ExConservative - The GOP Left Me!

It's a bird, it's a plane, and YES...It's a flying White House.

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When I first heard that the President was NOT going off to sell Chicago to the Olympics Committee, I thought it made great sense.  Sending Mrs. Obama also was an excellent idea.  (Even the Queen of England loves her some Michelle.)  Then I heard that they both are going to the meeting to lobby for Chicago (thus the USA) and it seemed a little tacky and would show a lack of prioritization.

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Of course the righties have gone nuts and accused Barack of failing to take other issues seriously, for not caring about America, for being a socialist, for not being born in the USA, etc., etc., but they bring all those things up at the mere mention of his name, so screw them and their tiny, hateful minds!

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Without a doubt, having the Olympics in Chicago (thus the USA) is not as important to me as the health care reform issues, the Iraq-Afghan-Iran problems, but as I thought about it and thought about the marvels of Air Force One, it really doesn't take much away from Barack's ability to MULTI-TASK, which he seems to excel at.  From the traveling White House in the sky, he can do just about everything, so big deal if he spends an hour or two selling the USA to the world.

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Let's face it, Barack is real popular around the world right now.  He's what people in marketing love, a real positive attraction, and what a great thing to do right now, rebuilding our image in the world after the debacle of the Bush years.  So, have at it Barack and Michelle.  Sell Chicago, sell the USA, and use those great faces and smiles and personalities and brains and bring us some Olympics.  While you’re at it, I know you'll have no problem managing all the other things on your plate.  Just stay out of schools where others read books upside down and we'll all be fine.

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XCon

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Steele: Let Michelle Make Olympics Pitch

RNC Chair Calls on Obama to Skip Olympics Lobbying Trip

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President Obama is leaving Washington Thursday for a fairly non-partisan cause, lobbying the International Olympic Committee to hold the 2016 games in Chicago, but he still can't escape GOP criticism.

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"I just don't think it's necessary," said Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday morning. "I don't know the judgment behind the president going. I just think it's not a necessary trip right now when we are facing some pretty looming issues."  (READ the rest of the story...)

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From CNN, more on Steele (The moron, Steele?)

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Guards watch over Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Retired

generals and admirals say Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney are

trying to instill fear about Gitmo closing. Photo: AP

Generals: Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney are scaremongering

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About a dozen retired generals and admirals, trying to add momentum to President Barack Obama’s effort to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison, are accusing former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz of scaremongering about the dangers of closing it.

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“It’s up to all of us to say these arguments advanced by Cheney and his acolytes are nonsense and that really what they’re doing is undermining our national security by delaying the date at which Guantanamo is closed,” retired Brig. Gen. James Cullen, a former chief judge of the Army’s Court of Criminal Appeals, told POLITICO Tuesday. (Click HERE to read the rest of this story!)

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Answer this, Bill Schneider

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Bill Schneider is a senior fellow at Third Way and a senior political analyst at CNN. On television, he crunches the numbers and helps viewers through politics with a folksy charm.

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The Boston Globe once dubbed him “the Aristotle of American politics.” Campaigns & Elections magazine called him “the most consistently intelligent analyst on television.”  (READ the rest of this story…)

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In this file photo, Norman Hsu is escorted into a

Redwood City, Calif., courtroom, Sept. 21, 2007.

(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, pool)

Ex-Democratic fundraiser sentenced to 24 years

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NEW YORK – Former Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison Tuesday by a judge who accused him of funding his fraud by manipulating the political process in a way that "strikes at the very core of our democracy."

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U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero sentenced the 58-year-old Hsu to 20 years in prison for his guilty plea to fraud charges and another four years and four months in prison for his conviction at trial for breaking campaign finance laws.

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In a lengthy criticism of Hsu's fraud, the judge said the former fundraiser used political contributions to win respect and impress investors as he committed a campaign finance fraud that "strikes at the very core of our democracy."  (Click to read the rest of this story.)

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It seems President Barack Obama and his crowded

agenda are proving a boon to the political news business,

along with an increase in partisan passions.

Photo: Reuters

Gallup: More Americans consuming news

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It seems President Barack Obama and his crowded agenda are proving a boon to the political news business, along with an increase in partisan passions. The Gallup polling company reported Monday that Americans these days are paying closer attention to political news than in any nonelection year since the company started tracking the issue in 2001.

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“Americans’ consumption of political news has expanded over the past decade,” Gallup reported. “The trend may reflect a greater politicization of the American public, regardless of political ideology, as attention is up among all three party groups [Democrats, Republicans and independents]. However, the increase since 2007 (from 30 percent to 36 percent) in the percentage following political news very closely may also stem from Barack Obama’s busy legislative agenda in his first year as president.”  (Click HERE to read more...)

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>>> Do NOT go near Chattanooga, please!

Ann Coulter Speaks At UTC Oct. 5

Part Of Burkett Miller Distinguished Lecture Series

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The Burkett Miller Distinguished Lecture Series will present constitutional attorney Ann Coulter on Monday, Oct. 5, at noon in the University Center auditorium.

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Ms. Coulter will address "Evaluating the Change in American Government" and her speech will be critiqued by UTC faculty Dr. Rebecca Jones with assistance from Dr. Heather Palmer.

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Sponsored by the Scott L. Probasco, Jr. Chair of Free Enterprise and the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, this event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited to a first-come, first-served basis.   (CLICK HERE TO READ MORE.  Ughhh... and calling her Distinguished is just WRONG.)

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Calendar photo of Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.

Warning!  Caution!  Bachmann is 'Miss November' in conservative think tank's calendar

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There seems to be a major appetite for Michele Bachmann merchandise these days.

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Last week she was made into an action figure. Now Michele Bachmann has her own spot on a 2010 calendar highlighting conservative women.

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The Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute, a think tank geared toward female conservatives, released the “Great American Conservative Women” calendar this week.  (Do you REALLY want more?  If so, click here.)

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From www.truthout.com, some items of interest:

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Scott Galindez | The "Public Option" Is Not Dead

http://www.truthout.org/093009A?n

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Scott Galindez, Truthout: "I would not be honest if I said the 'public option' is alive and well. It is clearly in critical condition, but all hope is not lost."

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Ed Kinane | Drones and Dishonor in Central New York

http://www.truthout.org/093009B?n

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Ed Kinane, Truthout: "The drones are coming. Readers of the Syracuse Post-Standard know that the drones (a.k.a. Reapers) are arriving at the local New York Air National Guard Base at Hancock Airport."

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A Hidden Denial in the Afghan Election

http://www.truthout.org/093009C?n

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Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould, GlobalPost: "The Afghan election results are finally in and, to no one's surprise, they have inflamed a crisis of credibility. Afghanistan's latest effort in democracy was marred by widespread fraud, violence, and intimidation."

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US Is Seeking Tougher Sanctions Against Iran

http://www.truthout.org/093009D?n

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Mark Landler, The New York Times: "The Obama administration is scrambling to assemble a package of harsher economic sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program that could include a cutoff of investments to the country's oil-and-gas industry and restrictions on many more Iranian banks than those currently blacklisted, senior administration officials said Sunday."

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John Feffer | Afghanistan: NATO's Graveyard? Is the Transatlantic Alliance Doomed?

http://www.truthout.org/093009E?n

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John Feffer, TomDispatch.com: "Celebrating its 60th birthday this year, NATO is looking peaked and significantly worse for wear. Aggressive and ineffectual, the organization shows signs of premature senility. Despite the smiles and reassuring rhetoric at its annual summits, its internal politics have become fractious to the point of dysfunction."

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Connie Schultz | Banning a Book Near You

http://www.truthout.org/093009F?n

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Connie Schultz, Truthout: "We call them school librarians, but in these contentious times, I'm inclined to call them heroes. Now is as good a time as any to mention that this is Banned Books Week, which is sponsored annually by the American Library Association to celebrate the freedom to read."

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Thoughts While Being Progressive.

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A finale note: I just have to say this, and it may not be politically correct, but SCREW THE F’N INSURANCE COMPANIES.  Why should I care about them?  Why are so many politicians and corporate types crying about the poor insurance companies and how doing a public option or especially a “single payer system,” would destroy them and their profits.  Let them suffer and go away and stop profiting off of sickness, misery and death!

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Somehow over the years even the not-for-profit insurance companies morphed into big business, flesh-eating profit machines and here we are today picking at crumbs, trying to save our economy before they rape and pillage what is left!  The big insurance companies need to be kicked to the side of the road and allowed to fade away, just as they have done to Americans for many decades. 

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I had an epiphany as I was driving this morning, listening to Stephanie Miller and her sidekicks, and it is so clear that we are being bilked by the politicians as they keep lowering our expectations on anything that might approach health care reform.  It is like old England where royalty “throws them a bone,” the way they are doing slight of hand to keep the screw turning on the public.  Meanwhile, many of the Senators and House Members are in need of cash to support their campaigns and their lifestyles, so the money flows freely, except to the public.

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Geez, read about Max Baucus and his personal debt issues.   It isn’t all that unusual for a Senator from his state to be pretty conservative, but he’s being a little too cozy with the righties and the health care for profit types, perhaps?  And then there’s the fact the latest report proves the price of healthcare is UP, UP and AWAY again.  So yes, SCREW THEM, those insurance ghouls.   It is becoming abundantly clear that Obama should have come in DEMANDING single payer, real health care reform.  Otherwise, nothing seems to be possible with the ghouls, goblins and scum that we see fighting so hard to maintain the status quo.

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There, I feel better.  Michael Moore’s movie (Capitalism: A Love Story) should be required viewing for all of us so that we can get angry and get our country back.

XCon

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Here’s a free plug for the movie!  Just click and learn.

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ALSO:  If you haven’t seen SICKO, here’s

a gentle reminder:

 

 

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The righty-scientist you hear about may not be a scientist at all!

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The world is filled with people who mean well but who are not smart enough to know that they are not smart enough to know what they are talking about.  There is a 72 year old bureaucrat that has the right wing all engorged because he’s in denial of global warming.  The Republickscum get their hormones flowing when a “scientist” comes along and supposedly supports their ideology.

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That is the case with Mr. Carlin.  He supports their ideology and not science, which gets them all erect and moist.  What they don’t want to know is that he is NOT a scientist and certainly not in anything related to climate and ice and glaciers and air and relevant things.  He does have a doctorate in something:  Economics?  Read this first item and if you are rightie, sorry but you need some mental Viagra right about now as your new hero just caused a major case of Mr. Limpy.

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Let the old guy keep spouting – his gushers are impotent anyway – and let him retire on his GOVERNMENT PENSION and spend his golden years remembering Herbert Hoover and the good old days.

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XCon

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Conservatives say Alan Carlin, a global

warming contrarian at the Environmental

Protection Agency, was muzzled there. 

Stephen Cowley/The New York Times

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Behind the Furor Over a Climate Change Skeptic

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WASHINGTON — Alan Carlin, a 72-year-old analyst and economist, had labored in obscurity in a little-known office at the Environmental Protection Agency since the Nixon administration.

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In June, however, he became a sudden celebrity with the surfacing of a few e-mail messages that seemed to show that his contrarian views on global warming had been suppressed by his superiors because they were inconvenient to the Obama administration’s climate change policy. Conservative commentators and Congressional Republicans said he had been muzzled because he did not toe the liberal line.  (Read more...)

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Members of the Rock Harbor Church worship in Costa Mesa, Calif., on

Sunday, September 27, 2009. The church has been able to overcome

tough times during the recession thanks to generous donations by the

congregation.   (AP Photo/David Zentz)

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Religious life won't be the same after downturn

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By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer

NEW YORK – Organized religion was already in trouble before the fall of 2008. Denominations were stagnating or shrinking, and congregations across faith groups were fretting about their finances.

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The Great Recession made things worse.

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It's further drained the financial resources of many congregations, seminaries and religious day schools. Some congregations have disappeared and schools have been closed. In areas hit hardest by the recession, worshippers have moved away to find jobs, leaving those who remain to minister to communities struggling with rising home foreclosures, unemployment and uncertainty.  (Read the rest of the story...)

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Joy Behar: Glenn Beck ‘was an alcoholic and a drug addict,’ ’so it sort of follows he’s crazy now’

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The boisterous comedienne and co-host of The View, Joy Behar, didn’t mince words on this weekend’s Reliable Source with The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz.

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Asked about popular Fox News host Glenn Beck, Behar cut straight to the point, bemoaning both the media and Beck himself.

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“He’s frequently ridiculous and doesn’t make any sense as far as I’m concerned,” Behar remarked. “He calls himself a rodeo clown, and he’s a clown. He’s on the cover of Time Magazine. I mean the media plays just right into his hands.  (Read the rest of this Joy Story…)

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There are more than 350,000 applications on Facebook. The

company says it disables any that violate its terms

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Secret Service investigating Facebook poll on Obama

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(CNN) -- The social networking site Facebook on Monday pulled a third-party application that allows users to create polls after a site member built a poll asking if President Obama should be killed.

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There are more than 350,000 applications on Facebook. The company says it disables any that violate its terms.  The U.S. Secret Service, the agency assigned to protect the president, has launched an investigation, agency spokesman James Mackin said.

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"As is usually the case, our vigilant users reported it to us first," Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt told CNN. "The USSS [Secret Service] sent us an e-mail late this morning PDT asking us to take it down. At that point, it had already been removed, and we let them know."

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Schnitt said the application "was immediately suspended while the inappropriate content could be removed by the developer and until such time as the developer institutes better procedures to monitor their user-generated content."  (Read the entire story...)

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More on the Secret Service and Facebook, click here.

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Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., left, goes over his

notes as he sits with, from second from left, the committee's ranking Republican Sen.

Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., on

Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Sept. 25, 2009, before the start of the markup of

the health care legislation.     (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

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Public plan debate could pit Democrat vs. Democrat

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WASHINGTON – Liberals are taking aim at Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus as his committee prepares to vote Tuesday on whether the government should create its own health plan to compete with private insurers.

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Offering the middle class the option of a plan like Medicare is a top goal for liberals. But no Republican lawmakers support it, and moderate Democrats say the Senate would never go along. Baucus, D-Mont., says his own plan will achieve the goals liberals are seeking by other, more politically feasible, means.

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The Finance showdown is expected to pit Democrat against Democrat. Although the public plan isn't expected to get a majority of the panel, supporters say at least they'll know where everybody stands.  (Read the rest of this story...)

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More women having a healthy breast removed

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A small but growing number of women with breast cancer are choosing to have the unaffected breast removed in an effort to prevent a recurrence, researchers reported Monday.

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Using data from New York State hospitals, the researchers found that between 1995 and 2005, the prevalence of preventive mastectomy among women with a history of cancer in one breast more than doubled.

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The procedure was performed in about 2 percent of all women diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995 and 1996 -- rising to just over 4 percent by 2005.  (Read more… click here.)

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Lucy of 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' fame dies

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LONDON – Lucy Vodden, who provided the inspiration for the Beatles' classic song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," has died after a long battle with lupus. She was 46.

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Her death was announced Monday by St. Thomas' Hospital in London, where she had been treated for the chronic disease for more than five years, and by her husband, Ross Vodden. Britain's Press Association said she died last Tuesday. Hospital officials said they could not confirm the day of her death.

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Vodden's connection to the Beatles dates back to her early days, when she made friends with schoolmate Julian Lennon, John Lennon's son.

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Julian Lennon, then 4 years old, came home from school with a drawing one day, showed it to his father, and said it was "Lucy in the sky with diamonds."  (Read More by clicking here...)

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Jay Leno: We've had death panels for years; they're called insurance companies

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Talk show host Jay Leno is staking out a position on the health care debate, telling fellow talk show host Bill Maher Monday night that insurance companies are like death panels.

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On Monday night's Jay Leno Show on NBC, Leno hosted HBO talk show host Bill Maher for a discussion about politics. After Maher read his "new rules" written specially for the Leno show, Leno asked him about health care.

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Maher criticized former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for promoting the argument that Obama's health care plan would lead to "death panels" that would ration health care. "You know what Sarah Palin, I got news for you honey. If we were going to get rid of useless people, you would be the first to know," Maher said to applause and laughter from the audience.

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Leno replied: "We have had death panels for years. They're called insurance companies." According to Leno, "Everybody knows someone who was told your grandmother is not going to get this kidney because it's too expensive, or you're not in this plan, so I know the death panels is a phony, it's just wordplay. But people act like this hasn't existed," he said.  (Read the rest of this story...)

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Polanski appeals against extradition over sex case

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ZURICH, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Lawyers for Oscar-winning film director Roman Polanski lodged an appeal with a Swiss court on Tuesday against his arrest on a U.S. extradition warrant to face sentence for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

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The Swiss Federal Penal Court said in a brief statement on its website that it would make a decision on the appeal within the "next few weeks" after an exchange of written motions and would not give more information on the case in the meantime.

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Polanski, 76, who has dual French and Polish citizenship, was arrested on Saturday on a U.S. warrant by authorities in Switzerland, where the "Chinatown" director was set to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival.  (Read the full story HERE...)

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CNN’s iPhone News App is Informative And Empowering

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Although a bit late to the party, CNN has made a decisive entry into the mobile news space with a well-designed iPhone app with that costs $2 to download, nothing to use and makes it easier for citizen journalists to file their own video news reports from the field.

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And in choosing a middle ground in the free/fee debate CNN is carving out a niche that extends their free online offerings to the fast-growing mobile platform while charging something for the work that goes in to developing for the iPhone platform — and there are ads too.

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In a exclusive, pre-release hands-on evaluation of CNN’s new iPhone app — they have made no equivalent for any other smartphone platform — wired.com found it to be a solid, slick tool that many news junkies are likely to find worth the price.  (More on the CNN iPhone App....)

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Want more?  Try www.hinessight.com for updated news of interest.

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For opinionated truth, it is www.truthout.org.

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Look for XCon on Twitter and Facebook as ExConservative.

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Remember that Beck is Crazy.  So are his minions.  Don’t be one.

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Can an LA DA understand the meaning of TOO F'N LATE?

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Looking back, it would have been quite fitting to put Roman Polanski away for a long time for drugging and having sex with a 13 year old girl.  Had they jailed him then, great.  Today it seems like we need to shout to the person(s) that decided to go after him now, "Idiot, you're a little late!"

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Anyone who breaks a law like Polanski did should be punished but to do it 30 years later, to go to all the expense and effort, is just grandstanding by some publicity seekers in the DA's office.  Guys, you are too late.  Even the victim, all grown up now, wants you to stop this as you are molesting her all over again.  And do you have endless funds for this gambit?  It is a good bet you don't as no DA's office is flush with cash these days.  No government agency is.

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Luckily, Patrick Goldstein in the Los Angeles TIMES wrote about this today and I invite you to read his column.  His point that thousands of prisoners are about to be released due to the lack of money YELLS the point that the L.A. DA seems too rabid to get: Your priorities are all wrong (F'd up) and you're broke and this has to stop.

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If I were in L.A., I'd rethink the current DA and his staff of underlings who seem to not be in touch with reality in the year 2009.

XCon

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THE BIG PICTURE

Polanski an odd priority for DA

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By PATRICK GOLDSTEIN

 

September 28, 2009

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With the state Legislature forced to make dramatic cuts in the prison budget and a three-judge federal panel having recently ordered California lawmakers to release as many as 40,000 inmates in response to the scandalous overcrowding of the California state prison system, it seems like an especially inauspicious time for the L.A. County district attorney's office to be spending some of our few remaining tax dollars seeing if it can finally, after all these years, put Roman Polanski behind bars.

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As you've probably heard, the French-born filmmaker, who won a best director Oscar in absentia for the 2002 film "The Pianist," was arrested by Swiss police late Saturday as he arrived to accept an award at the Zurich Film Festival. At the request of the L.A. County district attorney's office, Polanski has been placed in custody -- the official terms is "provisional detention for extradition" -- awaiting a U.S. decision to make a formal extradition request.  (Read the complete column at the LA TIMES…)

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Roman Polanski Lawyers to Fight Extradition

French Attorney Herve Temime Tells 'GMA' Polanski Is 'in Good Shape'

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A French attorney for detained director Roman Polanski said today that he would fight extradition to the United States on a 32-year-old statutory rape charge.

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The director is held in Swiss custody for possible extradition to the U.S."He wants to struggle, and I think it will be possible for us to maintain his freedom," lawyer Herve Temime told "Good Morning America" today, adding that Polanski and his lawyers were shocked that the Oscar winner was arrested after walking into a trap at the Zurich, Switzerland, airport.

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Polanski, 76, has been avoiding the United States and countries that have extradition agreements with the United States since 1978, when he pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.  (Read the rest on the story…)

 

 

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'Late Show' host David Letterman, who soured on

President Bush and had a run-in with Sarah Palin,

seemed comfortable chatting with President Obama

and President Clinton on consecutive nights last week.

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David Letterman veers to the left

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CBS latenight host's politics have evolved

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By BRIAN LOWRY

'Late Show' host David Letterman, who soured on President Bush and had a run-in with Sarah Palin, seemed comfortable chatting with President Obama and President Clinton on consecutive nights last week.

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David Letterman has undergone a significant change, one that goes well beyond his late-in-life marriage and fatherhood. The impetus behind the CBS latenight host's renewed vigor, moreover, appears to owe an unacknowledged debt to George W. Bush.

Call it the political education of David Letterman.

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For most of his career, Letterman was never overtly political. He rather followed his idol Johnny Carson's "don't let them know your politics" philosophy -- though if anything, his scorn toward then-President Clinton throughout the 1990s at times hinted at a hidden conservative streak.  (Read more at Variety.com...)

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Senate Finance Committee member Jay Rockefeller,

D-W.Va., left, talks with the panel's chairman, Max

Baucus, D-Mont., last Tuesday.

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Sen. Rockefeller seeks to extend health bill's protections

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By John Fritze, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — More than 70 million people who work at large companies would not get health insurance protections sought by President Obama under a closely watched Senate health care bill, a Democratic lawmaker involved in the debate says.

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The proposed rules, which Obama said will "make the insurance you have work better for you," would prohibit insurers from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions or imposing limits on how much will be paid out to sick patients.  (Read more at USA TODAY...)

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Progressives Hit Baucus

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With the Senate Finance Committee slated to vote on whether to add a public option to Chairman Max Baucus's (D-MT) health reform bill this week, two progressive groups are hitting Baucus with this ad in his home state. In it, a man driven into debt by a congenital heart disease suggests Montanans can't trust Baucus because he's taken millions of dollars in donations from the health care and insurance industries.  (Click to see the YouTube Video...)

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Baucus has become the focal point of liberal frustrations with the health reform sausage-making process: he led the bipartisan negotiations that stalled health reform through August (while failing to garner any GOP support), and the package he's put forward does not include a public option. It provides for health insurance co-ops instead, and right now it's viewed as the only proposal moderate enough to get the votes needed to pass in the Senate.  (Read the rest at Atlantic online...)

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The search for truth, except in some District Attorney offices, continues.  Let's get the truth out.  Here are some links to www.truthout.com  

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Lt. Ehren Watada Allowed to Resign

http://www.truthout.org/092709R?n

 

Gregg K. Kakesako, The Honolulu Star-Bulletin: "First Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned military officer to refuse deployment to Iraq because he believed it was an illegal war, has won his three-year legal battle with the Army."

 

US Seeing More Female Homeless Veterans

http://www.truthout.org/092709S?n

 

Thom Patterson, CNN: "When Iraq war veteran Angela Peacock is in the shower, she sometimes closes her eyes and can't help reliving the day in Baghdad in 2003 that pushed her closer to the edge."

 

Same-Sex Marriage Activists Seek Repeal of California’s Proposition 8

http://www.truthout.org/092709T?n

 

Daniel B. Wood, The Christian Science Monitor: "The battle is on to repeal California’s Prop. 8 — which activists hope starts a national domino effect in the nearly 30 states that have banned same-sex marriage. A coalition of 40 groups has taken the first legal step for voters to be able to overturn the measure in November 2010. Thursday, the groups submitted ballot language that will place the measure on the ballot in the state’s next general election. Within weeks they intend to be canvassing the state to gather 700,000 valid signatures needed by April to qualify the measure for the ballot."

 

Going Beyond Kyoto

http://www.truthout.org/092709U?n

 

Paul Hockenos, Foreign Policy in Focus: "International negotiators will gather in Copenhagen, Denmark in December to hammer out a new and possibly historic worldwide treaty to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Following up on the expiring Kyoto Protocol, it is widely billed as the last chance to save the planet from a temperature rise of two degrees Celsius or higher. Sascha Müller-Kraenner is the Europe coordinator of The Nature Conservancy, a U.S. environmental group. Paul Hockenos spoke to him in Berlin."

 

Ilene Durst|Denying Health Care to Immigrants Would Be Harmful to America

http://www.truthout.org/092709V?n

 

Ilene Durst, McClatchy-Tribune: "Barring immigrants, irrespective of their status, from purchasing health insurance through whatever plan Congress legislates only endangers the health and the economy of the entire United States."

 

Pennsylvania Orders Cabot Oil and Gas to Stop Fracturing in Troubled County

http://www.truthout.org/092709W?n

 

Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica: "After three chemical spills in the past nine days, and following a history of environmental problems over the last year, Pennsylvania officials have ordered Cabot Oil and Gas, one of the most active natural gas companies in the state, to stop its hydraulic fracturing operations in Susquehanna County pending an intensive review."

 

Economy Forces Some Families to Work, Live Apart

http://www.truthout.org/092709X?n

 

Suzanne Perez Tobias, The Wichita Eagle: "Bob Handshy talks with his wife, Rebekah, every day — about the weather, the kids' school projects, the new bathroom floor. He chats with the kids. He plays Hangman with his son, Jace. He tells the children "Be good" and "I love you" and "Good night." He just does it from 1,900 miles away."

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A little news update:  XCon is now on Twitter as Exconservative. 

And to really take chances, ExConservative at Facebook is now a reality.

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What Color Is The Alert? Terrorists Are Trying Again, Damn it!

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What the hell is going on?  A person might think that Tom Ridge and the Bush administration are having fun again with the public by keeping us on our feet fearing the impending doom of the terrorists and their various alert colors!  Sadly, the news stories of these home-grown and here-illegally would-be bombers (let's call them f*ckheads for now) are real.

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Three are in the news today.  I don't know whether to be scared and paranoid, looking for more of them everywhere OR being strong and proud that the "system is working" and the FBI and others are catching the bastards!  Thinking about it as I type this, I'm going to take a more moderate approach and be aware and vigilant as I move through my life, proud that the FBI and the others are being successful, and... keep fighting for stronger law enforcement in towns and counties, in states and on the federal level.  And, I’ll be fully aware that sh*t happens and the cops might miss one.

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It is great that today's three f*ckheads got caught before they did great harm, yet it should stand as a warning to all of us that every step we take forward, they move with equal or greater force to do their evil, to terrorize our great nation!  Catching a few does not mean we are close to defeating them.  Quite the contrary; it means they are still at it, still morphing, still hating us, and still to be reckoned with. 

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Let us NOT LET OUR GUARD DOWN.  Saying that could sound like some right-wing wacko, paranoid pond scum, and it is sad that they have made BEING ALERT AND VIGILANT something synonymous with their crap!  Being aware and ever-vigilant is AMERICAN and proper in these times, so I'm adopting that posture and will still continue to see the aforementioned pond scum as illiterate idiots and warmongers.  And, I have the right to do that because they ALMOST dragged me into their alternate universe.  Luckily, I escaped in time and am now, proudly, The Exconservative.

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XCon

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AP – File - Terrorism suspect Najibullah Zazi arrives at the offices of the

FBI in Denver for questioning

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Suspect used Web to find bomb supplies, feds say

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NEW YORK – Najibullah Zazi went from Pakistan to suburban Denver beauty shops in a hunt for the supplies and skill to make hydrogen peroxide bombs for al-Qaida, authorities charged in papers describing one of the most significant post-9/11 terror threats to the United States.

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The 12-page memorandum outlining the alleged conspiracy also used the repeated phrase "and others," evidence of a possible al-Qaida cell plotting a homemade bomb attack on U.S. soil.

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Zazi, a 24-year-old coffee cart owner in New York and Denver airport shuttle driver, was charged in New York with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. He was to appear in court in Denver on Friday. (Click here for the rest of the story...)

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FBI agents escort Najibullah Zazi, 24, after his

arrest in Aurora, Colo., on Saturday. In earlier

comments, he said he was a hard-working

Muslim who loved America. (Chris Schneider

/ EPA / September 20, 2009)

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Denver man charged in alleged terrorist bomb plot

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Reporting from Washington and New York - A federal grand jury in New York indicted a Denver man on a terrorism charge Thursday after federal authorities alleged that he and possibly three others had gone on a buying spree of bomb-making chemicals and were preparing an attack on U.S. soil.

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The one-count indictment alleges that Najibullah Zazi, 24, worked for more than a year on a plot to detonate a weapon of mass destruction.

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Justice Department documents did not name the alleged co-conspirators, but said that three other Denver-area residents had bought unusual amounts of chemicals from beauty-supply stores, including hydrogen peroxide and acetone, which can be used to make explosives. (Read the rest of the story..)

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The 60-story Fountain Place skyscraper in Dallas is where 19-year-old

Hosam Maher Husein Smadi allegedly placed what he thought was a car

bomb. (Donna McWilliam / Associated Press / September 24, 2009)

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Two men accused in alleged bomb plots in Illinois, Texas

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Two men who professed devotion to Al Qaeda -- one a convert to Islam, the other a Jordanian native -- were charged Thursday with plotting to blow up buildings in Illinois and Texas.

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In both cases, the men thought they were working with Al Qaeda operatives when they were really working with undercover federal agents.

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One man, according to authorities, planted what he thought was an explosive outside a Dallas skyscraper, while the other parked a van, supposedly armed with a bomb, outside a federal courthouse in Springfield, Ill. The devices were fakes.  (Read the full story from the LA TIMES...)

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BECK ALERT!  BECK ALERT! Caution, please!

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Saturday Night Live had some great fun with the man who should be institutionalized, Glen Beck (He only gets one N from me as he is not worthy of two), and if you want to have some fun, click over to Huffington Post and check out the video.

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Xcon

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Not a paid ad, just a free plug for a great show!

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New Rule: If America Can't Get it Together, We Lose the Bald Eagle – Bill Maher

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New Rule: If America can't get its act together, it must lose the bald eagle as our symbol and replace it with the YouTube video of the puppy that can't get up. As long as we're pathetic, we might as well act like it's cute. I don't care about the president's birth certificate, I do want to know what happened to "Yes we can." Can we get out of Iraq? No. Afghanistan? No. Fix health care? No. Close Gitmo? No. Cap-and-trade carbon emissions? No. The Obamas have been in Washington for ten months and it seems like the only thing they've gotten is a dog.  (Read it all.  CLICK HERE.)

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Gay couple Ethan Collings (L), 32, and his spouse Stephen Abate, 36,

hug as they celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary in West

Hollywood, California, June 16, 2009. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

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California gay marriage groups launch ballot fight

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Gay rights activists hoping to win back the right to marry in California submitted a ballot proposal on Thursday for the November 2010 election -- a date deep-pocketed advocates have said is too soon.

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Californians in November voted to ban same-sex marriage after courts made it legal in the spring. Advocates ever since have been debating when to challenge the ban, known as Prop 8, in the state, which is closely divided on the issue despite a social liberal reputation.

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The Los Angeles group Love Honor Cherish filed a proposed state constitutional amendment that repeals the gay marriage ban and says churches would not be forced to perform any marriage.  (Read the rest of the story...)

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Google Earth launches climate simulator

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Al Gore stars in promo video for new emissions scenario features developed by Google Earth to coincide with Copenhagen climate conference

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If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words should we afford Google Earth? Hours can be lost skydiving your way towards your favourite locations. Seeing somewhere you know so well from above provides valuable extra servings of knowledge and perspective.

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It's pleasing, therefore, to see Google announcing on its official blog that it has developed some nifty new features to coincide with the Copenhagen climate conference, now only a matter of weeks away. (More... click here to read!)

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Ken Burns' latest project is a six-part 12-hour film on the

history of America's national parks. (Library of Congress)

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Ken Burns' 'National Parks' pays tribute to the men behind the idea

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Politicians and philanthropists pushed to set aside breathtaking, unspoiled land. The filmmaker appreciates this, and you will too.

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For Californians, Ken Burns' gorgeous and exhaustive six-part documentary on the National Parks poses something of a dilemma. In the 12 hours it takes for "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" to unfold, an Angeleno could easily visit any of a half dozen national parks. Without traffic, you could conceivably get to Yosemite, where it all started, tour the valley floor and be back before narrator Peter Coyote stopped talking.

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No doubt the various men behind the National Parks system, from mountain prophet John Muir to the touring-car-bound Franklin Delano Roosevelt would recommend you do just that. Indeed, the main goal of Burns and his co-creator Dayton Duncan appears to be launching people off their backsides and into the wilderness. In this they will most certainly succeed, possibly to the detriment of their own ratings.  (Read the rest of the review...)

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Thoughts While Being Progressive

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Don’t forget, it is coming soon to a theater near you and he’s all over television and getting rave reviews of his new movie.  Michael Moore is an unkempt slob but he makes great movies that tell real stories, ones that the crazy right doesn’t want to hear, nor do they want the rest of us to hear!

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I haven’t seen it yet, but if this one is as good as they say, Moore has given us a great history of one thing that has gone wrong with the USA.  It certainly makes me rethink all those pro-capitalism lessons in school.  From grade school to high school graduation capitalism was what America was all about.  That seems so perverted now.

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XCon

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This is NOT a paid ad, just a "free plug."

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Today I need to explore my inner lefty and socialistic leanings.

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Have I become a leftist?  A flaming liberal?  A commie-blogger?  Pardon me while I explore this.

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Last evening, as happens every so often, my old friend Marty calls and says "Cliff, meet me at the watering hole and let's talk sh*t about all kinds of people and see what lies we can uncover."  Usually that means a beer and just checking in.  Isn't that pretty normal for people who have been pals for years?

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So, we met and compared notes on our cast of characters.  Once that is concluded we get to local governmental screw ups and move on to the news of the day and what is happening in the coming days.  Marty was never as conservative as me and he began to reject the Republikscum ways long before me, but today we are both what we call "progressive."

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We've never thought of each other (and others like us) as Leftists or moving towards socialism, just a couple of guys who can read the news, watch shows, discuss, and learn things.  So, our views have changed and continue to change, but neither of us goes to leftist meetings or carries a card proclaiming "Communist in training." 

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While deciding on having another beer or not, I get a call from another friend (Ray) who is still a proud right-wing Republickscum and he starts telling me that we (Marty and me) are Leftists and hardcore liberals who are embracing socialism and are on the verge of being communists! He is positive we begin and end each day on the net reading leftist propaganda and checking the endless (?) leftist blogs. 

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The truth is that I do begin and end my days with some reading on the net.  I subscribe to a couple of financial services and job-related sites, and I fully admit to being a news addict, so I use Google, Yahoo, CNN, Fox, and AP for the most part.  Only when I started this blog did I even find out about the many blogs that I list on this page. 

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OK, so www.hinessight.com is a favorite and has been for some time, and it is certainly not a right-wing site, but I don't think of it as totally commie leftist, just a great overview of news, with a helpful serving of liberal stuff.  The guy (or folks) behind it seem to read a lot of the same things I read:  Yahoo, New York TIMES, Washington POST, LA TIMES, AP, CNN, etc., plus the Newser site.  Not exactly Pravda or Putin.com?

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Old Ray is so fearful, so afraid we are falling into an abyss and will return with the wings of Satan or something worse.  He's not a bigot but his fear of our "HALF-African, HALF-white American" President is not rational.  Hell, few of us are not a mixture of various cultures and races, and there were no white anglo Protestants until some came over from Britain, thus they were damned immigrants, not natives planted here by God.  Some of his crowd, the really nutty ones, are afraid of everyone they aren't, be that Jews, Latinos, Swedes, Irish, Italians, Arabs, lesbians, Catholics, Buddhists, Neil Patrick Harris (gay), liberals, democrats, and so on.

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In review:  I do not see myself or those who think in similar ways as subversive quasi-terrorists who hate "our way of life."  Quite the opposite actually.  Freedom, honor, love of country, respect for the founders and our founding documents, and working within the confines of those documents, these are the things that I hold dear and will channel these concepts via this blog.

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While the GOP may have left me, I cling to the ideals taught by my parents and my schools, and am proud that I hold Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt as real examples of being a Republican, not these kooks that hijacked that party in the last 30 years.  (See the story on the census worker lynched.  It is coming up…)

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XCon

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Former Democratic Party chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr. takes the podium as Sen. John Kerry,

D-Mass., left, and Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick, right, applaud during a news conference

at the Statehouse in Boston Thursday, Sept.24, 2009 where Patrick announced that

Kirk will temporarily fill the late Sen. Edward Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat.

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

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Former DNC head Kirk tapped to replace Kennedy

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BOSTON – Gov. Deval Patrick on Thursday named former Democratic Party chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr. to temporarily fill the late Edward Kennedy's Senate seat, acknowledging the appointment was controversial but saying the issues before Congress were "too important to Massachusetts for us to be one voice short."

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Kirk, a Kennedy family friend, served on the senator's staff for eight years and is chairman of the JFK Library Foundation. Kennedy's widow, Vicki Kennedy, and son Edward Kennedy Jr. had urged Patrick to pick Kirk and attended the announcement at the Massachusetts Statehouse.

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"He (Sen. Kennedy) often said that representing the people of Massachusetts in the Senate of the United States was the highest honor that he could possible imagine, and it is certainly nothing that I imagined, but it will be my highest honor, as well," said Kirk, who added he expected to be sworn Friday.   (Read the full story...)

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U.S. President Barack Obama listens to the Libyan representative

deliver his remarks in the United Nations Security Council, Thursday,

Sept. 24, 2009.  (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

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New UN resolution aims at nuclear-free world

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UNITED NATIONS – With President Barack Obama presiding over an historic session, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a U.S.-sponsored resolution Thursday committing all nations to work for a nuclear weapons-free world.

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Russia, China and developing nations supported the measure, giving it global clout and strong political backing.

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The resolution calls for stepped up efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, promote disarmament and "reduce the risk of nuclear terrorism." It calls for better security for nuclear weapons materials and underscores the Security Council's intention to take action if such material or nuclear weapons get into the hands of terrorists.  (Read the full story...)

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FBI Investigates Hanging of Census Worker

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The case of a U.S. Census worker founding hanging from a tree in rural Kentucky is now being investigated by the FBI, suggesting that law enforcement official believe there were political motives behind the death. Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time census worker and teacher, was found Sept. 12 in a remote part of Daniel Boone National Forest. The word "FED" was scrawled across his chest.  (Read more and watch some video...)

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Census worker killed in Kentucky

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George Harris

Kansas City Star

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Bill Sparkman, a census worker, age 51, was found hanged in a Kentucky national forest two weeks ago. It is reported in a number of news stories that the word "Fed" was written or carved onto his chest.

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It's a federal crime to assault a federal worker, and the FBI is investigating the case. The FBI has not confirmed news reports or released details of the crime.

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This story causes one to shudder, and it's difficult not to infer that the murder resulted from anti-government anger being expressed around the nation.

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It's perhaps an easier inference to say that the crime is not race related. Mr. Sparkman was white. But even this inference is speculative. (Click here to read more...)

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XCon comment:

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The photo is sad and sick, but we need to know the inhumanity of some people and what they will do.  Nutty Michelle Bachmann wants us to not answer the Census questions.  Her typical right-wing-nutcase rants are truly crazy.  She needs to learn that WORDS CAN BE DANGEROUS, even KILL and to shut the f*ck up.  Google this swine and check out what comes out of her mouth.  Listen and watch this evil woman spreading more fear.  Click to view and hear…

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Former Vice President Walter Mondale said Wednesday

that some of the opposition to Obama is fueled by racial

animus. Photo: Reuters

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Mondale: Racial 'edge' to Obama foes

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Former Vice President Walter Mondale joined his old boss Jimmy Carter Wednesday, arguing that some of the opposition to President Obama's agenda is fueled by racial animus.

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Asked at an event in Washington whether he agreed with former President Carter that racism was behind some criticism of Obama, Mondale took a long pause before answering: "Yeah."

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"I don't like saying it," Mondale continued. "Having lived through those years, when civil rights was such a bitter issue, and when we argued those things for years ... I know that some of that must still be around."  (Read the rest of this story at politico.com...)

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House Republicans Call for Hearing on

Health Insurance Company 'Gag Order'

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Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee wrote a letter Thursday to Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., urging a hearing on the decision to launch a probe into Humana over a mailer Sen. Max Baucus claimed misled seniors about proposed changes to Medicare. 

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House Republicans on Thursday called for a hearing to examine the Obama administration's decision to probe a major insurance company over a mailer to customers about health care legislation -- a move they call a politically motivated "gag order" on critics of the Democratic plan.

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Republican criticism has swelled since the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services launched a probe into Humana, at the request of Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., over a mailer Baucus claimed misled seniors about proposed changes to Medicare.  (More on this from Fox News...)

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Members of the Senate Finance Committee debated

health care legislation on Wednesday. 

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Panel’s Battles on Health Highlight a Broader Split  

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WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats swatted down Republican attempts to make fundamental changes in their health care legislation on Wednesday as the Finance Committee voted on a wide range of amendments that highlighted the deep partisan divide over the bill.  (More from the NY TIMES...)

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Mental Patient Breaks into U.N., Gives Ninety-minute Speech

Breach of Security Under Review

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An escaped mental patient broke into the United Nations yesterday, getting all the way to the General Assembly and delivering a ninety-minute speech.

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A day after the stunning security breach, U.N. officials were still attempting to sort out how it was allowed to happen.  (Read more...)

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Thoughts While Being Progressive

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Funny, I don't feel like a leftist commie weirdo.  Maybe I once was centrist Republickscum, but never one of the airheads that call themselves "Good American Republicans."  Those people are lost in a world of fear and intolerance and hate and mistrust.  I pity them.

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It is so much more rewarding to be able to think freely, read the news, discuss with rationality, and accept new ideas.  Hey righties, come into the light!

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XCon

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Who knew the Colonel was so damned colorful?

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Take some time to read Frank Rich in the NY TIMES, OK?

 

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

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Even Glenn Beck Is Right Twice a Day

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By FRANK RICH

Published: September 19, 2009

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IF only it were just about the color of his skin.

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With all due respect to Jimmy Carter, the racist component of Obama-hatred has been undeniable since the summer of 2008, when Sarah Palin rallied all-white mobs to the defense of the “real America.” Joe Wilson may or may not be in that camp, but, either way, that’s not the news. As we watched and rewatched the South Carolina congressman’s star turn, what grabbed us was the act itself.

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What made the lone, piercing cry of “You lie!” shocking was that it breached a previously secure barrier. It was the first time that the violent rage surging in town-hall meetings all summer blasted into the same room as the president. Wilson’s televised shout was tantamount to yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater. When he later explained that his behavior was “spontaneous” rather than premeditated, that was even more disturbing. It’s not good for the country that a lawmaker can’t control his anger at Barack Obama. It gives permission to crazy people.  (Read the rest…)

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President Barack Obama addresses the 64th session of the General Assembly at

United Nations headquarters, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009.

(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

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Obama to world: Don't expect America to fix it all

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By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer

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UNITED NATIONS – President Barack Obama exhorted world leaders on Wednesday to step up and do their part in tackling global challenges in promoting security and prosperity rather than waiting for America to do it alone.

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"The people of the world want change," Obama said in his first address to the U.N. General Assembly. "They will not long tolerate those who are on the wrong side of history."  (Read the full story...)

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In this May 12, 2008, photo, Paul Kirk, Jr., left, chairman

of the John Kennedy Library Foundation Board of Directors,

is seen alongside the late Sen. Edward Kennedy at the

annual Profile in Courage Award ceremonies at the John F.

Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

A Kennedy family confidant said Wednesday,

Sept. 23, 2009, that sons of Sen. Kennedy want

Paul Kirk to temporarily replace their father in the

U.S. Senate.  (AP Photo/Lisa Poole, File)

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Confidant: Kennedys want ex-DNC chairman in Senate

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BOSTON – The sons of the late Edward M. Kennedy have urged the governor to pick Paul G. Kirk Jr., the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, to temporarily replace their father in the U.S. Senate.

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A family confidant said Wednesday both Edward Kennedy Jr. and Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., had endorsed Kirk in separate phone calls.

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A top aide to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick confirmed the contacts but added, "No decision has been made yet." A spokeswoman in Patrick Kennedy's congressional office declined to comment.  (The full story...)

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Biden Wins? Obama Studies Dramatic Shift In Afghan War

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WASHINGTON — President Obama is exploring alternatives to a major troop increase in Afghanistan, including a plan advocated by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to scale back American forces and focus more on rooting out Al Qaeda there and in Pakistan, officials said Tuesday.  (More?  Read the NY TIMES story...)

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At Pentagon's Request, Post Delayed Story on General's Afghanistan Report

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By Howard Kurtz

Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

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To Bob Woodward, it was the modern-day equivalent of the Pentagon Papers. But to Obama administration officials, the classified assessment of the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, if disclosed by The Washington Post, represented a potential threat to the safety of U.S. troops.

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The result was that The Post agreed to a one-day delay in publicizing the report by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, and that the paper's top editor engaged in a lengthy discussion Sunday with three top Defense Department officials in a meeting at the Pentagon. The Post published the report, which Woodward had obtained, on Monday. (Click here to read more...)

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This handout photo from CLSA shows former

US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin speaking

at the CLSA Investors' Forum in Hong Kong. Palin

said the US government was wasting taxpayers'

money and could aggravate poverty, said delegates

at her first speech outside North America.

(AFP/CLSA/Jeff Topping)

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Palin Attacks Fed on Hong Kong Visit, Wants ‘Responsible China’

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Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin used her first trip to Asia to attack the Federal Reserve for creating asset bubbles and encouraging excessive risk-taking that hurt working-class Americans.

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In a wide-ranging, 80-minute speech to fund managers in Hong Kong today, Palin spoke about issues ranging from Alaskan fishing to energy independence to U.S.-Sino ties. She repeated calls for “market-oriented” health-care reform and said governments shouldn’t regulate executive compensation.  (Click here, while cursing at her, to read more.  Have we not had enough of her YET?  Now she's taking her "I can see China" crap on the road?  Ughhhh.  XCon)

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FILE - In this Feb. 9, 1964 picture, The Beatles perform at the 'Ed Sullivan Show,'

in New York. It was the band's first American appearance, and influenced other

musicians future careers. Front row from left; Paul McCartney, George Harrison

and John Lennon. Drummer Ringo Starr is at rear. Nearly 40 years after breaking

up, The Beatles are still breaking records for album sales. EMI Group PLC says

consumers in North America, Japan and the U.K. bought more than 2.25 million

copies of the Fab Four's re-mastered albums in the first five days after their

Sept. 9, 2009 release.   (AP Photo)

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Beatles sell 2.25 million albums in 5 days

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LOS ANGELES – Nearly 40 years after breaking up, The Beatles are still breaking records for album sales.

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EMI Group PLC says consumers in North America, Japan and the U.K. bought more than 2.25 million copies of the Fab Four's re-mastered albums in the first five days after their Sept. 9 release.  (More?  Click here...)

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Thoughts While Being Progressive

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A friend sent me a cut-n-pasted column to read some years ago and it struck a lot of nerves.  It seemed this pretty Irish gal could write and express things like no one else, and I think I had a mild "crush" on her, especially after she answered my complementary email.  Maureen Dowd had me.  Truth be told, I don't always agree with her, but I love that she tells it like it is, at least from her perspective.

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Today's column is great.  Old Tom Delay, the exterminator from Texas (literally), shows a little humanity thanks to Ms. Dowd.  I suggest you read it and enjoy it, too.  And read Maureen's columns often as this Washington girl misses nothing and lives to tell about it!

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XCon

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Where the Wild Thing Is

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By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: September 22, 2009

WASHINGTON

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Tom DeLay was icing his foot and resting his booty.

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On Monday, his debut as a dancing fool (or just a fool, depending on whom you talk to), he had started at 10 a.m. and ended at 10 p.m., and his pre-stress fracture was acting up.

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“It swole up a little bit,” he said, on the phone from Los Angeles. “The doctor says to keep icing it.”

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That meant a delay in learning the tango from Cheryl Burke, his partner on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” who blessedly had never heard of the guy once dubbed “The Meanest Man in Congress” when he was first assigned to her.

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“Cheryl says the tango’s macho, arrogant and aggressive, and I said, ‘That’s me,’ ” he recalled.  (Read the full column by clicking on this link!)

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Can I Get The Truth Out Now?

Try www.truthout.org

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Massachusetts Senate Votes On Kennedy Replacement

http://www.truthout.org/092309A?n

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Truthout NewsWire: "The Massachusetts State Senate on Tuesday passed legislation allowing Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick to name an interim Senate successor to Edward M. Kennedy. The measure was approved by a 24 to 16 vote, and paves the way for an appointment by week's end to fill the seat Kennedy occupied for nearly 50 years before his death last month."

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China, US Promise Bold Steps to Protect Climate

http://www.truthout.org/092309B?n

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Warren P. Strobel and Renee Schoof, McClatchy Newspapers: "Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao of China - the leaders of the two countries that emit the most greenhouse gases - pledged at a United Nations summit Tuesday that their countries would take bold actions to protect the Earth's future climate from irreversible damages."

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Carol Becker | Forty Years Later Calley Speaks Up

http://www.truthout.org/092309C?n

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Carol Becker, Truthout: "On August 19, 2009, former Army Lt. William Calley spoke to a Kiwanis Club meeting in Greater Columbus, Georgia, and for the first time publicly admitted his regret for his role in the My Lai massacre. 'There is not a day that goes by,' he said, 'when I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai. I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.'"

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President Barack Obama: Climate Change Speech at the United Nations

http://www.truthout.org/092309D?n

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President Barack Obama: "No nation, however large or small, wealthy or poor, can escape the impact of climate change. Rising sea levels threaten every coastline. More powerful storms and floods threaten every continent. More frequent drought and crop failures breed hunger and conflict in places where hunger and conflict already thrive. On shrinking islands, families are already being forced to flee their homes as climate refugees. The security and stability of each nation and all peoples - our prosperity, our health, our safety - are in jeopardy. And the time we have to reverse this tide is running out."

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US Pushing Beyond Settlement Freeze

http://www.truthout.org/092309E?n

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Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler, Inter Press Service: "At the end of a week of shuttle diplomacy by the special presidential envoy, Senator George Mitchell, the U.S. intermediary was unable to resolve differences between the Israelis and Palestinians and between Israel and the White House. The Palestinian President found himself in a real fix. He had made plain in no uncertain terms that he would not attend such a summit unless Netanyahu recanted on his 'No' to a complete settlement freeze. But after urgent consultations with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II, when Obama phoned him personally to invite him to the meeting, the Palestinian leader found himself constrained to say 'Yes'."

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As the Beatles would say:

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And in the end

The love you take

Is equal to the love you make.

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XCon

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Barack Obama goes to Letterman and the United Nations

President Barack Obama laughs with host David Letterman during a break at

a taping of CBS The Late Show with David Letterman, Monday, Sept. 21, 2009,

at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

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Obama Takes On Letterman

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NEW YORK, Sept. 21 -- President Obama extended his media blitzkrieg into late-night television Monday, becoming the first sitting commander in chief to appear on "Late Show With David Letterman." Obama was the only guest of the night.

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Obama visits Letterman and brings home a potato

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By BEN FELLER (AP)

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NEW YORK — Add this one to the presidential collection: the heart-shaped potato. By the time Barack Obama came on stage to the taping of the "Late Show" on Monday, host David Letterman had offered up 10 reasons why in the world the president had agreed to do it.

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Among Letterman's theories: Obama said yes without thinking about it, or as Letterman put it, "Like Bush did with Iraq."

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But Obama had other ideas. It turns out he was listening when Letterman had bantered with a woman in the audience who brought — yes — a potato in the shape of a heart to the show.

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Obama told Letterman: "The main reason I'm here? I want to see that heart-shaped potato."

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The woman tossed the potato to Letterman.

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She agreed to let Obama keep it. Said the president: "This is remarkable."

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US President Barack Obama speaks

during Summit on Climate Change at

United Nations in New York,

22 Sep 2009

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Obama: Climate Change May Lead to 'Irreversible Catastrophe' 

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By VOA News

22 September 2009

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A flooded SUV is shown in a rain soaked creek near Douglasville, Ga.,

Monday, Sept. 21, 2009. Heavy rain caused flooding in and around Atlanta.

(AP Photo/John Bazemore)

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Southeast floods block highways; toll rises to 8

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AUSTELL, Ga. – Washed-out roads and flooded interstate highways around Atlanta added to the misery Tuesday after days of torrential rain in the Southeast that claimed at least eight lives, including a 15-year-old boy whose body was found in the Chattooga River.

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The Georgia Emergency Management Agency also reported a new death in Douglas County west of Atlanta, bringing the toll in that county to four people. No more details were immediately available.

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Big drop in heart attacks after smoking bans, studies say

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The ban on smoking in public places, such as bars and restaurants, has been one of the greatest public health debates of the early 21st century. Now, two large studies suggest that communities that pass laws to curb secondhand smoke get a big payoff -- a drop in heart attacks.

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Overall, American, Canadian, and European cities that have implemented smoking bans had an average of 17 percent fewer heart attacks in the first year, compared with communities who had not taken such measures.

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DeLay takes the floor during `Dancing' premiere

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By SANDY COHEN

AP Entertainment Writer

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LOS ANGELES – So much for ladies first. Eight celebrity male contestants took the floor Monday on the premiere of the ninth season of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars." The women make their debuts Tuesday.

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"I'm a little intimidated actually," said pop star Mya after watching the men perform. "I'm glad that we sat this one out, but it's very informative how the process works. ... The judges are very hard."

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Aaron Carter came out on top, earning 32 points out of 40 for his two dances. The 21-year-old singer credited his professional partner, Karina Smirnoff, with keeping him calm before their opening performance.

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"She took the pressure off of me completely for this," he said. "She was holding it all in and keeping it from me."

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"I was freaking out," Smirnoff said later.

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Former House Republican Whip Tom DeLay surprised the crowd. The 62-year-old politician performed a cha-cha to the 1960s hit "Wild Thing."

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Poor babies.  They need our money.

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Let’s protect those poor insurance companies!  They’re just doing what they need to do so they can make good money and their execs can live high on the hog.  It is the way nature meant it to be, right?  Nature in a Bush/Cheney/Armey/Boehner world, that is.

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Click this link for a helpful video.

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Glenn Beck: McCain Worse Than Obama

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(CBS)  In an interview for the inaugural installment of @katiecouric, the new Web show hosted by Katie Couric, Glenn Beck said that he thinks "John McCain would have been worse for the country than Barack Obama."

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Beck, the Fox News personality, radio host and author, also said that he may have voted for Hillary Clinton over McCain had Clinton been the Democratic nominee in 2008.

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Want some truth?  Try www.truthout.com

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Henry A. Giroux | The Politics of Lying and the Culture of Deceit in Obama's America: The Rule of Damaged Politics

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Henry A. Giroux, Truthout: "In the current American political landscape, truth is not merely misrepresented or falsified; it is overtly mocked. As is well known, the Bush administration repeatedly lied to the American public, furthering a legacy of government mistrust while carrying the practice of distortion to new and almost unimaginable heights. Even now, almost a year after Bush left office, it is difficult to forgot the lies and government-sponsored deceits in which it was claimed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, Iraq was making deals with al-Qaeda and, perhaps the most infamous of all, the United States did not engage in torture."

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Dean Baker | Can the Townhallers Be Left, Rather Than Left Behind?

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Dean Baker, Truthout: "The size and energy at the anti-health care reform protests last weekend were impressive. While some of the leaders are clearly racist nutballs, who can't accept that an African-American is in the White House, many of the tens of thousands who showed up in Washington and elsewhere came out in response to their perception of a government that does not respond to ordinary people. They have a basis for this complaint. It is hardly a secret that President Obama cut deals with the health insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and other powerful interest groups. This may have been necessary for him to get a health package through Congress, but it's hard to blame people for being suspicious."

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Obama and Netanyahu Still Tussling Over Priorities

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Helena Cobban, Inter Press Service: "As world leaders prepare to gather here for the all-star 'general debate' at the UN General Assembly on Sep. 23, two of them - US Pres. Barack Obama and Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu - are still tussling over whether to prioritise their anti-Iran campaign or the push for a Palestinian-Israeli peace. In recent days, there have been big developments in both areas. On Sep. 11, the Obama administration announced that it will take part, along with the other members of the 'P5+1' group, in a major round of nuclear talks with Iran scheduled for Oct. 1."

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For news updated all the time, www.hinessight.com and there are lots of links on the left side of the page.

XCon

Careful of those mailers! Insurance Company Lies Abound.

Gov't investigates health insurance company mailer

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press Writer Ricardo Alonso-zaldivar, Associated Press Writer – 29 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The government is investigating a major insurance company for allegedly trying to scare seniors with a mailer warning they could lose important benefits under health care legislation in Congress.

The Health and Human Services Department launched its investigation of Humana after getting a complaint from Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., a senior lawmaker usually viewed as a reliable ally of the insurance industry.

"It is wholly unacceptable for insurance companies to mislead seniors regarding any subject — particularly on a subject as important to them, and to the nation, as health care reform," Baucus said Monday, disclosing the HHS investigation.

House moves to extend unemployment benefits

By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer Jim Abrams, Associated Press Writer – Mon Sep 21, 6:31 am ET

WASHINGTON – Despite predictions the Great Recession is running out of steam, the House is taking up emergency legislation this week to help the millions of Americans who see no immediate end to their economic miseries.

A bill offered by Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., and expected to pass easily would provide 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits for more than 300,000 jobless people who live in states with unemployment rates of at least 8.5 percent and who are scheduled to run out of benefits by the end of September.

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Obama lashes out at banks over student loans

TROY, New York (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Monday criticized the largest U.S. banks for their efforts to thwart legislation that would overhaul federal student loan programs.

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Emmy Awards find winning host in Neil Patrick Harris

Neil Patrick Harris may have lost his supporting actor race for "How I Met Your Mother," but he sure was a winner as host of last night's Emmy Awards. Following last year's fiasco with the five reality show host nominees as emcees of the Emmys, Harris was hailed by the TV critics as a welcome change.

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Kanye West Becomes Favorite Emmy Awards Punch Line

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You know you've arrived when your name becomes a verb. But this is probably not the kind of fame Kanye West was looking for. Even though he was nowhere to be seen at Sunday night's Emmy Awards, 'Ye was on many people's lips as the phrase "pull a Kanye West" became the go-to shorthand for rude awards-show behavior.

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Alzheimer's Disease Is Sharply Rising, But You Can Lower Your Odds

Research is mounting that diet, exercise, and social and mental engagement play a protective role

By Sarah Baldauf

Posted September 21, 2009

The world's population is graying, and as a result, nations around the globe are staring down a rising tide of people who will grapple with the ravages of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. According to a new report from Alzheimer's Disease International, some 35.6 million people worldwide will have a form of dementia in 2010. That number is expected to nearly double every 20 years, reaching an estimated 65.7 million in 2030 and 115.4 million by 2050.

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Straight Porn Makes You Gay (Who Knew?)

Josh Marshall | September 21, 2009, 11:59AM

At the Values Voters Summit over the weekend, Sen. Tom Coburn's chief of staff opened a new front in the War Against Hormones (WAH) when he explained that if we tell teenage boys that straight porn will make them gay, they'll never touch the stuff again.

Coburn Aide: If Boys Knew Porn Will Turn Them Gay, They Won't Want Playboy

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Backed Into A Corner, Boehner Admits That Obama Is Not A Socialist

Check this out.  “The Boehner” has to admit that Barack Obama is not a Socialist!    Click on the headline to read the ThinkProgress piece.

"There's nothing like a crybaby drunk." 

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Thoughts While Being Progressive…

  

I try to listen to Stephanie Miller's radio show (see above) if only to hear her pick on "The Boehner" for his crying, drunk-speak, grandstanding, fake tan, and self-impressed speech.  He's a real jerk, isn't he?  When pressed for THE TRUTH, it seems that Obama isn't a commie-pinko-socialist, so at least The Boehn can still recognize the truth from time to time.

 

 

While I didn't watch the entire show, the Emmy Awards were better.  Neil Patrick Harris is a natural and the show was such an improvement over what some fool called a production last year.  If we have television next year, a person could be encouraged to watch.

 

 

As I was reading about the insurance company mailers that lie, cheat and steal it makes perfect sense that the Republickscum and the insurance industry are totally in bed together:  both are given to lies, lies, and more lies to protect their turf.  What pigs they are.

 

 

A quick trip to "south of the border" over the weekend was refreshing but I'm back and just as disgusted as ever at the so-called christian right, the corporate robbers, and the spineless media types.  Grow some balls folks.  At least John King went after The Boehner.  That was refreshing.

 

XCon

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Getting the TRUTH out – www.truthout.org 

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As ACORN Grew, so Did Its Clout and Its Problems
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Barbara Barrett, Mcclatchy Newspapers: "Long before two conservative young activists strode into an ACORN office wearing a hidden camera, the grassroots organization had been racking up kills in its decades-long quest to protect working-class people from what it saw as wrongheaded corporate interests."

HDS Greenway | Obama's Move Was Not Appeasement

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HDS Greenway, GlobalPost: "When President George W. Bush committed the US to putting up a missile shield in Poland, with radar facilities in the Czech Republic, the Russians raised holy hell. The installations would have made very little difference in the strategic balance between Russia and the West. Russia has enough missiles to overwhelm such a slender defensive reed."

Battle Looms Over the Patriot Act

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Charles Savage, The New York Times: "As Congress prepares to consider extending crucial provisions of the USA Patriot Act, civil liberties groups and some Democratic lawmakers are gearing up to press for sweeping changes to surveillance laws."

Activists, Big Business Converge on G20 Meet
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Jeb Sprague, Inter Press Service: "As media and government delegates prepare for the G20 Summit to be held Sep. 24-25 in Pittsburgh, local business and activist groups are promoting clashing visions of days to come. Hit hard over the last quarter of the twentieth century with a collapsing steel industry, recession and falling population, Pittsburgh is still a decent place to live - often highly rated because of low housing costs."

Obama "Skeptical" About More Troops for Afghanistan

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Josh Gerstein, The Politico: "President Barack Obama is warning US commanders that he’s “skeptical” about whether more troops will make a difference in Afghanistan, saying he’ll approve an upcoming request only if the forces fit into a strategy to beat back al-Qaida and protect the United States."

Court Rules Voter ID Unconstitutional in Indiana

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Desiree Evans, Facing South: "The voter ID debate was reeneergized Thursday when the Indiana Court of Appeals struck down the Indiana state law requiring voters to show identification, considered the strictest voter ID law of its kind in the country."

 

Health, Wealth, And Teenage Christian Girls Are Getting Easier?

 

Pelosi worried about angry health care rhetoric

WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the anti-government rhetoric over President Barack Obama's health care reform effort is troubling because it reminds her of the violent debate over gay rights that roiled San Francisco in the 1970s.

Anyone voicing hateful or violent rhetoric, she told reporters, must take responsibility for the results.

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Mad Man: Is Glenn Beck Bad for America?

IME Magazine

On Sept. 12, a large crowd gathered in Washington to protest ... what? The goals of Congress and the Obama Administration, mainly - the cost, the scale, the perceived leftist intent. The crowd's agenda was wide-ranging, so it's hard to be more specific. "End the Fed," a sign read. A schoolboy's placard denounced "Obama's Nazi Youth Militia." Another poster declared, "We the People for Capitalism Not Socialism." If you get your information from liberal sources, the crowd numbered about 70,000, many of them greedy racists. If you get your information from conservative sources, the crowd was hundreds of thousands strong, perhaps as many as a million, and the tenor was peaceful and patriotic. Either way, you may not be inclined to believe what we say about numbers, according to a recent poll that found record-low levels of public trust of the mainstream media.

 

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FBI: Beating at Cracker Barrel may be hate crime

(CNN) -- The FBI is investigating as a possible hate crime an incident in which a woman was beaten to the ground in front of her child at the entrance to a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Morrow, Georgia, south of Atlanta.

Troy Dale West Jr., of Poulan, Georgia, is facing charges including misdemeanor battery and disorderly conduct after allegedly beating Army reservist Tashawnea Hill, 35, after the two had words at the entrance of the Morrow, Georgia, restaurant the evening of September 9.

Additional on CRACKER BARREL hate crime

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Teen Birth Rates Higher in Highly Religious States

Jeanna Bryner - Senior Writer - LiveScience.com

U.S. states whose residents have more conservative religious beliefs on average tend to have higher rates of teenagers giving birth, a new study suggests.

The relationship could be due to the fact that communities with such religious beliefs (a literal interpretation of the Bible, for instance) may frown upon contraception, researchers say. If that same culture isn't successfully discouraging teen sex, the pregnancy and birth rates rise.

 

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Many Employers May Rehire Workers They Laid Off

By Liz Wolgemuth

US NEWS

With 14.9 million Americans out of work and looking for jobs in August, economists are less than optimistic about the prospects of getting the unemployment rate back to pre-recessionary levels in a reasonable amount of time. But some workers may be able to find a home back where they last worked, according to a couple of new reports.

It turns out that 40 percent of employers expect they will hire back some of the workers they laid off in the recession, according to a new survey by OI Partners. The employers surveyed said they would be rehiring workers as full-time employees, consultants or freelancers. About half of financial companies surveyed said they planned to rehire workers, and 47 percent of manufacturing companies said the same.

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Study Links 45,000 U.S. Deaths to Lack of Insurance

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year -- one every 12 minutes -- in large part because they lack health insurance and can not get good care, Harvard Medical School researchers found in an analysis released on Thursday.

"We're losing more Americans every day because of inaction ... than drunk driving and homicide combined," Dr. David Himmelstein, a co-author of the study and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, said in an interview with Reuters.

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The cell phone towers look high tech and harmless.  Are they?  What about the phones themselves?  Are we doing great harm to our brain cells, perhaps even inducing the powerful new cancers that are affecting the brain only?  Check out glioma cancer and the recent death of Sen. Ted Kennedy.  Who ever heard of this back when we did not all have phones and iPhones and Blackberries next to our ears?

Different studies say NO WAY are phones the cause.  News studies are not so sure.  I don't know the answer BUT I do know that when I was a young little Christian conservative tumors were big and grew bigger and they spread to other organs and took a lot of relatives and family friends over the decades.  This glioma cancer is not a big ball.  It seems to stay only in the brain and often begins in the area that is ever so close to a person's phone.  More needs to be done, not just trying to keep good people alive, but finding out if all our technology and need to talk endlessly on a phone while shopping, driving, working, sexing, and God knows what else, is killing us?

Just think of all the things that irradiate us:  AC power, radio stations, TV stations, our seemingly harmless televisions, that computer monitor, the cordless phones, natural radiation from the earh, from the universe, and endless exposures to X-rays at the dentist, the family doctor and the various specialists that order CT-scans and all sorts of imaging.  And cell phones and their towers that are on buildings, power poles, hills, and anywhere they can put one, shall not be forgotten.

I'm only asking the question.  Gee, with better health care for all, who knows what might happen?  Hint, hint.  And research to go along with it sounds so needed.

XCon

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Death Just Keeps On Being Part Of Life, Doesn't It?

 

Mary Travers singing with Peter, Paul and Mary in 1978. Paul Stookey is to the left and Peter

Yarrow to the right.

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On Music...

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Every now and then something new or different or unique comes along in the music world.  I remember so many of these people and songs and styles because I, like so many, experienced them as a reflection of my life, a remembrance of a certain period, or that special girl that I loved and couldn’t survive without!  From those days when music was on vinyl, through tape cartridges, cassettes, CD’s, and now mp3’s, music is the soundtrack of our lives, an emotional transcription of us.

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One group that brought a quiet revolution to the music was Peter, Paul and Mary.  They took folk music and made it more accessible, more produced, and certainly more saleable.  Bob Dylan songs with deep messages became commercial successes thanks to PP&M.  While they were sounding so nice and well, acceptable, they were introducing “protest music” to millions without ever losing their folk roots.  Well, accept for “Leavin’ On A Jet Plane,” which wasn’t anything like Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger, but sure was pretty and romantic.

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Through the years they worked for progressive causes and continued to try to sing out for the soul of America and against war.  One of them is gone and I just feel moved to mention Mary Travers here.  Awhile back, I ordered a folk music package from PBS after watching a show with Peter, Paul and Mary and I’ll be listening to them in the coming days.   I can’t wait to play “Day Is Done.”  Sing with the angels dear Mary and thanks for being my island of truth in a childhood of a “proper republican upbringing.”  You three were my secret link to the “good side of the force.”

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XCon

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Mary Travers Of Peter, Paul and Mary Dies

By The New York Times

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http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/mary-travers-of-peter-paul-and-mary-dies/?hpw

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Folk singer Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary dead at 72

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Dabin for News

Mary Travers, the female partner in the famed folk trio, Peter,

Paul and Mary, with her singing cohorts Peter Yarrow (l.) and

Noel Paul Stookey.

 

Travers not only sung, but was an

advocate of civil rights.

Read the NY DAILY NEWS: 

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2009/09/16/2009-09-16_mary_travers_of_peter_paul_and_mary_dead.html

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Dan Brown novel breaks one-day sales records

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The latest novel from "Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown, "The Lost Symbol," broke one-day sales records, its publisher and booksellers said.

   

Readers snapped up over one million hardcover copies across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom after it was released on Tuesday, said publisher Knopf Doubleday, a division of Random House Inc.

MORE FROM FROM REUTERS:

http://www.reuters.com/article/artsNews/idUSTRE58E5Q720090917

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Other sites to check out:

http://shelf-life.ew.com/2009/09/16/dan-browns-latest-breaks-first-day-records/

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http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6834467.ece

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New Dan Brown novel already pirated online

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/151063

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'Radical' surgery uses patient's tooth to restore her sight

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-09-16-eye-tooth_N.htm

 

Sharron 'Kay' Thornton, who was blind for nine

years, can now see thanks to an implanted tooth

in her eye.

Photo: AFP

A 60-year-old US grandmother, blind for nearly a decade, has recovered her sight after surgeons implanted a tooth in her eye as a base to hold a tiny plastic lens, her doctors said.

Implanted tooth helps blind US woman recover sight

Sharron "Kay" Thornton, from the southern US state of Mississippi, lost her sight in 2000 when she came down with a case of Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a rare disease that scarred her cornea, according to the University of Miami's Bascom Palmer Eye Institute.

THE STORY, FROM DOWN UNDER: 

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/implanted-tooth-helps-blind-us-woman-recover-sight-20090917-fs78.html

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It’s time to drop Lou Dobbs: A call to action

FROM MEDIA MATTERS: 

http://mediamatters.org/blog/200909150031

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FROM YOUTUBE, A FUN VIDEO ON LOU: 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9endvlpBny4&feature=player_embedded

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Proposed Tax on Sugary Beverages Debated

By WILLIAM NEUMAN

Published: September 16, 2009

The debate over a tax on sugary soft drinks — billed as a way to fight obesity and provide billions for health care reform — is starting to fizz over.

President Obama has said it is worth considering. The chief executive of Coca-Cola calls the idea outrageous, while skeptics point to political obstacles and question how much of an impact it would really have on consumers.

READ THE FULL STORY FROM THE NY TIMES:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/business/17soda.html

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Massachusetts Is a Health-Reform Model

Our system insures 97% of state residents.

Here's the opinion piece from the Governor of Massachusetts:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203440104574405252468577402.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

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From www.truthout.org

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Tom Hastings | We Can't Afford Health Care? You Lie!
http://www.truthout.org/091609R?n
Tom H. Hastings, Truthout: "We see the spectacle of the US Congress unable to manage decent health care reform that will actually enable the American citizenry to join the rest of the industrialized world in having health care for all. The problems, it is clear, come from those who are lying."
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Baucus Releases Health Care Blueprint With No Public Option
http://www.truthout.org/091609S?n
David Lightman, McClatchy Newspapers: "Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus unveiled on Wednesday an $856 billion plan to overhaul the nation's health care system that includes taxes on high-end insurance policies and incentives to create health care co-ops around the nation, but not the public option that President Barack Obama has sought."
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Democracy and Action in Afghanistan
http://www.truthout.org/091609T?n
James Foley, In These Times: "As gunshots rang out from the mountain tops of the Dewegal Valley in eastern Afghanistan, men voted under the shade of trees next to their village's mosque. Heads turned upward whenever a heavy shell or particularly loud burst echoed, but the voters appeared in no hurry to leave. This was supposed to be their election, after all."
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Pentagon Study Proposes Overhaul of Defense Base Act to Cover Care for Injured Contractors
http://www.truthout.org/091609U?n
T. Christian Miller, ProPublica: "Congress could save as much as $250 million a year through a sweeping overhaul of the controversial US system to care for civilian contractors injured in war

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For the Anti-Drudge news, check out

www.hinessight.com

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 Remembering Henry Gibson, a very funny little guy.

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"Very interesting......"

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"Wanna Walnetto?" he would say to Ruth Buzzi's little old lady.

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