ExConservative - The GOP Left Me!

Jon Stewart makes Conan, Leno and others seem childish.

 

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Haiti Earthquake Reactions
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

 

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We all owe Jon Stewart a big thank you, a huge "attaboy" for his constant and emotional outing of lies, liars and scoundrels.  Sure, he's a comic and a damn good one, but Jon has a heart and a sense of right vs. wrong and his mother and father must have really given him a great moral compass, as he just keeps saying and showing things that others run from.  I am personally grateful that he does what he does.  Watching his show should be required viewing (on Comedy Central or on the web) so that truth wins out!

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Speaking of truth, CNN really shines when there is a real news situation, don't they?  While the others dragged their feet or used the earthquake in Haiti for talk-show fodder and bull$hit, CNN really moved right in and did NEWS.  Yep, NEWS.  They get the "who, what, where, why, how and who-said-so" that is called JOURNALISM when disaster strikes.  Luckily, I'm not the only one who noticed.  The Los Angeles TIMES must still be in the NEWS business!

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Bill Clinton I can see helping in Haiti, but a BUSH?  Oh my God, what a ghostly thought.  George W. in a disaster?  Hell, he IS a disaster!  But, if he can help at all, he does OWE society for all his transgressions, so I hope they work his sorry ass into the ground.  Bubba, put his nasty nose to the grindstone, please.

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Cliff - The XCon

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CNN does it right in Haiti, but Fox drops the ball

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Anderson Cooper clambered to the top of a pile of rubble along a ruined Port-au-Prince street, joining the clutch of men digging fervently inside a dark crevasse. As his cameraman zoomed in on a pair of small, naked feet, the CNN anchor described the struggle to free 13-year-old Bea.

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The images swept the cable station's audience, in an instant, into a moment as intimate as it was epic, as unsettling as it was affirming -- a microcosm of Haiti's struggle these last three days. Could a handful of amateur rescuers, armed with a single shovel, win one skirmish against the country's sweeping devastation?

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A few moments later, the men dragged the dusty, disheveled girl -- one leg probably broken -- into the sunlight. Some 18 hours after a massive earthquake, Cooper and his CNN colleagues were the first Western broadcast journalists who delivered the most indelible images from the heart of the impact zone. So he had the privilege Wednesday afternoon of interviewing Bea, who told the world that, despite her cries: "I wasn't scared. I wasn't scared of anything."

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Haiti's misery and suffering have been hard to watch, but they have offered confirmation of the invaluable contributions made in times of crisis by mainstream news outlets like CNN.

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CLICK HERE to read the full story.

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Bill Clinton to the Rescue

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The Haitian earthquake has put Bill Clinton squarely back on the world stage. And this mission is personal.

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Last May, when the United Nations dispatched Bill Clinton to Haiti, it felt as if Clinton was slinking off the world stage. That changed Tuesday afternoon. Hours after an earthquake leveled Haiti’s capital, the world’s most famous U.N. envoy was manning his own multimedia situation room. He gave updates to Wolf Blitzer on CNN. He wrote an article for Time magazine assuring readers that “Haiti isn’t doomed.” In The Washington Post, Clinton sketched out a relief plan for what he called “one of the great humanitarian emergencies in the history of the Americas.”

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It felt awfully… presidential. Clinton, whom Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had assured us would be kept far from the center of American foreign policy, was, by chance events, back in the center of it.

Clinton “has the moral authority to call the world to action,” Paul Begala said.

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Just as he did after the Asian tsunami in 2004, the former president has been working nonstop to raise cash and coordinate relief efforts. Clinton’s online appeal for emergency donations generated more than $3.7 million in 24 hours, his aides said. Another program would raise even more money through text-message donations. George W. Bush joined Clinton’s fundraising effort at Obama’s behest.

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Read more – CLICK HERE!

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Microsoft Warns of IE Flaw That Compromised Google

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New evidence points to a previously unknown vulnerability in Internet Explorer as the hole through which criminals recently attacked Google and other companies, rather than a known, but unpatched vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat and Reader, as had previously been claimed.

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Microsoft has issued an advisory for the new vulnerability in IE listing every currently supported version except IE5 on Windows 2000 as vulnerable. As described by Microsoft: "It is possible under certain conditions for [an] invalid pointer to be accessed after an object is deleted. In a specially-crafted attack, in attempting to access a freed object, Internet Explorer can be caused to allow remote code execution."

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Read more – CLICK HERE – while you still can!

 

 

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The Big Question:

Could a Republican win the Kennedy seat?

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Some of the nation's top political commentators, legislators and intellectuals offer insight into the biggest question burning up the blogosphere today .

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Today's question:

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What are the chances that the GOP will win the late Sen. Edward Kennedy's (D-Mass.) Senate seat?

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Peter Navarro, professor of Economics and Public Policy at UC-Irvine, said:

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A low turnout, special election favors the Reps. Scott Brown is a better campaigner with a more trenchant message. The Dems are blowing it on just about every issue.  Hell yea, the guy can win. But even if it’s close, the Reps get a PR win. Wake up Dems! To squander all the political capital Bush gave you in less than two years would be quite an “achievement.”

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Ron Walters, professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, said:

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I don't think Scott Brown will take Edward Kennedy's seat because in the first place, the apparent ineptness of the campaign waged by Martha Coakley has been supplemented (and I think, corrected) by the recent arrival of a team of experienced campaign staff from the DCCC and others, giving her much need support. Then, there is the substantial advantage Democrats enjoy in the State, where one million more Democrats than Republicans were enrolled in the presidential election of 2008 and two years earlier, Deval Patrick won by more than 500,000 votes. So, if the Democratic machine is able to sufficiently overcome whatever angst there may be in their constituency about the economy, they should be able to affect a decent turnout. Lastly, the emotional symbolism of the fact that this is Ed Kennedy's seat will play not only on Democrats, but I suspect, some Republicans who acknowledge that he did, after all, fashion bipartisan coalitions in every way possible to achieve his historic legislative accomplishments.

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Read more – CLICK HERE!

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David Axelrod blasts Karl Rove

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David Axelrod is confronting the audacity of Rove.

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In an op-ed in Friday’s Washington Post, President Barack Obama's political guru comes out swinging against Karl Rove, who did the same job for President George W. Bush.

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And Ax's message for Rove is pretty clear: You've got some nerve accusing Democrats of running up the deficit.

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Rove made the charge in a short item in Sunday’s Post where he purported to offer some political advice to Democrats in advance of this fall’s midterm elections.

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Axelrod snaps back, “Given the shape in which the last administration left this country, I'm not sure I would solicit his advice. And given the backhanded advice he offered, I'm not sure he was all that eager to help.”

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Read more – CLICK HERE!

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Report: Pentagon mulls ’separate but equal’ gay policy

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'Now is not the time' to repeal DADT, Pentagon lawyers argue

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Gay rights activists are sounding the alarm about a Pentagon legal memo that advocates delaying any decision about the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy until 2011, as well as a news report that military brass are considering separate facilities for gay soldiers.

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The New York Times' Elisabeth Bumiller reported Friday that the Department of Defense is "stepping up internal discussions" on the military's 17-year-old DADT policy in anticipation of a push to repeal the law this year. Those discussions are targeting "the practical implications of a repeal — for example, whether it would be necessary to change shower facilities and locker rooms because of privacy concerns, whether to ban public displays of affection on military bases and what to do about troops who are stationed or make port calls in nations that outlaw homosexuality."

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Read more – CLICK HERE!  (Go to the back of the bus?)

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Week In Culture

Best of the Rest

This week, Pee-wee Herman makes a comeback, watch the new Karate Kid in action, and Barack Obama caves to Lost fans.

 VIEW OUR GALLERY. More

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Conan's Exit Confirmed

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The late-night nightmare is almost over. Conan O’Brien is leaving NBC and receiving a payout—and he’ll be free to appear on another network before his contract expires, Kim Masters reports.

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The NBC-Leno-Conan war is close to ending, according to a knowledgeable source. According to the outlines of a settlement, Conan O'Brien will leave NBC and the network will make an as-yet unspecified payment. The comedian will be free to appear elsewhere on television well before his contract expires, despite earlier threats from NBC that it would prevent him from working anywhere else.

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There is still opportunity for the negotiation to fall apart, but clearly, at this point it is in NBC's interest to put an end to this dismal episode.

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Read more – CLICK HERE!

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Kimmel On Leno:

Jimmy Goes After Jay On His Own Show (VIDEO)

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Jimmy Kimmel did an entire show this week pretending to be Leno...and the impression was not flattering. Kimmel has clearly landed on Team Conan since NBC's late night drama began.

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To heal the rift, or to have a little fun at his own expense, Leno invited Kimmel on his show last night. Done via satellite for Leno's recurring "10 at 10" feature, Kimmel didn't pull any punches. When asked for the best prank he ever pulled, Jimmy responded:

"I told a guy that 'five years from now, I'm going to give you my show.' And then when the five years came, I gave it to him. And then I took it back almost instantly. I think he works at Fox or something now."

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Read more – CLICK HERE!

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Television Clips Worth Watching

 

 

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Intro - 01/14/10
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

 

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Haiti Earthquake Reactions
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

 

The Rachel Maddow Show

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 

Thoughts While Meandering Thru The Web And Beyond.

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Calling Galatic Storms To Earth - Take the TeaBaggers, please.

 

 

What a way to start the new year:  TeaBaggers again!

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Isn’t it enough that the Party Of No has pretty much changed the electrical charge of our world from positive to negative?  Now they and their vile splinter group are back furthering the cause of negativity.  Is it wrong to wish that somehow a galactic whirlwind would strike the earth and take away Sen. DeMint, that twisted woman from Minnesota, Michelle Bachmann, zap to some other world the likes of Dick Cheney, and as if by some miracle, take the TeaBaggers to a planet far, far away where they can protest for eternity of things they have not nearly enough brains to understand???????

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I took some time away from my regular life and blogging and I come back and the Republicskum and their fecal-matter-for-brains bull$hit continues!  Imagine that, what a surprise that Christmas made them even more skanky, smelly, rotten, hateful and ugly.  I guess that Jesus saved positive things and thoughts for the good boys and girls, rather than the fools who so twist and rape his life and message for their own evil causes. 

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I’m going to take a deep breath and picture that galactic storm readying the cleansing of Earth.

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Cliff – The XCon

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New Mexican Tea Partiers Bring Guns To Anti-Obama Rally

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A group of tea partiers and Second Amendment activists in New Mexico decided to kick off the new decade with a show of arms at a demonstration protesting President Obama's "socialist" policies, according to local media reports via Think Progress.

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Over three hundred people attended the protest in Alamogordo in southern New Mexico, which was organized by the Otero Tea Party Patriots and a group called the Second Amendment Task Force.

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The Alamogordo Daily News got a picture of one man with a rifle and a sign that says, "No To Obama Care / No To Congess (sic) Spending / No To Stimulus / Replace Comunist (sic) in DC".

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The AP reports that there were "plenty of handguns and rifles displayed ... but no violence."

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CLICK HERE for more!

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The Jewish Kennedys

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Think the Emanuel brothers—Rahm, Ari, and Zeke—are power players? Wait till you meet their ambitious, ridiculously precocious kids. Rebecca Dana on the political dynasty’s next generation.

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This spring, the next great American dynasty will take a spiritual vacation. No, the Kennedys aren’t off to Hyannis Port. The Bushes aren’t whacking brush somewhere in Central Texas. The Roosevelts aren’t in Oyster Bay.

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The Emanuel boys are heading to Israel.

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Ari and Rahm Emanuel are returning to the land of their forefathers—and their actual father, Benjamin—to celebrate the bar mitzvahs of their eldest sons, Noah and Zach. That’s two more Emanuel men coming of age. And if you think the current generation is insufferably driven and accomplished (all three, including older brother Zeke, being titans in Hollywood, government, and medicine), just wait till you see the mensches in the wings.

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CLICK HERE for more!

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January 3: Top 8 Moments From Sunday Talk

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Obama's counterterrorism adviser suggests Dick Cheney is "ignorant," Brit Hume helps Tiger Woods find God, and Howard Kurtz blasts Brian Williams. That and more in our weekly roundup.

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Brit Hume Helps Tiger Woods Find God

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It was just supposed to be a light segment of 2010 predictions by the Fox News Sunday roundtable, but Brit Hume managed to take his prognostication a bit too far. The Fox commentator says there’s still hope for scandal-ridden golfer Tiger Woods—he just has to drop that whole Buddhist thing and go Christian to find forgiveness

 

 

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Former Bush officials avoid publicly supporting

Obama’s policies out of fear of ‘Cheney’s circle.’

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Reporter Peter Baker has a New York Times Magazine piece out today about “Obama’s War on Terrorism.” Matt Yglesias flags an interesting passage from the article revealing the cowardice of former Bush administration officials:

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CLICK HERE for more!

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PPIP: Banks 'Making A Killing' On

Government Toxic Asset Program

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Remember the Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP)? The Treasury Department unveiled the program in March and intended it as a way to help banks unload hard-to-sell (read: often toxic) mortgage securities. In short, private investors partnered with the government to get bad loans off the banks' books -- and everyone, including taxpayers, was supposed to come out ahead on the proceeds of the asset sales.

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But, as Bloomberg reports this morning, some of the nation's largest banks have actually bought more risky home loans instead of getting them off their balance sheets.

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In other words, the program that was supposed to help banks dispose of these toxic assets instead made those assets so marketable that banks bought more -- which has pushed Wall Street's titans to even greater exposure to the stalled housing market. The banks apparently decided that the government's entry into the mortgage security market was simply a guaranteed money-making opportunity.

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CLICK HERE for more!

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Op-Ed Columnist

That 1937 Feeling

By PAUL KRUGMAN

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Here’s what’s coming in economic news: The next employment report could show the economy adding jobs for the first time in two years. The next G.D.P. report is likely to show solid growth in late 2009. There will be lots of bullish commentary — and the calls we’re already hearing for an end to stimulus, for reversing the steps the government and the Federal Reserve took to prop up the economy, will grow even louder.

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But if those calls are heeded, we’ll be repeating the great mistake of 1937, when the Fed and the Roosevelt administration decided that the Great Depression was over, that it was time for the economy to throw away its crutches. Spending was cut back, monetary policy was tightened — and the economy promptly plunged back into the depths.

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This shouldn’t be happening. Both Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman, and Christina Romer, who heads President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, are scholars of the Great Depression. Ms. Romer has warned explicitly against re-enacting the events of 1937. But those who remember the past sometimes repeat it anyway.

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CLICK HERE for more Krugman!

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Quick Fact: Doocy ignores Bush policies to claim Abdulmutallab criminal charges "takes us back to the

days of the Clinton administration"

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On the January 4 edition of Fox & Friends, Steve Doocy claimed that the decision to try Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is alleged to have attempted to set off a bomb on a Northwest Airlines flight, in civilian court, rather than holding Abdulmutallab as an "enemy combatant," "takes us back to the days of the Clinton administration, when things like this were treated as a law enforcement issue, and not as a national security issue." In fact, the Bush administration also tried and convicted several terrorism suspects in civilian court.

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CLICK HERE for more Fox swill!

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Bush Calls Last Decade ‘Tough Act to Follow'

Former President Looks Back on ‘Greaterest Decade'

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CRAWFORD, TX (The Borowitz Report) - The decade just past was "an awesome one in just about every way" and will be hard to top, according to former President George W. Bush.

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In a new interview with the former president, Mr. Bush reflected on the highlights of what he believes will be known as "The Greaterest Decade."

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Read more from Andy Borowitz by clicking here.

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Op-Ed Columnist

New Year’s Resolutions

By MAUREEN DOWD

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WASHINGTON

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Janet Napolitano and I hadn’t planned to spend New Year’s Eve together.

But there we were on this soggy Thursday, sitting in her office on the outskirts of the city, beside a big, black leather saddle that was a gift from the governor of Sonora, Mexico, when Napolitano was governor of Arizona.

I was working on the last night of the decennium horribile dictu, so I had tried to think of who else might also be burning the midnight oil instead of clinking the midnight bubbly.

The answer was obvious.

The homeland security chief’s terrible week began on Christmas Day when she got a call at her brother’s house in Danville, near San Francisco, telling her about the foiled terrorist attack.

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CLICK HERE for more from Maureen!

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The Geek Freaks

Why Jaron Lanier rants against what the Web has become.

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Jaron Lanier's You Are Not a Gadget has one of the more sobering prefaces to be found in recent books. "It's early in the twenty-first century, and that means that these words will mostly be read by nonpersons," it begins. The words will be "minced into anatomized search engine keywords," then "copied millions of times by some algorithm somewhere designed to send an advertisement," and then, in a final insult, "scanned, rehashed, and misrepresented by crowds of quick and sloppy readers." Lanier's conclusion: "Real human eyes will read these words in only a tiny minority of the cases." My conclusion: Is that really such a bad thing?

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Lanier is best known as a pioneer of virtual reality and an early star of Wired magazine. He was the guy with the dreadlocks and the giant V.R. goggles perched on his forehead, the epitome of the hippie-shaman-guru strain in tech culture. In what may have been a high point, Lanier's V.R. glove was used to power the graphics in a Grateful Dead video. Lanier lost his company in the early '90s in a then-legendary flameout, and he has been working in the seams of academia and Silicon Valley ever since. He's the barefoot guy in the conference room, ever creative, childlike.

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CLICK HERE for more!

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'Avatar' Rules Box Office For Third Straight Weekend

James Cameron's sci-fi blockbuster earns over $1 billion worldwide to become the fourth-highest-grossing movie of all time.

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Box-Office Top Five

#1 "Avatar" ($68.3 million)

#2 "Sherlock Holmes" ($38.4 million)

#3 "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" ($36.6 million)

#4 "It's Complicated" ($18.7 million)

#5 "The Blind Side" ($12.7 million)

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The third time isn't just the charm for "Avatar" — it marks yet another notch in the science-fiction epic's ever-increasing success story.

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James Cameron's latest film once again topped the box office for its third consecutive weekend with a $68.3 million intake, a mere 9.7 percent drop from last weekend's $75.6 million. "Avatar" now holds the record for highest-grossing second and third weekends for a non-sequel, though that isn't the film's only cause for celebration. To date, "Avatar's" domestic tally is priced at $352.1 million, which combines with foreign numbers for a worldwide total of $1.022 billion.

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CLICK HERE for more, but not in 3-D!

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Op-Ed Guest Columnist

Ten for the Next Ten    

By BONO

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Dublin

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IF we have overindulged in anything these past several days, it is neither holiday ham nor American football; it is Top 10 lists. We have been stuffed full of them. Even in these self-restrained pages, it has been impossible to avoid the end-of-the-decade accountings of the 10 best such-and-suches and the 10 worst fill-in-the-blanks.

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And so, in the spirit of rock star excess, I offer yet another.

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The main difference, if it matters, is that this list looks forward, not backward. So here, then, are 10 ideas that might make the next 10 years more interesting, healthy or civil. Some are trivial, some fundamental. They have little in common with one another except that I am seized by each, and moved by its potential to change our world.

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CLICK HERE for more from Bono!

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Bulletin!  Bulletin!  We’ve received an urgent request for some humor.  Please prepare for a visual and mental orgasm of same.  The Gallery is now OPEN.

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Big Business and The Right - Do They Hate Women So Much?

 

What's the deal with daily attacks on women and their health care?

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First some statistics freaks report that women don't need mammograms until after age 50, which is bullshit.  I don't know many people who have not dealt with breast cancer in their families.  The stories I hear that have "decent endings" involve early detection and intervention.  So many moms and sisters and daughters and cousins are alive at 47 or 50 or 58 because of mammography in their late 30's and 40's, thus what male chauvinist pig would deny the need for testing?

 

Next comes telling girls and women that pap smears are not as necessary as had been believed, so delay the start of the testing and save time and money and feed the corporate greed of the insurance companies.  Again, bullshit.  We need MORE testing, not less.  I have women I love very much who have endured the testing, complaining about the process (and male doctors who use cold instruments...) and are alive and living today because of a little spot that the test uncovered.

 

The crap about false positives must be more corporate disinformation, sort of like saying that if we try the terrorists here, other terrorists will come to America and will be visiting the prisoners.  Yep those terrorist visitors are actually dumber, then, than Sarah Palin?  Can't you see them lined up on visiting day?  ATTENTION RIGHT-WING DUMMIES:  Let them visit.  We can arrest them en mass and make this a better world.

Back to health care for women:  Self-exams are not necessary?  Holy F-king BULLSHIT - how idiotic.  It costs nothing to self-exam and if one person's life is saved because millions of free, private self-exams, what's the harm?  When I heard this latest report, I wanted to take a bulldozer to the freaks that seem to want to have women and girls ignore reality, take unnecessary chances, and well, die early, I guess.  (Men might want to pay attention - breast cancer is "equal-opportunity," so we're next!)

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We should all reject this crap and tell Congress and the Administration to not let this disinformation make its way into "standard procedure."  Lives are at stake, families are at risk, that it sure wouldn't be good for anyone's heterosexual marriage.  (Or, lesbian relationships, either...)

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Hopefully, the Queen Of Media will bring this to light before she finishes her 25 years.

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Cliff - The XCon

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Winfrey announces end of 'Oprah'

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(CNN) -- Oprah Winfrey knows how to keep viewers on the edge of their seats.

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In the last 10 minutes of her show, Winfrey confirmed that she will be ending her syndicated "Oprah Winfrey Show" in September 2011.

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"After much prayer and months of careful thought, I thought that next season, season 25, will be the last season of 'The Oprah Winfrey Show,' " she told the audience.

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"You may hear a lot of speculation in the press about why I'm making this decision now, and I wanted you to hear it from me," she said. "Twenty-four years ago on September 8, 1986, I went live from Chicago to launch the first show. I was beyond excited, and a little nervous."

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CLICK HERE – Read more!

 

 

 

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Oprah: Sarah Palin Admits To Being Naive, Loving Unprotected Sex, and Enjoying Porn

 

 

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Conservative media frequently accuse

progressives of "raping" Americans

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Conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Michael Savage frequently employ rape metaphors when discussing progressives or progressive policies. For example, Beck said that New Yorkers are "being raped by [their] government," while Limbaugh, during a discussion of health care, told his listeners: "Get ready to get gang-raped again.

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CLICK HERE – Read more!

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The former vice president returned to 30 Rock Thursday night in honor of NBC's "Green Week"—delivering an unexpectedly funny performance as the light bulb-changing janitor. If only Gore could bring this comedic timing to all his appearances.

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In this new Twitter world of fragmented media, Washington Post media critic Howie Kurtz says that there are few personalities left from the previous generation of trusted icons, and that Oprah's exit in 2011 will mark yet another shift in the landscape. CNN

Fox News' year in apologies: fake videos, false info, cutting and pasting from GOP

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On November 19, co-host Jane Skinner apologized for Happening Now "mistakenly" airing a fake video of Sarah Palin's book tour "crowds." This was not the first time Fox News has apologized for airing fake videos and false information.

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Fox News' year in apologies:

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Fox News presents year-old Palin footage as new Palin book tour crowd. As Think Progress first noted, on the November 18 edition of Happening Now, guest co-host Gregg Jarrett used old footage -- which he said was "just coming in to us" -- of a McCain-Palin rally from last year to illustrate how Sarah Palin is "continuing to draw huge crowds" during her book tour. The following day, Skinner apologized for "mistakenly" airing the fake crowd video.

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Stewart blasts Hannity for using old video footage to inflate Bachmann rally attendance. During the November 10 edition of Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Stewart blasted Fox News host Sean Hannity for attempting to inflate the crowd size of Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-MN) Fox News-fueled GOP rally against health care reform by using footage of the crowd at the better-attended 9-12 rally. On the November 11 edition of his program, Hannity said he "screwed up" and apologized for airing "incorrect video" of 9-12 protests while discussing the Bachmann rally.

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CLICK HERE – Read more!

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Like An '08 Flashback: OFA Targets Sarah Palin As 'Dangerous'

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Organizing for America, the DNC's campaign arm set up to support President Obama's agenda, has a familiar target today: Sarah Palin.

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Mitch Stewart, OFA's director, told supporters in an email just now they need help to raise "$500,000 in the next week to push back against Sarah Palin and her special interest allies."

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His argument is that Palin's "lies" about health care are "widely covered by the media, then constantly echoed by right-wing attack groups and others who are trying to defeat reform." He uses her death panels meme as an example.

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In his book "The Audacity to Win," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said he was shocked that Palin was such a good fundraising driver for the team.

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CLICK HERE – Read more!

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‘Read the stimulus’ advocate Dick Armey slammed

for not bothering to read the stimulus.

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Yesterday, the House Oversight and Government Reform committee held a hearing on the implementation of the Recovery Act, also known as the stimulus. Republican members invited former GOP Majority Leader Dick Armey, who now leads the corporate front group FreedomWorks, to testify as their expert witness. After listening to Armey argue at length about the merits of even having any government intervention in the economy, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) asked him if he supported the unemployment compensation provisions of the bill. Armey said he might, but conceded that he had not read that portion of the bill. Van Hollen then extracted a confession that Armey had not even read the bill at all, even though he was appearing as an expert and repeatedly goes before the press to criticize the stimulus...

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CLICK HERE – Read more!

 

 

 

 

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The Gallery Is Functioning

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But, Is The Country?

 

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Health Care & The Law of Unintended Consequences (CAUTION)

The Law In Action

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All we want is a better system of health care.  Sure, that includes insurance that is not a rip-off, doctors being paid fairly, services of every American, fair prices for drugs, and much more.  A lot is on the “to-do-list” but this is the USA where it should be possible if you, as a nation, make it happen.

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Sadly, there is the Law of Unintended Consequences and it is powerful and unyielding.  For every action, there is a reaction, which then breeds further reactions and re-reactions and GAZOOKS! – we are about to be screwed!

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The Republiskum are all pushing the noble idea of allowing insurance companies to operate across state lines.  Sounds good, but then the Law of Unintended Consequences kicks in and suddenly things get all mucked up.  Perhaps the consequences are not unintended at all, considering who is pushing this!  Read the article that follows and get ready to get pissed.  When it comes to the morbid right, nothing appears to be unintended.

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Then there are the drug companies raising their already ludicrous prices NOW so that any possible legislation won’t harm them.  Ripping off Americans seems to be their most important operational tenet.  Pigs, nasty filthy swine that are all about raping our economy and taking important medicines from Grandma and poor people. 

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Read these stories please!  Tell your friends to read them.  Until enough of us get horribly angry, we will continue to be hoodwinked by mealy mouthed democraps and perverted, greedy, lying republiskum conswervatives.

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Cliff the XCon

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Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough), shown in 2003, says insurance sales

across state lines "would be a huge problem for California consumers."

(Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times / August 14, 2003)

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Healthcare bills could jeopardize

states' consumer protection laws

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Opening the door for insurers to sell policies across state lines could allow health plans to avoid tougher requirements in places like California.

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Healthcare overhaul bills working their way through Congress could jeopardize laws in California and other states that require insurers to pay for treatments such as AIDS testing, second surgical opinions and reconstructive surgery for breast cancer patients.

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What's more, the federal legislation could make it virtually impossible for states to enforce other consumer protection laws, such as the right to appeal if an insurer denies coverage for a particular treatment.

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Healthcare overhaul bills in both the Senate and the House would open the door to insurers selling policies across state lines -- which some lawmakers fear could allow health plans to take advantage of the lenient rules in some jurisdictions while avoiding tougher enforcement regimes in places like California.

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"It would be a huge problem for California consumers," said Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough), who helped craft insurance laws when she served in the state Senate. "California is leading the way in terms of consumer protection, and I don't want to see that lost."

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Click Here to read the rest of the story.

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Drug Makers Raise Prices in Face of Health Care Reform

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Even as drug makers promise to support Washington’s health care overhaul by shaving $8 billion a year off the nation’s drug costs after the legislation takes effect, the industry has been raising its prices at the fastest rate in years.

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In the last year, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent, according to industry analysts. That will add more than $10 billion to the nation’s drug bill, which is on track to exceed $300 billion this year. By at least one analysis, it is the highest annual rate of inflation for drug prices since 1992.

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The drug trend is distinctly at odds with the direction of the Consumer Price Index, which has fallen by 1.3 percent in the last year.

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Click Here to read the rest of the story.

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Members of the organization MoveOn.org hold a rally in Nebraska in support of a public option for

health insurance. The reform debate has emphasized the public option, but only about 10 percent

of the population would be eligible. | AP Photo

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Health reform's hidden land mines

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After all the controversy over the public option, people might think that everyone can sign up right away if Congress passes health reform.

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Or that insurance premiums will go down.

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Or that they’ll be able to shop around for insurance if they don’t like what their company offers.

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Think again.

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When it comes to the public option, for instance, only about 1 in 10 Americans will be eligible, mainly people who don’t get insurance through work. Only about 6 million are expected to enroll. The plan doesn’t even start until 2013.

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And most people who get insurance on the job would have to stick with it. No shopping in the new “insurance exchanges” for them.

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Click Here to read the rest of the story.

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Internet Takes Another Step

Toward Being Truly "Worldwide"

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The World Wide Web is about to go global. Countries have been invited to propose internationalized domain names based on non-Roman characters and Egypt has proposed the first domain name to use the Arabic script.

The move comes less than a month after the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which oversees the Internet's naming and numbering systems, approved a plan to permit Web addresses in characters other than the Roman alphabet, including Arabic, Chinese, Hindi and Korean.

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The first official international domain names are expected to begin appearing sometime next year.

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Last month the 15-member ICANN board, meeting in Seoul, South Korea, voted unanimously to allow scripts other than Roman characters in domain names. The move came after six years of debate and technical work on the issue.

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Click Here to read the rest of the story.

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'2012' Spells Disaster For The Box-Office Competition

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Roland Emmerich's disaster film easily wins the weekend with

more than $200 million worldwide.

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World-ending scenarios are certainly cause for concern in reality, but moviegoers couldn't resist dabbling in doomsday this weekend with the release of Sony's "2012." Director Roland Emmerich, already known for disaster epics such as "Independence Day" and "The Day After Tomorrow," set the box office on fire once again with a $65 million weekend debut domestically and an additional $160 million overseas, resulting in a $225 million worldwide intake.

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The success of "2012" marks a major step forward for director Emmerich, whose last film, "10,000 B.C.," opened softly due to bad word of mouth from critics and audiences alike. Critics are still mixed on Emmerich's storytelling merits in "2012," but the director undeniably delivered a lucrative feature this time around for Sony. Indeed, "2012" is the studio's eighth first-place-finishing film of the year, joining an elite club that includes "Zombieland" and "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs."

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Click Here - to read more.

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Rogue Facts:

Media Matters' ongoing list of falsehoods in Palin's memoir

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Media Matters for America has documented numerous falsehoods in Sarah Palin's memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life. Below is a list of what we've found so far.

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1. Palin falsely suggests poor will be "hit hardest" by cap and trade

Palin: Obama "admitted" cap and trade will cause "electricity bills to 'skyrocket' " and "those hit hardest will be those who are already struggling to make ends meet." Palin falsely suggests that "those hit hardest [by cap and trade] will be those who are already struggling to make ends meet" and that Obama "has already admitted that the policy he seeks will cause our electricity bills to 'skyrocket.' " She added: "So much for the campaign promise not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year. This is a tax on everyone." [Going Rogue, Pages 390-391]

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CBO says poorest quintile will benefit from Waxman-Markey. The Congressional Budget Office found that in 2020, the version of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill that passed the House in June with the support of the Obama administration would result in a $125 average annual benefit to the quintile of households with the lowest income and a $160 average annual cost to all American households.

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Click Here to read the rest of the story.

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Conservatives To GOP:

Quit Your Gitmo Detainee 'Scaremongering'

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Three prominent conservatives warned in a joint statement against Republican "scaremongering" on Guantanamo Bay detainees, saying the prison in Thomson, Illinois would be fine to handle them.

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Former Republican Congressman and Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr, David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union and Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, have teamed up to urge the Gitmo detainees be taken to the U.S.

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Click Here to read the rest of the story.

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Retired Military Chaplains Announce Support

For Repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

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Last week, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) revealed the legislative timeline for a repeal of the military’s discriminatory Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy. “Military issues are always done as part of the overall authorization bill,” Frank told the Advocate. “’Don’t ask, don’t tell’ was always going to be part of the military authorization.”

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Now, the movement to repeal the ban on gay men and women from serving openly in the military has gained even more momentum. Three former military chaplains are announcing today that they support a full repeal of the DADT. In a Q&A released by VoteVets, the three men, Charles D. Camp, Chaplain (Colonel), USA (Ret.), John F. Gundlach, CAPT, CHC, USN (Ret.), and Jerry Rhyne, Chaplain (Colonel), USAF (Ret.), also addressed implementation concerns regarding a repeal...

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Click Here - to read the rest of the story.

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Op-Ed Columnist

World Out of Balance

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By PAUL KRUGMAN

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International travel by world leaders is mainly about making symbolic gestures. Nobody expects President Obama to come back from China with major new agreements, on economic policy or anything else.

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But let’s hope that when the cameras aren’t rolling Mr. Obama and his hosts engage in some frank talk about currency policy. For the problem of international trade imbalances is about to get substantially worse. And there’s a potentially ugly confrontation looming unless China mends its ways.

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Some background: Most of the world’s major currencies “float” against one another. That is, their relative values move up or down depending on market forces. That doesn’t necessarily mean that governments pursue pure hands-off policies: countries sometimes limit capital outflows when there’s a run on their currency (as Iceland did last year) or take steps to discourage hot-money inflows when they fear that speculators love their economies not wisely but too well (which is what Brazil is doing right now). But these days most nations try to keep the value of their currency in line with long-term economic fundamentals.

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Click Here - to read on...

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Op-Ed Guest Columnist

Five Scenes, One Theme: A True if Unlikely Story

 

By BONO

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EXT. BRANDENBURG GATE

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BERLIN, NOVEMBER 2009 — NIGHT

The camera cranes over a crowd of thousands gathered in Pariser Platz.

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An Irish band plays its song “One” in the city where it was written nearly 20 years earlier. The band is here for an MTV broadcast celebrating the anniversary of the wall’s falling. A helicopter shot glides like a ghost through the architecture of this most modern of cities: the avant-garde Chancellery, the glass dome at the top of the Reichstag, the refurbished Brandenburg Gate. Images of East and West Berlin dancing to the music are projected on the gate, turning this monument to peace into a graffiti wall of the same....

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We close in on the band. We can feel its sense of occasion. This is nothing new. One suspects THE SINGER approaches a trip to the bathroom with the same degree of vainglory. (To wit, is he not writing about himself now in the third person? He is.) On stage, he is emotional in the way we’ve come to expect. In this case it’s because a song written to help stop his band from falling apart has somehow become an unsentimental ode to unity — in this instance a bittersweet song for a bittersweet history.

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Click Here – to Bono on…

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You are in The Gallery

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Remember a world without Fox, Faux, FuxNooz?

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While at an extended family event over the last couple of days the subject of Fox News came up.  A couple of crazed older uncles and uncles-in-law truly believe that the sun rises and sets because of Faux, but I am happy to report that most of my family are realizing, thanks to Glenn Beck, that FuxNooz is a scam, not news, and is bad for America.

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And many of them are what we used to call conservatives.  Today they are expatriated republicskum, wandering with the party of Lincoln, left with the crazed monsters of the right trying to rule the world by any means.  It was also heartening to see that the younger Westins are NOT accepting the party line, and they make me proud.  How refreshing to attend a family gathering and find that the next generation is rejecting hate and fear and lies.

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I really hope that you have had, or will have, similar experiences.  It restores hope that there is a future, that the Constitution lives on, and that even today, kids can "get" that this country is WORTH IT.  I'd like to see their educations a little more Three-R's, but that's another subject for another day.

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XCon

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Fox News' rhetoric echoes Ailes' long history of race-baiting

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Under its president, Roger Ailes, Fox News routinely employs racially charged appeals to foment opposition to the Obama administration and other progressive figures, such as Glenn Beck's comments that President Obama is a "racist" and "has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture." Before launching the Fox News Channel, Ailes worked as a media consultant for several Republican campaigns where evidence shows he similarly appealed to racial fears and biases for political gain, and as executive producer for Rush Limbaugh's television show, during which Limbaugh made several controversial statements.

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READ MORE on Ailes.  Click here.

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Fox baselessly suggests states opting out of

public option would be paying something for nothing

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Following Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's announcement that the Senate health care reform bill will include a public option that each state could opt out of, several Fox News commentators baselessly suggested that states choosing not to participate in the public option would, in Karl Rove's words, have to pay taxes "for this sucker for decades," but "we're not going to get any of our money back." However, while Reid has yet to release details of the compromise Senate legislation, every other proposed bill with a public option so far has required the costs of the public plan to be covered by the premiums of those who enroll in it, and the taxes proposed in each of the bills are used to cover the expansion of coverage through Medicaid and subsidies to help certain families purchase insurance, both of which are provided to residents of every state regardless of any public option.

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MORE?  Click here to read the story.

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Seth Wenig/Associated Press

Maurice R. Greenberg, the former head of A.I.G.,

on his way to court in Manhattan last June.

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Ex-A.I.G. Chief Is Back,

Luring Talent From Rescued Firm

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Maurice R. Greenberg, who built the American International Group into an insurance behemoth with an impenetrable maze of on- and offshore companies, is at it again.

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Even as he has been lambasting the government for its handling of A.I.G. after its near collapse, Mr. Greenberg has been quietly building up a family of insurance companies that could compete with A.I.G. To fill the ranks of his venture, C.V. Starr & Company, he has been hiring some people he once employed.

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Now, Mr. Greenberg may have received some unintended assistance from the United States Treasury. Just last week, the Treasury severely limited pay at A.I.G. and other companies that were bailed out by taxpayers. That may hasten the exodus of A.I.G.’s talent, sending more refugees into Mr. Greenberg’s arms, since C. V. Starr is free to pay whatever it wants.

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The NERVE of this CROOK!  Click here to read more.

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Major Climate Hearings Start Today On Capitol Hill

As Administration Makes 'Green' Announcements

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With a clearer picture on health care, the Obama administration and Congress today are pivoting toward climate change legislation.

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The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee began hearings this hour on Chairman Barbara Boxer's bill, with President Obama's Green Cabinet expected to testify.

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Obama, meanwhile, is at a Florida solar power plant this morning announcing stimulus funds for a major investment in smart grid technology. An Obama aide tells TPMDC the president will talk about building the infrastructure for a clean energy economy.

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Vice President Biden will be making an announcement at a General Motors plant in Delaware that is reopening to make hybrid vehicles.

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Click here to continue!

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Rep. Grayson calls lobbyist 'K street whore' on radio

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Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) is under fire for calling a female lobbyist a "K street whore" in an interview recently aired on the radio.

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Speaking on the Alex Jones radio show, Grayson lashed out against Linda Robertson, a lobbyist fighting against Grayson's effort to audit the Federal Reserve.

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"This lobbyist, this K Street whore, is trying to teach me about economics," Grayson said, noting that he himself at worked as an economist.

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Grayson's spokesman defended the remarks.

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MORE?  Click here...

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Rep. Alan Grayson's (D-Fla.) derogatory takedown of Bernanke

aide drew rebukes from both sides of the aisle Monday night.

Photo: AP

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Alan Grayson goes too far for colleagues

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Republicans and Democrats slammed Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) for calling Linda Robertson, an adviser to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, a “K Street whore” in a month-old radio interview that circulated on Capitol Hill Monday night.

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“There’s no call for that language. No call for it. That’s absurd. If he was standing here now, I’d say that to him,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.)

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“He’s out of control,” added Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who is vice chairwoman of the House Republican Conference.

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The remarks are the latest to surface in a string of controversial statements by Grayson, who said on the Alex Jones radio show that he believes Robertson, a former Enron lobbyist, is not qualified to pass judgment on intricate financial matters.

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It’s clear that his colleagues’ opinion of him has suffered.

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Grayson story continues.  Click here.

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First US official resigns to protest Afghan war

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WASHINGTON – A former Marine who fought in Iraq, joined the State Department after leaving the military and was a diplomat in a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan has become the first U.S. official to resign in protest of the Afghan war, the Washington Post reported early Tuesday.

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Matthew Hoh said he believes the war is simply fueling the insurgency.

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READ MORE – Click here.

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In this Friday, Oct. 23, 2009, Chris Atkins, director of the

documentary 'Star Suckers' is seen during an interview

in his office in London.

(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

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New movie takes aim at celebrity journalism

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LONDON – What do Amy Winehouse's flaming beehive and Guy Ritchie's self-inflicted black eye have in common?

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Both stories appeared in the pages of Britain's tabloid press. Neither is true.

The two incidents were fake showbiz news tips phoned into newspapers by the makers of the new documentary "Starsuckers," to see whether they would be used without fact-checking. The fact that they were forms part of the movie's argument that the culture of celebrity has undermined journalistic standards and warped society's values.

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More?  Read on by clicking here.

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Former Fox Contributor:

I Left Because Of Beck

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Young People Speak Out Regarding

Efforts To Overhaul The Health Care System

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"As the health care debate winds its way through Congress, everyone can agree on at least this much: Bringing more young adults into the health care system would balance out the costs for everyone else because the young use the least amount of care," The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. But after that, the discussion becomes complicated, involving questions such as whether young people should be required to to buy insurance or whether they should be allowed to stay on their parents' insurance plans into their mid-20s? "These questions are prompting a particular group of voices to be heard as never before - young people themselves. And the stakes for them couldn't be higher"

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There may be HOPE.  Click here!

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Charles Nelson, president of Sprinkles Cupcakes, manages the

Beverly Hills company's pages on Facebook and other social

media websites.

(Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times / October 14, 2009)

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Facebook becoming big friend of small businesses

Firms are building fan bases on the social networking website and using it to connect with customers.

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Reporting from San Francisco - Charles Nelson, president of Sprinkles Cupcakes, the Beverly Hills baker to the stars, doesn't have a Facebook profile. Nelson, who works seven days a week, has no time for chatting online with Facebook friends.

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But Nelson is logged on to Facebook all the time. That's because more than 70,000 people have declared themselves fans of Sprinkles’ Facebook page, which has its own "vanity URL" at www.facebook.com /sprinkles.

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Each day on the website, Sprinkles announces a secret word, such as "ganache," or "bunny," or "tropical," or "love," and the first 25 or 50 people to show up at any of its five stores and whisper that word get a free cupcake.

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CLICK HERE to read the rest of the story.

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Well here's your problem right here, sir..

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OSLO (Reuters) – A man was caught by Norwegian customs carrying a tarantula in his bag, and a further 14 royal pythons and 10 albino leopard geckos taped to his body, media reported Monday.

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The 22-year-old Norwegian was stopped in a routine check by Kristiansand customs after arriving on a ferry from Denmark, newspaper Faedrelandsvennen reported.

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Customs found the tarantula, before deciding to give him a full body search that revealed 14 stockings -- one for each snake -- taped around his torso, top selling tabloid VG said.

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Reptile smuggling is not uncommon in Norway, which prohibits people holding many reptile species as pets, but office manager Helge Breilid at Kristiansand customs was quoted by VG as saying customs officers had been "horrified" by Sunday's catch.

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Creepy, crawly?  Read on...click here.

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The door slowly opens...to The Fun Stuff!

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Northwest Pilots Not in Cockpit;

Found at Home Hiding in Box

‘Happy Ending,' Airline Spokesman Says

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The Borowitz Report for more?  CLICK HERE

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Social Security, Insurance, Public Option, the discussion goes on... and on...

 

FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2005 file photo, trays of printed social security checks

wait to be mailed from the U.S. Treasury's Financial Management services

facility in Philadelphia. The Social Security Administration makes it official

Thursday Oct. 15, 2009: There will be no cost of living increase for Social

Security recipients next year, the first year without one since automatic ad-

justments were adopted in 1975.  (AP Photo/Bradley C Bower, File)

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Social Security makes it official: No COLA in 2010

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WASHINGTON – There will be no cost of living increase for more than 50 million Social Security recipients next year, the first year without a raise since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975.

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Blame falling consumer prices. By law, cost of living adjustments are pegged to inflation, which is negative this year, the government said Thursday, because of lower energy costs. Social Security payments do not go down, even when prices drop.

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The Obama administration, meanwhile, is pursuing a different way to boost recipients' income. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama called for a second round of $250 stimulus payments for seniors, veterans, retired railroad workers and people with disabilities.

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The payments would match the ones issued to seniors earlier this year as part of the government's economic recovery package. The payments would be equal to about a 2 percent increase for the average Social Security recipient.

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READ MORE – Click here.

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Rep. Shadegg: 'We're getting full on Russian gulag,

Soviet-style gulag healthcare.'

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Yesterday on the floor of the House of Representatives, Rep. John Shadegg

(R-AZ) ranted against health reform. While his colleagues have used

inflammatory rhetoric to denigrate various health proposals - like inventing

imaginary "death counselors" and saying reform will "absolutely kill

seniors" - Shadegg's speech hit a new low. Shadegg said health reform will

result in "Russian gulag, Soviet-style gulag healthcare":

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SHADEGG: You know, it occurs to me, and I'll go through these other scandals

very quickly, but what we're really getting here is we're not just getting

single-payer care. We're getting full on Russian gulag, Soviet-style gulag

health care [...] It appeared in last Friday's Wall Street Journal. You can

Google it. You can pick up the phone and call Kim Strassel. You can ask her

about Soviet-style gulag health care in America, where powerful politicians

protect their constituents.

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READ MORE FROM THIS BUFFOON – Click here.

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Chinese herbs show promise for diabetes prevention

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A number of traditional Chinese herbs may help

control blood sugar levels in people at high risk of diabetes, a new

research review suggests.

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The review, which examined 16 clinical trials of 15 different herbal

formulations, found that the herbs generally helped lower blood sugar levels

in people with "pre-diabetes" -- those with impaired blood-sugar control

that can progress to full-blown type 2 diabetes.

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When the researchers pooled data from eight of the studies, they found that

adding an herbal remedy to lifestyle changes doubled the likelihood of

participants' blood sugar levels returning to normal.

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What's more, people using the remedies were two-thirds less likely to

progress to diabetes during the studies, which ran for an average of nine

months.

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Read more on herbs – CLICK HERE!

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Photo Illustration by Megan Ruyle

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Financial regulations coming

as Wall Street shows recovery signs

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Lawmakers took a major step toward overhauling the nation's financial system

Wednesday as a House panel prepared to pass legislation.

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The House Financial Services Committee is slated to vote Thursday morning on

a measure reining in the multitrillion-dollar market for complicated

financial derivatives that many blame for exacerbating the crisis last year.

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The panel's work to bolster the regulatory system comes as Wall Street shows

new signs of recovering from the worst of the financial crisis. The Dow

Jones Industrial Average, in the middle of a bull rally, closed above 10,000

points, the highest level in more than a year.

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READ MORE – Click here for thehill.com -

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If President Barack Obama escalates the 'disastrous'

war in Afghanistan, Arianna Huffington has some advice

for Vice President Joe Biden: resign.    Photo: AP

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Huffington to Biden:

Resign if Obama escalates Afghan conflict

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If President Barack Obama escalates the "disastrous" war in Afghanistan,

Arianna Huffington has some advice for Vice President Joe Biden: resign.

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Planting The Huffington Post, her popular news and aggregation site, in an

ever firmer place to the left of the Obama administration, Huffington cited

the arguments Biden has made in private against Gen. Stanley McChrystal's

request for 40,000 additional troops in Afghanistan, and wrote that "if the

president does decide to escalate, Biden, for the good of the country,

should escalate his willingness to act on those reservations."

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Huffington's attack on the escalation plans under consideration by the White

House ran under a banner headline which said: "Arianna: Why Joe Biden Should

Resign."

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While Huffington Post was decidedly pro-Obama in its 2008 campaign coverage,

its editor-in-chief has not been afraid to take on his administration and

the Democratic Congress. Just a few days ago, she told ABC News's George

Stephanopoulos that embattled Democratic congressman Charles Rangel should

step down from his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee while under

an ethics investigation.

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Is she right?  Read more at POLITICO.COM -

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Betting against America

Praying the country will slip into chaos, to make Obama

look bad, is not a good place for a political party to be

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By Garrison Keillor

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Oct. 14, 2009 | Evidently some people were disappointed that Dick Cheney

didn't receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and believe me, I sympathize -- I

thought Philip Roth should've gotten the literature prize instead of that

grumpy Romanian lady with the severe hair -- but it was Mr. Obama whom the

Norwegians wanted to come visit Oslo in December and stand on the balcony of

the Grand Hotel and wave to the crowd along Karl Johans Gate, and, face it,

Mr. Obama is going to draw a bigger crowd than Mr. Cheney would have. When a

man has shot somebody in the face with a shotgun, people are going to be

reluctant to line up en masse in his presence lest he get excited again. As

for Mr. Cheney's boss, he was an unlikely pick for the Peace Prize after it

was revealed by a White House speechwriter in a recent memoir that Mr. Bush

once said, "I whupped Gary Bauer's ass." Boasting about ass-whupping is not

the mark of a Nobel Peace Prize winner. The correct word is "whipping."

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THE COMPLETE ESSAY at salon.com – click here.

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Checketts drops Limbaugh

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Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh was dropped from a group

bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams.

ESPN's Adam Schefter first reported the story on Wednesday.

Limbaugh was to be a limited partner in a group headed by St. Louis Blues

chairman Dave Checketts. Checketts said in a statement Wednesday that

Limbaugh's participation had become a complication in the group's efforts

and the bid will move forward without him.

Checketts told the Associated Press he will have no further comment on the

bid process.

Three-quarters of the league's 32 owners would have had to approve any sale

to Limbaugh and his group. Earlier this week, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim

Irsay predicted that Limbaugh's potential bid would be met by significant

opposition. Several players have also voiced their displeasure with

Limbaugh's potential ownership position, and NFL Players Association head

DeMaurice Smith, who is black, urged players to speak out against Limbaugh's

bid.

A Limbaugh spokesman told ESPN that Limbaugh would have no comment on

Wednesday. Earlier, on his syndicated radio show, Limbaugh was defiant,

holding on to hope that he still could be part of the ownership group that

buys the Rams.

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RUSH TO READ RUSH BEING OUT – Click here.

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Limbaugh Fumbles for Response to

Accusations of Racial Insensitivity

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Washington, DC - Today, after conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh

responded to critics of his bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams who have

stated that he is "insensitive" about race by claiming that he is

"colorblind" and "treat[s] everyone equally," Media Matters for America

released research documenting more than two dozen examples of Limbaugh

making racially charged or race-baiting remarks.

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"Rush Limbaugh's claim that he is colorblind is clearly contradicted by his

long history of offensive, racially charged statements," said Eric Burns,

President of Media Matters. "If he is blind to anything, it's his own

record."

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CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON THE RUSH STORY.

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Review: Windows 7 strong, but don't pay to upgrade

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer

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NEW YORK - Next week, Microsoft is releasing Windows 7, a slick, much

improved operating system that should go a long way toward erasing the bad

impression left by its previous effort, Vista.

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If you've been holding off on buying a new computer, Windows 7 will be a

good excuse to get back into the game. And if you've been weighing a Mac

versus a Windows PC, then you should know that "7" makes Windows more

attractive, though not a clear-cut choice for everyone. Windows is now

easier to use and better looking than it was before, while maintaining its

core advantage of cheaper, more diverse hardware.

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However, most PC users should not take the release of Windows 7 as a call to

action, or feel that they have to run out and buy the software for use on a

computer they're planning on keeping. The upgrade will most likely not be

worth the time or money, much less the effort of hosting a Windows 7 "launch

party" as Microsoft suggests.

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KEEPING UP WITH WINDOWS?  CLICK HERE FOR MORE.

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Bits & Pieces While Being Progressive

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Craig Crawford has some thoughts at CQ Politics...    

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The video is called “Forget GQ DC Top 50 Of '09, Here's CQ's Top 50 Of All Time”

By Craig Crawford

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LINK TO Craig:    http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/

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GAME SHOW HOSTESS GETS LOOSE

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This clip is going around the internet and a friend sent it to me yesterday and I could not believe it.  Watch and wonder at what you see.  Hey, at least she’s not an uptight Miss Priss who sublimates her feelings.

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And there’s more.  A little nostalgia from the 60's and 70's?

 

   

 

 

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Back to reality.  Let's pray that these guys (below) do the right thing and keep on pushing for some serious reform.  This is not the time to kick back; it is time to push harder and to straighten up the mess called HEALTH CARE.

XCon

 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., center, flanked by Senate Banking

Committee Chairman Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., left, and Senate Finance

Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., speaks about health care reform

legislation, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

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.Stay current with the important news: www.hinessight.com

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