Headlines - Monday

Today is Martin Luther King Junior Assassination Day. Who could've predicted that just four decades after Dr. King's murder, poor white Americans would be hating a black president?

 

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The cost to U.S. taxpayers of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 has topped $1 trillion, and President Barack Obama is expected to request another $33 billion to fund more troops this year.

 

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How's that Afghanistan "surge" going?

KABUL, Afghanistan — Days before a major international conference on Afghanistan, militants launched audacious and coordinated attacks in central Kabul early on Monday, with explosions and gunfire echoing across the city. The Taliban said its fighters carried out the assault.
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Police and paramilitary officers at the scene said the onslaught began with an initial suicide bombing in the downtown area near the Justice Ministry, the Central Bank, the presidential palace and the Serena Hotel favored by Westerners. Hotel residents took cover in a basement as the fighting swirled above them, according to a BBC reporter at the hotel.

Militants have become increasingly bold in penetrating the capital as their campaign broadens in many parts of Afghanistan, prompting President Obama to promise 30,000 additional American troops to reinforce the international coalition.
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Yeah, I thought so. Wish we had a Wayback Machine and we could refresh our memories about the way they chased the Soviets out. We should set the dials for about '85 or '86 and we'd see the same things we are now.

 

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               Balloon man generally believed to be the most optimistic resident of Kabul.

 

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Why the US Owes Haiti Billions – The Briefest History

 

                    The topic is Haiti, and the man on the left is smirking. Why is that?

 

The King Shyster also warns to 'watch out for the shysters!'

 

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From C&L: This is Harold Ford Jr., who moved to New York and is running for the Senate as a Democrat:

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/harold-ford-jr-it-was-good-hear-president

 

I'm sure his Wall Street buddies are nostalgic for the sound of Bush's voice too. They never had to put up with a bunch of complaints about their obscene compensation when he was around, that's for sure.

 

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Your very own Pat Robertson voodoo doll, complete with Bible and money bag, is now up for auction on eBay. Proceeds go to the Haiti relief effort.

 

Now we need one of these:

 

 

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George Bush, who did nothing in the short (or long) term for Katrina - CNN

 

"Success is helping save lives in the short term, and then we can worry about the long-term after the situation has been stabilized."

 

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Evolution Geek Moment of the Week. "Alligators and birds share a breathing mechanism which may have helped their ancestors dominate Earth more than 200 million years ago, scientists say. Research published in the journal Science found that like birds, in alligators air flows in one direction. Birds' lung structure allows them to breathe when flying in low oxygen, or hypoxic, conditions. This breathing may have helped a common ancestor of birds and alligators thrive in the hypoxic period of the Triassic. "It might explain a mystery that has been around for quite some time", Dr Colleen Farmer from the University of Utah told BBC News. The mystery in question is why the archosaurs came to dominate Earth after the planet's worst mass extinction 251 million years ago."

 

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Because nothing says "Patriotic American" like advocating sexual assault of the opposing candidate, in today's Republican Party

 

Here's footage of the guy running for Ted Kennedy's old seat against Martha Coakley, smiling at someone in the crowd suggesting that she kill herself, and the "shove a curling iron up her butt" comment  ("She's malicious", the man the crowd cried out. "She's a phony!" shouted another. "Shove a curling iron up her butt!" a third man interjected a few moments later.), which originated here. 

 

Keep reading:

 

http://www.bostoncriminallawyerblog.com/2010/01/boston_ag_is_accused_of_mishandling_grand_jury_investigation_and_bail_issues_in_rape_case.html

 

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Photographic Evidence Adduced to Prove That Mary's Little Lamb Did Not Have 'Fleece as White as Snow'

 

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So, Mr. President, how's that "bipartisan" thing working out for ya?

 

You know, Barack, you're a smart fella. You didn't fall off a haytruck yesterday. You've been in the Senate, you know what these people are like. Whatever made you think that "bipartisanship" would work? What in the rhetoric of the Republican Party has given you the idea that any of these nimrods would be willing to work with you? Do you really spend that much time listening to David Broder and Chris Matthews and the rest of the Media Idiots who allowed George W. Bush to run roughshod over the country for eight years but said that YOU had to take the high road? Is it this thing you have of wanting everyone to be happy and get along? What is it?

For months we've been hearing in the media that if health care doesn't get done, your presidency is in ruins. John Heilemann said it in exactly those words just a couple of weeks ago. And yet you chose to stay out of the fray until it was too late, deluding yourself that getting Olympia Snowe would somehow make health care reform "bipartisan." Any idiot can see that one anachronistic moderate Republican does not equal bipartisanship, not when the Republican Party looks more and more like a teabagger rally every day.

Keep reading: http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/01/so-mr-president-hows-that-bipartisan.html

 

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                                       "You must grip the AK-47, ladies, not fondle it!"

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Karen Hughes: Bush rescued the economy.

 

Seriously, how does one become so delusional?

 

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The downside to drones: http://www.theygaveusarepublic.com/diary/4704/the-downside-to-drones

 

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First, Pius actively aided and abetted the Nazis, and second, Benedict the Brownshirt has no credibility on the subject at all. "Pope Benedict XVI has defended the Vatican against accusations of indifference towards the Nazis' annihilation of Europe's Jews in WWII. On a landmark visit to Rome's main synagogue, the Pope said the Vatican helped Jews and "provided assistance, often in a hidden and discreet way". The pontiff responded after an Italian Jewish leader spoke of the painful "silence" of wartime Pope Pius XII. It comes amid Jewish anger at Benedict's moves to beatify Pius."

 

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Giving Secularly

 

The earthquake in Haiti is not an act of an invisible sky wizard; it's the result of tectonic plates colliding.

The rescue of survivors buried for more than three days is not a miracle; it's the result of human effort and determination meeting human resilience.

The human and economic disaster in Haiti is not supernatural punishment; it's the logical and predictable consequence of two centuries of destructive leadership in both Haiti and the United States.

This is an entirely secular catastrophe, and it will be alleviated only by an entirely secular response.

Now, you can make sure that your contributions to the Haiti rescue/relief/rebuilding effort goes to organizations founded on reason and science rather than pointless prayers.  

PZ Myers explains:

If you haven't already donated to disaster relief in Haiti, here's your chance: a new umbrella organization to coordinate charitable giving for the godless has been set up. In the first two hours that this was created, over $11,000 has been donated. Get on the bandwagon!

Spurred by the horrific suffering in Haiti, the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (RDFRS) has set up a dedicated bank account and PayPal facility to collect donations to non-religious relief organizations. This new account is in the new name of Non-Believers Giving Aid, with all of the money donated being distributed to disaster relief.

Clearly the immediate need is for the suffering people of Haiti, and all the money raised by this current appeal will go that cause, but the new account will remain available for future emergencies too. There are, of course, many ways for you to donate to relief organizations already, but doing it through Non-Believers Giving Aid offers a number of advantages:

100% of your donation will be go to these charities: not even the PayPal fees will be deducted from your donation, since Richard will personally donate a sum to cover the cost of these (Capped at $10,000). This means that more of your money will reach the people in need.

When donating via Non-Believers Giving Aid, you are helping to counter the scandalous myth that only the religious care about their fellow-humans.

It goes without saying that your donations will only be passed on to aid organizations that do not have religious affiliations. In the case of Haiti, the two organizations we have chosen are:

Doctors Without Borders (Médecins sans Frontières)

International Red Cross

You may stipulate using a dropdown menu which of these two organizations you want your donation to go to; otherwise, it will be divided equally between them.

Preachers and televangelists, mullahs and imams, often seem almost to gloat over natural disasters - presenting them as payback for human transgressions, or for 'making a pact with the devil'. Earthquakes and tsunamis are caused not by 'sin' but by tectonic plate movements, and tectonic plates, like everything else in the physical world, are supremely indifferent to human affairs and sadly indifferent to human suffering. Those of us who understand this reality are sometimes accused of being indifferent to that suffering ourselves. Of course the very opposite is the truth: we do not hide behind the notion that earthly suffering will be rewarded in a heavenly paradise, nor do we expect a heavenly reward for our generosity: the understanding that this is the only life any of us have makes the need to alleviate suffering even more urgent.

The myth that it is only the religious who truly care is sustained largely by the fact that they tend to donate not as individuals, but through their churches. Non-believers, by contrast, give as individuals: we have no church through which to give collectively, no church to rack up statistics of competitive generosity. Non-Believers Giving Aid is not a church (that's putting it mildly) but it does provide an easy conduit for the non-religious to help those in desperate need, whilst simultaneously giving the lie to the canard that you need God to be good.

Please help us to help the suffering people of Haiti.

Read the whole thing.