Today's edition of quick hits:
* With new reports indicating that Syria is considering use of chemical weapons, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued new warnings today for the Assad regime.
* Israel faces major diplomatic pushback: "Britain, France, Spain, Sweden and Denmark summoned the Israeli ambassadors to their countries on Monday to protest Israel's plans for increased settlement construction, an unusually sharp diplomatic step that reflected the growing frustration abroad with Israel's policies on the Palestinian issue."
* Afghanistan: "A squad of nine suicide bombers attacked a major U.S.-Afghan air base in the eastern city of Jalalabad just after dawn Sunday, detonating explosives at the front gate and sparking a lengthy firefight with Afghan and NATO forces inside."
* Egypt: "Egypt's political crisis is widening, with plans for a huge march and a general strike Tuesday to protest the hurried drafting of a new constitution and decrees by President Mohammed Morsi that gave him nearly unrestricted powers."
* Transforming the Defense Intelligence Agency: "The Pentagon will send hundreds of additional spies overseas as part of an ambitious plan to assemble an espionage network that rivals the CIA in size, U.S. officials said."
* Less than a month after winning re-election, Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) is resigning to become CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
* For the record, building the Death Star would be one heck of a stimulus/infrastructure project.
* And offering proof that the right is never satisfied, conservatives are now complaining that the Obamas are celebrating Christmas too much.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
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After the middle class is plundered then comes the upper middle class. Eventually the mere millionaires will be eaten alive by the billionaires then when all the wealth is in one pile the masses will declare money non-negotiable.
(never give me an open thread geez)
Or when the "investment" bankers own everything thru outragous leveraged betting.
I'm hearing good things about the Senate leadership's efforts toward filibuster reform. I'd like to see examples of particularly egregious filibusters this session, and how the proposed new rules might have worked (for the better?) in those situations.
Oh, now we're going to turn the DIA into a super-enabled CIA? Wait, I thought the CIA was rapidly becoming the unaknowledged arm of the Pentagon. And oversight of the IC (intelligence community) and DoD is, well, inoperative. No one knows what they do, and no one knows how much they cost. And few legislators dare even to ask.
Just when we think we might finally be able to end the nation's longest war. Sigh.
Reference Dana Priest's Top Secret America, or view the Frontline version here, or read through the original WaPo series here.
I just hope they use a different design for the trash compactors.
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/on-the-implausibility-of-the-death-stars-trash-compactor
Let us apply to the experts on the Death Star.
Michael Smith's Clerks pontificate on Death Star contractors. 3:24 minutes of pure gray matter effusions.
False alarm/ overstatement from Mars. It looks like the retests of the Mars Samples didn't show anything exciting after all. Possibly they thought they saw complex organic chemicals, but found they messed up on the intitial interpretation" story.
NBC story here
Boston.com article
BTW- the percholates mentioned do not suggest that coffee once existed on Mars. Actually, the existence of these chemicals was already known from the phoenix mission (Nature article). People might recall mention at the time of discovery of a plentiful substance on the surface that could be used for rocket fuel.
John, I like your sense of humus.
Well done Emerson, proving yourself another fiscally responsible Republican by resigning just weeks after reelection and sticking the taxpayers with the costs of the special election. The cost of that election should be paid by Emerson, her campaign funds, or perhaps even by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association!
Is that true for Jessie Jackson, Jr also?
Is that coming from the plane of stupidity? I'm watching you numbers guy
Jackson apparently has a serious mental disorder.
What's your excuse?
My point is he didn't just realize he had a problem. For whatever his reasons, he chose to run, and is now costing Ill. money.
Tom,
Yes, Jackson should have resigned.
Since we're going there, Dennis Hastert (who was my congressman at the time AND Speaker of the House) resigned before his term was up costing the state of Illinois a few million.
Hastert said it was because of personal reasons. Personal reasons? He became a lobbyist once he left office.
Is that all that matters? He's costing someone money?
There's more to life than that Tommy boy.
There are rumblings in Chicago that Jesse Jackson Jr. was aware of the investigation into his campaign $$ spending well before the election and at about the time he checked himself in for help. Could be a coincidence, but the timing does look fishy.
It might be simpler to posit that the pressure caused the psychotic break or whatever than presuming that the psychiatric staff at the Mayo Clinic is in on the conspiracy.
Y'know, Ockham's well-shorn face and all that.
Israel faces major diplomatic pushback: "Britain, France, Spain, Sweden and Denmark summoned the Israeli ambassadors to their countries on Monday to protest Israel's plans for increased settlement construction, an unusually sharp diplomatic step that reflected the growing frustration abroad with Israel's policies on the Palestinian issue."
All sane countries are appalled at what Israel has been doing within illegally occupied Palestinean territory. Others, who are not pledged in servitude to AIPAC and The Likud Party, are willing to speak out publicly.
Transforming the Defense Intelligence Agency: "The Pentagon will send hundreds of additional spies overseas as part of an ambitious plan to assemble an espionage network that rivals the CIA in size, U.S. officials said."
As if we did not have enough reasons already to believe that our militarization industries are out of control. Tell me again why our country spends basically about as much on militarization as the rest of the countries on this planet! Does anyone want to provide an argument that we are getting our moneys worth?
Less than a month after winning re-election, Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) is resigning to become CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
Drury Industries (hq in Cape Girardeau, Mo) must be severely disappointed. Since the first election of her husband (who she followed in the position after his death), Drury has provided one of their corporate lawyers for most of a year of each election cycle to be their campaign manager. The Drury family is good people, but for the years that I worked for them it continued to amaze me that they owned a Congress seat.
"For the record, building the Death Star would be one heck of a stimulus/infrastructure project."
Don't forget to cover that hole at the end of the trench.
Funding for the cover will be cut in the House version of the bill.
Doubtfully,l grumpy. If it means a massive influx of government funding for the Defense Contractors, it will be rushed through the House so there won't be funds left to help the people of the country (you know, the people who pay the taxes for the House to spend on their owners.)
I'm just saying. . .
Missouri CD-8 will undoubtedly be kept by the GOP in the special election. Chances are that a dude will win it and the Republican congressional caucus will become just that much more white and male.
"Britain, France, Spain, Sweden and Denmark summoned the Israeli ambassadors to their countries on Monday to protest Israel's plans for increased settlement construction, an unusually sharp diplomatic step that reflected the growing frustration abroad with Israel's policies on the Palestinian issue."
I wish that we would do the same.
Uh oh. Dec.21,2012 is coming upon us! Quick all you republicans run for cover, we will let you know when it is safe to come out. It's the least we can do for such fine people as the Fox viewers and Rush spewers.
Ahh, what hour would that be Mountain Standard Time? I'll be having a couple movies, beers, and doobies..
As I've posted before, humans can only live (for any realistic period of time) in space in a 1G space-station. Probably best designed as a huge ring. Venus is the only other place to find 1G, and we should be terraforming it now with whatever bacterias it takes to convert that atmosphere to something more benign.
Time is a waisting for us to have a platform in space as we definitely should be putting steering rockets on bad and/or interceptor asteroids.
And that's the way it is...
We do not need humans in space. A launch platform remotely controled would work with no need to keep a crew out there. Also I have as yet seen any solid idea on contending with a possible large meteor. Lots of ideas are floating around but all have glitches. This stering idea is one among many and few argue for using rockets. The last steering proposl I heard of involved nudging one long before it got close. At a distance far less of a nudge would be required to gain a miss. This nudge is more likely going to come from a laser blast or other method that will not require large payloads of fuel. Solar sails?
By the way where did you get the idea that man needs an Earth type gravity too survive? An artificial enviroment capable of producing food and breathable air would make working conditions easier, but why not a .5 G or 2G atmosphere?
I also doubt we will end up with some 2000 and one spinning spoke to acheive a gravity within a space station for long stays. Controlling spin in zero gravity while holding position?
(thanks for the fantasy trip though)
Actually, the best idea I've seen lately is the paintball idea. You put a reflective surface covering on one side of the asteriod, and differential solar radiation pressure gently nudges the offending asteroid out of our path, and without those pesky nukes. Of course, it would have made "Armageddon" a lot less interesting and heroic. Can you just imagine the tension, wondering if Bruce Willis can finish spraypainting the asteroid white before he has to change paint cans?
Wait a sec. Aren't we already building the Death Star?
Can't be, there's no throne room for
Dick Cheneythe Emperor.It's a work in progress.
I wonder which came first?The slow demise of unions or the loss of manufacturing jobs? Seems to me unions were losing ground before the jobs started leaving.If so that sure puts a kink in the right's bull about unions being to blame huh?
The fact is that once unions got established the working class began to buy goods thus giving manufacturing a boost. Before the unions came along most people could barely afford a place to sleep and one meal a day. Now look at us.
Do these right wingers really want to return to yesteryear?
Hey Rachel,
If Boehmer has trouble finding women to fill the Republican committees, I suggest he ask Romney for the binders.
Whatever did they do with the binders of women?
How about removing the cap on medicare and soc security deducted from our pay? Would make both solvent for 75 years at least.. any takers??
When you say "our" pay, are you including yourself as being someone making in excess of the ceiling amount currently set for FICA earnings? If you are, why aren;t you currently taking that money and contributing it to some type of non-profit organization that helps homeless or indigent people instead of keeping it yourself?
or are you referring to another attempt to steal money from others who make more than you?
just asking...
How about moving capital gains up 10%?
The president himself has admitted that raising capital gains taxes will actually cause less money to be taken in by the treasury. The only purpose in raising the tax is trying to be "fair" and to redistribute money. However, it actually has a reverse effect and makes the situation worse.
just saying....
On Syria the situation is tricky although we want to call a civil war I would say that is an innaccurate definition. "Civil war" implies both sides can win, I see no path to victory any time soon for these "rebels". This is a political cleansing. Frankly I'm surprised Assad hasn't crushed them yet, this certainly shows him as weak to his people thus the use of extreme, endgame....final force is going to be very attractive to him. The longer this goes on the longer he looks like a fool and the more likely he is to use these devices.
Israels' power in Washington should be a news story every day. Special Relationship, sez Hillary. Between her and whom? AIPAC? Or was it her husbands' special relationship with Ms. Lewinski? Or does she mean Christians' servitude to the idea of Israel as a nation, even though (as I understand it) according to Christian theology, modern-day Jews would go to hell for failing to accept Jesus as their personal Savior? Or do we just love the idea of "settlements" because it sounds like our own frontier white people? Or is it Israels' absolute shunning of nuclear weapons that attracts our leadership?
Or is it just because once you start giving someone billions of dollars, it's hard to change course because giving money also bestows power?
In other news, Presidential hopefuls meet with Sheldon Adelson...
As I have said over and over again, Israel is the worst ally the US has. It has spied on us, (remember Jonathon Pollard?), stolen our nuclear technology, killed our sailors in an attack on on one of our navy ships and sold our technology to China. By siding with Israel unquestioningly for decade after decade, even when they behaved in ways that would have caused us to roundly condemn other countries, we have made the US an untrustworthy player in the Middle East. Now they continue to sabotage the peace they claim they want, by annexing more land that will make a contiguous West Bank territory impossible. Just as there doesn't appear to be a sane repub these days, it seems as though there are no sane players in the Middle East.
And that power comes from the Republicans, personally I think the power of the banks in DC should be a bigger story
Low blow, Bill treated on her don't disrespect her for it. That's just rude and uncalled for, I know you're fired up but turn down the venom a little.
You really think the Clintons are evangelicals? Only the GOP believe those things.
There's not much we can do about that unless you're suggesting force and they don't get enough money from us to do that so we're hardly bankrolling it. Realistically do you have a solution? Should we fight with the palestinians somehow, don't know how we can do that with no troops. Israel also has access to nukes.
We actually give money to just about everybody, never gets talked about though but we're almost a charity. We've been sending out millions left and right for years even to dictators like Hosni Mubarak. The right thing is to reaccess all our foreign aid. I say if they're not an ally or are doing something for us no more cash for a while.
Hardly. We have much less useful "friends". Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia just to name a few. Like it or not Israel is the only western style democracy in the region. The rest of the nations over there are governed in part or entirely by sharia law that denies women's rights, freedom of religion, executes and tortures gays, or are ruled by monarchs. I agree that Israel needs us way more than we need them but if you think we should be cozy with any other of the nations in the mid east you're delusional.
No the thing that keeps the violence going in that region is because neither side really wants to stop killing the other. Nothing stops the jews or palestinians from peace now other than the excuses they've created to not have to stop fighting. The only thing stopping peace is them, both sides.
Now on annexing territory palestine isn't actually a nation so technically it's not exactly annexing. Israel was created through international treaty largely by the US, there is no such treaty creating a palestinian nation. Fair or unfair that's the international law situation. But lets not forget that the Hamas gov't overtaking the PLO has helped the palestinians case. Sadly by electing a terrost group devoted to the destruction of the west we can't exactly trust them now can we?
If you ask me there's only enough land over there for one insignificant little country so the people are going to have to get used to one another. If there was a second state they'd be be neighbors, not matter what they're going to have to deal with one another. Unless one side kills the other entirely.
If I were el presidente, I would use cruise missle diplomacy with Assad. I would then tell the world that his villa had had a gas leak. Little white lie.
err,, all his villas...
So you voted for Bush/Cheny?