No, We Can't

I'm pretty sure if you put me in a room with the Prez, without me saying a word, five minutes later I'd come out with his lunch money, his bicycle, all his comic books and a sandwich made by the First Lady... possibly his shoes.... OK, definitely his shoes.

AMERICAblog News: Government shutdown, here we come!:

"For some reason we still can't fathom, the President simply joined the Hoover Economics bandwagon (as Krugman calls it), risking our economic recovery, in addition to a lot of good government services. Anyone who complained about the President's poor negotiating skills during health care reform, or during the recent cave on the Bush tax cuts, will recognize the pattern. This is why Joe, Chris and I said early on in this administration that the President's weakness on any one issue shouldn't be ignored or written off as a one-time thing. It's the way he operates, and it will affect every single deal he ever makes on every single issue you care about.

I do love how the Republicans keep saying $60bn in cuts, and the Dems keep inching towards the Republicans, while the GOP holds firm. Same old same old. It's not a negotiation, it's a conquest. Business as usual. What I fear even more than a shutdown is the President's refusal to ever not-blink during a negotiation. He'll never let it to come that - he doesn't let hostage takers kill the hostages, and will do almost anything to make it stop - and the Republicans know it."

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From one Nobel prize winner to another.

The President Is A Lousy Negotiator - NYTimes.com:

"So, can we now count on Obama, at least, not to preemptively surrender to the right by proposing Social Security cuts — cuts that we know will be a starting point, not an end to the discussion?

No, we can’t."

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Jon Stewart ‘gives up’ on GE tax shenanigans�|�Raw Replay

Nightly News stays mum on GE’s $0 tax bill - Yahoo! News:

"In spite of robust profits of $14.2 billion worldwide, GE has calculated a corporate tax bill for 2010 that adds up to zero, via a creative series of tax referrals and revenue shifts. (This was, indeed, the second year running that the company—which has an enormous, and famously nimble, 975-employee tax division, led by former Treasury official John Samuels"

Heckuva job, Obama.

G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether - NYTimes.com:

A PRESIDENT’S BUSINESS LIAISON
In January, President Obama named Jeffrey R. Immelt, General Electric’s chief executive, to head the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. “He understands what it takes for America to compete in the global economy,” Mr. Obama said."

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Asides from the lunacy that one would be poor making 174k a year, how about NOT HAVING 6 FUCKING KIDS.

And the mound of debt is your own damn fault.

GOP Rep: I'm 'Struggling' On My $174K Salary (VIDEO) | TPMDC:

"I can guarantee you, or most of you, I guarantee that I have more debt than all of you. With 6 kids, I still pay off my student loans."

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Just sayin...

Chinese Traffic Cameras In Heze City, Shandong Capture Gruesome Accidents (VIDEO)

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Hundred Year Starship

Gettin' my geek on today.

Scientists open electrical link to living cells

'Hundred-Year Starship' Would Send Space Explorers On One-Way Mission To Mars

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We're Number 1! We're Number... oh.

China Bullet Train Becomes World's Fastest (VIDEO)

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Time Traveler? Probably an ear ache. Cool anyway:

Did Charlie Chaplin film a cell phone in 1928? : Hot Topics

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Confucian Technology

Our next rulers. How the fuck do they create this technology before we do.

Thank Confucius I've mastered chop-sticks.

China's Great (Quantum) Leap Forward - Yahoo! News:

"While China has been showing off its new hardware, a potentially more important military advancement has gone largely unnoticed: In May, Chinese scientists announced a demonstration of 'quantum teleportation' over 16 kilometers (10 miles), creating what Matthew Luce, a researcher at the Defense Group Inc.'s Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis, calls 'secure communications guaranteed by the laws of physics.' China is now at the cutting-edge of military communications, transforming the field of cryptography and spotlighting a growing communications arms race."

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Needs to be done. Will never be done.

The Case for a New Top Income Tax Bracket � The Washington Independent:

"Democrats could, for instance, offer to create a new tax bracket for the top one percent of earners (those making more than about $410,000) or for any earners making more than $1 million."

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A-to-the-men.

Teh Stupid owns our world.

Daily Kos: An army of stupid:

"'Barack Obama is racist'. 'Barter chickens for healthcare'. 'I read all of the newspapers that are put in front of me.' 'I can see Russia from my house' (ok, fine that one wasn't her exact quote, but still). 'Terrorist anchor babies'. Birthers. Railing against high taxes when 95% of Americans received a tax cut - the biggest middle class tax cut in history. 'Barack the magic...' well, never mend. An American where 'freedom' means that you love the country so much that your spouse can join a separatist political party as you talk about how great this country is. Conspiracy theories about ACORN, about unions, about 'big government', except when it was a few years ago and it was in the name of 'freedom'. And of course, 'death panels'.

I really could go on and on and on.

How the fuck did this become mainstream and acceptable enough that Sharon Angle and Rand Paul are where they are, and how Glenn Beck isn't mocked in every (other) corner of reality and society - is beyond me. How empty and hypocritically ironic slogans, sheer ignorance and stupidy - willfull, proud stupidity and ignorance - has become a bigger force in politics and American discourse than ever before is just baffling."

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Don't piss off the old boys from Alabama...

Police: 81-year-old set off device that killed him:

"Police say an 81-year old man died in an explosion he set off intentionally in his third-floor room at an Alabama home for senior citizens."

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Soothing, in a way.

LiveLeak.com - Pacific Sun Cruise liner in very heavy seas. Internal CCTV footage.

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Boston Dawna, the Batman of Venice Beach, retires - Yahoo! News

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Absolutely Nothing

War. What the fuck is it good for. Killing people and draining treasure. That's about it.

Hey, look, a great idea.

Conyers throws in with Grayson, co-sponsors ‘War is Making You Poor Act’ | Raw Story

Rest assured this will never happen. We don't do 'great ideas' in the U.S.

Just a fund raising ploy.

And it is called an 'escalation' not a goddamned 'surge'.

"It seems that Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) would agree, perpetual war is making you poor.

To begin rectifying the situation, he's joined with Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) in co-sponsoring the 'War is Making You Poor Act,' which would limit defense spending to $548.9 billion: the exact figure alloted in the fiscal year 2011 budget.

The act also seeks to utilize an additional $159.3 billion set aside for 'discretionary' operations abroad to relieve the full federal income tax burden on every American's first $35,000 earned per year, or up to $70,000 per year for married couples."

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Pffft. 100 billion over 5 years. We aren't stupid, Gates. That's couch money at the Pentagon.

Try half a trillion this year.

Daily Kos: BIG: �Gates calls for 100 billion in cuts to Defense Budget

Why is this Republican hack holdover from BushCo still in charge?

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Fucking hippie... who happens to be right per norm.

Kucinich: ‘We are losing our nation to lies about the necessity of war’:

"'We are losing our nation to lies about the necessity of war. Bring our troops home. End the war. Secure our economy.'"

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She use to do good work... until they smeared the shit out of her. Now, she's just another asshole, access driven 'reporter' avoiding journalism at all cost. Thank good for Taibii.

Lara Logan, You Suck -- RollingStone.com:

"Anyone who wants to know why network television news hasn't mattered since the seventies just needs to check out this appearance by Logan. Here's CBS's chief foreign correspondent saying out loud on TV that when the man running a war that's killing thousands of young men and women every year steps on his own dick in front of a journalist, that journalist is supposed to eat the story so as not to embarrass the flag."

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Sign me up.

Chinese Companies 'Renting' White People

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Come on, luck of the gene draw. Daddy's needs to live to 100.

Scientists Discover Keys to Long Life - WSJ.com

Bayh's an Asshole

Since Blogger once again ate my post yesterday in which I bashed the fake Democrat and every bit a part of the problem Evan Bayh, I get to do it again today.

Good riddance you 'centrist (read: do-nothing)' fake ass Democrat.

You are one of the main reasons Congress is Dysfunctional, asshole.

Your complete compromise on everything amounted to letting the Republicans have their way 100%.

Fuck you and we'll see you on K street soon, O man of lofty convictions.

Hypocritical asshole.

Disillusioned Bayh advocates electoral “shock” to broken system - Yahoo! News

In an interview on MSNBC this morning, newly retiring Sen. Evan Bayh declared the American political system "dysfunctional," riddled with "brain-dead partisanship" and permanent campaigning. Flatly denying any possibility that he'd seek the presidency or any other higher office, Bayh argued that the American people needed to deliver a "shock" to Congress by voting incumbents out en masse and replacing them with people interested in reforming the process and governing for the good of the people, rather than deep-pocketed special-interest groups.

..........

But Bayh had apparently become increasingly frustrated in the Senate. In this morning's interview he noted that just two weeks ago, Republicans who had co-sponsored a bill with him to rein in the deficit turned around and voted against it for purely political reasons. He also stated repeatedly that members of his own party should be more willing to settle for a compromise rather than holding out for perfection.

"Sometimes half a loaf is better than none," Bayh insisted.

What these folks said:

AMERICAblog News:

"I'm with Atrios:

If Ambinder knows what he was talking about, Bayh wanted Obama to support a Senate coalition of Republicans and centrist Democrats. You know, the same thing we had for the past several really awesome years of policymaking. You also get the sense that, as is usually the case, there isn't really much policy substance here, it's all about the joys of hippie punching.

CNN:

'He hates the Senate, hates the left bloggers,' a friend and longtime adviser to Bayh said. 'They are getting their wish, pure Democrats in the minority.'"

Actually, the reason Democrats are in the quagmire they are today is because they and the White House moved too far to the right, not because they embraced the blogs. None of them have embraced the blogs, even though much of what we espouse polls well with the majority of the American public, and, ironically, was included in candidate Obama's platform. The problems arose not when the President and Congress did too much of what the blogs wanted, it's when they refused to do what they already promised the American people, and thus came off weak and ineffective.

The Congress and the President moved to the right in an effort to appease the Republicans. And look what it got them. Nothing. For Evan Bayh to now pull a Sarah Palin, taking all his marbles and going home, is neither original nor helpful. Bayh can blame the demise of the Democratic party all on himself. They took his advice. Lord knows they aren't listening nearly enough to any of us.

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How Christian Were the Founders? - NYTimes.com

Not very. But that won't stop the Fundies from continuing their attempt to rewrite history.

Our Founders Were NOT Fundamentalists | The Smirking Chimp:

"Today's fundamentalists would have DESPISED the actual Founders. Franklin's joyous, amply reciprocated love of women would evoke their limitless rage. Jefferson's paternities with his slave mistress Sally Hemings, Paine's attacks on the priesthood, Hamilton's bastardly philandering, the grassroots scorn for organized religion -- all would draw howls of righteous right-wing rage.

Which may be why theocratic fundamentalists are so desperate to sanitize and fictionalize what's real about our history.

God forbid our children should know of American Christians who embraced the Sermon on the Mount and renounced the Book of Revelations...or natives who established democracy on American soil long before they saw the first European...or actual Founders who got drunk, high and laid on their way to writing the Constitution.

Faith-based tyranny is anti-American. So are dishonest textbooks. It's time to fight them both."

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Because most Americans are fucking stupid.

Idiotocracy

Poll Reveals Most Americans Don't Know They Got a Tax Cut - Political Hotsheet - CBS News:

"Of all the very information that came out of the recent CBS News/New York Times poll, one question stuck out, that of taxes.

Here's the poll question: 'In general, do you think the Obama Administration has increased taxes for most Americans, decreased taxes for most Americans or have they kept taxes the same for most Americans?'

The answer:
• 24 percent of respondents said they INCREASED taxes.
• 53 percent said they kept taxes the same
• And 12 percent said taxes were decreased."

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Here's something the Teabaggers should really be pissed about.

But, god forbid, anything ruin there 'Merica is #1' fucked up meme.

Op-Ed Columnist - Watching China Run - NYTimes.com:

"It was primarily a symbolic gesture. Way back in 1979, in the midst of an energy crisis, Jimmy Carter had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. They were used to heat water for some White House staffers.

“A generation from now,” said Mr. Carter, “this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people, harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.”

Ronald Reagan had the panels taken down."

The most important news and commentary to read right now. - The Slatest - Slate Magazine:

"China is so far ahead in the race to create technology related to renewable energy, that 'the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China,' notes the New York Times. The United States, along with other countries, is trying to catch up, but it's an uphill battle. While renewable energy continues to be more expensive, China charges a fee to all users to help spread out the cost, an example of how the government takes a deep interest in energy policy. And it's not just about government regulations. In fact, part of the reason why China has been able to become a world leader in building this new technology is that its domestic market is growing. Demand for electricity in China is skyrocketing, so power companies have to constantly buy new equipment, making it easier to develop large-scale production lines."

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Amen.

Jerry Seinfeld Gives Parenting Advice: Let Them Struggle:

"The first is Praise--'We tell our kids, 'Great job!' too much,' he says. The second is Problem-solving--'We refuse to let our children have problems. Problem-solving is the most important skill to develop for success in life, and we for some reason can't stand it if our kids have a situation that they need to 'fix.' Let them struggle--it's a gift.' Just as he's explaining the third P--'Giving your child too much Pleasure'--a woman comes in the deli with her three young daughters and buys them all huge cookies. 'Can you believe this?' Seinfeld says, gesturing like his TV counterpart used to. 'It's 5:30 p.m.--when will they have dinner? At 8?'"

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Craziness at Mavericks this year:

MAVERICKS / Biggest of the big waves:

"(02-13) 21:12 PST -- The sport of surfing reached new heights at Mavericks on Saturday. In the end, it wasn't so much a contest as an elevated state of mind, a heady swirl of fear, respect and bravado among some of the best big-wave riders in the world. In the end, most everyone agreed, some history was made.

From the locals to the Hawaiians to seasoned men on the judges' stand, the talk of the after-party centered around a powerful statement: These were the biggest waves ever for a paddle-surfing contest. South Africa's Chris Bertish took home the $50,000 first-prize check, but as he said, 'It took all of us to make this happen. I cannot believe what we saw out there today, and how well it was surfed by everybody.'"

Huge waves at Mavericks injure spectators
Monster Waves Wipe Out Surf Audience - ABC News

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Say Anything

Olbermann: New GOP strategy is ’say anything’

Same as the old strategy.

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Tennessee Lt.-Gov.: ‘I don’t know’ if Obama is US citizen

And, I do not know if Tennessee's Lt-Gov. fucks goats. It is unclear if the Lt-Gov is or is not a goat fucker.

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Obama Continues Policy Outreach to Republicans - NYTimes.com

And I keep banging my head against the door jam to see if it will ever stop hurting.

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If you read this blog you know I'm a fan of Survivor.

Jennifer came in forth during the Palau edition.

There, but by the grace of ,go I:

INSIDE STORY: Jennifer Lyon's Cancer Battle - Jennifer Lyon : People.com:

"It all began in the summer of 2004, when she 'felt something in my right breast that didn't feel normal,' Lyon told PEOPLE in October 2005. 'I thought it was probably scar tissue related to my breast implants. It was right along the ridge of the implant, so I let it go, and I let it go for a long time.'

Asked why she delayed seeing a doctor, Lyon said, 'I didn't have insurance, which is a big part of it. And it really wasn't changing much. But a year later, I felt another lump, and then I felt something under my armpit.'"

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Interesting analogy

Daily Kos: Pander Fail: Obama's New Coke:

"What had gone wrong is that Coca-Cola had abandoned their core market strengths: Coca-Cola was associated with tradition, family, stability. People drank Coke not only for its taste, but for emotional reasons. They had a core emotional attachment to the brand, as one would for a loving parent. When Coca-Cola changed to be more like Pepsi, it abandoned the core elements that made consumers trust and love the brand.

The only difference between Coca-Cola and the Democratic Party is that Coke only needed one opportunity to wise up and learn its lesson, while the Democratic Party continues to roll out its own New Coke every decade or so."

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Brush up on your Chinese, y'all.

The most important news and commentary to read right now. - The Slatest - Slate Magazine:

"China is so far ahead in the race to create technology related to renewable energy, that 'the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China,' notes the New York Times. The United States, along with other countries, is trying to catch up, but it's an uphill battle. While renewable energy continues to be more expensive, China charges a fee to all users to help spread out the cost, an example of how the government takes a deep interest in energy policy. And it's not just about government regulations. In fact, part of the reason why China has been able to become a world leader in building this new technology is that its domestic market is growing. Demand for electricity in China is skyrocketing, so power companies have to constantly buy new equipment, making it easier to develop large-scale production lines."

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Multi-verse.

Damn cool stuff.

And to answer the first question in the blurb.... 'She' did.

"Was the Universe Created By A Big Bang?" -Several of the World's Leading Cosmologists Say "No":

"'What banged?' Sean Carroll, CalTech -Moore Center for Theoretical Cosmology & Physics

Several of the worlds leading astrophysicists believe there was no Big Bang that brought the universe and time into existence. Before the Big Bang, the standard theory assumes, there was no space, just nothing. Einstein merged the universe into a single entity: not space, not time, but spacetime.

Proponents of branes propose that we are trapped in a thin membrane of space-time embedded in a much larger cosmos from which neither light nor energy -except gravity- can escape or enter and that that 'dark matter' is just the rest of the universe that we can't see because light can't escape from or enter into our membrane from the great bulk of the universe. And our membrane may be only one of many, all of which may warp, connect, and collide with one another in as many as 10 dimensions -a new frontier physicists call the 'brane world.' Stephen Hawking, among others, envisions brane worlds perculating up out of the void, giving rise to whole new universes."

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Shitty weed.

743 pounds of marijuana found in septic tank truck, Arizona police say - CNN.com:

"CNN) -- In a messy drug bust this week, investigators uncovered more than 700 pounds of marijuana stuffed in a septic tank truck full of human waste, Arizona police said Friday.

And the search of the truck was as awful as it sounds.

'Yeah, that really does suck,' Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves told CNN. 'It's a long way to go to make a bust.'"

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Pfft. So 2001. We TOTALLY had a website where you could send anon emails to someone in the office who had an annoying habit.

Oh, and for a small fee, I'll tell you why you suck. Call now!

Failin.gs: New Site Will Tell You Why You Suck (PICTURE):

"If you've ever wondered what people really think of you, now you can find out.

A new site, Failin.gs, provides a forum for your friends to point out your faults, whether it's what a cheapskate you are, or how poorly you listen."

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Make a Resolution or Mircale My Ass

This is excellent. I'll be moving my money at the beginning of the year.

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Sigh. Crap journalism at its finest. Always has to be the trailer park after the tornado.

Christmas 'Miracle' As Mother, Infant Resuscitated After Showing No Signs Of Life During Labor:

Mike Hermanstorfer credits "the hand of God."

"We are both believers ... but this right here, even a nonbeliever – you explain to me how this happened. There is no other explanation," he said.

OK, Mike. Let me do some simple bolding for an earthly explanation:

"'They hand him to me, he's absolutely lifeless,' Hermanstorfer said. The doctors went to work on Coltyn as Hermanstorfer held him, and soon he began to breath.

'His life began in my hands,' Hermanstorfer said. 'That's a feeling like none other. Life actually began in the palm of my hands.'

Martin said Tracy Hermanstorfer's pulse returned even before she was wheeled out of the room and into surgery.

So the 'miracle' occurred after human doctors and nurses worked on both mother and child. Worked feverishly, I would imagine. With their human hands that are connected to the human brains. Brains they've filled with knowledge about, oh, I don't know, medicine, maybe?

Thus, man had no hand in this and it was all some 'gods' doing.

The 'Miracle on Ice' was more miraculous than this.

I'm sure the doctors and nurses are very glad that their many years of hard work studying and training mean so little when some god can swoop in after they've busted their asses and claim all of the glory. 'God' is a bit douchey, don't you think?

It is a miracle that I don't devote my life to seeking and punching 97% of all journalist in this country.

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Sucker TPs.

TeaBaggers: Wholly Owned Subsidiary of the GOP.

They can't even leave their own party.

FAIL.

Majority Of Tea Party Group's Spending Went To GOP Firm That Created It | TPMMuckraker

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Change by executive order that will be reversed immediately by President Palin.

Jeez, you figure the same could be done for DADT.

Changish.

Daily Kos: Change: Obama orders creation of Declassification Center:

"* It establishes a National Declassification Center at the National Archives to enable agency reviewers to perform collaborative declassification in accordance with priorities developed by the Archivist with input from the general public.
* For the first time, it establishes the principle that no records may remain classified indefinitely and provides enforceable deadlines for declassifying information exempted from automatic declassification at 25 years.
* For the first time, it requires agencies to conduct fundamental classification guidance reviews to ensure that classification guides are up-to-date and that they do not require unnecessary classification.
* It eliminates an Intelligence Community veto of certain decisions by the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel that was introduced in the Bush order.

While the Government must be able to prevent the public disclosure of information that would compromise the national security, a democratic government accountable to the people must be as transparent as possible and must not withhold information for self-serving reasons or simply to avoid embarrassment."

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"búyòngxiè".... "xièxiè"....."duìbuqǐ"....

Sorry. Just practicing.

Gettin' shit done, while we bow to redneck, dumbfuck Congressman from backwater, asshole states.

Git 'er done!

China mandates renewable energy while U.S. deepens its dithering - Jeff McMahon - Scorched Earth - True/Slant:

"As often as socialism and communism are evoked to discredit the Obama Administration’s agenda, it can be illustrative to observe how communist governments actually behave.

China’s National People’s Congress convened on Dec. 22. Three days later it passed a law requiring China’s energy companies to buy all energy generated through renewable sources–wind, solar power, hydropower, biomass, geothermal and ocean energy.

What if that energy is more expensive? Buy it anyway, the legislature told the energy companies, or pay twice its cost in fines.

What if that energy can’t be accessed with the existing power grid? Improve the grid, China told the energy companies."

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I love this chick. As one who is practicing yoga at the moment, she's like my poster girl for cool.

Tara Stiles: Is Religion Ruining Our Health?:

"Self-doubt is a part of most everyone's life at some point. When we forget that we are powerful, loving beings, full of potential and endless possibilities, we are subject to fall into the traps of teachings that convince us that we are unworthy, unholy, and small. Finding the answers in something outside of our selves can feel more secure, especially when lots of other people are doing it. Most of us are taught faith when we are young. We are given a set of rules and behaviors to live by 'or else' bad things will happen and there will be no eternal salvation. Religion takes the trust away from the individual and replaces it with an insurance plan for eternal salvation paid off over a lifetime with rules and fear. Is going to a building once a week to be guided to a connection with God useful or destructive? Why can't we plug into divinity each moment without the help of an institution? Feeling and intuition can guide us through a very grounded and real spiritual path."

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