Ready! Set! Go!
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We've come to the moment in time when not just the Republicskums feel the need to attack Barack Obama. Time for all sorts of people to attempt to gnaw the flesh from his bones and slander his name all over the place.
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Criticism is a good thing, but when it becomes a feeding frenzy, it is not productive. An example of criticism gone wild might be anywhere that Michelle Bachmann speaks, any show done by Glenn Beck, any rant from Rush Pigbaugh, the mere sound of Hannity's voice, and any sound coming from Fux Nooz. All they do is raise the ambient noise level and add trash to whatever medium they are using.
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Before the last election and before he won the nomination, I said to many that I felt he would be better served by serving in the Senate awhile longer and gaining some real national and international experience. I still believe that, but we don't always get what we wish for do we? Obama is smart, is an excellent orator, and he is doing what a lot of our Presidents have done: Learning on the job. Besides, there really is no place to go and learn the fine points of Presidential service, is there? It used to be that the VP job was a good place to learn but then one only needs to think about Spiro T. Agnew, Dan Quayle, and Dickface Cheney to see where that went.
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Cut the man some slack. The job is f**ked and the world is all f**ked up and the previous administration f**ked up nearly everything they touched, so it is huge damned hole to dig out of. I like to analyze things by thinking of the opposite, so picture, if you will, that McCain had won. Things would be f**ked to the 1000th power. He's old, senile, twisted, angry, and willing to sell his soul for power. Yuck.
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Let's all take a Xanax and give the guy the time that is needed to do the job that we need done.
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Cliff - The XCon
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Hillary Was Right
by Reihan Salam
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Barack Obama wasn’t ready to be president, and he better figure out what he’s doing before it’s too late.
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As the first year of the Obama era draws to a close, the president is losing the battle for
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The most glaring and consequential unforced error came in how the Obama administration framed the health-care reform debate. The mantra of "bending the cost curve" was tailor-made for conservative and moderate intellectuals who preach the gospel of entitlement reform. If passing health-care reform were fundamentally about winning over the think tanks, the green-eyeshade approach might have made sense. But of course the real goal was to overcome the fear of the large majority of Americans who are insured and who deeply, desperately, and sometimes irrationally oppose anything that would change the status quo. A large number of those Americans are elderly Medicare recipients, and they vote in large numbers.
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Matt Taibbi on Obama's Big Sellout
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Matt Taibbi is one of the few commentators in the mainstream media who is not worried about 'access' and has, therefore, been free to write much more critically about the economic crisis and reform efforts on Wall Street.
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His first piece was a polemic against Goldman Sachs, which triggered a backlash against the venerated Wall Street firm due to its incestuous relationship with
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As you probably know, I have been quite disappointed with this Administration's leadership on financial reform. While I think they 'get it,' it is plain they lack either the courage or conviction to put forward a set of ideas that gets at the heart of what caused this crisis.
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It was clear to many by this time last year that the President may not have been serious about reform when he picked Tim Geithner and Larry Summers as the leaders of his economic team. As smart and qualified as these two are, they are rightfully seen as allied with Wall Street and the anti-regulatory movement.
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Khalid Mohammed/Associated Press
In 2007, an Iraqi traffic police officer inspected a destroyed car in a square in
where Blackwater guards killed 17 people in an incident that stirred outrage among Iraqis.
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Blackwater Guards Tied to Secret Raids by the C.I.A.
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The raids against suspects occurred on an almost nightly basis during the height of the Iraqi insurgency from 2004 to 2006, with Blackwater personnel playing central roles in what company insiders called “snatch and grab” operations, the former employees and current and former intelligence officers said.
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---- Boehner Alert! The Boehner is out! ----
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White House: Boehner and Republicans
'rooting against' economic recovery
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House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is "rooting against" economic recovery, the White House said Friday.
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In a shot at the GOP leader in response to Boehner's op-ed in today's Washington Post, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said the GOP leader's attacks on the president were "odd," and indicative of a Republican Party disinterested in cooperation.
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"The president has always said there is an open door for good ideas and when Congressman Boehner and Republicans in Congress are interested in being a part of a conversation about how to move forward instead of rooting against the path to economic recovery—we look forward to having a productive conversation," Preiffer wrote on the White House blog.
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How General Electric got its own loophole
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GE won't have to comply with new banking regulations, thanks to a friendly legislator with a Goldman Sachs history
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More legislative sausage-making, at its finest. In the Wall Street Journal, Damien Palleta reports that the monster banking regulatory bill currently moving through the House exempts particular corporations from compliance with key provisions.
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General Electric and Pitney Bowes, for example, receive get-out-of-regulation-free cards and will not be required to spin off their banking divisions to avoid supervision by the Fed.
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The administration wanted any company owning a financial arm to be regulated the same way. That means GE would either have to be regulated by the Fed, or spin off its finance arm.
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GE and Pitney Bowes won protections during a unanimous panel vote last month pushed by their home-state congressman, Rep. Jim Himes (D., Conn.).
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Sarah Palin To Speak At A Fundraiser For A
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According to the Hamilton Spectator, Sarah Palin has been contracted to speak at a fundraiser for the Juravinski Cancer Centre and St. Peter’s Hospital in
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Palin might be surprised to learn that the hospital she is fundraising for runs counter to her professed beliefs:
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– St. Peter’s Hospital is a public hospital within the national Canadian healthcare system. In Palin’s worldview, universal, government-insured health care is “socialism.”
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– St. Peter’s Hospital performs abortions. Palin, a staunch anti-choice zealot, has protested outside of abortion clinics and has refused to denounce abortion clinic bombers as terrorists.
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– St. Peter’s Hospital, through its Centre for Studies in Aging, offers “advanced directives.” Palin tried to derail health reform earlier this year by falsely labeling advanced directive reimbursements as “death panels.”
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* * Articles of Faith * *
Why Americans can't talk about religion and the Supreme Court.
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When Justice John Paul Stevens, who is 89, retires—and he's expected to in the next year or so—there will be no Protestant left on the highest court in the land. Will President Obama be pressured to appoint one? Popular opinion once held that even one Catholic was too many on the court. Today there are six. But would anyone even notice if Obama appointed a seventh to replace Stevens? Once upon a time, there was an outright religious litmus test for Supreme Court appointees. Today religion is almost irrelevant in appointing new justices.
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All of which raises a question: Are the days of caring about religious diversity on the high court behind us? Or is it merely that the days of talking about it openly are behind us?
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Many Americans haunted by ghosts, look to astrology
By Ed Stoddard
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A poll by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life shows a surprising number of U.S. adults claim to have had supernatural experiences such as ghost sightings or hold beliefs associated with the New Age movement or Eastern religions.
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And some of them claim allegiance to more traditional faiths such as Catholicism or evangelical Protestantism.
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"American religious folks hold a variety of views and there is overlap among their beliefs and practices. Many do not fit into simple boxes," said Pew researcher Alan Cooperman.
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The poll released on Wednesday showed that three-in-ten Americans say they have felt in touch with a dead person and 18 percent say they have seen or been in the presence of a ghost.
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So, is the show about ghosts and the white light...
or her ample breasts?
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Beck - Not So Mellow Gold | ||||
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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Obama's Nobel Speech | ||||
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| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Skate Expectations - Bobsled Team Tryouts | ||||
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Anti-gay "hate group" MassResistance
is source for right-wing media attacks on
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Right-wing media outlets have relied on false or misleading claims by MassResistance, a Massachusetts-based anti-gay group, in advancing several recent attacks on Department of Education official Kevin Jennings. The founder of MassResistance -- a group the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled a "hate group" -- reportedly denied that gays and lesbians were a target of the Holocaust and has compared the gay rights movement to the Nazis. The organization has also called on parents to keep their children home from school during an event promoting awareness of, and opposition to, anti-gay bullying and has stated that suicide prevention programs for gay and lesbian youth have no "legitimate medical or psychological basis."
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Grassley: I’m Too Busy To Comment
On The Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill
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In recent weeks, One Iowa, the state’s largest LGBT organization, has been pressuring Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to denounce the Anti-Homosexuality Bill currently being considered by the Ugandan parliament. A major reason for the emphasis on Grassley is his relationship with the The Family, an international Christian organization that has pushed extreme right-wing policies in
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On Wednesday, Grassley finally responded to his constituents. However, he refused to condemn the legislation, saying he was too busy to be concerned about such matters:
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“I’ve got a fulltime job reading bills in Congress without reading the bills in another 190 countries,” Grassley said. “Surely nobody in
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Grassley spokesperson Beth Levine also told the Iowa Independent that after inquiries from the press, their office “contacted the U.S. State Department to get more information” and was told “that the administration hasn’t made an official statement, but an assistant secretary has privately relayed concerns to the Ugandan president.”
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Most Americans support legalizing marijuana
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Most Americans support legalizing marijuana, according to a national poll conducted by the polling agency Angus Reid.
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Fifty three percent support legalization, while 43 percent are opposed, according to a poll conducted Dec. 3 and Dec. 4 involving 1,004 voters.
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The poll's margin of error is 3.1 percentage points.
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Support for the legalization of other drugs -- including MDMA, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine --barely registered. Among other drugs, the most popular for legalization was MDMA, or ecstasy, and power cocaine, which registered support of 8 percent.
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The least favored for legalization was crack cocaine, at 5 percent.
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Avatar Pushes Box Office Records
Over 10 Billion Dollars
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Click here to read more about the movies!
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AP review: Effects wow but story limps in `Avatar'
By JAKE COYLE (AP)
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When a film brashly asserts that it will change moviemaking forever, one feels the urge to either take its "king of the world" arrogance down a notch or hail it as the masterpiece it claims to be.
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But — and forgive us if this sounds too much like the dialogue in President Obama's war room — what if there's a third option?
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James Cameron's 3-D "Avatar" has all the smack of a Film Not To Miss — a movie whose effects are clearly revolutionary, a spectacle that millions will find adventure in. But it nevertheless feels unsatisfying and somehow lacks the pulse of a truly alive film.
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"Avatar" takes place in the year 2154 on the faraway moon of Pandora, where, befitting its mythological name, the ills of human life have been released. The Earth depleted, humans have arrived to mine an elusive mineral, wryly dubbed Unobtainium.
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The Resources Developmental Administration, a kind of military contractor, is running the operation. At the top of the chain of command is the CEO-like Carter Selfridge (an excellent, ruthless Giovanni Ribisi), who's hellbent on showing quarterly profits for shareholders. His muscle and head of security is the rock-jawed Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who curses Pandora's inhabitants (the Na'vi) as savages and considers the place worse than hell.
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In fact, it's a paradise. In Pandora, Cameron has fashioned a sensual, neon-colored, dreamlike world of lush jungle, gargantuan trees and floating mountains. Its splendor is easily the most wondrous aspect of "Avatar."
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Click here to read the complete review!
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News all the time: www.hinessight.com
Check it out!
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Gallery? What Gallery?
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I’m feeling for the door...
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MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
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Type in any Christmas song and see what the little puppets do.
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Also, type in any non-Christmas song (I typed in Happy Birthday) and you'll get a kick out of the response.
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One of the funniest I typed in was Jingle Bell Rock... they forget the words half way through.
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HOW DO THEY COME UP WITH THIS STUFF?
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http://www.sundog.net/carolofthechins/flash/card.swf
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And thus it is written, Cliff will burn in hell, if there is one but some graphics are just too much to not post!
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