Headlines - Wednesday July 28

War all the time

Congress responds to growing disgust with Afghanistan/Iraq wars by throwing another $59 billion at them

If, like confused old ass-clown Richard Cohen at the Washington Post, you've never heard of the "WikiLeaks" or the "Internet," this year's biggest news story maybe didn't really hit home. And if there's a natural constituency of confused old ass-clowns outside the Washington Post's op-ed page, it's the U.S. Capitol. That's why the House decided 308-114 in a rare bipartisan vote to dump another $59 billion of U.S. debt on the lost wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — 108 Democrats and 12 Republicans had the spine to say No to the latest extra check to the Pentagon and its allies in Pakistan, the Taliban. MORE »

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Audit: US can't account for $8.7B in Iraqi funds.

 

From 2005: So, Mr Bremer, where did all the money go?

 

 

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NATO kills 52 civilians in Afghanistan.

 

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Rick Santorum meets with team to plan run for president of abortion

The Republican Party's fastest rising star, 2006 re-election loser former Senator Rick Santorum, went to the big city last week to start making plans for Jesus and Rick's Presidential Campaign Adventure 2012. Santorum, you see, raised more money for his PAC (really? are all these candidates really unemployed with nothing else to do?) than Mike Huckabee last quarter, so it is obvious he will be stronger with the love-to-hate-abortion base in 2012. MORE »

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. . .Charlie Rangel:

In the coming days, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) has a choice to make. He can listen to his Democratic colleagues and cut a deal, or he can face a full trial before a House panel over several allegations of misconduct.

Try him fairly, and if he's found guilty, kick him out.  Then make sure to provide law enforcement with every single bit of documentation so they can decide whether or not Rangel should face any criminal or civil charges.

We could lose his seat to the Republicans for a generation and I wouldn't care.  Corruption is corruption no matter who does it.  No, scratch that, corruption is worse when it's a member of my team.

Get him. The hell. OUT.

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Today's long read is an easily understandable breakdown of how our financial crisis happened.

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The Louisiana SPCA is trying to help families out of work due to the gulf oil gusher keep their pets. Dogs and cats are being given up in record number because of food and vet bills. You can help out here.

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A colony of adelie penguins near Palmer Station, Antarctica is nearing extinction, most likely due to global warming which isn't really happening, of course, because 1% of climate scientists dispute it.

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Morford: The great Dick Cheney empathy test

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A team of federal investigators known as the "BP squad" is assembling in New Orleans to conduct a wide-ranging criminal probe that will focus on at least three companies and examine whether their cozy relations with federal regulators contributed to the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, according to law enforcement and other sources.

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You'd think that the Senator from Louisiana would want to hold BP accountable. Not David Vitter. He wants to pass legislation to protect BP by limiting the company's liability by basing liability on BP's profits (and, as we reported earlier, BP had a $17 billion loss in the last quarter.)

Via Sam Stein:

Instead, the GOP has rallied around a counter-proposal, authored by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) that would cap an oil company's liability at an amount equal to its profits of the last four quarters. If the company had not made a profit in the past four quarters, it would be liable for $150 million (or twice the current cap).

To be sure, BP still has a chance to turn around its profit margin during the next three quarters. But in terms of net earnings, it is now operating out of a $17 billion hole. If Vitter's version of economic liability legislation were the law of the land, there would be open concern about the damage payments that Gulf residents would end up recouping. As a Democratic operative working on the issue notes:

When Vitter introduced the bill, we pointed out that one of the co-owners of the Deepwater Horizon rig, Andarko, had not made a profit in the last year. But with this news today, if BP doesn't overcome this quarter's losses, next year they could be responsible for a disaster as bad as or worse than the one in the Gulf and they would only be liable for $150 million if Vitter's bill were law.

UPDATE: An astute reader points out that another Senate candidate, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), has sponsored legislation similar to Vitter's in the House.

Vitter and Blunt are two of the GOP's top Senate candidates this year. Protecting BP is a top priority.

And, we're all well aware of Vitter's shady past with prostitutes. Turns out Blunt is a Party Boy -- a big time DC Party Boy. 

 

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Put down the bottled water, Mr. President.

 

 

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All those unemployed that the Republicans are demonizing? The idea that if you "work hard" you'll succeed? Well, it looks like the "work" isn't even going to be there to do hard anymore: http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/07/meanwhile-back-at-fall-of-american.html

 

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Kafka-Land in the Caribbean

 

That is how the Department of Defense operates at Guantanamo.

In essence, there are no rules, they just make shit up as they go along. They might as well all of a sudden specify that all proceedings will be conducted in Xhosa or Mongolian, for nobody would be a bit surprised if they did just that.

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Amazing Grace: the two-legged kitteh.

 

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Well, it seems that President Carebear cannot make it to the BSA Jamboree, due to a schedule conflict, which includes an appearance on The View.

Here are some comments on this story from a conservative website: http://www.mockpaperscissors.com/?p=36402

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What's driving the GOP agenda? 

Weepy announced their driving principle for the upcoming election: The REINS (Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny) Act.

The executive in need of scrutiny. Jeepers, they don't even try to hide the racism anymore.

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Buried among the 92,000 classified documents released Sunday by WikiLeaks is some intriguing evidence that the U.S. military in Afghanistan has adopted a PR strategy that got it into trouble in Iraq: paying local media outlets to run friendly stories.

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Dennis Kucinich: 92,000 reasons to end the wars.

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1.38% of Fox News' Audience Is Black People, Which Seems a Bit High

It turns out that America's News Network, Fox News, is not really watched at all by black people, which explains why they are so misinformed that they support this Obama fellow. This "finding" is according to some sort of math or science stuff, however, so it is probably a lie (and also Jesus has provided all of His children a live feed of Fox News in their hearts, so black people maybe just need to believe harder to see it). It just doesn't make any sense that CNN and MSNBC's audiences are about 20% black, yet the real news is only watched by 1.38% of Obama's Chosen People.

The New York Times' Brian Stelter tweeted that, according to Nielsen Media Research, Fox News has averaged just 29,000 black viewers in prime time so far this television season (9/09-7/10). That represents just 1.38% of its 2.102 million total viewer audience.

28,999 of those black viewers are likely people forced to watch Fox News in their gym, bank, or doctor's office. The other person is Juan Williams watching himself on the monitor.

Does Fox News need to do some black outreach? (SCAAAAAAAAAAARY!) Perhaps they should make their newscasts more "hip-hoppy" and "rappy"? No. From the New Black Panther stuff to slandering Shirley Sherrod to questioning Obama's feelings toward white people, Fox News is the only channel that truly covers the important black issues of our time. Surely black people will realize this and start tuning in soon. And then they will realize the truth, that one needs to be DEATHLY AFRAID of black people in general and black people in government especially.

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Wisco: Our Useless News Media.

 

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When God's busy with politics

Some might question the piety of members of the Followers of Christ Church in Oregon City Oregon. After all, their faith healing efforts don't appear to be very effective:

• According to former Oregon state medical examiner Larry Lewman, "the faith-healing congregation's avoidance of doctors and hospitals may have cost the lives of 25 children, some under excruciating circumstances"over a ten year period.
• The Oregonian reports that of 78 minors the Church buried over 35 years, 21 "probably would have lived with medical intervention, often as simple as antibiotics."
• In 2008, church member Neil Beagley died at age 16 "following complications from an untreated congenital urinary tract blockage that flooded his system with urea, causing renal failure, heart attack, and death."
• Also in 2008, church member Ava Worthington (15 months old) died of pneumonia after her parents spent months waiting for the Lord to remove a cyst that grew to softball size and squeezed her windpipe and esophagus so that she had difficulty breathing and getting food down.
• At this very moment, little Alayna Wyland may lose her eye after months of holy oil anointing failed to cure the child's hemangioma.
• Alayna's father was widowed a few years ago when his first wife died of faith-healed breast cancer.

Like I said, some would chalk up such misfortunes to a lack of faith, but I'd like to think these good Christian people are not at fault. They tried, but our Heavenly Father was busy doing more important things like advising Sarah Palin and defending love segregation.

 

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Jon Stewart on the Sherrod affair.

 

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The invasion was only the start of the illegality. "The UN's former chief weapons inspector Hans Blix has said it is his "firm view" that the Iraq war was illegal. Dr Blix told the Iraq inquiry the UK had sought to go down the "UN route" to deal with Saddam Hussein but failed. Ex-Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, who advised the war was lawful on the basis of existing UN resolutions, "wriggled about" in his arguments, he suggested. Dr Blix said his team of inspectors had visited 500 sites but found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction. As head of the UN's Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) between 1999 and 2003, Dr Blix was a key figure in the run-up to the March 2003 invasion as he sought to determine the extent of Saddam's weapons programme."

 

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Jim Hightower: why are all the Wall Street bankers grinning?