ExConservative - The GOP Left Me!

Mo' Maureen Dowd - Excellent Column Today!

 

 

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I have no trouble admitting that I have a thing for Maureen Dowd who writes columns for the New York TIMES.  Even when I totally disagree with some point she makes, she says it in such wonderful sentences, such excellent imagery, that I mumble to myself, "Way to go, Mo, way to go."

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Bringing a female POV, a local D.C. girl upbringing, and just enough poison in the pen, Ms. Dowd is worth finding and reading.  Today is just one fine example of her lack of fear, her wit, and her intellect.  She's the type that insults and angers politicians and they still have to respect her! 

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So, if I tend to sound like I'm a promo-man for the TIMES, I'm not!  I just enjoy their columns and appreciate their reporting and hope they keep on being the newspaper of record!  Their daily email summary is a great way to begin a morning, by the way.

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Turkey time.  Pumpkin pie time.  Overeating time.  Have a tasty, happy, safe and sane T-Day!

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Cliff - The XCon

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Op-Ed Columnist

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Thanks for the Memories

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By MAUREEN DOWD

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At his Cabinet meeting Monday afternoon, President Obama took a moment to give thanks to his team.

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Sipping a glass of water, the president offered special gratitude to the woman on his right.

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“I advised this hard-working Cabinet to get a little bit of rest this week,” he said, looking at Hillary Clinton, “particularly the people who have been traveling around the globe day-in and day-out and don’t know what time zone they’re in.”

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The secretary of state, with a china cup and saucer in front of her, smiled.

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In the back of the room, back where they were parched, back where no water or coffee was served for the two-hour meeting, sat Greg Craig, the White House counsel who was a ghostly presence, given his death by a thousand leaks.

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Click HERE to continue on with Maureen.

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Obama Will Address Nation

On Afghanistan Decision Tuesday

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President Obama will announce his new strategy for Afghanistan during a primetime address to the nation from the West Point Military Academy Tuesday at 8 p.m., the White House announced Wednesday. Obama is expected to explain how a surge of troops—estimated between 20,000 and 40,000—is vital for national security interests, according to Politico; he will also likely note that failure would create a lawless country vulnerable to al Qaeda. The choice of setting—which provides a backdrop of future military officers—comes as the public is losing confidence in Obama’s policy.

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Click HERE to read more.

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Quick Fact: Drudge, Washington Times falsely claim allegedly hacked emails show global warming is not real

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The Drudge Report suggested that global warming is "junk science," by linking to a Washington Times editorial that falsely claims a series of emails that were reportedly stolen from the UK's Climate Research Unit [CRU] show that global warming is an "unproven theory." In fact, the validity of climate science is not hinged on the contents of these emails, some of which conservative media have taken out of context; reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the leading scientific body for assessing climate change research, are the product of thousands of scientists worldwide.

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Click HERE to read more.

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REPORT: At Least 40 GOP Lawmakers Fail

The ‘Purity Test’

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Yesterday, Republican National Committee member Jim Bopp unveiled a resolution to deny funding of candidates who do not uphold right-wing conservative values. The resolution, termed a “purity test,” is being touted as a mechanism for actually avoiding the party schism that occurred in the NY-23 special election, when the Republican Party nominated a moderate who violated several of the resolution dictates.

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As the Hotline has noted, the resolution, if adopted, would boot key Republican candidates running for the Senate next year. National Republicans recruited Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) to run for the Senate, even though they have bucked conservative orthodoxy in the past.

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Click HERE to read more.

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Palin Issues Thankfulnesses List

Holiday Message from the Former Alaska Governor

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WASILLA (The Borowitz Report): Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin today issued the following "thankfulnesses list":

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This being my list of the thankfulnesses I'm tapping into this year...

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I have thankfulness that we have a President who is learning to celebrate our American holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas also, even though he didn't have either of those days when he was growing up in Kenya.

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I have thankfulness that we live in a country where we have the freedom to speak, even though Todd has never done so actually.

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I have thankfulness that little Falcon was found safe and sound in that box, being that I was worried sick about him flying around in that balloon.

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I have thankfulness for all of those Jewish settlements on the West Bank, seeing that Jewish people will be flocking to the Holy Land to celebrate Thanksgiving.

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I have thankfulness also for the new drapes I installed in my house to keep the Russians from peeping in.

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I have thankfulness that Levi posed in Playgirl, and I'm sure all the gay men who read Playgirl have thankfulness for that also.

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I have thankfulness also that Levi's mom has been put in prison so I don't have to worry about her selling drugs to Willow or Piper.

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And finally, I have thankfulness for all of the good people who read my book, and for the person who wrote it also.

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Check out www.borowitzreport.com often!

 

 

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ESCAPE TIME!  Time to reprise some DAILY SHOW and Colbert Report moments.

 

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Decade in Review - 2003
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

 

 

 

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
In :60 Seconds - Sweetness
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor U.S. Speedskating

 

 

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
This Week in God - God Machine
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

 

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Does Adam Lambert owe America an apology? He doesn't think so. The American Idol star has only one regret about his controversial performance at the AMAs Sunday—and it doesn't involve his groins.

 

 

Watch CBS News Videos Online

 

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Donny Osmond and Kym Johnson show off their mirror ball trophies after winning

“Dancing With the Stars” on Tuesday night.   Adam Larkey / ABC

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Donny says ‘Dancing’ victory worth the pain

Osmond says winning mirror ball trophy among highlights of his career

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While rushing off to the airport to appear on “Good Morning America,” “Dancing With The Stars” victor Donny Osmond got on the phone with EW.com to talk about his (not-so-surprising) win, his body aches, and how he plans to torture sister Marie with his shiny new prize.

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EW: Did you think you would win?

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Donny: You always hope you can win. This morning when I got up it was like, it could go any way. Kelly was the fan favorite, but Mya was the better dancer. I was worried, I didn’t know what was going to happen. When Tom called our names, it was a dream come true.

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Click HERE to read more.

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www.truthout.org – Check it out!

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www.hinessight.com– Always great stuff!

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Let’s Gallery About Sex & More

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Please Enter With Caution.

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Bill Kristol Doesn't Want To Follow The Law, The Constitution

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No trial?  Sure, let's save some MONEY, feed the rabid righties some red meat, and totally desecrate The Constitution.  I read the Kristol story and wanted to puke.  What a pile of living crap he is, and now he further proves it.

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Sadly, most of us have had similar thoughts about all manner of "alleged" criminals who we truly hate and know for sure are guilty!  We all want to RUSH TO JUDGEMENT and just kill the M-Fers.  DING! DING! DING! Go the Bells Of Freedom!  Equal Justice Under The Law, remember that?  When even one person is lynched vigilante style, we all suffer.  Someday one of us could be the "alleged killer" when we are totally innocent.  So, we gather out wits and do the right thing:  FOLLOW THE LAW, THE CONSTITUTION, & GOD'S LAW, however you perceive him.

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Watch this video and see if you agree. 

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Cliff, the XCon

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Kristol Urges No Trial For Hasan: ‘They Should Just

Go Ahead And Convict Him And Put Him To Death’

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Law enforcement officials announced yesterday that Maj. Nidal M. Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder in the brutal attacks at Fort Hood Army base. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that “the number one issue, I think right now, is that Major Hasan be brought to justice.”

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Last night on Fox News, Bill Kristol called Napolitano’s comment “stupid” and stated outright that there should be no trial:

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KRISTOL: I was very struck also by Janet Napolitano’s comment, I hadn’t read it before to see her say that, that the number one priority is to bring him to justice is such a knee-jerk comment and such a stupid comment. He’s going to be brought to justice. He is not going to be innocent of murder. There are a lot of eyewitnesses to that. They should just go ahead and convict him and put him to death."

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READ MORE – Click here.

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Busted! GOP Drops Abortion Coverage

For RNC Employees

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Faced with the charge of hypocrisy for providing employees health insurance that covers abortion, the Republican National Committee has moved to strike the benefit from their policy.

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"Money from our loyal donors should not be used for this purpose," said chairman Michael Steele. "I don't know why this policy existed in the past, but it will not exist under my administration. Consider this issue settled."

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READ MORE – Click here.

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Tensions brim between GOP and CEOs over healthcare reform

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Tension between Republicans and the nation’s top CEOs over healthcare reform escalated this week when the executives released a report praising aspects of President Barack Obama’s top initiative.

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Republicans in Congress and some of their business allies in Washington are fuming over a new report commissioned by the Business Roundtable (BRT), an organization that represents more than 50 of the nation’s biggest corporations.

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READ MORE – Click here.

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Myths and falsehoods about health care reform, continued

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As Congress continues to debate health care reform legislation, Media Matters for America presents the latest in a series of reports identifying and debunking myths and falsehoods in the media's coverage of the issue.

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MYTH 1: GOP victories in 2009 gubernatorial elections mean "ObamaCare" is dead

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MYTH 2: Under House GOP bill, premiums would be $5,000 lower than under Dems' bill

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MYTH 3: House bill explodes the deficit, doesn't cover its costs

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READ MORE – Click here.

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Why some people will say no to the H1N1 vaccine

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Although reports from the state health department indicate that the most recent wave of H1N1-related illnesses may be cresting, no one knows for certain when the H1N1 vaccine will be produced in sufficient quantities to be available to most people. But when it finally does arrive, a recent McClatchy-Ipsos poll suggests, many Americans won't take advantage of the vaccine.

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The poll found that 47 percent of Americans reported they weren't "at all likely" or weren't "very likely" to get vaccinated.

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READ MORE – Click here.

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What Happened With Lou Dobbs

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The controversial CNN anchor’s abrupt exit took even his staff by surprise. Lloyd Grove and Rebecca Dana on the relief, sadness and job scramble at the studio.

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The abrupt resignation of CNN’s resident nativist firebrand, Lou Dobbs, was greeted with surprise and relief today by his colleagues at the cable network—and with triumphant celebration by Dobbs’ many liberal detractors, who took credit for forcing the anchorman’s departure.

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The sudden end of Lou Dobbs Tonight after six years—which Dobbs quietly negotiated in recent weeks with CNN/U.S. President Jonathan Klein—releases him from the last two years of his CNN contract, said to be valued at around $2.5 million a year. It also leaves around 30 of Dobbs’ staffers unemployed and desperately scrambling to reapply for jobs at CNN.

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READ MORE – Click here.

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Professional musician Steven McMorran examines a bass guitar in the Fender guitar manufacturing plant in Corona.

(Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

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Michael Hiltzik: California and the history of Fender guitars

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The sound of California business success came to my ears the moment I stepped through the door of Fender Musical Instruments Corp.'s 3-acre manufacturing plant in Corona.

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It reached me as riffs and scales on electric guitar, audible over the thud of metal stamping and the grind of band saws that one might customarily hear on a factory floor.

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READ MORE – Click here.

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Instrumental to Fender's success

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Some interesting facts – Click here.

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Random Thoughts To Hang On

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The perfect GOP bomb.

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For NEWS right now, I suggest www.hinessight.com

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And, www.news.yahoo.com

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Lou Dobbs Exits CNN - With the flag waving behind him!

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I really don’t loathe, hate, despise, abhor, or whatever... when it comes to Lou Dobbs, so his leaving CNN is not a glorious event for me.  Some things he said appeal to me.  Other things were too crazed and obsessive and had no place in a “real news show.”  He was FTFFM.  (“Far Too Faux For Me”)

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I’ve watched the man on CNN since the network came to life in 1980.  We were both younger then and not so brash, not so opinionated.  My how things have changed!  I’ve gone from being a conservative republicskum to being an all-over-the-road progressive with some serious fiscal conservatism.  Lou’s just gone on-air-crazy and self-defeating, believing his own press.  He better hope that old Roger at Faux fits him in, otherwise he’s looking at less-than-full-employment.

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The newsbiz just ain’t what it used to be.  Or, is it almost gone and now just an on-air rambling blogger?  Time will tell.

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Cliff, aka: XCon

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Lou Dobbs Returns to His Planet; ‘My Work Here is Done’

Bids Earth Farewell, Boards Rocket

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Read More From Andy Borowitz – CLICK HERE!

 

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John King to take over Dobbs's slot at CNN

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CNN announced Thursday that John King, the Sunday morning host best known for his magic wall, is taking over the 7 p.m. slot left vacant by the abrupt resignation of Lou Dobbs.

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The decision, described by network sources, amounts to a doubling down on straight news. King, a former Associated Press writer, is known for his reporting and neutral approach to politics, while Dobbs has grown increasingly opinionated in recent years, especially on such issues as his opposition to illegal immigration.

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"The program will reflect what CNN is all about: the widest range of opinions from across the political spectrum," CNN President Jon Klein said in a statement. He said King will "share his passion and his insights about what is really going on in Washington and across the country."

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Want more?  Click here to read on...

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My 10-Day Ordeal With the Swine Flu

Reporter recounts her bout with H1N1, made all the worse by chronic asthma

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By Serena Gordon

HealthDay Reporter

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THURSDAY, Nov. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Like most people, I've been following the news about the H1N1 swine flu with some concern. Unlike most people, however, I've spent years interviewing doctors.

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And from the many hours talking with infectious-disease specialists, I knew that it was never a matter of if there might be another flu pandemic, but when.

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The question was, would H1N1 turn out to be that dangerous pandemic flu, or not?

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Since most reports of H1N1 swine flu have described a mild illness for the majority of those infected, I wasn't especially worried for my family or for myself.

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Want more?  Click here for her story.

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Carrie Prejean Hearts Sarah Palin...Larry King Not So Much

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Carrie Prejean is pretty, but she sure is testy.

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Larry King got the fallen beauty queen so fired up on CNN's Larry King Live last night, she walked out on the show.

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Prejean is in the middle of a publicity bonanza hawking her new book, Still Standing, detailing her clash with Donald Trump, Shanna Moakler and the rest of the Miss California organization.

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After she showed off the tome and talked about her love for Sarah Palin—she considers herself "Palinized"—King began to ask about Prejean's recent settlement with the pageant organizers. She continued to spout her party line...that is, until she called King inappropriate and ripped off her microphone.

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Want more?  Click here to read on...

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It happens:  Cold Day In Hell

Fox's Hannity Apologizes To Jon Stewart

 

 

 

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
11/11/09 in :60 Seconds
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

 

 

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No Easy Answers: Obama's

Afghan Troop Choice Hangs Over Asia Trip

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The US envoy to Afghanistan has warned against sending thousands more troops to the country as President Barack Obama weighs strategy options in the eight-year conflict, reports said Thursday.

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The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, a retired army general who commanded US forces in Afghanistan from 2005-2007, detailed his concerns in classified cables last week.

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Eikenberry also expressed worries about the behavior of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was re-elected to a five year term in August polls tainted by widespread fraud, the Post said.

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The ambassador sent his strongly worded correspondence as Obama weighs his options on what to do about a growing Taliban insurgency that has put at risk an eight-year US-led effort to pacify the country.

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At a critical meeting of his war cabinet on Wednesday, the Times said, Obama asked Eikenberry about his concerns and also raised questions about the four options now before him.

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Want more?  Click here to read the rest of the story.

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Leaders set to include ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’

repeal in defense authorization bill

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Democratic leaders plan to repeal the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in next year’s defense authorization bill.

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Both the White House and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) back the strategy of using the defense bill to change policy on gays in the military, an aide to Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) told The Hill on Wednesday. Frank, the openly gay chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is a close ally of Pelosi.

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The defense bill has long been seen as a possible vehicle for changing the policy. “One legislative way or another, this policy, which is unfair to patriotic Americans who want to serve our country and strengthen our national security, must be changed,” said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Pelosi.

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Want more?  Click here to read on...

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Op-Ed Columnist

Virtuous Bankers? Really!?!

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By MAUREEN DOWD

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The Great Vampire Squid has gotten religion.

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In an interview with The Sunday Times of London, the cocky chief of Goldman Sachs said he understands that a lot of people are “mad and bent out of shape” at blood-sucking banks.

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“I know I could slit my wrists and people would cheer,” Lloyd Blankfein, the C.E.O., told the reporter John Arlidge.

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But the little people who are boiling simply don’t understand. And Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi, who unforgettably labeled Goldman “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money,” doesn’t understand.

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Banks, Blankfein explained, are really serving the greater good.

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“We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital,” he said. “Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. It’s a virtuous cycle. We have a social purpose.”

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Want more?  Click here to read more Maureen.

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Op-Ed Columnist

America’s Defining Choice

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By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

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President Obama and Congress will soon make defining choices about health care and troops for Afghanistan.

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These two choices have something in common — each has a bill of around $100 billion per year. So one question is whether we’re better off spending that money blowing up things in Helmand Province or building up things in America.

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The total bill in Afghanistan has been running around $1 million per year per soldier deployed there. That doesn’t include the long-term costs that will be incurred in coming decades — such as disability benefits, or up to $5 million to provide round-the-clock nursing care indefinitely for a single soldier who suffers brain injuries.

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So if President Obama dispatches another 30,000 or 40,000 troops, on top of the 68,000 already there, that would bring the total annual bill for our military presence there to perhaps $100 billion — or more. And we haven’t even come to the human costs.

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Want more?  Click here to read on...

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Random Thoughts Hang Around

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The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Moment of Zen - Glenn Beck Calls Out Escorts
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

 

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Eat the Apple or Orange and lose the Fruit Juice. Really!

While sitting around, driving around, and honey-doing around, I realized that I needed a break from the angst and cacophony of Ft. Hood, wars, crazy and twisted right-wing zealots, testosterone-deprived members of the House and Senate, Barack who feels the need to play safe with the other kids, and on and on.  That will all be there today, tomorrow and the foreseeable future, so I want to share some health news.

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First, a question.  Are you as tired of the rollercoaster ride we have with health news and studies?  Take this, don’t take it.  Drink coffee, don’t drink coffee.  Take these pills and you will have lowered cholesterol, then you learn that it screwed your heart valves or something.  Who do we believe and when do we believe it?

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For years moms (and dads) have given their little kids fruit juice.  Some kids cannot drink cows’ milk, so fruit juice seemed logical.  Over the years we’ve learned that all that juice is rotting Johnie and Jessica’s “toofies” and while a little is good, too much is real bad for the kids.

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Anyone who takes time to read labels and read about this stuff has heard that it is better to eat the fruit than drink the orange juice.  The actual orange pulp is really good for you.  And juice is pretty much too high in calories.  So, we’ve been messing up and perhaps we can wonder if this is even partially why so many children are so fat, so prone to bad teeth, and developing type-2 diabetes far too early in their lives?

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Maybe there are not “fer-sure” answers but it would do us all a world of good to read this medical and dietary information.  (OK, we usually call it “medical crap.”)  Knowledge is power and we can do good things when we put our minds to it.

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Eat that apple, damn it, and enjoy the crunchiness and freshness.  Leave the juice alone.  Besides, haven’t we had enough commercials from the soft drink makers and the juice sellers?  They don’t want to have a tax on their poisons, now do they?  Consider, too, that lots of juice comes from places like China. 

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Read this first article and then we will return to the same old news and stuff.

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XCon

  

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It's time fruit juice loses its wholesome image,

some experts say

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Compared with soda, juice carries more calories and as much sugar. There's also evidence that high consumption increases the risk of obesity, especially among kids.

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To many people, it's a health food. To others, it's simply soda in disguise.

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That virtuous glass of juice is feeling the squeeze as doctors, scientists and public health authorities step up their efforts to reduce the nation's girth.

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It's an awkward issue for the schools that peddle fruit juice in their cafeterias and vending machines. It's uncomfortable for advocates of a junk-food tax who say they can't afford to target juice and alienate its legions of fans. It's confusing for consumers who think they're doing something good when they chug their morning OJ, sip 22-ounce smoothies or pack apple juice in their children's lunches.

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The inconvenient truth, many experts say, is that 100% fruit juice poses the same obesity-related health risks as Coke, Pepsi and other widely vilified beverages.

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CLICK HERE to read more!

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Fort Hood shooting suspect

conscious, talking, hospital says

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Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in last week's mass shooting at the Fort Hood Army Post, is conscious and talking, according to a spokesman for the Army hospital where he is being treated.

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Authorities have not identified a motive in Thursday's attack that left 13 dead and 42 others wounded.

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Hasan, a 39-year-old licensed Army psychiatrist who worked at a hospital on the post, has been identified as the suspected shooter. He was shot several times after the attack. On Sunday, he was listed in critical but stable condition and in intensive care at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

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Hasan's ventilator was removed over the weekend, and he began talking afterward, hospital spokesman Dewey Mitchell said. He is speaking with hospital staff, but Mitchell was unable to say whether Hasan has been speaking with Army investigators.

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE AT CNN.

 

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GOP Rep.: ‘Democratic bill

requires the government to encourage suicide’

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With today's much anticipated vote on the House health care bill, liberal blogger-political activist Mike Stark decided to speak with a few Republican members of Congress as they made their way around the Hill today for a last minute anti-healthcare reform rally.

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"I wanted to know how many of them knew – at this late juncture – how many of their constituents lacked insurance," reported from his website. "Not one Republican could give me an answer. Quite a few, however, served up some entertainment."

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Only one anti-reform congressman could give him a number -- a Democrat, Dan Boren of Oklahoma.

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CLICK HERE to read more!

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Fort Hood FAQ

Can you carry a concealed weapon on military bases? And other questions answered.

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Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the only suspect in Thursday's lethal spree at the Fort Hood, Texas, military base, reportedly killed 13 people and wounded 30 before a civilian police officer shot him four times. The incident raises many questions, a number of which we try to answer here.

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Do psychiatrists go crazy at higher rates than the general population? Yes, but so do doctors in general. Studies have shown that the suicide rate among male doctors is 40 percent higher than among men overall and that female doctors take their own lives at 130 percent the rate of women in general. No one knows why, exactly, but doctors have abnormally high rates of depression as well as access to drugs that may exacerbate symptoms. Yet few studies have analyzed suicide rates by type of physician, so it's hard to tell whether psychiatrists in particular have higher rates of mental illness than other doctors. One study of female psychiatrists in 2001 did find that 42 percent of the subjects had a family history of depression, as opposed to 28 percent for female physicians in general. Meanwhile, 35 percent of the female shrinks had experienced depression, compared with 18 percent of their physician counterparts.

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CLICK HERE to read more!

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Stopping the Next McVeigh

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As neo-Nazis take to the streets this weekend, officials say their new boldness echoes the homegrown terrorism of the 1990s. James Verini talks to the extremists leading the charge.

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A year after President Obama's election, hate groups are feeling bolder than they have in over a decade, and their usually insular anger is beginning to spill into the public realm. This weekend, the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi organization, held rallies in Arizona and Minnesota. Those demonstrations came on the heels of similar actions in Southern California, where epithet-spewing white supremacists were forced to disband by rock-throwing counter-protesters. The upsurge in visibility is more than anecdotal—law-enforcement officials are monitoring levels of agitation among extremist groups that they say are the highest since Timothy McVeigh’s deadly attack in Oklahoma City nearly 15 years ago.

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CLICK HERE to read more!

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TV SoundOff: Sunday Talking Heads

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Good morning. This is your weekly liveblog of the events soon to be transpiring on your teevees, while you, hopefully live your lives. My name is Jason. Ever get the feeling that an overheated sense of super deep-fried significance tends to get attached to everything, until we're all practically dying of glucose-induced, candy-flavored ball-lightning shocks of the brainstem? Because earlier this week was election day. Hardly any elections were held, at all! And the significance of said elections was pounded into my face by mallet wielding on-air sea lions barking over and over again about WOO GAMECHANGERZ 2010 MAYBE 2012 DOESN'T THIS HIT YOU MIND LIKE A DAISYCUTTER.

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Well, no! In fact, at the end of the week, even buffeted by the latest fad of Tea Partying, the House went right out and did what they were going to do all along -- ALL YEAR LONG, REALLY -- and pass their health care bill. And even then, that was a story told with RAW EMOTION AND INTENSE ECTSTACY as the MOST IMPORTANT PROCEDURAL VOTE OF ALL TIME went down exactly as everyone predicted it would (with an added cushion of votes gained from those elections on Tuesday that were supposed to be read as the TOTAL PULVERISATION OF HEALTH CARE REFORM IN OUR LIFETIMES!

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CLICK HERE to read more!

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Rep. John Shadegg brought a special guest to the House floor

Saturday: a 7-month-old baby named Maddie. Speaking in his

best baby voice, Shadegg says Maddie is there to "say she

doesn't want government to take over health care."

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More from the Sunday Morning Spinners

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Joe Lieberman is ready to filibuster, Michael Steele almost gets physical, and Rachel Maddow says a magic troop number won’t placate the GOP. That and more in our Sunday roundup.

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Lieberman to Filibuster Public Option as ‘Matter of Conscience’

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Here’s one hurdle that the Democrats may have to clear to go forward with health reform. On Fox News Sunday, Sen. Joe Lieberman, who could play an integral role in the Senate vote, reaffirmed his previous statements and made it clear that he would not support any bill coming out of the House that includes a public option. He says he’s concerned by the House bill that passed Saturday night which was pushed for by “people who really want the government to take over all of health insurance.”

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CLICK HERE to read more!

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Op-Ed Columnist

The Night They Drove the Tea Partiers Down

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By FRANK RICH

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FOR all cable news’s efforts to inflate Election 2009 into a cliffhanger as riveting as Balloon Boy, ratings at MSNBC and CNN were flat Tuesday night. But not at Fox News, where the audience nearly doubled its usual prime-time average. That’s what happens when you have a thrilling story to tell, and what could be more thrilling than a revolution playing out in real time?

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As Fox kept insisting, all eyes were glued on Doug Hoffman, the insurgent tea party candidate in New York’s 23rd Congressional District. A “tidal wave” was on its way, said Sean Hannity, and the right would soon “take back the Republican Party.” The race was not “even close,” Bill O’Reilly suggested to the pollster Scott Rasmussen, who didn’t disagree. When returns showed Hoffman trailing, the network’s resident genius, Karl Rove, knowingly reassured viewers that victory was in the bag, even if we’d have to stay up all night waiting for some slacker towns to tally their votes.

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Alas, the Dewey-beats-Truman reveries died shortly after midnight, when even Fox had to concede that the Democrat, Bill Owens, had triumphed in what had been Republican country since before Edison introduced the light bulb. For the far right, the thriller in Watertown was over except for the ludicrous morning-after spin that Hoffman’s loss was really a victory. For the Democrats, the excitement was just beginning. New York’s 23rd could be celebrated as a rare bright spot on a night when the party’s gubernatorial candidates lost in Virginia and New Jersey.

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CLICK HERE to read more!

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Bringing Down Bachmann

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The far right’s star House member just hit the headlines with a rowdy health-care rally on Capitol Hill. Benjamin Sarlin reports on the Democrats lining up in Minnesota to send Michele Bachmann into early retirement.

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Michele Bachmann took her paranoid campaign against the White House to new heights on Thursday, leading a mass protest inside the Capitol itself that led to multiple arrests. Antics like these have made her one of the breakout stars of the Republican Party in the Obama era, drawing praise from Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and even George Will. But her stunts have also made what is otherwise a relatively safe Republican seat potentially vulnerable to Democratic takeover.

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Her bid for reelection to a third term is still a year away. But two credible challengers have already emerged to vie for the Democratic nomination: physician Maureen Reed and State Senator Tarryl Clark. Both are making Bachmann's extremist rhetoric the centerpieces of their campaigns.

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CLICK HERE to read more!

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Please enjoy some Wanda Sykes! 

And, if you get a chance, see her recent

HBO Special where she left no stone unturned. 

 

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VIDEO: Taylor Swift's Hilarious SNL Musical Monologue

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Ah, revenge.

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After much anticipation, Taylor Swift finally got her chance to get back at Kanye West for storming the stage and interrupting her acceptance speech at September's MTV Video Music Awards.

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CLICK HERE to see video and read more!

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Is Dr. Drew's sexual healing bad for you?

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VH1's "Sex Rehab With Dr. Drew" crosses the line from awareness-raising to raw voyeurism

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I'm an addiction addict. That means I'm addicted to watching other people struggle with their addictions. People say that's not a real addiction, but they don't know how my addiction to addictions has messed up my life! I spend every second of my day, from the minute I wake up in the morning until the time my head hits the pillow at night, obsessing about whether or not "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew" alum Mary Carey will finally kick alcohol and break out of the porn business. My marriage is falling apart because my husband can't watch another minute of heroin addicts stealing cash out of their grandmother's purses on A&E's "Intervention." And if I urge one more of my co-workers to make a "fearless moral inventory" of themselves in an interoffice e-mail, I'm going to lose my job. I'm destroying my entire life by spending all of my time watching other people destroy their entire lives!

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CLICK HERE to read more!

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Op-Ed Columnist

Ballet’s Mean Streets

By MAUREEN DOWD

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One of those, for me, is “The Red Shoes.” Like its doomed heroine, I’m pulled inexorably along by the bewitched crimson ballet slippers into a lush, swirling landscape that turns into an inescapable, bloody hell.

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There are many great works of art about obsession, from Heathcliff’s wailing to Ahab’s whaling, but this is surely the most gorgeously haunting. The destructive obsession portrayed here is not with a lover or outside object of desire. It’s about the tyranny of creativity.

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As the white-skinned, blue-blooded ballerina Vicky Page, Moira Shearer dons the red slippers and is forced to choose between love and art.

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CLICK HERE to read more!

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Graphically Speaking

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Boehner is a bone-headed liar in the company of other liars.

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When I came upon the poster of TR pointing out (from long ago) a Republican with a heart, I was pretty moved.  I’ve felt that way for a long time, and the feelings are turning to seething anger.  The hypocrisy, the lying, the growing “heads up the asses of corporations,” the lack of simple understanding of life, the feigned morality – the list goes on and on.

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Then I heard Boehner talking and I admit it:  I want him gone, not just from the House, but from this planet.  He exemplifies so much of what is wrong with the right wing today and his attempt to discredit anything that might resemble health care reform was just pitiful.  He lies, then lies some more, and then lies about the lies.  At least his fake tan was somewhat even and he didn’t sound as drunk and psychotic as most days.  (What a blessing for all of us, right?)

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We all need to get mad, very damned mad and swear to God in heaven that these thieves and liars have to GO!  They have taken their lust for power and camera time too far and they need to be stopped, rejected at election time, and blanketed with emails and snail mails and calls that say “You have sinned against humanity, against your country, against your fellow citizens, against God himself, and you need to atone NOW and get out, for if you don’t we will defeat you and send you packing!”

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I plan to spend some time sticking rusty nails in a Boehner doll, holding it over the kitchen stove flames, and perhaps urging my two hunting dogs to urinate on it, then bury it in the far back part of the property where the cats shit.

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Is that a purification ritual?  Nope, just an angry man who has had too much Boehner, too much right wing crooks in action, too much corporate evil, and far too many lies.

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Stephanie Miller (on her radio show) tries to make the a$$hole funny, to use humor to make us want him GONE, and I realized that the only thing that will really deal with the Boehner-types is sending them packing, perhaps to Somalia on a cargo ship marked, “Ransoms paid by huge corporations!”

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There I feel a little better.

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XCon

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CBO Chief Elmendorf Releases Report Hours After Pelosi Unveils House Bill

... Pelosi Mum On Obama's Support For Public Option ... Conrad: Bill Is Much

Improved

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Super Saver: CBO Says

House Health Bill Saves $104B In 10 Yrs

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The CBO has weighed in with a preliminary cost estimate of the House's health care bill--and there are almost certainly some very happy people in House leadership.

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At $894 billion, the bill's 10 year cost comes in a hair under President Obama's $900 billion red line. But, more politically and substantively important, the bill is projected to reduce the deficit in both the first 10 years and the second 10 years after enactment, just as Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) told me earlier today.

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Over the first 10 years, revenues and savings are projected to exceed new spending (aka it reduces the deficit) by $104 billion. Projections into the following decade are, as CBO chief Doug Elmendorf always notes, very dicey.  But Elmendorf says that, from 2020-2029, "the added revenues and cost savings are projected to grow slightly more rapidly than the cost of the coverage expansions." In other words, though the government will pay more and more each year in subsidies and expanded entitlements, it will be realizing savings and collecting revenues at a greater rate.

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Click here for more...

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Boehner Won’t Pledge To Offer GOP Health Care Plan,

Refuses To Post It Online If He Does

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Republicans have been insisting for months that Democrats are shoving a secret bill down the throats of the American public. The health reform legislation “should be posted online for 72 hours so members and the American people get a chance to see what’s in these bills,” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) told Fox News. “But it seems to me that Democrat leaders want to rush these bills through Congress before anybody has a chance to read them.”

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In fact, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) “has repeatedly pledged to Republicans that the health bill and any manager’s amendment would be posted online for at least 72 hours before the House votes,” and he promised again this week.

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Click here for more...

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Lieberman Marching Further Right in 2010

Subway Series: Former Dem Veep Candidate Plans to Campaign for GOP

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Sounding more like an independent than a Democrat, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., tells ABC News he will campaign for some Republican candidates during the 2010 midterm elections and may not seek the Democratic Senate nomination when he runs for re-election in 2012.

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"I probably will support some Republican candidates for Congress or Senate in the election in 2010. I'm going to call them as I see them," Lieberman said in an ABC News "Subway Series" interview aboard the U.S. Capitol Subway System.

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Lieberman infuriated fellow Democrats in 2008 by supporting Republican presidential nominee John McCain as well as congressional candidates Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.

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READ MORE?  Just click here.

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Inslee slams SuperFreakonomics

for 'absolute deception' on climate science.

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During today's forged letter investigation hearing in the House, Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) rebuked the authors of SuperFreakonomics for participating in a "continuing effort to deceive the American public" on the science of climate change. Inslee condemned the coal industry's effort to "hoodwink, defraud, and deceive the American public now to cover up the toxicity to the world environment" of global warming pollution. Inslee then pivoted to authors Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, criticizing them for "absolute deception" in their work on global warming:

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The second thing I want to note is this is not the only continuing effort to deceive the American public. I want to note a book called Freakonomics, or SuperFreakonomics, that some authors wrote, that basically said or asserted we don't have to control CO2, we'll just pump sulfur dioxide up into the atmosphere and that will solve the problem.

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Click here for more...

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Huge Explosion Was Biggest

Space Rock to Strike Earth Since 1994

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GOLDEN, Colo. A space rock explosion earlier this month over an island region of Indonesia is now being viewed as perhaps the biggest object to tangle with the Earth in more than a decade.

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On Oct. 8, reports from Indonesia told of a loud air blast around 11 a.m. local time. One report indicated a bright fireball, accompanied by an explosion and lingering dust cloud, as the origin of the air blast.

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According to experts at the NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office in Pasadena, Calif. Don Yeomans, Paul Chodas, Steve Chesley the blast is thought to be due to the atmospheric entry of an asteroid more than 30 feet (10 meters) in diameter. Due to atmospheric pressure, the object is thought to have detonated in the atmosphere, yielding an energy release of about 50 kilotons (the equivalent of 110,000,000 pounds of TNT explosives).

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Click here for more...

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Time Inc. to Cut $100 Million; Extensive Layoffs Are Expected

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Signaling that worse times are ahead for magazines, Time Inc. is expected to announce next week that it will cut $100 million from costs, including another big round of layoffs.

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Time Inc., publisher of Fortune, Sports Illustrated and Time, among other titles, is expected to announce layoffs next week.The timing is coordinated with the third-quarter earnings announcement from its parent company, Time Warner, sources said. That is scheduled for Wednesday morning.

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Time Inc., the publisher of magazines like Time, Fortune, and People, has already cut costs drastically: a year ago, it announced it was dismissing 6 percent of its work force, or about 600 people.

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Click here for more...

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Barney Frank:

No More Secret Agreements Between Regulators and Banks

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Every action taken by federal regulators against large, systemically-important financial firms -- those commonly referred to as "too big to fail" -- will be made public, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank told the Huffington Post.

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This is a sharp break from current practice.

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Currently, federal banking regulators can secretly get banks to modify their behavior and practices. For example, regulators can tell a bank to stop a particular activity, beef up lending standards, or increase the amount of capital they keep to protect against potential losses --

all hidden from public scrutiny.

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Now, Frank says, his legislation, which would establish for the first time a way for the federal government to deal with those firms deemed "too big to fail," will call for the elimination of these secret agreements between regulators and those they regulate. For these firms, every action taken by regulators will be public.

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Click here for more...

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Diet, Exercise Thwart Diabetes: Study Lifestyle

changes really do work to prevent type 2, experts say

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WEDNESDAY, Oct. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Diet and exercise can keep diabetes at bay for a decade, cutting the risk for the disease by more than a third in the most susceptible people, a new study finds.

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About 11 percent of U.S. adults (24 million) have diabetes, mostly type 2, which is linked to poor diet and sedentary lifestyle. In addition, 57 million overweight adults have higher-than-normal blood sugar levels, which raise the risk of a heart attack or stroke and the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes, researchers say.

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But new research, published in the Oct. 29 online edition of The Lancet, shows that losing weight and exercising can delay or prevent the onset of diabetes more effectively than the prescription drug metformin or a placebo.

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Click here for more...

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First lady Michelle Obama walks with children from Washington's Bancroft Elementary

School after they harvested vegetables from the garden on the South Lawn of the

White House in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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A girl from Washington's Bancroft Elementary School reacts as she

sees the sweet potato being held by first lady Michelle Obama as

they harvest vegetables from the garden on the South Lawn of the

White House in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

White House garden has 2nd major harvest

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WASHINGTON — Cupboards at a soup kitchen near the White House will be spilling over for several days after a donation of fresh produce harvested Thursday from first lady Michelle Obama's vegetable garden.

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Mrs. Obama invited about 30 fifth-graders from two District of Columbia public elementary schools to help with the project. One of the schools, Bancroft Elementary, has helped with the garden since it began, preparing the soil, planting the crops and harvesting in the spring.

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"Are you guys ready to do some work? Are you ready to work really hard? Are you ready to get dirty?" she asked them. "All right, let's go! Let's go, let's do it, let's do it."

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The students were divided into groups of three and paired with an adult who showed them what to do. All told, they spent about a half-hour jabbing and digging at the plot on the South Lawn with pitchforks and other tools.

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Click here for more...

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HARVEST TIME AT THE WHITE HOUSE – Click here for video.

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Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA)

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There's An App For That?

House Republicans Launch BlackBerry 'WhipCast'

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House Republicans today launched a new "communications tool" that House Minority Whip Eric Cantor and Deputy Whip Kevin McCarthy say will help them

distribute up-to-the-minute information.

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The BlackBerry application is called WhipCast and it's designed to give "instantaneous alerts, audio updates, video features, and additional messages to users."

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Click here for more...

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New Jersey Police: Reports Like Lou Dobbs'

'Not At All Uncommon' During Hunting Season

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Several media sources have reported that shots were fired at the residence of CNN's Lou Dobbs. While Dobbs and his anti-immigrant supports were quick to jump to conclusions about the motive of the shooting, Sgt. Stephen Jones confirmed to ThinkProgress this morning that the New Jersey State Police are stilling "looking at all the possibilities" and that a hunting-related accident has not been ruled out.

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Sgt. Jones, a spokesperson for the New Jersey State Police, confirmed that a bullet was found which struck the siding of Dobbs' house. However, he pointed out that Dobbs' residence is located in a "very rural" area. "With hunting season starting up," such incidents are "not at all uncommon," Jones told us.

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Nonetheless, anti-immigrant groups are already claiming that "the lies and hate coming from these radical pro-illegal alien groups is now manifesting in the form of gunfire." Dobbs was quick to start pointing fingers at Fox News' Geraldo Rivera and "ethnocentric interest groups" for "creating an atmosphere" that led to a shot being fired at his house...

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One Year Post-Election: The Cable Ratings Drop-Off

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We took a look at October ratings for Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, and HLN earlier this week. Much of cable news viewing is tied to public interest in the world events covered by the networks, and the lack of a major event like last year's presidential election has not been kind to MSNBC and CNN.

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Click here for more...

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Watch CBS News Videos Online

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Chaz Bono: I love being a man

‘It’s a long process going back almost a decade,’ says Bono

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Now that he’s finally in the body he always felt he belonged in, Chaz Bono says he’s enjoying something that took decades to accomplish.

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“It’s a long process going back almost a decade. I got clean and sober in 2004 and I couldn’t have done this before that,” Bono, formerly known as Chastity, tells, “Entertainment Tonight” in an interview airing Thursday and Friday.

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Click here for more...

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Gates Crowley Beer Summit! Part Deux

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Remember when Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley and President Barack Obama all sat down for the major news event of the summer? For those still wondering about the long-term efficacy of the "beer summit" strategy, well, the proof is in the pudding. On Wednesday night, Gates and Crowley held a beer summit of their own volition, sans Obama.

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According to the owner of the "River Gods" pub in Cambridge, MA, the two were spotted sitting in a booth, talking for about an hour.

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Click here for more...

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William Rivers Pitt | Motivation
William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "George W. Bush made his debut as a motivational speaker to a packed house of adoring fans in Fort Worth, Texas, on Monday. Mr. Bush, who has been all but invisible since last January's inauguration of Barack Obama, is apparently trying to raise his profile before the release of his book. He spoke about prayer, challenges and walking his dog. 'I can tell you that one of the most amazing surprises of the presidency was the fact that people's prayers affected me. I can't prove it to you. But I can tell you some days were great, some days not so great. But every day was joyous."

Read more at www.truthout.org

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News all day long:  www.hinessight.com

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Caution!  The Gallery is Open.

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The Opposite To The Tenth Power - The Anti-Doppelganger?

  

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Don’t all of us have a curiosity about that person that has our same name, even looks like us, that is out there somewhere?  They call the person a doppelganger and movie and TV scripts are filled with plots that work around the idea of his or her “double.”  So far I have not found mine, and have not really looked.  What I did find was the opposite of a double.  In fact, this guy is my exact opposite to “the tenth power.”  He’s actually worse than Dick Armey, Dick Cheney, Michelle Bachmann, even Glenn Beck!

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Who is this right-wing beast, this panderer of the worst in the human mind?  A friend tells me this in an email: “He’s Tom P. O'Halloran of Las Vegas, NV.  How he describes himself (almost as in a self-parody): "Child of God - Married - Gun carrying NRA Conservative - Right Winger hard Core Anti Obama (Pro America), Parrothead"“  Now’s that’s the Anti-Doppelganger to what I call a good and decent American!

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So I’m checking this loser out and yep, he’s what he says he is:  a totally nuts righty with untold hate and fear ruling his life.  He seems to be twittering his life away trying to make anyone who doesn’t agree with him a child of Satan, a socialist foreigner, and worse, if you can imagine that.  If you are moved to check him out, feel free, but consider Haz-mat precautions and Cipro for two weeks.  His blog is what a thinking person might expect from someone with his disease, the same one that infects Glenn Beck and so many others.  There must have been an epidemic at FauxNooz? (Click HERE only if you dare.)

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The thought of this guy even listening to Jimmy Buffett is sad, f-n sad.  The Parrotheads I know are good people, my people, and enjoy life and live to the fullest.  They do not sulk in a cave, hating everything except Rush, Darth Cheney, and other freaks of nature.  A Parrothead takes the ups and downs of life and tries to have more ups than downs, often letting music, margaritas, and partying help to take life UP a notch or two.  We don’t dwell in the bottom of the glass, weeping and fearful of anything that is new or unknown.  I fear that there is a misspelled word (Parrothead) in his postings, and the “Parrot” was meant to be spelled “Dick.”

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You get my drift.

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XCon

 

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White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, left, and Office of Management and

Budget Director Peter Orszag, right, walk in the Capitol after they attended

a Senate health care negotiators meeting Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009, in

Washington.

(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

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Dems go after antitrust exemption for insurers

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WASHINGTON – Democrats launched a drive at both ends of the Capitol on

Wednesday to strip the insurance industry of its decades-old exemption from

federal antitrust laws, part of an increasingly bare-knuckled struggle over

landmark health care legislation sought by President Barack Obama.

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If enacted, the change would put an end to "price-fixing, bid-rigging and

market allocation in the health and medical malpractice" insurance areas,

said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Leahy said he would seek a vote on the plan when the Senate debates health

care legislation in the next few weeks.

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Leahy made his comments at virtually the same time the House Judiciary

Committee voted 20-9 to end an industry exemption that dates to 1945. Three

Republicans supported the move.

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READ MORE – Click Here.

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The plan to slash executive pay will drop average cash compensation by 90

percent. | Composite image by POLITICO

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White House slashes pay for Wall Street executives

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The Obama administration stunned Wall Street on Wednesday by ordering

massive pay cuts for top executives at seven financial firms that still hold

billions in U.S. government bailout funds.

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The move – which would lower average cash compensation by 90 percent — means

the administration is making a frontal assault on Wall Street’s gold-plated

compensation culture at a time of growing public anger over the firms’

massive pay and bonuses.

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And the plan by pay czar Kenneth Feinberg comes in a week in which the White

House has been increasingly aggressive in calling on Wall Street to stand

down in its opposition to its regulatory reform proposal for the financial

industry.

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At the seven firms, total average compensation for many executives would be

cut in half, according to an administration official. At AIG, no top

executive will receive more than $200,000 in total compensation – a humbling

comedown for the once high flying insurance executives at the firm.

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READ MORE – Follow the money – CLICK HERE.

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Liberal Analyst Found Out Through

‘Google Alert’ That Fox News Fired Him

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Last Friday, during a News Corp. shareholders meeting, Chairman Rupert

Murdoch was asked why Fox News would hire liberal analyst Marc Lamont Hill,

who, the questioner said, has a “reputation of defending cop killers and

racists.” Murdoch reportedly replied that Hill had already been fired. While

both Fox and Hill were initially tight-lipped about Murdoch’s reported

comment, Mediaite later confirmed that Hill had indeed been fired by the

network.    (MORE?  Click HERE.)

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Grayson launches NamesOfTheDead.com

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Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson has launched a website, NamesOfTheDead.com, to

honor the 44,000 people who die every year because they don't have health

insurance.

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"I have created this project in their memory. I hope that honoring them will

help us end this senseless loss of American lives," Grayson writes on the

site. "If you have lost a loved one, please share the story of that loved

one with us. Help us ensure that their legacy is a more just America, where

every life that can be saved will be saved."

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CLICK HERE to read more at POLITICO

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Alan Grayson Unveils 'Names of the Dead' Web Site –

And Gets Punked With Joke Names

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• Lassie Martin, 10, Kanab, UT

• Norma Jeane Mortenson, 36, Los Angeles, CA

• Steve Rogers, 90, New York, NY

• Wile E. Coyote, 55, Sedona, Arizona

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All four of those names are fraudulent. Lassie Martin is the dog "Lassie,"

whose owners on the 1950's TV show were called the Martins (and the town of

Kanab, Utah, was one of the filming locations). Norma Jeane Mortenson was

Marilyn Monroe's real name. Steve Rogers is the fictional Captain America

from Marvel Comics, and of course there's Wile E. Coyote.

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NRCC spokesman Andy Seré released this statement: "What is wrong with this

man? Alan Grayson's morbid exploitation of 'the dead' for personal political

gain may be the most shameless stunt he's pulled yet. Once again, he's

proved himself to be an abject embarrassment to Central Floridians who want

more than a circus clown for a congressman."

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Late Update: The automated list of names has been removed from the site. It

may be that mourning "Hugh G. Reckshinn," age 44, from Dumas, Texas, was a

bit too much for them.

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There’s more – CLICK HERE!

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Offer The Option of Medicare For Everyone

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October 21, 2009 — Ron Chusid

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I’ve always thought it was a mistake to include calls for a “public option”

in health care reform. I don’t mean the concept of a public option, but the

name. The public has been easily mislead about what this actually means.

Many even believe that it means they will have to pay for it out of their

taxes, in addition to paying insurance premiums, when actually the pubic

option will be financed by premiums from those who voluntarily choose it.

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Read the rest at LiberalValuesBlog.Com – CLICK HERE.

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Beck through the looking glass:

smears net neutrality as a Marxist plot to take over the Internet

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Glenn Beck argued that the Obama administration's support for net neutrality

amounted to a Marxist takeover of the Internet that would stifle innovation,

when in fact net neutrality -- which was the law of the land from the

creation of the Internet until 2005, and which ensured that Internet Service

Providers were not able to control content -- has been cited by numerous

Internet pioneers as the guiding principle in Internet development and

innovation. Moreover, in smearing supporters of net neutrality, Beck

esentially included groups such as the Gun Owners of America, the Christian

Coalition, and Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell's Parents

Television Council in what he described as a plot "design[ed]" by

"Marxists."

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Click here to read more at MediaMatters.

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Attack on White House criticism

of Fox follows years of GOP assaults on media

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Following White House communications director Anita Dunn's entirely

justified criticisms of Fox News as an "arm" of the Republican Party,

conservative media figures have attacked both Dunn and the Obama

administration. But Media Matters for America has compiled a list of

organized attacks that GOP leaders -- often aided by Fox News -- have

conducted against media outlets based on groundless complaints of bias;

those attacks have included boycotts or threatened boycotts of media

outlets, efforts to revoke journalists' credentials or ban them from press

planes, and even calls to have journalists prosecuted.

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STILL MORE?  Click Here!

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Rogue Anti-Palin Book Coming

Essay collection uses similar art, title

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We know that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin can hunt, and even field-dress a

moose, but how will she take to poachers on her book sales? Start-up

publisher OR Books has announced plans to publish Going Rouge: Sarah Palin

An American Nightmare, a collection of essays about the maverick Republican

with a title — and cover design — remarkably similar to Palin’s upcoming

memoir. What’s more, OR’s paperback tome will be released on Nov. 17, the

same day that Palin’s own Going Rogue: An American Life hits shelves — and

one day after Palin’s just-announced, first-ever appearance on Oprah

Winfrey’s show. (A shout-out to Ron Hogan at GalleyCat for the tip.)

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Imitation?  Isn’t ONE ENOUGH?  Read more, CLICK HERE!

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MySpace rolls out Music Videos

Social site showing signs of Murdoch's hub-vision

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With MySpace starting to lose more of its audience to sites like Facebook,

Rupert Murdoch announced plans this summer to turn the social networking

site into more of an online hub for entertainment.

What that may look like started to roll out Wednesday, with the introduction

of MySpace Music Videos.

Through its partnership with record labels, including EMI Music, Sony Music,

Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony ATV, the venture intends

to offer the largest online collection of musicvids on the Internet, and

feature artists profiles and licensed audio tracks.

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READ MORE – CLICK HERE!

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The Rogues Gallery?

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##30##

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Nuclear Cleanup - There Is A Long Way To Go.

Site manager Jane Powell walks where 3 million cubic yards of radioactive waste is stored. Fernald is one of many facilities that once supplied the nation's nuclear arsenal. Today, these sites pose a huge political, economic and environmental challenge. (David Kohl / For The Times / July 7, 2009)

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NUCLEAR SCARS

Toxic legacy of the Cold War

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Ohio's Fernald Preserve has flowers, birds and tons of radioactive waste. Sites that once supplied the nation's nuclear arsenal now pose a staggering political, environmental and economic challenge.

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Reporting from Fernald Preserve, Ohio - Amid the family farms and rolling terrain of southern Ohio, one hill stands out for its precise geometry.

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The 65-foot-high mound stretching more than half a mile dominates a tract of northern hardwoods, prairie grasses and swampy ponds, known as the Fernald Preserve.

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Contrary to appearances, there is nothing natural here. The high ground is filled with radioactive debris, scooped from the soil around a former uranium foundry that produced crucial parts for the nation's nuclear weapons program.

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READ MORE at the LA TIMES.

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Real estate signs are seen in the front yards of houses in this file photo taken in Maricopa,

Arizona in this May 27, 2009 file photo. The Obama administration on Monday launched

a new program to aid state and local housing finance agencies in an effort to provide

hundreds of thousands of affordable mortgages and develop or rehabilitate tens of thou-

sands of rental properties.   REUTERS/Joshua Lott/Files

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Government unveils new mortgage help for states

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WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Monday unveiled a new program to support state and local housing finance agencies. The plan will help the agencies finance mortgages for first-time homebuyers and develop rental housing.

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The agencies have had a hard time raising money because of the housing crisis and credit crunch. This year, the agencies have sold about $4 billion in tax-exempt bonds — one-fourth the amount in a typical year. That reduction is limiting the number of loans they can make.

The new program uses mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to help fix the financing crunch. The two companies will package mortgages made by the housing agencies and sell them as bonds to the Treasury Department.

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CLICK HERE to read more.

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GOPers: DeMint Like A Jew "Watching Our Nation's Pennies"

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Two South Carolina County Republican Party chairmen stepped up to rebut criticism of Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) in a newspaper editorial Sunday. But their defense of the senator might be overshadowed by their use of an anti-Semitic stereotype to praise him.

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After a Democratic state senator wrote in The State that DeMint didn't bring enough money back home, Bamberg County GOP Chairman Edwin Merwin and Orangeburg County GOP Chairman James Ulmer responded that he was just looking after the nation's pennies -- like a Jew would.

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"There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves," Ulmer and Merwin wrote in a joint letter published by The Times and Democrat. "By not using earmarks to fund projects for South Carolina and instead using actual bills, DeMint is watching our nation's pennies and trying to preserve our country's wealth and our economy's viability to give all an opportunity to succeed."

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READ MORE --- Click here.

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Most Americans back govt health insurance plan: poll

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WASHINGTON (AFP) – A new poll released Tuesday found most Americans support one of the most controversial healthcare reform options being debated by lawmakers.

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The Washington Post-ABC News poll found 57 percent of Americans either strongly or somewhat support "having the government create a new health insurance plan to compete with private health insurance plans."

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Some 40 percent said they were strongly or somewhat opposed to the so-called public option, which President Barack Obama has said he favors but does not consider a non-negotiable component of any health care reform.

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READ MORE on health care – Click Here.

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Bean Amendment Beaten Back (For Now), A Blow To Wall Street

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In a major defeat for Wall Street banks, Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) has decided to withdraw an amendment that divided Democrats as they seek to impose stricter regulations on the financial industry.

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A keystone Democratic reform would create a federal Consumer Financial Protection Agency, but would allow states to pass more aggressive regulations. Wall Street banks have been fighting to include "federal preemption" in the legislation, meaning that state regulations could be no tougher than the federal guidelines. Consumer advocates said they'd rather have no bill than one with preemption because the banks could either capture the federal regulator or a new administration could strip its teeth out.

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CLICK HERE to read more on the Beaten Bean.

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Climate Spoof Forces Chamber To Decry ‘Public Relations Hoaxes’

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This morning, activists from the Yes Men troupe claiming to represent the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced the organization was reversing its years of opposition to any climate bill before Congress, saying in jest that the “Kerry-Boxer Bill is a good start to a strong climate bill.” CNBC and the Fox Business Network cited the many companies who have quit the Chamber as a reason for the fictional about-face.

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READ MORE at thinkprogress.org!

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Husband joins Army so cancer-stricken wife can get health care.

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One of the worst tragedies of the recession has been people losing their health insurance because they lost their job. Nearly 14,000 Americans lose their insurance every day. Wisconsin father Bill Caudle was laid off from his job at a plastics company in March 2009, which resulted in his family losing their employer-subsidized health care coverage. This put the family in an especially precarious position, because Bill’s wife, Michelle, was an ovarian cancer patient. After months of unsuccessfully looking for work, Caudle did the only thing he could to get his wife chemotherapy — he joined the Army

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CLICK HERE TO READ the rest of this story.

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Fix ‘Meet The Press’, Hire Rachel Maddow

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Let’s be honest, “Meet The Press” has been lost since Tim Russert’s passing. What used to be Sunday morning’s hardest-hitting, most compelling politics show has become a little soggy. David Gregory was a safe choice to replace Russert; he’s got credibility as a reporter, a bit of sense of humor, heck, he’s even pretty good-looking. And he’s made the show just that: safe. He doesn’t have fire. He doesn’t have Russert’s dogged determination, his inability to let an issue go before he gets to the truth. And “Meet The Press” isn’t the same without it.

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Agree?  Disagree?  READ MORE – Click HERE.

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If You Must Know:

Are Artificial Sweeteners Really That Bad For You?

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Too much sugar will make you fat, but too much artificial sweetener will ... do what, exactly? Kill you? Make you thinner? Or have absolutely no effect at all? This week marks the 40th anniversary of the Food and Drug Administration's decision to ban cyclamate, the first artificial sweetener prohibited in the U.S., and yet scientists still haven't reached a consensus about how safe (or harmful) artificial sweeteners may be. Shouldn't we have figured this out by now? (Read TIME's 1974 article on cyclmate and sacchrine.)

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The first artificial sweetener, saccharin, was discovered in 1879 when Constantin Fahlberg, a Johns Hopkins University scientist working on coal-tar derivatives, noticed a substance on his hands and arms that tasted sweet. No one knows why Fahlberg decided to lick an unknown substance off his body, but it's a good thing he did. Despite an early attempt to ban the substance in 1911 - skeptical scientists argued it was an "adulterant" that changed the makeup of food - saccharin grew in popularity, and was used to sweeten foods during sugar rationings in World Wars I and II...

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CLICK HERE for more on sweeteners.

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** On the tube last night, from Politico.com **

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(If the video is acting up, here is the link: http://www.politico.com/largevideobox.html?bcpid=15202024001&bclid=1201016315&bctid=45478569001 )

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Thoughts While Being Conservative

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If you want to have some sick, twisted video viewing, check out the “Ten Most Egregious Fox News Distortions.”  (Also known as Faux Nooz, Fux Znooz, Fox Lies, etc.)  The Huffington Post has these and it is a real reminder of what news IS NOT.

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CLICK HERE to watch.

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I’m getting used to/addicted to/dependent on Rachel Maddow on MSNBC.  Her interviews are getting better all the time and she’s getting some great guests.  Also, some freaks from the right have the guts to show up, so hats off to them for taking the leap.

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So she and Keith Olbermann may be sick puppies (according to George H.W. “Voodoo Economics” Bush, who is getting a little snippy in his senility, perhaps?) but they get the blood in this old exconservative pumping strong and fast.  I just wish I had time to watch both each night, from start to finish.

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Let me put in a plug for a favorite site for news updates while I’m wrapping up.  Make www.hinessight.com a regular stop as you cruise the internet.  Great site!

 

XCon

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"Out of the park!" - "Home Run!" - "He's back!"

  

 http://www.examiner.com/x-15870-Populist-Examiner~y2009m9d10-Joe-Wilsons-apology-is-meaningless

Who do you trust?

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Meanwhile, other things are happening.

This image released by the Supreme Court of the United States shows shows

Justice Sonia Sotomayor with her mother Celina Sotomayor and her brother

Dr. Juan Sotomayor in the Justices' Dining Room prior to Justice Sotomayor's

formal Investiture Ceremony in Washington on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009.

(AP Photo/Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States, Steve Petteway)

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Repaired Hubble telescope back in action

 

Planetary nebula NGC 6302, a star in the final stages of its life, in a dramatic new photo from the repaired Hubble Space Telescope.

(Credit: NASA)

NASA scientists showed off spectacular new pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope Wednesday, a stunning gallery of remote galaxies, a stellar nursery, an enormous globular cluster packed with countless pinpoint stars, and a dying sun blowing off its outer atmosphere in butterfly-like wings of debris. http://news.cnet.com/8301-19514_3-10348388-239.html

  

This undated handout image provided by NASA, released

Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009, taken by the refurbished Hubble

Space Telescope, shows a clash among members of a

famous galaxy quintet revealing an assortment of stars

across a wide color range, from young, blue stars to aging,

red stars.    (AP Photo/NASA)

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Caught out: Mike Duvall who sits on the California State

Assembly boasted about his two affairs without realizing

a microphone on his table was switched on.

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Assemblyman Mike Duvall resigns after his sex comments are broadcast

KCAL-TV in Los Angeles played a tape of the married Yorba Linda Republican speaking about sex with two women. He apparently did not realize a microphone was on during a legislative hearing.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-duvall10-2009sep10,0,2300584.story

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Dick Alert!  Dick Alert! 

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Protest brews over Cheney center at Univ. of Wyo.

By MEAD GRUVER, Associated Press Writer Mead Gruver, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 8, 5:51 pm ET

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – A decision by the University of Wyoming to name a new center for international students for former Vice President Dick Cheney is drawing criticism from people who say Cheney's support for the Iraq war and harsh interrogation techniques should disqualify him from the distinction.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090908/ap_on_re_us/us_cheney_center;_ylt=AqGb8RK.K9Uuio35inU9CiCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTMycm1zNmw2BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwOTA4L3VzX2NoZW5leV9jZW50ZXIEY3BvcwM4BHBvcwM1BHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5faGVhZGxpbmVfbGlzdARzbGsDcHJvdGVzdGJyZXdp

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Fed survey shows US recession may be over

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090909/ap_on_bi_ge/us_economy

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The Media Matters!

 

O'Reilly Called For More "Czars" During Bush Administration

Related

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Are the Days of Drudge Over?

By Gillian Reagan

September 8, 2009 | 7:26 p.m

Just over a month ago, Linda Douglass, a former ABC News correspondent and current communications director for the Obama administration’s Health Reform Office, appeared in a video posted on the White House’s official blog titled “Facts Are Stubborn Things.”  http://www.observer.com/2009/media/are-days-drudge-over

 

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WATCH Bill Clinton: Cronkite An "Astonishing Man," He Helped Me During Lewinsky Drama

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Just because there are a lot of choices doesn't mean there is a

lot of competition in the American beer market.

Tim Boyle / Getty Images file

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AB InBev Executive Pay Increases 92% on Bonuses, Trends Reports While Prices Go Up, Up, Up

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Is Big Beer too drunk with power?

As fewer brewers compete, case could be made for antitrust action

By John Martens

Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s compensation for its 13-member executive board jumped 92 percent in the first half as the world’s largest brewer resumed bonus payments, Trends reported, citing company documents.

Total compensation for the executive board led by Chief Executive Officer Carlos Brito increased to $73 million in the first half from $38 million a year earlier, Trends said on its Web site today. The figure includes taxes, social-security contributions, pension-plan payments and the cost of stock options, according to the weekly magazine.

AB InBev management received bonuses in the first half after reaching internal targets for market-share gains, cost cuts and the reduction of debt, Trends reported. The executives didn’t receive any bonuses last year, according to the magazine.

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Something is wrong with the world when beer prices keep going up, wages are flat or falling, and the CEO-types are raking in the megabucks from their foreign corporate owners.  Time to investigate!  I feel so UN-republickscum when I say that.

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A little humor?  This is NOT me but I know how he feels!

  

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The President was great and his speech was just what we needed to hear.  Sadly, the GOP acted like spoiled, angry kids at a boring family event.  They are truly a shame and I’m so glad I escaped that lunacy.  It is great to have a sense of humor, a sense of pride, and some hope back in my thinking!   Someday, I'll write of my life as a Republickscum and what made me open my mind and realize I needed a change.

XCon

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Check out the links and know what is going on.  My favorite site these days is www.hinessight.com

because they really stay on top of what is happening.

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