Organizing for America's Christmas card: "I wish for health reform"

Barack Obama and the Democrats' permanent-campaign organization, Organizing for America," has produced a loving Christmas card, okay, they call it a "holiday card," that they suggest I e-mail to my two senators, Dick Durbin and Roland Burris.
Leave it to the liberals to politicize and ruin everything. Even Christmas...uh, I mean "the holidays."

In 2010, they'll get a big lump of coal in their stocking.
Oh...does anyone expect Durbin and Burris to vote against whateverSource: Marathon Pundit RSS Feed

Murderer of pregnant woman should be charged with 2 killings

From the Daily News:
Queens prosecutors say boyfriend Derrick Redd, angry with Delain for refusing to have an abortion, stabbed her six times in the stomach, killing her and the unborn boy she planned to name Aidan.
"I either avoid the problem or I eliminate it," Redd said, according to investigators who interviewed him after Delain's body was found.
Redd, 36, faces a murder charge for the Oct. 25, 2008, slaying of Delain, 25, but nothing for the death of the unborn fetus.
Source: Queens Crap RSS Feed

CBO: Stimulus Netted 600K – 1.6M Jobs

From the ‘Director’s Blog’ at the Congressional Budget Office:

Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output as of September 2009

November 30th, 2009

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), also known as the economic stimulus package, certain recipients of funds appropriated in ARRA (most grant recipients, contractors, and subcontractors) are required to report the number of jobs theySource: Sweetness Light RSS Feed

Mauric Clemmons Islam Connections

Maurice Clemmons who brutally shot and killed four police officers (and has since been shot and killed by a policeman at a routine stop), may have had connections to the Nation of Islam. Clemmons, the Last Crusade has learned from an Arkansas law enforcement official, became a member of the Nation of Islam while serving time in the Cummins Prison. Gateway Pundit cannot verify this. What can be confirmed is: BLACK MUSLIMS CONDUCT CELEBRATION IN HONOR OF WASHINGTON STATE COP KILLER .

Source: Right Truth RSS Feed

Blowblack: The massacre in Maguindanao

The Massacre in Maguindanao in the Philippines

Maria A. Ressa
Head, ABS-CBN News & Current Affairs
Former CNN Jakarta Bureau Chief

You can’t escape the laws of physics. Newton’s third law of motion states: “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” In the world of governments and their security forces, it’s called blowback – a term first coined by the US Central Intelligence Agency in classified documents to describe US andSource: AC360 RSS Feed

Boom Times: Wall St. Luxury Spending Rises. So Does Food Stamp Use!

From the New York Times, we find out just how many Americans now qualify for food assistance:

MARTINSVILLE, Ohio — With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children.

With millions of jobs lost and major industries on the ropes, America’s array of government aid — including unemployment insurance, food stamps and cash welfare — is being tested asSource: Crooks and Liars RSS Feed

Likudniks Blast 'enemy of the Jews' Obama ~ They Are Correct!

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives to a news conference in his office in Jerusalem November 25, 2009. Israel announced on Wednesday a plan to limit settlement construction for 10 months in a bid to revive peace negotiations with the Palestinians who said the partial moratorium did not meet their terms for talks.

Likudniks blast 'enemy of the Jews' Obama over settlement freeze

Haaretz.com

Source: Theodore's World RSS Feed

Sunday Classics: Just for fun -- American treasures

Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue was always a Leonard Bernstein specialty. This is Part 1 of a 1976 performance in which he plays and conducts the London Symphony; Part 2 is here. (The luscious "big tune" finally emerges at 3:03 of Part 2.)
by Ken
No grand propositions to prove this week. Just some deliciously wonderful music, in the Thanksgiving spirit.
GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898-1937)
George and Ira Gershwin (center and right)at the keyboard with Fred Astaire
When ISource: DownWithTyranny! RSS Feed

Clean Energy for the Wild Blue Yonder: Expanding Renewable Energy and Efficiency in the Air Force

Solar arrays are seen at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, NV. The Air Force can start using more renewable energy and become more energy efficient while saving taxpayers money.  This guest post by Alexandra Kougentakis, Tom Kenworthy, and Daniel J. Weiss was first published here.

Listen to a press call on the report with retired Air Force Officer Paul Clarke, Shangri-La Construction CEO Andy Meyers, and CAP Senior Fellow Daniel J. Weiss (mp3)

Reliance on foreign energySource: Climate Progress RSS Feed

Selected News Items For Nov 28 – Dec 4

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post articles that demonstrate the distortions and biases of our establishment media.

To make the articles as readable as possible, please use the format described here.

And:

• Only post ‘hard news’ from establishment media outlets.
• Avoid editorials and ‘thought pieces,’ unless they are truly newsworthy.
• Eschew ‘major news’ items that most people will likely have seen elsewhere.
Source: Sweetness Light RSS Feed

the lauderdale paradox

Monthly Review | Today orthodox economics is reputedly being harnessed to an entirely new end: saving the planet from the ecological destruction wrought by capitalist expansion. It promises to accomplish this through the further expansion of capitalism itself, cleared of its excesses and excrescences. A growing army of self-styled “sustainable developers” argues that there is no contradiction between the unlimited accumulation of capital — the credo of economic liberalism from AdamSource: subrealism RSS Feed

Which way is MORI going to go next?

UKPollingReport

Can you predicts its next set of numbers?

I don’t think that there’s been a poll in recent times that has had such an impact on the media narrative that the November Political Monitor from Ipsos-MORI.

Even though it’s now four days since it was published and nearly a week and a half since the fieldwork close the general election outcome that it suggested is still being mulled over by “serious” commentators.

So what do you thinkSource: Political Betting RSS Feed

Checking in With Our Troops In Afghanistan

Along Afghanistans porous border with Pakistan, the U.S. Army is focused on reaching out to Afghan villagers and building local institutions. Immense Mountains and abject poverty stand out as obstacles to success, but it is the human terrain that presents the greatest challenge.

In this mini-documentary, Lt. Jake Kerr Combat Platoon out of a remote outpost in the Dangam District of eastern Afghanistans Kunar province,

.

More news of ourSource: Theodore's World RSS Feed

Bloomberg bad, but lame press even worse

From the Daily News:
Here's what you missed while Mayor Bloomberg was running for a third term - because he kept it under wraps until after the ballots were counted:
• The city budget deficit isn't as bad as he said.
• The NYPD was quietly exempted from the budget cuts at almost every other agency.
• A $60 million tax loss that gave Bloomberg a soap box to rail against the state Senate has magically vanished.
But that's all just numbers. What really drives the Source: Queens Crap RSS Feed

Who's better for the economy?

While Republicans blame Democrats for everything and call President Obama a socialist for his efforts to rescue the economy, it's time someone took a look at who does a better job.

I have.

Using the broadest measure of economic activity, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as detailed on the government's Bureau of Economic Analysis website, I prepared the attached chart showing the change in GDP during each president's four-year term of office since Harry Truman's second term.Source: The Albany Project RSS Feed

Judge Rules Army To Blame For Katrina

From an overjoyed Associated Press:

Water is pumped out of New Orleans’ flooded Lower 9th Ward after Hurricane Katrina. Katrina negligence ruling may cost feds

November 19, 2009

NEW ORLEANS — The federal government could be vulnerable to billions of dollars in claims after a judge ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers’ failure to properly maintain a navigation channel led to massive flooding in Hurricane Katrina.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval onSource: Sweetness Light RSS Feed

America’s Obsession with Guns

Out of my cold, dead hands

I was driving to work last night and happened to follow a red van with an American flag in the back window, surrounded by bullet hole decals and an NRA sticker.  The van had these bumper stickers, from left to right:

1. “Charlton Heston is my President”
2. “FUBO”
3. “McCain/Palin”
4. “Out of my cold, dead hands”

License plate: NRA R US

This reminded me of the Teabagger protest where the secondSource: rochesterturning.com RSS Feed

LA Invite: Amy Goodman, Breaking the Sound Barrier

You’re invited to join us this Thursday, Nov. 19th at 3:00pm for a Brave New Conversation with Democracy Now’s acclaimed host, Amy Goodman. The award-winning  journalist and author joins us in our studios to chat with Robert Greenwald about her latest book, Breaking the Sound Barrier.

This new collection of articles breaks through the corporate media’s lies, sound-bites and silence. In place of the usual suspects, the “experts” who, in Goodman’s words, “know so little Source: Robert Greenwald RSS Feed

Breaking news! Obama Superman Win!

In what can only be called an Epic Win, President Obama has turned his back on Superman!

USA rules!

With this daring breach of protocol (at the risk of a super-wedgie) Obama has done what no American President has ever done – disrespected Superman.

I think we can all agree that this is truly a great day to be an American!

Source: Donklephant RSS Feed

CNN to Dobbs: Here's $8 Million, Now Just Go Away

3475 Plays

Wow. Look how much CNN wanted him out of there:

CNN was so sick of Lou Dobbs, it gave him an $8 million severance package to leave, The Post has learned.

"They wanted him out," according to a source.

Dobbs, who a source said had a year and a half to go on his $12 million contract, shocked viewers last Wednesday by announcing he was quitting.

CNN boss Jonathan Klein and Dobbs, 64, had been publicly feuding over the kind of reporting DobbsSource: Crooks and Liars RSS Feed

A sad story from Brooklyn

From Pardon Me For Asking:
No building in Carroll Gardens illustrated the need for a neighborhood down-zoning better than the condo conversion at 333-335 Carroll Street, between Hoyt and Bond Streets. Back in 2005, owner Issac Fischman hired bad boy architect Robert "Mezzanine" Scarano to convert an old brick manufacturing building into a 31 unit condo. As part of the plans, a two story, 40 foot steel addition was erected on top of the old structure.
Alarmed residents asked the NYCSource: Queens Crap RSS Feed

Obama Administration Is Not Being Straight With America Straight On Ft Hood Massacre

For the last week I have been posting about my suspicions regarding the Ft Hood terrorist massacre and how the Obama administration seemed to be in full spin mode, as if they knew something horrible about the incident.

The crux of my concerns have been the well established, far left positions held by AG Holder and President Obama regarding the fixes President Bush implemented to the FISA processes and guidelines that allow internal investigations into people who have suspiciousSource: The Strata-Sphere RSS Feed

Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 5.39

In Orange.

Good morning, and it's a miracle! Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.

Well, actually a couple of miracles.

First, I managed to get every single fucking spring bulb into the ground! Denver had a string of lovely days, with highs creeping into the 70s on Wednesday and Thursday. Starting last weekend, I took my trusty drills and bulb augers out to the front yard, and started drilling holes and plugging them with bulbs. On Wednesday I put in a bigSource: Square State RSS Feed

Virtually legal

Nov 12th 2009
From The Economist print edition
In many countries, full jails, stretched budgets and a general weariness with the war on drugs have made prohibition harder to enforce
THE Green Relief “natural health clinic” in a bohemian part of San Francisco doesn’t sound like an ordinary doctor’s surgery. For those who wonder about the sort of relief provided, its logo—a cannabis leaf—is a clue. Inside, in under an hour and for $99, patients can get a doctor’sSource: Vox Verax RSS Feed

Extreme Dieting: Tapeworm Diet

During my many years working in the Veterinary field, one of my best friends and I used to joke about eating a tape worm egg as a method of weight loss. Of course we were JOKING...
Now there's this new diet site and I feel like it has to be fake, but I saw a commercial the other day advertising proponents of the diet on some daytime show...
The Tapeworm Diet:
"How it works...
You take one or two cysts and then the worm will attach to the wall of your smallSource: Blonde sagacity RSS Feed

There's no place like home.

Thanks to Marc Campos of Campos Communications for dispelling the awful rumor going around about working with Steven Hotze. He is not. Thank goodness!
Hotze is well known for sinking to new levels of low while claiming the high heavens during campaigns. Here is an example from the Houston Press:
"Our elected representatives are ministers of God who have been delegated their authority by God to uphold the standards of His Word. They are responsible before God to punish thoseSource: Bay Area Houston RSS Feed

Poll: Grouchy Public Sticks With Obama

From an always nuanced Associated Press:

AP-GfK Poll: A grouchy public sticking with Obama

By LIZ SIDOTI (AP)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama still has the approval of a majority of Americans, but it’s an increasingly pessimistic nation.

The public grew slightly more dispirited on a range of matters over the past month, including war and the economy, continuing the slippage that has occurred since Obama took office, the latest Associated Press-GfK poll Source: Sweetness Light RSS Feed

The Man Who Despises America

LEFT CLICK TO ENLARGE

President Obama's response to the Fort Hood massacre (not tragedy) is so off-the-wall, I do not understand how any patriotic American (other than left-wing loons) can refrain from making the judgment made below by Mark Hyman. I present his essay in two parts:
The Man Who Despises America
By Mark Hyman on 11.11.09 American Spectator Part I
The very next paragraph is going to make the nut jobs on the far left excitable beyond belief. I am notSource: From Sea To Shining Sea RSS Feed

Leggett Protects Incumbent TV

In its new package of budget cuts, the Leggett administration did not heed our call to cut County Cable Montgomery (CCM), also known on this blog as Incumbent TV. Instead, the County Executive has chosen to keep CCM whole in time for the next election.
The County Executive’s package of $29.5 million in cuts, necessitated by the state’s cuts in aid to the county, includes the following reductions:
Public schools cut: $9.7 million
Montgomery College cut: $1.1 millionSource: Maryland Politics Watch RSS Feed

The Firework-Fun Fallacy

From P&C Express 05/11/09: A health chief has warned that fireworks can have "devastating consequences" if they are not used safely. Ian Walton, accident and emergency operations director at Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust (YAS), said its ambulance crews will treat a number of patients with burns to more serious, life-threatening injuries on bonfire night. He said: "Fireworks used properly are safe are accidents are avoidable. However, they can cause devastating injuries if safetySource: British Blogs RSS Feed

A ‘Double Lesson’ at Fort Hood: Le Temps, Switzerland

The entire world is puzzling over the mortifying attack by U.S. Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan on his fellow soldiers.

According to Luis Lema of Switzerland’s Le Temps, whatever was going through his head – the lessons learned will not be encouraging.

For Le Temps, Luis Lema seems to agree with Senator Joe Lieberman that the act was one of terror when he writes in part:

“Here we have an American officer of Palestinian origin who appears to have chosenSource: The Moderate Voice RSS Feed

The night the Wall fell down

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 symbolized the end of communism across Eastern Europe.

David W. Fitzpatrick
CNN Special Investigations Unit

There’s a lot to read and a lot to see today about the events 20 years ago on Nov. 9, 1989 when East Germany (technically a splendid oxymoron called the German Democratic Republic) took no action and the infamous Berlin Wall was reduced to a footnote of history.

I was there for those tumultuous andSource: AC360 RSS Feed

A New Minimalist Look

The blog features a new look once again. The previous theme stayed put for the longest time between changes and it served me well. However, it featured lot of sidebar and bottom widgets that were hardly used by the readers. And of course, the primary motivation was as always, to try out something different.

Lekhni recently revised her theme and went for the magazine look. However, I went the opposite way. Websites/blogs by Dustin Curtis and Chetan Kunte provided the inspiration. ISource: Nerve Endings Firing Away RSS Feed

FNS: Wallace Tells New VA Gov McDonnell He's On The "Short List" For Veep

DOWNLOADS: (333)
PLAYS: (335)
(h/t Heather at VideoCafe)

[[Double take]] Wha-wha-wha????

It sounds silly to bring up less than a week after your election, but some political junkies here in Washington—some very powerful ones—are already saying that you will be on the short list of vice presidential candidates come 2012 for the Republican Party. Do you harbor any national ambitions, sir?

How did Chris Wallace get inside my nightmares? And what the hell isSource: Crooks and Liars RSS Feed

The 10th Amendment. Amerca's last hope?

State Representative Dan Itsewas the sponsor ofHCR6, a resolution affirming States’ rights based on Jeffersonian principles. While ultimately not passed, his proposal gained attention well beyond the Granite State's borders, with other states joining in. Rep. Itse even appeared on the Glenn Beck Show to discuss the plan to tell the Federal government it's "gone far enough." Indeed the States' Rights Movement has gained momentum, with one of Alaska Gov Sarah Pailin's final acts being theSource: GraniteGrok RSS Feed

Maryland’s Black Hole Gets Bigger

In March, we referred to the State Retirement and Pension System (SRPS) as “Maryland’s $10 Billion Black Hole.” Recent data proves we were too conservative: the black hole is now $17 billion.
The state’s latest Spending Affordability Briefing illustrates significant deterioration in the state’s already troubled defined benefit plan for its employees. In our earlier post, we showed how the plan was 101% funded as recently as FY 2000. But the state reduced its contribution rateSource: Maryland Politics Watch RSS Feed

Maine Marijuana Law Approved; Help Defeat Grassley’s Decriminalization Gag Rule

At the very same time Maine voted to repeal same sex marriage, they approved a bill that expands the state’s existing medical marijuana law. With that Maine becomes the third State to License Medical Marijuana Providers:

“This is a dramatic step forward, the first time that any state’s voters have authorized the state government to license medical marijuana dispensaries,” said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C., whichSource: The Moderate Voice RSS Feed

Goldstone, The Souvenir

If you’re a foreign aid worker with twenty bucks to blow in Gaza City -- something, by the way, few Gazans can do on account of their being totally immiserated by Hamas -- you can buy this commemorative Richard Goldstone keffiyeh at the President Arafat souvenir shop. But you better act fast -- there are only fifty of them. Collectors’ items.

Source: The Blog RSS Feed

"They bomb each others’ mosques, funeral processions and even marketplaces crowded with other Muslims."

Penance? Say three Allah Akbars and take two in the hat...

Islam is on its march of death on many fronts. A very dangerous front has been recently re-opened at the United Nations (UN) by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the largest group of nations within the UN, by introducing a new resolution.
The resolution under consideration—Defamation of Religions—aims to enlist the power and prestige of the UN in defense of religion by declaring religions to be immuneSource: GraniteGrok RSS Feed

Saving The New Socialist/Communist America From Itself

Saving The New Socialist/Communist America From Itself
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
************************************
That thing that could not happen HAS, indeed, happened in America.
Back in the 18th century, some very independent folks living along the eastern seaboard of the North American continent decided they wanted to be free. They decided they did not want a sovereign of any kind, a king, a czar, an emperor, or ANY kind of sovereign, to rule over them.
Source: Faultline USA RSS Feed

FOX News Blames Obama For Loss of Daylight Savings Time

“IT SHOULD HARDLY BE SURPRISING THAT OUR FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT IS DRAMATICALLY INCREASING THE DEFICIT OF ‘LIGHTNESS.’  SURE, IT’S JUST AN HOUR A DAY NOW, BUT MARK MY WORDS, IT’S JUST GONNA’ GET WORSE OVER THE NEXT FEW MONTHS.”

————————————————————————————————————————————

Lisa Casey with the latest on the real Prince of Darkness.

Dan Kurtzman with Political Cartoons Source: The Satirical Political Report RSS Feed

Some Humor To Start Your Week: Naked Man Chased Out Of Window By Enraged Husband

Here’s something you don’t see every day:

The guy perched quivering with fright on the air conditioning unit had the low moral standard to sleep with someone else’s wife while he wasn’t home. He also had an extremely poor sense of timing:

Sun Meng has been given the cold shoulder by his community after the extraordinary picture of him cowering naked outside the flat were posted on the internet.

The terrified 25-year-old fled from the balcony window when he wasSource: Say Anything RSS Feed

2005 NYT: ‘Bird Flu’ Is The Real Deal

From the (somehow forgotten) archives of the New York Times:

Sarah Harley, right, and Violet Owens, activists with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), lie nearly naked in coffins across from Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2005. The PETA demonstration called for consumers to eat a vegetarian diet as a means to avoid bird flu. Lessons From a Plague That Wasn’t

By ANDREW POLLACK

October 23, 2005

PUBLIC health experts warnSource: Sweetness Light RSS Feed

teach your teachers well....,

NYTimes | ARNE DUNCAN, the secretary of education, recently called for sweeping changes to the way we select and train teachers. He’s right. If we really want good schools, we need to create a critical mass of great teachers. And if we want smart, passionate people to become these great educators, we have to attract them with excellent programs and train them properly in the substance and practice of teaching.
Our best universities have, paradoxically, typically looked down theirSource: subrealism RSS Feed

Thanks for Nothing, Omar!

It's really been a crazy week in Metsland. From Omar, to Bernazard to Adam Rubin, to nearly sweeping the Colorado Rockies, the gamut of emotions for Mets fans have been all over the place.
So enter the non-waiver trade deadline -- today at 4 p.m. With a chance to redeem himself incredibly, after a year of more downs that ups, Omar came through -- by trading for no one.
I thought I'd give ole' Omar a chance this week by waiting until today before making a serious judgment. Now I've Source: The Hudson Line RSS Feed

Animal sacrifices becoming more common

From the NY Post:
An emaciated goat wandering Pelham Bay Park. A pig's head placed on a desolate street near the Green-Wood Cemetery. A dead rooster lying near a tree in Forest Park in Queens.
These bizarre discoveries have popped up with shocking frequency this year, making Big Apple parks look like makeshift sacrificial altars and grazing grounds for livestock left over from religious rituals.
In the last few months, four goats have been found in public places in The Bronx. Source: Queens Crap RSS Feed

What sort of message does this send out?

Times

Are we about to have “cut-price” democracy?

Oh dear! Oh dear! Can they never get this right? Given current Labour poll ratings in the mid-20s you can understand that ministers are not relishing the coming fight but this morning’s front page lead in the Times sends out all the wrong messages.

There are plans to reduce the costs by slashing the number of polling stations and reducing the hours that they stay open. Guess which ones would suffer? Those in Source: Political Betting RSS Feed

The Iowa Republican: A Conservative Slate – Recap of the Sioux City Gubernatorial Debate

By Brent Hoffman

While activists may debate the credentials of the Republican candidates for Governor, it seems “conservative values voters” are the focus of the candidates in advance of the primary. At the most recent debate, held in Sioux City on October 27th, the four candidates emphasized

Source: BlogNetNews.com/Iowa RSS Feed

Funeral for 1979 Saudi fall nurse

A Leeds nurse whose body has lain in a mortuary for 30 years after she died in mysterious circumstances is finally to receive a funeral service. Helen Smith, who died aged 23 after falling from a balcony at a party in Saudi Arabia in 1979, will be cremated in Wakefield on 9 November. Her father Ron has until now refused to allow a funeral - until he could prove his theory that she was murdered. It is thought to be the longest time a body has remained unburied in Britain. Since her death,Source: British Blogs RSS Feed

Next Up: Captain Crunch and Count Chocula -- By: Mark Krikorian

A Col. Sanders impersonator, on a publicity stunt for KFC, gained entry to restricted areas of the U.N. and had a handshaking photo-op with the President of the U.N. General Assembly, Dr. Ali A. Treki of Libya:

KFC president Roger Eaton had earlier written to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, asking that the "Grilled Nation" of grilled chicken eaters be registered as the 193rd U.N. member state.

I can't resist: I'll have my Iran extra crispy, please.

H/t to DebbieSource: The Corner RSS Feed