Monday, February 28, 2011

Headlines - Monday February 28

Al Qaeda cyberattac​k takes down much of the internet.
 
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Anonymous targeting Koch websites
And down goes Koch. The Teabagging site AmericansForProsperity.org is the first to go.
 
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I'm hoping for karma in Vick's case. Karma for every one of those poor dogs.
 
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More proof that addressing climate change is economically advantageous:
Increasing the EU's 2020 greenhouse gas reduction target from 20% to 30% could help boosting European investments from 18% to 22% of GDP, leading to a GDP increase of up to €620bn ($840bn) and the creation of up to 6 millions additional jobs. These are the key findings of a report launched today.

The report, A New Growth Path for Europe - Generating Growth and Jobs in the Low-Carbon Economy, was commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, and conducted by an international consortium of researchers led by Professor Carlo C. Jaeger from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

Traditional models assume a 'single stable equilibrium', where investments are determined by an assumption of business-as-usual economic trends. The financial crisis however has exposed the fact that different expectations can lead to different investment behaviors, turning those expectations into self-fulfilling prophecies. The new model highlights the importance of policy in shaping investors' expectations, leading to a virtuous circle of increased investments, faster 'learning by doing' in technology and manufacturing and enhanced expectations by investors in the market.

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Welcome to your Democrat-free Sunday news talk shows. But don't worry, they make up for the oversight by booking union leaders to debate all the Republicans they've scheduled to talk about the burgeoning labor movement.

Oh wait,
no they didn't.

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Just because the South Dakota legislature has shelved the bill to legalize murdering abortion doctors doesn't mean the forced birthers haven't stopped dreaming up ever more draconian ways to deprive women of their already nearly non-existent access to reproductive health care.

On Tuesday, the legislature passed HB 1217:

The warriors in the war on women insist they are acting out of concern for women. They say they just want to ensure women can make an informed choice. But the truth is, they don't want women to have a choice at all.

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This Week In Holy Crimes

Over the last seven days...

Virginia: Pastor Jason Bolton charged with stalking an underage girl. He has a previous arrest for statutory rape.
New York: Rabbi Nechemya Weberman arrested for molestation of 12 year-old girl.
Georgia: Pastor Albert Turnell charged with possession and distribution of child porn.
Alabama: Pastor Michael Wilkerson charged with writing a bad check to purchase $111K Mercedes. He previously served time in prison for defrauding the builders of his mansion.
Scotland: Sihk priest Surinder Singh convicted of child molestation.
Wisconsin: Father Thomas Marr sentenced to only nine months in jail for stealing over $600K from parishioners.
California: Christian college sued for knowingly placing a convicted child molester ministry student with a family whose children he then molested.
North Carolina: Pastor Greg Metcalf charged with assaulting his daughter and then denying her medical care.
Massachusetts: Father Franklin E. Huntress resigns in face of numerous molestation accusations.
Britain: Pastor Albert Odulele charged with indecent sexual assault on a child.
Arkansas: Pastor Shane Montgomery sentenced to one year in prison for sexual assault on a teenager.
Tennessee: Father William Casey to stand trial for child molestation.
California: Pastor Alonzo McGowan pleads guilty to stealing over $400K from an 87 year-old parishioner.
Ohio: Pastor Daniel Monk sentenced to six years in prison for sexual battery on an underage girl. Monk says he was out of his mind because he'd been fasting.
New York: Father Richard Nachajski charged with stealing $476K from his parish to finance luxury vacations to the Caribbean and Thailand.

This Week's Winner
Illinois: The Belleville Diocese of Southern Illinois is appealing a $5M molestation judgment, saying that they have zero responsibility to warn parishioners about known pedophile priests. In response, a local group of Catholic priests took the unprecedented step of denouncing the appeal as a "disastrous policy" that makes "no common moral sense." The judgment was ordered in the case of Father Raymond Kownacki, who has been sued numerous times for molestation, but has never been arrested due to the statute of limitations.

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Speaker Boehner Promises to Start Praying for America as Soon as He Finishes the 18th Hole
 
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An Important Anniversary - by digby

While I was waiting in vain for a story about the rallies in Madison and across the country yesterday on CNN, I did happen to catch
this important story, as Heather at C&L did.
 
I didn't know that yesterday was the Tea Party's "birthday" but wasn't surprised to see that CNN celebrated it. It has, after all, been a big story for them over the past two years what with following them all over the country and reporting every gathering of more than four people as a national event. The rise of a real populist movement in America that isn't actually backed by major corporations and wealthy individuals is stale. Been there, done that and all that rot.

Fox, however, is following the Madison story closely and is working hard to set the narrative:
 
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Two-time voter fraud suspect asnd harpy skank Ann Coulter appeared on Hannity last night (2/25/11) to discuss the 2012 election and her support for the supposedly non-running Chris Christie. As she and Sean Hannity ran through the various potential candidates, Coulter claimed to love Sarah Palin. Yes, Coulter really does. It's just that she knows Palin is so much better off without bothering her little money-grubbing head over "dull" information that presidents need to know. Continue reading »

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From 2000: (CBS)  This is the story of a blood feud, a battle between brothers. As we told you when we first reported this story last November, the Koch family of Wichita, Kansas is among the richest in the United States, worth billions of dollars. Their oil company, Koch Industries, is bigger than Intel, Dupont or Prudential Insurance, and they own it lock stock and barrel. The trouble is a former employee says the brother who controls the company grew rich through fraud and theft, stealing from the taxpayers of the United States.

Unfortunately, for Koch Industries, that disgruntled former employee was Bill Koch, one of the Koch brothers. Blood and oil has destroyed more than one American family. The question is: Was Bill Koch a renegade out to ruin his brother, or did Koch industries really operate the way he says?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/11/27/60II/main252545.shtml

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Skippy's environmental health news Sunday.

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Big Oil complains to Oscar.

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Frank Rich does what he's doing a lot of lately; he weaves two columns into one.

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Even worse, either could be punishable by death in the proposed bill. The GOP Rep. who has proposed the bill has been in the news earlier with his proposed Uterus Police. MotherJones:

It's only February, but this year has been a tough one for women's health and reproductive rights. There's a new bill on the block that may have reached the apex (I hope) of woman-hating craziness. Georgia State Rep. Bobby Franklin—who last year proposed making rape and domestic violence "victims" into "accusers"—has introduced a 10-page bill that would criminalize miscarriages and make abortion in Georgia completely illegal. Both miscarriages and abortions would be potentially punishable by death: any "prenatal murder" in the words of the bill, including "human involvement" in a miscarriage, would be a felony and carry a penalty of life in prison or death. Basically, it's everything an "pro-life" activist could want aside from making all women who've had abortions wear big red "A"s on their chests.

Lindsay Beyerstein's response.
 
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Thank God that lady dropped the "F-bomb" at the Oscars last night, eh? Now you have a genuine reason to ignore the protests in Wisconsin; don't you, you fucking tools? When they write the history of the American Empire, you will, forever, be known as the ones who enabled its fall. Self-serving scumbags.

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Robert Reich

You can't fight something with nothing. But as long as Democrats refuse to talk about the almost unprecedented buildup of income, wealth, and power at the top – and the refusal of the super-rich to pay their fair share of the nation's bills – Republicans will convince people it's all about government and unions.

The final truth is as income and wealth have risen to the top, so has political power. The reason all of this is proving so difficult to get across is the super-rich, such as the Koch brothers, have been using their billions to corrupt politics, hoodwink the public, and enlarge and entrench their outsized fortunes. They're bankrolling Republicans who are mounting showdowns and threatening shutdowns, and who want the public to believe government spending is the problem.

They are behind the Republican shakedown.

These are the truths that Democrats must start telling, and soon. Otherwise the Republican shakedown may well succeed.

They're workin' their class war on us like it's a red-headed stepchild.

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funny pictures - MERE MOMENTS BEFORE A SUDDEN, VIOLENT SNEEZE CHANGED EDGAR'S ENTIRE OUTLOOK ON LIFE.

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Regulation Lax as Gas Wells' Tainted Water Hits Rivers 

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Jill: I guess Jesus has forgiven him for helping to drive the U.S. economy off a cliff.
 
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Big business imposes its own taxes too
When you really get down to it, what is the difference between the legal compulsion to pay taxes that are used to pay the salaries of government workers (who use those wages to support their unions), and the practical necessity of paying people like Charles and David Koch $4.50 a gallon for gas because speculators organized by Goldman Sachs flexed their economic muscle to drive up the price of crude to $145 a barrel, as they did in the summer of 2008.
 
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Now Anonymous is giving Glenn Beck an ultimatum "People of America we have heard your cries against the hate mongering and violent rhetoric of Glenn Beck and we stand with you. ... No longer will we tolerate his incessant conspiracy theories intended only to incite hate and violence in the uneducated. No longer will we sit idly by while he promotes racism, bigotry and xenophobia. No more will we be silent while he fends for the RichFags under the disguise of patriotism while pandering his books and the wares of his advertisers. ... Take heed Glenn Beck, if you do not immediately cease and desist your hate and fear mongering your broadcasts, websites and advertisers are in jeopardy. You must immediately broadcast a full appology to all the people you have attacked and offended. You must immediately end your hate rhetoric and fear mongering and use your position of power only to promote unity and peaceful resolutions from henceforth. The choice is yours."
 
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Cool forensic anthropology news of the week "Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a child cremated in central Alaska about 11,500 years ago. They are the earliest known human remains from the North American Subarctic and Arctic region. ... The fragments were found in a fire pit in an ancient dwelling and provide new insight into the burial practices of ice-age people. The findings appear in the current issue of the journal Science. ... Although only about 20 percent of the child's remains was recovered, leaving the sex unknown, the researchers discovered teeth that indicate the child was about 3 years old. ... The oval fire pit in the home also appears to have been a cooking hearth, based on remains of salmon and other small animals in the area. After the child died, he or she was placed face up in the pit and cremated. The pit and the home were most likely never used again.
 
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ON A DAY WITH 100,000 DEMONSTRATORS IN A SNOWSTORM...

Not a flipping word about the world's biggest rectal orifice also being found in the governor's mansion in that state.