From the Times Ledger:
Members of the United Talmudic Seminary at 74-10 88th St. joined with members of the Greater Ridgewood Youth Council, the Glendale Kiwanis and Community Board 5 to break ground on a new community garden in an unused corner of the Jewish school’s property.
“We want to be good neighbors,” Rabbi Berl Katz said of the agreement to let the groups use the land. “So far we don’t have any use for it. If the neighbors want to use it, why not?”
TheSource: Queens Crap RSS Feed
” I think the interrogations were in violation of the Geneva Convention against torture that we ratified under President Reagan. I think that these interrogations, once publicized, helped al Qaeda recruit. I got that from an al Qaeda operative in a prison camp in Iraq who told me that. I think that the ability of us to work with our allies was harmed. And so — and I believe that information according to the FBI and others could have been gained through other methods.”
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One of the hallmarks of the American right's utter descent into complete wingnuttery is the increasing willingness of its footsoldiers to buy into palpably, provably false nonsense and embrace it as fact. This ranges from the Birthers' insistence that Barack Obama hasn't produced a birth certificate to the teabaggers' claims that health-care reform means we'll be euthanizing senior citizens.
One of the most persistent componentsSource: Crooks and Liars RSS Feed
Political Cartoon by Michael Ramirez Charles Krauthammer in today’s Washington Post outlines the only exit strategy for Obamacare.
This scheme is the ultimate bait-and-switch. The pleasure comes now, the pain later. Government-subsidized universal and virtually unlimited coverage will vastly compound already out-of-control government spending on health care. The financial and budgetary consequences will be catastrophic.
However, they will not appear immediately. And whenSource: FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog RSS Feed
I’m joining Gloria Feldt and thousands of other progressives in asking The Senate to pass real health care reform in honor of Ted Kennedy. In Memoriam: “The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.” Pass real health care reform now in Ted Kennedy’s honor!
Sign the petition asking The Senate to honor Senator Kennedy by passing real health care reform. The text of the petition reads: “Ted Kennedy was aSource: Reno and Its Discontents RSS Feed
From NY1:
The State Senate has given more than 50 staff members raises totaling nearly $500,000, according to data released by the state comptroller's office.
Some staffers got raises of more than $10,000 a year.
All but 10 of the staff members who got raises work for Republicans.
But Republicans say the changes do not qualify as raises since many of their staff members were laid off or forced to take pay cuts when Democrats took control this year.
Der Spiegel | Interview with Epidemiologist Tom Jefferson - 'A Whole Industry Is Waiting For A Pandemic'
The world has been gripped with fears of swine flu in recent weeks. In an interview with SPIEGEL, epidemiologist Tom Jefferson speaks about dangerous fear-mongering, misguided, money-driven research and why we should all be washing our hands a lot more often.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Jefferson, the world is living in fear of swine flu. And some predict that, by next winter, one-thirdSource: subrealism RSS Feed
The Bush administration lost the war in Afghanistan by getting distracted, abandoning promises of economic assistance, and deploying the bulk of U.S land forces to the pointless occupation of Iraq. Their misguided attempt to muddle through surrendered the initiative to the enemy, and the strategic situation deteriorated as large parts of the country reverted to Taliban control.
When President Obama took office, he asked the Pentagon to describe the end game for Afghanistan afterSource: One Utah RSS Feed
Per Politico, the White House claims that “more than half of the projected deficits over the next 10 years are directly attributable to the previous Administration’s failure to follow the pay-as-you-go principle.”
But even if that’s true, which is likely given the Medicare drug benefit, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the expansion of the Pentagon’s budget since 9/11, how likely is it that voters will believe that come 2012? Especially when he passedSource: Donklephant RSS Feed
The Lion of the Senate has passed away. Apparently, he lost his long battle with brain cancer shortly before midnight tonight at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass.
Senator Edward Kennedy, 77, dies
U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, a major figure in the Democratic Party who took the helm of one of America's most fabled political families after two older brothers were assassinated, died late on Tuesday, CNN said. He was 77.
One of the most influential andSource: The Albany Project RSS Feed
By Steven T. Jones
Zazie insures its workers, wants other restaurants to do the same, and has the best Crab Benedict in town.
While the City Attorney’s Office prepares for the final battle in its defense of the Healthy San Francisco universal health care program against the legal attacks by the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, a couple of SF restaurants have filed briefs supporting the city.
Medjool (whose owner, Gus Murad, was the subjectSource: SFBG Politics RSS Feed
From the Neighborhood Retail Alliance:
Now hold it one second. Shulman's group was set up to grease the wheels for the redevelopment effort that the Bloombergistas have been proposing for Willets Point-a plan that involves telling 250 businesses and 2500 workers to simply. "Hit the Road Jack!" Shulman, for her part, was all over this effort, hectoring city council members and testifying on behalf of the city's plan before relevant review bodies. Yet this LDC flatly stated in a federalSource: Queens Crap RSS Feed
Pittsburgh, famous for its year-long beautiful weather (heh), delivered up one hell of a weekend for Kos this year. Congrats to everyone who came from somewhere where it’s raining or a hundred degrees in the shade right now. Unfortunately, do not expect a ton of political blogging as I am thick in the weeds of buying a house. I do, however, have a couple bits of advice for Kos’ers in Pittsburgh.
Graphs provided by Heritage.Org
In Florida where I winter and reside, we have Sen. Nelson, a Democrat who sometimes listens, and a RINO Republican, Sen. Martinez. I have been e-mailing and calling Nelson almost daily urging him to vote no on Healthcare and on Cap & Trade. Martinez just annouced his immediate retirement, and Gov. Crist, another RINO, will appoint his successor shortly. I started contacting Gov. Crist - telling him he better appoint someone who will voteSource: From Sea To Shining Sea RSS Feed
Jason over at Poligazette sends over a worthwhile post about the ins and outs of the health care “non-debate” and identifies 4 key points that he feels are potentially consensus building.
NYTimes | The stubborn yet false rumor that President Obama’s health care proposals would create government-sponsored “death panels” to decide which patients were worthy of living seemed to arise from nowhere in recent weeks.
Advanced even this week by Republican stalwarts including the party’s last vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, and Charles E. Grassley, the veteran Iowa senator, the nature of the assertion nonetheless seemed reminiscent of the modern-day viralSource: subrealism RSS Feed
Have you ever visited the Wayback Machine? It's a site that archives snapshots of home pages back into the mid-1990s. Let's have a bit of fun looking at a few websites way back when, shall we? (Click on the images for full-screen views.)
Gazette.net, 12/27/96
The more things change, the more they stay the same...
MCDCC.org, 5/30/00
It was not that long ago that MoCo only had 5 Democratic Senators and 16 Democratic Delegates. The Dems have come a long waySource: Maryland Politics Watch RSS Feed
versus
freedom for technology
The Intelligent Life, the quarterly mag of The Economist, has a fascinating article on the automation of cars. In When Drivers Are Passengers Paul Markillie describes the trend toward cars that drive themselves. While he believes that this could make them safer, he has
... a niggling worry that it could make some drivers lazy and less attentive. If your car can park itself, why bother becoming familiar with its dimensions and learning how toSource: Bicycle Diaries RSS Feed
A koala named Sam which became a celebrity in Australia after being rescued from bush fires earlier this year has died during surgery. She was put to sleep during an operation to remove cysts, after veterinary surgeons found her condition was too advanced to be treatable.Sam had become a symbol of hope for Australians after the deadliest bushfires in the the country's history. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the 4-year-old koala's death was "tragic".Sam was found by fire fighters carrying outSource: British Blogs RSS Feed
Women and Children First
Here is U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, writing on his Twitter page:
helped open a school in the Panjshir Valley yesterday. built by Greg Mortenson. smiles on those young faces said it all! power of education (15 July 2009)
And then some more tweets about women…
Presided over retirement for Vice Adm. Nancy Brown today. What a role model, not just forSource: OPEN ANTHROPOLOGY RSS Feed
From the Queens Tribune:
Queens leads the city in the number of uninsured residents, reports the U.S. Census Bureau. And the rising numbers leave private hospitals struggling to maintain services with gradual decreases in revenue.
"It's a cause for concern," said Michael Hinck, spokesman for Jamaica Hospital and Flushing Hospital Medical Center. "What we're seeing in the ER is matching the findings of the report. The situation is only getting worse."
The U.S. Census BureauSource: Queens Crap RSS Feed
Image © Austin Cline
Click for full-sized Image
More Propaganda Posters
The Cash for Clunkers program has not just provided an economic stimulus, it has also provided insight into true Republican and conservative values. This might seem like an improbable context for an intense ideological debate, but for Republicans today everything is about ideology and every issue is the setting for an ideological battle. All that matters is conflict and the effort to assertSource: Jesus' General RSS Feed
