Archive for January 10, 2012
Who Can Blame Iran For Wanting One — One — Nuke?
This is our Tweet of the Day:
The United States currently maintains an arsenal of 5,113 [nuclear] warheads.
If you were Iran, what would you do?
Jon Huntsman’s Daddy Warbucks
Have you ever heard the “liberal media” refer to the GOP presidential candidate, Jon Huntsman, as Jon Huntsman, Jr.? Me neither.
Jon Huntsman, Sr. is Jon Huntsman Jr.’s bank account. Jon Huntsman Sr. is worth:
Just sayin’.
Sheldon Adelson Buys Newt Gingrich
If you’re a news junky like me, you probably heard that a Las Vegas casino owner contributed $5 million to a PAC backing New Gingrich. And, if you’re like me, that’s about all you heard, thanks to our suck a** media.
Sheldon Adelson / Photo: Paul Young - Reuters
Well, here are the details:
Sheldon Adelson Gives $5 Million to Pro-Gingrich Group
American billionaire Sheldon Adelson, close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and owner of the Israeli daily Israel Hayom, has given $5 million to an independent group backing Newt Gingrich’s presidential bid.
A person familiar with the situation said Adelson — founder and majority owner of Las Vegas-based company that owns Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem — made the contribution Friday to Winning Our Future, a pro-Gingrich super PAC. The person said Adelson would spend heavily to assist whichever candidate wins the Republican nomination.
So, Adelson (the 8th richest man in the world) apparently thinks Newt is the best bet for his money (no pun intended), as in the guy who will disappear and quash the Palestinians most effectively, but just in case, he’s standing by with more moolah to buy any GOP candidate who might best Newt.
Thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, these are the kinds of special interests that are buying our presidential candidates and fueling our elections and, in the end, owning our president. And take a guess as to what that the winner’s priorities will be.
We? The People? We’re screwed.
Twenty Years in Shanghai
Hey kids, it’s break time!
Look at these amazing “before” and “after” pictures of Shanghai. The top picture was taken a mere 22 years ago — in 1990 — and the bottom picture was taken in 2010.
Is that mind-blowing growth or what?
(Via.)
Holy moly.
Free Speech — As Long as the Government Approves
This would be our quote of the day (and maybe of the year), from Air Force Colonel Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor at the Guantanamo Bay military base/prison in Cuba. He resigned in 2007, protesting political interference in the military commissions of Guantánamo prisoners. He was a guest this morning on DemocracyNow! on a show marking the 10th anniversary of the United States detaining prisoners there.
Photo: Wikipedia
Yeah, I—as I said, I was very optimistic when President Obama took office that he was going to follow through on what he promised [to close Gitmo within a year of taking office]. You know, I believed in hope and change. When he began to backpedal, I wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that accused—that said it was a double standard, what we were doing. And I got my termination notice the next day. So, it was disappointing I spent 25 years defending the Constitution, and then to be told that it didn’t apply to me. You know, we have free speech for everyone that has nothing to say. But if you have an opinion, then it’s speak at your own peril. And so, I was fired for expressing an opinion.
Davis was fired for expressing an opinion by the administration of Mr. Hope and Change Constitutional lawyer, Barack Obama. If a president who’s a Constitutional lawyer will fire someone for exercising their freedom of speech, anyone will.
(If you’d like to hear more of what Col. Davis had to say, see the “rushed transcript” or the video at the DemocracyNow! link above.)
Republicans: Laughing Stock of the Planet
Remember back in early December when the German newspaper, Der Spiegel, printed an article about the GOP presidential candidates titled, ” The Republicans’ Farcical Candidates — A Club of Liars, Demagogues and Ignoramuses?”
Dumb is cool.
Well, here we go again, with this entry from The Telegraph in the UK: Republicans Turn Their Back on the Enlightenment:
Charles Krupa / AP
Over in the US, the Republican party is choosing its presidential nominee to face Barack Obama in November. But whoever wins, science may lose.
The Grand Ol’ Party (GOP), as the Republicans are known, has an uncomfortable relationship with scientific fact. Rick Santorum, a frontrunner in the nomination race, has said of a fellow candidate: “If he wants to believe he is the descendant of a monkey then he has the right to believe that, but I disagree with him on this liberal belief.” Yes: acknowledging biology’s central premise is “liberal”. His opponents Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Michelle Bachman and Newt Gingrich have all made noises doubting either climate change, evolution or both; only Jon Huntsman, a forlorn no-hoper, acknowledges the reality of both.
It’s not just the candidates. Fifty-two per cent of Republican voters reject the theory of evolution, saying mankind was created in present form within the last 10,000 years; just 31 per cent think man-made climate change is happening. In Congress, Republicans fought stem cell research and the HPV vaccine. Sarah Palin, ignoramus-in-chief, mocked “fruit-fly research” as a “pet project [with] little or nothing to do with the public good,” rejecting at a stroke most advances in genetics since Gregor Mendel [1822-1884].
And if one of these guys wins in November, he will set not only the GOP back 400 years, but the whole country.
USA! USA! USA!
