Senate Democrats on Tuesday deferred debate on revoking President George W. Bush's Iraq war authority, after failing to reach consensus on the best way to hasten the end of US military involvement there.
The Senate had considered taking up an amendment proposed by Democratic senators Carl Levin and Joseph Biden which would revoke the president's 2002 authorization to wage war in Iraq.
The bill, one of several Iraq-related measure slated for debate, was to have been introduced as an amendment to homeland security legislation which went to the Senate floor Tuesday.
But Democrats decided to hold off on the de-authorization debate out of deference to the survivors of the September 11, 2001 attacks, some of whom had voiced concern that the domestic security legislation would get bogged down in a raucous floor debate over Iraq.
"The idea is not to do it on this bill because of the concerns of the 9/11 survivors and families," Democratic Senator Russ Feingold told reporters.
Democrats, who were elected in November with a mandate to change the course of US policy in Iraq, are united in their desire to craft an exit strategy from the wartorn country.
Feingold said however that they are divided by "a variety of viewpoints" on how to achieve that aim. Various bills and amendments under discussion include reducing the number of troops in Iraq; setting performance benchmarks on the Iraqi government; and even cutting funding for military options in Iraq.
"There is a problem with disagreement about this war and what we should do -- particularly about the funding issue," Feingold told reporters.
He said however that Democratic differences will have to be ironed out quickly, since the Iraq question is likely to be next on the Senate's agenda once work on the 9/11 bill is completed in the next several days.
"Disagreements will come and we'll have to work them out," Feingold said.
“In the most definitive statement in years,” Mike McConnell, the new director of national intelligence, said yesterday that “Osama bin laden is in Pakistan actively re-establishing al Qaeda training camps.” He also admitted to the Senate that the “term ‘civil war’ accurately describes key elements of the Iraqi conflict.”
what do you guys think of JM's post yesterday, that the administration doesn't even know which war it wants to fight anymore...ie siding with Sunni's in SA and Shia in Iraq.
The United States yesterday agreed “join high-level talks” at a pair of regional conferences on the future of the Iraq, at which Syria and Iran will also be present. The Washington Post noted it is an “abrupt shift in policy that opens the door to diplomatic dealings the White House had shunned in recent months despite mounting criticism.”
With the House expected to vote Thursday on the pro-worker Employee Free Choice Act, “a business coalition launched a six-figure radio ad campaign late Tuesday in an attempt to convince three Democratic freshmen who represent conservative districts to defy organized labor and vote against the bill.”
toniD said... The United States yesterday agreed “join high-level talks” at a pair of regional conferences on the future of the Iraq, at which Syria and Iran will also be present. The Washington Post noted it is an “abrupt shift in policy that opens the door to diplomatic dealings the White House had shunned in recent months despite mounting criticism.”
Morning Edna, maybe an answer to your question....
Economy appears headed for a period of turbulence By Kevin G. Hall McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Tuesday's stock market plunge shows the start of a "correction," the age-old euphemism for a steep drop in stock prices, but it may also signal worse news than that.
A steady stream of recent data shows mixed signals about where the U.S. economy is headed. The old sage himself, Alan Greenspan, suggests recession could be looming.
Fasten your seat belts - some economic chop could be coming.
The Dow Jones industrial index fell more than 416 points, or 3.29 percent, in trading Tuesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was off by 3.86 percent, and the S&P 500 was off by 3.47 percent. It was the largest one-day drop for markets since Sept. 17, 2001, the first day trading resumed after the Sept. 11 terror attacks
Tuesday's drops mirrored a global decline in stock markets as the investor mood turned bearish. Investors, who have been murmuring about a coming "correction" for weeks, are concerned that the U.S. and Chinese economies may be entering a period of cooling.
The drop underscores how connected the U.S. economy is now with the broader global economy. U.S. exchanges sank following a nearly 9 percent drop Tuesday on China's Shanghai Composite Index. It was the Shanghai's biggest one-day drop in a decade, and investors worried that interest rates may soon rise to douse China's sizzling economic growth.
Italy's Stromboli erupts, people told to quit coast 28 Feb 2007 13:16:47 GMT Source: Reuters By Antonio Parrinello
STROMBOLI, Italy, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Spectacular eruptions from the volcano on the southern Italian island of Stromboli may cause tidal waves, and all locals and tourists should stay away from the coast, emergency services said on Wednesday.
Two big lava flows burst out of Stromboli's side on Tuesday, sending up vast plumes of steam as they plunged into the Mediterranean waters below. Authorities said there was no immediate risk to people living on the island, off the coast of Sicily.
"The eruption (lava flows) are very well fed," said Enzo Boschi, head of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology.
"But there's no reason to think that anything extraordinary will happen in the short term. The population is not at risk."
Locals fear a repeat of the events of December 2002 when a similar upsurge in volcanic activity caused a massive chunk of rock to drop into the sea, causing a 10-metre (33 foot) tidal wave that ruined houses close to the shore.
Emergency sirens sounded on the island when the new eruption began and local authorities ordered all residents to move to at least 10 metres above the water line.
The lava is flowing down an uninhabited part of the island and the risk, either of a greater eruption or of a tsunami, have not been deemed great enough to prompt a full-scale evacuation.
In winter only a few hundred people live on Stromboli, but the population swells to several thousand in the summer.
Tourists are drawn to climb to the 924 metre (3,000 ft) summit of the live volcano and peer down into its crater as the volcano blasts molten rock high into the sky.
The island was the setting for a 1950 movie starring Ingrid Bergman and in recent decades has, along with other islands in the Aeolian archipelago, become a favourite location for holiday homes for the rich and famous.
Designers Dolce & Gabbana, writer Umberto Eco and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano are all reported to have homes on Stromboli. (Additional reporting by Antonella Ciancio in Milan)
bibimimi troll'p said... Stevo said... Support our troops. Unless of course they need reliable equipment in the field or healthcare when they come home.
February 28, 2007 6:28 AM
Protect the unborn. But after they pass through that nasty vagina, thy are on their own!
We need more babies so they can grow up to become dead soldiers. Duh!
Glenn Beck, Politico's Allen tag-teamed to mock Gore's appearance
http://mediamatters.org/items/200702270010
On the February 26 edition of his CNN Headline News program, host Glenn Beck and guest Mike Allen, chief political writer for The Politico, discussed former Vice President Al Gore's appearance at the previous night's Academy Awards ceremony, in which An Inconvenient Truth won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, by trading attempted quips about Gore's weight. Beck said that "after the 2000 election," Gore looked like he was "on the doughnuts and Jack Daniels diet." After Beck noted that Gore has "found himself in a place where he's like, 'Holy cow, I'm cool all of a sudden?' " Allen said: "Yeah, well, he probably doesn't appreciate the 'holy cow' references. ... [H]e was a little bit jowly." Beck replied: "Let me make the fat jokes, will you? Geez."
US is in a de facto alliance with Al Qaeda. Weren't they supposed to be the bad guys?
Of course, all the right leaning heads on Scarborough Country last night said they don't believe it. They want to see proof. They'll admit we might be supporting Sunni extremist groups with close ties to Al Qaeda, but we're not supporting Al Qaeda.
Have you already commented on the attempted smear on Gore about the energy use in his house? Turns out the "non-partisan" source was an AEI funded group.
"Support our troops. Unless of course they need reliable equipment in the field or healthcare when they come home."
Ya, and billions of dolloars for developing the weapons of the future. Maybe when they say support the troops, they really mean the troops in the year 2020.
i think the comparative analogy between conservatism and latin just isn't right. consider that latin is the root language for most western languages. the reason for learning latin is to provide a base for understanding a wide range of other languages.
i would never consider teaching conservatism so that one can have a broader understanding of viable socio-political philosophys.
Did you hear about the oral argument before the Supreme Court today, essentially amounting to an argument over whether or not the establishment clause can be circumvented by having the executive branch fund religious initiatives? Basically, the argument is that the 1st Amendment says "Congress shall make no law," and if the president funds the christian coalition through faith-based initiatives that require people to be proseletyzed to, that's fine.
How come all these "conservatives never noticed that the entire conservative movement is about change? What's the point of having a big movement like that if you don't want change?
(Don't BS me about how they are fiscal conservatives - they have never in history been fiscally conservative when in power.)
Oh, and "cache" is pronounced "cash". ("caché" is pronounced "chash-ay", she typed, hoping the blogger comments will pick up the html.)
Those same Scarborough Country righty talking heads last night, were saying "what we really need is an expanded military." I was wondering where they are planning on getting this expanded military from. Are they going to get robots to fight? Are we going to start a foreign legion? Sounded to me like fantasy.
The saving grace was Katrina vanden Heuvel, the voice of reason, against an avalanche of bs rhetoric.
From McClatchy's, seems Greenspan is still the last word...
John Silvia sees the U.S. economy as being "on the edge of a knife." He's the chief economist for Wachovia, a large national bank based in Charlotte, N.C. He sees below-trend economic growth, corporate profits leveling off and short-term lending rates higher than longer-term rates. This phenomenon, called the inverted yield curve, historically has been a harbinger of recession.
"When you go into a fog, it's hard to make commitments as an investor," Silvia said. "It's not the time to make big bets."
That cautious view sounds remarkably like former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who told businessmen in Hong Kong on Monday that a U.S. recession was possible late this year or early next year.
While the "r" word got the headlines, Greenspan also warned that risk premiums are unusually low, meaning that lenders aren't demanding higher returns for riskier investments as they should.
"Risk is no longer perceived as major risk, at least as it was in years past, and that, I must say, I find disturbing," Greenspan said, according to The Wall Street Journal. "We do not and cannot look into history without being very concerned when you see the absence of awareness and concern about risk that we see today."
The concern sounded remarkably like Greenspan's warning in the 1990s that stock market investors were suffering from "irrational exuberance," a warning of the bubble that eventually burst and brought recession in 2001.
c'mon you know they already do. (do that voodoo that they do.)
---The work taking place at CISCOR has the attention of the U.S. military. The Army Research Lab currently is funding the center with $500,000 per year for eight years to pursue its research on unmanned robotics. Another $200,000 also has been provided to fund research on human-robot interaction, with prospects for a second year of funding. "To be able to assist in the creation of a new technology that might one day save soldiers' lives is a wonderful thing," Collins said. "But we're also excited about some of the other potential applications for this technology that could be used right here in Florida. Search-and-rescue teams could directly benefit from this research, for example, and office, factory and agricultural environments also could see breakthroughs based on this technology." For more information about CISCOR's research projects, please see www.eng.fsu.edu/ciscor/.
There's nothing wrong with the markets, it was just a computer glitch. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. These aren't the droids you're looking for. Move along, move along.
Mornin Bib! Yup like a foot...the County office is closed...
I usually teach my internet class to the elders today at the local ISP office...but I can't go...So my boss svys well call the radio station if you can't get hold of them...Now I'm wondering why the very RIGHT radio station owns an ISP too...
“Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media,” the Army Times reports. Soldiers said an official told them “they must follow their chain of command when asking for help with their medical evaluation paperwork, or when they spot mold, mice or other problems in their quarters.”
HUD gets new view of who's homeless Posted 2/27/2007 11:48 PM ET By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY A groundbreaking survey of homelessness being released today found that 704,000 people nationwide sought shelter at least once in a three-month period. Families with children accounted for one-third of those seeking emergency shelter or transitional housing between February and April 2005, the most recent period studied, according to the report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The rest were individuals, mostly adult men. Nearly half were black.
The count covered only those seeking shelter, not people living on the street, so the total number of homeless people would be higher.
"This first-of-its-kind study is a huge leap forward in our understanding of not only how many people are homeless, but also what their needs are," HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson says. The report says, for example, that at least a quarter are disabled.
HUD, which briefed USA TODAY on the report Monday, says it is the most comprehensive government estimate ever of homelessness. Previous counts looked only at the number of people homeless on a given day or week.
The three-month figure — equal to the population of South Dakota — is an estimate based on a sample of 80 communities. It will serve as a baseline for annual reports to Congress and may be expanded to include people living on the street.
Martha Burt, a homelessness scholar at the Urban Institute, says the new database has shortcomings. For example, it has limited information about the health of those seeking shelter, and she thinks future versions will have trouble tracking those living on the street
Instead, most of the handful of "pool" reporters who spent nine days following Cheney in a circle around the world, with stops in seven countries, had a sum total of 18 minutes in which to speak with the vice president directly. Cheney did offer two lengthier interviews for ABC News, both on the record, but the on-the-record comments offered for poolers were limited to quick encounters such as a walk through a mess hall breezeway of Bagram Air Base in which Cheney proclaimed: "Breakfast was excellent.''
chk the "This is the Airstream that was parked in the bay of the C-17" pic
“I want to be free. I want to go outside, and I want to go to school,” pleaded a 9-year-old boy, on the phone from prison. This prison wasn’t in some far-off country, some dictatorship where one would expect children to be locked up. He is imprisoned in the United States.
The boy, Kevin, is imprisoned in Taylor, Texas, at the T. Don Hutto Residential Facility. His parents are also locked up there. The tale of how this family became imprisoned is just one example of how broken our immigration policies are in this country. It is a tale of children left behind, of family values locked up, of your tax dollars at work. ...
Pentagon's number two suggests terror war will end in Oct. 2008 Michael Roston Published: Wednesday February 28, 2007
The Department of Defense's number two official appears to imply in a memo that the Global War on Terrorism will end just in time for the presidential election in November 2008. The contents of the document are outlined in a column in today's Washington Post.
Al Kamen, who writes the Post's "In The Loop" column, cited a pair of memos written by Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England in today's paper. The first memo was written Dec. 6 and sent to top military and civilian officials. It identifies eight priorities for the coming fiscal year, and the first of them is to "Win the Global War on Terrorism."
In a second memo from Feb. 15, England writes that "to ensure that warfighters and taxpayers receive maximum benefit from on-going initiatives, it would be highly desirable to complete current projects by the summer/fall of 2008."
England then provides a quarterly grid with the same eight priorities from the December memo and "expected milestone conclusion dates" for each one.
Stock Prices Are Higher Today, Showing Signs of Stability After Yesterday's Big Sell-Off
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stock prices are higher today, showing some signs of stability after yesterday's big sell-off.
Helping the market today is a satisfactory gross domestic product report and a recovery on some markets in other countries. In mid-morning trading, the Dow is up 72.98 at 12,289.22.
Broader stock indicators were higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 10.01 at 1,409.05, and the Nasdaq composite index was up 12,49 to 2,420.35.
Casualty numbers may be grossly under-reported by AJ in DC · 2/28/2007 10:46:00 AM ET
The special on Bob Woodruff last night was fascinating, and while I was a little skeptical about such a focus on one newsman when tens of thousands of troops are suffering from injuries, the program did a good job of integrating the broader issues into showing a process of recovery for Woodruff that was, frankly, miraculous. The head injury he suffered in an IED attack was so severe, doctors ultimately had to remove 14 centimeters of his skull, replacing it with a "plastic rendition." The footage of him relearning words through his little kids showing him flashcards was heartbreaking, as was much of what his family went through.
Woodruff, of course, got the absolute best available care, and has a massive media outlet through which to talk about his story. Regular readers of this blog know that a huge number of those injured in Iraq are not so lucky. And it turns out, according to Woodruff's reporting, there may be many more injured than the government is reporting: While the U.S. Department of Defense says that there have been about 23,000 nonfatal battlefield casualties in Iraq, Woodruff discovers -- through an internal VA report -- that more than 200,000 veterans have sought medical care for various ailments, including more than 73,000 diagnoses for mental disorders.
Nicholson plays down those figures, telling Woodruff, "A lot of them come in for dental problems. We're providing their health care."
Woodruff reports that even these numbers may not tell the whole story: According to unreleased data from the Department of Defense, at least 10 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans may have sustained a brain injury during their service.
I listen and watch regularly. I like your thinking and passion.
It seems to me that other targets for your show are the right wing religious folks who seem to embody the same audience as do the right wing politicos. Certainly, the same kind of evidence-free faith-based thinking takes place with these folks.
Nobody should deny their right to be religiously faithful no matter how irrational that is, but when their thinking turns into decisions that put GIs in harms way for a lie, then they need to defend themselves. How pro-life is unprovoked, pre-emptive war, anyway?
i was just listening to bernake on cnbc (sorry sam) and he was talking about healthcare costs.
would someone please explain to me where these people are who use too much healthcare, who take too much medicine, who find reasons to go to the doctor when they don't need to?
isn't this just a bullshit conservative lie used to argue against regulating healthcare costs and not providing universal healthcare?
dada said... Stocks Turn Higher After Big Sell-Off
Wednesday February 28, 10:49 am ET
It was only a market correction. Everybody stay calm.
February 28, 2007 8:04 AM
could be, $TRIN and $TICK show more buyers than sellers today but there's a long way to go to make up for yesterdays losses.
so here's my worst case scenario:
yesterdays correction was triggered by a mysterious splinter group of al-quaeda in the far east. its purpose was to spook the markets. they followed with an assassination attempt on the prince of darkness. next will come some sort of attack that will send the world into economic oblivion (one of the talk shows yesterday said there were the same levels of chatter that were present in the few days preceding 9-11).
JetBlue chairman, CEO and founder David Neeleman is getting lots of kudos for his multiple mea culpas after JetBlue stranded passengers for hours in planes sitting on icy Northeast tarmacs.
But let’s take a closer look at the other Neeleman. The vitriolically anti-union Neeleman who has prevented JetBlue staff from forming unions—an attitude all too many corporations take today, encouraged by the nation’s weak labor laws. In a San Francisco Chronicle article a few years ago, Neeleman explains why he thinks unions are not needed for companies such as his.
Q: Would you resist a labor-organizing effort at JetBlue?
A: We would. I love American history, and I’ve studied it. I understand we had a big need for unions in this country. You basically had unscrupulous people who were building companies on the backs of their people without giving them health care and without giving them other benefits. They made them take on hazardous jobs and work long hours.
We aren’t one of those companies. We don’t do that to our people.
We don’t want a third party who may or may not have our best interests in mind or our crew members’ best interests in mind because they may be serving a union of one of our competitors. They are trying to equalize us and take away our competitive advantage.
That “competitive advantage” is now costing JetBlue and its shareholders $10 million in refunds to passengers on canceled flights and $16 million worth of vouchers to delayed passengers for future travel.
Ignoring their own past, Beck and Donohue complained of "double standard" in discussion of religions
http://mediamatters.org/items/200702280003
On the February 26 edition of his CNN Headline News program, Glenn Beck hosted Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights president Bill Donohue to discuss The Lost Tomb of Jesus, a documentary about the alleged discovery of the bones of Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene, and "Judah son of Jesus." Donohue asked, "Why is it that, you know, other religions aren't held to the same degree of scrutiny?" Beck, who had earlier said that Lost Tomb filmmaker James Cameron was "officially running for anti-Christ," asserted, "There is a double standard in the world today. Treat Christians one way, but heaven help you if you try that with anybody else's religion." In reality, Donohue and Beck themselves have a history of making inflammatory comments about religions other than Christianity.
Media Matters for America has documented Donohue's derogatory comments toward Jews and Muslims, and also his tolerance of bigotry from conservatives:
Libby jury sent a note re: Jane's back. She says the question had something to do with Count Three–the Cooper false statements charge. If you ask my opinion, that's the most likely acquittal.
Not that that means anything!! We should have the note shortly.
But since the note:
The jury sent a note in response, indicating that after further discussion, "we are clear on what we need to do." They no longer need clarification.
blah blah blah said... so tonid, is the market turmoil timed to let libby off the hook? sorta like a news release on friday. do it when everybody is focused on other issues?
yesterdays correction was triggered by a mysterious splinter group of al-quaeda in the far east....
scary times, end times..."
Nah, too paranoid a scenario for me. I think the correction is more a result of our economy's connection with China's. As Cramer said last night "when China catches a cold, we get pneumonia."
You know I hate to say it, but all politics aside, it's starting to look like Marx was right about one thing. Capitalism is a wounded beast digging its own grave, too stuck in its ways to figure out a way out of its dilemma.
Labor language threatens antiterror bill By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 37 minutes ago
President Bush and his Senate allies will kill a Sept. 11 antiterror bill if Congress sends it to the White House with a provision to let airport screeners unionize, the White House and 36 Republicans said Tuesday.
"As the legislation currently stands, the president's senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill," said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel.
Senate Republicans swiftly backed up the threat with a pledge by more than enough senators to block any veto override attempt.
"If the final bill contains such a provision, forcing you to veto it, we pledge to sustain your veto," they wrote to the president. Sen. Jim DeMint (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., planned to offer an amendment to strip the provision from the bill.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said that allowing screeners to unionize would impede the department's quick response to possible threats. Fast redeployment of screeners, such as in response to Hurricane Rita and the failed London plot to blow up airliners, cannot wait for negotiations, he said.
Chertoff said screeners are as much on the front lines in the war against terror as military troops.
"Marines don't collectively bargain over whether they're going to wind up, you know, being deployed in Anbar province or in Baghdad," Chertoff told reporters after a briefing with senators. "We can't negotiate over terms and conditions of work that goes to the heart of our ability to move rapidly in order to deal with the threats that are emerging."
Other federal employees have collective bargaining and whistle-blower protection rights.
Newsweek caught on to a point I made a couple of weeks ago about the administration's saber-rattling towards Iran. Of the ominous-sounding "Quds Force," Christopher Dickey and John Barry write:
...the unit appears to be as close to America's Shiite and Kurdish allies as to splinter groups accused of killing perhaps 170 of the more than 3,000 American soldiers who've died in Iraq. The relationship between the Quds Force and figures like Iraqi President Jalal Talabani or Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (both of whom have been received in the White House recently) goes back two decades to the days when only Tehran was aiding Saddam Hussein's enemies.
Bien. We knew that. But I hadn't realized that we've been on the same side as the Quds Force in several other conflicts as well. According to Newsweek:
[Quds] supported the legendary Ahmed Shah Massoud against the Russians and his Taliban rivals in Afghanistan...
As did we!
... [and] Quds helped the Bosnians hold back the Serbian war machine.
We did too!
And let's not forget Iran/ Contra, although I wouldn't use "we" in that context.
Of course, they've also reportedly supported Hezbollah, a group our government thinks is quite bad. But still, we've been on the same side as the Quds Force for three of our past four conflicts - not including Haiti. Oh, and the recent bombing of Somalia. And the earlier invasion of Somalia -- oh, it gets so hard to keep track sometimes, but you know what I mean. (It's still been 102 years since Iran invaded anyone.)
Bombastic? BOMBASTIC! ( did that guy on Frankens' last show who said "some AAR hosts are bombastic" now attach itself to our Sammy?- what an A-HOLE!) Don't you go changin',Sam. We love you just the way you are. SAMBASTIC! -kip
Revision drags US growth back down to 2.2 percent pace
The government's estimate of US economic growth for the fourth quarter was revised down sharply to a 2.2 percent pace from an earlier figure of 3.5 percent, data showed Wednesday.
The downward revision for gross domestic product (GDP), the biggest in a decade, showed a continuation of the sluggish pace of expansion from mid-2006 instead of the growth spurt suggested in the earlier figure.
The Commerce Department report highlighted concerns that the six-year-old US economic expansion is flagging, sparking increased talk about a slowdown or even a recession.
In the latest report, consumer spending and inventories were revised lower, and imports were revised up on new trade data. The housing and manufacturing sectors also showed weakness.
Gina Martin, economist at Wachovia Securities, said a big part of the sluggishness came from business caution.
"Uncomfortable inventory levels and fears of a general economic slowdown caused businesses to pull back on spending in the fourth quarter," Martin said.
I saw some person in the SF paper trying to say since Josh is not a real journalist blah blah blah... (no offense blah blah blah...)
Thought that would interest you Shell.
It's unbelievable what the gov't is doing. A sneaky dictatorship. Is it that they are not smart enough to be a full dictatorship? If so, thank goodness for that.
Sunshine Jim said... can anyone tell me how one goes about IM'ing?
when you IM sam can you see everyone elses IM's?
First you have to sign up for an instant messager like AIM or Yahoo messenger. Then you ad Sam's IP to your contacts. Then a little box comes up with a smaller box below it. The smaller box is where you will type your message to Sam and it show's up in the bigger box when you enter.
You can only see what the others type if you add their IP's to your contact list.
Okay from what i can tell this is what i see with conservatives or the new conservatives of this country meaning the people of this country.
Most or all are pro-life and anti-choice. So i believe they want women imprisoned if they end a pregnancy. (yet of coure rich women will always have a way to end an unwanted pregnancy....)
They believe in no hand outs/help from the govt. for people who are poor, sick etc. They believe in take care of your own damn self! That all people need to take personal responsibility and that helping "lazy people" is a waste of the the tax payer dollar. And the govt is not your parent to help you out.
of course most are anti-gay. gays cannot marry, they cannot have many rights, must remain second class citizens, they have a mental disorder/psychological problem, they are sick and twisted perverts etc that need to be cured and they are bad and wrong morally.
most conservatives tend to be Christian to the extreme and want a more Christianized govt in place.
The 'have mores' conservatives just love their tax cuts and dont give a damn with what is going on in this country cause it doesnt directly effect them.
Many don't like anyone who isnt a wasp. They want to protect the wasp culture etc etc etc. since other cultures are considered less than and will wreck the country or they just dont want to lose more power.
Many don't like those damn soccer moms who vote!
They seem to all be stubborn and cannot admit they are ever wrong or it is extremely difficult to admit they are wrong.
It's okay for corporations to have tax breaks or not pay taxes cause they really help this country with jobs etc(huh?! wha?).
Family values of the wife/mother staying home to raise the kids and there is no real need for her to work(and if the husband ends up being a jerk and leaving etc it is her fault). The father/man is the leader of the family. And should raise children with christian values/family values.
Hey the rich worked really hard to make their millions/billions and should be rewarded for their hard work since that is what America is all about(i have met many rich people who feel this way that they shouldnt have to pay any taxes anymore since they've made it to the top). They help politicians with huge amounts of money directly and deserve payback of the politicians they have helped. That is the way of the world deal with it! and it's okay for the rich to take advantage of the middle class and the poor it's the natural order of things if they have all the power they have all authority to abuse their power on others and take money/jobs away from the middle class etc and making college tuiton go through the roof etc and loans being outrageous ya gotta keep em in their place. since the middle class or really the poor are considered a joke and a piece of crap and they must be kept in their place.
And many think global warming is a joke. they were always against "tree huggers" and think the environment is something to abuse and destroy and profit from. And caring about the environment means or meant you were pathedic and weak.
Hmm i'm sure i am missing something... Am I? Please let me know if i have.
"We are ready for the next war," a reserve soldier in the Israel Defense Forces told a TV reporter this week, on the scene of a brigade-size maneuver on the Golan Heights.
What war? Against whom? About what? This was not stated, and not even asked. The soldier saw it as self-evident that war will break out soon, and it seems that he did not particularly care against whom.
Politicians are used to expressing themselves more cautiously, in words like "If, God forbid, a war should break out." But in Israeli public discourse, the next war is seen as a natural phenomenon, like tomorrow's sunrise. Of course war will break out. The only question is against whom. ..
155 comments:
Is this thing on?
SEDER!!!!
WHEN IS THE OLD BLOG GOING TO BE OPERATIONAL!??
YOU MUST HAVE SOME IDEA...
ANNOUNCE IT!!
!!
((No surprises here...we've been screwed))
Senate Democrats on Tuesday deferred debate on revoking President George W. Bush's Iraq war authority, after failing to reach consensus on the best way to hasten the end of US military involvement there.
The Senate had considered taking up an amendment proposed by Democratic senators Carl Levin and Joseph Biden which would revoke the president's 2002 authorization to wage war in Iraq.
The bill, one of several Iraq-related measure slated for debate, was to have been introduced as an amendment to homeland security legislation which went to the Senate floor Tuesday.
But Democrats decided to hold off on the de-authorization debate out of deference to the survivors of the September 11, 2001 attacks, some of whom had voiced concern that the domestic security legislation would get bogged down in a raucous floor debate over Iraq.
"The idea is not to do it on this bill because of the concerns of the 9/11 survivors and families," Democratic Senator Russ Feingold told reporters.
Democrats, who were elected in November with a mandate to change the course of US policy in Iraq, are united in their desire to craft an exit strategy from the wartorn country.
Feingold said however that they are divided by "a variety of viewpoints" on how to achieve that aim. Various bills and amendments under discussion include reducing the number of troops in Iraq; setting performance benchmarks on the Iraqi government; and even cutting funding for military options in Iraq.
"There is a problem with disagreement about this war and what we should do -- particularly about the funding issue," Feingold told reporters.
He said however that Democratic differences will have to be ironed out quickly, since the Iraq question is likely to be next on the Senate's agenda once work on the 9/11 bill is completed in the next several days.
"Disagreements will come and we'll have to work them out," Feingold said.
btw, good morning
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...
Reverend Frederick McFeely Rogers
March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003
hey sam,
have a great show
and a pound of oxycontine to all my right wing friends!
Can't trust scientists
“In the most definitive statement in years,” Mike McConnell, the new director of national intelligence, said yesterday that “Osama bin laden is in Pakistan actively re-establishing al Qaeda training camps.” He also admitted to the Senate that the “term ‘civil war’ accurately describes key elements of the Iraqi conflict.”
LINK
Those damn scientists and their "faith" in science...
what do you guys think of JM's post yesterday, that the administration doesn't even know which war it wants to fight anymore...ie siding with Sunni's in SA and Shia in Iraq.
The United States yesterday agreed “join high-level talks” at a pair of regional conferences on the future of the Iraq, at which Syria and Iran will also be present. The Washington Post noted it is an “abrupt shift in policy that opens the door to diplomatic dealings the White House had shunned in recent months despite mounting criticism.”
LINK
I love the Sammy Cam!
Greetings!
Do you think China is tired of footing America's bills?
Are we going down?
With the House expected to vote Thursday on the pro-worker Employee Free Choice Act, “a business coalition launched a six-figure radio ad campaign late Tuesday in an attempt to convince three Democratic freshmen who represent conservative districts to defy organized labor and vote against the bill.”
LINK
Hey Sam,
When is FUBAR coming out in softcover already?!
Haven't you and your publisher made enough $$$ to let those of us who can't afford hardover prices get your book?
I know you're in this for the big bucks, Sam, but please, give your fans who are poor slobs a break.
Thanks,
Ron from New London
toniD said...
The United States yesterday agreed “join high-level talks” at a pair of regional conferences on the future of the Iraq, at which Syria and Iran will also be present. The Washington Post noted it is an “abrupt shift in policy that opens the door to diplomatic dealings the White House had shunned in recent months despite mounting criticism.”
Too little, too late.
"Talk to me..... Talk about the right wing's, dishonesty."
Ben Barnes...the fixer!
Morning Edna, maybe an answer to your question....
Economy appears headed for a period of turbulence
By Kevin G. Hall
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Tuesday's stock market plunge shows the start of a "correction," the age-old euphemism for a steep drop in stock prices, but it may also signal worse news than that.
A steady stream of recent data shows mixed signals about where the U.S. economy is headed. The old sage himself, Alan Greenspan, suggests recession could be looming.
Fasten your seat belts - some economic chop could be coming.
The Dow Jones industrial index fell more than 416 points, or 3.29 percent, in trading Tuesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was off by 3.86 percent, and the S&P 500 was off by 3.47 percent. It was the largest one-day drop for markets since Sept. 17, 2001, the first day trading resumed after the Sept. 11 terror attacks
Tuesday's drops mirrored a global decline in stock markets as the investor mood turned bearish. Investors, who have been murmuring about a coming "correction" for weeks, are concerned that the U.S. and Chinese economies may be entering a period of cooling.
The drop underscores how connected the U.S. economy is now with the broader global economy. U.S. exchanges sank following a nearly 9 percent drop Tuesday on China's Shanghai Composite Index. It was the Shanghai's biggest one-day drop in a decade, and investors worried that interest rates may soon rise to douse China's sizzling economic growth.
LINK
True, if it weren't for my dentist, I'd never touch USWeekly
Italy's Stromboli erupts, people told to quit coast
28 Feb 2007 13:16:47 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Antonio Parrinello
STROMBOLI, Italy, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Spectacular eruptions from the volcano on the southern Italian island of Stromboli may cause tidal waves, and all locals and tourists should stay away from the coast, emergency services said on Wednesday.
Two big lava flows burst out of Stromboli's side on Tuesday, sending up vast plumes of steam as they plunged into the Mediterranean waters below. Authorities said there was no immediate risk to people living on the island, off the coast of Sicily.
"The eruption (lava flows) are very well fed," said Enzo Boschi, head of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology.
"But there's no reason to think that anything extraordinary will happen in the short term. The population is not at risk."
Locals fear a repeat of the events of December 2002 when a similar upsurge in volcanic activity caused a massive chunk of rock to drop into the sea, causing a 10-metre (33 foot) tidal wave that ruined houses close to the shore.
Emergency sirens sounded on the island when the new eruption began and local authorities ordered all residents to move to at least 10 metres above the water line.
The lava is flowing down an uninhabited part of the island and the risk, either of a greater eruption or of a tsunami, have not been deemed great enough to prompt a full-scale evacuation.
In winter only a few hundred people live on Stromboli, but the population swells to several thousand in the summer.
Tourists are drawn to climb to the 924 metre (3,000 ft) summit of the live volcano and peer down into its crater as the volcano blasts molten rock high into the sky.
The island was the setting for a 1950 movie starring Ingrid Bergman and in recent decades has, along with other islands in the Aeolian archipelago, become a favourite location for holiday homes for the rich and famous.
Designers Dolce & Gabbana, writer Umberto Eco and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano are all reported to have homes on Stromboli. (Additional reporting by Antonella Ciancio in Milan)
The curse of Mount Stromboli!!!
Thanks ToniD.
Support our troops. Unless of course they need reliable equipment in the field or healthcare when they come home.
Ja!!!!
Where's the sammy cam link?
"The idea is not to do it on this bill because of the concerns of the 9/11 survivors and families," Democratic Senator Russ Feingold told reporters.
seems like the phrase chickens**t would be appropriate here.
Stevo said...
Support our troops. Unless of course they need reliable equipment in the field or healthcare when they come home.
February 28, 2007 6:28 AM
Protect the unborn. But after they pass through that nasty vagina, thy are on their own!
Ja! :)
You have regular access to the ethernets and intertubes again?
Good!
bibimimi troll'p said...
Stevo said...
Support our troops. Unless of course they need reliable equipment in the field or healthcare when they come home.
February 28, 2007 6:28 AM
Protect the unborn. But after they pass through that nasty vagina, thy are on their own!
We need more babies so they can grow up to become dead soldiers. Duh!
Glenn Beck, Politico's Allen tag-teamed to mock Gore's appearance
http://mediamatters.org/items/200702270010
On the February 26 edition of his CNN Headline News program, host Glenn Beck and guest Mike Allen, chief political writer for The Politico, discussed former Vice President Al Gore's appearance at the previous night's Academy Awards ceremony, in which An Inconvenient Truth won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, by trading attempted quips about Gore's weight. Beck said that "after the 2000 election," Gore looked like he was "on the doughnuts and Jack Daniels diet." After Beck noted that Gore has "found himself in a place where he's like, 'Holy cow, I'm cool all of a sudden?' " Allen said: "Yeah, well, he probably doesn't appreciate the 'holy cow' references. ... [H]e was a little bit jowly." Beck replied: "Let me make the fat jokes, will you? Geez."
***
Oh nevermind. There's nothing to say about this.
SAM >>>>>>>>>>>
You sound great. take wingnut calls !!!!!!!!!!!!
US is in a de facto alliance with Al Qaeda. Weren't they supposed to be the bad guys?
Of course, all the right leaning heads on Scarborough Country last night said they don't believe it. They want to see proof. They'll admit we might be supporting Sunni extremist groups with close ties to Al Qaeda, but we're not supporting Al Qaeda.
Right.
Protect the unborn. But after they pass through that nasty vagina, thy are on their own!
February 28, 2007 6:29 AM
what you really meant to say was:
Protect the unborn. But after they pass through that nasty hoohah, thy are on their own!
Have you already commented on the attempted smear on Gore about the energy use in his house? Turns out the "non-partisan" source was an AEI funded group.
Happy Hump Day Everyone!
: )
"Support our troops. Unless of course they need reliable equipment in the field or healthcare when they come home."
Ya, and billions of dolloars for developing the weapons of the future.
Maybe when they say support the troops, they really mean the troops in the year 2020.
sam,
i think the comparative analogy between conservatism and latin just isn't right. consider that latin is the root language for most western languages. the reason for learning latin is to provide a base for understanding a wide range of other languages.
i would never consider teaching conservatism so that one can have a broader understanding of viable socio-political philosophys.
But Sam, taxes are evil!!! All of those people just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. :P
Sam,
John Warner's brain has been damage from the glue that holds that fake hair on his head.
Sam,
Did you hear about the oral argument before the Supreme Court today, essentially amounting to an argument over whether or not the establishment clause can be circumvented by having the executive branch fund religious initiatives? Basically, the argument is that the 1st Amendment says "Congress shall make no law," and if the president funds the christian coalition through faith-based initiatives that require people to be proseletyzed to, that's fine.
Have at it.
How come all these "conservatives never noticed that the entire conservative movement is about change? What's the point of having a big movement like that if you don't want change?
(Don't BS me about how they are fiscal conservatives - they have never in history been fiscally conservative when in power.)
Oh, and "cache" is pronounced "cash". ("caché" is pronounced "chash-ay", she typed, hoping the blogger comments will pick up the html.)
Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter from ConAgra foods, beginning product numbers with 2111.
Sam, Scarboro has good commentators on in his first segment - I think he's leaning a tad left
Avedon said...
SammyCam
February 28, 2007 6:31 AM
Avedon, thank you!
PBS Independent Lens
ola sneezers!
Back and bitterer than eva'.
every day feels like "head on the door" by the cure lately.
but there are birds on the fire escape a couple of feet away chirpin at me & looking all cute and birdy, so thats got to be worth something.
Hey Bibi!
hows things in Romneyland?
Tell this guy to listen to NPR.
However, he is a winger.
is sammy cam link working for everyone? I get an expired message
Those same Scarborough Country righty talking heads last night, were saying "what we really need is an expanded military."
I was wondering where they are planning on getting this expanded military from. Are they going to get robots to fight? Are we going to start a foreign legion? Sounded to me like fantasy.
The saving grace was Katrina vanden Heuvel, the voice of reason, against an avalanche of bs rhetoric.
Hey Bibi!
hows things in Romneyland?
February 28, 2007 6:54 AM
i got six months of food and fresh water stashed, got my magic underwear on, drinkin' decaf and listening to my Osmond records.
Romney/Hatch for Amorica!
Hope you saw Frontline last night on PBS. Excellent piece on current state of news called "News Wars".
what's the sam cam play with ?
.rm file?
jbenet
i stand corrected, u p.c. nazi!
February 28, 2007 6:56 AM
whats the name of that law of nature that the longer a blog goes on, the higher the probability that hitler will be referenced is?
well, 30 minutes into trading and i would say the market is a dead cat bounce.
its gonna be a long hard spring...
SN
O
O
O
WWWWWWWWW
d
a
y
YaY!
From McClatchy's, seems Greenspan is still the last word...
John Silvia sees the U.S. economy as being "on the edge of a knife." He's the chief economist for Wachovia, a large national bank based in Charlotte, N.C. He sees below-trend economic growth, corporate profits leveling off and short-term lending rates higher than longer-term rates. This phenomenon, called the inverted yield curve, historically has been a harbinger of recession.
"When you go into a fog, it's hard to make commitments as an investor," Silvia said. "It's not the time to make big bets."
That cautious view sounds remarkably like former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who told businessmen in Hong Kong on Monday that a U.S. recession was possible late this year or early next year.
While the "r" word got the headlines, Greenspan also warned that risk premiums are unusually low, meaning that lenders aren't demanding higher returns for riskier investments as they should.
"Risk is no longer perceived as major risk, at least as it was in years past, and that, I must say, I find disturbing," Greenspan said, according to The Wall Street Journal. "We do not and cannot look into history without being very concerned when you see the absence of awareness and concern about risk that we see today."
The concern sounded remarkably like Greenspan's warning in the 1990s that stock market investors were suffering from "irrational exuberance," a warning of the bubble that eventually burst and brought recession in 2001.
LINK
"Sam, Scarboro has good commentators on in his first segment - I think he's leaning a tad left"
Scarborough has no moral compass. He takes whatever side he thinks will make for good TV.
The American people think the Iraq war is a bad idea, and if you mention that fact, you're "left leaning."
The political spectrum in this country is so skewed to the right right now.
What instant message service do you use
the higher the probability that hitler will be referenced is?
February 28, 2007 7:02 AM
Condi Rice made me do it!!
Are they going to get robots to fight? ---
c'mon you know they already do.
(do that voodoo that they do.)
---The work taking place at CISCOR has the attention of the U.S. military. The Army Research Lab currently is funding the center with $500,000 per year for eight years to pursue its research on unmanned robotics. Another $200,000 also has been provided to fund research on human-robot interaction, with prospects for a second year of funding.
"To be able to assist in the creation of a new technology that might one day save soldiers' lives is a wonderful thing," Collins said. "But we're also excited about some of the other potential applications for this technology that could be used right here in Florida. Search-and-rescue teams could directly benefit from this research, for example, and office, factory and agricultural environments also could see breakthroughs based on this technology."
For more information about CISCOR's research projects, please see www.eng.fsu.edu/ciscor/.
Alice;
SNOW?!
u lucky bunny!
Joel sounds like a bullfrog drinkin' bourbon.
There's nothing wrong with the markets, it was just a computer glitch. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. These aren't the droids you're looking for. Move along, move along.
were they magic when you bought them, or were they blessed?
do they grant wishes?
I mean I've got a pair o' socks with a mean static cling, but I only call em magic when I'm alone with em in a dark room.
and of course my fortune telling fruit of the looms.
Mornin Bib! Yup like a foot...the County office is closed...
I usually teach my internet class to the elders today at the local ISP office...but I can't go...So my boss svys well call the radio station if you can't get hold of them...Now I'm wondering why the very RIGHT radio station owns an ISP too...
anyway....point being..paid day off=gooood.
Bullfrog? Bourbon? Hey!
I guess I'lll turn on Sam Seder now...so he can bog down my computing experience...
the insane, the incompetant, and the scared shitless
Like Mel Torme,
the velvet frog?
Wait, that ain't right...
Nevermind.
“Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media,” the Army Times reports. Soldiers said an official told them “they must follow their chain of command when asking for help with their medical evaluation paperwork, or when they spot mold, mice or other problems in their quarters.”
LINK
Joel said...
Bullfrog? Bourbon? Hey!
February 28, 2007 7:13 AM
I mean that in a good way, like the legendary Thurl Ravenscroft...they just don't GIVE voices like that away. Pardon my shorthand.
alice said:
anyway....point being..paid day off=gooood.
February 28, 2007 7:12 AM
it's a gift...and an excuse to eat pancakes!
"c'mon you know they already do.
(do that voodoo that they do.)"
Ya, ja. Here's another fun one:
Future Combat Systems
http://www.army.mil/fcs/index.html
public mensroom?
which exit?
HUD gets new view of who's homeless
Posted 2/27/2007 11:48 PM ET
By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY
A groundbreaking survey of homelessness being released today found that 704,000 people nationwide sought shelter at least once in a three-month period.
Families with children accounted for one-third of those seeking emergency shelter or transitional housing between February and April 2005, the most recent period studied, according to the report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The rest were individuals, mostly adult men. Nearly half were black.
The count covered only those seeking shelter, not people living on the street, so the total number of homeless people would be higher.
"This first-of-its-kind study is a huge leap forward in our understanding of not only how many people are homeless, but also what their needs are," HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson says. The report says, for example, that at least a quarter are disabled.
HUD, which briefed USA TODAY on the report Monday, says it is the most comprehensive government estimate ever of homelessness. Previous counts looked only at the number of people homeless on a given day or week.
The three-month figure — equal to the population of South Dakota — is an estimate based on a sample of 80 communities. It will serve as a baseline for annual reports to Congress and may be expanded to include people living on the street.
Martha Burt, a homelessness scholar at the Urban Institute, says the new database has shortcomings. For example, it has limited information about the health of those seeking shelter, and she thinks future versions will have trouble tracking those living on the street
LINK
jbenet says
Instead, most of the handful of "pool" reporters who spent nine days following Cheney in a circle around the world, with stops in seven countries, had a sum total of 18 minutes in which to speak with the vice president directly. Cheney did offer two lengthier interviews for ABC News, both on the record, but the on-the-record comments offered for poolers were limited to quick encounters such as a walk through a mess hall breezeway of Bagram Air Base in which Cheney proclaimed: "Breakfast was excellent.''
chk the "This is the Airstream that was parked in the bay of the C-17" pic
the swamp
This blog is a blog for the poor.
MRR needs a richer, wealthier blog.
MRR needs more money in general. Sam should be payed more and the bloggers should be payed lots of money too.
money.
Hey bibi, what was the question to the Carnac answer from yeterday?
"Ozzie's kid, a rolling stone, and the prince of darkness."
I never figured it out
the swamp
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2007/02/washington_hidi.html
http://www.army.mil/fcs/index.html
criminey!
who's desinging these things?
Destro and the Baroness?
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp
/2007/02/washington_hidi.html
oh well
" Anonymous said...
oh well "
No, it actually worked the second time, even though it looks cut off. Thanks.
dada said...
Hey bibi, what was the question to the Carnac answer from yeterday?
"Ozzie's kid, a rolling stone, and the prince of darkness."
I never figured it out
February 28, 2007 7:22 AM
a Rick, a Mick, and a Dick (Cheney)
SAM,
when you talk about Lindsey Graham, you should play house music in the background too,
nn tss nn tss nn tss nn tss
Sam should be payed more and the bloggers should be payed lots of money too.
money.
February 28, 2007 7:21 AM
red...u can be CFO and king
"who's desinging these things?
Destro and the Baroness?"
I think so.
And this one looks like one of the things from the video game "Defender"
http://www.army.mil/fcs/factfiles/uav2.html
We’ll Lock Up Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free
By Amy Goodman
“I want to be free. I want to go outside, and I want to go to school,” pleaded a 9-year-old boy, on the phone from prison. This prison wasn’t in some far-off country, some dictatorship where one would expect children to be locked up. He is imprisoned in the United States.
The boy, Kevin, is imprisoned in Taylor, Texas, at the T. Don Hutto Residential Facility. His parents are also locked up there. The tale of how this family became imprisoned is just one example of how broken our immigration policies are in this country. It is a tale of children left behind, of family values locked up, of your tax dollars at work.
...
"we are not in a hurry because we are going far. it is still a long way. love and rage."
Pararamilitaries Invade and Pillage Zapatista Land. We will defend our Mother Earth
Video
"WOH ON TERRAH!" (war on terror)
Boy lacks insurance, dies from infection
Many children don't have insurance, can't find dentists who accept it.
LINK
Hey Sam enjoy the show. How about getting the Dixie Chicks on the show. A Friday would be good with the Sam Cam.
sam at his bombastic best
bombastic sam
Sam, Are you reading the emails?
is it wrong of me to be bothered that media criticizes Al Gore for using electricity?
Sammy cam pic is frozen! Anyone have an idea how to fix it? This is on Mac OS 10.4.8.
Pentagon's number two suggests terror war will end in Oct. 2008 Michael Roston
Published: Wednesday February 28, 2007
The Department of Defense's number two official appears to imply in a memo that the Global War on Terrorism will end just in time for the presidential election in November 2008. The contents of the document are outlined in a column in today's Washington Post.
Al Kamen, who writes the Post's "In The Loop" column, cited a pair of memos written by Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England in today's paper. The first memo was written Dec. 6 and sent to top military and civilian officials. It identifies eight priorities for the coming fiscal year, and the first of them is to "Win the Global War on Terrorism."
In a second memo from Feb. 15, England writes that "to ensure that warfighters and taxpayers receive maximum benefit from on-going initiatives, it would be highly desirable to complete current projects by the summer/fall of 2008."
England then provides a quarterly grid with the same eight priorities from the December memo and "expected milestone conclusion dates" for each one.
LINK
That's funny, I was just going to say Sam should get the Zelda game.
Stocks Turn Higher After Big Sell-Off
Wednesday February 28, 10:49 am ET
Stock Prices Are Higher Today, Showing Signs of Stability After Yesterday's Big Sell-Off
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stock prices are higher today, showing some signs of stability after yesterday's big sell-off.
Helping the market today is a satisfactory gross domestic product report and a recovery on some markets in other countries. In mid-morning trading, the Dow is up 72.98 at 12,289.22.
Broader stock indicators were higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 10.01 at 1,409.05, and the Nasdaq composite index was up 12,49 to 2,420.35.
Casualty numbers may be grossly under-reported
by AJ in DC · 2/28/2007 10:46:00 AM ET
The special on Bob Woodruff last night was fascinating, and while I was a little skeptical about such a focus on one newsman when tens of thousands of troops are suffering from injuries, the program did a good job of integrating the broader issues into showing a process of recovery for Woodruff that was, frankly, miraculous. The head injury he suffered in an IED attack was so severe, doctors ultimately had to remove 14 centimeters of his skull, replacing it with a "plastic rendition." The footage of him relearning words through his little kids showing him flashcards was heartbreaking, as was much of what his family went through.
Woodruff, of course, got the absolute best available care, and has a massive media outlet through which to talk about his story. Regular readers of this blog know that a huge number of those injured in Iraq are not so lucky. And it turns out, according to Woodruff's reporting, there may be many more injured than the government is reporting:
While the U.S. Department of Defense says that there have been about 23,000 nonfatal battlefield casualties in Iraq, Woodruff discovers -- through an internal VA report -- that more than 200,000 veterans have sought medical care for various ailments, including more than 73,000 diagnoses for mental disorders.
Nicholson plays down those figures, telling Woodruff, "A lot of them come in for dental problems. We're providing their health care."
Woodruff reports that even these numbers may not tell the whole story: According to unreleased data from the Department of Defense, at least 10 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans may have sustained a brain injury during their service.
LINK
Sam
I listen and watch regularly. I like your thinking and passion.
It seems to me that other targets for your show are the right wing religious folks who seem to embody the same audience as do the right wing politicos. Certainly, the same kind of evidence-free faith-based thinking takes place with these folks.
Nobody should deny their right to be religiously faithful no matter how irrational that is, but when their thinking turns into decisions that put GIs in harms way for a lie, then they need to defend themselves. How pro-life is unprovoked, pre-emptive war, anyway?
Tom
Denver
i was just listening to bernake on cnbc (sorry sam) and he was talking about healthcare costs.
would someone please explain to me where these people are who use too much healthcare, who take too much medicine, who find reasons to go to the doctor when they don't need to?
isn't this just a bullshit conservative lie used to argue against regulating healthcare costs and not providing universal healthcare?
Stocks Turn Higher After Big Sell-Off
Wednesday February 28, 10:49 am ET
It was only a market correction. Everybody stay calm.
Where is the clip with Lindsay Graham getting his butt handed to him in a sling?
Sam must be alergic to his studio!
CrunchyKnee said...
You know, somewhere on the Internets, there's gotta be some wingnut blaming the current market downturn on Clinton.
February 28, 2007 8:00 AM
**************
Of course Crunchy...They've got to blame somebody!
*grrrr*
ERISA
rhymes with 'Melissa'
Uneasy start to Baghdad plan
Identifying insurgents proves difficult
LINK
dada said...
Stocks Turn Higher After Big Sell-Off
Wednesday February 28, 10:49 am ET
It was only a market correction. Everybody stay calm.
February 28, 2007 8:04 AM
could be, $TRIN and $TICK show more buyers than sellers today but there's a long way to go to make up for yesterdays losses.
so here's my worst case scenario:
yesterdays correction was triggered by a mysterious splinter group of al-quaeda in the far east. its purpose was to spook the markets. they followed with an assassination attempt on the prince of darkness. next will come some sort of attack that will send the world into economic oblivion (one of the talk shows yesterday said there were the same levels of chatter that were present in the few days preceding 9-11).
scary times, end times...
I am LOVING that "Huckleberry Graham" bit!
It fits him perfectly.
JetBlue chairman, CEO and founder David Neeleman is getting lots of kudos for his multiple mea culpas after JetBlue stranded passengers for hours in planes sitting on icy Northeast tarmacs.
But let’s take a closer look at the other Neeleman. The vitriolically anti-union Neeleman who has prevented JetBlue staff from forming unions—an attitude all too many corporations take today, encouraged by the nation’s weak labor laws. In a San Francisco Chronicle article a few years ago, Neeleman explains why he thinks unions are not needed for companies such as his.
Q: Would you resist a labor-organizing effort at JetBlue?
A: We would. I love American history, and I’ve studied it. I understand we had a big need for unions in this country. You basically had unscrupulous people who were building companies on the backs of their people without giving them health care and without giving them other benefits. They made them take on hazardous jobs and work long hours.
We aren’t one of those companies. We don’t do that to our people.
We don’t want a third party who may or may not have our best interests in mind or our crew members’ best interests in mind because they may be serving a union of one of our competitors. They are trying to equalize us and take away our competitive advantage.
That “competitive advantage” is now costing JetBlue and its shareholders $10 million in refunds to passengers on canceled flights and $16 million worth of vouchers to delayed passengers for future travel.
LINK
that *bomb* bit is good. sounds like it hit an old deck chair
http://electroniciraq.net/news/2923.shtml
New Oil Law Seen as Cover for Privatization
David Neeleman: THANK YOU SIR, MAY I HAVE ANOTHER?!
He even looks like Huckleberry hound.
Ignoring their own past, Beck and Donohue complained of "double standard" in discussion of religions
http://mediamatters.org/items/200702280003
On the February 26 edition of his CNN Headline News program, Glenn Beck hosted Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights president Bill Donohue to discuss The Lost Tomb of Jesus, a documentary about the alleged discovery of the bones of Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene, and "Judah son of Jesus." Donohue asked, "Why is it that, you know, other religions aren't held to the same degree of scrutiny?" Beck, who had earlier said that Lost Tomb filmmaker James Cameron was "officially running for anti-Christ," asserted, "There is a double standard in the world today. Treat Christians one way, but heaven help you if you try that with anybody else's religion." In reality, Donohue and Beck themselves have a history of making inflammatory comments about religions other than Christianity.
Media Matters for America has documented Donohue's derogatory comments toward Jews and Muslims, and also his tolerance of bigotry from conservatives:
Don't play game cube games!
How come you're not looking at this blog anymore, Sam?
You're only talking to the IMs?
Spoink!
Gibby is a gin-soaked scheisskopf.
Bibi, they are saying now that Anna Nicole may have had Lupus.
he talks without listening to himself...
c'mon sam. use some logic here and connect the dots.
anna nicole smith
two huge boobs
george w bush and dick cheney
Libby jury sent a note re:
Jane's back. She says the question had something to do with Count Three–the Cooper false statements charge. If you ask my opinion, that's the most likely acquittal.
Not that that means anything!! We should have the note shortly.
But since the note:
The jury sent a note in response, indicating that after further discussion, "we are clear on what we need to do." They no longer need clarification.
Um. So much for the question.
Per firedoglake
Thursday, March 8th is International Women's Day
...a day on which women on all continents to come together to celebrate their various struggles for equality, justice, and peace.
so tonid, is the market turmoil timed to let libby off the hook? sorta like a news release on friday. do it when everybody is focused on other issues?
Anonymous said...
c'mon sam. use some logic here and connect the dots.
Hee...funny.
blah blah blah said...
so tonid, is the market turmoil timed to let libby off the hook? sorta like a news release on friday. do it when everybody is focused on other issues?
------------
Wouldn't surprise me in the least.
Lieberman loves power, attention, and being a US SENATOR.
Loves it in a really creepy way.
toniD said...
Bibi, they are saying now that Anna Nicole may have had Lupus.
no way!
i imagine she was self-medicating for joint pain, like Kurt Cobain did, but all that weight gain, loss and sel-abuse weakens yer heart.
Cobain...for stomach ailment
a-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa...
Yesterday I heard that Senator Reid is just keeping IRAQ alive until 2008 & then hopefully, the Dems will get a larger margin...
'it's a rental, go mental'??!
Up on the white board it goes!
"Genital Mitt?"
"blah blah blah said:
so here's my worst case scenario:
yesterdays correction was triggered by a mysterious splinter group of al-quaeda in the far east....
scary times, end times..."
Nah, too paranoid a scenario for me. I think the correction is more a result of our economy's connection with China's. As Cramer said last night "when China catches a cold, we get pneumonia."
You know I hate to say it, but all politics aside, it's starting to look like Marx was right about one thing. Capitalism is a wounded beast digging its own grave, too stuck in its ways to figure out a way out of its dilemma.
Labor language threatens antiterror bill By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 37 minutes ago
President Bush and his Senate allies will kill a Sept. 11 antiterror bill if Congress sends it to the White House with a provision to let airport screeners unionize, the White House and 36 Republicans said Tuesday.
"As the legislation currently stands, the president's senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill," said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel.
Senate Republicans swiftly backed up the threat with a pledge by more than enough senators to block any veto override attempt.
"If the final bill contains such a provision, forcing you to veto it, we pledge to sustain your veto," they wrote to the president. Sen. Jim DeMint (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., planned to offer an amendment to strip the provision from the bill.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said that allowing screeners to unionize would impede the department's quick response to possible threats. Fast redeployment of screeners, such as in response to Hurricane Rita and the failed London plot to blow up airliners, cannot wait for negotiations, he said.
Chertoff said screeners are as much on the front lines in the war against terror as military troops.
"Marines don't collectively bargain over whether they're going to wind up, you know, being deployed in Anbar province or in Baghdad," Chertoff told reporters after a briefing with senators. "We can't negotiate over terms and conditions of work that goes to the heart of our ability to move rapidly in order to deal with the threats that are emerging."
Other federal employees have collective bargaining and whistle-blower protection rights.
LINK
Why thank you, Sam. You didn't do so bad yourself.
dada said..
"when China catches a cold, we get pneumonia."
I heard Bill and Hillary ate Chinese for lunch yesterday. That's whud done it...
Balzac joke?
I just watched the 1971 version of Cousin Bette...
pk said...
Yesterday I heard that Senator Reid is just keeping IRAQ alive until 2008 & then hopefully, the Dems will get a larger margin...
February 28, 2007 8:55 AM
sounds like neoclown kool-aid. if this was true, why wouldn't the right be running for the door as quickly as possible.
Morning everyone. :)
Iran could be among our best allies
Seriously ...
Newsweek caught on to a point I made a couple of weeks ago about the administration's saber-rattling towards Iran. Of the ominous-sounding "Quds Force," Christopher Dickey and John Barry write:
...the unit appears to be as close to America's Shiite and Kurdish allies as to splinter groups accused of killing perhaps 170 of the more than 3,000 American soldiers who've died in Iraq. The relationship between the Quds Force and figures like Iraqi President Jalal Talabani or Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (both of whom have been received in the White House recently) goes back two decades to the days when only Tehran was aiding Saddam Hussein's enemies.
Bien. We knew that. But I hadn't realized that we've been on the same side as the Quds Force in several other conflicts as well. According to Newsweek:
[Quds] supported the legendary Ahmed Shah Massoud against the Russians and his Taliban rivals in Afghanistan...
As did we!
... [and] Quds helped the Bosnians hold back the Serbian war machine.
We did too!
And let's not forget Iran/ Contra, although I wouldn't use "we" in that context.
Of course, they've also reportedly supported Hezbollah, a group our government thinks is quite bad. But still, we've been on the same side as the Quds Force for three of our past four conflicts - not including Haiti. Oh, and the recent bombing of Somalia. And the earlier invasion of Somalia -- oh, it gets so hard to keep track sometimes, but you know what I mean. (It's still been 102 years since Iran invaded anyone.)
LINK
Rehabilitate the germs that can cause bad breath......
Why Are the Feds After Josh Wolf?
By Nicholas von Hoffman
LINK
Bombastic? BOMBASTIC! ( did that guy on Frankens' last show who said "some AAR hosts are bombastic" now attach itself to our Sammy?- what an A-HOLE!) Don't you go changin',Sam. We love you just the way you are. SAMBASTIC! -kip
Revision drags US growth back down to 2.2 percent pace
The government's estimate of US economic growth for the fourth quarter was revised down sharply to a 2.2 percent pace from an earlier figure of 3.5 percent, data showed Wednesday.
The downward revision for gross domestic product (GDP), the biggest in a decade, showed a continuation of the sluggish pace of expansion from mid-2006 instead of the growth spurt suggested in the earlier figure.
The Commerce Department report highlighted concerns that the six-year-old US economic expansion is flagging, sparking increased talk about a slowdown or even a recession.
In the latest report, consumer spending and inventories were revised lower, and imports were revised up on new trade data. The housing and manufacturing sectors also showed weakness.
Gina Martin, economist at Wachovia Securities, said a big part of the sluggishness came from business caution.
"Uncomfortable inventory levels and fears of a general economic slowdown caused businesses to pull back on spending in the fourth quarter," Martin said.
LINK
can anyone tell me how one goes about IM'ing?
when you IM sam can you see everyone elses IM's?
Thanks Tonid!
I saw some person in the SF paper trying to say since Josh is not a real journalist blah blah blah... (no offense blah blah blah...)
Alice said...
Thanks Tonid!
I saw some person in the SF paper trying to say since Josh is not a real journalist blah blah blah... (no offense blah blah blah...)
Thought that would interest you Shell.
It's unbelievable what the gov't is doing. A sneaky dictatorship. Is it that they are not smart enough to be a full dictatorship? If so, thank goodness for that.
Sunshine Jim said...
can anyone tell me how one goes about IM'ing?
when you IM sam can you see everyone elses IM's?
First you have to sign up for an instant messager like AIM or Yahoo messenger. Then you ad Sam's IP to your contacts. Then a little box comes up with a smaller box below it. The smaller box is where you will type your message to Sam and it show's up in the bigger box when you enter.
You can only see what the others type if you add their IP's to your contact list.
dag, yo.
Okay from what i can tell this is what i see with conservatives or the new conservatives of this country meaning the people of this country.
Most or all are pro-life and anti-choice. So i believe they want women imprisoned if they end a pregnancy. (yet of coure rich women will always have a way to end an unwanted pregnancy....)
They believe in no hand outs/help from the govt. for people who are poor, sick etc. They believe in take care of your own damn self! That all people need to take personal responsibility and that helping "lazy people" is a waste of the the tax payer dollar. And the govt is not your parent to help you out.
of course most are anti-gay. gays cannot marry, they cannot have many rights, must remain second class citizens, they have a mental disorder/psychological problem, they are sick and twisted perverts etc that need to be cured and they are bad and wrong morally.
most conservatives tend to be Christian to the extreme and want a more Christianized govt in place.
The 'have mores' conservatives just love their tax cuts and dont give a damn with what is going on in this country cause it doesnt directly effect them.
Many don't like anyone who isnt a wasp. They want to protect the wasp culture etc etc etc. since other cultures are considered less than and will wreck the country or they just dont want to lose more power.
Many don't like those damn soccer moms who vote!
They seem to all be stubborn and cannot admit they are ever wrong or it is extremely difficult to admit they are wrong.
It's okay for corporations to have tax breaks or not pay taxes cause they really help this country with jobs etc(huh?! wha?).
Family values of the wife/mother staying home to raise the kids and there is no real need for her to work(and if the husband ends up being a jerk and leaving etc it is her fault). The father/man is the leader of the family. And should raise children with christian values/family values.
Hey the rich worked really hard to make their millions/billions and should be rewarded for their hard work since that is what America is all about(i have met many rich people who feel this way that they shouldnt have to pay any taxes anymore since they've made it to the top). They help politicians with huge amounts of money directly and deserve payback of the politicians they have helped. That is the way of the world deal with it! and it's okay for the rich to take advantage of the middle class and the poor it's the natural order of things if they have all the power they have all authority to abuse their power on others and take money/jobs away from the middle class etc and making college tuiton go through the roof etc and loans being outrageous ya gotta keep em in their place. since the middle class or really the poor are considered a joke and a piece of crap and they must be kept in their place.
And many think global warming is a joke. they were always against "tree huggers" and think the environment is something to abuse and destroy and profit from. And caring about the environment means or meant you were pathedic and weak.
Hmm i'm sure i am missing something... Am I? Please let me know if i have.
Pick an Enemy, Any Enemy Bush and Olmert and the next war
by Uri Avnery
"We are ready for the next war," a reserve soldier in the Israel Defense Forces told a TV reporter this week, on the scene of a brigade-size maneuver on the Golan Heights.
What war? Against whom? About what? This was not stated, and not even asked. The soldier saw it as self-evident that war will break out soon, and it seems that he did not particularly care against whom.
Politicians are used to expressing themselves more cautiously, in words like "If, God forbid, a war should break out." But in Israeli public discourse, the next war is seen as a natural phenomenon, like tomorrow's sunrise. Of course war will break out. The only question is against whom.
..
Last Throes of Cheney’s Credibility by Joe Conason
New thread
Katzenhosen?
eya Beth
go to the new thread if you want to continue and have a discussion.
http://tinyurl.com/2p7qa2
basically you have some of it down.
theres a huge amount more of course.
but basically you're reading it accurately.
sam seder is very cute... but then that goes without saying.
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