the Debt - latimes.com "I am a Democrat and a progressive, but you know what? The country is evenly divided. They won too," Villaraigosa said. "We've got to work together." He later added: "The problem is that Democrats just talk to Democrats and Republicans with Republicans.... That's what's broken with politics right now. Too many people polarized and too many people addicted to their ideologies and orthodoxies."
Eschaton: Wanker of the Day Antonio Villaraigosa - Joe Lieberman called. He wants his schtick back.

Scott Walker On Eliminating Same-Day Voter Registration: 'This Is A Ridiculous Issue' "This is a ridiculous issue. My priority is about jobs, creating jobs," he told reporters on Wednesday (even though he's failed to create any and spends all his time suppressing the vote and talking to the Koch bros)

Perino's Advice To Women Who Are "Victims Of Violence": "Make Better Decisions" | Video | Media Matters for America (fuck you, Dana)
Go to Your Womb, Ross Douthat | The Nation (Baby Pope gets slapped around some more)
What Would Phoebe Do: Sigh, natalism
America Isn't as Decadent as Social Conservatives Think It Is - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic Many cultural factors are more important contributors to the declining birth rate than moral degeneracy and decline.
Hedonist, Disciple or Bourgeois? | The American Conservative

Calendar of Mine Disaster Anniversaries (you won't believe it)
Los Angeles L.A.'s Bloody Hit-and-Run Epidemic - LA Weekly - About 20,000 hit-and-run crashes, from fender benders to multiple fatalities, are recorded by the Los Angeles Police Department each year. (even worse than NYC)

Marriage propsals: Why men still think it's their job to ask and women still agree.
Sexism and the Marriage Proposal - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Bret Easton Ellis on Kathryn Bigelow: She's hot and overrated. (Bret Who?)
Charles Bukowski, Arthur C. Clarke, Annie Dillard, John Cage, and Others on the Meaning of Life | Brain Pickings

Live, Work And Play In New Development For You And All Your Idaho Militia Friends!

How to Live Without Irony - NYTimes.com
Sincerity, Not Irony, Is Our Age's Ethos - Jonathan D. Fitzgerald - The Atlantic A recent hipster-hating New York Times column got this pop-cultural moment exactly backwards.
A Manifesto for The New Sincerity | Maximum Fun
Irony Is Wonderful, Terrific, Fantastic! | The Awl
Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity by Richard M. Rorty - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists
Denis Dutton on Richard Rorty - Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity
No ironic spin is possible for SoulCycle coming to Williamsburg | Emma Brockes | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

John McAfee Reportedly Suffers Heart Attacks In Guatemala


120512
Arctic lost record snow and ice last year as data shows changing climate | Environment | guardian.co.uk Findings from US science agency Noaa suggest widespread and irreversible changes because of a warming climate

Syria Chemical Weapons Readied For Use: Sarin Loaded Into Aerial Bombs Despite International Warnings
Egypt erupts as Muslim Brotherhood supporters clash with protesters | World news | The Guardian President Morsi accused of 'vicious and deliberate' attack as activists killed in Cairo and more than 300 injured
A short quiz on the US, Israel, and 'rogue nation' status | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk A series of events just from this week makes clear who is actually violating the consensus of the international community - So essentially, it's the entire planet on one side, versus the US, its new right-wing poodle to the north, Israel, and three tiny, bribed islands on the other side.
China’s “Carrier Killer”: The DF-21D - That lets PLA gunners strike throughout the China seas, well into the Western Pacific, throughout the Bay of Bengal, and into the Arabian Sea—all without deploying launchers outside China’s frontiers. w

Osborne Says Britain Needs Additional Year of Austerity Measures - NYTimes.com Although Mr. Osborne maintained that the debt reduction plan was still on track, his presentation drew heckling and laughter from some opposition lawmakers, particularly after he argued that new tax measures would show that “we’re all in this together.” (having completely failed, except to produce more austerity on the heads of the non-rich)

Feinstein amendment doubles down on NDAA's assault on constitutional rights | Naomi Wolf | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
Laptop seizures by US government highlight 9/11-era climate of fear | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The treatment of dissidents is the true measure of how free a society is: consider today's examples from the US

Obama to Request $50 Billion for Sandy Relief | FDL News Desk
Cuomo in Washington Pressing for Disaster Aid - NYTimes.com Still, any disaster aid package may well need to satisfy the concerns of conservative lawmakers, who have indicated an unwillingness to approve additional disaster spending without cuts that would offset the costs — and avoid adding to the deficit ... The governor was accompanied by two New York Republican congressmen who helped make the state’s case, Peter T. King of Long Island and Michael G. Grimm of Staten Island. (now they want big government)
Disaster Economics : The New Yorker - a 2005 independent study of disaster-mitigation grants made by FEMA found that every dollar in grants ended up saving taxpayers $3.65 in avoided costs.

Say This For Ben Nelson: He Voted For Harry Reid As Majority Leader - Lawyers, Guns & Money (speaking of next-Pres-not Andrew Cuomo)

Senate Republicans Shoot Down Treaty For Disabled Rights | TPMDC - U.N. Treaty On Rights For The Disabled, Citing Impact On Home-Schoolers (who need to disable their kids)
Mike Lee UN Disability Treaty - The Problem With Mike Lee - Esquire If the people of Utah want to be represented by Senator Mike Lee, they're welcome to him. But that shouldn't be our problem as well.
Balloon Juice » Alienating The Electorate, Nineteen Million Americans At A Time your modern GOP has once again managed to be both vicious and stupidly self-destructive. This time, it’s their wisdom in the decision to piss on some 19% of the American people—from a considerable height—in the process of blocking ratification of the UN treaty on the rights of the disabled.

John Sununu: Democrats Won Thanks To Voters Dependent On Government The former New Hampshire governor and Mitt Romney campaign surrogate said Tuesday that Democrats and President Barack Obama won reelection by turning out the moochers.
Sununu: Obama Won Because He Turned Out Voters ‘Dependent’ On Government | TPMDC
Isn't it time for John Sununu, Mitt Romney's racist surrogate, to step aside? - National White House Press | Examiner.com (isn't it time for the Boston Globe to fire him?)
John Sununu's History Of Racial Remarks About Obama | ThinkProgress
John Sununu (racist or racism) - Google Search (hey Globies, ever tried this search?)

The election wasn’t just about taxes and the deficit. It was also about jobs.(about which we hear ... nothing)

The Fiscal Cliff: Absolutely everything you could possibly need to know, in one FAQ
Today in ‘Fiscal Cliff’: If the GOP folds on taxes, what would Dems give up in return?
Obama Tells G.O.P. Not to Tie Debt Ceiling to Fiscal Debate - NYTimes.com

17 bills that likely would have passed the Senate if it didn’t have the filibuster (Republicans destroying America)
Psychodrama Queens, Revisited - NYTimes.com Public Policy Polling found that 39 percent of voters have a view, pro or con, about Simpson-Bowles. Not bad, you might think. But a quarter of voters also had views on Panetta-Burns, a plan that as it happens doesn’t exist ... Meanwhile, another poll – internet-based, but by a firm with a good record — finds that, by a margin of almost four to one, people think that going over the fiscal cliff will cause the deficit to increase. (because media can't be bothered to tell the truth)
Simpson-Bowles is magic - Salon.com It's every pundit's favorite budget plan, but no one seems to know -- or care -- what it actually contains

Pelosi: Dems must say No to raising Medicare eligibility age The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that it would save $125 billion over 10 years. (peanuts and raise over-all health costs)
How The Voter ID Crusade Backfired On Republicans | TPMDC

Exclusive: Dick Armey Quits Tea Party Group in Split Over Direction (updated) | Mother Jones - Armey will make $8 million in consulting fees in exchange for leaving the organization. (payoff)
Inside the Dick Armey, FreedomWorks split - Kenneth P. Vogel - politico.com (grifters got grifted)
Roger Ailes: Extremist Makeover: House Edition You'll recall that Sarah Palin-with-a-heart was so dedicated to the poor that he even offered to re-wash their dishes in the presence of the media.

Obamacare architect leaves White House for pharmaceutical industry job | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Few people embody the corporatist revolving door greasing Washington as purely as Elizabeth Fowler
Vote: Worst Political Prediction of 2012 | PunditTracker Blog
Bill O’Reilly Wants Affirmative Action for Conservative Academics by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly (shortage of delusional stupid people in academia)

No More Mister Nice Blog: Yes, Republican Voters Think Acorn Still Exists -- Because Fox Keeps Saying So (Acorn +New Black Panthers stole the election for Obama)

Extinction: Not a pressing concern for humanity at this time - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Ross Douthat is doubling down on the notion that intentionally choosing to have less children constitutes “decadence” (because the human race is on the edge of extinction because it's not having enough children! he really loves the attention his stupidity and moral emptiness bring him)
Ross Douthat Clarifies Column - Ross Douthat Explains Himself - Esquire Oh, dear me. There is a third camp. That would be the camp that feels compelled to point out that, if the first evidence in support of your contention comes from the legendarily innumerate — and heretofore notably childless — Megan McArdle, your argument is already sucking pond water by the gallon ... ... We know that there's a certain reluctance in other homes to have little McArdlings scuttling through the pink Himalayan salt, but what's going on at the Douthat manse?

CNN Gives Climate Change Denial A Platform | Blog | Media Matters for America
Graph of the day: Americans buying more fuel- efficient cars, polluting less

Dave Brubeck Quartet - Take Five (Belgium 1964) - YouTube

Nine Beers Americans No Longer Drink - 24/7 Wall St.

John McAfee surfaces in Guatemala City | World news | guardian.co.uk Fugitive software pioneer seeks asylum from Belize 'persecution' after hideaway is revealed by data in online photograph ... The prime minister of Belize, Dean Barrow, has expressed doubts about McAfee's mental state, saying: "I don't want to be unkind to the gentleman but I believe he is extremely paranoid, even bonkers."
Six awesome built-in Windows utilities no one knows about | PCWorld
Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River « My Digital Life
SSD Alignment - Windows 7 Forums

120412
Egypt Protests: Thousands March To Presidential Palace
Egyptian security forces clash with anti-Mohamed Morsi protesters | World news | guardian.co.uk President seen leaving Cairo palace in convoy as opponents gather to condemn assumption of new powers

David Cameron tells editors: implement Leveson to avoid press law | Media | The Guardian Prime minister gives newspaper editors until Thursday to show progress in agreeing on reformed regulatory structure

Fox News chief’s failed attempt to enlist Petraeus as presidential candidate - The Washington Post Rupert Murdoch, the head of News Corp., which owns Fox News, would “bankroll” the campaign. (that would have eliminated a few of the clowns)
Five takeaways from the Fox News-David Petraeus conspiracy Lesson 1-5: Fox News is corrupt + nasty.

Vint Cerf opposes ITU Internet regulations, urges action | BGR
quickmeme: i dont always create the internet but when i do i dont let the UN fuck it up

Bradley Manning lawyer: soldier's treatment a blemish on nation's history | World news | guardian.co.uk David Coombs criticises the WikiLeaks suspect's detention at Quantico military prison in rare speech outside courtroom

Obama urged by environmental groups to take on climate change in next term | Environment | guardian.co.uk Activists step up pressure on president to turn vague promises made since re-election into concrete policies for the future

It's Health Care Costs, Stupid - NYTimes.com So pay no attention when they talk about how much they hate deficits. If they were serious about deficits, they’d be willing to consider policies that might actually work; instead, they cling to free-market fantasies that have failed repeatedly in practice. (GOP: the Bullshit Party)
Republican “Doomsday Plan” Allows Tax Increase, Uses Debt Limit For Future Leverage | FDL News Desk (perpetual state of Republican-induced crisis"
Hullabaloo "Cliff" notes 12/3 - Republicans learned that the debt limit gives them real leverage as long as the President doesn’t resort to the Constitutional option, using the 14th Amendment to essentially render the debt limit moot. (the $1 trillion platinum coin solution)
Sen. Patty Murray: Poor Getting 'Lost In Shuffle' During Fiscal Cliff Talks
Obama calls Republicans' fiscal cliff offer 'out of balance' as deadline nears | World news | guardian.co.uk In first interview since re-election, president sticks to requirement of higher taxes on the wealthiest 2% as a non-negotiable point

John Boehner Faces Conservative Fury For Booting Members From Key Committees
House Budget Committee Drops Tea Party Reps Who Voted Against Paul Ryan Budget
Venice For Change: Villariagosa Partners With Wall Street To Throw Californians Off The "Fiscal Cliff"

Rachel Maddow's Hilarious Rick Santorum Update and Tour Around World Net Daily (video)
Michael Grunwald: Republican Party's 'Trip To Crazy Town' Makes Them Hard To Cover (video)

Hillary Clinton For Mayor Of NYC? Bloomberg Encourages Secretary Of State To Consider Candidacy (because no one wants him for a bigger job)

Warren tapped for Senate Banking panel - The Hill's On The Money Sen.-elect Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), one of the banking sector's harshest critics, is being tapped to serve on the Senate Banking Committee.

Getting Away with Wage Theft The Supreme Court looks at a new case that could make or break class-action suits.

Fracking industry refusing to report which chemicals they're using In the latest example of the Big Energy choosing which laws they want to follow, a new study shows that the fracking industry fails to disclose the chemicals or quantities of chemicals used during the fracking process up to 30% of the time, depending on the state. Attempts by states to rely on industry self-reporting are not showing great success. (sounds like those BP "disperants" which were 10x toxic as the oil)

FoxNews.com Columnist Attacks Bob Costas For Correctly Drawing Connection Between Guns And Murder | Blog | Media Matters for America (no connection between guns and using guns to easily kill people)

Ladies, Uncle Sam needs your uterus! - Salon.com The New York Times' conservative columnist blames "late-modern exhaustion" for fertility decline. He's wrong
Mexican Chunky Reese Witherspoon Is Killing America | TBogg
Ross Douthat would like you to have more babies Unless you are a single woman, of course. Oh and also if you don’t have babies, you’re being “decadent” and you don’t care about the future or the very fabric of society:
Refighting the 1950s Women aren't harming civilization by choosing their goals over childbirth. (back in your place, baby-machines!)
Bats Left/Throws Right: Infantilism Ross Douthat, "More Babies, Please". December 1 - Reader, is there any question that the whole right-wing "birthrate" thing is the Anti-Fluoridationalism of the 21st century? The most hopelessly bent, the most recursively insane, the signature folly of a parade of fools?
Drop in Birth Rates, Rise of Single Voters Set Rightbloggers to Raving - New York - News - Runnin' Scared

California ruling limits scope of law banning 'gay conversion' therapists | World news | guardian.co.uk Gay rights activists lament judge's decision to issue a temporary ban on the law, but only for three healthcare providers

A father's appeal to those who drink and drive. : videos

Wall Street Exec Searches Craigslist For Woman To Run His Online Dating Life

Hey Reddit, can you think of any irrefutable, absolute truth that cannot possibly be contradicted? : AskReddit

120312
Syria Chemical Weapons Moved, U.S. Official Says
d UN to withdraw non-essential staff from Syria | World news | The Guardian Missions to conflict zone cancelled and remaining employees on standby to move, in final step before full-scale evacuation
Jihad Makdissi, Syria's Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Reportedly Defects
Egypt's judicial council to oversee referendum despite calls for boycott | World news | guardian.co.uk Judicial council on collision course with Judges Club over plans to oversee Egyptian referendum on draft constitution
5 Nations Summon Israeli Envoys to Protest Settlement Plans - NYTimes.com Britain, France, Spain, Sweden and Denmark summoned the Israeli ambassadors to their countries on Monday to protest Israel’s plans for increased settlement construction, an unusually sharp diplomatic step that reflected the growing frustration abroad with Israel’s policies on the Palestinian issue. (they could give a shit)
Israel defiant on settlements expansion after European condemnation | World news | The Guardian Official says Israel will 'stand by our vital national interests', after ambassadors summoned in five EU countries (+"fuck you")
Turkish TV channel fined for airing 'insulting' episode of The Simpsons | World news | guardian.co.uk a 52,951-lira (£18,600) fine over the episode of the hit US animated TV series, whose scenes include the devil asking God to make him a coffee.
125-Mile Traffic Jam In Russia Keeps Drivers Stuck For Three Days (video) Three feet of snow caused the massive 125-mile traffic jam on Highway M-10, which began on Friday and lasted through Sunday

Doyle McManus: The danger of drone strikes - latimes.com Is the U.S. in effect recruiting as many terrorists as it kills? (the unthinkable thought)

Rupert Murdoch's new News Corp, as scripted by Cervantes | Michael Wolff | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk A newspaper empire is reinvented, but will Robert Thomson find himself playing Sancho Panza to his boss's Don Quixote?
News Corp to close iPad newspaper The Daily | Media | guardian.co.uk Rupert Murdoch's online subscription venture was losing $30m a year and failed to win enough subscribers (another Murdoch iFailure)
The Daily Fails Like Many Expected It Would | TPM Idea Lab “Rupert Murdoch is not very good at the internet.”

Mandate with Destiny : The New Yorker In 2004, the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, conservatism’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, congratulated President Bush for “what by any measure is a decisive mandate for a second term” and exulted, “Mr. Bush has been given the kind of mandate that few politicians are ever fortunate enough to receive.” This year, examining similar numbers with different labels, the Journal came up with a sterner interpretation. “President Obama won one of the narrower re-elections in modern times,” ... For one party to win a majority of House seats with a minority of votes is a relatively rare occurrence. It has now happened five times in the past hundred years.

GOP Senators Assert Veto Power Over Legislation In Waning Days In a move likely to spur more calls for filibuster reform, a group of conservative Republican senators is demanding that other members of the upper chamber clear all legislation through them in the final two weeks of the year.

What Defines A Serious Deficit Proposal? - NYTimes.com I guess we have to understand the definition of serious: a proposal is only serious if it punishes the poor and the middle class.
In ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Talks, First Step Is the Hardest - NYTimes.com
The Big Budget Mumble - NYTimes.com In the ongoing battle of the budget, President Obama has done something very cruel. Declaring that this time he won’t negotiate with himself, he has refused to lay out a proposal reflecting what he thinks Republicans want. Instead, he has demanded that Republicans themselves say, explicitly, what they want. And guess what: They can’t or won’t do it ... So while the fiscal cliff — still a bad name for the looming austerity bomb, but I guess we’re stuck with it — is a bad thing from an economic point of view, it has had at least one salutary political effect. For it has finally laid bare the con that has always been at the core of the G.O.P.’s political strategy.
Operation Rolling Tantrum - NYTimes.com And one thing to think about: if the next two years are, as they seem likely to be, one long Republican tantrum, the 2014 election is not going to be a normal midterm. It will instead be a referendum on GOP obstructionism, which may attract a lot more attention — and much higher turnout — than normal.
Do Filibusters Stall the Senate or Give It Purpose? - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com

Political Animal - No Reverse Coattails Obama did not lose any of the battleground states in which Democrats fell flat in gubernatorial races two years ago. In fact, almost all of the closest races in the country saw a presidential nominee carry a state with a governor in office from the opposite party - including all seven key GOP gubernatorial pickups in 2010. (+ReThug voter-suppression failed)

Mandel and supporters spent nearly $23 per vote to lose Ohio senate race (grifters got grifted)
Sheldon Adelson Spent Far More On Campaign Than Previously Known Adelson ultimately upped the ante, spending closer to a previously unreported $150 million, the fundraisers said ... Adelson's international casino empire faces a rough road, with two federal criminal investigations into his business.
Grover Norquist's Budget Is Largely Financed by Just Two Billionaire-Backed Nonprofits | The Nation

Daily Kos: Corporations get billions from cities and states but they often don't keep their end of the bargain (corps are lying, stealing grifters too)
United States of Subsidies: Texas Business Incentives Highest in Nation - NYTimes.com Along with the huge job growth, the state has the third-highest proportion of hourly jobs paying at or below minimum wage. And despite its low level of unemployment, Texas has the 11th-highest poverty rate among states.
It's the New Economy, Stupid | The Nation

Gov. Brewer's whereabouts a mystery | azfamily.com Phoenix Gov. Jan Brewer has taken a nearly week-long out-of-state work trip that was shrouded in secrecy Monday as she skipped an event to certify election ballots and her spokesman refused to disclose her location. (the last time this happened ...)

Sunday Shows December 2 2012 - What Are The Gobshites Saying These Days? - Esquire Elsewhere, His Eminence, Cardinal Douthat, issued yet another sermon from the bunny slope — this one, spectacularly, about how American women aren't making enough American babies for America to keep being America.
Two observations on today’s Douthat column - Lawyers, Guns & Money
A Cry for Help or the Right Move: Matthew Boyle’s ‘Magic Vagina’ Ride Into Breitbartlandia - FishbowlDC

Carbon Dioxide Emissions Hit Record in 2011, Researchers Say - NYTimes.com
Fracking good for the climate? What a load of hot air  - NY Daily News Natural gas cheerleaders must wake up to the inconvenient environmental truth
Eugene Robinson: Climate-change talks need U.S. support - The Washington Post You might not have noticed that another round of U.N. climate talks is under way, this time in Doha, Qatar. You also might not have noticed that we’re barreling toward a “world .?.?. of unprecedented heat waves, severe drought, and major floods in many regions.” Here in Washington, we’re too busy to pay attention to such trifles.

A Health Insurance Detective Story - NYTimes.com
DSM-5: Psychiatrists OK Vast Changes To Diagnosis Manual A new diagnosis for severe recurrent temper tantrums – disruptive mood dysregulation disorder.
Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality? - NYTimes.com

David Kirby and Family, 1990 | LIFE Behind the Picture: The Photo That Changed the Face of AIDS | LIFE.com

Gluten-Free Dishes Become a Lot More Tempting - NYTimes.com
SunRay Kelley’s Ungated Community - NYTimes.com The lord of this manor is a 60-year-old barefoot maverick named SunRay Kelley.

New York Times Offers Buyouts To 30 Newsroom Employees, Says Layoffs May Come (bonuses! $15million to Janet Robinson! etc!)


120212
Turkey requests Nato missile defences amid Syria chemical weapons fears | World news | guardian.co.uk Turkish officials say they have evidence Assad regime could resort to ballistic missiles if air campaign against rebels fails
Egypt's top court suspends work after Morsi supporters surround building | World news | The Guardian Judges were unable to enter premises to deliver ruling on validity of panel that drew up draft constitution
Israel seizes $120m in Palestinian tax revenue over UN vote | World news | guardian.co.uk Palestinian official accuses Israel of desperation after second punitive response to UN vote recognising state of Palestine (terrorist state at work)
Taliban attack Nato airbase in Afghanistan | World news | guardian.co.uk Five Afghans killed and foreign soldiers wounded after suicide bombers and gunmen target compound in Jalalabad
Kuwait election turnout shrinks after opposition boycott | World news | guardian.co.uk Opposition says new parliament does not represent majority of people, after turnout was officially 43% – and reportedly 28%
Japan tunnel collapse: bodies found as rescue effort continues | World news | guardian.co.uk Mudslide caused Sasago road tunnel near Tokyo to cave in and trap vehicles, with people fleeing on foot as fire broke out

Pentagon reportedly planning to double size of its worldwide spy network | World news | guardian.co.uk More than 1,600 new Defense Department agents will collect intelligence and report findings to CIA, said to be overstretched

The Full McConnell - NYTimes.com This is pathetic – and these people are definitely not serious.
Geithner: Republicans Will Agree To Tax Hikes On Super Rich "The only thing standing in the way of [a deal] would be a refusal by Republicans to accept that rates are going to have to go up on the wealthiest Americans. And I don't really see them doing that,"
As Companies Seek Tax Deals, Governments Pay High Price - NYTimes.com Ypsilanti, Mich., is suing over the automaker’s departure. “You can’t just make these promises and throw them around like they’re spare change in the drawer,” (tax breaks for liars!)
Political Animal - When corporations act like protection rackets … and taxpayers are left holding the bag
Obamacare Medicaid Expansion For Poor On The Brink Obama's health care law expands Medicaid, the federal-state health program for low-income people, but cost-wary states must decide whether to take the deal. Turn it down, and governors risk coming off as callous toward their neediest residents. Not to mention the likely second-guessing for walking away from a pot of federal dollars estimated at nearly $1 trillion nationally over a decade.

Thomas Jefferson: American Fascist? — Crooked Timber (by "all men are created equal" he meant all white men)
The Arab trader argument « Abagond | How to tell if a commenter is white « Abagond

Atheist victory in California as surf city loses its nativity display | World news | The Observer Santa Monica's council has finally bowed to a militant campaign against traditional religious symbols in public places - Becker accused "liberal Irish Democrats" and other leftwing factions in the city council of buckling following similar campaigns in other states against crucifixes and prayer in public places. "We're going down the slippery slope," he said.

Wyoming professor fatally wounded by arrow helped students escape | World news | guardian.co.uk As he died, James Krumm fought with his attacker and gave others in the classroom time to escape to safety, police say
Belize police dismiss report that John McAfee has been captured near Mexico | World news | guardian.co.uk has been on the run since November 11, when the body of fellow American businessman Gregory Viant Faull was discovered at a neighbouring property.

Asperger's syndrome dropped from psychiatrists' handbook the DSM | Society | guardian.co.uk DSM-5, latest revision of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, merges Asperger's with autism and widens dyslexia category - nstead its symptoms will come under the newly added "autism spectrum disorder"

Cannabis For Infant's Brain Tumor, Doctor Calls Child "A Miracle Baby"

120112
Syria internet access restored after two-day blackout | World news | guardian.co.uk Damascus and Homs residents say communication lines are back up, amid signs that Assad's forces will launch new offensive
Egypt: Mohamed Morsi calls December referendum on constitution | World news | The Observer President puts faith in popular vote to silence critics of government's sweeping powers as about 50,000 rally in Cairo
Clinton and Hague attack Israel decision to build new settlements | World news | The Observer US and UK react to Binyamin Netanyahu's approval of plans for 3,000 new homes on occupied territory in the West Bank (always in your face)
Israel Moves to Expand Settlements in East Jerusalem - NYTimes.com - Housing Move in Israel Seen as Setback for a Two-State Plan (as planned)
Fear and Suspicion Of Turtle Bay - The Daily Beast
To Save Congo, Let It Fall Apart - NYTimes.com
BBC News - Teaching evolution key to free school funding deal Failing to teach evolution by natural selection in science lessons could lead to new free schools losing their funding under government changes. (UK's version of Christian Charter Schools)
Good news: India records 57% drop in new HIV cases | Firstpost The report, released by Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, also says nearly 1.5 lakh lives have been saved due to free ART medicines provided to HIV/AIDS patients.
Japan’s Space Agency Says Rocket Information Was Stolen by Computer Virus - NYTimes.com Japan’s space agency said on Friday that information on one of its newest rockets was stolen from a desktop computer by someone using a computer virus.

German man locked up over HVB bank allegations may have been telling truth | World news | guardian.co.uk Gustl Mollath was put in a psychiatric unit for claiming his wife was involved in money-laundering at the Bavarian bank. But seven years on evidence has emerged that could set him free (German justice)

The War on Drugs Other Countries’ Ruthless Vicious Capitalists | emptywheel

Why John Kerry shouldn’t be nominated - Opinion - The Boston Globe Pressuring the White House into naming Kerry would accomplish two GOP goals. First, it would humiliate Obama by denying him his first choice, Susan Rice. Second, it would open up a currently safe Massachusetts Senate seat.
Scary Black Lady Susan Rice Once Said That White Children Should Be Forced To Learn Of Blacks’ Existence

Obama says it’s ‘unacceptable’ for Republicans to hold middle-class tax cuts ‘hostage’ - The Washington Post
A New, Tougher Obama? If the president continues to stand his ground against Republicans, he'll win the battle over the "fiscal cliff." (you can see everyone expects him to negotiate with himself and lose)
Political Animal - Odds Improving on Filibuster Reform John Kerry, who has additional reasons to be a team player right now, is “leaning heavily” towards support. (Kerry helped fuck it up last time)
Grover Norquist’s Illusory Power | The New Republic
Rush Limbaugh: 'Democrat Orgasm' Happens If We Go Over Fiscal Cliff (now there's a good reason for Rethugs to negotiate)
Jon Huntsman And Republican Party - Jon Huntsman Has A Job To Do - Esquire Asking him what the Republicans should do so the country would start looking at them less as the vehicle for ungovernable white rage is like asking a dead deer by the side of the highway for a traffic report
Hullabaloo - Fast food uprising (+corporate wages vs. profits are obscene)

Brewer discusses global warming before Governor's meeting | azfamily.com Phoenix “Everybody has an opinion on it and I probably don’t believe that it’s man made,” said Brewer. “I believe, you know, that weather elements are controlled by other things.” ("weather elements")
tallahassee: Report on GOP shindig to remain sealed - Florida - MiamiHerald.com Other witnesses questioned in the Greer investigation say the former GOP chairman often had parties for men only and refused to allow women unless they were “paid.”
Dream Act Gives Young Immigrants a Political Voice - NYTimes.com
House Republicans Finally Appoint One Female Committee Chair | Video Cafe (what part of "token woman" don't you understand?)
alicublog Having been interested in conservatives who appear to have been driven mad by the election, I haven't spent enough time on conservatives who were quite mad beforehand. So I went and looked at The Anchoress.
Don't get fooled again - Opinion - Al Jazeera English It's in this atmosphere that we're now forced to confront a band of enormously wealthy people who've benefitted from - or bestowed upon others - large financial bailouts and ill-considered taxcuts who like lecturing Americans living on earned benefits about "shared sacrifice". As in, you give up a meal each day, and I'll give up a pair of yacht shoes! Deal?

Florida Rejects Christian Slater's Ballot | ThinkProgress
Severely Conservative Appeals Court Blocks Access To Birth Control | ThinkProgress In other words, yesterday’s order suggests that two judges on the Eighth Circuit want to go far beyond the Supreme Court’s infamous holding that corporations are people, and hold that a for-profit corporation can be Catholic.

A detached Romney tends wounds in seclusion after failed White House bid - The Washington Post
When Internal Polls Mislead, a Whole Campaign May Be To Blame - NYTimes.com the release of internal polls to the news media as a form of “propaganda”:
Internal numbers from Romney campaign reveal only symptoms | The Zingularity (GOP grifters preying on other GOP grifters)

Jindal voucher overhaul unconstitutionally diverts public funds to private schools, judge rules | NOLA.com

Walmart's New Health Care Policy Shifts Burden To Medicaid, Obamacare Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, plans to begin denying health insurance to newly hired employees who work fewer than 30 hours a week

FDL Book Salon Welcomes Mathew Barrett Gross, The Last Myth: What the Rise of Apocalyptic Thinking Tells Us About America | Book Salon

The Real Thomas Jefferson - NYTimes.com - The Monster of Monticello (racist fuck)

Gulf of Mexico clean-up makes 2010 spill 52-times more toxic If the 4.9 million barrels of oil that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico during the 2010 Deep Water Horizon spill was a ecological disaster, the two million gallons of dispersant used to clean it up apparently made it even worse – 52-times more toxic.
Futurity.org – At both poles, ice melt is speeding up Ice sheet melting has increased over time and, altogether, Greenland and Antarctica are now losing more than three times as much ice as they were in the 1990s.
Post em if you got em | The Zingularity (O'Reilly fan sees Changing Ice, comes to Jesus)
DOE wants 5X battery power boost in 5 years - Computerworld Establishes center for battery research at Argonne National Laboratory
SLEEP - Pain Sensitivity and Recovery From Mild Chronic Sleep Loss These are the first data to show that an extended bedtime in mildly sleepy healthy adults, which resulted in increased sleep time and reduced sleepiness, reduces pain sensitivity.
Supreme Court Takes Up Question of Gene Research - NYTimes.com The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it would decide whether human genes may be patented. The justices considered but took no action on requests that the court hear one or more cases concerning same-sex marriage.
Do Standardized Tests Make Us Less Prepared for College? by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly (who could have predicted "teaching to the test" would leave "any child left unscrewed")

How Two Presidents Helped Me Deal With Love, Guilt, and Fatherhood - NationalJournal.com Guidance from Bill Clinton and George W. Bush taught the author how to accept and understand his son’s Asperger’s syndrome.

Shotgun Report Central in Florida Shooting Case - NYTimes.com But so far, Jacksonville law enforcement officers have not found a shotgun ... “All these concealed weapons permits,” he added. “They give them out like Skittles. Anybody and everybody can have a handgun.” (stand your ground against your own hallucinations)

16 Year Old Wingnut Pwns Liberal Media Weenie Eric Boehlert On Twitter; 2012 Election Nullified
Harry Nilsson - Think About Your Troubles (from The Point) - YouTube

Dole Kemp '96 (website still up; feel the momentum)

113012
Syrian fighting rages as rebels push for Damascus breakthough | World news | The Guardian Assad's battle-weary forces stretched by increasingly confident opponents
Palestine wins historic upgrade at UN - JPost
Countries That Voted Against Palestine At UN Include United States, Israel And Canada ... joined by the Czech Republic, Panama and several Pacific island nations: Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and Palau. (US/Israli position very popular)
Israel to build new Jewish settlement homes after UN Palestine vote | World news | The Guardian Binyamin Netanyahu's plan for mass building on occupied terrorities seen as retaliation for recognition of Palestinian state (more in your face)
Dutch To Scrap Holland's Blasphemy Law On Insulting God (only Muslim nation in Europe)
Mexico drug war continues to rage in region where president fired first salvo | World news | The Guardian Calderón's crackdown was supposed to wipe out the cartels, but six years on one gang pervades everyday life in Tierra Caliente (but Obama is tough on some drugs that some people take)
Unicorn lair 'discovered' in North Korea | World news | guardian.co.uk in what appears to be a genuine world exclusive, the inimitable Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) has now broken the incredible news that archaeologists in Pyongyang have discovered a unicorn's lair.
US heading for point when 'military pursuit of al-Qaida should end' | World news | The Guardian Fight against terrorist group on course for Obama to stop using legal authority given by Congress to wage war, says lawyer

India set for lowest growth in 10 years | Business | guardian.co.uk ndian third-quarter GDP growth at lower-than-forecast 5.3% keeps country on track for its first sub-6.5% year since 2002-03
DSK Lawsuit: Strauss-Kahn In Preliminary Civil Case Deal With Maid Nafissatou Diallo Strauss-Kahn planned to take out a bank loan for $3 million and would be lent the other $3 million by his wife Anne Sinclair, despite the fact the couple separated in the summer and now live on different sides of Paris. (rutting chimpanzee pays $6mil)
Dominique Strauss-Kahn's lawyers deny reports of settlement with hotel maid | World news | guardian.co.uk Reports that former IMF chief agreed to pay $6m to settle civil case with New York hotel maid are denied by attorneys (or maybe not)

Murdochs kept in dark on phone-hacking suspicions, Leveson finds | Media | The Guardian News of the World and the 'bombs under the newsroom floor' (James lied, but oh well)
We've been betrayed by David Cameron | Steve Coogan | Comment is free | The Guardian I was one of the victims of phone hacking, and am disgusted that the PM has sided with the Fleet Street bullies

The Lethal Presidency: Obama's Age of Enlightenment - Esquire (drone-boy will continue with his illegal assassinations)
WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning made nooses in jail, says prosecution | World news | guardian.co.uk US government attempts to justify treatment of soldier after his arrest on suspicion of leaking thousands of documents (we tortured him so he wouldn't kill himself)

Susan Rice Role In Lead-Up To Africa Embassy Bombings Recalled As Minimal (they are still trying)

Wyoming community college shooting leaves three dead | World news | guardian.co.uk Authorities say one person has been taken into custody related to an early morning shooting at Casper College (when cross-bows are outlawed ...)
Casper College Attack: 3 Dead In Wyoming After Apparent 'Bow And Arrow' Attack
Vegas gun ranges target thrill-seeking tourists with ever bigger weapons | World news | guardian.co.uk

Class Wars of 2012 - NYTimes.com On Election Day, The Boston Globe reported, Logan International Airport in Boston was running short of parking spaces. Not for cars — for private jets. Big donors were flooding into the city to attend Mitt Romney’s victory party ... This was very much an election pitting the interests of the very rich against those of the middle class and the poor.
Steve King: Democrats Will Win Over Hispanics By Giving Them 'A Great Big Check' | ThinkProgress
Things In Politico That Make Me Want To Guzzle Antifreeze, Part The Infinity - Esquire "Mitt Would Have Won If Nobody But White Folks Voted"
A Liberal Moment - NYTimes.com And yet only one in four voters identified themselves as “liberal” in national exit polls. Conservatives were 35 percent, and moderates the plurality, at 41 percent. ("Librul" a curse word)
Transformation vs. Restoration: Which Political Position Will Prevail? - NationalJournal.com ("Restoration" = restoring the past)

Nancy Pelosi Threatens Discharge Petition To Break Fiscal Cliff Stalemate
Obama to GOP: I’m done negotiating with myself (cause you guys were pricks and it didn't work)
Obama Fiscal Cliff Offer Reflects Lesson From 2009 "I suppose what I could have done is started off with no tax cuts, knowing that I was going to want some, and then let them take credit for all of them (still naive)
Fiscal Cliff Fictions: Let’s All Agree to Pretend the GOP Isn’t Full of It | TIME.com ... The press can’t figure out how to weave those facts into the current narrative without sounding like it’s taking sides, so it simply pretends that yesterday never happened.
White House Makes Aggressive Opening Bid in Fiscal Slope Negotiations | FDL News Desk
Eschaton: Bargaining Bargaining Yeah Fun Fun Fun Fun It also made it hard to establish a Team R brand, letting them get away with wanting to destroy the government AND be the Last Great And True Defenders Of Medicare.
Inside Ed Rendell's Fix the Debt Campaign | The Philly Post What you need to know about his "Fix the Debt" cabal.
Most Americans Face Lower Tax Burden Than in the 80s - NYTimes.com

Ruth Marcus: Susan Rice and double standards - The Washington Post Does gender — or the supercharged combination of gender and race — play a role in the preemptive strikes on not-yet-secretary of state nominee Susan Rice? (when Ruth Marcus is 10x smarter than Maureen Dowd, you know something is wrong +"brusque" an old-boy meme)
Dingbat Oversight | TPM Editors Blog
John Boehner Names Candice Miller To Chair House Committee Asked again about the lack of women in committee chair posts, she repeated that the party has three women in leadership and pulled a door closed behind her as she walked into a room, shouting back, "Not a problem!"
Why Did Florida Fire Allen West? - Businessweek “If you could personify the Tea Party movement, it would be Allen West,” says Billie Tucker, a prominent Florida Tea Party organizer. When it came time to run for reelection, West raised $17 million—more than any House candidate except House Speaker John Boehner—most of it from outside the state. (but conservative district in FL thought he was an idiot)
Nate Silver bashes Politico | TPMDC - Politico Covers Politics Like Sports But ‘Not In An Intelligent Way At All’
Political Animal - Guess Who Else Doesn’t Understand Marginal Tax Rates? You’d think someone with a column in the Wall Street Journal, of all places, could grasp how this works. But I suppose everything Peggy Noonan needs to know she learned in that Golden Era that ended in 1989.
Revenge of the Reality-Based Community | The American Conservative - Bruce Bartlett (dissed by Murdoch)

Young Voters Supported Obama Less, But May Have Mattered More | Pew Research Center (Romney won the white vote, including under-30)
Romney exit polls: He won independents, white women, and “middle income” voters. So what? - Slate Magazine (still spinning reality)
Multi-American : Report: People of color made up 42 percent of 2012 voters ages 18-29 | 89.3 KPCC

The National Memo » GOP Furious That Obama Is Acting Like He Won The Election
Fox Claims "Nation Of Dependents" Could Prolong The Recession | Blog | Media Matters for America In fact, The Washington Post reported on a study from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that found extending unemployment insurance now would stimulate the economy and add 300,000 jobs. From the article (fact-free Fox)
Uh-oh: The economy might be hitting a rough patch The bottom is falling out of economic forecasters’ expectations for U.S. economic growth in the final months of 2012. And if some of the more bearish estimates prove accurate, it will be the weakest rate of growth since the start of 2011.
Graph of the day: Medicaid, Medicare patients most satisfied with health costs The vast majority (64%) of Americans with private insurance now say their health premiums costs are shared. This is up from 54% in 2001. While the 22% saying they personally pay the entire cost has not changed appreciably, the 10% saying their employer pays the entire cost is down by more than half from 2001.
Warehouse Workers Move To Name Walmart In Wage-Theft Lawsuit

Ignoring Reality Doesn't Make News Nonpartisan But we're not supposed to be stenographers. As long as the media let an entire political party invent a new reality every day, it will keep on doing it. Every day."
1 | The Most Beautiful Election Infographic You'll Ever See | Co.Design: business + innovation + design

Bats Left/Throws Right: Witless Protection Program Tell ya whut, Dave: when some rightist intellectual figures out how to tell Republicans why they've been so wrong about so much for so long, and show no signs of ceasing, I'll take notice. (Dave Weigel likes Charles fucking Murray; thinks "liberals" were wrong to dismiss the racist asshole; good reason never to read him)

George W. Bush Gradually Becoming a Non-Person -- Daily Intel

Canadian scientists create a functioning, virtual brain
Water On Mercury: NASA Announces Discovery Of Ice At Planet's Poles

Harvard To Approve BDSM Sex Club Called Harvard College Munch
Too many lawyers? Says who? - Salon.com A New York Times Op-Ed claims law school is worth every penny. Time to pull apart some of that thinking

How Syria Turned Off the Internet - CloudFlare blog
Syria shuts down the Internet | BGPmon
Facebook unfriending hits Zynga shares | Technology | The Guardian Zynga, the creator of FarmVille and Mafia Wars, has severed their ties with the social networking site

112912
General Assembly Grants Palestine Upgraded Status in U.N. - NYTimes.com (US/Israel against the world)

Big four banks could need £35bn of new capital, warns Bank of England - Telegraph Banks could be forced to begin raising new capital soon, following a dire warning from the Bank of England about the need for lenders to bolster their loss buffers.

Political Animal - Scarlet D In other words, Rice bears the Scarlet D of being a member of the political party that won the last two presidential elections, as becomes evident from this comment about the most likely alternative to her nomination to run State:
Susan Rice James Inhofe - Your Daily Susan Rice Update - Esquire and you were contemplating poor Susan Collins there on the teevee, meeping about her "concerns" while hoping against hope that some crazoid woodchuck state rep from Skowhegan in a flannel shirt doesn't decide to make lunch meat out of her in a primary

Geithner Offers New Fiscal Proposal to Boehner - NYTimes.com
Inside the ‘fiscal cliff’ haggling over Medicare - The Plum Line - The Washington Post But as best as I can determine after talking to Dem aides, this isn’t on the table. It’s something Republicans want to be part of the talks but not one Dems are seriously entertaining,
Why We Should Stop Talking About The Deficit -The Pirates Behind The Campaign To Fix The Debt - Esquire The 71 Fix the Debt CEOs who lead publicly held companies have amassed an average of $9 million in their company retirement funds. A dozen have more than $20 million in their accounts. If each of them converted their assets to an annuity when they turned 65, they would receive a monthly check for at least $110,000 for life.

Democrats, Republicans Diverge on Capitalism, Federal Gov't Democrats react significantly more positively to the term "federal government" than they do to the term "capitalism," while the opposite is true for Republicans. But both Democrats and Republicans are highly positive about the terms "small business," "free enterprise," and "entrepreneurs."
Political Animal - Do Corporations Pray? “General business corporations do not, separate and apart from the actions or belief systems of their individual owners or employees, exercise religion. They do not pray, worship, observe sacraments or take other religiously motivated actions separate and apart from the intention and direction of their individual actors,” he wrote. Hobby Lobby has appealed the injunction decision.

Harold Meyerson: Wal-Mart’s strategy of deniability for workers’ safety - The Washington Post
‘Romney is Wall Street’s worst bet since the bet on subprime’ Now, it also happens to be an incredibly convenient way of thinking. If you’ve developed an ideology that what’s good for you personally also happens to be good for everyone else, that’s quite wonderful because there’s no moral tension. (+" There’s a great joke on Wall Street which is that the bet on Romney is Wall Street’s worst bet since the bet on subprime.")

The Climate series: a reference post - AMERICAblog

Sex survey: Florida's Department of Health seeks details of young women's sex lives - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com Like a probing friend, the survey asks women ages 18 to 24 things like: • How did you feel emotionally when you had unprotected sex — were you trying to get pregnant, were you in the "heat of the moment and just went with the flow," or did you find the man attractive and "thought it would be nice to have a baby with him?" Did you feel "powerless"? Or was it that you "felt emotionally connected with your partner during sex"? (Lex Luthor at work)

Cambridge power outage -- thousands hit by blackout - Boston.com

112812
Egyptian opposition masses in Tahrir Square - Tuesday 27 November | World news | guardian.co.uk
The Pace of Leaving Afghanistan - NYTimes.com We strongly supported the war in Afghanistan following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but after more than a decade of fighting and a cost upward of $500 billion it is time for a safe and orderly departure. (NYT: "U.S. out of Afgan Now!)

WikiLeaks suspect Manning expected to testify for the first time - The Washington Post
Defense argues for Manning’s release at hearing - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times
Richard O'Dwyer strikes US deal to avoid extradition | UK news | guardian.co.uk Sheffield student who created TVShack website will have to travel to US and pay a small sum of compensation, court told

Susan Rice XL Pipeline - An Actual Reason To Worry About Susan Rice - Esquire he current U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Rice owns stock valued between $300,000 and $600,000 in TransCanada, the company seeking a federal permit to transport tar sands crude 1,700 miles to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast, crossing fragile Midwest ecosystems and the largest freshwater aquifer in North America - The Keystone XL pipeline
Tom Ricks: Fox News Statement About My Apology Is 'Horseshit' (VIDEO)

Eschaton: Scammers They're usually not quite as transparently fraudulent as Fix The Debt, but all debt/deficit hawkery is just a front for cutting taxes on rich people. No this doesn't make any sense, but it sounds great to the likes of Dancing Dave so they get away with it. Rich people want to steal the Social Security money. It's really that simple.
The National Memo » How Did ‘Fix the Debt’ Become ‘Protect the Bush Tax Cuts’? (and "Screw the Poor")

John Boehner Signals No Softening On Taxes In Fiscal Cliff Standoff [UPDATE]
Erskine Bowles Predicts 'We're Going Over The Cliff' (best thing the asshole ever said)
Paul Krugman: Fiscal Cliff Is 'No Way To Run A Country'
CBO: Extending unemployment benefits could save 300,000 jobs next year

The Least Influential People of 2012 - GQ December: Celebrities: GQ: 1. Mitt Romney

Obama On Filibuster Reform: White House Embraces Harry Reid's Rule Changes
Filibuster Reform Gets Powerfuls Outside Advocacy Push | TPMDC - the country cannot afford another two years of inaction fostered by outmoded and broken legislative institutions
CBO: Extending unemployment benefits could save 300,000 jobs next year
Romney Adviser Stuart Stevens Brags About Losing Poor Voters | TPMDC The implied argument that poorer votes are inferior seems to undercut the campaign’s central message over the last two years: that Romney’s top concern was providing jobs for the jobless.

Buffett Rule Poll - Obvious Findings In The Latest Polls - Esquire There's a new ABC News/Washington Post poll out today. In it, we discover that most members of our Beltway elites might as well be living on the moon.
Scott Brown Special Election - Scott Brown's Not Returning Anytime Soon - Esquire the theory that John McCain has been making such a public jackass out of himself over the nomination of Susan Rice as part of an elaborate plot by which Rice's name would be withdrawn, leading the president to appoint John Kerry to be Secretary Of State in her stead.
Of Course D.C. Should Be A State - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Scott Walker Investigation Turning Point - The Turning Point in Scott Walker's Little Legal Snag - Esquire (could be sweet)

The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Use the States as Laboratories for Marijuana Policy

Right-Wing Media Launch Attacks After Sandra Fluke Nominated For Time "Person Of The Year" | Research | Media Matters for America (you have to think it's a sexual perversion)

Global Sea Level Rising 60 Percent Faster Than Predicted, Study Finds | TPM Idea Lab (NYC underwater in 50 years)
Research: Sea-levels rising faster than IPCC projections
Texas Astronomers Measure Most Massive, Most Unusual Black Hole Using Hobby-Eberly Telescope | News - “This is a really oddball galaxy,” said UT astronomer Karl Gebhardt, one of the team of U.S. and German astronomers who measured the black hole. “It’s almost all black hole. This could be the first object in a new class of galaxy-black hole systems.”
In Hawaii, a coral reef infection has biologists alarmed - latimes.com A mysterious growth has been spreading under the waters of Hanalei Bay and elsewhere on Kauai's north shore. It's killing all the coral it strikes, and scientists can't stop it. (coral fungus)

Nick Crews' Email To Adult Children Explains How Very, Very Disappointed He Is In Them


112712
Egypt: protesters descend on Tahrir Square | World news | The Guardian More than 100,000 gather to protest against a decree issued by Mohamed Morsi granting sweeping constitutional powers
News from The Associated Press China's party paper falls for Onion joke about Kim
Breivik's Oslo bomb: CCTV footage - video | World news | guardian.co.uk

European debt crisis a bigger global threat than US fiscal cliff, says OECD | Business | guardian.co.uk Report says 'intensified euro area crisis' could destroy growth in Europe and also wipe out US recovery, causing recession (don't need no steenking Republicans to destroy the economy)

Susan Rice faces renewed criticism from Republican senators – live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk Senators unconvinced by Rice's Benghazi explanation • McCain: still 'significantly troubled' after meeting ambassador • Graham: concerns are 'greater than before' (assholes will be assholes)
Tom Ricks Says He Didn't Apologize To Fox News For Testy Interview "I think the emphasis on Benghazi has been extremely political, partly because Fox is operating as the wing of the Republican Party."
Jon Huntsman: Benghazi, Susan Rice Criticism Overblown

The U.S. Does Not Have a Spending Problem, We Have a Distribution Problem - James Kwak - The Atlantic Forty years from now, America will be twice as rich on average as we are today. But most of that wealth will go to the very richest households. We only have a budget crisis if they refuse to pay higher taxes
Communists At The Atlantic Blame America First “Some people” *cough* job creators *cough* don’t want to pay higher taxes probably because it is their God-given right to pay something around 1% in taxes. If they feel like it ... Currently, Black male life expectancy is finally at 70, and what a SHOCK that Romney/Ryan would have raised the age of Medicare eligibility to 70.

A Victory Over Suppression? by Elizabeth Drew | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books Despite their considerable efforts the Republicans were not able to buy or steal the election after all. Their defeat was of almost Biblical nature.
Balloon Juice » Voters and others (pushback)

Dick Durbin: Social Security Should Be Off The Fiscal Cliff Table [UPDATE]
Obama To Appeal To Public On Fiscal Cliff as he pressures Republicans to allow tax increases on the wealthy while extending tax cuts for families earning $250,000 or less.
Obama Administration Not Sticking Up For Payroll Tax Cut
Fix the debt: About debt or about tax rates? But it does include among its "core principles" that we need to reduce entitlement spending and enact "comprehensive and pro-growth tax reform" that, among other things, "lowers rates." ("Fix the Debt" = "Screw the Moochers"
Eschaton: Regular Reminder Nobody actually cares about the deficit, least of all the people that claim to. Even though it makes no sense at all, deficit fetishism is primarily a way to push tax cuts (this only works because of the Bluto Blutarsky level of intelligence of people like Dancing Dave) and secondarily a way to cut the small bits of money we spend to help desperately poor people.

David Axelrod Surprised by Romney Campaign’s Missed Opportunities - The Daily Beast Obama’s top election strategist tells a Chicago audience he was surprised Mitt Romney’s team did not attack Obama more, stuck so narrowly with their base—and chose Paul Ryan for VP.
Paying People to Lie to You Has Consequences - The Daily Beast
Balloon Juice » Two in the Bush Ask yourself this: how would one of Nixon’s brothers or kids have done in the 1984 or 1988 election?
The Millennial Generation: Our Liberal Future -- Daily Intel By a 59 percent to 37 percent margin, voters under 30 say the government should do more to solve problems. More remarkably, 33 percent of voters under 30 identified themselves as liberal, as against 26 percent who called themselves conservative.
Political Animal - Liberal Horizons If nothing else, there should be a larger constituency for unapologetic liberalism moving forward, and additionally, the false equivalence the MSM so often attributes to the vehemence and political power of Left and Right could eventually come true.
Will Millennials Usher in a New Era of Liberalism? The Republicans' long-term dilemma has generally been framed in racial terms, but it's mainly a generational one. The youngest generation of voters contains a much smaller proportion of white voters than previous generations, and those whites in that generation vote Republican by a much smaller margin than their elders.

How Obama’s plan for infrastructure bank would work - The Washington Post (Obama loves the word "bank")

Peter King’s Greatest Hits As Homeland Security Chairman | TPMMuckraker (celebrate teh crazy)
RINO Hunters Fire Warning Shots At Republican Senate Candidates | TPM2012 After two disappointing election cycles, Republican leaders demanded that conservative groups end their war on electable primary candidates or risk handing the Senate to the Democrats in 2014. This week, the groups delivered their reply: “Nuts!”
Political Animal - Another Attack on the Sovereignty of America, God and Family! And so, Santorum brought his famous daughter Bella, who suffers from a severe birth defect, to the hearing where he fought against acknowledgement of the rights of people like her. This is where the pretzel logic of the Right can lead.

Hiltzik: Poor management, not union intransigence, killed Hostess - latimes.com The company had done almost nothing in the last 10 years to modernize or expand its offerings ... Just before declaring bankruptcy for the second time in eight years Jan. 11, Hostess trebled the compensation of then-Chief Executive Brian Driscoll and raised other executives' pay up to twofold. At the same time, the company was demanding lower wages from workers and stiffing employee pension funds of $8 million a month in payment obligations.
How Costco Became the Anti-Wal-Mart - New York Times Costco's average pay, for example, is $17 an hour, 42 percent higher than its fiercest rival, Sam's Club. And Costco's health plan makes those at many other retailers look Scroogish. One analyst, Bill Dreher of Deutsche Bank, complained last year that at Costco "it's better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder."
Bank Of America Is Really Good At Losing Documents, Really Bad At Believing My Mother Is Dead – The Consumerist

Sandra Fluke Is The Rosa Parks Of Vaginas | TBogg - Hoo boy, Young Master Ex-Virgin Ben Shapiro is pitching a hate-tent in his pants because Time magazine is considering Sandra Fluke as a possible Person of the Year, even though she is a woman, so not really a “person” per se:
Obsidian Wings: Scary Monsters Open Thread
Whiskey Fire: True Stories of the Right Wing Truth Some dogs can learn English, apparently. But they'll still eat their own shit.

New York City Enclaves, Long Gated, Seek to Let In Storm Aid - NYTimes.com “Now, with this unexpected act of God, those same communities, quite ready to point a finger at government shortcomings, are placed in the difficult position of having to reach out to government for a substantial helping hand,” - 113-year-old private, gated community, where the razor-wire-topped fences and armed security checkpoints that keep outsiders from its streets, beaches and parks (but all of a sudden interested in big government money)
Colonial-era Jewish cemetery in Curacao fades from sun, salt and perhaps refinery smoke - The Washington Post

Who Will Be The Gun Movement’s Rosa Parks? - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money The University of Colorado caved to the gun lobby and created gun-friendly dorms. At the present, there are floors that are gun-friendly. A dorm for the armed is opening in 2014. But the school is disturbed that not a single person has actually expressed any interest in living in the gun zone. Is it because even students who own guns think it might not be an awesome idea to be around drunken armed college students? Nope. It’s liberal segregation:
Asian-American voters show growing clout, leftward turn - San Jose Mercury News
How Not to Appeal to Asian Americans Next time, a little less racism - conservative scholar Charles "I am not a racist" Murray (Bell Curve fails again and again)

Beauty of the Beast – News Watch Video of Sprinting Cheetahs a First in Wildlife Photography

Unexpected data from the Large Hadron Collider suggest the collisions may be producing a new type of matte known as color-glass condensater


112612
Bangladesh textile factory fire leaves more than 100 dead | World news | The Guardian Blaze occured at Tazreen Fashions in Dhaka, which makes clothes for foreign clients including C&A
Mohamed Morsi indicates judicial decree will be limited | World news | The Guardian Egypt's president tries to defuse 'immunity' decree crisis by indicating acceptance of judiciary-proposed compromise
Morsi Power Grab: Egyptian President Reportedly Agrees To Limit Decree's Scope
Uganda will pass anti-homosexuality bill this year, says Speaker | World news | guardian.co.uk Death penalty clause dropped from latest draft but bill encourages violence against gay men and lesbians, say activists
Ehud Barak to retire from Israeli party politics | World news | guardian.co.uk Defence minister says he will not stand in January elections as he wants to spend more time with his family
Poison 'found' in exhumed body of former Turkish president Turgut Ozal | World news | guardian.co.uk Newspaper says evidence of toxic substances has shown up in autopsy investigating allegations of foul play ... there have long been rumours that Ozal, who died of heart failure in 1993, aged 65, was murdered by militants of the "deep state"
EU and IMF agree tentative deal to cut Greek debt | Business | The Guardian Agreement should see release of up to €44bn in bailout funds needed to rescue Athens from insolvency

Leveson Report: What Will It Say, And How Will David Cameron Respond?

Pentagon Prayer Breakfast To Feature Discredited Pastor Ray Giunta ... But Giunta wasn't a doctor; he purchased a Ph.D. for a few hundred dollars online, and he occasionally wore a lab coat and stethoscope, the Sun reported.
Obama healthcare law to be challenged by Christian school in federal court | Law | guardian.co.uk Supreme court orders federal appeals court to consider university's claim that Obamacare violates religious freedoms ... court has revived a Christian college's challenge ... Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia

Thomas Ricks Accuses Fox News Of 'Operating As A Wing Of The Republican Party' (VIDEO) He described the attack in Benghazi as a "small fire-fight" and added, "I think the emphasis on Benghazi has been extremely political, partly because Fox is operating as the wing of the Republican Party." At that point, Scott thanked Ricks for his time and ended the interview after about 90 seconds ... a Fox News staffer told Ricks he was rude following the interview
Guest on Fox News to Discuss Benghazi Attack Is Given a Quick Exit - NYTimes.com

What's Happening With the Bradley Manning WikiLeaks Trial? | Mother Jones About to testify for the first time, the accused Army private may admit to leaking a deluge of government documents.

Court Rejects Plea to Block Taping of Police - ABC News The Supreme Court has rejected an Illinois prosecutor's plea to allow enforcement of a law aimed at stopping people from recording police officers on the job. ("eavesdropping" - why was this even a case?)

Daily Kos: Mitt Romney '47 percent watch': 47.47! California alone has just shy of 1 million votes remaining to be counted, including another 196,621 from Los Angeles County. New York is sitting on another million or so.

Poll: Public would blame GOP more than Obama if fiscal talks fail - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room Twenty-eight percent say they expect Washington to behave like “responsible adults,” with 67 percent saying leaders will behave like “spoiled children.”

Carney: Social Security Not On The Table In Fiscal Cliff Deal | TPM LiveWire (not this week, anyway)
Fighting Fiscal Phantoms - NYTimes.com These are difficult times for the deficit scolds who have dominated policy discussion for almost three years. One could almost feel sorry for them, if it weren’t for their role in diverting attention from the ongoing problem of inadequate recovery, and thereby helping to perpetuate catastrophically high unemployment
The Myth of the Obama Cave-In | Mother Jones With the "fiscal cliff" looming, the conventional wisdom is that the president capitulated during the last tax cut fight. Here's what really happened.
The Republican Tap Dance on Entitlement Reform | Mother Jones (Drum still wants to "tinker" with Social Security)

New Senate’s First Task Will Likely Be Trying to Fix Itself - NYTimes.com
GOP warns of shutdown over filibuster - Manu Raju - politico.com
Filibuster Reform Opposed By Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader (Turtle-Face says no way)
Political Animal - Bring on the Filibuster Fight This raises the rather obvious question of exactly what Republicans could do to make the Senate less functional than it already is under the de facto 60-vote requirement for all legislation that they have so recently introduced?
Political Animal - The Spare-Us-the-Pain Coalition But there’s one major group with a proposal that is refreshingly honest in its sheer offensive greed: that of the CEO Fiscal Leadership Council, an adjunct to Pete Peterson’s lavishly funded Campaign to Fix the Debt, which had a lot to do with making the “fiscal cliff” such a huge and immediate post-election priority ... Nor, it seems, do the execs consider the enormous contracts they receive from the federal government—particularly from the Pentagon budget—“low-priority spending.”

19 Percent of Congress Is Female. Why Not Half? | Mother Jones We still lag far behind the nations with the most parity—like Rwanda (whose legislature is 56.3 percent female), Andorra (53.6 percent female), and Sweden (45 percent female).

Why "Good Jobs" Are Good for Retailers - Harvard Business Review a one-standard-deviation increase in labor levels at a store increased profit margins by 10% over the course of a year. Research by Marshall Fisher, Serguei Netessine, and Jayanth Krishnan supports my findings: Their analysis of 17 months of data from a large retailer shows that for every $1 increase in payroll, a store could see a $4 to $28 increase in monthly sales.
The Washington Monthly Those retailers are Costco and Trader Joe’s; QuikTrip, an American convenience store chain; and Mercadona, a Spanish supermarket. Here

Brad DeLong: Hard to Believe that There Are Still Economists Who I Thought of Note Five Years Ago Who Still Claim That Fiscal Expansion in a Depressed Economy in a Liquidity Trap Will Not Boost Production
Mary Schapiro Resigning: SEC Head To Step Down

Daily Kos: Ousted Florida Republicans, including ex-Gov. Crist, say voter suppression was state GOP's goal
Jim Greer, Ex-Florida GOP Chair, Claims Republican Voting Laws Focused On Suppression, Racism

Betting Site Intrade Shutting Down For U.S. Customers | TPM LiveWire The announcement comes following a lawsuit filed earlier today by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates the trading of futures contracts. (no "free market" for you)

Medicaid Expansion Covers Millions At 'Modest' Cost To States: Report - Expanding Medicaid health benefits to everyone eligible under President Barack Obama's health care reform law would increase state spending on the program by just 3 percent while extending health coverage to more than 20 million people (Red States: fuck our moochers)

Auto Industry Statistics - Nate Silver on Car Culture - Esquire It's not just erratic gas prices and a bad economy that's hurting automakers. It may be that Americans are changing. By Nate Silver (oh look, Nate is writing for Esquire)

Political Animal - A terrible story Apparently there was photographic evidence of the abuse, and a child died. Coakley almost certainly would have been put behind bars for his crimes, had he not been a man of the cloth ... one of the many quiet and unacknowledged triumphs of feminism is that childhood sexual abuse was, at long last, treated with the seriousness it deserves

Lake life survives in total isolation for 3000 years - life - 26 November 2012 - New Scientist It is seven times as salty as the sea, pitch dark and 13 degrees below freezing. Lake Vida in East Antarctica has been buried for 2800 years under 20 metres of ice, but teems with life.

snopes.com: Facebook Privacy Notice
Piracy Funds Movies? Megaupload Shutdown May Have Hurt Box Office Revenues | The Playlist (by decreasing word-of-mouth, but piracy!)
Low Commerce And Web Usage On Android - Business Insider
Where Are You Android Users? | TPM Editors Blog (rich people buy iPhones)
Black Friday Online Sales From Twitter Referrals... - Business Insider Commerce site traffic from Twitter accounted for exactly 0.00% of Black Friday traffic. That was down from 0.02% last year.

112512
Mohamed Morsi's Decree 'Temporary,' Presidency Says (uh-huh)
Morsi tries to defuse Egyptian decree crisis by emphasising dialogue | World news | The Guardian Egyptian president claims decree granting him greater powers is only temporary and says he is committed to democratic dialogue - Cairo's stock exchange plunged 10% as a result of the crisis over the decree.
Bangladesh textile factory fire leaves more than 100 dead | World news | The Guardian Blaze occured at Tazreen Fashions in Dhaka, which makes clothes for foreign clients including high-street chain C&A
Abby the Hasbara Slayer | MyFDL
Hezbollah: Tel Aviv A Target In Future Wars
Kuwait emir's change to election rules stirs signs of Arab spring | World news | The Guardian Protests and divisions in small, peaceful oil-rich country include calls to boycott ballot which may have repercussions in region
Information Dissemination: First flight of J-15 off Liaoning (LGM: The “China has an aircraft carrier with no aircraft” talking point is now obsolete)

White House Presses for Drone Rule Book - NYTimes.com (drone-boy got a little worried, wanted to rein in Romney)
Obama 'drone-warfare rulebook' condemned by human rights groups | World news | guardian.co.uk New York Times reports administration attempting to set out circumstances in which targeted assassination is justified

Spain dances with chaos - Salon.com Residents of Madrid took to the streets to protest their country's austerity measures -- with terrifying results ... El País will sack 139 journalists from a workforce of 450 ... Cebrián, who takes home 13m euros a year, told his striking journalists “we can’t keep living so well.”

call me maybe Afghanistan Royal Engineers - YouTube
MIT Gangnam Style (MIT ?????) - YouTube

U.N. Report: Already Too Late To Avert Worst Of Global Warming | Crooks and Liars (everyone without a helicopter is screwed)

Dawn of a New Day for Marriage Equality (TV Version) - YouTube
The G.O.P. and Violence Against Women - NYTimes.com (they're for it)

John McCain and Republicans soften attacks on Susan Rice over Benghazi | World news | guardian.co.uk Lindsey Graham and Peter King indicate step back from outright opposition to possible state department appointment (after looking like assholes)
Susan Rice Battles Critics Over Benghazi Attacks (she's too "blunt")
Daily Kos: Susan Rice, Condi Rice and Republican hypocrisy

California Cove Blessed With Nature’s Beauty Reels From Its Stench - NYTimes.com (even the seagulls are pooping on Romney)

Ten Numbers the Rich Would Like Fudged | Alternet The numbers reveal the deadening effects of inequality in our country, and confirm that tax avoidance, rather than a lack of middle-class initiative, is the cause.
CEO Council Demands Cuts To Poor, Elderly While Reaping Billions In Government Contracts, Tax Breaks
Republicans face unexpected challenges in coastal South amid shrinking white vote - The Washington Post “Mississippi still has a lot of work to do in race relations,” said Kimbrely Dandridge, an African American Obama supporter and president of the student body. (we'll see what the SC says about that)
That Shortage of Skilled Manufacturing Workers is Really a Shortage of Employers Willing to Pay the Market Wage | Beat the Press
Skills Don’t Pay the Bills - NYTimes.com Part of Isbister’s pickiness, he says, comes from an avoidance of workers with experience in a “union-type job.”
The Fake Skills Shortage - NYTimes.com Whenever you see some business person quoted complaining about how he or she can’t find workers with the necessary skills, ask what wage they’re offering. Almost always, it turns out that what said business person really wants is highly (and expensively) educated workers at a manual-labor wage. No wonder they come up short.
Political Animal - Fascinating new study on immigration reveals the policy preferences of voters and elites differ sharply — but not the way you think
It's Hard to Make It in America | Foreign Affairs Between the mid-1800s and the 1970s, differences in opportunity based on family circumstances declined steadily

Balloon Juice » Snap back to reality n 2004, Bush beat Kerry 50.7% to 48.3%. In this year’s election, Obama beat Romney 50.8% to 47.5% (these numbers may change to numbers that are slightly more favorable to Obama as more votes are counted). Yet Bush had a mandate and Obama does not.
Chris Wallace Confronts John McCain On Tax Flip-Flop (VIDEO) McCain voted against the Bush tax cuts because they didn't benefit the middle class. He has since changed his position, garnering a "Full Flop" award from PolitiFact.
On Cliff, Ryan Faces Choice of Two Paths - NationalJournal.com Will the House Budget Committee chairman opt for ideological purity or bipartisan pragmatism? (take a guess)
Joe Lieberman: Fiscal Cliff Deal Is 'Not A Certainty' Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) warned Sunday that while congressional hopes remain high to reach an agreement on the so-called fiscal cliff, a deal is "not a certainty."
Patty Murray likely to be a key voice in Senate on budget deal - The Washington Post Murray reasons that might make it easier to get Republicans to agree to reinstate the cuts only for the middle class and let the nation’s wealthiest 2 percent pay more toward the reducing the debt, as Democrats desire. (if you don't count Obama as a "Democrat")

Tea Party Path to Victory: Go After Moderate Republicans in 2014 | Crooks and Liars - and hope to weed out Republicans they consider insufficiently conservative.
Political Animal - The Tea Party … comin’ back at ya! True to form, they believe they’ve learned a lesson: Republicans still aren’t conservative enough!
Political Animal - When conservatives talk about ideas, they euphemistically rely on abstractions — because it covers up the creepy reality . American conservatives are more likely to have a strict ideal of what they think the world should be, and which they believe everyone should conform to. They tend to believe society and human happiness would be best served if everyone were straight, Christian, married, living in a patriarchal nuclear family, preferably living in a nonurban area, etc. (+the "rape guys" probably would have won if they had had better media training)
The National Memo » 5 Tea Party Republicans We Won’t See In Congress In 2013
Daily Kos: Comparing state-by-state presidential performance: 2012 vs. 2008

Hullabaloo: Chump change exchange update - And the President has already basically agreed to it by emphasizing his "balanced approach" and saying that he's willing to betray his own "special interests" (which translates to old and sick people) in order to get a deal as long as the rich "pay a little bit more." His promise of 2-1 spending to revenue locks in the idea that the wealthy will be contributing chump change while average people will feel that pain.It's only a matter of the details at this point.

California as a model of good voting practices - latimes.com If we want to 'fix' voting in America, the Golden State could be the model.

David Brooks Still Peddling Lie That Bush Administration Invaded Iraq on Faulty Intelligence | Video Cafe Brooks almost nonchalantly brushed off the fact that the Bush administration did lie about the WMDs in Iraq and that it was not a failure by the intelligence agencies, but the Bush administration misrepresenting that intelligence. (abetted by Mark "I'm an idiot" Shields and PBS Fox-Lite)

Top Republican rebels against Norquist tax pledge — MSNBC “Grover Norquist has no plan to pay this debt down,” Chambliss said to a local news station in his home state. “His plan says you continue to add to the debt. I just have a fundamental disagreement with him about that.”
Lindsey Graham: 'I Will Violate The Pledge' To Not Increase Taxes (but only if Dems abandon Social Security/Medicaid/etc)
Rove’s plan won’t work: Don’t count on Latino social conservatism - Salon.com
Corey Robin - Libertarians in Alabama Derrick Belcher, a libertarian in Alabama, is so furious that the government shut down his topless car wash business that he’s organized a petition for Alabama to secede from the union. There’s just one catch: the government that shut him down is the state of Alabama. (libertards)

LIPA Customers Left Without Power For Weeks Sent Normal Electric Bills Despite Blackouts

Mars Dust Storm May Affect NASA Rovers Opportunity, Curiosity
Japan Building Magnetic Levitation Train - Business Insider

'Human error' to blame for Massachusetts strip club gas blast | World news | guardian.co.uk Utilities worker thought to be responsible for puncturing pipe before explosion that flattened a Springfield strip club, injuring 18 (oopsie)

King Croesus's golden brooch to be returned to Turkey | World news | The Guardian After an investigation the director of the museum, Kazim Akbiyikoglu, who had been instrumental in recovering the artefacts from the US, was arrested with 10 others. Akbiyikoglu admitted selling museum treasures to pay off gambling debts and was jailed for 13 years. He blamed his misfortune on an ancient curse said to afflict those who handle the treasure.
Jesus wept … oh, it's bad plumbing. Indian rationalist targets 'miracles' | World news | guardian.co.uk Sanal Edamaruku faces jail for revealing 'tears' trickling down a Mumbai church statue came from clogged drainage pipe ... The renowned rationalist was accused of blasphemy, charged with offences that carry a three-year prison sentence and eventually, after receiving death threats, had to seek exile in Finland. (Ireland has the same law)

Police investigating death of Caylee Anthony missed vital Google search | World news | guardian.co.uk TV station says search for "fool-proof suffication" was made from within home of mother Casey Anthony on 16 June 2008 - a forensic computer expert missed the 16 June 2008 Google enquiry. ("expert" forgot to look in "history")

GoatPostman comments on ELI5: How do people film things from different angles without showing the other cameras?
Camera Movement Children of Men - YouTube
Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe - Reality TV Editing - YouTube

112412
Egypt's top judges condemn Mohamed Morsi power grab | World news | guardian.co.uk Supreme judicial council suspends all court offices and says president made 'unprecedented assault' on its independence
Mohamed Morsi, Egyptian President, Faces Judicial Revolt Over Decree
Egyptian Left/Liberals Confront Pres. Morsi with Rallies, Demos in 8 Provinces | Informed Comment
Gaza's cycle of aggression shapes new generations more militant than the last | World news | The Guardian The humanising experiences of middle-aged Palestinians and Israelis who had contact in everyday situations have faded away, replaced by confrontation, trauma and hatred (as ye sow)
Palestinian Death Shows Confusion Over Gaza Truce - NYTimes.com
Remote control: How Obama orchestrated ceasefire - Israel News, Ynetnews
Pakistan Cuts Back on Cellphone Coverage - NYTimes.com Pakistan is suspending phone coverage in many cities this weekend, an important one in the Shiite Muslim calendar, after a series of bomb attacks on Shiites set off by cellphones

New Fatal SARS-Related Cases Reported in Middle East - NYTimes.com Four new cases of a new SARS-related coronavirus in the Middle East were reported by the World Health Organization on Friday.

The GOP’s bizarre attack on Susan Rice - The Washington Post Could it be, as members of the Congressional Black Caucus are charging, that the signatories of the letter are targeting Ms. Rice because she is an African American woman? The signatories deny that, and we can’t know their hearts. What we do know is that more than 80 of the signatories are white males, and nearly half are from states of the former Confederacy. You’d think that before launching their broadside, members of Congress would have taken care not to propagate any falsehoods of their own. (nah, couldn't have anything to do with race +it's always good news for John McCain)
Why Susan Rice Will Be Confirmed As Secretary of State -- New York Magazine The Republicans have thrown down the gauntlet over the possibility that Susan Rice will replace Hillary Clinton. But the winner is already clear - 4. Because McCain is being a jackass—and Obama is sick of it. Arguably more than any other national figure, the senior senator from Arizona is driven in every aspect of his public behavior by personal pique.

President Barack Obama schmoozes with Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra on first stop of historic Asia visit | Mail Online - gets flirty

After Hurricane Sandy, The Costs Of Doing Nothing To Protect New York Come Into Focus

Supreme Court nears gay marriage decision over Doma-related cases | World news | guardian.co.uk Justices will decide next week whether to consider the constitutionality of same-sex marriage (should be interesting)

Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders "Call Me Maybe" By Carly Rae Jepson Military Tribute - YouTube (dKos: "Now a military unit in Afghanistan has released this technicolor nightmare that will run in an endless loop in poor Tony Perkins' mind forever")
U.S. troops take on Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders in a cover battle of "Call Me Maybe" - The Feed Blog - CBS News

Harold Meyerson: What Mitt Romney’s ‘takers’ really want from government - The Washington Post By all but destroying unions in the private sector, however, the same business executives who applauded Romney’s condemnation of “takers” greatly enlarged the pool of Americans who must “take” to survive. If these self-designated makers feel beleaguered by takers, they have only themselves to blame.
RealClearMarkets - A Cure For Blue State Fiscal Blues Meanwhile, all of those folks in Red states looking to secede from the union would get a taste of true small government.
With Stickers, a Petition and Even a Middle Name, Secession Fever Hits Texas - NYTimes.com

How To Stop Sexual Assault in the Ranks | TIME.com
This DEA Agent Was Told Not To Enforce Drug Laws In White Areas. Yes, Really.

ThinkProgress “Their answer was that they had no intention of granting pension survivor benefits to legally married same-sex couples because they didn’t have to,” (DOMA)
U.S. officials tell state to use same standards to grade charter schools - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Federal education officials have denied Pennsylvania's request to evaluate charter school achievement using more lenient criteria, saying they must be assessed by the same standard as traditional schools.

UNEP Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report Finds Climate Change Goals Growing More Elusive
U.N. Climate Talks: Will U.S. Take More Central Role After Bout Of Extreme Weather?

Neuroscience - Under Attack - NYTimes.com Additionally, publications from The Guardian to the New Statesman have published pieces blasting popular neuroscience-dependent writers like Jonah Lehrer and Malcolm Gladwell
Neuroskeptic: The New "Mood Disorder" That Isn't One The storied history of "Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)", a controversial new child psychiatric disorder proposed for inclusion in the new DSM-5 manual, continues. (the new bi-polar Dx for kids)

“The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace” by H. W. Brands - The Washington Post

Slim Suits Help Lead Gains in Men’s Wear - NYTimes.com “Men are the new women,”

Scientists See Advances in Deep Learning, a Part of Artificial Intelligence - NYTimes.com Using an artificial intelligence technique inspired by theories about how the brain recognizes patterns, technology companies are reporting startling gains in fields as diverse as computer vision, speech recognition and the identification of promising new molecules for designing drugs.


112312
Sorry Folks: Israel’s Iron Dome Won’t Work in Asia (only works on putzy Palestian missiles)

Leahy scuttles his warrantless e-mail surveillance bill | Politics and Law - CNET News After public criticism of proposal that lets government agencies warrantlessly access Americans' e-mail, Sen. Patrick Leahy says he will "not support" such an idea at next week's vote (not letting the gov read everyone's email would have "an adverse effect on criminal investigations)

Grand Old Planet - NYTimes.com Reading Mr. Rubio’s interview is like driving through a deeply eroded canyon; all at once, you can clearly see what lies below the superficial landscape. Like striated rock beds that speak of deep time, his inability to acknowledge scientific evidence speaks of the anti-rational mind-set that has taken over his political party ...If evidence seems to contradict faith, suppress the evidence. (don't need no steenking science)

How Obamacare Came To The Fiscal Cliff - Esquire
24 States To Be Dominated By Republicans In 2013 | ThinkProgress Power will be divided evenly in just 12 capitals — the fewest since 1952.
Daily Kos: New Obamacare challenge: Informing millions that they will benefit
Daily Kos: Surprise! Report says income inequality still getting worse in most states The five states with the largest such gaps are New Mexico, California, Georgia, Mississippi, and Arizona.
Daily Kos: 'Likely voter' polling screens were skewed toward Romney The problem with these results were overly restrictive likely voter screens.
Political Animal - More 2012 Fun From the Numbers Crunchers - 22 percent of 18-29 year olds consider themselves Evangelical Christians, compared to 31 percent who are non-Christian. - Live by the sword, die by the sword.
Balloon Juice » Ceasefire? this year’s installment of The War on Christmas, but is that even a thing anymore? I don’t have my finger on the pulse of the right wing, but my sense is that losing a few battles in the War on Gays might have the warriors in retreat on all fronts
Daily Kos: $40 million pissed away attacking Sherrod Brown

Brad DeLong: Barney Frank: Obama Rejected Bush Administration Concession to Write Down Mortgages The choices were to create some sort of legal entity to write down mortgage debt or to allow the write-down of mortgage debt through a massive wave of foreclosures over the next four to six years. He choice the latter. That choice was part of what led to roughly $7 trillion of middle class wealth gone, with financial assets for the elites re-inflated ... the growth of income inequality under Obama is worse than that under Bush (Obama's $7TRILLION fuckyou to the middle class)

Rise Above, CNBC's move into advocacy : CJR Corporate America’s house organ starts an anti-political political campaign
C Is For Class Warfare - NYTimes.com - CNBC’s decision to drop even the pretense of journalistic objectivity and throw its weight behind the deficit scolds. Basically, the network has gone all in on behalf of the 0.01 percent ... a tribal identity thing; the consumers of business news want to see themselves as part of the economic elite, although they mostly aren’t xs
Political Animal - The Lickspittle Business Channel

A Failed Experiment - NYTimes.com the World Economic Forum ranks American infrastructure 25th in the world, down from 8th in 2003-4, yet infrastructure is barely mentioned by politicians ... In cities with high economic inequality, such as New York and Los Angeles, more than 1 percent of all employees work as private security guards
Climate Change Challenges Transportation System In The U.S.

Walmart Strikers Arrested in SoCal Civil Disobedience | The Nation
Political Animal - The Small Business Store-Front small businesses have long been the store-front behind which Republicans have protected their intense commitment to lower tax rates for the very wealthiest Americans.

NBC News Blocked Chelsea Clinton Marriage Equality Ad: Report Though she has filed very few reports for the network, NBC has reportedly prevented her from making a series of political moves during the past year. In October, the New York Post claimed that Clinton had been virtually absent from the 2012 campaign trail because of her NBC job.

The Humbling Tragedy of Jesse Jackson Jr. - The Daily Beast Once considered a potential presidential candidate, the congressman and son of the famous civil-rights leader resigned his House seat as he negotiates with federal prosecutors.

Sam Harris - Death and the Present Moment - YouTube
Autism-God Study Suggests Disorder Makes Belief In Deity Less Likely
Sherwin Nuland: How electroshock therapy changed me | Video on TED.com
1.3 Million Women Received Unnecessary And Invasive Cancer Treatment, Study Finds | ThinkProgress Routine mammograms have caused more than a million U.S. women to receive “unnecessary and invasive cancer treatments over the last 30 years,” a new study finds, detecting tumors that are harmless.
Nearly half of cancer survivors died from conditions other than cancer

Big History theories pose latest challenge to traditional curriculum | Education | The Observer ¦ The human body has changed more in the past 100 years than in the previous 50,000. Adults are 50% heavier and four inches taller. (+Euros killed a third of the world's population when they invaded America)
The Omega Point by *kevinleedrum on deviantART Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth.

NASA - New 2013 Phases of the Moon Animation Released

Cube Laser Virtual Keyboard - wordlessTech
Windows 8 — Disappointing Usability for Both Novice & Power Users (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)
Analysts turn negative on Windows 8 prospects | Microsoft - CNET News Windows 8 gets little love from analysts. They cite a mix of factors including a confusing interface and confused positioning of Windows 8 and Windows RT

112212
Israel and Hamas Maintain Cease-Fire, After Push by the U.S. and Egypt - NYTimes.com
Egypt Leader and Obama Forge Link in Gaza Deal - NYTimes.com
Israel-Gaza Conflict: Ceasefire Holds As Gazans Clean Up
Iron Dome Gaza Rocket Shootdowns Cost Israel $25-$30 Million (all paid for by US taxpayers, so who cares?)
Saudi Arabia implements electronic tracking system for women | The Raw Story

Will UK Criminal Charges Bring U.S. News Corp Prosecution? | Crooks and Liars
Crisis in Church of England After Rejection of Female Bishops - NYTimes.com its spiritual leader said Wednesday that the church had “undoubtedly lost a measure of credibility” and had a “lot of explaining to do” to people who found its deliberations opaque ... a huge setback to a campaign for change that has been debated intensely and often bitterly for the past decade ... the synod’s voting procedures require a two-thirds majority in each of its three “houses”: bishops, clergy and laity. (like the Senate, but tripled)

Susan Rice Defends Benghazi Remarks: U.S. Ambassador Dismisses McCain Accusations She said she respects Republican Sen. John McCain, who has been critical of her, but says "some of the statements he's made about me have been unfounded, but I look forward to having the opportunity at the appropriate time to discuss all of this with him."
Benghazi and the Fox News Effect | Mother Jones The only segment of the country that really cares about the sham Benghazi scandal is Republicans, and the reason Republicans are riled up about it is because of Fox News. (yes, Rupert is behind it all)
Maddow Takes Down McCain For All the Times He Said Something Wrong on a Sunday Show | Video Cafe

Ruth Marcus: Is Paula Broadwell’s wardrobe fair game? - The Washington Post The halter was not a one-off, it was a theme. In Afghanistan, The Post reported, Broadwell’s “form-fitting clothes made a lasting impression on longtime Afghan hands, and Petraeus once admonished her, through a staffer, to ‘dress down.’?”
Jill Kelley Recommended for Award by Petraeus The award, the country's second-highest honor for a civilian, was given to acknowledge Kelley's "selfless contributions" and "willingness to host engagements" for top pols and military brass. (party-girl award)

GOP’s big Social Security lie - Salon.com Right-wing sharks are using America's increased life expectancy as an excuse to gut one of its best-loved programs

White House To Boehner: Obamacare Not Part Of Fiscal Cliff Deal (also, Obama refuses to resign)
Daily Kos: Mitt Romney '47 percent' watch: 47.5 If Romney drops to 47.49 percent of the vote, his totals will round to 47 percent, which would be deliciously ironic.
Romney's Greatest Gift Of All For Democrats Was Clarifying For Voters Which Party Was On Whose Side. That Wasn't So Obvious Two Years Ago. | The New Republic Not just for being a clumsy candidate in a year when a more agile one might have knocked off Barack Obama—but for the broader benefit he served the Democratic Party as a powerful clarifying force. (clarifying the evil and stupid)
Podhoretz Has Awkward Postelection Epiphany -- Daily Intel - The astonishing turnabout in the evaluation of Obama’s campaign, from delusional nincompoops to the most terrifyingly efficient campaign apparatus in history, helps Podhoretz reach his desired conclusion, that Obama’s victory owed nothing at all to his policy platform. (therefore, Republican don't have to change)
Chambliss Says He Won't Be Bound by Tax Pledge "But I don't worry about that because I care too much about my country. I care a lot more about it than I do Grover Norquist."
Tax Credits for Fetuses GOP lawmakers in Michigan have proposed a tax credit for unborn fetuses, less than a year after they eliminated a tax credit for children.
Daily Kos: Having fun at the teabaggers' expense (they are really both very stupid and insane)
Alaskan town home to airport with no planes and harbor with no road | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News Well, another town in "Seward's Icebox" has upped the ante after building an unused $75.5 million airport and a $29 million harbor with no roads connecting to the town.
Hullabaloo It would appear that Rush Limbaugh's vile form of commentary is starting to have a negative impact on radio profits as a whole: (Rush=Radio; live by the lie, die by the lie)
Daily Kos: Limbaugh advertiser backlash DIRECTLY responsible for radio industry downturn: –radio network exec Yes, it seems that Rush Limbaugh is irrevocably losing "his" country.

Massachusetts financial firms must build relations with Warren, a sharp critic of Wall Street - Metro - The Boston Globe Campaign views are set aside
Hostess and the Limits of the Private Welfare State | Jacobin
The Twinkie Defense, or What Does “Uncompetitive” Mean? | Jacobin - This is a well-known phenomenon in economics: it’s called downward nominal wage rigidity. (employees aren't quite slaves)

Changes Needed After Hurricane Sandy Include Politics - NYTimes.com New York clearly ought to have taken certain steps a while back, no-brainers after the fact. ("a while back" = Irene; what did Bloomberg know and when did he choose to ignore it?) )
Daily Kos: An Apology To Katrina Victims

Ecstasy Treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Shows Promise - NYTimes.com The soldiers have no interest in traditional talking cures or prescription drugs that have given them little relief. They are lining up to try an alternative: MDMA, better known as Ecstasy
The Evidence on E.M.D.R. - NYTimes.com

Trump Steakhouse Hit With 51 Violations After Officials Find Month-Old Caviar, Expired Yogurt (long past his exp. date)
More Women Are Literally Chopping Off Their Pinky Toes to Fit Into High Heels eighty-seven percent of women have had foot problems from wearing uncomfortable or ill-fitting shoes.
Sex won't bring on labor: study | Yahoo! Health


Police Raid 9-Year-Old Pirate Bay Girl, Confiscate Winnie The Pooh Laptop | TorrentFreak
In Search Engine Results, a Peek at What We Wonder - NYTimes.com now sites like Google and Bing are showing the precise questions that are most frequently asked, giving everyone a chance to peer virtually over one another’s shoulders at private curiosities. And they are revealing interesting patterns.

112112
How the 'imminent' Gaza ceasefire unravelled | World news | guardian.co.uk A truce was said to be in the bag on Tuesday night, but hit stumbling blocks in a sign of the problems that lie ahead
Israel-Hamas Ceasefire: Egypt Announces Peace Deal To Take Effect At 9 P.M.
Israel-Gaza Conflict Reaches Cease-Fire After Egyptians, U.S. Broker Deal
Israel-Gaza Truce Deal Agreed To, Israel Will Not Lift Gaza Blockade
GOP Senators Attack Obama, Praise Egyptian President In Statement On Gaza Ceasefire | ThinkProgress
Gilad Sharon, Son Of Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Writes Op-Ed: 'We Need To Flatten Entire Neighborhoods In Gaza'
Anderson Cooper Fires Back on Twitter While Avoiding Rockets in Gaza - Hollywood Reporter - Embedded in Gaza City, Cooper has provided both military updates and snark, telling one woman to "spend less time tweeting about coconut flan and more time actually following the news."

Filipino ex-employees say Grand Isle Shipyard pressed them into 'involuntary servitude' | NOLA.com

Church of England governing body blocks move to approve female bishops - The Washington Post backers failed to gain the necessary majority by six votes. (victory for the patriarchy)

All Train Service at Penn Station Suspended Due to Switching Problem - NYTimes.com Just in time for the Thanksgiving-eve getaway, all service into and out of Pennsylvania Station – including Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and Long Island Rail Road trains — was shut down at 5:20 p.m. because of a switching problem, railroad officials said.

Why rich guys want to raise the retirement age - If you’re wealthy, you do have many more years to enjoy Social Security. But if you’re not, you don’t. And so making it so people who aren’t wealthy have to wait longer to use Social Security is a particularly cruel and regressive way to cut the program
Hullabaloo Tell Uncle Charlie he's not going to live forever after all (the "life-expectancy" zombie lie)

Daily Kos: Like white on Rice: Republican critics say there's nothing racist in their digs
NY Times' Maureen Dowd Defies Her Paper's Reporting To Attack Susan Rice Over Benghazi | Blog | Media Matters for America (facts have never gotten in her way)

Fiscal Cliff Compromise - The Grand Cynicism Of The Grand Bargain - Esquire unless the Democrats demonstrate their good faith by beginning the process of abandoning the party's historic commitment to even our current threadbare social safety net. In return, the Republicans promise to (maybe) close some tax loopholes and ask the richest people in the country to toss some boutonniere money into the pot.

Could Filibuster Reform in the Senate Help Obama's Judicial Nominees? : The New Yorker
Political Animal - What Obama Can Do Without Congress
Eight Ways Obama Can Jam Through His Agenda Without Congress: The Unilateralist Manifesto. | The New Republic

Millions will qualify for new options under the health care law. Most have no idea. (most are idiots)
Political Animal - The Dangerous Cycle Of Ignorance About Obamacare ... And that’s the most annoying part of the whole anti-Obamacare campaign: it’s the public officials in the states most in need who have so deliberately and egregiously failed to perform their responsibilities. Wherever possible, some payback in 2014 would be most appropriate.

Big Banks vs. Elizabeth Warren: It's On (Again!) | Mother Jones The fight between the financial industry and Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren heats up again over her possible nomination to the Senate banking committee.
Banks Work Hard to Keep Warren from Banking Committee

White House To Boehner: Obamacare Not Part Of Fiscal Cliff Deal (neither is resigning)
Dan Senor, Mitt Romney Adviser, Blasts Republicans For Deserting Candidate After Loss
The New Republicans - NYTimes.com So what should we call these new Republicans? I have a suggestion: why not call them “Democrats”? ... today’s Republican party is an alliance between the plutocrats and the preachers, plus some opportunists along for the ride
From the Maker of Unskewed Polling Comes: The Obama Voter Fraud Map (teh crazee never stops)
You Can’t Stop the Hackery, You Can Only Hope to Contain It - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Glenn Reynolds wants you to know that when it comes to secession, bothsidesdoit: (hack, hack)
Balloon Juice » » Berated for Competence - on Christie: A real Republican would have let his state drown while berating Obama. -
Obama Campaign Polls: How The Internal Data Got It Right
Florida GOP More Likely to Play by Rules in 2016 | RealClearPolitics
How The Conservative Media Lost The Election The plan was to unmask Obama. It didn't work. Now the loose coalition of scrappy bloggers, advocacy journalists, and unrepentant trolls who spent four years writing about Jeremiah Wright and Saul Alinsky are coming to terms with reality: The polls weren't skewed, and their narrative didn't stick.
More Sore Losers Than Normal? Joe Klein: "Has there ever been a less gracious presidential loser than Mitt Romney? (John McCain?)

Josh Eidelson: The True Power of Walmart Workers | The Nation
Paul Krugman: CNBC Is 'Bad For Your Financial And Intellectual Health' Don’t spend much time watching CNBC," the Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist wrote in a blog post Wednesday. "It’s bad for your financial and intellectual health." Krugman wrote that "the network has gone all in on behalf of the 0.01 percent."


Bill McBride Of Calculated Risk - Business Insider The economics blogosphere was invented in early 2005 by a retired technology executive in Southern California named Bill McBride (Calculated Risk).

Barack Obama In 2008: Bible's Account Of God Creating Earth 'Essentially True' (you know who else isn't a scientist?)
Political Animal - No Such Thing as A La Carte Science
Why Marco Rubio Needs To Know That The Earth Is Billions Of Years Old - Forbes (his fucking nukes might melt-down any minute)
Raw Meat: Y files: On The Age Of The Planet Earth
A Year in Jail for Not Believing in God? How Kentucky is Persecuting Atheists | Alternet In Kentucky, a homeland security law requires the state’s citizens to acknowledge the security provided by the Almighty God--or risk 12 months in prison.

Jesse Jackson Jr. Resignation: Illinois Congressman Is Leaving Congress
Karen Handel, Former Susan G. Komen Executive, Reportedly Considering Senate Bid - Handel lashed out at Planned Parenthood for her downfall, calling members of the organization "a bunch of schoolyard thugs."
WVII Bangor Newsanchors Cindy Michaels, Tony Consiglio Quit On-Air (VIDEO) Michaels, WVII's news director, cited "constant disrespecting and belittling of staff" and editorial intervention by higher-ups. "It’s a little complicated, but we were expected to do somewhat unbalanced news, politically, in general,” she added.
It’s All About The Benjamins | Southern Beale Failed Connecticut Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Linda McMahon has some very angry ex-staffers. Seems McMahon. the pro wrestling magnate, has not paid her campaign workers. Let’s just say hilarity did not ensue when one affected staff member took his plight to the local media ... “Basically he handed me a check with a condom in it, told me I was screwed,” His check bounced as well.
Homeland Security Has Spent $430 Million on Radios Its Employees Don’t Know How to Use | TPMMuckraker

Bats Left/Throws Right: And This Time We Mean It ONCE More with Feeling: it is, without question, the election of Ronald Wilson "Gipper" Reagan which marks the beginning of the decline of the American Empire, though it had been busy shooting off its toes for the previous three-and-one-half decades.

Eschaton: Fools! Stop Listening To Me!!!!!! Remember that Joey Scar called the gay wizard a "joke."
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Morning Joe Sort of Apologizes to Nate Silver But Not Really It’s the sort of apology issued by people who can never admit that they were wrong about anything. In other words: Republicans. And of course it attempts to revise history, because that’s what Republicans do. (lying little weasel)
Joe Scarborough Nate Silver Apology - Nate Silver Continues To Bother Joe Scarborough - Esquire We had a fine lesson today in How Not To Apologize To Someone. Joe Scarborough, former pursuer of the Clinton penis, onetime congresscritter who left to spend more time with his family and then promptly got married to someone else ...
Scarborough: "The Conservative Entertainment Complex" "Severely Hurt" The GOP With Its Pro-Romney, Anti-Obama Drumbeat | Video | Media Matters for America (o rly)
The Grenade of Understanding: Winners of the Write-Like-Friedman Challenge | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone

Is Nate Silver a Wizard or simply Above Average? | PunditTracker Blog

Children Exposed to Nicotine in Utero Have Lower Reading Scores | SciTech Daily
Video: Animal Odd Couples | Watch Nature Online | PBS Video

Facebook To Nix Public Voting On Privacy Changes?

112012
Israel Gaza Attacks Intensify Despite Truce Talks
Turkish Prime Minister: ‘Israel Is A Terrorist State’ « CBS DC
The Cost Of Iron Dome - The Daily Beast

Former Murdoch Aides to Be Charged With Bribery - NYTimes.com Rebekah Brooks, 44, and Andy Coulson, 44, both of whom have had close personal or professional ties to Prime Minister David Cameron.

Climate: Amid budget scrutiny, CIA shutters climate center -- 11/19/2012 -- www.eenews.net
David Petraeus’ Response to Climate Change: MOAR DRONZ! | emptywheel the CIA closed its climate change center because David Petraeus thought it more important to hunt terrorists with drones

McCain: 'Surprised' By Report That DNI Removed Terrorism References In Rice's Benghazi Talking Points | TPM LiveWire
John McCain's Long War Against Susan Rice
The War On Rice - Lawyers, Guns & Money (+MoDo an awful person)
House Republicans Oppose Susan Rice in Letter to Obama - NYTimes.com

Electronic Communications Privacy Act: Patrick Leahy Hits Back At Report That Legislation Would Decrease Americans' Privacy

New report describes Broadwell emails to Kelley as ‘death threats’ | The Ticket - Yahoo! News

The New York Times Reporters Do Not Understand How Marginal Tax Rates Work

Romney Likely to End Up at 47% Cook Political Report says new votes in from Maryland put Romney at 47.56 percent. He predicts with certainty that with all of New York and California counted, Romney will end up below 47.5 percent of the vote. Rounded, of course, that would put the final tally at 51% to 47%." (perfect)

Could This Be End of the Filibuster? - Bloomberg

Denialists, Whiners, and Wackjobs - Newsweek and The Daily Beast
The worst candidate of 2012 We are giving The Fixy for worst candidate of 2012 to Texas Gov. Rick Perry for his remarkably poor presidential campaign.
Political Animal - The Phony War Intensifies For the cynical-minded, today’s front-line reporting from the Struggle for the Soul of the Republican Party can induce bitter laughter: in response to “establishment” talk that Republicans need a clearer and more systematic conservative message that is marketed un-stupidly
Political Animal - Another Non-Struggle For the Soul Even as much of the MSM buys into the largely phony meme of bitter internecine controversy among Republicans, who are actually united in a more-conservatism-with-tweaks strategy going forward, there’s growing talk of Democratic divisions
Republicans Say Election Losses Just Mean They Need Better Candidates (double down on the crazy)
The New Republicans - NYTimes.com So what should we call these new Republicans? I have a suggestion: why not call them “Democrats”?
Limbaugh Suggests Obama Purposely "Wreck[ed] The Economy" So He Could Play "Santa Claus" With Government Benefits | Video | Media Matters for America

Stanley Kutler: Mitch McConnell and the Art of Dysfunction McConnell wanted the president not to propose his own agenda and policies, but to offer "solutions" that would satisfy Republicans -- and undoubtedly on their own terms.
Political Animal - Polarization and Federalism All but three states — Iowa, Kentucky and New Hampshire — have one-party control of their legislatures, the highest mark since 1928.

Tom Udall On Citizens United And The Bold Solution to Overturn It - Esquire - Esquire Udall is the driving force to repeal Citizens United through a constitutional amendment.
In Which Ron Paul Teaches Us About Secession - Ron Paul State Secession - Esquire Secondly, secession hasn't been a "deeply held American principle" since Pickett's division came staggering back from Cemetery Ridge.
The Long Climb Up Bushwa Mountain - Fix The Debt Climbs Mount Kilimanjaro - Esquire Fix The Debt, of course, is merely the latest scam by people in the financial services industry through which they are ginning up a fake crisis in order to get their teeth into what gristle is left for the rest of us on the bones of our economy.
Scott Walker's Not-So-Little Legal Snag - Scott Walker Campaign Investigation - Esquire Gov. Scott Walker and his top campaign and Milwaukee County aides were named Monday as part of a team that routinely commingled political and official county business.
Following Obama's Victory, Wisconsin Governor Proposes New Limits On Voter Registration | ThinkProgress
Cuomo Will Not (And Must Not) Be the 2016 Democratic Nominee - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Pulaski County Library: Conservative Group Tries To Disband District Over Tax Hike The group aims to shutter the Pulaski County library's special taxing district after the district increased taxes by $1 over the last year (books are socialistic)

The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Taxing Things that Are Bad for Us (hurts the poor the most)

Tina Brown on the End of 'Newsweek' in Print and Future of Newsweeklies -- New York Magazine

'Mount Doom' Likely to Blow Soon - Yahoo! News Mount Ruapehu, a New Zealand volcano that stood in for Mount Doom in the "Lord of the Rings" movies, seems to be heading for an eruption.

How to Make Rick Simpson's Medicinal Hemp Oil Safely - YouTube
The TRUTH about Rick Simpson's Hemp Oil (Part 2) - YouTube
Make The Medicine « Phoenix Tears
Dosage Information « Phoenix Tears

111912
Timeline: Who Started the Israel-Gaza Conflict? - Robert Wright - The Atlantic Thursday, November 8 In an exchange of fire on the border of Gaza with militants from the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), Israeli forces killed a 12 year old (or 13 year old ) Palestinian boy." (and so Netanyahu's phoney war began)
Dalu Family In Gaza Mourns Dead After Israel Bombs House (WARNING: Graphic Photos) Nine members of the Dalu family, a mother and her four children, a grandmother, great grandmother and two aunts died in the Gaza strike. Two other neighbours were also killed as the building collapsed. (living while Palestinian)
Israel’s Shortsighted Assassination - NYTimes.com (not really, Netanyahu wanted to make sure there was no one left to negotiate with)
Israel Airstrike Hits Al Aqsa, Hamas TV Station, In High-Rise In Downtown Gaza City
AP: Strike On Media Center Killed Top Leader Of Islamic Jihad | TPM LiveWire
Israel faces millions of hacking attempts - CSMonitor.com Since the conflict with Gaza began, the Israeli government has blocked more than 44 million hacking attempts on government web sites. (oh sure)

David Petraeus Scandal - CIA Drone Attacks - Esquire - The Real Petraeus Scandal: His CIA Killing Machine
Christopher Stevens and the Problem of American Diplomacy - NYTimes.com
Political Animal - Behind the Benghazi Frenzy
A Growing Void Where Facts Were Once Checked - NYTimes.com It should be the moment of truth for the mainstream media. Literally. But it seems to have all the makings of a perfect storm, from London to Gaza to Jerusalem.
Report: 70 Percent Of Retired Generals Took Jobs With Defense Contractors Or Consultants

Daily Politics Blog - Charles P. Pierce - Political Blogging - Esquire As The Real Housewives Of Centcom continues to unspool, leave it to Tiger Beat on the Potomac to go spelunking as deeply as it can into the Gorge Of Eternal Drudgewhoring.
Susan Rice and The Sunday Shows - Esquire - Esquire In the course of Watergate, members of the Executive Branch lied to the FBI, lied to federal prosecutors, and lied to various congressional committees for the purpose of covering up crimes in which they were intimately involved. Susan Rice may have said something later found to be inaccurate to David Gregory. John McCain finds the latter just as serious as the former. I think the man needs a cookie. And some thorazine. I think the country needs a new power elite. Stat.

SEC Rocked By Lurid Sex-and-Corruption Lawsuit | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone - In a salacious 77-page complaint that reads like Penthouse Forum meets The Insider meets the Keystone Kops, one David Weber, the former chief investigator for the SEC Inspector General's office, accuses the SEC of retaliating against Weber for coming forward as a whistleblower.

The GOP’s Favorite New Punching Bag: Mitt Romney | TPMDC If Mitt Romney has any friends left in the Republican Party, they’re in hiding.
Political Animal - The Man Who Couldn’t Whistle Much of the weekend political “news” involved serial Republican efforts to bury Mitt Romney far below the surface of future visibility, mainly on grounds that he has created the outrageous impression that conservatives look down on certain elements of the population ... . But it’s richly ironic that he’s being attacked by hard-core conservatives for a heresy that is central to their own world-view.
Tom Price: Balanced Approach Means No Revenue Through Tax Hikes | TPM LiveWire (die, Social Security, die!)
Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community If the Republican Party is the bug, the question is, are they in the toilet or are they in the sink? (new rising "superstars" in the GOP will save them)
Republicans Say GOP Needs Revamp After Romney Defeat Graham, who has taken part in a bipartisan effort to fashion immigration reform legislation, said the Republican Party is "in a death spiral with Hispanic voters." (angry white guy thing not working out for them)
Andrew Cuomo, fake Democrat - Salon.com - New York's governor might lead his party in 2016. So why won't he fight for a state Senate majority they earned? (hopelessly compromised)
Chris Christie Pushes Camden Police Force To Disband, Despite Questions Over New Plan's Finances
Marco Rubio: Actual Age Of Earth Is 'One Of The Great Mysteries' "I'm not a scientist, man." (no, you're an idiot ... and member of the Senate "Science" Committee)
Political Animal - Rubio’s Best Friend (Other Than His Wife) But anyone who thinks of Rubio as a potential GOP vehicle for “modernizing” the party should think again given his proud kinship to the antediluvian DeMint, the heaviest right-wing heavy of them all. You don’t need to be a “scientist, man” to spot a brontosaurus when you see one.
Florida's West to fight defeat in U.S. House race | Reuters "This election is far from over," West's campaign manager, Tim Edson, said in a statement that called the results "highly suspect."
Roger Ailes: Music Makes The People Come Together (read comments on DuJan's idiot pre-election article; did all these people kill themselves out of embarrassment?
Texas Won't Turn Democratic Until At Least 2028 | The New Republic

Is Rush Limbaugh's Country Gone? - NYTimes.com (America becoming socialistic)
Clear Channel quietly pruning scores of staff - Toledo Blade Clear Channel, the largest radio station operator in the country, is partially owned by Bain Capital, which is the company founded and previously run by former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Debt-ridden Clear Channel, headquartered in San Antonio, has been quietly pruning its corporate structure since late 2011. (Bained, couldn't happen to a nicer corp)
Daily Kos: Clear Channel promotes death threats against Democratic candidate Wingnut radio host Brian Wilson of Clear Channel's WSPD conservative talk radio station in Toledo, OH, gave the home phone number of Democratic mayoral candidate Ben Konop out over the air during a rant against him. Konop subsequently received numerous death threats and was confronted by a WSPD listener with a hunting knife. (free market worked on this asshole)

The Twinkie Manifesto - NYTimes.com America in the 1950s made the rich pay their fair share; it gave workers the power to bargain for decent wages and benefits; yet contrary to right-wing propaganda then and now, it prospered. And we can do that again.
Twinkies May Survive Thanks To Pabst Brewing Co. Owner: Report “We have analyzed this opportunity very carefully for a few years now. Shedding the complications of the unions and old plants makes it even more attractive.” (yes, having "employees" makes it very complicated)
Hostess, Union Agree To Mediate, Likely Helping Twinkie-Maker Avoid Shutdown
America’s Least Valuable CEOs - 24/7 Wall St. (worst of the worst)

World Bank Climate Change Report Says 'Turn Down The Heat' On Warming Planet

Stateline - Assessing States’ Innovation (CA wins!)
Dan Lungren, Drug Warrior, Loses Bid For Reelection Over the course of his career, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more dedicated drug warrior or a politician more committed to alleged tough-on-crime policies than Lungren. (assholes sometimes lose)

Members of Congress Implore Feds To Back Down On Marijuana Prosecution | ThinkProgress (Obama loves his wars)

Political Animal - Groundbreaking new study: what happens to women who can’t get abortions
ANSIRH: Research and other work—The Turnaway Study The Turnaway Study is ANSIRH’s longitudinal prospective study of women who receive an abortion and women who are denied an abortion because they present for care after the clinic’s gestational limit. (up to -28 days; the price patriarchy extracts for its rule over women)
Ohio Is The Latest Battlefield in the War on Contraception | RH Reality Check Invariably, these attacks on contraception are rationalized by the politicians mounting them with claims that this is all about abortion, even though the groups in question do not use government funding to provide abortion
They Are Coming for Your Birth Control: Condoms are "Murder" and Contraception is "Rape" | RH Reality Check For those having sexual relations within natural marriage and want to regulate births, there is natural family planning.
Being Raped by Your Father, A Loving Long-Term Relationship Outside of Marriage–Pretty Much the Same Thing - Lawyers, Guns & Money : On the one hand, I like the idea of Republicans embracing insane people who want to declare war on birth control. From a short-term political perspective, it’s a win. On the other hand, it’s incredibly depressing to have these debates. In other words, a lot of Americans need to grow the fuck up. How Gay Marriage Prevailed at the Polls "Among the key changes: A shift away from talk of 'rights' to a focus on committed relationships; a decision to address 'values' directly as being learned at home; and an attempt to give voters 'permission' to change their minds."


Clown vs. Cop: The Fight Video From Wisconsin That Will Win The Internet

The 10 Craziest Citizen Petitions To The White House - Forbes
SGI Twitter Heat Map: Supercomputer Shows Where Angriest Tweeters Live

111812
Netanyahu: Israel Ready To Widen Offensive - Israel Dep PM Yishai: “We must blow Gaza back to the Middle Ages destroying all the infrastructure including roads & water” ... This latest attack would bring the death toll among Palestinians to 61. (many of them civilians and children)
Israeli Air Strike Kills 10 Palestinian Civilians: Medics
Obama: U.S. 'Fully Supportive Of Israel's Right To Defend Itself' (and Netanyahu's right to start a tragic war to get himself re-elected)
Obama on Gaza: next 48 hours will show what progress can be made | World news | guardian.co.uk President says he has been 'actively working with all parties in the region' to end violence that has killed dozens since last week
Israeli air strikes hit media centres in Gaza City | World news | guardian.co.uk Six injured as strikes target buildings housing media organisations including Sky News, al-Arabiya and al-Quds TV
Stop pretending the US is an uninvolved, helpless party in the Israeli assault on Gaza | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The Obama administration's unstinting financial, military and diplomatic support for Israel is a key enabling force in the conflict
Balloon Juice » “We” He might have meant diplomatic progress, but it’s pretty clear that Israel can do whatever the fuck they want and it’s “our” war.

Syrian rebels capture military airport | World news | guardian.co.uk Hamdan airbase seizure prompts regime air strike
Egypt bus crash kills dozens of children | World news | guardian.co.uk Up to 50 children, aged four to six, killed after bus carrying them to kindergarten collides with speeding train

A Phony Hero for a Phony War - NYTimes.com (the cult of Petraeus)
The Petraeus affair: The man and his myth | The Economist
44 days to cliff; 64 days to inauguration -- PETRAEUS HIRES ROBERT BARNETT -- Obama says next 36 to 48 hours critical in Gaza crisis -- Rory Cooper baby -- Latoff-Holmes wedding - Politico.com
David Ignatius: The Petraeus affair’s resulting witch hunt - The Washington Post

Susan Rice: Benghazi-gate gets even more ludicrous | The Economist
Saxby Chambliss: Susan Rice Should Testify On Benghazi “She’s going to have to come in and testify at some point, whether it’s in a closed hearing or an open hearing,” Sen. Saxby Chambliss, (R-Ga.) said on “Fox News Sunday.” (fake scandal)
Joe Lieberman: Select Committee On Benghazi Unnecessary ("not quite 9/11/01")
Balloon Juice » Shorter Dana Milbank Susan Rice is another mad bitch, and should not be Secretary of State. I’m noticing a trend.

Running from Romney: the GOP’s Phony New Compassion - The Daily Beast Don’t trust the Republicans suddenly rushing to embrace the 47 percent, says Michael Tomasky—they’re just as scornful of government’s helping hand as they’ve always been.
What Will Change? Nothing, Really. - Lawyers, Guns & Money : …wait, all the GOP’s problems have been solved. Sarah Palin — tanned, rested, and ready!
Debunking 5 post-election political myths - The Week Myth 4: The auto bailout saved Obama in the Midwest by keeping up his percentage among white voters. Obama did worse among white voters in counties you'd expect to be influenced by the auto bailout. (white people still racist)
Daily Kos: Unskewed and undistinguished: The 5 most gloriously awful polls of 2012
Daily Kos: The Descent of Republicans The GOP has changed–changed from a party that held a few extreme positions, into one that holds nothing but.
GOP flame-throwers estranged from reality after election - Leonard Pitts Jr. - MiamiHerald.com You are a moocher, a zombie, soulless, mouth-breathing, ignorant, greedy, self-indulgent, envious, shallow and lazy. The foregoing is a summation of “analysis” from conservative pundits and media figures — Cal Thomas, Ted Nugent, Bill O’Reilly and etcetera — seeking to explain Mitt Romney’s emphatic defeat.

Nancy Pelosi: No Fiscal Cliff Deal Without Tax Hikes For Rich (video)
Fellow Mark Thoma Looks Ahead at President Obama's Second Term — The Century Foundation There has never been a female secretary of the Treasury.
Most Independent Candidates Elected Since 1942 25 minor party and independent candidates were elected to state legislatures this month.

Who Killed the Twinkie? : The New Yorker Perhaps the most striking response to the Hostess news, in that sense, was the tweet from conservative John Nolte, who wrote “Hostess strikers had pension. PENSIONS! What is this 1962?” It was once taken for granted that an industrial worker who worked for a big company for many years would get a solid middle-class lifestyle, and would be taken care of in retirement. Today, that concept seems to many like a relic. (Bained)
Retail Workers Fight 'Just in Time' Scheduling | Womens eNews On-call shift scheduling is rough on a largely part-time and female work force trying to keep up with families, school and second jobs. Some workers are asking for better terms. First of three stories.

Who Thwarted the Ambitions of Jesse Jackson Jr.? -- New York Magazine

Got news? Obama as Antichrist prequel draws silence

Lawsuit Filed to Contest California Sex Offender Law - NYTimes.com “Americans have a right under the First Amendment to speak anonymously, and this eviscerated that right. People, for example, would have to turn over the screen names they use to comment on the New York Times Web site.”

Arsenic in Your Food | Consumer Reports Investigation

Why is Apple denying Americans information about their governnment’s drone attacks? (your iCensor)

111712
Massive Israeli Strike-back on Gaza Strip (Disturbing Video) - YouTube - Cenk Uygur - 'How long is the US going to stand behind this monumental injustice? As a US citizen, it makes me sick' (call Abe Foxman)
IDF prepares for ground invasion as Gaza offensive enters fourth day - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper Arab League delegation set to arrive in Gaza on Sunday; IDF chief instructs air force to intensify aerial attacks; Barak to Panetta: Israel is determined to achieve operation's goals; 'Anonymous' hackers launch an attack on Israeli websites.
The Hamasization of Israel's Public Relations Campaign - Jeffrey Goldberg - The Atlantic (trying to manage their invasion PR better than last time)
Unbelievable! The IDF Has Gamified Its War Blog
Israel Widens Airstrike Assault In Gaza (Netanyahu's re-election campaign ramps up)
Balloon Juice » Like Clockwork The only question was whether or not Israel would find a reason to attack before or after the election. Just like the last time.
Anonymous takes down over 650 Israeli sites, wipes databases, leaks email addresses and passwords - The Next Web
Israel Considers Any Palestinian Infrastructure That Can Be Connected to Hamas to Be ‘Terrorist’ | The Dissenter (won't be covered in US media)
The real reason Obama snubbed Netanyahu | Fox News Furthermore, the Axelrod operation believes that Netanyahu is somehow in cahoots with a major Republican effort to influence Jewish voters to abandon Obama and vote for Romney (pre-election background from Fox; he didn't get his war, he didn't get his Romney, so smash Palestinians!)

General: We're Staying in Afghanistan, No Matter What Obama Said | Danger Room | Wired.com (forever war is forever)
As Obama Prepares to Not Withdraw from Afghanistan, Treasury Declares the War on Drugs There | emptywheel For the first time ever, Treasury has designated a key Taliban member–Mullah Naim Barich–not a terrorist, but a drug kingpin. (Global War on Drugz!)
What Does Dunford’s Confirmation Hearing Tell Us About the Path Forward in Afghanistan? | emptywheel

Political Animal - Twilight of the Elites, UK edition: The Daily Show on the BBC child abuse scandal (knighted by the Popester, who was unable to detect that he was a pedophile)
BBC Failures Show Limits of Guidelines - NYTimes.com Vowing change, the corporation established elaborate bureaucratic procedures that placed more formal responsibility for delicate decisions in the hands not of individual managers, but of rigid hierarchies. (because they reported Blair "sexed up the dossier" by lying about WMDs; that worked well for everyone)
Hundreds of Irish women sought abortions in Britain in past three years | The Raw Story (refugees from the Pope's iron rule)

Obama’s Second Term Foreign Policy Plan

A Scandalous Lack of Privacy What the Petraeus scandal tells us about our own privacy vulnerabilities in the digital age
Collateral Damage of our Surveillance State | Julian Sanchez | Cato Institute: Commentary
The Police State and the Private: Electronic Communications Edition - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Paula Broadwell, FBI Agent? - The Daily Beast Six years ago, the woman who’s now at the center of the investigation of David Petraeus nearly joined the bureau herself. If only
The Tampa Woman Who May Take Down The Obama Administration | WatchDogWire - Florida
Jill Kelley's world: White House visits, meals with generals, and name-dropping emails to Tampa mayor - Tampa Bay Times "This is a situation of her own making," Buckhorn said Friday. "We're all just bystanders." In October 2010, Kelley jumped out of an airplane with a bunch of commandos.
Bats Left/Throws Right: Wednesday Olio: Hey,The 1990s Called Edition In 1997, Lt. Kelly Flynn, the first female B-52 pilot, was discharged from the Air Force for adultery.

Anonymous Claims It Stopped Karl Rove From Hacking The Election By Hacking ORCA, We Think

The millions of reasons Nancy Pelosi decided to stay “For some people in the public,” she said, “the thought of four men at the table was not an appealing sight.” With entitlements presumably on that same table, she wants to be there to watch over them.
Political Animal - Elizabeth Warren fights the good fight against the filibuster, but it’s probably a losing battle (nothings going to change, as usual)
Political Animal - Democratic women defend Susan Rice, call out her critics’ sexism, racism, and mediocrity
Daily Kos: This week in the War on Women: We're gonna need a bigger bathroom
Beating Big Money | Crooks and Liars Elizabeth Warren outraised Scott Brown $39.2 million to $26.2 million. This is a truly remarkable achievement given that Warren didn't decide to run until September of last year, and that Wall Street invested invested very heavily in Brown: the financial industry gave him almost $3.3 million, by far the most of any industry.

Harry Reid Shuts Down McCain On Libya: 'End The Politicization Of National Security' | ThinkProgress One of you, Senator McCain, has gone so far ast o make the outrageous claim that this event was “worse than Watergate” — despite the fact that there is no evidence that any crime was committed, no evidence of any cover-up, and no evidence that the administration has characterized the incident in any way that has not been consistent with the Intelligence Community’s contemporaneous assessments. (ka-pow!)

Mitt Romney: GOP Primary Debates Were 'Nuts,' Networks 'Liberals Beating The Heck Out Of Us' (yeah, that librul media with their reality bias)
Michele Bachmann: Obama Administration Adopting 'False Narrative' On Benghazi (joins Volcano John in the loony bin)
GoLocalWorcester | Politics | By Blocking Susan Rice, is the GOP Paving the Way for Scott Brown? Clearing the Way for Kerry?

Why Republicans Want Mitt Romney To Go Away Romney will carry the party's baggage off stage. “Toxic assets” into the bad bank of Mitt.
Maddow: Republicans beginning to purge ‘the crazy’ | The Raw Story
Doyle McManus: The death of the moderate Republican - latimes.com They were an endangered species in Congress even before this year's election. Now they're even closer to extinction
The GOP’s Libertarian Problem -- Daily Intel (a winning strategy)
Poll: Tea Party Voters Oppose Cuts To Medicare, Social Security | ThinkProgress Even supposedly anti-government Tea Party supporters opposed the cuts by a 76-22 margin. The poll also found consensus behind increasing taxes on higher-earning Americans: 67 percent of respondents agreed with that suggestion, including 53 percent of Republicans. (that's consistency for you)
The Problem Was Messaging, Not the Message, Say Catholic Bishops | Firedoglake (we just need to hone our mysoginistic, patriachal message a little)
Daily Kos: Catholic Church denies confirmation to teen over heretical Facebook photo (there's your message: microcensorship!)
Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: 'Religious right lashes out at black voters for pro-Obama, pro-marriage equality votes' and other Friday midday news briefs ("Christian" = "anti-gay")
Both Of These Things Are Just Like The Other | TBogg Lil Luke Russert, still smarting from getting his little pee-pee smacked by Nancy Pelosi after face-planting while attempting to stick his Villager “Some People Say….” landing, gets a failing grade from NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen and responds thusly:
Scenes From A Maul 2012 | TBogg (white peple in mourning)

Daily Kos: 'Hostess Brands is a microcosm of what’s wrong with America' But the end game is that private equity firms came in to do what they do: squeeze profits for their own multimillionaire investors at whatever cost to workers and to the company itself. Who cares if tens of thousands of workers are left unemployed and without the means to retire? (America run on the Bain model)
This I Believe - Lawyers, Guns & Money (Hostess hedge-fund "restructuring" guys looted the company)
Daily Kos: Private equity-owned Hostess blames striking workers as it liquidates

Yet Another Story of Florida Election Incompetence as Allen West Recount Gets New Life | Election Law Blog Just imagine if the presidential race hinged on Florida. How many more stories of missing and miscounted ballots would have emerged (beyond the ones we’ve already heard about) if the fate of the presidency hinged on the outcome?
AZ Election 2012: Ron Barber Defeats Martha McSally In 2nd District Race
Kevin MacDonald, Cal State Professor, Under Fire For Alleged White Supremacist Beliefs (VIDEO) California State Univeristy, Long Beach psychology professor Kevin MacDonald, a man the Southern Poverty Law Center calls the "neo-Nazi movement's favorite academic," continues to rile community members with language that some say espouses white supremacist and neo-Nazi beliefs.

BBC News - 'Breakthrough' meningitis B vaccine set to receive UK licence
Most distant galaxy ever seen possibly observed using Hubble Space Telescope.

Geoffrey McGann, Man With Strange Watch, Arrested At Oakland Airport

Is photography dead? Infographic explores the question: Connect
Apple Bans 'Erotic' Book Cover From iTunes (walled garden at work)

111612
Enforce the tax code, and strip violating Religious institutions of their tax exempt 501(c) status. | We the People: Your Voice in Our Government

Israel-Gaza Conflict: Death Toll Rises
Israeli Peace Activist: Ahmed Jabari, Assassinated Hamas Leader, Received Draft Of Gaza Truce Agreement Shortly Before Death An Israeli peace activist has come forward with a blockbuster claim about the assassination of Hamas leader Ahmed Jabari that, if true, would represent a major twist in the recent escalation of conflicts between Israeli and Palestinian forces.
Living By The Sword - The Daily Beast (starting a war in Gaza was always the fall-back plan to getting Obama de-elected)
Bodies for Ballots - The Daily Beast The Israeli spin machines are out in full force in the hopes of convincing Israelis and the rest of the world that the attacks on Gaza are in self-defense. But anyone following the situation closely and over time will tell you that cannot be the case. (ploy to win re-election and who cares how many people get killed?)
Twin Protests - The Daily Beast
For Israel—With Love And Squalor - The Daily Beast (the problem of a deeply racist state)

Taliban Email Fail: Spokesman Accidentally Reveals All The People The Groups Email

BBC Pays Lord McAlpine 185,000 Pounds Over False Child Abuse Claim
Mark Thompson Claims Ignorance Of Letter About Jimmy Savile Scandal Sent On His Behalf (yeah, sure)
Jon Stewart Rips BBC: 'At Least Someone Got Accused Of Pedophilia' (video)

Jill and Scott Kelley cultivated politicians as well as generals - Tampa Bay Times
Paula Broadwell’s big mistake - Salon.com She thought she was covering her tracks. But in the age of frictionless surveillance, Big Brother can't be stopped (they used Al-Qaeda tactics but they didn't work, should have used TOR)
Collateral damage of our surveillance state | The Great Debate (don't need no steenking warrent to spy on you)
Jill Kelley, Tampa Woman At Center Of David Petraeus Scandal, Visited White House Three Times
Rachel Maddow Warns Lawmakers, Viewers To Lay Off Petraeus Affair Details (video)

A Beachfront Retreat - NYTimes.com
For the New Occupy, Size Is Everything -- Daily Intel

John McCain's Benghazi Committee Plan Would Give Senator New Relevance (as a crazy old lying asshole)
John McCain's temper tantrums: A video history - The Week (Volcano John erupting; a little PTSD showing?)
FLORENCE - SC political briefs - SC Politics - TheState.com A conservative group said Thursday that U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-Seneca, is at the top of its target list for 2014.
GOP Rep Admits CIA Approved U.N. Ambassador's Talking Points On Libya | ThinkProgress (reality caught up to the asshole and squashed his pointless conspiracy)
Susan Rice Libya Remarks Defended By Democrats Deploring Efforts To 'Pillory' UN Ambassador - "What Susan Rice did was use talking points put out originally by the CIA, signed off by the intelligence community," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the committee chairwoman. "Those talking points, as I understand it, were requested by the House [Intelligence] Committee."

Friday: Judge Issues Injunction Over Contraception Mandate | ThinkProgress A federal judge Friday night sided with a Christian publishing company in a lawsuit against the requirement included in Obamacare to provide co-pay free contraception to employees (because religious freedom to impose your religion on other people)

ThinkProgress and increased other executives’ compensation by as much as 80 percent.
Walmart's Internal Compensation Documents Reveal Systematic Limit On Advancement

Life, Death and Deficits - NYTimes.com America’s political landscape is infested with many zombie ideas — beliefs about policy that have been repeatedly refuted with evidence and analysis but refuse to die. The most prominent zombie is the insistence that low taxes on rich people are the key to prosperity. But there are others (raising retiremenet age and eligibility for Medicare)
Reading the fiscal-cliff negotiations - The Plum Line - The Washington Post
Hullabaloo Now this is a useful tax hike ... raising the cap on social security taxes.

Congressional representation: Now that’s what I call voter suppression | The Economist The Democrats won 50.6% of the votes for president, to 47.8% for the Republicans; 53.6% of the votes for the Senate, to 42.9% for the Republicans; and…49% of the votes for the House, to 48.2% for the Republicans (some ballots are still being counted). That’s not a vote for divided government. It’s a clean sweep.
Obama's Favorability Jumps After Election Win A new Gallup poll finds President Obama's favorable rating at 58%, his best in over three years.

Boehner Pushes Obama To Relocate Fiscal Cliff Farther Down The Road
John Boehner Lengthens The Wick On The Austerity Bomb | TPMDC
Harkin: Leave Medicare, Medicaid out of fiscal-cliff talks - The Hill's Healthwatch
Today on the Fiscal Slopes | FDL News Desk unions are so far following through on protecting social insurance against potential attacks from both parties:
Union leaders meet with Obama, back austerity drive against workers
Most Republican States Won’t Build Exchanges and That Is a Good Thing | FDL Action

Political Animal - Peeling the Onion of Conservative Delusion (the future of Republicans doesn't look good because they are insane)
Political Animal - The Red-State Equivalent of Nuke-Free Zones the ever-increasing self-isolation of white southerners into a right-wing ghetto where non-ideological information rarely penetrates does tend to become self-proliferating. But it’s still weird.
Fox's Brian Kilmeade Claims Iraq WMD Intelligence Was "Correct" To Continue Susan Rice Smear Campaign | Blog | Media Matters for America (Fox found the WMDs)

House elections winding down .?.?. and starting up - The Plum Line - The Washington Post That's a gain of eight seats for the Democrats, to go along with their two-seat gain in the Senate and, of course, Barack Obama's reelection.
Feminists for the Win | The Nation
The New, Progressive Congress - Molly Ball - The Atlantic Beyond Democrats' incremental gains in numbers, a new crop of sympathetic faces in the House and Senate has given liberals reason to cheer. (progressives up, Blue-Dog fuckers down, 54-14) )
It's Elizabeth Warren's Senate, Not Bob Kerrey's (Bowles-Simpson-endorsed Kerry lost bigtime, maybe we're finally rid of the asshole

Graham Says Romney Lost Because Christians Didn't Vote "But Graham's assertion -- and implication that had white Christian evangelicals just showed up in bigger numbers, President Obama would have lost -- is off base. In fact, white evangelicals/born-again Christians made up the same percentage of the electorate as they did in 2008 - 26%. They voted for Mitt Romney, a devout Mormon, by a wider margin than they did for Sen. John McCain four years ago." (as delusional as ever)

Study: NM income inequality continues to grow - seattlepi.com the difference between their incomes is now the largest in the nation, according to a study released Wednesday
Poll: Opinion Split On Pot Legalization, Big Support Among Those Under 30 | TPM LiveWire
Finding Diversity in America | Trulia Trends - by zipcode (midwest least diverse)

Arizona Vote Count Updates: 163,482 Ballots Left Statewide, 120,000 in Maricopa County - Phoenix - News - Feathered Bastard (voter-suppression still at work; AZ lamest state)
Drug Test Rick Perry, Says Texas Democrat On Tuesday, Perry proposed drug testing for Texans who seek unemployment insurance or benefits from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, better known as welfare. Perry didn't say that unemployed and poor Texans were spending their benefits on drugs; he just said the state should make sure it doesn't happen.
Dial Global: Rush Limbaugh's Sandra Fluke Rants Hurt Our Radio Business
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » John Metz & the Whinging 1%: Do Not Fuck with Us But this John Metz character is arguably the biggest asshole of all because he’s leveling his fire at the most powerless employees in his personal fiefdom (John Metz, famous on the internets for all eternity for being a collosal asshole)

“Did you not know you were being set up after the second hit?” - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Obviously, Jeffrey Loria is one of the biggest assholes in the known universe (a population in which professional sports owners are disproportionately represented.
Miami taxpayers spent $500m on a Marlins stadium, and all they got were some lousy Jose Reyes t-shirts | Field of Schemes (Miami taxpayers scammed for $.5Bn)

Free Range Kids » A Principal Calls CPS After Mom Lets Daughter, 10, Ride City Bus to School

Photo Album - Imgur (Skyfall attention to detail)

Facebook’s Election 2012 Roundup: Big Bird, Binders Full Of Women Won Big | TPM Idea Lab
Windows RT and 8 sales: Signs point to a major flop | Microsoft windows - InfoWorld Microsoft may be using creative accounting to paper over poor sales, but don't believe the hype that it'll lead to Ballmer's ouster

111512
Next Afghanistan commander supports troops there past 2014 | The Cable (military still saying fuck you to Obama)
Tension over the Allen issue in Asia | Foreign Policy Dunford to testify, Panetta to visit shrine, Services would get cut under a new blueprint for defense spending, McChrystal’s book out in January, and more.

Irish abortion: external investigator to head inquiry into woman's death | World news | guardian.co.uk Ireland's health service to appoint independent investigator into death of Savita Halappanavar after she was refused abortion

Israel and Gaza militants in deadly exchanges – live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk
Gaza strikes: Israel targeting raft of militant groups | World news | guardian.co.uk Ahmed al-Jaabari was head of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade, one of the many groups Israel wants to debilitate
Tel Aviv Suburb Hit By Rocket
Tel Aviv Target Of Gaza Rocket Attack

Double dip: Eurozone falls back into recession - latimes.com (well, that worked well)
ekathimerini.com | PPC disconnecting 30,000 customers every month The Public Power Corporation is cutting the electricity supply to 30,000 homes and businesses each month due to unpaid bills, the firm’s managing director, Arthouros Zervos, has admitted. (that'll work too)
Eurozone crisis as it happened: Draghi urges action after eurozone falls into recession | Business | guardian.co.uk
BP Oil Spill: Employees Reportedly To Face Manslaughter Charges

Four-Star Egos - By Mark Perry | Foreign Policy The cult of the general from Douglas MacArthur to David Petraeus.
Panetta: Appears Petraeus scandal won't widen - CBS News
Lackland Air Force Base Sex Scandal Report Cites 'Abuse Of Power' Amid Petraeus, Allen Probe
Sex and the Modern Soldier - By Rosa Brooks | Foreign Policy Just how bad is the military's woman problem?
Paula Broadwell switched her PhD bid from Harvard to British college - News - Boston.com Draws - scrutiny at second college

Political Animal - The Coming “Struggle For the Soul of the Democratic Party” Obama won 92% of self-identified Democrats, up three points from his performance in his near-landslide victory of 2008, and up eight points from Bill Clinton’s performance in the last Democratic presidential re-election in 1996 ... , the fractious Blue Dog Coalition, despite several upset wins, will see its membership, decimated in 2010, decline further from 18 to 15.
Philadelphia voter fraud: Is it possible that Barack Obama won 100 percent of so many precincts? - Slate Magazine Why conservatives still think urban voter fraud rigged the election.

Hullabaloo Benghazi smell test
Benghazi: A Conspiracy Theory With No Conceivable Motive | Mother Jones
What Benghazi Is about: Scandal Envy I can sum it up in two words: scandal envy. Republicans are indescribably frustrated by the fact that Barack Obama, whom they regard as both illegitimate and corrupt, went through an entire term without a major scandal.
Questioned About Missed Briefing On Benghazi, McCain Snaps At Reporter | TPM LiveWire (Volcano John erupts again)
Balloon Juice » “Nobody died in Iran-Contra” We all know that McCain is a bitter, angry old man and perhaps the sorest loser in the history of American politics, but that does not obscure the fact that at his center he is an ignorant, lying asshole.
Fight Over Rice Exposes Tensions Between Obama and McCain - NYTimes.com If there was still any thought that President Obama and Senator John McCain might eventually move past their once-bitter White House rivalry toward a cooperative governing agenda, it was all but dashed on Wednesday.
Soledad O'Brien Grills Rep. Joe Heck On Susan Rice (incoherent)

Republicans Can Stop Obama From Soaking The Rich…By Caving | TPMDC

Republicans After ‘Gifts’ Comment: Get Off The Stage, Mitt | TPM2012 - Frum: "We lost both because voters did not believe in the job-creating magic of upper-income tax cuts - and because voters were unpersuaded that the GOP even cared that much about job creation, as opposed to wealth preservation.”
Bobby Jindal Again Explodes Over ‘Insulting’ Romney Comments | TPM2012 (LA gets lots of "free stuff" so fuck you)

Has the Emerging Democratic Majority Emerged? -- Daily Intel
The Draft Romney Movement Starts Here -- Daily Intel
Tax Haters Figure Out They’re Screwed -- Daily Intel

Republicans Say Obama Won By Promising "free Stuff." But Who Was The Real Panderer In This Election? | The New Republic - Stuff White People Like
Land of the "Free Stuff," Home of the Brave Conservatives finally found a fall guy for their big loss last Tuesday—the American people. - "97 percent of Republicans and 98 percent of Democrats report that they have used at least one government social policy" (we are all moochers, but the rich are the best at it)
Michael Tomasky on How the Right Is Still Racist - The Daily Beast Bravo to the GOP for entertaining an amnesty program for undocumented immigrants. But it won’t make a difference at the ballot box until the party stops its race baiting.

Yes, Banks Are Paying “Penalties” in Foreclosure Fraud Settlement With Other People’s Money | FDL News Desk
Hedge Fund Blackstone Buying $100 Million in Foreclosed Homes Every Week | FDL News Desk

GOP Still Playing Hardball On Violence Against Women Act | TPMDC If Republicans have been chastened by losing the women’s vote last week by the widest margin in modern history, they have a funny way of showing it. (not. Republicans want to be violent against women)

Charlie Webster, Maine GOP Chair, Alleges That Black Voters Came To Rural Towns To Vote "In some parts of rural Maine, there were dozens, dozens of black people who came in and voted on Election Day. Everybody has a right to vote, but nobody in town knows anyone who’s black. How did that happen? I don’t know. We’re going to find out…."
Maine GOP’s Charlie Webster: ‘Unusual’ To See Black People Voting | TPMMuckraker - Webster said he wasn’t racist and that he had several black friends.

Built to win: Deep inside Obama’s campaign tech | Ars Technica - The Narwhal
Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown | Ars Technica
Orca was no fail whale, says Romney’s digital director | Ars Technica Campaign says Orca basically worked; conservative bloggers suggest sabotage.

"This is part of what's so insidious about press savviness: it tries to hog realism to itself." - Jay Rosen: Public Notebook

Bonus Quote of the Day : "For the first time, there was a traffic jam in the Senate women's bathroom. There were five of us in there, and there are only two stalls." -- Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), quoted by the Washington Post, noting that the next Senate will have a record 20 women
Daily Show Looks At Why Married Women Voted Romney: They Care About America’s Future | TPM2012 Married women are “seemingly the sole demographic” that moved in Romney’s direction. And if you watch Fox News, that’s because married women care about America’s future, whereas single women care about free birth control and abortions ... But single women vote with their vaginas, Jon. And they only care about one issue: the sucking and the fucking.”
Don't Fear the Backlash The ultimate lesson of same-sex-marriage litigation is that politics is about conflict and that while it's important to be mindful of backlash, it's also a mistake to let it discourage any potentially successful strategy.
Contraception: A Human Right - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Once again, large swaths of the Republican Party oppose international definitions of basic human rights:

Christopher Castillo Arrested After Threatening To Kill Obama On Facebook
The Kissinger Transcripts - By Tom Blanton | Foreign Policy Why the former secretary of state thought the CIA was blackmailing him.

Coffee beans in danger of extinction - Technology & Science - CBC News Climate change could kill off prized Arabica plants by 2080 (wake up and smell the climate change)
Microbial fauna in your belly button is like a 'tropical forest'

The Washington Monthly - The Magazine - Last Call Industry giants are threatening to swallow up America's carefully regulated alcohol industry, and remake America in the image of booze-soaked Britain (beer for breakfast!)

Inside Google’s ‘100,000 Stars’ Chrome Experiment | TPM Idea Lab
Solar Eclipse From Space: Satellite Captures Partial Eclipse (video)

Google invests $75M in a 50MW wind farm, has contributed almost $1B to the renewable energy sector - The Next Web

111412
Israel Defense Forces Use Twitter, YouTube To Publicize Killing Of Hamas Military Chief Ahmad Jabari (Video)
Hamas says 'gates of hell opened' as Israel kills military leader in Gaza | World news | The Guardian Ahmed al-Jabari's assassination in missile strike marks 'start of broader operation' that may involve ground troops, says Israel (if he can't bomb Iran ...)
Mexico passes radical labour reforms | World news | guardian.co.uk Senate approves controversial labour laws in biggest shakeup of job market in more than four decades

'This is a Catholic country': Woman dies of septicaemia after being refused an abortion in Irish hospital - Europe - World - The Independent Mr Halappanavar, 34, also claims that after several requests by his late wife for a termination, they were told: “This is a Catholic country.” (murder in the name of the Pope)
Ireland abortion policy under scrutiny after woman's death | World news | The Guardian Death of Savita Halappanavar from blood poisoning intensifies pressure on government to create guidelines on abortion
We Are All Savita Halappanavar: Catholic Hospital in Ireland Denies Woman Life-Saving Abortion | RH Reality Check
Where the War on Women Leads - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Savita Halappanavar and the Long Shadow of the X-Case — Crooked Timber

Europe Austerity Protests: Strikes Sweep Southern Europe In Response To Cuts
UK risks triple-dip recession, Mervyn King warns | Business | guardian.co.uk Persistently low growth will last until the next election, Bank of England governor warns as he cuts 2013 growth forecast to 1% (conservative austerity fails big time, so more austerity!)

FBI's abuse of the surveillance state is the real scandal needing investigation | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk That the stars of America's national security establishment are being devoured by out-of-control surveillance is a form of sweet justice
Petraeus to Testify About Libya, Any Other Recent Petraeus-Related News Event That Might Come Up | Vanity Fair
Paula Broadwell Computer Had 'Substantial' Classified Data: Reports
Paula Broadwell Security Clearance Suspended: US Official
Paula Broadwell's Wikipedia Page May Have Contained Clue To Petraeus Affair -- Way Back In January
Separated at Birth: Florida Socialite Jill Kelley - FishbowlDC

Political Animal - Obama’s Presser: Misplaced Anger? The president bought the Republican/MSM “fiscal cliff” framing entirely, suggesting (incorrectly) that allowing current law on taxes and spending to prevail beyond January 1 for a single day would be a recession-threatening calamity
Obama Reminds Everyone: I Won | TPM2012
Obama Defends Susan Rice Against 'Outrageous' McCain, Graham Attack | TPM LiveWire
McCain: 'I Had A Sense' Romney's Polls Were Wrong | TPM LiveWire
Romney Blames Loss on Obama's 'Gifts' to Minorities and Young Voters - NYTimes.com (the moochers defeated me)
Graphic: Highly Detailed Election Results Map | TPM LiveWire

Michael Tomasky on How Mitt Romney Finally Killed Reaganomics - The Daily Beast Here’s something that happened in this election that has been largely overlooked but I think is a very big deal indeed. Trickle-down economics died last Tuesday. (Laffer curve goes flat)
What going over the 'fiscal cliff' would mean . . . - The Washington Post

Obama Breaks It Gently To GOP: Tax Rates Probably Going Up No Matter What | TPMDC Tax Rates Will Rise Unless You Can Make Your Impossible Math Work
Gov. O’Malley to GOP: Remove Tea Party ‘Stench’ - Washington Wire - WSJ - “Tea Party obstructionist stench.” (stinkers)
White House rejects Boehner’s tax deal The White House is saying, clearly, that they won’t permit the top tax rates to remains where they are. They’re taking House Speaker John A. Boehner’s proposed deal and rejecting it. (Boehner: "stink you")
The 6 Most Bizarre Freakouts Over Obama’s Win | TPM2012
Neal Backs Out | Blog | Media Matters for America Boortz's challenge came after Media Matters shone a spotlight on his claim that President Obama's reelection represented a bigger threat to the United States of America than Al Qaeda and Adolf Hitler. (rightwing fuckers are cowards)
Daily Kos: Nancy Pelosi swats down Luke Russert's 'offensive' question with a lesson on earning your job (Baby "Nepotism" Russert)
Pelosi Stays, and Democratic Women Boo When Luke Russert Asks Why
WSVN-TV - Almost 1K ballots found in Broward elections warehouse
Top Georgia GOP Lawmakers Host Briefing on Secret Obama Mind-Control Plot | Mother Jones
Hullabaloo More reasons why bipartisanship is largely dead, as appropriate

Nate Silver Goes to Hollywood? (don't need no NYT)

Poll: Opinion Split On Pot Legalization, Big Support Among Those Under 30 | TPM LiveWire
Ohio Committee Votes To Defund Planned Parenthood All 11 Republicans on the committee voted in favor of the bill, and all nine Democrats opposed. (they never give up; see Ireland)

Below the line: Poverty in America - CSMonitor.com Official figures say 46 million Americans live in poverty. Beyond that, there's little about poverty that Americans can agree on.

FFRF sues IRS to enforce church electioneering ban - Freedom From Religion Foundation - As many as 1,500 clergy reportedly violated the electioneering restrictions on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012, notes FFRF’s legal complaint. The complaint also references “blatantly political” full-page ads running in the three Sundays leading up to the presidential elections by the Billy Graham Evangelical Association. (revoke the fuckers)

After Sandy, Poll Shows GOP Faces Growing Environmental Divide with Voters - Forbes he dramatic impact 2012's extreme weather has had across party lines, with half of Republicans, 73 percent of independents and 82 percent of Democrats saying they’re worried about the growing cost and risks of extreme weather disasters fueled by climate change.
Obama Addresses Climate Change In First Press Conference Since Reelection "The climate silence is broken, and now the president can show us he's serious with a decision already on his desk: rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline would unlock so much carbon that climate scientists say, if it were built, it would be ‘game over’ for the climate." (it's an "important" issue, but not that important)

Massachusetts’ Smart Plan to Promote Housing That Works for Young People | Streetsblog Capitol Hill , Patrick announced a program called Compact Neighborhoods, which will provide incentives for the development of multi-family housing near transit centers.

Stephanie Bongiovi's Heroin Arrest: Jon Bon Jovi's Daughter Arrested After Alleged Overdose an apparent heroin overdose in her Hamilton College dorm room.
New York Times’ scathing review of new Guy Fieri restaurant goes viral | The Lookout - Yahoo! News

Folksam reklamfilm: Evas katt - YouTube

John McAfee hiding from police after businessman's murder in Belize | World news | The Guardian Computer security pioneer says he's modified his appearance since becoming a 'person of interest' in death of Gregory Faull

111312
Afghan Warlord Ismail Khan’s Call to Arms Rattles Kabul - NYTimes.com (nothing gained)

BREAKING | TPM Editors Blog Rogue federal agency upends leadership at CIA and Army.
FBI Agent in Petraeus Case Under Scrutiny - WSJ.com
Petraeus Apparently Most Mentally Balanced Individual in His Own Scandal | TPM Editors Blog
John Allen-Jill Kelley Emails Were 'Flirtatious': Senior Defense Official
Dramatis Personae | TPM Editors Blog
Balloon Juice » » Petraeus Scandal: It wasn’t 30,000 emails, you guys. Get a grip.
David Petraeus, General John Allen, and a Shirtless F.B.I. Agent : The New Yorker
Scandal probe ensnares commander of U.S., NATO troops in Afghanistan - The Washington Post
Gen. John Allen, Top Afghanistan Commander, Investigated For Email Link To Petraeus Scandal
Jill Kelley's Sister, Natalie Khawam, Got David Petraeus And John Allen Letters Of Support In Custody Battle ... Jill Kelley's sister, whom a judge described as dishonest and lacking integrity.
F.B.I. Inquiry Into E-Mails Raises Questions on Motives - NYTimes.com - Later, the agent became convinced — incorrectly, the official said — that the case had stalled. Because of his “worldview,” as the official put it, he suspected a politically motivated cover-up to protect President Obama. (and you know what "worldview" that was)
Petraeus affair: Jon Stewart on Paula Broadwell interview | TPMDC
Jill Kelley, Woman Who Sparked Petraeus Scandal, Ran Questionable Charity
Jill Kelley is an 'honorary consul' of South Korea | The Cable - invoked her honorary diplomatic status in a Nov. 11 911 call when she was complaining about trespassers on her private property. ("inviolability")
The Other Petraeus Scandal: The Sex Police - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Ah, the FBI. Ask them to prove any case involving a triviality like torture or financial fraud, you’re out of luck. But if someone might be involved in the sexytime in their email — especially if it might sort of vaguely affect a Democratic administration — they’ll be right on it
Eschaton: Kind Of Obvious: But I haven't seen it said yet. Looks like a corrupt abuse of the surveillance state took down the CIA chief. HILARIOUS
Echidne Of The Snakes: The Petraeus Puzzle
ABC Denver calls name of Petraeus biography: "All up in my snatch"
Vernon Loeb, Washington Post Editor Who Was Ghost Writer of Paula Broadwell's biography of Former General David Petraeus, Says He Never Suspected The Pair's Affair | wusa9.com
Bob Woodward Says Romney Allies Brought Benghazi Source To His Home "Some people close to Romney, a couple of weeks ago, just showed up at my house and said that they had somebody in a very sensitive position in the U.S. government who was willing to meet with me and give me information about Benghazi," Woodward told Hannity.
Obama picks Predator Drone to replace Petraeus at CIA | FluffingtonPost
William Ward, Four Star General, Demoted For Lavish Spending, Ordered To Repay $82,000

Exclusive: Lee Atwater’s Infamous 1981 Interview on the Southern Strategy | The Nation Now, the same indefatigable researcher who brought us Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” remarks, James Carter IV, has dug up the entire forty-two-minute interview from which that quote derives. (JCIV doing some serious work)

Obama Tells Progressives He Won't Budge On Bush Tax Cuts (you know, "Progressives," the 70% of the country that wants to raise taxes on the rich; talk about low expectations)
GOP Grapples With Embarrassing Polling Failures - NationalJournal.com It hurts to lose. It hurts even more when you don't see it coming ... Democrats "must be looking at us like we're the biggest f----- morons in the world," one frustrated Republican said. "That's what I'd be doing."
Bats Left/Throws Right: Buck Up. You're The Party Of Tradition. So Wait Two Months And Then Act Like Nothing Happened, The Way You Always Do.
Paul Ryan: I Didn't Lose Because Of The Issues, I Lost Because Of The 'Urban' Vote | ThinkProgress (you know, "those kind of people" who aren't "real" Americans and shouldn't be voting anyway)
Ryan: It 'Looked Like We Stood A Pretty Good Chance Of Winning' On Election Day | TPM LiveWire (ol' Zombie Eyes needs your brains)
Balloon Juice » Nothing to See Here, and It’s Easily Fixed t’s a week after the election and Arizona still has 300,000+ votes to count, some of which are provisional ballots (i.e., cast by possible Mexicans because they are brown) that might expire tomorrow. In other words, everything went according to Republican plan.

King Will Make Caucus Decision Soon Sen.-elect Angus King (I-ME) said that he could announce a decision on which caucus to join in time for tomorrow's party leadership elections, Roll Call reports. While King is widely expected to caucus with the Democratic majority, he still has not ruled out joining the Republicans.
America's roaring twentysomethings: how young voters won the culture wars | Harry J Enten | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk 2012 saw historic support for pro-choice positions, gay marriage and marijuana legalization – thanks to liberal-leaning youth
What They Could Have Bought: Better Uses for Campaign Spending - The Daily Beast Early estimates show more than $4.2 billion was blown on this election. From a walk-on for ‘Annie’ to an island for Linda McMahon, a few better uses for all of that money.
Wisconsin Republican Alberta Darling: Voter ID Would Have Let Romney Win | TPMMuckraker (Republicans: voter suppression works!)
McSally Supporter Sues To Block Ballots In Latino Precinct | TPMMuckraker
The Rise Of The Anti-Secession Petitions | TPM2012 A petition to “Deport Everyone That Signed A Petition To Withdraw Their State From The United States Of America” has already gained over 7,500 signatures.
Billy Graham Group, Catholic Bishops Come Under Scrutiny For Blurring Election Lines
Mitt Romney Economic Adviser Calls For Raising Taxes On The Rich, Contradicting Entire GOP Campaign Mitt Romney's former economic adviser Glenn Hubbard published an op-ed in the Financial Times Tuesday calling for higher tax rates on the wealthy

Federal Flood Insurance Program Faces New Stress - NYTimes.com

Deluding Ourselves Over the Fiscal Cliff - NYTimes.com Raising tax rates for those with the highest incomes challenges the supply-side proposition that even moderately higher rates would hurt growth. President Bill Clinton’s 1993 deficit reduction plan increased income tax rates for roughly the top 1.2 percent of incomes. Opponents said this would lead to recession. Instead, we had enormous job creation and the longest economic expansion in our history.
Eschaton: To Cut The Deficit, We'll Begin By Cutting Taxes Just the regular reminder that no one cares about the deficit. The people who claim to most care about it least. They have an agenda - giving more of your money to rich people - and the deficit is the excuse.

Wisconsin Lawmakers Back Bill To Arrest Federal Officials Who Implement Obamacare
Scott Walker Wisconsin Unions Law Faces Lawsuit A law enforcement union filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the constitutionality of a Wisconsin law effectively ending collective bargaining for most public workers.


Advocates of Gay Marriage Extend Their Campaign - NYTimes.com
'We the People' Petitions Filed in Nineteen States Seeking Permission to Secede from the Union (the moochers want to leave)

The Washington Monthly - The Magazine - The Conservative War on Prisons Right-wing operatives have decided that prisons are a lot like schools: hugely expensive, inefficient, and in need of root-and-branch reform. Is this how progress will happen in a hyper-polarized world? (the solution: Christian Charter Prisons!)
Charts: How Big Pork Screws Small Towns | Mother Jones (you know, those "small" farms)
Detroitism by John Patrick Leary - Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics What does “ruin porn” tell us about the motor city, ourselves, other American cities?

It's OK to tell police officers to 'f*ck off' | News.com.au

Google’s Latest Transparency Report Sees ‘Spike’ In Government Removal Requests | TPM Idea Lab Government censorship and surveillance of online activity around the globe increased markedly over the course of the first six months of 2012, Google reported Tuesday.
Lebanon news - NOW Lebanon -Facebook silencing a women’s uprising? (FB using Sharia Law)

111212
Australia to hold wide-ranging judicial inquiry into child sex abuse | World news | guardian.co.uk Royal commission to investigate churches, state care facilities, schools, charities, child services agencies and police - Deputy Police Commissioner Graham Ashton told the inquiry that the church had also hindered justice by failing to report a single case of child sex abuse in more than 50 years.
Venice 'high water' floods 70% of city | World news | The Guardian Venetians direct anger at forecasters after 'exceptional and unpredictable' rise in sea waters floods homes and businesses
São Paulo murder spree leaves at least 140 dead in a fortnight | World news | guardian.co.uk Fear grips Brazil's biggest city as undeclared war between First Capital Command gang and police leads to wave of violence

Spain Evictions Create an Austerity Homeless Crisis - NYTimes.com (more austerity ! )

The Sins Of General David Petraeus - Petraeus seduced America. We should never have trusted him. (by Michael Hastings, who blew McChrystal's cover) (BJ: "the Afghanistan surge was probably the biggest mistake of Obama’s Presidency, so far, and Petraeus is the guy who sold it.")
A Petraeus Puzzle: Were Politics Involved? : The New Yorker - Jane Mayer
Balloon Juice » FBI Agent Investigating Petraeus Scandal Under Investigation Himself Well, it turns out that the federal agent who launched the Petraeus investigation is now under investigation himself for sending shirtless photos to the woman who received harassing emails from Petraeus’s side-boo, Paula Broadwell (the story that keeps on giving)
Balloon Juice » Not a Private Affair It is true that Petraeus did not get us into Iraq or Afghanistan. But it is also undeniably true that Petraeus was a key reason why instead of pulling out from Iraq in 2004 or 2006, we waited until 2011. He is also THE key player in the 2009 surge in Afghanistan, which gave us an additional half-decade of costly conflict in that country to accomplish precisely nothing. (counterinsurgency! surge!)
Lawmakers question timing of Petraeus resignation - U.S. News - "I was contacted by an FBI employee concerned that sensitive, classified information may have been compromised and made certain (FBI Director Robert) Mueller was aware of these serious allegations and the potential risk to our national security,” Cantor said in a statement.
Petraeus Replacement Search Is Under Way - NYTimes.com
Petraeus scandal is reported with compelled veneration of all things military | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The reverence for the former CIA Director is part of a wider religious-like worship of the national security state.
The Real Petraeus Scandal - Lawyers, Guns & Money
That Is Some World-Class Slut Shaming - Lawyers, Guns & Money
25 Tons of Bombs Wipe Afghan Town Off Map [Updated] | Danger Room | Wired.com Paula Broadwell, a West Point graduate and Petraeus biographer, described the destruction of Tarok Kolache in a guest post for Tom Ricks’ Foreign Policy blog.
Paula Broadwell Emails Sent To State Department Military Liaison: AP Source According to the Washington Post, the woman was "frightened" for her safety and contacted the FBI for protection. The Post describes the emails as "threatening."
Paula Broadwell Access To Classified Information Raises Questions )
Former aides wonder: Did Petraeus stumble in unfamiliar terrain? - The Washington Post - Prominent members of conservative, Washington-based defense think tanks were given permanent office space at his headquarters and access to military aircraft to tour the battlefield. They provided advice to field commanders that sometimes conflicted with orders the commanders were getting from their immediate bosses. (Republican thinktanks were running the army)
How College Students Respond to Being Propositioned for Sex | Psychology Today Men and women react very differently to offers of sex.

Obama considers John Kerry for job of defense secretary - The Washington Post Although Kerry is thought to covet the job of secretary of state, senior administration officials familiar with the transition planning said that nomination will almost certainly go to Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. (Kerry to SecDef, Zombie Scott Brown rises to eat the brains of Massachusetts)

Cuomo to Seek $30 Billion in Aid for Storm Relief - NYTimes.com (Republicans: "Drop Dead")
Hurricane Sandy Damage Amplified By Breakneck Development Of Coast

Fiscal Cliff Talks Will Likely Target Medicare, Social Security, Programs For The Poor After bailing out a global financial crisis, enacting a series of major tax cuts for the wealthy and waging two unpaid-for wars, the U.S. government is some $16 trillion in debt. Now, in exchange for paying off a bit of that debt by returning some of the tax rates to their previous levels, Democrats have offered, in a series of high-profile negotiations, to slash trillions in spending, much of it hitting the elderly, the poor and the middle class. This process of transferring wealth up the economic ladder is known in Washington as a "grand bargain."
What's Going on With the Fiscal Cliff? | Mother Jones Why we're not really going to fall off a cliff on January 1 and everything else you need to know about the upcoming budget talks.

Who got it right in 2012
Is Obamacare too much work for the Obama administration?

Sunday Shows Ignore The Most Important Economic Issue: Jobs | Blog | Media Matters for America

Southern States to the Supreme Court: We've Changed Critics of the Voting Rights Act say its time has passed, but as the recent spate of voter-ID laws shows, that's hardly the case.
Supreme Court Appears Ready to Nuke the Voting Rights Act | Mother Jones

The GOP's media cocoon - Jonathan Martin - politico.com
Joe Scarborough: GOP Donors 'Lied To By 'Conservative Media' (like him)
Cheer up, Republicans: Things aren’t so bad - The Plum Line - The Washington Post
The Perils of Democrats’ Euphoria, or Why the 2012 Election Is Not a Realignment — The Monkey Cage
Daily Kos: Mythbusting the 2012 Elections: Why So Much Obama-Romney CW Was Absurdly Wrong
Daily Kos: From debates to Sandy: Things "everyone knows" aren't always true
Daily Kos: billmon: Mourning in America The sagging chins and pot bellies, the crew cuts and blue hair, the bad make up and worse fashion sense

Kyrsten Sinema Election Results: Arizona Democrat Beats Vernon Parker In Congressional Race becomes the first openly bisexual member of Congress, winning a race that featured millions of dollars in attack ads.

A brief (and oversimplified) cultural history of pornography and profanity on American television - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money In 1993, the American Family Association convinced 57 ABC affiliates not to air the series premier of NYPD Blue because it contained the word “asshole.”
How ESPN Ditched Journalism And Followed Skip Bayless To The Bottom: A Tim Tebow Story (the Fox of sports)

Google Plus Gets More Business-Like | TPM Idea Lab Google on Monday announced that it was merging features of Google Plus with Google Shopping, the search giant’s online product aggregator.

111112

Jimmy Savile Myth In Ruins One Year After Lavish Funeral At Jimmy Savile's funeral, a year ago Friday, the priest delivering the homily was emphatic: the DJ and television host "can face eternal life with confidence." (there is so much wrong with that sentence)
BBC in chaos as abuse victim says Lord McAlpine was not my attacker - Telegraph The BBC is mired in a fresh crisis after the key witness in a Newsnight report alleging that senior Tory Lord McAlpine was a paedophile admitted that he identified the wrong man (some OTHER upper-class pedo)

FBI probe of Petraeus triggered by e-mail threats from biographer, officials say - The Washington Post The collapse of the impressive career of CIA Director David H. Petraeus was triggered when a woman with whom he was having an affair sent threatening e-mails to another woman close to him, according to three senior law enforcement officials with know­ledge of the episode ... he law enforcement officials said the e-mails indicated that Broadwell perceived the other woman as a threat to her relationship with Petraeus.
Paula Broadwell Emails Sent To State Department Military Liaison: AP Source (the other, other woman? +no wonder the FBI got involved +threatened to "cook her rabbit")
Paula Broadwell, David Petraeus' Alleged Mistress, Embedded With Him For 1 Year in Afghanistan - ABC News
Petraeus' biographer Paula Broadwell under FBI investigation over access to his email, law enforcement officials say - U.S. News (she has one more book left in her)
Political Animal - The Legacy of Petraeus - Petraeus was worshiped in Washington like perhaps no one else in the country ... Petraeus’ recent record: the surge in Iraq, which failed in most of its stated goals; the surge in Afghanistan, which also looks to have failed; and turning the CIA into a paramilitary organization which has assassinated American citizens (even a child) with no due process.
How I Was Drawn Into the Cult of David Petraeus | Danger Room | Wired.com Some of Petraeus’ old crew found it similarly strange. “I never told General Petraeus this, but I thought it was fairly strange that he would give so much access to someone who had never written a book before,” Mansoor recalls.

Squirming Hawks - NYTimes.com The fiscal cliff poses an interesting problem for self-styled deficit hawks. They’ve been going on and on about how the deficit is a terrible thing; now they’re confronted with the possibility of a large reduction in the deficit, and have to find a way to say that this is a bad thing ... Low-priority spending? I think that means spending on poor people and the middle class. And isn’t it amazing how people who claim to be horrified, horrified about deficits can’t stop talking about cutting tax rates?
Political Animal - The Deficit Scolds Are a Bunch of Frauds (including Andrew Sullivan, Tory)
Fiscal Cliff Talks Will Likely Target Medicare, Social Security, Programs For The Poor (the plan all along)
CEOs’ self-serving deficit manifesto | Felix Salmon This is ridiculous. There are lots of serious threats out there to the economic well-being and security of the United States, and the national debt is simply not one of them ... the one group which would see most of the benefits while bearing very little of the costs would be the top 1%: the very CEOs who signed this letter (of course)
Daily Kos: Grand or otherwise, there's no bargaining with these Republicans
America didn’t vote for a “grand bargain” - Salon.com Listen up, Democrats: Obama didn't win by promising a compromise on entitlement reform. He won despite it ... In fact, the increase in the deficit was caused directly by the financial crisis and the housing bubble, and had nothing to do with the middle-class entitlement programs a grand bargain would cut. What’s more, the deficit is perfectly sustainable in any event. (all the myths Obama is negotiating with)

Hurricane Sandy: beware of America's disaster capitalists | Naomi Klein | Comment is free | The Guardian The aftermath of the storm offers a chance to rebuild a fairer society. How can we seize it? - Yes, that's right: this catastrophe, very likely created by climate change – a crisis born of the colossal regulatory failure to prevent corporations from treating the atmosphere as their open sewer – is just one more opportunity for further deregulation. (screw the poor)

Which Polls Fared Best (and Worst) in the 2012 Presidential Race - NYTimes.com Perhaps it won’t be long before Google, not Gallup, is the most trusted name in polling. (online polls did very well)
The GOP polling debacle - Alexander Burns - politico.com For Republicans, one of the worst parts of the GOP’s 2012 trouncing was that they didn’t see it coming (they only polled "real" Americans)

A More Impressive Win Than in 2008, and a More Important One - James Fallows - The Atlantic
Karl Rove under fire - Kenneth P. Vogel - politico.com (hacks and grifters will hack and grift)
Boehner Tells House G.O.P. to Fall in Line - NYTimes.com (eat shit, teaheads)
Bill Kristol: 'It Won't Kill The Country If We Raise Taxes' On Millionaires (movement is cracking) )
Senate Immigration Talks: Lindsey Graham, Chuck Schumer Restart Discussions (more cracks)
Romney Is President - NYTimes.com Team Romney has every reason to be shellshocked. Its candidate, after all, resoundingly won the election of the country he was wooing. Mitt Romney is the president of white male America.
Hullabaloo "The beating heart of modern conservatism..."
Hullabaloo Now here's a real problem (number of hours at minimum wage needed to afford rent)
Daily Kos: The colossal failure of National Organization for Marriage (another big loser)

Jerry Brown: Marijuana Laws Should Be Decided By States (video) "It's time for the Justice Department to recognize the sovereignty of the states," he said on CNN's "State of the Union." (unlikely)

Bonus Quote of the Day "I would like to see whether I can get untired." -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in an interview with Gail Collins, on what she'll do next year.

Alaska's Methane Hydrate Resource Spark Debate Over Energy And Climate Change
Doctors fear West Nile virus has mutated into more damaging form | Health | Dallas-Fort Worth... The West Nile virus epidemic of 2012, the worst in a decade, may be notorious for yet another reason: The virus, in some cases, is attacking the brain more aggressively than in the past, raising the specter that it may have mutated into a nastier form,


111012
Director General of BBC Resigns in Growing Scandal - NYTimes.com (in the job less an eight weeks; you know who else should resign ...)

Petraeus Affair and Paula Broadwell: The CIA Director resigns over his affair with his biographer .
Paula Broadwell, David Petraeus Biographer, Reportedly Woman Involved In CIA Director's Affair: Slate
Did Paula Broadwell's Husband Write A Letter To New York Times About Petraeus Affair? (UPDATED) New York Times Magazine editor Hugo Lindgren dismissed speculation that Broadwell's husband wrote the letter in a tweet on Saturday, writing: (just a coincidence and the "Ethicists" advice still sucks - protect the powerful)
In Digital Era, Affairs Like Petraeus’s Are Harder to Cover Up - NYTimes.com
F.B.I. Said to Have Stumbled Into News of Petraeus Affair - NYTimes.com (she/they did the internets wrong)
Paula Broadwell - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - 01/25/12 - Video Clip | Comedy Central Paula Broadwell discusses her time spent with General David Petraeus in war-torn Afghanistan while researching her book "All In." (the clues were there +"All In" all right)
"My Wife's Lover" ("Cloak and Shag Her" +"Broadwell" as a name for a femme fatale is right out of a James Bond novel.)
Twitter / LilianaSegura: I just hope whoever replaces ... Petraeus restores the CIA's reputation as a beacon of moral rectitude. (laughter ensues)
Truly All In | TPM Editors Blog - anonymous harassing emails (you are using that term incorrectly unless he/she went through TOR)
General David Petraeus’s Rules for Living - Newsweek and The Daily Beast (#13: don't be an idiot)

Queens Nursing Home Is Faulted Over Care After Storm - NYTimes.com (more generators on the first floor, brilliant +didn't bother stocking food +failed last year also)

Political Animal - Climate Change Will Blow Up the Deficit (deselected fact)
Global Warming Poll: Climate Change A 'Serious Problem' To 68% Of Americans

Florida to Address Delays as It Confirms Obama Victory - NYTimes.com The state is consumed by finger-pointing and finger-wagging as election officials, lawmakers and voters try to make sense of what went wrong on Election Day and during early voting. (it's so hard to figure out)
Florida Screws Up Voting Again "Let's declare Florida an election disaster area and bring in the feds."

What Romney Lost by Garry Wills | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books What can be worse than to sell your soul and find it not valuable enough to get anything for it? ... But the greater loss, the real loss, is the loss of honor. (Romney is a deeply dishonest, dishonorable man)
Daily Kos: Rethinking "shellshocked" Romney - It's better for the overall Republican brand for Romney to briefly make himself look ridiculous one last time, than to admit to the billionaire donor class that they just threw hundreds of millions of dollars down a rathole while being kept in the dark about their actual odds, and that it's just as likely to happen to them again in 2016.

Frank Rich on the GOP’s Denial -- New York Magazine - The Republican faithful at strata both low and high, from Rush’s dittoheads to the think-tank-affiliated intellectuals, have long since stopped acknowledging any empirical evidence that disputes their insular worldview, no matter how grounded that evidence might be in (God forbid) science or any other verifiable reality, like, say, census reports or elementary mathematics.
Karl Rove under fire - Kenneth P. Vogel - politico.com (Mr. Denial)
Romney: Not white enough? - Salon.com The Weekly Standard's Jay Cost calls on the GOP to nominate someone its base will really love -- like Richard Nixon - “Barack Obama and the Triumph of Identity Politics.” “Identity politics” is a conservative term for “attracting the votes of women and minorities.” (Mitt Romney’s explicit plan to turn out as many white people as possible is usually not considered “identity politics” for reasons you can probably figure out on your own.)
Fox discovers constant lying isn’t consistently effective electoral strategy - Salon.com
How Conservative Media Lost to the MSM and Failed the Rank and File - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic - On the biggest political story of the year, the conservative media just got its ass handed to it by the mainstream media. And movement conservatives, who believe the MSM is more biased and less rigorous than their alternatives, have no way to explain how their trusted outlets got it wrong, while The New York Times got it right. Hint: The Times hired the most rigorous forecaster it could find.
Is Our Conservatives Learning? - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Christian Conservatives Failed to Sway Voters - NYTimes.com Christian conservatives, for more than two decades a pivotal force in American politics, are grappling with Election Day results that repudiated their influence and suggested that the cultural tide — especially on gay issues — has shifted against them. (more losers)
Mittenfreude | TBogg - Romney was the quintessentially dishonest, fake candidate
Too Failed To Bail | TBogg A business model where a failing business is loaded up with debt which is in turn doled out in fees to senior staff before the whole thing comes crashing down around their ears? This is unheard of.
Forget Nate Silver: Meet The Guy Who Called 2012 In 2002 | TPM2012 - Ruy Teixeira
David, You’ve Got Your History Wrong | TPM Editors Blog (simple-minded Brooks is always wrong)
Daily Kos: The delicious irony about the big money GOP donors ... So in order not to have to pay more taxes, in order to prevent anyone from making them contribute to a more just and fair society, they give hundreds of millions of dollars to failed right wing political hacks such as Karl Rove, who piss those hundreds of millions away, with nothing to show for it. They might as well be doing lots and lots of really really expensive drugs.
Mitt Romney 2012 Campaign Highlights (video) | TPM2012 (Christ, what an asshole)
Romney Quickly Losing Facebook Friends more than 55,025 Facebook users have "unliked" Romney, at a rate of about 847 an hour
‘Reality is harsh to the feet of shadows’

Political Animal - The Bottomless Money Pit May have Hurt Republicans (they couldn't resist doing what they always do, spending it on themselves)
Eschaton: Zac Moffatt Internet people on Team D spent the election season making fun of Romney's digital guy, his capacity for self-promotion, and the credulous media that broadcasted his nonsense. Looks like they knew what they were talking about.
Campaign Sources: The Romney Campaign was a Consultant Con Job | RedState So what caused the breakdown and why didn’t it get fixed in time? Well according to sources who worked closely with the program, the blame is at the feet of consultants ... "Zac just went off the rails a lot and made the Romney campaign a marketing vehicle for himself.” Adding, “at least the other consultants kept their mouths shut.”
Why the white evangelical religious right can no longer presume to claim moral superiority The religious right lost because they are no longer perceived as having the moral high ground. (their God deserted them)
Peter Morrison, Texas GOP Official, Calls For 'Amicable Divorce' From 'Maggots' Who Voted For Obama (one can hope)
California GOP Showing Worries Party Strategists The nation's most populous state – home to 1 in 8 Americans – has entered a period of Democratic political control so far-reaching that the dwindling number of Republicans in the Legislature are in danger of becoming mere spectators at the statehouse.
Mary Bono Mack Loses Seat To Raul Ruiz Mary Bono Mack, a longtime GOP congresswoman from California, lost her bid for reelection on Friday (bozo down)
All Ballots Counted, Allen West Solidly Defeated By Patrick Murphy

Political Animal - President Obama Must Pardon this Man (who he put in jail for legal activity)

Medicaid Expansion To Poorest Southerners Denied By Republicans (the South: "fuck our citizens")

Democrats Fear Kerry Would be Replaced by Brown (Scottie's revenge!)

If Todd Akin Had Watched This Movie, He’d Be A Senator Today | TBogg (the Story of Menstruation by Disney/Kotex)

Cloud Atlas’s Theory of Everything by Emily Eakin | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books the directors should hire their friend the philosopher Ken Wilber to provide expert commentary and spare us from having to hit “pause” and “reverse.”
A Thief in the Night: Rise of the Antichrist Movie (standard Evangelical propaganda in the '70's and '80's)

110912
Syrian refugee crisis hits new high as 11,000 flee in single day | World news | guardian.co.uk Turkey and Jordan say they are close to being overwhelmed by numbers fleeing conflict, as UN and charities plead for help
China's economy to overtake US in next four years, says OECD | Business | guardian.co.uk China's economy will be biggest in world by end of 2016, says leading international thinktank
US military warned to prepare for consequences of climate change | World news | guardian.co.uk National Academy of Sciences recommends crash course for analysts on preparing for rise in sea level and food shortages

CIA Director David Petraeus resigns, cites extramarital affair - U.S. News
Balloon Juice » Petraeus Out MSNBC is reporting that David Petraeus is resigning because of an extramarital affair, which basically confirms what we all knew anyway. He really is a Republican, aka the Family Values party.
a Petraeus' biographer Paula Broadwell under FBI investigation over access to his email, law enforcement officials say - U.S. News (pieces of the puzzle?)

Gas Rationing Begins In New York City With Odd-Even System While Power Outages From Hurricane Sandy Persist

Rep. Alan Grayson calls the Grand Bargain ‘an artificial crisis to steal from the middle class’ | Video Cafe

Let’s Not Make a Deal - NYTimes.com So stand your ground, Mr. President, and don’t give in to threats. No deal is better than a bad deal.
Fiscal Cliff Democrats - How the Democrats Can Make the Republicans Pay - Esquire Besides associating myself with this morning's remarks from Professor Krugman, I'd also like to say that behaving as though you are operating out of a panic ginned-up by financiers, pundits, and people who still want your head on a stick is no way to celebrate stomping a mudhole in Willard Romney's privileged ass.

Come, Drink In Delusional Mitt Romney’s Election-Night Sadness With Us
A Victory for Obama and Obama's America : The New Yorker
Romney Concession - Willard Romney's Strange Little Oblivious World - Esquire - Willard Romney was a dumber politician than Dan Quayle and Sarah Palin combined.

Rachel Maddow - Time for the right to leave the bubble - YouTube
Karl Rove Tries To Convince Donors He’s Not The GOP’s Solyndra | TPM2012 “Is this just math that you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better?” Fox host Megyn Kelly asked at one point, “Or is this real?”
GOP Mega-Donor: These Super PACs Are So Secretive! | TPMMuckraker “You have no idea of the financial structuring of a lot of these outside groups in terms of how much went to the actual delivery of a message,” Friess said, “versus how many dollars were taken off as fees to the people running them.” (rich guys wake up to how the system works)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Two Parts of the Con
Republicans ‘Test’ For Voting Fraud, Wind Up In Custody | TPMMuckraker Two Republicans in separate states were taken into police custody during the past week for allegedly attempting to test how easy it would be to commit voter fraud.
Matt Taibbi: Mitt Romney Would Have Won If Republicans 'Were Self-Aware At All'
Hey, Rush Limbaugh: 'Starting an Abortion Industry' Won't Win You Female Voters | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone
Conservative Media Turn On Governor Christie Following Romney Defeat | Research | Media Matters for America
No state-run health insurance exchanges in Missouri or Kansas | Midwest Democracy (how to screw your own citizens)
the daily howler: Slowest Children Of The Press Corps: George Will!
Bats Left/Throws Right: Goodbye To All That. For About Two Months. [Now Updated With Math!] George Eff Will, "And the winner is: The status quo"
Eric Dondero on Boycotting Democrats -- Daily Intel (bitter tears of impotent rage)
In The Loop | Flagpole Magazine | Athens, GA News, Music, Arts, Restaurants Almost 4,000 Athens voters wrote in Charles Darwin (or some variation thereof) against U.S Rep. Paul Broun, giving the father of evolution 16 percent of the vote, according to a list of write-in votes the Athens-Clarke Board of Elections released this morning.
Anti-Obama Teen Kristen Neel's Tweet About Moving To Australia Triggers Heated Twitter Backlash (famous on the internets for all eternity, Kristen Neel)
Tammy Baldwin To Ron Johnson: 'I'm Quite Confident' I Understand The Federal Budget
After Years Of Decrying "Amnesty," Sean Hannity Endorses A "Pathway To Citizenship" | Video | Media Matters for America (self-deportation to Mexico)
John Koster, GOP House Candidate Who Spoke Of 'The Rape Thing', Conceding House Race (that was a winning issue; all three down, blames everyone but himself)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Open Thread: Blame the Single Ladies! a clear front-runner in the Blame Game has emerged: single women, who gave 68 percent of their vote to Obama, compared to 53 percent of married women who voted for Romney. (Obama got the slut vote, big time)
Gallup: 2012 election had the largest gender gap in recorded history - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room President Obama won women by 12 percentage points, while Mitt Romney won men by 8. That’s a 20-point gender gap, edging out the 1984 election when Ronald Reagan defeated Democrat Walter Mondale in a landslide ... 2012 was the fifth straight election to feature a double-digit gender gap. (and growing as men get stupider)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » More Geekenfreude the GOP’s Project ORCA —you know, the GOTV system that failed more or less completely ... "It was a giant [mess] because a political operative sold a broken product with no support or backup plan…" (they conned themselves)
Romney’s Get Out the Vote Fiasco « Commentary Magazine

As Nation and Parties Change, Republicans Are at an Electoral College Disadvantage - NYTimes.com (need +3 popular vote to make up +South has solidified and captured KY,IN)
The Washington Monthly - Rage Machine Vs. Turnout Machine By Rich Yeselson - The three rings of this circus—the paranoid billionaires, the activist and media crackpots, and the resentful elderly and white men (and, frequently, their spouses)—are tied so tightly that it would destroy the party if the links were broken. (old white guys are very, very angry)
Study: Obama’s reelection drives racist tweet increase from south | The Raw Story (no shit)
Political Animal - Turnout Disparities and the Democratic Dilemma for 2014 midterms always, always produce an electorate that is older and whiter than presidential cycles.
Political Animal - How’d That “War on Religion” Wedge Issue Work Out? (Cult of the Red Beanie FAIL)

There’s A Culture War, And Democrats Are Winning - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Who's The Best Pollster Of 2012? Not So Fast

Florida’s Messy Democracy - The Daily Beast Republican legislation and a long ballot led to shamefully long lines in the Sunshine State. But Latino voters represented anyway,
Rick Scott On Decision Not To Extend Early Voting: 'The Right Thing Happened'
Presidential Election 2012: Florida as embarrassing afterthought - West Palm Beach liberal | Examiner.com - The simple truth is that over the past two years, the RPOF's legislative "super-majority" elected in 2010 spent a disgraceful amount of taxpayer time focused on forcing through various voter suppression initiatives - two of which combined to create this mess.
Husted’s latest idea would have handed Ohio to Romney
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » BREAKING: Teabagger War Criminal Allen West Denied Recount

David Petraeus Resigns - Out on the Week - Esquire (CP explains how he escaped the Symplagades, and note, he won't be around for a week)
Extra chromosome 21 removed from Down syndrome cell line | UW Today

The ethics of outing your rapist | Jill Filipovic | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk In naming her father on YouTube as her rapist, a woman is taking possession of the right to tell her story

Photographer puts a GoPro in bride’s bouquet for a unique wedding video: Connect

Viagra patent tossed out by Supreme Court | Sympatico.ca Finance

Apple accused of dragging feet over Samsung court order | Technology | guardian.co.uk Judges furious over 'lackadaisical' compliance with order to publicise acknowledgements that South Korean firm did not infringe designs

110812
China’s Hu Jintao warns corruption could prove fatal to Communist Party | McClatchy
Phillip Schofield confronts Prime Minister David Cameron with list of 'Tory paedophiles' live on This Morning - Crime - UK - The Independent ("Tory" is Brit for "Phillip Schofield confronts Prime Minister David Cameron with list of 'Tory paedophiles' live on This Morning - Crime - UK - The Independent (list is very long of upplerclass conservatives)
How to View Defense Spending in Asia

Romney Campaign Concedes Florida The final Electoral College tally is Obama at 332 and Romney at 206.
Mitt Romney Campaign: We Lost Florida To Obama In Presidential Election

Secret Service Leaves Romney He had ridden in a 15-car motorcade to the Intercontinental Hotel in Boston for his concession speech. He rode in a single-car motorcade back across the Charles River to Belmont. His son, Tagg, did the driving." (SS dropped him like a hot potato)

In 2nd term, Obama’s first foreign policy challenge will be replacing Hillary Clinton | McClatchy
Did Obama Move American Government to the Right? Is the Pope Jewish? - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Big Bet Six Months Ago Paved Way for President - WSJ.com
Power-Mad Conservatives - NYTimes.com
Political Animal - Bush Was On the Ballot

Voting Limits Caused Less Chaos This Year Than Epic Lines | TPMMuckraker
The Billion-Dollar Buy: The billion-dollar bust? - politico.com
Taegan Goddard's Political Wire "I'd be asking for a refund." -- David Axelrod, quoted by Greg Sargent, joking what he would do if he were one of the billionaires who had handed big checks to Karl Rove.
Romney Shellshocked at Loss Said the adviser: "We went into the evening confident we had a good path to victory. I don't think there was one person who saw this coming."
Jon Stewart on Fox News’ election night meltdown | TPM2012
Rick Perry's Campaign May Have Been A Joke, But It Also May Have Helped Decide The 2012 Election | The New Republic
Republicans Help Democrats Pad Their Senate Majority Ahead Of Brutal 2014 Election | TPMDC Two years from now, the Senate Democrats who rode the 2008 wave into office will face re-election. In theory, this provides the GOP with large pick-up opportunities.
I Accept Your Terms, Sir! - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lotta great stuff out there for those who enjoy despair-of-the-broken-and-defeated posts. Assrocket and RS McCain are the best I’ve seen; feel free to link to others in comments.
Balloon Juice » But what’s the use of looking if you don’t know what they mean?
Karl Rove, American Crossroads Spin GOP Election Losses
Romney Staff Credit Cards - Willard Romney, Cutting of The Help for Good - Esquire Aides taking cabs home late that night got rude awakenings when they found the credit cards linked to the campaign no longer worked. Classic. They're all lucky they're not working in China now.
Daily Kos: The kids will destroy the GOP President Barack Obama won the 18-29-year-old vote 60-37. He lost the 65 and older vote 56-44. Guess who will be around longer?

Holiday Gift Guide: Romney/Ryan 2012 Campaign Edition - Politics - The Atlantic Wire (get 'em while you can, cheap!)
White People Mourning Romney (delicious)

Daily Kos: Allen West refuses to concede, ready to sue . Remember, West raised more money than anyone in the House besides John Boehner.

publish.nyc.indymedia.org | FBI Forensic Computer Crime Experts Asked To Investigate Romney-Owned Machines The Green Party is asking the FBI to send in forensic computer crime experts to investigate the software Romney-owned Solamere has put into Cincinnati, Ohio and other swing state voting machines

The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Warren Has the Skills for the Senate
Hawaii sends nation's first Asian American woman to Senate - San Jose Mercury News "I bring quadruple diversity to the Senate," Hirono said at a rally earlier in the campaign. "I'm a woman. I'll be the first Asian woman ever to be elected to the U.S. Senate. I am an immigrant. I am a Buddhist. When I said this at one of my gatherings, they said, 'Yes, but are you gay?' and I said, 'Nobody's perfect.'"

Harry Reid Occupy - What Occupy Did to 2012, What It Will Do to 2013 - Esquire
The Real Problem with the Demented Republican Party - Esquire
Catholic Vote 2012 - Catholic Vote? What Catholic Vote? - Esquire (Clan of the Red Beanie loses big)

Crosstabs: The 2012 Obama Coalition | TPM TV
Inside Gallup’s Epic Fail | TPM Editors Blog In 2004, the white vote was 77% of the electorate, in 2008, 74% of the electorate and in 2010, 78% of the electorate. So Gallup posited that that the racial make up of the electorate would be the same as two years ago and that 2008 was an outlier.
Collision | TPM Editors Blog Generalized and even principled hostility to science and expert opinion makes it much easier to sustain. But losing an election has the clarity of hitting a brick wall at 100 miles an hour. Call it the ultimate disconfirming experience.
Among the top election quants, Nate Silver reigns supreme | Politics and Law - CNET News Not only did FiveThirtyEight's Silver pick all 50 state winners in the presidential race, he also beat out his polling aggregator rivals for sheer margin of accuracy.
Election 2012 results: Florida presidential votes Hispanic Cuban Jewish battleground Mitt Romney came far closer with Cuban American voters, picking up 47% of their vote, while President Obama grabbed 49% ... Jewish voters did not go as far as the republican presidential candidate had hoped. Romney picked up only 30% of the statewide vote, while President Obama won 66% of that critical voting population.
GOP legislative 'losers' and DFL 'winners' take decidedly different tacks | MinnPost The losers couldn’t have been more petty; the winners couldn’t have been more gracious.
Balloon Juice » I’m Still Loving The Smell Of Schadenfreude In The Morning: Geek Edition
Balloon Juice » What to do when the people you dismiss, kick your ass… ("voting is the best revenge")
Balloon Juice » Better than 80/20 Latino Vote the Latino vote provided Obama with 5.4 percent of his margin over Romney, well more than his overall lead in the popular vote. Had Romney managed even 35 percent of the Latino vote, he said, the results may have flipped nationally.
Balloon Juice » » No Money From Nobody, Again . O’Neill was the “no money from nobody” candidate for the Ohio Supreme Court. He doesn’t accept campaign donations. O’Neill is a Democrat, although he was not the Party choice this year partly because he won’t accept campaign contributions.

Calculated Risk: Thursday: Initial Unemployment Claims, Trade Deficit

Don’t bust pot states, Obama - Salon.com Voters in Washington and Colorado have OK'd marijuana legalization. The president should respect their will
Religious Vote Data Show Shifts In Obama's Faith-Based Support "The basic religious contours of the 2012 electorate resemble recent elections -- traditionally Republican groups such as white evangelicals and weekly churchgoers strongly backed Romney, while traditionally Democratic groups such as black Protestants, Hispanic Catholics, Jews and the religiously unaffiliated backed Obama by large margins,"

Alan Grayson Takes On Koch Brothers: 'People Are Wising Up' To 'Outright Lies,' 'Trickery,' 'Propaganda' (VIdeo)
Ace of Spades HQ The bitter irony of this entire endeavor was that a supposedly small government candidate gutted the local structure of GOTV efforts in favor of a centralized, faceless organization in a far off place (in this case, their Boston headquarters). Wrap your head around that (wingnut gets screwed by Big Campaign, ho-ho).

BBC News - 'Super-Earth' exoplanet spotted 42 light-years away Astronomers have spotted another candidate for a potentially habitable planet - and it is not too far away.

110712
Syria conflict: Obama urged to be tougher with Assad - Wednesday 7 November 2012 | World news | guardian.co.uk
Athens ablaze as protesters try to storm parliament | World news | The Guardian Petrol bombs thrown and teargas and water cannons used as 80,000 protest against proposed austerity measures
Guatemala Earthquake 2012: USGS Reports Strong Quake
French government approves introduction of same-sex marriage | Society | The Guardian Draft law on gay marriage and adoption to go before parliament amid protests and concerns plans do not go far enough
Poll: Israel viewed negatively around th... JPost - National News BBC survey measures public opinion on 22 countries, places Israel in company of North Korea, ahead of only Iran, Pakistan.


Barack Obama Victory Speech: 'The Best Is Yet To Come'
Mitt Romney Concession Speech: Presidential Candidate Concedes Election To Obama

Bonus Quote of the Day He didn't get enough votes." -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), quoted by CNN, explaining why Mitt Romney lost the presidential race.

Senate Election Results (Dems: +3)
Dems keep Senate, leaders urge working toward solutions - CNN.com
The Real Real America - NYTimes.com Tomorrow — or I guess today — comes the cleanup; when thousands, perhaps millions, of right-wing heads explode, it makes quite a mess. Also, notice that the polls were right. I wonder if I can get invited when Nate Silver is sworn in as president?
OBAMA'S BIG NIGHT - Molly Ball - The Atlantic From landmark victories for marijuana and same-sex marriage to picking up seats in the Senate, the left gained much more than the presidency Tuesday.
Liberal Schadenfreude Hits Impossible Heights As Results Pour In | TPM2012
Balloon Juice » Ass Missile has a Sad. (Tears of Impotent Rage: Drink all You Want: There's plenty more.)
Howard Fineman: Why Obama Won Is So Clear, The Day After "Obama ran a flawless campaign except for the first debate, and they pivoted correctly every time. Very impressive," he wrote. "Romney ran a ridiculous campaign and the primaries killed him and he was never able to fix that. He wound up being one of two things: either a liar with no center or a right wing nut case."
Republicans Grapple for Answers After Loss - NYTimes.com It was the morning of the Republican hangover.

US Election 2012 analysis: Hindsight will view Mitt Romney as a poor candidate, says Toby Harnden | Mail Online - but his biggest failing was that even after running for the White House for the best part of six years it was hard to fathom exactly who he was or what he really believed – as opposed to what he thought voters wanted him to believe.
Michele Bachmann clings on to her seat but key conservatives beaten by Democrat challengers | Mail Online
PM Netanyahu meets US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro - YouTube (Netanyahu eats shit and looks very uncomfortable doing it)

Harry Reid: Filibuster Reform Will Be Pursued In The Next Congress
Joe Biden: Election A Mandate On Tax Policy
Obama back at the wheel as US economy heads for a fiscal cliff | Business | The Guardian Barack Obama has less than two months to broker a deal with the Republicans to prevent crippling budget cuts

Obama Speech Election Night 2012 - Tom Junod on Obama's Election 2012 Victory Speech - Esquire< The Greatness of Barack Obama Is Our Great Project, by Charles P. Pierce - Esquire
/a>
Mitt Romney New Hampshire Rally - Alone at Mitt's Movable Feast on Election Day Eve - Esquire
Ohio Election Night 2012 - The Ohio Governor and the Worst Victory Party in America - Esquire

Women In Senate: 2012 Election Ushers In Historic Number Of Female Senators The 113th Congress will have 20 female senators, the most ever in U.S. history.
Gender Gap In 2012 Election Aided Obama Win In total, the gender gap on Tuesday added up to 18 percent -- a significantly wider margin than the 12-point gender gap in the 2008 election.
GOP Women And Abortion Dismissal Was A 'Strategic Error,' Conservatives Scold
alicublog - The Ladyparts Election
Record number of women headed to the Senate: War on women won?
Latino Voters In Election 2012 Help Sweep Obama To Reelection Obama had won 75 percent of Latino voters nationwide, while exit polls found him with around 70 percent Latino support, with figures likely to change throughout the night as tallies come in from the West Coast.
Poll: Latino Vote Devastated GOP Even Worse Than Exits Showed | TPM2012 by an eye-popping 75-23 margin
Sherrod Brown: 'Karl Rove Had A Bad Night'
Obama Won A Mandate On Election Day To Take America Further Forward | The New Republic
Republicans Bet Everything, and Obama Won It All -- Daily Intel
Balloon Juice » More than Enough Bush “won” in 2000 with 271 electoral votes. In 2004 he upped that to a massive 286.
Balloon Juice » The Master ere’s Karl Rove confabulating some Ohio math split screened with Fox’s Ohio call. Not all the counties are in! I await his WSJ column explaining how Mitt Romney would have won if only he had understood that blue-collar males, the soccer moms of this election, wanted to hear more about legitimate rape.
'Now I'm Going to Offer You a Hamburger' - Jeffrey Goldberg - The Atlantic I understand that Obamacare death panels will soon be meeting at Springsteen concerts, as his fan base ages.
Alan Grayson Election Results: Former Congressman Reelected In Florida House Race No other candidate had lost by 18 points in one year, only to turn around and win the next cycle by 25 -- a 43-point swing.
Allen West Election Results: Democratic Newcomer Patrick Murphy Prevails
Joe Walsh Election Results: Illinois Congressman Defeated By Tammy Duckworth
Hippies Wander Into the Lions' Den, Maul Lions - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic - The beast-handlers know this. I think it's broadcast in Bill O'Reilly's open racism, in Karl Rove's flight into lunacy. It is slowly dawning on them: This isn't 1968. The hippies are punching back.

Sitting on Top of the Senate Against all odds, Democrats keep their hold on the Senate—with liberals leading the way.
Obama's win matched by advances for progressive Democrats | Michael Cohen | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The longer-term significance of the 2012 election is the growing strength and confidence of the Democratic party's liberal wing
The 2012 Elections: Heralded by Sergio Romo's Shirt | The Nation
Victory - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Balloon Juice » So You Say You Want a Revolution - The National Review openly calling for a civil war. ("But we’ve won civil wars and preserved the Union before." yes, they are that stupid)
Balloon Juice » I loves you PORGI (against post-religious, globalist intellectuals!)
Drudge: How the Drudge Report reported Obama's victory, or didn't.
Obama the moderate Republican: What the 2012 election should teach the GOP. - Slate Magazine Cheer Up, Republicans You’re going to have a moderate Republican president for the next four years: Barack Obama.
Hullabaloo - digby - They picked the wrong guy --- and what comes next (teaparty feels vindicated by Romney losss: he wasn't conservative enough)
A big night for Democrats and liberals - The Plum Line - The Washington Post
Hullabaloo Buh Bye Mitt by digby - We hardly knew ye ... thank goodness (great pic)

Pundit Scorecard: Checking pundits’ predictions against the actual results of the presidential election. - Slate Magazine
Daily Kos: Punditz: 34 blown election predictions

The Obama Realignment - NYTimes.com (Douthat cries)
A Theory Behind the GOP Losses No serious political party in America -- no legitimate party in any viable democracy -- can win an election by suppressing votes

US Senate - 2012 Massachusetts Election Results - Brown vs. Warren - Boston.com (Warren: +8)
Elizabeth Warren On Her Senate Victory: 'We Stuck To Our Values'
Elizabeth Warren Wins Massachusetts Senate Race - Senator Elizabeth Warren, Hell-Raiser Already - Esquire

Nate Silver-Led Statistics Men Crush Pundits in Election - Businessweek
Nate Silver Takes A Victory Lap After Obama Re-election
AMA Request: Nate Silver - fivethirtyeight.com : IAmA
Daily Kos: Eggs on their faces: Pollsters Mason Dixon and Suffolk incredibly wrong
Scott Rasmussen Explains Why His Polls Didn't Foresee an Obama Win

The Most Accurate Polls (24. Rasmussen; 25. Gallup; 26. NPR, third from the bottom)
The Accuracy of the Final National Polls — The Monkey Cage
2012 Poll Accuracy: After Obama, Models And Survey Science Won The Day
Simon Jackman: Pollster Predictive Performance, 51 out of 51
How the pollsters won the 2012 US election, mostly | Harry J Enten | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk It was a good night for most polling organisations; aggregators got it close to perfect. For the 'unskewed' crowd, not so much
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Fundamentals and the Triumph of Avoiding Disaster
Balloon Juice » Another Dispatch From Inside the Bubble The bigger question is why on earth he ever thought just changing numbers in a poll until you liked the outcome was going to actually reflect the reality on the ground. That’s the power of the bubble working.
Rest of Election Day Open Thread | protein wisdom (winger tears are precious)

Balloon Juice » Our Big Fat Gay Election - I thought witnessing the Great PUMA Tantrum of Aught-Eight in real time was fun, but it turns out that was just the bagged crudité tray before the grand schadenfreude banquet that is the Colossal Wingnut Bed-Shitting of 2012. Good times! (+great pic)
Gay Marriage Victory In Maine, Maryland; Minnesota Votes Down 'Traditional' Amendment
Political Animal - Gay Rights and Our New Libertarian Normal
Colorado, Washington Pot Legalization Deals Drug War Major Blow
Amendment 64 Opponents Speak Out On Legal Weed: Hickenlooper Says 'Don't Break Out The Cheetos' Yet; AG Suthers Calls Out The DOJ The votes marked a significant shift from decades of tough-on-crime policies that burned through $1 trillion in tax dollars over 40 years, led to the arrest of 850,000 Americans for marijuana law violations in 2010 alone, and fueled the rise of deadly drug cartels abroad.

Heidi Heitkamp Election Results: Democrat Defeats Rick Berg In North Dakota Senate Race
Paul Ryan's War On Poverty Ryan has authored budgets to slash the social safety net for poor people, which would necessarily excaberate poverty. Ryan told the audience that he would limit the federal government's role.

Meet The Nation's Five Worst Election Officials | ThinkProgress (good thing they are as incompetent at voter supression as everything else)

Voters retain Justice David Wiggins | The Des Moines Register | desmoinesregister.com Voters retained Justice David Wiggins on the Iowa Supreme Court, following a heated campaign to remove him from the bench. (teaparty tries to get rid of sane judge; fails)
Roger Rivard Loses Reelection To Wisconsin Assembly After Saying 'Some Girls Rape Easy'
Victoria Jackson On Obama's Win: 'I Can't Stop Crying, America Died'
Diane Sawyer Drunk Rumor Explodes On Twitter

Oklahoma executes Garry Thomas Allen despite claims of insanity | World news | guardian.co.uk Execution carried out for 1986 murder despite 56-year-old appearing confused and rambling about presidential election

Graham Spanier arraigned over Penn State Jerry Sandusky case | World news | guardian.co.uk Former Penn State president faces charges including perjury, obstruction, endangering the welfare of children and conspiracy
Eric Barker: Which Professions Have The Most Psychopaths? (politicians? Republicans?)

Anti-Aging Substance Is Made of Human Sperm -- New York Magazine Spermine, a powerful anti-oxidant originally discovered in, yes, human sperm, is said to diminish wrinkles and smooth the skin. The substance is now being synthesized in laboratories and sold by a Norwegian company called (seriously) Bioforskning.

Chinese Condom Ad
Morgan Stanley Tries To Halt Facebook IPO Lawsuit
When A Mouse Requires An Internet Connection, You're Doing 'Cloud' Wrong | Techdirt

110612
Obama Elected 2012: President Clinches Electoral Vote Win
Barack Obama Reelection Signals Rise Of New America
Tammy Baldwin Defeats Tommy Thompson In Wisconsin | TPMDC America’s the first openly gay senator
Chris Murphy Defeats Linda McMahon | TPMDC
Democrat Brown Re-elected To Senate Seat In Ohio | TPMDC
Angus King Wins Maine Senate Seat | TPM2012
Tim Kaine Defeats George Allen In Virginia | TPMDC
Democrat Nelson Re-elected To Senate In Florida | TPMDC
Richard Mourdock Election Results: Joe Donnelly Defeats GOP Rival In Indiana Senate Race (rape boys go down)
Todd Akin Election Results: Claire McCaskill Defeats GOP Challenger
Elizabeth Warren Election Results: Consumer Advocate Unseats Scott Brown (cosmo-boy gets 47%)
Amendment 64 Passes: Colorado Legalizes Marijuana For Recreational Use
Maine Passes Gay Marriage In Historic 'Question 1' Vote

Captain: Army general in sex case threatened to kill me - U.S. News The woman said she was honored at first by the attention from Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair, who she said was highly regarded. They first had sex in 2008 at a forward operating base in Iraq, she said.
Neil Heywood Murder: Brit Killed In China Was MI6 Informant, Newspaper Investigation Claims

Nov. 5: Late Poll Gains for Obama Leave Romney With Longer Odds - NYTimes.com Mr. Romney’s chances of winning the Electoral College have slipped, and are now only about 8 percent according to the forecast model — down from about 30 percent 10 days ago. (O at 92%)
Princeton Election Consortium — A first draft of electoral history - Electoral Prediction (mode): Barack Obama 303 EV, Mitt Romney 235 EV - Two-Candidate Popular Vote Share: Obama 51.1%, Romney 48.9%.
Nate Silver on political pundits | TPM2012 “I’m not very pro-pundit, I have to say,” Silver said. “If pundits were on the ballot against, like, I don’t know, Ebola, I might vote Ebola, or third party.”
2012 Senate Polls: Democrats Favored To Retain Majority

Romney Supporters Ready To Blame Government Moochers If Obama Wins | TPM2012
Why There Are Long Lines In Miami: City Financed Lavish Baseball Stadium Instead Of Voting Equipment | ThinkProgress In Miami, for instance, the city force-fed a new baseball stadium for the Miami Marlins to residents. To finance the stadium, Miami-Dade County sold $377 million in public bonds, and the city of Miami sold an additional $102 million. If other cities are any indication, financing the debt on those bonds will eventually force the city to cut back on other services it provides to its residents (rich moochers will always mooch) )
True the Vote in Ohio - Election Day in Ohio: True the Vote's Suppression Machine - Esquire
Pennsylvania Voter ID Election Day - Election PM in Pennsylvania: Voter ID and Deanery - Esquire County officials received a complaint shortly before 10 a.m. Tuesday that Republicans outside a polling location on Maple Street in Homestead were stopping people outside the polls and asking for identification.
Milwaukee Voting Machine Problems - Election PM in Wisconsin: Machine Politics, Literally - Esquire Just put your ballot in this bin here and don't worry, we'll cast it for you later.
Political Animal - Your Voter Suppression Round-Up
America's voting system is a disgrace - CNN.com
Voting Machine Turns Obama Votes into Romney Votes A Pennsylvania electronic voting machine has been taken out of service after being captured on video changing a vote for President Obama into one for Mitt Romney, NBC News has confirmed. (just an "accident")
Sinclair Broadcast Group Station Airs Anti-Obama ‘Special’ In Ohio | TPMMuckraker A call to Sinclair’s corporate headquarters was not returned.
Political Animal - Whoever Wins, We Must Destroy the Electoral College
Election Day: The Worst Day For Headlines In All Of American Journalism | The New Republic
I’m a libertarian. Which is why I’m voting for Mitt Romney. « Corey Robin
Classic George Will. Seriously. - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money This vintage 1976 clipping of a George Will column, warning us sternly about the dangers of allowing voter registration by . . . mail. Because it would mean a “substantial increase in bureaucracy, and a substantial increase in the opportunity for fraudulent voting.” (he's been a an asshole, and wrong, his whole pathetic life)
Political Animal - Rather’s “Gut” Perfect End To MSM Campaign Punditry Longtime television journalist Dan Rather said on Tuesday that reporters shouldn’t predict elections based on their gut — but added that his tells him Mitt Romney will have a good day. (all you need to know about it)
(3) @RepublicanTears/feed on Twitter
An Exhaustive Collection of Pundit Predictions -- Daily Intel
Chrysler gives workers day off to vote - politico.com (revenge!)

US Senate - 2012 Massachusetts Election Results - Brown vs. Warren - Boston.com
Political Animal - Early Good News for Liz Warren , it should be noted that the state chooses its governors in off-election years. There’s no telling if William Weld (1990, 1994), Paul Cellucci (1998) and Mitt Romney (2002) would have been elected if presidential elections had been occuring (big Beantown turnout; McDreamy to have bad night)
Massachusetts Senate Election Day - Scott Brown: A Day Late and a Few Poll Numbers Short - Esquire If Brown loses, as the polls seem to indicate that he will, he will have to blame whomever it was that advised him to run most of this campaign as though he were auditioning for a weekend slot on WRKO in Boston

Michigan Special Masters Law - A Referendum We Can All Agree Upon - Esquire Michigan's emergency managers law appears headed for defeat, with only 36% of voters supporting to 45% who are opposed.
The Villages' Democrats Find Second-Rate Citizenry In A Billionaire's Republican Kingdom

Brie Lybrand, New Orleans Beauty Guru, Posts Video Claiming She Was Raped By Her Father "My father, Steven Bressler, molested, tortured and raped me from the time I was four until I was 13 years old," she says. this comes days after Google implemented a first/last name requirement for screen names on YouTube.

Human trials for HIV/AIDS vaccine making steady progress The first and only preventative HIV vaccine based on a genetically modified killed whole-virus has been making steady progress in Phase I Clinical Trials in the United States

Skype hands 16-year-old's personal information to IT company | nu.nl/internet | Het laatste nieuws het eerst op nu.nl - Skype illegally distributed a user's personal information to a private company during a police investigation into Anonymous-sanctioned cyberattacks on PayPal.
Why Google Went Offline Today and a Bit about How the Internet Works - CloudFlare blog
iPad Market Share Drops: Apple Tablets Slip To 50 Percent Of Devices Shipped In Q3 2012

110512
Outcry after rape of Indian girl aged 16 triggers calls for reduction in age of consent - Asia - World - The Independent

New Jersey Email Voting 2012 -Sandy's Secondary Disaster: The Institution of Voting - Esquire We've all seen the footage from Staten Island and Breezy Point in the Rockaways. Would you be thinking about voting if that was now your life?

Sandy Versus Katrina - NYTimes.com The fact is that if Mr. Romney had been president these past four years the federal response to disasters of all kinds would have been far weaker than it was. There would have been no auto bailout, because Mr. Romney opposed the federal financing that was crucial to the rescue. And FEMA would have remained mired in Bush-era incompetence.
Protecting New York City, Before Next Time - NYTimes.com (oysters and titdal marshes in lower Mahattan, un-huh)
Giuliani Claims Obama Response To Hurricane Sandy 'Worse Than Katrina' | ThinkProgress

Romney's Closing Pitch: Elect Me Or Face Another Recession | TPM LiveWire
Thoughts on the Left at the End of an Election Cycle - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money
The ground war: Knock, knock | The Economist Some old truths are being rediscovered
Mitt Romney's Bain Capital Dodged $102 Million In Taxes By Using Dutch Tax Loophole, Newspaper Writes

The 10 Greatest Moments Of The 2012 Campaign | ThinkProgress (clown-parade)
From the Party of Lincoln to the Party of Calhoun, Virginia Edition - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Today In Delicious Attempts By Republicans To Rationalize Losses - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Rightbloggers Anticipate Romney Landslide, Denounce Nate Silver, Katy Perry - New York - News - Runnin' Scared
Political Animal - GOP’s Racial Gamble Backfiring this year’s Republican campaign has been based on a big strategic gamble that a deliberate alienation of black and brown voters would ultimately matter less than a full mobilization of Republican strength among older white voters
Political Animal - The Right’s Dream Fades
Election 2012 Demographics - Politico on Obama Mandate - Esquire In case you have misplaced you magic pundit decoder ring, the latest one-word euphemism for "Where The White Folk At?" is "demographics."
Americans For Responsible Leadership’s Donors Unmasked | TPMMuckraker The FPPC also said that in disclosing the donors, the Arizona group Americans for Responsible Leadership admitted to “campaign money laundering.”
Colorado Dark Money Group’s Donors Revealed | TPMMuckraker
Political Animal - This year’s most intriguing ballot referendum: Montana’s corporate personhood initiative

Ohio's Provisional Ballot Order: The Biggest Legal Story of the Weekend - Andrew Cohen - The Atlantic A late voting directive from Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted begets an "emergency motion" about how to count provisional ballots.
A voting debacle in Doral causes chaos and confusion - Florida - MiamiHerald.com Mayor Carlos Gimenez said part of the reason the county elections headquarters temporarily shut down Sunday with a crowd waiting outside to vote was because he had not authorized the additional hours. (and then he towed everyones cars)
Doral Miami-Dade Early Voting - Florida Voting Problems 2012 - Esquire "Frankly," said a guy working with the election commission on a special project, "I don't know why these people aren't calling for the governor's head on a plate. We needed twice as much time and twice as many polling places."
Why The Lines Are So Long In Florida And Ohio | ThinkProgress
Political Animal - GOTNV It should be a surprise to no one, but it still feels wrong that going into Election Day, one of our two major parties seems to be putting so much emphasis on keeping people from voting—on getting out the non-vote.
The New Jim Crow - The Daily Beast - Whatever the result tomorrow, voter suppression is one of the big stories of this campaign and its enduring scandal
Steve Schmidt: Voter Fraud Part Of GOP ‘Mythology’ | TPMMuckraker
Alabama Elections 2012 - Alabama and the Rolling Tide of a Down Ballot - Esquire it seems a near-certainty that the end result of Tuesday's voting will be that, for the first time since the late nineteenth century, no Democrat will hold a statewide elected office in Alabama.
Why Romney is losing Latinos by a historic margin - The Plum Line - The Washington Post If this holds, Obama will have won a larger percentage of the Latino vote than any Democratic president since Bill Clinton, who won 72 percent in his 1996 landslide reelection. The difference, of course, is that Latinos were only 5 percent of the electorate in 1996; this year, they’re projected to be 10 percent of voters (immigration +healthcare)
Dems Ask FBI To Investigate Jeff Flake Robocalls | TPMMuckraker Democratic officials in Arizona asked federal and state authorities late Sunday to investigate robocalls from Republican Jeff Flake’s Senate campaign that told registered Democrats to vote at the wrong polling locations.(just and "accident")
Romney staff refusing to let frostbitten voters leave PA rally
No More Mister Nice Blog - Peggy Noonan: Mitt Romney Is Sexy Jesus (WaPo can't go bankrupt fast enough)
Paul Ryan Religious Freedom - Paul Ryan, Culture Warrior, Launches a New Crusade - Esquire Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan told a group of Evangelical Christians Sunday that President Obama's plans threaten "Judeo-Christian values"


Paul Ryan To Social Conservatives: 'Religious Freedom' At Risk If Obama Is Reelected (the "freedom" to force you to obey their religion)
Religion And Politics: IRS Not Enforcing Rules On Separation Of Church And State For the past three years, the Internal Revenue Service hasn't been investigating complaints of partisan political activity by churches, leaving religious groups who make direct or thinly veiled endorsements of political candidates unchallenged.
Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church Election 2012 - Charles P. Pierce on Church Sunday Before Election 2012 - Esquire They also were the places in which most of the purely theological doubts about the advisability of handing the presidency over to a Mormon burned most brightly. Until this year, of course, when minor theological quibbles over whether or not the risen Christ paid a visit to the Algonquins were set aside for the high mission of extracting the current president from the White House and, as they say, getting our country back.

Limbaugh: "Moochelle Obama" Is Campaigning With "NBA Players And Others" To Rally "The Base, The Black Vote Base" | Video | Media Matters for America (these are very evil, ugly people)

Full List | Best Inventions of the Year 2012 | TIME.com

Anonymous Claims To Have Hacked 28,000 PayPal Passwords For Guy Fawkes Day Security firm Symantec was also reportedly hacked

110412
British have invaded nine out of ten countries - so look out Luxembourg - Telegraph Britain has invaded all but 22 countries in the world in its long and colourful history, new research has found.
The Dumb Politics Of Benghazi Tea Party protests. Agency deception. White House confusion. Partisan smoke, and few straight answers, on the campaign trail
Intelligence Community Points Out Fox Was Kinda Lying About Benghazi This Whole Time


Obama Approval Rises After Superstorm Sandy | TPM2012 - Since Oct. 28, a national tracking poll by Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling has shown Obama’s job approval making a net gain of 6 percentage points. (RMoney down 7)
Political Animal - Sandy, climate change, and Michael Bloomberg’s failure America is failing itself, and why our leaders desperately need to stop asking, how can I best cater to the narrow, short-sighted economic interests of my plutocrat cronies and supporters, and to start asking, how can I best protect the broad public interest of all the people I serve?
'SNL' Takes On Lydia Callis, Bloomberg's Sign Language Interpreter, And Chris Christie (video)

A definitive guide to the eight swing states that will decide the 2012 election | Harry J Enten | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk When the polls close on election day, the contest between Obama and Romney comes down to these crucial battlegrounds
The swing states: a round-up: The road to 270 | The Economist Over the past two months, we have looked at the most important battlefield states where the presidential race will be decided. Put it all together, and what do you get?
Are Indies Coming Back to Obama?
Nov. 2: For Romney to Win, State Polls Must Be Statistically Biased - NYTimes.com (the Rove line)

Prospects brighten for filibuster reform - The Plum Line - The Washington Post would force the filibustering party to play a much more public role in obstructing the majority — perhaps making it politically less appetizing. The Senate has already adopted one proposed reform, the elimination of the secret hold.

Ohio Early Voting: Long Lines Reported Outside Polling Places
ElectoralVote black voters, who favor Obama about 95% to 5%, used early voting at a rate 26 times that of white voters. This effect is due to the fact that many blacks have inflexible job schedules and can't take off time on Tuesdays to vote.
Florida Early Voting Fiasco: Voters Wait For Hours, Locked Out At Polls As Rick Scott Refuses To Budge
As election looms, many voters fear the process is compromised | McClatchy

Obama Gains Edge in Campaign’s Final Days | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press Obama 50% - Romney 47%
The Washington Monthly while quite a few leading lights of the G.O.P. continue desperatelyspinning the fantastic delusion of a Romney landslide, the smell of their flopsweat is unmistakable, and getting stronger by the minute. According to Nate Silver, the probability of Obama winning has risen to 85%.
GOP Claims Voting Machines Are Stealing Elections For Obama | ThinkProgress (all the voting machines were bought by ACORN)
White Man Date - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money So Obama’s coalition is broader, but it doesn’t extend to a majority of Real Americans, who are white, so it doesn’t count. Right. Shorter Politico: Democratic states should get 3/5ths representation in the Electoral College.
Mitt Romney, white vote: Parsing the narrow, tribal appeal of the Republican nominee. - Slate Magazine Parsing the narrow, tribal appeal of the Republican nominee. (they are collosally stupid? +minorities and women are "races")
Working class voters: why America's poor are willing to vote Republican | World news | guardian.co.uk those most reliant on benefits live in Republican states and often Republican counties ... The question of why poor people vote Republican is not simply an issue of income but primarily race and partly region and gender (United States of Racisim)
mojo-obama-conspiracy.png (ultimate wingnut Obama conspiracy-theory guide)
Watch Ohioans Explain That Obama Is An Atheist Muslim (And That Buddhists Are Invading The Country) (these idiots will be famous on the internets for all eternity)
Romney Political Director Blames 'Let Detroit Go Bankrupt' on New York Times | Video Cafe
Fox News Redefines Unbalanced By Giving Romney 80 Percent More Airtime | Blog | Media Matters for America

Quote of the Day "Folks I want to remind you, this is the end of daylight savings time tonight. It's Mitt Romney's favorite time of the year because he gets to turn the clock back." -- Joe Biden, quoted by the New York Times, at a rally in Colorado.

Elizabeth for MA | Grateful - YouTube

Political Animal - Are the Washington Post’s editorial and business divisions on a collision course? This Washington Post story about the financial condition of the Washington Post Co. is illuminating. Unsurprisingly, but worryingly, its newspaper and online divisions are big money losers. Somewhat surprising is that its education division, Kaplan, is also a financial drain. (they could fire Jennifer Rubin a save a dimes)
Political Animal - The worst idea I’ve heard before breakfast … A campaign is underway to put up a bust of the notorious misogynist, Iraq War blowhard, and, as George Galloway so memorably described him, “drink-sodden ex-Trotskyist popinjay” Christopher Hitchens in London’s Red Lion Square.

Sundays With The Christianists: This ‘World History’ Textbook Is The Opiate Of The Homeschooled Masses
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - The Myth About Strangers Poisoning Kids’ Halloween Candy Of note, children do face some real health risks on Halloween, but the risks come from cars, not candy (suburban myth)

Mars Science Laboratory: Images High-Resolution Self-Portrait by Curiosity Rover Arm Camera
Scientists Identify Gene Required for Nerve Regeneration | Genetics | Sci-News.com

Dotcom's broadband plan - National - NZ Herald News Free internet to providers if cable to US can be resurrected

110312
Pakistan suicide blast kills anti-Taliban politician | World news | guardian.co.uk Taliban claims responsibility for attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in which three guards and two passers-by also died

Data Show Weakening in Euro Zone Economy - NYTimes.com (too many soup-kitchens in America!)

Guest Post: What’s Wrong with the Human Security Report and the “Global Decline Claim” » Duck of Minerva

New York's lights come back on but gas and transit woes continue for region | World news | guardian.co.uk Power returns to much of Manhattan after Sandy as officials warn residents there is still a 'long, hard road to recovery'
Superstorm Sandy: Electricity Returns To Some New Yorkers, Patience Wears Thin For Others
New York Gas Shortage: Public Told First Responders Are Priority For Fuel
Before/After Hurricane Sandy Photos Show How Storm Devastated East Coast (INTERACTIVE PICTURES)
New York City Marathon Cancellation: Why The Race Was Called Off ("I'm alway right" Bloomberg folded)
Hurricane Sandy Delivers 'Another Catastrophe' To Verizon's Home, Complicating Network Repairs (let's put a lot of vital infrastructure in a flood-zone!)
Brown University Student On Sandy: 'Government Wants Us To Think' There's A Hurricane

Last-Minute Ohio Directive Could Trash Legal Votes
Dark Money Spending: 81% Has Gone To Republicans | TPMMuckraker
Did Mitt Romney get away with keeping his tax returns secret? - The Week The campaign is almost over and the public still knows next to nothing about the GOP candidate's immense fortune (post-accountability America +media saw it as "too partisan" to ask wtf?)

The craziest, most nail-biting elections in U.S. history - The Week - You may be surprised to learn that Bush-Gore doesn't even crack the top 3

Presidential Polls 2012: Obama's Battleground Advantage Holds
Romney, Business Allies Finish With Strong Argument: Vote With Us, Or You're Fired (the Trump approach)
The Blackmail Caucus - NYTimes.com “Nice country you got here. Shame if something were to happen to it” becomes a winning political argument? arguing for Mr. Romney on the grounds that he could get things done veers dangerously close to accepting protection-racket politics, which have no place in American life.
Romney: Elect Me Or House GOP Will Wreck The Economy | TPM2012
2012 House of Representatives Outlook
“O-H?” “I-O!!” | The Page by Mark Halperin | TIME.com Don’t kill me for the obvious, but the near absence of racial diversity in the Romney crowds is teased out further by the contrast with the rainbow the President draws. It is more striking than I have ever experienced it in any presidential campaign I have covered. (racist 50% of America)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Friday Evening Open Thread: Spin Faster! (FEMAmart)
Romney Seeks Vengeance For Obama’s ‘Revenge’ Remark | TPM2012 “No, no, no — don’t boo, vote,” Obama said. “Vote. Voting is the best revenge.”
Daily Kos: Chris Christie: Mitt hasn't called me since Sandy hit
Christie 'Still Very Satisfied' With Obama’s Sandy Response | TPM LiveWire
Linda McMahon Plays Up Chris Murphy's Communist Endorsement McMahon is currently trailing Murphy by roughly seven points in the polls, according to HuffPost Pollster
2012 Senate Race Polls: Richard Mourdock's Plunge Dampens GOP's Majority Hopes (it's the God raped you thing)
Todd Akin Arrested At Least Eight Times At Abortion Clinic Protests
Wombs and Periods: the real threat to national security » Duck of Minerva

Soup Kitchens Caused the Great Depression - NYTimes.com Some readers have been asking me to reply to Casey Mulligan’s latest attack on my recent book (Casey Mulligan, another fauxconomist)
Food stamps cause global depression ? — Crooked Timber I’d expect a professor at the University of Chicago to be aware that the USA is not the only country in the world. That’s not true, apparently, of Casey Mulligan (oh, "Chicago School" of liars)
Did Republicans Pressure CRS to Withdraw Taxes Report? - NYTimes.com In a brazen example of putting ideology ahead of reality, Senate Republicans seem to have pressured the Congressional Research Service to withdraw a report debunking conservative economic orthodoxy.
alicublog - Bullshitting The Bullshiters

A Convenient Excuse - News Features On October 2, I led a climate protest inside the offices of the Boston Globe ... Canellos, the paper's former Washington bureau chief, was more interested in the short-term politics of the Keystone pipeline debate ... (bad paper gets worse)
Mayor Bloomberg’s Barrier - NYTimes.com In the case of Sandy, the damage to New York City is estimated to be as much as $17 billion. Cities like London, Amsterdam — and, yes, Providence — have built systems to minimize the damage even Category 3 storms can cause. But not New York.
Nature Votes Last - NYTimes.com Republicans have spent the last year trying to win an argument about the role of government as a helping hand. By now, most people know that Mitt Romney, in his base-pandering mode during the primaries, made the federal disaster agency FEMA sound like a costly nuisance, better off orphaned to the states or the private sector.
In Sandy's Wake, Insurance Industry Must Better Account For Climate Change, Critics Say
'Romney vs. Sandy' Video Stresses 'Climate Change Isn't A Joke' In Wake Of Hurricane

Steven Shapin reviews ‘The Pseudoscience Wars’ by Michael Gordin · LRB 8 November 2012 Catastrophism (Velikovsky is the root of fringe-nuttery and Einstein said Harvard was evil)
Mars Curiosity Rover Detects No Methane On Red Planet, Takes Stunning Self-Portrait | TPM Idea Lab

Apple's Samsung statement reprimanded by court of appeal | Technology | guardian.co.uk Judges say article on iPad ruling is 'non-compliant' and order tech giant to put up an amended version within 48 hours (meaning, Apple said fuck you and put a link in tiny type and it would take them "weeks" to change it)
Microsoft’s security team is killing it: Not one product on Kaspersky’s top 10 vulnerabilities list - The Next Web (mostly Adobe, Oracle and Apple)

110212
China prepares for power handover but reverberations will be felt worldwide | World news | The Guardian The world's second-biggest economy will see power shift to Xi Jinping, but its population has no real role in choosing a leader
Uganda vows to withdraw peacekeepers over UN's Congo claims | World news | guardian.co.uk Security minister says troops will pull out of regional hotspots, after UN accused Uganda of supporting Congolese rebels

Freddie Starr released on police bail after arrest in Savile abuse inquiry | UK news | guardian.co.uk The 69-year-old comic was arrested at 5.45pm on Thursday at his home in Warwickshire "on suspicion of sexual offences" (what did Mark Thompson know and when did he know it?)
“Do we really want to take on…Saint Jimmy?” - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Andrew O’Hagan · Light Entertainment: Our Paedophile Culture · LRB 8 November 2012 Andrew O’Hagan writes about child abuse and the British public
Jimmy Savile: DJ claims he was a 'necrophiliac' who had sex with 'under-age subnormals' - Crime - News - London Evening Standard
'Senior political figure' set to be outed as paedophile on Newsnight - Crime - News - London Evening Standard

News Outlets Held Back Detail Of Benghazi Attack At CIA's Request
Lisa Murkowski 'Outraged' Over Latest Reports On Libya Attack she had heard enough to accuse President Barack Obama and his administration of neglecting their duties to protect American personnel abroad.
17 years for man tried over Pentagon terror plot | World news | guardian.co.uk 27-year-old planned to fly remote-controlled model aircraft carrying explosives into the Pentagon and Capitol

Hurricane Sandy Gas Shortage: Dry Pumps Could Last For Days
Residents of FiDi's 'Uninhabitable' Two Gold Scramble for Stuff - #ZoneA Information Blackout - Curbed NY Power's coming back on this weekend for most of SoPo in Manhattan, but that's not necessarily of help to the 130 or so flooded buildings that suffered mechanical or other failures as a result of the seawater. (lots of tall buildings' systems knocked out and it's not as simple as plugging them back in)
East Village Power On After Days Of Con Edison Work To Fix Outages From Hurricane Sandy
NYC Science Stunned by Sandy | The Scientist Magazine® Super storm Sandy wreaks havoc on researchers across New York City, destroying samples, killing lab animals, and cutting power to much of Manhattan.

Who is the worst civil liberties President in US history? | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Where do the abuses of the last decade from Bush and Obama rank when compared to prior assaults in the name of war?

Karl Rove's Mission Accomplished - NYTimes.com
The Long Con: Mail-order conservatism | Rick Perlstein | The Baffler
Limbaugh: Romney "Looks Like" A President "Out There In A Suit And Tie," Unlike Obama In A Flight Jacket | Video | Media Matters for America

Get ready for the phony debt fight - Salon.com Both candidates agree: The national debt is the most urgent challenge facing the nation. But it's not -- at all ("everyone agrees" "something" "must be done")
October Jobs Report: U.S. Adds 171,000 Jobs As Unemployment Rate At 7.9 Percent

Most Americans living in Israel have voted for Mitt Romney, poll finds | World news | guardian.co.uk Votes from American-Israelis could make a difference in swing states, according to iVoteIsrael campaign group - An overwhelming majority of Israelis entitled to vote in the US presidential election have cast their ballot for Mitt Romney (dual-loyalty Jews)

Presidential Polls Update: Obama's Swing-State Margins Holding
Mitt Romney Closing Argument: I'll Get A Debt Ceiling Deal "You know that if the President is re-elected, he will still be unable to work with the people in Congress," Romney will say (see, our Republican Pres was too "partisan")
Romney's Last Stand: From Now On, It's Him-Him-Him - Esquire As part of his "closing argument," Willard Romney, who has tried on every argument for making him our president that can be conceived by the mind of mortal man, seems to have settled on simple blackmail (because Republicans are crazy Obama can't work with them so elect me)
Job Numbers October 2012 - Sandy and the Job Numbers: The Week the Actual Turning Points Stepped Out - Esquire
Campaigns mobilise lawyers for legal ground game in election's swing states | World news | guardian.co.uk Thousands of lawyers jetting in to battleground states to be on hand to litigate and prevent rivals gaining unfair advantage
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Buckeye Of The Storm Turns out Ohio GOP Secretary of State Jon Husted is making Ken “Let’s give Ohio to Bush!” Blackwell look like a saint. ("glitches")
Department of Justice Investigating Alleged Ballot Fraud At Clackamas County Elections Sources familiar with the incident say their understanding is that the woman filled in a straight Republican ticket on the ballots where preferences had been left blank by voters.
The 5 Most Racist Ads Of 2012 | ThinkProgress
Political Animal - Bad News For Mourdock Poll internals indicated Mourdock’s favorability ratings have just collapsed in the wake of his remarks in an October 23 poll that it was God’s Will that women carry to term pregnancies caused by rape.
Joe Donnelly Building Lead In Indiana, Polls Show Indiana Democrat Joe Donnelly shows signs of pulling ahead of Richard Mourdock (as God intended)
Political Animal - The Ultimate GOTV Appeal Yesterday we all enjoyed Bishop Daniel Jenky’s encyclical essentially ordering the people of the Diocese of Peoria to vote for Romney/Ryan on pain of eternal damnation. But at Religion Dispatches today, Sarah Posner has a whole jumbo platter of ecclesiastical endorsements that range from mere Obama-bashing to the full stage of eschatological theater

Balloon Juice » To Moscow With Love (Mitt sends Matt to Russia to kiss Putin's ass)

Nov. 1: The Simple Case for Saying Obama Is the Favorite - NYTimes.com
Nine 2012 Electoral College predictions have Obama ahead
Sam Wang (map of the sane and insane parts of the country by population)
Nate Silver's Offer to Wager $2,000 on the President's Re-election is Inappropriate | The Public Editor - NYTimes.com (Margaret Sullivan gets creamed in the comments)
Why Nate Silver's Gambling Streak Makes Me Trust Him More - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic Margaret Sullivan explains. "That has endeared him to liberals and Democrats, just as it has infuriated conservatives and Republicans." (Nate Silver places a bet on "math;" Times Ombud clutches her pearls because she doesn't understand math and is clueless about what Silver is doing)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Glasnost and Perestroika If you think that being a “Times journalist” is some kind of magic elixir of credibility for a guy whose blog was already widely read and quoted, and that the issue with Silver is left vs. right, instead of innumerate establishment political journalist vs. fact-based political journalism, then you are a member of the old guard, no matter how smart you are about journalism and truth.
Care To Make It Interesting? - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money The public editor’s admonition to Silver — who, if I understand correctly, isn’t even a staff writer — is silly on its face. But it’s doubly silly because there was a real and important point behind it: namely, that Joe Scarborough is selling the public bullshit in bad faith, and this is pretty much what at least 90% of punditry is.
A Bet is a Tax on Bullshit Nate Silver, whose models give Obama a high probability of winning reelection, has offered one of his critics a bet. “Putting your money where your mouth is,” is a time-honored principle of integrity in my view but the NYTimes Public Editor is very upset.
Balloon Juice » Our Failed Media Experiment In Action (Deadspin: In retrospect, we should’ve seen it coming. It was only a matter of time before the war on expertise spilled over into the cells of Nate Silver’s spreadsheets)
A Fitting Coda To The Gut Vs. Data Slap Fight | Blog | Media Matters for America Because it's the numbers that screwed up, not the people whose job it is to interpret them. ("Occam's razor)
The $10,000 Question - New York Times Published: August 23, 2005 (context)

Political Animal - The Ultimate GOTV Appeal Yesterday we all enjoyed Bishop Daniel Jenky’s encyclical essentially ordering the people of the Diocese of Peoria to vote for Romney/Ryan on pain of eternal damnation. But at Religion Dispatches today, Sarah Posner has a whole jumbo platter of ecclesiastical endorsements that range from mere Obama-bashing to the full stage of eschatological theater
alicublog - No Sex Please, We're WINGNUTS
Requiring That You Get Something In Return For Your Health Insurance Premiums — Is There No End To Their Smutty Treachery? - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Arizona Latinos Urged to Oust Sheriff Joe Arpaio - NYTimes.com

Marijuana Legalization in 2012 Election - Marijuana Legalization Pros and Cons - Esquire (see Boston Globe's idiotic argument against)
Marijuana caught in a Catch-22 - Letters - The Boston Globe

Matt Romney Goes to Russia for Business - NYTimes.com
Jim Walton, Walmart Heir, Accused Of Campaign Finance Violations Walton is the seventh-wealthiest person in America, according to Forbes.

Will law school students have jobs after they graduate? - The Washington Post (meltdown)

Scientific fraud is rife: it's time to stand up for good science | Pete Etchells and Suzi Gage | Science | guardian.co.uk The way we fund and publish science encourages fraud. A forum about academic misconduct aims to find practical solutions
Cancer fight stalls amid push for profits, doctors say | Society | The Guardian Newer drugs fall short of hopes and cost too much, say experts who pledge to improve care in poorer countries


Apple has lost their legal claim to the iPhone name in Mexico
Best Windows 8 Start Screen Modifiers And Start Menu Apps

110112
Arms Sales, Politics and “Frankenforces”

Barclays faces record £290m penalty | Business | The Guardian British bank suffers another hit to its battered reputation as it confronts huge costs for alleged US energy market manipulation (.5 Bn, fraud, no one goes to jail, of course)

New Jersey Gas Lines Stretch For Miles [photos] - Business Insider
Gridlock | TPM Media
New York Con Edison: Power Restored By Nov. 10, 11
Hurricane Sandy: West Virginia, New York, Maine, And Many States In Between Recover From Superstorm killing at least 90 people in the United States. Power outages now stand at more than 4.5 million homes and businesses, down from a peak of 8.5 million.
Manhattan Evacuation Plan Reveals Island’s Old Contours » Manhattan Past
New York Storm Surge Barrier - Business Insider

Disasters and Politics - NYTimes.com the weird Republican obsession with killing FEMA. . Does the right somehow imagine that only Those People need disaster relief? Is the whole idea of helping people as opposed to hurting them just anathema?
A Case Study of Republicans vs. Democrats on FEMA | Mother Jones
Sandy Should Remind Us Why We Need A Big, Strong Federal Government | The New Republic
Political Animal - Mitt on Emergency Management: Status Quo Minus
Bloomberg Endorses Obama - Mayor Bloomberg Speaks Truth to Power (and Sandy) - Esquire I will be even more impressed when either Bloomberg or Cuomo goes that One Step Beyond and explains that, because we have to get serious about climate change because of what happened in New York, running the world's dirtiest fossil fuel through the Oglalla Aquifer is a stupid idea and, therefore, so is the Keystone XL pipeline. In for a dime, boys...

Nate Silver Bets Joe Scarborough $2,000 That Obama Wins
Twitter / fivethirtyeight: Politico: pundits don't know ... Politico: pundits don't know what's going on, therefore race IMPOSSIBLE to predict. Occam's razor: pundits are usless.

My View: Why I will vote for President Obama – Schools of Thought - CNN.com Blogs A Romney administration promises a society in which life is very sweet for those at the very top, but hard, mean, and brutish for the growing number of Americans falling out of the middle class and into poverty.
What Are President Obama’s Black Critics Talking About? | The New Republic
Late Super PAC Ad Buy Urges African Americans In Ohio To Vote Republican Because Lincoln Freed The Slaves | TPM2012
Bloomberg: I Cannot Abide Romney 5.7 | TPM Editors Blog one of the key reasons that I suspect Romney will lose next week: that it’s almost treated as a given that Romney is something like a software package or a car that has a different edition each year or so and gets a total makeover every half dozen years or more.
Our American endorsement: Which one? | The Economist America could do better than Barack Obama; sadly, Mitt Romney does not fit the bill ("the devil you know")
Barack Obama Is a Great President. Yes, Great. -- Daily Intel

Congressional Research Service Report On Tax Cuts For Wealthy Suppressed By GOP ... "pressure from the Senate minority to take it down," (Republican war on facts)
Congressional Research Service Tax Report Muzzled By GOP. | The New Republic

Political Animal - The Problematic “Magic Vote” the election may hinge on voters who are disappointed with Obama because he didn’t perform the magic trick of overcoming partisanship in Washington, and/or who are hopeful Mitt Romney can perform the magic trick of overcoming partisanship in Washington. For all I know, these are the same people, but they are really missing just about everything important that’s happened in politics and government over the last four years. (not paying attention dept)

The Morning Plum: Chris Christie drives stake into Romney closing argument - The Plum Line - The Washington Post
Romney Got Through The Campaign Without Disclosing More Tax Returns Or His List Of Bundlers And Much More. Did It Cost Him? | The New Republic (media uncomfortable calling attention to it)
Romney’s VA Supporters Hope For Victory, But Fear Obama May Pull Through | TPM2012
Donald Trump Is Robo-Calling For Romney | ThinkProgress (Harry Reid keeps his job)
Election 2012 - Author of voter fraud billboards steps forth Stephen Einhorn - a Wisconsin venture capital fund manager and major GOP donor - disclosed Monday that he and his wife, Nancy, paid for dozens of anonymous billboards in and around Milwaukee and two Ohio cities warning residents of the penalties for committing voter fraud.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Tweet of the Day: Chrysler CEO to Donald Trump: “You’re Full of Sh*t.”
Donald Trump Is Robo-Calling For Romney | ThinkProgress
Sad Pundits: Why Won’t Insiders Tell Us Who Will Win The Election?
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Worst Timed Gotcha Ever On a side note, for the love of everything holy, why don’t people pay their hookers in full?
Politico on Media Stumped by Election - Things in Politico That Make Me Want to Guzzle Antifreeze, ThisClose Edition - Esquire It's been a tough week for the gang at Tiger Beat on the Potomac. First, they got into a wrangle with Nate Silver, and Nate thrashed them with his mighty sword of geekdom. Then, their beloved Mittmentum narrative got itself blown out to sea. Then ... +When nepotism and stupid battle, it is almost always a draw.
North Dakota Senate Race Results - How the World's Greatest Democracy Sucks at Elections - Esquire why we might not know who won the Senate race in North Dakota until the Fourth of July
Election may not wrap up Tuesday | The Columbus Dispatch If it’s close, Ohio could be what Florida was in 2000
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Romney, Dixie, and the Future of the Electoral College (Southern bigots fucking up the country)
Republican Battleground Map - Welcome to the Eye of the Stupid - Esquire
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Worst Timed Gotcha Ever

Congressional Candidates 2012 - Rape in the 2012 Election - Esquire "But on the rape thing, it's like, how does putting more violence onto a woman's body and taking the life of an innocent child that's a consequence of this crime, how does that make it better?" (everytime they open their mouths)
Political Animal - Rape On Their Minds

Bishop Daniel Jenky - The Worst Bishop of 2012 - Esquire of the Diocese of Peoria for being just about the biggest jackass ever given Holy Orders. ("cult of the red beanie")

A Harvard Man’s Critique of Affirmative Action by Michael Kinsley | Washington Monthly

Poll: Nearly six in ten voters believe in demonic possession | The Daily Caller

A Zombie Is a Slave Forever - NYTimes.com - For the slave under French rule in Haiti — then Saint-Domingue — in the 17th and 18th centuries, life was brutal: hunger, extreme overwork and cruel discipline were the rule.

Wisconsin Marijuana Surveillance Cameras - Big Brother Is Watching You Grow Pot - Esquire Our latest chapter comes from Wisconsin, where a federal judge ruled that, under certain circumstances, surveillance cameras can be placed on private property without a warrant. It should surprise approximately nobody that the DEA was behind this scheme,

From Master Plan to No Plan: The Slow Death of Public Higher Education | Dissent Magazine Elected governor of California in 1966 after running a scorched-earth campaign against the University of California, Reagan vowed to “clean up that mess in Berkeley,” warned audiences of “sexual orgies so vile that I cannot describe them to you,” (Reagan destroyed education in California, model for Republicans ever after)

Graham B. Spanier, Former Penn State President, Charged in Sandusky Case - NYTimes.com


103112
US warns Israel off pre-emptive strike on Iran | World news | The Guardian Arab spring has left US-friendly rulers in region nervous about possible impact of an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear programme
China thinktank urges end of one-child policy | World news | guardian.co.uk Foundation close to central leadership urges end to birth limits policy across China by 2015, with experts saying reform is 'inevitable'

Jimmy Savile scandal: BBC executives face losing jobs, says former TV chief | Media | guardian.co.uk Will Wyatt says poor handling of crisis and lack of reaction to Newsnight revelations shows something 'doesn't work' at the top (which would also mean the top of you-know-what, but we knew that already)

Eschaton: Guardians Of Our Discourse We all know this, but sometimes it's worth repeating. For years our elite media has promoted bigots and misogynists as our moral betters and ethical standard bearers.

For Years, Warnings That Storm Damage Could Ravage New York - NYTimes.com "Look, the city is extremely vulnerable to damaging storm surges just for its geography, and climate change is increasing that risk," said Ben Strauss, director of the sea level rise program at the research group Climate Central in Princeton, N.J. “Three of the top 10 highest floods at the Battery since 1900 happened in the last two and a half years. If that’s not a wake-up call to take this seriously, I don’t know what is."

Weather Models Get Sandy Right | The New Republic (we don't need no steenking weather dept.)
WaPo-ABC tracking poll: High marks for President Obama on Hurricane Sandy response ... Nearly eight in 10 likely voters say the president has done an “excellent” or “good” job dealing with what’s been labeled a “super storm.”
Storm provides Obama with a commander-in-chief moment - The Washington Post
Chris Christie Probably Really Doesn't Give a Damn About Presidential Politics Right Now | Mother Jones
Craig Fugate, FEMA Administrator, Responds To Michael Brown: 'Better To Be Fast Than To Be Late'
Mitt Romney Disaster Relief Position Faces Scrutiny - Federal Emergency Management Agency should be shuttered and its responsibilities left to the states (and "private enterprise")
Daily Kos: Forecast the Facts shows what a joke Romney is on climate change. But what about us? (zing)

The Case Against Romney -- Daily Intel - At Heart, He’s a Delusional One-Percenter (and lies like Satan)
Joe Biden Torches Mitt Romney For 'Flagrantly Dishonest' Jeep Ad

Poll: Obama Reaches 50 Percent, Leads Romney By 5 Nationally | TPM LiveWire

In defense of Nate Silver — and basic math - Salon.com Pundits taking pot shots at the New York Times stats whiz need to take remedial math
Obama Endorsement 2012 - Charles P. Pierce: Why I'm Voting to Re-Elect President Obama - Esquire
Will Right-Wing Media's Hatred Of Auto Bailout Cost GOP The Election? | Blog | Media Matters for America
Political Animal - Through the Looking Glass everybody knows Dick Morris is a lying, spin-mad hack, so why would I pay any attention to what he’s saying? Here’s why: everybody does not know (or more likely, care) that Morris is full of it, which is why he has a column in a respectable publication like The Hill,
Balloon Juice » And The Rejoicing Has Begun he Most Wrong Man In America is predicting a Romney landslide. And he actually used the term “landslide”.
Deserve’s Got Nothing To Do With It - Lawyers, Guns & Money (Greenwald has been out of the country too long)
Voter ID is not the law in Texas. But law, schmaw! Demand it anyway. | Trail Blazers Blog (and then she "accidentally" typed his name in wrong)
Political Animal - Fruits of Polarization Charles Pierce looks at the latest outrageous utterance by U.S. Rep. Steve King, and just can’t take it any more:

Iowa warns international observers of arrest - Bobby Cervantes - politico.com
Search For Mythical Voter Fraud Leads To False Sighting In Ohio

Massachusetts Senate Race Polls - How Close Is the Massachusetts Senate Race, Really? - Esquire Unfortunately for all concerned, McDreamy bagged the event on Monday, at the height of the storm, claiming that... (he had better things to do)

Limbaugh: Climate Change Is "A Nonissue Anymore Because It's Fraudulent. The Whole Thing Has Been Proven To Be A Hoax" | Video | Media Matters for America (meanwhile in the Republican alternate universe ...)

Xavier Backtracks by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly Back in April this year Xavier University, a Jesuit-affiliated college in Cincinnati, Ohio, announced that its employees’ health care plans would no longer cover birth control.

Australia Embraces the “Asian Century” » Duck of Minerva there are still more students studying Latin (205,000) in America’s public schools than Chinese (60,000) (while America embraces the Roman empire)

'Female Viagra,' A Nasal Spray Meant To Boost Sexual Arousal, Is Now In Clinical Trials The drug, called Tefina, is a testosterone gel that is absorbed into the body through the nose.
Joe Biden: Transgender Discrimination Is 'The Civil Rights Issue Of Our Time'


Lydia Callis, Bloomberg Interpreter, Warms Hearts As Sandy Sweeps Through New York Unlike Bloomberg's own stilted Spanish, another highlight of the updates, Callis's signing is both lightning-fast and emotive, her animated face lighting up and contorting happily as she goes, not unlike a guitarist during a blistering solo.
Dumb as a Blog: The 12 best moves of Lydia Callis, Mayor Bloomberg's sign language interpreter on truTV.com
AT&T, T-Mobile Will Share Networks In New York And New Jersey As A Result Of Hurricane Sandy

103012
Poland found explosives on wreckage of president's plane-report | World | Reuters


A Privacy Catch-22 Clapper v. Amnesty International takes on warrantless wiretapping - The Obama administration is continuing to argue that the potential legal defects of the warrantless wiretapping regime established by Congress should insulate the program from meaningful legal review.
The Supreme Court Exposes Obama’s Circular Logic On Wiretapping | The New Republic
Why Should We Believe Solicitors General about Warrantless Wiretapping | emptywheel

Wind Map

UPDATE 2-Sandy leaves unprecedented challenges for New York City subways | Reuters - t could be four to five days before subway service resumes, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a news conference on Tuesday
Eschaton: No Substitute There's no way to that city can function without a functioning rail system (7 million people a day ride rail to/from/in NYC)
NYC Subway Shutdown Will Mostly Affect Low-Income Workers | FDL News Desk (elites have their own helicopters)
Hurricane Sandy Aftermath: Storm Leaves Millions Without Power, More Than A Dozen Dead
Superstorm Sandy Shows Nuclear Plants Who's Boss | MyFDL
Hurricane Sandy's Storm Surge Wreaks Havoc As Its Energy And Trajectory Stun Experts
Hurricane Sandy Power Outage Map: Millions Without Electricity On East Coast (infographic)
US Media Covering Hurricane Sandy Mostly Ignore Whether Climate Change Fueled Storm’s Fury | The Dissenter (Candy Crowley doesn't think it's important)
Maybe We Should Talk About Climate Change Now - Esquire
Yes, Hurricane Sandy is a good reason to worry about climate change
Al's Journal : Statement on Hurricane Sandy (Al Gore)
?Hurricane Sandy Damage Photos: Superstorm's 'Unthinkable' Aftermath Revealed (pictures)
Breezy Point Fire: At least 80 Flooded Houses Destroyed By NYC Blaze
Bush’s disgraced FEMA director stunned at Sandy response: ‘Why was this so quick?’ | The Raw Story
Obama Romney Sandy Reactions - Sandy: Evidence That Romney Is the Wrong President - Esquire
Mitt Romney Mother's Day Floods 2006 - Governor Romney After the (2006) Flood: Not Good - Esquire
America's Foes Are Giddy About Hurricane Sandy - Global - The Atlantic Wire
Sandy’s most obnoxious responses - Salon.com Not even mega-storms can stop right-wing hacks from spewing their venom
Sandy Should Be Politicized - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Obama’s secret weapon: Democrats have a massive advantage in targeting and persuading voters. - Slate Magazine When it comes to targeting and persuading voters, the Democrats have a bigger advantage over the GOP than either party has ever had in the modern campaign era.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Our Very Strange Political Discourse - Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell (Larry and his buds agree, it would be too partisan to mention Romnoid's FEMA statements)
Romney's LDS Tax Loophole, Broken by Bloomberg (he cheats everybody, even his church)
FreakOutNation: FOIA Report Shows How Mitt Romney Avoided Paying Taxes For 15 Years
Chrysler, GM Rebuke Mitt Romney Jeep Ad “We've clearly entered some parallel universe during these last few days,” GM spokesman Greg Martin said. “No amount of campaign politics at its cynical worst will diminish our record of creating jobs in the U.S. and repatriating profits back to this country.”
Norm Coleman Assures Ohio Voters That Roe v. Wade Will Remain Law Of Land Under Romney | TPM2012 (Norm Coleman lies, as usual)
Political Animal - Is Romney Lying to Antichoicers? Romney himself has taken the tack of suggesting that he’s going to be way, way too busy with job-creating and deficit-reducing and non-apologizing to find the time to restrict abortion rights
Conservertarianism Again Obliterated By Reality - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Political Animal - Romney By Hook or By Crook Speaking of Moderate Mitt and his mendacity, a lot of folk are gazing in awe today at the latest David Brooks column, which, predictably, offers the American Beauty Rose of twisted rationales for electing Romney.
Political Animal - Default Drive Mendacity In a display of chutzpah that would be remarkable coming from just about anywhere else, the Romney campaign, caught making a completely erroneous charge about Jeep moving jobs from Ohio to China, has—yes, I know it’s an overused term, but it’s the most accurate available—doubled down with a claim that would shame an actual weasel. The Cleveland Plain Dealer provides a succinct account:
Political Animal - The New Katherine Harris And if you’re looking for a villain-figure—this year’s Katherine Harris—Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted has been auditioning for the role all year.
Pundits Vs. Nate Silver, Data Vs. "Gut" | Blog | Media Matters for America
Nate Silver Critics - The Enemies of Nate Silver - Esquire
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Let Them Eat Little Rectangular Pizzas If you want to know what the real goals of the Romney administration will be, ignore Mitt and listen to Ann ("throwout" the educational "system")
Why Are States So Red and Blue? - NYTimes.com ("honor cultures" - Pinker ignores slavery, of course)

Suffolk University - Poll: Warren Surging Toward Victory Over Brown Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren (53 percent) has widened her lead over incumbent Republican Scott Brown (46 percent), according to a Suffolk University/7News (WHDH-Boston) poll of likely general election voters in Massachusetts.

“New Public Option” Not a Public Option | FDL News Desk

Scientists identify likely origins of vertebrate air breathing | Frontier Scientists

102812
Syrian air force launches multiple Aleppo attacks on final day of Eid | World news | The Guardian Opposition activists report 48 air strikes in a few hours, UN reports failure of Muslim truce and Damascus car bomb kills 11
Wen Jiabao's family deny 'hidden riches' report | World news | guardian.co.uk Lawyers for Chinese premier's family dispute New York Times article which said they have accumulated wealth of $2.7bn
The Washington Post Thinks Its Terrible that Japan is Becoming Less Crowded and the People are Becoming Healthier | Beat the Press
Iran Drone Photos Show Israeli Bases, Says Report

Spain and Italy criticise Berlin plan for EU to police budgets | World news | The Guardian Europe divided over German proposals for a 'super commissioner' who could punish nations with large deficits

War Rape is Not Declining » Duck of Minerva
The Cursory Pedant: War Rape, the Human Security Report and the Calculation of Violence « The Disorder Of Things
The Citadel Has Been Blown Up. Hurray! Next? A Response to Hobson « The Disorder Of Things

Hurricane Knowledge.com
East Coast Waits For the Hammer To Drop - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal - AGU Blogosphere
Sandy wreaks havoc across Northeast; at least 10 dead - CNN.com
Hurricane Sandy -- Pass 2, Oct. 29, 2012 - YouTube
Hurricane Sandy Eyes DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia And New York
New York City Flooding: Storm Surge At Irene Levels, Says Cuomo, Before Hurricane Sandy Has Even Hit In Earnest (Brooklyn under water)
Atlantic City Flooding Photos Reveal Hurricane Sandy Damage - "Be advised that there are heavy timbers floating in Atlantic Avenue,"
Hurricane Sandy: More than 1.5 million already without power - CBS News
The Most Intense Hurricanes In U.S. History: Sandy Climbs Into The Ranks (Infographic)
(24) Twitter / Search - #mittstormtips

Voting machines tied to the Romneys could decide the election in Ohio

Mitt Romney In GOP Debate: Shut Down Federal Disaster Agency, Send Responsibility To The States
Political Animal - You’re On Your Own When Disaster Strikes
Mitt Romney Federal Disaster Relief - Willard Romney and the Relief from Disaster Relief - Esquire
Or We Could Just Make Sure Unqualified Republican Fundraisers Run FEMA - Lawyers, Guns & Money
As the Frankenstorm Arrives Romney/ Ryan Go Silent on Their Plan to Cut FEMA and Disaster Relief
House GOP Voted To Cut Disaster Relief In Order To Preserve Military Spending | ThinkProgress
FEMA loses nearly $900 million if sequester cuts hit
Budget Sequestration Deal - Sequester This: Of FEMA Budgets and the GOP Mindgame - Esquire
Hurricane Sandy unlikely to have much impact on election - The Plum Line - The Washington Post
DownWithTyranny!: Would Mitt Romney Handle Hurricane Sandy Any Differently Than Obama? You Betcha! (Atlas Drugged)
Hullabaloo If Republicans had their way: Natural Disaster Edition
Rodney Crowell & Emmylou Harris - Shelter From The Storm - YouTube

Hullabaloo - Ole Moderate Mitt - Now, for the first time in this campaign, video has surfaced of Romney making those bigoted claims about gay parents while pushing his heartless policy against their children.

Presidential Race Dead Even; Romney Maintains Turnout Edge | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press
Obama's Edge: The Ground Game That Could Put Him Over the Top - Molly Ball - The Atlantic - In a close election, the president's sophisticated organization -- which Republicans don't seem to have matched -- could make all the difference
Obama, In Morning Joe Interview, Predicts War Inside Republican Party If He Is Reelected

Medicaid on the Ballot - NYTimes.com But one thing is clear: If he wins, Medicaid — which now covers more than 50 million Americans, and which President Obama would expand further as part of his health reform — will face savage cuts.
Political Animal - The Card Left Unplayed: Medicaid , the failure of Democrats to make a big deal out of his and his party’s health care agenda beyond Medicare should haunt progressives for a long time.

Des Moines Register Endorses Romney - What Are the Gobshites Saying These Days? - Esquire let's pause for a moment and congratulate the editors of the Des Moines Register, a newspaper we're supposed to care about every four years or so, for throwing a public tantrum and making themselves look like idiots in the process.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » The lie Romney told last Thursday in Defiance, Ohio (defiantly lying, knowing no one will call him on it)
Is Harry Reid Immortal? - Politics - The Atlantic Wire
Pretending That Bush v. Gore Was Constitutional Law: Ohio Edition - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money
No More Mister Nice Blog - "Why Are We Fighting A Gender-Based Culture War?" Asked The Author Of Save The Males (Kathleeen "I am an idiot" Parker)
Oklahoma 'Personhood' Ballot Amendment Appeal Rejected By Supreme Court The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an attempt by anti-abortion activists to place what they call a "personhood amendment" on the Oklahoma ballot to define an embryo as a human being from the moment of conception.
GOP Senator Alleges Obama May Delay Friday's Jobs Numbers To Boost Re-election Prospects | ThinkProgress (why do that when he can just make it up?)
Tax Expert Calvin Johnson 'Skeptical' Of Mitt Romney's Taxes (the story your media won't touch)

The Mormon Ethic And The Spirit Of Capitalism | The New Republic (like Judaism without the spiritual core)
Political Animal - Mormonism’s Bain Moment Jackson Lears’s piece, which has been published in the latest issue of the New Republic, parses Mormon theology and history to explain how the Church of Latter-Day Saints embodies the Spirit of Capitalism better than the Protestant Ethic itself. And in doing so, has led the Church straight to its Bain Capital moment.

Romnopoly - YouTube
Whedon On Romney - YouTube

Elizabeth Warren, Scott Brown In Dead Heat, Massachusetts Poll Shows (Cosmo-boy surges to victory)

Nate Silver, Artist of Uncertainty In the campaign’s last days, a leading political scientist says all hail to the polling guru’s sobering new book about predicting outcomes.
People Who Can't Do Math Are So Mad At Nate Silver - Politics - The Atlantic Wire
Silver - Lawyers, Guns & Money : The threat Nate Silver’s mathematical models offer to traditional punditry, with its emphasis on the horse race and the personalities and the media ratings, is quite real. How do we know? So many pundits hate Silver with the heat of a thousand suns.
Nate Silver: One-term celebrity? - politico.com (laugh)

The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Who is the Future U.S. Senator from Maine?

Las Vegas Sands' Money Laundering Probe May End In Settlement: Report (but no jail time)

Fake @CokieRoberts Twitter account fools journalists | Poynter.

1tM41.jpg - Chris Kluwe - Freedom FROM religion

Cancer fight stalls amid push for profits, doctors say | Society | The Guardian Newer drugs fall short of hopes and cost too much, say experts who pledge to improve care in poorer countries

Scientist Shows What Happens To 'Soul' After Death (VIDEO) when the heart stops beating, the blood stops flowing, and the microtubules lose their quantum state, the quantum information in the microtubules isn't destroyed. It's distributed to the universe at large, and if the patient is revived, the quantum information can go back to the microtubules.

Early Menopause: Study Says Common Item Can Be A Trigger A new study warns that chemicals in cosmetics, plastics and household cleaners -- phthalates -- could actually cause women to go through menopause earlier than their peers.

Your Right to Own, Under Threat | Electronic Frontier Foundation The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments today in a case called Kirtsaeng v. Wiley, and their final decision could help shape the future of "first sale," a legal doctrine that underpins the right to sell, lend, or give away the things you buy, even if those things contain copyrighted elements (you don't really own anything)
Windows 8: A Bridge Too Far For Enterprises? - Windows - Operating
windows 8 shortcuts - Bing
Windows 8 Tip: 4 easiest ways to shutdown/restart/sleep your Win 8 PC
New keyboard shortcuts for Windows 8 and Windows RT - Microsoft Windows
Design, Develop, and Certify Hardware for Windows 8
The 20 most common words, and five most common attachments, in phishing e-mails -- GCN
Dropbox vs. iCloud: No Contest - SmallNetBuilder

102712
Dozens killed in Afghan mosque blast | World news | The Guardian Suicide bomber kills at least 45 outside mosque in Maimana where people had gathered to celebrate Eid al-Adha holiday
Malala Yousafzai 'is everybody's daughter', says father | World news | The Guardian Ziauddin Yousafzai says daughter shot by Taliban for daring to want to go to school has provided a turning point for Pakistan
New York Times blocked by China after report on wealth of Wen Jiabao's family | World news | guardian.co.uk Authorities censor publication after revelations that the premier's relatives have accumulated billions during his leadership
Jimmy Savile scandal: 'celebrity hedonism no excuse for child abuse' | Media | guardian.co.uk Child protection expert criticises Max Clifford for saying celebrities didn't ask for birth certificates
Imran Khan detained and 'interrogated over drone views' by US immigration | World news | guardian.co.uk Former cricket captain turned politician detained on flight from Canada to New York to be questioned over his views on jihad (fucked by immigration)
Fukushima 'running out of space' to store dirty water / World / Britain/World / Home - Morning Star Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant is struggling to find space to store tens of thousands of tons of highly contaminated water,
More Cultural Heritage Destroyed - Lawyers, Guns & Money : If there’s one thing we can say about the Saudi government, it’s that their commitment to subtlety is unmatched except by the Russians.

Bryan Norcross' Official Blog : Sandy: Serious As a Heart Attack | Weather Underground Right now, the odds favor that southern track. The threat from this situation is serious as a heart attack for anybody near the rising water (aimed at Manhattan)
Did Climate Change Help Create 'Frankenstorm'? | ThinkProgress


Racial Views: Poll Shows Majority Harbor Prejudice Against Blacks Racial attitudes have not improved in the four years since the United States elected its first black president, an Associated Press poll finds, as a slight majority of Americans now express prejudice toward blacks whether they recognize those feelings or not ... When measured by an implicit racial attitudes test, the number of Americans with anti-black sentiments jumped to 56 percent (racist America getting more racist)
Lawrence Wilkerson, Former Colin Powell Aide, Blasts Sununu, GOP, As 'Full Of Racists'
Hullabaloo Sununu and the dogwhistle strategy (Boston Globe's favorite op-ed racist +John McCain is an asshole)
Obama's Skin Color Loses Him 2 Percent - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast - Close to 80 percent of Republican voters expressed "explicit racism." (well, there you are)
G.O.P. Split Over Whether to Emphasize Misogyny or Racism : The New Yorker
Balloon Juice » » A Campaign foretold in an 150 year-old cartoon… he Negrophope Strategy.

State polling averages support Obama camp’s view of the race - The Plum Line - The Washington Post
2012 Polls: When Is A Lead Really A Lead?
Obama Campaign Makes Closing Argument Against Mitt Romney In New Swing State Ad
2012 House Races: Spending By Outside Groups Rocks Many Candidates
Barack Obama Tribune Endorsement: Chicago Tribune Endorses President Again For only the second time in its 165-year history, the Chicago Tribune has endorsed a Democratic candidate for president (Rahm threatened to rip their hearts out)
Des Moines Register endorses Romney - First Read (third swing-state major newpager to switch to Romnoid)
89 Outrageous Anti-Obama Books - The Daily Beast (blizzard of rightwingnut lies)

Daily Kos: Medicare's 'death spiral' under Romney/Ryan voucher plan confirmed in new study
Mitt Romney overruled state agency and rejected new birth certificates for children born to gay parents - Politics - The Boston Globe As governor, he ordered review for each child (he has always been a total asshole)
Michelangelo Signorile: Romney: 'Some Gays Are Actually Having Children. It's Not Right on Paper. It's Not Right in Fact.'

Mitt Romney Economy Speech Repeats Disputed Lines On Job Creation, Health Care (BFLs)
Charles Ferguson: Romney's Other Credibility Problem: Glenn Hubbard (crack-pot "economist")
The Dow as Election Indicator - NYTimes.com WALL STREET does not love Barack Obama, a fact demonstrated by large contributions by bankers to Mitt Romney. (but the stock market does well with incumbents)

Balloon Juice » Then they came for Nate Silver
Right-wing psychosexual obsessions, Nate Silver edition - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Unskewed Studmuffin Dean Chambers Does Not Care For Nate Silver’s Dickless Polling | TBogg
Ohio Is Not a Toss Up Nate Silver looks at the polling average in Ohio (why they hate him, he represents reality)

Hillary Clinton's Birthday: 65 Reasons To Love Her On Her 65th

A tale of two healthcare plans | David Cay Johnston Americans spend $2.64 per person for healthcare for each purchasing power equivalent dollar spent by the 33 other countries that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD data shows the U.S. spends $8,233 per capita compared with an average of $3,118 in the other 33 countries.
Trouble In Mitt Romney's Socialist Hospital Paradise

Hullabaloo But to pay for that, students in fields such as psychology, political science, anthropology, and performing arts could pay more because they have fewer job prospects in the state. (Flori-duh)
Charles Darwin Supporters Protest Rep. Paul Broun at UGA Arch - Athens, GA Patch Broun, who has made recent religious comments saying evolution is a lie "straight from the pit of hell.
How Mandatory Minimums Forced Me to Send More Than 1,000 Nonviolent Drug Offenders to Federal Prison | The Nation

Third Party Nihilism: The Arguments Can Always Get Worse! - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Matt Stoller, who is sort of Paglia but 1)with fewer references to Madonna and uses of the word “Dionysian,” and 2)less coherent. (never read anything by Matt Stoller, ever)

Women who quit smoking before 30 cut risk of tobacco-related death by 97% | Science | The Guardian Lancet study of more than 1m UK women shows death rate three time higher for those who smoke into middle-age

Obama On Paul Ryan's Hero: Ayn Rand is something we pick up when we are "17 or 18 and feeling misunderstood... Then, as we get older, we realize that a world in which we’re only thinking about ourselves and not thinking about anybody else ... is a very narrow view" : politics
BlessedBlogger comments on one of the most perfect and eloquent explanations of day to day sexism that goes unnoticed by most men, as explained by a friend of mine who is a trans woman.
Sinfest - 2011-10-09: The Sisterhood 7

Jailbreaking Tablets Deemed Illegal By The U.S. Copyright Office

102612
Hurricane SANDY
Hurricane Sandy may be unprecedented in East Coast storm history - Capital Weather Gang - The Washington Post - a monstrous hybrid vortex. A combination of a hurricane and a nor’easter.
Dying Satellites Could Lead to Shaky Weather Forecasts - NYTimes.com The United States is facing a year or more without crucial satellites that provide invaluable data for predicting storm tracks, a result of years of mismanagement, lack of financing and delays in launching replacements (NYT can't bring themselves to say Republican obstructionism)

Why You're Likely to Believe Political Lies | Psychology Today What happens in your thoughts and emotions that makes political lies stick (lazy non-thinking)

Romney In National Polls Overtaking Obama By Narrow Margin (landslide victory predicted)
CNN Poll: Obama 50%-Romney 46% in Ohio – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs
Oct. 25: The State of the States - NYTimes.com - Obama’s 73 percent overall chance of winning the Electoral College. (Ohio has about a 50-50 chance of providing the decisive Electoral College votes.)
Sorry, America, there is no such thing as “October Surprises” - Salon.com Trump's bombshell fizzled, but it's only partly his fault. There are no big reveals two weeks before an election
Politico Doomsday Election Scenarios - Things in Politico That Make Me Want to Guzzle Antifreeze, DOOMSDAY Edition - Esquire
Matt Bai on Bill Clinton and Obama - Dear Matt Bai: You're Fired - Esquire
xs
The Real Cost of Citizens United, Explained - Esquire

Sununu: Powell endorsed candidate of his own race (Boston Globe's favorite op-ed Romney campaign racist guy)
Obama Dismisses John Sununu's Race Comment, Cory Booker Calls It 'Dumb'
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Debate Video - John Sununu Triumph Debates Video - Esquire (Boston Globes favorite racist)

Balloon Juice GOP: Rape Nuts (Republicans love rape)
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - If States Embrace Romney’s So-called “Moderate” Stance, They Would Ban 90 percent of Abortions

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Ronald Reagan Was as Perverted as Lena Dunham Is!
Conservatives flip out over Lena Dunham Obama ad - Salon.com The "Girls" creator makes a flirty Obama ad and drives the right so batty they compare her to the Russian strongman
Dunham’s ‘First Time’ Ad Similar To 1980 Reagan Joke | TPM2012

Elizabeth Warren Interview - Elizabeth Warren on Romney and More - Esquire

U.S. Economy Grew at 2% Rate in 3rd Quarter - NYTimes.com
Pointing Toward Prosperity? - NYTimes.com Romney’s “plan” is a sham. It’s a list of things he claims will happen, with no description of the policies he would follow to make those things happen. ("bullshit")
CNBC Anchor Becky Quick Bashes Paul Krugman's 'Downright Dangerous' Deficit Stance (austerity the only solution!)
The Richest Person In Each U.S. State - DailyFinance (Mass: Abigal Johnson, $12Bn)

Obamacare Forces Small Business To Trim, But Not Eliminate, Health Care Coverage, Survey Says

Justice Department lawsuit says arrests in Meridian, Miss., schools violate students’ rights - The Washington Post Authorities in east Mississippi run a “school-to-prison pipeline” that locks up students for infractions like flatulence or wearing the wrong color socks, a policy that mainly affects black and disabled children, the U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday in a federal lawsuit.

Sexism in the skeptic community: I spoke out, then came the rape threats. - Slate Magazine I spoke out about sexual harassment among atheists and scientists. Then came the rape threats. (Dawkins is an asshole)
Richard Dawkins asks: “Can’t we just get back to talking about how awful religion is?” - Lawyers, Guns & Money

One of most ambitious films ever made, 'Cloud Atlas' succeeds on all levels | Fox News

Windows, Revamped and Split in 2 - NYTimes.com
A Windows 8 Cheat Sheet - NYTimes.com
Pokki - Download Free Desktop Apps and Games

102512
Family of Wen Jiabao Holds a Hidden Fortune in China - NYTimes.com

Fox's Moore: U.S. Abandoning "Free Enterprise" For "Socialist Model," Which Is "The Europe Model That's Collapsing" | Video | Media Matters for America (the most socialist countries in Europe are doing better than America)
Greek Unemployed Cut Off From Medical Treatment - NYTimes.com Life in Greece has been turned on its head since the debt crisis took hold. But in few areas has the change been more striking than in health care. (Romnoid's plan for America)

Hurricane Sandy, Winter Storm Hybrid Threatens New York, Delaware, Maine With Bad Weather

Plan for hunting terrorists signals U.S. intends to keep adding names to kill lists - The Washington Post
Codifying the Arbitrary Executive - Lawyers, Guns & Money
"Sustaining a Seemingly Permanent War" The problem with giving "emergency" powers to the executive branch? Once claimed, they are too rarely surrendered. (we are always in a "state of emergency")

Who Threw Israel Under the Bus? - NYTimes.com
Selfhaters - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Obviously former Mossad director Efraim Halevy is a self-hating Jew like the large majority of American Jews who vote for the Democrats. Otherwise why would he write an op-ed for the Times exposing the truth that Democrats have traditionally been greater friends of the Israeli state than Republicans. I don’t think the true Jew-lovers in this country–Pat Robertson let’s say–are going to approve of this.

Quote of the Day "This all dates back to when we were growing up together in Kenya. We had constant run-ins on the soccer field. He wasn't very good and resented it. When we finally moved to America I thought it would be over." -- President Obama, on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, joking about Donald Trump's latest challenge.

Oct. 24: In Polls, Romney's Momentum Seems to Have Stopped - NYTimes.com
Obama’s Blunder Was in Ceding Political Center to Romney - Bloomberg (well, he's always been a center-right Republican, hasn't he?)
AP-GfK poll: Romney edging out Obama on economy - Businessweek Americans are growing increasingly optimistic about the future of the U.S. economy, and likely voters trust Republican Mitt Romney slightly more than President Barack Obama to do a better job of managing it - shows Romney pulling even with Obama among women at 47-47 after lagging by 16 points among women a month earlier.
Colin Powell Endorses Obama For President
Political Animal - Powell Endorsement Not Part of the “Romney Momentum” Narrative
Obama: Ayn Rand Is For Misunderstood Teenagers | TPM LiveWire
Why even President Obama won't champion social security | Dean Baker | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Although millions of middle-class Americans strongly support social security, big bucks campaign donors hate it. That's why (the great underminer)
Strident Anti-Obama Messages Flood Key States - NYTimes.com
Mitt Romney Cast As 'Economic Traitor' In New Ad Campaign
Hillary Clinton Indicates She Could Remain Secretary Of State Longer Than Expected
GOP Voter Fraud Accusations Suddenly Blowing Up In Their Faces a growing number of GOP voter registration drives that either submitted false applications or threw away authentic ones.
Greg Abbott, Texas Attorney General, Threatens To Arrest U.N. Elections Observers (Republican thug "poll-watchers" just fine)
Texas’ Greg Abbott Threatens UN-Affiliated Poll Watchers | TPMMuckraker
Dark Money Rising: An Eye on Montana and Beyond - Esquire
Mitt Romney vs. the English Language - Bloomberg
Politico takes on “conspiracy theories,” including various real non-conspiracy things - Salon.com Reporter Ginger Gibson dismisses them as conspiracy theorists -- even those with real fears about voter suppression (fair 'n balanced conspiracies, except one side is true and the other isn't)
Arizona Dark Money Group Spends Millions In California | TPMMuckraker
On the Move in Florida? | TPM Editors Blog
Donald Trump Offers $5 Million For Obama's College Transcripts, Passport But Won't Show His: Report (AUDIO) The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt contacted Trump's office on Wednesday to ask for Trump's college transcripts and passport records, to which an executive at the company responded that the newspaper's request was "stupid."

Richard Mourdock One Of At Least 15 GOP Senate Candidates Who Oppose Abortion For Rape Victims
GOP's Mourdock stands by rape, abortion remark - Times Union
Rape. It’s Just Different. Wait. No, It’s Not. | hecatedemeter
Mitt Romney Refuses To Answer Questions About Richard Mourdock At Campaign Stop In Cincinnati
Obama Campaign Presses Mitt Romney To Fully Disown Richard Mourdock For Rape Comments
Post removed: Study looks at voting and hormones – The Chart - CNN.com Blogs

Michelle Rhee: Union-Buster - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Michelle Rhee’s organization StudentsLast is not just anti-teacher union. It’s anti-collective bargaining more broadly. The organization has contributed $500,000 against Michigan’s Proposal 2, which would make the right to collective bargaining a part of the state constitution.
The Presidential Candidate Who Would Destroy the Economy - Bloomberg The usually reasonable Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic also backs Johnson. This is unfortunate because Johnson has nutty economic policy views and would do tremendous damage to the global economy were he to somehow become president. (young Conor could give a shit how many people die from his policies)

Mitt Romney and the GOP’s plans to woo Florida Jews from Barack Obama appear to be going nowhere. - Slate Magazine It turns out it’s not much of a battle after all.
Political Animal - Ignoring Michael Bloomberg (elitist rich fuck)

Keith Olbermann Casts A Wide Net In Job Search - Forbes

“The Revisionaries”: Texas schoolbook battle — crazier than you thought! - Salon.com An alarming, hilarious documentary revisits the Tea Party-fueled fight over evolution and Obama in school textbooks

102412
Well, It Would Have Been a Good Religion Question... | Religion Dispatches ("women's rights" are only for Muslim countries while Netanyahu says kiss my ass)
Italy Orders Jail Terms for 7 Who Didn’t Warn of Deadly Earthquake - NYTimes.com (Italian "justice")

Spain Output Shrinks Fifth Quarter Amid Bailout Talk: Economy - Bloomberg Spain’s economy contracted for a fifth quarter, adding pressure on Premier Mariano Rajoy to seek more European aid even as the euro area’s fourth-largest economy met a bill-sales target. (wreck the country with austerity so they need more aid so more austerity!)

Global Gender Gap Report 2012: The Best And Worst Countries For Women This year, amid a whole lot of talk about women's rights and gender equality, the U.S. is ranked 22nd with a score of .7373 (its lowest since 2009).

Does Romney’s Religion Condone Torture? | Religion Dispatches n late 2001, Jessen and James Mitchell (both clinical psychologists with no previous interrogation or intelligence training; both members of the LDS Church) were contracted by the CIA to develop “enhanced interrogation techniques” and to train interrogators during what one source describes as “brutal interrogations that effectively unfolded as live demonstrations.” Together, Jessen and Mitchell came to be known as the “Mormon mafia.”
Joe Klein's sociopathic defense of drone killings of children | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Reflecting the Obama legacy and US culture, the Time columnist says: "the bottom line is: 'whose 4-year-olds get killed?'"
Robert Gibbs Says Anwar al-Awlaki's Son, Killed By Drone Strike, Needs 'Far More Responsible Father'

Will 2012 see the most divided American electorate ever? | Harry J Enten | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Even if Obama wins a second term, voter demographics don't look too rosy for his hopes of being a post-partisan president

Romney Says He’s Winning — It’s a Bluff -- Daily Intel (Romnoid 2.x programmed to lie)
How Mitt Romney Won The Debate Spin Over And Over — By Fulfilling The Liberal Media's All-Consuming Need For Fresh Narrative | The New Republic
No More Mister Nice Blog Alec MacGillis, speaking for his fellow journalists, explains why the press is feeding us nothing but Romney's spin now:
Despite a Strong Debate Campaign, Romney's Path to 270 Remains Steep - Charlie Cook - The Atlantic - National polls show a tight race, but the campaign has stabilized and the map still favors Obama.
The Problem with the New American Exceptionalism - Esquire
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Romney’s Geography Problem
Paul Ryan Poverty Speech Proposes Reforming Programs For The Poor
Connie Mack: 'United Nations Should Be Kicked Off Of American Soil' (fortunately, this idiot is losing)

DownWithTyranny!: Step right up and vote for that "transparent faker" Willard Inc. and the unknowable contents of his campaign Mystery Box

How Strong Is the U.S. Navy Really? — The Monkey Cage In 1916, the US controlled roughly 11% of the world’s naval power. This is an impressive number that ranks the US third in naval strength behind the UK (34%) and Germany (19%), and just ahead of France (10%). What about the US navy in 2011? In 2011, the US controlled roughly 50% of the world’s naval power putting it in a comfortable lead in naval power ahead of Russia (11%).

Richard Mourdock Rape Comments May Be October Surprise To Help Dems, Obama
John McCain Withdraws Richard Mourdock Support After Abortion Comments
Republican Senate Candidate: Conception From Rape ‘Is Something That God Intended’ | TPM2012 (Mourdock says God rapes you)
Richard Mourdock Rape Comment Reveals Stark Divide, Harsh Question For GOP (Romnoid supports "God-rape")
Why, I’m Beginning to Think That the Links Between Misogyny and the Anti-Choice Movement Might Not be a Coincidence - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Why God's Intentions Are Irrelevant | Religion Dispatches
Richard Mourdock, misogynist - Salon.com Pregnancy after rape is what "God intended," says the Indiana Republican, showing the real right-to-life movement
Richard Mourdock Rape Comments - The Trouble with Richard Mourdock Is Not His Alone - Esquire
Fox News Completely Ignores Senate Candidate's Claim That Rape Pregnancy Is A 'Gift From God' | ThinkProgress
Echidne Of The Snakes: About Richard Mourdock. May Trigger.
Pennsylvania Bill Includes Provision Requiring Women To Prove They Were Raped ... According to the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network, 54 percent of rapes and sexual assaults are not reported to the police. (Republicans are obsessed with rape, you have to ask yourself why?)
Pennsylvania Bill Would Reduce Welfare Benefits For Women Who Cannot Prove They Were Raped | ThinkProgress

GOP's Big Guns Trained, Elizabeth Warren Fights Back Outside groups are spending big to defeat progressive Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren.
OB
Study looks at voting and hormones – The Chart - CNN.com Blogs New research suggests that hormones may influence female voting choices differently, depending on whether a woman is single or in a committed relationship.
Ladies In Uproar Over Time-Of-The-Month Science and now the Ladiez of Twitter — ladies we honestly admire! — have gone totally raggo.

What Happened to Barack Obama? Um, He Had to Win Reelection - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money The class of writers like John Cook with a sad because Barack Obama isn’t the adult standing above the fray he was in 2008 shows a lot of naivete about politics.
Jennifer Rubin: Criticizing Bush = "Apologizing For This Nation" | Blog | Media Matters for America (Jennifer "genocide all the Palestinians" Rubin)
Balloon Juice » Snowbilly Snooki Inches Us Closer to the Ni-CLANG! Event Horizon “President Obama’s shuck and jive shtick with these Benghazi lies must end.” That’s what she said.
Sarah Palin Shuck and Jive - Down the Rabbit Hole with Sarah Palin & Megyn Kelly - Esquire Princess Dumbass of the Northwoods
Texas History: The More You Know, The More You Want to Run Away - Lawyers, Guns & Money
‘Greedy’ U.S. billionaire urges Michigan voters to reject free bridge to Canada | Canada | News | National Post

Netroots Bloggers Mark 10th Birthday in Decline and Struggling for Survival - The Daily Beast What began 10 years ago as a network of progressive bloggers offering a voice they thought missing from the mainstream press has all but disappeared as a force in the Democratic Party,
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » No, Virginia, the Progressive Blogosphere is Not Dead, It Just Has Different Actors (dead Newsweek accuses prog blogosphere of deadness)
Daily Kos: Is the netroots dead? Hardly
Booman Tribune ~ Thinking About Old Times

Hullabaloo: Credibility wetdreams (Joe Nocera is very serious about cutting the deficit and Chuckie Schumer can't be trusted)
Bank Of America Mortgage Fraud: Feds Sue For Over $1 Billion Alleging Multi-Year Scheme (Obama pre-pardons everyone)

Former law school career services employee admits to falsifying employment data, says she was ordered to do so - Lawyers, Guns & Money
One Year Out Of College, Women Already Earn Less Than Men For Doing The Same Job | ThinkProgress


Dana Milbank: Trending on Twitter: Groupthink - The Washington Post (how twitter formed MSM post-debate consensus)
Dutch court says Samsung does not infringe Apple patent | Reuters

102212
Presidential Debate Polls Show Win For Obama (metrosexual black Abraham Lincoln vampire hunter slays Romnoid 2.x blood-sucking squid death robot as it attempts to attach itself to the face of America)
The Foreign Policy Debate: Blog Reax - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast The Foreign Policy Debate: Reader Reax - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast - Shorter Romney: "I will lead America the same way, but with more leadership!"
Presidential Debate 2012: Live Updates On Final Obama-Romney Showdown
Live-Blogging The Foreign Policy Debate - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast (Sullivan thinks Obama won but it may not matter because Americans are stupid)
Insta-Verdict | TPM Editors Blog - From the CBS instapoll of uncommitted voters: Who won the #Debate? OBAMA: 53%; ROMNEY: 23%, TIE: 24% (Margin of Error: 4%; Sample Size: 521)
Live-Blogging the Third Presidential Debate | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone a clear signal that he knew Romney fucked the dog tonight. This should be the death-blow to Romney, but I've said that before and been wrong.
Summary | TPM Editors Blog Shorter Mitt Romney: We’d do exactly what you’re doing. But I’d be President!
The Final Debate | TPM Media (pics)
Meme Of The Day - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast
Obama Horses and Bayonets
Obama On Size Of Navy: 'We Also Have Fewer Horses And Bayonets' (video)
This helpful map explains Mitt Romney’s contention This helpful map explains Mitt Romney’s contention... - John Green's tumblr This helpful map explains Mitt Romney’s contention that Syria is Iran’s “path to the sea.”

The Truth Behind the Benghazi Attack - Newsweek and The Daily Beast
Balloon Juice » » When The Former Head Of Mossad Calls You a Moron…Or Why You Don’t Hand Over Foreign Policy To An Out-Of-His-Depth-Hack Guided By The Worst People In The World
Former Israeli Spymaster: We Need To Talk to Iran - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East Making foreign policy on Iran a serious issue in the US elections — what Romney has done, in itself — is a heavy blow to the ultimate interests of the United States and Israel.”
Asia Unbound » What We Need to Hear From the Candidates on China

Sorry World: What Happens in Beijing, WON'T Stay in Beijing - The Diplomat While many have feared its rise, a weaker China struggling with economic and political challenges at home may present an even greater challenge.
allAfrica.com: Africa: Is Africa's Maritime Strategy All At Sea? The African Union's (AU) deadline for securing the continent's territorial waters - the world's last major geographical region without a maritime strategy - has been set at 2050, a target that may prove untenable.
Britain goes to trial for colonial crimes - World - Macleans.ca Kenyans look for financial compensation and a state apology for torture committed 60 years ago - On Oct. 5, a British high court ruled that three elderly Kenyans who were tortured and abused by colonial authorities in Kenya in the 1950s can proceed with their case against the British government
Inequality and the world economy: True Progressivism | The Economist A new form of radical centrist politics is needed to tackle inequality without hurting economic growth

Ikea, eBay Avoid Paying UK Taxes, Reports Allege
On the Need to Continue Pointing Out That Nobody Has Gone to Jail for the Financial Crisis | FDL News Desk

Lame Duck Whip Count | OurFuture.org (John Kerry may vote for "grand bargain" to screw America)

The Secret of Our Non-Success - NYTimes.com this is what normally happens after a severe financial crisis. But Mitt Romney’s economic team rejects that evidence. And this denialism bodes ill for policy if Mr. Romney wins next month. (Republicans hate reality)
Paul Krugman: 'The Public Really Doesn't Care' About The Deficit

Romney’s Limp Blimp Crash Lands In Florida (video) | Addicting Info
The Symbol Mitt Romney Demanded on His Official Gubernatorial Portrait - The Daily Beast “I don’t understand it,” Whitney says. “He was the first person in the country to do something about health care, long before Obama or anybody else. That’s a great achievement.”

Matt Taibbi: Mitt Romney 'A Salesman And Bullshit Artist Of The Highest Order'
Matt Taibbi: Wall Street Executives Believe 'Everybody Else Is A Parasite'
New Generation Of Veterans Skeptical Of Presidential Politics And Political Parties
This Is Not The Voter Fraud Virginia Republicans Are Looking For (rich douchebag endorses Scott "Senator McDreamy" Brown)
Balloon Juice » Mind The Gap, Ladies (women 18% smarter than men)

Bats Left/Throws Right: All's Well That Ends With A Merely Short-Term Chilling, Racially-Motivated Voter Suppression Campaign Put Up By "Mistake"
This Is Not The Voter Fraud Virginia Republicans Are Looking For
Who Created the Voter-Fraud Myth? : The New Yorker Hans von Spakovsky, a Republican lawyer who served in the Bush Administration, has promoted strict voter-I.D. laws (Satan's minions)
Wis. judge rejects request to reinstate union law A Wisconsin judge refused Monday to put on hold his earlier decision repealing major parts of Gov. Scott Walker's law effectively ending collective bargaining for most public workers.

Texas Church Calling Obama a 'Muslim Communist' Could Have Its Tax-Exempt Status Revoked - The sign now reads, "Vote for the Mormon, not the Muslim! The capitalist, not the communist!" (most Fundie churches are transparent political orgs)

Popular High Schoolers Earn More Later In Life, Study Shows students who were popular in high school earned 2 percent more 35 years down the road than their classmates with less friends. The additional earnings are almost equal to half of the extra income they would have earned, if they'd had an extra year of school, conclude researchers at the National Bureau of Economic research.
w
Earthquake Scientists Jailed Over 'Inexact' Statements Preceding 2009 L'Aquila Quake (VIDEO) Seismologists are condemning a manslaughter verdict for six Italian scientists and one government official accused of being too reassuring about the risk of an earthquake prior to a deadly temblor in 2009.
Overgrown: What happens when urban farms get too big? | Grist (agribiz takes over the cities)
You've Heard of Urban Coyotes. Urban Bears Could Be Next - Neighborhoods - The Atlantic Cities
Will Pot Barons Cash In on Legalization? - Newsweek and The Daily Beast Pot use in the United States is rising sharply, and voters may make it fully legal in two states this fall. Smart businessmen are banking on that happening.

NY Times journalists mull byline strike | TPMDC
Copy, Shake, and Paste: How to find Plagiarism in Dissertations

Why Microsoft's Surface Tablet Shames the PC Industry - Businessweek
Gawker, Reddit, Free Speech and Such – Whatever
Gawker/Reddit Followup – Whatever

102112
Lebanese protesters clash with security forces after intelligence chief's funeral | World news | The Guardian President tells mourners in Beirut he has ordered rapid investigation into murder of General Wissam al-Hassan
Jordan claims to have thwarted al-Qaida inspired terror campaign | World news | guardian.co.uk Jordanian intelligence has arrested 11 men alleged to have planned bomb and mortar attacks on western diplomats, foreign nationals and shopping centres
Syria crisis: Damascus bomb kills at least 10 | World news | guardian.co.uk Car explosion in Syrian capital's Bab Touma district during visit by UN peace envoy leaves 10 dead and dozens injured
Gaza-bound ship Estelle intercepted by Israeli forces | World news | guardian.co.uk sraeli marines board the Estelle and direct it to port of Ashdod as 30 activists on board attempt to break Gaza blockade
Mah Gul, Young Afghan Woman, Beheaded For Refusing To Become A Prostitute
Iraq records huge rise in birth defects - Health News - Health & Families - The Independent New study links increase with military action by Western forces
Yemen Drone Strike: Officials Say U.S. Drone Airstrike Kills At Least 4 Suspected Militants

Hint: If Hillary’s Involved with Negotiations, They’ve Started Already | emptywheel - A bizarre little October Surprise just happened–and then un-happened.

Calculated Risk: On Greece: More Austerity, More Recession, More Extremism

Brookfield Square Mall Shooting: Incident Reported Near Wisconsin Mall

U.S. Intellectual History: "This Chamber Reeks of Blood" "Every Senator in this Chamber is partly responsible for sending 50,000 young Americans to an early grave," McGovern declared. And then in a statement that came to represent the core of his indictment he intoned: "This chamber reeks of blood." (and still does, as does drone-boy's WH)
George McGovern: He deserved better - Salon.com
When blue-collar pride became identity politics - Salon.com AFL-CIO leader George Meany’s description of the New York delegation to the disastrous 1972 Democratic convention: “They’ve got six open fags and only three AFL-CIO representatives!” (Meany screwed liberalism and labor and fucked up the country)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » McGovern one of the ironies of George McGovern’s life—a war hero whose patriotism was attacked for opposing the Vietnam War.
liverputty: George McGovern as a B-24 pilot - the crew of the Dakota Queen - George McGovern's crew. It's a helluva story guaranteed to leave the reader in awe of the young men that won the war, a great companion piece to Ambrose's Band of Brothers. (comment: He was all of 21 when he flew 35 bomber missions during the war and his crew had complete confidence in him. He had to grow up very fast -- as so many soldiers did in those times.)

Political Animal - The Failure of the Liberal Idea Machine - The problem here, which has been a problem from the beginning, is that lots of members of congress genuinely don’t believe in Keynesian economic prescriptions and nobody’s managed to persuade them. (deficit! everyone knows Social Security is broken! Austerity! - all psychotic ideas embraced by Dems)
Democrats Bragging on Their Deficit-Cutting Skills Helps Nobody, Hurts America | FDL News Desk

Voter Fraud - Lawyers, Guns & Money : As Jamil Smith’s piece once again shows, the only voter fraud going on in this country is by white conservatives attempting to intimidate people of color into not voting.
Ohio “Voter Fraud” Billboards In My Backyard | The New Republic
Daily Kos: Clear Channel to Remove "Voter Fraud" Billboards in Cleveland claiming they were put up in error ... 10 billboards that will be visible Monday and carry the message "Voting Is a Right. Not a Crime!" Cleveland City Council will pay for five more to carry the same message.
Romney family buys voting machines through Bain Capital investment (Tagg Romney owns all the voting machines in Ohio)
HIG Private Equity:: H.I.G. Capital Completes Strategic Investment in Hart InterCivic - Hart is a leading national provider of voting systems, election management products and services.
Hawaii: The state that doesn't vote - CNN.com (no need to suppress anything)

Obama, Romney Tied Among Likely Voters: NBC/WSJ Poll
Ohio Poll: Obama’s lead dwindles to 1 | TPM2012 (well with the "margin of chicanery)
Akin: McCaskill Pushes For Big Government 'Like A Dog' Plays 'Fetch' | TPM LiveWire
Marco Rubio: Lilly Ledbetter Act 'Nothing But An Effort To Help Trial Lawyers' (and women apparently love voting for these guys)

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Ann Romney Comes To Florida For A Shameless Breast Cancer Photo Op [by @BeachPeanuts] you must understand that Mitt Romney supports the Blunt Amendment which would permit your employer to deny you breast cancer screenings (as well as a laundry list of other preventive healthcare services primarily used by women) (and they all wore pink)

drugs without the hot air by david nutt - bookforum.com / daily review
My son is schizophrenic. The ‘reforms’ that I worked for have worsened his life. - The Washington Post


The New Cartographers: ‘Mappy Hour,’ Sex Clubs And Diversity At OpenStreetMap | TPM Idea Lab
xs Free Speech and Power: From Reddit Creeps to anti-Muslim Videos, It’s Not *Just* “Free Speech” | technosociology (so where are the limits?)

102012
Issa’s Benghazi document dump exposes several Libyans working with the U.S. | The Cable (Republican traitor to America)
John Kerry: Darrell Issa's Release Of Raw Libya Cables 'Irresponsible And Inexcusable'
Hullabaloo - What is this kill list you speak of? (Debbie is an idiot)
David Ignatius: Benghazi intelligence revealed - The Washington Post
The town-hall debate: The utterly useless Benghazi argument | The Economist
Sonia Dridi, Cairo Reporter, 'Savagely Attacked': France 24 TV

Bank Of England: Debt Cancelation - Business Insider just straight up throw it on the fire, and tell the government it no longer owes the money.

If Romney Cuts Taxes For The Rich By 20%, Dems Charge-- He Will Have To Raise Taxes For The Middle Class By $1 Trillion - Forbes
For all the details on Mitt Romney's 5 trillion dollar tax plan visit- romneytaxplan.com

Avedon's Sideshow: The purpose of voting

Oct. 19: After Romney Gains, Should Obama Concede Florida? - NYTimes.com (Boomer fogies vote to starve younger generations)
Big Fail: CBS Pushes Scare Story About Social Security | Crooks and Liars
Rachel Maddow Reminds Us Again What Romney's Foreign Policy Team Would Look Like | Video Cafe (the neo-con failures return, triumphant, to screw the world again)
Mitt Romney Bain Attacks: Obama-Backing Super PAC Goes Back To The Well
Bill Maher Mocks Mitt Romney's Women Remarks With Hitchcock's 'Shadow Of A Doubt' (VIDEO)
Hullabaloo Mitt wants to enable adoption of snowflake babies - It's true that Democrats have not been the stalwart defenders --- and expanders --- of women's rights that we need. But they're Gloria Steinham's fondest dream compared to that list of atrocities Mitt proudly articulates. He wanted to create adoption for blastocysts. You just don't get any more fanatical than that.
Political Animal - Total Obstructionism Not a Guaranteed Winning Strategy for the Minority In other words, Mitch McConnell and his brethren may have thrown a wrench into the gears of government for no benefit whatsoever even to their own narrow self-interest. (evil for evil's sake)
Arthur Allen, CEO Of ASG, Sent Email Pressuring Employees To Donate To Mitt Romney
Democrat Jim Graves Has a Chance to Unseat Michele Bachmann - The Daily Beast Outspent 10 to 1 in a tight race in Minnesota’s most conservative congressional district, businessman Jim Graves is polling well with independent voters, writes John Avlon.

Georgia's Bitter Charter Battle Will voters create a $430 million charter-school commission when school budgets are already suffering? (subsidizing Fundamentalism)


Political Animal - Climate Change Is Simple

Bats Left/Throws Right: Petards Are For Hoisting
Lazy Slut Who Did No Work Dinesh D’Souza ‘Resigns’ From Million Dollar Christian College Prez Gig
No More Mister Nice - Blog Dinesh D'Souza'S Penis Is Now Helping Us Lose The War With Islamofascists, Or Something Like That
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Late Night Open Thread: (Probably Not) The Last of Dinesh D’Scrwsher

Large, Poor Families Are Left Out of New York’s Housing Plans, Officials Say - NYTimes.com (Bloomie has always hated minorities)


101912
Anti-Syrian security official among dead in Beirut car bomb attack | World news | The Guardian Lebanese general who foiled pro-Syrian bombing campaign and led investigation into Hariri assassination reportedly the target
Turkey calls on major powers to intervene in Syria | World news | guardian.co.uk Turkish foreign minister says countries must set aside differences over Syria to prevent humanitarian disaster

Rowan Atkinson: we must be allowed to insult each other - Telegraph Rowan Atkinson has launched a campaign for a change in the law that bans "insulting words and behaviour".
George Osborne scorned for 'great train snobbery' after incident in first-class | Politics | guardian.co.uk The chancellor, George Osborne, has refused to comment on reports that he tried to sit in the first-class compartment on board a Virgin train from Cheshire despite only having paid for a standard ticket. "Osborne couldn't possibly" sit in standard class.

The remarkable, unfathomable ignorance of Debbie Wasserman Schultz | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk - Obama's Kill List - But one does not expect this level of ignorance, the ability to stay entirely unaware of one of the most extremist powers a president has claimed in US history, trumpeted on the front-page of the New York Times and virtually everywhere else.
Secret ‘Kill List’ Tests Obama’s Principles - NYTimes.com (May 29, 2012)

ActBlue — Contribute Now to Orange to Blue 2012

Gallup vs. the World - NYTimes.com

President Obama in Fairfax, Virginia: "Romnesia" - YouTube
WTO hands Obama victory in US-China steel case | ABS-CBN News (not what Mitt says)

Tribune Endorsement: Too Many Mitts | The Salt Lake Tribune - Obama has earned another term
Obama for president - Tampa Bay Times
Orlando Sentinel endorses Mitt Romney for president - OrlandoSentinel.com
Cornel West Plans to Vote for Obama in November and Protest His Policies in February | VICE

Snow Job on Jobs - NYTimes.com But Mr. Romney, it turns out, doesn’t have a plan; he’s just faking it ... To summarize, then, the true Romney plan is to create an economic boom through the sheer power of Mr. Romney’s personal awesomeness
The State of the Election Is All of Us, by Charles P. Pierce - Esquire This is an election that is going to be held well within the Margin of Chicanery ... We will have a self-governing political commonwealth or we will decide not to have one. And, right now, 20 days out, you'd have to be crazy or Nate Silver to think you know what which way that decision will fall.
Romney As Governor: 800 Vetoes And One Big Deal : NPR Romney issued some 800 vetoes, and the Legislature overrode nearly all of them, sometimes unanimously.
It's Funny Because We're White - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic Mitt Romney's son jokes about assaulting the president: Yes because a good whippin' would teach that Obama boy to mind his place.
Balloon Juice » Bring On Multiple Choice Mitt
Mitt, Tagg, And The Romney Family’s Myth Of Self-Reliance | The New Republic Mitt, Tagg, and the Romney family’s myth of self-reliance.
Mitt Romney still struggling to convince Pennsylvania's female voters | World news | guardian.co.uk Obama's lead has grown smaller in the Democratic-leaning state but women say they are unimpressed by Romney at debates

The Next Grand Bargain Negotiations Will Begin January 1 | FDL News Desk
Obama’s plan: Push Republicans off the fiscal cliff the Obama administration’s plan for a second term is much like their plan for the first term: Make a deal with Republicans. Get a big bipartisan solution to our problems.
AARP: Please, let payroll taxes go up - The expiration of the tax cut will mean a $1,000 hit for the average taxpayer, and unlike many other tax provisions of the fiscal cliff, it will hit ordinary Americans immediately when they get their paychecks in January 2013 if it isn’t extended.
Congressman Joe Walsh Makes Dumb Abortion Remark -- Daily Intel “With modern technology and science, you can't find one instance,” he said. “... There is no such exception as life of the mother, and as far as health of the mother, same thing.”

Women In Binders | Facebook

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » If Only Dinesh D’Souza Had Been Numerate…. ...he might have been able to channel his urges into evangelically innocuous porn:

Minnesota bans Coursera: State takes bold stand against free education - Free Online Education Is Now Illegal in Minnesota
Minnesota Coursera ban: State won't crack down on free online courses after all.

TSA Removes X-Ray Body Scanners From Major Airports - ProPublica The Transportation Security Administration has been quietly removing its X-ray body scanners from major airports over the last few weeks and replacing them with machines that radiation experts believe are safer. (but it wasn't about safety, of course)

Vostok’s microbes elusive in first measurements of surface water : Nature News Blog

Your Brain on French - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic
Dschinghis Khan - Moskau Buffalax (English Lyrics) - YouTube
Eton's Gangnam Style lingo explained | Music | The Guardian

101812
Yemen Drone Strike - The Lethal Presidency Has Become an Everyday War - Esquire Today, like too many days, there was another battle in the president's personal war. Another drone. Another dead militant. More "charred bodies." More "scattered remains." Another dead militant. And some more "others." And these are just the dead others.

Blue States Are From Scandinavia, Red States Are From Guatemala | The New Republic
Political Animal - Not Fully American Now, as then, the liberty the red states seek is the liberty to let a whole class of citizens suffer.

GOP’s problems exposed in struggle for Senate - David Catanese and Manu Raju - politico.com
Political Animal - Senate GOP Blame Game

It's All In the Words The silliness of Romney and Obama's argument about Libya
Fox News Constructs A Catch 22 Over Possible Military Response To Benghazi Attack | Blog | Media Matters for America

How Obama Gave The Campaign Back To Romney - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast If anyone thought that the feisty Biden debate undid the massive damage the president did to himself in the first debate, the news isn't great. Biden does seem to have reversed the speed of Obama's free-fall but not the decline itself
Romney 50%, Obama 46% Among Likely Voters Obama down sharply among men, college grads, and Southern voters vs. 2008 (Romney landslide coming)
Why Do The Gallup Poll's Likely Voter Results Differ From The Rest?
Romney Doesn't Have a Woman Problem "So, for all of the chatter about Romney's women problems, he is currently positioned to do as well or better than every Republican presidential candidate among female voters save one: George W. Bush in 2004 who lost among women by just three points to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry."

Mitt The Jerk: A Woman’s View Of The Debate | The New Republic Mitt the Man gets his way by talking over you and not stopping until you give in so he can make his point. Which he may have forgotten by then, because getting his way was the point.
Why Bosses Always Win When the Game Is Always Rigged - Esquire There was a moment right there at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 when the nation could have radically reassessed the power of corporations and the power of their money in our politics. (O'bambi skated right past it)
In Conference Call, Romney Urged Businesses To Tell Their Employees How to Vote - Working In These Times
Mitt's (Still) Impossible Math - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast
Quotes For The Day - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast "As president, I will create 12 million new jobs," - Mitt Romney, October 16. "The government doesn't create jobs," - Mitt Romney, October 16.
Mitt Romney and Counterfeit Apple Stores in China - Isidor's Fugue (and fib)
Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Avery Durable View Binder with 2 Inch EZ-Turn Ring, White, 1 Binder (reviews are pouring in)

Is China A Cheater? - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast
How Many "Gangbangers" Do We Deport? - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast (that was pretty revealing, wasn't it?)

Balloon Juie » We’ve Determined That Trying To Cover It Up Requires Too Much Effort Sure. The election date in Spanish was wrong. But only in Spanish. That was a mistake. Of course it was.

Jill Stein Arrested at Debate - The Green-Party Candidate Gets Busted - Esquire They had 13 officers there and three plainclothesmen. For most of the time, it was just Cheri Honkala and myself, yet they felt the need to keep us in tight plastic restraints, tightly secured to metal chairs.

MA-Sen PPP for LCV (Oct. 2012) A new Public Policy Polling survey in Massachusetts finds Elizabeth Warren with her biggest lead in the race to date, 53-44 over Republican Scott Brown. Warren gained three points since last week we found her ahead 50-44.
Massachusetts Senate Race Now Leaning Toward Warren In Polls She has narrowly led Brown in nine of the last 10 polls and is now ahead by 3.1 points in the HuffPost Pollster estimate -- which includes all available public polling -- just a large enough lead to move this race from "tossup" to "leaning Democratic."
Scott Brown Asbestos Ad Actors - Senator McDreamy's No-Good, Very-Bad Day - Esquire - "Let Scott Brown tell me to my face that I am nothing but a paid actor, and I'll set him straight on what it was like to watch my father suffocate to death," English said.
Elizabeth Warren and Sheila Bair - Warren and Bair: An Escape from the Thieves' Paradise - Esquire

| Graham's Romney Endorsement Accidentally Spreads "Mormonism is a cult" Meme to Millions

D’Souza’s Hard Fall | TPM Editors Blog
Dinesh D'Souza Resigns - Dinesh D'Souza Gets What He Deserves, Thank God - Esquire
Balloon Juice » It Gets Better Dinesh D’Souza just got fired from his $1 million/year job as president of some tiny evangelical college, and his girlfriend is married, too. (Dinesh Da-Ratfuck)

A Turn of the Page for Newsweek - The Daily Beast After 80 years in print, the newsmagazine adopts an all-digital format.

NY federal appeals court becomes 2nd in nation to strike down Defense of Marriage Act - The Washington Post
Another big step forward for gay rights - The Plum Line - The Washington Post
Special Report: 3.4% of U.S. Adults Identify as LGBT

Boy Scouts 'Perversion' Files Show Locals Helped Cover Up Child Sex Abuse By Scoutmasters (2nd largest pedophile organization)

Apple loses U.K. Samsung appeal; must run 'apology' ads | ZDNet Apple has lost an appeal against Samsung in the U.K. after the first judge claimed the Galaxy Tab 10.1 could not have infringed the iPad because it wasn't "cool" enough.
Deconstructing Recommender Systems - IEEE Spectrum How Amazon and Netflix predict your preferences and prod you to purchase

101712
Live By The Smear ... - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast - As for the accusation that Netanyahu is a "war-monger trying to push the US to start a war on Israel's behalf," well, what are you gonna do? Be an anti-Semite or believe your lyin' eyes?
AFP: Salafists destroy ancient Morocco carvings: NGO

China’s technology revolution | Mark Leonard (China's internal security/censorship budget larger than external defense)

ActBlue — PEC — High-leverage target races for 2012

Transcript: Second presidential debate – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs
The Town-Hall Debate: Blog Reax - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast
The Town-Hall Debate: Blog Reax II - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast
Fehrnstrom, Romney's Top Strategist, Says Auto Bailout Worked Because It Was Mitt's Idea All Along | The New Republic
Gasps, applause: What you didn't see on TV - Yahoo! News
Last Night's Debate - Charles P. Pierce at the Presidential Debate - Esquire - America Has Now Met the Many Romneys, and America Knows They Can Get Their Asses Kicked
Small-Time Mitt - NYTimes.com So, I was amazed to hear Mitt Romney describing himself as having “come through small business”, as if his private equity firm were just like a mom-and-pop store or something.

Election-Year Stakes Overshadow Nuances of Benghazi Investigation - NYTimes.com To Libyans who witnessed the assault and know the attackers, there is little doubt what occurred: a well-known group of local Islamist militants struck the United States Mission without any warning or protest, and they did it in retaliation for the video.
Mitt Romney Shoots Himself In the Foot Repeatedly | Recess Appointment
Combative Obama Keeps Romney On The Defensive In Hofstra Debate | TPM2012
Mitt Romney Brought Every Mitt Romney He Could to the Debate Tonight, and President Obama Destroyed Them All | Slog - the look of a man who knew he was failing. He brought all of his best ideas to Hofstra University, and President Obama left every single one of those ideas broken on the debate hall floor, looking chintzy and cheap in the floodlights.
Balloon Juice » It was a draw, at least for the first quarter hour
Obama Repeatedly Challenged Veracity Of Romney’s Comments During Hofstra Debate | TPM2012
President Barack Obama talked of Libya attack as 'terror' 2 weeks ago - politico.com
The Moment Mitt Romney Lost The Election - First Drafts
Romney Caught Flatfooted Making Incorrect Claim About Libya | TPMDC
DownWithTyranny!: Job Creation Isn't The Same As Vulture Capitalism
David Stockman: Mitt Romney and the Bain Drain - Newsweek and The Daily Beast s Romney really a job creator? Ronald Reagan’s budget director, David Stockman, takes a scalpel to the claims. - Mitt Romney: The Great Deformer

Twitter / nemoran3: This picture is so important. ...
Balloon Juice » He’s Always Watching You, America (spawn of Satan? you decide)

Mind The Binder - Talking Politics Hey, I know about that binder! And guess what -- Mitt Romney was lying about it ... a UMass-Boston study found that the percentage of senior-level appointed positions held by women actually declined throughout the Romney administration
Romney’s Empty Binder - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Romney’s utter indifference to discrimination against women is a logical outgrowth of his reactionary conception of the role of women in society more generally:
The 'Binder' Everyone Is Talking About - Yahoo! News
No Twitter record, #bindersfullofwomen and immigration: The second debate in social | The Ticket - Yahoo! News

Fox News Watergates Debate Transcript; Erases Four Worst Minutes Of Mitt Romney’s Life

Candy Crowley Stands By Her Debate Fact Check | Blog | Media Matters for America Right-Wing Media Falsely Claim Candy Crowley Walked Back Her Fact Check Of Romney
Team Romney Gets Bogged Down In Candy Crowley Fight | TPM2012
Candy Crowley Fact Checks Mitt Romney On Libya (women fell hard for their sadistic depriving master)

Climate Change in 2012 Election - 2012's Incredible Disappearing Issue: Climate Change - Esquire We have had three debates now, counting the Biden-Ryan fandango, and we have not had one extended conversation about the most pressing environmental catastrophe since the meteor wiped out the dinosaurs. either)
Chris Hayes: Climate Silence In The Debate Is 'Like Talking About Smoking And Not Talking About Cancer' | ThinkProgress - Crowley admitted that there was a person in the town hall audience who wanted to challenge the candidates on climate change, but wanted “all you climate people” to know she just couldn’t get to the question because “the economy was still the main thing.” (destruction of the world and the end of life as we know it not that important)
Presidential Foreign Policy Debate Topics Announced (Bob Schieffer won't mention it either)
What about climate change? - Salon.com The candidates fight over who loves coal more in a completely ludicrous energy debate
Fact-Checking The Energy Debate - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast

Debate Spin Room: Beyond Binders, Etch-A-Sketch 2.0 - Esquire

A Coda On Voting Dealbreakers - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Dinesh D’Souza faces tough questions over personal life - Salon.com After an Evangelical magazine broke the news, the right wing will force him to defend himself

Origin of the Moon "Making the Moon from a fast-spinning Earth: A giant impact followed by resonant despinning"
Earth Gave Violent Birth To The Moon, New Harvard Theory Says | TPM Idea Lab

xkcd: Electoral Precedent (*)

Cranberry juice to fend off bladder infections? Latest study says skip it - Lifestyle - Boston.com

The Claire Danes Cry Face Project
In Defense of Pinterest | Wired Design | Wired.com Therapists often run into a curious problem during treatment: Clients aren’t very good at describing their emotions. How exactly do you express the nature of your depression?


ISS Startrails - TRONized on Vimeo



101612
Malala Yousafzai deserved to die, say Taliban | World news | guardian.co.uk Pakistani Taliban militants say Pakistani schoolgirl was targeted for speaking out against them and praising Barack Obama
Jennifer Rubin Takes a Cheap Shot at Hillary Clinton - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic
Cuba eases curbs on foreign travel | World news | guardian.co.uk From January Cubans will no longer need to obtain exit visas before travelling abroad, the government has announced

Where Michael R. Bloomberg Sees Clear Fiscal Skies, Clouds Gather - NYTimes.com Praising the “gold medal” Tory prime minister, David Cameron, Hizzoner cheered on Mr. Cameron’s decision to fight a deep recession by slashing deficits and carving away at public spending. (true aristocratic colors dept.)

BBC News - Gary McKinnon extradition to US blocked by Theresa May

Romney Leading National Polls - Romney's Vision for Etch-A-Sketch America Takes Hold - Esquire
Romney Takes The Lead In Florida | The New Republic (will surge to landslide victory in Nov; Pres Aloof big loser)
Leaked Debate Agreement Shows Both Obama and Romney are Sniveling Cowards
High court won't block early voting in Ohio
Marco Rubio On Romney Tax Plan: Don't Touch The Biggest Deductions Underscoring just how hard a political lift Mitt Romney's tax reform plan would be if pursued, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said on Tuesday that he would be uncomfortable with any plan that cut down some of the biggest deductions.
Anderson Cooper Rips Mitt Romney's Tax Plan (video)
Bill Clinton Breaks Down Mitt Romney's Tax Plan 'Illusion' For Obama Campaign (video)
In Medias Res: Why I'm Not Troubled by my Decision Not to Vote for Obama this Time One Bit

Thomas Edsall’s Productivity Fears | Beat the Press

Republicans and Consent: The Former Will Never Grasp the Latter Concept - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money You’ve probably heard about the Wisconsin Republican who opined that “some girls rape easy”? Well, here’s the case he was talking about:

ScienceShot: The Sharp Shape of Frozen Water - ScienceNOW

Advertisers launch $1 million campaign to combat privacy concerns - The Hill's Hillicon Valley (you don't need no steening privacy)
Reddit’s Biggest Troll Fired From His Real-World Job; Reddit Continues to Censor Gawker Articles
Violentacrez Fired: Michael Brutsch Loses Job After Reddit Troll Identity Exposed By Gawker
Amanda Todd's Alleged Bully Named By Anonymous After Teen's Tragic Suicide

101512
John Yoo, 'Torture Memo' Author, Says Obama Violated Constitution With Deferred Action Policy (he should know)

Death by Ideology - NYTimes.com Mitt Romney doesn’t see dead people. But that’s only because he doesn’t want to see them; if he did, he’d have to acknowledge the ugly reality of what will happen if he and Paul Ryan get their way on health care.
Romney’s ‘Six Studies’ Validating Tax Math Face Growing Scrutiny | TPMDC (self-validating Romney)
Bringing Citizens United to Bear on the Workplace - Lawyers, Guns & Money
The Questions That Haven't Been Asked Although Martha Raddatz's moderation of the vice-presidential debate went leaps and bounds above that of Jim Lehrer's last week, the questions haven't veered far from the insider baseball questions that leave pundits cheering—and voters hungry for other topics.
The Romney Campaign Is Successfully Hiding Both Candidates from the Public | Slog

Obama Presidency Assessed - The Cynic and President Obama, by Charles P. Pierce - Esquire
Stephen Colbert on Meet the Press - What Are The Gobshites Saying These Days? - Esquire (and MoDo is an idiot, as usual)
Tommy Thompson Son on Obama and Kenya Video - Tommy Thompson: Plagued by Things People Really Believe - Esquire

Balloon Juice » Let them eat totebags Corporate whore and totebag hero Adam Davidson has one of the worst New York Times pieces I’ve ever read. His point: Obama’s and Romney’s economics policies will be exactly the same because
Adam Davidson’s Journalistic Corruption: NPR Host Boosts for Wall Street, While Taking Undisclosed Banking Money

Elizabeth Warren Raises $12.1 Million In Third Quarter
Obama Looms Large For New York’s Tea Party Four | TPM2012
Report: Charity President Objects To Paul Ryan's Soup Kitchen Photo Op | TPM LiveWire (but will the NYT issue a correction?)
Scott DesJarlais Hit With Ethics Complaint For Sex With Patient

Why I Resigned the Paterno Chair - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Becoming Part of the Story (Maybe): The Peanut Butter Recall | Wired Science | Wired.com
Food Sickens Millions as Company-Paid Checks Find It Safe - Bloomberg

2012 Saw Warmest September On Record Across The Globe, Says NOAA
'Interference' Changes Colors At An Atomic Level At Harvard (photos)

Impersonal Google Search Results Are Few And Far Between, DuckDuckGo Says | TPM Idea Lab

101412
Clinton on Benghazi: 'To This Day We Do Not Have A Complete Picture' - ABC News
Obama campaign adviser accuses Romney of 'exploiting' Benghazi attack | World news | guardian.co.uk David Axelrod claims the president's Republican challenger is using the embassy attack to score political points in the election
Syria and Turkey in tit-for-tat flight bans - Sunday 14 October 2012 | World news | guardian.co.uk
Al-Qaida-linked Islamists in Mali threaten French citizens after UN move | World news | guardian.co.uk Spokesman says 'we will send pictures of dead French hostages' after UN backs African-led force in north of country
Imran Khan says Taliban's 'holy war' in Afghanistan is justified by Islamic law | World news | The Guardian Pakistani politician's comments at hospital that treated shooting victim Malala Yousafzai outrage Afghanistan's government
Mauritania's president shot by own army 'by mistake' | World news | The Guardian Reports of foiled coup attempt denied as Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz flown to France after being shot in the stomach

George Osborne's austerity is costing UK an extra £76bn, says IMF | Business | The Observer New analysis of figures throws doubt on chancellor's forecast (fail after fail, more austerity)
Portugal scraps rent controls amid financial crisis, triggering alarm for low-earners - The Washington Post (let granny pick garbage and sleep on a park bench)
Balloon Juice » Some Kind of Deviated Prevert Dominique Strauss-Kahn fucks anything that moves, especially if it is a prostitute, goes to lavish sex parties and apparently likes assaulting women on special occasions. Here’s the buried lede: " Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who sometimes sought sex with three or four women. ... a little outré." - Aside from the rape, I don’t care where DSK was sticking his dick, but I sure do care if the head of the IMF was being bribed. The Times seems to be more interested in how many hookers he was banging at once.
Political Animal - Dept. of WTF: the EU wins Nobel Peace Prize! Really!! (reward the austeritizers for their great work!)
Information Dissemination: How a slowdown in Chinese economy may eaffect PLA

9/11 Trial Censorship In Guantanamo Terror Cases Under Scrutiny "What we are challenging is the censorship of the defendant's testimony based on their personal knowledge of the government's torture and detention of them," "It's a truly extraordinary and chilling proposal that the government is asking the court to accept"
Breaking: Panetta Equating Crude Iranian Cyberattacks with Pearl Harbor, Iran Infiltrated Aramco | emptywheel

Nuclear submarine collides with cruiser off US coast | World news | guardian.co.uk Investigation under way as LA-class submarine USS Montpelier collides with cruiser USS San Jacinto

Graph of the day: 211 years of political change | Chris Blattman

The Self-Destruction of the 1 Percent - NYTimes.com 93 percent of the income gains from the 2009-10 recovery went to the top 1 percent of taxpayers. The top 0.01 percent captured 37 percent of these additional earnings, gaining an average of $4.2 million per household.
Political Animal - Must-read op-ed of the day: “The Self-Destruction of the 1 Percent” Freeland argues that crony capitalism in the U.S. exemplifies the “extractive” model through the “tilting of the economic rules in favor of those at the top.” American crony capitalism, she says, works in two ways:

How The GOP Destroyed Its Moderates | The New Republic

The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - The Politics of Pinocchios So, on the one hand, Dobbs is telling us that Pinocchios are just an expression of a specific journalist’s considered and evidence based opinion, which readers and politicians are free to agree or disagree with. On the other, he seems to be suggesting that it’s great that so many people take them so seriously. Something there seems to me not to compute. ("fact-checking" = enforcing consensus view)

Lazy | TPM Editors Blog Ed Gillespie went on TV this morning and said Mitt Romney would only reveal the details of his tax plan after he’s sworn into office as President. That alone should be enough to disqualify him, though I confess I’m not holding my breath. (trust me, I'm a liar)
That Bad | TPM Editors Blog The Romney camp’s claim at that ‘six studies’ validate the math behind his tax plan is such a transparent lie that even Fox’s Chris Wallace is giving them grief.
Economist: Romney's Tax Plan 'Doesn't Work'
Hullabaloo - Paul Ryan, phony altruist (What would Ayn say?) - Ryan not only arrived after all the homeless diners had left, but also after the kitchen was cleaned up. Although cautiously worded, the WAPO story indicates that Ryan, with his family present and donning aprons, took already clean dishes, then soaped them up and washed them for the cameras as if he was really contributing. (NYT just printed the picute without saying it was staged)
SNL on the Vice Presidential Debate
Balloon Juice » Ryan Can Only Be Failed A week ago, Paul Ryan was going to crush doddering gaffe monster Joe Biden with his wonky Powerpoint sensibility. A week later, they’re happy that Martha Raddatz’ feet didn’t get wet in a spreading pool of urine from the delicate young man.
The Romney-Ryan Plan to Obliterate Medicaid | Mother Jones
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney’s Economic Plan -- New York Magazine
Wisconsin Senate Candidate's Son Says We "Have The Opportunity" To Send Obama Back To Kenya (not racist or birther at all, just a joke, ha-ha)
Todd Akin: No 'Science' Behind Evolution | ThinkProgress (no "science" behind "science")
Campaigns Mine Personal Lives to Get Out Vote - NYTimes.com Strategists affiliated with the Obama and Romney campaigns say they have access to information about the personal lives of voters at a scale never before imagined.

No More Mister Nice Blog The New York Times has a long profile today on Mitt Romney's chief economic adviser, Columbia Business School dean Glenn Hubbard, who has a good shot at becoming the treasury secretary in a Romney administration. I'm sure his policy prescriptions won't surprise you: (hedge-fund guy bought Columbia B-School; sound familiar?)
Las Vegas activists try to 'level the field' as casino moguls pump up Super Pacs | World news | guardian.co.uk n the age of the Super Pacs, wealthy gaming tycoons are free to invest millions in Mitt Romney. But a dedicated group is mobilising on the ground to try and counter the money machine

Political Animal - She’s baaacck … Salon’s interminable interview with Camille Paglia But really, Joan Walsh — Paglia is long past her sell date, and it’s well past time Salon cut the cord. You should be ashamed of yourself for allowing Salon to continue to publish Paglia’s malicious, misogynist, wingnutty nonsense.
I Am The Cosmos | Welcome To Grigr Impolitic, by Molly Ivins (1991 takedown of Paglia by Ivins)
Dr. Peggy Drexler: The Scarlet Manifesto: The Rise of the Adulterous Woman divorce among couples married for a long time is up -- at a time when divorce in general is down. The bigger surprise: Wives are now more likely to initiate the split than husbands. In two out of every three marriages longer than 20 years, it's the woman who leaves the man.

Political Animal - Must-watch video of the day: “I had an abortion … or maybe I didn’t” - in the U.S., abortion is the single most common surgical procedure for women. By the age of 45, more than one-third of American women will have had an abortion. Almost half of pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended, and about 40% of those unplanned pregnancies are ended by abortion.

CAP Credits FHA for Its Useful Ignorance, Allowing Mortgage Fraud to Continue | FDL News Desk So forgive me if I don’t heap praise on the FHA, another asleep-at-the-wheel regulator who helped bring us this Great Recession in which so many Americans suffer today.

Why we should give into grade inflation (and graphs of the day) | Chris Blattman

Burning Man on its last legs - Salon.com With rising mainstream knowledge of the event, it's lost almost all of its creative and subversive spark

Unmasking Reddit's Violentacrez, The Biggest Troll on the Web
Political Animal - A troll unmasked: the riveting tale of Reddit’s notorious Violentacrez - MIchael Brutsch (now unemployable for all eternity)

101312
Strauss-Kahn Admits to Sex Parties secret soirees with lawyers, judges, police officials, journalists and musicians that start with a fine meal and end with naked guests and public sex with multiple partners."

A Very Good Question That Deserves an Answer | Firedoglake Is it ever morally acceptable to detain a person, citizen or not, possibly for the rest of his life, without charges or a trial?

C.A. Rotwang: Mr. President: Tweak This! It would not be right to call it a sell-out: the cuts that Democrats would make to Social Security benefits. They have been signaling it for some time.

Mitt Romney Ad Spending: Candidate And Allies Greatly Outpace Obama As Election Closes
Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XXXVIII - The Maddow Blog
Balloon JuicE » Freakout ("disrepectful and disgusting" behavior by Biden as he squashes the Ryan-bot) )
V.P. debate: Missing from the abortion discussion? Women - Salon.com
Mitt Romney Ad Spending: Candidate And Allies Greatly Outpace Obama As Election Closes
Daily Kos: The #Sensata Story Could Destroy Romney And Bain Capital forced the company to take down their American flag and put up a Chinese flag while they trained them. A Chinese flag was flying over a Bain-owned factory in Freeport, Illinois.
Absentee Governor "During Mr. Romney's four-year term as governor of Massachusetts, he cumulatively spent more than a year -- part or all of 417 days -- out of the state, according to a review of his schedule and other records. More than 70 percent of that time was spent on personal or political trips unrelated to his job."

Will a Surging Latino Vote Turn Arizona Blue This Election? | Crooks and Liars
Bachmann Raises Huge Sum

Frackademia: Controversial SUNY Buffalo Shale Institute's Reputation Unraveling | MyFDL (Scaife-funded "research")

Balloon Juice » Time to Find a New Set of Suckers Jean-Claude Brizard, who was the latest school savior hired in Chicago, has been canned.
Yankee Stadium Parking Company Defaults On Its Bonds | Transportation Nation

Exclusive: MS drug 'rebranded' – at up to 20 times the price - Health News - Health & Families - The Independent Pharmaceutical giant withdraws existing treatment to boost profits
Revolutionary breast cancer vaccine 100% effective in mice: awaits human trials
Memory & Cognition, Online First™ - SpringerLink

New Study Finds Less Access for Women and Higher Costs for Texas With Elimination of Planned Parenthood | MyFDL
Grenade burns sleeping girl as SWAT team raids home - "I would like to see whoever threw those grenades in my daughter's room be reprimanded," she said. "If anybody else did that it would be aggravated assault. I just want to see that the city is held accountable for what they did to my children."

Why Shutting Down Non-Consensual Porn Matters | The Raw Story
Microsoft To Make Same Privacy Change Google Was Attacked For; No One Seems To Care

101212
Benghazi attack: pressure on White House as GOP demands answers | World news | guardian.co.uk Republicans claim Joe Biden misled Americans by suggesting that he and Obama 'did not know' about security concerns
Benghazi attack: complex picture emerges over Libya security | World news | guardian.co.uk Evidence from hearings suggests US state department officials ignored requests for more security personnel, but efforts were hindered by political infighting
Mexico condemns US border shooting | World news | guardian.co.uk Teenager found shot dead after US border patrol agent opened fire on people throwing rocks from across Mexican border

Eurozone crisis live: IMF and eurozone split over austerity | Business | guardian.co.uk Brinkmanship over failing Greek bailout revealed

Deepwater Horizon pipe 'responsible for new oil slick in Gulf of Mexico' | Environment | guardian.co.uk BP and Transocean to submit clean-up operation, after scientists link three-mile oil slick to Deepwater Horizon disaster

The Final Word on Mitt Romney's Tax Plan - Bloomberg Mitt Romney's campaign says I'm full of it. I said Romney's tax plan is mathematically impossible: he can't simultaneously keep his pledges to cut tax rates 20 percent and repeal the estate tax and alternative minimum tax; broaden the tax base enough to avoid growing the deficit; and not raise taxes on the middle class.

Complete Vice Presidential Debate 2012: Joe Biden vs. Paul Ryan - Oct 11, 2012 - Elections 2012 - YouTube
10 Thoughts — Joe Biden – Paul Ryan Round-Up | Recess Appointment
So Let It Be Written, So Let It Be Done | The American Conservative (debate rhetoric)

The Vice Presidential Debate: Joe Biden Was Right to Laugh | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone
Paul Ryan Debates Joe Biden - VP Debate 2012: The Real Paul Ryan Is Bad for America - Esquire
Out on the Weekend - Esquire If you want the perfect distillation of why we mock Politico so often around these parts as Tiger Beat on the Potomac, you can't do much better than this sentence right here:
In Case You Missed Tonight’s Beatdown - Lawyers, Guns & Money
All you need to know about Paul Ryan’s skill as a debater - Lawyers, Guns & Money - The decision to do so via an anecdote about a tragic car accident in a debate with Joe Biden means you’re either a sociopath or possessed of an idiocy of immeasurable power. (something else the Globe didn't mention)
10 Thoughts — Joe Biden – Paul Ryan Round-Up | Recess Appointment
Peter Beinart: Why Biden Had the Better Night at VP Debate - The Daily Beast
The Veep Debate: Blog Reax II - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast
Joe Biden Dispenses With the Niceties -- Daily Intel
How the 2012 Election Is Stacked for the GOP -- Daily Intel - The upshot is that it would take a huge wave for Democrats to win the House. The median House district is three percentage points more Republican than the country as a whole. Republicans could maintain control merely by winning their own natural territory. Democrats could only win the House by penetrating deep into red America.
Balloon Juice » Malarkey
Ad War Update: Malarkey Edition - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast
Balloon Juice » Really, I appreciate the concern, but we’re fine

Paul Ryan's abortion remarks at debate worry pro-choice groups | World news | guardian.co.uk Vice-presidential candidate indicated a Romney administration would move to put abortion legislation back in states' hands
Paul Ryan on Roe v Wade at Debate - Paul Ryan on Abortion - Esquire If you believe that Thursday night's vice-presidential debate was a "draw" because Joe Biden was "rude" and "disrespectful" while Paul Ryan was obviously being disingenuous and uninformed, or that you've decided to go with "disingenuous" and "uninformed" because its manners made it more "likable," then you deserve the inadequate health-care voucher that's coming your way in 2014, as well as the letter from the Social Security Administration that your benefits will be down to 85 cents a month because International Embezzlement LLC went belly-up and took your retirement with it. Tough luck, kids. Them's the risks of an Opportunity Society.

Martha Raddatz Debate Moderating Draws Praise: 'Killing It,' 'Way Better' Than Lehrer
Martha Raddatz Draws Conservative Complaints

Mitt Romney's Hospital Comment 'Frightening' To Uninsured Woman "No, you go to the hospital, you get treated, you get care, and it's paid for, either by charity, the government or by the hospital," Romney continued. "We don't have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don't have insurance."
Romney Rebuts Romney On Uninsured And Emergency Rooms | TPMDC | Romney Says People Don’t Die Because They Lack Insurance — Here’s Why He’s Wrong

Peter Berg Rips Mitt Romney Over 'Friday Night Lights' Slogan 'Plagiarism'
Daily Politics Blog - Charles P. Pierce - Political Blogging - Esquire We've mentioned here that Senator McDreamy has developed a almost reflexive tendency to gild his own lily ... "Let's be honest," writes McGrory, "it was more like a visit." ...And, not for nothing, but, as far as I know, Elizabeth Warren is still the only senatorial candidate in a contested race who has called for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. Not in 2014. Not "when circumstances warrant." Not whatever the hell Paul Ryan was babbling about on Thursday night. Today. Now. That's worth noting, I think.
Jon Stewart Blasts 'F*cking Crazy' GOP Candidates Todd Akin, Paul Broun (video)

Brizard out as CPS chief: 'We agreed it is best' - chicagotribune.com Mayor Rahm Emanuel's hand-picked choice to head the Chicago public schools resigned Thursday, just three weeks after the end of the city's first teachers strike in a quarter century



Nokia 808 PureView Review: Connect


101112
China May Surpass Japan as World’s Second-Most Wealthy by 2017 - Bloomberg


Dana Milbank: Letting us in on a secret - The Washington Post When House Republicans called a hearing in the middle of their long recess, you knew it would be something big, and indeed it was: They accidentally blew the CIA’s cover.
Why Is Darrell Issa Doing Mike Rogers’ Job? | emptywheel

Forget Red vs. Blue -- It's Slave States vs. Free States in 2012 | Alternet
Leonard Pitts: War on Reality is killing our future | Dallas Morning News Opinion and Editorial Columns - Opinion and Commentary for Dallas, Texas - The Dallas Morning News

Oct. 10: Is Romney Leading Right Now? - NYTimes.com
2012 Polls Show Romney Gaining, But Key Swing States Still Tip To Obama
Mitt Romney: People Don't 'Die In Their Apartment Because They Don't Have Insurance'
Over 26,000 annual deaths for uninsured: report | Reuters
VP Debate 2012 - Charles P. Pierce on VP Debate 2012 - Esquire
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Mitt Romney Made Big Money From Big Tobacco

Brown Nervous And Snarky; Warren Confident And Tough | WBUR In law school, the worst sin you can commit as a freshman is to come to class unprepared. Scott Brown came very close to looking unprepared for Professor Warren’s class. He was tentative, smirked inappropriately, and often glanced down at his notes.
Warren Brown Debate - Warren/Brown III: The Night of Liberation from Nonsense - Esquire
Elizabeth Warren Pulling Ahead In Massachusetts Senate Polls Warren leads Brown, 50 percent to 44 percent, in a survey released by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, the widest margin they've found between the two candidates in the tough Massachusetts contest.
Massachusetts Democrats File Ethics Complaint Against Scott Brown

Breaking News: Sixth Circuit Decides Provisional Ballot Cases, Finds Constitutional Violation in Not Counting Certain Wrong Precinct Ballots | Election Law Blog
Court: Ohio Can't Throw Out Ballots Because Of Poll Worker Error | TPM LiveWire
Cartoon candidate - Editorials - Ohio Josh Mandel has become a Saturday Night Live skit.

Schumer Gets Backup From Democratic Leadership on Taxes | FDL News Desk We now know where Harry Reid stands in the great divide between base-broadening, rate-lowering “tax reform” and the Chuck Schumer approach, which rejects lowering rates as a trap. As I fully expected, Reid sided with Schumer. (no, Barry, we won't let you sell out)
Darrell Issa Looking Into September Jobs Report [update]
The Fiscal Cliff Is Not a Cliff | FDL News Desk They put the band back together. The Gang of Six – now a Gang of Eight, with Lamar Alexander and Michael Bennet added to the roster of Crapo, Coburn, Chambliss, Warner, Durbin and Conrad, met in Virginia yesterday, aiming to create a grand bargain
Conspiracy Jack | Felix Salmon

Joel Klein's Misleading Autobiography What the former chancellor of New York City schools' sleight of hand tells us about education reform

NOM Doubles Down On Ex-Gay Therapy, Lifetime Celibacy For Gays | ThinkProgress

Ameridose Meningitis Oversight - People Don't Kill People. Deregulation Kills People. - Esquire Massachusetts has just five inspectors for more than a thousand compounding pharmacies that make drugs. Five inspectors. A thousand facilities. The dead hand of Big Government certainly has been lifted from these job-creators.

Female Hormones: A Dangerous Myth Persists | Cognoscenti

The mysterious case of the missing noble gas : Nature News & Comment

101012
BBC News - Malala Yousafzai: Reward offered for arrest of attackers The Taliban said they had shot her because she had "promoted secularism", and that they would target her again.
Malala Yousufzai Shooting: Attack On Pakistani Teen Activist Sparks Outrage

PTSD And Drones: Emotional Costs Far Away From The Battlefield (VIDEO)
Army to Congress: Thanks, but no tanks – CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs

State Department: Libya Consulate Attack Not Preceded By Protest
Partisan fireworks at Libya hearing - Seung Min Kim - politico.com (Daryl "Ratfuck" Issa)
Mitt Romney Won't Mention Glen Doherty, Slain Former Navy SEAL, After Mother's Complaint
Romney son compares Obama in debate to ‘obstinate child’ | theGrio

Obama Apologies for Debate Performance - Wake the F Up: The Two Jobs of Barack Obama, Polite Man - Esquire I defer to nobody in my belief that Willard Romney is the single most politically maladroit national candidate in my lifetime. But, boy howdy, the current president of the United States is giving him a run for his offshore money these days:
The New New Romney Is a New Kind of Mendacious Liar - Esquire
Voting Rights if Obama Wins - The Great Voting-Rights Brawl of 2012, Now and Later - Esquire the way we run elections in this country is so completely banjaxed that, even assuming every election official and secretary of state in the country was an angel, there would still be enough cracks in the system to justify almost any counter-history that the crazoid mind could foster.
New Mexico Attorney General Investigating GOP ‘Voter Supression’ | TPMMuckraker New Mexico Attorney General Gary King has launched an investigation into a video that allegedly shows Republican officials giving volunteer poll watchers false information about state election law, his office announced Tuesday.

Balloon Juice » President Obama Is Aware of All Internet Traditions Towards the end of the interview, Obama sought to assure listeners that he was still confident, alluding to an internet meme that features him: “As some of these emails that go around with my picture on them say, I can’t quote the entire thing, but ‘I got this.’”
Hullabaloo The landslide debater (Reagan debating in 1984 with advanced Alzheimers and winning in a landslide)
Obama’s Debate Performance: How Twitter Has Done Us Wrong - The Daily Beast The hysterical reaction to Obama’s debate performance speaks volumes about the way politics—and the journalists who cover the subject—have changed. Richard Just on what we’re getting wrong.
Political Animal - The Loneliness of the Long-Form Writer
Obama Foreign 'Scandal' Based On Inaccurate Google Translation

Mitt Romney CNN Interview: The 47% Comment Is 'Not What I Meant' Mitt Romney again distanced himself from his infamous 47 percent comments caught on video at a private fundraiser in May, telling CNN in an interview Tuesday night that, "the words that came out were not what I meant."(rolls eyes)
Don’t let Romney win the economic argument - The Plum Line - The Washington Post This new ad from the Romney campaign is perhaps the best one it has produced yet on the economy:
Hey Drudge, Daily Caller: This Is What A Real Moderator Conflict Of Interest Looks Like | Blog | Media Matters for America (they ... NYT is this case ... always report the wingnut bullshit)

Schumer’s Gambit: Ending the Tax Reform Con, Ending the Grand Bargain? | FDL News Desk
Republicans to Schumer: You’re Ruining Everything! | FDL News Desk - Republicans simply value the tax cuts more than pretty much everything else. (Chuckie kicks Obama's and McConnell's butts)
C.A. Rotwang: Mr. President: Tweak This!- it would not be right to call it a sell-out: the cuts that Democrats would make to Social Security benefits. They have been signaling it for some time. In the recent presidential debate, the president reiterated his determination to reduce retirement, survivor, and disability benefits for millions of Americans. This admission came in the form of an acknowledgement that his position did not differ materially from that of Mitt Romney. (Scumbag Obama)

Brad DeLong: When Conservative Republicans Loved Keynes and Expansionary Fiscal Policy No. Paul Ryan and Kevin Hassett have absolutely no shame or honor. Why do you ask?
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Contra David Brooks, There Is no “Market System” Alternative to the Political System in Running Medicare

The Texas Affirmative Action Case by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly One of the central questions the more liberal judges seemed to have was whether or not Abigail Fisher, the white woman denied admission to the University of Texas, really suffered the sort of wrong that gives her reason to sue at all. (hurt her little whte fee-fees)

Political Animal - Broun’s Crazy-Talk Just About “Religion,” Not Science or Politics
Scott DesJarlais, Pro-Life Republican Congressman And Doctor, Pressured Mistress Patient To Get Abortion - a Tea Party-backed Republican
Jon Hubbard, Arkansas Legislator, Defends Pro-Slavery Comments

The Myth of Walter Cronkite and Vietnam - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money As Menand explains, however, the idea that Cronkite’s (rather timorous) criticism of the Vietnam War significantly affected public opinion, or caused LBJ not to run again, collapses on actual inspection:
The Dark Side of Jefferson is the Dark Side of America - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Ghana grapples with mental health – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs Christian religious institutions operate throughout Ghana. In some, “prophets” treat people with mental disabilities through prayer and traditional medicines, like herbs. Administrators and pastors in seven of the camps I visited said that mandatory fasting – in some cases, as long as 12 hours a day, for 7 to 40 days – was a key component of their “treatment.”

Inside the Law School Scam: A frank exchange of views

Eben Alexander, Harvard Neurosurgeon, Describes Heaven After Near-Death Experience (VIDEO) Alexander says that he traveled through this heaven, surrounded by "millions of butterflies," with a woman. This woman gave him three messages: “You are loved and cherished, dearly, forever," “You have nothing to fear" and “There is nothing you can do wrong.”
Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian: Early drafts and history. - Slate Magazine Blood Meridian used to be a much different novel. McCarthy’s early drafts reveal how an American masterpiece was born.


100912
National Peace Award winner Malala Yousafzai injured in attack | NewsPakistan.PK

Official Warmth and Public Rage for German Leader in Athens - NYTimes.com With thousands of police reinforcements on duty to shield her from rowdy protesters who see her as the archvillain of the euro crisis and their national pain, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany (Sadistic Queen of Failed Austerity)


Jon Husted, Ohio GOP Secretary Of State, Appealing Early Voting Decision To Supreme Court calling a decision last week by a federal appeals court "an unprecedented intrusion" into how states run elections.

Jim Lehrer To Media Critics: 'Weren't You Paying Attention To What Was Happening?' (78 yr-old says his job wasn't to moderate)

Gallup Poll Switch To Likely Voters Shows A 'Wipe Out' Of Obama Lead [update]
Mitt Romney Favorability Reaches New High In Poll Mitt Romney's favorability rating reached a new high of 47 percent
Notes on a Couple of Polls: Pew and RAND - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Mitt Romney campaign sends some PA staffers to Ohio That Daily Caller story cited a "knowledgeable campaign source" as saying Romney was "diverting substantial resources" from Pennsylvania to Ohio.
Romney's Threat to Big Bird Sows Confusion Abroad, and Feeds It at Home - NYTimes.com
With New Vigor, Mitt Romney Intensifies Ohio Campaign - NYTimes.com (yet again, this time with more lies)
The Constant Attention to Individual Polls Is Hurting America — The Monkey Cage
Political Animal - What It Always Was So it will be difficult some days to cut through the din of perpetually renewed lusty conservative cries that the Black Devil-Man in Washington is on the run
Noam Scheiber Reviews Bob Woodward's "The Price Of Politics" | The New Republic
Paul Ryan Fundraiser Bans Recording ("you can't record my lies")
Thin-Skinned CEO Superstar Jack Welch Quits Fortune, Reuters After His Demented BLS Tweet Gets Criticized ... Welch returned to Twitter (in for a penny, I guess!) to say, "Have never commented on White House in any tweets I can recall." Which, I guess exposes the fact that Welch is now having a problem with object permanence (as well as the truth)
David Siegel Email To Workers Threatens Layoffs If Obama Is Reelected (update)

In Speech, Schumer Rejects Idea of Tax Code Overhaul - NYTimes.com - Mr. Schumer branded the idea of a tax code overhaul that could lower the top rates, bring in more revenue and protect middle class taxpayers from increases as “little more than happy talk.” (Obama is on board, of course)
Eschaton: Chuck Schumer Is NOT Going To Reduce The Deficit By Cutting Taxes For Rich People Stupid Chuck Schumer! Cutting taxes for rich people is the bipartisan deficit-reduction plan!!! Don't ruin it man!!!
GOP Congressmen May Give Up On Bush Tax Cuts For The Rich: Report (fat chance)

The Two Worst Experts to Ask About Todd Akin's Rehabilitation - Politics - The Atlantic Wire Smith's no longer in Missouri politics is that he was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for violating elections law in his 2004 Democratic primary campaign for Missouri's 3rd congressional district. He was recorded by a former staffer, who was wearing a wire, suggesting they pin the crime on an aide who'd committed suicide. Smith has not found his way back into Missouri politics, but he is a professor at the New School (crook hired by Bob Kerry? way to go, New School for Felons and Lobbyists)
American Airlines delays: The airline that can’t get its passengers to their destinations on time, manage its workers, or even keep its seats bolted down. - Slate Magazine The airline that can’t get its passengers to their destinations on time, manage its workers, or even keep its seats bolted down (but it's execs can give themselves huge bonuses)

State to Town: Sorry, People Are Allowed to Swear - Massachusetts AG asks Middleborough to scrap rule Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is recommending that the town of Middleborough change or repeal a bylaw that prohibits public profanity. The town approved a proposal this summer that would allow police to enforce the 1968 ban by imposing a $20 fine on people who engage in loud swearing in public.

'No Religion' Is Increasingly Popular Choice For Americans: Pew Report One in five American adults now have no religious affiliation (19% up from 15% five years ago)
New Report: ‘A Third of Adults Under 30 Have No Religious Affiliation’

MIT creates carbon nanotube pencil, doodles some electronic circuits | ExtremeTech
Heli showreel late summer 2012 on Vimeo



100812
Afghanistan 'sliding towards collapse' | World news | The Guardian Afghan forces are far from ready to secure a country riddled with violence and corruption, Red Cross and thinktank warn (it always was)
Hugo Chávez vows to keep Venezuela 'on socialist path' after re-election | World news | The Guardian President will need to deal with rising violent crime and over-dependence on oil after winning election with smaller margin
Syria crisis: Homs on the brink - Monday 8 October 2012 | World news | guardian.co.uk Homs could fall at any moment, resident claims • Syrian vice president touted to lead transition by Turkey • Mitt Romney set to call for arming Syrian rebels
Suspicion: Settlers attacked cops posing as Palestinian shepherds - Israel News, Ynetnews Undercover officers beaten by Jewish settlers with clubs after approaching farm they were staying in. Legal aid group: Police treats settlers like worst enemies
Romney talks tough and accuses Obama of failing to lead on Middle East | World news | guardian.co.uk Mitt Romney attacks president's foreign policy record and claims world is a more dangerous place than when Obama took office (Bush amnesia)
Romney calls for US military role in Syrian civil war - AMERICAblog Yes, because if there’s one thing Americans are begging for these days, it’s another war in the Middle East that drains money and requires more US troops.

Chinese sex fair shows how prudishness and liberation sit side-by-side | World news | The Guardian Decades after Mao Zedong, couples are happy to browse sex toys together – but not all attitudes have changed

What price basic competence in economics reporting? | Dean Baker | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk What chance do policy-makers and the public have if business journalists are so wildly wrong? We need some accountability
World Bank warns on China slowdown | Business | guardian.co.uk nternational lender cuts growth forecasts for Asia Pacific region and says slowdown could worsen
George Osborne seals deal for £10bn welfare cuts | Politics | The Guardian Conservatives claim Liberal Democrats have agreed to plan provided that rich are targeted next (Lib Dems = Charlies Brown)

Julian Assange to publish book about freedom and the future of the internet | Media | guardian.co.uk WikiLeaks founder to be co-author of book entitled Cypherpunks, despite being confined to Ecuadorean embassy in London

Supreme Court Looking At Affirmative Action In College Admissions

Truth About Jobs - NYTimes.com If anyone had doubts about the madness that has spread through a large part of the American political spectrum, the reaction to Friday’s better-than expected report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics should have settled the issue. For the immediate response of many on the right — and we’re not just talking fringe figures — was to cry conspiracy.
Eschaton: The Rich Shouldn't Have To Pay Any Taxes At All Conservatives have decided that the flat tax is for wimps, it's time to just remove all taxation on the wealthy.

Romney’s Strong Debate Performance Erases Obama’s Lead | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press GOP Challenger Viewed as Candidate with New Ideas
Mitt Romney Closes Gap In Presidential Polls
Social media analysis: Who really won the debate? - NBC Politics
Obama Jokes About His Debate Performance - ABC News (sorry, that's who he really is)
With Biden Up Next to Debate, Obama’s Aides Plot Comeback - NYTimes.com With Biden Up Next to Debate, Obama’s Aides Plot Comeback
Why Do the Sunday Shows Suck So Much? Explaining the awfulness that is Meet the Press, This Week, and the rest
Mary Matalin Calls Paul Krugman a Liar - What Are the Gobshites Saying These Days? - Esquire Why does any television network put Mary Matalin on the air any more? ... She is not entertaining. She is not funny. She is not particularly bright. She certainly isn't in any way informative. She's just a nasty, bitter old piece of work who spent eight years supplying fresh earth for the coffin in which Dick Cheney sleeps during the daylight hours,
No More Mister Nice Blog - The Mythical Republican Party That Exists Only In Ross Douthat's Brain

The Bobblespeak Translations

Counterpunch: Vol 19 number 17 Text Version - Obama and Romney vs. Medicare The First Cuts Won't be the Deepest

Scalia’s Political Originalism - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Richard Posner, who recently gave what could be used as the induction speech for Scalia’s induction into the Academy of the Overrated.
Conservative Commonwealth - Another Ceaseless Threat to the - Esquire Apparently, this Sunday was something called Pulpit Freedom Sunday, in which various reactionary god-botherers engaged in an act of organized civil disobedience against a 58-year-old IRS regulation banning specific endorsements of specific candidates by ministers of any church otherwise claiming tax-exempt status
States Deny Millions Of Ex-Felons Voting Rights

Elizabeth Warren Ads Hit Back Against Scott Brown Asbestos Attacks
Linda McMahon Campaign Leaks HuffPost Reporter's Emails To Bolster Its Ethical Bona Fides When Terkel told McMahon spokesman Todd Abrajano that HuffPost planned to write about the campaign's practice of leaking reporters' emails, he responded: "No, we don't leak reporter emails, but we consider you to be a far-left liberal blogger, not a real reporter."
Bachmann Should Not Have Been Focus of Yom Kippur, Chicago Rabbi Says - Lake View, IL Patch
Tommy Thompson Forgets Number Of Homes He Owns In the 2008 election, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) famously forgot how many houses he owned. This cycle, it's Wisconsin GOP Senate candidate Tommy Thompson who is having trouble remembering.
Larry Pressler: Republican Senator, Vietnam Veteran Endorses President Obama

Lead abatement policies lead to smarter kids.
Legalising marijuana: most Americans get it, so when will our politicians? | Gary Johnson | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The 'war on drugs', like 1920s Prohibition, has been a miserable failure. America would be better-off with a legal marijuana trade

Cultural Technology and the Making of K-Pop : The New Yorker Cultural technology and the making of K-pop.
Balloon Juice » Open Thread: Gangnam Stylin’
Letters of Note: This, sir, is my resignation

Jerry Sandusky releases audio statement on eve of sentencing hearing - Yahoo! Sports Jerry Sandusky released a defiant and delusional audio statement from the Centre County Correctional Facility on Monday, blasting the system, the prosecution and begging people with "the courage to listen" to "evaluate the accusers and their families."

Twitter: It’s time for patent trolls to bear the costs of frivolous lawsuits — Tech News and Analysis
Facebook's new business plan: from utility to monopoly | Dan Gillmor | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk n the wake of its IPO debacle, expect Facebook to leverage its market dominance aggressively – with its billion users hostage

100712
Turkey backs veteran Syrian politician as Assad replacement | World news | guardian.co.uk Vice-president Farouq al-Sharaa receives Ankara's support to lead possible Syrian transitional administration
Pakistani military blocks anti-drone convoy from entering tribal region | World news | guardian.co.uk Imran Khan says two-day convoy has been a success despite failing to reach intended destination
Venezuela: peaceful but partisan mood as voters give verdict on Chávez | World news | The Guardian National guards armed with AK47s and teargas patrol streets amid fears of unrest if election result is close
Human Rights Watch Report Critical of Hamas Justice System in Gaza - NYTimes.com
Jerusalem Church Anti-Christian Graffiti At Church Of Dormition May Be Work Of Jewish Settlers ... Extremist Jewish West Bank settlers are suspected. (just because they wrote in Hebrew?)
Saudi Religious Police Losing Some Powers Due To Complaints Saudi authorities instructed the religious police, run by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, to draw up guidelines to keep individual officers from imposing their personal interpretations of Islamic rules.

GOP Poll Denialists Not Totally Wrong -- Daily Intel (+Waldman comment +Repugs hate democracy)
Is America Man Enough to Vote? - NYTimes.com men who had voted for the losing presidential candidate, John McCain, suffered a big drop in their testosterone after hearing of his defeat. (voting for losers kills guys' dicks )

Political Animal - Real Live Voter Fraud Jaded by relentless GOP vote suppression efforts directed towards phantom voter impersonators, it’s easy to forget that real fraud actually happens. Today Adam Liptak of the New York Times surveys some recent problems with absentee ballots, which now make up twenty percent of all votes (Republican voter fraud, of course)

‘Subversives,’ by Seth Rosenfeld - NYTimes.com “Subversives,” the journalist Seth Rosenfeld’s electrifying examination of a newly declassified treasure trove of documents detailing our government’s campaign of surveillance of the Berkeley campus during the ’60s. Rosenfeld spent 30 years fighting to compel the government to release more than 300,000 pages of documents about the illegal spying program, an effort the F.B.I. spent almost a million dollars opposing. (Taibbi review in the Times)

SNL Nails the First Debate

Romney’s Sick Joke - NYTimes.com “No. 1,” declared Mitt Romney in Wednesday’s debate, “pre-existing conditions are covered under my plan.” No, they aren’t — as Mr. Romney’s own advisers have conceded in the past, and did again after the debate. Was Mr. Romney lying? Well, either that or he was making what amounts to a sick joke.
Paul Krugman Blasts Media Over Presidential Debate: Press Can't 'Handle Flat-Out Untruths' (Republicans have figured this out)
Paul Krugman Debunks Mary Matalin's Myth That This Is "The Worst Recovery In History" | Video | Media Matters for America
Robert Gibbs: Mitt Romney's Budget Math Is 'Absolutely Crazy' (Video) (Republicans can't add)
Chuck Todd: Republican Edge In Voter Enthusiasm Is 'Huge Problem' For Democrats (VIDEO) Seventy-nine percent of Republican voters are "extremely interested" in the election, compared to 73 percent of Democrats. In 2008, Democrats led in this measurement by 13 points, Todd said. (not enthusiastic about their Republican Pres)
Republican chairman downplays 'impressive' Obama fundraising totals | World news | guardian.co.uk Reince Priebus insists GOP has 'all the money we need to be competitive' as the president maintains a polling advantage
Tough Tests for Steve King and Other Tea Party Favorites - NYTimes.com Like Mr. King, Tea Party candidates across the country in districts with a mix of voters are finding a far less hospitable environment this time, especially in swing states.

Massachusetts Senate Polls: Warren Has 5 Point Lead, But Unfavorability Rating Jumps: WNEU/MassLive.com
New McCaskill Ad Hits Akin on Rape Views
Murphy Ascendant | Colin McEnroe (rich wrestling lady going down)

Third Parties Don’t Solve The Underlying Problem - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Republicans to Cities - Drop Dead - NYTimes.com

Pulpit Freedom Sunday: Pastors Challenge IRS Ban On Political Endorsements As part of "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," on Oct. 7, religious leaders across the country will endorse political candidates -- an act that flies in the face of Internal Revenue Service rules about what tax-exempt organizations, such as churches, can and cannot do.
LDS General Conference Includes Major Announcements On Mormon Missionaries And New Temples The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will rapidly increase the number of missionaries it sends throughout the world, church leaders have announced.

Blue State or Red? Look at the Nails - NYTimes.com

Is Alzheimer's Type 3 Diabetes? - NYTimes.com - people with diabetes are at least twice as likely to get Alzheimer’s, and that obesity alone increases the risk of impaired brain function.
Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes Cases Take Toll on Children - NYTimes.com
That Flawed Stanford Study - NYTimes.com he Stanford study was not only an exercise in misdirection, it was a headline generator. By providing “useful” and “counterintuitive” information about organic food, it played right into the hands of the news hungry while conveniently obscuring important features of organic agriculture.
For Poor Schoolchildren, a Poverty of Words - NYTimes.com there is strong evidence that increasing the general knowledge and vocabulary of a child before age 6 is the single highest correlate with later success. Schools have an enormously hard time pushing through the deficiencies with which many children arrive.

Political Animal - The End of the End of Men?
The Weaker Sex - Sandra Tsing Loh - The Atlantic How the new gender economics has more and more professional-class women looking at their mates and thinking: How long until I vote you off the island?
How The Zero Weeks Of Paid Maternity Leave In The U.S. Compare Globally | ThinkProgress
War between the sexes | TLS How conflict and cooperation have shaped men and women from prehistory to the present - Seabright’s solution is straightforward: “compulsory paternity leave”

Hullabaloo Will it go round in circles? - Review of Looper by Dennis Hartley

Political Animal - The Corruption of Crowds

100612
Court orders Ohio to restore early voting for all residents | The Raw Story

Presidential Debate Aftermath: Mitt Romney Wins All-Important BS Contest | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone (Mark Shields' occupation)
7 ways Obama should change his strategy in the next debate - The Week
Jon Stewart on the Debate
Political Animal - Biden to the Rescue? One of Obama’s biggest missed opportunities Wednesday night occurred when moderator Jim Lehrer asked the candidates about their respective plans for Social Security. Obama, rather than point out that his opponent’s running mate proposed privatizing it in 2010, said he suspected he and Romney mostly agreed. Biden is unlikely to let a similar opportunity slip. (but it's what he really believes)
Bill Moyers and Univision anchors slam presidential debate organizers | The Raw Story “The Commission on Presidential Debates, they’re stuck in the 1950s,” Ramos said on Moyers & Company. “They still think that the country could be divided between men and women and that’s it. And they do not realize that one in every three persons in the United States is from a minority.”
Romney Claims of Bipartisanship as Governor Face Challenge - NYTimes.com

Paul Broun: Evolution, Big Bang 'Lies Straight From The Pit Of Hell' All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the big bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell," said Broun, who is an MD. "It's lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior" ... Broun is a high-ranking member of the House Science Committee, of which Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) is also a member.
Political Animal - Another Fine Scientist on the Hill The Bible, he says, is a “manufacturer’s handbook,” that shows “how to run our lives individually, how to run our families, how to run our churches…how to run all of public policy and everything in society.”

Hullabaloo Oh fergawdsakes, they can't be serious. After making utter fools of themselves insisting the polls are all skewed in favor of Obama, today they're insisting that the jobs numbers are corrupted too. ... But that's not the only problem. Check out how NPR reports the story ... So, basically what we have in the media today are right wing outlets living in an alternate universe and mainstream outlets simply saying that there's no way of knowing the truth.
The outrageous attack on BLS | Economic Policy Institute
Job Numbers September 2012 - 7.8: Hope for Obama, Bummer for Romney, Indicator for All - Esquire it may well evaporate whatever momentum Willard Romney was planning on surfing after his stunning performance as a quasi-human carbon-based life form on Wednesday night.

Sally Quinn Wants Obama to Wear God, Has Gone Mad - Esquire The continued authorship of something called "On Faith" by Beltway social-climber and Hall of Fame trophy wife Sally Quinn remains the most hilarious thing about The Washington Post, a once-great newspaper now d/b/a an adjunct to the educational testing institute.
Catholic theologian: Unseat pope and push ‘authoritarian’ church to radical reform | The Raw Story - Hans Küng is appealing to priests and churchgoers to confront the Catholic hierarchy, which he says is corrupt, lacking credibility and apathetic to the real concerns of the church’s members.
Pope’s butler gets 18 months’ jail in ‘Vatileaks’ case | The Raw Story

Bonus Quote of the Day: "The institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise. The blacks who could endure those conditions and circumstances would someday be rewarded with citizenship in the greatest nation ever established upon the face of the Earth." -- Arkansas state Rep. Jon Hubbard (R), quoted by the Arkansas Times.

President Obama: Preventative Care, Like Birth Control and Mammograms, Should be Affordable (w/ video) | Angry Black Lady Chronicles
Study shows free birth control results in fewer abortions | The Raw Story
Judge Upholds Contraception Mandate | The Raw Story the basic issue has gotten somewhat obscured, which is that your boss is not actually your master. Also, your compensation is not your allowance, and they don’t get to dock your pay because they think you’re being naughty on your own time.
Abortion Worldwide - YouTube - Guttmacher Institute | Transcript: "Worldwide Abortion"
Facts on Induced Abortion Worldwide Facts on Induced Abortion Worldwide

Yosemite Hantavirus and Climate Change - The Plague of Climate Denial Confronts an Actual Plague - Esquire (see the Republican science committee)
Ancestry DNA Family Tree - Your Family Tree Just Got a Lot More Interesting - Esquire

Healthier School Lunches Face Student Rejection - NYTimes.com - “Before, there was no taste and no flavor,” said Malik Barrows, a senior at Automotive High School in Brooklyn, who likes fruit but said his classmates threw away their mandatory helpings on the cafeteria floor. “Now there’s no taste, no flavor and it’s healthy, which makes it taste even worse.” (it's Michelle's fault)

New study says Facebook and Twitter are more tempting than sex | The Raw Story (they're always there for you)
Yes, The Pirate Bay Stores IP-Addresses (Temporary) | TorrentFreak
Which VPN Providers Really Take Anonymity Seriously? | TorrentFreak

100512
Balloon Juice » Military Justice Updates and Open Thread PFC Bradley Manning has spent almost 900 days in Pre-Trial Confinement.
US investigates possible WikiLeaks leaker for 'communicating with the enemy' | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk US military's new legal theory threatens to convert unauthorized leaks into a capital offense. Who is the real 'enemy'?
Sweden detains Pirate Bay founder in oppressive conditions without charges | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The case underscores the prime fear long expressed by Assange supporters about the Swedish justice system


CNBC's First Question To Labor Secretary Solis: How Do You Respond To Accusation That Jobs Numbers Are "Fixed"? | Video | Media Matters for America (BLStrutherism)
Household survey vs payroll survey: The household survey always finds more.
Jack Welch: Unemployment rate cooked - Oct. 5, 2012 (Jack Fucking Welch)

Paul Ryan's Debt to Barry Goldwater—Who'd Be Mortified by Paul Ryan - Elias Isquith - The Atlantic - Ryan is the most ideological and potentially divisive nominee to the White House in a half century. Not since Barry Goldwater proclaimed extremism in defense of liberty to be no vice and moderation in pursuit of justice no virtue has a major party candidate so forcefully challenged America's political status quo.
The US presidential debates' illusion of political choice | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | The Guardian The issue is not what separates Romney and Obama, but how much they agree. This hidden consensus has to be exposed

Reince Priebus Forced Back Into Ancient Puzzle Box After Being Tricked Into Saying Name Backwards | The Onion

Calculated Risk: Gasoline Prices surge in California due to Refinery Problems

Who's On Top? Color-Coded Maps Rank States' Education Performance | Education on GOOD
Education Rank - Data Across States - Kids Count Data Center

You Brought a Coastal Defense Ship to a Battleship Fight - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Wikipedia Policies Limit Editing Haymarket Bombing : NPR

100412
BBC News - Turkey's parliament authorises military action in Syria
US drone strike in southern Yemen kills four al-Qaida-linked militants | World news | guardian.co.uk Security official and residents say four armed combatants were killed, two were wounded and one fled the scene
Russia denies knowledge of spy plot as US man appears in court on charges | World news | guardian.co.uk Alexander Fishenko and six others accused of selling microelectronics to be used in Russian weapons systems
Police in Mallorca arrest man on suspicion of planning Columbine-style attack on university | World news | The Guardian Suspect was planning to plant bombs on a university campus in Palma de Mallorca, police say
China landslide buries primary school | World news | guardian.co.uk Landslide in south-western Yunnan province traps 19 people, 18 of them children, after last month's earthquakes
French Alps shootings case will not be solved quickly, prosecutor warns | World news | guardian.co.uk Eric Maillaud says investigation into the four killings will take a 'very, very long time' unless there is a sudden breakthrough

Austerity has worsened Greek crisis, says institute | World news | The Guardian Institute of International Finance says politicians put desire for debt reduction ahead of efforts to spur growth (sadists)
West coast rail debacle blamed on Whitehall brain drain | UK news | guardian.co.uk Former cabinet secretary Lord O'Donnell says skills shortages are hurting departments and calls for higher civil service pay

Meningitis warning spreads to 23 states as investiagtors focus in on cause | Society | guardian.co.uk Officials said all of those infected received spinal injections of a steroid solution sold by a Massachusetts-based facility

Gallup: Obama's Approval Rating Reaches 54 Percent, Highest Mark Since '09 | TPM LiveWire

Presidential Debate Obama 2012 - The Presidential Debate That Wasn't Very Presidential - Esquire - The Presidential Debate That Wasn't Very Presidential: How Obama Let the Etch-a-Sketch Take the Controls
Obama Debate Review - Tom Junod on Obama's Debate Magic - Esquire - Obama, Endurance Artist: What Comes After the Magic?

At Last Night's Debate: Romney Told 27 Myths In 38 Minutes | ThinkProgress
First Debate Often Helps Challenger in Polls - NYTimes.com
The Return of Massachusetts Mitt -- Daily Intel

Obama hits back after debate dip and accuses Romney of not telling the truth | World news | guardian.co.uk President turns on Romney for 'dancing around his positions' as he seeks to revive fortunes following lacklustre Denver display
Would a Republican Candidate Lie About Taxes? -- Daily Intel
Political Animal - The Audacity of Mendacity
Fact Checking the Debate: Who Stretched the Truth?: Video - Bloomberg
Daily Kos: Mitt Romney: Lying to victory

Political Animal - Why Obama Didn’t Go After Mitt - a very low-risk debate strategy that Romney successfully exploited. (+Pres non-partisan)
A good night for Mitt Romney, but was it really enough? - The Plum Line - The Washington Post
First Round to Romney In tonight's debate, Obama made the same error he made at the beginning of the health-care fight: Failing to stand his ground for fear of appearing too partisan.

Romney's Sick Joke - NYTimes.com I guess you could say that Romney’s claim wasn’t exactly a lie, since some people with preexisting conditions would retain coverage. But as I said, it’s the moral equivalent of a lie; if you think he promised something real, you’re the butt of a sick joke. And we’re talking about a lot of people left out in the cold — 89 million, to be precise.
My Quick Read | TPM Editors Blog He basically tossed aside his own tax plan or said he would if his numbers didn’t add up. But then he insisted that he could find enough loopholes to close to afford a $5 trillion tax cut for upper income earners. These are more numbers on the table. That’s really what most of the debate was about — budget numbers. Romney insisted with a straight face that up was down.
First Thoughts: Romney helps himself - First Read
Brad DeLong: Paul Ryan the Republican Unperson Watch All the romney signs just say "Believe in America" where "paul ryan" would usually be
Balloon Juice » Mitt Romney Will Get Rid of PBS, Jim Lehrer, and Big Bird
Mitt Romney's Big Bird Attack Threatens Thousands Of U.S. Jobs (BB: "will work for food")
Coal Miner’s Donor: A Mitt Romney Benefactor And His Surprisingly Generous Employees | The New Republic A Mitt Romney benefactor and his surprisingly generous employees - Murray Energy.
I’m Not Concerned - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Simpson-Bowles: The Conventional Wisdom Is Correct - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Balloon Juice » Thank You John Sununu Today John Sununu called the President “lazy”—and on being pressed, doubled down and said it again. Just to be clear: the word Sununu was looking for is “shiftless.” ... Sununu, not content to insult every American who believes that the Presidency deserves minimal respect, added this gem on Fox News. Asked if Obama would do better next round, he replied “When you’re not that bright, you can’t get better prepared.” (thank you Boston Globe for giving a perch to this racist asshole)

Six Digital Takeaways from the Denver Debate - Forbes

Equality and the Supreme Court: A Potential Blockbuster Term - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Billboard Attempts to Intimidate African American Voters in Cleveland A billboard declaring “Voter Fraud is a Felony” is now on display in Cleveland – a clear attempt to intimidate and suppress African American and student voters in the area.
Akin Fails to Report Pension Income Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) failed to report almost $130,000 in Missouri legislative pension income over the past 10 years on his congressional financial disclosure report, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Said Akin: "This was an unintentional oversight and I regret any inconvenience this may cause."

Mark Gongloff: Romney's Dodd-Frank Comments Shock Bewildered Bankers Mitt Romney is on to their perverted games. At last night's debate, he declared that a key component of the financial-reform law was "the biggest kiss that's been given to New York banks I've ever seen."
JPMorgan Shouldn’t Cut Dimon’s Pay Over Loss, Harrison Says - Bloomberg
Super Rich More Likely To Live In Blue States: Wealth-X

Saving the world’s fisheries - The Washington Post The World’S Waters are dangerously overfished, threatening the health and livelihood of millions across the planet.

The Drug War Is a National Scandal That's Getting Worse - Esquire


Larry Ellison To Make His Hawaiian Island A 'Little Laboratory'

Facebook hits 1 billion users a month | Technology | guardian.co.uk
Google reaches Library Project settlement in court case with publishers | Technology | guardian.co.uk Google Library Project to proceed after seven-year court case brought by group of American publishers is resolved
“I am calling you from Windows”: A tech support scammer dials Ars Technica | Ars Technica Cold caller from "Windows Technical Support" asks for remote access to my PC.
Gephardt Gets It: Scam involves negative online reviews | ksl.com

100312
South Korea: Asia's Other Rising Naval Power - Flashpoints

West coast rail fiasco: three government officials suspended | Business | guardian.co.uk Three government officials at the heart of the abandoned west coast mainline franchise competition have been suspended after the transport secretary launched an urgent review into how the award of Britain's most lucrative rail service ended in fiasco.

NDAA Decision Extended - The NDAA Decision and the Unknown Power of Obama - Esquire the current president wants the power to detain indefinitely anyone he and the intelligence community see as a threat, whether that person is an American or not

The debates are crucial – for both sides

Tucker Carlson Fails at Trolling - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic
Booman Tribune ~ Attacking the Less Fortunate - The Republicans think a five-year old video of Obama doing nothing particularly unusual will hurt him politically. They have a lot of delusions, even at the highest levels.
An Unlikely Voice Of Reason On The Drudge-Daily Caller Flop | Blog | Media Matters for America
rubber hose: reruns again? from tucker carlson himself: [People will say] this has already been reported. Actually, it hasn’t been reported. I know because I reported it the first time.
Balloon Juice » Next up in Oogity-Boogity
Limbaugh On 2007 Obama Speech: "This Is Rabble-Rousing Kind Of Talk. ... He Race-Baited Throughout" (mentioning slavery is racist)

Explore voter ID laws in all 50 states
Tallahassee: Botched voter registration forms not the first sign of trouble for GOP firm - Florida - MiamiHerald.com In 2004, employees with his previous firms were accused of a wide assortment of infractions: destroying voter registration forms of Democrats, duping college students into registering as Republicans, refusing to register Democrats or independents. Nevada, Oregon and Arizona opened investigations but closed them without charging anyone.

Noam Chomsky: If I were in a swing state, I’d vote for Obama | The Raw Story (if you've been following the "lesser of two evils" argument) - Chomsky also said the national deficit wasn’t a major problem, and was being used as propaganda to hide the issue of joblessness ... That tells you there is something deeply pathological about the general socio-economic system.
L'Hôte: requests, easy and difficult
Balloon Juice » Hi, Hello, Wake from Thy Sleep

Todd Akin Climate Control Video - Todd Akin's Unique View of Women - Esquire

College graduates are in for a rude awakening - Salon.com Grade inflation has spawned a generation of graduates convinced they're exceptional. They're not


Red Sox intend to fire Valentine when season ends - CBSSports.com


100212
We're Still at War: Photo of the Day for October 2, 2012 | Mother Jones

Armageddon in Greece | Mother Jones If you happen to be wondering why Greeks are rioting in the streets, this is why. You might be too if this were happening to your economy

Voting Rights Groups Get a Partial Win in Pennsylvania | Mother Jones The ruling states that poll workers are allowed to ask voters for photo identification, but those who don't have it will be allowed to cast regular ballots, as opposed to provisional ones. (poll workers will be "confused")
Pa. court rules voters can cast regular ballots without ID
Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Postponed - Pennsylvania Voter-ID Law Tossed: Between the Rulings - Esquire

Elizabeth Warren Scott Brown Debate 2 - Charles P. Pierce on Massachusetts Senate Debate - Esquire

Paul Ryan: 30 Percent 'Want Their Welfare State,' 70 Percent 'Want The American Dream' (video)

David Brooks Opening Statement Column - Our Mr. Brooks Practices His Ventriloquism - Esquire Moral Hazard, the Irish setter owned for photo-op purposes by New York Times columnist David Brooks
George Will Romney Turn Around Column - George Will Is Not Making Any Human Sense - Esquire - Second, if Will believes that the reason the president seems to be prospering right now is because the good heart of America is giving the black fella a break, he's climbed so far up his own ass that he could sneeze and break his collarbone. And that's what I call staying within yourself.
Balloon Juice » Hello Blackness My Old Friend, George Has Come to Talk About You Again George Will thinks that firing blackety-black-black President Obama will prove once and for all that we live in post-racial America. Also, too, baseball:
Eschaton: The Blahs Get All Of The Advantages: George Wills of the world
Eschaton: Our Own Craig T. Nelson: Inqy commenter "The Monk." How and when did feeding school kids ever become a government and taxpayer obligation? When I was a kid in Wilson Park Project, on welfare, my MOTHER sent me to school every day with my own lunchbag. It's called PARENTAL responsibility. Just more nanny state nonsense. (white people are so stupid)
Balloon Juice w » A low bar impossible to cross… Liz Marlantes of the Christian Science Monitor said this: (sheesh, CSM)
ComPost Live with Alexandra Petri - The Washington Post
Media Research Center dishonor awards: Why conservative media critics aren’t laughing. - Slate Magazine
Patrick Murphy Ad on Allen West - Patrick Murphy's Big Mistake - Esquire

America's Top 10 Polluters | Mother Jones The EPA releases a database of greenhouse gas sources. Is there a global warmer in your backyard?

How To Survive A Plague
‘How to Survive a Plague’ looks back at AIDS activism’s power - A&E - Boston.com
‘How to Survive a Plague’ a triumph of activism - Boston.com

Column: U.S. needs paid family leave Paid parental leave would give parents time with their kids without risking their jobs.
Devaluing care work — and women - Salon.com Protections for care workers and paid sick days are off the political agenda, and women are paying the price (moochers)

Kate Middleton topless photos: When did bare breasts become taboo? - Slate Magazine the general prohibition on bare breasts in European society was firmly entrenched again by the 1600s.

What Happened After U.S. Cables Revealing Massive Bulgarian Corruption Were Leaked in Bulgaria - Slate Magazine
Website pagination: Stories should load into a single page every time. - Slate Magazine Why websites should not make you click and click and click for the full story. (lookin' at you, Arianna)

100112
World faces ageing population time bomb says UN - Telegraph The world needs to take urgent action to cope with the impact of a rapidly ageing population, according to a new report, which forecast that the number of people older than 60 would surpass one billion within a decade.

Nato withdrawal from Afghanistan could be speeded up, says Rasmussen | World news | The Guardian Anders Fogh Rasmussen admits 'green on blue' attacks have hit morale, and raises prospect of accelerated pullout
'Innocence Of Muslims' Banned In Russia By Moscow Court
Bahraini court confirms jail terms for medics who aided protesters — RT
Gridlock as China begins its 'Golden Week' holidays - Telegraph A decision to grant free road travel meant hundreds of thousands of Chinese drivers spent the first day of the mid-autumn festival in gridlock.

Stephen Hester: RBS is 'poster child' for banking failures - Telegraph Stephen Hester, chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, has admitted the institution is a “British poster child for what went wrong in banking

White House Hacked In Cyber Attack That Used Spear-Phishing To Crack Unclassified Network
The Head of Homeland Security Stays Secure by Not Using Email, At All
Iran Unblocks Gmail After Members Of Iranian Parliament Complain

Why Do America’s Super-Rich Feel Victimized by Obama? : The New Yorker Why do billionaires feel victimized by Obama? - he has gone so far as to draw a parallel between Obama’s election and the rise of the Third Reich.
The Real Referendum - NYTimes.com Voters are, in effect, being asked to deliver a verdict on the legacy of the New Deal and the Great Society, on Social Security, Medicare and, yes, Obamacare, which represents an extension of that legacy.
Wait for a Better Deficit Report
Why Simpson/Bowles Should Be DOA. To follow up on Mark's post, I think it's worth explaining a central problem with Jon Chait's defense of Simpson/Bowles.

Romney: My Magic Tax Plan Will Repeal Math -- Daily Intel
Paul Ryan On Why He Didn't Discuss Tax Plan Math: 'Everyone Would Start Changing The Channel'
The Paul Ryan Legend Dissipates -- Daily Intel (it was a fog and mirrors anyway)
They Stopped Loving Him Today, WaPo Edition - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Wow, Paul Ryan has even lost the newspaper that inexplicably signs Robert Samuelson’s paychecks. The declining reputation of the zombie-eyed granny starver is shocking to me; normally, once somebody gets an entirely unearned reputation is a “fiscal hawk” because they want to impose pain on poor people to fund upper-class tax cuts, they keep it forever.

Fox's Crowder Claims Young People Will Vote For Obama Because "They Want More Free Crap" | Video | Media Matters for America
Undisclosed: Fox Lets Bayh Do His Clients' Bidding | Blog | Media Matters for America
No More Mister Nice Blog: History'S Greatest Monsters: The Shaming Is A Massive Box-Office Flop (must have been a MSM conspiracy)
Before 2nd Debate, Warren/Brown Still Mostly Standstill - Esquire
Blue Mass Group | Talk radio has gone batsh!t crazy over Elizabeth Warren
Civil Beat Poll - Hirono Up Big On Lingle - Honolulu Civil Beat The Civil Beat Poll shows Hirono, a Democratic congresswoman, with a 55 percent to 39 percent advantage over the two-term Republican Hawaii governor. T

Voter Fraud, Sincere Edition: Holy Crap, it Exists - Lawyers, Guns & Money
About Mr. Sproul | TPM Editors Blog
A Recent History of GOP Voter Suppression in Florida | The Nation

Bush-Appointed Judge Upholds Obama Administration's Birth Control Coverage Rules | ThinkProgress [Federal religious freedom law] is a shield, not a sword. It protects individuals from substantial burdens on religious exercise that occur when the government coerces action one’s religion forbids, or forbids action one’s religion requires; it is not a means to force one’s religious practices upon others (freedom to oppress you with my religion rejected)

TSA hired priest accused of molesting girls to do pat downs | The Raw Story

63,000-Year-Old Modern Human Skull Found in Laos | Anthropology | Sci-News.com According to an international team of anthropologists, an ancient skull collected from a cave in the Annamite Mountains in northern Laos is the oldest modern human fossil found in Southeast Asia.

Fellowship of the Ring: Conventions of film, conventions of genre - Lawyers, Guns & Money

The economics of video games

The (Not So) Daily: Dexter Season 7 Premiere "Are You...?"

Kindle Paperwhite Review: Amazon's New Kindle Has A Screen That Shines
iPhone In Taiwan: Government Official Get Heat Over Promoting iPhone Over HTC One

093012
US military death toll in Afghanistan hits 2,000 after confused firefight | World news | guardian.co.uk Exchange of fire kills two Americans and three Afghan soldiers, marking 2,000th US death in the conflict
Bombings across Iraq kill 26 | World news | guardian.co.uk Shia neighbourhoods and Iraqi security forces targeted in attacks described as rallying call by al-Qaida
Iranian economy on verge of collapse, says Israel | World news | guardian.co.uk Sanctions creating great economic difficulties, says finance minister in a further indication that military action may be on hold
Parisa Hafezi, Reuters Tehran Bureau Chief, Convicted Of 'Propaganda-Related Offenses' By Iranian Media Court
Where next for China as the new generation of leaders take power? | World news | The Observer The 18th Communist party congress will see an organisation with 80 million members decide the fate of the world's second largest economy
Bo Xilai Scandal: In Chongqing, Chinese Politician's Fall Blamed On Elite Intrigue
Rape And Abuse In Syria's Detention Centers Documented In BBC Report (VIDEO) "He inserted a rat in her vagina. She was screaming. Afterwards we saw blood on the floor. He told her: 'Is this good enough for you?' They were mocking her. It was obvious she was in agony. We could see her. After that she no longer moved."

White House defends UN ambassador over response to Benghazi attack | World news | guardian.co.uk Libya embassy attack becomes election issue as Republicans call for Susan Rice's resignation over alleged misinformation

Bangladesh Muslim protesters torch Buddhist temples over Facebook photo | FaithWorld (you can see where this is going)
Any questions? : atheism
ancient iranian women - Google Search
iranian women - Google Search

French protesters march in 'resistance' to austerity | World news | guardian.co.uk Thousands take to the streets of Paris in move described by government minister as 'fundamental error'

Deepwater Horizon settlement talks stall as US demands $18bn from BP | Environment | guardian.co.uk Reports indicate talks over payment for the 2010 disaster have hit a snag as BP split over whether to push for $15bn payout

Hullabaloo Is torturing "material witnesses" constitutional? - A federal judge in Idaho has ruled that the United States, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, wrongly imprisoned an American under a law designed to keep trial witnesses from fleeing and that since there was evidence that the government may have willfully misused the law against him, his case should go to trial. (Obama opposed, of course)

No More Mister Nice Blog - Is Frank Bruni Now The Worst Op-Ed Columnist At The New York Times? - The vast majority of Americans have sacrificed plenty in the past few years. If Frank Bruni hasn't, he needs to realize how anomalous and lucky he is, rather than projecting his awareness of his own soft life onto the rest of us.
‘I Am the Change’ by Charles R. Kesler - NYTimes.com The conservative mind, a repository of fresh ideas just two decades ago, is now little more than a click-click slide projector holding a tray of apocalyptic images of modern life that keeps spinning around, raising the viewer’s fever with every rotation.

I am a job creator: A manifesto for the entitled - The Washington Post - I am entitled to everything I have and more that I still deserve.
There Aren’t That Many Takers in America — The Monkey Cage The most restrictive definition pegs the percentage of takers at 2.4%. If we’re willing to include people in households with at least one earner, that number increases to 5.2%. Lots of people, even quite rich people, receive government benefits in the United States, and that is a reasonable thing for true fiscal conservatives to be frustrated about. But these numbers simply don’t line up with the rhetoric of a massive class of lazy people taking advantage of the rest of us while eating solely at the trough of government.
Balloon Juice » The numbers guy and the wonk skipped a step Both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan accepted the factual basis of the makers versus takers argument they promote without ever looking into it at all. (that would require "thinking" and "honesty")
No More Mister Nice Blog - The vast majority of Americans have sacrificed plenty in the past few years. If Frank Bruni hasn't, he needs to realize how anomalous and lucky he is, rather than projecting his awareness of his own soft life onto the rest of us.

| Nationwide GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal Widens, Becomes Criminal Matter in Florida (how ironic the only voter fraud in America is by Republicans)

Elizabeth Warren leads Scott Brown in Boston Globe poll | masslive.com The Globe poll [PDF], conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, shows Warren leading Brown, 43 percent to 38 percent.

Q&A With Nate Silver on His Book, Romney, Polls -- Daily Intel - So I think a slightly impolite way to put it is that at best Dick Morris is detached from reality, and at worst I guess, he knows it and is just lying to people.

Balloon Juice » Saying So when I say, fuck Thomas J Paprocki, and note that the world would be a better place if assholes like him were in jail for conspiring to shield child molesters instead of preaching the hate and divisiveness that spontaneously escapes his geriatric piehole, I’m not making a conscious decision, I’m just saying. (Catholic Bishops doing the work of Satan)

Reinventing Atlantic City With gambling troubles, agencies focus on bringing in more arts, retail, and residential development.

California banishes controversial 'gay cure' therapies to 'dustbin of quackery' | World news | guardian.co.uk Bill bars mental health providers from engaging in therapies meant to 'cure' homosexuality in children and teenagers - But the idea that homosexuality can be cured – by therapy and/or prayer – persists in conservative Christian circles.

Living on Earth: New Study Links Genetically Modified Corn to Cancer (you know, the corn they don't want to have to tell you was GMO'd)
Pictures: New-Species "Heaven" Discovered in Peru
Lightning captured at 7,207 images per second - YouTube

Pirate Bay Founder Remains Locked Up Without Charges | TorrentFreak Gottfrid Svartholm will be kept in detention for at least two more weeks on suspicion of hacking into a Swedish IT company connected to the country’s tax authorities. According to Prosecutor Henry Olin the extended detention is needed “to prevent him from having contact with other people.” The Pirate Bay co-founder is not allowed to have visitors and is even being denied access to newspapers and television. (nice little justice system you have there, Sweden)

092912
Medieval Aleppo souks destroyed by fire as battle rages in Syria | World news | guardian.co.uk Syrian activists say residents are struggling to control blaze in labyrinthine markets which were once a tourist attraction
Pour 56 % des Français le "racisme anti-Blancs" se développe
‘You really did not manage this well’: Czech president to bodyguards after being shot with toy handgun | World | News | National Post

VatiLeaks Exposes Internal Memos of the Catholic Church - The Daily Beast

The Clintons: the real winners of the 2012 election | World news | The Observer With Bill lauded even by his political opponents and Hillary enjoying success as secretary of state, there's a new groundswell among Democrats to secure the succession and back a Clinton run for the White House in 2016

Political Animal - The Million Wingnut March There’s been a steadily building discussion, albeit shrouded in some mystery, about the potential impact on Election Day (and to some extent, before it) of right-wing “volunteer poll watchers” who are promising to descend on minority neighborhoods to make sure the Pink Elephant threat of “voter fraud” does not transpire.
Get Ready Dems: If Obama wins conservatives will try to de-legitimize his victory with hysterical, phony claims of "massive election fraud." There are four important ways Dems can plan now to fight back | Democratic Strategist Get Ready Dems: If Obama wins conservatives will try to de-legitimize his victory with hysterical, phony claims of "massive election fraud." There are four important ways Dems can plan now to fight back

Daily Kos: WSJournal Accused of Failing Disclosure, 10 Op-Ed Writers Are Romney Advisers

Whose Idea Was It to Nominate Romney, Anyway? -- Daily Intel
Political Animal - Nowhere Man if Mitt Romney loses, he will vanish from Republican politics without a trace. He has no public office to fall back on, no real geographical base, and no personal following (again, outside the LDS flock). Having contrived a presidential candidacy out of familiarity, money and comparative advantage over an incredibly weak field, this is the closest he will ever get to the brass ring. As always, that makes me wonder what he might resort to in the stretch run.

“47%” Was Bad For Romney; Ryan Has Been Deadly | The New Republic
Cramming and Pruning for First Presidential Debate - NYTimes.com Mr. Romney’s team has concluded that debates are about creating moments and has equipped him with a series of zingers that he has memorized and has been practicing on aides since August. His strategy includes luring the president into appearing smug or evasive about his responsibility for the economy.
No More Mister Nice Blog I'm sure Fox and Drudge and the New York Post already have the list of zingers, and already have a plan, coordinated with the Romney campaign, to declare one of them the line of the evening, the one that embodied Romney's decisive victory, with the backup choices rank-ordered in case Romney never manages to deliver Choice #1, or in case it falls flat.
Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community So, Romney has spent over a month memorizing "zingers" which he will then attempt to offer in a spontaneous and witty manner in the debates. I don't think this will go well.
Webb delivers blistering Romney critique in Virginia - The Maddow Blog But it was of particular interest to see the senator reflect on the Vietnam War era, and the decisions made at the time. The Romney campaign released a photograph this week of Romney in 1968, laying on a French beach alongside a giant "I Love Ann" sign he'd drawn for his future wife in the sand.
Matt Taibbi: Mitt Romney's 'Insane' Comments Reveal Delusions Of The Super Rich - "If you're low-income enough to not be paying income tax, you're doing a shitty job that nobody else wants to do in this country," Taibbi said. "You're cleaning toilets. You're driving buses at the night shift. You're bussing tables. You're doing all these things that Mitt Romney is never going to do."
Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XXXVI - The Maddow Blog When Mitt Romney talked to "60 Minutes" last week, he said President Obama has "repeatedly shown a reckless disregard for the truth." If there's ever been a more blatant example of political "projection," I can't think of it.
A Heaping Helping of Ridicule for Ruth Marcus | Beat the Press Ruth Marcus commits just about every major error in budget analysis in her Washington Post column this morning. To start with, she warns of the fiscal cliff at the end of the year (another WaPo evil Republican hack)
CNN Lets Dinesh D'Souza Peddle Conspiracy Theory That Obama Is "Anti-American" | Blog | Media Matters for America CNN host Zoraida Sambolin pressed D'Souza to explain his accusations, she offered no pushback to D'Souza's outlandish claims about Obama's character nor did she point out the discredited claims contained in his movie.
Attack ads have... | Facebook Attack ads have come to this: President Obama makes babies cry. Jeremy Peters reports:
Republicans accuse Obama of cover-up over death of Chris Stevens in Libya | World news | guardian.co.uk Rudolf Giuliani leads Republican attack as confusion grows over circumstances of Chris Stevens' death in Benghazi (Mayor 911)
Political Animal - Pollack On Medicaid and “Taking Care of Each Other”
Todd Akin Suggests Employers Should Be Able To Pay Women Less | TPM LiveWire
Just How Racist Is the 'Obama Phone' Video? - Politics - The Atlantic Wire

2012 map could be deja vu for Obama - James Hohmann - politico.com
Obama Holds Huge Lead Among Women A new YWCA-sponsored poll finds President Obama leading Mitt Romney among women by a stunning 18 points, 49% to 31%.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » If You Choose Not to Decide You Still Have Made a Choice I know I am ignoring Tim F.s’ sage advice to just ignore the whole Conor Friedersdorf post, but I can’t resist. Look, there is a simple reason I have not responded to that bloviating magnum opus from Conor either respectfully or disrespectfully (until now, alas). And that reason is I have been blogging for a decade, and I know when I am being trolled.

Political Animal - Why Liz Warren’s Cherokee Scandal Isn’t Going Away The story persists in part because Scott Brown and the conservative Boston Herald can’t get enough of it. But I think it also owes its staying power to the bad memories many Massachusettseans associate with affirmative action, which is what this whole scandal is really about (Scottie's gonna take Southie!)

Political Animal - Is Obama killing the Washington Post? Today’s Washington Post, surely with a heavy heart, reported that the company was shutting down nine of its Kaplan college campuses, while consolidating four others.

A short history of the democracy and the state - Lawyers, Guns & Money (Henry Farrell's "Obama no better than Romney")

Pictured: The 'beautiful' family slain hours after church by 'mentally ill father tormented by the prospect of Obama winning the election' | Mail Online - a wealthy defense contractor

US polar bear researcher Charles Monnett cleared of scientific misconduct | Environment | guardian.co.uk Charles Monnett, who oversaw much of the government's work in the Arctic, was investigated over alleged use of false data - It was also an embarrassment for the Obama administration, whose two-and-a-half-year investigation uncovered no evidence of major wrongdoing. (Obama's war on anybody who tells the truth)
News - The Research Council of Norway Norwegian researchers are the world’s first to develop a method for producing semiconductors from graphene. This finding may revolutionise the technology industry.

“Won’t Back Down”: Why do teachers’ unions hate America? - Salon.com "Won't Back Down" is an offensive, lame, union-bashing drama, which somehow stars Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal

'Field Trip,' New Google App, Predicts The Info You Want To Know On The Go
Pink UFOs Show Up On Texas and New Mexico Google Street Views

092812
Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan Foreign Minister: Drones Are Top Cause Of Anti-Americanism (keeping the war on terra going)
Iran news agency picks up "Onion" story, tells Iranians rural Americans prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama - CBS News

Europe’s Austerity Madness - NYTimes.com The public in these countries is, in effect, saying that it has reached its limit: With unemployment at Great Depression levels and with erstwhile middle-class workers reduced to picking through garbage in search of food, austerity has already gone too far. And this means that there may not be a deal after all. (how much suffering can the elites impose "unnecessarily" for their own collosal fuckups?)

Balloon Juice » Those faces pressed against the window, they are just my friends (Obama ad: 47%)
Romney's 47% Viewed More Than Convention Speech - Business Insider Barack Obama's convention speech has been viewed 5 times as many times as Mitt Romney's convention speech.

Affirmative Action Texas Courts - Affirmative-Action Reaction Makes Its Way to the Court - Esquire

A possible House flip enters pundit imaginations Yesterday, Rachel Maddow (citing us as evidence) discussed the possibility with Nancy Pelosi, who thinks the probability is about 60%

Mitt Romney Health Care Reaction - The Problem with Romney Is the Problem with Empathy - Esquire It's taken a while for many people to acknowledge it, but the real problem with the presidential candidacy of Willard Romney, the International Harvester, has been staring you in the face, yelling at you at top volume, all along. The problem has now become so all-consuming that even the Republican party has noticed. The Republican party is demented ... The problem is that cruelty has become an ideology in itself, and it is an implacable one. The problem is that he's trying to appeal to a party full of moral monsters

Balloon Juice » Early Morning Open Thread: “New Economic Patriotism”
In the end, it’s Mitt Romney - POLITICO.com With Republicans everywhere wondering what has happened to the Mitt Romney campaign, people who know the candidate personally and professionally offer a simple explanation: It’s the candidate himself.
Wolf Blitzer On GOP Poll Bias Claims: 'Fox News Polls Are Showing Almost Exactly The Same Thing' (video)
Florida Voter Registration Issues Involving GOP Vendor Spread Statewide
Josh Mandel Hiring Blasted In New Sherrod Brown Ad
Medicare Polls: Romney Trails Obama On Key Issue In Swing States
AFL-CIO To Attack GOP Candidates In Key Races

See which presidential candidate you side with
Leftsplaining - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Glenn Greenwald has basically spent 24 hours attacking this site on his Twitter feed and essentially claiming that we are mouthpieces of the Democratic Party. Which if so, where’s my paycheck from the DNC? I hope it’s as much as Glenn makes from CATO.
Stop Leftsplaining! | Mother Jones Why the left should stop grousing, whining, Eeyoring, and parsing differences with your allies and get about the cheerful business of being heroes.

Race, Not Abortion - Lawyers, Guns & Money : I can’t recommend this Amanda Marcotte piece enough. Abortion has no negative net effect on the Democratic Party’s struggles with the white working-class over the past 40 years. Those problems revolve around white people’s racism.

Which Senator Put a Hold on Veterans Benefits Bill? - The Daily Beast A routine bill for a cost-of-living increase for military veterans and surviving spouses just got delayed for months because of a secret hold by an unidentified Senate Republican. (great strategy; they just can't help themselves)
Occupy Chicago Judge Decision - Rahm Emanuel Gets the Spanking He Deserves - Esquire But as far as I'm concerned, chief among these reasons has to be the current president's putting the spectacularly overrated Rahm Emanuel in charge of the White House staff. Emanuel hasn't breathed a breath of air in public service when he wasn't a self-aggrandizing and nasty bit of work.

Jeffrey Giuliano Mistakes Son Tyler Giuliano For Burglar, Shoots Him

Life Of Pi - Latest International Trailer - YouTube
WTF is going on here. - Imgur
sCbVy.jpg (Mitt Romney's Magic Mormon Underwear)

TEDxMileHighSalon - Michael Huemer - The Irrationality of Politics - YouTube
Game of Thrones: “Winter Is Coming” for Will and Bran - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah: Richard Bach: 9780385319256: Amazon.com: Books
Wool - Omnibus Edition: Hugh Howey: 9781469984209: Amazon.com: Books

In California, It's Now Illegal for Employers and Universities to Ask for Your Social Media Passwords - Megan Garber - The Atlantic
Galaxy Tab 10.1 Ban Will Be Reconsidered By U.S. Judge
How to use Windows 8 WITHOUT Metro - Classic Shell

092712
Bibi And Bomb
Pro-life MP vows to fight "to his dying breath" for rights of unborn | The Vancouver Observer Members of Parliament will debate Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth's Motion 312 on Friday, a private member's bill which calls for a special committee review of the Criminal Code of Canada's definition of a child, which is defined as a human being once it's born. A vote is set for September 26.
Hullabaloo - Proud to be an American - France's Catholic Church has won a court injunction to ban a clothing advertisement based on Leonardo da Vinci's Christ's Last Supper. (IMG) If that's "illegal", there's a big problem.

Markets await Spanish budget - eurozone crisis live | Business | guardian.co.uk The Greek bailout happened a year too early leading to painful austerity measures that may not have been necessary (none of it was "necessary")

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula Arrested

My Job - Obama for America TV Ad - YouTube
Mitt Romney: Those People - YouTube
The Poetic Justice of Romney’s Self-Immolation -- Daily Intel the sound of silverware clinking on china in the background as Romney speaks ... This is not a random gaffe, a joke gone bad, or even a terrible brain freeze. It is Romney exposed for espousing a worldview that is at the heart of his party’s mania.
NEW Romney Video: In 1985, He Said Bain Would "Harvest" Companies for Profits | Mother Jones This clip shows the young CEO focusing on businesses as targets for his investors, not as job creators or community stakeholders.
Pierce - Mitt Romney Harvest Bain Video - Esquire And thus, it is born. Willard Romney, The International Harvester.
WTFU!

Romney's Current 3.6 Percent Chance Of Winning - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast
Political Animal - Delusions of the Poll Denialists Whether they are trying to lay the foundation for a “stolen election” claim, or an enduring “conservative majority” myth, or are simply trying to cheer themselves up, the growing tribe of Poll Denialists rely on an awful lot of dubious or downright ignorant assumptions in dismissing polls they don’t like as biased.
Michael Tomasky on the GOP’s Self-Delusion Syndrome - The Daily Beast - With Obama’s lead in several swing states becoming insurmountable, the right has begun to panic—by denying reality altogether.

Election Will Decide Future of Interrogation Methods for Terrorism Suspects - NYTimes.com
Amnesty Prison Report Slams California Prisons' Solitary Confinement Policy

Not The Election They Were Expecting - NYTimes.com Among other things, while we weren’t looking, social issues became a source of Democratic strength, not weakness — partly because the country has changed, partly because the Democrats have finally worked up the nerve to stand squarely for things like reproductive rights.
Abortion didn't drive white working class voters from the Democrats: racialized resentment did. Forget What You've Heard. Abortion Does Not Hurt the Democrats.
Defying Eternal Damnation, Catholics will Vote Democratic | Religion Dispatches
Poll: Obama surges ahead among Catholic voters - The Washington Post President Obama’s support among Catholic voters has surged since June, according to a new poll, despite a summer that included the Catholic bishops’ religious freedom campaign and the naming of Rep. Paul Ryan, a Catholic, as the GOP’s vice-presidential candidate.

Elizabeth Warren Campaign - On the Campaign Trail with Elizabeth Warren - Esquire Oh, she's getting better at this, no question about it. If at the Democratic National Convention she became a politician, on the campaign trail Elizabeth Warren is becoming a candidate. These are two different things.
xs
Obama Approval Rating Rises In Post-Convention Polls
All American Presidential Elections Are Choices Between Evils - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Jeff Goldstein’s “‘mental health problems,’ revealed!” - Lawyers, Guns & Money
An Essay Only a White Person Could Write - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Connor Friedersdorf writes the kind of political essay I can’t see anyone but a privileged white person writing. Going as far as to nearly (but not quite he says!) compare President Obama to an apologist for slavery, he can’t stomach voting for Obama because of his policies in Pakistan, drones, etc.
Balloon Juice » Reality, Meet Conor. Conor, Meet the Real World. (btw: Romney suports torture)
Editorial Page Editors: WSJ Lack Of Romney Advisers Disclosure "Inexcusable" And "Shameless" | Blog | Media Matters for America - The Wall Street Journal's failure to disclose that 10 of its op-ed writers are Mitt Romney advisers has drawn criticism from veteran editorial page editors at some of the nation's top newspapers.
AP Had To Impose Upper "Quota" On Michele Bachmann Lies | The Daily Dolt (Satan's bitch)
STUDY: TV News Covered Paul Ryan's Workout 3x More Than Record Arctic Sea Ice Loss | Research | Media Matters for America
The BRAD BLOG : FL GOP Fires Romney Consultant'S Voter Registration Firm After Fraudulent Forms Reported In Palm Beach County Firm owned by notorious GOP operative Nathan Sproul, accused of destroying Democratic registration forms in years past, hired 'at request of RNC', still operating in several key swing states...
Pennsylvania's Voter-ID Disaster, Cont'd. - Esquire Kill this law or kill the vote. There is no third alternative.
Florida sends election departments list of 198 potential noncitizens; some may have illegally voted - Political Currents - MiamiHerald.com The state sent counties a new potential noncitizens voter list 41 days before the Nov. 6 election. Some on the list said they’re citizens. Others said they’re not, denying they voted. One said she voted.
Political Animal - Wedging Florida Jews
Todd Akin: Claire McCaskill Was Much More 'Ladylike' In 2006

More Guns, More Mass Shootings—Coincidence? | Mother Jones America now has 300 million firearms, a barrage of NRA-backed gun laws—and record casualties from mass killers. (concealed carry didn't stop anybody)

Hullabaloo - Doesn't every teenager drive a BMW convertible? - Still, it's hard to believe that she believes 16-year-olds driving convertibles and BMWs amounts to a generational problem. That goes beyond a bubble mentality to cluelessness on an epic scale.

Political Animal - Why Employers Like Unemployment the owner class does not particularly like full employment. Every one of those positive effects Yglesias notes above are a pain in the neck for the bosses, and more importantly, undermines their social position

NASA - NASA Rover Finds Old Streambed on Martian Surface
PLOS ONE: Quantifying the Clinical Significance of Cannabis Withdrawal
Cannabis withdrawal real, new study quantifies it's clinical significance. : science

Film Genre Over Time - Lawyers, Guns & Money
10 Historical Misconceptions That Really Need To Be Cleared Up History: blowing your mind since forever. Let's get these things right from now on, shall we?

CEO: Facebook Advertising Hasn't Worked For Us - Business Insider - Meanwhile, Adam Kmiec, the Global Director of Digital Marketing and Social Media at the Campbell Soup Company, said Facebook "is the most A.D.D. company I've ever seen."
AMD computers run 500,000 Android apps with BlueStacks — Mobile Technology News Got an AMD chip in your Windows PC? Then you just gained access to more than half a million Google Android apps thanks to an AMD partnership with Bluestacks. A vitrualization app and website filled with Android titles can help bridge your mobile and desktop world.

092612
We Have Always Been at War in Iran | emptywheel
Drone Strike Civilian Deaths - It's Time We Met the Victims of Obama's Lethal Presidency - Esquire
President Obama to United Nations: ‘We Do Not Ban Blasphemy’

Newsbound - Explainer: Breaking Down The Voter ID Battle

Delusions of Wonkhood - NYTimes.com the Dunning-Kruger effect at work,: he may be so innumerate that he doesn’t realize that he has no idea what the numbers he throws around mean. And after all, why would he, given all the praise he’s received for putting up a line graph or pie chart here and there? If the fate of the republic weren’t at stake, it would be funny — and painfully embarassing.
Paul Ryan Fish Quote - Paul Ryan's Genius Makes Itself Obvious - Esquire On Wednesday, in Ohio, Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny-starver from space, in the middle of a rote answer to a woman who was talking about being on welfare, an answer that was just inches from actually being human, said this: "Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. Don't feed fish." Brilliant young thinker, that one.

This Presidential Race Should Never Have Been This Close | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone With 300 million possible entrants in the race, how did we end up with two guys who would both refuse to bring a single case against a Wall Street bank during a period of epic corruption?
Balloon Juice » How It’s Going to Go After Romney loses even though the “unskewed” polls showed him winning, the birthers will become “pollers”. There will be a massive hunt for voter fraud, accompanied by pictures of blahs and browns lined up to vote. Some white guy somewhere will have been kept from voting by the Black Panthers or La Raza, and his story will light up Town Hall, Red State and Fox Nation. It will go on for months, get lots of attention, and a new Orly Taitz will rise to lead them.
Gallup Shows the 47% Pounding | TPM Editors Blog

Principal chief of Cherokee Nation denouces tomahawk chops by Brown staffers as “offensive and racist”
Scott Brown’s bizarre campaign - Metro - The Boston Globe It was never going to be as easy for him as people thought. When Brown won the special election in 2010, Washington seized up. The Tea Party was validated. The president was humbled. The future of health care reform and just about every other public policy was called into question.
Dems and Reproductive Rights: BFFs Liberals may finally be coming around to the fact that supporting a woman's right to choose is a net gain.
Todd Akin Staying in Missouri Senate Race - Why It's Good Todd Akin Is Staying in the Missouri Race - Esquire
NRSC Reconsiders Todd Akin | TPM2012
Video Reel: Back When Republicans Weren’t Going To Support Todd Akin | TPM2012
Paul Ryan’s Promise To Make Life More Difficult For Women | Eclectablog If you want to prevent abortions, you make sure everyone has health care, a high school education and birth control. Not the exact opposite.

Why Romney is losing must-win Ohio - CNN.com
Balloon Juice » Awk Ward Even the liberal Joe Scarborough cringes (via) at Romney’s ineptitude with crowds:
Should We Long For The Good Old Days Of The Alien And Sedition Acts? - Lawyers, Guns & Money : But, atypically, Eric Posner’s First Amendment critique is not that — it’s somewhere between “#Slatepitch” and “outright trolling.”
alicublog: Working The Refs - When people began pointing out that the disastrous NFL replacement refs are only out there disgracing the game because the owners locked out the union, it was just a matter of time before the great conservative thinkers of the 21st Century came out swinging in defense of right-to-work stadia.
Eschaton: Of Course Donald Trump is building a golf course. On top of a dump. On Buttrick Avenue. And it's spewing dangerous levels of gas.
Political Animal - Tommy Gun And now a video has emerged that makes Mitt’s “47%” remarks look downright mushy-middle-ish : Thompson said “who better than me … to come up with programs to do away with Medicaid and Medicare?” (greaseball Tommy Thompson)
Balloon Juice » Scott Brown goes for a triple play… With his attack on Elizabeth Warren over her Native American heritage, Scott Brown is going for a wingnut triple play: he attacked her for claiming a minority heritage, attacked her for collecting unearned privileges because of her minority status and attacked her for being an uppity woman who just doesn’t know her place. It is pure wingnut gold.

On Voting Rights: You Want Fair, Move to Canada, Hippie | Common Dreams
Politics Blog Anniversary - We're One Today! - Esquire (Charlie's blog turns 1-yr old)
TBogg - "...a somewhat popular blogger" War: It's for poor people without nice smiles... and crazy eyes (2007 nailed Romney)


Eschaton: The Mirror Is Not The Universe - Today’s teens and Millennials are often called the entitled generation for a reason. They expect to drive their very own fully-loaded luxury vehicle with retractable roof and multi-speaker audio system. If they can’t have their specific dream car, then they don’t want anything and won’t waste time getting a driver’s license. (Forbes rich kidz)
Eschaton: Peak Car It'll be interesting to see if the flat/downward trend continues or if it'll be reversed if and when unemployment is ever improved. The peak of miles traveled was reached in 2007, but per capita miles traveled reached its peak in 2004.

Global Warming Death Report - Global Warming Getting Worse: Pollution, Disease, and Planetary Food Riots Are Coming - Esquire Another day, another report about a huge international crisis about which neither of our political parties is prepared to do squat: "More than 100 million people will die and global economic growth will be cut by 3.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030 if the world fails to tackle climate change, a report commissioned by 20 governments said on Wednesday."

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Butt Chugging As if fraternity hazing rituals weren’t homoerotic enough:

Nature News Blog: Buddhist ‘Iron Man’ found by Nazis is from space : Nature News Blog “The Iron Man statue is the only known illustration of a human figure to be carved into a meteorite.”


092512
Obama uses UN speech to condemn extremism | World news | guardian.co.uk President warns Iran time is running out in UN general assembly speech aimed at resetting relations between US and Arab world
Christian conservatives angered by Obama's comments on Islam at UN | World news | guardian.co.uk Some right-wing commentators saw president's discussion of hate speech as a thinly veiled attack on American Christians (if the shoe fits dept)
Syria civil war: 'We expend the one thing we have, men. Men are dying' | World news | The Guardian hree weeks after Syrian rebels entered the northern town of Aleppo, ammunition supplies had dwindled to 600 bullets and six rockets, resulting in a very bloody stalemate with Assad's forces. But despite a 'rotten' process, supplies are finally on their way
'Every Person Is Afraid of the Drones': The Strikes' Effect on Life in Pakistan - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic The American public is told by the Obama Administration that drone strikes are surgical. Precise. That they "limit collateral damage." And that civilian casualties are rare. Is that the truth? (drone-boy at work killing hundreds of innocent civilians)
Pakistan Drone Study Finds 'Damaging And Counterproductive' Consequences From U.S. Policy he U.S. use of drones to target suspected militants in Pakistan has had a "damaging and counterproductive effect" on the country and has killed far more civilians than previously acknowledged.

How a broker spent $520m in a drunken stupor and moved the global oil price - Telegraph PVM Oil Futures trader Steve Perkins bought 7m barrels of crude in late-night trading binge on his laptop, driving the oil price to an eight-month high.
Libor Gives Prosecutors Chance to Change Banking Culture - Bloomberg A defining feature of the 2008 financial crisis has been the dearth of criminal prosecutions. Rightly or wrongly, people have gotten the impression that the sheriff is asleep. The global Libor scandal has the potential to change that. (because Obama is totally uninterested)
The Irish trade union movement throws sex workers under a bus « Feminist Ire

Balloon Juice » Obama’s “Failed” Economic Policies

Concurring Opinions » Constitutional Implications of “True the Vote” - . Is a targeted effort to suppress minority turnout permissible in our constitutional order? (yes)

Gallup and Rasmussen: the polling outliers that lean Republican | Harry J Enten | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Most pollsters give Obama a small but significant lead. But two big names buck the trend, breaking for Romney. Why is that?

Sympathy For The Doofus - NYTimes.com And underlying it all is the diminishing whiteness of the American electorate.
Paul Ryan Romney Campaign Strategy - What Letting Paul Ryan Be Paul Ryan Gets You - Esquire Over the past three decades or so, the Republican Party — and the conservative "movement' that has powered it — has drunk deeply of the ideological Sterno. Now, it finds itself fumbling with the buttons on its clothes, speaking in strange tongues to the shrubbery, and waving imaginary butterflies away from its head. This is how the sodden brain comes to see Paul Ryan as a public intellectual, because all your favorite pundits, all your favorite radio delusionaries, and all your favorite authors say he is. (NYT drinks deep from the cup of delusion)
Paul Ryan: Media say his use of Powerpoint makes him a wonk. The next wave of Ryan story is the "the wonk is loosed" piece. When you see just how the "wonkishness" is being defined, it's fairly amusing. (Powerpoint!)
America's Newest Union Advocates | Slog Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who made a national name for himself by going after public employee unions last year, posted a message on Twitter calling for the return of the NFL’s locked-out unionized officials after a disputed call led to a Seattle Seahawks 14-12 victory over the Packers on Monday night.
How Ayn Rand is wrecking football - Salon.com Paul Ryan's beloved Packers were robbed last night -- because the owners are putting the "moochers" in their place
Lars Larson: "I'm Sure [Obama] Is Leading In The Food Stamp Users Poll" | Video | Media Matters for America (Fox, mouth of Satan)
No More Mister Nice Blog No, James -- it's not true that Romney "has no choice but to fly." He chose to run for president -- in fact, he chose to spend the last six years of his life running for president. I didn't ask him to. You didn't ask him to. He could be spending his days playing with his grandkids and lubing his car elevator. But no -- he chose this particular endeavor, which requires him to fly day after day after day.

Balloon Juice » Scott Brown Staffers Mock Elizabeth Warren: Caught on Tape Chanting and Waving Tomahawks
Balloon Juice » You’re no Sam Malone But Sam Malone had class. Scott Brown comes across, increasingly, as just another angry right-wing douchebag:
Balloon Juice - Last Four Years in One Quote In an otherwise innocuous story about the new calorie labeling at MacDonalds, Dick Nigon of Sterling, VA is every Republican (stupid)

Why not drop money out of a helicopter? – USATODAY.com The only potential risk of this is increased inflation, though higher inflation is a potential consequence of any expansionary monetary policy, and the Fed has demonstrated its ability to reduce inflation when necessary. In any case, an additional bit of inflation would be welcome right now, as it would reduce the real values of fixed rate mortgages and help to decrease the number of "underwater" borrowers.
New Jersey Foreclosures Crisis: Chris Christie Not Using $300 Million In Federal Funds To Help Distressed Homeowners, WABC Reports (lying fat fuck Christie sits on Fed money)

The iPhone 5: That Shine Comes from the Blood of Foxconn Workers - Lawyers, Guns & Money

092412
Syrian jets bomb Aleppo as envoy says Bashar al-Assad rejects reforms | World news | The Guardian Opposition sources report 15 people killed in the northern city, and a total of 58 across the country
Honduras to build new city with its own laws and tax system to attract investors | World news | The Guardian Central American country hopes to emulate success of Singapore and Hong Kong by building 'state within a state'
Nigerian Women Pilgrims Traveling To Mecca Held In Saudi Arabia For Traveling Unescorted
China jails Bo Xilai's former police chief Wang Lijun for 15 years | World news | guardian.co.uk Wang Lijun was found guilty of covering up the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood by Bo Xilal's wife Gu Kailai
Foxconn closes China factory after brawl | Technology | guardian.co.uk Reports suggest as many as 2,000 workers involved in fight in dormitory at Taiyuan plant, which makes Apple's iPhone 5

IMF hints at more time for Greece to implement hardline austerity | Business | The Guardian Managing director Christine Lagarde says IMF 'prepared to be flexible' – saying both growth and austerity are necessary
Spain braced for further austerity as Madrid prepares for bailout | World news | The Guardian Budget and reform programme to be unveiled on Thursday to feature more spending cuts, tax increases and pension freezes (stupid/evil elites continue to force failed policies)

Sars-like virus detected | Society | guardian.co.uk UK health agency issues advice as experts try to identify virus that infected two men in Middle East, killing one

Bonus Quote of the Day "Now that we've gotten that out of our systems, have a good day. And by good day, I mean fuck off." -- State Department spokesman Philippe Reines, in an email to BuzzFeed, responding to questions about the department's handling of the Libyan embassy crisis.

LetMyPeopleVote Voter ID laws aim to prevent in-person voter fraud. In person voter fraud basically never happens. So why are so many states passing these laws?

Latest Swing State Polls
The Statistical State of the Presidential Race - NYTimes.com
Swing-State Voters Trust Obama More to Address Medicare More believe Obama and Biden have put forth Medicare plan than Romney and Ryan (is it sinking in their stupid heads?)

Obama May Do Social Security Reform During Lame Duck Session, Senate Democrats Worry Concern is mounting among some Senate Democrats that President Barack Obama will make a deal with Senate Republicans during the lame-duck session that would result in changes to the benefit structure of Social Security.

Why the 2012 election will be another inside job | Charles Ferguson | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk While Romney and Obama trade insults about who's the worse Washington insider, the reality is both are in hock to Big Money
What's Wrong With Pennsylvania? - NYTimes.com By the end of August, however, ad buying stopped. The Romney campaign effectively conceded the state ... The reason Romney has a strong, 13-point edge among all white working class voters, according to the P.R.R.I. findings, is that in the South his margin is huge. In the rest of the country, the white working class is much more closely divided. (Southern white moochers are stupid)
Mitt Romney, On 60 Minutes, Cites Emergency Room As Health Care Option For Uninsured (knock-knock; anybody home?)
Political Animal - Get Thee To An ER Mitt Romney is entirely aware of these facts, because the cost and inadequacy of ER care was a big part of the rationale for Romneycare. (he slept through his governorship)
His Original Sin - NationalJournal.com Mitt Romney’s problems can be traced to the choices he made earlier this year during the Republican primaries
Daily Kos: Mitt Romney wants airplane windows to roll down in case of fire so people can breathe more easily
Mitt Romney Plane Windows Quote - A Plane Window into the Soul of the Romneybot - Esquire When is the Republican Party going to figure out that it's handed itself over to the HAL 9000?
Mitt Romney Losing Support Among Older Voters (granny-killer)
Mitt Romney Defends Tax Rate In '60 Minutes' Interview
Romney's Latest Myth: Obama Wants To Force Workers Into Unions! | ThinkProgress
Study Finds News Corp. Climate Coverage Is "Overwhelmingly Misleading" | Blog | Media Matters for America

Scott Brown vs. the GOP - Talking Politics

Rick Perry's sleep apnea destroyed his presidential run: Was Satan involved? (yes)
Ed Kilgore: Barack Obama and the Fear of God (and the value of doubt)

Political Animal - Adelson’s Ideological Dollars The first and most interesting is probably “self-defense;” he thinks the Obama administration is conspiring to take down his business empire and maybe send him to tennis prison.
Corporations' Argument For Skyrocketing CEO Pay Proves False | ThinkProgress “The peer group is based on the theory of transferability of talent. But we found that C.E.O. skills are very firm-specific. C.E.O.’s don’t move very often, but when they do, they’re flops.” (the best of the best must be paid the best)

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Chick-fil-LIARS: Chick-fil-A Still Supporting Bigotry
Minnesota State Rep: Marriage Equality Is Not 'Normal Behavior' | ThinkProgress Minnesota incumbent State Rep. Mary Franson (R) defended her support for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman during a debate last week, arguing that the measure would protect the state’s children from abnormal behavior.

Bill Nye: Creationism Threatens U.S. Science - "We say the only dating method that is absolute is the Word of God," Ham said. (don't need no steenking science)
Arsenic in rice: some brands contain more than others, but should you avoid it? - Daily Dose: A Boston Globe blog with health news, advice, and information.
Magic Mushrooms Can Bring About Lasting Personality Changes
Stratosphere Targets Deep Sea to Shape Climate | University of Utah News North Atlantic ‘Achilles Heel’ Lets Upper Atmosphere Affect the Abyss

Teen pregnancy and sex ed: just another way to measure the red state, blue state divide. In a place like Mississippi, where scolding kids about the supposed evils of sex is considered more important than protecting their health, the teen birth rate is 55 out of 1,000 girls ages 15-19. The state of New York's is less than half that, at 22.6 births.
Pharmacists Not Required To Provide 'Morning After' Pill, Illinois Court Rules An Illinois appellate court Friday affirmed a lower court finding that the state cannot force pharmacies and pharmacists to sell emergency contraceptives - also known as "morning after pills" - if they have religious objections (will they be required to use a "Christian Pharmacy" sign?)
V-Day: One Billion Rising 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime.

The scandal - Lawyers, Guns & Money : If you want a glimpse into the short-term future of American legal education, take a look at what New England Law did this year with its entering class ... (O’Brien was paid $867,000 by NEL in 2010-2011) ... What we have here, in other words, is the academic equivalent of what in the world of finance is known as a pump and dump operation.

Seafoam arrives on the scene as fall fashion gives way to spring | Emma G Keller | World news | guardian.co.uk Heidi Klum came out in full seafoam at the Emmys, but who else is wearing this springy shade as the weather turns cold?


Dump Internet Explorer until Microsoft issues patch, security experts warn | PCWorld
Inside the guts of a fiendish Internet Explorer 0-day attack • The Register Bite down, matey, surgeon Pott's got his chopper out
The connection between the Plugx Chinese gang and the latest Internet Explorer Zeroday - Alienvault Labs
How Facebook Plans On Tracking Your Prescription Drug Purchases, And How To Stop Them | ThinkProgress

092312
Libyan authorities give Islamist militia two days to leave their bases | World news | guardian.co.uk Officials seek to exploit wave of people power after gunmen flee angry crowds in Benghazi

Will Andrew Mitchell be getting on his bike? - UK Politics - UK - The Independent Norman Tebbit seems to hope so, while Jane Merrick, James Hanning and Rachael Day find the tetchy Chief Whip is short on friends in high places
Andrew Mitchell (A_MitchellMP) on Twitter

Spain braced for further austerity as Madrid prepares for bailout | World news | The Guardian Budget and reform programme to be unveiled on Thursday to feature more spending cuts, tax increases and pension freezes

Nebraska G.O.P. Draws a Tougher Map for Obama - NYTimes.com
Using predictions in the service of ideals and profit
Making sense of the many polls with conflicting results - Arlington Conservative | Examiner.com
Are Republicans in danger of losing the House? - The Week The GOP effort to seize control of the Senate is losing steam, and some Democrats are boasting that even the GOP's House majority is imperiled
Can Super PACs Help Romney? : can an avalanche of money from outside groups move the needle in the presidential race and Senate contests across the country."

Mitt Romney Calls U.S.A. a 'Foreign Country' in His Tax Returns - Washington Whispers (usnews.com) Maybe Mitt Romney thinks he lives in Switzerland?
Political Animal - Reproductive rights for me, but not for thee: Mitt Romney edition in 2011, Mitt Romney’s son Tagg and Tagg’s wife Jen, who earlier this year had twins through a surrogate, signed a contract with the surrogate giving themselves and her the right to abort a pregnancy, even in non-life-threatening situations. And on top of that, Mitt himself subsidized the arrangement, since he helped pay for the surrogate’s services. Oopsy! (death panels)
Paul Ryan Tells Florida Seniors That Obamacare Includes Death Panels | ThinkProgress
Political Animal - The Man, the Legend, the Catfish Noodler Half-Wonk, Half-Jock. Half-Objectivist, Half-Catholic. Half-Punk, Half-Wall Street. Paul Ryan is like a projected fantasy of what every high school Young Republican wants to be when he grows up. No wonder GOPers and reporters alike are writing his name all over their notebooks.
Quote of the Day "Mitt Romney I think has an advantage, because he's been through 20 of these debates in the primaries over the last year." -- Obama adviser Robert Gibbs, quoted by CNN.
A plain blog about politics: More on Why Romney Goes With Such Weak Stuff
Alabama’s GOP Chair Bill Armistead Goes Birther | TPMMuckraker President Obama’s grandfather was a CIA agent who convinced Barack Obama Sr. to marry his teenage daughter to hide the fact that she’d been secretly impregnated by a communist.
The Simpsons - Homer Votes 2012 - YouTube
Ann Coulter On ABC: "I Think Civil Rights Are For Blacks," Not Feminists Or "Gays Who Want To Get Married" | Video | Media Matters for America (yes, network TV)

Congress Heads for Home With Rancor Still Evident - NYTimes.com the 112th Congress is set to enter the Congressional record books as the least productive body in the post-World War II era. It had passed a mere 173 public laws as of last month. That was well below the 906 enacted from January 1947 through December 1948 by the body President Harry S. Truman referred to as the “do-nothing” Congress, and far fewer than many prior Congresses have passed in a single session.

The Washington Monthly - The Magazine - A Malevolent Forrest Gump Strom Thurmond's loathsomeness on race obscures his larger role: he was there at all the major choke points of modern conservative history. (may he rot in hell for all eternity)

Political Animal - Suicide is now the leading cause of injury-related death in America, and the economy may be to blame

Even Some Middle Schools Now Test for Drugs - NYTimes.com “They were asking a 12-year-old to pee in a cup,” Kathy Kiederer said. “I have a problem with that. They’re violating her right to privacy over scrapbooking? Sports?” - “Drug testing is a multibillion-dollar industry,” (and doesn't work; prison-state America starts early)
Why we should give into grade inflation (and graphs of the day) | Chris Blattman (Duke, Dartmouth and Harvard at the top, Purdue wins)
Political Animal - Yet another study confirming gender bias in the sciences — take that, Larry Summers! - Women scientists were just as likely as their male counterparts to show bias against the female applicants, and indeed, there was a larger gender gap in the salaries the women scientists recommended than the ones the men recommended.

Decades of federal dollars helped fuel gas boom - Yahoo! News Pioneers in gas drilling say government research and tax breaks helped launch boom


The Man Machine Merger (Kurweil says computers take over in 2045)

092212
Syrian rebels move headquarters from Turkey into Syria | World news | guardian.co.uk Free Syrian Army says command centre moved into liberated areas last week to speed Bashar al-Assad's downfall
Bodies of six militiamen found in Benghazi after attacks on bases | World news | The Observer Militiamen found apparently executed the day after protesters stormed jihadists' bases in Libyan city of Benghazi
Libyan crowds drive jihadists from base in revenge for death of U.S. ambassador | Mail Online Ansar al-Sharia thrown out of Benghazi compound by protesters and army
CNN's Use Of Christopher Stevens' Journal Is 'Disgusting': State Dept.

The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - There Go the Undecided Voters . Since around mid-June, more of these previously undecided voters have begun to commit, with Obama gaining and, in the last few weeks, surpassing Romney among those who were originally undecided. According to Vavreck, “These decisions seem largely to have been motivated by party identification.” (those "undecideds" and "independents")
Voting Wrongs by Elizabeth Drew | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books The Republicans’ plan is that if they can’t buy the 2012 election they will steal it. (and they are experts at stealing)

Mitt Romney Says, "I Am The Confidence Fairy!" - NYTimes.com (but the stock in him is tanking)
Political Animal - Mitt Romney: worst presidential candidate ever? - Awkward doesn’t even begin to cover it; as McEwan says, the man is a social trainwreck (watch the video and cringe)
Mitt Romney Tax Return 2011 - Tax Day Comes for Romney, and Many Moments Too Late - Esquire
Daily Kos: Ryan's latest whopper: Oops, I 'overlooked' 20% of my income
Paul Ryan AARP Speech - Paul Ryan Booed at AARP Conference - Esquire Grannies Decline to Be Starved, Boo Granny-Starver

Anti-Obama Movie Mailed To 1 Million Ohioians The film claiming President Obama's true father is a Chicago Communist is being distributed for free all over the country.
Feeding The Movement-Conservative Marketplace Beast - Talking Politics
GOP Group Pulls Ad About Kathleen Kane After Rape Victim's Father Calls It A Lie

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Bobby Jindal’s Voucher Schools: American Indians On the Trail of Tears Were Just Coming to Jesus (bigoted fundamentalist bullshit incribed in public education; remember, LA is the prison-state of the whole fucking world)
Do Mormons believe people can become gods? | Ask Mormon Girl (yes, but they don't like to talk about it)
Project S.H.A.M.E.: Megan McArdle, a Covert Republican Party Activist Trained by the Billionaire Koch Brothers « naked capitalism (McMegan: hack, idiot, and evil)
Brad DeLong: Department of Awful Statistics Department of Awful Statistics: Why Ask Y? - Megan McArdle:

Stephen King as Public Intellectual — Crooked Timber - Someone Not On the Internet1 Is Wrong - King gets it all. He has both an understanding of American life that Judt (for his many intellectual gifts) lacked, and the ability to express that understanding in clear, unornamented prose that can speak to millions of people.
Los Angeles Review of Books - Killing Our Monsters: On Stephen King’s Magic

Terry Castle reviews ‘All We Know’ by Lisa Cohen · LRB 27 September 2012 - Cohen’s strikingly elegant and assured biographical study of three now almost forgotten lesbian women
Jenny Allen: “I’m a Mom” : The New Yorker

What Science Knows About Female Sexuality and the Mind-Body Interplay | Healthland | TIME.com Naomi Wolf's Vagina Aside, What Neuroscience Really Says About Female Desire - Properly contextualized, neuroscience can add to our knowledge of sexuality, but not if it’s twisted to support sexist ideas about women as “animals” who are so addicted to love that they become zombies.
New Statesman - The problem with Naomi Wolf's vagina This sort of ‘feminism’ has nothing to do with changing women’s lives. (faux feminism is all about her)
organ solo - bookforum.com / current issue Naomi Wolf waxes spiritual on the metaphysics of her vagina

Newfound Alien Planet a Top Contender to Host Life - Yahoo! News

Double Amputee Shooting: Matthew Jacob Marin, Houston Officer, Kills Man In Wheelchair, Police Say - police say the double amputee threatened the officer and aggressively waved a metal object that turned out to be a pen.

uTorrent Increases Privacy and Counters Mass-Monitoring of Downloads | TorrentFreak To protect the privacy of its users BitTorrent Inc. therefore decided to randomize the peer-id uTorrent users display to other peers and the tracker. While the new feature makes it more difficult to track the download habits of individual users, IP-addresses still remain public and trackable.

092112
Pakistan explodes in fury as south Asia's Muslims join anti-US protests | World news | guardian.co.uk Violent demonstrations leave 15 dead as Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka witness Islamic anger at America
Benghazi Anti-Militia Protest: Libyans March Against Armed Groups After U.S. Embassy Attack
Israel makes no distinctions in US presidential race, says minister | World news | guardian.co.uk Deputy foreign minister says Israeli policy is to stay away from US domestic politics, after Netanyahu footage used in US ad (his usual tradition of lying)
MEK decision: multimillion-dollar campaign led to removal from terror list | World news | guardian.co.uk Revealed: the steady flow of funds to members of Congress, lobbying firms and former officials in support of Iranian group
MEK Off Terror List? Iran Group To Be Removed, Reports Say
Final US 'surge' troops withdraw from Afghanistan | World news | guardian.co.uk Withdrawal comes as the security transition to Afghan forces is in trouble, threatened by spike in so-called insider attacks

Spain moves closer to bailout as government leaks planned pension cuts | World news | The Guardian Sources reveal Mariano Rajoy plans to save €4bn a year as part of strategy to pre-empt eurozone's conditions for help

James Murdoch as Fox TV head would be a 'slap in the face' to shareholders | Media | guardian.co.uk News that Rupert Murdoch's son could soon lead Fox Networks met with shock and anger from News Corp shareholders

Disdain for Workers - NYTimes.com The point is that what people are now calling the Boca Moment wasn’t some trivial gaffe. It was a window into the true attitudes of what has become a party of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy, a party that considers the rest of us unworthy of even a pretense of respect.

Political Animal - Romney, Taxes, and Running Out the Clock
Romney campaign releasing tax information - Lawyers, Guns & Money : In what very much smacks of sheer panic, the Romney campaign is suddenly releasing a whole bunch of the candidate’s tax information:
Mitt Romney Tax Returns For 2011 Released
Mitt Romney Could Recoup Extra Tax Payments After Election With Amended Return
Mitt Romney Taxes: 2011 Returns Released (files)

Michael Gerson: A Republican mind-set without promise - The Washington Post Yet a Republican ideology pitting the “makers” against the “takers” offers nothing. No sympathy for our fellow citizens. No insight into our social challenge. No hope of change. This approach involves a relentless reductionism. Human worth is reduced to economic production. Social problems are reduced to personal vices. Politics is reduced to class warfare on behalf of the upper class. A few libertarians have wanted this fight ever since they read “Atlas Shrugged” as pimply adolescents. (Gerson sticks it to the Glibs)

Pawlenty Quits Romney Campaign - Why T-Paw Jumped Romney's Ship - Esquire And then, as the chairman of the Willard Romney campaign, T-Paw looks around the quarterdeck and sees everyone dying of scurvy, and the water coming over the gunwales, and he grabs the first lifeboat and rows away as fast as he can.
It’s A Structural Thing | TPM Editors Blog
Warren/Brown - Esquire He clearly implied that she'd gotten where she was through gaming the affirmative action process and, in Massachusetts, we all know what that means. It means that your uncle Knocko couldn't get on the Essex County road crew because they had to hire a ni...Ooops, Bob On A Car Phone, you're next.
Don’t sweat the Super PAC cash - The Plum Line - The Washington Post These people have tens of millions of dollars to spend, but there’s no guarantee that they have any sense of what makes a campaign effective, or what kind of ads would work best against a candidate who is familiar to nearly 100 percent of Americans.
Daily Politics Blog - Charles P. Pierce - Political Blogging - Esquire We begin this week in Texas, where onetime 10-minute GOP frontrunner Rick Perry has decided to go hunting for bigger game....

What working class whites really think about dependency and redistribution - The Plum Line - The Washington Post Yet the study also finds that three quarters of working class whites believe poor people have become too dependent on government assistance. There’s obviously overlap there, which bears out what some have already pointed out — many of these voters simply won’t think Romney’s comments about the freeloading 47 percent, or about government “dependency” in general, are about them.
Political Animal - Kicking Up or Down So this demonstrates what we’ve all sort of figured out: this category of voters, considered “swing” (though leaning heavily Republican in recent cycles) is open to criticism of Romney, his record, and his agenda; but also to Romney’s more ham-handed efforts to get them to focus on people receiving “welfare” or who are otherwise deemed “dependent on government.”

Paul Ryan Booed At AARP (video)
Paul Ryan campaigning as Mini-Mitt - Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Martin and Jake Sherman - POLITICO.com

Bridgewater Founder Ray Dalio: Second Adolf Hitler More Likely In Weak Economy

Rush Limbaugh Blames 'Feminazis' For Study Finding About Shrinkage In Male Genitalia (audio)
Tammy Cooper, moving forward on lawsuit after being arrested for ‘letting kids play outside’ - The Global Dispatch
Tammy Cooper, Texas Mom, Arrested For Letting Kids Play Outside Unsupervised (VIDEO)

How to confuse a moral compass : Nature News & Comment
Ancient Tooth Found In Slovenia Suggests Beeswax Was Used To Treat Toothache

Gangnam Style dance-off escalates into gang shootout in Bangkok | World news | guardian.co.uk West Side Story-esque show of rivalry stokes Thai debate over gang violence and demonstrates wide appeal of K-pop video

Twitter chief says company will fight against releasing private content | Technology | guardian.co.uk Dick Costolo says site was 'put between a rock and a hard place' when judge ordered release of Occupy activist's tweets

Verizon CFO buries his head in the sand, claims unlimited data is 'going by the wayside' -- Engadget "La la la la. I can't hear you." Verizon's CFO, Fran Shammo, might've just as well made those comments with his hands firmly cupped over his ears, as the firm's chief number cruncher told attendees at today's Goldman Sachs investor conference, "Unlimited is just a word, it doesn't really mean anything." (asshole CEO of the day)
Police Not Investigating Detroit Google Street View Images That Appear To Show Man Pointing Gun (photos)

092012
Syrian air strike on petrol station kills dozens, say rebels | World news | guardian.co.uk Activists post video purporting to show aftermath of attack east of Aleppo where regime claims to have killed 100 Afghan fighters
Binyamin Netanyahu gambles on Mitt Romney victory | World news | guardian.co.uk Israeli prime minister denies interfering in the US election, but his relationship with Barack Obama grows more antagonistic (blatent interference in US politics)
Israeli strike on Iran may wreck Arab treaties: US - FRANCE 24 (Netanyahu is playing a dangerous game)

Obama officials' spin on Benghazi attack mirrors Bin Laden raid untruths | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk In a familiar pattern, White House claims about what motivated the killing of the US ambassador in Libya are now contradicted
U.S. official calls Benghazi consulate assault ‘terrorist attack’ amid tough questioning over security | McClatchy The Obama administration acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that last week’s assault on the U.S. consulate compound in Benghazi that left the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans dead was a “terrorist attack” apparently launched by local Islamic militants and foreigners linked to al Qaida’s leadership or regional allies. (they let stand the video narrative)


2012 Senate Outlook

Obama's Lead Looks Stronger in Polls That Include Cellphones - NYTimes.com
Chart of the Day: One-Third of Americans No Longer Have Decent Phone Service | Mother Jones (the 33% is part of the 47%)

Romney Campaign Cautious With Ad Budget, Even in Key States - NYTimes.com
Obama To Romney: 'There Are A Whole Bunch Of Millionaires Who Aren't Paying Taxes At All Either'
John McCain Defends Mitt Romney's '47 Percent' Remarks
Obama Medicare Ad Praises His Plan, Knocks Paul Ryan's
Senate Polls Show Democrats Gaining On Rising Voter Enthusiasm
Bill O'Reilly's Sandra Fluke Obsession | Blog | Media Matters for America
Eschaton: Dude's Got Issues Maybe it's just that all that power and money doesn't actually get him all the sexytime he thinks he's entitled to so the fact that other people are having some drives him insane.
Limbaugh: "Male Private Parts Are Shrinking" Because Of "Feminazis" And "Chickification" | Video | Media Matters for America (dude has issues)
Eschaton: Bullshit Mountain Good Daily Show segment.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » How quickly they forget (Charles Lane, one of the worst people in the world)
Mitt Romney 'Dyed His Face Brown' to Appeal to Latino Voters

People who only talk to themselves either already are or drive themselves crazy. - Lawyers, Guns & Money : . I fully expect the next two months will witness some of the most absurd political theater ever to grace the American stage, and I fully expect that while some of it will make me weep for the state of our great republic, quite a bit of it will provide me with an endless hours of entertainment.
Anyone wanna pay me $1,000,000 to produce a video of Obama choking on a matzo ball? - Lawyers, Guns & Money : I’m pleased to introduce you to The New New Stupid, son of The New Stupid, inevitable father to the host of Newer Stupids due to arrive in the next two months
Romney Supporters Clash With Protesters In Florida

Pawlenty quits Team Romney, becomes bank lobbyist - The Maddow Blog
T-Paw Is Done Eating the Republican Party's Shit | Slog Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, is resigning as a national co-chairman of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign to take a job in Washington as a top lobbyist for a group representing banks and financial companies. - I can't help but feel a little proud of Tim Pawlenty today. He just told Mitt Romney to take this job and shove it, and that must be a remarkably satisfying feeling.

New Mexico governor removes 'forcible rape' language from state policy | World news | guardian.co.uk Women's groups salute Republican Susana Martinez's request to remove 'redundant and unnecessary' term from legislation

US census data shows slow crawl to recovery but poverty levels remain high | Business | guardian.co.uk Census finds that more young people are moving away from home, but numbers showing food stamp rise could hurt Obama
Brad DeLong: Well This Is a Huge Switch!: Fed Hawk Molts Weblogging

Traumatic Brain Injury Treatment, Diagnosis Continues To Elude Military Doctors

Jerry Sandusky and the Mind of a Pedophile : The New Yorker
The Paterno “I’m Not Omniscient” Non-Sequitur - Lawyers, Guns & Money : For the reasons Dom Cosentino explains, Malcolm Gladwell’s recent story has the same problem Joe Posnanski has: defending the conduct of the Penn State hierarchy over the Sandusky affair by blurring together pre- and post-1998 conduct (why does Gladwell muddy the waters?)
Jerry Sandusky Was Part Of Child Porn Ring, Greg Bucceroni, Former 'Child Prostitute' Claims

Who knows where the time goes - Fairport Convention - YouTube

Chapter-By-Chapter Analysis – Game of Thrones, Prologue « Race for the Iron Throne
Game of Thrones: “Winter Is Coming” for Poor Will - Lawyers, Guns & Money (cinematography critism: visual rhetoric)
Part 3: Cinematography
Zoomable visualization of xkcd (holy shit)

For-Profits Prior to Community College? by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly

Apple's self-inflicted maps issue is a headache – but don't expect an apology | Technology | guardian.co.uk Decision to drop Google from its mapping data has been met with widespread criticism, but that's unlikely to faze Apple
Apple and Google map services compared - interactive | Technology | guardian.co.uk
Apple Maps service loses train stations, shrinks tower and creates new airport | Technology | The Guardian Significant glitches reported in service that replaces Google Maps on Apple's iOS6 for iPhones and iPads
The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
Apple To Public Transit Riders: Take A Hike - Forbes But the new Apple Maps app is terrible – particularly anyone who uses public transit, as I do and many who live in big cities.

091912
France to ban prophet film protests | Irish Examiner France’s prime minister said today that a planned demonstration by people angry over a film produced in the United States which insults the Prophet Mohammed will not be allowed to go ahead.
El Banco del Vaticano es el principal accionista de la mayor industria de armamentos en el mundo Pietro Beretta | Falsas banderas

Interest Rate Manipulation Extends Far Beyond Libor, Secret Survey Reveals


Arctic Resources, Exposed by Warming, Set Off Competition - NYTimes.com With Arctic ice melting at record pace, the world’s superpowers are increasingly jockeying for political influence and economic position in outposts like this one, previously regarded as barren wastelands. (coming soon: climate wars)

Song of Mitt's Self - YouTube
U Didn't Build That by MC 'Bama - YouTube
Watch an Obama Bobblehead Travel Into Space -- Daily Intel A group of San Franciscans decided that the best way to promote some kind of synchronized, nationwide yard sale benefiting the Obama campaign taking place in a few days was to launch an Obama bobblehead into space on a weather balloon. We don't understand the connection, but it's an interesting video nonetheless!

Obama Super PAC Uses Hidden Camera Video
Outside the Circle - The DNC released a brutal compilation of news coverage of Mitt Romney's 47% remark captured by a hidden video camera.
Mitt Romney’s Best-Known Mormon Critic Tells it All. One Last Time. | Election 2012 | Religion Dispatches - "outside his circle" (well played, DNC)
Bonus Quote of the Day "For all we know, Mitt Romney could be one of those who paid no federal income tax." -- Sen. Harry Reid, in a speech on the Senate floor today.

Democrats are Actually More Unified - it was clear from the delegate demographics that the GOP is still more culturally cohesive than the Democrats. Republicans are basically one group -- suburban and rural white Christians who are mostly middle class and wealthy -- while Democrats are a disparate bunch." "But ideologically, and in terms of their economic interests, the Democrats are actually more unified."
Mitt Romney and the Republicans: A problematic coalition | The Economist This raises an obvious question: why does Barack Obama not suffer from the same paralysing tensions within his coalition? And why have liberal Democrats not forced Mr Obama into a political corner as conservatives have Mr Romney?
Mitt Romney's Incredible Shrinking Coattails : Roll Call Politics
'Dear Daughter' - NYTimes.com Mr. Romney has a lot of catching up to do among women. The latest New York Times/CBS News poll has Mr. Obama up by 12 percentage points. (despite Romnoid's lies)

Romney's 47 percent remarks damage his image with voters: Reuters/Ipsos poll | Reuters
What Mitt Romney Doesn’t Get About Responsibility - Bloomberg Still, for my money, the worst of Romney’s comments were these: “My job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
Eschaton: The Worst People In The World The missing empathy in Our Galtian Overlords is astounding. I'm increasingly convinced of my "too much lead exposure" theory of these assholes.
No, Romney’s 47 Percent Slam Wasn’t a Pander -- Daily Intel
Jon Stewart Tears Apart Romney’s Assertions About The ‘Dependent’ 47 Percent | Mediaite
Marc Leder Apologizes To Mitt Romney: Report According to the report, Leder believes the leak came from someone who was hired to work at the fundraiser.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Do the Mother Jones Videos of Mitt Romney Violate Florida Wiretapping Laws?
GOP frets Romney is blowing race - The Hill - covering Congress, Politics, Political Campaigns and Capitol Hill | TheHill.com
Mitt Romney Week From Hell Prompts Republican Freak-Out
Mitt Romney: 'I Say That Jokingly, But It Would Be Helpful To Be Latino' (because America has had so many Latino Presidents)
Republican Candidates Signal Concern On Mitt Romney Video Comments
Mitt Romney Makes 'Redistribution' Argument, Bolstered by Fox News, Conservative Media
How `47 percent’ could fracture Mitt Romney's coalition - The Plum Line - The Washington Post
Southern whites troubled by Romney's wealth, religion - Yahoo! News (cognitive fracture among the poor and stupid)
Mark McKinnon on Why Time Is Running Out for Mitt Romney - The Daily Beast Ex-Bush aide Mark McKinnon keeps waiting for Romney to turn his campaign around and show the right stuff. After the 47 percent tape, he’s not sure that moment will ever come.
Time for an Intervention - Peggy Noonan's Blog - WSJ They’re jockeys who rode Seabiscuit and thought they won a race. (Crazy Jesus Lady weighs in)
Whiskey Fire: Peggy Noonan Commentary Has Many Inane Layers, Exactly Like an/the Onion
Rising Hegemon: How many factorials of doubling down are they up to now? Conservative commentator Mary Matalin hailed Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” line on CNN as good news for Republicans. “There are makers and takers, there are producers and there are parasites,” - That will really turn this around for Mittens -- are you or are you not a PARASITE?! (how about "vermin")
Political Animal - Reminder Rick Santorum, who says things far worse than what Romney said in Boca, every day, as a matter of deep personal conviction, would be at 45% or above.
Twitter / Search - #missingtwominutes - All Tweets

Presidential Polls Show Obama Leads Romney In Wisconsin, Virginia, Closer Race In Colorado
Elizabeth Warren Leading Scott Brown In Two New Polls The two surveys also find Warren's gains coming primarily among Democrats. The PPP survey shows Warren increasing her share of the vote among Democrats to 81 percent, up from 73 percent in August. The WNEU survey measured Warren's support among Democrats at 89 percent, up from 84 percent in June
Louisiana For Profit Prisons - Louisiana's Prison Problem: A Bigger Problem Than That - Esquire Been a while since we checked in with rising star "Bobby" Jindal, good Catholic boy and governor of the great state of Louisiana, where 39 percent of the people are moochers and parasites whose president Willard Romney will never have to be ,,, Louisiana is the world's prison capital. The state imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of its U.S. counterparts. First among Americans means first in the world. Louisiana's incarceration rate is nearly five times Iran's, 13 times China's and 20 times Germany's. (for-profit prisons must be kept full)
Wisconsin Poll Numbers 2012 - Today in Other Polls: The Wisconsin Numbers - Esquire Still, you look at the voters polled in Wisconsin this week and, as my late fellow Marquette alum once said, holy schnikes.
More Bad Advice Scott Brown Doesn't Need Right Now - Esquire - Stand for something! Insanity!
Brown Refuses to Say Whether He Still Supports Romney However, a spokesman later told BuzzFeed that Brown does support Romney.
Rick Perry: 'Christian Warriors' must use 'Spiritual Warfare' against 'Satanic' Separation of Church and State | rightwingwatch.org (holy shit, we have a "Satanic" Constitution)
Grand Old Marxists by Timothy Snyder | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books A bridge between the pain of the people and the pleasure of the elite which mollifies the former and empowers the latter is the achievement of an effective ideology.

Krauthammer Calls Sandra Fluke's Advocacy For Contraception Coverage The "Personification" Of "Entitlement" And "Victimization" | Video | Media Matters for America (evil, stupid, fuck)
On Fox, Filmmaker Michael Lynch Says Not All Immigrants Are "Coming Here To Cut Your Lawn" -- Some Are Coming To "Cut Your Throat" | Video | Media Matters for America (stupid, evil, fuck)

Union officials agree to end Chicago teachers strike - chicagotribune.com
What the Chicago teachers won, in one post - The end result is that the Chicago public schools will base more of evaluations on tests, base more of their layoffs and recalls on evaluations rather than seniority, and have longer school days than before Emanuel took office.

Lawmakers' hearing to focus on reviving Atlantic City's fortunes Call it a mini-State of the State of Atlantic City. With gambling revenue continuing to tumble - as evidenced by the recent financial travails of the $2.4 billion Revel Casino - Atlantic City has to come up with another strategy to survive, and hopefully again thrive ... The mega-casino, which received more than $300 million in state construction aid (thrive on what? tourists setting their money on fire?)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Bye-Bye Bigoted Chicken: Chick-Fil-A Cries Uncle I now pronounce you rooster and rooster. (turns out bigotry is bad for business)

The Data: Yes, College Is Worth It by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly

Nuclear fusion nears efficiency break-even | TG Daily Nuclear fusion is very close to the point where the amount of energy produced by the system equals or surpasses what's been put in.
Cannabidiolic acid, a major cannabinoid in fibe... [Toxicol Lett. 2012] - PubMed - NCBI

Two-thirds of new homes have porches and more are without garages – USATODAY.com Two-thirds of new homes built in 2011 had a porch, a trend that has been on a steady rise for almost 10 years, according to a Census survey of construction. ."The front porch acts as a social mechanism,"

Teaching journalists to read | Felix Salmon

Gangnam Style - USNA Spirit Spot - YouTube
Inside The Dark World Of Online Sugar Daddies

360 degrees Milky Way Panorama 24 image 871megapixel mosaic photo - Greg Bradley photos at pbase.com

091812
Afghanistan exit strategy in doubt as Isaf command bans joint operations | World news | The Guardian Warnings about breakdown of trust as mentoring of Afghan allies suspended following latest deaths in 'green-on-blue' attacks
Afghanistan suicide blast kills 12 in attack on Kabul airport contractors | World news | guardian.co.uk Young girl and eight South African airport workers killed in Kabul as suicide bomber targets contractor firm's minibus

No DNA link to Assange in condom central to sex assault case — RT - "The condom DNA evidence was supposed to be the killer evidence… Now, when we have found that there is no DNA on one of these condoms for one of the alleged victims, it rather calls into question substantial evidence against him,” (Swedes sit on exculpatory evidence for two years)
Condom used as evidence in Assange sex case 'does not contain his DNA' | Mail Online
Julian Assange rape claim: Is this the photo that could clear him? | Mail Online - For although she is seen beaming, she would later tell police that 48 hours before the picture was taken, the WikiLeaks founder pinned her down in her flat and sexually assaulted her.

Indefinite Detention Ban Stayed By Appeals Judge In NDAA Case

Arizona police to enforce immigration law in full as judge gives OKs | World news | guardian.co.uk Federal judge rules the so-called 'show me your papers' section of contentious immigration law can take effect immediately
US 'supermax' prison is condemned internationally for its abusive regime | Sadhbh Walshe | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The Bureau of Prisons boss seems oblivious, as ADX Florence faces a class action lawsuit brought by mentally ill prisoners

The Arctic Ice Crisis | Politics News | Rolling Stone Greenland’s glaciers are melting far faster than scientists expected

Political Animal - Fire In a Crowded Theater It’s been interesting to watch conservatives whose interest in the First Amendment seemed hitherto generally confined to political contributions rush to the defense of the free speech rights of the malevolent bigots who produced, translated and disseminated Innocence of Muslims. And it has of course been discouraging and often infuriating to hear so many Muslim political and religious figures blithely demand the U.S. just junk its Constitution in order to avoid offense to their sensibilities.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Apparently Romney’s Welfare Queens All Have Southern Accents (oh look, the South +Idaho are "takers" and "moochers")

How the Romney video leaked: For Carters, it was personal - First Read - But Carter also confirmed there is a personal side to the backstory of the campaign video: he was especially motivated, he said, because of Romney's frequent attacks on the presidency of his grandfather, including the GOP candidate's comparisons to the "weak" foreign policy of Carter and Barack Obama. (verry inter.esting)

The Real Romney Is a Sneering Plutocrat -- Daily Intel - Instead the video exposes an authentic Romney as a far more sinister character than I had imagined. (rich asshole behaves like rich asshole)
Lance Mannion: Glengarry Glen Mitt
Today, Mitt Romney Lost the Election - Bloomberg - This is an utter disaster for Romney.
Political Animal - Events and Fundamentals
When The Inner Party Believes The Prolefeed - NYTimes.com
Peter S. Goodman: Why Romney's Video Comments Have Killed His Candidacy
Mitt Romney versus the 47 percent When federal, state, and local taxes are added together, the United States has a mildly progressive tax system. On average, the rich pay more than the poor. But all groups contribute.
The Freeloader Myth - Ramesh Ponnuru - National Review Online
How the Romney Campaign Scrambled to Respond to Secret Video - NYTimes.com
Mitt Romney Video Offends Liberals And Conservatives Alike, Receives Negative Press Response
Marc Leder ends his weekly bashes in the Hamptons with naked guests cavorting in the pool and peforming public sex acts - NYPOST.com It was as if the Playboy Mansion met the East End at a wild party at private-equity titan Marc Leder's Bridgehampton estate, where guests cavorted nude in the pool and performed sex acts, scantily dressed Russians danced on platforms and men twirled lit torches to a booming techno beat.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Mitt Romney’s donors and their shameful dependency on government Meet Marc Leder, Mitt Romney’s host (moocher off big Gov)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Why Marc Leder and the Sex Parties Business Could Be Kind of A Big Deal
"47 Percent" Vs. "Bitter Clinger" | Blog | Media Matters for America In 2008, Obama was explaining to donors the challenge of winning over voters who had lost faith in the government. Romney was writing off a huge swath of the electorate as hopeless.
Thurston Howell Romney - NYTimes.com (David Brooks is distressed)
David Brooks Thurston Howell Romney Column - Charles P. Pierce on David Brooks - Esquire Moral Hazard, the Irish setter owned for photo-op purposes by New York Times columnist David Brooks, decided he would be a real dog today.
Romney Tape on 47 Percent - The Worst Thing Romney Has Said About Americans Yet - Esquire
Rush Limbaugh: Secret Fundraiser Video Is "Golden Opportunity" For Romney
Conservative Thinkers To Romney: Your Freeloader Claim Is Wrong And Unhelpful | TPMDC
An illustrated guide to the people Mitt Romney believes don’t pay enough taxes | The Raw Story
alicublog - We'll Build A World Of Our Own That No One Else Can Share
Hullabaloo - Parasites R Us - I don't know that I've ever seen a presidential candidate with more contempt for the American people than Mitt Romney.
Matt Taibbi On HuffPost Live: 'Private Equity Companies Do Not Exist To Turn Around Companies'
Matt Taibbi: Mitt Romney's 'Insane' Comments Reveal Delusions Of The Super Rich
Paul Abrams: Is Mitt in the 47 Percent? Did He Get Amnesty? Now that Mitt has trashed half the country for not paying taxes, we are entitled to know whether Mitt is in that half or not.
Mitt Romney Supported By A Third Of Low-Income Voters: Poll

Secret Video: On Israel, Romney Trashes Two-State Solution | Mother Jones At a private fundraiser, the GOP candidate calls Middle East peace "almost unthinkable" and says he would "kick the ball down the field.
Mitt Romney Video: 'Palestinians Have No Interest Whatsoever In Establishing Peace'
Fox News' Eric Bolling Says Obama Administration 'Answers To The Quran First,' Clarifies Remarks (clarifies his Republican idiocy)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Randy Newman Writes The Last Romney Reboot Campaign Ad
Why Barack Obama is winning - politico.com - “Put any three consultants of either party in a room six years ago and you can’t tell me they wouldn’t have told him: Get rid of the Swiss bank account,” Trippi said. “
Romney Apologizes To Nation's 150 Million 'Starving, Filthy Beggars' | The Onion

Wisconsin Recall: More Than Half Of Funds Raised By Outside Groups Came From Undisclosed Donors
Dark Money Groups Free To Spend Money Without Disclosure Again After Appeals Court Ruling
Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Sent Back By State Supreme Court To Lower Court For Reconsideration
Elizabeth Warren Leads Scott Brown In Massachusetts Senate Race Poll
‘Women For Akin’ Site Pulled, ‘Supporter’ Revealed As Dem Tracker | TPM2012
Crossroads Small Business Ad Stars Company That Received Defense Contracts

Why Are the Rich So Damn Angry? | Mother Jones - For the rich, it's been a golden age. And yet, America's wealthy class nonetheless seem to be in an absolute fury. The looters want their money, the government is resorting to socialism, the president who rescued the banking industry hates them, and their tax dollars are all going to support a bunch of freeloaders and shirkers.

Newsweek: Is Asking Inane Questions the Future of Journalism? A spoof of the magazine’s infamously sensational cover stories, which often prove that just because a question can be asked, that doesn’t necessarily mean it should be.

A Rare Look at Why The Government Won't Fight Wall Street | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone

Jerry Sandusky and the Mind of a Pedophile : The New Yorker How child molesters get away with it. (Gladwell)

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » A Tale of Two Medias Tell me Young is wrong. And I challenge you to find any political commentary on NBC, CBS, ABC, or anywhere else, that even challenges that for honesty regarding a situation. ESPN is the premiere sports network, and their team is calling out the NFL in no uncertain terms. Tell me the last time any of the networks or cable networks did the same thing in regards to politics.
Replacement officials' poor performance steals show from Denver Broncos, Atlanta Falcons - ESPN League faces major credibility crisis if labor debacle doesn't get resolved soon

"The Gospel Of Jesus' Wife," New Early Christian Text, Indicates Jesus May Have Been Married

Oklahoma judge refuses to let men planning sex-change operations have feminine names | NewsOK.com ' The DNA code shows God meant for them to stay male and female.”
Jill Di Donato: The Truth About Breast Orgasms there's some pretty sound scientific evidence in medical journals for the breast O.
Elizabeth Hurley's Bikini Line For Young Girls Called 'Disturbing' And 'Inappropriate' A recent study found that girls as young as 6 think of themselves as sex objects and want to be considered sexy.
Amanda Knox’s Ex Raffaele Sollecito Tells All in ‘Honor Bound’ Memoir - The Daily Beast

Lou Reed - Foot Of Pride [Best Live Version] - YouTube
Foot Of Pride Lyrics - Bob Dylan

Russia diamonds: Source under Siberian asteroid crater could supply world markets for the next 3,000 years | Mail Online there are 'trillions of carats' lying beneath a 35million-year-old asteroid crater in Siberia - more than ten times the global stockpile.

Indentured Servitude, Money Laundering, and Piles of Money: The Crazy Secrets of Internet Cam Girls (NSFW)
Google Pulls Utoopi Paid Sex App Marketed to Students From Google Play | Bytegeist

091712
Obama takes on China with formal trade complaint over auto subsidies | Business | guardian.co.uk Beijing responds swiftly to White House action at WTO amid mounting fears of a trade war between world's top economies

Eurozone crisis live: Spanish bond yields rise again, as Merkel 'bleeds' for Greece - as it happened | Business | guardian.co.uk Jitters as Spanish bond yields back over 6% • Chancellor Merkel says her heart bleeds for Greece
Merkel's 'heart bleeds' but no wonder migrants find jibes no laughing matter | World news | The Guardian Chancellor expresses sympathy, but stereotypes still abound as more Greeks move to Germany to escape the financial crisis
Angela Merkel's austerity postergirl, the thrifty Swabian housewife | World news | The Guardian Frugal housekeeping and balanced budgeting stems from an area with a history of poverty and a religious avoidance of worldly amusements
What happens if America falls off the fiscal cliff? | Heidi Moore | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk It already has – markets have partly priced in the automatic cuts. But Washington's partisan deadlock causes ruinous uncertainty

Occupy Wall Street anniversary marred by arrests and weakening support | World news | guardian.co.uk Activists determined to mark one-year landmark but tension with police and divided opinion give the day a sense of deja vu

The Remarkable Martyrization of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula | Mother Jones ("Brownshirts" arrest true patriot)

Secret Video: Romney Tells Millionaire Donors What He REALLY Thinks of Obama Voters | Mother Jones - "All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax."
Mitt Romney under fire after comments caught on video | World news | guardian.co.uk Republican presidential candidate filmed dismissing 47% of population of the United States as government-dependent
States Vary Widely in Number of Tax Filers with No Income Tax Liability | Tax Foundation (rightwing lie exposed)
The Stink of Defeat Has Descended on Romney HQ | Mother Jones
Political Animal - The Strange Fragging of Stu Stevens
Matthew Scully: In Politico story about Romney stumbles, familiar tales of candidate not listening to brilliant writers.
US Politics | AMERICAblog News: Romney aide infighting begins, they're talking to the press!
Balloon Juice » Life is Hard Outside the Hothouse the Romney campaign is what you get when your incubator is Fox News ... look no further than the Obama campaign. They aren’t acting like a bunch of hothouse flowers, wilting the first time the real world intrudes on their sunny, warm fantasy world. They’ve been living in a 5 year shitstorm, and that’s part of the reason why they don’t fuck up on a regular basis.
Why Romney Will Win | RealClearPolitics Dick Morris (muhahaha)

Eschaton: What Are Campaigns For Too often lost in the discussion of certain aspects of our politics is that they aren't just about electing a candidate. They're also about launching careers and making people very rich. It's hard for me to fathom that Romney people are dishing so hard to the press, but I don't think like they do.
Joe Scarborough On The Entire Muslim World: 'They Hate Us Because Of Their Religion' | ThinkProgress (our next President, and Mika "Legs" Brzezinski will be his VP)
Balloon Juice » Newsweek and Morning Joe: Muslim-Bashing is So Hot Right Now

Conservative Groups Focus on Registration in Swing States - NYTimes.com Conservative Groups Focus on Registration in Swing States
The Voter Fraud Fantasy, Continued - Lawyers, Guns & Money - What really fascinates me about the voter fraud myth is how fervently the zealots believe this shit.

Just the right kind of stupid - Salon.com Rick Santorum's attack on "smart people" has its roots in centuries-old elite bashing. And it often works
Balloon Juice » Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin’s Wife Thinks the GOP is Raping Him by Abandoning Him ... To the GOP, everything is just like rape, except rape.

Poll: Elizabeth Warren opens 6-point edge on Scott Brown in Massachusetts Senate race | masslive.com

Union Democracy and the CTU - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Rahm Emanuel is outraged. He thought he made a deal with Karen Lewis, head of the Chicago Teachers’ Union, to end the teachers strike.

Hating on Ben Bernanke - NYTimes.com So last week we learned that Ben Bernanke is willing to listen to sensible critics and change course. But we also learned that on economic policy, as on foreign policy, Mitt Romney has abandoned any pose of moderation and taken up residence in the right’s intellectual fever swamps.

Files: Boy Scouts shielded molesters Over two decades, the Boy Scouts of America failed to report hundreds of alleged child molesters to police and often hid the allegations from parents and the public - including cases in Pennsylvania and New Jersey

Pequot War–Officially Approved Conservative Version - Lawyers, Guns & Money (Republicans justifying genocide)


091612
Libyan parliamentary speaker hints at military strike after consulate attack | World news | The Guardian Magariaf confirms US officials intercepted communications that linked al-Qaida in Maghreb to Islamist brigade Ansar al-Sharia
Panetta: U.S. Deployed Forces For Continued Muslim Protests Of Anti-Islam Film
John McCain: Libya Attacks On U.S. Officials Were Planned By Terrorists
U.S. Embassy Protests: Egypt Denounces Breaching Of Cairo U.S. Embassy Compound
US media angrily marvels at the lack of Muslim gratitude | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk NBC News, along with a leading US newspaper, insist that Egyptians should be grateful to the US for having 'freed' them
Conservatives, Democrats and the convenience of denouncing free speech | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Westerners love to decry censorship aimed at them by Muslims while ignoring the extreme censorship they impose on them

Afghanistan War: U.S. General Says Attacks From Rogue Afghans 'Serious Threat To Campaign'
Six Nato troops killed by Afghan allies hours after Taliban attack airbase | World news | guardian.co.uk Soldiers from 3rd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment among those who died during violent weekend in Helmand
Liz Cheney Claims Obama Has "Abandoned" Czechoslovakia (Which Hasn't Existed Since The Early '90s) | Video | Media Matters for America Cheney Also Pushes The Falsehood That Obama "Has Been Apologizing For America" (Fox, of course)
If Romney wins, perhaps she can be ambassador to the Republic of Corsica - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Mitt Romney’s senior foreign policy advisor Liz Cheney has a point. I can’t think of a single positive thing to say about Obama’s Czechoslovakia policy. However: his craven abandonment of Czechoslovakia pales in comparison to his failure to engage the Orange Free State, and his apparent indifference to the Prussian menace.

Netanyahu: People Are ‘Drawing Me Into The American Election’ | TPM2012
Gregory Declares Bibi King of the Jews | TPM Editors Blog (Dancin' Dave)
ABC News Reporter Makes Specious Claim That Iran Is Capable Of Producing Nuclear Weapons In Four Weeks | ThinkProgress Brian Ross (your idiot media)
New York Times Reporter Parrots GOP Talking Points, Suggests Obama's Middle East Policy Is 'Naive' And 'Quaint' | ThinkProgress - Jeff Zeleny (your idiot Republican media)

Anti-Japanese Demonstrations in China - Imgur

Top Ten Likely Consequences of Muslim anti-US Embassy Riots | Informed Comment 1. Tourism in Egypt and Tunisia, the economies of which heavily depend on it, is likely to take a nosedive this fall. (+Billmon!)
Islamist Déjà Vu: The Lessons of 1979 by Christian Caryl | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books
It’s Not About Religion, It’s About Money | Stratfor (the religious framework suits America's apocalytic mindset)
Cable reference id: #08TRIPOLI923 | Cablegate's cables: Full-text search for "stevens" from Libya

Neocons Slither Back - NYTimes.com
Republican lawmakers say Romney campaign needs to change course - The Hill - covering Congress, Politics, Political Campaigns and Capitol Hill | TheHill.com Some GOP senators are worried that Romney has yet to give voters a clear vision of what to expect if he is to become president.
In Poll, Obama Opens Medicare Edge Over Romney - NYTimes.com Democrats are calling the Republican approach a “voucher” plan, suggesting that it borders on privatizing the system; Republicans prefer the term “premium support.”
Mitt Romney, religious right: Christian conservatives are worried that the GOP chose the wrong person to run against Barack Obama. - Slate Magazine “Mitt Romney should be leading by 10 or 15 points. The fact that he’s not is Mitt Romney’s problem. It’s because he’s run such a lackluster campaign that’s been so vague on ideas.” (10-15 points in your dreams; +look who's "lackluster" now)
Not a Gaffe: Conservatives Stand Up for Romney's Embassy Statement

The Silliest, Most Terrifying Things in the Republican Platform | VICE
Obama Hate Speech Spreads on Facebook | TechNewsDaily.com Racism is alive and well on Facebook, despite the social network's policy banning hate speech.

Political Animal - Romney Death Spiral Beginning?
Nancy Pelosi: 'Everybody Knows' Mitt Romney Won't Become President
Sept. 14: Obama Forecast Declines on Poor Manufacturing Report - NYTimes.com . His chances of winning the Electoral College are now listed at 76.2 percent, down from 78.6 percent in Thursday’s forecast.

Political Animal - Romney Already Paying Price For Hard Line On Paulites
Nancy Pelosi: Republicans Will Continue Obstruction If Obama Is Reelected
Romney: 'Middle-Income' Up To $250,000 Per Year
'SNL' Takes Clint Eastwood's Chair Act On The Road (video)
George W. Bush Not Able to Attend Romney Fundraiser in George W. Bush's Own Home, Probably | Slog
Political Animal - Strange Advice for Romney Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post has advice for how Mitt Romney can turn his struggling campaign around. (uh-huh)

He Said, She Said, and the Truth - NYTimes.com “It’s not our job to litigate it in the paper,” Mr. Sifton said. “We need to state what each side says.” ... While he agreed that there was “no known evidence of in-person voter fraud,” and that could have been included in this story, “I don’t think that’s the core issue here.” (NYT avoids the truth, because it's not a "core issue")
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off How do you get to “stating the truth”, which Sullivan thinks is a good idea, when reporters believe that including a fact that undercuts one side’s position is “not part of the core issue”? It seems like every time someone scratches the surface of a “he-said/she-said” issue by talking to working reporter at one of these big papers, their response is almost too depressing to contemplate. Share

Mitt Romney, Liquidationist - NYTimes.com What you really have to wonder about is all the not-stupid economists who have aligned themselves with this guy and that crew. Probably they imagine that once the election is past sensible economics will return. But the odds are that they are wrong, and that they’re sacrificing their own credibility to put charlatans and cranks in the driver’s seat.
Lehman’s toxic legacy - Salon.com The investment bank collapsed four years ago today, and yet our politicians have done little to fix the system

Obama’s Evil Twin by J. Hoberman | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books D’Souza sets up Obama as his evil twin: they were born, graduated from an Ivy League college, and married in the same year! (and other amazing coincidences)

Don't Ask Don't Tell: Furor Fades A Year After Military's Gay Ban Lifted
Stop calling student loans “financial aid” - Salon.com Students who take out loans aren't receiving special favors. They're making a financial transaction like any other

Chicago Teachers Strike May Near End As Union Releases Deal
The Lows of Higher Ed - NYTimes.com The House is planning hearings on student loans, too. The chairwoman of the subcommittee assigned to this task is Representative Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican who once said that she worked her own way through college and had “little tolerance” for people who complain about their huge student loan debts.

Gun Sales May Soar If Obama Wins Reelection: Report
More bicyclists means fewer accidents, Phila. finds This "safety in numbers" phenomenon has been documented elsewhere, and safety experts believe it is because motorists become more alert to cyclists when there are more of them.

Why Reading Is Good For Your Brain

Infidelity By Neighborhood: Where Cheaters Live in Boston [Infographic] | BostInno Ashley Madison boasts 165,000 users in Boston, which is only about 26 percent of the city’s total population of 617,594 (26% of Boston residents (counting children) are cheating on their spouses)

The Maccabeats - Rosh Hashanah Card - YouTube - this is the first time an a cappella group (or any group, for that matter) has recorded whistling in harmony.
Rosh Hashanah Rock Anthem - YouTube

default gems
rkyeun comments on What is the most hilarious bible verse?

Netflix exec: Canada’s broadband caps “almost a human rights violation” — Online Video News

091512
Al-Qaida calls for more attacks on embassies - Travel - Boston.com
Sydney police clash with Islam film protesters - News - Boston.com Ten Network television news showed a policeman knocked unconscious as the mostly male crowd hurled bottles and other missiles. Many of the protesters were wearing Muslim dress.
Afghan policeman guns down two Nato soldiers | World news | guardian.co.uk Deaths follow killing of two US Marines and a British soldier plus Taliban attack at Camp Bastion where Prince Harry is stationed
Kate privacy row deepens as Irish Star prints topless photos | UK news | The Observer St James's Palace denounces move as motivated by greed while British publisher distances itself from paper's decision
The Sun's Page 3 is the highly visible tip of misogyny's iceberg | Deoborah Orr | Comment is free | The Guardian A lot of women feel that people who want an end to Page 3 are uptight harridans, envious, bitter and prudish, but it's important to understand why this editorial gimmick is so nasty
Japan Intends To Phase Out Nuclear Power by 2040 | Crooks and Liars
Anti-Japan Protests In China Swell, Turn Violent Anti-Japanese sentiment, never far from the surface in China, has been building for weeks, touched off by moves by Tokyo and fanned by a feverish campaign in Chinese state media. (they "regret" what they caused)

The Act of Killing – review | Film | guardian.co.uk Joshua Oppenheimer's surreal, astonishing documentary recreates the atrocities of 1960s Indonesian death squads

Google rejects White House request to pull Mohammad film clip | Reuters
Why is the Muslim world so easily offended? - The Washington Post
Why Is The Muslim World So Easily Offended? : worldnews

Tax 'traitors' widen divisions in belt-tightening France | World news | The Observer Most French citizens believe that the rich elite should pay more in tax, but not so much that it will drive them to flee abroad

Latif’s Death: A Blow to the Head of Our System of Justice | emptywheel

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, Man Linked To Anti-Islam Film, Taken In For Questioning A California man convicted of bank fraud was taken in for questioning on Saturday by officers investigating possible probation violations stemming from the making of an anti-Islam film that triggered violent protests in the Muslim world. Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55

'Nightmare' Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Revisited in Court | The Nation
Obama Widens Lead in Pennsylvania A new Philadelphia Inquirer poll in Pennsylvania finds President Obama leading Mitt Romney by 11 points among likely voters, 50% to 39%.

How Muslim Unrest Has Created a Crisis for Romney -- New York Magazine Muslim unrest has created a challenge for Obama and the nation—and a different kind of crisis for the Romney campaign. (+Bibi has a major sad)
Romney Tries to Defend Embassy Lies -- Daily Intel
Paul Ryan on Middle East Crisis - Paul Ryan Is a Big Boy Now - Esquire So, perhaps out of sheer, flop-sweatish desperation, they decided to send out the zombie-eyed granny-starver, perhaps working on the notion that, if the main guy can't cut it, it's time to send in the pipsqueak for comic relief. This is also the theory behind rodeo clowns....
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » A rare moment of a tool speaking truth to fools Rick Santorum Says “Smart People Will Never Be On Our Side”
House Republicans Plan Two Month Vacation, Leaving Key Bills Awaiting Action | ThinkProgress
GOP Farm Bill Obstruction Could Defund 90 Percent Of Department Of Agriculture | ThinkProgress GOP leadership in the chamber intentionally preventing action on the legislation for political reasons.
STUDY: Media Campaign Coverage Almost Never Addresses Poverty | ThinkProgress FAIR’s study found poverty barely registers as a campaign issue. Just 17 of the 10,489 campaign stories studied (0.2 percent) addressed poverty in a substantive way. Moreover, none of the eight outlets included a substantive discussion of poverty in as much as 1 percent of its campaign stories.
Who's Who at the Values Voter Summit 2012 | rightwingwatch.org

My fiscal cliff fantasy
Obama by the Numbers - Obama Presidency Facts - Esquire

US officials ready to target banks over safeguarding failures – report | B usiness | guardian.co.uk Authorities reportedly set to crack down on banks for failing to monitor whether cash was being used to launder dirty money
Four Years Since Lehman Brothers, 'Too Big To Fail' Banks, Now Even Bigger, Fight Reform (they know Obama made them untouchable)

Chicago teachers hammer out details to end week-long strike | World news | guardian.co.uk Union leaders and school board agree outline to resolve sticking points, meaning pupils could be back in school by Monday
Can The Chicago Teachers’ Strike Fix Democratic Education Reform? | The New Republic (which was always Republican-based anyway)
Nicholas Kristof Didn’t Join Colleagues To Back NYT Overseas Employees in Union Fight - Working In These Times - Ironically, when Kristof started off at the Times in the 1980s, he was protected by similar job-security provisions as a member of the Newspaper Guild of New (NONE of the Times op-ed elite (except Krugman) supported their overseas collegues)
Will Chris Whittle’s Avenues School Deliver the Real Money in Education? -- New York Magazine Charter-school entrepreneur Chris Whittle is finally chasing the real money in education—delivering New York’s new international elite to the country’s most selective colleges.

Conservatives killed the liberal arts - Salon.com Destroying the humanities -- and the notion of informed citizenship -- is part of the conservative agenda -- Make no mistake about it: The death of the humanities is an ideologically motivated murder, more like a massacre. (Republicans hate education and America)

Terry Williams Execution: Man Who Killed Alleged Sexual Abuser Scheduled To Die Next Month State and federal appellate courts found that Williams' attorney in the Norwood case was negligent in not presenting evidence of abuse at trial, but rejected his appeal anyway, ruling that the negligence did not materially impact the jury's verdict.
Rush Limbaugh Obama - Nowhere Near As Weird As It Will Get - Esquire I don't want to alarm anyone unduly, but (allegedly) over 600 radio stations in this country are putting on the air a man who is transparently insane

Arizona CPS discovers computer glitch that hid files for years that officials say kept public records from parents, lawyers and others for more than 15 years, a malfunction that could have led to children being wrongly removed and prevented caregivers from supporting civil claims against the state. ("glitch" un-huh)
Principal Shuts Down Cosmetology Class Because One of the Students ‘Looked’ Gay

My Open, Sexless Marriage - The Cut

Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) New silicon resonator keeps the frequency of a laser more stable than ever before - Important for even better optical atomic clocks
Six degrees of Kevin Bacon: scientists expose the seedy underbelly | Science | guardian.co.uk In light of Google's new degree calculator, we consulted a computer scientist to find the incendiary truth behind the claim that every actor connects back to Bacon in six steps or fewer
Bacon sandwich really does cure a hangover - Telegraph A bacon sandwich really does cure a hangover - by boosting the level of amines which clear the head, scientists have found.

Platt: Battersby Continues the Culinary Power Shift to the East -- Grub Street New York (Brooklyn eats Manhattan's lunch)

091412
New violence sweeps countries across Islamic world | McClatchy
Revealed: inside story of US envoy's assassination - World Politics - World - The Independent Exclusive: America 'was warned of embassy attack but did nothing'
U.S. push to put diplomats in danger zones challenges security | McClatchy
Balloon Juice » The Carterization of President Obama?
Anti-western anger spreads across Arab world as embassies burn in wake of film | World news | guardian.co.uk American victims of US consulate attack in Libya are returned to US soil as violence widens to include more embassy attacks
Anti-US protests spread across the world – in pictures | World news | guardian.co.uk
Obama Plays Hardball and Egypt's Morsi Folds | Informed Comment “I don’t think that we would consider them an ally, but we don’t consider them an enemy,” the president said. “I think that we are going to have to see how they respond to this incident,” Obama said. (not a gaffe; Republicans are stupid)
Obama, Hillary Clinton Honor Ambassador Chris Stevens, Libya Attack Victims
Anti-Islam Film Protests Spread To Sudan, Tunisia, Across Middle East
No One Murdered Because Of This Image | The Onion - America's Finest News Source (who's missing from this picture?)

Bibi Triples Down on Romney | TPM Editors Blog (the Neo-Con Great Game at work: evil meets evil)

Twitter complies with prosecutors to surrender Occupy activist's tweets | Technology | guardian.co.uk Site ends fight with New York lawyers after contempt warning from judge over protester Malcolm Harris's Twitter account (and anyone he was "associated" with)

Democrats Pull Even With Republicans as Better on Terrorism
Married Voters Strongly Back Romney Marital status is strong predictor of voting behavior (marriage rots your brain)

Arbitrary Detention Suffers First of Perhaps Many Blows A Federal judge issued a permenant injunction against part of the National Defense Authorization Act this week.
NDAA Case: Indefinite Detention Injunction Does Irreparable Harm, Obama Admin. Lawyers Argue (because infinite detention with no charges for American citizens is absolutely necessary)

Michael Lewis: Obama’s Way | Vanity Fair
Libya consulate killing: Mitt Romney’s criticism of Barack Obama on Libya and Egypt was an accurate reflection of what he really believes. - Slate Magazine Mitt Romney got the timeline wrong, but it was no gaffe. He said what he meant.
The Return of the Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics - Romney smash!
Obama and Romney speeches more negative than ever, says study | World news | guardian.co.uk Ohio University study says speeches at Democratic and Republican conventions were more attack-laden than ever
Mitt Romney Tax Policy Studies: Candidate Seemingly Contradicts Their Conclusions
Eschaton: Everybody Has It So Good I guess it makes sense that Our Galtian Overlords think we can suffer a bit more because they think we have it really fucking good. Hapless presidential candidate Mitt Romney defined “middle income” as people making between $200,000 and $250,000 a year, in an interview with “Good Morning America’s George Stephanopoulos.
Samuel L. Jackson to support Obama in a provocative new ad calling on voters to “Wake the F--k Up” - NYPOST.com

Wisconsin Collective Bargaining Law Struck Down By County Judge (Republicans are unhappy)
Kansas Birther Case Ends After Joe Montgomery Withdraws Objection to Obama On Ballot ... because his father was a citizen of the United Kingdom and Kenya, and that U.S. citizenship is conferred "primarily" through the father. (and America is, after all, a patriarchy)
Kansas State Board Considers Removing Obama From Ballot | TPMMuckraker the board agreed to consider whether to take Obama off the ballot because they said they lacked sufficient evidence about his birth certificate. “I don’t think it’s a frivolous objection,” Kobach said, according to the Capital-Journal. “I do think the factual record could be supplemented.”
Vanity Fair gives quote approval power to White House for Obama profile | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The magazine's writer, Michael Lewis, sets out to profile the president but unwittingly reveals more about himself and his profession
Balloon Juice » Silver foot, meet lying mouth Christ mambo-dancing buff-carpenter Jesus. What an eejit the Romney is.
Balloon Juice » Again, Projection “I think the challenge that I’ll have in the debate is that the president tends to, how shall I say it, to say things that aren’t true,” Romney said.
Balloon Juice » A campaign to celebrate
Why do Indian Americans Support Obama? - India Real Time - WSJ An overwhelming 85% of Indian Americans support Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election (why do minorities hate us, Republicans ask)
Eschaton: Villager Narrative People like us who earn around $200,000 are struggling, people like them who earn $70,000 are overpaid.
Hullabaloo David Gregory dances again ... (Dancin' Dave)

The iPhone Stimulus - NYTimes.com A recent research note from JPMorgan argued that the new iPhone might add between a quarter- and a half-percentage point to G.D.P. growth in the last quarter of 2012
Fear & Greed Index - Investor Sentiment - CNNMoney - at 92, extreme greed
CFPB Getting Reputation as a Fearsome Regulator | FDL News Desk (why they/Obama so didn't want this to happen; Lizzie's legacy)
Lanny Breuer Admits That Economists Have Convinced Him Not to Indict Corporations | emptywheel I’ve become increasingly convinced that DOJ’s head of Criminal Division, Lanny Breuer is the rotting cancer at the heart of a thoroughly discredited DOJ (Obama set it up that way)
Political Animal - That’s Not Gutting! This is Gutting! But still, it’s pretty funny to see a House committee favorably report a bill that would encourage states to flatly do exactly what Republicans have heatedly claimed the Obama administration is stealthily, indirectly, incrementally plotting to let them sorta kinda do. (Republican mental illness at work)

Source: 'Tentative contract' reached with striking Chicago teachers - chicagotribune.com 'If the delegates so vote, we will suspend the strike'
Balloon Juice » You need schooling, baby I ain’t fooling - The average upper secondary teacher earns 72 percent of the salary for the average college-educated worker in the United States, compared to 90 percent for the overall O.E.C.D. (Bobo Brooks is an elitest idiot)
look out below - bookforum.com / current issue Two new books chart the failures of elite rule ... our income, support networks, cultural tastes, and even self-esteem are so bound up with the juggernaut of casino-finance capitalism that even rumors of its failure generate bull markets in prophecies of doom more often than they spark protests.

The Gloves Are Off: Training New Doctors So let me get this straight. Currently, the Federal government fund about 90% of the cost of training new doctors at a cost of $12 billion per year? The health care industry itself only picks up 10% of the cost? (but we hate teachers)
Half of drugs prescribed in France useless or dangerous, say two specialists | World news | guardian.co.uk The doctors claim that the state wastes money on unnecessary medicine that they blame for up to 20,000 deaths annually

Tim Huelskamp, GOP Congressman: Planned Parenthood's 'Sole Purpose Is Killing Children' Of Minorities
Mormon Singles, LDS Singles Wards Rise As Members Delay Marriage (fundamentalist sects always make a lot of babies)

WLS 890AM: Rural America fatter than urban America, study says

I am the father/Redditor who lost his family after it came to light that my son was sexually abusing our dog, Colby. I have some good news for everyone: COLBY IS SAFE. But there is still the question of what to do with my son? : AskReddit

Demanding A Student's Facebook Password A Violation Of First Amendment Rights, Judge Says | Techdirt from the well,-we-all-know-who-the-REAL-bully-is-here... dept ... For some strange reason, a large number of schools adhere to the notion that their students are not actually citizens of the United States and therefore, not granted the same rights as the "grownups."
Google Fiber Issues Public Challenge: Get Up To Speed! | Business | TIME.com Google's Kansas City broadband project is designed to shame the top US cable and telecom giants. Why is the U.S. ranked 28th in broadband speed?
Facebook as a surveillance tool: from the perspective of the user | Netchitailova | tripleC - Cognition, Communication, Co-operation
The Problem of Privacy in Capitalism and the Alternative Social Networking Site Diaspora* | Sevignani | tripleC - Cognition, Communication, Co-operation

091312
President Obama’s ‘Ally’ Jab At Egypt Stirs Trouble | TPM2012 The White House is walking back a comment from President Obama that Egypt is not an “ally,” confirming that it doesn’t accurately represent the nation’s official status (like NATO, duh, Republican idiots)
Yemen protesters storm US embassy - as it happened | World news | guardian.co.uk Second night of protests in Cairo ends in violence
Yemen Protests: Demonstrators Angered By Anti-Islam Film Storm U.S. Embassy In Sanaa
Yemen Embassy Attack - The Trouble in Yemen Is We Already Made the Trouble - Esquire - But Yemen is different. The people in Yemen don't need some meathead with a Super 8 to make them angry with us. We've been making the rubble bounce there.

News from The Associated Press - Federal authorities identified a Southern California man who is on federal probation for financial crimes as the key figure behind an anti-Muslim film that has spawned mob violence against American embassies across the Mideast - Nakoula Basseley Nakoula
Conspiracies of convenience: what's behind the film fracas? - Opinion - Ahram Online On both sides of the ongoing clash of bigotries and stupidity, the Prophet Muhammad is incidental to the true motives of the antagonists
Prison Stint May Have Delayed Anti-Muslim Film Production | TPMMuckraker

ekathimerini.com | Jobless figures continue to rise at an alarming rate Unemployment in Greece is going from bad to worse, as official figures released by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) on Thursday showed a 44 percent increase in the number of jobless in this year’s second quarter compared to the same period in 2011. (you've been Merkel-fucked)


We Won! Tell Obama: Don't Appeal NDAA Court Ruling | Demand Progress A federal court in New York just ruled indefinite detention UNCONSTITUTIONAL and issued a permanent injunction against use of that law. The provision would have allowed the military to detain civilians -- even Americans -- indefinitely and without trial if they're accused of certain crimes or even just associated with certain criminals.

US envoy killed as Libya mob storms embassy - Latest news around the world and developments close to home - MSN Philippines News
Why The Vileness Matters - NYTimes.com But now Romney has really ensured that everyone in the news media, the GOP propaganda organs aside, is going to view him with distaste and alarm — as well they should.
Mitt’s Major Meltdown - NYTimes.com - On this side: Mitt Romney, a totally disgraced former secretary of defense, a person named Reince Priebus, and a new Republican rape comment. Two months to go and we’re rethinking our presumption that the Republican primary voters picked the most stable option.
Mitt Romney's Comments on Embassy Attacks Backfire Badly - Politics - The Atlantic Wire
Political Animal - Free Speech and Bigotry (Lord Saletan has a moment of complete sanity)
Fox's Ralph Peters On Libya Attack: "They Kill Four Of Ours, You Kill 400 Of Theirs" | Video | Media Matters for America
Balloon Juice » It is only emboldening the enemy when Democrats do it
Mitt Romney Media Criticism Continues: 'He Looks Like Richard Nixon,' 'The Character And The Policy Were Both Revealed'
New York Times Wipes Story Detailing Mitt Romney's Attack On Obama
Mitt Romney Asked VP Candidates For 10 Years Of Tax Returns: Report
Two Men Say They’re Jesus, One Of Them Must Be Wrong | TBogg
Romney a wimp? Not so much, say gays who engaged with him as governor - Boston Spirit Magazine - Boston.com “I didn’t know you had families,” remarked Romney to the group (what a creep)
It's Not Just Bias: Four Fox News Contributors Work For Romney - NewsHounds

Four More Former Soldiers Charged In Plot to Assassinate President Obama | Angry Black Lady Chronicles Today, five more people were charged in connection with the plot. Four of them are former Army soldiers, one is a civilian, all are fucking crazy:

Does Antonin Scalia Still Matter? - Garrett Epps - The Atlantic The Reagan appointee has been perhaps the most significant influence on law in the past three decades. But the start of the new Term looks likely to mark the end of the Scalia Court and the beginning of the Roberts one. (Tony the Joke)

Why Do People Hate Teachers Unions? Because They Hate Teachers. « Corey Robin (most reviled profession in America)
Chicago Teacher Strike - Let's Strike Against People Who Don't Like Teachers - Esquire
The Chicago Strike and the Problem with Taxpayers - Esquire
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » What’s the mixture? Yglesias’s economic intuitions, which frequently contribute to really valuable analysis of current events, fail him here because of these dynamics. A teacher’s control over his students just isn’t the same as a factory worker’s control over a widget.
A Guide to Chicago's Ongoing Teachers' Strike
Director of Private School Where Rahm Sends His Kids Opposes Using Testing for Teacher Evaluations - Working In These Times
5 Liberal Pundits Repeating Right-Wing Teacher-Bashing Talking Points | Alternet Chicago's teacher strike is shaping up to be one of the most important labor actions in a generation. So why are people who consider themselves progressives siding with the bosses?
Saving the Chicago public school system: Who's hurting the kids? - Opinion - Al Jazeera English By going on strike, the teachers are "building political power", putting themselves in a "position to force changes"
New York City Halts Teacher Bonus Program: Another Blow to Evidence-Resistant Ideology - Bob Sutton

QE3 is on! Fed to buy $85b through December, and then keep going
Ben Bernanke Fires Up The Helicopters | TPMDC

Quantum teleportation over 143 kilometres using active feed-forward : Nature : Nature Publishing Group
Scientists discover how the brain ages | Science Wire | EarthSky Researchers at Newcastle University have revealed the mechanism by which neurons, the nerve cells in the brain and other parts of the body, age.
Low-hanging fruit: targeting Brdt in the testes : Article : The EMBO Journal In this issue of The EMBO Journal, Gaucher et al (2012) demonstrate that Brdt, a testes-specific member of the BET family of double bromodomain proteins, is intricately involved in the transcriptional regulation and genome reorganization required for the production of viable, fertile sperm.
Low-hanging fruit: targeting Brdt in the testes : Figure 1 : The EMBO Journal
Mars Curiosity Descent - Ultra HD 30fps Smooth-Motion - YouTube

Philadelphia Salaries in the Arts | The Philly Post 40 high earners in Philadelphia’s nonprofit arts and culture world. (the best of the best: loot and destroy)

USA Today to Introduce a Sleeker Look on Friday - NYTimes.com An earlier version of this article misstated the boss of James Bond. He is M, not Q.
Future Marketing Trends: Mobile Marketing is in Tiny Hands | Business 2 Community

091212
BBC News - Viewpoint: Iraqi gays in 'hell on earth' In post-Saddam Iraq, gay men and women have been systematically targeted for death by extra-judicial militias - with the co-operation of the democratically elected government, says Ali Hilli, founder of the London-based group, Iraqi LGBT.
Gerrard condemns Hillsborough disaster cover-up - SFGate

High Stakes Poker | TPM Editors Blog Netanyahu desperately wants an attack on Iran. The White House desperately wants to avoid war. The stakes are quite, quite high.
Balloon Juice » Bibi’s Big Gamble
Political Animal - Red Lines In what would have been certainly been the top foreign policy topic du jour almost any other day, Bibi Netayahu has been stepping up his heated campaign to publicly demand the Obama administration set “red lines” towards Iran’s nuclear program, or abdicate any claim to tell Israel it can’t launch unilateral military attacks on that country

Putin Thanks Romney Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Mitt Romney's characterization of his country as the United States' "number one geopolitical foe" has actually helped Russia, ABC News reports ... The Russian leader said Romney's comments "strengthened his resolve to oppose NATO's plan for a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, a system Russia believes will degrade its nuclear deterrent. The U.S. insists the system is aimed at Iran, not Russia."

US ambassador and 3 staff members killed in an attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya : worldnews

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » When you’ve lost Halperin and his 500… Unless the Romney campaign has gamed this crisis out in some manner completely invisible to the Gang of 500, his doubling down on criticism of the President for the statement coming out of Cairo is likely to be seen as one of the most craven and ill-advised tactical moves in this entire campaign.
The Politics (Ugh, Yes, the Politics) of the Attacks on the US Diplomatic Posts in Benghazi and Cairo* - ABC News - The evidence that the president “sympathizes with attackers in Egypt” was not immediately apparent, likely because it does not in any way exist.
Unfit For Government - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast
Romney criticizes Obama over foreign attacks; Obama declares that justice will be done’ - The Washington Post
Mitt Romney's Character Problem The GOP candidate's problems don't stem from miscalculation or even the duff convention in Tampa ... If Romney loses, Republicans and the political right will act as if Romney was something that happened to them, when the truth is that Romney is something the Republicans did to themselves.
Foreign Policy Hands Voice Disbelief At Romney Cairo Statement “Bungle… utter disaster…not ready for prime time… not presidential… Lehman moment.” And that's just the Republicans.
Mitt’s shameful Libya statement - Salon.com This is what happens when one party spends four years convincing itself the president is something he isn’t
Who Is “Sam Bacile?” | Religion Dispatches Klein told me that Bacile, the producer of the film, is not Israeli, and most likely not Jewish, as has been reported, and that the name is, in fact, a pseudonym. (might be evangelical Christians)
Romney Campaign Denies Acting Rashly on Libyan Situation - NationalJournal.com
Three Quick Points on the Libya Killings - James Fallows - The Atlantic
When You Learn They’re Not Ready | TPM Editors Blog The campaign also authorized Romney’s top foreign policy advisor to give a blistering interview attacking the president while the attacks were continuing.
Balloon Juice » Desperate Sociopaths and their Media Enablers
Romney Blasts Obama on Cairo Embassy Statement of 'Sympathy' - NationalJournal.com The Obama campaign accuses Romney of bringing politics into a tragedy.
Twitter / CharlesDharapak: PHOTO: Mitt Romney leaves podium ... (a picture is worth ...)
Score! - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Here’s the face Mitt Romney wants you to see when he’s discussing the attacks on U.S. embassies and the murder of a U.S. ambassador:
TwitLonger — When you talk too much for Twitter
Kristol Doubles Down - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast
Sarah Palin Wishes Barack Obama Had A Bigger Penis We already know that President Obama likes to “speak softly” to our enemies. If he doesn’t have a “big stick” to carry, maybe it’s time for him to grow one.
Political Animal - Confederacy of Dunces Eltahawy noted that an alliance of “the right-wing fringe” in both countries was creating these disturbing and destabilizing events. There’s not much question about the mutual support society that’s long operated between Muslim-haters and radical Islamists who share a vast stake in escalated hostilities. (the Neo-Con Great Game)

Obama Expands Lead Over Romney A new Fox News poll finds President Obama got a five point bounce among women and a 12-point bounce among independents from the Democratic convention.

Eschaton: The Greatest People On Earth Days like this serve as a reminder that the people who brought us the Iraq war aren't shunned by polite society, but are in fact still being very well paid, advising a presidential candidate, and treated as Very Serious People by our serious media. At my most cynical moments I don't think I imagined Dan Senor recovering from his time as Baghdad Dan.
Eschaton: Making Stuff Up We'll never really solve the 'idiots or liars' eternal question, but the speed at which bullshit travels through wingnuttia, from the peanut gallery up to their presidential candidate, is always impressive.
Eschaton: When Everything Was Great On the twitters Ben Smith just wrote: "GOPer makes a good point: "Condi could save him." I assume this means Condi could rescue Mitt from his foreign policy disasters by using her credibility and reputation from that time when our foreign policy was truly awesome to defend him. Wait, what?

Bittersweet Justice for Bradley Birkenfeld | emptywheel Today, the IRS awarded whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld $104 million to reward him for having exposed UBS’ methods of helping US tax cheats hide their loot, tax free, in Switzerland. (jailed for two years by Obama for reporting a $5bn fraud by UBS)

An analysis of the U.S. tax code, break by tax break - The Washington Post The U.S. government gives away more than $1 trillion a year in tax breaks — subsidies for individuals and companies that are often substitutes for direct government spending. Once written into the tax code, they tend to stick around.

Obamacare Results in Largest Drop in Young Adult Uninsured Rate... EVER. | The People's View

Florida Essentially Gives Up on Voter Purge Efforts | FDL News Desk The state of Florida has backed down in their attempts to purge voter-rolls of suspected non-citizens. In the settlement of a lawsuit with civil rights organizations, Florida has basically rolled back the entire voter purge, including their initial list of 2,600 “potential non-citizens,” which ended up netting exactly one non-citizen voter, out of the 8.3 million who participated in the 2008 election there.

The Pay of Chicago School Teachers and Selected Others | Beat the Press

O'Reilly's Accidental Support For Planned Parenthood Funding | Blog | Media Matters for America While decrying federal funding of Planned Parenthood, Fox's Bill O'Reilly wished that the women's health organization were privately financed "like Catholic charities" are -- yet federal funding is also a primary revenue source for Catholic charities.
Crafts Store Chain Sues For Right To Deny Their Employees Contraception Coverage | ThinkProgress Hobby Lobby, a large chain of crafts stores owned by conservative evangelical Christians, filed a federal lawsuit against the contraception mandate today, claiming they should have the right to deny coverage for emergency contraception to over 13,000 employees across 40 states.
Adrienne Pine is a mom: The American University professor breast-fed her baby in class. So what?

Will Joe Scarborough Test the Waters for a 2016 Presidential Run? | Vanity Fair (disgusting, Mika)

100 most endangered species: priceless or worthless? – in pictures | Environment | guardian.co.uk
Mathematician Claims Proof of Connection between Prime Numbers - Yahoo! News
ELI5: What the discovery of the Proof of connection between Prime Numbers means? : explainlikeimfive
What Makes Pi So Special? | What Does Pi Mean? | LifesLittleMysteries.com

Buttermilk, Often Maligned, Begins to Get Its Due - NYTimes.com Kate’s Homemade Butter

Samsung, HTC to block US, EU sales of Apple iPhone 5 using LTE patents | Android and Me

091112
South Korea rejects creationist interference in school textbooks (Wired UK)


The Bush White House Was Deaf to 9/11 Warnings - NYTimes.com But some in the administration considered the warning to be just bluster. An intelligence official and a member of the Bush administration both told me in interviews that the neoconservative leaders who had recently assumed power at the Pentagon were warning the White House that the C.I.A. had been fooled; according to this theory, Bin Laden was merely pretending to be planning an attack to distract the administration from Saddam Hussein, whom the neoconservatives saw as a greater threat. Intelligence officials, these sources said, protested that the idea of Bin Laden, an Islamic fundamentalist, conspiring with Mr. Hussein, an Iraqi secularist, was ridiculous, but the neoconservatives’ suspicions were nevertheless carrying the day.

9/11: What Bush knew - Salon.com An article sheds new light on the CIA's desperate efforts to warn about 9/11. Why didn't the White House listen?
Now Watch This Drive! - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Ah, nice of the world’s most accomplished liar Ari Fleischer to show up to reveal what the pushback against Eichenwald’s new book will be. Namely, they’re going to go with the line that assessing an administration’s security policy and priorities and arguing that they had a role in subsequent events is “trutherism,” no different than racists arguing that Barack Obama was born in Africa. Yes, truly there can be no wackier conspiracy theory than the idea that national security policy might affect security-related outcomes.
18-Year-Old Fighting In Afghanistan Has 9/11 Explained To Him By Older Soldier | The Onion

Balloon Juice » Barack Obama is Sick of Your Shit: This is Brilliant “There are white folks… and then there are stupid ass motherfuckers like you.”
Balloon Juice » “Bravery resides in every heart, and someday it will be summoned”
Pollsters, News Conspiring to Elect Obama -- Daily Intel - Unofficial Romney campaign spokesblogger Jennifer Rubin, writing from her inexplicable perch at the Washington Post, issued a snarky rebuttal:

Bob Woodward: Still useless - Salon.com The man who helped expose Nixon now wishes Obama had used magical powers to fix the debt ceiling
Today In Dishonest Fox News Graphics | Blog | Media Matters for America Fox used a dishonest comparison of two different measures of unemployment to suggest the unemployment rate has nearly doubled since President Obama took office.

Stand against Rahm! - Salon.com First Wisconsin. Then Occupy. Now Chicago. The teachers' strike is the next chapter in the fight against plutocracy
The Rahm/Romney/Ryan Anti-Teacher Plan - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Alzheimer's could be the most catastrophic impact of junk food | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian - Alzheimer's, or "type 3 diabetes"
Flash spotted on Jupiter: Is it a hit? - Cosmic Log


google: We Didn't Know You Could Patent Round Corners - Business Insider

091012
Syria crisis: Brahimi begins peace mission in Egypt - Monday 10 September 2012 | World news | guardian.co.uk Iran involved in Cairo talks on Syria • Syrian army preparing new offensive against Aleppo
North Korea accepts flood aid offer from rival South | Reuters Impoverished North Korea has accepted an offer of aid from rival South Korea after devastating summer floods, the South said on Monday, the first time the new leadership in Pyongyang has accepted aid from Seoul.
U.S. Attack on Iran Would Take Hundreds of Planes, Ships, and Missiles

AP Exclusive: Memos show US hushed up Soviet crime Documents released Monday and seen in advance by The Associated Press lend weight to the belief that suppression within the highest levels of the U.S. government helped cover up Soviet guilt in the killing of some 22,000 Polish officers and other prisoners in the Katyn forest and other locations in 1940.

15% of Ohio Republicans Credit Mitt Romney With Killing Bin Laden | Blog | Political Humor Satire | Comedy Central Indecision According to a Public Policy Polls survey of Ohio voters, 38% of Ohio Republicans say Barack Obama is most responsible for the bin Laden's death, 15% say Romney, and 47% were unsure. The results were similar in North Carolina, where 29% of Republicans said Obama deserves more credit, versus 15% Romney and 56% unsure. (and there you have the whole problem)

ActBlue — PEC — High-leverage target races for 2012

The Ryan Sinkhole - NYTimes.com That much is known. What people have not been talking about enough is that the Ryan budget contains an $897 billion sinkhole: massive but unexplained cuts in such discretionary domestic programs as education, food and drug inspection, workplace safety, environmental protection and law enforcement

Chicago teachers strike after rejecting Mayor Emanuel's pay offer | World news | guardian.co.uk Mitt Romney weighs in to criticise union and Obama for teachers' strike amid signs that compromise is still some way off
Terry Moran: How much fucking money do you make a year? « Corey Robin Just in case I wasn’t clear enough in my tweet, let me re-ask it here: Terry Moran, how much fucking money do you make a year?
Eschaton: That Sounded Like A Lot To Me Question is did Moran not know it was over 4 years? If he really believed it then wow he's living in another universe. Did he know it and not say it? Idiots or liars....the eternal question.
Chicago Teacher Union Demands - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Shorter a lot of “progressives” today: “I usually support unions, but these Chicago teachers [insert Republican talking point about unions.]”
Rheeism as Democratic Party Policy - Lawyers, Guns & Money : This could not depress me more. Molly Ball’s piece at the Atlantic portrays Michelle Rhee as getting close to setting the education agenda for the Democratic Party: I know I am excited to see right-wing billionaire funded propaganda influencing Democratic Party policy.
Eschaton: Visiting The Jungle There are clean and modern things in Mexico. This, apparently, is surprising to those who rule us ... When the governor of Colorado came to Mexico on a trade mission this year to see the sights, “one of the most amazing” was a Costco.

Barack Obama Leads Mitt Romney By Six Points Nationally: CNN Poll
US Politics | AMERICAblog News: Romney flip-flops 4 times on health care reform in past 24 hours (all four side of his mouth)
Desperately Seeking Scandals: The Right-Wing Media's Attempt To Take Down Obama | Research | Media Matters for America
Paul Ryan Again Cites Voting for War as Foreign Policy Experience | Video Cafe Here we go again. From this Sunday's Face the Nation, vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan repeats the notion that his voting to send people's kids off to die invading countries that weren't a threat to us as foreign policy experience.
Paul Krugman: Republican Party's Base 'Is By And Large Elderly White People Arguing With Empty Chairs'

Demos Bullies at the Box Report - An Ominous Warning for the Mess at the Polls in November - Esquire an epidemic of direct voter challenges at the polls themselves come November ... You know when it all went bad? When a bunch of Republicans congressional staffers got on Enron jets and flew to Florida, whereupon they engaged in riotous behavior that intimidated the Dade County election supervisors into stopping a legitimate recount of votes and not one of them was hauled up on charges of violating the Voting Rights Act, even though their identities were so well known that they were all feted at a subsequent Republican victory dinner.

Virginia lawmaker: Children with disabilities are God's punishment to women who previously had abortions. | ThinkProgress

Wells Fargo Even Sorrier After Second Time It Foreclosed on Wrong House

CERN’s Higgs boson discovery passes peer review, becomes actual science | ExtremeTech

5 Ways the Stanford Study Sells Organics Short | Mother Jones
Would-Be Healthy Eaters Face Confusion of Choices - NYTimes.com
Flawed organic foods study really just a media psyop to confuse the public about organics while pushing GMOs

His Holiness the Dalai Lama dropped this religious wisdom on Facebook this morning. He's a boss. - Imgur ... This is why I am increasinly convinced that the time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics beyond religion altogether

Solipsism Is Not Feminism - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Naomi Wolf’s new book — by all accounts a disastrous combination of gender essentialism based on generalizing from her own personal preferences, anti-feminism in feminist clothing, evo-psych wankery, and New Age wankery — does have one undeniable virtue: it figures to generate some of most entertaining reviews since Liberal Fascism itself.
Naomi Wolf Exalts the Vagina : The New Yorker Naomi Wolf’s “Vagina: A New Biography.” To support her view that vaginal orgasms are superior to the clitoral kind, she cites the phenomenon of “uterine upsuck” as proof that vaginal orgasms are evolutionarily “superefficient.”
Pride and Prejudice by Zoë Heller | The New York Review of Books Vagina: A New Biography by Naomi Wolf
Naomi Wolf’s Vagina Issues - Newsweek and The Daily Beast The feminist icon's prayer for a better orgasm. The vagina, she writes in her introduction, “is not only coextensive with the female brain but also is part of the female soul ... a gateway to, and medium of, female self-knowledge and consciousness themselves.” A woman, in this formulation, basically is her vagina.
Naomi Wolf's book Vagina: self-help marketed as feminism | Suzanne Moore | Comment is free | The Guardian Wolf is right that women should be having amazing sex, but the big question is why women are so sexually unhappy
New Statesman - The problem with Naomi Wolf's vagina This sort of ‘feminism’ has nothing to do with changing women’s lives.

Scott Van Duzer's Big Apple Pizza Gets Negative Yelp Reviews After Owner Bear-Hugs Obama

White House Preparing Executive Order As A Stand-In For CISPA | Techdirt (we don't need no steenking Congress)
Mystery Google Device Appears in Small-Town Iowa | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com the name printed on the long, thin piece of hardware. “Pluto Switch,” the label said.

Burning Man - Pro and Con - henrymakow.com

090912
State of the race: Advantage, Obama - Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen - POLITICO.com The Romney campaign, while pleasantly surprised by Obama’s lackluster prime-time performance (oh sure, Politico)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Both sides don’t do it Polls (and lack thereof) be damned, Kaplan has spoken:
Sept. 8: Conventions May Put Obama in Front-Runner's Position - NYTimes.com On Friday, we began to see reasonably clear signs that President Obama would receive some kind of bounce in the polls from the Democratic convention. - Mr. Romney has never held a lead over Mr. Obama by any substantive margin in the polls.
Simon Jackman: Obama's Biggest Lead Over Romney Since March We're now 60 hours or so past the Democratic convention. It is now clear that the Democrats got the better of the convention bounces. Indeed, recent national polls suggest that the Democrats' bounce not only erased some tenuous gains by Romney, but is propelling Obama into a commanding lead. In fact, Obama is now polling stronger than at any time in the last six months. (we're waiting, Kaplan Test Prep)

Paul Ryan Tries To Defend Mitt Romney's Russia Remark (VIDEO) Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Sunday attempted to defend Mitt Romney's misguided declaration earlier this year that "Russia is without question" the United States' "number one geopolitical foe." (restarting the cold war)
Obama’s failed quest for a ‘grand bargain’ - The Washington Post (idiots)
Twitter / JRubinBlogger: Good grief Get you rear end ... (Jennifer "Drive all the Palestinians into the sea" Rubin)
Bill Bennett: Iraq War-Supporting, Tax Cut-Defending Paul Ryan Will "Separate" Romney From Bush | Blog | Media Matters for America
Flabbergasted Rand Paul Learns Public Employment Decreased Under Obama | ThinkProgress (and what will tommorrow's lie be?
Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan Can't Say Which Tax Loopholes They'd Plug ("trust us")
Joe Biden Cruisers Diner Appearance: Ohio Voters See VP's Softer Side (photo)
Jay Carney: Mitt Romney God Currency Attack Is 'Absurd'
Flynt Offers $1 Million for Information on Romney's Taxes

Eric Holder Urged To Oppose Marijuana Ballots By Ex-DEA Heads (but of course)
A Sense of Waiting for Godot for Texas Democrats - NYTimes.com n fact, sometime after 2000, non-Hispanic whites became a minority in the state. They now make up just 45 percent of the population, making Texas the only majority minority state that reliably votes Republican. “Latino turnout is even lower here than it is in a lot of other places,” ... , Hispanic culture in Texas has so far not placed a high value on participating in the electoral process,
The St. Ralph Lecture Series - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money As a bookend to Salon inexplicably publishing a ridiculous argument asserting that Mitt Romney is a harmless moderate who if anything is more liberal than Barack Obama, the man who made the Iraq War, massive upper-class tax cuts and Sam Alito possible is back to lecture us with arguments that make Stoller’s look rational (Ralph "Lying Fuck" Nader)
David Koch Steps Out of the Shadows : The New Yorker (and into your face: David Koch, hand of Satan)

Political Animal - Arctic Ice Melt Record Being Smashed (Republicans to outlaw the word "ice")

A Terrifying Way to Discipline Children - NYTimes.com (no child left un-tortured in police-state America and Lexington Mass)

Washington Monthly | College Guide 2012

Political Animal - The Trajectory of Ezra Klein
JournoList - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


090812
Teenage suicide bomber kills six near Kabul Nato headquarters | World news | guardian.co.uk Four other children are among the dead as it is revealed boy posed as a street seller to evade heavy security
Alps murder victims were each shot twice in the head | World news | The Observer Revelation supports theory that the murders were part of an organised killing, probably by more than one person

Romney Got a Negative Bounce The Princeton Election Consortium finds Mitt Romney actually got a negative bounce coming out of his convention. ("bounce" = "sink")
Big Bounce Coming for Obama? Nate Silver says tracking polls are pointing toward "a decent-size convention bounce" for President Obama and says it's "unlikely, in fact, that the movement in the polls reflects statistical noise alone."
American Life Panel - Shifts Between Candidates - This graph shows us how many panelists shifted their vote from Obama to Romney or vice versa in the past week. Notice that these are generally small percentages, which causes this particular graph to be rather “noisy”. (the 1% who can't make up their minds)

Too Big To Jail: Wall Street Executives Unlikely To Face Criminal Charges, Source Says (Obama's get out of jail free card for banksters)

Quote of the Day "Somebody emailed me after his speech -- they said, you need to appoint him secretary of explaining stuff... That was pretty good. I like that... the secretary of explaining stuff." -- President Obama, quoted by USA Today, on Bill Clinton's convention spee
Twitter Blog: #DNC2012 Night 3: Obama’s speech sets records
Obama Speech at DNC 2012 - Tom Junod on Obama's DNC Speech 2012 - Esquire
Joe Biden Convention Speech - Mark Warren on Joe Biden Gaffes - Esquire But say this for him: Joe Biden is real, right down to his plugs.
Romney’s Playing Field Narrows -- Daily Intel Campaign aides also told Fox News yesterday that they basically have so much money they have to come up with ways to get it out the door, Brewster’s Millions–style, before election day.
Who Said It Better: Clinton Or Obama? | The New Republic When it’s all over, we’ll either have a President Romney or a second Obama administration hobbled by people like Paul Ryan. And for those undecided voters who were truly seeking to be swayed, I suspect that Mr. Clinton was the one who made up their minds. (+ Dinesh D’Souza looks all the more a crank as of tonight.)
Will The Conventions Move Florida Or North Carolina? | The New Republic But there are plenty of reasons to doubt that Obama or Romney will benefit in North Carolina or Florida, especially since Charlotte and Tampa don't dominate their states like Denver and Minneapolis.
Women's Caucus 2012 - The Trouble for Women in 2012 Is Not the Right Trouble - Esquire We will win this election, or we will lose our future."
Obama Acceptance Speech Caps Convention’s Full Embrace of LGBT Aims | gaycitynews.com
The Hidden Progressive History of Income Tax | Alternet The income tax was the most popular economic justice movement of the early 20th century. What happened? (anti-social Rethug propaganda?)
Daily Kos: Why Upgrade the Senate? Note that if Republicans take the Senate, Grassley would be Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee — @ezraklein - How does that sound? Chuck Grassley in charge of the committee that vets the country's Supreme Court nominees? Sends a bit of chill down your spine, huh?
Partners in Extremism When Mitt Romney endorsed Rep. Steve King (R-IA) at an Iowa rally yesterday, it was only a matter of time before the DNC celebrated the moment in a video.
Peggy Noonan Does Not Approve of All This Abortion Talk | Crooks and Liars And this is super classy: "What a fabulously confident and ingenuous-seeming political narcissist Ms. Fluke is." (crazy Jesus Lady should shut up forever)
Biden Says Life Better Than It Was 4 Years Ago But Nothing Can Touch Summer Of '87 | The Onion
How the Democratic Party’s platform controversy over Israel and God was caused by a small group of conservative journalists. - Slate Magazine How a small band of conservatives generated half of the Democratic Convention’s headlines.
At DNC Podium, War for the Soul of Catholic Church | Alternet Roiling just beneath the surface of Sr. Simon Campbell's DNC remarks is a critique of the bishops and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who will bless the convention's final adjournment.

Hullabaloo - The AP has got to stop putting interns on its Fact Check desk. It's getting embarrassing: (and pathetic)
Hullabaloo - Let's not let the wingnuts own the constitution

Jonah Lehrer, Niall Ferguson, the lecture economy « Quomodocumque

The Killing of Reynaldo Cuevas: You might get chocolate in my peanut butter but it's not going to cause my gun to fire | MyFDL (NYD kills and lies again)
In Pedophile Case, Church Failed to Stop Priest - NYTimes.com Both Bishop Finn and Monsignor Murphy, as ministers, were required by law to report suspected child abuse to the civil authorities. But they were also required to report under policies that the American bishops put in place 10 years ago at the height of the scandal — policies that now hold the force of canon law.
Marriage Fact Check (Catholic Bishops lie)
Brendon Ayanbadejo responds to delegate on gay marriage – USATODAY.com Brendon Ayanbadejo wants to thank the Maryland legislator who wrote a letter to the Baltimore Ravens condemning the linebacker's support of gay marriage.

Texas Backs Away From No Child Left Behind Law, Its Own Bush-Endorsed Creation Texas, the state that launched school accountability as an experiment, has applied to untangle itself from parts of the federal No Child Left Behind mandate, the same law that experiment eventually yielded.
Respected Federal Judge Calls for Legalizing Marijuana | Lawyers.com Blog udge Posner, a member of the influential United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, is an intellectual giant who is the most-cited judge in America. His call for legalization is significant because Posner is considered a legal conservative.

Review - Social Neuroscience - Psychology
Review - Moral Origins - Genetics and Evolution
Needle beam could eliminate signal loss in on-chip optics — Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Harvard researchers create a light wave that propagates without spreading
The brain science of the vagina heralds a new sexual revolution | Naomi Wolf | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Finally, women have the neuroscientific knowledge to liberate their bodies from patriarchy's social control and culture of shame (women think with their vajays, attain parity with men)

After High School Teacher Defends Atheist and Gay Students, He Is Forced to Resign
“Wikipedia informed Roth that it would require ‘secondary sources’ to verify his assertion that his novel was not inspired by the life of Anatole Broyard.” - Lawyers, Guns & Money

OJ Simpson lawyer 'tampered with glove', claims former prosecutor | World news | guardian.co.uk Former LA deputy DA alleges central piece of evidence was doctored by ex-football star's defence team during 1995 trial

Novels of Iraq and Afghanistan: Yellow Birds, Fobbit, Billy Lynn, Hold It 'Til It Hurts, reviewed. - Slate Magazine Four new novels address the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from the soldier’s perspective.
“Bad things happen in bars” - Lawyers, Guns & Money : The Honorable Jacqueline Hatch (will be famous on the internets for all eternity for blaming the victim and telling women they shouldn't go out at night +Jan Brewer Rapepublican)
The Real Jan Brewer Speaks Her Mind - YouTube
Woody Woodpecker - Bunco Busters - YouTube ("if Woody had gone right to the police this would never have happened")

The Algorithmic Copyright Cops: Streaming Video's Robotic Overlords | Threat Level | Wired.com
EFF Asks Appeals Court to Rehear Cell Site Tracking Case | Electronic Frontier Foundation (wiretapping not wiretapping)
Kindle Fire Using Microsoft Bing as Default Search Engine | MyFDL
Google Updates Maps As Competition Increases | TPM Idea Lab
How Google Builds Its Maps—and What It Means for the Future of Everything - Alexis C. Madrigal - The Atlantic
Web Browser Grand Prix: Firefox 15, Safari 6, OS X Mountain Lion : The Top Four Browsers, Tested And Ranked

090712
Life and death in Aleppo (PHOTOS) | GlobalPost (Pulitzer prize coming up)
The exact moment a tank shell hits a Syrian Rebel post in Aleppo.. : pics
US set to blacklist Haqqani as terrorist organisation, claims report | World news | guardian.co.uk Officials argue blacklisting would help curtail fundraising activities and pressure Pakistan to act against militants
Canada cuts diplomatic ties with Iran | World news | The Guardian Canada closes Tehran embassy and expels Iranian diplomats over support for Syria, nuclear plans and alleged rights abuses
French Alps shootings: detectives head to UK | World news | The Guardian Gendarmes from Annecy plan to search victims' Surrey home while concern grows for four-year-old's welfare

Global Economy Faces 'Perfect Storm' With Eurozone Crisis, 'Fiscal Cliff,' Slowdown, Iran Conflict
Draghi's eurozone rescue plan continues to boost shares and euro | Business | The Guardian Global stock markets and euro rise after ECB president Mario Draghi's ambitious plan to keep the eurozone together

Democrats parade Osama bin Laden's corpse as their proudest achievement | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk It's one thing for Democrats to fete Obama's tougher-than-thou national security credentials, but this ghoulish jingoism is warped

Yosemite hantavirus claims third victim as park moves to warn thousands | Science | guardian.co.uk Up to 10,000 guests at popular national park may have been exposed to rodent-borne illness for which there is no cure

Gallup Poll Shows Bump In Approval For Obama After Convention

Gabby Giffords Leads DNC In Pledge Of Allegiance | TPM LiveWire
Jennifer Granholm Brings The House Down Defending Auto Rescue | TPM2012
CHART: The Racial Makeup Of Obama, Romney Presidential Coalitions | TPM2012 (Republicans = old white people)
Balloon Juice » Politics is local Let’s raise a glass to David Nelson and all the middle-class journalists who show up everyday and do their fucking jobs. And let not the high-priced fellatio of the Beltway gigolos reflect poorly on their honorable profession.
Balloon Juice » Master of Disaster When Romney loses an election that a Republican could win, it will be due to a combination of his achingly stupid campaign advisors and his experience at Bain. It’s so goddam obvious that a candidate of the party that used “support the troops” as a cudgel for 8 years has to mention and thank them in his speech ... he just can’t get over his years of being head prick at the prick factory
Frederick Douglass and Voter Fraud - NYTimes.com Give people a choice: take the money and just not vote, or travel miles without easy transportation to obtain a driver’s license they do not need. It’s their “liberty”; let them decide how best to use it. Perhaps they will forget their history as much as the Republican Party seems to wish the nation would ... Douglass saw himself as a founder of that party, but only many years after a group of English antislavery friends purchased his freedom in 1846 for £150 ($711 at the time in American dollars)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Turns out, it was all a big misunderstanding After being summoned to court by a federal judge, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted on Friday backed away from his order that would have banned counties from planning for early voting. ("bench warrant" got his attention)
Romney Endorses Ultraconservative Congressman Rep. Steve King takes a hard line on issues like abortion and Islam.The Obama campaign seizes opportunity to cast Romney as extreme on social issues

Obama's joy turns sour as weak jobs figures threaten election chances | World news | guardian.co.uk Data that shows US economy added just 96,000 jobs in August cast shadow over buoyant convention performance in Charlotte
America's Hidden Austerity Program - NYTimes.com (millions of jobs lost to Republican austerity)
Cleaning Up the Economy - NYTimes.com
Politicians To Blame For Weak Job Growth, Economists Say ("politicians" = "Republicans")
Krugman: Politicians 'Quick To Seize On Research That Suits Their Preconceptions' Economists frequently blame politicians for the nation's unemployment problem, but Paul Krugman says economists themselves deserve some blame.
Mark Gongloff: Labor Force Participation Rate Lowest In Three Decades, Though Despair Doesn't Explain It All

Men and Women Really Do See Things Differently Females are better at discriminating among colors, researchers say, while males excel at tracking fast-moving objects and discerning detail from a distance—evolutionary adaptations possibly linked to our hunter-gatherer past.

Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn convicted in child sex abuse scandal - KansasCity.com Torrence sentenced Finn to two years of probation then suspended the sentence, meaning that if Finn completes the unsupervised probation without any new incidents happening, his criminal record will be expunged.
TIL the U.S. Department of Education prohibits schools from spending its funding on D.A.R.E. because the program is completely ineffective in reducing alcohol and drug use : todayilearned

"They Won't Magically Turn You Into A Lustful Cockmonster": Chris Kluwe Explains Gay Marriage To The Politician Who Is Offended By An NFL Player Supporting It (great fucking letter to a bigot: "lustful cockmonster")

Owners Lose Possessions After Home Near Twentynine Palms Is Mistakenly Foreclosed « CBS Los Angeles (no consequences for stealing a home and all that was in it)

Wanted: Negotiating Text of Trans-Pacific Partnership. Reward Offered.
Amazon gets down and Dickensian with serialised stories for Kindle | Books | guardian.co.uk Online retailer takes a leaf out of Charles Dickens' book by publishing fiction ranging from romance to crime in instalments
Google's new "best of" feature is awesome! : movies (+There is an option you can use so google won't redirect you to your ip region: www.google.com/ncr /ncr stands for "no country redirect"

090612
US plan to hold Afghan prisoners after transfer 'breaches deal with Kabul' | World news | The Guardian Afghan system of indefinite detention also condemned as 'setting a dangerous precedent'
Pakistan orders Save the Children foreign workers to leave | UK news | The Guardian Aid group is accused of being used as cover for US spies while they were hunting for Osama bin Laden

ECB introduces unlimited bond-buying in boldest attempt yet to end euro crisis | Business | The Guardian Central bank governor Mario Draghi overcomes Germany's fears over inflation to announce new intervention in debt markets

Human Rights Watch accuses US of covering up extent of waterboarding | World news | guardian.co.uk The organisation alleges that opponents of Muammar Gaddafi were subjected to the torture at secret CIA prisons - "The allegations cast serious doubts on prior assertions from US government officials that only three people were waterboarded in US custody," said HRW. "They also reflect just how little the public still knows about what went on in the US secret detention programme." (oh, they've been lying?)
Waterboarding Accusations: Human Rights Watch Reports More Brutal Treatment In Secret CIA-Run Prisons, Cooperation With Moammar Gaddafi
More Information On Government Surveillance Of Americans Needed, Group Says

Civil rights under threat as states plan assault on anti-discrimination laws | Law | guardian.co.uk Activists cry foul as Republican-led legislatures plan showdown with US government over key provision of Voting Rights Act

Ben Swann, Local Ohio Reporter, Grills Obama On 'Kill List' (video) Noting that the administration has killed U.S. citizens such as Anwar Al-Awlaki, he played a clip of himself asking Obama, "How do you utilize that power ... to assassinate even US citizens?" Obama replied that he had never even confirmed the existence of the list.

Obama, Seeking Re-Election, Asks for Patience - NYTimes.com - 4 Years Later, Scarred but Still Confident (largely self-inflicted)
Covering the convention coverage - Lawyers, Guns & Money : The consensus on Clinton’s speech last night seems to fall between “world-historically awesome” and “the speech by which all future speech will be judged and found wanting.” I wouldn’t expect anything less from the best Republican President in recent memory
Hullabaloo President Clinton's biggest dud of an applause line last night was when he mentioned Simpson-Bowles. It was stone cold silent in the room. I hope the President noticed and has adjusted this accordingly:
Bill Clinton’s Forgotten Class War -- Daily Intel - Ground zero of opposition was the Wall Street Journal editorial page, which fashioned a running graphic for its crusade against Clinton’s plan, entitled “The Class Warfare Economy,” decorated with an illustration of a guillotine. (they've always played this game)
Political Animal - Bipartisanship and Amnesia So much for Obama’s refusal to “work across the aisle.” But the fiction that Republicans were happy to work with that nice man Bill Clinton is equally bizarre. (they were all playing pokemon during those years, or drinking too much)
Bill Clinton: wonk-in-chief “People ask me all the time how we delivered four surplus budgets,” former President Bill Clinton said on Wednesday night. “What new ideas did we bring? I always give a one-word answer: arithmetic.”
Political Animal - To the Aid of Medicaid As Clinton notes, much of Medicaid’s spending goes to nursing home care for seniors, and there’s no way Romney and Ryan can cut the program by a third without hurting the seniors who account for the plurality of Medicaid’s spending.

The Real Mystery of Paul Ryan's Marathon Time - James Fallows - The Atlantic (why did he lie? does he lie all the time?)
How Fast Can Paul Ryan Run a Marathon? : The New Yorker
Does it Matter if Paul Ryan Misstated his Marathon Time? : The New Yorker - In the marathon in question, he finished in nineteen hundred and ninetieth place, out of just thirty-two hundred and seventy-seven male runners.

Bill Clinton DNC 2012 Speech - Bill Clinton's Speech at 2012 Democratic Convention - Esquire
Why Bill Clinton's Speeches Succeed - James Fallows - The Atlantic Because he treats listeners as if they are smart.
Bill Clinton Shows How It's Done - Molly Ball - The Atlantic In an era of substance-free rhetoric, Clinton blew away the Democratic convention with a dense, didactic act of political persuasion.
Bill Clinton — No, He Wasn’t This Good Before | Recess Appointment
Dems Mimic Clinton Attack On Romney’s Massive Medicaid Cuts | TPMDC
AP Fact-Checks Accurate Clinton Comment By Invoking Monica Lewinsky | Blog | Media Matters for America
AP Defends Decision To Fact-Check Bill Clinton Using Monica Lewinsky
FactCheck.org : Our Clinton Nightmare
PolitiFact | Bill Clinton says Democratic presidents top Republican presidents in job creation
How the Media Encourage Republican Obstructionism - Jamison Foser The Associated Press is taking some heat for a “Fact Check” piece about Bill Clinton’s convention speech that succeeds mostly in demonstrating the wire service’s obliviousness to the meaning of the words “fact” and “check.” ... And that’s why the AP’s false equivalence is so much worse than its cheap shot about Lewinsky. By claiming that both parties are equally ideological and partisan, they create an environment that encourages the GOP’s partisanship and extremism. They help drag the national political discourse further to the right. It’s the opposite of “balance.” And it’s a clear falsehood, which is something you should generally avoid in a “fact check” article. (the gatekeepers of the facts)
Daily Kos: Matt Apuzzo Fact Check This> 2009 Paul Ryan Plotted To Sabotage America's Economy
Alexandra Petri on Bill Clinton DNC Speech - The Cats and Kittens Come Out for Bill Clinton - Esquire At this point, if they turned The Washington Post into a multilevel tool-and-die plant, they'd be doing democracy a favor. Either that, or simply put the whole thing on a big old trailer and haul it up the dark and forbidding roads until you can find a spot where it can be placed along the shore of...

Hullabaloo John Lewis, American hero (and voter suppression)

alicublog - Not Just A Fluke - The numbers show that females aren’t fooled by the phony “war on women.” In 2008, 57 percent of women voted for Barack Obama; 43 percent voted for McCain. The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll shows a substantial shift: Fewer than half of female registered voters now support Obama—he’s at 49 against Romney’s 43 percent.. (Rapepublican spin)
From “slut” to speaker - Salon.com Sandra Fluke's unlikely journey culminates with a speech at the DNC. Why she matters
Sandra Fluke Speech at Convention - Sandra Fluke DNC 2012 Reaction - Esquire
Sandra Fluke Democratic Convention 2012 - The War Against Women Becomes a Battle for November - Esquire
BPS Research Digest: At what age do girls prefer pink?

Barney Frank on Economic Collapse of 2009 - Barney Frank Economy Interview - Esquire - And the really odd thing, as Chris Hayes pointed out on MSNBC on Wednesday night, is that nobody on the podium here, except for Elizabeth Warren, seems to be truly channelling the righteous anger that should burn in this country for at least as long as those avaricious bastards spent stealing it.
Matt Taibbi Pushes Back Against Dan Primack The Matt Taibbi-Dan Primack smackdown of 2012
11 Things The GOP Doesn't Want You To Know About The Deficit
As America’s Middle Class Shrinks, P&G Adopts “Hourglass” Strategy | Daily Ticker - Yahoo! Finance (see, no middle class)

GOP congressman likens government student loans to Holocaust | TPM2012 - Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) (Peabrain)
Texas School ID Tracking Chips Protested By Parents and Students (of course it would be Texas)

Guys, take note: Male birth control pill may be ready soon, says Texas A&M professor

Sir Tim Berners-Lee accuses government of 'draconian' internet snooping - Telegraph The inventor of the world wide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has accused the government of invading the privacy by monitoring internet use
FCC mobile broadband speed tests planned: September 21st open meeting

Nokia Lumina 920: Most Innovative Smartphone In The World?
Galaxy S III Sales Trump iPhone To Becomes Best-Selling U.S. Smartphone
Kindle Fire HD: Amazon Unveils New Tablet With High-Res Screen, Lowers Price And Boosts Performance Of Old Tablet
Apple iTV In 2012? This Report Says 'No'

090512
U.S. drone attack kills 6 suspected militants in Yemen - chicagotribune.com The drone fired eight missiles at a house where fighters were thought to be hiding in the Wadi al-Ain area of Hadramout province, a witness told Reuters. Eight people managed to escape, the witness added. (drone-boy at work making enemies around the world)
Abdullah al-Senussi: spy with secrets of Lockerbie bombing sent back to Libya | World news | guardian.co.uk Officials in Mauritania return Senussi to Libya six months after he slipped into their country on false passport
Marching Marikana miners threaten to kill colleagues who work on | World news | guardian.co.uk Tensions run high as thousands of strikers gather in streets of South African town where police killed 34

European Central Bank bond purchase plan: It makes sense once you see it's an ECB power grab Mario Draghi is out with a new European Central Bank plan that, on its face, doesn't make sense.
George Osborne to chair growth committee | Politics | guardian.co.uk Chancellor's cabinet sub-committee will be dedicated to removal of perceived obstacles to economic recovery (not real obstacles, of course)

Obama campaign brags about its whistleblower persecutions | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Excuse me if I don't join in Democrats' sycophantic cheerleading for an Obama presidency that has shredded laws and liberties (more "suspects" murdered)

NYPD secret police spying of Muslims ends New Jersey surveillance | World news | guardian.co.uk The secret demographics unit's controversial surveillance practices turned up no leads or cases in more than six years

Democrat national convention live: Elizabeth Warren's speech | World news | guardian.co.uk Elizabeth Warren and Bill Clinton are highlights on the second day of the Democratic national convention in Charlotte
Welcome To Charlotte, Where Everyone Wants To Talk Social Issues | TPM2012 With the establishment GOP and its nominee, Mitt Romney, trying to keep a lid on its social views, Democrats see a window of opportunity on same-sex marriage and abortion rights
Obama’s Non-Disappointing Presidency -- Daily Intel

Democrats Efforts To Reinsert 'God' And 'Jerusalem' Into Platform Met With Loud Opposition (neo-cons and Israel win)
Oh, God. - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Paul Ryan, among many others, is evidently dismayed that the 2012 Democratic Party platform has performed a third-trimester abortion on Baby Jesus, whereas the GOP platform has been cleverly inscribed on a tortilla miraculously bearing the toasted image of the Virgin Mary. (use of God in convention platforms)

Michelle Obama Speech: Being President 'Reveals Who You Are'
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Shorter Michelle Obama: Your move, Ann Romney. When you walk through that door of opportunity, you don’t slam it shut behind you.
Balloon Juice » Best tweet from last night Atrios on Michelle Obama’s speech:

Barney Frank: In Crisis Time, Dems Worked With Bush -- But GOP Shunned Obama | TPM LiveWire "Unfortunately, from the very beginning -- look, look at the contrast. George Bush came to us on the Democratic side in late '08 and said, we're in a crisis, we need your help -- and we gave it to him, very openly, very fully. Then Obama comes in to try to deal with the terrible situation he inherited from bush and the republican media went into full partisan attack. [Senate Republican Leader] Mitch McConnell announcing his number one goal was to defeat the president. I don't think in the end the timing, unfortunately, would have helped a great deal."

Hackers Say They Nabbed Romney's Tax Records, Plan to Release: An anonymous individual or group is alleging that they have gained "all available 1040 tax forms" of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney by accessing computers in the Franklin office of the professional services firm PWC : politics (probably fake/troll/extortion attempt)
Mitt Romney's Swiss Bank Account Hammered By Democratic Convention Speakers
Democratic National Convention 2012: September 5 In Charlotte (LIVE UPDATES) Michelle Obama wowed the crowd with her remarks on Tuesday, while Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was targeted with criticism on issues ranging from health care to his Swiss bank accounts over the course of Tuesday evening.
DNC: Democrats hit Mitt Romney hard on the first night of the Charlotte convention. - Slate Magazine
Hullabaloo Chuck Todd et al are depressed because the campaign is so "joyless" (not enough Bush-boy)
CBS Hires Frank Luntz, The Man Who Reportedly Shepherded The Plan To Defeat Obama | Blog | Media Matters for America (of course they would hire a big fat liar)
Limbaugh: Obama Isn't "Down With The Struggle" Because He "Doesn't Have Slave Blood" | Video | Media Matters for America

Since When Did Paul Ryan Become a Liar? -- Daily Intel - The thing about Ryan is that he has always resided in a counter-factual universe. He is a product of the hermetically sealed right-wing subculture. Many of the facts taken for granted by mainstream economists have never penetrated his brain
Exclusive: Paul Ryan Quietly Requested Obamacare Cash | The Nation
Mountain man - Lawyers, Guns & Money (doubles-down on his achievement lies)

The Political Education of Elizabeth Warren Supporters of the Massachusetts Democrat thought she had a lock on Ted Kennedy’s old Senate seat. ?But the campaign has proved that’s far from true.
The Good Girls Revolt: What's changed since the women of Newsweek stood up to their bosses?
Silent Spring turns 50: Biographer William Souder clears up myths about Rachel Carson. - Slate Magazine How the 50-year-old campaign against Silent Spring still distorts environmental debates
Sarah Blustain for Democracy Journal: Mère Knows Best Is the American mother really a slave to her child? Is breast-feeding really anti-feminist? The newest salvos in the Mommy Wars, French edition.
Ariel Levy on Naomi Wolf's New Book, 'Vagina' | The Hairpin the vagina is, or ought to be, the rightful site of mission control.
Fifty Shades of domestic violence, and yet some call it romance - The Irish Times - Wed, Sep 05, 2012 Strip away all the talk of mummy porn and female empowerment and the whips, chains and nipple clamps, and what you’re left with is the story of a damaged bully who manipulates, sexually tortures and spends his way into the life of an inexperienced young woman. The books’ singularly charmless hero instructs her what to wear and what, when and how much to eat – as he goes about eroding the boundaries of what she considers acceptable physical force.

There’s pathetic and then there is this. - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Balloon Juice » Anybody See Matt Bai at the DNC, Kindly Punch Him in the Neck NYTimes stenographer Bai finds the whole “soliciting votes from the—shudder—‘middle class’” idea distasteful (just listen to your betters)

How MLB Announcers Favor American Players Over Foreign Ones - Adam Felder & Seth Amitin - The Atlantic An analysis of 200 televised pro baseball games reveals broadcasters' hidden biases.

Last Ounce of Courage trailer on Vimeo "Last Ounce of Courage," is an intergenerational story of a grieving father inspired by his grandson to take a stand for faith and freedom against a tide of apathy and vanishing liberty.

Arizona immigration law's most contentious section upheld in US court | World news | guardian.co.uk Ruling clears way for law as federal judge allows provision that requires officers to question suspected illegal immigrants

On the association between glioma, wireless ... [Pathophysiology. 2012] - PubMed - NCBI In conclusion use of mobile and cordless phone increased the risk for glioma with highest OR for ipsilateral use, latency >10 years and third tertile of cumulative use in hours. In total, the risk was highest in the age group <20 years for first use of a wireless phone.
Today’s falsehood: Correlation Implies/Does Not Imply Causality – Greg Laden's Blog

gangnam style mom (?????) "umma gangnam style" - YouTube

Nokia Lumia 920 official: Dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 CPU, 8MP PureView camera, Windows Phone 8 (video) -- Engadget

090412
Eschaton: Dire Unemployment in Greece is 23.1% Unemployment in Spain is 24.6%. It's pretty fucking dire.


Republican Party Platforms: Republican Party Platform of 1956 (far left-wing Dems of today)

Balloon Juice » Contrarian, Wanker and/or Idiot Alessandra Stanley at the Times (via): You can agree with everything that Rachel Maddow or Ed Schultz say on MSNBC and still oppose their right to say it. - I wonder how far your head has to be stuck up your own ass to write that. And if you’ve ever wondered whether the editors at Times are worth a damn, here’s your answer

Eschaton: Well Okay Then Barbour offered a brief assessment of the Republican National Convention. “While I would love for [Chris] Christie to put a hot poker to Obama’s butt,” said Barbour of the RNC keynote speaker, “I thought he did what he was supposed to do.”

Mr. Bernanke’s Next Task - NYTimes.com (do nothing, again)

Vitamin D may increase IVF success – depending on race - health - 31 August 2012 - New Scientist
A virus that kills cancer: the cure that's waiting in the coldc - Telegraph Sitting in a refrigerator in a Swedish laboratory is what promises to be a cheap and effective cancer treatment. So why are the trials to bring it to market not going ahead?


A.C.'s Golden Nugget in legal war with $1.5 million winners (Christie-land)
Skeptic Money » Blog Archive » Bill Nye Really Doesn’t Understand Science – Ken Ham - You make sense but does your money?

9GAG "Repost Machine" Explained : 4chan

090312
Chicks Dig the Uniform — Crooked Timber My husband, E, has been deployed to Afghanistan for six months. He’s in Helmand province and spends most of his time working with the Afghanistan National Army, near Camp Bastion.


Bin Laden Book’s Navy Author Was Slighted, Account Says - NYTimes.com The former Navy SEALs member who is a co-author of a first-person account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden was willing to break “the code of silence” honored by many commandos because of “bad blood” with his former unit, the elite SEAL Team 6, according to a new e-book written by other Special Operations veterans.

Team Obama Thinks They've Already Won Major Garrett reports President Obama's team "conveys such a visceral sense of self-confidence that even protestations to the contrary take on air of comically profane absurdity." I can't think of a presidential race determined by paid media after Labor Day." "That's Axelrod's understated way of saying... that he thinks the election is already over
Sept. 2: Split Verdict in Polls on Romney Convention Bounce - NYTimes.com This could change as we get more data, but for the time being it looks like Mr. Romney’s bounce will be a bit shy of that 4-point threshold. Thus, the forecast has moved toward Mr. Obama over the past few days; it now gives him a 74.5 percent chance of winning the Electoral College, his highest figure to date.

California Democrat Compares GOP to Nazis He said Rep. Paul Ryan told "a bold-faced lie and he doesn't care that it was a lie. That was Goebbels, the big lie."
Jon Stewart Offers Up Hilarious Parody Version Of Romney’s Biographical Film | Mediaite
‘4 Years Ago’ Could Work for Obama | TPM Editors Blog
Barack Obama and Bill Clinton’s Quasi-friendship : The New Yorker Two Presidents find a mutual advantage.
An Infantilizing Speech | The American Conservative
As Republican convention emphasizes diversity, racial incidents intrude - The Washington Post “The demographics race we’re losing badly,” said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.). “We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.”
» National Empty Chair Day (photos from around country) - Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion (no Republicans, we're laughing AT you)

As Romney and Ryan lie with abandon, how should journalists navigate post-truth politics? | Grist (by reporting Republican lies and "truth")
Everybody Does It - NYTimes.com That seems to be the new Beltway line, now that the shock over the lie-fest in Tampa has died down a bit. At the Washington Post (except at Ezra’s blog), at Politico, and so on, it’s excuse time — sure, Ryan and Romney told a few whoppers, but isn’t that just how politics is? - This is something new in American politics, and everyone trying to deny that fact is in effect an enabler.
The true, the false, and the misleading: Grading Paul Ryan’s convention speech.
Rosie Ruiz Republicans - NYTimes.com she has symbolized a particular kind of fraud, in which people claim credit for achieving things they have not, in fact, achieved. And these days Paul Ryan is the Rosie Ruiz of American politics.
Britain's Paul Ryan - NYTimes.com (stupidest person on the planet inflicting mass pain unnecessarily)
Gerald Skoning: We've Got Labor Day. Why Not Corporation Day? - WSJ.com It's high time we honored the industrialist pioneers, business barons and tycoons—the job creators—of our nation. (WSJ wants to honor "job creators" and super-rich people who have stolen your money)
The Rust Belt in a Nutshell - Lawyers, Guns & Money (Cleveland housing market neutron-bombed)

The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Republicans and Abortion: A Brief History

Political Animal - Sun Myung Moon and His Peculiar Empire
Balloon Juice » Key Founding “Family Values” Leader Joins the Choir Invisible

The Washington Monthly - The Magazine - America’s Best-Bang-for-the-Buck Colleges
“Most institutions do not even have grades of A with multiple pluses after it.” - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money One the one hand, the context provided by this NYT story about the Harvard cheating scandal Rob recently discussed does not…make the accused students more sympathetic:
Observations on film art : Is there a blog in this class? 2012 (get your film education here)

In the Los Angeles Area, Bans Are Hot - NYTimes.com

Teen Girl Allegedly Gang Raped on Cruise Vacation Knew Just How to Punish Her Abusers | CafeMom Articles When 54 percent of sexual assault cases go unreported, it's encouraging to hear that this brave girl stood up for herself.


090212
Tony Blair should face trial over Iraq war, says Desmond Tutu | Politics | The Observer Anti-apartheid hero attacks former prime minister over 'double standards on war crimes' (you can add Obama to that list)
U.S Halts Training Of Some Afghanistan Forces In Light Of Green-On-Blue Violence (better "vetting")
Syrian rebels 'seize air defence base' | World news | guardian.co.uk Fighters take anti-aircraft rockets and 16 captives in attack on air defence facility in east, says UK-based group
Mexico Shooting: Probe Into U.S. Officials Shooting Reveals Key Details
Catholic church '200 years out of date', says archbishop | World news | guardian.co.uk Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini urged pope to admit mistakes and begin 'journey of transformation' in interview before his death
South Africa drops miners' murder charges – for now | World news | The Guardian Prosecutors drop charges against 270 miners accused of killing striking colleagues, but say they may be recharged later
Pakistani mullah accused of trying to frame girl in blasphemy case | World news | The Guardian Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti is arrested after witnesses say he added pages of Qur'an to girl's bag ... But while the dramatic turn of events delighted the girl's supporters, a prosecution lawyer insisted he would press ahead with the case against her.

Obama's justice department grants final immunity to Bush's CIA torturers | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk By closing two cases of detainees tortured to death, Obama has put the US beyond any accountability under the rule of law
How the US and Israeli justice systems whitewash state crimes | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Courts are supposed to check the abuse of executive power, not cravenly serve it. But in the US and Israel, that is now the case

Paul Ryan’s Large Lies and One Big Truth -- Daily Intel - Here was Ryan actually assailing not the method but the goal, implicitly conceding his position that health insurance is not an entitlement but a nice thing everybody would like but not everybody can have, like a beach house.
Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital | Politics News | Rolling Stone How the GOP presidential candidate and his private equity firm staged an epic wealth grab, destroyed jobs – and stuck others with the bill
Republicans want to build a time machine - Salon.com But don't be fooled: Republicans aren't just nostalgic for 1950s-style social barriers. They want to rebuild them
Hullabaloo QOTD: Gloria Borger - “In 1968, France was a dangerous place to be for a 21-year-old American, but Mitt Romney was right in the middle of it.”

John Cusack Interviews Law Professor Jonathan Turley About Obama Administration’s War On the Constitution Three markers — the Nobel Prize acceptance speech, the escalation speech at West Point, and the recent speech by Eric Holder — crossed that Rubicon line for me...
Barack Obama Promised A New Kind Of Politics, But Played The Same Old Game
Chris Christie Speech Blasted As 'Off-Key' By Chris Wallace

Jon Stewart Celebrates Clint Eastwood's 'Fistful Of Awesome' While Tearing Romney's Speech Apart (VIDEO)
Karl Rove's Donor Plan Could Run Afoul Of IRS, Congressional Report Suggests

Bain Capital and other firms subpoenaed in New York tax probe | World news | guardian.co.uk In the midst of a heated election, Mitt Romney's former company is among a dozen firms facing scrutiny over tax practices
Noahpinion: Niall, the British Empire is over. Accept it. (also, you are insane)
We’re Going To Tax Their Ass Off! « Corey Robin
Canada Proves Conservatives Wrong by Cutting Corporate Taxes By 30% and Still No Jobs

Big Chem, Big Harm? - NYTimes.com - I used to be skeptical of risks from chemicals like endocrine disruptors that are all around us. What could be safer than canned food? I figured that opposition came from tree-hugging Luddites prone to conspiracy theories. Yet following the script of Big Tobacco a generation ago, Big Chem has, so far, blocked any serious regulation of these endocrine disruptors, so called because they play havoc with hormones in the body’s endocrine system ...Yet, a few years ago, I began to read the peer-reviewed journal articles, and it became obvious that the opposition to endocrine disruptors is led by toxicologists, endocrinologists, urologists and pediatricians. These are serious scientists, yet they don’t often have the ear of politicians or journalists. (Kristoff realizes the dirty fucking hippies were right and he was wrong)
Dirty Medicine - Mariah Blake How medical supply behemoths stick it to the little guy, making America’s health care system more dangerous and expensive.
Epigenetics gives clues to human cancer susceptibility - health - 02 September 2012 - New Scientist IT'S not what you've got but how you use it. Humans and chimps may share most of their genes, but humans are far more susceptible to diseases like cancer. Factors that influence the way the genes are read could explain why.

Shulamith Firestone, RIP - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Sadly, the Times published an awful obituary of Firestone, which I think suggests that most people see her and radical feminism as a relic today. A sign of the times. A bad sign for that matter. Also a sign of the times–evidently The Dialectic of Sex isn’t even in print
Firestone Theater » I Blame The Patriarchy
The Dialectic of Sex | Jacobin
Eulogy for a Sex Radical: Shulamith Firestone's Forgotten Feminism - Emily Chertoff - The Atlantic
and all that Chas...: Why I Still Think Shulamith Was Right

Don Hilbig: Augusta Golf Club wrong to give in to pressure We are different, and it's not the power but the camaraderie that brings us together. Women do not fit in, and we resent them either overtly or subconsciously for their unwanted intrusion (Don Hilbig, sexist pig, speaks)
Why Buy The Cock When You Can Get the Wake-up Call For Free? The Sequel - Lawyers, Guns & Money (March 2007)

1930s-40s in Color - a set on Flickr

Tom Cruise's Scientology Ties: Former Girlfriend Reveals Details Of Wife-Auditioning Process

T-Mobile to advertise to unlocked iPhone customers, sway them away from AT&T promising $1500 savings over 2 years | 9to5Mac

Microsoft will allow downgrades from Windows 8 to Windows 7, Vista - Computerworld available only in Windows 8 Pro
US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU#636312 - Oracle Java JRE 1.7 Expression.execute() and SunToolkit.getField() fail to restrict access to privileged code
Oracle Java Runtime Environment 7u7 Downloads
New vulnerabilities found in latest Java update | MacFixIt - CNET Reviews
How to disable Java in IE9

090112
Joint Chiefs Chair: Israeli Attack On Iran Would Only Delay Nuke Program, Undo Coalition ... “I don’t want to be complicit if they [Israel] choose to do it.” | ThinkProgress (irresistable to the neo-con wingers running Israel)
Suicide blasts kill at least 12 near US base in Afghanistan | World news | guardian.co.uk Scores injured as fuel tanker driven by attacker explodes in Wardak province and second attacker detonates explosive vest
Syrian rebels 'seize air defence base' | World news | guardian.co.uk Fighters take anti-aircraft rockets and 16 captives in attack on air defence facility in east, says UK-based group
Brazil asks Venezuela to investigate village massacre claims | World news | guardian.co.uk Brazil asks Caracas for help in determining whether gold miners killed more than 70 members of Yanomami tribe from helicopter

A 12-Year View of the Global Pulse of Fire - NYTimes.com

chart: Republican Presidents' Depressing Record On Wage Growth | ThinkProgress (and Obama has done an even better job)

The G.O.P. Fact Vacuum - NYTimes.com “Mitt Romney’s statements have been judged Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire 46 percent of the time, versus only 29 percent for President Obama. In the Pants on Fire category alone, Romney is more than four times as likely to suffer trouser immolation than the president. Nearly 1 in 10 statements by Romney earned flaming slacks, versus 1 out of every 50 for Obama.”

Two Polls Show No Bounce for Romney

Stuck in a Room with Mitt Romney by Paul Constant - Seattle News - The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper What It’s Like to Be Trapped with 50,000 Republicans at the RNC - basically one gigantic roach motel ... The night of Paul Ryan’s speech paled in comparison with Sarah Palin’s debut, dropping about 41 percent in the ratings from 2008,
Romney Campaign Embraces Eastwood's Speech: 'Classic,' 'Descriptive,' 'Spoke From The Heart' | ThinkProgress
Clint Eastwood’s chair speech delights Jon Stewart | TPM2012
Kristol Blasts Romney For Ignoring Afghanistan, U.S. Troops In Convention Speech | ThinkProgress Nor did he utter a word of appreciation to the troops fighting there, or to those who have fought there. Nor for that matter were there thanks for those who fought in Iraq, another conflict that went unmentioned.
Paul Ryan: Marathon Time Claim Not True walked back comments the VP nominee made about running a marathon. (don't call it a lie)
Balloon Juice » Runnin’ With the Devil (just not the details) These people will lie about anything and everything. Period. There is no other way to describe people like this other than sociopaths.
Balloon Juice » He meant go to your other home So your New Orleans House is flooded. Big deal! Just go to your lake house or your house on the shore and call 211 from there. Who has only one?
Bill Maher Takes On Dinesh D’Souza Over Anti-Obama Documentary 2016 | Mediaite (hack demolished)
Cenk Uygur Destroys Anti-Obama Author Dinesh D’Souza | Mediaite = newly-released hackumentary 2016: Obama’s America,

The Legitimate Children of Rape : The New Yorker Writing in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Dr. Felicia H. Stewart and Dr. James Trussell have estimated that there are twenty-five thousand rape-related pregnancies each year in the United States. (powerful and depressing +Augustine saw a noble purpose in rape: for keeping women humble, letting them know “whether previously they were arrogant with regard to their virginity or over-fond of praise, or whether they would have become proud had they not suffered violation.” - yes, rape keeps women in their place)
Maryland Congressman Says 'Few Pregnancies' Result From Rape | ThinkProgress Another House Republican is raising eyebrows for suggesting that women who are raped are less likely to become pregnant — just weeks after Rep. Todd Akin (R-MS) sparked controversy for his “legitimate rape” remark ... Research from 2003 “found that a single act of rape was more than twice as likely to result in pregnancy than an act of consensual sex.”

RNC Delegate Offended By Presence of 'Mexican' At Disney's Epcot Center | ThinkProgress (who was actually an American, but not white enough)

How Romney/Ryan Would Undermine Churches And Faith-Based Charities | ThinkProgress Ryan has said local charities and churches should provide for needy communities instead of the federal government. But there is a flaw this plan: churches and faith-based charities, which offer roughly $50 billion worth of services a year to the poor and needy, often depend on government funds to operate. Catholic Charities, for example, is one of the largest charities in America, and gets over half of its operating budget from federal funds. (which they use to forbid abortion and birth-control)

The Legitimate Children of Rape : The New Yorker

Thalidomide victims say drug company's apology is an insult | Society | The Observer Grünenthal Group's apology to victims of morning sickness drug 'meaningless without financial compensation' ("we're sorry you have no arm because of our drug")
First Death Is Reported From New Pig Flu Strain - NYTimes.com The first human death from a new strain of pig flu was reported Friday by state health officials in Ohio.

Voter Fraud: Hard to Identify - WSJ.com Meanwhile, researchers studying voter fraud—a term used to refer to cases in which one voter impersonates another at the poll to cast a fraudulent vote—say they have so far found little direct evidence that the practice is common enough to affect the results of elections, even close ones. (WSJ strains mightily, can't justify voter-suppression laws)

Mitt Romney Slams Obama On Climate Change In Convention Speech
Antarctic Methane: A New Factor in the Climate Equation Climate scientists have long fretted about the hundreds of billions of tons of methane frozen under the floor of the Arctic Ocean. If the water warms enough, some of that methane could escape (Republicans don't believe in methane, either)
Thousands exposed to deadly mouse-borne virus in US | World news | guardian.co.uk Six people staying at Yosemite national park in California have contracted the illness, which has claimed two lives - Up to 12,000 visitors to Yosemite national park in California may have been exposed to a deadly mouse-borne virus that has already claimed two lives
BBC Nature - Birds hold 'funerals' for dead

Benedict Groeschel, NY Priest, Apologizes For Suggesting Child Abuse Sex Victims Seduce The Clergy after coming under criticism for saying that priests accused of child sex abuse are often seduced by their accusers and that a first-time offender should not go to jail. (Roman Catholics and how they think)
David Kappheim Told Girlfriend He Would 'Kill Her' Because She Is Liberal, Florida Police Say (listened to Fox news)
Victoria Jackson Sounds Off On Todd Akin's Rape And Abortion Comments former "Saturday Night Live" star and conservative activist Victoria Jackson said on Wednesday that if she were raped she would have the baby because it "would be a blessing," noting that the baby "has its own DNA" and is "not the father's DNA." (weak on genetics, among other things)

Feds shut down criminal investigation of Arpaio, Thomas; no charges to be filed d the allegations that were investigated -- civil-rights violations, misuse of public money, perjury -- and said prosecution was declined because of a lack of evidence or an insurmountable burden of proof.

In Amish Hate-Crime Trial, a Look at Reclusive Sect - NYTimes.com (Times glosses over sexual abuse)

Henri 2, Paw de Deux - YouTube

EU funding 'Orwellian' artificial intelligence plan to monitor public for "abnormal behaviour" - Telegraph The European Union is spending millions of pounds developing "Orwellian" technologies designed to scour the internet and CCTV images for "abnormal behaviour". "Profiling whole populations instead of monitoring individual suspects is a sinister step in any society. "It's dangerous enough at national level, but on a Europe-wide scale the idea becomes positively chilling." ("abnormal" is anything we want, muhahaha)
Ireland calls for minimum Internet speeds of 30Mbps | Ars Technica EU states appear poised to blow US minimum levels of service out of the water. (we built it, but the monopolies killed it)

083112
Mexican court throws out presidential election challenge | World news | guardian.co.uk Unanimous ruling by electoral tribunal paves way for Enrique Peña Nieto to take reins as PRI party returns to power - Missing US journalist still alive, father believes

US justice department rules out prosecutions over CIA prison deaths | World news | guardian.co.uk Human rights group describes outcome as 'nothing short of a scandal' after investigation into treatment of detainees is closed (immunity from war-crimes)

Kevin Maurer: Why No Easy Day Matters

Al Gore Calls for End of Electoral College - National Journal

Eschaton: Condescending Mansplaining Generally we have the conservative "rich women should stay at home for the sake of the children, and poor women should work" worldview.
Romney on mothers: If Ann's work is harder and more important, why isn't she running for president? the Romney policy view here is clear—spending money to bolster the living standards of single mothers is fine, but they have to be made to engage in paid work in the labor market both for their own good and for the good of society. But then again, when Hilary Rosen said that lifelong homemaker Ann Romney "never worked a day in her life" the Romney team purported to be outraged on behalf of mothers everywhere.
World's richest woman says poor should have less fun, work harder - latimes.com Rinehart made her money the old-fashioned way: She inherited it. Her family iron ore prospecting fortune of $30.1 billion makes her Australia's wealthiest person and the richest woman on the planet.

Making student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy - Lawyers, Guns & Money : This unjust, inefficient, and socially destructive exception to the bankruptcy laws was extracted from Congress by shills for the financial industry, who in the 1970s began mounted an effective propaganda campaign based on classic Nixonland tropes about dirty hippies flipping off the man and then making millions off the system anyway etc. etc.

Mitt Romney Convention Speech - The Manufacturing of Willard Romney, Human, Is Here - Esquire

Romney Battles Americans’ Attachment to Obama - NYTimes.com
Mitt Romney Becomes First GOP Nominee Since 1952 Not To Mention War
Twitter / BarackObama: This seat's taken. ... (response to Eastwood's "empty chair")
Credibility - NYTimes.com In an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt last week, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said he’s run a sub-3:00 marathon. Runner’s World has been unable to find any marathon results by Ryan. Requests for more information from Ryan’s Washington and Wisconsin offices, and from the Romney-Paul campaign, have so far gone unanswered. (the rules have changed, or maybe they never applied to Republicans)
Paul Ryan's Grim Vision for America | Mother Jones
Romney Aides Scratch Their Heads Over Eastwood’s Speech - NYTimes.com “Not me,” said an exasperated-looking senior adviser, when asked who was responsible for Mr. Eastwood’s speech. In late-night interviews, aides variously called the speech “strange” and “weird.” One described it as “theater of the absurd.”
Twitter / DaddyFiles: If Clint Eastwood insisted ...
Mitt Romney Mormon Underwear - Mitt Romney Mormon Garments - Esquire
Occupy Unmakes Movie - At the Movies with Michele Bachmann and Occupy - Esquire
Labor Notes - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Mitt Romney gave a speech at their mine in Beallsville, Ohio earlier this month. Murray closed the mine for the day, docked the workers the day’s pay, and then forced them to attend the rally. Asked about this, Murray’s COO Robert Moore went full Orwell: “Attendance was mandatory but no one was forced to attend the event.”
Romney-Ryan details remain elusive: Just ask a surrogate - Fortune Features
Balloon Juice » Your Modern GOP in Three Clips

Federal judge orders Ohio to allow early voting on 3 days before Election Day - Toledo Blade “This Court notes that restoring in-person early voting to all Ohio voters through the Monday before Election Day does not deprive (military) voters from early voting,’’ wrote Judge Economus, a Clinton appointee. “Instead, and more importantly, it places all Ohio voters on equal standing. (more impossible logic from the voter-suppression anti-democratic party)

Political Animal - Representing Only Themselves (interesting history, significance of Zell Miller and Artur Davis as failed apostates; oh, the trials of the Blue Dogs)

Women for Abortion at Republican Convention - At Obamacare-Abortion Line, Common Ground's Gone - Esquire (Republican womens' response to every question: "it's morally wrong" +godbanging)

Steven Hirsch, Porn Producer, Tells Republicans To 'Catch Up... Sex Is Everywhere' Republicans reportedly watch more porn than Democrats. Eight of the top ten porn-watching states voted Republican in the last presidential election,
Behind the Latest Palin-Fox Fight -- Daily Intel - Palin earns roughly $1 million per year from Fox, making her the highest paid contributor at the network

Ben Bernanke defends Fed action and raises prospect of further stimulus | Business | guardian.co.uk (inaction, that is)

"You Sir Have the Boorish Manners of a Yalie" - Lawyers, Guns & Money : 125 students from the most privileged backgrounds in America couldn’t be bothered to do the work in (what I understand to have been) an introductory government course.

Facebook shares sink even lower as analysts fear more sell-offs | Technology | guardian.co.uk Company share price now worth less than half the $38 IPO price set in May as insiders may be preparing to sell more stock
400,000 apps in the App Store have never been downloaded says report 60% of the apps in the App Store have never been downloaded

083012
Egyptian leader stuns Iran with plea to back Syrian rebels | World news | The Guardian President Mohamed Morsi uses speech in Iran, which is key sponsor of Syrian regime, to assert Cairo's regional ambitions
South African miners charged with murder of colleagues shot by police | World news | guardian.co.uk Murder charges brought against 270 miners under obscure law previously used by apartheid government (they murdered themselves)

Bradley Manning trial date set for February 2013 | Media | guardian.co.uk WikiLeaks suspect faces charges that he 'aided the enemy' by leaking thousands of documents to the whistleblowing site (the "enemy" is you)

Isaac moves inland as residents blame upgraded levees for flooding | World news | guardian.co.uk New federal barrier that surrounds New Orleans may have done more harm than good, say locals as they confront clean-up

Barack Obama Reddit AMA Was Pretty Predictable -- Daily Intel
I am Barack Obama, President of the United States -- AMA : IAmA

The Federal Bailout That Saved Mitt Romney | Politics News | Rolling Stone Government documents prove the candidate's mythology is just that
Mitt Romney's Popularity Falls Before Republican Convention, Poll Finds According to the survey, Romney's favorability among Americans was down to 35 percent, versus 51 percent who have an unfavorable opinion of the GOP presidential nominee. Of those in the unfavorable category, 31 percent said they had "strongly" unfavorable opinions of Romney.

Psyche: Selected Fact (are lies the new truth? or will the lies themselves become the real news?)

Jim Morin Editorial Cartoon, August 30, 2012 on GoComics.com: We Built this (out of lies)

Paul Ryan Bets on the Ignorance of America -- Daily Intel
Paul Ryan fails -- the truth - The Plum Line - The Washington Post It was, by any reasonable standards, a staggering, staggering lie.(yeah, complete disconnect from his own reality)
Paul Ryan Address: Convention Speech Built On Demonstrably Misleading Assertions
Great Moments in CNN Euphemisms | TPM Editors Blog Although I marked at least seven or eight points I’m sure the fact checkers will have some opportunities to dispute if they want to go forward, I’m sure they will. As far as mitt romney’s campaign is concerned, paul ryan on this night delivered. (and so did you, CNN)
The Remarkable Achievement of Paul Ryan - Lawyers, Guns & Money : But the whole thing, which can be summarized as “keep your government hands off my Medicare, Barack Obama was a terrible president from 2001-2008, and strengthen the welfare state by ending it,” was a truly remarkable piece of work.
Wibbly-wobbly - NYTimes.com It wasn’t the biggest thing in Paul Ryan’s speech, but many people are wondering why Ryan keeps using the closed Janesville GM plant to illustrate the failure of Obama’s policy — when the plant actually closed under George W. Bush
Why (and How) Romney is Playing the Race Card - Ron Fournier - NationalJournal.com
“You’re not entitled to your own facts” vs. That’s your opinion. Kiss my ad. » Pressthink (press is confronted with either telling the truth or becoming irrelevant)
Bit by Bit It Takes Shape: Media Evolution for the 'Post-Truth' Age - James Fallows - The Atlantic
Mr. Ryan’s speech: Effective maybe, but definitely misleading - The Washington Post
Paul Ryan Convention Speech - Charles P. Pierce on Paul Ryan RNC Speech - Esquire
Paul Ryan Speech Fact Check - The Backlash to the Backlash to the Paul Ryan Speech - Esquire - There were some great congratulations in media circles over how swiftly the elite political press — and even some scurvy bloggish types — jumped all up in the grill of the zombie-eyed granny-starver Paul Ryan in his in his attempt on Wednesday night to surpass the current world land-speed record for Lies Told. Comes now, the backlash to the backlash.
Obama Goes After Neil Newhouse, Mitt Romney Pollster, Over Controversial Comment Speaking to a crowd in Virginia, Obama brought up the Romney camp's sustained attacks on his welfare waiver policy. The ads have been widely panned for being factually inaccurate.
Rick Santorum repeats inaccurate welfare attack on Obama - latimes.com

Florida Voter Registration Groups Win Major Victory As Judge Prepares To Block Draconian Law According to the Times-Union's review of state records, in the lead-up to elections in 2004 and 2008, the 13-month period between July 1 and August 1 of election year showed an average increase in registered Democrats of 209,425 voters. Over the same time between 2011 to 2012, registered Democrats increased by only 11,365 voters. It's easily enough to swing the election. (mission accomplished, no consequences)
John Kasich: 'We Have To Convince African Americans That They Can Start & Own Businesses'
Eschaton: The Majestic Dignity of the Fox News Contributor She is an attractive, energetic and engaging presence on the campaign trail. She is the type of woman that any man - corporate executive or not - would be proud to present as his wife. Juan Williams said that. All right. This is soooo fucking sexist.
Awash In Secret Donations, Republicans Reverse Support For Campaign Finance Disclosure
Eschaton: Chastening She blew up the world, with the help of your newspaper.
Political Animal - The Two Paul Ryans Cheer up, Peter. If Romney and Ryan win, and particularly if Republicans gain control of Congress, the campaign’s promises to protect Medicare from the mean old black man won’t matter at all.

Texas loses latest voter ID battle after judges strike down 'retrogressive' law | World news | guardian.co.uk Judges find that law requiring voters to present photo ID at the ballot box placed 'unforgiving burdens on the poor'
Many Suspected Ineligible CO Voters US Citizens - NYTimes.com

Catholic Priest the Rev. Benedict Groeschel Defends Child Sex Abusers, Sandusky - ABC News

State Supreme Court rules Colorado regents can't ban guns | Inside Higher Ed More than 200 campuses in six states currently allow concealed carry in some form, Burnett said, be it campuswide or only in certain areas.

Five ways the Republican National Convention is like Burning Man | World news | guardian.co.uk Masses of people looking for others who feel the same way about the same things? They're more alike than you think

LAPD commander removed in probe of rough arrest - Yahoo! News A Los Angeles Police Department commanding officer has been removed amid an internal investigation into a videotaped beating in which officers tackled a handcuffed registered nurse to the ground, police Chief Charlie Beck said Wednesday.

Apple Rejects App That Tracks U.S. Drone Strikes | Danger Room | Wired.com

Twilight Language: Isaac Laughs

Samsung attempts to revive the Windows 8 Start Menu with new S Launcher widget | The Verge
Just tried windows 8 and got dirty bits [Page 1]: PC Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review
How to Launch Multiple Apps at Once in Windows 7 With a Single Shortcut - How-To Geek
Launchy: The Open Source Keystroke Launcher
LG produces the first flexible cable-type lithium-ion battery | ExtremeTech

082912
Bashar al-Assad says there is no end in sight to Syrian civil war | World news | guardian.co.uk Syrian president shrugs off high-profile defections and says regime forces need more time to wipe out opposition
Ukraine court rejects Tymoshenko appeal | World news | guardian.co.uk Appeal by jailed former prime minister against her conviction for abuse of office thrown out as president refuses to intervene

Boris Johnson launches unpaid work scheme for young Londoners | Society | The Guardian Londoners aged 18-24 will be required to do 13 weeks' unpaid work as a condition of claiming their £56-a-week benefit (conservative asshole at work: destroy all the jobs and then make people work for free)
Eschaton: There Is No Recovery You destroyed it because you're the stupidest fucking person on the face of the planet. George Osborne has responded coolly to a plan from Nick Clegg to impose an emergency levy upon Britain's wealthiest, warning it would endanger economic recovery.
Spain's regions line up for central government bailout | World news | guardian.co.uk Eastern Mediterranean regions at front of queue for €18bn bailout to cover deficit spending and refinancing of existing debt

Julian Assange saga continues as Hague holds talks with Ecuador | Media | The Guardian Foreign secretary meets Ecuadorean vice-president in attempt to find diplomatic solution to case of WikiLeaks founder

Isaac downgraded to a tropical storm as Gulf residents enter survival mode | World news | guardian.co.uk New Orleans issues curfew as torrential rain and harsh winds remain serious threat as storm weakens with little relief in sight

Correspondence and collusion between the New York Times and the CIA | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Mark Mazzetti's emails with the CIA expose the degradation of journalism that has lost the imperative to be a check to power

The Two American Flags - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Gov. Mitt Romney’s campaign toasted its top donors Wednesday aboard a 150-foot yacht flying the flag of the Cayman Islands. The floating party, hosted by a Florida developer on his yacht “Cracker Bay,” was one of a dozen exclusive events meant to nurture those who have raised more than $1 million for Romney’s bid. “I think it’s ironic they do this aboard a yacht that doesn’t even pay its taxes,” said a woman who lives aboard a much smaller boat moored at the St. Petersburg Municipal Marina.

The Myth of an Affirmative-Action President - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic Why, I wonder, do so many people question how Barack Obama got where he is, while no one asks the same about Mitt Romney?
Political Animal - Affirmative Action Baby

The Outlaw Jersey Whale | TBogg (best post title evar?)

Eschaton: Autumn Of Suck So we have the clown conventions, and then the election, and the lame duck session where we might discover it only takes 51 senators to pass things after all, as long as those things are horrible things.
Eschaton: You Stupids Let The Machine Brainwash You Romney said her “importance in speaking out is making sure that those coalitions,” referring to women and Hispanic voters, “that would naturally be voting for another party wake up and say, You’d better really look at the issues this time.”
Making You Inferior With Your Explicit Consent - First Draft An attendee at the Republican National Convention in Tampa on Tuesday allegedly threw nuts at a black camerawoman working for CNN and said “This is how we feed animals” before being removed from the convention, a network official confirmed to TPM. (CNN apologizes for having a black employee)
Erin Burnett Moved to Tears by Romney Appearance | Crooks and Liars
Let’s Get Drunk With Ann Romney – The Drinkening | TBogg

Fox's Wallace: When Ann Romney Said "You Can Trust Mitt, It Was Almost Like The Good Housekeeping Seal Of Approval" | Video | Media Matters for America
Add Murray Energy Chief Financial Officer Rob Moore (and his scrotums) to list of people who don’t know what words mean. - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Political Animal - Inflating the Next Bubble The latest evidence of this comes from Fredrick Kaufman in Foreign Policy, telling how Wall Street is dumping money into food futures, causing the price to skyrocket: (and people to starve before the bubble inevitably breaks)

Texas redistricting discriminates against minorities, federal court says - The Washington Post “The only explanation Texas offers for this pattern is ‘coincidence,’?” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas B. Griffith. “But if this was coincidence, it was a striking one indeed.” “The court’s decision is a damning indictment of (Gov.) Rick Perry and other Texas Republican leaders who, in a cynical attempt to hold on to power, engaged in intentional discrimination against Texas Latino and African-American voters,”

Author of Racist Vote Suppression Bill Gets Big Yucks From Racist Email - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Balloon Juice » Moron’s Prodigal Moron Son Loses Ben Quayle, who was last heard trying to spin his participation in a drunken, naked dip in the Sea of Galilee as an effort to get baptismal water for his daughter, lost his primary to Dave Schweikert last night.

The Crowd - Lawyers, Guns & Money : For that matter, is there any reason to believe any kind of customer review online? This Times piece on professional “reviewers” being paid by self-published authors to give positive reviews, a process that seems to lead to increased sales for many, suggests to me that we, even the most supposedly savvy of us, are as manipulated now as ever.

Colorado 'personhood' measure fails to collect enough signatures for ballot vote | World news | guardian.co.uk Pro-life activists fall short by 4,000 signatures to qualify for November vote to give fertilised eggs the same rights as people

Political Animal - The Coming Collapse of American Universities

082812
Female bomber kills seven as Putin urges calm | The Raw Story
Gaza Won't Be 'Liveable' By 2020, U.N. Report Finds Gaza will no longer be "liveable" by 2020 unless urgent action is taken to improve water supply, power, health, and schooling, the United Nations' most comprehensive report on the Palestinian enclave said on Monday. (Israel: "O rly")
Rachel Corrie Verdict: Court Rules Israel Not At Fault In U.S. Activist's Death (she threatened the bulldozer with her body)


Hurricane Isaac 2012 Develops From Tropical Storm, New Orleans Threatened
HPC Tropical Cyclone QPFs (24" rain to fall in W.VA??) a
Rush Limbaugh Alleges Obama Tampered With Isaac Forecasts To Get GOP To Cancel Convention

11 GOP convention speakers who actually ‘didn’t build that’ | The Raw Story Despite the fact that the Republican National Convention is held in a stadium that was financed with $86 million in public funds, the theme this year is “We built this!”
Mitt in the Mud The former Massachusetts governor's unpopularity makes it hard for him to run a "clean" campaign
Balloon Juice » RNC Dinosaurs Are Not Happy “I see Fat John Sununu is back in the hierarchy. That’s a bad sign.”... The GOP has all but publicly announced that they’re depending on the Angry Old Bigot turnout, but they don’t seem to be capable of pleasing the Angry Old Bigot representatives
Abandoning the pretense of caring about facts - The Maddow Blog - If Romney wins, make no mistake, it will establish a new precedent, and campaigns will receive an unmistakable lesson -- go ahead and lie; you'll be rewarded for it.
Fact checking for thee, but not for me - The Plum Line - The Washington Post Get this: The Romney campaign’s position is now that the Obama camp should pull its ads when fact checkers call them out as false — but that Romney and his advisers should feel no such constraint.

Economics and Politics by Paul Krugman - The Conscience of a Liberal - NYTimes.com So instead of making choices, we’ll let people die because of inadequate assets. Fiscal responsibility!

Why Is Obama So Confident? -- Daily Intel

Arctic Ice Cap Melts to Record Low ‘Like a Giant Slushy’ - Bloomberg . “I would definitely bet we’d go below 4 million square kilometers in the next few days and that’s never been seen before in our satellite records.” (Republicans stick fingers in ears and yell Al Gore hoax!)
Cyborg tissue is half living cells, half electronics - tech - 28 August 2012 - New Scientist

Kim Ramsey, 44, Plagued By 100 Orgasms A Day Ramsey was diagnosed with Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder (PGAD), and doctors blamed it on spinal cysts that developed after she fell down some stairs about 10 years ago.

James Peron: Are Conservatives Really More Charitable? Or Just More Religious? When religious giving isn't counted, the geography of giving is very different. Some states in the Northeast would jump into the top 10 when secular gifts alone are counted. New York would vault from No. 18 to No. 2 in the rankings, and Pennsylvania would climb from No. 40 to No. 4. (non-religious people don't give to religions! +Jeff Jacoby is a giant asshole)

School asks deaf preschooler to change his sign language name | The Lookout - Yahoo! News - Hunter's father Brian Spanjer said, "It's a symbol. It's an actual sign, a registered sign, through S.E.E."

Disable Java NOW, users told, as 0-day exploit hits web • The Register
Java Update Leaves PCs Open To Hackers, Experts Warn

082712
Syrian military helicopter crashes in Damascus | World news | guardian.co.uk Army helicopter crashes in suburb after apparently being hit during fighting between government forces and rebels
Afghan partygoers beheaded by Taliban - Central & South Asia - Al Jazeera English Officials report 15 men and two women were found murdered after mixed-gender dance party in southern Helmand province
Rupert Murdoch defends Sun showing naked Prince Harry pictures | Media | The Guardian nsiders say executives wanted to fire a warning shot across Leveson's bows.

Federal Reserve official urges central bank to act on US unemployment | Business | guardian.co.uk Fed members increasingly concerned about economic recovery ahead of next jobs report and September policy meeting

How Ending The High End Bush Tax Cuts Saves Nearly $1 Trillion

Tropical storm Isaac ‘Couldn’t be worse for New Orleans' - Tim Mak - POLITICO.com
Republicans braced for more disruption as Isaac heads for New Orleans | World news | guardian.co.uk GOP officials admit they would find it difficult to push on with their convention in the event of severe flooding in Louisiana

Why do Republicans bash Obama for being divisive? - The Plum Line - The Washington Post The hallmark of Republicans in the Frank Luntz era has been to find words that test well and embrace them, and find words that test badly and tar the opposition with them. Not concepts, not ideas, and certainly not policies. Words.
The Projection Party The Republican fantasy of Barack Obama's "divisiveness"

Democrats Have Billboard Outside GOP Convention Democrats bought a digital billboard facing the Tampa Bay Times Forum where Republicans are holding their national convention, BuzzFeed reports. An image hitting Mitt Romney on outsourcing jobs flashes every 7.5 seconds. (zing)

2012 or Never for GOP’s White Base -- Daily Intel - Team Romney White-Vote Push: ‘This Is the Last Time Anyone Will Try to Do This ... . To squeak out a majority, Mitt Romney probably needs to win at least 61 percent of the white vote — a figure exceeding what George H.W. Bush commanded over Michael Dukakis in 1988.
Big Givers Converge Outside Republican Convention - NYTimes.com
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan: The Do-Over - ConventionReinvention.com - YouTube
Republican Convention Coverage Threatened By Isaac As Media Bigs Abandon Tampa
A short history of the phony political convention - Salon.com The GOP's phony living-room stage is the latest twist in a history of carefully crafted, content-free spectacle
Despite working-class image, Ryan comes from family of wealth - latimes.com Paul Ryan was born into one of the most prominent families in Janesville, Wis., and his rise to political power and financial stability was boosted by family money and connection ("working-class guy")
First State Manufacturing :: (speaker at Repub Conv: we built it all by ourselves) /a>
Chris Matthews Explodes At Reince Priebus Over 'Race Card': 'Awful,' 'Embarrassment,' 'Garbage'
Todd Akin's Pals Got Some Junk Science For You: HuffPost List
Tom Smith: Meet the new Todd Akin - Salon.com Pennsylvania's GOP Senate candidate Tom Smith says "out of wedlock" birth is "similar" to rape
Wonkette’s Guide to Gawker’s Bain Super Scooper, Pt. II
Barbour: Democrats Playing The "Race Card" Coded appeals — or a need to “goose” turnout? (see, pointing out Republicans' blatent racism is ... racisim!)
Pat Robertson: Raising Retirement Age To 72 Won't "Hurt Anybody Because People Really Like To Work" | Video | Media Matters for America (if you can get paid to go on TV and be a racist stupid fuck, sure)
Republican Immigration Platform Backs 'Self-Deportation' - NYTimes.com n their debates this week in Tampa, Fla., over the party platform, Republican delegates hammered out an immigration plank calling for tough border enforcement and opposing “any forms of amnesty” for illegal immigrants, instead endorsing “humane procedures to encourage illegal aliens to return home voluntarily,” a policy of self-deportation. ("humane" for Repubicans, anyway)

US solders at Fort Stewart accused of murder in anti-government plot | World news | guardian.co.uk Murders of former soldier and his girlfriend reveal militia's plan to stockpile weapons, poison food supply and assassinate Obama - "This domestic terrorist organization did not simply plan and talk," (white terror)
Leader of Army Plot to Assassinate Obama Apparently Attended the 2008 Republican Convention as a Page

Arthur Brisbane, New York Times Public Editor: Progressivism 'Bleeds Through' The Paper (except for all their center-right bullshit)
(4) In his final column... Wouldn't real transparency mean that the Times embraces who it is, where it is made, and the culture of New York City, acknowledges that it has a sensibility and takes other steps away from the implied (but absurd) default: the View from Nowhere?

The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Reforming the Senate without a vote? My (double) take
South Carolina Voter ID Law Trial Begins As Justice Department Seeks To Block Controversial Measure (racial profiling at the voting booth)
Peter S. Goodman: For GOP, Pitfalls In Ignoring Poor
That Wacky Dinesh D’Souza Obamapocalypse Documentary: All The Rage in Cinema! , it is now the “#1 all-time biggest-grossing conservative political documentary,” which is… it’s quite a thing.

Pediatricians Decide Boys Are Better Off Circumcised Than Not : Shots - Health Blog : NPR The American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday announced its first major shift on circumcision in more than a decade, concluding that the health benefits of the procedure clearly outweigh any risks ... Only about 56 percent of newborn males are circumcised.
The Downfall of Higher Education - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Investors love online education. If only employers did too. (useless online degrees)

The Living Death of Solitary Confinement - NYTimes.com There are many ways to destroy a person, but the simplest and most devastating might be solitary confinement (torture-state America) .
NYPD chief Ray Kelly defends officers over Empire State Building shooting | World news | guardian.co.uk Kelly says detectives' decision to fatally shoot gunman Jeffery Johnson, 58, on Friday was appropriate in the circumstances (they are always "appropriate")

New law in Arizona states 'pregnancy begins two weeks before conception' - National Lifestyle | Examiner.com
Hullabaloo When Does Pregnancy Begin? You Decide!
Daily Kos: Why it's so important for rape to be 'legitimate'
Things You Can Learn In A Christian High School Textbook, For Real (Part II) “Books make people unhappy, they make them anti-social.” Some of the author sketches are far longer than the actual literary selections, simply because there’s so much to warn about.

Amazon.co.uk: Customer Reviews: BIC For Her Amber Medium Ballpoint Pen (Box of 12) - Black

Twitter argues fourth amendment defence over judge's Occupy order | Technology | guardian.co.uk Site appeals against court request to hand over details of tweets relating to Occupy activist charged with disorderly conduct (yeah, "disorderly")
Why’s everybody so angry about Twitter — and should you care? - Technolog on NBCNews.com The crux of why people are upset with Twitter is pretty simple: Twitter is changing its Application Programming Interface (API)and closing off how third-party apps communicate with Twitter

082612
Syrian regime accused of killing hundreds in Daraya massacre | World news | The Guardian At least 200 dead in poor Sunni community on outskirts of capital city targeted by President Bashar al-Assad's troops
CIA drones kill warlord's family and Taliban chief | World news | The Observer Senior Afghan commander and his bodyguards are wiped out ("family" - they aren't even pretending anymore)
Venezuela refinery explosion death toll rises to 39 | World news | The Guardian President Hugo Chávez orders investigation after pre-dawn blast at country's largest oil facility injures at least 80
Two Pussy Riot members flee Russia | Music | The Guardian Two members of band who escaped arrest after February's protest in Moscow's main cathedral leave the country
Crosses chopped down: 'Anti-church hysteria' spreads across Russia — RT
Turkish Armed Forces bomb two major PKK camps - Topix The Turkish armed forces on Tuesday have bombed two major Kurdistan Worker Party camps, which are in northern Iraq, the Sabah newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Mexican authorities find 11 corpses north-west of Acapulco | World news | guardian.co.uk Reports in local media that messages signed by Knights Templar drugs cartel discovered alongside bodies

Britain 'committed to diplomatic solution' over Julian Assange | Media | guardian.co.uk WikiLeaks founder has been living in Ecuador's London embassy for more than two months

Hullabaloo I'm prepared to make a whole range of compromises, some of which I get criticized from the Democratic Party on, in order to make progress. (everything is still on Obama's Republican table)
Interview: Romney blasts Obama for waging a 'vituperative' campaign – USATODAY.com "I do think that the president's campaign of personal vilification and demonization probably draws some people away from me," Romney says when asked why he's no better than tied against a vulnerable incumbent.
O'Malley dismisses GOP as a 'party of exclusion' - POLITICO.com "When you have a party that says coded things, that makes totally false ads up, falsely saying the president is trying to undo welfare reform, I think you're going to see a lot of heavily and not-so-subtly coded messages from the Romney-Ryan campaign,"
Dispatch Poll results: Tight races put undecided voters in control | The Columbus Dispatch 10 percent up for grabs in presidential race; Senate struggle has 12 percent of wiggle room
2016: Obama's America - Reason.com - If you believe the biggest problems with Obama are that he has not invaded Iran, attacked the Alawite regime in Syria and sufficiently supported the Queen's dominion over the Falkland Islands, this is the movie for you.

Tropical storm Isaac takes aim at US as residents brace for hurricane | World news | guardian.co.uk Multiple states under threat of substantial damage as hurricane warning issued for northern Gulf of Mexico coast
Republican Convention Delayed As Isaac Approaches
Republican convention protesters set up camp in rag-tag 'Romneyville' | World news | guardian.co.uk Tampa officials fail to evict tent encampment as human rights group plans protests and marches to herald start of convention
Mitt Romney’s Campaign Adopts A Harder Message - NYTimes.com (white power!)
Ron Paul Passing Torch to a Libertarian Legion - NYTimes.com Mr. Paul, in an interview, said convention planners had offered him an opportunity to speak under two conditions: that he deliver remarks vetted by the Romney campaign, and that he give a full-fledged endorsement of Mr. Romney. He declined. “It wouldn’t be my speech,” Mr. Paul said. “That would undo everything I’ve done in the last 30 years. I don’t fully endorse him for president.”
The Crackpot Caucus - NYTimes.com The tutorial in 8th grade biology that Republicans got after one of their members of Congress went public with something from the wackosphere was instructive, and not just because it offered female anatomy lessons to those who get their science from the Bible.
Eschaton: Image Great to correct the record, but exactly where did the working class image of a guy that nobody out of DC had heard of 2 weeks ago come from? (Ryan is a "working-class guy")

Survey: NPR’s listeners best-informed, Fox viewers worst-informed | Poynter.
Balloon Juice » Don’t Let the Door Hit You Where the Good Lord Split You Arthur Brisbane, the Times’ Public Editor who recently said that the Times couldn’t be expected to be a “Truth Vigilante”, has written his last column and it’s full of the kind of reasoning we’ve come to expect from that moron:

Job lag and customer service add to Revel woes But unlike any other Atlantic City casino, the nonunion Revel received more than $300 million in state assistance to get built - including $2.6 million for employee training - on the premise that it would create thousands of jobs and tax revenue for Atlantic City and the state. (Christie's folly)


Stanford biologist and computer scientist discover the 'anternet' | School of Engineering A collaboration between a Stanford ant biologist and a computer scientist has revealed that the behavior of harvester ants as they forage for food mirrors the protocols that control traffic on the Internet.

Thomas Meyer’s Beowulf

Groklaw - Jury in Apple v. Samsung Goofed, Damages Reduced -- Uh Oh. What's Wrong With this Picture? ~pj Updated 3Xs After we debated that first patent -- what was prior art --because we had a hard time believing there was no prior art, that there wasn't something out there before Apple. "In fact we skipped that one," Ilagan continued, "so we could go on faster. It was bogging us down." ... (America teh stupid)

082512
Haqqani leader 'killed' by NATO drone - Central & South Asia - Al Jazeera English Badruddin Haqqani, operational commander of al-Qaeda-linked group, may have been killed in North Waziristan strike
A Different Justice: Why Anders Breivik Only Got 21 Years for Killing 77 People - Max Fisher - The Atlantic
Cambodia Mass Grave Discovery Raises Ghosts From The Past (the blood on Kissinger's hands)
Iran Universities Reportedly Ban Women

Julian Assange 'To Be Arrested Under All Circumstances,' Scotland Yard Doc Says
Laurie Penny: It's nice to think that only evil men are rapists - that it's only pantomime villains with knives in alleyways. But the reality is different - Commentators - Opinion - The Independent As the story of Julian Assange has unfolded, a disturbing fact has emerged: to many powerful men, some kinds of rape don't count. In a searingly honest piece that some readers will find upsetting, Laurie Penny describes the night she learnt how wrong that assumption is

NYPD Gunfire In Empire State Building Shooting Wounded All Nine Bystanders, Says Ray Kelly
Political Animal - Chicago: Murder, Inc. USA (but it doesn’t have to be)

Fear of a Black President - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic As a candidate, Barack Obama said we needed to reckon with race and with America’s original sin, slavery. But as our first black president, he has avoided mention of race almost entirely. In having to be “twice as good” and “half as black,” Obama reveals the false promise and double standard of integration. - What we are now witnessing is not some new and complicated expression of white racism—rather, it’s the dying embers of the same old racism that once rendered the best pickings of America the exclusive province of unblackness.
Racism and the Mormon Church - NYTimes.com - Why Race Is Still a Problem for Mormons

Electoral College Prediction Model Points To A Mitt Romney Win In 2012
OnSight/Keating Poll: Obama Leads In Colorado By 4 Points In First Poll Since Romney Announced Ryan Pick
Barack Obama: 'Romney's policies would make things worse' | World news | guardian.co.uk President's AP interview calculated to take a bit of Romney's spotlight ahead of Republican National Convention this week
The presidency: So, Mitt, what do you really believe? | The Economist Too much about the Republican candidate for the presidency is far too mysterious
Francisco d'Anconia on Money - NYTimes.com Aside from revealing just how much of a Rand fanboy Ryan is — urban legend, my foot — this is interesting because that 23 paragraph speech isn’t just a call for the gold standard; it’s a call for eliminating paper money and going back to gold coins ... as of 1813 there was only $7 million worth of coins in the hands of the U.S. public, versus $52 million in bank notes. So even two centuries ago, we were already a paper-money economy. And this means that Ryan wants to turn the clock back two centuries, not one.
Obama: Mitt Romney Holds 'Extreme Views,' Would Make Things Worse For The Middle Class
Romney Birther Joke Draws Obama Slam: 'America Doesn't Need A Birther-In-Chief'
Mitt Romney 'Disappointed' At Network Convention Coverage, Moves Ann Romney Speech
Balloon Juice » AP’s @BenFellerDC Dutifully Reports Romney Lie About Stance on Abortion Ban Romney is on record as not opposing abortion in cases of rape and incest—as of this week. But for the past five years, Romney is on record as supporting an Eggs Are People Too (“Personhood”) Amendment.
Mitt Romney Tax Returns May Have Employed Legally Dubious Maneuvers, Tax Experts Say
Romney’s Taxes in a Poke by Garry Wills | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books
New poll shows Obama with a significant lead over Romney in Pennsylvania (but not among the voters Corbett will allow to vote)

Starving the Future - NYTimes.com Emerging economic powers China and India are heavily investing in educating the world’s future workers while we squabble about punishing teachers and coddling children.
Comebacks - NYTimes.com New Jersey’s own Chris Christie will be the keynote speaker at the RNC, where he will be billed as a guy who gets things done. According to reports, however, one thing he won’t be talking about is the state of the New Jersey economy. (NJ unemployment now higher than MI)

Farmer: 'It was the system that failed us' - CNN.com (yeah, the "system" you voted to dismantle +believe in climate change yet?)

RNC Official: NM Governor ‘Dishonored’ Gen. Custer By Meeting With American Indians | TPMMuckraker Martinez is required by law to attend the annual state-tribal leaders summit, according to Progress Now New Mexico, which called for him to step down.
Lawmaker who thinks gays a threat to children crashes boat into children | Gay Star News A Maryland lawmaker who thinks same-sex marriage will lead to the teaching of homosexuality in schools has injured four children in a drunken boating accident
Sen. Summerville: 'Anything unclear' about opinion of black caucus? | The Tennessean | tennessean.com Summerville, of Dickson, was removed as chairman of the Senate’s higher education subcommittee after sending an email stating he didn’t “give a rat’s ass what the black caucus thinks” after the group of black lawmakers criticized the subcommittee’s inquiry into a grading controversy at Tennessee State University.

As ASO’s debt soared, salaries of its executives ballooned as well | ArtsATL While the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra built up a projected $19.8 million in accumulated debt over the past decade, the salaries of its top executives have doubled and even tripled since 2007. (grifters at work: the best of the best)

Our Fascination with Female Train Wrecks - In These Times Judy Garland, Lindsay Lohan, Cat Marnell: Why we can’t stop watching women self-destruct
Attack of the Sugar Monster!: Ugly Fat Bitch

Johns Hopkins Researchers Return Blood Cells to Stem Cell State - 08/21/2012
Maya Collapse Tied To Drought, Deforestation

Yiddish Curses for Republican Jews

082412
Israeli inquiry into Rachel Corrie death insufficient, US ambassador tells family | World news | guardian.co.uk US government does not believe military inquiry was 'thorough, credible and transparent', as family await verdict in civil suit
US embassy staff shot at by Mexican police | World news | guardian.co.uk Mexican naval officials say embassy vehicle caught up in police chase on road just south of Mexico City
Anders Behring Breivik's 21-year jail term closes Norway's darkest chapter | World news | The Guardian Calls for debate on multiculturalism as far right extremist is sentenced for killing 77 in twin attacks on Utøya island and Oslo

Eurozone crisis live: Merkel and Samaras discuss Greece- as it happened | Business | guardian.co.uk Germany 'wargaming Grexit'
China’s Economy Besieged by Buildup of Unsold Goods - NYTimes.com
UK GDP revised upwards – but economy remains in double-dip | Business | The Guardian The UK economy shrank 0.5% in the second quarter rather than the 0.7% first estimated, according to the ONS (austerity is working!)


Balloon Juice » Mittens Goes Birther - Gotta shore up the wingnut base:
What to Make of Mitt Romney's Birther Joke? | Mother Jones (just a joke haha)
Romney Would Give Reins to States on Drilling on Federal Lands - NYTimes.com
Galt, Gold and God - NYTimes.com And, beyond that, consider the fact that Mr. Ryan is considered the modern G.O.P.’s big thinker. What does it say about the party when its intellectual leader evidently gets his ideas largely from deeply unrealistic fantasy novels?

Eleven People Shot, Two Fatally, Outside Empire State Building - NYTimes.com There were two bullets left in the eight-round magazine of his gun so only one shot – the one apparently fired at the officers -- could have possibly hit one of the nine bystanders, the official said. One of the officers fired nine times and the other seven times.
Gun Industry Holds a Gun to the Heads of Its Employees - Lawyers, Guns & Money : The gun industry’s response to the call for stricter gun laws after mass murder after mass murder (see today among others) is outrageous and awful.

Daily Politics Blog - Charles P. Pierce - Political Blogging - Esquire American conservatism has been playing footsie with polite sedition for going on four decades now ... The Republican Party is shot through now with an impulse to disunion that is almost an autonomic reflex at this point (destroying Lincoln's of, by and for the people)

Todd Akin reaffirms decision to stay in Missouri Senate race | World news | guardian.co.uk In continued defiance of Republican party leaders, Akin is to remain in race, saying 'this is an election, not a selection'
Martin Bashir Clashes WIth Republican Strategist Trey Hardin, Cuts Interview Short (one thing you can't do is insult the military)
Linda McMahon Inches Ahead Of Chris Murphy In Latest Poll On Connecticut Senate Race (Connecticut, the New New Hampshire)

Gundersen comments on ELI5: Why do visual trends in technology change so specifically? Not just a few years ago, everything was shiny and glassy, and now everything is starting to look solid, clay-like, etc. What decides this? Do we have a way of predicting where visual trends will go next?

Jury awards Apple $1.049 billion in Samsung patent dispute ruling (updated) | The Verge
Apple awarded over $1bn in Samsung patent infringement trial | Technology | The Guardian Jury finds that critical features of smartphone and tablet design were copied and dismisses South Korean firm's counterclaims - a number of Samsung smartphones and tablets used some of its patented technologies – such as the "rubber band" effect when scrolling a long list of items – and mimicked its "trade dress", the general cosmetic appearance of its iPhone and iPad, in a way that could confuse potential customers. (because customers are idiots)

Samsung Didn't Violate Apple Design, South Korean Court Rules

082312
US and Turkey meet to discuss Syrian chemical weapons | World news | The Guardian Washington moves to reassure Nato ally, with reports emerging of Pentagon plan to guard or destroy Syria's stockpiles

Britain's richest 5% gained most from quantitative easing, says Bank of England | Business | guardian.co.uk Bank report to MPs reveals wealthiest boosted by QE and low base rate, but insists policy spared UK from even deeper slump (because we gave money to the rich!)
Barclays 'Deeply Flawed,' Bank of England's Involvement 'Difficult To Justify': Parliamentary Report
Germany and France turn screw on Greece over austerity plans | World news | The Guardian Greek PM Antonis Samaras to be told to stick to hardline reforms to stay in eurozone as Berlin rejects plea for more time

Elisabeth Murdoch rounds on brother in MacTaggart lecture | Media | The Guardian Rupert Murdoch's second daughter attacks News Corp values in keynote address at Edinburgh television festival
News Corp chief digital officer Jonathan Miller to leave company | Media | guardian.co.uk Miller had overseen company's failed relaunch of MySpace as well as its involvement in Hulu and Roku streaming products

Seal's book recounting Osama bin Laden raid surprises US military | World news | The Guardian Due for release on September 11, account written by retired special operations member has not been vetted by Pentagon
The Bin Laden raid exposes the Obama administration's selective secrecy | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The White House punishes whistleblowers even as it permits flattering leaks. So which will it be for a Navy Seal's new book?

NYPD surveillance will only hurt anti-terrorism efforts, say Muslims | World news | guardian.co.uk Controversial program risks alienating Muslims and hasn't generated a single lead, but NYPD steadfastly defends it

Obama Lags on Filling Seats in the Judiciary - NYTimes.com
Let My Judges Go! Republican obstructionism is keeping the federal bench empty. (he always was a moderate Repubican with a mean streak towards liberals)

Balloon Juice » The Separation of Church and State. Oh, Fuck It. “The cozy relationship between a sizable portion of U.S. bishops and the Republican Party should be cause for concern, and not just among progressive Catholics,” Michael O’Loughlin wrote in a post on the website of America magazine, a leading Catholic weekly published by the Jesuits.

Super PAC Contributions Top $300 Million, Most Goes To GOP Groups
National Hispanic Leadership Agenda On Republican Immigration Extremism: 'Enough Is Enough'
Mitt Romney Energy Plan: More Oil & Natural Gas Production On Federal Lands

Gawker publishes audits of Mitt Romney's offshore financial accounts | World news | guardian.co.uk 950 pages of documents contain internal audits and financial involving Bain Capital and Romney's personal fortune - The documents published by Gawker, some of which have surfaced before, make clear that tax avoidance is a primary aim of some of his investments.
Mitt Romney's tax documents: sifting through the grubby details | World news | guardian.co.uk As Gawker's Bain files show, Romney's wealth is serious – and his financial instruments complex. What lessons can be drawn? - Just the tip of the iceberg

Paul Ryan’s vague and carefully crafted Medicare message aims to please all the groups that Mitt Romney needs to win. - Slate Magazine Paul Ryan’s successfully vague campaign to promise “current seniors” the moon.
Balloon Juice » NBC Poll Shows Mitt Romney Has Zero Percent of the Black Vote. LOL.
Daily Kos: AP hints that Romney could be race-baiting in continued welfare lies
Wisconsin Presidential Poll: Obama's Lead Over Romney Narrowing
No, National Review. Mitt Romney Is Not a Sex Symbol.
Mitt Gets Squeamish about Tithing | emptywheel
Mitt Romney Campaign Attacks Military Cuts Paul Ryan Supported
Ann Coulter: Todd Akin Is A 'Selfish Swine' (VIDEO) She is one of many conservatives who have called on Akin to drop out of the race. Akin provoked outrage when he made outrageous comments about rape over the weekend.
Balloon Juice Ras has Akin down by 10 in a poll conducted yesterday. PP had them in a dead heat in a poll conducted on Monday.

Republican Voter Suppression Campaign Rolls Back Early Voting
Harry Sawyer, Florida Election Official, Pushes Back Against Early Voting Cutbacks
The Villages: Florida retirement community provides foundation for Republican candidates - Tampa Bay Times

Missouri Rasmussen Poll Showing Todd Akin Trailing Claire McCaskill Prompts Odd Partisan Spin On Tuesday, conservatives expressed outrage about a poll showing their candidate tied with, rather than lagging behind, a Democrat in the Senate race in Missouri. On Thursday, Democrats sought to minimize the impact of a poll that showed their candidate leading in the same race by 10 points.
Real Americans: It’s Those Other People Taking Government Handouts Who Are The Problem< [dairy farmer Charlie Knigge] (says the government handouts he gets aren't the same as the Other People get) /a>
Sadly, No! » ‘The Surge Won’t Work, But Concentration Camps Might Do The Trick’ Tacitus The Fascist: (aren't they all?)
ECHIDNE of the snakes The Republicans really do fight a war against women and all things with female cooties! I find this truly fascinating! Well, not the war on women but that the Republican women go along with it.
Pa. cuts funding for Phila. program for the disabled homeless - The Corbett administration has cut funding for a Philadelphia program nationally lauded as the "gold standard" for helping disabled homeless people get federal benefits.
Balloon Juice » Your famous friend, I blew him before you My favorite from that horrific Brooks-Collins conversation you all so kindly summarized for me:
Pastor Rick Warren Cancels Presidential Forum - NYTimes.com Pastor Rick Warren says he's canceled plans for a "civil forum" featuring the presidential candidates because their campaign is so uncivil. (not because Warren is a liar and a grifter)


Ambassador Crocker arrested for hit and run, DUI | Spokane/E. WA - KXLY.com Ambassador Ryan Crocker, one of the most decorated State Department diplomats in the last half century, was arrested on August 14 by the Washington State Patrol for hit-and-run and DUI in Spokane Valley ... He had a .16 BAC on one test, which is twice the legal limit in Washington State. Another test indicated a .152 BAC.

Fail II: Posnanski, Paterno and Power - Lawyers, Guns & Money
No Touchdown for Paterno Biography Joe Posnanski's new book on the Penn State coach fails to hold him accountable for the Sandusky scandal.
FAIL - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Paterno bio: “Disgusting and disgraceful” - Salon.com The Joe Paterno biography, which makes apologies for its subject, is a minor literary crime
The Shocking Truth About Joe Paterno, Penn State and Governor Tom Corbett | The Nation
'Paterno': A Relentless, Failed Defense of Penn State's Disgraced Coach - Allen Barra - The Atlantic
The Shocking Truth About Joe Paterno, Penn State and Governor Tom Corbett | The Nation

Education “Reform” and the Worthlessness of Standardized Testing - Lawyers, Guns & Money
For-Profit College Group Fights To Keep Students In Dark On Debt


Here's looking at you, Sunderland Kid: 1930s mugshots go online | UK news | guardian.co.uk Images from police book of pickpockets and house-breakers uploaded to Flickr – and one descendant has come forward

Free money! You've already earned it! Just fill out the paperwork! | Future of Music Coalition

082212
The economic costs of violent crime in Haiti | Athena Kolbe and Robert Muggah | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The impacts of Haiti's surge in crime endure long after the shooting stops, with children especially vulnerable
Kenya Killings: Clashes In Tana River District Kill At Least 48 People between the Orma and Pokomo groups. BBC News reports that the two groups have been embroiled in a long history of conflict, caught up in a cycle of revenge killings over the theft of cattle, as well as grazing and water rights.
The west's hypocrisy over Pussy Riot is breathtaking | Simon Jenkins | Comment is free | The Guardian Our courts now jail at the drop of a headline – for stealing water or abuse sent on Twitter. So who are we to condemn Russia?
Nationalists promote their agenda by masquerading as rights advocates | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The media's new converts to civic freedom over the Pussy Riot and Assange asylum affairs show a jingoism blind to US abuses

Eurozone crisis: Greek hopes for leniency over austerity set back | Business | The Guardian Eurogroup leader Jean-Claude Juncker insists Greece must further cut spending and enforce meaningful structural reforms

Don't lose sight of why the US is out to get Julian Assange | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | The Guardian Ecuador is pressing for a deal that offers justice to Assange's accusers – and essential protection for whistleblowers
The bizarre, unhealthy, blinding media contempt for Julian Assange | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk It is possible to protect the rights of the complainants in Sweden and Assange's rights against political persecution, but a vindictive thirst for vengeance is preventing that
Julian Assange sex claims not a crime in Latin America – Ecuador president | World news | guardian.co.uk Rafael Correa says allegations should still be investigated but Ecuador will stand firm on asylum for WikiLeaks founder

Dana Milbank: Are Republicans getting a sign from above? - The Washington Post
Balloon Juice » A House Divided A Republican official in Texas, Judge Thomas Head, has openly suggested that civil war might follow President Obama’s re-election. Head’s casus belli is that if Obama gains re-election, “he’s going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the United States to the U.N.” He then asks, “what is going to happen when that happens?” - And we’re not talking just a few riots here and demonstrations, we’re talking Lexington, Concord, take up arms and get rid of the guy.”

Romney Welfare Reform Ad - The Welfare-Reform Ad Lies Are Nothing New - Esquire - What Romney and Ryan are doing has been the off-tackle slant, the most fundamental play from scrimmage, in the Republican playbook on a class basis since forever, and on a racial basis since Harry Dent convinced Richard Nixon that, in many dark places in its heart, the whole country was Alabama.
Elizabeth Warren Senate Poll Numbers - How Elizabeth Warren Can Win - Esquire There's been a bit of a bustling in the hedgerow over Public Policy Polling's new numbers showing Elizabeth Warren five points up the track behind incumbent Scott Brown here in the Commonwealth (God save it!) (Pierce: Mass hates to elect women, Warren made a stupid agreement to keep outside money out, needs to nationalize the campaign +McDreamy says he's "pro-choice" but isn't)

Todd Akin’s Rape Comments: Symptom of Larger Republican Disease | Swampland | TIME.com the Akin-King statements and, indeed, the Akin abortion amendment that Paul Ryan supported (and which made a distinction between “forcible” and other sorts of rape) point to a larger Republican problem: it has become a party that, at the grass roots, celebrates ignorance. (the Party of Stupid: the Republican war on thinking)
Todd Akin continues to campaign as Republicans hope to replace him | World news | guardian.co.uk Cracks begin to show as Missouri candidate says 'I don't know the future' amid calls to drop out of race GOP needs to win
In Exclusive Interview, Paul Ryan Distances Self From Todd Akin « CBS Pittsburgh (by about 2 mm)
Paul Ryan Responds To Todd Akin, Clarifies Abortion Position: 'Rape Is Rape' = seeking to distance himself from the embattled congressman with whom he co-sponsored a bill to redefine rape with respect to abortions.
We Need a ‘Conservative’ Party - NYTimes.com (Flattop: Tom "I sterilized a woman without her permission" Coburn is the solution!)
Michael Baumgartner, Washington GOP Senate Candidate, Admits Telling Reporter To 'Go F--- Yourself' Baumgartner, like Akin, reportedly opposes abortion even in the cases of rape. While he was quick to condemn Akin's "inexcusable and stupid and ignorant" remarks, Feit reported that their views on abortion were fundamentally identical.
The 5 countries the GOP would model U.S. abortion law on with its new anti-abortion platform | The Raw Story - Even Saudi Arabia allows women to receive abortions for their own health or lives.
The Dumbest NRO Article Ever Until the Next Time NRO Publishes Something - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Shorter Kevin Williamson: “Forget the right-of-Saudi-Arabia platform Republicans would like to impose on American women; women like rich pricks, so Romney should get 100% of their vote. And Obama is the kind of pussy that has daughters! In conclusion, Obama, and not the guy whose net worth is greater than the last 8 presidents put together, represents the real elite.”

Brad DeLong: Niall Ferguson Does Not Understand That the Federal Government Hires a Huge Number of Temporary Workers to Conduct the Decennial Census (Niall proven to be big fat conservative liar)
Kinds Of Wrong - NYTimes.com Looking at the comments on my Niall Ferguson takedown (see Ezra Klein, Matthew O’Brien, James Fallows, and Noah Smith for more), I found my memory jogged about a point I’ve been meaning to make about the nature of error in economics.
U.S. Will Enter Recession If 'Fiscal Cliff' Not Avoided: CBO (Repubicans: we can't wait to destroy America)
Rise in US home sales has analysts optimistic about economic recovery | Business | guardian.co.uk Cheaper mortgage rates and improved job market 'unleash pent-up demand' as economists think crisis may be easing
Federal Reserve prepared to take action if US economy does not show growth | Business | guardian.co.uk Minutes from Fed meeting show growing support for action as US recovery remains weak ahead of November election

‘Superbug’ stalked NIH hospital last year, killing six - The Washington Post With some 99,000 U.S. deaths attributed to hospital-borne infections annually, the NIH outbreak provides a stark case study of the dangers of the latest wave of hospital-bred bacteria and the extreme measures hospitals must adopt to stem the rising superbug tide - Klebsiella pneumoniae
Older fathers pass on more genetic mutations, study shows | Science | The Guardian According to scientists, rates of conditions such as autism and schizophrenia could be a result of the rising age of fatherhood - a 40-year-old father was approximately twice as likely to conceive a child that developed autism as a 20-year-old father, although the overall risk remained low. The increase in risk factor for schizophrenia went up by a similar amount.
Things You Can Learn In A Christian High School Textbook, For Real (Part I)
14 Wacky "Facts" Kids Will Learn in Louisiana's Voucher Schools | Mother Jones
Reducing Food Waste and Losses in the U.S. Food Supply | NRDC Getting food to our tables eats up 10 percent of the total U.S. energy budget, uses 50 percent of U.S. land, and swallows 80 percent of freshwater consumed in the United States. Yet, 40 percent of food in the United States today goes uneaten.
Are Your Skinny Jeans Starving the World? | Mother Jones The cotton that feeds our appetite for fast fashion is taking up room that could be used for food crops.
After 32,000 Years, an Ice Age Flower Blooms Again? | Living World | DISCOVER Magazine Permafrost is like nature's freezer.

Column: The student loan crisis that can't be gotten rid of | Reuters (the deadbeat kids was a big lie; Dems in 1975 started the war on young people)

Natalie Wood's death certificate changed to reflect new uncertainty | Film | guardian.co.uk Coroner alters document to mention 'undetermined factors' in actor's drowning previously considered an accident - "I would just say undetermined is descriptive,"
US Open tennis umpire Lois Goodman charged with murdering husband | Sport | guardian.co.uk 70-year-old arrested in New York while preparing for US Open - • Prosecutors allege she beat husband to death with coffee mug
Reggie Clemons: 21 discrepancies that cast doubt on his conviction | World news | guardian.co.uk Was Reggie Clemons' confession beaten out of him? We look at the discrepancies thrown up during the course of the prosecution
Locked-in syndrome sufferer Tony Nicklinson dies of pneumonia less than a week after losing a legal challenge for the right to end his life - Home News - UK - The Independent


Apple v Samsung: the questions the jury has to answer | Technology | guardian.co.uk In slightly less detail than the judge's version, here are the questions that the jurors must examine

082112
Syria Conflict: Russia Warns West Against Unilateral Action On Syria Following Obama Threat

Another disastrous month - and Osborne is forced to cut deeper - UK Politics - UK - The Independent Public sector finances suffered from a 20 per cent fall in corporation tax receipts from business while public spending rose by 5 per cent, fuelled by higher benefit payments ("forced" to shove more austerity down his citizens' throats)

No extradition of Assange in U.S. death row | Politics - Frankfurter Rundschau (but life in Gitmo is ok)

Obama, Romney Campaigns Duck Future U.S. Role In Afghanistan War

Another Paul Ryan vulnernability: Education cuts - The Plum Line - The Washington Post
Medicare Voucher Plan Remains Unpopular | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press Plurality Views Ryan VP Choice Negatively

Richard (RJ) Eskow: On Social Security, Say It IS So, Joe! "Hey, by the way, let's talk about Social Security," Biden said after a diner at The Coffee Break Cafe in Stuart, Va., expressed his relief that the Obama campaign wasn't talking about changing the popular entitlement program. "Number one, I guarantee you, flat guarantee you, there will be no changes in Social Security," Biden said, per a pool report. "I flat guarantee you."

NYPD: Muslim Spying Led To No Leads, Terror Cases In more than six years of spying on Muslim neighborhoods, eavesdropping on conversations and cataloguing mosques, the New York Police Department's secret Demographics Unit never generated a lead or triggered a terrorism investigation, the department acknowledged in court testimony unsealed late Monday ... "No other group since the Japanese Americans in World War II has been subjected to this kind of widespread public policy." (Bloomberg's little spy-state fail)

Court strikes down major pollution rule - The Hill's E2-Wire

Political Animal - Here’s Your Beltway Pundit Constituency
Independents favor cooperation, are dissatisfied with political system - The Washington Post Those who are both genuinely independent and active participants in the political process constitute only a sliver of the overall electorate — about 5 percent, according to the new survey. And among that group, just one in three say they are firmly settled in their choice between Obama and Romney. ("Independents" = far right voters)

Todd Akin Tied With Claire McCaskill After Rape Comments, Poll Shows (no change; MO women don't care)
Todd Akin Ad: 'I Used The Wrong Words In The Wrong Way'
Daily Kos: Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest: Todd Akin goes supernova—and the world awaits his next move
GOP Platform To Call For Constitutional Ban On Abortion: Report (you didn't vote, girls; this is what you got)
Rape exceptions: Even if Todd Akin believed in them, they don't work.
Rape exceptions aren’t legitimate - Salon.com Todd Akin's right about this much: Rape exceptions are wrong. You either believe in bodily autonomy, or you don't
Todd Akin: The man who said too much - Salon.com The Republican Party turned on Todd Akin because he made plain their creeping extremism and political strategy
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - What’s all the Fuss About Todd Akin?
Men Outnumber Women Among American Rape Victims

A Full Fact-Check of Niall Ferguson's Very Bad Argument Against Obama - Matthew O'Brien - The Atlantic
Niall Ferguson vs. Paul Krugman: Where Are the Real Conservative Intellectuals? : The New Yorker
Newsweek's Pinata of Errors: Niall Ferguson's Trashing of Obama | Beat the Press
Economist's View: Ferguson 'Was Very Carefully Trying to Mislead His Readers'
No More Mister Nice Blog - Niall Ferguson Can't Even Get His Facts About Niall Ferguson Straight
Twitter / nycsouthpaw: @TheStalwart he truncated a ...
Brad DeLong: Dylan Byers: Niall Ferguson Lies Yet Again
The worst case against the Obama administration On Sunday, Paul Krugman noticed Niall Ferguson writing something apparently false about the Affordable Care Act. Today, Ferguson responded to Krugman’s critique by saying, in effect, that he wasn’t wrong so much as he was very carefully trying to mislead his readers.

Richest Members Of Congress Are Mostly Republicans
Niall’s most laughable lie - Salon.com The Newsweek writer says only half of Americans pay taxes. Why he's wrong -- and how we can combat his nonsense
America’s worst historians - Salon.com Fareed Zakaria's plagiarism scandal shows the danger of journalists trying to write history (historians are so great at it either)

TED Blog | The 20 most-watched TED Talks to date

082012
China: Gu Kailai spared death penalty for killing Neil Heywood | World news | The Guardian Decision takes the country's leaders one step closer to resolving the biggest political upheaval in decades
Venezuela prison riot leaves 25 dead | World news | guardian.co.uk Government vows crackdown but is accused of neglect after weekend of armed clashes at Yare I complex in Miranda state
Barack Obama warns Syria over use of chemical or biological weapons | World news | guardian.co.uk US president threatens 'enormous consequences' if Assad regime fails to safeguard weapons of mass destruction

US drone strikes target rescuers in Pakistan – and the west stays silent | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Attacking rescuers – a tactic long deemed by the US a hallmark of terrorism – is now routinely used by the Obama administration

US drought will lead to inflation and higher food prices, says report | Global development | The Guardian HSBC warns that central banks are unlikely to raise interest rates to counter higher living costs due to softening labour market

Julian Assange row: Britain seeking diplomatic solution in Ecuador standoff | Media | guardian.co.uk Downing Street says it is obliged by law to extradite Assange to Sweden and 'it is our intention to carry out that obligation'
The Guardian's Grudge Against Julian Assange | MyFDL

Ohio GOP Admits Early Voting Cutbacks Are Racially Motivated | The Nation
Virginia Republicans Call for Armed Revolution if Obama Wins in November

Mitt Romney, as a leader in Mormon church, became a master of many keys - The Washington Post
An Unserious Man - NYTimes.com So will the choice of Mr. Ryan mean a serious campaign? No, because Mr. Ryan isn’t a serious man — he just plays one on TV.

Brad DeLong: More Lies from Niall Ferguson: Fire-His-Ass-Now Department - Convene a committee at Harvard to examine whether he has the moral character to teach at a university.
Fiscal Policy Having Negative Impact on Economic Growth | FDL News Desk (Republicans destroying the economy)
As a Harvard Alum, I Apologize - James Fallows - The Atlantic A tenured professor of history at my undergraduate alma mater has written a cover story for Daily Beast/Newsweek that is so careless and unconvincing that I wonder how he will presume to sit in judgment of the next set of student papers he has to grade. It's by the irrepressible Niall Ferguson, it is headlined "Obama's Gotta Go," and its case rests on logic of this sort:
NYT Front-Pager on Administration Housing Policy Misses Several Key Points | FDL News Desk (Obama and his good buddies, he banksters)
Calculated Risk: Mortgage Cramdowns: A Missed Opportunity Binyamin Appelbaum at the NY Times reviews some of the Obama administration's missed opportunities: Cautious Moves on Foreclosures Haunting Obama Here is an excerpt on mortgage cramdowns
Revel seeks additional credit from lenders Gov. Chris Christie, who approved $261 million in state tax credits for Revel in order to help complete the financing needed to open, said he is not concerned about the resort's long-term viability.
Apple becomes most valuable firm of all time – but Facebook shares hit new low | Technology | guardian.co.uk ech firm valued at more than $619bn after shares hit high of $664.75 in morning trading, topping Microsoft's 1999 record

Rep. Todd Akin: No pregnancy from 'legitimate rape' - latimes.com
Dave Catanese, Politico Reporter, Defends Todd Akin Rape Comments "So perhaps some can agree that all rapes that are reported are not actually rapes? Or are we gonna really deny that for PC sake?" he said. "So looks like he meant to say -- 'If a woman was REALLY raped, it's statistically less likely for her to get pregnant.' What's the science?" - Contrary to Akin's claims, around 32,000 women get pregnant every year after being raped.
Claire McCaskill Reacts To Todd Akin's 'Legitimate Rape' Remarks McCaskill challenged Akin to name a doctor who would actually back up his claim, saying his comments were born from a deep ignorance of women's issues. "I have a hard time imagining a woman uttering the phrase 'legitimate rape,'" McCaskill said.
Well, They *Should* Be Defending Akin - Lawyers, Guns & Money :
A Canard That Will Not Die: 'Legitimate Rape' Doesn't Cause Pregnancy - Garance Franke-Ruta - The Atlantic
Akin Unmasks the Pro-Life Movement The myth that women can't get pregnant from rape stems from basic assumptions anti-choicers make about women ... only 37 percent of women who qualified for rape exceptions got the necessary funding for their abortions.
Akin's Spiritual Mentor: Women Occasionally Invite Rape, Victims Are 'Hysterical' | ThinkProgress
Rep. Todd Akin is wrong about rape and pregnancy, but he’s not alone
That’s Not ‘Misspoke’ | TPM Editors Blog TPM Reader SR on “legitimate rape” and Akin’s commonplace reasoning …
CNN's Right-Wing Blogger Problem: "Legitimate Rape" Edition | Blog | Media Matters for America
I Misspoke—What I Meant To Say Is 'I Am Dumb As Dog Shit And I Am A Terrible Human Being' | The Onion
Todd Akin Led Missouri Senate Polls Before Rape Comments
Akin's rape comment threatens to alter U.S. Senate race : Stltoday
Mitt Romney: Todd Akin Rape Comments Are 'Insulting, Inexcusable'
John Cornyn, Top Republicans Call On Todd Akin To Rethink Candidacy
Todd Akin Apologizes For 'Legitimate Rape' Remark, Won't Drop Out
Daily Kos: Todd Akin clarifies he's on the same page as Paul Ryan on 'forcible rape'
Paul Ryan, Culture Warrior One thing is sure. Mitt Romney's vice-presidential choice doesn't mean that candidate has given up tacking to the hard-right on social issues.

Billionaire's new Colorado town is a private Old West marvel - The Denver Post (the insanity of the super-rich)

City's homeless feeding ban takes a beating in judge's opinion | Philadelphia City Paper | 08/16/2012 Last week, U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn reaffirmed his decision to issue an injunction against Mayor Nutter’s ban on the serving of meals to the homeless and hungry in city parks. (let the poors starve)
Nevada Same-Sex Couple Denied Hospital Visitation Despite Domestic Partnership | ThinkProgress

Fat Al Gore Shuts Down Highways the Terrorists Couldn’t | emptywheel

University of Kentucky, Louisville ban hundreds of words from athletes' tweets | The Courier-Journal | courier-journal.com

081912
U.S. Says Iraqis Are Helping Iran Skirt Sanctions - NYTimes.com (heckuva job)
AFP: US, Israel view Iran threat with different 'clocks': general (Netanyahu beating the drums of war)

IMF Says Bailouts Iceland-Style Hold Lessons in Crisis Times - Businessweek (Krugman was right)

Julian Assange: U.S. Must End 'Witch Hunt' Against Wikileaks "There must be no more foolish talk about prosecuting any media organisation, be it Wikileaks or the New York Times," he said. "The U.S. war on whistleblowers must end."

Obama’s (Perceived) Transformation - NYTimes.com During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama earned the G.O.P.’s mockery. Now he has earned their fear. It is an ambiguous feat, accomplished by going to the dark side, by walking the G.O.P.’s talk, by becoming the man Dick Cheney fashioned himself to be.

Affordable Care Act Denialism Strikes Again
Noahpinion: Niall, the British Empire is over. Accept it.
Unethical Commentary, Newsweek Edition - NYTimes.com There are multiple errors and misrepresentations in Niall Ferguson’s cover story in Newsweek — I guess they don’t do fact-checking — but this is the one that jumped out at me -- he is deliberately misleading readers, conveying the impression that the CBO had actually rejected Obama’s claim that health reform is deficit-neutral, when in fact the opposite is true.

Brad DeLong: Ed Gillespie: Romney Would Rapidly Remove 65 and 66 Year Olds from Medicare
Eric Fehrnstrom: Mitt Romney Tax Returns 'Not An Issue' (so stfu)
Washington Post: Mitt Romney Tax Plan 'Garbage'
Mitt Romney 2011 Tax Return To Be Released By October 15, Ed Gillespie Says
Balloon Juice » Boston Globe Demands Apology from Biden Over Chains Comment; Should STFU (Globies clutch their pearls over "incivility")
Doug Priesse: Ohio Early Voting Process Should Not Accommodate Black Voters (in fact, they shouldn't be allowed to vote at all)

Revel's rocky launch "Revel's a terrific example of government intervention supporting an inefficient operation," he said. "It should be allowed to collapse, file bankruptcy, and let people take their lumps and have a skilled investor come in and buy it for 5 or 10 cents on the dollar and make it work using dynamic marketing skills." (tax-cuts for the rich, compulsive gambler lying fat fuck Christie doubles down)

Republican Senate Nominee: Victims Of ‘Legitimate Rape’ Don’t Get Pregnant | TPM2012 Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri who is running against Sen. Claire McCaskill, justified his opposition to abortion rights even in case of rape with a claim that victims of “legitimate rape” have unnamed biological defenses that prevent pregnancy. (yeah, he really said that)
Todd Akin On Abortion: 'Legitimate Rape' Victims Have 'Ways To Try To Shut That Whole Thing Down' (video)

'Gay Cure' Ban Heads For Vote In California
Exclusive: FBI probed GOP trip with drinking, nudity in Israel - Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan - POLITICO.com Several privately admitted that alcohol may have played a role in why some of those present decided to jump in.

Folded DNA becomes Trojan horse to attack cancer - life - 18 August 2012 - New Scientist


Judge says Apple is ‘smoking crack’ after seeing rebuttal witness list - The Washington Post
You can’t block Facebook using Windows 8's hosts file

081812
Drone strike kills five in Pakistan after local military leader meets US general | World news | guardian.co.uk US presses Pakistan for offensive against tribal region militants amid tensions over continuing unmanned aircraft strikes
UN observers leave Syria as mandate expires | World news | guardian.co.uk Departure of last 100 monitors under way as humanitarian situation worsens and regime denies Assad deputy has defected
Syrian rebels foil army attempt to take Turkish border gate, as Lakhdar Brahimi becomes new envoy – video | World news | guardian.co.uk

Bob Diamond's 'highly selective' evidence slammed in MPs' Libor report | Business | The Guardian Report also criticises Bank of England and regulator for being slow to notice events leading up to Barclays' £290m fine
Bob Diamond, Ex-Barclays CEO, Criticized By British Lawmakers Former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond offered a "highly selective" account to a Parliamentary hearing on the banking rate-fixing scandal, British lawmakers said Saturday in a highly critical report.
IMF Says Bailouts Iceland-Style Hold Lessons in Crisis Times - Businessweek Iceland refused to protect creditors in its banks, which failed in 2008 after their debts bloated to 10 times the size of the economy. The island’s subsequent decision to shield itself from a capital outflow by restricting currency movements allowed the government to ward off a speculative attack, cauterizing the economy’s hemorrhaging. That helped the authorities focus on supporting households and businesses.

Julian Assange row: ministers from across Americas to hold meeting | Media | guardian.co.uk Organisation of American States to hold meeting next week following Ecuador's decision to grant asylum to Assange

Louisiana ambush suspect tied to ‘anti-government group’ | TPMMuckraker Joekel was part of a group known as Posse Comitatus. (white terrorism)

Mormons in the spotlight as a faith goes mainstream | World news | The Observer Mitt Romney doesn't want his religion to become a political issue – but there's no stopping a growing curiosity about it. All sides agree this presidential election brings a vital moment for a once-persecuted faith

David Simon | Mitt Romney paid taxes at a rate of at least 13 percent. And he’s proud to say so.
FT investigation: Romney’s take-off - FT.com An early deal by Bain Capital has been marked by unlawful suppression of a pilot’s union
How Bain Capital is trying — reluctantly — to clean up its name - Boston.com
Daily Kos: Boo-effing-hoo, for the bully Mitt Romney But Mitt isn't used to anyone being able to fight back. He isn't used to having to abide by accepted standards of behavior. This is all so painful and ugly. You people should just hand Mitt the keys to the White House. Since Versailles isn't available.

Does America Get the Campaigns It Deserves? The fault lies not in our candidates, but in ourselves ... the actual share of voters nationally who are up for grabs is probably between just 3 percent and 5 percent in this election, polling experts say. The Obama and Romney campaigns are expected to spend on the order of $2 billion, in part to try to sway this tiny share of the electorate.
Sam Sommers: Just How Independent Are Independent Voters? - Independents may not be quite as independent as they claim they are
Few Voters Are Truly Up for Grabs, Research Suggests - NYTimes.com

Paul Ryan and his mother tout Medicare plans at Florida event | World news | guardian.co.uk The VP hopeful took to the offensive, seeking to reassure a large senior population about Republican plans for Medicare reform
Washington Post Strikes Out in Attack on Joe Biden's Courage on Social Security | Beat the Press The Washington Post once again confounded its critics who insisted that it couldn't get any worse. ("tweaks" = "cuts")
Paul Ryan Got Federal Funds To Help With Bush-Era GM Plant Closure He Blames On Obama
Hank Williams Jr. brings country hits and political jabs to the fair | Metromix Des Moines “We’ve got a Muslim president who hates farming, hates the military, hates the US and we hate him!”

State unemployment rates rise in 44 states - Aug. 17, 2012 Only two states and the District of Columbia saw unemployment rates edge lower in July
N.J. Tax Revenues Lower Than Anticipated « CBS Philly New Jersey tax revenues are below what the Christie Administration had expected for the month of July, which could mean trouble for the state budget as well as proposed tax cuts. (the lying fat fuck has ruined his state)
Balloon Juice » Weird Scenes Inside the Coal Mind Claiming there is a war on coal is akin to claiming that Henry Ford declared war on horses. (wingnut fantasies of Obama's "war on coal")
A 20-Year Low in U.S. Carbon Emissions - NYTimes.com

Mars Rover to Test Rock-Zapping Laser, 1st Drive Set | Space.com

Political Animal - Obama And His Judges (Or Lack Thereof) Mr. Obama moved more slowly and sought relatively moderate jurists who he hoped would not provoke culture wars that distracted attention from his ambitious legislative agenda. ("not a priority" + nominates "centrist" Repubiicans" - what an idiot)

Balloon Juice» In Wake of Voter ID Ruling, Pennsylvania Dumps Online Initiatives to Boost Voting
Daily Kos: I was denied free voter ID today: Pennsylvania The Pittsburgh DMV is not giving free voter ID, contrary to federal law. Specifically, the DMV supervisor who refused to give it to me is named Dana Nash

Drinking on Stoops Is Illegal in New York, But Popular - NYTimes.com Public drinking laws, he said, are unevenly enforced along racial lines and don’t address actual crimes being committed. “I see this very much like stop and frisk,” he said.

Political Animal - Barton’s Fall From Grace two conservative evangelical writers who took great issue with the take on Thomas Jefferson’s church-state views offered by the famous controversialist David Barton, who more than any one person is cited by Christian Right folk as “proving” America was intended by its Founders to be a “Christian Nation.”
Bill Keller | rightwingwatch.org - Mormon doctrine is 100% inconsistent with Biblical Christianity and a Mormon is no more a Christian than a Muslim is - I am encouraging true followers of Jesus Christ to say NO to satan and say YES to Jesus! This November, write in the name JESUS for President!

No Mortgage for You by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly Student loan debt was supposed to be the good kind of debt. It’s, you know, an “investment in your future.” Except it turns out student loans may soon prevent large swaths of the American population from getting mortgages to buy houses, an actual investment.
Balloon Juice » Another Casualty of the Administrative Invasion of the University

Police Warn Internet Users Not To Pay Fines To File-Sharing Fraudsters | TorrentFreak Police in Sweden are warning Internet users not to send money to criminals trying to extort money from alleged file-sharers. The sophisticated scam began when unsuspecting cell phone users browsed an infected website which somehow extracted information from their devices.

081712
South African police filmed in miner 'massacre'
Miners' wives rage at South African police brutality after 'massacre' | World news | guardian.co.uk Women performing apartheid-era toyi-toyi dance condemn mine company as they wait for news of victims of police shootings
South Africa Police Say They Killed 34 Miners police finally announced the toll from the previous day's shooting by officers of striking platinum miners: 34 dead and 78 wounded.
Pussy Riot sentenced to two years in prison colony over anti-Putin protest | Music | The Guardian Russian leader accused of orchestrating case against trio found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred
Pussy Riot Trial: Feminist Punk Band Guilty Of Hooliganism, Motivated By Religious Hatred
Chinese to become biggest spenders as record numbers head overseas | World news | guardian.co.uk Expanding middle class fuels boom, with growing demand for scenery and culture on itineraries as well as shops

For Europe’s Economy, a Lost Decade Looms - NYTimes.com (overlords at work)
Madrid mayor says international rescue is inevitable for Spanish economy | World news | The Guardian Ana Botella is first high-level official to say publicly that Spain would need financial aid from European Union

Julian Assange extradition: Ecuador 'willing to co-operate' with Britain | Media | The Guardian Pledge on protecting WikiLeaks founder from US could lead to deal, says source as embassy complains of 'intimidating' police

Mitt Romney's tax returns: the 'voter fraud' theory | MS Bellows Jr | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk There has been much speculation about why Romney refuses to disclose earlier tax returns. Could it be as simple as an address?
Romney team rejects Obama campaign 'deal' to release tax returns | World news | guardian.co.uk Jim Messina wrote to Romney campaign asking for five years' worth of tax returns in exchange for an end to the issue
White House Press Corps Wonders When Obama Will Actually Take Their Questions - wanted to know when the president would break his over-two-month streak of not formally answering their questions. ("when Mitt Romney releases his tax returns, muhahaha")

U.S. House Elections May Turn On Paul Ryan's Budget 43 of 45 incumbent Republicans regarded as vulnerable by political handicappers voted for the budget that Rep. Ryan (R-Wis.) authored as House Budget Committee chairman in 2012. All 45 voted for Ryan's budget in 2011.
Ryan Denies Taking Stimulus, Then Admits He Did -- Daily Intel
Jan Brewer Immigration Order Met With Criticism, Protests when she issued an executive order denying benefits to young undocumented immigrants, defying President Obama's deferred action program.
Hullabaloo - They think they own the military (creepy)
About 25 demonstrate against tea party billboard
Hannity: "Paul Ryan Has Become A National Sex Symbol" | Video | Media Matters for America (creepy)
Romney Loves Ryan by Paul Constant - Seattle Features - The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper What Mitt Sees in His New Beau
Balloon Juice » Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan Want You People to STFU and Just Trust Them

New York Times CEO Mark Thompson stands to make $6m in 2013 | Media | The Guardian Thompson to get a six-fold salary increase from his position as director-general of the BBC, according to a regulatory filing
Room for Debate: “Will the New York Times Room for Debate Forum Ever Ask Good Questions?” - Lawyers, Guns & Money
At the 'Times,' a new mission statement | Capital New York

Social Facts - Lawyers, Guns & Money
America's Simple-Minded Obsession With the Confederate Flag - Kevin M. Levin - The Atlantic Journalists love to recycle old clichés about the rebel banner. But its days as an official symbol of Southern pride are rapidly coming to an end
On Romney Policy Details, It's Jennifer Rubin Vs. The World (And Jennifer Rubin) | Blog | Media Matters for America

The Truth Has A Well-Known Demagogic Bias - NYTimes.com
One-Trick Pony Hack of the Day - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Here’s the thing — Ron Wyden foolishly agreeing to give Paul Ryan cover doesn’t make his proposal a “Democratic” proposal in any meaningful sense; it proves that it’s long past time for Wyden to retire. (William Galston, hack and truth-killer)
What You Need to Know About Premium Support — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities The budget resolution that House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) will unveil this week is expected to include a Medicare premium support proposal fashioned by Ryan and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR). Although billed as a kinder, gentler form of premium support, the Ryan-Wyden plan has the same basic features as earlier premium support proposals.[1] ("Premium" = "coupon")

Calculated Risk: State Unemployment Rates increased in 44 States in July (heckuva job, galtian overlords)
Demographic Changes a Key Factor in Slowing Economic Growth - NYTimes.com
Goldman Non-Prosecution: AG Eric Holder Has No Balls | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone (Obama is completely captured by the financial sector and they still won't vote for him)
FB: Facebook Stock Falls To Half Of Public Offering Price

Kentucky GOP Outraged Colleges Want Students to Know Things

Contraception, healthcare and the costs women will leave behind | Life and style | guardian.co.uk An investigation by the Guardian has shown how murky the current system had become in the US: riddled with inconsistencies in the price women pay at the pharmacy counter (slut pills)

'Compliance,' A Low Budget Indie, Might Be The Most Disturbing Movie Ever Made According to the film, in the decade leading up to 2004, more than 70 cases were reported of a man, pretending to be a police officer or some other authority figure, who called a fast-food restaurant and requested strip searches of employees.

Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram | ExtremeTech

Pushing back the surveillance state: we must get behind these two bills | Privacy SOS
Anonymous calls for shut-down of TrapWire to start this Saturday — RT
eBay bans 'intangible' items including spells, curses and advice (Wired UK)

081512
Julian Assange can be arrested in embassy, UK warns Ecuador | Media | The Guardian Ahead of decision on WikiLeaks founder's asylum claim, Quito accuses Britain of threat to trample international law
Leon Panetta says US does not believe Israel has decided on Iran attack | World news | guardian.co.uk US defence secretary weighs in as Israel fears prolonged conflict on various fronts as war jitters with Iran continue
Pakistan air force base comes under attack | World news | guardian.co.uk Insurgents armed with grenades and assault rifles infiltrated Minhas complex at Kamra before dawn and launched assault

Euro Zone Shifted to Contraction From Stagnation in 2nd Quarter - NYTimes.com (austerity has worked so well, let's try ... more austerity!)
Large age gaps in a relationship: our readers respond | The people's panel | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Guardian readers share their views of big age gaps in couples following news George Soros, 82, will marry Tamiko Bolton, 40
New Statesman - Exclusive: Osborne's supporters turn on him Leading economists who formerly backed Osborne urge him to change course.
Find 'backbone' to punish Standard Chartered, US senator tells regulator | Business | The Guardian Slapping a fine over Iran sanctions breaches not enough, says Carl Levin, as bank's share price rises on FTSE 100 (the cozy little world is threatened)

Reuters faces fresh hacker attack | Media | guardian.co.uk News agency hacked for the third time in a fortnight, as hoax story falsely claims Saudi Arabia's foreign minister has died

Julian Assange can be arrested in embassy, UK warns Ecuador | Media | The Guardian Ahead of decision on WikiLeaks founder's asylum claim, Quito accuses Britain of threat to trample international law

The new totalitarianism of surveillance technology | Naomi Wolf | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk If you think that 24/7 tracking of citizens by biometric recognition systems is paranoid fantasy, just read the industry newsletters

US air force's hypersonic test aircraft fails during attempt to fly at Mach 6 | World news | guardian.co.uk The Pentagon has been testing hypersonic technologies in hopes of delivering strikes around the globe within minutes. (drone-boy's wet-dream)

William Ward, Four-Star General, Investigated Over Spending for allegedly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars improperly on lavish travel, hotels and other items,
NYPD, Microsoft Launch All-Seeing "Domain Awareness System" With Real-Time CCTV, License Plate Monitoring [Updated] | Fast Company The New York Police Department has a new terrorism detection system that will also generate profit for the city

Pennsylvania Voter ID Decision: Judge Refuses To Grant Injunction To Halt Law Votes by four of six Supreme Court justices would be needed to overturn the ruling by Simpson, who is a Republican. But the high court is currently split between three Republicans and three Democrats following the recent suspension of Justice Joan Orie Melvin, a Republican who is fighting criminal corruption charges.
Overt Discrimination in Ohio - NYTimes.com The sleazy politics behind the disparity is obvious. Hamilton County, which contains Cincinnati, is largely Democratic and voted solidly for Barack Obama in 2008. So did the other urban areas of Cleveland, Columbus and Akron, where Republicans, with the assistance of the Ohio secretary of state, Jon Husted, have already eliminated the extended hours for early voting.
Statewide policy on early vote possible | Cincinnati.com | cincinnati.com County-by-county rules draw suppression claims
Today In Republican Disenfranchisement Initiatives - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Pennsylvania Voter ID Ruling - The PA Voter-ID Ruling, the Ohio Interference & Beyond - Esquire , I'm talking about being able to exercise your franchise to vote, particularly in Ohio and in Pennsylvania, which are fairly important states if the president would like to remain president. The voter-suppression schemes in both states are humming right along, and the one in Pennsylvania got a big old boost in court today.
George Martin: Not A Blog - "Show Us Your Papers"

Paul Ryan’s Fairy-Tale Budget Plan - NYTimes.com
"We Haven't Run The Numbers:" A Startling Ryan Admission That's Getting Little Attention | Blog | Media Matters for America
Waymon Hudson: Paul Ryan: Poster Boy of Today's Extreme GOP
Political Animal - The Bigger Lie Looks to me like the Romney campaign is once again taking a page from the Rove playbook and accusing his opponent of exactly his own sins. If nothing else, it enables the media to retreat with a relieved sigh into the false-equivalency meme and just report that both sides are accusing each other of racially divisive tactics. And it makes those who respond positively to Romney’s own racial appeals feel justified: those people always play the “race card,” after all.
Romney and Obama duel over negative ads as campaign enters bitter phase | World news | guardian.co.uk Controversial ads have fuelled vicious back-and-forths as Romney accuses Obama of 'doing anything' to stay in power

Hullabaloo - Speaking of Vice Presidents: Here's Biden today: "Hey, by the way, let's talk about Social Security," Biden said after a diner at The Coffee Break Cafe in Stuart, VA expressed his relief that the Obama campaign wasn't talking about changing the popular entitlement program. "Number one, I guarantee you, flat guarantee you, there will be no changes in Social Security," Biden said, per a pool report. "I flat guarantee you."

A most poisonous campaign - The Washington Post But what is most striking about the contest is not just the negativity or the sheer volume of attack ads raining down on voters in swing states. It is the sense that all restraints are gone, the guardrails have disappeared and there is no incentive for anyone to hold back. The other guy does it, so we’re going to do it, too.
This Congress could be least productive since 1947 – usatoday.com (Republicans at work being unproductive)

Hullabaloo - Report from Ronnie's woodshed - Any benefit for which there is a wealthy constituency will not be touched. Until we fix our corrupt political system, any assumptions of "shared sacrifice" are fairy tales.
Ann Romney: No More Tax Returns Will Be Released ("no more" = "zero")
Bill Black: Krugman Now Sees the Perversity of Economics’ “Culture of Fraud” « naked capitalism
Eduardo Porter’s “Folly”—Why we must end the “Race to the bottom” | | New Economic PerspectivesNew Economic Perspectives

Hullabaloo - Letting the cat out of the bag

U.S. Economic Recovery Is Weakest Since World War II
Matt Taibbi: Goldman Case Shows Eric Holder 'Has No Balls' (Obama always had the bankers' backs)
Rhode Island Struggles With Enormous Pension Problem: 'The Titanic Is Going Down' "That's the iceberg they've already hit. The Titanic is going down," Henseler said after the meeting. "These guys are paying lawyers to rearrange the deck chairs."

When Dad Comes to College by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly Apparently parents of college students are now taking a really active role in helping their children pick colleges, and majors. This is pretty creepy (“you will be a lawyer, like daddy!”) but, really, can you blame them?

Superfund Efforts to Clean Waterways Come With a Risk - NYTimes.com
India plans to send craft to orbit Mars next year - Houston Chronicle

Judge: Former ACORN worker can sue James O’Keefe | The Raw Story
A Kalashnikov Factory in Russia Survives on Sales to U.S. Gun Owners - NYTimes.com But these days, many of Izhevsk’s weapons are headed somewhere else: the United States.
Family Research Council Shooting Wounds Security Guard (UPDATED) (PHOTOS) According to WRC-TV/NBC4's Jackie Bensen, sources say Chick-fil-A promotional materials were found in the suspect's backpack, in addition to "2 loaded 15-round ammo clips."
Jerry Sandusky, Penn State Booster Sexually Abused Boys On Private Plane: Witness
Kim Kardashian Divorce Unlikely To Be Final This Year The acrimony over the breakup led lawyers for Humphries to recently try to serve West with a deposition subpoena _disguised in a Nordstrom's box _at Kardashian's home.
Large age gaps in a relationship: our readers respond | The people's panel | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Guardian readers share their views of big age gaps in couples following news George Soros, 82, will marry Tamiko Bolton, 40

xkcd: Forget
xkcd: Eyelash Wish Log


Germany: Facebook must destroy facial recognition database | Ars Technica Says opt-out mechanism violates European Union law.
Sqrt-S: Latency-Minimizing Optimal Failure Detector

081412
Syrian regime is on brink of collapse, says former PM Riyad Hijab | World news | guardian.co.uk Highest-ranking Syrian defector urges Assad's top officials to follow his example and the army to take 'side of the people'
Attacks on Afghan markets kill dozens | World news | guardian.co.uk Bombers strike hospital gate bazaar in south-west and food market in north where child vendors sold snacks, killing 39
Mexican drug cartel suspect seized | World news | guardian.co.uk Juan Carlos Hernández Pulido captured with ID cards of newspaper employee killed in May, navy claims
French city of Amiens rocked by riots | World news | The Guardian Sixteen officers injured and public buildings razed to ground in violent clashes between youths and police in northern France

Spanish house prices drop 11.2% | Business | guardian.co.uk July's fall is biggest since March last year in a property market which has lost 31% of its value since 2008


A Two-President, Three-Term Policy Coup | emptywheel Wes Clark reveals he heard, on roughly September 21, 2001, that Bush had a plan to take out 7 countries in 5 years. Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran ... He told this story about 6 years later. He called it a policy coup ... we’ve been fighting in almost the same 7 countries Bush’s NeoCons picked out in their impotent response to 9/11. Syria? Check. Lebanon? Check. Libya? Check. Somalia? Check. Sudan Yemen? Check. Iran? ... in area after area, Obama is giving us Bush’s third term. (Obama the neo-con)

Should the South secede? - Salon.com The author of a new book challenges Northerners and Southerners to consider the possibility of a friendly divorce (oh, happy day when that happens)

Adam Gopnik: Mormonism’s History and Meanings : The New Yorker the bursting of the last bubble has led to doubts about the system that blows them. Here the people who seem likely to inherit power are those who want to blow still bigger ones, who believe in the bubble even after it has burst, and who hold its perfection as a faith so gleaming and secure and unbreakable that it might once have been written down somewhere by angels, on solid-gold plates.

Mitt Romney campaign goes on defensive over Paul Ryan's Medicare plan | World news | guardian.co.uk Romney denies clash with running mate as he refuses to say whether he supports plan to reshape the healthcare programme
Paul Ryan Will Talk About Tax Policy 'In The Light Of Day' -- After The Election
GOP pros fret over Paul Ryan - Alexander Burns and Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Martin - politico.com
In Paul Ryan’s district, he supported US energy funds while decrying stimulus program - Politics - The Boston Globe
Paul Ryan Budget Forces Some Republican Candidates Into Awkward Position
Paul Ryan Gets His Roll-Out: The Mediagasm
Presidential Debate Moderators: Why All White?
John McCain: Mitt Romney Tax Returns Show He Paid Uncle Sam (VIDEO) "I am absolutely confident that [Romney] ... did pay taxes." McCain told the Las Vegas Sun’s Jon Ralston during an interview set to air on his “Face to Face” program on Tuesday. “Nothing in his tax returns showed that he did not pay taxes.” (parse that carefuly)
The Imaginary Paul Ryan - Lawyers, Guns & Money
What Paul Ryan’s budget actually cuts — and by how much
Paul Ryan Gets His Roll-Out: The Mediagasm Thank heavens! Prior to Romney's decision, people in the media were, of course, completely powerless to do little more than go on camera, and, I suppose, crap their pants repeatedly in delicious helplessness.
Paul Ryan New York Times Profile - The Paul Ryan Origin Story Is a Heaping Pile - Esquire
Three Immutable Laws of American Politics - Lawyers, Guns & Money : 1)Nobody cares about federalism. 2)No conservative Republican — Paul Ryan very much included — cares about the deficit. 3)Most mainstream pundits will call conservative Republicans who repeatedly support unfunded upper-class tax cuts and wars “deficit hawks” anyway.

Brad DeLong: Why Isn't It Obvious to Bernanke, Yellen, Stein That They Should Be Doing More Now? They are none of them dumb. Yet they see risks in more aggressive monetary expansion that I cannot see... (yes, evil is the alternative to dumb)
U.S. Auto Bailout Will Cost Billions More Than Previously Thought: Treasury The U.S. Treasury Department has said the auto industry bailout will cost taxpayers $3.4 billion more than previously thought.
Groupon shares nosedive as investors sell in reaction to slowing sales | Technology | guardian.co.uk Daily discount website that once grew rapidly faces declining momentum as shares fall 25% to an all-time low of $5.60
Washington Post Columnist Charles Lane Thinks the Elderly Are Wealthy Because They Can Afford to Pay Off Their Mortgage | Beat the Press

Golden ratio discovered in uterus | Alex Bellos | Science | guardian.co.uk Belgian gynaecologist measures reproductive organs of 5,000 women and finds that the most fertile have 'mathematically perfect' dimensions

A Hamptons Summer - Surfing, Horses and Hours of SAT Prep - NYTimes.com (another NYT plight of the not-quite superrich)
Jonathan Merritt profits from gay hatred. He deserved to be outed | Jason Farago | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk In the case of the anti-gay writer outed by a male lover, exposing his sexuality is right as it delegitimises his message of bigotry

Penn State Scandal: University's Accreditation Status 'In Jeopardy' An accrediting organization has told Penn State that its status is "in jeopardy" based on recent developments in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.
More questions raised about Fareed Zakaria’s work - The Washington Post
Yale May Reconsider Ties To Fareed Zakaria, University Trustee, After Plagiarism Charges (who knew?)

Fox Internship Lawsuit Heats Up As Prosecution Seeks To Include Entire Fox Entertainment Group


081312
Iran earthquakes: Tehran criticised for response to disaster | World news | guardian.co.uk Iranian politicians and public raise concerns about response to quake that killed 300 people and injured thousands more
Iran Earthquakes 2012: Death Toll From Temblors Tops 300
Egyptian military shakeup was not personal, says Mohamed Morsi | World news | guardian.co.uk President says move is in the interests of the nation and is not intended to embarrass any state institutions
Syrian rebels 'shoot down' fighter jet | World news | The Guardian Free Syrian Army fighters claim to have shot government MiG-23 jet over Deir Ezzor and captured the pilot
Mexican drug war's innocent victims: 'They tried to kill me with my kids' | World news | guardian.co.uk Claims that 90% of Mexican drug war victims are criminals is a statistic far removed from Cristina Roman's experience in a country where police and military have fallen into corruption
Anders Behring Breivik could have been halted – report | World news | guardian.co.uk Norway government commission concludes authorities could have prevented or at least interrupted bomb and gun killings, had police and the intelligence services not made a catalogue of blunders, according to an official report.
BBC News - Thai MP Boonsong Kowawisarat 'accidentally kills secretary' 20,000 baht ($636;£405) fine if convicted.

Calculated Risk: Europe Update: More Contraction
Eschaton: I Bet Extra Austere Austerity Will Do The Trick It is a complete mystery why deliberate attempts to destroy economies are destroying the economies. Nobody could have predicted...
Japan's economic growth slows to 0.3% | World news | guardian.co.uk Drop in consumer spending and knock-on effect of eurozone crisis may trigger further easing of monetary policy

The Ryan Role - NYTimes.com Mark Kleiman points us to a lamentable but revealing column by William Saletan, which illustrates perfectly how the essentially ludicrous Paul Ryan has gotten so far – namely, by playing to the gullibility of self-proclaimed centrists, who want to show their “balance” by finding a conservative to praise.
Eschaton: The Suffering Of Other People My prediction is that the election narrative from our Villagers will coalesce around the question that voters care about most of all: which candidate (and party) will make the electorate suffer the most? America 2012. It's just one big laboratory for the S&M fantasies of the Villagers.
Romney/Ryan 2012 Means We'll Ignore The Biggest Issue of Our Time focusing attention on the big-picture disagreement between Democrats and Republicans about long-term fiscal policy means we won't be focusing attention on what ought to be the most pressing economic policy issue of our time—mass unemployment and the tragic waste of human and economic potential it represents.

Obama announces federal aid for drought-stricken agriculture industry | Environment | guardian.co.uk Pressure for action intensified last week as the department of agriculture warned food prices may be set to soar worldwide
Boehner's Office Says Obama Avoiding Personal Responsibility For Drought | TPM LiveWire (because God hates Muslims)

National Reconnaissance Office officials accused of contracting crimes, retaliation | McClatchy (corrupt from the top down +pseudo-science polygraphs the core of security clearance +Obama's hatred of whistleblowers behind it all)

Paul Ryan pick draws big crowds as Obama campaign moves to downplay | World news | guardian.co.uk Adviser warns that Ryan excitement won't last as Republicans pounce on lower-than-usual crowds at Obama campaign events
Brad DeLong: Four of Five Republican Supreme Court Justices Say Ryan's End-Medicare-as-We-Know-It Plan Is Unconstitutional
Paul Ryan: A Reactionary in Full - Lawyers, Guns & Money = to Ryan “a woman’s claim to bodily autonomy or self-determination doesn’t merit even cursory consideration.” (back to the 19th century)
Wonkbook: Everything you need to know about Paul Ryan
The Right’s brittle heroes - Salon.com The contrast between Paul Ryan's iconic image and his personal reality is typical of America's partisan leaders
Paul Ryan Family Wealth -The Ryan Family's History of Fakery - Esquire
98% of Republicans in Congress Voted for Ryan's Medicare Rationing Scheme | Crooks and Liars
Ryan Jokes, Laughs as 71-Year-Old Forced to the Ground | Occupy America At this point you hear the police who are dragging him out shouting, “on the ground, on the ground”. Ryan then jokes, “I hope he’s taken his blood-pressure medication”, and the room laughs with him.
Fox Falsely Claims Obama Is Gutting Medicare While Ryan Is Trying To Save It | Blog | Media Matters for America (lies from Satan's mouth)
Romney Campaign Falsely Accuses Obama Of Gutting Welfare In New Ad
Paul Ryan in Six Charts: How He'd Bring Romney's Taxes Close to Zero | Mother Jones
The Ryan Pick Confirms Romney's Commitment To A Radical Conservative Agenda. | The New Republic
Paul Ryan’s Extreme Abortion Views - The Daily Beast Mitt's VP pick is a known fiscal conservative, but his social ideology is at least as radical. Michelle Goldberg on Ryan's insinuations that women who choose abortion could be jailed.
Paul Ryan: 7 Great Reads on Romney’s Running Mate - The Daily Beast
Jennifer Rubin's Paul Ryan Fan Fiction | Blog | Media Matters for America (the Rubinoid)
At least Paul Ryan has an idea - The Insiders - The Washington Post (WaPo Village take: who cares if it's an insane idea that will destroy the world; here's any idea for you: raise taxes on the rich)
Bill Kristol Is Getting The Band Back Together Again | TBogg - I, for one, look forward to the return of our neo-con puppet-master warlords….

Michael Tomasky on How the GOP Plans to Block the Black Vote - The Daily Beast It happens every election: mysterious fliers, robocalls, malfunctioning machines that deny blacks the right to vote. Now the Republican Party has explicitly embraced the strategy.
Harold Meyerson: GOP’s voter ID tactics could undermine a Romney win - The Washington Post
George R.R. Martin, 'Game Of Thrones' Author, Slams Republicans For 'Voter Suppression' clearly they have scant regard for our republic or its values. They are oligarchs and racists clad in the skins of dead elephants." A study published on Sunday found that voter fraud in the United States is nearly nonexistent, further undermining the stated rationale behind voter ID laws.
GOP Voter ID Campaign Based On Bunk, Data Shows
Who Can Vote? - A News21 2012 National Project
Daily News and Scranton Times-Tribune refer to white supremacists as white people's rights group | Philadelphia City Paper | 08/10/2012 (Karen Testa, East Region Editor at the AP doesn't get it; it's about the truth, not "furthering your career")

Problems Riddle Moves to Collect Credit Card Debt - NYTimes.com The same problems that plagued the foreclosure process — and prompted a multibillion-dollar settlement with big banks — are now emerging in the debt collection practices of credit card companies. ("robo-testifying")
Motorola to cut 4,000 jobs in Google restructure | Technology | guardian.co.uk Ailing handset maker says it could face severance costs of up to $275m as it begins reorganisation under new owner

Former Susan G. Komen Executive Has Book Deal - NYTimes.com Howard Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, announced Monday that Karen Handel's "Planned Bullyhood" will come out Sept. 11. (oh, poor Nancy, she was bullied by Planned Parenthood! wingnuts always land on their feet with big book deals)

The Secret Of Kells - Promotional Trailer - YouTube
'Losing Yourself' In A Fictional Character Can Affect Your Real Life - Ohio State Research
BBC - Future - Science & Environment - Fusion: The quest to recreate the Sun’s power on Earth

Qantas | Airline | Unaccompanied child policy | Man 'humliated' ((Quantas sees all men as child-molesters)

Race, Class, App.net: The Beginning of ‘White Flight’ from Facebook & Twitter? » Cyborgology
Backers & Hackers Start Playing With App.net ($50/yr)
MPAA / RIAA Want U.S. to Help Quash The Pirate Bay | TorrentFreak the groups explain that despite the broad availability of legal content, online piracy is still rampant. The groups say that services including The Pirate Bay, Rapidgator, Turbobit, DepositFiles and PutLocker are piracy havens, and they urge the U.S. Government to help them quash these sites. (they might have a "doomsday device")
Reader Response, in Theory | Planned Obsolescence

081212

Voting law experts keep close eye on Pennsylvania - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Campaign distortion - Toledo Blade The notion that President Obama -- or any other rational politician -- would seek to curtail the right to vote of servicemen and women is absurd. Yet Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is peddling that canard in an attempt to win votes in this critical battleground state. Ohio voters surely are too savvy to fall for such nonsense ("canard" = "lie")

The Ryan Pick Confirms Romney's Commitment To A Radical Conservative Agenda. | The New Republic Many millions of working-age Americans would lose health insurance. Senior citizens would anguish over whether to pay their rent or their medical bills, in a way they haven’t since the 1960s. Government would be so starved of resources that, by 2050, it wouldn’t have enough money for core functions like food inspections and highway maintenance. And the richest Americans would get a huge tax cut.
Mitt Romney: Paul Ryan Budget Is Not His, Candidate 'Putting Together His Own'
Paul Ryan: Obama Has A 'Record Of Failure'
Celebrity Donor Phone Numbers Released By Conservative Group Grassfire Nation Grassfire Nation, an anti-Obama group, emailed its supporters with the telephone numbers of a number of Hollywood figures on Friday.
The Daily Banter » This Is Your Press Corps Being Ridiculous (Romney-Ryan Edition) It’s also worth noting that with very few variations, this is the version of the story of how Romney selected Ryan that the campaign wants to be told.
It’s Paul Ryan’s Party -- Daily Intel (they are all wingnuts and Romney bought his ticket)
Balloon Juice » William Saletan’s Love for Paul Ryan is Based on Fantasy Today we get William Saletan, Slate’s Official Correspondent on You’re a Slut and I’m in Charge of Your Uterus, waxing orgasmic about Paul Ryan.
Political Animal - Romney’s Missing Narrative Ross Douthat is troubled that Mitt Romney has not made his Mormon faith more central to his campaign. This passage is certainly hard to dispute: Were voters were made aware of, say, Romney’s role as president of the Boston stake — well, they just might be uneasy ... which has been described as the equivalent of a Catholic diocese ... unpleasant epiisodes ... (Pope Douthat is both naive and stupid)
Republicans Who Criticized Obama As Foreign Policy Novice, Say Romney's Missing Experience Is A Plus | ThinkProgress

Culture Of Fraud - NYTimes.com The big story of the week among the dismal science set is the Romney campaign’s white paper on economic policy, which represents a concerted effort by three economists — Glenn Hubbard, Greg Mankiw, and John Taylor — to destroy their own reputations. (Yes, there was a fourth author, Kevin Hassett. But the co-author of “Dow 36,000? doesn’t exactly have a reputation to destroy) (most corrupt profession after shrinks)
NPR Planet Money Host Adam Davidson Under Fire from Rogue Media Ethicists (Updated) | Observer The NPR host and New York Times Magazine contributor gets panned for ethical misgivings. What—and how real—are they? - This says pretty much everything you need to know about the gangrenous state of America’s media, when two of the most respected media institutions adopt a mob strategy to protect their little racket.
Rush Limbaugh Ad Boycott A Continued 'Drag' On Business, Cumulus CEO Says The radio CEO who said the ad boycott against Rush Limbaugh had cost his company millions revealed Thursday that the campaign against the talk show host was continuing to be a "drag" on his business, months after it had left the public eye.

Balloon Juice» Let’s Not Forget Fareed Zakaria A “mistake” is locking your keys in the car. A “terrible mistake” is leaving one of your kids at a rest stop on a family vacation. Zakaria’s action is a mistake only if you think shoplifting and pick-pocketing are forms of error rather than theft.

Extreme Weather and Drought Are Here to Stay - NYTimes.com There is still time to prevent the worst; the risk of a multidecade megadrought in the American West can be reduced if we reduce fossil-fuel emissions. But there can be little doubt that what was once thought to be a future threat is suddenly, catastrophically upon us.
The Future of Water - Lawyers, Guns & Money : This story about the siphoning of water from the Sacramento River to the big corporate farms and cities of southern California says a lot about the future of water resources in the West, and the nation more broadly. (another crap NYT article)


WikiLeaks: Our Site's Been Hit By Weeklong Denial-Of-Service Attack (state actor)
Computer memory leaks a turn off Georgiadis and colleagues have now shown that data held in RAM is not lost if the computer is switched off but the mains electricity supply not interrupted (pull the plug)
Microsoft blocks Windows 8 Start button, boot-to-desktop hacks - Computerworld Leaked copies of Windows 8 RTM cripple tweaks (Ballmer's Apple envy folly)
Microsoft reportedly changing Metro design branding to 'Windows 8' | The Verge (because everyone wants their pc to act like a locked-down touchscreen iPhone)
Classic Shell: Features
Faster USB 3.0 Performance: Examining UASP And Turbo Mode : USB 3.0: Dude, Where's My Speed?

081112
Syria crisis: US and Turkey consider no-fly zones | World news | guardian.co.uk Hillary Clinton says US and Turkish intelligence to examine possibility of flying ban as Syrian and Jordanian troops clash
Iran: two earthquakes in northwest leave scores dead | World news | guardian.co.uk Tremors measuring 6.4 and 6.3 magnitude destroy six villages and injure about 600 people, according to officials
Six US soldiers killed by Afghans | World news | guardian.co.uk Troops were shot dead by locals including a police chief and his men as attacks on Nato troops by 'allies' increase

New York Standard Chartered allegations 'blindsided' US treasury | Business | guardian.co.uk Sources familiar with Standard Chartered case say regulator 'angered' government with explosive attack on UK bank - rewriting the playbook on how foreign banks settle cases involving the processing of shadowy funds tied to sanctioned countries. In the past, such cases have usually been settled through negotiated settlements and public shaming has been kept to a minimum (cozy back-room deals and no public shaming, ever, let alone long jail terms)

Political Animal - Will Mitt Romney’s Bet on Lying Pay Off?
Mitt Romney Mistakenly Calls Paul Ryan 'The Next President' (video)

Paul Ryan Romney VP Pick - Paul Ryan, Candidate for Vice President - Esquire - In his decision to make Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny-starver from Wisconsin, his running mate, Romney finally surrendered the tattered remnants of his soul not only to the extreme base of his party, but also to extremist economic policies, and to an extremist view of the country he seeks to lead.
Romney introduces VP pick Paul Ryan as part of 'comeback team' GOP ticket | World news | guardian.co.uk Decision to choose ultra-conservative Tea Party hero will offer voters a stark choice from Barack Obama's fiscal politics
Mitt Romney Announces Paul Ryan As Vice Presidential Running Mate
Paul Krugman: Paul Ryan Budget That Romney Supports Is a ‘Fraud’ - ABC News
And the “Centrist” Rush to Praise a Fantasy Paul Ryan Begins - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Let's All Learn About Paul Ryan Together | Slog
Galt / Gekko 2012 - NYTimes.com Paul Ryan for VP — or, as Romney said in the press conference, “the next president of the United States”. I did say Galt/Gekko, not Gekko/Galt ... Romney obviously felt he needed a VP who will get people to stop talking about him.
Meet Paul Ryan: Climate Denier, Conspiracy Theorist, Koch Acolyte | ThinkProgress
Economist's View: Ryan's Budget: The Most Fraudulent Proposal in American History
Meet Your New Vice Presidential Candidate, The One and Only History’s Greatest Monster, Paul Ryan
Paul Ryan’s Influence on the G.O.P. : The New Yorker How Paul Ryan captured the G.O.P.
Exorcists, Empty Suits, and Granny Starvers: The Gawker Guide to Mitt Romney's VP Picks Exorcists, Empty Suits, and Granny Starvers: The Gawker Guide to Mitt Romney’s VP Picks
On Ryan Apologists - NYTimes.com
The Legendary Paul Ryan -- New York Magazine
Republican National Convention: Tea Party Remains Unenthusiastic About Gathering

Has NPR's Adam Davidson Betrayed His Listeners? Serious Conflict of Interest Issues Exposed | Alternet Davidson is a shrewd propagandist with a long, consistent history of shilling for powerful interests—and failing to disclose his financial ties to the companies he reports on.
Erskine Bowles-to-Treasury Rumor Picks Up Steam | FDL News Desk t Bowles is beloved by the right, and by Wall Street. He has “market experience” by virtue of serving on the board of directors at Morgan Stanley, which we’re supposed to take as a point in his favor ... He’s never been elected, doesn’t have a whole lot in the way of accomplishments other than being a Clinton-era crony, and has throughout his public life exhibited a passion for cutting the safety net. (Obama's kind of guy)

Jeb Bush Goes After Alan Grayson: Stay Out Of Florida GOP Primary
Mary Gonzalez, Texas State Representative, Identifies As Pansexual In New Interview

New brain research refutes results of earlier studies that cast doubts on free will paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that people really do make decisions in their conscious mind.
Armageddon looming? Bruce Willis couldn't save us from asteroid doom (400 mile radius, duh)
Plenty of dark matter near the Sun The authors also find tantalising hints of a new dark matter component in our Galaxy ... Many physicists are placing their bets on dark matter being a new fundamental particle that interacts only very weakly with normal matter -- but strongly enough to be detected in experiments deep underground where confusing cosmic ray events are screened by over a kilometre of solid rock. A New Species Discovered ... On Flickr : The Picture Show : NPR

Would someone please teach these people how to plagiarize? - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Fareed Zakaria, who’s not only a plagiarist, but one of the most stunningly untalented plagiarists I’ve ever encountered.
Twitter / evgenymorozov: [True story: last week a Harvard grad student was complaining to me about Jill Lepore's tendency to use student work without attribution.] (hack Zakaria plagiarizes hack Lepore who plagiarizes ...)

EPIC - White House Pulls Down TSA Petition At approximately 11:30 am EDT, the White House removed a petition about the TSA airport screening procedures from the White House "We the People" website. About 22,500 of the 25,000 signatures necessary for a response from the Administration were obtained when the White House unexpectedly cut short the time period for the petition. The site also went down for "maintenance" following an article in Wired that sought support for the campaign. (Obama has his fingers in his ears and can't hear you)

The FBI Thought Kim Dotcom Had a 'Doomsday' Device That Could Wipe Away All Evidence of Piracy Do you know how the FBI justified the insane raid of Kim Dotcom's mansion? By saying that it suspected that Kim Dotcom had a 'doomsday' device that could "wipe out evidence of internet piracy around the world." No, seriously ... Of course, no device was ever found in the raid but that didn't stop the feds from sending choppers and a crapton of officers more fit for a drug kingpin than an online pirate (FBI=Hollywood)
Facebook agrees to tighten its privacy policies | Technology | guardian.co.uk Social network settles dispute with FTC over 'deceptive act' of making confidential information public without consent

081012
Afghan 'in uniform' kills three US soldiers | World news | guardian.co.uk Attack on special forces troops carried out by shooter wearing some form of uniform, says Nato
Inside Aleppo: air strikes on war-torn city leave anguish on the ground | World news | The Guardian Residents live in fear in Syria's second city as violence escalates and rebels prepare to launch attacks on state buildings
US planning new sanctions on Syria and Assad as Clinton travels to Turkey | World news | guardian.co.uk Like those currently in place, new sanctions are expected to target Assad's cabinet members and Iranians who support them

Suddenly, quantitative easing for the people seems possible | Anatole Kaletsky The radical alternative discussed here last week – QE for the People (or QEP, for short) – would bypass banks completely by distributing newly created money straight to the public. It is not yet on anyone’s agenda, but neither is it any longer dismissed as a joke.
Eschaton: Great Game - there's a lot more going on here than mere mortals can comprehend - "While the bank had known since 2010 it was being investigated for breaches of sanctions – it had shared information with regulators – it had not expected the New York regulator to go it alone in making public the alleged range of the breaches of the rules." (ruffling Osborne's feathers)

Bradley Manning treatment in 'flagrant violation' of military code – lawyer | World news | guardian.co.uk David Coombs claims in Article 13 motion that WikiLeaks suspect is being punished through 'degradation' and 'humiliation'

U.S. Sees Corn Yields Hitting 17-Year Low, Raising Prices - NYTimes.com (next up: agribiz bailouts, but no money for climate change)
US slashes corn production forecast as drought raises crisis fears | Environment | guardian.co.uk Severe drought affecting midwest adds to fears of global food crisis and sends some commodity prices to record levels

Black Like Him: Obama's Narrow Path to Reelection, by Charles P. Pierce - Esquire The speech that launched him as a national figure, his keynote at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, presented him as a figure of unity to a country that was coming unglued and would continue to come unglued throughout that election and the four years following it. (The prose in that speech couldn't have been lovelier. The politics of it couldn't have been more naive.)
Obama Campaign Ad: We Are Not Removing Work Requirements For Welfare Recipients (Romney lies!)
Mitt Romney Moving Away From The Economy To Attack Obama
Jon Huntsman Sr., longtime Romney backer, calls on him to release tax returns - The Plum Line - The Washington Post
Hullabaloo He would have chosen his money: Or to put it another way, if he thought he would be forced to choose between giving up a fair share of his vast quarter billion dollar fortune or leading the United States of America, he would have chosen his money.
Eschaton: Priorities This is the part I've always had trouble with. Mitt's had, at the very least, 6 years to know that he'd better make his tax returns appear to be a bit less corrupt than they presumably do. And he didn't do it. Forget the tax shenanigans, it's the judgment.
Mitt Romney, Taxer of the Blind - Esquire It's possible that he might actually decide to point out to the country at large that he was governor up here. He will undoubtedly will remind you that he "never raised taxes" during the two-and-a-half years he actually gave a frog's dong about being the governor. This is true. What he did was raise fees on practically everything. Including being blind:

'I'm sick to my stomach': anger builds in Illinois at Bain's latest outsourcing plan | Business | guardian.co.uk The Sensata plant in Freeport is profitable and competitive, but its majority owner, Bain Capital, has decided to ship jobs to China – and forced workers to train their overseas replacements
GOP Senators Travel To Nevada To Warn Of Budget Cuts Reid and other Democrats argue that Republicans easily could spare the military from the reductions in projected spending if they agree to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
Primary in Florida Echoes Republican Battles - NYTimes.com The two no longer speak, in large part, Ms. Adams said, because when she went to shake Mr. Mica’s hand at a recent event, he pulled her close and said, “You will regret this for the rest of your life. I’ll destroy you.”

Family Security Matters - Video: Christie Says “Bigots” Attacking Him on Radical Islam (just read the comments)

Will Erskine Bowles be our next Treasury Secretary? (sounds like something Obama would do)
Political Animal - Is Obama Going to Bowles Over the Left? Who cares? Today in pointless-but-horrifying speculation comes from Ezra Klein, who predicts that President Obama is going to kick the left right in the solar plexus should he get re-elected: being Paul Ryan’s “favorite Democrat” is like being a normal person’s favorite cockroach.
Political Animal - Will Reducing the National Debt Inflate More Bubbles? bubbles are driven by too much savings sloshing around the world:

The Bank Dick | TBogg Remember when NPR got all huffy-puffy when Lisa Simeone, the host of World of Opera got in trouble and stuff because she supported Occupy Wall Street by hate-playing La bohème (which is an Italian communist opera based upon the popular American musical Rent) over and over until banksters started to feel twinges of guilt that they quickly got over by strangling a hooker in the back of a limo? Yeah, there was some kind of ethical/conflict of interest thing problem, by which we mean the financial institutions who underwrite NPR were mildly chafed by Simeone’s obstreperousness ... (NPR & Planet Money Bunny's Adam Davidson is in the bag for Ally Bank, but you knew that, right?)
Adam Davidson’s Journalistic Corruption: NPR Host Boosts for Wall Street, While Taking Undisclosed Banking Money Over the years, Davidson has boosted for the Iraq War and whitewashed the occupation of Iraq, praised sweatshop labor and "experimenting on the poor," attacked the idea of regulating Wall Street, parroted libertarian propaganda about the government’s inability to directly create jobs, argued for "squeezing the middle class," and shamelessly fawned over Wall Street for allegedly blessing Americans with "just about anything that makes you happy." (Read Adam Davidson's full S.H.A.M.E. profile.)

Marijuana in the Forests: A Localized Silent Spring in the Making? - Lawyers, Guns & Money (Mexican cartels financed by DEA grow pot in California National forests, poison ecosystem)

Michael Guslick, Amateur Gunsmith, Claims To Have Used 3D Printer To Make Functional Semiautomatic AR-15 Rifle At Home (welcome to the futue)

Rachel Maddow: Associated Press Should Apologize For 'Trash' Abortion Article (video)
Fareed Zakaria Plagiarism: Time, CNN Pundit Apologizes For 'Terrible Mistake'

Chalk Doodles Get Teens in Trouble | NBC 10 Philadelphia Two teens are cited after police spot chalk drawings in a Doylestown parking lot ... 18-year-old Connor Logan and a 17-year-old friend drew a whale and sea turtles in a local parking lot (your cop-state at work)

Gauss: Virus Like Stuxnet Found, Russian Security Firm Claims The researchers said the virus appeared to have been created at the direction of a foreign government because of its sophistication, though they did not specify which one.
Kim Dotcom Raid Video Shows Helicopters, Police Vans Used In Arrest Of Megaupload Founder - In June, a New Zealand judge ruled the raid had been illegal because authorities didn't use the right type of search warrant, according to the Associated Press.

080912
Syrian rebels withdraw fighters from Aleppo stronghold | World news | The Guardian Free Syrian Army orders main fighting units to leave suburb of Salahedin after intensive shelling by regime planes and tanks
Islamist sect found living underground near Russian city for nearly 10 years | World news | guardian.co.uk Fayzarahmanist sect with 70 members – including 20 children – discovered in bunker near Kazan without heat or light
Gu Kailai trial ends with murder charges 'uncontested' | World news | guardian.co.uk Trial ends within eight hours, with Gu's lawyer claiming Briton Neil Heywood bore some responsibility for his own murder

Eurozone crisis live: ECB warns of slower growth; UK trade deficit widens | Business | guardian.co.uk Latest forecasts published by ECB predict just 0.6% growth next year
The balance of payments: BoP until you drop | The Economist For the first time since 1998 more money leaves China than enters it - more than 16% of China’s rich have already emigrated, or handed in immigration papers for another country, while 44% intend to do so soon. Over 85% are planning to send their children abroad for their education, and one-third own assets overseas ... China’s rich often have inside knowledge of the economy’s condition, Mr Shih has pointed out. If their money is leaving, everybody else should take note.

Political Animal - Free Money for the People! - t the vast amounts of money created by central banks and distributed for free to banks and bond funds - equivalent to $6,000 per man, woman and child in America and £6,500 in Britain - should instead be given directly to citizens, who could spend or save it as they pleased. (per Atrios, who has been saying this for years)

No More Mister Nice Blog - The Identification Is More Than Skin Deep, Conor - Would that still be true if the next terrorist attack on American soil looks like Oklahoma City? (rightwing wihte terrorists get a pass)
Unintended causation - Salon.com Is there a causal link between racially-motivated violence by individuals and U.S. foreign policy?
Combating Islamophobic violence - Salon.com Helping a burned-to-the-ground Missouri mosque quickly re-build would make a powerful and constructive statement (more right wing terrorism)
Spotting white supremacists - Salon.com How do we identify the next Wade Page before he murders people who aren't white? It won't be easy (you could start by siccing Bloomberg's PD on them)

Obama Up Over Romney By Seven As Negative Ads Take A Toll
Harry Reid's Mitt Romney Tax Source A Republican, Says Top Aide "This person is an investor in Bain Capital, a Republican also, and somebody who has been dealing with Romney's company for a long, long time and he has direct knowledge of this,"
Booman Tribune ~ Poor Mitt, We Know How He Feels : Y'know, it's a bit like saying that the current president is a secret Muslim socialist who lied about his U.S. birth and has a fake Social Security number and is secretly plotting to take away all privately owned guns if he's reelected, either before or after he finishes the job of deliberately destroying American capitalism. It's also a bit like saying that the previous Democratic president was a drug dealing serial murderer and rapist whose lesbian wife had her male lover killed when she wasn't hanging sex toys on the White House Christmas tree ... Romney would know what it's like to be treated like a Democrat.
Mitt Romney Ad: Obama Has Declared A War On Religion
If Mitt Romney were running a “post-truth” campaign, would the political press report it? » Pressthink No, they would not. This falls under: too big to tell - “Backed by their own wing of the book-publishing industry and supported by think tanks that increasingly function as public-relations agencies, conservatives have built a whole alternative knowledge system, with its own facts, its own history, its own laws of economics.”
Republican convention will be no Tea Party | Reuters Since attorney Ted Cruz's victory in the Texas Republican primary for a Senate seat last week, Tea Party members across the country have been touting the strength of their conservative movement and its influence on the Republican Party.
Romney Anti-Tax-Wonk Jihad Continues -- Daily Intel
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day I think it's going to respectfully pick this president up and pat him on the head and say, son, son, son, Mr. President, you were never ready to be president, now go home and work for somebody and find out how the real world works." -- Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), speaking at a campaign barbecue. (go back to your plantation)
Bill O'Reilly, Greta Van Susteren Sued For Defamation, Emotional Distress
Balloon Juice » Drum Line: The Movie Responding to his critics, Kevin Drum breaks out the shovel while standing in his hole and tunnels through a few more strata thick with false equivalence nonsense, looking for the exit ... Not only could Mitt Romney end this farce, John McCain could end this by saying “I’ve seen Mr. Romney’s tax returns when my team vetted him in 2008, and Harry Reid is a liar.” Instead, nothing. (KDrum reputation -10 points)

Bobby Jindal School Voucher System Blasted As 'Destruction Of Education' By Religious Group The leader of a national multi-faith religious group blasted Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's school voucher program this week, charging that it was an effort to mount a "ruthless attack on public education" and violate the separation of church and state. (destroying LA: Republicans hate education)

Goldman Sachs Leads Split With Obama, as GE Jilts Him Too - Bloomberg (imagine if he had sent 5,000 bankers to jail; same result)

Susan G. Komen for the Cure announces change in leadership | KING5.com Seattle (Brinker and Thompson finally out/fringed)
Sandra Fluke hits the campaign trail with Obama - latimes.com

Incentive to Slow Climate Change Drives Output of Harmful Gases - NYTimes.com (a system designed to be gamed)
U.S. Should Adopt Higher Standards for Science Education: Scientific American Teachers, scientists and policymakers have drafted ambitious new education standards. All 50 states should adopt them (Republicans will veto "science")
Open-air quantum teleportation performed across a 97km lake | Ars Technica It only works at night, but the technique sets a new distance record.

Cops Strip Search Mom, "Forcibly" Pull Tampon Out of Her for Maybe Rolling Through Stop Sign - Broward/Palm Beach News - The Daily Pulp
‘Oxford American’ Editor Fired in Sex Harassment - NYTimes.com The gathering, Marc Smirnoff said, was intended as a morale-boosting retreat for his staff at The Oxford American magazine, a July 4 overnight party at a mountain cabin that would fuel the creative intellect.
What was the most horrible sexual experience you ever had? Here is my story, the best story ever told. : AskReddit

The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Stoned Soul Tea Party Oregonians are being asked to write into their state’s statute book the idea that marijuana legalization is mandated by the Bible. The proposal also provides that the legal cannabis industry is to be regulated by a seven-member commission, with five of the seven elected by the licensed cannabis growers and processors ... Unnecessarily proscribe consumption of a “herb bearing seed” given to humanity in Genesis 1:29 ...

Russia's Top Cyber Sleuth Foils US Spies, Helps Kremlin Pals | Danger Room | Wired.com

080812
Syria rebels claim upper hand as battle for Aleppo grinds towards stalemate | World news | The Guardian Despite forces massed on both sides, neither seems willing or able to make decisive move on Salahedin neighbourhood
Gu Kailai trial: concern in China grows over transparency of murder case | World news | The Guardian Few people believe the trial of Bo Xilai's wife for the murder of businessman Neil Heywood is non-political, says Asia expert

Ten Politicians Who Worsen the Euro Crisis With Aggressive Rhetoric - SPIEGEL ONLINE Fanning The Flames of the Euro Crisis (no, none of them are the people who fucked up collosally: it's the "populists")
Standard Chartered begins fightback on Iran allegations | Reuters - "You f---ing Americans. Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we're not going to deal with Iranians?" the quote was rendered in documents released by the regulators. (an "over-zealous regulator")
Standard Chartered shares rebound | Business | The Guardian Chief executive, Peter Sands', defence of bank in light of report by New York regulator sees market confidence rise
Bank of England to forecast zero growth in quarterly UK inflation report | Business | guardian.co.uk Result will put pressure on George Osborne, the chancellor, to ease austerity measures and take steps to boost economy (with more austerity!)

News Corporation posts $1.6bn loss as phone-hacking legal fees stack up | Media | guardian.co.uk Losses include charges related to plan to split off publishing assets from more lucrative film and TV sectors

America's drought of political will on climate change | Naomi Wolf | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk With US politics paralysed by the partisan divide on climate change, public concern about extreme weather cannot bear fruit

Wisconsin temple gunman died of self-inflicted wound after shot by police | World news | guardian.co.uk Authorities originally said Wade Michael Page was killed by police, but federal officials now say he took his own life

The Great Compromise Sting of the Defense Lobby - Esquire - The Defense lobby and its various pet rocks in the Congress — hi, Huckleberry, Weepin' Joe, and Grandpa John! — already have begun the job of disappearing those cuts behind the smokescreen of a grand bipartisan bargain that is positively going to have all of the Very Serious People slapping high-fives and buying each other ice-cold flagons of faceless human misery that never will touch them or their families. We've all been played. To wit... (as usual)

The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Beating Up on Welfare Recipients
Mitt & Welfare, Cont'd: The Making of Illegitimate Voters - Esquire If you have any doubts anymore that the dog-whistles have turned to air-raid sirens out in the country, this morning's lead story in the Boston Herald ought to serve as Exhibit A as to how foul it's really going to get. UPDATE: Senator McDreamy cries...foul! (really, only the rich should vote)
Mitt Romney Started Bain Capital With Money From Families Tied To Death Squads
Andrea Saul: Romney spokesperson cites Massachusetts health law - politico.com (on message!)
This Job Requires Mendacity, Leavened with Incompetence - Lawyers, Guns and Money: A new term needs to be coined to describe Jennifer Rubin’s tenure at the Washington Post, because “embarrassment” just don’t cover it (that would be WaPo's racist pet rock, Jennifer "drive all the Palestinians into the sea" Rubin)
Shep Smith 'On Thin Ice' For Outspokenness, Former Fox News Employee Says Could Shep Smith's constant independence be getting him into trouble with his Fox News bosses?
An extreme conservative GOP candidate for Senate in Missouri - The Plum Line - The Washington Post (really extreme)
Wikipedia locks possible VPs' pages - POLITICO.com after Colbert, citing a Fox News report about the jump in revisions to Sarah Palin's page in 2008, encouraged viewers to "go on Wikipedia, and make as many edits as possible to your favorite VP contender."

Foreclosure Settlement Fails To Force Mortgage Companies To Improve

Where Borrowing $105 Million Will Cost $1 Billion: Poway Schools - Voice of San Diego: Education The bottom line: For borrowing $105 million in 2011, taxpayers will end up paying investors more than $981 million by 2051, or almost 10 times what the district borrowed. That’s wildly more expensive than a typical school bond, in which a district pays back two or maybe three times what it borrowed (they listened to a "financial advisor")

NYPD and Microsoft launch advanced citywide surveillance system | World news | guardian.co.uk System has live video feeds, huge databases of recent crime patterns and can take input direct from the field in real time (Bloomberg's panopticon)

Louisiana school ordered to stop pregnancy tests on 'suspect' students | World news | guardian.co.uk ACLU denounces Delhi Charter School's policy of forcing tests on female students and banning them if results are confirmed - State officials in Louisiana have ordered a school to change a policy that forces students who are "suspected" of being pregnant to take a pregnancy test, and for banning them from class if the results are confirmed

Apple and Amazon patch security flaws exposed by hack heard round the world | Technology | guardian.co.uk Wired's Mat Honan had his digital existence erased by hackers who took advantage of reciprocating security faults

080712
Iran backs Assad in Syria crisis and blames 'warmongering' US | World news | guardian.co.uk Tehran officials go to Damascus over pilgrims affair, and reach out to Turkey, Lebanon and Qatar in diplomatic offensive
Pharma giant Pfizer fined for bribing officials in Eastern Europe and China | The Raw Story

Suing the banks: Blood in the water | The Economist The onslaught of cases tied to LIBOR gains force
Italian Economy Contracts for 4th Straight Quarter - NYTimes.com Italy's recession deepened in the April-June period, when the economy shrank for the fourth quarter in a row, official government statistics showed Tuesday. (economy contracting; austerity working!)
Italy PM Monti wins confidence vote on extra spending cuts | Reuters Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti won a confidence vote on Tuesday on a bill to cut spending by an extra 4.5 billion euros ($5.59 billion) this year in order to rein in the deficit and delay a planned increase in sales tax. (austerity is not working, so more austerity!)
Eurozone crisis live: Italian recession deepens on bad day for Monti - as it happened | Business | guardian.co.uk More bad economic data – this time from Germany, where factory orders tumbled by 1.7% in June. That's almost twice as bad as the 1.0% drop penciled in by economists*. On a year-on-year basis, orders in Europe's industrial powerhouse were 7.8% lower than a year ago. (impose austerity on the rest of Europe; wonder why no one is ordering anything!)

Wade Michael Page's acquaintances recall a troubled man guided by hate | World news | The Guardian From the military to failed jobs to music, the Wisconsin man who shot dead six at a Sikh temple is remembered for his ill will
James Holmes' Psychiatrist Contacted University Police Weeks Before Movie-Theater Shooting: ABC Exclusive - ABC News - Fenton would have had to have serious concerns to break confidentiality with her patient to reach out to the police officer or others, the sources said.
NRA Sought Donations in Days After Colorado Shootings - Bloomberg “The future of your Second Amendment rights will be at stake,” the letter said. “And nothing less than the future of our country and our freedom will be at stake
Pat Robertson Blames Atheists And Those Who Hate God For Wisconsin Temple Shooting
Right-Wing Terrorism Spotlighted By Sikh Attack Not Taken Seriously, Expert Says

Mitt Romney: Harry Reid 'Lost A Lot Of Credibility' With Tax Claims
Balloon Juice » The Trouble With Harry
Balloon Juice » Bang The Drum, Stupidly - K-Drum has his head shoved up his ass again, I see. (Zandar nails it)
Romney Claims Waivers He Used To Support Will 'Gut Welfare Reform' | ThinkProgress
Romney: America Is No Kibbutz His ties to Israel only extend so far.
Political Animal - Romney’s Welfare Gambit
Obama Super PAC Waiting To Unload On Mitt Romney's Embrace Of Paul Ryan Budget
Fox's Varney To Romney Surrogate: "How Do We Get The Focus Back Onto The State Of The Economy And President Obama's Record?" | Video | Media Matters for America (they don't even pretend anymore)
Legacy Hires Against Elizabeth Warren | TBogg Jumping on the Luke Russert bro-wagon (and who wouldn’t want to Be Like Luke with the undeserved position in life and bitchin’ Washington Nationals season tix?) the Daily Win The Morning warns of possible bad ju-ju if the Democrats shove Mao’s Mistress, Elizabeth Warren, down America’s throat:
Maggie Haberman vs Elizabeth Warren at RNC - Things in Politico That Make Me Want to Guzzle Antifreeze, Big Bad Professor Warren Edition - Esquire Tom Daschle's kid thinks Warren might be as big a risk as Princess Dumbass Of The Northwoods was. Wunderbar. The boring "centrist" acorn doesn't fall far from the boring "centrist" tree.
14 Wacky "Facts" Kids Will Learn in Louisiana's Voucher Schools | Mother Jones(Jindal and Republicans destroy education in LA)
Allen West Sends Chick-Fil-A To Black Caucus Meeting And Offends Everyone, Says Dem Rep
Keep Chuckin’ Those Facts! - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Give the most useless website in the known universe this: they’re consistent. Once again, they have awarded a “pants on fire” award, in this case to Harry Reid, despite providing no evidence whatsoever that Reid lied.
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Medicaid. Again.

If Only We Knew How to Decrease Unemployment… « Corey Robin We have the lowest number of public-sector employees per population since 1968. If we merely restored government employment to its 2007 levels, there’d be 1.7 million more jobs. (shrink America and drown it in a bathtub built in China! Republicans at work)
Ed Kilgore: How The Republicans’ Anti-Government Rhetoric Has Come Back To Bite Republican Governments: Georgia Edition | The New Republic - when push comes to shove, Republican governing can’t survive the Republicans’ anti-governing message. (Georgia has among the lowest gasoline taxes in the country) (they've unleashed the giant zombie of stupidty)

Michael Bloomberg: Obama Should Veto Any Extension Of The Bush Tax Cuts
Tim Geithner’s principal hypocrisy | The Great Debate
Brad DeLong: Things Wrong with Hassett, Hubbard, Mankiw, and Taylor, "The Romney Program for Economic Recovery, Growth, and Jobs"
Pa. beware, Ohio sprouts its own casinos - Philly.com (America the casino)

Marvin Wilson Set To Be Executed After U.S. Supreme Court Denies Request To Stay (IQ 61; no floor to Texas' evil)
NYPD Has Very Good Reason For Beating Up New York Times Photog: [...]

5 years ago, I was disowned via letter when I came out to my father. This is how hate sounds. : atheism

Hospital Chain Inquiry Cited Unnecessary Cardiac Work - NYTimes.com (stick unnecessary tubes in people's hearts! profit!)

The world’s most difficult books? - Lawyers, Guns & Money : The Guardian responds to the Million‘s list of the most difficult books, and to be frank, the results are underwhelming. Here is what the Millions managed:

More Circumcision Myths You May Believe: Hygiene and STDs | Psychology Today

Nasa's Curiosity rover sends back its first colour image of Mars surface | Science | guardian.co.uk
Please submit all breaking Curiosity images to this thread : science

080612
Syria's latest defection: prime minister's move is PR defeat rather than fatal blow | World news | The Guardian Riyad Hijab is most high-profile figure to defect but opinion is split over how far move will harm Assad regime
Egypt to impose 'full control' over Sinai, says president | World news | guardian.co.uk Israeli border security under question following fatal gun attack by militants that left at least 15 guards dead
China lambasts US over South China Sea row | World news | guardian.co.uk Beijing accuses Washington's intervention in the region of 'fanning the flames and provoking division'
Fox Sports Says Baghdad Is In Iran While Reporting On Hamid Soryan's Gold Medal (their grasp of geography)
Punjab girl hires contract killers to eliminate parents for opposing her marriage - The Times of India

Standard Chartered Bank accused of scheming with Iran to hide transactions | Business | guardian.co.uk British bank named in scathing report by regulators which claims SCB helped Iranian clients skirt US financial sanctions
Thousands of ex-students over-pay loans - Education News - Education - The Independent Company responsible for scheme has taken £36.5m more than it was owed from wages (profit!)

James Hansen Drought Op Ed - The Drought Report for August 6 - Esquire And, just for the record, in 2008, the last time he ran, Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Fakery) got 51,283 votes out of the 93,756 votes that were cast in Cleveland County which is, at the moment, burning down. Just sayin'.

Wade Michael Page Identified As Sikh Temple Shooting Suspect - involvement with white supremacist groups since 2010
FBI: 'Person of interest' not involved in Oak Creek Sikh temple shooting - JSOnline
Officer's heroics no surprise to former boss - JSOnline
Through band, Wade says he wanted to get results 'in our sick society' - JSOnline
The Certainty of Even More Shootings - James Fallows - The Atlantic "Guns don't kill crowds of innocent people; maniacs with easy access to military-grade weapons do"
When will politicians care about guns? - Salon.com Gun control groups weigh in on how to change the dynamic
Wisconsin Shooting: Is It Time to Talk About Gun Control Yet? - Esquire
Oh, Well Then - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Shorter Ann Althouse: How can a former member of a white supremacist hardcore band shooting up a Sikh temple be domestic terrorism? No Sikh was responsible for 9/11! Terrorists are always very careful about racial generalizations and the attribution of responsibility. The compound the grim hilarity, remember that Althouse did believe that invading Iraq constituted “fighting back” against 9/11.

Obama the Pioneer - Salon.com The accusation that the President has failed to deliver Change is, in certain key respects, unfair
Extremism normalized - Salon.com How Americans are efficiently trained to acquiesce to ideas once deemed so radical as to be unthinkable

Obama Embraces Health Care Law After Supreme Court Ruling
Romney Persona Non Grata in Italy for Bain’s Deal Skirting Taxes - Bloomberg
Mitt Romney passes Barack Obama with $101m fundraising haul - US politics live | World news | guardian.co.uk
Why 2012 is not 1980 - The Plum Line - The Washington Post (Obama is no Jimmy Carter, and Romnoid is no Reagan)
Romneys, caught in housing bust, got property tax cut in La Jolla - latimes.com (he baked it himself)
When One Mormon Gossips about Another Mormon Not Paying His Taxes | emptywheel - a very wealth-based and close knit faith
David Plouffe’s speaking fees - Salon.com Obama's 2008 campaign manager and current adviser becomes very rich by converting his influence into corporate cash

Spyker files suit against General Motors for 'driving' Saab into bankruptcy | Business | guardian.co.uk Netherlands-based sports car maker alleges GM sabotaged Saab deal with Chinese investors to avoid competition

Curiosity rover: Nasa nerves turn to elation after perfect Mars landing | Science | guardian.co.uk Scientists hail mission's early success as robot lands without a glitch and beams back first images of Martian landscape

Boy Scouts of America 'very sorry' as files reveal continued child abuse | World news | guardian.co.uk Internal documents obtained by the LA Times show blacklist intended to protect scouts from abusers was frequently breached (world's second largest pedophile hates gays and protects child-abusers)

The Growing, Feeling House of the Future - NYTimes.com A big worry to environmentalists is the record number of people fleeing suburbia for city life. ("especially stupid environmentalists" - typical LOL NYT)

HP Printer Commercial - Evian Babies - Brand New Key - Widescreen 16:9 - YouTube

080512
Sunni Muslim 'Extremists' Committed 70% of Terrorist Murders in 2011 | CNSNews.com of the 12,533 terrorist murders in the world last year,
Attack across Egypt-Israel border leaves over a dozen dead | World news | guardian.co.uk Warning of deteriorating security situation in Sinai after gunmen kill Egyptian border guards and hijack armoured vehicles - eight armed men attacked while the Egyptian security guards were eating the traditional iftar meal that breaks the Ramadan fast. ... one vehicle exploded on the Egyptian side of the border, the other broke through the security fence near the Kerem Shalom border crossing and was hit by Israeli air force planes. (pretty fast response)
BBC News - 'Police paraded us naked in public', says Mumtaz Mirbahar (Pakistan cops)

Three myths that sustain the economic crisis | Business | The Guardian

Full moon makes sixth Olympic ring | Photo Gallery - Yahoo! Sports

Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting – live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk
Gunman opens fire at Sikh temple in Wisconsin; 7 dead - U.S. News "We're treating this as a domestic terrorist-type incident," Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards said at a late afternoon press conference. He did not elaborate. (because ... turbans! and guns!)

US election 2012: Mitt Romney's life as a poor Mormon missionary in France questioned - Telegraph Much of Mitt Romney’s life as a Mormon missionary in France was not as poor or arduous as he has claimed, say those who knew him at the time (Romnoid lied about his "missionary work" - lived in palace with chef and houseboy)
Mitt Romney: 'I Have Paid Taxes Every Year. A Lot Of Taxes.' (but won't say how much)
Koch Brothers, GOP Mega Donors, Help Bankroll Religious Conservative's 2012 Efforts

Cass Sunstein, top Obama adviser on regulations, to leave administration - The Washington Post “It’s a glorious day,” said Frank O’Donnell, of the group Clean Air Watch. “Sunstein has been a blot on the landscape.” ... “The Chamber has enjoyed a good working relationship with Cass Sunstein and we wish him well in his return to Harvard Law,” said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Despite its happiness with Sunstein, the agency has spent millions of dollars attacking the president's policies. (Obama loves his Republicans who work with people who attack him)

Texas set to execute death row inmate diagnosed as 'mentally retarded' | World news | guardian.co.uk Marvin Wilson's planned execution draws spotlight on state's lack of accepted standard for who qualifies as mentally disabled

Today, science willing, Curiosity rover lands on Mars. Here's how to watch. - Boing Boing
Non-Disease Virus Kills Breast Cancer Cells In Lab

080412
War for Aleppo: battle rages in city that will determine fate of Syria | World news | The Observer Skirmishes have broken out in Aleppo as rebels pour in to confront regime loyalists in what will be a decisive clash
North Korea floods leave 170 dead and 84,000 homeless | World news | guardian.co.uk A further 400 listed as missing as UN pledges aid amid 'chronic food shortages' for two-thirds of the population
Afghan parliament votes ministers out | World news | guardian.co.uk MPs pass votes of no confidence in defence minister and interior minister, sparking fears for stability of government
India targets the traffickers who sell children into slavery | Law | The Observer Up to 200,000 children a year fall into the hands of slave traders in India, many sold by their poverty-stricken parents for as little as £11. Now a group of activists has set out to rescue them from a life in the sweatshops of Delhi
Illegal Logging and the Failures of the Mexican State - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Of course, the U.S. could shut the flow of guns to Mexico but that would violate my rights to have a personal arsenal the size of the Honduran army or something (we broke it, and it's too late to fix)

Please To Be Shutting The Nepotistic Piehole Now, Please - Esquire Oh, for the love of the most high Baal,somebody at NBC take the keys away from the kid (stupidty begets stupidity and nepotism wins)

Wildfires burn dozens of homes in Oklahoma as temperatures reach 113F | World news | guardian.co.uk Hundreds of people told to evacuate in at least four counties on Friday, while authorities to close parts of Interstate 44

NYPD's use of stop-and-frisks suffers marked drop | World news | guardian.co.uk Stop-and-frisk use down 34% between April and June, Times reports, with reduction coinciding with intense media scrutiny

080312
Kofi Annan resigns as Syria envoy | World news | The Guardian Syrian peace mission impossible because of militarisation on the ground and lack of international unity, says former head of UN (Russia and China "disgusting")
Syrian rebels ignore world's fears in struggle for Aleppo | World news | The Guardian Battle for Syrian city appears to be nearing decisive phase with reinforcements continuing to bolster Free Syrian Army
Chinese state media slam Hillary Clinton's speech in Africa | World news | guardian.co.uk Xinhua says thinly veiled comments over China's investment in continent were 'cheap shots' aiming to sow discord
CIA drone strikes violate Pakistan's sovereignty, says senior diplomat | World news | The Guardian Islamabad's high commissioner believes the US should hand over control of the attacks to his government
Rights Concerns In Uzbekistan | Editorials | Editorial The United States is concerned about the case of Gulnaza Yuldasheva in Uzbekistan, after a court in the Tashkent region sentenced her to two years in prison on questionable charges.
Bollywood ups the raunch factor with Jism 2 | Film | guardian.co.uk Porn star Sunny Leone plays lead in film directed by Pooja Bhatt, which has proved too much for some parts of India

Cameron poised to drop Lords reforms | Politics | guardian.co.uk Coalition to announce abandonment of constitutional changes to focus on 'jobs, jobs, jobs', striking blow to Nick Clegg (don't touch the elites! +"focus on jobs" = more austerity)
New Statesman - Osborne should nationalise RBS, but he won't Cabinet ministers are reportedly pushing for the full nationalisation of RBS - Back in the halcyon days of May 2010, George Osborne probably hoped to use the government's RBS shares as the basis for a pre-election giveaway. Now, he'd be lucky not to make a loss. Based on current trading conditions, the Treasury has already conceded that the chances of a sale of taxpayers’ shares before 2015 are "virtually nil". Indeed, so much has changed that the government is now considering the reverse: buying more shares in RBS. (yes, he really is the stupidest man on the planet)
Eurozone crisis live: Spanish PM delays decision on bailout | Business | guardian.co.uk Rajoy says he wants to know what the ECB's 'non-conventional measures' will be before he takes a decision on whether to request aid ("worst is yet to come")

Who is fighting for the middle class? President Obama versus Mitt Romney. — Barack Obama (tax calculator: enter your income)

Illinois Drought 2012 - The Drought Report for August 2... Is Startling - Esquire - the Great Climate Change Hoax has managed to help dry up a whole new slab of Illinois ... Meanwhile, people are starting to fight over water, and the fracking industry may have to shut down for the lack of it, and what a shame that would be ... the irony of the fact that a drought at least partly caused by climate change has begun to inconvenience the people in the fossil-fuel extraction industries ... Jim Inhofe, who told the committee: "The global warming movement has completely collapsed." (let the invisible hand decide)

We should applaud Harry Reid. No, I don’t care what Jon Stewart said, we should. - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Harry Reid crossed a heretofore unknown Rubicon yesterday when he repeated his claim that Romney might be withholding his tax returns because “[h]e didn’t pay taxes for ten years.” I like the fact that someone who’s nominally a liberal has finally recognized what conservatives have been doing to Obama for four years now, and I appreciate the fact that he’s choosing to do so about a financial disclosure instead of, for example, whether someone’s really an American or whether they’re a sleeper agent for the Muslim Brotherhood. (Stewart is not that deep)
Harry’s Game | TBogg Reid is most likely serving his last term in the senate and he’s is plainly tired of fucking around with Republicans and fully intends to bury their standard bearer which can have down ticket implications if depressed Republicans decide to stay home on election day because their top of the ticket prospects look like they are deader than Bob Dole’s dick ... And this is all so unfair because Democrats aren’t supposed to punch back.

REPORT: Fox Spends Over 43 Minutes Smearing Elizabeth Warren | Blog | Media Matters for America - Over three days, Fox News spent at least 17 segments and over 43 minutes of airtime smearing Massachusetts U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren over benign comments she made about infrastructure spending and the success of the wealthy.(the one race they can't win with money and lies)

Tim Pawlenty faces tax return scrutiny as Romney VP choice nears | World news | guardian.co.uk Former Minnestota governor Tim Pawlenty, a leading VP contender, was forced to correct his campaign disclosure forms after questionable telecom payments were revealed (TPaw is a SleazeBall)
Eschaton: Forever Man s I've said many times, what's fascinating about the what's-in-romney's-tax-returns story is that the man who has been running for president forever (presumably) could never bring himself to conduct his finances in such a way so as to make it politically possible for him to release the damn things.
Hullabaloo Romneygaffe can't even properly defend his own wife (+he's a big liar)
Fox Guest Suggests Olympians Might "Start Throwing Races And Getting Silvers In Order To Lower Their Tax Bill" | Video | Media Matters for America (FoxPAC propaganda for idiots)
Washington's press is the cabin boy of the political class - do quote me on that | Bob Garfield | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Desperate for scraps from official Washington sources, many US reporters are now co-conspirators in an ongoing fraud
Jennifer Rubin, Mitt Romney’s top media shill - Salon.com The Romney campaign's communications office has its own platform at the Washington Post, thanks to Jennifer Rubin (that would be Jennifer "drive all the Palestinians into the sea" Rubin)
Balloon Juice » While it’s probably very, very bad to be “unbanked”, surely it doesn’t mean one also has to be disenfranchised
Balloon Juice » Neat trick The counties encompassing Cleveland, Cincinnatti and Akron, three of Ohio’s largest cities, will thus operate under “business hours” only. In suburban counties at least one GOP committee member will vote for extended hours and the polls stay open quite late.

Debt, Depression, DeMarco - NYTimes.com There has been plenty to criticize about President Obama’s handling of the economy. Yet the overriding story of the past few years is not Mr. Obama’s mistakes but the scorched-earth opposition of Republicans, who have done everything they can to get in his way — and who now, having blocked the president’s policies, hope to win the White House by claiming that his policies have failed. (no on can connect.the.dots)
Unemployment Rate Rises To 8.3 Percent As U.S. Adds 163,000 Jobs In July: BLS
Eschaton: Happy Recovery Summer Day Has it been two years already? - Op-Ed Contributor: Welcome to the Recovery: By Timothy F. Geithner : Published: August 2, 2010 (speaking of idiots)
Eschaton: Pointing Out The Obvious 2.5% growth would be fine if we were anywhere near full employment, but we aren't and this represents a very simple but profound policy failure by the assholes and/or fools who rule us. The whole point is that we have not yet "comeback" from this recession.
EmployRecJuly2012.jpg (scariest chart ever updated)

Why Washington Accepts Mass Unemployment -- Daily Intel What interests me is not the proposal itself, nor even DeMarco’s obstinate refusal, but an editorial in the Washington Post applauding DeMarco for refusing to implement the program. The Post is the voice of the Washington centrist establishment, and the logic of the editorial is a telling signpost (your betters at work screwing over America)
Knight Said to Open Books to Suitors as Loss Pressure Grows - Bloomberg (too small to be bailed out, but again, maybe not)
CNBC Trader Talk Blog — Pisani: The Knight Fiasco: How Did It Lose $440 Million? — CNBC.com Market News - CNBC Well, that didn't take long. Knight Capital announced a pre-tax loss of approximately $440 million on its "technology issue" yesterday, and also said they had traded out of its entire erroneous trade position. 1) What exactly caused this "technology issue"? Knight still hasn't told us 2) Why did it take so long to shut the damn errant program off? It ran for almost 30 minutes! Traders on the floor noticed a problem within the first couple minutes of the open — I was standing there — but it appears to have kept running to almost 10 a.m. ET.
A Wells Fargo Security Goes Wrong for Investors - NYTimes.com The bank that put together the unusual security did well. The customers who bought it suffered large losses. No one — at least no one who traded the security — seems to have understood the risks that were hidden deep in the prospectus. what can happen when a security is packaged by a firm that intends to have a contrary interest from its customers for the life of the security, and that does not clearly explain what could go wrong. (it was very "complex")

Deep Fried Politics | TPM Medi (Republicans endorsing homophobia) a

HiRISE Camera to Attempt Imaging Curiosity’s Descent to Mars Only this time it will try to focus on the Mars Science Laboratory’s Curiosity rover descending to touch down in Gale Crater. It will be all or nothing for the HiRISE team, as they get only one shot at taking what would likely be one of the most memorable images of the entire mission for MRO.
Nasa's Mars Curiosity rover – an essential guide | Science | guardian.co.uk

Chavis Carter handcuffed-shooting case now under supervision of FBI | World news | guardian.co.uk Police say the 21-year-old shot himself in the head while he was handcuffed in the back of a police car in Arkansas (with his hands behind his back in the front of the head with a "hidden" gun after he'd been searched twice)

Turf War Between Families and Childless Reaches Park Slope Bar - NYTimes.com “If this was going on in Bed-Stuy, parents would be indicted, bars would be closed,” he said, “but because it’s Park Slope, it’s for some reason acceptable.”

RedheadedBanshee comments on Last night, I heard a little boy beg his mom not to go into a liquor store. Reddit, what things have you overheard that have broken your heart?

Twitter confronts ethics of commercial pressures in wake of Guy Adams 'mess' | Technology | guardian.co.uk The social media site took a hit to its reputation as a home to free speech as the fight for internet freedom enters new stage - When it was revealed that Twitter and NBC had entered into a business partnership for the Games, and that Twitter had tipped off the TV network to Adams's tweets, prompting the complaint that would lead to his suspension, the Twittersphere turned blue with rage. (corporate control of your speech)

080212
U.S. and Israel Intensify Talks on Iran Options - NYTimes.com enewed concerns in the Obama administration that Israel might be preparing a unilateral military strike on Iran, perhaps as early as this fall. (right before the election, of course; who's your daddy America?)


Julian Assange: Ecuador Wants To Avoid WikiLeaks Chief's Extradition To Sweden

Voter ID Issue Is One of Many for U.S. Voting Systems - NYTimes.com

U.S. Drought 2012: Half Of Nation's Counties Now Considered Disaster Areas (that's not the only half that's a disaster)
GRAINS-Corn sets contract high as drought bites more | Reuters

Mitt Romney’s Search for Simple Answers - NYTimes.com By Jared Diamond - Romney Hasn’t Done His Homework
Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm: Tea Party: Thank You for Your Insanity
Tennessee Republican Primary Candidates Wage Anti-Islam Contest "I will work to stop the Islamization of our society, and do everything possible to prevent Sharia law from circumventing our laws and our Constitution," Zelenik said. (haters will hate)
President Obama Attacked By GOP For Failing To Meet His Own Ethics Standards a report showing emails sent from top administration officials -- including Jim Messina, the former deputy chief of staff who is now Obama's campaign manager -- to pharmaceutical industry officials from private email accounts.
Arpaio’s Fondness for Publicity May Bite Back - NYTimes.com

Video - Fed: Rates Staying Put For Now, But Changes Are Coming - WSJ.com Central Bank Officials Keep Powder Dry but Cite Dimming Economic Outlook
Obama Tax Cuts Rejected In House (more money for the rich!)
Goldman to Invest in New York City Jail Program - NYTimes.com
Postal Service Challenges Have Plenty of Answers | FDL News Desk (Republicans hate your daily mail delivery, it's an "entitlement")

Voter ID Issue Is One of Many for U.S. Voting Systems - NYTimes.com ("partisan rifts" = Timespeak for "Republicans")

Michael Bloomberg: Working With Existing Gun Laws 'Just Preposterous' . "I think somebody that really understands television like [Fox News'] Roger Ailes would say that one side is more committed than the other. I don’t know if that’s true. But I’ve always thought to myself, if you could hire Roger Ailes, pay him 100 billion dollars, and say, 'Hey, go create left wing television.' Could he do it? And I think yes, he would." (no Michael, you don't get it at all; it's about feeding the insanity)

Chick-Fil-A Has 'Record-Setting Day' While Embroiled In Anti-Gay Controversy
Shep Smith's Chick-fil-A Swipe: 'National Day Of Intolerance'
Balloon Juice » Hate Chicken yesterday’s Chick-fil-A day was just a dog whistle-y way to say “God Hates Fags”, topped with two pickles and served on a bun.
The Chick Fellatio: stuck in the craw | Owldolatrous Productions
Jonah Lehrer Scandal: Journalist Who Exposed Writer's Fraud Says He's 'Baffled' "Dylan is a guy that not only is famously reticent about giving interviews, but his fans are famously psychotic about these things," he said. "It was an incredibly stupid thing to do."

Chavis Carter Found Shot In The Head While In Patrol Car; Investigation Launched A 21-year-old man was shot in the head and killed while handcuffed in the back of a patrol car Saturday night. Now police have launched an investigation to determine what happened ... Waterworth said he thinks Carter pulled out a hidden gun and shot himself. (of course he did)

080112
News from The Associated Press The CIA station chief opened the locked box containing the sensitive equipment he used from his home in Tel Aviv, Israel, to communicate with CIA headquarters in Virginia, only to find that someone had tampered with it. He sent word to his superiors about the break-in ... except that the same thing had happened to the previous station chief in Israel. (our "ally")
Guns, Jews, and Steel: Mitt Romney’s Theory of Everything -- Daily Intel (and then he lied, again)

UK manufacturing figures deal hammer blow to recovery hopes | Business | The Guardian Manufacturing sector shrank at its fastest rate in more than three years in July (the solution: more austerity, of course)

Romney Tax Promises Mathematically Impossible -- Daily Intel
Mitt Romney Tax Plan Helps The Rich The Most: Analysis

Balloon Juice » Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Media Mocks Mitt Slips Looks like we might actually be at one of those rare windows where, despite the “national narrative is wired for Republicans” bias, the media Villagers decide that the Conventional Wisdom will now be that Mitt Romney is a big old LUZER (Greta is angry +“Mitticulous.”)

Balloon Juice » A Holocaust Delivered In A Daily Pill Despite all the fussing and fighting, today is the day that contraception coverage is now mandated for all insurers. Proving that the last wail of pain is often the loudest, there’s this: (insane Repubicans: "religious freedom's" "Pearl Harbor" +great vid from Guttmacher Institute)

Ted Cruz Defeats David Dewhurst In Texas Senate Runoff (Teanuts take over TX)
Florida Voter Purge: DOJ Papers Claim Process Violates Voting Rights Act

Federal Reserve Says U.S. Economy Is Losing Strength, Takes No New Action (Republican Bernanke at work causing immense suffering so Romney can win)
Ex-Citigroup Executive Cleared Of Charges Of Misleading Investors (they always are)
Class War Kitteh — Today is the 5th anniversary of the I-35W collapse (but Mittens needs more tax breaks)

Oh, And He’ll Confiscate All Your Guns While He’s At It - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Every prediction of Peak Wing Nut has been quickly falsified. Every one. Learn from history, my man. The indominable human will to surpass every limitation guarantees that humanity will not see Peak Wing Nut until everyone now alive is dead. (obviously, no limit to their insanity as they take America off a cliff)

Postal Service To Default On $5.5 Billion Payment As Congress Heads Into Recess (Republicans could give a shit about your mail)

UC Davis confirms officer at center of pepper spraying controversy no longer on the force - Top Stories - The Sacramento Bee Lt. John Pike, the UC Davis police officer who became a focal point of last November's pepper spraying incident during a campus protest, is no longer employed by the university, a spokesman confirmed late Tuesday (Katehi still there, of course)
Fox's Tantaros: Economic Downturn Might Have Been "Best Thing" For Young People, Teaching Them "The Value Of A Dollar" | Video | Media Matters for America (how the elites see the suffering they caused: teaching you a "lesson")
A Farewell to RT’s ‘The Alyona Show’ | The Dissenter

Adios, Gore - Lawyers, Guns & Money (dead at 86)

Mayors Against Chick-Fil-A 'Need To Be Introduced To The 2nd Amendment,' Says House Candidate (threatening to kill you is always their solution)
Wendy's Chick-fil-a gay marriage support Boone Columbia SC NC - WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC The owner of the largest Wendy's restaurants franchise in the world showed his support for competitor Chick-fil-a with a message on some signs in the Carolinas.
Chick-fil-A Anti-Gay Controversy: Gay Employees Speak Out "I call it hater appreciation day," said Andrew, who asked that his last name be withheld out of fear he'd be fired. "It's very, very depressing."

“Wrigley Co. Uses Bestiality to Sell Skittles” - Lawyers, Guns & Money : I used to laugh at loud at the term “slippery slope.” Then I grew up. AND WHEN I GREW UP LESBIANS WERE MAKING OUT WITH WALRUSES.

073112
Panetta says when, not if, al-Assad falls, Syrian military should remain intact – CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs
xs Syria unrest: Assad forces continue onslaught in Aleppo | World news | The Guardian Battle for Syria's second city intensifies as Assad regime claims it has stamped out rebel assault in Damascus
India blackouts leave 700 million without power | World news | guardian.co.uk Power cuts plunge 20 of India's 28 states into darkness as energy suppliers fail to meet growing demand
Abu Qatada bid for release fails | World news | guardian.co.uk Judges reject attempt to end what cleric's lawyers claimed was longest administrative detention in modern English history
TEPCO receives $12.8 billion public bailout - The Economic Times (getting paid to fail)

UBS to sue Nasdaq over Facebook flotation | Business | guardian.co.uk Swiss bank suing the US hi-tech stock market Nasdaq for 'gross mishandling' of the share sale, in which it lost SFr349m (£240m)

WikiLeaks supporter David House lashes out against Julian Assange | Media | guardian.co.uk MIT computer scientist attacks founder in series of tweets that claim his actions 'put WikiLeaks supporters at risk'
WikiLeaks claims responsibility for fake Bill Keller column, citing donation ban | Media | guardian.co.uk Hoax including fake tweets and a counterfeit Times website dismissed as 'childish prank' by former editor Bill Keller

Democrats propose limits on online ammo sales - CNN.com (Scalia has already said "hand-held" rocket launchers are part of the right to "bear" arms)

Romney campaign attacks media after fumbling overseas trip - US politics live | World news | guardian.co.uk Mitt Romney and his staff lash out at US media coverage of his inept, error-strewn overseas trip – live coverage here (they covered what he said, bad media!)
Romney on Gaffes: It’s the Media’s Fault - Matthew Shelley - NationalJournal.com
Obama Negative Advertising 2012 - What Are the Gobshites Saying These Days? - Esquire
Diplomacy, Bain-Style - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast Mitt has been a $250 million virtual dictator in his own bubble for decades. He isn't used to asking people, he is used to telling them. So he told the Brits they were unprepared for the Olympics and he told the Palestinians that their culture is inferior to Israel's. He's like a Bain consultant arriving at a new company each time he visits a new country.

Government funding deal reached - Manu Raju and Seung Min Kim - POLITICO.com House and Senate leaders reached a six-month deal to fund the federal government through March of next year, a rare breakthrough in a divided Congress that has battled ferociously over the budget for the past two years (Teanuts will reject)
Democrats Now Strongly Favor Gay Marriage, Pew Research Poll Says yields little evidence that President Barack Obama's endorsement of same-sex marriage in May has had a significant impact on public opinion on the issue beyond the Democratic base. Forty-seven percent of Americans surveyed by Pew Research in April supported same-sex marriage while 43 percent opposed it, results that differ from those of the most recent survey by just one percentage point (43% of the country strongly oppose equal rights)
Voter Roll Purges Could Spread To At Least 12 States
Dan Froomkin: Reporters Know What the 'Voter ID' Push Is Really About. Why Don't They Just Say So? Does any journalist who is not an overt shill for the right actually believe that Republicans are pushing voter ID laws because they’re concerned about voter fraud? No, of course not.
Better Design, Better Elections | Brennan Center for Justice Design defects in ballots, voter instructions, and voting machines contributed to the loss of several hundred thousand votes in the most recent national elections. In addition, in the 2008 and 2010 general elections combined, as many as 400,000 people had their absentee or provisional ballot rejected because they made technical mistakes completing forms or preparing and returning the envelope (disenfranchisement by desgin)
You Can't Beat Voter ID with Facts Liberals tend to offer evidence for their policy positions, but what they need is a competing vision - Voter-identification laws have a hugely disproportionate effect on minorities, young people, the elderly, and the poor. These are the people most likely to live at the margins of American life, and as such, the least likely to have access to proper identification. They’re also targets for other conservative attacks
Political Animal - Latest Ballot Lie From California So Prop. 32 is the latest in a long series of California ballot initiatives lavishly funded by “special interests” who claim to be cracking down on the lavish funding of politics by special interests.
Rep. Hanna: Fellow Republicans indulge the party's extreme members too much | syracuse.com (which would be 100%)

The Individual Mandate: Not a Slippery Slope Requiring all Americans to have health insurance is not only constitutional, but necessary to make health-care reform work.
Don’t trust the boomers! - Salon.com Baby boomers love lecturing young people on how to find jobs. Here are four boomer myths you should never believe (77.3 million of them)
Pro-Life Sentences Republican-controlled state legislatures are passing a wave of restrictions on abortion. Now the courts are backing them up. (Clinton was no liberal)

Billionaire Jeff Greene on Democracy -- New York Magazine The Hamptons are Romney territory. But billionaire Jeff Greene thinks his neighbors would be wise to buy a little democracy insurance ... “Obama wants to take my money and give it to do-nothing animals,” one matron blurted at a recent party at the Pierre for Dick Morris’s Screwed!, the latest entry into a growing pile of socioeconomic snuff porn geared toward this audience.
Eschaton: Blaming The Poors Gets Old After Awhile So let's blame the cripples! (WaPo at work, except it's hard to call it "work")
Tom Coburn Apologizes For Calling Harry Reid Incompetent "I said, 'Uh, Dr. Coburn, you know I -- you have given me a lot of trouble, but I would never, ever say anything about you, even though I think what you do is absolutely wrong, what you've done to hurt the country. Why would you say anything like that?'" Reid said ... "And he said, 'I'm gonna pray about it.' (they all have direct lines to God)
Republican Sequester Roadshow Of Swing States Gets Democratic Snubs "Senators Ayotte, Graham and McCain could be making better use of their time by working across party lines to avert arbitrary cuts to defense programs instead of appearing at staged events in three or four swing states for obvious political reasons"

Eschaton: Their Decisions Have Caused Tremendous Suffering And more people need to point that out explicitly ... the impact of central bank independence is to put an awesome level of power and responsibilites onto the shoulder of the Federal Reserve Chairman. The moral stakes are high. Nobody forced Bernanke to take the job. Sharp business cycle downturns lead to, among other things, large spikes in suicide rates.

Onion Listeria Recall Expands To Multiple States, Canada - Listeria is a dangerous bacteria, and its subsequent infection, listeriosis, is known to kill 20 percent of all people it infects. Its incubation period can vary wildly, anywhere from three to 70 days.
A Common Pesticide Decreases Foraging Success and Survival in Honey Bees

The Bystanders: photographers who didn't step in to help - in pictures | Media | The Guardian What's it like to witness a mob attack, a starving child or the aftermath of a bomb, and take a photograph instead of stopping to help? As two journalists are under fire for recording rather than intervening in a sex attack in India, we ask people who know

Just Posted: Nokia 808 PureView Review: Digital Photography Review
Falk Lumo: The iCamera (Nokia 808 Pureview) Part II: In the studio ;)
Light Reading Mobile - 4G/LTE - One Giant Leap for MeeGo - Telecom News Analysis

French retailer seeks to trademark Anonymous logo (Wired UK)

073012
Syria: foreign jihadists could join battle for Aleppo | World news | guardian.co.uk Jihadists, many with al-Qaida sympathies, are said to be planning to join a decisive battle against regime troops
Syrian chargé d'affaires in London defects | World news | guardian.co.uk Kamal al-Ayoubi says he is no longer willing to represent a regime that has committed violence against its own people (rats jumping ship)
India power outage hits 350m people | World news | guardian.co.uk Delhi and states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir all affected ... 350 million people in seven northern states without power for more than eight hours on Monday (imagine all of America going dark)

Doing A Cameron - NYTimes.com Do you remember the adulation heaped on David Cameron and George Osborne when they boldly decided to ignore the lessons of the 1930s, not to mention basic textbook macroeconomics, and impose fiscal austerity in a depressed economy? David Broder even urged Obama to “do a Cameron” (stupidest guys on the planet)
Eschaton: The People Don't Matter The Tory worldview really just seems to be... let the masters of the universe to masters of the universey things and the economy will be awesome. Doesn't work if people have no jobs and no money (which was kind of obvious all along)

NBC Responds: We Removed The Opening Ceremony Memorial To Terrorism Victims Because The Tribute Wasn't About America - What you see at night on NBC's Olympic coverage didn't actually happen, but is instead an NBC-forged simulacrum of what the Olympic day was like. They recreate a sequence of events that never actually happened by using footage of things that actually did. Maybe we're okay with that, but NBC dismissing complaints of anyone who isn't okay with it is not, well, okay.
NBC Cut Terror Victims Tribute Because It Wasn't 'Tailored for the U.S. Audience'

Federal Court Finds Obama Appointees Interfered With New Black Panther Prosecution - New Black Panthers - Fox Nation The ruling came as part of a motion by the conservative legal watch dog group Judicial Watch, who had sued the DOJ in federal court to enforce a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents pertaining to the the New Black Panthers case.
Abortion insanity prevails in Arizona - Salon.com A Clinton-appointed judge in Arizona buys suspect science and deals a huge blow to abortion rights ("fetal pain" at one day)

The Shredder Campaign - Esquire Let us take a step back from Willard Romney's Excellent European Adventure -- I can't wait until he gets to Poland and asks three people to change a lightbulb -- and, now that's he's outside of the country, let's take stock of the campaign he has presented to the Help in his attempt to become CEO of the United States Of Capital Gains, LLC.

Mitt Romney: Iran Strike 'On The Table' If I Were President
Mitt Romney 'providence' comments in Israel outrage Palestinians | World news | guardian.co.uk Speech in Jerusalem puts Israel's economic success down to 'power of at least culture and a few other things'
Mitt Romney Comments At Fundraiser Outrage Palestinians Palestinian leaders who suggested his comments were racist and out of touch with the realities of the Middle East. His campaign later said his remarks were mischaracterized (they always are)
Newsweek Puts Romney on Latest and Possibly Last ‘Wimp Factor’ Cover -- Daily Intel
'Dark Money' Hits $172 Million In 2012 Election, Half Of Independent Group Spending "There are organizations that are going to try and twist themselves into pretzels to try and avoid telling the public who is funding their campaign ads,"
Right-Wing Grassroots Rises to Defend Michele Bachmann Over Abedin - The Daily Beast Prominent Republicans from McCain to Boehner criticized the congresswoman for attacking Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Now Bachmann’s supporters are stepping up to defend her—a sign of her considerable GOP - “John McCain needs to sit down and shut up,” said Judson Phillips, head of Tea Party Nation clout (Teaparty supports insane racism)
> Bill Magwood, NRC Democrat, Is 'Treacherous, Miserable Liar' And 'First-Class Rat,' Says Harry Reid
Dick Cheney: Sarah Palin Pick 'A Mistake' (video)
John McCain Responds To Dick Cheney's Sarah Palin Criticism ... "I'm always glad to get comments four years later. Look, I respect the vice president, he and I had strong disagreements as to whether we should torture people or not. I don't think we should have." (zing)
Antonin Scalia Blasts Health Care Reform Decision, Says Supreme Court Is Not 'Political' (sure, Tony)
The Vote Fraud Fraud, Willful Blindness Edition - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Vote suppression laws are more common in swing states. Ann Althouse is unconcerned (and is a complete idiot/tool)

Eschaton An overlooked reason why we needed more stimulus was that a declining stimulus is anti-stimulus... Federal spending and investment fell at an annual rate of 0.4% in the second quarter and has fallen 3.3% in the past year. Federal employment has fallen by more than 52,000 jobs in the past year and for the first time is lower than when the recovery began.
Social Darwinism for the 21st Century - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Bryan Caplan is a terrible person. Now you might say that I am too mean to the Koch-funded George Mason economist.
How Obama’s plan for infrastructure bank would work - The Washington Post a national infrastructure bank that would leverage private investment to fund new roads, bridges, mass transit and other public-works endeavors. (privitization! always works!)
Collision Course: Why Democrats Must Back Entitlement Reform In this report, we argue that the only way for Democrats to save progressive priorities like NASA, highway funding, and clean energy research is to reform entitlements. The lame duck offers Congress a “Now or Never” chance to set the terms of a budget deal that saves money on entitlements, raises revenue, and protects investments. (Third Way Republicans! reform "entitlements!)
There Are 25 Million People Unemployed, Underemployed or Out of the Workforce Altogether and NPR's Presidential Debate Moderator Just Wants to Talk About the Budget Deficit | Beat the Press There Are 25 Million People Unemployed, Underemployed or Out of the Workforce Altogether and NPR's Presidential Debate Moderator Just Wants to Talk About the Budget Deficit (must be a "Third Way" Republican!)

The Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic - NYTimes.com
alicublog - How To Become An Unperson ... Soon enough we'll be told that Muller was always a thought-criminal.
Enceladus: home of alien lifeforms? | Science | The Observer Mars dominates the search for extraterrestrial life in our solar system, but a growing number of scientists believe Enceladus, an icy moon of Saturn, is a much better bet
Breakthrough by U of T-led research team leads to record efficiency for next-generation solar cells Researchers from the University of Toronto and King Abdullah University of Science & Technology have made a breakthrough in the development of colloidal quantum dot (CQD) films, leading to the most efficient CQD solar cell ever ... a world-record 7.0% efficiency.

NYPD 'consistently violated basic rights' during Occupy protests – study | World news | guardian.co.uk Report by NYU and Fordham law schools found 'shocking level of impunity' and department that acted beyond its powers (Bloomfuck)

PSSA-cheating reforms yield lower scores across Pa. After authorities imposed unprecedented security measures on the 2012 statewide exams, test scores tumbled across Pennsylvania, The Inquirer has learned ... the drops are "noticeable" - 25 percent or more (everyone was cheating, who could have predicted?)
Race, IQ, and Wealth | The American Conservative What the facts tell us about a taboo subject (call Andrew Sullivan)
Balloon Juice » Race and IQ
Only, there’s no such thing as Social Darwinism. - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money The most prominent neurologist in America opposed educating women because they would become smarter, pass on their larger brains to their children, then die during childbirth. Outside of giraffes, it’s difficult to find a more classic formulation of Lamarckian thought.

Is the gas industry buying academics? | Tim McDonnell | Environment | guardian.co.uk Authors of pro-fracking studies are coming under fire for their cozy relationships with the fossil fuel industry

TSA Stalks & Threatens Journalist for Filming Public Checkpoint - YouTube
TSA Invades Chicago's Union Station - YouTube

Ex-Barnes Foundation CEO: We weren't bankrupt, but saying so helped - latimes.com
The Art of the Steal - Lawyers, Guns & Money : a remarkable documentary on IFC yesterday, The Art of the Steal, which is the fascinating story of how the Barnes collection ended up in a museum in downtown Philadelphia, very much against the express wishes of the man who put it together. Roger Ebert summarizes the film’s message as, “it doesn’t matter a damn what your will says if you have $25 billion, and politicians and the establishment want it.”

Apparently, I missed my wife's lover by only a few minutes. I found out when she texted me accidentally instead of him. Reddit, when did you know for sure it was over? : AskReddit
thedevguy comments on Pootastic explains an amazing and thorough "what to do" if your wife cheats...

Twitter suspends British journalist critical of NBC's Olympics coverage | Technology | guardian.co.uk Social media site sparks wave of indignation after banning Independent journalist Guy Adams for acerbic NBC tweets (yeah, wtf?)
Tools released at Defcon can crack widely used PPTP encryption in under a day - Google Nexus 7 tablet, security, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Defcon - CSO | The Resource for Data Security Executives MS-CHAPv2 is an authentication protocol created by Microsoft and introduced in Windows NT 4.0 SP4. Despite its age, it is still used as the primary authentication mechanism by most PPTP virtual private network (VPN) clients.
Is the Brown Bear and Salmon Live Cam the Greatest Time-Waster of All Time?
7 Top Secret Features Of The Free VLC Media Player | MakeUseOf

072812
Horror Hospital: The Most Shocking Photos And Testimony From The Dawood Military Hospital Scandal If you look at only one story about the Afghan War this year, make it this one. An explosive Congressional investigation revealed horrific new details this week about a U.S. funded military hospital in Afghanistan that kept patients in “Auschwitz-like” conditions. Warning: Graphic images.

Poll finds Americans still confused about Barack Obama’s religion  - NY Daily News That's down from 55% who knew Barack Obama was a Christian in October 2008. But it's up from August 2010, when only 38% got his faith right. (America the stupid)

Crops in center of Corn Belt see little drought relief | Reuters
The Drought Goes On - Esquire

Mitt Romney, Underminer -- Daily Intel The undermining gaffe occurs when Romney is trying to ingratiate himself with somebody, yet can’t help but point out that their standards of excellence don’t rise to his own. Sucking up to people is just a completely unnatural act for him.
Brits Hit Mitt Etiquette -- Daily Intel
Oh, Mitt: those Romney gaffes in full | World news | guardian.co.uk Boobs, blunders, clangers – whatever you call them, Romney likes to drop them. And he's really outdone himself in London
Romney in London: Never Mind The Olympics, Here's the Embarrassment Even if you feel neutrally about Romney, it's impossible to escape the sensation that he believes Basic Competence murdered his family and that he must have his revenge against it.
Mitt Romney Olympics Fallout: Gaffe Creates Struggle For 2012 Presidential Hopeful "You have to shake your head," GOP strategist Karl Rove said Friday on Fox News.
"Mitt the Twit" at the London Games : The New Yorker According to some accounts, a wazzock, in the original usage, was a bull’s penis. When I was young, it was used to describe a hapless idiot who blunders around doing and saying things he or she shouldn’t.

Patrick Murphy, Democratic Challenger To Allen West, Launches 'What West Said' Website


Daily Kos: Chick-Fil-A's latest failed effort to spin backlash from funding hate-groups - a form letter ... clearly this is a top-down effort orchestrated by corporate itself to distance individual owners from well, corporate itself

Police Find Meth Lab in Center City Hotel: Cops | NBC 10 Philadelphia A Center City hotel was evacuated and a man is in custody after police say they discovered a meth lab inside the building.

Bruce Springsteen at Sixty-Two : David Remnick

The Internet map

072712
Syrian troops gather near Aleppo for decisive battle with rebels | World news | guardian.co.uk Despite being outnumbered by regime forces, emboldened FSA fighters say they will win imminent fight for Syria's biggest city
Syria Reporters Struggle To Bear Witness As The Regime Unravels
Romney campaign tries to pick up the pieces from gaffe-strewn London visit | World news | guardian.co.uk Democrats have honed in on 'embarrassing' trip as Republicans insist Americans don't care about what happens in the UK
Mitt Romney's London Olympic 'shambles' seized upon by Democrats - video | World news | guardian.co.uk The Democrats make political capital out of a series of gaffes by the US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney during his visit to London yesterday, branded a 'RomneyShambles'. The video ends with the voice of an American reporter: 'It's a good thing the British do not vote in our elections'
David Cameron joins scramble to placate North Korea after flag fiasco | World news | The Guardian Prime minister says use of South Korean flag at Olympic football match was 'honest mistake' and Locog vows to raise its game

Spanish unemployment reaches record high of 24.6% | World news | guardian.co.uk Second quarter figures show 5.7 million Spaniards now out of work, including 53% of under-25s, as austerity measures bite

NBC draws ire for not streaming ceremony NBC is taking heat for not streaming the Olympics opening ceremony online, instead holding it for the network's telecast Friday. (idiots)

James Holmes Claims Amnesia: Alleged 'Dark Knight' Shooter Wonders Why He's Arrested


Is Being a Gaffe Machine Romney’s Main Problem? | The American Conservative A couple of days ago, Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin wrote, “The Obama campaign can’t bear the thought that the well-traveled Mitt Romney will make a nice impression on his overseas tour.” (muhahah)
Mitt Romney: Arab Spring Could've Been Avoided By Bush's 'Freedom Agenda' (whut?)
Fox News' Charles Krauthammer: Mitt Romney's Olympics Gaffe Was 'Unbelievable,' 'Beyond Human Understanding,' 'Incomprehensible' (video)
Have Republicans Ever Hated a President More Than Barack Obama? (Clinton?)
The Washington Post Gives Up | Blog | Media Matters for America But Aaron Blake says that's pretty much a waste of time because the attacks will "work" regardless, which reduces the role of political journalists to that of... what? Scorekeepers? Vaguely interested cynics?

Money for Nothing - NYTimes.com So it’s time to stop paying attention to the alleged wise men who hijacked our policy discussion and made the deficit the center of conversation. They’ve been wrong about everything — and these days even the financial markets are telling us that we should be focused on jobs and growth.
The Hobbled Recovery - NYTimes.com (economy sabotaged by anti-America Republican traitors)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Krugthulhu Versus The Lurker At The Austerity Threshhold You think we would then ramp up government spending, but Republicans are all insane and need to have anvils dropped on them.

US growth slows as consumers cut back on spending | Business | guardian.co.uk GDP grew at 1.5% between April and June, government figures show, compared to 2% in the previous three months
Eschaton: Maybe We Need To Learn To To Be Bullying Cool Kids It isn't quite as extreme, but there are a lot of similarities between now and the Iraq debate. All of the Cool Kids know how fucking right austerity is, and are condescending to all of the silly children who think they're wrong. Team Austerity is where the cool kids are, at the parties with the fancy drinks, and all the losers hang out at that dorky Paul Krugman's house, playing dungeons and dragons.
Mark Gongloff: Jamie Dimon Still Likes Being Too Big To Fail, But His Org-Chart Shuffle Hints Otherwise
Bank error in his favor, Bucks man goes on spending spree (but if the bank steals your money, no problem)

0 for 32 - Lawyers, Guns & Money : That is not the Seattle Mariners record for the month of July (bless the continued existence of the Kansas City Royals) but the win/loss record for same sex marriage in the league of direct democracy. This streak might change in November.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos pledges $2.5m to same-sex marriage in Washington | World news | guardian.co.uk Amazon.com founder and his wife's pledge doubles the amount of money available to support Washington's Referendum 74

AFP.com: Chevron ordered to pay $19bn in environment damages, after an Ecuadoran court adjusted the amount on appeal,

Controversial Gay-Parenting Study Is Severely Flawed, Journal's Audit Finds - Percolator - The Chronicle of Higher Education “There should be reflection about a conservative scholar garnering a very large grant from exceptionally conservative foundations,” he writes in the audit, “to make incendiary arguments about the worthiness of LGBT parents—and putting this out in time to politicize it before the 2012 United States presidential election.” - According to Sherkat, Regnerus’s paper should never have been published. His assessment of it, in an interview, was concise: “It’s bullshit,” he said.

Wristcutters: A Love Story - Trailer - YouTube
Will Cloud Atlas be the next Inception? | Film | guardian.co.uk The lavish cinematisation of David Mitchell's sci-fi yarn could become the first genuine art-house blockbuster. But will it?

Florida man kills door-to-door salesman: I’ll kill anybody that steps on my property | The Raw Story “I’m not going to give him the chance to do something to me,” he told police. “I was in fear.” (Republican "stand your ground" laws at work)

This Cute Chat Site Could Save Your Life and Help Overthrow Your Government | Threat Level | Wired.com When he flies through the US, he’s generally had the notorious “SSSS” printed on his boarding pass, marking him for searches and interrogations — which Kobeissi says have focused on his development of the chat client.
When you make something that can bring down powerful people - powerful people will pay attention to you : technology
Don't believe the Skype: it may not be as private as you might think | Dan Gillmor | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Skype has always refused to reveal its encryption methods and could now be giving police access to users' conversations (and all those Arab governments)
Microsoft's fall: The real lesson is that innovation is hard
How Microsoft Lost Its Mojo: Steve Ballmer and Corporate America’s Most Spectacular Decline | Business | Vanity Fair Kurt Eichenwald finds the fingers pointing at C.E.O. Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates’s successor, as the man who led them astray.

072612
Syria crisis: Aleppo battle looms - Thursday 26 July 2012 | World news | guardian.co.uk Assad's forces mass on Aleppo after rebel gains
Syria Conflict: Damascus, Aleppo Endure Heavy Shelling
Bo Xilai's wife charged with Neil Heywood murder | World news | The Guardian Gu Kailai and a family aide charged with intentional homicide after British businessman's sudden death in Chongqing last year

Euro is irreversible, declares European Central Bank president Mario Draghi | Business | guardian.co.uk ECB will do 'whatever it takes' to preserve the currency
David Cameron says UK must do more after 'disappointing' economic figures | Politics | guardian.co.uk Prime minister blames damage done in 'boom-and-bust years' for 0.7% contraction in British economy - Osborne has also been stung by criticism that he is a "part-time" chancellor because of his other role as the Conservatives' main political strategist. (stupidest man on the planet)
David Cameron promises to 'finish the job' on deficit reduction | Politics | guardian.co.uk Prime minister gives defiant response to figures showing deepening double-dip recession - a "clear and unequivocal message" that the government will stand by its deficit reduction plan and "finish the job" (oh, they will, all right)
Citi sees 90 percent chance of Greece leaving the euro | Reuters Athens was most likely to quit the single currency within the next two to three quarters.

Ecuador seeks to stop 'evil' of Julian Assange US extradition | Media | The Guardian Ecuadorean diplomats seek UK assurances that WikiLeaks founder will not be extradited to US after proceedings in Sweden

Obama calls for US gun control laws to be tightened in wake of Aurora shooting | World news | guardian.co.uk President affirms right to bear arms but says assault rifles do not belong in the hands of citizens, drawing contrast with Romney
Why gun sales spike after mass shootings: It's not what you might think - CSMonitor.com (paranoia about having their guns taken away)
James Holmes, Suspected Aurora Shooter, May Have Described Killings In Package: Report ()
John McCaherty, Missouri Lawmaker, Raffles Off AR15 Rifle one of the same types of weapons used in the Aurora movie theater shooting.
Ted Nugent Slams Response To Aurora Shooting, Suggests Armed Moviegoers Could Have Prevented It (professional asshole)

US midwest drought worsens despite rains | Environment | guardian.co.uk The drought across the states that produce most of the country's corn, soybeans and livestock has intensified, a report shows ("it's just Summer")

The Dark Side Of The Obama White House What should the rules be for cyberwarfare? When is targeted killing OK? Can U.S. citizens be snuffed out by the state without any judicial due process? Does indefinite detention ever end? And another question: What ever happened to Obama the liberal civil libertarian? (drone-boy never was one)
Middle-Class Tax Cuts Preserved For A Year In Bill Passed By Senate (UPDATE) But it appeared unlikely that the House would embrace a similar measure before the election, having proposed its own bill to extend all the Bush-era cuts ... the GOP version would add an extra $155 billion to the deficit
A plain blog about politics: Catch of the Day The catch is to Jonathan Chait, for noticing that Mitch McConnell's threat to Harry Reid on the filibuster wasn't especially scary:
Penny Pritzker, Hyatt, and Busting Teacher Unions - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Pritzker has been right there with Rahm Emanuel in his fight against Chicago teachers.
Rahm Emanuel’s dangerous free speech attack - Salon.com Chicago blocks a business from expanding because its president opposes same-sex marriage
Planned Parenthoods Rescued By Obama Administration With Large Title X Grants

Will the Supreme Court Strike Down Affirmative Action? Landmark civil liberties cases often lack a broad base of support, which gives the Court plenty of political cover

Florida at the forefront as states plan fresh assault on voting rights | World news | guardian.co.uk Rights groups cry foul as Florida and others impose severe restrictions that target poor and black voters disproportionately
Charlie Crist blasts Rick Scott’s ‘unconscionable’ voter suppression tactics | The Raw Story

Team Romney: Americans Don’t Care About Foreign Press | TPM2012
Mitt Romney, Diplomat - Lawyers, Guns & Money : the best line of this non issue issue either goes to David Cameron: "We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world. Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere." (or:) (will have no effect in America)
Twitter / jameschappers: Serious dismay in Whitehall at Romney debut. 'Worse than Sarah Palin.' 'Total car crash'. Two of the kinder verdicts #romneyshambles
Mitt Romney rebuked by David Cameron in London visit – US politics live | World news | guardian.co.uk The Republican challenger Mitt Romney is meeting David Cameron in London after controversial remarks by an adviser and a rebuff from the PM over Olympic comments
Mitt Romney's Olympics blunder stuns No 10 and hands gift to Obama | World news | guardian.co.uk US presidential hopeful backtracks on warning of 'disconcerting' signs for Games after light-hearted rebuke by David Cameron
Romney book: Britain is a tiny island that makes stuff nobody wants | FP Passport
Boris Johnson, Mayor Of London, Rips Mitt Romney At Rally ()
Mitt Romney Walks Back London Olympics Criticism
Mitt Romney Was Once The Trendy Choice To Be Obama's Health Care Czar ... Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), had been forced to withdraw his nomination because of tax problems (Obama's post-partisanship)
Mitt Romney Bain Capital Claims Don't Hold Up To Evidence
Mitt Romney Registered As Lobbyist For Salt Lake City Olympics
Bob Beckel: Mitt Romney Is 'A Punk' With Personality Of 'A Ken Doll' (video)
Most Say They Already Know Enough about the Candidates | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press Democrats Want to Hear More about Romney's Tax Returns
Speaking Freely Voter ID, Day Two: Statistically Speaking (Pennslyvania's Jim Crow law trial)

Conservative Majority Fund PAC Airs Birther Campaign Ad Hitting All Obama Conspiracy Theories

Federal Reserve Audit Bill Overwhelmingly Passes The House
Standard & Poor's Investigation: DOJ, SEC Probe Ratings Agency
Walmart accused of firing union organizers in bid to intimidate workers | Business | guardian.co.uk Retail giant denies it planned illegal campaign to stamp out union activity but workers say firings point to emerging strategy
New York Times narrows losses in second quarter of 2012 | Media | guardian.co.uk - The company operating the US paper of record lost $88.1m in the second quarter of 2012, but has improved since last year

I’ve heard of upward failure but this is ridiculous - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Ladies and gentleman, I give you your new Coordinator For Improved Cooperation Between National Security Agencies. Because if there’s one thing Graham Spanier knows how to do it’s to make sure that sensitive information doesn’t fall into the hands of the wrong people.
Political Animal - Triumphal Return of the Boy Genius By all rights, the movement conservative takeover of the GOP that ensued from the 2008 disaster should have been puncuated by a ritual tarring-and-feathering of Rove, and his exile to some banana republic where he could practice his dark arts without consequences at home. Yet here we are today, with Rove back on top.

After Life: The Science Of Decay (BBC Documentary) - YouTube

About the Online Students by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly - The average student pursuing a postsecondary credential completely online is a white, 33-year-old woman with a full-time job and a household income around $65,000 per year, according to a new survey sponsored by two companies involved in online consulting. The student is also likely studying business ... Only 35 percent of those studying online attended proprietary institutions.


072512
Syria Conflict: Aleppo Fighting Shifts Regime Forces, Diplomats Defect
Splits widen within Syrian opposition | World news | The Guardian As Syria's rebels look beyond Bashar al-Assad's overthrow, distrust and jostling for power are eroding their credibility
Syria Leaks: Al Arabiya English Reports On Assad's PR Firm
Syria’s Army and the I.E.D. A report on The New... | THE GUN. the adoption by the armed opposition to President President Bashar al-Assad of the makeshift bomb as a primary weapon in Syria’s war.
More Bits on Syria - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Afghanistan Hospital Abuse Probe: 'Auschwitz-Like Conditions' Ignored By U.S. General he three-star general who headed the training mission in Afghanistan made him retract a request for an inspector general's investigation into corruption and horrible conditions at a U.S.-funded Afghan military hospital ... Lt. Gen. William Caldwell cited the then-upcoming 2010 congressional elections and asked, "How could we ... make this request with elections coming? He calls me Bill." (Obama)
BBC News - Gay marriage to be introduced in Scotland Scotland could become the first part of the UK to introduce gay marriage after the SNP government announced plans to make the change.

Tim Geithner investigating whether Treasury lost out over Libor | Business | guardian.co.uk Treasury secretary appears before House committee and blames British regulators for failing to stop rate manipulation (just the man for the job)
George Osborne defends economic strategy as recession deepens | Politics | guardian.co.uk Chancellor blames 'deep-rooted' problems for figures showing UK is in longest double-dip recession for more than 50 years
Eschaton: Not Really A Shock: it's what happens when you put a bunch of evil skimmers and the stupidest fucking man on the face of the planet in charge of your economy. "Britain's economic output collapsed by 0.7% in the second quarter of 2012 as the country's double-dip recession extended into a third quarter." The "deep-rooted problems" are the policies of the government and the fact that the chancellor is the stupidest fucking person on the face of the planet.
World Bank's Jim Yong Kim: 'I want to eradicate poverty' | Global development | guardian.co.uk World Bank president says he will bring sense of urgency to efforts to end global poverty in exclusive Guardian interview (that would be nice)

NRO Editor Kathryn Jean Lopez: Was Aurora Shooter Possessed By Beelzebub?
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Asshole of the Century James Taranto, the WSJ rightwing nutjob: "I hope the girls whose boyfriends died to save them were worthy of the sacrifice" Most of us thought of this as a noble and amazing sacrifice, but to the American Taliban, these may have been slutty slut sluts who use birth control (or even worse, vote for Democrats!) and make their own decisions, so whether or not they deserved to be saved is up to wingnut judgment.

NYPD 'consistently violated basic rights' during Occupy protests – study | World news | guardian.co.uk Report by NYU and Fordham law schools found 'shocking level of impunity' and department that acted beyond its powers
'What?' Confused 911 caller outs NYPD spying in NJ

Dear Mitt Romney: welcome to Britain! We have a few tips for a pleasant stay | Oliver Burkeman | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Some advice for the Republican candidate as he arrives in a nation of animal-lovers, and not very many French-Canadians
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Romney Campaign Accuses President Obama of Being Black “We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special,” the adviser said of Mr Romney, adding: “The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have” ... Just so we’re clear: President Obama is descended from English royalty and tribal chiefs of a country that was a British colony. Mitt Romney, on the other hand, is descended from a microchip and its sister wives.
Mitt Romney campaign rolls back 'Anglo-Saxon' comments ahead of UK visit | World news | guardian.co.uk Republican campaign backtracks comments made by advisor that his 'heritage' would ensure stronger US-UK relationship (they are so unconscious)
Balloon Juice » Mitt Romney was, again, “not involved in decision-making” the truth is no one knows how Mitt Romney managed the Olympics, because they destroyed all the records.
Romney’s 'We Did Build This' Events Feature Businesses Built With Government Subsidies And Contracts | ThinkProgress
Scott Brown on Elizabeth Warren - "You Didn't Build That" Debate - Esquire

The value of Tom Friedman - Salon.com His status among American elites is the single most potent fact for understanding the nation's imperial decline
No Kidding: The Most Incoherent Tom Friedman Column Ever | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone Others, like Glenn Greenwald, have already pointed out the column's most obvious contradictions. But for those who missed it, here are two passages that were written, not as a joke, by the same human being in the same opinion column.

The value of Tom Friedman - Salon.com His status among American elites is the single most potent fact for understanding the nation's imperial decline

Medicaid Expansion May Lower Death Rate, Study Says - NYTimes.com (contra Republicans)
Balloon Juice » Whaddya Know? Medicaid Saves Lives ... "a new study by Harvard researchers who found that when states expanded their Medicaid programs and gave more poor people health insurance, fewer people died." The ability of Republicans to convince themselves of whatever they want is quite impressive. On what universe would having health coverage cause worse health?

Loss of Arctic sea ice '70% man-made' | World news | The Guardian Study finds only 30% of radical loss of summer sea ice is due to natural variability in Atlantic – and it will probably get worse (have we reached the tipping-point on wingnut insanity yet?)

Anaheim officials scramble to contain public anger over police shootings | World news | guardian.co.uk Looting and vandalism mar demonstrations against spate of police shootings, exacerbating city's stark race divisions
America rots from the inside, while overreacting to threats from outside | Michael Cohen | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The White House will start wars in the name of beating terrorism, yet gun crime and poor healthcare provision kill far more

Brain Sees Men as Whole, Women as Parts - Yahoo! News "It's both men and women doing this to women," Gervais said. "So don't blame the men here."

Santorum Family Just Cannot Get Enough Of This Chick-Fil-A Special Sauce

Marc And Claire Headley Lose Forced Labor Lawsuit Against Church Of Scientology ... The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Marc and Claire Headley, long time Scientology members, voluntarily worked at menial tasks without payment because of their commitment to the religion.


072412
Syria crisis: clashes and prison mutiny in Aleppo - Tuesday 24 July 2012 | World news | guardian.co.uk Up to 20 killed in prison protests in Aleppo, activists claim
France Sexual Harassment Law Mulled After Previous Statute Struck Down The hooting and catcalls began as soon as the Cabinet minister stood, wearing a blue and white flowered dress. It did not cease for the entire time she spoke before France's National Assembly. And they came not from an unruly crowd, but from male legislators who later said they were merely showing their appreciation on a warm summer's day.
US evangelical Christians accused of promoting homophobia in Africa | World news | The Guardian Liberal thinktank says rightwingers are aggressively targeting the continent with an anti-abortion and anti-gay agenda
Why is India so bad for women? | World news | The Guardian Of all the rich G20 nations, India has been labelled the worst place to be a woman. But how is this possible in a country that prides itself on being the world's largest democracy?
G4S staff 'cheat' on tests to run x-ray scanners at Olympic Games | UK news | The Guardian Recruits given several chances to pass exams on bomb detection – but just 20 minutes training on machines

Bank traders under scrutiny for rate-rigging - Market Day The alleged ring of traders mentioned in the Journal article worked at six of the 16 banks that were members of the panel that set an interest rate called the daily yen LIBOR rate -- an interest rate at which banks lend one another funds denominated in the Japanese currency.
Eurozone crisis live: Germany's credit rating outlook lowered to negative | Business | guardian.co.uk Rating agency cuts outlook on three eurozone countries
Spain's indebted regions feel the heat | World news | guardian.co.uk Valencia became the first region to formally request a bailout, followed by Murcia - Catalonia, Andalucía, Castilla La Mancha and more are expected to join them
Paying a plumber cash in hand morally wrong, says Tory minister | Politics | The Guardian David Gauke, exchequer secretary, rails against cost to the UK of the hidden economy in which income tax is dodged (yeah, that's the problem +no one in UK has "cheques" anymore)

Phone hacking: Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson and six others face charges - live | Media | guardian.co.uk Brooks, Coulson and five NoW staff plus Mulcaire charged • Six charged with conspiracy to intercept Dowler's voicemail • Seven accused of six-year conspiracy to intercept voicemails
Andy Coulson charges mark low point for David Cameron | UK news | guardian.co.uk The former News of the World editor charged over phone hacking was a key member of the PM's inner circle
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie named as victims in phone hacking charges | UK news | guardian.co.uk Prosecutors in London allege that News of the World journalists conspired to intercept phones of Hollywood pair's associates
Andy Coulson, Rebekah Brooks To Be Charged Over Phone Hacking

So Does the Government Think Bradley Manning Released Fake Diplomatic Cables? | The Dissenter A district court judge has denied an effort by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to force the United States State Department to release all portions of twenty-three diplomatic cables, which the organization sought through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

How gun-rights advocates benefit from Obama's presidency - The Week Gun lobbyists say Obama will dismantle the right to bear arms if he's re-elected, failing to note that the past four years have been great for their industry
Barack Obama And Guns: How A Vocal Advocate Went Quiet (crickets)
Jerry Newcombe, Evangelical Leader, Says Only Christian Victims Of Colorado Shooting Going To Heaven
Gun Owners Surveyed By Frank Luntz Express Broad Support For Gun Control Policies
David Brooks and the Mental-Health Scam - Esquire David Brooks is only the most recent and, inevitably, the most tiresome — are so desperate to find a way in the aftermath of the Aurora massacre to talk about gun violence without talking about guns

Citizens United? Don’t Worry Your Pretty Heads About It | The New Republic Yesterday’s New York Times Magazine offered a classic of this form, a Matt Bai piece arguing that the Citizens United ruling of 2010 is not nearly as responsible for the boom in campaign spending by outside groups as those whiny goo-goo types make it out to be:
The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has led to an explosion of campaign spending. - Slate Magazine

How super PACs are saving Mitt Romney - The Washington Post Roughly 80 percent of all ad spending by Republicans on the general election has come from these super PACs, as Romney has expended a relatively meager $35 million to date on ads in swing states,
Muslim Brotherhood Confused About Michele Bachmann Attacks Another member was more self-deprecating. "The Muslim Brotherhood can’t even penetrate the Egyptian government," said Ibrahim Ali Iraqi, a leader in the Daqheleya province, to the Post.
CNN Vs. CNN: Loesch Backs Muslim Brotherhood Conspiracy That Cooper, Blitzer Call "McCarthy-Like" | Blog | Media Matters for America
What's Different About President Obama? | Crooks and Liars What made my jaw drop was the disparity in the number of times they've polled approval ratings when compared to others. Dubya, 7 times in 14 quarters. Reagan, 7 times. Clinton, 6 times ... Barack Obama, 88 times. What could the difference be?

Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Trial Set To Begin As State Concedes It Has No Proof Of In-Person Voter Fraud "There have been no investigations or prosecutions of in-person voter fraud in Pennsylvania; and the parties do not have direct personal knowledge of any such investigations or prosecutions in other states,” the statement reads (it was never about "fraud" except by Republicans)

Feds charge Philly charter school mogul in massive fraud - Dorothy June Hairston Brown, who received accolades for students' test scores and gained notoriety for collecting large salaries and suing parents who questioned her actions, was indicted on multiple counts of wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering.
xs
Republican Jobs Bills Won't Actually Create Jobs, Say Economists (but it will make the rich richer!)
Bain Capital Created 'Demoralizing' Culture of Layoffs At Florida Plant
Obama Attacks On Taxes, Bain Hit Mitt Romney's Ratings: Poll More than half say debate on tax returns waste of time
Jon Kyl Berates Obama For Focus On Middle Class (what middle class?)
Fracking Company Paid Texas Professor Behind Water Contamination Study | StateImpact Texas
This Conspiracy-Toting Conservative Blogger Could Be Headed to Congress | Mother Jones Wes Riddle's campaign says President Obama gave seven islands to Russia, and he's written that slavery was a net positive for blacks. Could he make it to Washington?

The Agenda: A Closer Look at Middle Class Decline - NYTimes.com For the first time since the Great Depression, middle-class families have been losing ground for more than a decade. (destroyed by voting Republican)
The Washington Monthly - The Magazine - The Hole in the Bucket Americans obsessed over personal finance during the last forty years as never before. So how come so many of us wound up broke? Here's the little-known story - 401(k) and other so-called “defined contribution” plans (turned out to be a disaster on the scale of a reverse New Deal)

God is My Co-Belligerent: Avatar Priests, Hijacked Theologians, and Other Figures of Right-Wing Revolt | Politics | Religion Dispatches

Sally Ride, Trailblazing Astronaut, Dies at 61 - NYTimes.com politely endured a barrage of questions focused on her sex: Would spaceflight affect her reproductive organs? Did she plan to have children? Would she wear a bra or makeup in space? Did she cry on the job? How would she deal with menstruation in space? The CBS News reporter Diane Sawyer asked her to demonstrate a newly installed privacy curtain around the shuttle’s toilet. On “The Tonight Show,” Johnny Carson joked that the shuttle flight would be delayed because Dr. Ride had to find a purse to match her shoes. (not much has changed)
Daily Kos: DOMA: Sally Ride's Partner of 27 Years Denied Federal Benefits. Is Romney Smiling?
Chick-Fil-A Donated Nearly $2 Million To Anti-Gay Groups In 2010 | Equality Matters (and pround of their bigotry)

Greenland Ice Melt, Measured By NASA Satellites, Reaches Unprecedented Level
Three-in-one drug wipes the floor with TB - health - 23 July 2012 - New Scientist Called PaMZ, the pill is a combination of the standard TB drug pyrazinamide with the antibiotic moxifloxacin – not previously used against TB – and PA-824, a drug whose potential against TB was reported by New Scientist in 2001.
Does Your Man Fall Asleep After Sex? Maybe You Should Blame It On Biology That's because after an orgasm, men tend to experience decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex -- the region of the brain most commonly associated with processing a variety of different information streams and responding appropriately.

The Man Who Hated Liberals Alex Cockburn, 1941-2012 (loved his bloody totalitarian dictators)
Newsweek Daily Beast Funding Takes A Twist As Harman Family Stops Investing The merged company has yet to make a profit, as Brown acknowledged in an interview with ABC News in March. At the time, Harman's widow Jane pledged to continue investing in NewsBeast. Something, however, appears to have changed.
Exclusive: IAC takes control of Newsweek Daily Beast from Harmans | Reuters

Initial verdict on The Dark Knight Rises: - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Completely Unnecessary Dark Knight Rises Post - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Dirty Deeds: Iranian nuclear program hit by 'AC/DC virus'? — RT Iranian nuclear facilities have reportedly been attacked by a “music” virus, turning on lab PCs at night and blasting AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck.”

072312
US drone strikes kill suspected insurgents in Pakistan | World news | guardian.co.uk Nine killed after missiles fired at compound owned by militant commander in north Waziristan tribal area ("suspected" "insurgents" in their own country)
Syria Chemical Weapons Only For Foreign Attack Defense, Says Regime
Iraq violence leaves more than 100 dead | World news | The Guardian Series of attacks targeting security forces and Shia neighbourhoods raises fears of al-Qaida offensive
China struggles with flood recovery as death toll mounts | World news | guardian.co.uk Worst rains in 60 years leaves country asking questions of its basic infrastructure as 37 die in and around Beijing
Schneier on Security: How the Norwegians Reacted to Terrorism How the Norwegians Reacted to Terrorism

Panic selling of shares in Spain as country's bond yields go above 7.5% | Business | The Guardian Big falls on world financial markets as fears grow of second successive eurozone summer crisis
Eurozone crisis live: Markets tumble amid fears over Spain and Greece | Business | guardian.co.uk The Bank of Spain has added to the gloom this morning, predicting that the Spanish recession deepened in the last three months ... the Bank's deputy governor is arguing now that the solution is "more cuts, more reforms, and new mechanisms to integrate the eurozone".
US drought could trigger repeat of global food crisis, experts warn | Environment | guardian.co.uk As the mid-west bakes and food prices soar, threats of a ripple effect in the Middle East could lead to more uprisings

Phone Hacking Scandal Spreading: New Companies Targeted, Hundreds Of New Claims

Feds Wait Until Late Friday To Admit That, Yeah, They Ignored The 4th Amendment | Techdirt

James Holmes, Alleged Aurora Shooter, Makes First Court Appearance
Stockpiling ammunition online: just how easy is it to buy 18,000 rounds? | World news | guardian.co.uk Buying huge quantities of ammo is as simple as any other kind of online shopping – and it gets cheaper the more you purchase
James Holmes, Aurora Shooting Suspect, Used Internet For Arsenal ... "We're different than other cultures," said Dudley Brown, executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, which advocates for firearms owners' rights. "We do allow Americans to possess the accoutrements that our military generally has." (no background checks, freely available military hardware)
Gun Control Bill Not Likely To Be Taken Up By Senate, Says Senior Dem Aide
America's love of guns: how attempts to tighten gun laws have foundered | World news | guardian.co.uk The Aurora shooting has reopened the gun control debate – but it's a toxic issue for politicians cowed by a powerful gun lobby
Louie Gohmert: Colorado Shooting Remarks 'Taken Out Of Context' (the context of being a raving asshole)
Bill Kristol: Democrats Being 'Foolish' Not Pushing Tougher Gun Laws (video)
What I Learned in Law School | hecatedemeter - I do know that no matter how many guns any one person or group may purchase, if the United States government decides to take you out, they are going to take you out.
Balloon Juice » Anatomy of a Zombie Lie… (NRA just makin' shit up)

"The Choice" - Obama For America TV Ad - YouTube
Why Mitt Romney Has a Hard Time Talking About What Matters Most to Him -- New York Magazine Why does Mitt Romney have such a hard time talking about what matters most to him?
How the Mormons Make Money - Businessweek Mormons make up only 1.4 percent of the U.S. population, but the church’s holdings are vast.
Star of Romney Ad Did Receive Government Assistance Gilchrist "did receive some government help for his business" in 1999 when the company received $800,000 in tax-exempt revenue bonds "to set up a second manufacturing plant and purchase equipment to produce high definition television broadcasting equipment." In addition, Gilchrist Metal received a U.S. Small Business Administration loan of around $500,000 in the 1980s and has received several sub-contracts from the U.S. Navy. (well, it's not like it's food stamps, or something)
Dem, GOP Tax Plans Differ On Tax Cuts For Middle Class, Wealthy | TPMDC
Do Presidential Polls Break Toward Challengers? - NYTimes.com
Wolf Blitzer: Bachmann 'McCarthy-Like' In Attacking Huma Abedin (video)
Gary Johnson Tries to Inject Pot Legalization Into the Presidential Race - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic His new advertisement compares alcohol prohibition to the War on Drugs. Do enough Americans agree to give the issue resonance?
Frank Rich on Declinist Panic in America -- New York Magazine Declinist panic. Hysterical nostalgia. America may not be over, but it is certainly in thrall to the idea ... In reality, The Andy Griffith Show didn’t transcend the deep divides of its time. It merely ignored them. “Local control” of Mayberry saw to it that this southern town would remain lily-white for all eight years of its fictive existence rather than submit to any civil-rights laws that would require the federal government’s “top-down management” to enforce.
The U.S. Is Not in Decline Unless You Want It to Be - National - The Atlantic Wire
Rich Guys: A Close-Up View - James Fallows - The Atlantic

Report Details $21-$32 Trillion in Untaxed Global Wealth Parked Offshore | FDL News Desk (deficit solved, right there)
The Zombies of History Attack! - Esquire here's an argument I thought we'd settled in 1789, when the country was falling apart to such an extent that James Madison and a lot of people got alarmed and said why don't we all get together in Philadelphia and overthrow the government because this whole Articles of Confederation thing really sucks pond water.
US poverty on track to reach 46-year high; suburbs, underemployed workers, children hit hard - The Washington Post
Austerity's Big Winners Prove To Be Wall Street And The Wealthy (shocking)
Q: How Are the Swing-State Economies Doing? A: Who Cares? - Derek Thompson - The Atlantic - All politics is local, but it's the national fundamentals that seem to matter most
The One Percent Want Your Social Security and Medicare and Steven Pearlstein Is Trying to Help | Beat the Press Steven Pearlstein, the Washington Post business columnist, often writes insightful pieces on the economy, not today. The thrust of his piece is that we all should be hopeful that a group of incredibly rich CEOs can engineer a coup.
Don’t Forget the Confederate States of America — It Worked Really Well There Too! - Lawyers, Guns & Money - Amity Shlaes (is still an idiot)
Boycott Hyatt - Lawyers, Guns & Money (evil corp)
Mark Gongloff: Debt-Ceiling Battle Cost The U.S. Government $1.3 Billion: Study $1.3 billion in extra borrowing costs, according to a new study by the Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan congressional watchdog. (send the bill to the Teaparty)

Is Medical School a Worthwhile Investment for Women? - Keith Chen & Judith Chevalier - The Atlantic The average female primary-care physician would have been financially better off becoming a physician assistant.
No More Urban Officers? How an Uneven ROTC May Change Our Military - Colin Daileda - The Atlantic Big-city campuses once produced superstars like Colin Powell. Today, those programs are dwindling -- which may lead to a whiter, more rural military.

NCAA's sanctions on Penn State are dead wrong | Dave Zirin | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Mark Emmert's ruling didn't bring justice to Sandusky's victims, and it didn't clean house at Penn State. Simply, it was a farce ... Today's move by Emmert didn't bring justice to any of Sandusky's victims. It didn't help clean house at Penn State. Instead it was extra-legal, extra-judicial – and it stinks to high heaven. (NCAA head Mark Emmert's $1.6m salary)
Penn State Penalties Include $60 Million Fine and Bowl Ban - NYTimes.com
NCAA Hits Penn State With $60 Million Fine, Postseason Ban, Loss Of Scholarships And Wins
Penn State Nittany Lions hit with $60 million fine, 4-year bowl ban, wins dating to 1998 - ESPN The NCAA has hit Penn State with a $60 million sanction, a four-year football postseason ban and a vacation of all wins dating to 1998, the organization said Monday morning. The career record of Joe Paterno will reflect these vacated records, the NCAA said. Penn State must also reduce 10 initial and 20 total scholarships each year for a four-year period.
PSU nuked from space - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Apparently PSU signed off on all this (I guess they were made an offer they couldn’t refuse).
Some Notes on Paterno and the Penn State Sentence - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Paterno loses 111 wins in NCAA sanctions, Bowden becomes new wins leader - NCAA Football - CBSSports.com News, Scores, Stats, Schedule and BCS Rankings
In Posnanski’s ‘Paterno,’ a Biography With Bad Timing - NYTimes.com - Simon & Schuster is backpedaling quickly in the final weeks before the publication of “Paterno,” which has emerged as perhaps one of the most unfortunately timed books of 2012.
Story of Miguel Sano chronicles ugly, sleazy side of baseball's Dominican Republic talent pipeline - Yahoo! Sports

Sexual assault victim's tweets about attackers prompt contempt case against Louisville's Savannah Dietrich | The Courier-Journal
Near-Riot Breaks Out After Officer-Involved Shooting In Anaheim « CBS Los Angeles Four people told Jackson that police offered to buy their cell phone video.
Hullabaloo - He stood his ground

National Journal Bans Quote Approval The National Journal said on Saturday that it would no longer accept quotes from sources that demand to tweak and approve statements before publication ... Publications including The Times, The Huffington Post, Reuters and Vanity Fair have admitted to allowing quote approval.
Journalism’s Lost Decade | Ebyline Blog It turns out that reporters’ salaries actually grew faster than the overall U.S. workforce right up until the financial crisis, when they plunged—it’s the journalistic equivalent of Wall Street investors’ “lost decade” of gains.
Paula Kerger, PBS Chief, Decries Efforts To Cut Federal Funding
NPR hires lobbyists as GOP targets public broadcasting funds - The Hill's Hillicon Valley

Anthrax has hit Glasgow: the story of a desperate hunt for its source (Wired UK)
Breast cancer's stealth mechanism revealed › News in Science (ABC Science) Australian researchers have discovered a mechanism that allows some breast cancer cells avoid the immune system and form secondary cancers in other parts of the body.

The Great American Novelist tournament: the final 32 | Books | guardian.co.uk

JimYounkin.com: YouTube Pushing Users Switch To Real Names

072212
Syria Conflict: Aleppo Fight Has Begun, Say Rebels

Libor Investigation Close To Making Arrests: Report

Background of Colorado shooting suspect full of contrasts - CNN.com
Ron Johnson: High-Capacity Magazines Are A Constitutional Right
Michael Bloomberg Criticizes Obama, Romney On Gun Control After Colorado Shooting (video)

Balloon Juice » Way To Go, Bachmann Police and federal officials have placed security around ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, after a New Jersey man threatened her, law-enforcement sources said. An individual, described as a Muslim man, made the unspecified threat after Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) last week claimed Abedin’s family had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and asked for a probe to see if she is helping the Islamist organization.
Republican Congressman Gloats About Bill To Enable Animal Torture | ThinkProgress

Political Animal - Rich mom, poor mom in New York: a tale of two cities NYC’s unemployment rate is ten percent, about two points higher than the rest of the country. Unlike the women profiled in the other article, many of the low-wage workers in this article don’t have even have paid sick days, and a bill to require paid sick leave has been stalled in the City Council. (Bloomberg said it was 8%)
Judge soaks Bronx owner of car wash who failed to pay workers minimum wage  - NY Daily News Alex Moreno, who ran Getty station in Mount Eden, gets jail time

Joe Paterno Statue At Penn State Taken Down (video/photos)
NCAA To Announce 'Corrective And Punitive Measures' Against Penn State
The Responsibility of Paterno - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money

17-year-old sexual assault victim could face charges for tweeting names of attackers | The Lookout - Yahoo! News "There you go, lock me up," Dietrich tweeted after naming the perpetrators. "I'm not protecting anyone that made my life a living Hell." Her Twitter account has since been closed.

072112
Syrians flee fierce fighting in Aleppo | World news | guardian.co.uk Thousands of residents flee northern city amid bloody clashes between Free Syrian Army fighters and government troops
Syria Chemical Weapons Moved Before Wider Offensive, Defector Says
Riot murder trial judge ordered BBC not to broadcast documentaries | Law | guardian.co.uk Judge in trial of eight men over Birmingham riot deaths said films raised issues that 'echoed' arguments put before jury
Japan Nuclear Disaster Probed By Health Ministry reports that workers at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant were urged by a subcontractor to place lead around radiation detection devices in order to stay under a safety threshold for exposure.

Sicily's bloated civil service threatens to turn the island into the new Greece | World news | The Observer A bleak combination of routine corruption, misused funds and mafia influence is taking the beautiful, troubled island to the brink of the abyss ... "Italy's Greece", an island awash with misspent EU funds, state jobs traded for votes and a €5bn debt pile that some fear could push Italy's delicate economy into the abyss ... 26,000 forestry workers – more than British Columbia in Canada – many working limited hours and holding down second jobs (one for every tree)

Rupert Murdoch Resigns From News Corp. Subsidiary Boards In Britain, United States

Colorado shooting: how James Holmes fits into the history of rampage killers | Harry J Enten | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk It remains unclear why mass shootings remain at high levels while the overall murder rate is at its lowest level in decades (oh please: guns for crazies)
Stories Of Heroism During Aurora Theater Shooting Begin To Emerge
James Holmes, Aurora Shooting Suspect, Purchased 6,000 Rounds Of Ammunition Online
Aurora Shooting Timeline: How The Tragedy Unfolded
Colorado Shooting: Aurora Police Chief Gives Update On Investigation Of Theater Shooter's Apartment
Louie Gohmert: Aurora Shootings Result Of 'Ongoing Attacks On Judeo-Christian Beliefs' (nothing to do with freely-available military weapons)
Little Green Footballs - Alex Jones Says Aurora Shooting Was Staged By Obama
Twitter / RickWarren: When students are taught taught they are no different from animals, they act like it. (teaching evolution causes mass-murder)
Sadly, Nation Knows Exactly How Colorado Shooting's Aftermath Will Play Out | The Onion

Top Ten Impacts Climate Change Is Making Worse Right Now | ThinkProgress

Romney Invested Millions in Firms That Pioneered High-Tech Outsourcing | Mother Jones A government document shows that at Bain he held a $54 million stake in companies that manufactured electronics in China and Mexico for US firms.
Why Bain Matters - Joe Klein: "The strongest case against Bain capitalism is a metaphor: Mitt Romney made a fortune swapping equity for debt. That's what we've done for the past 30 years in this country, turning a great many of our assets into deficits for short-term gain. We need to do the opposite now."
The Top 10 Things Mitt Romney Might Be Hiding in His Tax Returns - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic
Presidential campaign fundraising surpasses $1 billion – usatoday.com
Ad Spending in Presidential Battleground States - Peter Bell and Reid Wilson - NationalJournal.com
Would-be model plane bomber Ferdaus admits plan to attack Pentagon, Capitol - U.S. News The Massachusetts man charged with plotting to attack the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol with remote-controlled model airplanes filled with explosives entered a guilty plea in a Boston federal court on Friday. (more entrapment of idiots)
Balloon Juice » If you’re going to spy on us, at least be competent about it… - What the hell is the point of spying on people and collecting all this email traffic if an Army officer can write to a radical cleric on our watch list and ask whether it is permissible for members of the armed forces to kill fellow servicemen and women without triggering a full investigation?
Balloon Juice » Late Night Open Thread: Bring It
Tampa strip clubs take extra steps to cash in on RNC | TBO.com Redner said never mind that the GOP pitches itself as a party of family values ... "Those people are kinky." (who could have guessed?)
Cynicism - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Glad to see Andrew Cuomo take advantage of the Colorado tragedy to release a long-awaited letter about his ties to the casino industry. That’s the kind of politician cynicism that just warms the heart.
The Doing-a-Lot-of-Nothing Congress - Businessweek Lawmakers have sent only 54 bills to President Obama so far this year, making it one of the least productive sessions on record. Most of the new laws are trivial.

In ‘Black Liquor,’ a Cautionary Tale for Deficit Reduction - NYTimes.com
Eschaton The "grand bargain" will be cut social security, which has nothing to do with the deficit, in exchange for closing loopholes which will reappear in the next budget.

UCLA researchers create highly transparent solar cells for windows that generate electricity / UCLA Newsroom


Major League Soccer will not renew partnership with Boy Scouts of America following 2012 season - Yahoo! Sports Earlier in the week, the Boy Scouts of America announced that following a two-year review, it would continue its long-standing policy of excluding gays.
Boston Mayor Vows To Block Chick-Fil-A From Opening Restaurant After Anti-Gay Remarks The mayor of Boston is vowing to block Chick-fil-A from opening a restaurant in the city after the company's president spoke out publicly against gay marriage. (Pres: bigoted and proud of it)
Nick Kroll Takes On Chick-Fil-A In Teaser For Upcoming 'Kroll Show' (video)

Animals - House Of The Rising Sun - YouTube

Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer and the work-life dilemmas of the rich and famous - The Washington Post

The Death of SOPA Was Not a Fluke: Three Reasons Why Elected Officials Should Endorse the Declaration of Internet Freedom | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Privacy advocates satisfied with Lieberman’s cybersecurity rewrite - The Hill's Hillicon Valley
Ex-Nokia employees to launch Meego smartphone | Mobile - CNET News Finnish startup Jolla will use the Meego operating system, which Nokia developed with Intel but abandoned for Microsoft's Windows Phone platform. (eFlop)
My Nokia Maemo Story | post404 | Of, by and for community Nokia appears to be releasing the remnants of the Maemo/MeeGo workforce, and some are sharing their experiences. Here’s mine.
Aereo Threatens Broadcasters By Streaming Network TV Online

072012
Syria: Assad regime starts to unravel | World news | guardian.co.uk Damascus sees fierce fighting as Free Syrian Army fighters take control of key suburbs and crossings into Turkey and Iraq
Syria Crisis: Damascus Pounded Amid Unprecedented Rebel Gains (crumbling)
Syria Conflict: Deadliest Day Of Fighting Since Start Of Uprising
Reports soldiers killed in North Korean gunfight - ABC Sydney - Australian Broadcasting Corporation he gun battle erupted when vice marshal Choe Ryong Hae, director of the People's Army General Political Bureau, tried to detain Mr Ri while carrying out North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's order to sack him.
North Korea Rumors: South Korean Media Goes Into Hyperdrive
Ministers fume at order to get to Games on the Tube - UK Politics - UK - The Independent Downing Street faces backlash against 'draconian rules' forcing top MPs to use public transport to get to Olympic events – where they have been ordered to schmooze VIPs (they are so special)

Euro crisis deepens as time starts to run out for Spain's banks and regions | Business | The Guardian Spain drags the eurozone closer to the edge of collapse despite winning the backing of finance ministers from the single currency's major economies for a €100bn bank rescue fund
Blow to George Osborne as borrowing rises - Business News - Business - The Independent Chancellor George Osborne's deficit-busting plans are struggling to keep up with full-year targets as official figures published today revealed another rise in Government borrowing. (austerity fail, again, but no lessons learned)
Mark Gongloff: Citigroup Manipulated Libor More Than Any Other U.S. Bank: Reports

U.S. Admits Surveillance Violated Constitution At Least Once | Danger Room | Wired.com
Flying Under the Influence - By @Drunkenpredator | Foreign Policy I've had it up to my synthetic aperture radar with the lawsuits and the criticism. This is why I drink and drone.

Severe Drought Reaches 21st-Century High - weather.com

Police Say 12 Are Killed at Showing of Batman Movie in Colorado - NYTimes.com
Aurora: We shouldn’t be surprised - Salon.com It's shocking that shootings like the one in Aurora don't happen more often: They're easy to carry out
Colorado theater shooting: a deadly attack delivered with brutal precision | World news | The Guardian Moviegoers at Aurora multiplex describe sheer terror as James Holmes used three guns to shoot 71 people in two minutes
Aurora theater shooting: police look for motive as details from attack emerge | World news | The Guardian Explosives experts stymied by suspect's booby-trapped flat as police and families seek answers in shooting that left 12 dead
James Holmes Identified As Alleged Aurora, Colorado Theater Shooter That Left 12 Dead
James Holmes, Aurora Shooting Suspect, In Custody After Shootings In Colorado Theater
Colorado Shooting: What We Know About James Holmes (UPDATED)
'Batman' Shooting: Gun Lobby Counts On Short Attention Span
The Aurora Movie Theatre Shooting and American Gun Culture : The New Yorker - One More Massacre - Posted by Adam Gopnik
integ3r comments on Someone came into our theater at the midnight release of Dark Knight Rises and began opening fire. Who here on Reddit can help me calm my nerves?
Marilyn Manson's commentary for Rolling Stone after Columbine is just as relevant for today's shooting in Colorado : Music
Charlie Brooker's Newswipe 25/03/09 - YouTube

Al Green, Threat to the American Way of Life - NYTimes.com How “other” is Al Green? So other, so alien, that, well, he’s included on the Muzak they play in Red Lobster restaurants. (oh, and he's black)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Rules are For the Little People Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) office wrote a loophole into the House version of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK) exempting Congress members’ spouses and children from having to report stock market transactions over $1,000 in a timely manner. Writing loopholes into transparency bills. It’s like these guys have modeled their political careers after one of Pixar’s evil geniuses.

Matt Taibbi: 'I Can't Imagine How A Sane Person Could Possibly Describe This As A Victimless Crime' Matt Taibbi called out CNBC anchor Larry Kudlow for claiming that banks' rigging of a key interest rate did not hurt anyone.
Barofsky Book: Geithner Confirmed in 2009 That HAMP Was Designed for Banks to Spread Out Foreclosures | FDL News Desk (HAMP, the program designed to con foreclosed homeowners into giving more money to banks before they foreclosed on anyway; disgusting; Geitner and Bernanke, Obama's Republicans)

New type of chemical bond may form in extreme magnetic fields of stars | Ars Technica Hydrogen and helium may bond magnetically near white dwarfs and neutron stars.
Assessing Preterm Birth Risk In First-Time Moms Still Unclear After Study A large, new study out of Australia attempted to clarify the issue, pinpointing several factors that seem to increase a woman's risk for early delivery. Those factors include an overall lack of feeling well, a short cervix and marijuana use before pregnancy.
8RPYP.png (what is a theory?)

Romney kept reins, bargained hard on severance - The Boston Globe (he was completely in charge)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » At Some Point, Glenn Kessler is Just Going to Have to Admit He Was Wrong

“HBO is paying him millions to dramatize blog posts from two years ago.” - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Emily Nussbaum’s instant-classic review of The Newsroom said something really terrifying
The Hack List - Salon.com The increasingly unpleasant superiority complex of America's most prominent liberal screenwriter

What To Do About Joe Paterno’s Statue? by Minjae Park | Washington Monthly - One trustee told ESPN, “The statue represents the good that Joe did. It doesn’t represent the bad that he did.” (oh, it's not a statue of the child-rape-coverup Joe)

Google Nexus 7 review - Telegraph
DailyTech - Lenovo CEO Gives His $3 Million USD Bonus to 10,000 Employees
Instagram is debasing real photography | Technology | guardian.co.uk The Instagram/Hipstamatic/Snapseed filters are the antithesis of creativity, and make all pictures look the same
Flickr responds to 'Dear Marissa Mayer' appeal with an appeal of its own : Digital Photography Review
Thunderbird: Stability and Community Innovation | Mitchell's Blog
AnandTech - The Achieva Shimian QH270: A $350 27-inch WQHD S-IPS Display
New iOS Jailbreak Released For All iDevices!

071912
Syria: Bashar al-Assad swears in minister as diplomacy stalls at UN | World news | The Guardian President seen for first time since blast that killed three top officials, while Russia and China veto censure of regime
Russia, China Veto Syria Resolution From UN Security Council (bloody dictators always stick together)
Iran steps up crackdown against its Arab minority | World news | guardian.co.uk Five Arab minority prisoners in Iran are at imminent risk of execution after being sentenced to death on terrorism charges
BBC News - Gary McKinnon 'no choice' but to refuse medical test Janis Sharp said it was "an impossibility" because the expert chosen by the Home Office had no experience with Asperger's syndrome. (that's how they work)
Bulgaria Bus Blast: Suicide Bomber Killed 8 On Vehicle Transporting Israeli Tourists (VIDEO, PHOTOS)
Google's Drug War vs. Mexico's Cartels Experts told the conference that Mexico's cartels often use more sophisticated technology than law enforcement. Cartel assets include mapping software that tracks the location of police from high-tech control rooms; remote control submarines; and military grade rocket launchers.
Amanda Knox Case: Acquittal Appeal Set For March By Italy (corrupt Italian justice never gives up)
Ian Tomlinson death: Simon Harwood cleared of manslaughter | UK news | guardian.co.uk Met police officer cleared over death of bystander hit with baton and pushed to the ground (of course)

Eurozone crisis live: Germany approves Spain's bank rescue, after poor Spanish auction | Business | guardian.co.uk There is no link between assistance for bank recapitalisation in Spain and any other type of financial assistance, which might be requested at some further juncture by Spain or anybody else (it's offical: corrupt banks more important than sovereign nations)
Feeding Frenzy Seen If Wall Street Sues Itself Over Libor - Bloomberg - Libor serves as a benchmark for at least $360 trillion in securities. “This will be a feeding frenzy of sharks,”
Eschaton: What's It All - For The banks are more important than the sovereign or the people.
Baltimore and the Libor scandal: 'We can't leave any money on the table' | Business | guardian.co.uk The hard-hit city says it had no choice but to file a class action lawsuit, putting a human face on the far-reaching scandal

Global Warming's Terrifying New Math | Politics News | Rolling Stone Three simple numbers that add up to global catastrophe - and that make clear who the real enemy is
Drought Conditions Send Commodity Prices Skyrocketing | FDL News Desk
The Cause Of Riots And The Price of Food - Technology Review If we don't reverse the current trend in food prices, we've got until August 2013 before social unrest sweeps the planet, say complexity theorists (we will reap what the Limbaughs and Kochs have sown)

Operation Tuleta: Sun journalist arrested | Media | guardian.co.uk News reporter Rhodri Phillips arrested at his home in north London on suspicion of handling stolen goods (hacking computers takes scandal to new level)

Drone Wars: Civil Liberties Groups Sue CIA, Pentagon Over Targeted Killings (but not drone-boy)
Obama’s killings challenged again - Salon.com A legal challenge to the Obama assassination program should create common ground for its supporters and critics
Glenn Greenwald joins Guardian US from Salon | Media | guardian.co.uk Political commentator and bestselling author says new role writing on Comment is Free will prove to be 'great match' - : why I'm leaving Salon for the Guardian

Sorry, Still Not Over Bush v. Gore Justice Scalia goes on Piers Morgan and tries to defend himself - Scalia's heavy involvement in Bush v. Gore, the most obvious example of low politics affecting the Court. Scalia's attempts to justify the indefensible have not improved: (wtf?)
Scalia Interview on Bush v Gore - Tony Scalia, Political Partisan, 12 Years On - Esquire (Republicans love their contra-factual myths)

Ann Romney: 'We've Given All You People Need To Know' About Family Finances (all you need to know about our felonious enterprise, so STFU)
Balloon Juice » Ann Romney on Tax Returns: “We’ve given all you people need to know.” Looks like today, it was Ann Romney’s turn to try to help her husband out of this tax pickle, and boy howdy, did she fail. Big time:
Balloon Juice » Why is the mainstream media covering for Ann Romney? Huffington Post and Andrea Mitchell Reports just up and edit Ann Romney’s own words to make her sound less privileged and snooty?

Don't Like Blacks? You'll Love Voter ID A - new survey shows a tight relationship between racial resentment and support for voter identification laws.

Mitt Romney Ties It Up In Virginia: Poll
The Paul Ryan Rosetta Stone -- Daily Intel
Erickson Brings Fox's Bogus Small-Business Attack On Obama To CNN | Blog | Media Matters for America (most trusted name in Republican lies and propaganda)
Kansas About To Become 40% More Hellholish | TBogg Kansas, a state that is so Gawd-awful that Kansas City has been sneaking its own bad self into Missouri (which is no Garden of Eden despite what the Mormons say) for years, is thinking about turning itself into a Paul Ryan petri dish because, hey, why not? It’s Kansas.
Kansas Outlaws Practice Of Evolution | The Onion
Boehner joins criticism of Bachmann over Clinton aide comments | World news | guardian.co.uk Boehner says remarks linking state department employee Huma Abedin to the Muslim Brotherhood were 'pretty dangerous' - Abedin, the wife of former New York congressman Anthony Weiner
Find them! Make them say the words! - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money After a series of answers in which Speaker Boehner distances himself from Michele Bachmann’s paranoid concerns about the infiltration of our government by agents of the Muslim Brotherhood, this exchange occurs (Bachman's on the "Intelligence" Committee muhahaha, but their real agenda is a Muslim witchhunt)

Half Of American Households Hold 1 Percent Of Wealth
Timothy Geithner Peppered TARP Inspector General Barofsky With F-Bombs: Book (arrogant little fuck, isn't he?)
WAPO Runs Another Piece About Defense Contractors Unhappy About Being Thrown Off Welfare | Beat the Press
Reading is for Snobs: Reporting Left Wing News That Even the Liberal Media Won't: Romney Adviser, John Sununu: Obama's Socialist Policies Are Scaring Rich People Into Moving to...Canada?!

US condom crackdown impeding efforts to prevent HIV, study finds | Society | guardian.co.uk Research shows sex workers most at risk of HIV are afraid to carry a stock of condoms in case they are stopped by police (Bloomberg's war on condoms)

Abington, Holy Redeemer call off merger Abington Health and Holy Redeemer Health System have called off the plans for a merger, after controversy over the decision to end abortions at Abington Memorial Hospital. (Catholic Bishops' plan to shut down abortion for non-rich women hits a snag)

Eurozone crisis live: Germany approves Spain's bank rescue, after poor Spanish auction | Business | guardian.co.uk There is no link between assistance for bank recapitalisation in Spain and any other type of financial assistance, which might be requested at some further juncture by Spain or anybody else

Take Five - The Dave Brubeck Quartet (1959) - YouTube

Unbreakable crypto: Store a 30-character password in your brain’s subconscious memory | ExtremeTech

Facial Recognition Technology Threatens Privacy, Civil Liberties, Experts Warn (everyone will be wearing anon masks)
YouTube Face-Blurring Feature For Video Uploads
Apple Must Run 'Samsung Did Not Copy IPad' Ads: Report Judge Birss, who ruled last week that Samsung did not infringe Apple's designs because its Galaxy Tab tablets were not "as cool" as the U.S. company's iPad, said Apple should publish a notice on its website and in British newspapers to correct any impression that the South Korean company copied Apple, Bloomberg said. (meanwhile, in America ...)
Windows 8 Release Date Set For October 26: Microsoft
Nokia Q2 2012: Loss Soars On Slumping Smartphone Sales (who could have predicted?)
BBC News - Huge spam botnet Grum is taken out by security researchers A botnet which experts believe sent out 18% of the world's spam email has been shut down, a security firm said ... Grum's control servers were mainly based in Panama, Russia and Ukraine.
Microsoft Hires Pollster Penn to Lead Consumer Initiatives - Bloomberg (last days of the empire)

071812
Syria Conflict: White House Says Assad Losing Control
Leading Syrian regime figures killed in Damascus bomb attack | World news | guardian.co.uk Rebels kill Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law, defence minister and other key figures in Damascus
Daoud Rajha, Syria's Defense Minister, Killed In Suicide Blast, State TV Says
Assef Shawkat Dead: Assad's Brother-In-Law, Senior Military Official Killed In Bomb Attack
Israel's old certainties crumble in Arab spring fallout | World news | The Guardian Disintegration of Syria into civil war is latest unwelcome development on Israel's borders (Israel loves their bloody dictators too)
Israeli PM urged to call elections after Kadima leader quits government | World news | guardian.co.uk Binyamin Netanyahu faces pressure to call early election following Shaul Mofaz's decision to leave coalition
The Center for Public Integrity: U.S. official says government wasted $6-8 billion in Iraq reconstruction (kill Social Security to make up for it)

HSBC 'sorry' for aiding Mexican drugs lords, rogue states and terrorists | Business | The Guardian Executive quits in front of US Senate as bank faces massive fines for 'horrific' lapses that resulted in laundering money for drugs cartels and pariah states (so sorry we're international criminals)
Roll Call of Unscrupulous Bankers Is Unacceptably Long - Bloomberg (international criminal cartels)


Balloon Juice » And this is surprising why? - But here is the kicker. Obama had the opportunity to replace Bernanke, but instead he reappointed him in 2009. Here’s the other kicker. The two biggest failings in the Obama Administration have been the management of the economy, which continues to be sluggish after four years, and the decision to massively expand the war in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan decision was shepherded by then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates… another Republican (but so was Obama)

Obama Apologizes to Romney: 'Cram It With Walnuts, Ugly'
“An Apology? I’m Sorry for the Republican Party That It Found the Upper-Class Twit of the Year to Front For Upper-Class Interests.” - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Romney leads Obama in CBS NYT Poll | TPM2012 (yes, half the country really is that stupid)
Mitt Romney Taxes Controversy Shows He's Still A Tough Sell
Political Animal - With Friends Like These…. Mitt Romney’s tax returns had nothing to do with Sen. John McCain’s decision to choose Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008, according to the Arizona Republican, saying he chose the former Alaska governor because she was a “better candidate.” (stab)
David Gergen, CNN Analyst, Reveals Extent Of Bain Capital Ties While 'Reporting' On Firm (slimey Gergen at work)
David Gergen, Part Of The Bain Clique - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast You want to know what's wrong with the press corps? In a sentence:
Mitt Romney Never Thought He'd Have To Release Tax Returns: Bain Sources
Limbaugh's Dark Knight Rises/Romney Conspiracy: "Do You Think That It Is Accidental" The Villain Is Called "Bane"? | Video | Media Matters for America (muhahaha fatso)

The Feckless Fed - NYTimes.com It really makes no sense — except in terms of politics. I really believe that we have reached a point where the Fed is afraid to do its job, for fear of being accused of helping Obama. (which might help most of the country, but Bernanke is a Republican, so rot)
The Beltway's Destructive Obsession with the Deficit To many in official Washington, hypothetical debt crises are more important than mass immiseration.
Senate Democrats Propose Letting All Tax Cuts Expire - NYTimes.com Senate Democrats — holding firm against extending tax cuts for the rich — are proposing a novel way to circumvent the Republican pledge not to vote for any tax increase: Allow all the tax cuts to expire Jan. 1, then vote on a tax cut for the middle class shortly thereafter (very tricky, Dems)
CFPB Announces Enforcement Action Against Capital One (why Obama didn't want Liz Warren)

The left’s gone left but the right’s gone nuts: Asymmetrical polarization in action | Grist
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » On Islamists and Rick Santorum
Islamism in the Popular Imagination » Gunpowder & Lead
Global Gender Gap | World Economic Forum - Global Gender Gap (Iceland wins; no Arab country in the top 100)

AP doesn’t let sources approve quotes beforehand | Poynter.
Latest Word on the Campaign Trail? I Take It Back - NYTimes.com

Kansas Republicans War Over Paul Ryan-Style Policies tax cuts go into effect in January, and the Kansas Legislative Research Department calculates the lost revenue will amount to the equivalent of 36 percent of the state budget within five years. Republican Governor Sam Brownback has described the reforms as a "real live experiment" that proponents want to see implemented at the national level.

Truth In Trials Act, Medical Marijuana Protection Bill, Proposed By Bipartisan Group Of Lawmakers designed to create enhanced legal protections for valid medical marijuana patients prosecuted due to conflicting state and federal laws regarding the legality of the substance.
Va. attorney general won't certify abortion clinic regs | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com saying the Virginia Board of Health unlawfully stripped a hotly contested provision requiring clinics to meet the same strict architectural standards as new hospital construction. (war on poor women)

culture magazine: A Reply To Mark Bittman's Milk Freak-Out, Part 1: Don't Be A Weasel


AT&T Shared Data Plans Rolling Out In August AT&T's prices will track closely with those of Verizon. One smartphone with 1 gigabyte of data will cost $85 per month with AT&T, compared with $90 with Verizon. Two smartphones and a tablet computer with 6 gigabytes of shared data will cost $170 on either carrier. (their dream has come true)

071712
Syrian armed rebels take fight to government troops in Damascus | World news | guardian.co.uk Russia makes clear it would veto UN resolution calling for action against regime as fighting intensifies in the capital
Olympics security: MoD prepares to call up 2,000 more troops for G4S shortfall | UK news | The Guardian Ministry of Defence makes urgent plans to mobilise up to 2,000 more troops if security firm cannot deliver target of 7,000 staff (some nice censorship you have there)
Court order prevents BBC from broadcasting film about riots | UK news | guardian.co.uk
Settlers make fun of the Palestinian woman after the occupation authorities force her out of her home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem. : pics

Eurozone crisis live: Bernanke testifies to Senate | Business | guardian.co.uk Fed chair says UK failed to heed US Libor warnings • Bank of England chief Mervyn King says Libor fixing was 'fraud' ... So you're just a postbox, asks McFaddon?
HSBC 'allowed drug cartels to launder money' - Americas - Al Jazeera English US senate probe has found that Europe's largest bank had lax controls that allowed money laundering for seven years ... US regulators knew the bank had a poor system to detect problems but failed to take action (just a small oversight)
HSBC 'sorry' for aiding Mexican drugs lords, rogue states and terrorists | Business | The Guardian Executive quits in front of US Senate as bank faces massive fines for 'horrific' lapses that resulted in laundering money for drugs cartels and pariah states (so sorry)

Ben Bernanke headed toward a cliff as US politics and markets collide | Business | guardian.co.uk Federal chairman knows he needs to act to help US economy, but whatever he does will become fodder for November election (sitting on his hands for two years; can't have a recovery until after the Republicans win)

Republican Governors Turning Down Obamacare May Risk Pitfalls For Gov. Rick Perry, saying "no" to the federal health care law could also mean turning away up to 1.3 million Texans, nearly half the uninsured people who could be newly eligible for coverage in his state.

The Power of Anonymity - NYTimes.com Republicans have been the main beneficiaries of corporate and independent spending sprees. The party’s lock-step opposition to letting voters see who writes the big checks is an embarrassment to Congress.

National Review Online Calls For Mitt Romney To Release Tax Returns
Everything You Need To Know About Mitt Romney In One Graphic
SE Cupp Obama Collectivism Video - S.E. Cupp Is a Colossal Idiot - Esquire - I remain convinced that American conservative thought is now not a philosophy but, rather, a book of spells, a series of conjuring words that have meaning only to the initiates.
John Sununu: 'I Wish This President Would Learn How To Be An American' (speaking of colossal idiots, in this case a regular BoGlo contributor)
Romney campaign team member apologises over Obama comments | World news | guardian.co.uk Obama campaign says rival's camp has gone into 'meltdown' after John Sununu suggests president is un-American


Ancient monster whale more fearsome than Moby Dick - life - 30 June 2010 - New Scientist Leviathan melvillei is thought to have co-ruled the ocean with the giant shark Carcharocles megalodon, whose fossils have been found in the same locality in Peru. Lambert and colleagues estimate that the shark was about 15 metres long – more or less the same size as the giant sperm whale.

N.J. Halfway-House Operator Plagued by Financial Woes - NYTimes.com The Corrections Department, which is part of the Christie administration, said there was nothing about Community Education’s finances that warranted concern ... the company was under threat of bankruptcy in 2010 because it borrowed too heavily for its national expansion and could not make debt payments. (nothing to be concerned about)
Chesco principal's views on special-needs students triggers dispute Madden, who did not respond to a call to his office for this article, was suspended in March. Although superintendent Raymond A. Fischer recommended that he be terminated, the school board voted, 6-3, to reinstate him July 1 with one big condition. He will no longer work with special-education students, according to Fischer (accountability-free, even though school board had to settle for $250K)

Tetra Pak heir Hans Rausing charged after death of wife | UK news | guardian.co.uk Rausing charged with preventing wife Eva's lawful and decent burial (? and no, they don't tell you either)

Val Patterson Obituary: Man Confesses To Stealing Safe, Having Fake PhD

Skype Goes Open Source - Flawless Victory: After Microsoft Acquiring Skype For 8.5 Billion Dollars And Proceeding To Add Back Doors For Government To The Program, The Software Has Been Hacked And It's Source Code Released: http://skype-open-source.blogspot.ch/ Skype1.4_binaries http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/6442887 SkypeKit_sdk+runtimes_370_412.zip
skypekit binaries for Windows and x86_Linux + SD

071612
Syria: Fierce fighting in Damascus - Monday 16 July | World news | guardian.co.uk Residents say Damascus clashes most intense so far
New Fighting in Damascus After Syria Denies Attack on Civilians - NYTimes.com
Lawfare › The War in Syria and LOAC: Some Key Issues
Police from nine forces drafted in to fill Olympic security gaps left by G4S | UK news | guardian.co.uk n Manchester police had to step in after only 17 of an expected 56 G4S staff turned up at an Olympic team hotel (complete fiasco)
London’s Militarised Olympic Games Conjures Up Orwell’s 1984
Another hoax: cleric calls on President Morsy to destroy Giza Pyramids A parody account is calling on President Morsy to destroy the Giza pyramids, news portals are running with it as fact
African Union chooses first female leader | World news | guardian.co.uk Dlamini-Zuma, South Africa's home affairs minister, beats incumbent Jean Ping of Gabon to end months of deadlock

IMF cuts global growth forecast with warning for US and Europe to act | Business | guardian.co.uk International Monetary Fund predicts slower growth in every major economy this year at lowest level in three years
New York and Connecticut look into Libor rate-fixing allegations | Business | guardian.co.uk Attorney generals from two states to 'follow evidence wherever it leads', as US justice department steps up its own investigation
Banks Behave Badly Redux: Is It Killing Confidence? - Asia Business News - CNBC (they killed their own confidence fairy)
Tim Geithner's Libor Recommendations Came Straight From Banks, Documents Show (o rly)
How London became the money-laundering capital of the world | Ian Fraser (and controlled by Russian gangsters)

WikiLeaks Gets Court Victory In Fight Against Visa WikiLeaks declared victory Thursday in the first round of its campaign against the financial blockade imposed by Visa and MasterCard after an Icelandic court ordered their local partner to resume processing credit card donations to the secret-spilling site.
Par:AnoIA: Anonymous Launches WikiLeaks-esque Site for Data Dumps | Threat Level | Wired.com

Health Law Costs, Benefits Can Add Up To A Win For Young And Old
Democrats Mock GOP For Protecting Own Health Care In Repeal Vote (of course)
Obamacare Repeal No Easy Task For Republicans
Five Obamacare Myths - NYTimes.com

Brad DeLong: If the Presidential Election Were Held Today... (Romney's stock is tanking)

Brad DeLong: What Is in Mitt Romney's Tax Returns?
Mitt Romney Bain Capital Filings Link Him To Politically Problematic Companies After 1999
Romney’s Bain Yielded Private Gains, Socialized Losses - Bloomberg
Romney's Account of His Departure From Bain Undercut by...Romney Testimony | Mother Jones

Glenn Kessler jumps the shark - politico.com - Stand by on that... though you may want to sit.
Brad DeLong: Andrew Sullivan on the Self-Immolation of Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post

Let’s try to stick to the real world when we talk about Medicaid | The Incidental Economist Tyler Cowen had a piece in the NYT this weekend on Medicaid. He doesn’t seem too thrilled with its use in the ACA’s coverage expansion. (that would be Libertarian Tyler "let them die") Cowan +NYT at work)
When Utopia Becomes a Lunch Break « Corey Robin working conditions have gotten so bad that advertisers can now depict utopia as…taking a lunch break:

Kevin Carey: Requiem For A Failed Education Policy: The Long Slow Death Of No Child Left Behind | The New Republic (another failed policy)
U.S. Priority on Illegal Drugs Debated as Abuse Rises - NYTimes.com - “The policies the United States has had for the last 41 years have become irrelevant,”

CNN's Kurtz Criticizes Media For Reporting On Drudge Rice Rumor That They Don't Believe | Video | Media Matters for America
Investigating leading GOP moneyman Sheldon Adelson - Salon.com Authorities are investigating possible bribes and widespread corruption
Inside The Investigation Of Leading Republican Money Man Sheldon Adelson
Cory Booker Slams Drug War ineffective and "represents big overgrown government at its worst."
Ron Paul gets 'smoked' in Nebraska - politico.com It looks like Ron Paul isn’t going to be officially nominated for the presidency in Tampa.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Trial - NYTimes.com Sheriff Joe Arpaio is finally having to explain himself. Not to TV crews in Phoenix or to fawning hosts on Fox News, but before a federal judge.

Disclose Act: 14 Republican Senators Were For Disclosure Before They Were Against It

Limbaugh: "It Can Now Be Said, Without Equivocation," Obama "Hates This Country" | Video | Media Matters for America
Hannity: "Four More Years Of Obama Will End America, The Country We Love, As We Know It" | Video | Media Matters for America (comment: "You want to really consider something, consider this, that were it not for the undemocratic term-limits that restrict our right to choose whomever we want for President, we'd have never elected George W. Bush to the Presidency, we'd have returned Bill Clinton for a third term... true." Republicans enacted 22nd Amendment after FDR died. You can see history playing out)

Free access to British scientific research within two years | Science | The Guardian Radical shakeup of academic publishing will allow papers to be put online and be accessed by universities, firms and individuals (never happen in corporate America)
Chris Stringer on the Origins and Rise of Modern Humans - NYTimes.com - We are still evolving. We will continue to evolve. (+human and neanderthal interbreeding and Denisovans)
Residual Effects of Cannabis Use on... [Exp Clin Psychopharmacol. 2012] - PubMed - NCBI Overall, these meta-analyses demonstrate that any negative residual effects on neurocognitive performance attributable to either cannabis residue or withdrawal symptoms are limited to the first 25 days of abstinence. Furthermore, there was no evidence for enduring negative effects of cannabis use.

Penn State abuse scandal: Paterno family to commission new report | World news | guardian.co.uk n wake of damning report on a sex abuse cover-up, family issues statement denouncing claims Joe Paterno was complicit ... will conduct its own investigation of the child sex abuse scandal surrounding Jerry Sandusky that has stained the football legend's legacy. ("stained" = "destroyed" - can't read, apparently; dig yourselves deeper, fools)
Graham Spanier’s priorities - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money “He fooled around with the integrity of the university,” Spanier said at the time, according to the Freeh report. “And I won’t stand for that.”
Rick Reilly: Joe Paterno's True Legacy - ESPN I hope Penn State loses civil suits until the walls of the accounting office cave in. I hope that Spanier, Schultz and Curley go to prison for perjury. I hope the NCAA gives Penn State the death penalty it most richly deserves. The worst scandal in college football history deserves the worst penalty the NCAA can give. They gave it to SMU for winning without regard for morals. They should give it to Penn State for the same thing. The only difference is, at Penn State they didn't pay for it with Corvettes. They paid for it with lives.

George Zimmerman Family Friend Says He Molested Her For More Than A Decade (and the family was a bunch of racists)

Car Club for the Fast and the Affluent - NYTimes.com (how the superelite lives)

Marissa Mayer Named New Yahoo CEO (UPDATES) Google exec Marissa Mayer has been named the new CEO of troubled web giant Yahoo!.
Microsoft, NBC News Dissolve MSNBC.com Joint Venture
YouTube Becoming Major News Source: Pew Study
Steve Mann, "father of wearable computing," physically assaulted by McDonald's for wearing Digital Eye Glass : technology

071512
Syria in state of civil war, says Red Cross, as Damascus denies massacre | World news | The Guardian Declaration signals that Geneva-based organisation regards all civilians and detainees as protected under international law
Balloon Juice » Do You Know What a Love Letter Is? The Post’s top story this morning is a thumbsucker about the many ways that Obama has failed to kiss the proper quadrant of Bibi Netanyahu’s ass. Here are a few samples:
Japan suffers severe flooding - in pictures | World news | guardian.co.uk Incessant rain triggered flash floods and mudslides in southern Japan this week, leaving at least 26 dead
Trepidation in London Over Security at the Olympics - NYTimes.com (privitise, outsource and hire non-English speaking slaves ... what could go wrong +"G4S, which has more than 650,000 employees in 125 countries" aka The Wackenhut Corporation

U.S. Builds Criminal Cases in Libor Rate-Fixing Scandal - NYTimes.com
LIBOR Investigation: Justice Department Building Criminal Cases Against Barclays, Others
Iceland Has Hired An Ex-Cop Bounty Hunter To Go After The Bankers That Wrecked Its Economy - Business Insider Hauksson oversees a posse of 100 researchers to help track down outlaws. He's netted some major convictions since starting in 2009, including the former chief of staff of the country's finance minister on insider trading charges. Many others await their day in court (unlike every other country)
Austerity In The United Kingdom Leaves Disabled In Fear For Their Lives (no one went to jail for this, either)

Gillespie says Romney ‘retired retroactively’ from Bain Capital - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room (muhahaha)
Political Animal - Boston Globe to Romney: You’re So Bain Instead of issuing the “correction” that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee-apparent, has requested of the Boston Globe, the Globe yesterday doubled down on its reporting regarding Romney’s involvement with Bain Capital during a period, 1999 - 2002, when Romney claims he had already “retired” from the company. ("retroactively")
Mitt Romney Bain Capital Document Lists Him As 'Managing Member' In 2002
Do Republicans Wish They Retroactively Had Let Newt Sustain His Bain Attacks? | emptywheel
George Will: Mitt Romney Is 'Losing' Argument On Bain Capital, Personal Finances (drip)
Bill Kristol: Mitt Romney 'Should Release The Tax Returns Tomorrow'? (drip)
Dick Durbin: Mitt Romney Running From Bain 'Like A Scalded Cat'
Hullabaloo - "You owe me" - Here's Chris Hayes' interview with Edward Conard in which he explains that Romney stayed on at Bain from 99-2002 because he was holding up his partners for as much as he could get.
Democratic campaign gets down and dirty over Bain controversy | Michael Wolff | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Not that Republicans wouldn't take the same road if they had a chance, but what we're seeing is political warfare at its bawdiest (we call it "bitch-slap" in America, Michael)
Quote of the Day "I think there's no doubt that I underestimated the degree to which in this town politics trump problem solving. Washington feels as broken as it did four years ago." -- President Obama, in an interview with CBS News.
Bonus Quote of the Day "I give him his own advice: stop whining." -- Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D), in an interview on ABC News, on Mitt Romney demanding an apology for the attacks on his tenure at Bain Capital.
Texas Voter ID Trial Ends | TPMMuckraker
Indiana prosecutor accused of silencing Chinese woman on murder charge | World news | guardian.co.uk Bei Bei Shuai turns down plea deal that would have sentenced her to prison for up to 20 years for attempted foeticide
Iowa Republican joins alternative government | TPM2012 - The libertarian-leaning group she joined claims it “re-inhabited” the government on March 30, 2010. The group claims the “United States Corporation” unlawfully formed in 1871 without the American people’s consent. (she's got a point)

Balloon Juice » Campaign Optics: President Obama in the Rain vs. Mitt Romney on a Boat Advantage, Obama - While President Obama campaigned in the rain today— ... Mitt Romney took the fam for a spin around Lake Winnipesaukee on the SS Failboat:

Why The Timing Of Mitt Romney’s Bain Exit Matters: A Guide | TPM2012 That Romney left Bain in 1999 has long been the default assumption for sites like FactCheck.org and the Washington Post Fact Check blogger Glenn Kessler.
The Romney ‘Fact-Checking’ Scandal | Consortiumnews Mitt Romney cites “independent fact-checkers” to spare him from having to explain exactly what he did with Bain Capital after February 1999. But those “fact-checkers” are acting less like impartial journalists and more like argumentative lawyers covering Romney’s political flanks, writes Robert Parry.
Glenn Kessler Didn’t USED to Treat SEC Filings as Boilerplate | emptywheel
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Glenn Kessler Gives Himself Three Pinnochios ... How does this clown have a job?

Political Animal - NYT’s Ross Douthat Asks: Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved? The very Catholic Ross Douthat, one of the New York Times’ two conservative op-ed page columnists, thinks he knows why mainline Protestant denominations are having trouble filling their pews: They’re too darn liberal. (Pope Douthat speaks ex-cathedra, same-sex unions, ewwwww, makes shit up)

National Futures Association, PFGBest Watchdog, Uses Auditors That Are 'Not Experienced Enough'
Russell Wasendorf Sr., CEO Of Peregrine Financial Group, Arrested Following Suicide Attempt, Firm's Collapse Federal prosecutors say the chief executive officer of an Iowa-based brokerage firm that is missing more than $200 million in customer money ... The statements would be delivered directly to him, Wasendorf wrote, and then he would make forgeries "using a combination of Photo Shop, Excel, scanners and both laser and ink jet printers" and deliver those to the accounting department before anyone else could see them.

The World’s Last Worm: A Dreaded Disease Nears Eradication: Scientific American guinea worm is a parasitic infection caused by the nematode roundworm Dracunculus medinensis. It is the only disease transmitted solely by drinking water, and humans are its only reservoir,
Moon Patterns Explained - Science News - Electric fields enveloping magnetic bubbles create lunar swirls

F.D.A. Surveillance of Scientists Spread to Outside Critics - NYTimes.com - F.D.A. officials went to the inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services to seek a criminal investigation into the possible leak, but they were turned down. The inspector general found that there was no evidence of a crime, noting that “matters of public safety” can legally be released to the news media. Undeterred, agency officials began the electronic monitoring operation on their own. (FDA, an arm of GE)
The FDA Demonstrates What “Targeting” Does | emptywheel “They think they can be the Gestapo and do anything they want.” — Chuck Grassley, on learning his staffer’s emails had been surveilled by the FDA

Red Sox senior adviser Bill James comes to the defense of Joe Paterno - Extra Bases - Red Sox blog - "The media created this smokescreen behind which Sandusky operated, and then they’re trying to blame Paterno.” (wow, will the Sox dump this jerk? +read the comments) )
Freeh: Timeline of Sandusky Investigation, Penn State Actions - Nazareth, PA Patch A timeline of significant Sandusky events, according to the Freeh report.

After Massey mine disaster killed their son, settlement of millions is worth little - The Washington Post (ignored regulations, like a good Republican company)

Netflix's lost year: The inside story of the price-hike train wreck | Internet & Media - CNET News One year ago tomorrow, CEO Reed Hastings took the first of a series of missteps that angered customers and nearly derailed his company. Current and former employees disclose what went wrong. (excess of stupidity)

House Quietly Reintroduces a Piece of SOPA | Electronic Frontier Foundation - Lamar Smith's IP Attaché Act
Lamar Smith Looking To Sneak Through SOPA In Bits & Pieces, Starting With Expanding Hollywood's Global Police Force | Techdirt
SOPA Returns On The Back Of A Czar | Blog | Media Matters for America The new bill, however, has an added provision requiring the president to "appoint an Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, who shall report directly to the Director." In other words: an intellectual property czar.
Petition: .@Youtube & @GoogleDE : Allow third party recording tools for YouTube #FreedomOnYoutube | Change.org Google has teamed up with the RIAA to make the same claims against all sorts of online recording tools for their 21th century broadcasting service: YouTube ("Broadcast yourself"). Google is taking action against nearly every service that enables its users to create a private copy of a public YouTube broadcast while the RIAA is threatening news media like CNet for promoting such a software. (war on the "save as" button")
United Nations Telecom Agency ITU Releases Secret Treaty, Critics Unswayed | TPM Idea Lab Also, they maintain that the ITU is seizing the opportunity to advocate for UN control of the internet under the guise of enhancing global cyber security, which has become a hot topic in the wake of reports that the U.S. and Israel jointly engineering cyber weapons known as Stuxnet and Flame.
Yahoo's password leak: What you need to know (FAQ) | Security & Privacy - CNET News Yahoo is the latest online service to confirm the disclosure of passwords belonging to throngs of its users. Here's what we know -- and, more important, what you need to do to protect yourself.

071412
Syria massacre: Assad's forces 'shot anything moving' | World news | The Observer The small town of Tremseh has suffered what may be the single worst atrocity of the Syrian uprising, say eyewitnesses
Afghan suicide bomber kills military and government officials at wedding | World news | guardian.co.uk More than a dozen guests are killed by bomber who infiltrated MP's daughter's wedding in northern Samangan province
Iraq-Iran Ties Grow Stronger As Iraq Rises From The Ashes (way to go, neo-cons, Bush/Cheney and, of course, Israel)
Spanish miners in mass protest against cuts | World news | guardian.co.uk Thousands of coalminers angered by huge cuts in government subsidies converge on Madrid for rallies against austerity
Mass Mexico City protest against Pena Nieto win | Inquirer News
Call Grows for Olympic Uniforms to Be Made in the U.S.A. The furor is growing since it was reported Wednesday that the spiffy red, white and blue outfits U.S. Olympians will wear in the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in London were Made in China ... There are many U.S. clothing makers with talented union workforces who can put together quality outfits at less than the whooping cost of $1,945 for the men’s and $1,473 for the women’s Ralph Lauren-designed, huge Polo-branded uniforms. (and, they wear his logo!)

Libor: They all knew – and no one acted - Business News - Business - The Independent Regulator’s claim it knew nothing thrown into doubt as documents show authorities were told of rate-rigging in 2008 ... "So we know that we're not posting, um, an honest Libor." (the Sgt Schulz defence)
Hullabaloo - According to Media Matters, with the exception of Spitzer and Chris Hayes, TV news has pretty much avoided even mentioning this scandal, much less trying to explain it.

Obama holds "significant lead" over Romney in new national poll - latimes.com
Obama Ad 'Firms' Slams Romney's Jobs Record, Overseas Accounts
Weak, Weak, Weak | TPM Editors Blog This is ‘bitch slap’ politics played with a gusto and coldness seldom seen from Democrats, at least since the Bill Clinton days. Asking for an apology is losing. Saying you want something you clearly have no power to get is losing. There’s a meta-politics Obama is playing by slashing at Romney with suggestions he might be a felon
No Bain, No Gain - NYTimes.com There is, predictably, a mini-backlash against the Obama campaign’s focus on Bain. Some of it is coming from the Very Serious People, who think that we should be discussing their usual preoccupations. But some of it is coming from progressives, some of whom are apparently uncomfortable with the notion of going after Romney the man and wish that the White House would focus solely on Romney’s policy proposals. This is remarkably naive
Romney's 'Free Stuff' Speech Is a New Low | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone Wow. If you live long enough, you’ll see some truly gross things in politics, but Mitt Romney’s work this past week "courting black support" was enough to turn even the strongest stomach.

Hullabaloo - A tale of two scandals
Seeing the Forest: Romney/Bain/Accounts - Where Is Our Country's News Media? (too complicated, but:) Take a look at the 350,000-or-so web references to cattle futures trades made by Hillary Clinton way back in the 1970s. This might give you an idea of how big a deal it was back in the mid-90's that Hillary Clinton had made $100,000 (!!!) on speculative investments back in the 1970s (pre-internets)

Abuse Inquiry Faults Paterno and Others at Penn State - NYTimes.com Indeed, Mr. Freeh’s investigation makes clear it was Mr. Paterno, long regarded as the single most powerful official at the university, who persuaded the university president and others not to report Mr. Sandusky to the authorities in 2001 after he had violently assaulted another boy in the football showers.
Joe Paterno Got Richer Contract Amid Jerry Sandusky Inquiry - NYTimes.com By August, Mr. Paterno and the university’s president, both of whom were by then embroiled in the Sandusky investigation, had reached an agreement ... a package worth roughly $5.5 million. (football culture: disgusting)
Paterno and the NCAA - Lawyers, Guns & Money :
Freeh Report assigns blame to Joe Paterno, other Penn State officials for Jerry Sandusky's crimes - Yahoo! Sports
Institutional control? Report shows tragic result of Coach as King culture - NCAA Football - For 14 years, the four men who were in charge at Penn State coddled -- and enabled -- a monster. The most powerful man of all was Paterno. Most people suspected that was the case when this story first blew up back in November, but now there is no more wondering.
The Shame of College Sports - Taylor Branch - The Atlantic . But the real scandal is the very structure of college sports, wherein student-athletes generate billions of dollars for universities and private companies while earning nothing for themselve

Texas Voter ID trial: closing arguments | Trail Blazers Blog
Businessweek Mormon Cover: Church Lashes Out For Portrayal Of Prophets And Profits
American Confidence In Organized Religion At All Time Low - Only 44 percent of Americans today have a lot of confidence in organized religion, compared to 66 percent in 1973 when organized religion or church was the highest rated institution in Gallup's "confidence in institutions measure." (Evangelicals and the WLPO destroyed their brand)
Kerry Kennedy Arrested: Daughter Of Robert F. Kennedy, N.Y. Governor's Ex-Wife, Charged With DWI Kennedy is the seventh of 11 children of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. (busy little fucker, wasn't he)
San Fernando councilwoman charged with attack on ex-lover - latimes.com In the latest chapter of small city's political soap opera, Maribel de la Torre is accused of scratching fellow lawmaker Mario Hernandez in a fight over an iPad.
Houston Cops Kill Unarmed Man, Confiscate Cell Phone Camera From Witness | Pixiq


AAV-Directed Persistent Expression of a Gene Encoding Anti-Nicotine Antibody for Smoking Cessation
Stoned mice lead to breakthrough in understanding memory | The Raw Story “It’s very likely that astrocytes have many more functions than we thought,” Marsicano says. “Certainly their role in cognition is now being revealed.”
Scientist: Pushing OxyContin addicts to heroin reveals ‘utter failure’ of drug war | The Raw Story

Infosecurity - Stuxnet leak prompts US House to consider prosecution of journalists Prompted in part by newspaper stories about the US role in the Stuxnet worm, House lawmakers are considering amending the Espionage Act to enable the prosecution of journalists who disclose sensitive national security information. (form the Republican Ministry of Lies with Obama's support)

071312
Syria used helicopters and tanks in Tremseh 'massacre', confirms UN | World news | The Guardian Kofin Annan 'appalled' after UN monitors verified use of heavy weaponry in attack believed to have killed more than 140 people
Olympic security chaos: depth of G4S security crisis revealed | Sport | The Guardian Recruits tell of chaos over schedules, uniforms and training while ex-police officers asked to help out (outsourcing!)
Afghan female rights activist killed in latest act of violence against women — RT
Angela Merkel intervenes over court ban on circumcision of young boys | World news | guardian.co.uk Spokesman says right to circumcision must be restored as a matter of urgency, after Cologne court's ruling against practice

Timothy Geithner and Mervyn King discussed Libor worries in 2008 | Business | guardian.co.uk Bank of England releases memo from senior US official calling on governor to improve integrity of Libor setting
New York Fed's Libor Documents Reveal Cozy Relationship Between Regulators, Banks
Cost Of Libor Scandal May Reach $14 Billion For Banks (is that all?)
Eschaton: Free Money For The Rest Of Us Free money is for rich people, sillies. The poors might spend it on junk food and beer, instead of caviar and champagne.

The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama, by Tom Junod - Esquire (drone-boy at work)
Obama Drone Strikes - Secrets and World Ties: Obama's Killer Contradiction - Esquire

Four Point Six | Mother Jones That's your aggrievement. That's your entitlement. That's your socialism. That's your class warfare. An increase in the top marginal tax rate of 4.6 percentage points. Four. Point. Six. This is what America's most prosperous citizens are up in arms about. This is why Barack Obama is an enemy of capitalism.
Voter ID Laws Are the Last Gasp of a Fading GOP Strategy | Mother Jones (working their way backwards towards slavery)

Who’s Very Important? - NYTimes.com “Is there a V.I.P. entrance? We are V.I.P.” That remark, by a donor waiting to get in to one of Mitt Romney’s recent fund-raisers in the Hamptons, pretty much sums up the attitude of America’s wealthy elite.
Mitt Romney Says He's Unlikely To Release More Than Two Tax Returns
Mitt Romney Tax Returns Are True Target Of Obama Campaign Attacks
Wait, Wasn’t Bain Supposed To Be Off-Limits? | The New Republic - Well, apparently not every real reporter in the country was ready to take as final the word of a Davos-haunting ex-president and the mayor of the 68th biggest city in the country.
Mitt Romney's Signature Appears On Bain SEC Filings During Time He Said He Left Bain
Mitt Romney Bain Mess Shows Stonewalling Consequences
Mitt Romney's Own 2002 Testimony Undermines Bain Departure Claim (more lies from Mittens)
Boston Globe will not issue correction to Romney
Who Wants Free Stuff? | Eclectablog Here is Mitt Romney, a man who wants us to believe he received at least $100,000 a year from Bain Capital for 3 years for doing nothing, assuming that African Americans want MORE free stuff.
Brown’s talk of constant White House calls butts against reality of staff’s own records - The Boston Globe First, it was kings and queens. Now, it is heads of state — and the secretary of state. (Senator Center-Fold is a pathological liar)
Daily Kos: Bain Capital press release described Romney as 'part-time' in July, 1999

Hapless Factchucker of the Day - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Glenn Kessler. See also. - The factchuck industry certainly seems to create a unique kind of hack.
Kessler: He's Drowning Not Waving - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast
Brad DeLong: Is This the Silliest Thing Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post Has Ever Written?
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » A Partial List of Things You Need to Ignore In Order to Be Glenn Kessler

LIBOR and JP Morgan: How Wall Street Is Like Penn State. Eliot Spitzer
JP Morgan reports trading losses of $5.8bn from London 'tempest' | Business | guardian.co.uk Jamie Dimon says bank has clawed back annual compensation from bankers involved in 'London whale' trade losses
Bruno Iksil, 'London Whale' Trader, Leaving JPMorgan Chase

Climate change campaigners cautioned over reaction to extreme weather | Environment | guardian.co.uk Republican congressman says climate change sceptics will intensify attacks if recent weather is flaunted as evidence (Kochsters will attack!)
Post-Stanford poll finds more Americans believe climate change is happening - The Washington Post
2 million-year-old skeleton found in Cradle of Humankind

Penn State report on cover-up a 'treasure trove' for civil lawsuits | World news | guardian.co.uk Lawyer for one of Jerry Sandusky's victims says report by former FBI director could inform a slew of cases against Penn State
The saint and the sociopath - Lawyers, Guns & Money : In the end Paterno was so detached from the reality of what he and his program had become that, even as the carefully constructed façade of the Grand Experiment was crumbling all around him, he continued to present himself as something like a secular saint amid the fallen world of college football. It turns out the saint was indistinguishable from a sociopath.
A Plea To Bill James: Please Stop Writing Nonsense About Joe Paterno* - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Extreme Nokia 808 Rich Recording and video capture

Kitchen Window: Making The Case For Beets : NPR

Facebook Didn't Kill Digg, Reddit Did - Forbes
Facebook didn't kill Digg, reddit did. : technology

071212
Syrian regime must be ousted, says diplomat defector Nawaf al-Fares | World news | The Guardian Former envoy to Iraq dismisses peace plan and calls for violent removal of president Bashar al-Assad
Hama Massacre: Syria Forces Reportedly Kill Over 100
Olympic security firm calls for back-up as thousands of troops are put on standby - Olympic News - Olympics - The Independent Private contractor G4S warns it may not be able to train 10,000 staff it needs in time ... But yesterday it admitted that it had experienced "some issues in relation to workforce supply" and was considering whether it could bring in staff from other parts of its business ... "I am deeply concerned that G4S are now unable to deliver their £284 million contract and that the Home Office have left contingency plans to the last moment." (had planned to use slave-labor for their $.5Bn contract)
95 dead in Nigerian fuel truck fire | World news | The Guardian Scores of people killed in attempt to salvage fuel from stricken vehicle, and at least 50 injured
Melinda Gates defies the Vatican over birth control: the reaction around the world - News - The Independent (because the Vatican controls the world)

Greek unemployment hits new record of 22.5 pct in April | Reuters Greece's jobless rate scaled a new record high of 22.5 percent in April from a revised 22 percent in March, the country's statistics service ELSTAT said on Thursday, as a fifth year of recession continued to take its toll on the labour market. (austerians will not be happy until there are four jobs left in Greece)

Bradley Manning treated more harshly than a terrorist, lawyer argues | World news | guardian.co.uk Defence lawyer files motion that 'aiding the enemy' charge is stricter against US soldiers than it would be against terrorists (Obama hates whistleblowers)

Obamacare(s) for Women | The Nation (another reason the Repubs are freaking out)
State Trends for 2012 on Abortion, Family Planning, Sex Education and Insurance Laws Affecting Reproductive Health and Rights: State Trends at Midyear, 2012

Government documents indicate Mitt Romney continued at Bain after date when he says he left - The Boston Globe Firm’s 2002 filings identify him as CEO, though he said he left in 1999
Obama campaign hits Romney hard on questions over Bain Capital tenure | World news | guardian.co.uk Boston Globe report identifies SEC filings in which Romney is head of firm until 2002 – three years after he says he left (Mittens lies again)
EXCLUSIVE: Romney Invested Millions in Chinese Firm That Profited on US Outsourcing | Mother Jones The GOP candidate decries China poaching US jobs. But at Bain he held a large stake in a Chinese company that did just that.
Romney: You Lie! Report: No, YOU Lie! -- Daily Intel - So now factcheck.org seems locked in to claiming that Mitt Romney is a felon. That could really make for some fun ads this year.
Balloon Juice » Glenn Kessler, Romney Surrogate Here’s alleged “fact checker” Glenn Kessler, ignoring the facts about what is actually in the SEC filings, and instead focusing on smearing the source +Robert Gibbs had a throw away line the other day; that Mitt Romney gave 23 years worth of tax returns to John McCain and John McCain picked Sarah Palin over him.
Balloon Juice » Fact-checking the fact-checkers, part the infinity - True to his word (for a change), team Romney finally released an ad today that flat out calls President Obama a ‘liar’ and dishonest and so on for saying things about Mitt’s business record that we now know are true. The ad cites the judgment of Glenn Kessler, chief fact checker at the Washington Post Kaplan, Inc. loss leader.
Ummm, Yeah, What About That? | TPM Editors Blog The Boston Globe is now saying it made a ‘mistake’ failing to credit Mother Jones and TPM for originally reporting the story about SEC documents showing that Mitt Romney remained in charge at Bain through 2002. (the Times does the same thing)
Globe admits credit 'mistake' in Bain story - politico.com
Conservatives Push Romney to Deliver Counterpunch - NYTimes.com Conservatives have lit up talk radio programs across the country, worrying whether Mr. Romney’s business record has been “Swift Boated,” (because lying about a decorated war hero is the same as telling the truth about a rich serial prevaricator; just ask factcheck.org)

Why Five House Dems Voted To Repeal The Affordable Care Act | TPMDC (last gasp of the Blue Dogs)
Manufactured quotes : CJR News organizations fail to disclose “regular Joe” businessmen’s lobbying ties ... Here are Mr. Greenblatt’s other press hits in June: The NBC Nightly News, PBS Newshour (twice), NPR’s Morning Edition ... (NPR loves their flacks)
One Year Later: A Look Back At 5 Of The Five's Worst Moments | Blog | Media Matters for America ... Bolling Compared Obama To A Drug Dealer Who Opens "Barry's Pot And Coke Emporium" (etc)

Dark Galaxies Observed For First Time, Scientists Claim | TPM Idea Lab

Penn State Report: ‘Total disregard’ for welfare of victims the school's top leaders, including legendary football coach Joe Paterno, tried to cover up the abuse for 14 years ... Naming Paterno, former Penn State President Graham Spanier, former Athletic Director Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, a university vice president once in charge of the campus police, Freeh said they "never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky's victims until after Sandusky's arrest." (PSU will be a smoldering ruin after the lawyers get through with them)
The Freeh Report: Complete Coverage - Leadership & Governance - The Chronicle of Higher Education (coverups and lies)
Penn State report into Jerry Sandusky abuse scandal – live | World news | guardian.co.uk Freeh investigation criticises 'total disregard' for victims • Senior officials including Paterno failed to protect children • Leaders concealed critical facts to avoid bad publicity
Penn State investigation faults leaders in Sandusky scandal – read the report | World news | guardian.co.uk Former FBI director Louis Freeh's eight-month investigation finds top leaders covered up allegations for fear of bad publicity
Penn State knew Sandusky was a serial predator. Still they covered for him | Megan Carpentier | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The Freeh report is consistent with Catholic Church scandals: the powers-that-be empathise with the abuser, not child victims
Joe Paterno, others covered up Jerry Sandusky abuse of children, PSU-Freeh report says | PennLive.com
Nike announces that Joe Paterno Child Development Center name will be changed | OregonLive.com (to the JoePa center for molesting children)

NAACP Says Covert Discrimination Led to Coach's Firing | NBC 10 Philadelphia The NAACP is claiming the firing of a championship winning coach at Collingswood High School was due to rampant but covert discrimination. (not white enough)

Jenny McCarthy and Playboy: Don't attack the anti-vaccine activist for posing nude.

Why Is Apple Discriminating Against Iranian-Americans? - NYTimes.com (don't mention the "Iran" in an Apple store)
BBC News - TD Bank: Iranian-Canadians caught up in sanctions row A Canadian bank cancelled accounts of customers of Iranian origin with no chance to deny they violated financial sanctions, customers have reported. (or have a foreign-sounding name if you want a bank account)

Are skinny jeans destroying hipster sperm counts? | Fashion | The Guardian Reports claim that Russell Brand's trousers are ruining the fertility of fashion-conscious males ... an epidemic of "low sperm count and bladder weakness" among young males. (Brooklyn men sterile)
Yahoo Voice hack leaks 450,000 passwords | Technology | guardian.co.uk Usernames and unencrypted passwords posted online after hack attack on Yahoo Voice network ... and unencrypted passwords (!)

071112
Syria's ambassador to Iraq defects in major blow to regime | World news | The Guardian Syrian National Council says Nawaf al-Fares has joined opposition and pledged that more diplomats will follow his lead
London 2012: army reinforcements called in for the Olympics | Sport | guardian.co.uk Military to provide up to 3,500 extra troops amid fears G4S may be unable to supply 10,000 guards it promised to deliver
Thai king pardons American convicted of insulting monarchy | World news | guardian.co.uk Case of Joe Gordon drew international condemnation after he was jailed in Thailand for blogposts made online from US
François Hollande's son refuses to make peace with Valérie Trierweiler | World news | The Guardian Thomas Hollande says he and siblings no longer want to see French president's partner who helped destroy political hopes of their mother Ségolène Royal

Libor Rate-Rigging Scandal Sets Off Legal Fights for Restitution - NYTimes.com As unemployment climbed and tax revenue fell, the city of Baltimore laid off employees and cut services in the midst of the financial crisis. Its leaders now say the city’s troubles were aggravated by bankers’ manipulation of a key interest rate linked to hundreds of millions of dollars the city had borrowed.
Eschaton: Munis Are Made Of People It isn't clear that the LIBOR rigging had any major impact on typical households directly, but it probably had a big impact on many municipalities. Something to ponder: The ability to rig a rate like that is basically a license to print free money for yourself. And still they need bailouts.
Libor Scandal Could Turn 'Ugly' As U.S. Cities Begin To Sue
Barclays chief Bob Diamond could be brought before Congress, sources say | Business | The Guardian Washington politicians considering asking former Barclays chief executive to testify as Libor-fixing controversy crosses to US
Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy raises VAT 3pc in shock U-turn - Telegraph Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has performed an astonishing U-turn and raised VAT by 3pc. (more austerity! because that always works!)

How This Landlubber's Blog Became the Navy's Ideas Machine | Danger Room | Wired.com
Pressing On the Upward Way A profile of life in one of the country's poorest counties

Health Care Repeal Bill Passes GOP-Controlled House, Has No Shot In Senate (five "Dems" vote to repeal)
Circle Jerks: The House Votes (Again) on Health Care - Esquire If the Republicans go through with yet another mock-repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which they plan to do today, I am seriously afraid they'll all go blind.
Some Doctors Cash In by Being Their Own Pharmacist - NYTimes.com
Mitt Romney Booed At NAACP Convention For Saying He'd Repeal Obamacare (VIDEO)
Matt Miller: GOP to the uninsured: Drop Dead: You’re on your own - The Washington Post
Mitt Romney's Long, Troubled History With the NAACP | Mother Jones The GOP presidential candidate is speaking to the nation's oldest civil rights organization on Wednesday. Here's what you need to know about their relationship. - "The only time that the NAACP had any interaction with the administration and the governor was to protest when he eliminated the affirmative action office."
Unemployment rates by race and ethnicity, 2010 Unemployment rates among the major race and ethnicity groups remained high in 2010 as the U.S. economy continued to slowly recover from the 2007–2009 recession.
Eric Holder: Voter ID Laws Are 'Poll Taxes' (no shit, Eric)
NYPD Spokesman Pwned in ProPublica's Comments | Mother Jones The NYPD didn't particularly like Elliott pointing out that they had inflated their record. So a NYPD spokesperson, Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, decided to weigh in down in the comment section, to rather hilarious results:
Let's Not Launch a Draft To Save Money (enslave teenagers and kill them in bogus wars: old foggies want to draft young people)
State Legislative Trends at Midyear 2012 In the first half of 2012, states enacted 95 new provisions related to reproductive health and rights. Of the 44 state legislatures that have convened this year, only seven currently remain in session. As was the case in 2011, issues related to abortion, family planning funding and sex education once again were significant flashpoints in many legislatures
American Crossroads’ $70 Million Senate Blitz : Roll Call Politics

Zombies on CNBC - NYTimes.com Among other things, people getting their news from sources like that are probably getting terrible advice about any kind of investment that depends on macroeconomics. But it’s amazing just how skewed the policy views are too.
Paul Krugman Slams New York Times Colleague, CNBC: 'One Zombie Idea After Another'
Exclusive: Iowa futures broker forged bank records for years - source | Reuters Russell Wasendorf Sr., the sole owner and chairman of stricken futures broker Peregrine Financial Group, Inc., intercepted and forged bank documents for more than two years to cover up hundreds of millions of dollars in missing money, a person close to the situation told Reuters.
Peregrine Financial Group Files For Bankruptcy Amid Scandal the regulated unit of the brokerage PFGBest, has filed to liquidate under Chapter 7 of the U.S. bankruptcy code, a court filing shows.
Unemployment Problem Includes Public Transportation That Separates Poor From Jobs (part of the grand Repubican plan)
Credit Card Borrowing For Everyday Living Expenses On The Rise
San Bernardino files for bankruptcy as officials admit to 'cash flow issue' | World news | guardian.co.uk Southern Californian city of 210,000 people voted to choose Chapter 9 bankruptcy, following Stockton and Mammoth Lakes
America's Falling Corruption Rankings In 2001, Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index ranked the United States as the 16th least-corrupt country. By last year, the nation had fallen to 24th place. The World Bank also reports a weakening of corruption controls in the United States since the late 1990s, so that it is falling behind most other developed nations.

Why George Will Is Wrong About Weather And Climate | Blog | Media Matters for America
Climate change drives salmon evolution - life - 11 July 2012 - New Scientist Salmon DNA records stretching back over 30 years show that nature has increasingly selected for fish that migrate from the ocean earlier in the year. It is among the first pieces of genetic evidence that climate change is driving the evolution of a species.
A Stellar Opportunity - Science Careers - Biotech, Pharmaceutical, Faculty, Postdoc jobs on Science Careers Overproduction of Ph.D.s, caused by universities’ recruitment of graduate students and postdocs to staff labs, without regard to the career opportunities that await them, has glutted the market with scientists hoping for academic research careers.

The death of Eva Rausing and the decline of the Tetra Pak dynasty | UK news | The Guardian The discovery of Eva Rausing's dead body at her home in Chelsea, west London this week, and her husband's arrest for drug possession, are just the latest episodes in a grim family saga

Katie Holmes Used Disposable Phones To Orchestrate Divorce (Scientologiets tapping her phone)
Carolyn Hax: Is Metro too risky for a pregnant woman? - The Washington Post (cars, dude; just buy her a tank)

Are social media making the resume obsolete? - CNN.com

Cybersecurity and the intelligence community's nefarious purposes | Barrett Brown | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk John Arquilla calls for the US to stop prosecuting hackers and give them jobs, but the risk is they'd be employed to spy on us

071012
Thomas Lubanga Sentenced: International Criminal Court Sends Congolese Warlord To Prison For 14 Years convicted of using child soldiers.

Cybersecurity Law Privacy Concerns: NSA Will Not Read Americans' Emails If Bill Passes, Keith Alexander Claims The head of the U.S. spy agency that eavesdrops on electronic communications overseas sought on Monday to reassure Americans that the National Security Agency would not read their personal email if a new cybersecurity law was enacted to allow private companies to share information with the government (and if you believe that ...)
Russian Wikipedia in shutdown protest over internet censorship | World news | guardian.co.uk Proposed law could boost government control over the internet amid a crackdown on those opposed to President Vladimir Putin (what internets?)

World economy: banking on disaster | Editorial | Comment is free | The Guardian An economic system in need of restructuring is frozen in aspic by the very characters who landed it in crisis (always rewarding the elite fuckups)
Libor Scandal: Manipulation Spanned Decades, According To Reports "Fifteen years ago, the word was that LIBOR was being rigged," a financial industry veteran involved in the Libor process told the Economist. "It was one of those well kept secrets, but the regulator was asleep, the Bank of England didn't care, and...[the banks involved were] happy with the reference prices."
Federal Reserve Of New York Proposed Reforms For Libor Issues In 2007 To 2008 - New York Fed, Geithner May Have Known About Outrageous LIBOR Problems In 2007
Ben Bernanke to face US senate questioning over Barclays fallout | Business | guardian.co.uk Libor interest rate manipulation may have been known to Federal Reserve and other US regulators in 2007 (no jail time for Ben, obviously)
George Osborne faces Tory pressure to apologise to Ed Balls | Politics | guardian.co.uk Unease grows after chancellor's attempts to link opposite number to Libor scandal undermined by Bank of England deputy (always wrong, always stupid)

Scientists attribute extreme weather to man-made climate change | Environment | guardian.co.uk Researchers have for the first time attributed recent floods, droughts and heatwaves, to human-induced climate change

Obama's Global Health Policy Undercuts Reform At Home But while the president has focused on lowering health care costs at home, he has repeatedly sought to impose higher drug prices abroad. For pharmaceutical companies, that has meant steady profits, but for the global poor in desperate need of affordable drugs, those lofty prices are often a matter of life and death.

Obama's Bush tax cut proposal hits Republican roadblock | Ana Marie Cox | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk With GOP control of the House, the president's plan to extend tax cuts for people earning less than $250,000 is fantasy politics
Gov. Corbett contracts with Romney fundraiser for PA Voter ID ad campaign | Philadelphia City Paper | 07/08/2012 "It's outrageous that Pennsylvania is using money appropriated by Congress to help Americans vote to hire a lobbying firm, founded by a former executive director of the Pennsylvania Republican Party and Mitt Romney fundraiser to develop the 'community outreach and public relations portion of the 2012 general election voter education media campaign,'"
No More Mister Nice Blog: 83% of doctors will go galt because of Obamacare - "A non-partisan association of doctors and patients"? Really? Not really: The Doctor Patient Medical Association (DPMA) ... is a member of the National Tea Party Federation....

How the NYPD overstated its counter-terrorism record | Justin Elliott for ProPublica | World news | guardian.co.uk The NYPD has repeatedly claimed it has thwarted 14 terrorist plots against New York since 9/11. Is it true? In a word, no (Bloomberg killed Bin Laden)

Political Animal - Fed Ties Its Own Hands It’s been obvious for quite some time now that with a Republican-controlled House making fiscal measures to boost the economy impossible, monetary policy is the only instrument left to provide any short-term boost. And the Fed continues to watch the stagnant economy complacently.
Opportunistic Disinflation: Why The Fed Won't Act hit either inflation or job-creation targets undermines credibility (Bernanke, Geitner and Obama)
For the 'funemployed,' unemployment is welcome - latimes.com (oh yes, not eating is so much "fun")
PFGBest, Brokerage Firm, Missing Over $200 Million In Customer Funds As Founder Attempts Suicide The disclosure came hours after owner Russell Wasendorf Sr., a 40-year veteran of futures markets, was found in his car near the company's new headquarters, having apparently attempted suicide. He is in critical condition at the University of Iowa Hospitals, according to local news reports.
Reagan's Top Economist Says GOP Misled the U.S. and Tanked the Economy | Center for Media and Democracy

As Mine Protections Fail, Black Lung Cases Surge : NPR
Black-Lung Rule Loopholes Leave Miners Vulnerable : NPR

Rush Smears NY Muslims: We're Letting "The People Who Participated In That Destruction" On 9-11 "Build A Mosque There" | Video | Media Matters for America (big fat lying drug-addicted racist is the mouthpiece of the Repubican party)

Media - Salon.com - Brett Kimberlin versus right-wing bloggers - Why are right-wing blogs obsessed with a convicted felon famous for once claiming he sold Dan Quayle drugs
Hans Kristian Rausing arrested over death of his wife Eva | UK news | guardian.co.uk The couple, who have four teenage children, have struggled for many years with addiction to hard drugs, narrowly escaping prison in 2008 after heroin and £2,000 worth of crack cocaine were found at their home. Mrs Rausing had been arrested after trying to smuggle several wraps of cocaine into a reception at the American embassy in Grosvenor Square.


US urged to recruit master hackers to wage cyber war on America's foes | Technology | guardian.co.uk Top defence expert says the US should avoid 'ridiculous' prosecutions and use hackers' skills to detect and track enemies
Why is this conversation necessary? (with images, tweets) · WiTOpoli · Storify

070912
The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama, by Tom Junod - Esquire They're careful because when it comes to waging war on individuals, the distinction between war and murder becomes a fine one. Especially when, on occasion, the individuals we target are Americans and when, in one instance, the collateral damage was an American boy.
Mysterious fatal crash provides rare glimpse of U.S. commandos in Mali - The Washington Post (they weren't even supposed to be there)
Libyan elections: moderate Mahmoud Jibril poised for victory | World news | The Guardian Return of former National Transitional Council chief would defy expectations of victory for the Muslim Brotherhood
Egypt's ruling generals warn Morsi to respect the constitution | World news | guardian.co.uk President Mohamed Morsi has decreed that parliament be restored, but Scaf insists its original decision must be upheld
Afghanistan promised $16bn in development aid | World news | guardian.co.uk International donors in Tokyo vow to continue supporting Afghanistan after most foreign troops withdraw in 2014
Mexican Drug Cartel Laundered Money Through BofA, FBI Alleges (criminal enterprises working together)

AP Exclusive: Abuses surface at Legion school Dozens of women who attended a high school run by the disgraced Legion of Christ religious order have urged the Vatican to close the program, saying the psychological abuse they endured trying to live like teenage nuns led to multiple cases of anorexia, stress-induced migraines, depression and even suicidal thoughts.

Libor Manipulation Should Be Criminal Offense, EU's Michel Barnier Says (like it isn't already)
Eurozone talks stuck on detail of bank rescue fund plan | Business | guardian.co.uk Leaders in Brussels divided over how to interpret summit accord aimed at easing pressure on highly indebted states (bail out the crooked banks some more)
Consumer finances continue to worsen - The Irish Times - Mon, Jul 09, 2012 IRISH PEOPLE’S finances are continuing to deteriorate with the number who say they have less than €25 to spend each week once all essential bills have been paid increasing sharply over the last three months, according to research published by the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU).
Balloon Juice » Ask not for whom the bail-out tolls The Irish bank bail-out is close to $100 billion now. That’s 22K per person (Ireland has a population of about 4.6 million people).
Hollande Urged to Deliver Competitive Shock By Executives - Bloomberg French President Francois Hollande was urged by business leaders to give Europe’s second-largest economy a ``competitiveness shock'' to pull it out of the morass. (because "business leaders" have always been right)

In Defense of Breyer and Kagan on the Medicaid Vote - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Discord at Supreme Court is deep, and personal - CBS News Discord at the Supreme Court is deep and personal after Chief Justice John Roberts' surprise decision to side with the liberal justices in upholding a large portion of the president's health care plan. This discord is going to affect this Court for a long time - and no one has any idea how it will be resolved.
Hospital Bills Unpaid as S.C. Shuns Medicaid Expansion - Bloomberg - The state where the Civil War began has also long been suspicious of ceding power to the federal government, said Bruce Ransom, a political scientist at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina. (Romney/Teaparty Health Plan: bankrupt hospitals and let uninsured die)
Balloon Juice » Joe Olivo? Again? But there he was again, on NPR yesterday. (their go-to guy for unacknowledged Republican propaganda / NPR is hopeless and can't be fixed)

Rules of American justice - Salon.com An American banker is shocked to be held accountable in Britain - The single most remarkable (and revealing) fact of the Obama presidency may very well be the lack of a single prosecution of Wall Street executives for the massive fraud that precipitated the 2008 financial crisis.

How Obama’s Allies Are Defining Romney -- Daily Intel
PolitiFact | Lie of the Year 2011: 'Republicans voted to end Medicare' Tuesday, December 20th, 2011 at 12:05 a.m. (how did that work out for you, WaPo?)

Republicans Battle To Protect Tax Cuts That Only Benefit Wealthy Americans | TPMDC
Obama takes fight to Romney as he pushes tax cuts for middle class | World news | guardian.co.uk President offers stark choice between himself and Romney and says wealthiest Americans should not benefit from cuts any more
Obama To Push For Extension Of Middle Class Tax Cuts
Mitt’s Gray Areas - NYTimes.com - And unless he does reveal the truth about his investments, we can only assume that he’s hiding something seriously damaging.
Hullabaloo The line of Range Rovers, BMWs, Porsche roadsters and one gleaming cherry red Ferrari began queuing outside of Revlon Chairman Ronald Perelman's estate off Montauk Highway long before Romney arrived, as campaign aides and staffers in white polo shirts emblazoned with the logo of Perelman's property -- the Creeks -- checked off names under tight security.
Pizza Rat Publicist Simply Does Not Care For Your Class War | TBogg Amongst the Masters Of The Universe, who are THE ENGINE OF THIS ECONOMY that Nobama is trying to dronekill with his socialist taxes, were the lovely Zambrellis on New York; a couple who once raised money and voted for Obama until he betrayed them by talking for three whole years about raising taxes on rich people. Impeach!
The Surprisingly Dark Origin Story of Chuck E. Cheese | Cracked.com - Michael Zambrelli, master of the universe
Nail lady fails to understand socialism is bad for nail ladies Lawyers, Guns & Money - Ted Conklin, who owns the American Hotel in Sag Harbor, told the New York Times that Obama is a “socialist.” “His idea is find a problem that doesn’t exist and get government to intervene,” Conklin added, his wife, Carol Simmons, nodding beside him in their gold Mercedes.
Balloon Juice » I’m in love with a married man (NSFW) Because the only thing that would excite the young peoples more than one smug lying merchant wanker with helmet hair is two of the fuckers sitting there, looking like an outtake from the Chuckles and Bozo Variety Hour.*
Balloon Juice » Circus dogs Made-up bullshit about a war hero: lots of media time. Facts about vulture capitalsim (at a time when outsourcing is a big issue): media meh.
Pat Buchanan: 'Let's Hope' A Woman Isn't Elected President By 2040 (video)
Paul Begala: The Republicans’ Crazy Party Platforms - Newsweek and The Daily Beast
Warren raises $8.67 million in second quarter - Metro - The Boston Globe

The official GOP position: Let hard times run their course - The Plum Line - The Washington Post Nothing. That’s what Mitch McConnell promises to do about the economic crisis if he becomes Majority Leader of the Senate in the 113th Congress.
xs
Is the Jindal Voucher Program a Boondoggle? « Diane Ravitch's blog First came the news that many of the schools that are taking voucher students had no facilities or teachers. Then we learned that many of the little schools opening their doors are Bible-based church schools that teach creationism and use textbooks in history, science and other subjects from Christian publishing houses ... the state will not require voucher-receiving schools to have certified teachers, to have modern technology or to accept students with disabilities. (Romney education plan!)
Joe Arpaio's legacy in the balance with lawsuit outcome

Worst TB outbreak in 20 years kept secret | www.palmbeachpost.com - , exactly nine days after Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed the bill that shrank the Department of Health and required the closure of the A.G. Holley State Hospital in Lantana, where tough tuberculosis cases have been treated for more than 60 years. (Lex Luthor, fraudster)

Peter S. Goodman: Latest Jobs Report Underscores Unemployment Crisis

Warmest Half Year On Record For U.S. Mainland, NOAA 'State Of The Climate' Reports (just "summer" says noted climate expert George Will)
Higgs boson physicist shunned in Pakistan | Science | guardian.co.uk Man whose work made discovery of elusive particle possible scorned in homeland because of his religious affiliation
UCLA develops world’s fastest camera to hunt down cancer in real time | ExtremeTech

Math is hard - Lawyers, Guns & Money : The majority of current law school graduates are not going to have real legal careers, and the majority of the minority who will have legal careers are not going to earn enough money in those careers to service the debt the average law graduate is now incurring.
Hayek von Pinochet « Corey Robin It’s no secret that Friedrich von Hayek was a warm supporter of Augusto Pinochet’s bloody regime.

The sixth W : CJR Who, what, when, where, why—and women. A bow to those who helped close the media gender gap, and a cheer for leaders of the future
Rachel Maddow, Bradlee Dean Lawsuit: Christian Rocker Ordered To Pay MSNBC Host's Legal Bills

Rush Limbaugh Ad Boycott: UPS Latest Company To Remove Content

DNSChanger malware causes internet blackout in over 42,000 computers | Technology | guardian.co.uk
Galaxy Tab doesn't copy Apple designs, U.K. court rules | Mobile - CNET News It's a win for Samsung Electronics, which hasn't fared so well in the legal arena lately. The decision affects three Galaxy Tab models.
Lamar Smith Looking To Sneak Through SOPA In Bits & Pieces, Starting With Expanding Hollywood's Global Police Force | Techdirt

070812
Defections, Downed Turkish Jet Worsen Syria Crisis - NYTimes.com
Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan by Rajiv Chandrasekaran – review | Books | The Observer This account of America's decade-long adventure in Afghanistan makes for essential reading - it costs $1m to keep one American service member in Afghanistan for a year. The annual bill for the war last year was more than $100bn. Was achieving a marginally less bad outcome in Afghanistan worth the expense, administration officials wondered?
Coalition Led by Pro-Western Official Claims Lead in Libya - NYTimes.com A coalition led by a Western-educated political scientist appeared on Sunday to be beating Islamist parties in Libya’s first election of the post-Qaddafi era, standing apart from an overwhelming Islamist wave sweeping across neighboring Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco in the aftermath of the Arab Spring uprisings.
Egypt’s President Orders Return of Dissolved Parliament - NYTimes.com Egypt’s president on Sunday ordered the return of the dissolved Islamist-led Parliament until a new one could be elected, challenging a decision by generals who had dismissed the assembly based on a court ruling.

David Kotok: What A Crazy Week - Business Insider - LIBOR-Gate Will Take Down Many More Bankers, And The Claims Will Spiral Into The Trillions (utterly corrupt and broken)
Libor: The Crime of the Century | The Nation - The current Libor interest rate scandal, involving hundreds of trillions in international derivatives trade, shows how the really big boys play. And these guys will most likely not do the time because their kind rewrites the law before committing the crime.
Banking Official Faces Panel in Barclays Scandal - NYTimes.com The scandal over the manipulation of global interest rates until now has mostly put bankers in the spotlight. But the focus on Monday will turn to the regulators, both on what they did and what they did not do.
Iceland’s Economy Is Mending Amid Europe’s Malaise - NYTimes.com He said the only solution would be for Iceland to dispense with the krona and join a larger, more stable currency. The choices at the moment seem to be the euro, which is having its own difficulties, and the Canadian dollar.

Three NSA Whistleblowers Back EFF's Lawsuit Over Government's Massive Spying Program | Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF Asks Court to Reject Stale State Secret Arguments So Case Can Proceed
Various matters - Salon.com it actually claims that for 2012, 153 “militants” (whatever that means) have been killed by drones in Pakistan versus zero civilians. (zero credibility)
Politics - Conor Friedersdorf - CNN's Bogus Drone-Deaths Graphic - The Atlantic
Civilian death by drone attacks is high: but US sidesteps the issue arguing legality | Asian Tribune
US claims of ‘no civilian deaths’ are untrue: TBIJ

Cell Carriers See Uptick in Requests to Aid Surveillance - NYTimes.com In the first public accounting of its kind, cellphone carriers reported that they responded to a daunting 1.3 million demands for subscriber data last year from law enforcement agencies seeking text messages, caller locations and other information in the course of investigations. (a lot of terrorists in America or law enforcement on a rampage; no legal safeguards, and Obama likes it that way)

We’re getting wildly differing assessments : SCOTUSblog The Supreme Court will not grant SCOTUSblog a press credential. (Fox is their preferred outlet and NPR got their news from Fox)
Kagan’s Medicaid vote - Salon.com The Obama Court appointee once again sides with the right-wing faction in an important ruling

Obama Adviser Says President Will Not Extend Bush Tax Cuts, Even Temporarily: '100% Committed' | ThinkProgress Robert Gibbs insisted that the president would not support giving rich people another tax break. (we'll see)
Voter ID Laws Could Block Thousands From Voting
Holder At National Council of La Raza Convention Promises Aggressive Civil Rights Protection
Elizabeth Warren, “We must never again put wars on a credit card for our grandchildren to pay” – FreakOutNation
Martin Bashir: Mitt Romney Will Go Down as the Most Secretive Presidential Candidate in History | Video Cafe
Louisiana Gives Us a Taste of Mitt Romney's Education Policy | Mother Jones (privatize, Christianize, outsource, degrade, and kick-back to politicians)
Republican Horrified to Discover that Christianity is Not the Only Religion (Valerie Hodges, idiot; "freedom of religion" = freedom to force other people to practice your religion)
Paul LePage, Maine Governor, Blasts Obamacare, Calls IRS 'The New Gestapo' (great Gov, you got there Maine)
alicublog The New Obama Typeface: Revolution Gothic - (Obama press secretary Ben LaBolt emails: “Your GOP operative should have had the courtesy to stay sober before noon, and BuzzFeed should go back to labeling cat slideshows.”)

Jailed for $280: The Return of Debtors' Prisons - Yahoo! Finance

Central sleep apnea. [Med Clin North Am. 1985] - PubMed - NCBI
Central sleep apnea: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia

Global Warming Denier George Will Blames Historic Heat Wave On 'One Word: Summer' | ThinkProgress (fucking Republicans)



Op-ed: MPAA/RIAA lose big as US backs copyright “limitations” | Ars Technica As ACTA withers, the US government learns that copyright maximalism won't work.

070712
Libya Election: People Vote In 1st Election After Gaddafi
Jorge Rafael Videla, Former Argentine Dictator, Convicted In Baby Thefts
Emiratis Want Dress Code For Tourists (here's your burka)

Exclusive: Barclays insider lifts lid on bank's toxic culture - Business News - Business - The Independent Whistleblower: bosses ‘would have known’ what the traders were doing ... the “culture of fear” that operated at the bank and claims Bob Diamond would have been aware of his traders' activities.
Libor’s Dirty Laundry - NYTimes.com - Britain is in an utter frenzy over it, with wall-to-wall coverage, and the most respectable, pro-business publications expressing outrage ... Yet, on these shores, the reaction has been mainly a shrug. (too complicated for Americans to understand)

Political Animal - Richard Posner Drifting To The Left?
Federal Judge Richard Posner: The GOP Has Made Me Less Conservative : It's All Politics : NPR - Do you become more conservative? Or do you say, 'What am I doing with this crowd of lunatics?' Right? Maybe you have to re-examine your position."

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » It’s Not a Pivot, They are Shamelessly Lying and You Are Helping Them The fail is strong in this NY Times piece titled Delicate Pivot as Republicans Blast Rivals on Medicare Cuts: (The Times has always been an enabler +John Cole at his succinct best)
Did John Roberts Accidentally Save Planned Parenthood?
The Mystery of Romney's Exit From Bain | Mother Jones Now there's a debate over when the GOP presidential candidate left his private equity firm—and what it means.
Pawlenty, Jindal talk up Romney, slam Dems - Toledo Blade Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota spoke to about 20 people in front of the Courtyard by Marriott on Dussel Drive in Maumee (huge crowds)
Political Animal - Thaddeus McCotter Resigns From Congress Thaddeus McCotter, a five-term Michigan Republican with a personality as idiosyncratic as his first name, resigned from Congress yesterday. Of course, he did so on Facebook. By political standards, this was the most normal thing about his resignation.
Political Animal - MoveOn Apologizes For Backing A Winner (yeah, wtf, MoveOn?)

California Senate Narrowly Approves Rail Project - NYTimes.com Despite deepening doubts about the cost and feasibility of a $70 billion high-speed rail proposed to cross California, the State Senate on Friday narrowly approved legislation to spend $8 billion in federal and state money to begin construction, starting with a 130-mile stretch through the rural Central Valley.

BBC News - Chernobyl's radioactive trees and the forest fire risk Much of the 30km exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear plant is pine forest, and some of it so badly contaminated that a forest fire could create a devastating radioactive smoke cloud.
New record for faking data set by Japanese researcher | Ars Technica Anesthesiologists published 212 papers; only 3 clearly fraud-free.

Teenage Sexting Is Becoming The Norm | TechCrunch “Under most existing laws, if our findings were extrapolated nationally, several million teens could be prosecuted for child pornography,”

070612
Syria crisis: Clinton lambasts China and Russia as Kofi Annan urges unity | World news | guardian.co.uk Hillary Clinton demands rivals 'pay price' for backing Assad as UN's Annan warns Iran must play role in ending conflict
ICC lawyer: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi will not get a fair trial in Libya | Law | guardian.co.uk Melinda Taylor says her detention in Libya was unjustified and showed her client would not be tried impartially in the country
China plans £3bn theme park in Tibet | World news | guardian.co.uk Authorities want to attract 15 million tourists to Tibet per year but local groups worry about damage to traditional culture

How Megabanks Corrupt Regulators, LIBOR Edition | The New Republic If you haven’t been following that other British scandal—not Murdoch, but the interest-rate scandal that made heads roll at Barclays—then you really should be. As Matt Taibbi explains, it’s a neutron-bomb of a revelation that’s caused even hardened cynics to rethink their assumptions about the banking system. It’s as though the people who knew there was gambling going on at Rick’s Café have suddenly discovered it was also a hub for human-trafficking.
The LIBOR scandal: The rotten heart of finance | The Economist A scandal over key interest rates is about to go global
Barclays Bankers On Libor Scandal: We Look Like 'Crooks And Fools' - "If Barclays will lie about something as fundamental as Libor to profit on its trades, how can clients trust them on anything?" (there's your answer)
Barclays Criminal Probe Begins, Experts Speculate Other Banks Involved In Libor Manipulation
Deutsche Bank Probed Over Possible Libor Rate Manipulation
New Statesman - Tory MPs are losing patience with Osborne The Chancellor's "disproportionate obsession" with Ed Balls comes under attack from his own side. "People want us to sort out the effing banks, not worry about what Ed Balls might have said four years ago.” Osborne's dual role as Chancellor and chief Tory strategist is also called into question (the increasing view among Tory MPs is that he isn't good at either job). One MP comments: "When are we going to get a Chancellor who is not part time? You can’t run the sixth largest economy in the world with a mate-ocracy."
Eurozone crisis live: Markets falling as Spanish bond yields continue to rise | Business | guardian.co.uk Bad: Industrial output fell for the ninth straight month in a row in May. It fell 6.1% year-on-year in another real-life example of the crippling effect the problems are having on the country Good: The 6.1% fall was less than the 8.5% that had been predicted, and was at a slower rate of decline compared with the 8.3% drop (year on year) in April.

Noam Chomsky on the Occupy movement - video | World news | guardian.co.uk In the first part of a new interview series, historian and philosopher Noam Chomsky talks to Gary Younge about the significance of the Occupy movement in the US and how it will affect the upcoming presidential election in November

Top U.S. Science Official: 'Climate Change Is Under Way...It's Having Consequences In Real Time' | ThinkProgress

Eschaton: Obama Destroyed The Economy With High Taxes And More Regulation Our elites have completely failed. We can quibble about who precisely deserves blame - the Fed, the president, Congress - but there were pretty simple solutions to the problems. Spend money, hire people, give people free money, build stuff, etc. Not that complicated, really. But such ideas emanate from Teh Left, and everyone knows Teh Left is bad for the economy, because communism, so they must be wronger than the most wrong thing ever.

Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XXIV - The Maddow Blog
Beyond Misery in America: A Modest Proposal for Willard - Esquire Willard Romney, onetime dauphin prince of the Mexican outback and current presumptive nominee of the only Republican party we have, has been having a rough week there up at his lakeside retreat in the small town of Silly Rich Bastard, New Hampshire.
Hey, Republicans, Leave Mitt Aloooone -- Daily Intel - Conservatives say they want Romney to change his staff or alter his campaign tactics. But what they really want is a different candidate and a different electorate. They want to believe that the American people are hungering for detailed endorsements of Republican plans to cut entitlement spending and taxes for the rich and launch a philosophical assault on the welfare state. But that’s not what the public wants and Romney knows it.

Off and Out With Mitt Romney - NYTimes.com
Grover Norquist Pledge Against Taxes Attracts Fewer Republican Candidates
Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Threatens To Disenfranchise Nearly 10 Percent Of State's Voters the law may affect more than 750,000 Pennsylvanians who don't currently possess identification cards issued by the state Department of Transportation. Voter ID -- which is going to allow Gov. [Mitt] Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania -- done," Turzai told a group of cheering attendees at a Republican State Committee meeting. (why not just use Republican Party membership cards?)

Calculated Risk: June Employment Report: 80,000 Jobs, 8.2% Unemployment Rate (scariest chart in the world just got scarier)
Hullabaloo QOTD: Chris Hayes: "It just is impossible, in practical terms, to separate equality of opportunity from equality of outcome. The latter subverts the former almost as what I call in the book a kind of iron law." (the myth of meritocracy: the elites have always rigged the game)

June Jobs Report: U.S. Adds 80,000 Jobs; Unemployment Rate Unchanged
Three Makes A Trend New BLS report today and with revisions we have 80,000 jobs in June; 77,000 jobs in May; and 68,000 in April. Three makes a trend is the rule of journalism, so that is definitely a new weak trajectory for job growth. You'd need about 200,000 new jobs a month to be making meaningful progress toward reducing the unemployment rate
JPMorgan Chase Must Explain Why It's Not Turning Over Emails In FERC Probe, Judge Says A U.S. judge has ordered JPMorgan Chase & Co to explain why the court should not force the bank to turn over 25 internal emails demanded as part of an investigation into whether it manipulated electricity markets in California and the Midwest.
Jobless Youths Left Behind As Older Workers Fill More Openings
Jobs data interactive: is your job market growing or shrinking? | Business | guardian.co.uk
CHART: Local Governments Have Cut 130,000 Teaching Jobs In The Last Year | ThinkProgress (job destroyers)

David Brooks Honor Code Column - Our Mr. Brooks Has a Problem with Boys - Esquire (Pierce is about xmillion times smarter and a better writer than Bobo, the irony)

NRA's Nugent: "I'm Beginning To Wonder If It Would Have Been Best Had The South Won The Civil War" | Blog | Media Matters for America (because, slavery)

Alabama residents denounce Christian conference's planned cross-burning | World news | guardian.co.uk Whites-only gathering draws ire from locals and civil rights groups, but organisation maintains they aren't breaking any laws (Christians)


070512
Top Syrian general 'defects to Turkey' | World news | guardian.co.uk Reported escape of Manaf Tlass, leading member of Bashar al-Assad's inner circle, does not mean anything, official says
Mexico elections: claims of dirty tricks cast shadow over Peña Nieto's victory | World news | guardian.co.uk Campaign group says 28% of voters it interviewed were exposed to vote-buying or coercion (old party back in power, apparently)

Fukushima reactor meltdown was a man-made disaster, says official report | Environment | guardian.co.uk Japanese investigators say tsunami wasn't sole cause of nuclear accident and criticise collusion and poor regulation
Japan Nuclear Disaster Was Preventable, Panel Says "The ... Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident was the result of collusion between the government, the regulators and Tepco, and the lack of governance by said parties,"
Remember Yucca Mountain? - NYTimes.com But no politically acceptable site has yet been found, and leaving the used fuel rods at each reactor — more than 62,000 metric tons had accumulated across the country by the end of 2009 — seems increasingly problematic.

LIBOR Banking Scandal Deepens; Barclays Releases Damning Email, Implicates British Government | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone - The disgraced ex-CEO, who last year infamously said it was time for banks to stop apologizing, will likely now replace Jamie Dimon (who replaced Lloyd Blankfein, who replaced Angelo Mozilo, etc.) as the reigning hateable-white-guy Face of World Financial Corruption, so he'll have a difficult time if this whole thing comes down to a test of his public
The Big Losers in the Libor Rate Manipulation | The Big Picture Local Governments Which Entered Into Interest Rate Swaps Got Scalped (largest criminal enterprise in the history of the world)
Europe and China cut interest rates while Bank of England extends QE | Business | The Guardian Move to stimulate growth with a £50bn injection of electronic money into the UK and interest rate cuts in the eurozone and China
Death-row euro gets another last-minute stay of execution | Joseph Stiglitz | Business | guardian.co.uk Like medieval blood-letters, Germany refuses to see medicine of austerity doesn't work and insists on more – until the patient dies
Barclays turmoil could lead to downgrade, Moody's warns | Business | guardian.co.uk Ratings agency threatens to downgrade bank's credit rating following the Libor scandal and the resignation of Bob Diamon
Didier Lombard, Ex-France Telecom CEO, Probed Over His Role In Wave Of Staff Suicides France Telecom's former chief executive was put under investigation on Wednesday over his alleged role in a wave of staff suicides, accused of advocating tough management practices amounting to psychological harassment, his lawyer said. (they are very special people)
Economist Cover Banksters - Business Insider (must be hard for them to see their dream crumble)
Nell Diamond Twitter - Business Insider "George Osborne (Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Ed Miliband (Labour Party head) can go ahead and #hmd." (like father, like daughter)
Eurozone crisis live: ECB cuts interest rates, as Bank of England boosts QE by £50bn | Business | guardian.co.uk The exiting country would immediately announce a regime of inflation targeting, adopt a set of tough fiscal rules, monitored by a body of independent experts (oh, sure)

San Diego's short-lived Fourth of July celebration (#BigBayBoom) | World news | guardian.co.uk Embarassed authorities investigating technical glitch that blew out 'Big Bay Boom' from 18 minutes to under 15 seconds
Fireworks really suck. - Slate Magazine They really do.

Mitt Romney: Individual Mandate 'Is A Tax'
Anti-Eric Holder Democrats Receive Major Financial Aid From DCCC (but of course)
Profiling lawsuit against Arpaio set for July 19 - SFGate
Joe Walsh Loses It On CNN: 'Ashleigh, Ashleigh, Ashleigh' (teaparty asshole being an asshole has meltdown)
Ashleigh Banfield And Joe Walsh Get Into Screaming Match Over His Tammy Duckworth Remark | Mediaite

Countrywide Used Loan Discounts To Buy Congress, Fannie Mae Execs, Other Government Officials: Report (they are all for sale and can be bought with your tax money)
Stockton Bankruptcy The Result Of 15-Year Spending Binge It was a decision that gave firefighters full healthcare in retirement starting on Jan. 1, 1996, s aid Bob Deis, the city manager of Stockton, California.
Scranton Mayor Wants To Pay Every City Worker Minimum Wage (McDonalds pays more)

Why Marxism is on the rise again | World news | The Guardian Capitalism is in crisis across the globe – but what on earth is the alternative? Well, what about the musings of a certain 19th-century German philosopher? Yes, Karl Marx is going mainstream – and goodness knows where it will end

George Zimmerman can go free after Florida judge increases bail to $1ma | World news | guardian.co.uk Trayvon Martin shooter is expected to leave jail before the weekend after paying 10% from controversial defence fund

Five years after the iPhone, carriers are the biggest threat to innovation | The Verge
Internet doomsday: How to check if you're infected with DNS changer malware

070412
Iran 'ready to fire missiles at US bases' | World news | The Guardian Revolutionary Guards commander says Iran could strike back at US bases in the Gulf and Israeli targets minutes after attack (why did you put your country next to all our military bases?)
Afghan soldier opens fire on US troops | World news | guardian.co.uk Five wounded in latest 'green on blue' attack just days after police officer shot and killed three British soldiers (GTFO)
Five killed in Germany over eviction dispute | World news | guardian.co.uk Armed man kills four in Karlsruhe, including his girlfriend and a court bailiff, before turning gun on himself

Bob Diamond questioned by MPs on Barclays Libor scandal: Politics live blog | Politics | guardian.co.uk Cameron says large payoffs for failed bankers "completely inexplicable" • Bob Diamond rejects calls to give up his payoff
Eurozone crisis live: France announces tax rises to tackle deficit | Business | guardian.co.uk Analyst: France chooses 'tax-based retrenchment' • Germany hit by euro services slowdown • Christine Lagarde: not in the mood to renegotiate with Greece

Phone-hacking victims hail Glenn Mulcaire court ruling | Media | guardian.co.uk Private investigator forced to reveal who at the News of the World allegedly instructed him to intercept voicemails

Power outages leave nearly 1m facing Fourth of July headache | World news | guardian.co.uk Utility workers scramble to restore power in homes from midwest to mid-Atlantic after Friday's storms caused lines to fall
Where Tax Dollars Work, America's Public Trust Remains, by Charles P. Pierce - Esquire - The Deficit, which is many things, but most egregiously, it is an alibi for selling off our national birthright piecemeal, like one of the yard sales along Wallum Lake Road, as the pavement surrenders to gravel
Hullabaloo - Founding fathers quotes you probably haven't heard

STUDY: Media Avoid Climate Context In Wildfire Coverage | Research | Media Matters for America (TV: 1.6% - the fact that cannot be selected)
It's Time For A Serious National Conversation About Global Warming - And How To Pay For The Consequences | Crooks and Liars - when you use privately-owned companies to deliver public utilities, they're going to cut staffing to improve profits, that tax cuts are simply loans against infrastructure investment, and that years of taking energy lobbyist cash and hoping climate change would simply go away was like rolling over a payday loan. Eventually, you have a very big bill to pay.

Patrick Fitzgerald's Legacy: Letting Rove And Cheney Go U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s prosecution of former CIA officer John Kiriakou for talking to journalists about the Bush/Cheney torture program has at least one thing in common with his conviction of I. Lewis (“Scooter”) Libby in 2007. In both cases, Fitzgerald went for the little fish. But the big fish got away. (always the same)
Squelching Secrets: Why Are Obama's Prosecutors Pursuing John Kiriakou? (Obama hates whistle-blowers)

Obamacare Polls Find Supreme Court Ruling Not Uniting Americans The five national telephone surveys found Americans as divided as ever on Obamacare. All five registered a nearly even split, with roughly as many respondents saying they approve of the Supreme Court ruling as those saying they disapprove. (Republicans have spent a quarter billion on propaganda, Obama refuses to message, as usual)
Claire McCaskill Lambasts GOP For 'Spinning Distortions and Lies' About Health Care (Obama keeps his mouth closed)
Mitt Romney: Individual Mandate 'Is A Tax'
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Obamacare Is the Biggest Tax Increase in History … If You Ignore History

No Taxation Without Representation! A Field Guide to Voter Suppression | Mother Jones (anti-American Republicans)

Antonin Scalia Criticized For Appearing More Political Than Judicial (not that he really is, or anything)
Mystery Bermuda-based company and other undisclosed Romney assets hint at larger wealth - The Washington Post
North Carolina Defunds Planned Parenthood In Midnight Vote, Overriding Veto (fucking Republicans)
Ohio Personhood Ballot Initiative Falls Short Of Signature Goal
Chris Collins: 'People Now Don't Die From Prostate Cancer, Breast Cancer' GOP congressional candidate Chris Collins knows health care is expensive these days, but he argues it's for good reason: People are no longer dying from deadly forms of cancer.
It's OK to Lie Online in Rhode Island and Other Quirky New State Laws | Entrepreneur.com

Labor Market Regulation: Freedom and Property Rights Are Red Herrings
The Great Recession is All About Leverage, Leverage, Leverage | Mother Jones But even without a financial crisis, households still would have been massively overleveraged, the music still would have stopped, and the housing bust still would have destroyed trillions of dollars of wealth. (the Bush/Greenspan Great Recession)
Wall Street Says Facebook Shares Will Double. But Here's The Shocking Truth - Money Morning Facebook ranks as one of the most overvalued companies in history. (ScamBook)

US approves first take-home HIV test | World news | guardian.co.uk The OraQuick test detects the presence of HIV in saliva using a mouth swab and returns a result within 20 to 40 minutes

CERN Press Release
New Particle Resembling Long-Sought Higgs Boson Uncovered at Large Hadron Collider: Scientific American
How the Higgs boson explains our universe | Jeff Forshaw | Science | guardian.co.uk The genius of Peter Higgs and other boson theorists was to appreciate the importance of symmetry
Higgs Boson video: A Metaphor To Explain The Particle, Or Further Confuse You
Instant Egghead - What is the Higgs Boson?: Scientific American Video
Higgs Bosons for Everyone
Theory of Everything (intro) - YouTube

Why You Should Spiral-Cut Your Wiener - CHOW Tip - YouTube

Judeo-Christian America: The Fall of the ‘Christian Nation’ | (A)theologies | Religion Dispatches Schultz brilliantly shows that between the labor-capital divide of the 1930s and the racial divide of the 1960s was an ideological contest over the religious composition of the nation.

This .gif Kills Freedom | TBogg Yes THANKFULLY Bing and Yahoo are celebrating the 4th in the way that the founders clearly intended when they created ARPANET (thank you Ben Franklin!) because even though the American Experiment has survived multiple wars, internal strife, assassinations, massive economic upheavals, and presidential blowjobs, it is a delicate and fragile thing that could easily shrivel up and blow away in a light breeze were it not for gratuitous chest-beating, flag-waving, “Proud To Be An American” singing, foreigner-killing, obesity-having, gun-toting, Bible-thumping supplications to blonde-haired blue-eyed American Jesus. Seriously. All we are is dust in the wind, man… (Google's This Land is Your Land" communist doodle; Tbogg is master of the long-form sentence)

VICTORY! ACTA Suffers Final, Humiliating Defeat In European Parliament - Falkvinge on Infopolicy In theory, ACTA could still come into force between the United States and a number of smaller states. Ten states have been negotiating it, and six of those need to ratify it to have it come into force. In theory, this could become a treaty between the United States, Morocco, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, and Switzerland. (But wait, the Mexican Senate has already rejected ACTA. As has Australia and Switzerland in practice. Oh well… a treaty between the United States and Morocco, then, in the unlikely event that the United States will actually and formally ratify it. You can see where this is going.)

070312
50 Killed in Iraq by Truck Bombs, Explosives and Gunfire - NYTimes.com (descent into chaos)
Pakistan Opens NATO Supply Line as Clinton Apologizes - NYTimes.com
Syria Crackdown: Human Rights Watch Accuses Intelligence Agencies Of Running 27 Torture Centers
Ex-President Sarkozy's home, offices searched | Nation & World | The Seattle Times French investigators searched former President Nicolas Sarkozy's home and office on Tuesday as part of a probe into suspected illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by the L'Oreal cosmetics heiress, an official said. (they were just waiting)
David Cameron 'prepared to halt immigration of Greeks into UK' | UK news | The Guardian Prime minister says it would be in UK's interests to impose stringent border controls if Greece is forced to leave euro

BBC News - Behold, the British establishment, panicked The chairman resigns to save the CEO. The CEO makes a public threat to drag the central bank into the mire. And the previous government. And the Treasury. Next morning, the CEO resigns and the chairman re-installs himself to "oversee transition". The police, who said they could not prosecute, now say they might. (elites are crumbling and throwing each other under the train)
FT Alphaville » The 6am Cut London Diamond threatens to drag in BoE: Pressure on Barclays CEO Bob Diamond remains after the bank’s chairman, Marcus Agius, resigned on Monday (Reuters). Diamond has sought to alleviate some of the pressure by “threatening to reveal potentially embarrassing details about Barclays’ dealings with regulators if he comes under fire at a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday” (blackmail, but we can hope)
BBC News - Barclays boss Bob Diamond resigns amid Libor scandal The move comes less than a week after the bank was fined for trying to manipulate inter-bank lending rates, sparking a government inquiry and calls for criminal investigations (after initially saying "fuck you")
Bob Diamond, Barclays Chief Executive, Quits Amid Mounting Pressure Over Rate-Fixing Scandal (nothing will change without long prison terms)
Robert Diamond, Chief Executive of Barclays, Resigns - NYTimes.com

Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com As EFF’s Trevor Timm noted, there is no sense in which Feinstein’s denunciation applies to WikiLeaks but not to The New York Times (and, for that matter, senior Obama officials).
Tea Party “treason” - Salon.com What powers should the president have against those who advocate open, violent revolt against the U.S. government?
Collapsing U.S. credibility - Salon.com Condemning foreign governments for abusive acts while ignoring one's own is easy. But the U.S. leads the way

Kansas Town Struggles to Deal With 115 Degrees - NYTimes.com For five days last week, a brutal heat wave here crested at 115 degrees. Crops wilted. Streets emptied. Farmers fainted in the fields. Air-conditioners gave up. Children even temporarily abandoned the municipal swimming pool. Hill City was, for a spell, in the ranks of the hottest spots in the country.
Scientists: Bizarre summer weather offers proof of climate change | The Raw Story
Colorado’s table was set for monster fire - The Washington Post - About one in four Colorado homes sits in a fire risk zone
Bill Nye to CNN: ‘The two sides aren’t equal’ on climate change | The Raw Story Science educator Bill Nye on Monday told CNN that they weren’t doing the public any favors by giving climate change deniers equal airtime because “the two sides aren’t equal.” (sorry, can't hear you, I'm listening to Rush)

Health care decision? What health care decision? - The Washington Post Forty-five percent of people didn’t know about or were misinformed about the most highly publicized Supreme Court case since — at least — Bush v. Gore in 2000 that dealt with the landmark legislative accomplishment of Obama’s first term in office. That is staggering stuff ... roughly two in every three young people didn’t know or were mistaken about what happened Thursday at the court. Most people — especially those who are unaffiliated or independent voters — tend to be relatively low information voters. That is, they don’t have all the facts on an issue — and they don’t really care to find them out.

John Roberts' Switch On Obamacare Sparks Fascination With Supreme Court, Possible Leaks "flatly reject the idea that Roberts buckled to liberal pressure, or was stared down by the president. They instead believe that Roberts realized the historical consequences of a ruling striking down the landmark health-care law. There was no doctrinal background for the court to fall back on -- nothing in prior Supreme Court cases -- to say the individual mandate crossed a constitutional line." (except teh crazy of the Four Horsemen)
Roberts wrote both Obamacare opinions - Salon.com A Court source tells Salon the chief justice wrote the majority opinion and much of the dissent in the ACA case

8 Ways America's Headed Back to the Robber-Baron Era | | AlterNet We are recreating the Gilded Age, a period when corporations ruled this nation, buying politicians, using violence against unions and engaging in open corruption (next up: slavery)
Investigation: Mitt Romney’s Offshore Accounts, Tax Loopholes, and Mysterious I.R.A. | Politics | Vanity Fair the murky world of offshore finance, revealing loopholes that allow the very wealthy to skirt tax laws, and investigating just how much of Romney’s fortune (with $30 million in Bain Capital funds in the Cayman Islands alone?) looks pretty strange for a presidential candidate (America loves tax-cheats)
Terry Branstad, Iowa Governor, Won't Expand Medicaid In Light Of Supreme Court Ruling "We're opposed to it and we're not going to have any part of it," Branstad said. "But we're taking our own approach. We want to put our own effort together to be the healthiest state, and we're willing to help people who are willing to help themselves. But we're certainly not going to buy into this federal effort. We're going to fight it in every way we can." "We don't believe the federal government when they say they're going to pay the whole cost of this for the next three years," Branstad added, "because the federal government is dead broke." (this plays well in the land of the stupid and self-defeating)
Hullabaloo Talking the talk on Medicaid opt-out - Those are the people who are driving the political train in the red states right now.
Why Logic Won’t Work in the Medicaid Expansion Debate | FDL News Desk I don’t know why, given shared history, anyone would believe that logic will rule the day, and red state governors will go against their entire ideological worldview and spend taxpayer dollars – however small – to cover poor people, in many states largely people of color (it was always about racisim)
GOP Governors May Turn Down $258 Billion In Obamacare Funds, Leave 9.2 Million Americans Uninsured | ThinkProgress Not a single Republican governor has pledged to accept the new Medicaid funds and three Democrats are also considering turning down the money. In total, these states would give up $291.4 billion in federal funds and leave 10,297,221 Americans uninsured. (killing their (poor) residents)
Complacency on Medicaid Would Feed Two Years of Ugly Race-Baiting | emptywheel The GOP frame for the Medicaid argument will not focus at all on insuring the uninsured. It will not breathe a word of how insured people subsidize uninsured people who use emergency rooms for care. Rather, it will extend and enlarge on this argument about a black President giving free stuff to black people (or Latinos in states like Texas). And I believe that will remain true even if Obama loses in November.
There Is No Republican Plan - Lawyers, Guns & Money : for reasons Dean Baker explains, the plan David Brooks touts as an alternative to the ACA is utter crap, a combination of stuff that’s already in the ACA (“skin in the game”) and really, really horrible ideas that will brutalize poor people while making the system less efficient (privatizing Medicaid.)

Probation Fees Multiply as Companies Profit - NYTimes.com (American corportate justice)
Urban Nation: Transpo Bill Compromise Isn’t Progress – Next American City In a gratuitous snub to people who rely on mass transit, tax deductibility for transit expenses is being set at half the maximum for parking. For a while, both maxed out at $240 per month. Now they will be $125 for transit and still $240 for parking. (car-drivers are a different class of people)


What Really Makes Us Fat - NYTimes.com (carbs; American Heart Association has been making America super-fat)
Magazine - How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy - The Atlantic Toxoplasma gondii
House Cats Said to Lead to Car Crashes, Suicides, and Mental Disorders - Forbes
T. Gondii: Cat Parasite Linked to Suicide Risk in Women | Healthland | TIME.com Toxoplasma gondii
Physicists produce highest man-made temperature: 7 trillion degrees - latimes.com


Government-sponsored study destroys DEA’s classification of marijuana | The Raw Story

Oracle loses to UsedSoft in software resale case | Managing Intellectual Property
Case could pave way for reselling digital music, other products - Boston.com Capitol Records is suing ReDigi for allegedly violating copyright law and running a business “built on widespread, unauthorized copying of sound recordings.” (American courts generally more in the bag)
Megaupload Founder Goes From Arrest to Cult Hero - NYTimes.com “Two helicopters and 76 heavily armed officers to arrest a man alleged of copyright crimes — think about that,” he wrote. “Hollywood is importing their movie scripts into the real world and sends armed forces to protect their outdated business model.”
Twitter Transparency Report Show Government Requests For User Data. Now It's Facebook's Turn (and you know how much FB loves transparency)

070212
Iraq Violence Surge Spurs New Fears A half year after the U.S. military left Iraq, dire predictions seem to be coming true: The country is mired in violence and the government is on the verge of collapsing. With no relief in sight, there's growing talk of Iraq as a failed state as al-Qaida's local wing staged near daily attacks that killed at least 234 people in June (who could have predicted?)
Will Civil War Hit Afghanistan When The U.S. Leaves? : The New Yorker Will civil war hit Afghanistan when the U.S. leaves?
Syria crisis: Geneva talks sound death knell for Assad regime | World news | guardian.co.uk UK and French foreign ministers confirm there is no place for President Bashar al-Assad in transitional Syrian government
Iraqi parliament refuses to accept nationals deported from Europe | World news | guardian.co.uk Baghdad bans forced return of deportees and threatens to fine airlines that carry failed asylum seekers
Democratic Party Of Japan Resignations Deal Harsh Blow To Prime Minister Yoshihiko
Peña Nieto: Mexicans have given our party a second chance | World news | guardian.co.uk Official polls give PRI seven-point lead as leader claims election victory and promises 'no return to the past'
In Mexico, Voting Amid a Sense of Nostalgia - NYTimes.com
Political Animal - Exit Poll President Felipe Calderon has been telling guests that he and his family are likely to leave Mexico after his term expires in December. It will be too dangerous to remain, he warns in private conversation, because powerful drug mafias might come after him. For the commander-in-chief of Mexico’s US-backed drug war to suggest he has not provided enough security to live in his country is a stunning revelation - and may be seen as either an admission of failure or evidence of just how hard he has fought and how far Mexico needs to go.
Iran lawmakers prepare to close Hormuz Strait — RT

Europe’s Great Illusion - NYTimes.com Oddly, however, none of these assessments argue that Europe’s German-dictated formula of redemption through suffering has any chance of working. Instead, the case for optimism is that failure — in particular, a breakup of the euro — would be a disaster for everyone, including the Germans, and that in the end this prospect will induce European leaders to do whatever it takes to save the situation (they won't)
Eurozone crisis live: Unemployment rate hits new high as manufacturing suffers | Business | guardian.co.uk As feared, eurozone unemployment has hit a new record high, and the youth jobless crisis has worsened again. The unemployment rate across the single currency region rose to 11.1% in May, up from 11.0% in April. That's the highest figure since the creation of the euro.
German manufacturing shrinks at fastest pace in three years | Reuters Germany's manufacturing sector shrank in June at the fastest pace in three years, with new business intake dropping for the 12th month running, in a sign the economy is suffering from both the euro crisis and a broader global economic slowdown. (they've been wrong for four years straight)
Barclays chairman Marcus Agius resigns over rate-rigging scandal | Business | guardian.co.uk Marcus Agius 'truly sorry' for 'devastating blow' to bank's reputation as he quits in wake of £290m fine
David Cameron announces inquiry into banking industry | Business | guardian.co.uk PM says inquiry will report back by Christmas so that its proposals can form part of the financial services bill

Colorado wildfire destruction 'unreal' for residents touring neighbourhoods | World news | guardian.co.uk With Colorado Springs wildfire 55% contained, fire officials allow residents to return home briefly to check on their homes
Power outages cause chaos after storms in mid-Atlantic region – live coverage | World news | guardian.co.uk Hundreds of thousands of people are without power in the greater Washington area in the aftermath of weekend storms and a heatwave. Follow our live coverage of the clear-up

Thomas Friedman Wants to Cut Your Social Security and Medicare Benefits, Again | Beat the Press Thomas Friedman is once again pushing to cut back those lavish $1,100 a month Social Security benefits and to make seniors pay more for health care. That is the implication of his enthusiastic support for the proposal set forward by Morgan Stanley director Erskine Bowles and former Senator Alan Simpson.
The Resistance Begins: Rick Scott Announces Florida Won't Take Medicaid Money - The Daily Beast ("let them die")
Political Animal - Scott and Jindal Go Over the Brink on Medicaid Expansion
Let It Bleed: Libertarianism and the Workplace — Crooked Timber
Mississippi abortion clinic granted eleventh-hour reprieve | World news | guardian.co.uk Federal judge issues a preliminary injunction blocking a law that would have shuttered the Jackson Women's Health Organisation

Roberts' Switch In Time CBS News confirms what we were all thinking—the Chief Justice changed his mind about the Affordable Care Act decision.
Political Animal - A New Grievance For the Right (SC not political enough)
Obamacare Support Rises After Supreme Court Ruling, Poll Finds In some good news for Republicans, the Supreme Court ruling is energizing opposition to the 2010 healthcare law (everything is good news for Republicans)
Exclusive: In His Second Term, Obama Will Pivot to the Drug War: Death Race 2012: GQ on Politics: GQ According to ongoing discussions with Obama aides and associates, if the president wins a second term, he plans to tackle another American war that has so far been successful only in perpetuating more misery: the four decades of The Drug War (as he wages war on medical MJ)
How Loss of Enthusiasm Among Youth Voters Could Cost Obama the Presidency (four years of dissing his base)
Race Matters: Why Gallup Poll Finds Less Support For President Obama
North Carolina Fracking: Governor Beverly Perdue Vetoes Bill North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue on Sunday vetoed legislation that would have lifted a ban on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and opened the door to shale gas exploration in that state.
Howard Kurtz Highlights Bill O'Reilly's Failure To Apologize For Incorrect Prediction On Health Care Ruling | Video | Media Matters for America (still waiting for Scarborough to be waterboarded for charity, also)
Jonathan Krohn: CPAC's boy wonder swings left - politico.com (hope for the young)

David Frum on How We Need to Learn to Say No to the Elderly - The Daily Beast (time to kill granny)
Political Animal - Generational Warfare - And to my parents’ generation and on: grow up. I am sick to death about hearing how hard you worked back when you were young. Maybe you did, but you had some terrific advantages, namely that you happened to come of age in what will probably stand as the greatest economic boom in the history of civilization. But when you got power, you handed us a mini-Great Depression, and it’s our fault we can’t find jobs? Have some perspective.
interfluidity » Depression is a choice But the preferences of developed, aging polities — first Japan, now the United States and Europe — are obvious to a dispassionate observer. Their overwhelming priority is to protect the purchasing power of incumbent creditors. That’s it. That’s everything.
Goodbye, James Dean: Young Men Reject America’s Car Obsession | Streetsblog Capitol Hill (next up: suburbs)

US manufacturing sector back in recession | Business | guardian.co.uk Health check of US industry gives Barack Obama an election headache
Brad DeLong: Eric Rauchway: Megan McArdle Says Something Wrong on the Internet (lies about FDR)

Stephen Hawking on time travel, M-theory, and extra terrestrial life | Ars Technica Invite time travelers to a party late? "I sat there a long time, no one came."

Anderson Cooper Comes Out: 'The Fact Is, I'm Gay' (no shit)
Rob Schneider Links Autism To Vaccines, Rails Against Big Government (VIDEO) The star of "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo" has finally weighed in on the government's role in vaccinating children. And he's not happy. (noted vaccine expert and dumbshit)


Software Helps Parents Monitor Their Children Online - NYTimes.com (new helicopter parents - NSA parents)
It’s Modern Parental Involvement - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com The use of new technology is a daily part of children's lives, which means it should play a part in parents’ lives, too.

'Black box' is watching you! UK 'Online spy bill' privacy threat — RT

070112
US drone strike kills eight suspected militants in Pakistan | World news | guardian.co.uk Attack near Afghan border comes despite demands from Islamabad that America end its controversial drone programme (some "suspects" and their families, drone-boy at work)
Syria crisis: Geneva talks on Syria sound death knell for Assad regime | World news | guardian.co.uk UK and French foreign ministers confirm there is no place for President Bashar al-Assad in transitional Syrian government
Kenyan churches hit by deadly grenade attacks | World news | guardian.co.uk Ten people dead and many wounded in simultaneous attacks near Somali border, say police
Mexico presidential election: Nieto emerges as clear favourite to win | World news | guardian.co.uk Enrique Peña Nieto poised to steer Institutional Revolutionary party back to power as Mexicans go to polls
BBC News - Australia introduces controversial carbon tax Australia has introduced its highly controversial carbon tax, after years of bitter political wrangling.
Declassified FBI and CIA docs confirm Israel stole US uranium to build nukes in 1950s -- Puppet Masters -- Sott.net
Mali Islamists destroy more holy Timbuktu sites | Egypt Independent (and their tourist attractions)

BBC News - What did Bank of England say to Barclays about Libor? In making false submissions about their borrowing costs, managers at Barclays believed they were operating under an instruction from Paul Tucker, deputy governor of the Bank of England, I have learned. (government told them they were extraordinary people and they believed it)
Government to order review of inter-bank lending rate | Business | guardian.co.uk Review falls short of a public inquiry demanded by Labour leader as Kenneth Clarke says rogue bankers must be brought to trial (fat chance)
Barclays Ignored Warnings on Rate Rigging - Business News - CNBC Barclays’ compliance department failed to act on three separate internal warnings between 2007 and 2008 about conflicts of interest and “patently false” submissions by its staff to the panel that sets the benchmark interest rate used to price mortgages and credit card loans worldwide.

Death toll rises as storms lash eastern US amid scorching heat | World news | guardian.co.uk More than 3m people in eastern US without power, and states of emergency declared in Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia
Power Outages From Storms Across Mid-Atlantic Could Last For Days
Colorado Wildfires 2012: Stunning NASA Map Shows Severe Heat Wave Fueling Wildfires (PHOTO)

How Liberals Win - NYTimes.com (they myths of FDR and LBJ compared to Obama's wussitudiness)

Health Reform Quiz - Kaiser Health Reform (take the test!)
Determinants of State Level Support for the ACA - Lawyers, Guns & Money : the percentage of uninsured increases, so too does support for the ACA. Likewise, as the percentage of people uninsured grows, so does support for the ACA . . . while controlling for the partisanship of the state in question. (Repubicans: the cult of stupid)

Obamacare Support Rises After Supreme Court Ruling, Poll Finds 48 percent in the online survey conducted after Thursday's ruling, up from 43 percent before the court decision. Opposition slipped to 52 percent from 57 percent (right, 5% in two days)
On Roberts’ majority opinion becoming the joint dissent - Lawyers, Guns & Money (oopsie)
Roberts switched views to uphold health care law - CBS News Ironically, Justice Anthony Kennedy - believed by many conservatives to be the justice most likely to defect and vote for the law - led the effort to try to bring Roberts back to the fold. (evil old fuck)

Hullabaloo - Dazed and confused by the betrayal of John Roberts by digby - One unexpected upside of the health care decision is the fact that the Republicans are so shocked and unbalanced that they can't think straight:
Hullabaloo - Thank you Jesus. My prayers may have been heard! - Members of Congress from both parties are increasingly mulling the unthinkable: going home in December without acting to avoid the $4 trillion in tax hikes and deep spending cuts known as the fiscal cliff.
Mitch McConnell On 30 Million Uninsured: 'That Is Not The Issue' ("they can just fucking die or move to France")
Rep. Ryan Repeats Zombie Lie that ACA Cut Medicare Spending, And George Stephanopoulos Lets Him Get Away With It | Crooks and Liars (blow-dry George hard at work)
Paul Ryan Bashes 'Obamacare' Because Rights Come From God | TPM Livewire (God is a Republican)

John Boehner: Republicans Will File Civil Lawsuit Over Fast And Furious (reduced to their insane core)
Four Of The Biggest Fast And Furious Falsehoods | Media Matters for America
Will Fox Report On Fortune Bombshell That Fast And Furious Didn't Involve Gunwalking? | Media Matters for America

Bain Attacks Make Inroads for President - NYTimes.com Propelled by a torrent of blistering television advertisements, President Obama is successfully invoking Mitt Romney’s career at Bain Capital to raise questions about his commitment to the middle class, strategists in both parties say, as the candidates engage in a critical summer duel to set the terms for this fall.
Rupert Murdoch: 'Doubtful' That Romney Will Beat Obama In 2012 Election (Satan speaks)
Tea Party Groups Planning July 4 Comeback | TPM2012 On July 4, the tea party will dust off the tri-corn hats and head into the streets to fight the second revolutionary war against “Obamacare.” (because they hate less expensive healthcare for themselves that can't be cancelled if they get sick)
America Unfriends K-Mart Kardashian | TBogg Looks like turnabout is fair play and so this time it is America that has quit on a Palin and not the other way around as Lifetime TV (Television For Idiots!) has moved Bristol Daenerys Meth-Born of House Palin and her baby dragon’s teevee show to a later time-slot because nobody really gives two poops about a deeply uninteresting single mom of one or possibly two children depending upon whether a season-ending cliffhanger is called for in order to capture the coveted Andrew Sullivan demographic

Want to stimulate the economy? Let’s hand cash directly to the states. - The Washington Post
WTO Un-COOL: Rules Against Popular U.S. Meat Labeling Law | MyFDL Canada, Mexico, and several other countries filed a complaint regarding the policy with the WTO in December 2008 calling the popular consumer measure a “disguised” barrier to trade. (Europe tells America it can't tell Americans where their food is coming from)

Spaceweather.com Time Machine Ultraviolet telescopes onboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory are monitoring a vast dark hole--a "coronal hole"--in the sun's upper atmosphere. It has just turned directly toward Earth (activate death-star cannon)

Mississippi's sole abortion clinic effectively shuttered by new state law | World news | guardian.co.uk New physician requirements force clinic to turn patients away in move critics say is meant to make Mississippi abortion-free
Why are believers ignorant about atheists? - Salon.com In a widely disseminated and discussed opinion piece, Anglican minister Rev. Gavin Dunbar made an interesting and even compelling argument that grief is necessary for love and humanity… and then went on to argue that, unless you believe in God, you have no reason to care whether the people you love live or die, or even to love them in the first place. Again: I wish I was joking. ("new atheists" can't feel grief except for stupid Christians like Dunbar)

States with the Most Underage Drinking - 24/7 Wall St. Most of the states on this list are located in the western half of the United states; that is, in the Southwest, the Northwest and Midwest, including South and North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. In most of these states the population is spread out geographically in small towns rather than large metropolitan areas. (the Wasilla syndrome)
Face Eating Attack In China: 'Dong,' Drunken Bus Driver, Allegedly Bites Woman 'Du's' Nose, Lips (memewatch)

O (Omicron) on Vimeo

Apple's patent absurdity exposed at last | Technology | The Observer US appeal court judge Richard Posner has finally said the unsayable: that Apple's and other tech firms' patent battles are a ridiculous abuse of intellectual property law
Human Rights Petition: .@ukhomeoffice: Stop the extradition of Richard O'Dwyer to the USA #SaveRichard | Change.org Richard O'Dwyer is a 24 year old British student at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. He is facing extradition to the USA and up to ten years in prison, for creating a website – TVShack.net – which linked (similar to a search-engine) to places to watch TV and movies online. (DOJ is big-content's poodle)

063012
Failure of Syria peace plan 'risks wider regional conflict' | World news | guardian.co.uk Kofi Annan and William Hague warn Geneva delegates to find solution to bloodshed or face grave consequences
Mohamed Morsi sworn in as Egyptian president | World news | guardian.co.uk Muslim Brotherhood candidate promises to build 'new Eygpt' as he succeeds deposed Hosni Mubarak
US ponders Guantánamo transfer for suspected Taliban militants, reports say | World news | guardian.co.uk AP says Washington is reviving a plan to transfer some Taliban fighters out of US control, but not release them from custody
Russians join in call for Pussy Riot trio's release | World news | The Observer Moscow court extends Pussy Riot trio's detention without setting trial date leading to more public acts of defiance around the world
Revealed: the scale of sexual abuse by police officers | UK news | The Guardian Guardian investigation finds sexual predators in police are abusing their power to target victims of crime (massive coverup)
Colombia High Court Okays Drug Decriminalization | StoptheDrugWar.org Colombia's Constitutional Court has approved the government's proposal to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use.
Japan whistleblower wins in Supreme Court in nation first as judge dismisses Olympus appeal - The Washington Post (Japancorp)

A Huge Break in the LIBOR Banking Investigation | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone This is unbelievable, shocking stuff. A sizable chunk of the world’s adjustable-rate investment vehicles are pegged to Libor, and here we have evidence that banks were tweaking the rate downward to massage their own derivatives positions. The consequences for this boggle the mind. For instance, almost every city and town in America has investment holdings tied to Libor. If banks were artificially lowering the rates to beef up their trading profiles, that means communities all over the world were cheated out of ungodly amounts of money.
Government to order review of inter-bank lending rate | Business | guardian.co.uk Review falls short of a public inquiry demanded by Labour leader as Kenneth Clarke says rogue bankers must be brought to trial
Cable: The City is a massive cesspit - Business News - Business - The Independent Business Secretary and Mervyn King savage culture at scandal-hit banks - Vince Cable, admitted the sector was a “massive cesspit” that needed cleaning up. (more free billions to banksters! should have tried "jail')

Julian Assange to sit out standoff over extradition at Ecuadorean embassy | Media | The Guardian WikiLeaks founder will remain in embassy while evidence for his application for political asylum is processed, says representative

NBC Meteorologist On Record Heat Wave: 'If We Did Not Have Global Warming, We Wouldn't See This' | ThinkProgress (wingnuts try to outlaw the word "heat")
Wildfire Devastates Colorado | TPM Media (hundreds of Republican mansions destroyed, they cry for big government but continue to deny global warming)
Cities That Wouldn't Exist Without Air Conditioning - Jobs & Economy - The Atlantic Cities

David Plouffe, Obama Adviser, Tells Democrats To Go On Offense On Health Care, Taxes (Dems quiver in fear)
Conservative Super Pacs turn to social media and internet to expand reach | World news | guardian.co.uk Facebook, Twitter and Google employ teams to work directly with Super Pacs to target key swing state voters online (google will sponser an invasion of Republitrolls)
The Obamacare moving-to-Canada threats: how stupid are they? | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Do Americans really know so little about their neighbours to the north? Thanks to the magic of Twitter, we know the answer
Health Care Overhaul Is Still No Hit With Public - NYTimes.com “Unfortunately, we never had a really effective strategy around communicating to the public the benefits and the rationale behind health care reform,” said Ezekiel J. Emanuel (that name is all you need to know)
Republican response to Obamacare decision: The eight stages of conservative grief - Slate Magazine The fiery, petty, glum GOP responses to the Obamacare decision.
Jon Stewart Nails the Cable News Networks As many predicted, Jon Stewart had a lot of fun with the mistakes made by CNN and Fox News reporting yesterday's Supreme Court ruling.
Tea Party leader calls for ‘insurrection’ against Obamacare | The Raw Story “Is Armed Rebellion Now Justified?” (traitors and terrorists)

Republicans Confused About Government Spending - Business Insider
10 Ways John Roberts Is Still A Conservative's Best Friend | ThinkProgress
Democracy Corps » President Obama makes gains in winnable race President Obama’s approval has improved to 47 percent, and he now leads Mitt Romney on the ballot by a 3-point margin, 49 percent to 46 percent—a net 3-point improvement since last month
Romneycare Architect: Individual Mandate 'Very Similar' In Obama, Romney Bills
Martin O'Malley On GOP: 'Only Health Care Mandate They Can Embrace Are Transvaginal Probes For Women' (zing)
Sarah Palin: "Nancy Pelosi Is A Dingbat" | Media Matters for America
Wingnuts' Failed Attempt to Blame Obama Administration for the Waldo Canyon Fires in Colorado
Louisiana state library funding has been eliminated - latimes.com Citing budget concerns, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has signed a $25-billion budget that eliminates almost $900,000 in state funding for its libraries. In a statement, the governor’s chief budget aide, Paul Rainwater, said ("we don't need no steenking books")
Joe Williams leaving Politico | TPMDC Williams blamed right-wing sites like Breitbart and The Daily Caller for using his comments to stir up trouble. “They’re in the business of gathering scalps,” Williams said in an interview with Current TV.
Rangel Race Turns to Chaos "It's a bizarre situation that just keeps getting weirder, a strange case of missing precincts, questionable ballots and utter confusion over who's to blame for the mess and when the race might be settled."

Court Allows Crisis Pregnancy Centers To Decieve Women | ThinkProgress Pregnancy Centers often masquerade as abortion consultation facilities — they lure in women who are pregnant and terrified, and then often try to convince them not to get the procedure. Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that is a totally acceptable practice.

George W. Bush: Still the worst - Salon.com A new study ranks Bush near the very bottom in history, due to delusional wars, reckless spending and inflexibility

Obama Threatens To Veto Bill That Defunds Wall Street Reform | ThinkProgress (Republicrooks say no steenking "reform")

Why supermarket tomatoes tend to taste bland - latimes.com Scientists suggest breeding for uniformity inactivates a gene that affects color and sugar content.
Dinosaurs Were Warm-Blooded? New 'Growth Line' Study Of Dino Bones Suggests Endothermy
Meteorite Crater In Greenland Called World's Oldest, Biggest
'Fairy Circles' In Namibia Grasslands Remain A Mystery To Scientists
Wildfire Devastates Colorado | TPM Media

Penn State president agreed not to report Sandusky abuse, emails suggest | World news | guardian.co.uk Graham Spanier allegedly failed to report abuse claims despite knowing that inaction could leave Penn State 'vulnerable' ("vulnerable" to being sued out of existence, but taxpayers will bail them out) - "The only downside for us is if the message [to Sandusky] isn't "heard" and acted upon, and we become vulnerable for not having reported it," Spanier is alleged to have written. (no "downside" for the raped children)
Joe Paterno, moral monster - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Paterno not only went along with the coverup, but in all likelihood initiated it. With luck, Paterno’s entire estate, along with whatever assets Spanier, Curley, and Schultz possess, will be confiscated and distributed to those of Sandusky’s victims who can be identified. That, at least, would be a start on the road to something resembling justice.
Jerry Sandusky Cover Up: More Disturbing Emails Released
Paterno May Have Influenced Decision Not to Report Sandusky, E-Mails Indicate - NYTimes.com

Ann Curry's 'Today' Exit: Steve Capus, NBC News President, Says 'We Gave Her A Year To Prove Herself' Curry had faltered in the cooking segments, movie star interviews and fluffy features that make up a large portion of "Today." "I think her real passion is built around reporting on international stories," (NBC's real priorities: "fluff")
Amazon.co.uk: Customer Reviews: Veet for Men Hair Removal Gel Creme 200 ml

This would have the added advantage that they could then us this force when they spot transgressor like girls that wear their skirts too low (Mirachi-religous Zionists) or too high. since they have a shared value with Egypt and Iran they could actual join the Iranian or Egyptian Army. This would make them a much more significant threat to the Zionist entity. In this way they could form a country that would make Dante's Inferno look benign and mild in comparison.
'Black boxes' to monitor all internet and phone data - Channel 4 News Internet and phone firms are preparing to install "black boxes" to monitor UK internet and phone traffic, and decode encrypted messages - including Facebook and GMail messages.
Did Twitter Just Deliver Third Party Client Apps A Death Blow? | TPM Idea Lab After half-a-decade of allowing third-party software developers to build applications for viewing Twitter, in addition to other social networks or options, the San Francisco-based microblogging company is now cracking down on those very same developers, who arguably made Twitter more popular in the first place.
YouTube Is Developing a Secret Weapon Against the Internet's Worst Commenters | Wired Business | Wired.com Long considered home to the worst commenters on the internet — racist, cruel, idiotic, nonsensical, and barely literate — YouTube is in the process of upgrading its comment system in order to better tame its most loathsome members.

062912
UK recession deeper than thought | Business | guardian.co.uk Revised official data shows UK GDP shrank 0.4% in the final three months of last year (austrity fail, no one could have predicted)
BBC News - Barclays boss Bob Diamond says he will not resign The boss of Barclays has insisted he will not resign after staff rigged the key lending rate between banks. (how about a long jail term?)
Owen Jones: If rigging rates isn't anti-social behaviour, what is, dude? - Commentators - Opinion - The Independent Did they ever stop, stare out of the window, and ponder the impact of their profiteering? (nothing the banksters do is "illegal")
Eurozone crisis live: Bank bailout throws lifeline to Spain and Italy | Business | guardian.co.uk

Conservatives Blame Obama For Colorado Wildfires | TPMMuckraker Some of the same people who have bashed the president as a big government, big spending liberal now say a wildfire that destroyed hundreds of homes in the conservative stronghold of Colorado Springs can be blamed on the president because he has been too slow to spend money to beef up the federal fleet of air tankers. (their heads should have exploded, but you know ...)

Supreme Court Upholds Obamacare [Updated] -- Daily Intel - (backstory: "As it sinks in that Chief Justice John Roberts just saved Obamacare, we are reminded that Senator Obama voted against confirming Roberts to the Court, that Roberts screwed up Obama's oath of office, that Obama chastised Roberts's Citizens United decision during the State of the Union address, and that Roberts responded by calling Obama's behavior "troubling."") (+attack on Federal regulaton may succeed)
Supreme Surprise Health-care reform survives another near-death experience.

Did Scalia Scare Off Roberts? - The Daily Beast (teh crazy was too much, even for Roberts)
Did John Roberts switch his vote? - Salon.com Updated: The dissents suggest the court was set to overturn Obamacare -- until Roberts suddenly changed his vote
Health Care Dissent: Here's What The Conservative Wing Wanted To Happen
John Roberts Criticism: Conservatives Continue To Attack Justice After Health Care Ruling
Drudge Smears Justice Roberts Over His Seizures | Media Matters for America (sludge report)
Jean Schmidt Reacts To Incorrect Report Of Health Care Ruling, Screams 'Yes! Yes!' (mean-Jean is a has been)
Even Romney Agrees: THE INDIVIDUAL MANDATE NOT A TAX.
Balloon Juice » You Just keep on Pushing My Love Over the Borderline Remember, this is easy turf. A couple years ago Republicans were arguing that crushing a child’s testicles was constitutional. Now they want to argue that denying your child health care when he has leukemia is constitutional. Go in for the fucking kill, liberals.
Balloon Juice » The Long, Dark Cray Time Of The Winger Soul And we’re deep into the anger phase of the winger grief over the ACA SCOTUS decision. This will probably be the longest and most obnoxious of the stages, as it’s basically been going on since Two Thousand Effing Seven.
Balloon Juice » A metaphor or two in the pages of a blue boy magazine Tullia Drives over the Corpse of her Father (despair at the NRO)
Gallup: Only 6 Percent Cite Health Care As Top Problem In U.S. | TPM Livewire (definitely a winning issue)
Twitter / rickklein: not backing down - per Whi - per Whip Cantor's office, House will vote to repeal Obamacare July 11. (screeeeeam)
David Brooks thinks that the ACA should be replaced with … lots of stuff already in the ACA | Economic Policy Institute
Wingnut Classics Illustrated | TBogg (Ben Shapiro, no exaggeration)
Political Animal - The Rationalizations And Erick Erickson made the most succinct case for the idea that the decision would immediately produce a political victory for the Right, defending the Chief Justice by saying he “probably just handed Mitt Romney the White House.”
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Divorce healthcare shock open thread scandal! - Ed, Watertown MA on June 29, 2012 10:57 AM: To all the handwringing, all I can say is look to Massachusetts. We already have a working model of how this will play out.
Balloon Juice » Just a Humble Tradesman, Trapped in a World He Never Made Thanks, NPR and NBC —you asked us to smell the grass, and you didn’t even notice it was Astroturf. Or you noticed, but you didn’t want us to (they don't know how he got into their rolodexes)
Maybe Obamacare Isn’t So Bad for Restaurants After All -- Grub Street Philadelphia
Politwoops - Deleted tweets from politicians ("obamacare")

The Volokh Conspiracy CJ Roberts’ opinion is the first in Supreme Court history to find that a law which is “necessary” is not proper
NFIB Roundup - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Limbaugh Vents On Supreme Court Over Stolen Valor Act Ruling: "I Don't Know If They Legalized Pedophilia Or Not" | Media Matters for America -if you want to understand what a militarized society looks like, look at the angry fat man comparing faking military decoration to raping children.

Romney: Students Should Get ‘As Much Education As They Can Afford' | ThinkProgress
Congressional Black Caucus Forces Vote On Darrell Issa's Treatment Of Eric Holder ... 24 Democrats siding with all Republicans (the 17 Dems who voted for censure + 7 more)
Rick Perry's Battle Against Federal Government Leads To More Oversight An obstinate refusal to cooperate has resulted in more, not less, federal oversight.
Sheldon Adelson Approved 'Prostitution Strategy': Fired Former Sands Executive The fired former chief executive of Las Vegas Sands Corp.'s Macau casinos alleges in court documents revealed Thursday that billionaire Sheldon Adelson personally approved of prostitution and knew of other improper activity at his company's properties in the Chinese enclave.

Bank Of America-Countrywide Merger Cost BofA $40 Billion

Harvard scientists reverse the ageing process in mice – now for humans | Science | The Guardian Harvard scientists were surprised that they saw a dramatic reversal, not just a slowing down, of the ageing in mice. Now they believe they might be able to regenerate human organs (not if Republicans have anything to say about it)

Online threat — but police raid wrong house - Technology & science - Security - msnbc.com 18-year-old was watching Food Network when door came down, stun grenade went off
evansville indiana swat raid wireless - Google Search (Evansville punk PD gets their stormtroopers a lot more publicity than they bargained for; subsearch: "threat matrix")

062812
“Please God. Please make it stop.” | natasha smith I have been forced to leave Cairo prematurely following a horrific sexual and physical attack in Tahrir Square (Islamicists)

Can Bob Diamond hang on after Barclays Libor scandal? | Business | The Guardian The outside world will want to know why no director of Barclays has offered his resignation - a voluntary waiving of boardroom bonuses is woefully inadequate
George Osborne statement on Barclays scandal: Politics live blog | Politics | guardian.co.uk ONS says recession deeper than originally thought • Ed Miliband on Barclays scandal
Bob Diamond stands firm against MPs' calls he forgo his bonus | Business | guardian.co.uk New Barclays boss says time for apologies is over • Diamond will decide with family whether to accept bonus (i.e.: fuck you)

Phone Hacking: Man Arrested On Corruption Charges the man, a former employee for the National Health Service, was arrested on suspicion of corruption and suspicion of conspiracy to cause misconduct in a public office.

Supreme Court Health Care Decision: Individual Mandate Survives
Health Care Dissent: Here's What The Conservative Wing Wanted To Happen The dissent tosses out the entire health care law, dismissing the case for it as "feeble" and a "vast judicial overreach." It argues that "against a mountain of evidence," its backers offer only the "flimsiest of indications to the contrary." Strangely, the dissenting justices argue that even constitutional provisions must be ruled unconstitutional because "the Act’s other provisions would not have been enacted without" it central elements, the mandate and the Medicaid provision. The justices never reveal how they know what would have happened in the alternate reality they posit.
Obama Believed Early Reports That Supreme Court Had Declared Individual Mandate Unconstitutional (because all the WH TVs are tuned to Fox)
Supreme Court Health Care Ruling: CNN, Fox News Wrong On Individual Mandate (video)
The Volokh Conspiracy » Was Scalia’s Dissent Originally a Majority Opinion?
John Roberts Saves Us All -- Daily Intel - "The Constitution In Exile" — that it would interpret the Constitution to require right-wing economic policy. A second, and darker, fear was that five Republican-appointed justices would concoct a jury-rigged ruling in order to win a huge battle that its party had lost in Congress — that wildly partisan Bush v. Gore–style rulings would now become regular features of the political scene.
John Roberts Outrages Conservatives In Health Care Ruling
Supreme Court Health Care Decision Preserves Biggest Expansion Of Coverage In 45 Years
Obamacare, PCIP Beneficiaries Who Feared Losing Insurance Cheer Supreme Court Decision
Fox's Losing Battle To Declare Health Care Reform Unconstitutional | Media Matters for America
Top 6 hyperbolic responses to the health care ruling | The Raw Story
Neoconfederate Apocalypse Averted - Lawyers, Guns & Money
DeMint: 'Obamacare' Still Unconstitutional — States Should Refuse To Implement It | TPM Livewire (see above)

The Radicalism (And Hackery) of the Health Care Cases Dissenters - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Ginsburg’s Concurrence: The Gift that Keeps Giving - Lawyers, Guns & Money
How far the four dissenters were willing to go - The Maddow Blog (wanted to rule the 20th Century unconstitutional)
Is Roberts The Real Swing Vote On The Affordable Care Act? (Adam calls it)
A Tale of Two Justices John Roberts joined with the Court's liberals to uphold the Affordable Care Act—but he left a political weapon in his opinion for Republicans to use in the future.
Obama Supreme Court Reaction - The Progressive President Speaks Out. About Damn Time. - Esquire To hang your fortune on chance.
CNN’s Finest Hour - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money CNN, why do you still exist? Your ratings are garbage and rotting daily. You don’t represent any constituency except for Beltway elites. You cover up for shoddy reporting and hackish analysis by investing in new technology that are meant to help us forget how bad you are
AP orders staff to stop taunting news outlets for getting health care ruling wrong | JIMROMENESKO.COM
DISBELIEF! - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Fine. You die of dick cancer before the grue can eat you. You are lucky not to have had access to affordable health care or you would have made horrible gurgling noises as you were crushed by its fearsome jaws.
Mitt Romney On Supreme Court Health Care Ruling: We Must 'Replace President Obama' (because affordable healthcare is an outrage)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » The Dumbest Thing I’ve Read Today Liberals aren’t trying to discredit all conservative thought- they took that thought, the individual mandate, a conservative idea for decades, and ENSHRINED IT INTO LAW. You know who, in this case, is trying to discredit conservative thought? Conservatives, who suddenly decided their idea sucked when Democrats adopted it.
Scalia and Limbaugh trash Supreme Court immigration ruling - latimes.com

Fast And Furious Conspiracy Theory Pushed By GOP Lawmakers
Eric Holder Contempt Resolution Over Operation Fast And Furious Passes House by a vote of 255-67. One Democrat voted present. 17 Democrats voted for the resolution, while two Republicans voted against it. (17 Dems are actually crazy Republicans)
Eric Holder Contempt: Attorney General Says Vote Was Politically Motivated (not to mention totally insane)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Next up for the GOP: A lynching party for Eric Holder

Doubling Down - NYTimes.com Actually, has even one prominent economist or economic prognosticator who got everything wrong admitted it, or shown even a hint of humility? Has anyone perhaps hinted that the policy recommendations he was making might not be right, given the total failure of events to go the way he predicted? I can’t think of one.
JPMorgan Trading Loss May Reach $9 Billion - NYTimes.com (Dimon lied through his teeth? again?)
Eschaton: Rounding Error Still he's the bestest and the brightest and the smartest of all the bankers and his bank is the bestest and the bestest run and the promise of perpetual bailout and the presence of the free money bazooka from the government has nothing to do with any of that so stop saying that shut up Shut up Shut Up SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP.
Humdrum and High-Skilled Jobs Are Going Unfilled - NYTimes.com (try paying them something? and ... you suck, NYT)

The Volokh Conspiracy Freedom of Speech and Knowing Falsehoods - But lurking behind this was a more complicated 4-2-3 split that was in some ways a 5-4 split in favor of treating lies as generally less constitutionally protected (only Fox and Repubicans can legally lie)

Thomas Friedman's New State of Grace | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone
Tom Friedman's Volcano Wakeup Call | The New Republic
New York Times Introduces Chinese-Language News Site

Nora Ephron Dead: Remembering Her Journalism Career
1996 Commencement | Wellesley College - Nora Ephron '62 addressed the graduates in 1996.

Rudy Eugene: No Bath Salts, Only Marijuana Found In Face-Eater Toxicology Tests - the only drug detected in the lifeless body of infamous Miami face-chewer Rudy Eugene was marijuana. (war on pot)

Internet Girls, Mad Men, and Why the 'Greatest' Generation Wasn't - Sorkin is a middle-aged rich white man, and his nostalgia for the greatness of the 1940s reminded me of Foster Friess, another rich white guy who also recently complained that things were better when he was younger.
Birth - YouTube

Police: 'Threat matrix' dictated SWAT team response at Powell Avenue home » Evansville Courier & Press
Getting someone's IP address can be as simple as parking nearby » Evansville Courier & Press
Pro Libertate: "Showtime Syndrome" in Evansville: Online Trash Talk about Cops Triggers SWAT Raid None of this was necessary, but it certainly looked bitchin' on camera. “The front door was open,” a shaken and most likely disgusted Ira Milan commented later to the Evansville Courier-Press. “It’s not like anyone was in there hiding. To bring a SWAT team seems a little excessive.” - The role played by the “Threat Matrix” in justifying a military raid on an elderly couple’s home underscores the distant but unmistakable kinship between domestic paramilitary operations and “counter-terrorism” strikes conducted by the military and CIA overseas. The “Matrix” operates in a fashion similar to the formula used to justify “signature strikes” against suspected “militants” in countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen.
SWAT team throws flashbangs, raids wrong home due to open WiFi network | Ars Technica Whoops! Those anonymous Internet threats came from up the block.
SWAT tries to take down Internet meanie; raids grandma instead | _
Evansville man claims he, friend are suspects in police threat case » Evansville Courier & Press
Do your cops know about the 4th amendment? - Topix

062712
Syrian violence escalates as UN prepares for conference | World news | guardian.co.uk Russia and China, which had formerly vetoed action against Assad, expected to attend Geneva event (bloody, authoritarian dictators need to hang together)
Russia promises 'harsh' response over progress of Sergei Magnitsky bill | World news | guardian.co.uk Reprisals threatened over Senate committee's approval of law designed to close borders to officials linked to death of lawyer (Putin throws a hissy)

AFP: Spain recession deepens in Q2, says Bank (solution: give more money to banks!)
Spanish Officials Hailed Banks as the Crisis Built - NYTimes.com As Spain edged closer to a real estate and banking crisis that led to its recent bank bailout, Spanish financial leaders in influential positions mostly played down concerns that something might go terribly wrong. The optimism of Spanish central bankers who went on to top jobs at the International Monetary Fund echoes the attitudes of officials in the United States who misjudged the force of a housing collapse several years ago that crippled banks and the economy. (they always fail upward)

Barclays chief Bob Diamond gives up 2012 bonus over £290m fine | Business | guardian.co.uk Top executives forgo bonuses after bank fined £290m for 'serious, widespread' role in manipulating crucial interest rates (see, they never go to jail, they only risk their outrageous bonuses)

Colorado Springs Waldo Canyon wildfire forces thousands to flee flames | World news | guardian.co.uk Barack Obama to visit Colorado on Friday as more residents told to be prepared to evacuate at a moment's notice if blaze grows (big government to the rescue)

Jonathan Cohn: The Supreme Court's Possible Obamacare Decisions: A Primer | The New Republic
Balloon Juice » True Patriots Are Happy to Pay the Price of Freedom Drum’s point is that, overall, the ACA is probably such a good deal that a mandate will be unnecessary in practice. That’s why we needed two years of screaming about socialism and all the other boogity-woogity bullshit that’s going to culminate in tomorrow’s unbiased, disinterested ruling from the apolitical Supreme Court. Republicans had to convince their group of base voters who would benefit from the ACA that this is such a good deal that they should be ashamed to take it.
E.J. Dionne Jr.: Justice Scalia should resign - The Washington Post Justice Antonin Scalia needs to resign from the Supreme Court.
Democrats go AWOL in class war - Jonathan Martin - politico.com
The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal - Fortune Features A Fortune investigation reveals that the ATF never intentionally allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. How the world came to believe just the opposite is a tale of rivalry, murder, and political bloodlust.

Why Romney ducks issues - PostPartisan - The Washington Post So why doesn’t Romney differentiate himself from Bush? It’s pretty simple, and it gets back to what drives much of the Romney program: fear of conservatives. Or to put it another way: party constraints.
WaPo After Meeting With Romney Camp About Retraction: 'We Are Very Confident In Our Reporting' | TPM Livewire (turns out Romney/Bain really did outsource!)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Let them die! We need to accept the principle that sometimes poor people will die just because they are poor.
The Right’s Health Care Principles - quote from widely read and respected libertarian economist Tyler Cowen
Balloon Juice » Americans Trust Obama More than Romney to Deal With Alien Invasion ("undocumented extra-terrestrials")
Platform of the Texas Republican Party - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » It’s Official, There Will Be No More Sluts in South Carolina Worry no more, the override vote failed in the House, so a state with a teen pregnancy rate higher than the national average [pdf] won’t need to worry about any of those sluts thinking they can have unprotected sex without the risk of getting HPV. The only education they need is mandated abstinence-stressing sex ed [pdf], which as we all know is something health agencies should be making parents think their child has to have.

The Daddy Wars | The Nation

062612
Mohamed Morsi spends first day in office in discussion with military | World news | The Guardian Tahrir Square empty as Egypt's new president talks cabinet selection with generals, but many fear his powers are curtailed
Turkey threatens Syria with military retaliation over downed jet | World news | guardian.co.uk Turkish PM also warns that armed forces will respond to any Syrian encroachment on the border
Taliban leader bans polio vaccinations in protest at drone strikes | World news | guardian.co.uk The Taliban have banned an anti-polio campaign in Pakistan, accusing health workers of spying for the US (more collateral damage)
Mumbai terror attacks suspect arrested by Indian police | World news | guardian.co.uk Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari is thought to have helped co-ordinate the 2008 attacks from Pakistan using his local knowledge
Failed War On Drugs Feeding HIV/AIDs, Former Leaders Say The war on drugs is a failure that is fuelling the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, according to a new report from an international panel of experts.
Religious circumcision of kids a crime - German court — RT A German court has ruled that parents can’t have their sons circumcised on religious grounds in a move which has angered Muslim and Jewish groups in the country ... Neither does religious freedom, which is protected by law in Germany, give grounds for such decisions to be taken for the children, the ruling says.

FT Alphaville » The Spanish bank buy-back riddle So, this is a bit odd. Why would some Spanish banks, which have such high capital needs right now, have been engaged in fairly significant share repurchases over the past few months? (betting on infinite bailouts for their evil deeds, of course)
What was Spain supposed to have done? | Martin Wolf's Exchange Spain made only one big mistake: joining the euro. Without that, it would probably now look more like the UK: yes, the economy would be in serious trouble, but its exchange rate and its long-term interest rates would both be far lower. After all, its fiscal position is even now no worse than the UK’s, as I note in my blog post here. But reconsidering that choice is no longer possible. Now it needs help to survive the crisis. Will Spain get enough of what it needs? I doubt it.
UK government borrowing higher than expected as income tax receipts fall | Business | guardian.co.uk ONS figures showing borrowing of £18bn in May – up from £15bn in same month in 2011 – are blow for George Osborne (who could have predicted people with no jobs would pay less taxes?)
Cameron's big cut 'idea' will only backfire on the Tories | Polly Toynbee | Comment is free | The Guardian Attacking the under-25s might help poll ratings for now, but the real causes of high housing benefit costs lie elsewhere (pulling up the ladder after his free education)

News Corporation confirms it is considering a split into two companies | Media | guardian.co.uk Rupert Murdoch's firm will look into separating publishing assets and film and TV businesses into two listed companies
News Corp Spinoff: Media Giant Considers Splitting Into 2 Companies

Bradley Manning prosecutors ordered to explain evidence disclosures to judge | World news | guardian.co.uk Judge orders military to hand over damage reports and explain steps it has or has not taken to share evidence with defence

Alito Stands Up For Mandatory Life Sentences For Juvenile Murderers | TPMMuckraker (truly evil people)
Arizona police sound alarm after court justices uphold immigration checks | World news | guardian.co.uk Police say relations with Latinos could be badly damaged after supreme court allows 'show me your papers' clause to stand
Political Animal - Pay Those Bills On Time Or Forfeit Right To Vote A credit report to regain the right to vote? That’s about the most revealing reflection of latter-day Republican values I’ve seen in a while (re-defining voting as a "privilige")
Utah’s Orrin Hatch Faces Less Anger From Tea Party in Primary - NYTimes.com “There isn’t the same anti-incumbent, anti-establishment fervor that existed in 2010,” said LaVarr Webb, a Republican political consultant. “The economy has changed, and people are feeling better.” (because the Bush crash/recession was all Obama's fault)
Arizona Immigration Law: GOP Criticisms Disputed By Data Saying Crime, Border Crossings Have Dropped
The Italian Job | TBogg Remember this following Newt & Callista Gingrich’s Multi-State Book-Sellin’ and, Oh Yeah, Campaignin’ Spree ?

OECD: US economy is improving but recovery is far from complete | Business | guardian.co.uk Report suggests economy has 'gained momentum' but says long-term unemployment and income equality must be solved
Congress Said to Delay Automatic Budget Cuts Until March - Bloomberg
Are Military Contractors Buying Articles in the Post Now? | Beat the Press research that was not paid for by the National Association of Manufacturers shows that military spending actually creates fewer jobs per dollar than other types of government spending.
Private-Sector Unions Are the Real Battle - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Yglesias summarizes the horrible federal court injunction that retroactively applies new rules for airline organizing - I don’t see how retroactively applying the law is legal except in the sense that it agrees with current Republican orthodoxy which is good enough for most of the federal courts and the Supreme Court in 2012.

Teresa Sullivan Reinstated - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Helen Dragas: The leader who forced out U-Va.’s president - The Washington Post (even looks like a snake)

1 is 2 Many | The White House
Nearly 1 in 5 Women in U.S. Survey Report Sexual Assault - NYTimes.com (12/14/2011)
One of these things is not like the other | Toy Soldiers

mixed metro: visualizing diversity and segregation in cities

Lackland Air Force Base Rocked By Sex Scandal The most serious accusations surround an Air Force staff sergeant scheduled to face a court-martial in July on charges that include rape and multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault. The other three defendants were charged with lesser crimes ranging from sexual misconduct to adultery. All of the defendants were assigned to turn raw recruits into airmen in eight weeks of basic training.
Courthouse News Service A Tampa rape victim can sue the Hillsborough County Sheriff for allowing a jail guard to refuse to give her a prescribed emergency contraception pill because it was against the guard's religious beliefs, a federal judge ruled.
Loretta Robinson, Grieving Mother, Billed For Cleanup After Son Killed By Undocumented Drunk Driver (VIDEO) A South Carolina woman faced tragedy last June when a drunk driver killed her oldest son. But the still-grieving mother, Loretta Robinson, is now being billed for the various charges associated with the accident, including a $50 charge to clean her son's blood off the road.

Mad Men: “It’s not your tooth that’s rotten,” it’s “The Phantom.”

BBC News - Facebook's email switch prompts criticism by users Facebook is facing a backlash from users after replacing email addresses listed in members' contacts with those provided by its @facebook.com system.
Orbitz Guides Mac Users To Pricier Hotels: WSJ Report

062512
Mohamed Morsi vows to be 'leader for all Egyptians' | World news | guardian.co.uk Muslim Brotherhood's presidential winner declared a message of peace, while vowing to protect citizens' rights
Syria shot at second Turkish jet, Ankara claims | World news | The Guardian Turkey raises stakes over the downing of military jet claiming Syria also shot at one of its search and rescue planes
Elliot Lake mall search suspension prompts shock and anger - Sudbury - CBC News

Eurozone crisis live: Cyprus applies for EU bailout | Business | guardian.co.uk Greece's finance minister resigns due to ill health • Moody's expected to downgrade Spanish banks
Spain formally asks for 62 billion euros of bank aid - Jun. 25, 2012

Jimmy Carter savages US foreign policy over drone strikes | World news | The Guardian Former president calls on Washington to regain moral leadership in wake of drone strikes and targeted assassinations (drone-boy considers targeting Carter)

The Source of Barack Obama’s Power to Trick Us Comes from Our Willingness to Be Tricked « naked capitalism - his career in the Illinois state Senate was based on working for billionaire developers to destroy poor neighborhoods ... The truth is that he’s a narcissistic sociopath dressed up as a cool corporate brand.

How Republicans made it possible for the Supreme Court to rule against the mandate
Supreme Court Reverses Anti-Citizens United Ruling From Montana
Bernie Sanders Eviscerates the Supreme Court for Overturning Montana Citizens United Ban
US justices block key parts of Arizona law but uphold immigration checks | World news | guardian.co.uk Obama wins partial victory on SB1070 law, but supreme court leaves in place controversial 'show-me-your-papers' measure (SC loves Nazi tactics)
Analysis: Conservative divisions give Obama big win in Arizona immigration case | Politics Blog | an SFGate.com blog
BREAKING: Supreme Court Rejects Challenge To 'Show Me Your Papers,' Strikes Down Part Of Arizona Immigration Law | ThinkProgress
SB 1070 and the Scalia Clown Show - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Supreme Court Strikes Most of Arizona Immigration Law, Making Scalia Very Angry
Justice Antonin Scalia Rages Against Obama On Immigration | TPMDC
Antonin Scalia, ranting old man - Supreme Court - Salon.com The conservative judge turned a dissenting opinion into a screed against Obama -- and embarrassed the Court (touch of the Heimers?)
Court: No more life without parole for juveniles – usatoday.com (you know where Roberts, Thomas and Scalia, Alito were)

For Wealthy Romney Donors, Up Close and Personal Access - NYTimes.com
Mitt Romney’s Fund-raisers Seem to Be Having a Nice Time in Utah -- Daily Intel
The story behind Mitt Romney’s work with Michael Milken: “It was fun while it lasted.” - The Boston Globe The man who would help provide the money was none other than the famed junk-bond king Michael Milken.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » If Halperin and Politico say it’s not working, it’s working Romney has more of a Bain problem than the Acela Corridor realizes
Share the Wealth - NYTimes.com (what the fuck is wrong with the Emmanuel family?)

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Si, Senor I’d understand publishing this if there was some plausible way to paint Campbell Brown as a nonpartisan moderate or whatever, but there’s not. She’s Dan Senor’s fucking wife. (NYT kisses Campbell Fucking Brown's ass)
Political Animal - Concern troll of the day: Campbell Brown one of Mitt Romney’s top advisers. This is not mentioned anywhere in the op ed. It damn well ought to be.

East Coast Sea Level Rise Accelerating In 'Hotspot' Area, Report Warns - rates of sea level rise in a "hotspot" along the U.S. Atlantic Coast are increasing about three to four times more than the global average and could "increase the vulnerability of coastal cities to flooding, and beaches and wetlands to deterioration." (Boston drowning)
Infinite-capacity wireless vortex beams carry 2.5 terabits per second | ExtremeTech - These twisted signals use orbital angular momentum (OAM) to cram much more data into a single stream.

The Great Abdication - NYTimes.com Suddenly normally calm economists are talking about 1931, the year everything fell apart ... But no. Europe’s “solution” was to lend money to the Spanish government, and tell that government to bail out its own banks. It took financial markets no time at all to figure out that this solved nothing, that it just put Spain’s government more deeply in debt. And the European crisis is now deeper than ever.
Getting Away with It by Paul Krugman and Robin Wells | The New York Review of Books

Larry Brinkin Arrested: San Francisco Gay Rights Icon Accused Of Child Pornography Possession
Sari Eckler Cooper: Does Cheating Automatically Mean Divorce? Surprisingly, many couples that face infidelity do end up remaining together

The Next Step for Penn State by Danny Vinik | Washington Monthly As Daniel wrote repeatedly, this abhorrent cover-up was a result of money and football: An expensive ruling against the university will not undo Sandusky’s horrible crimes, but it may serve as a deterrent against future institutions acting as Penn State did.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Bust Out the Colposcope, It’s a Party in Charleston serious fiscal conservative Nikki Haley vetoed a bill that she once co-sponsored to pay for HPV vaccinations for middle schoolers in South Carolina ... She’s just pandering to a bunch of dumb shits/Republican primary voters who think that giving girls a vaccination against a STD will turn them into sluts.

Thomas Friedman Writes His Only Column Again
This Is Literally Thomas Friedman’s House

Nadal Touts $525,000 Richard Mille Watch While Playing in the French Open Quarterfinals | Crown & Caliber Blog (messaging)

FishbowlDC Interview With Ex-Gawker Jim Newell - FishbowlDC
The fanless heatsink: Silent, dust-immune, and almost ready for prime time | ExtremeTech
How to surf safely: From LastPass to tin foil hats, and everything in between | ExtremeTech
GoDaddy Online Storage Scam: Advertise unlimited file size in "Ours vs. Theirs" comparison, in fact limit is 1GB : technology

062412
Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi declared president of Egypt | World news | guardian.co.uk Egyptians celebrate while neighbours react with guarded optimism to appointment of first elected Islamist candidate
Islamist Morsi named Egypt's presidential - Houston Chronicle
Sudan edges towards Arab Spring | World news | The Guardian Protests against austerity measures lead to dozens of arrests

APNewsBreak: Vatican gets Fox media adviser The Vatican has brought in the Fox News correspondent in Rome to help improve its communications strategy as it tries to cope with years of communications blunders and one of its most serious scandals in decades, officials said Saturday (Satan will help)

Tony Blair calls on Germany to back 'grand plan' to save eurozone | Politics | guardian.co.uk Future of the euro rests on Germany being prepared to accept the debts of one as the debts of all, former prime minister says

Bradley Manning lawyers accuse prosecutors of misleading judge | World news | guardian.co.uk In a motion ahead of Monday's pre-trial hearing, civilian lawyer says prosecutors are still denying defence access to documents

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Killing Social Security in lame duck session (Obama's "grand plan")
Deficit Chart | Flickr - Photo Sharing! (why granny must die)

“Mr. President: How and Why the Founders Created a Chief Executive” by Ray Raphael - The Washington Post - “a bad edition of a Polish king.”

Mitt Romney Visits Subsidized Farms, Knocks Big Government Spending - The Daily Beast In front of federally subsidized cows, Romney reiterated his opposition to big-government spending. Wayne Barrett speaks to the cows’ owners, who say they dislike Obama even while they take government money (the Curt Schilling syndrome: small government!)
Issa admits no evidence White House involved in Fast and Furious | The Raw Story (no steenking evidnece)
Scalia's scary thinking - Supreme Court - Salon.com The Supreme Court justice actually believes the things he says and writes, even though they make no sense

The Left’s Big Sellout: How The ACLU & Human Rights Groups Quietly Exterminated Labor Rights - By Mark Ames - The eXiled
Political Animal - How the human rights industry betrayed its history and sold out labor
S.H.A.M.E. Profile: Freakonomics Author Steven Levitt Is An Anti-Labor, Pro-Prison Milton Friedman Extremist - By Yasha Levine - The eXiled ("University of Chicago economist" who could have guessed?)

10 Things You Would Miss About Obamacare | ThinkProgress
Americans renouncing US citizenship to avoid stiff tax bills - NYPOST.com As many as 8,000 US citizens are projected by immigration officials to renounce in 2012, or about 154 a week, versus 3,805 in 2011, or about 73 per week (job creators)

S.H.A.M.E. Releases Profile on Jeffrey Goldberg: Prison Camp Guard, War Booster & Israeli Apartheid Apologist - By Mark Ames & Yasha Levine - The eXiled - “In five years . . . I believe that the coming invasion of Iraq will be remembered as an act of profound morality.”

Members of Congress trade in companies while making laws that affect those same firms - The Washington Post (o rly)

When My Crazy Father Actually Lost His Mind - NYTimes.com

Politics - Elizabeth Wurtzel - 1% Wives Are Helping Kill Feminism and Make the War on Women Possible - The Atlantic
Feminism + Housewifery
Men with Stay-at-Home Wives More Likely to be Sexist in the Workplace “husbands embedded in traditional and neo-traditional marriages (relative to husbands embedded in modern ones) exhibit attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that undermine the role of women in the workplace.”
National - Gayle Tzemach Lemmon - 'I'm Not Your Wife!' A New Study Points to a Hidden Form of Sexism - The Atlantic Men may be subconsciously looking at women through the lenses of their own marriages. ("subconscious" = "stupid")
CDC and pregnancy rates: contraception working, women delaying motherhood - teen pregnancy rates have been declining lately, mostly due to improved contraception use. (Republicans will fix that problem)
Drinking While Pregnant: Not The Worst Thing. So, you know, back off a woman who just wants a glass of wine. Or the runny egg. Or the deli meat. Or the soft cheese. Or the tuna sushi. Or the cup of coffee. Life is a balance between risk and reward; maybe just put the best public health information possible out there, and let preggos decide for themselves what to consume and which risks are worth taking.
Can We Agree That “Having It All” Is A Worse-Than-Useless Standard? - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Insane Christian woman suffocates her 6-week old baby with pages from bible - Detroit liberal | Examiner.com

How to Choose Summer Reading for Students - NYTimes.com (shocking discovery: reading trash doesn't make you smart)
Abraham Lincoln Hunted Vampires. Chester A. Arthur Chased Sasquatches.

Utah girl jailed and strip searched for hair-cutting prank | The Raw Story - Utah’s 7th District Juvenile Judge Scott Johansen (is a child-abuser)

The Story of 1 - Terry Jones - YouTube
Taxi To The Dark Side - BBC Full Length Documentary - YouTube

Discovery Of Missing Higgs Boson Particle Could Be Announced July 4 | TPM Idea Lab

062312
Ankara vows to take 'necessary action' after Syria shoots down Turkish jet | World news | guardian.co.uk Syria claims Turkish F-4 aircraft was flying over Syrian territory when it was brought down

Mexico elections: failure of drugs war leaves nation at the crossroads | World news | The Observer On 1 July, Mexicans will vote in vital presidential elections. But the issue no candidate dares to address is the cartel violence tearing the nation apart. Diplomats say the time has come to challenge drug policy – but can they get the US to agree? (Obama loves his war on (some) drugz)

The Euro Is Flat - NYTimes.com In other words, as far as underlying economic inequalities are concerned, the EZ is no worse than the US.
Interest Rates: Varieties of Error - NYTimes.com
Economist Paul Krugman on Germany's 'Whips and Scourges' | PBS NewsHour

Obama rebukes Congress and says 'no excuse' for inaction on student loans | World news | guardian.co.uk President criticises lawmakers for failing to strike a deal to prevent students seeing an interest hike on their college loans

Supporters Quietly Plot Teresa Sullivan's Return as President of UVa - The Ticker - The Chronicle of Higher Education
The UVA Board of Visitors - Who are these people that ousted Teresa Sullivan? The Post has a nice graphic. Every single member is a businessperson. Including Pat Robertson’s son - As the United States goes through its own Shock Doctrine, capitalist-caused crises to the economy become excuses to give more power to the capitalists at the expense of working people (+she wrote a book with Liz Warren!)
Who's who on U-Va.'s governing board - The Washington Post

Florida Worries as Growth Threatens Its Freshwater Springs - NYTimes.com (big ag poisons FL water; no regulation! cities will run dry)

Rep. Steve Cohen Grills DEA Administrator - YouTube (disgusting hacks and liars)
Polis Questions DEA on Marijuana Policy - YouTube

Jerry Sandusky found guilty on 45 counts, led from court in handcuffs
Jerry Sandusky on suicide watch after being found guilty of child sex abuse | World news | guardian.co.uk Sandusky being kept away from other inmates as precautionary measure, lawyer says, as focus turns to Penn State failings
Sandusky Verdict Reaction: 'Everyone Around Here Thought He Was Guilty'
Political Animal - The jury finds Jerry Sandusky totally guilty (Penn State will get the shit sued out of it; taxpayers will pay the whole bill)
Et tu, Mr. Destructo? // So you’ve decided to make a Sandusky prison rape joke… Leaving aside the irony of embracing rape as a means of punishing it, it points up how unsurprising widespread tolerance of the abuses at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and Bagram really are: for a depressingly large number of citizens, the torture that already exists in American prisons is merely value-added.
Why don’t sexual assault victims speak out? I was molested three times—here’s why I never told my family or the police. - Slate Magazine - I was sexually assaulted three times before I was 20. Here’s why I never told my family or the police (molested by Father Robert Drinan, an anti-Vietnam War, pro-choice priest and member of WLPO)
Statement From Father Robert Drinan’s Family on Emily Yoffe’s Article “My Molesters” (Drinan family non-denial denial)

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Bold Sirs VandeHei/Harris Ran Away…
Politico Writer Points Out Romney’s Caucasophilia, Loses Hunger Games-esque Battle For Dominance
Joe Williams Politico - Things in Politico That Make Me Want to Guzzle Antifreeze, Part the Infinity - Esquire - . A ludicrous Tinker Toy news outlet stamped its tiny feet, and then the assembled mourners over at Andrew Breitbart's Mausoleum Of Unemployables got themselves outraged, and Politico folded like a cheap suit
Politico suspends Joe Williams over Romney remarks | jimromenesko.com
Lou Dobbs' Sneering, Fact-Challenged Interview With Jose Antonio Vargas | Media Matters for America
Anti-Obama Artist Strikes Again Jon McNaughton, the artist who depicted Obama burning the Constitution, has a new painting. He's aiming to sell it to the highest bidder, between $50,000 and $100,000.

The Newsroom HBO Review - Sorkin's The Newsroom Is What Never Was - Esquire

Rio+20, The Unhappy Environmental Summit (world governments decide to set themselves on fire)
Roman jewellery found in ancient Japan tomb - Yahoo! News a sign the empire's influence may have reached the edge of Asia.
Negative radiation pressure in light could make some tractor beams real, we're already sucked in -- Engadget

Congressional Staffer Says SOPA Protests 'Poisoned The Well', Failure To Pass Puts Internet At Risk | Techdirt (anything big content doesn't like "puts the internet at risk")
PayPal Bans BitTorrent Friendly VPN Provider | TorrentFreak As a result, thousands of dollars belonging to the company have been frozen.

062212
Saudi Arabia plans to fund Syria rebel army | World news | The Guardian Command centre in Turkey organising weapon supply to opposition
Turkish jet crashes amid claims it was shot down by Syria | World news | The Guardian Tayyip Erdogan unable to confirm F-4 warplane was shot down as Turkish and Syrian rescuers search for two pilots
CIA Secret Prison: Polish Leaders Break Silence About Black Site For years, the notion that Poland could allow the CIA to operate a secret prison in a remote lake region was treated as a crackpot idea by the country's politicians, journalists and the public. A heated political debate this week reveals how dramatically the narrative has changed (oh, Bush tortured?)

Gas prices could hit $2.50 a gallon by November, analyst predicts - South Florida Business Journal he cause is two-fold, he said: The price of oil has fallen sharply recently due to overproduction in Saudi Arabia, and falling demand due to Europe’s economic slowdown is also a factor.

Eurozone big four pledge 1% of GDP to underwrite banks and stimulate growth | Business | The Guardian But leaders of France, Germany Italy and Spain fail to endorse full plan to protect countries under attack by markets

Imperialist Doublethink — Crooked Timber A rather remarkable editorial on the Assange-Ecuador story from the Washington Post today (invade Ecuador and bomb the shit out of their children)

Barack Obama promises Latino leaders he will push for immigration reform | World news | guardian.co.uk Temporary measure for young workers earns president a standing ovation as he urges Congress to tackle legislation
Most Don't Know Obama's Religion A new Gallup poll finds that just 34% of Americans know that President Obama is Christian, while 11% say he's Muslim and 44% don't know. Meanwhile, Americans are more likely to know Mitt Romney's religion, with most Americans correctly saying Romney is a Mormon and a smaller 33% saying they don't know.

Corporate Profits Are At An All-Time High | ThinkProgress
Begin the Thawing of James McReynolds - Lawyers, Guns & Money - Should the Supreme Court, as the InTrade prophets suggest, strike down the PPACA the Chamber of Commerce will have completed a perfect term at the Supreme Court ... Such as, for example, a specious argument that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau violates the sacred constitutional right of Republicans to water down consumer-protection regulations into meaninglessness

TEDxTheEvergreenStateCollege - David Roberts - Climate Change is Simple - YouTube (wingnuts don't believe in "sea level")
Rio+20 summit must move world beyond 'grow now, clean up later' | Environment | guardian.co.uk The Earth summit has to ensure sustainability is at the heart of growth models – the swelling global population depends on it
How we die (in one chart) The New England Journal of Medicine looks through 200 years of back issues to understand how we die differently (infection down, cancer up)

Catholic church official convicted of child endangerment in Philadelphia | World news | guardian.co.uk Monsignor William Lynn is the first church official in the US convicted of mishandling sex-abuse claims (extradite BF Law)
Four ultra-Orthodox men charged with attempted bribery in abuse case | World news | guardian.co.uk The men deny charges including bribing a witness and witness tampering in the case of an alleged child molester
Sandusky accused of abuse by adopted son; jurors meet | Reuters
Michael Reagan Compares Immigration Policy Shift To Penn State Child Sex Abuse Scandal | Media Matters for America

Half Of States Won't Protect Women's Contraception No Matter How The Supreme Court Rules | ThinkProgress Twenty-two states will not offer coverage of contraception to women on the same basis as it is offered to men if the Affordable Care Act is overturned.
Anne-Marie Slaughter and the fiction of 'have-it-all' feminism | Victoria Bekiempis | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk - argues that women cannot excel both as high-powered professionals and moms in America today ("having it all"), as we have been long promised by feminists.
Why Does The Atlantic Hate Women? Why men (oh, and women, too) still can't have it all. - The Atlantic has put on its spike heels to gleefully dance on feminism’s head, this time reviving the imagery of the “mommy wars” while trotting out an astounding successful woman to bemoan her failure.
Jessica Valenti — Sad White Babies With Mean Feminist Mommies The... Sad White Babies With Mean Feminist Mommies
Men Rule Media Coverage of Women’s News - The Daily Beast In media reports on women’s issues—abortion, birth control, Planned Parenthood—men are quoted around five times more than women, a new study shows (silly little girls, just shut up)
#1is2many: Why Vice President Joe Biden made me cry today a new White House PSA today called “1 is 2 many.” The much needed PSA, featuring all men and everyone from President Obama to David Beckham calls for all of us to do our part in stopping dating violence.
Too Darn Hot - YouTube Too Darn Hot from Kiss Me Kate by Ann Miller.
Mad Men: Nostalgia, forestalled, and “The Wheel” - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Rhode Island Blows Save, Schilling Takes Loss | TBogg Right-handed asshole Curt Shilling who once said: “There can be no question our country is in the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes. I also think there can be no question that it falls on us, the individuals, to find a way out of our own personal crisis.” — Curt Schilling, February 2011
Kathryn Jean Lopez: The saddest hack - National Review - Salon.com It's time to take the National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez seriously, as depressing as that is
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids This is pretty awesome: Cindy Lake, the Acting Chair of the Clark County Republican Party (Clark County encompasses 3/4 of Nevada’s population), is a an anti-fluoride nut.

US web statistics released for May 2012: which sites dominate, and where do we go for online news? | News | guardian.co.uk Google came out top across all websites in terms of total unique visitors, with its 173 million beating second placed Facebook by over 20 million. Yahoo completed the top three, while Wikipedia came in 8th place with 76.3 million.
Call for Ray Bradbury to be honoured with internet error message | Books | guardian.co.uk A new status code to reflect internet censorship could be named after Ray Bradbury's most famous novel, Fahrenheit 451

062112
Syria crisis: colonel 'defects' in jet to Jordan - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk Syrian government reports a missing fighter jet
Espionage virus sent blueprints to China - Telegraph Computer security experts have uncovered an industrial espionage virus designed to steal blueprints for buildings, machinery and other products, and deliver them to China.

German Flash PMI - Business Insider A significant economic event has taken place in Europe today (Germany makes the astounding discovery that destroying all the jobs in Europe means no one can buy their shit)
Eurozone crisis live: Moody's expected to downgrade UK banks tonight | Business | guardian.co.uk Spain sells €2.2bn of bonds but at high cost


Drone strikes threaten 50 years of international law, says UN rapporteur | World news | guardian.co.uk US policy of using drone strikes to carry out targeted killings 'may encourage other states to flout international law' (drone-boy could give a shit about international law)

Julian Assange: Ecuador set to make decision on asylum application | Media | guardian.co.uk Ecuador's deputy foreign minister says president is considering WikiLeaks founder's application for political asylum

Yes, Iraq Definitely Had WMD, Vast Majority Of Polled Republicans Insist fully 63 percent of Republican respondents still believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded in 2003. By contrast, 27 percent of independents and 15 percent of Democrats shared that view.

Supreme Court Health Care Ruling: Individual Mandate Decision May Be Announced Thursday
Balloon Juice » Fap’n Furious
The Roger Clemens verdict and our senseless national drug hysteria - Grantland The Clemens verdict and our senseless national drug hysteria (Obama's war on drugz)

Pelosi Says 14th Amendment Makes the Debt Ceiling Unconstitutional (tells Obama to stick it to Republicans but that's out of the question)
Somebody in government finally asks a taxing question about the next war - The Washington Post At last, after 11 years of the United States at war, a few minutes of public discussion of a tax to pay for the fighting. But that would be for the next war ,,, “We basically ran that war [Iraq] on a credit card,” Leahy told Panetta (no new taxes, but wars are free)
Whiskey Fire: Assholes - It is about the Catholic Church wanting a mulligan for breaking the law because centuries of made-up shit magically make preposterous misogyny OK.
Senator Scott Brown says Obama should be ‘transparent’ in ‘Fast and Furious’ controversy - Political Intelligence - A national political and campaign blog from The Boston Globe - Boston.com “Each and every day that I’ve been a United States senator, I’ve been discussing issues, meeting on issues, in secret meetings and with kings and queens and prime ministers and business leaders and military leaders, talking, voting, working on issues every single day,” he said (well said, even if not a single word was true)
Vast Majority Of Secret Money In Presidential Race Spreads Misinformation: Report Advocates of unlimited secret political spending say it leads to a more informed electorate, but according to a new study, in reality it spreads more lies.
Study: House Republican Budget Would Raise Taxes On The Middle Class, Cut Them For Millionaires | ThinkProgress
Wayne Schmidt, Michigan GOP Lawmaker: Silencing Lisa Brown Was Like Putting A Kid In 'Timeout' (women are children in Michigan)

U.S. Stocks See Second-Biggest Drop Of The Year The Dow Jones industrial plunged 251 points, the second-biggest drop this year.
Calculated Risk: Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims mostly unchanged, Four week average highest this year (recovery summer, wait 'til Europe implodes)
Why Bernanke’s not doing more | Felix Salmon Fed action at this point is a second-best solution to the economic problems facing the US: what we really need — and aren’t going to get — is fiscal, not monetary, stimulus (but, inflation! Bernanke is now one of history's most evil people)
Bosses Rein In Banker Who Golfs With Obama - NYTimes.com The bank’s powerful group executive board in Zurich recently presented Mr. Wolf with an edict directing him to report all his media inquiries to the firm’s press office. Since then, most of the requests to speak to Mr. Wolf have been rejected, according to people briefed on the situation, resulting in a much dimmer limelight for Mr. Wolf (wrong in so many ways)

We're Not Greece | RealClearPolitics If the United States were still governed under the Articles of Confederation, might California be in the position of Greece, Spain or Italy?
Political Animal - Working Longer For Less
Why We Have to Go Back to a 40-Hour Work Week to Keep Our Sanity | Visions | AlterNet One hundred fifty years of research proves that shorter work hours actually raise productivity and profits -- and overtime destroys them. So why do we still do this? (because, slavery)

The Corporatization of U.Va. How the controversy at the University of Virginia reflects the broad shift in our national values ... Sullivan’s sin was that she acted as a university administrator and not as a business person (of course we want sociopathic hedge-fund guys running out public educational system; dynamically strategic! what could go wrong?)
Teresa Sullivan fired from UVA: What happens when universities are run by robber barons. - Slate Magazine Er, UVA’s Teresa Sullivan was fired for what?
U-Va prof: Why governing board gets an ‘F’ for Sullivan ‘project’ - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post
We Are All the University of Virginia - Lawyers, Guns & Money
What the UVA Firing Was Really About by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly : “The substitution of technology (which is cheap) for labor (which is expensive) can vastly increase access to an elite-caliber education.”
Kevin Carey: The Decline And Fall Of A Public University: How Status Anxieties Doomed The University Of Virginia | The New Republic A $5 billion endowment makes it the wealthiest public university, per capita, in the United States. Over 28,000 students applied for admission last year, a record high - The 16-member Board of Visitors consists almost exclusively of wealthy businesspeople who were friends with or donors to the various Virginia governors who appointed the board (elites at work, failing)

Jay Rockefeller Calls Out the Coal Industry - Lawyers, Guns & Money (WVA destroyed, corps move on)

Science News, Videos, Reviews and Gossip - Gizmodo

Supreme Court Overturns Fleeting Expletives Ruling, Ducks Larger Issues

Trayvon Martin case police chief sacked | World news | guardian.co.uk Bill Lee, who freed George Zimmerman without charge on the night he shot teenager, is removed by Sanford city manager

Google to pay $0 to Oracle for their lawsuit - Denver Computers | Examiner.com In fact, Google is given 14 days to file an application for Oracle to pay legal fees to Google(in a similar manner to how things are done for frivolous lawsuits). (scumbag Larry Ellison)
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison buys Hawaiian island | World news | guardian.co.uk Billionaire buys 98% of Hawaii's sixth-largest island of Lanai for sum reported to be around $600m
ACTA rejected by committee in crucial blow before final EU Parliament vote — RT (Obama considers using drones on them)

062012
Weekly Standard 's Kristol Calls For Congress To Authorize War With Iran | Media Matters for America (AIPAC/Israel First still beating the drums of war)

New NSA docs contradict 9/11 claims - Salon.com “I don’t think the Bush administration would want to see these released," an expert tells Salon ... Perhaps most damning are the documents showing that the CIA had bin Laden in its cross hairs a full year before 9/11 — but didn’t get the funding from the Bush administration White House to take him out or even continue monitoring him (nyah-nyah, can't hear you)

The Curse of Political Purity by Garry Wills | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books Roberto Unger, descended from a famous Brazilian family (failed and stupid)
Narcissism and Electoral Politics: An Unappealing Combination - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Robert Ungar and Shorter Tom Friedman: memememememememememe!

The De-Watergating of American Journalism (the myth of W&B)

In FOMC Rate Decision, The Fed Does The Absolute Least It Can Do
Operation Twist Threatens Inflation In the Same Way as "Printing Money" | Beat the Press (inflation still their primary concern because they don't give a shit about anyone but banks)
Wanker of the Day - Lawyers, Guns & Money - Robert Samuelson. As always with Samuelson, what’s most impressive is the sheer laziness.

Obama Immigration Policy Favored 2-to-1 by Likely Voters - Bloomberg (why Republicans are freaked)

The new president of Thomas Jefferson’s university - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money The content-free buzzwords explaining the firing of Teresa Sullivan at UVA provided an example. On a completely unrelated note, meet the new president of UVA (much dynamaically strategic or stratetically dynamic; UVA taken over by B-School) )
The Declaration of Independence — Crooked Timber When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for a Board to dissolve the administrative bands which have connected a President with a University, and to assume for themselves the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and the Bond Market entitle them, it is best to do it secretly, quickly, and in the middle of the night.
The University of Virginia, Brought to You by David Brooks - Lawyers, Guns & Money
National Review's New Contributor: White Nationalist David Yerushalmi | ThinkProgress Back in April, National Review finally parted ways with longtime contributor John Derbyshire after Derbyshire penned an especially racist piece advising non-black American parents on how to talk to their kids about black people (out with the old racist, in with the new)

The word vagina: It’s time to regulate against it. - Slate Magazine It’s time for the government to stop women from using anatomically correct terms ... The scourge of women being allowed to speak the word “vagina” in a legislative debate over what happens when women use their vaginas must be stopped. And if women are not capable of regulating their own word choice, the state should regulate it for them.
Parental Advisory: May Contain Highly Obscene Language - Lawyers, Guns & Money : the highly principled legal sage Antonin Scalia has explained the 14th Amendment was never supposed to protect people with vag***s, and should be limited to its original purpose of ensuring that schools can be segregated and unequal and that vote count methods that may lead to Democrats winning are illegal.

Hullabaloo This is among the worst taser incidents I've ever chronicled: Unsurprisingly, the officer who held her down by putting his hand over her face as she was on her back hogtied in the back of a squad car while they tasered her turned out to be a violent wife abuser. Two weeks later the police were called to his residence, but they didn't taser him or even arrest him for some reason. I guess he was polite about it.

Jonah Lehrer, self-plagiarism: The New Yorker staffer stopped being a writer and became an idea man. - Slate Magazine Because he stopped being a writer and became an idea man.

The Wrong Way Wizard: Amyl and the Night Rite

Why Microsoft's Surface Tablet Shames the PC Industry - Businessweek

061912
U.S., Israel developed Flame computer virus to slow Iranian nuclear efforts, officials say - The Washington Post
Syria crisis: US and Russia divided on Assad's future - Tuesday 19 June 2012 | World news | guardian.co.uk Arms ship' returning to Russia, says Hague
Hosni Mubarak in coma as Egypt tension grows | World news | The Guardian Former Egyptian president on life support and in critical condition after initial official report said he was 'clinically dead'
Pakistan power cut riots spread as politician's house stormed | World news | guardian.co.uk Rioting and looting sparked by power cuts of up to 20 hours a day run into their third day in several parts of Pakistan
cab drollery: Kingbirding Suu Kyi said. “When the Nobel committee chose to honor me, the road I had chosen of my own free will became a less lonely path to follow.”...

Germany set to allow eurozone bailout fund to buy troubled countries' debt | Business | guardian.co.uk Angela Merkel poised to remove opposition to direct lending by rescue fund in move seen as step towards sharing debt burden (great, the hedge-fund guys will own Europe)
Spain delays full bank-audit report till September - MarketWatch The deadline for a group of auditors to present full reports on the capital needs of Spain’s financial sector has been pushed to September from July 31, a Spanish central bank source said Tuesday (drone boy will claim National Security)

Julian Assange seeking asylum in Ecuadorian embassy in London | Media | The Guardian WikiLeaks founder walked into the embassy and asked for asylum under the United Nations human rights declaration (smooth move)
Julian Assange's haven of choice | World news | guardian.co.uk Ecuador has moved to the left under socialist president Rafael Correa, worsening its relations with the United States

Drone strike: activists seek to lift lid on open secret of targeted killings | World news | guardian.co.uk Court deadline arrives in freedom of information campaign to make Obama administration provide details of programme

American Children Struggle to Adjust in Mexico - NYTimes.com “Houston is home,” Jeffrey said during recess, in English. “The houses and stuff here, it’s all a little strange. I feel, like, uncomfortable.” (Obama loves deporting families so he can look "tough" on immigration)

Politics - James Fallows - Wawa vs. the Post Office: Bus-Capade Update - The Atlantic r Romney was lying or the doctor was lying, and in the latter case, it would be telling that no one in the Romney campaign caught this because none of them has any idea what a simple standard USPS change of address form looks like.
Paul Krugman: 'Ireland Is Romney Economics In Practice' "I think Ireland is America's future if Romney is president."

Fed Wrestles With How Best to Bridge U.S. Credit Divide - WSJ.com The credit divide factors into their thinking. Fed officials have been frustrated in the past year that low interest rate policies haven't reached enough Americans to spur stronger growth, the way economics textbooks say low rates should (that would be Alan Greenspan's textbooks, but they're not tell you that; is the Fed stupid or evil?)

Solitary confinement on trial: senators hear from experts on prison reform | World news | guardian.co.uk US prison system's reliance on isolating prisoners is an ineffective and costly human-rights violation, panelists say
Private prison companies look to Canada as industry faces lawsuits in US | World news | guardian.co.uk US states are beginning to rely less on privately run prisons, but Canada may be a land of opportunity for the two biggest firms (Canada will have to arrest a lot more black people for smoking dope)

Asian immigrants to America surpass Hispanics in 2011 numbers | World news | guardian.co.uk Shift reflects decline in immigrants from Latin America rather than a surge from Asian countries, Pew researchers note - 36% of all immigrants in 2011, while Hispanics accounted for 31%

061812
Military wins power game in Egypt – this time round | World news | guardian.co.uk The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' moves to retain power have temporarily worked, but the Brotherhood will regroup
Muslim Brotherhood warns Egypt's generals | World news | guardian.co.uk slamic group claims victory in elections and threatens to flood streets if military continues to 'rebuild old regime'
Egypt Election Results: Muslim Brotherhood Declares Mohammed Morsi Victory (military will rule)
Indian man beheads daughter in rage over lifestyle Police say a man upset over his daughter's lifestyle chopped her head off with a sword and then paraded it through his village before surrendering to authorities in western India (a little controlling, isn't he?)

G20 summit: Barroso blames eurozone crisis on US banks | World news | The Guardian EC president says European leaders have not come to Mexico to receive lessons on how to handle the economy - insisted the origins of the eurozone crisis lay in the unorthodox policies of American capitalism.
Greece as Victim - NYTimes.com the origins of this disaster lie farther north, in Brussels, Frankfurt and Berlin, where officials created a deeply — perhaps fatally — flawed monetary system, then compounded the problems of that system by substituting moralizing for analysis ... labor productivity in, say, Mississippi is similarly low by American standards — and by about the same margin. (elites at work blaming everyone but themselves and the lies they tell you)
Eschaton: Light It All On Fire Given the eagerness of the powers that be to aim the free money bazooka at anything resembling a failing giant bank, the incentives for those running them aren't to try to limp along through troubled times, but instead to blow themselves up spectacularly. But remember kids, moral hazard is what happens when a single parent gets $10 more per week in extra food stamp money.
Eschaton: Blame Everybody Else, Especially The Poor And Powerless Cameron blames "the eurozone" for his horrible policies. German banks blame Greece for forcing them to lend them all that money. And everybody knows the root of the problem is lazy poor people.
Markets Not Actually Reassured by Greeks Continuing Unsustainable Status Quo
Greek Elections Fuel Fears Of 'Social Explosion'
Ed Balls: Austerity has failed in Europe - we must all now go for growth - Comment - Comment - Evening Standard Global confidence cannot be restored without balanced national plans to stimulate economies and employment (now they tell us)
Eschaton: We'll Get It Right This Time!!! They're evil and eye-rollingly stupid ... For years people have wondered...just what was that euro project all about? I think we're finding out. Getting rid of democracy.


Roger Clemens Found Not Guilty On All Counts | TPM Livewire A jury has found baseball pitcher Roger Clemens not guilty on all six counts, per CNN (Obama's DOJ being tough on crime +Edwards)

U.S. top court rules for Glaxo on overtime pay | Reuters By a 5-4 vote (they don't have to pay their slaves)
Justice Scalia Flip-Flops On The Constitution In Time To Overturn ‘Obamacare’ | TPMDC
For U.S. Inquiries on Leaks, a Difficult Road to Prosecution - NYTimes.com (Obama really is a fucker)
"I Stand With ALEC" Website Stumbles from the Start | Center for Media and Democracy Two months after it was first announced, the "I Stand With ALEC" website supporting the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has finally gone live -- and it is underwhelming.
I Stand With Alec, Not ALEC

Digby, For the Win Lawyers, Guns & Money - You can always count on Digby to completely tear apart someone like Fareed Zakaria, who blathered on about the need for Democrats to follow the lead of Andrew Cuomo and destroy public sector unions. It’s all about the middle-class sacrificing when you are rich. Zakaria serves his masters well.
My Challenge to Glenn Greenwald - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Supreme Court Creates Detour Around the Sixth Amendment - Lawyers, Guns & Money : The bad news is that Justice Thomas filed a risible, hairsplitting concurrence in the judgement that 1)provided a fifth vote for rejecting the Sixth Amendment claim, and 2)allows states to evade the requirement in the future so long as the language they use to discuss third-party forensic studies is sufficiently “informal.”
Neil Munro won’t answer questions about his questions - Erik Wemple - The Washington Post
Those Contradictions Won’t Heighten Themselves! - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Shorter Roberto Unger: “1. Elect Mitt Romney. 2. ?????? 3. The voice of democratic prophecy will speak once again in American life, just like the powerful social democratic socal movements, presidents and congressional majorities that immediately followed the elections of Reagan and Bush. And, hey, if this brilliant strategy doesn’t work, I’ll get a nice tax cut out of the deal!” (failed Brazilian politician)

The Sideshow June 2012 - World of delusions - A massive public rejection of conservative policies, control of the House and Senate, a mandate for a health care policy that would serve us all and for not screwing around with Social Security, and for withdrawing from Stupid Wars - a huge liberal mandate with which Obama could have done anything we wanted - or anything he wanted, which, unfortunately, was something else entirely. He could have done anything he wanted, and he did. That's the empirical fact. So, who is it, again, who is "reality-based"? (refutation of Chris Mooney's Republican Mind and summary of Obama's complete failure to do what he was elected to do because he's always been a liar)

Scott Brown Agrees To Debate -- If His Conditions Are Met | TPM Livewire
Howard Kurtz defends reporting on Michael Steele, Lanny Davis firm | TPMDC (always the same)
Lanny Davis and Michael Steele have new moneymaking venture - Salon.com Centrism lives! There's a new consulting firm dedicated to bipartisan civility from two justifiably hated hacks ... Coincidentally, “purple” is also the color of the crayon Kurtz used to write down all of Davis’ and Steele’s quotes for his article.Coincidentally, “purple” is also the color of the crayon Kurtz used to write down all of Davis’ and Steele’s quotes for his article.
Ann Romney needles Obamas for trips - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room President Obama, however, has not taken any foreign vacations during his presidency, usually celebrating the Christmas holiday in his home state of Hawaii and summering in Martha's Vineyard

Romney: No need to detail how I’ll pay for massive tax cuts. Just trust me. - The Plum Line - The Washington Post (Mendacious Man)
Frank Rich on Negative Campaigning -- New York Magazine Why negative advertisements are powerful, essential, and sometimes (see “Daisy”) even artistic.
How Republicans Cheat Democrats - and Democrats Cheat Themselves | Rick Perlstein | Politics News | Rolling Stone (Tom Barrett ran as a Republican and fucked everyone over; Dem narcissism at work)
Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy: American Extremists: "Fear itself"
Small Business Majority | Small Business Owners’ Views on Implementing the Affordable Care Act Only a third of small business owners want the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care Act; a plurality of 50% would like it upheld, with minor or no changes. This support grows after learning more details about the law’s key provisions (buncha dirty hippies)
Columnist Laurie Roberts: We are sick of extremists running things | The Raw Story Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts on Sunday explained her campaign to “De-kookify the Capitol.” (good luck with that)
POLL: Nevada Republicans Favor Brothels Over Marriage Equality 3-1 | ThinkProgress (family values!)
Native American tribes owed millions from government, supreme court rules | Law | guardian.co.uk In major victory for tribes, court rules the US government had been short-changing groups over public service contracts

Opinion: The vicious cycle of economic inequality - Joseph E. Stiglitz - politico.com - Inequality is now far higher than just 30 years ago. The top 1 percent today gets around 20 percent of the nation’s income — twice what it did two decades ago. The top 0.1 percent’s share has almost tripled. Disparities in wealth are even greater.
The Sideshow June 2012 Archive There's a handy chart showing the 2012 exemption at a stunning $3,800, only $800 more than it was at a time when the steel mills were paying workers, what, two or three dollars a day? For comparison, in the wild socialist high-tax misery of England, the Inland Revenue lets you make £8,105 before it starts taxing any additional income - that's about $12,000 or so at current rates.
Daily Kos: The Invisible Hand strikes again!
The Real Job Creators: Consumers - Forbes

The weight of nations: obesity worldwide – interactive | Global development | guardian.co.uk (US = 5% of world's population and 32% of the fat, sounds about right)
Creationists In South Korea Force Removal Of Evolution From High-School Textbooks (next up: math)
559.jpg (belief in evolution vs national wealth)
Breast milk seems to kill HIV - health - 15 June 2012 - New Scientist s breast best for inhibiting HIV? An unknown component of breast milk kills HIV particles and virus-infected cells, as well as blocking HIV-transmission in mice with a human immune system.
Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright - Biography Central The New York Times wrote, maybe in "1 million to 10 million years" they might be able to make a plane that would fly. It was only eight days after the U.S. Army failure and the prediction of the New York Times that the Wright brothers were successful in flying the first manned plane. (they've always been wrong)

George Zimmerman's prison calls show plans with wife Shellie to pay off bills | World news | guardian.co.uk In recordings, Zimmerman urges wife to wear a bulletproof vest and use money raised for defence to pay off personal debts (with that money he didn't admit to having)

The Union: The Business Behind Getting High - Full Movie - High Quality - YouTube


Google: Censorship Requests 'Alarming' Google has received more than 1,000 requests from authorities to take down content from its search results or YouTube video in the last six months of 2011, the company said on Monday, denouncing what it said was an alarming trend ... some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect — Western democracies not typically associated with censorship," In one case, Spanish regulators asked Google to remove 270 links to blogs and newspaper articles criticizing public figures, including mayors and public prosecutors.
FunnyJunk's lawyer sues American Cancer Society and National Wildlife Federation - Boing Boing

061712
Syria intensifies shelling of rebel-held areas of Homs, activists say | World news | The Guardian Activists say humanitarian conditions in Homs are deteriorating as a result of siege, which has lasted a week
Egypt's bitter elections boil to a close contest | World news | The Guardian Voting between supporters of Mohamed Morsi and Mubarak's final PM Ahmed Shafiq bring family feuds in searing heat
Iran warned to take 'concrete actions' ahead of new round of nuclear talks | World news | guardian.co.uk Six western powers appear sceptical that Moscow talks will yield results as Israel says discussions only buy Iran more time
Nigerian church blasts kill 21 in Kaduna state | World news | The Guardian Suicide bombings at three churches in northern cities of Zaria and Kaduna prompt state curfew amid fears of reprisal attacks

Greece Pro-Bailout Party Wins Election - NYTimes.com Supporters of Bailout Claim Victory in Greek Election (see what they did there?)
Greek Election Results: New Democracy Wins Fears of an imminent Greek exit from Europe's joint currency receded Sunday after the conservative New Democracy party came first in a critical election and pro-bailout parties won enough seats to form a joint government.
World Bank warns that euro collapse could spark global crisis | Business | The Observer Europe 'facing Lehmans moment' says outgoing head Robert Zoellick as Greeks are warned over key election (better not use your so-called democracy)

Colorado wildfire weeks away from containment as conditions worsen | World news | guardian.co.uk Crews brace for more difficult conditions with wind gusts and temperatures expected to be high as fires rage in three states (Republicans beg for big government)

Our Most Widely Ignored Public Intellectuals Why don't those in power listen to economists Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman? (because they hate the truth?)
Why is William Saletan Apologizing for Slate's Mistake? - Slate’s editors should be ashamed. (abortion-is-icky Republican Saletan should apologize for his existence)

Watergate 40 Years Later - The Lessons of Watergate Do Not Belong to Us - Esquire - The special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, subpoenas the tapes. The White House tries to get Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire him. Richardson refuses and resigns instead, as does his assistant, William Ruckelshaus. Finally, an apparatchik named Robert Bork does the deed. The country explodes in outrage (original use of "Borked")
How a dead dog came back to bite Richard Nixon's Watergate conspirators | Clancy Sigal | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Nixon operatives Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman pioneered their dirty tricks on the UCLA campus – baiting reds like me
FBI — Mark Felt Part 01 of 01

The Real Story of Barack Obama Ben Smith says David Maraniss's new biography of Barack Obama is "the first sustained challenge to Obama's control over his own story, a firm and occasionally brutal debunking of Obama's bestselling 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father." 38 instances in which the biographer convincingly disputes significant elements of Obama's own story of his life and his family history." (and he believes his own lies)
Political Animal - The Fleeting Chris Christie Moment (fat lying fuck Christie is a failure in NJ)
In New Jersey Halfway Houses, Escapees Stream Out as a Penal Business Thrives - NYTimes.com A company with deep ties to Gov. Chris Christie dominates New Jersey’s system of large halfway houses. There has been little state oversight, despite widespread problems, The New York Times found.
King Says He Hasn't Decided on Party Affiliation Former Maine Gov. Angus King (I) "told a series of gatherings in Washington this week that he really, truly hasn't decided which party he'd caucus with next year if elected to the Senate," Politico reports. (what an asshole)
Montana GOP convention features bullet-riddled 'Obama outhouse' : Missoulian - labeled “Obama Presidential Library”
UVA - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Updating yesterday’s post that used the firing of Teresa Sullivan, president of the University of Virginia, as a jumping off point for thinking about why we think rich people know how to do everything, the Post gets to the bottom of why Sullivan was canned. (fired by the hedge-fund that took over public education in Va for not shutting down all classics, philosophy and foreign language depts)
Parsky's Party | Feature | Oakland, Berkeley & Bay Area News & Arts Coverage The UC regent whose pension fund overhaul may have cost the university billions is now in a position to play with even more of the public's money (they are always rewarded for catastrophic failure)

Chandra Data Suggests How Giant Black Holes Grow | Astronomy | Sci-News.com New data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has challenged prevailing ideas about how supermassive black holes grow in the centers of galaxies.
Voyager space probe reaches edge of solar system | Reuters extending its record for being the most distant man-made object in space.
Australia creates world's biggest marine park, bans drilling | Reuters

Religion News Service | Politics | Law & Court | Atheists challenge the tax exemption for religious groups
Religious leaders furious over Norway’s proposed circumcision ban ’m not buying the argument that banning circumcision is a violation of religious freedom, because such freedom must involve being able to choose for themselves.
Eschaton: Obviously Constitutional Totally predictable. How they see religious freedom. Rep. Kenneth Havard, R-Jackson, objected to including the Islamic School of Greater New Orleans in a list of schools approved by the education department to accept as many as 38 voucher students. Havard said he wouldn't support any spending plan that "will fund Islamic teaching." - Not too many will be on the approved religion list. Because freedom.
| Nessie a Plesiosaur? Louisiana To Fund Schools Using Odd, Bigoted Fundamentalist Textbooks (because, freedom to be a religious idiot!)

LSD, Ecstasy, and a Blast of Utopianism: How 1967’s “Summer of Love” All Began | Culture | Vanity Fair It was billed as “the Summer of Love,” a blast of glamour, ecstasy, and Utopianism that drew some 75,000 young people to the San Francisco streets in 1967. Who were the true movers behind the Haight-Ashbury happening that turned America on to a whole new age?

Five Disappointments of iOS 6
Microsoft 'to launch tablet to compete with iPad' | Technology | The Guardian Event invitation to journalists leads to speculation that Microsoft plans to take on Apple's dominance with own-brand tablet
How Flame virus has changed everything for online security firms | The Raw Story
Survival Time | SANS Internet Storm Center; Cooperative Network Security Community - Internet Security

061612
Egypt's presidential election turns toxic amid anger over 'stolen revolution' | World news | The Observer Egyptian dream of democracy fading, as presidential runoff sees a disillusioned electorate forced to choose between 'Islamic rule' or 'the old regime'
Greece prepares for election: 'we are going to the wall … things must change' | World news | The Observer Greek voters, faced with choices many would prefer not to make, may take a leap of faith to an uncertain future

We should not pin our hopes on Britain’s plan A-plus - FT.com Mr Osborne repeated the orthodoxies of the government’s approach (to destroying their country)
Eschaton: Direct Krgthulu takes a break from arguing with an unnamed foe who is NOT NAMED DAVID BROOKS SO STOP SAYING THAT to argue with some guy named David Brooks.
Death Throes - NYTimes.com My colleague David Brooks tells us that Republicans see the economic crisis as showing that the welfare state is in its “death throes”. And it’s true — that is what they think, or claim to think ... f you look at these data and see them as evidence of the welfare state in its death throes, well, you’re saying a lot about yourself and nothing about reality.
d r i f t g l a s s: A Series Of Invisible Incidents -- UPDATE II In which I once again implore the University of Chicago to rescind David Brooks' bachelor's degree and suspend his license to practice History in public once and for all (BoBo's oblique reply to Chris Mooney's Republican Brain)

Angry Daily Caller person shouts at president - Salon.com Fun fact: In his role as “science” reporter at the journal, he wrote two major pieces lending credence to anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists! So he’s vile and moronic in a variety of ways.

Undernews: An Obama one night stand Perhaps the most scary report from the Wisconsin recall election was this from Daily Kos: “Young people didn't turn out. Only 16 percent of the electorate was 18-29, compared to 22 percent in 2008. That's the difference between 646,212 and 400,599 young voters, or about 246,000. Walker won by 172,739 votes.” (center-right corporate captive back-room dealer, drone-boy Obama has turned off both young people and Latinos enough to lose re-election while kissing Republican butt that will never vote for him, ever, but Alexfuck thinks they are all geniuses)
OpinionNation: Labor's Bad Recall? | The Nation Left Anti-Unionism? In the aftermath of the defeat in Wisconsin, left critics attacked labor’s decision to invest in the recall. But none of them offered a realistic alternative

President Obama bristles when he is the target of activist tactics he once used - The Washington Post - The president spoke sternly. Several participants described him as defensive. One person said that, at times, Obama was “pissy.” (he's always been a liar and a special snowflake)
Hullabaloo "Ideas aren't important to them" - “Axelrod will tell you they won because of character, not issues,” the former aide said. “It’s a touchstone for how they think about the world… Ideas aren’t that important to them.” (voters could give a fuck about his so-called "character")
Political Animal - Learning You’re Not Elite “those near the middle are only just now seeing just how bad a deal they are in for, just how severely their futures have been compromised for the benefit of a tiny sliver at the top.” (they thought they were so special)

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » The Irony Fairy Has Been Drawn And Quartered former Dubya legal “ace” John “Of Course We Can Waterboard” Yoo, who promptly calls down the wrath of Nemesis herself upon his doomed soul ... This is pretty much the equivalent of the Mouth of Sauron proclaiming that Gondor is violating Middle Earth’s OSHA laws by having all those dangerous, pointy swords everywhere (Torture Yoo complains about "executive overreach")
Political Animal - John Yoo, Impervious to Irony, Makes Bad Legal Argument

Political Animal - The University of Virginia’s Case Study in Money, Speech and Strategic Dynamism Advocates of the Citizen’s United ruling argue that unregulated money in politics is about Free Speech and Freedom. But the students and faculty of UVA have just learned firsthand what it means to give a handful of super-rich big money donors free reign over the system.
Teresa Sullivan fired from UVA: What happens when universities are run by robber barons. - Slate Magazine Er, UVA’s Teresa Sullivan was fired for what? (not being a complete puppet of robber barons)

Pennsylvania Public Defenders Rebel Against Crushing Caseloads
because we destroyed ourselves — Tremble the Devil (war on drugz destroyed black households, has had terrible social and human cost, Obama marches on)
How the end of slavery led to starvation and death for millions of black Americans | World news | The Observer In the brutal chaos that followed the civil war, life after emancipation was harsh and often short, new book argues (endless war on Black people)

Air Force space vehicle comes in for a landing The Air Force's unmanned, reusable space plane landed in the early morning of June 16 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., a successful conclusion to a record-setting test-flight mission that began March 5 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. (drone-boy's wet dream)

The wonder of breasts | Life and style | The Guardian Our culture is obsessed with breasts, yet we know remarkably little about them. But their secrets are starting to be unravelled, and nothing is more astonishing than breast milk
Eve Ensler and Lisa Brown to read Vagina Monologues in Michigan | World news | guardian.co.uk Author and state congresswoman will protest Brown's banishment from debate for referencing anatomy

Mad Men Recap: Chasing a Phantom -- Vulture

Jenny McCarthy Nude Photo: Actress Accidentally Sent Nude Pic To Dentist (noted Playboy model, expert on autism, anti-vax crusader and frequent guest on Oprah)

New Zealand's High Court Steps Into Extradition Fight Over Kim Dotcom | Techdirt No matter what, this is once again showing the US's hubris in this case -- assuming it could waltz into New Zealand, with highly questionable evidence, shut down a company, and extradite the executives to the US without anyone asking questions. With each move in this case, more questions are raised about the competence of the DOJ staff who worked on this case, led by Neil MacBride -- a former "anti-piracy VP" for the copyright industries, who may have let his biases and previous (and future?) employers' interests get the best of him (this so stinks and is typical of Obama's DOJ)

061512
Ahead of Egypt’s Presidential Runoff, Has the Military Junta Already Won? | World | TIME.com After dissolving Egypt's democratically-elected parliament, the country's military government looks set to consolidate power, no matter the result of this weekend's presidential election (your revolution is so over)
Egypt's revolution faces stern test as country votes for president | World news | guardian.co.uk Muslim Brotherhood vows to fight on at the ballot box despite moves to entrench military control
Egypt reels from 'judicial coup' - Friday 15 June 2012 | World news | guardian.co.uk

Girl banned from taking photos of school meals for hit blog | Education | guardian.co.uk Martha Payne, 9, forced to abandon popular NeverSeconds blog, after council refused to let her post any more pictures (you can't take pictures of the stinking food we're giving you)
BBC News - NeverSeconds blogger Martha Payne school dinner photo ban lifted (twitter wins again)

Debt crisis: emergency action revealed to tackle 'worst crisis since second world war' | Business | The Guardian Sir Mervyn King announces emergency measures to help UK banks and boost business lending by at least £80bn (more free money for banks to take to the casino, that'll help!)
Throwing money at banks won't solve economic crisis, Ed Balls says | Business | guardian.co.uk Shadow chancellor says banking stimulus package announced by Osborne and King fails to address lack of confidence (1930's policies; still looking for the confidence-faires; no mention of fucking jobs)

Rupert Murdoch pressured Tony Blair over Iraq, says Alastair Campbell | Media | The Guardian Murdoch joined an 'over-crude' attempt by US Republicans to accelerate British involvement in the Iraq war, Campbell says (o rly)

US Secret Service agents' alleged scandals since 2004 revealed | World news | guardian.co.uk List claims involvement with prostitutes, sexual assault, leaking information and improper use of weapons

U.S. Will Give Immunity to Some Young Illegal Migrants - NYTimes.com lift the shadow of deportation from these young people." "Let's be clear, this is not amnesty, this is not immunity, this is not a path to citizenship, this is not a permanent fix," Obama said (the deporter-in-chief still fucking over families)
Balloon Juice » “Sí Se Puede” On POTUS’s DREAM Deferral The Associated Press is already using terms like “immunity” and “amnesty”. Republicans are expected to explode in 5…4…3
Brave Daily Caller Muckraker Exercises His Freedom To Troll Well, Ol’ Barry Obama went out to the Rose Garden to speechify his new plan to kill all white children and let Mexican children have their homes, and then this guy, Neil Munro of Tucker Carlson’s treasured Daily Caller, interrupts him to start babbling something. Obama hates this person but responds anyway
Out Of Line | TPM Editors Blog The guy who saw fit to interrupt twice the President’s address in the Rose Garden on his new immigration policy, which was being carried live by the cable nets, was actually a reporter for The Daily Caller named Neil Munro.
Neil Munro: Chris Wallace, Shep Smith Hammer Reporter Interrupting President (video) (Fox smack-down of Tucker Carlson's twit)

The Mark Halperinization of American Journalism - Esquire If you leave out the evil dumbfks who actually run the news business, the worst two things that have happened to American political journalism in the past 30 years are Maureen Dowd and Mark Halperin. Dowd, because of her relentless, obsessive need to take her own galloping Oedipal neuroses for an outing every time there's an election, and Halperin, because he long ago invented the kind of Beltway insidery railbird bullshit that passes today for analysis. (Pierce!)
Balloon Juice » Stopped Clocks and All That “[M]uch of Mr. Adelson’s casino profits that go to him come from this casino in Macau,” McCain told Judy Woodruff in an interview that aired Thursday night. “Which says that, obviously, maybe in a roundabout way, foreign money is coming into an American campaign.” - McCain actually seems to recognize that Mittens is setting up to be the front man for a presidency whose IOUs belong to Adelson’s Israel-first hunger ... John McCain sees this as “a very bleak period in American politics.” Grandpa: you’re on to something.
#Dickwhisperer: A History : CJR This being a reference to the exchange—entertaining, granted, but only by virtue of its supremely cringe-inducing awkwardness—that took place between Huffington Post editor Nico Pitney and Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank on yesterday morning’s Reliable Sources. The exchange that became so heated and, finally, so insult-driven that, during the show’s commercial break, Milbank apparently leaned over to Pitney and whispered, “You’re such a dick.”
RNC’s Dysfunctional Latino Site Posts Vote On Obama — And Loses | TPM2012
Daily Kos: How to Dispose of a TEA Party Imbecile, For Good

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Sending the Middle Man Packing MoveOn is a middleman that’s not adding any value—they’re just skimming a bit off the top of the enthusiasm for Obama and taking it as their own (Netroots Nation ignored; dKos now irrelevant)

Geithner once proposed Hillary Clinton for Treasury secretary - The Washington Post Geithner had submitted a list of names to the White House. Chief of Staff William Daley appeared to “slow-walk” and rob the Clinton suggestion of any momentum, according to one of the administration officials ... Clinton had cultivated many relationships within the financial sector. Some of them had been longing for the kind of attention they had received from her and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, but rarely got from Obama.
The Karl Marx MasterCard Is Here. It Needs A Tagline. : Planet Money : NPR
GOOD.is | Interactive Infographic: Making Sense of the Farm Bill (Scaling)

The Sandusky (and Paterno) Defenses - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money While we’re talking about the incompetent Sandusky defense team, the examples are endless:
38 Studios and Kingdoms of Amalur: How Curt Schilling’s video game company duped Rhode Island out of $75 million. - Slate Magazine On the state’s side, it looks an awful lot like a toxic interaction between stupidity, desperation, and Red Sox fandom.

Virginia Board Of Health Votes Down Controversial Abortion Clinic Requirement [UPDATE] The Virginia Board of Health voted 7 to 4 on Friday to strike from the state's new abortion clinic regulations a controversial provision that would have required existing abortion clinics to meet the same building standards as hospitals

IAmA 43yr old terminally ill father and husband...the final chapter. : IAmA

'Small Girl Big Mouth': A Girls Recap
Photo Album - Imgur - "Oh the Pacles You'll Go ..."
Anna Utopia Giordano | Venus
Entertainment - Benjamin Schmidt - The Foreign Language of 'Mad Men' - The Atlantic The show is known for historical accuracy. But do the characters really talk like people from the '60s?

Scientists Confirm that Plants Talk and Listen To Each Other, Communication Crucial for Survival - Medical Daily When a South African botanist Lyall Watson claimed in 1973 that plants had emotions that could be recorded on a lie detector test, he was dismissed by many in the scientific community.
Autofocus System - Get Everything Done

Windows 8: Microsoft’s radical operating system redesign will aggravate you to no end. - Slate Magazine (turns your desktop into an iPhone without the phone or the touch)
Mobile Opportunity: Fear and Loathing and Windows 8
Communities Dominate Brands: The Final Reckoning: Burning Platforms Memo Damaged Nokia: Wiped out $13B revenues, Destroyed $4B profits in just 12 months - the costliest management memo ever issued ... he first in a long series of managment blunders by Nokia's new CEO, Stephen Elop, the most incompetent and damaging CEO of any Fortune 500 sized company in corporate history (Elop was always an MS mole; why would Nokia make the correct decision after so many disasterously wrong ones?)

061412
What might cause another 9/11? - Salon.com Although I can’t conceive of the rage that would be produced in people like Sullivan and Packer from a decade’s worth of that kind of violence on American soil, they should spend some time trying to imagine it. Then perhaps they’d understand how much they — and the President whose foreign policy they venerate — are doing to bring about “another 9/11? with the non-stop violence they so enthusiastically endorse.
Al Qaeda’s best friend - Salon.com Americans (especially media figures) have been so inculcated with a childish morality narrative which is pleasing and self-affirming to believe — The Terrorists attack us because they are bad and we are good — that it’s just inconceivable that it is actually the U.S. itself which is enabling these plots and has long been galvanizing the very anti-American animus that fuels them.
U.S. drones deeply unpopular around the world - Salon.com

Attacks in Iraq Target Shiite Muslims - NYTimes.com In the deadliest day in Iraq since the withdrawal of the United States military in December, a series of explosions that mostly targeted Shiite Muslims amounted to an emphatic demonstration of the still-potent capabilities of the Sunni insurgency and a reminder of the instability left behind by American forces. (total, horrendous waste of lives and money, but America has moved on)
Egypt's transition plunged into chaos - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk - oday's decision is being seen as "soft coup" by the military, a massive blow to the Muslim Brotherhood, and raises serious questions about the independence of the judiciary,
Egypt's Parliament Dissolved By Court; Election Ruled Unconstitutional

Eurozone crisis live: Spanish borrowing costs hit 7% after double downgrade | Business | guardian.co.uk ("unsustainable")
Eschaton: It's Working!!! Success!!! (Reuters) - Greece's jobless rate rose to 22.6 percent in the first quarter of 2012 from 20.7 percent in the previous three-month period as economic activity slumped, the country's statistics service said on Thursday. - But they've been doing what the Very Serious People have been telling them to do, so the outcomes don't even matter. They're doing the right thing so it must be working!
Eschaton The more I think about the latest actions in Spain, the more flummoxed I am. If borrowing costs of the state are a prime concern, which supposedly they are, then they did the stupidest fucking thing possible. They borrowed a bunch of money to give to their banks and made all of their other debts subordinate to that. Insane.

Rebekah Brooks texted David Cameron: 'We're definitely in this together!' | Media | guardian.co.uk Text exchanges revealed as PM gives evidence to Leveson inquiry about friendship with former News International boss (Cameron claims he wasn't Murdoch's puppet)
David Cameron At Leveson Inquiry: Embarrassing Message From Rebekah Brooks Revealed (video)

Assange to Be Extradited to Sweden After Supreme Court Refuses Final Appeal | Threat Level | Wired.com

Obama’s Intelligence Striptease—By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine)

AHIP Gave $100 Million to US Chamber To Kill Health Insurance Reform | Crooks and Liars (yes, you read that right)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Magic Kingdom For Sale: Sold! A well-placed source in the Adelson camp with direct knowledge of the casino billionaire’s thinking says that further donations will be “limitless.”
Sally Quinn Forced to Dine With Non-Fake Friends -- Daily Intel - Once Washington was a happy place where a girl and her mother could be groped simultaneously in good fun by a white supremacist. Sadly, it has all been ruined by Kim Kardashian and Ezra Klein.

Bloomberg Businessweek 'Selling Obama' Cover (photo)
Gretchen Carlson Walks Off 'Fox And Friends' After Brian Kilmeade's Sexist Comment (video) - “Women are everywhere," Kilmeade said. "We’re letting them play golf and tennis now. It’s out of control.” - "Finally!" Kilmeade said, adding, "leaving an all-male crew."
Reporters Kicked Out Of Mitt Romney Event At Newseum
Michigan Dem banned by Republicans for using the word ‘vagina’ | The Raw Story A female Democratic state representative in Michigan said Thursday that she has been silenced by her Republican colleagues after she uttered the word “vagina” while criticizing a slate of bills that would restrict female reproductive rights.
Balloon Juice » Michigan GOP Rep. Mike Callton (R-Vagina) Offended by the Word “Vagina” — VAGINA! VAGINA! VAGINA! VAGINA!
Washington parent: Sex education is ‘just the same as raping somebody’ | The Raw Story

Dan Kovalik: Media Ignores UN Report As It Pertains to Abuse of Children Attributable to the U.S. and Its Allies (not to mention blowing them up with drones)

Eschaton: You Messed It All Up Except perhaps failing (yet) to destroy Social Security, the world for the past 20 years has been run pretty much exactly how Brooksian Elites think it should be run. And their solution to the problems they created is for the rest of us to suffer more.
Catfood For Everyone! - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Shorter Matt Miller: “Things are really bad for young people today. And yet our two-party duopoly resists the obvious solution: slashing Social Security and Medicare for current seniors as well as future ones. Because there’s nothing that would improve the prospects of a couple with 300K of student loan debt and bad, insecure jobs than having to financially support their parents after they move into their basement.”
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Larger than NAFTA? - Salon.com Leaked documents reveal disturbing truths about a trade deal Obama's negotiating that could grow bigger than NAFTA
Today Among Our Wonderful Elites - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Lavish subsidies to plutocrats – what could possibly go wrong?
Rising Hegemon: How many billions wasted on this piece of shit? Twenty freaking billion just in development...and it constantly crashes: An Air Force CV-22 Osprey crashed Wednesday during a routine training mission north of Navarre, Florida, injuring five crew members aboard, a military official said.

The College Graduate as Collateral - NYTimes.com - Total subsidies to university education amount to $43 billion a year, including around $2 billion in Congressional earmarks — and that does not even include tax subsidies (for college funds); tax breaks (for university endowments, for example); and subsidies dedicated to research.
Field of Schemes: U-T San Diego columnist: I was fired for not being "positive" enough about stadium deals

Symphony of Science - The Greatest Show on Earth! A music video about Evolution - YouTube
Canada News: B.C. health officer stands by his assertion that pure ecstasy can be safe for adults - thestar.com

Balloon Juice » You’re Calling My Name But I Gotta Make Clear (BJ vs Digby, mixtermix creatively interpreted by David Atkins +quite a bit of history/background in the comments)

Two more witnesses detail abuse by Sandusky in trial | Reuters
Jerry Sandusky Accuser: Former Penn State Coach Said 'I'm Going To Squeeze Your Guts Out'

Dear White People... - YouTube

DOJ Realizes That Comcast & Time Warner Are Trying To Prop Up Cable By Holding Back Hulu & Netflix | Techdirt
Dotcom case: US judge wants data returned to Megaupload... | Stuff.co.nz Judge Abraham David Sofaer said he was "troubled" that the files of 66.6 million Megaupload customers were being kept as part of the US government case against Dotcom.
Retired Judge Joins Fight Against DOJ's 'Outrageous' Seizures in Megaupload Case | Threat Level | Wired.com The Department of Justice told the federal judge overseeing the prosecution that the government has no obligation to assist anybody getting back their data, even if it’s non-infringing material. “That’s a dangerous road,” Sofaer said. (Obama could give a shit about your property)

061312
US says Russian-made weapons are killing Syrians on 'an hourly basis' | World news | guardian.co.uk Accusations fly between Russian and US representatives over supplies and weapons sent to Bashar al-Assad's regime
Greece's super-rich maintain lavish lifestyles and low profiles | World news | The Guardian Since the outbreak of the Greek crisis, the country's moneyed class has been notable mainly by its absence

Bailout in Spain Leaves Taxpayers Liable for the Cost - NYTimes.com On Tuesday, Spain’s long-term borrowing costs soared to their highest level since the country joined the euro zone. Investors have apparently concluded that the rescue is potentially a much better deal for the banks and their shareholders than for the government, its taxpayers and bondholders.
Eschaton: Contractionary Policies In A Deep Recession Are Contractionary This continues to shock and surprise everybody, including the people who are supposed to know better.
Italy Tax Increases Backfire as Monti Tightens Belts - Bloomberg
Eschaton: Four Years Later We still wake up every day wondering just who will point the money bazooka at which failing bank. In the name of austerity. The people who run the world are horrible.
Eschaton: Priorities The recent actions in Spain are perhaps the worst in this ongoing saga, though I guess in strong competition with everything that went down in Ireland. Basically it was... MUST CUT EVERYTHING MUST FIRE PEOPLE MUST NOT BORROW ANY MORE MONEY AT ALL. Oh, hey, borrow one hundred billion euros to give to rich people who run your failing banking system. The worst people in the world run the world (their plundering is an excuse for more plundering)
Guess Who's Emerging From the Crisis? - NYTimes.com celand, of course. Kitchen-sinked and cleaned-up, the Icelandic central bank has just decided to push up rates by 25 basis points to combat signs of inflation amidst “robust” domestic demand (more evidence of the grand fuckup of the elites handing their victims the austerity bill)
Cenk Uygur Asks If the US Should be Following Iceland's Model in Dealing With the Financial Crisis | Video Cafe
Iceland Provides Blueprint for How to Deal With the Financial Crisis | FDL News Desk

Rupert Murdoch pressured me over Europe, says John Major | Media | guardian.co.uk Ex-PM tells Leveson inquiry that mogul said in 1997 his papers would oppose the government if it did not change its policy (Murdoch, world dictator)

The Fire Next Term - NYTimes.com Race is the project of the Roberts court – more than enhancing corporate welfare, more than lowering the barrier between church and state, more than redefining the boundary between state and federal authority (the South rose and took over the Supreme Court, will restore slavery eventually)

House GOP Blocking Abortion Access for Raped Soldiers | Mother Jones (supporting our troops by making them have rape-babies)

'Some success, some failure' in Colorado wildfire fight - CNN.com (needs more big government)

Justice Department Dismisses John Edwards Case | TPMMuckraker (no more money down the drain)

The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - The Tongue Is Quicker Than the Eye (Romney is a big fat patholigical liar, but see Obama)
Obama campaign’s rough patch concerns some Democrats - The Washington Post That kind of unflappability is a hallmark of the Obama political operation — and was a crucial ingredient in its success in 2008. But some Democratic veterans are wondering whether the reelection campaign, run by the same tight-knit group that led it four years ago, is equipped for what lies ahead.
Jeff Sessions Argues Food Stamps Increase Not Moral, Mocks Kirsten Gillibrand
Mitt Romney's Health Care Plan Would Not Prohibit Discrimination Based On Pre-Existing Conditions
Times Have Changed, It's Okay to Lie | Mother Jones

The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Christopher Hayes’s Jeremiad against the Ruling Class To effect those changes, Hayes allows himself a poignant thought: We need to build a “trans-ideological coalition” that harnesses the energies of both Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party (wrong, wrong, and naive)

David Brooks Follower Problem Column - Our Mr. Brooks Leads Us Home - Esquire - Self-Awareness just hopped on the last bus out of Dodge (describes the management culture at the NYT, actually)
I Wish David Brooks Worked Here | The Progressive I still believe that in 20 years, no one will doubt that Bush did the right thing. To his enormous credit, the president has been ruthlessly flexible over the past months and absolutely committed to seeing this through (Brooks' long history of by terrifyingly wrong)
David Brooks Calls for Dissolving the People | Beat the Press (your elites at work blaming everyone else; Christ, what an asshole)
A Tiny Revolution: The Aristocrats! david brooks: The Aristocrats!
Shorter David Brooks: I Do So Dislike American Democracy (And Its Implications) < Library Grape (Brooks profoundly un-American)
Mr. Friedman, could I ask you a question? (speaking of being terrifyingly wrong)
Eschaton: Mask Dropping For awhile Douthat's schtick at the NYT was to try to construct arguments - whether he bought them or not - designed to appeal to his imagined view of the evil liberal readers of the paper. He's been moving away from that lately.
Political Animal - Your Own Little Corner of the Gas Chamber While we are on the subject of the often devious rhetoric and tactics of our anti-choice friends, Ross Douthat supplies what I suspect will be a real trend-setter in Right-To-Life circles going forward: a column suggesting, subtly but definitely, that state intervention to ban reproductive choice may become necessary to prevent the practice of Nazi-style eugenics by “parents” (i.e., women) once scientific advances make prenatal decisions more sophisticated. (more assholes)
Ezra Klein Should Stick to Being Wrong About Health Care « naked capitalism A recent post by Ezra Klein, “What ‘Inside Job’ got wrong,” manages the impressive feat of being spectacularly off base, rhetorically dishonest, and embarrassingly revealing of the lack of a moral compass all at once (like Douthat, he went to Harvard, right?)
Balloon Juice » We’re Already in a Class War Rich people have more power than poor people, and they use that power to get what they want — which is, normally, more wealth and more power. Across America, politicians invariably reflect the views of their richest constituents.
Elizabeth Warren Reveals What She Would Ask Jamie Dimon
Robert Reich Defends Raising Taxes On The Rich In Under 3 Minutes (VIDEO)
Jamie Dimon blames JP Morgan losses on top executives in Senate testimony | Business | guardian.co.uk Appearing before banking committee, JP Morgan boss is critical of legislation that would curb some types of hedging in US (blames everyone else, "is critical" of laws that would make him responsible)

Obama Trade Document Leaked, Revealing New Corporate Powers And Broken Campaign Promises (fucked over again by our lying President of Corporations)
U.S. Investigates Cable Companies for Limits on Online Video - WSJ.com

MIT creates glucose fuel cell to power implanted brain-computer interfaces | ExtremeTech
Male Homosexuality Study: Gay Men Have Evolutionary Benefit For Their Families, New Research Suggests - While female sexuality appears to be more fluid, research suggests that male gayness is an inborn, unalterable, strongly genetically influenced trait - mothers and maternal aunts of gay men tend to have significantly more offspring than the maternal relatives of straight men.
Hormones for Cows? Not in Canada - Dairy Facts & Fallacies - Good Health | Dairy Goodness - Nourish your day Growth hormones to stimulate milk production are not approved for sale or permitted for use in Canada. To maximize milk production, producers make sure that their cows are healthy and well-nourished.

Balloon Juice » Republican Brains and Liberal Facts — A Conversation Chris Mooney’s latest, The Republican Brain (closed minds at work)
Balloon Juice » There Never Was No War On Women (Internet Division) (example)
Michigan lawmakers approve key parts of hardline anti-abortion law package | World news | guardian.co.uk Backers of law that will now move to state's Senate are accused of rushing the process forward without adequate hearings

Political Animal - “Abandoning” God - Belief in God Plummets Among Youth
Q41d | American Values Survey Question Database | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press ("never" - way to rig a poll, guys)
Prius Mori Quam Fallere Fidem --Die rather than betray trust.: Most people are sensitive to spiritual things to more or less degrees but cant tell when it is real and when it is not. But if we think further int this issue we can see that it is a common feature of cults to have great public faces and yet there is a whole string of hurt and broken lives that it leaves in its wake. This has to be at least a warning sigh that Orthodox Judaism is in itself a cult.

NYPD officer pleads not guilty in killing of unarmed Bronx teenager | World news | guardian.co.uk Richard Haste enters plea at arraignment on manslaughter charges over fatal shooting of 18-year-old Ramarley Graham

“Credit Positive” Actions at Wesleyan University by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly Late last month Wesleyan University announced plans to end its decades-long policy of need-blind admissions (needs.more.money)
Jerry Sandusky Trial: Alleged Victim Says Former Penn State Football Coach Forced Oral Sex

In The Suburbs (1957) - YouTube (Redbook had its thumb on the pulse of America)
George W. Bush's decapitated head appeared on Game of Thrones (one can hope)
Jesse Ventura No Longer Flies, Thanks To Transportation Security Administration has stopped flying because he won't let Transportation Security Administration officers grope him anymore.

All of Your Lingering Prometheus Questions, Answered!

CIOS Beware: New Macbook Pro Will Be a Bandwidth Hog - The CIO Report - WSJ CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that the higher resolution Retina displays of the new iPad and forthcoming Macbook Pro computers would increase consumption of network bandwidth, thus slowing performance of corporate networks (dolts)
Comcast Protests “Shake Down” of Alleged BitTorrent Pirates | TorrentFreak Comcast has run out of patience with the avalanche of BitTorrent lawsuits in the United States. The ISP is now refusing to comply with court-ordered subpoenas, arguing that they are intended to “shake down” subscribers by coercing them to pay settlements
MacBook Pro with Retina Display Teardown - iFixit (Apple creates least-repairable computer ever made)
US-CERT warns of guest-to-host VM escape vulnerability | ZDNet
Icann criticised over 'commercial landgrab' of internet | Technology | guardian.co.uk Amazon and Google dominate applications for new top-level domains, including .app, .shop, .book, .love, .amazon and .google
Reddit Reportedly Banning High-Quality Domains - Forbes
WTF, Reddit?! : WTF
Daily Dot | How “The Atlantic” successfully spammed Reddit
SRS rules everything around me
Relationship Advice

061212
Clinton accuses Russia of delivering attack helicopters to Syrian regime | World news | guardian.co.uk US secretary of state says Moscow is lying about weapons deliveries as senior UN official likens Syrian conflict to civil war
Russia protests: tens of thousands voice opposition to Putin's government | World news | guardian.co.uk 'March of Millions' goes ahead in Moscow and other cities despite thunderstorms and absence of key opposition figures

Eschaton: The Worst Possible Thing They Could Do Is Borrow More Money Because Austerity According to Our Galtian Overlords, austerity is necessary. Except, of course, when it comes to massive failing companies known as banks. Just keep lighting billions of taxpayer money on fire, paying massive salaries to the people who are destroying the world. And nobody mention moral hazard, because that's what happens when you give someone an extra $10/week in food stamps.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde warns world risks triple crisis | Business | guardian.co.uk Lagarde says world risks falling incomes, environmental damage and social unrest without more sustainable approach to growth

Jeremy Hunt at the Leveson inquiry | Media | guardian.co.uk Cameron says he is satisfied Hunt didn't break ministerial code (of course he is)

Tokyo named world's most expensive city | Money | guardian.co.uk Luanda, in Angola, is second in annual cost-of-living survey as London slips to 25th and Australian cities move up

Bob Kerrey, yet another Great Moderate Hope - 2012 Elections - Salon.com Matt Bai and the dream of a Senate once again ruled by wise old men (go Blue Dogs!)
Cagle Post » Why I Gave Up On Being a Republican - As a local GOP official after President Obama’s election, I had a front-row seat as it became infected by a dangerous and virulent form of political rabies. In the grip of this contagion, the Republican Party has come unhinged.
Johnson & Johnson Drops ALEC | ThinkProgress ALEC is responsible for crafting voter suppression legislation that has been used in state houses across the country, and the “Stand Your Ground” law that originally protected Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman

Colorado wildfire forces evacuations as government is accused of slow response | World news | guardian.co.uk As fires burn across nine states, experts say forest service has been slow to bring in resources to boost ageing fleet of air tankers (whaddya want, big government?)

Fed: Income and Wealth Have Plummeted | Mother Jones (trading wage growth for asset bubbles)
Eschaton: The Bestest Run Banks By The Smartest Bestest Banker In The Whole Wide World (elites at work )
Romney Confirms He Will Deny Insurance To Millions With Pre-Existing Conditions If Obamacare Is Struck Down | ThinkProgress (tells granny to die)
Columbia in a tangle over links to embattled JP Morgan boss Dimon | Business | guardian.co.uk University facing accusations of conflict of interest over president Lee Bollinger's support of New York Fed ally Jamie Dimon

Computer model successfully predicts drug side effects A new set of computer models has successfully predicted negative side effects in hundreds of current drugs, based on the similarity between their chemical structures and those molecules known to cause side effect

Hideous $3999.95 Painting of Andrew Breitbart Actually Swiped from Video Game (life imitating art)
Everybody Is Not A Winner Day: The Breitb-Arting | TBogg

BREAKING: George Zimmerman's wife arrested on perjury charge | ThinkProgress
Penn State trial: star witness testifies he saw Sandusky in shower with boy | World news | guardian.co.uk Former assistant football coach Mike McQueary describes walking in on Jerry Sandusky and a young boy in 2001
New Report: Penn State Officials Thought It Was 'Humane' Not to Report Sandusky | ThinkProgress
Eschaton: Humanity The report of a file maintained by Schultz, who was at the time in charge of Penn State campus security, comes a day after NBC news reported that former Penn State President Graham Spanier did not report alleged abuse to non-PSU authorities because, according to e-mails between he and other campus officials, he felt it would be 'humane' to Sandusky to not report the matter (yes, his name is Schultz, as in Captain)
View image: shultz
24-Year-Old Gets 3 Life Terms in Prison for Witnessing a Drug Deal: The Ugly Truth of Mandatory Drug Sentencing | Drugs | AlterNet (tough on crime in prison-state America)

'Mad Men' And the Impossibility of Discussing the Problem That Has No Name | ThinkProgress

/ What is an internet troll? | Technology | The Guardian Victims of anonymous trolls on Twitter and other social media may soon have the power to discover their tormentors' identities, thanks to a new law. But what's the difference between a troll and somebody who just has very bad manners?
In Less Than 1 Year Verizon Data Goes from $30/Unlimited to $50/1GB | Public Knowledge (don't need no steenking regulation; US sinks further behind in Internet)

061112
U.S. Braces for Mexican Shift in Drug War Focus - NYTimes.com (all our proxy wars aren't working out so well)

Why Peter Beinart Didn’t Predict the Liberal Response to His New Book -- New York Magazine Peter Beinart thought his new book on Israel would be a rallying cry for liberal Zionism. Instead, it’s been attacked by many of his peers and embraced by some whose views he finds terrifying.

Joseph Stiglitz: Spain Bank Bailout 'Not Going To Work'
Another Bank Bailout - NYTimes.com Oh, wow — another bank bailout, this time in Spain. Who could have predicted that? (the grand failure of the elite's prescription of austerity for everyone else)
Spain’s bailout bought just 4 hours and 40 minutes of calm - The Washington Post
Eschaton: Purified By The Promise Of Suffering For Other People Taxpayers on the hook for the bailout of the people who spend their days lighting money on fire, and things are only going to get worse.
A Tiny Revolution: Ummm...Suffering... The Age of Uncertainty actually originated as a show for the BBC. You might not be surprised to learn that Margaret Thatcher did everything she could to stop them from broadcasting it, but the BBC didn't give in, which is pretty impressive. God knows PBS would have buckled in three seconds, in the extremely unlikely event they ever produced something like it in the first place (and the Beeb, of course, hasn't since then either)
Eschaton: Bank Shot Though they've tried to disguise it a bit, in the midst of "austerity" Spain is now on the hook for whatever money gets lent to the banks to bail them out. I'm sure none of our "profligate spenders" tut tutters will notice this aspect.
Eschaton: What Were They Thinking It's as if they decided that if they borrowed 100 billion euros to bail out (yet again) their banks, then Teh Markets would be pleased that they would no longer need to borrow a hundred billion euros. Or something.
Eschaton: Operation Blame Yurp Even if pesky foreigners are causing problems, the issue for people in power is how to respond. More austerity!!!! is not the answer. Or you could just blame everybody else. - Britain's prospects for economic recovery are being "killed off" by the crisis in the eurozone, George Osborne has warned.
Nobel Prize Winnings To Be Cut Twenty Percent | TPM Livewire

George Osborne And Gordon Brown To Face Leveson Inquiry

Supreme Court Declines Guantanamo Bay Cases: It's Been 4 Years Of Silence
A Rough Day for Habeas Corpus - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money And as if to remind us of the long-standing, bipartisan commitment to reducing civil liberties, the Court also unanimously overturned a Sixth Circuit granting of habeas corpus rights based on the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996

DOJ To Sue Over Florida’s Voter Purge | TPMMuckraker
Rick Scott: Florida Suing Federal Government Over Voter Purge Florida filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Washington D.C., demanding that the state be given the right to check the names of its registered voters against an immigration database maintained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Americans’ wealth plummeted 40 percent from 2007 to 2010, Federal Reserve says - The Washington Post (thank you Bush, Greenspan and Wall St)
Democrats' Odd Obsession With Tricking Republicans Into Voting for Tax Hikes (Obama's grand strategy which has already failed several times)

Older, Jobless and Forced Onto Social Security - NYTimes.com (Alan "Dimbulb" Simpson will fix that)
Daily Kos: Union basics the media often gets wrong—and ways right-wing messaging sneaks into labor coverage
Are Unions Necessary? - Lawyers, Guns & Money : I’m sure tomorrow the magazine will follow this up with the logical next question: Is Capitalism Necessary? (and after that, is The Atlantic necessary?)

Virginia Republicans Oppose Sea-Level Rise Language | TPMMuckraker some Republicans refuse to accept the terms “sea level rise” or “climate change.” “sea level rise” is a “left-wing term.”
NYPD Sued Over Failure to Investigate Cars Killing People -- Daily Intel More than 200 pedestrians and cyclists were killed by cars last year in New York City, and only seventeen of those drivers faced criminal charges (Bloomberg wants to stop-and-frisk 800,000 brown and black people/yr but could give a shit if you get run over by a car)

Our Liberal Institutions - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Diane Ravitch fired by Brookings — dissenting from Waiting For Superman-style nonsense is bad for your career even if you’re not at an explicitly conservative think tank. (fired for not agreeing with Romney's "education reform")
Is West Virginia America’s Most Racist State? - Lawyers, Guns & Money - Other areas with high percentages included western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, upstate New York and southern Mississippi. (yes +plus another of Obama's "grand bargain" grand failures which have screwed over millions of people)
Balloon Juice » Very Creepy - A socially conservative majority dominating the Michigan House hopes to impose new regulations on abortion providers and mostly prohibit the practice after 20 weeks of pregnancy ... does not allow late-term abortions in cases of rape, incest or fetal defect, such as a missing brain or spine.
Why We Should All Root for the Miami Heat | The Nation (the other side is even more evil)
Jerry Sandusky Trial: 'Victim 4' Delivers Graphic Testimony About 'Love Letters,' Abuse In Showers

Magic Pills by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly Realistically, pundits and educators can talk forever about the adverse health consequences of Adderall and other neuroenhancing drugs, but there’s no way this is going to abate as long as college admissions remains the same ... Targeted use of amphetamines can help a high school student earn maybe 100 points on the SAT
Balloon Juice » the “Paleo diet” isn’t (not enough bugs and mice and awful-tasting veggies)

Maureen Ryan: 'Mad Men' Season 5 Thoughts: What Was Lacking (And What There Was Too Much Of)
Maureen Ryan: 'Mad Men' Finale Recap: Is That All There Is?
Mad Men | Tom & Lorenzo



061012
Afghan president Karzai: US to cease air strikes on residential areas | World news | guardian.co.uk President says Washington has given Afghanistan commitment after raid that killed 18 civilians in Lognar province last week - that killed women, children and elderly people in a home that US forces believed was harbouring a Taliban militant ("believed" so they blew up 19 innocent "non-militants" - these aren't war crimes?)
Jews and Arabs march to mark 45 years of Israeli occupation | The Raw Story (45 years and counting)
Afghanistan's U.S.-Funded Counter-Narcotics Tribunal Convicts Nearly All Defendants, Records Show
Nigerian churches attacked by gunmen and suicide bomber | World news | guardian.co.uk Many killed and wounded' in north-east and central Nigeria • Attacks bear hallmark of Islamist terror group Boko Haram
Burma clashes could put transition to democracy at risk, president says | World news | The Guardian Thein Sein declares state of emergency after sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims kills several people

Spain's banking bailout plays out a running theme of the eurozone crisis | Business | The Guardian Spain's call for assistance echoes a familiar pattern of denial, bond pressure then a crescendo of relief over agreed terms
Spanish PM claims bank bailout 'triumph' amid eurozone crisis | World news | The Guardian Mariano Rajoy puts gloss on €100bn loan but 'bailout lite' could prompt reaction from hard-hit Ireland, Portugal and Greece

Spread of ‘baby boxes’ in Europe alarms United Nations | The Raw Story where infants can be secretly abandoned by parents, warning that the practice “contravenes the right of the child to be known and cared for by his or her parents”

Sen. Mark Udall calls for changes to FISA Amendments Act | The Raw Story that authorized dragnet-style warrantless wiretapping by the National Security Agency.

Health Care Reform: Undoing Obama's Health Law Could Have Messy Ripple Effects
David Axelrod: Mitt Romney 'Living On A Different Planet' or his recent comments about teachers, saying he was ignoring the need for more educators in the United States.
Mitch Daniels: Public-Sector Unions Shouldn't Exist
Hullabaloo - Hispanic frustration - a president who doesn't understand liberal supporters who question his commitment and is sorely disappointed --- even angry --- that he has failed to engender the kind of unquestioning loyalty he expected.

Political Animal - Concern Trolling in the Times
Balloon Juice » Some Call This Cowardice This may be the single dumbest op-ed in the NY Times this year, which would be an accomplishment, given that Friedman, Brooks, Douthat, and Bruni all write there. Apparently Steve Almond thinks that if liberals would just ignore nasty old Republicans, then we’d have an amazingly civil public discourse and Fox news would shrivel up and die. The logic goes something like this: 1.) Ignore Mean Republicans 2.) ... 3.) UNICORNS!
Species of Liberal - Lawyers, Guns & Money : I just don’t understand some types of liberals. This is particularly true of the self-hating liberal who consistently believes that if we only ignored those naughty conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and find the many reasonable voices of the Right, we could bring the nation out of decline (Steve Almond is wankerific)
Political Animal - The Limits of Sweet Reason the oddly anachronistic New York Times op-ed by Steve Almond advancing the tired idea that if liberals would ignore wingnuts they’d go away and we’d rediscover our own positive agenda via civil discussion with reasonble conservatives.

Paul Krugman dings Mitt Romney at Netroots Nation | TPM2012 “The New York Times Book Review is run by Sam Tanenhaus, who is very much a neocon, and makes a point whenever a progressive comes out with a book to find someone who will attack it,” Krugman said. “It’s not really an attack, but the reviewer is shocked at the lack of respect I show for ‘highly respected people,’ I think he uses that phrase.” Krugman concluded that Americans are living under the tyranny of “very serious people” — people like Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, he said. “Solving this depression is not fundamentally an economic problem, it’s a political problem.”
Alan Simpson, Social Security Illiterate | Mother Jones Anyone who understands the numbers knows this. People like Alan Simpson don't. But guess who gets the most press coverage? (the very Serious people like cranky old evil lying Simpson)

Facebook flotation may have cost UBS $350m | Technology | guardian.co.uk Swiss bank resubmitted order multiple times after receiving no confirmation and got more shares than it wanted, CNBC claims

Seeking Academic Edge, Teenagers Abuse Stimulants - NYTimes.com Adderall, an amphetamine prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder that the boy said he and his friends routinely shared to study late into the night,

'Under The Namibian Sky' Time-Lapse: 250 Hours Of Dazzling Night Exposures (video)

Confessions of a recovering Objectivist | Victoria Bekiempis | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk For a time, I was a devotee of Ayn Rand's ideas. Now I see what a pernicious philosophy rational egoism is – and how dumb!
Psychological Egoism and Ethical Egoism

060912
Russia backs Assad's departure 'if that is what Syrians want' | World news | The Observer Foreign minister's comments suggest that Moscow's backing for Syrian president is weakening (bloody dictators love each other)
Afghan government warns US over 'one-sided' airstrike that killed 18 | World news | guardian.co.uk Raid that killed over a dozen civilians condemned as Afghanistan warns that future raids would be a breach of pact (drone-boy at work: "civilians" = "militants" in the language of the NYT)

Euro Zone Agrees To Lend Spain Up To 100 Billion Euros

» POST #24 :: Drone-Strike the Jobless Brian Thill (win, win!)

Mitt Romney's House - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - 06/07/12 - Video Clip | Comedy Central
Kansas Redistricting: Federal Court Redraws All Legislative Districts, Pushes 'Re-set Button'
In Wisconsin, Lessons Learned And Bridges Burned: The 2012 Speculatron Weekly Roundup For June 8, 2012 there was never much reason to suspect that Tom Barrett was going to somehow prevail in a rerunning of an election in which he had already been defeated. Barrett's 2010 defeat was not a close one. His 2012 defeat wasn't even as close as the original. Barrett may need to run a third time for it to sink in, but it's pretty clear that Wisconsinites just aren't that into being governed by him (idiot)
Charlie Crist Gay? Former Governor Allegedly Paid Men To Cover Up Affairs

Mark Gongloff: Alan Greenspan Bravely Rushes To JPMorgan Chase's Defense, With A Bucket Of Nonsense
Alan Simpson Fires Off Angry Letter To HuffPost (cranky old evil guy rants)
Swiss finance minister hints at agreement with US over bank accounts | World news | guardian.co.uk American attempt to crack down on wealthy citizens using Swiss banks to dodge taxes could be resolved by Election Day
Eschaton Because austerity. Or Free Market. Or CAPITALISM. Or whatever - The $1.65 billion tax deal the Corbett administration is negotiating with Shell Oil Co. to locate an ethane processing plant in western Pennsylvania is shaping up to be the biggest such state investment Pennsylvania history. (more corp welfare )
President Obama's Press Conference Was Terrible, and Not Because of 'Doing Fine' | Crooks and Liars (because he can't say the word "Republican")

Alzheimer's vaccine trial a success - Karolinska Institutet A study led by Karolinska Institutet reports for the first time the positive effects of an active vaccine against Alzheimer's disease. The new vaccine, CAD106, can prove a breakthrough in the search for a cure for this seriously debilitating dementia disease - According to the World Health Organisation, dementia is the fastest growing global health epidemic of our age.

What Does It Say About America That We Jail Teens for Having Sex or Being Late to School? | | AlterNet The case of an honors student in Texas shines light on a national problem: teens going to jail for absurd reasons (criminalization of childhood)
Increase in prison sentence lengths cost states $10 billion per year the amount of time that offenders spend behind bars has drastically increased in recent decades ... More than half of that amount was for nonviolent offenders. (throw away the key)


Prometheus - Everything explained and analysed *SPOILERS* : movies

Canada's warrantless surveillance bill is back, and bigger than ever, with surveillance powers for US gov't, too - Boing Boing
Apple Patents the MacBook Air's Wedge Design — Bad News for Ultrabook Makers | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

060812
Rio+20 Earth summit's leaked draft reveals chaos among countries | John Vidal | Environment | guardian.co.uk UN's vision for one deal to save the Earth is in peril as countries bicker over phrasing of clauses and key terms in the draft text

UN's Syria monitors sift through debris of al-Qubair attack | World news | guardian.co.uk Scenes of burned-out houses and charred human remains in village where up to 78 people were reportedly killed in cold blood
Chinese police detain Tiananmen Square veteran's relatives | World news | guardian.co.uk Family members questioned circumstances of Li Wangyang's reported suicide in hospital, reports human rights group
UN: seven peacekeepers killed in Ivory Coast ambush | World news | guardian.co.uk United Nations envoy says peacekeepers from Niger were part of patrol trying to protect civilians in remote village

Obama urges Europe to act swiftly to prevent economic collapse | Business | guardian.co.uk President says eurozone crisis remains threat to America's economic recovery as Spain prepares to ask EU for bailout
Spain bailout terms 'to be agreed within a week' | World news | The Guardian Urgency reflects growing consensus that Spanish collapse might start chain reaction that could topple Italy and destroy the euro
Greeks protest against violent neo-Nazi MP on the run | World news | The Guardian Golden Dawn spokesman who assaulted leftwing politicians evades arrest as protesters denounce fascism
The German response | Martin Wolf's Exchange a senior and highly respected official of the German finance ministry - Mr Ludger Schuknecht (they think in propaganda with no basis in fact)

Leveson inquiry: George Osborne and David Cameron to give evidence | Media | guardian.co.uk Chancellor and prime minister to appear next week alongside Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband and other top politicians

Chris Hedges | Adbusters Culture - The global struggle for real democracy has reached a precious moment of truth: "The corporations will disembowel, or in the language of business schools “harvest,” what is left of the country. The security and surveillance apparatus will lock up those who resist. This is the future. The iron circle will be shut tight."

Why Elites Fail | The Nation - Christopher Hayes - This article is adapted from Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy,

Bradley Manning fails to persuade military judge to throw out charges | World news | guardian.co.uk Ruling comes at end of third day of hearings dominated by complaints that Manning is not being allowed a fair trial

President Obama: 'Offensive' To Suggest Administration Purposefully Leaked Intelligence Info (vows retribution for leakers unless its him)

Wisconsin Recap: Thanks to Obama, American Left Lies in Smoldering Wreckage « naked capitalism - Then, Barrett, an anti-labor centrist, won the Democratic primary by crushing his labor-backed opponent, Kathleen Falk. Finally, Barrett himself was destroyed by Scott Walker, who outspent Barrett 7-1 with corporate money (Dems are hopelessly compromised)
Balloon Juice » Wisco River Take My Mind I attended the Wisconsin post-mortem session this morning, which featured four people who had worked on the ground there. I came away with a mixed picture of what caused Tuesday’s loss.
Why Ilya Sheyman And Progressives Lost Big In Illinois' 10th District Primary "I'm flabbergasted. I'm embarrassed. This is the biggest screw-up electorally that I've ever been involved in," said one progressive activist still sorting through the wreckage.

Homeland Security Bill 2012: House Passes $46 Billion Measure Containing Anti-Abortion Rider (how they roll)
Hullabaloo Licking their chops: Capitol hill is drooling over the possibility of exchanging health care for more military spending (Obama drooling over his self-induced "grand bargain")

Political Animal - Remember When Breaking the Law Used to Mean Something? The big piece today is in the Washington Post, where Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward share a byline for the first time in 36 years. It’s about President Nixon and Watergate 40 years after the fact, and how the whole situation was much worse than was thought back then:

The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Not all of Voters’ Self-Interests are Economic In short, middle and upper class voters also often prioritize their moral interests over their economic interests. Such political behaviour is not a “working class thing”. It’s a human thing.
ACLU Sues Over Florida Voter Purge | TPMMuckraker
Balloon Juice » This is the Genius I Was Looking For While I was licking Bush’s scrotum in 2003, the Poorman was writing things like this:
Balloon Juice » People Got a Lotta Nerve When these guys want to mouth off for free, they churn out press releases crying about the government’s nefarious plans to make them release their death grip from women’s uteri. When they’re paying for ink and paper, it’a apologies for their kiddie raping ways.
Dawkins calls for 'Catholic' honesty - The Irish Times - Wed, Jun 06, 2012 People who describe themselves as Catholic but do not accept the church’s key teachings should be “honest” and admit they no longer belong to the faith, atheist author and scientist Prof Richard Dawkins has told a Dublin audience ... “The number of priests is going down beautifully,” he said.

The Structural Obsession - NYTimes.com And just think about the fact that this completely unsupported claim about structural unemployment is being used as an argument against doing anything to help millions of unemployed workers find jobs. Incredible.
Macro and Other Market Musings: Much Ado About Nothing: the Labor Mismatch Problem
Eschaton: Evil Bernanke sleeps well at night so he can get up every day and ensure that millions experience severe economic hardship.
Obama Says The Private Sector Is Fine, And He's Not Entirely Wrong
JOBS Act Fallout: More Fraud, Fewer IPOs | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone

Visualizing the History of Everything (ChronoZoom)
Environmental and biotic controls on the evolutionary history of insect body size Giant insects, with wingspans as large as 70 cm, ruled the Carboniferous and Permian skies (and then dinos evolved into birds)
Ch 24 Page 168: Sustainable Energy - without the hot air | David MacKay according to a paper published in the journal Science, people in America living near coal-fired power stations are exposed to higher radiation doses than those living near nuclear power plants.

How the NRA and Its Allies Helped Spread a Radical Gun Law Nationwide | Mother Jones (and Americans loved them for it)
Hullabaloo - Devolving (more Americans say "God created humans in present form - 46% - than at any time in the last 20 years)

Joe Scarborough says New York Times is “thin skinned” for correcting his nonsense - Salon.com Joe Scarborough may have been totally, utterly, completely wrong this morning, when he incorrectly argued, based solely on his own general, vague impressions, that the New York Times was treating Mitt Romney fundamentally differently than it had treated earlier Democratic candidates, but, you know, Joe Scarborough doesn’t really care. He is still right in his gut.
Terry Jones, Quran-Burning Pastor, Hangs Barack Obama Effigy Outside Florida Church (racist America)

Causeway Cannibal Identified; Fears Grow Over Drug Possibly Involved « CBS Miami ... the extreme strength and violence of patients on “bath salts” has become a significant threat to all those charged with the task of trying to help those high on the drug, which unlike the original LSD is a stimulant ("original" does not mean what you think it means)
Exclusive New Details: Causeway Cannibal Rudy Eugene’s Last Hours « CBS Miami

Brad DeLong: Phishers 1, DeLong 0...
The Pirate Bay evades ISP blockade with IPv6, can do it 18 quintillion more times | ExtremeTech
Updates past #23 for the nuclear thread : politics
Build a PC

060712
Assad regime has lost humanity – UN | World news | The Guardian Secretary general condemns Syrian regime as details emerge of village massacre and deepening sectarian tension (Russia and China continue to veto any action)
Syrian regime troops and militiamen 'seen walking towards massacre site' | World news | guardian.co.uk Witnesses say they saw Shabiha militiamen, who were known to them personally, approaching village before killing began
US losing patience with Pakistan over insurgent bases, warns Panetta | World news | guardian.co.uk US defence secretary says on visit to Afghanistan that neighbour must take steps to tackle safe havens along border (drone massacres of innocent civilians just fine, however)
UK government boycotts Euro 2012 over Ukraine treatment of Tymoshenko | World news | The Guardian Foreign Office confirms no officials will attend Euro championship games in Ukraine over jailed opposition leader
Deadly Drone Strike on Muslims in the Southern Philippines | Brookings Institution Within minutes, 15 people lay dead and a community plunged into despair, fear and mourning. (they were lucky Obama didn't nuke their funeral)
Daily Kos: Denmark approves same-sex marriage and church weddings

Spain's credit rating downgraded by Fitch as international bailout looms | World news | The Guardian Europe's fourth largest economy now hovering just above junk status with credit agency blaming policy elite for deepening crisis
Eschaton: It's Working!!! Something is being achieved anyway. The unemployment rate in March 2012 was 21.9 percent compared to 15.7 percent in March 2010 and 21.4 percent in February 2012, ELSTAT said. This means there were 1,075,081 unemployed Greeks in March.
Eschaton: Elites The point is that whatever problems are happening right now exist because the people in charge fucked it all up. And for that the little people, including Greek farmers, must be punished (for the collosal world-destroying fuckups of the elites)

Hullabaloo - Supplementing the kill list - Mrs. Clinton strongly supported the strikes, she complained to colleagues about the drones-only approach at Situation Room meetings, in which discussion would focus exclusively on the pros, cons and timing of particular strikes - It's almost as if the government, for reasons of its own, is radicalizing Muslims so it has something to keep shooting at.

Senators plan legal crackdown on Obama administration leaks | World news | guardian.co.uk White House faces accusations it endangered American lives by leaking information that would show the president as powerful (leaker-in-chief hates leakers)

Military Suicide Rate Surges To Nearly One Per Day This Year (support your troops, not)

Obama Campaign Admits Fundraising Defeat In May Mitt Romney's campaign announced that it and allied campaign committees had raised $76.7 million in May alone. That was about $17 million more than the president's campaign raised during the same time period. Sen. John McCain never once outraised Obama during the 2008 election.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Abcess Makes The Heart Grow Fonder 43% of people questioned had a favorable opinion of Bush, with 54% saying they had an unfavorable view of the former president. Bush’s 43% favorable rating is the same as it was in 2010 in CNN polling, but is up from his mid-30’s favorable rating during 2009, his first year out of the White House ... More people like Jimmy Carter (54%), Poppy Bush (59%) and Bill Clinton (66%) these days, and with good reason (he whose name must never be mentioned, especially by Obama)
I Told You Obama Should Have Been Impeached As Soon As He Appointed William Rehnquist and Forced the Beatles to Break Up - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Seriously, when you right a superficially leftier-than-thou piece that manages to replicate some concern-trolling from Jennifer Rubin, you’ve reached a very, very special level of hackery.
Senators Begin Secret Talks on Grand Bargain (here we go again)
Large Majority Want Health Care Law Overturned A new New York Times/CBS News poll finds 68% of Americans hope the Supreme Court will overturn some or all of the President Obama's landmark health care law. Just 24% said they hoped the court "would keep the entire health care law in place." (most Americans reject less-expensive health-care for themselves)
Lance Mannion: O lucky man! And then at their wake some Republican friend looks down into their coffin and says, “Your own fault, pal.”
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Crossing The Rubin Con On POTUS Concern Trolling This particular combination of freely admitting that the Tea Party was founded solely on the patriotic value of “We believe Obummer is the anti-Christ in Mammon’s monster truck come to send us all to Socialist hell” and World Nut Daily concern trolling deep into the land of freebasing Lester Kinsolving’s socks might actually win some sort of prize for the most densely-compacted block of garbage outside of a New Jersey landfill. (Kaplan Test Prep's Jennifer "drive the Palestinians into the sea" Rubin inspires great rhetoric)

The Price of Inequality by Joseph E. Stiglitz | Project Syndicate the American dream is a myth. There is less equality of opportunity in the United States today than there is in Europe – or, indeed, in any advanced industrial country for which there are data (land of no opportunity)
Ben Bernanke offers no sign of stimulus but says Fed will step in if needed | Business | guardian.co.uk Bernanke tells Congress that economic recovery remains fragile and warns that Europe's woes pose siginificant risks to US (completely useless, unemployment not an issue)
Political Animal - The Psychology of Inflation why people seem to hate inflation so much:

Breaking the limits of classical physics The studies show that light can have both an electrical and a magnetic field, but not at the same time. That is to say, light has quantum mechanical properties.
Peter Gleick reinstated by Pacific Institute following Heartland exposé | Environment | guardian.co.uk Investigation finds that Gleick did not forge confidential documents he obtained from free-market Heartland Institute (which was obvious)
Political Animal - Could Climate Hawks Replace Labor?
Political Animal - Running Out of Time A prestigious group of scientists from around the world is warning that population growth, widespread destruction of natural ecosystems, and climate change may be driving Earth toward an irreversible change in the biosphere, a planet-wide tipping point that would have destructive consequences absent adequate preparation and mitigation.
Gonorrhea Is Growing Resistant To Drugs And May Soon Become Untreatable, WHO Warns
‘Big Bang Machine’ Large Hadron Collider Suffers Interference From Lunar Gravity | TPM Idea Lab
Schilling’s State-Backed Biz Bankrupt | TPM Editors Blog Today the company filed for bankruptcy. But perhaps of more concern for Schilling, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies “are working together to investigate activities that have recently come to light at 38 Studios.” (who could have predicted?)

The War on Women by the Ridiculous Numbers Over the last year and a half or so, conservative lawmakers have been feverishly at work enacting laws designed to shove the whole government into your vagina, since it's for damn sure not going to be looking over your boss's shoulder to make sure he's not screwing you over. Here's a run-down of the War on Women, in convenient digestible bits that hopefully won't interfere with that pregnancy you're working on.
Michigan Anti-Abortion Bill, 'Most Extreme' In The Country, Barrels Through State House - Specifically, the omnibus bill would criminalize all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, without exceptions for rape victims, the health of the woman or in cases where there is a severe fetal anomaly (way to go, Michigan)

Update: Florida Governor Rick Scott Officially Defies Justice Department, Vows To Continue Voter Purge | ThinkProgress (your move, DOJ)
Stop-and-frisk controversy prompts meeting with justice department | World news | guardian.co.uk Lawmakers and activists urge action after NYPD's failure to rein in controversial and possibly ineffective policy (Bloomberg's little police state get billions from US taxpayers for anti-Muslim "security")
Ecoterrorism and the FBI Lawyers, Guns & Money - If you ever wanted to read FBI documents on training against so-called “ecoterrorism,” now is your chance. This stuff is pretty disturbing since we see an ever expanding definition of “domestic terrorism” to include more and more activities that the left engages in. Meanwhile, right-wing extremists act with almost total impunity, building weapons caches, threatening people outside of women’s health clinics, using dark words about assassinating Democrats, etc.

Mad Men: Hands and hands and hands in “Commissions and Fees” - Lawyers, Guns & Money /a>

#ShellFail: Private Arctic Launch Party Goes Wrong - YouTube (even their models are broken)
Carl Jacquneaux Bit A Chunk Of Face Off Victim Todd Credeur In Louisiana, Cops Say Another gruesome attack over the weekend involved one man allegedly biting off a piece of another man's face -- and like similar cases, this one, too, involves "bath salts." ("LSD" --> "LSD-like substance" --> "bath salts")
David Smith, '650-Pound Virgin,' Regains Weight, Plans To Lose Again In 2009, David Smith sat down with Matt Lauer on "Today" and revealed a dramatic 400-pound weight loss. But over the past three years, Smith has regained over 300 of those pounds.

Ray Bradbury in The New Yorker : The New Yorker

IE 10's “Do Not Track” default dies quick death | Ars Technica Outrage from advertisers appears to have hobbled Microsoft's renegade plan ... enraged many online ad companies and industry groups, who saw the move as overly aggressive and a threat to their business model (which is to invade your privacy, of course)

060612
Afghanistan suffers day of bloodshed at hands of Nato and Taliban | World news | guardian.co.uk Thirty civilians killed by suicide bombers in market and air strike that wiped out village wedding party, say officials
Syrian activists: new massacre in Hama | World news | guardian.co.uk Activists say pro-government militia and security forces have killed at least 78 people, including children
South African campaigners unite against secrecy bill | World news | The Guardian JM Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer among those who say bill is country's first attack on democracy since apartheid ended - draconian penalties of up to 25 years in prison for whistleblowers and journalists who possess, leak or publish state secrets

The Urge to Punish - NYTimes.com This doctrine has an undeniable emotional appeal to people who are themselves comfortable. It’s also completely crazy given everything we’ve learned about economics these past 80 years. But these are times of madness, dressed in good suits.
From Krugmania to Draghia: Five ways to save the euro zone - The Washington Post
Panic has become all too rational - FT.com Before now, I had never really understood how the 1930s could happen. Now I do. All one needs are fragile economies, a rigid monetary regime, intense debate over what must be done, widespread belief that suffering is good, myopic politicians, an inability to co-operate and failure to stay ahead of events.
Cameron and Obama increase pressure on Merkel over eurozone crisis | Business | guardian.co.uk Following phone call with US president, British PM will tell German chancellor eurozone has just weeks to act decisively
Spain calls for new tax pact to save euro | Business | The Guardian Madrid calls for Europe-wide plan but resists 'humiliation' of national bailout

Bradley Manning defence gets report on WikiLeaks damage to US interests | World news | guardian.co.uk Judge rules that Obama administration must hand over documents assessing leak of diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks

Another Federal Judge Holds DOMA Unconstitutional - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money This time, it’s Barbara Jones, a Clinton appointee to the District Court. It’s based on a broader theory than last week’s 1CA ruling, and hence is less likely to stand up in its current form, but it’s not bad to have a strict scrutiny opinion out there in case Kennedy decides to go in that direction.

Hullabaloo: It isn't 60 Minutes, but it's what we've got - Here's Jon Stewart's extended interview with Ornstein and Mann. I think this may be just the third cable interview they've had, after Chris Hayes and Eliot Spitzer (crickets in the MSM +where Stewart is a villager) )

Republicans hope Scott Walker's Wisconsin victory will boost Romney | World news | guardian.co.uk Party leaders and voters hail governor's win, though many who voted for him say they will still vote for Obama in November
The Recall Aftermath - Lawyers, Guns & Money : A lot of coverage of Wisconsin, as one would expect. A few notes on this.
Ezra Klein - The Obama administration's poor relationship with Labor
Against Labor Fatalism - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Hullabaloo - Wednesday hangover - It was a bad night for the good guys, no doubt about it. Progressive super Tuesday was a flop. (progressives are stupid and unorganized)

Venus transiting the sun – in pictures | Science | guardian.co.uk
US healthcare system a haven for many, but sick Americans are often jilted | Society | The Guardian The NHS is sending patients abroad for advanced treatments, but that same care is hard to come by for many living there

Princeton University - Princeton University's 2012 Baccalaureate Remarks "Don't Eat Fortune's Cookie" Michael Lewis
Hullabaloo - Bizarroworld Pulitzers - Journalism is now so far down the rabbit hole that Andrew Breitbart can be considered a mainstream example of journalistic integrity, and the mainstream media reports it as if it's perfectly normal. Something has gone terribly wrong.

The NYPD may enforce the law, but they're also a law unto themselves | Paul Harris | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk News that an officer karate chopped a supreme court judge is in the headlines, but what about the other countless incidents?


LinkedIn's hacky, wacky Wednesday | Technology | guardian.co.uk Site suffers two blows with separate revelations of severe privacy breaches as experts caution to expect more of the same - That news came just hours after two Israeli researchers revealed that LinkedIn is scraping user data from their calendars in mobile Apple devices, sending private information back to LinkedIn's servers.
Kaspersky Finds New Man-In-The-Middle Attack Within The Flame Worm When a machine tries to connect to Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT)’s Windows Update, the "Munch" module redirects the connection through an infected machine and sends a fake, malicious Windows update to the client,
Metro breakdown! Windows 8 UI is little gain for lots of pain • The Register

060512
Al-Qaida number two Libi killed in Pakistan drone strike, US says | World news | The Guardian Claim follows official reprimand from Islamabad over recent increase in attacks by remote-controlled aircraft (the 12th #2 killed; but the question is who is #1?)
Syria ousts western diplomats | World news | guardian.co.uk Assad regime declares 17 foreign diplomats unwelcome after co-ordinated expulsion of Syrian ambassadors by western states

Eschaton: Injection There's always free money for the banks : The Portuguese government will inject €6.6bn into three of the country’s largest banks, using money from the country's €78bn EU-International Monetary Fund rescue programme. €12bn of the money had been earmarked for saving the nation's banks ... Could give money to people for the purpose of paying down debt, and let them give it to the banks. But...no (only elites get free money for their world-destroying fuckups)
Eschaton: Jubilee A group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid stewards during the diamond jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge before working on the river pageant ... change in public ... no toilets for 24 hrs ... 14 hr shifts, pouring rain - Aside from the obvious "slave labor" element of this, using people like this for security by a private security is a complete scam. (will teach them the value of "working" for nothing)
Call for inquiry into use of unpaid jobseekers as jubilee stewards | UK news | guardian.co.uk Security firm issues 'sincere apologies' for treatment of stewards but insists it did not exploit workers


Prop 8 Ruling: Federal Appeals Court Will Not Revisit California Same-Sex Marriage Ban

Paycheck Fairness Act Fails Senate Vote Senate Republicans have blocked a bill that calls for equal pay in the workplace.
How Romney Pushed State Health Bill - WSJ.com Emails Show Governor Defending Insurance Mandate for Massachusetts Residents
Mitt Romney Says He Would Have Backed Auto Bailout After Managed Bankruptcy
Ed Schultz On Scott Walker Recall: Wisconsin Election Will Determine 'If The People Still Matter'

Dems push for national debate on whether GOP is sabotaging economy - The Plum Line - The Washington Post (too "partisan" like destroying the econony isn't)
The US economy and jobs: the basic arithmetic | Dean Baker | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Economics pundits veer wildly from elation to despair. The reality is that jobs and growth will improve – just not nearly enough
Eschaton: Not Really Sure How It's Supposed To Work The people who think it's really hard to get by on $250,000 per year think that things should work just fine if everybody else doesn't have any money at all.

BP accused of attack on academic freedoms after scientists subpoenaed | Business | guardian.co.uk Oceanographers say they fear erosion of scientific process after they were forced to turn over emails related to BP oil spill

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Schooled By The Bayou “We try to stay away from all those things that might confuse our children,” Carrier said. (LA converts public school system to religious charter schools, gives taxpayer money to Christian fundies)

Eschaton: "Charity" That's a word. It means something - Timothy Cardinal Dolan yesterday blasted a report that he authorized payments to pedophile priests — and said no such payments are being made to New York clerics ... Joseph Zwilling, Dolan’s New York Archdiocese spokesman, told The Post last week that there was no “payoff” to pedophile priests — only “charity.” (illegal payoffs = "charity" a definition worthly of Satan or the WLPO)
Limbaugh Calls Alleged Victim Of Bullying By Romney A "Long-Haired, Maggot-Infested, Dope-Smoking Type Kid" | Media Matters for America

Innumeracy Invades The Dentists Office. | TBogg Our McMegan is going to work for Tina Brown’s Perpetual Lady Di Photoessay ... I tend to think that she was hired because she has displayed the common touch so desired by Newsweek’s core audience of people who like large colorful pictures of things. You may recall that Newsweek was sold to Sidney Harman in 2010 for $1 so this should double the value of magazine.

060412
US drones attack Pakistan targets for third successive day | World news | The Guardian US drone kills up to 17 people in north Waziristan, the third such attack on targets in Pakistan in as many days (drone-boy at work in WH basement murdering innocent civilians)
US drone attacks kill 12 in Pakistan | World news | guardian.co.uk Ten suspected militants killed as they gathered in mourning after two others were blown up by US missiles the day before - the aircraft firing its missiles into a gathering mourning one of two fighters killed in a similar atttack the previous day ("militants" = anyone who goes to the funeral of a relative "militant")
U.S. again bombs mourners - Salon.com The Obama policy of attacking rescuers and grieving rituals continues this weekend in Pakistan - I ask this sincerely: what kind of country targets rescuers, funeral attendees, and people gathered to mourn? “There is no national security policy that poses a graver threat to human rights law and civil liberties than” Obama’s kill lists)
Deliberate media propaganda - Salon.com The media now knows that "militant" is a term of official propaganda, yet still use it for America's drone victims
Pakistan: Drone Strikes Are Violations Of Sovereignty

Syrian rebels kill 80 soldiers, opposition claims | World news | The Guardian Violence in Damascus, Idlib and elsewhere comes after rebels warn of attacks if Kofi Annan's peace plan fails

Austerity is a blight on recovery, say City bosses - Business News - Business - The Independent Three quarters of City bosses believe the Government's austerity agenda is damaging the UK's hopes of recovery, according to new research (austerity fail, elites were wrong, as usual, but you still paid for their fuckups)
Group Of Seven To Hold Emergency Talks On Eurozone Debt Crisis

Supreme Court Finds Dick Cheney's Secret Service Agents Immune From Free Speech Lawsuit Secret Service agents who arrested a man after he disparaged and then touched Dick Cheney cannot be sued for violating the man's free speech rights, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday morning (Constitution doesn't apply to Cheney)

Balloon Juice » Romney: The Old Man’s Shadow Of course Wallace-Wells is not the first to suggest that Willard “Mitt” Romney’s single-minded pursuit of the presidency has been strongly influenced by his father’s failure. But he spells out exactly how nasty things were, back in what we like to pretend was a more innocent era, and how the younger Romney might have perceived that “his” party was being taken over by savages and cannibals (why Romney is running)
Balloon Juice : You say you’d change the constitution “I’d like to have a provision in the Constitution that in addition to the age of the president and the citizenship of the president and the birth place of the president being set by the Constitution, I’d like it also to say that the president has to spend at least three years working in business before he could become president of the United States.” — Mitt Romney, on Tuesday
Meet The Romney Birthers A popular meme among Romney birthers, who believe the Republican's Mexican roots make him ineligible for the presidency.
Five Takeaways From The 2012 Primary Season | The New Republic

Ron Paul Delegates Arrested As They Win a Majority at Louisiana GOP Convention ... shows Shreveport police dragging Mr. Helwig out of the room despite his protests that he was a duly elected delegate ... in an act of desperation, Mr. Villere and state party officials then ordered police to attack Mr. Herford ... an older gentleman in a blue shirt being violently dragged away by police and then shoved to the ground ... protests he is handicapped and would like to press charges for assault against the police officers, a Shreveport police officer is seen smirking in response ... Many observers expressed shock that the establishment would resort to such violent tactics against fellow Republicans ... increasing panic among state party leaders in the aftermath of Ron Paul’s decisive victory in the Louisiana caucus (Repubicans doing what Repubicans do)

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Maybe if they were cutting Social Security instead of regulating campaign finance Senator McCain and President Obama agree that deregulating campaign finance was an incredibly dangerous, radical and stupid idea. They’re on the same page ... You’d think the opinion industry would be celebrating, and shouting this good-government-inspired bipartisan opposition from the rooftops. Oddly, they’re not. Why is that?
How it started: A guide to understanding the recall against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker - The Washington Post
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Fire Walker Chronicles: Come In, Wisconsin The final Public Policy Polling count ahead of tomorrow’s recall election shows a slight Walker lead in a race that’s tightening up in the final hours.
Balloon Juice » Politically motivated piling on in Florida “Felon voting” is a big issue among GOP base voters. Here’s Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio lecturing Charlie Crist on it:

This Republican Economy - NYTimes.com What should be done about the economy? Republicans claim to have the answer: slash spending and cut taxes. What they hope voters won’t notice is that that’s precisely the policy we’ve been following the past couple of years. Never mind the Democrat in the White House; for all practical purposes, this is already the economic policy of Republican dreams. (Obama's failed Repubican policies)
Eschaton: The Future This is what Our Galtian Overlords have planned for us: American International Group Inc. (AIG) Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche said Europe’s debt crisis shows governments worldwide must accept that people will have to work more years as life expectancies increase. “Retirement ages will have to move to 70, 80 years old,” Benmosche, who turned 68 last week, said during a weekend interview at his seaside villa in Dubrovnik, Croatia. “ ... After board members tried to rein him in, he asked for a private jet for personal use and later threatened to quit over government-prescribed pay restrictions. (bailed out by US taxpayers, of course; 90 is the new 65; asshole elites at work)
Bank of America Withheld Loss Figures Ahead of Merrill Vote - NYTimes.com But shareholders were not told about the looming losses, which would prompt a second taxpayer bailout of $20 billion, leaving them instead to rely on rosier projections from the bank that the deal would make money relatively soon after it was completed ($20Bn fraud; no one goes to jail )
Balloon Juice : The rich are different - E. J. Dionne puts it well today (via RaptorFence): Forgive me for noting that conservatives seem to believe that the rich will work harder if we give them more, and the poor will work harder if we give them less.
Eschaton: Austerity - Hey, free money for rich people. Peter L. DeCoursey of subscription statehouse news service Capitolwire this morning posted a report alleging PA Gov. Tom Corbett has agreed to give the Shell petrochemical interests who plan to build a big ethane plant - in what's already a tax-free Keystone Opportunity Zone near Pittsburgh - tax credits totalling $67 million a year, or $1.7 billion in total, over 25 years, starting in 2017. Corbett's staff had no immediate comment when I called this a.m.

Every Black Hole Contains a New Universe | Inside Science Our universe may exist inside a black hole. This may sound strange, but it could actually be the best explanation of how the universe began, and what we observe today (black holes all the way down)

Philadelphia Priest Sex Abuse Trial Jury Probes Monsignor William Lynn Conspiracy Charge
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Who would Jesus pay to keep quiet about sex crimes? - “In what other occupation, especially one working with families and operating schools and youth programs, is an employee given a cash bonus for raping and sexually assaulting children?”

Erika Perdue, Dallas Socialite, Arrested For Allegedly Trading Child Pornography From Mansion
Catalina Clouser, Pot-Smoking Mother, Drives Off With Baby On Roof
Luka Rocco Magnotta Arrested: Porn Actor Suspected Of Dismembering Boyfriend Found In Berlin, Reports Say
Toronto News: Eaton Centre shooting: Victim mourned as police launch massive search for gunman - thestar.com (a "good" neighborhood)
Man Beheads Wife On Roof, Shouts 'Allahu Akbar' In Berlin: Report

Mad Men Recap: The Price of Impulsiveness -- Vulture

Cyber Spy Program Flame Compromises Key Microsoft Security System - Yahoo! News the authors of Flame -- a highly sophisticated surveillance computer virus discovered on networks in the Middle East and Iran -- had figured out how to use Microsoft's own security system to forge digital security certificates, which then allowed the malicious code to spread undetected by anti-virus programs.
MegaUpload Calls for Dismissal in America - ExtraTorrent.com The World's Largest BitTorrent System MegaUpload’s founder and his legal team have asked a Virginia federal court to dismiss the criminal case against them in the United States. Media reports reveal that the defense argues the United States violated the website’s due process rights by destroying the entire business, without having properly served MegaUpload (he's lucky Obama/Hollywood didn't just drone him)
Google To Buy Meebo Chat Service

060312
Bashar al-Assad: Syrian regime not to blame for Houla massacre | World news | guardian.co.uk n president's first remarks on last week's widely condemned killings, he says 'not even monsters' would commit such a crime ("they obviously massacred themselves!"
Lagos Plane Crashes Into Building In Nigeria's Largest City
Mystery Spiders Swarm Town, Leave 2 Dead - Indian town of Sadiya reels from arachnid invasion A mob of venomous spiders has swarmed the Indian town of Sadiya, killing two people and flooding hospitals with spider bite victims

Bank bailout makes Spaniards question their future as euro agonies mount | World news | The Observer Spaniards having to tighten their belts find it hard to stomach bailing out banks whose recklessness has brought them to ruin : Bankia was demanding €23.5bn of taxpayers' money to stave off collapse. That is €1,350 from each working Spaniard. Among other costs that need absorbing by the savings banks that made up Bankia are a €6.2m payoff to one senior executive who helped drive the bank to disaster and €14m to another. (we always pay for the crimes of the elites)
Remarks at the Festival of Economics, Trento Italy | George Soros The eurozone is now repeating what had often happened in the global financial system - The “center” is responsible for designing a flawed system, enacting flawed treaties, pursuing flawed policies and always doing too little too late. In the 1980’s Latin America suffered a lost decade; a similar fate now awaits Europe. That is the responsibility that Germany and the other creditor countries need to acknowledge. But there is no sign of this happening. (the elites are never responsible for failure +why Soros is reviled)

Paul Krugman on Newsnight, 30 May 2012 - YouTube
Hullabaloo: Village denial (Ornstein and Mann only on Chris Hayes; rest of the village: crickets)
The Orbital: Elites and Intellectual Failure (selfish and stupid)
MSNBC host Christopher Hayes’ Twilight of the Elites, reviewed. - Slate Magazine
America's Scary Politics
Up with Chris Hayes Twilight of the Elites book tour
Obama’s Pivot to the Deficit Was a Total Political Failure | Elections

Bradley Manning lawyer in struggle to have government documents released | World news | guardian.co.uk US government withholding 250,000 pages of damage assessment reports relating to WikiLeaks transmission
Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com A White House obsessed with secrecy and punishing whistleblowers loves classifed disclosures that glorify Obama


Racialization: Michael Tesler’s theory that all political positions come down to racial bias. - Slate Magazine
Hullabaloo: Hating Bo ...The sharpest edges of President Obama’s counterterrorism policy, including the use of drone aircraft to kill suspected terrorists abroad and keeping open the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have broad public support, including from the left wing of the Democratic Party.

Florida will defy order to stop purging voter list amid calls of 'suppression' | World news | guardian.co.uk Justice department warns that the practice of removing voters is illegal under federal law as Democrats call it discrimination (Lex Luthor say FL don't need no steenking DOJ)
Bob McDonnell Gives Obama Some Credit For Virginia's Economy (but that doesn't mean he'll vote for him)
Wisconsin Recall: Election Law Quirk Could Throw Governance Into Disarray a lieutenant governor could still declare him- or herself in charge every time the governor leaves the state -- and cause an incredible amount of mischief (by that you mean a Republican LG, of course)

Paul Krugman: 'I'm sick of being Cassandra. I'd like to win for once' | Business | The Guardian The American economist has a plan to escape the financial crisis, and it doesn't involve austerity measures or deregulating the banks. But will policy-makers, including our coalition government, heed his advice?
Paul Krugman: Paul Ryan's Budget Plan Is 'A Fraud' (it's Republican, isn't it?)
Eschaton: Assholes and The Sycophantic Journalists Who Love Them: If the CEO of Honeywell really thinks that the economic problems are due to government debt and the failure of the confidence fairy to appear, he could do the patriotic thing and give back the 15% of his company's revenue that comes from the federal government. And the journalist could share this fact with viewers. Honeywell CEO: Debt Biggest Drag on Jobs, Obama - ABC News David M. Cote, the CEO of Honeywell, one of the nation’s largest and most profitable employers (is a hypocritical asshole and an idiot)
Tax advocacy group names Honeywell on its "Dirty Thirty" corporations that spend lots on lobbying | NJ.com The company reported $5 billion in domestic profits and received $1.75 billion in federal tax subsidies, making its effective tax rate negative 0.7 percent the group reported, citing 2010 10-K reports for the company. (from the welfare-queen small-government bigcorps who want you to pay their taxes)
Washington Mutual WaMu collapse: The Lost Bank by Kirsten Grind, reviewed. - Slate Magazine Inside the terrible variety show that was Washington Mutual.
Hullabaloo: Conservative perverts and their polluted souls

The National Memo » Today In Stupid: North Carolina Considers A Law Against Predicting Sea Level Rise (outlaws basic math)
Dirt Poor: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious?: Scientific American Because of soil depletion, crops grown decades ago were much richer in vitamins and minerals than the varieties most of us get today (killed by agribusiness and all their tax-breaks)
Is Chagas disease the 'new AIDS'? - The Week (not an STD)

Annie Leibovitz's Pilgrimage - in pictures | From the Observer | The Observer The renowned photographer has turned her camera away from people for her latest project, and chosen to study objects and places resonant with historical associations (ho-hum pics)

Why the fuck did you move to Norway? | Loveinthetimeoffacebookyeah's Blog The modern English bachelor student has to pay around 9,000pounds (82,000kr) in fees alone per year to go to university in England (even a rubbish university), in Norway it is 350kr. And you can study in English.

Snake-handling believers find joy in test of faith | The Tennessean (religious liberty)

060212
Hosni Mubarak's sentence greeted with initial euphoria, then anger | World news | guardian.co.uk Egyptians react with dismay as former president is convicted on lesser charge and given sentence 'wide open' to appeal
Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's Ousted President, Sentenced To Life In Prison By dusk, thousands filled Cairo's central Tahrir Square, the heart of last year's uprising, in a demonstration called by revolutionary groups and the powerful Muslim Brotherhood to vent anger over the acquittals.
Leon Panetta: China should not fear new US military focus on Asia-Pacific | World news | guardian.co.uk US defence secretary attempts to assuage Beijing's fears over strategic rethink and dismisses claims it will heighten tension
Syrian leaders will not be allowed amnesty, says UN human rights chief | World news | guardian.co.uk Navi Pillay warns Bashar al-Assad and his supporters: 'You cannot have amnesty for very serious crimes'
US drone strike kills two as tensions mount over programme in Pakistan | World news | guardian.co.uk Military's missile attack in southern Waziristan is the fifth in two weeks to target alleged al-Qaida operatives inside Pakistan ... US missiles killed two suspected militants ("suspected" because they were walking on the ground)
Intisar Sharif Abdalla, Sudanese Woman, Sentenced To Stoning In Sudan Campaigners condemned the ruling, saying it violated international standards and raised concerns that Sudan might start applying sharia, or Islamic law, more strictly following the secession of mostly non-Muslim South Sudan last year.
British and US special forces rescue kidnapped aid workers in Afghanistan | World news | guardian.co.uk Four workers with Swiss-based Medair, including a British woman, are freed after a night-time raid in Badakhshan province ... on a mountain cave in remote north-west Afghanistan.

£30bn bill to purify water system after toxic impact of contraceptive pill | Environment | The Observer Drug firms oppose an EU call for controls on potent chemicals that have been blamed for the gender mutation of freshwater fish (think about that)
Western banks 'reaping billions from Colombian cocaine trade' | World news | The Observer While cocaine production ravages countries in Central America, consumers in the US and Europe are helping developed economies grow rich from the profits, a study claims

The Breakeven Point (Wonkish But Terrifying) - NYTimes.com This chart shows a euro on the verge of imploding. If the ECB can’t change this perception very, very soon — and I think it really is up to them — this goose is cooked.
Paul Krugman Appears On 'Newsnight,' Battles British Conservatives On U.K. Austerity Policies (video)
Bilderberg 2012: the technocrats are rising at this year's annual conference | World news | guardian.co.uk The shadowy elite leaders' conference starts tomorrow, so what's on the agenda?
World’s Richest Lose $24 Billion as Adelson Fortune Drops - Bloomberg

Nick Clegg refuses to back Jeremy Hunt as Lib Dems demand investigation | Politics | The Observer Pressure mounts for culture secretary to face a fresh inquiry into whether he breached the ministerial code over BSkyB affair

UN calls for investigation of US school's shock treatments of autistic children | Society | guardian.co.uk Massachusetts special-needs facility is believed to be the only one in the world that uses 'aversive therapy' in treating children (Rotenberg School for Torture, protected in Massachusetts for 39 years)
Electrical stimulation of the brain: the benefits of the short, sharp shock | Science | The Observer ECT has had a bad press. But new techniques in electrical stimulation of the brain could soon be treating a range of conditions - and improving our cognitive skills

New Mexico wildfire is 15% contained as firefighters prepare for bad weather | World news | guardian.co.uk Forecasters predict hot weather and lightning that could spark even more fires as massive blaze burns in Gila national forest

Barack Obama attacks Congress over latest low employment numbers | Business | guardian.co.uk After a week of bad figures, president says failure to pass last year's jobs bill in its entirety has slowed economic recovery
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » American Exceptionalism The most interesting thing about the Stuxnet story Mistermix discussed this morning is how long after a country openly admitted they had launched a cyberattack on a nuclear plant here in the United States would it be before we started bombing?

Is Mitt Romney’s Mormonism fair game? - The Washington Post (of course not )
Florida Voter Purge Will Continue, Defying Federal Warning (Lex Luthor: "muhahaha")
The National Memo » VIDEO: Bill Clinton Warns GOP Donors Will Try To “Break Every Union In America”
Massachusetts Senate Race 2012: Elizabeth Warren, Scott Brown In Virtual Tie, Poll Finds
Joe Walsh: Jesse Jackson Trying To 'Keep African Americans Down On Some Plantation' (blacks responsible for slavery according to Republicans, who will say anything)
Obama's Marijuana Initiative Could Make Or Break His Chances In Colorado Throughout his presidency, Barack Obama hasn't exactly been a friend to marijuana users (heavy irony)

WaPo’s Glenn Kessler Creates Stupid, Irrelevant Employment Chart, Then Misreads It | FDL News Desk Leave it the Washington Post’s Mr. Pinocchio, Glenn Kessler, to misinform readers again by providing useless, irrelevant information and then misreading it
Pay For Prey or: Abuse An Altar Boy, Get A Check! | TBogg Well, no wonder why Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan is so gosg-darned “horrified” that the Obama Administration is shoving their sexy contraception mandate down the Holy Mother Church’s throat! It seems that the church has, if you’ll excuse the expression, already “shot its wad” when it comes to shelling out the big bucks for a good time after Vespers:

Nanny-State Authoritarianism of the Day : Lawyers, Guns & Money (but read comments: "Sugary drinks are incredibly unhealthy and are a major source of the obesity/diabetes problems that we have in this Country. There’s massive evidence that personal choice is insufficient to address this problem and that environmental effects are massive in creating the problem")
Princeton University - A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain
OHSU study adds to corn syrup, obesity link New research points to brain ‘reward’ differences between high-fructose corn syrup and sugar

Jobs Report Puts World On Recession Watch
Self Criticism: What Happened to Recovery Winter? By Matthew Yglesias - So if you want to know why growth turned disappointing, blame the Federal Reserve (less than 2% inflation; Bernanke, worst person)
‘Fear of the Future’ Keeps Lid on Growth: Greenspan - US Business News - CNBC (no you idiot, it's fear of people like you)
Monetary policy: A central-bank failure of epic proportions | The Economist (#fedfail #bernankeidiot)
The kids are moving back in after college? Smart career move. - The Washington Post (WaPo: it's their fault, they need to ask their dads for a hedge fund)
Minimum Wage For Restaurant Servers Remains Stagnant For 20 Years Under Industry Lobbying (end of story)
Homeownership Reduces Your Chances Of Becoming An Entrepreneur, Report Says Decades of promoting homeownership may have stifled the U.S. economy.
Political Animal - The Insane, Fraudulent World of WaMu
How corporate socialism destroys | David Cay Johnston | Irondequoit, N.Y. — A proposal to spend $250 million of taxpayer money on a retail project here illustrates the damage state and local subsidies do by taking from the many to benefit the already rich few ... Nationwide state and local subsidies for corporations totaled more than $70 billion in 2010 ... In a country of 311 million, that’s $900 taken on average from each family of four in 2010.

Prostate cancer drug so effective trial stopped A new drug for advanced prostate cancer patients has proved so effective that researchers stopped the clinical trial early to give all patients a chance to receive the life-extending medication,
Partial Lunar Eclipse June 4: Moon In Earth's Umbral Shadow
Venus Transit's Polarized Light May Help Hunt For Alien Planets
Americans' Heads Getting Bigger In Size, Changing Shape, Anthropologists Say the skulls gradually became larger, taller, and narrower. As a result, faces have become longer.

Highest Number Of Anti-Gay Murders Ever Reported In 2011: The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (onward, Christian killers)
No-Fly List Maintained By FBI Includes Double The U.S. Citizens Since 2009 ... the number of U.S. citizens remains "very small" and relatively stable, at 500 (all are Democrats)
Live Action Planned Parenthood 'Sting' Videos Are Heavily Edited
For-Profit Immigrant Detention Center Near Chicago Moves Ahead As Illinois House Vote Fails

A New Peak - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Generally, one can assume that a given Amity Shales op-ed will merit the title as the worst op-ed ever written until Shales writes another one. So I’m not sure that her argument that sexual harassment lawsuits are bad for women will remain the worst op-ed ever, but Shales has certainly set a high standard for herself.
Do Sexual Harrassment Suits Harm Women? -- Daily Intel Amity Shlaes, a Bloomberg View pundit best known for mounting incoherent defenses of right-wing economic dogma ...today ventures forth into the field of gender discrimination theory. In the classic style of her so-crazy-it’s-actually-crazy brand of right-wing counterintuition, Shlaes asserts that sexual harassment lawsuits keep women from gaining jobs in venture capital

Porn & Relationships: Men's Pornography Use Tied To Lower Self-Esteem In Female Partners
Life after lust – the appeal of sexless marriage | Life and style | The Guardian As yet another survey paints a picture of a nation consumed by lust in our middle years and beyond, is it time to admit marriage without sex suits many couples just fine?
How chick-flicks are breaking the conventions of wedded bliss | Naomi Wolf | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk A new crop of romantic comedies is subverting the idea that a 'perfect' marriage is the ultimate fulfilment of female purpose

The real cost of the smartphone revolution | Technology | The Observer The smartphone market is expanding at an astonishing rate, but is it damaging creativity and innovation on the web?
Illegal File-Sharing Chips Away At North Korean Propaganda | TorrentFreak
RIAA Demands Unlimited DMCA Power From Google | TorrentFreak When it comes to entitlement, few private companies can match the RIAA. The latest cause of their whines is Google. After Google published their report last week on DMCA takedowns, the RIAA is determined to make out that Google is the problem, because almost 1.25 million removed links in one year wasn’t enough, and it’s all Google’s fault, despite the search giant having absolutely no hand in putting any of them online.

060112
China Vice Minister Aide Arrested On Suspicion Of U.S. Spying A Chinese state security official has been arrested on suspicion of spying for the United States, sources said, a case both countries have kept quiet for several months as they strive to prevent a fresh crisis in relations.
Obama Ordered Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran - NYTimes.com - Mr. Obama, according to officials in the room, asked a series of questions, fearful that the code could do damage outside the plant. The answers came back in hedged terms. Mr. Biden fumed. “It’s got to be the Israelis,” he said. “They went too far.” ... “It turns out there is always an idiot around who doesn’t think much about the thumb drive in their hand.” (cyberterrorism ok when Obama does it)
Confirmed: US and Israel created Stuxnet, lost control of it | Ars Technica Stuxnet was never meant to propagate in the wild.
U.S. Trade Position Protecting High Drug Prices Blasted By U.N. Agencies Two major United Nations organizations warned world leaders on Thursday to avoid restrictive free trade agreements that may threaten public health, amplifying international pressure against President Barack Obama's controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership deal (Obama protecting big pharma)

Eschaton: Very Serious People Control The Narrative - Varoufakis is scathing about how the crisis has been handled. "Europe's made a mess of Greece for the past three years. Those responsible will go down as the biggest idiots in the history of economics." We've had a dozen years or so of the people who rule the world making the worst possible decisions on every issue at every turn, destroying lives, countries, and economies. Their reputations are intact. (lookin' at you Angela)
Troubled Greece: fears of 'first domino' to fall as austerity is counted a failure | World news | The Guardian Greek's leftist party Syriza says recovery depends on a renegotiated bail-out and access to European structural funds

Why is Obama Pushing Myths about Vietnam Veterans? - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money “You came home and sometimes were denigrated, when you should have been celebrated. It was a national shame, a disgrace that should have never happened.” (the old rightwing they spit on our troops myth embraced by ahistorical amoral Obama)

Red Tape - 'First Amendment rights can be terminated': When cops, cameras don't mix "Your First Amendment rights can be terminated," yells the Chicago police officer, caught on video right before arresting two journalists outside a Chicago hospital. One, an NBC News photographer, was led away in handcuffs essentially for taking pictures in a public place

John Edwards Verdict - The Too-Public Trial of John Edwards, Private Corruptor - Esquire
John Edwards and the Future of Campaign Finance - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money There’s essentially no chance that Edwards would have been prosecuted were it not for his adultery.
Politics - Andrew Cohen - The Edwards Trial: A Bad Idea From Before the Start - The Atlantic ou don't have to have a shred of respect for the man -- and you probably don't -- to appreciate what a waste of precious time this case has been for the Justice Department.

Who Cares About Elizabeth Warren's Heritage Controversy? No One. Voters in Massachusetts correctly understand that this controversy is meaningless (but corporate media and the Boston Herald pump it endlessly)

RealClearPolitics - McDonnell as VP? Va. Governor Could Help, Hinder But his personal history of social conservatism -- ranging from a controversial graduate school thesis on family to the recent abortion-related ultrasound bill passed in Virginia -- may doom his prospects.
Koch Brothers Plan To Funnel Tens Of Millions To Conservative Allies To Influence 2012 Elections
Scott Walker Debate: Tom Barrett Accuses Governor Of Running 'Willie Horton' Ad
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » The End of the Shakedown Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world’s No. 1 retailer and the biggest seller of firearms in the United States, is dropping out of a U.S. conservative advocacy group that has been a lightning rod over voting and gun laws (ALEc)
Varieties of the Bully Pulpit Argument - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Are We About to See Another Stolen Presidential Election? | Mother Jones By Heather Digby Parton (yes)
About As Evil As It Possibly Gets | The Raw Story - And the Wall Street Journal goes there, accusing AG Eric Holder’s crusade to combat voter suppression of minorities as being nothing more than “racial incitement”.
Political Animal - Sauce for Gander Obama “goes negative” (or more often, just comparative) and he’s alienating the very voters he needs. Mitt goes Breitbartian, Drudgian, Rushian, Malkian negative, and he’s cleverly signalling to swing voters that he’s the “fighting moderate” who can be trusted to keep the crazy people in his party at bay while he pursues a wise, centrist policy course.
Politics - James Fallows - The Charts That Should Accompany All Discussions of Media Bias - The Atlantic Main point: At no time in the past year has coverage of President Obama been as positive as that of Governor Romney. Indeed, at no time in the past year has it been on-balance positive at all. (libral corporate media)
Daily Kos: Obama sparks Creationism controversy with "evolution" of his gay marriage position

GOP Congressman: Women Who Undergo Abortions Should Face Criminal Charges | ThinkProgress Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) unwilling admitted to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Friday afternoon that he believed women who receive abortions should face criminal charges.
Newspaper Runs Ad Suggesting President Obama And Democrats Want To Murder Christians | ThinkProgress Daily Advertiser, a Gannett-owned paper serving central Louisiana, is standing by its decision to run an advertisement today in which a far-right extremist group suggests that President Obama and Democrats are conspiring to murder Catholics and Christians : “This ad did meet our standards. The decision to run it was approved.”

Jobs Report May 2012: U.S. Employers Added 69,000 Jobs In May As The Unemployment Rate Rose To 8.2 Percent (recovery summer)
The Lousy Jobs Number & Obama's Original Sin | The New Republic top economists knew the amount of stimulus they were proposing was much too small to solve the unemployment problem within a few years (the real sin was keeping Geitner)
Job Numbers May 2012 - The May Job Numbers: Not Working For Anyone - Esquire At the moment, the president is having the worst morning of his presidency. The Blog's First Law Of Economics — Fk The Deficit. People Got No Jobs. People Got No Money. — has smacked him right upside the chops. (and his crack team of advisors)
Eschaton: We Are Ruled By The Worst People In The World - And it's time for more for people who are members of the Very Serious People society to get a bit impolite about it. Central bank independence is a failed experiment. Ben Bernanke and pals are horrible incompetent and/or evil people who should be branded as history's greatest monsters. (Merkel near the top of the list)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Handful Of Job Breakers Your headline: “GOP Plan To Throttle Economy Ahead Of Crucial Elections Proceeding Apace.” (Obama will wimp out)
CHARTS: Corporate Profits Have Skyrocketed Over Last Three Years | ThinkProgress (execpt for that little debt-ceiling dip)
Eschaton: Lies New Democrat centrist Erskine Bowles and silver-tongued Republican Alan Simpson have been lobbying for Social Security benefit cuts, talking about protecting the heritage of young people. They're just lying. Simpson has said he'll have the debate these young people are calling for, if they'll "read the plan." I've read the plan. It renegs on the deal made in 1983, where boomers accepted benefit cuts and payroll tax increases.
Hullabaloo: No one is going to save you fools, again: We now know that the Obama Administration traded away the public option in order to gain support from the hospital industry for the Affordable Care Act. And we know that it traded away, among other things, the importation of cheaper drugs to PhRMA in order to secure their support for the bill: Barack Obama has indeed sold you out (the grand bargainer/executioner)
Where the Graduates Go (and Don’t) by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly Getting beyond this, trying to lure college graduates to declining cities in order to revive them, is pretty damn hard to pull off. Even declining industrial cities with lots of colleges have trouble retaining the graduates of these colleges in the city once they leave.

Five Points About Politico's Hatchet Job On NYT and WaPo: Death Race 2012: GQ on Politics: GQ
Horse Race or STFU | TBogg Shorter Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen: Doing journalism and not manufacturing a phony sense of competitive tension that will sustain us through the next five months is fucking with our business model. Just stop it, you’re ruining everything, you guys.
Children Of A Lesser Calculator | TBogg People often ask (okay, they don’t actually ask, it’s just a rhetorical device) why we feel the need to call out The Perpetual Wrongness That Is Everything That Meghan McArdle Has Ever Written.

Connecticut Gov. signs nation’s most restrictive medical marijuana bill into law | The Raw Story only licensed pharmacists may dispense the drug (your drugstore will stock pot!)
Courthouse News Service A gay HIV-positive man says in court that a hospital denied him treatment and visitors, as the doctor remarked, "This is what he gets for going against God's will." (religious liberty)
One Million Moms has had it's Facebook Page removed. : atheism

Online Dating online dating, particularly in developed countries, already accounts for a substantial proportion of the initiation of romantic relationships—a proportion growing at a rate suggesting it may soon account for the majority of such meetings.
Online Dating Study Suggests It's No Better Than Meeting At A Bar

Jon Stewart Criticizes Bloomberg's New York Soda Ban (video) Namely, if the government can tell us how much soda to drink, what else can they control? ""It combines the draconian government overreach people love with the probable lack of results they expect!" Stewart joked. (authoritarian billionaires at work)
And boom goes the dynamite - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Brian Tamanaha has a piece in the New York Times, summarizing some of the main contentions and recommendations of his new book Failing Law Schools ... I hope it comes as a salubrious shock to most readers of the Times to discover that law schools can literally charge whatever they want for their increasingly dubious wares, and the federal government will then loan anyone law schools deign to admit the full cost of attendance (tuition plus living expenses), in the form of high interest non-dischargeable debt.

Alexander Kinyua Ate Kujoe Agyei-Kodie's Brain, Heart In Maryland, Cops Say n yet another horrifying incident of human flesh-eating this week, a student in Maryland allegedly admitted to devouring his roommate's brain and heart (trending)
Zombie Apocalypse: CDC Denies Existence Of Zombies Despite Cannibal Incidents

Political Animal - The Meritocratic Lessons of Spelling Bees So which gender wins in a completely fair contest? Since 1925, the score is: 46 wins for girls, 41 for boys. So there you go. In a meticulously refereed contest (fittingly held in Washington DC, the nation’s seat of power) girls hold a clear edge.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Hub Of The Universe Chutzpah, International Division this is the way Ha’aretz channeled its inner Bostonian when it introduced the article accompanying that pic with this subhed: "Several members of the American Jewish community were among those awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday by U. S. President Barack Obama." (Bobby Z is a Jew!)
Doug Koesel, Cleveland Priest, Writes: What The Nuns' Story Is Really About The problem with the Vatican approach is that it places the nuns squarely on the side of Jesus and the Vatican on the side of tired old men, making a last gasp to save a crumbling kingdom lost long ago for a variety of reasons.
Spirituality and Religion - Traditional Marriage: One Man, Many Women, Some Girls, Some Slaves (and probably some boys)
How Evangelicals Have Shifted in Public Opinion on Same-Sex Marriage | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction The generational split includes evangelicals, where 44 percent of younger evangelicals oppose same-sex marriage, 20 points less than older evangelicals (63 percent). Younger evangelicals also appear more conflicted, with 17 percent saying they were not sure
Trayvon Martin Shooter George Zimmerman Misled Court, Has 48 Hours to Surrender | ThinkProgress because he misled the court about his finances. Zimmerman’s wife testified during his original bond hearing that the Zimmermans had limited funds, and failed to disclose that more than $200,000 had been donated to Zimmerman through a website.
Daily Kos: Judge revokes George Zimmerman's bond. Accused slayer must report to sheriff in 48 hours t was also discovered that Zimmerman had a second passport that he did not inform the court about when he surrendered his other passport to the court.

Over-55s pick passwords twice as secure as teenagers' - tech - 01 June 2012 - New Scientist
Eschaton: It's Become A Horrible Mess I can't imagine how any new users actually see any appeal in Facebook. Leaving aside all the privacy issues, I imagine any new user would just see it as a multidimensional spam projection machine.
Some teens aren't liking Facebook as much as older users - latimes.com For these youngsters the social networking giant's novelty has worn off. They are checking out new mobile apps, hanging out on Tumblr and Twitter, and sending plain-old text messages from their phones.
Alyssa Kramer, Blogger, Creates Fake OKCupid Dating Profile, Gets Crazy Responses (PHOTOS) Despite her best attempts to dispel men, Kramer received a series of rather amusing responses from potential suitors still interested in chatting. Apparently even talk about constipation (!), syphilis (!!) and incest (!!!) couldn't keep these dudes away. (newflash: men are desperate to get laid)

053112
A CIA gambit in Pakistan threatens a global vaccination program - The Washington Post The CIA’s vaccination gambit put at risk something very precious — the integrity of public health programs in Pakistan and around the globe. It also added to the dangers facing nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in a world that’s increasingly hostile to U.S. aid organizations.
Losing Polio - By Laurie Garrett | Foreign Policy Did the CIA ruin our chance to eradicate one of the world's worst diseases? (Obama's program to keep Polio alive)

The Obama Drone War - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Like Ta-Nehisi Coates and others, I am pretty disgusted that the Obama Administration has defined any male of military age killed by a drone bombing to be a combatant. This is morally bankrupt and is a cheap way to justify the huge number of collateral casualties from drone strikes and other imprecise military actions
International - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Kill List - The Atlantic
Obama the Warrior - Salon.com A new NYT article sheds considerable light on the character of the Democratic Commander-in-Chief
How extremism is normalized - Salon.com The Obama administration has converted once unthinkable government claims into permanent political fixtures

Syrian rebels urge Annan to declare end of ceasefire - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk 'We will cut Assad's throat', chant residents of Houla
Baghdad rocked by series of bombings | World news | guardian.co.uk Bombs in Iraqi capital strike crowded restaurant, a police patrol and the homes of two policemen, killing 11 people
Police say former porn actor accused of dismemberment may have fled Canada | World news | guardian.co.uk Luka Rocco Magnotta added to Interpol's list of fugitives as new details emerge of video allegedly showing the killing

Most Aid to Athens Circles Back to Europe - European Business News - CNBC But almost none of the money is going to the Greek government to pay for vital public services. Instead, it is flowing directly back into the troika’s pockets.
Pissarides Says Euro Exit Would Aid Rich Greeks at Cost to Poor - Bloomberg (as usual)
Eschaton: It Is A Complete Mystery How This Is Happening The purifying effects of completely destroying an economy were supposed to save it. By making sure nobody had any money, everyone would have the confidence to spend! - Greek retail sales by volume fell 16.2 percent year-on-year in March, with the pace of the decline picking up after a revised 12.9 percent drop in February, data from statistics service ELSTAT showed on Thursday. - You can't even really parody the thinking, because it's that fucking stupid. (elites at work)
Eschaton: It Doesn't Matter If It's Working As the Greek economy continues to implode, much of the press echoes the sentiment of Fox on 15th, basically that if Greece elects those dirty hippies who want to do the right thing it would be the wrongest thing ever. We are ruled by the worst people in the world.
Eschaton: Hope It'll be probably be up to 10 billion tomorrow and the check will be written. - The Financial Regulator has told a German newspaper that Irish banks are going to need a further cash injection of €3bn to €4bn.

Jeremy Hunt at the Leveson inquiry - live | Media | guardian.co.uk Murdoch had 'massive, massive suspicions' about Ofcom (Cameron absolves himself)

Julian Assange given 14 days to challenge extradition ruling | Media | guardian.co.uk Despite losing the appeal, Assange's lawyers are given time to consider a challenge to the judgment

BP Oil Spill Emails Reveal High-Level Discord Over Flow Estimates

DOMA Ruled Unconstitutional By Federal Appeals Court - a groundbreaking ruling all but certain to wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Citizens United Attacks From Justice Stevens Continue
Congress, rights groups still know virtually nothing about U.S. wiretap court | The Raw Story (and that's the way it's going to stay)

Officials Say the Darndest Things
Political Animal - Kinsley’s Intervention Taxonomy

World War II Vet Caught Up In Florida's Voter Purge Controversy : It's All Politics : NPR Bill Internicola, a 91-yar-old World War II veteran, was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., and now lives in Florida's Broward County. He recently received a letter from county elections officials asking him to show proof he was a U.S. citizen or be removed from the voting rolls ... And here's a reminder of why disputes in Florida over voter eligibility are so important: That election, you'll recall, was decided by just 537 votes. (excuse me, NPR, it was decided by a corrupt Supreme Court)
Florida Elections Officials: U.S. Citizens Targeted In Voter Purge
Florida GOP Chair Admits Voter Purge Is Flawed, Says It Must Continue Anyway | ThinkProgress
Federal Judge Blocks Florida Voter Suppression Law | ThinkProgress

Mitt Romney's Massachusetts Record Criticized In New Obama Campaign Video
Tom Barrett Gets More Third-Party Spending Than Scott Walker In Wake Of May 8 Primary
David Axelrod Massachusetts Press Conference Turned Into Circus By Mitt Romney Supporters "Thanks for the bubbles -- it was a hell of a lot better than the smoke Mitt Romney blew at us 10 years ago," said Somerville Mayor Joe Curtato
Politics - Clive Crook - Fear You Can Believe In - The Atlantic The Hill reports that the Obama campaign is struggling to come up with a good campaign theme. In 2008 it had "Change You Can Believe In". Apparently Obama's team feels this won't fly second time around.
Mitt Romney Clinches Nomination - Willard's Winning Transaction: A Not-Modest Proposal - Esquire I'm Mitt Romney, bitches, and I'm all you got left.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » The American Taliban Is Such an Unfair Term Let’s hurl some acid at those female democratic Senators who won’t abide the mandates they want to impose on the private sector.

Yeah! The Housing Bottom Is Here! (PWBC™) | The Big Picture Ever since the data made it obvious — at least to us — that Housing was topping out in 2006, we have watched with various degrees of bemusement the annual ritual that is the erroneous housing bottom call. (green shoots! recovery summer! idiots at work!)
Can We Just Pay Our Corporate Overlords? That’s Real Freedom : Lawyers, Guns & Money - Honeywell CEO David Cote, when he asked what he thought the corporate tax rate should be answered, “zero.” - And you might say, well, he’s just another jerkoff greedy CEO, an extremist. Except for one thing. He’s a member of the Bowles-Simpson Deficit Commission. So he’s only playing a gigantic role in shaping our future, a role he was named to by a Democratic president. (Obama's grand bargain to screw you forever)
The Scandal Is When Parasites Don’t Make Enough Money - Lawyers, Guns & Money : I think Spitzer and Nocera have this one right. The coverage of the Facebook IPO demonstrates the extent to which the media has internalized the interests of speculators (including those who also hold executive positions in companies issuing IPOs.)
Help Matt Taibbi Stand Up for Wall Street Reform | Julian Brookes | Politics News | Rolling Stone

North Carolina Trying to Make Measuring Climate Change Illegal - Lawyers, Guns & Money - The Tar Heel State is moving up the list of insane states.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan Allegedly Paid Suspected Pedophile Priests To Leave Ministry While Head Of Archdiocese Of Milwaukee (send him to prison and disband his criminal organization)

CNN Hit 20-Year Primetime Ratings Low In May (go Wolf!)
New York Times, Washington Post Defend Against Politico's Media Bias Claims (drudgico/republico)

Caro And Legislative Power I: LBJ And Harry Byrd - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Three Strikes Bill Would Terminate Licenses of Serial Dangerous Drivers | Streetsblog New York City One of the more pernicious shortcomings of New York State’s slapdash traffic justice system is its failure to keep dangerous drivers off the road ... Charlotte Gallo was fatally struck by a driver who, according to the Times Union, had 23 prior citations for traffic offenses and had been involved in 10 crashes. His penalty for killing Gallo: a $100 fine for failure to yield and a one-year license revocation (NYC same)
Eschaton: Dumb Ideas I'm all for labeling, or even taxing, but banning stuff like this is just dumb. New York City plans to enact a far-reaching ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, movie theaters and street carts, in the most ambitious effort yet by the Bloomberg administration to combat rising obesity. (Bloomberg really has no sense of history)

Warming gas levels hit 'troubling milestone' | World news | The Guardian " former Vice President Al Gore, the highest-profile campaigner against global warming, said in an email. "History will not understand or forgive them." (Republicans killed the planet will Obama dragged his feet)
'Vampire' Plague Victim: Remains Found In 16th Century Venice Grave Spur Scientific Debate Vampire superstitions were common when plague devastated Europe, and much, if not all, of this folklore could be due to misconceptions about the natural stages of decomposition
In Focus - The Unreal World - The Atlantic (you just fell into the uncanny valley)

Komen Foundation Still Paying Price For Planned Parenthood Fight | TPM2012 - But registration for the high-profile event, which takes place at the National Mall, is only at about 25,000, according to local station WJLA, a staggering 37.5 percent drop-off from the 40,000 who ran, walked or donated their time last year. (Nancy Brinker still there)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Oklahoma Doctor Refuses to Provide Emergency Contraceptive to Rape Victim on Basis of Religious Conscience - The doctor refused to help her, even though she had just been raped, and refused to find another doctor to help her. xs (Christians support rape)

Antsy Toddler Kicked Off Alaska Airlines Flight At Seattle Airport “I thought we were treated like criminals,” Svetlana Yanchuck told KIRO.

intellexual net · m k i v BOSE Acoustimass - Better Profits Through Marketing
Reddit, today I was reading about Bose (thanks to user WorldLeader) and realized they are not a high quality company. At all. What other popular brands do people rave about, but aren't really that great? : AskReddit
In response to the BOSE thread - what brands/products are the opposite? The unsung high quality underpriced brands? : AskReddit

MegaUpload says U.S. prosecutors lack jurisdiction | The Raw Story (Obama/DOJ/BigContent don't need to steenking jurisdiction)
Three Strikes Against ACTA In European Parliament Today - Falkvinge on Infopolicy Three heavyweight committees in the European Parliament gave their voting recommendations on ACTA today. All three gave the same recommendation: reject ACTA. This means that today, the European Parliament issued three very hard strikes against ACTA (Obama considers launching drones)
Dutch Judge Who Ordered Pirate Bay Links Censored Found To Be Corrupt - Falkvinge on Infopolicy The same judge, Chris Hensen, ordered that talking about file names was legally the same thing as distributing the actual files so named, and ordered the discussion forum FTD shut down.
Business - Derek Thompson - This Graph Is Disastrous for Print and Great for Facebook—or the Opposite! - The Atlantic
Technology - James Fallows - Google and the Great Firewall: An Interesting New Twist - The Atlantic

053012
Moscow pledges to block UN over foreign intervention in Syria | World news | The Guardian Russian minister maintains foreign military action after Houla massacre will only worsen violence in Syria (Russia and China supported bloody dictators everywhere)
Torture By Sesame Street At Guantanamo Bay: Al Jazeera Reports (video) prisoners at the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base were forced to wear headphones blasting music from Sesame Street on repeat for hours or days on end.
Charles Taylor sentenced to 50 years in prison for war crimes | World news | guardian.co.uk Judge at court in The Hague says ex-Liberia president's crimes were of the 'utmost gravity in scale and brutality'
Former porn actor suspected of mailing body parts to Canadian politicians | World news | guardian.co.uk Victim's torso found in alley after left foot and other parts were shipped via Canada Post to Conservative and Liberal parties ... Canadian police have disclosed they are hunting a former porn actor

Greece is a Distraction, Spain is the Real Deal

Andy Coulson charged with perjury | UK news | The Guardian Former NoW editor charged over allegations of lying on oath when he gave evidence in court about phone hacking ... David Cameron's former director of communications


The War For College Graduates (graduates don't want to live in stupid states, which then get stupider)

GOP groups plan record $1 billion blitz - Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei - politico.com
Political Animal - Once More With Feeling: It’s Not 1980 (economy much worse during Carter)

Video: Sununu accuses CNN of birther obsession - POLITICO.com One day after Donald Trump accused CNN of covering the birther issue in order to boost its ratings, Mitt Romney surrogate John Sununu accused the network of a fixation with the birther issue. 05/30/2012 1:26 PM EDT (wankerific Sununu claims everyone is stupid for talking about Romney's embrace of Trump's birtherism; that's some mental twist)
Mitt Romney Is Hanging Out with Terrible People Today | Slog
Romney Rebounds Among Women "Obama still beats Romney in favorable ratings overall, by an 11-point margin, 52% vs. 41%. But that's down from 21 points last month (women invite Mittens to take control of their uteri)
Planned Parenthood’s new ad zeroes in on Romney – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs
Walker Maintains Lead in Wisconsin Recall Race Gov. Scott Walker (R) leading challenger Tom Barrett (D), 52% to 45% among likely voters ... Democratic pollster Celinda Lake finds the race deadlocked at 49% each.
'Fox And Friends' Anti-Obama Video Could Double As GOP Ad [Update: Fox News Issues Statement] (Video)

Mark Zuckerberg sees $4bn wiped off fortune in Facebook IPO disaster | Technology | guardian.co.uk Facebook founder falls out of world's top 40 billionaires index as shares hit new lows on Wednesday, falling below $30 (poor scambook baby)

Curt Schilling Video Game Company - This Week In The Laboratories Of Democracy - Esquire (Curt is a "small government" conservative. He would like the government to be just small enough to fit into his wallet.) (conservofucks)
Great Moments in Chutzpah: Curt Schilling speaks | HardballTalk Curt Schilling has spent many years promoting conservative candidates and causes and styled himself a champion of private enterprise, limited spending and self-reliance ... Yes, it’s the government’s fault for daring to speak when you defaulted on your obligations, Schilling.
The Real Tragedy of 38 Studios | May Let’s get this out of the way up front. Curt Schilling is an unbelievable asshole. Schilling is a fiscal conservative who decries government spending, but who went against his deeply held beliefs by taking a $75 million loan from the state of Rhode Island
Rhode Island totally sucks open thread, Vis-à-vis 38 Studios — Greater City: Providence This is, of course, pathetic, and every sensible person in RI saw it coming from Day One. Trouble is a star-struck governor controlling an apparently clueless and decidedly UN-savvy EDC swung at a sucker pitch and the people of RI struck out.
Head of agency that approved Schilling loan resigns - Keith Stokes - After the loan guarantee was approved in 2010, Stokes called it a calculated risk "well worth taking." He said the board performed months of due diligence in analyzing the video game sector and 38 Studios and crafted an agreement that went "to great lengths to safeguard taxpayers and ensure economic performance."
The OT Boston Sports Blog - Pierce - The first thing that always comes to mind whenever I greet the grand new blooming day is, "Gee, I wonder what Curt Schilling is thinking about things this morning?" (thanks for promoting this asshole, Bloomberg)

Top US companies shelling out to block action on climate change | Environment | guardian.co.uk Analysis of 28 companies finds cases of support for thinktanks that misrepresent climate science, including Heartland Institute

Political Animal - Behind the Struggle for Cato The Washingtonian has an interesting look behind the curtain at the vicious cloakroom backstabbery going down as the Brothers Koch try to take control of the Cato Institute (a libertarian think tank) - the widely-respected staffers who have promised to resign if the Kochs end up winning, a Koch victory would probably be the end of Cato’s reputation. They’ll go into the “amoral hack” box with the American Enterprise Institute and its brethren.
The Dartmouth Big Green by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly Dartmouth College, where an anonymous letter alleges that rich Dartmouth alumni “directed the college’s three billion dollar endowment to themselves, their firms and their friends. (Egypt, Russia, Repubicans)

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » The Parable Of The Fishes And The Loathes The pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Seneca, Kansas says President Barack Obama has gone too far in supporting same sex marriage and it’s time for the U.S. government to begin killing gay men and lesbians. (his congregation cheered wildly)

Trucks are the new buildings.

Deleted Tweets from Politicians Very cool idea: Politwoops uncovers tweets that politicians shared on Twitter and then quickly deleted.

052912
Obama’s Leadership in War on Al Qaeda - NYTimes.com (Obama lives his video games; personally supervising killing innocent civilians with a program that "isn't confirmed" to exist)
Sakhr al-Taifi, Senior Al Qaeda Leader In Afghanistan, Killed In NATO Airstrike (personally targeted by the Dronester-in-Chief)

Syria Diplomats Expelled By Governments Around The World
Syria Massacre Victims In Houla Were Mostly Executed, Says UN 108 victims of a chilling massacre in Syria last week were shot at close range, some of them women and children who were gunned down in their homes. ("some" = 50%)
Houla massacre survivor tells how his family were slaughtered | World news | The Guardian Syrian boy, 11, claims he played dead to escape pro-Assad gunmen who killed five members of family in Houla
Russia Condemns Syria Over Massacre Of 108 At Houla (too late, Russia and China)
Syria Diplomats Being Expelled From Europe And Australia (Russia and China not on the list)
Syrian ambassadors diplomats from countries around the world | World news | guardian.co.uk Britain, France and the US join co-ordinated international action after massacre of more than 100 people in Houla

Italy earthquake kills at least 15 | World news | guardian.co.uk Fifteen people die and buildings collapse as 5.8-magnitude quake hits northern Italy, scene of tremors nine days ago
Denmark Terror Plot: Danish Police Arrest 2 Men Of Somali Origin Planning Attack after being overheard talking about methods, targets and different types of weapons
Tuna contaminated with Fukushima radiation found in California | World news | The Guardian Scientists amazed that bluefins swimming in Pacific five months after Japanese disaster contained tiny amounts of caesium
Michael McFaul, US ambassador to Moscow, victim of Kremlin 'Twitter war' | World news | guardian.co.uk Russian state launches volley of tweets criticising ambassador's 'unprofessional' speech to students on US-Russia relations
Quebec student spokesman a divisive figure among tuition-fee protesters | World news | guardian.co.uk The son of activists, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois finds himself in danger as he speaks for a movement that has no leader
Russian journalist attacked in Moscow | World news | guardian.co.uk Radio presenter Sergei Aslanyan in hospital after being stabbed 20 times by attacker who lured him out of his home (Putin's war on the truth)

Eurozone crisis live: Spanish crisis sends euro sliding - as it happened | Business | guardian.co.uk Euro hits 22-month low below $1.25 • Spanish retail sales slump - Spain's record slump in retail sales (see 8.10am) is even worse if you factor in inflation -- that takes the underlying year-on-year decline to -11.3% in April (compared with a 9.8% drop if you ignore inflation)./a>
Eschaton: No Jobs, No Money - The people in charge are determined to destroy the world. - Spanish retail sales tumbled 9.8% in April on an annual, calendar-adjusted basis, the national statistics office said Tuesday. - Almost all discussion by the Very Serious People is about how to help the people who did this, and not their victims.
Eschaton: I Thought Fred Hiatt's Crayon Scribble Page Could No Longer Surprise Me - I was wrong. Some people might be wrong, and other people might be right, but the worst thing to do would be to give in to the people who might be right, because they are the wrong sort of people. Better to prolong the suffering of millions to keep the hippies away from the cocktail party.
Eschaton: Bad Cheeky Monkeys The beatings will continue. A Spanish plan to recapitalise Bankia, the troubled lender, by indirectly tapping the European Central Bank for cash, was bluntly rejected as unacceptable by the ECB, European officials said.

Guardian journalist and police officer not charged over 'phone-hacking leak' | Media | guardian.co.uk No action taken against police officer or Amelia Hill, who was interviewed under caution last year
Tony Blair says Rupert Murdoch did not lobby him on media policy | Media | guardian.co.uk Former PM at the Leveson inquiry highlights cases where his government went against the News Corp founder's wishes (the Poodle squeaks)

New Statesman - How Newsnight humiliated single mother Shanene Thorpe (and this is the BBC)
Lenin's Tomb: What BBC Newsnight did to Shanene Thorpe (stigmatization +it makes no sense to think of the BBC as merely reporting on government policy. +"sartorientation")

Andrew Bacevich: The Golden Age of Special Operations (moving war off-stage)

Obama Campaign Targets Romney Over Trump 'Birther' Conspiracies
Darrell Issa Fights Subpoenas After Chastising Eric Holder For Doing The Same Thing Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who for more than seven months has been chastising Attorney General Eric Holder for failing to comply with a subpoena, is now fighting his own subpoenas on the grounds that he is too busy to get involved.
Scott Walker Recall: Progressive Group Sends $100,000 To Wisconsin (Koch-suckers sends 100 times as much)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Wisconsin update

Eschaton: Corrosive: BoBo: "But the New Deal’s dictum — that people don’t eat in the long run; they eat every day — was eventually corrosive." - Starvation's also corrosive, but more aesthetically pleasing in its Burkean humility. Or something.
Extended Federal Unemployment Benefits Begin to Wind Down - NYTimes.com Hundreds of thousands of out-of-work Americans are receiving their final unemployment checks sooner than they expected, even though Congress renewed extended benefits until the end of the year. (let them starve says David Brooks)
Eschaton: Finally The Lazy Bums Will Find Those Nonexistent Jobs More bankruptcies and defaults are inevitable. Not sure what people are expected to do. (well, starvation would be a start)

Debt-Ceiling Deja Vu Could Sink Economy - Bloomberg Europe is crumbling. China is slowing. The Federal Reserve is dithering. Yet the biggest threat to the emerging U.S. economic recovery may be Congress. ("Congress" = Repubicans)
US home prices hit new lows in crunch week for economy | Business | guardian.co.uk Poor figures kick off week of tricky economics for Obama as US set to release its revised figures for first quarter GDP (recovery summer; send the banks some more money)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Cry Like a Baby Curt Schilling is not a moocher and looter, you guys (he got RI on the hook for $100mil)

Facebook shares fall below $30 as US authorities begin investigation into IPO | Technology | guardian.co.uk Shares continue to slump on Wall Street as lawsuits against founder Mark Zuckerberg allege company misled investors (Scambook: you've been suckerfuckerzuckerberged; the bubble has already burst)

Most And Least Christian States In America (the usual suspects +Mass at #9 because they don't distinguish denominations)

The argument from definition - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Maggie Gallagher (the media's go-to-anti-gay-NOM-gal wanks)
Calling on Andrew Sullivan to Boycott the Maggie Gallagher Debate | O-blog-dee-o-blog-da the “media debate of the year “ to be held at Lee Chapel, at Washington & Lee University, Lexington, VA – a debate on marriage equality between Maggie Gallagher and Andrew Sullivan (Sully would never turn down a chance to promote himself)
Wendy Long, GOP Senate Candidate, Defends Gay Marriage View, Says She Would Have Married Mother A Republican U.S. Senate candidate in New York defended her past legal analysis that declared gay marriage could lead to legalizing nuptials with someone's parents or pets by saying she would have liked to marry her severely ill mother. (that makes a lot of sense)

Progress! - First Draft Here's a dumbass question: Why are "district employees" allowed to handcuff students "for crimes" at all? Are we talking about police officers/psychiatric wardens in the pay of the school district? If so, okay, maybe, but why else on earth would anyone be empowered to cuff your child to a pole? (the prison model for schools)
Florida lifts library ban on Fifty Shades of Grey | Books | guardian.co.uk EL James's bestselling erotic novel is returning to library shelves in Brevard County after public outcry over its ban - "He's my very own Christian Grey-flavoured popsicle," says Steele at one point. And then: "My inner goddess is doing the merengue with some salsa moves." (FL housewives demand their porno; Christian-values library system caves)
Limbaugh On "Persecution Of Blacks In America": "What Persecution Would That Be?" | Media Matters for America Rush Limbaugh is dismissing the notion that racial minorities face persecution.

Zoos’ Bitter Choice - To Save Some Species, Letting Others Die - NYTimes.com

Doctors Must Speak Out Against Anti-Choice Laws that Require Physicians to Act Unethically | The Raw Story

052812
Balloon Juice » Biden: Joe Biden addressing families brought together by the Tragedy Assistance Program Program for Survivors, a non-profit that helps families and friends of deceased military men and women. It’s twenty minutes off the cuff about his experience with death and grief, and it’s riveting.
Goodbye Forever! Also: No More War, Please (2011 Mem Day Classic)
Obama Calls Treatment of Vietnam War Veterans 'a Disgrace' - NYTimes.com and promised as commander-in-chief not to send U.S. troops back into harm's way without a clear mission and strategy.
Chris Hayes apologizes for saying something intelligent - Lawyers, Guns & Money (every child we send off to be killed in our bloody, fruitless wars must be a "hero")

Tony Blair Called 'War Criminal' By Protester Interrupting Leveson Inquiry (video: Blair admits he cowered before the power of Murdoch)

Eschaton: Cheeky Monkeys Not a fan of the "give the banks free money" thing, but sticking it to the ECB and Teh Markets is worth a clap.
Eschaton: Discounts So it turns out the Chinese government has been able to buy US government debt, as it were, wholesale. Marcy quotes Reuters: (left hand, right hand)
Eschaton: TWENTY FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS Not actually a parody. - Young entrepreneurs will be able to obtain government loans to help them launch a business under a new StartUp scheme to be launched by David Cameron on Monday. (that will certainly stimulate the economy)


Timothy Noah: Trite Makes Right | The New Republic A guide to conservative clichés.
The new face of "Democrats are the real racists!" - American History - Salon.com The National Review's lame attempt at revisionist political history

Terence Flynn, Labor Board Member, Resigns After Leak Findings One alleged recipient of the leaks was Peter Schaumber, a former NLRB board chairman, who had served as an adviser on labor issues to GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney until the Flynn probe surfaced
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » More on Wisconsin Top Wisconsin Democrats are furious with the national party — and the Democratic National Committee in particular — for refusing their request for a major investment in the battle to recall Scott Walker (DNC has spent $3mil compared to Koch Bros "undisclosed")
$55 million for conservative campaigns — but where did it come from? - latimes.com A group with ties to the billionaire Koch brothers doled it out in the 2010 election cycle, but the sources of the cash remain a mystery.
Fiscal Phonies - NYTimes.com - For the modern American right doesn’t care about deficits, and never did. All that talk about debt was just an excuse for attacking Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and food stamps. And as for Mr. Christie, well, he’s just another fiscal phony, distinguished only by his fondness for invective. (phony bully)

Star bank traders struggle to shine with own funds - chicagotribune.com - Some of the biggest traders to have swapped working at a bank for running their own hedge funds are finding it much tougher on their own, with returns since they launched lagging rivals and disappointing investors. (helps to have the Fed giving you free money)
Fragile Calculus in Plans to Fix Pension Systems - NYTimes.com

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Neoliberalism. neoliberalism is the pursuit of traditionally liberal ends through traditionally conservative means, with the important corollary that when faced with a conflict between those liberal ends and those conservative means, neoliberals will always choose the means.

Mad Men Recap: Three Women -- Vulture By Matt Zoller Seitz (!)
Mad Men Recap 10: The Other Woman | Press Play
Sgt. Don Draper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band « Yi! News
“The Other Woman” - Lawyers, Guns & Money :

Guns claimed more Arizona lives than traffic accidents, study says – Cronkite News State Sen. Frank Antenori, R-Vail, said it is unfair to compare gun-related deaths to motor-vehicle deaths because most gun deaths are not accidental. “Do you use a car in self-defense?” Antenori asked hypothetically (perfect wingnut sense)
Diane Tran, Honor Student At Texas High School, Jailed For Missing School The Willis High School junior, who helps support two siblings, has both a full time and part-time job. She said that she's often too tired to go to school (Texas justice, learnin' our kids)

The New York Times’s Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and the Demise of Janet Robinson -- New York Magazine Claudia Gonzalez, an elegant and statuesque Mexican marketing executive (the backstory to Janet Robinson's $24mil platinum parachute)

Improbable Research PEACE PRIZE: Arturas Zuokas, the mayor of Vilnius, LITHUANIA, for demonstrating that the problem of illegally parked luxury cars can be solved by running them over with an armored tank.

052712
Loving the Warrior, Hating the Wars: Our Memorial Daze, by Charles P. Pierce - Esquire

David Cameron Defends Jeremy Hunt Over Murdoch: 'I Don't Regret Giving [Him] The Job' (VIDEO)

Ethan Nadelmann: Obama's Hypocritical War on Marijuana

Cognitive Democracy — The Monkey Cage (Henry Farrell and Cosma Shalizi)
Catallaxy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Whereas the word Economy suggests that people in a community possess a common and congruent set of values and goals, Catallaxy suggests that the emergent properties of a market (prices, division of labor, growth, etc.) are the outgrowths of the diverse and disparate goals of the individuals in a community.

George Will: Donald Trump Is 'Bloviating Ignoramus' calling the real estate mogul a ”bloviating ignoramus.”
FL Official: Gov. Scott's Voter Purge Will Remove Eligible Voters (because they can, that's why)
Voter Purge, Minority Voting Rights Flashpoints Of New Showdown In Florida
Democrat Challenges Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts - NYTimes.com As the lone Democrat seeking to challenge Elizabeth Warren in the Senate primary in Massachusetts, Marisa DeFranco has been ridiculed, admonished and, worst of all, ignored.
Hullabaloo The President gets a letter from a citizen - Obama promised the great healer and these Villagers united in ecstasy. Since he couldn't deliver on their Tipnronnie wet dream (not for lack of trying) they hold it against him. (Tom Foreman wanks)
You Want to Be a Pitchman for Warlords? - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Jon Lovett just completely destroys Lanny Davis in one of the greatest takedowns of 2012.
Balloon Juice » Blind Pigs/Acorns (2) Alan Simpson edition We have one centrist political party, and one gang of rocks-for-brains political suicide bombers. And there is a non-trivial chance that said feral sociopathic children may control both houses of Congress and the White House next January.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » She’s Still Saying Stupid Things Continuing her all-out effort to shit all over every Wisconsin Democrat, the brain trust at the top of the DNC continues to say idiotic and demoralizing things: Debbie Wasserman Schultz (they just can't help fucking things up)
Beating Head Against Table - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Can we please recall Debbie Wasserman Schultz for total incompetence?

Eschaton: Prosecution? Just in case it's slipped your mind, there's quite a bit of evidence in the public record of systematic fraud in the Rocket Scientists' of Finance creation of the home equity bubble. Neither the President or the elected members of th eDemocratic Party leadership on the Hill seem particularly concerned. (he had their backs from the beginning)
Mortgage and Securitization Fraud: Where’s the Task Force? « Real-World Economics Review Blog It was almost four years ago that Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paul Paulson, and then New York Fed Bank President Timothy Geithner ran to Congress warning that the end of the world was near.
JP Morgan's Risks Aren't Well-Managed Because JP Morgan Doesn't Want Sound Risk-Management (neither does Obama or the Republicrooks)
JPMorgan board to shake up risk committee: WSJ - CNBC
Who Is The Smallest Government Spender Since Eisenhower? Would You Believe It's Barack Obama? - Forbes (Pres small government except for drugs and spying on/executing citizens)

Teen solves Newton’s 300-year-old riddle

As Apps Move Into Cars, So Do More Distractions - NYTimes.com Now automakers are fighting an undeclared, escalating war over in-dash apps, worrying regulators about even more distracted driving. (Facebook in every new car)

US Politics | AMERICAblog News: TSA to modify groping procedures for seniors - modified screening practices for passengers 75 and over.
Officials rule deaths of Mennonites in manure pit accidental - baltimoresun.com (no steening agribusiness regulation on child labor)

Coding Horror: This Is All Your App Is: a Collection of Tiny Details (kinda like life)
Megaupload User Asks Court for Files Back. Again. | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Forbes Calls Microsoft's Steve Ballmer Worst CEO Today
Oops! Five CEOs Who Should Have Already Been Fired (Cisco, GE, WalMart, Sears, Microsoft) - Forbes
Dept. of Homeland Security Forced to Release List of Keywords Used to Monitor Social Networking Sites - Forbes

052612
Syria: children slaughtered as regime unleashes 18-hour attack on town | World news | The Observer United Nations peace monitors fail to stem violence as nearly 100 die in biggest mass killing for months (who could have predicted? China and Russia back killings)
Syria Massacre: Over 90 People Killed In Worst Violence Since 'Ceasefire'
The Imperial Mind - Salon.com American rage at Pakistan over the punishment of a CIA-cooperating Pakistani doctor is quite revealing
Iran has enough uranium for five nuclear weapons, claims US thinktank | World news | guardian.co.uk Institute for Science and International Security says uranium output up by a third but needs more refining for use in bombs
Ryan Crocker Says Cases Of Afghans Killing NATO Military Counterparts Can Be 'Personal'
Miri Regev, Israel Legislator, Calls Sudanese Refugees 'A Cancer' Amid Violent Anti-Immigrant Protests a member of the Israeli parliament from the right-wing Likud Party
Mexico Zetas Cartel Hits Police With Car Bomb Near U.S. Border
Chen Guangcheng's brother goes missing after fleeing to Beijing | World news | guardian.co.uk Blind activist's brother Chen Guangfu disappears after leaving village to seek help for son facing murder charge
Montreal's 'casseroles' cook up a storm over Quebec's anti-protest law | World news | guardian.co.uk Demonstrators in Montreal bang their pots and pans as anger grows at Bill 78, which places draconian restrictions on protests (authoritarian conservatives hate protests)
Pope's butler charged over leaked Vatican letters | World news | guardian.co.uk Paolo Gabriele charged with illegal possession of documents after whistleblowing book alleges corruption at Holy See (Catholic Church hopelessly corrupt)
Political Animal - Pope’s Butler Arrested! Nuns Investigated! Which Is the Bigger Scandalo?
Emanuela Orlandi Was 'Kidnapped For Vatican Sex Parties,' Claims Father Gabriele Amorth (amazing anyone can justify being a Catholic anymore)
What Happened At Dos Erres | This American Life In 1982, the Guatemalan military massacred the villagers of Dos Erres, killing more than 200 people. Thirty years later, a Guatemalan living in the US got a phone call from a woman who told him that two boys had been abducted during the massacre -- and he was one of them.
Return Of The Big Gay Apocalypse | Firedoglake corrupt evil dictator Robert Mugabe has upped the ante to cover the entire human race:
Study: 43 percent of women experienced street harassment in Britain | The Raw Story Schoolchildren as young as 12 were being targeted, she said, with previous research for the group revealing that one in three girls in UK schools had experienced unwanted sexual contact.

The Mediocrity Of Leo Strauss - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast

British minister called Murdoch aide ‘papa’ | The Raw Story (as in mafia boss)
Murdoch Private Eye Targeted US Hedge Fund Boss A private detective working for Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers used a legally questionable tactic to obtain a hotel bill that a New York financier ran up at one of London's swankest hotels, records reviewed by Reuters show.

Warrantless spying fight - Salon.com Obama officials demand full, reform-free renewal of the once-controversial power to eavesdrop without warrants
Behold the Lord High Executioner!—By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine) Kimberley Dozier of the Associated Press reports that the burden of making the life-and-death decisions surrounding drone use is settling on the shoulders of a single man, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan:

7 Ways To Get Yourself Detained Indefinitely (talk to a Taliban even if you don't know they are a Taliban)

Doma ruled unconstitutional for denying benefits to same-sex couples | World news | guardian.co.uk District court judge in California is third federal judge to issue a similar ruling over 1996 Defence of Marriage Act (one of Clinton's finest moments)
DOMA plaintiffs receive a temporary reprieve from threat of deportation | The Raw Story Herbert and Ueda have been together for 12 years, and were married in their home state of Vermont in April 2011 — but because of the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal government will not recognize their marriage nor allow Herbert to sponsor her spouse’s green card application.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Mitt and The Birther this video of a birther-curious Rep Mike Coffman screwing the pooch (via) would be worth a watch as you peruse a story about the Donald’s latest birther noises. It’s clear that the local media pursuing Coffman understands that even the hint of birtherism is political poison. Yet Romney is still planning to attend a fundraiser with Trump next month.
Wisconsin Recall Debate: Tom Barrett Aggressively Goes After Scott Walker In First Face-Off
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » What the Hell is She Thinking? . What the fuck is she thinking? Of course there will be ramifications, and mainly from labor, who busted their ass to get this recall to happen, were then saddled with the less labor friendly candidate to run against Barrett, and then watched the DNC say “Ah, fuck it. No money for you from us.” Try winning the general election in November without broad union support, Debbie, you halfwit. (DNC at work making sure Republicans get elected)
Sam Brownback Signs Bill Banning Islamic Law In Kansas "Underlying all of this is demonizing Islam and marginalizing American Muslims," he said.
Politics - Jon Lovett - The Brash Hypocrisy of Lanny Davis - The Atlantic Why this Washington superlobbyist represents all that is wrong with politics today (everyone hates you, Lanny, please go shoot yourself)
Political Animal - Gov. Scott Orders Purging of Florida’s Voter Rolls - Just in Time For Prez Election
Daily Kos: This week in the War on Voting: Florida, again
Hispanics, NPAs more likely to face noncitizen voter purge than whites, GOP - Florida - MiamiHerald.com The state’s quest to get rid of noncitizens voters this election year has turned up 180,000 hits — but it incidentally targets minorities and Democrats while giving white Republicans a pass.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Elephant in a China Shop Anyhoo, King Juan Carlos fell out of bed and hurt his hip on the trip, so that sucked for him. And when he got home, the public outcry was so great that he had to apologize for living out his expensive, macho-shithead Big Game Hunter fantasies on the dime of a country in the midst of a horrible economic crisis with 25%+ unemployment ... So the last goddamned thing on the entire goddamned planet King Juan Carlos of Spain wanted to hear about was goddamned elephants and his goddamned hip. Enter reptilian tea party ninny and Florida Governor Rick Scott, visiting the King on a trade mission:

Two Thousand False Convictions Documented Since 1989—By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine) This week has been full of illuminating disclosures concerning the American criminal-justice system - 56 percent of murder-case exonerations the initial convictions was based upon “official misconduct.” (completely racist and broken)

Hullabaloo : Dumpster diving (the wingnut slimepit; they love their CAPS)
Rush Limbaugh cigar - Google Search (cigars are the devils penis)

Luke Russert, nepotist prince - The Hack List - Salon.com Luke Russert is being groomed as a simulacrum of his father -- but without the inspiring rags-to-riches story (nepotism and stupidity alive and well in the Village)
Bruni : Lawyers, Guns & Money : Every time I read a piece by Bruni, I can’t help but think he would have been the perfect writer for late 19th century New York. Dinner at Delmonico’s that cost three times the yearly wage of an average New Yorker, rococo food preparations every night, incredibly expensive alcohol, long fabulous trips to Europe, and complete indifference to the plight of the poor around him.
Yum…..Delicious Conservative Mythology : Lawyers, Guns & Money E.J. Dionne’s op-ed today imbibes deeply in a mythological view of conservatism’s past. Noting what he sees as a traditional conservative embrace of community over individualism, Dionne cherry-picks his way through a mythological conservative past to find a supposedly better conservatism than what we see today (when he's not defending the WLPO)

Regulators’ Role at Chase Scrutinized - NYTimes.com Scores of federal regulators are stationed inside JPMorgan Chase’s Manhattan headquarters, but none of them were assigned to the powerful unit that recently disclosed a multibillion trading loss (no steenking regulators)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » European Austerity Can Never Fail… ...it can only be failed. Think tankers at the WSJ: "If you want growth, scaling back the state should be an aim whether you have a deficit or not." (Galtian fuckwits)
More Laffering - NYTimes.com So why is this junk research getting so much attention from the Wall Street Journal, right-wing think tanks, etc.? Hmm. Seems deeply mysterious. Is there any possibility that these people are always looking for new excuses to cut taxes on the wealthy? Nah.
Curt Schilling’s dream died quite quickly at 38 Studios - The Boston Globe
The Great Gatsby and the American dream | Books | The Guardian Class inequality and 'the gospel of wealth' – in tackling such issues F Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece has never been more relevant. The 'American dream' has always been an idea of failure
Obama Presided Over a Tax Revenue Drought, Not a Spending Binge | Crooks and Liars Predictably, James Pethokoukis of the conservative American Enterprise Institute cited the jump in Washington's spending as a percentage of the U.S. economy to comically "prove" that "actually, the Obama spending binge really did happen." Comically, that is, because Pethokoukis conveniently ignores the staggering economic contraction resulting from the Bush recession, with GDP only last year having returned to 2008 levels. (lies and the lying liars +Politifact and Wapo)

Scientist - Evolution Debate Will Soon Be History - NYTimes.com Richard Leakey predicts skepticism over evolution will soon be history (not as long as there is an anti-factual Republican Party, it won't)

Cambridge pays $14 million in lawsuits, but did nothing wrong? - Metro - The Boston Globe (of course not; Robert Healy serial harrasser; City Council hopelessly corrupt)
Cambridge’s nearly $4 million secret exposed - Cambridge, Massachusetts - Cambridge Chronicle “That rule is nothing new,” Pyle said. “Municipalities have never had the power to overrule the public records act merely by agreeing to a confidentiality agreement. If they could exempt a public document from disclosure by a mere agreement, it would destroy the public records act. That’s never been the law in any jurisdiction.” (Healy lies, and covers up)
Editorial: Secrecy in the city of Cambridge - Cambridge, Massachusetts - Cambridge Chronicle Local government officials hid information from residents because they knew it would make the city look bad. Officials hid public documents about the financial settlement with former employees who sued. The citizens of Cambridge had the right to that information so they could make informed decisions about their governance ... The city’s law department was no better. The department did everything in its power to hide the settlements, even though the public record law is clear ... even after the state said they must release the settlement, they’re still playing games by not showing where they made redactions from the settlement documents. Without showing the redactions, they’re not giving context as to what was removed.
Who will replace Cambridge City Manager Bob Healy? - Cambridge, Massachusetts - Cambridge Chronicle

Wild turkey is killed by police at cemetery - Metro - The Boston Globe after wild turkeys charged baby strollers and then attacked an employee, the cemetery called in the police (they assassinated Longfellow)
Medford man charged with distributing child porn at library makes bail - Medford, Massachusetts - Medford Transcript after a patron reported someone was using a public computer to view inappropriate photos of young boys (dumb and dumber)
Has the alphabet murderer finally been caught? | World news | The Observer
Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day | The Agitator
Allergic to Bull: How Brett Kimberlin Tried to Frame Me for a Crime (And How You Can Help!)—Broken Down into Eight Easy Pieces

The backlash against breastfeeding | Life and style | The Guardian Zoe Williams reports on the feeding frenzy caused by the women daring to challenge the 'breast is best' orthodoxy ... a rigorous, close-range examination of the science behind pro-breastfeeding advice in Is Breast Best? She concludes that the case for breast milk is hyperbolic ... only half of mothers in the UK who start breastfeeding (an impressive 91%) continue past six weeks.
Six Moms with Too Much Time on Their Hands and a Shitty Website Decide to Fight Gay Superheroes | Slog

FBI steps in as attacks on Georgia women’s clinics escalate | The Raw Story (Christian terrorists at work)
Study: A third of college students offer incorrect advice on emergency contraception even with the Internet’s help | The Raw Story
New Mexico Health Official Resigns After Pushing Condoms | Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire New Mexico Health Department chief medical officer Dr. Erin Bouquin “resigned under pressure” after she gave an interview in which she urges state residents to “use condoms” to help prevent sexually transmitted diseases (contrafactual abstinence-only approach to STDs)
New Mexico Official Asked To Resign After Advocating Teens Use Condoms

Former GOP Congresswoman Blasts New GOP Women’s Caucus: They have drunk the Kool-Aid that makes them think it is more important to win, than to do what is right by ending discrimination.
Connie Morella On Modern GOP: No Big Tent | ThinkProgress

Everything You Never Wanted To Know About Plywood, Ctd - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast

Reefer Sadness: Too Much Money In Its Illegality And The Life It Needlessly Should Have Ruined « BuelahMan's Revolt
Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit - YouTube
Jefferson Airplane - Somebody To Love - YouTube

Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is – Whatever
“Lowest Difficulty Setting” Follow-Up – Whatever
“Lowest Difficulty Setting Follow-Up” Now on Kotaku + Comment on Comments – Whatever
A Child’s Treasury of Deletions – Whatever

052512
François Hollande repeats troop pullout pledge on surprise visit to Afghanistan | World news | guardian.co.uk French president tells troops they will be home by Christmas and says 'the time for Afghan sovereignty has come'
Egyptian election results present 'nightmare scenario' | World news | The Guardian Fears of weeks of tension as results point to a run-off between the Muslim Brotherhood candidate and a former general
Abdullah al-Senussi central figure in three-way custody battle | World news | The Guardian Muammar Gaddafi's former intelligence chief, who is being held in Mauritania, is also wanted by Libya and France

Radioactive Release at Fukushima Plant Was Underestimated - NYTimes.com The amount of radioactive materials released in the first days of the Fukushima nuclear disaster was almost two and a half times the initial estimate by Japanese safety regulators, the operator of the crippled plant said in a report released on Thursday.

It's payback time: don't expect sympathy – Lagarde to Greeks | Business | The Guardian Take responsibility and stop trying to avoid taxes, International Monetary Fund chief tells Athens - Lagarde insists it is payback time for Greece and makes it clear that the IMF has no intention of softening the terms of the country's austerity package.
Bailout bill for Spanish lender Bankia continues to soar | Business | The Guardian Spain's fourth largest bank may need a cash injection of €15bn after suffering losses in 2008 property crash
Lloyds bank's Jessica Harper charged with £2.5m fraud | Business | guardian.co.uk

David Cameron defends Jeremy Hunt's handling of BSkyB bid | Politics | guardian.co.uk Prime minister says culture secretary acted impartially after he took over responsibility for decision

Politics - James Fallows - Obama and Roberts: The View From 2005 - The Atlantic (got that one right)
Explaining the sudden shift on gay marriage among African Americans - The Plum Line - The Washington Post

Brad DeLong: Six Questions I Asked Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein About Their Book "It's Even Worse than It Looks" on May 18, 2012 (*)

Doma ruled unconstitutional for denying benefits to same-sex couples | World news | guardian.co.uk District court judge in California is third federal judge to issue a similar ruling over 1996 Defence of Marriage Act
Romney Argues Big Spending Cuts Would Cause 'Depression,' Contrary To Tea Party Activists
Penn Jillette Accuses Obama Of Class Warfare For Drug Policy, States' Rights (video)
Obama Pot-Smoking Details Revealed In David Maraniss Book

Romney Can’t Explain What He Learned in Business -- Daily Intel
Scott Walker Recall: Dem's Internal Poll Shows Dead Heat, Growing Awareness Of 'John Doe' Probe (Obama stays away, of course)
Rick Scott's Florida Unemployment Reform Shortchanges The Jobless: Formal Complaint

Eschaton: Bargain Make no mistake. There is a Beltway consensus to cut Social Security benefits--that they're gonna raise the retirement age, and also reduce the COLA. They just have to find a way to do it that will leave nobody accountable. (Obama and Pelosi at work)
Grand Bargain: They're Coming For Our Social Security Again | Crooks and Liars The signs are everywhere, and it won't really depend on which party wins, now that Nancy Pelosi's drinking the Catfood Commissioners' Kool-Aid: They're going after their Grand Bargain. They want to cut Social Security and Medicare in the lame duck session of Congress
Playing Inflation Games with Grandma: The Washington Consensus and the Chained CPI | CEPR Blog In other words, inside Washington types are a group of people that mindlessly repeat the conventional wisdom and are largely incapable of original thought.

Egos and Immorality - NYTimes.com If Wall Streeters are spoiled brats, they are spoiled brats with immense power and wealth at their disposal. And what they’re trying to do with that power and wealth right now is buy themselves not just policies that serve their interests, but immunity from criticism.
Eschaton: Krgthulu It's pretty funny how week after week, David Brooks poops in the litter box and Krugman has to come clean it up without actually saying who made the poop

JPMorgan Chase Risk Management Committee Missing Bank Directors, Financial Risk Managers
What "Stagflation"? - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast - Tim Cavanaugh responds to his Malkin Award nomination. The most deluded part:

Iranian team to collaborate with US company on nuclear fusion project | Environment | guardian.co.uk New Jersey company says it has permission for unique partnership to work toward the holy grail of energy sources

Newark Mayor Cory Booker Declares Drug War 'A Failure,' Endorses Medical Marijuana | ThinkProgress

Wildfires burn across south-west US amid historic drought conditions | World news | guardian.co.uk Lightning strikes and already-dry conditions are keeping firefighters busy fighting more than a dozen blazes (want big government to bail them out)

Jesus' Crucifixion Date Possibly Friday April 3, 33 A.D., According To Earthquake Study

No More Mister Nice Blog - Everything Is For The Cause

052412
Amnesty International Cites Canada's Refusal To Arrest George W. Bush In Human Rights Report
Canada student protests erupt into political crisis with mass arrests | World news | guardian.co.uk More than 500 people were arrested in Montreal on Wednesday night as protestors defied controversial new law Bill 78 that places restrictions on the right to demonstrate
Red Square Revolt | Quebec Students on Strike on Vimeo
Quebec Government Seeks to Trample Rights In Assault on Students and Unions | Crooks and Liars
US critical of Iran and Syria in human rights report on 'tumultuous' year | Law | guardian.co.uk Report suggests Arab spring and reform in Burma may inspire change elsewhere – but warns of disturbing anti-LGBT trends

UK economy's fall into recession deeper than expected | Business | guardian.co.uk Contraction of 0.3% raises the pressure on George Osborne to explain how the coalition plans to drag the country out of recession (why, with more austerity, of course)
Police urge Greeks to keep money in bank | World news | The Guardian Scale of withdrawals from Greek banks has led to speculation that eurozone-wide guarantee is need to maintain confidence

Jeremy Hunt urged PM to allow BSkyB deal weeks before taking charge of bid | Politics | guardian.co.uk Culture secretary told David Cameron the 'media sector would suffer for years' if News Corp's bid for BSkyB was blocked

Bradley Manning military trial: group petitions for a more open court | World news | guardian.co.uk Coalition says WikiLeaks suspect's trial is being conducted amid far more secrecy than the alleged 9/11 plotters in Guantanamo

The Conservative Fantasy History of Civil Rights -- Daily Intel By Jonathan Chait
Conservatives Trying to Rewrite the History of Civil Rights | Mother Jones
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Conservatives Get Their Own Fables of Faubus
Political Animal - Civil Rights Revisionism
Hullabaloo PoMo conservative revisionism

Trans-Pacific Partnership: Key Senate Democrat Joins Bipartisan Trade Revolt Against Obama
Guilty as Charged: How the GOP Killed Washington DC | Crooks and Liars
“Refreshing Contacts”: The Revolving Door Shuffle in Washington | FDL News Desk
Nancy Pelosi Slammed By Washington Post Over Tax Cut Proposal for pushing to permanently extend "middle class" tax cuts for people earning up to $1 million, warning that it makes Democrats look "almost as irresponsible" as Republicans defending tax cuts for the rich. (exactly the same thing!)
The Cracked Pipeline: How Redistricting Targeted Women Lawmakers In Statehouses Around The Country | TPM2012 Democrats became roadkill during the latest round of redistricting, mostly at the hands of Republican state legislatures (and so did women)
Propaganda firm owner admits smear campaign against U.S. journalists | The Raw Story The company said that due to the owner’s financial troubles, they were unable to fulfill their “personal tax obligations on time,” but have since been “faithfully paying their tax liabilities through installment plans.”
Obama Keeps Low Profile in Wisconsin (no DNC involvment, Obama has never wanted to associate himself with Labor)

My break with the extreme right - Salon.com I worked for Reagan and wrote for National Review. But the new hysterical right cares nothing for truth or dignity By Michael Fumento

Balloon Juice » Open Thread: Lord Bain’s Foul
Krugman: Was Greed Good? - NYTimes.com (no, with graphs)
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Why Both Obama and Romney Want to Talk About Bain
Stockman: Romney Can't Say He Learned How to Create Jobs in the Leveraged Buyout Business | Video Cafe (because ... that's not how it works)
Bain Capital Explained By Tony Soprano (video)

The Facebook IPO: Shareholders Weren't Invited to the Real Party | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone (suckerfuckerzuckerberged)
I, Cringely » Blog Archive Why Facebook isn't embarrassed by its IPO - I, Cringely - Cringely on technology If you are an investment banker — and let me re-emphasize that, if you are an investment banker — you want IPO shares to go up on their first day, rising in price by at least 10 percent though no more than 20 percent.
5 Ways The Facebook IPO Teaches Us About How Wall Street Games The System
Kansas City Fed President Esther George Sort Of Calls For Jamie Dimon To Leave New York Fed
Obama campaign unleashes digital ad blitz in bid to see off Romney challenge | World news | guardian.co.uk Data shows US president vastly outspending Romney in internet advertising, with GOP rival preferring more traditional approach
Chuck Schumer Denounces Eduardo Saverin Defenders, Nazi Comparisons As 'Appalling'
Morgan Stanley may refund some Facebook investors - Business - Boston.com

Sarah Lawrence Goes Back to SATs by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly For years Sarah Lawrence College was one of the few schools in America that not only didn’t require applicants to submit SATs, but didn’t even look at them when considering students for admission
Senate rejects GOP, Dem plans on student loans - Boston.com The Senate rejected dueling Democratic and Republican plans on Thursday for averting a July 1 doubling of interest rates on federal college loans for 7.4 million students, pushing back efforts to resolve the election-season showdown until next month.

pandagon.net The diet industry was singled out as a major villain, with one expert witheringly pointing out that their business model is based on yo-yo dieting ... dieting doesn't work and lifestyle changes are nearly impossible to maintain ... talks witheringly of how stupid the concept of "free will" really is, and how it's a distraction from the real issues, which are that our society pressures you at every turn to eat more and exercise less.

Hullabaloo Yes, the bully pulpit can shift public opinion (Obama has cred with African-Americans)
D'Angelo, 'Untitled,' and What Happens When Men Get Treated Like Women | ThinkProgress , D’Angelo got treated like a woman, and it was not exceptionally good for his mental health:
'Blade Runner 2' and the Feminism of Science Fiction | ThinkProgress
Levi Johnston is 'penniless and living with his mother after squandering the $1million he's made on guns and boats' | Mail Online Levi Johnston, father to Sarah Palin's grandson, has been forced to move in with his mother after reportedly squandering his $1 million earnings. The 22-year-old wasted the eye-watering sum on 'guns, boats and four-wheelers', a source told US Weekly magazine.
Woman Kept Off American Airlines Plane For Allegedly Offensive Shirt "If I wanted the government in my womb, I'd f--k a senator."
Georgia Abortion Clinic Fires Investigated By FBI
Explicit Image Of S.E. Cupp (It’s A Fake) In Hustler Magazine Sparks Outrage | Mediaite
We Are All S.E. Cupp, the Conservative Pundit Bullied by Hustler - Duly Noted (+George Tierney, Jr. of Greenville, South Carolina)
Sandra fluke News, Video and Gossip - Jezebel Unintelligent Male Attacks Sandra Fluke on Twitter, Wants His Name Magically Scrubbed From Google

Hullabaloo - Sponsor a uterus in need - Help free women from the burden of making their own decisions.
Hullabaloo Dissonance and hypocrisy: why so many Americans lie about what they believe (Americans lie to themselves and are moral hypocrites)

George Zimmerman's 'Cozy' Relationship With Sanford Police Questioned (watch)

New York Lawmakers Encounter Comments Sections, Freak Out | ThinkProgress Republican Assemblyman Jim Conte said the legislation would cut down on “mean-spirited and baseless political attacks” and “turns the spotlight on cyberbullies by forcing them to reveal their identity.” (whiny babies trash your Constitution so they won't have listen your mean comments)
Georgy Avanesov, Bredolab Botnet Creator, Found Guilty And Sentenced To Four Years In Prison
Google faced with a million requests a month to remove copyright searches | Technology | guardian.co.uk Figures from Google's transparency report reveal huge increase on 2009 as growth comes from rise in 'enforcement vendors'
Mountaineer laughs off Twitter row with 'spotty schoolkids' | World news | The Guardian Joe Simpson engages in online spat with 'vile' GCSE students after they rubbished his book Touching the Void

052312
Egypt's presidential election: a game of the least bad option | Magdi Abdelhadi | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Egyptians are being asked not to choose the future but to choose between various versions of an imagined glorious past
Egypt election - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk Leading candidates Moussa and Abul Fotouh cast votes • 50 million eligible to vote in poll overseen by 14,000 judges
North Korea 'upgrades rocket launch site' | World news | guardian.co.uk US thinktank claims satellite pictures show work at Musudan-ri site reflects North Korean intention to expand rocket programme
Rio Issues Land Titles To Slum Residents : NPR
South Korea to chemically castrate repeat child rapist South Korea will chemically castrate a repeat sex offender who raped children in the country's first use of a recently implemented law
Brazil rocked by abortion for 9-year-old rape victim - Americas - World - The Independent Church excommunicates mother and doctors – but not accused rapist (Catholic Bishops practicing "religious liberty" to place rapist above the victim)

Eurozone crisis live: Markets slump after Bundesbank says Greek exit is 'manageable' | Business | guardian.co.uk Bundesbank: Europe should withhold Greek aid, if necessary ... Papademos alarms traders with talk of Greek exit
Stocks Make Huge Comeback: Here's What You Need To Know - Business Insider European markets got crushed today

Leveson inquiry: Jeremy Paxman, Andrew Marr, Lord Reid - live | Media | guardian.co.uk (Murdoch running the UK)

Dominique Strauss-Kahn accuser adds gender violence to civil lawsuit | World news | guardian.co.uk Nafissatou Diallo uses recent New York law to argue alleged sex attack by former IMF head reflected his hatred towards women (the little rutting chimpanzee)

Eisenhower : Lawyers, Guns & Money - This is a few weeks old now, but David Greenberg’s assessment of the continued attempt to canonize Dwight Eisenhower is quite good.
The Contraception Lawsuit : Lawyers, Guns & Money - 1)in a rational universe the idea that religious affiliated institutions performing secular functions with taxpayer money have a constitutional or statutory right to impose their religious views on employees who don’t share them would be considered somewhere between “implausible” and “frivolous” but 2)that doesn’t mean the actually existing federal courts won’t buy the argument.

Politics - Ta-Nehisi Coates - White Resentment, Obama, and Appalachia - The Atlantic The problem with these formulations is that they are utterly ahistorical. There is no history of racism in this country that chalked "up only to race."

Where are the young pols? - Salon.com Joe Biden was 29 when he went to DC. Now senators are older than ever. Why did young people stop running for Senate (money, duh)
Ten Things I Learned During a Decade in D.C.: Death Race 2012 (old Senate fogies out of touch on everything but especially sex and drugs, they're all born before 1950 +Republicans are the party of Christian conservatives)

Gawker: Mobutu Sese Seko: Mitt Romney and the GOP’s Treason Whack-a-Mole ... Lugar was no Democrat, and he wasn't even a centrist. He was, however, objectionably heterodox because he occasionally evinced civility and the conviction that compromise can produce governance and that political opponents are not inherently toxic to humanity, with acid blood and a tendency to reproduce by raping your face and laying eggs in your chest. This was enough. (Lugar: "reflexive votes for a rejectionist orthodoxy and rigid opposition to the actions and proposals of the other party.")

Colin Powell Trashes Mitt Romney's Team Of Foreign Policy Advisers
Mitt Romney Leads Obama In Florida, Quinnipiac Poll Shows
Ken Bennett, Arizona Secretary Of State, Backs Away From Birther Request (well played, HI)
"Are These Robert Gates's Pants?" | Media Matters for America (latest from the AZ insanosphere)
Study Finds Fox News Viewers Least Informed Of All Viewers (and most stupid)

Obama spending binge never happened - Rex Nutting - MarketWatch Commentary: Government outlays rising at slowest pace since 1950s
Political Animal - Spending “Binges” and Minivans Conservative gabbers mostly ignored Cutting’s article, until AEI’s James Pethokoukis took a wack at it (and misses)
Bill to End Conflict of Interest at Federal Reserve Is First Step to Operationalizing Fed Audit | Firedoglake Elizabeth Warren has been talking about the conflict of interest inherent in having Jamie Dimon sit on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Facebook IPO Furor: Feds Probing Deal Over Insider Bank Warnings | Business | time.com - Facebook shares have plunged 20% since the IPO, wiping out $17 billion from the company’s valuation. (suckerfuckered)
Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg accused of misleading investors | Technology | guardian.co.uk
Facebook founder faces lawsuits as questions mount over IPO | Technology | guardian.co.uk Shareholders' lawsuit accuses Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and his advisers of concealing a 'severe reduction' in revenue growth
Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Banks Sued Over IPO
Firedoglake Morgan Stanley and Facebook are facing scrutiny and potential litigation for how they managed Facebooks Initial Public Offering, and whether they properly disclosed information to investors. But Congress just passed and Obama signed the so-called “JOBS” Act, which allows companies and banks to hide the very IPO information investigators now claim may have been missing or misleading in this case. (there you go)

Scientists turn skin cells into beating heart muscle | Reuters Skin reprogrammed into stem cells to try to mend hearts

After President Obama’s announcement, opposition to gay marriage hits record low - The Washington Post Overall, 53 percent of Americans say gay marriage should be legal, hitting a high mark in support while showing a dramatic turnaround from just six years ago, when just 36 percent thought it should be legal. Thirty-nine percent, a new low, say gay marriage should be illegal (the 53% is like, whatevs, the 37% is we will kill you and send you to rot in hell)
Michelangelo Signorile: Obama and Gay Marriage: A Lesson for All Progressives and the Obama Campaign
Federal Anti-Gay Hate Crimes Law Gets First Test In Kentucky - Harlan County, Ky.

Trayvon Martin Case: Witnesses Change Accounts, Which Could Hurt Zimmerman The evidence from that night -- and the dialogue surrounding it -- has grown increasingly complex.


Nurse refuses student inhaler during asthma attack | News - Home School says medical release form lacked parent's signature - "It's like something out of a horror film. The person just sits there and watches you die," said Michael Rudi, 17. "She sat there, looked at me and she did nothing." (Cheryl Selesky of Deltona Florida, famous on the internets for all eternity for being a terrible person)
blehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh comments on To the guys: when you wolf-whistle at ladies, do you think you're paying them a compliment they should appreciate?

Note to Self: Siri Not Just Working for Me, Working Full-Time for Apple, Too | ACLU of Northern California (Siri sends all your questions to Apple, who shares it with whoever the fuck they feel like)
Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom Refuses to Give Up Passwords | TorrentFreak Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is demanding access to 135 computers and hard drives that were seized from his home in January, so the data can be used for his defense. Until then, he refuses to give up passwords to encrypted data stored on the machines.
Verdict Is In For Oracle-Google - Business Insider "Today’s jury verdict that Android does not infringe Oracle’s patents was a victory not just for Google but the entire Android ecosystem." (fuck you, Ellison)

052212
Syria Prisons Are 'Human Slaughterhouses,' Ex-Detainee Says
Iran Nuclear Talks: Deal Reached On Nuclear Weapons Probe, UN Nuclear Chief Says
Egypt Presidential Elections: Democratic Vote Won't Erase Arab Spring Country's Mubarak Memories
Ryan Crocker to step down as US ambassador to Afghanistan | World news | guardian.co.uk Career diplomat helped craft partnership agreement for US-Afghan ties but leaves with many of its details undefined
Syrian kidnapping of Lebanese pilgrims raises fears conflict will cross border | World news | The Guardian Rebels in Aleppo province abducted 12 Shia Muslims on their way home from Iran, according to unnamed security officials

Mexico: Zetas Drug Cartel Ordered Killing Of 49
Shafilea Ahmed murder: parents 'killed daughter for dating boys’ - Telegraph A Muslim teenager was murdered by her parents because she refused to let them “crush her will” and resisted their plans for an arranged marriage, a court heard yesterday
Tony Blair and George Bush's phone conversation a week before Iraq invasion 'must be released' - UK, Local & National - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk ("yo, Poodle ...")
Banned Iranian terror group lobbies for legitimacy on Capitol Hill | World news | guardian.co.uk MEK winning support in Congress – but questions raised over whether lobbying campaign amounts to support for terrorism
Tokyo Skytree, the world's 'tallest tower', opens to the public | Art and design | guardian.co.uk Japan's biggest new landmark, a broadcast tower for TV and radio, expected to draw 8,000 visitors on first day

Strict austerity risks derailing global economic recovery, warns OECD | Business | The Guardian Growth warning from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development comes ahead of European leaders' crisis talks in Brussels (cf Smerkel)

News of the World's 'fake sheikh' had Tom Watson followed, emails show | Media | The Guardian Mazher Mahmood, who now works for Sunday Times, appears to have commissioned surveillance of phone-hacking critic

Joplin tornado, one year on: how residents are rebuilding their homes – and live | World news | guardian.co.uk (bailed out by big government, they will still vote Republican)

New Poll: 56% of Americans Want Legal Marijuana | NORML Blog, Marijuana Law Reform (Obama still "evolving" out of his bloody, racist drugwarz)

Cory Booker: GOP 'Manipulating' His Criticism Of Obama's Bain Capital Attacks "I'm very upset I'm being used by the GOP this way," Booker said during the Monday interview with Maddow
Perino: White House Trashing 'Friends' Cory Booker and Campbell Brown | Video Cafe “Cory Booker is a friend of the White House,” Perino told Fox News host Gretchen Carlson on Monday. (where you been Dana?)
Chris Matthews Hammers Cory Booker's Obama Criticism: 'Sabotage,' 'Betrayal' (video)
Fox News' Shame Test For The Poor | Media Matters for America But according to Fox contributor and New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin, the problem that struggling Americans receiving SNAP benefits have isn't really hunger or poverty. It's that they're not ashamed enough about taking the help.
Catholic Church Washington Post - In Which Holy Mother Church Scares the Washington Post - Esquire Patrick Sexton is the official Don't Hurt Us correspondent for The Washington Post, a once-great newspaper now d/b/a an adjunct of the educational-testing scam.

Inside Job: Facebook I.P.O. Shows the System Is Broken : The New Yorker : By the time Facebook’s stock started trading on the public market, insiders—the company’s founders, employees, and venture-capitalist backers—had bagged most, if not all, of the company’s value for themselves. (you've been suckerfuckerberged)

Charles Ferguson: The Sellout of the Ivory Tower, and the Crash of 2008 (Excerpt) significant portions of American academia have deteriorated into "pay to play" activities.
Keystone XL Would Raise Gas Prices, Report Finds
Jon Corzine, Ex-MF Global CEO, Netted More Than $8 Million Before Firm's Collapse (best of the best crooks)
Bucks man finds extra $69K in account, charged with spending most of it (like MF Global, but different)

Fogonazos: Catatumbo, the everlasting storm
Can Science Explain Why We Tell Stories? : The New Yorker Jonathan Gottschall’s new book, “The Storytelling Animal,
Henry Hitchings on Proper English : The New Yorker “The Language Wars: A History of Proper English” by the English journalist Henry Hitchings, a convinced descriptivist.

In Conservative Media, A "Race War" Rages They don't care if you call it racist. “In Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering,” says Limbaugh (Limpbag)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » More on George Tierney, Jr. of Greenville, South Carolina (George stfu'd)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Open Thread for George Tierney, Jr. of Greenville, South Carolina

Women's Health Policy Report: Policies at Religiously Affiliated Hospitals Create Conflicts for Ob-Gyns, Study Finds
Lauren Odes, Temp Worker At Native Intimates, Alleges She Was Fired For Being 'Too Hot' Lauren Odes, 29, said her Orthodox Jewish employers at Native Intimates told her that outfit and others like it were "too hot" for the lingerie warehouse ... Odes's attorney, celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred ...
Man Loses $22,000 In New 'Policing For Profit' Case - NewsChannel5.com | Nashville News, Weather & Sports "You live in the United States, you think you have rights -- and apparently you don't," said George Reby.

No, Google's Chrome isn't the world's leading browser - yet: see our map | Technology | guardian.co.uk Claims that Google Chrome has passed Internet Explorer turn out to be wrong according to Statcounter's data - but it won't be long. Firefox turns out to have a surprising dominance on our map, though
Google's Motorola Mobility Acquisition Closes
New Zealand smashes global child pornography ring that used social networking sites such as Facebook to distribute child pornography (zuckerporn)

052112
Huge suicide blast kills more than 100 troops in Yemen - CNN.com

Eschaton: We Are Ruled By The Worst People In The World: Cameron on the important things. "What is required is decisiveness, strong actions by all governments – whether it's action to deal with deficits, to deal with the banks, to calm markets," he said. Banks, markets, confidence fairies. Must sacrifice our children on their altars.
Eschaton: The Gods Need Their Sacrifice . I'm not exactly clear on what exactly their authority is here, how such decisions can be made, but there's nothing more important than having Independent Central Bankers, people. Repeat it, it'll be on the test. I can see no good reason for this of course, except a belief that the volcano Gods need to be pacified by the suffering of millions, and that the banksters can do no wrong.

Hawaii Wants Arizona’s Ken Bennett To Prove His Birther Credentials | TPMMuckraker

Want to end partisan politics? Here’s what won’t work — and what will. - The Washington Post By Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, Published: May 17

The False Conviction Epidemic - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money More than 2,000 people have been exonerated of crimes they were convicted of since 1989. It’s worth noting that this is only a count of official exonerations, resulting from dismissed charges or a finding in a court of law. (prison-state America executing like China)
AnonNews.org : Everything Anonymous Today we are releaseing 1.7GB of data that used to belong to the United States Bureau of Justice, until now.

Dimon’s Déjà Vu Debacle - NYTimes.com Incidentally, how is it possible that Mr. Romney doesn’t understand all of this? His whole candidacy is based on the claim that his experience at extracting money from troubled businesses means that he’ll know how to run the economy — yet whenever he talks about economic policy, he comes across as completely clueless.
Obama on the High Wire - NYTimes.com Is the Democratic party the tribune of the underdog or the slave of special interests?

Notre Dame Suing Obama Administration Over Birth Control Mandate (“religious liberty.”)

Members Of Congress Speak Like High School Sophomores, Sunlight Foundation Report Says Congress has fallen by almost a full grade-level since 2005 ... , "Of the 10 members speaking at the lowest grade level, all but two are freshmen, and every one is a Republican." ("freshman" = "teapartier")

Campbell Brown : Lawyers, Guns & Money Remember when we were supposed to take Campbell Brown seriously? That was a terrible 15 minutes. As I am reminded by this piece of pure hackishness by Brown.
First as Farce, Second as More Farce : Lawyers, Guns & Money It’s amusing to see Ann Althouse (and Rush Limbaugh, to whatever extent there’s a difference anymore) repeating PUMA comedy classics.

Eschaton: Do They Know Any Older People? 67 - the age of retirement which is being phased in and will be operative once I get there - is already really old.* You have to be insane or a sociopath to want to raise it even higher.
Ezekiel Emmanuel Doesn't Like Social Security and Medicare | Beat the Press his New York Times column that was ostensibly about out of control Social Security and Medicare spending (sociopath and the NYT for pushing this crap; +"Zeke," 55 years old, is a "motivational speaker")

Facebook Share Price: Social Network's Shares Slide Below Issue Price In Pre-Market (UPDATES) The losses wiped some $19 billion off of the company's market capitalization -- not far from what Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was worth personally when the stock debuted (you've been Zuckerfucked) (and Morgan-Stanleyed)
Facebook Falls Below Its IPO Price - Businessweek the shares, once the hype dies down, will be in the $20s by yearend—$24 to $25 per share,” (Fuckerberged)

Hey Gov. Christie, New Jersey is over here — NewsWorks While Christie has been preening before national audiences, back home revenues have come in at $351 million below expectations with only two months to go in the current fiscal year. And next year's budget relies on revenue growth of 7.3 percent, which seems laughable at this point (although conservatives prefer to refer to Christie's delusional budget numbers as "optimistic"). So what's Chris Christie's plan? You guessed it — cut income taxes! (fat lying fuck ruins state; you've been ChriChristied!)
Bats Left/Throws Right: Clock Stoppage DO you find it as curious as I do that David Brooks can trot out three sociologists, or economists-turned-sociologists, to back him up, but is apparently unaware of the existence of historians?
Hullabaloo The deeper you go, the darker the joke gets ... Charles Babbington at AP ... lazily reprinted topsy-turvy ridiculous conventional wisdom as it were fact, embedded in a he-said-she-said sandwich free of any factual analysis ... The media in this country is screwed up beyond repair.

From lemons to lemonade: Reaction uses carbon dioxide to make carbon-based semiconductor A materials scientist at Michigan Technological University has discovered a chemical reaction that not only eats up the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, it also creates something useful. And, by the way, it releases energy.
Heartland Institute Facing Uncertain Future As Staff Departs and Cash Dries Up | Mother Jones (another wingnut front implodes)

Gregory Jaczko Resigns: Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Steps Down (pro-disaster forces win)

Soraya Chemaly: A Message to Girls About Religious Men Who Fear You
North Carolina Pastor Charles L. Worley Suggests Gays And Lesbians Should Be Put In Electrified Pen, Slowly Killed Off ("torture those fags to death")
Rush Limbaugh Ratings Drop In Several Big Markets Rush Limbaugh's ratings have dropped sharply in several major markets following the firestorm over his comments about Sandra Fluke (dimbag failing)
Dharun Ravi Sentenced To 30 Days In Jail

Race and ethnicity 2010 - a set on Flickr
Race and ethnicity 2010: Boston | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Internet Man Does Not Want To Be On The Google Anymore | TBogg (George Tierney of Greenville South Carolina doesn't understand how the internets work, makes himself stupid for all eternity: hi George!)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » The George Tierney of Greenville, South Carolina Kerfuffle: For Teh Google, Sandra Fluke, and Glory!
Daily Kos: A Man Seeking Anonymity; Let's Make Him Famous A bullying,ignorant misogynist name George Tierney, a golf caddy living in Greenville, South Carolina, has been reduced to begging and threatening to get removed from Google
The George Tierney of Greenville, South Carolina Kerfuffle: For Teh Google, Sandra Fluke, and Glory! | The Raw Story
d r i f t g l a s s: Mr. George Tierney, Jr. of Greenville, South Carolina We live in an America crawling Mr. George Tierney, Juniors of Greenville South Carolina.
This Could Very Well Be The Stupidest Person On The Face Of The Earth - YouTube

Girlyman "Nothing Left" (official video) - YouTube
Murmuration on Vimeo

Zoë Triska: The Phrase That Makes You Sound Like A Douchebag When asked about commitment, he would consistently say, "It is what it is."
exclusive video: New York Police Sgt. Lesly Charles captured on cellphone video in filthy rant - NYPOST.com
Penn Jillette Accuses Obama Of Class Warfare For Drug Policy, States' Rights (VIDEO) "As you know, medical marijuana... you can get in California, and the feds are coming in to try to stop this. States' rights don't mean jack sh*t to the Obama administration on anything except gay marriage."

The Best Dill Pickle Brands: Our Taste Test Results

More than 40,000 Orthodox Jews rally against the internet at New York baseball stadium | The Verge (no women allowed; internets non-kosher)

Chrome is the most popular browser in the world, says StatCounter | The Verge
Amazing Numbers | TPM Editors Blog
Leap Gesture Control Is An Accurate, Affordable Touchless Control For Computers (dumb)
Today, Google web search is getting a new, bigger, better brain | VentureBeat
Freebase

052012
Syrian army shells town in Hama region | World news | guardian.co.uk At least 16 people killed in attack, while UN observers narrowly escape roadside car bomb in Damascus
Obama and Karzai outline post-2014 Afghanistan vision at Nato summit | World news | guardian.co.uk US president urges Afghan counterpart to implement electoral reform, cut out corruption and press Taliban for settlement
Cell Doors 'Incapable of Locking' at Giant Afghan Jail | Danger Room | Wired.com Detainees at Afghanistan's largest U.S.-built prison were able to literally kick through their poorly constructed cells, according to a new Pentagon report. Photo: Defense Department Inspector General ... . And all of this was the result of lackadaisical oversight of contractors hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Eschaton: Priorities About a hundred billion spent in Afghanistan in fiscal 2011. Money well spent, obviously. Still that California SUPERTRAIN is a horrible boondoggle, given that'd it cost that much over a period of many many many years.
Negotiations over dissident Chen Guangcheng offered rare glimpse into how China’s leadership operates, U.S. officials say - The Washington Post (Hilz at work)
Italy earthquake kills five and razes centuries of history | World news | The Guardian
BBC News - In pictures: Italy earthquake

Eurozone crisis: high-stakes gamble as David Cameron warns Greek voters | Business | The Guardian PM says Greeks have choice in June election between voting to stay in euro and 'effectively voting to leave'
G8 Summit 2012: Obama Emphasizes Growth Over Austerity To Tackle World Economic Woes Merkel said growth and deficit-cutting reinforced each other and that everyone around the table agreed. "That is great progress," she said. As for promoting growth, she said investments under consideration include research and development, Internet networks and infrastructure. But she said "this doesn't mean stimulus in the usual sense." ("fuck you even if I was wrong")

Cutting Out the Generals "A year later, when the president and a half-dozen White House aides began to plan for the withdrawal, the generals were cut out entirely. There was no debate, and there were no leaks."
Administration Again Attempts to Keep News of Its Drone Damages Out of the Country | emptywheel - Nieman Watchdog asked Scott Shane recently why he had granted Administration officials anonymity so they could insinuate that those who report on civilian drone deaths were terrorist sympathizers

Montana wins states' backing over Citizens United fight | Law | guardian.co.uk New York leads 22 states calling on US supreme court to back down over corporate spending on political campaigns (Roberts: nnyannyanya, can't hear you)

N.A.A.C.P. Endorses Same-Sex Marriage - NYTimes.com putting the weight of the country’s most prominent civil rights group behind a cause that has long divided some quarters of the black community.
Leading NYC Mayoral Candidate Weds Her Partner Christine Quinn, the speaker of the New York City Council and a leading candidate to be mayor, married her longtime partner, Kim M. Catullo "in one of the most prominent same-sex weddings of a public official to date," the New York Times reports.
Toleration, respect, and bigotry : Lawyers, Guns & Money Ari Kohen on an Althouse/Loury bloggingheads discussion of opposition to SSM on religious grounds (idiots)

Balloon Juice » The M Word Jodi Cantor throws the current sacrifice down the volcano in today’s Times profile of Romney’s religion ... Cantor doesn’t tell us how Romney reconciles moving about a country mile from the truth on a regular basis with “God’s fixed standards”,
Obama Closes the Gap in Tennessee Obama has pulled into a virtual tie with Mitt Romney in traditionally conservative Tennessee.
Nancy Pelosi: Speaker John Boehner 'Wants To Go Over The Edge' (and take America with him)
Arizona Secretary Of State Says It’s ‘Possible’ Obama Won’t Be On Ballot | TPMMuckraker (perfect pic)
Birtherism as Rube Bait

Mick Jagger Mocks Mitt Romney On 'SNL' (what?)
Balloon Juice » What do women want? Campbell Brown doesn’t have a clue; President Obama does. (so NYT gets Campbell to write about this when her husband is "an adviser to Mr. Romney" - cozy little village you have there, bullshit artist)

Is Insider Trading Part of the Fabric on Wall Street? - NYTimes.com (yes, and the SEC)
Eduardo Saverin Bill Backed By John Boehner (funny on many levels)

The End of Fish - Lawyers, Guns & Money As I’ve said before, we people living today are the likely the last people who will ever eat saltwater fish on a commercial scale. The World Wildlife Fund and Brad Plumer sum the situation up in one chart and one article.

NY's top court excuses lack of wiretap disclosure - troyrecord.com - New York's top court says prosecutors can use wiretap evidence even when they fail to comply with the state law requiring disclosure to their targets within 90 days after the eavesdropping warrant expires.
Under Asset Forfeiture Law, Wisconsin Cops Confiscate Families' Bail Money - "I told them the money had just come from the bank," Beverly Greer says. "We had just taken it out. If the money had drugs on it, then they should go seize all the money at the bank, too. I just don't understand how they could do that."

The Not-So-Nice "Nice Guys" Of Online Dating Self-described “Nice Guys” are mad you won't sleep with them. Because if they're nice to you in an online dating message, the least you can do is put out.
Bitch Ph.D. Nice guys and bitchy women - Thursday, July 21, 2005 (classic typology)

How One Flawed Study Spawned a Decade of Lies - Forbes In 2001, Dr. Robert L. Spitzer, psychiatrist and professor emeritus of Columbia University, presented a paper at a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association about something called “reparative therapy” for gay men and women ... indeed, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say he seemed invested in demonstrating that homosexuality was changeable, not unlike quitting smoking or giving up ice cream. (sorry, Bob, too late)

Best beaches in Massachusetts 2011 - Boston.com
Will Smith Raps 'Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air' Theme Song On 'The Graham Norton Show' (video)

US “Six Strikes” Anti-Piracy Scheme Delayed | TorrentFreak
RapidGator Goes Down, Suspended by Hosting Company | TorrentFreak
Twitter confirms support for Do Not Track | Ars Technica Twitter won't use cookies for surreptitious data collection if users opt out.

051912
An Afghan Shoots, A Marine Dies, Mistrust Grows : NPR
David Miliband: Afghanistan Could 'Explode' Without Political Solutions (rly)
Afghanistan's Squandered Foreign Aid Has Young Businessmen Worried About Future
Afghan Army General: Corruption Sometimes Makes It Impossible To Do Our Job
Syria Bomb: Car Bomb Explodes Near Security Agencies In Deir El-Zour
Italy School Bomb: Blast Kills One, Injures At Least 6 A bomb exploded in front of a school in the southern Italian town of Brindisi on Saturday, killing one person and injuring at least six people, an official from the Civil Protection authority said.
Three Nato protesters planned Obama campaign HQ attack, prosecutors say | World news | guardian.co.uk Defence attorneys maintain men fell victim to police entrapment scheme involving purchase of Molotov cocktail equipment
NATO Summit 2012: Protesters Charged With Terror Conspiracy Three men arrested earlier this week when police raided a Chicago apartment were being held on terrorism conspiracy charges Saturday stemming from allegations that they tried to make Molotov cocktails ahead of the NATO summit
China linked to ‘economic espionage’ - FT.com

Germany isolated over euro crisis plan at G8 meeting in Camp David | World news | The Observer Barack Obama and David Cameron want German chancellor Angela Merkel to set out a clear path forward for Europe
Eschaton: Elites Taking To Elites: The New York Times tells us that the guy who doesn't much like the policies that aren't working and are destroying the country "Puts Europe on Edge." I imagine some Europeans have been on edge, and on the edge, for quite some time.
Alexis Tsipras, Greek Political Star, Puts Europe on Edge - NYTimes.com
Calculated Risk: Van Rompuy Statement: "Stay the course" in Europe, "Pro-growth agenda" in June

Rupert Murdoch denies claims that News Corp may sell UK newspapers | Media | guardian.co.uk Mogul says News Corporation is 'firmly committed' to its papers including the Sun, Times and Sunday Times

Exchange of the Day: USA Today interviews Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: Q. "But how do you find the energy to travel 750,000 miles?" A. "777 -- but who's counting?" (Hilz at work)

The Legal and Moral Irrelevance of Citizenship in the “War on Terror” - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Adam Serwer has an excellent piece about the House GOP stopping an important modification to the NDAA.
The 2002 political climate - Salon.com CNN's Connie Chung told US citizen Martina Navratilova to go back to Czechoslovakia rather than complain so much (remember when they were glued to Bush's dick?)

Koch Operative Steered $55 Million To Front Groups Airing Ads Against Democrats; Ads Assailed Candidates Over Abortion, 9/11, Medicare
The Deep Impact of Super PACs - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money conservative groups are outspending Democrats 4:1
AlterNet: 10 Frightening Things That Happen at Conservative Christian Schools That May Be Funded With Your Tax Dollars

Cameron Todd Willingham Exoneration Was Written But Never Filed By Texas Judge
Carlos DeLuna And Cameron Todd Willingham: The Sad Similarities

The National Review's fake plagiarism scoop - Elizabeth Warren - Salon.com After falsely accusing Elizabeth Warren of plagiarism, the conservative magazine apologizes (see, she had this time-machine ...)
Congressmen Seek To Lift Propaganda Ban An amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on American audiences is being inserted into the latest defense authorization bill, BuzzFeed has learned. (what they do anyway)
Scott Brown Fundraises Off Elizabeth Warren Heritage Claims
The lessons of Elizabeth Warren's 'Cherokee problem' | Harry J Enten | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Massachusetts' senatorial hopeful is embroiled in a doubtful claim of Native American ancestry. How much will it hurt her?
The 2012 Speculatron Weekly Roundup For May 18, 2012 But Bruning may have taken the Tea Party playacting a bit too far when he compared "welfare recipients to scavenging raccoons." And the Nebraska press went at Bruning pretty hard, running embarrassing stories and exposing baggage.
Joan Orie Melvin, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice, Charged With Campaign Corruption "I am a woman of faith," Orie Melvin said. "My faith will see me through this. And I will not resign because of these politically motivated charges." - Orie Melvin also used her state-paid telephone line to solicit support from hundreds of Republican committee members around the state, the report said.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Scenes From a Post-Racial America First up, Hawaii wants Arizona to know it is sick of their nonsense:
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Black metrosexual Abe Lincoln

JPMorgan unit has $100bn of risky bonds - FT.com
Political Animal - What Else Was the CIO Up To?
Quote of the Day "Unless you run a financial institution whose business model is built on cheating consumers, or making risky bets that could damage the whole economy, you have nothing to fear from Wall Street reform." -- President Obama, in his weekly address, calling for stricter reform after J.P. Morgan's multi-billion dollar loss.
Is GOP Trying to Sabotage the Economy? Associated Press: "Are Republican lawmakers deliberately stalling the economic recovery to hurt President Barack Obama's re-election chances? (traitors to America)
Win Some, Lose Some - NYTimes.com - Romney ... More and more, however, he has been coming out with statements suggesting that he is, in fact, a dangerous fool.

Hidden Epidemic: ?Tapeworms Living Inside People's Brains | Infectious Diseases | DISCOVER Magazine

Brooklyn DA sets up taskforce to tackle intimidation of Orthodox abuse victims | World news | guardian.co.uk Charles Hynes acts as critics accuse him of failing to protect victims and their families and of protecting rabbinical leaders (+Ed Koch being rational)
Psychiatrist who championed 'gay cure' admits he was wrong | World news | The Observer Dr Robert Spitzer apologises for 'fatally flawed' study, published in 2001, which claimed gay people could be 'cured' if properly motivated ... One of the most influential figures in modern psychiatry (o rly)
Shorter University's 'Personal Lifestyle Statement' Which Bans Gay Employees Leads To Faculty Exodus A Georgia college's controversial "personal lifestyle statement" which includes rejecting homosexuality has led to an exodus of faculty members.
Desmond Hatchett: Man With 30 Kids Requests Child-Support Break Desmond Hatchett has fathered 30 children -- which is believed to be the record in Knox county, according to the Los Angeles Times -- with 11 different women. His youngest children are toddlers and his oldest is 14. (busy baby-daddy)
Divorce Sale: Woman Holds 'X-Husband Sale,' Spray Paints His Truck (photos)
Jack Conkling, Kansas Teacher, Writes On Facebook That Being Gay Is 'The Same As Murder' Jack Conkling, a Prairie Hills Middle School social studies teacher and Buhler High School assistant women's basketball coach in Buhler, Kan., is under fire after equating being gay to being a murderer on his Facebook profile (way to go, Jack, you just made yourself famous on the internets for all eternity)

Electric car network gets first test in Israel - Yahoo! News To do this, Better Place has jettisoned the fixed battery. Instead, drivers can swap their depleted batteries for fully charged ones at a network of stations, receiving a full, 160-kilometer (100-mile) range in five minutes.
A field of galaxies, asteroid mining, Earthrise on the moon, and a rubber chicken called Camilla – in pictures | A month in space: April 2012 | Science | guardian.co.uk

A night at the vibrator museum - Sex - Salon.com Of course, this paroxysm was orgasm, but it was rarely acknowledged as such. Instead, it was said to be the exorcism of hysteria, a vague, catch-all diagnosis for female ailments thought to arise from a displaced uterus or, charmingly, a “wandering womb.”


051812
Syrian security forces set off Damascus bombs blamed on al-Qaida – defectors | World news | The Guardian Attacks were beyond our abilities, says rebel leader, as officers who fled describe regime plots before blasts
Chen Guangcheng's brother describes beating by officials | World news | guardian.co.uk Chen Guangfu says Chinese authorities tried to make him reveal how his sibling escaped from house arrest
IAEA chief returns to Iran for nuclear talks | World news | The Guardian Yukiya Amano of International Atomic Energy Agency to visit Tehran, raising hopes for resumption of nuclear weapons inquiry
Two Weeks Notice: A Latin American Politics Blog: Cubans and LASA

Apocalypse Fairly Soon - NYTimes.com - Paul Krugman
CountVonTroll comments on British prime minister David Cameron has called on eurozone leaders to either back the group's weaker economies or kick them out altogether.
Southern Europe fears summer of violence | World news | guardian.co.uk Authorities are warning that rage could tip over into serious unrest and are concerned at the knock-on effect on tourism
Plan to cut funding for Planned Parenthood returns to Ohio House | Ohio politics An ideological battle about abortion is being waged in the Ohio Statehouse as lawmakers consider a bill that would essentially take away federal family planning grants from Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio.
G8 summit: Obama to announce $3bn private funding for developing countries | World news | guardian.co.uk Aid agencies warn rich nations not to 'pawn off' $22bn promised to developing countries as leaders meet at Camp David

Timeline: How Obama Compares to Bush on Torture, Surveillance and Detention - ProPublica
'Reporter's Privilege' Under Fire From Obama Administration Amid Broader War On Leaks The Obama administration Friday morning continued its headlong attack on the right of reporters to protect their confidential sources in leak investigations.

Breaking News: Divided D.C. Circuit Panel Upholds Constitutionality of Voting Rights Act, Teeing Up Issue for Supreme Court | Election Law Blog
Matt Miller Celebrates the Stinking Corpse of Americans Elect | Beat the Press

watch: Paul Krugman Wonders If Boehner, Other Republicans Are 'Manchurian Candidates'
Eschaton: Wacky China (nothing like that would ever happen here ... Oh, wait)
How Romney's Allies Won the Class War - Politics - The Atlantic Wire income inequality is a good thing, and should be wider, so more people are encouraged to take big risks. The other is Romney's son Tagg, whose Solamere Capital private equity firm is very successful in part because he was able to pull so many investors from the donor list of his dad's 2008 campaign.
Mitt Romney’s claim that 100,000 auto jobs have been lost under Obama - The Washington Post Romney’s remarks make little sense. Not only is his claim of creating 100,000 jobs at Bain untenable, but also his assertion that 100,000 jobs have been lost in the auto industry “on the president’s watch” does not add up.
Biden Raps Romney Over Auto-Bailout Comment - Rodney Hawkins - NationalJournal.com "He said, quote, 'I'll take a lot of credit for the fact that the industry has come back,' ” Biden said jokingly, referring to an interview Romney gave to a local TV station earlier this month. "And by the way, I'll take a lot of credit for a man having landed on the moon, because all the while in school, I rooted for it." (heh)
Among the Past Presidents Karl Rove's American Crossroads group has fun with the fact that President Obama's staff altered biographies of previous presidents on the White House website.
The Chicago Cubs: No End to Perfidy? - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money
Balloon Juice » Time to resign, buddy The man in charge of running Arizona’s elections has gone to the birthers. Secretary of State Ken Bennett now says he’s not convinced Barack Obama was really born in the United States and so he is threatening to keep the president off the ballot in November. (Arizona "elections")
Advice to would-be Romney running mates: Run for the hills - Yahoo! News

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » “The Greatest Book Tour of All Time” — NOT Wonkette’s Josh Fruhlinger breaks the news to the blogsphere of “George W. Bush’s Alternate History Sci-Fi Book Where He Knows How To Run A Country“:

Inside J.P. Morgan's Blunder - WSJ.com CEO Dimon Blessed the Concept Behind Disastrous Trades; 'Blood in the Water' (that would be your blood, not theirs)
Hewlett-Packard to axe up to 30,000 jobs | Business | guardian.co.uk Computer and software company expected to cut 8% of workforce as consumers ditch bulky PCs in favour of tablets (Chainsaw Meg)
May 18 News: Vermont Becomes First U.S. State To Ban Fracking | ThinkProgress

Balloon Juice » Right Said TED Via the Last Word, here is the embargoed TED speech that pointed out the bullshit spewing from our Galtian overlords: (TED is very Republican/Ayn Randy)
Balloon Juice » a small point TED talks are the worst example of modern faux-intellectualism. Audience flattering, based on ego and personality, dripping with self-congratulation, they contribute to one of the great lies of our time, which is that the truth is entertaining and can be contained in bite-sized, ready-for-television aphorisms

Religious Congregations & Membership Study
Most And Least Religious Cities In America (PHOTOS) Of metropolitan areas with population greater than a million, the researchers found Salt Lake City to be the most religious city with close to 74 percent identifying as a religious adherent. The researchers found the greater area of Portland, OR-WA to be the least religious city with about 32 percent identifying as a religious adherent ... #8: Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH 56,765 religious adherents per 100,000 persons.

Plan to cut funding for Planned Parenthood returns to Ohio House | Ohio politics An ideological battle about abortion is being waged in the Ohio Statehouse as lawmakers consider a bill that would essentially take away federal family planning grants from Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio.

Trayvon Martin postmortem reveals traces of drugs in 17-year-old's system | World news | guardian.co.uk Florida teenager, who was shot dead by a neighbourhood watch leader, found to have traces of marijuana in blood and urine
Trayvon Martin Case: George Zimmerman Made Racist Remarks At Work (audio)

The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Whitey Sings the Blues Non-Hispanic whites accounted for 49.6 percent of all births in the 12-month period that ended last July
Graduation Speakers Fail by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly

Facebook IPO: Live Updates On FB's Big Day The record will show that Facebook stock ended its first day of trading at $38.23, a gain of 23 cents above its IPO price. What it won't show is the unbelievable effort by its underwriters to hold the stock price above the $38 level for a huge part of the day.
Facebook hit with $15 billion class action user tracking lawsuit | ZDNet Facebook is once again being sued for tracking its users even after they logout of the service. The latest class action lawsuit demands $15 billion from Facebook for violating federal wiretap laws.
Pirate Bay Ban Rockets Pirate Party Website Into The Big Time | TorrentFreak The court-ordered ISP blockade of The Pirate Bay immediately backfired earlier this month when it massively raised awareness and caused the site to receive millions of extra visitors

051712
Ratko Mladic war crimes trial plunged into confusion | World news | The Guardian Lawyers prosecuting Bosnian Serb commander failed to provide documents to defence, causing judge to announce delay

Austerity will send Greece to hell, warns Alexis Tsipras | World news | The Guardian Syriza leader's claims countered by Antonis Samaras, who says Greek government must not abandon reforms or quit euro
Eschaton: There Is Already A Crisis I keep reading about the potential magnitude of the 'crisis' if Greece leaves the Euro. There is already a crisis. 20%+ unemployment.


The NDAA's section 1021 coup d'etat foiled | Naomi Wolf | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk One brave judge is all that lay between us and a law that would have given the president power to detain US citizens indefinitely
Balloon Juice » Federal Judge Katherine Forrest to Milt Shook- You’re Clueless

Health care reform: GOP preps plan for ruling on law - politico.com

G.O.P. ‘Super PAC’ Weighs Hard-Line Attack on Obama - NYTimes.com - Timed to upend the Democratic National Convention in September, the plan would “do exactly what John McCain would not let us do,” the strategists wrote.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Full Tank Of Hatred, Little Discipline Left At least one billionaire conservative’s pet super-PAC is vowing to go into the depths of hatred, bigotry and racism that even the McCain campaign wouldn’t touch, and will do so in October as the presidential election season nears the home stretch - Joe Ricketts, the founder of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade
Thing Falls Apart - NYTimes.com
Balloon Juice » Out With a Whimper And the salty tears of Bloomberg’s dream slowly die: President Tom Friedman.
Koch Brothers, Republicans Join Forces To Close Technology Gap On Obama, Democrats
GOP Senate 2012 Hopes Rest On Insurgents The message for the GOP: Insurgents are back. (we've got your teaparty in your teaparty)

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Let’s Do the Time Warp Again And in other birther news, as the rotting corpse of Breitbart’s media empire continues on in the self-digestion phase, today some putrid cadaver gas leaked out into the body politic:

JPMorgan's Trading Loss Is Said to Rise at Least 50% - NYTimes.com The trading losses suffered by JPMorgan Chase have surged in recent days, surpassing the bank’s initial $2 billion estimate by at least $1 billion, according to people with knowledge of the losses. (or maybe more! nobody really knows! but one thing is for sure: they don't need no steenking regulation!)
JPMorgan's future losses at the mercy of an obscure index | Reuters It's the biggest parlor game on Wall Street: Estimating how large JPMorgan Chase & Co's (JPM.N) trading loss will be from a hedging strategy that went wrong.
JPMorgan Chase Chief Investment Office Played By Different Rules
Eschaton: What Happens When People Don't Have Any Money They want people to be poor and broke and suffering and still paying off their loans and buying their crap. I do not know how this is supposed to work.
Elizabeth Warren Expresses No Confidence in Current Bank Accountability Measures | FDL News Desk - Warren: I think that many people just weren’t aware that Jamie Dimon was advising the New York Federal Reserve. So part of this conversation is just having a lot of people say, “What?” More broadly, Jamie Dimon should resign, but it’s also time to look at the structure of the New York Fed.

Milestone for US as more than half of births come from minority groups | World news | guardian.co.uk US census figures show Hispanic families driving demographic change as white babies now account for 49.6% of total births

NYPD reveals stop-and-frisk changes as challenge goes ahead in New York court | World news | guardian.co.uk City council speaker Christine Quinn says better training and accountability are 'significant' but not enough to silence critics

Ultra-Orthodox Jews turn out by the hundreds for accused sex offender | World news | guardian.co.uk Tempers flare on street outside Brooklyn hall while inside the Satmar Hasidic sect raises money for Nechemya Weberman (Jews supporting child molesting) In which case, with the community feeling unfairly targeted by the media, perhaps a fundraising rally guaranteed to attract broad public interest might not have been the best strategy?

Texas Led Nation In Workplace Discrimination Complaints In 2011, EEOC Report Says 10 percent of all complaints filed there,
Balloon Juice » Bishoprics They’re after the nuns in Seattle: I await the latest E.J. Dionne apologia explaining why liberal Catholics need to submit to the leadership of these assholes.
Balloon Juice » PolitiFact Finds Another Way to Be as Useless as Teats on a Boar Don’t ever change, PolitiFact: You are the appendix of our political intestines.
Paul Cameron, Anti-Gay Pundit Who Claimed Obama May Be Gay, Admits Early Attraction To Men

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Coloring Outside the Lines TED won’t be showing the video of a talk by a billionaire who dared to say that taxing the rich is the right way to support the middle class, and that ordinary middle-class consumers are better job creators than billionaires (certain thoughts not thinkable at TED)

Facebook share price set at $38 | Technology | The Guardian Social network's landmark flotation has investors clamouring to buy, but some analysts issue warnings about IPO
Pinterest Funding: Social Network Raises $100 Million, WSJ Reports

051612
Bush Convicted of War Crimes in Absentia | Foreign Policy Journal - Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their legal advisers Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, Jay Bybee and John Yoo were tried in absentia in Malaysia.

Syria: UN monitors return to safety - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk Stranded observer team picked up after attack
Ratko Mladic's trial opens with a cut-throat gesture | World news | The Guardian The ex-Bosnian Serb commander faced the ghosts of Srebrenica and Sarajevo on the first day of his war crimes trial
Lady Gaga denied permit for Indonesia concert after religious protests | Music | guardian.co.uk Police refuse to license Jakarta gig, saying they are unable to guarantee singer's safety following protests

ECB Cuts Off Operations With Some Greek Banks
FT Alphaville » Greece: when the lights go out The desperate cunning scheme to get Greeks to pay property taxes by bundling them with electricity bills didn’t last long. You guessed it, people stopped paying their electricity bills and now it looks like the power company – which had to be bailed out last month – has stopped even trying to collect the levy.
Greece Teeters Ahead of New Vote - NYTimes.com An average of 4 billion euros, or $5.1 billion, has flowed out of Greece every month since 2009, when the European debt crisis first broke open.
Greeks withdraw €3bn in 10 days since election | World news | The Guardian Greece's savers making daily bank visits as analysts warn faster capital flight could push country out of euro before June's poll
The Washington Post Says That Critics of European Austerity Don't Say How Spending Would be Funded | Beat the Press (Fred Hiatt and Kaplan Test Prep make shit up)
Eschaton: Everybody's Fault But Mine One of the joys of the world economy is that Our Galtian Overlords get to blame everybody else for things going wrong. Still he's right about this: Governor King said that the most depressing thing about the crisis is that politicians keep treating the crisis as a liquidity problem, when the real crisis is about solvency. (wait, what?)
Eurozone debt crisis: the key charts you need to understand what's happening | News | guardian.co.uk Europe is in crisis - but what's going on? Which are the right key numbers to compare each country?

Rebekah Brooks defiant over charges relating to phone-hacking 'cover-up' | UK news | The Guardian Former News International CEO expressed anger that those close to her had been 'dragged into the affair' (bye-bye, Becky)
David Cameron, Rebekah Brooks and the hazards of political friendships | UK news | guardian.co.uk The ex-News International boss was on close terms with many politicians, but the PM was closest when the music stopped

My gay vote They want us to vote for them, but do they vote for us in Parliament? Below shows the amount of support we have received from each party on important LGBT issues.

Federal court enjoins NDAA - Salon.com An Obama-appointed judge rules its indefinite detention provisions likely violate the 1st and 5th Amendments
Chomsky on Obama - Salon.com Bush disappeared and tortured those the US disliked, while the Obama administration simply "murders them"
Obama’s new free speech threat - Salon.com An Executive order seeks to punish U.S. citizens even for "indirectly" obstructing dictatorial rule in Yemen
Obama’s Yemen EO Still Lets Our Spooks Pay the Targets of the EO | emptywheel

Hullabaloo - Crusade of a lifetime - Peterson has personally contributed at least $458 million to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation to cast Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and government spending as in a state of crisis, in desperate need of dramatic cuts. (they just hate poor people and want them to die)
Only one party’s to blame? Don’t tell the Sunday shows. - The Plum Line - The Washington Post Last month, Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein published an Op ed and a book making the extremely controversial argument that both parties aren’t equally to blame for what ails Washington (crickets)
How the Dream of Americans Elect Died - Esquire - the general hilarity attending the collapse of the hedge-fund play-pretty that was Americans Elect.
Ideas With No Non-Pundit Constituency Fail to Find Supporters - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Debt limit crisis looms as Boehner pushes Obama for more budget cuts | World news | guardian.co.uk Republican and Democrat leaders met with President Obama at the White House to discuss the potential debt limit increase (Rethugocracy)

Romney’s Budget Fairy Tale -- Daily Intel - an amalgamation of free-floating conservative rage and anxiety, completely untethered to any facts, as agreed upon by the relevant experts. (makin' shit up, as usual)
Mitt Romney Debt Speech Ignores Key Facts (or any facts at all)

American Crossroads GPS Announces $25 Million Advertising Campaign Against Obama
Justice Rejects Lawmakers’ Complaints on Probe of ‘Fast and Furious’ - Washington Wire - WSJ Deputy Attorney General James Cole on Tuesday called “unwarranted” a move by some lawmakers to begin contempt of Congress proceedings against Attorney General Eric Holder over the documents dispute.
Nebraska Election Results 2012: Deb Fischer Wins GOP Senate Primary (teaparty!)
Cory Booker, Chris Christie Channel Seinfeld (video)

NYPD stop-and-frisk lawsuit now class action in victory for civil rights groups | World news | guardian.co.uk Federal judge grants class action status to lawsuit alleging the NYPD's controversial programme amounts to racial profiling (how the elite govern)
The State Funding Problem by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly This is the real problem in public universities (which about 80 percent of American college students attend); they use tuition to compensate for declining state revenues. This is understandable, but it hurts students and doesn’t spur improvement in the institutions

JP Morgan crisis: Obama backs tougher Wall Street regulation | Business | guardian.co.uk US president says the crisis at JP Morgan clearly shows 'why Wall Street reform is so important' (three years too late, Barry)
JPMorgan Trading Loss: 3 Shareholder Suits Filed Alleging CEO Jamie Dimon Misrepresented Risk To Investors
Alan Simpson: Paul Krugman's Work 'Borders On Hysteria' (you so smart, Alan) )
Just how big can car-sharing get? - The Washington Post

Europe History Time Lapse Map Goes Viral (video)

Juvenile Offenders Sentenced To Life Can Face Harsher Treatment Than Adults: Report
Carlos De Luna Execution: Texas Put To Death An Innocent Man, Columbia University Team Says (someone call Junior)

Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox Jews rally behind accused in child abuse case | World news | guardian.co.uk Forthcoming trial of Nechemya Weberman reveals bitter divide in community over the reporting of abuse to secular authorities (Orthodoxim looking to be world's second-largest pedophile ring)

San Benito, Texas, Teacher Removed After Claiming She Is Married To God, Ranting About Impending Apocalypse - God's army would destroy the world on December 21, 2012, but that Jesus had another planet ready for them where everyone "was always 25 years old," and money doesn't exist.
Paul Rusconi, Malibu Artist, Cleared Of Allegations Of Raping His Twin Daughters (VIDEO) Six months later, a rape kit produced negative results and prosecutors were unconvinced by the allegations, so the artist got his daughters back (six months?)
7 Authors Who Almost Died « PWxyz

Brain implant allows paralysed woman to control a robot with her thoughts | Science | guardian.co.uk The BrainGate implant can decode a patient's brain signals and instruct a robotic arm to reach and grasp objects
Star City and the Baikonur Cosmodrome - In Focus - The Atlantic

Dark Knight Rises imperilled by Morgan Freeman's politics, claims Time Warner shareholder | Film | guardian.co.uk Conservative shareholder in media conglomerate demands there be no repeat of Freeman's anti-Tea Party remarks during publicity drive
November/December 2009- Eric Alterman You know the saying: “Jews earn like Episcopalians and vote like Puerto Ricans.” Essayist Milton Himmelfarb coined this witticism back in 1950 and Jews who embraced neoconservatism have been waiting for their brethren to start voting like Episcopalians—that is Republican—ever since.
d r i f t g l a s s: Stupid Shit Andrew Sullivan Says, Ctd.
Letters of Note: Ought women not to be abolished altogether?
Balloon Juice » The WaPo Is Shrill: "No matter how they dressed it up, the Republicans’ opposition boiled down to old-fashioned prejudice. Even by voting at 1 a.m., they couldn’t hide the fact that bigotry and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is alive and well in the state of Virginia" - I agree with every piece of this editorial, with one minor quibble. This isn’t “old-fashioned prejudice” or “old-fashioned bigotry,” this is the new-fashioned bigotry that the Christianist and Bircher right have normalized for us all.

Facebook IPO: analysts warn investors away as more shares hit the market | Technology | guardian.co.uk As early investors decide to cash out, some consultants warn first-day bubble will burst once the cultural spectacle wears off
FACEBOOK'S WORST NIGHTMARE: With GM Pulling Its Ads, Here's How The Other Dominoes May Fall - Business Insider
FORD: GM's Facebook Ads Don't Work Because GM Sucks -- Ours Work Fine - Business Insider
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Don’t Let the Door Hit You Where the Good Lord Split You I hope all of you are following the douche trail of tax evader Eduardo Saverin and enjoying it as much as me. As you may recall, this fuckstick decided to renounce his US citizenship and move to Singapore—land of the free, home of the cane—about the same time as the Facebook IPO so he would save $67 million in taxes.
New details reveal Steve Jobs involved in e-book lawsuit | Apple - CNET News - "Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see any other alternatives. Do you?" (well, yeah, you get the shit sued out of you)
Google Goes To Monthly Billing For Apps, Releases Drive

051512
Syria: UN monitors attacked - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk Video shows UN monitors under fire north of Hama
François Hollande sworn in as president in low-key ceremony | World news | guardian.co.uk France's first socialist leader in nearly 20 years attends ceremony at the Elysée Palace before flying to Berlin
Anders Breivik trial: man sets himself on fire outside court | World news | guardian.co.uk Man in hospital with serious injuries after setting himself ablaze outside Oslo courthouse
US tells Guatemala it will not return adopted girl | World news | guardian.co.uk Anyeli Hernandez Rodriguez was reportedly abducted from her biological mother and later adopted by a US couple

Greece calls new election after coalition talks fail | Reuters "The country is finished," said Panos Leonidas, 57, a travel agency employee. "From now on, you can only live here if you're an animal." (taking the "democracy" out of democracy)
Greece to hold fresh elections as coalition talks collapse | World news | guardian.co.uk New poll likely in mid-June as global financial markets dive amid fears Athens will run out of money before vote (why bother?)
Eurozone crisis: what if … Greece leaves the single currency | World news | The Guardian Collapsing banks, soaring inflation, but possible salvation – three experts give their view on what could await Greeks
German economy grows by a stronger-than-expected 0.5% - Europe - World - The Independent Exports helped the economy bounce back from a slight fall in output of 0.2% in the fourth quarter of last year, the government statistics agency said. (see the problem?)

Dominique Strauss-Kahn files $1m countersuit against New York maid | World news | guardian.co.uk Former head of the IMF said in court papers that the hotel maid's assault claim is a 'malicious and wanton false accusation' (said the little rutting chimpanzee)

Leveson inquiry: in search of a smoking gun | Ian Katz | Comment is free | The Guardian Lord Justice Leveson could soon discover why David Cameron failed to give Andy Coulson full security vetting
Rebekah Brooks: case against me is an expensive sideshow | UK news | guardian.co.uk Former NI chief executive and her husband attack decision to bring charges of conspiracy to obstruct the cause of justice

Barack Obama, the Great Deceiver « naked capitalism Those times of heady promise are now a cruel memory. Again and again, Obama has shown his true colors. It isn’t simply that Obama lied. Politicians lie. But there are norms for political lying. The depth and dependability of Obama’s misrepresentations constitute a difference in kind.
Where’s your Superman now? : Reclusive Leftist (2009, when Obama tossed women under the bus for no reason at all for perspective)

How Justice Souter Almost Left the Supreme Court in a Blaze of Glory - Politics - The Atlantic Wire

A 30,000-Foot View on the Presidential Race - NYTimes.com this week’s New York Times/CBS News poll, which show Mitt Romney with a slight lead over President Obama in the general election matchup
Americans Elect forced to abandon campaign to break two-party system | World news | guardian.co.uk Organisation announces no bi-partisan candidate was able to generate enough support to enter 2012 presidential election (need more "centrists")

NBC's Gregory Headlines Conference For GOP Ally Group | Media Matters for America (same thing)
The Right’s Righteous Frauds - NYTimes.com It recounts the loss of her virginity as a result of getting drunk and blacking out in the company of Levi, who pounced. What a gift that narrative is to Tripp, now being hauled into a TV reality show, “Bristol Palin: Life’s a Tripp,” already in production. Little children are known to thrive in such environments.
Jonah Goldberg and The Amazing Acme Twitter Machine | TBogg

Brewer signs bill to help debt collectors - Phoenix Business Journal Consumer attorneys and Democrats opposed the bill, worrying about the accuracy of credit card statements and fees. (AZ Rethugs don't need no "accuracy")
Michael Hudson: Paul Krugman’s Economic Blinders « naked capitalism

JP Morgan: justice department opens investigation into $2bn trading losses | Business | guardian.co.uk Chief executive Jamie Dimon sees off attempts by shareholders to strip him of his role as chairman – but pressure is mounting
Red Flags Said to Go Unheeded by Bosses at JPMorgan - NYTimes.com An increased appetite for such trades had the approval of the upper echelons of the bank, including Jamie Dimon, the chief executive, current and former employees said. (they just can't help themselves, and don't need no "regulation" either)
Make Banking Boring - NYTimes.com “Paul Volcker by his own admission has said he doesn’t understand capital markets,” Dimon has famously said. What Volcker understands is far more important: the behavior of bankers. Happily, the recent behavior of JPMorgan’s London traders could well cause regulators to put in place a Volcker Rule so tough that it would make banking boring again. One can only hope.
Why We Regulate - NYTimes.com But the truth is that we’ve just seen an object demonstration of why Wall Street does, in fact, need to be regulated. Thank you, Mr. Dimon.
Eschaton: The Dog That Isn't Barking What's truly strange is the fact that whatever happened at MF Global hasn't caused a giant shitstorm. Somebody stole customer money and handed it off to someone else. This, apparently, can happen anywhere. It's a total mystery why anyone might be a little hesitant to hand their money off to the gamblers.
End of the Affair? - NYTimes.com Investors are shunning the stock market, and who can blame them? As serial bubbles have burst, faith in the market has been rewarded with shattered retirements. At the same time, trust has been destroyed by scandals and — as demonstrated by the reckless trading at JPMorgan Chase — the slow, uncertain pace of financial reform.
“What Scares Me Isn’t $2 Billion Loss JP Morgan Made, What Scares Me is the Record $19 Billion in Profits” « naked capitalism
Michael Olenick: WhaleMu – JP Morgan’s Next Surprise? « naked capitalism the purpose of the Chief Investment Office — the London Whale — is to offset risk caused by the Washington Mutual loans:

Student Loans Weighing Down a Generation With Heavy Debt - NYTimes.com
Balloon Juice » from the left, too
Education pays ... Education pays in higher earnings and lower unemployment rates
Bachelor's degrees conferred by degree-granting institutions, by field of study: Selected years, 1970-71 through 2008-09

Scientists to test drug that may stop Alzheimer’s before it starts | StarTribune.com - A second study will test whether a nasal spray that sends insulin to the brain helps people with very early memory problems, based on separate research linking diabetes to an increased risk of Alzheimer's.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Open Thread: The Denialist Bubble Is Shrinking

051412
David Cameron set for tense meeting with business figures - UK Politics - UK - The Independent Defence Secretary Philip Hammond accused company bosses over the weekend of “whingeing” while Foreign Secretary William Hague said they should stop complaining on get on with the business of wealth creation (they keep "whingeing" that austerity is not working)
Eschaton: Revolt The business guys like sticking it to poor people, but then eventually no one can buy their crap and they haz a sad.
How Europe can force Greece to exit the euro | Felix Salmon


Hank Crumpton, Former CIA Officer: Clinton Wouldn't Authorize Osama Bin Laden Kill In 1999
How John Roberts Orchestrated Citizens United : The New Yorker How Chief Justice John Roberts orchestrated the Citizens United decision.
The Unecessary Radicalism of Citizens United Jeffrey Toobin's New Yorker piece has the details.
Citizens United: Another Trip to the Slaughterhouse : Lawyers, Guns & Money

Mitt Romney Bain Capital Record Targeted By Obama Campaign
ALEC Memo Instructed Members To 'Navigate Away' From Tough Questions
Arizona Ron Paul supporters boo Romney's son off stage
Scott Walker's Official Work Time? Declines As National Fame Grows

Prognosticate That! - NYTimes.com
Feelings - NYTimes.com

Obama: JPMorgan Disaster Shows 'Why Wall Street Reform Is So Important'
Peter S. Goodman: Elizabeth Warren Is Right: Jamie Dimon Needs To Resign From NY Fed
Noam Scheiber: Jamie Dimon Annihilates The Case Against Reform | The New Republic
Jamie Dimon’s $2 Billion Mistake: The JP Morgan Chase fiasco, and how to fix Wall Street. - Slate Magazine The JPMorgan Chase fiasco reveals the huge structural flaws that persist on Wall Street
Ina Drew, JPMorgan Chase CIO, Retires Amid Huge Trading Loss
State's swelling deficit will bring painful cuts. Where to start? - latimes.com Gov. Jerry Brown's announcement that the state's deficit has swelled to $16 billion (from a $9.2-billion estimate in January) means that a new array of budget cuts are likely. (well, obviously start with eliminating all edcuation and then get rid of roads)

This Is the Definitive Photograph of Planet Earth
Planet Earth » Zoomable Images

PostScript: E.J. Dionne’s refusal to quit the church - PostPartisan - The Washington Post
Balloon Juice Apparently, EJ Dionne’s piece about why he isn’t leaving the Catholic Church generated a huge feedback at Kaplan ... You belong to a criminal conspiracy of rapists and thieves and you are no more than a beard, interchangeable with any widget that likes incense and history and is willing to look the other way.
What Is Already Split Apart, No Man Need Abandon | Poison Your Mind | But the Official Narrative gives predominance to the Church hierarchy, which has by and large sold its birthright of serious moral teaching, thinking, and effort for the mess of pottage that is membership in the Republican Party.

051312
Taliban infiltration fears grow as 'rogue' Afghan police gun down British soldiers | World news | The Guardian Two servicemen killed while protecting meeting with Afghan officials at patrol base in Helmand province
U.S. May Scrap Costly Effort to Train Iraqi Police - NYTimes.com In the face of spiraling costs and Iraqi officials who say they never wanted it in the first place, the State Department has slashed — and may jettison entirely by the end of the year — a multibillion-dollar police training program that was to have been the centerpiece of a hugely expanded civilian mission here (multi-billion??? "50 advisors?" where do you think all that money went?)
Yemen says US drone strikes have killed 11 al-Qaida militants in two days | World news | guardian.co.uk ncreasing pace of US strikes against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula comes as US expert warns of anti-western sentiment (notice the reporting: "11 alleged al-Qaida militants")
Arsala Rahmani Killed: Afghan Peace Council Member, Assassinated In Kabul
Spain's indignados accuse police of violence | World news | The Guardian Protest co-ordinators say 20 people were injured at end of demonstration to mark movement's first anniversary
Mexican authorities find 49 mutilated bodies dumped on northern highway | World news | guardian.co.uk Zetas drug cartel takes responsibility for massacre, the latest in an escalating tally of mass killings near US border

Krugman: Eurodämmerung - NYTimes.com
Daily Kos: Krugman Goes Doomer! This is Going To Hurt.
Daily Kos: Austerity, bullies and broken spirits Social Darwinism is executed on the back of severe austerity measures like those seen across Europe and those sought by Romney and his party. It is the ultimate bullying tactic.

Hullabaloo - Colin Powell is still trying to cover up his crimes - He lied. There's no doubt about it. And he's going to spend the rest of his life trying to airbrush history. But it isn't going to work. This wasn't about a personal indiscretion or even a corrupt business deal. He knowingly lied that the country was in danger of being attacked by a foreign nation in order to justify an illegal invasion. That's a serious as it gets and Colin Powell's reputation won't recover. The internet never forgets.

Newsweek Celebrates Obama's Gay Marriage Endorsement On Next Cover (cute)
Fight Against Gay 'Conversion Therapy' Gathers Momentum The Southern Poverty Law Center and a Portland, Oregon law firm sent a complaint to two professional psychiatric associations in the state asking them to investigate the use of "conversion therapy" by a Portland psychiatrist.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road No one could have predicted: it’s possible that Americans Elect won’t nominate a single candidate - There is already a centrist party. It’s called the Democrats. What this country is missing is a left wing.
Eschaton: Did Tom Friedman Lead Me Astray? If I were Tom Friedman's editor I'd ask him to revisit his column on Americans Elect, right after I yanked the infinite expense account he doesn't need and could perhaps be spent on actual useful things. Or at the very least sentence him to a month of eating nothing but Issue Loops and Hot Soup.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » R-money at Failwell U: More Mush from the Wimp

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Warren to Dimon: Don’t Go Away Mad, Just GO She says the resignation of JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon would signal to Americans that “Wall Street bankers get it” and to “show that they understand the need for responsibility and accountability.”...
Huge New Shortfall Predicted in California Budget - NYTimes.com The state budget shortfall in California has increased dramatically in the last six months, forcing state officials to assemble a series of new spending cuts that are likely to mean further reductions to schools, health care and other social programs already battered by nearly five years of budget retrenchment, state officials announced on Saturday (Republicans destroyed the state)

Daily Kos: Title IX turns 40 the private Our Lady of Sorrows Academy, decided to forfeit the game rather than share a playing field with a female (the Virgin is weeping)
Hullabaloo Scouts have honor (and the Catholic Bishops are all going to hell for lying, among other sins)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer Signs Bill that Defunds Planned Parenthood; WTF Arizona?! (war on non-rich women escalates)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer Signs Legislation Permitting Employers to Interrogate Female Employees About Contraception Use


Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson To Step Down after Four Months: ATD - Yahoo CEO "resignation" means won't be fired for cause. Big difference in $ and legal liability (more blunders)

051212
London 2012: army to use 'sonic weapon' on Thames during Olympics | Sport | guardian.co.uk American-built 'long-range acoustic device', used by US military in Iraq, can produce deafening 150db levels at one metre
Greek president makes last-ditch attempt to forge unity government | World news | guardian.co.uk Leaders of three largest parties to meet with Karolos Papoulias on Sunday after each failed to form coalition
Islamist group al-Nusra Front claims responsibility for Damascus bombings | World news | guardian.co.uk Video posted online says twin car bombings that killed 55 people in Syrian capital were revenge for Assad regime's aggression
Dalai Lama fears Chinese poison plot | World news | guardian.co.uk Buddhist leader believes Chinese agents may have trained fake female followers to kill him when seeking blessings

British lawyer set $2m dollar bail over alleged tax dodge advice | World news | guardian.co.uk Michael Little, 61, accused of helping family of former Fidelity Investments executive Harry Seggerman hide $10m overseas
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Europe Debacle Is Full of Lessons, but Which Are True? Greece’s economy was exposed for the mess it is. The World Economic Forum ranks it as the 90th most competitive country in the world, between Lebanon and El Salvador (in a country the size of Louisiana and about as corrupt)

A Tiny Revolution: Colin Powell Gets Mad at Me (sorry, Colin, you will always be known as a liar and a fool)

Hullabaloo - Rainbow cover art (nice)

Romney defends marriage as 'enduring institution' between man and woman | World news | guardian.co.uk Romney reaffirms opposition to gay marriage during speech on faith, family and economy at Virginia's Liberty University
Mitt Romney Campaign Disavows Pro-Gay Rights Flyer From 2002
\ Neither Mitt Romney Nor the Boy He Bullied Would Be Allowed at Liberty University | Slog God wants them to vote for an "able" Mormon, rather than a "disabled" Muslim socialist. That's a real stretch, even for Bible-scrying.
THE WEEK IN GREED #6: To Behave Like The Fallen World - The Rumpus.net - In the spring of 1965, when Mitt Romney was a senior at an exclusive Michigan private school ...
Daily Kos: Lord of the Flies? In Abundance
Hullabaloo No redemption required - [T]he American public should not be surprised by this story, because Romney and his Republican party’s entire philosophy is straight out of Lord of The Flies (bullying is what they do)
Hullabaloo Ritual humiliation 101
Mitt’s Temperature — BagNews Mitt’s Temperature (angry fucker, isn't he?)
Hullabaloo QOTD:Rand Paul--- "Call me cynical, but I didn’t think his views on marriage could get any gayer." Rand is quite the bitch, isn't he?
NBC's David Gregory To Headline Conference For Major Republican Advocacy Group (dropping even the pretence)
Today in False Equivalence Democrats aren’t blameless, but their use of the filibuster pales in comparison to Republican abuse, which made 60 votes a de facto requirement for the passage of any legislation (way to wank, Manu Raju)

JPMorgan Trading Loss Suggests Little Has Changed Since The Financial Crisis
Dimon - Doesn't Know Whether JPMorgan Broke Law - NYTimes.com (too complicated for him to understand)
JP Morgan's $2bn losses reveal a less than comfortable position | Business | guardian.co.uk Jamie Dimon resorts to self-flagellation but cannot hide management failure over goings-on inside bank
SEC launches review after JP Morgan chief reveals $2bn trading loss | Business | guardian.co.uk Chief executive Jamie Dimon issues apology to stock analysts over company's 'embarrassing' errors and 'bad judgment'
Taibbi: Why You Should Care About JPMorgan Chase's Gambling Losses | Crooks and Liars - why you should care if some idiot trader (who apparently has been making $100 million a year at Chase, a company that has been the recipient of at least $390 billion in emergency Fed loans) loses $2 billion for Jamie Dimon (you read that right: $100 million/yr)
Eschaton: "Lobbying" In the various articles about the Chase's bad day at the dog track reporters explain that the reason we don't have a Volcker rule in place, and may not ever really have one, is because of "lobbying," sometimes even "fierce lobbying." (very fierce)

The Economics of Marginalization and Hopelessness - NYTimes.com teen births, which are much higher in America than in other advanced countries. The authors find evidence suggesting that inequality and lack of mobility are central, another sign that Wilkinson-type views about the corrosive effects of inequality are going seriously mainstream (America is a sick country and Republicans are the disease)
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Why Is the Teen Birth Rate so High in the U.S.? A teenage girl in Mississippi is four times more likely to give birth than a teenage girl in New Hampshire—and 15 times more likely to give birth as a teen compared to a teenage girl in Switzerland.
Puerile - NYTimes.com Apparently there are a number of people on the political right who have given up actually trying to refute what I say, and have turned to stupid pranks instead (Krugman Degrangement Syndrome)
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Everyone Should Learn Statistics

America’s Nastiest Blood Feud by Garry Wills | The New York Review of Books The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro - “perhaps the greatest blood feud of American politics in the twentieth century.” (LBJ and RFK: portrait of hatred +RFK's first job: staffer for Joe McCarthy!)

Top 10 Most Sinister PSYOPS Mission Patches | The Vigilant Citizen

How the ‘war on women’ quashed feminist stereotypes - The Washington Post
Hullabaloo The feminist makeover
Jacqueline Rose · A Rumbling of Things Unknown: Marilyn Monroe · LRB 26 April 2012

Big Changes in Black America? by Darryl Pinckney | The New York Review of Books Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? What It Means to Be Black Now

Rachel Held Evans | How to win a culture war and lose a generation When asked by The Barna Group what words or phrases best describe Christianity, the top response among Americans ages 16-29 was “antihomosexual.” For a staggering 91 percent of non-Christians, this was the first word that came to their mind when asked about the Christian faith. The same was true for 80 percent of young churchgoers. (The next most common negative images? : “judgmental,” “hypocritical,” and “too involved in politics.”)
Top GOP Pollster to GOP: Reverse On Gay Issues - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast (Republicans support Big Government everywhere else)
Phil Bryant, Mississippi Governor, Responds To North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue's Jab In the November 2004 general election, 86 percent of Mississippi voters approved an amendment banning same-sex marriage.
Sharia Law: Kansas Lawmakers Pass Ban "Clearly someone over there is trying to fluff up their conservative credentials," Rep. Mike Slattery (D-Mission) said ... The House on Thursday passed a resolution opposing U.N. Agenda 21, saying that the international sustainability guidelines is "trying to destroy the American way of life" through land-use planning that encourages bike paths, parks and reduced energy consumption

Bloomberg criticises Brooklyn DA over handling of Orthodox sex abuse cases | World news | guardian.co.uk New York mayor adds voice to growing criticism of Charles Hynes, who denies giving Orthodox rabbis special treatment ... Bloomberg "completely disagrees" with the decision by district attorney Charles Hynes not to hold to greater account powerful rabbinical leaders accused of helping cover up instances of abuse.
Political Animal - The scandal of sexual abuse in ultra-Orthodox communities — and how secular authorities enable same - , longtime Brooklyn D.A. Charles Hynes has acceded to demands from politically powerful ultra-Orthodox leaders that sexual abuse cases be covered up and that accused sexual predators in the ultra-Orthodox community be given special treatment.

Whooping Cough Epidemic Hits Washington State - NYTimes.com Whooping cough, or pertussis, a highly infectious respiratory disease once considered doomed by science, has struck Washington State this spring with a severity that health officials say could surpass the toll of any year since the 1940s, before a vaccine went into wide use (teabaggers dragging America back to the plague years)
Time's breastfeeding cover is pure front | Victoria Bekiempis | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Rather than challenging taboos, Time's shock tactics exploit society's existing shame and confusion about sex and maternity

Lonely Planet: Are You Safer In Mexico Or America? 2. Texans are twice as safe in Mexico and three times safer than in Houston.

The Return of the Baffler — Crooked Timber
Omniscient Gentlemen of The Atlantic | | Notebook | The Baffler - Observe now the degeneration of a magazine that once published Henry James and Mark Twain into an elaborate loss leader-cum-demand creation mechanism for an event-planning operation whose chief selling point is the promise that you’ll never read about it in the media, where certified Thought Leaders risk the loss of their health insurance for saying anything less than ultracanned and überphony. (LFJ +CIA)

Media Consolidation: The Illusion of Choice (Infographic) | Frugal Dad (6 corps control 90% of media)
Independence Hall Tea Party PAC Website Hacked, Vandalized Hackers managed to seize the reins of a Tea Party PAC's website this week, replacing existing material with a variety of offensive messages, before it appeared to be taken offline altogether ... after guessing the website's password, which was reportedly "p9ssw0rd."

051112
Cluster Bombs on the Head of a Saudi Pinpoint | emptywheel - a whole host of reasons why we should not trust the Saudis.
Eschaton: Allies Two of America's closest allies are Israel and Saudi Arabia, "close" to the point where it's not always clear how the policies adopted in conjunction with each of them advance US interests (something wrong with this picture, eh?)
Afghan commanders show new defiance in dealings with Americans - The Washington Post
Anders Behring Breivik Trial: Norway Killer Trial Interrupted By Unruly Spectator the brother of one of his 77 victims hurled a shoe at the confessed mass killer and yelled, "Go to hell," before being escorted from the court room

Eschaton: Fortunately There's A Policy For That When the figures first came out the standard line was that the building numbers in the UK would be revised upwards, so, you know, NOT TO FEAR. AUSTERITY IS WORKING.
U.K. Economic Slump May Be Deeper as Construction Revised - Businessweek Britain’s economy may have shrunk more than previously estimated in the first quarter after the statistics office reported a deeper slump in construction.
Eschaton: If Anyone Had Any Idea What They Were Doing They wouldn't be warning Spain about Teh Deficit as if it was something that existed in isolation, they'd be warning Spain about their ZOMG YOU HAVE TWENTY FUCKING FIVE PERCENT UNEMPLOYMENT. But, no, it's Teh Deficit. Keep destroying the economy until the confidence fairy makes it disappear somehow . The mechanism isn't exactly clear.
E.U. Issues Warning Over Spanish Deficit - NYTimes.com

Rebekah Brooks At Leveson Inquiry: Key Hacking Figure Reveals Extent Of Ties To UK Politicians (jail-time?)

Naming Those Killed in US Drone Strikes | The Dissenter When drone strikes kill people, rarely do news media bother to name those dead from the attack if they are not alleged by some official to be an al Qaeda leader. The others who are killed in addition to the al Qaeda leader that is believed to be dead are reported as “militants.” Any more information than that is unlikely.

For Obama, gay marriage stance borne of a long evolution - The Washington Post
Franklin Graham: Barack Obama Has 'Shaken His Fist' At God With Support For Same-Sex Marriage (said one of Satan's mouthpieces)

Mitt Romney, Completely and Utterly Imploding as a Human Being, Challenges Obama to Water-Ski Competition | Blogs | Vanity Fair (not an Onion article)
Mitt Romney Says Homosexuality Wasn't Discussed In 1960s; History Tells A Different Story
Mitt Romney Bullied LGBT Youth Commission As Governor
Washington Post Held Mitt Romney Bullying Story In Print Due To Obama Gay Marriage News
Jon Stewart Analyzes The Evolution Of Fox New's Gay Rights Coverage

ACLU Presses on With Challenge to US No-Fly List | The Dissenter (it's all a seecrit)
Rand Paul and the Gun Pointed at Obama's Head - Rand Paul Is in on the Con, Belongs in His Underwear - Esquire
Bev Perdue, North Carolina Governor, On Amendment 1 Passage: 'We Look Like Mississippi' (zing)
John Lewis Calls Out Paul Broun On Voting Rights Act Amendment (VIDEO) Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) introduced an amendment to cut all funding for enforcement of a part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 intended to prevent racial discrimination. The provision, Section 5, requires a number of states and counties, mostly in the South, to receive federal approval before changing their election laws.
Nebraska Woman Offers Graphic Homophobic Rant During Lincoln's Anti-Discrimination Law Hearings (VIDEO) And finally, she proclaims, "Jesus was kissed by Judas, a homo, who tried to sabotage Jesus' kind ideas. Do you choose Jesus, a celibate, or Judas, a homo? You have to choose!"
Scott Walker Describes 'Divide And Conquer' Strategy Against Public Unions In New Documentary (just doing what he said he'd do)

House Votes To Cut Census Survey Done Since Thomas Jefferson It’s generally considered a vital tool for business.
Robert Groves, Census Director, Hammers House For Cutting Major U.S. Survey The head of the U.S. Census Bureau hammered the House of Representatives on Friday for passing a bill that he said "devastates" the nation's ability to measure its economy and understand its people (Republican war on finding out about reality)
Rachel Maddow: Politifact 'A Zombie Eating Our National Brains' (video)
Jonah Goldberg’s desperation - Salon.com The National Review hack is a unique figure: Striving for seriousness, but too lazy to achieve it (Jonah "Linda Tripp" Goldberg: too stupid to know he's stupid)
The Most Boring Election Since 2000, Amirite? - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Glenn, as if wanting to provide ammunition for the least charitable interpretation of his earlier Paul-curiosity, recommends this silly Gush-Borism from Matt Taibbi (+Matt Stoller: "Romney's more liberal than ppl think.")
Political Animal - Dog Whistle Watch Mitt Romney will be the commecement speaker at Liberty University—a.k.a., the School That Jerry Falwell Built—in Lynchburg this weekend. It will be an excellent opportunity to assess the skills which Mitt and his speechwriters have acquired in the fine art of the Christian Right dog whistle.
MSNBC Host Kicks Washington Examiner Reporter Off Her Show (video) | TPM Livewire

Easy Useless Economics - NYTimes.com - All of this strongly suggests that we’re suffering not from the teething pains of some kind of structural transition that must gradually run its course but rather from an overall lack of sufficient demand — the kind of lack that could and should be cured quickly with government programs designed to boost spending.
AND NOW WE KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT WALL STREET: It's Kids Playing With Dynamite - Business Insider Wall Street banks simply cannot be trusted to manage the massive risks they are taking (they've learned nothing; Obama should have used tanks on them)
JP Morgan Loses $2 Billion in Massive Failed Effort to Exploit Volcker Rule Loophole (Dimon: "nyahh-nyahh-nayahh can't hear you")
Investors Prefer Obama Over Romney A new Bloomberg Global poll finds investors around the world increasingly prefer President Obama to Mitt Romney in the presidential election, 49% to 38%. In January, the two men were tied.
230,000 Unemployed Will Lose Benefits This Weekend | FDL News Desk (+scariest chart)

Balloon Juice » Another respected leader in the conservative movement Let me introduce you to celebrity sheriff and media personality Joe Arpaio
Balloon Juice » #StopRush: Rush Babes for America LOL Oink Limbaugh is a hot cup of fail drizzled in fail sauce. Honestly. He may be one of the most vile people on the planet.
Balloon Juice » You have to get paid
Balloon Juice » Worldwide Parody & Satire Industries Collapse - parody and satire futures were bludgeoned by the publication of an opinion piece by 21-year-old single mom Bristol Palin. The daughter of failed vice-presidential candidate and serial quitter Sarah Palin criticized the president for allowing his daughters to influence marriage equality policy, decried the persecution of conservative Christians and urged the president to direct his children since “dads should lead their family.”
Columnist Mocks Utah's Abortion Waiting Period: Why Not A 72-Hour Wait Before Having Sex? | ThinkProgress

Chill out man: climate change and the future of marijuana | Minda Berbeco
OR-7, Well-Traveled Oregon Wolf, Photographed In California
Brookhaven National Lab Solves Hydrogen Fuel Puzzle With Nanotech | TPM Idea Lab
Big Bang Machine Scientists Prepare For ‘Data Overload’ | TPM Idea Lab

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Corruption Everywhere the NY Times about the appalling behavior of some ultra Orthodox Jews (Chasids protect child molestors)
For Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Abuse Cases, a Prosecutor Uses Different Rules - NYTimes.com - ultra-Orthodox advocacy group was instructing adherent Jews that they could report allegations of child sexual abuse to district attorneys or the police only if a rabbi first determined that the suspicions were credible (where's the RICO suit?)

ThinkProgress: Catholic Bishops Engage In Witch-Hunt Against Girl Scouts: It will look into the Scouts’ “possible problematic relationships with other organizations’’ and various “problematic’’ program materials (very problematic)

Eduardo Saverin, Facebook Co-Founder, Drops U.S. Citizenship, May Sidestep Taxes On IPO Profits

051012
Syria suffers worst terror attack since start of uprising | World news | guardian.co.uk Government and opposition blame each other for twin suicide car bombings in Damascus that leave dozens dead
Syria Bombing: Dozens Killed In Twin Damascus Bomb Blasts
Nicolas Sarkozy, France Outgoing President, May Face Inquiries Into Funding Scandals - France's constitution says a president cannot be required to testify or be investigated or prosecuted until a month after leaving office, a privilege that will end in mid-June for Sarkozy
Chen Guangcheng says Chinese police taking revenge against family | World news | guardian.co.uk Activist claims police have detained sister-in-law and nephew in 'crazy retaliation' as he prepares to travel to US

More pain in Greece as unemployment hits record | Reuters Greece's jobless rate hit a new record in February, underlining the hardship that drove voters to reject an international bailout and plunge the country deeper into crisis in Sunday's election.

David Cameron 'spoke to Andy Coulson' about phone hacking before offering job | Media | guardian.co.uk Former News of the World editor told future PM he had no knowledge of phone hacking at the paper, Leveson inquiry hears
Andy Coulson, crucial cog in the machinery of power | Michael Wolff | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Andy Coulson seemed to baffle Leveson's inquisitor – proving his value once more to his media and political masters
Murdoch may have had 'selective amnesia' over Thatcher meeting | Media | guardian.co.uk Counsel for Leveson inquiry questions how News Corp chief could have forgotten lunch to discuss Times purchase

U.S. Military Taught Officers: Use 'Hiroshima' Tactics for 'Total War' on Islam | Danger Room | Wired.com - International laws protecting civilians in wartime are “no longer relevant,” (nuke Mecca!)

Paul Ryan Budget: House Passes Bill To Spare Defense, Cut Food Aid, Health Care
Romney Apologizes For Bullying In Prep School, Says He Didn't Know Victim Was Gay

JPMorgan Chase Admits Big Losses On 'Egregious' Credit Trades $2 billion on bad bets on credit derivatives, made by a London office, run by a man traders have alternately dubbed "The London Whale" and "Voldemort."

pandagon.net When asked by The Barna Group what words or phrases best describe Christianity, the top response among Americans ages 16-29 was “antihomosexual.” For a staggering 91 percent of non-Christians, this was the first word that came to their mind when asked about the Christian faith. The same was true for 80 percent of young churchgoers. (The next most common negative images? : “judgmental,” “hypocritical,” and “too involved in politics.”) (your brand has problems)
alicublog - Headline Says, "Obama Can't Swim (wingnuts: Obama is gay)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Glad To See I Didn’t Miss Anything Big Today
Democrats seeking re-election cautious about Obama gay marriage stance | World news | guardian.co.uk Those in president's party have so far been wary of alienating voters while Republicans paint the comments as a distraction
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Obama vs. Romney: How the Game is Played Then today—Thursday, a front-page article drops in The Washington Post about how Romney was a big ol’ gay-hating gay-basher. (he was the guy with the scissors +Mitt Romney is the uncanny valley of politicians)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Classic Physical Comedy In other words, Mr. Etch-A-Sketch here just got drawn all over by a giant Sharpie and the manic scrawl reads I AM A BIGOTED NUTJOB JUST LIKE THE REST OF THEM. Good luck with that pivot to “small government centrist” there, Mittastrophe.

Thomas Friedman Is An Enormous Mustache | The Partisan Report - YouTube

Game Over for the Climate - NYTimes.com If Canada proceeds, and we do nothing, it will be game over for the climate.
Solar Eclipse 2012: When And Where To See It Best

Jamie Lynne Grumet, Breastfeeding Mom On 'TIME Magazine' Cover, Illustrates Attachment Parenting a set of techniques popularized by Dr. William (Bill) Sears in "The Baby Book," (breast-feed your ten-year-old)
Maya Painting At Xultun, Guatemala: Glyphs Describe Mayan Calendar But Not End Of World
Mayan astronomical charts found in Guatemalan jungle are oldest known | Science | The Guardian Paintings of the Mayan king and astronomical hieroglyphs unearthed in a room buried under a collapsed building

Joe Arpaio Lawsuit: Justice Department Complaint Reveals Disturbing Allegations Jail employees frequently refer to Latinos as "wetbacks," "Mexican bitches," and "stupid Mexicans," according to the lawsuit. An email that included a photography of a Chihahua dressed in swimming gear with the caption "A Rare Photo of a Mexican Navy Seal" was widely distributed by sheriff's office supervisors.

Pressure mounts on Brooklyn DA over Orthodox sex abuse cases | World news | guardian.co.uk Victims' families urge Charles Hynes to release identities of Orthodox sex abusers and allay community fears (special treatment for "over 90" Chasidic child molesters)

Facebook-Instagram Deal Reportedly Probed By FTC

050912
FBI urges renewal of surveillance measures after foiled al-Qaida plot | World news | guardian.co.uk As details of underwear bomb emerge, Robert Mueller tells House committee al-Qaida is still intent on high-profile attacks (AQ invents invisible underwear; CIA shocked)
Pakistan's PM denies authorities knew Osama bin Laden was living in country | World news | The Guardian Global 'intelligence failure' to blame for al-Qaida leader going undetected for so long, says Yousaf Raza Gilani

Eurozone crisis live: Greece likely to hold new elections after second attempt to form government fails | Business | guardian.co.uk Leftist leader Tsipras announces failure of coalition talks
George Osborne's growth policy is turning British cities into Detroit UK | Simon Jenkins | Comment is free | The Guardian Britain's economy needs smart growth, not dumb policies that have delivered a double-dip recession ... Europe's collective response to the 2008 credit crunch ranks with the treaty of Versailles and German reparations among the great follies of history ... n Britain the only growth the Treasury has recognised so far has been to turn to the banks. It is like asking the mafia to promote honesty in local government.
Spain hopes for fourth time lucky with bank reform | Reuters Spain has owned up to the extent of its banking problem with a $10 billion euro (8 billion pounds) rescue plan for Bankia SA (BKIA.MC), the country's fourth-biggest lender that is saddled with a huge toxic property portfolio, but investors want more details to be convinced that the financial system is recovering (please slit your throat)

News Corp defends Rupert Murdoch as profits jump 47% | Media | guardian.co.uk Chief operating officer Chase Carey says he rejects notion that Murdoch is 'unfit' as News Corp announces quarterly results
Rupert Murdoch's big backer sounds News Corp warning | Media | The Guardian News Corporation's second-biggest shareholder says phone-hacking scandal is damaging company's name
David Cameron texted Rebekah Brooks before she quit NI, claims biography | Media | The Guardian Prime minister texted Brooks in the week she quit over the phone-hacking scandal to tell her to keep her head up (Murdock was the real PM; the untold story)

Colin Powell's New Book: War With Iraq Never Debated (Cheney was the Decider)

Hullabaloo: Evolution revolution: So president Obama finally admitted what we all pretty much assumed which is that he is in favor of same-sex marriage ... But until all 31 state constitutional amendments are either repealed or the Supreme Court declares them unconstitutional, we'll be living in a nation in which some marriages are legal in some places and illegal in others
Barack Obama speaks out and declares support for same-sex marriage | World news | guardian.co.uk President speaks about issue in deeply personal terms, and affirms his unequivocal support for same-sex couples to marry
Obama Backs Gay Marriage
Gay rights in the US, state by state | World news | guardian.co.uk (pretty much the old slavery divide)
Shep Smith: President Obama 'Now In The 21st Century' On Gay Marriage (the irony)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » The Dumbest Spin on Obama’s Marriage Equality Stance?
A Change Is Gonna Come, Sam Cooke, 1963 - YouTube

Tea Party lauds Richard Lugar defeat as Congress gets set for more deadlock | World news | guardian.co.uk Six-term Indiana senator Lugar, who often backed bipartisan compromises, beaten by Tea Party favourite Richard Mourdock
Hullabaloo: The moderate shuffle: The right has made a strategic decision to govern their caucus from as far right as possible in order to move move that center toward them. (Lugar was no moderate)
Political Animal - The Slow But Very Steady Demise of Republican Moderates (the Party of the Lie becomes ever more extreme)
Hullabaloo It wasn't the Tea Party, Part II
Bats Left/Throws Right: Let The Pre-Postmortemizing Begin! NOTHING is ever going to change my perception of Dick Lugar. As long as I live he's the man who--five years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and four years after the Voting Rights Act--spearheaded his party's (successful) efforts to re-disenfranchise African-American voters in Indianapolis, by moving the city's boundaries to accommodate White Flight and Republican majorities
Bank Lobbyists Coordinated "Tea Party" Challenge To Senator Lugar To Punish Him For Voting Against Wall Street (we wouldn't be having this problem if Obama had used tanks on Wall St)
Is This the Most Boring Election Ever? | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone Then there's one more thing – Obama versus Romney is the worst reality show on TV since the Tila Tequila days. The characters are terrible, there's no suspense, and the biggest thing is, it lacks both spontaneity and a gross-out factor

Balloon Juice » That long black cloud is coming down (Republicans destroy America by making it ungovernable +Obama wasted three years in some kind of delusion and may double down next term)(and this comment: Up to this point, as Turtleface McConnell helpfully pointed out, the main point to gooper intransigence was to fuck things up and blame Obama for it. After Rmoney gets his positronic ass handed to him in November, they’ll have to move to plan B: refuse to do anything at all so that Obama will have to do an end run around Congress just to keep the lights on, and then Congress can go nuclear and start impeachment proceedings for usurping legislative power.)

Hullabaloo - It all started with that bitch Eve - And the favorite pastor of right wingers everywhere, Jesse Lee Patterson, is one who's not afraid to do it: At roughly 8:30 into his 12-minute sermon, he doubles down, amazingly, saying that he believes America went wrong when it gave women the right to vote (better vote, girls, it might be your last chance)
Hullabaloo The problem with "states' rights" Part 745, North Carolina edition - So the "traditionalists" won another one. North Carolina's Amendment One was approved overwhelmingly by the people.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Amendment One North Carolina has a proud history of intolerance about marriage. The amendment banning marriage between races (via) stood for almost 100 years after its enactment in 1875.
Hullabaloo Imagine a world in which politicians dictate to doctors that they must lie to their patients: Actually you don't have to. The Kansas House of representative passed this law today:

Bad Credit - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - 05/08/12 - Video Clip | Comedy Central Instead of having to find reasons to criticize President Obama for things he's done right, Mitt Romney finds ways to claim those achievements as his own.

Occupational Hazards - NYTimes.com More on the structural unemployment thing. As Mike Konczal points out, there’s something clearly obsessive about the desire to tell a structural story. It’s not just that people keep coming up with new arguments after each successive argument is shot down by the data; it’s the fact that it’s the same people who keep coming up with new arguments, strongly suggesting that they really want to believe it’s structural, and won’t take no for an answer.
Eschaton: Other People Suck The desire to make up a "structural" story is simply about telling the moochers and the parasites that it's their own damn fault. They failed to adapt to the needs of the economy, and they should suck it up and pick through garbage for food. Also, too, tax cuts for jaayyyyyaaabbb creaaayyyyturrrzzz.
David Brooks Structural Revolution Column - Our Mr. Brooks Is Movin' on Up (with Cyclicalists!) - Esquire

New Estimate Sees Rise in Medical Costs in Retirement - NYTimes.com A 65-year-old couple retiring this year without any employer-based health coverage would need an estimated $240,000 to cover medical costs through retirement, according to Fidelity’s latest estimate. That’s a 4 percent increase from last year’s figure.
Eschaton: The COLA Fix Scam Just the occasional reminder that "inflation on stuff old people buy" is not the same as "inflation on stuff the rest of us buy" and "fixing" the COLA by cutting it is dishonest.
Quote of the Day: The Rich Should Favor Stimulus | Mother Jones (but they don't because 1) they aren't that smart and 2) love being assholes)

Hullabaloo: A large problem: In 2030, 42 percent of American adults will be obese, and about one-quarter of that group will be severely obese, a condition that shortens life and incurs large medical expenses, a new study predicts - So predictably, Republicans are engaging in character assassination of the First Lady for doing even mildly innocuous things to address the issues. (obesity just passed smoking as #1 health problem in America)
ACS Releases Position Statement on Safety of Raw Milk Cheese and Responds to CDC Study on Raw Dairy Products

Old Texas Tale Retold - Farmer vs. TransCanada - NYTimes.com Then, it said, “if Keystone is unable to successfully negotiate the voluntary acquisition of the necessary easements, it will have to resort to the exercise of its statutory right of eminent domain.” “In other words,” Ms. Crawford said, “sign or we’ll take it.” (Texas: State of Freedom except when it comes to big oil)

Right-Wing Sites Wrong About White House Registering Fetuses For Tours | Media Matters for America So, no, the White House does not require pregnant visitors to register their fetuses as people for security purposes (latest from the insanosphere)
Oedipus, Schmedipus | TBogg (Ann Althouse's unconscious)
Rightbloggers Continue Slow Progress Through Dreams from My Father, Are Up to Part about "Composites" - New York News - Runnin' Scared

New York civil rights group challenges NYPD over stop-and-frisk numbers | World news | guardian.co.uk City says controversial tactic has kept guns off the streets, but NYCLU argues black and Latino residents are unfairly targeted

George W. Bush Requests More Taxpayer Dollars Than Any Other Former President
Rush Limbaugh Ad Boycott Cost Cumulus Radio 'Millions,' CEO Says Lew Dickey, the CEO of Cumulus

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Strange Bedfellows look no further than this post by Nick Gillespie, pater familias at Reason, in which he defends Naomi Schaefer Riley, the racetroll and budding conservative star.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » A Simple Observation on a Vitally Important Issue It seems that a lot of people agree with Freddie that Naomi Schaefer Riley is a bad, bad journalist. But what about her employers? (lookin' at you, Liz +Kevin Drum can’t see beyond the bezels of his MacBook)
Stunning episode...for the Chronicle of Higher Education | Facebook
The Pundit vs. the Professor: A Debate About Tenure — Higher education | The Texas Tribune (background from 2011: NSR hates tenure)

050812
US attack kills 5 Afghan kids - Salon.com The way in which the U.S. media ignores such events speaks volumes about how we perceive them
In surprise move, Netanyahu, Mofaz agree to form unity government, cancel early elections - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News PM, opposition leader reach dramatic late-night agreement to form national unity government, in which Kadima head Mofaz expected to be appointed deputy prime minister (avoiding the whole pretence at democracy thing)

Eschaton: The Beatings Will Continue Perhaps they are just getting the results that they want.
U.K. Unemployment Will Rise Until 2016 on Fiscal Cuts, CEBR Says - Bloomberg U.K. unemployment will rise over the next five years almost everywhere in the country as the deepest government spending squeeze since World War II bites, the Centre for Economic and Business Research said ... “Five more years of pain are expected for much of the U.K.,” (the path they chose)
David Brooks' Parallel Universe | Beat the Press Just in case you thought that the failure of austerity in the United Kingdom and across the euro zone, and its rejection by voters in France and Greece, might be cause for changing course, David Brooks has a column to tell us otherwise (none of the Times columnists apparently read Krugman, preferring to live in their own tiny brains; Bobo: not an econmomist)
Surreal estate: David Brooks moves from Bethesda to Cleveland Park - The Reliable Source - The Washington Post (how your betters live)


The American character - Salon.com Fareed Zakaria warns the war on terror will never end. Obama and Romney still won't debate our surveillance state

Oops! Air Force Drones Can Now (Accidentally) Spy on You | Danger Room | Wired.com

John Conyers: GOP's Violence Against Women Act Is A 'Flat-Out Attack On Women'
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Kansas GOP Wants to Tax Women for Abortion and Lie to Them; Bill Passes the House
Medical Marijuana: Obama's War On Pot Ramps Up In Colorado, Key Swing State

Paul Krugman: How Bad Things Are excerpted from "End This Depression Now!"
Mitt Romney: 'I'll Take A Lot Of Credit' For Auto Industry Recovery (of course you will)
Eschaton: Collect The Fees Then Run Away
Bad Neighbor Banks: Homes toxic for neighbors, good for lenders - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com Banks that made reckless home loans have been tiptoeing away from foreclosures in a tactic designed to cut their losses. The result: Orphaned, dilapidated homes dot the landscape
Student Loan Vote: Republicans Block Bill To Extend Low Interest Rates
Marijuana Growers Move to the Suburbs - NYTimes.com

'Alien Abduction' Research Suggests Episodes Are Actually Lucid Dreams (that's a relief)

North Carolina Amendment One Will Probably Pass Because Everyone Is Really Confused About It What North Carolinians stand to lose on Tuesday expands those restrictions to outlaw civil unions and domestic partnerships.
Terrance Huff Files Lawsuit Against Illinois Police Officer Michael Reichert Over 'Trekkie Traffic Stop' Just one in four drug dog "alerts" resulted in police finding a measurable quantity of illegal drugs ... Collinsville police officer Michael Reichert (hope you lose your job, asshole; and Collinsville: good luck avoiding bankruptcy)
Kelly Thomas Beating Video: Fullerton Homeless Man's Beating Revealed At Pre-Trial Hearing

John Travolta Lawsuit: Second Masseur Files Sexual Battery And Harassment Suit Against Actor (also told the masseur that he "got where he is now due to sexual favors he had performed when he was in his 'Welcome Back, Kotter' days," and that "Hollywood is controlled by homosexual Jewish men who expect favors in return for sexual activity,")
Shanae Hall: Coming to Grips With Not Being in Love With Your Spouse Anymore
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » a star is born the Chronicle has fired the blogger who wrote such an empty, cruel attack on three unsuspecting grad students, and through them, their entire discipline (NSK will get faux news gig)

050712
Al Qaeda Bomb Plot Against US-Bound Jet Reportedly Foiled The new bomb was also designed to be used in a passenger's underwear, but this time al-Qaida developed a more refined detonation system, U.S. officials said.

Those Revolting Europeans - NYTimes.com The French are revolting. The Greeks, too. And it’s about time ... Europe’s voters, it turns out, are wiser than the Continent’s best and brightest.
Spain to announce clean-up plan for Bankia: sources | Reuters as part of a wider reform of the deeply troubled banking sector, whose woes threaten Spain's financial stability and the euro zone as a whole, sources said on Monday.
Cameron's 'big society' undermined by cuts and distrust, says study | Society | The Guardian Prime minister's flagship project losing initial goodwill as community groups suffer funding 'body blow', finds report
What Everybody Is Getting Wrong About Francois Hollande, The Next President Of France - Business Insider
Economist's View: The IMF on "Fiscal Sustainability and Market Confidence" Never mind the evidence that austerity doesn't work -- it goes on to explain how other countries can use austerity to summon the confidence fairy for themselves.

Obama Gay Marriage Stance Presents Early Character Test For 2012 Election
John Boehner's Defense Of DOMA Now A Rallying Point For Democrats
Crossroads GPS Argues Ads Attacking Candidates Aren't Political (video)
Paul LePage, Maine Governor, Tells Unemployed Americans To 'Get Off The Couch' And Get A Job

Look Who’s Pushing Homeowners Off the Foreclosure Cliff - Bloomberg Now it turns out some lenders haven’t merely been unhelpful; their actions have pushed some borrowers over the foreclosure cliff.
JPMorgan Chase Whistleblower: 'Essentially Suicide' To Stand Up To Bank When Linda Almonte alerted her boss at JPMorgan Chase about potential fraud in a major deal she was helping to close, she expected him to applaud her great catch.


The Washington Post Is In Even Worse Shape Than You Think - Forbes - The unit lost $22.6 million in the quarter, with revenue down 8% and revenue from print advertising specifically falling 17%.
No Room to Punt for Minn. On Vikings Stadium - NYTimes.com Minnesota House Speaker Kurt Zellers could have been speaking for many of his fellow lawmakers when he struggled to describe his position on a $1 billion Vikings stadium bill before a vote that could be critical to the team's future in the state ... "I've got folks that I know are active in the tea party that have said, you know, I'm going to suspend my rational thought right now, Chris," (shouldn't be that hard for them)
The Barnes: A ravishing building, but cut off from the city (more stupid)

Oprah Winfrey Network Losses Approach $330 Million: Report While Oprah does not have a personal financial stake in the company, it is still undoubtedly a black eye for her (always use other people's money)
A Note to Readers - Brainstorm - The Chronicle of Higher Education We now agree that Ms. Riley’s blog posting did not meet The Chronicle’s basic editorial standards for reporting and fairness in opinion articles. As a result, we have asked Ms. Riley to leave the Brainstorm blog (fire yourself, Liz)

Augusten Burroughs on How to Live Unhappily Ever After - WSJ.com Augusten Burroughs on the upside of being downbeat, and embracing loss and anger
Buying Guide: Finding The Best Mattress Pad For Your Bedroom

Here's Why Google and Facebook Might Completely Disappear in the Next 5 Years - Forbes

050612
Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD)
Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Fact Sheet: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

050512
Cairo clashes leave hundreds injured | World news | guardian.co.uk Violence escalates after death of soldier during protests outside defence ministry in runup to presidential elections
Iran Elections 2012: Ahmadinejad Routed By Rivals conservative rivals consolidating their hold on the legislative body in a runoff vote. (I'm a dinner jacket didn't do so well)
Sahar Gul, Afghanistan Child Bride, In-Laws Sentenced For Torture (and we'll be there forever)
Bodies hung from bridge as 23 more die in Mexico drug war | World news | guardian.co.uk Human heads dumped at Nuevo Laredo city hall as part of gruesome display of power by warring cartel (Obama's war on drugz)
Mexico journalists tortured and killed by drug cartels | World news | The Guardian Bodies of latest victims are pulled from a Veracruz canal as gangs intensify their campaign of terror against press
Japan shuts down last working nuclear reactor | World news | guardian.co.uk All 50 reactors now closed for maintenance after 2011 tsunami but government faces major public opposition to reactivation
French presidential elections: Hollande clings on to slim lead over Sarkozy | World news | guardian.co.uk Nicolas Sarkozy faces stiff challenge to defeat Socialist rival in Sunday's election despite latest polls showing lead narrowing
Israel officer reassigned after striking activist | World news | The Guardian An Israeli military official says an officer who was punished for hitting a pro-Palestinian activist last month has been reassigned to a training school (that will send a message, won't it?)

Nobody Could Have Predicted - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Another accusation of sexual assault against the unluckiest man in France is being investigated: (rutting chimpanzee was rutting all over the place)

The Padilla v. Yoo Decision Will Not Put Chong’s Claim Up in Smoke | Firedoglake

Hullabaloo - Kent State: How can you run when you know? (Obama's DOJ: it's all "inconclusive")

US should return stolen land to Indian tribes, says United Nations | World news | guardian.co.uk UN's correspondent on indigenous peoples urges government to act to combat 'racial discrimination' felt by Native Americans (go back to Europe)

9/11 suspects refuse to answer judge's questions as Guantánamo trial opens | World news | The Observer Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others appear before military court facing 2,976 charges of murder over 9/11 terror attacks

If Obama wins, what would he do in a second term? - The Washington Post the first year of a second term — and perhaps even more than that — would be “fiscal.” That is to say, it would be devoted to budget and tax issues (i.e. kill Social Security, give tax-cuts to rich Republicans as a reward)
Voter registration down among Hispanics, blacks - The Washington Post The number of black and Hispanic registered voters has fallen sharply since 2008, posing a serious challenge to the Obama campaign in an election that could turn on the participation of minority voters (Obama's winning strategy: dance with Repubicans and alienate his base)
The Maddow Blog - Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XVI 1. In a speech in Ohio, Romney referred to the Bush/Cheney era as "before the recession." (and that's just #1)
Quote of the Day "I think if you look all across the country, the so-called Blue Dogs are all gone to kennel. There are no more Blue Dogs, they're called Republicans." -- Rep. Tim Griffin (R-AR) (they always were)
Mormons Brace for Scrutiny he Mormon church is worried about the spotlight coming as the presidential election gears up (just show us your magical underwear, that will do it)
Nuking Pete Stark - politico.com - What’s notable here is that the paper’s liberal ed board is torching a reliably liberal congressman – and that’s what makes the criticism so piercing.
Richard Mourdock Target Of Retired Indiana Cop's Pay-To-Play Probe Request Mourdock seeking a hedge fund of funds manager for the Indiana State Police Pension Fund around the time he was holding a Manhattan fundraiser with representatives of the finance industry.

Grand Bargain: They're Coming For Our Social Security Again | Crooks and Liars The signs are everywhere, and it won't really depend on which party wins, now that Nancy Pelosi's drinking the Catfood Commissioners' Kool-Aid: They're going after their Grand Bargain

The incredible shrinking labor force - The Washington Post If the same percentage of adults were in the workforce today as when Barack Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 11.1 percent. If the percentage was where it was when George W. Bush took office, the unemployment rate would be 13.1 percent (Obama's plan: make you give up looking for work; problem solved!)
The 86 million invisible unemployed - May. 3, 2012 (by age)
An interview with Paul Krugman - The Washington Post
Hullabaloo Krugman and Spitzer: a conversation your apolitical relatives need to hear ... what Spitzer called the greatest controlled macro-economic experiment in the history of the world: Europe's austerity program.
Job Numbers Friday: Looking to the Secondary Measures | Next New Deal
Explaining A Troubling Figure In The Jobs Report | TPMDC - Labor Force Participation Is Lower Than It Has Been In 30 Years — Why It Matters And Why It Doesn’t
Ex-Im Bank's Future Caught Up In Congressional Fight
Warren Buffett urges 'shared sacrifice' as he defends tax plan to investors | Business | guardian.co.uk
Wall Street Escort Wishes She Could Tell Clients: "You're Really Small And You're Bad In Bed" “They have big egos and are big babies. If I make any sign that they're not the best lover, or that their dick wasn't the biggest dick I've ever seen, they start asking all these questions and putting me down.” (the Street of Big Swinging Dicks)

350.org - connecting the dots in climate change
350 | Find An Event
Climate Impacts Day: 350.org Campaign Connects The Dots Between Extreme Weather And Climate Change
Group pulls plug on billboard linking global warming believers to terrorists - The Washington Post Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), scheduled to headline the Heartland Institute’s annual conclave of climate-change skeptics this month, said through a spokeswoman that he “will not participate in the upcoming climate-change conference if the Heartland Institute decides to continue this ad campaign.” (just a little too extreme)

Why Is the Chronicle of Higher Education Publishing A Racist Hack? - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Shorter Naomi Schaefer Riley: African American studies is such a worthless field you can tell the research is useless just by reading dissertation titles (hope you enjoyed the attention, Naomi)

Tennessee Passes Abstinence-Based "Gateway Sexual Activity" Bill | NewsFeed | Time.com (Republican war on hugging)
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer Signs Planned Parenthood Funding Ban to cut off Planned Parenthood's access to taxpayer money funneled through the state for non-abortion services (like breast-cancer screening: AZ's war on women)
Open Up Your Legs and Let the Government In - Lawyers, Guns & Money (Kate Beckinsale: Republicans in your vagina)
Medical Marijuana Bill Passed By Connecticut Senate (Coakley blocks it in MA)

David Barton says things that are not true (+CNN is pathetic)
What Real Historians Think of David Barton : Dispatches from the Creation Wars
TBN Fight Offers Glimpse Inside Lavish TV Ministry - NYTimes.com (Properity Gospel: well, they sure prospered: grifters gotta grift)

Jedi religion belongs in the star systems of George Lucas's mind | Matthew Cresswell | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk It may be Star Wars day (May the fourth be with you), but how seriously should we take the growing church of Jediism?

050412
US expects China to allow dissident Chen Guangcheng to travel abroad | World news | The Guardian Officials say Beijing has indicated it will push through activist's application to leave China after offer of study from US university
Syrian forces executing and burning residents of Idlib, Amnesty says | World news | guardian.co.uk Report gathers harrowing testimony of victims and families caught in purge of northern city by regime troops and loyalists
Four Mexican journalists murdered in last week | World news | guardian.co.uk Two press photographers found dead in a canal in the port city of Veracruz alongside a former cameraman and his girlfriend

David Cameron apologises for local election losses | Politics | guardian.co.uk Conservatives and Liberal Democrats lose hundreds of seats while Labour makes big gains amid ongoing economic suffering (Milibrand apologizes)
London mayor and local election results - live coverage | Politics | guardian.co.uk I asked the Swedish finance minister the other day how they made nationalised banks lend. He said to me: "It's simple. We own them, we tell them what to do and if the directors don't, we sack them and get people who can." That's what me must do (in America, the banks sack you)
Eschaton: People Think We're Sucking A Bit Less!!! After doing well in local elections, this is what the Labour leader comes up with: A cautiously optimistic Ed Miliband said: "We are a party winning back people's trust, regaining ground, but there is more work to do." Remind people that they don't like you and suggest they still don't like you very much. Winning!!! (sounds like you-know-who)
Hollande Hysteria - NYTimes.com I guess I should be flattered that Joffe considers the great debate to be between austerity hawks and … me. But he says that it’s a “tired” debate — because debating how to fight mass unemployment just gets boring, you know? (Krgthu is pretty funny; your elites are too dumb to know what they are doing +"The Economist" sucks)

Government applies for advance access to Leveson written inquiry evidence | Media | guardian.co.uk Move could give David Cameron and other ministers chance to read statements from Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: former military prosecutor denounces trial | World news | guardian.co.uk Morris Davis says allowing evidence from torture means the world will never see Guantanamo Bay trials as fair

Three-Judge Panel Lifts Republican Judge's Stay Of Texas Planned Parenthood Decision | ThinkProgress (ping, pong, ping)

Today In the War on Women - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money The Republican effort to limit abortions to the affluent continues:
House GOP Would Let Domestic Abusers Know Their Victims Called For Help | ThinkProgress
GOP's Violence Against Women Act Would Open Up Undocumented Victims To More Abuse would dramatically rollback confidentiality protections for abused immigrant women, make it more difficult for undocumented witnesses to work with law enforcement officials, and eliminate a pathway to citizenship for witnesses who cooperate with police on criminal cases.

NYPD facing court challenge over controversial stop-and-frisk tactics | World news | guardian.co.uk Federal lawsuit passes key legal hurdles and looks set to throw focus on NYPD policy that critics say amounts to racial profiling (Bloomberg's little police-state)

Colin Powell Says Iraq ‘Blot’ Teaches Need for Skepticism - Bloomberg (go home, Colin, you have zero credibility)
Daily Kos: Colin Powell is so sad he can't erase 'blot' on his reputation ... knowing what we know now about the health of Reagan's brain, Powell's continuing view that he was being mentored by a squirrel-gazing president is as ludicrous as the rest of his tales about what put that unerasable blot on his reputation.
Secret Service Scandal: Colombia Woman Says She Fled Country said Friday that the agents involved were "idiots" for letting it happen, and declared that if she were a spy and sensitive information was available, she could have easily obtained it.
Government Surveillance Requests Up In 2011, Report Says

REVEALED: Full List Of ALEC's Corporate Members | ThinkProgress - 15 major corporations and organizations pulled their support for the conservative organization, which helps quietly implement corporate-backed legislation in statehouses across the country. Now, the watchdog advocacy group group Common Cause has released a complete list of corporations on ALEC’s task forces. (big oil, big energy, big health/insurance and the Huffington Post, heh, heh)
Little Green Footballs - New Obama Campaign Ad: Newt on Mitt (ooooh, cold)
CNN Is Terrible. Here's Why. This past April, CNN posted its lowest ratings in 10 years
Mitt Romney On April Job Numbers: Recovery Should Be 500,000 Jobs A Month

April’s jobs: Americans aren’t working | Felix Salmon
Congress shouldn’t delay in addressing the fiscal cliff - The Washington Post Economists are rightly starting to warn that the United States faces a worrisome “fiscal cliff” at year’s end. The blunt spending cuts mandated by the 2011 compromise on the debt ceiling — and the failure of the “supercommittee” that followed — along with across-the-board tax increases would derail the U.S. recovery and undermine the well-being of the global economy (Repubicans see their chance to destroy the world!)
The Latest Numbers: The Economy Is Creating Jobs. Very, Very Slowly. | The New Republic The government's new jobs report is out and, according to the folks who study the labor market, it's disappointing (when Republicans say "small government" they mean "no jobs")
CHART: Economy Has Recovered All Private Sector Jobs Lost Since Obama Took Office | ThinkProgress
Wall Street Closes Out Worst Week Of The Year Stocks plunged Friday after the government reported that hiring slowed sharply last month. The report confirmed investors' fears that the U.S. economic recovery is faltering.
April jobs report: The recovery softens - The Washington Post
Calculated Risk: April Employment Report: 115,000 Jobs, 8.1% Unemployment Rate (recovery Spring!)
Weak Jobs Report Keeps More Fed Easing in Play - US Business News Blog - CNBC
Chicago parking meter company wants more money; mayor balks - Chicago Sun-Times The private investors who run Chicago’s parking meters are doing better than expected, and now they’re demanding an additional $14 million they say they’re owed under obscure provisions of the wildly unpopular 2008 deal that privatized metered parking and caused rates to soar, records show (Daley's legacy: who could have predicted ...)
Internships: The Beginning of the End of Interns Without Wages | Moneyland | TIME.com In August 2011, when Diana Wang began her seventh unpaid internship, this time at Harper’s Bazaar, the legendary high-end fashion magazine ... (slave labor)
Today In the War on Women - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money The Republican effort to limit abortions to the affluent continues:

Heartland's Climate Change Billboard: HuffPost Follows Publicity Stunt To Its Logical Conclusion [UPDATE] The Chicago-based think tank notorious for denying the basic facts about global warming on Thursday launched billboards in Chicago featuring the likes of Ted Kaczynski (better known as the Unabomber) and convicted murderer and cult leader Charles Manson, saying these notorious criminals "still believe in global warming" and asking viewers if they do, too (Koch Bros at work)

Proponents Of Euthanasia And Abortion Use Same Arguments As Nazi Genocide, According To L'Osservatore Romano (WLPO)
Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community Bill Nye, the harmless children's edu-tainer known as "The Science Guy," managed to offend a select group of adults in Waco, Texas at a presentation, when he suggested that the moon does not emit light, but instead reflects the light of the sun ... At this point, several people in the audience stormed out in fury. One woman yelled "We believe in God!" and left with three children, thus ensuring that people across America would read about the incident and conclude that Waco is as nutty as they'd always suspected. (more Christians "storming out" of the facts)
Using the legal process to silence critics - Lawyers, Guns & Money: The Thomas M. Cooley Law School served me with a subpoena yesterday afternoon ... After all, in the context of the gathering disaster that is contemporary American legal education, Cooley is without question the prime example of a shameless diploma mill that would be shut down immediately if American law schools were subject to more than the most cursory regulation by either the ABA or the federal government, which through its no-questions-asked student loan programs pays a large portion of Cooley’s operating budget (way to manage your reputation, criminals)

Life Of Brian - ALways Look On The Bright Side Of Life! - YouTube

050312
Russia Threatens Pre-Emptive Strike On NATO Missile Defense Shields ... in Eastern Europe if Washington goes ahead with its controversial plan to build a missile shield.
Romney calls US treatment of Chen Guangcheng 'dark day for freedom' | World news | guardian.co.uk Obama administration facing dilemma over how to act on Chinese dissident's request to be transported to the US
France Elections: Sarkozy Expected To Lose Barring 'Completely Unforeseen Catastrophe'
Syrian forces raid university – Thursday 3 May | World news | guardian.co.uk At least four students killed in Aleppo - activists - • Annan plan for Syria is 'in the gutter' –
Osama bin Laden Documents Released Online
Al-Qaida document cache reveals toll of US drone strikes on Bin Laden's plans | World news | guardian.co.uk US military publishes memorandums between Osama Bin Laden and his subordinates that detail how al-Qaida reshaped strategy
Hackers have breached top secret MoD systems, cyber-security chief admits | Technology | The Guardian Major General Jonathan Shaw says 'it was a surprise to people quite how vulnerable we are'

Anxious Japan prepares for life without nuclear power | Environment | guardian.co.uk Japan has 54 nuclear reactors, but as of Saturday, not one of them will be in operation – how will the country cope? (U.S. has 104 nuclear power reactors in 31 states)

Feel the Confidence - NYTimes.com - Jean-Claude Trichet, 2010: "because confidence is the key factor today.” (so wrong)
FT Alphaville » Core infection and eurozone PMIs Eurozone manufacturing purchasing managers indices are out and it does not look pretty ... as job losses accelerated to their fastest rate in over two years.
Eschaton: Double Dose Of Krgthulu: The maddening thing about this isn't simply that people were wrong, it's that they won't admit they were wrong. Or if they do, they were wrong for all the right reasons and the people who were right were right for the wrong reasons. At 20% unemployment they'll be screaming "ALL IS WELL." And they'll continue to fail upwards.
Bill Clinton Criticizes Austerity Measures In U.S., Europe

News Corp was given private committee details, suggests Tom Watson | Media | guardian.co.uk MPs Louise Mensch and Tom Watson take to Twitter in ongoing row over select committee's report into phone hacking (Murdoch mole in Cameron's Cabinet)

Political Animal - The Smearing of Elizabeth Warren Scott Brown’s campaign and its allies were trying to make a big deal out of Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren’s past self-identification (and once, her identification by Harvard Law School) as a “Native American.” ... Then I ran across a Boston Herald (the original source of the whole story) column by a certain Howie Carr that shows exactly how ugly and overtly racial this attack-line has become.
Henry Aaron, Inventor Of Paul Ryan's Medicare Reform Concept, Explains Why It's Wrong
The Past isn't Past: Justice Scalia is a Political Hack
If You Haven’t Spotted the Sucker… - Lawyers, Guns & Money : I suppose it may not be strictly accurate to say that people who expect to be paid by Newt Gingrich’s Potemkin campaign deserve whatever they get, but I’m inclined to say it anyway.

Daily Kos: Joke non-partisan effort turns out to be genuinely funny Remember Americans Elect? Of course you don't. No one does (distraction fails)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Radical Centrist Deathwatch Tom Friedman, last July: Write it down: Americans Elect. What Amazon.com did to books, what the blogosphere did to newspapers, what the iPod did to music, what drugstore.com did to pharmacies ('ol Flathead, always wrong)

With Great Wealth Comes Great Pettiness - NYTimes.com Because the distrust of wealthy financial wheeler-dealers is just like the legacy of racial tension in America. I guess being that rich means that you can surround yourself with people who never tell you how ridiculous you sound.
foreclosures-by-race-and-ethnicity.pdf (Foreclosures by Race and Ethnicity: The Demographics of a Crisis


In Florida, Aging Population Struggles to Get Around | Transportation Nation (reaping what they sowed)
Happy Birthday, Morrill Act — on the Ground (with Dessert) - Esquire the states were supposed to sell the land and put the money into an endowment for the construction and maintenance of institutions of higher learning
The Mornings of Kieran Healy, by Robert A. Caro — Crooked Timber

The GOP's New Sneak Attack on Abortion | Mother Jones Buried in a Republican bill to give states more say over health care funds is a provision that could block them from spending their own money on abortions
Why we must 'follow the money' of 2012's political ad spend | Amy Goodman | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The lobbying effort of US broadcasters, including Murdoch's Fox TV network, to avoid transparency tells us all we need to know

Little Green Footballs - Far Right AZ Neo-Nazi Commits Mass Murder, Wingnut Bloggers Immediately Paint Him as a Left Winger
Russell Pearce Distances Himself From J.T. Ready, Shootings In Gilbert, Arizona

San Diego student to sue DEA for $20m after being forgotten in cell for days | World news | guardian.co.uk Daniel Chong says he spent his time in holding cell hallucinating and trying to attract the attention of people in nearby offices ... saying his treatment constitutes torture under US and international law

BrandYourself's Google Tool Tells You Who's Searching For You

050212
Pirate Party, Focusing On Internet Freedom, Gains Serious Momentum In Germany | ThinkProgress
BBC News - Cardinal Brady will not resign over 'abuse failure' The Catholic primate of all-Ireland has said that he will not resign as Church leader despite revelations in the BBC's This World programme (WLPO still covering up)

Something Really Bad Happened To The European Economy In April - Business Insider (nothing that can't be fixed with a lot more austerity)
European Unemployment Rate Rises to Highest in Almost 15 Years - Bloomberg (no, that couldn't be it)
Madness in Spain Lingers as Ireland Chase Recovery - Bloomberg (wait, "The Economist" told us Ireland had, like, recovered!)

The fraud of “humanitarian wars” - Salon.com All wars, even the most unjustifiably aggressive, are wrapped, are wrapped in the same pretty rhetorical packaging

John Yoo, Former Justice Department Lawyer, Protected From Torture Lawsuit, Rules Appeals Court Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo is protected from such lawsuits because the law defining torture and the treatment of enemy combatants was unsettled in the two years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, when the memos were written, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said.

‘The Passage of Power,’ Robert Caro’s New L.B.J. Book - NYTimes.com By Bill Clinton

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Simple Answers to Smart Questions Kevin Drum on how both the F-22 and the F-35 fighter projects cost vastly more and delivered vastly less than promised (how to end wars; make each fighter jet cost more than the GDP)

John Danforth on Dick Lugar - Dick Lugar and the Right's Men Overboard - Esquire It looks like Senator Richard Lugar, the Ent who has been senator from Indiana since shortly after the defeat of Tecumseh at Tippecanoe, will lose his primary next Tuesday to wingnutty challenger Richard Mourdock (oh, that is so sad +Danforth responsible for Clarence Thomas, so eat shit)
Wife of NC State Senator says Amendment One is necessary ‘to protect the Caucasian race’ | Pam's House Blend Brunstetter insisted there was nothing racial about her remarks, but could not explain why she used the term “Caucasian.”
With Grenell’s Resignation, Romney Campaign Has Lost a Qualified Conservative Spokesman - - Log Cabin Republicans - “It is unfortunate that while the Romney campaign made it clear that Grenell being an openly gay man was a non-issue for the governor and his team, the hyper-partisan discussion of issues unrelated to Ric's national security qualifications threatened to compromise his effectiveness on the campaign trail (yeah, the Dems are so hyper-partisanly anti-gay, so it's just both sides; how's that cognitive dissonance going, Log Cabin Republicans?)
Earl Ray Tomblin, Democratic West Virginia Governor, Says Obama Hasn't Earned His Vote Yet (asshole)
Balloon Juice » Attention MUST Be Paid! Paul Constant live-blogging Newt Gingrich’s “campaign suspension” is too good not to share: 12:22 PM: This is basically a blowhardy version of Gingrich wagging his fist at the press and bellowing “YOU’LL ALL BE SORRY! I AM A GENIUS!”
Newt Gingrich Out: Candidate Ending 2012 Presidential Campaign (video)
Newt Gingrich Drops Out: Unforgettable Moments From The Wild Ride (video) (atack muffin?)
Shep Smith: Newt Gingrich 'Delusional,' No Republican 'Can Stand Him' (VIDEO) "Politics is weird and creepy, and now I know lacks even the loosest attachment to anything like reality," Smith concluded.
It’s Only a War If The Bullets are Flying at You (good example of why Andrew Sullivan at work)

Obama Administration Endorses Worthless Abstinence Programs - Lawyers, Guns & Money (what bullshit +reduce the deficit with this +we're never getting out of Afganistan)

Obama’s Not-So-Hot Date With Wall Street - NYTimes.com
Hullabaloo - Stunning income inequality data of the day - CEO compensation grew more than 725 percent, substantially more than the stock market and remarkably more than the annual compensation of a typical private-sector worker, which grew a meager 5.7 percent over this time period.

Italy scientists say they have found oldest human blood | Reuters Because fibrin is present in fresh wounds and then decays, this appears to show that the hunter died quickly rather than after a few days as had been previously thought, it said.
ALEC's Top Five Anti-Environment 'Model' Laws | ThinkProgress (Republicans destroying the world)

Wealthy Americans Queue to Give Up Their Passports - Bloomberg About 1,780 expatriates gave up their nationality at U.S. embassies last year, up from 235 in 2008 (millionaires going Galt on us)

Student abandoned in DEA holding cell drank own urine to survive | The Raw Story Daniel Chong, a 24-year old student at UC San Diego, was taken into custody during a drug raid and abandoned in a holding cell for five days without food or water, according to NBC San Diego (no charges, either, good luck with that law suit)
North Carolina Pastor Sean Harris: Parents Should 'Punch' Their Gay-Acting Children (audio) ("crack their limp wrists" - hey dude, you read that homophobia study?)

MalachiMos comments on Medical Professionals of Reddit, what's the most fucked up thing you've seen? (NSFW / NSFL)
Tessa Vanvlerah Sentenced To Consecutive Life Sentences For Raping Infant Daughter In 2008, when Vanvlerah was 18, a woman obtained a court order of protection against her, accusing her of seducing and having sex with the woman's 16-year-old autistic son. Alizadeh said it resulted in Vanvlerah's pregnancy.

Mozilla Slams CISPA, Breaking Silicon Valley's Silence On Cybersecurity Bill - Forbes the Internet industry has been either silent or quietly supportive of the controversial bill. With one exception. (Repubicans expanded domestic spying under the guise of "threats")

050112
May Day's Radical History: What Occupy Is Fighting for This May 1st | | AlterNet Occupy actions planned on May Day are tied to the generations-long movement for the eight-hour day, to immigrant workers, to police brutality and repression of the labor movement.

US military found under-reporting insider attacks in Afghanistan | World news | guardian.co.uk AP investigation finds attacks on allied targets in which an Afghan wounds or misses a US soldier is seldom reported (they have to kill our troops to get mentioned)
Ehud Barak restates case for military strike on Iran's nuclear programme | World news | guardian.co.uk Israel's defence minister dismissed criticism that political leaders were misleading the public over the consequences of action
Syria, Bahrain and Middle East - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk Ten reported dead in Idlib mortar attack
Osama Bin Laden Death: A Look Back At Newspaper Front Pages

Austerity Fantasies - NYTimes.com John Peet, the Europe editor of The Economist, who declares: "And of the countries that were in trouble, I would say Ireland looks as if it’s the best at the moment because Ireland has implemented very heavy austerity programs, but is now beginning to grow again." From Ireland’s Central Statistical Office: (if you call "falling off a cliff" "growing" - so much for the "Economist")
This Is Europe's Scariest Chart | ZeroHedge (they - and we, to a slightly lesser extent - have totally fucked over their young)
Goldman's O'Neill tipped to join Bank governor race - Business News - Business - The Independent A new name in the frame today is Jim O'Neill, the affable Goldman Sachs economist now chairing the bank's asset management division (ending all pretense at impartiality)
DSK case will proceed to trial as judge rejects claim of diplomatic immunity | World news | guardian.co.uk Dominique Strauss-Kahn may be forced to return to New York to face civil suit brought by hotel maid who claims he assaulted her ("little rutting chimpanzee")

Rupert Murdoch 'not fit' to lead major international company, MPs conclude | Media | guardian.co.uk Select committee also says James Murdoch showed 'wilful ignorance' of extent of phone hacking at News of the World
Phone-hacking report: what is 'wilful blindness'? | Media | guardian.co.uk MPs make pointed allegation with accusation of 'wilful blindness', a term that carries weight in US anti-corruption legislation
Rupert Murdoch 'Not A Fit Person' To Run Major Company, Phone Hacking Report Says (Satan not fit? +Conservatives disagree)
David Cameron Defends Jeremy Hunt, Himself As Murdoch Pressure Mounts (resign, mofo)
NY Daily News editor Colin Myler misled MPs over hacking, report finds | Media | guardian.co.uk Man hired by Mort Zuckerman in January to run New York Daily News accused by British MPs of 'answering questions falsely' (="lied" +way to go Morty)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Rupert’s Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad, No Good Morning It seems that Britain MP’s have decided that Rupert Murdoch running a major media empire in their midst is not in Blighty’s best interests.
mIXRF.jpg (Murdoch made out of some synthetic material)

Osama bin Laden death: SEALs slam Obama for using them as 'ammunition' in bid to take credit | Mail Online (Conservative liars slap false headline on the facts, hope you won't notice)
Had I Known It Was So Important, I Would Have Done It | TBogg Shorter People Who Didn’t Catch Bin Laden: People who set out to do something and then actually do it suck.
'Even Jimmy Carter' - James Fallows - Politics - The Atlantic Mitt Romney informs us that the raid that took out Osama bin Laden one year ago was no big deal, because "even Jimmy Carter would have given that order." Grrrrr.
This is What Politicizing National Security Looks Like - Lawyers, Guns & Money (the good old days)
On the Value of Getting bin Laden - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money 4. This is what it looks like when Democrats go for the jugular. It’s hardly barbaric for the campaign to trumpet the President’s role in killing a man suspected of the mass murder of Americans.

Since bin Laden’s death - Salon.com The War on Terror and its various civil liberties assaults have escalated, not been reversed or even slowed down
The Jose Rodriguez lesson - Salon.com Perhaps it's a bad idea to trust the executive branch to wield the most extreme powers in the dark, with no checks (Obama disagrees)

Supreme Court Favorability Hits New Low In New Pew Research (Scalia says "fuck you" American public)

Has Team Romney forgotten that the Bush years were terrible? - The Washington Post
Obama Campaign Strikes Squarely At Romney's Swiss Bank Account
Mitt Romney's Offshore Accounts Tracked In Obama Campaign's Infographic
Didn't Take Long... - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Romney washes that gay right out of his foreign policy team:
Mitt Romney, 19, demonstrated in favour of Vietnam War draft | Mail Online Teenage Romney takes unpopular stance in favour of south-east Asian war But his status as 'Mormon missionary' exempted him from the draft (wait ... aren't they ALL missionairies?)
Paul Ryan Tries Keeping Up With Etch-a-Sketch Mitt By Pretending His Ayn Rand Fandom Is an 'Urban Legend' | Crooks and Liars (any lie will do)

Scott Brown acknowledges using part of health care law he wants to repeal - The Boston Globe Senator Scott Brown, who won office vowing to be the 41st vote to block President Obama’s health care law, and who has since voted three times to repeal it, acknowledged Monday that he takes advantage of one of its components to keep his elder daughter on his congressional health insurance plan.
Scott Brown Is Cool With America Buying Slutpills For His Daughters | TBogg Retired stripper Scott Brown does not care for Nobummercare, no-siree-bob he does not, voting to deathpanel it three (3!) times. But until the Roberts Court finishes having its way with the Affordable Care Act in their basement sextorture clubhouse before leaving its abused and battered body in a roadside ditch, Scott Brown is making sure that his daughters gobble up as many pills, elective surgeries, and inexpensive co-pay office visits as possible

The American Prospect Magazine May Close In May The Prospect was founded in 1990 by Robert Kuttner, Paul Starr and Robert Reich.
A Critical Moment for The American Prospect

CNN Sides With Rachel Maddow On Heated 'Meet The Press' Clash (VIDEO) It's not every day that a competing news network takes such lengths to affirm what a host from another network says, especially when they're making one of their own contributors look bad in the process (Alex Castellanos hates women and is a big fat liar)
Rachel Maddow Doubles Down On Equal Pay: 'For The Same Work, Dudes Get Paid More' (VIDEO) Maddow, who appeared on Sunday's "Meet The Press," severely clashed with Republican strategist and CNN contributor Alex Castellanos on the topic of equal pay.

Census - Homeownership Hit 15-Year Low in 1Q - NYTimes.com The American dream of homeownership is at its lowest point in 15 years, the latest evidence of a housing market still far from recovering five years after the housing crash.
Big Idea: Universal Pre-K to Teach Children and Create Jobs - News - GOOD (see above on eating our young; America hates its "entitled" youth)
Unimpressed American Indian - the banks take your home and land away from you? that must be tough

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Krugthulhu Versus The King In Yellow Gold Ron Paul repeatedly uses Get Your Socialism Off My Lawn from his stump speeches where he’s still running for Dwarf-in-Chief of Lost Carcosa (he’s short, cranky, good at digging himself into holes and obsessed with obsolete relics and gold), but Kroog’s Mighty Beard Tentacles invade the argument with sanity at several points throughout and he’s clearly having none of Ron’s crap, pointing out that Diggy Diggy Hole’s arguments here have been applied in the real world through austerity cuts and the results have been kind of poopy.

Climate Change: The Next Generation: Contender for scariest graph you'll ever see: La Nina years' temperatures are rising fast. Joseph Romm: WMO: 2011 Is Warmest La Niña Year on Record and Science “Proves Unequivocally” It’s “Due to Human Activities” WMO: 2011 Is Warmest La Niña Year on Record and Science “Proves Unequivocally” It’s “Due to Human Activities” (Republicans stick fingers in their ears; fight reality with lobbyists)
Number of US newborns with drug withdrawal triples | Society | guardian.co.uk Researchers find that a baby is born every hour in the US with signs of opiate drug withdrawal
Blood test 'could detect breast cancer years in advance' - Telegraph A blood test that can detect breast cancer decades before the disease develops could be available in five years, scientists have announced.
University of Michigan News Service | My fair physicist? Feminine math, science role models do not motivate girls (no scientist Barbies)

Death Penalty Broderism - Lawyers, Guns & Money Charles Lane — fresh from writing an article about our allegedly foolproof death penalty system that never used the words “Cameron Todd Willingham” — wishes we could stop all the “polarized” debates about the death penalty and just concede that he’s right:
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » if I have a stroke today, Tovia Smith, it’s your fault . Here’s Tovia Smith, of NPR, making the same argument that Columnist Boyardee made the other day—that our recent colleges graduates are struggling because they didn’t take “practical” majors (NPR wanking week-old disproven winger talking lies)

Tennessee 'Don't Say Gay' Bill To Get Axed "[N]o public elementary or middle school shall provide any instruction or material that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality," it read
Republican Judge Jerry Smith Blocks Pro-Planned Parenthood Order Just Hours After It Was Issued | ThinkProgress (no judicial activism here; same judge who ordered Obama to tell him whether DOJ would follow the law)

Land Down Under - *Men at Work* - YouTube

Don't 'Like' This Post Or Your Boss Can Fire You | ThinkProgress
Young File-Sharers Respond To Tough Laws By Buying a VPN | TorrentFreak A new survey has revealed that young people are responding to tough legislation and increasing levels of online spying by investing in VPN services. The study, carried out by the Cybernorms research group at Sweden’s Lund University, found that when compared to figures from late 2009, 40% more 15 to 25-year-olds are now hiding their activities online.

043012
SIGAR Report Finds Afghanistan Reconstruction Compromised By Security, Corruption Afghan reconstruction efforts remain severely hampered even after nearly $100 billion in spending over the last 10 years (down the corrupt drain that is Afganistan)
Israel joins UN list of states limiting human rights organizations - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay lists Israel along with countries such as Belarus, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Ethiopia and Venezuela (and soon ...)

Eurozone crisis has a long way to go, warns Cameron - UK Politics - UK - The Independent Risk of confrontation with Continent's leaders as PM spreads blame for double-dip recession (couldn't be our stupid and rapacious policies)
Eschaton: Operation Blame Yurp Yurp is messing up, but so are the posh twins (Cameron, Osborne) in the UK.
Eurozone crisis live: Spanish crisis deepens as recession confirmed - as it happened | Business | guardian.co.uk It's official - Spain has suffered a double-dip recession (Cameron: "we have a whole lot of stupid left to go")
Eschaton: Getting It The Wrong Way Round There's evil here, perceived opportunities to gut the welfare state and labor protections, but there's also a whole lot of stupid.
Eschaton: CRISIS That we get to wake up each day and wonder if the whole thing is going to fall apart should tell us we're doing something wrong. And by 'we' I mean our Galtian Overlords.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » An Hour’s Worth of Sociopaths -In short, we basically know that becoming a third world torture regime didn’t help us at all. And here is our regime’s chief torturer, not hiding in jail and begging for mercy from the court, but proudly bragging that he basically just tortured people for shits and giggles.
Private Prison Corporations Are Modern Day Slave Traders | | AlterNet The Corrections Corporation of America believes the economic crisis has created an opportunity to become landlord, as well as manager, of a chunk of the American prison gulag.

Sibel Edmonds Finally Wins | MyFDL The F.B.I., the Justice Department, the White House, the Congress, the courts, the media, and the nonprofit industrial complex put Sibel Edmonds through hell. This book is her triumph over it all, and part of her contribution toward fixing the problems she uncovered and lived through.

Unexceptionalism - A Primer - NYTimes.com TO achieve unexceptionalism, the political ideal that would render the United States indistinguishable from the impoverished, traditionally undemocratic, brutal or catatonic countries of the world, do the following: (it all starts with Bush v Gore)

Jonathan Chait: The Legendary Paul Ryan -- New York Magazine -- Mitt who?
Against “Authenticity”: Zombie-Eyed Granny Starving Edition - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Stewart’s responses in defense of Ryan are an object lesson in why 99.9% of theater critic analysis of politicians is useless.

Political Animal - Senate Dems plan to give Mittens a wedgie - Senate Democrats are planning to bring the Paycheck Fairness Act to the floor this week.
Inside the Mitt Laden Smackdown | Talking Points Memo
Hullabaloo The maverick has a fainting spell - You want shameless politicizing? I've got shameless politicizing:
Hullabaloo - Schoolyard power-plays are the problem
Deeply and Profoundly and Consistently Wrong | Poison Your Mind Arianna Huffington thinks it’s despicable to make a campaign issue out of killing Bin Laden:
Jon Meacham: Why Barack Obama Owns Osama bin Laden | TIME Ideas | TIME.com Judging from the Republican response, President Obama's ad asking whether Mitt Romney would have ordered the raid that captured Osama bin Laden raises serious questions
Latest Attempt To Deny Obama Credit For Bin Laden Raid Falls Flat | Media Matters for America - Dana Loesch (is about all you need to know +they are shocked the military was in operation control)

Robert Caro: GOP Abuse Of Filibuster 'Unconscionable,' Harry Reid Has Done 'A Terrific Job'
Super PAC Attack Ads Paved Way For Explosion in Independent Group Spending In Presidential Primaries Leading the charge by a significant measure has been Restore Our Future, the pro-Romney super PAC
Christie to campaign for controversial Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker | NJ.com

U.S. Homeownership Rate Plunges To 15-Year Low
Wasting Our Minds - NYTimes.com In Spain, the unemployment rate among workers under 25 is more than 50 percent. In Ireland almost a third of the young are unemployed. Here in America, youth unemployment is “only” 16.5 percent, which is still terrible — but things could be worse (Republican war on young people)
Skills Mismatch Concerns 'Overblown,' Says San Francisco Federal Reserve Paper (no demand, you idiots)
Erskine Bowles: 'We Face The Most Predictable Economic Crisis In History' - Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security (wankers will wank)

Secret Service Scandal: Why Men Risk Their Jobs To Buy Sex only about 1 percent of men in the United States visit prostitutes in any given year. About 16 percent of men have visited a prostitute in their lifetime, according to these results.

Move over graphene, silicene is the new star material - physics-math - 29 April 2012 - New Scientist
Breastfeeding linked to healthy infant gut: Bacterial colonization leads to changes in the infant’s expression of genes
Plasma Rocket Could Travel to Mars in 39 Days

Limbaugh The Scientist: Let's Say The Earth Is "A Hundred Thousand Years Old" | Media Matters for America (wingers don't need no steenking science)

Texas Planned Parenthood Defunding Halted By Federal Judge U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel ruled that the law was unconstitutional because it bars eight Planned Parenthood clinics that don't provide abortions from participating in the program based on their affiliation with legally and financially separate entities that offer abortions.
Empire State Stupidity: New York's Condom Policies Undermine Public Health and Human Rights | MyFDL New York Police officers use possession of condoms (especially more than one condom) as one of the factors in determining whether there is probable cause to arrest someone for prostitution or loitering for the purposes of prostitution.

Did Woodward Embellish Deep Throat? New York magazine excerpts a forthcoming biography of Ben Bradlee, Yours in Truth by Jeff Himmelman, which suggests the legendary Washington Post editor was skeptical about certain aspects of Bob Woodward's claims about Watergate informant "Deep Throat. (what a surprise)
Searching the Personal Archives of Washington ‘Post’ Editor Ben Bradlee for More Evidence -- New York Magazine Four decades after Watergate, there’s something that still nags at Ben Bradlee about Deep Throat

Hullabaloo - Gateway sex
Hullabaloo - A mass nervous breakdown

BBC News - The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK ISPs, court rules

042912
David Cameron warns European debt crisis is far from over | Politics | guardian.co.uk Prime minister says eurozone woes to blame for double-dip recession and vows to step up efforts to bolster British economy (with more austerity! it's working!)

Olympics 2012: A Bruce Schneier Moment - Charlie's Diary - The security theatre is getting surreal: The Ministry of Defence is considering placing surface-to-air missiles on residential flats during the Olympics ... If one of those things is ever fired, either in anger or by accident, it'll shower white-hot supersonic shrapnel across the extremely crowded residential heart of a city (white-hot austerity !)

Eschaton: Perhaps They Should Be Restive When your unemployment rate is 25%, that is your problem. Nothing else. You should not be thinking about any other problems. There is no mechanism such that "cutting government spending" will lead to an improved fiscal outlook. There is, however, a mechanism such that "more jobs" will lead to an improved fiscal outlook. Fix the recession, fix the economy, fix any fiscal issues. There is no way to fix the fiscal issues in isolation. (WaPo: the natives are getting restless)

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » breaking: Frank Bruni doesn’t know what he’s talking about Given the way in which Mssrs. Brooks and Friedman consistently fail to cover themselves with glory, it’s hard to really bust out as a shitty Times columnist. But, boy. Frank Bruni is making a go of
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Maybe the Most Perfect Wingnut Paragraph Ever Medical examiners in Los Angeles are investigating the possible poisoning death of one of their own officials who may have worked on the case of Andrew Breitbart, the conservative firebrand who died March 1, the same day Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced probable cause for forgery in President Obama’s birth certificate.

Ryan’s Quasi-Repudiation Of His Hero Ayn Rand - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Shorter Paul Ryan: When it comes to Ayn Rand, take the zombie-eyed granny starving, leave the atheism. The scene where everyone who was once guilty of an act of altruism gets asphyxiated, though, was awesome.
Aquinas and the Zombie-Eyed Granny-Starving - Esquire "It is the hungry man's bread that you withhold, the naked man's cloak that you store away, the money that you bury in the earth is the price of the poor man's ransom and freedom." (wait, no, not that part!)

We're Doomed - NYTimes.com So you see what I mean. We have a terrible failure of demand — and Carly Fiorina thinks the key problem is excessive taxes on corporations (our effective rate is actually fairly low). Hey, if only we had low rates like Ireland, we could have 14.7 percent unemployment … oh well, never mind.
My Faith-Based Retirement - NYTimes.com By Joe Nocera (lost it in the stock market; too ba
No one has any money - Lawyers, Guns & Money - Joe Nocera is broke ...now a key to understanding contemporary American politics is that it’s structured around either a continual denial of these unpleasant truths, or a perverse celebration of them. The Randroids and Hedge Fund Calvinists who run the contemporary Republican party (official slogan: Socialism Makes the Baby Jesus Cry) believe that if you’re broke it’s your own goddamned fault, while the neoliberal believers in capitalism with a human face who infest the Democratic establishment live in an intellectual fantasy theme park called FriedmanLand, where with just a little more “educatin” Americans will all become optimally thrifty software engineers.
Bogleheads • View topic - "My Faith-Based Retirement" by Joe Nocera, NYT - Performance chasing, portfolio concentration, messy divorce, 401k borrowing, pouring money into a new expensive house after the crash ... I think it is kind of weird for the New York Times to have yet another business / financial columnist who can't manage his own finances +This is Nocera's transparent swipe at NYT management's attempt to reduce the employee defined benefit plan in order to shore up the company's finances.

Eschaton: 74 I'm constantly amazed by the number of eventheseriousliberals who imagine that once we cut that grand bargain on social security we can put the issue to bed for all eternity. (make everyone work until they are 74, problem solved)

Keeping Secrets Weighs You Down, Literally: Scientific American Podcast New research finds that keeping a secret can make you feel as if you are physically burdened. Christie Nicholson reports

throwfromhere comments on Breaking up at the end of the school year; Girl much more invested than I (comprehensive guide to breaking up)

Amazon.com: Home Grown: Marijuana and the Origins of Mexico's War on Drugs (9780807835388): Isaac Campos: Books

Microsoft Kind Of Drops Support For CISPA | WebProNews Citing privacy as their major concern
Google Engineer Told Others of Data Collection, F.C.C. Report Reveals - NYTimes.com Google’s harvesting of e-mails, passwords and other sensitive personal information from unsuspecting households in the United States and around the world was neither a mistake nor the work of a rogue engineer, as the company long maintained, but a program that supervisors knew about, according to new details from the full text of a regulatory report (they knowingly were evil)

042812
Yuval Diskin, Israel Former Intel Chief, Slams Netanyahu's Iran Stance Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak – who have been saber-rattling for months – have their judgment clouded by "messianic feelings" and should not be trusted to lead policy on Iran. Diskin, who headed Shin Bet until last year, said a strike might actually accelerate the Iranian program (well no shit +AIPAC has messanianic feeling too
Talks Between U.S. and Pakistan Fail Over Airstrike Apology - NYTimes.com The latest high-level talks on breaking a five-month diplomatic deadlock between the United States and Pakistan ended in failure on Friday over Pakistani demands for an unconditional apology from the Obama administration for an airstrike. The White House, angered by the recent spectacular Taliban attacks in Afghanistan, refuses to apologize.
Chen Guangcheng, Blind Chinese Activist, Under U.S. Protection According To Activist Group
Northern Ireland Van Bomb Defused On Border British army experts defused a 600-pound (275-kilogram) van bomb Saturday on the Northern Ireland border, the largest such bomb in more than a year linked to Irish Republican Army die-hards.

Skeletons in the imperial attic — Crooked Timber Today’s Guardian has a series of articles today concerning Britain’s colonial past and evidence of the widespread destruction of documents with evidence of crimes against humanity by British forces
Britain destroyed records of colonial crimes | UK news | The Guardian Review finds thousands of papers detailing shameful acts were culled, while others were kept secret illegally
Britain's colonial struggles - in pictures | UK news | guardian.co.uk The release of secret files sheds light on the last phase of British rule in Kenya, Malaya and Aden

Spain, Pursuing Austerity, Still Waits for the Payoff - NYTimes.com That approach, though, has failed in Greece, Ireland and Portugal. And now it is being severely tested in Spain, where the more the government promises to cut its budget deficit, the more foreigners are unloading their Spanish bond holdings (who could have predicted the austerians would be tragically wrong?)
Eschaton: Listen To The Jaayyyyaabb Creeaayturrrzz And not the assholes in Big Finance. If people had money to buy their products, they'd hire more people and make more product. This is difficult to comprehend, I know, but it's true

Even the Military-Industrial-Complex Agrees that 65 Years of the Same National Security Institutions Is Enough, But..... | MyFDL (nine scenarios including Obama's fleet of extra-legal nano-robotic drones)

Bill Maher: "The only politics we understand is scandal, and the only scandal we understand is sex."

Republicans are the Problem: "We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party."

FEC Disclosure Loophole Closes On Secret Donors As Court Won't Stay Ruling A court ruling requiring non-disclosing political groups -- including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity -- to disclose their donors is one step closer to going into effect after a district court refused to stay its ruling in the face of an appeal (another Supreme Court decision needed)

Obama Targets Romney And GOP On Fair Pay, Mandatory Ultrasounds | TPM2012
John McCain: Obama Playing Politics With Anniversary Of Bin Laden's Death the "height of hypocrisy." (the best Volcano John can do)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Concerned Journalists are Concerned This Obama ad has the New York Times concern trolling:
Romney's Advice To Students: Borrow Money From Your Parents | ThinkProgress
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Mittastrophe: Romney Tells Students to Borrow Money from Their Parents Mitt Romney is the most tone-deaf motherfucker to ever run for president. HANDS DOWN. (borrow money from the parents Mittens laid off when he sent their jobs to China)
Chris Christie Accuses Democrats Of 'Lying' (about his lying)
Marco Rubio Campaign Fined For Improper Contributions
Agenda 21 - Lawyers, Guns & Money : I think the real question for all of you is whether you want to start wading in the cesspool of wingnuttery. I’ll only say that expect to read a lot about George Soros and socialism. Good times (George Allen)

Calculated Risk: Lack of Demand Businesses aren’t investing in the United States because of a lack of consumer demand (see Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain and Paul Ryan)
Apple’s Tax Strategy Aims at Low-Tax States and Nations - NYTimes.com

Journal of Public Economic Theory - Managing Climate Change
symmetry breaking » Blog Archive » CMS collaboration discovers its first new particle d the first observation of an excited, neutral Xi_b baryon, a particle made up of three quarks, including one beauty quark.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Wingnut Welfare is the Shit "Zimmerman collected about $204,000 in donations through the website, but did not disclose the contributions during his bond hearing last week" - but what I find shocking is that there are enough sociopaths out there that would donate 200 grand to a killer. Shoot a black kid, set up a blog, make a quarter million. Our society is sick.
Today In Texas Justice - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Robes before hos The Catholic hierarchy are women-hating conservatives. But I repeat myself. So beating down nuns for doing the actual social justice-type shit that Jesus recommended is a twofer.
With Komen Image Hurt, Support for Affiliates Lags - NYTimes.com Registered attendance or donations have declined by more than 25 percent at some of the group’s recent Race for the Cure events
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Komen Still Failing Yet, the Brinker family is still in charge, and they’re not even responding to interview requests.
Alternatives to Komen for Channeling You Dollars & Energy to Fight Breast Cancer - Margaret Polaneczky, MD - Open Salon

Lisa Arends: Rewrapping Divorce as a Gift (divorce by text msg)

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Early Morning Open Thread: Klout (to the Side of the Head) Do people actually want to get graded by algorithm, or is this one of those perverse ideas that geeks should have known better than to share with irony-impaired MBAs? (the dark side of social media)

042712
Call for Growth Puts Pressure on German-Led Austerity - NYTimes.com (Merkel has failed in her tank-less conquest of Europe)
Germany Shifts Rhetoric to Growth Before French Runoff - NYTimes.com "For some time now, growth has been the second pillar of Germany's crisis-fighting policy," Steffen Seibert told a news conference on Friday (European leaders also lie)
Death of a Fairy Tale - NYTimes.com This was the month the confidence fairy died ... For the past two years most policy makers in Europe and many politicians and pundits in America have been in thrall to a destructive economic doctrine.
New Statesman - Austerity isn't working... ..and there's nothing wrong with saying "I told you so". But is anyone in government listening? George Osborne is a "kamikaze chancellor" (they wouldn't care if they were)
IT'S OFFICIAL: Keynes Was Right - Business Insider (nyahnyahnyah can't hear you)
Eschaton: Deja Vu All Over Again The response by some to those who said austerity was quite obviously the stupidest fucking idea in the world is pretty similar to the response to those of us who said that invading Iraq for no good reason was the stupidest fucking idea in the world. Basically, pointing out the fail means you love the fail! The people who are wrong about everything don't care.


Enhanced Interrogation Techniques: Little Evidence That Harsh Treatment Used By CIA Produced Any Counter-Terrorism Breakthroughs (but they'll do it anyway)

Eschaton: In Defense Of Child Labor - we've preserved the right of little Johnny to lose a limb or two. Common sense won!!! We are ruled by the worst people in the world (e.g. Clare McCaskill)
Child Labor Farm Rules Scrapped By White House Under Political Pressure

Senate Votes to Renew Violence Against Women Act - NYTimes.com
The Republican Rape Caucus - Lawyers, Guns & Money - Your 31 pro-rape Republicans:
Nancy Pelosi Says She'd Back Simpson-Bowles Plan (VIDEO) Pelosi's rhetorical retreat from that hard-line position has progressives worried they'll have nobody left to defend the social safety net, even Medicare and Social Security (suck it up, post-boomers)
Paul Ryan Suddenly Does Not Embrace Ayn Rand Teachings
Michael Wiener, New Mexico Republican, Asked To Resign After Red Light District Photo Surfaces (curse of the name)
I, For One, Want America to Fail - Lawyers, Guns & Money I also love how the video talks about Europe as if it were Zimbabwe, the anti-Chinese imagery (even as the companies behind this all send their own manufacturing jobs to China), and the pot shot at Al Gore. Also, we need more shots of the Statue of Liberty from people who probably also oppose immigration.
Which Republican Governor is the Biggest Asshat? - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Bank CEOs To Tell Fed Regulation Is 'Unrealistic': Report
These 10 Companies Control Enormous Number Of Consumer Brands [graphic]

UFO Near The Sun: Curious NASA Photo Stirs Debate


Cop Shoots Dog: Untrained Officers Commit 'Puppycide' (PHOTOS) But Paxton isn't the first dog owner whose pet has been shot to death by police. A search of news articles from the past year shows more than 100 separate incidents.


Insanity: CISPA Just Got Way Worse, And Then Passed On Rushed Vote | Techdirt (Obama will cave, as usual)

042612
Syria: 'rocket attack' shatters fragile ceasefire - Thursday 26 April | World news | guardian.co.uk Up to 70 people killed in attack in Hama, activists claim
Bo Xilai officials 'wiretapped call to President Hu Jintao' | World news | guardian.co.uk New claims may shed light on why Bo – previously accused of unspecified disciplinary violations – was ejected from post (wire-tapped Supreme Leader)
Charles Taylor found guilty of abetting Sierra Leone war crimes | World news | The Guardian Former president of Liberia faces a lengthy term in a British prison after being convicted on 11 charges at special court

Inadequate Briefing on the Drone Program Shows Congress Hasn’t Fixed the Gloves Come Off MON | emptywheel
Activists to challenge Obama over human cost of CIA drone strikes | World news | guardian.co.uk Campaigners to meet in Washington to highlight how CIA is operating in seceret and inflicting civilian casualties abroad
Images of Osama bin Laden killing not to be released, judge orders | World news | guardian.co.uk A US federal court has backed the Obama administration in refusing to release pictures or video from military operation

Double-dip recession: fall in financial services output confounds economists | Business | guardian.co.uk Financial and business services firms in City of London had been expected to expand to stave off return to recession (yes! the corrupt fuckers who caused all this were going to save us! and it's not working!)
The New Voodoo - NYTimes.com So the FT’s argument boils down to the assertion that Britain must stay the course lest it be forsaken by the confidence fairy and attacked by misguided invisible bond vigilantes (respected "financial" news)

Rupert Murdoch Admits A 'Cover-Up' At The News Of The World, Says 'I Failed' (Satan lies)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » From the darkest depths of Murdoch . . .
News Corp shareholders 'troubled' by Murdochs' Leveson testimony | Media | guardian.co.uk US shareholders worry testimony raises new questions and poses threats to other areas of company's media empire
Murdoch and the Cameron entourage: the shameful tale laid out for all to see | Polly Toynbee | Comment is free | The Guardian If you think this is a navel-gazing media story, here's a reminder of what the Tories were about to unleash on the country

Secret Service Scandal: Official Says Agency Probing El Salvador Trip Allegedly Involving Prostitutes
Bradley Manning Hearing: Judge Refuses To Dismiss 'Aiding The Enemy' Charge (telling the truth about US lies = aiding Al Qaeda)

2 House Democrats Defeated After Opposing Health Law - NYTimes.com (Blue Dog fuckers defeated; media/village decries loss of one-party system)
ALEC Has Special Exemption In South Carolina's Lobbying Law (but they "aren't lobbyists")

Senate Passes Violence Against Women Act | ThinkProgress Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) were attempting to water down the bill through amendments, they ultimately failed and the bill passed in its original form.
Violence Against Women Act Prompts Partisan Debate Among Female Lawmakers

Rick Scott Drug Testing Executive Order Ruled Unconstitutional By Federal Judge
Koch-Backed Americans For Prosperity Announces $6 Million Ad Buy Attacking Obama
The Cool Kids Versus the Squares, Yet Again Republicans can't let the 60s go.
Paul Ryan Flip Flops on Ayn Rand: ‘I Reject Her Philosophy’
Dreamy Paul Ryan Breaks Up With His Special Lady, Is Now Available | TBogg
Medical Marijuana Passed By Connecticut House Of Representatives - Courant.com

A Worrisome Rise in Jobless Claims - NYTimes.com

Researchers claim quantum breakthrough › News in Science (ABC Science) Researchers say they have designed a tiny crystal that acts like a quantum computer so powerful it would take a computer the size of the known universe to match it.
Through a glass, clearly - MIT News Office MIT researchers find a way to make glass that’s anti-fogging, self-cleaning and free of glare (you can't see it's there)
Who wants the G-spot to be easy to find? | Laura Barton | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk A cosmetic gynaecologist in Florida may have located 'a clearly defined sac', but the great fan-dance of female arousal won't end - "It's not easy to find."

Brooklyn DA refuses to release details of Orthodox sex abuse suspects | World news | guardian.co.uk Refusal to grant FOI request marks acknowledgement by Charles Hynes that suspected Orthodox child abusers receive special treatment (above the Government)

Penn dean put on leave in probe over degree "Presumably what has happened in this case is that the school or the university has decided that this faculty member is so valuable that they want to keep him, or maybe they believe the claim he made." Indeed, academic integrity is considered vital by educators at Penn.
Penn’s vice-dean resigns

Sadly, No! » Buttrocket Launches, Explodes, Falls In Pieces Into The Ocean
alicublog - Shorter Entire Right-Wing Blogosphere: Obama is sending his coloreds to kill us!

Warning: Slow Jam Children Ahead | TBogg Last night alleged electoral criminal Barack “I Blame” Obama appeared on Jimmy Fallon’s teevee show as it was being broadcast from some college in North Carolina. While on the show, the unvetted negro-hugging communist President went nuts and New Black Panther-commandeered the airtime to demand that certain student loan interest rates stay the same and not double, thereby saving students A THOUSAND DOLLARS which could be better spent on red Solo cups, the “marijuana”, and condoms so they can have lots o’ sex with Georgetown Law coeds because, word on the street: they like to fuck all night.

Obama Justice and medical marijuana - Salon.com - The President's justification for his crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries has to be heard to be believed (Obama "thinks" in contrafactual political justifications; see National Security but in reverse)
Obama escalates in Yemen – again - Salon.com The drone-happy President authorizes attacks on people in Yemen even when their names are not known

HBO’s ‘Girls’ is Hardly the Only Example of Monochromatic TV - NYTimes.com failing to depict much beyond the wages of white privilege (even the extras are white)
Sandra Fluke Responds To Rush Limbaugh Student Loans Attack telling Lawrence O'Donnell that the radio host has become "confused by his own propaganda."(Dimbag still has a radio show)
Sandra Fluke Engaged To Adam Mutterperl
Fox's Monica Crowley Reacts To Fluke's Reported Engagement: "To A Man?" | Media Matters for America (like she didn't know, after they called her a sex-addicted prostitute/slut and played the Jew card)
John McCain: 'War On Women' Is 'Imaginary,' 'Conjured' By Democrats (crazy John speaks)
Tucker Carlson's downward spiral - Media Criticism - Salon.com Once a promising young magazine writer, the bow-tied Daily Caller pundit has come to epitomize right-wing hackdom - And the fact that his full name is Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson, and that his brother’s name is Buckley Swanson Peck Carlson.

The Hunting of the Snark: Guts And Glory: The Story Of Ross Douthat
The Hunting of the Snark: The Greatness Of Ross Douthat

TSA pair accused of accepting bribes from drug smugglers at LA airport | World news | guardian.co.uk Two employees arrested with two former airport screeners in what US officials said was a 'significant breakdown of system'

In CISPA Fight, Privacy Advocates Stand Alone, Unlike SOPA Debate
Gawker unveils new comments system and Nick Denton immediately uses it to pick fight with BuzzFeed | World news | guardian.co.uk

042512
Scene of unimaginable horror as helicopter-borne poachers massacre 22 elephants | Mail Online Record numbers of ivory seizures amid rise of organised crime gangs
Afghanistan War: NATO Accused Of Misleading Reports A new report Wednesday by a Kabul-based think tank accuses international forces of misleading the public by calling military operations "Afghan-led" even in cases where NATO or U.S. forces are the only troops on the ground.
Bob Kerrey: War With Iran Will 'Make Iraq And Afghanistan Look Like A Cakewalk' | ThinkProgress (but US still a client state of Israel)

Cameron's Remarkable Achievement - NYTimes.com (can't ... connect ... the ... dots)
Balloon Juice Krugman has been right all along, and that austerity is the equivalent of bleeding with leeches, except instead of using leaches, you just slit your own throat while telling yourself the math demands it.
BBC News - UK economy in double-dip recession The UK economy has returned to recession, after shrinking by 0.2% in the first three months of 2012
FT Alphaville » The UK is back in recession
Bernanke says Fed will act if needed as UK sinks into double-dip recession | Business | guardian.co.uk Bernanke: American economy 'expanding moderately' • UK drops into its first double-dip recession since the 1970s
Twitter / @faisalislam: In all 8 quarters since th ... In all 8 quarters since the Chancellor arrived at Number 11, economy has grown 0.4% vs 4.3%* predicted by June 2010 deficit reduction plan (austerity is working!!)
Call for Growth Puts Pressure on German-Led Austerity - NYTimes.com With political allies weakened or ousted, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s seat at the head of the European table has become much less comfortable, as a reckoning with Germany’s insistence on lock-step austerity appears to have begun (Merkel really is an idiot, or else they planned it this way all along)
Predictable Disasters : Lawyers, Guns & Money It’s worth noting at this point that, prior to the German-led effort to insure that the financial crisis inflicted far more devastation in the European economy than was necessary, Spain had been more “fiscally responsible” than Germany. The morality tale here isn’t about profligacy, it’s about incompetent, reactionary elites promoting terrible policies.

Rupert Murdoch At The Leveson Inquiry: Political Power A 'Myth' (which is why he was going into the back door of 10 Downing every week)

Hullabaloo - A Nation in Chaos (the Sourth rose and fucked everything up)

Connecticut Repeals Death Penalty
Arizona Immigration Law's Supreme Court Hearing Leaves Democrats Less Confident
Obama Stunner: Climate Change Will Be A Campaign Issue, We Need to Do Much More To Combat It | ThinkProgress (his views have "evolved")

Younger Voters Shift From Obama the president may face a harder sales job with younger voters this time around. Obama led Romney by 12 points among those ages 18-24, according to the survey. Among those in the 25-29 age group, Obama held a 23-point advantage.
The 'Clinton Party' Wins In Pennsylvania: Is 2016 Next?
Robert Draper Book: GOP's Anti-Obama Campaign Started Night Of Inauguration
Pennsylvania Primary: Blue Dog Democrats Lose Seats (why be a blue dog when you can be a teapartier?)
Largest police union endorses Democrat Tom Barrett in Wisconsin governor recall | StarTribune.com
Newt Gingrich Will Suspend His Presidential Campaign Next Tuesday, Aides Say - Newt Gingrich - Fox Nation

Brad DeLong: Did Ben Bernanke Just Say That the Depression-Era Fed Made a Mistake by Allowing Inflation to Get Above 2% During the Great Depression?
TARP Profit A Myth, Claims TARP Inspector General Christy Romero (Obama still lying)
Orders for Durable Goods Tumble 4.2% on Drop in Aircraft - US Business News - CNBC
Debt Collectors Take Places Alongside Hospital Staffs - NYTimes.com Hospital patients waiting in an emergency room or convalescing after surgery are being confronted by an unexpected visitor: a debt collector at bedside.
House GOP Would Kick 280,000 Children Off School Lunch Program To Protect Tax Cut For Millionaires | ThinkProgress (Republicans say: "let them eat dirt")
Hullabaloo - An epic scam across decades (Social Security myths +the rich never pay their debts)
The Primary Cause of Social Security's Bleak Outlook Is Upward Redistribution | Beat the Press

Japan astronomers find most distant galaxy cluster Japanese astronomers said Wednesday they had found a cluster of galaxies 12.72 billion light-years away from Earth, which they claim is the most distant cluster ever discovered.

What's Wrong with the Ross Douthat Creed - Esquire Ross Douthat is a very sincere young man who writes a column for the New York Times, and someone who, alas, usually makes David Brooks read like Richard Brautigan ... He's yearning for a Catholic Christianity triumphant, the one that existed long before he was born, the Catholicism of meatless Fridays, one parish, and no singing with the Methodists. I lived those days, Ross. That wasn't religion. It was ward-heeling with incense.
Michael Sean Winters Reviews Ross Douthat's "Bad Religion: How We Became A Nation Of Heretics" | The New Republic - he does not seem to have any idea what he is talking about. (good Catholic wanking)

Harvard: we have a problem | Reciprocal Space This is astonishing. Harvard is one of the best and one of the wealthiest universities in the world. But last week its Faculty Advisory Council* announced that it can no longer afford to maintain its subscriptions to academic journals.

Hullabaloo Yesterday I wrote about the centrality of patriarchy disguised as "family values" to the conservative project of maintaining private power, be it in Rick Santorum's America or in Wahhabist Saudi Arabia. I
Readers: Concealed Guns On Public Transit Is A Bad Idea  | Urban Review STL
George Zimmerman: Prelude to a shooting | Reuters

99-year-old divorces wife after he discovered 1940s affair - Telegraph An Italian couple are to become the world's oldest divorcees, after the 99-year-old husband found that his 96-year-old wife had an affair in the 1940s.
Stuart Chaifetz, Father, Puts Wire On Son With Autism, Records Verbal Abuse From Teachers (video)
Planned palace upsets some neighbors in tony D.C. suburb - The Washington Post (poor rich babies want controlled ostentiousness)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Esther, Polly! Quick, Fetch Me The Smelling Salts and a Tincture of Opium… This one paragraph really says so much about Sullivan, and not in a positive way.

The Invention of Jaywalking - Commute - The Atlantic Cities
The Cost of Carelessness (1913) - Video Dailymotion

Daily Kos: White House issues CISPA veto threat

042312
France Elections 2012: Hollande, Sarkozy Resume Campaigning Nearly one in five French voters cast their ballot in the first round for Marine Le Pen. She wants to pull out of the euro currency, reinstate border controls, crack down on immigrants, and stamp out what she claims is the Islamization of France.
Why Do They Hate Us? - By Mona Eltahawy | Foreign Policy The real war on women is in the Middle East.

Eschaton: Fortunately There's A Policy For That - "In its latest monthly report, the Bank of Spain said it believes that the country's GDP fell by 0.4% in the first three months of 2012. That follows a 0.3% contraction in Q4 2011, and zero growth in the third quarter of last year." - So much of the coverage is about the numbers flashing on the wall. The powers that be are causing immense suffering. Needlessly.
Dutch coalition to quit in budget row-broadcasters | Reuters - The Dutch government will resign on Monday in a crisis over budget cuts, two broadcasters reported, spelling the end of a coalition which has strongly backed a European Union fiscal treaty and lectured Greece on getting its finances in order.

UK Regulator Ofcom Investigating Sky News Email Hacking - only minutes before the channel's head of news acknowledged that his station had broken the law and misled a senior judge (corrupts everything he touches)


Shift on Executive Powers Let Obama Bypass Congress - NYTimes - He declared, aides recalled, that the administration needed to more aggressively use executive power to govern in the face of Congressional obstructionism (those Dems are really obstuctive)

Juveniles and ‘cruel and unusual punishments’ - The Washington Post Before its June 26 recess, the Supreme Court will decide whether sentencing children to die in prison is cruel (5-4, no)

The Amnesia Candidate - NYTimes.com - Just how stupid does Mitt Romney think we are?
Allen West Ousted From NAACP Event Over Communist Remark It turns out calling Democratic lawmakers "Communists" has some consequences.
Allen West: FBI Allows Muslim Brotherhood To Influence National Security, Warns Of 'Cultural Suicide'
Jon Huntsman Criticizes Republican Party, Compares Actions To Communist China - "I don’t know what world these people are living in," Huntsman said. (the real Communists: planet Republican)
Dana Rohrabacher, California Rep., Barred From Entering Afghanistan By Hamid Karzai (known terrorist on Afgan watch list)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » It’s a big enough umbrella from Will Saletan: "I think I speak for a lot of secular liberals…" (because liberals supported Iraq war, hate black people, and are against abortion; Wikipedia calls him a "liberal Repubican" but he's really a "lying conservative wanker")

ALEC Hit With IRS Complaint Filed By Common Cause ALEC says its work is not lobbying (yeah, right)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » La Mordida Wal-Mart spent $24 million in bribes in Mexico and the man who is now CEO knew about it, according to today’s Times. I believe this means that Wal-Mart is in trouble (Republicans will repeal FCPA)
Couple held at gunpoint, arrested after buying home  | ajc.com The Newton County Sheriff’s Office is investigating why a couple was confronted at gunpoint by neighbors and then arrested and forced to spend the night in jail when they tried to move into the home they had just purchased

Synthetic Genetic Evolution - Ruth Williams - TheScientist - RichardDawkins.net Scientists show that manmade nucleic acids can replicate and evolve, ushering in a new era in synthetic biology

Scott Walker Pressed For Answers On Wisconsin Equal Pay Law Repeal
The Six Dumbest Things GOP Politicians Have Said About Birth Control Recently (obsessed with sex but don't know anything about it)
With High Premarital Sex And Abortions Rates, Evangelicals Say It's Time To Talk About Sex (out of touch much?)


George Zimmerman, Man Accused Of Shooting Trayvon Martin, Released From Florida Jail On $150,000 Bail (video)

Bishop Who Compared Obama To Hitler Urged To Resign From Notre Dame Board By Members Of Faculty (Catholic Bishops at work)
Annette Spicuzza, UC Davis Police Chief, Resigning After Pepper Spray Incident (Katehi still there)
Susan Sarandon Says White House Denied Security Clearance, Interviews Michael Moore (Obama hates liberals)

FBI: Hundreds Of Thousands May Lose Internet In July - After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet. (heh heh, their website is down)
DCWG | DNS Changer Working Group (mostly down or not working)
Adobe CS6 Features: New Photoshop, Creative Cloud, Subscription Model Announced

042212
BBC News - High turnout in French presidential election There is a solid turnout so far in the first round of France's presidential election, official figures indicate (guess who votes more than Americans?)
MI5 'gave Libyan spies details of dissidents in Britain' | World news | guardian.co.uk Tripoli agents were reportedly greeted at Heathrow and given mobiles and a safe house in Knightsbridge on 2006 mission (between Murdoch and Gadaffi, it was hard to tell who was running the UK)
Afghanistan and US agree on strategic partnership document | World news | guardian.co.uk A spokesman for the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has said a deal has been reached, subject to final consultation
Scars of war fade as Sierra Leone awaits fate of dictator 'who fuelled violence' | World news | The Observer A decade after the conflict ended, the war crimes trial of Charles Taylor is a sideshow in a country focused on peace
Away from unrest, Bahrain Grand Prix plays to empty stands | Reuters When Formula One drivers performed their usual parade around the circuit on the back of a flatbed truck ahead of Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix, the seats they were waving at were empty.
BBC News - Somali women escape to the gym
Sayonara, Sarko! - Editor’s Picks - Salon.com He'll likely lose reelection. And in France's Sunday contest, the real winner could be a spoiler on the left
Iran claims to have reverse-engineered US spy drone | World news | guardian.co.uk General says Tehran has extracted data and figured out workings of Sentinel craft captured last year (will deploy over US soon)
Australia's speaker stands down over sexual harrasment claims | World news | guardian.co.uk Peter Slipper to remain MP but steps down temporarily as speaker after male former employee's allegations (conservatives)

Dutch Austerity Talks Fail as Geithner Prods Europe - NYTimes.com The Dutch government has taken a tough line on bailouts for Greece and given strong support to Germany’s efforts to force through a new pact on fiscal responsibility in the euro zone (austerity for thee, but not me)

Earth Day: EPA Battles Examined Through 'Documerica' Photos Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney has called for the firing of EPA chief Lisa Jackson, while GOP rival Newt Gingrich has said the EPA should be replaced altogether (Republican war on planet Earth)

Stop Cyber Spying (Obambi's wetdream - big content outsources cyberspying to US Gov)

"Oklahoma City": The Bubba job - Editor’s Picks - Salon.com Two seasoned journalists explore the disturbing, unanswered questions about the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995

Lawmakers And Activist Groups Pledge Support For Amendment Overturning Citizens United Decision | Crooks and Liars
What if Nixon Could Read Your Emails? | Mother Jones In Enemies: A History of the FBI, Tim Weiner says the bureau has changed since Nixon and Hoover. But some practices have endured.
Surveillance State evils - Salon.com

Torturous Milestone: 40 Years in Solitary | Mother Jones Constitutional claim may be the last chance for aging Angola 3 inmates (meanwhile, in America)

Lieberman to call hearings on Secret Service sex scandal - latimes.com (Lieberputz takes the stage)
Representative Peter King: More Secret Service Agents Likely To Leave Agency Over Sex Scandal
Secret Service Sex Scandal Again Raises The Question: 'Where Are The Women?' | ThinkProgress whether the mostly-male bodyguard team might benefit from a few more female figures

Richard Grenell, New Mitt Romney Spokesman, Scrubs Online Attacks On Media And Women (he never said that!)
Hullabaloo - digby - Just don't call them intolerant
w ‘Grand Bargain’ Spin Wars Flare Up | TPMDC
Hullabaloo - Defenders of the people - One more time with feeling: “President Obama was in agreement with the grand bargain that the two of them negotiated last summer,” Pelosi said. “He knew where he was on it, but I think it was important for him to know that we were with him, as we had said all along we are for a grand bargain
Arizona Immigration Law Arriving At Supreme Court This Week whether states may invade fields of immigration policy the federal government claims to occupy. It will be the justices' final oral argument of the term.
David Axelrod: 'Reign Of Terror' Has Taken Hold Of Republicans In Congress (did you just say "terror?")
Bashir: Book of Mormon Promises 'Eternal Damnation' for Romney's Lies | Video Cafe And the Book of Mormon's 2 Nephi 9:34 says, "Wo unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to hell." "Given what the Book of Mormon is clearly saying, Mr. Romney has but two choices. He can't either keep lying and potentially win the White House, but bring eternal damnation upon himself or he can start telling the truth. The question for him, I guess, is which is more important?" (easy question)

ALEC, a Tax-Exempt Group, Mixes Legislators and Lobbyists - NYTimes.com - Conservative Nonprofit Acts as a Stealth Business Lobbyist
Forget the Scary Headlines: Social Security Has More Than a $2.7 Trillion Surplus | BuzzFlash.org (yes, CNN did lie to you, why?)
Protesters’ furious new front - Salon.com Americans have finally awakened to the decades-long corruption of higher education (hence the "lazy, entitled, liberal arts major" attack)

Is the global rise of asthma an early impact of anthropogenic climate change? [Environ Health Perspect. 2005] - PubMed - NCBI
Interaction of the onset of spring a... [Environ Health Perspect. 2006] - PubMed - NCBI Overall, ragweed pollen production can be expected to increase significantly under predicted future climate conditions.


Gender flop: More young women than men interested in career - latimes.com - The recent economic downturn was more damaging to women than it was to men, despite being dubbed the “Mancession” because of hit to male-dominated fields such as construction and manufacturing.
About All Those Lost Womens’ Jobs… « The Cassandra Files
Cenk Uygur Calls Out SE Cupp for Suggesting Girls Marry Rich - Teaching young girls to marry rich makes S. E. Cupp "an embarrassment to women"
Babies don't want vegan mommies? - latimes.com - "If early humans had been vegans, we might all still be living in caves"
Teacher who allegedly appeared in porn film wants job back - latimes.com (comments were so bad the LAT deleted them all)

As Experts Agree Food Deserts "Do Exist," Right-Wing Media Use Flawed NY Times Article To Claim They Don't | Media Matters for America food experts have called the Times article "sloppy" and have said the two studies it highlights are "definitely outliers," in the face of "over 50 studies" in the past three years finding "the opposite." (the Times picks two out of fifty articles to claim poor people are fat and lazy naturally)

042112
The Largest Short-Term Threat to Humanity: The Fuel Pools of Fukushima

UN security council clears way to send 300 observers to Syria | World news | The Observer Resolution calls on President Assad's regime to cease all violence and respect commitment to withdraw heavy weapons
Bahrain protester found dead on eve of grand prix | World news | guardian.co.uk Bahrain to investigate death of Salah Abbas Habib, who was allegedly beaten by riot police on eve of grand prix
Mexico bus crash kills 43 | World news | guardian.co.uk Accident happened when trailer broke loose from truck and crashed into a passenger bus near the town of Alamo
BBC News - Kenya rangers shoot dead five suspected poachers Wildlife rangers have shot dead five suspected ivory poachers during a gun battle in western Kenya.

Rupert Murdoch launches Twitter broadside against UK government | Media | guardian.co.uk News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch criticised the decision to lend the IMF £10bn, as well as energy, education and tax policies
Rupert Murdoch Mocks UK As He Returns For Leveson Inquiry

New York Daily News Photographer Alleges New York Times Paid For Sources In Secret Service Prostitution Scandal

Turned off from politics? That’s exactly what the politicians want - The Washington Post (the village view)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Dressage Republican strategists have grown weary of attacking sluts while defending mandated vaginal probes:
62 Percent Of Crossroads Fundraising Secret Donors | ThinkProgress
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Loesch is more (remember when NPR fired a stringer for going to Wall St.?)
More Protesters Greet Gov. Scott Walker in Illinois - Waukesha, WI Patch More than 200 union members line the street of Chicago suburb Friday to send message to controversial Wisconsin governor — and Republicans in the Land of Lincoln.
CNN Chart Disproves CNN Claim About Cost Of Social Security | Media Matters for America (Medicare and Social Security lumped together, again = bullshit)
Bill Maher Blasts Republicans Over Pink Slime (video) blasted Republicans for being "at war with common sense," for not only refusing to admit that pink slime in our meat is bad, but also going so far as to visit a pink slime factory and give it a taste.
Orrin Hatch Forced Into Primary Fight For Utah Senate Seat (he's 78)
Charles W. Colson, Watergate Felon Who Became Evangelical Leader, Dies at 80 - NYTimes.com (goes straight to hell)

Daily Kos: States cut their way to ... increased unemployment (the European/Republican model)
Daily Kos: Rising tuition doesn't stop Republicans from blaming students for debt
At Wal-Mart in Mexico, a Bribe Inquiry Silenced - NYTimes.com Confronted with evidence of widespread corruption in Mexico, top Wal-Mart executives focused more on damage control than on rooting out wrongdoing, an examination by The New York Times found.
States In Northeast Cap And Trade Program Reduce CO2 20% Faster And Grow GDP At Twice The Rate of Other States | ThinkProgress
Should Warren Buffett Voluntarily Pay More in Taxes? | The Moral Sciences Club | Big Think

Balloon Juice » Academically Adrift‘s methodology

National Organization For Women Targets Limbaugh With 'Enough Rush' Campaign
Tell Angie's List: Drop your support of Rush Limbaugh! Angie's List, which stopped advertising on the Rush Limbaugh Show in March, became the first major company to resume advertising after Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute.
Planned Parenthood In Ohio, Wisconsin Loses Battles
Tennessee House Passes Bill To Allow Criminal Prosecution For Harming Embryos | ThinkProgress
Daily Kos: This week in the War on Voting: The War on Women happens here, too

Police say Ray Easterling, former Atlanta Falcon, committed suicide - ESPN Easterling, who helped lead the team's vaunted defense in the 1970s, was part of a group of seven former players who sued the NFL in Philadelphia in August, claiming the league failed to properly treat players for concussion and tried to conceal for decades any links between football and brain injuries. It was the first potential class-action lawsuit that was filed.

SOPA mutates into much worse CISPA, the latest threat to internet free speech - Project Nsearch
BBC News - YouTube loses court battle over music clips YouTube could face a huge bill for royalties after it lost a court battle in Germany over music videos (cd /world/germany;rm -rf *)
Hacktivists in the frontline battle for the internet | Technology | guardian.co.uk Amid the power struggle between hacktivism and officialdom, Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow explains why he is working on a system to fund online activists hit by corporate blockades

042012
Eschaton: When The WaPo Doesn't Like You (they make shit up)
Plane Crash Kills 127 People Near Pakistan’s Capital - Bloomberg twin-engine Boeing Co. 737-200 carrying 118 passengers and 9 crew members was on approach to land at the Pakistani capital on a flight from Karachi, Pakistan, said Salman Tahir, a Bhoja Air spokesman.
Cyber-attack cripples US website covering Bo Xilai scandal | World news | guardian.co.uk China's security services ordered attack, claims manager of Boxun.com, which has seen visitor traffic rise 155% this year (China controls the news)

Greek Banks Post $37 Billion Losses on Debt Restructuring - Bloomberg
Aviva Mistakenly Fires 1,300 Employees at Investment Unit - Bloomberg the U.K.’s second- biggest insurer by market value, said the company’s investment unit mistakenly sent an e-mail dismissing its entire staff before retracting the message (oopsie)

Anders Behring Breivik trial, day five - Friday 20 April | World news | guardian.co.uk

Phone hacking: News International faces nearly 50 new claims | Media | guardian.co.uk Civil claimants now include Sir John Major's former daughter-in-law, Lord Blencathra and former union leader Andy Gilchrist

6 Things You Need to Know About the Government's New Spy Law (CISPA) | | AlterNet CISPA would allow information sharing between corporations and the government, and presents serious dangers to individual privacy.
The Ever-Expanding Surveillance State That Has Grown Under Obama | The Dissenter

Attacks on RT and Assange reveal much about the critics - Salon.com . The combination of Assange and a Russian-owned TV network has triggered a predictable wave of snide, smug attacks from American media figures, attacks that found their purest expression in this New York Times review yesterday of Assange’s new program by Alessandra Stanley (character assassination and village idiocy)
Feds ready whistleblower trial - Salon.com Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer John Kiriakou — the sixth whistleblower the Obama administration has indicted under the Espionage Act for alleged mishandling of classified information — was arraigned this morning in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

America’s drone sickness - Salon.com (authority to kill "suspects" even though they don't "know the identities of those who could be killed")
Former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman: 'Bush, Cheney Could Still Be Held Accountable For Iraq War And Related Crimes' | Crooks and Liars
Misinformation campaign targets USA TODAY reporter, editor – USATODAY.com A USA TODAY reporter and editor investigating Pentagon propaganda contractors have themselves been subjected to a propaganda campaign of sorts, waged on the Internet through a series of bogus websites.
USA Today pair hit by smear campaign after Pentagon propaganda story | World news | guardian.co.uk Fake websites and Facebook accounts set up accusing Tom Vanden Brook and Ray Locker of being backed by the Taliban

DownWithTyranny!: Eric Cantor, Mitt Romney Wrestle Over Control Of The Republican Message (are his ears really that big?)
Republican Super Pacs' haul at $100m as Romney and Obama battle for cash | World news | guardian.co.uk GOP-leaning fundraising groups plan to make the most of their advantage after Democrats' late embrace of Super Pacs
Manchin on the Fence About Obama Vote - Dan Friedman - NationalJournal.com D-W.Va., who has done more than any other Democrat up for reelection this year to distance himself from President Obama, said he does not know if he will vote for Obama or presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney in November (what an asshole)
Political Animal - Land of Questionable Ethics One of the familiar figures near the top of the pyramid of the Christian Right is Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (basically the SBC’s guy in national politics). (plagiarist)
If It's Sunday, It's Meet The Republican White Men | ThinkProgress (half the appearances by women were Michelle Bachman and all of the minorities were Herman Cain)

33 Corporations Which Paid No Taxes from 2008-2010 Have Ties to ALEC | Crooks and Liars

Varney and Horowitz Blame Liberal Arts Students For High Student Debt | Crooks and Liars (they are all "genders studies" and "urban anthropology" majors; Horowitz has an M.A. in "English")
CNN's Dana Loesch Attacks MSNBC's Martin Bashir As "A Foreigner" Who Shouldn't Cover Media Or Politics "In This Country" | Media Matters for America

Prosecutors Surprised At George Zimmerman Hearing | TPMMuckraker
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Why Would He Do This? What a load of nonsense. This wasn’t an apology, it was excuse making and playing to the prospective jury pool

Your Rape Fantasy Is Boring, Katie Roiphe
'Camille Paglia Better Watch Out, Katie Roiphe is Coming...' - Entertainment - The Atlantic Wire

Greg Campbell: 8 Myths About Marijuana

041912
Iraq: Explosions In Baghdad, Kirkuk Claim Dozen Of Lives

Sarkozy Re-election Bid in Trouble - NYTimes.com - With Vote Days Away, Outlook for Sarkozy Dims

Phone Hacking Charges May Be Brought Against News Corp. In U.S.

Hullabaloo Boys and their toys by digby
The Rise of the Killer Drones: How America Goes to War in Secret | Politics News | Rolling Stone An inside look at how killing by remote control has changed the way we fight. (Obama loves his secret wars, making decisions in secret)
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Caucus Officially Renamed Unmanned Systems Caucus - Unmanned Systems Caucus (or, the "blow brown people up caucus")

The Infamous Brad - Sometimes, When "All the Facts are In," It's Worse: The UC-Davis Pepper-Spray Report (Katehi still employed)
The Beast » Blog Archive » The 50 Most Loathsome Americans: 16) Linda Katehi

Right and Early - Sunday morning shows are GOP TV (white, male and Republican: your "liberal" media at work)
Study: Republicans dominate Sunday morning shows | TPMDC
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Masters of their domain “Do you know what I mean, David?” Bradley finished, gliding out the door. “It’s the same thing with David Brooks. He thought his mastery was politics, but his mastery was actually, whatever he put his mind to. Think about it, David!”

Obama touts workforce training, jabs GOP for favoring tax breaks for rich - The Washington Post (like you know who)
Romney At Odds With Key Voters On Afghanistan, Says New Poll
Senate Races 2012: Republican Establishment Tries To Tamp Down Tea Party Insurgency
Cantor Suggests Anti-Semitism Is A Problem Within The House GOP Caucus (all the Jews are going to hell)
John Raese Equates Smoking Ban To Hitler Policy John Raese, running for U.S. Senate as a Republican in West Virginia, equated a county smoking ban with Hitler forcing Jews to wear the Star of David at a recent Republican event.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » ALEC wounded, lashing out
Threatened, ALEC Sics Right-Wing Bloggers on 'Liberal Media' | Crooks and Liars

Strike? Refinery Workers Protest Concessions 2 Years After Deadly Explosion - Working In These Times (make insane profits, neglect worker safety, kill seven employees, blame the unions!)

Distinct 'God spot' in the brain does not exist spirituality is a complex phenomenon, and multiple areas of the brain are responsible for the many aspects of spiritual experiences.
Porn-Brain Study: Erotic Movies Make Brain Regions 'Shut Down'
BBC News - 'Extreme Universe' puzzle deepens The mystery surrounding the source of the highest-energy particles known in the Universe has grown deepe

Eli Sanders Wins a Pulitzer Prize by Christopher Frizzelle - Seattle News - The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper
Homeless Children Living On The Highway To Disney World

Cruise Ship Didn't Aid Drifting Boat, Passengers Say : NPR t weeks earlier, while all of the men were still alive, an American-based cruise ship, the Star Princess, spotted the drifting boat — but sailed on without stopping to help.

tehvagcanno comments on What is the most awkward situation you have found yourself in with your parents?

041812
U.S. Soldiers Pose With Bodies Of Suicide Bombers In Afghanistan (winning the hands and feet)
Neil Heywood called suspected killer an 'unforgiving empress' | UK news | The Guardian China's leading political couple at the heart of case connected to death of British businessman in November
Open or closed society is key dividing line of 21st century, says Hillary Clinton | Technology | guardian.co.uk US secretary of state tells Brasilia conference that countries can only become more secure and peaceful if they are open (don't throw stones, Hilz)
REPORT: Broadcast News Networks Misrepresent Intelligence On Iranian Nuclear Issues | Media Matters for America (nothing has changed)

Phone hacking: police refer 11 cases to prosecutors | Media | guardian.co.uk Police hand over files relating to journalists and police officer as CPS awaits findings of inquiries triggered by hacking scandal

Secret Service Resignations Announced Following Colombia Prostitution Scandal
Secret Service Prostitute Scandal: Alleged Colombia Escort Speaks Out According to the woman, the agent asked her to come to his hotel after a night at a club, and "she agreed, stopped on the way to buy condoms but told him he would have to give her a gift" of $800. The woman claims the agent initially agreed, yet offered her only $30, or 50,000 Colombian pesos, when pay-time came around the next morning, the paper reports.

Eschaton: For The Doubters Friedman provides conclusive proof that he deserved the award.
Thomas Friedman Bloomberg for President - The Friedman Follies - Esquire Oh, for the love of Christ. Help us, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're our only hope. Yes, because what the country is asking — nay, begging — for right now is another oblivious plutocrat who wants to adopt the kind of mild zombie-eyed granny-starving that Tom Friedman thinks America needs (just what we need: Bloomberg for Pres: another insanely-rich authoritarian facist)
Michael Bloomberg Won't Solve Tom Friedman's Problem With Dropped Calls on the Acela
Thomas Friedman Spoofs Himself In What I'm Guessing Is An Epic Work Of Adventurous Satire

Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists - Features - Al Jazeera English Eyeless shrimp and fish with lesions are becoming common, with BP oil pollution believed to be the likely cause (who could have predicted?)

White House Escalates Government Shutdown Fight With House GOP | TPMDC

Less Will Happen In The Lame Duck Than You Think | Stan Collender's Capital Gains and Games
Less Will Happen In The Lame Duck Than You Think | Stan Collender's Capital Gains and Games
Daily Kos: Democrats to introduce WORK Act to give all mothers the same choice Ann Romney had (wasn't a priority for Dems/Obama when they controlled everything)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » The Savings Aren’t The Point Ushered in amid promises that it would save taxpayers money and deter drug users, a Florida law requiring drug tests for people who seek welfare benefits resulted in no direct savings, snared few drug users and had no effect on the number of applications, according to recently released state data. “Many states are considering following Florida’s example, and the new data from the state shows they shouldn’t,” (Rethugs at work harrassing poor people)
Panel Connects Sheriff Joe Arpaio To Alleged Crime | TPMMuckraker A three-person disciplinary panel of the state’s high court said there was enough evidence to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the sheriff and three of his closest allies participated in what the panel believes was federal crime in December 2009.

Eschaton: Graduating In A Recession The comments to this Inqy column are priceless. I see a lot of this basic attitude, that young people suck and should be grateful to have a fast food job. There's a generation that rode a pretty nice wave, and some of them don't want anybody else to have nice things (in them minds of these Republican boomers, everyone is majoring in "gender studies" "urban anthropology" and art history)
Eschaton: Heckuva Job On the day of the Yankees home opener last week, the stadium was packed with more than 49,000 fans, but inside a nearby parking garage on 153rd Street, three of the four floors were empty (+tax breaks to build too much parking)

Publishing Industry Is Angry That Pulitzers Snubbed Fiction - NYTimes.com “I’ve heard that theory,” she said. “If they didn’t think that these three nominations were somehow within the regulations that they have set out, then they should have made that clear at the time that we nominated them.”

BBC News - Breast cancer rules rewritten in 'landmark' study What we currently call breast cancer should be thought of as 10 completely separate diseases, according to an international study which has been described as a "landmark".

ThinkProgress The bill, which has the strong support of the NRA, allows anyone who has a concealed carry permit from any state to carry a concealed weapon in virtually any state, no matter how lax the laws are in the state where the permit was issued.
Judge In Trayvon Martin Case Recuses Herself Due To Conflict Of Interest

Hullabaloo
Sheri Meyers: Infidelity and Emotional Sex: How to Tell if You're Chatting or Cheating Okay, so you haven't had sex. At least not yet. But you are having emotional sex, and that can be even more intense, sensual and all-consuming than physical sex.

Why I'm suing the US government to protect internet freedom | Birgitta Jónsdóttir | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The NDAA means the US military can put anyone under suspicion of being a terror threat and detain them for ever
Cispa will give US unprecedented access, internet privacy advocates warn | World news | guardian.co.uk With echoes of Sopa, critics charge that bill will overturn US privacy protections in government attempts to track hackers

041712
The Pulitzer Prizes | Breaking News Photography
Shalom Eisner, Israeli Defense Force Officer, Hits Denmark Protester In Face With M16 Rifle, Is Suspended (bad PR)
Russia accuses 'external forces' of undermining Kofi Annan's Syria plan | World news | The Guardian Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov's remarks on Syria appear aimed at both western and Arab countries
Hollande-Sarkozy dead heat predicted in first round of presidential election | World news | guardian.co.uk Latest polls show François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy level pegging, with Hollande winning second round comfortably

IMF: Global economic recovery fragile and risk of relapse high | Business | guardian.co.uk Disorderly default and exit by eurozone member could spark market panic and cause bigger crisis than after Lehman collapse, IMF says in World Economic Outlook report

Eschaton: THE ONE TRUE WANKER OF THE DECADE Tom Friedman. (suck.on.this)
Long live The Wanker-Wingnut continuum, the Poor Man is dead - Sorting it all Out - MSDN Blogs (history)

Secret Service Misconduct: Senator Susan Collins Reveals Details On Colombia Incident Twenty or 21 women were brought back to a hotel in Colombia by U.S. Secret Service and military personnel in an incident last week involving alleged misconduct with prostitutes, U.S. Senator Susan Collins said on Tuesday.
Ted Nugent Remarks On Obama Draw Secret Service Scrutiny after saying over the weekend that he would be "dead or in jail by this time next year" if President Barack Obama is re-elected.

GSA staff could face criminal charges for extravagant conference, hearing told | World news | guardian.co.uk Congressional hearing told that federal government staff may face jail time for Vegas trip in addition to paying back thousands

Mitt Romney’s enviable ability to ignore the truth - The Washington Post
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Here’s An Example Of Their Priorities Fresh off their vote to defeat taxing multimillionaires, the Republicans have found a place to look for some cuts: Republicans controlling the House are eying big cuts to food stamps and would make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to claim child tax credits as they piece together legislation to cut $261 billion in the coming decade.

U.S. Minimum Wage Lower Than in LBJ Era Needs A Raise - Bloomberg (!)
Corporations That Spent The Most On Lobbying Saw Tax Rates Decline: Report (just a coincidence)
Eschaton: Stupid Policy Tricks The selling off of parking is going to haunt Chicago forever. They didn't just do it too cheaply, they did it stupidly.
Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space: A lesson to cities that they need to be very careful when leasing assets to public private "partnerships" A lesson to cities that they need to be very careful when leasing assets to public private "partnerships"
Goldman Sachs profits fall 23% but beat expectations | Business | guardian.co.uk Wall Street bank has set aside $4.38bn for pay and bonuses – down 16% on a year earlier
Foreclosure Frenzy: Bank Of America Sues Bank Of America - Forbes Bank of America has sued itself at least nine times in the month of April.

The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Physics Envy? Political scientists Kevin Clarke and David Primo placed an op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times arguing that the social sciences need to overcome their ‘physics envy.
Arctic Climate Change Opening Region To New Military Activity (Republicans say it's just "warmist propaganda")
Cognitive Modifiability and Neural Plasticity

America's deadly devotion to guns | World news | The Guardian There are around 90 guns for every 100 Americans yet, despite 85 fatal shootings a day, the mighty US gun lobby is as powerful as ever. In the wake of Trayvon Martin's killing, Gary Younge reports on the country's deadly attachment to firearms
ALEC Retreats Under Pressure, Ends Push For 'Stand Your Ground,' Voter ID Laws (update)
Memo to Gun Lobby: You Won. So Tone It Down, OK? - Bloomberg (guns everywhere, Kill at Will)

Sledge Hammer, Porn Star, Dies After Being Tasered By Police When the cops arrived, Anderson's height (6-foot-4) and bulk intimidated them, and rather than try to subdue him with the manpower available, they began shooting him with their Tasers—"excessively," according to Curtis—to the point where he suffered a heart attack and for all intents and purposes died for 10 minutes until the EMTs were able to restart his heart (death by cops again)

No Winner For Pulitzer Prize For Fiction This Year So for the first time since 1977, by failing to come to a majority decision, the Pulitzer Board's conclusion is that no book is worthy of the prize.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » The War On Women Is Real
The women-on-women fights staged to keep us occupied | Hadley Freeman | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk From comments on Ann Romney to Newsweek articles, pitting women against each other is a way to distract from real issues

Walled gardens look rosy for Facebook, Apple – and would-be censors | Technology | guardian.co.uk how the rise of app stores and social networks is making the way we use the net cleaner, easier and far more controllable

041612
Kabul Bombing April 2012 - There Is No Mission in Afghanistan Anymore - Esquire (utterly predictable by anyone who wasn't incredibly stupid +ponies!)
Kabul attacks illustrate intelligence failures in Afghanistan | World news | The Guardian Afghan security forces are improving, but it seems the Taliban have learned to outwit even the state's most effective agencies
Neil Heywood Murder: Brit Allegedly Poisoned After Threat To Expose Bo Xilai's Wife
Anders Behring Breivik cries during own propaganda film | World news | guardian.co.uk Norwegian, who says he killed 77 people in self-defence, is 'emotional' as film he made to justify one-man war is played

Spanish Bond Yields Top 6% as Debt Crisis Flares - Europe Business News - CNBC Spanish 10-year government bond yields broke above 6 percent for the first time this year on Monday as concerns over the country's ability to keep its finances under control pushed debt markets back into "crisis mode" (they killed their economy with austerity and the markets didn't like it!)
Jim Yong Kim secures World Bank job amid criticism of US domination of role | Business | guardian.co.uk Seoul-born Kim beats Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who said the decision was not made on merit


Eschaton: WANKER OF THE DECADE - 1st Runner Up Fred Hiatt. (Kaplan Neocon Test Prep at work destroying America +who's left, Irving Kristol?)
Eschaton: WANKER OF THE DECADE - 2nd Runner Up Andrew Sullivan ... "The middle part of the country - the great red zone that voted for Bush - is clearly ready for war. The decadent left in its enclaves on the coasts is not dead -- and may well mount a fifth column." (which should have prevented him from writing another word)

Roger Ailes takes dig at Soledad O'Brien's name - chicagotribune.com - Replying to a tweet asking if she was, in fact, named after a prison, O'Brien replied, "Of course not. Maria de la Soledad means the Virgin Mary." (Roger is named after an idiot)
Chris Wallace, Serious Journalist | Media Matters for America Interviewing Obama advisor Davis Axelrod on Fox News Sunday this week, Chris Wallace asked the type of question that prompts the use of the rewind button, just to confirm the silly gotcha query was actually made on public policy television show, and pitched by a 'serious' journalist like Wallace. (serious wanking, just not in the big leagues)
Tea Party Speaker Reportedly Tells LGBT Protesters: 'We Will Not Be Silenced By Faggots' (almost certainly gay)
GOP's List Of Latino Candidates Echoes Challenges With Latino Community
Paul Ryan Tornado Budget - Today in Paul Ryan's World: The Tornado Gap - Esquire It should be noted that the budget passed by the House last month, the one dreamed up by the zombie-eyed granny-starver Paul Ryan, would cut the budget for the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration by $60 million. Because what do they do that the private sector couldn't do better, right?
Michele Bachmann Meet the Press - What Are the Gobshites Saying These Days? - Esquire That's the lie that happens under Obamacare. The President Of The United States effectively becomes a health-care dictator.
Joe Walsh Challenged Duckworth To A Debate At The Same Time That She Was Serving Army Duty | ThinkProgress

Turning Foreclosed Homes Into Rentals Could Be $100 Billion Industry This Year

Genes Tied To IQ, Brain Size In UCLA ENIGMA Study
Homophobes Gay? Study Ties Anti-Gay Outlook To Homosexuality, Authoritarian Parenting (Republicans are so gay)
Gay Marriage Foes Assume Own Marriages Are Stable, Survey Suggests (more projection)
Majorana Fermion Particle Evidence Found By Physicists

Twitter / @Newsweek: COVER: The Fantasy Life of ... Working Women! (our weeklies can't die fast enough)
Daily Kos: Women earn less than men in 19 of 20 most common women's jobs and 19 of 20 most common men's jobs

BYOB vs. Ocean City's social capital - Philly.com While the city’s Methodist founders pursued moral and religious objectives, today’s leaders zero in on maintaining a wholesome environment for families, subordinating the desires of adults to the needs of children ... as high school daughters can roam downtown and boardwalk unsupervised with friends on summer evenings without provoking parental anxieties. ("high-school daughters?" opening stores on Sunday led to the inevitable: booze!)
At Mass, Catholics learn of parish closings - Page 2 - Philly.com Several parishioners were emphatic they would not join St. John's, whose brownstone steeple towers above the hillside community, because its parishioners had "looked down" on Catholics from the other Manayunk parishes when they were young. "We'll be second class," said an usher who did not give his name. "And besides, they've got no parking." (committed Catholics)

Trayvon Martin and America’s Gun Laws : The New Yorker One nation, under the gun.
Miami-Dade Firefighter Brian Beckmann's Facebook Post Blames Trayvon Martin Situations On 'Shitbag' Parents
Political Animal - There Won’t Be Unity on the Trayvon Martin Case Anytime Soon Take the question of whether “Trayvon Martin is an innocent who was unjustly killed.” Sixty-five percent Democrats agree that Martin was innocent, while just 27 percent of Republicans feel that way (whenever I write “agree” or “disagree,” I’m referring to the totals from the “strongly” and “somewhat” agree/disagree categories). But if the political divide is a mile wide, we’re talking interstellar distances when we move on to race: 91 percent of blacks agree that Martin was innocent, while just 35 percent of whites do.
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - How Ralph Nader’s Sins Set Trayvon Martin’s Killer Free (Lewis Powell made a good facist)
Forty years in solitary: two men mark sombre anniversary in Louisiana prison | World news | guardian.co.uk They've spent 23 hours of each day in the last 40 years in a 9ft-by-6ft cell. Now, as human rights groups intensify calls for their release, a documentary provides insight into an isolated life (torture-state America)

Woman Sobs Over TSA Patdown: Fair Or Foul? (video)


US and China engage in cyber war games | Technology | guardian.co.uk US and Chinese officials take part in war games in bid to prevent military escalation from cyber attacks

041512
Taliban Attacks Hit Several Sites Across Afghanistan Capital The Taliban launched a series of coordinated attacks on as many as seven sites across the Afghan capital on Sunday, targeting NATO bases, the parliament and Western embassies. Militants also launched near-simultaneous assaults in three other eastern cities.
Kabul attacks - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk Rockets fired at parliament building and embassies in apparently co-ordinated assault on government and diplomatic areas (that whole invasion thing worked out really well)
Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails to go on hunger strike | World news | guardian.co.uk Around 1,600 prisoners expected to take part in protest against imprisonment without charge and solitary confinement (Israel loves torture)
Canada and U.S. singled out at summit over drugs, Cuba - World - CBC News Colombian president calls for discussion on decriminalizing drugs (vital part of US national security)
Egypt bars 10 candidates from presidential election | World news | The Guardian Mubarak's spy chief, Salafist leader and a Muslim Brotherhood candidate among those disqualified by election commission
US secret service scandal overshadows Obama trip | World news | guardian.co.uk Eleven agents sent home from Summit of the Americas in Colombia while prostitution scandal is investigated
Sarkozy 'embarrassed France' with Obama video conference TV stunt | World news | The Guardian French president condemned for allowing cameras in to film video link-up just days before first round of election
Do we need a law against incest? | Paul Behrens | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The European human rights court has upheld a German ruling against sibling incest, but some questions remain unanswered - One of the theories to explain the phenomenon is that the absence overcomes the "Westermarck effect" that usually applies: kids who grow up together tend to become desensitised to mutual sexual attraction.
xs
Increasingly in Europe, Suicides ‘by Economic Crisis’ - NYTimes.com (solution: more austerity!)

The Washington Monthly - The Magazine - The Incomplete Greatness of Barack Obama He’s gotten more done in three years than any president in decades. Too bad the American public still thinks he hasn’t accomplished anything.

Prostitution Scandal: 5 Members Of U.S. Military Accused Of Misconduct At Same Hotel As Secret Service

Mitt Romney's poor judgment is already undermining his candidacy | Michael Cohen | Comment is free | The Observer Finally, Obama's opponent has been confirmed, but can the Republican nominee mount an effective challenge?
Timothy Geithner Calls Mitt Romney Claims 'Misleading,' 'Ridiculous' to imply the president is to blame for high unemployment among women.
Dick Cheney: Obama Has Been 'Unmitigated Disaster To The Country' ("Country" = "Republicans")
Mitt Romney: Mothers Should Be Required To Work Outside Home Or Lose Benefits (gives them "dignitude")
Do Republicans realize they’ve just called for the repeal of welfare reform? The Republican Party cannot say “Moms Do Work” and “Mom’s Work Doesn’t Count” at the same time (acutally, they can say anything they want)

NRA official accuses media of creating controversy over Travyon Martin case | World news | guardian.co.uk Wayne LaPierre, executive vice-president of National Rifle Association, says media ignore 'everyday victims' of crime (Satan's mouth)

Fix income inequality with $10 million loans for everyone! - The Washington Post
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » We Don’t Need No Education (college education has risen 2x medical care and 2.5x gasoline and Virginia Foxx doesn't give a damn)
The Fine Art of Starving the Beast | MyFDL Why, in God’s name, are we starving our poor, closing our schools, leaving citizens homeless and without medical care, but we’re still spending $400 billion per year on interest on a national debt that serves no purpose other than to transfer wealth from those who have less to those who have more?
Regulatory Capture of the SEC | Firedoglake The SEC is the Three Stooges of regulation

This Week In The Laboratories Of Democracy - Esquire - Tennessee: Arrested Development
TN: I Can Haz Creationism! | MyFDL
DREGstudios! The Artwork of Brandt Hardin: The Pulpit in the Classroom: A Biblical Agenda in Tennessee
Creationist history | Pharyngula If you compress the known geological record into the 6000 year timespan allowed by young earth creationists, here’s what you get:
Daily Kos: Tennessee senate warns hand-holding is a 'gateway sexual activity'
Tennessee Senators Update Sex Ed Law To Include Warnings Against Hand-Holding And Kissing | Crooks and Liars - But really, it's that they just can't bear the thought of someone having unpunished fun somewhere:

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » “The Real War on Moms Has A Mortality Rate (war on women: the other stand your ground) ”
Hullabaloo I'm not sure I fully understand Mitt's position on this, but it sounds as though he believes that being a wealthy stay at home mom is a full time career while being apoor stay at home mom is undignified and lazy (exactly)
Limbaugh: "Infobabe" At CNN "Cut Feminism Off At The Knees" By Saying Women Want Choice Between Working, Staying Home | Media Matters for America
Anti-Abortion Bachmann Says Women Need To Make Their Own Decisions About Their Bodies | ThinkProgress (by making abortion illegal)
Political Animal - What Would it Take to Get a Real Child Care Conversation in this Country?
The 70s in an Image - Lawyers, Guns & Money

Mysteriously dark Mars regions are made of glass - space - 15 April 2012 - New Scientist

Just don't call it a 'smart meter'; Peco has begun installations Prompted by fears of privacy losses or the health effects of wireless technology, some Florida Power and Light customers recently posted “Do Not Install Smart Meter” signs in their lawns. Several states have launched investigations into the technology (radio waves = flouride)

alDUV.jpg (a personal relationship with reality)

'Gatz' Interview: The 6-Hour-Plus, Word-For-Word Performance Of 'The Great Gatsby' (video)

Inside Washington's high risk mission to beat web censors | Technology | The Guardian n the first part of a series on the struggle to control the internet, Oliver Burkeman finds out why the US is spending millions to help activists communicate
Nervous Kremlin seeks to purge Russia's internet of 'western' influences | Technology | The Guardian Unlike Vladimir Putin, many Russians have taken to the internet with great enthusiasm. Now liberals and gay rights activists are among those feeling the heat from the Kremlin (great firewall of Russia)
Web freedom faces greatest threat ever, warns Google's Sergey Brin | Technology | The Guardian Threats range from governments trying to control citizens to the rise of Facebook and Apple-style 'walled gardens' (great iFirewall )
How tiny Estonia stepped out of USSR's shadow to become an internet titan | Technology | The Guardian The European country where Skype was born made a conscious decision to embrace the web after shaking off Soviet shackles (not to mention hackers)
Instagram: a billion reasons to beware the latest dotcom bubble | Technology | The Observer What exactly has Facebook bought with its $1bn purchase of Instagram? Recent internet history suggests it may be a huge haul of overpriced pixels…
Sweden Grants Religious Recognition To File-Sharing Church | TechWeekEurope UK Sweden has accepted that a “church” which believes in file-sharing as a religion: a move that will not please the Hollywood studios (good move)
Olly Cromwell – calling someone a ‘c*nt’ on twitter is now a crime
Policital Blogger Olly Cromwell Found Guilty Under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 | PitKanary
A racially aggravated prosecution? The case of Azhar Ahmed | openDemocracy
Moderator deleted, without explanation or prior notice, a popular topic on Askreddit. How can we make clear this is not OK? : AskReddit
reddit.com: help Why does reddit need moderation? Can't you just let the voters decide?

041412
Syria Shelling Restarts In Homs (that didn't take long)
UN to vote on Syria monitors as both sides allege ceasefire breaches | World news | guardian.co.uk UN security council due to vote on sending military observers to Syria as both sides accuse each other of breaking ceasefire
Iran Nuclear Talks: Diplomat Says Talks Show Progress (will Israel get its world-economy-destroying war?)
Iran raises hopes of nuclear trade-off to halt oil sanctions | World news | The Guardian Tehran signals willingness to trade uranium enrichment limits on eve of first negotiations on nuclear programme in 15 months
Afghans march in Kabul to demand justice for women | World news | guardian.co.uk Young Women for Change say government is not serious about tackling suffering and fear return to Taliban era ignorance
Anders Behring Breivik Trial: Norway Massacre Survivors Brace For Killer's Trial
Spanish Nun Maria Gomez Valbuena Charged In Baby-Stealing Operation An 80-year-old Spanish nun has refused to testify at a court hearing about her alleged involvement in the stealing of newborn babies from their parents and selling them to other families (world's largest baby-stealing ring)



Secret service agents sent home after Colombia prostitution allegations | World news | guardian.co.uk Members of president's security detail recalled from Cartagena following claims of heavy drinking and use of prsotitutes
Secret Service Agents Relieved Of Duty Following Colombia Misconduct Allegations ... involved prostitutes in Cartagena, site of the Summit of the Americas

Democratic super PACs gain ground but still trail GOP in fundraising - Kenneth P. Vogel and Robin Bravender - politico.com
Tell us more about Romney’s ‘private’ views - PostPartisan - The Washington Post
Gary Stein Case: Judge Won't Block Discharge Effort Against Marine Who Called Obama 'Enemy' U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff ruled the military has the right to respond to Sgt. Gary Stein's online comments in a case that has called into question the Pentagon's policies regarding social media and the limits regarding the speech of active duty military personnel.
Pete Hoekstra Fundraising Drops After Offensive Super Bowl Ad Michigan Republican Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra took a pounding in the polls after running that Super Bowl ad of an Asian woman speaking broken English. It doesn't appear to have done much for his campaign fundraising, either.
9th And 10th Companies Drop ALEC | ThinkProgress

Treasury Tries To Bail Out Public Image Of Bailout The public in general, and the Tea Party in particular, quickly conflated the $700 billion Wall Street bailout with the $787 billion stimulus, damning the latter politically (dumb and dumber)
Buffett Rule: Doomed Congressional Tax Debate May Tilt 2012 Election The tussles will start Monday over the so-called Buffet Rule in the Democratic-led Senate -- a $47 billion tax hike on $1 million-plus earners. That bill will likely fail the next day. Then, over in the GOP-controlled House, will be a $46 billion business tax cut plan. Together, the two bills offer Americans one of the clearest contrasts in the two parties' political platforms and ideologies likely to be seen before the November election (voters will decide whether to destroy the country)
Rep. Virginia Foxx On People With Student Loans: 'I Have Very Little Tolerance' For Them | ThinkProgress

Experts Forecast Global "Catastrophe of Death and Disease" From Asbestos Use | Investigative Reports by Gary Cohn Asia is heading for a huge jump in asbestos-related diseases in the coming decades, according to numerous scientific studies and two of the world’s most prominent experts on public health and asbestos exposure. Not surprisingly, the consequences are expected to be felt most severely in India and China, two emerging economies and most populous countries in the world.

Hullabaloo - When I was a kid ... (Boston Marathon = Augusta Masters = men being threatened by women)
Hullabaloo - Wait, is this really a question? And if it's a question that's debated openly in parenting forums in the New York Times, we're in a lot more trouble as a society than I'd like to admit. (boys "joking" about rape)
Tennesse doesn’t even want kids to hold hands until marriage - “gateway sexual activity.” (you can see where their minds are)

Change.org thrust into spotlight in wake of Trayvon Martin case | Media | guardian.co.uk - The petition went global, attracting 2.2m signatures and sparking rallies, marches and blanket media coverage. Rattray sees that as evidence of a fundamental shift that is being forced by the advent of online and mobile technology coupled with the individual passion of individuals like Trayvon Martin's parents.

Woman arrested after Easter egg hunt turns violent - Action News 5 - Memphis, Tennessee – A fight over a golden egg during an Easter egg hunt landed one Memphis mother in jail after she allegedly attacked another parent with a hammer ... "He started cursing her out," said Cirby Pearson. "She started cursing him back. He done hauled off and smacked her. So she had, she went in and got the hammer. And she came back and bust his head with it."


How will the new law on cookies affect internet browsing? | Technology | guardian.co.uk Websites track visitors' activity, but will legal changes to users' consent make a difference to the Guardian or other sites?

041312
Syrians demonstrate against Assad as uneasy ceasefire holds | World news | The Guardian First major challenge against regime since truce took effect on Thursday morning draws tens of thousands across country
Iran raises hopes of nuclear trade off to halt oil sanctions | World news | The Guardian Tehran signals willingness to trade uranium enrichment limits on eve of first negotiations on nuclear programme in 15 months
North Korea's failed rocket launch triggers indifference in Seoul | World news | The Guardian Pyongyang's $850m damp squib generates nonchalance on streets of South Korean capital and threats of sanctions beyond
Obama engagement policy 'in tatters' after North Korean rocket defiance | World news | guardian.co.uk US officials expect Pyongyang to carry out third nuclear test in near future, respresenting significant policy failure for president (but Israel not next to NK)
Lawyer for victims of CIA drone strikes in Pakistan again denied entry to US | World news | guardian.co.uk Supporters of Shahzah Akbar say the US is trying to silence his first-hand knowledge of civilian deaths along the Afghan border (Obama loves his collateral damage and surpressing the truth)
Guinea-Bissau coup suspected as military seizes parts of capital | World news | guardian.co.uk Witnesses report explosions in Bissau as troops seal city centre and fire on prime minister Carlos Gomes Junior's residence
Sabatina James: Why My Mother Wants Me Dead - The Daily Beast When Sabatina James refused an arranged marriage, she sparked a violent war within her family—and a threat on her life.

Exclusive-European Railway Companies Eye Greek Network Sale - NYTimes.com (didn't even have to buy any tanks)

Eschaton: WANKER OF THE DECADE - Runner Up #3 Joe Klein

The High Court’s Body-Cavity Fixation—By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine)
Witness for the Prosecution—By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine) Yesterday the Obama Administration, after a delay of several years, released an important document relating to the Bush Administration’s torture policies: a memorandum by Philip Zelikow, a high-ranking State Department lawyer and confidant of Condoleezza Rice, which aggressively refuted Justice Department memoranda that sought to authorize the use of thirteen “enhanced interrogation techniques” used by the CIA.

First Read - First Thoughts: The silly season What is new, however, is how much faster and professionalized -- due to Twitter and the drive to make something go viral -- these manufactured controversies have become. Indeed, we’ve now seen three of them in the past 30 days: Etch A Sketch, hot mic, and Hilary Rosen.

Stop playing it cute on gay rights - The Plum Line - The Washington Post I agree with those who are arguing today that this was a bad move by the White House (more useless Republicanizing)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » It’s so weird how Obama keeps trying to talk about health care, and somehow the public ends up talking about something else entirely Northeast Health has agreed to abide by Catholic health restrictions upon completion of its affiliation with two Catholic systems (no reproductive health for women)

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » There is bullying going on here, all right ALEC says it’s being targeted because of its free-enterprise agenda. “The groups attacking ALEC and its members are the same activists who have always pushed for big-government solutions,” said Kaitlyn Buss, the council’s spokeswoman. “And those groups will use any excuse to intimidate and bully.”< (ooh, they are so bullied) /a>
ALEC's Really Bad Day | Crooks and Liars
Bobby Jindal Recall: Teachers Seek To Oust Louisiana Governor "The governor is doing the job of ALEC," she said. "They are doing an overhaul of the entire state. It is a scripted ALEC overhaul."

Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS Funded By $10 Million Checks “GPS” in Crossroads GPS ostensibly stands for grassroots policy strategies, but the Washington Post reported Friday that nearly 90 percent of the money flowing through the Karl Rove-associated group has come from as few as two dozen anonymous donors, two of whom gave at least $10 million each.
Mitt Romney plays to NRA interests in bid to win over conservative base | World news | guardian.co.uk Address to annual meeting of gun lobbying group focuses on anti-Obama rhetoric and an assurance to protect gun rights (no limits on deadly weapons centerpiece of Republican strategy)
Cagle Post » Down & Pretty Close To Out In Grand Cayman According to CNN polling, the former governor will be the only presidential candidate since 1996 to exit the primaries with a net negative approval rating.

Yes, Virginia, This Is Obamas JOBS Act | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone ("Legalizing Fraud Act" - another Obama masterpiece)
Governor Jan Brewer Signs Arizona’s Extreme New Abortion Law - The Daily Beast Life now starts earlier in Arizona: In practice, the state has banned abortions after about 18 weeks ... Life starts earliest in Arizona, which now defines gestational age as beginning on the first day of a woman’s last period, rather than at fertilization. In practice (Period Police: "Women’s Health and Safety Act" usual up is down Republican war on women)
Not Just Bad Policy, Unconstitutional Policy - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Arizona governor Jan Brewer signed a draconian abortion law that, among other things, effectively bans abortions after 18 weeks after conception. This law, like other attempts by state legislatures to ban pre-viability abortions, represents a substantial dilution of a woman’s right to choose. In addition, it’s worth noting that the law is plainly unconstitutional under current law.

Marty Peretz no longer writing for TNR - POLITICO.com Martin Peretz, the former owner, editor-in-chief, and editor-in-chief emeritus of The New Republic, is no longer writing for the magazine (the Putz is no longer dragging down their low rep)

Occupy Wall Street: the story behind seven months of protest – video | World news | guardian.co.uk
Fiscal Games Can’t Hide True Cost of U.S. Roads - Bloomberg ("Giving Away Infrastructure to Rich People Act")

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Radley Balko defends the Cato Institute One of the best, most certain ways to help those who are frequently the subject of police misconduct is to remove them from the poverty and political dispossession that makes police misconduct against them possible. That is an effort that both Balko and the Cato Institute have worked tirelessly to oppose. (glibertarians at work)
Newark Mayor Cory Booker taken to hospital after rescuing woman from house fire | NJ.com

Oxford University, Vatican libraries to digitize works | Reuters The Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (BAV) said on Thursday they intended to digitize 1.5 million pages of ancient texts and make them freely available online.
Baboons leave scientists spell-bound › News in Science (ABC Science) Baboons can recognise scores of written words, a feat that raises intriguing questions about how we learn to read, scientists report

Tennessee Senators Update Sex Ed Law To Include Warnings Against Hand-Holding And Kissing | Crooks and Liars (idiots)
Divorced people- looking back to when you got married, were there signs that your marriage wouldn't last? : AskReddit

AI vs. AI. Two chatbots talking to each other - YouTube

Say 'hello' to CISPA, it will remind you of SOPA | Internet & Media - CNET News The latest bill that would give law enforcement new powers over the Internet bears a striking resemblance to the last bill that did that. And the one before that (they never give up; in fact it's worse)
The Lawsuit That Could Throw Up Legal Barriers to Embedding Video | ThinkProgress (Big Content joins forces with Obama to kill the internets: linking illegal)

041212
Iran's nuclear programme: legal debate stirs over basis for US or Israeli attack | World news | guardian.co.uk As US and Israeli officials weigh up prospect of military strike on Iran, critics say any attack would go against international law ("US and Israeli officials" un-huh)
Post-ABC News poll shows drop in Republican support for Afghan war - The Washington Post . For the first time, more Republicans and GOP-leaning independents oppose the war than support it, with 55 percent saying it has not been worth the costs (now they figure it out)
Hamid Karzai may step down early from Afghan presidency | World news | guardian.co.uk Fears that clash of 2014 elections with planned western troop withdrawal could lead to security and constitutional crisis
Neil Heywood had 'told friend he was in trouble' | UK news | The Guardian British businessman murdered in China was summoned to Chongqing by representatives of Bo Xilai's family, says friend
Indonesia earthquake kills five | World news | guardian.co.uk Child critically injured by falling tree in 8.6-magnitude quake felt as far away as southern India
Kuwait MPs okay death penalty for cursing God, Islam's Prophet Mohammed or his wives ... have demanded that the new amendments also enforce the death penalty for anyone who curses their sect's 12 revered Imams, but the Sunni- dominated parliament rejected their requests.
Silvio Berlusconi paid €127,000 to witnesses in trial | World news | The Guardian Italian former prime minister's lawyer denies payments were attempt to sway testimonies in trial over underage prostitute ("not a bribe")

BBC News - Greece bartering system popular in Volos A few months ago, an alternative currency was introduced in the Greek port city of Volos. It was a grass-roots initiative that has since grown into a network of more than 800 members, in a community struggling to afford items in euros during a deepening financial crisis

British Hacking Scandal Suits to Be Filed in U.S. - NYTimes.com A high-profile British lawyer who has been closely involved in pursuing the hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloids said on Thursday that he planned for the first time to sue on behalf of alleged victims in the United States, the center of Mr. Murdoch’s global media empire.

Australia's most senior-ranked Catholic says Jews 'intellectually and morally inferior' - Telegraph Australia's most senior-ranked Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, has apologised for comments during a debate with Richard Dawkins in which he claimed the Jews were an intellectually and morally inferior people. Later, Cardinal Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, seemed to suggest the Germans had suffered more than the Jews during the Holocaust.

Daily Kos: Gallup: Mitt Romney least popular Republican nominee in modern history within own party
Newt Gingrich: Fox News 'Has Been For Romney All The Way Through,' CNN 'Less Biased' Gingrich's comments echo those of Rick Santorum, another former Fox News contributor. Both were dropped by the network when they began their presidential bids, and both have accused Fox News of favoring frontrunner Romney over them (Romney is Murdoch's boy)
Irving Moskowitz, Controversial Backer Of Israeli Settlements, Gives $1 Million To Anti-Obama Super PAC (Israel First)
White House Punts On Executive Order Banning Contractors From LGBT Discrimination
US Politics | AMERICAblog News: Carney gets pummeled over LGBT Executive Order at WH briefing (Obama caves to Dobson and Focus on the Family)
Karl Rove Group That Absurdly Blames Obama For Rising Gas Prices Was Bankrolled By Top Oil Speculator | ThinkProgress
Conservative Billionaire Foster Friess Makes Obama Assassination "Joke"

The Note - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Speaking of Halperin, my very favorite part of Boehlert’s Lapdogs is the extended takedown of The Note, which is excerpted here. It was a time, while the presiding administration was lying its way into a disastrous war, in which trivial non-scandals involving people vaguely associated with Bill Clinton were still seen as the most pressing issues imaginable by the Beltway media:
1. Mark Halperin - Salon Hack List 2011 - Congratulations to the world's laziest dispenser of conventional wisdom (last years Salon #1 Hack)

Robert Samuelson Shows that the Post Has no Fact Checkers on Its Opinion Pages | Beat the Press- The story here is that Samuelson wants to punish ordinary workers for the fact that we pay doctors and the other big winners in this story too much. That may not make sense, but they don't call this paper "Fox on 15th Street" for nothing. (speaking of hacks)

Arkansas judge fines J&J $1.2 billion because the health-care giant’s Janssen subsidiary marketed the antipsychotic drug Risperdal in misleading ways through that state’s Medicaid system (chances they will actually pay that: zero)
Daily Kos: ALEC getting defensive as shareholders in some corporations grow restive Another company, Wendy's, has gone public this week with the news that they've dropped sponsorship of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), saying it "didn't fit our business needs." They join McDonald's, Kraft Foods, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Inuit as well at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Hullabaloo - Thank You, Allen West - Rachel Maddow hit it out of the park yesterday.

US adds 13,000 to unemployment rolls in latest disappointing claims report | World news | guardian.co.uk Some economists had expected jobless benefits claims to fall, but increase is instead the largest in nearly a year (recovery!)
TARP Bailout Money Fails To Reach Neediest Homeowners After Two Years: Report (the program Obama designed to fail ... failed!)

Manipulating memory to treat addiction | Science | guardian.co.uk A behavioural procedure that alters memory effectively prevents the cravings of heroin addicts
Attacks on climate science by former NASA staff shouldn't be taken seriously | Environment | guardian.co.uk A letter from former administrators, astronauts, and engineers at NASA expressing climate change scepticism does not deserve parity with the agency's peer-reviewed climate scientists
Stars – the essential magic vanishing from our lives | Ros Wynne-Jones | Comment is free | The Guardian Light pollution is increasingly obscuring our view of the night sky, and so destroying one of our last truly wild experiences
RCSI study finds that over 20% of children report hearing voices - RTÉ News Hearing voices may affect over a fifth of schoolchildren aged 11 to 13, a psychiatric study has found.

George Zimmerman appears briefly in court on Trayvon Martin murder charge | World news | guardian.co.uk Man charged with murder of Trayvon Martin has arraignment set for 29 May as judge agrees to seal all documents in the case
Ciavarella speaks after verdict (WARNING: explicit language) - YouTube Former Luzerne County judge Mark Ciavarella and his attorney, Al Flora, speak to reporters following the announcement of a verdict in Ciavarella's corruption trial on Friday, February 18, 2011 (woman whose son committed suicide after being sold into prison)
Marcus Bachmann Is Still Practicing Ex-Gay Therapy | ThinkProgress

Hullabaloo- More spreading of our liberty
The Sexual Sadism of the Michigan Department of Corrections | The Dissenter a strip-search procedure prisoners in Michigan’s Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility (WHV) are forced to submit to that is nothing less than sexual sadism by the state. In the prison that operates under the umbrella of the Michigan Department of Corrections, women are forced to remove their clothing and spread the lips of their vaginas so that a guard can peer inside. Female prisoners are forced to do this after they meet with family members, religious workers, their lawyers, or anyone else who may visit them in prison.
Daily Kos: New casualty in the War on Women: Mitt Romney If that's "winning" for Republicans, let's hope they keep "winning" all the way until November.
News from The Associated Press A federal appeals court is considering an eastern Pennsylvania school district's efforts to ban breast cancer fundraising bracelets that say "I (heart) boobies!" (Republican war on boobies)

Courthouse News Service Class Claims AT&T Aids & Abets Cellphone Thieves, for the Profit

Anonymous wants to take down the Great Firewall of China | ZDNet The countless attacks on Chinese websites were apparently just a warm up. Anonymous wants to take down the Internet censorship system known as the Great Firewall of China.

041112
Indonesian earthquake triggers panic but no tsunami | World news | The Guardian Fears sparked by 8.6-magnitude quake on seabed 300 miles of Banda Aceh result in chaos and successful evacuations
Indonesia Earthquake: Tsunami Warning Issued Following Magnitude 8.6 Temblor
Covert War Inside Iran: New Details Emerge On Tuesday, Iran's state media declared that government authorities had arrested a group of Israel-backed "mercenaries" who were planning to carry out sabotage and assassinations across the country.
USS Cole Trial: al-Nashiri Wouldn’t Testify On Torture, For Now | TPMMuckraker

BBC News - US shares trade higher after a five-session losing run Concerns remain about Spain, which faces borrowing costs of close to 6%, despite a slight fall on Wednesday.

News International braced as lawyer brings phone-hacking scandal to US | Media | guardian.co.uk Lawyer's visit brings UK scandal to Rupert Murdoch's front door and raises prospect of lawsuits involving US legal system

Eschaton: WANKER OF THE DECADE - Runner Up #4 - Mark Halperin.

What do you want for the future of Social Security and Medicare? Survey

The Obama administration's disturbing treatment of whistleblowers | Paul Harris | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Obama has shown a hostility to whistleblowers that exceeds that shown by President Bush. Democrats should be concerned
Supreme Court Justices Possibly Misunderstood Insurance Requirement In Health Care Case (it was "too complicated")

National Organization For Marriage Website Hacked On Same Day Group Endorses Mitt Romney
Allen West: I've 'Heard' 80 House Democrats Are Communist Party Members (dumb)
Barney Frank Slams Allen West: 'Not Even Joe McCarthy Would Have Said Anything So Stupid'

Texts from Hillary
Secretary of japes: Hillary Clinton's tomfoolery goes viral | World news | The Guardian

UC Davis chancellor blamed over use of pepper-spray on Occupy protesters | World news | guardian.co.uk Task force finds breakdown in chain of command proceeded officer's use of unauthorized canister, seen widely in viral video

Reports: George Zimmerman to face murder charges in Trayvon Martin case – live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk Suspect has been taken into custody
Trayvon Martin Case: George Zimmerman Charged With Second-Degree Murder
Trayvon Martin Case: George Zimmerman's Attorneys Quit, Say Client 'Disappeared'
Rev. Lonny Remmers Held In Torture Of Boy Who Was Forced To Dig His Own Grave Authorities in California said they have uncovered a case of incredible cruelty involving a pastor and two members of his church.
Eric Justin Toth, Alleged Child Pornographer, Added To FBI's Most Wanted List
Andrew Thomas, Phoenix Prosecutor, Disbarred For 'Defiled' Public Trust
John Derbyshire, Trayvon Martin, and the ignorance of racial profiling. - Slate Magazine

Free Bacon Now Outdumbing Daily Caller And Breitbart’s Chalk Outline | TBogg
Wonkette Exclusive! James O’Keefe Depos: Breitbart Paid Pimp, Ho Mad Cheddar For ACORN Videos (damage done, but what a crew ...)
National Review Fires Another Racist Writer | ThinkProgress Robert Weissberg, who was a contributing writer to the magazine for years, was fired for his ties to the white nationalist group American Renaissance. (we're shocked)

Emma Gray: Female Orgasm: Experts Debate The Existence Of The Vaginal Orgasm
An Intimate Wash That Exposes Our Dirty Psyche | Mumbai Boss My vagina isn’t happy about what’s been happening recently in Indian media.

video: Teen Is Tied Down, Shocked By Teachers at "School" for Autistic Kids | Mother Jones In 2007, we ran a devastating exposé of the Judge Rotenberg Center ... Last month the school was targeted by Anonymous ... But the video that may truly take down Rotenberg for good is below. Just yesterday this footage of a Rotenberg student being restrained and shocked for hours was played in a Massachusetts courtroom:
Hullabaloo "I had no idea that they tortured the children" (Rotenberg Center for Torture)

Even in the 1870s, humans were obsessed with ridiculous photos of cats

The Likely Outcomes Of The Apple E-Books Antitrust Case | TPM Idea Lab (end of monopolistic "agency model" for ebooks)

Porn producer's copyright complaint pits Hollywood against Google | World news | guardian.co.uk Big players in online content watch as porn site's case winds its way through US courts, wary of ramifications for wider web
Apple accused by US of colluding with publishers to fix price of ebooks | Technology | guardian.co.uk Lawsuit filed by US department of justice claims Apple ended price competition after seeing success of Amazon's $10 ebooks
Apple's Antitrust Lawsuit Might Be A Big Deal For You -- But Not For Apple accuses the tech giant and six top publishers of colluding to drive up the price of e-books.
Google+ New Look: Struggling Social Network Gets Sharing Ribbon, Larger Photos And More
A power user's guide to the Windows 8 Consumer Preview | ZDNet (how to make it hurt less)
How real people will use Windows 8 [Page 2]: PC Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

041102
Afghanistan Suicide Bombings Claim At Least 15 Lives
U.S. Can Kill American Citizens Without Trial: Eric Holder
Israel's Secret Staging Ground - By Mark Perry | Foreign Policy U.S. officials believe that the Israelis have gained access to airbases in Azerbaijan. Does this bring them one step closer to a war with Iran? (like they don't know?)
Chinese politician Bo Xilai's wife accused of murdering UK businessman | World news | guardian.co.uk Gu Kailai, wife of suspended Chongqing party secretary, 'highly suspected' of killing Neil Heywood
Abu Hamza can be extradited to US, human rights court rules | UK news | guardian.co.uk Radical cleric can be sent to US to face terrorism charges, along with four other men held in Britain
Yemen Airstrike: Dozens Killed By Suspected US Drones
Iran Claims CIA Behind Nuclear Scientist, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan's Death
AIPAC: Susan Rice Emerges As Pro-Israel Courter-In-Chief Rice delivered a speech Monday afternoon at a luncheon for AIPAC's synagogue delegation, to a room full of mostly black-kippahed Jews, where she asserted that the Obama administration has been a tireless advocate for Israel's concerns at the U.N.
BBC News - Norway's mass killer Breivik declared sane A second psychiatric evaluation of Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik has found him sane enough to face trial and a jail term.
Gaza executions: Hamas condemned over 'inhuman punishment' | World news | The Guardian Human Rights Watch calls for a moratorium on death sentences in Gaza after three men were hanged at the weekend
Top 10 Worst World Leaders (Slideshow, Poll)
North Korea Prison Camps: 150,000 Languish In Secret Gulags, Human Rights Group Says
Ozzie Guillen Suspended By Marlins For Fidel Castro Comments The 48-year-old Venezuelan told Time magazine he loves Castro and respects the retired Cuban leader for staying in power so long. In response, at least two local officials said Guillen should lose his job.

Irish Economic Crisis Devours Restaurants - WSJ.com Eateries Slash Prices to Draw Penny-Pinching Diners Amid a National Plight That Has Reduced Their Ranks by a Third (the elites who fucked over the country tell everyone to eat austerity)
Is austerity self-defeating? Of course it is | vox - Research-based policy analysis and commentary from leading economists

The Obama-Romney Confidence Gap -- Daily Intel
It's "Game On" In Chicago One year in, the Obama campaign unleashes itself on America. Confident, cool, digitally dynamic. But are they getting cocky?

Erskine Bowles Will Have His Revenge on Partisanville - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Oddly enough, Americans Elect’s drive to take the politics out of politics isn’t working. I think the problems started when they inexplicably declined to reacquire the domain name for Hot Soup. And where was the 3-D revival of Man of the Year?
Americans Elect 2012 Candidates - Americans Elect Not to Care - Esquire
The Myth of the Fourth Estate by Gregory Shaya - Roundtable | Lapham’s Quarterly (they were bought out by the hedge-fund guys)

Nobody Could Have Predicted - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Chris Christie, brave truth-teller: Of course, this is all just a product of Christie’s highly principled Fiscal Conservatism, which holds that state money should go to property developers rather than actual public infrastructure (fat fuck lied about everything)

Rick Santorum's presidential bid to end - US politics live | World news | guardian.co.uk Rick Santorum is to end his bid for the Republican presidential nomination - live coverage
Rick Santorum Drops Out: GOP Presidential Candidate Suspends 2012 Campaign (live video)
Requiem for a Warm Body -- Daily Intel - Santorum’s success was entirely the function of his being a Republican not named Romney who happened to be there when every other alternative had either been destroyed by Romney’s money or collapsed on its own.
Political Animal - Santorum Folds Now we get to see if Newt Gingrich tries to pretend he’s the last True Conservative Standing, or will just let us all have a break from the Great Republican Race to the Right of 2012.
Hullabaloo: We'll Miss You, Ricky - Yes, this man was and still is taken seriously by tens of millions of Republican voters. That's still hard to process. I suppose I do share a country with these people, but only on the flimsiest and most superficial of levels
Hullabaloo - The Santorum Legacy (quiverfull)
Every Candidate Endorsed by God Lost to Mitt Romney Dan Amira points out that God's endorsement "somehow failed to secure" the GOP presidential nomination for Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Perry. "It is unclear at this point whether God will even bother to offer anyone his apparently useless endorsement in the general election."

Obama JOBS Act Leaves Labor Fuming In Democratic Feud Democrats were forced to choose between two allies -- labor and the tech industry. Democrats stuck with Silicon Valley, secure in the belief that union loyalty isn't going anywhere. It's yet another political battle pitting nominal allies against each other
Why Obama's JOBS Act Couldn't Suck Worse | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone The "Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act" (in addition to everything else, the Act has an annoying, redundant title) will very nearly legalize fraud in the stock market.
Eschaton: They Hates It Our Galtian Overlords really do want to destroy Social Security. They have no interest in "reforming it" or "preserving it" or whatever. Some of them are haunted by the visions of someone else's grandmother not living in utter destitution, and others just want to steal the money or make sure rich people never have to pay any taxes again. Some grand bargain of revenue increases and benefit cuts to put it in actuarial balance until time infinity will not stop them from trying to impoverish old people and steal the money.
The Bogus Obamacare-Deficit Study -- Daily Intel - . It was published by the Mercatus Center, a Koch-funded organization. (Republicans always make shit up)
Food Stamp Program Crucial to Alleviating Poverty | FDL News Desk (Republicans: starvation builds moral character!)
George W. Bush: Wish tax cuts not in my name - Darius Dixon - politico.com (Junior very sad)

Solar thermal process produces cement with no carbon dioxide emissions While the largest contributor to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions is the power industry, the second largest is the more often overlooked cement industry, which accounts for 5-6% of all anthropogenic CO2 emissions. For every 10 kg of cement produced, the cement industry releases a full 9 kg of CO2.

Echoes of Trayvon Martin in the police killing of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr | Amy Goodman | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Another African-American man was gunned down by police, and no one was charged. This time the whole event was recorded
OUTLAW! - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Shorter Jeff Goldstein: “if the Republican Party were not dominated by politically correct censors, all conservatives could straightforwardly argue that white supremacy is simply the truth, like the regrettably martyred John Derbyshire.”
Racist with an Explanation: Rightbloggers Defend John Derbyshire - New York News - Runnin' Scared
alicublog - DERP DE DERB

Homophobic Attitudes Likely To Be Stronger Among Those Who Have Repressed Same-Sex Attraction: Report homophobic attitudes are likely to be more pronounced among those who've experienced unacknowledged attraction towards members of the same sex (if you didn't know this already)
Teen Pregnancy: Mississippi Has Highest Teen Birth Rate In The U.S. while New Hampshire has the lowest (how's that abstinance thing working out for you?)
Rush Limbaugh Show Moved From CBS Affiliate Station WPHT-Philadelphia Rush Limbaugh's show has been moved from Philadelphia's top conservative radio station.
Democratic Responsibility for the Republican War on Women - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Why yes; Republican anti-feminism is bad, but when Democrats point out that the Republican Party is viciously anti-feminist, it’s almost as bad. (TNR being TNR)

The former Mets and Phillies hero turned out to be the - 03.12.12 - SI Vault The former Mets and Phillies hero turned out to be the centerfielder who couldn't shoot straight (using other people's money; should have stuck to legal cons)
Thomas Kinkade Death Raises Questions about the troubled final years of an artist whose use of Christian imagery made him a special favorite of his fellow evangelicals ("God was his agent")

THE WHO Eminence Front (Toronto 17th dec 1982) - YouTube


Second Security Firm Finds Massive Mac Infection t 600,000 Apple (NSDQ:AAPL) Macs have been infected with Java-exploiting malware, an indication that cyber-criminals are turning their attention toward stealing personal data from Mac users (Apple dragging its feet)

040912
Syria ceasefire plan in disarray as violence spills into Turkey | World news | guardian.co.uk Kofi Annan's Syria plan near certain to fail as troops fire into Turkey and Bashar al-Assad demands rebels disarm first
North Korea nuclear test under preparation, Seoul claims | World news | guardian.co.uk Warning of third nuclear test from South Korean intelligence raises tension ahead of North Korea's long-range rocket launch
Somalia bombing kills at least 12 | World news | guardian.co.uk Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for attack targeting Somali and Ethiopian troops near a market in the city of Baidoa

US Pressures UK to Not Hear Rendition, Torture Victims’ Cases in Open Court | The Dissenter

Eschaton: WANKER OF THE DECADE Runner Up #5 Lord Will Saletan ("invade Iraq!" "we can all agree, abortion is icky" ; edges out Weisberg)

Client of Haley Barbour's Lobby Shop Linked To Iranian Nuke Efforts another prominent American working with Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman, who has ties to a controversial Iranian nuclear power plant. In this case, the American is Jack Rosen, real estate developer, chair of the American Jewish Congress and head of the Council of the World's Jewry (no limits to hypocrisy; making money selling Iran nuke stuff and then bombing them!)

The Gullible Center - NYTimes.com So, can we talk about the Paul Ryan phenomenon? He’s a garden-variety modern G.O.P. extremist, an Ayn Rand devotee who believes that the answer to all problems is to cut taxes on the rich and slash benefits for the poor and middle class (so, the Village calls him a "centrist")
Elizabeth Warren Raises $6.9 Million In 1st Quarter 2012 The nearly $7 million appears to be the largest quarterly haul of the election cycle for a nonpresidential candidate and shows off the national star appeal of Warren, the architect of President Barack Obama's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (good for Mass that Obama hated her)
Taibbi Savages JOBS Act as Fraud-Creation Policy Dressed Up As “Financial Innovation” | FDL News Desk

Mitt Romney Faces Lengthy To-Do List As Likely Republican Nominee
Tom Barrett Endorsed By Dave Obey In Wisconsin Recall Race

WaPo WAY Off on Social Security | Jared Bernstein | On the Economy was about to go after Robert Samuelson’s terribly misleading attack on Social Security this AM—it has become welfare!…FDR would hate it!—when it occurred to me that this is just the type of spurious attack the drives Dean Baker nuts (Dean and Mark Weisbrot were early recognizers of the Soc Sec crisis mongering). (the elites hate you)
Judge Rules Wells Fargo Engages in “Reprehensible,” Systemic Accounting Abuses on Mortgages, Hit with $3.1 Million Punitive Damages for One Loan « naked capitalism
Pa. joins cash-hungry states turning to lotteries | PoconoRecord.com (PA decides to gamble its way to prosperity! Republicans at work)
Sony Job Cuts: Japanese Electronics Giant Reportedly Plans To Slash 10,000 Jobs In Turnaround Bid
US markets slip as American economy faces another crunch week | Business | guardian.co.uk Dow Jones, Nasdaq and S&P 500 all down at start of week where major American firms report their first-quarter earnings

Is some homophobia self-phobia? Homophobia is more pronounced in individuals with an unacknowledged attraction to the same sex and who grew up with authoritarian parents who forbade such desires, a series of psychology studies demonstrates. (it's official)
Opioid Painkiller Prescriptions Pose Danger Without Oversight - NYTimes.com (Obama's war on people in pain; doctors love seeing you suffer; other dependency-causing drugs all ok)
Conservative Politics, 'Low-Effort' Thinking Linked In New Study "Our research shows that low-effort thought promotes political conservatism, not that political conservatives use low-effort thinking." (that's a distinction without a difference, dudes)
California Climate Change Study: Golden State Most Likely To Survive Global Warming (the part that isn't underwater, anyway; Mass #9)
NOAA: More Than 15,000 Temperature Records Broken In March | Crooks and Liars (Republicans: "warmist propaganda")

Bob Somerby: Daily Howler: Where were you in 1997? One professor was living on air (next installment: what Sissela Bok was doing in 1996 when everyone was lying about Whitewater, among other things +plus Frank Rich and Modo making shit up)

Jesus Of Galt’s Gulch | TBogg - Jesus said sell all your stuff and give to the poor - Flatulent Jesus walrus Rick Warren tells Jesus to fuck all that noise (giving to the poor robs them of their starving dignity; Santorum: "not giving to the poor gives them hope")

Bill Baird, Birth Control Pioneer, Says Battle Had A Cost
Limbaugh: Obama is the 'Generalissimo' in the War on Women | Video Cafe

Trayvon Martin case: special prosecutor decides not to use grand jury | World news | guardian.co.uk Angela Corey says decision should not be considered a factor in deciding whether George Zimmerman should be charged (but rules out first-degree murder under FL law)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » This, Too, Was Inevitable According to NBC News correspondent Mara Schiavocampo, George Zimmerman has launched a new website
Trayvon Martin Case Spotlights Florida Town's History Of 'Sloppy' Police Work

Instagram Acquired By Facebook For $1 Billion
Microsoft to buy AOL patents for $1.1bn | Technology | guardian.co.uk AOL will retain a licence for the patents and return a 'significant portion' of the sale proceeds to shareholders
Intel details entire desktop Ivy Bridge line up - CPU - News - HEXUS.net
SSD reviews from around the web | Passion: Technology

040812
Iran nuclear talks: west demands closure of Fordo underground facility | World news | The Guardian US and Europe also call on Iran to end uranium enrichment to 20% ahead of 'last chance' negotiations in Istanbul
Syria demands guarantees from rebels before calling ceasefire | World news | guardian.co.uk President Assad says he will need written agreement over violence, in move observers say is designed to divide opposition
Bosnia's victims 20 years on: survivors of a nightmare with no reckoning | World news | The Observer Two decades after revealing the horror of Serb concentration camps, Ed Vulliamy finds on the 20th anniversary of the conflict that those who survived still suffer open wounds (see Syria)
North Korea moves rocket into position for launch | World news | The Guardian Pyongyang vows to go ahead with launch of what it says is a satellite, but US fears is a disguised long-range missile test
Mubarak's intelligence chief joins race for Egypt presidency | World news | The Guardian Omar Suleiman's last minute entrance raises heat in election pitting former regime figures against Islamists

Binyamin Netanyahu's support for settlers bodes ill for peace prospects | World news | guardian.co.uk The Israeli prime minister's critics say he is seeking to change, bend or bypass the law in order to protect illegal outposts (corrupt regimes everywhere)
Günter Grass barred from Israel over poem | World news | guardian.co.uk Nobel laureate, who says he had not meant to criticise Israel but Netanyahu government, declared persona non grata following the publication of his poem warning that the Jewish state's nuclear programme was a threat to an "already fragile world peace". (ooh, that will get you banned)

'War on drugs' has failed, say Latin American leaders | World news | The Observer Watershed summit will admit that prohibition has failed, and call for more nuanced and liberalised tactics (Obama will lobby against giving up)
Copenhagen really is wonderful, for so many reasons | World news | The Observer Denmark has just come top in the UN's survey of global happiness – far ahead of 18th-placed Britain. One former Londoner who moved to the Danish capital three years ago can see why (+see health care)

France tightens grip on super rich | World news | guardian.co.uk French election candidates François Hollande and Jean-Luc Mélenchon promise to cap fat cat salaries and change tax system (socialism at work)
France's left wing holds its breath as Sarkozy's surge takes the presidential race to the wire | World news | The Observer Pre-election nerves are growing among the Left Bank intellectuals, who wonder whether Socialist candidate François Hollande can really pull off a historic victory in May

Special report: Rendition ordeal that raises new questions about secret trials | World news | The Guardian In 2004, Fatima Bouchar and her husband, Abdel Hakim Belhaj, were detained en route to the UK, and rendered to Libya. This is the story of their imprisonment, and the trail of evidence that reveals the involvement of the British government (progress, but what about Bush and Obama?)

John Derbyshire fired for article urging children to avoid African Americans | World news | guardian.co.uk (too racist for the racist NRO)
Parting Ways - By Rich Lowry - The Corner - National Review Online
Why Do All These Mud People Keep Calling Me Racist? - Lawyers, Guns & Money : The eminent Derb:
"Needless to Say" - Lawyers, Guns & Money : (NRO commentors are racist)
Needless To Say? — Crooked Timber The Derb is a veritable Gandhi of passive resistance to injustice – compared to George Zimmerman, just for example.
Two white men arrested over Tulsa shootings that left three black men dead | World news | guardian.co.uk Police say 32-year-old and 19-year-old are expected to be charged with killing three and wounding two in Oklahoma city (shot while black)

Poor Bobo - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Although it’s silly in the abstract, I actually kind of enjoy how the prohibition on New York Times columnists disagreeing with each other by name works in practice — Krugman is even more entertaining when he’s forced to completely demolish the arguments made by, er, certain random conservatives.

Welfare Limits Left Poor Adrift as Recession Hit - NYTimes.com (Red States kill their inhabitants; but as long as the bankers are ok and the rich get their tax-cuts +way to go, idiotic voters)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Working As Intended, Folks This Easter Sunday, the NY Times has this Jason DeParle story on red states shredding welfare safety nets and the people who keep falling through them.
Eschaton: Suck It Up Losers I think this is third moment in my adult life (basically after each recession) when there's a segment of the population saying, basically, that there's no reason that the younger generation should expect to have it as good as they did, and what a bunch of losers they are for not having good jobs.

Daily Howler: Outlook tried to do a real issue - 052911- This led to a basic mistake - The review was written by Sissela Bok. But who the heck is that? (academic royalty, daughter of two Nobel winners, blind to irony, 32 years of interviews on one book, ultimately dumb, how thing work in the Village, see Digby)


Kinkade - Lawyers, Guns & Money : America’s shittiest artist, dead at 54 (art for gated communities)

Vang Vieng, Laos: the world's most unlikely party town | World news | The Observer Vang Vieng, deep in the jungle of Laos, is a backpacker paradise where there are no rules. Last year at least 27 travellers died there, and countless more were injured


040712
Documents reveal war crimes tribunal's fury at Libya's refusal to hand over Saif Gaddafi | World news | The Observer Tripoli blocking efforts of war crimes tribunal to try late dictator's son in the Hague, say lawyers
Hundreds of Libyans protest against militias | World news | guardian.co.uk Soldiers and police join demonstration in Benghazi against armed groups still active months after helping to oust Gaddafi

Eschaton: WANKER OF THE DECADE - RUNNER UP #6 - Jonah Goldberg - Jonah Goldberg is stupid. Really stupid. Can't tie his shoes stupid. Top commenter at a newspaper website stupid. After decades of scientific research (baby Goldberg wanks with the best)

Why Has Obama Chosen To Fight? Because Government Is Under Assault, From A Conservative Pincer Movement By Judges And Elected Officials. | The New Republic There is no Red America and there is no Blue America. Remember the first time you heard Barack Obama say that? I do. It was July, 2004, during the Democratic National Convention, when the young, skinny state senator from Illinois propelled himself into national politics (what planet was he living on?)

It's Mitt! Oh No. - NYTimes.com The dream is dying. There will be no dynamic, charismatic, Reaganesque Republican presidential nominee this cycle. There won’t even be a consistent conservative. There will only be Mitt Romney.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Saturday Morning Open Thread: Choosing the Back-Up Substitute Clown

Is the End Near? "Today, nearly 60% of Americans believe that the events foretold in the book of Revelation will come true. But it's not just the Christian Right that is obsessed with the end of the world ... How did we come to live in a culture obsessed by the belief that the end is nearly here?"
Amazon.com: Beyond Outrage: What has gone wrong with our economy and our democracy, and how to fix them (Kindle Single) eBook: Robert B. Reich: Kindle Store

Rick Santorum Faces Resentment In Pennsylvania After Senate Loss Rick Santorum is as unpopular in Pennsylvania today as he was six years ago when home-state voters kicked him out of the Senate in a rout.
Richard Lugar, Orrin Hatch Among GOP Senators Targeted By Tea Party (80 and 78 years old fossils)

Scott Walker Quietly Repeals Wisconsin Equal Pay Law “We are finally starting to see progress here in Wisconsin, yet like their counterparts across the country, Legislative Republicans want to turn back the clock on women’s rights in the workplace,” (War on women continues)
Scott Walker Recall: Wisconsin Police Union Warns AFSCME Not To 'Sabotage' Democratic Primary
New Jersey Ethics Rule Proposal Would Suspend Indicted Officials Without Pay

Delta Embarrassed By Export-Import Bank Loan Guarantee While Lobbying Against Agency The message from the bank was clear: Even Delta, our fiercest corporate opponent, benefits from what we do (don't fly Delta Republican Airline)

Andrew Koppelman: The 1918 Case That May Have Foreshadowed Obamacare's Demise | The New Republic (Supreme Court has usually been on the side of evil in America, including fighting against child-labor laws)
Child Labor in U.S. History - The Child Labor Education Project (1832-1938)

Blacks, Whites Have Have Stark Split on Role Of Race In Trayvon Martin Case, Poll Says ... three-quarters of African Americans said they thought that George Zimmerman would have been arrested if Trayvon was white, while about a third of whites agreed. More than half of the white people polled said that race was no factor in the case (stupid white people)
National Review Writer Tops Racism With More Racism Popular conservative columnist and National Review writer John Derbyshire topped all of his previous racist screeds (and sexist rants) today by posting a long breakdown of all of the important lessons he has taught his children about race — and he’s outdone his own racism with this one ("Derbyshire")
Tulsa Shootings That Left At Least 3 Dead Were Related, Police Say police are searching for a white man driving a white pickup, which was spotted in the area of three of the shootings ("Shoot Black People on Sight Law")
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » What you know….to be real the myth that dominates that American political discourse: the idea that soft-headed liberals refuse to acknowledge the inferiority of black people. There are two great conservative storylines—strapping young bucks buying T-bones with their welfare checks and liberals needing to be “mugged by reality”—and this is where the lines meet (+Andrew Sullivan, of course)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Derbyshire’s post is perfectly typical of the racial IQ movement (Andrew Sullivan - what number will he be? - and the Bell Curve)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Hogwash Needless to say, no one at National Review shares Derb’s appalling view of what parents supposedly should tell their kids about blacks in this instantly notorious piece here ("we went a little too far in our usual rabid racisim")

Current Countersuit: Olbermann Lawsuit 'Riddled With Falsehoods' the network wrote that it "had every right to terminate Mr. Olbermann's services, rather than continuing to pay a princely sum while receiving a pauper's performance in return." (+a lot of limo rides)
Thomas Kinkade Dead: Famed Painter Dies At Age 54 (Christo-Republican kitch)

Unloved Building in Goshen, N.Y., Prompts Debate on Modernism - NYTimes.com (takes the Times six paras to use the word "Brutalism")

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » It’s Really Not Too Long Before Kthug Punches Bobo in the Neck Mr. Brooks, since you are too stupid to figure it out on your own- this is a direct response to this asinine column. Krugman is calling you out, you feckless loser (the "professional centrist")
‘The Righteous Mind’ - NYTimes.com (Lord Saletan at work defending stupidity)

040612
Democrats.org | Get your free bumper sticker

Eschaton: Heads There must have been a moment, at the beginning, where we could have said -- no. But, somehow we missed it. Well, we'll know better next time. -Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

New Bush-Era Torture Memo Released, Raises Questions About What Has Changed And What Hasn't A six-year-old memo from within the George W. Bush administration that came to light this week acknowledges that White House-approved interrogation techniques amounted to "war crimes."
The US Government Is Data Mining You | Mother Jones As the US Intelligence Community's already vast powers grow, your civil liberties shrink.
Hullabaloo - Your daily police state dispatch

Hullabaloo - Excuse me? ("she has been spoken to" - they actually said that - how your press/media regulates itself and what you're allowed to know, in this case NYT)
Hullabaloo - Republican Coup (no vote for you, baby; the radical Republican thugocracy)
Rahm Emanuel Has a Problem With Democracy | Rick Perlstein | Politics News | Rolling Stone

Eschaton: The Greatest Country On Earth How we treat our own. It's a mystery to me why Democrats everywhere don't campaign on "affordable public health insurance for all" or similar. They don't even have to mean it, it could be a complete lie, but anyone who's had more than a limited interaction with our health care system, even those of us with "good" insurance, knows how incredibly fucked it up it is.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Hurts Too Much To Laugh; I’m Too Old To Cry

U.S. Employers Pull Back Sharply On Hiring As Fewer People Search For Jobs The unemployment rate fell from 8.3 percent in February to 8.2 percent, the lowest since January 2009, but that was largely because many Americans stopped looking for work.
Not Enough Inflation - NYTimes.com
Graph Gallery: Employment Graphs (update to scariest graph ever)
JPMorgan in Talks Over Missing MF Global Customer Money - NYTimes.com (oh, that's where it went )
AIG, GM Execs Forced To Take Pay Cut By Federal Government The Treasury Department says nearly 70 executives at American International Group Inc., Ally Financial Inc. and General Motors Co. had their annual compensation reduced by 10 percent.

The Law of the Gun in Florida - NYTimes.com The City Council is sensibly preparing tight security precautions for the downtown area by temporarily banning clubs, hatchets, switchblades, pepper spray, slingshots, chains, shovels and all manner of guns that shoot water, paint or air. But not handguns that shoot actual bullets (why they call them gun-NUTS)

In court, priest’s lawyer suggests witness was jealous - Philly.com
Eschaton: "Radicalism Of Obedience" Benedict said that while such priests claim to act “for concern for the church,” they are driven by their “own preferences and ideas,” and should instead turn toward a “radicalism of obedience” — a phrase that perfectly captures the essence of the theologian pope’s thought (bow down to my autoritay!)

Gay Politics | AMERICAblog Gay: MD's Sam Arora lies to constituents about marriage betrayal

U.S. PIRG Report: Young Americans Dump Cars for Bikes, Buses | Streetsblog Capitol Hill
Football stadium plan bets many fans would leave cars at home - latimes.com Anschutz Entertainment's environmental report assumes 27% attending games in downtown L.A. would use public transport on weekdays, and 18% on weekends ($27M for self-serving bullshit)

alicublog - LUDICHRIST - . Ladies and gentlemen, get a load of this: A theological discussion between Rod Dreher and Andrew Sullivan

Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine - YouTube
Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone (Original + Lyrics) - YouTube

Are Republicans Anti-Science? Chris Mooney Responds | Mother Jones

040512
Sky News admits hacking emails but says it was 'in the public interest' - Crime - UK - The Independent (our outrageous crimes are always in the "public interest")

Costa Concordia: New Details Emerge Detailing Captain's Mistakes (video)

Murdoch's Sky News Admits To Hacking ... a potentially embarrassing revelation that could further dent the media tycoon's hope of acquiring full control over satellite broadcaster BSkyB. (why James resigned as head)

Denying Same-Sex Insurance Benefits Discriminates, Federal Judge Rules

President Obama Locks Horns With Chief Justice Roberts Over Health Care Case

Eschaton: WANKER OF THE DECADE - Runner Up #7 Diane Sawyer - Sawyer was shocked at the disrespect given to Dear Leader. A sample of what she said. (shame, shame on the Dixie Chicks for saying the truth; what a rightwing wanker; will rot in hell)

Mitt Romney may have to run against his own image - latimes.com The better voters get to know the Republican presidential front-runner, the less popular he becomes.
Orrin Hatch: Obama Might Attack Mitt Romney On Mormon Faith (he doesn't have to, Orrin baby)
Jon Bruning Also Follows Teenage Girls On Twitter (and they aren't even daughters of political rivals)

Christie Gives New Jersey Firms Tax Breaks for Short Moves - NYTimes.com Since taking office in 2010, Gov. Chris Christie has approved a record $1.57 billion in state tax breaks for dozens of New Jersey’s largest companies after they pledged to add jobs ... Prudential Insurance obtained $250.8 million to move a few blocks to a new tower in Newark (Republicans at work: giving your money to rich people; suck it up, NJ!)

Bill Daley on Mitt Romney: "Being president is not analogous to being CEO" - Lynn Sweet (how about "Chairman of the Board?")
Mitt Romney Wisconsin Win - Romney's (Almost) Opening Day: How He Closes the Deal - Esquire - Romneybot 2.0: "I'm Willard Romney, bitches, and how you like me now?"

The Maddow Blog - Jobless claims at lowest level since April '08 (contra-factual Republicans)

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » What a Good Night (John Cole reflects on why he was the only Republican blogger to wake up)

Current TV Could Get Kicked Off Time Warner Over Ratings: Reuters

Haley's Birth Control Comments Puzzle Women's Advocates - St. Andrews, SC Patch Hosts of 'The View' challenged Haley after she said women don't care about contraception ("we're all just baby-factories" but View ladies kind of dumb)
Nikki Haley: Allen West Would Be A 'Good' VP Pick (one can hope)

Connecticut Poised To Abolish Death Penalty After Senate Vote

Teen Girl Exorcism Squad: Three Arizona Girls Claim to Cast Out Demons - ABC News - "We're just normal girls who do something extraordinary for God," (journalism at work! legitimizing insanity! Demons are real!)


040412
Alleged 9/11 mastermind to face new military trial at Guantánamo | World news | guardian.co.uk War crimes tribunal could result in death penalty for accused terrorists as controvery lingers over decision on a military trial
Pakistani extremist mocks US arrest bounty | World news | guardian.co.uk Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Muhammad Saeed says US can 'contact me whenever it wants', after $10m reward offer
Female suicide bomber kills Somali sports chiefs - Yahoo! News

Spain Now on Deck in European Demolition Derby | Mother Jones For the last year or two, the standard MO in Europe has been pretty straightforward: a crisis of some kind every five or six months, followed by a solution that everyone claims will finally fix things, followed by yet another crisis (and the solution will be the same as it always is)

Eschaton: WANKER OF THE DECADE - 8th Runner Up - Richard Cohen.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » The Digitial Lynch Mob Richard Cohen gets a taste of what it is like to cross the Eschaton knuckle-dragger crew:

Affordable Care Act Repeal Would Have Immediate Consequences
Mitt Romney Claims President Obama Will 'End Medicare' (O has left enough confusion for it to be believeable)
Nancy Pelosi Predicts 6-3 Supreme Court Vote In Favor Of Health Care Law
Jerry Smith’s Obama rebuke questioned by legal experts | The Lookout - Yahoo! News "Judge Smith's response was, in my view, quite inappropriate," he said. "It was an unmistakably political act that was well beyond the proper bounds of the judicial role."

Obama campaign leaves Mitt Romney trailing focus shifts to November | World news | guardian.co.uk Shackled by the internal battle for the GOP nomination, Romney has been closing offices in key battleground states while the president has been firing on all cylinders for months
Santorum struggles to stay relevant as Romney and Obama begin face-off | World news | guardian.co.uk After a triple loss in Tuesday's primaries and an uphill battle to win his home state, Santorum faces crucial test in coming weeks

Earth’s other moons Earth usually has more than one moon

News From AP | TBO.com - Obama signs insider trading ban by lawmakers
PA. is second-biggest gambling market in U.S.

New Orleans Cops Involved In Katrina Shootings And Cover-Up Face Decades In Prison

Hacks of Valor | Foreign Affairs - Why Anonymous Is Not a Threat to National Security (Obama hates them anyway)

Google Begins Testing Its Augmented-Reality Glasses - NYTimes.com

25 Unbelievable Pictures Of The Tornadoes That Hit The Dallas/Fort Worth Area
d Fake tornado photos cause Twitter storm for Buzzfeed | Media | guardian.co.uk

Draconian ‘Privacy Invasion Bill’ Continues to Gain Support | TorrentFreak “would let companies spy on users and share private information with the federal government and other companies with near-total immunity from civil and criminal liability. It effectively creates a ‘cybersecurity’ exemption to all existing laws.”
Yahoo confirms layoff of 2,000 employees in bid to renew company | Technology | guardian.co.uk Chief executive of beleaguered internet giant says Yahoo needs to return to its 'core purpose' with a trimmed down workforce
Wikipedia world: an interactive guide to every language. Infographic map | News | guardian.co.uk
d Jon Bruning Attacks GOP Senate Primary Opponent For Following His 14-Year-Old Daughter On Twitter (???)

040312
Israel predicts few casualties from war with Iran | World news | guardian.co.uk Assessment presented to security cabinet forecasts fewer than 300 casualties during three weeks of rocket attacks
Afghanistan near deal on night raids | World news | guardian.co.uk US and Afghan officials close to a deal to give Afghan security forces the lead role on night raids, a US official has said
Australia foreign minister calls for decriminalisation of low-level drug use - Telegraph Bob Carr, Australia's foreign minister, whose brother died after a heroin overdose, has urged the decriminalisation of low-level drug use, after a report concluded the war on the scourge was lost.

GCHQ: Big Brother plans to let state spy on websites, emails and texts to cost YOU £2bn | Mail Online Britain's snooping watchdog reveals grave doubts over the mass surveillance project : Internal documents say plans could lead to innocents being wrongly identified as criminals

Spain's debts to hit 20-year high | Business | The Guardian Spanish government bonds suffer as admission debt-to-GDP ratio will reach 79.8% fans fears Spain will need bailout
Senior banker at JP Morgan resigns | Business | The Guardian Ian Hannam, one of the City's most senior bankers, has quit his job at JP Morgan after being fined for market abuse

James Murdoch steps down as BSkyB chairman as hacking scandal deepens | Media | guardian.co.uk Rupert Murdoch's son quits as chairman of UK pay-tv giant to avoid becoming a 'lightning rod' for the phone-hacking scandal

US official disagreed with Bush administration's view on torture | World news | guardian.co.uk Previously-unreleased document shows state department official thought techniques were 'cruel' and 'degrading' punishment

Rick Perry criticises UK initiative to influence US climate sceptics | Environment | guardian.co.uk The governor says the UK government was 'misdirected' to try to 'educate' policymakers and 'move them from a state of denial' (Rockhead Rick)
Tornadoes touch down in Dallas area causing 'considerable damage' | World news | guardian.co.uk Large tornadoes reported just south of Dallas, but no injuries reported from twisters that ripped through neighbourhoods

Obama: Paul Ryan's Budget is 'Nothing But Thinly Veiled Social Darwinism'
Eschaton: Suddenly It's not news that conservative "principles" other than "cut taxes for rich people" are bullshit, but I think their ever-shifting take on the appropriate role of courts probably has not gotten the attention it deserves. Short version: full of shit, like with everything.

Five Elephants In The Room | TBogg When last anyone paid attention to anything Ruth Marcus had to say, she was going Full Metal Schoolmarm on Emma Sullivan for being obstreperous in her tweets to her friends about creepy God-bothering dye-job Sam Brownback. This outrage caused Ruth to actually use the term “potty-mouthed” which, as Charlie Pierce pointed out: (Tbogg and Pierce!)
Fox News Anchor: "Thoughts? Did Obama Campaign Threaten Chelsea Clinton's Life 2 Keep Parents Silent?" | Media Matters for America (we report; your head explodes)
Eschaton: WANKER OF THE DECADE - 9th Runner Up Megan McArdle, aka Jane Galt.
Parody: Pornstars organize ‘world’s largest wank out’ against Santorum | The Raw Story

Uncovering kids: 89,000 poor Pa. kids slashed from Medicaid But many of the children were wrongfully kicked off, and 23,180 have been reinstated in the program so far ... Republican Gov. Corbett's budget proposal for next year, which includes a $629 million cut in social services while providing tax breaks for businesses (social darwinism at work)
Investors Aim to Buy Thousands of Homes to Rent to Tenants - NYTimes.com

Nature News Blog: United Nations to appoint a chief scientific adviser : Nature News Blog (Republicans will stick fingers in ears)
The Benefits of Bilingualism - NYTimes.com
Hot Find! Humans Used Fire 1 Million Years Ago | Human Evolution & What Makes Humans Special | LiveScience
Study: women who ate broccoli more likely to survive breast cancer | The Raw Story
Thousands of Dolphins Dying in Gulf Waters : Discovery News

1940 census searchers overload US website | World news | guardian.co.uk US National Archives releases details of huge survey after 72 years and attracts 37m hits in eight hours

Curbing Female Reproductive Rights Raises Taxpayer Costs - Bloomberg
Nikki Haley: ‘Women don’t care about contraception’ | The Raw Story
Terrible New Law Requires Women to Give Birth to Nonviable Fetuses (how far will insane Republicans go?)
Catholic university in Ohio ends birth-control coverage | Reuters Xavier University, one of the oldest Roman Catholic colleges in the United States, will cut off birth-control coverage for its employees in July, a move that has divided faculty members and students on the Cincinnati campus (it was all ok until five weeks ago)

Local girl lied about 2001 rape; father set free ... "There should be no indictment of the system," she said. Instead, Baur said, it's simply a case of a victim withdrawing her story. "Unfortunately, a man spent 10 years in prison before that happened," she said.
Ohio school district sued for banning ‘Jesus Is Not a Homophobe’ shirt | The Raw Story

Did George Zimmerman's Father Talk To Sanford Police The Night of Trayvon Martin's Shooting? | Crooks and Liars

What's behind the anti-anti-bullying backlash | Katherine Stewart | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Even as states and schools try to put in place anti-bullying policies, the Christian right is mobilising to undo them

Arizona Internet Censorship Bill So Ridiculous, Even The MPAA And RIAA Are Against It | Techdirt as with many such attempts to outlaw "being a jerk" online, this one goes way, way too far. It says that it's unlawful to "annoy or offend" someone online, for example. The bill is so bad that even Media Coalition -- a group backed by the MPAA and the RIAA -- is arguing against it.
Anonymous China: Hundreds of Beijing's Government Websites Defaced - International Business Times
JackedIn comments on Reddit, what is in your opinion, the SCARIEST thing on the internet?
Srbk0.jpg (Shadowmaster's Web Hierarchy Primer)
Daily Dot | Buying upvotes with cash on Reddit

040212
Tongue-cutting at Al Jazeera - Salon.com “terrorism expertise” is not an actual discipline, but rather (like the term “terrorism” itself) just another instrument for legitimizing the violence of the U.S. and its allies, delegitimizing the violence of their Muslim adversaries, and dressing up state propaganda with the veneer of academic neutrality (jPod)

Eurozone Unemployment Rises to 10.8 Crushed by banking crises and austerity, the Eurozone's unemployment rate has now risen to 10.8 percent.
In Rich Europe, Growing Ranks of Working Poor - NYTimes.com (elites fuck up, send the bill to everyone else)

Supreme Court upholds jail strip searches, including for minor offenses - The Washington Post - Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in the 5 to 4 ruling (or no offense at all)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » I’m Sure This is Based on Originalism and Strong Jurisprudence Another day, another victory for the authoritarian state the Roberts court so clearly pines for:

The right’s stealthy coup - The Washington Post
Bowles-Simpson Is As Dead As The Edsel | Stan Collender's Capital Gains and Games
GSA chief resigns amid reports of excessive spending - The Washington Post The chief of the General Services Administration is resigning and two of her top deputies have been fired amid reports of excessive spending at a training conference at a luxury hotel that featured a mindreader, a clown and a comedian.

Swing States Poll: A shift by women puts Obama in lead – USATODAY.com The biggest change came among women under 50. In mid-February, just under half of those voters supported Obama. Now more than six in 10 do while Romney's support among them has dropped by 14 points, to 30%. The president leads him 2-1 in this group (keep it up, Rethugs)
Eschaton: Let's Get Some Dudes To Tell Us What It All Means The lack of women in media becomes extra apparent when dudes go on the teevee to talk about how some other dudes might have hurt feefees if women use contraceptives. That it isn't 100% obvious that standing up for health and medical services that women need is a political winner tells us about all the clueless dudes working in politics.
Political Animal - “Ethicist” sees no ethical issue with excluding women We’re hip-deep into a year that’s been overflowing with virulent antifeminist backlash. Another outbreak of the epidemic as occurred, but this time it’s in a most unexpected place: the New York Times’ Ethicist column ... All, as you may notice, white dudes ("no qualified women" says Ms Ethicist)

Timothy Cahill indicted on charges of using official funds for campaign-boosting ads - Political Intelligence - A national political and campaign blog from The Boston Globe (another in a long line of Mass Pols)
Shock Poll: Majority would recall Wis. Gov. Walker | Washington Examiner Worse for Walker: 53 percent disapprove of his job as governor with a whopping 46 percent saying they “strongly disapprove” of Walker. Majorities of both men and women now support his recall ... set for June 5
Both Sides Weigh In On Wisconsin Planned Parenthood Bomb | TPM2012

Pension Funds Making Alternative Bets Struggle to Keep Up - NYTimes.com (o rly? who could have predicted that?)
Federal Reserve Seeks to Fine Firms Over Foreclosures - NYTimes.com (fines of up to $1million; starting at $2.50)

Time to Elect the Worst Idea - NYTimes.com But since I still have some space here, let me throw in a plug for the terribleness of the idea of Americans Elect.

A Favored Son Returns to Uphill Battle in Nebraska - NYTimes.com Bob Kerrey, the former governor and two-term senator from Nebraska, has returned to his native state after a decade in New York City to try to reclaim his Senate seat (worst of the worst of narcissists)
alicublog I remember when Mike Royko, disgusted by Roger Ebert's defense of Rupert Murdoch as a Citizen Kane type of mogul, said, "Roger's a nice guy but he thinks everything's a goddamn movie." These kids are even more misguided -- they think everything's an essay by Hayek. Movies at least are fun. (McArdled glibertarians) )

The Penny Becoming a Thing of the Past in Canada - chicagotribune.com In a move to save over $11 million dollars this year, Canada has announced they will stop minting pennies
Urban pioneer uses her living space efficiently - Philly.com - "The heart of this place is actually the table where I eat, work, paint, and entertain," explains this 73-year-old dynamo, who surrounds herself with unique art and artifacts. (in 700 sq ft)

N.H. Parents On Their Own In Abuse, Neglect Cases : NPR In most places in the U.S., if a parent is charged with abuse or neglect of a child and can't afford a lawyer, he's appointed one. That lawyer's job is to defend the parent and reunite the family if possible. But faced with a budget shortfall, New Hampshire has taken the unusual step of eliminating that funding.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » That’s what happens This is near Indianapolis—I’ll bet you the numbers will be even worse near more liberal cities: Registration for the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure is down by almost a third (when will Brinker go?)
Registration for Race for the Cure drops by almost a third

Self-sculpting sand - MIT News Office

ACTA Could be Passed in 10 Weeks; Take Action Before It’s Too Late | Current Technology News - AKAScope.com
Forget SOPA, You Should Be Worried About This Cybersecurity Bill | Techdirt

033112
CIA secret prison in Poland: Leaders break their silence Two prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah, said they had been held in a prison in Poland and have been given "victim status" by prosecutors in Warsaw.

Petrol crisis 'is our Thatcher moment', Tory MPs reportedly tell party members | UK news | guardian.co.uk Unite accuses ministers of 'spoiling for a fight' after memo from MPs emerges comparing situation with 1980s miners' strike
Spain announces 'extraordinary' €27bn budget cuts | Business | The Guardian Prime minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government announces Spain's most austere budget for more than three decades (screwing the less well off is always the solution)


Hendrik Hertzberg: Seconding Ezra Klein : The New Yorker (Bully Pulpit doesn't work)
Hullabaloo Jonathan Alter and the butterfly effect (wank, wank, liberals are the root of all evil from pro-torture Alter)
AARP: Social Security Should Not Be Part Of Deficit Discussion (which is why we are having secret meetings with Republicans)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Dazed And Confused Greg Sargent asks why Mitt Romney is embracing the Paul Ryan Jump Off The Cliff economic plan so tightly.

The Mahablog » It’s the Police Inaction, Stupid If Trayvon Martin was killed for walking while black, I’d say Lowry is guilty of writing while stupid. And bigoted. And being a whiny self-absorbed wingnut.

Reality Check: Effective U.S. Corporate Tax Rate Much Lower Than Most Other Developed Nations | ThinkProgress (US not so developed)

Vaccine to stop heart attacks could be here in 5 years

Fox News Host Thinks 'The Blacks' Are Making Too Big Of A Deal About Trayvon Martin | ThinkProgress Overall, the message seems to be, as Fox contributor Tamara Holder told Hannity: “The blacks are also making this more of a racial issue than it should be.”
INSTAPUTZ: Glenn Reynolds: Obama is a "racist hatemonger." I wish he would just call him the n-word and get it over with.

Taking Responsibility for Death - NYTimes.com The hospice room and pain-relieving palliative care cost only about $400 a day, while the average hospital stay costs Medicare over $6,000 a day.
Puberty Before Age 10 - A New ‘Normal’? - NYTimes.com - by age 7, 10 percent of white girls, 23 percent of black girls, 15 percent of Hispanic girls and 2 percent of Asian girls had started developing breasts ... Researchers now believe that fat tissue, not poundage, sets off a feedback loop that can cause a body to mature. (boys aren't mentioned much)

The Gated Community Mentality - NYTimes.com The perverse, pervasive real-estate speak I heard in these communities champions a bunker mentality. Residents often expressed a fear of crime that was exaggerated beyond the actual criminal threat, as documented by their police department’s statistics. Since you can say “gated community” only so many times, developers hatched an array of Orwellian euphemisms to appease residents’ anxieties: “master-planned community,” “landscaped resort community,” “secluded intimate neighborhood.”
Orwell and March Madness - NYTimes.com Athletes Are Students. College Sports Is Not About Money. Graduation Is The Goal.

Illinois Traffic Stop Of Star Trek Fans Raises Concerns About Drug Searches, Police Dogs, Bad Cops In about 80 percent of civil asset forfeiture cases, the property owner is never charged with a crime. And in Illinois -- like many states -- the law enforcement agency that makes the seizure gets to keep the cash or the proceeds of the forfeiture auction
Illinois State Police Drug Dog Unit Analysis Shows Error Rate Between 28 and 74 Percent ... they're more interested in dogs that will give them legal cover to conduct a search. (better than lie-detectors; fake law-enforcement technology)

Johnny Cash A Boy Named Sue Live At San Quentin 1969 No Bleep - YouTube

> Top-rated laundry detergents revealed - Yahoo! Shopping

033012
Barack Obama's latest sanctions against Iran designed to cut its oil exports | World news | guardian.co.uk President's move to punish Iran is designed to pressure nation into abandoning nuclear program and keep Israel at bay

Police face racism scandal after black man records abuse | UK news | The Guardian Crown Prosecution Service reviews decision not to charge officers heard boasting of strangling 21-year-old black man

If The Supreme Court Strikes Down The Affordable Care Act, The Conservative Justices Will Do Lasting Damage To The Institution's Legitimacy | The New Republic


New York police officers defy order to cut marijuana arrests | World news | guardian.co.uk Nearly half of people charged with marijuana posession were reportedly not displaying the drug when they were stopped (Bloomberg's corrupt police state)

Brad DeLong: Is a Grand Bargain Worthwhile? It's hard for any veteran of the Clinton Administration to reach any conclusion other than that fixing America's long-run fiscal dilemmas requires first the complete destruction of today's Republican Party, and those of us who care about America's fiscal future need to turn all of our energies to that end. Can you give me reasons not to believe that? (Ezra Klein still naive)

Michele Bachmann Thinks People 'Choose' To Not Have Health Insurance, Not Because They Can't Afford It | ThinkProgress
Portions Of Scott Walker's Anti-Union Law Struck Down By Federal Court The court ruled that the state cannot prevent public sector unions from automatically deducting dues from workers' paychecks and cannot require them to be recertified annually.

Generation workless: And experts see little hope for near future (more money for rich old people!)

Rainbow Brain Map Reveals Grid-Like Pattern | Wired Science | Wired.com
General Motors pulls funding from climate sceptic thinktank Heartland | Environment | guardian.co.uk Car giant breaks off 20-year relationship with Heartland Institute in ongoing row over its role in questioning global warming

Arizona Outdoes Everyone With New Anti-Abortion Bill | Mother Jones (Atwood's Period Police)
Dr. Logan Levkoff: Chris Jones' Esquire Article: What He Got Wrong Have you read: "Ladies: You're Not as Good as You Think," an Esquire feature by Chris Jones? If you have, you're probably writing letters of scorn and disgust to the magazine right now; if you haven't, you will be shortly.
A clinic’s landlord turns the tables on anti-abortion protesters - The Washington Post - Voice for Choice to turn the tables on the anti-abortion protesters harassing his family. The group now has about three thousand volunteers.

Keith Olbermann Fired By Current TV; Replaced By Eliot Spitzer ... His short tenure began with fanfare, but ended, as many of Olbermann's previous jobs have, with deep acrimony on both sides.

Trayvon Martin lawyers intensify call for arrest amid more evidence leaks | World news | guardian.co.uk New eyewitness account and police station video further negate George Zimmerman's self-defence claim, family lawyers say
Trayvon Martin killing: witness says he saw Zimmerman walk away uninjured | World news | guardian.co.uk Account contradicts allegation from Zimmerman's father that Trayvon Martin left his son with injuries including a broken nose
Trayvon Martin: three ways George Zimmerman's story is falling apart | World news | guardian.co.uk From leaked police station footage to new eyewitness accounts, lawyers say the Florida shooter's original story is unravelling
Trayvon Martin Case: George Zimmerman Was 'Jekyll And Hyde,' Former Co-Worker Says


MasterCard and Visa warn of breach possibly affecting millions of accounts | Money | guardian.co.uk Compromised information could be used to create fake credit cards, security expert warns, as both companies alert banks
MasterCard, VISA Warn of Processor Breach — Krebs on Security
The Search for the Google of the Social Graph | Epicenter | Wired.com

032912
NATO Supply Convoy Ambushed In Western Afghanistan, Sparking Deadly Firefight
Toulouse shootings: Algeria refuses to take gunman Mohamed Merah's body | World news | The Guardian Algeria refuses to accept body of man who killed seven people in France for 'reasons of public order'
Japan hangs three prisoners after 18-month stay of executions | World news | guardian.co.uk Anger and dismay as government resumes capital punishment in same week it won Amnesty's praise for apparent moratorium (bait and switch)
Indonesia to ban mini-skirts in anti-porn crackdown
Haley Barbour's Lobby Shop Had Ties To Iranian Nuclear Efforts
Colombia’s former president calls America’s drug war a ‘failure’ | The Raw Story “Society does not want to accept that people consume [drugs],” he told RCN Radio in Colombia. “You cannot turn away from reality. We cannot accept that theory. [American politicians] may prefer not to talk about it. We cannot accept it. We cannot be condemned to live in war because Americans do not want to talk about it. No one speaks in favor of the war on drugs.”

Eurozone crisis live: Spanish general strike kicks off | Business | guardian.co.uk Demonstrators and police clashed in Madrid this morning • Reports of arrests and injuries (general strike hits Spain)
Fuel panic: live updates | News | guardian.co.uk Dorset police ask petrol stations to close temporarily to ease queues with ministers accused of sparking panic ahead of possible tanker drivers' strike
Will Greece abandon the euro? Markets say yes, within 3 years. | The Signal - Yahoo! News

Dominique Strauss-Kahn's immunity claims 'baseless', maid's lawyers argue | World news | guardian.co.uk Lawyers for former IMF boss ask court in New York to dismiss civil suit brought by hotel maid over alleged sexual assault

Rupert Murdoch Fights Back Against 'Lies And Libels,' Declares War

Tony Scalia's Retirement Has Started Early - Esquire All those inferior intellects on the bench with him, now with some other Catholics who aren't even as Catholic as he is, Scalia being the last living delegate who attended the Council of Trent. Inferior Catholics with inferior minds. What can a fellow do? He hung in there as long as he could, but he's now bringing Not Giving A Fuck to an almost operatic level.
Scalia echoes GOP talking points | TPMDC (teaparty rhetoric shows where he's coming from)
How did legal observers and Obamacare backers get it so wrong? - The Plum Line - The Washington Post - All of which is to say that the law's proponents were badly caught off guard by the depth of the conservative bloc’s apparent hostility towards the law and its willingness to embrace the hard right’s arguments against its constitutionality. They didn’t anticipate that this could shape up as an ideological death struggle over the heart and soul of the Obama presidency, which, as E.J. Dionne notes today, is exactly what it has become.
In the Supreme Court, activist justices take on health care - The Washington Post (Obama was so surprised that the conservative Supremes would be rapidly teaparty partisan)
Hullabaloo - Overconfidence
Predicting the Health Care Decision from the Oral Arguments — The Monkey Cage Justices tend to direct more questions and words at the side they eventually vote against ... This indicator suggests a 5-4 decision striking down the mandate

GOP 'War On Women' Loses Momentum In The States

Most Voters Aren't Stupid Journalists explaining public knowledge of 2012's big issues should take a cue from academics who have been studying this for years ("poorly informed" but sure of themselves sounds pretty stupid; maybe "insane" is the word you are looking for)
Eschaton: Can We End That Era For the past couple of decades we've all (by "we" I man all the Very Serious People in the chattering classes) bought into the fantasy that all we need to do is pursue Conservative Means to achieve Liberal Ends and everything will be awesome.
Scott Walker Recall: Wisconsin Officials Recommend Elections Go Forward

Sheldon Adelson, Billionaire Gingrich Backer, Says Newt 'At The End Of His Line'
Simpson-Bowles Plan Rejected By House The 382-38 roll call paved the way for Republicans to muscle through their own, more stringent budget on Thursday, a measure that would blend deeper spending reductions in safety-net programs for the poor with a plan to dramatically overhaul Medicare (wildly popular with older, economically-and-cognitively-challenged white people)
House Republican Budget Drives Non-Defense Discretionary Spending To Lowest Level In 50 Years | ThinkProgress
Senators Who Voted To Protect Oil Tax Breaks Received $23,582,500 From Big Oil | ThinkProgress
Welcome to Obamaville Rick Santorum is out with an eerie new ad attacking President Obama: "Imagine a small, American town two years from now if Obama is reelected." (be very scared)
GOP Ad Uses Doctored SCOTUS Audio - Bloomberg

‘Drift’ by Rachel Maddow of MSNBC Traces American Militarism - NYTimes.com ‘Drift’ by Rachel Maddow of MSNBC Traces American Militarism (Maslin loves it)

Study: Trust in science among educated conservatives plunges | The Lookout - Yahoo! News
Hullabaloo Science is for blowing up commies, silly! - Conservatives, particularly those with college educations, have become dramatically more skeptical of science over the past four decades, according to a study published in the April issue of the American Sociological Review. Fewer than 35 percent of conservatives say they have a "great deal" of trust in the scientific community now, compared to nearly half in 1974 (leaving planet reality behind)

Huge tornadoes discovered on the Sun
The Demon Drink - Time - By 1830 the average American was guzzling the equivalent of 1.7 bottles of hard liquor per week — three times the amount consumed today.

Two More Advertisers Exit The Rush Limbaugh Show | Media Matters for America
Limbaugh Launched 46 Personal Attacks On Fluke; He Apologized For Two Words | Media Matters for America

Trayvon Martin Case: Exclusive Surveillance Video of George Zimmerman - ABC News - Zimmerman, 28, is wearing a red and black fleece and his face and head are cleanly shaven. He appears well built, hardly the portly young man depicted in a 2005 mug shot that until a two days ago was the single image the media had of Zimmerman.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » #TrayvonMartin: The Zimmerman Apologist Train is Careening Wildly Off-Track
Sean Hannity On Trayvon Martin: Media, Lawmakers Are Being 'Irresponsible'
Black People Make Michelle Malkin All Kinds Of Twitchy | TBogg
Chuck Todd Takes "Deep Dive" Into How NRA, ALEC Pushed "Kill At Will" Laws | Media Matters for America
Teachable Moment: @RepBobbyRush, other legislators, wear #Trayvon hoodies « Sister Toldjah I fully understand the urge that many minorities in this country feel to participate in our system of government, which is not a Democracy as most people believe, but is in fact, a Republic. (very ugly rightwingnut racisim)
But for Audio | The Agitator An incidental recording taken while a Florida woman was on the phone with her insurance company shows that the police who arrested her and charged her with a felony for resisting arrest lied in their reports, and then again under questioning.

Sandra Fluke, Nicolle Wallace, Chelsea Clinton And More Talk Women In Politics

Alleged boarding school abuse focus of CNN report - Daily Inter Lake: Local/Montana Pinehaven Christian Children’s Ranch and School, located in St. Ignatius, is the focus of a three-part report on Anderson Cooper 360 as part of the show’s “Ungodly Discipline” series. According to former house parents and students of the school, staff members used pressure points to subdue students and one staff member choked students.
Joe Arpaio Responds To Ruling Critical Of Pink Underwear Policy The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled in a case brought by the estate of inmate Eric Vogel against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio that the mandatory pink undergarments were a form of "punishment without legal justification." The court also said it was fair to infer that the selection of pink as the color was meant to symbolize the loss of prisoners' masculinity.
Shaun Winkler, White Supremacist, Running For Sheriff In Idaho
Fatal Shooting of Ex-Marine by White Plains Police Raises Questions - NYTimes.com (cops kill 68 yo man for accidentally triggering his medical alert)

An eagle, a fox and my cat all getting along fine on my porch - YouTube

App wants you to share enemies on Facebook - CNN.com (social app for haters)

032812
Texas accuses anti-death penalty charity of fomenting violence | World news | guardian.co.uk Extraordinary escalation in war of words as Texas prison service accuses charity group of behaving like a prison gang

UK GDP fell faster than previously estimated in fourth quarter, ONS says | Business | The Guardian UK GDP fell 0.3% rather than 0.2% in fourth quarter • Economists had expected no change

Lawsuit alleges NYPD violated civil rights by entering private buildings | World news | guardian.co.uk Suit filed on behalf of 13 black and Latino New Yorkers says stop-and-frisk extension program has left them living in fear

No Revenue Means Steep Social Security Cuts Under Romney - Bloomberg

Matt Stoller: Who Wants Keep the War on Drugs Going AND Put You in Debtor’s Prison? « naked capitalism
Supreme Court and Obamacare: why the conservatives are skeptical of the Affordable Care Act. - Slate Magazine The court’s conservatives apparently believe in the land of the free. Circa 1804.
Adam Winkler: No Surprise: The Supreme Court Is Hostile to Health Care
Supreme Court Health Care Law: Justices Come Down Hard On The Mandate
White House defends embattled solicitor general - Jonathan Allen - politico.com
Scalia Says Court Can’t Be Bothered To Read Obamacare: ‘You Really Want Us To Go Through These 2,700 Pages?’ | ThinkProgress
Harry Reid Hits Out At Jeffrey Toobin Over Obamacare Anaylsis
Supreme Court Health Care Reform: Without Mandate, Nightmare Awaits Insurers, Uninsured


Change.org predicts public anger if no charges in Trayvon Martin case | World news | guardian.co.uk Campaign website looks ahead to convening of grand jury as petition launched by teenager's parents continues to grow
Trayvon Martin Case: Police Wanted Warrant To Arrest George Zimmerman, Prosecutor Says
University of Texas Student Paper Wins 'Most Racist Trayvon Martin Cartoon' Contest

Facebook Protection Amendment Voted Down In House House Republicans blocked a measure Tuesday night that would have let the Federal Communications Commission prevent employers from forcing workers to reveal their Facebook passwords.

032712
Syria Death Toll Estimate At 9,000, United Nations Reports
The U.S. can make all the difference in Syria - The Washington Post (Richard Cohen loves to bomb people and is always wrong)
Death Penalty In 2011: Report Shows Executions By Country
Capital Punishment: U.S. Ranks 5th On Global Execution Scale, Amnesty International Reports
German Police ID Checks By Skin Color OK, Says Court
Mexico Murders Go Largely Unpunished, Report Says Four out of five homicides go unpunished in Mexico, in part because prosecutors and police focus on less serious cases that are easier to solve, a Mexican think tank's report said Monday.
Jesse Zwick: Why Are Liberals Lending Credibility To A Zany Russian TV Station? | The New Republic

Fukushima Power Plant Damaged Worse Than Thought, New Report Says

Top 10 Lessons of the Iraq War - By Stephen M. Walt | Foreign Policy Now that the war is officially over and most U.S. forces have withdrawn, what are the most important takeaways?
What We Can 'Learn' From Our 9 Years in Iraq - James Fallows - International - The Atlantic
Thomas Friedman sums up the Iraq war... (5/29/2003) - YouTube

Jonathan Cohn: Conservative Justices Express Skepticism Of Individual Mandate; Alito, Scalia Particularly Hostile, With Thomas, Kennedy Sending Mixed Signals | The New Republic (Kennedy will kill ACA)
Mitch McConnell On Health Care Law: 'More Incremental Fixes' Over 'A Massive Republican Alternative'
Hullabaloo They'd rather die than have health care - I would say that it's far more likely that the Democrats will be hard pressed to even defend Medicare from getting the ax at this point. This country is in the grip of some people who have been so brainwashed that they have lost their relationship to reality itself. Even nations run by right wing dictators aren't this self-destructive. We are the most powerful nation on earth --- and we're basically at the mercy of a group of primitive paranoids:

Olympia Snowe gives Obama an "F" in "paying attention to Olympia Snowe" - Olympia J. Snowe - Salon.com - Retiring moderate Republican senator still prizes "bipartisanship" over actually passing legislation (just leave, please)
Red States See Massive Public Sector Job Losses | The Nation

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Making Friends All Over the Place “My first advice is to listen to reason when they formulate their positions. Reason never harmed a presidential candidate,” Medvedev said. “My other advice is to check their watches from time to time: it is 2012, not the mid-1970s.” For wingnuts, we’ve been stuck in Red Dawn since 1945.
Judge Tosses Conspiracy Charges In Hutaree Militia Case | TPMMuckraker
In Secret Documents, Anti-Gay Marriage Group Looked To Divide Gays, Blacks Blunt language and broad plans from the National Organization for Marriage. A goal: “Fanning the hostility.” Another project: “Sideswiping Obama.”
Sen. Rand Paul: When Big Oil Screws Americans At The Gas Pump, 'You Should Want To Encourage Them' | ThinkProgress

Home prices hit a 9-year low - Mar. 27, 2012

Sorkin’s disingenuousness on corporate taxes | Felix Salmon Andrew Ross Sorkin has a mildly corrosive column on NetJets’ tax issues today
Enclosed malls fade from Washington region - Greater Greater Washington - Once the economic juggernaut of suburbia, enclosed malls are slowly dying all across America. (the mall is flat)
Dennis Rodman 'broke,' 'extremely sick,' his attorney says - latimes.com - He has a long history with Newport Beach, whose police were called to his Seashore Drive home in West Newport 80 times during the eight years he lived there.

High court throws out human gene patents - Yahoo! News

Whiskey Fire: The Rain in Rochester Falls Mainly on the Lame Of all the barnyard-class deep-thinkers clamoring to make grunting fools of themselves over Sandra Fluke presenting her opinion to Congress, and getting called a "slut" for her trouble, among the loudest jackasses was Steve Landsburg, who brayed: (remember that idiot ecomonics professor? +he's very creepy)

Aging boomers who can’t drive will be trapped in unwalkable cities of their own making | Grist - Judging by how pedestrian-unfriendly the average American city has become, all our aging parents apparently enjoy being prisoners in their own homes, reports the AP. Because, oops: There comes a point when you can’t legally drive any longer. And if you depend on your car, that means you’ll have to … depend on your children instead. Fuck.
Food fight develops in Va. over sale of live animals - The Washington Post The case, set to play out at a hearing in Fairfax County court later this week, has pitted a conservationist who tipped off authorities against a popular market whose managers believe Asian food traditions are under attack and the diets of immigrant groups have been criminalized by an outdated law that has not kept pace with Virginia’s rapidly changing demographics.
Fat-shaming a child into a book deal - Body Wars - Salon.com How could a story that Jezebel last week declared “The Worst Vogue Article Ever” get even more terrible? By becoming a book.

Trayvon Martin Case: George Zimmerman Told Police Teen Attacked Him
Trayvon Martin case: What does the autopsy show? - latimes.com
Hullabaloo "If we ever stop talking about hoodies, we might start talking about guns" (Colbert)




032612
Obama: US and China will co-ordinate response to North Korea rocket launch | World news | The Guardian President tells Seoul summit that China and US share interest in preventing nuclear proliferation
South Korea warns it may shoot down North Korean rocket | World news | guardian.co.uk Fears over suspected missile test overshadow international nuclear security summit in Seoul
Afghan security forces kill three Nato troops | World news | guardian.co.uk One American and two Britons killed in separate incidents, bringing number of Nato service members killed in 2012 to 16
Support In U.S. For Afghan War Drops Sharply, Poll Finds Sixty-nine percent think the U.S. should not be involved in the war in Afghanistan, up from 53 percent as measured by CBS in November.

Robert Bales Charged: Military Scrambles To Limit Malaria Drug Just After Afghanistan Massacre Army and Pentagon officials would not say whether Bales took the drug, citing privacy rules. When asked if Woodson’s mefloquine review was a response to the massacre, the military in Afghanistan referred the question to the Army. Army officials said they were “unaware” of the review. After being shown the task order via email, they stopped responding. The Secretary of Defense Office referred questions to the Army -- and then back to medical officials in the secretary’s office. Those officials have not responded.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn charged over alleged links with prostitution ring | World news | guardian.co.uk Former IMF head told he faced further questioning over 'complicity in aggravated and organised prostitution' (little rutting chimpanzee)

Questions for News Corp over rival's collapse | Media | The Guardian Software company NDS allegedly cracked smart card codes of ONdigital, according to evidence to be broadcast on Panorama

Supreme court justices hear arguments as healthcare reform showdown begins | World news | guardian.co.uk First day of US supreme court hearings on 'Obamacare' mix dense legal arguments with pointed questioning from justices

Lobbyists, Guns and Money - NYTimes.com Think about that: we seem to be turning into a country where crony capitalism doesn’t just waste taxpayer money but warps criminal justice, in which growing incarceration reflects not the need to protect law-abiding citizens but the profits corporations can reap from a larger prison population.
Dementia Behind Bars - NYTimes.com The get-tough-on-crime and mandatory sentencing policies that swept America beginning in the 1970s did more than drive up the inmate population and prison costs. They also ensured that inmates who once might have been seen as rehabilitated and given parole would grow old and even die behind bars. As a result, prisons are struggling to furnish costly, specialized care to ever more inmates who suffer from age-related infirmities, especially dementia.

Frank Rich: The GOP’s Problem With Women -- New York Magazine The GOP’s woman problem is that it has a serious problem with women.
Controlling Young Women - First Draft
1 in 5 Pharmacies Hinders Teens' Access to 'Morning-After' Pill: Study - Yahoo! News

Texas 'Fewer Than Five' Voter Impersonation Cases | ThinkProgress
Fox Complains About "BFD" Shirts But Hosted Palin's "WTF Moments" | Media Matters for America

Bernanke Says U.S. Needs Faster Growth - NYTimes.com (said the guy with his foot on the brakes)

What You Need To Know About The Smear Campaign Against Trayvon Martin (1995-2012)
Trayvon Martin’s family on his marijuana suspension: Police want to ‘demonize the victim’ | The Lookout - Yahoo! News
New Orleans police officer suspended over online comments about Trayvon Martin | The Lookout - Yahoo! News
Thousands protest Martin shooting | Photo Gallery - Yahoo! News A crowd of about 8,000 marched through the streets of Sanford, Fla., on March 26 to present a petition to civic leaders with more than two million signatures demanding that a neighborhood watch guard be prosecuted for gunning down 17-year-old Trayvon Martin one month ago.

Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre: American press 'complacent' and 'self-regarding' | Media | guardian.co.uk Editor-in-chief of Daily Mail group, which runs most popular newspaper website in the world, airs views in New Yorker profile

U.S. Urban Population Is Up ... But What Does 'Urban' Really Mean? - Neighborhoods - The Atlantic Cities
When a Parking Lot Is So Much More - NYTimes.com

'Mad Men' Actress Jessica Pare Talks 'Zou Bisou Bisou,' Don Draper And More After throwing Don a surprise party for his 40th birthday, Megan performed a rendition of the catchy french tune "Zou Bisou Bisou," originally recorded by Gillian Hill in 1961.
Mad Men: Sally and Don in “A Little Kiss” - Lawyers, Guns & Money

LulzSec claims hack of Military Singles dating website, dumps over 170,000 account credentials | The Verge
Yahoo Meme shutting down on May 25th | The Verge
Bully to be Released Unrated - ComingSoon.net (big content is a bully, refuses to classify film about bullying for kids as pg-13)

032512
Sarkozy announces crackdown on Internet hate sites | Reuters France would make it a crime to consult Web sites that advocate terrorism or hate crimes and would toughen a crackdown on people who went abroad for ideological indoctrination.

Iraqi Woman Severely Beaten in Calif. Home Dies - ABC News

A Tiny Revolution: America's 300 Year-Long Lucky Streak Continues Most recently, Steve Inskeep of NPR pointed out that Afghans haven't gotten all bent out of shape about a U.S. soldier massacring sixteen of them, because "human life is already cheap" way over there (your very highly-paid NPR conservative tool)

The Private Life of Power « Corey Robin
Ladies’ Man: Rick Santorum And His Female Companions
Hullabaloo - Quiverfull of Santorum

Wall Street's Huge Bet on Romney - OpenSecrets Blog | OpenSecrets (more than 10x Republican, so you can't say the Dems are bought)
Why Do New York Times Columnists Keep Swooning for Paul Ryan? | The Baseline Scenario After David Brooks last year, now it’s James Stewart who has fallen for Paul Ryan’s rugged good looks. He attempts to defend Ryan’s tax proposals against charges that they favor the rich (elite journalism at work)

Political Animal - A Bit More on the New Black Panther Party Panic Politically, the New Black Panthers are a big festive piñata filled with white populism—a lot of politicians and pundits who know that the group is a shell of its former incarnation nonetheless sound the fear-trumpet over the Panthers whenever possible since this is such irresistible red meat to a certain brand of conservative voter (fear-based not very intelligent racists)
Wisconsin journalists signed Gov. Walker recall petitions | jimromenesko.Com (journos not allowed to sign petitions, or go to protests, or ... vote)

Mock Ramblings: A Doctor on Transvaginal Ultrasounds

Samuel L Jackson Blame - YouTube
Dan Riehl Proves He Is Not Racist By Being More Racist | TBogg

The Case for Sleep Medicine - NYTimes.com

032412
Egypt’s Election Victors Seek Shift by Hamas to Press Israel - NYTimes.com
Dalai Lama Has 'Nazi' Policies, According To Chinese Website

When Will 9/11 Stop Being an Alibi for Injustice? - Esquire

robojelly - latimes.com (sea-drones!)

poorrichard's blog: There Are Now More Americans In Jail Than There Were In Stalin's Gulag Archipelago

Don't Blame The Supreme Court For Citizens United -- Blame Congress, The FEC And The IRS

The Forgotten Ones - Ronald Brownstein - NationalJournal.com If Republicans dismantle the health care law, what will happen to the growing number of uninsured Americans? (death-panels run by Repubicans)
How GOP got Catholicized - CNN.com - the emerging Catholic/evangelical political theology is the most striking conservative innovation of this turbulent campaign season.
Political Animal - Satan’s Indoctrination Camps - Santorum (college)

The Parallels Between Clinton and Obama "William Jefferson Blythe III and Barack Hussein Obama II were the namesakes of fathers they did not know. Billy's dad, a traveling salesman from Texas, was killed in a car crash before his son was born. Barry's old man, a traveling student from western Kenya, also died in a car crash. His son was 21 then but had never lived with his father. Both boys' mothers created myths about their fathers to ease the pain; in truth, the sons were almost certainly better off without them."

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Credit Where Credit Is Ignored And Stuff One, all the smart Puritopian money was depressingly convinced that President Obama was going to fail progressives again because he had to choose Larry Summers for the job. Second, the right is having a small series of heart attacks.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Yet One More Reason To Love Jim Yong Kim (go to 2:00; amazing)

FLASHBACK: Two Years Ago, GOP Predicted ‘Armageddon’ If Health Reform Became Law | ThinkProgress
Slinging Stones at the Green-Eyed Monster: A Review of Senator Jim Inhofe‘s The Greatest Hoax - David Hoyt - Townhall Conservative Columnists An international carbon tax program is one of the most hideous ideas forged in the minds of men. Since all known life forms are carbon-based, it is a proposal to control all life. This point is not lost on Inhofe, and he makes it clearly (Obama wants to control all life; clowns at clown hall really are that stupid)
West Virginia Mine Explosion: Panel Faults MSHA Enforcement (Republicans: we don't need no steenking regulations)

Penn State Police Had Warnings About Sandusky in 1998 | NBC 10 Philadelphia NBC News obtained the 1998 PSU internal police file from an investigation of Sandusky showering naked with a little boy in the school's locker room - telling them Sandusky had showered naked with an 11-year-old boy and bear-hugged him.

A cloaking device from off-the-shelf superconductors and magnetic tape
Cosmic Log - Mysterious cloud spotted on Mars

Trayvon Martin News - Trayvon Martin and the End of Excuses - Esquire
Political Animal - Welcome to Phase 2 of the Trayvon Martin Debacle
Little Green Footballs - Fox News Commenters React to Trayvon Martin: 'Good Shot Zimmy' Stupid evil racists post a deluge of hateful comments
Florida’s Stand Your Ground law doesn’t prohibit that they arrest George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin. - Slate Magazine
Sanford City Commissioner Concerned George Zimmerman Will Flee Country | ThinkProgress
Miami Heat, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade don hoodies for Trayvon Martin - The Early Lead - The Washington Post

How One Response to a Reddit Query Became a Big-Budget Flick | Underwire | Wired.com

Microsoft Censors Pirate Bay Links in Windows Live Messenger | TorrentFreak Apparently, the company is actively monitoring people’s communications to prevent them from linking to sites they deem to be a threat.
Facebook Says That If You Use The Site You Agree To Its Bogus Claim To Hold A Trademark On 'Book' | Techdirt

032312
Wash. Post 's Cohen's Misguided Push For A Strike On Iran | Media Matters for America
Special Report: Intel shows Iran nuclear threat not imminent - Yahoo! News (o rly; you mean neocon WaPo is trying to push America into a disasterous war ... again?)
Asma Assad, Syria President's Wife. Sanctioned By European Union Officials say that the EU foreign ministers have slapped sanctions on the wife and other close relatives of Syrian President Bashar Assad in a continuing attempt to stop the violent crackdown on opposition ("I'm the real dictator")
Beyond The Battlefield: Afghanistan's Wounded Struggle With Genital Injuries (all for exactly nothing)

Ireland back in recession as global slowdown hits exports | Business | The Guardian GDP fell 0.2% in the final quarter of last year to put Ireland officially into recession, alongside Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal and Greece (who could have predicted that austerity forced by rich elites would kill the economy and screw millions of people?)
Minimum alcohol price could rise above 40p a unit | Society | The Guardian Home secretary Theresa May refuses to rule out possibility that government could opt for higher minimum figure (the austeritized lower classes are drinking too much and getting unruly)

NYPD Infiltrated Liberal Political Groups, According To New Documents (Bloomberg at work; tyrants always have their spies)
NYPD Spied on Liberal Groups: Report - New York News - Runnin' Scared The NYPD didn't just spy on entire Muslim communities -- a new report by The Associated Press reveals that cops also surveilled liberal political groups (911 you dirty hippie shut up)

Paranoia Strikes Deeper - NYTimes.com Mitt Romney bought fully into the claim that gas prices are high thanks to an Obama administration plot ... This claim isn’t just nuts; it’s a sort of craziness triple play — a lie wrapped in an absurdity swaddled in paranoia. (see Rachel)

Balloon Juice » Symptoms Of A Syndrome - On a day where President Obama spoke about Trayvon Martin’s murder and said the following: (Santorum and Gringrich ...)
John Edwards Prostitute Report - The Many Betrayals of John Edwards - Esquire - John Edwards was the only Democratic presidential candidate since Jesse Jackson who went out of his way to talk about poverty in America ... Talking about poverty, and about poor people, meant talking a lot about black people, and that's the kind of thing that Al From and the Democratic Leadership Council convinced a generation of ambitious Democratic politicians was a vote-killing extravagance that the party could no longer afford.

A Surprise World Bank Pick For Larry Summers, Obama's nomination of Jim Yong Kim ends a winning streak of falling upwards
Forget Larry
Jon Corzine, Ex-MF Global CEO, Gave 'Direct Instructions' To Transfer $200M From Customer Account
Student Loan Debt Hits $1 Trillion, Deemed 'Too Big To Fail' By One Federal Agency (Kaplan Test Prep has destroyed America)

Early exposure to germs has lasting benefits : Nature News & Comment Findings help to explain how microbes programme a developing immune system.

World's largest Christian TV channel 'funds owners' exorbitant lifestyle' | World news | The Guardian Lawsuit brought by family members claims Trinity Broadcasting Network founder and his wife bought their jets with sham loan (Prosperity Gospel prospering)

Vermont Yankee Protest: 130 Demonstrators Arrested At Nuclear Plant's Corporate Headquarters

action.firedoglake.com | Tell AARP CEO Barry Rand to End Back-Room Strategy Sessions With Social Security Opponents Demand an end to back-room strategy sessions with Social Security opponents (everywhere you turn, they're at it)

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Don’t Fuck With Planned Parenthood Update Komen for the Cure has lost five top executives and they’re losing money.
Easy Komen, Easy Goen | TBogg As for founder Nancy Brinker’s public profile, teh Google tells you everything that people want to know about her now: (now there's branding for you)
Media Matters Releases Radio Ads Against Rush Limbaugh (AUDIO) multiple advertisers pulled their content from his radio show, with the latest count totaling 141 companies

Daily Kos: Special prosecutor Angela Corey takes over investigation in Trayvon Martin slaying case
Did Martin shooter use slur? ("remains a mystery"?)
Trayvon Martin Case: State Attorney Quits Investigation As State Studies 'Stand Your Ground' Law
Sean Hannity On Trayvon Martin: 'Is It Possible That This Was Just A Horrible Accident?' (Zimmerman accidentally got out of his truck, accidentally chased down Martin and accidentially pointed the gun at him and accidentally pulled the trigger! but it's no accident Hannity is a racist idiot)
Al Sharpton At Trayvon Martin Rally: 'We Are Tired Of Going To Jail For Nothing And Others Going Home For Something'

Balloon Juice » Faith vs. Reason: Stand Your Ground/Violent Crime Edition All of which is to say that when Baxley asserts that Florida is experiencing a respite from violent crime because it now allows citizens to act as amateur law enforcers, empowered to use deadly force as their judgment drives them, he’s not telling the truth. He’s lying, saying something that is false as a mundane fact and wrong as a causal inference (+New York's violent crime rate fell much more without an ok to shoot law)
Mass Incarceration and Criminal Justice in America : The New Yorker Why do we lock up so many people?
Zakaria: Incarceration nation – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs Since 1980, California has built one college campus and 21 prisons. A college student costs the state $8,667 per year; a prisoner costs it $45,006 a year.

Geraldo Rivera: Trayvon Martin's 'Hoodie Is As Much Responsible For [His] Death As George Zimmerman'
Balloon Juice » Geraldo Rivera: If #TrayvonMartin Wasn’t Wearing a Hoodie, He Would Be Alive [updated]
Geraldo in a Hoodie (the internets react instantly)

Man Pulls Gun On WREG Reporter April Thompson And Photographer Ben Short During Report (more agressive gun-nuts)
Gary Stein, Marine Sergeant Facing Dismissal For Anti-Obama Facebook Page, Still Outspoken A Marine facing dismissal for running a Facebook page called Armed Forces Tea Party that criticizes the Obama administration is still speaking out but has been getting little support from military law experts and free speech advocates who say he may have crossed the line.

Stuart Zechman Virtually Speaking A-Z 03/19 by Jay Ackroyd | Blog Talk Radio

Facebook says it may sue employers who demand job applicants' passwords

032212
Toulouse shooting suspect dead after 30-hour siege - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk
U.S. News - Base where Sgt. Bales served overturned 40 percent of PTSD cases (what trauma?)

Budget 2012: pensioners fund tax cut | UK news | The Guardian Income tax cut for 300,000 richest households •?4.4 million tax-paying pensioners to lose out by £84 a year (Conservatives at work screwing everybody else for their blunders, as usual)

Warren Pushes Obama on Same-Sex Marriage Massachusetts U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren (D) called on President Obama "to finish evolving and support same-sex marriage," (can Obama evolve morally?)

The White Savior Industrial Complex - Teju Cole - International - The Atlantic - Teju Cole

The myth of freedom in the land of the free - Opinion - Al Jazeera English The US touts itself as the land of free, but it has laws which are designed to crush criticisms of the state.

U.S. News - Pew survey: Americans think politicians are talking too much about religion - Most Americans (54 percent) continue to say that churches and other houses of worship should keep out of politics ... That's also an about-face from 2006, when 51 percent of Americans believed churches should speak out and 46 percent said they should keep quiet. (Retaliban giving themselves a wedgie)

Balloon Juice. No one could have predicted... Why can’t all journalists do this? Why can’t they simply call a lie a lie, and call someone who lies repeatedly a liar? Why can’t they do what Rachel did, which is go through the statements and prove how they are lies? Why can’t everyone do this? (Bain bought Etch-a-Sketch and Romney is a liar)
This Week In the Laboratories of Democracy - Esquire Mitch (Presidential Kindling) Daniels signed a law that gives citizens the right to resist physically any activities by law enforcement that the citizen believes to be against the law.

Boehner Backs Out Of Debt-Limit Deal | TPMDC Boehner lent his full support Thursday to undoing a key part of the debt-limit deal he struck with President Obama and the rest of the congressional leadership last summer (that was then)
Newt Gingrich admits defeat but refuses to quit – elections 2012 live | World news | guardian.co.uk ("titanic ego")
Political Animal - Going Numb Bill Maher’s New York Times op-ed suggesting a moratorium on outrage was predictable, funny, and ultimately wrong-headed—kind of like Maher himself on more than one occasion (Limbag has a 1st Amendment right to his radio show, boycotts are un-Constitutional)
Report Details Nepotism in Congress A new report finds that 248 members of Congress allegedly used their positions to benefit their families since 2008.

Extra fees won't save airlines from high fuel prices. force your employees to eat the losses in order to remain in a competitive position, but the only way for them to implement their union-screwing strategy is to go bankrupt first and that has obvious limits as a business strategy

"Monkey bill" passes Tennessee Senate | NCSE "The Senate approved a bill Monday evening that deals with teaching of evolution and other scientific theories," the Knoxville News-Sentinel (March 19, 2012) reported, adding, "Critics call it a 'monkey bill' that promotes creationism in classrooms." The Senate vote was 24-8.
BBC News - Mercury poles give up hints of water ice
Jupiter's melting heart sheds light on mysterious exoplanet Scientists now have evidence that Jupiter's core has been dissolving, and the implications stretch far outside of our solar system.
Bruni - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Who knew that gluttony on the scale of 18th century royalty would lead to major health problems? (Bruni got gout)

Komen foundation continues to see fallout from Planned Parenthood controversy - The Washington Post (when will Brinker go?)
Eschaton: Wingnuts For Wingnuts It's quite amazing that a somewhat sketchy but well-respected noncontroversial nonpartisan organizzation could have destroyed their brand so quickly. Liberals are usually the ones accused of being clueless about how Real Americans think, but the wingnut bubble is powerful (epistemic closure)

Australian Gov't: Not In The Public Interest For The Public To Be Interested In Secret Anti-Piracy Negotiations | Techdirt Australian Gov't: Not In The Public Interest For The Public To Be Interested In Secret Anti-Piracy Negotiations (nothing you need to know, move right along)

Police chief criticized for not arresting neighborhood watch volunteer steps aside for now - The Washington Post
Bill Lee, Sanford Police Chief, Steps Down Temporarily Over Trayvon Martin Case - Officers initially told Martin’s parents that Zimmerman had a squeaky clean-record. He was arrested for violence and battery against a police officer in 2005. Martin was tested for drugs and alcohol after his death, but Zimmerman was not. Police failed to check cellphone records for Martin and Zimmerman after the shooting, according to a lawyer for Martin's family. And witnesses have said police did not return phone calls, attempted to manipulate them during questioning and have twisted their statements to fit Zimmerman's self-defense claim.
Sanford, Fla., explains why George Zimmerman was not arrested - BlogPost - The Washington Post (thanks to the "shoot a black person and go free" law)
This Week In the Laboratories of Democracy - Esquire Mitch (Presidential Kindling) Daniels signed a law that gives citizens the right to resist physically any activities by law enforcement that the citizen believes to be against the law ("Stand Your Ground" against cops in Indiana if you "believe" you are right)
Fearing for Your Life (McAddled's justification: "it might have been an accident" even thought she "hasn't been following the case that closely")
"That's Specious Reasoning, Representative" Arbitrarily classifying a number of murders as not-crimes is a good way to reduce reported violent crime rates, but it doesn't actually reduce violence.

032112
Toulouse shootings: suspect was preparing to kill again | News | guardian.co.uk Mohammed Merah had identified target, say prosecutors • Three police wounded trying to arrest alleged gunman
Mohammad Merah, Toulouse Shooting Suspect, Reportedly Arrested In Raid (not)
Russia and China join UN security council effort to end Syrian bloodshed | World news | The Guardian All 15 council members unite to throw weight behind Kofi Annan's peace plan in rare show of global unity
Afghanistan Night Raids: U.S. Considering Concessions On Tactic

U.K. Conservatives Come Up Short in Austerity Experiment - Bloomberg Since 2010 Britain has been a laboratory for an important experiment in economic policy. The question: When economies slump and public borrowing soars, can fiscal restraint speed the recovery? Preliminary findings: No, and whatever made you think it could? (they didn't; the crash they caused was an excuse to screw everyone else some more)

Rebekah Brooks questioned by police | Media | guardian.co.uk The former News International chief executive attended Milton Keynes police station to answer police bail dating back to her arrest in July of last year

Keystone XL pipeline: Obama to oil progress as pump prices rise | Environment | The Guardian On two-day energy tour, US president is expected to hasten building of southern section of tar sands line out of Canada

Obama's Plan to Win Reelection | Mother Jones The word from the White House: No more Mr. Nice Guy. For real this time.
Thankfully This Time, the Green Lantern Theory of Presidential Power is Wrong - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Since this failure to bring Congress aboard involves Obama trying to achieve abysmally and unnecessarily conservative ends, I’m pretty sure that this time I’m not going to get much of a “but if Obama really wanted a terrible fiscal policy “grand bargain” he would have used the magical powers of the Bully Pulpit to ram it through, so obviously he didn’t really want it” pushback from those who would ordinarily provide it.

"Soverign Immunity" and Conservative Jurisprudence - But, according to Justice Scalia, “we have understood the Eleventh Amendment to stand not so much for what it says, but for the presupposition of our constitutional structure which it confirms.” Or, as John Kyl may have put it, “the Eleventh Amendment was not intended to be a factual statement.”
Today In Great Dissents - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money The short version is that Supreme Court has joined the War on Women by combining a “federalist” doctrine that is embarrassing nonsense even by Rehnquist/Roberts Court standards with a denial of Congress’s explicit powers to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment unless it meets some unintelligibly arbitrary standards invented by the Court.
Memo Adds to Doubt on Rehnquist’s Denials - Adam Liptak - NYTimes.com “I realize it is an unpopular and unhumanitarian position, for which I have been excoriated by ‘liberal’ colleagues,” Mr. Rehnquist wrote, “but I think Plessy v. Ferguson was right and should be reaffirmed.” (super-conservative asshole was racist?)

Susan G. Komen Woes Continue as a New York Bigwig Resigns - The Daily Beast Dara Richardson-Heron, the CEO of Komen's powerful NYC affiliate, steps down, raising questions about the embattled cancer-fighting foundation. Abigail Pesta reports ... Richardson-Heron’s resignation is the third major departure from the foundation in recent weeks (fallout still happening; when will Brinker go?)
Backlash on the War on Women Growing in Strength, Power | FDL News Desk ... If I had to guess, I’d say there won’t be a Susan G. Komen Foundation come next year.

Balloon Juice » Good News From the Granite State New Hampshire lawmakers have rejected a bill that would have made their state the first to repeal a gay marriage law through legislation — a move opposed by the governor (116 homophobes in NH House)
Balloon Juice » I’m Curious About This Guy’s Views on Contraceptives A Roman Catholic priest in Montana has been charged with felony sexual abuse of children after sexual images of naked children were found on his Nintendo DS gaming console and personal computer.

Fact Check: More US Drilling Didn't Drop Gas Price - ABC News (drill, baby drill didn't work? you don't say)

Mitt Romney Platform 'Like An Etch A Sketch,' Top Spokesman Says
Balloon Juice » Mittamorphosis? Metamorphomitt? Metamittomorph? Nothing can compare to the superpowers of one Willard “Metamorphomitt” Romney, The Man Who Will Be Anything.
Balloon Juice » Entering White Cecelia The latest Fox News Latino poll is in ho-lee-shit territory for Republicans, with Obama beating Romney 70-14 among Hispanics. All the other candidates are basically 70-14, too.
Daily Kos: Mitt Romney's Latino problem, in charts and maps
Political Animal - A Different Kind of Religious “Wedge” Similarly, 60% of Democrats and 58% of indies (and, BTW, 60% of Catholics) think churches should stay out of politics. Only 44% of Republicans feel that way, and the number drops to 36% among white evangelicals (Repugs wedged by their own wedge)
GOP Releases Plan to Save America From the Poor -- Daily Intel (by starving them to death)
Balloon Juice » Afternoon Open Thread Fred Barnes at the Weekly Standard can’t help himself, suggesting that the Serious Paul Ryan should be Romney’s running mate. The poor should just be ground up into tortillas anyway. The Ryan Plan will make so much more of them. These people are insane.
Balloon Juice » Even Better Than the Real Thing Jason Mattera, on behalf of the Breitbart Babies, ambushes Bono of U2 to grill him on why he hides his taxes. Except Mattera interviewed a Bono impersonator instead.

Bernanke Says Europe Must Aid Banks Even as Strains Ease - Bloomberg
Eschaton: In Which Ben Bernanke Has An Idea Have we tried giving more free money to rich assholes who enjoy lighting it on fire? Well perhaps we should.

Marijuana-Like Compound Found Effective Against Late Stage HIV Infection
Titanoboa: Model Of Prehistoric Snake, World's Biggest, To Appear On TV And At Natural History Museum This colossal constrictor measured more than 45 feet in length and tipped the scales at a ton

Trayvon Martin's death: the story so far | World news | guardian.co.uk Three weeks on, Zimmerman is still free, and questions remain unanswered
Trayvon Martin: civil rights leaders call for Florida police chief to resign | World news | guardian.co.uk Criticism of Sanford police department escalates as protesters continue call for killer's arrest amid mounting evidence ... Criticism of the police investigation is focused on the failure to arrest Zimmerman, but also on the failure to test him for drugs or alcohol, a common practice in homicide investigations, in particular because they tested the teenager after his death ... This week, police admitted to ABC News they may have missed a potential racial slur on the tape of Zimmerman's 911 call to report Martin's "suspicious behaviour" ("missed")
Lawrence O'Donnell On Trayvon Martin: 'Evidence Of A Police Cover-Up' - a portion of the 911 tape where shooter George Zimmerman can be heard muttering something many say sounds like "f-ing coons," a racial slur. On Wednesday night, investigators in Florida told ABC News that they had "missed" this portion of the tape (and now its not there anymore)
Trayvon Martin 911 Tape Reveals Possible Racial Slur By Neighborhood Watchman George Zimmerman (VIDEO) "This is not conclusive legal proof of a police cover-up, but this is evidence that the police, that local police department, never wanted anyone to hear those two words. And that’s why we haven’t heard those two words until today."
Trayvon Martin's Mother 'Can Not Eat,' While Lawyer Expresses Concerns Over Grand Jury ”They can make a weak case, and the grand jury can come back and say, 'we don’t have enough to indict' and nobody will know what happened,” Crump said. “Then the [state attorney] can come back and say, 'it’s not us who didn’t indict, it was the community'.” Crump said shifting the responsibility of a controversial case to the grand jury is part of “the playbook that they always use.” (Southern "justice" +Fox just ignores the whole story)
The Trayvon Martin Killing, Explained | Mother Jones How did a kid armed with Skittles and an iced tea get gunned down by an overeager neighborhood watch captain? And why didn't police detain shooter George Zimmerman?
George Zimmerman's Collaborators If he gets away with killing Martin, it's not just the statute that bears responsibility.
The Sham Investigation Into Trayvon Martin's Killing - Ta-Nehisi Coates - National - The Atlantic
Trayvon Martin and the fatal history of American racism | Kevin Powell | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Every incident like the shooting of Trayvon Martin has its random elements. But the pattern of tragedy upon tragedy is inescapable

Republicans Are Blocking the Violence Against Women Act | Mother Jones Here's why (they hate women)
More Advertisers Boycott Rush Limbaugh Over Sandra Fluke Controversy In the aftermath of his inflammatory remarks and apology, over 100 companies dropped his show. Those companies had asked Premiere Networks, which syndicates Limbaugh's show, not to air its commercials during the program, as well as other content "deemed to be offensive or controversial."
Women Continue To Fill Rick Perry's Facebook Wall With Mock Questions : The Two-Way : NPR - many women are "facetiously seeking advice on their menstrual periods" from the governor, "since he's styled himself as an expert on women's health."

Barack Obama Is Being Crushingly Adorable Again
pandagon - Mad Men Ladies Rock (clips of assertive women)
America’s Greatest Artist Depicts Obama Burning The Constitution McNaughton is so right about gubbermint intervention. When GOD sends his whirly death funnels to the midwest thousands of souls end up unjustly escaping because of the socialist Weather Service Tornado Warning entitlement program.

Your Facebook Password Should Be None of Your Boss’ Business (hand over your password and the key to your house so we can check for gang affiliations)

032012
Iran/Israel War Games Show Risk of US Involvement in Middle East War, With Little Return | FDL News Desk (US inevitably (?) sucked in if hawks in Israel attack; oil skyrockets; US economy crashes; Israel remains a test of loyalty)
Iraq: Explosions In Cities, Towns Across The Country Claim Dozens Of Lives (great success)
Iraq bombs kill dozens ahead of Arab League summit | World news | The Guardian Car and roadside bombs explode in cities and towns across Iraq, killing at least 39 people
Toulouse gunman may have filmed the shootings | World news | The Guardian French interior minister says man who killed rabbi and three children at Jewish school had a video camera around his neck
Pakistani MPs say US drone strikes must end before relations improve | World news | The Guardian Parliamentary committee draws up tough recommendations as basis of new partnership with US after months of tension
Mexican police killed during hunt for headless bodies | World news | guardian.co.uk Gunmen ambushed a police convoy on a rural highway near Teloloapan, killing 12 officers and wounding 11 more. The police were searching for bodies after the discovery of 10 severed heads

The FBI & Muslims: Ex-Informant Confesses ‘It’s All About the Entrapment’ | The Dissenter (that's been pretty obvious)

The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Maybe “The Big Sort” Never Happened Many readers will remember the book The Big Sort by Bill Bishop. It argues that Americans are increasingly clustered in like-minded political communities.
Cambridge Journals Online - Abstract - “The Big Sort” That Wasn't: A Skeptical Reexamination

Notes from a Changing Climate - Lawyers, Guns & Money (don't ... make ... connnections)
Technology too inadequate to mitigate climate change effect

Obama’s pivot to deficit reduction, explained - The Plum Line - The Washington Post So why did Obama and Democrats pivot so hard towards deficit reduction, and away from job creation, after the 2010 elections? (Plouffe is an idiot and Obama always rewards big failure)
How Obama Tried to Sell Out Liberalism in 2011 -- Daily Intel the facts in the Post’s account support a different and far more disturbing conclusion: Obama was even more desperate to cut a deal than previously believed — dangerously desperate, in fact (he will sell anyone down the river; it was always all about him; not even a moral periphery)

Fracking could pose health threat - Telegraph The controversial drilling process known as "fracking" may release harmful gases into the atmosphere which could cause headaches and breathing difficulties, up to half a mile away, research has found (frack, baby, frack; and then we take your health insurance away)

The Voting Wars Could Get Bloody | TPMMuckraker “I think there is a misperception that there is a vast amount of vote fraud out there,” Holder told NBC News last week. “You do not see huge amounts of vote fraud and the type of vote fraud that we see is not typically the kind that is in-person vote fraud at the polls which voter ID laws are designed to impact.” (as opposed to Cheney in Ohio with all the vote-counting computers)
The Future Of News Is In Your Hand | TPM Idea Lab Network news audiences grew 5 percent, the first uptick in a decade, according to the report. Cable news audiences grew by 1 percent. MSNBC and CNN audiences grew in 2011, but Fox News’ audience declined.

Warren holds small lead in MA-Senate race - Public Policy Polling Voters are more comfortable with Warren ideologically than they are with Brown. 51% say that her views are 'about right,' compared to 44% for the incumbent. She's probably also benefiting from the fact that 54% of Massachusetts voters think the Republican Party is too conservative, compared to only 41% who think the Democratic Party is too liberal. Although only 35% of voters think Brown himself is too conservative, the bad image of his national party has to be rubbing off on him at least some (oh, last week you were telling us she was toast)
Will the Real Mitt Romney Please Stand Up? A new video features Mitt Romney as Eminem. Just brilliant.
Hullabaloo Abortion would be fine if women weren't making the decision - As a matter of fact, he would advocate for criminalizing women who have an abortion without the permission via written signature from the man who impregnated her.

Health Care Case Reaches Supreme Court: The Constitutional Challenge

House GOP Budget Blueprint Released Conservative Republicans controlling the House unveiled a budget blueprint Tuesday that combines slashing cuts to safety net programs for the poor with sharply lower tax rates in an election-year manifesto painting clear campaign differences with President Barack Obama (let them eat dirt)
Robert Reich: What Republicans Argue When They Have Nothing Left to Say
Unemployed To Lose Benefits In Several States Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin,
The New Suburban Poverty - NYTimes.com (no social services, no transportation, no jobs, the new ghost suburbs with their ghost SUVs)
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - Wealth, Virtue, and Political Status It’s that they think that they themselves are grand and wise people by virtue of having created vast fortunes from modest beginnings, and the President has made clear that he doesn’t.
Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code | Wired Magazine | Wired.com (the odds are worse than you think)

New technique lights up the creation of holograms The mechanism of full-color holography The major difference between the researchers’ technique and ordinary holography is the use of a prism to adjust the light beam’s angle of incidence in combination with a thin silver film to produce the surface plasmons.

Trayvon Martin Case: Justice Department To Investigate Fatal Shooting Of Unarmed Florida Teen ("neighborhood watch captain" = "racist gun nut")
Fmr. Homicide Detective: Illegal to Kill Dogs but Not Black Kids in Florida | Video Cafe
Trayvon Martin: "Stand your ground" law goes too far - Orlando Sentinel
Hullabaloo - The Republican Base Exposed - Charles Johnson at LGF once again dives into the comments at FoxNews.com so the rest of us don't have to. This time it's about the murder of Trayvon Martin, and we get to see the real driving animus behind the politics of Fox News viewers (this is how they "think")

50 years ago today: Bob Dylan released his debut album - CNN.com It was the height of "The Twist" dance craze, and 11 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart had the word "twist" in the title, including "Dear Lady Twist" by Gary U.S. Bonds, "Twistin' The Night Away" by Sam Cooke, "Hey, Let's Twist" by Joey Dee and the Starlighters," "Twistin' Postman" by the Marvelettes and "Alvin Twist" by the Chipmunks.

Liberating America's secret, for-pay laws - Boing Boing This morning, I found a an enormous, 30Lb box waiting for me at my post-office box. Affixed to it was a sticker warning me that by accepting this box into my possession, I was making myself liable for nearly $11 million in damages. The box was full of paper, and printed on the paper were US laws -- laws that no one is allowed to publish or distribute without permission.
Graped_in_the_mouth comments on Hello friends, I am from r/conspiracy and wish to ask some questions/understand what r/conspiratard is about.


031912
Iran Intelligence Crisis Showed Difficulty of Assessing Nuclear Data - NYTimes.com
The Wiretap Jury on the Iran War | emptywheel At a moment when the Obama Administration is still aggresively pursuing James Risen’s testimony on sources for an Iran story he wrote 7 years ago, on Saturday he published a new story summarizing the uncertainty surround intelligence on Iran right now (Obama hates the truth)
The Problematic Intelligence Capabilities on Iran | FDL News Desk
Pro-Israel Groups’ Differing Approaches on Iran - NYTimes.com (same cast of characters as last time, including Perle and Kristol)
U.S. Forces Transferred Afghanistan Detainees To Facility Known For Torture Despite Ban: Report
Afghans suspect US cover-up over soldier's killing spree | World news | The Guardian Doubts over US claim that Robert Bales was acting alone show erosion of trust between Nato and Afghans
Syria: leaked documents reveal Bashar al-Assad's role in crushing protests | World news | The Guardian Documents leaked by Syrian defector show that Assad personally signs off security crackdown plans
Nato must investigate civilian deaths in Libya, says Amnesty | World news | The Guardian Campaigners say scores of Libyans were killed or injured in air strikes but Nato has not provided compensation
DutchNews.nl - Catholic church abuse: at least one youth castrated for 'homosexuality' (it's amazing this criminal organization still exists)
Toulouse school shooting: same gun was used in killing of soldiers | World news | The Guardian Gun fired in Ozar Hatorah secondary college tragedy was weapon used in fatal attack on three French troops, police say
Nobel peace prize winner defends law criminalising homosexuality in Liberia | World news | The Guardian In joint interview, Tony Blair refuses to comment on Liberian president's remarks supporting anti-gay laws
They’re Crazy Over There - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money To be clear, the Liberia law is barbaric. Sirleaf’s position should be strongly criticized (whether or not is was appropriate to do so in that particular context.) But let us recall that Tony Blair’s good friend and fellow Iraq War mastermind George W. Bush was also a supporter of sodomy laws.

Portuguese death rate rise linked to pain of austerity programme | Business | The Guardian Portugal's health service is being forced into sweeping cuts as last May's EU/IMF bailout terms begin to bite (Euro austerity death-panels)

News of the World 'jeopardised Ipswich murder inquiry' | Media | The Guardian Leveson inquiry told paper hired former special forces soldiers to follow police surveillance team hunting for serial killer
News Of The World Endangered Murder Investigation By Following Police: Ex-Officer ... News of the World endangered a murder investigation by hiring ex-special forces soldiers to follow a police surveillance team.
James Murdoch To Step Down From Sotheby's Board ... He also has resigned from the board of drug maker GlaxoSmithKline PLC.

Challenging the CIA’s Withholding of Records on Drone Killings | The Dissenter The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) continued its challenge against the CIA’s withholding of information on the agency’s use of drones to carry out “targeted killings.”

Investigating Corruption Risk in Your State Government - State Integrity Investigation (Georgia at the bottom with Maine a close 5th)
State With Most Integrity is New Jersey, Center for Public Integrity Study Shows

SCOTUS: State University ‘Christian’ clubs not allowed to discriminate against LGBT students | Pam's House Blend - The lesson – don’t expect to receive public funds and discriminate. But these bible beaters will keep on trying.

Balloon Juice » Fair Play (Viagra Review Board)
Balloon Juice » It’d Be Easier To Just Paint a Bullseye on them So I guess we have advanced somewhat in the last 15 years. Before, it was just fringe fanatics who wanted to publish the private information of doctors. Now it is fanatical legislators.
Tennessee Abortion Bill Would Make Abortion Providers' Names Public
Balloon Juice » Idaho Senate to Vote on Mandatory Ultrasound Bill Hey Idahoans! If you believe that unnecessary medical procedures and forced vaginal probing do not a “life-affirming environment” make, contact your representative or Governor Otter.
Soraya Chemaly: 10 Reasons the Rest of the World Thinks the U.S. Is Nuts
New memo lists 31 advertisers who requested 'not to be scheduled in any Rush Limbaugh program' | ThinkProgress
The Mahablog » Equivalence? In Your Dreams … According to most of the Right and also the perpetually clueless Stanley Fish (note to Protein Wisdom: If Fish is a “progressive,” I’m Pat Robertson. And Jesus.) (the "equivalency argument" : Fish thinks Limbaugh=Maher and is proven to be an idiot)
Fairness and Fish — Crooked Timber (John Quiggin 03.19.12 at 10:13 am - Fish is now in my Frank Bruni category. I feel as if every reading of either costs me IQ points, so I no longer bother, even when the title and write-off look potentially interesting.

Jailed for life at age 14: US supreme court to consider juvenile sentences | Law | guardian.co.uk Court to decide constitutionality of cases like Quantel Lotts's – who as a teenager was handed a life sentence without parole

Rick Santorum: 'The Issue In This Race Is Not The Economy' "The reason the economy is an issue in this race is because we have a government that is oppressing its people and taking away their freedom, and the economy is suffering as a result," Santorum said.
Santorum's Warning: Breaking Christian 'Moral Bounds' Will Lead To 'A Very Dangerous Place' | ThinkProgress (called "sanity")
Balloon Juice » ZombieBreitbart.com Presents: Eric Holder — The Vettening As GOP sage Sarah Palin recently noted, President Obama and his terrorist pals were allowed to waltz right into the Oval Office unscrutinized in 2008 while white people Republicans like Ms. Palin were pelted with gotcha questions such as, “What newspapers do you read?” ... Stay tuned next week, when sinister Obama consigliere Valerie Jarrett will be revealed as the winner of the 1992 Black Panthers Ladies Auxiliary Brownie Bake-Off!
Single Mom Waiting For Her Presidential Booty Call | TBogg


Hullabaloo "The offer is still on the table" - This behind the scenes look at the Grand Bargain doesn't change my original impression of the negotiations, but it does lend some details that actually make it worse than I thought - selling out Medicare and Social Security, lowering taxes on the wealthy and cutting the hell out of everything else was just fine (Obama's idea of "negotiating")
Grand Bargain History Due to Repeat With Fiscal Cliff at End of the Year | FDL News Desk The Washington Post has a first draft of history piece about the debt negotiations last year that tells us mostly what we already knew: that the White House was ready to sign onto a document that increased the Medicare eligibility age and instituted chained CPI, which would cut Social Security cost-of-living increases. (yes, "everything" was on the table and still is)
The Charts That Prove Obama Doesn't Set Gas Prices | ThinkProgress
Gender Wage Gap Is Higher On Wall Street Than Anywhere Else (land of big swinging dicks)
Schools Report: Failing To Prepare Students Hurts National Security, Prosperity (Republican war on intelligence)

Visualizing the History of Everything

FRXQt.jpg (Christian values)

Students rally for justice in killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin | World news | guardian.co.uk Community calls for arrest of neighbourhood watch captain who fatally shot the 17-year-old Florida teenager last month ... Zimmerman has claimed self-defence. Florida law allows a person to use deadly force if the person believes he or she is facing a deadly threat (well the kid was black, so that's deadly enough )
Hullabaloo QOTD: Cops: "I’m sure Trayvon would, too" ... Yes, the teen-age Trayvon would know better than to ever leave the house because he'd know that some vigilante packing heat might gun him down for no reason.
Man shocked by Taser at Honeymoon Island after getting in 'violent struggle' placed on ventilator - Tampa Bay Times - Gualtieri said there's no specific policy about using Tasers on handcuffed suspects. But, he said, it is usually proper to use them when someone, as in this case, is using physical resistance against a deputy (he was fucking handcuffed)
Stockton's Poor Mired In Violence After Police Cuts, Recession
TSA Pats Down 3-Year-Old In Leg Cast And Wheelchair (bomb in his cast)
New and improved parks — now with no nature - Salon.com Parks keep getting fancier -- amphitheaters, geodesic domes, starchitect designs. What's wrong with natural beauty?

Free apps eat up your phone battery just sending ads - tech - 18 March 2012 - New Scientist Up to 75 per cent of the energy used by free versions of Android apps is spent serving up ads or tracking and uploading user data: running just one app could drain your battery in around 90 minutes.

031812

In Sweden, cash is king no more - Yahoo! News In most Swedish cities, public buses don't accept cash; tickets are prepaid or purchased with a cell phone text message. A small but growing number of businesses only take cards, and some bank offices — which make money on electronic transactions — have stopped handling cash altogether.

Fundamental steps needed now in global redesign of Earth system governance, experts say The scientists argued in the March 16 edition of the journal Science that the time is now for a "constitutional moment" in world politics ... "Science assessments indicate that human activities are moving several of Earth's sub-systems outside the range of natural variability typical for the previous 500,000 years" (how about some international climate-crimes trials: first up: Limmbaugh and the Koch's)

Mitt Romney Doesn't Have Enough Information To 'Take A Stand' On Afghanistan (hasn't read a newpaper in ten years)
Budget Battle: Republicans Prepare For Fight With Democrats, Obama (wingnuts redux)
FreedomWorks, Tea Party Group, Sees Tactics Backfire In Utah GOP Primary: Report Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) appears likely to have fended off what seemed not too long ago to be a very viable Tea Party challenge ... The notion that FreedomWorks' aggressive politics can occasionally turn off voters isn't all that shocking; that it could turn off voters in deeply red Utah is more so.
Rick Santorum: Pornography Not A Priority For Obama Administration

New Hampshire House Passes A Bill That Falsely Claims Abortion Causes Breast Cancer | ThinkProgress ... Even the Susan G. Komen Foundation denies there is a link (which is saying something; New Hampshire Republicans don't need no steenking science)
After Backing Anti-Birth Control Blunt Amendment, McCain Now Says GOP Needs To 'Get Off' War On Women | ThinkProgress (consistency was never Volcano John's strong suit)
Hullabaloo Alright, girls, that's enough - That's right, it's a tough election fight and the last thing Democrats need is to look like all they care about is a bunch of whiny bitches. Let's not lose our heads here (what's with Slate, anyway?)
Are Democrats in Danger of Looking Too Political on the Violence Against Women Act? 'm really tired of reading pretentious (J. Bryan) queens (check out her LinkedIn profile) complaining that women are being SOOOOOO tacky and tiresome about their stinky uteruses in SLATE.
Booman Tribune ~ Smug, Arrogant, Imbeciles - Bill Maher is making an ass of himself here - If you can sell advertising, they'll keep asking you back. If you can't sell advertising, they won't. Freedom has nothing to do with it (freedom to be a rich asshole, don't get in their way)
Rush Limbaugh Controversy Good News For Mike Huckabee's New Radio Show: Report "They are going after Rush's affiliates," said one radio company executive who received Cumulus' email and spoke on condition of anonymity. "They are positioning Huckabee as the safe, non-dangerous alternative to Rush and saying to station owners, 'If you are looking for conservative content, we want you to consider our guy instead of theirs.'"
Whiskey Fire: You're in Luck, Lovely Ladies! Smooth John Hawkins Has Some Sexy Sexytime Tips for You Girly-Girls ... Reading John Hawkins offering women romantic advice is like reading a recipe for a coelacanth soufflé: hard to accept as real, yet thoroughly unappetizing. (rightwingnuts on sex is never pretty)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Family planning - Bloomberg: " Democrats portray Blunt’s measure as the latest example of a Republican attack on women’s access to health care." - Limiting access to family planning services isn’t a “losing” purely political ploy by Republicans that is then being countered by a “winning” purely political ploy by Democrats. Both sides aren’t doing it. One side is limiting access to birth control, now, today, and the other side is pointing that out. No “portrayal” about it. It’s happening (everything is a "portrayal" nothing is "real")

A Senate Republican plan to replace Mediscare - The Washington Post Are Republicans ready to be trusted with the reins of power? (mu-hahaha)

Michael Higgins Rant - 'Be Proud to Be a Decent American!' - Esquire To close out an almost unimaginable week of conservative stupidity — that boothead judge out in Montana, Rush Limbaugh's hocking up the foul weasel mucus from the bottom of his soul, the Blunt Amendment — a commenter brought this to my attention. The star of our show is Michael D. Higgins, president of Ireland. Playing the part of a pile of smoking meat by the side of the road when Higgins is finished with him is Michael Graham, a local talk-radio blight up here in Boston. Don't bring that weak shit to Grogan's on William Street, lad. (click-through to Kos, too bad he's already President)
Daily Kos :: Comments: President of Ireland - Must See, Believe Me Please! (transcript)
Welfare recipients “are slaves to the government and should be reminded of that fact” | Preliator pro Causa Be sure to keep this horrible little proposal by The Daily Caller’s Brion McClanahan in mind the next time you’re told that far-Rightists don’t hate poor folks. That is, unless arguing that poor people should be subjected to their own Jim Crow laws for the sake of humiliating them out of seeking welfare is actually seen as the compassionate approach nowadays:
Hullabaloo - Macho Dollies - I'm reevaluating my thesis that this is about anxious masculinity. It's about infantalism.

Occupy 6-Month Anniversary Protest Ends With Zuccotti Park Arrests (Bloomberg had enough)
The Banks Win, Again - NYTimes.com And at a time of economic weakness, using bank capital for investor payouts leaves the banks more exposed to shocks. So homeowners are still bearing the brunt of the mortgage debacle. Taxpayers are still supporting too-big-to-fail banks. And banks are still not being held accountable (Obama protecting his banksters and kicking the can down the road)
The Collapse of Employment-Based Coverage - NYTimes.com Reed Abelson at Economix points us to a startling study on the effects of the Great Recession on health insurance ... What this says is that the system that has provided workable insurance coverage to many (but not enough) Americans is coming apart at the seams. And this in turn means that if health reform goes down, we’re going to be looking at a wave of misery spreading across the land (which is exactly the Republican plan)
Economics and Politics by Paul Krugman - The Conscience of a Liberal - NYTimes.com Alec MacGillis has a fantastic piece in the New Republic (unfortunately paywalled) about how hedge fund managers’ love for Obama has turned into blind, spitting hatred. His main argument is that it’s all about feeling disrespected (Obama keeping them out of jail for cirmes against humanity wasn't enough; he hurt their fee-fees)

Shooter of Trayvon Martin a habitual caller to 911 - Miami-Dade - MiamiHerald.com At the focal point of a shooting scandal: a mild-mannered neighbor who fixated on crime and focused on young, black males (most gun-nuts just waiting to shoot some off-white "super-predator" armed with a bag of Skittles)
Melissa Harris-Perry On Trayvon Martin Killing: Remember His Name
Shooter of 17 year old Trayvon Martin a habitual caller to 911 who was "fixated on crime and focused on young, black males." : politics - We are taking a beating over this,” said Lee, who defends the investigation. “This is all very unsettling. I’m sure if George Zimmerman had the opportunity to relive Sunday, Feb. 26, he’d probably do things differently. I’m sure Trayvon would, too.” - WTF did Trayvon have to do differently? He was buying snacks for his brother and was fucking killed for it! It's incredible to see the cops covering for this dangerous, deranged madman.

The Hunger Games: Post-Apocalypse Now For Young Adults | ThinkProgress - Wizards and vampires are out. The market in teen fiction is dominated now by societies in breakdown. And it’s girls who are lapping them up.

Ghich.jpg (where Americans vs Canadians put their trust)

Police court order Dotwrong - National - NZ Herald News Internet tycoon Kim Dotcom's cash, cars and property were seized using a court order which should never have been granted ... Police commissioner Peter Marshall and the Government's legal advisers at the Crown Law Office have admitted making an embarrassing "procedural error" when filing documents to seize Dotcom's property. ("procedural error" = huge fucking blunder, but Big Content don't need no steenking laws)

031712
Syria Car Bombs Hit Damascus, Killing At Least 27
Robert Bales, Afghanistan shooting suspect, arrives in Kansas | World news | guardian.co.uk US soldier accused of murdering 16 Afghan villagers is placed in solitary confinement at Fort Leavenworth military prison
Afghanistan Killings: Alcohol Raises Questions In Shooting Case
Robo-calls warrant ‘huge investigation,’ former Harper aide says - The Globe and Mail (Conservatives always cheat and lie)
Julian Assange Australia Senate Run Announced

Occupy in America: looking back on six months of protest | World news | guardian.co.uk Saturday is Occupy's six-month anniversary. What it was like where you were? Browse the photos and share your memories

Post-Citizens United Money May Swamp Congressional Candidates (which was the SC's plan)

Texas Loses Entire Women's Health Program Over Planned Parenthood Law (Perry says Obama is depriving women of health care)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » #WarOnWomen: Arizona Close to Defunding Planned Parenthood The Arizona Senate Committee on Healthcare and Medical Liability Reform approved HB 2800 which strips state funding from any group (like Planned Parenthood) that performs abortion even though existing state law and the fucking Hyde Amendment already prohibit the use of state/federal funds for abortion.
Protect Pregnant Women: Free Bei Bei Shuai | The Nation ("birthing vessels")

Obama's Health Care Re-Election Strategy - How Can We Help President Obama Today? - Esquire We can help him learn how to talk about health-care reform (Obama can't help pooping on his progressive base)
Are Conservatives Any Crazier Today Than 50 Years Ago? - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Perlstein also pushes back against the idea developed by people like Jonathan Chait that the demographics suggest a more liberal future, suggesting that this is just another argument liberals have made for a half-century without it ever really happening. The upshot: We have to prepare for a decades-long fight to the death. That’s the nation’s only hope.

Illinois the battleground for Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum - live | World news | guardian.co.uk GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum face off in Illinois before next week's primary - live coverage
Why the Republican 'Establishment' Can't Stomach Rick Santorum - Mark W. Davis (usnews.com)
Crooks and Liars Acclaimed Mexican-American author Rudolfo Anaya helped box up books for the journey to Arizona's underground libraries after the Tuscon Unified School District recently banned Hispanic books, including Anaya's famous novel, "Bless Be Ultima." (can't say "Hispanic" either )

Do Not Underestimate Joe Biden - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money If there’s anything the last five years should have taught us, it’s that nobody fucks with Joe Biden and lives to tell about it.
Biden Criticized For Appearing In Hennessy Ads | The Onion - America's Finest News Source | Onion News Network

Untouchable Pensions in California May Be Put to the Test - NYTimes.com ("untouchable?" mu-hahaha)
Goldman Staffer Leaked Apple, Intel Secrets To Raj Rajaratnam: Lawyer

Ultracold experiments heat up quantum research atoms chilled to temperatures near absolute zero may behave like seemingly unrelated natural systems of vastly different scales, offering potential insights into links between the atomic realm and deep questions of cosmology.

The Curious Case of Trayvon Martin - NYTimes.com WFTV also reported this week that the officer in charge of the scene when Trayvon was shot was also in charge of another controversial case. In 2010, a lieutenant’s son was videotaped attacking a black homeless man. The officer’s son also was not initially arrested in that case. He was later arrested when the television station broke the news (holding Skittles while black at shoot-on-sight offense)
Balloon Juice » Just Another Proud Exercise of First Amendment Rights - To be fair, I’m sure these aren’t quite the words Mitt Romney would have used, Bill Maher said something racist once, and liberals criticized George Bush. ("Don't Re-Nig")
Florida Family Seeks Justice After Unarmed Teen Shot by Neighborhood Watch Captain - ABC News Despite his admission that he shot Trayvon Martin, Zimmerman was not arrested by police, only taken in for questioning, a move that has Martin's family infuriated. Further investigation by Crump revealed a past history of violence by Zimmerman, who was arrested in 2005 for resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.
Bennett Barbour exonerated of rape in Virginia: how the state is botching the DNA retesting and notification of old cases - Slate Magazine Virginia knows it has DNA evidence that may prove the innocence of dozens of men convicted of crimes they didn’t commit. Men just like Barbour. So why won’t the state say who they are? (falsely convicted are black? VA doesn't want to admit to racism?)

ACLU Opposition to H.R. 3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 | American Civil Liberties Union (otherwise known as the "all your data are belong to us" Super-Patriotic Act)

031612
Afghanistan Shooting Suspect Leaves Kuwait An unnamed U.S. official had told The New York Times the killings were a result of "a combination of stress, alcohol and domestic issues - he just snapped."
At Afghan Prison, Invasive Search of Female Visitors Raises U.S. Objections - NYTimes.com Women visiting relatives at a notorious men’s prison on the edge of Kabul have in recent weeks been subjected to invasive body-cavity searches (the irony burns)
George Clooney Arrested: Actor And Congressmen In Custody After Protest Outside Sudanese Embassy - "They were protesting the violence committed by the government of Sudan on its own innocent men, women and children," Clooney's publicist said in a statement published by TMZ. "They were demanding they allow humanitarian aid into the country before it becomes the largest humanitarian crisis in the world."

George Osborne poised to slash top tax rate from 50p to 40p | Politics | The Guardian Chancellor's dramatic move to cut top rate of income tax in next week's budget will delight the Conservative right (austerity plus tax-cuts for the rich! always the conservative solution)

Patriot Act Secrecy Unjustified, Senators Say - International Business Times A controversial secret provision of the Patriot Act is not as vital to national security as the government claims, two Democratic senators said in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder ... Wyden and Udall have insisted that Americans would be horrified if they knew the full scope of surveillance and data gathering that occurs under the auspices of the Patriot Act (so, you can assume, basically everything)
Democratic Senators Warn About Use of Patriot Act - NYTimes.com (don't need no steenking democracy, either)
Senators terrified with abuse of Patriot Act’s secret laws — RT

"Shadow CIA" Buys Itself a Big-Name Journalist | Mother Jones Disgraced corporate spy shop Stratfor aims to bounce back from its Wikileaks debacle by hiring Robert D. Kaplan.
Robert Kaplan to the rescue? | Stephen M. Walt (and Stratfor and no realist jountalists in the Village Media; makes sense, right?)

The Unwelcome Mat - NYTimes.com ESTA asks for basic personal data, like your name and birth date. It also asks whether you are guilty of “moral turpitude,” whether you’re planning crimes or “immoral activities” and whether you suffer from “lymphogranuloma venereum” (don’t ask). If you’re involved in terrorism or genocide — and for some reason you’ve decided to take this opportunity to inform the United States government — there’s a box for that. And if you’re a spy — a particularly artless one — please let us know (security theatre killing tourism from the rest of the world)

The Right Not to Know - The Texas Observer The painful decision to terminate a pregnancy is now—thanks to Texas' harsh new law—just the beginning of the torment.
Republican-Controlled Arizona Legislature On Cusp Of Defunding Planned Parenthood | ThinkProgress Arizona is the latest battleground in the conservative war on women as the state legislature appears poised to strip funding from the women’s health care provider Planned Parenthood. (WoW)
Eschaton: The Other Grand Bargain I know it will never happen, but I am waiting for the dozens of "I'm sorry world, for being such a fucking idiot" posts from all of the eventheliberals who for years imagined that a Grand Bargain could be struck with the anti-choice movement if only stupid liberal bloggers would be nicer to them. Or something (looking at you, Will Saletan, and waiting for your abject apology; oh, and I see it took you five years to apologize for your Iraq invasion idea)

video: All 3 Missouri GOP Senate Candidates Stumped When Asked To Identify The Minimum Wage | ThinkProgress (but they will lower it anyway)
Mitt Romney Applied For Application To Construct Basement Larger Than Existing House (you know about Mormons and their basements)
Wisconsin GOP Loses Senate Majority, After Recall-Targeted GOPer Resigns | TPM2012

Natural Born Drillers - NYTimes.com The irony here is that these claims come just as events are confirming what everyone who did the math already knew, namely, that U.S. energy policy has very little effect either on oil prices or on overall U.S. employment. For the truth is that we’re already having a hydrocarbon boom, with U.S. oil and gas production rising and U.S. fuel imports dropping. If there were any truth to drill-here-drill-now, this boom should have yielded substantially lower gasoline prices and lots of new jobs. Predictably, however, it has done neither. (never let sanity get in the way of rape and greed)

Calculated Risk: February Employment Report: 227,000 Jobs, 8.3% Unemployment Rate (+scariest chart in the world)
Cheaters Always Prosper: A Daily Rundown Rundown - Esquire - a panel to discuss yesterday's New York Times op-ed in which a former Goldman Sachs executive named Greg Smith ... The discussion by the panel consisted primarily of bullshit ... Becky Quick (financial news wanker thinks an op-ed is a letter to the editor)
Goldman Heir On Greg Smith Op-Ed: 'Spot On'


Off course in Cambridge - Boston.com (Henrietta Davis is a liar but has Robert "the 8+ million man" Healy's back)

Gadhafi's Son Built a Ship With Deadly Shark Tank Inside | Danger Room | Wired.com

Michael Wayne Hash Free After Judge Slams Official Misconduct in Murder Case, Tosses Life Sentence , and lambasted police and prosecutors for "outrageous misconduct" Gary Close, the prosecutor who tried the case, abruptly resigned as the Culpeper County district attorney (you're looking at a big lawsuit, dude)


Dharun Ravi Guilty Of Invasion Of Privacy In Webcam Spy Trial
'This American Life' Retracts Mike Daisey Story About Foxconn Factory Visit The blog post said that Daisey's story about Foxconn's massive Shenzen factory "contained significant fabrications."

031512
The richest get richer | David Cay Johnston Just 15,600 super-rich households pocketed an astonishing 37 percent of the entire national gain ... 0.01% of 114 million American households (yes, the top .01% has 37% of the gains)

Progressive Information Project: George Lakoff's Thinking Points | Crooks and Liars

Experts Say Attack On Iran Could Mean $6 Per Gallon Gasoline | ThinkProgress (does Netanyahu control US election?)
Let's have some more wars, TNR book critic says - The New Republic - Salon.com Leon Wieseltier calls for the use of good old fashioned American power in Syria and maybe Iran, too (dual-loyalty neocons at work)
Suicide of Moroccan girl reportedly wed to rapist spurs outrage - latimes.com Human rights groups complain that Moroccan law has been interpreted to allow someone who rapes a minor to escape punishment if he marries the victim. Moroccan media reported that was what happened to Amina Filali, a 16-year-old who reportedly swallowed rat poison Saturday.
Afghanistan Shootings: Accused Soldier Flown To Kuwait, Panetta And Karzai Talk
Taliban Suspends Afghanistan Talks With United States (will move to America and join Republican party)
How the Assad emails came to light | World news | The Guardian Syrian activists say a scrap of paper from a government worker gave them a window into the ruling couple's lives
Shell admits 207 oil spills in 2011 | Business | The Guardian Anglo-Dutch group is still investigating a further four spills in Nigeria that it admits may raise the 2011 total

Eurozone crisis live: Greece taskforce reports as UK warned by Fitch | Business | guardian.co.uk City analysts: No hope of UK budget giveaway
Greece on the breadline: HIV and malaria make a comeback | World news | The Guardian Jon Henley finds a medical aid organisation trying to plug the gaps as the health service nears breakdown

Is Barack Obama a Murderous Sociopath? | Mother Jones Glenn Greenwald commends to our attention today a piece by Jeremy Scahill about the imprisonment of Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye. You should read all of Scahill's piece, but here's the nickel summary for those of you who won't.

Birth Control McCarthyism « Corey Robin (birth control is the new Communism)
Whose freedom on contraception? - Salon.com Today's battles are a rerun of previous debates -- and the right's gotten better at defining the terms
Bishops seek liberty to impose birth control dogma - Salon.com - Catholic leaders redouble efforts to deny birth control to non-believing employees

Hullabaloo There but for the grace of their greater virtue and superior work ethic
How We Cured “The Culture of Poverty,” Not Poverty Itself - In a further nod to "culture of poverty" theory, the original welfare reform bill appropriated $250 million over five years for "chastity training" for poor single mothers. (This bill, it should be pointed out, was signed by Bill Clinton.) ... And if we look closely enough, we'll have to conclude that poverty is not, after all, a cultural aberration or a character flaw. Poverty is a shortage of money.

Sen. Feinstein: GOP Is Saying ‘We Don’t Consider Violence To Be An Important Issue’ | ThinkProgress
War On Women: Chuck Schumer Says Violence Against Women Act Will Get Senate Vote (Republicans support violence against women)
Arizona Birth Control Bill Penalizes Women For Using Contraception For Non-Medical Reasons
Proposed AZ Bill Would Allow Employers To Fire Women Using The Pill for Birth Control | Crooks and Liars (next up: Christian loyalty oath)
Balloon Juice » Lie Back and Think of England, You Sluts Here is the Republican Governor of PA sharing some advice with women who will be forced to have an unnecessary ultrasound before having an abortion ... “It’s unthinkable that he would so casually dismiss this by advising women to just close their eyes,” Murphy said. --> There is just something spectacularly wrong with these people.
Tom Corbett, Pennsylvania Governor, On Ultrasound Mandate: Just 'Close Your Eyes' - Even if the woman opts to "close [her] eyes," as Corbett suggests, the doctor will have to turn the ultrasound image toward her face, give her two signed copies of the printed image, describe the number of heartbeats per minute and tell her if that's normal or not for a fetus of that age. She then has to wait 24 hours and bring all the signed paperwork and both ultrasound images to her abortion doctor in order to have the procedure legally, and the doctor has to repeat to her the age of the fetus.
Hullabaloo Just close your eyes, honey - Several state legislatures were inspired rather than dissuaded by the contraception debate in Washington, and are considering their own versions of the Blunt Amendment — keeping alive an issue national Republicans thought they were putting to bed. Arizona, New Hampshire, Idaho and Georgia have taken up bills to expand exemptions for contraception coverage. Ohio, Missouri, New Hampshire, Idaho and Wyoming lawmakers are moving symbolic resolutions condemning the administration’s contraception coverage rule.
Limbaugh: Obama Wants Separate Laws For Separate Races, "Looks At The Constitution As Rich White Man's Law" | Media Matters for America
Who's Advertising On Rush Limbaugh? | Media Matters for America (mainly, the US Army, of course)
The 10 Worst Advertiser-Sponsored Moments Limbaugh Laughed At Human Suffering | Media Matters for America

Michael J. Fox: Limbaugh's Attack On Sandra Fluke "Was Really Offensive" | Media Matters for America
The Sandra Fluke "Co-Ed" Conspiracy
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Time For Your Counter-Top Inspection, Miss Fluke Sandra Fluke and her boyfriend are getting the full Graeme Frost, and it turns out that not only is her boyfriend a Democrat, but a socialist Jew. Yes. The right-wing nuts really went there.
Balloon Juice » Sandra Fluke’s Boyfriend Is the Jewwiest Jew that Ever Did Jew
Little Green Footballs - Husband of CNN Contributor Dana Loesch Calls CNN Host Soledad O'Brien 'Anti-Semitic' Here’s something you don’t see every day: the husband of a CNN contributor (Chris Loesch, Dana Loesch’s spouse) calling the host of a CNN show (Soledad O’Brien) “anti-Semitic.” ... Dana Loesch is also an “editor” at Breitbart.com (time to boycott CNN)
Right-Wing Pundits Smear Soledad O'Brien As 'Anti-Semitic' And Racist | ThinkProgress
Stupid Right-Wing Tweets: Dana Loesch Edition | Crooks and Liars
Little Green Footballs - CNN's Dana Loesch Equates Mandatory Trans-Vaginal Ultrasound to Having Sex (in case you missed it; these are really disgusting, soul-less people)
Catholic Bishops: Birth Control Is 'Ubiquitous And Inexpensive' (said the Catholic Taliban)

Philosophers come together to ask for a 'Times' obit | Inside Higher Ed (Times explains the ignoring of famous women is because there are so many famous men to print)

Balloon Juice » Dixie chicks and hypocrites Now that many serious people have become concerned about the “chilling effects” of the Rush Limbaugh ad boycott, I’m having some fun revisiting the media reaction to the Global War Against The Dixie Chicks. We’ve heard from Sullivan and Hitchens. Here’s Gregg Easterbrook, from a bizarre column that captures the near-fascist zeitgeist of 2003 (down the memory hole in service of "liberal" pearl-clutching)
Enough with the Liberal Hand-Wringing About Rush Limbaugh | Crooks and Liars (kind of a defining issue; these are the people who thought that)
How we can connect with feminism's global future | Naomi Wolf | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk n the west, feminism has stalled. But elsewhere, women have found in it a new model of Enlightenment rights and freedoms (and going backwards in America) w

Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life Sentences - NYTimes.com At the same time, “tough on crime” rhetoric led some states to enact laws making it easier to impose life without parole sentences on adults. The unintended consequence of these laws was that children as young as 13 and 14 who were charged as adults became subject to life without parole sentences.

Rick Santorum Tells Puerto Ricans To Speak English If They Want Statehood, So Mitt Romney Will Win Puerto Rico
Romney's Health Care Evasions: A History -- Daily Intel
Frank Rich on the National Circus: Overestimating Mitt -- Daily Intel
Stewart Trashes Primary Coverage

Former SEC Official Slams House JOBS Act: 'It Won't Create Jobs, But It Will Simplify Fraud' | ThinkProgress (of course, it's Republicans)
Faux Federalism House Republicans favor “state’s rights”—except when states do things they don’t want them to do.
Utah Senate Election: Tea Party Challenges Orrin Hatch's Reelection In Thursday Night Caucuses (collision of evils)
Richard Lugar, Indiana Senator, Ruled Ineligible To Vote In Old Hometown Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and his wife have been ruled ineligible to vote at the Indiana address they have used for decades because they moved to Virginia decades ago (minor technicality; did he have photo-id?)
Brodkorb: Other staffers who had affairs treated differently | StarTribune.com Former Minnesota Senate staffer Michael Brodkorb claims he was fired because of an affair with former Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch and intends to prove other employees who had trysts with legislators were allowed to continue working.

Eschaton: Perhaps You Could Have Shared This With Us Before Was there a moment when all of the Very Serious People in the financial press should have informed the world, "Only Suckers Do Business With Goldman Sachs"? Their message now is that everybody should have known this. Maybe they should have warned people? Perhaps listed companies and institutions that did business with them as "suckers to avoid." This is all really quite hilarious, in a "the empire is doomed" kind of way.

Barack Obama, Gay Rights Groups Struggle Over Democratic Platform An unexpected surge in support to place same-sex marriage on the Democratic Party platform at the August convention has energized LGBT advocates and complicated an already delicate situation facing President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign (he's "still evolving" on the issue of equal rights ... "now's not the time" "just wait a little bit" "we don't want to upset all those Catholic independents")

At NCAA Tournament, Southern Miss Band Chants 'Where's Your Green Card?' At Hispanic Kansas State Player | ThinkProgress

'Ashley treatment' on the rise amid concerns from disability rights groups | Society | guardian.co.uk Controversial medical procedure to limit growth of severely disabled children is being increasingly used, Guardian learns
BBC News - Ban on father seeing daughter alone is lifted Nigel Robinson, 43, from Hull, called police after finding pornographic images on his laptop after trying to download music in November. Social services banned him from having unsupervised access to his child while police investigated ... Mr Robinson said he had been unable to spend time alone with his daughter for four months and was told the investigation into the images could take up to a year.

American ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme on July 12 | The Raw Story

'Anonymous-OS' is fake and packed with malware, Anonymous says
Ex-Microsoft Employee Launches 'Fixing Windows 8' Initiative

031412
US e-voting system cracked in less than 48 hours - The H Security: News and Features . "Within 48 hours of the system going live, we had gained near complete control of the election server", the researchers wrote in a paperPDF that has now been released. "We successfully changed every vote and revealed almost every secret ballot." (of course, Cheney had this down in 2004, but your e-vote is worthless)

How to end the Afghan mission - The Washington Post By David Ignatius ("wish for a pony" like we've always been doing; idiots)
Vehicle bursts into flames on runway as Leon Panetta flies into Afghanistan | World news | The Guardian US defence secretary had just landed in Camp Bastion in Helmand when pickup truck drove on to airfield
Massacres are the inevitable result of foreign occupation | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | The Guardian The latest slaughter in Afghanistan is part of a decade of savage civilian killing: until Nato leaves, it is certain to continue (yet another "isolated incident" making sure America has fanatical enemies for the next 200 years)
Exclusive: secret Assad emails lift lid on life of leader's inner circle | World news | The Guardian Messages show Bashar al-Assad took advice from Iran • Leader made light of promised reforms • Wife spent thousands on jewellery and furniture
Why Is President Obama Keeping A Journalist In Prison In Yemen? (well, he wanted to just blow him up)
Moroccan girl commits suicide after being forced to marry her rapist (Sharia Law)
BBC News - Cyber-attack on BBC leads to suspicion of Iran's involvement A "sophisticated cyber-attack" on the BBC has been linked to Iran's efforts to disrupt the BBC Persian Service.

Greece on the breadline: the children of Athens too hungry to do PE | World news | The Guardian It has been a common secret among PE teachers for some time now that they don't expect pupils to do PE any more, because many of them are underfed and get dizzy (well, they can just suck it up and tighten their belts)
U.K. Unemployment Jumped More Than Forecast in February - Bloomberg and a broader measure of unemployment remained at the highest rate in 16 years, underscoring the weakness of the labor market even as the economy shows some signs of recovery (no consequences for fucking over millions of people with their greed and idiotic policies)

Neville Thurlbeck, former News of the World chief reporter, arrested | Media | guardian.co.uk Operation Weeting officers re-arrest former NoW chief reporter, this time on suspicion of intimidation of a witness
Phone-hacking: how the 'rogue reporter' defence slowly crumbled | Media | The Guardian A series of denials by News International after the jailing of Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulciaire became harderto sustain
Leveson inquiry: Jeff Edwards, Sandra Laville, Jon Ungoed-Thomas appear | Media | guardian.co.uk Laville: closing unofficial sources might drive info underground • Having a drink with an officer 'part of human relationship' • But treating officers to Savoy and lapdancing is another matter (well, your first point was wrong also)

Gore, Parker urge Web to 'Occupy Democracy' - CNN.com

Hullabaloo - Cardinal sins - Nobody's even allowed to mention that the same people who covered up decades of sexual abuse in their own institution are all over the country declaring their moral righteousness. Why should they think they can't get away with this too?
Bill Donahue Decides To Save The Catholic Church By Attacking Their Rape Victims | Crooks and Liars (the full moral authority of the world's largest pedophile ring at work)
Law Will Allow Employers to Fire Women for Using Whore Pills - A proposed new law in Arizona would give employers the power to request that women being prescribed birth control pills provide proof that they're using it for non-sexual reasons. (Taliban-controlled state)
Hullabaloo - Freedom to slut shame (how low have we sunk)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Another Limited Government Proposal And the American Taliban strikes again, this time in Wisconsin: These people are fanatics, this is a war on women, and they’ll keep passing these laws enforcing their religious beliefs on the rest of us until you get up off your butt and throw the bums out of office.

Ad Boycott Dents Limbaugh Show’s Bottom Line - NYTimes.com Along with LifeLock and Lear Financial, at least one other advertiser, Hillsdale College, remains supportive of Mr. Limbaugh (down to three advertisers) Conservative critics of MSNBC are said to be considering their own boycott campaign, aiming at liberal commentators like the Rev. Al Sharpton. (it's exactly the same, should work fine)
Majority Thinks Rush Limbaugh Should Be Fired For Sandra Fluke Comments: Poll ("the soul of the Republican party" should be fired)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Don’t you know that it’s different for hippies (boycotts are shrill and only dirty hippies should be silenced)
Jon Stewart To Fox News: ‘Shut The F*ck Up’
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » The Best And Brightest I know what the liberals are asking: Why is [Spitzer] such a big deal, and Sen. David Vitter’s previous experience with call girls isn’t? Shut up, that’s why.

Romney Leads GOP Contest, Trails in Matchup with Obama | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press Among all voters, Obama leads Romney by 12 points (54% to 42%) and Santorum by 18 points (57% to 39%). Obama’s advantage among women voters, while largely unchanged from a month ago, remains substantial – 20 points over Romney and 26 points over Santorum.

Hullabaloo A reminder about last night's voters - Almost a third of Mississippi Republican voters think interracial marriage should be illegal, and over half think the President is a Muslim (as if it matters.) (a year of the insane clown show)
Rick Santorum Primary Results: The Undead Presidential Candidate Down South
Santorum-Gingrich Ticket Floated By Gingrich Adviser (the anti-Mormon coalition)
Fox Ignores "Significant" Costs That Come With "Free" IDs In Texas | Media Matters for America (voting just like going to the ATM; Fux is killing America)
Fox News Host Suggests Democrats Are for Voter Fraud | Video Cafe Fox News host Gretchen Carlson says she can't understand why Democrats would be against discriminatory voter ID laws unless they are "for voter fraud." (news prostitute)

Wolves to the Slaughter The reintroduction of the gray wolf to the Northern Rockies was an ecological success story—until big money, old superstitions, and politics got in the way.
Wolves - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Effectively, Obama agreed to delist the wolf to save Jon Tester’s Senate seat. That’s pretty depressing ... gutting the ESA in order to save a senator is not something Democrats are supposed to do (just another constituency thrown under the bus)

MF Global’s Free Pass? | The Big Picture This is just like prosecuting drug dealers — you pick up the dime bag seller, roll them to the mid-level guy, repeat. Keep doing that until you reach as close to the top as you can get. Works for pot, crack, robo-signing, and segregated account theft . . . (Obama's permanent get-out-of-jail-and-profit card for the bankersters)
Eschaton: The Plan Not really saying anything that Barry didn't already say, but if there's a proven method for stealing your customer's money without any legal consequences, then people will, you know, keep doing it. Put your money in your mattresses.
Foreclosure Fraud Settlement Docs (II): Giving Homes to Charity as a Penalty | FDL News Desk
Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs - NYTimes.com To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money (our business model is stealing your money, so don't give it to us)
Greg Smith's Goldman Sachs Resignation Sparks Predictably Hilarious Twitter Explosion
Beyond Goldman Sachs: the nasty culture | Joris Luyendijk | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Greg Smith's portrait of Goldman Sachs is shocking, but investment banks treat their clients as poorly as they do their staff
Eschaton: Title Inflation He was the Vice President of getting my fucking coffee (said Blankfein about Smith)
Mark Gongloff: Greg Smith Leaves Goldman Sachs, But It's Not Just A Goldman Problem
The Daily Mash - Why I am leaving the Empire, by Darth Vader
Goldman Rejects Claims Made by Outgoing Executive - Deal Journal - WSJ (you can just look at Blankfein and know something is seriously wrong here)
Mario Batali to Pay $5.25 Million for Tip Skimming Scam - Duly Noted Batali and Bastianich had a standard policy of deducting as much as 4 to 5 percent of the tip pool each night. [WaPo] That's illegal. The WaPo quotes food columnist Jonathan Gold saying that this won't damage Batali's image in the industry because he's such a gifted chef. Of course, if Batali had gotten caught stealing from investors, his career would be over.

Rising Sea Levels a Growing Risk to Coastal U.S., Study Says - NYTimes.com About 3.7 million Americans live within a few feet of high tide and risk being hit by more frequent coastal flooding in coming decades because of the sea level rise caused by global warming, according to new research (at what point does it sink in?)
'Red Deer Cave people' may be new species of human | Science | The Guardian Stone age remains of people with a penchant for home-cooked venison could represent a new human evolutionary line
Encyclopedia Britannica halts print publication after 244 years | Books | guardian.co.uk The paper edition of the encyclopedia ends its centuries-long run, but is it a victim or beneficiary of the digital age?
Watch how the Moon was formed | ITworld

Lobbyists Call On Barack Obama To Tone Down Anti-Lobbyist Rhetoric The American League of Lobbyists is calling on President Barack Obama to tone down his criticism of lobbyists.
Penn State's 'informal' discussion about possibly going private meets with mixed reactions | PennLive.com Penn State's 'informal' discussion about possibly going private meets with mixed reactions

Why We Have to Go Back to a 40-Hour Work Week to Keep Our Sanity | Visions | AlterNet One hundred fifty years of research proves that shorter work hours actually raise productivity and profits -- and overtime destroys them. So why do we still do this?
TaxProf Blog: NYU Law School Pays $3.6M for Faculty Condo “The four bedrooms have ensuite baths with Calacatta gold and marble, as well as radiant heat floors.” Songwriter Judy Collins was a former building resident.


FBI Tries To Force Google To Unlock User's Android Phone - Slashdot
AT&T Threatens To Shut Off Service of Customer Who Won Throttling Case - Slashdot
Firefox, Thunderbird and SeaMonkey updates fix critical vulnerabilities - The H Open Source: News and Features
Who Knows What Youhavedownloaded.com? — Krebs on Security

031312
U.S. Officials Debate Speeding Up Afghan Pullout - NYTimes.com
Comment: News from the Wars : The New Yorker In this country, the percentage of Americans who want an immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan is now over half and appears to include Newt Gingrich, who said on Sunday, “We’re not prepared to be ruthless enough.” (should have killed them all, apparently; Packer is depressed)

Eurozone crisis live: Fitch raises Greece out of default - as it happened | Business | guardian.co.uk Athens denies needing yet more austerity • Spain claims victory over deficit

Rebekah Brooks among six arrested in phone-hacking investigation | Media | guardian.co.uk Former Sun editor held by Operation Weeting detectives on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice
Phone hacking: six arrested under Operation Weeting | Media | guardian.co.uk Arrests in London, Oxfordshire, Hampshire and Hertfordshire on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice
Rebekah Brooks and Husband Said to Be Arrested in Hacking Inquiry - NYTimes.com
Rebekah Brooks, Husband, And Four Others Arrested In New Phone Hacking Probe (time to put the cuffs on you-know-who)
Woman fails to quash conviction for falsely retracting rape claim | Society | The Guardian Court upholds decision against woman jailed for perverting course of justice in withdrawing accusations against husband (even more perversion)

Joe Biden: GOP Super PACs Will Raise $200 Million To $800 Million

Profiles In Cowardice - Esquire I sincerely hope Shirley Sherrod and her lawyers win so big in this thing that they have to dig up Andrew Breitbart and collect the pennies off his eyes. I sincerely hope, at some point, Shirley Sherrod gets in a room with Tom Vilsack, and with the incumbent president of the United Stares, and with everyone of his micturating staffers, and she spits on every damn one of them (Obama cowering in the corner, terrified of Bill O'Reilly)

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » These Are The People Who Wish To Set The American Moral Agenda From The New York Times we learn that the Catholic Church has decided to drop the legal hammer on those irritating little types who dislike conspiracies to cover up child rape:
Political Animal - Those Canadians Are Scary, Eh? So I reacted with predictable hilarity upon learning that Cheney had canceled an appearance in Toronto because Canada is just too dangerous a place.
Roger Ailes I guess when your biggest accomplishment in life is recalling a story about Arnold Schwarzenegger from your old copy of Oui magazine, you can't help but worship someone who was the recipient of a congressman's dick photos.

Mortgage Settlement That Divided Democrats May Have Burned Eric Schneiderman's Bridges (Obama always had the bankers' backs)

The Most Astounding Fact About The Universe, As Told By Neil DeGrasse Tyson (VIDEO) "We are part of this universe; we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts, is that the universe is in us," he explains.
Suspected polio case endangers India's eradication record | World news | The Guardian Child's paralysis sparks fears that India will fail in mission to be declared free of polio following removal from 'endemic' list

Arizona's Jobless Drug Test Bill Would Trigger Huge Tax Hike The Arizona drug testing bill, introduced by Sen. Steve Smith (R-Maricopa), would require unemployed people who want benefits to pay for their own drug tests.
Joe Walsh Money Woes: Campaign Low On Cash As Child Support Case Continues (Teaparty "responsibility")

Nina Turner, Ohio State Senator, Introduces Viagra Bill To Counter Anti-Contraception Legislation Specifically, Turner's bill would require men to receive psychological counseling to verify that they have a medical reason for taking erectile dysfunction medications, such as Viagra, before they can legally obtain a prescription for it. It would also require doctors to inform men, in writing, about the potential risks of drugs like Viagra.
Most People Don't Believe Rush Limbaugh's Apology Was Sincere: Study Only 29% believe Limbaugh’s apology for his recent comments was sincere. Fifty-three percent do not think his apology was sincere, while 18% are undecided ("the polls are still out")
CNN's Will Cain Grills Sandra Fluke Over Contraception Op-Ed (rightwing wankers at CNN)
Hullabaloo Welfare queens and college sluts - CNN, you really need to examine your hiring policies. Your "analyst" Dana Loesch wrote this piece of drivel on her site yesterday ... It also makes sense that the right wing noise machine would activate their troops with this. It's a bit more of a mystery as to why an alleged mainstream news organization would employ someone who does it (Loesch is a righting news prostitute)
Sandra Fluke On Rush Limbaugh Controversy: Attempts To Silence Women Have 'Clearly Failed' (despite the best efforts of CNN and Fox)
Balloon Juice » Is it Time to Expand the #StopRush Campaign to #CNN?
Rachel Maddow Defends Controversial 'Doonesbury' Comic Strip, Cartoonist Garry Trudeau
Sex in America: our readers respond | The people's panel | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk We asked you whether America was in the midst of a sexual counter-revolution. Ten Guardian readers share their thoughts
Even Utah Thinks GOP's Abstinence-Only Efforts Too Far | ThinkProgress . Of those surveyed, 58 percent said they believe “”Public schools in Utah should teach about the use of contraceptives.”
Keep On Implodin’ - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money “If these young women are being responsible and didn’t have the sex to begin with, we wouldn’t have this problem to begin with,” Davis said (you know who shouldn't have sex?)

The Go-Nowhere Generation - NYTimes.com The likelihood of 20-somethings moving to another state has dropped well over 40 percent since the 1980s, according to calculations based on Census Bureau data. The stuck-at-home mentality hits college-educated Americans as well as those without high school degrees (they aren't even riding their bicycles)

Yahoo files lawsuit against Facebook | Technology | guardian.co.uk nternet company claims Facebook infringes patents covering advertising, privacy controls and social networking
John R. MacArthur: Internet con men ravage publishing | This New England Blog | providencejournal.com (get off my print lawn; +longwinded, isn't he?)

031212
Taliban vow revenge for US soldier's attack on Afghans | World news | The Guardian Statement on website promises revenge for 'every single martyr', as questions are raised about military mission in Afghanistan - Afghan lawmakers called for the American to be tried in a court in Afghanistan
Afghanistan campaign: a fragile strategy easily derailed by lone gunmen? | World news | The Guardian Mass killing of Afghan civilians by US soldier, like the backlash against the Qur'an-burning, displays the fragility of this conflict
Afghanistan civilian casualties: year by year, month by month. Visualised data | News | guardian.co.uk Afghani casualty figures are higher than at any time since the invasion, and up 8% on last year. How many people have died?
Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum Question Afghan Mission Following Massacre (Obama's fault Bush invaded Afganistan)
Syria Killings: Many Civilians 'Massacred' By Pro-Government Gunmen In Homs, Activists Claim
Obama aiding Tehran by pursuing diplomatic solution, Republicans claim | World news | guardian.co.uk Congressional Republicans say the president has not been supportive enough of Israel over any possible threat from Iran (bomb, bomb, Iran! Israel is our boss!)
St Petersburg bans 'homosexual propaganda' | World news | The Guardian Russian city is fourth to adopt anti-gay legislation as politicians and Orthodox Church push for laws to apply nationwide

Bradley Manning's treatment was cruel and inhuman, UN torture chief rules | World news | guardian.co.uk UN special rapporteur on torture's findings likely to reignite criticism of US government's treatment of WikiLeaks suspect (Obama: "fuck the UN")

The Morning Plum: How rising gas prices put Obama at risk - The Plum Line - The Washington Post (which is why those Repubican billionaires started manipulating gas prices)

141 Companies Drop Advertising From Rush Limbaugh - The advertisers have also requested to be excluded from other right-wing hosts including Michael Savage, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. (El Rushbo the new plague)
‘Doonesbury’ creator Garry Trudeau discusses divisive strips about abortion - The Washington Post (you see, rape isn't "divisive" but reporting it is)
Balloon Juice » The Internet is for Porn and Doonesbury What I do know is that an industry that treats their online edition the way a dog treats a favorite pooping spot isn’t taking the Internet seriously and will die because of it.
Neera Tanden: The 1990s Roots Of The Contraception Battle | The New Republic
Political Animal - Day of Reckoning on Reproductive Rights (Republicans: "no rights for sluts")
Balloon Juice » Live by the Freak Out, Die by the Freak Out Maher can quit being worried about Rush and his buddies for two more reasons. First, if anyone believes in letting the free market do its business in an unfettered fashion, it’s this crew, so they’re getting a dose of their own medicine. Second, the right loves to boycott just as much as any other interest group, even though they haven’t been very successful lately (yeah, where's that petition to support Limpdick Rushbo?)
Balloon Juice » The masquerade is over Let’s be clear, though: much of the Catholic Church’s hierarchy consists of people who aren’t “pro-life” so much as they are right-wing ideologues. Reproductive rights are just a tool for them to turn force the Catholic Church to act as Republican political PAC. Many, many “libertarians” economics bloggers are just hateful wingers

Texas Voter ID Law Blocked By Justice Department
Obama's Religion Still A Campaign Issue: Many Alabama, Mississippi Voters Believe President Is Muslim A similar picture surfaced in Mississippi. Of 656 likely GOP primary voters surveyed, 12 percent said Obama was a Christian, 52 percent classified him as a Muslim, and 36 percent fell in the "not sure" category (Fox and Rush told them so - the "zero information" Republinut voters)
Political Animal - Conservative Evangelical “World View” In Sharp Relief But: asked about the president’s religion, only 9% of evangelicals in both states agree Obama is a Christian (as opposed to 26% of non-evangelicals in Alabama and 19% in Mississippi). An actual majority (50% in AL, 54% in MS) of evangelicals think Obama is a Muslim, and the rest say they don’t know. It’s worth noting that the “don’t knows” probably include quite a few people who don’t think Obama is a Muslim, but also, like Rick Santorum, don’t much believe mainline Protestants are actually Christians (Evangelicals are the stupidest of the stupid and very dangerous people)
Political Animal - What’s the Matter With Alabama and Mississippi? Alabama and Mississippi were always states dominated by white identity politics to an extent known nowhere else, as is reflected in their legendary status as hotbeds of last-ditch resistance to desegregation and African-American voting rights.
Bill Maher | Southerners | Primaries | The Daily Caller “By the way, she said she cut out 20 people who also did not have teeth,” Maher said. “Just so you know that is wasn’t like, ‘Oh we’re just going to show the guy with no teeth.’ She had to cut out a lot of people who also didn’t have teeth.”
US Politics | Americablog News: GOP prez candidate having hard time connecting to southern voters Well, if not relying on government help means not doing anything to help decrease infant mortality rates, not doing anything to help improve the education of our kids, doing squat to help the local economy improve - basically, not doing anything to help move people out of poverty - then yes, that would make you Republican. But it also makes you a bit of an idiot.
Balloon Juice » Snake Handling Can’t Be Far Off You have to watch this sermon in the Oklahoma House to believe it (Jeebus wrote the Constitution! why stereotypes exist)

What Greece Means - NYTimes.com Even with this debt relief, Greece — like other European nations forced to impose austerity in a depressed economy — seems doomed to many more years of suffering (elites at work grinding down workers with failed policies because they can)
US Retail Therapy Needed to Turbo-Charge Economy - US Business News - CNBC Shopping might be an American pastime, and consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity. But for many Americans, the time has not yet come to return to the malls and pull out the credit cards (more stimulus for the 1%!)
Don’t Let Companies Slash Pension Payments: Roger Lowenstein - Bloomberg Big employers want Congress to give them a break on pension funding. Business lobbies such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have managed to get a pension sweetener attached to a Senate highway bill that, potentially, would reduce required contributions by billions of dollars (CofC "sweetener" = "screw the workers muhahaha")
Peter S. Goodman: Ed DeMarco's Refusal on Principal Reductions Grounds for Firing DeMarco steadfastly refuses to allow Fannie and Freddie to help distressed homeowners by writing off principal balances on their mortgages (reduce principal for those chislers who forced banks to lend them money?)
The Housing Crisis Pushed Black Homeownership Rate Below 1990s Levels | ThinkProgress (well, those moochers caused the housing crisis, so they should all lose their homes)

Knights in Shining Armour - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Laura Augustín has an interesting piece at The Naked Anthropologist critiquing men like Nick Kristof who go around the world playing the role of the good white man saving brown women from evil brown men.

Penn State coach Joe Paterno was fired for 'failure of leadership', board says | World news | guardian.co.uk Board finds Paterno should have done more than his minimum legal duty over alleged sex assault involving Jerry Sandusky

Add The Giottos Rocket To Your List Of Silly Things Banned By The TSA | Gizmodo Australia

031112
U.S. Soldier Opens Fire On Civilians In Afghanistan An American soldier opened fire on villagers near his base in southern Afghanistan Sunday and killed 16 civilians, according to President Hamid Karzai, who called it an "assassination" and furiously demanded an explanation from Washington. Nine children and three women were among the dead.
Nairobi bus station attack kills six | World news | The Guardian Minister says Kenyan authorities suspect Somalia link in grenade attack on crowd at bus terminal in centre of capital

Nuclear Disaster in Japan Was Avoidable, Critics Say - NYTimes.com But some insiders from Japan’s tightly knit nuclear industry have stepped forward to say that Tepco and regulators had for years ignored warnings of the possibility of a larger-than-expected tsunami in northeastern Japan, and thus failed to take adequate countermeasures, such as raising wave walls or placing backup generators on higher ground.

Could China easily take down US military's air-refueling logistics in a cyberwar? Report written by information security analysts from Northrop Grumman speculates how
Drones, Dogs and the Future of Privacy | Threat Level | Wired.com Drones are coming to a city near you. They are arriving on these shores by the hundreds after serving in war zones overseas, and plenty of new models are on order to meet a burgeoning domestic demand (Obama say they won't carry missils, for now)


Ken Griffin, Billionaire Romney Backer, Says Super Rich Have 'An Insufficient Influence' On Politics
Newt Gingrich: Mitt Romney The Weakest Republican Frontrunner In 90 Years

Balloon Juice » Afternoon Open Thread Melissa Harris-Perry weighs in on Black People Hugging Is Worse Than Sauron. (they wanted to deport Elinor Roosevelt; yes, they've always been viciously insane)

At New Website, Learning Becomes Court-Ordered Community Service - Yahoo! Finance The less education a person has, the more likely he or she will end up in jail or prison. Once in prison, the more education an inmate receives, the greater the chance he or she will remain free once released (the Republican solution: get rid of education! then we will have only the 1%, who never go to jail, a prison industry, and the rest of you fools will be in jail)
Why Can’t You Smoke Pot? Because Lobbyists Are Getting Rich Off of the War on Drugs | Drugs | AlterNet Why we still put hundreds of thousands of people in steel cages for pot-related offenses (and torture them with solitary confinement)

The Swedish One Percent - NYTimes.com Allan Meltzer claiming that the top one percent is surging everywhere, even in Sweden, so it’s not a proper political issue. As Acemoglu and Robinson say, there’s other strange stuff in Meltzer; how does a rising premium for education explain soaring shares for a tiny segment of the highly educated? But as they say, the premise about a global shock doesn’t stand up to evidence — not even the evidence Meltzer presents (see, the graphs are just the same! could Meltzer be a Republican?)
Americans Need To Suck It Up And Quit Whining About Gas Prices
Labor and Progressives - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Ned Resnikoff really gets after Jessica Flanigan for misunderstanding the relationship between the labor movement and Progressives of the early 20th century. (another Libertarian shill bombs)

The unavoidable cost of computation revealed : Nature News & Comment Physicists have proved that forgetting is the undoing of Maxwell’s demon ... to set a binary digit to zero in a computer memory regardless of whether it is initially 1 or 0 — must release a certain minimum amount of heat, proportional to the ambient temperature.

The Strange, Fascinating History of the Vibrator | Sex & Relationships | AlterNet Male doctors found their hysterical and neurasthenic patients especially frustrating. Many doctors suggested that women would feel better if they engaged in sexual intercourse until its natural conclusion with a male orgasm

'SNL': Rush Limbaugh Talks New Sponsors In Cold Open
Doonesbury Pulled Over Ultrasound Story | The Mary Sue
Doonesbury strip on Texas abortion law dropped by some US newspapers | World news | The Guardian
Limbaugh threatened with lawsuit by supergroup Rush | The Raw Story
Balloon Juice » Keep Messing With Their Lady Parts, Republicans The sudden return of the “culture wars” over the rights of women and their place in society has resulted, the women said, in a distinct change in mood in the past several weeks. That shift adds yet another element of uncertainty to a race that has been defined by unpredictability, at least for Republicans.
Balloon Juice » Local color: Steven Landsberg - This rhetoric prompted university president Joel Seligman to respond ("shut the fuck up, you idiot")
It Can Always Get Worse : Lawyers, Guns & Money - You would have thought than Steven Landsburg’s argument couldn’t possibly get any worse (it usually does)
Balloon Juice » It’s Not Kucinich’s Wackiness, It’s His Fecklessness Greenwald’s latest post is a love song for Dennis Kucinich. Essentially, Greenwald argues that Kucinich has been a staunch advocate against executive power, drones, and secret wars, and that “establishment Democrats” ignore these principled stances in favor of mockery, derision and scorn for Kucinich’s New Age/alien talk. I suppose that’s one way to look at it. But here’s another way: Kucinich’s voting record stinks and he’s a terrible Democrat (pro-life conservative Catholic voted anti-choice as much as Henry Hyde)
Zandar Versus The Stupid: The Case Against Kucinich - Kucinich's score of -4.22 is not only worse than that of any other Democrat: it is also worse than that of all but 22 Republicans

The Byrds & Earl Scruggs - You Ain't Going Nowhere - YouTube

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) - Federal Business Opportunities: Opportunities Request for Proposal (RFP) SA1301-12-RP-IANA is hereby cancelled. The Department of Commerce intends to reissue the RFP at a future date, date to be determined (TBD). Interested parties are encouraged to periodically visit www.fbo.gov for updates.
NTIA says ICANN “does not meet the requirements” for IANA renewal | DomainIncite - Domain Name News & Opinion The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has dealt a stunning blow to ICANN in its bid to carry on running the internet’s critical IANA functions ... One of the key sticking points is the NTIA’s demand that the IANA contractor – ICANN – must document that all new gTLD delegations are in “the global public interest”. ("global" = "American" - US will change the name to Obamanet)

031012
Syria in turmoil: Assad launches fresh shelling of civilian houses | World news | The Observer Kofi Annan's ceasefire mission falters as the tanks roll in to besiege the city of Idlib
Syria Crisis: Idlib Assaulted By Regime Troops
At least 15 killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza | World news | guardian.co.uk Palestinian militants retaliate with fierce rocket attack on Israel's southern border communities, seriously wounding one
United States agrees to transfer Bagram prison to control of Afghan army | World news | guardian.co.uk US a step closer to sealing long-term presence in Afghanistan after last-minute compromise over jail at centre of protests

Homelessness rise of 14% 'just tip of iceberg' | Society | The Guardian Charities say figure fails to capture huge numbers who are living with friends, in hostels or on streets (conservative blame previous administration for their disasterous policies)

"None of you are getting out of here" - Japan Earthquake - Salon.com I was working at the Fukushima plant when the earthquake hit. I thought we'd seen the worst. Then came the tsunami


Obama, Explained - Magazine - The Atlantic Is he a skillful political player and policy visionary—a chess master who always sees several moves ahead of his opponents (and of the punditocracy)? Or is he politically clumsy and out of his depth—a pawn overwhelmed by events, at the mercy of a second-rate staff and of the Republicans?
Gas Prices: Obama Strikes Back At GOP Critics On Fuel Costs

Balloon Juice » Just Shut Down the Fact Checkers and Do Journalism FactCheck.org has decided to go down the rabbit hole along with Polifact on the “lie of the year” by criticizing Democratic ads referencing the Ryan Plan ... By the way, FactCheck.org is run by totebagger hero Kathleen Hall Jamison, who is a fixture on Bill Moyers’ programs on PBS (but of course)
Will 2012 Be a Reprise of 2010's Summer of Hate? | Mother Jones uly and August of 2010 were a festival of xenophobia and racial rage from the news organs of the right. Among the topics that generated wall-to-wall coverage on a serial basis that summer were (1) the New Black Panthers, (2) Arizona's new immigration law, (3) the "anchor baby" controversy, (4) the "Ground Zero" mosque, (5) the Shirley Sherrod affair, (6) a new upwelling of birther conspiracy theories, (7) Glenn Beck's obsession with Barack Obama's supposed sympathy with "liberation theology," and (8) Dinesh D'Souza's contention — eagerly echoed by Newt Gingrich — that Barack Obama can only be understood as an angry, Kenyan, anti-colonialist.

Talk Radio Losing Advertisers In Wake Of Limbaugh Scandal - at least 98 advertisers -- including big names like Ford, GM and McDonald's -- have indicated they want to avoid "environments likely to stir negative sentiments." (looks like Rushbo Limpdick might have killed talk/hate-radio)
Limbaugh and Sleep Train part for good - Erik Wemple - The Washington Post
Gloria Allred: Rush Limbaugh Should Be Prosecuted For Controversial Comments About Sandra Fluke
Who's Advertising On Rush Limbaugh? | Media Matters for America
Georgia Lawmaker Compares Women to Cows and Pigs | Video Cafe
Rush Limbaugh Calls Sandra Fluke a Slut - Reformed Whores' Response Video - YouTube
Passion vs puritanism as America is gripped by a war over sexuality | World news | The Observer "America has entered a new dark age where people are proud of their ignorance," he told the Observer. "The US is careering towards a society that is reshaping women's reproductive rights. It used to be abortion. Now it's contraception. How can contraception be a battleground? It is crazy."

Santorum: Global Warming Is 'Political Science' | Video Cafe - "I've never supported even the hoax of global warming," (I'm a stupid Republican and proud of it!)
Rick Santorum easily wins Kansas | World news | guardian.co.uk Republican presidential candidate has consolidated his status as the main challenger to front-runner Mitt Romney

A Breach of Trust - NYTimes.com But now a coalition of extreme conservatives in the House wants to break the budget agreement and cut spending below the agreed level, and the House Budget Committee seems willing to go along (lie, cheat, steal)
Casino capitalism: As gambling spreads, metaphor becomes reality - U.S. Economy - Salon.com As more and more states turn to legal betting to fight the Great Recession, a metaphor becomes reality - Harrah’s general manager said the customers in its database visit the casino an average of 4.5 times a week, while the state’s news media have fixated on the troubling trend of parents leaving their children locked in parked cars when gambling in Bensalem ... A significant portion of gambling revenues — one-third to one-half — is derived from problem gamblers
Are Taxes Historically High or Low? - David Brin - Open Salon Tax rates are at historic lows. And this is for earned income. Rates for dividends and capital gains are even lower - by half - than what you see in the figure! In the 99 years that we have had the income tax, rates for top earners were lower than they are today only twice (Republicans lied to us?)
The Great Worker Revolt of 1877 - toritto - Open Salon This economic cataclysm is now blandly referred to as the Panic of 1873.

Stone Age cartoons | ScienceNordic More than 1,000 rock carvings abound on Kanozero Island in Northern Russia. One of them beats The Flintstones by several millennia.

megyn-kelly-2.jpg - Megyn Kelly, under-educated white news slut)
nHByl.jpg - if Fox covered the Civil Rights Movement
Balloon Juice » Open Thread, now with more shitty cops: This is fucked up: Berkeley, CA Police Chief sent one of his Sergeants to the home of a local reporter to request changes to a story - Meehans’s actions were “despicable, totally despicable,” said Jim Ewert, general counsel of the California Newspaper Publisher’s Association. “It’s the most intimidating type of (censorship) possible because the person trying to exercise it carries a gun.”
Corrections Corporation Of America Sues Florida Town For Blocking New Detention Center arguing that city officials are trying to "disrupt and derail" plans to build one of nation's largest immigrant-detention centers northwest of Miami.
Gov. Chris Christie Calls Veteran An 'Idiot' In Shouting Match Gov. Chris Christie argued with a former Navy SEAL Thursday over the state's plans to reconfigure public universities in New Jersey -- resulting in Christie calling the man an idiot.

New York Times Former CEO Janet Robinson Received $24 Million Payout

030912
Don't Iraq Iran But Israel’s conservative government wants an attack ... President Obama wants to increase to $3.1 billion the weapons that you and I buy for Israel next year, while continuing to protect Israel from accountability at the United Nations or elsewhere (who's your daddy? AIPAC running American foreign policy)
Nigeria hostages: Italian anger mounts over special forces operation | World news | The Guardian Front page editorial in Corriere della Sera describes failed rescue attempt as a humiliation for Italy
Nigeria's militant Islamists adopting a disturbing change of tactics | World news | The Guardian Hostage killings suggest Boko Haram and other groups see themselves as offshoots of al-Qaida and model on Taliban

Greece Default Triggers Swaps, So Now What?
Greece dodges the first default bullet | Business | The Guardian After months of wrangling, Athens said it could meet a deadline to roll over €14bn (£11.7bn) of private sector loans due to be refinanced next week

Fukushima One Year On: Many Revelations, Few Surprises | MyFDL

Ofcom, UK Media Regulator, Weighing Whether To Strip Murdoch Of BSkyB Stake

Republican presidential win would lose US ground to China – UN climate chief | Environment | guardian.co.uk Christiana Figueres says voting in climate-sceptic Republican would hand competitive technological edge to China and Europe (why, that would make Repubicans traitors, wouldn't it?)

The Race-Baiting Continues But fortunately, it doesn't seem to be working (Dimbart)
Hullabaloo Look who's palling around with extremists now - These right wing extremists are out there spreading their lies and hate on a daily basis and Republican presidential candidates scramble to kiss their rings. But Breitbart's outrage machine drops a completely benign video from 20 years ago and everyone gets all excited. This is the power of the right wing noise machine.

Sexual Violence and the Military - NYTimes.com - Department of Veterans Affairs estimated that between 23 percent and 33 percent of uniformed women had been assaulted (well, Rush tells them women are sluts, so)
The N.Y.P.D. and Muslims - NYTimes.com - Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York, Commissioner Raymond Kelly of the New York Police Department and their supporters have reacted with defensiveness and hostility to the disclosure of constitutionally suspect surveillance of law-abiding Muslims in New York City, Long Island, New Jersey and beyond.
Hands Off the Heavens - NYTimes.com By John R. Bolton And John C. Yoo (yeah, those guys, so you know ...)
Weren’t House Republicans Worried About Medicare Costs? - NYTimes.com As part of their broader campaign to repeal health care reform, House Republicans are determined to kill off an independent board that is supposed to help rein in federal spending on Medicare.

Fracking wastewater disposal induced a dozen  earthquakes in Ohio  - NY Daily News The state's oil and gas regulators announced new regulations for drillers Friday
Hullabaloo Totally Fracking Nuts - Are people really defending this practice knowing that it's causing earthquakes and failing to even bring the benefits it purports to bring (while lining the pockets of a bunch of energy fat cats?) Apparently they are .... Meanwhile, God forbid we use energy efficient lightbulbs (well, see Krugman on stupidification)

Ignorance Is Strength - NYTimes.com (Republicans attack education; making America even stupider)
Hullabaloo Krugman nails it again - The underinvestment in public education is very intentional. Thanks largely to Grover Norquist and his buddies, it now costs more to attend a public university in California than it does to attend Harvard. The elites don't really need that many skilled workers in America.
Colleges and Elitism - NYTimes.com THE Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum recently set off a ruckus when he attacked America’s colleges as “indoctrination mills” from which God-fearing Americans should keep their distance.

Can't Teach an Old Party New Tricks Republicans did not have a good week. Don't expect them to learn from their mistakes, though - When women of whatever political stripe heard Limbaugh, they heard several millennia of familiar male piggery
Recent debate over contraception comes as GOP loses gains among women - The Washington Post
Balloon Juice » The Vagina Demagogues Excellent work, wingnuts (2 point gap in women voters last summer widens to 15% after all the anti-women bullshit)
Megyn Kelly: Sandra Fluke 'Would Have Us Believe She Is A Victim' (and Kelly would have you believe she has a soul)
Rush Limbaugh's Show Filled With Free Ads; Sponsor Exodus Continues Reports about Limbaugh's Thursday program showed that 77 of the 86 spots that aired were "free public service announcements donated by the Ad Council." Additionally, seven ads were from companies "in the process of pulling their spots." This apparently left only two paid advertisements.
Rush Limbaugh's Advertisers, March 8 | Media Matters for America
Students Silently Protest Professor Who Defended Limbaugh (what a dittohead)
Virginia's Ultrasound Bill Violates Medical Association's Guidelines | ThinkProgress The legislature passed an amended version that did not require invasive transvaginal ultrasounds, but it still seems the new law runs counter to guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). As Forbes’ Rick Ungar points out, “According to the ACOG, ultrasonography in pregnancy should be performed only when there is a valid medical indication.”

An Open Letter to Chellie Pingree on International Women's Day | The Nation I am quite certain that party operatives and others are lining up to thank you for “taking one for the team.” But, me? I just wonder when it will be someone else’s turn to step aside for our team (Angus King sure wasn't going to step aside)
In ‘Game Change’ on HBO, Julianne Moore Plays Sarah Palin - NYTimes.com In ‘Game Change’ on HBO, Julianne Moore Plays Sarah Palin
A Scandal So Great, It Makes Teapot Dome Look Like The Gettysburg Address - Lawyers, Guns & Money (they really are that stupid)

Why The GOP's Favorite Anti-Obama Chart Is Complete Nonsense Once again, conservatives are using today's jobs number as a jumping-off point to slam Obama (if they didn't always lie, they woulnd't be Republicans)
Senate Rejects Republicans' Environment, Energy Proposals The Senate killed Republican-backed attempts to overturn several of President Barack Obama's environmental and energy policies (Republicans fucking things up, as usual)

Banks Repaid Fed Bailout With Other Fed Money: Government Report
IRS May Make Political Groups Pay Dearly for Keeping Donors Secret -- And Out Them (you see, there were all these 501c3 Republican "charities")
Most Wealthy Americans Think US Is Still in Recession - US Business News - CNBC
MF Global Still Set to Pay Bonuses - WSJ.com Executives Helping Trustee in Wake of Firm's Collapse Could Get Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars (you'd think the word "jail" might have gotten their cooperation, but the coverup is being run Freeh, America's worst ex-law enforment official)

86-Year-Old Ohio Veteran Can't Vote After Government-Issued ID Is Rejected At Poll | ThinkProgress I went to war for this country, but now I can’t vote in this country.” (Ohio voter supression at work)
Lead Plaintiff In Health Care Reform Case Filed Bankruptcy With Medical Debt | ThinkProgress plaintiff Mary Brown was uninsured last fall when her husband’s medical bills stacked up to $4,500. That, combined with other debt they had accumulated, led the couple to file for bankruptcy (yes, they really are that cosmically stupid)


030812
Solar Flare Now Bombarding Earth May Disrupt Power Grid, Satellites, Communications

Death toll of British soldiers in Afghanistan passes 400 | World news | The Guardian British mission in Afghanistan will continue despite the loss of six soldiers who were caught in a huge explosion (it never made any sense)
Naoto Kan, Ex-Prime Minister: Japan Was Unprepared For Fukushima Nuclear Crisis
BBC News - Australia Aboriginal burial site vandalised The Nazi swastika, and the words KKK and white power were inscribed across the wall and several headstones at the Fingal Head cemetery, a burial ground for Aboriginal people in the north of New South Wales state.
Unintended irony from the NYT - Salon.com Despite years of urging and oversight by American advisers, Mr. Karzai’s government has yet to prosecute a high-level corruption case (muhahaha)

Homelessness jumps by 14% in a year | Society | The Guardian Almost 50,000 households across England accepted as homeless as repossession rates and unemployment rise - a "perfect storm" of rising repossession rates and unemployment drives thousands more families into temporary accommodation (austerity wins!)
In Athens, Austerity’s Ugliness - NYTimes.com Europe declared war on Keynes, and Keynes is winning (you could also say that meaness, stupidity and greed are winning)
U.S. adds Vatican to money-laundering 'concern' list | Reuters he Vatican has for the first time appeared on the State Department's list of money-laundering centers but the tiny city-state is not rated as a high-risk country.

Mueller: I Can’t Say Whether I Now Can Kill Citizens In The United States Under Obama’s Kill Doctrine « Jonathan Turley (Obama's post-Constitutional National Security State)
The Answer, Robert Mueller, Is “Yes, DOJ Does Believe It Could Kill a Citizen in the US” | emptywheel
Dianne Feinstein Assures Us Her Review of Targeted Killing Is Adequate | emptywheel
Attorney General Holder defends execution without charges - Salon.com
UN top torture official denounces Bradley Manning’s detention - Salon.com Over the past year, the U.N. torture investigator repeatedly complained – including in official reprimands – that his investigation was being obstructed by the Obama administration, which refused to provide unmonitored access to interview Manning “Such a condition violates long-standing rules that the UN applies for prison visits and for interviews with inmates everywhere in the world.” (Obama is above all laws and civilized customs)
So It Was the FBI Threatening to Take Down the Internet, Then? | emptywheel As soon as the news came out today that Sabu, the head of LulzSec, offered an FBI computer to facilitate the publication of Stratfor (no doubt set up a LulzSec-assisted indictment of Julian Assange in the future)… - One other neat detail about the suggestion, of course, is that the CIA went around claiming to be FBI agents while they tortured people. Was this Sabu preparing to go around hacking for the FBI while hinting he was CIA? There re claims I am with the CIA pushing to get tighter / stricter cyber-laws passed (twisted people)
Indefinite Detention Targeted In Democratic Bill On Handling Terrorist Suspects (Obama will have to drone the Dems)

Rush Limbaugh And Birth Control: Anti-Science On The Airwaves (Dimbaugh is sex-obsessed but doesn't know how it works)
Limbaugh Says Female Wash. Post Writer Injected Her "B-I-Itchy Opinion" Into Her Reporting | Media Matters for America (keep digging, ratfuck)
Chatological Humor: Why 'fair comment' is not a defense for Rush Limbaugh - The Washington Post In short -- though Limbaugh doesn't address this in his mealy-mouthed, backhanded "apology" -- Limbaugh just made it all up, then went hog-wild, oinker-frenzy-wild, elaborating on it so he could call her names. Calling people names is bad, but calling people names based on your own invented calumny is the textbook definition of slander
pandagon.net - How Republicans completely misjudged this
Oral Contraceptives and Risk of Ovarian Cancer - National Cancer Institute
Kansas Abortion Bill Could Raise Taxes On Women Seeking Procedure (the slut tax on rape victims)
Texas Women’s Clinics Retreat as Finances Are Cut - NYTimes.com (more Republican war on women and the poor)
Balloon Juice » The war on contraception is not hyperbole, because there has been a dramatic shift on contraception in the GOP They can call it whatever they want, but the practical effect is loss of access to contraception. Mitt Romney, the “moderate”, opposes Title X funding. That’s how far Right they’ve gone on contraception.
Balloon Juice » Arizona Senate Passes Bill Permitting Doctors to Withhold Prenatal Information From Women regarding prenatal problems because disclosing that information might lead to an abortion .. not only are we withholding information, but we’re immunizing doctors from liability? (the Republican lie-to-your-patients bill, it's worked for them before)
Poll: Birth Control Issue Hurting Republicans in Battlegrounds | FDL News Desk
The PJ Tatler » A Nation of Mean Girls I listened yesterday as Rush Limbaugh made his apology to Sandra Fluke with disgust and anger. I understand Limbaugh’s reason for doing so, but I think to apologize to a mean girl and her posse is political suicide.
FAQ: The Price of Birth Control (#priceofbc) | ClearHealthCosts (uninsured birth control runs $40-$100/month in NYC area)
Subject for Debate: Are Women People? | TIME Ideas | TIME.com I’ve always assumed that women are fully autonomous human citizens—who vote, even!—but now I’m not so certain (no, they need the Catholic Bishops to tell them what to think)
On International Women's Day, Congress Debates Measure To Limit Reproductive Rights (Republican war on uteri)

Brian Levin, J.D.: U.S. Hate and Extremist Groups Hit Record Levels, New Report Says (America full of haters)
GOP Activists Worry Long Primary For Mitt Romney Could Weaken Him In General Election
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Circling the Drain Samuel Wurzelbacher, who has been milking his 15 minutes of “Joe the Plumber” fame for four years and counting, is running against Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur for a Congressional seat - Apparently a tender blossom despite his rugged, wipe-clean exterior, Wurzelbacher thinks it’s out of bounds to be asked about homophobic comments he made a few years ago (i.e., “I wouldn’t have them anywhere near my children”) ... Once again, an ignorant Constitution-humper confuses “free speech” with “freedom from criticism.” It will be a pleasure to watch Marcy Kaptur plunge this gargantuan turd down the drainpipe.
Michele Bachmann: ‘Not Far-Fetched’ To Say Government Could Limit Number Of Babies Born Per Family | Mediaite (loop-de-loopy)
It's Always A Conspiracy: Derrick Bell Edition | Media Matters for America Yesterday, the Breitbart empire stepped up to the plate, called their shot, swung, missed, hit themselves in the face with the bat, then took a triumphant trot around the bases as spectators looked on with piteous and mocking wonder (wingnuts at work)
Shocking Breitbart Reveal: Black Man Hugs Another Black Man! | Angry Black Lady Chronicles - Apparently, Negroes hugging is the lesser known fifth horseman of the apocalypse.
The Story Behind the Obama Law School Speech Video | Government / Elections / Politics | frontline | PBS

What Do Americans Think Of Obama's Performance As A President? - Forbes (218 reasons to vote for Obama)

Hullabaloo Do government "elites" make our decisions? Incidentally, when it comes to enforcing austerity measures, negative polling doesn't seem to matter much to policy makers, who insist that they must look to economic long-term health to reduce deficits, even at the expense of short-term pain. This, even though the "science" on reducing deficits is bunk. And yet, make the same argument about climate change and politicians quiver in fear.
More Americans now believe in global warming - latimes.com After several years of finding that fewer and fewer Americans believed in man-made climate change, pollsters are now finding that belief is on the uptick ... Sixty-two percent of U.S. residents now believe in human-caused global warming, which is up from a low of 50% in spring 2010 (the limits of the big lie in the face of reality, but it's too late anyway)

What's Really Making Us Fat? - Kristin Wartman - Health - The Atlantic It may not be as simple as calories in, calories out. New research reveals a far more complex equation for weight gain that places at least some of the blame on organic pollutants.
Abortion-Depression Link Doesn't Hold Up, Mental Health Researchers Say "This is not a scholarly difference of opinion; their facts were flatly wrong. This was an abuse of the scientific process to reach conclusions that are not supported by the data" ... "The shifting explanations and misleading statements that they offered over the past two years served to mask their serious methodological errors."
Proposed nuclear clock may keep time with the Universe A proposed new time-keeping system tied to the orbiting of a neutron around an atomic nucleus could have such unprecedented accuracy that it neither gains nor loses 1/20th of a second in 14 billion years - the age of the Universe.

Shantelle Hicks, Pregnant 8th Grader, Outed To New Mexico School Assembly - Shantelle Hicks, a 15-year-old from Gallup, N.M. claims she was first forced to leave the Wingate Elementary School and then publicly outed as being pregnant in front of all students and employees
Pocket Parks Don’t Work in Downtown Silver Spring - Silver Spring, MD Patch Wasted space in our downtown needs to be a thing of the past ("parks" designed to keep people out)


030712
AFP: Earth braces for biggest space storm in five years
Massive solar storm heading for Earth | Science | The Guardian Airlines and energy suppliers are on alert as the largest solar storm in five years threatens to disrupt flights and power lines (Full Moon tomorrow)
Syria activists dismiss UN Baba Amr visit as 'a distraction' | World news | guardian.co.uk Main humanitarian need is for Assad militias to leave, activists say, as Valerie Amos inspects shattered district

Eurozone crisis live: Greece inches closer to debt swap target | Business | guardian.co.uk Dire industial output figures from Spain were published this morning (crush the workers with austerity, fail completely at economic policy, profit!)
German factory orders tumble unexpectedly in January By Forexpros (how's that beggar-thy-neighbor thing working out for you?)
Eschaton: Fortunately There's A Policy For That For a long time the people who ran the world has a social welfare function which was equal to GDP. Now their social welfare function is equal to some measure of banker feefees.


Eric Holder’s speech on targeted killings was incredibly unsatisfying. - Slate Magazine Eric Holder says the United States can kill American citizens overseas and he doesn’t think he should explain why (but won't use drones on citizens inside the country, for now)
More on Holder - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money
Cyber Attacks Could Be New Terrorist Threat, Says FBI "Terrorists have not used the Internet to launch a full-scale cyber attack, but we cannot underestimate their intent," Mueller said in prepared testimony to a House appropriations subcommittee.
WPR Article | Over the Horizon: The Future of American Hegemony

SignOn.org Beta - Clear Channel: Discontinue Rush Limbaugh's radio talk show (sign the petition, almost 400,000 have already, at 8PM EST the rate is over 100/minute)
Won’t Be Long Now, Folks! | Angry Black Lady Chronicles (a sign of things to come)
Team Uterati | All vaginas on deck! Republicans cannot defetus
Flowchart: Are You a Slut? | Mother Jones
Lessons From Limbaugh | The Nation - What do we learn from this story besides that Limbaugh apparently believes you have to take an additional pill every time you have sex, like, um, the Viagra pills he was found with when he returned from a Dominican vacation? (The Catholic church has no problem with covering boner pills, by the way, and they are routinely covered by insurance.)
Rush WeekThe 'Respectable' Punditocracy Joins the Rush Party - Esquire The counterattack from the defenders of porcine junkie sex-tourist Rush Limbaugh seems to be occurring on two fronts at once ... After spending two decades enabling Limbaugh's excesses, and telling us that he wielded political influence and powers far beyond those of mortal men, it's a little late to start telling me that he's really just the same as Bill Maher or Keith Olbermann or Matt Taibbi. (Remember, it was St. Tim Of Buffalo who put Limbaugh on Meet The Press back in 2004 (+Michael Kinsley, wanker for the sexist right)
Rush Limbaugh guest Tim Russert: "Should I nominate you" to be the next Meet the Press moderator? | Media Matters for America (your corporate media had no problem with feminzai Rush a few years ago, and still don't)
Caught On Tape: Limbaugh's Seventy Sexist Smears - YouTube (Limpdick is obsessed with sex)
Limbaugh Takes On Tracie McMillan, Author of “The American Way of Eating” - Duly Noted - Tracie McMillan is in Rush's crosshairs for being an "overeducated" white woman, i.e., someone who went out and did her own exhaustive investigation of a major social problem instead of listening to Limbaugh bloviate, or waiting for a husband to distill Rush's wisdom for her (more rightwingnut war on women)

Marcy Kaptur Beats Dennis Kucinich In Ohio 9th District Primary
Scott Walker Caught In Pre-Election Lie On Collective Bargaining Plans-Will Wisconsin Voters Care? - Forbes
Chellie Pingree Announces She Will Not Run For Retiring Senator Olympia Snowe's Seat in a head-to-head contest, Pingree would win. But when there was a three-way race, King was likely to come out ahead.
Hullabaloo Centrist Prom King - Pingree said she talked to King several times, but she could not persuade him to not to run. (Angus King, making sure Congress has even less women)
ME-Sen: Pingree Drops Out, Wanting to Avoid Battle With Angus King | FDL News Desk (she would have won if this asshole hadn't insisted in being in the race)
Clovis, New Mexico Elects Mayor Who Called Obama 'Carnal Manifestation Of Evil' A former New Mexico mayor who called President Barack Obama "the carnal manifestation of evil" and said Obama's election was part of a CIA conspiracy has been elected to his former job, according to unofficial results.

Extreme Poverty In The U.S. Has Doubled In The Last 15 Years | ThinkProgress
Does Rising Consumer Debt Show Strength or Stress?  - US Business News - CNBC
Workers, and NLRB, Under Attack | The Nation

Lawrence, Gideon, and Legal Storytelling - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money

030612
Netanyahu on Iran: 'None of us can afford to wait much longer' | World news | guardian.co.uk srael has waited for the international community to resolve the issue, Netanyahu said in his address, but diplomacy and sanctions have failed (US financed, of course)
Israel’s Channel 2: U.S. Officials Believe Netanyahu Has Already Decided to Strike Iran (he's billing it to you)
Syria: atrocities recalled by those fleeing Homs - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk US senator John McCain calls for air strikes against Assad • Syrian medics involved in torture according to new video (Volcano John: that was Libya, this is Syria, or something)
Putin makes his presence felt as protesters take to Moscow's streets | World news | The Guardian Opposition leader Alexei Navalny among those arrested after one of the biggest protests in Moscow for years
Netanyahu tells Obama: Israel must have right to remain 'master of its fate' | World news | guardian.co.uk Israeli PM insists he will decide whether to launch any attack against Iran at uneasy meeting with president at White House (Israel the boss of you)

Eurozone crisis live: FTSE 100 posts biggest fall of 2012 | Business | guardian.co.uk Eurostat has confirmed that the region shrank by 0.3% in the last three months of 2011. No change from the initial estimate (glorious elite austerity leaders killed the Eurozone economy)
G8 summit moved from Chicago to Camp David | World news | guardian.co.uk White House gives no reason for shift, saying only that Obama is inviting leaders to Maryland to 'facilitate free-flowing discussion' (with no fucking protestors)

News Corp dropped top US anti-bribery lawyer from its legal team | Media | guardian.co.uk Amid possible US prosecution, leading expert on FCPA stopped advising Murdoch empire soon after he was hired this summer - Under the FCPA, companies headquartered in the US, such as News Corp, are liable to prosecution if they can be shown to have engaged in bribery of officials in foreign countries for company gain.

US attorney general justifies 'targeted kill' programme | World news | guardian.co.uk Eric Holder outlines counter-terrorism programme under which al-Qaida operative Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in Yemen (don't need no steenking Constitution, either)
U.S. Can Kill American Citizens Without Trial: Eric Holder (no steenking trials, either)

The pro-choice reawakening - Birth Control - Salon.com - A new rise in anger at attacks on reproductive freedom (rise of the terrorist sluts; Bloomberg will track them and Holder will put them on the do not fly list)
The Economic Impact of the Pill - NYTimes.com the paper suggests that the pill accounted for 30 percent – 30 percent! – of the convergence of men’s and women’s earnings from 1990 to 2000 (why rich white men want to deny women access to contraception)
Should Rush Limbaugh Be On the Armed Forces Network? - Heather Michon - Open Salon
Ms. Magazine | The Scandal of Military Rape | fall 2008 the Department of Veteran’s Affairs reported that 20 percent of female veterans seen at its facilities nationwide said they had been raped or sexually assaulted while serving. Other veteran studies put the incidence of rape at 30 percent: nearly one-third of all women in the military force (programming a culture of rape)
Women vets want Limbaugh off of AFN - Stripes Central - Stripes now a progressive veterans group is taking aim, urging the Pentagon to kick Limbaugh off American Forces Network airwaves (your taxpayer dollars at work creating rightwing misogynistic troops)
Limbaugh: "I Acted Too Much Like The Leftists Who Despise Me" | Media Matters for America (all those hate-filled librals you hear on talk radio all the time)
Rush Limbaugh: Radio Stations Drop Show As Sandra Fluke Controversy Rages On
alicublog - Today In Rush Limbaugh Nonsense: Not only is the slut fucking 50 guys, she's also ramming it down their throats! It's practically the perfect conservative sex nightmare; all it lacks is Fluke demanding an orgasm. (they are always complaining about something being "rammed down their throats")
Rightbloggers Ride Rush Limbaugh's Slut Wagon Into a Ditch - New York News - Runnin' Scared
Democratic Women Seize The Spotlight In GOP’s Contraception War | TPM2012 (war on vaginas)
Balloon Juice » In Defense of Sluts “In 2012, women who like sex are called sluts. Men who like sex are called… men,” - 95% reported they had had premarital sex; 93% said they did so by age 30. Among women born in the 1940s, nearly nine in 10 did (95% of women are sluts)
Roy Blunt Booed, Called 'Devil'
Jon Stewart Slams Rush Limbaugh's Sandra Fluke Comments: 'He Is A Terrible Person' (VIDEO)
Do not let up! Here are the companies that advertised on Rush's show yesterday : politics
Boycott Rush: Netflix, Clear Channel, LifeLock Targeted As Controversy Swells
Who's Advertising On Rush Limbaugh? | Media Matters for America (34 down)
Daily Kos: A Challenge to Rush: Prove Your Ratings How many listeners does Rush Limbaugh have? Well, in the press there are only two numbers you'll ever see -- 20 million or 15 million. Those are large numbers, so that is why Limbaugh is taken seriously and is believed to be influential ...I've got news for you -- those numbers are a total fabrication.
Lisa Murkowski Regrets Voting For Blunt Amendment - Murkowski voted in lockstep with most of her party (too late, asshole)
Political Animal - The “Messaging Amendment” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted last week for the unsuccessful Blunt Amendment that would have repealed any contraception coverage mandate for any employer who claimed to object to it on religious or moral grounds. Now she says she regrets that vote, because, it appears, it sent the wrong “message,” ... So she was voting for a “message,” not an actual amendment that would have actual consequences for actual women.

Solitary Confinement, Its Effects, and Its Overuse - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money an estimated 80,000 Americans — many with no record of violence either inside or outside prison — are living in seclusion (America loves torture)
The Gray Box: An investigative look at solitary confinement – Dart Society Reports (rampant human-rights violations in America)
Prison Deaths And Overcrowding: Are The Two Linked?

Bruce Bartlett: Fanning the Flames of Class Warfare - NYTimes.com from 2009-10, the top 1 percent captured 93 percent of all the real income growth in the United States. Their incomes grew 12 percent while those of the bottom 99 percent grew 0.2 percent (the rich are hurting)

alicublog - Can They Both Lose? Apparently after years of funding Cato, the Koches think it's time they turned the policy shop into a straight-up propaganda vehicle, and are trying to muscle some of their flunkies onto the Cato board -- including the human waste product John "Hindrocket" Hinderaker of Power Line.
DownWithTyranny!: OMG! LOL! Charles Koch tries to regain control of the "think" tank he left behind
News Desk: The Kochs vs. Cato : The New Yorker - Jane Mayer - The arch-conservative billionaire Koch Brothers have sued the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington—often mistakenly seen as merely a tentacle, if not mouthpiece, for the Kochtopus—for control of Cato. Slate’s Jacob Weisberg wryly tweeted: “Brothers sue to regain ownership of CATO. Like the Iran-Iraq War, but better.” (muhahaha)

Stock Market Suffers Worst Selloff Of Year, Losing Battle Against Reality
In Super Tuesday's Shadow, Ohio's Poorest Struggle To Rise (by definitely voting Republican)
Ann Romney: 'I Don't Consider Myself Wealthy' | ThinkProgress Apparently “Romneying” — defined as “accidentally bragging about your place high up in the economic stratosphere” — runs in the family.

Pat Robertson: Tornadoes Could Have Been Stopped If People Had Prayed (that always works)

NASA to use Virginia site to launch five rockets in experiment visible along Eastern Seaboard
Nature News Blog: Embattled scientists publish study linking (surprise) diesel exhaust and cancer Perhaps it was the fear of this exact scenario that led a coalition of industrial interests to wage a 17-year legal and political battle against government scientists conducting the study — a battle that now appears to have outlived its purpose thanks to a 29 February ruling from the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

How Ayn Rand became the new right's version of Marx | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian Her psychopathic ideas made billionaires feel like victims and turned millions of followers into their doormats (teh stupid is burning)

Paula Deen, Brother Sued For Sexual Harassment (more skeletons)
Detroit cinema sued over snack prices | Film | guardian.co.uk Joshua Thompson, a Michigan resident, is taking his local AMC theatre to court over charges for sweets and soft drinks

Uncle Sam: If It Ends in .Com, It's .Seizable | Threat Level | Wired.com (all your TLD's are belong to us +this could collide with "foreign laws don't apply to US corps")
BBC News - BT and Talk Talk lose file-sharing appeal The Act will mean ISPs will have to send warning letters to alleged illegal file downloaders, as well as potentially cutting users off
Taylor Sauer Died While Driving And Facebooking; Now Parents Want To Make It Illegal (VIDEO) she was posting about every 90 seconds during her drive, according to Idaho State Police Lt. Sheldon Kelley.

030512
Israel-Iran Tension Mounts: Live Updates On The Drumbeat Of War (led by Jewish neo-cons)
Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu talks – live | World news | guardian.co.uk Last year, Netanyahu established who was really in charge when he humiliated Obama by lecturing him in public at the White House on the Holocaust and Israel's history (who's your daddy, Barack?)
Political Animal - Obama Draws His Own Lines at AIPAC the President’s speech to AIPAC was a pretty big deal: “Given tensions with Iran and the rhetoric of the Republican presidential primary campaign, the importance of this speech as both a piece of diplomacy and one of political position really can’t be overstated.” (extreme rightwing war-hungry at America's expense Netanyahu is unhappy)
Political Animal - Paul Pillar: War With Iran Worse Than Nuclear Iran Pillar reviews the evidence and concludes that those urging confrontation with Iran are replaying the tapes of the runup to the Iraq War, articulating a worst-case scenario of the implications of a nuclear Iran along with a best-case scenario of what a military “solution” would actually entail (let's see if America has learning anything, and will continue to listen the Israel and Israel-first AIPAC)
Obama, Iran and preventive war - Salon.com
Iranian court dismisses death sentence against American 'spy' | World news | The Guardian Arizona-born Amir Mirza Hekmati, 28, had been accused of spying for the CIA and receiving training at US bases in Afghanistan and Iraq
Valerie Amos and Kofi Annan to visit Syria - Monday 5 March 2012 | World news | guardian.co.uk Red Cross allowed into Homs but not Baba Amr
Russia Elections: Observers Report 'Serious Problems' In Russian Vote
Al-Qaida raids on Yemen army bases leave more than 100 soldiers dead | World news | The Guardian Surprise attack in southern Abyan province is latest assault by militants emboldened by political turmoil in Yemen
Australian Muslim women must show faces for identity checks under new law | World news | The Guardian Anyone wanting a document witnessed in New South Wales must remove face coverings such as burqas or niqabs
Cardinal Keith O'Brien's gay marriage comments decried as scaremongering | World news | The Guardian Downing Street reiterates David Cameron's support on issue after Britain's most senior Catholic described it as 'madness' (said the world's largest pedophile organization)
Police are linked to blacklist of construction workers | Technology | The Observer Security services 'gave data to clandestine organisation funded by major names in building industry' ... records that could only have come from the police or MI5 have been discovered in a vast database of files held on 3,200 victims who were deemed leftwing or troublesome. (not rightwing enough to get a job)

Inside Japan’s Nuclear Meltdown | Frontline | PBS (yes, it was much worse than they told us)

Greek Bond Swap Deal Rests on Knife Edge - Business News - CNBC (this week's daily Greek crisis)
Unemployment matters more than GDP or inflation | Mehdi Hasan | Comment is free | The Guardian Jobless figures are the one major economic indicator that measures people. And they demonstrate the toll in misery across Europe - How many more of Europe's jobs will be sacrificed at the altar of deficit reduction? How many more lives ruined, families impoverished and communities destroyed in pursuit of growth-choking, job-killing, self-defeating austerity
Eschaton: Great Evil We can debate forever the stupid or evil question, but whatever the intentions of the various governments and powerful non-governmental actors, their actions are incredibly destructive.

Britain's Ex-Top Cop Paul Stephenson: Too Much Police-Press Gossip (just a little gossip, that's all)
FBI Expands News Corp. Investigation To Russia: Report The FBI is investigating whether a Russian billboard company once owned by media giant News Corp. bribed local officials to get sign placements approved (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act)

US to outline legal backing for 'targeted kill' programme | World news | The Guardian Speech by attorney general to address use of lethal force against Americans overseas who are suspected of plotting terrorist attacks ("we will kill whoever the fuck we want whereever and whenever the fuck we want")
The Conservatives' contact with News International | News | guardian.co.uk The close relations between David Cameron and top executives of News Corp and News International have been the focus of much scrutiny. See who met whom and when (Murdoch was running Cameron)
Phone hacking: what happened when? Visualised | News | guardian.co.uk The phone hacking scandal has become so complicated we wanted to create the ultimate wallchart showing what happened when in the affair. When was Clive Goodman first arrested? When did the News of the World close?

Supreme Court Expands Corporate Human Rights Case, Avoids Corporate Liability Question Monday's order, however, pushes aside the question of corporate liability to address a less politically explosive, but much more consequential question: whether any entity -- individual, state, corporation -- can be brought to justice in U.S. courts for abuses committed abroad

The Republican party declares war on women | Diane Roberts | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The more Republican candidates pitch for social conservative votes, the more we see the misogyny of America's religious right (Christian wingnuts have always hated women, etc)
Political Animal - The “So’s Your Old Man” Defense Can’t Work With Rush As Rush Limbaugh undoubtedly simmers in fury that he was forced to make an extraordinarily half-hearted “apology” to Sandra Fluke that repeats everything in the original assault other than the profanity, and as advertisers for his show continue to drift away, some of Rush’s buddies are attempting the oldest response in the book: the “So’s your old man” argument (because "the left" is just as bad)
Are we being fair to Rush Limbaugh? - CNN.com This was not a case of a bad "word choice." It was a brutally sexualized accusation, against a specific person, prolonged over three days ... And the good news is that from the bottom of the barrel, there is nowhere to go but up (there is no bottom to the Republican party - see the comments)
Nancy Pelosi Calls Sandra Fluke
Balloon Juice » The Lies of the Right and Rush Limbaugh, Sandra Fluke Edition

Erika Christakis: Let's Not Forget, Men Have Sex Too | TIME Ideas | TIME.com The nation's women are being treated like naughty schoolgirls sent to the principal's office while the guys get a hall pass (elephant in the room dept: for every slut there is a slutter)

Don Imus Calls Rush Limbaugh An 'Insincere Pig' For 'Vile, Personal Attack' On Sandra Fluke
ABC News' George Will Condemns Republicans Over Sandra Fluke Response: 'Republican Leaders Are Afraid Of Rush Limbaugh' (video)
Rush Limbaugh Boycott: Reddit, Twitter, Facebook Users Take Part
Sandra Fluke Dismisses Rush Limbaugh's Apology (classy lady)
Rush Limbaugh, AOL Part Ways (why were these companies supporting Rushbigot in the first place?)
Chris Wallace: Fox News Does Cover Contraception (video) "When it comes to contraception, you know the idea that — and we’re not talking about religious institutions. According to the Blunt amendment, any — U.S. Steel, as I said, Fox News, any company could simply decide, we are not going to offer that. An insurance company could decide, one that has no ties to any religious organization."
Joe Scarborough Calls Out Republicans Over Contraception: 'What Is Wrong With These People?' (insane sexist bigots?)
Rush Limbaugh's Advertisers Facing Social Media Firestorm | ThinkProgress (the internets fight back)
10th And 11th Advertisers Drop Limbaugh | ThinkProgress

Balloon Juice » The trust deficit Translation: Obama has almost twenty points on any Republican re: trust on both the ACA and Medicare ... Republican women oppose contraception coverage, and they discovered they opposed it much, much more once they found out Democrats supported it, but they weren’t voting for us anyway (the only thing dumber than a Republican man is a Republican woman)

Rise Of Faith Within GOP Has Created America's First Religious Party
Political Animal - Mitt Romney and the GOP Slough of Despond You will note that “too extreme” is not one of the words that pops up
The Makings of a Strong Super Tuesday for Mitt Romney - NYTimes.com
Is the establishment (finally) coming around on Mitt Romney? - The Washington Post
God-botherer calls collect | Firedoglake Aspiring Cardinal Rick Santorum was interviewed by the generally enabling Fox employee Chris Wallace yesterday and asked how charitable he is in comparison to more allegedly heretical types (evil, stingy, creepy)
Rick Santorum: All For Me, Not For Thee Or Charity | Crooks and Liars That's a pretty rich answer coming from the guy who thinks insurers should be able to completely exclude children and adults alike for pre-existing conditions. Let's not forget that Mr. Santorum has the very best insurance money can buy courtesy of the United States taxpayers, but it still didn't cover those private nurses and other expenses little Bella needs - The two candidates who claim to be the most religious lagged far behind. (hypocitical, stupid, evil)
New Yorker Mitt Romney Cover: Magazine Shows Candidate Driving With Rick Santorum In A Doghouse (photo)
Balloon Juice » Open Thread: Suffer Little Children (creepiest thing you'll see all week)

States of Depression - NYTimes.com In fact, if it weren’t for this destructive fiscal austerity, our unemployment rate would almost certainly be lower now than it was at a comparable stage of the “Morning in America” recovery during the Reagan era (Saint Reagan believed in stimulus)
Scott Brown Got $940,000+ From Financial Services | ThinkProgress

Climate change could make Canada's traditional ice hockey extinct | Environment | The Guardian Milder winters with shorter ice season and unfrozen lakes could render much loved winter sport unplayable, study claims ("warmist propaganda")
Hullabaloo Another day, another proof of the desperate need to act on climate change (Republicans lied while the world burned)

Libertarian Ed Crane Decides to Act Like a Liberal. Will It Destroy the Cato Institute? | RedState (Erick, son of Erick wants Koch Bros to control Cato, which they did anyway)

Can the shale gas boom save Ohio? - The Washington Post
Why an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France - The Washington Post In 2009, Americans spent $7,960 per person on health care. Our neighbors in Canada spent $4,808. The Germans spent $4,218. The French, $3,978. If we had the per-person costs of any of those countries, America’s deficits would vanish (higher prices; putting everyone on Medicare would solve a lot of problems)

Pew Study: Newspaper Digital Ad Revenue Not Making Up For Print Losses

Balloon Juice » More Paywall Failure The Wall Street Journal has a round-up of newspaper paywalls, and it ain’t pretty: The Boston Globe has sold about 16,000 digital subscriptions, which include those for mobile devices, in the three months after it launched a paid website last fall, compared with its daily print circulation of about 200,000. (who could have predicted?)
Could your Facebook page ruin your job prospects? | Education | guardian.co.uk Terrified of employers scouring their Facebook pages for signs of fecklessness, students have started deleting content and hiding their identity. Are they over-reacting? (you think you can delete shit from Facebook? muhahaha)
The internet and the canal - Blog - The Arabist highlights how Egypt, or to be more specific the Suez Canal, is one of the world's major choke points for data traffic between the Eastern and Western hemispheres.

030412
Russia Elections: Putin Expected To Win, Critics Plan Protests
Putin claims victory in Russia election – live blog | World news | guardian.co.uk We have won' says Vladimir Putin as he prepares to return to presidency amid accusations of voting fraud
Syrians flee Homs for Lebanon | World news | The Guardian Up to 2,000 refugees reach border, but fate of thousands unknown as Red Cross still denied access to Baba Amr
Brazzaville arms dump explosions leave hundreds dead | World news | The Guardian Series of large explosions in Brazzaville kills at least 200 people and shatters windows across the Congo river in Kinshasa
Yemen soldiers killed in clashes with al-Qaida militants | World news | The Guardian At least 35 troops die in fierce fighting following suicide bombings at military position in southern city of Zinjibar
Iranian human rights lawyer jailed for 18 years | World news | The Guardian Abdolfattah Soltani found guilty of spreading anti-government propaganda and sent to remote prison, says daughter
Tibetan woman dies after setting herself on fire in protest at Chinese rule | World news | The Guardian The 32-year-old woman is the 23rd Tibetan to self-immolate in the past year, of whom 16 have died
Poland train crash leaves dozens dead or injured | World news | guardian.co.uk Head-on collision happened during maintenance work, as a result of which one train ended up on the wrong track

Barack Obama tells Israel conference: 'too much loose talk of war' | World news | The Guardian In address to Aipac, president says world has responsibility to discourage Tehran from pursuing nuclear weapon (Israel first AIPAC beating the drums of war)

Petitions | The White House: Sec. Panetta, Get Rush Limbaugh Off Armed Forces Radio NOW! No tax money for abusive, divisive, insulting language. (Military broadcasts Rush to the troops so they will know how to behave towards women)
George Will Blasts GOP Candidates' Meek Response To Rush: 'They Want To Bomb Iran, But They're Afraid Of Limbaugh' | ThinkProgress Will mocked Speaker John Boehner for calling Rush’s language “inappropriate ” as comically weak, noting “using a salad fork for your entree, that’s inappropriate.”
Blogger Ace Of Spades Calls Sandra Fluke "A Shiftless Rent-A-Cooch From East Whoreville" | Media Matters for America (inside the conservative male mind)

New York Times Weighs In On Muslim Surveillance Program By NYPD, Calls Out Mayor Bloomberg ... for his full-throated defense of the department amid concerns about violations of civil liberties ... The mayor insists that the actions reported by The A.P. were “legal,” “appropriate” and “constitutional.” He also says the police were only “following leads.” But he has yet to explain what sort of leads (all Muslims are leads; Bloomberg and his dual loyalties: Israel and billionaires)

Massachusetts Senate Race 2012 Could Be Most Expensive In State's History
Another Poll Shows Brown Leading Warren It's the latest in a series of polls over the last two weeks showing Brown with a lead.
Santorum: Contraception a 'Grievous Moral Wrong' | Video Cafe (Santorum to 99% of women: you're sluts)
Virginia Police Arrest 31 At Women's Rights Demonstration | ThinkProgress Del. Delores L. McQuinn (D) said there had been an “overabundance” of police at recent women’s rights protests — she had “never seen a similar police presence when guns rights advocates assemble on Capitol Square.”
Santorum backs nullifying existing gay marriages Rick Santorum says he'll try to unmarry all of them if he's elected president ... Once the U.S. Constitution is amended to prohibit same-gender marriages, "their marriage would be invalid,"

Balloon Juice » Here’s Another Delusional Right-Wing Liar Karen Handel, the former senior vice president of public policy at Susan G. Komen for the Cure, accused Planned Parenthood of extortion during an appearance on the Christian Broadcasting Network. (and the board of Komen hasn't resigned?)
Balloon Juice » Nancy Pelosi Is A Very Wise Woman Greg Sargent at his Washington Post blog has a long interview with She Who Knows. Worth reading both parts of the whole thing, but I particularly liked her summary of the horrible Ryan-Wyden Medicare-gutting plan:

Doublethink doubleplusungood — Crooked Timber The news that Republican members of the Wyoming Legislature wanted the state to investigate buying an aircraft carrier[1] as insurance against a possible collapse of the US seems as good an occasion as any to signify the final descent of the party into irredeemable loopiness. Add to that the revival of birtherism, the inability to deal with Rush Limbaugh, and the absence of any coherent economic policy except tax cuts for the rich and you have a party that has seriously lost touch with reality.

Hullabaloo "People who don't have money, don't understand the stress" - In 2010, average real income per family grew by 2.3% (Table 1) but the gains were very uneven. Top 1% incomes grew by 11.6% while bottom 99% incomes grew only by 0.2%. Hence, the top 1% captured 93% of the income gains in the first year of recovery.
When Living in Limbo Avoids Living on the Street - NYTimes.com Forced by the harsh realities of the real estate market, lenders are increasingly likely to allow defaulting owners to remain in their homes — a change in attitude and strategy that is helping to buoy some neighborhoods while further slowing the nation’s foreclosure process.
Eschaton: Because They Are Assholes The financial incentives are all messed up in the housing/mortgage markets these days, but it shouldn't have taken so long for financial institutions to realize that it would often be better to leave people in their homes than to kick them out. Abandoned homes can deteriorate really fast. They wanted to punish the moochers and parasites who forced them to lend them money.
Morgan Stanley Exec Charged With Hate Crime - Bloomberg William Bryan Jennings, Morgan Stanley’s bond-underwriting chief in the U.S., was charged with a hate crime in the stabbing of a New York City cab driver of Middle Eastern descent over a fare (they already stabbed America in the back)

Police agencies in the United States to begin using drones in 90 days | Deep Green Resistance News Service ("they looked like terrorists so we blew them up")
Nixon’s secret shrink - nypost.com

Hot On Pinterest: 5 Pinners To Follow Now


030312
Rescued Photographer: In Syria 'It's Not A War, It's A Massacre' : The Two-Way : NPR
Red Cross blocked as shelling spreads across Homs | World news | guardian.co.uk Syrian activists report heavy bombardment in several districts including those in which Baba Amr residents had sought refuge
US troops could face disciplinary action over Qur'an burning in Afghanistan | World news | guardian.co.uk Afghan-US military inquiry may lead to review of at least five personnel despite concluding burning of texts unintentional
Eschaton: ARE IRAN'S LEADERS RATIONAL ACTORS???? Or are they crazy evil lunatics who like to start random wars with tragic consequences for all involved. This is a very serious discussion topic.

David Cameron And Rebekah Brooks' Police Horse: UK PM Admits Riding Raisa Police have insisted the 22-year-old horse was not a gift to Brooks, who has since resigned her top media job and been arrested and questioned, but not charged, in the scandal. But Cameron is a good friend of the couple, and questions about the horse pursued him all the way to a European summit

Attack on Vatican Web Site Offers View of Hacker Group’s Tactics - NYTimes.com "What set this attack apart from others is it had a clear timeline and evolution," said Amichai Shulman, Imperva's technology chief.
NASA says it was hacked 13 times last year | Reuters NASA said hackers broke into its computer systems 13 times last year, stealing employee credentials and gaining access to mission-critical projects in breaches that could compromise U.S. national security (way to go, rocket scientists)

BP settles Gulf of Mexico oil spill lawsuit | Environment | guardian.co.uk $7.8bn payout will compensate thousands of individuals and comes ahead of trial due to begin on Monday

Tornadoes kill at least 29 across US | World news | guardian.co.uk Storms sweeping across the US midwest and south have flattened small towns, with many more missing
Indiana Tornado Outbreak 2012: More Than 30 People Killed As Violent Storms Hit Indiana, Kentucky
Another Line Of Perfectly Normal Monster Tornadoes Rip Midwest, South, Kill 28 People | Crooks and Liars

The NYPD spying controversy: a microcosm for the 9/11 era - Salon.com The NYPD spying program exposed by Associated Press may be the most flagrant instance in the War on Terror where “being Muslim” is overtly equated by a government agency to being a Terror threat.
Ex-Senators Graham and Kerrey See Possible Saudi 9/11 Link - NYTimes.com
War on Terror logic and the Saudis - Salon.com - one of the towering, central contradictions in War on Terror logic: namely, that the only foreign government which likely had any connection to 9/11 is the one which is the least likely to be attacked by the U.S. - Meanwhile, the U.S. in just the last three years alone — in the name of 9/11 and Terrorism — has dropped bombs on at least six Muslim countries whose governments had no connection whatsoever to 9/11 (the Times has always had dual loyalty, if you can call Israel first dual)
The Angry Arab News Service/????? ????? ?????? ??????: New York Times New York Times casually open its op-ed pages for Israeli officials or former Israeli officials to call for and agitate for bombing of Iran, or some Arab country. Would the New York Times allow Arabs to write "opinion pieces" in which they call for bombing of Israel?

22 U.S. senators call for marriage equality plank in Dem platform | Washington Blade - America's Leading Gay News Source (where are the rest of them?)

Obama rides wave of economic recovery as the Republicans continue to feud | World news | The Observer The Democrats are increasingly optimistic that the president will win a second term, as Mitt Romney faces test of Super Tuesday (a perfect storm of clowns)
Rick Santorum vs. Mitt Romney: Can the G.O.P. save itself? : The New Yorker (no; reaping the whirlwind sowed by the Teahadists)

Olympia Snowe’s Strange Martyrdom -- Daily Intel - If a Gingrich administration proposed spending a trillion dollars to erect a 100- foot-tall solid-gold Winston Churchill statue on Mars, Snowe would no doubt decide, after careful deliberation, that the wise course was to trim the height down to 90 feet and perhaps use a cheaper bronze alloy in the base.(Queen Olympia)
Olympia Snowe and the Fecklessness of the Moderates
How Olympia Snowe's "Moderation" Hurt the Economy She's partly to thank for a smaller stimulus, fewer jobs, and a slower recovery.
alicublog - The Saving Remnant - Olympia Snowe has turned out the lights in the sane-people wing of the Republican Party, and the boys in the psych ward are pulling faces at her through the caged glass. Timothy P. Carney tries to tell us that the moderates are actually what people hate about Republicans, and now that they're gone everything's gonna be fine.
The 2012 Speculatron Weekly Roundup For March 2, 2012 So instead of a quality contest that pitted two candidates at their best, we got a joke of a race that ended with two frontrunners collapsed and gasping at the finish line, lucky that they didn't have any serious competition from a third party.

Class warfare in the USA: Anti-unionism and the legislative agenda of the 1% | Radical Philosophy

The United States of Fear : Six Questions for Tom Engelhardt—By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine) The U.S. legal system, which still applies to you and me, really no longer applies to the national-security state. What the last decade-plus should have taught anyone working in that world is: no matter how extreme or potentially illegal your actions may be, American justice no longer applies to you ... only one prosecutable crime exists today—under the Espionage Act, no less—for anyone in the complex: whistleblowing. In other words: do what you want, just don’t tell Americans what goes on in these precincts or we’ll take you down.

Death threats, intimidation and abuse: climate change scientist Michael E. Mann counts the cost of honesty | Science | The Observer Research by Michael E. Mann confirmed the reality of global warming. Little did he know that it would also expose him to a vicious hate campaign (Republicans are always vicious)

The mean-girl advice of What To Expect When You’re Expecting. - Slate Magazine The mean-girl advice of What To Expect When You’re Expecting.
Mo Willems’ meditation on death. - Slate Magazine A tribute to the most existentially terrifying kids’ book ever written.

N.F.L. Says Some Saints Paid Bounties for Injured Opponents - NYTimes.com members of the New Orleans Saints’ defense maintained a lucrative bounty system that paid players for injuring opponents, according to an extensive investigation by the N.F.L. (the culture is rotten)

Has Rush Limbaugh Finally Gone Too Far in Slut-Shaming Sandra Fluke? (Republicans never go too far)
Fox Nation Headline: 'Is Sandra Fluke A Fame-Hungry Activist?'
Rush Limbaugh Tribute - YouTube "Three Strikes You're Out" a song by Buddy Tabor performed by Buddy Tabor and Albert McDonnell
Why Does Rush Limbaugh Get Away With Calling a Young Woman a 'Slut'? - Conor Friedersdorf - Politics - The Atlantic Many conservatives ignore or excuse in the talk-radio host behavior that they'd be horrified to engage in themselves (shrug; they get away with everything)
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » “Slut” is the New “Liberal” Proving that Rush runs the conversation in the Republican Party, the California Republicans’ Communications Director has rolled out her new strategy—if you disagree with Rush, then you’re a slut ... Any moron can see that a half dozen old white bishops and rabbis aren’t upset about the First Amendment—they’re pissed that they don’t control when, where and how women have sex
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Just another failed ideology The fact that so many people are being so silent, and making so many excuses for what is perhaps one of the more disgusting things I’ve heard come out of the mouth of a public figure in a quite some time is a pretty sad indictment of what American conservatism has turned into thanks to the likes of Rush Limbaugh.
Yes, Rush Limbaugh Is A Jerk

Kemper ARTcast: Interview With The Artist Eric Fertman | KCUR
John Leonard’s Reading for My Life, reviewed. - Slate Magazine

Windows 8 Consumer Preview: Push Button Reset

030212
Obama warns Iran as he seeks to reassure Israel ahead of crucial talks | World news | guardian.co.uk In advance of meeting with Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu, Obama said he hopes Israel understands 'I don't bluff' on Iran
Obama To Iran And Israel: 'I Don't Bluff'
Israel confirms plans to test missile system as Obama meeting looms | World news | guardian.co.uk First test of Arrow 3 interceptor system intensifies speculation Israel is planning for military confrontation with Iran
Syria Crisis: Red Cross Headed For Homs Amid Rumors Of Execution Style Killings
Pakistan: Clashes Between Militants, Soldiers Claim At Least 33 Lives
Iran Elections 2012: Parliament Hardliners Expected To Get Boost
CIA tactics to trap Bin Laden linked with polio crisis, say aid groups | World news | The Guardian CIA's ploy to use a fake vaccination scheme to track down bin Laden has increased distrust of polio drops in Pakistan

Indiana bears brunt as US storm system inflicts 'extreme damage' | World news | guardian.co.uk At least three fatalities reported in fresh rash of storms in Indiana as destruction worsens across American midwest and south

Four Fiscal Phonies - NYTimes.com all four significant Republican presidential candidates still standing are fiscal phonies. They issue apocalyptic warnings about the dangers of government debt and, in the name of deficit reduction, demand savage cuts in programs that protect the middle class and the poor. But then they propose squandering all the money thereby saved — and much, much more — on tax cuts for the rich ... a major redistribution of income away from working-class Americans toward the very, very rich.

The Vacuous Legacy of Olympia Snowe - Lawyers, Guns & Money - And, in the case of the stimulus, the arbitrary cuts she forced to the most useful parts of the already-too-small stimulus package actively hurt the American public.
Snowe Sets Off Mad Scramble For Maine Senate Seat | TPM2012

Sandra Fluke Receives Call From Obama After Rush Limbaugh 'Slut' Comments
Rush Limbaugh 'Slut' Comments Drive Georgetown To Defend Student Sandra Fluke
Day After Blunt Amendment, Republicans Vow “Fight is Not Over” | FDL News Desk
Jon Stewart Rips Blunt Amendment, Mitt Romney For Flip-Flopping On It (video)
Hullabaloo - The live free or die in childbirth state - New Hampshire, one of the least religious states in the nation, has become the latest front in the political battle over contraception. (live free and let the Catholic Bishops run your health plan)
Hullabaloo - Rush Limbaugh Has No Idea How Birth Control Works - The Rush Limbaugh/Sandra Fluke story is starting to become surreal. It's flabbergasting to watch the rightwing media machine self-immolate not only over social issues when any rational observer knows that economic issues are the safest path back to power, but over contraception of all things.
Hullabaloo - Welfare sluts and the men who hate them - Jezebel is featuring some of the letters they've been getting from right wing throwbacks defending their hero, Rush Limbaugh: Mammograms are the convenant, the sacred covenant of feminazism" (just die, sluts)
A Tiny Revolution: The Y Chromsome Is the Scariest Chromosome of All When I see things like this, my main concern isn't that it will be harder to get contraception. It's that a lot of powerful people are so weirdly angry that they're going to obliterate human civilization. Here's something that the writer John Ralston Saul said about this:
Rush Limbaugh Calls Sarah Fluke A "slut" For Supporting Obama Regulation That Makes Birth Control Coverage Mandatory For Health Insurance | The New Republic
Balloon Juice » Speaking of “Both Sides Do It” Nonsense This condemnation of Rush by the WaPo editorial board is a masterpiece in the “both sides do it” genre: Who is the left-wing equivalent of Rush Limbaugh?
Cruelty, Cont. - Ta-Nehisi Coates - Politics - The Atlantic Nevertheless, influence or not, it is worth calling this what is is--the normalization of cruelty--and asserting, no matter how redundant, that is wrong and evidence of the lowest aspects of humanity (Republicans dragging us to the bottom of human nature)
Clinton and Health Care: On Deaf Ears - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money On Deaf Ears evaluates the evidence with respect to the “bully pulpit” effect in several ways. He examines the secondary literature, which going back to FDR and his fireside chats finds no evidence on a bully pulpit effect (it wouldn't have helped if Obama hadn't had his head in the sand for two years)

Holding Their Manhoods Tweetly | TBogg Conservatives are having their I Am Spartacus moment wherein they pledge their eternal fealty to the departed spirit of Andrew Breitbart and promise to dedicate their lives to blog readin’, fierce commenting, twitter-twatting and other types of internet bravado that can easily be done whilst perched upon the couch armed only with The Laptop of Unrelenting Truth and LOLing
Daily Kos: Breitbart's "Eulogy" for Senator Kennedy "Kennedy was a special pile of human excrement,”
Matt Taibbi’s Wikipedia Defaced After Writing He “Couldn’t Be Happier” Breitbart Died | The Jane Dough
Slideshow: The Weekly Standard’s Obsession With Hippies Continues | The New Republic
America's Top Magazines: Still Not Hiring Women | ThinkProgress
Ten Women Major Magazines Should Be Commissioning | ThinkProgress

Newt Gingrich Leaves 30-Year Trail Of Debts, Lawsuits And Bankruptcies In His Wake (always was just another grifter)

Report: Morgan Stanley Managing Director Arrested And Charged With Hate Crime For Allegedly Stabbing A Cab Driver (the 1% is enraged)
Mansion servant enslaved by uber-rich New York family for nearly six years | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News - A wealthy New York woman is facing criminal charges after being accused of keeping an illegal immigrant as an indentured servant and forcing her to live in a closet for nearly six years.

The Elusive Qualified Employee by Daniel Luzer | Washington Monthly (America's disinvestment in higher education)
Virginia court rejects sceptic's bid for climate science emails | Environment | guardian.co.uk Campaign by attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, to gain access to Michael Mann's material, is dismissed by state supreme court
Perry Stein: Why Do Cats Run The Internet? A Scientific Explanation | The New Republic

Wilmington City Council Passes Resolution Urging 'Personhood' Rights For Sperm he Wilmington City Council has a message for men -- sperm are people, too. The council for Delaware's largest city passed a resolution by an 8-4 vote Thursday calling on the Delaware legislature, other state legislatures and the U.S. Congress to pass laws granting "personhood" rights to eggs and sperm.
Ken Mehlman: 'I Am Sorry' For Role In 2004 Anti-Gay Marriage Push (sure you are, Kenny-boy)
Dorothy Bond, Tennessee High School Principal, Resigns Amidst Reports She Made Homophobic Remarks To Students - she directly pointed to the gay people and said if you're gay, you're going to hell and if you're pregnant, your life is over" (so's your job, sweetie)

Bob Dylan - Time Out Of Mind - ' Til i fell in love with you ' - YouTube
Bob Dylan - Trying to Get to Heaven - YouTube - Everyday your memory grows dimmer, it doesn't hunt me like? it did before. I've been walking through the middle of nowhere, trying to get to heaven before they close the door
Bob Dylan - Make you feel my love - YouTube

Apple'S Tv Dream Revealed: Embarrass Hardware Makers, Stiff Content Providers, Destroy Cable Companies - BusinessInsider.com Embarrass Hardware Makers, Stiff Content Providers, Destroy Cable Companies
Dear People Who Think Apple Is Going To $1,000 A Share: Here's Why You Might Be Idiots ... - BusinessInsider.com
Google Slide And Photovine To Be Shuttered On March 6 Social software development company Slide and short-lived photo-sharing app Photovine and will be shut down on March 6.

030112
Israeli PM demands Obama commit to military action if Iran sanctions fail | World news | guardian.co.uk Binyamin Netanyahu pressing for explicit threat from US ahead of crucial meeting with Obama next week in Washington ("who's your daddy, boy?" +that we've come to the point wehre Israel can "demand" the US)
Syrian rebels retreat from Baba Amr district of Homs | World news | The Guardian Regime forces take control after month-long siege • Reports of reprisal killings against civilians
Nato soldiers shot dead in Afghanistan | World news | The Guardian Two soldiers killed by two Afghans, including one believed to be an Afghan soldier

Greece Parliament Approves Pension, Health Cuts in Race for Second Bailout - Bloomberg Pension and wage cuts are reducing state spending and changes to labor rules are liberalizing the jobs market. The measures are also driving the economy deeper into a recession and fanning discontent among Greeks as unemployment has jumped to 21 percent. The economy shrank 6.8 percent last year and is set to contract for a fifth year in 2012 (so, more austerity is the solution! the rule of idiot elites)
EU justice chief warns Google over 'sneaking' citizens' privacy away | Technology | The Guardian Viviane Reding says there are 'doubts' over legality of internet giant's move as French authorities open EU-wide investigation

Police chief John Yates reveals string of lunches with NoW editors | Media | The Guardian Leveson inquiry hears details of engagements of two former Scotland Yard chiefs caught up in phone-hacking scandal (top cops completely corrupt)
Met arrests 32-year-old Sun reporter | Media | guardian.co.uk Virginia Wheeler has been arrested on suspicion of making corrupt payments to public officials as part of Operation Elveden

Stratfor, WikiLeaks and the Obama administration's war against truth | Amy Goodman | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Thanks to WikiLeaks and its media partners, we have a disturbingly vivid picture of the intelligence-industrial complex

Harrisburg, Illinois Storm: Tales Of Chaos (photos)

Warrantless Cellphone Searches Approved By U.S. Court (no steenking warrents, either)

Blunt Amendment Vote: Contraception Measure Fails In Senate - 51 to 48 - Three Democrats, Sens. Bob Casey (Pa.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Ben Nelson (Neb.) voted with Republicans in favor of the amendment, and only one Republican, Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine), voted against it ... Senate Republicans argued on Thursday that requiring any employer, even a non-religious one, to cover health services that they oppose is an attack on religious freedom (their "religious freedom" to oppress you +Susie Collins is a traitor to women, +those blue-dog Repugs)
The Useless Caucus - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Also supporting the “Ew, Women having teh sex!” amendment was Scott Brown; hopefully Elizabeth Warren is getting her campaign ads ready. And, for that matter, Barack Obama, although Mittens may have changed positions again while I was writing this post.
Speaking of Useless “Centrists” - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money Shorter Verbatim Susan Collins: “I feel I have to vote for the Blunt amendment with the hope that its scope will be further narrowed and refined as the legislative process proceeds.” Oh. One wonders if this justification is intentionally incoherent, so that the Maine voters who inexplicably think they’re sending a “moderate” to Washington can actually visualize Mitch McConnell dunking her head in a sink while she’s saying it.
Obama for America — If Mitt Romney and a few Republican senators get... If Mitt Romney and a few Republican senators get their way, employers could be making women’s health care decisions for them.
Carolyn Maloney: Rush Limbaugh 'Slut' Comment Is Attempt To Silence Women Fluke told the story of one of her classmates who lost an ovary because Georgetown, a Jesuit university, did not cover the oral contraceptives that she was prescribed for her condition. Limbaugh said on his show that Fluke's parents should be ashamed of her for testifying that she is "having so much sex she can't afford her own birth control pills." (Satan at work)
Amid confusion, Mitt Romney says he does support Blunt amendment - Boston.com
pandagon.net - Fighting the mansplaining anti-sex police - Listening to anti-choice nuts talk about sex is like listening to Mitt Romney explain hip-hop. They're so painfully out of the loop you can't decide if you want to laugh at them or cringe in embarrassment for them (see Joan Vennochi)
Warren risks morphing into the ‘woman’s candidate’ - The Boston Globe (shouldn't be mentioning this birth-control stuff; thinks that's why Coakley lost; another Globie idiot)
Poll shows Scott Brown leading Elizabeth Warren - Political Intelligence - A national political and campaign blog from The Boston Globe - Boston.com by 9 to 10 points
Conservative publisher Breitbart dies in LA at 43 - Boston.com Breitbart had suffered heart problems a year earlier, but Bean said he could not pinpoint what happened.
Richard Cebull, Montana Federal Judge, Admits Forwarding Racist Obama Email Cebull was nominated to his current position by George W. Bush. He has served since 2008 (where they stand)
K Street Dems warn clients on donations to GOP - POLITICO.com Give to Republican challengers in the 2012 election, and you’ll regret it come tax reform time.

Into the breach, dear “centrists”, into the breach | Firedoglake But Kerrey’s a career-long deficit scold — how non-conformist ... Oh hollow victories, how can we miss you if you never go away?
For America's Least Fortunate, The Grip Of Poverty Spans Generations

Foreclosure Sales Ramp Up Post Robo Signing - US Business News Blogs - CNBC Despite huge delays in foreclosure processing last year, following the so-called "robo-signing" paperwork scandal, sales of foreclosed properties still managed to account for nearly one in four home sales in the fourth quarter of 2011, up from one in five in the previous quarter.
Eschaton: So There's Something That Doesn't Quite Make Sense There was apparently a "so-called" robo-signing "scandal" otherwise known as rampant unprosecuted criminal fraud. And then there was an "oopsy my bad" settlement which actually hasn't even quite happened yet. Somehow we're now beyond all that and the foreclosure fun is now going full speed ahead again.

Inside the Lytro - Graphic - NYTimes.com The Lytro camera is the first consumer “light field camera.” It uses a new technology to create photos that can have their focus changed after they have been taken. Because of this, there is no need to auto-focus, resulting in virtually no shutter delay.

Which city's rail system has the best Walk Score? - Greater Greater Washington The answers may surprise you.

Anne Vitiello: Return of the Undead First Loves
Human Mattress Domino World Record Broken In New Orleans (video +why are they all fat?)

Demand for Raspberry Pi, the British £22 computer, crashes website | Technology | guardian.co.uk Design intended to inspire schoolchildren and adults to program sees overwhelming demand as first versions go on sale
Windows 8 is 'generational change' says Sinofsky, launching downloadable beta | Technology | guardian.co.uk Work on new version began three years ago with tablet versions made of cardboard as Microsoft tries to bridge gap between mobile and desktop with single interface (MS shoots itself in head trying to be like Apple/Google: "That would have been a massive step forward in 1980.")

022912
Spanish reporter escapes from Homs | World news | The Guardian Javier Espinosa, El Mundo correspondent trapped in besieged Syrian city, is smuggled to safety as fighting rages in Baba Amr
Egypt lifts travel ban on seven US pro-democracy campaigners | World news | The Guardian Decision to allow Americans accused of fomenting unrest to leave Egypt eases crisis in relations with US (seven out of 16 Americans +27 non-Americans)
Egypt a year on: this is not the Tahrir dream, but there's much to be won | Timothy Garton Ash | Comment is free | The Guardian The country is torn between an entrenched security state, politically savvy Islamists and anxious revolutionaries
North Korea agrees to halt nuclear programme in exchange for US aid | World news | guardian.co.uk Washington promises food aid for first time since 2009, with Hillary Clinton hoping new leadership will 'guide nation to peace' (Hilary at work)

British bank chief warns quantitative easing is 'laying seeds for next crisis' | Business | The Guardian Standard Chartered boss warns that pumping huge sums into Western economies could have unforeseen consequences
Eurozone crisis live: Finland approves Greek package as ECB lends banks €529bn | Business | guardian.co.uk 800 banks bid in huge cheap loans offer • Euro falls after results
Shame works on bankers, MPs and tabloids, however immune they seem | Gaby Hinsliff | Comment is free | The Guardian Closing tax loopholes is more than token banker-bashing. Small gestures can shake up cosy elites
Eschaton: Hey, More Free Money For Banks Not that it's necessarily the wrong thing to do, but...how about more free money for people who aren't rich assholes with a penchant for destroying the world? It'd be nice if we had more policy options other than "free money for rich assholes." Oh well, you battle global economic meltdown with the corrupt idiotic elites you have...

Interpol website suffers 'Anonymous cyber-attack' | Technology | The Guardian Website crashes briefly following Interpol's announcement of the arrest of 25 suspected members of the hacking group

Ministers drop benefit sanctions threat from work experience scheme | Society | The Guardian Department for Work and Pensions confirms that unemployed will not have benefits docked if they leave work placements ... Grayling claimed the attacks on the scheme, by what the government has described as the "Trotskyist" Right to Work campaign ... Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, said the protesters outside Tesco stores were anarchists and half of them were unemployed (they love their slaves, but did they fire the bitch? no)

James Murdoch resigns as News International chairman | Media | guardian.co.uk
James Murdoch's ignominious exit from News International | Michael Wolff | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Disliked within News Corp and disgraced by the phone-hacking scandal, James Murdoch played corporate politics – and lost ... "Who would have thought anybody could make Lachlan look good," said one of Murdoch's close executives ... Murdoch often tends to listen most to the last person he has spoken to. (Satan can't keep two thoughts in his head at the same time?)

Hullabaloo Homeland Occupation - So, we found out yesterday that Homeland Security was doing some tracking of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. (peaceful economic protestors are the new Muslim terrorists)

Deadly tornado rips through American midwest – in pictures | Weather | guardian.co.uk At least 13 people were killed in the storms that ripped roofs off homes, ravaged buildings and left debris scattered everywhere

Looking Back With Shrillness - NYTimes.com All that has happened now is that the mannerisms have finally gotten to the point that the pretense of a reasonable party is no longer sustainable.
February's Sunday Show Interview Tally: 52 Men, 4 Women | Media Matters for America During a month when the issues of birth control and women's access to health care flared up and became major topics of debate on the presidential campaign trail and in Washington, the Sunday morning talk shows once again loaded up their programs by hosting newsmaker interviews with men. Lots and lots of men. (experts on contraception and trans-vaginal rape)
Women’s Health Care at Risk - NYTimes.com A wave of mergers between Roman Catholic and secular hospitals is threatening to deprive women in many areas of the country of ready access to important reproductive services. Catholic hospitals that merge or form partnerships with secular hospitals often try to impose religious restrictions against abortions, contraception and sterilization on the whole system. (the freedom of religion to deprive non-Catholic patients and workers of basic health-care +but read the comments at the link)
Texas' War on Women Includes Those Transvaginal Ultrasounds | AlterNet
Get The Fuck Over It - First Draft - "My husband thinks we should drop it, but I don't want my daughter to get the impression that single motherhood is acceptable." - Prudence rightly tells this crazy nosy skank to fuck right the fuck off, but she comes right back (parent want pregant teacher fired for being single)
Knocked-up single teacher: Will she corrupt my daughter? - Slate Magazine (Dear Prudence is a great column - "Is everyone writing in today married to a lunatic?")
Eschaton: Delusion: Ministry of Truth

Michigan Delegates Divided: Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney Each Finish With 15 Delegates
Mitt Romney wins Michigan and Arizona primaries – live reaction | World news | guardian.co.uk The Associated Press is saying that Rick santorum and Mitt Romney did indeed tie the delegate count in Michigan last night, with each winning 15 of the state's 30 delegates.
"Rebellion" - YouTube

alicublog Here's a guy at the Daily Caller who wants to fix it so you can only use food stamps to buy low-quality shit in packages designed to look ugly ... There's no getting around it anymore: Everything you ever thought about conservatives, no matter how uncharitable, is true.
Bonus Drop Means Trading Aspen for Coupons - Bloomberg “People who don’t have money don’t understand the stress,” said Alan Dlugash, rich man (terrible, clueless, people)
Doubtful Signs of a Criminal Case Against MF Global - NYTimes.com When the money first went missing ... (it got up and walked out of the vault, but it's all an "accident")


Born This Way Foundation launch event – live | Society | guardian.co.uk Lady Gaga and Oprah Winfrey are among the luminaries lending their egos to the Born This Way Foundation launch event at Harvard today.
The 2011 Count: VIDA: Women in the literary arts)

Hullabaloo - Right wing feminist pron - Sex-Crazed Co-Eds Going Broke Buying Birth Control, Student Tells Pelosi Hearing Touting Freebie Mandate
Poll Finds Unprecedented 25-Point Gap Between Supporters And Opponents Of Marriage Equality | ThinkProgress in California, with 59 percent of residents backing same-sex marriage and just 34 percent opposing it
GRAPH: Republicans Responsible For Hyper-Polarization Of Congress | ThinkProgress The graph shows that the Democrats have barely edged towards the left over the last 30 years, while both moderate and partisan House Republicans have veered way off to the extreme right.
Despite Cantor’s 'Zero Tolerance', GOP Ethics Scandals | ThinkProgress


022812
Iran nuclear talks with six-nation group of powers set to be agreed | World news | The Guardian Diplomats from UK, US, France, Russia, China and Germany agree in principle to accept Iranian offer to resume negotiations
Nicolas Sarkozy retracts claim about Edith Bouvier rescue | World news | The Guardian French president withdraws statement that suggested injured journalist had been evacuated from city of Homs in Syria

Eurozone crisis live: Tuesday's events as they happened | Business | guardian.co.uk S&P says Greece is in "selective default" hours after Germany approves Greek bailout 2.0 and Ireland plans a referendum on the new EU fiscal compact

Met failed to tell MP of extent of phone hacking commissioning, inquiry hears | Media | guardian.co.uk Simon Hughes says police had evidence seeming to indicate 'at least three' NoW staff asked Mulcaire to access his voicemail
Phone hacking: six News of the World staff instructed Mulcaire, papers allege | Media | guardian.co.uk Court documents submitted on behalf of hacking victims allege 'conspiracy' between private investigator and senior executives
Leveson inquiry: NoW accused of colluding with murder suspects | Media | The Guardian - Former Crimewatch presenter Jacqui Hames also claims Rebekah Brooks covered up why her family were targeted ... When a senior detective re-opened a notorious murder inquiry, the suspects were able to intimidate his wife and family with the help of an executive at the News of the World, the Leveson inquiry has been told.

Ohio school suspect says shooting was random act | World news | guardian.co.uk Teenager suspected of shooting dead three students and injuring two more tells police he did not know victims

Some 9/11 victims' remains were sent to landfill, Pentagon report reveals | World news | guardian.co.uk Committee releases report examining Dover military mortuary where remains of unidentified victims were 'mismanaged'
Vote on Tennessee 'don't say gay' bill delayed for up to three weeks | World news | guardian.co.uk Controversial bill would limit discussion of gay relationships in schools and could encourage similar laws across America

Elizabeth Warren Campaign, Top Ted Kennedy Aide, Ask Scott Brown To Stop Invoking Kennedy Name
Media Ethicists Criticize Morris,  The Hill  For Disclosure Failures | Media Matters for America Dick Morris's failure to disclose his financial ties to political entities he writes about for The Hill brought sharp criticism from journalism veterans and news ethicists, one of whom accused the Fox News analyst of breaking an "ethical commandment."
John McLaughlin's Fairy Tale About The Professor With A $1.5 Million Salary | Media Matters for America (Fox making shit up, as usual)
alicublog - The Conservative Intellectual Tradition, In Revival. (Instapundit is a racist idiot)


There Was No Bowles-Simpson Commission Report | Beat the Press The New York Times badly misled readers by repeatedly referring to a report of the deficit reduction commission led by former Senator Alan Simpson and Morgan Stanley Director Erskine Bowles. There was no report from this commission.
Larry Summers on tax reform - The Washington Post He suggests instead that both parties begin preparing policy options to inform post-election negotiations.
Investigators Scrutinize MF Global Wire Transfers - NYTimes.com The suspicious transfer, which until now has not been made public, was first discovered in the early hours of Oct. 31, the day the firm filed for bankruptcy (the billion just ... disappeared!)
The Broken Regulatory State | FDL News Desk If anything, the foreclosure fraud settlement has shown a breakdown in the ability of regulatory agencies to deal with the aftermath of fraudulent conduct. They simply have no ability to offer a regulatory response that’s commensurate with the behavior. If the behavior does lead to a negotiated settlement, then it comes with unsatisfying “neither admit or deny” statements that judges have continued to question:

TED2012: The Geekfest begins | Technology | guardian.co.uk TED, the Californian brains summit, kicks off in Long Beach

New D.C. residents: I couldn't 'car' less - WTOP.com D.C.'s new residents seem to have a different attitude about owning cars.
DC High Schools Could Do Without Mandatory Student Parking

An Asian-American take on the Roundeye Noodle name | Philadelphia City Paper | 02/27/2012
Jewish School’s Team, Refusing to Play During Sabbath, Loses Trip to State Semifinals - NYTimes.com “The sacred mission will trump excellence in the secular world,” Rabbi Harry Sinoff, Beren’s head of school, said Monday in a telephone interview (religious freedom)



022712
Syrian regime rockets bombard Homs | World news | guardian.co.uk Death toll rises as country awaits outcome of referendum on a new constitution
Syria: Qatar and splinter group back arming resistance - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk Sarkozy says solution in sight for wounded reporters • Siege of Homs continues as 89% back new constitution
Syrian sanctions toughened after EU foreign minister summit | World news | The Guardian Damascus officials have assets frozen with more sanctions against central bank and ban on cargo flights from Europe
Afghanistan suicide bomber attacks Nato military base | World news | The Guardian Nine Afghans, mostly civilians, die in bombing in Jalalabad as Taliban claim revenge for Qur'an burning
Vladimir Putin Assassination Attempt: Russia, Ukrainian Special Services Reportedly Foil Plot, Arrest Suspects - Security forces have foiled a Chechen-linked plot to assassinate Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
Colombia's Farc rebels to free all captives | World news | The Guardian Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to release 'prisoners of war' and give up practice of kidnapping ... some of whom have been in captivity in the jungle for 14 years.
Costa Allegra On Fire Off Seychelles, Ship Adrift A fire in the generator room of a cruise ship on Monday cloaked more than 1,000 people in darkness and set the vessel adrift in a region of the Indian Ocean where Somali pirates have been active, officials said.

Everyone Wants Someone Else To Pay For Greece
Angela Merkel persuades Bundestag to ratify Greek bailout | Business | The Guardian The vast majority of German MPs voted for the €130bn rescue package, despite it being unpopular with the electorate, who know Germany will foot the bulk of the bill

Welfare boss Emma Harrison made a pile renting out her stately home to A4e | Politics | The Observer Fresh revelations about A4e and prime minister's former family tsar will be a considerable embarrassment to the government ... received around £1.7m over two years from leasing out properties, including her family stately home, to the firm she built on the back of state-funded welfare-to-work programmes.
Harrison hired despite A4e fraud warning - UK Politics - UK - The Independent David Cameron is facing fresh questions about his judgement in appointing Emma Harrison his "families champion" after it was confirmed that officials were warned of fraud allegations inside her company before she took on the role (conservative love slavery)
The schools crusade that links Michael Gove to Rupert Murdoch | Politics | The Guardian The education secretary has close ties to Rupert Murdoch and would be a key figure if he attempts to move into the UK schools market (and corrupt them too)
Going bussed: economy and tuition fees drive the young away from the car | UK news | The Guardian Sales of coach and train discount cards surge as driving becomes a minority pursuit among cash-strapped students

Police chief tells Leveson the Sun had 'culture of illegal payments' to sources | Media | The Guardian Sue Akers tells media ethics inquiry of newspaper's payment systems that hid identities of 'network of corrupted officials' - Hours after Rupert Murdoch's defiant gamble of launching a Sunday edition of the Sun, the head of the police investigations into illegal behaviour by journalists spelled out startling details of what she called a "culture of illegal payments" at the title.
News Corp: threat of US legal action raised in light of 'illegal payment' claim | Media | guardian.co.uk Fresh allegations increase likelihood of News Corp being prosecuted under Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, experts say
Phone hacking: NI faces up to 200 more claims from alleged victims | Media | guardian.co.uk Process of settling new cases against News of the World publisher expected to last at least another year, high court hears
Leveson Inquiry: 'Culture Of Illegal Payments' At The Sun; Rebekah Brooks Tipped Off About Extent Of Hacking Probe

Stratfor Emails Published By WikiLeaks Reveal Private Intelligence ("out of control" "shadow CIA" for corps)
WikiLeaks: Stratfor Confidential Emails Published more than five million emails from a U.S.-based global security analysis company that has been likened to a shadow CIA.

Supreme court prepares for battle over human rights liability of corporations | Law | guardian.co.uk Most significant case since Citizens United ruling will tackle whether corporations can be sued in civil courts as individuals ... will determine whether US-based and global corporations can be held liable for genocide and other violations of international law (don't be silly; they are people but not that kind of people)

White House Uses Espionage Act to Pursue Leak Cases - NYTimes.com - The Espionage Act, enacted back in 1917 to punish those who gave aid to our enemies, was used three times in all the prior administrations to bring cases against government officials accused of providing classified information to the media. It has been used six times since the current president took office. (Obama says all journalists are spies and traitors)
NYPD Surveillance: White House Helped Pay For Surveillance Of Muslim Neighborhoods The money is part of a little-known grant intended to help law enforcement fight drug crimes (drugz, Muslims, terrorists, all the same)

Hullabaloo I don't think Ricky understands his history very well. Evidently, he was unaware that in 1960, conservatives thought of Catholics the same way think of Muslims today. He seems under the impression that America was a wonderful religiously tolerant nation until the horrible secularists came along and ruined everything.
PolitFact Changes Marco Rubio Rating After Heated Criticism (corrupt and stupid)
Citing ‘Impossible Timeline,’ Walker Campaign Won’t File Challenge Against Recall Signatures | TPM2012 This decision comes a week and a half after Dane County Judge Richard Niess, who had previously granted a 20-day extension to the Walker campaign for the review period, refused their request for another two weeks (bullies always whine)
Gay rights activists urge Tennessee to halt passage of 'don't say gay' bill | World news | guardian.co.uk Controversial bill would limit discussion of gay relationships in schools and could encourage similar laws across America - The controversial 'don't say gay' bill has already passed the state's senate, and is expected to receive a second vote on Tuesday. If passed, the bill could become law within months. (how's that fundie culture-war working out for you?)

DailyTech - Nokia's 41 MP Super Phone to Sport Symbian, See Euro-Only Launch
Flickr: NokiaOfficial's Photostream (N808 41 MP)


Roger Ailes Defends Douglas Kennedy: 'I Support Douglas' Against Misdemeanor Charges (VIDEO) The Fox News reporter and son of Robert and Ethel Kennedy has been charged with harassment and child endangerment after an altercation at a Westchester County hospital in January.
Bob Kerrey Will Run For Nebraska Senate Seat (what a fuck)
Paul Babeu, Outed GOP Sheriff, Ran Abusive Private School, Had Relationship With Male Student: Report - reportedly served as headmaster for the now-defunct DeSisto School in Stockbridge, Mass. from 1999 to 2001. (creepier)
Ohio School Shooting: 5 Students Shot, 1 Dies At Chardon High School, Suspect In Custody
New Mexico Officials Face Extortion Charges For Alleged Topless Dancer Blackmail Plot | TPMMuckraker Two city officials in Sunland Park, New Mexico were arrested on extortion charges after they allegedly tried to blackmail a political opponent by sending a stripper to his office and secretly videotaping the encounter.

Pruitt-Igoe: death of an American housing dream | Art and design | The Observer A new film shows how an idealistic postwar housing project in St Louis, Missouri went disastrously wrong ... Behind maintenance lay politics: public housing projects were viewed with suspicion, as un-American and socialist (victims of Republicans, basically)

No Company Follows Apple's Expanded China Audits (they love their slave-labor)

022612
Egypt NGO Trial Adjourned Until April
Afghanistan Shootings 'Outrageous' Says General Barry McCaffrey and said the killings demonstrate the "shallow impact [the United States] has on this primitive society." (look in the mirror)

AP Shows Civilian Casualties Equal To or Worse than TBIJ, Drone Boosters Declare Victory | emptywheel Indeed, the AP was told by the villagers that of at least 194 people killed in the attacks, about 70 percent — at least 138 — were militants. The remaining 56 were either civilians or tribal police, and 38 of them were killed in a single attack on March 17, 2011.


The Republican Brain: Why Even Educated Conservatives Deny Science -- and Reality | | AlterNet New research shows that conservatives who consider themselves well-informed and educated are also deeper in denial about issues like global warming.

How the 2012 Primary Has Revealed a GOP on the Verge of Collapse -- New York Magazine The strangest primary season in memory reveals a GOP that’s tearing itself apart - That Mitt Romney finds himself so imperiled by Rick Santorum—Rick Santorum!—is just the latest in a series of jaw-dropping developments in what has been the most volatile, unpredictable, and just plain wackadoodle Republican-nomination contest ever (clowns on parade; the legacy of the cracked tea-pots)
Divided We Stand - John Aloysius Farrell - NationalJournal.com Our polarized Congress is starting to look more and more like a parliament at odds with the nation’s constitutional system - By stoking the historic migration of Republican voters from Rust Belt cities to Sun Belt refuges such as Scottsdale, Ariz., and St. Petersburg, Fla., “air conditioning caused the population of the Southern states to change,” ... For the second year in a row but only the third time in the 30 years that National Journal has published these ratings, no Senate Democrat compiled a voting record to the right of any Senate Republican, and no Republican came down on the left of any Senate Democrat. (The first time this happened was 1999.)

Alabama Ultrasound Bill: Governor Robert Bentley Says He Just Learned About Legislation (Republicans love rape)

Santorum: Separation Of Church And State 'Makes Me Want To Throw Up' (back to the 17th century)
And, Indeed, Doesn’t This GOP Primary Field Make You Want to Barf? - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money in 1960, the GOP was upset because they (erroneously) believed that a Roman Catholic president would not govern for all Americans but would take orders directly from a religious hierarchy. In 2012, Republicans are furious because a president would try to govern for all Americans rather than taking orders directly from a religious hierarchy.
Rick Santorum Benefits From Protestant Support Despite His Roman Catholic Faith
Republican Governors Concerned About Long 2012 GOP Primary Race - Republican governors insist Obama is vulnerable, but they say they are concerned the prolonged Republican primary race has alienated independent voters and may have badly damaged the eventual nominee.
Prolonged G.O.P. Race Forces Romney to Recalibrate - NYTimes.com
Romney's New Tax Plan Gives The Richest 0.1 Percent A $264,000 Tax Cut | ThinkProgress
Ed Kilgore: The Defining Element Of The GOP Primary | The New Republic
Michigan Tea Partiers Share Rick Santorum’s Fears Over Obama’s College Push | TPM2012 Rick Santorum’s contention here Saturday that President Obama’s plan to make college more accesible is really a scheme to brainwash people into becoming liberals may have struck some outside observers as a little odd. But for the tea party crowd gathered here as part of an Americans For Prosperity rally, Santorum’s words about higher education were right on point (dumbest of the dumb hate education)
Studies Refute Santorum’s Claim That College Makes People Less Religious | TPM2012 “Contrary to our own and others’ expectations, however, young adults who never enrolled in college are presently the least religious young Americans,” (college makes you lose your religion less fast)
Balloon Juice » The dumbest thing ever written? While Christie and Bush might be fine candidates, perhaps the Republicans should consider a more inspired and game-changing pick: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Political Animal - Housing: An Economic Problem That Turned Into A Political One

Upper East Side Residents Protest Proposed Subway Entrances - NYTimes.com Residents of East 69th Street say new subway access points would tarnish the beauty of the area ... their argument is that their blocks are simply too pretty. (no transportation in our backyard; we use limos and helicopters)
In Amish Country, Accusations of a Ponzi Scheme - NYTimes.com one of Sugarcreek’s own, a prominent member of what some people here call the Plain Community, was under arrest, accused by federal prosecutors of running a Ponzi scheme that betrayed his neighbors’ trust and wiped out more than $16 million of their savings (“the Amish Bernie Madoff,” )
Easily offended? You'd better get out your blue tarp | Anchorage Daily News - The News Tribune You may not have heard, but the principal of Wasilla High School asked that a One Percent for Art sculpture in front of the school be covered because the high-schoolers and some of their parents thought it looked like female genitalia (Wassila)

Wyoming Doomsday Bill Advances In State House Wyoming lawmakers pushed forward legislation to explore how the state would respond if the country fell into economic and political turmoil.

Massachusetts Rent Control 25 years ago tenants organized, formed coalitions, took to the streets, and won rent control in Massachusetts. But, after two and half decades of constant battles against powerful and wealthy opponents, the tenants lost the war to save rent control. How did it happen? By Patricia Cantor (William Walsh and SPOA)
Civic Report 3 | The Effects of Rent Deregulation in Masschusetts, by Henry O. Pollakowski
Rent control: The morning after | The Economist From a modest survey of 1,000 households, city officials concluded that decontrolled rents overall jumped by more than 50% between 1994 and 1997 (from an average of $504 a month to $775), outpacing market rates. Over the same period, complaints of eviction also rose by 33%.
What Were the Effects of Ending Rent Control in Cambridge MA? the spillover effects of the 1995 end of rent reg­u­la­tion in Cambridge Massachusetts to reveal an increase in value of uncon­trolled Cambridge hous­ing by 2003 due to decontrol.
The End of Rent Control in Cambridge
The End of Rent Control in Cambridge: Effects on the Housing Market, David Autor and Parag Pathak - YouTube

Tiger Fractalius | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
i took a picture of a tiger and used fractalius on its face : pics


Replacing electricity with light: First physical 'metatronic' circuit created
Will we ever decode dreams? My first BBC column | Not Exactly Rocket Science | Discover Magazine (epistemic closure)
Rest Easy, Men: Shrinkage (of the Y Chromosome) Has Apparently Stopped | 80beats | Discover Magazine

Facebook spies on phone users' text messages, report says | News.com.au

022512
Insinuation as War Propaganda | The Beacon Seventy-one percent of Americans—almost exactly the percentage that thought Saddam was behind 9/11—think that Iran has nuclear weapons (ask them about Israel, why not?)
Iran warns Israel not to attack its nuclear facilities | World news | guardian.co.uk Iranian general says attack would lead to collapse of Israel amid rising international tension over uranium enrichment
Secret U.S. cable warned of Pakistani havens - The Washington Post enemy havens in Pakistan was placing the success of the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan in jeopardy, U.S. officials said ... amounted to an admission that years of U.S. efforts to curtail insurgent activity in Pakistan by the lethal Haqqani network, a key Taliban ally, were failing (no consequences for monumental failure)
Afghanistan Violence: U.S. Colonel, Major Killed At Interior Ministry, Officials Say Two Americans who were shot dead on Saturday inside the Interior Ministry in Afghanistan's capital Kabul
Afghanistan NATO Staff Recalled Following Attack At Interior Ministry
Syria clashes leave more dead as evacuation efforts continue in Homs | World news | guardian.co.uk Violence continues amid heightened tension between Syria and Saudi Arabia over its support for rebels
Silvio Berlusconi Corruption Case Ends: Italian Court Drops Charges Against Former Premier (more Italian "justice")
Burma awakes to glasnost: a (partly) free press and (some) freedom of expression | World news | The Observer Pictures of Aung San Suu Kyi adorn T-shirts and her speeches are reported verbatim. In Burma, the censors are in retreat
Christopher Tappin flown to US after losing extradition battle | Law | The Guardian Businessman facing arms sale charges lands in Texas after attacking UK extradition laws and claiming 'Abu Qatada has more rights than me'

Greeks reveal details of €107bn debt swap with private creditors | World news | The Guardian Legislation allowing loans held by investors to be exchanged for ones with fixed-interest rate put before parliament

Rebekah Brooks 'was briefed by police on phone-hacking investigation' | Media | guardian.co.uk Former News International chief executive was allegedly given details of original investigation by senior Met police officer

Virginia's vagina-violating ultrasound law | Lizz Winstead | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Governor McDonnell frets that his ultrasound law violates the US constitution. Let me tell you, Bob, it violates a lot more than that ... another question about Bob McDonnell, "What kind of man could enthusiastically support this kind of law in the first place?" The answer is, a guy who wrote in his graduate thesis "The cost of sin should fall on the sinner, not the taxpayer." (rape not in the Constitution, but the SC could fix that)

Court filing: Bevilacqua ordered shredding of memo identifying suspected abusers Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua ordered aides to shred a 1994 memo that identified 35 Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests suspected of sexually abusing children, according to a new court filing. During 10 appearances before a grand jury in 2003 and 2004, Bevilacqua denied knowing details or playing a significant role in the handling of sex-abuse complaints, saying he delegated those duties to Lynn. (the "Catholic Bishops" - remember them - lied; they have always lied; time for the world's largest pedophile org to lose its tax-exempt status and send these criminals to jail)

Police Spying Leaves New York Muslim Students 'Violated' (which was Bloomberg's intent)
NYPD spying program aimed at Muslims - Salon.com (where are Bloomberg's loyalties?)

This Day in Labor History: February 24, 1912 - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money On this date in 1912, the police force of Lawrence, Massachusetts brutally beat a group of children and their mothers as the children attempted to board a train to stay with union supporters in Philadelphia.

Balloon Juice » The Action Is Affirmative It was so worth watching the last half-hour of the MHP show this morning for this discussion on affirmative action, and especially for Elon James White taking Reasonoid emperor Matt Welch’s lunch money, buying a milkshake with it, then then drinking it all up in front of him.
Judge says Wash. can’t make pharmacies sell Plan B - Boston.com The state’s true goal in adopting the rules at issue was not to promote the timely access to medicine, but to suppress religious objections by druggists who believe that such drugs can have an effect tantamount to abortion, U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton said in his ruling Wednesday (yes, they passed a law to oppress Christian pharmacists)
The Consequences of Conscience-Based Sex Education (Utah will let Mormon "conscience" determine what gets taught in public schools)
Short story: ILU-486 | Panda-monium - Summary: In the not-so-distant future of Virginia, the Personhood Act has outlawed abortion and chemical birth control. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist, though.

Arizona Debate: Conservative Chickens Come Home to Roost | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone ... clowns ... These people have run out of others to blame, run out of bystanders to suspect, run out of decent family people to dismiss as Godless, sex-crazed perverts. They’re turning the gun on themselves now. It might be justice, or it might just be sad. Whatever it is, it’s remarkable to watch.
Political Animal - Gas Price Hysteria In one shot at Republican pols that no fair-minded observer would dispute, the president yesterday accused GOPers of “cheering” higher gas prices. Not since the days of the mindless “Drill Baby Drill” chants have we seen so much excitement over pain at the pumps.
Maddow on Frank VanderSloot - Salon.com Rachel Maddow last night adeptly covered my story from Friday on the tactics repeatedly used by the Romney campaign’s national finance co-chair, Frank VanderSloot, and his company (Melaleuca), to silence critics by threatening (and commencing) lawsuits against them.

Justice Kagan sides with the Right on Miranda - Salon.com

Those weak losers who care about “law” - Salon.com So Romney said that before attacking Iran, he’d want to know if he had the legal authority to do so without Congress, but then strongly suggested that he’d probably do it anyway.
For Romney, a Message Lost in the Empty Seats - NYTimes.com - Mr. Romney gave his speech inside Ford Field, a cavernous indoor football stadium with 65,000 seats ... when the stadium audience of about 1,200 people clapped, they filled the screen as cameras panned across them ... “I drive a Mustang and a Chevy pickup truck. Ann drives a couple of Cadillacs, actually.” (what was he thinking?)
Conservatives' Plans To Drug Test Welfare Recipients Get Momentum, Earn Support Of GOP Candidates
Equal Pay Enforcement Act On Verge Of Being Repealed By Wisconsin Republicans Women earn 77 cents for every dollar that men make. In Wisconsin, it's 75 cents (Republican slime-balls destroying their state and the country)
Arizona GOP House Candidate Compares Saddam Hussein's Invasion Of Kuwait To President Obama | ThinkProgress
New Poll Finds The More People Learn About Romney, The More They Dislike Him | TPM Livewire
What would Rick Santorum’s America look like? - The Washington Post (12th century Poland?)
Eliza Gray: Right Vs Write | The New Republic What happened when a promising conservative journalist found fame (very incestuous and corrupt)

Light-Emitting Nanocrystal Diodes Go UltraViolet: News Release: Los Alamos National Laboratory Biomedical device potential for robust, implantable product
Peter Gleick on leave from Pacific Institute over Heartland leak | Environment | guardian.co.uk Climate scientist on temporary leave of absence while investigated over leak of Heartland Institute documents
Two Hacks, Beat as One : Lawyers, Guns & Money : Andrew Revkin is getting defensive over the backlash against his hack job on Peter Gleick leaking the Heartland documents. Revkin has pulled out the big guns to make us stop–the notoriously ethical Megan McArdle!!! (NYT hopelessly, nepotistically, clueless and corrupt, which is how we have Frank Bruni, food writer, telling us about politics and Revkin "neutral on warming" telling us about the non-existence of climate change)
Is the Heartland "Strategy Memo" a Fake? Let's try using science! : Greg Laden's Blog
Sleep: why they used to do it twice a night | Laura Barton | Comment is free | The Guardian The need to sleep eight hours is the cause of much stress. But for centuries we happily woke up in the middle of the night - For centuries we were accustomed to the idea of "first sleep" or "dead sleep" and "second sleep"
BBC News - The myth of the eight-hour sleep
The Super Bowl and What Vaccinated Children Have to Fear From Anti-Vaxxers
Balloon Juice » Open Thread: “Do you know that most people who have had small pox are immune to aids?” Increasingly, surveys are finding that more and more doctors are refusing to treat patients who decline vaccinations.
The Future of Science Publishing : We Beasties
Elsevier boycott: Time for librarians to rise up! : Confessions of a Science Librarian
HubbleSite - NewsCenter - NASA's Hubble Reveals a New Class of Extrasolar Planet (02/21/2012) - The Full Story , a waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere. It's smaller than Uranus but larger than Earth.

Banker Leaves 1% Tip On $133 Lunch Bill In Defiance of 'The 99%' [UPDATED] The "tip" of his own in this case was to tell the server to "get a real job." Pleasant.
Michael Coren Rabbi Shmuley Boteach Interview Gets Heated Over Jews In Hollywood Quip (video) dubbing him 'Rabbi Botox' ... , America's self-designated 'favourite rabbi' "how much the Catholic Church and Christians in general have done for the Jews of late." "Yet the Jews continue to be so unappreciative, always questioning Christian motivation, always finding fault with Christians no matter what."'
Son rats on Mom for sex with teen friend, cops say Mezzatesta, who is 5-foot-9 and 260 pounds, claimed she was passed out drunk and unaware that the 15-year-old was having sex with her, police said. But cops didn't buy it because according to her 14-year-old son - who'd allegedly heard his mother say "right there baby" during the act - it was consensual.
JoshuaLyman comments on Man charged after cooking own meal at Denny's
George Huguely convicted of second-degree murder in Yeardley Love case: How the jury decided. - Slate Magazine

Skinner and his steamed hams on Vimeo

FBI warns of new banking scam | Bankrate.com a new spam email scheme that involves a type of malware called "Gameover." The scheme involves fake emails from the National Automated Clearing House Association, the Federal Reserve or the FDIC.
3G vs. 4G: What's the Difference? | News & Opinion | PCMag.com f you want an iPhone, it'll be 3G. End of story. We're done
YouPorn: Up To 1 Million Adult Chat Users' Email Addresses And Passwords Exposed
Apple, Proview iPad Trademark Dispute Involves Some Unusual Tactics Experts Say has a plausible claim over the unusual methods Apple used to conceal its identity when attempting to acquire Proview's trademarks, according to several legal experts.

022412
Syrian regime accused of crimes against humanity by UN | World news | The Guardian A UN list of senior Syrian officials who should face investigation is reported to include the president, Bashar al-Assad
Friends Of Syria Prepare Ultimatum For Assad
Exclusive: State Department quietly warning region on Syrian WMDs | The Cable (oh, them too?)
Saudi Arabia backs arming Syrian opposition | World news | The Guardian Foreign minister tells conference on Syria that supplying weapons to rebels fighting Assad regime is 'an excellent idea' as Obama vows to use 'every tool available' to stop the slaughter
Hamas ditches Assad, backs Syrian revolt | Reuters Leaders of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas turned publicly against their long-time ally President Bashar al-Assad of Syria on Friday, endorsing the revolt aimed at overthrowing his dynastic rule.
UN report heightens Iran nuclear fears | World news | The Guardian IAEA says Tehran has dramatically accelerated production of enriched uranium and failed to co-operate with investigation
Iran Crisis Presents Few Good Options For Obama Administration, New Report Says (especially since Israel is is daddy)
Qur'an burning protests rage as death toll reaches 23 in Afghanistan | World news | guardian.co.uk Twelve people killed Friday as anti-US sentiment spreads for fourth straight day in wake of holy book burning at Nato base
Newt Gingrich Criticizes U.S. Apology To Afghan Authorities For Burned Qurans On Military Base ... "This president has gone so far at appeasing radical Islamists that he is failing in his duty as commander in chief," Gingrich said.
US judge paves way for deportation of notorious Salvadoran general | World news | guardian.co.uk Commander of El Salvador's national guard stands accused of numerous human rights violations during the country's civil war

Phone hacking: News International accused of email deletion policy | Media | guardian.co.uk Court documents filed by claimants allege that senior executive chased up progress on deleting emails as late as 2010

A4e head Emma Harrison steps down from family champion role | Politics | The Guardian Welfare to work group chief resigns in the wake of investigation into allegations of fraud at her company (wreck the economy, kill jobs; force the unemployed to work for free; profit!)
A4e compelled jobseekers to work unpaid in its own offices | Politics | The Guardian DWP reveals that A4e sent the unemployed to work in at least two of its own offices in an apparent conflict of interest
How significant is Emma Harrison's departure? | Society | The Guardian It is as yet unclear what effect the families tsar's resignation will have on her company or on wider public services reform

Deepwater Horizon victims ready for epic court battle with BP | Environment | guardian.co.uk Trial to establish cause and fault for the worst oil spill in US history is set to begin in New Orleans federal court on Monday

Athens Told to Change Spending and Taxes - Business News - CNBC (nice little sovereign country you used to have there; the emergence of bankerocracies)
Lloyds plunges to £3.5bn loss for 2011 | Business | The Guardian Shares in Lloyds Banking Group biggest faller in FTSE 100 • Taxpayer sitting on £10bn loss on its 41% stake • Bonus poll down 30% at £375m ... the bailed out bank revealed it had plunged to a £3.5bn loss in 2011 and would pay out £375m in bonuses. (only half a billion in taxpayer-paid bonuses for screwing up the world and needing a bailout; always reward complete failure)

Maryland gay marriage: Republican explains vote supporting new law - latimes.com (but there will be a referendum in the Fall)
Gay marriage close to becoming legal in Maryland | World news | guardian.co.uk Maryland will soon become the eighth state to allow gay marriage after the state senate voted 25-22 for the law

Bob McDonnell, Virginia Governor, Didn't Realize Ultrasound Bill Mandated Invasive Procedure (bill too complicated for him to understand)
Virginia Personhood Bill: State Senate Defeats Bill The proposal, sponsored by Delegate Robert Marshall (R), would have granted "personhood" status to unborn children, including embryos. Similar proposals have been defeated in other states, including in a statewide referendum last year in Mississippi ... "This is a huge win for women in the Republican war on a women's right to choose and women's health"
Georgia Democrats Seek Vasectomy Ban In Response To Abortion Bill "Thousands of children are deprived of birth in this state every year because of the lack of state regulation over vasectomies..." "It is patently unfair that men can avoid unwanted fatherhood by presuming that their judgment over such matters is more valid than the judgment of the General Assembly, while women's ability to decide is constantly up for debate throughout the United States."

NYPD Defends Tactics Over Mosque Spying; Records Reveal New Details On Muslim Surveillance (the usual chain of lies and denials fro NYPD; Bloomberg: all Muslims are terrorists, so what?)
NYPD intelligence chief wanted sources in every mosque within 250 miles | World news | guardian.co.uk Latest disclosures reveal ambitions of ex-CIA man David Cohen as criticism grows of NYPD's monitoring of Muslim communities

Peter Orszag, Former Top Obama Adviser, Takes Issue With Portrayal In New Book (claims he's not a stupid as it looks and neither is Obama for listening to him, tries to walk back history)
Mitt Romney rebounds against the Santorum surge | Harry J Enten | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk We've seen dramatic swings in states, but we'd have to see new momentum by now for Santorum to win Michigan and Arizona
Mitt Romney in talks over nationwide version of tough state immigration laws | World news | guardian.co.uk mmigration adviser Kris Kobach, the man behind controversial 'self-deportation' laws in Arizona and Alabama, says policy could force out 5 million illegal immigrants in just four years
GOP Outside Groups Pouring Money Into Senate Elections, Seeing Clear Shot For Winning Majority
DOMA Ruling: House Of Representatives Appealing Judge's Decision On Gay Spousal Benefits
The Morning Plum: Flip-flop and falsehood fatigue - The Plum Line - The Washington Post Fun thought experiment: Imagine the wall-to-wall media mockery that John Kerry or Al Gore would have endured if they’d tried even a fraction of the shenanigans Romney has resorted to so far.
No More Mister Nice Blog do you believe Brooks and Murray and Ross Douthat and William Bennett really have a deep, abiding love for God and a profound level of spirituality? I certainly don't. Jimmy Carter really loves God -- not these self-satisfied clowns. It's all just a bird-flip disguised as a moral philosophy.
Romney speech falls flat in Detroit - The Hill's Ballot Box Mitt Romney spoke to several empty seats Friday in Detroit
George W. Bush Still A Drag On Rick Santorum's Prospects
Rick Perry Campaign Snipes Target Former Bush Aide - it has already been reported that on the night that Perry finished fifth in Iowa on Jan. 3, over 100 campaign staffers gathered in the West Des Moines Sheraton and drank at the hotel bar late into the night, and then put the bill on Allbaugh's room (the boat of clowns)
Georgia Senate Majority Leader & President Pro Tempore Introduce Unconstitutional Nullification Bill | ThinkProgress (CSA rising again)
Ron Paul’s Libertarian Roots : The New Yorker : Party Crasher Ron Paul’s unique brand of libertarianism. by Kelefa Sanneh

Three Men and a White-Haired Man-Baby Jon Stewart can't believe the GOP presidential campaign is still going on.

Romney’s Economic Closet - NYTimes.com
Move Your Money: San Francisco Churches Move $10 Million From Wells Fargo | ThinkProgress

Heartland emails show ease in which Gleick accessed sensitive files | Environment | guardian.co.uk Email chain released by Heartland reveals Peter Gleick posed as a board member in order to ask to be put on mailing list
Blood mystery solved: Two new blood types identified Ballif identified the two molecules as specialized transport proteins named ABCB6 and ABCG2.

i_like_jam comments on How did the Middle East end up being so fucked up? And has it always been this destructive?

Copper Tile. $1.44 sq/ft : funny
EPBOT: Money Money Money

Judge awards iPhone user $850 in throttling case - Yahoo! News When AT&T started slowing down the data service for his iPhone, Matt Spaccarelli, an unemployed truck driver and student, took the country's largest telecommunications company to small claims court. And won. His award: $850.

022312
Argentina Train Accident Kills At Least 40, Injures More Than 500
Russia Elections: Putin Warns Of Foreign Threat At Campaign Rally (outside agitators)
UN Secret List For Syria Leaders Crime Probe Made
Homs Attacked By Syria Forces, Crisis Deepens
Violence In Iraq: Wave Of Attacks Targeting Security Forces Kills Dozens, Injures More Than 200

RBS chairman makes plea as £2bn loss is announced | Business | The Guardian Sir Philip Hampton says bank needs to be run on commercial grounds if taxpayers are to get their £45bn investment back • Branch staff offered 1% pay rises, bankers given £390m in bonuses


Farmers furious after Iraq stops buying US rice "That's just not right," the 63-year-old Stoesser fumed. "If we've got some rice to sell, they ought to pay a premium for it just because this is the country that freed them." (oh, the ingratitude for completely fucking up their country)

Report: Debt will swell under top GOP hopefuls’ tax plans - The Washington Post (what debt?)
As Contraception Fight Takes Center Stage, Women Voters Turning From Romney (chart) | TPM2012

FDIC Lawsuits Yielded Big Penalties, But Bankers Haven't Paid Up
Foreclosure errors continue - latimes.com
With Banks As Landlords, Some Tenants Neglected | WBUR & NPR
Regulators Plan Safeguards to Prevent Another MF Global — US Business News - CNBC a response to the collapse of MF Global and the disappearance of more than $1 billion in client cash (why yes, it just ... disappeared!)

022212
How to Remove Your Google Search History Before Google's New Privacy Policy Takes Effect | Electronic Frontier Foundation (ding ding ding)

Marie Colvin Dead: American War Reporter Killed In Syria (video)
Marie Colvin's killing piles pressure on Assad as civilian death toll rises | World news | guardian.co.uk Nicolas Sarkozy calls death of Colvin and photographer Remi Ochlik an assassination, and says: 'This regime must go' (and what do Iran, Russia and China have in common?)
UN nuclear inspectors declare Iran mission a disappointment | World news | The Guardian International Atomic Energy Agency team blocked by authorities in Tehran from visiting suspect site
In Din Over Iran, Echoes of Iraq War - News Analysis - NYTimes.com (and the third NYT drum-beat for war)
71% of Americans think Iran already has the Bomb (Also we used to have pet triceratops) | Informed Comment
Afghanistan Qur'an burning protests leave seven people dead | World news | The Guardian Violence spreads across Afghanistan in second day of protests against burning of holy book by foreign troops at Bagram airbase
Australian foreign minister Kevin Rudd resigns | World news | guardian.co.uk Announcement comes amid speculation that he plans to seize power from the prime minister, Julia Gillard

Germany at odds with Dutch and IMF boss over eurozone bailout fund | Business | The Guardian Dutch government and the IMF and its managing director, Christine Lagarde, want the ESM to embrace funds still untouched within the current rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility
Dominique Strauss-Kahn held for further questioning | World news | The Guardian Former IMF chief to be quizzed again after night in prison over allegations relating to fraud and prostitution ring

Theresa May to review UK extradition treaty with US | Politics | guardian.co.uk Home secretary to lead thorough review of extradition treaty following anger at recent deportations, David Cameron says (Britain still America's poodle in the war on terra)
Phone hacking: Cherie Blair to sue News International | Media | guardian.co.uk Tony Blair's wife to take action against Glenn Mulcaire and NI over the alleged hacking of her phone by News of the World

Eschaton: Half The Population And A Few Of Them Vote The script plays out pretty much the same way every time the Republicans plant the flag in the uterus. A bunch of men take to the teevee and the op-ed pages talking about the "culture war" (what the fuck is that anyway) and slutty slut slut sluts. Everyone concludes the Dems should cower in fear and come up with their own mandatory chastity belt plan. Then, slowly, it begins to occur to people that maybe the womenfolk are people too and have a few opinions on this stuff.

Russ Feingold 'Pleased' Anwar Al-Awlaki Was Taken Out By Drone Strike "I do believe he was part and parcel of al Qaeda. I do think it is legitimate to go after al Qaeda operatives." (who happen to be American citizens)

Bush Appointee Finds DOMA Unconstitutional | ThinkProgress The decision represents a serious setback for House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), whose Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) defended DOMA after the Obama administration announced it would no longer defend the law: "this Court finds that Congress cannot, like an ostrich, merely bury its head in the sand and wait for danger to pass, especially at the risk of permitting continued constitutional injury upon legally married couples" (lookin' at you, Boehner)

Virginia governor Bob McDonnell in U-turn over controversial abortion bill | World news | guardian.co.uk Bob McDonnell requests amendments to bill, with requirement for women to undergo vaginal ultrasounds removed - Critics had pointed out that the bill, if passed in its original form, would have obliged doctors to carry out a procedure that risked breaking a state sex crime statute known as object sexual penetration. (Republicans are rapists on every level)
Balloon Juice » Maybe You Should Have Asked Some Women Basically, you have a sausage-fest of obnoxious old men with nothing better to do than fuck with women simply because they can ... Because Jeebus told them to
Balloon Juice » What Pro-Life Means In Virginny LOOK AT THE ULTRASOUND YOU SLUT OR THIS IS GOING ON YOUR PERMANENT RECORD.
Babeu Could Face Trouble Over Ex-Lover’s Uncertain Legal Status | TPMMuckraker
Rick Santorum Makes Prenatal Testing A Campaign Issue (supports more birth-defects)

Billionaire Romney donor uses threats to silence critics - Salon.com
Mormon Baptism Targets Anne Frank -- Again (religious freedom has its limits)

US politics live: White House and Mitt Romney compete on tax reform plans | World news | guardian.co.uk Live coverage with Adam Gabbatt as Mitt Romney unveils plans for 20% tax cuts while the Obama administration offers lower corporate taxes
Obama Administration To Propose Cutting Corporate Tax Rate From 35 Percent To 28 Percent (for the few corps that pay any taxes at all)
Tax Code Cracking: Seven And A Half Things To Know Why elect a Republican, he seemed to say, when you can elect a handsomer Democrat acting just like a Republican?
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Edward DeMarco Floats New Proposals To Fix Mortgage Giants But the plan to ween the mortgage market and taxpayers from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would require Congressional approval for key parts and would require an additional government investment to build a system to package and sell mortgages independently of the companies. Oh and the plan would also probably make home loans and home loan insurance more expensive (sounds like a plan)
'Skills Mismatch' Causing High Unemployment? Not Quite On Sunday, the Washington Post reported that there were as many as 600,000 jobs unfilled in the manufacturing industry (guess what? WaPo lied, maybe they'll fact-check themselves)
Tom Miller, HUD Officials Laugh at Schneiderman Publicly | FDL News Desk Whether you believe in Eric Schneiderman’s ability to deliver a legitimate investigation on mortgage securitization fraud or not, you have to admit that the united front on opposition to a settlement on foreclosure fraud collapsed the moment that he agreed to helm that federal investigatory task force.

Faster-than-light neutrino result reportedly a mistake caused by loose cable - (that'll do it every time)
Deradius comments on I aint even mad. (teaching evolution in a rural conservative district)

Convention Experts Assail Plan to Close Javits Center - NYTimes.com Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and a Malaysian conglomerate are proposing to replace the Javits Center with the nation’s largest convention hall on a site 12 miles away in Jamaica, Queens, industry executives are not so sure it is a smart move (Andrew Cuomo is really an idiot )

Gainesville High School Students' Racist YouTube Rant Forces Girls To Leave School, Apologize (video)
Lisa McElroy: Man At The Bus Stop! Call The Police! So, wait. The man had been doing nothing wrong? Nothing suspicious? And a mother's baseless concerns about a man standing on a public street had been enough to mobilize the police department to send out alerts to all town parents, instructing parents to call 911 and teachers to keep our children inside?

Cassetteboy vs The News - YouTube


RMR: Rick's Rant - Online Privacy - YouTube

022112
130 Doctors Without Borders staff disappear in Sudan - World Watch - CBS News
Iran raises tension by threatening pre-emptive action | World news | The Guardian Deputy chief of Iranian armed forces says regime 'will act without waiting for enemies' actions' if national interests are put at risk (will bomb Israel and blow up their reactors)
US and Nato apologise for Afghan Qur'an burning | World news | The Guardian Officials issue speedy apology to protesters over 'error' that caused incineration of religious books at Bagram military airbase (they've learned nothing in ten years)

Greek Bailout Could Easily Go Off The Rails, Confidential Study Shows
Greek debt nightmare laid bare - CNN.com even under the most optimistic scenario, the austerity measures being imposed on Athens risk a recession so deep that Greece will not be able to climb out of the debt hole over the course of a new three-year, €170bn bail-out (force austerity, bankrupt the country, profit!)
Eurozone crisis live: Greece's second rescue package angers Greek opposition | Business | guardian.co.uk Gruelling talks in Brussels ended in the early hours of this morning with agreement on a €130bn package for Greece
The improbable Greece plan | Felix Salmon
Hullabaloo: Modern Monetary Theory on the Rise: Don't look now, but it appears that the abject failure of the Austrian economists austerity mavens to produce political or economic successes is starting to have an effect ... Decades of Reaganomics, Celtic Tigers, tax cuts, deregulation and austerity later, and some economists are just now beginning to figure this out (reality sinking in? Economics most corrupt profession?)

Robert McDowell: The U.N. Threat to Internet Freedom - WSJ.com Top-down, international regulation is antithetical to the Net, which has flourished under its current governance model.
UK government to demand access to all phone and internet user data | The Raw Story

Strauss-Kahn arrested by French police investigating alleged prostitution ring | World news | The Guardian Former IMF chief held for questioning over allegations he helped procure prostitutes for orgies in France and the US (the little rutting chimpanzee doing what he does best)

Protest of Trans-Vaginal Ultrasound Bill in Virginia Leads to Delay | FDL News Desk
Virginia pre-abortion ultrasound could constitute sex crime, Democrats warn | World news | guardian.co.uk Democrats say bill is untenable because it criminalises doctors under a sex crime statute that carries a five-year jail sentence (what about the "law-makers?" no consent required for Republican-sponsered rape)
Virginia Wants to Wand Your Vagina. Rightbloggers are Outraged (That You'd Complain) - New York News - Runnin' Scared
Hullabaloo: We all know they're nuts: “If you had told me when I was in law school that this would be a debate in 2012, I would have thought you were nuts … ... After all, there was a time when gun control seemed to be common sense to a majority of Americans
Cancer Screening Budget Cuts May Prove Deadly for Some Women (Republicans don't care)
Supreme Court To Revisit Affirmative Action In University Of Texas Case
US supreme court to revisit affirmative action in university admissions | World news | guardian.co.uk Case to center around University of Texas's denial of admission to a white student in first decision on subject since 2003

Hoover/Brüning 2012 - NYTimes.com For a third, the favorite imaginary candidate, Michael Bloomberg, turns out to be totally ignorant about the economic crisis ("centrist" third-party delusions +Bloomberg is an idiot)
Eschaton: True About Pretty Much Everything One of the most annoying stances of the Sensible Centrist Very Serious People crowd is that even though they are dominant force in Washington, despite not having any real constituency, they imagine themselves to be an extremely brave oppressed minority speaking truths that nobody else dares. Except for every damn day on every page of every one of our national newspapers.

Michael Tomasky: There Will Be No Saviors for the GOP in 2012 - The Daily Beast Prominent Republicans keep hoping for someone to rescue them from its slate of mediocre candidates. But the party’s biggest problem is the ideological bloodlust of its base ... This GOP establishment is barely less loopy than the base. If the base is driving the party into a ditch, the establishment is riding shotgun holding a shovel (teh crazy is in their blood)
Rick Santorum could take Republicans down with him - The Washington Post

Political Animal - Santorum: “You’re Not A Christian” Rick Santorum cannot have it both ways, though. If he feels so strongly that Christians who don’t share his particular “world view” aren’t really Christian at all, then he should be loud and proud about it, and stop pretending he’s just this mild-mannered man of faith being persecuted by people who despise the very name of Jesus Christ (the one true church of Satan)
Rick Santorum's Top Issue: Stopping Porn
Two Charts That Should Make Romney Gulp | TPM2012 (only big donors )
Fox News' Liz Trotta Doubles Down On Statements About Rape In The Military (VIDEO) Trotta alleged that "the main objective" of "hardline feminists" is to "force the Pentagon to lift the ban on women in combat. Accordingly, the political correctness infecting the Pentagon has resulted in silly and dishonest fairytales about female heroism."
Hullabaloo: Premium support con (health-care "vouchers" = "premium support" and other lies)

Martin Peretz: The Complicated Links Between Mormonism And Judaism | The New Republic (consider the source; Israel needs American fundies to pump up their wars)

March release of employment situation highly anticipated | Appleton Post Crescent | postcrescent.com
Mortgage Fraud: Local Officials Step Up To Uncover Document Fraud "When I looked at my data, I began to wonder if my land records office had become a warehouse of stolen property,” Thigpen said (Obama: sweep, sweep, under the rug)
Walmart Profits Down On Deep Discounts To Entice Shoppers
March release of employment situation highly anticipated | Appleton Post Crescent | postcrescent.com The state Department of Workforce Development will release job numbers next month that could be the most anticipated statistics of Gov. Scott Walker's short tenure.
Franklin Graham Calls Obama's Religious Beliefs Into Question (this from the church of Satan)

Climate scientist Peter Gleick admits he leaked Heartland Institute documents | Environment | guardian.co.uk Peter Gleick, a water and climate analyst, says he was blinded by his frustrations with ongoing attacks on climate science
Already Going To Hell Just Pumping That Gas | TBogg - The New York Times Andrew Revkin is in need of a strong dose of laudanum and a fainting couch because it is totally not fair to expose lying liars who lie - Heartland: "Efforts might also include cultivating more neutral voices with big audiences (such as Revkin at DotEarth/NYTimes)" ... And Andrew Revkin packed and delivered like UPS trucks as was foretold in the Book of Bullshit… (so, the Times "earth" correspondent is "neutral" on AGW, figures; rotten as the rest of the paper)
Climate Scientists To Heartland Institute: Stop Whining | ThinkProgress
INTERNAL DOCUMENTS: The Secret, Corporate-Funded Plan To Teach Children That Climate Change Is A Hoax | ThinkProgress (and destroy America and the World)

No sympathy for the devil : Pharyngula (scientists are pretty naive about the "debate")
Peter Gleick's alleged crime : Class M the most cogent commentary on the matter so far arrived in the form of a tweet, from Naomi Klein: And what about the fact the Heartland Institute impersonates a scientific organization every day?
The Heartland Science Denial Documents and the Future of the Planet : Greg Laden's Blog - The best available evidence now suggests that the most damning of the "Heartland Documents" -- the strategy memo which explicitly states that Heartland's strategy is to interfere with good science education in order to advance their political agenda -- is legitimate (and the "anonymous donor" will be revealed)

Science overturns view of humans as naturally ‘nasty’ | The Raw Story “Humans have a lot of pro-social tendencies” (Republicans are anti-human, also)
Swine Flu Virus: Ferret Study Suggests New Virus May Have Pandemic Potential

Lugar Defends Himself on Residency Question Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) defended himself after opponents claimed that he isn't qualified to run for office because he doesn't actually live in Indiana (don't bother me with details)
Connie Mack preaches penny-pinching on campaign trail, but has past of debt and liens - Florida - MiamiHerald.com Court records show how Congressman and Republican Senate candidate Connie Mack has had lots of struggles — with borrowing, spending, his ex-wife and bar fights.
Lawmaker takes jab at Girl Scouts | The Journal Gazette City Republican Indiana rep chides colleagues for honoring ‘radicalized' group ... a group that has been subverted in the name of liberal progressive politics and the destruction of traditional American family values," he said ... girls were directed to a list of 50 role models. Only three, he said, have a religious background. The rest are "feminists, lesbians or communists." (of course, this went over really well)
Southern Baptist panel recommends add-on to name  | ajc.com Officials described the new term as a way to give an official, sanctioned identity to affiliated churches and believers who don't want to use the term "Southern." (doesn't poll well, associated with fat stupid evangelical conservatives)
Courthouse News Service Judge Slaps School for Blocking Gay Websites

SOPA author back and worse than ever - Neowin.net Lamar Smith is the author of a new bill that includes extreme surveillance provisions, and a name that will make opponents sound like criminals: 'Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011.'
Youth shaping future of online TV, movies, music - Yahoo! News 70 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds said they had bought, copied or downloaded unauthorized music, TV shows or movies, compared with 46 percent of all adults who'd done the same.
The Secret to Facebook's IPO Value | The Nation all content which users previously owned as intellectual property, like photos and videos, is granted to Facebook under a “a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license.” That means Facebook can do whatever it wants with the material. This is a truly galling power for a service provider—like an e-mail company asserting copyright over every piece of writing sent through the system (only do evil)

022012
Assad sends tanks towards Homs as Red Cross seeks ceasefire talks | World news | The Guardian Fears that Assad regime is preparing ground assault on rebel stronghold ahead of referendum
Syria has made a curious transition from US ally to violator of human rights | Mehdi Hasan | Comment is free | The Guardian In the war on terror America was happy to send suspects to Syria. Now the US cries torture (it was just "enhanced interrogation" of the "worst of the worst" back then)
UN nuclear inspectors arrive in Iran for make-or-break visit | World news | The Guardian International Atomic Energy Agency's two-day visit comes amid rising tension between Iran and the west
Darkness at the heart of Christchurch, one year after the quake | World news | guardian.co.uk There are new shops built from shipping containers, a theatre and a rugby ground soon to open. But at night, the empty city centre is a dark smudge among the suburban lights
Eric Trager: Is Egypt’s Government Malicious Or Incompetent? | The New Republic (both?)

Greece must default if it wants democracy - FT.com We are at the point where success is no longer compatible with democracy. The German finance minister wants to prevent a “wrong” democratic choice. Similar to this is the suggestion to let the elections go ahead, but to have a grand coalition irrespective of the outcome. The eurozone wants to impose its choice of government on Greece – the eurozone’s first colony (nice little country you had there)
Eurozone crisis live: Greece bailout decision due today | Business | guardian.co.uk The idea that Greece's second bailout should be paid into an 'escrow' account is gaining ground this morning. An Escrow account would means that although Greece would have been granted its funds, its access would be restricted. Miss its targets and the funding stream could run dry (we're going to lend you money but it's not yours)
Eurozone crisis live: Dutch talk tough over Greek rescue package | Business | guardian.co.uk De Jager pushes for 'permanent Troika' in Athens (permanent occupation)
The Bank of England gets it wrong yet again - David Blanchflower - Business Comment - The Independent Economic Outlook: For the umpteenth time the Bank is forecasting rapid recovery
Eschaton: Nobody Could Have Predicted, Not Our Fault, Who Could Have Known, Nothing To Be Done The people who run the world make predictions and decide on policy based on those predictions. Some people tell them they're wrong. A few months later it turns out they were, in fact, wrong. But it's never their fault.
Icelandic Anger Brings Debt Forgiveness - Bloomberg celanders who pelted parliament with rocks in 2009 demanding their leaders and bankers answer for the country’s economic and financial collapse are reaping the benefits of their anger ... “You could safely say that Iceland holds the world record in household debt relief,” ... Iceland’s approach to dealing with the meltdown has put the needs of its population ahead of the markets at every turn (hello, Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain and Obama!)

Codswallop! Pensioner handbags health minister outside No 10 | Politics ... The Health Secretary was berated by June Hautot from Tooting who claimed he was privatising the health service. Brushing aside his denial, she jabbed at him with her finger and shouted into his face: "Codswallop, don't lie to me, I'm sick of you." (conservatives at work)
The Sun On Sunday To Launch: News Corp. Says New Tabloid Will Be Published Next Week
Watson queries whether Murdoch can lift suspensions of arrested Sun staff | Media | guardian.co.uk Labour MP's letter to Met police says he believes bail conditions ban arrested journalists from making contact with each other

Pain Without Gain - NYTimes.com Last week the European Commission confirmed what everyone suspected: the economies it surveys are shrinking, not growing. It’s not an official recession yet, but the only real question is how deep the downturn will be (always reward incompetence and failure)
Four out of five economists agree: The stimulus created jobs - The Washington Post (don't let the facts get in our way)
Balloon Juice » Tyranny of the Minority - Kthug goes on to ask “So what will it take to convince the Pain Caucus, the people on both sides of the Atlantic who insist that we can cut our way to prosperity, that they are wrong?” (read for answer)

Never mind the economy, stupid: this election is all about sex | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk By obsessing about birth control, abortion and homosexuality, the GOP has turned its back on mainstream America ... The sexual fundamentalists, who are leading the charge against the recent birth control ruling, who demand as the price of their vote that abortion be outlawed and gay civil rights be rolled back, make up only between 15 to 20 percent of the nation
Political Animal - The Myth of “The Catholic Vote” [T]he idea of a Catholic bloc is patently ridiculous. As voters, American Catholics mirror the electorate as a whole, divided into Democrats, independents, and Republicans at about the same percentages as all Americans ... in fact, that Catholic voters’ willingness to take orders from religious leaders on moral issues is steadily declining (someone call Pope Douthat and break the news to him)

Sorry, Republicans, Your Savior Won't Come | The Nation
Balloon Juice » Monday Evening Open Thread: Casting Lots (for Danziger, brilliant)
In the Bible what is casting lots

Plouffe, Obama Aide, Lends Firm Hand to Campaign - NYTimes.com
The Maddow Blog - Romney's gold-plated resume Referring to Romney, Santorum said, "He heroically bailed out the Salt Lake City Olympic games by heroically going to Congress and asking them for tens of millions of dollars to bail out the Salt Lake Olympic games, in an earmark. Does the word hypocrisy come to mind?"
The Annotated Frank Rich - The President’s Failure to Demand a Reckoning From the Moneyed Interests Who Brought the Economy Down -- New York Magazine The most significant workers he added to the payroll in Salt Lake City were sixteen lobbyists, at a cost of nearly $4 million, to solicit taxpayers’ subsidies—“more federal cash than any previous U.S. Olympics,”
Chart of the Day: The Surprisingly Stable Cost of Presidential Elections | Mother Jones
Rick Santorum Leads National Polls, But When Will The Roller Coaster Stop? (VIDEO) What's up with the Republican polling roller coaster this year? (the clown-car roller-coaster?)
Santorum Suggests Obama Is A 'Phony' Christian | ThinkProgress Santorum appears to be on a mission to be a one-man Council of Trent, the 16th Century Catholic ecumenical council that defined Protestants as heretics (what hardcore Catholics actually believe; the religion wars heat up)
Santorum: Liberals ‘are the anti-science ones’ | The Raw Story
Palin says 'Game Change' film has a 'false narrative' | McClatchy Potentially more upsetting to Palin and her supporters is the way the film depicts the candidate's outbursts and periods of nonresponsiveness that lead aides to describe her as "catatonic" and possibly mentally unstable.
Twitter / @thinkprogress: "Freedom isnt to do whatever you want to do, it's to do what you ought to do" -- Rick Santorum (freedom=slavery)
Walter Shapiro: Why Mitt Romney's Presidential Prospects May Not Be Salvageable | The New Republic THE MITT ROMNEY CRISIS transcends the seven straight national polls showing Rick Santorum in the lead. It goes beyond the embarrassing reality that the son of an auto executive and two-term governor has been behind in every Michigan poll conducted since Groundhog’s Day. Even more devastating for Romney is that elite Republicans have begun to conclude that he cannot, if nominated, beat Barack Obama (GOPers down to who will drag the ticket down the least)
Black Pastor Says Blacks Should Go To Plantation | News One

foreclosures california home prices - latimes.com (yes there was fraud and stealing houseses, but they deserved it)
Eschaton: No Harm That can lead to confusion over who had the legal right to process the foreclosure. But it doesn’t mean the foreclosure itself was unwarranted. It doesn't really matter if the person who takes the home has a right to it, as long as that naughty homeowner gets what they deserve. And this view is why we have the legal and economic disaster we have today.

Tomgram: Wallace Shawn, Are You Smarter Than Thomas Jefferson? | TomDispatch As for all the other babies, the market sorts them and stamps labels onto them and hurls them violently into various pits, where an appropriate upbringing and preparation are waiting for them.
Canada threatens trade war with EU over tar sands | Environment | guardian.co.uk The row over the EU's plan to label tar sands oil as highly polluting escalates as Canada says it 'will not hesitate to defend its interests' (Canada: it's not oil! it's just very oily sand! and it's not polluting!)

Ethical Analysis of Disinformation Campaign's Tactics: Reckless Disregard for the Truth, Specious Claims of 'Bad' Science | ThinkProgress
Balloon Juice » How it works
Physicists Predict The Existence of Time Crystals  - Technology Review If crystals exist in spatial dimensions, then they ought to exist in the dimension of time too, says Nobel prize-winning physicist - “Speaking broadly speaking, what we're looking for looks perilously close to perpetual motion.”

Balloon Juice » Has Marriage Become A “Luxury Good”?

Eschaton: Taser: I've never understood why taser use by cops is a laff riot rather than a national scandal, cops flouting due process to administer cruel and unusual punishment at will (500 taser deaths since 2001; "excited delirium" affects only people who die in police custody; 60% gratuitous sadism)
Pennsylvania police officer filmed firing taser at teenage girl - video | World news | guardian.co.uk footage shows a police officer pushing a 14-year-old girl against a parked car and firing a taser at her groin. Shortly before the taser was fired the teenager is seen raising her hands in surrender.
Police Officer Tases 14-Year-Old Keshana Wilson' Groin Outside Of Pennsylvania High School (video)

Peter Skyllberg, Swedish Man, Survived Two Months In Snow-Covered Car (VIDEO) Peter Skyllberg, a 44-year-old man from Sweden, survived two months trapped in his snow-covered car due to a "natural igloo" that formed from the air trapped in the vehicle ... "Starvation for one month, anyone can tolerate that if they have water to drink,"
Banned Ryanair Ads: Too Much Fuss Over A Little Lingerie? (PHOTOS) The constantly pearl-clutching Advertising Standards Authority in Britain has dropped the ban hammer on more ads that it deems too racy for public consumption.

On Being Blog • Ascending Staircases of Sonoma Light by Susan Leem (Meredith Monk)

Burning Man organisers feel the heat as row erupts over tickets | Culture | guardian.co.uk A new lottery system has cost many festival-going regulars their tickets – and has ignited a debate about the festival's future
Why does it matter if a child has a same-sex crush? | Tom Katsumi | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The ripples caused by a boy of seven coming out as gay shows society has a way to go before it views LGBT people equally
Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan? That's the sound of ageing | John Harris | Comment is free | The Guardian Rock may be uncool, but it's not dead – as long as it accepts its new status as the music of the ageing
Whitney: Sister Can’t Fly On One Wing | The New Civil Rights Movement


021912
Petitions | The White House Please Submit ACTA to the Senate for Ratification as Required by the Constitution for Trade Agreements

China backs Assad before Syrian forces open fire at funeral | World news | guardian.co.uk Beijing's deputy foreign minister argues for 'stability' as regime continues to target protesters
Israeli Strike On Iran 'Not Prudent,' Gen. Martin Dempsey Says
Hague 'new Cold War' fear over Iran - Middle East - World - The Independent Iran's nuclear ambitions could plunge the world into "a new Cold War" with the Middle East, Foreign Secretary William Hague warned today (just what they want)
Iran announces it has stopped selling crude oil to UK and France | World news | The Guardian Tehran takes step four months ahead of EU import ban amid heightening political tensions over country's enriching of uranium
Baghdad suicide bomb kills 19 police | World news | The Guardian Fourteen cadets and five officers killed in attack on crowd outside police academy in Iraqi capital
Bali bombing suspect's interrogation downgrades link to al-Qaida | World news | The Guardian Umar Patek says he was unaware of Osama bin Laden's presence in Abbotabad, where he was captured

Costa Concordia Disaster: Francesco Schettino Hair Sample Showed Traces Of Cocaine On Outside Of Hair

NYPD Monitored Muslim Students All Over Northeast (monitoring "how many times they prayed"; no consequences)

Supreme Court to hear arguments on whether a lie is protected speech | McClatchy
Commentary: Some lies around Deep Throat exposed | McClatchy

Is Virginia’s ultrasound bill the future of abortion regulation? - The Washington Post (conservative love state-sanctioned rape)
Balloon Juice » Today’s Worst Person in the World: Tyler Cowen: "All of a sudden requiring consumer to be informed is extremely unpopular on the "pro-regulation side" Um, what the hell would a woman be doing in an abortion clinic if she didn’t already know what was up in there? I think women are pretty clear on the concept (but not Tyler Cowen, christ-what-an-asshole)
If You Think Consumers Should Know What’s In Their Food, Surely You Favor Mandatory Rape - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Shame The Sluts And Make Them Wait | TBogg McArgleBargle that is the comments over at McMegans’s Sociopaths With Broken Calculators site regarding Komen and Planned Parenthood which naturally led to a discussion about abortion (McAddled: abortion should be legal but you have to submit to rape first)
Why Patriarchal Men Are Utterly Petrified of Birth Control -- And Why We'll Still Be Fighting About it 100 Years From Now | Visions | AlterNet - according to freudian theory, future choices are? Conservative bishops and Congressmen are fighting a rear-guard action against one of the most revolutionary changes in human history.
Fox's Andrea Tantaros Defends All-Male Panel At Contraception Hearing | Media Matters for America

Cheryl Russell: The Surprising Trends That Suggest Young People Won’t Vote In 2012 | The New Republic (voting is for adults with jobs)
Rick Santorum: Obama Agenda Not 'Based On Bible' (Santorum from planet Fundie)
Santorum: Obama's Agenda Not 'Based On The Bible' | TPM Livewire Obama's agenda is "not about you. It's not about your quality of life. It's not about your jobs. It's about some phony ideal. Some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible. A different theology," Santorum told supporters of the conservative Tea Party movement
Detroit to Romney: Get Real on Auto Bailout
The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square - A Gasoline Conspiracy to Set Fire to the Obama Administration?

How a Filthy Rich 196 People Will Buy Our Election | Economy | AlterNet - In 2011, 196 individual donors provided nearly 80 percent of the money raised by super PACs.
Driving, gas prices and the end of retail - The Washington Post

Attacks paid for by big business are 'driving science into a dark era' | Science | The Observer Researchers attending one of the world's major academic conferences 'are scared to death of the anti-science lobby' (Republicans dragging the country back to the dark ages)
Conservatism Thrives on Low Intelligence and Poor Information | | AlterNet There is plenty of research showing that low general intelligence in childhood predicts greater prejudice towards people of different ethnicity or sexuality in adulthood.
Study links ultrafast machine trading with risk of crash - In the United States, ultrafast trading in financial markets between 2006 and 2011 was the underlying factor for over 18,000 extreme price changes,
Alan Turing's 1950s tiger stripe theory proved - regular repeating patterns in biological systems are generated by a pair of morphogens that work together as an 'activator' and 'inhibitor'.
>
DownWithTyranny!: Arizona Republican Sheriff And Congressional Candidate Paul Babeu Dragged Out Of The Closet (o my)
Paul Babeu Says He's Gay After Misconduct Claims A nationally known sheriff resigned from presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's Arizona committee and acknowledged he was gay amid allegations of misconduct made by a man with whom he previously had a relationship (America's toughest gay sheriff)


021812
Syria Crisis: Security Forces Open Fire On Funeral (learned that from Obama)
Iran's nuclear ambitions could lead to 'Middle East cold war', says Hague | World news | guardian.co.uk Foreign secretary said the world would face most serious round of nuclear proliferation since invention of atomic bomb
Pakistan won’t help US attack Iran, says Zardari | The Nation

Inside the Eastern Rise of Weibo, China’s Twitter | Culture | Vanity Fair . Weibo has taken over the Chinese social-media scene, compelling everyone from Tom Cruise to Jeremy Lin to sign up and start sharing.

Tesco asks government to change flagship jobless scheme | Business | The Guardian Work experience programme must be voluntary, says major employer amid complaints it is profiting from forced labour ... obseekers are being used as taxpayer-subsidised labour in high street chains up and down the country (Tories set up slave-labor, wonder why there are no jobs)
Libor Manipulation: Another Black Eye for UBS - Businessweek UBS again appears to be at the heart of a banking scandal, this time for rigging a benchmark interest rate
ANZ rewards staff with holiday while customers get rates pain | News.com.au ANZ staff rewarded with $1.75 million luxury cruise - Comes days after mass sackings, rate increases - the bank, whose advertising slogan is "we live in your world".


Justice Department Will No Longer Defend Law Blocking Military Benefits For Same-Sex Couples (Obama still "evolving")
Maryland Marriage Equality: House Of Delegates Passes Bill In Favor Of Same-Sex Marriage
Chris Christie vetoes New Jersey same-sex marriage bill | World news | guardian.co.uk Republican governor acts on his vow to reject measure and reaffirms view that state's voters should have final say on issue

Amine El Khalifi Arrested: Capitol Suicide Bombing Attempt Halted A 29-year-old Moroccan man who believed he was working with al-Qaida was arrested Friday near the U.S. Capitol as he was planning to detonate what he thought was a suicide vest that undercover operatives gave him, officials said.
Capitol Bomb Plot Raises FBI Sting Questions ... And that wasn't the first time critics had accused the FBI of edging close to entrapment and goading vulnerable people into terrorism plots (create terrorist; catch him; make everyone scared!)

Supreme Court Blocks Montana Campaign Finance Ban (don't need no steenking states rights in this case)
Harry Reid Will Ask Obama To Recess Appoint All Nominees If GOP Delays Continue
Harry Reid Will Ask Obama To Recess Appoint All Nominees If GOP Delays Continue (Rethug obstructatron)
Payroll Tax Fight Leads Congressional Republicans To Turn To Offensive Strategies "We need to change course and focus on pro-growth economic policies that help small businesses create jobs," House Speaker John Boehner (culture wars not working)
It Gets Worse in Maine ... "Amateur hour is over. The choice of a president is simply too important to put in the hands of party bumblers and the small percentage of people who are willing to spend hours to cast a vote."
Mitt Romney wounded by anti-bailout stance on return home to Michigan | World news | guardian.co.uk Romney's insistence that the auto bailout was bad for Detroit risks a loss of votes in the state where his father was governor
Maxine Waters Ethics Probe: Six Out Of Ten Committee Members Recuse Themselves All five Republicans on the House ethics committee and the panel's ranking Democrat withdrew from a long-standing investigation of Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California on Friday to avoid further questions about their impartiality (Rethug witch-hunt)
Scott Walker, Targeted For A Recall, Which Heartland Institute Aims To Fight, Documents Show , the Heartland Institute has budgeted $612,000 for a Wisconsin campaign called Operation Angry Badger.
Birth Control Debate: New Hampshire Lawmaker Urges Married Couples To Practice Abstinence State Rep. Lynne Blankenbeker (R-Concord) made the claim -- noting that abstinence is available "over the counter" (that, and "aspirins" - way to go, Lynne)
Negative posts will get you banned from Haley's Facebook page | The Post and Courier - Charleston, South Carolina (Rethugs love censorship)

Private Equity Gears Up For PR And Lobbying Blitz Private equity has an image problem. What began a few months ago with questions about Mitt Romney's background as chief of Bain Capital has ballooned into a tidal wave of legislative, regulatory and media attention -- and much of it unflattering.
Programmer cleared of stealing code from Goldman Sachs | Technology | guardian.co.uk Sergey Aleynikov has conviction dismissed out of hand by appeal judges after serving a year for copying trading software

H5N1 Bird Flu Studies Will Remain A Secret Until WHO Assesses Risk
Academic publisher Elsevier hit with growing boycott - Technology & Science - CBC News Critics say campaign unfairly singles out firm over widespread practices (of charging outrageous prices for research you already paid for, so unfair)

For Women Under 30, Most Births Occur Outside Marriage - NYTimes.com (family values!)

Paul Babeu's Mexican Ex-Lover Says Sheriff's Attorney Threatened Him With Deportation - Page 1 - News - Phoenix - Phoenix New Times Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu — who became the face of Arizona border security nationally after he started stridently opposing illegal immigration — threatened his Mexican ex-lover with deportation when the man refused to promise never to disclose their years-long relationship (hypocrisy, thy name is Republican)
Video shows talk show host inside gay bar on night of hit-and-run | News (ditto)
Shirley Bunn: 'Teacher Of The Year' Suspended For Offensive Comment, Telling Hispanic Student To 'Go Back To Mexico' (way to go, Shirley; now everyone knows your name)

021712
Glenn Greenwald, Erin Burnett Argue Over Burnett's Iran Coverage (video)
Iran Nuclear Coverage Echoes Iraq War Media Frenzy (blowing people up and bankrupting the country is good for ratings)
US officials believe Iran sanctions will fail, making military action likely | World news | The Guardian Growing view that strike, by Israel or US, will happen • 'Sweet spot' for Israeli action identified as September-October (Pentagon ramps up its PR)
Libya celebrates, Syria burns – Friday 17 February | World news | guardian.co.uk Libya marks first anniversary of uprising against Gaddafi • Protests grow in Damascus

Markets back Greek bailout hopes but German schism could still derail deal | Business | The Guardian Angela Merkel, Mario Monti and Lucas Papademos 'confident' deal on €130bn (£108bn) bailout would be struck on Monday, but concerns are growing behind the scenes
German President Christian Wulff Resigns Following Financial Scandal after the slow-burning affair escalated dramatically with a request by prosecutors for Parliament to lift his immunity from prosecution over his relationship with a film producer in his previous job as governor of Lower Saxony (how the elite live)
Italian police seize $6tn of fake US Treasury bonds | World news | The Guardian Swiss authorities find bonds in safe deposit boxes in Zurich in 'largest ever' seizure of fake securities

Rupert Murdoch Announces Sun On Sunday Launch, Says Suspended Employees Can Return To Work
The old monster Rupert Murdoch finds his elixir with his back against the wall | Marina Hyde | Comment is free | The Guardian Who could fail to be impressed with Murdoch the adrenaline junkie, handbrake-turning into the offices of the Sun?
The Sun also rises on Sunday: Murdoch visits the newsroom to quell rebellion | Media | The Guardian Suspension of arrested journalists lifted as News International boss tells staff paper will replace News of the World 'very soon'

Obama May Ditch Most US Nukes | Mother Jones Conservatives in Congress say the president's policy is "reckless lunacy"—but military strategists think it's smart.

The digital wizards behind Obama's tech-heavy re-election strategy | World news | guardian.co.uk The names behind a crack team of some of America's top data wonks building a digital campaign from bottom up
Obama, Facebook and the power of friendship: the 2012 data election | World news | guardian.co.uk A unified computer database that gathers and refines information on millions of potential voters is at the forefront of campaign technology – and could be the key to an Obama win

Virginia ultrasound law: women who want an abortion will be forcibly penetrated for no medical reason - Slate Magazine Under the new legislation, women who want an abortion will be forcibly penetrated for no medical reason. Where’s the outrage?
Political Animal - Virginia Ritual Humiliation Bill it seems incontrovertible that the purpose of such requirements is to intimidate and humiliate women, and add another cost and delay to the abortion procedure, which, of course, Virginia legislators would ban altogether if the Supreme Court would let them.
Nancy Pelosi Rallies Base Over Birth Control Fight
Political Animal - Foster Friess Doubles Down
Political Animal - “Terri Schiavo Moment” Now that it’s reasonably clear that the Obama administration’s contraception coverage mandate is not turning into a “wedge issue” that herds large number of Catholic voters into the GOP column, it’s time to consider whether the preoccupation of Republicans with rolling back reproductive rights and attacking the organizations that defend them could become a problem - The Obama position finds a two-thirds majority among suburban voters and a 61 percent majority among single women (keep digging, Republican taliban)

Balloon Juice » Pat Buchanan out at MSNBC - Pat Buchanan gave the keynote speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention. He had failed to secure the nomination, but had done well enough to demand the spotlight during prime time. Molly Ivins said later of his speech that “it probably sounded better in the original German.” (and NPR, hopefully)
Pat Buchanan: "My Days As A Political Analyst At MSNBC Have Come To An End" | Media Matters for America In his new syndicated column headlined "The New Blacklist," Pat Buchanan announces that he is departing from MSNBC. He devotes much of the column to lashing out against organizations that have called for him to be held accountable for his bigoted rhetoric:
Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski 'Strongly Disagree' With Pat Buchanan's Exit From MSNBC
Balloon Juice » To Serve Women (a cookbook) What are women for? Why, to serve as civilizing hose-bags and poop out babies, of course! Well, at the very least, the column puts paid to any notion that the GOP’s “woman problem” will end when dinosaurs like Foster Friess finally lumber into the tar pit.

Payroll tax cut extension passes US Congress in burst of bipartisanship | World news | guardian.co.uk n victory for Obama, bill extending jobless benefits to millions passes House of Representatives and Senate - workers would continue to receive a 2 percentage-point increase in their paychecks and people out of work for more than six months would keep jobless benefits averaging about $300 a week.
Scott Brown Leads Elizabeth Warren In New Massachusetts Poll Two polls, two different results. A new public poll of Massachusetts voters released Thursday night shows Sen. Scott Brown with a statistically significant lead over Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren, contradicting the results of a survey released earlier in the week that showed a much closer result and gave Warren a slight edge (Suffolk U)
NJ Gov. Christie vetoes gay marriage bill as vowed - Yahoo! News

Paul Krugman In Playboy Interview: 'People Should Be In Jail' Because Of Financial Crisis (Obama alway had the bankers' and mortgage companies' backs and a lot of good it did him, as usual)
Tech Analyst Arrested in Insider Trading Crackdown - NYTimes.com John Kinnucan, a technology analyst who gained notoriety last year for openly challenging federal authorities, was arrested on Thursday night by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Financial Distress Still Plagues American Families, Despite Increase In Jobs

Heartland Institute faces fresh scrutiny over tax status | Environment | guardian.co.uk Whistleblower made complaint to IRS over climate science attack machine's tax-exempt status, Guardian learns - he libertarian thinktank whose project to undermine science lessons for schoolchildren was exposed this week, faces new scrutiny of its finances – including its donors and tax status.
The inside story on climate scientists under siege | Environment | guardian.co.uk Michael Mann reveals his account of attacks by entrenched interests seeking to undermine his 'hockey stick' graph
Ancient meteorite standing between one Iowa town and its water supply | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News The crash created the underground Manson Crater—which has a diameter of 24 miles and reaches into four neighboring counties.

New rules proposed for food handouts on the Parkway The presence of food lines in the heart of the city's museum district has been a long-simmering source of tension between those who want to help and those who think there is a better way to do it (which would be let them starve!)
$1 billion casino at National Harbor proposed by Prince George’s Executive Baker - The Washington Post arguing that a “high-end” gaming destination at National Harbor would be a catalyst for economic development and generate much-needed tax revenue (economic development: gambling! low wage jobs! social disaster!)

For-Profit College Chiefs Unwind At Lavish Tahoe Resort Students at for-profit colleges often end up with enormous debt burdens and lean job prospects, resulting in a disproportionate number of student loan defaults. But the scene at this resort tucked into the Sierra Nevada Mountains served as testament to the fact that those running the institutions have fared far better (how the elite live)
FBI Fliers Reveal Profile Of A Perfect Terrorist (They Pay For Coffee With Cash, Apparently) f you're in Starbucks and notice a nondescript individual paying for their coffee with cash - watch out. According to the FBI you might have found evidence of a terrorist plot.

Google admits tracking Safari users | Technology | guardian.co.uk nternet giant says it circumvented security settings in browser to track users on desktops and iPhones
Anonymous Knocks FTC Site Offline, Posts Anti-ACTA Content
Typosquatting Sites Fined $300,000 Two so-called ‘typosquatting’ websites that directed unsuspecting Internet users to sites pretending to be Wikipedia and Twitter have been forced offline, with the respective owners fined £100,000 ($156,000) each
Pirate Bay: The RIAA Is Delusional and Must Be Stopped | TorrentFreak The Pirate Bay is not happy with a recent article published by the RIAA, where the torrent site is portrayed as the prime example of why tougher anti-piracy laws are necessary. In a rebuttal, The Pirate Bay argues that the RIAA is delusional, behaving like a spoiled kid that has lost touch with reality.

021612
Israelis prepare for war with Iran - Iran - Salon.com Even ex-Mossad chief who opposes an attack on Iran seems to have given up
Diane Sawyer and Brian Ross belong in a fear-mongering museum - Salon.com (your media loves people dying in wars)
U.S. media takes the lead on Iran - Salon.com (bomb, bomb ... )
Honduras jail fire: most prisoners had not been convicted | World news | The Guardian More than half of inmates in Comayagua jail, where 358 died, were awaiting trial or being held as gang suspects
Libyan militias accused of torturing detainees | World news | guardian.co.uk Amnesty International reports armed militias threaten the security of Libya with 12 detainees tortured to death since September
Fears over Iranian oil exports send crude prices soaring | World news | guardian.co.uk State-run TV in Iran claims Tehran has stopped exporting oil to the Netherlands, Greece, France, Portugal, Spain and Italy
Syria: activists arrested as assault on cities continues – Thursday 16 February | World news | guardian.co.uk Blogger and human rights campaigner detained • Chinese envoy heads for Syria
Israel denies reports of thwarted attack on Ehud Barak in Singapore | World news | The Guardian Kuwaiti newspaper story that Mossad tipped off local agents over threat to defence minister, 'completely wrong' says Israel
Italy to End Tax Breaks on Church Enterprises, Monti Says - Businessweek (world's largest pedophile organization to lose tax exemptions in Italy)
Bill C-309 | openparliament.ca Preventing Persons from Concealing Their Identity during Riots and Unlawful Assemblies Act (Canada)
The murder case that refuses to die: June 2, 1967 - Alan Nothnagle - Open Salon the new revelations are “worse than the worst we ever suspected back then. Our imagination didn’t reach that far.” The Spiegel report shows that everyone on the scene lied under oath.
Afghan Girls Are Penalized for Elders’ Misdeeds - NYTimes.com

Greece is being forced out of eurozone, Venizelos claims | World news | The Guardian Greek finance minister says troika is shifting terms of €130bn bailout deal as part of move to force country out of eurozone
Eurozone crisis live: Barroso salutes Greece's courage as markets fall | Business | guardian.co.uk European Commission president calls for bailout to be agreed • Portugal's unemployment rate hits 14%
Eurozone crisis live: Barroso salutes Greece's courage as markets fall | Business | guardian.co.uk It turns out that practically every single traffic light in central Athens was destroyed in the orgy of violence that erupted during parliament's dramatic vote on the loan deal.
UK unemployment stuck at 17-year high as economy flatlines | Business | The Guardian ONS data shows unemployment rate at 8.4%, while economists note increase in number of people out of work has slowed (more austerity!)
BBC News - Spain's economy contracts as recession fears grow The Spanish economy has shrunk for the first time in two years, increasing fears the country could be heading for a recession (more austerity!)
John Paulson Says Greece May Default, Spurring Euro Breakup - Bloomberg (all for nothing)
Eschaton: No Interest In Fixing The Economy It's worth pointing out something rather obvious, that no one in charge in Europe has expressed any interested in fixing the economic problems of Greece. Mass unemployment is not the issue they're concerned about, the continued financial success of European bankers is. These things aren't necessarily at odds. There are probably win-win solutions.
Tesco under pressure to withdraw from unpaid work experience schemes | Business | The Guardian Supermarket giant says advert posted on Twitter for night-shift job paying only jobseeker's allowance was down to IT error (the new Tory austerity solution: work for free)

Met probes claims that Sun paid some public officials more than £10k a year | Media | guardian.co.uk Source familiar with News Corp internal inquiry says it has found 'serious suspected criminality over a sustained period' ... some individuals received more than £10,000 a year and were "effectively on retainer"

The imperial way: American decline in perspective, part 2 | Noam Chomsky | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The US's presumed right to impose its will on the world, by force if necessary, has not changed. But its capacity to do so has
U.S. v. Pakistan on transparency and accountability - Salon.com Virtually without exception, the American judiciary has refused to allow any victims of America’s War on Terror abuses — whether foreign national or American citizen — to even have their claims heard in court.

President Obama Birth Control Compromise Divides Catholic Leaders
Rick Santorum's Language Could Cause Trouble In White House Bid In Boise, Idaho, on Tuesday, Santorum compared contraception to deodorant and soap when making a point about why he believes birth control should not be covered by health insurers.
Scott Brown: Elizabeth Warren Has Assumed 'Mantle Of Oppressor' With Health Care Stance
House Democrats Walk Out Of One-Sided Hearing On Contraception, Calling It An 'Autocratic Regime' (go Republicans! +Darrell "crackpipe" Issa)
Democratic Women Boycott House Contraception Hearing After Republicans Prevent Women From Testifying | ThinkProgress (Issa: women need to learn their place)
Thank You Justice Kennedy! - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Say this for anti-choicers, they’re extremely creative when it comes to finding new ways to humiliate women ... “While we find no reliable data to measure the phenomenon, it seems unexceptionable to conclude many women don’t object having a speculum inserted into their vagina without their consent and for no valid medical reason.” (Republicans mandate medical rape)
Virginia House Pushes Through Abortion Curbs A Republican supermajority "has muscled two of the most restrictive anti-abortion bills in years through the Virginia House, including one that would all but outlaw the procedure in the state by declaring that the rights of persons apply from the moment sperm and egg unite," the AP reports. The bill also requires women to have a "transvaginal ultrasound" before undergoing abortions.
All Your Vaginas Are Belong To Us | TBogg
Eschaton: Rape That's basically what this is. Want an abortion, your punishment is being sexually assaulted by a doctor with a vaginal probe for no medical reason. Ah that nonintrusive small government moral high ground the modern libertarian Republican party possesses.
Chunky Reese Witherspoon Is The New Typhoid Mary | TBogg State Rep. Jeanine Notter, R-Merrimack, told a House committee earlier today that health insurance companies should not be required to cover birth control because the pill has recently been linked to prostate cancer.
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day "Back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees and it wasn't that costly." -- Santorum Super PAC donor Foster Freiss, in an interview on MSNBC, defending his candidate's position on contraception.

Scott Brown On Support For Blunt Bill: ‘I Have The Same Position As Senator Kennedy’ | TPM2012
Blunt words for Brown - Metro - The Boston Globe
Blue Mass Group | Scott Brown doubles down on Roy Blunt’s crazy amendment it turns out that Scott Brown, when he was a state rep, voted for a stronger birth-control mandate than Obama's. Oopsie

Abortion saved my life - Abortion - Salon.com I almost died in an emergency room because the doctor on call refused to perform a necessary procedure ("Christian" doctor)
Susan G Komen's 'pinkwashing' problem a black mark on charity | World news | guardian.co.uk As backlash continues over Planned Parenthood defunding, issue of companies who claim to care about breast cancer by promoting a product under false pretenses has been reignited (Brinker must go)

Economist's View: "Romer Advised Obama To Push $1.8 Trillion Stimulus" [Top Adviser David] Plouffe urged the president to give [entitlement reform] a shot ... Summers fought Orszag's pursuit of a deficit reduction commission…. He also pushed back on Orszag's idea of a domestic spending freeze ... "We're Democrats," Summers harrumphed. (Obama and his crack team of Chicago Republicans; Plouffe and Orzag are idiots and totally out of touch) /a>
Hullabaloo: Winning, austerity style - how awesome it is that progressives are now thought to be "winning" issues by cutting taxes, cutting unemployment benefits, cutting federal pensions, cutting health programs and agreeing to mandatory drug testing? If we keep this up we'll put Republicans out of business in no time. They will be superfluous

Payroll Tax Cut Deal Reached In Congress with Republicans agreeing to tack the $100 billion cost onto the deficit and Democrats accepting diminished jobless benefits as well as some drug testing for the unemployed (way to do, Dems)
CNN Cancels Debate After Mitt Romney And Ron Paul Pull Out
Fox News' Eric Bolling Tells Maxine Waters To 'Step Away From The Crack Pipe,' Later Says He Was 'Kidding' (Fox racist network)
Rep. Allen West's 15 Most Outrageous Statements | ThinkProgress
Why Romney Can't Stop Santorum - These Are Not The Candidates You're Looking For - Esquire
Poll Finds Republicans in Deep Trouble A new Democracy Corps (D) survey finds the Republican brand "is in a state of collapse -- over 50 percent of voters give the Republican Party a cool, negative rating ... Voters who gave Democrats their victories in 2006 and 2008 "have returned in a big way" led by "a resurgence and re-engagement of unmarried women." (and the Republican clown parade)

General Motors shrugs off European woes to post record profit of $7.6bn | Business | guardian.co.uk GM posts highest profit on record in its first full year since it was bailed out, but Europe remains a black spot for firm
California Audit Finds Broad Irregularities in Foreclosures - NYTimes.com An audit by San Francisco county officials of about 400 recent foreclosures there determined that almost all involved either legal violations or suspicious documentation, according to a report released Wednesday.
National Mortgage Settlement: Bank Forecloses Even As Carrie Haskamp Pursues Loan Modification
Citigroup Whistle-Blower Says Bank’s ‘Brute Force’ Hid Bad Loans - Bloomberg (all the stuff Obama has been trying to sweep under the rug)

In Heartland Institute Leak, a Plan to Discredit Climate Teaching - NYTimes.com Leaked documents suggest that an organization known for attacking climate science is planning a new push to undermine the teaching of global warming in public schools, the latest indication that climate change is becoming a part of the nation’s culture wars - Heartland Institute - the group apologized to donors whose names became public as a result of the leak.
Leak exposes how Heartland Institute works to undermine climate science | Environment | guardian.co.uk Libertarian thinktank keeps prominent sceptics on its payroll and relies on millions in funding from carbon industry, papers suggest
Heartland Institute claims fraud after leak of climate change documents | Environment | guardian.co.uk Thinktank said to be undermining climate science says it was victim of theft and forgery – but identifies only one memo as fake - The free-market Heartland Institute has moved to contain the damage from explosive revelations about its efforts to discredit climate change and alter the teaching of science in schools
Microsoft Disavows Heartland Institute's Climate Denial, Says Contributions Just 'Free Software Licenses' | ThinkProgress

Puzzle play helps boost learning math-related skills

Sick: Young, Undercover Cops Flirted With Students to Trick Them Into Selling Pot | AlterNet
Police 'Tank' Purchase Riles New Hampshire Town "We're going to have our own tank." That's what Keene, N.H., Mayor Kendall Lane whispered to Councilman Mitch Greenwood during a December city council meeting. It's not quite a tank. But the quaint town of 23,000 -- scene of just two murders since 1999 -- had just accepted a $285,933 grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to purchase a Bearcat, an eight-ton armored personnel vehicle made by Lenco Industries Inc.
Political Animal - “Don’t Say Gay” Advances in Tennessee Before the House education subcommittee acted, chairman Joey Hensley scored bonus points by admonishing all Tennessee parents not to let their children watch “Modern Family” on television because they might discover there are homosexuals in the world. These days, life often imitates parody

You Never Give Me Your Money(long 6 min version)-The Beatles - YouTube
Jacob Sutton’s L.E.D. Surfer - nowness


021512
How secret renditions shed light on MI6's licence to kill and torture | World news | The Guardian Little-known clause lets secretary of state authorise UK's spies to commit crimes abroad (and send Libyan nationals back to Gaddaffi to be tortured; CIA doesn't have to admit to anything)
Iran Oil Exports To 6 European Countries Stopped, State TV Reports
Iran Nuclear Threat Brings No U.S. Enthusiasm For A Military Strike (worked out really well the last two times)

Euro Zone Economy Shrank in Fourth Quarter of 2011 - NYTimes.com (more austerity!)
Eurozone crisis live: Greek president attacks Germany as bailout deadline moves to Monday | Business | guardian.co.uk
UK unemployment stuck at 17-year high as economy flatlines | Business | The Guardian ONS data shows unemployment rate at 8.4%, while economists note increase in number of people out of work has slowed (more austerity!)
Italy Slips Into Fourth Recession Since 2001 as Economy Contracts 0.7% - Bloomberg (more austerity!)
German economy slips into reverse in last quarter - Business News - Business - The Independent (their stratagy was to bankrupt their trading partners; worked out really well)

Eschaton: Other People Need To Suffer Repeating myself for the millionth time here, but I really wasn't being hyperbolic when I wrote that the people who run the world are sadists. They apparently truly believe that only through the mass suffering of people other than themselves can paradise be achieved. Then the question becomes, of course, whose paradise?


How Blue America Subsidizes Red America A very neat Aaron Carroll chart shows that, on average, conservative states feature more "dependency" on federal programs than do liberal ones
Balloon Juice » Open Thread: Moochers of “Real” America Happily (for the preservation of his libertarian bubble), Yglesias decides that the redstaters are too dumb to understand their essential parasitism; he doesn’t spare any consideration for us elitist blue-staters, but presumably our fuzzy-minded philanthropicalism prevents us from cutting off the ‘Real American’ moochers to devolve into their natural Hobbesian disorder.
The Tea Party’s war on mass transit - Salon.com House Republicans try to gut federal funds for subways as they extend the culture wars to urban policy issues (cities are full of drug-using criminals; conservative identity politics)
Balloon Juice » They already got a hearing And even Catholics who attend church every week or almost every week support it by 48-43 (no one agrees with the Catholic Bishops, but they are dictating birth control policy)

Payroll Tax Deal Would Allow Drug Testing, Reduce Unemployment Benefits To 73 Weeks [UPDATE] And the deal would allow states to drug test those applying for unemployment benefits, according to Democratic and Republican congressional sources (what a deal: Obama's compromises)
Mitt Romney's Stance On Auto Bailout Doesn't Reflect Local Feelings On The Economy
Jon Stewart Slams Liz Trotta's Views On Sexual Assault On Women In Military (Fox supports rape)
Fox's Bolling Repeats Discredited Myth That 9/11 Attacks Had "Footsteps" That Could Be Traced "Right Back To Saddam" | Media Matters for America (Fox supports outright lying)

Why Is Pancreatic Cancer So Deadly?: Scientific American
Pancreatic Cancer Symptoms, Prognosis, Stage, Life Expectancy, Causes, Treatment, Signs and Diagnosis by MedicineNet.com http://www.medicinenet.com/pancreatic_cancer/article.htm


Arizona bill takes aim at airbrushed women in ads House Bill 2793, proposed by Rep. Katie Hobbs, D-Phoenix, would require advertisers who alter or enhance a photo to put a disclaimer on that ad alerting customers that "Postproduction techniques were made to alter the appearance in this advertisement. When using this product, similar results may not be achieved."

Bulgaria refuses to ratify ACTA — RT
Acta loses more support in Europe | Technology | guardian.co.uk Bulgaria and the Netherlands join Poland and Germany in refusing to ratify Acta, citing privacy and human rights issues
MPAA: Ripping DVDs Shouldn't Be Allowed Because It Takes Away Our Ability To Charge You Multiple Times For The Same Content | Techdirt

021412
/ Syria, Bahrain and Middle East unrest | World news | guardian.co.uk Bombardment of Homs 'worst for five days'
Iran behind Thailand blasts, claims Israel's Ehud Barak | World news | The Guardian Three blasts in Bangkok wound bomber and five others (the Jews should bar-mitzvah dead Mormons, or maybe living ones)
Proxy Baptism Seekers Eyed Holocaust Survivor Elie Wiesel For Posthumous Mormon Rite Mormons had proposed the ritual even for a famous Holocaust survivor still living.
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito's acquittal challenged by prosecutors | World news | The Guardian Italian prosecutors appeal against the verdict that cleared Knox and Sollecito of Meredith Kercher's murder in Perugia (Italian "justice" is a joke)
Report: Russia Nuclear Disaster Narrowly Averted In Submarine Fire Russia came close to nuclear disaster in late December when a blaze engulfed a nuclear-powered submarine carrying atomic weapons, a leading Russian magazine reported, contradicting official assurances that it was not armed.


Eurozone debt crisis live: UK credit rating under threat amid Moody's downgrade blitz | Business | guardian.co.uk New data from Greece shows the desperate state of Greek's economy – its GDP plunged by 7% in the fourth quarter of 2011, on a year-on-year basis (disasterous austerity policies are a disaster)
Eschaton: Fortunately We Have A Policy For That Greece's economy is still imploding, so of course we will continue with the current successful policies. The Greece situation isn't simple - they can rely on outside help or default and leave the Euro - but the people dictating the terms of the outside aid are clearly sadists who enjoy suffering. Like most of the people who run the world.
Portugal’s Debt Efforts May Be a Warning for Greece - NYTimes.com (another austerity disaster; who could have predicted; reality is not the issue)

News Corp inquiry team defends policy over police disclosures | Media | guardian.co.uk Management and standards committee dismisses claims it is revealing names of officers who lunch or drink with journalists
News Corp. Civil War Shows No Signs Of Ending; Company Gives Anonymous Sources To Police

'Losing' the world: American decline in perspective, part 1 | Noam Chomsky | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk US foreign policy 'experts' only ever provide an echo chamber for American imperial power. A longer, broader view is necessary

Mitt Romney and the Fallacy of Political “Authenticity” — Crooked Timber
The “Ic” Factor : The New Yorker (the history of the slur "The Democrat Party" goes back to McCarthy)
the daily howler: Hollywood watch: David Brooks knows novels! If Romney could just learn to fake it: Over and over, the news is a novel! Just as we have long said!
Americans Don’t Blame the Social Safety Net for the Deficit | FDL Action

Mitt Romney attacks 'crony capitalism' of Obama's auto bailout | World news | guardian.co.uk Romney risks loss of votes in Michigan after repeating claim that car industry should have gone through managed bankruptcy (up is always down)
The Internal Contradictions of Mitt Romney - NYTimes.com And by “internal”, I mean in the same paragraph ... Has there ever been a candidacy this cynical? (truth has no value in America)
Elizabeth Warren, Scott Brown Tied in Massachusetts Poll
Eschaton It's just the usual issue of people who were born on third base and who manage to stay there, or quite often even manage to steal second, lecturing the lower classes about their need to hit home runs even if their parents couldn't afford to buy them bats.
People Are Human - NYTimes.com David Brooks is unhappy with the turn the conversation over the white working class has taken
Severe Conservative Syndrome - NYTimes.com Mitt Romney has a gift for words — self-destructive words. On Friday he did it again, telling the Conservative Political Action Conference that he was a “severely conservative governor.” ... disabled, depressed, ill, limited and injured (all describe conservatives)
Ron Paul's Endgame In the first of a four-part series, the Prospect looks at where the GOP presidential candidates are headed.
Adele Trashes Newt Gingrich at the Grammys! - YouTube
Pressure mounting for GOP caucus reconsideration — Politics — Bangor Daily News — BDN Maine (they always cheat, even on each other)

Why My Critics Are Wrong - Michael Novak - National Review Online Joe Paterno’s status as a moral beacon remains undiminished (Novak doubles-down on defending JoePa)
Women Vets Criticize Fox Pundit's 'Breathtakingly Offensive' Claim That Women Should 'Expect' Sexual Assault | ThinkProgress - Liz Trotta ("men get rapey")
Little Green Footballs - Update: Fox News Makes Racist Comment Thread Disappear What right wing racism?
The Death Of Pretty | Blogs | NCRegister.com (Catholics at work keeping women "pretty")
Is Rick Santorum facing a brewing 'women problem'? - CSMonitor.com Recent statements about women, and passages from his 2005 book, have put Rick Santorum on the defensive. Even within GOP ranks there are signs of a gender split.

What Expanded Safety Net? « The Baseline Scenario - Binyamin Appelbaum and Robert Gebeloff’s article on how the same people oppose government handouts and take government handouts (premised on "expanded safety net" which is a fiction in the mind of the NYT)
Fun With Numbers: Foreclosure Fraud Settlement Figures Tough to Add Up | FDL News Desk one problem: it has a total settlement listed at $25 billion, but just California and Florida’s numbers add up to $26.4 billion
TransCanada's Keystone Pipeline Schedule Extended Again

Mystery Disease In Central America Kills Thousands A mysterious epidemic is devastating the Pacific coast of Central America, killing more than 24,000 people in El Salvador and Nicaragua since 2000 and striking thousands of others with chronic kidney disease at rates unseen virtually anywhere else

Balloon Juice » The Moral Calamity of Serving in Congress n other words, for a dozen years, every Member of Congress has probably purchased contraception coverage, and it’s been mandated by the EEOC of all employers who provide insurance, yet for some reason, the Bishops have decided to freak out about it now.
Valentine's Day: Surprising Number Making Love At The Office More than one in 10 people say they've "made love" at their workplace, while many more say they've thought about it and 37 percent reported having been involved romantically with someone they work with.

A list of people whose deaths I have permission to mourn. - Acephalous
if i should mourn, i would only be in your way « The Kugelmass Episodes

Paris Review – Josh Melnick and Walter Murch in Conversation, Josh Melnick

Texas executions threatened as stocks of death penalty drug run low | World news | guardian.co.uk Most prolific judicial killing state in America has only enough sedative for six more executions – and could run out by June
Private Prison Corporation Offers Cash In Exchange For State Prisons
White Grandfather Detained While Walking With Black Granddaughter: Scott Henson Cuffed By Texas Police

AT&T surprises customers with limits for 'unlimited data' usage; heat is on "5 percenters" - chicagotribune.com (the new "unlimited" is limited)
Tories on e-snooping: ‘Stand with us or with the child pornographers’ - The Globe and Mail (they want to snoop on everything you do online)
Online surveillance critics accused of supporting child porn - Technology & Science - CBC News "He can either stand with us or with the child pornographers," Vic Toews said of Liberal public safety critic Francis Scarpaleggia during question period on Monday, after Scarpaleggia asked about a bill expected to be tabled Tuesday.
Digital Life - Sony hikes Whitney Houston album prices online not even 12 hours after news broke of Houston's death (big content exploits Houston's death)
VLC 2.0 arriving this week | Ubergizmo
Piratebay user lgofdai seeding at 16,000+ and leechers at 2,000+ brand new movies, probably most likely as bait anyone want to find out more on this guy? : AskReddit (RIAA/MPAA crooks and scammers)

021312
Syria rejects Arab League call for peacekeeping mission | World news | guardian.co.uk Bashar al-Assad's government reportedly describes proposal to curb unrest as a 'flagrant interference' in Syrian affairs
New Statesman - Intervention in Syria won’t work, so how do we stop Assad? Military action might appeal to the soul but it isn't a viable option. It won't stop the violence and it isn't what most Syrians want.
Eschaton: Fortunately We Have A Hammer No I have no idea what if anything we should do when bad things happen around the world, but I do know that most of our great thinkers who opine in our great newspapers and on the teevee are aware of options ranging from "blowing shit up" to "arming other people so they can blow shit up." One suspects they just like it when shit blows up.
Iran War Would Cost Trillions: Will the GOP Pay More Taxes for That? - Steve Clemons - Politics - The Atlantic Wars cost lots and lots of money -- and if a substantial chunk of the GOP crowd wants these wars and feels that it is in our national interest to have them, then by all means they should start lining up some of the wealthiest in the country who are helping to agitate for these conflicts to pay more in taxes for them (Republicans love blowing shit up, but don't want to pay for it)
Pakistan's prime minister charged wth contempt | World news | guardian.co.uk Yousaf Raza Gilani is accused of failing to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari
India, Georgia Bombings Target Israeli Diplomats "Today we witnessed two attempts of terrorism against innocent civilians," Netanyahu told a gathering of lawmakers from his Likud Party. "Iran is behind these attacks and it is the largest terror exporter in the world," he said.
Binyamin Netanyahu accuses Iran over bombs targeting Israeli diplomats | World news | The Guardian Tehran's ambassador to India denounces Israeli claim as 'sheer lies' after blast in New Delhi and discovery of device in Tbilisi
AFP: Trouble in paradise: Maldives and Islamic extremism The monuments, which included one of pillar featuring Buddhist motifs, and which had been on display in the southernmost island of Addu, have all since been vandalised.
Pirates attack cargo ship off Nigeria | World news | The Guardian Official says pirates have shot dead ship's captain and chief engineer in gun battle 125 miles south of Lagos
Afghanistan Base 'Aryan' Raises Objections From Soldiers Over Name

TEPCO On Temperature Rise | Crooks and Liars

European Tribune - Community, Politics & Progress. How is Greece taking the new loan deal that accompanies the PSI? Most compare it to a dictatorship, a foreign occupation, the kind of terms a victor imposes on a defeated country.
Eschaton: Bailing Out The Banks. Again. Since it's usually not made clear, I will make it clear. The Greece bailout is not a bailout of Greece, it is a bailout of the banks who lent them money (German and French banks, of course)
Eurozone crisis live: Greece begins cleanup after protests over austerity package | Business | guardian.co.uk EU condemns violence that struck Athens (the violence they caused with austerity so they could bailout their own banksters)

News Corp may face US inquiry after Sun arrests at News International | Media | The Guardian Alleged bribery in Britain could fall foul of US law as editor Dominic Mohan tries to rally staff at embattled tabloid


Edward Goldberg: Humpty Dumpty, and the GOP's Medieval Philosophical Pursuits
New Jersey Gay Marriage: State Senate Passes Bill Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage But opponents say it's "an exercise in futility" even if the Assembly passes the bill Thursday as expected, given Christie's veto vow.
Balloon Juice » Speaking of Clueless, Old, White Catholic Men Fuck that Vichy motherfucker EJ Dionne and his prissy, fussy “the Bishops must be appeased” bullshit ...So this isn’t about policy, it’s just about making EJ feel better about supporting a position that his priest told him was wrong back when he was an altar boy in the 50’s. Many see this as a reason that EJ should be replaced by a “liberal” whose opinions have some relevance to the current century.
Ludwig Von Mises Makes the Libertarian Case against “Free Love” (and Implicitly Against Birth Control) | Rortybomb (the Libertarian case against women's rights: the family is a man's property)
Why I Wish Catholic Leaders Would Stop Saying Our Church Is Under Attack - Tara McGuinness (the war on religion)
Komen Founder Nancy Brinker’s Mysterious Expense Report - The Daily Beast (time to find some new "liberals" +Dionne's hurt fee-fees)

Nancy Brinker's Lavish Spending, Off-Putting Brittleness Puts Komen's Future in Jeopardy (meanwhile, back in Brinkerville, double-billing!)
Komen Founder Nancy Brinker’s Mysterious Expense Report - The Daily Beast

Payroll Tax Cut Fight: House GOP Leadership Offers 10-Month Extension Without Offsets The announcement, made quietly on a day Washington is digesting the president's budget proposal, is a stark reversal (Rethugs cave)
Eschaton: The Morals Of The Lower Classes Basically Village Elders expect the masses to live the moral lives they themselves don't in order to demonstrate what remarkable moral leadership they have shown. No this does not make any sense.

Balloon Juice » Fox News’s Liz Trotta on Sexual Assault in the Military: Men Get Rapey Sometimes. Get Over it!
New Breeding Program Aimed At Keeping Moderate Republicans From Going Extinct | The Onion

Obama's 2013 budget to be released, and Republicans are ready to fight | World news | guardian.co.uk President aims to cut $4tn from deficit by raising taxes on the wealthy, but GOP wants more cuts to government programmes
Obama's election-year budget - live coverage | World news | guardian.co.uk The president is expected to make the case for stimulus as opposed to austerity, with tax increases on the wealthy and new spending on infrastructure projects
Congress Debt Ceiling Debacle May Repeat Before Presidential Election (they never give up)
Wall Street 'Likely To Set Records' For Political Spending Aimed At Defeating Obama In 2012 | ThinkProgress (despite sucking Wall Street's cock for three years)
MF Global trustee sees $1.6 billion claims gap | Reuters (while they steal everyone's money, what money?)

Monsanto guilty of chemical poisoning in France | Reuters A French court on Monday declared U.S. biotech giant Monsanto(MON.N) guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer, a judgment that could lend weight to other health claims against pesticides.
Ordered planar polymers created for the first time Scientists under the direction of ETH Zurich have created a minor sensation in synthetic chemistry. They succeeded for the first time in producing regularly ordered planar polymers that form a kind of "molecular carpet" on a nanometre scale.

Keystone pipeline opponents fight on with petition challenge | Environment | guardian.co.uk Drive to gather 500,000 signatures is timed to stop the latest push from Republicans to overturn the president's decision

Balloon Juice » Kaplan Daily News
Graduate Student Employee Fired for Union Activism « Corey Robin : Jennifer Dibbern, a graduate student at the University of Michigan, was retaliated against for her union activism. It’s as simple as that.

Neil Tyson Calmly Addresses A Nasty Facebook Fundamentalist. - Imgur

Gmail, YouTube Blocked In Iran | ThinkProgress
A necessary change in policy : blog (no suggestive or sexual content featuring minors)
The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde: It's evolution, stupid (Wired UK)
Missouri Becomes Second State To Divert Foreclosure Funds Away From Homeowners To Balance Its Budget | ThinkProgress (first the banks came for you, then the States took your money)

021212
Arab League urges joint UN-Arab peacekeeping mission in Syria | World news | The Guardian Resolution calls on UN security council to send monitors to Syria as Arab League decides to scrap its own mission to the country
U.S. officials: Al Qaida behind Syria bombings | McClatchy The Iraqi branch of al Qaida, seeking to exploit the bloody turmoil in Syria to reassert its potency, carried out two recent bombings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and likely was behind suicide bombings Friday that killed at least 28 people in the largest city, Aleppo, U.S. officials told McClatchy.
Iran to announce 'major nuclear progress' | World news | guardian.co.uk Ahmadinejad tells Tehran rally that world will soon hear news of 'very important and very major nuclear achievements'
Hamza Kashgari Sent Back To Saudi Arabia To Face Possible Execution For Tweets Malaysia deported a Saudi Arabian blogger on Sunday, police said, despite fears voiced by human rights groups that he could face execution in his home country over Twitter comments he made that were deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammad.
'Plot to kill pope' sparks Italian media storm | World news | guardian.co.uk Letter published in Italian newspaper claims cardinal predicted Pope Benedict XVI would die within a year
Massive Street Protests Wage War On ACTA Anti-Piracy Treaty | TorrentFreak Hundreds of thousands of people are taking to the streets to prevent their countries and the European Parliament from putting the free Internet at risk by ratifying ACTA (strangely unmentioned in the media)

Fukushima reactor readings raise reheating concern | World news | The Guardian Temperature inside No 2 reactor may have risen to 82C, and Tepco reportedly steps up cooling efforts

Senior Sun journalists arrested in police payments probe | Media | guardian.co.uk Rupert Murdoch is flying to London after five of tabloid's most senior staff are arrested in ongoing inquiry into alleged bribery
News Corp faces renewed threat of prosecution in US following Sun arrests | Media | guardian.co.uk Investigation of alleged bribery under Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is greatest danger to Rupert Murdoch's media empire
Murdoch media empire engulfed in scandal as Scotland Yard's net spreads | Media | The Observer Increasing arrests and suspicions of bribery puts News Corporations' global interests under greater scrutiny
Full text: News Int CEO's email to staff after Sun arrests | Media | guardian.co.uk Email sent by Tom Mockridge to News International staff on Saturday after five senior Sun journalists were arrested
Rupert Murdoch Flying To London After Eight More Arrested In Tabloid Bribery Scandal

Komen backlash leaves Race for the Cure scrambling to limit damage | World news | guardian.co.uk Fears grow that breast cancer awareness event run by Komen group could be a casualty of Planned Parenthood criticism ... How Komen will ever recover is a question many are asking. There are those who feel it won't be fixed until Brinker and her entire board resigns (that would be a start)
Election 2012: the return of 'culture wars' | Gary Younge | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Until now, we thought this campaign would be all about the economy. It still will – but 'values' voters are going to count, too
Social Issues Retake U.S. Politics, 2012 Elections All of a sudden, abortion, contraception and gay marriage are at the center of American political discourse, with the struggling – though improving – economy pushed to the background (runnin' on emptry, bring out the hate)
Obama riled up Republicans on contraception, and then delivers a knock-out punch. Insurance companies are down with the plan, because as Matt Yglesias explained at Moneybox, contraception actually saves insurance companies money, since it's cheaper than abortion and far cheaper than childbirth.

McConnell: GOP Will Fight To Let ANY Employer Deny Birth Control Coverage | TPMDC
Daily Kos: Conservatives suggest defeating birth control by calling it 'abortion.' No, really. During a talk on how to advance the movement through messaging, an all-female panel discussed the Obama administration’s birth-control-coverage mandate and suggested that the best way to defeat it is by calling it an “abortion mandate.” ... Let's call it an "abortion mandate"! Yeah, that's the ticket. Not quite as catchy as "baby death panels" but trust us, we'll work on it.
Liberals Enabled Bishops in Contraception Battle | Politics | Religion Dispatches

CPAC panel: ‘Celebrate’ Citizens United ruling Conservative lawyers dismiss threat of foreign money, anonymous political spending
Even Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend on It - NYTimes.com (Minnisota white people dependent on social programs they want destroyed for other people)

Maine Caucus Results 2012: Mitt Romney Wins Contest Out of Maine's 258,000 registered Republicans, nearly 5,600 cast ballots in the weeklong contest (GOPmentum!)
The Bettor's Case for Santorum - NYTimes.com (either way, it's gonna be good)
How Bill Clinton betrayed us: allies speak out on Lewinsky affair | World news | The Observer TV documentary reveals how Clinton's closest aides felt about affair that ended in scandal
"Halftime in America" Again Saturday Night Live did an amusing three-part parody of Clint Eastwood's "Halftime in America" Super Bowl ad with an even more direct political message

The Sideshow Some Rob you with a six-gun, some with a fountain pen (Obama's rule: bankers walk: "look forward, not backward" etc)
The Z FIles: Independence - YouTube
The mathematical equation that caused the banks to crash | Science | The Observer The Black-Scholes equation was the mathematical justification for the trading that plunged the world's banks into catastrophe
Making Chicken Salad: 9 Ways to Improve Housing Policy Around the Foreclosure Fraud Settlement | FDL News Desk

The Mystery of Exploding Pig Poop | Mother Jones (serious issue, environmental disaster looms) )

A Proposal for Penn Station and Madison Square Garden - NYTimes.com Nearly a half-century has passed since the destruction of the great 1910 station designed by Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead & White, a “monumental act of vandalism,” as an editorial in The New York Times called the demolition in 1963 (Robert Moses, he whose name cannot be mentioned)

Terry Thompson and the Zanesville Ohio Zoo Massacre: Newsmakers: GQ


Buzzblog: No, Wikipedia has not forgiven GoDaddy for backing SOPA Lack of follow-through on promise to sever ties causes consternation
MPAA Demands Hotfile Data From Google, Search Engine Refuses | TorrentFreak The MPAA says that Google holds valuable information on Hotfile and should produce it, but the search giant is refusing without the file-hoster’s consent. Hotfile says ‘no’ on the basis that the deadline for discovery expired last year.

021012
Syria violence spreads to Aleppo as bomb blasts kill 28 | World news | The Guardian Further 175 hurt in security compound blasts but opposition blames attacks on security forces aiming to disrupt protests
Britain is militarising Falklands, Argentina tells UN | UK news | The Guardian UN secretary general concerned by escalation of dispute as Argentina lodges formal protest at recent deployments

Greece crisis reaches boiling point as Athens asks if it can stay in the euro | World news | The Guardian Street violence returns as ministers call bailout terms 'extortion'
Greece bows to further austerity, but bailout delayed until next week | World news | The Guardian Creditors demand to see action on new pledges as sovereign debt default looms in weeks if rescue package is withheld

New Statesman - Preview: Ken Livingstone:?“The world is run by monsters” . . . The world is run by monsters and you have to deal with them. Some of them run countries, some of them run banks, some of them run news corporations.
Bill Keller: Piracy Twits - NYTimes.com (the contempt of the elite; contrast with Livingsone)

Obama, Explained - Magazine - The Atlantic Or is he politically clumsy and out of his depth—a pawn overwhelmed by events, at the mercy of a second-rate staff and of the Republicans? Here, a longtime analyst of the presidency takes the measure of our 44th president, with a view to history.

Obama changes contraception rules in face of religious backlash | World news | guardian.co.uk President's retreat designed to appease religious groups upset by rule that would require them to cover birth control for women
Obama Birth Control Compromise Announced [he always compromises]
Most of Obama's "Controversial" Birth Control Rule Was Law During Bush Years | Mother Jones The right has freaked out over an Obama administration rule requiring employers to offer birth control to their employees. Most companies already had to do that (Obama couldn't just say that, of course)
They gave us a republic...:: A win for women, and for Obama Obama wasn't boxed in. Not at all. But now the Bishops are. So far, they have been silent after thunderously declaring that nothing short of total repeal of the mandate would suit them. And as they lost the healthcare reform battle, they are going to lose this one, too. Because they are wrong and their time is past. And by their silence, I think they are telling us all that they realize they've been had.
Pills ‘n Thrills And Bellyaches | TBogg It would be in the Catholic Bishops best interests to claim victory and go home since this takes them out of the equation, allowing them to do what they do best: pretending that they don’t know that their flock is already telling the Vatican to pound sand by using birth control.
Obama Birth Control Compromise In Works
Balloon Juice » Nancy, How Could You? After reading this, Brinker sent in a letter of apology, but it’s too little too late. Nancy Brinker will be feted and celebrated no more in the Village. She’s shown her true colors, and if Sally Quinn has anything to do with it, she won’t be long for the Komen foundation.
report: By A Nearly 2 To 1 Margin, Cable Networks Call On Men Over Women To Comment On Birth Control | ThinkProgress (and the women are mostly "pro-life")

Komen Exec Karen Handel Calls Planned Parenthood a ‘Gigantic Bully’ - The Daily Beast
How Success Ruined Karen Handel | TBogg

Obama Approval Ratings Rise Tracks Increasing Consumer Confidence
Balloon Juice » Why Republicans are Crawling Into Women’s Vaginas

The Weakening of Nations: How Tax Work-Arounds Undermine Our Society - Eric Garland - International - The Atlantic Loopholes, poor regulations, and off-shore havens allow corporations and the very wealthy to draw on the benefits of a strong nation-state without fully paying back in, eroding a system that's less tested than we might think.
Rep. Bachus faces insider-trading investigation - The Washington Post Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), who holds one of the most influential positions in the House, has been a frequent trader on Capitol Hill, buying stock options while overseeing the nation’s banking and financial services industries.
Walker, Van Hollen: Chunk of mortgage settlement going to state budget - JSOnline Wisconsin will use a chunk of its $140 million share of a national settlement over foreclosure and mortgage-servicing abuses to help the state budget rather than assist troubled homeowners, Gov. Scott Walker and state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said Thursday (those homeowners don't need no steenking relief)

New power source discovered The power generated relative to the energy source size is three to four times greater than what is currently possible with the best lithium-ion batteries.

Anger surges through newsrooms at the Daily News and Inquirer — NewsWorks This is a f***ing disgrace I would expect from some s****y publisher of a s****y paper in a hole of a town somewhere else. It just is NOT DONE in big-time, professional journalism. What a shameful moment. They owe me, and you, a personal apology – the newsroom is available anytime – and a rock-solid promise they will never, ever pull crap like this again.

Ramarley Graham, Unarmed Teen, Illegally Killed By New York Police, Lawyer Says - Richard Haste, 30, a New York police officer, kicked down the door of his grandmother's apartment and shot Graham in the chest while he attempted to flush a bag of marijuana down the toilet. Graham was unarmed and police did not have a warrant to enter the home.

Balloon Juice » Take a tote but don’t choke David Frum has some more pieces on Charles Murray’s book (here; here; here). I’ll summarize: When someone says “Murray’s book is all bullshit, but I like it anyway because it was pretty good for a conservative”, they are, whether they like to admit it or not, being bigoted.
I Flaunt, Therefore I Am (updated) | TBogg - Shorter McMegan: We need neat things because they fill up the empty space where our soul is supposed to be located and without them we’re no better than damn dirty apes.

iTunes Hack: Users Report Unauthorized Charges On Accounts

020912
Syrian troops bombard sealed-off suburb of Homs | World news | The Guardian Residents cut off in Baba Amr with food running out, as Ban Ki-moon condemns Russia and China veto at UN
U.S. Drone Strike In Pakistan: Militants Killed As Drone Program Picks Up Steam A U.S. drone fired two missiles at a house in Pakistan's northwest tribal region Thursday, killing five suspected militants (suspected? Obama loves this shit)
Mohamed Nasheed: Maldives Police Issue Warrant For Former President

Greek Debt Deal: Greek Leaders Agree On Austerity Measures To Satisfy Lenders

U.S. drones targeting rescuers and mourners - Salon.com
Top official: drone critics are Al Qaeda enablers - Salon.com (terrorsymps)
The Grave Threat of “Homegrown Terrorism” - Salon.com (be very afraid)
Repulsive progressive hypocrisy - Salon.com - the President could do whatever he wants, in secret and with no checks, to anyone he accuses without trial of being a Terrorist (Dems support killing "suspects")

Washington State Legislature passes the freedom to marry | Freedom to Marry

Ed Schultz Attacks Sean Hannity For Saying Obama Didn't Want Bin Laden Killed ("aside from reality")
Democrats Release "Shit Mitt Says" Does this mean the meme is really dead?
Scalia: The Soviet Union's Constitution Was 'Much Better Than Ours' | ThinkProgress
Daily Kos: Watching Wisconsin Republicans Squirm; UPDATE: First Conviction of Walker Aide Word is she's already singing like a canary on a 5-Hour-Energy drink.
Cal Thomas Says Rachel Maddow Is A Good Argument For Contraception | TPM Livewire (Republicans: the Party of Hate)
Day In 100 Seconds: CPAC Day One | TPM2012 (also the Party of Idiots)

STOCK Act Passes: House Votes For Weakened Insider Trading Bill
Foreclosure Deal to Spur U.S. Home Seizures - Bloomberg The $25 billion settlement with banks over foreclosure abuses may trigger a wave of home seizures, inflicting short-term pain on delinquent U.S. borrowers while making a long-term housing recovery more likely (just what it was supposed to do, apparently)
US Politics | AMERICAblog News: Mortgage settlement? Try bank Bailout II
States Negotiate $26 Billion Agreement for Homeowners - NYTimes.com ("for Homeowners" is completely the Times' spin; see how they work?)
49-State Foreclosure Fraud Settlement Will Be Finalized Thursday | FDL News Desk
“We Will Put People In Jail” – The Measuring Stick for Foreclosure Fraud | FDL News Desk (Obama uses financial drones to target terroristic homeowners who forced big banks to lend them money)
Schneiderman’s Last-Minute Cancellation Spells Trouble for Foreclosure Fraud Settlement | FDL News Desk
Mortgage Settlement Leaves Some Foreclosure Victims Wanting
Yves Smith: The Top 12 Reasons Why You Should Hate the Mortgage Settlement
Eschaton: As I Said, Just Assholes Fannie Mae (FNMA) pulled the plug on a 2010 plan to forgive borrowers’ mortgage debt because company executives were “philosophically opposed” to the idea, a former company employee told House investigators (and so was Obama, "philosophically opposed")
The End of Wall Street As They Knew It After surprisingly successful financial reform, public vilification, and politics that have turned against them, the Masters of the Universe are masters no longer.

"Gulf of America" bill's author says it's "nothing but a spamalot bill" | Blog of New Orleans | Republicans ... and all the hell they want to talk about is running illegal immigrants out, and drug testing welfare and Medicaid recipients — all superfluous crap as far as I'm concerned. So I thought I'd just join them with a bill to chew on, saying the Gulf of America instead of the Gulf of Mexico, since everything Mexican and Hispanic is 'so bad.' Nothing but a 'spamalot' bill is all it is. Tongue-in-cheek."

Marco Rubio's Plan Could Cut Off Birth Control Coverage for Millions | Mother Jones Rubio has sold his proposal—introduced January 31 as the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act," (that would be the freedom of religions to make sure women don't have birth-control)
Eschaton: OK Then He repeatedly denied that any sex abuse had occurred on his watch in Bridgeport. He said that even now, the church in Connecticut had no obligation to report sexual abuse accusations to the authorities. (A law on the books since the 1970s says otherwise.) And he described the Bridgeport diocese’s handling of sex-abuse cases as “incredibly good.” (see, they've learned nothing)
Barack Obama's Contraception Ruling Backed By Previously Unreleased Survey Those trend lines basically held when the respondents polled were only Catholics -- a full 53 percent said they weren't persuaded by the bishops.
Eschaton: What's It All About Then That means removing the provision from the health care law altogether, he said, not simply changing it for Catholic employers and their insurers. He cited the problem that would create for "good Catholic business people who can't in good conscience cooperate with this." -- No "compromise," no proper health coverage for women.
pandagon.net Riddle me this ... if giving Catholic-owned businesses the right to discriminate against women is freedom of religion, then why isn't it okay when bus companies have signs requiring women to sit in the back to appease a small segment of the Jewish population?
Ross Douthat on Culture War - Douthat In Excelsis: Culture War, My Arse - Esquire - or the various voices from old movies and her dusty libido that scream imprecations in Maureen Dowd's head, or even Our Mr. Brooks and his Apple Jacks sociology over the preposterous notions held by Ross Douthat about all those people who are having the sexytime of which he disapproves, and who insist on having it, and enjoying it, regardless of the opinion of clerical apparatchiks and professional scolds. If there's ever been anyone who fairly well defines joyless fking, it's this guy.
The making of gay marriage’s top foe - Salon.com Salon exclusive: How Maggie Gallagher's college pregnancy made her a single mom, and a traditional marriage zealot
16 Things Super Bowl Ads Would Like You to Know About Women in 2012 | ThinkProgress
Life Begins at Ejaculation? (jerking-off is killing the unborn, will get death-penalty)

Sex In Marriage: Survey Reveals What Women Want an online news source for women, suggest that 75 percent of wives said a healthy sex life is important to them ... more than 63 percent of women reporting that they would rather sleep, watch a movie or read than have sex (women can't make up their minds)
PETA's SeaWorld Slavery Case Dismissed By Judge (ok's whale slavery)
Mimi Alford Interview: JFK Intern Breaks Silence About Affair (video)


Hi Bill Keller. The New York Times just stole our column. Should we sue? - Phlog (NYT routinely pirates articles, but they are big content so it's ok)

020812
Syria: rockets rain down on Homs as violence escalates | World news | The Guardian More than 200 rockets fall in space of three hours on opposition-controlled suburb of Baba Amr, according to residents (China and Russia responsible)

Washington House Passes Gay Marriage Bill

Sean Hannity Says If Obama Had His Way, Bin Laden Would Be Alive -- And He Can Prove It, With 'Tape'! HANNITY: I know the president will say, 'Well, we got bin Laden.' Putting that aside.. (reality-free Fox)
Rick Santorum Sweeps Colorado, Missouri, Minnesota, Embarrassing Romney
Jubilant Santorum sweeps Minnesota and Colorado
Fox's Eric Bolling Compares Obama To A Drug Dealer Who Opens "Barry's Pot And Coke Emporium" | Media Matters for America (Satan's network)

Why Wall Street Should Stop Whining | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone

India Winning Polio Fight | Indian Decade India has closed out the first polio-free year in the country’s history. As noted by the World Health Organization (WHO), this marks significant progress for a country that as recently as 1994 was experiencing as many as 4,791 cases a year.
The only primate to communicate in pure ultrasound - life - 08 February 2012 - New Scientist A tarsier could be screaming its head off and you would never know it. Uniquely among primates, some of the diminutive mammal's calls are made up of pure ultrasound.

How Ed Rendell Could Ruin the Inquirer and the Daily News | The Philly Post Under that proposed ownership model, the Fourth Estate in Philly will essentially cease to exist as a serious journalistic enterprise. Instead, the newspapers will be viewed as a direct extension of the Democratic Party and Chamber of Commerce.
Obama Administration Defends Contraception Rule Amid Mounting Criticism (Catholic Bishops threaten to make all Catholics vote for a Mormon)

Komen fundraiser calls for CEO Nancy Brinker to quit over funding row | World news | guardian.co.uk Eve Ellis says Brinker should take some 'truth serum' and urges Komen's board to resign as part of 'clean house' process ... "Take some truth serum, Nancy Brinker, I found myself thinking,"

Amazon, Viacom Announce New Streaming Content Partnership For Prime Instant Video

020712
United States Planning to Slash Iraq Embassy Staff by Up to Half - NYTimes.com (surge! desurge! trillions wasted! so Obama could triangulate with the deficit!)
Syria: attack on Homs continues as Assad talks of dialogue - Tuesday 7 February | World news | guardian.co.uk Assad tells Russians he is ready for dialogue with opposition
Philippines earthquake toll rises as dig continues for landslide casualties | World news | guardian.co.uk Houses flattened in remote villages on Negros island that have been cut off by fallen bridges and damaged roads
Amanda Knox appeals against slander conviction in Meredith Kercher case | World news | guardian.co.uk American student jailed but later cleared of Briton's murder in Italy says police made her wrongly implicate Patrick Lumumba

Occupy Wall Street protester vows to fight subpoena over Twitter account | World news | guardian.co.uk Malcolm Harris's lawyer says order from prosecutors which demands release of three months' worth of tweets is improper ... Harris, who was charged with disorderly conduct, is one of hundreds of Occupy-related defendants whose cases are at various stages in the court system (Cyrus Vance goes after everyone's civil liberties; what an over-reaching asshole)

U.S. Drone Strikes Are Said to Target Rescuers - NYTimes.com British and Pakistani journalists said Sunday that the C.I.A.’s drone strikes on suspected militants in Pakistan have repeatedly targeted rescuers who responded to the scene of a strike, as well as mourners at subsequent funerals (Barry "Collateral Damage" Obama will face war crimes or rot in hell, whichever comes first)
Time to ask questions about U.S. drone program - latimes.com Congress and the courts need to take a harder look at the moral and legal issues around the program.
PressTV - 'US commits extrajudicial killings in Pakistan' A prominent political analyst reports on the deadly drones strikes in Pakistan, adding that when “a militant gets killed…maybe five or six other civilians get killed.”
Daily Brief: Afghan civilian deaths rise for fifth straight year | The AfPak Channel
Lawfare › Proportionality and Distinction When Collateral Damage Is a Certainty There is no green light to bomb funerals and post-blast rescue operations without regard to the civilian status of some persons present on site; one must consider proportionality (even the hard-liners are getting nervous)
video: Report on Drone Strike Civilian Casualties and New Questions About Legality » Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union
Waging War in Secret vs. American Democracy - Conor Friedersdorf - Politics - The Atlantic By fighting terrorism with covert CIA actions, President Obama deprives us of the ability to meaningfully evaluate American foreign policy.

Prop 8: California gay marriage ban ruled unconstitutional – live coverage | World news | guardian.co.uk California's Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage does violate the federal constitution, judges rule.
Federal Appeals Court Finds Proposition 8 Unconstitutional | ThinkProgress
Barack Obama Still 'Evolving' On Same-Sex Marriage: White House (fucking whimp; most conservative Dem Pres since WWII; maybe he'll evolve into the twentieth century)

Obama Camp Feared ‘Half-Billion Dollar’ Koch-Led Attack | TPM2012
Some Ironies in Elizabeth Warren's Campaign Message | TPMCafe
The Payroll Tax Fight - NYTimes.com Politically, however, extending the tax break would represent a victory for President Obama, who has been championing it. That remains intolerable to many Republicans, particularly in the House.
Are Republicans About To Commit Medicare Suicide? | TPMDC Why on earth would Republicans put the whole party back on the line? Particularly after a year of serial brinkmanship and overreach that has dragged their popularity down to record lows? (a new Polifact lie of the year! Republican destroy Medicare! Dems won't say anything!)
CNN's Dana Loesch Suggests NAACP's Ben Jealous Was "Inebriated" When He Claimed Voter ID Laws Suppress Black Turnout | Media Matters for America (quite a reputation you are building for yourself, Dana)
GOP Primary Show: Non-Stop News And Noise In The Age Of Twitter (political theatre and the tales of the idiot media)
Corbett to propose 20% to 30% funding cuts for Pa. state universities
Birtherism Makes A Comeback Among Republicans | ThinkProgress The movement appears attributable to Republicans, 37 percent of whom now say that President Obama was not born in the US. That’s 12 points higher than when Republicans were polled just before President Obama released the certificate (37% of ReThugs delusional)

Ben Bernanke testifies to Congress on US economy – as it happened | Business | guardian.co.uk US Federal Reserve chairman tells Senate Budget Committee he plans to keep interest rates at super-low level
Banks Pay Homeowners to Avoid Foreclosures - Bloomberg
Eschaton: Win Win As in, their approach wasn't simply based on financial considerations but instead a desire to punish the moochers and freeloaders who forced the banks to lend them money to buy overpriced houses.
MF Global Trustee Sheds New Light on Chaos at Firm - NYTimes.com (chaos! complexity! too complicated to understand who stole the money!)
DocX Faces Foreclosure Fraud Charges in Missouri - NYTimes.com DocX, has been indicted on forgery charges by a Missouri grand jury

Corning's 'A Day Made Of Glass 2' Reveals More Innovative Ideas

Komen choosing sides in the culture wars was an inevitability, but they didn't have to turn righ - Komen Sheds Handel, But Will It End the Firestorm?.
Eschaton: Nobody Could Have Predicted Karen Handel, Queen of the Ladies Who Hate Ladies, has resigned from Komen.
Komen executive Karen Handel quits over Planned Parenthood funds U-turn | World news | guardian.co.uk Handel, who supported the initial decision to cut off funds, said it was 'best for Komen's future and the women we serve' - She said the discussion started before she arrived at the organisation and was approved at the charity's highest levels ... Komen's founder and CEO, Nancy Brinker, denied the decision was driven by pressure from anti-abortion groups (one down, big fat liar Brinker to go)
Anti-Choice Komen VP Karen Handel Resigns, Admits Role In Planned Parenthood Decision | ThinkProgress (Nancy threw her under the bus to save her own skin)
Karen Handel, Susan G. Komen Executive, Quits Over Planned Parenthood Dispute I am deeply disappointed by the gross mischaracterizations of the strategy, its rationale, and my involvement in it (we're deeply disappointed with your continuing lies; Brinker acts like she had nothing to do with it)

What Does the Susan G. Komen Foundation Actually Do? 12 percent for administration; 8 percent for fundraising; 7 percent for treatment; 15 percent for screening; 24 percent research; and 34 percent for education ("education" = "breast-cancer awareness")
Eschaton: It's Always Been About Birth Control And Sex I don't expect the eventheliberals who have been denying this for years to ever come around, but it's never really been about abortion, it's always been about women not being properly punished for having unapproved sex
Congressman Falls for The Onion's Planned Parenthood 'Abortionplex' Story - National - The Atlantic Wire Meet John Fleming, the unfortunate Republican U.S. Representative from Louisiana who made that wonderful and all-too-common mistake of thinking that an Onion article was real and telling his Facebook followers to read it (yes, they are that stupid)
Lila Rose: Planned Parenthood Using Breast Cancer As a "Front" To Garner "Public Funding For An Abortion Business" | Media Matters for America
Lila Rose: 5 Facts on the Woman Behind the Planned Parenthood Hoax
Who Is Lila Rose? | Media Matters for America (wingnut liar)
Many Catholic Universities, Hospitals Already Cover Contraception In Their Health Insurance Plans | ThinkProgress

Alyssa Bustamante, Missouri Teenager, Describes Killing As 'Ahmazing' And 'Pretty Enjoyable'
Dear Prudence: My husband is leaving me for my 25-year-old daughter - Slate Magazine My 58-year-old second husband of two years has been having an affair with my 25-year-old daughter from my first marriage.


Twitter, Politics Don't Mix: Social Media Sites Not A Popular Source For Political Info: Pew (or HuffPo, for that matter, but Google is ahead of Fox, heh)
Yahoo's Roy Bostock, Board Chairman, Steps Down With 3 Other Board Members (the long, slow fall)

020612
U.S. Embassy In Syria Closed: Reports
Syrian forces 'kill at least 50' in Homs bombardment | World news | The Guardian Activists say multiple rocket-launchers are being used by Assad forces
Europe: Cold Precautions Taken To Protect Homeless he death toll from the past week rose to at least 175 on Friday
Obama: US and Israel 'in lockstep' to stop Iran becoming nuclear power | World news | The Guardian US president doubts Israel has yet decided on whether to strike, but America keeps all options open
Israel and Iran on the Eve of Destruction in a New Six-Day War - The Daily Beast There are plenty of arguments against an Israeli attack on Iran. And all of them are bad (Niall Ferguson wants to destroy the world)
Imperialist Crackpot of the Day - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money - Niall Ferguson - " It feels like the eve of some creative destruction." - What a wit! Join us next week for the next installment of Niall Ferguson’s Warmongering Comedy Classics, which will involve smashing watermelons that are clearly Shiite. Featuring musical guest star John McCain.
Iran Bans Simpsons Dolls: Report The report said that the Simpsons were banned to avoid the promotion of Western culture. But Superman and Spiderman were allowed, because they helped the "oppressed."
Vancouver Island Earthquake: 5.7 Earthquake Recorded Off Vancouver Island Coast, No Tsunami

European Central Bank in a fix over Greek debt | Business | The Guardian The ECB may be putting the interests of the few banks that have written credit-default swaps before those of Greece, Europe's taxpayers, and creditors (ya think?)
Greece Asked to Destroy Itself In Exchange for Bailout | FDL News Desk (because the bankers who created the mess say so)
Greece takes step closer to default - CNN.com Mr Samaras last week threatened to veto the package unless concessions were made on private sector wages,
Eschaton: What's It All About Then ust how did "private sector wages" become part of this conversation ... Whose private sector wages? (obviously, not you know who's)


Rooting for the Race : CJR Journalists are suddenly eager to admit the media is biased in favor of an extended campaign. Will they do anything about it?

Romney Campaign Spins Low Turn Out: Voters Staying At Home Secretly Support Romney | ThinkProgress With just 33,000 voters showing up to the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, Republicans may be quietly concerned about a lack of enthusiasm for their candidates — and especially front-runner Mitt Romney — after another primary state produces lower-than-expected turnout ("enthusiasm gap")
Yeah, Ron Paul Is Racist After All, Sorry | VICE
Ron Paul tells Piers Morgan only ‘honest rape’ merits abortion | The Raw Story
Pete Hoekstra Ad Draws More Criticism, Called 'Really, Really Dumb' A coalition of black ministers in Detroit called Monday for U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra to apologize for his Super Bowl ad featuring a young Asian woman speaking broken English to describe the impact of the Democratic incumbent's economic policies (racist much?)
Indiana SoS Accuses Gov. Daniels of Same Crime | ThinkProgress Calling Indiana a “land of men and not laws,” White vowed to appeal what he called a “total miscarriage of justice” and a “pervsion.” Then, White accused Gov. Mitch Daniels of similar crimes, claiming his fellow Indiana Republican voted incorrectly in “the last ten straight elections.” Both White and Daniels have made fighting the nearly nonexistent problem of voter fraud a key part of their political agendas (Indiana spins further down into farce)
Georgia Judge Backs Off Pro-Birther Decision, Holds Obama Is a Natural Born Citizen | ThinkProgress Last month, an administrative law judge in Georgia issued a widely-mocked decision rejecting President Obama’s attorneys’ argument that the president should not be forced to testify in a case brought by several birther activists who claim that he is ineligible to be president.
Court strikes down Georgia's assisted-suicide law  | ajc.com

Things Are Not O.K. - NYTimes.com there’s a real danger that this optimism will be self-defeating, because it will encourage and empower the purge-and-liquidate crowd.

Congress Appears to Be Trying to Get Around Earmark Ban - NYTimes.com lawmakers appear to have found a backdoor method: special funds in spending and authorization bills that allow them to direct money to projects in their states (fucking corrupt Congress)


Daily Kos: Daily Kos/PPP survey: Damage done to Komen brand (51% of Republicans against breast-cancer screenings! prefer women would just die! half of them are women!)
Political Animal - Komen and the Rituals of “Damage Control” - Despite some efforts by Komen officials to distance her from the story, it’s hard to separate the vice president for public policy from the public policy. Whether she can hang on after the policy has been changed is one of the few unresolved questions, as this story speeds into the media sunset.
Political Animal - Ross Douthat and Planned Parenthood are Honest; The Komen Foundation is Not Some people support abortion rights and some people oppose them. But nobody likes being lied to. Do you, Ross?
DISSENTING JUSTICE: NYT's Ross Douthat's Flawed Analysis of the Komen-Planned Parenthood Controversy
Abortion (the pro-lifers are really no more than 23%, the same percentage that wants to outlaw birth-control, despite Douthat's lying; btw, isn't that a sin?)
Karen Handel, Susan G. Komen's Anti-Abortion VP, Drove Decision To Defund Planned Parenthood - "Karen Handel was the prime instigator of this effort, and she herself personally came up with investigation criteria," (o rly)


020512
Clinton calls for 'friends of democratic Syria' to unite against Bashar al-Assad | World news | The Guardian US secretary of state says UN has been 'neutered' by double veto but that international community has duty to halt bloodshed
Egypt football protests continue into fourth day | World news | The Guardian Riot police fire teargas at stone-throwing protesters demanding army hand over power outside the interior ministry in Cairo
Egypt Riot Protests Pressure Government To Step Down - Egypt's military rulers were facing mounting pressure on two fronts Sunday, with a fourth day of violent street protests spearheading calls to speed up the transfer of power to a civilian administration and the U.S. threatening to cut more than a billion dollars in badly needed aid.
Kandahar bomb kills at least seven in southern Afghanistan | World news | guardian.co.uk Five police officers and two civilians killed after car bomb blast at police headquarters, with at least 19 people wounded
Obama-appointed US trade adviser linked to illegal deal in Congolese gold | World news | The Guardian UN report says Kase Lawal knew he was dealing with the wanted warlord Bosco Ntaganda
Domestic violence blighted my home. That's why I support Refuge | Patrick Stewart | Comment is free | The Guardian
U.S. Reactions to Iran’s Nuclear Threat : The New Yorker There is reason to doubt, though, that an attack on Iran is imminent.
Iranian Court Upholds Death Sentence for Software Designer - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine Malekpour is charged with "insulting the sanctity of Islam" and "corruption on earth," two regularly invoked grounds for execution in Iran, because of photo-uploading software he designed that was then "used by a porn website without his knowledge," reports The Guardian.

Greek Talks at a Delicate Point, Official Says - NYTimes.com “Two major, interrelated issues remain unresolved — labor relations and wages in the private sector, and the fiscal measures that must be taken to ensure we are within the target for 2012,” Mr. Venizelos said (elites using their fuckups to bust unions which have nothing to do with the problem)
Balloon Juice » Greek Fire: Burninating The Countryside

An Update on Political Polarization (through 2011) – Part III: The Presidential Square Wave | voteview blog Our findings here echo those discussed in a prior post that Republicans have moved further to the right than Democrats to the left in the contemporary period. Indeed, as seen below, President Obama is the most moderate Democratic president since the end of World War II, while President George W. Bush was the most conservative president in the post-war era.
An Update on Political Polarization (through 2011) | voteview blog - the most liberal Republican is to the right of the most conservative Democrat
Hullabaloo , it's always nice to know that you aren't completely nuts. The fact is that Barack Obama is most conservative Democratic president of the modern era. And George W. Bush was the most conservative Republican. And there's a significant distance between those two conservative poles. It is what it is. Just as it seemed. And it's not good news for liberals. (there's hope you can believe it)

video: Protester Struck By Police During OccupyDC Raid, At Least Eight Arrested | ThinkProgress
Hullabaloo At least we know we're free (well sometimes) (unprecented arrests of media at Republican-controlled House hearing)

Nevada Caucus 2012 Results MAP (real-time data)
Turnout Way Down in Nevada "Republicans' disappointing turnout foreshadows difficulty energizing GOP voters in Nevada, a key swing state in November's general election."
Newt Gingrich Nevada Caucus Results 2012: A Brutal Loss But Not A Knockout
John King Calls Mitt Romney 'Governor Mormon' "Obviously, Governor Mormon is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."
Santorum To Gay Man: You Don't Deserve 'Privilege' Of Marriage Because Gay Unions Don't 'Benefit Society' | ThinkProgress (gay people getting married lowers the birth rate!)
SNL's Newt Gingrich Moon Colony Cold Open (video)
New Rule: Atheism is not a religion! Unbaptizes Mitt Romney's Dead Father-In-Law! - YouTube
Gingrich: Austerity Is Wrong For America, We Need Pro-Growth Policies Instead | TPMDC Newt Gingrich said Sunday that an “age of austerity” is the wrong solution for the economy and would “punish” the American people. He said he prefers “pro-growth” policies instead. The comments appear to pour cold water on the modern Republican belief that austerity and growth go hand in hand (the words Obama can't quite say, go Pres Newt!)
Balloon Juice » They Fucking Hate You They fucking hate you. They want you, and everyone who speaks for you, and every institution that represents your values, whether it be Planned Parenthood or food banks or ACORN- you name it. They want it destroyed. I just do not understand why more people do not recognize this. The Republicans have declared total war on America, and people are responding like this is politics as usual. It isn’t
CNN's Erickson: Obama "Claiming" To Be A Christian, "Chose To Pervert God's Word" | Media Matters for America

Mitochondrial DNA and Y Chromosome Variation Provides Evidence for a Recent Common Ancestry between Native Americans and Indigenous Altaians 10.1016/j.ajhg.2011.12.014 : The American Journal of Human Genetics | ScienceDirect.com - The Altai region of southern Siberia has played a critical role in the peopling of northern Asia as an entry point into Siberia and a possible homeland for ancestral Native Americans.

Komen confirms continued involvement of Ari Fleischer on Planned Parenthood strategy | ThinkProgress Komen stressed that Fleischer, who is a long-time critic of Planned Parenthood, “had nothing to do with the funding decision.” ... Fleischer confirmed to ThinkProgress that he is in regular contact with Komen CEO Nancy Brinker and she had sought his counsel on the Planned Parenthood issue (oh, Nancy, you such a big fat liar)
Eschaton: Maybe People Should Just Watch What They Say It's stunning to me that anybody out there thinks Ari Fleischer should be hired to do anything.
pandagon.net This was about values, not money - one reason this really hit home is anti-choice objectification of women had gotten to the point where they were pitting our own body parts against each other, creating a war between wholesome, all-American boobies and evil vaginas.
Komen gives new explanation for cutting funds to Planned Parenthood - The Washington Post Komen’s San Diego affiliate increased its security after receiving threatening e-mails about the new funding policy, even though it does not fund its local Planned Parenthood. Executive director Laura Farmer Sherman said she personally received nearly 400 e-mails on the subject — two in favor of the new policy and 386 against it.
Susan G. Komen foundation takes steps to rebuild trust after PR fiasco - The Washington Post (see, it's just a little "PR" problem, an no, they won't fire Brinker and Handel)
Ross Douthat Is All Up In Your Uterus Again | TBogg

Pennsylvania Schools’ Funding Fight Pits District Against Charter - NYTimes.com
Balloon Juice » Why you should defend the Administration on contraception (it doesn’t have anything to do with churches receiving federal money)
Model Created to Map Energy Use in NYC Buildings | The Fu Foundation School of Engineering & Applied Science - Columbia University (heat maps per building!)

bookforum talks with jeannette seaver - bookforum.com / interviews
IKEA pronunciation: How to pronounce IKEA in Swedish, English, Spanish, Danish

AT&T Starts Throttling Unlimited Data Users after 2GB of Monthly Usage - Mac Rumors
Google and the Production of Curiosity < PopMatters
There Is No Next Facebook: How Multiple Social Networks Will Peacefully Coexist - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic
META. Research in Hermeneutics, Phenomenology and Practical Philosophy Unlike other critiques of the internet from a phenomenological perspective, this paper does not consider the limitations of internet communication from the perspective of the body. Here, rather, the prime concern is with the constitution of objectivity and the ways in which the internet limits this constitution (not a parody)
Daily Dot | Why Reddit is sexist—and what to do about it (boyzone zone)

020412
Iran military manoeuvres heighten Middle East tensions | World news | guardian.co.uk Revolutionary Guards exercises follow threats by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei against US and Israel
Afghan civilian death toll reaches record high | World news | guardian.co.uk UN report says 3,021 civilians killed in 2011 • 8% increase on 2010 and fifth consecutive rise (bill the Republican party for $1 trillion dollars)
Syria UN Resolution: Russia, China Veto UN Resolution - Dropping the usual diplomatic courtesies, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said she was "disgusted" by the Russian and Chinese veto, adding that "any further bloodshed that flows will be on their (Russia's and China's) hands. (friends of bloody authoritarian dictators everywhere)
Russia's Syrian Power Play - NYTimes.com Recent Russian arms sales to Syria are worth $4 billion, including fighter jets and advanced missiles. Russian business investments in Syria encompassing infrastructure, energy and tourism amount to nearly $20 billion
Russia Protests: Tens Of Thousands Rally Against Putin
Mexico's Ciudad Juarez Braces For New Violence Even by Ciudad Juarez's grim standards, a threat from a Mexican drug cartel to kill an officer a day until the city's police chief steps down is being seen as an unusually terrifying escalation in the violence.
Senior U.S. And Israeli Officials Express Serious Reservations About Israeli Strike On Iran | ThinkProgress (despite the NYT telling us "no problem")


Inside the new hate - History - Salon.com Right-wing rhetoric seems to have reached new heights of xenophobia. But is that true? An expert explains - the racist and conspiracist approach of today’s far-right pundits is largely the same as it was 50 years ago. Their language and theories are taken (sometimes verbatim) from right-wing populist vitriol at early times in American and European history, dealing in tropes well-worn by pre-WWII American Nazis, Joe McCarthy and fanatical anti-Catholic and anti-Masonic Protestant preachers of the 19th century.

Mitt Romney on course for easy victory in Nevada as caucuses open | World news | guardian.co.uk Newt Gingrich to meet backers while other Republican nomination candidates turn their attention to remaining elections
Mitt's Mormon Army: How It Works Very, very good e-mail lists — and an internal debate over whether to use them. “I’m getting really tired of the ads for Romney campaign trips coming from this list serve,” writes one young Mormon
Newt Gingrich's Nevada campaign unraveling - Ginger Gibson - politico.com (Newt has always been disorganized)
Indiana’s Republican Secretary of State Convicted for Voter Fraud | Firedoglake

Hullabaloo QOTD: Krugman: "We are already in new great depression" (short interview, watch)
Implied Unemployment Rate Rises To 11.5%, Spread To Propaganda Number Surges To 30 Year High | ZeroHedge

Obama Stands Up to Bishops. Finally. | The Nation
Catholics need to preach what we practice - Contraception - Salon.com When 98 percent of Catholics use birth control, why is Obama in hot water for making sure insurance covers it?

A Painful Betrayal - NYTimes.com (NYT lasers Brinker, will she and Handel survive? probably)
The End Of Nancy Brinker’s Not So Good Very Bad Week Of Epic Fail Times Infinity | TBogg
What Could Possibly Go Wrong? | TBogg We already know that Susan G. Komen Foundation CEO Nancy Brinker is a conservative right-wing society lady who burbles business babble while, judging by the look on her face when she is talking, seemingly exerting emormous force upon a lump of coal with her sphincter in an effort to create home-made diamonds. Yes, it is a talent.
Susan G. Komen Top Officials Resign As Backlash Gains Steam With her decision, Plesser joins Komen's top public health official, Mollie Williams, and the executive director of Komen's Los Angeles County chapter, Deb Anthony, both of whom also resigned in protest.
Was Komen's Nancy Brinker Lying Yesterday Or Is She Lying Today? | Crooks and Liars
Komen Executive Behind Defunding of Planned Parenthood Was Endorsed by Sarah Palin in 2010 | Crooks and Liars Handel ran for governor of Georgia in 2010 as a right-wing Christian -- and was endorsed by none other than The Quitter and Jan Brewer. And during the campaign, she said: "Since I am pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood." (nothing political there)
How Planned Parenthood won Susan G Komen's 'race for the cure' | Amanda Marcotte | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Planned Parenthood's huge public relations win shows the deep support for women's healthcare – defeating the shame-mongers
Susan G Komen: the social media backlash | World news | guardian.co.uk America's leading breast cancer charity has reversed its decision to withdraw funding to Planned Parenthood following a huge outcry. See how the protests unfolded on Twitter and elsewhere
They gave us a republic...:: Why did they have to make me choose? It sure as hell was political. It comes on the heels of Komen hiring failed tea-party candidate for Governor of Georgia Karen Handel. She's an anti-choice wingnut with an axe to grind against Planned Parenthood and they haven't fired her yet.
Planned Parenthood Saved Me (pinkwash *this*)
Federal Premium - Shotshell Details (SGK pink aummunition!)
Pink Ribbons (Trailer) - YouTube - This feature documentary visits some of the massive fundraising runs and questions where the money goes and asks 'who really profits from pink ribbon campaigns?'
Raise A Stink! About Pinkwashing - YouTube
Balloon Juice. We are aware of all internet traditions. Pap Smears at Walgreens

Why we need ENDA – you can still be fired in most states for being LGBT – ask Ellen | Pam's House Blend Today, Americans can be fired in 29 states because of their sexual orientation, and in 34 states because of their gender identity.
After Dyer's rape arrest, 'Oath Keepers' disavow any association with onetime key figure | Crooks and Liars Gossip Boy -- which has been all over the case of onetime "Oath Keepers" figure Charles Dyer, arrested for the rape of a 7-year-old girl -- is reporting that the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, is running away from Dyer as fast as he can (the "American Resistance")
Arizona GOP Lawmaker Wants A State Holiday To Celebrate White People | ThinkProgress (call it "Honky Day")
Political Animal - The Weaker you get, the Weaker you get Arizona seems poised to pass a draconian anti-union measure. This, of course, follows in the wake of Wisconsin, Ohio (since repealed via referendum), and, just this week, Indiana ... The paradox in all of these actions is that union density is as low as its been in 75 years.


Today, Sweden Rallies Against ACTA And For Freedom Of Speech. We Can Win This. - Falkvinge on Infopolicy
European Commission Slip Reveals Censorship In ACTA - Falkvinge on Infopolicy In an inadvertent slip, the European Commission reveals that ACTA will indeed bring censorship to the Internet. As usual, they say this in the calmest soothing tone of voice.

020312
Syria faces report of 'massacre' in Homs | World news | The Guardian Human rights group claims more than 100 killed by security forces on eve of UN vote on removal of Bashar al-Assad

Anonymous Claims It Intercepted FBI Conference Call
Anonymous Hacks Boston Police Department Website Over December Occupy Eviction

Balloon Juice » Substitute your lies for fact Every single House Republican votes against the Peters Amendment to insert factual findings about how the Bush Tax Cuts added over $2 trillion to the deficit.

Ron Paul may surge in Nevada. - Slate Magazine In the land of boom and bust, even the economic winners are looking for a change (parts of America are totally insane)
One Town's War on Gay Teens | Politics News | Rolling Stone In Michele Bachmann's home district, evangelicals have created an extreme anti-gay climate. After a rash of suicides, the kids are fighting back.

Unemployment at 8.3% still leaves a vast and destructive jobs deficit | Robert Reich | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk US jobless numbers are falling, but not far or fast enough. We should forget about the budget deficit until unemployment is 5%
Schneiderman Sues Three Big Banks, MERS for Deceptive Practices, Illegal Foreclosures | FDL News Desk
S.E.C. Is Avoiding Tough Sanctions for Large Banks - NYTimes.com
Lax Oversight Blamed in Demise of MF Global - NYTimes.com
Eschaton: It's All So Complicated The MF Global coverage is really starting to annoy me. As is always the case they're using complexity to disguise the simple fact that somebody decided to steal a billion bucks. It isn't complicated. It's theft. Some people got the stolen money, and authorities should get it back from them
PercentJobLossesJan2012.jpg (scariest chart in the world, updated)

Malaria kills twice as many people as previously thought, research finds | Society | The Guardian Malaria kills 1.2 million people every year, a finding that has implications for global efforts to eliminate the disease

The Komen protests Lessons from the #Komen debacle: Facebook walls are the new Bastilles.
Komen Foundation revises funding policy - The Washington Post (lotta botox, there, Nancy)

Komen Foundation Urged to Restore Planned Parenthood Funds - NYTimes.com Her comments directly contradicted those of John D. Raffaelli, a Komen board member and Washington lobbyist, who told The New York Times on Wednesday that Komen made the changes to its grant-making process specifically to end its relationship with Planned Parenthood (gotta hurt when the Times calls you a liar)
What Does Komen's Latest Statement on Planned Parenthood Really Mean? | Mother Jones Komen has not responded to journalists' requests for clarification, telling the Washington Post's Ezra Klein that its statement "speaks for itself."
National Review Sees "Gangsterism" Behind Komen's Planned Parenthood Shift | Media Matters for America ... First, to look at the Komen situation and see Planned Parenthood as the bad-faith actor requires an astonishing amount of willful obtuseness (you know, those "gangsters" at PP)
Top Susan G. Komen Official Resigned Over Planned Parenthood Cave-In - Jeffrey Goldberg - Health - The Atlantic The decision, made in December, caused an uproar inside Komen. Three sources told me that the organization's top public-health official, Mollie Williams, resigned in protest immediately following the Komen board's decision to cut off Planned Parenthood ... Hammarley said the issue became newly urgent after Handel was brought on last year. "The internal debate on a senior level rose in the past eight months or so, coinciding with her hiring."
Your morning jolt: Did Karen Handel have a role in Komen/Planned Parenthood split? | Political Insider
Susan G. Komen Foundation Also Stops Funding Embryonic Stem Cell Research | Care2 Causes a loss of nearly $12 million dollars in research money to eradicate breast cancer this year alone.
Grief Ghoul Nancy Brinker’s Race For The Bullshit | TBogg “We’ve also got a frame grab of a Tweet that Handel passed along: “Just like a pro-abortion group to turn a cancer orgs decision into a political bomb to throw. Cry me a freaking river.”
No More Mister Nice Blog - Is That The Komen Plan? To Become The Fox News Of Charities? ... Komen says they will allow @PPact to apply for future grants. NOT that they'll continue grants.
Did Susan G. Komen turn itself into a lightning rod? - Kate Nocera - politico.com "They pretty much cut their fundraising support in half. I don’t think they meant to make a huge political statement, but it was extremely naïve of them to think this wasn’t hyper-political,”
Balloon Juice » Guns Don’t Kill People So the Komen Foundation doesn’t want to be associated with the nation’s largest abortion-provider. But they don’t mind partnering up with a handgun maker (they were always pro-NRA)
Comment: Komen’s Choice : The New Yorker
The epic downward spiral of Susan G. Komen for the Cure: how to #FAIL (updated w/Komen ‘apology’) | Pam's House Blend Watching Susan G. Komen for the Cure in its epic PR death spiral over the last few days has been breathtaking.
Hullabaloo no one should consider giving Komen a single dime until Karen Handel is fired or resigns in disgrace. And even then, the organization needs to answer some very serious questions about why she was hired in the first place, and what their real mission is.

Uproar Over Planned Parenthood Cut Forces Susan G. Komen Reversal - The Daily Beast Michelle Goldberg says that in the end, Susan G. Komen didn’t want to be rebranded as an anti-abortion group after all
Balloon Juice » The Doodie Touch So, you are wondering, how do you ruin a successful brand and embroil yourself in a pointless controversy that scares the shit out of your corporate sponsors and enrages both the left and right wing of the political spectrum, all while doing it in such a ham-handed and offensive manner that you manage to get $3 million in donations to organization you want to destroy in just a few days? Hire this guy: Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for George W. Bush and prominent right-wing pundit, secretly helped guide Komen Foundation’s disastrous strategy regarding Planned Parenthood (they were always Republicans but that was really stupid +in case you were wondering where these creeps go)
Sarah O'Leary: WTF Was Susan G. Komen Thinking? As a marketer, the Grand Canyon sized mistake Komen has made truly defies business logic. As a woman, my heart goes out to those women Komen and Planned Parenthood will no longer be able to afford to help as a result of this grievous error in marketing judgment.
The Accidental Rebranding of Komen for the Cure (brand-management for the cure! +good overview of the reaction of the internets)

Cambridge Journals Online - Abstract - The Gerrymanderers Are Coming! Legislative Redistricting Won't Affect Competition or Polarization Much, No Matter Who Does It Redistricting received substantial attention in the popular media in 2011, as states redrew state legislative and congressional district boundaries. Many reformers continue to argue for a de-politicization of the redistricting process, claiming that partisan redistricting is responsible for declining electoral competition and increasing legislative polarization. Our analysis of evidence from state legislatures during the last decade suggests that the effects of partisan redistricting on competition and polarization are small, considerably more nuanced than reformers would suggest, and overwhelmed by other aspects of the political environment.



020212
Soldier Says Syrian Atrocities Forced Him to Defect - NYTimes.com
Egyptian football riot anger focuses on military rulers | World news | The Guardian Fans mourn dead and vow revenge as MPs blame lack of security at Port Said stadium for riot which left 74 people dead
Mexican Political Rivals Feud Over $1.9 Million Found In Luggage President Felipe Calderon's National Action Party called that explanation "an insult to the intelligence of Mexicans," whose tax laws, crime problem, strict campaign finance laws and economic problems make carrying such large amounts of cash very unusual.

Eurozone crisis live: China tells Europe to 'do its homework' | Business | guardian.co.uk Wen Jiabao: China could offer financial help

France Launches Costa Concordia Investigation


Gay marriage bill passes Washington state Senate | World news | guardian.co.uk Bill, which includes provision for out of state residents to be married in Washington, expected to pass in House next week
Washington Gay Marriage: State Senate Approves Bill To Allow Same Sex Couples To Wed

AP Exclusive: US No-Fly list doubles in 1 year Even as the Obama administration says it's close to defeating al-Qaida, the size of the government's secret list of suspected terrorists who are banned from flying to or within the United States has more than doubled in the past year
'Fast And Furious' Operation: Justice Department Rejects Cover-Up Claim Made By Darrell Issa that top Justice officials are covering up events surrounding a flawed gun-smuggling probe, Operation Fast and Furious (well, Obama does coverup everything)

Influence of Palin and Tea Party Wanes in Early Contests - NYTimes.com (despite media hype)
Newt Gingrich Not Quite The Life Of The Tea Party (the party is over, dude)
Republicans Aim To Ban Use Of Welfare Debit Cards At Strip Clubs, Liquor Stores Struggling families will no longer be allowed to withdraw welfare funds at automated teller machines in liquor stores, casinos or strip clubs if Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives get their way ... "This is another example of setting policies based on attention-grabbing news stories with little connection to the underlying reality and that are designed to reinforce the 'unworthy poor' stereotype,"
S.C. Senate votes to halt Savannah Port dredging | Haire of the Dog Nikki Haley and her evil goons over at the Department of Health and Environmental Control have been defeated.

The need for regime change (Obama's/The Fed's economic policies were stupid and have failed)
Wall Street Executives Thrive Under Obama But Still Won't Support Him
New transportation bill creates safety concerns over bigger rigs - CNN.com (turning roads into railroads)

Political Animal - Indiana Smites Unions Yesterday, with Gov. Mitch Daniels’ signature, Indiana became the 23d state, and the very first (other than Indiana itself during a brief period ending in 1965) in the industrial northeast and midwest, to enact “right-to-work” legislation—or as folk in the labor movement call it, a “right to work for less” law.
Kansas prepares for clash of wills over future of its unauthorised immigrants | World news | guardian.co.uk Coalition of top businesses launch new legislation that would help undocumented Hispanics gain federal work permission (how's that hate working out for you, Kansas?)

Susan G. Komen Loses Support After Planned Parenthood Decision Komen has faced a massive social media backlash since announcing the decision, with angry people flocking to its message boards and Facebook wall to announce that they will no longer donate to the breast cancer charity ... In contrast, Planned Parenthood has seen a huge influx of financial donations in the 24 hours since Komen broke ties (they are, of course, deleting negative comments on their spin page)
Eschaton: It's OK To Say You Suck what Komen has done is made it ok to point out that they kind of suck. And they kind of sucked before all this, but not many people ever want to rain on the pink paradise parade. They managed to associate their brand with a cause, and to criticize the brand was to criticize the cause. Now we all get to say: you suck hard (and you're just another highly-paid Republican front)
The Pink Badge of Cowardice | TBogg I have to say that killing women with breast cancer before they might consider abortion sometime in their lives is one way to eliminate a woman’s right to choose ... you can make a donation to Planned Parenthood and request a thank you card be sent to Karen Handel ... (perfect!)
By defunding Planned Parenthood, the Susan G Komen Foundation betrays women | Lizz Winstead | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk The breast cancer charity's withdrawal of support for Planned Parenthood will sacrifice women's health to anti-choice dogma
Daily Kos: Why doesn't the Komen Foundation sever ties with Bank of America?
Religious Right Praises Komen for Cutting off Breast Exams at Planned Parenthood but Demands Further Capitulations | Right Wing Watch
Charity Navigator - SGK
Komen Says Efficiency, Not Politics, Drove Planned Parenthood Change : Shots - Health Blog : NPR "One of the things many women don't understand is that the founder of Komen, Nancy Brinker, has had a long-standing and supportive relationship with the Bush family with the Bush presidencies, with the Republican party and on many occasions has supported policies that most supporters of Komen probably wouldn't approve of," said Judy Norsigian of the Our Bodies, Ourselves, the popular women's health guide.
Planned Parenthood vs. Komen: How the abortion provider scored a PR coup (rightwing spin from Slate get incinerated in comments)
Planned Parenthood Online: Donate to Planned Parenthood Online (click "honorary" to send thanks to Karen Handel)
Eschaton: Wrong Turns I'm sure in the short term a bit of wingnut love might continue to fill the coffers, but after that... cure cancer for the right sort of women is not going to work.
Radical Veep And Mau-Maued By The God Botherers | TBogg This is what happens when you sow the wind. You get introduced to the whirlwind….
US Politics | AMERICAblog News: Komen pro-life VP promised to defund Planned Parenthood, and they have - In April 2011, after losing the 2010 Republican primary runoff in the race for Georgia governor, former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel was named Senior VP of Public Policy (more on anti-abortion Karen Handel and SGK's anti-women policies +they always were Republicans)
Another Reason to Love the Decemberists: Their Smart Move on Susan G. Komen | ThinkProgress
Wash. Post Inexplicably Gives Credence To Discredited Abortion-Breast Cancer Link | Media Matters for America written by health columnist Jennifer LaRue Huget, asks whether Komen should have been funding Planned Parenthood because an organization called The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer claims that abortion increases the risk of breast cancer. This organization is run by Karen Malec, who apparently has no medical background and presents herself primarily as a journalist, according to her biography (Jennifer LaRue Huget is a big fat liar)
You’re Right — It *Was* a “Monstrous Decision” : Lawyers, Guns & Money Forcing your mentally disabled daughter to bear her rapist’s child without her input (let alone consent,) based on utter nonsense about Plan B being an abortifacient. And then bragging about it! This isn’t some great act of moral conscience; it’s an act of barbarism.

Lames, Trains, and Autodidacts | TBogg Taking a break from chronicling the Susan G. Komen Credibility Death Spiral, there is bad news on the November electoral front. In fact, this could be A Game Changer:
The Truth Behind Why High Calorie Chef Paula Deen Is Pushing Diabetes Drug | Food | AlterNet (it's worse than you thought)
Hullabaloo The Deen of "Diabetes-Friendly" Diets - If this article is true, her charm is as fake and as cynical as her pose as just one more middle-class Southern housewife. In reality, she's just one more rapacious, utterly repellent multi-millionaire without a clue about what it means to be part of the 99% who can't afford the kind of medical care and other luxuries she takes for granted.
TSA Agent Accused Of Stealing iPads From Travelers (VIDEO) Dovel is currently out on administrative leave (not, you know, in jail)


The Facebook IPO: billion-user ambition at a $100bn price | Michael Wolff | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Mark Zuckerberg's phenomenally successful enterprise – in effect, a wholly-owned internet – now faces hard business facts

020112
Iranian attack on America and allies increasingly likely – intelligence chief | World news | The Guardian Washington openly blames Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei for first time over Saudi ambassador plot
Sanctions v. negotiations on Iran - Salon.com America’s increasingly tense and dangerous conflict with Iran is characterized (one could even say caused) by the unwillingness of the Obama administration to engage meaningfully with Iran’s leaders (Israel is Obama's daddy now)
Afghanistan War: U.S. Troops To End Combat Role Next Year
Taliban Will Control Afghanistan With Support From Pakistan, Says Leaked Report (all for nothing, except we made Karzai and his family really, really, rich)
Taliban believe they will take over from US and Nato in Afghanistan - report | World news | The Guardian Pakistan and Nato reject assertions by Taliban and al-Qaida detainees in document based on interrogations
Lessons from Iraqi outrage over US drones - Salon.com The noble geniuses who planned and publicly crusaded for the war in Iraq insisted that “liberation” would mean a grateful citizenry and a stalwart ally in the middle of the region. Instead, anti-American animus is so high that Iraqi politicians routinely rail against the U.S. as a means of bolstering their own standing (another incredibly costly, tragic, complete failure)
London Stock Exchange Bomb Plot Admitted By Islamic Extremists Four British men fueled by the words of a U.S.-born Muslim cleric pleaded guilty on Wednesday to involvement in an al-Qaida inspired plot to spread terror and cause economic damage by bombing the London Stock Exchange at Christmastime.
Egypt football pitch invasion leaves dozens dead | World news | guardian.co.uk At least 73 people reported killed during pitch invasion following match between Al-Masry and Al-Ahly in Port Said

The predictable aftermath of the anti-CAP smear - Salon.com While that smear campaign, having done its job, is now winding down, the predictable effects of it are only beginning: CAP is now censoring those targeted writers, and those who defended them are now being similarly smeared (the dual-loyalty, Israeli-firsters suceeded in obliterating any push-back on Israel propaganda)

'Draconian' Austerity Pushes Up Euro Jobless Rate: Analysts - Business News - CNBC
Eschaton: I Could Have Told You That A Couple Of Years Ago Suddenly everyone's jumping on the idea that maybe jobs and economic growth are a wee bit important. But, you know, all the Very Serious People were wrong for the right reasons while the hippies were right for the wrong reasons, so the VSPs were really right and the hippies were really wrong. It's amazing how that always works.
BBC - Newsbeat - UK woman responds to Obama on son's 'web piracy' Richard's mother Julia told Newsbeat that he had not broken any UK laws and President Obama had given a typical politician's answer in response to questions about his case.

Julian Assange extradition appeal at supreme court - live blog | Media | guardian.co.uk WikiLeaks founder enters final stage of battle to avoid extradition to Sweden to face sex crime allegations
Leon Panetta’s explicitly authoritarian decree - Salon.com CBS News‘ Scott Pelley appears to be one of the very few American journalists bothered by, or even interested in, the fact that President Obama has asserted and exercised the power to target U.S. citizens for execution-by-CIA without a shred of due process and far from any battlefield ... watching a top Obama official, under decent questioning, defend the power to target U.S. citizens for assassination viscerally conveys the rigidly authoritarian mindset driving all of this (Obama can kill you anytime, anywhere)
Ron Wyden Suggests Secret PATRIOT GPS Tracking May Be Illegal Under Jones | emptywheel

'Gasland' Journalists Arrested At Hearing By Order Of House Republicans (UPDATES) In a stunning break with First Amendment policy, House Republicans directed Capitol Hill police to detain a highly regarded documentary crew that was attempting to film a Wednesday hearing on a controversial natural gas procurement practice

American Muslims Don't Want Shariah, According To Study By University Of Windsor

Mitt Romney Super Pac brought in $18m in six months, FEC figures reveal | World news | guardian.co.uk Total includes $750,000 from ex-colleagues at Bain Capital
Mitt Romney: 'I'm Not Concerned About The Very Poor'
The Morning Plum - The Plum Line - The Washington Post “I’m not concerned with the very poor. We have a safety net there,” Romney told CNN
Eschaton: Each One Gets A Free Cadillac I think it's important to understand what Mitt's saying here. He isn't saying fuck the poor. He's saying that the really poor actually have it really really good! The government basically gives them free cars and housing and medical care and food stamps they can use at the liquor store etc. The rest of you struggling to get by, you don't get anything. In fact, the really poor (and we know who they are) are taking your hard earned money (team rich vs team poor!)
corrente SBL: Stalin Defeats Trotsky in Doomed Floridka Purge! Palin accuses Mitt-Stalin of taking unserious counteraction poop on heroic struggle of troubled Trotsky:
To Defecate in Terror: Mitt Romney gets Google-bombed | Angry Black Lady Chronicles

Is the ‘real’ unemployment rate stuck? - The Washington Post (More Like 11%)
Broke bureaucrat of the day, St Louis Fed edition | Felix Salmon the president of the St Louis Fed, earning well over a quarter of a million dollars a year, is living paycheck-to-paycheck. Every two weeks, he gets paid $10,819, less taxes and deductions, and yet by the end of the year he still doesn’t have even $1,000 in a checking account (trials of the rich)
MF Global's missing money traced: report | Reuters U.S. investigating authorities have traced more than 90 percent of the customer money which disappeared from MF Global around the time of its bankruptcy ... The Commission, however, is unsure whether the money can be retrieved (because stolen, is you know, stolen)
Did Health Care Reform Hurt The Private Insurance Part Of Medicare? Apparently Not | TPMDC
Proposed jobs bill would target foreign outsourcing by U.S. companies - The Washington Post Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) will introduce a bill Wednesday requiring large U.S. companies to disclose how many of their jobs are based on U.S. soil and how many are based abroad, an attempt to shed light on the number of American jobs being outsourced (Apple doesn't want to tell you)

Check With Climate Scientists for Views on Climate — Letters to the Editor - WSJ.com (WSJ publishes denialist hackery based on the opinions of "climate scientists" who are really weathermen at Fox)
Scientists close to entering Vostok, Antarctica’s biggest subglacial lake - The Washington Post Reaching Lake Vostok would represent the first direct contact with what scientists now know is a web of more than 200 subglacial lakes in Antarctica — some of which existed when the continent was connected to Australia and was much warmer. They stay liquid because of heat from the core of the planet ... Russian scientists are on the verge of entering a vast, dark lake that hasn’t been touched by light for more than 20 million years
Cleveland Volcano: Alert Level Raised In Alaska After New Lava Dome Forms The warning level for a remote Alaska volcano has been raised after a new lava dome began forming, indicating the mountain could explode and send up an ash cloud that could threaten aircraft.

Komen Cuts Planned Parenthood Grants Months After Arrival Of New VP, Who Is Abortion Foe (they always were Republicans)
Conservatives Cheer Komen Foundation's Decision To Stop Funding Cancer Screenings At Planned Parenthood | ThinkProgress (they got ACORNed)
Planned Parenthood blames pro-life 'bullying' after cancer charity cuts funding | World news | guardian.co.uk Susan G Komen for the Cure says it cannot give money to Planned Parenthood because of congressional investigation – but critics say Komen is bowing to political pressure
Balloon Juice » None Dare Call It Murder one quick note to add to the discussion of the Komen Foundation’s surrender to Greater Wingnuttia and the Global War on Women.
Susan G. Komen charity throws Planned Parenthood under the bus.
The fight against cancer -- and abortion? - Abortion - Salon.com The Susan G. Komen Foundation says its decision to defund Planned Parenthood isn't political. Does anyone buy it? - Despite the myth that Planned Parenthood is first and foremost an abortion clinic, pregnancy terminations account for only 3 percent of its services; on the other hand, as the Daily Kos reports, “cancer screening and prevention comprises 17 percent.”
Komen Foundation Races for the Cuts The breast-cancer awareness group caves to anti-choice groups and pulls its funds from Planned Parenthood.
Litbrit: On Susan G. Komen For the Cure: Pink ribbons and an opened can of worms
Daily Kos: Why doesn't the Komen Foundation sever ties with Bank of America?
Charity Navigator - America's Largest Charity Evaluator | Home (dump Susan G Komen)

More on the Weak Case for a Special Exemption on Contraceptive Coverage : Lawyers, Guns & Money The burdens of what Dionne, Douthat and Chait are asking to impose are real, while the impact on religious freedom as the religion is actually practiced of the Obama administration’s superior alternative is miniscule (note they are all men)
Chris Christie Embarrasses Himself With Civil-Rights-History Flub - The Daily Beast Paul Campos on what the governor’s civil-rights flub says about the contemporary conservative movement.
Most Catholic women use birth control banned by church | Reuters Some 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women have used contraceptive methods banned by the church, research published on Wednesday showed.

Fox Regularly Uses The "Racial Code Words" Denounced By Fox's Juan Williams | Media Matters for America
Eschaton: Do You Watch Your Own Network? It's a complete mystery why liberals weren't always happy with Juan Williams providing cover and validation for Fox over the years.

Alabama State Senator Thinks Increasing Teacher Pay Goes Against A 'Biblical Principle' | ThinkProgress “And these teachers that are called to teach, regardless of the pay scale, they would teach. It’s just in them to do. It’s the ability that God give ‘em ... Currently, a part-time legislator in Alabama is making more than a full-time teacher with a Master’s degree and 15 years of experience
Essay on the summit of adjunct leaders | Inside Higher Ed - Adjunct, contingent faculty members now make up over 1 million of the 1.5 million people teaching in American colleges and universities. Many of them are working at or under the poverty line, without health insurance; they have no academic freedom worthy of the name, because they can be fired at will; and, when fired, many remain ineligible for unemployment benefits (like in health care, the administrators won)

UFO Found In Baltic Sea? (Video) A team of shipwreck hunters that found a strange circular object on the floor of the Baltic Sea in 2011 now says they have discovered visual evidence of a second "disc-like shape" some 200 meters from the original find, CNN reports


013112
Iran increasingly willing to launch US attack, top intelligence official warns | World news | The Guardian James Clapper, US director of national intelligence, also says Tehran is keeping option open to develop nuclear weapons
Draft resolution to UN calls for Syria's Assad to step down | World news | The Guardian Russia likely to veto resolution, up for debate at security council, which calls for end to arms supplies and president's rule (Putin loves bloody-handed dictators)
Food Bill Stumbling? | Indian Decade The bill, if it became law and was fully implemented, would cost the national exchequer Rs 1.1 lakh crore ($22 billion) annually in agriculture liabilities alone, but would provide subsidized food grain to more than 60 percent of the country’s population.

Eurozone crisis live: EU summit optimism tested by record unemployment | Business | guardian.co.uk Eurozone unemployment hits new high
Eurozone unemployment at new record high - Europe - World - The Independent Unemployment in the 17-nation eurozone ended 2011 at 10.4 per cent, a new record high for the single currency since its launch at the start of 1999 (austerity fails, so, more austerity!)

Foreign Shoppers May Add $850B With Obama’s New Visas - Bloomberg (America the paranoid screwing itself with restrictive visa policies)

Barack Obama faces pressure over TVShack extradition case | Law | The Guardian US president asked to explain why America is trying to extradite British student Richard O'Dwyer over alleged copyright breach (because he is owned by Hollywood and big content?)

Hullabaloo - Exceptionalism - The World's Most "Successful" Top 1 Percent - If we can just get those taxes down to nothing and eliminate all impediments to inheritance, we should be able to successfully recreate the British aristocracy in a generation. The founders would be proud (Republicans have always hated America)

Mitt Romney easily clinches Florida primary win | The Ticket - Yahoo! News 47 percent for Romney, 32 percent for Gingrich, 13 percent for Santorum and 7 percent for Paul with 78 percent of precincts reporting
Head of Senate military panel says Romney clueless - Yahoo! News
Newt Gingrich, On Eve Of Likely Florida Loss, Unleashes Wild Attacks On Mitt Romney
Frank Rich To Maddow: Mitt Romney Is Closeted About His Religion (and his underear)
Newt Gingrich versus Mitt Romney: A guide to latest charges - The Washington Post it turns out that in 2003 he did indeed veto $600,000 in spending to run Massachusetts’s eight kosher nursing home facilities.
New Hampshire Governor Pledges To Veto Repeal Of Same-Sex Marriage In State Address | ThinkProgress to veto any bill that strips residents of their “civil rights”
Alan Grayson Confident In Re-Election, Fundraises For Others
Gay Politics | AMERICAblog Gay: GOP NJ Gov. Christie says black leaders in 1950s-60s would have welcomed popular vote on their rights (racist dumb-fuck)
David Brooks on Charles Murray - Our Mr. Brooks Finds Another Very Important Thinker - Esquire

House prices continue to fall despite broader signs economic improvement | Business | guardian.co.uk Average prices drop to 2003 levels in 19 out of 20 US cities, with only Phoenix bucking the trend, new survey shows
Foreclosure Crisis Erases Hard-Won Wealth, Dreams Even In Center Of Black Affluence
CHART: Keystone XL Pipeline Supporters Back Senate GOP | ThinkProgress

GOP’s Pro-Python Policy Devastates Florida’s Everglades | ThinkProgress (Republicans are big snakes and love devastating everything)
Pythons Are Wiping Out Mammals in the Everglades - National - The Atlantic Wire

Renegade — Henry Miller and the Making of ‘Tropic of Cancer.’ — By Frederick Turner — Book Review - NYTimes.com The question is: Why do men revel in the degradation of women?
Echidne of the snakes - E.J. Dionne at the Washington Post ended up in a pretzel shape trying to explain why Obama wasn't sufficiently fawning towards the US Catholic bishops* in the contraception wars:
Eschaton: Washington's Pastor In the WaPo (find it yourself), Pastor Gerson, most noted for his efforts in service of making sure we killed a lot of people in Iraq, is very upset that the Obama administration thinks women should have proper health care.
Janet Howell, Virginia State Senator, Attaches Rectal Exam Amendment To Anti-Abortion Bill that would require men to have a rectal exam and a cardiac stress test before obtaining a prescription for erectile dysfunction medication. "We need some gender equity here ..."

Pot legalization efforts forge ahead in key states - Yahoo! News gaining momentum in Washington state and Colorado, despite fierce opposition from the federal government (Obama is a fierce drugz-warrior)
GOP Seeks Big Changes In Federal Prison Sentences : NPR They're calling for an overhaul of the sentencing system, with tough new mandatory prison terms
Working Poor: Almost Half Of U.S. Households Live One Crisis From The Bread Line (which is why Republicans don't want them to vote)

Saving Freshman Ryan - NYTimes.com In handing down its ruling, the N.C.A.A. issued a press release so malicious in its intent that I could not let it pass (the overlords of college basketball are horrible people, especially Stacey Osburn, the author of the N.C.A.A. press release)
Hullabaloo - Citizen Training - What this means is that if a park ranger stops you for walking your dogs off leash, you are not to ask any questions or fail to carry the proper ID or you risk being shot through with 50,000 volts. This is now the way things work. Apparently, before the taser, this park ranger would have had to shoot this person in the back with a revolver.

Tallafornia Swipe: Episode Two - YouTube

Anonymous And The War Over The Internet (Part II)

013012
Syria: Army retakes Damascus suburbs - Monday 30 January | World news | guardian.co.uk At least 37 killed' as violence continues • Russia tries to set up peace talks in Moscow
Syria unrest: Clinton and Hague back Arab League plan at UN | World news | guardian.co.uk Resolution calling for Bashar al-Assad to step down wins support of 10 security council members necessary to force a vote
The Hindu : News / National : India won’t scale down petroleum imports from Iran: Pranab
Doll 'protesters' present small problem for Russian police | World news | guardian.co.uk Police in Siberian city ask prosecutors to investigate legality of protest involving display of toy figures holding miniature placards

Julian Assange's extradition battle enters final round | Media | The Guardian WikiLeaks founder to face seven supreme court judges in appeal against extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations

Germany to set the terms for saving the euro | Business | The Guardian Angela Merkel returned to Berlin with the new treaty in the bag, but also appeared more isolated with her hard line on Greece

Occupy DC protesters in standoff with police as eviction deadline passes | World news | guardian.co.uk Demonstrators in Washington refuse to comply after National Park Service orders the camp to be cleared on hygiene grounds

The Obama Memos: How Washington Remade the President : The New Yorker The making of a post-post-partisan Presidency (hopelessly naive Obama has only really believed in himself, no matter how wrong that has turned out to be)
Hullabaloo - Post partisan depression (Digby's take on Lizza)
Political Animal - It’s “Death of Bipartisanship” Monday! But it is nice to see that the illusion of easy bipartisanship is now largely limited to Americans Elect supporters who somehow think partisans are preventing the American people from embracing by acclamation an agenda of wildly unpopular “entitlement reforms” and tax increases. (the Village gives up on delusional bi-partisanship, which is progress, but like Obama, too little, too late)

Gingrich and Romney Want to Say Adios to Bilingual Ballots | Mother Jones The GOP front-runners endorse a plan that could disenfranchise millions of voters—including their own.
Wash. Post 's Parker Wildly Distorts Charitable Giving Of Obama, Romney | Media Matters for America Kathleen Parker claimed that Mitt Romney has "give[n] away "42 percent of his income, compared to Obama, who gave away 1 percent to charity." (lying liars + bonus Jennifer Rubin)
West Point Announces That Islamophobic General Has Withdrawn From Prayer Breakfast | ThinkProgress LTG (Ret) William Boykin has decided to withdraw speaking at West Point’s National Prayer Breakfast on 8 February 2012 (Islamophobic Prayer Breakfast)
Balloon Juice » Simp Phony For The Devil - How long will Juan Williams now last at FOX? - Williams knows damn well what he’s doing now, just like he damn well knew what he was doing in South Carolina, people. Weep not for Juan. Like I said, zero sympathy for this phony simp’s symphony.

Florida's housing crisis: 'There's not a politician out there willing to help' | World news | guardian.co.uk Years after the housing bubble burst, residents in the Sunshine State continue to face the heartbreak of home foreclosure (so they vote more Republican, of course)
Millennials entering the workforce need affordable housing - Greater Greater Washington

The Austerity Debacle. - NYTimes.com Half a century ago, any economist — or for that matter any undergraduate who had read Paul Samuelson’s textbook “Economics” — could have told you that austerity in the face of depression was a very bad idea. But policy makers, pundits and, I’m sorry to say, many economists decided, largely for political reasons, to forget what they used to know. And millions of workers are paying the price for their willful amnesia.
Daily Kos: Nonexistent out-of-control government spending dragging down the economy and hurting Obama (austerity in a recession always works! recovery summer! deficit pivot! oh shit we're screwed!)

Auction 2012: How The Bank Lobby Owns Washington - The finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE) sector combined to spend $6.8 billion on federal lobbying and campaign contributions from 1998 through 2011, according to the Center for Responsive Politics' examination of public records. That's $1 billion more than any other sector spent on Washington (Obama was a lot cheaper)
Much of missing MF Global money might never be found, officials think - Finance - Crain's Chicago Business What's been learned so far suggests that a good deal of the money may have “vaporized” (into thin air)
Freddie Mac Betting Against Struggling Homeowners : NPR
Freddie Mac Bets Against American Homeowners - ProPublica
In Slump, Localities Resort to Excise Taxes | Progressive Policy Institute The large growth in excise taxes relative to the drop in retail sales shows that during a time when incomes were down, local government turned to these narrow, selective taxes imposed on consumers to make up the balance. For example, two tourist meccas, Las Vegas and New York City, raised hotel room taxes in 2009.

Politics is a Matter of Life and Death (Times 23,000) — The Monkey Cage Republican administrations are “risk factors for lethal violence,” and that the only reason they have not produced “disastrously high epidemic levels” of suicides and homicides is that Democrats have repeatedly undone their damage.
Food crops damaged by pollution crossing continents Man-made air pollution from North America causes Europe to lose 1.2 million tonnes of wheat a year, a new study has found.

Nita Chaudhary: Birth Control Matters (E.J. Dionne, Catholic wanker, doesn't like birth control, says Obama shouldn't let women have it)
RealClearPolitics - The Politics of Campus Sexual Assault

Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? - Magazine - The Atlantic An unruly market may undo the work of a giant cartel and of an inspired, decades-long ad campaign (engagement rings invented by diamond industry in '30's just like Mother's Day was invented by Hallmark)
reagan.jpg (Reagan on religion)

O Brother Where Art Though - The Soggy Bottom Boys - I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow - YouTube
Deliverance 1972 {Classic Banjo Scene} - YouTube

Thailand backs Twitter censorship policy | World news | guardian.co.uk Thai government becomes first to publicly endorse Twitter's decision to permit country-specific censorship of content
MegaUpload User Data Soon to be Destroyed | TorrentFreak MegaUpload has received a letter from the US Attorney informing the company that data uploaded by its users may be destroyed before the end of the week (Obama's in your servers, erasing your data with no due process)
hUVIP.jpg (Obama's justice system)

012912
Syrian troops battle to retake Damascus suburbs | World news | The Guardian Reports claim five civilians and six soldiers killed as up to 2,000 troops and tanks move into capital's outskirts
Maya Khan, Controversial Pakistani TV Host, Fired In a rare victory for Pakistani liberals, a private TV station decided to fire a popular morning show host after she sparked outrage by running around a public park trying to expose young, unmarried couples hanging out, a taboo in this conservative Muslim country.
Israel Drone Crashes During Flight The Israeli military says a drone that can fly as far as Iran has crashed in central Israel on a routine experimental flight (drone bombers)
Dutch Burqa Ban Legislation Planned
Ali Abdullah Saleh, President Of Yemen, In U.S. For Treatment: Official
Taliban Have Begun Talks With U.S., Former Taliban Aides Say - NYTimes.com
Guatemala Dictator Efrain Rios Montt Faces Genocide Allegations, Lawyer Disputes Charges (could it happen here?)
Canada Honor Killing Trial Verdict: Shafia Family Found Guilty

Peter S. Goodman: At World Economic Forum, Fear of Global Contagion Dominates "I've never been as scared as now about the world, what is happening in Europe," he said.
Deadlock in Davos as pressure on Greece rises - Europe - World - The Independent Germany wants EU to seize control of Greek financial decisions as condition of €130bn rescue package – but Continent’s leaders struggle to agree on bailout plan (banksters buy a whole country for $170Bn)
Eschaton: Better Than Tanks I Suppose The right response is, "fuck off, bail out your own goddamn banks."
Private Investors Near Deal on Greek Debt - NYTimes.com A disorderly and potentially devastating Greek debt default is looking much less likely.
BBC News - Duncan Smith: RBS bonus veto would have caused chaos Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith has said there would have been "chaos" if the government had overruled RBS over a £963,000 share bonus for its boss (chaos in his little crooked head)

Eschaton: Memories: SOTU 2010 - I know that some in my own party will argue that we cannot address the deficit or freeze government spending when so many are still hurting. I agree, which is why this freeze will not take effect until next year, when the economy is stronger (FAIL)

City of Oakland’s Increasing Hostility Toward the Occupy Movement | The Dissenter
Police use teargas on Occupy Oakland protesters | World news | guardian.co.uk About 300 arrested in Oakland as police use teargas after protesters pelted them with bottles, rocks and burning flares

Mitt Romney Holds Big Leads In New Florida Polls

Destructive Austerity, USA - NYTimes.com Jared Bernstein has been emphasizing, rightly, the extent to which our weak recovery is being undermined by cutbacks at the state and local level

Eschaton: Funny And Stupid Tom Brokaw is concerned that if people see him in his role as a journalist it will compromise his role as a journalist (erases history)
New York Times Struggles With Leadership After Janet Robinson's Departure (not that they weren't "struggling" before)
Daily Mail's Website Traffic Surpasses New York Times (and they don't make you pay, either)
Et tu, Harvard? - NYTimes.com - So long as schools continue to cower in the face of N.C.A.A. abuses, those abuses will continue. The Temi Fagbenle case was a perfect opportunity for Harvard to stand up for what’s right. Maybe next time.
UPDATED: Bill Keller's Latest 'Mini-Culpa' On Backing the Iraq War | The Nation (September 8, 2011 Nation: for the files on the Times non-accountability)

What is the Worst Thing Published in a Major National Newspaper Today? : Lawyers, Guns & Money (if you said Caitlin Flanagan and Kathleen Parker, you're right)
Mega-man: The fast, fabulous, fraudulent life of Megaupload's Kim Dotcom

Apple hit by boycott call over worker abuses in China | Technology | The Observer US writers attack conditions at Foxconn plant and call for consumers to act (busy creating jobs ... in China)

012812
Arab League suspends Syria monitoring mission | World news | guardian.co.uk Around 100 observers will remain in country but will not undertake new missions, statement says
Protests sweep through Senegal after Wade poll ruling | World news | guardian.co.uk Violence breaks out in Senegal following a ruling that President Abdoulaye Wade can run for a third term in office
Settlers who went too far - even for Netanyahu - Middle East - World - The Independent Donald Macintyre ventures to the village which has provoked a legal crisis in Israel (reaping what they sowed +fuck internation law)

Austerity Memories - NYTimes.com A further thought on the observation that Britain’s slump has now gone on longer than the slump in the 1930s: it’s worth remembering the rapturous reception the Cameron austerity program received here, not just from the right, but from centrists ... Heh heh, silly economists. Broder went on to urge Obama, after his salutary midterm defeat, to “do a Cameron” and agree to sharp cuts in the welfare state. It’s kind of remarkable how none of the Very Serious People even considered the possibility that people like me might be, well, right (and they are never held accountable)
Slash and Tax get their groove on - yes, the boys are back in town - The Irish Times - Fri, Jan 20, 2012 It was quarterly return time again yesterday and as poor Mother Ireland presented herself for another pat on the head from the visiting international overlords, we felt a song coming on.

Sun journalists and police officer arrested in corruption investigation | Media | guardian.co.uk Met police search News International's headquarters in Wapping as four current and former Sun employees are arrested (giving them at least a year to erase everything)
Rupert Murdoch's Staff Arrested As Tabloid Scandal Spreads To Second Newspaper

Leon Panetta and the Pakistani Doctor: Yet More Double Standards on Classified Information | emptywheel

Michael-In-Norfolk - Study: Low IQ Correlates With Prejudice and Bigotry There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy ... those with low intelligence gravitate towards conservatism and are prone to embrace prejudice of things they don't understand or that are different. (see Charles Murray and the whole Republican party)
Daily Kos: PolitiFact devolves into absurdity (they just can't help themselves)

Polarization in Obama's Approval at Historic Highs the historically high gap between partisans' job approval ratings of President Obama continued during his third year in office, with an average of 80% of Democrats and 12% of Republicans approving of the job he was doing. (same as Junior, but in reverse)
Poll Shows Dead Heat in Florida Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich tied at 35% each, with Rick Santorum at 9% and Ron Paul at 7%.
Mitt Romney's new ad attacks Newt Gingrich over old ethics violation | World news | guardian.co.uk GOP hopeful's video, part of one of the most expensive campaigns ever, simply shows a 1997 NBC news report
Newt Gingrich 2012: Republican Insiders Rise Up To Cut Candidate Down To Size
NBC Demands Mitt Romney Take Down Ad That Uses Tom Brokaw Footage (video) The ad, called "History Lesson," consists entirely of the opening of the January 21, 1997 edition of "NBC Nightly News."
Romney Converted His Father-in-Law After He Died "Two readers have sent us confirmation that Edward Davies, Mitt Romney's militantly atheist father-in-law, was indeed posthumously converted to Mormonism by his family, despite the fact that when he was alive he regarded all religions as 'hogwash.'"
GOP Debate Chipmunks - YouTube (don't miss)

Despite Stated ICE Policy, Vast Majority Of Immigrants In Detention Were Not Criminals | Crooks and Liars Is President Obama still chasing those mythical independent votes by acting like a hard-liner on immigration? Does he really not get how badly this undermines his support in the Latino community? (Obama has always played politics with people's lives)
No Conviction, No Freedom: Immigration Authorities Locked 13,000 In Limbo (no fucking rights, either)

In the Top 1%, but of Taxpayers, Not Income — Common Sense - NYTimes.com

Texas Dems, minority groups near huge win with redistricting settlement - The Hill's Ballot Box (Texas Rethugs get bitch-slapped by DoJ)
House Transportation Bill “a March of Horribles” | Streetsblog Capitol Hill
Welfare Drug Testing Bill Withdrawn After Amended To Include Testing Lawmakers A Republican member of the Indiana General Assembly withdrew his bill to create a pilot program for drug testing welfare applicants Friday after one of his Democratic colleagues amended the measure to require drug testing for lawmakers (too many Indiana lawmakers on drugs)
North Carolina GOP Lawmaker Calls For Bringing Back Public Hangings, Starting With Abortion Providers | ThinkProgress If Rep. Larry Pittman had his way, “abortionists, rapists, and kidnappers” would be first in line for the gallows ... Republicans in South Carolina, Nebraska, and Iowa pushed legislation that would essentially legalize the murder of abortion providers. Such radical sentiments have been echoed by prominent conservatives like Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), who said during his 2004 campaign, “I favor the death penalty for abortionists.”

Archbishop warns against gay marriage - This Britain - UK - The Independent "We've seen dictators do it in different contexts and I don't want to redefine very clear social structures that have been in existence for a long time and then overnight the state believes it could go in a particular way (yeah, authoritarian dictatorships always do that)
The Anger Over ‘Tranny,’ From Neil Patrick Harris to RuPaul to Dan Savage - The Daily Beast
'Reckless' Leaks Threaten Rape Probe Of New York Police Commissioner's Son

First quantum jiggles detected in solid object - physics-math - 28 January 2012 - New Scientist

The Moral Battle Between Pirates and Copyright Lobbyists | TorrentFreak
Copyright Industry Calls For Broad Search Engine Censorship | TorrentFreak At a behind-closed-doors meeting facilitated by the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, copyright holders have handed out a list of demands to Google, Bing and Yahoo (the internets are just a subsidiary of big content/Hollywood)
Twitter users threaten boycott over censorship accusation | Technology | guardian.co.uk Tweets don't always flow freely – voice of Arab spring accused of imposing gagging system in some countries

012712
Syria Activists: 'Terrifying Massacre' In Homs - Armed forces loyal to President Bashar Assad barraged residential buildings with mortars and machine-gun fire, killing at least 30 people, including a family of women and children
UN security council to discuss Arab-backed Syria plan | World news | The Guardian Draft resolution calls for Assad to surrender power as Saudis move to recognise opposition Syrian National Council
Dancing in the Streets, and Ending Women's Segregation in Israel | Religion Dispatches (a model democracy)
Iraq Violence: Suicide Car Bomber Kills 28 In Baghdad (you can see where this is going)
Interracial ad sparks controversy in South Africa - BlogPost - The Washington Post
Iran to restart IAEA nuclear talks | World news | The Guardian UN nuclear inspectors are due to begin three days of meetings in Tehran on Sunday - the first such talks for over three years
High court judges attempt to speed up Gary McKinnon case | World news | The Guardian Judges list computer hacker's extradition case for July hearing amid concern over time it is taking to return to court (Obama wants him in solitary confinement for 60 years)
Gulf of Mexico oil spill: BP loses bid to make others pay compensation | Environment | guardian.co.uk Judge rules contractors Transocean and Halliburton are not liable for compensation but they still face fines and lawsuits
Persepolis trial in Tunisia is postponed again | Film | guardian.co.uk Trial of Tunisian TV station accused of 'insulting sacred values' of Islam for screening Marjane Satrapi's animated film is adjourned until April following further altercations
Putin Ratchets Up Anti-U.S Rhetoric as Kremlin Race Grows - Bloomberg The U.S. “wants to control everything” and takes decisions unilaterally on key questions, Putin said on a campaign stop yesterday in the Siberian city of Tomsk, 3,100 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow. “Sometimes I get the impression the U.S. doesn’t need allies, it needs vassals.”

Unemployment in Spain Rises to 22.9% - Bloomberg increasing pressure on Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to deliver on his election pledge to create jobs in a shrinking economy (yes! create jobs with more austerity, which worked really well already)
The UK economy needs a shower of money in the high street | Simon Jenkins | Comment is free | The Guardian Printing money might not be dignified, but it does work – just keep the banks and the credit rating agencies out of it - The only possible objection to more direct action is snobbery. The government seems in awe of bankers and will do anything to appease them. If it really wants to revive demand by printing money, it must choose between a bank and a helicopter. Choose the helicopter.
Bailed-out RBS spends millions on Washington lobbyists | Business | The Guardian Bailed-out bank has spent over £2.5m of British taxpayers' money to influence politicians reforming US financial law

ACTA - the latest threat to internet freedom, just signed by the EU - Pirate Party UK

There's a big gap between American attitudes toward "income inequality" and "unfairness." Americans don't want the government to "redistribute income," they want it to stop favoring the wealthy and powerful and to make them pay their fair share. | Democratic Strategist There's a big gap between American attitudes toward "income inequality" and "unfairness." Americans don't want the government to "redistribute income," they want it to stop favoring the wealthy and powerful and to make them pay their fair share.

Military Budget Cuts: Pentagon Unveils 2013 Plan
Jan Brewer vs. Barack Obama: President Says Exchange Was 'Not A Big Deal' (that's not what wingnut Hotair said)
Oooops. Brewer Story Not Holding Up Well | Talking Points Memo
Hillary Clinton says she is 'ready for a rest' after 20 years in politics | World news | The Guardian US secretary of state claims she does not intend to stay in government if Barack Obama wins second term

Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community how the Supreme Court's ruling has created a nightmare for the Republican Establishment.
The Third Jihad, Adelson, and Gingrich | Religion Dispatches
Ed Kilgore: Why Newt Supporters Think He's Electable | The New Republic (he wasn't)
Mitt Romney's Struggle With Truth Continues (the truth will lose, of course)
Kindly Old Ron Paul : Lawyers, Guns & Money But people close to Paul’s operations said he was deeply involved in the company that produced the newsletters, Ron Paul & Associates, and closely monitored its operations, signing off on articles and speaking to staff members virtually every day (lies and the lying liars)
No One Left to Lie To - Ta-Nehisi Coates - Politics - The Atlantic (Ron "I'm a racist liar" Paul)
CNN's Wolf Blitzer Bungles Foreclosure Question, Allows GOP Candidates To Escape Without Offering Housing Plans | ThinkProgress (this is elite journalism)

US economy picked up pace in final quarter of 2011 with 2.8% growth | Business | guardian.co.uk Growth between October and December was fastest of year, but US economy expanded by a modest 1.7% overall in 2011
Eschaton: Nobody Has Any Money younger people are getting screwed. The game has changed for them. They're facing crap job prospects, crap income, no possibility for defined benefits pensions, and perpetual threats to completely gut retirement systems.
Summers: “Inside Job had essentially all its facts wrong” | Felix Salmon (sure, Larry. what a lying asshole)
By Any Other Measure Relying on GDP to calculate economic progress ignores social and environmental realities (isn't that the point?)

Grape seed extract kills head and neck cancer cells, leaves healthy cells unharmed Nearly 12,000 people will die of head and neck cancer in the United States this year and worldwide cases will exceed half a million.
How White Are You? : Lawyers, Guns & Money It’s hard not to be bouncing off the ceiling for the chance to make fun of Charles Murray’s new book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010. I really need a comedy fix right now and this could be the funniest book of the year. The only problem with Murray is that he’s really hard to parody since he’s routinely kicking parody’s decaying corpse (Bell Curve racist defending the priviledges of white people: they eat at Applebees!)
alicublog - Class Consciousness - Charles Murray, best known for his book Niggers are Stupid (sorry, The Bell Curve), has a new one out
I’m Looking At The Boy In The Bubble | TBogg Roy has an interesting post up about how Charles “Coloreds Is Dumb” Murray has moved on from explaining why white people are superior to the dusky races ...

Twitter faces censorship backlash | Technology | guardian.co.uk Users of social network critical of new system that can censor tweets on a country-by-country basis

012612
Iraq: Militants Bomb Home Of Iraqi Policeman, Killing 10 An Iraqi policeman and nine relatives were killed as they slept when militants bombed their home south of Baghdad on Thursday, police sources said, in the latest attack on local officials and security forces.
The human rights “success” in Libya - Salon.com
Syria, Egypt, Libya and Middle East unrest - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk UN unable to update estimated death toll in Syria • UN and NGOs slam Libya over 'torture' of detainees • Egypt imposes 'travel ban' on American NGO workers

Davos: David Cameron urges eurozone to take 'bold and decisive action' | Business | The Guardian (more austerity!)
What Wolf and You Can Learn from the Irish Press for the GOP Debate | MyFDL
ACTA Copyright Treaty Sparks Protests In Latest Anti-Piracy Battle

Grading Obama's Foreign Policy | Foreign Policy Nine experts rate the president’s performance so far.
The Fourth Amendment and the Surveillance State : Lawyers, Guns & Money I have some follow-up thoughts to the GPS surveillance decision handed down by the Supreme Court earlier this week. The first major takeaway from the case is that Sonia Sotomayor was one of the best decisions Obama has made so far (seems to be the only Justice who gets it)

Rachel Maddow Explodes: 'PolitiFact, You're Fired!' - You are a mess! You are fired! You are undermining the definition of the word fact in the English language by pretending to it in your name. The English language wants its word back. You are an embarrassment. You sully the reputation of anyone who cites you as an authority on fact-ishness, let alone fact. You are fired." (video)
Politifact Backtracks After Fact Check Wreck
When Facts Aren't Facts - NYTimes.com The criterion, according to Politifact, seems to be that a fact isn’t a fact if it helps a Democratic narrative.

Veterans Call On West Point To Cancel Planned Speech By Islamophobic General | ThinkProgress ret. Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin, an individual who has a long record of issuing hate-filled rhetoric about Muslims. (crazy Jihad Jerry is the only Christian they could find?)
The War On A Woman's Right To Choose, 2012 Edition | ThinkProgress
Bev Perdue Retiring: North Carolina Governor Reportedly Won't Seek Reelection
Joe Conason: Mitch Daniels: Bombast From the Past - Truthdig “Mitch Daniels ... Isn’t he the former Bush budget director who said the Iraq War would cost $50 billion when it ended up costing $3 trillion? The bureaucrat who promoted the Bush tax cuts when we were fighting two wars? The one whose budget projections were so fraudulent that he predicted federal surpluses in 2004 and 2005? Why the hell should we listen to him criticize Obama?”
How Citizens United Created Newt -- Daily Intel Sheldon Adelson, Newt's sugar daddy (another face of Satan, just look)
The Mitch Is Back | Blogs | Vanity Fair Last year Mitch Daniels signed a bill blocking Federal funds from going to Planned Parenthood in Indiana. And his is what passes for a credible voice on cultural détente in the Republican party.
Senate panel OKs creationism teaching bill | 2012-01-26 | Indianapolis Business Journal | IBJ.com An Indiana Senate panel has approved a bill that would allow creationism to be taught in Indiana's public schools. (keep it up, Indiana, you'll be just like Kentucky and how's that 9% unemployment working out for you?)
Jan Brewer And Barack Obama Nearly Come To Blows Over Book Excerpt Brewer eventually released the erotic thriller late last year to well-deserved indifference. Now Obama is getting into it with Brewer in front of God and everybody, because she used her stupid book to kiss and tell about a top-secret Oval Office meeting the two once had. JESUS! Will they or won’t they, already!!
Romney tax returns detail funds not identified in ethics forms - latimes.com
Balloon Juice » Angry White Lady Chronicles What really happened was that Brewer asked Obama for a meeting and Obama pointed out that after the last meeting in the Oval Office, Brewer lied about it in her book. Is there any state that’s had its reputation more tarnished by asinine teabagging than Arizona, and is there a governor in the nation who’s done more, single-handedly, to hurt the reputation of their state than Jan Brewer? (Haley Barbour? Mitch Daniels? Lex Luthor? Scott Walker?)
Christie On Gay Marriage: Southern Blacks Would Have Been Psyched To Have Vote On Their Rights | TPMMuckraker Christie for comparing a ballot referendum on gay marriage to the civil rights movement thusly: “The fact of the matter is, I think people would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South.” (let those white guys vote on your slavery)
GOP Rep. Slams Obama's Contraception Rule, Claims Birth Control Is 'Unrelated To Basic Needs Of Health Care' | ThinkProgress (they are always snooping around your vagina)

Rise in number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits | Business | guardian.co.uk The number of people seeking aid has increased, but the long-term trend is pointing to a healthier job market
Kamala D. Harris calls mortgage settlement "inadequate" - latimes.com (Obama sweeps it all under the rug, no consequences, slap on the wrist)
Bernanke Moves Fed Toward More Openness - Bloomberg by setting a numeric goal for inflation, advancing his legacy of greater transparency at the world’s most influential central bank (how about a numeric unemployment goal, hey?)
Servicer Horror Stories: Resurrecting Zombie Mortgages | FDL News Desk The reason I continue to believe the issue of foreclosure fraud and servicer abuse remains and shouldn’t be settled away is that it has such an impact on people’s lives (Obama wants all this under the rug)
Quelle Surprise! Bank of America Accused of Blocking Arizona AG Investigation « naked capitalism
Apple’s iPad and the Human Costs for Workers in China - NYTimes.com “Apple never cared about anything other than increasing product quality and decreasing production cost,”
MF Global: Uncertain futures - FT.com People such as Mr Kasouf increasingly feel they will never get their money back. As Christmas app­roached, with a wife and two children to support, he considered selling his house or declaring bankruptcy. Ultimately, the 72 per cent of his funds MF Global’s bankruptcy trustee has since returned prevented this, but his view of the markets has been shaken. “This has practically destroyed my trust in the whole system,” he says. (practically?)

NASA - Blue Marble
Protein in brain could be a key target in controlling Alzheimer’s 12/15-Lipoxygenase
Superbugs spied off the Antarctic coast - life - 26 January 2012 - New Scientist BACTERIA that can resist nearly all antibiotics have been found in Antarctic seawater (from human shit)

Greg Kelly, Son Of NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, Accused Of Rape (where is the truth?)
Matthew Hermann, Other White Teens, Used Noose On Black Classmate: Report (video) because he had become friends with a white girl one of the alleged attackers is related to.

Conservative Parents Demand School Teach About Ex-Gay Therapy ("gay-related-immune deficiency") (parents Brian Lindquist and Mike Skaalerud famous on the internets for all eternity for being bigoted assholes)
The Infamous C-Word
Demi’s Drug: What Is Nitrous Oxide? | Healthland | TIME.com A former nitrous addict and expert on addiction explains why laughing gas is no joke.

Eschaton: Is That Really What It's For So religion lets you feel good about not practicing what your religion preaches? Ok.

Twitter To Censor Tweets In Some Countries
MegaUpload Users Plan to Sue the FBI over Lost Files | TorrentFreak
One Per Cent: FBI releases plans to monitor social networks

012512
US marine spared jail over deaths of unarmed Iraqis | World news | guardian.co.uk Frank Wuterich, convicted over 2005 massacre of 24 civilians in Haditha, will not serve time in jail (will be "detained" 3 days per dead innocent civilian murdered - our society of unresponsibility, see Obama)
U.S. military forces free two hostages in Somalia – usatoday.com - President Obama authorized the mission by SEAL Team 6, the same unit that was behind the operation in Pakistan last May that killed Osama bin Laden.
Raid In Somalia: U.S. Military Frees Hostages Held Since October
Bedouin tribesmen storm Egyptian tourist resort | World news | The Guardian Gunmen take control of complex on Red Sea coast and demand £425,000 ransom in exchange for leaving site peacefully (fringes getting edgy)
Iran sanctions need to be tougher, Israeli defence minister warns | World news | The Guardian Ehud Barak says the EU oil embargo alone is unlikely to persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear plans (Israel = eternal war)

U.K.'s GDP slips 0.2% in fourth quarter - MarketWatch (Cameron blames Labour, not his own austerity)
As euro crisis fears ease, focus turns to growth | Reuters There is a palpable sense of hope at the annual Davos World Economic Forum that the euro zone is edging away from the brink of catastrophe but business leaders say Europe's woes are still holding back a global recovery (and what, exactly, has changed?) "At the end of the day, it comes down to growth -- that's what these countries need to keep their debt sustainable." (which was why we needed austerity)
Angela Merkel casts doubt on saving Greece from financial meltdown | World news | The Guardian German chancellor speaks candidly to the Guardian and five other leading European newspapers as part of a unique collaboration to explore the EU's predicament (wait, that's not what you just said)

Press Freedom Index: Occupy Wall Street Journalist Arrests Cost U.S. Dearly In Latest Survey - The treatment of journalists by police was well documented throughout 2011. Reporters were beaten, arrested and prevented from covering police action against Occupy protesters. Tensions heightened so much that the New York Police Department had to meet with journalists and remind its officers not to mistreat them.
Press Freedom Index 2011-2012 - Reporters Without Borders (America! We're number 47!)

Fidel Castro attacks 'idiocy and ignorance' of US Republican race | World news | The Guardian Retired Cuban leader says Republican primaries are 'the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been' (the truth that can only be spoken by Fidel)
RealClearPolitics - Politics - Jan 25, 2012 - Castro lambasts US Republican primary as idiotic

Obama's State Of The Union Address: Everybody Must Play By The Same Rules
Obama hits the road amid Republican attacks on state of the union speech | World news | guardian.co.uk President kicks off tour of swing states as Gingrich and Romney accuse him of 'class warfare' in asking rich to pay more
Republican Response: Mitch Daniels Delivers Speech After State Of The Union (video) accusing the president of pushing an extreme agenda that was "pro-poverty." (Indiana: 9% unemployment: 10th highest in country)
Word Most Conspicuously Absent In SOU | The New Republic Union." Not as in "federal government," but as in "organization dedicated to protecting the rights of workers."
Labor Responses to the State of the Union : Lawyers, Guns & Money The general tenor of the labor community is that Obama was typically tepid on labor issues in his State of the Union ... But even though he needs union support desperately in his reelection campaign, all he’s really offering labor is that he’s better than a Republican (Obama's game of minimal expectations)
Tax rates of presidential candidates, in one chart - The Washington Post
Balloon Juice » Consider the Audience A Smart Politics study of the 70 orally delivered State of the Union Addresses since 1934 finds the text of Obama’s 2012 speech to have tallied the third lowest score on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test, at an 8.4 grade level (probably over-estimating his audience)
Balloon Juice » They Still Don’t Know What a Fact Is The weasels at Politifact have backed down somewhat from last night’s epic failure (they wouldn't know the truth if it hit them between the eyes, which it did)

Mark Kelly Won't Run For Gabrielle Giffords' Congress Seat: Report Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), a close friend of Giffords', broke down in tears as she read aloud her resignation letter on the House floor with Giffords at her side.
Mormon Church's Prior Baptism Of Dead Jews Could Raise Concerns For Florida Voters (yeah, you born-agains, you will eventually join the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in heaven)
Balloon Juice » Got to give it up - Bobo: "To me, this whole race (the Republican primary) is now about manhood. Newt won South Carolina because he’s a bigger Alpha and Republicans want bellicosity, not politeness. Mitt looked soft and in the debates seemed unwilling to fight." (bellicosity is the primary Republican value) )
Newt 'Cry Baby' Gingrich: my part in his downfall | Martin Dunn | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Gingrich's admission that personal spite had motivated the 1995 government shutdown gave us a front page that still haunts him
Ever wondered what happened to Sarah Palin? Well Newt Gingrich has eaten her and absorbed her shtick | Hadley Freeman | Comment is free | The Guardian Just like Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich blames the media for his own failings and insists he's an outsider – despite his frequent references to his time with Ronald Reagan
Republicans vow to protect high school dropouts from Barack Obama | The Ticket - Yahoo! News (you can't make this shit up +"bellowed")

US Federal Reserve to keep interest rates near zero until 2014 | Business | guardian.co.uk Federal Reserve Bank's pessimism indicates the economy may not fully recover from the recession for another two years (yay, free money for bankers!)
The Schneiderman Gambit: Financial Fraud Unit Appears Designed to Fail, and Grease Skids for Foreclosure Fraud Settlement | FDL News Desk (Obama's got their backs)
Tim Geithner Won't Stay On If Obama Wins Second Term: Report
To Shop Smart, Patients Need to Know Price of Care: Peter Orszag - Bloomberg (what a tool)

Envelope for an artificial cell Chemists have taken an important step in making artificial life forms from scratch. Using a novel chemical reaction, they have created self-assembling cell membranes, the structural envelopes that contain and support the reactions required for life.
When I turn down the dimmer switch on my lights, do I actually use less electricity, or is the difference between the bulb's nominal wattage and the actual wattage vented as heat by the dimmer? : askscience

Joseph Maturo, East Haven Mayor Says 'I Might Have Tacos For Dinner' In Response To Police Arrests For Harassing Latinos - The Latino community in East Haven, according to the Census, make up 10.3% of the town's population. Yet out of a police force of 50, only one speaks Spanish, and government officials, along with one community resident, informed PIX 11 that he is not even Latino. (Republican of course, and rehired corrupt chief of police)
NM man who pulled own tooth in jail awarded $22M - Yahoo! News A federal jury has awarded $22 million to a New Mexico man who was kept in solitary confinement for two years and forced to pull his own tooth after being arrested for drunken driving in Dona Ana County (torture by solitary confinement because they can)

012412
Iran oil sanctions spark war of words between Tehran and Washington | World news | guardian.co.uk Iran threatens to close strait of Hormuz after EU escalates sanctions, but US warns force could be used to keep it open
Egyptian junta's lifting of state of emergency fails to convince | World news | The Guardian Military leader says measure long used as tool of repression will only be used to deal with acts of 'thuggery'
Egypt's revolutionaries see little progress a year after revolt | McClatchy
Fatal car bombs hit Baghdad | World news | guardian.co.uk Eleven people killed in two attacks as violence continues in Iraq amid political crisis after US military withdrawal (total waste of a million lives)
chart - The Cost Of War: Iraq Versus Libya | ThinkProgress
Turkey warns France over Armenian genocide law | World news | The Guardian French senators have approved the bill, risking more sanctions from Ankara and complicating relations with Turkey

Western justice and transparency - Salon.com On Saturday in Somalia, the U.S. fired missiles from a drone and killed the 27-year-old Lebanon-born, ex-British citizen Bilal el-Berjawi. His wife had given birth 24 hours earlier and the speculation is that the U.S. located him when his wife called to give him the news.

IMF slashes global growth forecasts | Business | guardian.co.uk Eurozone GDP expected to fall 0.5% during 2012 • UK set to grow 0.6% – sharp fall from earlier 1.6% estimate (more austerity!)

Costa Concordia captain not solely to blame, says prosecutor | World news | The Guardian Investigators urged to consider role of ship's owners in incident as salvage experts begin pumping out fuel from wreck

Ex-C.I.A. Officer John Kiriakou Accused in Leak - NYTimes.com - The prosecution of Mr. Kiriakou is the sixth criminal case brought under President Obama against current or former government officials accused of providing classified information to the media, more such cases than all previous presidents combined. (Obama loves torture, hates whistleblowers)
Rules of American justice: a tale of three cases - Salon.com What’s most notable here is that this is now the sixth prosecution by the Obama administration of an accused leaker, and all six have been charged under the draconian, World-War-I era Espionage Act. As EFF’s Trevor Timm put it yesterday: this is the “6th time under Obama someone is charged with Espionage for leaking to a journalist. Before Obama: only 3 cases in history.” (Obama has no moral center or even a periphery)

In Police Training, a Dark Film on U.S. Muslims - NYTimes.com A year later, police documents obtained under the state’s Freedom of Information Law reveal a different reality: “The Third Jihad,” which includes an interview with Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, was shown, according to internal police reports, “on a continuous loop” for between three months and one year of training (NYC top cops lied and lied with no consequences)

Newt Gingrich: Brian Williams 'Wrong' To Silence GOP Debate Crowd (video)
Mitt Romney Tax Returns Released: Paid Just 13.9% Rate In 2010, Had Swiss Bank Account (just an ordinary, unemployed American)
"Self Deportation": It's a Real Thing, and It Isn't Pretty | Mother Jones Mitt Romney unveiled a novel solution for illegal immigration during Tuesday night's GOP debate, saying that he'd rely on "self-deportation" to reduce the number of unauthorized immigrants in the US.
Hullabaloo Patriotic Self-deportation ... The problem is "who wants to take all our patriots?"
Rick Santorum Suggests That When Life Gives You Rape, You Should Make Rapeanade | TBogg
Philosoraptor - if a child conceived by rape is a blessing from god does tha

US mortgage lenders 'close to $19bn foreclosure settlement' | Business | The Guardian US president Barack Obama could announce a deal – the largest multi-state agreement since the 1998 tobacco settlement – in Tuesday's state of the union address (Obama sweeps it all under the rug: $19Bn on $2Tr loss, not bad)

Media Matters Goes Light Bulb Shopping | Media Matters for America Led by Fox News, right-wing media outlets have repeatedly told consumers that the standards would "ban" incandescent bulbs and force us all to purchase "mercury-laden, ugly and smelly compact fluorescent light bulbs," to the chagrin of electrical manufacturers. Fox has even gone so far as to encourage consumers to "hoard" the old, inefficient bulbs (Satan lies, surprise)

Tennessee Lawmaker Compares Homosexuality To 'Pedophilia, Prostitution, Murder' | ThinkProgress - state Rep. John Ragan (R) (famous on the internets for all eternity for being a bigoted asshole)

Paula Deen Shocked By Lack Of Public Support Following Diabetes Announcement None of her famous foodie friends have shown her one ounce of support. Yet some believe that other chefs have remained silent because Deen kept quiet about her illness for years.
Paula Deen Publicist, Nancy Assuncao Sanchez, Reportedly Quit Over Novo Nordisk Deal oday, though, the New York Post reported that Assuncao left the company when she learned that her employer planned to endorse Victoza, a diabetes drug manufactured by pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, after hiding her diabetes for three years.

Europe Weighs a Tough Law on Online Privacy and User Data - NYTimes.com Europe is considering a sweeping new law that would force Internet companies like Amazon.com and Facebook to obtain explicit consent from consumers about the use of their personal data, delete that data forever at the consumer’s request and face fines for failing to comply.
Apple Fails To Get Samsung Tablets Banned In Netherlands, Again

012312
Iran: Flotilla Of Warships Sent Through Strait of Hormuz Heightens Tensions
Iran oil sanctions spark war of words between Tehran and Washington | World news | The Guardian Iran threatens to close strait of Hormuz after EU escalates sanctions, but US warns force could be used to keep it open
Lara Logan: I Have PTSD From Sexual Assault In Egypt
US marine reaches plea deal over deaths of unarmed Iraqis | World news | guardian.co.uk Frank Wuterich, who led the marine squad that killed 24 Iraqis in Haditha in 2005, faces three months' confinement and pay drop (kill 24 innocent civilians, get pay cut)
Gaddafi loyalists take back Bani Walid | World news | The Guardian Reports say at least four people killed in clashes between besieged NTC forces and well-organised pro-Gaddafi fighters

Calculated Risk: Morning Greece: Euro Zone Finance Ministers discuss possible debt deal
Spanish GDP to Contract 1.5 Percent in 2012, Bank of Spain Says - Businessweek (austerity fail, more austerity!)
Eschaton: Keep Bleeding The Patient - really don't know what will end all of this austerity madness. All the Very Serious People agree it's the right thing to do, and nothing will ever convince them that they are/were wrong.
Eschaton: I've Got An Even Bolder Plan - How about more free money for the most corrupt people on the planet? That'll probably work.

Phone hacking: News of the World journalists lied to Milly Dowler police | Media | The Guardian Surrey police report released by MPs reveals reporters interfered with investigation as well as hacking missing girl's phone
News Of The World Journalists Admitted Hacking Milly Dowler's Phone To Police
Leveson inquiry: Lord Patten accuses politicians of 'grovelling' to Murdoch | Media | The Guardian BBC Trust chair and former Tory minister says current MPs are mistaken in believing newspapers determine their fate

Costa Concordia captain 'distracted by guests on bridge' | World news | The Guardian Witness claims captain's concentration was disturbed by conversation with visitor on bridge at moment of impact

High Court - Warrant Needed for GPS Tracking - NYTimes.com (rare decision for your rights - Obama, of course was on the wrong side)
Balloon Juice » A Positive Ruling Props to whoever can come up with the best excuse for the Obama admin coming out on the appallingly wrong side of this.
Supreme Court Court Rejects Willy-Nilly GPS Tracking | Threat Level | Wired.com - The government told the justices during oral arguments that that GPS devices have become a common tool in crime fighting, saying it is employed “thousands” of times annually.

Hullabaloo It's good that Rand Paul is taking on the TSA's security theatre by refusing to comply with a pat down request. Perhaps it will lead to more discussion about why this is a ridiculous approach to anti-terrorism (but messing with lady junk and forcing women to view sonograms is just fine, of course)
Hullabaloo SCHMIDT: Look, I think, not only are we not moving towards a coalescing of support by the Republican establishment for Newt Gingrich, we're probably moving toward the declaration of war on Newt Gingrich by the Republican establishment. And if Newt Gingrich is able to win the Florida primary, you will see a panic and a meltdown of the Republican establishment that is beyond my ability to articulate in the English language.

Washington Post Ombudsman Flip Flops On Anti-Obama Hate Rhetoric | Media Matters for America (Patrick Pexton, Satan's "fact checker")
At Florida Town Hall, Rick Santorum Cowardly Panders To Woman Who Alleges Obama Is ‘An Avowed Muslim’ | ThinkProgress
How South Carolina Results Vindicate Political Power Of Economic Inequality Arguments | ThinkProgress
Romney's National Lead Collapses The latest Gallup daily tracking poll shows Mitt Romney's once formidable national lead over his Republican presidential rivals has completely collapsed. Romney now barely edges Newt Gingrich, 29% to 28%. They are followed by Ron Paul at 13% and Rick Santorum at 11%.
Balloon Juice » Florida, Florida, Florida
Ark. campaign manager's cat slaughtered - politico (sick Republifucks)
Mark Kirk Stroke: Illinois Senator Undergoes Successful Surgery Kirk, 52, checked himself into the local Lake Forest Hospital Saturday after suffering dizziness and headaches, doctors said.
The Story of Juan Williams | Business | Vanity Fair Juan Williams was a sometimes-controversial star at NPR until an inflammatory comment about Muslims sent him further into the arms of Fox News. A look at his career through the eyes of several old and skeptical colleagues.

US mortgage lenders 'close to $19bn foreclosure settlement' | Business | The Guardian US president Barack Obama could announce a deal – the largest multi-state agreement since the 1998 tobacco settlement – in Tuesday's state of the union address (slap on the wrist; pressures states to accept corrupt deal)

Study: Stem cells may aid vision in blind people


Danah Boyd - Cracking Teenagers’ Online Codes - NYTimes.com (Danah Boyd)

Internet mogul Kim Dotcom denies internet piracy in New Zealand court | Technology | The Guardian Megaupload.com founder, who was arrested at request of FBI, is denied bail after prosecutors say he may try to flee country

012212
Pakistan Helps U.S. Drones Campaign: Reuters - The death of a senior al Qaeda leader in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's tribal badlands, the first strike in almost two months, signaled that the U.S.-Pakistan intelligence partnership is still in operation despite political tensions (Obama's extra-judicial murders)
Covering Obama’s Secret War : CJR When drones strike, key questions go unasked and unanswered
Inside the Killing Machine - The Daily Beast President Obama is ordering a record number of Predator strikes. An exclusive interview with a man who approved ‘lethal operations.’ (here we are, a year later)
In Rush to Transcribe Military’s Concern on Why We Can’t Leave Afghanistan, Did NY Times Fact-check “Classified” Report? | emptywheel (of course not, that's your job; theirs is to print PR releases and "reports")

Saudi Arabia to withdraw Arab League monitors from Syria | World news | The Guardian Decision taken minutes after league decided to persist with observers and extend mission for another month

Costa Concordia captain claims company ordered 'salute' to island | World news | The Guardian Francesco Schettino reportedly challenges Costa over cruise collision as 13th body is found by divers

Hullabaloo Fatuous rich guy quote of the day - A senior official at the Bank of Scotland explaining why they need to pay their CEO an obscene bonus:
RBS tests Cameron resolve on pay-outs - FT.com David Cameron’s pledge to curb executive pay and stop “rewards for failure” is set to face its biggest test, as Royal Bank of Scotland prepares to offer a bonus of more than £1m to its chief executive, even though the state-controlled bank’s share price has almost halved in a year.

The “anti-Semitism” smear campaign against CAP and Media Matters rolls on - Salon.com (AIPAC liars and thugs)
How to Smear a Washington Think Tank - Robert Wright - Politics - The Atlantic Suddenly lots of people are asking whether calling someone an "Israel-firster" is anti-Semitic. The occasion for these reflections is a controversy--the subject of a Washington Post piece yesterday--surrounding the liberal think tank the Center for American Progress (rightwing "dual loyalty" Jews in America at work)

Exhibits in Latif’s SCOTUS Petition Prove Interrogation Summaries Should Not Be Entitled to Presumption of Regularity | emptywheel

Newt Gingrich Wins Big In South Carolina, Resets GOP Primary (SC "values voters" don't care about adultery, only gays and blacks)
Newt Gingrich Favorability | TPM PollTracker (Newtie is a very popular guy nationally)
Gingrich Falsely Claims He Was Completely Exonerated In Ethics Investigtion | ThinkProgress (they don't care about big fat lies, either, truth not part of Christianity)
Clyburn Says Newt Gingrich Is Using Coded Racial Language | ThinkProgress (not so coded, dude)
Poll: Majority Say U.S. Needs New Campaign Finance Laws | ThinkProgress 58 percent of Americans say the U.S needs new campaign finance laws — a change from three years ago when more people said it would be “good” if the Supreme Court struck down existing campaign finance laws.
Political Animal - Romney partially caves on tax returns As Ben Smith put it, “Releasing the 2010 returns is just blood in the water. What about the previous 20 years?” When Barack Obama ran in 2008, he released returns for the previous eight years. When Bill Clinton ran in 1992, he disclosed 12 years
Republican Convention Has '50-50' Chance Of Being Open: Former GOP Chair Michael Steele
Poll: Majority Say U.S. Needs New Campaign Finance Laws | ThinkProgress 58 percent of Americans say the U.S needs new campaign finance laws — a change from three years ago when more people said it would be “good” if the Supreme Court struck down existing campaign finance laws.
Here Come the Super Super PACs

South Carolina's Attorney General detects voter fraud during pri - WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | Wilson says an analysis found 953 ballots cast by voters were people who are listed as dead (zombie Republicans)
Roe v. Wade at 39: A ‘breathtaking’ year for abortion restrictions - The Washington Post Charmaine Yoest: The most obvious thing was the 2010 election. While the headlines were all about the changing command in the House of Representatives, what we were seeing was a tidal wave of new pro-life legislators in state houses. When we saw this big wave come in, we were ready to grab the ball and run with it. Last year, 28 laws that we were involved with passed. It was breathtaking.

Holder, Breuer, MERS bombshell | MyFDL

Check and mate. - Imgur - 21 Facts that Evolutionists can't answer (and Jesus spoke cracker)
Religious-Themed Business Course Canceled at ISU in Ames - Ames, IA Patch The course, Application of Biblical Insight into the Management of Business/Organization (taxpayer money)

Deval Patrick, Massachusetts Governor, Signs Transgender Equal Rights Bill Into Effect Still, many transgender rights activists found fault with the new legislation, drawing attention to its lack of public accommodation protections. Last fall's removal of such a protection
McLaughlin raised money for Murray, employees say - The Boston Globe Fund-raising may have been illegal; worries kept lieutenant governor awake on night of crash (another turn in a twisty story)

Et tu, Mr. Destructo? // Joe Paterno Is Dead: Real Death Edition Like the last decade of watching journalists and policymakers trying to decide if torture is “okay” or preemptive warfare permitted without evidence, this was one of those baldly self-evident challenges posed to an adult in society, and those who have refused to meet it should have the odium of their failure linger next to their name, into the grave and onward

Thanks, Robert Frost by David Ray | The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor
Bronnie Ware: Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

Filesonic gone now too? "All sharing functionality on FileSonic is now disabled. Our service can only be used to upload and retrieve files that you have uploaded personally" : technology
Polish government websites face apparent attack by Internet group Anonymous - The Washington Post
Two lessons from the Megaupload seizure - Salon.com In other words, many SOPA opponents were confused and even shocked when they learned that the very power they feared the most in that bill — the power of the U.S. Government to seize and shut down websites based solely on accusations, with no trial — is a power the U.S. Government already possesses and, obviously, is willing and able to exercise even against the world’s largest sites
Chris Dodd’s paid SOPA crusading - Salon.com - Chris Dodd’s emphatic 2010 pledge not to lobby once he finally left the Senate was prompted by widespread speculation that he spent the last two years in office blatantly shilling for corporate interests in order to ensure a prosperous post-Congress career
Rick Falkvinge: the Swedish radical leading the fight over web freedoms | Technology | The Observer The tech entrepreneur launched the Pirate party to fight online censorship. Now, it is Europe's fastest growing political group
Uploaded.to Blocks US Visitors After MegaUpload Shutdown | TorrentFreak The move is most likely a response to the FBI crackdown on MegaUpload two days ago.
Australia: US Copyright Colony or Just a Good Friend? | TorrentFreak Prime Minister Julia Gillard, a trained lawyer, prejudiced any future legal action by prematurely labelling Assange’s actions “illegal.” She has since sacked the Attorney-General whose job it was to give legal advice on the Wikileaks matter, but the damage has been done and the comment has never been retracted (Oz aand NZ client states of Hollywood)

012112
Scores killed in terrorist attacks in Nigeria | World news | guardian.co.uk At least 140 people killed in northern city of Kano as terror group Boko Haram says it carried out series of bombings
Afghan soldier who killed French troops was our recruit, Taliban say | World news | guardian.co.uk Taliban claim gunman who shot dead four French soldiers was an infiltrator working for them

Costa Concordia: woman's body is found | World news | guardian.co.uk Official death toll now stands at 12, with 20 people missing after the cruise liner hit rocks off the coast of Italy
Costa Concordia: Italy Cruise Disaster Captain Denies Delaying Alarm told magistrates he informed the ship's owners of the accident immediately, denying he had delayed raising the alarm, judicial sources said on Saturday.
Why must a captain never leave a sinking ship? | World news | The Guardian
Italy, Bravado and the Costa Concordia | GlobalPost The swagger of Costa Concordia’s captain encapsulates Italy's troubles in the Berlusconi era.

Greece Nearing Deal on Sovereign Debt Haircut | FDL News Desk (Hedge funds whine)

Belgian police raid church offices over abuse files - Yahoo! News Belgian police conducted a third day of raids on Catholic church offices on Wednesday as part of an operation targeting priests suspected of child abuse (WLPO)
Japan's immigration control: Gulag for gaijin | The Economist

FEC Republicans Are Making Citizens United Even Worse | ThinkProgress (Republicans always make everything worse)
Effect of Citizens United Felt Two Years Later : Roll Call Opinion

Gingrich wins huge come-from-behind victory in South Carolina | McClatchy
Suddenly Romney's on the ropes as developments rock GOP race | McClatchy
Political Animal - The problem that’s hard to fix And then think about where Romney stands this morning. It turns out he lost Iowa to a candidate he outspent 7 to 1; his national lead has, according to Gallup, “collapsed” over the course of the last several days; he struggled through two widely-panned debate performances; and polls suggest he’s likely to lose the South Carolina primary.
Gingrich Is Well-Positioned as South Carolina Votes - NYTimes.com Mr. Gingrich leads Mr. Romney 38 to 30 in the FiveThirtyEight forecast of South Carolina, which has been updated with polling through Friday evening.
Newt Gingrich Surges In South Carolina, But Expect The Unexpected (don't call it a joke, the villagers will get upset)
GOP’s Minority Outreach: We Talk, You Listen and Repeat - She the People: - The Washington Post More applause greeted a woman at one of Gingrich’s next campaign stops when she thanked him “for putting Mr. Juan Williams in his place the other night.” South Carolina has a dreadful history of putting black folks in their places, of course, from brutal acts of violence during slave times through a century of Jim Crow.
Political Animal - ‘He Who Should Not be Named’ But there’s one thing you’d be hard-pressed to find mentioned at a Republican debate. George W. Bush? Who?
Political Animal - This Week in God First up from the God Machine this week is a look at the recent track of the religious right movement and its spectacularly unsuccessful attempts to dictate the Republican presidential nominating contest.
Huckabee Wants To Know If Obama Got College Loans "As A Foreign Student" | Media Matters for America (Mike Huckabee, godly man)
No One Cares About the Affair South Carolina Republicans remain remarkably forgiving of Newt Gingrich's sordid marital history (gays and blacks are their thing)

Hullabaloo - Newtie's Dream Act - In a page right out of Newt Gingrich’s alternate-history science-fiction wingnut-polygamy utopian epicCandyland Space Land, the school district in Tucson has completely banned Mexican-American studies, seized all the textbooks and even wall posters from the classrooms, and punished the students who protested by sentencing them to janitorial duty.
Hullabaloo - South Carolina values - Since CNN has assured us that the South is "where values matter" in advance of today's South Carolina primary, it's worth considering just what South Carolina values are, courtesy Thomas Schaller in Whistling Past Dixie (SC: the asshole of America)
David Brooks Wealth Issue Column - Our Mr. Brooks Climbs the Romney Family Tree - Esquire (Pierce reads Bobo so you don't have to)

Blacks Face Bias in Bankruptcy, Study Suggests - NYTimes.com Blacks are about twice as likely as whites to wind up in the more onerous and costly form of consumer bankruptcy as they try to dig out from their debts, a new study has found (must be their fault in our post-racial society)

Forecast The Facts Exposes America's Climate-Denier TV Weathermen | ThinkProgress more than half of TV weather reporters don’t believe in human-induced climate change, even as our poisoned weather grows more extreme (TV weather readers now "climate scientists")
Enormous solar outburst could dazzle your weekend - CSMonitor.com Auroras may dazzle more people than usual this weekend as Earth receives a glancing blow from an enormous solar outburst that erupted on Jan. 19.

Guilty Until Proved Innocent - NYTimes.com In America, a person is presumed innocent until proved guilty. Unless, that is, he plays college sports (keep it up, Joe - college sports are totally corrupt)

Rate of abortion is highest in countries where practice is banned - Health News - Health & Families - The Independent In Africa and Latin America researchers found that 95 to 97 per cent of abortions were unsafe (fundies and the popester killing women)
Sex After 50: Surprising Findings About Sex in Midlife 97 percent of midlifers consider regular sex important for their romantic relationships. And single post 50s aren't seeking sheet action every now and then -- 65 percent of those surveyed want it two to three times a week.
pandagon.net - How to do feminist fashion, now that we’ve accepted that it exists?
Does marriage really make people happier? Study finds few well-being advantages to marriage over cohabitation

Investment Firm Y Combinator Goes on Offensive Against Hollywood - NYTimes.com
MPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren't Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought | Techdirt (Chris Dodd, Lamar Smith, Pat Leahy, the corrupt of the corrupt)
Balloon Juice » White House to Chris Dodd and the MPAA- “Eat a Bag of Salted Dicks” It looks like Chris Dodd, who yesterday was launching threats at the President, may have overstepped his bounds just a tad:
Kim Dotcom: Police Cut Way Into Mansion To Arrest Megaupload Founder (lucky Obama didn't drone him; he was making money from advertising, after all)

012012
Mashable - The Social Media Guide Lamar Smith, the chief sponsor of SOPA, said on Friday that he is pulling the bill “until there is wider agreement on a solution.” (Smith and Leahy, by their actions they will be known)
Anti-pornography bill won't protect children, but it could cripple the Internet -- Government Computer News Anti-porn bill won't protect children, but it could cripple the Internet - would require Internet service providers to capture credit card data, bank statements, IP information and search history from every user and keep it on hand for 18 months.

Nicolas Sarkozy Weighs Afghan Withdrawal After Soldier Kills 4 French Troops - NYTimes.com President Nicolas Sarkozy of France suspended military training and assistance for Afghan forces on Friday and said he would consider an early withdrawal from Afghanistan after an Afghan soldier shot and killed four French soldiers on a base in eastern Afghanistan.
Nato's Afghan alliance unhinged by growing mutual mistrust | World news | The Guardian US military report reveals how issues such as arrogance and cleanliness are leading Afghan soldiers to shoot Nato trainers (we're there why again?)
Active-Duty Army Suicides Reach Record High - NYTimes.com
Nigerian city of Kano rocked by explosions and gunfire | World news | The Guardian Eyewitnesses describe panic and pandemonium on streets as residents ran for cover and smoke rose into sky

IMF warns of threat to global economies posed by austerity drives | Business | The Guardian International Monetary Fund and 10 other economic bodies make 'call to action' to boost growth and curb protectionism (oh wait ... now you tell us)
European debt crisis live: reports of Greek debt deal | Business | guardian.co.uk Greek government and bondholders reportedly reach deal • IMF slashes global growth forecast

News International Faces FBI Investigation Over Phone Hacking
U.K. Men On Trial For 'Death Penalty' Leaflets Suggesting Gay People Should Be Punished

Atlanta Jewish Times owner says sorry for Obama 'hit' column | World news | guardian.co.uk Andrew Adler says he deeply regrets writing a column suggesting Mossad agents should consider 'a hit' on the president if he fails to support Israel (whoops, the truth slipped out)
Livewire | TPM | Obama Sings Al Green At The Apollo Theater In NYC

We must stop this corporate takeover of American democracy | Bernie Sanders | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Unless we can reverse the supreme court's dreadful Citizens United decision, US politics will become a plutocrats' plaything (which was whole point)
Supreme court tosses out Texas electoral maps drawn by federal judges | World news | guardian.co.uk Decision to do away with maps that favoured minorities will most likely benefit Republicans in upcoming elections (predictable)

Political Animal - Understanding the nature of ‘hypocrisy,’ redux Brian McGrory reports this week on Sen. Scott Brown’s (R-Mass.) new attack on Elizabeth Warren: she’s apparently an “elitist hypocrite.” ("crass warfare")
ABC News: Newt Gingrich's Claims About Ex-Wife Interview 'Just Not True'
Chuck Todd Rips Stephen Colbert's Presidential Run (video) "He is making a mockery of the system," Todd said.
Hullabaloo Fainting couch alert: Colbert is making a mockery of a mockery ... Oh dear me. Villager Chuck Todd is in a tizzy over Stephen Colbert making a mockery of the electoral system. (+Whitewater and David Bossie)
Balloon Juice » Chuck Todd’s Knickers in a Twist Over… Colbert
Stephen Colbert’s unfunny run for president - The Washington Post (more media villagers clutching their pearls because someone pointed out it's all a sham)
The real reason no one impersonates dead voters: High risk, little benefit | The Signal - Yahoo! News
Kerrey to weigh bid over weekend - Omaha.com (hoping to ride on Obama's coattails +worst of the worst of Dems)

Insight: Top Justice officials connected to mortgage banks | Reuters U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, were partners for years at a Washington law firm that represented a Who's Who of big banks and other companies at the center of alleged foreclosure fraud, a Reuters inquiry shows (now we see what happened)
Home sales hit 11-month high - Yahoo! News and the number of properties on the market was the fewest in nearly seven years, pointing to a nascent recovery in the housing sector.

NASA - NASA Finds 2011 Ninth-Warmest Year on Record NASA Finds 2011 Ninth-Warmest Year on Record
Review - A World Without Values - Ethics Essays on John Mackie's Moral Error Theory by Richard Joyce and Simon Kirchin (
A brief telephone interview to identify lesbian and bisexual women in random digit dialing sampling ... [J Sex Res. 2002] - PubMed - NCBI
Neural network gets an idea of number without counting - tech - 20 January 2012 - New Scientist AN ARTIFICIAL brain has taught itself to estimate the number of objects in an image without actually counting them, emulating abilities displayed by some animals including lions and fish, as well as humans.

Roe v. Wade Still Under Siege, 39 Years Later Now, 39 years later, conservative lawmakers are making unprecedented moves toward reversing Roe v. Wade, and the legality of abortion is as precarious as it's ever been (Fundamentalism at work)
Eschaton: Really Horrible People "Abstinence education" is stupid regardless, but it takes a worst person of the world level caliber person to propose it only for girls. (Caitlan Flanagan approves +plus, what about supply and demand?)
Obama Administration Approves Rule That Guarantees Near-Universal Contraceptive Coverage | ThinkProgress Today, in a huge victory for women’s health, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that most employers will be required to cover contraception in their health plans, along with other preventive services, with no cost-sharing such as co-pays or deductibles (viagra was always free, of course)

Microsoft Calls for Gay Marriage in Washington State - Rebecca J. Rosen - Technology - The Atlantic The company argues that it's hard to hire the best people in the world when the state where it's based discriminates against them.
250K without power in Wash. as flood worries rise - Yahoo! News A powerful Pacific Northwest storm knocked out power to about 250,000 electric customers around Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia after it coated much of Washington in ice and swelled Oregon rivers, killing a child and two adults. Besides the outages, the big concern now is more flooding in both states with warmer temperatures and rain.

011912
Iran warns neighbours not to join isolation attempts | World news | The Guardian Iranian foreign minister says Gulf states co-operating with western efforts to isolate Tehran would be in 'dangerous position'

Hedge Funds May Sue Greece if It Tries to Force Loss - NYTimes.com Hedge funds have been known to use hardball tactics to make money. Now they have come up with a new one: suing Greece in a human rights court to make good on its bond payments (that'll work)

Costa Concordia operator 'waited over an hour' before ordering evacuation | World news | The Guardian Attention switches from Captain Francesco Schettino to the US-owned cruise line that operated the shipwrecked vessel
Dominique Strauss-Kahn prosecutor tells why he dropped case | World news | guardian.co.uk Cyrus Vance says he could not be sure beyond reasonable doubt what happened between then-IMF head and hotel maid
Britain admits 'fake rock' plot to spy on Russians | World news | The Guardian Tony Blair's former aide Jonathan Powell says UK was behind plot to spy on Russians with device hidden in fake plastic rock
How News Group hid the phone-hacking scandal | Media | The Guardian Judge criticises Murdoch empire as it agrees aggravated damages for 37 victims of News of the World

Rick Perry quits Republican race and endorses Newt Gingrich | World news | guardian.co.uk Texas governor praises Gingrich as 'visionary who can transform our country' – but former House speaker has his own problems
Rick Santorum Finishes Ahead Of Mitt Romney: Iowa Caucus Results More than two weeks after the 2012 Iowa caucus, a final certified tally showed former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum finishing with 29,839 votes and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 29,805.
Peter S. Goodman: GOP Campaign Trail Filled With Revisionist History Rare is the credentialed economist who still asserts that cutting taxes generates additional revenue, an idea so patently at odds with common sense that only someone with a doctorate could have suggested it.
In South Carolina, Candidates And Citizens Occupy Separate Realms "We never again pay anybody for 99 weeks of doing nothing," Gingrich says, provoking cheers. "It is profoundly wrong to pay people for doing nothing." (they could clean toilets for free)

Corey Robin’s ‘Reactionary Mind’ Stirs Internet Debate - NYTimes.com “The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism From Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin” - The true subject of “The Reactionary Mind,” he said, isn’t the eternal sameness of conservatism but the way it transforms itself in response to threats to existing hierarchies, often by borrowing from the very movements it seeks to oppose.

New Hampshire Considers Collective Bargaining Ban Among these are bills to prohibit collective bargaining among public employees, a bill to prohibit the collection of union dues from wages and a bill eliminating lunch breaks for workers (why have to pay them at all?)
Balloon Juice » Still selling the Reasonable Republican myth I don’t think they can say “screw you” any louder than trotting out Daniels right now. Is this the deal with Republicans now? They’re full-on opposed to unions and unionized workers? Because that hasn’t been the case up to now. They managed to retain a crucial share of the union vote in places like Indiana, while demonizing unions at the national level. Are they abandoning any attempt to retain or increase that vote?

Fox's Andrea Tantaros: "I Think The Recession Was Good For Kids" Because They've Been "Humbled A Little" | Media Matters for America (arrogant little bastards thought they would have jobs)
Muslim Woman: School Said I Was A Terrorist In Retaliation For Sexual Harassment Complaint | TPMMuckraker A Muslim woman is suing the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut for allegedly expelling her and telling the FBI that she was a terrorist, she says in retaliation for a sexual harassment complaint she made against a fellow student.
Worst University in the Country? « Notes from Evil Bender Liberty University beats out a tough group of competitors for Worst Christian College (I wonder how Pensacola Christian College fared), and the University of Bridgeport wins out for best overall. This is notable because it’s being run by Moonies:
The NESS » The Cultiversity of Bridgeport

MF Global Commodity Customers Must Be Paid First, CFTC Says - Bloomberg Court papers by the trustee for MF Global Holdings Ltd., Louis Freeh, contain “errors and misstatements of law” in arguing that commodity laws, which require that customers be “made whole” first, don’t apply to brokerage liquidations, the regulator said in a court filing today (America's worst ex-law-enforcment officer doing his job)
No silver bullet to avert another MF Global: regulator | Reuters Increased surveillance cannot guarantee customers will never again lose money in a broker insolvency, though the collapse of MF Global Holdings may lead futures exchanges to conduct more spot checks, a top U.S. regulator said on Thursday (sorry, we're helpless when the crooks walk off with a billion buck)


Girl, uninterrupted - Girls - Salon.com Facts and the real world hardly exist in Caitlin Flanagan's"Girl Land," where gauzy, phony nostalgia reigns
pandagon.net Caitlin Flanagan exposes herself on the radio
Caitlin Flanagan On Protecting Girlhood | On Point with Tom Ashbrook Caitlin Flanagan says we need to take our daughters back to a more protected childhood. Critics are fuming.

The 'New American Home' Continues Shrinking - Developments - WSJ This year’s showpiece, which measures 4,181 square feet and is one of the smallest in the popular program’s 29-year history, shows that the love affair with McMansions seems to be waning (your million-dollar average house)



Megaupload.com Charged With Piracy Violations, Shut Down By Feds An indictment accuses Megaupload.com of costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films and other content (Obama's war on the internets)

011812
Syria: Zabadani ceasefire broken -Wednesday 18 January | World news | guardian.co.uk Free Syrian Army resistance forces brief truce in Zabadani • Obama looks to further 'international pressure' against Syria
Taliban peace talks 'at risk' as Obama stalls on Guantánamo | World news | The Guardian The White House blames Hamid Karzai for holding up progress towards peace talks
East Africa's drought: the avoidable disaster | World news | The Guardian Tens of thousands of lives could have been spared if agencies and governments had heeded the warnings, a report says

Costa Concordia captain claims he tripped and fell into a lifeboat | World news | The Guardian Francesco Schettino explains at hearing why he could not lead evacuation of stricken cruise liner but admits crashing ship into rocks (uh-huh)
Costa Concordia: satellite picture of the capsized cruise liner | World news | guardian.co.uk This image of the Costa Concordia was taken by the WorldView-1 satellite on 17 January 2012. The 114,000-tonne cruise ship has been half-submerged off the coast of Tuscany since it collided with rocks on 13 January 2012

BBC News - UK unemployment increases to 2.685m UK unemployment rose by 118,000 in the three months to November to 2.685 million, official figures show (austerity fail)
Best of Both Worlds: Eurozone Swot This reflects our view that the Irish government's response to the significant deterioration in its public finances and the recent crisis in the Irish financial sector has been proactive and substantive. (now roll over and play dead)
Eurozone crisis live: IMF launches $500bn fund-raising drive - 18 January 2012 | Business | guardian.co.uk On Tuesday the Irish Congress of Trade Unions claimed that 26,000 jobs could be lost in the Northern Ireland public sector as part of the Coalition's cost cutting, austerity programme over the next five years. But Wilson denounced these projections saying that the predictions undermined efforts to build confidence in the economy (don't upset the confidence fairies/men)

Leveson inquiry: celebrity magazine and regional editors appear | Media | guardian.co.uk OK! editor denies Kate Middleton cover misled readers • Hello! editor says JK Rowling 'exclusive' was 'misleading'
Huffington Post names Strauss-Kahn's wife as French site editor | World news | The Guardian Conflict of interest row as Anne Sinclair becomes editorial director of Le Huffington Post
Political Animal - Obama admin nixes Keystone pipeline Republicans, not surprisingly, are outraged, and plan to invest a fair amount of time and energy into complaining about the administration’s decision (Obama was all set to give it to them and of course they said no)

The best Sopa protests online – in pictures | Technology | guardian.co.uk
Clay Shirky: Sopa and Pipa would create a consumption-only internet | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk You may not care about the US bills aimed at censoring the net but you should – they could stop you participating online again
SOPA Forces Obama To Pick Sides Between Donors From Hollywood, Silicon Valley
Balloon Juice » You Won’t Like Chris Dodd When He’s Angry Chris is the head of the MPAA now. He must have promised his Hollywood producer bosses that he could push SOPA through Congress, and he’s pissed (judge him by his actions)
Hullabaloo - The day the LOLCats Died - by digby ... along with Chris Dodd's reputation. This is just sad ... That made Jack Valenti sound like a communist by comparison. (he always was a corporate lobbyist)
The Story Behind the SOPA Blackout | Mother Jones The entertainment industry usually gets its way in DC—but it was no match for Reddit, Wikipedia, and BoingBoing.
PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet on Vimeo
Marco Rubio Jumps Protect IP Ship Amid Internet Blackout Protest
ELI5: What is PIPA and how is it different from SOPA? : explainlikeimfive
blog.reddit -- what's new on reddit: A technical examination of SOPA and PROTECT IP
xkcd: SOPA

Dems Claim They Can Reverse The Tea Party Tide In 2012 | TPM2012
Balloon Juice » Things I read in the Times Sixty percent of Americans think that Barack Obama at least met Republicans halfway this year in trying to get important legislation done. How many think that Republicans made a good faith effort to work with Obama? Guess (the crazification factor)
Emboldened Gingrich increases the pressure on Mitt Romney | World news | guardian.co.uk Enjoying a surge in support, Newt Gingrich appeals to Rick Santorum and Rick Perry to drop out so he can defeat Romney
Political Animal - The most glaring lie of the night This one, from last night’s debate, was just shameless. “We’ve got a president in office three years, and he does not have a jobs plan yet. I’ve got one out there already and I’m not even president, yet.” (his Mormon undies burst into flame)
How Mitt Romney's Tax Rate Stacks Up | TPM Media (compared with you)
Obama's Dream Debate A Super PAC backing Newt Gingrich imagines a general election debate between Mitt Romney and President Obama in a new animated ad.
Eschaton: David Brooks Finds A Nut: "I sometimes wonder if the Republican Party has become the receding roar of white America as it pines for a way of life that will never return." --> And never was, unless what you're pining for is segregation and lack of rights for women. Which, for some, is what they're pining for, though most are just indulging in Leave It To Beaver fantasies.
David Brooks Loves Secrecy, Hates Journalism New York Times opinion-haver David Brooks is not a "journalist," per se; he's more of an "amiable prick."
Dana Milbank’s Flawed “Roe Week” Hit Piece - Duly Noted
Eschaton: Taking Me Back It's like when liberal bloggers were causing all the violence in Iraq by pointing out that there was lots of violence in Iraq. If only we'd clapped a little louder, everything would have been great.
America’s Two Reality System | FDL Action -Democrats trust everything- except Fox News. Republicans meanwhile don’t trust anything except Fox News.
Chicago City Council Passes Rahm Emanuel’s Anti-Protest Ordinances | The Dissenter (what a dick)
Make Your Own Racist Newsletter with Our Magnetic Ron Paul Kit

Brad DeLong: Lowering the Medicare Age to Zero: Duncan Black Snarks
Goldman Sachs sets aside $12bn to pay staff in 2011 | Business | The Guardian The Wall Street investment bank reported full year revenue of $28.8bn – down 26% – while earnings almost halved to $4.4bn
More Republicans Found to Have Received Countrywide VIP Loans | FDL News Desk

Corbett aide who edited journal resigns | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/18/2012 A high-level Corbett administration adviser resigned his $104,470 position Tuesday after questions were raised about his outside role as editor of a conservative faith-based journal ... r that advocates for the "natural human family . . . established by the Creator." (Republicans at work fucking you over)
Philadelphia dentist, daughter charged with defrauding insurance companies — NewsWorks - The Pain Center - the pair billed insurance companies $4,800 for each pain procedure they performed, when the work they were doing cost $800


The Ultimate Annoying Email Deflector Shield

011712
Iraq Learned the Ray Davis Lesson from Pakistan | emptywheel Private contractors are integral to postwar Iraq’s economic development and security, foreign businessmen and American officials say (consider the source)
Iran's nuclear scientists are not being assassinated. They are being murdered | Mehdi Hasan | Comment is free | The Guardian Killing our enemies abroad is just state-sponsored terror – whatever euphemism western leaders like to use (Obama's chickens will come home to roost)
North Korea's leader will not last long, says Kim Jong-un's brother | World news | The Guardian Kim Jong-nam, eldest son of Kim Jong-il, describes succession as 'a joke' and predicts the regime will collapse in new book
Iran to Send U.S. Toy Model of Downed Drone | World | RIA Novosti Iran said it will send the U.S. a toy model of a RQ-170 Sentinel drone in response to Washington’s request to return the aircraft that crashed in Iran last year
Marines Urinating on Corpses—What the Video Doesn’t Show - Annie Keeghan - Open Salon (PTSD denied by military)
Israel Faces Crisis Over Role of Ultra-Orthodox in Society - NYTimes.com At a time when there is no progress on the Palestinian dispute, Israelis are turning inward and discovering that an issue they had neglected — the place of the ultra-Orthodox Jews — has erupted into a crisis. - “Most Israelis at the time assumed the Haredim would die off in one generation,” said Jonathan Rosenblum, a Haredi writer.
Hullabaloo Retraction and contraction: why conservatives are scary - But one thing is clear: fundamentalist religious influence always leads to the repression of women ... Devolution means regressing to traditional hierarchies.

Why the Saudis want $100-a-barrel oil - The Washington Post Over the past few years, the Saudi government has taken advantage of sky-high crude prices to spend lavishly on public works and social programs to stave off the unrest that’s capsizing parts of the Middle East. As a result, the country now needs prices of at least $80 per barrel to balance its budgets, up from $60 per barrel in 2008 and way, way up from $20 per barrel a decade ago (America supporting socialism in the Middle East)

I am changing the Labour Party so we can deliver fairness when there is less money around | Ed Miliband (this is actually not a parody)
Britain cannot deport Abu Qatada to Jordan, European judges rule | The Guardian Cleric cannot be sent back to Jordan as 'there remains a real risk that evidence obtained by torture will be used against him' (but they will extradict 23 year-old kid for linking on the internets to be tortured by Sony)

Costa Concordia: coastguard 'ordered captain to return to the ship' | World news | The Guardian Italian newspapers report damning claims about the behaviour of the captain, Francesco Schettino

Daily Kos: Wisconsin Democrats to submit one million signatures to recall Scott Walker (that Teaparty/bully thing worked out really well)

Meet the Man Behind "Citizens United": What Does the Ultra-Conservative Lawyer Have Planned Next? | | AlterNet James Bopp is already well into the next phase of his crusade to topple as many of the limits on the role of money in politics as can be done in one man’s lifetime.

Obama To Accept Democratic Party Nomination At Bank Of America Stadium (nice image; rich donors will have sky-boxes)
Stephen Colbert's Super PAC Puts Comedy Central Host In Big Leagues (Part 2)
Mitt Romney Downplays $374,000 In Speaking Fees As 'Not Very Much'
We Still Need To See Those Returns - NYTimes.com At an event in Florence, SC, Mitt Romney told reporters that his effective tax rate is probably close to 15% because most of his income comes from investments, reports Bloomberg’s Julie Davis.
Still Hunting for a Straight Answer The DNC so enjoyed Mitt Romney's debate performance last night they made a compilation video of their favorite moments.
Gingrich: I 'Don't See' Why Calling 'Food Stamps' An African-American Issue Is Insulting | ThinkProgress (whistle, whistle)
Congress logs most futile legislative year on record - Washington Times It’s official: Congress ended its least-productive year in modern history after passing 80 bills — fewer than during any other session since year-end records began being kept in 1947 (Teaparty FAIL)

The Not-Fated Economic Recovery | FDL News Desk Even recent history. It looked as if in 2009 in Britain that the next Prime Minister would be able to take credit for a recovery. Then David Cameron installed an austerity regime and the economy sunk.
Star dims for Goldman's youngest partner - The Term Sheet: Fortune's deals blog Term Sheet Eric Mindich had investors clamoring when he launched his hedge fund Eton Park in 2004. Now they want their money back, and they're finding it hard to get out (more Wall Street looters at work, with no consequences)
Barret Capital Management accused of using client cash for its own purposes - Winnipeg Free Press (your money is their money)
How Wall Street took $331 million from Philly and its schools | Philadelphia City Paper | 01/17/2012 and they stand to lose another $240 million (gambling with public money)

Study of the Day: Humble Leaders Are Better Liked and More Effective - Hans Villarica - Health - The Atlantic Bosses who are more open and empathetic are better positioned to build their businesses,
Academy of Management - Online Journals - Publication


Since August, 88,000 Pennsylvania children have lost Medicaid benefits | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/17/2012 (Republicans at work killing babies)

Twitter boss slams Wikipedia's 'silly' Sopa protest | Technology | guardian.co.uk Wikipedia's plans to pull the plug on its website in protest of anti-piracy legislation are 'foolish', according to Twitter's CEO

011612
Syria: beyond the wall of fear, a state in slow-motion collapse | World news | The Guardian Despite the superficial calm in Damascus, everyone knows change is coming. The only question is, how much will it cost?
Pakistan PM faces disqualification over contempt of court action | World news | The Guardian Yousaf Raza Gilani ordered to face supreme court to explain his failure to ask Swiss to reopen corruption cases against president

Eurozone Busily Decimating Member Countries | FDL News Desk (Merkel calls for more austerity!)
Gove: Queen deserves £60m yacht for Jubilee - Home News - UK - The Independent "In spite, and perhaps because of the austere times, the celebration should go beyond those of previous jubilees and mark the greater achievement that the diamond anniversary represents" (that will employ a lot of royal-yacht-scrubbers)
Vatican protesters evicted by police | World news | guardian.co.uk Protesters trying to set up Occupy-style camp in front of St Peter's removed with the support of the Holy See (Popester kicks out the rabble)

Italian cruise ship was making unauthorised manoeuvre when it hit rocks | World news | The Guardian Admission from Costa Concordia owner appears to confirm captain was making unofficial 'sail-by' of Giglio island

How Fares the Dream? - NYTimes.com
Race in America 2012 - On Our National Holiday, America's Everlasting War - Esquire (LBJ: “the greatest speech an American president has delivered in my lifetime.”)
Who are the victims of civil liberties assaults and Endless War? - Salon.com

Chris Hedges: Why I’m Suing Barack Obama - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig against Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to challenge the legality of the Authorization for Use of Military Force as embedded in the latest version of the National Defense Authorization Act, signed by the president Dec. 31.

Huntsman, Trapped In 2009, Never Had A Chance in retrospect, it was absurd to think that Obama needed to worry about a man so wildly out of step with his party. Huntsman's campaign has been, from the beginning, a fantasy driven by a fundamental misunderstanding of his own party. ("I still don't understand why [White House Chief of Staff] Rahm [Emanuel] was so obsessed with him," a top Democratic official marveled Sunday night.) (Obama's crack team of idiots)
South Carolina primary – Jon Huntsman quits: live | World news | guardian.co.uk (endorses Mormon he said was "unelectable" - will run in 2016
Jon Huntsman: chronicle of a defeat foretold | James Antle | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Huntsman was doomed by a misguided strategy to run as a moderate in a race where the conservative base calls the shots
Jon Huntsman’s Greatest Hits (video) | TPM2012
Hullabaloo La estrategia del sur - On a day set aside to honor civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., Mitt Romney plans to tout his extreme immigration positions during a campaign stop in South Carolina today — with Kris Kobach, the author of Arizona’s and Alabama’s immigration laws, at his side.
Balloon Juice » There’s that number again… In contrast, 27% say Mitt Romney has waged the most positive campaign among the GOP candidates (27% crazification factor)
South Carolina Photo ID Law Draws Heated Rhetoric From Republican Presidential Candidates
Stephen Colbert's PAC Parody Explains Campaign Finance To America (Part 1)
US Politics | AMERICAblog News: Could Colbert actually win in South Carolina?
Perry: Administration Shows 'Disdain For The Military' By Calling Urinating On Corpses A 'Criminal Act' | ThinkProgress (you're toast, dude)
Gingrich: Urban Sophisticates Don’t Understand Why Home Ownership is Important - Developments - WSJ (because no one in crime-ridden urban hell-holes own their homes)
Political Animal - Religious right splintering points to larger problem A civil war is breaking out among evangelical leaders over allegations of a rigged election and ballot stuffing at a Saturday gathering of religious and social conservatives ... accusing Catholic participants of conniving to rig the vote (sweet irony)
Elizabeth Warren Money Bomb Pulls In Over $100,000 In First Weekend

A rule of thumb for oil prices and growth - The Washington Post (a new excuse)
As Rates Rise, NJ Drivers Avoiding Toll Roads (but raising the gas-tax is a big no-no)

New computer model shows Titan atmosphere more Earth-like than thought
Blue Monday: a depressing day of pseudoscience and humiliation | Science | guardian.co.uk A psychologist explains why the third Monday of January has for him become the most depressing day of the year

Republican Sponsor Of Bill To Require Drug Testing For Georgia Welfare Recipients Arrested For DUI | ThinkProgress John Andrew Smith (Republican porker hoist by his own drunken petard)
Hullabaloo Tasing 'O the Day - Maybe if a few more towns and cities had to pay out money for this authoritarian brutality, police departments might find it in their best interest to curb this behavior.

Why It’s Cheaper to Dine Out Than Eat In

Gay Parents Better Than Straight Parents? What Research Says
pandagon.net This one was particularly entertaining, from Sharon Kass, whose bigotry has blinded her to the point where she's joined in on a vicious conservative attack on a 7-year-old who wants to join the Girl Scouts. (no one is born religious, either - Sharon Kass: famous on the internets for all eternity as an asshole, even though she wasn't born that way)
pandagon.net - L.A. is once again looking at the question of whether or not to require condom use in porn filmed in the city

Twitter / @jimmy_wales: This is going to be wow. ...
Video: 'Piracy' student Richard O'Dwyer loses extradition case over TVShack website - Telegraph The 23-year-old Sheffield Hallam University student faces up to 10 years in a US federal prison for operating TVShack which US authorities say hosts links to pirated and copyrighted video content (he's lucky Obama didn't drone him)
Sopa plans set to be shelved as Obama comes out against piracy legislation | Technology | guardian.co.uk Congress ready to drop Sopa vote after White House says it would not support legislation that threatens openness of internet
Zappos Reports Security Breach, Advises Customers To Change Passwords

011512
Seven Iraqi police officers killed after gunmen storm government compound | World news | The Guardian Three-hour standoff with security forces after insurgents detonate car bomb at prison for terror suspects in Ramadi
Pakistan bomb blast leaves 18 dead | World news | The Guardian Homemade bomb explodes near Shia Muslim procession in central Pakistani town of Khanpur, killing 18 and wounding 30
Thai police hunt second bomb plot suspect in Bangkok | World news | guardian.co.uk One man has been arrested over an alleged bomb plot that has caused 11 countries to issue travel warnings to Thailand
The False Flag Waves in the Fog | emptywheel Clearly, all sides have the goods on the others, but no one can risk having all this damning information come out.

Cruise ship scene marked by modern totem of disaster in medieval harbour | World news | The Guardian Rescue continues as anger rises at captain allegedly leaving ship and 'inexpicably' taking vessel so near rocks in first place

Merkel: Europe Faces 'Long Road' to Win Back Trust - ABC News German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Standard and Poor's downgrades of nine countries underline the fact that the eurozone faces a "long road" to win back investors' confidence, pushing Saturday for it to move quickly on a new budget discipline pact and a permanent rescue fund (Merkel doubles-down on the failure of austerity)
Nicolas Sarkozy promises rush of reforms to bolster French economy | World news | The Guardian President accused of losing credibility by Socialist opponent after downgrade of France's AAA status by S&P credit agency (his plan: more austerity failure)

Hullabaloo Yes, the FCC can try to fine you a half-million dollars for a "wardrobe malfunction," but bundles of bloody body parts is A-okay.
Colbert SuperPAC Goes on the Air in South Carolina | FDL News Desk Last night, Colbert closed his announcement with the words “Thank you, God bless you, and God bless Citizens United.” Nobody has done more to show how ludicrous our campaign finance system has become. If it leads to a reassessment of the system, his SuperPAC money will have been money well spent.

Americans Elect 2012 presidential run: The third-party group has cash, but no candidate - Kenneth P. Vogel and Abby Phillip - politico.com (look at their faces: four wrinkled old white guys who have been in politics all their life will save politics)
Political Animal - The religious right movement finds its man ... Santorum ... These groups and leaders decided to wait until after Romney won Iowa and New Hampshire, and took the lead in South Carolina and Florida, to then said, “Hmm, maybe we should pick someone before it’s too late.” Guess what, religious right? It’s already too late, and you should have done this in October
Gingrich Suggests Illegally Firing Federal Employees Over Liberal Views | TPM2012 (wants a Christian/Republican loyalty oath for Federal employees)
House Republicans Fear Another Session of Infighting - NYTimes.com (restive)
Hullabaloo Devolution in more ways than one - In our brave new states' rights dominant country,there will be many places where things like this will be common: Three Indiana state senators, all Republicans, have introduced a bill that would allow schools to require the recitation of the Lord's Prayer every morning, if they want to.

Jamie Dimon’s Plan to Fix the Housing Market - Bloomberg lock mortgage lenders and regulators behind closed doors until they figure it out.

Richard Dawkins celebrates a victory over creationists | Education | The Observer Free schools that teach 'intelligent design' as science will lose funding ... after the government ratified measures that will bar anti-evolution groups from teaching creationism in science classes (meanwhile, in Missouri ...)
MS damage washed away by stream of young blood - health - 14 January 2012 - New Scientist Nerve cells lose their electrically insulating myelin sheath as MS develops. New myelin-generating cells can be produced from stem cells, but the process loses efficiency with age.

Car companies' new problem: Young people who don't want a driver's license One reason for the automakers to be encouraged is that more senior citizens are driving. Some 70 percent of ages 70 and older had their driver’s license in 2008, up from 55 percent in 1983 (only geezers will be drving)

The Definitive Post On Why SOPA And Protect IP Are Bad, Bad Ideas | Techdirt
Rupert Murdoch Attacks Google, Obama In Pro-SOPA Twitter Rant

011412
Putin ally fears Israel is pushing U.S. toward Iran war | Reuters (because Israel is America's Daddy and that has worked out so well)
US intensifies pressure on Iran over Strait of Hormuz threat | World news | guardian.co.uk White House warns Iran against blockading crucial sea lanes in retaliation for sanctions over Tehran's nuclear ambitions
Iraq Bomb Kills At Least 53 Shiite Pilgrims In South
Iran Claims CIA Behind Nuclear Scientist, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan's Death
Captain arrested amid growing anger after Italian cruise ship runs aground | World news | The Observer Francesco Schettino investigated for manslaughter and abandoning ship after three die and 41 unaccounted for
Costa Concordia Disaster: Italian Cruise Ship Runs Aground Off Tuscany Coast "Have you seen 'Titanic?' That's exactly what it was," said Valerie Ananias, 31, a schoolteacher from Los Angeles
Mohamed ElBaradei quits Egyptian presidential race | World news | guardian.co.uk Reform leader pulls out, saying country's ruling junta has governed since Mubarak's exit 'as if no regime has fallen' (what revolution?)
North Korea To Punish Mourners Who Were Insincere "who did participate but didn't cry and didn't seem genuine." (crocodile tears)
India orders crackdown on 'human safaris' in the Andaman Islands | World news | The Observer As outrage over exploitation of Jarawa tribe spreads, minister flies in for talks (and then they stuffed them)

Hullabaloo Homicide rate at near 50-year low, probably thanks to low lead levels (Big Gov regulation forces oil companies to stop poisoning the whole population, violent crime drops after 50 years of blaming the victims, triumph of capitalism)

PublicEye.org - The Producerist Narrative in Repressive Right Wing Populism

Obama Administration Comes Out Against SOPA, PIPA | TPM Idea Lab ... saying it would not support the bills as currently written
STUDY: SOPA Coverage No Match For Kim Kardashian And Tim Tebow | Media Matters for America (like they want you to know)

Truth, truthiness and balance — Crooked Timber (the Brisbane, NYT comments purging debacle)
Wealth Problems — Crooked Timber Second, that Republicans don’t care about the views of voters in the middle of the income distribution either, while Democrats do care significantly. Third, that Republicans care almost three times as much as Democrats about the views of those in the top third of the distribution. Overall, senators tend to be much more responsive to the opinions of better off people than of middle income people, and don’t care at all about the bottom third

Virginia Primary Ballot Challenge: Judge Rules Against Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum & Jon Huntsman
Mike O'Neal, Kansas House Speaker, Emails Prayer Some Say Wishes For Obama's Death
Eschaton: Anthropology The New York Times ventures into the jungle ... Here in Gaffney, where deeply held Christian beliefs often matter more than jobs, few remember the Holson Burnes photo album plant, let alone the devastation its closing is alleged to have caused back in 1992. (Romney killed the town, but they forgot because they were praying to Jesus to get rid of the black guy: idiots)
Cast as Romney’s Victim, Gaffney, S.C., Says, ‘Huh?’ - NYTimes.com
video: Mitt Romney Vs. The GOP -- Bain Capital Edition | ThinkProgress former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney greatest strength — his experience in private enterprise — has suddenly begun to look like a serious liability.
CNN Journalists Blast Loesch's "Outrageous" Comments | Media Matters for America "What's interesting is how the kid gloves are applied to outlandish comments made by the likes of Erick Erickson or Dana Loesch and how it has a negative impact on the CNN brand ... there is fear of saying anything to them because they are Tea Party folks, and there has been a clear effort on the part of our political team to court that whole Tea Party thought process, if you will." (CNN: the Teaparty Network!)
Jon Soltz: Video of Marine Atrocities Highlights Split Between Right Wing and Our Military
Feds to probe why Ted Stevens witness Bill Allen wasn't tried in teen sex case | McClatchy Murkowski said Friday she wished Holder would have himself initiated a public investigation into why his Justice Department scuttled the case. But she said “it’s good to see action finally being taken.” (Obama's DOJ not at work)

Social Welfare State, American-Style, Means Relief For The Rich The one big difference is that in the American social welfare state, a lot of the benefits go to the rich (socialism for the rich!)

Martin Luther King memorial quote to be changed | World news | guardian.co.uk Poet Maya Angelou previously said the truncated version made King sound like "an arrogant twit" because it was out of context.
More N.C.A.A. ‘Justice’ - NYTimes.com (Phil Martelli, worst person in the world today)
Walkergate Expands, Top Aide Given Immunity | Crooks and Liars (Kochsucker Scottie may not need a recall)

lD2ZV.png - Atheism isn't a religion ... (worth it)
Is everyone from Missouri this pretentious? : Pharyngula Missouri is considering HB1227, a bill that would require public schools to teach intelligent design creationism. It's a descendant of a similar bill that was previously allowed to die, and it shares some of the same properties as the previous version: an amazing opacity and astonishingly pompous attempt by a few blithering lawyers to redefine science (Republicans/Evangelicals hate science, never give up)
That student from hell : Pharyngula Dr Zaloom gave a simple enough project to her students, to go down to the Occupy Wall Street protestors in Zucotti Park and write an ethnographic analysis. It seems reasonable, but one student, Sara Ackerman, had a melodramatic breakdown over it ... "Lastly, I have over 1,000 friends on facebook, and if Professor Zaloom does not resign, or is not fired by 9 am tomorrow morning, I will publish every single email exchange we have had, on my facebook account." Professor Zaloom still has her job. Who looks demented now? (that didn't work out so well, did it Sara?)
I get email : Pharyngula If Debra Rufini's imaginary dialog is as bad as this list of "proofs" — more like a collection of cliches, bad quotes, and lies — I can't imagine wanting to slog through it (50 proofs you've an idiot +"whilst?")

Brittany Murphy's Father Angelo Bertolotti Sues Los Angeles Coroner's Office Just five months later, Monjack died -- also as a result of pneumonia and anemia, according to the coroner.
Experience: I'm a sex-somniac | Life and style | The Guardian


reddit.com: help: FAQ for the SOPA Reddit
Google 'improperly' accessed Kenyan rival Mocality's database | Technology | guardian.co.uk

011312
US warns of terror threat in Bangkok | World news | guardian.co.uk
More on the Murder of Iranian Nuclear Scientists | FDL News Desk Glenn Greenwald has a follow-up on his story about the murder of Iranian nuclear scientists, and he calls the incidents what they actually are: Terrorism (Obama/Israeli terrorism)
Myanmar Prominent Political Prisoners Freed (Burma)
Burma's prisoner amnesty reunites families separated for years | World news | The Guardian Couples who never expected to see each other so soon prepare for emotional reunions as Burma releases 600 political prisoners (only Americans call is Myanmar)
More murder of Iranian scientists: still terrorism? - Salon.com (not when we do it)
Iran and the Terrorism game - Salon.com ("targetted killings" not really terrorism in the minds of the "hard-nosed left")
Iranian Nuclear Scientist's Death Prompts Silence In Israel -- And Hint Of Satisfaction (who, us?)
False Flag - By Mark Perry | Foreign Policy A series of CIA memos describes how Israeli Mossad agents posed as American spies to recruit members of the terrorist organization Jundallah to fight their covert war against Iran.
Yousuf Reza Gilani, Pakistan Prime Minister, Reportedly Feared Coup Pakistan's prime minister telephoned the top British diplomat in the country this week expressing fears that the Pakistani army might be about to stage a coup,
Arab League Observer Leaves Syria Mission, Calls It “Farce” | FDL News Desk
Syria: rally for Free Syrian Army - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk Syria protesters show backing for deserted troops• Free Syrian Army restructured following criticism
Abortion Criminalization Awful Public Policy : Lawyers, Guns & Money

Eurozone crisis live: S&P expected to downgrade France and Austria tonight | Business | guardian.co.uk (Smerkel and Szark have completely failed)
Eurozone in new crisis as credit agency downgrades nine countries | Business | The Guardian S&P action leads to fall in euro and share prices while European Central Bank forced to buy Italian bonds ... urope has been plunged into a fresh crisis after France admitted it had been stripped of its coveted AAA rating in a mass downgrade of nine eurozone countries by the credit ratings agency S&P. (thud)

Spanish judge resumes Guantanamo investigation - Boston.com A Spanish judge says he is proceeding with a probe into human rights abuses at the U.S. prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, after Washington failed to respond to requests for information (the wheels of justice grinding slowly)
BBC News - German priest admits 280 counts of sexual abuse A German Catholic priest has admitted 280 counts of sexual abuse involving three boys in the past decade, saying he did not think he was doing harm ... When asked in court if he was a paedophile, he replied, according to local newspaper Braunschweiger Zeitung: "It would be wrong to say No but to say Yes would also fall short of the truth."

Camp Lejeune Water Contamination Cover-Up Hinted In Navy Letter (the military cover shit up? impossible!)
CNN Contributor On Marines Urinating On Dead Bodies: "Supposed To Be A Scandal"? "I'd Drop Trou And Do It Too" | Media Matters for America On her radio show, CNN contributor and Big Journalism editor Dana Loesch cheered on an Internet video reportedly showing U.S. Marines urinating on what appear to be dead Afghans, saying she would "drop trou and do it too." (CNN, not Fox; your liberal media is really fucked up, and Dana Loesch: you will be remembered for this)

Arthur Brisbane and selective stenography - Salon.com - It’s more directed, more purposeful than that: it all goes in one direction (bolstering official claims), all benefits one faction (those who wield power), and all has one outcome (amplifying elite assertions while shielding them from criticial scrutiny).
So whaddaya think: should we put truthtelling back up there at number one? » Pressthink Somewhere along the way, telling truth from falsehood was surpassed by other priorities to which the press felt a stronger duty. Arthur Brisbane, public editor of the New York Times, was unaware of this history when he asked users of the Times whether reporters should call out false statements.
Times public editor smashes himself with boomerang | Jack Shafer - because editors and reporters generally don’t have the guts to take abuse directly from readers, they employ ombudsmen and public editors like Brisbane as their shields (and then they close the comments)
Journalists incredulous as Times public editor asks: ‘Should the Times be a Truth Vigilante?’ | Poynter.
Yes, The New York Times Should Definitely Be a Truth Vigilante - Business - The Atlantic Wire
New York Times Public Editor on Truth - The End of Truth - Esquire Charles P. Pierce - My business is so very screwed.

Eschaton: Random Thought It was quite the triumph of conservative propaganda to convince people that the housing bubble was, once again, about poor minorities getting more than they deserved. And on and on.
Everyone’s Got a Right to Their Own Opinions… | Jared Bernstein | On the Economy …but not to their own facts (more conservative propaganda from Mittens, some think he might be "lying" - Federal programs actually highly efficient)
The Washington Monthly - The Magazine - The Myth of American Productivity Politicians say we have the most productive workers in the world. They don't know what they're talking about.

Democrats Take Lead in Congressional Ballot "Two-thirds of all voters now say they disapprove of this Republican Congress and its approval rating has hit a new low in our tracking -- 26%. The decline has come from a complete drop-off of those who 'strongly approve' of this Republican Congress -- down to 8%, also the lowest in our tracking." (Obstructionism a huge success)

Six GOP Co-Sponsors of PIPA Ask Reid to Cancel Vote - Blog - OpenCongress
Copyright law: Killing creativity | The Economist - Imagine that drug companies were so successful at lobbying governments that they won an extension of their patents from 20 years, as they are today, to 100 years; and that the scope of those rights was extended so that future medical discoveries were in effect blocked. The ensuing public outcry would almost certainly result in the law being rewritten in favour of scientific advancement.
DNS provision pulled from SOPA, victory for opponents | Media Maverick - CNET News

President Barack Obama Seeks Greater Power To Shrink The Federal Government (back to Reagan)
GOP contenders keep the faith in fight for evangelical vote in South Carolina | World news | guardian.co.uk Social conservative issues likely to prove key in South Carolina, which means moderate Mitt Romney could have a problem
Study: Repealing The Mandate Will Increase Premiums By 25 Percent | ThinkProgress A new study from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation finds that efforts to repeal the individual health insurance mandate — and remove the incentive for healthier people to obtain health care coverage — could increase premiums by 25 percent and raise government spending on uncompensated care
Wisconsin Spring: Organizers Set to File Recall Petitions Against Walker | FDL News Desk So if 1.2 million Wisconsinites voted for Walker in 2010, and 1.5 million signed a piece of paper calling for the recall of him and his associates, then the recall election starts in pretty decent shape for Walker’s opponents ... So the Wisconsin Spring could end with a total upheaval of state government
Janklow : Lawyers, Guns & Money Bill Janklow, noted asshole, croaked today, and USA Today decided to stake its claim on the award for Most Unfortunate Choice of Metaphor:
“Not suffering like starving 19th-century Norwegian immigrants” : Lawyers, Guns & Money
Gallup: Wealthy worry about deficit, poor worry about jobs - The Washington Post (shocking)

Balloon Juice » Open Thread: Willard, Meet Professor Krugman
Brad DeLong: Why We Listen to Paul Krugman: The Balance of Macroeconomic Risks in the Summer of 2006 Department

Inside the Fed in 2006 - A Coming Crisis, and Banter - NYTimes.com - Mr. Geithner suggested that Mr. Greenspan’s greatness still was not fully appreciated, an opinion now held by a much smaller number of people.(of course, no one lost their jobs)
Federal Reserve Thought Housing Crisis Was Funny in 2006
How Is It Possible The Fed's Image Can Be Tarnished Further? | Beat the Press At this point, the Fed should not have an image that could possibly be tarnished further. If its record had been reported accurately, everyone would be well aware of its incredible incompetence as a manager of the economy. btw, as noted in the article, many of the people at these Fed meetings are still in top policy making positions. This shows that the U.S. economy still produces good-paying jobs for people without skills.
NPR Does Fluff Piece for Private Equity | MyFDL (Republican fluffers at work)

PG&E diverted safety money for profit, bonuses Pacific Gas and Electric Co. diverted more than $100 million in gas safety and operations money collected from customers over a 15-year period and spent it for other purposes, including profit for stockholders and bonuses for executives (no one will go to jail, of course)
PG&E’s Profitable Threat to Our Critical Infrastructure | emptywheel “It is truly unconscionable that PG&E was allowed by the CPUC to steal ratepayer monies that should have been spent on safety and, instead, was put in the pockets of PG&E shareholders,” said Rep. Jackie Speier,
Arizona Wants to Buy Back State Capitol It Inexplicably Sold | Mother Jones Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed off on the deal, and the state now leases the House and Senate chambers from a private real estate company at a considerable long-term cost (sell low, buy high!)

Quasicrystal is extraterrestrial in origin A rare and exotic mineral, so unusual that it was thought impossible to exist, came to Earth on a meteorite
BBC News - Processed meat 'linked to pancreatic cancer' A link between eating processed meat, such as bacon or sausages, and pancreatic cancer has been suggested by researchers in Sweden.

Shorter Red State : Lawyers, Guns & Money - Truth and real journalism have a liberal bias. The role of reporters should be to quote Republican politicians and print Republican blast faxes verbatim
Chris Mooney: Why Republicans Deny Science: The Quest for a Scientific Explanation (you can start with the New York Times and their fact-free news)
US teachers offered support for climate change lessons | Environment | guardian.co.uk National Centre for Science Education gives teachers advice on how to deal with demand to drop classes on climate change (Republicans want the words "climate" and "change" removed from dictionaries)
A Mining Law Whose Time Has Passed - NYTimes.com IN 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a mining law to spur the development of the West by giving hard-rock mining precedence over other uses of federal land. But the law has long since outlived its purpose, and its environmental consequences have been severe.

Life After College Roadmap | MintLife Blog

TVShack's student founder can be extradited to US, court rules | Law | guardian.co.uk US customs agents seek to prosecute Richard O'Dwyer over TVShack, which linked to sites carrying pirated shows and films ... t ICE would now actively pursue websites similar to TVShack even if their only connection to the US was a website address ending in .com or .net. Such suffixes are routed through Verisign, an internet infrastructure company based in Virginia, which the agency believes is sufficient to seek a US prosecution. (Obama justice)
Facebook Makeover Scam Offers To Turn Profile Colors Red, Black Or Pink

011212
Police to investigate MI6 over rendition and torture of Libyans | World news | guardian.co.uk Criminal inquiry announced as DPP says there is not enough evidence to prosecute agents over Pakistan and Afghanistan allegations (when will Bush's and Obama's turn come?)
All Charges Against Bradley Manning Referred to Court Martial | The Dissenter

Marines Appear To Urinate On Dead Taliban Fighters ... The desecration of corpses during wartime violates military law and can lead to court-martial. (Obama calls it a threat to national security)
Karzai leads wave of condemnation over video of urination on corpses | World news | guardian.co.uk Afghan president calls video of US marines urinating on corpses 'inhumane', but the Taliban says it will not hinder peace talks
Syria: Arab League monitors say they cannot stop the killing - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk Second monitor threatens to resign from Syria mission • France demands investigation into killing of Gilles Jacquier (attempt to obfuscate fails)
U.S. intelligence report on Afghanistan sees stalemate - latimes.com The sobering judgments in a classified National Intelligence Estimate appear at odds with recent optimistic statements about the war by Pentagon officials ... the war in Afghanistan is mired in stalemate, and warns that security gains from an increase in American troops have been undercut by pervasive corruption, incompetent governance and Taliban fighters operating from neighboring Pakistan (Pentagon is always "optimistic")
South Sudan Massacres Follow Independence - NYTimes.com Bitter ethnic tensions that had largely been shelved for the sake of achieving independence have ruptured into a cycle of massacre and revenge that neither the American-backed government nor the United Nations has been able to stop ... The trail of corpses begins about 300 yards from the corrugated metal gate of the United Nations compound and stretches for miles into the bush.

Canada's Conservative Government Turns My Husband Back Into My Boyfriend | Slog

Eurozone crisis live: BoE and ECB leave interest rates unchanged | Business | guardian.co.uk Bond yields fall for Spain and Italy • Bank of England holds interest rate and QE
Greece's budget deficit widens 0.8 pct in 2011 | Reuters Greece's budget deficit widened last year as an austerity-fuelled recession cancelled out much of the extra revenues the government was hoping to raise through emergency taxes ("austerity-fuelled" eh? your overlords at work)

Eschaton: Not The Onion (this series is interesting as a sign of the times: in a culture that valued truth and facts, the most important news would be the lie. Another sign was Politifact jumping the shark)
Balloon Juice » When the Truth is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Print the Truth
Political Animal - Answering the Public Editor’s question Arthur Brisbane, Public Editor of the New York Times, has a piece today asking, “Should The Times Be a Truth Vigilante?” (you can see where he's going with the headline, but of course not, that would upset Republican liars)
Balloon Juice » Masochism Tango Times Public Editor Arthur S. Brisbane is a glutton for punishment or a numbskull half-wit, because he just informed us how we all misinterpreted his earlier post about Truth Vigilantes ... He’s getting killed in the comments again. On the last one, he shut them off in the mid-two hundreds (NYT hates dissent +Times’ Editor Jill Abramson’s - “Of course, some facts are legitimately in dispute”. otherwise, they wouldn't be facts, right? +Times erases most comments AGAIN and CLOSES comments, their feelings must be really hurt)
Hullabaloo The New York Times wonders aloud if it should care about the truth (decides no and isn't interested in what you think, either)
Should Vanity Fair Be a Spelling Vigilante? | Blogs | Vanity Fair
NYT Public Editor Criticized for “Truth Vigilante” Column | FDL News Desk
The New York Times public editor's very public utterance | Clay Shirky | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Brisbane's question on reporters' duty to challenge misleading political speech has permanently altered readers' expectations ... no paper in the United States, not even the Times (as its editor partially concedes), has enough staff to express continuous skepticism about political speech (which is all lies, apparently, so they could just say that)
NYT Responds on Iran Alarmism New York Times public editor Arthur Brisbane has responded to concerns raised in a FAIR action alert last week (1/6/12), agreeing that the paper wrongly suggested that the International Atomic Energy Agency has concluded that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon.

Class Conflict Awareness Rose Significantly From 2009 To 2011: Report (according to the Boston Globe, this is not news)
Daily Kos: Gallup: Record high 40% of Americans identify as independents in 2011 (and 27% identify as completely insane)
Kung Fu Monkey: Lunch Discussions #145: The Crazification Factor - 27% Crazification Factor in any population.

17 Of The Top 20 Biggest Political Donors This Election Cycle Are Conservative | ThinkProgress Egged on in no small part by the Supreme Court’s decision to turn campaign finance into the wild west, a small group of donors have gotten increasing aggressive in their efforts to us their enormous wealth to influence elections
A third of Mormons say Mitt Romney's religion will count against him | World news | The Guardian Almost half of Mormons believe they are more discriminated against than African Americans, poll reveals (oh, sure, dudes)
South Carolina Primary: Next Stop, Foreclosureville n South Carolina, where primary voters hit the polls on Jan. 21, unemployment's flying high at 9.9 percent (very Republican states, of course)
AG Investigating Undercover Filming at Nashua Polls - Nashua, NH Patch James O'Keefe, widely known as the undercover "pimp" who exposed ACORN, takes issue with New Hampshire's lack of required ID at the polls. The state, in turn, is taking issue with his methods.
Santorum Cites a Local Legend - NYTimes.com “We need contrasts,” Mr. Santorum said, “not just a paler shade of what we have.” (you know what that means)

In Fed Officials’ 2006 Meetings, No Deep Worry on Housing - NYTimes.com (of course not)
Be Vewy, Vewy Quiet - NYTimes.com Trickle-down economics has now become shut-your-trap economics (you're just envious)
What Is Private Equity A private equity fund is a vehicle for getting a bunch of money together to buy existing public companies and "take them private," typically (though not necessarily) with the goal of re-selling the firm later (after you've outsourced and fired everybody)
Eschaton: It's Also So Confusing And of course you have to fill out a 17 page claim form in order for us to consider thinking about maybe possibly if you're lucky considering trying to find out if the money in your customer account is still there.
MF Global Customers Wrapped in Red Tape - WSJ.com So far, the trustee liquidating MF Global's brokerage has arranged for customers to be reunited with about 72% of their funds. Now customers are in a new stage of recovery for ...
Foreclosure rates plunge in 2011 - Jan. 12, 2012
Tesco announces temporary closure of more Fresh & Easy stores in US | Business | The Guardian Retailer says shops will reopen 'when economic and business conditions warrant'

Study: Simple measures could reduce global warming, save lives - The Washington Post Simple, inexpensive measures to cut emissions of two common pollutants will slow global warming, save millions of lives and boost crop production around the world, a large international team of scientists reported Thursday. (Republicans prefer to kill millions of people)
Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog : U.S. weather in 2011: unprecedented rains and wet/dry extremes : Weather Underground
Daily Kos: Climate Change Goes Away (Obama stops talking about it, media goes silent, millions will die)

Veterans Flood Iraqi Restaurant To Show Support After Rock Thrown Through Its Window | ThinkProgress
Cincinnati Landlord Loses Fight Over “Whites Only” Pool Sign | Angry Black Lady Chronicles - Cincinnati Landlord Jamie Hein (makes herself famous on the internets for all eternity)

What If The New Republic Had a Sale and Nobody Came? - Forbes A smallish, money-losing highbrow political magazine whose influence peaked 15 years ago, The New Republic is hardly a hot property (Marty Peretz ran it into the ground)

Real-Life Examples Of How Google's "Search Plus" Pushes Google+ Over Relevancy
Generic top-level domain sale begins on web | Technology | guardian.co.uk New suffixes like .Pepsi and .London will be possible as an alternative to the usual .com, .net and handful of others

011112
Iranian nuclear scientist killed in Tehran bomb explosion | World news | guardian.co.uk Professor working at key nuclear facility dead following series of attacks Iranian regime links to Israel and US (Obama's and Israel's secret assassination program)
BBC News - Iran car explosion kills nuclear scientist in Tehran
Pakistan army steps up confrontation with government | World news | guardian.co.uk Military warns that remarks made by prime minister could have 'potentially grievous consequences for country'
Rwanda: at last we know the truth | Linda Melvern | Comment is free | The Guardian A new report reveals who was behind the assassination which led to genocide. But it leaves France with many questions to answer ... On the night of the crash there were senior French military officers living in the Kanombe camp embedded with the Rwandan elite units. As UN peacekeepers were prevented from getting to the wreckage these French officers are said to have taken away the cockpit voice recorder and black box.
300 Chinese Foxconn Workers 'Threaten Mass Suicide' At XBox Plant, Reports Claim

World Economic Forum warns of economic turmoil and social upheaval | Business | The Guardian Ahead of annual WEF meeting in Davos, Global Risks 2012 report says the 'seeds of dystopia' are being sown
German Economy Shrank Slightly at End of 2011 - WSJ.com Germany's economy contracted slightly in the fourth quarter, raising questions about how much longer Berlin will continue to shoulder the burden of rescuing fiscally wayward euro-zone members (who could have predicted that impoverishing their trading partners would lead to disaster?)
In Greece, fears that austerity is killing the economy - The Washington Post . But as Greece’s economy slides into free fall, critics are scanning the devastated landscape here and asking a probing question: Does austerity really work? (who could have predicted that austerity would lead to more austerity?)
Eschaton: Is Water Wet? We are ruled by fools who think mass poverty is the solution to a bad economy.

By The Numbers: 10 Years At Guantánamo Bay | ThinkProgress
Guantánamo: still a part of America's conscience, a decade on | World news | The Guardian Some 171 inmates remain, despite Obama's promises • Only six detainees ever convicted; around 600 released (yeah, he made a lot of promises)
Guantanamo Bay 10th Anniversary: Obama's Detention Law Could Fill Prison Obama Tried To Close ... Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, tried to include a provision in the bill that would have explicitly exempted Americans, but failed to garner enough support for it.
Guantanamo Bay Anniversary: Detention Center Turns Ten

Elizabeth Warren Raises $5.7 Million In Fourth Quarter 2011 In Bid To Unseat Scott Brown In Massachusetts (bye-bye, Cosmo-boy)
Eric Fehrnstrom Romney and Scott Brown Campaigns - What's Good for Willard Is Bad for Scott Brown - Esquire

The Republican Contest - NYTimes.com Where the Iowa caucuses illuminated the dark essence of social conservatism, the New Hampshire primary was a journey into the dingy, cramped quarters of the right wing’s economic policies.
Get Romney: Republican rivals prepare for 'bare knuckle' fight with frontrunner | World news | guardian.co.uk Mitt Romney's opponents set to launch no-holds-barred attack ad campaign as race moves to South Carolina
Conservative activists scrambling for a strategy to block Romney - The Washington Post A near-panic has taken hold among some core conservative activists, who are now scrambling to devise a strategy to deny Mitt Romney the Republican presidential nomination.
Political Animal - Pushing worthwhile questions into ‘quiet rooms’ - Americans are allowed to ask questions about inequality, so long as we’re not too loud about it. Let’s just stick to quiet rooms — perhaps Romney can loan us one from one of his mansions — where we can be told to stop being envious.
Sheldon Adelson's Billions And Newt Gingrich: A Match Made In Israel
Sh*t Republican candidates say | Lizz Winstead | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk -you should hear the way this GOP field talks. For starters, they're obsessed with sex …
(When Mitt Romney Came to Town: Gingrich attack-documentary)
The Dark Side of Mitt Romney | Politics | Vanity Fair
Haven't We Lived Through This Primary Before?
Election Law Experts Say James O’Keefe Allies Could Face Charges Over Voter Fraud Stunt | TPMMuckraker (the only "voter fraud" is committed by Republicans)

Brad DeLong: Raising the Medicare Eligibility Age Is a Really Bad Idea Blogging: Is This a Problem with the Media or with the Congressional Budget Office?
Poverty in America likely to get worse, report finds | Business | guardian.co.uk ndiana University study says 46 million Americans are living below the poverty line – up 27% since start of recession (Republicans at work destroying America)
Daily Kos: Gallup: Jobs and the economy a much bigger concern than deficits (tell that to the lamestream media)
Oil lobby's financial pressure on Obama over Keystone XL pipeline revealed | Environment | guardian.co.uk Study shows money flowing to oil lobby ahead of decision on tar sands pipeline in the November elections
John Castle, Leveraged Buyout King, Breaks Waiter's Finger For Bad Service
South Carolina Bill Forces Unemployed Workers To Volunteer In Order To Receive Unemployment Insurance | ThinkProgress If unemployed workers in South Carolina can’t find a job in six months, they would have to volunteer 16 hours weekly to continue getting benefits from the state under a bill up for debate today by a Senate panel (White Southerners love their slavery)

Marijuana And Lungs: Study Finds Drug Doesn't Do Same Kind Of Damage As Tobacco
New drug may keep you sober no matter how much you've had to drink | MNN - Mother Nature Network The drug is a chemical called dihydromyricetin, or DHM, and is derived from a Chinese variety of the oriental raisin tree, which has been used for at least 500 years in China as an effective hangover cure

Cop Punches Woman: Bus Passenger Tapes LA Sheriff's Deputy Hitting Rider (Shocking Video) Jermaine Green, the man who taped the Monday night incident in Bellflower, told NBC LA that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy who struck the woman threatened to arrest him if he didn't hand over his camera phone.
Belgian Tourist Arrested, but Crime Never Happened - NYTimes.com (white kid abused by lying NYC cops, makes NYT)


Top German cop uses spyware on daughter, gets hacked in retaliation : parents, think hard before taking technical measures against your own kids. There's a better than average chance that they—or their friends—know more than you do.
‘Rogue’ Attorney General Spreads MPAA-Fed SOPA Propaganda | TorrentFreak Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff wrote a column in the Salt Lake City Tribune supporting the pending SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy bills. In his article Shurtleff argues that the bills are a necessity if the US is to “stop Internet thieves and profiteers.” An interesting take, but not very credible, as the Attorney Generally who may soon have the power to seize domains, simply passed off MPAA-penned propaganda as his own words (See Lamar Smith)
SOPA Architect Lamar Smith Can't Hear You - Forbes

011012
The new WH Chief of Staff and Citigroup - Salon.com “We already got enough players in this administration that certainly were key players in the economic malaise that we currently have,” Bass continued. “Why shouldn’t we have another one?” he said with a slight chuckle.

Political Animal - GOP fails to leverage PolitiFact’s misjudgment That PolitiFact’s decision was ridiculous wouldn’t matter (it never does +Politifact is a media/Republican front)
Political Animal - Down the rabbit hole, indeed A variety of conservative media outlets, including Fox News, the New York Post, and the Daily Caller, are worked up this week about a newly-discovered White House outrage: a 2009 Halloween party.

Political Animal - Quite a field ‘This is the worst field.’ …This is the weakest field they’ve seen, by far. Not even a close second.” Mike Barnicle added, “It used to be up here, there was a libertarian candidate, Lyndon LaRouche and you’d cover him for comic relief…. Now you can cover almost the entire Republican field for comic relief.” (the clown parade)
Pain: The David Gregory Solution - Esquire - Dancin' Dave Gregory, chronic Vineyard vacationer and Beltway King of Pain. He reached an entirely new level of smarm when he asked Jon Huntsman the following question:
Ahhh Fox News | Talking Points Memo Fox reporter toasts the awesomeness of Dixville Notch, NH: “No Hanging chads, we didn’t see any black panthers with baseball bats. These were good, American folks…”
Democrats Unleash Bain Assault On Mitt Romney — With The Help Of Newt Gingrich | TPM2012
Jon Stewart Rips GOP's Hypocritical 'Class Warfare' With Mitt Romney (video)
Gingrich Argues Adoption Services Should Be Allowed To Take Taxpayer Money While Discriminating Against Gays | ThinkProgress
New Hampshire Students Carry The Nation's Largest Debt Load And The GOP Has No Solutions | ThinkProgress
Three Leading GOP Presidential Nominees Pledge To Be Tough On Porn | ThinkProgress (America's biggest problem)
Pollitt’s Perplexity about Pundits on Ron Paul « Translation Exercises

CHART: How The Debt Limit Fight Hurt The Economy, Delayed Recovery | TPMDC
U.S. Inquiry of MF Global Gains Speed - NYTimes.com Louis J. Freeh, the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings of MF Global, has not waived the legal provision, which shields records from examination by law enforcement (America's worst law-enforcement ex-offical is heading the coverup)
Pennsylvania to impose asset test for food stamps | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/10/2012 (Republicans at work making sure you have no money at all)
Businessmen and Economics - NYTimes.com why does anyone believe that success in business qualified someone to make economic policy? (because its a religion)
MF Global Holdings Trustee Louis Freeh Seeks Bankruptcy Creditor Priority - Bloomberg (America's worst ...)


Daniel Montague Acker Jr., Alabama Teacher Accused Of Molesting Students, Defended By Schools Chief Two longtime Alabama school board leaders are defending the panel's decision in 1993 to reinstate an elementary school teacher who was accused of molesting a student, even though the teacher is now charged with more abuse.
Troy Mayor Said 'Disturbing Things' in Meeting, Gay-Straight Alliance Leader Says - Troy, MI Patch Janice Daniels' reference to homosexuality being dangerous to mental health disturbed leaders of the Troy High School Gay-Straight Alliance, whom the mayor met with on Monday ... Daniels, while discussing mental health and suicide among members of the LGBT community, at one point suggested putting together a panel of psychologists to show that homosexuality is dangerous to your mental health.

Google 'Search Plus Your World' Brings Google+ Into Search Results

010912
Amnesty warns of continued repression in Middle East | World news | guardian.co.uk Despite the Arab spring, many governments are brutalising their populations into submission for regime survival, says report
Nigeria fuel protests: two killed and dozens wounded as police open fire | World news | The Guardian Police use live ammunition and teargas to disperse crowds taking part in national strike in protest against fuel subsidy cuts
Man charged over alleged plot to bomb Tampa nightclubs | World news | guardian.co.uk FBI agents arrested Osmakac on Saturday after he allegedly bought explosive devices and firearms from an undercover agent.
Anwar Ibrahim sodomy charge dismissed by Malaysian judge | World news | guardian.co.uk Second acquittal of opposition leader on sex charges is a shock ahead of poll that could shake ruling Umno party's grip on power
Iranian court sentences 'CIA agent' to death | World news | guardian.co.uk Father of Amir Hekmati says he was just visiting family


Greece’s Least Bad Option Looks to Be Internal Devaluation: View - Bloomberg
Eschaton: Here's An Idea: Let's Improve Things By Making Everybody (Else) Suffer Default and leave the euro. Really a much better plan. The choice between Iceland and Ireland is rather simple.
The Myth of Japan’s Failure - NYTimes.com Here, for instance, is how the CNN analyst David Gergen has described Japan: “It’s now a very demoralized country and it has really been set back.” (Gergen makes shit up, as usual; actually, Japan "has done a lot better than the United States.")
Hildebrand Steps Down at SNB - Bloomberg “I came to the conclusion that it’s not possible for me to deliver definite proof that my wife requested the currency transaction without my knowledge,” Hildebrand, 48, said (little "dent" in his credibility, as in fucking liar)
Eurozone crisis: Swiss bank chief quits over dollar trades | Business | guardian.co.uk Leaders: we hope to agree fiscal compact before March
European Banks Now Get Loans From Cash-Rich Firms - European News - CNBC (they used to call them "deposits" before companies demanded "collateral")
Eschaton: Malaise - Miliband is truly inspiring ... Labour: maybe sucking slightly less than the other guys for the past 8 months or so. (austerity!)

Elizabeth Warren Stands Outside Fenway, in the Cold, Shaking Hands | Mother Jones (Cosmo-boy saved us from lawnorder Choakley)

Supreme Court decision could give California’s ‘Skid Row Stabber’ his release | McClatchy "It is a regrettable reality that some federal judges like to second-guess state courts," Scalia and Alito wrote, pointedly adding that the 9th Circuit has been "particularly needful" of Supreme Court chastisement for overt activism (no steenking appeals, either)

Bill Daley Resigned as White House Chief of Staff; Jack Lew Promoted - ABC News the current director of the Office of Management and Budget, will be the new chief of staff ... former vice chairman at JPMorgan Chase, Daley was heralded as having skills ... namely ties to the business community (at least he's not a Chicago clown, but the real question is why Obama's Chiefs of Staff are banksters?)
Bill Daley Resigning: Obama Chief Of Staff Stepping Down Despite his political pedigree, Daley was always a curious pick for the Obama administration. He had been the top lobbyist for JPMorgan Chase, the nation's second-largest bank, which issued at least $30 billion in subprime mortgages during the housing bubble ... Daley actively lobbied against the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. ("curious pick" indeed, but Jack Lew "headed the "alternative investments" division at Citigroup, a team that handled private equity investments, hedge fund bets and massive gambles on subprime mortgages" )

Political Animal - ‘Independents’ Day Gallup finds 40% of American self-identify as independents, the highest percentage Gallup has ever measured since it began keeping track. Democrats are a distant second with 31%, with Republicans third at 27%. ... [H]ere is the problem: Most independents are closet partisans. This has been well-known in political science since at least 1992, with the publication of The Myth of the Independent Voter (Obama and his crack team of idiots never read the book)
Is Jon Huntsman the Future of the Republican Party? The Republican Party seems to be dominated by an alliance of religious extremists and warmongers. It’s a longstanding trend but one that captured the leadership of the party only with the 2010 elections.
High Fives at DNC Headquarters DNC officials can't believe they have Mitt Romney on video saying he likes firing people.
Quote of the Day "Now I have no doubt that Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips -- whether he was going to have enough of them to hand out because his company Bain Capital with all the jobs that they killed, I'm sure he was worried that he'd run out of pink slips." -- Rick Perry
What Romney Meant With 'Firing' Comment: Americans Should Pay More For Health Care | ThinkProgress
Ron Paul's Strange Bedfellows | The Nation - Katha Pollitt
Mitt Romney Holds Lead But Jon Huntsman Gaining In Latest New Hampshire Polls
Balloon Juice » Romney, “Job Cremator” “Mitt Romney, I think, is more of a job cremator than a job creator,” Schultz said
Balloon Juice » Romney Apocalypse It’s interesting to compare the MoveOn.org ad on Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital history with this End of Days trailer for the movie produced by the Gingrich Super PAC Winning Our Future (MoveOn didn't want to be too divisive or they might be Politifucked)
Mike Huckabee: GOP Candidates Won't Sing 'Kumbaya' And Unite The Conservative Vote
Romney’s Opponents Intensify Attacks as Voting Nears - NYTimes.com The attacks came as Mr. Romney’s lead in New Hampshire appears to be slipping.
Black Man Confronts Gingrich On Food Stamps Comments: 'Stop Using Blacks As A Punching Bag' | ThinkProgress "I mean clearly somebody who’s served with Colin Powell, who has served with Condoleezza Rice, I have a fairly good sense of the fact that African Americans have many contributions to America." (served with? on what planet?)
Could Haley Recall Effort Gain Steam with Legislation? - West Ashley, SC Patch Several bills have been filed in the General Assembly to amend the SC Constitution to allow for the recall of elected officials as a new Recall 'Trikki Nikki' website seeks to generate public support for the move.

Economist's View: Fed Watch: Ultimately, It's About the Inflation Target
Eschaton: So They're Useless Then If this really is the Fed's view, then they're saying that monetary policy is generally going to be utterly useless in fighting recessions as they won't be willing to do anything. Time to rewrite all the textbooks.
How College Football Bowls Earn Millions In Profits But Pay Almost Nothing In Taxes | ThinkProgress

The Driest First Week of January in Recorded History : Lawyers, Guns & Money No climate change to be seen here. Nope, nothing at all. Certainly no January wildfires in Montana. Move along everyone, back to your shorts and golf courses on January 9 (is God punishing America for its stupidity by withholding water?)
Masters: "It Is Very Likely That This Has Been the Driest First Week of January in U.S. Recorded History" | ThinkProgress

Seeing quantum mechanics with the naked eye
Oil is more toxic than previously thought, study finds Bad news for the Gulf of Mexico: a study released in late December sheds new light on the toxicity of oil in aquatic environments, and shows that environmental impact studies currently in use may be inadequate
Censoring ourselves: Legal academia and the code of silence : Lawyers, Guns & Money (Prof. Dan Markel, "academic thug" makes himself famous on the internets for all eternity as a jerk and bully; well played Dan!)

Hullabaloo State sanctioned kidnapping ... One study published last year looking at cases in which deported Americans have later been able to prove they're US citizens contends that about 1 percent of those detained and deported in any given year are, in fact, Americans. That's about 20,000 people since 2003, it concludes ... Any country that routinely incarcerates and deports it's most vulnerable and poor, purely because they can't prove their citizenship, is a sick country. You almost have to wonder if some of them aren't doing it on purpose. (time to deport Obama back to Kenya)
Number of homeless students surges, putting strain on schools - Chicago Sun-Times Jarvis, like thousands of other students in Chicago Public Schools, is homeless. He is just one of more than 10,660 students who were homeless at the beginning of the school year. That’s 1,466 more than at the same point in the previous school year, according to a CPS tally (let them clean toilets)
Arizona Officials Single Out Hispanic City Council Candidate To Take An English Literacy Test | ThinkProgress There is nothing in the Constitution that protects English as the exclusive language of the United States (Arizona, #1 in facist states of America until the Hispanics take over and start Spanish-testing)

Honda Hybrid Lawsuit Brought By Heather Peters In California Small Claims Court she may have inspired what the Los Angeles Times called a "small-claims flash mob" for the approximately 500,000 Honda customers who could be affected by the pending class action suit.
Doubts Expressed On Train to Proposed Convention Center - WNYC Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a non-binding agreement last week to build the world's largest convention center at Aqueduct Racetrack, but details about how conventioneers would get to and from Manhattan are sketchy (more taxpayer money down the developer hole)
RSC grants amateur dramatics starring role in the Cultural Olympiad | Stage | The Observer Royal Shakespeare Company project applauds contribution to the arts of a peculiarly British institution (because community theatre only happens in the UK)

flv - YouTube (finger-painting virtuoso)
A Scanner Darkly - YouTube

Keith Olbermann, Current Resolve Election Feud; Olbermann Will Control 2012 Coverage "I'm pleased to tell you that I'll be running the election coverage on Current, after New Hampshire," he wrote. "Not sure GOP will share my satisfaction."
The Photographs Of Your Junk (Will Be Publicized): A Biting Social Commentary (video)
Netflix UK Launch: U.S. Giant Takes A Gamble As Fierce Web-TV Battle Shapes Up With Amazon Netflix launched in Britain and Ireland on Monday, taking on BSkyB's premium drama and movies offerings and prompting Amazon-owned rival Lovefilm to offer a new cut-price service.

010812
Pervez Musharraf, Former Pakistan President, Faces Arrest In Connection To Benazir Bhutto Murder (wheels of justice turning slowly)
Afghanistan Commission Accuses U.S. Of Detainee Abuse (how could that be?)
US reliance on Afghan paramilitaries in rural areas worries European allies | World news | The Guardian Britain wonders if local police force can keep stability, while Germans argue the units are not easy to control
Arab League's Syria Meeting Begins Arab League monitors will say on Sunday that Syria is failing to honour a promise to end its crackdown on peaceful protests (you don't say)
Arab League mission in Syria 'has only just started' | World news | The Observer The general in charge of the 67-strong group of observers, Mohammed al-Dabi, says they are prepared for the long haul
Church attacks in Nigeria leave at least 27 worshippers dead | World news | The Observer Islamist group claims responsibility amid growing concern about government's inability to tackle sectarian violence
Nigeria faces mass strike and protests over discontinued state fuel subsidy | World news | The Guardian Thousands expected to march through streets of Lagos and Abuja after petrol pump prices more than double overnight

Mission: Invade Iran - Morning Star - George Galloway (yes, they are that stupid and bloodthirsty)

Hackers expose defence and intelligence officials in US and UK | Technology | The Guardian Security breach by 'hacktivists' reveals email addresses of 221 British military staff and 242 Nato officials

Global Health Initiative | Survey| Obama Health | USAID President Obama's ambitious Global Health Initiative — announced to a receptive international community in 2009 — is faltering as budget constraints and shaky implementation limit the impact of the multibillion-dollar program.

The Weekly Standard's anti-gay email is just one of a disturbing trend | World news | guardian.co.uk Frustrated American conservatives are exploiting gay paranoia to make up for a drought of ideas on how to fix the economy (that'll work)

Fox News Again Mislabels Vermont As New Hampshire | Media Matters for America
Political Animal - Romney: elected office is for the rich
Mitt Romney At 2012 Repubican Debate: I'm Happy Ted Kennedy Had To Take Out A Mortgage In Senate Race (what an asshole)
Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney Pressed About Support For Gay Rights During 2012 New Hampshire GOP Debate Santorum's characterization of his "respect" for gay men and women. He has said that children raised by same-sex couples will lead to "dysfunction" in society and that the "country will fall" as a result of same-sex marriage (homophobic clown-parade)
Santorum Tells Kids With Gay Parents: You'd Be Better Off With Parents In Prison | ThinkProgress
Ron Paul's useful idiots on the left | Megan Carpentier | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Progressives who make common cause with Paul on US foreign policy ignore his stunningly reactionary views on everything else
Rick Perry Would Re-Deploy Troops To Iraq To Prevent Iran Moving In "At The Speed of Light" | Video Cafe (or maybe even faster!)
MSNBC Chief: Not Sure Whether Pat Buchanan Will Be Allowed Back | Crooks and Liars Can there really be a line that even right-wingers can't cross when it comes to cable news? Or is it simply that Buchanan isn't a good fit with the network's plans? (lamestream media's favorite paleo-racist)


Prostate cancer screening does not reduce death rates, research shows | Society | guardian.co.uk Findings suggest screenings result in more diagnoses, but does not reduce number of people who die from cancer
Shocker, if this is 1960: Tobacco company misrepresented danger from cigarettes | Science Codex Philip Morris USA manipulated data on the effects of additives in cigarettes, including menthol, obscuring actual toxicity levels and increasing the risk of heart, cancer and other diseases for smokers.
Scrunch time: The peculiar physics of crumpled paper - physics-math - 05 January 2012 - New Scientist
With Subway Fare Upped to $2.50, Will Pizza Slice Prices Follow Suit? | The New York Observer

Va. prisons’ use of solitary confinement is scrutinized - The Washington Post At Red Onion State Prison, built on a mountaintop in a remote pocket of southwest Virginia, more than two-thirds of the inmates live in solitary confinement (VA, lawn-order-state, America, land of torture and sadists)
Abortion a bigger problem than joblessness, says Catholic Church · ELPAÍS.com in English Bishop warns of UNESCO plan to "make half the world population homosexual" (church of the insane)


Bob Dylan Lyrics - Mr. Tambourine Man
The Byrds-"Mr. Tambourine Man"-Frankie Avalon-5/11/65 - YouTube (the first folk-rock song?)
Hunter S. Thompson and the Music of the Sixties | Beatdom ... Then, after his death – as decided decades earlier – it was the song that played as his ashes were fired from a giant Gonzo Fist at Owl Farm.

Leaked Memo Says Apple Provides Backdoor To Governments - Slashdot (Apple gave away your privacy)

010712
US navy destroyer rescues Iranian boat from Somali pirates | World news | guardian.co.uk Rescue in which 15 suspects were detained comes just days after Tehran warned the US to keep its warships out of the Gulf
Hungary's 'Viktator' faces tide of protest at home and abroad | World news | guardian.co.uk Viktor Orbán's increasingly authoritarian regime has brought thousands on to the streets in protest, with new political movements and even hunger strikes in progress (Hungary loves its dictators)
Countess of Wessex 'should return bloodstained' gems to Bahrain | UK news | guardian.co.uk Labour MP Denis MacShane and activist Peter Tatchell call on Sophie to return jewels after crackdown on democracy protests (countess takes jewels from bloody dictators)

Kathryn Bigelow's Bin Laden film to star Joel Edgerton | Film | guardian.co.uk Cast of film about killing of Osama bin Laden grows as Republicans claim secrets leaked to film-making team (they forgot the whole "mission accomplished" thing)


Super PACs: The WMDs of Campaign Finance - Ben W. Heineman Jr. - Politics - The Atlantic How the opaque and increasingly powerful organizations are shaping the future of American elections -- and how they might be stopped (Supreme Court anti-American)

alicublog BOO FUCKING HOO. Yes, it's hilarious that John freaking Yoo is calling Obama's quasi-recess appointments an "Abuse of Executive Power... even with my broad view of executive power." Even if one didn't know the backstory of the Republicans' relentless obstructionism, that is rich.
John Yoo's Tortured Logic | The Nation Stephen Holmes April 13, 2006 (the worst of the worst)

2012 Primary Schedule « 2012 Election Central (the next four thousand Republican primaries)
Hullabaloo From the "how do you like me now?" files (live by the stupid, die by the stupid)
Dems Fire Back At GOP Proposals To Drug Test Jobless: 'You Pee In The Cup' Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) called the Republican drug test scheme unfair and insulting. "I don't see anyone in the Republican majority demanding drug testing for folks who receive oil and gas subsidies," he said (and what about the stoned banksters?)
Comment: Un-American Activities : The New Yorker In the tenth paragraph of a page A15 Times piece, Rick Santorum accuses Barack Obama of engaging in “absolutely un-American activities.” What are they? The article doesn’t say.
The Venn of Ron Paul and Other Mysteries of Libertarianism Explained | Mother Jones
Kerrey Exploring a Return to the Senate Kerrey is inclined to seek the Senate seat that will be vacated by Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson at the end of the year."
Georgia Lawmaker Apologizes For Attacking Romney's Mormon Faith, Does Not Apologize To Muslims | ThinkProgress Georgia state representative Judy Cummings (R) attacked Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith, saying that it scares her. She also said that at “least it’s not a Muslim,” indicating that she believes Islam to be an even more inferior religion.
Pat Buchanan Still Missing From MSNBC After Over Two Months (and NPR)
rethink brown.com

Hullabaloo The disempowerment of Michelle Obama ... When push comes to shove, it may well be the biggest thing wrong with the Obama Administration is that the wrong Obama is in charge. (the whimp and his whimpy dumb advisors)

EPA Could Send Water to Pa. Town With Bad Wells - ABC News Homeowners in Dimock Township have been without a reliable supply of clean water since Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., the Houston-based drilling firm blamed for polluting their aquifer, stopped making daily deliveries more than a month ago.
Balloon Juice » The Missing Link in Scary Tales of Young Bucks ... Los Angeles —- like other big cities around the country — is in the midst of a crime drop so steep and profound, it has experts scratching their heads. Crime fell in 2011 for the ninth year in a row, to levels not seen in Los Angeles since half a century ago.
Minor Offenses on N.Y. Subway Can Bring a Ticket, or Handcuffs - NYTimes.com Mr. Peppers had put his feet up on a subway seat, and that, the officer informed him, was a crime — one that in his case would lead to his arrest. He spent 12 hours in jail before he saw a judge, and was released after pleading guilty (Bloomberg's war on poor people)

Mortgage-Servicing Companies That Broke Law Should Be Fined, Raskin Says - Bloomberg (a small fine, anyway, and no jail time of course)
Hit And Run: Boeing Leaves Kansas After Promising The State Jobs For $35 Billion Contract And Slew Of Tax Breaks | ThinkProgress (oh well)
Business Is Booming For Superyacht Makers

Record Heat Floods America With Temperatures 40 Degrees Above Normal | ThinkProgress (Republicans to drug-test the weather)

Private Chen’s Family Learns More About Hazing by Fellow G.I.’s - NYTimes.com
Florida Man Tortured and Pepper-Sprayed to Death by Police | Care2 Causes It has been two and half years since 62-year old Nick Christie was tortured and pepper-sprayed to death by police at the Lee County Jail. Although the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide, the law enforcement officers who kept him strapped naked to a chair and then pepper sprayed him until he died have not been charged in his death.

Facebook Ramnit Worm Swipes 45,000 Usernames, Passwords
Symantec Hack Exposes Antivirus Source Code The software maker would not confirm the claim of a group called the Lords of Dharmaraja, who said that they had obtained Symantec's source code by hacking the Indian military ... Some governments ask their security vendors to provide their source code to ensure there is nothing in the code that could act as spyware (who could have predicted that?)
Twitter Ordered To Hand Over WikiLeaks Supporters' Account Information a federal judge ordered on Wednesday.

010612
Afghan president demands control of Bagram prison | World news | guardian.co.uk Hamid Karzai reacts to being sidelined from Taliban talks by ordering US hand over main military prison within one month
Syria: Damascus 'suicide attack' - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk Interior ministry blames al-Qaida (oh sure)
Iran, US and Israel announce new war games as tensions rise in the Gulf | World news | The Guardian Surge in military activity in the region comes amid threat of EU embargo on Iranian oil and possible closure of strait of Hormuz
Turkey arrests former army chief over 'plot to bring down government' | World news | The Guardian General Ilker Basbug most senior officer to face trial in series of investigations into alleged anti-government plots
Ilker Basbug, Turkey General, Arrested Over Terror Plot

Eurozone unemployment hits new record | Business | guardian.co.uk In bailed-out Greece, unemployment stands at 18.8%, up from 13.3%; while Spain now has the highest unemployment rate in Europe, at 22.9% (Eurolords will treat the problem with more austerity!)
How Europe's year of indecision sowed the seeds of future conflict | Business | guardian.co.uk Closer fiscal union and the emergence of a two-speed Europe threaten a vicious deflationary debt spiral from which the eurozone will struggle to escape

48% of the World's 1% Are Americans - Business - The Atlantic Wire

What the Fact-Checkers Get Wrong : CJR The language of Politifact and its peers doesn’t match their project (yeah, they were always tools of corportate media)
Politifact Chose the Vice of the Year but They Called it a Lie. That was Dumb. » Pressthink

Iowa Caucus 2012 Results: Vote-Counter Says Mistake Gave Mitt Romney 20 Extra Votes (Greta says no big deal)
Political Animal - Conservatives to gather, look for ‘consensus’ (muhahaha)
Santorum's 'Freedom' is Pretty Much Slavery | Crooks and Liars (your soul belongs to the company store)
Hullabaloo Orwell Santorum (the last clown out of the car is the scariest)
Mitt Romney out of control - The Washington Post “What do you think of your eight-vote landslide?” the Associated Press’s Glenn Johnson asked.
New Hampshire primary: Santorum under fire and Romney snubbed - live | World news | guardian.co.uk New Hampshire GOP primary sees Rick Santorum's record under scrutiny and Mitt Romney dissed by his local newspaper
Balloon Juice » Paint It Blah This may be the most pathetic and feeble backtrack of a dog whistle ever (NPR will totally cover for him)
Santorum Denies Making Racially-Charged Claim After Apparently Acknowledging Saying It | ThinkProgress - There’s ample video evidence suggesting that Santorum did, in fact, say “black,” but Santorum’s denial is especially surprising considering that he seemed to acknowledge making the comments earlier yesterday (that was a couple of hours ago, and it's all open to interpretation)
New Hampshire Primary Election 2012: Live Updates From The Granite State Santorum: America Needs A 'Jesus Candidate'
Rick Santorum-Linked Universal Health Services Facility: Fraud, Assault And Alleged 'Exorcism' (the Republican way)
Kids sexually assaulted at psychiatric hospitals, reports say - Chicago Tribune At least 18 cases of reported rape or sex abuse identified at some of the Chicago area's most prominent centers
Mike O'Neal, Kansas House Speaker, Apologizes For Email Calling Michelle Obama 'Mrs. YoMama' (that was really funny, racist Kansas)
Magna Carta and Wingnut Legislation : Lawyers, Guns & Money New Hampshire Republicans are taking textual originalism to a whole new level: three lawmakers have proposed a bill that requires that all legislation find its origin not in the U.S. constitution, but an English document crafted in 1215 (New Hampshire, back to the 12th century: "Heirs may be given in marriage, but not to someone of lower social standing. Before a marriage takes place, it shall be’ made known to the heir’s next-of-kin.")
LIHEAP: Congress, White House Cut Heating Assistance Just In Time For Winter
Eric Holder Expands FBI's Definition Of Rape To Include Male Victims, Non-Forcible Assaults the first update to the federal definition in nearly a century (Obama didn't want to rush things and be divisive)

U.S. Economy Adds 200,000 Jobs In December As Jobless Rate Falls To 8.5 Percent
Graph Gallery: Employment Graphs Title: Percent Job Losses in Post WWII Recessions, December, posted on Jan 6, 2012 (scariest chart ever, updated, our overlords ignored it)
Eschaton: This Is What He Was Hired For Nobody could have predicted that Louis Freeh was hired to bury the bodies ... $1.2 billion was stolen. They'll never get the money back, and no one will be prosecuted. And everyone will spend a lot of time making it all appear to be oh so complicated and confusing when of course it isn't.
S.E.C. to Change Policy on Companies’ Admission of Guilt - NYTimes.com
Bank charge of the day, mortgage-payment edition | Felix Salmon That’s an up-front fee of $375, plus another $39 a year, just for the privilege of making your mortgage payments every two weeks rather than every month (Citibank, the worst bank in the world, charging you to pay your mortgage faster)
Do We Care About Social Mobility? Should We? it turns out that America is unusually unequal and has unusually low mobility. The gaps between the rungs on the American economic ladder are unusually far apart, so it's unusually hard to climb the ladder (land of opportunity if your daddy is rich)

Science Is Sure: Smart People Love Drugs - Technology - The Atlantic Wire . "The likely mechanism is openness to experience," he writes, "and, I think, it's also this idea of having an educated view of risk as well."
Taylor & Francis Online :: Why Do Better-Looking Members of Congress Receive More Television Coverage? - Political Communication - Volume 28, Issue 4
The Sultriest Members of Congress - Politics - The Atlantic Wire
Fracking will poison New York's drinking water, critics warn | Environment | guardian.co.uk Opponents of controversial gas drilling method condemn plan as environmental agency sounds alarm bells over staffing levels (Republicans want to kill the EPA)

Teenager Mistakenly Deported To Colombia | Crooks and Liars CNN just ran this report at 9 AM this morning. Note how the entire story is being twisted now to blame the victim. It's HER fault she's in Colombia. Somehow she plotted to use someone's name who was never in the ICE system? According to CNN, she jacked the whole system to get from Texas to Colombia. They can't imagine why, of course, but it's clearly this 14-year old (now 15) African-American teenager's fault that she is being held in the system in Colombia after being deported from this country (Ed Lavandera, worst person in the world yesterday)
Pa. judge dismisses 2,000 juvenile cases in 'kids for cash' scandal — NewsWorks has expunged every juvenile court case decided by a Pennsylvania jurist convicted of corruption.

Taking Parking Lots Seriously, as Public Spaces - NYTimes.com THERE are said to be at least 105 million and maybe as many as 2 billion parking spaces in the United States ... One study says we’ve built eight parking spots for every car in the country ... “in some U.S. cities, parking lots cover more than a third of the land area, becoming the single most salient landscape feature of our built environment.”


iPhone 4S Doubles Data Consumption: Study due to increasing use of online services like the virtual personal assistant Siri, an industry study showed.

010512
Iraq suicide attack kills 30 | World news | guardian.co.uk Bomber targets Shia pilgrims in southern Iraq hours after Baghdad blasts killed 30, adding to concerns over sectarian violence
Iraq Bombings: Wave Of Explosions In Shiite Area Of Baghdad Kill Dozens
Syria: army defectors meet Arab League observers - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk Free Syrian Army tell league they want to protect civilians • Senior official defects from the Assad regime

Switzerland's central bank chief accused of insider trading | Business | The Guardian Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche alleges National Bank chief Philipp Hildebrand engaged in profitable foreign currency deals (they are all crooks)
Eurozone crisis: France passes €8bn bond auction test | Business | guardian.co.uk
UK Austerity Leaves 7 Million Brits Paying Their Rent Via Credit | Crooks and Liars

Obama unveils new defence strategy with greater emphasis on Asia | World news | guardian.co.uk President appears at Pentagon to announce plans for slimmed-down military as it prepares to absorb huge budget cuts

Hullabaloo Unless you believe, as some do, that we must get on with our impending dystopian nightmare so that we can rebuild from the rubble (sometimes known as destroying the village in order to save it) this is probably a useful group of articles. The question posed is what would happen if the Republicans win the next election:

Rick Santorum In New Hampshire: Congress Should Take Obama To Court For Recess Appointments Obama has made 28 recess appointments, compared with 61 by President George W. Bush at the same point in his term, according to the White House (hypocrisy, thy name is Republican)
The Rick Santorum that America doesn't know | Philly | 01/04/2012
Super PAC Disclosure Requirements Hot Topic Of Conversation Among GOP Candidates
Mitt Romney's Dog Incident Comes Back To Haunt Him (photo)
Rick Santorum Called Mormonism 'Dangerous Cult' In Minds Of 'Some Christians' In 2007
The Philosopher's Stone: Newt Gingrich's Doctoral Dissertation
Newt Gingrich: I'll Tell African-Americans That They Should 'Demand Paychecks And Not Be Satisfied With Food Stamps' | ThinkProgress (best racist Republican comment of the day)
S.C. Attorney General to Appeal Voter ID Ruling - West Ashley, SC Patch Although the law's co-sponsor Larry Grooms acknowledged the law is discriminatory, he rejected the assumption that it was targeting minority voters (yeah, sure)
Scott Walker Investigation Leads To Felony Charges Two people, including a former close aide to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker when he served as Milwaukee County executive, were arrested on felony theft charges Thursday as part of an ongoing criminal investigation that centers on people who served in the county during Walker's tenure.
Jan Brewer's Suit Over Arizona Medical Marijuana Law Is Dismissed A federal judge on Wednesday threw out Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's complaint against her state's voter-approved medical marijuana law.
Medical Marijuana Could Soon Be Coming to Massachusetts | Just Say Now

How This Started - NYTimes.com I see many people claiming that the freshwater guys have not been as extreme as I say, that they never declared that Keynesian economics is completely invalid (the Chicago School of fake ecomonics and applied lying)
ADP: U.S. Companies Added 325,000 Private-Sector Jobs In December
Obama Fails On Minimum Wage Pledge The federal minimum wage remains $7.25 an hour, the same rate it's been since 2009, when the last of a series of wage bumps signed into law by George W. Bush was implemented.
David Brooks: 'The Republican Party is the Party of the Working Class' | Video Cafe

Trouble in paradise: Ocean acidification this way comes Something wicked this way comes: ocean acidification arrives in paradises like Mo'orea.Credit: NSF Moorea Coral Reef LTER Site

Tennessee Anti-Bullying Law Change Could Allow Students To Speak Out Against Gays For Religious Reasons: Report
Fine proposed for botching US national anthem | Music | guardian.co.uk Republican state senator pushes bill that would fine performers $25 for changing the words to The Star-Spangled Banner


US Threatened To Blacklist Spain For Not Implementing Site Blocking Law | TorrentFreak the US ambassador to the country warned that as punishment for not passing a SOPA-style file-sharing site blocking law, Spain risked being put on a United States trade blacklist .

010412
Global unrest: how the revolution went viral | World news | The Guardian
Ecuador court upholds $18bn penalty against Chevron | Business | guardian.co.uk Oil company vows to continue fight against ruling that subsidiary Texaco polluted Amazon rainforest
EU agrees Iran oil embargo | World news | guardian.co.uk European governments raise pressure on Tehran over its nuclear programme with agreement to ban imports of Iranian oil
Why is Britain ramping up sanctions against Iran? | Simon Jenkins | Comment is free | The Guardian Sabre-rattling at Washington's behest is an idiocy, and likely to do little other than escalate the steps to open conflict

Eurozone's phoney war will be short-lived | Business | The Guardian Stock markets are surprisingly calm as 2012 begins, but such complacency can't hide the fact that fault lines are forming across Europe
Fresh credit crunch fears as banks park record €453bn cash with ECB | Business | The Guardian Move suggests banks afraid to lend to each other
Cameron to tighten screw on top pay - FT.com (on a cold day in hell)

Former NoW editor Colin Myler takes the helm at New York Daily News | Media | guardian.co.uk Editor who presided over News of the World during fallout from phone-hacking scandal to take charge at Murdoch rival

Richard Cordray Nomination: Obama Using Recess Appointment Amid GOP Opposition (the wimp found some backbone, somewhere)

Politics Northwest | UPDATE: Gregoire proposes legislation to legalize gay marriage | Seattle Times Newspaper . "I have always been uncomfortable with the position that I have taken publicly. And then I came to realize the religions can decide what they want to do, but it is not OK for the state to discriminate."
Brad DeLong: How Blue Shield Spends Its Money The thing to focus on is the $0.13 of every dollar that Blue Shield spends on "administrative costs"--i.e., trying to make sure that they don't pay for sick people.

Iowa Caucuses (R) | TPM Election Results (Santorum got the fundie vote, which is most counties in Iowa)
Iowa caucus results: Rick Santorum presses on to New Hampshire | World news | guardian.co.uk Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum shift gear from Iowa to New Hampshire as Michele Bachmann exits the GOP race
Michele Bachmann drops out of race after dismal Iowa showing | World news | guardian.co.uk The Minnesota congresswoman, once a front-runner in Iowa, finished last in the Iowa caucuses with only 6% of the vote
Daniel Marans: Santorum's Anti-Family Stance on Social Security , David Brooks attributed Rick Santorum's last-minute surge in the polls to the appeal of his family values platform with working-class whites. If Brooks is right, then those same voters should take a second look at Santorum's position on Social Security, a program that represents the best of American family values (stupid white people in Iowa, screwing themselves, as usual)
Hullabaloo The Deconstructed Sex Candidate - Santorum thinks that people have kids for the money (therefore, people shouldn't have sex and we should outlaw birth-control)
"Conservative Analyst" E.D. Hill Anchors CNN's Straight News Programs | Media Matters for America She is perhaps best known for her time on Fox News, where she once asked if Obama and his wife were engaging in "a terrorist fist jab." (even Fox thought she was an idiot)
Romney Family Files: Fled to Mexico Due to a Polygamy Ban Making Them 'The First Displaced Persons of the 20th Century' | Crooks and Liars

The Mendacity of Dopes - NYTimes.com So Alex Tabarrok thinks I treat everyone who disagrees with me as mendacious idiots, and Tyler Cowen says that I always demonize my opponents. I plead innocent. I only treat people as mendacious idiots if they are mendacious idiots ... This is not a game. (zing)
Whiskey Fire: Civility Trolling: How It Is Done Say what you will about Tyler Cowen, the man knows how to concern troll ... Also too "tussling with Thucydides" will henceforth and forever be my preferred euphemism for masturbation.
Krugman's intellectual dishonesty - ProfessorBainbridge.com (add Bainbridge to the list)
MF Global sold assets to Goldman before collapse - sources | Reuters MF Global unloaded hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of securities to Goldman Sachs in the days leading up to its collapse, according to two former MF Global employees with direct knowledge of the transactions. But it did not immediately receive payment from its clearing firm and lender, JPMorgan Chase & Co, one of the sources said. (just tell us who's going the jail)

Florida Bill Would Make Abortion A Felony With A Maximum Sentence Of Life In Prison | ThinkProgress (endless war on your uterus)

010312
Iraq Body Count report: how many died and who was responsible? | Datablog | News | guardian.co.uk 14,705 (13%) of all documented civilian deaths were reported as being directly caused by the US-led coalition (remember 9/11! forget the worst blunder in American history!)
Taliban to open political office in Qatar | World news | guardian.co.uk Agreement with Qatar and other 'relevant parties' could be significant step towards peaceful end to Afghanistan conflict (bomb Qatar!) )
Syria, Egypt and Middle East unrest - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk Arab League to discuss ending monitoring mission • Free Syrian Army threatens more attacks
Exclusive Excerpt: The Operators by Michael Hastings | Politics News | Rolling Stone McChrystal, Petraeus and the inside story of America's war in Afghanistan
Oil prices soar as Iran warns US aircraft carrier away from Persian Gulf | World news | guardian.co.uk Prices rise worldwide amid concerns that tensions between US and Iran over key oil route could lead to supply disruptions (keep those prices up!)
International Development - MSF loses track of 130 staff members in Pibor Médecins Sans Frontières.

Europe Plunging Into Doom It's worth dwelling on the perversity of the idea of a debt-induced recession. Debt occurs when you consume more than you produce. The solution to debt, then, is to produce more than you consume. Cutting production doesn't help. But when you attempt to cut consumption across the board with continent-wide austerity, this is what you get (more austerity!)
Spanish Unemployment Rises for Fifth Straight Month as Economy Contracts - Bloomberg (but they have a solution!)
BBC News - Germany's unemployment rate at record low in December German unemployment fell to its lowest rate in December since 1991, according to the German Federal Labour Agency (even Americans don't understand how you can pay workers decent wages)
Eurozone crisis: German unemployment hits record low as Greece warns over euro exit | Business | guardian.co.uk panish unemployment hits record high.... • ....As German jobless rate falls to lowest level since reunification
Rethinking the Growth Imperative - Kenneth Rogoff - Project Syndicate In a period of great economic uncertainty, it may seem inappropriate to question the growth imperative. But, then again, perhaps a crisis is exactly the occasion to rethink the longer-term goals of global economic policy.


Obama Wastes Window of Opportunity for Recess Appointments | FDL News Desk (the Whimp-in-Chief wimps out again)

Finally it comes to an end | Firedoglake The Des Moines Marriott conference room held about 250 people, at least half them media. All hail glorified participatory democracy as the media reports how large the crowd was…if you count the media.
Mitt Romney heckled in Iowa at his final rally before caucuses | World news | guardian.co.uk Frontrunner brings Clive speech to abrupt end amid shouts he is too close to Wall Street and indifferent to the poor
Crackpots Do Not Make Good Messengers | Mother Jones (Ron Paul is being taken seriously by serious liberals)
The End-Of-Year Emopants Blowout! | Angry Black Lady Chronicles Both Glenn Greenwald and Taylor Marsh saw fit to end the year with massive anti-Obama rants where they basically announce openly their opposition to the President for 2012. Not that their opposition didn’t exist before, it’s just now official.
The Mahablog » Libertarianism vs. Liberty

Sen. Thune Says There Is 'No' Merit To Idea That Multimillionaire Romney Is Of The 1 Percent | ThinkProgress (down is the new up)
Political Animal - The name that must not be spoken (Bushfuck)
Santorum: States Should Have The Right To Outlaw Birth Control | ThinkProgress
Eschaton: Unpunished Sexy Time Some of us crazy people on the internets have, for years, tried to inform (sometimes) well meaning liberals that the abortion conflict wasn't really about abortion, or specifically it wasn't about any desire to actually reduce the number of abortions, it was about increasing the punishment for unapproved sexytime. And we were, you know, proved fucking right, so to speak (and Lord Saletan was miserably wrong)
Indiana GOP to push ‘right-to-work law’ | The Columbus Dispatch Nearly a year after legislatures in several Republican-dominated states curbed the power of public-sector unions, lawmakers are turning their sights on private-sector unions, setting up what is sure to be another political storm (Indiana voters screwed themselves again)

For High-Speed Rail, Support in the Past From G.O.P. Presidential Hopefuls - NYTimes.com (Republicans now believe infrastructure is terroristic)
California high-speed rail funding could be in jeopardy - latimes.com

Deep brain stimulation shows promising results for unipolar and bipolar depression A new study shows that deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a safe and effective intervention for treatment-resistant depression in patients with either unipolar major depressive disorder (MDD) or bipolar ll disorder (BP).
States That Legalized Medical Marijuana Saw Fewer Traffic Deaths, Study Says

Tami Fitzgerald Of N.C. Values Coalition Could Be Endangering Children | Pam's House Blend the North Carolina Values Coalition posted this statement; “legalizing gay marriage would take away the right of Christian psychologists to refuse treatment on the basis of their religious beliefs.” ("Christian psychologists" hate teh gay, feel "discriminated" against" or something)

Library Sends Cops To 5-Year-Old's House For Overdue Books (video) A five-year-old girl from Charlton, Mass. burst into tears after a local library sent Police Sergeant Dan Dowd to her house to retrieve the child's two overdue library books, CBS Boston reported.


010212
Immunisation push propels India towards victory in war against polio | World news | The Guardian Support from initially hostile Muslim clerics means disease is rapidly vanishing, even in city where it had the strongest hold - "They were not trusting scientific medicine and thought immunisation was an American plan to sterilise our girls."
Coca-Cola accused of propping up notorious Swaziland dictator | World news | The Guardian Swaziland's King Mswati III accused by activists of human rights abuses and of looting national wealth (business as usual)
Website Blocking Law Implemented By New Spanish Government | TorrentFreak Spain’s new government has wasted no time in approving tough new legislation to combat unauthorized file-sharing. After less than two weeks in power, the Partido Popular government has fully implemented the so-called Sinde Law. Spaniards can look forward to previously legal sites being blocked by ISPs or shut down completely, all within 10 days of a rightsholder complaint (rightwingers take over)
New fencing doesn’t stop illegal crossings - The Washington Post At night, smugglers toss Hail Marys of pot-stuffed footballs and fling golf-ball-sized heroin nuggets over to waiting receivers. Stealthy ultra-light aircraft bomb the lettuce fields outside town with bundles of dope, then swoop back into Mexico, well below radar but high above the fence. (the war on some drugs that some people take is a complete failure)
World News - Coastal villages in Nigeria protest as crude oil washes ashore Shell denies that any of the oil is from its 200,000 barrel per day Bonga facility, 120 km offshore and accounting for 10 percent of monthly oil flows, which was shut down by the spill on Dec. 20.

US/Iran Rhetoric Escalates | FDL News Desk It must be an election year, because the noise about war with Iran has quite suddenly elevated. You have Republican Presidential candidates talking about blockades and putting missiles on high alert, threats to block the Strait of Hormuz, and the like

The Story of America's Amazing Comeback - The Daily Beast How America pulled itself back from the brink—and why it's destined to stay on top - Bleak is the new black (America!)
CAIR Points To Anti-Muslim Postings In Wake Of Mosque Attacks | TPMMuckraker An Islamic group is pointing to online posts encouraging individuals to toss Molotov cocktails into mosques in the wake of a wave of attacks in New York City on Sunday night that appeared to be aimed at Muslims.

Conservative White People's Primary | Informed Comment (all you need to know about why the media is going insane in Iowa in one infographic)
Montana high court upholds ban on election spending by corporations | Great Falls Tribune | greatfallstribune.com

The GOP’s game plan to end Obama’s presidency - The Plum Line - The Washington Post Obama had barely been sworn into office before the national Republican leadership mounted a concerted and determined effort to prevent any of Obama’s solutions to our severe national problems from passing (Republicans hate America and Americans love lies)
GOP’s battle plan against Obama: Use his own words against him - The Washington Post (even if he didn't exactly say those words)
Cantor refuses to admit Reagan raised taxes | The Raw Story (down the lie hole)
Political Animal - For no reason, Santorum ‘singled out blacks’ “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money,” Santorum begins. “I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money and provide for themselves and their families.” (Republicans are, basically, racists)
Quote of the Day "You got a name?" -- Rick Perry, in a must-see video, refusing to answer questions about a Politico story using allegations from unnamed Perry campaign staffers.
Newt says there's insufficient evidence for climate change, citing his expertise as 'an amateur paleontologist' | ThinkProgress
Ohio Earthquake Linked To Fracking Injection Wells | ThinkProgress (reap what you drill)

As Big Bank Stocks Plunge, CEOs Continue To Reap Huge Salaries | ThinkProgress

Texas remains No. 1 in executions | McClatchy

The Big Government Takeover Of Time: A Parable (they didn't like it then, either) (Get your government hands off my time!)
Is the 'nonsense celebrities say' report good for science? | Alice Bell | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Sense About Science's report isn't just a cheap snigger at stupid people, but it may obscure other problems – and other solutions - Nicole Polizzi says the ocean is salty because it's full of whales' sperm
High-heel orgasms? Colon cleanses? Celebrity 'science' is a bad joke | Tracey Brown | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Some of the misinformation celebrities spread is amusing – but much of it needs urgent correction
Taylor & Francis Online :: Humble persons are more helpful than less humble persons: Evidence from three studies - The Journal of Positive Psychology (also suggest Republicans not helpful at all)
Insight: Shortage of ADHD drug Adderall seen persisting | Reuters A shortage of Adderall, which is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, shows little sign of easing as manufacturers struggle to get enough active ingredient to make the drug and demand climbs (turns out the DEA controls the world supply based on "what the agency considers to be the country's legitimate medical need." but America has attention-deficit bigtime)
Study: Brain injury from high-fat foods may be why diets fail | McClatchy "hypothalamic neuron injury" is associated with obesity caused by a high-fat diet in rodents and humans.

Wikipedia fundraiser ends with $20M in the bank | VentureBeat

010112
2011: The Year In 100 Seconds - YouTube

Syrian monitors should withdraw, says Arab League body | World news | The Guardian Observer mission 'giving Syrian regime an Arab cover for inhumane actions'
North Korea's new year message declares era of prosperity | World news | guardian.co.uk State greets 2012 with promises to defend Kim Jong-un 'unto death' and address food shortages, signalling economic focus
China's tomb raiders laying waste to thousands of years of history | World news | The Guardian Bulldozers and dynamite used to strip priceless artefacts from remote sites, with booty sold on to wealthy collectors
Aum Shinrikyo cult fugitive turns himself in after 16 years | World news | The Guardian
Israel Ultra-Orthodox Protests: Nazi Garb Sparks Outrage The protesters called Israeli policemen Nazis, wore yellow Star of David patches with the word "Jude" – German for Jew – dressed their children in striped black-and-white uniforms associated with Nazi concentration camps and transported them in the back of a truck.
Child sacrificed, liver offered to gods: Indian police - Yahoo! News A seven-year-old Indian girl was murdered in a tribal sacrifice and her liver offered to the gods to improve crop growth, police in the central state of Chhattisgarh said on Sunday.

European leaders predict 2012 will be worse than 2011 | Business | guardian.co.uk Angela Merkel says new year will 'undoubtedly' be harder than the last as eurozone crisis hangover prompts more austerity
BBC News - Europe leaders warn of difficult 2012 European leaders have warned of a difficult year ahead, as many economists predict recession in 2012 - Growth in Europe has stalled as the debt crisis has forced governments to slash spending. (predicting the recession they caused; more austerity so they can have more recession! Merkel is an idiot)
Now Ed Miliband gets tough with onslaught against 'evil' of benefits scroungers | Mail Online (it's all the fault of those moochers and freeloaders; this is the face of "liberal" UK)
Why Was The Wife Of Switzerland's Central Banker Trading Francs Days Before A Devaluation? (no big deal, just "pillow talk")

Statement by the President on H.R. 1540 | The White House

New Year's Eve Occupy Wall Street Protests: Police Arrest Dozens

A MEGA-LIST of Congressmen facing 2012 reelection that are potentially vulnerable, with their voting records on controversial legislation : politics (Nelson was most evil Dem)
NewsDaily: Voter photo ID, E-Verify laws to take effect in new year Measures passed in 2011, which numbered nearly 40,000 across the country, often reflected the priorities of Republicans, who held majorities in most state legislative chambers and held the highest number of seats nationally by the party since 1928. (yes, 1928)

Ron Paul Flips Out Over Accusation That He Believed 9/11 Conspiracy Theories (must have some other Ron Paul guy)
Like Father, Like Son? - George Romney: "he seemed cast for the part by Hollywood's Central Casting. Correspondents who liked him called him 'Mr. Straight Arrow;' those whose flesh crawled at his pieties called him 'Mr. Square,' or worse... He would make a forthright statement one day, then, like a man making up his mind in public, contradict it or modify it on another."
2012 Presidential Election: Voters Feeling Dispirited As Presidential Campaign Unreels In days after Sept. 11, 2001, customers lined up outside the door. Americans wanted to show their pride, their determination, their Americanism. It's all a fading memory now (where are your flags now?)
New state bill could make it illegal to sing national anthem 'inappropriately' | The Star Press | thestarpress.com Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, has introduced a bill that would set specific "performance standards" for singing and playing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at any event sponsored by public schools and state universities (would have to pass Republican review committies)

Hullabaloo: The failure to prosecute bankers leads to revolutionary, divisive politics (Obama is a mirror-image of who we thought we voted for)
2012 Medicare Debate: Baby Boomers At Center Of Issue "Medicare as we have known it is not part of our future." (yes, Obama is a Repubican)

Elderly can be as fast as young in some brain tasks, study shows But recent research suggests that much of that slower response is a conscious choice to emphasize accuracy over speed.
Are superluminal neutrinos possible? Pions don't want to decay into faster-than-light neutrinos, study finds
Over 65 million years, North American mammal evolution has tracked with climate change
Self-regulation of the immune system suppresses defense against cancer

Driving has lost its cool for young Americans | Grist "American youth have fallen out of love with automobiles" because of the rising cost of driving and the fact that they are "living their lives online,"

Refreshing News: Americans buy record numbers of guns for Christmas Nearly 500,000 of those were in the six days before Christmas.
The 30 Most Important Cats Of 2011

Online community Reddit driving opposition to piracy bill - The Hill's Hillicon Valley