January 2011
Where's the Protest at Home? | CommonDreams.org →
On Saturday, I crossed paths with a few hundred protesters marching from Cambridge to Boston to call for the resignation of Egyptian President Mubarak. By appearance, they were a mixture of Arab-Americans, locals, and people from assorted other backgrounds.
The loud, peaceful march was almost startling, because you hardly see street protests in America these days, even in liberal Massachusetts....
Arizona Tea Party Wants To Recall Tucson Sheriff →
Arizona’s horrible old white people have responded in exactly the way you’d imagine to the Tucson Massacre that took the lives of six people — including a federal judge and a little girl — and gravely injured Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and eight others, all for the sin of taking part in an American political get-together at a Safeway in a strip mall. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik...
Gun Rights For Toddlers, And Pretty Much Everyone... →
Police in Florida, where a pending bill will forbid doctors from asking patients if they have guns in their homes, are investigating the case of a five-year-old who dropped a loaded .22-caliber handgun in his pre-K class. The kid, who said he found the gun in his stepfather’s car, is “both a suspect in this thing, but also a victim,” police said.
Meanwhile, a host of...
Anti-abortion bill’s intent was to help rape... →
A bill that would redefine rape was not meant to end federal funding allocations for women that sought to terminate pregnancies due to rape, a Democratic congressman said recently.
“The language of HR 3 was not intended to change existing law regarding taxpayer funding for abortion in cases of rape, nor is it expected that it would do so,” Rep. Daniel Lipinski of Illinois said...
A Compendium of Quotes from Palin's Safari Club...
Piper was named after Todd’s airplane, the Piper cub, which gets us to the hunting grounds. Bristol, Bristol Bay fishing grounds. Willow, a local sport-fishing stream. Trig, I pull the TRIG-ger. Track… I remember when we told my dad that his grandson was named Track, he said, ‘Like TRACKing an elephant?’ —on naming her kids
…this recent talk coming from...
“If a caribou needs to be sacrificed for the sake of energy independence, I say,...”
– Sarah Palin. Palin admits she “threw a little politics” into her recent TLC reality show by dragging the crew to the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge on the pretense of hunting caribou. Her real purpose? Showing viewers that ANWR is a “barren, desolate, less-than-pristine...
World carbon dioxide emissions data by country:... →
A very in depth, informative article with lots of interesting stats; I encourage anyone concerned about the environment to read this.
25 arrested at California conservative meeting -... →
LA QUINTA, Calif. – Authorities in California say 25 protesters have been arrested for trespassing outside a strategy session of conservative political donors at a Palm Springs-area resort.
Riverside County Deputy Melissa Nieburger said Sunday that the protesters were being booked at Indio Jail and released.
Hundreds of people participated in the mostly peaceful demonstration that had been...
’40,000 violations of the law’ in FBI snooping:... →
A VC: A Frightening Week →
When something you have come to rely on is taken away from you, it is frightening.
This week, when I read that Egypt’s government was able to completely turn off the Internet in country, it stunned me. The Internet was designed to be immune to such things.
I have come to accept the idea that I can skype with anyone anywhere in the world at any time as “the way it is.” I have...
With Four Lawmakers Objecting, Senate Ends... →
Naturally the 4 are all Republicans
Chase Admits Overcharging Troops on Mortgages,... →
JPMorgan Chase acknowledged this week that it overcharged some 4,000 military families for their mortgages and wrongfully foreclosed on at least 14. It’s not clear how much the mistakes have cost these families, but the bank told NBC News that it’s collectively refunding about $2 million to those affected. It has also promised to restore the homes that were lost.
According to NBC, the...
MYREPUBLICA.com - Lone Nepali Gorkha who subdued... →
POKHARA, Jan 13: Gorkha soldiers have long been known the world over for their valor and these khukuri-wielding warriors winning the British many a battle have become folklore. A retired Indian Gorkha soldier recently revisited those glory days when he thwarted 40 robbers, killing three of them and injuring eight others, with his khukuri during a train journey. He is in line to receive...
“Overgrown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious...”
– George Washington (via whyareyousleeping-)
If only my nation could remember our revolutionary beginnings, eh? Indeed, we see the truth of our first President’s words all the more clearly today as we live under just such an establishment.
Bill Maher: New Rule: Americans Must Realize What... →
New Rule: With the Super Bowl only a week away, Americans must realize what makes NFL football so great: socialism. That’s right, for all the F-15 flyovers and flag waving, football is our most successful sport because the NFL takes money from the rich teams and gives it to the poor teams… just like President Obama wants to do with his secret army of ACORN volunteers. Green...
Navy test fires electromagnetic cannon →
Missed this article from Dec. 10, 2010:
The US Navy announced a successful test Friday of an electromagnetic cannon capable of firing a projectile 110 nautical miles (200 kilometers) at five times the speed of sound.
“This demonstration moves us one day closer to getting this advanced capability to sea,” said Rear Admiral Nevin Carr, chief of naval research.
Tested at the...
New Egyptian V.P. Suleiman ran CIA... →
From Jane Mayer’s book The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on America Ideals pg. 113:
…the United States offered its rich resources to track, capture and transport terrorist suspects globally— including access to a small fleet of aircraft. Egypt embraced the idea immediately. “What was clever was that some of the senior people in...
Jon Stewart Named 28th “Most Dangerous Liberal” in... →
According to the popular conservative online news website Townhall, Comedy Central host Jon Stewart is the number 28 “most dangerous liberal” in the country. Written by Townhall’s Executive Editor Chris Field, Stewart is a “radical liberal” and part of George Soros’s progressive web. Stewart falls right below Rev. Jim Wallis, the leader of the Christian social justice group Sojourners, who...
Two Oklahoma lawmakers file bills encouraging... →
A freshman state senator from southeastern Oklahoma and a four-term state representative from Oklahoma City are taking another run at Charles Darwin. Sen. Josh Brecheen, R-Coalgate, and Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, have filed legislation designed to undermine the teaching of a fundamental of modern science, the theory of evolution. Kern’s House Bill 1551, called the Scientific...
Religious Right Brings Back the Halal Meat Panic |... →
Last October a group of Anti-Muslim activists led by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer protested Campbell’s for making Halal soups in Canada, calling on followers to boycott the company. Halal foods are made according to Islamic dietary laws, much like Kosher foods are made according to Jewish dietary laws. Geller accused Campbell’s of doing the “bidding” of the Muslim Brotherhood and said that...
I just realized...
…that as extreme right and radical as today’s GOP has become, calls to be centrist and for Dems to “meet them in the middle” are all misleading because Republicans have moved so far to the extremist right. Meeting in their middle means that Dems must start compromising from the position of the moderate right (which the GOP was before the fundamentalists took it over) in...
Ellmers: Taxpayer-Funded Health Care OK for Me... →
North Carolina’s freshman Congresswoman Renee Ellmers, last featured in RWW’s The Ten Scariest Republicans Heading to Congress, refers to herself as a “product of the Tea Party” and even opposes mandating that insurance companies cover matenity care because it is “very costly.” Despite her staunch hostility to the Democrats’ “imperial ruling class attitude” and the “socialistic form of ...
China Blocks 'Egypt' on Top Twitter-Like Service -... →
BEIJING - China has blocked the word “Egypt” from the country’s wildly popular Twitter-like service, while coverage of the political turmoil has been tightly restricted in state media. China’s ruling Communist Party is sensitive to any potential source of social unrest. A search for “Egypt” on the Sina microblogging service brings up a message saying,...
House Republicans Are Already Redefining 'Rape' →
With this legislation, which was introduced last week by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Republicans propose that the rape exemption be limited to “forcible rape.” This would rule out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including instances of statutory rape, many of which are non-forcible. For example: If a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by a 24-year-old adult, she...
ThinkProgress » Gov. Kasich To Black Lawmaker: ‘I... →
Texas man cleared of rape after 24 years in jail |... →
A Texas man was cleared of rape charges Thursday after serving more than 24 years in jail, court officials said.
Larry Sims, 60, was convicted of rape in October 1986. But DNA evidence — which remained untested until recently — undermined the testimony of his accuser.
“We’ve officially put on the record that DNA has cleared him,” said LaMonica Littles, court...
The Billionaires Are Coming: Obama's Richest... →
Amid great secrecy, about 200 of America’s wealthiest and most powerful individuals from the worlds of finance, big business and rightwing politics are expected to come together on Sunday in the sun-drenched California desert near Palm Springs, for what has been billed as a gathering of the billionaires. They will have the chance to enjoy the Rancho Mirage resort’s many pools, spa...
“The commission’s final report and its pledge to post raw materials – apparently...”
– Lisa Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform responding to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission final report on the financial crisis today. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce pitched a classic hissy fit calling the report an “abuse of the process” that would create “more...
“We have, as a country, a founding perspective that we’re founded under...”
– Former Minnesota Gov. & Tea Party rabblerouserTim Pawlenty (R) fudging the facts of American history (unless his definition of Christian includes animism, Freemasonry or ridiculing the notion of Christ’s divinity).
Our Founding Fathers were a group of atheists, agnostics or deists who...
Bush Administration used tax dollars to aid... →
The Bush White House sent administration officials to illegally campaign for Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Livonia) at taxpayer expense during the 2006 midterm elections, according to a U.S. Office of Special Counsel investigation released this month. The investigation was initiated after a tip revealed that the director of the White House Office of Political Affairs had provided PowerPoint ...
75-Year Prison Sentence for Taping the Police? The... →
ThinkProgress » How The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce’s... →
As Egyptian protests continue to rage and thousands of people in that country continue to demand democratic reforms, many commentators are rightly calling upon the international community to show solidarity with the demonstrators and join them in battling the Mubarak regime.
However, there is at least one powerful, multinational entity that has continually stood by Mubarak and the Egyptian...
CNBC anchor implies US must support dictators to... →
CNBC contributor Erin Burnett said Friday that oil prices would skyrocket if countries in the Middle East broke out from under the rule of brutal dictators.
Appearing on a Friday broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Burnett said that the ongoing revolution in Egypt could threaten US interests in the region due to Egypt’s history as an ally on matters pertaining to ...
Bachmann eyes cuts to veterans health benefits |... →
Tea party hero Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) this week proposed a blueprint to eliminate $400 billion from the federal budget, which included billions in cuts to veterans’ health care and disability benefits.
Her plan would freeze health care funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and slash $4.5 billion in disability benefits to military veterans.
click the link to read...
Tea party governor ‘will put bureaucrats to work... →
The communications director for Maine’s new, tea party-backed governor told staffers last month they would be using the state’s bureaucracy to get Republicans re-elected, according to a letter obtained by a Maine blogger.
Dan Demerritt, the communications director for Gov. Paul LePage, may have called for a violation of the law when he reportedly announced in an email to the...
House GOP considers privatizing Medicare - Yahoo!... →
Months after they hammered Democrats for cutting Medicare, House Republicans are debating whether to relaunch their quest to privatize the health program for seniors. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is testing support for his idea to replace Medicare with a fixed payment to buy a private medical plan from a menu of coverage options.
Party leaders will determine if the...
According to the California Academy of Sciences,... →
savagemike:
onenounverbing:
coldclearlight:
oh god.
And in other news, 20% of high school seniors are proficient in science, so is this surprising?
‘Murrica, we have work to do.
I am simultaneously laughing and crying at this.
It’s this sort of mass stupidity that embarrasses me as an American.