I've been bombarded by telephone calls from the campaign of Bloomberg. This has made me even more disgusted with this Mayor. His using of poorly spoken spanish in these calls is insulting to me. His overthrowing of term limits, which we need, is an affront to democracy. Ironically, term limits in NYC has been a spectacular success. This election shows, once again, that politics in this city is always about money and the crooked politics it engenders.
in reference to:
"Mayor Michael Bloomberg's record spending is favored to win him a third term Tuesday, but by a far smaller margin than the nearly 20-point blowout he pulled off in 2005.Public opinion surveys find Bloomberg with a much narrower lead over Democrat William Thompson Jr. this year than the lead he held over his Democratic opponent in his last re-election bid, when he steamrolled Fernando Ferrer by nearly 20 points.The rivals surfaced early at their own Manhattan polling places. After voting at a school, Bloomberg took $1 from his wallet and made a bake sale purchase. Thompson arrived with family members in tow and gave a thumbs-up as he left the voting booth.The billionaire mayor spent record sums from his personal fortune on both elections. He's likely to burn through more than $100 million on this one, while Thompson is expected to spend one-tenth of that. The mayor spent $85 million in 2005." - Bloomberg favored to win 3rd term as NYC mayor - Examiner.com (view on Google Sidewiki)
The parents of Madeleine are still the main suspects. It was probably an accidental killing (she overdosed on sleeping medication) by one or both parents. Whom wanted to go out on the town and wanted Madeleine to stay sleeping. This case reminds me of Haleigh Cummings and others.
in reference to:
"British police on Tuesday released a new video imagining what missing girl Madeleine McCann would look like now, at age six, and urged Internet users to spread the pictures as widely as they can. The appeal was launched by the U.K. Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center. Detectives hope the video will "prick the conscience" of someone who may be close to the girl's abductor. The short film includes new images of how Madeleine might have changed more than two years after she disappeared while on vacation with her family in Portugal's southern Algarve coast in May 2007. Madeleine disappeared from the resort a few days before her fourth birthday." - Nation & World | New video on missing British girl Madeleine McCann | Seattle Times Newspaper (view on Google Sidewiki)
This interview might help bring needed attention to the issue of domestic violence against women. I hope she doesn't try to explain away Brown's role. And let's hope she's forgotten the bum.
in reference to:
"Pop singer Rihanna is due to speak for the first time about the night she was beaten by her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown, saying in a TV interview that this could happen to anyone. R&B singer Brown, 20, was sentenced to five years probation and community service in August for attacking Rihanna, 21, on the eve of the Grammy Awards in February. He has since apologized for the assault but has remained largely out of the media spotlight. In an interview with Diana Sawyer due to be aired on ABC's program "Good Morning America" on Thursday and Friday this week, the Barbadian singer says Brown was "definitely my first big love." "This happened to me ... it can happen to anyone," she told Sawyer according to a statement from ABC." - Rihanna says domestic violence could happen to anyone - omg! news on Yahoo! (view on Google Sidewiki)
Isn't this a metaphor for the human condition? Are humans part of that endangered species list?
in reference to:
"The Switzerland-based group surveyed 47,677 animals and plants for this year's "Red List" of endangered species, determining that 17,291 of them are at risk of extinction. More than one in five of all known mammals, over a quarter of reptiles and 70 percent of plants are under threat, according to the survey, which featured over 2,800 new species compared with 2008. "These results are just the tip of the iceberg," said Craig Hilton-Taylor, who manages the list. He said many more species that have yet to be assessed could also be under serious threat." - Over 17,000 species threatened by extinction (view on Google Sidewiki)
In mid-October, Luke Duvall was in a fight for his life against H1N1. Pelley met him and his parents, Chad and Belinda, at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock.
Luke was breathing only with the help of a ventilator. He would be on the machine 17 days.
Nearly three weeks later, Luke was off the ventilator and in physical therapy. He is still being fed through a tube in his nose and he has a long way to go to get his strength back, but he has beaten H1N1.
"Well, the only way I can describe it to somebody who hadn't gone through it was its almost like somebody hit me with a cannonball in the chest," he said.
Luke's harrowing struggle wasn't lost on his neighbors. Before dawn Friday, people who had been praying for their local football star were lining up for vaccine. But supplies were scarce; Arkansas says it is short about a million doses.
We went to a mall in Manassas, Va., where after three hours they vaccinated 550 people, ran out of vaccine, and turned 350 away.
Last summer, the government said there would be 120 million doses of vaccine by fall; weeks later, it revised that to 40 million. Now, just over 17 million have shipped - 14 percent of the first estimate.
Experts agree the government decoded the virus to prepare a vaccine in record time, a real achievement. But then the project hit snags.
The vaccine took longer than expected to produce, and there were shortages of supplies, like the sprayer for the FluMist version.
The H1N1 vaccine is being produced in a sprawling, $250 million facility in Swiftwater, Pa. Like other vaccines, the H1N1 virus is grown in chicken eggs, in an updated version of a process that has been around since World War II.
"Viruses are unique in that they require a living host to propagate. And the egg provides essentially a small, self-contained, sterile factory for the production of the vaccine," Sam Lee, director of manufacturing technology at French drug company Sanofi Pasteur, explained.
The plant has to be as clean as a hospital operating room. Pelley and the "60 Minutes" team put on clean suits and hairnets and passed through airlocks to reach the production line.
Five companies are making vaccine, but this is the only one in America.
"I see all these needles going into the top of the egg. Is that the virus going into the egg itself?" Pelley asked, observing the production process.
"There's the needle that comes down," Lee said. "The virus is then introduced directly to the egg. The eggs exit the machine. And are loaded onto carts. These carts are then wheeled into incubators, where they're environmentally controlled for temperature and humidity."
The virus grows in the eggs; later it is killed and refined into vaccine. The process takes three months. Most of that is testing for safety and sterility. Sanofi Pasteur has a federal contract to make 75 million doses. They will go through millions of eggs.
Asked if the farms producing the eggs are near the vaccine plant, Lee told Pelley, "Because of security reasons, I'm not at liberty to share specific, exact locations."
"These are secret egg farms?" Pelley asked.
"We don't want to reveal the location for security reasons," Lee said.
Read the complete transcript. See video here. Excerpt below:
WALLACE: This week it will be one year since Barack Obama was elected president. In that time, what has he done for and to the country? LIMBAUGH: I think it's all to. I don't think there's any for. I'm -- Chris, I'm -- I'm really, really worried. We've never seen this kind of radical leadership at such a high level of power in the -- in the country.
I believe that the economy is under siege, is being destroyed. Anybody with any economic literacy would not do one thing this administration's done to try to revitalize the private sector. They're destroying it.
And I have to think that it may be on purpose, because this is just outrageous, what is happening -- a denial of liberty, an attack on freedom.
I mean, just -- just a couple days ago, they talked about these 650,000 jobs that they've created or saved. There's no such thing as a saved job. Besides that, they've destroyed jobs. They've lost 3.3 million jobs in this country since Obama's stimulus plan, and it's going to get worse.
WALLACE: But -- but wait a minute. How about save the country from a financial abyss, 3.5 percent growth in the third quarter in GDP?
LIMBAUGH: There wasn't any growth in the private sector. That 3.5 percent came from two things -- government spending on "Cash for Clunkers" -- they just moved fourth quarter auto sales into the third quarter -- and the first-time home buyer thing.
GDP equals CIG -- that is, consumers, the investment of business, and government. And it's all G. It's all government. There is no private sector growth. There were no new jobs being created. We're losing them.
WALLACE: How about kept the country safe for nine months?
LIMBAUGH: I don't know how safe we are. Iran is nuking up. Everything that we've asked them to do they are forgetting. They're not going to move their plutonium, their enriched plutonium -- uranium out of the country like they said so.
We can't make up our minds what we're going to do in Afghanistan. We're dithering there. I don't -- I don't think we're any better off in any way it could be measured.
WALLACE: You have now taken to calling Mr. Obama "the man-child president."
LIMBAUGH: Right.
WALLACE: What does that mean?
LIMBAUGH: Just -- he's (inaudible) he's a child. I think he's -- he's got a -- a five-minute career. He was in the Senate for 150 days. He was a community organizer in Chicago for however number of years. He really has no experience running anything. He's very young. I think he's got an out-of-this-world ego. He's very narcissistic. And he's able to focus all attention on him all the time. That -- that description is simply a way to cut through the noise and say he's immature, inexperienced, in over his head.
WALLACE: Let's talk about a couple of the big issues the president is dealing with now -- first of all, Afghanistan. You suggest that he is taking all of this time to decide what to do in Afghanistan to keep his left-wing base on board for health care reform.
LIMBAUGH: Well, it's partly that, but I also don't think he cares much about it. I think once...
WALLACE: Well, come on.
LIMBAUGH: No, I -- no, see, this is -- I know this is going to sound controversial, but I don't think he cares that -- if he -- Chris, if he cared about -- we've got soldiers and their families worrying about what we're going to do. The general on the ground said we need some more troops.
The policy that he implemented in March he now doesn't like and is trying to figure out how best to make everybody happy here politically on his side of the aisle and also for his image. Democrats have a tendency to be seen as weak on defense, so he's battling with that.
But again, if he cared about victory -- remember, he said about Afghanistan victory is not something he's comfortable with, the concept. It reminds him of the Japanese surrendering on the USS Missouri. It made him very uncomfortable.
He wants to manage this rather than achieve victory. He says these things. I don't know if people actually listen and have them register when he does.
GREGORY: So good economic news, the economy grew a little bit in the third quarter; has a lot of people thinking things are getting better. And yet the market on Friday dropped pretty sharply. Does Wall Street think the recession is over?
GEITHNER: I think it is a good number. It was -- the growth was broad based. It was investment, exports, consumption, housing for the first time. And it shows that, you know, just five months after the president came into office we got growths restarted. But it’s just the beginning and we’ve got a ways to go. Unemployment’s high and still rising.
This is a very tough economy, still, for huge numbers of American’s businesses, so we’ve got a ways to go, David.
GREGORY: Do you think the recession is over?
GEITHNER: That’s the judgment the economists will make, and they won’t know until years from now. But the real test of recovery will be when we have unemployment coming down, people back to work, businesses confident to invest again.
GREGORY: What do people have to be braced for, despite this news?
GEITHNER: Well, again, I think it’s -- it’s good news and it shows that, when you act with force, you can stabilize a crisis like this and, you know, start to repair the damage and bring things back.
But this is going to be a different recovery than the past, because Americans are going to have to save more. A lot of damage was caused by this crisis. It’s going to take some time for us to grow out of this. It could be a little choppy; it could be uneven; and it’s going to take a while. But I think, again, this is encouraging signs.
GREGORY: Difficult days still ahead?
GEITHNER: Well, again, I think for large numbers of Americans and businesses, small businesses in particular, it’s a tough economy.
GREGORY: So more difficulty before it gets better.
GEITHNER: Well, it’s getting better. It’s going to be better gradually, and we’re going to make sure we keep at it until we have an economy that’s growing again led by the private sector, of course, ultimately.
GREGORY: Right.
GEITHNER: You know, what the government did was to step in and make sure we’re providing the tax cuts and investments necessary to arrest the crisis, get credit markets starting to open up again. And we did that, that plan worked. But we’ve got a ways to go before...
GREGORY: But that’s a big question, whether or not -- yes, you have growth for the first time in four quarters. But is any of this growth sustainable without government intervention?
GEITHNER: It will be, it will be. But what the government has to do in a crisis is to provide a bridge until the economy can repair itself and businesses are confident enough to start to invest again. And again, you’re starting to see it again.
Businesses now, I think they’ll say -- you talk to people across the country, they’ll say that they feel that things are more stable now and for the first time they see orders starting to pick up. And what will happen is they’ll start to invest again, they’ll start to bring people back onto their payroll and this will get more momentum.
Obama's adviser David Axelrod appeared on Face The Nation (11-1-09). Complete transcript. Excerpt below:
Mr. Axelrod, the president insisted that the Afghan people have a run-off election. He convinced the Afghan president, Karzai to do that after charges that the general election was a fraud. He agreed but he refused to replace the officials who were in charge of the last one, and now the other candidate, Abdullah Abdullah, has quit.
I guess I would ask you first, is this going to have any impact on the timing of the president’s decision on when to send those troops to Afghanistan?
AXELROD: Well, let me correct one thing that you said, Bob. What the president said was he wanted there to be an election that proceeded in the constitutional way. It did. In fact, many ballots were thrown out, a run-off was called.
Now Mr. Abdullah has exercised his rights as a candidate to withdraw. He has made a political decision to withdraw from this contest. And that doesn’t markedly change the situation.
SCHIEFFER: Well, why doesn’t it? I mean, the thing was a fraud. The man who was opposing him said, you know, he has got to replace these officials who allowed this to happen. They didn’t allow it to happen. The United States I guess went along with that. Why doesn’t it change the situation?
AXELROD: Well, I think, first of all, as I said, he made a political judgment. And I thought that his remarks today were rather moderate. He left open as to whether his supporters should participate in the process. And he is establishing himself as a leader of the opposition.
But every poll that had been taken there suggested that he was likely to be defeated anyway. So we are going to deal with the government that is there. And obviously there are issues we need to discuss, such as reducing the high level of corruption. These are issues we’ll take up with President Karzai. SCHIEFFER: Is there any word, Mr. Axelrod, on when we can expect the president to make this decision on whether or not he’s going to put more troops in there?
AXELROD: Well, Bob, I expect the president will make a decision within weeks. As you know, he has gone through a very rigorous process because the goal here is not just to make an arithmetic judgment about the number of troops, but to make sure that we have the right strategy to reach our goal.
And our goal is to protect the American people from al Qaeda. That’s why we’re in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda launched on us from Afghanistan. They’ve been driven to the mountains of Pakistan. We don’t want them to return to Afghanistan and make Afghanistan a base again. And that’s what this is about.
And the question is, what is the most effective strategy moving forward in the context of Pakistan, our troop strength around the world? These are the decisions the commander-in-chief has to make. And he is going through a methodical process, met with the Joint Chiefs on Friday had a good discussion with them.
SCHIEFFER: OK. But on timing, you’re saying in a matter of weeks. Let me ask you...
AXELROD: Yes, I...
(CROSSTALK)
SCHIEFFER: ... Mr. Axelrod, last week when casualties in Afghanistan hit a new high, President Obama went to Dover Air Force Base to take part in a ceremony honoring the return of some of those who had been killed there. Well, this morning on FOX News, Rush Limbaugh had this to say about that.
RUSH LIMBAUGH, HOST, “THE RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOW”: It was a photo op. It was a photo op precisely because he’s having big-time trouble on this whole Afghanistan dithering situation. He found one family that would allow photos to be taken. None of the others did.
And of course when you have a sycophantic media following you around, able to promote and amplify whatever you want, then he can create the impression that he has all of this great concern.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHIEFFER: So what’s your reaction to that?
AXELROD: My reaction is that I think that the president of the United States went to Dover to represent the American people and pay his respects to the families who had made so much of a sacrifice, to those brave service people who made the ultimate sacrifice.
It was the appropriate thing to do. And I think most Americans appreciate that.
Rush limbaugh appeared on FOX News Sunday (11-1-09). He repeats Obama is a man-child argument. See the video on FOX site. Transcript here:
FOX's description of the interview:
President Obama is pursuing a "radical" agenda that is putting the economy and national security in peril, talk show host Rush Limbaugh told "Fox News Sunday," giving the young president failing grades across the board and standing by his sustained criticism of the administration.
The conservative radio host assailed the administration for its economic stimulus package, health care reform plan and alleged uncertainty over the way forward in Afghanistan. In a wide-ranging interview, he called Obama a "child" driven by his "out-of-this-world ego."
And he predicted that Obama, who built a broad-based majority over Republican candidate John McCain a year ago, would not win a second term.
"I'm really, really worried. We've never seen this kind of radical leadership at such a high level of power in the country," Limbaugh said. "I don't think we're better off in any way it can be measured."
Limbaugh is one of the administration's fiercest critics and has often found himself in the White House crosshairs as a result. Top White House aides blasted Limbaugh earlier in the year for saying he wanted Obama to fail as president.
Months later, Limbaugh has only doubled down on his criticism.
"He's immature, he's inexperienced -- in over his head," Limbaugh said of the president. He repeated former Vice President Dick Cheney's charge that Obama is "dithering" on deciding a strategy for the war in Afghanistan.
And Limbaugh scoffed at the administration's claim that hundreds of thousands of jobs have been saved or created by February's economic stimulus package, saying the government has become the job engine -- not the private sector.
"I believe that the economy is under siege," he said.
He also blasted the Democrats' health care bills as a front that would steal money from American businesses and effect the partial takeover of the private sector.
"This is not about insuring the uninsured -- this is not about health care," Limbaugh said. "This is about stealing one-sixth of the U.S. private sector and putting it under the control of the federal government."
Limbaugh warned that the legislation currently being worked out in Congress would amount to massive encroachments on personal and private behavior, much of which would fall under the purview of the legislation.
"And when they get this health care bill -- if they do -- that's the easiest, fastest way for them to be able to regulate every aspect of human behavior, because it will all have some related cost to health care -- what you drive, what you eat, where you live, what you do -- and there will be penalties for violating regulation."
Limbaugh said these changes would have a drastic effect on the U.S.: "It's going to be the biggest snatch of freedom and liberty that has yet occurred in this country."
Here is a transcript of Rush Limbaugh repeating Liz Cheney's lie that President Bush honored fallen troops at Dover Air Base.
in reference to:
"Rush forwards Liz Cheney falsehood about Bush honoring fallen troops
After the commercial break, Rush said that we're living in an "age of insanity" because a Washington Post reporter was able to stop an ABC viral marketing campaign over concerns of pollution.
Then Rush took a caller who asked about Obama's visit to Dover Air Base to honor the troops who had been killed in Afghanistan.
Rush said the event gives us an insight into the "sick mind," "Marxist mind,
perhaps fascist mind?" of Obama. Rush continued:
LIMBAUGH: Lookit, Obama -- the White House is busy, they're playing defense. They're responding
to things, and the criticism of his dithering in Afghanistan
by Vice President Cheney and a number of others made him very sensitive. He doesn't care
about it -- you're exactly right. He --
obviously, he now has a problem with his own strategy that he implemented in
March. And he doesn't know what to do about it because really
he doesn't care about winning over there, but he does have a -- he can't afford -- he's commander in chief.
If he's gonna pull off the rest of his agenda, he's got to make as many people believe that he is as
traditional a president as anybody else. So, as a Democrat, he already has got the image of weak on defense. He already is
on record as having sought defeat in Iraq, but now he's the president.
Then Rush
went over the comments
that Liz Cheney had on this subject the other day. After airing the sound bite,
Rush said:
LIMBAUGH: Amen. That's Liz Cheney yesterday on the
syndicated Fox News Radio John Gibson Show. President Bush used to do
it, did you know that? We didn't know it -- she just told us something we
didn't know. Bush used to do it, but there were no cameras. He did it privately
with the family. Look, folks, you gotta understand leftists are propagandists,
they live by photo op and so forth.
But Bush never went to a homecoming for the fallen troops -- with or without the press. As TPM's David Kurtz quipped: "Liz Cheney says George W. Bush showed more class
than Barack Obama when he honored fallen troops -- because Bush didn't bring
cameras along with him when he never went
to Dover AFB."
The next
caller on the show asked Rush what he thought about the first-time homebuyers
tax credit. Rush said that it amounted to putting people in homes they can't
afford, buying votes, and growing government. Rush added that programs like
this seem nice in a recession, but the flawed aspect of it is that your
neighbors are essentially paying for your $8,000 tax credit.
After
another break, Rush read about Edmunds' "big news"
this week about cash for clunkers. Rush said part of the phony GDP growth was
attributed to cash for clunkers and the first-time homebuyer tax credits. He
noted the White House was pushing back on Edmunds' report, and proceeded to
rant:
LIMBAUGH: So now the White House is going to war with a website. And they're saying -- you know, some people here even on the left are, "What in the world are they doing?" Well, because when the propagandists are called on their lies, when politicians are called on their lies, whoever's doing the calling is going to pay for it when you have tyrannical-type control freaks running the show."
- The Limbaugh Wire for 10/30/2009 (view on Google Sidewiki)
The Republican strategy seems to be oppose every peace of legislation the Democrats offer. In the process, they do the bidding of big business. The Democrats for their part are dumb enough not to call the Republican bluff. They should propose legislation that would make the GOP look foolish. They seem content with not trying to win over any Republicans.
in reference to:
"All seven Republicans on the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee plan to boycott next week's work session on a climate-change bill, an aide said on Saturday, in a move aimed at thwarting Democratic efforts to advance the controversial legislation quickly.
"Republicans will be forced not to show up" at Tuesday's work session, said Matt Dempsey, a spokesman for Republican senators on the environment panel.
Under committee rules, at least two Republicans are needed for Chairwoman Barbara Boxer to hold the work sessions that would give senators an opportunity to amend the controversial legislation and then vote to approve it in the panel, which is controlled by President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats.
But Republicans are demanding more detailed economic analysis of the bill by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency -- a task that could take more than a month -- before agreeing to participate in the work sessions that are called "mark ups."
This could be disaster for the World Series. I'm sympathetic to transit workers. But you can't hold the city hostage this way. Unfortunately, politicians won't listen unless you get their attention in this manner.
"Salvatore Russo, regarded as one of the 30 most wanted and dangerous Mafia fugitives, had been hiding from police since 1995.
Police said Russo had several weapons, including an Uzi and a pistol, when they found him in a hiding space behind a wall on the farm during a raid Saturday.
Russo, 51, is believed to be the leading boss of Naple's Camorra organized crime family, Reuters reports. He had been convicted to life in prison for the murder and criminal association with the Mafia.
"Former vice president Dick Cheney told a special prosecutor in 2004 that he had no idea who leaked the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame, according to newly released FBI documents. Cheney was questioned as part of an investigation on how journalists came to know the identity of Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who was a critic of the Iraq war. In the interview, Cheney responded to many questions with "I do not recall." However, he took a few stabs at the CIA in its handling of White House allegations that Iraq was attempting to purchase uranium from Niger to manufacture nuclear weapons." - CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Cheney told FBI he did not know who leaked Plame’s identity « - Blogs from CNN.com (view on Google Sidewiki)
They knew and still couldn't stop the attack?! That's bad. We can't count on the Afghan. We must act alone in fighting the Taliban. Otherwise, we need to get out.
They would love to sweep this under the rug. That is why the report accidentally got out. This was not the press exposing corruption. Capitol Hill is a cesspool.
in reference to:
"A confidential weekly report of the House ethics committee found its way to an Internet site in a case of "cyber-hacking," the committee's chairwoman said Thursday.
The report from last July contains a summary of the committee's work at the time, but Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., the panel's chairwoman, said no inferences should be made about anyone whose name is mentioned.
And I thought Texas was a pro-family conservative state. This sounds like the type of issue that comes in liberal places like NY and San Francisco. Showing porn to kids is child abuse.
Guess where they learned their hacking skills? China.
in reference to:
"The North Korean government was the source of high-profile cyberattacks in July that caused Web outages in South Korea and the United States, news reports said Friday. The IP address—the Web equivalent of a street address or phone number—that triggered the Web attacks was traced back to North Korea's Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, the chief of South Korean's main spy agency reportedly told lawmakers." - Reports: Cyberattacks traced to NKorea (view on Google Sidewiki)
