This is a cross post from Think Progress’s Lee Fang. Rachel Maddow’s take on this is above.
In August, The Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson noted that the coal industry had contracted a PR firm to promote its “FACES of Coal” campaign. To attack clean energy reform, the campaign featured pictures of seemingly normal individuals opposed to cap and trade legislation. However, the Appalachian Voices’ Front Porch blog revealed that the “FACES” of the coal campaign wereSource: Climate Progress RSS Feed
From the Daily News:
A city agency is running rogue in Queens, a newly elected lawmaker is charging.
The Buildings Department filed paperwork asserting its inspectors tried to get access to more than 500 homes in College Point and Flushing to check for illegal conversions in a two-month span - including Councilman-elect Dan Halloran's residence.
Halloran, who just won a seat in the 19th Council District, said records show an inspector twice tried to access his FlushingSource: Queens Crap RSS Feed
Photo Courtesy 1389 Blog
American Power has the story of his Auto-Excommunication from the right-o-sphere.
I think it is safe to say that most conservatives have known Charles Johnson wasn't one of us for a while now, especially Basil. Good riddance to another lefty trying to pass them self off as a conservative. We don't need him, or those like him.*
Previous posts regarding Charles Johnson.
*--I have to link to that blog via a re-direct because I have been blocked from Source: Thunder Pig RSS Feed
From Boulder (CO) County’s Public Health News:
Dine in the Dark for Energy Efficiency
Monday, November 30, 2009 – Boulder County – Restaurants are being asked to offer a special deal and turn out the lights for lunch on December 11, 2009, to celebrate Lights Out Lunch. During the lunch, consumers would be asked to dine in the dark to emphasize the importance of energy efficiency.
Sponsored by Xcel Energy, participating restaurants will be featured on the XcelSource: Sweetness Light RSS Feed
“Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century.” So concluded a Lancet—UCL Commission earlier this year. Asystematic appraisal of available evidence showed that the risks from changing patterns of disease, food insecurity, unsafe water and sanitation, damage to human settlements, extreme events, and population growth and migration were far more severe for human health than most observers had understood. The message added an important new dimension to theSource: Climate Progress RSS Feed
In my post from yesterday, I already expressed my disappointment in Obama's decision to sink us that much deeper in Afghanistan. Maybe I will be surprised when he actually delivers his speech and he offers a better glimpse of an authentic exit strategy...though I doubt it. But let us not forget just how we got into the rat trap and who got us there. My good friend Tim at Biped Twilight highlights the Senate Foreign Relations Committee report just released that details how the BushSource: Marc Cooper RSS Feed
Fred Kaplan has a very good article on President Obama’s decision to scuttle the Bush administration’s proposed missile-defense system to be built in Poland and the Czech Republic:
The decision, which he announced this morning after completing a six-month review of the program, removes the biggest obstacle in U.S.-Russian relations—a step that could clear the way for cooperative measures on a wide range of international issues—without scrapping the general idea of some sort ofSource: Sisyphus RSS Feed
Another Obama Gitmo Official Resigns: Who is Accountable Now?
Big Government
by Warner Todd Huston
Earlier this month Obama fired Greg Craig, his main counsel on matters concerning the Guantanamo Bay Facility. And this week Obama sheds another one of his GITMO team with the resignation of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense for Detainee Policy, Phillip Carter.
It appears that Obama’s GITMO team is being Source: Theodore's World RSS Feed
As TPM reported earlier this week, FOX News management has said heads would roll for on-screen "errors" like running the cover of "Going Rouge" instead of the cover of "Going Rogue" in their programming.
So what quality control agent is doing their pie charts? They add up to 193%, dude. And Sandy points out that 70% of Republicans suffer from BACK PALIN: a pre-existing condition for sure.
http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=1447
From the CRU code file osborn-tree6/briffa_sep98_d.pro , used to prepare a graph purported to be of Northern Hemisphere temperatures and reconstructions.
;
; Apply a VERY ARTIFICAL correction for decline!!
;
yrloc=[1400,findgen(19)*5.+1904]
valadj=[0.,0.,0.,0.,0.,-0.1,-0.25,-0.3,0.,- 0.1,0.3,0.8,1.2,1.7,2.5,2.6,2.6,2.6,2.6,2.6]*0.75 ; fudge factor
if n_elements(yrloc) ne n_elements(valadj) thenSource: dispatches from TJICistan RSS Feed
USAToday | For the third time in 16 years the federal government is forming a blue-ribbon panel to try to save the USA's troubled airline industry, which has racked up $58.5 billion in losses and shed 158,000 jobs this decade.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who has ordered up the panel, vows it won't be "just another advisory committee."
"I am not commissioning some report to fill space on my bookshelf," he wrote on his official blog on the department's website. "ThisSource: subrealism RSS Feed
Photo Credit: Pvt. Jared N. GehmannSgt. Richard Grimsley greets a young Iraqi girl during a checkpoint patrol, in the Ma'dain region, located outside eastern Baghdad. Staff Grimsley, of Charleston, S.C., is a squad leader assigned to Troop A, 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad. Prior to moving to the outskirts of eastern Baghdad, Troop A operated in the heart of Baghdad's Rusafa District.
tags Source: U.S. Torture and Atrocities RSS Feed
TRENTON, N.J. (AP/ 1010 WINS) -- A New Jersey man who paid a municipal official $5,000 to get approval for an illegal apartment in a building he owned has been convicted of bribery.
A federal jury deliberated for about two hours Friday before convicting 49-year-old Herman Friedman. The Union City man faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he's sentenced March 3, although the actual sentence is likely to be less under federal sentencing guidelines.
Prosecutors said Source: Queens Crap RSS Feed
A bunch of illegally hacked UK e-mails storm the anti-scientific side of the blogosphere at the same time as an uber-extreme weather event hits Britain. I guess when it rains, it pours — literally:
Forecasters said the rainfall was unprecedented. Britain’s Meteorological Office said a record 12.3 inches of rain fell in 24 hours in the area — the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in the U.K….
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn told the BBC that flood defenses were meant toSource: Climate Progress RSS Feed
Barack Obama meets with Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Singapore, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
OBAMA TELLS RUSSIAN LEADER....'US CONSTITUTION DEAD'
November 17, 2009
Fourwinds
One of the saddest Kremlin reports we’ve ever read stated that during President Obama’s meeting with PresidentSource: Theodore's World RSS Feed
Number of comments: 2
This afternoon Governor Sarah Palin was on Sean Hannity’s Radio show for about 15-16 minutes. Talked the health care bill, the Obama administration, Ronald Reagan, made a reference to “lamestream media,” federal deficits, 2010 elections, government spending, political party machines, and 2012.
She
From a relentless Associated Press:
AP POLL: Tax the rich to pay for health bill
By Erica Werner, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – When it comes to paying for a health care overhaul, Americans see just one way to go: Tax the rich.
That finding from a new Associated Press poll will be welcome news for House Democrats, who proposed doing just that in their sweeping remake of the U.S. medical system, which passed earlier this month and would extend coverageSource: Sweetness Light RSS Feed
“Outrageous… ludicrous mistakes.”
President Obama, February 24, 2009, justifying his “stimulus” plan to a joint session of Congress:
I know there are some in this chamber and watching at home who are skeptical of whether this plan will work. I understand that skepticism. Here in Washington, we’ve all seen how quickly good intentions can turn into broken promises and wasteful spending. And with a plan of this scale comes enormous responsibility to get it right.
Source: Red State RSS Feed
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From Reliable Sources, Howard Kurtz hosts a panel discussion on Lou Dobbs departure from CNN. I guess Howard thinks bringing in bullying, right wing, Rush Limbaugh wanna-be hack Chris Plante to concern troll for Dobbs somehow made this panel "balanced". All it did was make it ridiculous.
Plante uses an extremely broad brush to throw around accusations of "liberal" media bias. Anyone think Campbell Brown who's married to Dan Senor is Source: Crooks and Liars RSS Feed
From the Village Voice:
This house, at 42-40 65th Street in Woodside, had been inspected twice by Buildings Department inspectors -- in 1990 and in 2004 -- in response to complaints that there were "extra rooms" in the basement. Inspectors did not find violations on either occasion...
The public has good reason to be skeptical of the inspectors' findings. From 2002 to the present, the city's Department of Investigations has arrested 37 Buildings Department employees on a varietySource: Queens Crap RSS Feed
Take a look at this picture. The man on the left is the President of the United States, otherwise known as the Leader of the Free World. The man on the right is the Emperor of Japan.
Would someone please give me a good – and by good I mean one I can stomach – why The One is bowing (yet again) before a foreign monarch (yet again) at an angle which – were it any steeper – would cause him to fall over on his fool head?
Sigh.
I’d write more, but right now I’mSource: Political Derby RSS Feed
I’ll start this out by saying that I’m sure several of you are going to disagree with me.
Unlike conservatives, I was willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt when he appeared to give a deferential bow to the King of Saudi Arabia. Perhaps it was just a rookie mistake, or the result of some bad advice from the protocol office.
But, this is starting to become a disturbing pattern:
How low will the new American president go for the world’s royalty?
Politico | The conventional wisdom in Washington and in most of the rest of the world is that the roaring Chinese economy is going to pull the global economy out of recession and back into growth. It’s China’s turn, the theory goes, as American consumers — who propelled the last global boom with their borrowing and spending ways — have begun to tighten their belts and increase savings rates.
The Chinese, with their unbridled capitalistic expansion propelled by a system theySource: subrealism RSS Feed
_________________________________________________________________________________
Michael Schulder
CNN Senior Executive Producer
I was ready for my closing argument. The information I gathered from leading trial attorneys for my past two pieces added so much additional weight to the premise that the 18-49 year old audience demo is finished, I was ready to end it right here. But I asked one too many questions.
Age=Influence … Very Often
Source: AC360 RSS Feed
Congressman Heath Shuler spoke to Students, Faculty and Staff at Western Carolina University yesterday and I broadcast it live in the Internet. I also recorded it, and here is a YouTube playlist of the event.
I've noticed that Congressman Shuler has been making the rounds, giving interviews to friendly media-types and showing up at events which promise to be overwhelmingly attended by members of his own party...or giving private audiences to groups that have to sendSource: Thunder Pig RSS Feed
Up and down the ballot, Republicans have favorable matchups in next fall’s general elections. The top of Republican ballot will feature U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley and a gubernatorial candidate who will emerge from a hard fought primary to face the unpopular and weak incumbent governor, Chet
The Spirit of Ted Kennedy
John Delloro August 26, 2009 (originally posted on www.laprogressive.com and Asian American Action Fund blogsite)
When I heard of Senator Ted Kennedy’s passing, I immediately thought of my father after his near-fatal road accident. His skull fractured with internal bleeding in his head sent him into violent fits and temporarily erased his memories of me. I had to hold him down onto the bed so that he would not hurt himself and pull out the tubesSource: Burning Cane RSS Feed
From NY1:
"I want to make sure that everybody in New York understands that the terrible tragedy at Fort Hood was an individual who snapped but it has nothing to do with religion," Bloomberg said.
Really? Well most media outlets are reporting that the guy had contact with Al Qaeda, attended the same mosque as the 9/11 terrorists and it's looking more and more likely that Hasan pre-meditated the attack and didn't just "snap".
From the Daily News:
Siraj Wahhaj was one ofSource: Queens Crap RSS Feed
Queen Elizabeth arrives at the Cenotaph with Prince Andrew, Prince William, Princess Anne, Prince Harry and the Duke of Edinburgh.
Members of the Royal family formed up to the left of the Cenotaph in Whitehall, Westminster, London, as part of the annual Remembrance Sunday service.
Her Majesty lays a wreath at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday, followed by the Lord's Prayer during a Remembrance day service and parade in Whitehall, London, 8 November 2009.
(Via AoSHQ) Shift of eight points since July, which for Gallup represents the GOP ‘edging ahead.’ The current numbers are GOP/Democrats 48/44. And 52/30 among independents. And this represents registered voters, not likely ones. Gallup tried to caveat this one every way that it could, but has to conclude:
Since Gallup regularly began using the generic ballot to measure registered voters’ preferences for the House of Representatives in 1950, it has been rare for Republicans Source: Red State RSS Feed
Number of comments: 2
That is the key to history. Terrific energy is expended – civilizations are built up – excellent institutions are devised; but each time something goes wrong. Some fatal flow always brings the selfish and cruel people to the top and it all slides back into misery and
Sony Ericsson has added a new handset to their Xperia range, with the launch of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is the first mobile phone from Sony Ericsson which is powered by Google Android, it comes with a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and a 4 inch capacitive touchscreen display. It also features an 8.1 megapixel camera with a built in LED flash, it will come with Google Android 1.6 and will have applications from the Android Market and from SonySource: British Blogs RSS Feed
Creigh Deeds, strategist for 2010 Blue Dog caucus
Yesterday we talked about how disgraceful Democratic coward Larry Kissell had decided to follow the Creigh Deeds strategy of alienating Democratic voters and keeping them from going to the polls. Maybe Kissell misses being a civics teacher. But last night Kissell wasn't the only Democrat to vote against the most important policy agenda put forward by Democrats. In the end, 39 Democrats were on the wrong side of the aisle and the wrongSource: DownWithTyranny! RSS Feed
If you’re on the west coast, and of course by that I mean from Naples to Pensacola (not California), listen up. An event to protest any efforts by Florida’s Republican legislators to sell out to oil interests and allow drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is planned for February, just before the legislative session begins. Hands Across the Sand will bring together people on Florida’s Gulf coast, and possibly the entire shoreline, to join hands in one long line of resistance. Literally.
Source: Pensito Review RSS Feed
Is Brown right to acknowledge that the deployment might fail?
We are in for a glut of opinion polls in the coming days on the question of Britain’s continued presence in Afghanistan - the latest being on C4 last night from YouGov which had 73% wanting an immediate or early pull-out.
Today, according to the Telegraph, Mr. Brown is to make a key speech on the issue in which he will acknowledge that the British mission which has cost so many lives might not succeed. But,Source: Political Betting RSS Feed
Republican Party platform, 2012?
Sad to say, neoconservatism is clearly the dominant foreign-policy ideology of the Republican Party. George H. Nash apparently has written that “We are all neoconservatives now.” And after the strategic and political masterstroke the neocons produced in Iraq, who could blame the Republicans for doubling down with them?
So sometimes it’s good to stroll by the Weekly Standard blog, just to see what those folks are thinking about.
Source: Cato-at-liberty RSS Feed
After 5 years of blogging every day, you come across all kinds of stories. Certain ones you're not terribly interested in, but feel they can't be ignored... and then the ones that aren't huge stories, but you can't stop thinking about them... This is one of those stories.
It succinctly illustrates all that's wrong with the Obama Presidency.
In 1982 the federal government decided to build a much needed storage facility for our country's nuclear waste. Until then (and to this Source: Blonde sagacity RSS Feed
What was driving the wave of elections in VA and NJ this week? The deteriorating jobs market was and is the driver, which is where the average American voter connects to the ‘economy’ in a visceral way. The crux of the Democrats’ problem with the voters is they have failed miserably on this matter.
I predicted all through the spring that the liberal belief in the fiction that government can spend and stimulate our economy would be their undoing. I noted people would see all this Source: The Strata-Sphere RSS Feed
I was lucky to see it sail past me on my way to work today.
(AP) A Navy assault ship built with steel from the fallen World Trade Center and named in honor of the city and state that were home to the twin towers is making its inaugural visit there.
The USS New York was scheduled to sail up the Hudson River Monday. The $1 billion ship was built in Louisiana with about 7.5 tons of World Trade Center steel melted down and used in the bow.
More...
Unfortunately, didn't have mySource: Eye On The World RSS Feed
Robert Gibbs Downplays Tuesday's Election Results
.
Sean Hannity interviewing NY Congressional Candidate Doug Hoffman along with Fred and Jeri Thompson.
ACORN Aims to Tip New Jersey Election in Corzine's Favor
Fearing a potentially devastating Democratic loss, the highly controversial Association of Community Organizations for Reform NowSource: Theodore's World RSS Feed
Chicago Tribune | Maria Maior's son is a football-playing, skateboard-riding, Xbox-loving kid whose home reveals all the trappings of domesticity: a cushy sofa, big-screen TV, a framed poster of Brian Urlacher -- one of the 12-year-old's favorite football players. On most evenings, two big dogs curl up on the carpeting.
The scene could be lifted from any suburban subdivision -- except that it's located not in a den, but in a storage unit.
The boy moved into the 10-foot-by-25-footSource: subrealism RSS Feed
The Triumvirate of DUMB!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
***********************************
Where are the “Grown-ups” in the Obama Regime? I look around and I see emotionally immature people traipsing about in the West Wing of the White House with the blessing of the uno numero socialist in America, President Obama. Then I look up the Hill to the Congress and I see Harry Reid over in the Senate, and I see Nancy Pelosi over in the House of Representatives -- and ISource: Faultline USA RSS Feed
Is The Cost of Freedom Too High? Totalitarian Socialism is Much Cheaper!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
************************************************
I’ve thought about it for a long while now and I have concluded that the US needs to recant its pledge not to be the first to use the atom bomb in a war/conflict. I mean, hey, we did it, already. Two of them, in fact! Perhaps you remember August 1945 and a place called Japan??? I do!
Look, we are allowing ourselvesSource: Faultline USA RSS Feed
This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post articles that demonstrate the distortions and biases of our establishment media.
To make the articles as readable as possible, please stick to the format described here.
Yesmagazine | The biggest roadblock standing in the way of many people’s recognition of the importance of the commons came tumbling down when Indiana University professor Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel Prize for Economics.
Over many decades, Ostrom has documented how various communities manage common resources – grazing lands, forests, irrigation waters, fisheries— equitably and sustainably over the long term. The Nobel Committee’s recognition of her work effectively debunks Source: subrealism RSS Feed
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[H/t Dave E/]
Yesterday, a genuinely historic moment passed with scarcely a blip of attention from the media: President Obama signed into law the nation's first genuine federal bias-crimes statute.
Everyone interested in advancing civil rights in America and defending the nation's minorities from the deprivation of their rights by terroristic thugs -- particularly their historic victims, from African Americans and AsianSource: Crooks and Liars RSS Feed
From the NY Times:
With statewide elections a year away, the Queens Democratic Party will take the unusual step on Thursday of announcing its support for a primary challenger to embattled State Senator Hiram Monserrate, who was convicted of a misdemeanor assault charge two weeks ago.
José R. Peralta, 37, an assemblyman from Jackson Heights who is considered one of the party’s rising stars, said he would announce his decision to run for the seat whether or not Mr. Monserrate, aSource: Queens Crap RSS Feed
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll today found that the public now supports sending more troops to Afghanistan...and not only that: a resounding 58 percent majority thinks it's best for President Obama to delay his final decision until after Afghanistan holds its presidential run-off election on November 7.
All this is good news for the White House: the American public supports Obama in exactly the two areas in which he faces political opposition. The left doesn't want more troops, whileSource: Marc Ambinder RSS Feed
Game three of the World Series will be played in Philadelphia on Saturday night. The City of Brotherly Love is a hard-luck sports town, although the Phillies won their second world championship last year.
The Phils square off against the New York Yankees; the Fall Classic begins in the Bronx on Wednesday.
Philly fans, and New Yorkers who make the trip south on Interstate 95, might be in for some major league headaches on Halloween evening--workers for the local transit company,Source: Marathon Pundit RSS Feed
Cappy actually stole the rest of theveal stuffoff ofthe table [source]
George Joyce
Immanuel Kant once observed that “he who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men.” I thought about Kant when I recently learned that the Obamas had graced their dog ‘Bo’ with a dog house shaped birthday cake made out of veal – that’s right, veal – the most expensive item on many a restaurant menu.
Winter is approaching and many American familiesSource: The Two Malcontents RSS Feed
