France Declares War Against Al-Quida

The thought of the French surrendering and having Al-Quida march down the Champs De Elysees with those black scarves over their faces while holding AK-47s just wouldn't be right. However, these are some pretty robust words from the French.

The declaration and attack marked a shift in strategy for France, usually discrete about its behind-the-scenes battle against terrorism.

"We are at war with al-Qaida," Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday, a day after President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the death of 78-year-old hostage Michel Germaneau.

The humanitarian worker had been abducted April 20 or 22 in Niger by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, and was later taken to Mali, officials said.

Well, at least France is finally understanding the true face of these al-Quida scumbags. Yeah they will execute some 78 year old aid-worker in a minute if they get the chance. Let's hope they channel the spirit of Napoleon in this war and not the spirit of Petain.

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Sherrod Back Under the Bus

Now this is some crazy movement. She went from obscurity, to media darling, to media pariah all in the stretch of a week.

Earlier this week a handful of people in the blogosphere began to speculate Sherrod would pull off a �full Ginsburg,� or become only the thirteenth person to appear on all major Sunday talk-shows on the same day since the feat was first accomplished by William H. Ginsburg in 1998. However, this was before a clip of Sherrod suggesting Andrew Breitbart wants blacks �stuck back in the times of slavery� went viral. Sherrod also drew extensive criticism late in the week for blasting Fox News as racist.

Considering the Shirley Sherrod interview barrage that took place last Thursday, to not see Sherrod on television Sunday morning sends a clear signal the mainstream media no longer feels allowing the public to get to know the real Shirley Sherrod advances their agenda.

I think they were afraid she would do more damage to their narrative with more extemporaneous charges of racism toward conservative boogy-men. She was the aggrieved party right up until she started to slander Breitbart with a charge that you could safely say that no one has had in 60+ years.

At least she could have said he wanted to bring back Jim Crow or something. I mean who other then some 100 year old white planter in the 1950s really wanted to actually bring back slavery? Now the media just wants her to disappear before she says something else outrageous.

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ObamaCare Just Keeps on Giving: Insruance Companies are Not Selling New Plans to Children

I think this is the kind of bill that will keep cropping up every few months with a new abomination until it is repealed.

Some major health insurance companies have stopped issuing certain types of policies for children, an unintended consequence of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law, state officials said Friday.

Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said in his state UnitedHealthcare and Blue Cross Blue Shield have stopped issuing new policies that cover children individually. Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland said a couple of local insurers in her state have done likewise.

Now the Obama guilt trip followed with some Chicago style demonization will be directed at UnitedHealh and Blue Cross Blue Shield to make them toe the line. Of course they won't and more threats will be issued etc.

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JournoList Went After Palin En Masse

Now we know where that the whole "the Palin pick for VP was sexist" idea came from.

Suzanne Nossel, chief of operations for Human Rights Watch, added a novel take: �I think it is and can be spun as a profoundly sexist pick. Women should feel umbrage at the idea that their votes can be attracted just by putting a woman, any woman, on the ticket no matter her qualifications or views.�

Mother Jones�s Stein loved the idea. �That�s excellent! If enough people � people on this list? � write that the pick is sexist, you�ll have the networks debating it for days. And that negates the SINGLE thing Palin brings to the ticket,� he wrote. . . .

This article also pointed out how journalists all went after CNBC people at the same time as well. I remember Jim Cramer and Rick Santelli were blasted in the press seeming out of the clear blue sky. Suddenly they were causing the financial crisis etc. I also remember that Jon Stewart went after Cramer with special gusto as well. I am wondering if he or one of his minions was on this list as well?

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Cap-and-Trade Dead: Killed by Recession

Well, at least we can get rid of the idea of a light switch tax hopefully once and for all.

Senate Democrats on Thursday abandoned plans to pass an energy bill that caps emissions of carbon dioxide, saying Republicans refuse to support the measure.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said no Republican was willing to back a comprehensive energy bill, a development he called "terribly disappointing."

There were no Republicans willing to lose their jobs over a tax that will be levied on all Americans as the utilities pass it on to consumers. This one bill would have raised the prices on everything in the US since almost all of them need electricity in order for them to be produced. I am convinced that it would have made us spiral into a double dip recession. With Cap and Tax dead the idea that you should never raise taxes (especially on everything produced using electricity in the US) will still hold true.

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Is the JournoList the Death of the Mainstream Media?

I have to agree with this article wholeheartedly.

For independents who don�t follow politics closely, the JournoList scandal provides a simple, blatantly obvious narrative about fraud and propaganda. A sizable segment of the �journalist� population stands revealed as sputtering extremists, who talk about killing stories and destroying people�s lives to protect their favored political candidate. Yes, these people are self-professed liberals � they�re not pretending to be �objective� reporters or news anchors � but the cross-pollination between �liberal� and �objective� journalists is a blindingly obvious matter of public knowledge, and the things they�re talking about doing are vile, underhanded, and conspiratorial.

I think the idea of the "objective" journalist will die because of this so-called Newsgate. I mean some of them had fantasies of watching Rush Limbaugh die as they stood there and laughed.

As reported in the Daily Caller, Sarah Spitz, producer* of the KCRW public radio program �Left, Right and Center,� which is heard on a number of NPR stations across the country, wrote on JournoList that if she witnessed Limbaugh dying of a heart attack, she would �laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out.�

I can't wait to tune into the "objective" reporting of KCRW public radio "Left, Right, and Center" (maybe they should change the name to Left, Far Left, and Communist) when their producer wants to laugh in the face of a dying Conservative. That is a woman I can trust to report the news "fair and square" without any bias when she is not fantasizing about watching people die. I don't like Rachel Maddow but I never had visions of me laughing in her face as she expired right in front of me. This kind of grotesque liberal sickness has finally been brought out into the light.

This is just like the ClimateGate emails in many ways. This finally shows Americans how they are being duped by the people they used to trust. ClimateGate shows that scientists "cook the books" and try to destroy reputations rather then present an unbiased view of their science. It got people to think about what hidden motives these scientists actually harbor. Are they slanting the science for money or prestige or just to run the show when it comes to world economies?

Newsgate shows that the media tells only certain stories and buries what goes against their ideological narrative. These reporters are seen duping the American people into, for instance, voting for an unready candidate just because he was the media darling. It will have Americans asking what other sorts of stories do the media like to bury? Who else do they want to see die as they laugh in their face? How deep does this conspiracy go? Should I keep paying for the Washington Post if they are simply printing propaganda that is filtered through their far left lens?

In many ways this might be the gravestone of the modern media establishment. Already newspapers can barely stay solvent and magazines are closing their doors. Now we have the revelation that many of their contributors and confidants are bunch of vile underhanded hacks that fantasize about watching you die if you are middle of the road or conservative.

Any readers that they have that are not far leftists probably don't want to read propaganda day in and day out. Americans don't like to be tricked or have someone tell them what news is safe for them to read. Now we have bald-faced proof that a large portion of the media cannot be trusted to be objective anymore.Conservatives knew this for years but now everyone else will.

I think the Dems should write the "Leftist Media Bailout Bill" or maybe consider nationalizing them because their slow march to oblivion might have just turned into a headlong rush.

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Conspiracy Theory Time: ObamaCare to Track Gold Purchases

This isn't some theory based on shaky facts. This was put into the Health Care Bill at the 11th hour.

Section 9006 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will amend the Internal Revenue Code to expand the scope of Form 1099. Currently, 1099 forms are used to track and report the miscellaneous income associated with services rendered by independent contractors or self-employed individuals.

Starting Jan. 1, 2012, Form 1099s will become a means of reporting to the Internal Revenue Service the purchases of all goods and services by small businesses and self-employed people that exceed $600 during a calendar year. Precious metals such as coins and bullion fall into this category and coin dealers have been among those most rankled by the change.

So that means if you own your own business and are socking some money away in gold just in case things go bad the government wants to make sure they tax you. The conspiracy theory idea comes from the idea that $600 is so low which means just about every gold transaction would be flagged. So they could add a little dossier about "survivalist types" that are squirreling away gold and do something nefarious. They can sell that knowledge to shady international bankers for whatever schemes they have.

The really bad part is that suddenly small businesses have another added layer of reporting that they have to do for pretty much no reason. So the payment to your accountant or your attorney, the new laptop you bought for the intern, or that new postage meter will suddenly have to be tracked by the IRS. All this extra reporting won't be free. Some 1099s would read like phone books depending on what sort of business you own and how many $600+ purchases you need to do in order to get your business to run profitably.

Also why does the IRS need to know this stuff in the first place? It seems they just want to make an extra $17 billion in income taxes over 10 years. This comes at the cost of $10s of billions more in wasted time and extra man-hours that it would take to comply with this asinine new 1099. The sooner the Supreme Court strikes this monstrosity down the better life will be.

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Leftist Media Actual Conspired to Kill Stories and Smear Conservatives

Even though many people suspected it all along it turns out to be true.

Others went further. According to records obtained by The Daily Caller, at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate. Employees of news organizations including Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon and the New Republic participated in outpourings of anger over how Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage.

In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama�s relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama�s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, �Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares � and call them racists.�

In other words the leftist media pretty much buried the story that might have damaged their golden boy and just wanted to throw the racist tag at any Conservative writer they could get in their sights. If the media wasn't dying already the idea that they all hide the news from you should be the final nail in their coffin.

There is no such thing as journalistic integrity in a business that literally conspires to keep you from learning the truth. I guess you can now call it the Pravda Era of American Journalism and simply ignore vast swaths of the main stream media as news hiders and not news reporters.

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Cast the Movie Now: Daring Escape from Auschwitz Brought on By Love

This movie would make a pile of money and maybe Oscar nods depending on who plays the hero.

The day was July 21, 1944. Bielecki was walking in broad daylight down a pathway at Auschwitz, wearing a stolen SS uniform with his Jewish sweetheart Cyla Cybulska by his side.

His knees buckling with fear, he tried to keep a stern bearing on the long stretch of gravel to the sentry post.

The German guard frowned at his forged pass and eyed the two for a period that seemed like an eternity � then uttered the miraculous words: "Ja, danke" � yes, thank you � and let Jerzy and Cyla out of the death camp and into freedom.

I would go with Johnny Depp to play Bielecki and maybe Kate Winslett with dyed hair to play Cyla. It would be like the Notebook with SS guards. Maybe like Letters to Juliet meets the Great Escape.

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A Primer on the Cultural Elite

A very interesting article on how the cultural elite are currently in charge of America.

It is a sloppy term that might include the academic class in the university that educates our children in college. The upper echelons that run government departments constitute part of this cultural elite. So does an entertainment cadre that oversees television and Hollywood. Corporate managers are elites as well.

There is no racial, regional, religious, or tribal commonality. One shared allegiance perhaps is to higher education that certifies the cultural elite by diplomas of all sorts from a �good school,� as well as a respectable salary and a nice home with appurtenances. The good life of the elite is defined by both the absence of worry about necessities, and a certain status that accrues from properly recognized advanced education and sensitivity.

I think them being divorced from actual labor and running a business is part of why we can't get the unemployment under 10%. They think that all people need is more grant money or more contacts on a foundation and jobs should be flowing like crazy. They haven't had to run a business in order to make money so the business can continue. That is why they have such an aversion to profit since they have never had to make it or their company goes out of business. I mean no one is going to close Cal Berkley even if it lost money for 20 years strait.

What is so odd to me is that they can be okay with Leo DiCaprio making $20 million a picture but can't stand when a CEO makes $1 million or more a year. They both do a job that the vast majority of Americans cannot do. Only a handful of people could open a $60 million movie or run multi-billion dollar company. So they are both paid what they are worth. However, the left hates the CEO for whatever reason and treats DiCaprio with reverence and awe.

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More Evidence of the Stimulus Bill Failure: How we paid $500,000 to generate each job

Now this would be really funny if it wasn't such an indictment of government wasting money.

The purpose of the trip is to highlight the �success� of the President�s $862 billion economic stimulus package which the White House claimed yesterday has already �saved or created� 3 million jobs. Specifically, this factory is being subsidized by $151 million of stimulus funds from an even larger $2 billion honey pot of stimulus money set aside for electric car battery investments. This one plant is expected to employ 300 workers. That works out to more than $500,000 per job created. $500,000 per job. This plant, in a nutshell, explains why the President�s stimulus plan has been an objective failure.

The government is the master in taking billions of dollars and figuratively flushing them down the toilet. They might have been better off if they didn't just give the money to people so that they could pay the bills or start businesses or something.

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BP Caps the Well on the 85th Day

Well at least the White House can take their boot off their necks for a little while. Maybe they can put their boot on the neck of unemployment next.

A tightly fitted cap was successfully keeping oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time in three months, BP said Thursday. The victory � long awaited by weary residents along the coast � is the most significant milestone yet in BP's effort to control one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.

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"White Flight" From MySpace?

At least this article seems to think so.

Subsequent statistical analyses of the characteristics of users of online social networks by researchers, marketers and bloggers, she notes in her latest work, backed up her claims that white and asian teens who belonged to higher socieconomic strata (and who aspired to college, with which Facebook at the time was associated) were attracted to Facebook, while latino, black and working-class teens tended to opt for MySpace.

This seems like an interesting parallel to draw:

Boyd argues that MySpace's inability to deal with spammers added to the feeling of urban blight that overtook the site, leaving derelict profiles "covered in spam, a form of digital graffiti... As MySpace failed to address these issues, spammers took over like street gangs."

Subsequent media coverage of the "death of MySpace" was a direct result of this flight, says Boyd. For example, she cites a 2009 New York Times article that was entitled "Do You Know Anyone Still on MySpace?" despite the fact that at the time Facebook and MySpace has roughly equal numbers of users.

The problem too was that the corporations and the celebrities jumped onto Facebook almost en mass. In other words the so-called cool kids with the flashy cars and the big bank accounts were on Facebook. I guess MySpace was the inner city public high school with its gang problems, its giant crappy advertisements, and graffiti everywhere. I remember that most of the MySpace sites you went to had floating crap everywhere and just looked thrown together and haphazard.

While Facebook was college with its privacy, its white suburban sameness, and its games with cute little avatars. In fact Facebook started as a place for college students to meet and only opened to the public in the last few years. In other words it was a place to graduate to after MySpace.

So if you take the college analogy a little further most inner city kids and poor whites don't (or can't due to circumstances) aspire to college so they may not have made the jump from MySpace High to the University of Facebook. What incentive is there to go to a place populated with white and Asian college kids when you aren't a white or Asian college kid?

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Two New Diet Drugs Move Toward Possible Approval: lorcaserin and Contrave

Well tomorrow is an important day in diet pill land as the FDA advisory panel is looking over a drug from Vivus called Qnexa on Thursday. There are also a couple of other promising pills on the horizon as well.

Arena Pharmaceuticals' lorcaserin is one of three drugs that are boosting hope for a new generation of more effective weight-loss medicines. One gets a Food and Drug Administration review on Thursday and the others, later this year.

In the study, lorcaserin (lore-KASS-ah-rin) caused more people to lose at least 5 percent of their body weight over one year, more than twice the rate achieved by those on dummy pills.

There is also this drug in the works as well:

Contrave, made by Orexigen Therapeutics Inc., combines bupropion and naltrexone. The first is used to help people quit smoking and deal with depression. The second is used to decrease cravings for alcohol and illegal drugs.

As long as they don't blow out your heart like Fen-Phen did in the 90s. That second one sounds petty interesting because it is a smoking cessation drug mixed with a drug to decrease cravings. That should work well for those compulsive eaters out there.

In any case it is good to see some companies taking a chance on diet drugs. That Fen-Phen scare and the resulting lawsuits pretty much soured the whole deal for years. The idea that you just pop a pill and you lose weight sounds like it should have been invented decades ago.

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Stimulus "Saved" Millions More Jobs: Pricetag of Each Job $239,444

This sounds so good right?:

Updating its estimate of the impact the controversial new law has had, the White House now projects that the vast spending act has created or saved between 2.5 million and 3.6 million jobs.

That's up from the estimate of 2.2 million to 2.8 million jobs that was released in the first quarter of the year from the White House Council of Economic Advisers. The new estimate says the act is on track, if it hasn't already reached, the promise that the stimulus act would save or create 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010.

Well, if you actually break that number down. They spent $862 billion to "save" 3.6 million jobs. That means that each job cost $239,444 to save. If each of those jobs paid the median yearly wage of $32,140 that means that $207,304 extra was needed to generate each job. I know that most of that amount was funneled off for Democrat pet projects and shovel ready BS but you get the point.

The funny part is the White House is crowing about the stimulus like it was anything but a dismal failure. The unemployment rate was still 10% when it was promised to be 8%. Also the total jobs lost during the recession was 7.9 million. So even with the stimulus we are still 4.3 million jobs short of a full recovery. The more you look at it the more you can say that they took $862 billion and just set it on fire.

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Pelosi Blasts Gibbs for Speaking the Truth

Wow the infighting has begun and we still have quite a few months until November.

Asked Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" if the Democratic majority in the House was in jeopardy, Gibbs responded: "I think there is no doubt there are a lot of seats that will be up, a lot of contested seats. I think people are going to have a choice to make in the fall, but I think there's no doubt there are enough seats in play that could cause Republicans to gain control."

What was wrong with saying the truth? Does Pelosi feel that even speaking about the GOP taking over the House will make it happen? Is she that scared of the possibility that she doesn't even want anyone to talk about it? I mean Gibbs is actually being a pragmatist here. In any case this rift shows how contentious this election is going to be even among fellow Democrats.

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IPhone 4G Death Group Problem Solved: Duct Tape?

Now this seems like something that should have gotten ironed out in the testing or prototyping phase but what can you do?

The main culprit appears to be a gap in the band separating the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS segment of the antenna from the section for cellular GSM and 3G reception. Experts believe that if you touch the gap and "bridge" the two antenna segments, you may lose reception and even drop calls.

So here is what you do to get around that problem:

That said, Gikas notes that there is an "affordable" fix for iPhone 4 owners other than Apple's $30 Bumper cases: duct tape, or "another thick, nonconductive material." "It may not be pretty," Gikas says (now there's an understatement), "but it works."

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Department of the Interior Attempts to Kill 1000s of Gulf Jobs

Well, I guess they won't rest until every oilfield worker in Louisiana is out of work.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar unveiled the new six-month moratorium, worded differently from an earlier drilling ban after a U.S. appeals court struck down the original moratorium last week.

"I am basing my decision on evidence that grows every day of the industry's inability in the deepwater to contain a catastrophic blowout, respond to an oil spill and to operate safely," Salazar said.

The new ban will extend until November 30 and affects the same drill rigs as before, although it is based on types of drilling technologies rather than on water depths as the old one was.

The oil companies won't simply stack up their rigs until November 30. They will move them to Brazil or the North Sea or somewhere else where they won't be losing millions per day. So Obama pretty much ceded those jobs that were once held by American oil field workers to someone living in Brazil or Sweden.

Those are year long leases they will be signing so you can kiss that American job goodbye. So we have the spectacle of having the coast fisheries decimated by oil and the oil field workers also out of a job at the same time. I wonder if they would be doing this if Louisiana was a blue state?

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Poll Against Obama on Immigration Lawsuit

I wonder if he ever gets tired of having just 30% of people support him on just about anything he does?

Half of Americans reject President Barack Obama's lawsuit against Arizona's controversial immigration law, with only a third supporting the move, according to a Gallup poll released Friday.

I can just hear him now:

"I don't do the things that a popular *pauses looks at teleprompter* i do what I think * pauses looks at other teleprompter* is right! *pauses looks at both teleprompters*

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LeBron Criticized for Train-Wreck of a Move to Maimi

Now this is pretty harsh words directed toward LeBron.

As the worst idea in the history of marketing unfolded, James looked trapped somewhere between despondence and defiance. His bumbling buddy Maverick Carter had walked him into the public execution of his legacy, his image, and there was a part of James that clearly wished he could turn back through the doors and hide. Only, it was too late. No going back now. James goes to the Miami Heat, Cleveland goes into a basketball Hades and LeBron�s legacy becomes that of a callous carpetbagger.

Yeah I have to agree that this was not a smart marketing move at all. I mean you have the Cavs owners ripping the crap out of him a few minutes after the announcement and you do have an actual train-wreck on your hands.

He should have just said that he didn't want to play in Cleveland any longer and saved the humiliation of the town trying to hold on to him. He could have just said he wanted to try his luck with his good friend Wade down in Miami weeks ago and saved us all this run-up and stupidity. Then the speculation would be on bringing Bosh to Miami to make the team into a contender.

What Miami gets now is 3 All-Star players and that is pretty much it. They have to "fill in the role-players" most of which will be at minimum salary. That means they probably won't win any titles for years until they can get the right mix of defense and long range shooting to compliment the All-Stars.

So in other words LeBron left a title contender that he gave up on in the Playoffs to join a team that is basically 3 guys and a bunch of nobodies. I guess it just boils down to that the allure of the Miami nightlife and all those hot Latinas was just better than a bunch of frozen winters in a town that once had its river catch fire.

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Our Long National Nightmare is Over: LaBron is Going to Miami

This crap was drawn out so much that it became a joke after a while.

LeBron James has made his decision. He's going to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh with the Miami Heat.

James made his long-awaited announcement in a hastily arranged ESPN special Thursday night in Greenwich, Conn., and James wasted no time in making a prediction: "We're going to be a real good team."

I stopped watching SportsCenter for a while just to avoid all the annoying speculation. I was also tired of the army of talking heads that were sure where LaBron was going because they heard from someone close to his Camp that LaBron was wearing Bermuda shorts and thus was going to Miami. I guess on the upside NBA was finally relevant again for like 5 minutes.

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The New Head of Medicare and Medicaid Sounds Like a Communist

I don't throw the communist word around too much but this statement could have come right out of Marx or Lenin's writings.

�In America, the best predictor of cost is supply; the more we make, the more we use�hospi�tal beds, consultancy services, procedures, diagnostic tests,� Dr. Berwick wrote. �� Here, you choose a harder path. You plan the supply; you aim a bit low; you prefer slightly too lit�tle of a technology or a service to too much; then you search for care bottlenecks and try to relieve them.�

If you control the means of production and "plan the supply" you can control the people through an artificial shortage. That sounds like something that Stalin or Mao tried and their people died by the millions. I assume that "enlightened individuals" like this Dr. Berwick will be the ones who will be doing this "central planning."

I wonder how many hospital beds and procedures will go to the Party Members in Good Standing (ie Hollywood and Government elite) and not to everyone else? I think you just saw a little red under the white doctors smock of Dr. Berwick.

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UAE Wants Us to Bomb Iran

Hmm, maybe we can do some join Saudi attack on Iran's nuclear facilities so it doesn't look like the Crusader vs. the Muslims. In any case the so-called Arab Street might want Iran taken out of the game when it comes to the bomb.

Ambassador Yousef al-Otaiba: �I think it�s a cost-benefit analysis. I think despite the large amount of trade we do with Iran, which is close to $12 billion� there will be consequences, there will be a backlash and there will be problems with people protesting and rioting and very unhappy that there is an outside force attacking a Muslim country; that is going to happen no matter what. If you are asking me, �Am I willing to live with that versus living with a nuclear Iran?� my answer is still the same: �We cannot live with a nuclear Iran.� I am willing to absorb what takes place at the expense of the security of the U.A.E.�

I agree that a nuclear arms race in the Middle East will be the last thing that the UAE would need.

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Doom Seems Overrated

I have to agree with the thesis of this article.

I now see at firsthand how I avoided hearing any good news when I was young. Where are the pressure groups that have an interest in telling the good news? They do not exist. By contrast, the behemoths of bad news, such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and WWF, spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year and doom is their best fund-raiser. Where is the news media's interest in checking out how pessimists' predictions panned out before? There is none. By my count, Lester Brown has now predicted a turning point in the rise of agricultural yields six times since 1974, and been wrong each time. Paul Ehrlich has been predicting mass starvation and mass cancer for 40 years. He still predicts that `the world is coming to a turning point'.

The doom industry takes in billions a year and employs 1000s of people so things are always at a turning point headed downward. They can't say that things have been solved or they would all be out of business. So Global Warming will kill millions of people even if they have to cook the books because it challenges the existence of an entire industry. When their livelihoods are threatened as well as their decades of accomplishments then a little lying and exaggeration is a small price to pay.

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Time to Stop Buying Dell Computers

If these allegations are true then I might have bought my last Dell Computer.

Dell, along with many other manufacturers of PCs, used capacitors produced by Nichicon, a Japanese electronics giant. According to court documents [PDF] in the suit against Dell brought by a major customer, Nichicon sold faulty capacitors, a key motherboard component, that leaked and failed with alarming regularity -- and Dell knew it.

In his excellent piece in the New York Times this week, reporter Ashlee Vance refers to an internal study by Dell that predicted its Optiplex line of business computers containing Nichicon capacitors were expected to have a failure rate of 97 percent over three years.

If they went ahead and used these capacitors knowing full well that they would fail and then covered it up then they join Sony in my product dustbin. This is especially bad when it comes to a computer since I know how bad people take it when their computers die.

I have bought an HP Netbook and I am very much enjoying it so far. I was thinking of upgrading my desktop so I can take advantage of Virtualization Technology and I was looking at the Dells. I can now stop and look at the HPs and Acers now instead. I don't buy things from companies that attempt to defraud their customers.

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Steele commits Own Goal on Afghanistan Comments

I have to level out criticism when it is due and GOP Chairman Michael Steele needs some history lessons himself.

"If he's such a student of history, has he not understood that, you know, that's the one thing you don't do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right? Because everyone who's tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed," Steele said. "And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan."

I wouldn't call the British holding Afghanistan from 1839 - 1919 a failure. If not for WW1 I would be willing to bet the Brits would have still been able to hold Afghanistan for many more years after 1919. They fought 3 major wars against the Afghan people and one 2 out of 3. They were eventually removed but you cannot say that controlling Afghanistan for 80 years was some sort of disastrous failure.

In any case that defeatist talk should not come out of any top official in the GOP and Steele should really look at stepping down. I mean he is taking the same tract as the Dems did when it was Bush's failed war. Now that Obama has taken possession of the war by sending an additional 30,000 troops the GOP needs to support their commander in chief.

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Sumo Betting Scandal Makes the US News

Yup and they just might cancel the upcoming Nagoya Basho as well. In fact NHK might not even show the match if they do decide to go ahead with it.

Japan's public broadcasting network, NHK, added to the sport's woes Friday by announcing it might drop coverage of the event. The network said it had received 8,200 public comments, only about 10 percent of which supported going ahead with airing the Nagoya Basho.

"We will wait until after the Sumo Association announces its measures and decide what to do after that," said NHK spokesman Yuichiro Ishii. "We will weigh viewers' opinion about whether it should be shown."

That would be the only time in the postwar era where a tournament was canceled. It all started with a blackmail scheme by Ozeki Kotomitsuki.



The latest scandal began May 20 when a weekly magazine claimed that senior wrestler Kotomitsuki was being blackmailed over his gambling debts. Ironically, the source of Kotomitsuki's troubles appears to have been his winnings: Having complained to his bookmaker about not receiving 5 million yen ($55,000) in payments on bets, he was approached by a mob-connected ex-wrestler who extorted 3.5 million yen in hush money. The mobster is alleged to have demanded a further 100 million yen ($1.1 million), which Kotomitsuki refused to pay.

That is why if you have to bet you do it with Vegas gambling houses and not mob controlled bookmaker. Or if you have to bet then do it through a trusted friend or associate and not directly to the bookmakers. If Kotomitsuki was smart he would have just told one of his fan club people that he can trust to handle all the bets with him including the money transfers. Actually what he should have done is not bet on baseball in the first place since he knows he would get into trouble if he did.

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Russian Spies Use Pretty Wimpy Methods Techwise

You would think the successors to the mighty KGB would be a little better at transmitting Top Secret data.

The FBI said that one of the suspects, Anna Chapman, would go to a coffee shop in Manhattan on Wednesdays and set up her laptop. A little while later, a minivan the FBI knew was used by a Russian official would drive by. To the naked eye, there was no contact between them.

But the FBI said it figured out that Chapman's computer was set to link wirelessly to a laptop in the minivan, using a standard, built-in Wi-Fi chip. In the short time the computers were close, they could transfer encrypted files between each other.

The agency figured this out with commercial Wi-Fi analysis software, not with something from Q's lab.

Yup she just connected to a regular wireless network sent out by a Russian official from a minivan. No secret networks or hidden drop sites or anything like that. Hell, even sending coded messages in the newspaper to a hidden drop box would have been harder to crack.

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Google Buys Travel Software Company

That sound you heard was the screams of frustration coming from Orbitz, Expedia and Priceline.

Google Inc. plans to buy travel technology company ITA Software Inc. in a $700 million deal that would provide the Internet search leader with more comprehensive information about airline flights.

The all-cash deal announced Thursday could signal Google's intention to mount a challenge to other online travel services such as Expedia and Orbitz.

I wonder if they are going to start selling airline tickets as well in a Google Travel Service sort of thing? I bet some airlines would hate it because it would let people search for the lowest fares using Google search technology. Although the idea that the airlines could pay Google for better placement above their rivals might make them feel better. The idea that you could book your flight right from Google sounds pretty good as well. All they need is Google Bank and they can handle everything.

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Maradona Throws Fuel on the Germany vs. Argentina Match

It is just like the coke-sniffing prince of World Cup assholes.

Diego Maradona is Argentina�s irascible coach and former mega-star player. He had gotten word that German player Bastian Schweinsteiger was complaining about Argentina�s tactics with the referees, the behavior of their fans and, of course, the dirty acts that went down during a brawl following Germany�s 2006 World Cup penalty kick victory.

So Maradona stared into a Fox Sports camera on Thursday and with a mock German accent asked:

�What�s the matter Schweinsteiger? Are you nerrrvoushhh?�

I really hope Germany kicks the crap out of Argentina so we can see the Hand of Cocaine sniffing and crying on the sidelines after the game. Maybe he will pull a Woody Hayes and punch a German player so he gets banned from the sport for life.

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The Revamped Wonder Woman: I Don't Like It

I'm sure they wanted to make some changes but this is going too far.

You can almost hear the fanboys screaming. But, according to a popular blog from CNN, there is a reason for the switch. Writer J. Michael Straczynski, who is taking over writing the comic, commented on a DC Comics blog post, "I wanted to toughen her up, and give her a modern sensibility." She's been saving the world for 69 years. If you ask us, it's only fair that she finally treat herself to some new threads.

Here is a look at the "revamped" Wonder Woman. I don't like the jacket at all it looks like it is strait out of the 80s. I have to say that the gauntlets and the belt are kind of cool. I really hate the stirrup pants and goofy looking gold things on her feet. What was wrong with just giving her a Greek style skirt and maybe sandals? She is an Amazon Warrior after all.

At least they kept her powers since I can see she still has her magic lasso. In any case I give the new look 6 months until they switch it back. That is about as long as people could stomach Superman's blue/red lighting costume changes before they freaked out.

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Germans Want to Ditch the Euro

I guess they are tired of funding the right for some Greek guy to retire at 50 at full wages and then riot and murder people when the government runs out of money.

A majority of Germans wants to scrap the euro and bring back the old currency, the deutschemark, according to a new poll published on Tuesday.

The Ipsos survey showed 51 per cent of people in Europe's top economy wanted their beloved deutschemark back, with 30 per cent wanting to keep the euro. The remainder was undecided.

I guess it is better then the Germans calling for the return of the Reichsmark (which was the currency during WW2)

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Cramer Says "Short Obama!"

Well at least Cramer has finally come to the realization that Obama does not understand the stock market, probably doesn't like it much, or care about people's 401Ks. The talk of suspending BPs dividend should have taught Cramer as much.

His administration is proving to be the champion for those who don't own stocks and perhaps never will. Or, worse, he thinks that the average working person saves in CDs -- is he unaware of the 25-year campaign by all to have retirement savings and college tuitions paid for by now-tattered stock portfolios?

I point all of this out because when I say this market is going nowhere, I think it is going nowhere because of Washington, not corporate America, not the public sector, not the private sector. The companies we have heard from this week are brimming with cash, with the Jabils setting the tone of terrific earnings and the Apples setting the tone of worldwide dominance.

The problem is that Apple might overreach and thus fall under the justice department, anti-trust regulators, or just White House people who think that "Apple is too big and should be forced to share the wealth." The

White House is reflexively anti-business because they look at them as fat cat capitalists and not people that employ 1000s of people and need to employ 1000s more for there to be a recovery. So of course he pushes Card Check and tries to kill jobs through drilling moratoriums because he thinks fat cat capitalists are the only people hurt.

The only good thing is that November will make him even more powerless since he can no longer push any of his agenda. Also when the legislative and executive branches are held by different parties there is like a 12% move upward in the stock market.

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Rolling Stone Backstabbed McChrystal?: The White House Conspiracy Edition

It was interesting to read that the Generals aides actually said much of this stuff on the record. It turns out that it might not have been.

McChrystal still hasn't spoken publicly, but the Washington Post now reports that his Afghan war command conducted its own review and believes the general was "betrayed" by freelance journalist Michael Hastings.

A senior military official told the Post's Karen DeYoung that "sessions were off-the-record and intended to give" Hastings perspective on how the team operated. The official, who isn't willing to speak on the record, said there was no evidence that the "salacious political quotes" in Hastings' profile were made during on-the-record interviews.

Could it have been a hit piece to get McChrystal removed? The conspiracy theory zone in my brain immediately targeted the Obama White House as the people behind it. Here is the quick overview:

1. The White House sees that Afghanistan is falling apart and has heard rumors about McChrystal "going it alone" and talking trash behind their back. The notoriously thin-skinned White House goes into "Chicago Way" mode. Being that they are too weak in leadership department (and lacking proper cause) to just boot McChrystal they think of a "cunning plan"

2. They contact Rolling Stone who is probably deep in their pocket due to their shared ideologies and won't flip on them if there is blowback. Rolling Stone sends out a rabid anti-war reporter who's job is to dig up some dirt.

3. McChrystal foolishly lets this guy in on their "off the record" sessions. Sure enough the rumors are true. The military men have been bad-mouthing the civilians. (This seems to be the case in just about every war in recorded history where generals have to work side-by-side with civilians on a rebuilding task.) These aides figure that their boozy opinions won't make it on the record but that is not the "Chicago Way."

4. A hit piece is written and suddenly Obama is so angry he can spit. (I would love to see that same anger when they are gunning down Iranian protesters, but oh well)

5. He then calls McChrystal in for a little Kabuki song and dance and the General is shown the door. Suddenly Obama looks like the fearless leader removing his war-time General after "insubordination." This is in stunning contrast to his bumbling, stumbling, and lack of any sort of leadership during the BP Oil Spill. Nice timing that.

6. They then stick in the guy that won the Iraq war (who they probably should have gone with in the first place) to solve Afghanistan so they can get out of there and not look like wimps or quitters in the toss-up states come 2012.

Here is some advice for General Petraeus:

You need to seriously watch your back when, let's say, a Newsweek, NPR, CNN or New York Times reporter starts to nose around and asks for " some strictly off-the-record candor." Simply say "everyone attached to the White House Afghanistan team in any way is like a lion in the desert out here. We can't have enough of their valuable service. They are doing Lords own work" while posting an MP with a sidearm to protect the valuable reporter at all times. Then instruct your aides to answer all questions in slightly accented Pashtun. If it is a reporter from Rolling Stone assign 2 MPs.

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Kellogg's Cereals Might Make you Sick

I wonder what is in the packaging that would make people ill?

Kellogg Co. is voluntarily recalling about 28 million boxes of Apple Jacks, Corn Pops, Froot Loops and Honey Smacks cereals because an unusual smell and flavor from the packages' liners could make people ill, the company said Friday.

Kellogg said about 20 people complained about the cereals, including five who reported nausea and vomiting. The company said the potential for serious health problems is low.

Consumers reported the cereal smelled or tasted waxy or like metal or soap. Company spokeswoman J. Adaire Putnam said some described it as tasting stale.

Nothing like a bowl of waxy crap that tasted like metal or soap when you first wake up. Good thing I eat Rice Crispies but I did enjoy Corn Pops when I was a kid.

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Harry Potter Says "You Are Too Fat to Ride this Ride!"

It seems that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando has some pretty strict entry requirements especially to Americans in this day and age.

The ride, "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey," employs individual restraints to keep each guest tucked in to his or her seat, but the restraints aren't large enough to accommodate heavier riders.

Universal seems to have anticipated this issue, stationing staff "wizards" and test-seats along the line and at the entrance to Forbidden Journey. Riders test their ability to fit in the seats, as well as the restraint (which must click three times to be deemed safe and for the potential rider to be allowed into the attraction).

One good thing is that it is motivating people to lose some weight.

One Harry Potter fan who was unable to ride "Forbidden Journey" when his seat test yielded only two clicks of the restraint, is turning the incident into a personal motivational challenge. Banks Lee, who says he's 6'2? and approximately 310 lbs, has decided to diet and exercise until he can get on the ride (and hopes to continue his quest even after meeting that goal.) He's even started a blog: Banks Lee and the Three Clicks: My Journey to Fit on an Enchanted Bench, where the Orlando resident is documenting the long walks and sensible diet that he hopes will lead to a ride on "The Forbidden Journey."

Well, I hope he is doing more then walks and a diet since it would be pretty hard to get down from 310 to the normal weight for a 6'2" guy which is 175. I wonder what he needs to weigh to get on the ride though?

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Relations "Reset" with the Ruskis

Not like we didn't give them even more of the house since suddenly we are backing their WTO bid:

Obama gave Russia perhaps the biggest gift it could have wanted from the meetings: an unqualified, hearty plug for Moscow's ascension to the World Trade Organization. Russia has long wanted membership but U.S. support in the past has come with conditions.

"Russia belongs in the WTO," Obama said as the two leaders stood side-by-side in the East Room after several hours of meetings � including an impromptu trip to a nearby burger joint for lunch.

I'm not sure what we got in return for this but it doesn't sound like much. I guess we can start looking forward to more Russian exports hitting our market in the near future.

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Drilling Ban Will Not Continue While the Government Appeals

It seems that the White Houses bid to kill a bunch of Gulf Coast jobs is failing every way it could.

After striking down the moratorium on Tuesday, a federal judge in New Orleans rejected an administration request to allow the six-month ban to stand while the government appeals his decision.

Judge Martin Feldman issued a brief order denying the stay request, pointing to his previous ruling that criticized the ban as arbitrary, too far-reaching and not justified given the impact on thousands of oil industry workers and communities.

I love how they are trying to tar Judge Feldman by saying he owns oil stocks. That charge can be leveled on just about everyone in the US who owns any sort of Growth or Income mutual fund. That means in to the White House the judgment of nearly every American investor is suspect when it comes to oil. Too bad they don't care about the 50K+ oil field workers that won't be drawing a paycheck due to government interference.

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McChrystal Canned by Obama

I guess this all goes to show you that you keep your mouth shut around Rolling Stone.

Obama said bluntly that Gen. Stanley McChrystal's scornful remarks about administration officials represent conduct that "undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our democratic system." He ousted the commander after a face to face meeting in the Oval Office and named Petraeus, the Central Command chief who was McChrystal's direct boss, to step in.

Now the White House should sack the civilian Afghanistan team too and have Petraeus start fresh. I think he can get the job done since he pretty much won the Iraqi war. Now if he can win in Afghanistan too we might be thinking about calling him President Petraeus in a few years. I think Petraeus' first general order should be to bar all Rolling Stone reporters from Afghanistan on pain of imprisonment.

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Should McChrystal Resign? I'm Not So Sure

I read the Rolling Stone piece on this whole McChrystal talks shit to the President mess and I just don't see it. Itis mostly his unnamed aides that are ripping the White House Afghanistan people. The only true anti-Obama thing was this part:

Even though he had voted for Obama, McChrystal and his new commander in chief failed from the outset to connect. The general first encountered Obama a week after he took office, when the president met with a dozen senior military officials in a room at the Pentagon known as the Tank. According to sources familiar with the meeting, McChrystal thought Obama looked "uncomfortable and intimidated" by the roomful of military brass. Their first one-on-one meeting took place in the Oval Office four months later, after McChrystal got the Afghanistan job, and it didn't go much better. "It was a 10-minute photo op," says an adviser to McChrystal. "Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was. Here's the guy who's going to run his fucking war, but he didn't seem very engaged. The Boss was pretty disappointed."

Hell, I would be uncomfortable and intimidated by the first meeting with a room full of career military men some of whom are 10 years or more his senior as well. I guess McChrystal like most Americans was expecting more out of the man he voted for and was disappointed. He then levels criticism at some of the civilians "helping" him.

McChrystal reserves special skepticism for Holbrooke, the official in charge of reintegrating the Taliban. "The Boss says he's like a wounded animal," says a member of the general's team. "Holbrooke keeps hearing rumors that he's going to get fired, so that makes him dangerous. He's a brilliant guy, but he just comes in, pulls on a lever, whatever he can grasp onto. But this is COIN, and you can't just have someone yanking on shit."

COIN is supposed to be the counter-insurgency program that pretty much won the war in Iraq. He then rips Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador:

McChrystal and his team were blindsided by the cable. "I like Karl, I've known him for years, but they'd never said anything like that to us before," says McChrystal, who adds that he felt "betrayed" by the leak. "Here's one that covers his flank for the history books. Now if we fail, they can say, 'I told you so.'?"

In other words he is just being truthful about a guy that leaked deep concerns without telling them. In other words a person that cannot be trusted that is only trying to cover his ass.

So basically he is "telling truth to power" and should be commended for being honest about the people he is working with. I think he maybe should have saved this stuff for a memoir or something but I just don't like changing horses in the middle of the stream like this.

Knowing Obama though he is going to shit-can McChrystal and have some idiot run the show. In other words we might see us lose the Afghan war on Obama's watch. Well I guess it will be yet another mess that President Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, or (hopefully) David Petraeus will have to take care of after Obama has finally left office.

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Does Obama Want to Be President?

Now this is one interesting question that Roger Simon poses.

I am not being metaphorical here � I am quite serious. The more I have thought about this, the more I am convinced Barack Obama no longer wishes to be president. The degree that he admits this to himself, I am not sure. But I rather suspect that in the small hours of the morning he fantasizes he were anywhere but 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And who could blame him? By almost any measure, he is doing a terrible job.

The more I think of the line "indecision masquerading as coolness" I think of the Obama White House. They are said to be weighing the issues and looking for the best plan but end up running after the story trying to get ahead of it. I have to agree with this statement as well:

The media claque that put him in office is getting disaffected and now his party allies in Congress are beginning to disregard him, sometimes for the better. One of the early symbols of Obama�s disconnection was his remarkably unemotional reaction to the democracy demonstrators in Iran. His Iran policy continued to be a phony concoction of non-existent dialogue and toothless sanctions, right up to the latest round at the UN.

I have to point to this as the first chink in the armor. You would have lost nothing if you sided with the democracy demonstrators from the very beginning. Instead he hemmed and hawed and lost his opportunity to take care of the Iranian nuclear question forever.

If the Iranian government fell you would have been negotiating with a fellow democratically elected leader and if they brutally repressed the demonstrators you could have had proof that they are an illegitimate regime. They cannot trust a government that slaughters their college kids in the street.

Almost any other President would have quite easily sided with the protesters and helped them to differing degrees. Truman would have recognized them while JFK would have had CIA assets assisting a government overthrow. Instead Obama just sat there and mouthed some mealy mouthed crap. It was almost like he was annoyed that these demonstrators were getting in the way of his "talks with Iran without preconditions" pledge.

The more I think about it the more I agree that he will not run for a 2nd term and might even resign after the Dems get trounced in November.

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Federal Judge Steps in and Strikes Down Drilling Ban

Too bad the White House is going to appeal it.

Several companies that ferry people and supplies and provide other services to offshore drilling rigs asked U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans to overturn the moratorium.

They argued it was arbitrarily imposed after the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 workers and blew out the well 5,000 feet underwater. It has spewed anywhere from 67 million to 127 million gallons of oil into the Gulf.

It is like grounding every airplane in the US because one of them crashed. If there is an imminent danger then the Department of the Interior needs to point it out. Or just write new temporary regulations that force any new deep water driller to not cut corners like BP seems to have done. In any case a retroactive punishment on companies that have stellar safety records is asinine.

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German World Cup Team Finally Allowed to Leave their Quarters

Who is their minister of sport, Hans von Tschammer und Osten, Reichssportf�hrer under the Third Reich? I mean it seems pretty bad to keep them confined for so long.

Manager Oliver Bierhoff told reporters Sunday they had let the players out of their World Cup base the previous day for the first time for a social occasion.

"Some of us went for a meal in a restaurant," he said. "It's nice to dress in your civvies and go to another place."

It turns out iguanas might be the reason:

Even a walk close to the swamp-like Hennops river, which runs through the camp, is out of the question.

"Normally nothing should happen walking there but if you go too close to the river then the iguanas, and they are quite big, can swing their tails and have been known to break several bones. Luckily nothing of that sort has happened yet."

I guess the headline : "Miroslav Klose's Leg Broken by Run-away Iguana" must be avoided at all costs.

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New Orleans Ad Should Not Have been Scrapped

I think they should have kept the ad. I think it is topical and funny as well.

The print ad, a play on the city's history, was part of an effort to dispel perceptions the spill in the nearby Gulf has closed the "Big Easy" and its famed restaurants and music to tourism.

"This isn't the first time New Orleans has survived the British," it read alongside a photo of Jackson Square in the French Quarter.

The square is named for former President Andrew Jackson, who as a general led forces that defeated a British invasion during the War of 1812.

Or they could have had a picture of the oil spewing well being plugged up by the Andrew Jackson Statue that read "BP hasn't tried this yet. I mean it worked the last time"

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North Korea Airs World Cup Live: Portugal Hammers Them 7 - 0

I blame fearless leader Kim for failing to properly motivate the North Korean team. If Kim did his job they would have only lost by 1 goal like the Brazil game. Instead they have had too much of the decadent Western luxuries like food and shelter and it has made them soft.

North Korean state television aired full live coverage of the team's 7-0 World Cup loss to Portugal on Monday in what is believed to be a first for a North Korean football game taking place abroad.

I'm willing to bet that the next game North Korea plays in is taped delayed and then PhotoShopped to show the Koreans actually winning the game.

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Democrat Candidate for Congress Wants Obama Impeached

You read that right:

Unlike South Carolina's Greene, Rogers ran a high profile campaign, staking out a corner on a major intersection in the district to appear almost daily with a large sign: "Save NASA. Impeach Obama." She garnered 7,467 votes, 53% of the vote, in a three way race that included a local information systems analyst Doug Blatt, who gained endorsements from local Democratic clubs and labor groups, and Freddie John Weider Jr., a preacher and onetime Libertarian candidate; Blatt came in second with 28% of the vote and Weider won 20%. "The people of the 22nd district voted for me," she said. "They recognized the party is not acting in the interests of the people."

Wow, she won in a landslide. Too bad the Dems are distancing themselves from her similar to Alvin Greene the guy that won the nomination in South Carolina. They will both probably get trounced by the GOP nominee in that area but it shows how ineffectual the National Democratic Campaign Committee is in America.

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All the Ways the Feds have Screwed up the Oil Spill Clean-up

Yup that red tape is a bad deal when it comes to preventing a slow-motion disaster.

Federal regulatory red tape has gotten in the way of the cleanup, including: 1) missed opportunities to burn off more of the oil because of overblown air pollution concerns; 2) holdups in the use of dispersants; 3) permit delays in allowing the state of Louisiana to create artificial barriers against the encroaching oil slick; 4) failure to waive reg�ulatory prohibitions against foreign assistance; and 5) failure to approve barges and booms in time to block oil from reaching Alabama�s Magnolia River.

Here is all the crap the White House has engaged in that did nothing to clean up spilled oil or cap the leak:

Instead of providing leadership and properly coordinating the response, the Obama administration has chosen to shift blame and politicize the disaster, including: 1) �not-at-all veiled shot[s] at the Bush Administration� for the state of the Minerals and Management Service; 2) vague threats of criminal prosecution from Attorney General Eric Holder; 3) a moratorium on offshore oil drilling which could kill 120,000 jobs in the Gulf alone; and 4) pushing caps on carbon dioxide emissions which have no hope of cleaning up a single drop of oil spilled.

I guess you can chalk all this up to the fact that government can't solve certain problems and if a blame-shifting neophyte is at the helm things can only get worse. I have to agree that the "Get BP" mentality is getting old and doesn't do anything to stop the leak or clean a pelican.

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Great Article on Turkey's Overreach on Iranian Nuke Issue

I have to agree that whenever the Ottomans tried to do anything in the east and south of their countries they always ran into trouble. Now they are trying to meddle in the Middle East and it might come to their own grief.

Their joint intervention on the Iranian nuclear program gives an impression of naive over-eagerness. If the two countries had wanted to play a serious and constructive role (and there was room for them to do so) they would have needed to inform themselves more fully about the state of play, build confidence among the current group of six countries who have been handling the issue (the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany), and take a proposal to Iran that had a realistic chance of being accepted by both sides. The proposal they submitted to the Iranians was sloppy and ill-advised, clearly doomed from the start. Even very casual conversations with Russia and China would have told the Turks and Brazilians that this was a non-starter.

If I were playing the Great Game as Turkey I would partner with the other anti-Iran Gulf states in order to make their government fall. The idea of a nuclear armed power to your southeast should make you rethink your equation. I mean the Iranians could care less about Turkey in any other capacity then simply a "useful idiot" on the Security Council.

A Democratic Iran would be a far greater partner for Turkish business interests and trade then what you have now. Also close trade ties with a vibrant, growing, oil rich power (that is no longer encumbered by sanctions) would actually bring money into the dirt-poor east and south of your country. Just having more oil pipelines that pass through your country and into Europe would mean billions more a year.

These pipelines also strengthens your hand when it comes to joining the EU. You no longer enter as a country with a terribly poor east and south but an established oil player. You will also be the gateway to the emerging powers that a Democratic Iran and Iraq would be in 20 years time.

Also with prosperity comes complacency when it comes to the Kurds living in your country. A prosperous Kurdish population that you have built up with your ties to Democratic Iran will be less likely to rebel or form their own nation. You also counter Iraqi Kurdish money and influence in your southern regions as well.

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BP Agree's to $20 Billion Shakedown

I have never seen the hubris of an administration that can impel a foreign company to put aside $20 billion dollars without any sort of court order.

President Barack Obama and BP reached agreement Wednesday on a $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the giant British company's chairman apologized to America for the worst spill in U.S. history.

BP is suspending its dividends to shareholders to help pay for the costs, said chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg.

Obama announced the agreement after a four-hour meeting with BP officials. He also said the company had agreed to set up a separate $100 million fund to compensate oil rig workers laid off as a result of his six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling.

That first line has Obama talking like a dictator and he is lucky that BP is playing ball. I think they might have a legal recourse to get out of this coercion. Also the idea of making BP pay for the salaries of their competitors who have been put out of work by the White House is ludicrous. Also no talk of suspending the Jones Act so we can get some state-of the art Swedish and Danish oil skimmers out there.

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Al Gore May have been Getting a Little Side Action with Larry David's Ex-Wife

I guess you can't trust this guy around your friends ex-wife any more then you can trust him around your carbon.

In the June 28 issue of Star, on sale Wednesday, we report that Al and Tipper's breakup didn't come as much of a surprise to one Hollywood player � Laurie David. Star has learned that Al has been having an affair with Laurie, who divorced Seinfeld creator and Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David in 2007 amidst reports she was cheating with the caretaker of their Martha's Vineyard summer home.

�Al and Laurie went from friends to lovers," an insider tells Star. "It couldn�t be avoided

."

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Mars Covered in Water?

It sure seems like it was the case a few billion years ago.

The ocean -- which likely covered about 36 percent of the planet and contained 30 million cubic miles of water, about ten times less than Earth's oceans -- was fed by at least 52 river deltas which were in turn fed by countless river valleys and tributaries. Half of those deltas were at similar elevations, most likely marking the ocean's boundaries.

The next questions to answer are where did the water go and if that ocean had any life living in it.

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Colorado Man Goes After Bin Laden

Too bad he didn't succeed.

An American man has been detained in the mountains of Pakistan after local authorities found him carrying a sword, pistol and night-vision goggles on a Rambo-style solo mission to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden.

Friends and family say construction worker Gary Brooks Faulkner is a devout, good-humored Christian who often talked about building a porch or framing a house � not taking down the world's most-wanted terrorist. They had few clues to explain his 7,300-mile journey.

I guess it is a pretty good deal that he was caught by the police. If the Taliban found him they would have tortured the crap out of him before cutting off his head. Instead he could be a minor celebrity if he plays his cards right.

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Democrat Congressman Roughs Up Some Students

I guess this is what Congress really wants to do to the voters.

The video was posted on websites owned by Andrew Breitbart, the conservative Web entrepreneur who also released video of workers for the community organizing group ACORN counseling actors posing as a pimp and prostitute.

It shows two men approaching Etheridge with a camera on a Washington street. He swats at the camera and repeatedly asks the men who they are. When they say they are students, he grabs one by the wrist and quickly by the back of the neck before pulling him against his side.

A simple no-comment would have sufficed. Instead we have Congress-scum lashing out (literally) against the people who dares to take their picture. I think they should consider pressing charges against this guy.

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Iranian Cleric Admits: Yeah we Want the Bomb

It seems like they are finally going to drop the pretext of "peaceful enrichment."

The hardline spiritual mentor of Iran's president has made a rare public call for producing the "special weapons" that are a monopoly of a few nations � a veiled reference to nuclear arms.

The Associated Press on Monday obtained a copy of a book written by Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi in which he wrote Iran should not deprive itself of the right to produce these "special weapons."

"The most advanced weapons must be produced inside our country even if our enemies don't like it. There is no reason that they have the right to produce a special type of weapons, while other countries are deprived of it," Yazdi said.

I'm sure Obama still would like to negotiate with these people "without preconditions." The Green Revolution just can't come fast enough.

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