4057 QuickLinks

Thursday, January 8, 2009
Ten extinct beasts that could walk the Earth again
THE recipe for making any creature is written in its DNA. So last November, when geneticists published the near-complete DNA sequence of the long-extinct woolly mammoth, there was much speculation about whether we could bring this behemoth back to life. Creating a living, breathing creature from a genome sequence that exists only in a computer's memory is not possible right now. But someone someday is sure to try it,

Monday, January 5, 2009
Obama's Justice nominees signal end of Bush terror tactics
Obama's pick of Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnsen to take charge of the Office of Legal Counsel, the unit that's churned out the legal opinions that provided a foundation for expanding President George W. Bush's national security powers. Johnsen has publicly assailed "Bush's corruption of our American ideals."

Monday, January 5, 2009
Sen. Feinstein May Block Leon Panetta As CIA director
(8 comments) Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who this week begins her tenure as the first female chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said today that she was not consulted on the choice and indicated she might oppose it. Feinstein said. "My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time."

Monday, January 5, 2009
Rewarding Mr. Ayers' courage
"Since I began writing about Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a street musician I met almost four years ago in downtown Los Angeles, I've been asked to speak at mental health symposiums, skid row fundraisers, universities and high schools and all kinds of award banquets." A movie based on Ayers is coming out in April

Sunday, January 4, 2009
Balance Of Power Swings To Liberal Legal Group
(1 comments) The past eight years were a good time to be in the Federalist Society. Members of that conservative legal group occupied every level of the Bush administration. Now that the Democrats are ascending, a different legal group is on the rise in Washington: the American Constitution Society.

Saturday, January 3, 2009
Sources: Reid pressured governor on Senate replacement
(2 comments) Reid reportedly made it clear he didn't want Jackson, Davis or Jones to be appointed, fearing they'd lose to a GOP opponent in a future election

Saturday, January 3, 2009
Israeli ground forces enter Gaza in escalation
(2 comments) Israeli tanks and infantry rolled into Gaza after nightfall Saturday, launching a ground offensive in a widening war against Hamas that the Israeli defense minister said "will not be easy and will not be short."

Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Poll shows FDR would beat Reagan among current Americans
America is a center-right nation...really? Why did voters (in a nationwide survey by Rasmussen Reports) just elect Franklin Roosevelt over Ronald Reagan in a political dream match-up, by a solid margin?

Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Rob Kall: Middle East Politics Divides Progressives
(21 comments) I wrote this in 2006, during the time of the Israel-Lebanon war. Much of it still applies.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Israeli Army launches YouTube Gaza channel
The Israeli army announced yesterday the creation of its own YouTube channel, through which it will disseminate footage of precision bombing operations in the Gaza Strip, as well as aid distribution and other footage of interest to the international community. "The blogosphere and new media are another war zone," said IDF Foreign Press Branch head Maj. Avital Leibovich. "We have to be relevant there."

Monday, December 29, 2008
Kerkorian sells off Ford shares at deep loss
Kirk Kerkorian has sold off all of his remaining 100 million+ shares of Ford Motor Co, completing a retreat from a high-profile stake in the No. 2 U.S. automaker that cost him hundreds of millions of dollars.

Monday, December 29, 2008
Sen. Webb Sets His Sights On Prison Reform
(1 comments) Webb aims much of his criticism at enforcement efforts that he says too often target low-level drug offenders and parole violators, rather than those who perpetrate violence, such as gang members. He also blames policies that strip felons of citizenship rights and can hinder their chances of finding a job after release. He says he believes society can be made safer while making the system more humane and cost-effective.

Saturday, December 27, 2008
Israel strikes demolish Hamas compounds, kill 192
Israeli warplanes retaliating for rocket fire from the Gaza Strip pounded dozens of security compounds across the Hamas-ruled territory in unprecedented waves of airstrikes Saturday, killing nearly 200 people and wounding 270 others in the single bloodiest day of fighting in years. Most of those killed were security men, but civilians were also among the dead. Hamas said all of its security installations were hit

Friday, December 26, 2008
How to Live Rent Free in NYC
(1 comments) buy a boat on ebay, moor it offshore and you too can float a great deal for living in the big apple.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Healthcare Costs Prevented Nearly 40 Million Americans From Filling Their Prescriptions in 2008
(1 comments) Nearly 40 million U.S. adults decided not to fill a prescription medication from a doctor in the past year because of the cost... A tudy found that women and patients with neurological and mental health conditions were the most likely to give up their medication due to cost.

Monday, December 22, 2008
Juan Cole: Rick Warren: "I love Muslims . . . I happen to love Gays and Straights"
I was in Long Beach,Ca. on Saturday for the annual conference of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, where Pastor Rick Warren and I were both headliners. Also appearing on the stage Saturday evening were Melissa Etheridge and Salman Ahmad, singing Ring the Bells.

Friday, December 19, 2008
PAUL KRUGMAN; The Madoff Economy
surely I’m not the only person to ask the obvious question: How different, really, is Mr. Madoff’s tale from the story of the investment industry as a whole? The financial services industry has claimed an ever-growing share of the nation’s income over the past generation, making the people who run the industry incredibly rich. Yet, at this point, it looks as if much of the industry has been destroying value, not creating it.

Friday, December 19, 2008
Photos shed light on Barack Obama student years
The pictures, taken in 1980 by Lisa Jack, a fellow student at Occidental University, lay forgotten in her basement for years until she hunted them out during the election build-up. Jack said she kept them hidden in a safety deposit box until after the election for fear that the photographs might be used to attack Obama's campaign.

Friday, December 19, 2008
The Worst Ballot Challenge Of All
it's become painfully clear that Norm Coleman's big problem is that his ballot challenges are made up almost entirely of brazenly frivolous attempts to get votes for Al Franken thrown out. This one might just be the worst of all. The Coleman campaign tried to get a vote for Franken thrown out because the voter had written on the ballot. What'd they write? Thank you for counting my vote!

Friday, December 19, 2008
Baby born with 'foot in brain'
urgeons operating on a brain tumour in a baby boy found a tiny foot inside his head. while removing the growth, they also found a nearly perfect foot and the partial formation of another foot, a hand and a thigh. The growth may have been a case of "foetus in foetu" in which a twin begins to form within its sibling.

Friday, December 19, 2008
Student Sentenced to 15 Years for YouTube Terror Video
An Egyptian engineering student was sentenced in the United States on Thursday to 15 years imprisonment after pleading guilty to uploading a 12-minute video to YouTube that demonstrated how to convert a remote-control toy car into a bomb detonator.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Hillary Clinton tells supporters to back off Caroline Kennedy
Hillary Clinton has called off the dogs, telling her supporters to stop trashing Caroline Kennedy, sources told the Daily News. It's the latest sign the way is clearing for Kennedy to move into New York's celebrity Senate seat once Clinton ascends to secretary of state. The choice ultimately is Gov. Paterson's, but the roar for Kennedy is becoming deafening on Capitol Hill.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Eviction by Facebook?
Australia OKs Facebook for serving lien notice. A court in Australia has approved the use of Facebook to notify a couple that they lost their home after defaulting on a loan.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Interstitial Publishing: A New Market from Wasted Time
For a day filled with IMs and music and slathered over with email, one opportunity for publishers is to promote interstitial reading, reading that is done in the brief moments between other engagements, whether those claims on our attention are other media or simply the wiggle room in a schedule: the time spent waiting for a plane, a doctor, or for a meeting to begin. That's a huge number of minutes in any day...

Monday, December 15, 2008
Let's Get Real On The Environment
(1 comments) After the failure in Poznan, it's time to be honest: the world is not going to be cutting greenhouse gases anytime soon. Our problems, especially the climate crisis, are not going away anytime soon. The alternative technologies we need to reduce our carbon emissions to essentially zero – what scientists are now telling us is necessary – simply aren't there, and won't be anytime soon. Nor is the sense of crisis really there.

Sunday, December 14, 2008
Pentagon Iraq Report: Incredible Levels of Fraud, Waste and Incompetence
We spent as much money as we could, (over $100 billion)and got as little for it as people could make up their minds to give us.

Sunday, December 14, 2008
Pentagon Iraq Report: Incredible Levels of Fraud, Waste and Incompetence
We spent as much money as we could, (over $100 billion)and got as little for it as people could make up their minds to give us.

Sunday, December 14, 2008
Acid Blinded Iranian Woman Persuades Court to Similarly Punish Spurned Suitor Who Splashed Acid On Her
Four years ago, a spurned suitor poured a bucket of sulfuric acid over her head, leaving her blind and disfigured. Late last month, an Iranian court ordered that five drops of the same chemical be placed in each of her attacker's eyes, acceding to her demand that he be punished according to a principle in Islamic jurisprudence that allows a victim to seek retribution for a crime. The sentence has not yet been carried out

Sunday, December 14, 2008
Southern Auto Industry - Some Backstory
last month Toyota decided forego huge recruitment incentives from US states and committed to building a new factor in Canada. Why? The workforce in the US south is so stupid, even illiterate, that the offers weren't worth it. Where does the money to recruit foreign manufacturers to southern states come from? Cuts in education budgets. Supporting these faux US car manufacturers keeps the rednecks extra stupid.

Saturday, December 13, 2008
NICHOLAS KRISTOF: Obama’s ‘Secretary of Food’?
A Department of Agriculture made sense 100 years ago when 35 percent of Americans engaged in farming. But today, fewer than 2 percent are farmers. In contrast, 100 percent of Americans eat. Renaming the department would signal that Mr. Obama seeks to move away from a bankrupt structure of factory farming that squanders energy, exacerbates climate change and makes Americans unhealthy — all while costing taxpayers billions...

Saturday, December 13, 2008
US shuts down 'scareware' sellers Who Duped Millions
The US government has moved to shut down sellers of fake security software. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has won a restraining order that stops several sellers of "scareware" from continuing to trade. Millions of people are thought to have been caught out by the software which, once installed, issues false alerts about viruses and illegal porn.

Saturday, December 13, 2008
Israeli experts help India prepare commando raids into Pakistan
(2 comments) New Delhi has asked Jerusalem to assist in the operational and intelligence planning of Indian commando cross-border strikes against Islamist terrorist havens in Pakistan - including al Qaeda, Indian counter-terror sources report.

Friday, December 12, 2008
Obamas can't move into Blair House early
President-elect Barack Obama asked the White House if his family could move to Washington earlier than normal, but aides say the White House couldn't give them the official guest house as early as his family wanted. The Obamas had asked White House officials to move into Blair House about two weeks before the traditional date so their two daughters could start their new school when classes resume Jan. 5.

Friday, December 12, 2008
What Image Has Opened Your Eyes to Human Rights?
Witness is an international non-profit organization that uses video and online technologies to shine a light on human rights abuses around the world. For the 60th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, Witness staff discuss some of the videos and images that have touched them over the past few years. At the end of the video, viewers are asked what image has opened our eyes to human rights.

Thursday, December 11, 2008
Mumbai Terror Group Trained American Jihadists
A growing chorus of intelligence officials in the U.S. and in south Asia have pinned the Mumbai attacks on the Kashmir-based militants Lashkar-e-Taiba. But there's been hardly any mention of the extremist group's deep ties to American-based jihadists. Since 2003, at least five U.S. citizens have been convicted in federal court of conspiring to provide material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Thursday, December 11, 2008
The Pakistan Shell Game
(1 comments) it is finally dawning on some in Washington--if not exactly those packing their bags and shredding their files in the Bush White House--that Pakistan has played us for fools ever since September 11, 2001.

Thursday, December 11, 2008
Greenland, the Colony, Breaks Away from Denmark as Melting Ice Reveals Riches
(1 comments) bet you didn't know Greenland was a colony. As climate changes uncovers much of what was hidden by ice, Greenland is seeking its independence.

Thursday, December 11, 2008
Obama Picks Team to Guide Energy, Environment Agendas
(2 comments) President-elect Barack Obama has picked a Nobel laureate, a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator, and officials from New Jersey and Los Angeles to run his energy and environmental initiatives, putting heft into roles likely to dominate domestic policy in his first years in office.

Monday, December 8, 2008
Congress to J-Street: "Where Have You Been!"
J-street, the new, Jewish Peace lobby, the alternative to AIPAC, met with some of the 40+ congressional reps who supported the new lobby's endorsement. They were pleasantly suprised at the response: "Where have you been?"

Sunday, December 7, 2008
Showdown in the Big Tent Over Prop 8
Liberal Hollywood's loyalty to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and its role in the fight for civil rights has been unstinting. But recently the A-list discovered that this love is unrequited. Last month, Proposition 8 passed, making gay marriage illegal in California, and the demographic that lent insult to injury was the state’s African-American voters. 7 in 10 blacks voted in support of traditional marriage.

Sunday, December 7, 2008
'KopBusters' reality show turns tables on crooked officers
(1 comments) 'KopBusters' is a reality TV program that aims to sink crooked officers.

Friday, December 5, 2008
Happiness is contagious, study finds
the more happy people you know, the more likely you are yourself to be happy. And getting connected to happy people improves a person's own happiness... The study also fits in with other data that suggested -- in 1984 -- that having $5,000 extra increased a person's chances of becoming happier by about 2 percent. "A happy friend is worth about $20,000,"

Friday, December 5, 2008
Israeli Troops Evict Settlers in the West Bank
Israeli troops forcibly evicted about 200 hard-line Jewish settlers from a contested building in this volatile biblical city on Thursday, the first serious clash in what seems to be a spiraling confrontation between the government and defiant settlers.

Thursday, December 4, 2008
Eye Spy: Filmmaker Plans to Install Camera in His Eye Socket
Rob Spence looks you straight in the eye when he talks. So it's a little unnerving to imagine that soon one of his hazel-green eyes will have a tiny wireless video camera in it that records your every move. The eye he's considering replacing is not a working one -- it's a prosthetic eye he's worn for several years.

Thursday, December 4, 2008
Canadian PM wins Shutdown of Parliament to Prevent Defeat by Left
(1 comments) Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper won a rare suspension of Parliament on Thursday, managing to avoid being ousted by opposition parties angry over the minority Conservative government's economic plans and an attempt to cut off party financing.

Thursday, December 4, 2008
Anxiety among Democrats as Pelosi tightens her grip
Nancy Pelosi's moves since the November elections have shaken up some of her colleagues, with some looking over their shoulders and others worried about how the Speaker will lead her expanded majority in 2009. Liberals are worried about Pelosi's vow to govern "from the middle" and centrists are concerned that the make-up of the House leadership team has shifted noticeably to the left.

Thursday, December 4, 2008
Wonkette : Catfight! Geithner Doesn't Like Bair
Rumor: Tim Geithner, Treasury Sec-to-be, does not care for Sheila Bair and her maverick ways. Bair is the chairman of the FDIC and one of the few high-profile Bush admin appointees to very repeatedly and publicly bang the drum about how if our financial crisis is ultimately due to people's mortgages going south, maybe we ought to work on fixing those bad mortgages. She's a working class hero! So naturally, Geithner hates her

Thursday, December 4, 2008
Financial crisis a distraction, says Nobel winner Muhammad Yunus
(6 comments) The global financial crisis is distracting attention from other pressing issues such as high food and energy prices, and environmental damage, says Yunus. The Bangladeshi economist warned that not addressing those other issues would lead to a "much bigger crisis ahead" that would have political and financial implications. "What we see as a financial crisis is a part of many more crises, which are going on simultaneously...

Thursday, December 4, 2008
Standing up to Jewish terrorism - Haaretz - Israel News
(1 comments) For a long time now, settlers in Hebron and other areas of Judea and Samaria (and East Jerusalem) have engaged in unruly behavior whose only goal is to violently threaten the Palestinians while undermining Israel's sovereignty. By any official standard recognized worldwide, this is terrorism that sows fear and disrupts the proper management of a state. Like the US, right wing religious extremists are BAD NEWS

Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Higher Education May Soon Be Unaffordable for Most Americans, Report Says
Tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Copper Thieves Threaten U.S. Infrastructure, FBI says
Copper thieves, sometimes acting as "organized groups," are threatening what the FBI said is "critical" U.S. infrastructure, from electrical sub-stations, cellular towers, telephone land lines to railroads and crops, the agency said in an unclassified report unveiled Wednesday.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008
The Republican party must abandon its anti-intellectualism
(2 comments) Republicans should stop embracing the anti-intellectualism of George Bush

Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Nationalize GM - Los Angeles Times
The federal government should buy GM. We can run it, then sell it at a profit once it recovers.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Google Buys 20 Million Pages of Diginal Newspaper Records
Google has completed the purchase of 20 million digitized historical newspaper pages

Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Good News for Franken? Ramsey County Minnesota finds 171 uncounted ballots
a county that went strong for Franken finds a whole load of uncounted ballots.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Mumbai attacks: Jews tortured before executed during hostage crisis
Israeli hostages killed by Islamic terrorists during the attacks on Mumbai (formerly Bombay) were tortured by their captors before they were bound together and killed, according to officials in both countries.

Monday, December 1, 2008
Obama aims at broad shift in national security
The shift, which would come partly out of the military's huge budget, would create a greatly expanded corps of diplomats and aid workers that, in the vision of the incoming Obama administration, would be engaged in projects around the world aimed at preventing conflicts and rebuilding failed states.

Monday, December 1, 2008
I'm Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq
Air Force interrogator of al-Zarqawi in Iraq says torture is happening, does not work, makes us less safe.

Monday, December 1, 2008
Map: Show Me the TARP Money -
(2 comments) A map which shows where in the US the TARP bailout money is going, who gets it and how much.

Monday, December 1, 2008
Obama donors help cover transition cost
These costs should be paid for by the government. But they're not, so Obama keeps doing the money raising machine thing.

Monday, December 1, 2008
Dig unearths Stone Age sculptures
carving has a feminine form, reminiscent of "Venus" figurines found from Siberia to the Pyrenees

Friday, November 28, 2008
Murdoch, Ailes "˜absolutely despise' O'Reilly
"It is not just Murdoch (and everybody else at News Corp.'s highest levels) who absolutely despises Bill O'Reilly, the bullying, mean-spirited, and hugely successful evening commentator," Wolff wrote, "but [Fox News chief executive] Roger Ailes himself who loathes him. Success, however, has cemented everyone to each other."

Friday, November 28, 2008
Sex invariably spells trouble, says Dalai Lama
(12 comments) he Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual and temporal leader, on Friday said sex spelt fleeting satisfaction and trouble later, while chastity offered a better life and "more freedom."

Thursday, November 27, 2008
The Gladiator Diet
study of a gladiator burial ground has enabled archaeologists to figure out what gladiators were fed and how they were killed.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008
BBC: Obama in charge
You could be forgiven for thinking that Chicago is the new Washington, that the president-elect is already running the country from there and that the West Wing has just become the Mid-West wing.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Eyeing Obama Era, DailyKos Launches Blog to Press Congress
"It'll be a place where we'll try to explain Congressional rules and procedure so that the netroots community gets a better handle on it and can become more effective advocates for their priorities," said David Waldman, an attorney and former Congressional aide who blogs on the front page of DailyKos under the name Kagro X.

Monday, November 24, 2008
Malaysian Muslim Fatwa Yanks Yoga
Islamic council issues edict prohibiting exercise, fearing Hindu roots could corrupt people. "We are of the view that yoga, which originates in Hinduism, combines a physical exercise, religious elements, chanting and worshipping for the purpose of achieving inner peace and ultimately to be at one with god. For us, yoga destroys a Muslim's faith. There are other ways to get exercise. You can go cycling, swimming...

Monday, November 24, 2008
Meet the Kelpies, a Pair of 100 Foot Tall Horses
(1 comments) They will create one of the most dramatic gateways through which to enter Britain: two vast equine heads, centrepiece of a £49m eco-park near Edinburgh, are to guard the entrance to a canal link connecting the Firth of Forth with the Clyde in Glasgow. Each the height of a 10-storey building, the sculptures will be known as the Kelpies, after the mythical water horses in Scottish lochs and rivers.

Monday, November 24, 2008
GOP Image Continues to Tank
Gallup polls show the GOP image is getting even worse, and on top of that, Republicans want the GOP to become even MORE conservative. Can you visualize southern redneck right wingers flipping the flush handle as they wash themselves down the toilet?

Monday, November 24, 2008
Stuffing Recipes?
(2 comments) what are your favorite stuffing recipes and ingredients?

Friday, November 21, 2008
Horror as teenager commits suicide live online
as many others watch online, some jeering.

Friday, November 21, 2008
US clout down, risks up by 2025 -intel outlook
U.S. economic and political clout will decline over the next two decades and the world will be more dangerous, with food and water scarce and advanced weapons plentiful, U.S. spy agencies projected on Thursday. The National Intelligence Council analysis "Global Trends 2025" also said the current financial crisis on Wall Street is just the first phase of a global economic reordering. The U.S. dollar's role will drop too.

Friday, November 21, 2008
Waxman's takeover signals a shift to the left
Rep. Henry Waxman's successful coup against Energy and Commerce Chair John Dingell on Thursday leaves the storied former chairman with a ceremonial role and steers the Democratic agenda sharply left. The 137-122 vote which handed Waxman the gavel dealt a serious challenge to the Democrats' seniority system and put key aspects of Pres-elect Obama's agenda in the hands of a liberal, aggressive and activist chairman.

Friday, November 21, 2008
Fed's Geithner to be tapped for Treasury: reports
a late friday afternoon announcement-- at the dead of newstimes. Better than Summers, but the NY Fed Reserve Bank Head. Not much change here

Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Administration Protects W Appointees by Converting Positions to Career Civil Servants
Just weeks before leaving office, the Interior Department's top lawyer has shifted half a dozen key deputies-- including two former political appointees who have been involved in controversial environmental decisions -- into senior civil service posts. The transfer of political appointees into permanent fed positions, called "burrowing," will deprive Obama of the chance to install its preferred appointees in some key jobs.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Beijing orders demolition of leading activist's home
Beijing authorities have issued an order to destroy the home of one of China's leading rights activists who has been in police custody for more than 200 days, her husband and lawyer said Tuesday. Beijing's Xicheng court ordered developers to level the home of Ni Yulan and told the family to vacate the premises by the end of last week, husband Dong Jiqin told AFP, adding he had refused to leave.

Monday, November 17, 2008
Stan Lee, Creator of Spiderman Comic, Receives Medal of Arts Honors
When Stan Lee was told that he'd received the National Medal of Arts, he "thought it was a gag." The award to artists and arts patrons is billed as the highest bestowed by the U.S. government. The humanities medal is considered the most prestigious in its field.

Monday, November 17, 2008
Dan Rather's Lawsuit Shows Role of G.O.P. in Inquiry
Evidence seems to support Dan Rather’s assertion that CBS wanted its investigation into a segment about President Bush’s National Guard service to mollify GOP Bush supporters, so CBS would maintain access to the White house. Rather has spent over $2 million on this case, but is making solid progress showing unfair treatment, including the set up of a supposedly balanced review panel, which was, in reality, GOP vetted.

Monday, November 17, 2008
Gallup’s New Job Market Measure-- not looking good
A new employment indicator from Gallup reports how many people say their company is hiring, and how many say their company is letting employees go. The results aren't pretty, an economist writes.

Monday, November 17, 2008
Obama Needs a Protest Movement
the disorder, stoppages and institutional breakdowns generated by collective action threaten politicians. These periods of mass defiance are unnerving, and many authoritative voices are even now pointing to the dangers of pushing the Obama administration too hard and too far. Yet these are also the moments when ordinary people enter into the political life of the country and authentic bottom-up reform becomes possible

Sunday, November 16, 2008
Albino Africans live in fear after witch-doctor butchery and Cannibalism
A series of horrific murders of albinos in Tanzania has shocked the nation. As children are hacked to death for their body parts, believed to bring good luck, the authorities are failing to stop a trade in organs that relies on superstition and greed

Sunday, November 16, 2008
Why hasn't the U.S. gone after Mullah Omar in Pakistan?
For 7 years, the Bush administration has pursued al Qaida but done almost nothing to hunt down the Afghan Taliban leadership in its sanctuaries in Pakistan, and that's left Mullah Mohammad Omar and his deputies free to direct an escalating war against the U.S.-backed Afghan government. The administration's decision, U.S. and NATO officials said, has allowed the Taliban to regroup, rearm and recruit at bases in SW Pakistan

Sunday, November 16, 2008
Alaska vote tally drama: 1 vote margin in state rep race
The closest race of this fall's election in Alaska drew even tighter Friday night, as Rep. Mike Kelly's lead on Democratic challenger Karl Kassel narrowed to a single vote. Just imagine all the ways that extra vote could have been reached.

Saturday, November 15, 2008
Clinton as Secretary of State? Obama’s Talk With Hillary Starts Buzz
(5 comments) For Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, there would be pros and cons to a partnership if she were secretary of state.

Saturday, November 15, 2008
Indian Spacecraft Successfully Enters Orbit Around Moon
On November 9, India became the fifth member of the global moon club with Chandrayaan-1 entering the lunar orbit at 5.04 pm (IST). The other four members are the US, Russia (former Soviet Union), Japan, China and members of European Space Agency (ESA).

Friday, November 14, 2008
SC Priest: Voted for Obama? No Holy Communion
A Roman Catholic Priest in South Carolina told parishioners this week that they should not receive holy communion any longer if they voted for president-elect Barack Obama.

Friday, November 14, 2008
The decline of the Republican Party
(1 comments) There are any number of reasons for the Republican Party's defeat on Nov. 4th. But high on the list is the fact that the party lost the battle for brains. Barack Obama won college graduates by two points, a group that George Bush won by six points four years ago. He won voters with postgraduate degrees by 18 points. And he won voters with a household income of more than $200K

Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Largest Military Budget Passed
WHILE THE NATION REMAINED fixated on the nearly $1 trillion Congress gave to criminal bankers and investment firms on Wall Street, the House and Senate quietly passed the largest military spending legislation to date loaded with pork and gifts for the military-industrial complex.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Cosmetic surgery addict injected cooking oil into her own face
Korean woman addicted to plastic surgery has been left unrecognisable after her obsession led her to inject cooking oil into her face

Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Google Flu Trends-- Predicts Flu Outbreaks Using Search Patterns
(2 comments) philanthropic arm, has launched a service to help medical experts and the public track the incidence of influenza across the U.S. Google Flu Trends presents a map of current flu activity throughout the nation.

Monday, November 10, 2008
Federal Reserve Refuses to Disclose $2 Trillion in Loans
won't provide transparency expected

Monday, November 10, 2008
Obama Hires Progressive Liaison For Transition Team
Former Clinton team member Mike Lux, who currently blogs for openleft.com and huffingtonpost also helped co-found a number of progressive institutions including: Americans United for Change, Center for Progressive Leadership, Grassroots Democrats, Progressive Majority, Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, and Women's Voices/Women Vote. He writes for the Huffington Post.

Monday, November 10, 2008
Obama plans Guantanamo closure, US terror trials
President-elect Obama's advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice.

Monday, November 10, 2008
Bush is less popular than Nixon in final days
76% disapprove, much worse than Nixon in days before he left office.

Monday, November 10, 2008
RFK Jr.: Too controversial for EPA?
Last year, Kennedy said that global warming skeptics should be treated as "traitors," which garnered the ire of Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, whose deep skepticism about the causes of climate change is well-known.

Monday, November 10, 2008
Nicholas Kristof: Obama and the War on Brains
American voters have just picked a president who is an open, out-of-the-closet, practicing intellectual. Maybe, the result will be a step away from the anti-intellectualism that has long been a strain in American life. Smart and educated leadership is no panacea, but we’ve seen recently that the converse — a White House that scorns expertise and shrugs at nuance — doesn’t get very far either.

Sunday, November 9, 2008
Dems get new crop of military voters
With McCain facing a diminished role in the GOP, and Chuck Hagel retiring from the Senate, there are few prominent Republican leaders left with military bona fides. This is in stark contrast to the Democratic Party, which has seen the emergence of a new generation of veteran leaders. President Bush has almost single-handedly ended the GOP's lock on veteran & military voters through his tragic mismanagement of the war in Iraq

Sunday, November 9, 2008
UK's Brown: Now is the time to build global society
The international financial crisis has given world leaders a unique opportunity to create a truly global society, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown will say in a keynote foreign policy speech on Monday.

Sunday, November 9, 2008
Obama to use executive orders for immediate impact
– President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas.

Saturday, November 8, 2008
Jerusalem Post: Israeli Analysis on Obama's Effect on US Relations with Israel
(2 comments) Can we trust an Obama administration to stand by us in our time of need? Yes, we can. Unless, of course, we elect an extreme right-wing government that - completely unprovoked - initiates a war with the entire Arab world. Can we fly over Iraqi airspace to hit Iran's nuclear facilities? No, we can't. Can we ask America to look the other way while our jets find another way into Iran? No, we can't.

Saturday, November 8, 2008
What You Can Make With Dryer Lint
(2 comments) finally, an answer to the question you didn't know you were asking

Friday, November 7, 2008
Plouffe to the Senate?
David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager may be a candidate to replace a senator who is resigning.

Thursday, November 6, 2008
SOMETHING SMELLS VERY FISHY IN ALASKA
Turnout Rate Reported as Lowest Ever in State, Down 11% From '04 Even With Both Palin and Obama on the Ballot Hanging in the Balance in the Diebold State: Felon Ted Stevens' U.S. Senate Race, Corrupt Don Young's House Race & Much More...

Wednesday, November 5, 2008
'Jurassic Park' author Michael Crichton dies at 66
(1 comments) Also a vocal global warming denier.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008
So Little Time, So Much Damage Bush is Planning to Do
(2 comments) Most presidents put on a last-minute policy stamp, but in President George W. Bush’s case it is more like a wrecking ball. Bush, staying consistent as the most despicable, worst president in history, will inflict more damage upon the US in his last days-- giving gifts to financial institutions, gutting environmental regulations, eroding rights to information and access to abortion and birth control...

Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Intrade Political Odds-- usually a lot better predictors than polls
In trade is based on people betting real money on races. The odds and predictions are usually far more accurate than polls.

Monday, November 3, 2008
Strange Portal Connects Earth to Sun
(1 comments) Like giant, cosmic chutes between the Earth & sun, magnetic portals open up every eight minutes or so to connect our planet with its host star. Once the portals open, loads of high-energy particles can travel the 93 million miles through the conduit during its brief opening, space scientists say. Called a flux transfer event, or FTE, such cosmic connections not only exist but are possibly twice as common as once thought.

Monday, November 3, 2008
Democratic Governors May be the Saviors of Free and Fair Elections
In 2000 and 2004, the states to watch were Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania. All three had Republican governors in 2000, and two of the three had Republican governors in 2004. Now only one state is in Republican hands. Things have changed.

Sunday, November 2, 2008
Will Monday testimony from this Bush/McCain computer expert reveal 2004 Ohio vote tampering?
(1 comments) Connell and his associates may have compromised the presidential election in Ohio in 2004 by inserting a computer, among other tactics, into the Ohio secretary of state's vote information transferal system. Such tampering, they say, could explain how votes were "tuned" to Bush and away from Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president that year.

Sunday, November 2, 2008
My wife made me canvas for Obama; here's what I learned
A former bush voter: I've learned that this election is about the heart of America. It's about the young people who are losing hope and the old people who have been forgotten. It's about those who have worked all their lives and never fully realized the promise of America, but see that promise for their grandchildren in Obama. The poor see a chance, when they often have few. I saw hope in the eyes and faces in those doorways.

Sunday, November 2, 2008
Bush administration denies funding for FBI probe of mortgage mess
Bush is withholding money needed by FBI to investigate known corruption and problems. WTF, spend $700 billion on bailout but nothing on investigating the bad guys.

Friday, October 31, 2008
Studs Terkel, Oral Historian And Radio Legend, 96
His conversations with the prominent and the uncelebrated became books that chronicled much of the history of the 20th century. Terkel often said that America suffers from what he described as a sort of national Alzheimer's disease. So he wrote books such as Working, Hard Times & his Pulitzer Prize winner, The Good War - oral histories of labor, the Great Depression and WW II, respectively - to help jog the nation's memory

Friday, October 31, 2008
Dems sketch Obama staff, Cabinet
Here is the list of names being widely discussed in Democratic circles, compiled with the help of ABC's Jonathan Karl and Politico's Ben Smith. Some of the names are more likely than others, but all are being seriously considered by Obama advisers. Some of the sources would be involved in decision making, and some were making educated deductions.

Thursday, October 30, 2008
Australia to implement mandatory internet censorship
starting with porn, where will it end?

Thursday, October 30, 2008
Goldman Sachs ready to hand out $13 BILLION salary and bonus package... after its $11 bn bail-out
Americans are ever the dumbshits. The billions in taxpayer financed bailout money is going to pay multi-million bonuses to those who caused the problem.

Thursday, October 30, 2008
Archaeologists report finding oldest Hebrew text
Carbon dated at 3000 years old in Valley of Elah, could impact on decisions about Jerusalem

Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Rasmussen Poll: Alaska's Stevens Falls Hard After Conviction
Republican Senator Ted Stevens has fallen eight points behind Dem Mark Begich in his bid for re-election, and most Alaska voters now believe Stevens should resign from office. The latest Rasmussen Poll of Alaska voters, conducted a day after Stevens was found guilty of filing false financial disclosure forms, finds that 52% plan to vote for Begich while 44% support Stevens. Only 74% of Republicans will vote for him

Monday, October 27, 2008
Plot to Kill Obama Uncovered
(5 comments) ATF (Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco) discovers skinhead white supremacy group that planned to kill Obama and shoot or decapitate black people in a Tennessee murder spree.

Sunday, October 26, 2008
Republicans fear long exile in the wilderness
In America's conservative heartland the talk now is not just of a win for Obama. With the Democrats poised for gains in the Senate and the House, moderate Republicans fear a wipeout that would leave their party in the grip of evangelicals increasingly out of touch with the public. Could the country be on the brink of change as deep as that ushered in by Reagan?

Saturday, October 25, 2008
Loose Cannon Palin Going Rogue, Rejecting McCain Handler "Guidance"
(5 comments) Palin allies report rising campaign tension

Friday, October 24, 2008
The Stink in Farts Controls Blood Pressure
(3 comments) A smelly rotten-egg gas in farts controls blood pressure in mice, a new study finds. The unpleasant aroma of the gas, called hydrogen sulfide (H2S), can be a little too familiar, as it is expelled by bacteria living in the human colon and eventually makes its way, well, out.

Friday, October 24, 2008
Judge rules for officer Ehren Watada, who refused Iraq duty
If the Army tries to court-martial 1st Lt. Ehren Watada a second time, it cannot prosecute him for refusing to deploy to Iraq, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. The judge dismissed two specifications of a second charge, of conduct unbecoming an officer, related to statements Watada made against the war and against President Bush. He made the statements at a news conference and in a speech at a Veterans for Peace convention.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Alaska funded Palin kids' travel
Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

Monday, October 20, 2008
Chomsky says pick the lesser of two evils
Noam Chomsky: People should vote against McCain and for Obama - but without illusions

Saturday, October 18, 2008
The End of Arrogance: America Loses Its Dominant Economic Role - SPIEGEL ONLINE
The banking crisis is upending American dominance of the financial markets and world politics. And now, of all times, the world is faced with a preeminent power that no longer seems capable of leading and a US president who is not even able to unite his divided nation.

Saturday, October 18, 2008
Sadr urges rejection of U.S.-Iraq pact
Anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr urged Iraq's parliament to reject a pact that would extend U.S. presence in Iraq for three years as tens of thousands of his followers marched through Baghdad's streets Saturday to reinforce that demand. The large turnout points to trouble ahead for the U.S.-Iraqi security deal as Sunni and Shiite lawmakers weigh the political risks associated with the far-reaching agreement.

Saturday, October 18, 2008
Consumer Confidence Drops Record Amount in One Month
US consumer confidence has fallen more sharply this month than in any month since records began in 1978, a widely followed survey showed on Friday, raising fresh fears about consumer spending. The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell from 70.3 in September to 57.5 in October, well below economists’ expectations. Raises danger nation could go into even deeper recession.

Saturday, October 18, 2008
Obama Rally Draws 100,000 in St. Louis MO-- And MO is turning blue
Obama attracted 100,000 people at a Saturday rally here, his biggest crowd ever at a U.S. event. For months Missouri polls put Obama as much as 10% behind McCain. It was widely believed that McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin as his running mate would have won over the state’s conservatives and boosted his chances there. So far, that hasn’t happened. A Rasmussen poll released on Friday shows Obama leading in MO 52% to 46%

Saturday, October 18, 2008
On the Bush administration's approval of the abuse of detainees
What does a country do when compelling evidence shows its leaders have authorised international crimes? At the very least, the next US president must ensure the full facts are established. It will then be for others to decide what follows. But if the US doesn't get its own house in order and restore its reputation for the rule of law, others will surely step in.

Friday, October 17, 2008
Paul Krugman: Let’s Get Fiscal
(2 comments) To get out of the economic slump, the next president should increased government spending and put the concerns about the budget deficit on hold.

Friday, October 17, 2008
Supreme Court blocks Ohio Repblican Effort to Disenfranchise 200,000 Ohio Voters
Republican effort to The US Supreme Court has blocked attempts by the Republican Party to challenge the right of 200,000 new voters to cast their ballots in Ohio. An appeal court had previously backed a complaint brought by the party, which argued that the voters' details did not match federal records.

Friday, October 17, 2008
Ex DOJ Voting Rights Chief: Ex-Voting Rights Chief: ACORN Probe Sign Of DOJ Politicization
"It's Going to Take a Long Time to Cleanse" Department" "a continuation of injecting DOJ into what has clearly become a political issue." "That's really not the proper role for the DOJ, and why their policies counsel otherwise.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Secret Service investigating "Kill Him" threat from Palin rally
(1 comments) will make arrest if perp identified

Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Pakistani, Chinese presidents meet in Beijing
"China is the future of the world. A strong China means a strong Pakistan."

Tuesday, October 14, 2008
The Lone Ranger: Is Sarah Palin Playing with Fire? - SPIEGEL ONLINE
Obama misses the point when he denies that McCain can "in any way" be compared to George Wallace. It was Wallace's stirring up and tolerance of the mob mentality that remains his legacy. Lewis only wanted to warn McCain and Palin that they, too, run the risk of "playing with fire, and, if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all."

Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Who Runs the McCain Campaign; Or Why Aren't We Talking About McCain/Lieberman "˜08? : Rolling Stone
(1 comments) Stop me if you've heard this before: "They" didn't let John McCain pick Joe Lieberman as his running mate. Who is the "they" that has veto power over John McCain? Isn't this his campaign? Isn't he running for the highest executive office in the land. Isn't he aiming to be "the decider" part deux? How is it possible that John McCain isn't even the decider in his own campaign?

Monday, October 13, 2008
Is Drudge Priming a McCain "Reboot" Narrative?
Something is a little bit funny when Matt Drudge is treating 1-2 point gains for McCain in the Rasmussen and Zogby tracking polls as "BREAKING" news. Naturally, Drudge ignores other results like the just-released ABC/WaPo poll that show Obama continuing to gain ground. Drudge has a nose for news, and he knows that a one-point gain in a tracking poll is not news -- unless someone desperately wants it to be.

Monday, October 13, 2008
McCain was not tortured during captivity in North Vietnam, PoW guard claims
(1 comments) The chief prison guard of the jail in which he was held has claimed, "We never tortured McCain. On the contrary, we saved his life, curing him with extremely valuable medicines that at times were not available to our own wounded."

Friday, October 10, 2008
GM, Chrysler hold merger talks
General Motors has held discussions about acquiring Chrysler, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported late Friday.

Thursday, October 9, 2008
Petraeus Talk Bolsters Obama
While McCain Backs Petraeus, General Sounds Notes That Harmonize With Democratic Nominee. ...waded into areas of dispute between Obama and McCain involving Afghanistan, negotiating with adversaries and other recent campaign controversies. Each time, the general either lent tacit support to Obama or denied tacit support to McCain.

Thursday, October 9, 2008
Palin's approach to big oil: more mainstream than mavericky
Ever since Gov. Sarah Palin joined John McCain, the ticket has touted Palin's in-your-face relationships with oil and gas companies. But a review of the Palin administration's record on big oil shows a stance that's in many ways less maverick than mainstream.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008
San Francisco Bay Guardian Endorses Cindy Sheehan
Major newspaper endorses Sheehan

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Palin As the Treasonous Trojan Horse for the Secessionist Alaska Independence Party
(2 comments) Gov. Sarah Palin and her husband have been courting the A.I.P. (Alaskan Independence Party), a treasonous Anti-American group who's founder up to his death in 1993 cursed the American Flag. This is not being taken out of context either. This is not based on sound bites. You have to ask yourself: If someone knows what this groups intentions are before joining or having close associations with them, what do they think of them?

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Jerome Corsi, Obama Smear Author, Detained In Kenya
Slime artist Corsi goes to a nation where Obama is beloved and they basically throw the creep out.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Twitter: An Antidote to Election Day Voting Problems?
We believe that Twitter can be instrumental in this election in correcting for some of the information imbalances that plagues American elections... there is an intersection of heavy voting registration (coinciding with large number of young voters) in battleground precincts in Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina Ohio and Colorado where Twitter can best be put to use to direct Tweeters to specific information or actions...

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
The Palins' un-American activities
"My government is my worst enemy. I'm going to fight them with any means at hand." Sarah Palin's problem is the quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for Palin, that's the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year. "Keep up the good work..."

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Man shot three times by gunman - for wearing Barack Obama T-shirt
(2 comments) a man in London was shot for wearing an "I Believe" tee shirt with a picture of Obama on it.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Andrew Sullivan on the debate: This Was a Mauling
(3 comments) a devastating and possibly electorally fatal debate for McCain. Even on Russia, he sounded a little out of it. ...simply on terms of substance, clarity, empathy, style and authority, this has not just been an Obama victory. It has been a wipe-out.It has been about as big a wipe-out as I can remember in a presidential debate. I don't really see how the McCain campaign survive this.

Monday, October 6, 2008
Half of mammals 'in decline', says extinction Red List
Nearly 40 percent of 44,838 species catalogued are listed as "threatened" with extinction, with 3,000 of them classified as "critically endangered," meaning they face a very high probability of dying out.

Thursday, October 2, 2008
McCain gives up on Michigan in a major retreat
Republican presidential candidate John McCain conceded battleground Michigan to the Democrats on Thursday, GOP officials said, a major retreat as he struggles to regain his footing in a campaign increasingly dominated by economic issues. These officials said McCain was pulling staff and advertising out of the economically distressed Midwestern state. He also canceled a visit slated for next week.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Obama surges in key swing states
(1 comments) In the last 20 days, Sen. Barack Obama has gone from seven points down to eight points up in FL, while widening his leads to eight points in OH and 15 points in PA," Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement. "Sen. McCain has his work cut out for him if he is to win the presidency and there does not appear to be a role model for such a comeback in the last half century

Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Even in Alaska, Palin's popularity is taking a tumble
Palins support has dropped precipitously and she is no longer the most popular governor in America.

Monday, September 29, 2008
John McCain's fans are flipping as he flops
Perhaps most unexpected is the way that conservatives have begun to serve John McCain his head on a plate.

Sunday, September 28, 2008
Kucinich says not enough votes for bailout
"I will tell you right now I don't know if they have votes," said Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio). "If the votes were there, this would be on the floor. The votes aren't there."

Saturday, September 27, 2008
Hollywood great Paul Newman dies at the age of 83
(4 comments) Paul Newman, one of Hollywood's greats, Oscar winner and possessor of quintessential movie-star looks, has died at the age of 83 after a long battle against cancer.

Saturday, September 27, 2008
Did Palin lie about 'trade missions' with Russia?
In an interview with Katie Couric, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin cited "trade missions" with Russia as her one tangible piece of foreign policy experience. What trade missions? Research doesn't show a single Alaska-Russia trade mission since former Democratic governor Tony Knowles visited Siberia in 1997, when Palin was running Wasilla, according to Salon.com.

Saturday, September 27, 2008
Subpoenaed Palin aides could be found in contempt
Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg, a Palin appointee, filed a lawsuit late Thursday asking the courts to declare the subpoenas invalid so the state employees would not be punished for ignoring them.

Thursday, September 25, 2008
Sen. Coburn Blocked Efforts to Fix Mortgage Problems Last Year Because of $1.6 billion Cost
OEN article reported, in November 2007, that Freddie Mac was in deep trouble and one lone senator blocked passage of legislation to help. Too bad Coburn's not up for re-election until 2010

Thursday, September 25, 2008
Google offers $10M for ideas that can 'change the world'
(2 comments) Google Inc. unveiled a $10 million effort to implement ideas that can "change the world by helping as many people as possible." As part of the Project 10^100 (pronounced Project 10 to the 100th), Google plans to ask its users to submit ideas until Oct. 20 for ways to improve people's lives. Google will choose what it feels are the 100 best ideas and then allow its users to vote on which of them should be funded.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Following the Bailout Hearing
(1 comments) excellent observations and quotes from senators-- The Republicans are standing up opposing Bush. They could be the ones who save america from this poisonous solution.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Democrats to let offshore drilling ban expire
emocrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in a months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
House votes to rein in credit-card fees, interest rates
Over the objection of the White House, the House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed legislation to curb what its sponsors regard as abuses and unfair practices in the credit-card industry.

Monday, September 22, 2008
Potentially Largest Cut Diamond Found
could be worth tens of millions

Monday, September 22, 2008
Speaking of OY! John McCain's chief of staff is GAY!!!! "" Political Byline
(2 comments) Over the past month I've been contacted by three different individuals (two of them members of the Log Cabin Republicans) claiming that McCain's Senate chief of staff, Mark Buse, is gay.

Monday, September 22, 2008
Evangelical leader smacks McCain for lack of "˜principle'
Republican Richard Cizik is one of the country's most powerful and outspoken Christian evangelical leaders says, ""I thought John McCain was a principled person," Cizik says. "But John McCain has backed off, not just on climate change but on torture and a sensible tax policy - in other words, he's not the John McCain of 2000. ... He seems to be waffling on issue after issue."

Sunday, September 21, 2008
Krugman on Bailout: No Deal
(1 comments) I hate to say this, but looking at the plan as leaked, I have to say no deal. Not unless Treasury explains, very clearly, why this is supposed to work, other than through having taxpayers pay premium prices for lousy assets. As I posted earlier today, it seems all too likely that a “fair price” [...]

Sunday, September 21, 2008
Josh Marshall: Put on the Brakes (on the Bailout)
(1 comments) the more I look at this plan, the more wrongheaded it seems. But if I'm understanding this deal, the taxpayers are going to pony up close to a trillion dollars to take bad debts off the hands of financial institutions who were foolish enough to make the deals in the first place. And in exchange, I think the tax payers get nothing?

Sunday, September 21, 2008
Paulson Bailout Plan a Historic Swindle
Paulson's rescue plan is all sugar for the villains, lasting pain for the rest of us. Don't let Wall Street get away with this without enacting significant reform.

Sunday, September 21, 2008
McCain Would Banish Political Office Rove Filled
(1 comments) "I would move the political office out of the White House and into the Republican National Committee," McCain said on CBS' "60 Minutes." "We've gotta have a White House that is without politics."

Sunday, September 21, 2008
Pakistan Flew Resupply Missions for Taliban During Fierce Battle With the US
ews from the battlefields in Afghanistan. Apparently, a few Marine officers have noted and reported that Pakistani helicopters are running resupply missions for Taliban fighters inside Afghanistan.

Saturday, September 20, 2008
Clay Shirky Busts The Myth Of Information Overload At Web 2.0 Expo - Digital Life Blog - InformationWeek
Clay Shirky wrote the book, Here Comes Everybody, which I really enjoyed. He's a cutting edge thinker on the ways of the web and worth a read or three.

Saturday, September 20, 2008
The Trillion Dollar Bailout; But Will It Work?
Some are skeptical of the Treasury plan, despite wide agreement on the need for a broad intervention. Paulson and Bernanke are going to scoop up a trillion in bad loans. Which Banks will sell them at a better price than they would have dumped them for, thus giving them a "gift?" And who'll decide which banks get sweet deals? Congress must reject Bush request for $700+ billion

Saturday, September 20, 2008
Firedoglake: Hank Paulson's Raid on the Treasury
The more I look at the Paulson "plan" the more I come to the conclusion it's just an old fashioned stickup. A scam. The Republicans know they have only a few more months, and this is their last raid on the treasury. Republicans created this crisis, and in the way of scam artists everywhere now that there's a crisis they're demanding money and power to fix their own mistakes.

Saturday, September 20, 2008
Federal billions for Wall Street will handcuff next president
(1 comments) The next president will take office in January with little hope of getting his pet programs enacted quickly, if at all, because of already-massive budget deficits likely to balloon even further from the hundreds of billions expected to be used to bail out Wall Street.

Saturday, September 20, 2008
Palin's office now run by McCain campaign
(1 comments) In an angry editorial, the Anchorage Daily News accuses Gov. Sarah Palin of surrendering her office to operatives of the McCain presidential campaign. The newspaper notes that it was a McCain press aide who announced that Todd Palin wouldn't testify in 'troopergate' and that the governor's state-paid press aide wasn't even informed when the campaign held a news conference Monday on 'troopergate.'

Friday, September 19, 2008
Palin nixed from Iran rally
Sarah Palin has been uninvited from attending a rally against Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad next week in New York, one day after Hillary Clinton nixed her appearance at the event because the Alaska governor was slated to be there.

Friday, September 19, 2008
Hillary Clinton: Blocking Care for Women
Last month, the Bush admin launched the latest salvo in its 8-year campaign to undermine women’s rights and women’s health by placing ideology ahead of science: a proposed rule from the Dept of Health & Human Services that would ... require that any health care entity that receives federal financing... certify that none of its employees are required to assist with medical services they find objectionable

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
U.S. to Take Over AIG in $85 Billion Bailout; Central Banks Inject Cash as Credit Dries Up
(1 comments) Emergency Loan Effectively Gives Government Control of Insurer; Historic Move Would Cap 10 Days That Reshaped U.S. Finance. The U.S. government seized control of American International Group Inc. -- one of the world's biggest insurers -- in an $85 billion deal that signaled the intensity of its concerns about the danger a collapse could pose to the financial system.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Sarah Palin's Personal E-Mail Account Hacked
Sarah's Yahoo account was hacked. Problem is, what was she doing using a Yahoo account for official govt business-- That's what we can expect from this extremist who will make Cheney's secrecy look tame.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Israeli Exit polls show clear victory for Livni - First Female Israeli Leader in Over 30 Years
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni won yesterday's Kadima primary, according to exit polls from all three television networks. Livni will now try to form a government as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert steps down amid the corruption investigations against him. According to the polls, Livni will not need a second-round runoff; Livni beat Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz 49 percent to 37 percent

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
A Dissenting Voice as the Genome Is Sifted to Fight Disease
this prodigious labor has produced just a handful of genes that account for very little of the overall genetic risk. “After doing comprehensive studies for common diseases, we can explain only a few percent of the genetic component of most of these traits� we have cracked open the human genome and can look at the entire complement of common genetic variants, and what do we find? Almost nothing. That is beyond belief

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Palin Appointed Middle-School Coach to Board of Game
Alaska's Board of Game is a seven-member body that meets throughout the year for purposes of "conservation and development of game resources." Hunting is an important part of the local culture and attracts tourists. You'd think Palin would find the most qualified people to sit on that board. In Palin's judgment, one of the most qualified people she could find was her retired middle-school basketball coach, Lewis D. Bradley.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
WaPo's Richard Cohen: The Ugly New McCain
(1 comments) McCain has turned ugly. His dishonesty would be unacceptable in any politician, but McCain has always set his own bar higher than most. His opportunistic & irresponsible choice of Sarah Palin as his political heir -- the person in whose hands he would leave the country -- is a form of personal treason, a betrayal of all he once stood for. Palin, no matter what her other attributes, is shockingly unprepared to become president

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
McCain Neuters His Press
a bit of Stockholm Syndrome has developed within the McCain press corps, a sense of awe at how deftly and brazenly the McCain campaign has rendered them useless and plugged its ears to their investigations.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
What illegal "things" was the government doing in 2001-2004?
reporter Barton Gellman's new book on the Cheney Vice Presidency provides still more details on the intense confrontation in March, 2004 between the Bush Justice Department and the Cheney-led White House over the DOJ's refusal to certify the legality of the NSA's domestic spying activities.

Monday, September 15, 2008
A Game Where Resources Dwindle and Partners Shift
In this sweeping, often audacious survey of contemporary geopolitics, Parag Khanna argues that the United States, the European Union and China are imperial powers busy reshaping the globe to suit their interests. Among the superpowers, the big loser could be the United States, which Mr. Khanna describes in contemptuous terms. His admiration for the European Union,

Monday, September 15, 2008
Pink Floyd member Richard Wright dies at age 65
The band released a series of commercially and critically successful albums including 1973's "Dark Side of the Moon," which has sold more than 40 million copies. Wright wrote "The Great Gig in the Sky" and "Us and Them" for that album, and later worked on the group's epic compositions such as "Atom Heart Mother," "Echoes" and "Shine on You Crazy Diamond."

Monday, September 15, 2008
Google To Link Green Data Navy at Sea
The company is considering deploying the supercomputers necessary to operate its internet search engines on barges anchored up to seven miles (11km) offshore. The "water-based data centres" would use wave energy to power and cool their computers, reducing Google's costs. Their offshore status would also mean the company would no longer have to pay property taxes on its data centres, which are sited across the world

Monday, September 15, 2008
Stopping At Nothing To Win
In May 2006, after McCain had courted the Rev. Jerry Falwell in an effort to win conservative support, I asked him if he was bending his principles for the sake of winning. "I don't want it that badly," McCain answered. "I will continue to do what is right. . . . If that means I can't get the Republican nomination, fine. I've had a happy life. The worst thing I can do is sell my soul to the devil." He was right.

Saturday, September 13, 2008
Obama Strategy: Wait for McCain-Palin to Implode?
either the campaign is just organically careful and unwilling to take chances at this point or they have a stealthy double-reverse psychology type of plan. While I fear the former, I'm hoping it's the latter and it goes something like this (follow along).

Saturday, September 13, 2008
McCain campaign systematically targets the news media
Ever since McCain chose Palin as his running mate, his campaign has waged an intensive assault on the news media. Capitalizing on errors, rumors and perceived sexism in the frenzied first round of reporting on Palin, the McCain campaign has taken advantage of a changing media landscape, grouping together blogs and supermarket tabloids with mainstream newspapers and television to tar the media as one corrupt monolith

Saturday, September 13, 2008
Thank God for Barbara Walters?
(1 comments) The View made the front page of the New York Times website. Why? Because unlike so many other mainstream journalists right now, Barbara Walters actually did her job yesterday. John McCain appeared on her show Friday morning in an obvious atempt to pander to its audience of mostly middle aged, white women. Walters took McCain to task. To say that McCain was floundering would be a tremendous understatement.

Saturday, September 13, 2008
Obama Press Secretary: sleaziest and least honorable campaign in modern presidential campaign history
and McCain's people hit back, accusing Obama of campaigning during Hurricane Ike. Hello!! Some people can multi-task.

Saturday, September 13, 2008
Barack Obama under fire for ignoring advice on how to beat John McCain
senators, governors and union leaders with experience winning hard-fought races in swing states have been bombarding Obamas campaign HQ with telephone calls offering advice. But many of those calls have not been returned. A senior Democratic strategist, who has played a prominent role in two presidential campaigns, told The Sunday Telegraph: "These guys are on the verge of blowing the greatest gimme in the hi

Saturday, September 13, 2008
Paul Theroux on why moose hunting is now seen as a possible Republican vote-getter
(1 comments) The killing of a moose is in Thoreau's view always a tragedy. He witnessed one being shot, and "nature looked sternly upon me on account of the murder of the moose".

Friday, September 12, 2008
Palin Links Iraq to Sept. 11 In Talk to Troops in Alaska
(3 comments) Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would "defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans."

Friday, September 12, 2008
Paul Krugman: Blizzard of Lies
(1 comments) Did you hear about how Barack Obama wants to have sex education in kindergarten, and called Sarah Palin a pig? Did you hear about how Ms. Palin told Congress, “Thanks, but no thanks� when it wanted to buy Alaska a Bridge to Nowhere? These stories have two things in common: they’re all claims recently made by the McCain campaign — and they’re all out-and-out lies.

Thursday, September 11, 2008
Oil brokers sex scandal may affect drilling debate
A scandal involving sex, drugs and - uh, offshore oil drilling. It's a strange mix, and it couldn't have come at a worse time for those in Congress pressing to expand oil and gas development off America's beaches while trying to stave off an election-year rush by Democrats to impose new taxes and royalties on the oil industry. An Interior Department investigation describes a "culture of substance abuse and promiscuity...