Clipmarks | masbury's Comments

The Sun

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:29:17 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: Go to the site for jaw-dropping hi-res, an animation that won't clip and detailed captions.

Clip Source: www.boston.com

The Sun is now in the quietest phase of its 11-year activity cycle, the solar minumum - in fact, it has been unusually quiet this year - with over 200 days so far with no observed sunspots. The solar wind has also dropped to its lowest levels in 50 years. Scientists are unsure of the significance of this unusual calm, but are continually monitoring our closest star with an array of telescopes and satellites. Seen below are some recent images of the Sun in more active times

Detailed closeup of magnetic structures on the Sun's surface, seen in the H-alpha wavelength

NASA's STEREO satellite captured the first images ever of a collision between a solar "hurricane", called a coronal mass ejection (CME), and a comet

Image of an active solar region

The total solar eclipse of February 16, 198

Venus is seen by NASA's TRACE satellite, at the start of its transit across the sun

a sunspot

Solar flares produce seismic waves

An animation of the sun

a massive solar flare

false-color, 3-layer composite

Losing control...

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:04:22 GMT

clipped by: earnric
clipper's remarks: McCain - the head of the GOP - can't even control his own rabid supporters... This is what happens when the party's machinery whips people into a frenzy over non-issues.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

John McCain was booed by his own supporters during a rally on Friday after he described Barack Obama as a "decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States."

Later, McCain was again pressed about Obama's "other-ness" and again he refused to play ball. "I don't trust Obama," a woman said. "I have read about him. He's an Arab."

"No, ma'am," McCain said several times, shaking his head in disagreement. "He's a decent, family man, [a] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign is all about."

Tags: hysteria, politics, republicans, hate

Is Obama a socialist? Ask the socialists:

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 05:55:53 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: World Socialist Party: "OMFno-G no. ... Duh."

Clip Source: www.wspus.org

Is Obama a socialist?

But is Obama a socialist? OMFno-G no.

Obama isn’t anymore a socialist than McCain is a fascist, a leprechaun or sincere. Sure, Obama wants more government control of economic matters. But as even Obama said if you put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig. Capitalism administered by the state is still capitalism. Duh.

No one’s calling Bush a socialist because he nationalized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Because it’s not socialism. So why call Obama a sociaiist?

This election is all about two factions of capitalism competing for power with each-other.

The WSP got a an e-mail recently from some right-wing blogger for the New York Times who asked if we considered Barak Obama a socialist and if we supported his tax plans. blah, blah, blah

most likely this was another piece attempting to get someone calling themselves socialist to endorse Obama or one of his policies. Once that confession is procured, it will be widely touted as proof of Obama being a socialist, an elitist, etc

Tags: socialist, obama

The media's enduring pro-McCain double standard

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:52:37 GMT

clipped by: keeth
clipper's remarks: "The media are only as liberal as the conservative companies that own them." This is more than just a silly liberal phrase; it's the truth.

Clip Source: mediamatters.org

The media's enduring pro-McCain double standard

It isn't surprising that the conventional wisdom is that the news media have turned on Sen. John McCain.

decades of attacks from conservatives have conditioned reporters to believe that they are biased against Republicans -- even when there is scant evidence in the reporting to support such claims.

the McCain campaign has launched an all-out assault on the media, complaining relentlessly about the coverage its candidate has gotten.

The truth is that when John McCain says "jump," the media still ask, "How high?" Think about this: When was the last time McCain or his campaign has wanted the news media to focus on something, and they have refused?

2008 news reports that mention Obama and Ayers: more than 4,500.

2008 news reports that mention McCain and Liddy: fewer than 100.

Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright

161 articles, editorials, and opinion pieces

John McCain and John Hagee

only 12

Obama and Rezko

McCain and his donors' land deals

seven

Tags: mccain, palin, obama, politics, media, liberal, false

McCain Tells Supporters to Dial Back the Hate, Gets Booed for It

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:12:28 GMT

clipped by: Wisco
clipper's remarks: How disappointed they must be to find out they don't finally have an openly racist candidate. Good luck getting that geni back in the bottle, John. You may not have created this monster, but you gave it a place to live.

It's a little late to try to kick it out now.

Clip Source: www.mcclatchydc.com

John McCain on Friday moved to calm rising anger among his supporters at rival Barack Obama, calling him a decent man and at one point taking the microphone away from a woman who'd called Obama an Arab.

Their anger apparently still at flash point, McCain's supporters then booed him for his conciliatory words about Obama.

Increasingly angry, supporters of McCain and running mate Sarah Palin have responded at rallies with loud cries of "terrorist" and "traitor."

But when one man said he was scared to raise his unborn child in a country that might be led by a President Obama, McCain disagreed.

Later, another supporter told McCain, "I don't trust Obama...He's an Arab."

McCain stood shaking his head as she spoke, then quickly took the microphone from her.

Tags: news

McCain Lied about William Ayers

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:13:01 GMT

clipped by: spirithiker
clipper's remarks: I posted a clip earlier about how Sarah Palin will grasp at any opportunity to lie about Obama. McCain is doing the same thing, despite proof to the contrary.

I have never understood how anyone can be stupid enough to lie about something that can so easily be proven.

America cannot afford to have people of this low character to represent us.

Contiued embarrassment.

Clip Source: www.newsweek.com

In a TV ad, McCain says Obama "lied" about his association with , a former bomb-setting, anti-war radical from the 1960s and '70s. We find McCain's claim to be groundless. New details have recently come to light, but nothing Obama said previously has been shown to be false.

In a Web ad and in repeated attacks from the stump, McCain describes the two as associates, and Palin claims they "pal around" together. But so far as is known, their relationship was never very close. An Obama spokesman says they last saw each other in a chance encounter on the street more than a year ago.

McCain says in an Internet ad that the two "ran a radical 'education' foundation" in . But the supposedly "radical" group was supported by a Republican governor and included on its board prominent local civic leaders, including one former Nixon administration official who has given $1,500 to McCain's campaign this year.

Tags: politics, misrepresetation, lies, mccain

Palin -- Whaaaaat??

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:18:40 GMT

clipped by: oscarrob
clipper's remarks: Does anybody else think this is gone from politics to psychosis?

Clip Source: voices.washingtonpost.com

In a Saturday conference call with Alaska journalists, Palin said she was "pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing ... any hint of any kind of unethical activity there." She denounced the investigation, calling it "a partisan circus." The McCain-Palin campaign said that she and her family had good reason to try to get the trooper fired.

Tags: palin, politics, troopergate, alaska

When Facts Fail, Attack Something Inconsequential.

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:53:00 GMT

clipped by: Jorjor
clipper's remarks: Maybe he should hire a speech coach to teach him how to say "new-kyu-lur" and throw in a couple "you betchas". Yet another example of the devaluation of intelligence in the USA.

Clip Source: www.suntimes.com

I say 'Pak,' you say 'Pock' ...

For the cause

October 12, 2008

BY ZAY N. SMITH Sun-Times Columnist

An editor of National Review Online at www.nationalreview.com, on Barack Obama pronouncing "Pakistan" correctly:

"When Obama says Pock-i-stahn I have an uncontrollable urge to read the New Yorker and find some Chardonnay. Fortunately, I have an old copy of NR and a Coors Light to snap me back to reality. Seriously, though -- no one in flyover country says Pock-i-stahn. It's annoying."

What's next on the elitist list? Bathing daily?

Tags: politics, election, obama, mccain, palin, antiintellectualism

Alaska About to Eat its Own

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:30:33 GMT

clipped by: dulios
clipper's remarks: Another failed McCain gamble.

Clip Source: www.newsweek.com

Some weeks ago, the McCain team devised a plan to have Palin file an ethics complaint against herself with the State Personnel Board, arguing that it alone was capable of conducting a fair, nonpartisan inquiry into whether she fired Monegan because he refused to fire Wooten

Some Democrats ridiculed the move, noting that the personnel board answered to Palin. But the board ended up hiring an aggressive Anchorage trial lawyer, Timothy Petumenos, as an independent counsel. McCain aides were chagrined to discover that Petumenos was a Democrat who had contributed to Palin's 2006 opponent for governor, Tony Knowles. Palin is now scheduled to be questioned next week, and the counsel's report could be released soon after. "We took a gamble when we went to the personnel board," said a McCain aide who asked not to be identified discussing strategy. While the McCain camp still insists Palin "has nothing to hide," it acknowledges a critical finding by Petumenos would be even harder to dismiss.

Tags: palin, go home

15 Papers Endorse Obama, None for McCain

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:59:30 GMT

clipped by: monstersmom

Clip Source: www.eandppub.com

So far this year Obama leads McCain 26-9 (it's early) and has already picked up at least three papers that endorsed Bush in 2004.

Today, Obama picked up nine key newspaper endorsements in swing states, earning the nod from, among others, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Blade of Toledo, the Dayton Daily News, Asheville Citizen-Times in North Carolina, and the Wisconsin State Journal (which backed Bush in 2004) in Madison. The St. Louis daily called McCain, "the incredible shrinking man" who had made a horrific pick for his running mate.

Joining the Obama team in battleground states were the Muskegon (Mich.) Chronicle, the Lehigh Valley (Pa.) Express-Times and Springfield (Ohio) News

Six other major papers in an apparent non-swing state also backed Obama today: The Tennessean in Nashville and the San Bernardino Sun (which had backed Bush over Kerry), Contra Costa Times, The Herald of Monterrey, Sacramento Bee and Fresno Bee in California.

Tags: obama, mccain, endorsements, media

Sen McCain changes strategy again [timeline]

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:29:24 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Times of London: recent lurches "have given
the appearance of being desperate, in disarray, or even dangerous."

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Twists and turns

— June 4, 2008 Calls for ten town hall meetings with Obama to embrace “the politics of civility”; repeatedly contrasts his “experience and judgment” with Obama's youth

— July 30 Launches advertising campaign portraying Obama as “the biggest celebrity in the world”

— August 29 Picks the inexperienced Sarah Palin as his running mate

— September 24 Announces suspension of campaign and calls for cancellation of first debate so he can return to Washington to resolve financial crisis

— September 26 Leaves Washington, resumes campaign and goes to debate

— October 6 Begins aggresssive attacks on Obama over his links with Bill Ayers, a former terrorist

— October 10 Denounces attacks on Obama's character and calls his rival “a decent family man”

McCain is signalling another abrupt change of course for

the campaign

his haphazard response to the financial crisis and faltering attacks on Barack Obama's character have given

the appearance of being desperate, in disarray, or even dangerous.

Tags: mccain, campaign

Obama under fire for playing T-ball during Vietnam

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:02:25 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Who IS Barack Obama? What T-ball players did he pal around with?

Clip Source: www.theonion.com

Obama Under Fire For Playing T-Ball During Vietnam

WASHINGTON—At a press conference on Monday, members of the Vietnam Veterans Alliance blasted Democratic nominee Barack Obama for his failure to serve in the Southeast Asian war that ended 33 years ago, alleging that during the conflict the candidate frequently engaged in games of T-ball. "While our boys were dying in Vietnam, Barack Obama was running around a little league field, laughing and having fun without a care in the world," VVA spokesman James Lowry said. "John McCain left his wife and three children behind and fought bravely, but I guess Sen. Obama decided that practicing cursive and learning how to ride a bike was just more important than defending his country in her hour of need. I bet he wasn't even able to point out Vietnam on a map." Lowry later speculated that if Obama had been sent over to fight in the conflict, he probably would have peed his pants and cried for his mommy as soon as he touched down in Saigon.

Tags: humor, onion, obama

McCain: Obama's not an Arab - he's decent!

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:34:21 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: You can bet that will be heard around the world. Making peace with Arab nations just became harder. On the other hand, Arab-American voters (in the millions, and in swing states) just moved out of "undecided."

Clip Source: www.juancole.com

The McCain attempt to connect race and terror

in his advertising, while projecting an image of taking the high road

crashed and burned on Friday when he did not notice he was engaging in racist hate speech:

another supporter told McCain, "I don't trust Obama...He's an Arab."

"No, ma'am," he said. "He's a decent, family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with." '

Arab is a linguistic identity whereas Muslim is a religious one. Not all Arabs are Muslims

only a minority of Muslims is Arab

Worse than the lady's confusion between Arab and Muslim were her further obvious confusion between Muslim and dangerous.

Mr. McCain, Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans are decent, family-oriented citizens. The only thing wrong with calling Obama by either of these modifiers is that it would be incorrect. He is not an Arab ethnically, but rather northern European and Luo (Nilotic). He is not a Muslim but a Christian

As with his self-professed "hatred" of "gooks," McCain's

attitude

troubling

[Video]

Tags: mccain, arab

Nobel Laureate Yunus: 'Capitalism has degenerated into a casino'

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:44:13 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks:

these castles don't exist at all. That was the point at which the financial system collapsed."

Also true during the '90s tech boom and bust with all that betting on little companies not even worth the paper their IPOs were written on. And let's not forget all the employees working like slaves for promises. Oh when will we learn?

Clip Source: current.com

Interview with Nobel Laureate in Economics Muhammad Yunus. A few excerpts:

"Today's capitalism has degenerated into a casino. The financial markets are propelled by greed. Speculation has reached catastrophic proportions."

"The fundamental difference is that our business is very connected to the real economy. When we provide a loan of $200, that money will go to buy a cow somewhere. If we lend $100, someone will maybe buy some chickens. In other words, the money goes to something with concrete value. Finance and the real economy have to be connected. In the US, the financial system has completely split off from the real economy. Castles were built in the sky, and suddenly people realized that these castles don't exist at all. That was the point at which the financial system collapsed."

Ayers Link MORE Than Just Bomb Throwing.

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 01:47:17 GMT

clipped by: davboz
clipper's remarks: Take $millions,radicalize youth of community, organize and intimidate bankers, lenders, then Fannie, Congress, now YOU - for your vote.
DON"T be intimidated. You are not a racist for seeing the truth behind Barack Obama.
Search out the facts (you will NOT get it on MSNBC) Check the facts.

Clip Source: www.ibdeditorials.com

That Ayers' totalitarian revolutionary agenda isn't history is shown by Ayers today sitting on the directorate of the Miranda International Center, a think tank funded by the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chavez, unofficially a state sponsor of terror that just last weekend was found to be hosting terror training camps with Cuban and FARC operatives

Ayers is both a hero and adviser to Hugo Chavez and a colleague of Obama's.

Venezuelan government site describes him as "the leader of the revolutionary and anti-imperialist group

which initiated struggle against

the USA," which it calls "the empire

refers to Ayers' joint involvement with Obama in the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a school "reform" project

radical socialist curriculum into the Windy City's public schools

Obama

CEO of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge

Both men

board of the Woods Fund

helped fund the leftist group ACORN

coerce banks to issue the very risky loans that led to the current financial crisis

Among their grants

Arafat's associate