Intelligent Political Discussion's topics - tribe.net

Does mickey have an alt?

Zippi — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:39:46 GMT

http://people.tribe.net/kubbie
Which is the real mickey and how did they find the same avatar.

This way is more news worthy than Jerry Rivers' fake outrage at that balloon family.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 33 replies

Progressives are responsible for the World Trade tower attacks.

Zippi — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:55:00 GMT

They are entirely responsible for nearly every single thing that has gone to hell for as far back as the 1920's

But for the progressives Vietnam would not have ended as it did.

But for the Progressives the US would have been off the gold standard and like those nations that were would have missed out on the worse f the great depression.

But for progressives The most recent recession would not have happened because the tipping point the one single element at the heart of it all - stupid lending policy - would never have happened.

But for the progressives the World Trade Towers would still be standing and those three thousand plus people would still be alive today.

Progressives should be rounded up and put in detention centers.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 14 replies

Building 7 Mystery Solved

Hummingbird — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:05:35 GMT

http://www.theage.com.au/world/911-collapse-mystery-solved-scientists-20080822-3zu5.html

"Scientists with the National Institute of Standards and Technology say their three-year investigation of the collapse determined the demise of WTC 7 was actually the first time in the world a fire caused the total failure of a skyscraper.

"The reason for the collapse of World Trade Centre 7 is no longer a mystery," said Dr Shyam Sunder, the lead investigator on the team.

Investigators also concluded that the collapse of the nearby towers broke the city water main, leaving the sprinkler system in the bottom half of the building without water."

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 1 reply

Hey Calif Residents:::::

Zippi — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:10:20 GMT

What do you think of the new tax?
It's another 10% isn't it?
Do you believe they will really pay you back?
Is it even legal?
The state can make new taxes but this is a loan you can't say no to.
Do you think it will do what they want - stave off total bankruptcy? Or maybe the spendthrifts in Sacramento will just squander that too?

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 2 replies

Conspiracy Theories That Were Actually True. . .

lorenzo — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:35:36 GMT

maybe fudged a little bit, but still entertaining, from cracked.com. some famous and not so famous bits of history. .

http://www.cracked.com/article_15974_7-insane-conspiracies-that-actually-happened.html

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 8 replies

NJ VA NY Beware communists

Zippi — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:33:09 GMT

The winds are shifting.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 6 replies

Proposition 1

MickD — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:55:24 GMT

From the article: "Rather, I think opponents of gay marriage — and even, perhaps naively, gay rights — are just scared to lose something else. Gay marriage’s passage would prove their values’ irrelevance, another nail in the coffin of the religious caution that kept this nation safe for so long."

http://nyulocal.com/national/2009/11/04/evaluating-the-causes-and-effects-of-maines-prop-1-passage/

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 0 replies

" It's a corruption of the entire democratic process...." Coal Lobby sends fake letters opposing climate change bill.

blackegg — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:43:16 GMT

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114303819

" October 30, 2009
Over the summer, as the House prepared to consider sweeping climate change legislation, several lawmakers received letters on seemingly official stationary from the NAACP and the American Association of University Women. The letters warned lawmakers that the organizations had serious doubts about the bill Democrats were bringing to the floor.

But the letters turned out to be fakes.

"Those are not insignificant organizations in our country," Rep. Ed Markey, chairman of the House global warming committee and co-author of the bill, said at a hearing Thursday. "That really does put a thumb on the scale against clean energy technologies, and word would spread on the House floor, as to why particular members might be considering opposing the legislation."
"

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 7 replies

$1,237,030.37 Calif spent on Hybrids no one ever uses.

Zippi — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:23:32 GMT

http://tribes.tribe.net/america/thread/f4127462-2b27-49c1-84ae-7a1c4cd4badd?newpostingid=272392d3-f9b2-41bd-951d-32e58de9d851#272392d3-f9b2-41bd-951d-32e58de9d851

It'll kill ya. All that money and all it took was some idiot Gubbermit worker to squander it.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 2 replies

Glen Beck

Zippi — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:28:51 GMT

He draws entirely from the factual record.
He plays videos and recordings of people saying and doing the most obscene things, He cites from articles written by these people
Then he draws some pretty easy obvious conclusions.

And the idiots keep calling him a liar.

What's he lied about?

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 27 replies

is fox news network anti-american?

d'kine — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:05:40 GMT

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 10 replies

Healthcare Bill

Adam — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:10:48 GMT

The current version of the healthcare bill being rolled out by the Dems has verbage that will change HSAs and FSAs. If you use a Healthy Savings account or a Flexible Spending Account for your medical expenses, then you need to drop some hate mail to Obama and/or your senators. They are about to impose anual caps and require you to use your medical savings within 1.5 years.

Even if you do not have one of these3 accounts you should send Obama a nasty letter for letting the lobbyists get that in there. It is a move to kill HSAs and FSA which allow you to bank about half of your normal monthly medical insurance payment. The HMO pricks only get half as much money out of you with an HSA. They really love collecting fulll premiums from healthy people who never go to the doctor. An HSA lets you save money instead of giving it all to some HMO homos.

You should also urge your employer to get you an HSA or FSA program.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 0 replies

Hannity, Just a Little Clueless. .

lorenzo — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:14:19 GMT

Hasn't been to New York?

http://subwaysights.com/2009/10/sean-hannity-defames-new-yorkers/

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 17 replies

Quote of the Moment, 10/31/09

MickD — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:20:15 GMT

"Given a nation that not enough citizens can be attracted to defend voluntarily, you probably also have a nation that, by definition, isn't really worth defending." ~ Karl Hess

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 4 replies

A Corporate Monster Doing What. .

lorenzo — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:08:14 GMT

Corporate Monsters are want to do. . .throwing their weight around and crashing, taking everyone down with them. . .bad government allows this to happen. . .now there is a new corporate monster taking their place and it is Brazilian. .

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/143485/after_the_billionaires_plundered_alabama_town%2C_troops_were_called_in_..._illegally?page=2

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 13 replies

Israeli Students Refuse to Serve. .

lorenzo — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:26:45 GMT

Say that the occupation is wrong!

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/2009101373851115553.htmlas

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 11 replies

Laissez-faire: One simple word that explains why it cannot ever work

The_L_To_The_T — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:14:46 GMT

That word, folks, is FLEXIBILITY. Keynesian systems have it. Laissez-Faire does not.

Laissez-faire means the Government must back off the market and let it run itself. It is a purist system that allows for no deviations. Any form of regulation is considered socialism at best, and often, it is called Slavery, Collestivism or Statism. The problem is the free market is run by human beings and is therefore flawed; to deny this is to say that the free market is in fact divine and perfect. This cannot be; perfection is impossible. Entropy/decay is inevitable. Transparency is not possible in laissez-faire economics, because the wealthy will not allow it - which means that informed consent (a critical pillar of laissez-faire utopianism) is impossible. Also, corruption, fraud and predation (see: caveat emptor) are inevitable, and will become embedded into the system.

Keynesian-style graft is also inherent in laissez-faire systems, since wealthy business owners and top investors can pay off Government officials with campaign contributions (which cannot be banned under laissez-faire) to order law enforcement to look the other way no matter what these rich people do.

Under a laissez-faire system, rich corporations can violate any and every law possible, while indirectly pressuring juries with threats of plant closings, offshoring and mass layoffs, to yield a not guilty verdict, and if they're still convicted, they can close up shop and impoverish an entire city, or leave the country. At this point, law itself collapses. Sometimes utterly. Laissez-faire denies that negative unintended consequences can occur under its system, or it disregards them as "bad things happening to the weak": in essence, it falls back to the rule of the jungle, where the strong prey on the weak - thus, ironically, bringing into question, or even negating, the very reason for the concept of civilization.

At best, Laissez-faire is not flexible enough to account for these human failings. At worst, the system will get derailed by these failings: eventually starving people become terrorists, bandits, revolutionaries and so on. Laissez-faire is in essence, economic anarchy; anarchy is an unsuitable state for human society, and the reason why no nation (no, not even Hong Kong) has really tried laissez-faire (or pure Communism, for that matter), is 1) its ability to quickly degenerate into anarchy; and 2) the lack of flexibility and error control that laissez-faire economics presents in its pure form.

Keynesian systems are, on the other hand, equipped with a sort of economic error correction. Someone can step in and say something like hey, banks need an FDIC/NCUA (which governs my boss's business) to prevent massive runs on banks. Of course, this system is fraught with human failings and corruption and all of that, but as everyone has seen in the last year, we did have bank runs, and the FDIC/NCUA did prevent this from getting totally out of control. Government intervention did screw some things up with the stimulus plan, like its missteps in trying to save GM, but no one talks about the fact that this intervention also did stop a major business credit freeze that would have shut America down and sealed its coffin shut under a mile of economic cement. The unemployment insurance system, another act of Keynesian intervention and one of the solutions he explicitly advocated, is clearly miraculous. While some say that unemployment insurance encourages people to stay home, the truth is it requires people to look for work as a condition of further coverage - and Keynes wins this one again in 2009 - especially in a time where 6 people are applying for every job opening. Basic math: 6 people per job opening = 5 unemployed. The Keynesian system recognizes this truth and acts as error correction to resolve it, rather than denying or disregarding its existence, as would happen under a pure laissez-faire system.

The flaw with Keynesian system is sometimes the Government does not understand "this far, and no further". Because of this, there is great legitimacy behind laissez-faire adherents' complaints of excess Government largesse and those who leech off of it. Graft, corruption and other failings can turn Keynesian systems against itself; corporations can push for regulations that STIFLE competition and do not solve the problem that said regulation is supposed to cure. Keynesian systems, like laissez-faire systems, are susceptible to legions of unintended consequences; but Keynesian systems do not base themselves upon an assumption of perfection; Keynesian systems have the option to expire and let the market get back in relative control. However, quite often, those who execute Keynesian programs do not want to let them expire. Which can be a problem. In the end, Keynesian systems are also quite vulnerable to human failings.

Ultimately, though, the reason why all civilized nations enact Keynesian philosophies of Government intervention is because it is flexible. It is not perfect, but Keynesian philosophy justifies someone stepping in and saying "hey, this Government regulation or this market activity is insane, let's take corrective action".

Keynesian systems have a great knack for hitting millions of potholes and making a great many mistakes; but while Keynesian economics has many paths to failure, there is no path whatsoever for laissez-faire to succeed, aside from human perfection, which is impossible.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 0 replies

Iraqi Bombers are Back. .

lorenzo — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:55:06 GMT

Huge bomb blast kills over 100 people in Baghdad. . .good luck Iraqis. .

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/6432524/Baghdad-blasts-132-people-killed-in-worst-attack-in-two-years.html

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 3 replies

Meet the man who changed Glenn Beck's life

MickD — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:16:30 GMT

Cleon Skousen was a right-wing crank whom even conservatives despised. Then Beck discovered him

By Alexander Zaitchik

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/09/16/beck_skousen/print.html

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 4 replies

Ze Frank on Afghanistan. .

lorenzo — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:40:28 GMT

for once he plays it straight. .

http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,45950304001_1931954,00.html?iid=digg_share

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 0 replies

Calvin Trillin's Thoughts About Roman Polanski

Hummingbird — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:32:17 GMT

A youthful error? Yes, perhaps.
But he's been punished for this lapse--
For decades exiled from LA
He knows, as he wakes up each day,
He'll miss the movers and the shakers.
He'll never get to see the Lakers.
For just one old and small mischance,
He has to live in Paris, France.
He's suffered slurs and other stuff.
Has he not suffered quite enough?
How can these people get so riled?
He only raped a single child.

Why make him into some Darth Vader
For sodomizing one eighth grader?
This man is brilliant, that's for sure--
Authentically, a film auteur.
He gets awards that are his due.
He knows important people, too--
Important people just like us.
And we know how to make a fuss.
Celebrities would just be fools
To play by little people's rules.
So Roman's banner we unfurl.
He only raped one little girl.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 13 replies

Cheney Running in '12??

lorenzo — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:52:27 GMT

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-abrams/to-al-qaedas-cheers-dick_b_325373.html

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 7 replies

General: Cheney "Incompetent"

Hummingbird — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:31:55 GMT

http://www.nsnetwork.org/node/1442

Today, National Security Network Senior Adviser Gen. Paul Eaton (Ret.), who served more than 30 years in the United States Army and from 2003-2004 oversaw the training of the Iraqi military, responded to Dick Cheney's accusations on Afghanistan from last night:

"The record is clear: Dick Cheney and the Bush administration were incompetent war fighters. They ignored Afghanistan for 7 years with a crude approach to counter-insurgency warfare best illustrated by: 1. Deny it. 2. Ignore it. 3. Bomb it. While our intelligence agencies called the region the greatest threat to America, the Bush White House under-resourced our military efforts, shifted attention to Iraq, and failed to bring to justice the masterminds of September 11.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 6 replies

Arianna Huffington: Biden Should Resign

MickD — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:29:19 GMT

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/arianna-huffington-biden-should-resign/

Citing Mr. Biden’s role as chief administration skeptic for a troop buildup during all the war sessions occurring within the White House, Ms. Huffington suggests he should resign if President Obama decides to increase the number of soldiers heading to Afghanistan. (Peter Baker, one of our White House correspondents, outlined the evolution of Mr. Biden’s views in an article on Wednesday, labeling the vice president as the “in-house pessimist” whose alternative proposals have been gathering momentum. )

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 9 replies

Election Crisis in Afganistan...

patric — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:54:35 GMT

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6674219.html

...leading to increased Vietnam Flashbacks!
http://www.dakotaday.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=99:back-to-the-future-in-afghanistan-&catid=18:the-sideline&Itemid=19

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_State_of_Vietnam_referendum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyen_Khanh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyen_Van_Thieu

Opium trade, soldier burnout, and rigged elections!~
The more things change...

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 4 replies

Q & A

Hummingbird — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:34:50 GMT

Q. What's the difference between Rush Limbaugh and the Hindenburg?

A. One is a flaming Nazi gas bag. The other is a dirigible.

Q. What's the difference between an investment banker and a Mafia capo?

A. The Mafia capo is a man of honor.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 2 replies

Protect the sanctity of marriage!

MickD — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:02:32 GMT

2010 California Marriage Protection Act PSA (#2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LnIDwx9M_s

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 4 replies

Teabaggers in SF... imports or homegrown?

blackegg — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:14:23 GMT

""
President Obama brought the left and right together, physically at least, as more than 1,000 people with an array of placards, banners and viewpoints gathered behind police barricades Thursday afternoon across from the Westin St. Francis, where Obama was addressing a Democratic fundraiser.""

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/15/MNPS1A6G60.DTL&type=politics#ixzz0U8EW1dNs

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 2 replies

Obama wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

freetheweed — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:47:20 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8298580.stm

US President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel Committee said he was awarded it for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples".

The committee highlighted Mr Obama's efforts to support international bodies and promote nuclear disarmament.

There were a record 205 nominations for this year's prize. Zimbabwe's prime minister and a Chinese dissident had been among the favourites.

The laureate - chosen by a five-member committee - wins a gold medal, a diploma and 10m Swedish kronor ($1.4m).

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the Norwegian committee said in a statement.

"His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population."

Asked why the prize had been awarded to Mr Obama less than a year after he took office, Nobel committee head Thorbjoern Jagland said: "It was because we would like to support what he is trying to achieve".

"It is a clear signal that we want to advocate the same as he has done," he said.

He specifically mentioned Mr Obama's work to strengthen international institutions and work towards a world free of nuclear arms.

'New climate'

Since taking office in January, President Obama has pursued an ambitious international agenda including a push for peace in the Middle East and negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme.

But critics say he has failed to make breakthroughs. Domestically, Mr Obama has been working to tackle an economic crisis and win support for healthcare reform.

The statement from the Nobel committee also said the US president had "created a new climate in international politics".

"Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play," it said.

The committee added that the US was now playing a more constructive role in meeting "the great climatic challenges" facing the world, and that democracy and human rights would be strengthened.

Mr Obama is the first US president to win the prize since former US President Jimmy Carter in 2002. Former vice-president Al Gore shared the prize in 2007.

Among earlier US leaders, Theodore Roosevelt won the prize in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson won in 1919.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 16 replies

There's a Rep for that

MickD — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:19:31 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_IAN081P8I

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 2 replies

The anger of the festering fringe

MickD — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:56:26 GMT

This time Ebert has a particularly good discussion about all of the hatred out there for Obama. Best line about all the hate-mongerers and conspiracy theorists? "Their handicap is that they missed the boat when it sailed toward intellectual maturity..."

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/10/the_anger_of_the_festering_fri.html

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 2 replies

Another maher article: "Equal Rights"

blackegg — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:46:34 GMT

"" New Rule: Everyone deserves equal rights. That's why they're called "equal" and "rights."
Tomorrow night President Obama will speak before a gay rights group, and on Sunday there
will be a massive gay rally in Washington, or as I call it, the Million Mo March. Which makes
this weekend the perfect time for Obama to announce he's repealing "don't ask, don't tell"
and committing to a full-throated endorsement of gay marriage. One, because it's the right
thing to do and two, because it will throw the conservative base into such a frenzied,
pants-shitting panic that they'll drop all that BS about death panels and socialism and
let us all get some actual work done....."

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-everyone-deserve_b_315406.html

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 19 replies

Religious Leaders Announce Support of Domestic Partnership Law

MickD — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:01:32 GMT

http://approvereferendum71.org/07/religous-leaders-announce-support-of-domestic-partner/

“Although people have the right to believe what they’re called to believe, this right does not include the permission to impose those beliefs on others,” said The Rev. Michael Denton, Conference Minister, Pacific Northwest Conference of The United Church of Christ. “The effort to deny same-sex partners and seniors the legal protections of domestic partnership is an effort to deny the rights of one group of people in order to impose the religious sensibilities of another group of people on everyone in the State of Washington. To protect the rights of domestic partners harms no one. Removing these rights would be immoral and unfair,” he said.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 0 replies

30 Republicans Voted Against Franken Rape Amendment

MickD — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:54:40 GMT

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/15/jon-stewart-takes-on-30-r_n_321985.html

"In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her Halliburton/KBR co-workers while working in Iraq and locked in a shipping container for over a day to prevent her from reporting her attack. The rape occurred outside of U.S. criminal jurisdiction, but to add serious insult to serious injury she was not allowed to sue KBR because her employment contract said that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private arbitration--a process that overwhelmingly favors corporations."

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 0 replies

Fox News is the New Jews, says Beck. .

lorenzo — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:05:59 GMT

http://mediamatters.org/research/200910130061

Beck continues long history of invoking Nazis by comparing Fox to the Jews during the Holocaust
October 13, 2009 9:53 pm ET — 15 Comments

During the October 13 edition of his radio show, Glenn Beck likened the Obama administration's treatment of Fox News to Nazi persecution of Jews, telling other media outlets: "When they're done with Fox, and you decide to speak out on something," it would be like "[t]he old, 'first they came for the Jews, and I wasn't Jewish.' " Beck has a long history of invoking the Holocaust, the Nazi Party, and Adolf Hitler to smear the Obama administration, other progressive individuals and organizations, and the media; indeed, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) previously criticized Beck for comparing Al Gore's efforts to raise awareness of global warming to the Holocaust.
Beck has repeatedly compared Obama to Hitler, claimed his policies are leading America toward Nazi Germany

"This is what Hitler did with the SS." Discussing Obama's call for a "civilian national security force" -- which was a reference to expanding the foreign service, AmeriCorps, and the Peace Corps -- Beck said on the August 27 edition of his Fox News program: "I'm finding this -- this is the hardest part to connect to. Because this is -- I mean, look, you know, David [Bellavia, former Army staff sergeant], what you just said is, you said, 'I'm not comparing' -- but you are. I mean, this is what Hitler did with the SS. He had his own people. He had the brownshirts and then the SS. This is what Saddam Hussein -- so -- but you are comparing that. And I -- I mean, I think America would have a really hard time getting their arms around that."

Beck: "I'm not comparing" Obama to Hitler, but asked his audience to "please read Mein Kampf" and learn from Germany's mistakes. On the August 12 broadcast of his radio show, discussing Obama's position on health care reform, Beck stated: "I am not comparing him to this, but please, read Mein Kampf for this reason. If you read it now, you see that Hitler told you what he was going to do. He told the Germans. It outsold the Bible. Germans read Mein Kampf, but what did they do? They didn't listen. 'Oh, he doesn't mean that.' 'Oh, he's just saying that to appeal to X, Y, Z.' All of the same lies we're telling to ourselves. 'No, that's crazy. Nobody would actually do that.' They buried their heads in the sand, and then it became too late. Please, America, take this man for what he says."

Beck cited Hitler to attack Obama, claim "[e]mpathy leads you to very bad decisions." During a discussion of Obama's statement that he would consider "empathy" in choosing a Supreme Court nominee, Beck drew a parallel to Hitler on his May 26 Fox News show: "Finally -- well, he wasn't the president. He was the chancellor, Hitler, decided that it was the only empathetic thing to do, is to put this child down and put him out of his suffering. It was the beginning of the T4, which led to genocide everywhere. It was the beginning of it. Empathy leads you to very bad decisions many times."

Beck told Newsmax: "I fear a Reichstag moment." On September 29, conservative news website Newsmax.com reported of its interview with Beck:

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 7 replies

East German Jokes. .

lorenzo — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:18:18 GMT

political humor under communism. .

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,655123,00.html

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 5 replies

Mussolini a Paid Agent of MI-5!!!

lorenzo — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:24:21 GMT

wow. . .this is a shocker. MI-5 had Mussolini on the payroll to support Italy's participation in WW1 after support flagged after losing a major battle with the Austrians.

This was while Mussolini was the editor of a major socialist newspaper!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8306475.stm

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 3 replies

Alan Grayson...the Democratic Party's Backbone

blackegg — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:31:33 GMT

http://video.google.com/videosearch?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS324US324&sourceid=chrome&q=Alan%20Grayson&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wv#

So, the Republicans immediately demanded an apology and he gives them this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoITVLWpKB8

But wait...he's not just good...he's REALLY good:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/22/whoops-anti-acorn-bill-ro_n_294949.html

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 7 replies

Support the Public Option? (petition)

blackegg — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 06:27:53 GMT

"John Boehner says he has not met anyone who supports public option. Prove him wrong by signing the public option petition today."
http://countdowntohealthcare.com/petition/

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 3 replies

HAHA!! Like a Belch!

lorenzo — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 06:30:23 GMT

This is pretty funny, who is this guy Grayson??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvRSv2vvxRM

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 2 replies

UN Climate Reports: They Lie

MickD — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:02:43 GMT

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/un_climate_reports_they_lie.html

"For years, claims that UN climate reports represent the consensus of the majority of international scientists have been mindlessly accepted and regurgitated by left-leaning policy makers and the media at large. But in the past week or so, it’s become more apparent than ever that those who’ve accused the international organization of politicizing science and manipulating data have been right all along."

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 24 replies

"Bad lands"

Astrid_Seftali — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 07:15:15 GMT

Has anyone here read this book yet?
One of the newest editions by Lonely Planet, I guess, and yes, a political one...
(copy and paste):

'You guys really are the axis of evil', our guide splutters over his stein of beer in the Pyongyang duck restaurant. 'You're always leaning out of the windows and taking photographs when I tell you not to.'

In an age of plastic knives on planes, Tony Wheeler can make the extraordinary claim of having visited all the rogue countries currently on newsreaders' lips. Bad Lands is a witty first-hand account of his travels through places often perceived as having some of the most repressive and dangerous regimes in the world: Afghanistan, Albania, Burma, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Saudi Arabia. Taking into account each country's attitude to human rights, terrorism and foreign policy, he asks 'what makes a country truly evil?' and 'how bad is really bad?' - all the while engaging with a colourful cast of locals and hapless tour guides, ruminating on history and debunking popular myths.

Written by the founder of Lonely Planet, this fascinating account of life in these closed-off countries will appeal to anyone with an interest in the state of the world today.

Who's Bad? Download the free 'Axis-of-Evil'-meter screensaver HERE.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 0 replies

Maldives underwater cabinet meeting to highlight climate change

Astrid_Seftali — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:41:25 GMT

Sometimes you have to go deep to make a point. The president of the Maldives Mohammed Nasheed plans to hold the first-ever cabinet meeting underwater to publicize climate change.

Yes, it's true. Maldives government ministers are taking scuba lessons and practicing underwater signs so they can communicate with hand gestures during the October 17 meeting to be conducted 20 feet underwater. During the meeting, the cabinet reportedly will call for all countries to cut their carbon emissions before the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

"The intention is to draw attention of the world leaders to the issue of global warming and highlight how serious are the threats faced by Maldives as a result," says an official from the president's office. "If we can stop climate change, the lowest-lying nation on earth will be saved."

Rising sea levels are forecast to submerge most of the Maldives islands in the Indian Ocean by 2100. The average island in the Maldives lies 7 feet above sea level. Nasheed is responding by outlining plans to make the Maldives, population 350,000, the world's first carbon-neutral nation within a decade.

Meanwhile, the government has introduced a new green tax on all tourists who use the resorts -- $3 per each tourist a day, which would raise about $6.3 million annually, if approved by the parliament. Nasheed has launched a $1.1 billion initiative to convert the island solely to renewable energy from fossil fuels, and buy and tear up EU carbon credits to offset emissions from tourists flying to visit its resorts.

Getting the paperwork signed during the cabinet meeting may be cumbersome, but the president plans to have documents covered in waterproof plates. That's a small glitch compared to the monumental task Nasheed faces in trying to convince the world that climate change is real.

Maybe he'll consider holding the next cabinet meeting at Jules Underwater Hotel in Key Largo, Fla. http://www.jul.com/

To read more about climate change and global warming, click the links below.

More About: Climate change · Environment · Global warming
http://www.examiner.com/x-12720-DC-Environmental-Policy-Examiner~y2009m10d8-Maldives-underwater-cabinet-meeting-to-highlight-climate-change

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 0 replies

Census worker found hung in KY... 'fed' written across chest.

blackegg — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:23:34 GMT

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113139754

"" When Bill Sparkman told retired trooper Gilbert Acciardo that he was going door-to-door collecting census data in rural Kentucky, the former cop drawing on years of experience warned: "Be careful."

The 51-year-old Sparkman was found hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery and had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement official said Wednesday, and the FBI is investigating whether he was a victim of anti-government sentiment. ""

Ya know...this...may just be...a case of anti-government hostility.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 31 replies

Government Files Emergency Motion to Delay Release of FOIA Documents

MickD — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:54:59 GMT

The government just filed an emergency motion to hide documentation of telco immunity lobbying.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/10/judge-brushes-government-delay-attempts-clearing-w

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 0 replies

Patriot Act Excesses

MickD — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:54:09 GMT

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/opinion/08thu1.html?_r=1

From the article:
Three high-profile provisions of the USA Patriot Act are about to expire. That should be a chance for Congress to give serious consideration to curtailing some of the excessive powers it granted to the executive branch during the Bush years — without enough consideration in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and later.

Instead, Congress is headed toward renewing the provisions — including expanded authority to search financial records, conduct roving wiretaps and track “lone wolf” terrorist suspects — without adequate oversight or safeguards or touching other problematic areas of the new surveillance and intelligence framework.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 0 replies

Quote of the moment, Oct 7, 2009

MickD — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:11:14 GMT

"There's a lot more introspection and soul-searching on the way down than there is on the way up," said SC Gov Mark Sanford.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 2 replies

Chinese Game Changer. .

lorenzo — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:02:44 GMT

a new missile can easily destroy aircraft carriers. .

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/us-panic-at-chinas-new-ship-killer-20090928-g95b.html

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 14 replies

Obama Said to be Furious Over McChrystal. . .

lorenzo — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 05:25:57 GMT

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/10/04/obama-furious-over-gen-mcchrystal-speech/

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 3 replies

offensive words that shouldn't be offensive

Scott — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:13:13 GMT

Some people say the following words and phrases can be construed to be offensive and inflammatory. Should people have to refrain from using them or expect to take full responsibiliy if others react irrationally to them even when used in the proper context?

Are there any others I missed?

albino
ATM machine
banana
bitch
black heart
black hole
blackguard
chap
chew
chigger
chink
cloud
cock
colored
coon
couldn't
cracker
dark humor
dike
fag
fagot
fairy
ferry
frog
gay
ghost
gook
hoe
homo
jewelry
jive
kite
kiwi
knicker
m&m
nagger
Niger
niggard
niggardly
niggle
niggler
nip
oreo
pot
prick
pussy
queer
reneger
slant
slope
snigger
snow
spade
spic
tar baby
thespian
tomboy
uncle tom
white bread
whitewash
who're
wigger
yank
yap
yellow
zip

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 36 replies

A Reminder...

MickD — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:57:29 GMT

I find that I am reminding people that the original $700Billion bailout package (socialism) was on the table in 2008 *before* the presidential elections that year.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 4 replies

Humans and animals

Scott — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 05:29:16 GMT

In another thread which kind of drifted off-topic, someone wrote:
>Humans are animals period. There is not moment in a human's life when it is anything other than an animal.
>
>It's a human in the womb, It is a human the instant the egg is fertilized. It's a human when it's in puberty. It's a human when it is senile.
>It is a human when it's 23 and beautiful. and all the while humans are animals.

Humans are biologically animals, no dispute about that. When we talk about the distinction between humans and animals we're using the latter as shorthand for "lesser" animals which apparently lack the intelligence to think and behave on more than just biological instinct. Humans aren't born with these abilities and traits that set them apart from from other animals, but they have the potential to develop them if cultivated from a young age... Or not if they aren't.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 1 reply

Who authorized the minotaur?

MickD — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:31:56 GMT

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/is_using_a_minotaur_to_gore

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 22 replies

Protect Insurance Company Profits

MickD — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:54:56 GMT

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/041b5acaf5/protect-insurance-companies-psa

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 10 replies

Republican Mailer Appeals to Racists

freetheweed — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:15:56 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxsRwM19KhY

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 14 replies

Joe Wilson Voted to Provide Taxpayer Money for Illegal Immigrants' Healthcare

blackegg — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:38:54 GMT

Not that any of you remember who this guy is but....

Joe Wilson Voted to Provide Taxpayer Money for Illegal Immigrants' Healthcare

"" On Wednesday night, Rep. Joe Wilson [R, SC-2], shouted “You lie!” at President Obama when he said that the healthcare bill would not cover illegal immigrants. “The supporters of the government takeover of healthcare and liberals who want to give healthcare to illegals are using my opposition as an excuse to distract from the critical questions being raised about this poorly conceived plan,” Wilson said the next day in a campaign fundraising video.
However, in 2003, Wilson voted to provide federal funds for illegal immigrants’ healthcare. The vote came on the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, which contained Sec. 1011 authorizing $250,000 annually between 2003 and 2008 for government reimbursements to hospitals who provide treatment for uninsured illegal immigrants. The program has been extended through 2009 and there is currently a bipartisan bill in Congress to make it permanent. ""

http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1219-Joe-Wilson-Voted-to-Provide-Taxpayer-Money-for-Illegal-Immigrants-Healthcare

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 9 replies

Did I miss something?

MickD — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:55:50 GMT

She said: Today is the 222nd anniversary of the signing of our Constitution. Let's all celebrate that until it becomes a relic of the good ol' days of freedom.

I said: Yes, we definitely need to repeal the Patriot Act and restore the civil liberties that we've recently lost.

She said: You know, Mickey, the Patriot Act never worried me until it came under the enforcement of people who prefer to coddle terrorists and diminish the freedoms of Americans.

I said: Wait a minute, the Patriot act in itself diminshed the freedom of Americans. That wasn't enough for you?

She said: The Patriot Act diminished the freedom of terrorists.

Huh?

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 7 replies

Somalia: U.S. Kills al-Qaeda's Nabhan in Terrorism Raid

Killa Cham — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:31:29 GMT

By ALEX PERRY Alex Perry – Tue Sep 15, 8:25 pm ET

The deadly drama of piracy, terrorism and humanitarian catastrophe that is Somalia took another twist on Sept. 14. A squad of U.S. special operations helicopter gunships, which were launched off a Navy vessel in the Indian Ocean, attacked and killed an alleged al-Qaeda leader in Somalia, U.S. officials told TIME. The dead man was believed to be Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a 28-year-old Kenyan wanted for attacks on a seaside hotel and an Israeli airliner in 2002 in Kenya. It was at least the sixth attack by U.S. forces in Somalia in less than three years and the latest in a series of U.S. assassinations of al-Qaeda operatives in that country. According to news reports, Nabhan was killed when up to four U.S. helicopters fired on a convoy carrying suspected al-Qaeda targets in a village in southern Somalia on Monday. The reports said the helicopters attacked a vehicle, killing some people inside, then circled back and landed to pick up the bodies and any survivors for identification. Further clarification of Nabhan's death came on Sept. 15 from Abdi Fitah Shawey, deputy mayor for security affairs in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. "Our security-intelligence reports confirm that Nabhan was killed," Shawey told the Associated Press. (See pictures of the pirates of Somalia.)

As much as it seemed to be a successful strike against terrorism, the attack was also a testament to Somalia's longevity as a refuge for Islamist militants. Conditions haven't changed in years. Somalia last had a government worthy of the name nearly two decades ago, in 1991. For most of the 1990s, like Afghanistan at the time, the country was torn apart by rival warlords. Like Afghanistan too, out of that chaos arose an army of radical Islamist warriors who were determined to bring strict religious law and order to the country, but who were also open to funding from and cooperation with al-Qaeda. The first shots in what became known as the war on terror were fired by Somalia-based militants when they blew up the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania on Aug. 7, 1998, killing 213 and 11 people, respectively. But Afghanistan, and later Pakistan, became the focus of the militant Islamic threat after al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden moved himself and his main base of operations there in 1996, after he was expelled from Sudan, eventually to perpetrate the attacks of 9/11. (See pictures of the life of Osama bin Laden.)

But the Somali branch of al-Qaeda never retired. On Nov. 26, 2002, al-Qaeda killed 15 people when, according to the FBI, gunmen led by Nabhan attacked the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, and fired two missiles at an Israeli charter airliner in Kenyan airspace the same night (they missed). In 2003, staff at the new U.S. embassy in Nairobi evacuated for a week over reports that al-Qaeda wanted to level the building; there was also a never-executed plot to attack a U.S. military base in Djibouti in 2006. Bin Laden has released frequent video recordings urging Somali Islamists to take over the country.

Since late 2006, Somalia's chaos has been felt ever more keenly around the world. The Islamists, under the umbrella organization of a group called the Islamic Courts Union, briefly took control of Mogadishu in spring 2006. But radicals in their ranks declared a jihad on neighboring Ethiopia - a mixed Muslim and Christian country - and Ethiopia invaded Somalia in December of that year. U.S. special operations troops hitched a ride with that operation, using the opportunity to track down the U.S. embassy bombers and any other al-Qaeda operatives in the country. During that invasion, al-Qaeda bombmaker Tariq Abdullah, a.k.a. Abu Taha al-Sudani, was killed in a hit carried out by an Ethiopian military helicopter. (Read about an Australian crackdown on Somali terrorist suspects.)

Despite that success, concerns over al-Qaeda in Africa have continued to grow as the group demonstrates an ever more muscular presence with a series of bombings, kidnappings and assassinations, from Mauritania to Somaliland. The Somali connection is proving to be a particular worry with the regrouping of militants under the new unified command of a group called al-Shabaab and the discovery that scores of young Muslim men from the U.S., Britain and Australia are traveling to Somalia to receive weapons training in al-Shabaab camps. This year, three men from Minneapolis pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges in the U.S., and at least three more have died in Somalia, including one whom authorities believe was the first American suicide bomber. Australian authorities last month revealed that they had uncovered an alleged plot by immigrants, including three Somalis, to carry out a suicide attack. And on Sept. 13, reports emerged in Britain of a group of ethnic Somalis also traveling to the Somali camps for training. It is these camps that may have prompted Monday's strikes. Nabhan was believed to be a central figure in the management of the camps, as was former al-Shabaab leader Aden Hashi Farah Ayro, who was killed in a U.S. missile strike in March 2008.

- With reporting by Mark Thompson / Washington

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 4 replies

Please Help name our organization

Leslee — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:58:49 GMT

Please Help name our organization

What is the one obstacle, to getting better laws passed in the U.S.?

Why is it so difficult to improve legislation on financial issues, health issues, credit card gouging, environmental, consumer fraud and on and on?

It is because we allow huge corporations to contribute vast sums, to our politicians election campaigns.

If we want change, in all most any area, we must stop the millions of dollars that corporations are sticking in politicians pockets!

The only way we can accomplish this is to work together to get the law that makes this possible repealed.

If we are willing to give some of our time to this effort, we can get this changed.

So what do you think we should call our organization! Any ideas?

I think we can come up with something more clever then
End corporate funding of politicians. E.C.F.O.P.

Any ideas?

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 19 replies

Funny video, Let's Save the Status Quo

Leslee — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:14:47 GMT

Let's Save the Status Quo

Brought to you by Billionaires for Wealthcare, a grassroots network of health insurance CEOs, HMO lobbyists, talk-show hosts, and others profiting off of our broken health care system. We'll do whatever it takes to ensure another decade where your pain is our gain. After all, when it comes to healthcare, if we ain't broke, why fix it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1I9xsV-g9Y&feature=player_embedded

More funny video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHVwrCzRUX0&feature=player_embedded

www.billionairesforwealthcare.com

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 2 replies

Ignoring the enemy...

blackegg — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:09:28 GMT

...after a while you just look weak. And like a door mat.
You will be forced to respond at some point anyways so why not OWN the DEBATE by getting as many 'punches' in as soon as possible?

?

WAYS OF ADDRESSING CONFLICT:
Five basic ways of addressing conflict were identified by Thomas and Kilman in 1976:[2][3]

~Accommodation – surrender one's own needs and wishes to accommodate the other party.

~Avoidance – avoid or postpone conflict by ignoring it, changing the subject, etc. Avoidance can be useful as a temporary measure to buy time or as an expedient means of dealing with very minor, non-recurring conflicts. In more severe cases, conflict avoidance can involve severing a relationship or leaving a group.[4]

~Collaboration – work together to find a mutually beneficial solution. While the Thomas Kilman grid views collaboration as the only win-win solution to conflict, collaboration can also be time-intensive and inappropriate when there is not enough trust, respect or communication among participants for collaboration to occur.

~Compromise – find a middle ground in which each party is partially satisfied.

~Competition – assert one's viewpoint at the potential expense of another. It can be useful when achieving one's objectives outweighs one's concern for the relationship.[5]

?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict#Ways_of_addressing_conflict

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 5 replies

New Rule: Float Like Obama, Sting Like Ali ~ Bill Maher

blackegg — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:42:43 GMT

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-float-like-obama_b_284151.html

"" New Rule: Democrats must get in touch with their inner asshole. And no, I'm not being gratuitously crude when I say that. I refer to the case of Van Jones, and I'm sure you know who Van Jones is. At least I hope you do, because I haven't a clue, or at least I didn't until this week, when I found out he was the man the Obama administration hired to find jobs for Americans in the new green industries. Seems like a smart thing to do in a recession, but Van Jones got fired because he became the Scary Negro of the Week on Fox News, where, let's be honest, they still feel threatened by Harry Belafonte.

Now, I know that right now, I'm supposed to be all re-injected with yes-we-can fever after the big health care speech, and it was a great speech -- when Black Elvis gets jiggy with his teleprompter, there is none better. But here's the thing: Muhammad Ali also had a way with words, but it helped enormously that he could also punch guys in the face.

What got Van Jones fired was they caught him on tape saying that Republicans are assholes. And they call it "news." And Obama didn't say a word in defense of Jones and basically fired him when Glenn Beck told him to. Just like we dropped "end of life counseling" from health care reform because Sarah Palin said it meant "death panels" on her Facebook page.

Crazy evil morons make up things for Obama to do, and he does it.

Same thing with the speech to children this week. If you missed it, the president attempted to merely tell school children to work hard and wash their hands, and Cracker Nation reacted as if he was trying to hire the Black Panthers to hand out grenades in homeroom. Of course, the White House immediately capitulated. "No students will be forced to view the speech," a White House spokesperson assured a panicked nation. Isn't that like admitting that the president might be doing something unseemly? What a bunch of cowards. If the White House had any balls, they'd say, "He's giving a speech on the importance of staying in school, and if you spineless jackasses don't show it to every damn kid in your school we're cutting off your federal education funding tomorrow."

(more in this vein)""

Pssshit, Bill who do you think you are? Some general in a war?
Haw Haw.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 7 replies

China Retaliates. .

lorenzo — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:02:07 GMT

Investigating US dumping practices with auto parts and chicken. .

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fi-china-tires14-2009sep14,0,322091.story

by David Pierson. .

Reporting from Beijing - China fired back against proposed tariffs on Chinese tires imported to the United States by announcing today that an anti-dumping and anti-subsidies investigation would be launched on American auto parts and chicken products, state media reported.

The move could signal the start of more trade tensions between the massive trade partners at a time when the two economic powers were expected to lead the globe out of the financial crisis.

"This case is perceived as a turning point in U.S.-China relations and likely to represent a trend toward subtle, if not overt, forms of protectionism from both sides," said James Zimmerman, a partner in the law firm of Squire Sanders & Dempsey in Beijing. "American business in China should be prepared for what might be a zealous retaliatory response from China which might impact a broad range of U.S. commercial interests."

At the urging of U.S. International Trade Commission, a federal agency, President Obama announced Friday that he would impose a 35% duty on automobile and light-truck tires imported from China.

The decision was a major victory for U.S. labor unions but was opposed by myriad American business groups, including leading tire manufacturers and agricultural groups who rely on the Chinese market.

Chinese officials lambasted the decision, accusing the U.S. of engaging in protectionism and violating World Trade Organization rules. They argued that the U.S. tire industry had long abandoned the low-end market that China covets and said Chinese tire imports had only increased by 2.2% between 2007 and 2008, state media reported.

By announcing the probe of American imports, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce signaled that it was prepared to challenge Obama's decision.

"Recently, the commerce ministry has received word from domestic industries indicating that [chicken and auto] products had entered our nation's markets via dumping, subsidies and other unfair trade means," the ministry said on its website, giving no details about the specific products.

The U.S. exported $1 billion worth of auto products to China in the first six months of this year, up 9.1% from the same time last year, state media said.

American agriculture groups had written Obama opposing the tariff, saying the China market was the difference between being profitable and unprofitable for many.

When China joined the WTO in 2001, it agreed to safeguards that allowed the U.S. to impose duties if it was determined that a surge in Chinese imports threatened American producers and caused a market disruption.

The United Steelworkers estimated that 4,000 to 5,000 U.S. tire manufacturing jobs have been lost since 2004 as a result of Chinese imports.

State media said an estimated 100,000 Chinese jobs and $1 billion in exports could be lost due to the tariffs, which would begin Sept. 26.

"It was a misuse of the special safeguard measures and sent a wrong signal to the world," Chen Deming, China's minister of commerce, said Saturday.

Experts say China could simply re-direct its tires to another country, which may also feel inclined to impose duties.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 4 replies

Charlie Sheen breaks through with 9/11 questions...

Mesmer — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:50:09 GMT

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 25 replies

Bill Maher & Larry Charles on Religulous

MickD — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:06:35 GMT

Thanks to Mr. M for sharing, parts 1, 2, and 3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1ZDBmMiTsQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DHcpMtzjeo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05q8r7WXZq8

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 0 replies

Teddy liked to Make jokes about Mary Joe Kopechne

Zippi — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:02:39 GMT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappaquiddick_incident

^ "Reflections on Sen. Kennedy". The Diane Rehm Show. August 26, 2009. http://wamu.org/audio/dr/09/08/r1090826-28464.asx. Retrieved August 28, 2009. Klein's remark comes in an exchange that begins around 29:45.
Here the recording:
http://wamu.org/audio/dr/09/08/r1090826-28464.asx

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 11 replies

The "angry white male"??

Astrid_Seftali — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:09:40 GMT

Obama versus the angry white menEconomic recovery won't silence the mobs attacking healthcare reform. Barack Obama must reclaim the moral high ground

Michael Jeffries guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 19 August 2009
On Monday, two men were spotted carrying semi-automatic weapons outside the venue where President Barack Obama delivered his latest speech on healthcare reform. When asked why he stationed himself at the meeting with a gun, one of the men replied: "Because I can do it. In Arizona I still have some freedoms." These sightings add to a disturbing pattern of extremist gestures signalling disgust with the president, including a protester in Maryland holding up a sign that read "Death to Obama" and "Death to Michelle and her two stupid kids", and overtly racist vandalism and hate mail at the office of Georgia congressman David Scott.

Obama walks the thinnest of lines as he attempts to remain focused on policy while repelling a range of attacks coming from the right. From the beginning, he has publicly acknowledged that there is a legitimate debate to be had about the best means to fix the healthcare system, arguing that his plan provides optimum efficiency and stability for the greatest number of Americans. More recently, he has explicitly dismissed the dishonest and incendiary barbs of those who wish to paint him as an evil "death panel" conspirator.

On 15 August, in Colorado, Obama went as far as to affirm the naturally emotional component of recent exchanges, and highlight the propensity of news organisations to pay more attention to incidents of anger and radicalism than to incidents of polite exchange. But while he has hinted at the bubbling extremism that greets him at every turn, he refuses to directly address its content or speculate about its source.

In a recent piece published in the Observer, Michael Crowley argues that the extremism manifest in angry mobs and armed men at Obama's town hall meetings represents the latest phase in the evolution of the Angry White Male in American politics. According to Crowley, this political archetype was coined in the 1990s, when white men who voted for Bill Clinton in 1992 stormed to the Republican ticket for the 1994 midterm elections. During the Obama era, the angry white man appeared as Joe the Plumber during the presidential campaign, cried foul at the appointment of Sonya Sotomayor to the US supreme court and accused Obama of racism after his comments about the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates, all prior to the recent incidents surrounding the healthcare debate.

Crowley does well to connect the dots between previous invocations of politicised anger and those that exist today. But it is important to recognise that the intensity of the rage we are currently witnessing differs from that of previous eras because of Obama's race. In the worst cases, conscious feelings of fear and threat that push discontented citizens toward unabashed anger are intensified by underlying feelings of threat and disgust at the notion that anyone other than a white male stands as the embodiment and representative of the nation.

We must not lump protesters with drastically different predilections for extremism into the same undignified caricature. But if a phenomenon along the lines of the angry white man is to blame, Crowley argues that the best way to defeat these culture warriors is to resurrect the economy and destroy the anger at its roots – economic structures, rather than cultural pathologies. While economic recovery is indispensable for Obama's success, progressives would be wise not to ignore opportunities to seize on cultural issues and reclaim the moral high ground on multiple political terrains.

The healthcare debate is a prime example. This is, quite literally, a life-and-death issue, about human pain and suffering, and about the proliferation of immoral practices carried out by insurance companies. Just as it is important to speak about quality control and efficiency, it is critical to frame healthcare reform as a moral obligation – as something that we owe to each other as Americans and as parents of future generations.

Based on Obama's ability to evoke a more left-leaning moral imperative and national pride during his campaign, there was reason to believe that his presidency would be the first stage in a long-term investment in a different type of moral/political discourse from the left. The realities of Washington impose restrictions on what elected officials can say, and we cannot have a conversation about race on the terms set by an angry mob.

But it is not reckless, useless or a waste of political capital for someone on the Obama team to express concern about the deeply disturbing forms of recent dissent during his healthcare push. Brandishing guns as an understated threat and calling for assassination are unpatriotic and morally unacceptable acts. Racially potent hatred is one of many moral issues that Democrats should be able to address and claim, without demonising others or allowing discussion of hatred, empathy and other emotions to completely supersede policy battles.

from:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/aug/19/healthcare-reform-obama-angry-white-men/print

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 26 replies

Help Outlaw Corporate Political Pacs OCPP

Leslee — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:59:38 GMT

Help Outlaw Corporate Political Pacs OCPP

http://tribes.tribe.net/outlawcorporatepoliticalpac

This tribe has been created in order to bring together people who believe that corporations have corrupted our nation. And who believe, that if we come together this can be changed.

In general I am very much against censorship however this is NOT a tribe for arguing the premiss and anyone who does so will be kicked off. (You may advertise a tribe here, that has been created to disagree with us. But keep it short.)

Useful constructive criticism intended to improve our ability to achieve our ends is welcome.

If you choose to join us, Your mission is to find articles and news that will help to educate us, as well as organizations that support our cause. And to help bring in more people thru email, Tribes and other social networks. If we are successful I will start a website to continue the work.

It is my intention that we will never ask for cash donations and that this will be an all volunteer organization.

Lets start a movement to make our nation a better place with equal political power for all, that our founding fathers intended for us to have.

Outlaw Corporate Political Pacs OCPP

Grass roots movements start with a handful of people. Please join us. We CAN make a difference.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 13 replies

The mainstreaming of evil

MickD — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:16:54 GMT

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/09/08/the-mainstreaming-of-evil/

"If I sound angry, then, yeah, I am. I’m tired of ignorance held up as inspiration, where vicious anti-intellectualism is considered a positive trait, and where uninformed opinion is displayed as fact.

It’s killing any real debate in this country, where the system of government depends utterly on a well-informed public. When rampant idiocy is presented as reasonable discourse without any rebuttal, then we all suffer."

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 6 replies

Pentagon profiling U.S. reporters?

blackegg — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:25:34 GMT

http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2009/08/27/pentagon-profiling-u-s-reporters/

""(CNN) — The Pentagon is profiling reporters covering the war in Afghanistan.

The newspaper “Stars and Stripes” reports that despite denials from the Pentagon, they are in fact rating the work of reporters as either “positive”, “neutral” or “negative”. They’re contracting this work out to a private p.r. outfit called The Rendon Group, which has come under fire before for its work in the Iraq war.

Profiles of various reporters suggest these ratings are meant to help manipulate the kinds of stories that reporters come up with while they’re embedded with troops. For example, one newspaper reporter is rated as “neutral to positive” in his coverage. The report suggests any negative stories he writes “could possibly be neutralized” by feeding him quotes from military brass."

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 4 replies

Laura Bush backs Obama on Speech

MickD — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:20:33 GMT

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hie9xmXkY5FkL0UhZMnFHhYfcMWAD9AIQR4O0

Former first lady Laura Bush on Monday expressed support for President Barack Obama's decision to speak to the nation's school children, saying it is "really important for everyone to respect the president of the United States."

In an interview with CNN, Mrs. Bush, a former school teacher, said, "There's a place for the president of the United States to talk to school children and encourage school children" to stay in school. And she said parents and others also need to send that message.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 4 replies

Al Franken Engages in Reasonable Discourse. .

lorenzo — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 01:48:33 GMT

about health care. . .on video with locals in MN. .

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/09/03/al-franken-talks-an.html

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 5 replies

Honduras: Military Coup Engineered By Two US Companies?

MickD — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:13:19 GMT

Honduras: Military Coup Engineered By Two US Companies?

By John Perkins

August 07, 2009 "Information Clearing House <http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/> " -- I recently visited Central America. Everyone I talked with there was convinced that the military coup that had overthrown the democratically-elected president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, had been engineered by two US companies, with CIA support. And that the US and its new president were not standing up for democracy.

Earlier in the year Chiquita Brands International Inc. (formerly United Fruit) and Dole Food Co had severely criticized Zelaya for advocating an increase of 60% in Honduras’s minimum wage, claiming that the policy would cut into corporate profits. They were joined by a coalition of textile manufacturers and exporters, companies that rely on cheap labor to work in their sweatshops.

Memories are short in the US, but not in Central America. I kept hearing people who claimed that it was a matter of record that Chiquita (United Fruit) and the CIA had toppled Guatemala’s democratically-elected president Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 and that International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT), Henry Kissinger, and the CIA had brought down Chile’s Salvador Allende in 1973. These people were certain that Haiti’s president Jean-Bertrand Aristide had been ousted by the CIA in 2004 because he proposed a minimum wage increase, like Zelaya’s.

I was told by a Panamanian bank vice president, “Every multinational knows that if Honduras raises its hourly rate, the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean will have to follow. Haiti and Honduras have always set the bottom line for minimum wages. The big companies are determined to stop what they call a ‘leftist revolt’ in this hemisphere. In throwing out Zelaya they are sending frightening messages to all the other presidents who are trying to raise the living standards of their people.”

It did not take much imagination to envision the turmoil sweeping through every Latin American capital. There had been a collective sign of relief at Barack Obama’s election in the U.S., a sense of hope that the empire in the North would finally exhibit compassion toward its southern neighbors, that the unfair trade agreements, privatizations, draconian IMF Structural Adjustment Programs, and threats of military intervention would slow down and perhaps even fade away. Now, that optimism was turning sour.

The cozy relationship between Honduras’s military coup leaders and the corporatocracy were confirmed a couple of days after my arrival in Panama. England’s The Guardian ran an article announcing that “two of the Honduran coup government's top advisers have close ties to the US secretary of state. One is Lanny Davis, an influential lobbyist who was a personal lawyer for President Bill Clinton and also campaigned for Hillary. . . The other hired gun for the coup government that has deep Clinton ties is (lobbyist) Bennett Ratcliff.” (1)

DemocracyNow! broke the news that Chiquita was represented by a powerful Washington law firm, Covington & Burling LLP, and its consultant, McLarty Associates (2). President Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder had been a Covington partner and a defender of Chiquita when the company was accused of hiring “assassination squads” in Colombia (Chiquita was found guilty, admitting that it had paid organizations listed by the US government as terrorist groups “for protection” and agreeing in 2004 to a $25 million fine). (3) George W. Bush’s UN Ambassador, John Bolton, a former Covington lawyer, had fiercely opposed Latin American leaders who fought for their peoples’ rights to larger shares of the profits derived from their resources; after leaving the government in 2006, Bolton became involved with the Project for the New American Century <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century> , the Council for National Policy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_National_Policy> , and a number of other programs that promote corporate hegemony in Honduras and elsewhere.

McLarty Vice Chairman John Negroponte was U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985, former Deputy Secretary of State, Director of National Intelligence, and U.S. Representative to the United Nations; he played a major role in the U.S.-backed Contra’s secret war against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government and has consistently opposed the policies of the democratically-elected pro-reform Latin American presidents. (4) These three men symbolize the insidious power of the corporatocracy, its bipartisan composition, and the fact that the Obama Administration has been sucked in.

The Los Angeles Times went to the heart of this matter when it concluded:

What happened in Honduras is a classic Latin American coup in another sense: Gen. Romeo Vasquez, who led it, is an alumnus of the United States' School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). The school is best known for producing Latin American officers who have committed major human rights abuses, including military coups. (5)

All of this leads us once again to the inevitable conclusion: you and I must change the system. The president – whether Democrat or Republican – needs us to speak out.

Chiquita, Dole and all your representatives need to hear from you. Zelaya must be reinstated.

FOOTNOTES

(1)

“Who's in charge of US foreign policy? The coup in Honduras has exposed divisions between Barack Obama and his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton” by Mark Weisbrot http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jul/16/honduras-coup-obama-clinton (July 23, 2009)

(2) http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/21/from_arbenz_to_zelaya_chiquita_in (July 23, 2009)

(3) “Chiquita admits to paying Colombia terrorists: Banana company agrees to $25 million fine for paying AUC for protection” MSNBC March 15, 2007 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17615143/ (July 24, 2009)

(4) Fore more information: http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2009/07/eric-holder-and-chaquita-covington.html <http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2009/07/eric-holder-and-chaquita-covington.html> (July 23, 2009)

(5) “The high-powered hidden support for Honduras' coup: The country's rightful president was ousted by a military leadership that takes many of its cues from Washington insiders.” by Mark Weisbrot, Los Angeles Times, July 23, 2009

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-weisbrot23-2009jul23,0,7566740.story (July 23, 2009)

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 18 replies

The Ugliest american

Zippi — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:20:30 GMT

How out of touch is the president?

Well when George Bush read children’s stories to school kids there was no advance program beyond the mere announcement. Children were not being encouraged to wear images of the person of the president in toe form of buttons or T-shirts, they were not being told to write worshipful essays about how they would assist the man by name. There was no effort to indoctrinate little children. When G.W. Bush visited a school talked about literacy and reading and he read children’s books to the children.

However, that is not the case with the current administration which sees no bottom limit to how far it will stoop to manipulate and control individuals and if that means turning their little kids into zombies then so be it. It is means invoking a propagandist “Hitler Youth-like” appeal to children to identify with the person of the president on a personal and p highly political level then so be it.

No barrier is too low, no bridge is too far, noting is off the table for Saddam.

Sadly and tellingly, this is why he is such a total failure. All he has is personal charm and momentary glitzy charisma. That is all there is to the man, so when he sets out to do something all he has is the salesman’s shimmy and jive. He wants to convert you into a love addled zombie and send you out to do all the real doing, while he stands on a podium talks real purdy and takes all the credit.

The saddest thing of all is that this president will turn to the most helpless, the most vulnerable, the most unprepared of Americans with his efforts to impose his mind games and manipulations solely for political ends. Saddam’s school visits had nothing to do with literacy, he was not about to stoop to reading children’s books to children his sole goal was to inculcate innocent little children in his army of zombies.

The White House may have “taken back” the effort but they only did it after it was too late. After the proof was out that President Saddam Hussein really is a hideous monster.

Nothing he has done so far has been so appalling, so ugly, so totally un-American.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/02/wh-withdraws-call-students-help-obama/?utm_source=Comprehensive&utm_campaign=a74a102c06-In_brief_8_05-2009&utm_medium=email

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 5 replies

So much for 'the good war'?

freetheweed — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:20:53 GMT

So much for 'the good war'?

White House stalls as US public opinion swings against Pentagon's plans to escalate war in Afghanistan

The three most recent national opinion polls show majorities of Americans opposing the war in Afghanistan as well as the Pentagon's plans to commit additional US troops there. This marks the first time since the war began eight years ago that US opposition has ecclipsed 50%. This mirrors even starker drops in support in other NATO countries that have led to a series of troop withdrawals in those militaries. McClatchy Pentagon Correspondent Nancy Youssef tells The Real News that while General McChrystal's new strategy for Afghanistan will clearly require additional troops, the Pentagon and White House agreed not to release a troop figure request. This goes against the White House's original demand that the report include this detail, and, according to Youssef, represents a response to the war's growing unpopularity.

http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=4172&updaterx=2009-09-02+10%3A05%3A08

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 7 replies

What is the deal with Czars?

Zippi — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:31:52 GMT

What is all this hoopla about Czars?
As a threshold matter no power vests and no authority exists in any federal officer unless it is enumerated in the Constitution or unless Congress passes a law creating and vesting such power or authority.

The American president will contend that his Czars are merely advisory. If this is true then he may not have a Constitutional problem but, if this is not true then his may be in violation of the Constitutionally enumerated powers of the president to appoint as expressed in Article II. Section 2 of the Constitution which says in pertinent part:

“[the president] shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consults, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein provided for, and which shall be established by law; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments."

Given that every president has over 7000 appointments that he must or can make when he enters office it is fairly unrealistic to expect that each and every one must be by advice and consent of the Senate. There is even a book (the Plum Book) issued by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that informs the president what positions he can or must appoint.

I would guess that the idea of a Csar is in that book

The Plumb book may be the enabling statute for the appointment of Czars. I haven’t read it. I don’t have a copy of it. I said “may” because the whole congress must act to enable the sua sponte appointment power of the president.

There is a Constitutional mandate that the invented positions such as Czar be by advice or consent of the Senate or the president can just do it without the Senate so long as the Congress has created some structure by which this may be done.

And that may be a fly in the ointment.

That part of the Law from the Constitution that says how the president can, sua sponte, appoint some officer reads thus: “but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.”

The operative word in the Constitutional phrase is not “Senate” it is “Congress.” The Bicameral process is necessary to create the enabling statute that allows the president to appoint sua sponte - which is to say: without the advice and consent of the Senate.

This includes inferior officers and heads of departments. Which I imagine would include the Czars. So then, where is the enabling statute for this? The term “enabling statute” is used to refer to a law passed by Congress that gives rise to certain powers of state when Congress chooses to enable that power and vest it with an office such as the president. Maybe it's the Plum Book?

Unless the Plumb book contains the concept of Czars - and - is the result of the bicameral process, I know of no such statute and with out it there can be no lawful appointment. Which of course would mean that Congress has been tolerating unlawful presidential appointments since Reagan appointed the first one. Bush had more than 40 Czars.

Are any of them lawful? Have they all been a total waste - an illegal waste – of taxpayer dollars?
I guess you’d need to know the following: (a) how the Plum Book came to be. (b) is the concept of Czars in it, and (c) and whether it’s enlarged with or without the bicameral process being invoked. .

However, setting aside the dark and spooky business of whether the Plumb Book is even a legal instrument: No Czar has ever pretended to any particular power. They have no power. Czars are like Presidential signing statements. They are meaningless crap, and outside the confines of their reporting to the president (handing him data) good for little more than media fluff pieces.
The idea of a Czar was to have a person who would facilitate the collection of data and information in one office on some topic (Ex: Drug Czar) and funnel the data to the president in some predigested manner thus sparing the president the bother of having to filter out all the extraneous material. The Czar’s job was to “Cut to the Chase” a glorified menial secretary.

There is an argument that says that Czars today have taken on an altogether different posture not because of some power they mysteriously possess but solely by virtue of their access to the president. Which is a lot of crap, because no one in the nation is under any burden to so much as let a Czar in on any conversation let alone have a controlling voice. They have no power. They can not compel you to tell them anything. They can not compel you to do anything. They can’t even demand that you return their phone calls. They have no power.

Take the Car Czar or the Pay Czar. What powers do these persons and their offices have? None at all.

Barring an act of Congress: No industry, no corporate officer, no person is required to submit anything at all to any of the Czars whether of Pay or otherwise. A Czar can go read the same material available to anyone as required by law and that’s it. He does not get to sit in on board meetings, or to listen in on phone calls, and no one owes him so much as a returned phone call. Even those companies which took TARP money are fully empowered to tell the Czars to bugger off - unless Congress has passed a law stating otherwise.

If the pay Czar calls the CEO of GM and demands to speak to the man, the CEO of GM can ignore him entirely not even taking the Czar’s phone call. The Czars have no power.

The only power a Czar has is to run to the president and tattle.
That’s it. That is the beginning and end of their power.

So the Pay Czar tells the president that the mean nasty corporate officer told him to bugger off.
What then?
The president gets in front of a camera and scolds the company or the officer.
And what’s that mean? Nothing at all. It is all pointless crap. Idiots who think the president is an emperor and is the boss of everybody might be impressed but – they are idiots. So in that scenario, the whole thing will have resulted in the president making a blistering fool of himself by bending over backwards to impress idiots.

The president does not even have the power to order a company to direct communication through the Czar. They can blow the Czar off entirely leaving them out in the cold, in the rain, in the dark, with nothing but the same publicly available documents that you and I (Joe citizen) can access.

The function of the Czar has not changed since Reagan. They are still just a filtration device for the presidential office and not one thing more.

I know what the Czars do for me and what they do that might be very good or bad for the president and his standing among the population.

They inform me what sort of person he is.
They tell me what he is thinking
They tell me what he does not want me to know about his inner mind.
The Czars are a reflection of the president's mind.

He has appointed them to tell him what he wants to know.
He has designated certain sorts of people with certain philosophical and political ideologies to be the filters of information which he receives.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 5 replies

Clunkers Gives Biggest Boost to Foreign Car Companies. .

lorenzo — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:41:25 GMT

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-auto-sales2-2009sep02,0,2337465.story

By Martin Zimmerman

Hailed as a jump-start for the U.S. economy, the federal government's "cash for clunkers" gave the biggest boost to foreign automakers.

Overall, auto sales in August were the highest in more than a year, according to industry figures released Tuesday. Carmakers sold more than 1.2 million cars and trucks, up 1% from the same month last year and the first year-over-year sales gain since August 2007.

Much of that was a result of the clunkers program, which ran July 24 to Aug. 24 and provided hefty government rebates to consumers who traded in gas guzzlers for more fuel-efficient new vehicles.

Foreign automakers dominated the trade, accounting for 61.4% of the nearly 700,000 vehicles sold under the program. Japanese makers grabbed the biggest share, with 47% of the total, thanks to popular gas sippers such as the Toyota Prius and the Honda Fit.

But it was the scrappy South Koreans that provided the biggest sales surprise.

Hyundai, which has worked to make up ground against bigger rivals this year with innovative marketing programs and new model offerings, reported an eye-popping 47% increase in August sales. Corporate cousin Kia reported a 60% jump.

Thirteen of Hyundai's 16 models qualified for the program, which helped it sell 49,600 vehicles in the clunkers initiative, or 7.2% of all program sales, according to government figures. That was much more than Hyundai's first-half U.S. market share of 4.3% and helped it creep closer to the three U.S. and three Japanese automakers that rule U.S. showrooms. Last month Hyundai sold almost 60,500 cars.

The company did it with the help of aggressive marketing tied to the recession, its early embrace of the clunkers program and favorable publicity from a string of awards from auto critics. Analysts said the strong showing, coming in one of the auto industry's bleakest periods, could turn out to be Hyundai's big break in the U.S. market.

"We used to call them the Big Six, but now all of our files say 'the Big Seven,' " said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends at auto website TrueCar. "We've added Hyundai."

Ford Motor Co., the No. 2 U.S. carmaker, reported a 17% rise in August sales compared with a year ago, the second straight month the automaker has reported higher sales.

"Back-to-back sales increases has a nice ring to it," Ford sales analyst George Pipas said in a conference call.

. . .more at the link. .

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 0 replies

Permission

AlbionMoonlite — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:30:43 GMT

How is it the most wired generation of citizens constantly gives permission for totalitarian encroachment by the Bureaucratic State?
Is it even thinkable that Americans are the weak marshy reeds that bend in the wind? Torture continues under Obama. Depleted Uranium is still used under obama. Defense Secretary Gates may still have Rumsfeld on the payroll with Obama. Hell even the Russian KGB man, Primakov is working for the Feds under Obama. Patriot Act I and II exist under Obama. And 9/11 is still a fairy tale under Obama.
All the little activists and all the activist donors couldn't put this con called governnace together again. Will it require Baxter's swine flu and Big Pharma squaline mandatory military/FEMA backed flu shot to convince you that the man with the white hat is not on his way and your vote is more worthless than toilet paper when each time you go to the polls you vote the riggted game. We are at the dead end of liberty.
Here is the rope America and there is the tree and although Godot is expecting you to join him for lunch, brie and Burgundy and San Francisco sour dough bread, when he comes by there are at least a thousand reasons why when you test the rope and the noose on the branch the hope is held high that this CHANGE you need to get on with it. Good God Almighty Free At Last.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 2 replies

Kennedy - Camelot of Trailer Park Trash

Zippi — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:18:08 GMT

Here, in reverse order of importance, are the top seven Kennedy sex scandals:

7. Joe Kennedy, son of Robert Kennedy and former Congressman, secretly had his 12-year marriage to Sheila Rauch annulled by the Vatican. Rauch only found out about the annulment years later, after Kennedy remarried. She wrote a very angry book about the experience, Shattered Faith, since the Church's decreeing that the marriage never existed left her twin sons in everlasting limbo. Rauch pointed out that only powerful people like the Kennedy's could unilaterally cancel 12 years of marriage. (This raises the question of whether the Church can gain entry to Heaven for powerful people who have sinned.)

6. One of the storied political couplings of the twentieth century was between Andrew Cuomo, son of former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, and Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert Kennedy. The younger Cuomo was forced to withdraw his own bid for the governorship (although he is now New York's Attorney General) in 2002 when it was revealed that his wife, to whom he had been married 13 years and with whom he had three daughters, had been having a long-term affair with a married man. Kerry Kenedy's philandering shows that Kennedy disregard for marital niceties extends to the distaff side of the family as well.

5. An extremely unappetizing Kennedy scandal involved Joe's brother and campaign manager, Michael. Like his brother and sister, Michael was stably married with children when it was revealed he had been having an affair with a family babysitter, beginning when the girl was 14! This, of course, is a crime that would get a non-Kennedy registered as a sexual predator. For some reason (perhaps bribery and threats to her and her family), the girl refused to press charges, and Kennedy entered treatment for sex and alcohol addiction. Michael Kennedy had been keeping an extremely low profile when he died in an accident on a family skiing trip.

4. All of these scandals concerned third-generation Kennedy's. But the stories of sexual assaults, infidelity, and religious hypocrisy began with the family's patriarch, Joe Kennedy. In Swanson on Swanson, silent screen star Gloria Swanson revealed having an affair with Kennedy when, she claimed, he forced himself on her during his business trips to Hollywood when he left his saintly wife, Rose, at home in Massachusetts. (Swanson was most pissed off that, despite his legendary financial acumen, Joe lost a ton of her dough.) Other Kennedy family historians report that the elder Kennedy made advances on his sons' girlfriends!

3. Back to the younger Kennedy's, in 1991 Kennedy nephew William Smith was charged with rape while staying with uncle Teddy in the family's seaside estate in Palm Beach, FL. The woman claimed she met Smith at a night club at which he was accompanied by Ted Kennedy and his son, Patrick. Later, while ostensibly showing her around the estate, Smith began pursuing and pawing her as she tried to escape. Other women were found who described having similar experiences with the Kennedy nephew, but Smith was acquitted.

2. Both President Jack Kennedy - whose sexual escapades were legendary - and younger brother Bobby had closely contiguous sexual liaisons with Marilyn Monroe. Numerous conspiracy theories have been developed around the Kennedys' involvement in Monroe's death, which occurred in the aftermath of these affairs. At a minimum, the relationships were extremely damaging to Monroe's fragile mental health.

1. What could most interfere with Ted Kennedy's passage to Heaven (as it frustrated his aspirations to be president) was his involvement in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. Following a party with six young female campaign workers on the island of Chappaquiddick, Kennedy was giving Kopechne a ride back to her hotel when he drove off a bridge. Kopechne drowned in the car, and Kennedy left the scene to consult with Kennedy family advisers. In fact, he never reported the incident, which was discovered independently the next morning! Kennedy was charged only with leaving the scene of an accident.

Of course, you and I can wonder how our lives would have been derailed if we were involved in a situation like this (Kennedy was married). But the Kennedy's are not deterred by such experiences, as the subsequent actions of his nephews and niece indicate. Are there separate rules - both legal and psychological - for people like the Kennedy's?

P.S. (Feb 19, 2009): Perhaps the greatest "scandal" - more of a tragedy - was the case of Ted's wife at the time of Chappaquiddick, Joan Bennett Kennedy, who became a ravaged alcoholic (in 2005, when she was 68, her children took legal guardianship of her affairs after several late-life drunken episodes). The "Kennedy wife thing" of tolerating non-stop cheating while establishing her own life didn't work well for her (unlike Jackie). According to the Boston Globe: "During the [wedding] festivities, Jack [who was 15 years his brother's senior], Ted's godfather and best man, wore a microphone because the Bennetts had hired a film crew as a wedding gift. Later, watching the footage, Joan would hear Jack whisper to his brother that marriage didn't mean you had to be faithful." Question for Kennedy buffs - did Ted contribute to Joan's lifelong alcoholism?

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/addiction-in-society/200805/reckless-sex-and-power-iii-the-top-seven-kennedy-sex-scandals

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 9 replies

Edward "the Tedster" Kennedy

patric — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:23:29 GMT

Wow, only weeks after his sister, the final end to a Dem Dynasty, paid for by the blood of the young and attractive. Early on he stood up for civil rights, but ended up a symbol of "we're just as in-the-pocket as they are".

I hope this symbolizes a Sea-change to the current yellow-dog lefts working their Tip O'neil-type 1970s governance style in the 21st century. Time to listen to the independents and the progressives for direction, rather than old politicians lets focus on modern innovators. But no one ever accused these dawgs of being progressives.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 9 replies

The Young Turks - Cheney - Had No Problem Breaking Laws & Torturing

freetheweed — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:52:45 GMT

watch here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlVUIV3sVu0

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 1 reply

A Black Glenn Beck?

blackegg — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 01:02:47 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hFiab7fjak

This is almost as funny as that plump nutter going on about "DARK SIDED!!!! YA'LL IS DARK SIDED!!!!!"

Just imagine if they had an interacial love child....

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 4 replies

Quote of the Moment 08/29/09

MickD — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:45:42 GMT

"Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you."

Hebrews 13:17

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 4 replies

State Cannot Legislate Dependence on God--Judge

Hummingbird — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:01:10 GMT

http://www.komonews.com/news/national/55387822.html

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 0 replies

Quote of the moment 08/27/09

MickD — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:58:57 GMT

"It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The freemen of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much...to forget it." ~ James Madison

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 0 replies

Join The Modern Whigs

MickD — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:58:07 GMT

Embrace the future. The Republican party is dead. Libertarians are a little too freaky to go far in this country (alas). Democrats need an opposition voice that is actually coherent. Join the party of common sense. Become a Whig.

http://www.modernwhig.org/

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 2 replies

Texas to revise history textbooks: liberals out, Limbaugh and Gingrich in.

blackegg — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 07:31:12 GMT

Texas, please just go away....

"History's first draft: Newt Gingrich but no liberals"
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6581189.html

"AUSTIN — Texas high school students would learn about such significant individuals and milestones of conservative politics as Newt Gingrich and the rise of the Moral Majority — but nothing about liberals — under the first draft of new standards for public school history textbooks....

.....Whether students will also be exposed to liberal examples from the ebb and flow of American politics is hard to predict. Conservatives form the largest bloc on the 15-member State Board of Education, whose partisan makeup is 10 Republicans and 5 Democrats."
By GARY SCHARRER

Something tells me the mass arrests of protesters at the 2000, 2004 RNCs won't make the cut.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 1 reply

'Quarter of a million people waiting more than 18 weeks for NHS treatment'

MickD — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 01:41:29 GMT

By Murray Wardrop
Published: 7:00AM BST 14 Aug 2009

The disclosure of the statistics comes just three days after Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, claimed there were no longer any waiting lists in the NHS.

Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat shadow health secretary, last night criticised the figures and said Mr Burnham's comments were offensive to the thousands of patients awaiting treatment...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6024086/Quarter-of-a-million-people-waiting-more-than-18-months-for-NHS-treatment.html

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 11 replies

Bill Maher: New Rule: No Shame in Being the Sorry Party

MickD — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 03:41:50 GMT

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/inew-rulei-no-shame-in-be_b_264695.html

New Rule: If Mitt Romney, Karl Rove and Sarah Palin all think America has never done anything wrong, we must be doing something wrong. Look at them: an empty suit, an empty heart and an empty head. It looks like the news team on Good Morning Hell. ...

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 2 replies

Barney Franks Confronts Detractors at Town Hall Meeting

blackegg — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:13:53 GMT

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/18/frank.heath.care/

"At a lively two-hour meeting Tuesday night in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, Frank gave as good as he got in confronting opponents of overhauling the nation's health care system."

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 20 replies

Appropriate even today

MickD — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 01:18:01 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IvPIWzQcUY

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 10 replies

Dick Armey Steps Down

blackegg — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:17:15 GMT

"
East Palo Alto's DLA Piper is the world's largest law firm. It makes news mostly when it announces firmwide layoffs. But it clearly wasn't prepared for the fallout engendered by its association with hard-right former Texas Congressman Dick Armey, whose organization, FreedomWorks, has been at the forefront of those rambunctious "protests" at health reform town halls.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/18/BUFR199UVS.DTL#ixzz0Ojyi6MNP"

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 1 reply

Four States Are Solidly Republican. Four.

blackegg — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 06:41:33 GMT

Political Party Affiliation: 30 States Blue, 4 Red in '09 So Far
Utah and Wyoming are most Republican

http://www.gallup.com/poll/122003/political-party-affiliation-states-blue-red-far.aspx

"Only four states show a sizeable Republican advantage in party identification, the same number as in 2008. That compares to 29 states plus the District of Columbia with sizeable Democratic advantages also unchanged from last year...

...These results are based on interviews with over 160,000 U.S. adults conducted between January and June 2009, including a minimum of 400 interviews for each state (305 in the District of Columbia). Each state's data is weighted to demographic characteristics for that state to ensure it is representative of the state's adult population."

Complete with maps and lists and such.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 15 replies

Cash for Codgers

MickD — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:14:02 GMT

Democrats, realizing the success of the President's "Cash For Clunkers" rebate program, have revamped a major portion of their National Health Care Plan.

President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Sen. Reed are expected to make this major announcement at a joint news conference later this week. I have obtained an advanced copy of the proposal which is named....

"CASH FOR CODGERS" and it works like this... Couples wishing to access health care funds in order to pay for the delivery of a child will be required to turn in one old person. The amount the government grants them will be fixed according to a sliding scale. Older and more prescription dependent codgers will garner the highest amounts.

Special "Bonuses" will be paid for those submitting codgers in targeted groups, such as smokers, alcohol drinkers, persons 10 pounds over their government prescribed weight, and any member of the Republican Party.

All codgers will be rendered totally useless via toxic injection. This will insure that they are not secretly resold or their body parts harvested to keep other codgers in repair.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 9 replies

In Oregon, 1 in 4 can't secure full time employment

Vaughn — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 04:21:04 GMT

In Oregon, one in four people can’t find full-time jobs
By peter korn

The Portland Tribune, Aug 13, 2009,

George Snipes uses a computer at WorkSource Oregon to search for possible job openings. The Vietnam veteran was laid off last November and now is applying for part-time work.
ADVERTISEMENTS
Here’s the thing that worries unemployed Woodstock resident George Snipes: What if things are worse, much worse, than we are being told?

They are, says Andrew Sum, an economist who heads the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. Sum has analyzed employment data for all 50 states, and he says that those charts provide statistical verification of what Snipes feels in his gut: Oregon’s 12.2 percent official unemployment rate is something of a red herring and far from a true indicator of the social hardship taking place in Oregon today.

If you really want to know how much people are suffering, Sum says, check out Oregon’s labor underutilization rate. That number combines the unemployed with two other categories of workers who don’t make it into the official unemployment rate – underemployed workers who want full-time work but can only find part-time jobs, and unemployed people who say they want work but have given up looking.

Combining those two categories with the state’s official unemployment rate brings Oregon’s rate up to 23.8 percent for the first six months of 2009, and over 24 percent for the past three months. That’s the worst in the nation, according to the center’s data, and it means nearly one in every four work-ready Oregonians is struggling to get by, an unprecedented number in post-depression America.

Sadly, a closer look at the data makes the numbers, and Oregon’s prospects, look even worse.

For instance, more than 53.5 percent of Oregon’s unemployed lost jobs that are never coming back, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies’ data. In just two years, that rate – what some economists call permanent job losses – has tripled in Oregon. That’s a growth rate that Sum also says is unprecedented.

Oregon has the nation’s highest percentage of underutilized workers — those who are unemployed, combined with those working part time who want full-time jobs.

Economists like to look at trends, and Oregon’s 24.1 percent underutilization rate represents an 11.3 percent increase over a year ago, the steepest increase in the nation. In no previous recession, Sum says, did the combined unemployed and underemployed worker rate shoot up as dramatically as it has in the past 18 months.

“I’ve never seen numbers like this in my entire life,” Sum says.

The numbers may help explain why, according to the latest figures from the Oregon Department of Human Services, one in six Oregonians is dependent on food stamps to get by.

One in four Oregonians jobless, or making ends meet with part-time work, is a little higher than George Snipes expected, but he says he’s figured for a while that the official 12 percent unemployment rate was lowballing the truth.

Snipes, 62, has held four jobs since returning from military service in Vietnam in 1968, with no more than two or three months unemployment in between jobs – until now. He worked cutting up plastic at a Portland plastic wholesaler for 13 years before getting laid off in November. In fact, he says, of the 12 plastic cutters who worked at the company, three have been laid off – one in four, he notes, just like the state average.

Snipes hasn’t been able to find work since November, and he’s been looking hard. Last Friday he interviewed for a 20-hour-a-week job that would pay him $12 an hour unloading trucks on a midnight shift. If he gets offered the job, he’ll accept it, even though he might only end up with about $800 a month in take home pay.

If Snipes takes that job, he will no longer be counted in Oregon’s official unemployment rate, despite the fact that he will be working at far less than the full-time job he needs.

University of Oregon economist Tim Duy says with talk of the recession’s end getting closer, it is possible that end will be a “jobless” one.

But Snipes wonders how that could be considered an end at all.

“The thing I hate to think of is that this might go on for 10 years,” Snipes says. “I think it’s a real possibility.”

A preview of what’s to come
Duy is not only concerned that whatever recovery follows the current recession doesn’t include jobs. He’s also worried that people who have become unemployed this time might be “permanently disadvantaged.”

“People who go part time never get their earnings back,” he says. “One in four is a big number.”

Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist at the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute, says it makes little sense for states to continue to release traditional unemployment numbers each month.

“Unemployment is less and less relevant for a modern labor force,” Shierholz says. “We no longer have a world where it’s men working full-time jobs.”

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 6 replies

What Feeds Birther Hysteria?

Hummingbird — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:47:21 GMT

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/opinion/02rich.html?_r=2

From the above linked article by Frank Rich:

"What provokes their angry and nonsensical cries of racism is sheer desperation: an entire country is changing faster than these white guys bargained for. We’ve been reminded repeatedly during Gatesgate that Cambridge’s mayor is a black lesbian. But a more representative window into the country’s transition might be that Dallas County, Tex., elected a Latina lesbian sheriff in 2004 (and re-elected her last year) and that the three serious candidates for mayor of Houston this fall include a black man and a white lesbian.

Even Texas may be tinting blue, and as goes Texas, so will all but the dwindling rural minority of the Electoral College. Last month the Census Bureau released a new analysis of the 2008 presidential election results finding that increases among minority voters accounted for virtually all the five million additional votes cast in comparison to 2004. Black women had a higher turnout rate than any other group, and young blacks turned out at a higher rate than young whites.

It’s against this backdrop that 11 Republican congressmen have now signed on to a bill requiring that presidential candidates produce their birth certificates. This bizarre “birther” movement, out to prove that Obama is not a naturally born citizen, first gained notice in the summer of 2008 when it was being advanced by the author Jerome Corsi, a leader of the Swift boat assault on Kerry. That it revved up again as Gatesgate boiled over and Sotomayor sped toward Senate confirmation is not a coincidence.

Obama’s election, far from alleviating paranoia in the white fringe, has only compounded it."

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 13 replies

Juicy gossip and the state of the economy

Astrid_Seftali — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:28:22 GMT

Book: Madoff victim tells of secret 20-year affair

Bernard Madoff's decades-long fraud might not have been his only secret. A new book says he had a two-decade affair with one of his investors.

That's in a memoir by Sheryl Weinstein titled "Madoff's Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie, and Me." It goes on sale Aug. 25.

A spokesman for book publisher St. Martin's Press said Friday the relationship between Weinstein and Madoff spanned more than 20 years. Both were married.

For the investors whose life savings vanished in Bernard Madoff's fraud scheme, a 150-year prison sentence can't bring back what they lost.

Alan English, a Pembroke Pines retiree who lost his life savings of $1.25 million, couldn't find solace in Madoff's sentence.

•Three South Florida victims of Bernard L. Madoff tell their stories
Three South Florida victims of Bernard L. Madoff tell their stories
The human toll in the Bernard L. Madoff scandal stretches from England to California, but few places have been hit harder than South Florida.

Three local residents, who are victims, offered their own variations on a theme of fraud and deceit in the days after Madoff was sentenced to 150 years for the long-running Ponzi scheme:

Bernard L. Madoff, the financial scamster extraordinaire, may be behind bars for the rest of his life, but his legacy will drag on for years as his thousands of victims battle in court to recoup money from Wall Street's biggest fraud.

His investors can expect to get back something. But it will be nowhere near the substantial sums they thought they had in their accounts before he was arrested Dec. 11 for running a massive Ponzi scheme. Madoff, 71, was sentenced to 150 years in prison last week.

So far the bankruptcy-court-appointed trustee, who is responsible for recovering money for Madoff's customers, has pulled together about $1.2 billion of at least $13.2 billion in losses.
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK -- A new book says that an investor who claims she was devastated by Bernard Madoff's multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme had a two-decade affair with the disgraced financier.

The memoir, "Madoff's Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie, and Me," was written by Sheryl Weinstein, whose relationship with Madoff spanned more than 20 years while both were married, said John Murphy, a spokesman for publisher St. Martin's Press. It goes on sale Aug. 25.

Madoff, 71, is serving 150 years in prison for defrauding investors. Weinstein says she met him at a business meeting when she was chief financial officer for the charitable women's organization Hadassah, where she had a role in investment decisions.

Madoff attorney Ira Sorkin said he hopes the author "was more discreet with her investment obligations than she has allegedly been with her sex life."

An attorney for Madoff's wife, Ruth Madoff, said his client did not know about the "alleged affair." The attorney, Peter Chavkin, said the allegations were a powerful reminder to those who claim Ruth Madoff knew about her husband's massive Ponzi scheme "that there are some things that some spouses - however close they are - do not share with each other."

At Bernard Madoff's June sentencing, Weinstein was among investors to urge a long prison sentence for the financier, who admitted ripping off thousands of investors for billions of dollars for at least two decades. She said she viewed meeting him 21 years ago "as perhaps the unluckiest day of my life."

Weinstein said her investment losses had forced her to sell her Manhattan home and devastated her, her husband of 37 years, her son, her parents, her in-laws and everyone who depended on them. She called Madoff "that terror, that monster, that horror, that beast ... an equal-opportunity destroyer."

In her correspondence with the court, Weinstein made no mention of the affair, though she did write in a request to speak at sentencing that she wanted to address Madoff and the court because "I think the personal connection may be more difficult for him to ignore."

Her husband, Ron Weinstein, said in a June letter to the court that all the money the couple had saved was lost by Madoff and that their marriage was strained.

"My wife has been a basket case," he said, "and we are both very depressed."

The book has drawn fresh attention to Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America.

The organization has said its principal investment with Madoff totaled about $33 million, while another $7 million had been entrusted to Madoff after it was donated by a French backer in 1988. Hadassah did not return a telephone call for comment Friday.

Stanley Epstein, a Santa Monica, Calif., lawyer married to a Hadassah member, said Hadassah's treasurer told him after Madoff's December arrest that the organization had cashed in between $120 million and $130 million from its Madoff accounts over the years. The profits could make the organization a target of those seeking to recover money to be distributed to defrauded investors.

By Friday evening, the publicity about Weinstein's book had pushed its presale ranking on Amazon.com from No. 4,408 eight hours earlier to No. 1,415.

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 0 replies

Palin stands by 'death panel' claim

MickD — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 16:02:18 GMT

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5ilim4C6mdvg042qR7bmXpKHrCG0w

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 0 replies

Reform Madness

MickD — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:28:39 GMT

http://www.markfiore.com/political/reform-madness

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 0 replies

Hawking: Ironically, My Death Panel Saved My Life

MickD — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:25:58 GMT

Remember how IBD said Dr.Hawking "wouldnt survive" UK Healthcare? He responds, defends UK health:

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/hawking-ironically-my-death-panel-saved-my-life.php

posted in Intelligent Political Discussion - 21 replies