The ultimate vanity plate:
Matt Taibbi: The plate belongs to Morgan Stanley Vice-Chairman Rob Kindler. The blunt double-entendre obviously referencing his banker-member, for which the Porsche-in-middle-age is already an overcompensating signal to the rest of the world, adds significantly to the humor for me. Thoughts?
###
Break-in attempts at leading climate change scientist
How shocking. Who would ever guess that someone who is working on changing the environment would be the target of break-ins days before a major climate change meeting in Copenhagen? The status quo will stop at nothing to maintain the wasteful, damaging system that we're stuck with today. They didn't spend billions building such a system only to let some scientists disrupt it. The story reminds me of a prosecuting judge over here who had similar experiences during investigations into the petroleum business and banks. The Guardian:
Attempts have been made to break into the offices of one of Canada's leading climate scientists, it was revealed yesterday. The victim was Andrew Weaver, a University of Victoria scientist and a key contributor to the work of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In one incident, an old computer was stolen and papers were disturbed.
In addition, individuals have attempted to impersonate technicians in a bid to access data from his office, said Weaver. The attempted breaches, on top of the hacking of files from British climate researcher Phil Jones, have heightened fears that climate-change deniers are mounting a campaign to discredit the work of leading meteorologists before the start of the Copenhagen climate summit tomorrow.
###
###
Frank Rich: Obama's Logic Is No Match for Afghanistan
###
"The Snow Machine Pummeled Through the White-Dusted Plain Like a Jubilant Beaver"
Slate held a Sarah Palin write-a-like contest. These are the winners.
##
Very cool finding, though perhaps not a complete surprise: monkeys can recognize their friends in photos.
###
It seems Afghans don't see themselves as afghans, but rather as members of individual tribes. Part of the reason is that they love their dope too much:
As someone who has spent time in Afghanistan, Howie pointed out that the thing that nobody seems to want to admit about Afghanistan is that it's not actually a country, its a bunch of tribes. And everybody's stoned --- their culture is organized around growing opium and they have the best hash in the world.We're doing nothing but wasting lives and money. Digby's money line is this:
This is not a value judgment. It's just an observation of a strong, thousand year old culture and thinking US soldiers can change it in a "couple, three years" is so absurd you just know they aren't even remotely serious about doing it.
But hey, maybe that's what they've got the DEA doing over there. After all, it's been such a roaring success here in the US.If it's up to the DEA to change attitudes over there, we'll be in the Hindu Kush for another century.
###
The never-ending pursuit for bipartisanship 
This ought to make you want to bang your head off your desk:
As the Senate convened a rare Saturday session, 10 Democratic senators continued intensive talks on the public option, with the goal of agreeing on a framework that can garner 60 votes. They are considering proposals that could win the support of one Republican, Sen. Olympia Snowe on Maine."As long as both sides are willing to give a little, we can meet in the middle," said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). "It may not be exactly what I'd like and exactly what they'd like, but we'll meet in the middle somewhere.
You know, as much as our national political chattering classes are enamored with the baby Jesus, I find it amazing that none of them ever managed to hear the story of King Solomon. For the life of me, I don't understand the workings of a mind that says "That is a terrible idea, but if we do it halfway, it becomes better!" As Tim has noted before, a weak public option is worse than no public option at all, and a carelessly constructed public option will just become a dumping ground for high-risk patients that will require billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars to prop up. A couple years ago I said that I thought health care reform was inevitable, the only question would be how bad we would make it and how quickly we would bankrupt ourselves with it. I thought at the time I was being too cynical, but the moderates in both parties are proving me wrong.
As such, we now charge forward in the spirit of bipartisanship, with every Senator apparently eager to rush home to show off their half of the bloody baby. At least Ben Nelson will be able to suckle at the insurance company teat for the next ten years or so of his life. A real patriot, that guy.
###
Among people for whom any lie told loudly enough is the same as truth, this should surprise no one
It's become part of the wingnut doctrine that it doesn't matter what the truth is, as long as you BELIEVE that something IS or COULD BE true, it's exactly the same as reality:
###
Today's honoree DougJ over at Balloon Juice, commenting on how the Washington Villagers are once again having the vapors over someone who isn't part of their little club.
Money quote:
But what this article is really saying is that Desiree Rogers isn't the right kind of person. That's what Socksgate and Travelgate and all that other bullshit was about too—the Clintons weren't the right kind of people. It's what all the bullshit about Michelle Obama's iPod and bare arms is about too.
I hate to go on and on about this, but it's pretty remarkable that the media insisted the Clintons being investigated for using White House postage to send letters from their cat and that the Obama White House be investigated because two weirdos crashed a White House party, but that the Bush White House should never be investigated for torture, politicizing the DOJ, falsifying intelligence, and (not that that I think this one is important but it is similar to the kinds of trivialities that are deemed important when they happen under Clinton or Obama) having a male prostitute show up to lob softball questions at White House briefings.
###
Why cats rule the world: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bcV-TL9mho&feature=player_embedded
###
Speaking of absolute dickishness
How the health insurance industry is proclaiming that they think health insurance reform is a good thing, while they are quietly working behind the scenes to kill it, including by funneling money to the teabaggers.
No surprise that the leading company in this two-faced dance of betrayal is Blue Cross.
What also torqued me off today is what Carly Fiorina, one of the Repulsivan candidates for Senate in California (you may recall that she is the one who couldn't be troubled to bother to vote in an election for most of her adult life because she was, in part, too busy running HP into the crapper) said this morning in the GOP Saturday morning response, which is the polite term for "a pack of complete fabrications belched out over the nation's airwaves."
This is, in part, what she said:
Beyond that, Carly, here is a second news flash: My doctors do not dictate a fucking thing to me. They can make recommendations, sure, but it's my body and my call. Which is as it should be for everyone. But we all know how much in love the party of Hooverites is with authority figures, so it shouldn't be any surprise that they think people act as though the doctors are in charge.
No surprise that the leading company in this two-faced dance of betrayal is Blue Cross.
What also torqued me off today is what Carly Fiorina, one of the Repulsivan candidates for Senate in California (you may recall that she is the one who couldn't be troubled to bother to vote in an election for most of her adult life because she was, in part, too busy running HP into the crapper) said this morning in the GOP Saturday morning response, which is the polite term for "a pack of complete fabrications belched out over the nation's airwaves."
This is, in part, what she said:
We wonder if we are heading down a path where the federal government will at first suggest and then mandate new standards for prevention and treatment. Do we really want government bureaucrats rather than doctors dictating how we prevent and treat something like breast cancer?Got a news flash for you, Carly: Most people have health insurance bureaucrats dictating how diseases are treated. It would take Carly all of fifteen seconds with Google to find a raft of stories about people who had treatments denied by health insurance bureaucrats.
Beyond that, Carly, here is a second news flash: My doctors do not dictate a fucking thing to me. They can make recommendations, sure, but it's my body and my call. Which is as it should be for everyone. But we all know how much in love the party of Hooverites is with authority figures, so it shouldn't be any surprise that they think people act as though the doctors are in charge.
###
Should we hope that the tips Barack took from Tiger were limited to golf?
###
Dear President Obama: You've Pretty Much Blown It: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/05-6
###
An Open Letter to Congress From US Scientists on Climate Change and Recently Stolen Emails
by Climate Experts
As U.S. scientists with substantial expertise on climate change and its impacts on natural ecosystems, our built environment and human well-being, we want to assure policy makers and the public of the integrity of the underlying scientific research and the need for urgent action to reduce heat-trapping emissions. In the last few weeks, opponents of taking action on climate change have misrepresented both the content and the significance of stolen emails to obscure public understanding of climate science and the scientific process.
We would like to set the record straight.
We would like to set the record straight.
###
Can you spare some change? Not in this America: http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/2009/12/can-you-spare-some-change-not-in-this.html
###
Name of U. S. Military Campaign in Afghanistan Changed from 'Operation Enduring Freedom' to 'Operation Enduring Operation'
