:: January 2009 ::
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Democrat Illinois Governor 'Bleeping Bleep' Blagojevich Tossed Out
[lat] Brushing aside the governor's pleas of innocence, the Illinois Senate unanimously voted Thursday to remove Rod R. Blagojevich and impose a "political death penalty" that bars him from ever holding public office in the state.
The action came after a four-day impeachment trial on allegations that the Democrat had abused his power -- trying, among other things, to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder. [...]
"He reminded us today in real detail that he is an unusually good liar," Republican state Sen. Matt Murphy said. "We bent over backward to make sure that this process was fair."
After the 59-0 vote, Democratic Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn signed the oath of office and became the state's 41st governor. Among the problems awaiting him is a budget deficit of as much as $5 billion.
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Stimulus? : Democrat Scmorgasbord
[nyt] [...] In a fateful decision, Democratic leaders merged the temporary stimulus measure with their permanent domestic agenda — including big increases for Pell Grants, alternative energy subsidies and health and entitlement spending. The resulting package is part temporary and part permanent, part timely and part untimely, part targeted and part untargeted.
It’s easy to see why Democrats decided to do this. They could rush through permanent policies they believe in. Plus, they could pay for them with borrowed money. By putting a little of everything in the stimulus package, they avoid the pay-as-you-go rules that might otherwise apply to recurring costs.
But they’ve created a sprawling, undisciplined smorgasbord, which has spun off a series of unintended consequences. First, by trying to do everything all it once, the bill does nothing well. The money spent on long-term domestic programs means there may not be enough to jolt the economy now (about $290 billion in spending is pushed off into 2011 and later). The money spent on stimulus, meanwhile, means there’s not enough to truly reform domestic programs like health technology, schools and infrastructure. The measure mostly pumps more money into old arrangements.
Second, by pumping so much money through government programs, the bill unleashes a tidal wave on state governments. A governor with a few-hundred-million-dollar shortfall will suddenly have to administer an additional $4 billion or $5 billion. That money will be corrosive both when washing in, and when it disappears in a few years time.
Third, the muddle assures ideological confrontation. A stimulus package was always going to be controversial, because economists differ widely about whether or how a stimulus can work. But this bill also permanently alters the role of the federal government, thus guaranteeing a polarizing brawl at the very start of the Obama presidency.
Fourth, Summers’s warnings about deficits have been put aside. There is no fiscal exit strategy. Instead, permanent spending commitments are entailed with no permanent funding stream to pay for them.
Fifth, new government expenditures on complex matters are being designed on a hasty, reckless timetable. As readers may know, the policy I am most passionate about is pre-K education. Yet I fervently hope that the Head Start expansion is dropped from this bill. A slapdash and shambolic expansion could discredit the whole idea.
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I've been saying this for years and even though now I've tired of trying to explain it to those lacking thought process, well, it's still worthwhile to post this example and to have availble for future reference. Via comments in a thread at BigHollywood. Sorry pseudo punks.
Johnny Ramone Interview : 2000
[scram] [...] MARGARET: I wanted to ask you about your politics.
JOHNNY: Oh?
MARGARET: Well, the reason I’m asking is a lot of my friends who are punk rock are right-wing…
JOHNNY: They are? Okay.
MARGARET: It seemed like punk rock is a right wing phenomena, and I’ve heard you’ve caught slack for some of your opinions.
JOHNNY: Right-wing opinions?
MARGARET: Yeah.
JOHNNY: Oh, okay. I found it very strange, because here you have the hippie movement which is left-wing. Punks, you identify them if you go back to the fifties and sixties as a bunch of greasers who are more right-wing and anti-peace demonstrations and that kinda stuff. Then suddenly in the punk rock movement you start having these left-wing kids who are really hippies who have become punks but are still really hippies.
MARGARET: P.C. people. McLaren was a lefty.
JOHNNY: He was, you’re right. The other guys I don’t get. Steve Jones doesn’t seem to care one way or the other. He was just looking for girls.
KIM: Nothing wrong with that.
JOHNNY: If that’s all your life about, I guess there’s something wrong with that. I don’t know. Ramones fans always seem to be okay. They know I’m that way and I think a lot of the Ramones fans are sort of in agreement with me. Those are the only kids I have contact with. I don’t talk to any of those punks on the street.
MARGARET: Wearing Crass shirts and begging for money
JOHNNY: Yeah, that’s all hippies. Same thing as was going on in the late sixties. To me, I think punk should be right wing. That’s how I see it. The left wing is trying to destroy America by giving handouts to everyone and making everyone dependent on them. They only care about the voter base. They don’t really care about anything else. They don’t care about anyone. If they can get illegal aliens to become able to vote by motor registration, they will. They’re illegal aliens! They don’t even belong in the country, let alone voting. It’s just to keep their base of voters. Is it best for America? It’s not best for America.
KIM: Do illegal aliens actually get driver’s licenses?
JOHNNY: Yes, they passed a law! Pre-natal care for illegal aliens! This is all craziness. Who pays for this? Sure, for rich people it ain’t gonna make much difference. But look at all the middle class people. That ain’t rich. Even at $75,000 a year, you have a wife and two kids, you’re just getting by. That’s not rich people.
MARGARET: They don’t have to have a house.
KIM: Or kids.
JOHNNY: They take away half your money on taxes. Then you pay property tax and tax on everything you buy and then you go get gasoline. The first thirty six cents is tax. Then you buy the gasoline and they tax the total amount. You’re paying tax on the tax! They wanna sue the tobacco companies. Tobacco company make twenty five cents on a pack. The government makes $1.25! The world’s getting sicker and sicker. We’re getting involved in these crazy things. Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, whatever’s left of Yugoslavia here. $40 billion on bombing these countries and having all these refugees. It shouldn’t be going on to begin with unless it’s of vital interest to America. It’s okay to let the Chinese steal our secrets because we’ve been selling them all this stuff.
MARGARET: (says something indecipherable about Kosovo.)
JOHNNY: The reports are greatly exaggerated. Well, the reports we’re getting from our pilots is that they’re finding boxes covered with canvas with tanks drawn on top of the canvas! We wasted all this money. If they wanna give hand-outs, they could’ve used this money to do something with in America. Every report they put out there is a lie. Just a lie. My mother called me up and goes “isn’t that terrible?” And I’m like “You listen to this crap? You listen to this propaganda. It’s all lies. Can’t you get used to hearing the lies?”
KIM: What is the source for your information?
JOHNNY: I watch a lot of stuff. I mean I listen to talk radio, Hannity and Colmbes at 11 o’clock at night. There’s a left and a right viewpoint, and they discuss it. I try to watch this stuff. I find the left, especially the men, are such wimps. (laughs) Such wimps. You can spot them .
MARGARET: I was looking at a picture of Russian revolutionaries from 1905. I said “Ugh, that guy looks like such a Communist!” And it was Trotsky! (laughs) Maybe it’s a genetic thing.
JOHNNY: I had friend who was getting ready to vote for Clinton back in ’92. I said “How could you do this? Don’t you see the lies? He’s evil.” Naw, he voted for him. Within a year he was sorry. He wished he’d voted for Bush.
MARGARET: I’m surprised he learned that soon.
JOHNNY: I’ll never let him forget it. He’ll say “C’mon it’s been seven years.” I don’t care, heh.
MARGARET: I still talk to people who have the blinders on. “Okay, so he sleeps around with women…”
JOHNNY: It’s okay to just let the Chinese steal our secrets. They’re our “friends.” But they have missiles pointed at every American city, and L.A. is the first place they’re gonna shoot because it’s closest.
MARGARET: And that embassy we bombed.
JOHNNY: They are not our friends. We have to have tight security. We gotta stop fighting these wars. So many soldiers die. We should have troops at the border and keep illegal immigrants out of the country. We have a million illegal aliens. You wanna let them stay? Fine, whatever you wanna do. We gotta stop getting any more. They don’t want them to stop because these are potential voters. All they care about is re-election and staying in office.
MARGARET: Do you even vote?
JOHNNY: I think I might start, but I’ve been so disgusted. My wife does. She votes Republican.
MARGARET: That’s what she tells you.
JOHNNY: She does. (laughs)
MARGARET: Like Edith Bunker.
JOHNNY: That’s a show too. They tried to make the conservative look like a bigot. I hated that show. All of sudden I realized, one day, “I see what they’re trying to do. Archie Bunker is the fool and Meathead is the wise person.” I was thinking it would be interesting if George W. takes a woman as vice-president. The left would have to vote Republican. They wouldn’t know what to do.
MARGARET: They should get a black woman.
KIM/ JOHNNY: That would be too strange.
MARGARET: Did you see the Ted Nugent Behind the Music?
JOHNNY: Yeah. I never watch it, but it was on. And then there was the Red Hot Chili Peppers episode, with John Frusciante. People ask me “How can you be friends with John Frusciante?” I only know him straight. I don’t know him any other way. He was like the worst Bowery Bum on heroin. I haven’t seen that one yet, but I’ve seen Poison. These guys talking — the mentality of this band is so different. It’s all about women, and they go nuts on the road…
KIM: They’re not in it for the music at all.
JOHNNY: That stuff never entered my mind. I always had a girlfriend and never cheated on her. Going on the road is touring for the record and making some money. Changing schedules so we could get to the place fast enough to see a baseball game.
MARGARET: Yankees fan?
JOHNNY: Yankees fan. Angels fan too. Baseball fan. So Poison’s mentality… these guys seem all right, but they looked at it as a party. When I go on the road for the next two months it means I don’t drink or smoke pot or do anything till I get back home.
KIM: It’s a real work ethic.
JOHNNY: Each day was about being as good as I could possibly be that night. I don’t do anything to get me tired. Go to bed early.
KIM: It was most important that you do that, because if you screwed up, you’d screw up the others.
JOHNNY: It’s more obvious.
MARGARET: I had a friend mention seeing the Nugent show the other night. They didn’t like him because of his guns and politics.
JOHNNY: Even if you don’t like his music, he’s one of the real characters of rocknroll.
KIM: Do you like his music?
JOHNNY: Just his image more than anything. I don’t hunt, but I don't have anything against people who do. Gun laws don’t get guns out of the hands of criminals. They just make it harder for me and you to get them.
MARGARET: We can hire all those criminals to protect us.
JOHNNY: It’s all about money. That’s all they’re trying to do. Do they want to ban tobacco? They just want to make money off of it.
KIM: How much do they charge for a pack now? Four bucks?
JOHNNY: I think they’re up to that now. I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life.
KIM: I smoked one just to see what it was like. It was real horrible.
JOHNNY: I’m not for people not smoking. Second-hand smoke — it doesn’t do anything to anybody.
KIM: It makes your clothes stink.
MARGARET: It makes my eyes red.
JOHNNY: Okay, but it didn’t kill anybody. Have you seen the billboard "Do you mind if I smoke? Do you care if I die?" They go to a bar and they’re worried about second-hand smoke. They’re not worried so much about people drinking and getting on the road and driving drunk and killing innocent people. That’s what’s steaming them. They’re worried about smoke.
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[nro] Of course, everyone knows about all the Democrat rockers. Bruce Springsteen even wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times. How is that for rock-n-roll? All the hipsters have signed up to do fundraising concerts for John Kerry because, uh, well, he is not George W. Bush. It has been speculated that these concerts will raise upwards of $44 million dollars for the Kerry/Edwards campaign — becoming the rather absurd situation of rich musicians raising money for even richer politicians.
Having rock stars snatching cash for liberal causes is not really news. Who is startled to hear that Sheryl Crow and the Dixie Chicks are joining Dave Matthews and Jon Bon Jovi in hawking tickets for the Democratic National Committee? [...]
Johnny Ramone, was indeed, an unforgettable character. While the Ramones were being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, Johnny took his opportunity at the microphone to make his allegiances known. "God bless President Bush," he said, "and God bless America." Bedecked in his trademark torn jeans and black leather motorcycle jacket, he understatedly thumbed his nose at he lockstep orthodoxy of the rock establishment. Now, that is punk rock.
"I said that to counter those other speeches at the other awards," Ramone told the Washington Times. "Republicans let this happen over and over, and there is never anyone to stick up for them. They spend too much time defending themselves."
On his website, Ramone assembled Top-10 lists of his favorite baseball players (Greg Maddux), guitarists (Jimmy Page), singers (Elvis), Elvis films (Loving You), and horror films (Bride of Frankenstein). He even listed his favorite Republicans: Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Charlton Heston, Vincent Gallo, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sean Hannity, Ted Nugent, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Barr, and Tom DeLay.
"It was in 1960, the Nixon-Kennedy election," Ramone told the Washington Times, that he first realized he was a Republican. "People around me were saying, "'Oh, Kennedy's so handsome,' and I thought, 'Well, if these people are going to vote for someone based on how he looks, I don't want to be party to that."
Ramone's conservatism extended to his financial advice for the band — encouraging them to demand more money for shows and driving nonstop between cities to save on hotels. His band mates called him the "Rush Limbaugh of rock-n-roll."
After hearing Slim Jim Phantom of the Stray Cats complaining about high taxes, Ramone told him the charges would be higher without the Bush tax cuts. "I told him he needs to vote Republican to keep his taxes lower — and donate to President Bush's campaign," he recalled.
Ironically, Ramone had an eclectic collection of friends who included shock rocker Rob Zombie, provocative filmmaker Vincent Gallo, and Bush-basher Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam. After Vedder impaled a mask of President Bush during a concert, Ramone tried to convince him of how alienating his political theater was for fans.
"I try to make a dent in people when I can," he said. "I figure people drift toward liberalism at a young age, and I always hope that they change when they see how the world really is."
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House Passes Stimulus Plan With No G.O.P. Votes
[nyt] Without a single Republican vote, President Obama won House approval on Wednesday for an $819 billion economic recovery plan as Congressional Democrats sought to temper their own differences over the enormous package of tax cuts and spending.
As a piece of legislation, the two-year package is among the biggest in history, reflecting a broad view in Congress that urgent fiscal help is needed for an economy in crisis, at a time when the Federal Reserve has already cut interest rates almost to zero.
But the size and substance of the stimulus package remain in dispute, as House Republicans argued that it tilted heavily toward new spending instead of tax cuts.
All but 11 Democrats voted for the plan, and 177 Republicans voted against it. The 244-to-188 vote came a day after Mr. Obama traveled to Capitol Hill to seek Republican backing, if not for the package then on other issues to come.
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Stimulating
[as] I love this. The new kind of politics of hope. Eight hours of debate in the HR to pass a bill spending $820 billion, or roughly $102 billion per hour of debate.
Only ten per cent of the "stimulus" to be spent on 2009.
Close to half goes to entities that sponsor or employ or both members of the Service Employees International Union, federal, state, and municipal employee unions, or other Democrat-controlled unions.
This bill is sent to Congress after Obama has been in office for seven days. It is 680 pages long. According to my calculations, not one member of Congress read the entire bill before this vote. Obviously, it would have been impossible, given his schedule, for President Obama to have read the entire bill.
For the amount spent we could have given every unemployed person in the United States roughly $75,000.
We could give every person who had lost a job and is now passing through long-term unemployment of six months or longer roughly $300,000.
There has been pork barrel politics since there has been politics. The scale of this pork is beyond what had ever been imagined before -- and no one can be sure it will actually do much stimulation. [...]
This is a coup for the constituencies of the party in power and against the idea of a responsible government itself. A bleak day.
Unfortunately, it is only the latest in a long series of such days stretching across decades of rule by both parties, to the point where truly responsible government is only a distant echo of our forgotten ancestors.
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Barack Obama sworn in as new president of the United States
[timesuk] Barack Obama was sworn in as America's 44th president today in front of an estimated two million people who flooded central Washington for a distant view of history.
But even as he arrived at Capitol Hill in an armoured limousine with his predecessor George W Bush, US security agencies were urgently investigating a potential threat against him from an East African terror group.
According to a joint bulletin from the FBI and Homeland Security, US intelligence officials had received information that people associated with a Somalia-based Islamic terror group might try to travel to the US with plans to disrupt Inauguration Day. The alert said that US counter-terror officials have grown concerned in recent months about the threat posed by the militant al-Shabaab group and a cell of US-based Somali sympathizers who have traveled to their homeland to "fight alongside Islamic insurgents".
But Russ Knocke, a Homeland Security spokesman, said: "This information is of limited specificity and uncertain credibility... As always, we remind the public to be both thoughtful and vigilant about their surroundings, and to notify authorities of any suspicious activity."
Unaware of the threat, hundreds of thousands of people began arriving in central Washington from before dawn for a distant view of history and the right to say 'I was there' when America's first black president was sworn in.
Vast crowds braving freezing cold crammed into the National Mall and mobbed streets leading onto the central thoroughfare, clogging up the Washington metro system and roads into the city centre more than five hours ahead of the handover.
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Oil falls below $34 amid excess supply : Gloom!
January 20.09
[yahoo] Oil falls below $34 as traders sell expiring contract amid low storage space
Oil prices fell below $34 a barrel Tuesday on the continued gloomy outlook for global energy demand and as traders sold the expiring benchmark contract due to a lack of space at a key U.S. storage facility.
By midday in Europe, light, sweet crude for February delivery was down $3.14 to $33.37 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The February contract expires Tuesday. Its last official settlement was $36.51 on Friday, as U.S. markets were closed Monday due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Nevertheless, electronic trading continued during the holiday and the February contract fell $1.96 to $34.55.
The February contract has fallen about a third in two weeks, in part because burgeoning supplies in Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the Nymex contract, have left investors with little space to store crude, forcing them to sell.
Traders say some oil firms are storing crude on rented tankers.
"There's too much oil in the world right now, and that oil is trying to find a home," said Stephen Corry, head of investment strategy for Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong. "We're finding surplus oil is being put in tankers ... and the price of future contracts is higher in order to offset the storage cost."
Sucden Research in London said that reportedly oil stored in tankers now amounted to about a day's worth of global demand.
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Bush commutes sentences of former US border agents
[ap] In his final acts of clemency, President George W. Bush on Monday commuted the prison sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer ignited fierce debate about illegal immigration.
Bush’s decision to commute the sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who tried to cover up the shooting, was welcomed by both Republican and Democratic members of Congress. They had long argued that the agents were merely doing their jobs, defending the American border against criminals. They also maintained that the more than 10-year prison sentences the pair was given were too harsh. [...]
Bush didn’t pardon the men for their crimes, but decided instead to commute their prison sentences because he believed they were excessive and that they had already suffered the loss of their jobs, freedom and reputations, a senior administration official said.
The action by the president, who believes the border agents received fair trials and that the verdicts were just, does not diminish the seriousness of their crimes, the official said.
Compean and Ramos, who have served about two years of their sentences, are expected to be released from prison within the next two months.
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OK. You like Obama. I like Obama. We all like Obama. Seriously. Everyone likes Obama. Holy @!%$#! it's thick. Somewhere (truly, at a point long past) even the most ardently nonsensical have to admit, "yea, the hype level might be a hair overboard." Maybe? Seriously.
Every junkie has got to be still burnt from the eternal campaign. What an ordeal. The Bush years in toto...what an ordeal. From before it even began really. Then 911? Come on. But now, we're all declaring change. Gaia needing some change alright and it's a fever baby and it's got me Hoping. Yea. Hopefully things can get down to business post inauguration. Oh, yea, once the 'puppy' dilemma is taken care of.
It cannot be ignored that the current euphoric masses are all but the entire body of those that whine, decry and distill upon the USA herself from such heights. It's broken! Global. But look at that. No martial law nor coup or some extension of presidency, as heard tossed about with a heartfelt lunacy by some. Just a changing of the guard, dignified and smooth. The American Beast, in action. Quite a sight. Peaceful transition of the machine, with pomp, precision and goodwill. Maybe it's not so broken?
I wonder if all of the furniture and silverware will be left in tact, not to mention the keyboards etc. Think all the 'O's will still be on them? Somehow I doubt the Bush family / admin. / staff are much about those types of childish bent and somehow I know that I can count on the utter lack of dignity of many of these masses that even in the last minutes were unable to accord even the due minimum respect to the out going CnC. Stay classy, as they say.
Further, does this mean these same euphoric and delivered masses, the usual endless naysayers, conspiracy proclaimers and so forth will actually be soothed? Dare one 'hope?'
No worries. You've seen the parades, parties and magic. You've got your t-shirt. Lo', tomorrow is another day, however, and all the hats and cakes and tears and t-shirts and wishes will remain just that. Advertisement and marketing.
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Chávez reopens oil bids to West as prices Plunge
[iht] President Hugo Chávez, buffeted by falling oil prices that threaten to damage his efforts to establish a Socialist-inspired state, is quietly courting Western oil companies once again.
Until recently, Chávez had pushed foreign oil companies here into a corner by nationalizing their oil fields, raiding their offices with tax authorities and imposing a series of royalties increases.
But faced with the plunge in prices and a decline in domestic production, senior officials here have begun soliciting bids from some of the largest Western oil companies in recent weeks — including Chevron, Royal Dutch/Shell and Total of France — promising them access to some of the world's largest petroleum reserves, according to energy executives and industry consultants here.
Their willingness to even consider investing in Venezuela reflects the scarcity of projects open to foreign companies in other top oil nations, particularly in the Middle East.
But the shift also shows how the global financial crisis is hampering Chávez's ideological agenda and demanding his pragmatic side. At stake are no less than Venezuela's economic stability and the sustainability of his rule. With oil prices so low, the longstanding problems plaguing Petróleos de Venezuela, the national oil company that helps keep the country afloat, have become much harder to ignore.
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The First 100 Minutes of the Obama Presidency
minute #89 : Remove dunking stool, iron maiden and various "conversation pieces" from Cheney's office. Mad Magazine : [link]
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Airplane crash-lands into Hudson River
[cnn] A US Airways plane with 155 people on board ditched into a chilly Hudson River on Thursday, apparently after striking at least one bird upon takeoff from New York's LaGuardia Airport, according to officials and passengers.
Everyone on board was accounted for and alive, officials said. About 15 people were being treated at hospitals and others were being evaluated at triage centers.
Flight 1549, headed to Charlotte, North Carolina, was airborne less than three minutes, according to FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown.
The pilot radioed to air traffic controllers that he had experienced a bird strike and declared an emergency, a New Jersey State Police source said. [...]
As the situation began to settle Thursday evening, the flight's pilot, Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, emerged as a hero, with praise being heaped on him by passengers, officials and aviation experts.
"I don't think there's enough praise to go around for someone who does something like this. This is something you really can't prepare for," said former Delta pilot Denny Walsh. "You really don't practice water landings in commercial airplanes. Just the sheer expertise he demonstrated is amazing."
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Canada Sole Vote Against Resolution
[g&m] : Yesterday, Canada was the sole member of the UN Human Rights Council to vote against a resolution, which passed in a 33-1 vote, condemning Israel over its actions in Gaza.
The vote crystallized Canada's emergence under Stephen Harper's government as one of Israel's firmest supporters.
At a meeting in Geneva, Canada asked for a recorded vote to emphasize its complaint that the resolution drafted by Arab, Asian and African countries did not recognize that Israel acted to stop Hamas rocket attacks.
European countries abstained, along with Japan and South Korea, because they felt the resolution lacked balance - it gave only brief mention to rocket attacks. Neither Israel nor the United States are in the 47-member council.
Canada votes alone for Israel
[star] Canada stood alone before a United Nations human rights council yesterday, the only one among 47 nations to oppose a motion condemning the Israeli military offensive in Gaza.
The vote before the Geneva-based body shows the Stephen Harper government has abandoned a more even-handed approach to the Middle East in favour of unalloyed support of Israel, according to some long-time observers.
Thirty-three countries voted for the strongly worded motion, which called for an investigation into "grave" human rights violations by Israeli forces, while 13 nations, mostly European, abstained.
The United States, regarded as Israel's greatest ally, is not a member of the council.
Marius Grinius, Canada's representative on the council, said the language of the motion, which accused Israel of sparking a humanitarian crisis, was "unnecessary, unhelpful and inflammatory."
He said the text failed to "clearly recognize" that Hamas rocket attacks on Israel triggered the crisis.
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Iranian Protesters Burn Obama Pictures
[timeuk] : Iranian demonstrators burned photographs of Barack Obama today as they protested against America’s inaction over Gaza.
Dozens of people gathered in Tehran waving Palestinian flags and defacing and setting fire to images of the President-elect.
Iranian demonstrators have often burned effigies or pictures of US presidents in the past but this appeared to be the first time Mr Obama’s picture had been defaced, a week before his inauguration as president.
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Brink of an Ice Age
[prvda] The earth is now on the brink of entering another Ice Age, according to a large and compelling body of evidence from within the field of climate science. Many sources of data which provide our knowledge base of long-term climate change indicate that the warm, twelve thousand year-long Holocene period will rather soon be coming to an end, and then the earth will return to Ice Age conditions for the next 100,000 years.
Ice cores, ocean sediment cores, the geologic record, and studies of ancient plant and animal populations all demonstrate a regular cyclic pattern of Ice Age glacial maximums which each last about 100,000 years, separated by intervening warm interglacials, each lasting about 12,000 years.
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Warm Reception Expected in Senate Hillary Secretary of State Confirmation Hearing.
[lat] Reporting from Washington -- Long considered one of the nation's most polarizing figures, Hillary Rodham Clinton steps into her new role as America's chief diplomat this week with a Senate confirmation hearing that is likely to look more like a tribute than an examination of a controversial politician.
Clinton has fanned political passions as first lady, as New York's junior senator and as a presidential candidate. Yet she is collecting rhetorical bouquets from Republicans as she prepares for the Tuesday committee appearance that will open the way for her fourth public incarnation -- as secretary of State.
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Franken Electoral Clown Show
[wsj] Strange things keep happening in Minnesota, where the disputed recount in the Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken may be nearing a dubious outcome. Thanks to the machinations of Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and a meek state Canvassing Board, Mr. Franken may emerge as an illegitimate victor.
Mr. Franken started the recount 215 votes behind Senator Coleman, but he now claims a 225-vote lead and suddenly the man who was insisting on "counting every vote" wants to shut the process down. He's getting help from Mr. Ritchie and his four fellow Canvassing Board members, who have delivered inconsistent rulings and are ignoring glaring problems with the tallies.
Under Minnesota law, election officials are required to make a duplicate ballot if the original is damaged during Election Night counting. Officials are supposed to mark these as "duplicate" and segregate the original ballots. But it appears some officials may have failed to mark ballots as duplicates, which are now being counted in addition to the originals. This helps explain why more than 25 precincts now have more ballots than voters who signed in to vote. By some estimates this double counting has yielded Mr. Franken an additional 80 to 100 votes.
This disenfranchises Minnesotans whose vote counted only once. And one Canvassing Board member, State Supreme Court Justice G. Barry Anderson, has acknowledged that "very likely there was a double counting." Yet the board insists that it lacks the authority to question local officials and it is merely adding the inflated numbers to the totals.
In other cases, the board has been flagrantly inconsistent. Last month, Mr. Franken's campaign charged that one Hennepin County (Minneapolis) precinct had "lost" 133 votes, since the hand recount showed fewer ballots than machine votes recorded on Election Night. Though there is no proof to this missing vote charge -- officials may have accidentally run the ballots through the machine twice on Election Night -- the Canvassing Board chose to go with the Election Night total, rather than the actual number of ballots in the recount. That decision gave Mr. Franken a gain of 46 votes.
Meanwhile, a Ramsey County precinct ended up with 177 more ballots than there were recorded votes on Election Night. In that case, the board decided to go with the extra ballots, rather than the Election Night total, even though the county is now showing more ballots than voters in the precinct. This gave Mr. Franken a net gain of 37 votes, which means he's benefited both ways from the board's inconsistency.
And then there are the absentee ballots. The Franken campaign initially howled that some absentee votes had been erroneously rejected by local officials. Counties were supposed to review their absentees and create a list of those they believed were mistakenly rejected. Many Franken-leaning counties did so, submitting 1,350 ballots to include in the results. But many Coleman-leaning counties have yet to complete a re-examination. Despite this lack of uniformity, and though the state Supreme Court has yet to rule on a Coleman request to standardize this absentee review, Mr. Ritchie's office nonetheless plowed through the incomplete pile of 1,350 absentees this weekend, padding Mr. Franken's edge by a further 176 votes. [...]
The question is how the board can certify a fair and accurate election result given these multiple recount problems. Yet that is precisely what the five members seem prepared to do when they meet today. Some members seem to have concluded that because one of the candidates will challenge the result in any event, why not get on with it and leave it to the courts? Mr. Coleman will certainly have grounds to contest the result in court, but he'll be at a disadvantage given that courts are understandably reluctant to overrule a certified outcome. [...]
Minnesotans like to think that their state isn't like New Jersey or Louisiana, and typically it isn't. But we can't recall a similar recount involving optical scanning machines that has changed so many votes, and in which nearly every crucial decision worked to the advantage of the same candidate. The Coleman campaign clearly misjudged the politics here, and the apparent willingness of a partisan like Mr. Ritchie to help his preferred candidate, Mr. Franken. If the Canvassing Board certifies Mr. Franken as the winner based on the current count, it will be anointing a tainted and undeserving Senator.
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Reid Yields on Franken
[yahoo] Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yielded to Republican threats and agreed on Monday not to immediately seat fellow Democrat Al Franken, whose razor-close victory in Minnesota faces legal challenges.
Senate Republicans had planned to disrupt the opening of the new Congress on Tuesday by blocking Franken's swearing-in.
And in another ugly fight, Senate Democrats vowed to block, at least for now, the seating of fellow party member Roland Burris whose appointment by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich carries a whiff of political scandal.
The 57-year old Franken, who gained fame as a writer and performer on the satiric Saturday Night Live television show, on Monday officially was declared the victor by a 225-vote margin by Minnesota state officials from nearly 2.9 million votes cast.
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Sea Ice Ends Year at Same Level as 1979
Rapid growth spurt leaves amount of ice at levels seen 29 years ago
[dtech]Thanks to a rapid rebound in recent months, global sea ice levels now equal those seen 29 years ago, when the year 1979 also drew to a close.
Ice levels had been tracking lower throughout much of 2008, but rapidly recovered in the last quarter. In fact, the rate of increase from September onward is the fastest rate of change on record, either upwards or downwards.
The data is being reported by the University of Illinois's Arctic Climate Research Center, and is derived from satellite observations of the Northern and Southern hemisphere polar regions.
Each year, millions of square kilometers of sea ice melt and refreeze. However, the mean ice anomaly -- defined as the seasonally-adjusted difference between the current value and the average from 1979-2000, varies much more slowly. That anomaly now stands at just under zero, a value identical to one recorded at the end of 1979, the year satellite record-keeping began.
Sea ice is floating and, unlike the massive ice sheets anchored to bedrock in Greenland and Antarctica, doesn't affect ocean levels. However, due to its transient nature, sea ice responds much faster to changes in temperature or precipitation and is therefore a useful barometer of changing conditions.
Earlier this year, predictions were rife that the North Pole could melt entirely in 2008. Instead, the Arctic ice saw a substantial recovery. Bill Chapman, a researcher with the UIUC's Arctic Center, tells DailyTech this was due in part to colder temperatures in the region. Chapman says wind patterns have also been weaker this year. Strong winds can slow ice formation as well as forcing ice into warmer waters where it will melt.
Why were predictions so wrong? Researchers had expected the newer sea ice, which is thinner, to be less resilient and melt easier. Instead, the thinner ice had less snow cover to insulate it from the bitterly cold air, and therefore grew much faster than expected, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
In May, concerns over disappearing sea ice led the U.S. to officially list the polar bear a threatened species, over objections from experts who claimed the animal's numbers were increasing.
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Canadian researchers discover how to ID 'bad' from normal stem cells
[cbc] Doctors have long struggled to differentiate cancerous stem cells from healthy ones, but Canadian researchers now say they know how to tell the two apart to hopefully one day better identify how to kill only the dangerous ones.
The discovery, published Sunday in the journal Nature Biotechnology, may eventually allow further targeting of cancer treatments.
Specifically, Dr. Mick Bhatia of Hamilton's McMaster University and his team have demonstrated for the first time how to tell the difference between normal stem cells and cancer stem cells in humans.
"Normal stem cells and cancer stem cells are hard to tell apart, and many have misconstrued really good stem cells for cancer stem cells that have gone bad — we now can tell the ones masquerading as normal stem cells from the bad, cancerous ones," Dr. Bhatia, scientific director of the Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., said in a release.
"This also allows us to compare normal versus cancer stem cells from humans in the laboratory — define the differences in terms of genes they express and drugs they respond to. Essentially, we can now use this to find the 'magic bullet,' a drug or set of drugs that kill cancer stem cells first, and spare the normal healthy ones," he said.
The research also helps allay one of the big worries about one day using stem cells to grow new organs and other tissues for curing disease — that the stem cells could give rise to tumours and end up doing more harm than good.
Stem cells are master cells
Known as the body's master cells, stem cells have the ability to give rise to, or differentiate into, any tissue type — from heart, lung and liver, to brain, bone and skin. Unlike mature cells, which remain the same throughout their lifespan, stem cells can both renew themselves and create new cells of whatever tissue type they belong to.
Cancer stem cells, on the other hand, give rise to cancerous cells.
Bhatia said scientists working in labs worldwide, including his own, would assume that their particular stem cell lines were healthy and able to give rise to an array of similarly healthy cells of varying types. (A stem cell line is a family of constantly dividing cells arising from a parent group of stem cells.)
But often when researchers tried to use these so-called high-quality stem cells in experiments, they found the cells didn't behave as they had hoped.
For example, the McMaster lab manipulated human embryonic stem cells to produce brain cells and implanted them into mice. But instead of producing normal, healthy neurons, they produced a tumour.
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Well-Timed, Or a Little Late?
[] : Barack Obama promised to be a uniter, and his handling of Bill Richardson’s now-aborted appointment as Commerce secretary seems to have had that effect on the blogosphere, in the form of universal displeasure.
“With an almost audible sigh of relief barely two weeks before his inauguration Obama, in a printed statement that won’t provide archival video footage, said he accepted the resignation-before-actually-taking-office ‘with deep regret,’ ” reports the Los Angeles Times’s Andrew Malcolm. [...]
“The New Mexico governor has, over the last decade, left behind a wide trail of questionable business dealings, many of them involving the energy industry,” adds James Ridgeway at Mother Jones.
Richardson affair taints Obama administration
[g&m] The mess of Bill Richardson's resignation as commerce-secretary-in-waiting eats up more of the goodwill Barack Obama badly needs if he is to implement his audacious agenda - an agenda that is being undermined by petty state-level scandals.
In a statement released to the press yesterday, the New Mexico governor announced that: "I have asked the president-elect not to move forward with my nomination at this time.
"I do so with great sorrow. But a pending investigation of a company that has done business with New Mexico state government promises to extend for several weeks or, perhaps, even months."
That company is CDR Financial Products, which contributed to Mr. Richardson's past campaigns, while also winning $1.5-million in consulting contracts with the state government. A grand jury is investigating whether there was a "pay-to-play" connection in the awarding of the contracts.
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Adios Bill
Here's a guy I thought was pretty cool for a moment, once upon a time, quite some time ago. He seems a likable sort as sorts go. It was a short moment, you know one when amongst a sea of blithering empty nonsense, someone edges above and scrapes at something concrete? Just as easily a fluke, random or rare occurrence. A lucky shot in the dark moment where one happened upon a hit. I think so, though however moot since Bill has shown his his colours, so be it what it may and taken as is, face it, it kind of speaks for itself. You know how some guys are just....around? Adios Cheese.
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Democrat Illinois Governor 'Bleeping Bleep' Blagojevich Tossed Out
[lat] Brushing aside the governor's pleas of innocence, the Illinois Senate unanimously voted Thursday to remove Rod R. Blagojevich and impose a "political death penalty" that bars him from ever holding public office in the state.
The action came after a four-day impeachment trial on allegations that the Democrat had abused his power -- trying, among other things, to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder. [...]
"He reminded us today in real detail that he is an unusually good liar," Republican state Sen. Matt Murphy said. "We bent over backward to make sure that this process was fair."
After the 59-0 vote, Democratic Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn signed the oath of office and became the state's 41st governor. Among the problems awaiting him is a budget deficit of as much as $5 billion.
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Stimulus? : Democrat Scmorgasbord
[nyt] [...] In a fateful decision, Democratic leaders merged the temporary stimulus measure with their permanent domestic agenda — including big increases for Pell Grants, alternative energy subsidies and health and entitlement spending. The resulting package is part temporary and part permanent, part timely and part untimely, part targeted and part untargeted.
It’s easy to see why Democrats decided to do this. They could rush through permanent policies they believe in. Plus, they could pay for them with borrowed money. By putting a little of everything in the stimulus package, they avoid the pay-as-you-go rules that might otherwise apply to recurring costs.
But they’ve created a sprawling, undisciplined smorgasbord, which has spun off a series of unintended consequences. First, by trying to do everything all it once, the bill does nothing well. The money spent on long-term domestic programs means there may not be enough to jolt the economy now (about $290 billion in spending is pushed off into 2011 and later). The money spent on stimulus, meanwhile, means there’s not enough to truly reform domestic programs like health technology, schools and infrastructure. The measure mostly pumps more money into old arrangements.
Second, by pumping so much money through government programs, the bill unleashes a tidal wave on state governments. A governor with a few-hundred-million-dollar shortfall will suddenly have to administer an additional $4 billion or $5 billion. That money will be corrosive both when washing in, and when it disappears in a few years time.
Third, the muddle assures ideological confrontation. A stimulus package was always going to be controversial, because economists differ widely about whether or how a stimulus can work. But this bill also permanently alters the role of the federal government, thus guaranteeing a polarizing brawl at the very start of the Obama presidency.
Fourth, Summers’s warnings about deficits have been put aside. There is no fiscal exit strategy. Instead, permanent spending commitments are entailed with no permanent funding stream to pay for them.
Fifth, new government expenditures on complex matters are being designed on a hasty, reckless timetable. As readers may know, the policy I am most passionate about is pre-K education. Yet I fervently hope that the Head Start expansion is dropped from this bill. A slapdash and shambolic expansion could discredit the whole idea.
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I've been saying this for years and even though now I've tired of trying to explain it to those lacking thought process, well, it's still worthwhile to post this example and to have availble for future reference. Via comments in a thread at BigHollywood. Sorry pseudo punks.
Johnny Ramone Interview : 2000
[scram] [...] MARGARET: I wanted to ask you about your politics.
JOHNNY: Oh?
MARGARET: Well, the reason I’m asking is a lot of my friends who are punk rock are right-wing…
JOHNNY: They are? Okay.
MARGARET: It seemed like punk rock is a right wing phenomena, and I’ve heard you’ve caught slack for some of your opinions.
JOHNNY: Right-wing opinions?
MARGARET: Yeah.
JOHNNY: Oh, okay. I found it very strange, because here you have the hippie movement which is left-wing. Punks, you identify them if you go back to the fifties and sixties as a bunch of greasers who are more right-wing and anti-peace demonstrations and that kinda stuff. Then suddenly in the punk rock movement you start having these left-wing kids who are really hippies who have become punks but are still really hippies.
MARGARET: P.C. people. McLaren was a lefty.
JOHNNY: He was, you’re right. The other guys I don’t get. Steve Jones doesn’t seem to care one way or the other. He was just looking for girls.
KIM: Nothing wrong with that.
JOHNNY: If that’s all your life about, I guess there’s something wrong with that. I don’t know. Ramones fans always seem to be okay. They know I’m that way and I think a lot of the Ramones fans are sort of in agreement with me. Those are the only kids I have contact with. I don’t talk to any of those punks on the street.
MARGARET: Wearing Crass shirts and begging for money
JOHNNY: Yeah, that’s all hippies. Same thing as was going on in the late sixties. To me, I think punk should be right wing. That’s how I see it. The left wing is trying to destroy America by giving handouts to everyone and making everyone dependent on them. They only care about the voter base. They don’t really care about anything else. They don’t care about anyone. If they can get illegal aliens to become able to vote by motor registration, they will. They’re illegal aliens! They don’t even belong in the country, let alone voting. It’s just to keep their base of voters. Is it best for America? It’s not best for America.
KIM: Do illegal aliens actually get driver’s licenses?
JOHNNY: Yes, they passed a law! Pre-natal care for illegal aliens! This is all craziness. Who pays for this? Sure, for rich people it ain’t gonna make much difference. But look at all the middle class people. That ain’t rich. Even at $75,000 a year, you have a wife and two kids, you’re just getting by. That’s not rich people.
MARGARET: They don’t have to have a house.
KIM: Or kids.
JOHNNY: They take away half your money on taxes. Then you pay property tax and tax on everything you buy and then you go get gasoline. The first thirty six cents is tax. Then you buy the gasoline and they tax the total amount. You’re paying tax on the tax! They wanna sue the tobacco companies. Tobacco company make twenty five cents on a pack. The government makes $1.25! The world’s getting sicker and sicker. We’re getting involved in these crazy things. Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, whatever’s left of Yugoslavia here. $40 billion on bombing these countries and having all these refugees. It shouldn’t be going on to begin with unless it’s of vital interest to America. It’s okay to let the Chinese steal our secrets because we’ve been selling them all this stuff.
MARGARET: (says something indecipherable about Kosovo.)
JOHNNY: The reports are greatly exaggerated. Well, the reports we’re getting from our pilots is that they’re finding boxes covered with canvas with tanks drawn on top of the canvas! We wasted all this money. If they wanna give hand-outs, they could’ve used this money to do something with in America. Every report they put out there is a lie. Just a lie. My mother called me up and goes “isn’t that terrible?” And I’m like “You listen to this crap? You listen to this propaganda. It’s all lies. Can’t you get used to hearing the lies?”
KIM: What is the source for your information?
JOHNNY: I watch a lot of stuff. I mean I listen to talk radio, Hannity and Colmbes at 11 o’clock at night. There’s a left and a right viewpoint, and they discuss it. I try to watch this stuff. I find the left, especially the men, are such wimps. (laughs) Such wimps. You can spot them .
MARGARET: I was looking at a picture of Russian revolutionaries from 1905. I said “Ugh, that guy looks like such a Communist!” And it was Trotsky! (laughs) Maybe it’s a genetic thing.
JOHNNY: I had friend who was getting ready to vote for Clinton back in ’92. I said “How could you do this? Don’t you see the lies? He’s evil.” Naw, he voted for him. Within a year he was sorry. He wished he’d voted for Bush.
MARGARET: I’m surprised he learned that soon.
JOHNNY: I’ll never let him forget it. He’ll say “C’mon it’s been seven years.” I don’t care, heh.
MARGARET: I still talk to people who have the blinders on. “Okay, so he sleeps around with women…”
JOHNNY: It’s okay to just let the Chinese steal our secrets. They’re our “friends.” But they have missiles pointed at every American city, and L.A. is the first place they’re gonna shoot because it’s closest.
MARGARET: And that embassy we bombed.
JOHNNY: They are not our friends. We have to have tight security. We gotta stop fighting these wars. So many soldiers die. We should have troops at the border and keep illegal immigrants out of the country. We have a million illegal aliens. You wanna let them stay? Fine, whatever you wanna do. We gotta stop getting any more. They don’t want them to stop because these are potential voters. All they care about is re-election and staying in office.
MARGARET: Do you even vote?
JOHNNY: I think I might start, but I’ve been so disgusted. My wife does. She votes Republican.
MARGARET: That’s what she tells you.
JOHNNY: She does. (laughs)
MARGARET: Like Edith Bunker.
JOHNNY: That’s a show too. They tried to make the conservative look like a bigot. I hated that show. All of sudden I realized, one day, “I see what they’re trying to do. Archie Bunker is the fool and Meathead is the wise person.” I was thinking it would be interesting if George W. takes a woman as vice-president. The left would have to vote Republican. They wouldn’t know what to do.
MARGARET: They should get a black woman.
KIM/ JOHNNY: That would be too strange.
MARGARET: Did you see the Ted Nugent Behind the Music?
JOHNNY: Yeah. I never watch it, but it was on. And then there was the Red Hot Chili Peppers episode, with John Frusciante. People ask me “How can you be friends with John Frusciante?” I only know him straight. I don’t know him any other way. He was like the worst Bowery Bum on heroin. I haven’t seen that one yet, but I’ve seen Poison. These guys talking — the mentality of this band is so different. It’s all about women, and they go nuts on the road…
KIM: They’re not in it for the music at all.
JOHNNY: That stuff never entered my mind. I always had a girlfriend and never cheated on her. Going on the road is touring for the record and making some money. Changing schedules so we could get to the place fast enough to see a baseball game.
MARGARET: Yankees fan?
JOHNNY: Yankees fan. Angels fan too. Baseball fan. So Poison’s mentality… these guys seem all right, but they looked at it as a party. When I go on the road for the next two months it means I don’t drink or smoke pot or do anything till I get back home.
KIM: It’s a real work ethic.
JOHNNY: Each day was about being as good as I could possibly be that night. I don’t do anything to get me tired. Go to bed early.
KIM: It was most important that you do that, because if you screwed up, you’d screw up the others.
JOHNNY: It’s more obvious.
MARGARET: I had a friend mention seeing the Nugent show the other night. They didn’t like him because of his guns and politics.
JOHNNY: Even if you don’t like his music, he’s one of the real characters of rocknroll.
KIM: Do you like his music?
JOHNNY: Just his image more than anything. I don’t hunt, but I don't have anything against people who do. Gun laws don’t get guns out of the hands of criminals. They just make it harder for me and you to get them.
MARGARET: We can hire all those criminals to protect us.
JOHNNY: It’s all about money. That’s all they’re trying to do. Do they want to ban tobacco? They just want to make money off of it.
KIM: How much do they charge for a pack now? Four bucks?
JOHNNY: I think they’re up to that now. I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life.
KIM: I smoked one just to see what it was like. It was real horrible.
JOHNNY: I’m not for people not smoking. Second-hand smoke — it doesn’t do anything to anybody.
KIM: It makes your clothes stink.
MARGARET: It makes my eyes red.
JOHNNY: Okay, but it didn’t kill anybody. Have you seen the billboard "Do you mind if I smoke? Do you care if I die?" They go to a bar and they’re worried about second-hand smoke. They’re not worried so much about people drinking and getting on the road and driving drunk and killing innocent people. That’s what’s steaming them. They’re worried about smoke.
::
[nro] Of course, everyone knows about all the Democrat rockers. Bruce Springsteen even wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times. How is that for rock-n-roll? All the hipsters have signed up to do fundraising concerts for John Kerry because, uh, well, he is not George W. Bush. It has been speculated that these concerts will raise upwards of $44 million dollars for the Kerry/Edwards campaign — becoming the rather absurd situation of rich musicians raising money for even richer politicians.
Having rock stars snatching cash for liberal causes is not really news. Who is startled to hear that Sheryl Crow and the Dixie Chicks are joining Dave Matthews and Jon Bon Jovi in hawking tickets for the Democratic National Committee? [...]
Johnny Ramone, was indeed, an unforgettable character. While the Ramones were being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, Johnny took his opportunity at the microphone to make his allegiances known. "God bless President Bush," he said, "and God bless America." Bedecked in his trademark torn jeans and black leather motorcycle jacket, he understatedly thumbed his nose at he lockstep orthodoxy of the rock establishment. Now, that is punk rock.
"I said that to counter those other speeches at the other awards," Ramone told the Washington Times. "Republicans let this happen over and over, and there is never anyone to stick up for them. They spend too much time defending themselves."
On his website, Ramone assembled Top-10 lists of his favorite baseball players (Greg Maddux), guitarists (Jimmy Page), singers (Elvis), Elvis films (Loving You), and horror films (Bride of Frankenstein). He even listed his favorite Republicans: Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Charlton Heston, Vincent Gallo, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sean Hannity, Ted Nugent, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Barr, and Tom DeLay.
"It was in 1960, the Nixon-Kennedy election," Ramone told the Washington Times, that he first realized he was a Republican. "People around me were saying, "'Oh, Kennedy's so handsome,' and I thought, 'Well, if these people are going to vote for someone based on how he looks, I don't want to be party to that."
Ramone's conservatism extended to his financial advice for the band — encouraging them to demand more money for shows and driving nonstop between cities to save on hotels. His band mates called him the "Rush Limbaugh of rock-n-roll."
After hearing Slim Jim Phantom of the Stray Cats complaining about high taxes, Ramone told him the charges would be higher without the Bush tax cuts. "I told him he needs to vote Republican to keep his taxes lower — and donate to President Bush's campaign," he recalled.
Ironically, Ramone had an eclectic collection of friends who included shock rocker Rob Zombie, provocative filmmaker Vincent Gallo, and Bush-basher Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam. After Vedder impaled a mask of President Bush during a concert, Ramone tried to convince him of how alienating his political theater was for fans.
"I try to make a dent in people when I can," he said. "I figure people drift toward liberalism at a young age, and I always hope that they change when they see how the world really is."
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House Passes Stimulus Plan With No G.O.P. Votes
[nyt] Without a single Republican vote, President Obama won House approval on Wednesday for an $819 billion economic recovery plan as Congressional Democrats sought to temper their own differences over the enormous package of tax cuts and spending.
As a piece of legislation, the two-year package is among the biggest in history, reflecting a broad view in Congress that urgent fiscal help is needed for an economy in crisis, at a time when the Federal Reserve has already cut interest rates almost to zero.
But the size and substance of the stimulus package remain in dispute, as House Republicans argued that it tilted heavily toward new spending instead of tax cuts.
All but 11 Democrats voted for the plan, and 177 Republicans voted against it. The 244-to-188 vote came a day after Mr. Obama traveled to Capitol Hill to seek Republican backing, if not for the package then on other issues to come.
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Stimulating
[as] I love this. The new kind of politics of hope. Eight hours of debate in the HR to pass a bill spending $820 billion, or roughly $102 billion per hour of debate.
Only ten per cent of the "stimulus" to be spent on 2009.
Close to half goes to entities that sponsor or employ or both members of the Service Employees International Union, federal, state, and municipal employee unions, or other Democrat-controlled unions.
This bill is sent to Congress after Obama has been in office for seven days. It is 680 pages long. According to my calculations, not one member of Congress read the entire bill before this vote. Obviously, it would have been impossible, given his schedule, for President Obama to have read the entire bill.
For the amount spent we could have given every unemployed person in the United States roughly $75,000.
We could give every person who had lost a job and is now passing through long-term unemployment of six months or longer roughly $300,000.
There has been pork barrel politics since there has been politics. The scale of this pork is beyond what had ever been imagined before -- and no one can be sure it will actually do much stimulation. [...]
This is a coup for the constituencies of the party in power and against the idea of a responsible government itself. A bleak day.
Unfortunately, it is only the latest in a long series of such days stretching across decades of rule by both parties, to the point where truly responsible government is only a distant echo of our forgotten ancestors.
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Barack Obama sworn in as new president of the United States
[timesuk] Barack Obama was sworn in as America's 44th president today in front of an estimated two million people who flooded central Washington for a distant view of history.
But even as he arrived at Capitol Hill in an armoured limousine with his predecessor George W Bush, US security agencies were urgently investigating a potential threat against him from an East African terror group.
According to a joint bulletin from the FBI and Homeland Security, US intelligence officials had received information that people associated with a Somalia-based Islamic terror group might try to travel to the US with plans to disrupt Inauguration Day. The alert said that US counter-terror officials have grown concerned in recent months about the threat posed by the militant al-Shabaab group and a cell of US-based Somali sympathizers who have traveled to their homeland to "fight alongside Islamic insurgents".
But Russ Knocke, a Homeland Security spokesman, said: "This information is of limited specificity and uncertain credibility... As always, we remind the public to be both thoughtful and vigilant about their surroundings, and to notify authorities of any suspicious activity."
Unaware of the threat, hundreds of thousands of people began arriving in central Washington from before dawn for a distant view of history and the right to say 'I was there' when America's first black president was sworn in.
Vast crowds braving freezing cold crammed into the National Mall and mobbed streets leading onto the central thoroughfare, clogging up the Washington metro system and roads into the city centre more than five hours ahead of the handover.
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Oil falls below $34 amid excess supply : Gloom!
January 20.09
[yahoo] Oil falls below $34 as traders sell expiring contract amid low storage space
Oil prices fell below $34 a barrel Tuesday on the continued gloomy outlook for global energy demand and as traders sold the expiring benchmark contract due to a lack of space at a key U.S. storage facility.
By midday in Europe, light, sweet crude for February delivery was down $3.14 to $33.37 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The February contract expires Tuesday. Its last official settlement was $36.51 on Friday, as U.S. markets were closed Monday due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Nevertheless, electronic trading continued during the holiday and the February contract fell $1.96 to $34.55.
The February contract has fallen about a third in two weeks, in part because burgeoning supplies in Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the Nymex contract, have left investors with little space to store crude, forcing them to sell.
Traders say some oil firms are storing crude on rented tankers.
"There's too much oil in the world right now, and that oil is trying to find a home," said Stephen Corry, head of investment strategy for Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong. "We're finding surplus oil is being put in tankers ... and the price of future contracts is higher in order to offset the storage cost."
Sucden Research in London said that reportedly oil stored in tankers now amounted to about a day's worth of global demand.
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Bush commutes sentences of former US border agents[ap] In his final acts of clemency, President George W. Bush on Monday commuted the prison sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer ignited fierce debate about illegal immigration.
Bush’s decision to commute the sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who tried to cover up the shooting, was welcomed by both Republican and Democratic members of Congress. They had long argued that the agents were merely doing their jobs, defending the American border against criminals. They also maintained that the more than 10-year prison sentences the pair was given were too harsh. [...]
Bush didn’t pardon the men for their crimes, but decided instead to commute their prison sentences because he believed they were excessive and that they had already suffered the loss of their jobs, freedom and reputations, a senior administration official said.
The action by the president, who believes the border agents received fair trials and that the verdicts were just, does not diminish the seriousness of their crimes, the official said.
Compean and Ramos, who have served about two years of their sentences, are expected to be released from prison within the next two months.
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OK. You like Obama. I like Obama. We all like Obama. Seriously. Everyone likes Obama. Holy @!%$#! it's thick. Somewhere (truly, at a point long past) even the most ardently nonsensical have to admit, "yea, the hype level might be a hair overboard." Maybe? Seriously.Every junkie has got to be still burnt from the eternal campaign. What an ordeal. The Bush years in toto...what an ordeal. From before it even began really. Then 911? Come on. But now, we're all declaring change. Gaia needing some change alright and it's a fever baby and it's got me Hoping. Yea. Hopefully things can get down to business post inauguration. Oh, yea, once the 'puppy' dilemma is taken care of.
It cannot be ignored that the current euphoric masses are all but the entire body of those that whine, decry and distill upon the USA herself from such heights. It's broken! Global. But look at that. No martial law nor coup or some extension of presidency, as heard tossed about with a heartfelt lunacy by some. Just a changing of the guard, dignified and smooth. The American Beast, in action. Quite a sight. Peaceful transition of the machine, with pomp, precision and goodwill. Maybe it's not so broken?
I wonder if all of the furniture and silverware will be left in tact, not to mention the keyboards etc. Think all the 'O's will still be on them? Somehow I doubt the Bush family / admin. / staff are much about those types of childish bent and somehow I know that I can count on the utter lack of dignity of many of these masses that even in the last minutes were unable to accord even the due minimum respect to the out going CnC. Stay classy, as they say.
Further, does this mean these same euphoric and delivered masses, the usual endless naysayers, conspiracy proclaimers and so forth will actually be soothed? Dare one 'hope?'
No worries. You've seen the parades, parties and magic. You've got your t-shirt. Lo', tomorrow is another day, however, and all the hats and cakes and tears and t-shirts and wishes will remain just that. Advertisement and marketing.
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Chávez reopens oil bids to West as prices Plunge
[iht] President Hugo Chávez, buffeted by falling oil prices that threaten to damage his efforts to establish a Socialist-inspired state, is quietly courting Western oil companies once again.
Until recently, Chávez had pushed foreign oil companies here into a corner by nationalizing their oil fields, raiding their offices with tax authorities and imposing a series of royalties increases.
But faced with the plunge in prices and a decline in domestic production, senior officials here have begun soliciting bids from some of the largest Western oil companies in recent weeks — including Chevron, Royal Dutch/Shell and Total of France — promising them access to some of the world's largest petroleum reserves, according to energy executives and industry consultants here.
Their willingness to even consider investing in Venezuela reflects the scarcity of projects open to foreign companies in other top oil nations, particularly in the Middle East.
But the shift also shows how the global financial crisis is hampering Chávez's ideological agenda and demanding his pragmatic side. At stake are no less than Venezuela's economic stability and the sustainability of his rule. With oil prices so low, the longstanding problems plaguing Petróleos de Venezuela, the national oil company that helps keep the country afloat, have become much harder to ignore.
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The First 100 Minutes of the Obama Presidency
minute #89 : Remove dunking stool, iron maiden and various "conversation pieces" from Cheney's office. Mad Magazine : [link]
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Airplane crash-lands into Hudson River
[cnn] A US Airways plane with 155 people on board ditched into a chilly Hudson River on Thursday, apparently after striking at least one bird upon takeoff from New York's LaGuardia Airport, according to officials and passengers.
Everyone on board was accounted for and alive, officials said. About 15 people were being treated at hospitals and others were being evaluated at triage centers.Flight 1549, headed to Charlotte, North Carolina, was airborne less than three minutes, according to FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown.
The pilot radioed to air traffic controllers that he had experienced a bird strike and declared an emergency, a New Jersey State Police source said. [...]
As the situation began to settle Thursday evening, the flight's pilot, Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, emerged as a hero, with praise being heaped on him by passengers, officials and aviation experts.
"I don't think there's enough praise to go around for someone who does something like this. This is something you really can't prepare for," said former Delta pilot Denny Walsh. "You really don't practice water landings in commercial airplanes. Just the sheer expertise he demonstrated is amazing."
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Canada Sole Vote Against Resolution[g&m] : Yesterday, Canada was the sole member of the UN Human Rights Council to vote against a resolution, which passed in a 33-1 vote, condemning Israel over its actions in Gaza.
The vote crystallized Canada's emergence under Stephen Harper's government as one of Israel's firmest supporters.
At a meeting in Geneva, Canada asked for a recorded vote to emphasize its complaint that the resolution drafted by Arab, Asian and African countries did not recognize that Israel acted to stop Hamas rocket attacks.
European countries abstained, along with Japan and South Korea, because they felt the resolution lacked balance - it gave only brief mention to rocket attacks. Neither Israel nor the United States are in the 47-member council.
Canada votes alone for Israel
[star] Canada stood alone before a United Nations human rights council yesterday, the only one among 47 nations to oppose a motion condemning the Israeli military offensive in Gaza.
The vote before the Geneva-based body shows the Stephen Harper government has abandoned a more even-handed approach to the Middle East in favour of unalloyed support of Israel, according to some long-time observers.
Thirty-three countries voted for the strongly worded motion, which called for an investigation into "grave" human rights violations by Israeli forces, while 13 nations, mostly European, abstained.
The United States, regarded as Israel's greatest ally, is not a member of the council.
Marius Grinius, Canada's representative on the council, said the language of the motion, which accused Israel of sparking a humanitarian crisis, was "unnecessary, unhelpful and inflammatory."
He said the text failed to "clearly recognize" that Hamas rocket attacks on Israel triggered the crisis.
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Iranian Protesters Burn Obama Pictures
[timeuk] : Iranian demonstrators burned photographs of Barack Obama today as they protested against America’s inaction over Gaza.
Dozens of people gathered in Tehran waving Palestinian flags and defacing and setting fire to images of the President-elect.
Iranian demonstrators have often burned effigies or pictures of US presidents in the past but this appeared to be the first time Mr Obama’s picture had been defaced, a week before his inauguration as president.
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Brink of an Ice Age
[prvda] The earth is now on the brink of entering another Ice Age, according to a large and compelling body of evidence from within the field of climate science. Many sources of data which provide our knowledge base of long-term climate change indicate that the warm, twelve thousand year-long Holocene period will rather soon be coming to an end, and then the earth will return to Ice Age conditions for the next 100,000 years.
Ice cores, ocean sediment cores, the geologic record, and studies of ancient plant and animal populations all demonstrate a regular cyclic pattern of Ice Age glacial maximums which each last about 100,000 years, separated by intervening warm interglacials, each lasting about 12,000 years.
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Warm Reception Expected in Senate Hillary Secretary of State Confirmation Hearing.
[lat] Reporting from Washington -- Long considered one of the nation's most polarizing figures, Hillary Rodham Clinton steps into her new role as America's chief diplomat this week with a Senate confirmation hearing that is likely to look more like a tribute than an examination of a controversial politician.
Clinton has fanned political passions as first lady, as New York's junior senator and as a presidential candidate. Yet she is collecting rhetorical bouquets from Republicans as she prepares for the Tuesday committee appearance that will open the way for her fourth public incarnation -- as secretary of State.
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Franken Electoral Clown Show
[wsj] Strange things keep happening in Minnesota, where the disputed recount in the Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken may be nearing a dubious outcome. Thanks to the machinations of Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and a meek state Canvassing Board, Mr. Franken may emerge as an illegitimate victor.
Mr. Franken started the recount 215 votes behind Senator Coleman, but he now claims a 225-vote lead and suddenly the man who was insisting on "counting every vote" wants to shut the process down. He's getting help from Mr. Ritchie and his four fellow Canvassing Board members, who have delivered inconsistent rulings and are ignoring glaring problems with the tallies.
Under Minnesota law, election officials are required to make a duplicate ballot if the original is damaged during Election Night counting. Officials are supposed to mark these as "duplicate" and segregate the original ballots. But it appears some officials may have failed to mark ballots as duplicates, which are now being counted in addition to the originals. This helps explain why more than 25 precincts now have more ballots than voters who signed in to vote. By some estimates this double counting has yielded Mr. Franken an additional 80 to 100 votes.
This disenfranchises Minnesotans whose vote counted only once. And one Canvassing Board member, State Supreme Court Justice G. Barry Anderson, has acknowledged that "very likely there was a double counting." Yet the board insists that it lacks the authority to question local officials and it is merely adding the inflated numbers to the totals.
In other cases, the board has been flagrantly inconsistent. Last month, Mr. Franken's campaign charged that one Hennepin County (Minneapolis) precinct had "lost" 133 votes, since the hand recount showed fewer ballots than machine votes recorded on Election Night. Though there is no proof to this missing vote charge -- officials may have accidentally run the ballots through the machine twice on Election Night -- the Canvassing Board chose to go with the Election Night total, rather than the actual number of ballots in the recount. That decision gave Mr. Franken a gain of 46 votes.
Meanwhile, a Ramsey County precinct ended up with 177 more ballots than there were recorded votes on Election Night. In that case, the board decided to go with the extra ballots, rather than the Election Night total, even though the county is now showing more ballots than voters in the precinct. This gave Mr. Franken a net gain of 37 votes, which means he's benefited both ways from the board's inconsistency.
And then there are the absentee ballots. The Franken campaign initially howled that some absentee votes had been erroneously rejected by local officials. Counties were supposed to review their absentees and create a list of those they believed were mistakenly rejected. Many Franken-leaning counties did so, submitting 1,350 ballots to include in the results. But many Coleman-leaning counties have yet to complete a re-examination. Despite this lack of uniformity, and though the state Supreme Court has yet to rule on a Coleman request to standardize this absentee review, Mr. Ritchie's office nonetheless plowed through the incomplete pile of 1,350 absentees this weekend, padding Mr. Franken's edge by a further 176 votes. [...]
The question is how the board can certify a fair and accurate election result given these multiple recount problems. Yet that is precisely what the five members seem prepared to do when they meet today. Some members seem to have concluded that because one of the candidates will challenge the result in any event, why not get on with it and leave it to the courts? Mr. Coleman will certainly have grounds to contest the result in court, but he'll be at a disadvantage given that courts are understandably reluctant to overrule a certified outcome. [...]
Minnesotans like to think that their state isn't like New Jersey or Louisiana, and typically it isn't. But we can't recall a similar recount involving optical scanning machines that has changed so many votes, and in which nearly every crucial decision worked to the advantage of the same candidate. The Coleman campaign clearly misjudged the politics here, and the apparent willingness of a partisan like Mr. Ritchie to help his preferred candidate, Mr. Franken. If the Canvassing Board certifies Mr. Franken as the winner based on the current count, it will be anointing a tainted and undeserving Senator.
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Reid Yields on Franken
[yahoo] Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yielded to Republican threats and agreed on Monday not to immediately seat fellow Democrat Al Franken, whose razor-close victory in Minnesota faces legal challenges.
Senate Republicans had planned to disrupt the opening of the new Congress on Tuesday by blocking Franken's swearing-in.
And in another ugly fight, Senate Democrats vowed to block, at least for now, the seating of fellow party member Roland Burris whose appointment by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich carries a whiff of political scandal.
The 57-year old Franken, who gained fame as a writer and performer on the satiric Saturday Night Live television show, on Monday officially was declared the victor by a 225-vote margin by Minnesota state officials from nearly 2.9 million votes cast.
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Sea Ice Ends Year at Same Level as 1979
Rapid growth spurt leaves amount of ice at levels seen 29 years ago
[dtech]Thanks to a rapid rebound in recent months, global sea ice levels now equal those seen 29 years ago, when the year 1979 also drew to a close.
Ice levels had been tracking lower throughout much of 2008, but rapidly recovered in the last quarter. In fact, the rate of increase from September onward is the fastest rate of change on record, either upwards or downwards.
The data is being reported by the University of Illinois's Arctic Climate Research Center, and is derived from satellite observations of the Northern and Southern hemisphere polar regions.
Each year, millions of square kilometers of sea ice melt and refreeze. However, the mean ice anomaly -- defined as the seasonally-adjusted difference between the current value and the average from 1979-2000, varies much more slowly. That anomaly now stands at just under zero, a value identical to one recorded at the end of 1979, the year satellite record-keeping began.
Sea ice is floating and, unlike the massive ice sheets anchored to bedrock in Greenland and Antarctica, doesn't affect ocean levels. However, due to its transient nature, sea ice responds much faster to changes in temperature or precipitation and is therefore a useful barometer of changing conditions.
Earlier this year, predictions were rife that the North Pole could melt entirely in 2008. Instead, the Arctic ice saw a substantial recovery. Bill Chapman, a researcher with the UIUC's Arctic Center, tells DailyTech this was due in part to colder temperatures in the region. Chapman says wind patterns have also been weaker this year. Strong winds can slow ice formation as well as forcing ice into warmer waters where it will melt.
Why were predictions so wrong? Researchers had expected the newer sea ice, which is thinner, to be less resilient and melt easier. Instead, the thinner ice had less snow cover to insulate it from the bitterly cold air, and therefore grew much faster than expected, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
In May, concerns over disappearing sea ice led the U.S. to officially list the polar bear a threatened species, over objections from experts who claimed the animal's numbers were increasing.
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Canadian researchers discover how to ID 'bad' from normal stem cells
[cbc] Doctors have long struggled to differentiate cancerous stem cells from healthy ones, but Canadian researchers now say they know how to tell the two apart to hopefully one day better identify how to kill only the dangerous ones.
The discovery, published Sunday in the journal Nature Biotechnology, may eventually allow further targeting of cancer treatments.
Specifically, Dr. Mick Bhatia of Hamilton's McMaster University and his team have demonstrated for the first time how to tell the difference between normal stem cells and cancer stem cells in humans.
"Normal stem cells and cancer stem cells are hard to tell apart, and many have misconstrued really good stem cells for cancer stem cells that have gone bad — we now can tell the ones masquerading as normal stem cells from the bad, cancerous ones," Dr. Bhatia, scientific director of the Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., said in a release.
"This also allows us to compare normal versus cancer stem cells from humans in the laboratory — define the differences in terms of genes they express and drugs they respond to. Essentially, we can now use this to find the 'magic bullet,' a drug or set of drugs that kill cancer stem cells first, and spare the normal healthy ones," he said.
The research also helps allay one of the big worries about one day using stem cells to grow new organs and other tissues for curing disease — that the stem cells could give rise to tumours and end up doing more harm than good.
Stem cells are master cells
Known as the body's master cells, stem cells have the ability to give rise to, or differentiate into, any tissue type — from heart, lung and liver, to brain, bone and skin. Unlike mature cells, which remain the same throughout their lifespan, stem cells can both renew themselves and create new cells of whatever tissue type they belong to.
Cancer stem cells, on the other hand, give rise to cancerous cells.
Bhatia said scientists working in labs worldwide, including his own, would assume that their particular stem cell lines were healthy and able to give rise to an array of similarly healthy cells of varying types. (A stem cell line is a family of constantly dividing cells arising from a parent group of stem cells.)
But often when researchers tried to use these so-called high-quality stem cells in experiments, they found the cells didn't behave as they had hoped.
For example, the McMaster lab manipulated human embryonic stem cells to produce brain cells and implanted them into mice. But instead of producing normal, healthy neurons, they produced a tumour.
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Well-Timed, Or a Little Late?
[] : Barack Obama promised to be a uniter, and his handling of Bill Richardson’s now-aborted appointment as Commerce secretary seems to have had that effect on the blogosphere, in the form of universal displeasure.
“With an almost audible sigh of relief barely two weeks before his inauguration Obama, in a printed statement that won’t provide archival video footage, said he accepted the resignation-before-actually-taking-office ‘with deep regret,’ ” reports the Los Angeles Times’s Andrew Malcolm. [...]
“The New Mexico governor has, over the last decade, left behind a wide trail of questionable business dealings, many of them involving the energy industry,” adds James Ridgeway at Mother Jones.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Richardson affair taints Obama administration
[g&m] The mess of Bill Richardson's resignation as commerce-secretary-in-waiting eats up more of the goodwill Barack Obama badly needs if he is to implement his audacious agenda - an agenda that is being undermined by petty state-level scandals.
In a statement released to the press yesterday, the New Mexico governor announced that: "I have asked the president-elect not to move forward with my nomination at this time.
"I do so with great sorrow. But a pending investigation of a company that has done business with New Mexico state government promises to extend for several weeks or, perhaps, even months."
That company is CDR Financial Products, which contributed to Mr. Richardson's past campaigns, while also winning $1.5-million in consulting contracts with the state government. A grand jury is investigating whether there was a "pay-to-play" connection in the awarding of the contracts.
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Adios BillHere's a guy I thought was pretty cool for a moment, once upon a time, quite some time ago. He seems a likable sort as sorts go. It was a short moment, you know one when amongst a sea of blithering empty nonsense, someone edges above and scrapes at something concrete? Just as easily a fluke, random or rare occurrence. A lucky shot in the dark moment where one happened upon a hit. I think so, though however moot since Bill has shown his his colours, so be it what it may and taken as is, face it, it kind of speaks for itself. You know how some guys are just....around? Adios Cheese.
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