"* Economy is a self-regulating entity that always balances out.
* Government is inefficient and costly.
* Private business is efficient and therefore the best way to solve our problems.
* Wealth trickles down from the wealthiest to the middle class and the poor because businesses create jobs that then puts more money into the economy leading, in turn, to more jobs."
"President Obama seems to have forgotten that President Eisenhower warned us about 'the military/industrial complex' as long ago as 1960. Does the president not recognize the danger of appointing an Army general to head the CIA and appointing the former director of the CIA to become Secretary of Defense? Is Obama not tying himself ever more closely to the military-industrial complex? Is this naivete? Is it lack of experience? Neither is an appropriate excuse for a president who should be acting as commander-in-chief.
In essence, the president does not seem to be in charge. And that is a serious charge."
"These young people have no sense of community because they haven't been given one. They have no stake in society because Cameron's mentor Margaret Thatcher told us there's no such thing.
If we don't want our young people to tear apart our communities then don't let people in power tear apart the values that hold our communities together."
"Fusion centers are intelligence databases spread out across the country that collect data on ordinary citizens and synchronize national intelligence collection with local police. There are currently more than 40 fusion centers in the country."
"After more than a decade of work and an investment of $3.5 billion, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory say they have created a super laser that will enable them to build a miniature sun within the lab in the next two years."
I'm wondering where the howls of outrage are from the 'right-to-lifers' in this country? Oh yeah, she was already a fully formed human, not an embryo. Nothing to see here, then.
"A 17-year old died just hours after her health insurance company reversed its decision not to pay for a liver transplant that doctors said the girl needed.
Nataline Sarkisyan died Thursday night at about 6 p.m. at University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center. She had been in a vegetative state for weeks, said her mother, Hilda.
'She passed away, and the insurance (company) is responsible for this,' she said"
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The more things change, the more they stay the same. Nice dress, Hoover
"ASHINGTON - Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had a plan to suspend the rules against illegal detention and arrest up to 12,000 Americans he suspected of being disloyal, according to a newly declassified document."
"As Josh wrote earlier this week, I've been gobbling up the new tell-all by Allen Raymond, the former GOP consultant of New Hampshire phone jamming fame."
"Here's the beauty of pickup basketball: You may be a U.S. senator, a living symbol of racial healing and perhaps even the next President of the United States, but if you're gliding in for an easy layup and each point is precious, I've got no choice then, do I? You're getting hacked. So, yes, I'm hammering that arm and crashing headlong into your whippet-thin frame; and, yes, it's a foul so flagrant, so absurdly desperate, that all you can do, body buckling, is laugh. Hey, it's pickup. Everyone, even you, uses whatever he's got to win.
'Believe me,' Barack Obama says, walking to the top of the key, 'you can get shot for doing that.'"
"This year’s death penalty bombshells — a de facto national moratorium, a state abolition and the smallest number of executions in more than a decade — have masked what may be the most significant and lasting development. For the first time in the modern history of the death penalty, more than 60 percent of all American executions took place in Texas.
"Texas, where strip clubs have given rise to Anna Nicole Smith and many other less-generously endowed performers, is about to make it more expensive to watch a little bump and grind.
In what some have dubbed the 'pole tax,' the Lone Star State will require its 150 or so strip clubs to collect a $5-per-customer levy, with most of the proceeds going to help rape victims. The tax goes into effect on New Year's Day."
Amen to this. No matter how much the religious right wants the contrary and no matter how much they'll lie to make it the contrary, the U.S. was founded on secular principles of the Enlightenment. We ain't no christian nation. That's a recent development.
Atrios and Andrew Sullivan agree that there's something fishy in Ann Coulter's desire to see Judaism wiped off the face of the earth so we can all be 'perfected' by becoming Christians. This is an uncomfortable thing for Jewish people to think about, but isn't that actually a very banal baseline belief of all Christians and Muslims everywhere? Jews don't evangelize like this, and I don't think Hindus do either, but our world's great crusading faiths certainly do and converting everyone is . . . the whole point! This is one reason -- probably the reason -- that whatever the electoral politics of the matter, it's probably not a great idea to encourage politicians to 'talk about faith' more. For America to work as an enterprise you need people with deeply held but mutually inconsistent religious beliefs to all work and live together peacefully. Rubbing everyone's noses in the precise implications of other people's beliefs (Christians think Jews shouldn't exist, Jews think Christians are worshipping a false messiah, Protestants think Catholics worship idols, etc.) isn't really helpful."
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If this be the case, then I've already perpetrated 3 felonies this morning. 1 against my alarm clock, 1 against dresser in my room that I jammed my toe upon, and 1 against my car for taking me to work. I'm looking a 5-10 years.
Just say no to cursing inanimate objects. You could face serious jail time.
"A West Scranton woman could face up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $300 for allegedly shouting profanities at an overflowing toilet while inside her Luzerne Street home. Dawn Herb, whose potty mouth caught the attention of an off-duty police officer, was charged with disorderly conduct recently, prompting her to fire off a letter to the editor and vow to fight the charge. “It doesn’t make any sense. I was in my house. It’s not like I was outside or drunk,” said Ms. Herb, who resides at 924 Luzerne St. along with her four young children. “A cop can charge you with disorderly conduct for disrespecting them?”"
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He got sick of people asking him, "Can you hear me know". "Yeah, MFer, I CAN hear you now. STFU!"
"Performance artists are known for pushing the bounderies, but one Australian has astonished his contemporaries by having a third ear implanted onto his arm."
I've been making this argument for some time now. Osama did more to bring down the USSR by bleeding them dry than Reagan ever did with any of his policies (other than fund bin Laden with cash and guns).
The only western journalist to interview al Qaeda's leader says the US invasion of Iraq "fulfilled Osama bin Laden's wish."
In a recent interview with Australian television, Al Quds editor Abdul Bari Atwan claimed that the terror leader had sought to draw US troops into a fight in the Middle East.
"He told me personally that he can't go and fight the Americans and their country. But if he manages to provoke them and bring them to the Middle East and to their Muslim worlds, where he can find them or fight them on his own turf, he will actually teach them a lesson," Atwan said. "It seems the invasion of Iraq fulfilled Osama bin Laden's wish. That's why the Americans are losing in Iraq."
Atwan said al Qaeda did not have any connection to Iraq before the US invasion, which destabilized the country and allowed for an influx of foreign fighters who have pledged loyalty to bin Laden's group.
"Iraq is a safe haven for Al Qaeda because it has about 50 million pieces of arms. It has about five million tonnes of ammunition left by Saddam Hussein regimes and also the Sunni community, which was deposed from power by the American invasion, and they were actually very, very frustrated, very humiliated," he said. "So it was the best environment for Al Qaeda to set up its bases there."
In his 1996 interview, which was reprinted after 9/11, bin Laden told Atwan that "Iraq is not an option" for al Qaeda to establish a stronghold.
Atwan said bin Laden hoped to get the US mired in a war in Somalia after al Qaeda shot down an American helicopter, killing 19 soldiers.
"He regretted that the Clinton Administration decided to pull out their troops from Somalia and run away," Atwan said. "He was so saddened by this. He thought they would stay there so he could fight them there. But for his bad luck, according to his definition, they left, and he was planning another provocation in order to drag them to Muslim soil.
"And it seems President Bush did not actually give him a lot of hard work to plan for this," Atwan continued. "Immediately after the bombardment of Afghanistan - which actually destroyed 85 per cent of Al Qaeda infrastructure, personnel, deprived them of a safe haven - after that huge success against Al Qaeda, President Bush made terrible mistakes when he sent his troop to invade Iraq, one of the most difficult countries to be invaded, to be occupied, the worst land for democracy, human rights. And we can see the outcome."
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Shell game... snake oil... the suckers are the only one who buy them.
"The Bush administration’s obsession with secrecy took another absurd turn this week. The administration is claiming that the White House Office of Administration is not covered by the Freedom of Information Act, even though there are some compelling reasons to think it is. Like the fact that the office has its own FOIA officer. And it responded to 65 FOIA requests last year. And the White House’s own Web site, as of yesterday, insisted the office is covered by FOIA."
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Pelosi, you better get your shite together and quick. I'm tired of calling your office weekly to berate you for the shitey job yer doin'.
"It's just the Constitution that's suffering because of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's nutty and unprincipled 'impeachment-off-the-table' position blocking any effort to impeach President Bush or Vice President Cheney for their many crimes and abuses of power. Her position on impeachment is killing the Democratic Party too, by driving away not just progressived members of the party, but independents who voted for Democrats last November expecting some action in defense of the Constitution. I see this anger welling up among progressives and independents everywhere I travel, as people say they've simply had it with the Democrats. The support of the party for a bill continuing funding for the war through September was terrible. The Democrats' rush to pass a bill granting Bush the authority to spy without a warrant on Americans, and to expand the power to spy domestically well beyond phones and internet to even include break-ins was a last straw."
"Viagra may make a man more loving as well as improve his physical performance, new research suggests. Scientists have discovered the impotence drug can boost levels of a 'cuddle chemical' in the brain."
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You can't fool a stripper with fake money. C'mon, man!
Good effort, though, good effort.
Now get back out there and find some other ways to see chicks nekkid for free! Do use proud, son!
"A man who authorities say used his computer to make fake $100 bills to buy lap dances at a strip club has pleaded guilty to counterfeiting charges, federal prosecutors said. Strippers at Deja Vu in Nashville were suspicious of the bills and called police after Damon Armagost spent $600 of the fake money April 16, authorities said. When officers arrived, Armagost first told them he got the money when he sold gold coins for $1,400 to an unidentified person."
AAW will remain AAJ for the remainder of The Drams tour. Yes, they are that freakin' good!
Let's do a 'good guys/bad guys' post today, shall we?
We are such good guys here in San Francisco that we enable those with physical disablilities to be anything they want in life. Even if they want to be bad guys.
"A San Francisco man who is paraplegic was convicted Friday of two counts of robbery and one count of attempted robbery in connection with thefts he conducted from the seat of his Chevy Blazer in the Richmond District over a two-month period in 2005."
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Such a fucking bad guy douche. Can we impeach Putzy McPreznit yet?
"President George W. Bush has given his administration a boost in how the government regulates key issues such as civil rights and the environment, RAW STORY has learned The New York Times will report on its Tuesday front page.
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Such a good guy Nancy is. Smart, too. This is where the Democrats have a huge advantage and it is only going to become a larger force in 2008.
"Schooled by evidence of what Internet-driven politics can accomplish — from fueling Howard Dean's presidential campaign in 2004 to propelling Ned Lamont to victory over Joseph Lieberman (news, bio, voting record) in Connecticut's Democratic Senate primary last year — Pelosi and other politicians have realized bloggers are too important to ignore.
'They've gone from an initial writing blogs off, then moving to skepticism, then moving to, 'OK, maybe we can find a way of working with these guys,'' said John Aravosis, who runs Americablog.com.
'It's a power base and it's influential and it's an opportunity. And you know what? It exists,' Aravosis added.
'It should only scare you if you're on their bad side.'"
While Dick Cheney undoubtedly remains the most powerful vice president this nation has ever seen, it's becoming increasingly unclear whether anyone outside the White House believes a word he says"
"The weekly television series is notable not only for being one of the most expensive locally produced enterprises in the station's history ($7.7 million for three years), but also for being one of its most ambitious. 'Quest' is such a forward-thinking new media production -- with original radio, TV and online content -- that its creators say 'Quest's' Web site, not its TV show, is the hub of this edu-tainment extravaganza."
SEATTLE -- After years of close association with the Republican Party and hard-nosed opposition to federal land-use regulation, the National Rifle Association is being pressured by its membership to distance itself from President Bush's energy policies that have opened more public land for oil and gas drilling and limited access to hunters and anglers.
"The Bush administration has placed more emphasis on oil and gas than access rights for hunters," said Ronald L. Schmeits, second vice president of the NRA, a member of its board of directors and a bank president in Raton, N.M.
Oh, sure, now that it's cool to hate Bush you jump on the bandwagon? The NRA should be the largest environmental group in the U.S. but they are not. They are just a bunch of blood thirsty wankers who want the right have their own howitzers in their back yard. Maybe, this is a sign that another element is taking over this organization.
And don't get me wrong. I come from a family of hunters and have no problem with people owning guns.
I went to renew my driver's license on November 27th 2006, and just yesterday, on January 4th 2007, was I able to get my license renewed.
An outstanding warrant from 1984 in Massachusetts popped up the federal crime database, at the Missouri DMV and I was refused a driver's license. What's relevant is I've never been arrested for a crime in Massachusetts and when I gave that information Missouri DMV clerk, she looked look at me as if to say, "Yeah right, you and 1001 other criminal deadbeats who jumped bail."
The recently implemented, online Justice Department crime database is shared with state departments of motor vehicles by executive order from the Bush Justice Department. If a citizen has outstanding warrant for anything as trivial as a parking ticket, the state departments of motor vehicles are required to deny a driver's license renewal to anyone with an outstanding warrant, regardless of the crime.
TOKYO (AP) — Momofuku Ando, the Japanese inventor of instant noodles — a dish that has sustained American college students for decades — has died. He was 96.
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In response to 'Dick in a Box' comes a really, really, really bad parody. Boobs in a box.
A woman watching New Year's Eve fireworks from a picnic table found out that her bra can do more than lift and support: It also slowed a falling bullet.
