Duck!
Military Preparing For Falling US Spy Satellite To Hit Earth
The U.S. military is developing contingency plans to deal with the possibility that a large spy satellite expected to fall to Earth in late February or early March could hit North America. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, who heads of U.S. Northern Command, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the size of the satellite suggests that [...]
Tags: Space Exploration
Categories: Outer Space
About time. Feds finally taking the mortgage situation seriously.
F.B.I. Looks at 14 Companies in Subprime Inquiry
F.B.I. officials told reporters the probes involved potential violations including accounting fraud and insider trading [...]
Tags: Home Sales
Categories: Housing Market
The President has done it again. Slapped one of those ridiculous “signing statements” onto a bill that did something he didn’t like.
Bush Issues Signing Statement On Defense Act, Waiving Ban On Permanent Bases In Iraq
President Bush yesterday signed the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act after initially rejecting Congress’s first version because it would have allegedly opened the Iraqi government to “expensive lawsuits.” Even though he forced Congress to change its original bill, Bush’s signature yesterday came with a little-noticed signing statement, claiming that provisions in the law “could inhibit [...]
Tags: Bush Administration, George W. Bush, Iraq
Categories: Bush Administration · George W. Bush · Iraq War
Even though I’ve abandoned my old career, I still keep an eagle eye on what’s happening in the media, moreso on the national level than local. The battle among the cable news nets fascinates me. Fox News, CNN, MSNBC. Media Matters for America tells us:
Boehlert: Fox News is in for a very rough 2008
My guess is that Fox News guru Roger Ailes has been reaching for the Tums more often than usual early in the New Year, and there are lots of reasons for the hovering angst. Let’s take an extended multiple choice quiz. Right now, which of the following topics is likely causing the discomfort inside Ailes’ Fox News empire? [...]
Categories: Television
Got big plans for the big game? Here’s one fellow who’s not enthused.
Critic’s Choice: Thumbs Down on the Spectacle
At the moment when football is supposed to be at its glorious peak — the Super Bowl — it is utterly irrelevant [...]
Tags: Super Bowl
Categories: Sports
Politics is amazing. I swear, there’s been more attention paid today to the “Avoided Handshake” at the State of the Union speech than to the speech itself. That’s either testament to the lack of substance in the speech, or an astute observation of the personalities of politics.
Mr Unity Turns His Back on Opponent and Then Shakes the Hand of The Divider
They say a picture speaks a thousands words. Well tonight there’s a photo from the SOTU, that is certainly stirring up the conversation. For all the talk from Barack Obama about being a unifier, I’m among the many who wonder why he turned his back as Hillary Clinton reached out to shake Ted Kennedy’s hand: Now [...]
UPDATE: Well, cowboy, reign it in.
Obama and Senate ally: Clinton wasn’t snubbed
Tags: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, SOTU
He didn’t like the speech and he certainly doesn’t think much of George W. Bush. If you enjoy smackdowns, mixed with a bit of history, read on..
The Story of the George Bush Presidency: Unstable, Unfinished & Uncomprehending
Hard to believe, but I still can muster a modicum of sympathy for George Walker Bush. This is because it is apparent after the last seven long years that this son of the Texas oil patch really didn’t know what hit him […]
Now, on to the mainstream media..
It was the ghost of State of The Unions past. Five years ago, President Bush used the SOTU to forcefully make the case for war with Iraq. Remember “the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa?” Those were the days. The USA Today headline for last night’s speech? “Bush Tries to Show That He’s Still on The Job.” Ouch. Nothing was a bigger tell of the desperation here than [...]
Tags: George W. Bush
Categories: George W. Bush
Let’s just admit that FEMA was pretty much worthless when Katrina hit, shall we? Anyone disagree? Raise your hand now. Didn’t think so…
FEMA Covered Up Cancer Risks To Katrina Victims
Last summer, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was publicly shamed when lawmakers revealed the agency, to avoid lawsuits, put off testing trailers used to house Hurricane Katrina victims for formaldehyde, a toxic chemical. Now, documents obtained by Salon show that FEMA also pressured scientists to water down a report on the health risks of formaldehyde. FEMA officials instructed [...]
Categories: Bush Administration · FEMA · Hurricanes
McCain wins in Florida..at least that’s where it stands as I post this.
McCain beats Romney in Florida, 35-31 percent
Although he was vastly outspent and out-organized, Sen. John McCain cobbled together a victory in Florida’s Republican primary tonight, with combined support from Cuban Americans, seniors and veterans. McCain’s win here puts him on a path to [...]
Tags: McCain
Categories: McCain
The devil, as they say, is always in the details.
Here’s your question, class: In his State of the Union, the President asked Congress for $300 million for poor kids in the inner city. As there are, officially, 15 million children in America living in poverty, how much is that per child? Correct! $20. Here’s your second question. The President also [...]
Another reason that education thing won’t work..
‘Pell Grants for Kids’ = Vouchers
In 2001, when the White House decided it would work with congressional Dems on No Child Left Behind legislation, Dems made one thing perfectly clear: no vouchers. Plenty of ideas were on the table, but there was simply no way Dems would support a national plan that used public funds to subsidize tuition at religious [...]
Categories: Bush Administration · Education
Awful. Horrible. Depressing.
US home foreclosures up 79% in 2007
And they are expected to be even higher this year. More economic failure, courtesy of the GOP. Regulation and oversight are not bad words, unless you are a Republican. Because [...]
Tags: Foreclosures
Categories: Housing Market
Ah, yes. The obligatory State of the Union post. All the bloggers do it. I skipped the speech. On purpose. Figured reruns of Law and Order would better occupy my time. Mike Lux would agree. So, tonight, 24 hours later, I’m letting the bloggers (and some brief time with the cable news folks early this morning) tell me all I need to know.
So much for that sprint to the finish line
After watching the president’s 53-minute address to Congress last night, I feel pretty comfortable saying the state of the Union is … listless, frustrated, and ready to move on. That applies equally to Bush and his audience. The funny thing is the Bush White House has been offering something of a mixed message for the better [...]
By the way, even the conservative bloggers weren’t impressed:
A SPEECH DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF
The first half of President Bush’s State of the Union swan song brought together a hodgepodge of disconnected themes and proposals. Devoted to domestic issues, the first half of the speech barely alluded to the war in which we are engaged [...]
Tags: Bush Administration, SOTU
Categories: George W. Bush
In case you haven’t been around for long, there was a time that the terms “politics” and “cooperation” were not mutually exclusive. There is, again, a glimmer of hope.
A taste of what politics used to be….
…before Lee Atwater came on the scene and turned presidential races into a contest as to just how dead the corpse of the opposition would be after you finished with him; and his spawn Karl Rove turned a brain-damaged idiot into a president. There used to be Republicans and Democrats who may have disagreed about the best way to get there, but whose goals weren’t really all that dissimilar. Yes, there were always [...]
Tags: Democrats, Republicans
Categories: Democrats · Republicans
Are you struggling, just a bit, to understand the Obama factor? Trying to figure out exactly why his campaign is appealing to so many? I believe it’s really quite simple. It all comes down to “hope”. Why does he ooze “hope” more than Hillary Clinton? Don’t they really say many of the same things? It’s style. Just read the following post and it’s accompanying comments and you’ll get a feel for what’s happening. True, it’s a microscopic view and may not translate into victory on the big stage, but it’s certainly interesting.
I’ve been moody lately. I have a lot of anger built up. I feel like I have been waking up each day for years and, like Sisyphus, trying to push the same rock up the same hill, only to see it come crashing back down. But I admit to feeling a little tingle of hope over the last two days. I feel like if we can just somehow defeat the Clintons and nominate Barack Obama that we will not only win the White House with about 40 states, but also [... ]
Enticing, perhaps. But, can Obama deliver? Or is it all empty words, smoke and mirrors..
The most intriguing part of the State of the Union Address for me was watching the Kansas Governor audition for the second spot on the Obama ticket. The main lesson I took from the entire experience, however, is that Obama is playing a dangerous game by creating expectations that he almost certainly cannot deliver on. Sebelius [...]
At Shakespeare’s Sister, Melissa says:
I Have Questions for Barack Obama
And, they are all valid. Click. And read. We have a long way and many questions to go before November.
Tags: 2008 Election, Barack Obama
Categories: 2008 Election · Obama
It’s election night in Florida and the results will soon come rolling in. We’ll get to that in a later post. First, something that caught my eye as I was reading through my Bloglines during lunch today. It’s something that makes sense. And explains why good nutrition is so important. And why the junk that a lot of kids (and adults) eat is downright dangerous, not only to them, but to others. Confused? Read on…
Link between junk food and violence?
Oxford University is launching a study in the British prison system to investigate the links between anti-social behavior and diet/nutrition. The initial studies have shown there could be a connection and changes could reduce (not eliminate) violent behavior in a [...]
As long as we’re talking about food…
…By 2035, the percentage of American adults with obesity-related coronary heart disease will increase by as much as 16 percent, and obesity-related heart disease deaths could grow by as much as 19 percent. And in 2005, another study found that for the first time since the Civil War, Americans’ life expectancy is [...]
Categories: Crime
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