Today's edition of quick hits:
* President Obama clarified this afternoon that the economy "is not doing fine."
* U.N. monitors in Syria investigating a massacre "reached the site of the reported atrocity on Friday after troops and government supporters had blocked the visit for more than 24 hours, and journalists traveling with the monitor team said they saw chilling evidence of bloody multiple killings but no bodies."
* Iran: "After a brief spurt of optimism, impetus toward resolving the nuclear dispute with Iran slowed further on Friday as senior inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog said they made "no progress" toward gaining access to restricted sites they suspect of being used to test potential triggers for nuclear warheads."
* Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is still offering compromises to prevent interest rates on student loans from doubling.
* Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) believes the ineffectiveness of the Bush-era tax breaks is a reason to extend the Bush-era tax breaks.
* At least the farm bill enjoys bipartisan support.
* Four decades later, Nixon was even worse than Woodward and Bernstein thought.
* Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) wants to know why Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) "hates the country so much."
* Remember the faster-than-light particle? It wasn't faster than light.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
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Don't believe everything you read in the Washington Post.
Russ Baker's Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America’s Invisible Government and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years.
Read more: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-05-10/politics/31705778_1_lowell-weicker-nixon-and-watergate-second-installment#ixzz1xFDghsVA
It gives a different viewpoint. Accurate, or not, it is an interesting read.
Current ax rate seems to have had nothing to do with creating or outsourcing jobs. I'd say the tax rates should be tied to the jobs in this country.
I'd also say McConnell and the rest of them are working for those in high tax brackets, not those in the middle or lower rates.
Now that's the way to cut taxes! Hew away at it.(sorry 'bout that,I ain't Miss. Grammer, I just saw an opening and jumped) Ax me again and...
Yeah, I missed that. :(
Axes are low, no need to ax them more.
Sheesh I left you an opening, grammar not grammer?
Doh!
There must be a GOD! All the hype about I'll Have Another winning the Triple Crown, saving the racing industry, and make millions for racing interests, ended today......HE GOTTA BOOBOO! Hundreds of millions of dollars spent, an image that is lower than a sewer pipe, and the poster boys are crooks and cheats, all came crashing down around their ankles. A few cents a day spent could have changed all of this! But the Racing Industry sits on the throne next to GOD, all knowing and all powerful, and dumb as a box of rocks! Have a great weekend, the drinking lamp is on!
Actually the racing "industry" is in dire straits. They have casinoes at the tracks in California just to keep the track going. I do love the races so I can see some of what you are saying. The trouble to me is that breeders have bred the heart and soul out. The last true race horse I remember seeing was Mel Air.
Like I said though I do like the races.Now if only I was a lot better at handicapping..
I just found this post about Wisconsin's Recall Elections interesting enough to pass along to actual news types, in case what this person is suggesting might merit a little investigation.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/06/07/recall-election-fraud-in-wisconsin-you-betcha/
Sarah, Ed
I just went on Fox News because it is time to watch both sides of the news. The Presidential run is close and heavy and ...its got to come out well for Dems and Obama and all of us, really.
The Fox news stuff is not user- friendly for replies or voters getting a word in for internet simpletons such as I, so awfully frustrating.
Look, I just got a whiff Fox that the ER care they feel is essential is okay for stuff, like wellness health or ER situations that come up. Noone ever mentions the psychiatric care that is needed as ER. Noone ever mentions the care that needs be given to the mentally ill experiencing really @!$%#ty episodes because they cant stay on their 'stuff'. Could You? Meds to sedate and bring you back, meds to help the side effects of the meds to sedate.
When I heard the Fox person give an example of why Obama's health care plan, ER, is good sometimes, I did not hear why this helps the psych emergency wards.
ALL of YOU stop reporting on the bummers of those who have created a horrible crime or whatever as psychiatric un-well and start pushing for those who need help recovering from psychiatric episodes when they cant get help because there is no one there to help them get to a hospital to get it!!! The services are inept.
HELP NAMI. Push NAMI. National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. Bring it out of the closet, the basement, the cage, the jails. Help us.
It would blow your minds to know the brilliant minds that are affected here. And how thier life falls thru the cracks becuase of it in to hell. It could happen to you or any of us.
I know. I have a son. Struck down by a @!$%#ty mental illness, second yr in an Ivy League College. He was/ is brilliant..he needs support by the media, not just to be freaked by it in his mind sometimes when he has an episode and turns on the TV.
My wife has MS and I have seen the effects of the immune system attacking the brain and spinal cord. The obvious things you see are the vision and balance problems. The not so obvious signs happen when lesions form on areas of the brain which are connected to your emotions. Talk about wild mood swings.
I have wondered, how many people could be out there with emotional problems that are the result brain damage caused by the immune system attacking the brain.
Take it from me, the pills work good enough to get you out of the hell your in without the pills.
The Mental Health Department, a long time ago stopped being of service to patients, they even started referring to them as clients and not patients. If that doesn't tell you something then, I don't know what will. I am unaware of any drug that heals mental illness, there aren't any. Instead of focusing on helping mentally ill patients function productively in society they have to chart how many times they talk to clients and they get a kick back on how many different prescription drugs they prescibe to clients, this is why they changed their name from patients to clients because they have not done 1 thing to help these people. They have remained in business by getting money from insurance companies, or the government. There are thousands of mentally ill people walking the streets because the Republican Healthcare System has failed. These same individuals are the ones Republicans find so distasteful that they could care less if they have health insurance and they could care less if they died, which many of them are doing everyday. God bless them, noone is helping them. The Republicans conclude that it is not their problem yet they advocate for more Mental Health facilities to be built in order for them to reep the benefits. Ask Michele Bachmans' husband.
Just a reminder that Memory Isn't There Today (MITT) wants to arm
al-Qaeda in Syria.
I caught a brief segment this morning on an English language Chinese news program ("CCTV"), interviewing a Russian diplomat on their opposition to intervention in Syria.
He said Russia believes that "outside forces" are behind the killings, not the Syrian government. And those wishing to take out Assad are more interested in getting rid of him than "finding out the truth" through talking to Assad. I kid you not.
(PS: On that "faster than-light" particle; I was following the story closely and responded to the news when tests appeared to show it as "not true" last month. There was... IMHO... a serious flaw in their testing methods that did not account for the possibility that a "faster-than-light" particle might actually travel BACKWARDS in time. How do you detect a particle that arrives before you've started the test?)
ALBERTA OIL SPILL
"The latest spill is the second to be discovered in as many weeks. Pace Oil & Gas Ltd. reported an oil spill in northwest Alberta was discovered May 19 in the remote area near Rainbow Lake."
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Booms+contain+Alberta+spill/6752113/story.html
Mitt can't wait to approve that Keystone pipeline.
If you want to do something that could help save thousands of veterans lives, and prevent injury to thousands more, then watch this 1/2 hour online interview of one of the primary U.S. interrogators of Al Qaida:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-interrogator/ One of the most important half hours ever on tv; we owe it to our veterans to watch it.
In it you will learn the specific details:
1. 9/11 could have been easily prevented. 3,000 Americans did not have to die on 9/11.
2. The main justification for putting hundreds of thousands of our soldiers lives in jeopardy in Iraq was a lie told by a captured member of Al Quaida. Colin Powell gave this testimony at his famous speech to the U.N. What he did not mention in the speech was that the claim came from someone who was being tortured by the U.S. When the Al Quaida captive was asked why he lied: It's what you wanted to hear, and it stopped them from torturing me. There are multiple experts who warned that lies could happen if torture was used; our government ignored their warnings. And we were told more Iraq lies by the Bush administration.
So 4,500 American soldiers died in Iraq and 200,000 were injured; cost = $2 Trilllion. These loyal Americans would not have died or been injured if the Bush administration had followed standard intelligence operating procedure: verify the claim with 2 other RELIABLE sources. That breaks my heart.
Romney said he supported the Iraq invasion for WMDs. Obama voted against it; there was not enough evidence to support putting our troops in harms way.
If Obama wins the election, he will hire many prior democratic advisors. If Romney wins, he will hire many prior republican advisors. If you want to rehire some advisors who are responsible for the un-needed death of 4,500 American soldiers and 200,000 injured, vote for Romney. If you don't want those advisors rehired, vote Obama.
I don't want more American soldiers to die for lies.
Patriotism: Supporting your Country ALL THE TIME; and your government when it deserves it - MARK TWAIN.
NBC should interview the interrogator: Rachael or Ed?
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Thank you
Anyone under about 50, should read the WAPO piece on Nixon. It is a great explanation of how we got to where we are, and reminds us of information that should not be lost to Republican historical revision. Nixon was really the worst president ever, despite what polls suggest today, and GWB/Cheney inextricably linked to Nixon and his rehabilitation.