Today's edition of quick hits:
* At a press conference with Japan's foreign minister, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the hostage crisis in Algeria is "an act of terror." One American, Frederick Buttaccio of Texas, has reportedly been killed.
* More on the story: "Dozens of foreign hostages may still be held by Islamist extremists who have defied demands to surrender in a besieged Algerian gas-field complex, Algeria's state-run news agency reported Friday, and the United States said for the first time that American citizens were among them."
* A 2-1 ruling from the 7th Circuit: "A federal appeals court on Friday reversed a decision by a local federal judge and upheld a state law that strictly curtails the collective bargaining rights of public workers in Wisconsin."
* Both former Presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush will not attend President Obama's second inaugural.
* The White House is generally "encouraged" by the new House Republican position on the debt ceiling.
* John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, regrets comparing the nation's health care law to "fascism," but he can't seem to stop saying very strange things.
* A surprise from the TSA: "The Transportation Security Administration will remove 174 full-body scanners from airport security checkpoints, ending a $40 million contract for the machines, which caused a uproar because they revealed a spectral naked form of passengers. "
* Good call: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is drawing a line in the sand on any congressional immigration reform proposals: No citizenship, no bill."
* How very meta: "Fox highlights poll on belief in Obama conspiracy theories that Fox helped perpetuate."
* And in light of this week's interest in trolls, I thought I'd mention that Liz Cheney offers a classic example of sad, almost pathetic, trolling.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Leave a Comment:
Kansas Budget Director Steven Anderson gave his reason for cutting the state income tax but keeping the sales tax increase that was supposed to sunset: “Do we not want to tax the drug dealers of the state?" Anderson said. "This is how we get at that money. They do spend.”
Send the Drones into Algeria and Slaughter them All ! Heheheheeeee.......
I wonder if Bush is still hiding under a rock afraid that one of the people he put out of work is going to harm him or if he is just no longer afraid of people calling him a racist?
Inquiring minds want to know.
I remember this quote.
Then this happened last year.
George Bush is going to be arrested like a Nazi war criminal if he sets foot outside the US.
Maybe they would be apprehended at the inauguration?
Be still my beating heart.
The younger is a slow leak, but any respect I had for the elder went when he chose to endorse romney instead of the guy with the good tan. The younger was a tool of cheney, trump, the kochs, adelson et al, plutocrats too self absorbed to see beyond their own short sighted self-interests. What excuse did the elder have?
Had an argument earlier today about whether Paul Krugman was a reliable resource for information about the economy. The other person pooh-poohed that he was a Nobel laureate ("What's the big deal about that?") and that he is an esteemed professor at Princeton and the London School of Economics (the old tired, "[T]hose that can, do; those that can't, teach.") and that he's a frequent contributor of op-ed to the NY Times ("So? Glenn Beck is a frequent contributor to Fox News!") I swear, that's what he said.
Well, when I picked myself up off the floor, I had to wonder how gullible people have to be to believe the tripe on Fox. And this "poll," where Fox viewers believe there are conspiracies afoot, after Fox has been planting those seeds in their newscasts, just seals the deal. Have we really failed so miserably in our education system that we now have a whole tribe of complacent ignorants? Where are the higher-order thinking skills?
One important thing from the poll (which is not something to be put in sarcasm quotes) reveals is that while for most people belief in conspiracy theories declines the more they know, for Republicans it is the reverse. The more they know, the more they believe in conspiracy theories. Obviously there is something very wrong in the sources of Republican knowledge.
Tucker Carlson = Scurrilous Twerp
'nuff said
Classy:
Saying this at the same time Fox is complaining about dozens of au Qaeda that spontaneously combusted while the drones disappeared into the sunset.
And W couldn't find them. Because au Qaeda lied. Because they were being tortured. Instead of doing things to make the country safer.
Well, since you brought this up, Crackhead, I just went to that Fox link and looked through the first six or eight comments.
Oooh. Blistering, withering comments from our friends. (Our "friends," as in the enemy of our enemy.) Makes Shooter, Scotty and Jeff look positively well-mannered. Do you suppose those Fox folks read those comments, or do they just write them off as coming from crackpots? (Sorry, poor choice of words, Crackhead.)
Hey!!!
I resemble that remark.
Oops! ;-)
people who watch FOX can read?
See Dick. See Jane. See Jane run.
See Dick disappear Jane by sending her to a black CIA prison in (*redacted*).
Did anyone see the segment that Stephen Colbert did Thursday night where Fox News personalities reveled their porn names? I think it was Megan Kelly who reveled Monica Crowley's porn name is Muffin Hunt.
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/423000/january-17-2013/porn-names---porn-lawsuits?xrs=synd_facebook
Priceless!
Post it again, Maria, when the blog topic is more current. I only happened to look back at this tonight, and I'm sure most people missed it. This deserves a wider audience. ;-)
I'll do that JL
Regarding immigration, the following is from the link:
"The Obama administration wants immigrants who overstayed their visas or crossed the border illegally to prove they've resided in the country for several years, have not committed any crimes and will pay any owed back taxes. In exchange, they'll receive temporary legal status that could lead to citizenship in about 15 years."
That sounds sort of reasonable. How is an illegal immigrant (sorry - undocumented person) supposed to pay back taxes. How would anyone know what was owed?
"Temporary" status - 15 years. Wow. If the Republicans think this will be a quick way for Democrats to increase their voters - they would be wrong!
How is an illegal immigrant (sorry - undocumented person) supposed to pay back taxes
Those working in formal jobs (i.e. not day laborers) use bogus Social Security numbers, which are reported to the SSA along with withheld funds. So the feds have records of wages for millions of undocumented workers.
One thing people fail to realize about illegal immigrants is that they are mostly Native Americans that were forced out of the country each time Republicans get control of the White House.
Republicans think the US constitution has a "whites only" clause.
This same bu11$h!t has been going on since 1870 (the story behind the wild west).
Example:
Easy to confuse Native Americans, Italians, and Mexicans.
Foreign citizens no longer have civil rights in the United States.
These "charming" California Highway Patrol officers most likely arrested her for "Suspicion of Driving While Mexican" and thought they were going to deport a pregnant undocumented immigrant until she lawyered up.
CHP sure worked fast to pay her off so they could shut her up.
Wow, the Transportation Stupidity Administration! I must know of at least 30 programmers who could have done the SW job on a tighter schedule, of course they're all already employed at jobs "they like".. What's 40 million dollars, right? I wouldn't want to work for them either.. A crack up would be TSA personnel wearing shirts that stated "Don't worry, I wouldn't touch your junk with you Mother's junk". Hell I'd wear it. Amercia* is so sex prudish, it's amazing there are as many of us as there are!
Elizabeth Colbert-Busch, sister of Stephen Colbert, will throw her hat into the South Carolina senate race. I wonder if having such a high profile brother will help or hinder her?
Hmmm, well, considering my good friend went on a date (and by *a*, I mean one) with a guy who was really, really conservative. They watched the Colbert Report at a pub, and he actually did NOT realize it was satire.
It might work in her favor, but not for the reasons the idiots who vote for her think!
Three words: Senator Al Franken.
Regarding Obama's past, Megan Kelly said "I mean, should we not be so dismissive of the 36 percent of Americans who still have some questions about that?
Yes. We should be dismissive. Why? Because 51.1% of the population who voted for Obama didn't care and, apparently, another 11.2% who voted for Romney didn't care either (47.2%-36%). Let's also throw in the 2.7% who didn't vote for either man because I'm guessing they didn't care about Obama's distant past. That brings us close to 2/3 of the country who feel it's irrelevant. I'm therefore comfortable dismissing the 36%, especially since they would never be satisfied with whatever answer Obama provided anyway (see birther controversy for evidence of that).
The problem is that at this point there is nothing secret in Obama's past. The only secrets are those that live in the imagination of conspiracy theorists. We know more about Obama than we did about Mitt Romney.
I love this whole Obama secretive past meme, after all if we don't know anything about Obama's past then how do they know he's a communo-social-stalinist muslim black liberational atheist white hating kenyanist?
I guess this is really perhaps an admission by that 36% that most if not all they've been saying about Obama for those last few years has been totally untrue.
The privacy issues with the TSA's scanners are bad. The health issues are worse. The X-ray machines were probably worse than the millimeter wave machines, but it's hard to say without more details than the TSA's likely to release.
I'm an electrical design engineer with more than 25 years experience, much of it working on RF and radar systems for military, scientific and commercial applications. Based on that experience I conclude that the only safe level of millimeter wave radiation is zero.
The exposure in these machines has to be orders of magnitude above background to get an image. It can't possibly be safe.
I always opt out and endure the grope. You'll be healthier if you join me.
Health issues with X-ray scanners are real, for photons in the X-ray portion of the EM spectrum are energetic enough to break chemical bonds in DNA and cause cancer.
Photons with millimeter wavelengths are not energetic enough to alter DNA and are much, much less of a concern for this reason.
BTW, anyone concerned with exposure to low level X-ray exposure should avoid flying. High altitude flight places less of the Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field between passengers and cosmic radiation, leading to increased radiation exposure comparable to the backscatter scanner.
But, if you are confident and serene enough to easily endure the grope, you will probably live longer anyway. ;-)
A verizon worker was caught this week outsourcing his own to China. He sent his VPN to them so they could download the work while he was surfing the web during work. Verizon fired him I think they were mad he beat them to the punch.
This was an interesting story, so glad you mentioned it. I guess the guy paid the outsourced worker the going rate in China and made out with a few hundred thousand dollars for himself. Dishonesty and cheating is one thing...but what happens when classified info or access occurs?
and what did he do with all the time he wasn't working? He was moonlighting and outsourcing that too...
wonder who he won't be working for next?
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/18/newly-hired-school-guard-leaves-unattended-handgun-in-student-bathroom/
There is an entire world of political trolls who are working to debunk the lies put out by Fox, Breitbart, Beck, and other rightwing fools.
http://astarothld.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-2012-election-cycle-was-dominated.html
Surprising to see Hillary calling a spade a spade, isn't it? Where was she calling terrorists terrorists in Libya this summer?
Mike,
The Secretary of State took responsibility for the lack of security last summer at the CIA mission in Benghazi on October 16th during a trip to Peru. Why the CIA Director was not responsible, or why the tin-foil helmet crowd is not focusing on him, I do not know.
So the answer you are looking for is 'Peru'.
"Both former Presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush will not attend President Obama's second inaugural."
Really? Let me be the grammar nazi for a minute:
Neither former Presidents George H.W. nor George W. Bush will attend President Obama's second inaugural.
Note: I am not an English major (computer science, baby!). I would assume that many of you at NBC are.
Anyway, I'm glad to know this. We don't need the Bushes there, although Dick Cheney in a wheelchair looked so much more like the Penguin than he usually did last time, and I think that was awesome.
Dick Cheney is the world's only living heart donor.
No, really, no joke, he is. Ain't technology grand?
Just wanted to thank you fine folks over at TRMS for being about the only show on MSNBC with enough journalistic integrity to not cover the "story" of the ridiculous Lance Armstrong staged interview with Oprah.
Lance is probably not a republican, Opra is definitely not. Why would they cover it?
Dear Rachel - good luck this weekend, with all the coverage! But PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do all of us grammar-nazis a favor:
Inauguration is a noun;
"Inaugural" is an adjective - NEVER a noun! eg, Inaugural ball; inaugural speach;
Please do not talk about "The Inaugural." (The Inaugural WHAT?)
thanks! this way we will enjoy it even more!
:-)
Rachel. 1st time posting. I just wanted to say your camera people are not hiding the abortion doctors at all. Faces and voices are easily figured out to those that know them. Looking forward to MLK Breafast then Inauguration Speech.
RE A suprise from the TSA
Too many obese people. It was grossing out the operators.
Rachel will come at us in 2041 as a hologram? I'm still waiting for flying cars.