All Entries in the "odds & ends" Category

Psychic Animals

We know that animals can be extremely intuitive creatures. Whether you think that snakes can sense impending natural disasters, or that a cat predicted 50 deaths at a single nursing home or that a chicken typed out winning lottery numbers on a calculator, humans invest a lot of trust in animals and increasingly acknowledge bizarre animal behavior as forecasts of the future.

Check out our slideshow of seven impressive animals that may have predicted the future. Don’t forget to vote on your favorite and, as always, tell us about your favorite animals that make predictions in the comments.

Full Story: Psychic Animals (PHOTOS).

Strongest ever beer served up in dead squirrels

The strongest and most expensive beer ever created sold out within hours Friday, a Scottish brewery said, as they courted controversy by packaging the bottles inside the bodies of stuffed animals.

BrewDog, the self-described maverick brewery, presented the beer — which contains a record 55 percent alcohol — inside the bodies of dead squirrels and stoats.

Animal rights activists rushed to condemn the stunt.

Full Story: Strongest ever beer served up in dead squirrels | Raw Story.

BP’s Photoshopped Command Center Just The Latest In A Pattern Of Deception

The latest curio in the ongoing exhibition of BP obfuscation comes via John Aravosis at AmericaBlog, who examined an image from BP’s website and determined it to be a fake. The image depicts BP’s “Command Center” in Houston, where ever-vigilant BP employees sit in a dark room, monitoring screens. BP’s website has been running a photo in which three men appear to be watching a ten-screen display of oil-spill footage. Here’s the thing: it’s a Photoshop job. And not just a poor one — a seemingly unnecessary one.

Here’s the one BP was running:

Full Story: BP’s Photoshopped Command Center Just The Latest In A Pattern Of Deception.

New York races to uncover Ground Zero ‘mystery ship’

New Yorkers raced against time Friday to reveal the secrets of a mostly intact, 18th century sailing ship found in the muddy foundations of the World Trade Center reconstruction site.

The ghostly vessel emerged from the mud earlier this week, its hull and deck virtually complete and still equipped with an anchor. But with sudden exposure to air wreaking havoc on the wood, archaeologists are hurrying to examine their find.

“Once water logged, it preserves well, but once exposed to the air, as it dries out, it starts to disintegrate. It loses its structure,” New York State parks department archaeologist Doug Mackey told AFP.

Full Story: New York races to uncover Ground Zero ‘mystery ship’ | Raw Story.

Biden on spy swap: ‘I thought they’d take Rush Limbaugh’

Vice President Joe Biden assures Jay Leno US getting 4 `really good` spies in Russian swap

Vice President Joe Biden had to convince a skeptical Jay Leno on Friday that the United States didn’t get a raw deal from Russia in the biggest spy swap since the Cold War.

Leno asked Biden during a taping of “The Tonight Show” why the U.S. was sending 10 accused spies back to Russia while getting only four in return.

“That doesn’t seem fair,” Leno said.

“We got back four really good ones,” Biden reassured Leno. “And the 10, they’ve been here a long time, but they hadn’t done much.”

Leno then showed a sultry photo of alleged Russian agent Anna Chapman and asked: “Are our spies this hot?”

Full Story: Biden on spy swap: ‘I thought they’d take Rush Limbaugh’ | Raw Story.

Brain freezer in Russia claims secret of eternal life

“I don’t ever want to die… It wouldn’t suit me,” said Innokenty Osadchy. Fortunately, the 35-year-old investment banker is certain he has found a loophole out of death.

Osadchy is ready to pay a small fortune to freeze his brain until future technology allows him to continue his life — after being transplanted into a new body and resuscitated.

“Why do I have to die in a couple decades? I don’t see any logic in this,” Osadchy told AFP. “It won’t be another life, it’ll be the continuation of my life.

“I don’t ever want to die ever. Not in a year, not in a million years.”

Full Story: AFP: Brain freezer in Russia claims secret of eternal life.

Witches turn their attention to BP oil spill

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has people around the world hoping, searching and praying for a solution.

On Sunday, the Salem witches will give it a shot.

The Temple of Nine Wells, a local Wiccan and pagan group, will conduct an “ocean blessing and healing” ceremony at 11:30 a.m. at Waikiki Beach on Winter Island. Many of the city’s Wiccan high priests and high priestesses are hoping to raise local awareness about the present state of the oceans and send out “magickal healing energy.”

“As we are all now aware, the world’s oceans are presently in great peril,” Marc Delaney, public relations director for the Temple of Nine Wells, said in a statement. “Drilling rig accidents and tanker disasters dump vast quantities of toxic crude oil into the sea, jeopardizing fish, birds, marine mammals and polluting shorelines …”

Full Story: Witches turn their attention to BP oil spill » Local News » SalemNews.com, Salem, MA.

Pentagon report in April never mentioned $1 trillion in Afghan wealth

Original goal of Pentagon task force that performed Afghan minerals survey was to get “contracts going between US firms and Iraqi firms”

A RAW STORY investigation has revealed that a report released by the Pentagon last April on the progress of the Afghanistan “surge” included only a single passing reference to a survey that is now being touted as having discovered mineral resources in that nation potentially worth $1 trillion.

The lack of any mention of dramatic new discoveries is likely to reinforce suspicions that there is something bogus about the claim in last Sunday’s New York Times that “the United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself.”

Full Story: Pentagon report in April never mentioned $1 trillion in Afghan wealth | Raw Story.

No “under God” in Porkys Pledge of Allegiance

Prior to 1954 the words “under God” were not in the pledge of allegiance. They were added under pressure from Christian leaders in a time of heightened nationalism and Communist fear in America. This period in American history was heavily authoritarian and ripe with the automaton conformity of it's citizens. Today, only 3/4 of Americans believe in the Christian god mentioned in the pledge. Therefore, tens of millions of US citizens are left out.

Interestingly, the pledge was written by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist Socialist minister. He wrote the original Pledge in August 1892 as a tribute to the 400th anniversary of Columbus' “discovery” of the continent and for the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. It was meant to bring a sense of national solidarity to schoolchildren and citizens. His original pledge also included the word equality alongside liberty and justice. It was not included in the official pledge. It should be noted the official pledge was adopted prior to both Civil and Woman's Rights in America.

If we are truly a inclusive country, with liberty, justice and equality for all, the pledge should revert to it's original form.

FBI files reveal Ted Kennedy death threats, plots

The FBI released more than 2,200 pages from its archives about Kennedy, who died at age 77 in August 2009 of brain cancer, most of which revealed details of threats and extortion schemes against the Massachusetts senator.

Kennedy spent 47 years as one of the liberal champions of the U.S. Senate, focusing on health care and civil rights, carrying on the political legacy of his slain brothers.

While some of the threats against him appeared to be nonpolitical, they also originated from members of radical groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, “Minutemen” organizations and the National Socialist White People’s Party.

The senator wrote in his memoir about his fears of being killed in the wake of the assassinations of his brothers President John F. Kennedy Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy Jr. in 1963 and 1968 respectively.

Full Story: FBI files reveal Ted Kennedy death threats, plots | Reuters.

Real Time with Bill Maher: New Rules June 11th, 2010

On last night’s season finale of Real Time with Bill Maher, Bill came out hard against BP. In fact, the entire show focused on the disaster in the gulf. Maher had some biting words for those who say we need oil industry jobs.

Chicago Fans Boo Presentation Of ‘BP Crosstown Cup’ At Cubs/White Sox Baseball Game

This weekend, the National League’s Chicago Cubs are facing off against their crosstown American League rivals, the Chicago White Sox. The interleague showdown is being sponsored by BP. The British company signed a three-year deal with the teams on April 26, just days after the oil disaster in the Gulf occurred.

BP’s sponsorship of the games features broad dissemination of their company logo and includes the presentation of an official trophy — the “BP Crosstown Cup” — to the victor:

Full Story: Think Progress » Chicago Fans Boo Presentation Of ‘BP Crosstown Cup’ At Cubs/White Sox Baseball Game.

After keeping us waiting for a century, Mark Twain will finally reveal all

The great American writer left instructions not to publish his autobiography until 100 years after his death, which is now

Full Story: After keeping us waiting for a century, Mark Twain will finally reveal all – News, Books – The Independent.

Copy Machines, a Security Risk!

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the good, old-fashioned copy machine. But, as Armen Keteyian reports, advanced technology has opened a dangerous hole in data security.

Mystery Disease Linked to Missing Israeli Scientist

Media outlets across the Northwest United States began reporting on April 24 that a strange, previously unknown strain of virulent airborne fungi that has already killed at least six people in Oregon, Washington and Idaho is spreading throughout the region. The fungus, according to expert microbiologists, who have expressed alarm about the emergence of the strain, is a new genotype of Cryptococcus gatti fungi. Cryptococcus gatti is normally found in tropical and subtropical locations in India, South America, Africa and Australia. Microbiologists in the United States are reporting that the strain found here, for reasons not yet fully understood, is far deadlier than any found overseas.

Physicians in the Pacific Northwest are reporting that an undetermined number of people in the region are ill from the effects of the strange strain. Physicians also say that the virulent strain can infect domestic animals as well as humans, and symptoms do not appear until anywhere from two to four months after exposure. Symptoms in humans include a lingering cough, sharp chest pains, fever, night-sweats, weight-loss, headaches and shortness of breath. The strain can be treated successfully, if detected early enough, with oral doses of antifungal medication, but it cannot be prevented, and there is no preventative vaccine. Undiagnosed, the fungus works its way into the spinal fluid and central nervous system and causes fatal meningitis.

The estimated mortality rate is about 25 percent of 21 cases analyzed. Several newspapers and media outlets in the US and overseas quote a researcher at Duke University's Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Edmond Byrnes, as stating: “This novel fungus is worrisome because it appears to be a threat to otherwise healthy people. Typically, we see this fungal disease associated with transplant recipients and HIV-infected patients, but that is not what we are seeing.”

Full Story: t r u t h o u t | Mystery Disease Linked to Missing Israeli Scientist.

Media Ignore The Fact That Man Who Alerted Police To Failed Times Square Bombing Is A Muslim Immigrant

The chief suspect in the case of the failed Times Square car bombing is Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad, who has confessed to the plot. Much of the media has latched onto Shahzad’s Muslim faith and his Pakistani identity, making inflammatory remarks and suggestions about Muslims and Pakistanis:

– CNN contributor and Redstate.com blogger Erick Erickson complained that the words “muslim” and “Islam” are “not mentioned” enough in stories about Shahzad. He wrote, “It really is pathetic that you’re more likely to see the words “racist” and “Republican” together in the newspaper these days than “terrorism” and “Islam.” [5/4/2010]

– Hate radio host Neal Boortz tweeted, “OMG! The Times Square Bomber is a Muslim! Shocker! Who would have believed it?” [5/4/2010]

Full Story: Think Progress » Media Ignore The Fact That Man Who Alerted Police To Failed Times Square Bombing Is A Muslim Immigrant.

Where Are You Now, Scum?

Mike Malloy :  Major Rant.

Mike rants furiously about the disappearance of the republicans and teabaggers, now that financial reform blocking, a racist bill in Arizona and oil spills are on the table for them to shout against. Yeah, right…

Seattle cartoonist: May 20 is ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day’

As a snarky response to Muslim bloggers who “warned” Comedy Central about an episode of South Park showing the Prophet Mohammed wearing a bear suit, one Seattle cartoonist, who calls laughter her form of “prayer,” is asking artists all over the world to create depictions of Mohammed on May 20, then submit the images to a Facebook page she set up.

Speaking on a Seattle radio show on Friday, cartoonist Molly Norris said she announced her idea as a way of countering the fear exhibited by Comedy Central in censoring episode 201 of South Park.

At the South Park Studios website, a message was posted that notes, “After we delivered the show, and prior to broadcast, Comedy Central placed numerous additional audio bleeps throughout the episode. We do not have network approval to stream our original version of the show.”

Full Story: Seattle cartoonist: May 20 is ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day’ | Raw Story.

World’s Smartest Horse Lukas Is No Smart-Ass

To quote “The Theme From Mr. Ed”: “A horse is a horse, of course, of course.”

But that blanket statement is simply not fair to a 17-year-old thoroughbred gelding in Chino Hills, Calif., who is being touted as the smartest horse in the world for the many amazing feats he’s been able to master: 35 in all.

His name is Lukas and, although he doesn’t talk like Mr. Ed or Francis the Talking Mule, his owner and trainer, Karen Murdock, believes he should be given full credit for his high equine IQ.

Full Story: World’s Smartest Horse Lukas Is No Smart-Ass – AOL News.

Restaurant Secrets: 5 Things Your Server Won’t Tell You

I should preface this article by saying that overall, most restaurants abide by health regulations and do everything they can to provide their guests with the best experience possible. However, like every other industry, restaurants have a few dirty little secrets under their belts that they try to hide from customers. Of course, we’ve all heard stories about disgruntled waiters spitting in the food of the rude customers or cooks serving food that has been dropped on the floor — but I’ve honestly never seen any of that. Annoyed servers aside, there are things that customers should know about the restaurant industry so that they can have the best dining experience and get freshest, cleanest food possible. Having worked my way through restaurant kitchens, catering companies and culinary school; I’ve seen it all when it comes to food preparation and service. So here is a firsthand look at what really goes on behind those swinging doors.

Full Story: Divya Gugnani: Restaurant Secrets: 5 Things Your Server Won’t Tell You.

Explorer Completes First Arctic Balloon Crossing

A French explorer’s team says he has made the first Arctic crossing by balloon, landing in the tundra of eastern Siberia five days after taking off in Norway.

Jean-Louis Etienne traveled 3,130 kilometeres (1,945 miles) in his special balloon, sailing over the Arctic Circle.

The 63-year-old radioed his team after landing Saturday, expressing relief “because there were difficult moments and I was starting to lose sleep.” The landing had been set for Alaska, but Etienne had to change course after a snowstorm Wednesday near the North Pole hindered the recharging of batteries via solar panels.

Full Story: Jean-Louis Etienne: Explorer Completes First Arctic Balloon Crossing.

One in five adults believe aliens are on earth, disguised as humans

Aliens are living on earth disguised as humans, according to one fifth of adults in a new global survey.

The poll questioned 23,000 adults in 22 countries and found that more than 40 per cent of people from India and China believe that alien life exists with a human facade on this planet.

European respondents in the survey were more sceptical with only eight per cent of people from Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands convinced that life from outer space exists on earth.

Men were more likely to believe in extra-terrestrial life than women with 22 per cent convinced compared to 17 per cent of women.

Full Story: One in five adults believe aliens are on earth, disguised as humans – Telegraph.

Web Bot Predictions

George Ure & Clif High presented predictions about the economy, and U.S. and world events for the summer of 2010 and beyond. Their predictions are based on High’s Web Bot technology which gives archetype descriptors of future events by tracking language pattern changes within Internet discussions forums. Here are some of the highlights of what they see coming:

* No warfare between Israel and Iran, at least not until November.

* Six very large earthquakes are yet to come during the rest of 2010.

* A major tipping point will occur between November 8th – 11th, 2010, followed by a 2-3 month release period. This tipping point appears to be US-centric, and could be a dramatic world-changing event like 9-11 that will have rippling after-effects. The collapse of the dollar might occur in November.

* From July 8th, 2010 onward, civil unrest will take place, possibly driven by food prices skyrocketing, and the devaluation of the dollar.

* A second depression, triggered by mass layoffs, bankruptcies, and the popping of the “derivatives bubble,” will see people moving out of cities.

* After March 2011, the revolution wave will settle down into a period of reformation.

* A “data gap” has been found between early 2012 running through May 2013. One explanation is that “our civilization gets knocked back to a pre-electronic state,” such as brought about by devastating solar activity.

* A new benign form of capitalism will emerge during 2017-2020.

Full Story: Web Bot Predictions

Senator Chuck Hagel and John G. Stumpf Nominated to Chevron Board of Directors

Chevron Corporation today announced that Senator Charles (Chuck) T. Hagel and John G. Stumpf have been nominated for election to Chevron’s board of directors. Hagel and Stumpf will be part of the slate of board nominees to be considered for election to Chevron’s board at the company’s annual meeting of stockholders on May 26. If they are elected, the board will expand from 14 to 16 members.

Hagel is a distinguished professor at Georgetown University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha and is Chairman of the Atlantic Council. He is Co-Chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and a member of the Secretary of Defense’s Policy Board and the Secretary of Energy’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future.

Hagel served two terms in the United States Senate (1997-2009) representing the state of Nebraska. Hagel was a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and the Intelligence Committee. Prior to his election, Hagel was president of McCarthy & Company, an investment banking firm in Omaha, Nebraska.

Full Story: Senator Chuck Hagel and John G. Stumpf Nominated to Chevron Board of Directors – MarketWatch.

Fortune Valley Casino Says $43 Million Slot Machine Payout Was A Mistake, Refuses To Pay

A Colorado woman who won $42.9 million off a penny slot machine saw her jackpot disappear when the casino said the payout message was an error.

Now Colorado gaming authorities are trying to find out what caused the phony fortune.

The false jackpot message went to Louise Chavez Friday while she was playing penny slots in the Fortune Valley Casino in Central City. The machine announced she’d won $42.9 million – a far richer sum than the posted top prize of $251,000.

Fortune Valley doesn’t dispute that the machine told Chavez she’d won millions. But the casino says workers immediately told the gambler the message was an error and reported the mistake to the Colorado Division of Gaming, which regulates casinos.

Full Story: Fortune Valley Casino Says $43 Million Slot Machine Payout Was A Mistake, Refuses To Pay.

Ice included in seafood price

In some cases in California as much as 40% of the listed weight of seafood was from an ice glaze used to preserve the product, the National Conference on Weights and Measures finds.

Some California consumers may have been paying for a whole lot of ice, instead of seafood, according to an investigation that included inspections in 17 states.

In some cases, a coating of ice glaze applied to frozen seafood to preserve quality during storage and distribution has been included as part of the labeled weight of seafood, according to the National Conference on Weights and Measures. The multi-agency investigation found ice in some cases accounted for up to 40% of the product’s weight.

The investigation was prompted by the National Fisheries Institute, a seafood industry group, over concerns of unfair competition by companies using the illegal labeling method.

Full Story: Ice included in seafood price – latimes.com.

‘Battlefield Earth’ Screenwriter Writes Hilarious Open Apology

Battlefield Earth’ won a Razzie for the worst movie of the decade this month, and screenwriter J.D. Shapiro has written a long, hilarious apology and explanation for in the NY Post.

The movie was a sci-fi bomb based on a novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and starred John Travolta.

Shapiro came about the project in 1994 by reading that the Scientology Center was a “great place to meet women.” He found it wasn’t, but he ended up meeting Karen Hollander, president of the center, who was a fan of the Shapiro-penned “Robin Hood: Men in Tights.” She suggested a movie based on a book by Hubbard.

He agreed, dined with John Travolta, wrote and sold a script to studios that he was proud of, and then had that script radically altered.

But first he tried Scientology:

Full Story: ‘Battlefield Earth’ Screenwriter Writes Hilarious Open Apology.

Obama: Inside Man for the Greatest Heist in History

BAR executive editor Glen Ford

Black America and “progressives” lurched into self-imposed irrelevancy at precisely the time that finance capital was swallowing the American state whole. Barack Obama is the Great Facilitator of Wall Street’s desperate effort to loot itself out of oblivion. Disaster is certain if we remain without a movement that confronts both the banksters and Obama.

Glen Ford delivered the following remarks to a panel discussion of the Left Forum, at Pace University, New York City, on March 20. The discussion was titled, “Race and Recession: Will a Rising Tide Lift All Boats?

“What we have witnessed since the Fall of 2008, is the swallowing whole of the American state, by finance capital.”

The old, rich man’s slogan, “A rising tide lifts all boats” – that Obama now claims as his own – has been discredited from any number of angles. I’d like to add another layer of contempt.

The phrase takes for granted, as a truism, that you can count on the economic tides rolling in, and then rolling out again, like the ocean. The phrase takes for granted that this system, with its ups and downs, is as permanent as the tides. The implication is that we are simply in a deep downturn in the economy – a cyclical situation – that will inevitably, at some point, lead to an upturn, like the tide coming back in. So, when one says that “A rising tide lifts all boats,” in addition to promising the poor that something better will be coming to them with the next upturn in the cycle, you are also expressing confidence that this capitalist system is eternal – as permanent as the push and pull of the tides.

Full Story: Obama: Inside Man for the Greatest Heist in History | Black Agenda Report.

Tata Nano EXPLODES In Mumbai, Automaker Confronts Safety Concerns Over $2,500 Car

Software engineer Satish Sawant, his wife and 5-year-old son escaped from the silver Tata Nano – which still bore a celebratory garland of marigolds on the front hood – before the tiny car was engulfed by fire.

A chauffeur initially was at the wheel, but Sawant said he had taken over driving before the fire broke out. Tata has offered Sawant a replacement Nano or a refund.

“My wife now doesn’t want to buy any car,” Sawant said by phone from his home in northern Mumbai on Thursday. “She doesn’t even want to go for a Mercedes.”

Full Story: Tata Nano EXPLODES In Mumbai, Automaker Confronts Safety Concerns Over $2,500 Car.

TEXAS LEGISLATURE VOTES TO REWRITE BIBLE

* Satire *

“The good Lord has smiled on us,” said Carlton Bolton, the president and CEO of Hallelujah Press, a subsidiary of Halliburton, which received an exclusive no-bid contract to manufacture the new Bibles.

Fresh from their recent success in passing laws to rewrite school history textbooks to drop discussions of FDR and unions in favor of what they called conservative intellectuals such as George W. Bush, Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber, the Texas Legislature passed a law that all Bibles in the state must be updated.

“The Bible was obviously written by Jewish liberals from New York,” said Candace Sue Burnham (R-Plano). “So it’s time we Christians take our Bible back to stress true family values such as hating gays, illegal Mexicans, Muslims and especially hating illegal gay Mexican Muslims.”

“The current version of the Bible is riddled with communist propaganda about Jesus helping the poor,” said Wayne Plugg (R-San Angelo).”That’s obviously hogwash because if Jesus loved those poor people so much, he would have made them rich.”

Full Story: Citizens For Legitimate Government.

Japan Acknowledges Kept Secret Deposit With The Fed

The Japanese government’s probe into a confidential post- war agreements with the U.S. not only confirmed the existence of a secret deposit that Japan kept with the Federal Reserve for nearly three decades, but also uncovered Tokyo’s lax management of information related to its foreign reserves.

Japanese Finance Minister Naoto Kan said Friday the ministry’s recent investigation into a 1969 bilateral accord confirmed that the financial settlement Japan made with the U.S. to end its occupation of Okinawa was larger and more complex than previously acknowledged and included a secret non-interest deposit the government and the Bank of Japan kept at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The deposit totaled $103 million during much of its life before the two nations agreed to lower it to an unsubstantial sum of $3 million in 1999. The deposit was counted as part of Japan’s official foreign reserves and consisted of dollars the Japanese government received from the Okinawans in exchange for yen in 1972 when the U.S. ended its post-war occupation of the southern Japanese island. The non-interest deposit amounted to a de-facto financial payment, as the U.S. was free to manage the money to generate returns. U.S. embassy press officers couldn’t be reached for comment

Full Story: Japan Acknowledges Kept Secret Deposit With The Fed.

Understanding Capitalism versus Socialism

Maybe you are a casual Agonist reader or an Agonista at heart but in any case you are probably asking yourself: what’s the deal with socialism and why do I like capitalism?

OK, lets get started by defining socialism: socialism is, by definition, something you don’t want. Its that simple and all you really need to remember but, of course, there is a complex academic explanation which goes like this: Americans don’t want socialism because the government does it.

Now that you understand socialism, its really very easy to understand capitalism. The definition of capitalism is something that you do want. Again its that simple, Occam’s Razor! Again, this being an academic sort of paper, I should add that capitalism is something that you want because the government doesn’t do it. It’s so simple isn’t it?

Here’s a trick for remembering the difference between socialism and capitalism: S is for Socialism and Satan and C is for Capitalism and Christ; Satan was a socialist and Christ was a capitalist or would have been if he wasn’t under the thumb of that heathen Roman empire run by oligarchs.

Now, with such powerful definitions you may be asking: what else do I need to know? However, it is incumbent on me, this being a scientific paper and all, to provide some background data and some examples of what I’m saying.

Full Story: Understanding Capitalism versus Socialism | The Agonist.

… sarcasm, or reductio ad absurdum to be precise. The argument draws the opposing viewpoint to its valid, if extreme, conclusion in order to point out the logical flaws

Stiffening the Backbones of Democrats

by Jim Hightower -

You know what we need to juice up the performance of our weak economy? Viagra.

Yes, America needs a new Viagra, specifically targeted to stiffen backbones — in particular, the limp backbones of Barack Obama’s team, as well as the flaccid spines of Democratic congressional leaders. Where’s the drug industry when we really need it?

The Obama-ites seem incapable of firm stands. They excite us by boldly addressing our economic woes, then they seduce us by proposing stout actions. But when it comes time to follow through — it’s droopsville.

Full Story: Stiffening the Backbones of Democrats by Jim Hightower on Creators.com – A Syndicate Of Talent.

Breast Milk Cheese Offered By Chef Daniel Angerer (VIDEO)

One New York chef is bringing new meaning to the term “milking” a situation.

Klee Brasserie chef Daniel Angerer has started using his wife’s breast milk to create “Mommy Milk Cheese” and is making it available to any willing patrons.

Angerer has posted a recipe for the daring dairy product on his blog so any new parents can make their own.

Full Story: Breast Milk Cheese Offered By Chef Daniel Angerer (VIDEO).

A government that does not promote a strong, just and fair economy for the American people is not doing its job

Programs such as Social Security and Medicare built the American middle class – and solutions such as health care reform, banking reform, consumer protection, and freeing our politics from the stranglehold of big money that will save us now.

Instead of tearing down our country, we ought to be building it up.

We should rebuild our manufacturing base, based on clean energy, high-speed trains, bio-medical research, and other 21st century endeavors. We should promote research and development. We should promote small business and American innovation.

We must rebuild our infrastructure – not just our roads and bridges, but our schools and homes which need to become energy-efficient. We should end our addiction to oil and gas as soon as we can, with clean solar and wind energy.

Full Story: A government that does not promote a strong, just and fair economy for the American people is not doing its job | BuzzFlash.org.

Garrison Keillor: Play ball! – Baseball

Come April, Minnesotans will be watching the Twins in the sunlight, in a beautiful little bandbox of a new ballpark

We have a good guy in the White House, a smart man of judicious temperament and profound ideals, a man with a sweet private life, a man of dignity and good humor, whose enemies, waving their hairy arms and legs, woofing, yelling absurdities, only make him look taller. Washington, being a company town, feasts on gossip, but I think the Democratic Party, skittish as it is, full of happy blather, somehow has brought forth a champion. This should please anyone who loves this country, and as for the others, let them chew on carpets and get what nourishment they can. End of sermonette.

The beauty part of my week (not that you asked) was a visit to the warehouse district north of downtown Minneapolis where, in my boyhood, I used to ride my bike past printing plants and barrelworks, small factories, a slaughterhouse, lumberyards, auto salvage yards, fascinated by the sight of men at work, and where, now, a new ballpark has arisen where, on April 12, though we are still knee-deep in snow, the Minnesota Twins will open the 2010 campaign, against the mighty Red Sox and their nation.

Full Story: Play ball! – Baseball – Salon.com.

Nissan Recall 2010: 540K Vehicles Recalled Over Brake Pedal Problems

Despite no reported accidents or injuries, here's everything you need to know about the big Nissan recall announced today.

540,000 cars have been recalled by Nissan Motor over faulty brake pedal issues that may also affect the fuel gauge.

As the AFP reports this morning, the recall covers “the Titan, Armada and Infiniti QX56 built from 2005 to 2008, and the Frontier, Pathfinder and Xterra produced between January and March 2006 and between October 2007 and January 2008.” The brake pedals could have faulty components that can cause the pedals to wobble, AFP reported.

Full Story: Nissan Recall 2010: 540K Vehicles Recalled Over Brake Pedal Problems.

OPS: Could all of this Recalling be due to lack of oversight? Deregulation? Conservative Ideology?

Child Directs Airplane Traffic At JFK, FAA Investigates (AUDIO)

An audio clip has been released with the distinct voice of a young child directing air traffic over one of the nation’s busiest airports.

Officials at the Federal Aviation Administration and a union representing air traffic controllers at John F. Kennedy International Airport may have mouthed the legendary words of Ted Striker.

Surely you can’t be serious.

Both released statements to My Fox Boston condemning the behavior and indicating that the employees involved are no longer controlling air traffic pending the outcome of an investigation. FAA officials have confirmed the authenticity of the audio to the station. The child apparently made five transmissions.

Full Story: Child Directs Airplane Traffic At JFK, FAA Investigates (AUDIO).

Tangled Up in Yoo

Margaret Flowers singing a song by David Swanson based on Bob Dylan’s “Tangled Up in Blue.” Protest John Yoo

Shoveling Shit in Lousiana?

Len Hart -

The mantra du jour is that Obama hasn’t undone ‘Bush’. Ergo, Obama is just as evil as is Bush, or Bush Sr, or Ronald Reagan. Not so and not possible! It’s a false analogy that misses the point; it is strategy designed to deflect attention from the endemic corruption of the right wing party –the GOP; It is a false analogy that might have been tested in a focus group on K-Street. It has certainly caught on as do many another ‘successful’ mantra, slogan, or buzzword. And just as worthless!

One of my recent critics had clearly caught the ‘but Obama is just as bad as Bush’ virus and posted the following comment:

I used to really enjoy your blog when W was in the White house – most of your commentary was spot on (except for the part about Bush being an idiot – I don’t give damn who his father is, the USAF does NOT let morons fly jet fighter planes)

Flying an airplane is not evidence of political genius. I have known lots of pilots and would not trust one of them to run the nation, supervise a federal budget or negotiate a peace with a nuclear power.

Full Story: The Existentialist Cowboy: Shoveling Shit in Lousiana?.

U.S. Secret Service Using Outdated Computer Mainframe System from the 1980s

System Is ‘Fragile’ and Cannot Sustain Tempo of Current or Future Operational Missions

A classified review of the United States Secret Service‘s computer technology found that the agency’s computers were fully operational only 60 percent of the time because of outdated systems and a reliance on a computer mainframe that dates to the 1980s, according to Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.

“We have here a premiere law enforcement organization in our country which is responsible for the security of the president and the vice president and other officials of our government, and they have to have better IT than they have,” said Lieberman, who is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

Sources tell ABC News that the Secret Service was so plagued by computer problems that the agency invited the National Security Agency to formally review its information technology systems. The Secret Service’s databases are outdated and users are at times unable to conduct searches from one system to another.

Full Story: U.S. Secret Service Using Outdated Computer Mainframe System from the 1980s – ABC News.

Ayn Rand, Hugely Popular Author and Inspiration to Right-Wing Leaders, Was a Big Admirer of Serial Killer

Her works treated as gospel by right-wing powerhouses like Alan Greenspan and Clarence Thomas, Ayn Rand found early inspiration 1920s murderer William Hickman.

There’s something deeply unsettling about living in a country where millions of people froth at the mouth at the idea of giving health care to the tens of millions of Americans who don’t have it, or who take pleasure at the thought of privatizing and slashing bedrock social programs like Social Security or Medicare. It might not be as hard to stomach if other Western countries also had a large, vocal chunk of the population who thought like this, but the US is seemingly the only place where right-wing elites can openly share their distaste for the working poor. Where do they find their philosophical justification for this kind of attitude?

It turns out, you can trace much of this thinking back to Ayn Rand, a popular cult-philosopher who exerts a huge influence over much of the right-wing and libertarian crowd, but whose influence is only starting to spread out of the US.

One reason why most countries don’t find the time to embrace her thinking is that Ayn Rand is a textbook sociopath. Literally a sociopath: Ayn Rand, in her notebooks, worshiped a notorious serial murderer-dismemberer, and used this killer as an early model for the type of “ideal man” that Rand promoted in her more famous books — ideas which were later picked up on and put into play by major right-wing figures of the past half decade, including the key architects of America’s most recent economic catastrophe — former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan and SEC Commissioner Chris Cox — along with other notable right-wing Republicans such as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Rush Limbaugh, and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.

Full Story: Ayn Rand, Hugely Popular Author and Inspiration to Right-Wing Leaders, Was a Big Admirer of Serial Killer | Books | AlterNet.

Madoff Whistleblower Book: Claims He Uncovered State Street Fraud, Thought About Killing Madoff

In an explosive new book, Bernie Madoff whistleblower Harry Markopolos tells the inside story of how he uncovered the $65 billion fraud, claims that he exposed State Street’s alleged fraud of pension funds and admits that he considered the idea of killing Madoff if he was ever threatened by the Ponzi schemer.

The mild-mannered fraud investigator’s new book, “No One Would Listen”, is set for release next week, with a foreword by short-seller and Greenlight Capital president David Einhorn who calls Markopolos a “hero.”

Super-Whistleblower’s Other Cases

Or you can just call Markopolos the super-whistleblower. Among the revelations in the book, he writes that the Madoff case is just the tip of the iceberg of his multiple probes of financial shenanigans:

Full Story: Madoff Whistleblower Book: Claims He Uncovered State Street Fraud, Thought About Killing Madoff.

Toyota recall pact with NY sought by other states

Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc agreed on Wednesday to take steps to help inconvenienced owners of more than 500,000 recalled vehicles in New York state, prompting other states to seek similar deals.

Under a program announced by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the U.S. arm of Toyota Motor Corp promised expedited repairs and other “special accommodations” to New York residents who bought Toyota vehicles from dealers in that state.

Toyota agreed to pick up and return vehicles slated for repair, provide alternative transportation such as rental cars or taxi reimbursement while owners are “unable or unwilling” to use their vehicles, and arrange for the transport of owners to their dealerships or workplaces, Cuomo said.

The special assistance package, to be provided at no cost to vehicle owners or dealers, was unveiled as Toyota President Akio Toyoda prepared to testify before the U.S. Congress.

Full Story: Toyota recall pact with NY sought by other states | Reuters.

Stand By Me

fantastic music video of street musicians from all over the world.

Recall may not solve problem, Toyota executive tells Congress

Toyota’s top U.S. executive insisted to lawmakers on Tuesday that electronic problems weren’t the cause of sudden acceleration problems in some of its cars, but added that the company’s recall of millions of vehicles may not “totally solve” the problem.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood testified, however, that the possibility of an electronic problem couldn’t be ruled out.

At a hearing mixed with harrowing personal testimony and precise technical explanations, James Lentz, the president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., admitted to a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee that the Japanese automaker hasn’t “lived up to the high standards that our customers and the public have come to expect from Toyota.

Full Story: Recall may not solve problem, Toyota executive tells Congress | McClatchy.

Wake Up America: The Looming Threat of Terrorists in Small Aircraft… and Cars

David Lindorff -

The deliberate suicide crash bombing by a domestic terrorist pilot of a small plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas has exposed a grave failure of the Homeland Security Department to protect us Americans from the threat posed by the virtually unregulated use in this country of small aircraft.

Just about anyone can own and fly a small plane, and these, as we have now seen, are readily adaptable into kamikazi missiles capable of destroying large buildings.

If Homeland Security won’t act, then it is up to Congress to move quickly to tighten up security and control over small planes. We need to insist that anyone seeking a pilot’s license first submit to a full screening by the FBI. No one with a criminal record of any kind should be permited to fly or ride in a small plane. The same should be true with regard to all foreigners. Since it’s not possible to do a full check of the background of persons from other countries, only US citizens should be able to obtain and fly small aircraft within US airspace.

All civil air pilots and their passengers should be required to pass through meal detectors before entering an airfield. We don’t want them carrying hand grenades or other weapons onto their planes. Planes should also be subject to full searches by specially trained government inspectors before takeoff to be sure they have not been packed with explosives.

Full Story Wake Up America: The Looming Threat of Terrorists in Small Aircraft… and Cars | CommonDreams.org.

OPS:  So now we have to take away guns a Civilian aircraft and …… cars.   It’s only ‘logical’  

PS: Don’t forget that bicycles have been used also. Better get them while were at it

Toyota probes Corolla steering, considers recall

Toyota is considering a recall of its hot-selling Corolla subcompact after complaints about power steering problems — another blow to the world’s largest automaker already reeling from a string of recalls for safety troubles.

Despite pressure from some lawmakers, President Akio Toyoda said he won’t be attending the U.S. congressional hearing on the automaker’s quality lapses, entrusting the job to U.S.-based executives — though would consider an appearance if the committee requests it. He said he wanted to focus on improving quality worldwide.

“I trust that our officials in the U.S. will amply answer the questions,” Toyoda said Wednesday in his third news conference in two weeks. “We are sending the best people to the hearing, and I hope to back up the efforts from headquarters.”

Full Story Toyota probes Corolla steering, considers recall – Yahoo! News.

Sink the Bismarck!: Brewery Releases World’s Strongest Beer At 41% ABV

The flamboyantly competitive Scottish brewery BrewDog has released Sink the Bismarck!, a “quadruple IPA” that they say is the most alcoholic in the world at 41%. BrewDog had previously earned similar attention last year with their then-record-setting 32% ABV beer, Tactical Nuclear Penguin, but rival brewery Schorschbrau just weeks ago (briefly) reclaimed the beer potency title with their Schorschbock, at 40% ABV, prompting Brewdog’s latest counterattack.

Sink the Bismarck!’s 41% ABV renders it more alcoholic than whiskey or vodka. BrewDog has preempted the expected accusations of irresponsibility from British alcohol awareness groups, and explains that the beer should be consumed responsibly, “in spirit-sized measures.”

Full Story Sink the Bismarck!: Brewery Releases World’s Strongest Beer At 41% ABV.

Pregnant Woman, Husband Kicked Off Spirit Airlines Flight For Asking For Water

It’s not just famous directors who are getting kicked off planes for bizarre reasons.

A New York doctor claims that he was booted from a Spirit Airlines flight for asking for water for his pregnant wife on Sunday.

Mitchell Roslin, the Chief of Obesity Surgery at Manhattan’s Lenox Hill Hospital, says that after being grounded at LaGuardia Airport for two hours in a hot plane his attempts to get water for his 7-month pregnant wife were repeatedly refused.

Roslin informed the New York Post that flight attendants told him that it was “against corporate policy” to give him water before the plane was in the air.

Full Story Pregnant Woman, Husband Kicked Off Spirit Airlines Flight For Asking For Water.

Black Caucus Foundation Spent More On Catering Than Scholarships

When the Congressional Black Caucus wanted to pay off the mortgage on its foundation’s stately 1930s redbrick headquarters on Embassy Row, it turned to a familiar roster of friends: corporate backers like Wal-Mart, AT&T, General Motors, Coca-Cola and Altria, the nation’s largest tobacco company.

Soon enough, in 2008, a jazz band was playing at what amounted to a mortgage-burning party for the $4 million town house.

Most political groups in Washington would have been barred by law from accepting that kind of direct aid from corporations. But by taking advantage of political finance laws, the caucus has built a fund-raising juggernaut unlike anything else in town.

Full Story In Black Caucus, a Fund-Raising Powerhouse – NYTimes.com.

The Mysterious Death of Bush’s Cyber-Guru

Shortly before six o’clock on the evening of December 19, 2008, a man standing outside his home in Lake Township, Ohio heard the whine of an engine in the sky above him.

Moments later two red lights broke through the low clouds, heading almost directly toward the ground. It was a light aircraft, and for a second, as it descended below the tree line, the man thought it would climb back up. Instead, there was a terrible thud, and the sky turned orange. When the fire crews arrived, they found the burning wreckage of a Piper Saratoga strewn across a vacant lot. The plane had narrowly missed a house, but the explosion was so intense that the home’s plastic siding was on fire. So was the grass. The pilot had been thrown from the plane and died instantly. Body parts and pieces of twisted metal were scattered everywhere. A prayer book lay open on the ground, its pages on fire.

The crash would have remained a private tragedy confined to the pages of the local press and the hearts of the pilot’s widow and four children, but within days the blogosphere was abuzz with rumors and conspiracy theories: The plane, it was said, had been sabotaged and the pilot murdered to cover up the GOP’s alleged theft of the Ohio vote in the 2004 presidential election. At the center of this plot was the Saratoga’s pilot, a prodigiously gifted IT expert named Michael Connell, whose altar boy charm and technical brilliance had made him the computer whiz of choice for the Republican Party. Left-wing Web sites openly referred to Connell as “Bush’s vote rigger” and claimed that his fingerprints were on all the most controversial elections in recent history. There were dark whispers of electronic pulses or sniper fire being used to bring down the plane—a black ops attack designed to keep him from testifying against his former cronies. Right-wing bloggers and talk show hosts derided such claims as the twisted delusions of liberal nut jobs and tinfoil hatters. The mainstream press sat on its hands.

But while the rumors, innuendos, and allegations continue to swirl through the ether, evidence has recently emerged that suggests the Ohio vote may have been hacked, and that Connell was involved.

Born in 1963 in Peoria, Illinois into a large Irish-American family, Michael Connell was a lifelong Republican and a devout Roman Catholic who went to Mass every day and wore a wristband saying what would jesus do? What Connell did was realize the potential of the Internet to shape politics. While still in his 20s, he worked as finance director for Republican Congressman Jim Leach, and as director of voter programs for Senator Dan Coats of Indiana. In 1988 Connell developed a voter contact database for George H. W. Bush, thus inaugurating a long association with the Bush family: Connell worked on Jeb’s gubernatorial campaign in Florida in 1998; two years later he was the chief architect of George W. Bush’s Web site as Dubya launched his bid for the White House.

But it was while serving as tech guru to Karl Rove that Connell developed his deepest and perhaps most problematic professional relationship. Recruited in the late ’80s, Connell became Rove’s most trusted cyberlieutenant: a Web wizard who could turn portals into power and who would gain access to the very heights of American politics by the time he reached 30 years old. Connell’s two Ohio-based companies, New Media Communications and GovTech, became virtual research and development labs for the Republican Party, building and managing Web sites and e-mail accounts for both Presidents Bush and a long list of leading Republicans. GovTech also designed and managed numerous Congressional IT systems, including those for the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees, putting Connell “behind 
the fire wall” of some of the most sensitive gov–ernment Web sites from the safety of the Bush White House.

“Mike was known as the GOP’s Mister Fix-It,” says Stephen Spoonamore, an IT security expert and friend of Connell’s. “He built really intelligent tools that allowed people who wanted to win elections do a better job organizing their data.” But aside from his more legitimate business, Connell was no stranger to the darker side of American politics. He was forced to resign from Senator Coats’ campaign for his involvement in ethical violations. Connell’s was also the hand behind the Web site for the notorious Swift Boat Veterans’ for Truth smear campaign against John Kerry and GWB43.com, the secret e-mail account used by Rove and dozens of other White House staffers.

Full Story The Mysterious Death of Bush’s Cyber-Guru | Maxim.com.

Ambassador Discovers Bride Is Bearded, Cross-Eyed Behind Veil

An Arab ambassador in Dubai has had his marriage annulled after discovering that his bride, behind her veil, was bearded and cross-eyed.

The couple had only met a few times during their courtship. Each of these times the woman had worn a niqab, an Islamic veil that covers most of the face.

After the marriage contract was signed in Dubai, the ambassador tried to kiss his new wife. However, as he removed the veil, he was shocked at what he saw.

“He was absolutely horrified,” a guest said. “The bride had a nice personality, but there was a good reason why she was hiding her looks behind a veil.”

Full Story Ambassador Discovers Bride Is Bearded, Cross-Eyed Behind Veil.

Toyota Prius Recall 2010: Company Begins Worldwide Brake Recall On Flagship Hybrid

Toyota is recalling 437,000 Prius and other hybrid vehicles worldwide to fix brake problems – the latest embarrassing safety lapse at the world’s largest automaker.

“I don’t see Toyota as an infallible company that never makes mistakes,” President Akio Toyoda said at a news conference Tuesday. “We will face up to the facts and correct the problem, putting customers’ safety and convenience first.”

The number of vehicles recalled globally by Toyota Motor Corp. now has ballooned to 8.5 million, including for floor mats that can trap gas pedals and faulty gas pedals that are slow to return to the idle position. The 2010 model of the Prius – the world’s top-selling hybrid and Japan’s top-selling car – wasn’t part of the earlier recalls.

There have been about 200 complaints in Japan and the U.S. about a delay when the brakes in the Prius were pressed in cold conditions and on some bumpy roads. The delay doesn’t indicate a brake failure. The company says the problem can be fixed in 40 minutes with new software that oversees the controls of the antilock brakes.

“Let me assure everyone that we will redouble our commitment to quality as the lifeline of our company,” Toyoda said.

Full Story Toyota Prius Recall 2010: Company Begins Worldwide Brake Recall On Flagship Hybrid.

13 Things NOT To Get Your Valentine This Year (PHOTOS)

Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to let someone know how much they mean to you, but definitely don’t do it with any of these terrible gifts. It’s not that someone wouldn’t be thrilled to receive a heart-shaped pizza, candy bra or coupon for a free back-rub, but when given on February 14th they send a message about your relationship, and trust us, it’s not a good one. Oh, and if you’ve already bought your sweetie one of these disasters, don’t worry. You’ve got almost a week to ditch the duct-tape roses and get some real ones.

Full Story 13 Things NOT To Get Your Valentine This Year (PHOTOS).

Mildred’s Temple Kitchen, Canadian Restaurant, Encourages Customers To Have Sex In Its Bathrooms

Visitors to Mildred’s Temple Kitchen, a restaurant in Toronto, Canada, are invited to spice up their love life this Valentine’s Day with a trip to the bathroom.

“Have you given any thought to moving beyond the bedroom?” patrons were asked in a not-too-subtle promotional e-mail.

The individual bathrooms will be open for sexual escapades from the 12-15th February. According to the manager, Rory Gallagher, a french maid will be working the toilets, making sure everything is “going smoothly and kept clean.”

“We’ve always had little trysts in our bathrooms,” co-owner Donna Dooher told The Toronto Star. “We’re taking it to the next level on Valentine’s weekend.” She added that customers are expected to bring their own condoms.

Full Story Mildred’s Temple Kitchen, Canadian Restaurant, Encourages Customers To Have Sex In Its Bathrooms.

OPS: THE spot for a Nooner

Comcast unveils new brand name and logo

Comcast Corp. said yesterday that it would re-brand its TV, Internet, and telephone services as Xfinity on Feb. 12 to signal to customers that this isn’t the same old company.

Comcast will remain as the corporate name, but the company will emphasize Xfinity in advertisements and on 24,000 service trucks and thousands of employee uniforms.

The new brand name will first appear in Comcast ads, around the time of the Winter Olympics, in Philadelphia and 10 other markets and will then appear in Comcast’s cable-franchise areas in other parts of the country.

Full Story Comcast unveils new brand name and logo | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/04/2010.

An Empire At Risk

The nation which survived the Cold War and rallied after 9/11 may have its global power greatly eradicated by this fiscal crisis

Economic historian Niall Ferguson, writing for Newsweek, believes that the United States may be entering an unprecedented period in its history. After successfully surviving the best that the 20th century had to throw at it, it may be undone from within by its own largesse and mismanagement.

The nation which survived the Cold War and rallied after 9/11 may have its global power greatly eradicated by this fiscal crisis.

During the past generation, the U.S. has built itself up as the preeminent world power. In terms of military, economic, and diplomatic power the U.S. reigned supreme. Now however, those positions are being challenged from within.

Full Story An Empire At Risk | Economy In Crisis.

Surgically Implanted Bombs: The Next Terror Threat? (VIDEO)

British military intelligence agency MI5 has uncovered evidence that terrorist groups have begun planning attacks with bombs surgically implanted inside a human body.

The bombs would be surgically implanted into men’s buttocks and women’s breasts, and could evade traditional airport security. According to The Daily Mail, MI5 became aware of the threat due to chatter on ‘Arab websites’ earlier this year.

he Daily Mail article reports:

Experts said the explosive PETN (Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate) would be placed in a plastic sachet inside the bomber’s body before the wound was stitched up like a normal operation incision and allowed to heal.

Full Story Surgically Implanted Bombs: The Next Terror Threat? (VIDEO).

Early draft of the Constitution found in Phila.

Researcher Lorianne Updike Toler was intrigued by the centuries-old document at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

On the back of a treasured draft of the U.S. Constitution was a truncated version of the same document, starting with the familiar words: “We The People. . . .”

They had been scribbled upside down by one of the Constitution’s framers, James Wilson, in the summer of 1787. The cursive continued, then abruptly stopped, as if pages were missing.

A mystery, Toler thought, until she examined other Wilson papers from the Historical Society’s vault in Philadelphia and found what appeared to be the rest of the draft, titled “The Continuation of the Scheme.”

Full Story Early draft of the Constitution found in Phila. | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/02/2010.

Family link is found between Obama and Scott Brown

The president and the Massachusetts Republican senator-elect are 10th cousins, according to genealogy experts.

Reporting from Washington – President Obama has found another long-lost cousin: Scott Brown, the Republican state senator from Massachusetts who won the Senate seat long held by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

The president and the senator-elect are 10th cousins, according to the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

Brown’s victory Jan. 19 over Democratic candidate Martha Coakley cost the Democrats their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and may have jeopardized passage of Obama’s top legislative priority — a healthcare overhaul.

Full Story Family link is found between Obama and Scott Brown – latimes.com.

Anti-Israelism: Why Zionism Doesn’t and Can’t Get It

There is no doubt it. More and more people all over the world, and probably many of their governments behind closed doors, are beginning to see the Zionist state of Israel for what it really is – not only the obstacle to peace but a monster1 apparently beyond control; and they, more and more so-called ordinary folk everywhere, are beginning to turn against it.

That explains why Prime Minister Netanyahu is leading Zionism’s hysterical call for the world to stop demonizing Israel.

At the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem on 25 January, he said: “There is evil in the world, and it doesn’t stop, it spreads. There is a new call to destroy the Jewish state. It’s our problem but not only our problem. This (the re-emergence and growth of anti-Semitism according to Netanyahu) is a crime against the Jews, and a crime against humanity, and it is a test of humanity.”

Full Story Dissident Voice : Anti-Israelism: Why Zionism Doesn’t and Can’t Get It.

A Memory of Howard Zinn

Daniel Ellsberg -

I just learned that my friend Howard Zinn died today. Earlier this morning, I was being interviewed by the Boston Phoenix, in connection with the release in Boston in February of a documentary in which he is featured prominently. The interviewer asked me who my own heroes were, and I had no hesitation in answering, first, “Howard Zinn.”

Just weeks ago after watching the film on December 7, I woke up the next morning thinking that I had never told him how much he meant to me. For once in my life, I acted on that thought in a timely way. I sent him an e-mail in which I said, among other things, what I had often told others about him: that he was,” in my opinion, the best human being I’ve ever known. The best example of what a human can be, and can do with their life.”

Our first meeting was at Faneuil Hall in Boston in early 1971, where we both spoke against the indictments of Eqbal Ahmad and Phil Berrigan for “conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger,” from which we marched with the rest of the crowd to make Citizens’ Arrests at the Boston office of the FBI. Later that spring we went with our affinity group (including Noam Chomsky, Cindy Fredericks, Marilyn Young, Mark Ptashne, Zelda Gamson, Fred Branfman and Mitch Goodman), to the Mayday actions blocking traffic in Washington (“If they won’t stop the war, we’ll stop the government”). Howard tells that story in the film and I tell it at greater length in my memoir, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers (pp.376-81). But for reasons of space, I had to cut out the next section in which Howard–who had been arrested in DC after most of the rest of us had gone elsewhere–came back to Boston for a rally and a blockade of the Federal Building. I’ve never published that story, so here it is, an out-take from my manuscript:

Full Story A Memory of Howard | CommonDreams.org.

Max Keiser – Geithner and Obama’s Lies are Collusion

U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner comes under fire again. That’s one of the focus in the latest edition of the RT’s Keiser Report.

Obama and Volcker Must Go After the Big Banks

Nomi Prins -

Thus far, President Obama’s financial reform strategy has reeked of political expediency—talk tough to Wall Street, act gentle, ride out the populist anti-banker tide, hope for the best, change nothing. But Obama may have awakened to the smell of one-term coffee after last week’s Massachusetts Senate race results. It’s certainly heartening to see Obama eschewing the advice of Wall Street-placating Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for that of the sager, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. Nevertheless, demonstrating the serious financial reform behind the political fluff talk will take more than a stint of administrative realignment.

Big bank stocks tanked after Obama rolled out the new Volcker rule, and mainstream media headlines attributed the declines to investor concerns that the crazy days of unregulated bank trading will be coming to an end. But the President’s actual proposals were not enough to seriously rattle anyone on Wall Street. If anything, the banks were fretting over the prospect of losing the tag-team of Geithner and Fed Chief Ben Bernanke, whose joint brainpower has showered $6.4 trillion in subsidies upon the industry.

Full Story Obama and Volcker Must Go After the Big Banks | Economy | AlterNet.

Details of Iraq whistleblower’s alleged suicide to be sealed 70 years

By 2080, anyone with a direct interest in learning how Dr. David Kelly died, will themselves be dead.

That’s how an Oxford coroner reacted to a recent ruling ordering the details of the former United Nations weapons inspector’s death locked away for 70 years, according to a Mail Online report.

Kelly’s story, however, was gravely important in 2003, just before he was found dead in the woods behind his home in Oxfordshire, U.K. As the BBC revealed in the wake of his passing, he had been the key source behind a story claiming intelligence on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction was “sexed up.”

Hours before his death, he reportedly e-mailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller, warning her of “many dark actors playing games,” according to the BBC.

Full Story Details of Iraq whistleblower’s alleged suicide to be sealed 70 years | Raw Story.

OP:S doesn’t something like that usually mean that someone in the government was involved?

Electronic Passports May Make Traveling Americans Targets, Critics Say – PC World

A State Department plan to introduce electronic passports this summer has raised concern among a number of observers that, in an attempt to help protect Americans at home, the government could put U.S. travelers abroad at risk from terrorists and thieves.

Some privacy advocates and travel groups charge that a remotely readable chip in the passports, which the State Department intends to begin issuing after a roll-out to government employees in August, could be scanned by criminals or terrorists out to target Americans.

Under current plans, the chip, called a radio-frequency ID or RFID chip, will contain the same identifying information as is printed in the passport–name, passport number, birthday, and place of birth. The data will be unencrypted, and will also include a digital picture for use with facial recognition technology.

Full Story Electronic Passports May Make Traveling Americans Targets, Critics Say – PC World.

OPS: be aware that these remotely accessible personal  data transmitters are showing up in all kinds of places

“Hope” Has Been a Bust, It’s Time for Hope 2.0

Arianna Huffington:

On the eve of the first anniversary of President Obama’s inauguration, it’s become painfully obvious that elected officials are not going to save us. The 2008 election was all about “Hope.” But Hope is simply not cutting it.

What we need is Hope 2.0: the realization that our system is too broken to be fixed by politicians, however well intentioned — that change is going to have to come from outside Washington.

This realization is especially resonant as we celebrate Dr. King, whose life and work demonstrate the vital importance of social movements in bringing about change. Indeed, King showed that no real change can be accomplished without a movement demanding it.

As Frederick Douglass put it: “Power never concedes anything without a demand; it never has and it never will.”

Full Story Arianna Huffington: “Hope” Has Been a Bust, It’s Time for Hope 2.0.

Tony Blair: ‘Find me some obviously sick children’

Downing Street officials were ordered to round up ‘obviously sick children’ for a photo call on a hospital visit by Tony Blair during the 2001 General Election.

Labour Party general secretary Peter Watt tells how he prepared for the visit to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn, Norfolk.

‘En route I got a call from one of the PM’s team asking if I could make sure that there were half a dozen “obviously sick” children for Tony to meet,’ he says. ‘I spent several hours scouring hospital wards for poorly looking kids … and had them in position seconds before Tony turned up.’

Full Story Tony Blair: ‘Find me some obviously sick children’ | Mail Online.

Scott Ritter Charged In Child-Sex Sting

A longtime U.N. weapons inspector who blamed a 2001 sex-sting arrest on his criticism of the Iraq war has again been charged in an online child-sex case, and this time he was caught on camera.

Scott Ritter, 48, of Delmar, N.Y., engaged in a sexually graphic online chat with an undercover police officer posing as a 15-year-old girl nearly a year ago, police in northeastern Pennsylvania said. He then turned on a webcam and masturbated on camera, they charged.

Monroe County authorities traced the exchange to Ritter through a cell phone number he provided, and confirmed the match through photographs, according to a police affidavit. Charges were filed in November and the Pocono Record revealed Ritter's involvement on Thursday.

Full Story Scott Ritter Charged In Child-Sex Sting.

Nine Vermont state office candidates favor secession

Peter Garritano thinks it’s time for Vermont to call it quits with America.

The way the 54-year-old automobile salesman sees it, the “empire” is about to implode and tiny Vermont can lead the way by becoming its own independent republic. So he’s running for lieutenant governor, topping a slate of secession-minded candidates seeking statewide offices this year.

Their name: Vermont Independence Day.

“The only hope is to just say, ‘Look, this isn’t working for us. We want to start fresh again, with a real democracy,’” Garritano said. “I think that’s the answer. Hopefully, it won’t take another horrible economic breakdown to realize that the people running things don’t look out for the little guy, or us, or the soldiers. It’s all about profit and getting the last drops of oil on Earth and trampling people’s rights.”

Full Story Nine Vermont state office candidates favor secession | Raw Story.

OPS: can’t wait to hear what Bernie Sanders has to say about this on Thom Hartmann’s show – Friday

Amish families exempt from insurance mandate

Federal health care reform will require most Northern New Yorkers — but not all, it turns out — to carry health insurance or risk a fine.

Hundreds of Amish families in the region are likely to be free from that requirement.

The Amish, as well as some other religious sects, are covered by a “religious conscience” exemption, which allows people with religious objections to insurance to opt out of the mandate. It is in both the House and Senate versions of the bill, making its appearance in the final version routine unless there are last-minute objections.

Full Story Watertown Daily Times | Amish families exempt from insurance mandate.

Daniel Ellsberg: Obama, The Con Man

An Audio interview:

Dan Ellsberg provides us with his analysis of Barack Obama’s presidency, shares with us what led him to cast his vote for Obama, and how and why he’s been let down and betrayed by our current president. He discusses the stark similarities between the previous administration and Obama’s Whitehouse on issues and abuses related to civil liberties, and questions the possibility of ‘hoping’ again. Mr. Ellsberg talks about his experience as a whistleblower, the futility of disclosure to Congress then and today, the current sorry state of the US media, and more!

Ellsberg Dan Ellsberg graduated from Harvard in economics in 1952, served in the US Marine Corps from 1954-57, and obtained a PhD in economics from Harvard while working for the Rand Corporation in 1962. In 1964 he joined the Defense Department to work principally on decision-making in the Vietnam War. Mr. Ellsberg precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a Top-Secret Pentagon study of US government decision-making about the Vietnam War, to the New York Times and other publications. Ellsberg has ever since campaigned for peace and encouraged others to speak truth to power.

Here is our guest Dan Ellsberg unplugged!

Full Story Sibel Edmonds’ Boiling Frogs Post | Home of the Irate Minority.

Modern Money Mechanics

A Workbook on Bank Reserves and Deposit Expansion

The purpose of this booklet is to describe the basic process of money creation in a “fractional reserve” banking system.

This complete booklet is was originally produced and distributed free by: Public Information Center Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

Introduction
The purpose of this booklet is to describe the basic process of money creation in a “fractional reserve” banking system. The approach taken illustrates the changes in bank balance sheets that occur when deposits in banks change as a result of monetary action by the Federal Reserve System – the central bank of the United States. The relationships shown are based on simplifying assumptions. For the sake of simplicity, the relationships are shown as if they were mechanical, but they are not, as is described later in the booklet. Thus, they should not be interpreted to imply a close and predictable relationship between a specific central bank transaction and the quantity of money.
The introductory pages contain a brief general description of the characteristics of money and how the U.S. money system works. The illustrations in the following two sections describe two processes: first, how bank deposits expand or contract in response to changes in the amount of reserves supplied by the central bank; and second, how those reserves are affected by both Federal Reserve actions and other factors. A final section deals with some of the elements that modify, at least in the short run, the simple mechanical relationship between bank reserves and deposit money.
Money is such a routine part of everyday living that its existence and acceptance ordinarily are taken for granted. A user may sense that money must come into being either automatically as a result of economic activity or as an outgrowth of some government operation. But just how this happens all too often remains a mystery.
What is Money?
If money is viewed simply as a tool used to facilitate transactions, only those media that are readily accepted in exchange for goods, services, and other assets need to be considered. Many things – from stones to baseball cards – have served this monetary function through the ages. Today, in the United States, money used in transactions is mainly of three kinds – currency (paper money and coins in the pockets and purses of the public); demand deposits (non-interest bearing checking accounts in banks); and other checkable deposits, such as negotiable order of withdrawal (NOW) accounts, at all depository institutions, including commercial and savings banks, savings and loan associations, and credit unions. Travelers checks also are included in the definition of transactions money. Since $1 in currency and $1 in checkable deposits are freely
convertible into each other and both can be used directly for expenditures, they are money in equal degree. However, only the cash and balances held by the nonbank public are counted in the money supply. Deposits of the U.S. Treasury, depository institutions, foreign banks and official institutions, as well as vault cash in depository institutions are excluded

ModernMoneyMechanics.pdf (application/pdf Object).

Man arrested after attacking wife with meatloaf

When Lance David Ziegler was told Wednesday by his wife that she was leaving him, he picked up a meatloaf that was on the couple’s kitchen table and smeared it into her face, according to a Manatee County Sheriff’s Office report.

She called authorities and when deputies arrived, they found his wife’s face slightly red with a small amount of sauce on it.

Ziegler, 39, was arrested at the couple’s home in the 10300 block of Spoonbill Road West around 7:45 p.m. Wednesday and charged with domestic battery.

A web designer, he denied that he hit his wife. Bond was to be determined.

Full Story Man arrested after attacking wife with meatloaf | HeraldTribune.com | Sarasota Florida | Southwest Florida’s Information Leader.

NCTC director Michael Leiter remained on ski slopes after Christmas Day airline bombing attempt

The top official in charge of analyzing terror threats did not cut short his ski vacation after the underwear bomber nearly blew up an airliner on Christmas Day, the Daily News has learned.

Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center since 2007, decided not to return to his agency’s “bat cave” nerve center in McLean, Va., until several days after Christmas, two U.S. officials said.

“People have been grumbling that he didn’t let a little terrorism interrupt his vacation,” said one of the sources.

The NCTC, the post-9/11 clearinghouse for intelligence to detect terror plots against the U.S., is under intense scrutiny for failing to “connect the dots” on Nigerian bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Full Story NCTC director Michael Leiter remained on ski slopes after Christmas Day airline bombing attempt.

Why everyone misuses “not connecting the dots”

If there is one thing you can count of from the press and politicians its to use overworn phrases like they are trained parrots repeating what they heard without ever really understanding what they mean.. How many times have we heard politicians and hack journalists use the phrase, “Sooner rather than later” and “at the end of the day”.

But ever since Condoleeza’s Rice use of the term ” we couldn’t connect the dots” in response to why she and Bush didn’t prevent 911, the press and politicians have made that the cliche used the most while not one journalist or politician including the most recent user, President Obama, has ever understood for a minute what it really meant.

They use it as if its a term of art used to describe some kind breakdown in a complicated system of far flung and disparate pieces of information that prevented someone from taking action when in truth it means exactly the opposite.

All of the irrefutable evidence ( and it IS irrefutable) is that Bush, Rice and Cheney had more than enough information to have made decisions and taken action that would have easily prevented 911. In fact its safe to say that had anyone other than Bush been president, Democrat or Republican — Gore, Clinton, Powell, McCain — anyone — 911 would have been stopped in its tracks.

Full Story Why everyone misuses “not connecting the dots”.

Joan Rivers deemed a danger to national security, bumped off Costa Rica flight back to U.S.

The New York Daily News reports that comedian Joan Rivers was among the many travelers to get snared in the heightened-security frenzy that overtook airports after the December 25th failed terrorist attack. Rivers wasn’t allowed on her Newark-bound flight in Costa Rica this past weekend by a “jittery Continental Airlines gate agent” who thought the two names on her passport, which reads “Joan Rosenberg AKA Joan Rivers,” seemed “fishy.” Rivers wrote of her experience:

“If I were going to make up an alias, I wouldn’t pick Rosenberg. I’d pick Jolie or Pitt…Do terrorists wear Manolo Blahniks? I can tell you Donna Karan does not make anything that hides a bomb…I tried the tears; they didn’t work. I tried reasoning. I couldn’t bribe because I didn’t have any money. I said ‘I’m going to have a heart attack over this,’ so the woman called the paramedics.”

Full Story Think Progress » Joan Rivers deemed a danger to national security, bumped off Costa Rica flight back to U.S..

Who’s Writing The Intro To Cheney’s Book — Mephistopheles?

Rep. Grayson (D-FL)

Clinton Foundation Donor List: Includes Foreign Governments, Trump, Coke

Foreign countries including Norway and Oman contributed to former President Bill Clinton’s charity, and donors including Donald Trump, multinational soft drink company Coca-Cola and singer Elton John’s foundation also pitched in as Hillary Rodham Clinton served her first year as secretary of state.

A donor list released on New Year’s Day by the William J. Clinton Foundation shows that in all, Norway has given $10 million to $25 million to the charity since its founding roughly a decade ago. Oman gave $1 million to $5 million over the years. The list gave cumulative donation totals and didn’t say how much each contributor gave last year.

The foundation provided The Associated Press with a donor list Friday morning under the heading “William J. Clinton Foundation Publishes Names of 2009 Contributors on Foundation Website” but later said the disclosure, which included many more foreign governments, covered donors dating back to the charity’s inception, and that it wouldn’t identify who gave in 2009. The foundation changed course Friday afternoon and updated the list to specify 2009 donors.

Full Story Clinton Foundation Donor List: Includes Foreign Governments, Trump, Coke.

FALSE FLAG?:Who Was The Nice Indian Man Who Got Umar on the Plane with NO Passport?

Newport couple witnesses to airliner attack

Wayne Madsen posted this article at his website. The question is, who was the nice Indian man, Umar’s handler? Is this the first piece of witness evidence that we may have a False Flag Op, or has ‘al Qaeda’ recruited rich East Indians too? Another interesting piece of information: An Israeli firm is in charge of security at Schiphol Amsterdam airport. Israelis are supposed to be strict! Time to play detective folks.

Napolitano: Airline Security System ‘Did Not Work’

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano conceded Monday that the aviation security system failed when a young man on a watchlist with a U.S. visa in his pocket and a powerful explosive hidden on his body was allowed to board a fight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

The Obama administration has ordered investigations into the two areas of aviation security – how travelers are placed on watch lists and how passengers are screened – as critics questioned how the 23-year-old Nigerian man charged in the airliner attack was allowed to board the Dec. 25 flight.

A day after saying the system worked, Napolitano backtracked, saying her words had been taken out of context.

Full Story Napolitano: Airline Security System ‘Did Not Work’.

Tighter security on U.S.-bound travel

All passengers must be seated one hour before flights arrive

Extra pat-downs before boarding. No getting up for the last hour of the flight. More bomb-sniffing dogs. Airports worldwide tightened security a day after a passenger tried to light some kind of explosive on a flight into Detroit.

NBC News reports the new steps include:

• Pat downs of passengers at airport security, concentrating on the upper torso and legs;
• Physical inspections of all carry-on bags at the gate;
• Requiring all passengers to be seated for the full hour prior to arrival;
• Banning the use of blankets and pillows one hour prior to arrival.

Full Story Tighter security on U.S.-bound travel – Security- msnbc.com.

Whole Foods CEO to Give up Title of Chairman

Whole Foods CEO to give up chairman title after activist shareholder calls for his replacement

The chief executive of organic supermarket chain Whole Foods Market Inc. is giving up his title of chairman, following years of petitioning by an activist shareholder to separate the two roles.

Co-founder and CEO John Mackey is voluntarily giving up his chairmanship, a position he’s held since the Austin, Texas, company’s inception in 1978, according to a Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mackey will remain on the board.

Whole Foods said lead director John Elstrott will become chairman. His current position will be discontinued.

At Whole Foods’ annual shareholders meeting in March, CtW Investment Group, a shareholder activist group that works with union pension funds, unsuccessfully proposed that the CEO and chairman roles be separated. The grocer said it has been receiving these proposals for three years.

Full Story Whole Foods CEO to Give up Title of Chairman – ABC News.

Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican

By John Gray Cincinnati, Ohio

Joe gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure their safety and work as advertised.

All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employers medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance, now Joe gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs this day. Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

Joe takes his morning shower reaching for his shampoo; His bottle is properly labeled with every ingredient and the amount of its contents because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained. Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some tree hugging liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air. He walks to the subway station for his government subsidized ride to work; it saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees. You see, some liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day; he has a good job with excellent pay, medicals benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe’s employer pays these standards because Joe’s employer doesn’t want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed he’ll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some liberal didn’t think he should loose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

Its noon time, Joe needs to make a Bank Deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe’s deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some liberal wanted to protect Joe’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae underwritten Mortgage and his below market federal student loan because some stupid liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his life-time.

Joe is home from work, he plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive to dads; his car is among the safest in the world because some liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. He was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans. The house didn’t have electric until some big government liberal stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification. (Those rural Republican’s would still be sitting in the dark)

He is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His dad lives on Social Security and his union pension because some liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn’t have to. After his visit with dad he gets back in his car for the ride home.

He turns on a radio talk show, the host’s keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. (He doesn’t tell Joe that his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day)  Joe agrees, “We don’t need those big government liberals ruining our lives; after all, I’m a self made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have”.

By John Gray Cincinnati, Ohio -  jgray7@cinci.rr.com – Published July – 2004

Howard Dean Is a Genuine Hero: Taking on Corporate ‘Centrists’ Like Lieberman

Dean’s attacks on the Lieberman-gutted health insurance “reform” bill are creating the political space for the final version to be better and more progressive.

I want to take a moment just to recognize what has been recognized before, but needs to be recognized right here and now one more time: Howard Dean is a genuine hero.

In coming out against the Lieberman-gutted health insurance “reform” bill, Dean is leveraging every shred of power he can muster to create the political space for the final bill — whether passed now, or later after going back to the drawing board — to be better and more progressive. He has made a compelling case that the bill “would do more harm than good,” as he says in his Washington Post op-ed today — and in doing that he has made the power struggle between Joe Lieberman’s Palpatinian forces of insurance/drug industry darkness and the progressive movement far more symmetrical.

Before Dean’s move, the fight was asymmetrical, as Chris Hayes noted in my interview with him on my radio show yesterday. Before Dean’s move, Lieberman had the upper hand in that he was the only one who didn’t seem to care whether he alone killed the bill by joining with Republicans for a filibuster. Now, though, Dean has said to progressive members of Congress that they should be OK killing this bill if that’s what taking a stand for a better bill means. And you see some of them potentially starting to follow.

Full Story Howard Dean Is a Genuine Hero: Taking on Corporate ‘Centrists’ Like Lieberman | Politics | AlterNet.

Latino Group Invokes The Bible To Counter A Pastor’s Census Boycott Campaign, Encourage Participation

Earlier this year, the Rev. Miguel Rivera, chairman of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, began encouraging a full-out boycott of the U.S. Census on behalf of the Latino and immigrant community in protest of the failure to enact immigration reform. Rivera’s efforts have been widely perceived as damaging to the Latino and immigrant community he claims to be empowering. In response, the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) has started using the Bible to target religious Latinos with a different message: What would Jesus do?

NALEO is handing out posters that illustrate the arrival of Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem. NALEO explains that the Gospel of Luke indicates that the reason Jesus was born in Bethlehem is because Joseph and Mary were fulfilling their civic duty by returning to the town to be counted by the Roman census. A poster printed by NALEO reads: “This is how Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary participated in the Census.” Nick Kimball, spokesman at the Commerce Department (which oversees the Census Bureau), said that the government played no role in creating the posters.

Full Story Think Progress » Latino Group Invokes The Bible To Counter A Pastor’s Census Boycott Campaign, Encourage Participation.

Obama to investment guru Buffett: Hi cuz

U.S. President Barack Obama, who won political support and has sought advice from investment guru Warren Buffett, may now feel even closer to the world’s second richest man.

According to their family trees, the two men who at times shared the stage together during the 2008 presidential campaign are seventh cousins three times removed.

Genealogists at ancestry.com announced on Tuesday that Obama and Buffett are related through a 17th century Frenchman named Mareen Duvall.

According to the online genealogists, Duvall — who immigrated to Maryland from France in the 1650s — is Obama’s 9th great grandfather and Buffett’s 6th great grandfather.

The discovery was made by accident when the same team of genealogists who had researched Obama’s family tree went on to investigate details about Buffett’s relatives.

Full Story Obama to investment guru Buffett: Hi cuz – Yahoo! News.

Tucker Carlson: Was George W. Bush Preparing to Wage War on Space Aliens?

An excerpt from Tucker Carlson’s show:

And speaking of aliens, is President Bush preparing for intergalactic war with our comrades in outer space? Former Canadian defense minister and deputy prime minister, Paul Hellyer, says, “Oh, yes.” He‘ll join us in just a few minutes to explain.

But we start tonight with the new RNC ad that blasts Democrats for having a, quote, “retreat and defeat plan for Iraq.” It also includes recent comments about the war from some prominent Democrats.

The Situation with Tucker Carlson

VIDEO AT LINK

Full Story The Existentialist Cowboy: Tucker Carlson: Was George W. Bush Preparing to Wage War on Space Aliens?.

Taibbi vs. Obama | Mother Jones

Matt Taibbi’s long polemic about Barack Obama’s economic team in the current issue of Rolling Stone has attracted its share of both support and derision in the blogosphere over the past couple of days. Big surprise, eh? Digby rounds up some of the reaction here.

Well, after reading the piece this afternoon you can basically count me among the supporters. Is it over the top? Of course it is. Are there some matters of interpretation that I think Taibbi gets a bit wrong? Sure. For example: the conceit of the piece is that Obama chose to build his economic team around people who were acolytes of Bob Rubin, and this strikes me as misguided. Basically, Obama chose to build his economic team around mainstream Democratic economists with previous government experience, and virtually all of these guys have ties to each other and therefore to Rubin. That’s every bit as bad — maybe worse, in fact — but it changes the problem from one of personal influence to one of systemic influence. There’s a real difference there. What else? Taibbi spends a lot of time on Rubin pal Michael Froman, who led Obama’s search for an economic team during the transition, and this leads him to say that Tim Geithner was “hired to head the U.S. Treasury” by Froman. But that’s kind of silly. At the cabinet level, Obama didn’t need Froman’s advice. He chose Geithner all on his own. Taibbi also commits one of my pet peeves, suggesting that the bailout may eventually cost taxpayers $23 trillion. That’s ridiculous. He also fails to emphasize enough that virtually all of the bailout money was directed by the Fed and virtually all of it predates Obama’s presidency.

Full Story Taibbi vs. Obama | Mother Jones.

Michael Moore on Q TV: Capitalism and Democracy.

The director of ‘Capitalism; A Love Story’ sat down in Studio Q to talk about the film.

Full Story YouTube – Michael Moore on Q TV.

Obamania

Matt Taibbi

There is an important parallel between those who believe all criticism of Obama to be illegitimate and those on the Right who despise him without pause. The latter is every bit as personality-driven as the former: they despise Obama not for any specific policy decisions (often, those are aligned with their ostensible views), but because of personality caricatures they’ve adopted: he’s a narcissistic, vacant, Socialist Muslim and therefore nothing he does is right. That is simply the opposite side of the same coin as those who revere his personality and thus believe that nothing he does merits real criticism.

That’s unsurprising, given that many of the most vehement Obama-haters were the same ones who most loved Bush and now love Palin: this is all about cultural identification and personality admiration and has nothing to do with the factors that ought to be used to judge political leaders.

via Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.

I supported Barack Obama. I still do. If I had to vote tomorrow between Obama and Tim Pawlenty, or Sarah Palin, it wouldn’t be a choice that required a whole lot of thought. He’s done some good things. He’s restored some confidence in the United States among foreign leaders. We had something of a revolutionary regime for eight years under George Bush, and Obama has put the United States back into the club of rule-abiding nations, at least to some degree.

But I’m a little mystified by the letters I’m getting from people who suggest that being a supporter of a politician means that you should “give him a break” on this or that shortcoming, and behave more like a fan than a citizen. The above post by the always-intelligent Glenn Greenwald perfectly describes this mindset — he talks about this bizarre phenomenon of Obama fans threatening to “leave the left” because of criticism of Obama trickling up from those ranks. I was particularly struck by his analysis of the now-infamous video of Sarah Palin book-buyers explaining to a snarky interviewer how they support her despite the fact that they can’t really identify any of her positions. Greenwald notes the obvious parallel:

Full Story Obamania – Matt Taibbi – Taibblog – True/Slant.

Official: KGB chief ordered Hitler’s remains destroyed

The remains of Adolf Hitler were burned in 1970 by Soviet KGB agents and thrown into a river in Germany on direct orders from the spy agency’s chief, a top Russian security official said this week.

The head archivist of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) — the successor to the former Soviet Union’s KGB — confirmed for the first time the chain of events that led to the disposal of Hitler’s body, and who ordered the operation, in an exclusive interview with Russia’s Interfax news agency.

Gen. Vasily Khristoforov told Interfax in an interview published Monday that previously secret documents show that KGB chief Yuri Andropov, with prior consent from the Soviet Communist Party leadership, ordered a top secret operation to destroy the remains of Hitler, his wife Eva Braun, Nazi Germany’s propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels; and Goebbels’ entire family.

Full Story Official: KGB chief ordered Hitler’s remains destroyed – CNN.com.

Dodge Challenger Beats Toyota Prius in Consumer Reports!

Best and worst in new car owner satisfaction

Our readers love sporty cars, hybrids, and ones that are out of the mainstream. That’s the message from our most recent Annual Auto Survey, conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.

This year, the Dodge Challenger, a throwback, V8-powered muscle car, beat out the longstanding Toyota Prius hybrid as the most satisfying car among our readers. Ninety-two percent of Challenger owners said they would definitely buy another one given the same opportunity. That doesn’t mean hybrids have fallen far from grace, however. The second most satisfying car, with 91 percent of respondents saying they would definitely buy another, was the Ford Fusion Hybrid. More sports cars and hybrids round out the top group: the Chevrolet Corvette, Porsche 911, Toyota Prius, and all-wheel drive Acura TL.

Several other fuel-efficient small cars also earned outstanding satisfaction Ratings from their owners: The Volkswagen Jetta TDI (turbodiesel) sedan placed tenth in our rankings, the TDI wagon 13th, Honda Fit 21st, and the Mini Cooper hatchback 22nd.

Full Story Best and worst in new car owner satisfaction: Car owner, auto shopping.

A Fearful Price

Bob Herbert

I spoke recently with a student at Columbia who was enthusiastic about the escalation of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He argued that a full-blown counterinsurgency effort, which would likely take many years and cost many lives, was the only way to truly win the war.

He was a very bright young man: thoughtful and eager and polite. I asked him if he had any plans to join the military and help make this grand mission a success. He said no.

There was an article in The Times on Monday about a new study showing that the eight years of warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan were taking an emotional toll on the children of service members and that the difficulties increased the longer parents were deployed.

There is no way that the findings of this study should be a surprise to anyone. It just confirms that the children of those being sent into combat are among that tiny percentage of the population that is unfairly shouldering the entire burden of these wars.

Full Story Op-Ed Columnist – A Fearful Price – NYTimes.com.

Is Ayn Rand Bad for the Market?

Does Ayn Rand Hurt the Libertarian Cause?

Say what you will about Ayn Rand, but one thing is certain: She had no use for common niceties. A grimly precocious, friendless Rand declared her atheism at age 13. “Atlas Shrugged,” Rand’s secular sermon-as-novel, boils with revulsion toward the “looters” and “moochers” who consume public funds. Rand scornfully excommunicated followers who disagreed with her, and in 1964 she told Playboy that those who place friends and family first in life are “immoral” and “emotional parasites.”

Shoddy manners aside, 52 years after the release of “Atlas Shrugged,” Rand seems to be roaring back. Sales are surging—Brian Doherty, author of “Radicals for Capitalism” (2007), recently calculated that in one week in late August, “Atlas” sold “67 percent more copies than it did the same week a year before, and 114 percent more than that same week in 2007.” Two buzzed-about Rand biographies hit the shelves this fall, and an “Atlas” cable miniseries is reportedly in the works. Designer Ralph Lauren recently listed Rand as one of his favorite novelists, and CNBC host Rick Santelli, whose on-air antibailout rant inspired hundreds of “tea party” protests across the nation, admitted the same. “I know this may not sound very humanitarian,” he said, “but at the end of the day I’m an Ayn Rand-er.”

To many, it doesn’t sound humanitarian at all. To be an “Ayn Rand-er” sounds, as the New York Times recently put it, “angry” and “vulgar.” In its review of the new Rand biographies, the New Republic bemoaned the “cacophony of rage and dread” surrounding Rand’s acolytes. Even in Rand’s heyday, many conservatives shrank from what they saw as her toxic blend of atheism, absolutism and ruthless individualism. “William F. Buckley must be spinning in his grave to hear all this chatter about Rand,” says Jennifer Burns, the author of “Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right,” “because it was a goal of his to make Rand an untouchable.”

Full Story Does Ayn Rand Hurt the Libertarian Cause? – WSJ.com.

Soldiers On Acid: 1963 British VIDEO Shows Troops Under The Influence Of LSD

This is a must watch. Environmental Graffiti has a post up on the decades of experiments western armies undertook in an attempt to develop chemical warfare to render their enemies incapacitated: In short, armies gave their own soldiers LSD, and other psychedelic drugs, and studied the effects. The Nazis did it first, then Britain, and the U.S. and other countries followed suit.

The video below is from 1963 and shows British soldiers under the influence of LSD. From the narration:

“Fifty minutes after taking the drug, radio communication had become difficult, if not impossible. But the men are still capable of sustained physical effort; however, constructive action was still attempted by those retaining a sense of responsibility despite their physical symptoms. But one hour and ten minutes after taking the drug, with one man climbing a tree to feed the birds, the troop commander gave up, admitting that he could no longer control himself or his men. He himself then relapsed into laughter.”

Video at link

Full Story Soldiers On Acid: 1963 British VIDEO Shows Troops Under The Influence Of LSD.

An Open Letter to President Obama from Michael Moore

By Michael Moore

November 30, 2009

Dear President Obama,

Do you really want to be the new “war president”? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do — destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they’ve always heard is true — that all politicians are alike. I simply can’t believe you’re about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn’t so.

It is not your job to do what the generals tell you to do. We are a civilian-run government. WE tell the Joint Chiefs what to do, not the other way around. That’s the way General Washington insisted it must be. That’s what President Truman told General MacArthur when MacArthur wanted to invade China. “You’re fired!,” said Truman, and that was that. And you should have fired Gen. McChrystal when he went to the press to preempt you, telling the press what YOU had to do. Let me be blunt: We love our kids in the armed services, but we f*#&in’ hate these generals, from Westmoreland in Vietnam to, yes, even Colin Powell for lying to the UN with his made-up drawings of WMD (he has since sought redemption).

So now you feel backed into a corner. 30 years ago this past Thursday (Thanksgiving) the Soviet generals had a cool idea — “Let’s invade Afghanistan!” Well, that turned out to be the final nail in the USSR coffin.

There’s a reason they don’t call Afghanistan the “Garden State” (though they probably should, seeing how the corrupt President Karzai, whom we back, has his brother in the heroin trade raising poppies). Afghanistan’s nickname is the “Graveyard of Empires.” If you don’t believe it, give the British a call. I’d have you call Genghis Khan but I lost his number. I do have Gorbachev’s number though. It’s + 41 22 789 1662. I’m sure he could give you an earful about the historic blunder you’re about to commit.

Full Story An Open Letter to President Obama from Michael Moore        : Information Clearing House -  ICH.

Obama’s War

by Jim Hightower

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to war we go! Pound the drums loudly, stand with your country proudly!

Wait, wait, wait — hold it right there. Cut the music, slow the rush, and let’s all ponder what Barack Obama, Roberts Gates, Stanley McChrystal and Co. are getting us into … and whether we really want to go there. After all, just because the White House and the Pentagon brass are waving the flag and insisting that a major escalation of America’s military mission in Afghanistan is a “necessity” doesn’t mean it is … or that We the People must accept it.

Remember the wisdom of Mark Twain about war-whooping generals and politicians: “Loyalty to the country, always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.”

How many more dead and mangled American soldiers does the government’s “new” Afghan policy deserve? How many more tens of billions of dollars should we let them siphon from our public treasury to fuel their war policy? How much more of our country’s good name will they squander on what is essentially a civil war?

We’ve been lied to for nearly a decade about “success” in Iraq and Afghanistan — why do the hawks deserve our trust that this time will be different?

Their rationales for escalation are hardly confidence boosters. The goal, we’re told, is to defeat the al-Qaida terrorist network that threatens our national security. Yes, but al-Qaida is not in Afghanistan! Nor is it one network. It has metastasized, with strongholds now in Pakistan, Indonesia, Morocco, Yemen and Somalia, plus even having enclaves in England and France.

Full Story Obama’s War by Jim Hightower on Creators.com – A Syndicate Of Talent.

National Geographic: Did Brazilian Town With Huge Number Of Twins Result From Nazi Science Experiments? (VIDEO)

Candido Godol, a small town in Brazil, has long astonished the world with its very abnormally high level of birth rates for twins. The rate is nearly a thousand percent higher than the global average: “the 80 households in a one-square-mile area have reportedly some 38 pairs of twins. Blond, blue-eyed twins.”

National Geographic Explorer is digging into this mystery and they have come up with a pretty out there, and horrifying, theory. They investigate claims that mad Nazi scientist Joseph Mengele, who escaped to Brazil, continued his research into using twins as a way to build a perfect Aryan master race. One historian thinks Mengele succeeded, and this town is the proof.

More information from NGE can be found here. (at link)

WATCH:

Full Story National Geographic: Did Brazilian Town With Huge Number Of Twins Result From Nazi Science Experiments? (VIDEO).

OPS: Holy Crap!  The Boys From Brazil was based on a true story?!