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Sarah Palin Resigning as Alaska's Governor

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:33:37 GMT

clipped by: brightlight4

Sarah Palin Resigning as Alaska's Governor

After Sarah Palin's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week she has announced she will be stepping down in a few weeks. In a press conference call this morning, Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin has announced she will not run for re-election and is stepping down as governor.

She had a brief statement. She took no questions.

Her commissioners and Lt. Governor were with her at her home. Palin did not relinquished the reigns of the state to the Lt. Governor while running for vice president.

Rumors of an "iceberg scandal" have been circulating.

Resignation is certainly out of character for Sarah Palin. Senator Mark Begich had a meeting with Sarah Palin two days ago with no mention of her leaving office. Palin's press secretary, David Murrow had posted on his facebook page Wednesday, "David Murrow is considering life's ironies." He was hired less than a month ago. Yesterday he wrote, "There's gonna be some fireworks this weekend!"

Key F-22 booster Rep. Gingrey owns Boeing stock

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:12:45 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Georgia Republican Congressman Phil Gingrey will make money if the aircraft the Pentagon doesn't want is built. He's stuck it back in the bill from which it had been removed. Smaller government, Rep Gingrey?

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

Personal Finance Disclosures Reveal Leading F-22 Defender Phil Gingrey Owns Boeing Stock

Last week, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) and VoteVets Chairman Jon Soltz sparred on MSNBC about reinstating funds for new F-22s. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called for capping production of the F-22 Raptor, a fighter that has never seen combat in the Iraq or Afghanistan theaters. Despite the fact that the OMB recommended a veto if the defense authorization budget contains new F-22s, members of Congress in the House Armed Services committee, lead by Gingrey, slipped the funding in anyways. In his debate with Gingrey, Soltz said:

The Congressman cares about the Lockheed Martin stock price, and I care about the men and women who fight on the group. And this weapon system does nothing for us.

[Video]

Tags: gop, gingrey, f-22

Rush Limbaugh is still a big fat idiot

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:59:28 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Sadly, the most notorious Franken antagonist, Bill O'Reilly, was absent from the airwaves on the evening of Franken's victory. Demure guest host Monica Crowley seemed bemused by the Minnesota outcome. But Glenn Beck, in his semiliterate way, heaped on enough abuse to keep Billo's fans satisfied for the moment. "It shows how crazy our country has gone," he began. "It shows that we've lost our minds. It's like we've slipped through a wormhole. It's like, this look likes the country I grew up in, but no -- Al Franken would never be a senator … We have entered a place to where there isn't statesmanship anymore."

Clip Source: www.salon.com

July 3, 2009 | It wasn't surprising when, after seven months of legal wrangling, the Minnesota Supreme Court declared that Al Franken had won the 2008 Senate race against incumbent Norm Coleman. Still less surprising (although vastly more entertaining) was the simultaneous breakdown of nearly all of Franken's adversaries on the right, whose regurgitated insults, whining complaints and exploding noggins revealed nothing about him or his victory -- and everything about them.

Upon learning that Franken had prevailed in a unanimous decision by his home state's highest court, the usual suspects on Fox News Channel and in the Limbaugh wasteland of radio immediately threw up a barrage of furious invective. Wasting no time on gracious concessions, they concentrated on two themes. First: Franken himself is wild, spiteful, menacing, bigoted and, most of all, deranged (as must be anyone who voted for him).

Tags: franken, senator, far, right, goes, bannanas, talk, hate, radio

Palin to resign this month

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:35:38 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: May indicate plans to go after a presidential run.

Clip Source: www.ktuu.com

Gov. Sarah Palin to resign her office

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Gov. Sarah Palin will resign her office in a few weeks, she said during a news conference at her Wasilla home Friday morning.

Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will be inaugurated at the Governor's Picnic at Pionner Park in Fairbanks on Saturday, July 25, Palin said.

There was no immediate word as to why she will resign, though speculation has been rampant that the former vice presidential candidate is gearing up for a run at the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

The stunning announcement by Palin opens the floodgates for the 2010 gubernatorial race. Speculation that Palin might not seek re-election had fueled further conjecture of who might run.

Tags: palin

Eager to Tap Iraq's Vast Oil Reserves Industry Execs Suggested Invasion

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:06:30 GMT

clipped by: brightlight4
clipper's remarks: In Ron Suskind's 2004 book, "The Price of Loyalty," O'Neill said an invasion of Iraq was on the agenda at the first National Security Council. There was even a map for a post-war occupation, marking out how Iraq's oil fields would be carved up.

Even at that early date, the message from Bush was "find a way to do this," according to O'Neill, a critic of the Iraq invasion who was forced out of his job in December 2002.

The New Yorker's Jane Mayer later made another discovery: a secret NSC document dated February 3, 2001 - only two weeks after Bush took office - instructing NSC officials to cooperate with Cheney's task force, which was "melding" two previously unrelated areas of policy: "the review of operational policies towards rogue states" and "actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields." [The New Yorker, February 16, 2004]

By March 2001, Cheney's task force had prepared a set of documents with a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refiner

Clip Source: www.truthout.org

Eager to Tap Iraq's Vast Oil Reserves, Industry Execs Suggested Invasion

Two years before the invasion of Iraq, oil executives and foreign policy advisers told the Bush administration that the United States would remain "a prisoner of its energy dilemma" as long as Saddam Hussein was in power.

That April 2001 report, "Strategic Policy Challenges for the 21st Century," was prepared by the James A. Baker Institute for Public Policy and the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations at the request of then-Vice President Dick Cheney.

In retrospect, it appears that the report helped focus administration thinking on why it made geopolitical sense to oust Hussein, whose country sat on the world's second largest oil reserves.

A Focus on Oil

But Bush's first treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill, later described a White House interest in invading Iraq and controlling its vast oil reserves, dating back to the first days of the Bush presidency.

"Holding hands — and that's how they died,

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:15:28 GMT

clipped by: mugofcoffee
clipper's remarks: an amazing story of couple married and living together for 75 golden years...quite moving...

Clip Source: www.wfaa.com

Couple, married 75 years, pass away hours apart

By JIM DOUGLAS / WFAA-TV

On Tuesday afternoon, 100-year-old J.C. Cox and his and 96-year-old wife Josie were buried together.

The couple — married for 75 years — died within five hours of each other.

Their story begins on Christmas Day in 1932.

"They stayed together the whole time," Williamson said, pointing out the bed they had shared.

Mrs. Cox insisted on being the sole person to care for J.C., even up until the moment they entered a nursing home last month.

"She was still ironing his clothes three weeks ago," Williamson said.

"She was going to make sure — even though he never went anywhere — his clothes were going to be starched," Grimm said.

Persistence never left them. They kept their wedding vows for 75 years, through the deaths of their own children, the lives of three new generations and the inevitable changes in each other.

"Holding hands — and that's how they died," Williamson said, with tears in her eyes. "Pa died holding onto Granny."

Through The Green Fuse

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:03:13 GMT

clipped by: EddieIsSteady

Clip Source: www.todayandtomorrow.net

Through The Green Fuse

July 1st, 2009

“Through The Green Fuse” is series of photos by Robert Buelteman, actually they are photograms. His technique is quite complex and dangerous, it’s based on Kirlian photography. He places flowers and leaves on a color transparency film, on top of that he lays plexiglas with a sheet of metal in between, floating in a liquid silicone. Then he hits everything with an electric pulse which causes the coronas and outlines to appear on the film. The last step he needs to do, is hand-painting it with a white light coming from an optical fiber. It can take up to 150 attempts to get this right. You can read more about it at Wired.
The results are just stunning.

Tags: photography, nature

tropical rainfall moving north

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:27:17 GMT

clipped by: doodleicious
clipper's remarks: hmmm- water water everywhere-but not a drop to drink- well they are saying there is no global water shortage-it is just going to where the people aren't.....

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Tropical Rainfall Moving North

Earth's most prominent rain band, near the equator, has been moving north at an average rate of almost a mile (1.4 km) a year for three centuries, likely because of a warming world, scientists say.

The band supplies fresh water to almost a billion people and affects climate elsewhere.

If the migration continues, some Pacific islands near the equator that today enjoy abundant rainfall may be starved of freshwater by midcentury or sooner, researchers report in the July issue of the journal Nature Geoscience.

The band of heavy precipitation indicates the intertropical convergence zone. The new findings are based on sediment cores from lakes and lagoons on Palau, Washington, Christmas and Galapagos islands. Credit: University of Washington

Tags: rainfall

Brave young man (9 pics + 1 video)

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:04:06 GMT

clipped by: perellicippo
clipper's remarks: Video not clipped

Clip Source: izismile.com

Brave young man (9 pics + 1 video)

Nick Vujicic, 26, was born without arms and legs, but nothing and nobody can stop this brave guy.
Despite the absence of limbs, he is doing surf and swimming, and playing golf and soccer. This is what it means to have the real strength of mind!
We already posted the video with Nick, but I also posted it at the bottom of the post, this completes the article perfectly I guess, don’t miss it.

[via dailymail.co.uk]

Cheyenne Mountain

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:41:37 GMT

clipped by: mccarronequine

Clip Source: news.cnet.com

Photos: Inside Cheyenne Mountain, America's Fortress

A thousand feet up a restricted-access road from Colorado Springs, Colo., is Cheyenne Mountain. Long thought of interchangeably with NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, Cheyenne Mountain actually houses elements of NORAD, as well as many other U.S. government defense-related agencies, including Air Force Space Command, U.S. Strategic Command, the National Security Agency and more.

This is the famous tunnel that leads into Cheyenne Mountain.

Photo by Daniel Terdiman/CNET

Caption by Daniel Terdiman

Main Building

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:59:47 GMT

clipped by: mccarronequine

Clip Source: news.cnet.com

Photos: Inside Cheyenne Mountain, America's Fortress

There are actually several buildings inside Cheyenne Mountain, each fully three stories high. Here, you can see the height of the main building inside the main cave entry.

Photo by Daniel Terdiman/CNET

Formal Entryway

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:46:08 GMT

clipped by: mccarronequine

Clip Source: news.cnet.com

Photos: Inside Cheyenne Mountain, America's Fortress

The formal entryway into the Cheyenne Mountain facility features the insignia of four of the installation's tenants: NORAD, U.S. Northern Command, Air Force Space Command, and U.S. Strategic Command.

Photo by Daniel Terdiman/CNET

Moralistic tyranny bedevils our society

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:16:26 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks: comment @ Irish Times

Clip Source: www.irishtimes.com

We used not to be like this. We had lives. We did not guard every single bureaucratic regulation with a jealous fury. Once, we might have seen someone jumping a queue and smiled at his brass neck or just thought that perhaps he faced some urgent circumstance.

Once, Ireland was world famous for being a place where everything was not reduced to “ethics” and “equality” and rules.

At the heart of this fundamental change in us, I believe, is the way, over the past decade in particular, the State has begun to bear down on citizens in previously inconceivable ways and dip deeper into our pockets to pay for its incompetent attentions. Gradually, this is driving us mad.

This is just one of the subtle and barely comprehended tyrannies that replaced the old kinds – turning us into moralistic bloodhounds who sniff the air for the scent of sinners.

Moralistic tyranny bedevils our society

Tags: ireland

Entertainment as Ritual in Contemporary Culture

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:29:31 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Interesting article with reference to Michael Jackson's life and productions as an example of entertainment's role in modern 'ritual', and how neuroscience, particularly 'mirroring', is relevant.

Clip Source: neuroanthropology.net

Over the last century, anthropologists have often chosen to study exotic symbolic systems — rituals, myth, art — and frequently managed to illuminate the cultural logic underlying what seem initially to be “irrational” practices.

So why haven’t anthropologists leapt to study one of the most exotic and powerful symbolic systems in human history? I’m talking about the Western (and predominantly American) system of “entertainment”. Not only is this system central to contemporary Western culture, it has arguably played a major role in the breakdown of the cultures of many indigenous communities.

some interest in the topic has emerged in the last couple of decades. Much of this material is promising; often authors pursue the insight that in some ways entertainment activities are similar to rituals. This is not only an accurate observation, but it points to the possibility of beginning to map how entertainment works to establish some of the central meanings of contemporary life.

Tags: anthropology, culture, entertainment

A Modest Proposal for Garrisoned Lands

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:39:03 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Whatever the costs turn out to be, they will not be included in our already bloated military budget, even though none of these structures is designed to be a true embassy -- a place, that is, where local people come for visas and American officials represent the commercial and diplomatic interests of their country. Instead these so-called embassies will actually be walled compounds, akin to medieval fortresses, where American spies, soldiers, intelligence officials, and diplomats try to keep an eye on hostile populations in a region at war. One can predict with certainty that they will house

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

The U.S. Empire of Bases -- at $102 billion a year already the world's costliest military enterprise -- just got a good deal more expensive. As a start, on May 27th, we learned that the State Department will build a new "embassy" in Islamabad, Pakistan, which at $736 million will be the second priciest ever constructed, only $4 million less, if cost overruns don't occur, than the Vatican-City-sized one the Bush administration put up in Baghdad. The State Department was also reportedly planning to buy the five-star Pearl Continental Hotel (complete with pool) in Peshawar, near the border with Afghanistan, to use as a consulate and living quarters for its staff there.

Unfortunately for such plans, on June 9th Pakistani militants rammed a truck filled with explosives into the hotel, killing 18 occupants, wounding at least 55, and collapsing one entire wing of the structure. There has been no news since about whether the State Department is still going ahead with the purchase.

Tags: empire, u.s., mid, east, asia, war, terror, subject, people, garrison