Today's edition of quick hits:
* A suicide car bomber targeted a U.S. military base in Afghanistan today, killing a local guard, two civilians, and the attacker.
* Abdul Azia Jassem al-Shallal deals the Assad regime a major setback: "Syria's embattled leadership suffered a new setback on Wednesday with the publicly broadcast defection of its military police chief, the highest-ranking officer to abandon President Bashar al-Assad since the uprising against him began nearly two years ago."
* A doozy of a storm: "A powerful winter storm system pounded the nation's midsection Wednesday and headed toward the Northeast, where people braced for the high winds and heavy snow that disrupted holiday travel, knocked out power to thousands of homes and were blamed in at least six deaths."
* William Spengler Jr., who shot four unarmed firefighters on Monday, left a note, which was later recovered by police. "I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighborhood I can burn down and do what I like doing best -- killing people," it read.
* Another setback: "Legislation sent to President Obama this week quietly removed language in a bill that would have -- for the first time -- forced law enforcement to obtain a warrant to read Americans' email."
* Violence in Kenya's Tana River region: "The White House on Saturday responded to renewed violence between the Orma and Pokomo tribes of Kenya by urging leaders from both communities to end the ethnic clashes that have escalated this year."
* Climate crisis: "West Antarctica is warming almost twice as fast as previously believed, adding to worries of a thaw that would add to sea level rise from San Francisco to Shanghai, a study showed on Sunday."
* Tea Party Nation wants public school teachers to be required to get trained as SWAT teams, in case "Iranian and Hamas agents go en masse into the schools of this nation." I don't think Tea Party Nation was kidding, but sometimes, I'll concede it's tough to tell.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Leave a Comment:
Why do you always report on every attack in Afghanistan, but ignore most of the shootings in the US with as many or more dead and injured?
Maybe it's time to get out of north America?
Teachers getting SWAT training? Let me guess, the Teabagging Nation and the NRA are going to pay for all this, right?
Let's not forget, we are going to need a "Stand Your School Ground" law in case they shoot some student for throwing spitballs or running to the bathroom.
Don't be surprised if a model "SWAT train the Teachers" law drafted by ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) doesn't show up in those states that have Republican governors and legislatures. After all, the Kochs and the gun makers and the NRA are all in this together. Just consider Wayne LaPierre to be the Karl Rove of the "Arm the Nation" campaign. As the gun makers and the gun show operators laugh all the way to the bank!
" I don't think Tea Party Nation was kidding, but sometimes, I'll concede it's tough to tell."
Poe's Law states:
“
Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing.
It is impossible for an act of Fundamentalism to be made that someone won't mistake for a parody.- Poe's corollary
As i said to a friend of mine who berated me for not "getting" a satirical piece he had e-mailed me that I took seriously: "It's getting to the point you can't tell the satirical from reality - these people satirize themselves and don't know it." I believe that can be applied to Teabag Nation's "policy proposal."
What you're talking about has a name: Poe's law
The Tea Baggers are loony as usual.
Tornados touched down in Alabama over the weekend.
GOP Senator Mike Crapo was arrested on a DUI.
Russia is pushing to ban Americans from adopting Russian children.
We're coming up to our debt limit come the 31st.
Los Angeles had a gun buy back today.
Auto Workers at Ford and GM are set to take home a lot of cash with their profit sharing plans for the end of the year.
Washington DC is set to allow their first legal medical marijuana grow ops.
Spengler also apparently murdered his sister before setting the house on fire. He was a felon, convicted in 1981 of manslaughter, for beating his grandmother to death with a claw-hammer. He obtained his guns through illegal means, that is to say, he didn't "borrow" them from a legal owner, his sister and mother (with whom he lived) didn't own any. His neighbors characterization of him range from "creepy old guy" to "really crazy." After getting out of prison after serving 17 years, he had no criminal record for the last 11-12 years.
Basically what we are finding out is that this guy was a lunatic, who fantasized about burning and killing people, and finally went about doing so.
Gerry Anderson, who created several TV series including Thunderbirds, UFO and (alas) Space: 1999 has died.
RIP
use to watch the Thunderbird's growing up way back when.
Seriously warrentless access to emails??? I suppose it is too much to hope that Obama veto this?
Given what happened the last time the political system collapsed (1860) I suppose warrantless email reaiding is minor but you'd think "small government" types would do better.
Why not cut the FBI?
Thus downsizing government and letting crazies run loose while saving money. (Yes that's snark)?
This is the Internet.
Nothing is private.
To expect otherwise, is pure folly.
Could David Gregory face a similar sentence to Plaxico Burress?
Burress did 2 years for shooting HIMSELF in the leg
If the house were to stick 3 billion or so on to fund armed guards in school or training and/or arming/training any two employees I doubt it would be vetoed if it had a debt ceiling increase and an expiration of the tax cuts for over 500 or so...they could gotten reciprocal carry in trade for 2 senate votes and 5-10 house votes for ACA I bet. If republicans would come to some level of sanity they could get quite a few of their policies passed
Emails arent protected by the constitution come on only carrier pidgeons and well regulated militias!
Saw this story.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/26/journalists-addresses-posted-google-maps-gun/
Teabaggers probably thought SWAT training was about beating students.
Simpletons Wanting Assault Training.
.
When the president gave his election night victory speech he mentioned how lucky we are in this country to be able to argue about issues.
That sounds great in principle during a speech but when the issues come up and folks start arguing for real...I bet it's not a good feeling now, eh?
David Gregory and his producer should go to jail. "NBC contacted MPD inquiring if they could utilize a high capacity magazine for their segment. NBC was informed that possession of a high capacity magazine is not permissible and their request was denied."
So why did he go ahead and break the law ? Oh i forgot nbc/msnbc is the main stream media voice of democrats and very liberal/progressive(whatever that means) agendas - nevermind.
Wrong rightie as usual. It is not the main mediea for Democrats. It is ONE. Gregory acted on his own. But leave it to a hateful rightie to come on MSNBC's blog to bad mouth that very channel.
@larry74, i'm not a 'rightie' and i'm not hateful, i'm in the middle. If Gregory acted on his own then only he should go to jail. You never did answer my question as to why he broke the law. Haven't you seen enough pictures and videos of high cap magazines before his last show ? Or was he grandstanding ? or is it so-called journalism without responsibility? which seems to fit MSM very well these days . Or did he not realize the consequences of his actions ? which seems to fit most liberals/progressives.
They need to be outlawed and Gregory should go to jail. And I do wish people would quit calling anything "jounalism". I know of very few "journalists" any more and most don't claim to be. Reguardless of which side you're on, youcomments idicate you hate liberals. They also indicate you know nothing about us. And you did bad mouth MSNBC on their blog.
WMD = Wingnuts of Mass Destruction...an American nightmare, an American tragedy. From guns to government, today's Republicans are our nation's WMD. (Or is that IED, Ideological Explosive Device?).
BTW, did you hear that milk is about to double in price next week BECAUSE the WMD (Tea Party House Republicans) refuse to vote on the Farm Bill that has already been passed (bipartisan) by the U.S. Senate. And butter will go up in price (double/triple?), and cheese will go up in price (double/triple, and what effect will this have on pizza prices?), all because Republican WMDs in the House decided to do nothing, especially if doing something means actually doing something Democrats (and President Obama) are for. The Wingnuts of Mass Destruction have spoken, No Compromise, even if it means destroying America and costing/killing even more American citizens, including Republicans, both WMD and otherwise. Way to go Republican WMDs. Idiots.
Note: if milk (and cheese, and pizza) prices double or triple starting next week, no doubt Papa Johns' CEO will blame Democrats, even though WMD Republicans in the House refused to pass the Farm Bill, but instead decided to hold the Food Stamp Program hostage (a program which helps tens of millions of Americans, men, women and children, during this depressed economic time, including many Republicans on food stamps).
If there were a law against shooting yourself in the foot, the whole House republican contingent would be serving hard time. One of their main support bases is rural America, and not passing the farm bill means American farmers and those who depend on their business are going to be hurt badly.
Right now dairy farmers are borderline getting by because the price they get for their milk is a bit below what they need to pay for the corn and soybean feed that have more than tripled in price first due to the ethanol mandate and then because of the drought. If the price to the consumer of milk goes up, they won't be able to sell their milk, and don't think that the government support program will help them. Most of the money in the dairy business goes to the processors, not the farmers. When you have hundreds of farmers and only a handful of buyers, then the "free market" doesn't work.
And when food stamps are cut, that means that people will eat less and buy less of the commodities that farmers' income depends on (hamburger, ice cream, cheese, baloney ...).
In Ny city there literally is a law against shooting yourself in the foot see above
Teaching is already a difficult job. If I were required to be SWAT-ready to be a teacher, I'd just apply to be a police officer instead. The pay would be about the same, but I wouldn't have to worry about kids' learning and behavior--just about shooting. Force teachers to become cops, and soon no one will want to be a teacher.
"Tea Party Nation wants public school teachers to be required to get trained as SWAT teams,"
LOL sounds like they want to stay safe from Dick Armey and his gun toting coup that lasted 4 days.
In regards to the "coup" nonsense A lot of folks who just hit for 8 million might hire an armed security guard particularly when visiting the folks they just negotiated it from I guess....
To show how crossed over the usual team allignments are on the Gun thing One survey came out from Gallup(they had some issues on accuracy in the presidential election perhaps) showing people opposed to an assault weapon ban 51-44 or so even stranger The Bloomberg group had Frank Luntz do a poll for them apparently showing results opposing the Gallup results....Perhaps the mayan thing did do something to gravity....
I am amazed and yet not surprised that there are people like this:
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/national/us-gun-owners-show-off-their-christmas-toys/story-fndo6ejf-1226543962179
I'm soo glad the NRA is supporting a tax on bullets to fund police officers in all schools....
and firetrucks possibly?