Hillary Clinton: ‘Iran is moving towards a military dictatorship’
US secretary of state steps up war of words against Tehran, calling on regime to rethink ‘dangerous’ nuclear policy
(If we end up at war with Iran who will the Obots blame for it?)
Capture may be turning point in Taliban fight
The seizure of the Afghan Taliban’s top military leader in Pakistan represents a turning point in the U.S.-led war against the militants, U.S. officials and analysts said.
(How many “turning points” have we had now?)
Five civilians killed in Nato rocket attack in Afghanistan
Incident follows death of 12 civilians after stray Nato rockets were fired in Helmand yesterday
(One step forward, two steps back)
Saudi prince held after servant is beaten to death in London hotel
A Saudi prince is being quizzed by police on suspicion of murder after one of his servants was found battered to death at a top London hotel.
(“Gee officer, we do this at home all the time”)
Toyota to beef up braking; Toyoda sidesteps Congress
Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday it would install a system to ensure braking trumps acceleration for all new car models as it seeks to limit the damage from its vast recall woes.
(They’ll stop at nothing)
(Debt panel – death panel, tomaytoe – tomahtoe)
Aspirin cuts death risk after breast cancer
Large study of nurses showed 50 percent lower risk cancer would spread
(Thousands of Cleveland residents attempt to flee over ice to Canada)
(I knew old Zamboni – old Zamboni was a friend of mine)
Best In Show
Sadie the Scottie was fully expected to reach the purple podium at America’s top dog show. She did, after two intruders turned the center ring at Westminster into their own platform.
The heavily favored Scottish terrier won best in show Tuesday night and seemed to be an easy choice. Her team waited quite a while for this victory — it took a little longer, too, because of a startling protest inspired by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
U.S. Economy Grinds To Halt As Nation Realizes Money Just A Symbolic, Mutually Shared Illusion
The U.S. economy ceased to function this week after unexpected existential remarks by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke shocked Americans into realizing that money is, in fact, just a meaningless and intangible social construct.
What began as a routine report before the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday ended with Bernanke passionately disavowing the entire concept of currency, and negating in an instant the very foundation of the world’s largest economy.
(Would I lie to you?)
What’s going on in your part of the world?
Filed under: General
Is the Onion doing serious journalism now?
Is anyone doing serious journalism any more?
Apparently just the Onion
here’s one for you … rapping economists Keynes v. Hayek
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/shortstack/2010/02/the_secret_behind_the_hot_sale.html
Funniest part of that story is that they offered Smith (a multi-millionaire) something like $100.00 for his “trouble.” That went over like a turd in a punchbowl. He’s been twittering like crazy.
Note to SouthWest. Don’t screw with someone who has major access to media. Doh!
Maybe they should make a rule about flatulence instead?
Now that I can get behind. {{no pun intended}}
Smith’s twitter page and his smodcast have been interesting to watch over the past few days…
If you two are on twitter, how can I follow you? You can follow me at BostonBoomer.
I read somewhere that Smith usually purchases 2 seats anyway (I guess he knows he’s fat?), but in a change of schedule , this flight only had one seat available, so he went with it.
Southwest does not have first class, maybe he just finds it more comfortable to fly with extra room. I don’t know who he is, but maybe he is ‘famous’ enough, that it is nice to have a buffer between him and his fans. If money were no object, I would buy more than one seat. Romney probably wishes he and his wife were not flying coach when the guy in front of him threw a punch at Romney after Romney asked him not to put his chair back during takeoff. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2010/0216/Mitt-Romney-attacked-by-irate-passenger-on-airplane
Good questions, actually…I’m not sure if Smith was in first class or coach. I just read that he always purchased two seats, next to each other.
I can’t imagine, re Romney, that passengers would throw a punch just when asked to put his chair back. Musta been a tad drunk.
People getting crazy out there, ain’t they?
I read somewhere that the usual practice on Southwest is that you can buy two seats and if the flight has empty seats, they refund you the money.
Silent Bob ain’t so silent.
Politico:
Will the Browns agree to let Obama win?
Cuz that’s how Barry rolls.
No girls allowed.
Esp. not girls who embrace their competitiveness.
girls who embrace their competitiveness
You mean “Don’t let boys win” dontcha?
I hope she slams him on the court.
That I’d pay to see.
Me too. Think of the national debt we could pay down if it were on Pay per View. lol
here are the tabloids today
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/tabloids-nuclear-option-kill-the-gov/
I am at work and cannot link to it. There is a story at yahoo.com about the rising of homeless women and families. This is a story that really needs to go viral.
WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS
PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALIST AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE
Are you talking about the homelessness going up in the ‘burbs article?
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/02/16/us/AP-US-Suburban-Homeless.html
YES
YES. I saw it on the yahoo.com site, but it is the same story.
The last sentence is soo true.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/02/17/obama_has_ruined_his_presidency_and_his_party_104440.html
Even if it is from Icky Dicky Morris.
& is that a sort of, kind of, maybe compliment to Hillary coming from Morris?!! STOP EVERYTHING–HELL HAS FROZEN OVER!
ayup
Not just Dick Morris.
Paul Volker was quoted as calling this administration as “the most dysfunctional government” he’s ever seen.
Ouch. That smarts.
I think, if you’re referring to the CNN interview with Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, he was talking about the congress.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/0210/Volcker_laments_Senate_dysfunction.html
Didn’t see Zakaria.
But the WSJ article included the Obama administration’s interaction with the Congress (ie, deals behind closed doors, etc)—probably intended to trash Rahm’s machinations—in describing Volker’s comments.
Whatever’s “not working” in the Senate is partially because of the WH’s secret deals behind closed doors, was the point.
I watched the Zakaria interview but haven’t seen the WSJ, so that’s probably the difference.
No prob, really.
But I can imagine that even Democratic Senators, when they found out about the WH-arranged deals (working with Reid&Baucus–Rahm was there the whole time) for Nebraska, Louisiana, Florida, etc. were absolutely outraged by it, and resented the WH’s involvement in same, just to get Obama a “win.”
Interesting article: Senator Evan Bayh’s departure sparks debate about partisanship in Congress
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/16/AR2010021605974_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2010021606269
“White House officials said Tuesday that the president will continue to reach out to Republicans, with the health-care summit the next important moment. Communications director Dan Pfeiffer said that after the meeting, administration officials will gauge the possibility of bipartisan compromise. “The president is coming to the meeting with open mind and hopes Republicans do too,” he said.”
AN OPEN MIND?! Is that what you call it when you have no core values?
I think by saying “open mind” they really mean empty mind.
His mind is so open his brains fell out.
He’s a vapid president just like his roll model, ronny raygun. Two peas in a pod. Actually, I’m starting to think this might become an insult to ronny raygun.
Ha. Or role model. Though I like roll for some reason.
Wow! In B0botland, propagandists are speechless
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/there-is-no-chess-game-bobotland-turns-on-its-ear/
Yep – that DU thread was fun to watch. The usual defenders (just a few are left) didn’t show up to join the food fight.
I knew old Zamboni – old Zamboni was a friend of mine.
LOL! Love the one liners myiq.
new Zamboni was not a real zamboni, that was the problem. Canada tried to save money by using a knock off.
“Zamboni driver” is my occupation of choice on alumni-association and other nosy questionnaires.
That always sounds like some wwwf move to me.
For those who really liked K.D. Lang’s rendition of Hallelujah in Vancouver, there is now an EP version at iTunes. Beautiful.
I love her, but I still prefer Leonard Cohen’s version which was full of religious/bible reference and unafraid to be so. Jeff Buckley’s was great too. It is just an amazingly beautiful song.
oops…… Cohen had something real to say about music and love and I think the change in lyrics muddied the song. But I will never forget when I heard it first on West Wing.
LEONARD COHEN LYRICS
Hallelujah Ringtone Send “Hallelujah” Ringtone to your Cell Hallelujah Ringtone
“Hallelujah”
Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Baby I have been here before
I know this room, I’ve walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
There was a time you let me know
What’s really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
You say I took the name in vain
I don’t even know the name
But if I did, well really, what’s it to you?
There’s a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn’t matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I did my best, it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch
I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah
My whole body just tingles with that.
Cohen doesn’t have the voice to sing it in that soaring way but he uses all the words and that makes up the difference because all the shortened versions tell only part of the story.
When I hear it, always makes me cry.
Spectacular song.
Thank you.
Failbots projected their progressivism onto Obama. Now they think they can change his personality and that Obama will fight for liberal values.
Obama wanting to collapse the Democratic and Republican parties into the Obama party is a totalitarian, sociopathic mentality. He’s not going to get off his bipartisanship fetish. They’re stuck with this for three more years.
look at DU and blaming….
BLM who’s head was always up Kerry’s butt, is now blaming everything on Clinton.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433×185606
Didn’t Hillary kick Rahm to the coat closet?
Hillary convinced Bill that Rahm and George S. were the major “leakers” but more importantly, she realized that Rahm was running his own, not the President’s, agenda.
First it’s all the republican’s fault for, you know, being obstructionist. All 40 of them. Then it’s a mythological Clinton power system behind the scenes.
It’s kind of entertaining to watch the insane twisting in the wind. Who will be blamed next I wonder. My favorite will be when they finally figure out the truth, it’s the secret cabal of 1000 year old vampires that only DU knows about. True story.
There’s no red America, there’s no blue America, there’s only Omerica.
you are going to give me nightmares.
Just wait until he’s permanently entrenched as a GS branded dictator, and just like with Kim Jong Il, we all have to sing songs to him. It’s a failbots we dream. True story.
wet dream I lost my “t”. I think the evil long arm of the Obot kingdom swooped in and took it. True story.
Good place to post Bill Maher’s comment on Larry King last night:
“Americans aren’t bright enough to really understand the issues.”
Maher thinks Obama should just push through, whatever it takes, cuz the rest of us are just TOO STUPID to understand anything, and Americans respect “strength.”
Bite me, Bill.
Yeah, cuz don’t you know the politicians in DC were right about Iraq, TARP and a myriad of other issues.
They are all brilliant and we’re the idiots(rolling eyes)
Bill Maher should get over himself. If he wants to call himseld dumb so be it. He doesn’t get to speak on behalf of the rest of us though.
And what pray tell does he think Obama would just push threw? I’m sure it wouldn’t be something completely favorable to wall street and the insurance companies. /snark
Bill is an idiot. He knows is just a stupid idiot comedian and when caught saying stupid wrong things he always says, I’m just a stupid comedian, don’t listen to me. But he continues to use his position to do harm with his stupidity.
Hey, maybe he should run for president. /snark
Sorry–didn’t see this post before I went elsewhere.
Maher says the Senate Baucus Bill is just fine….and Obama should just push it through and show “strength.”
The Senate Bill, which most of the country—right and left—-is against.
I figured. Yep, he’s just as stupid as I thought he was. {{bangs head against wall}}
Bill Maher is exactly the type of hollywood denizen that pisses the great fly over off … he thinks he knows everything and every one else is just part of the rube gestalt. I’m not sure where he bought his sense of humor, but he needs to return it and shop at a better class of stores.
When he started out he was one of those typical bully comedians who’s material was primarily based on abusing and making fun of others shortcomings. All the while being a complete idiot about what’s true and how things work. Sadly he was rewarded for that and so hasn’t grown or matured since. He’s a waste of perfectly good oxygen.
yeah, there’s also
…Eccl. 1:9
(Juvenal, Satire 10.77–81)
But still, people like Bill M try to make their trite commentary pay by lifting what folks said years ago and turning into their own mean girls brand of pseudowisdom
His carefully-selected gated community PROTECTS him from the rest of us rubes (with multiple graduate degrees, which he doesn’t have), you see.
Safely ensconced in his private hideaway, he feels that he can SNEER while looking down at the rest of us.
Hell, he couldn’t even begin to explain economic issues like you do. He doesn’t understand them.
Whew. I finally got this morning post up at Eat4Today :: Wednesday, Deciding what to do and when to do it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno
On this day in 1600, Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno, best-known as a proponent of heliocentrism and the infinity of the universe, was burned at the stake as a heretic by the Roman Inquisition.
I’m so very glad we have been allowed to say Obama is a pompous idiot without any repercussions. Oh wait, they did attack us. Well, at least they haven’t burned us at the stake. Yet.
You must not have been around in the Spring of 08.
O/T but important. I’m an Independent/former Democrat who actually attended the rally in Washington on May 31, 2008. Please watch this. Many of you are misinformed.
you just have to follow the money to figure out what is what with the Tea Party Movement.
Aren’t all political parties made up of “regular folks?” What’s that got to do with who owns ‘em?
well, as you’ve said many times there are grass roots and there are astroturf roots and then there are the people that get caught up in the ball of confusion
How ’bout follow the money to figure out who owns Barak Obama ?
We know it’s the FIRE Lobby.
The money behind the movement conservatives owns the astroturf grass roots of the Tea Party.
Last time I checked, the Republican party is owned by Oil Interests and the Military Industrial Complex.
Correct me, if I’m wrong.
I didn’t say you were wrong.
What I was trying to say is that the Democratic Party is ALSO owned by big corporations…follow the money for both sides. It ain’t just tea partiers or Republicans. You didn’t really believe the Dems represented little people, didja?
It’s why both tribes’ incumbents are gonna get thrown out on their asses next November.
“Pick a Party”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/17/politics/main6215033.shtml
That is strangely hypnotic.
maybe I should try it out on my students then with some hidden phrase about perfect evaluations and demanding tenure
That is great.
Have you shown it to your students and will it be “on the test”?
I graduated from college in 1966. I went back to school in 1980 and the first day of class a student asked the teacher if anything from an assigned reading “would be on the test?” My mouth dropped open as I waited for the Professor to blow him off. Instead the Professor answered “No”. After that the question was asked more than once during every lecture. And, it was always answered. I thought – boy this can’t be that easy. But it was. I referred to the college students at that time as Reagonoids. Later , and currently, I refer to them as – The First Generation of Me Machines.
Just found it. I’m going to have to try it out.
I think it would be great as an introduction to the comparisons, Dak. You may have to show it to begin —getting attention—and then show it again after the lessons—to actually understand.
It’s really great. It would at least get your college kids’ attention.
Thanks for posting this. Pretty cool.
The mummy’s mommy …
New DNA testing stuff says King Tut is the son of Akhenaton and Akhenaton’s sister, and therefore, not the son of Nefertiti. Shocking!
Also they’ve found which mummy (KV55) is Akhenaton.
Which sister, is the question. I think there are at least 4?
And Tut had a club foot.
(Club foot, incest … how utterly Byronic)
Club foot, cleft palate, AND malaria. Walked with a cane, sickly weakling. Only lasted as pharoah about 10 years, died around 20 years old (broken leg, malaria infection).
Brother/Sister marriage among the pharoah royalty was quite normal; Cleopatra was officially “married” to her younger brother—supposedly because no one else had “royal” blood to continue the family line. They never produced any children, mostly because her brother died and she “ascended.” She did have a son with Julius Caesar, and 3 children with Mark Antony. Caesar Augustus had them all slaughtered when he defeated Antony, so there would be no threat to his reign.
Amazing story, really.
Do you read historical fiction? Did you read the historical fic “Cleopatra’s daughter” by Michelle Moran? fantastic story… I also like her Nefertiti and heretic Queen.
When I saw the tea partiers attack an elderly gentleman who was advocating single-payer health care, I knew there was no common ground there. These people are calling Obama a raving socialist and want to turn over every aspect of their lives to corporate control.
We are not misinformed.
People see what they want to see. I went to the 9/12 march on D.C. There were over 1 million people there. No trash, nothing broken, no arrests. There was no violence. I’m sure there are Republicans in the mix…but there are also Independents, Feminists, gays, etc. The Tea Partiers are just a whole bunch of different folks who want to take back America and put it back where it belongs…in our Constitution.
I don’t doubt that there were different groups of people there but do you really believe they say anything different than what Republicans say? Also, if you want to take back America it is VERY unproductive to incessantly call Obama a socialist,marxist, liberal commie (which one is it?) Because 1. It’s not true. Obama is nothing but a chicago politician helping special interests 2. it’s not helping you win people over for upcoming elections.
What upcoming elections? You mean Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts?
OT:
Apparently Meg Whitman is TIED with Jerry Brown in California.
And Sen. Patty Murray is dead even with her GOP opposition, but down 8 points with Independents, in Washington State.
Jaysus.
the silent majority awakes
Functionally telling your constituents to “Vote for me you stupid unAmerican Nazi scum” has never been a productive strategy.
People tend to vote against that in droves.