DEDICATED TO EXPOSING DISINFORMATION AND PROPAGANDA AND TO PROMOTING UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS - WITH SHARP ANALYSIS AND BLUNT COMMENTARY. NO ADS. NO TIP-JAR. JUST THE TRUTH.
So Hillary has changed her mind and will negotiate with Iran. Given her triple talk at the last Democratic debate, odds are she'll change her mind fourteen or fifteen more times before the general election, so we may end up okay.
George Bush has accomplished what Bill Clinton could not (and neither the BBC, nor CNN give him credit for it):Sung Kim is leading the team of experts in Pyongyang. A team of US technicians is due to begin disabling North Korea's nuclear complex on Monday with Pyongyang's permission, a top US envoy has said.
The technicians have left Pyongyang and are due to arrive at the main nuclear site, Yongbyon, on Sunday, according to Christopher Hill.
Pyongyang agreed to disabling in return for aid and security guarantees.
It shut down its reactor at Yongbyon in July and is to give details of its programme by the end of the year.
Speaking in Tokyo, Mr Hill said the US experts would start disabling the reactor, North Korea's only functioning one, and two other facilities on Monday.
"It's a very big day because it's the first time it [North Korea] is actually going to start dismantling its nuclear programme," he added.
.- A Bay Area Middle School has canceled a scheduled cross-dressing or “gender-switch” day after parents complained, according to an Oct. 30 Pacific Justice Institute news release. The Sacramento-based institute is a legal organization that defends parental rights, religious freedom, and other civil liberties.Adams Middle School in Brentwood encouraged students to cross-dress – boys wearing girls clothing, girls wearing boys’ clothing – on the last day of “Spirit Week,” Friday, Nov. 2. Parents were given little notice of the event, said the Pacific Justice Institute, and only found out about it after flyers were posted at the school.
A parent of a seventh-grader met with the principal, Adam Clark, to voice her concerns about the event, and was told that it would go ahead as planned. Clark told the parent she could keep her son home if he did not want to be part of the event. The parent contacted Pacific Justice Institute, which told her she needed to enlist other parents to contact the school with their concerns. The Institute itself prepared to intervene, if necessary.
On Oct. 30, the school removed the flyers advertising the event and confirmed it had been canceled. Instead, the school encourages students to wear school colors. Clark told Institute attorney Matthew McReynolds, “We want to encourage our students to be free thinkers, [but] we felt that the overall message wasn’t coming across clear to some members of the community.”
Most commentators who oppose capital punishment assert that an execution has no deterrent effect on future crimes. Recent evidence, however, suggests that the death penalty, when carried out, has an enormous deterrent effect on the number of murders. More precisely, our recent research shows that each execution carried out is correlated with about 74 fewer murders the following year.Here, fair use, is the graphic:
Scores of Fatah policemen who used to serve in the Palestinian Authority security forces in the Gaza Strip have now joined the al-Qaida-affiliated group calling itself the Army of Islam, sources in the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry told The Jerusalem Post Thursday.Meanwhile, we're also told that the US okayed wide-scale IDF operations in Gaza. Of course, with politicians like these in charge in Israel, it figures that we'd have to get the Dubya administration's green light to conduct these sort of things, wouldn't we?
Meanwhile, Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, claimed responsibility for firing 20 rockets from the Gaza Strip recently. The group said the attacks signaled the beginning of a military campaign dubbed "Operation Gaza Autumn," in the course of which it would fire hundreds of rockets at Israeli communities.
The Pakistani leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, declared a state of emergency about 6 p.m. local time today, Pakistani television reported.THIS SITUATION IS NOT A SURPRISE. PAKISTAN HAS HAD MILITARY RULE FOR MOST OF THE LAST 60 YEARS.
All members of the Supreme Court were required to sign a new provisional constitutional order mandating the state of emergency, but 8 of the 11 justices signed an order calling the state of emergency illegal and gathered at the Supreme Court building, said Gohar Khan.
The declaration came days before the Supreme Court was expected to rule on the constitutionality of General Musharraf's re-election as president last month and of his ability to serve as both the country's president and military leader.
Just after 5 p.m. signs that a state of emergency would be declared started to emerge. All television stations were blocked as news media were reporting a meeting of General Musharraf and his top aides in the president's office.
A Pakistani intelligence official said that a list had been prepared of prominent Pakistani journalists and opposition politicians who would be detained.
Before transmission was cut off, Pakistani media reported that 1,000 additional police had been deployed in Islamabad, the capital, but as of 5:30 no additional police could be seen. Groups of journalists had gathered in front of the country's Supreme Court in expectation that judges could be detained.
Government officials have said over the past several days that if a state of emergency were declared, they would not declare martial law.
A senior American commander, Adm. William J. Fallon, warned Pakistan’s president on Friday not to impose emergency rule, saying that doing so would jeopardize American financial support for the military here.
Admiral Fallon met here with the Pakistani leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and his top generals to discuss a range of issues related to combating terrorism, including the Pakistani Army’s faltering efforts against Islamic militants sympathetic to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, diplomats said.
The long-planned visit was at an increasingly tense time. As the date approaches for the Supreme Court to rule on whether General Musharraf can continue as president, his aides have been spreading the word that the general is considering imposing emergency rule. The court’s ruling is expected next week. Diplomats said drafts of a provisional constitutional order allowing for emergency rule had been prepared.
Admiral Fallon’s warning underscored a flurry of appeals in the past few days by Western governments for General Musharraf to abandon plans for emergency rule, a Western diplomat said.
It's very rare that I find myself in total agreement with Markos Moulitsas, creator of Daily Kos. But he calls John Edwards' response to Hillary Clinton's "pile-on" video "devastating," and I have to agree. It is the "I voted for it before I voted against it" moment, on three different issues - Iraq, Social Security, and Immigration.
My hat is off to Team Edwards. This is the toughest, most effective web ad I've seen this campaign so far. Somehow it manages to be simultaneously brutal and fair, contrasting Hillary's own words with herself, often only seconds apart.
It's not that she doesn't know what she believes; it's that she's afraid to tell us what she believes. She's afraid to tell us what she really wants to do. The Clintons want to appear to be for and against everything. They want to play both sides of every issue down the middle so you never really know, because the purpose of this is to cover the agenda, cover it up, and then prevent it from actually getting out. We know what the agenda is......one day she wants to be thought of as strong like a man, as a member of the boys club. Then the other times, she's just this victim... "They're beating up on a girl! ...It isn't fair! So I'm going to go play the gender card. I'm going to go back to Wellesley."
...this is not working out [for her]. It's not. She's blowing this big time, I'm telling you. Not with rank-and-file Democrats... but the undecideds, the so-called independents. ...So now she's a girl. Before she was just as good as a man, just as strong as a man. So what are we to do now? How are we supposed to treat and how are we supposed to react to Mrs. Clinton? Is Hillary equal to a man? Is Hillary a girl? What do her supporters want us to know now? What does Clinton, Inc., want us to think of her, and what are they going to want us to think next hour? Is she a girl now, or is she a man?
...Rather than rebut her rivals' charges or confront the issues with facts and details, Clinton accused her rivals of ganging up on her. So rather than answer the questions and rather than deal with the issues, "They're hitting me! I'm a girl! They're ganging up on me!"
By more than a two-to-one vote, members of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh voted Friday in favor of separating from the national church because of a theological rift that began with the consecration of an openly gay bishop in 2003.
The vote sets the stage for what could become a protracted legal battle between the diocese and the Episcopal Church U.S.A., which had warned Pittsburgh’s bishop not to go forward with the vote.
After passionate appeals from both sides of the debate, clergy members and lay people voted 227 to 82 to “realign” the conservative diocese.
If Friday’s vote is approved again in a year, the diocese will begin steps to remove itself from the American church and join with another province in the worldwide Anglican Communion.
After the vote, Bishop Robert W. Duncan of Pittsburgh, who is also moderator of the Anglican Communion Network, an alliance of conservative dioceses and parishes, defended the decision.
“What we’re trying to do is state clearly in the United States for the authority of Scripture,” Bishop Duncan said after the vote, taken during the diocese’s annual convention in this city about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh.
The vote was necessary, he said, because the more liberal bishops now in the majority in the national church “have hijacked my church, and that’s how most of the people here feel.”
'Big Thaw,' a summertime spectacular in National Geographic magazine, provided awesome scenes of climate-change catastrophes.
The glaciers are melting. The ice sheets are melting. They're sliding rapidly out to sea. More rapidly than anyone imagined. Look for the ice sheets to collapse. Look for sea levels to rise. Etc. Etc.
National Geographic's breathless account, brilliantly illustrated with the stunning photography for which it is famous, won headlines around the world. It has been dramatized and magnified on nightly newscasts and blogs alike, and has become a staple in the popular imagination.
But it won't happen, says Prof. Cliff Ollier of the University of Western Australia. "Rapid melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets is impossible."
The National Geographic descriptions, on their face, seem plausible. "Ice seems rock hard when you crunch an ice cube or slip on a frozen puddle. But when piled in a great mass, ice oozes like slow, cold taffy," the article explained. "On Greenland, it flows outward from the heart of the ice sheet, a dome of ice the size of the Gulf of Mexico ... Four miles [six kilometres] wide and several thousand feet thick, Jakobshavn is an icy Amazon, disgorging more ice than any other Greenland glacier."
The article described fast-flowing glaciers such as Greenland's Jakobshavn. "In the past decade it doubled its speed, to roughly 120 feet [37 meters] a day. By now it discharges 11 cubic miles [45 cubic kilometres] of ice each year, jamming the fjord with fresh icebergs. As a result, Greenland lost 54 cubic miles of ice in 2005, more than twice as much as 10 years ago--"and more than some scientists were prepared to believe."
More alarmingly, the article reports that Greenland's ice sheet is starting to stir -- satellites have detected a weakening of Greenland's gravity --and that the same stirring may be occurring in Antarctica. The article describes a thinning Antarctic ice plain "of dead-flat ice" that in the next decade will be thin enough to float free.
"Once that happens and the ocean intrudes, a chain reaction of collapse could follow," the National Geographic article continues. "The bed is very deep and flat for the next 150 miles inland, so an enormous fjord would be created in the ice ... That would put the nail in the coffin -- it would go on accelerating, retreating, and drain a lot of that part of West Antarctica."
All this, Prof. Ollier explains, is nonsense. The scenarios raised in the National Geographic article stem from models divorced from the real world. They rely on imaginary glaciers and ice sheets -- not on the actual formations that exist in Greenland and Antarctica -- and demonstrate no understanding of how glaciers flow.
As one example, the models rely "on the concept of an ice sheet sliding down an inclined plane on a base lubricated by meltwater, which is itself increasing because of global warming," Prof. Ollier explains. "In reality, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets occupy deep basins, and cannot slide down a plane."
Ice sheets, which can extend to a depth of several kilometres below the surface, can melt at their base -- the warmest part of the ice sheet, due to the heat of the Earth. The drilling of ice cores, revealing complete records of depositions over periods of hundreds of thousands of years, show that the ice sheets have accumulated without melting, even when temperatures have been warmer than now.
"Ice sheets do not melt from the surface down -- only at the edges," Prof. Ollier explains. The modellers' mechanism that has "meltwater lakes on the surface finding their way down through cracks in the ice and lubricating the bottom of the glacier is not compatible with accumulation of undisturbed snow layers."
In truth, the rate of ice flow now seen in the polar regions does not depend on the present climate, but on the accumulation of ice that occurred in the distant past. Neither is today's warming extraordinary: "Arctic explorers used to get their ships a lot closer to northern Green-land than you could now," he explains.
The records "do not fit the model of surface melting, even infrequently. After three-quarters of a million years of documented continuous accumulation, how can we believe that right now the world's ice sheets are collapsing!" 'The Big Thaw' is a Big Saw.
Bush Unemployment Rate Bests Clinton Years
Don't expect to see this in the MSM headlines any time soon...
Despite inheriting the Clinton Recession and managing through the corporate scandals and the 9-11 attacks that crippled the US economy, the average monthly unemployment rate during the Bush years now bests the Clinton years:
Which is why Hillary's problem goes beyond discomfort with dynastic succession. It's deep unease about a shared presidency. Forget about Bill, the bad boy. The problem is William Jefferson Clinton, former president of the United States, commander in chief of the Armed Forces, George Washington's representative on earth.Read the whole thing. (h/t Glenn Reynolds).We have never had an ex-president move back into the White House. When in 1992 Bill Clinton promised "two for the price of one," it was taken as a slightly hyperbolic promotion of the role of first lady. This time we would literally be getting two presidents.
Any ex-president is a presence in his own right. His stature, unlike, say, Hillary's during Bill's presidency, is independent of his spouse. From day one of Hillary's inauguration, Bill will have had more experience than her at everything she touches. His influence on her presidency would necessarily be immeasurably greater than that of any father on any son.
Americans did not like the idea of a co-presidency when, at the 1980 Republican convention, Ronald Reagan briefly considered sharing the office with former President Gerald Ford. (Ford would have been vice president with independent powers.) And they won't like this co-presidency, particularly because the Clinton partnership involves two characters caught in the dynamic of a strained, strange marriage.
The cloud hovering over a Hillary presidency is not Bill padding around the White House in robe and slippers flipping thongs. It's President Clinton, in suit and tie, simply present in the White House when any decision is made. The degree of his involvement in that decision will inevitably become an issue. Do Americans really want a historically unique two-headed presidency constantly buffeted by the dynamics of a highly dysfunctional marriage?
A federal database of more than 40 million "problem drivers" contains hundreds of thousands of phony Social Security numbers, a new report says.Plenty of blame to go around on this story. And Social Security numbers can be used for lots more than getting a driver's license.
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General estimates there are more than 600,000 invalid Social Security numbers — such as 111-22-3333 and 222-33-4444 — in the National Driver Registry. The database also contains about 161,000 duplicate numbers in which different drivers are using the same Social Security information.
The federal government pays $4 million a year for the National Driver Registry, which enables states to share information to prevent "license shopping," where drivers with revoked or suspended licenses try to get licenses in other states.
[...]
The report found that records for millions of problem drivers "were not recorded until at least one year after conviction — and incomplete or inaccurate information on Social Security numbers and drivers' physical attributes such as height, weight and eye color."
The lack of timely reporting by states could allow drivers convicted of drunken driving and other offenses to get licenses in other states, the report found....
I wonder why no one in the UN asks the obvious question: when will the Palestinian leaders lay down their arms and attempt to live in peace with their neighbors? The suffering of the Palestinian people is due solely to their corrupt, despicable leadership."The indefatigable Harrison Sonntag of Dartmouth notifies me that Google has removed the video of my talk at Dartmouth, with this explanation: "As set forth in the Terms & Conditions, Google Video is not required to host or display uploaded content. Google Video may refuse to host content that violates its policies"
Sometimes even a blind squirrel finds a nut
Scientists have struggled to unravel a series of mysteries over the last few decades: where matter goes when it is sucked into a black hole; the structure of gravitational waves; and how this blog was named a 2007 Blog Awards Finalist.Yep, it happened again. Thanks to my loyal cadre of six regular readers (thanks, Mom!), I've hit the blog jackpot again this year. Endorsements, award shows, and a steady stream of bribes from the Vast Right-wing Conspiracy aren't in the cards. But chicks seem to dig it.
In all seriousness, I'd like to say thanks to Kevin Aylward and the entire Wizbang gang for slogging through thousands of blogs to pick all of the finalists.
Polling begins in a few days. If you'd like to throw a pity vote my way, bookmark my site and visit every 24 hours (that's the maximum frequency that folks can vote). Your reward? On your deathbed, you'll achieve total consciousness. So you've got that going for you.Labels: Water-cooler
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I WASN'T GOING TO RESPOND when Andrew Sullivan -- deliberately, or in unforgivable cluelessness -- transformed my statement about leaving the Libertarian Party into something about not being a libertarian at all.Sullivan's attack on Reynolds is Stalinist because it demonstrates how the postmodern Left doesn't tolerate any deviation from the party-line and how they attack and ostracize anyone who breaks ranks.
Andrew says a lot of silly things about me these days, and life is too short to pay attention to them.
But now that silliness seems to be spreading. So let me repeat what I said before: "But note that no longer being a member of the Libertarian Party is hardly the same thing as not being a libertarian. If it were, there would be precious few libertarians left."
Anyone who can't understand the difference between libertarian ideas and the Libertarian Party probably isn't smart enough to be blogging, and certainly shouldn't have his page topped with the words "Of no party or clique."
GOD BLESS HIM.General Tibbets always said he had no regrets
General Paul Tibbets the commander of the B-29 plane that dropped the first atomic bomb, on Hiroshima in Japan, has died.
Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr died at his home in Columbus, Ohio, aged 92.
The five-ton "Little Boy" bomb was dropped on the morning of 6 August 1945, killing about 140,000 Japanese, with many more dying later.
On the 60th anniversary of the bombing, the three surviving crew members of the Enola Gay - named after Tibbet's mother - said they had "no regrets".
A friend of the retired brigadier-general told AP news agency that Paul Tibbets had died after a two-month decline in health.
Gen Tibbets had asked for no funeral nor headstone as he feared opponents of the bombing may use it as a place of protest, the friend, Gerry Newhouse, said.
The bombing of Hiroshima marked the beginning of the end of the war in the Pacific. Japan surrendered shortly after a second bomb was dropped, on Nagasaki, three days later.
On the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima, the surviving members of the Enola Gay crew - Gen Tibbets, Theodore J "Dutch" Van Kirk (the navigator) and Morris R Jeppson (weapon test officer) said: "The use of the atomic weapon was a necessary moment in history. We have no regrets".
Gen Tibbets said then: "Thousands of former soldiers and military family members have expressed a particularly touching and personal gratitude suggesting that they might not be alive today had it been necessary to resort to an invasion of the Japanese home islands to end the fighting."
Senator Barack Obama said he would “engage in aggressive personal diplomacy” with Iran if elected president, and would offer economic inducements and a possible promise not to seek “regime change” if Iran stopped meddling in Iraq and cooperated on terrorism and nuclear issues.
In an hourlong interview on Wednesday, Mr. Obama made clear that forging a new relationship with Iran would be a major element of what he pledged would be a broad effort to stabilize Iraq as he executed a speedy timetable for the withdrawal of American combat troops.
Mr. Obama said that Iran had been “acting irresponsibly” by supporting Shiite militant groups in Iraq. He also emphasized that Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program and its support for “terrorist activities” were serious concerns.
Wellesley, Mass., Nov. 1—Hillary Clinton reached out to young women voters in an emotional return today to her alma mater, Wellesley College, where she said that “in so many ways, this all-women’s college prepared me to compete in the all-boys’ club of presidential politics.”MAYBE IT SHOULD JUST READ: "REACHED OUT TO YOUNG WOMEN..."?
Hillary Lesbian Rumor Given Weight by DOJ OfficialMAYBE THIS IS THE STORY THAT RON ROSENBAUM SAYS THE LA TIMES IS COVERING UP?
We’re still a bit incredulous on this one, but a top level U.S. Department of Justice official is telling Big Head DC that Michael Musto’s rumor about Hillary Clinton fooling around with one of her top female aides Huma Abedin is based in reality!
“I am close enough to Hillary and Huma to tell you that this ‘rumor’ is true,” the official says. “It is well known inside her campaign that Hillary and Huma are an item.
“If you call Hillary’s residence in DC first thing in the morning, Huma answers the phone,” the official continues. “Same thing late at night and on the road. It’s a closely guarded secret that Hillary’s inner circle guards at all costs.”
Make of that what you will, kids. But know this: The official is someone who has proven highly credible in the past.
Wellesley women line up for ClintonWILL HUMA BE JEALOUS?
After a lengthy critique of Bush administration education policies, Biden attempted to explain why some schools perform better than others -- for instance, in Iowa, as compared to Washington D.C.
"There's less than one percent of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than four of five percent that are minorities. What is in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you're dealing with," said Biden.
"When you have children coming from dysfunctional homes, when you have children coming from homes where there's no books, where the mother from the time they're born doesn't talk to them -- as opposed to the mother in Iowa who's sitting out there and talks to them, the kid starts out with a 300 word larger vocabulary at age three. Half this education gap exists before the kid steps foot in the classroom," Biden said.
Why is that worse? He didn't use the "N" word, did he? No. What he said was worse than that. Because instead of just using a trashy epithet, he went out of his way to explicitly opine that all black children come from dysfunctional homes without books and without mothers to talk to them. That's really far more vicious than merely using a trashy epithet that hip hop rappers use fifty times in a 2 minute video.
But he gets a complete pass from the drive-by media.
Without alternative internet media, like Newsbusters or Hot Air, the story would have disappeared. Did you hear anything about Al Sharpton denouncing him? Did a long line of Senators demand that he apologize from the pit of the Senate?
Hasbro’s G.I. Joe Team wanted to take this opportunity to clarify some of the facts regarding the G.I. Joe live-action movie that we are developing with Paramount Pictures.Okay, so they've responded to the controversy. That's admirable. But there's still one thing not entirely clear here - will the name be made into an acronym like "Global Integrated Joe", as was said to be the intention some time ago, instead of "Government Issued Joe"? And, while it may be set in the United States in the Joes' Pit base, still unanswered is the question of if they'll be providing any clearly American values without acting as though they're ashamed of it?
First and foremost, we are not changing what the G.I. Joe brand is about. The name “G.I. Joe” will always be synonymous with bravery and heroism.
The G.I. Joe brand has enjoyed a successful 43-year history, spanning two key generations. The first was the line of 12-inch “realistic military” figures that were popular with kids in the 1960s and 1970s.
The second generation, was created in 1982, and is based on a cast of fictional heroes and villains that make up the “G.I. Joe vs. Cobra” fantasy. The premise of this fantasy is the story of the G.I. Joe team, led by Duke, and their “fight for freedom wherever there is trouble” against the evil Cobra Commander and his Cobra force. This storyline was an instant hit with kids in the early 1980s, spawning a highly popular 3-3/4-inch action figure line, comic book collection and animated series.
This movie will be a modern telling of the “G.I. Joe vs. Cobra” storyline and its compelling characters that Hasbro created 25 years ago. The G.I. Joe team will not be based in Brussels. Instead, they will be based out of the “Pit” as they were throughout the 1980s comic book series. And, in keeping with the G.I. Joe vs. Cobra fantasy, the movie will feature characters and locations from around the world. Duke, the lead character and head of the G.I. Joe team, will embody the values of bravery and heroism that the first generation of G.I. Joe figures established.
G.I. Joe is a very important property to Hasbro and we thank all of our fans for their enthusiasm. Without all of you, the brand would not be where it is today.
Thank you.
OK, Rudy Giuliani has just released an ad claiming that the survival rate from prostate cancer is much higher in America than in Britain, thus proving the failure of socialized medicine.
The problem is that his claim is just plain false. In fact, mortality rates from prostate cancer are almost the same in America and Britain.
So, will this get as much attention as, say, the Edwards haircut or the Hillary laugh? Will it get any coverage at all? Bear in mind that health care is the central domestic issue of this election — and Rudy has just showed that he doesn’t know a thing about it.
"For an incident that occured last Thursday, you think there would have been a bit more attention. Considering the amount of coverage the purported noose hanging incident received at Columbia, it's curious why there's a virtual media blackout with this latest reported case."Police are looking into a new bias incident at Columbia University. The provost of Teachers College told students Friday that two faculty members received an anti-Semitic cartoon and anti-Zionist letters. School officials have not released the names of the two professors. Police say the hate crimes unit is aware of the incident.
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