from the progress report...
For all of the administration's promising early steps to restore transparency and accountability, however recent developments are less encouraging. Some of these stumbling points have been simple failures of implementation; many of the administration's budget transparency websites, for example, publish inconsistent numbers. Other transparency failures, however, suggest a more disturbing trend. Despite promises to end "secret meetings" and restore the White House as the "people's house, " the administration has refused to disclose the names of individuals who have visited the White House since Obama took office, while echoing similar excuses by Bush administration officials who wanted to hide secret meetings with energy industry executives. But most disturbing are recent, tenuous invocations of "national security" to cast a shade over government transparency. After the Environmental Protection Agency uncovered nearly four dozen toxic coal ash sites in Tennessee that "could cause death and significant property damage if an event such as a storm, a terrorist attack or a structural failure caused them to spill into surrounding communities, " the administration choose to keep the locations of the toxic sites secret from Tennessee residents because of fears that such disclosure could present a "security risk." Similarly, despite earlier disclosure of the infamous torture memos, the Obama CIA has thus far successfully kept secret a comprehensive account of that agency's interrogation practices. Although a heavily redacted version of the report was uncovered by the ACLU, the administration insists that disclosing the full report would endanger national security. Even more alarming, however, is the Obama administration's adoption of Bush's "state secrets" claim in court cases dealing with issues ranging from extraordinary rendition to warrantless wiretapping. The "state secrets" privilege allows the administration to withhold information in a lawsuit or even dismiss the suit altogether if the subject matter of the suit could potentially reveal information that puts national security at risk. In one suit, brought by an Islamic charity challenging the previous administration's warrantless wiretapping program, a federal judge finally threatened sanctions against the Justice Department if it did not comply with an order to turn over a document to the plaintiff's attorneys. Incidents such as these led the New York Times to lament that Obama has "backtracked, in substantial if often nuanced ways, from the approach to national security that he preached as a candidate, and even from his first days in the Oval Office."
the center for american progress, the publisher of this e-newsletter and the weblog, think progress, has lost a great deal of credibility with me over the past few years... i became a regular reader when i saw that they often got the goods on the multiple abuses and outright crimes of the bush administration ahead of the rest of the baying blogosphere... then it started to dawn on me that they too often played the fawning sycophant to anyone and everyone aligned with the democratic party, frequently turning a blind eye to the fact that we have been and are continuing to be just as thoroughly screwed by the democrats as we are by the republicans, the only difference being that, with the dems, there's no sand in the vaseline...
since obama's election and inauguration, they've taken a turn for the worse, spending WAY too much time, imho, vilifying the likes of bill kristol, bill o'reilly, glenn beck, rush limbaugh, karl rove, and the like, a tactic that only serves to give those despicable characters even more air time and exposure than they already have and thus reinforcing their loathsome presence on the american scene... the best strategy in dealing with such obvious dark forces is to not give them the energy of even recognizing them... the dark feeds on attention whether it be positive or negative, and these guys don't deserve to be fed...
so, now our center for american progress friends seem to be waking up to the fact that our dear sunshine-is-the-best-disinfectant president may well be just another stooge - albeit a very well-spoken, intelligent and polished one - for those who so blithely and heedlessly pull our strings along with the strings of most of the rest of the world...
speaking for myself, i believe obama has a good heart and i would prefer to believe that some of what's going on is the result of his bowing to his handlers... otoh, if he IS a good soul, he'd better start showing it or i will be permanently checking out of the hope hotel...
Source: feedproxy.google.com
Domestic terrorism
and i dare you to tell me it's not...
Abortion Provider Shot Dead In Church
George R. Tiller, the nation's most prominent provider of controversial late-term abortions, was shot and killed yesterday in the lobby of his Lutheran church in Wichita, where he was serving as an usher.
Source: feedproxy.google.com
Netanyahu will accept a Palestinian state as long as it's not really a SOVEREIGN state AND Israel keeps building settlements
woo-hoo... what a pile of bullshit...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bowed to U.S. pressure Sunday and accepted the goal of a Palestinian state. But it was unclear whether the breakthrough, welcomed by President Obama, would lead to a revival of peace talks with the Palestinians, who immediately rejected the sharp limits Netanyahu would place on their nation's sovereignty.
Netanyahu said Israel needed international guarantees that a Palestinian state would not have its own military.In his first policy speech on the conflict since taking office 10 weeks ago, he also insisted that the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority give up claims to Jerusalem as a future capital, recognize Israel as a Jewish state and "impose law and order" on the Hamas militants who run the Gaza Strip.
[...]
Netanyahu's half-hour address, televised in Israel during prime time, staked out a strikingly different approach to the conflict than the one Obama offered 10 days earlier in an address to the Muslim world from Cairo. He again rebuffed Obama's call for a halt to the growth of Jewish settlements in the West Bank as a first step toward engaging Arab states in a broad regional peace effort.
ok, now lemme see if i got this straight...
it's ok with israel if palestine becomes a nation (like israel has the ultimate say-so) but palestinians can't have any means to defend themselves (unlike every other sovereign nation on the planet with the most belligerent, destructive, downright NASTY country imaginable right next door, a country that's been working to wipe palestinians off the face of the earth and take all their land since the late 40s), palestinians have to give up all claims to jerusalem (one of islam's holiest sites outside of mecca and medinah), and israel will keep expanding its illegal settlements on palestinian land... oh, yeah, and btw, the palestinians have to put down the legitimately elected hamas government in gaza...
heckuva deal, dontcha think...? no wonder the palestinians are so thrilled...
Palestinian leaders dismissed Netanyahu's call to begin peace talks "immediately, without preconditions, " as a nonstarter.
"Netanyahu left us with nothing to negotiate, as he systematically took nearly every issue off the table, " said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian Authority negotiator. "Nor did he accept a Palestinian state; instead, he announced a series of conditions and qualifications that render a viable, independent and sovereign state impossible."
Nabil abu Rudaineh, an aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said the speech was "not enough to start a serious peace process."
Ahmad Bahar, a Hamas leader in Gaza, said the speech "proves that resistance is the only way for the Palestinians to regain their legitimate rights." Hamas' alliance with Iran, hostility to Israel and violent opposition to Abbas' administration make Israelis skeptical that any peace accord can work.
like i said, heckuva deal...
Source: feedproxy.google.com
Take your Pedometer on Vacation
I have always wondered how many miles I walk in an average day while I am on vacation. This year I took my pedometer with me to Italy and found out that in an average day I walk about 5 miles. I felt pretty good about the distance walked, but of that 5 miles only about 30 minutes was walked fast enough to be considered aerobic.
In other words I was strolling around the narrow streets and through beautiful churches but I was not getting a cardio workout.
As soon as I realized I was doing more meandering and less aerobic walking I stepped up the pace, at least for part of the day. After all I was in Italy so there was no way I was going to rush around like I do when I am in New York City. On the other hand I was drinking a lot of wine and eating pasta twice a day so I needed to burn some calories if I wanted to fit in my clothes when I returned home.
Source: www.discoverwalking.com
Oh, yay... Learned helplessness...
a societal and organizational dynamic that i've observed for many years is what i have come to call "learned helplessness"... many of us develop that mindset when, over many, many years, we've come to believe that no matter what we do, our employer won't change a damn thing, our society will still be off the rails, and our government will still feel perfectly within its rights to do whatever it goddam well pleases no matter what we, the people, think about it...
now, i come to find out that very same dynamic, using the very same name underpins the oh-so-euphemistically labeled "enhanced interrogation techniques, " known to you and me as torture, methods have been - and probably still are - so liberally applied at our < snark > club med-style < /snark > "detention" facilities, known to you and me as prisons and to our friends in russia as gulags...
well, at least panetta isn't sitting on his hands...
CIA Director Leon Panetta fired Mitchell, Jessen & Associates and all other contractors that aided the CIA in its interrogations of alleged terrorists, the New Yorker reported this weekend.
The firings took place in April, around the same time the Senate Armed Services Committee reported on the role played by James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen in developing "countermeasures to defeat" the resistance of captured enemy detainees from whom intelligence was being sought.
Mitchell and Jessen, who run the firm, had worked on a Pentagon program that taught U.S. service members how to survive harsh enemy interrogation methods. They relied on elements of that training in proposing an interrogation program for the CIA. It included methods such as sleep deprivation and other actions based on "theories of 'learned helplessness, ' " the New Yorker reported.
our minders have worked long and hard to instill in us the learned helplessness mindset... we're ever so much easier to control when we feel and think that way... nothing to see here, folks... just move along...
Source: feedproxy.google.com
"We want reforms, we want kindness, we want friendship with the world"
ya know what i'd like to see...? i'd like to see this same thing happening in every country in the world with the same sentiments expressed... we all want kindness, we all want friendship with the world, we all want this world to be a better place... do ya s'pose maybe, just maybe, we're slowly approaching the day when a global "pandemic" of kindness and friendship will spontaneously erupt...? a guy can dream, can't he...?
Ayatollah Khamenei announced Saturday that the election results showing a landslide victory for Mr. Ahmadinejad were fair. But on Sunday he met with Mr. Moussavi, a moderate, to listen to his concerns. And on Monday, he promised the inquiry into the results.
Nevertheless, his announcement could not calm the anger of the people. There was so much distrust that some people said they believed the leader was just trying to buy time and to calm the crowds, rather than attempting to really investigate the outcome.
Hours later, a broad river of people in Tehran — young and old, dressed in traditional Islamic gowns and the latest Western fashions — marched slowly from Revolution Square to Freedom Square for more than three hours, many of them wearing the signature bright green ribbons of Mr. Moussavi’s campaign and holding up their hands in victory signs.
The silent march was a deliberate and striking contrast to the chaos of the past few days, when riot police officers sprayed tear gas and wielded clubs to disperse scattered bands of angry and frightened young people. When the occasional shout or chant went up, the crowd quickly hushed it, and some held up signs with the word silence.
“These people are not seeking a revolution, ” said Ali Reza, a young actor in a brown T-shirt who stood for a moment watching on the rally’s sidelines. “We don’t want this regime to fall. We want our votes to be counted, because we want reforms, we want kindness, we want friendship with the world.”
i get chills just reading this... i don't think it's about one candidate as much as it's about people reclaiming their own power and standing up for what they want instead of bowing to old men whose sole concern is perpetuating their own power and control over others...
Source: feedproxy.google.com
A push for table-game gambling in Pennsylvania
Given the rousing success of Pennsylvania's fledgling slots-only casinos, it is no stretch to wonder what the added benefits might be if the full array of table games - blackjack, poker, roulette, and others - were available.
Harrisburg's recession-driven $3.2 billion budget shortfall also summons the thought.
State Rep. William DeWeese (D., Greene) made a case for full-blown casinos last year, and he is actively pushing for table games again. He says he believes it makes even more sense now.
"I really feel I have more wind behind my back this time, " DeWeese said today. "Revenues are down, taxes are not bringing in as much.
"The physical challenges for the Keystone State are so achingly difficult that any new possible revenue has to be considered. Gaming has been one of the elements of our state revenue stream that remains robust."
DeWeese confirmed that he was putting the last touches on legislation that would allow table games. If House Bill 21 - get it . . . 21 . . . like Blackjack? - were to pass, Pennsylvania's casinos would offer all of the same gambling available in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
DeWeese made his case last night in a private meeting with Rendell's chief of staff, Steve Crawford.
The state Revenue Department has not done estimates on how much revenue table games would generate, according to Stephanie Weyant, department spokeswoman. But DeWeese's staff has.
DeWeese said he believed table games could produce an additional $200 million to $300 million in revenue each year, on top of the $1-billion-plus that slot machines brought in last year. He said that figure was extrapolated from other states that introduced table games after having opened strictly with slot machines, such as West Virginia.
"Once Pittsburgh and Philly are online, I think Gov. Rendell's projection of $1.5 billion a year in slots revenue will look low, " DeWeese said. "With the addition of table games, we would be approaching $2 billion."
Even if his math is right, the proposal will face stiff challenges. Rendell's spokesman, Chuck Ardo, said the governor wanted all 14 of the planned slots parlors to be in operation before considering table games. There are eight operating right now, the latest being the large and plush Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, which has its grand opening next Tuesday.
"The governor will consider all the options available to him to close the budget gap, " Ardo said, "but again, he believes it is too soon to consider the expansion of gaming to table games."
Table games would have to compete with another gambling proposal, video poker. Rendell urged in February to legalize video-poker gambling in taverns and clubs in the state. He estimated the machines would provide $500 million in state revenue - money that would go toward tuition relief for students at Pennsylvania's state-owned universities and community colleges.
The thinking in Harrisburg is that both proposals will not pass at the same time, even in a staggering budget environment. Some lawmakers say they believe that if video poker is defeated, adding table games to casinos would be more likely.
Rep. Paul Clymer (R., Upper Bucks), who is opposed to any expansion of gambling, believes the prospects for table games would improve if video poker were defeated.
The governor "asked that we go one step at a time, " DeWeese said. "But with our neighboring states moving toward table games, Pennsylvania must have this debate and must have it in the near future."
DeWeese, who is House minority whip, made the same points at the Democratic Budget Caucus today.
His last table-games bill never came out of the House Gaming Oversight Committee for a vote, and opponents are hoping for more of the same.
"This administration is really big on trying to find free money. They don't care about the ramifications, " said Steve Miskin, spokesman for Rep. Sam Smith (R., Jefferson, Indiana), the House minority leader who is opposed to expanding gambling.
Clymer said adding table games would "magnify the social problems" brought on by the industry.
"We both know there is a downside to the economy, " he said, "so why take people with less income and take their dollars and have them spend it in a casino? What we are creating are more welfare clients because they are taking their money and hoping they will strike it rich."
The easy money of table games can also be easily arranged. All eight of the slots parlors currently operating have space reserved for table games, as do those being built.
"If table-game legislation were passed, we could be up and operational within a matter of months, " said Dave Jonas, PhiladelphiaPark Casino & Racetrack president and chief operating officer.
The two casinos planned for Philadelphia are being constructed to accommodate gaming beyond slots.
The casino operators in Bethlehem, Bensalem, the Poconos, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia agreed table games would allow them to offer a richer customer experience and appeal to a wider audience.
Table games almost certainly would attract bigger-spending players and prompt consideration of hotel development connected to the casinos.
Lastly, full-blown casinos would make Pennsylvania an even greater threat to beleaguered Atlantic City, which has reported a 16.5 percent decrease in slots revenue this year.
"Adding tables to Pennsylvania slot houses will make them full casinos much like Atlantic City casinos, " said Andrew Zarnett of Deutsche Bank AG in New York. "Atlantic City is the clear loser given their lack of convenience to Pennsylvania casinos."
The good news of table games is they typically bring an additional 30 percent in revenue for a full-service casino, such as Atlantic City's.
The bad news? Experts say it takes about eight people to staff one table game round the clock, seven days a week.
The industry remedies that by lowering the tax rate on table-game revenue. That is the case in West Virginia, which taxes table-game revenue at 35 percent vs. 57.8 percent for slots.
Pennsylvania taxes slots revenue at 55 percent.
"The table tax has to be lower because labor costs can eat up to 40 percent of a casino's table-games revenue, " said Joe Weinert of Spectrum Gaming Group L.L.C., of Linwood, N.J. source>>>
Source: feedproxy.google.com
A headline and a lede that anyone with two brain cells to rub together should choke on
'scuse ME...?!?! we fork over literally TRILLIONS to the banks, investment firms, insurance companies, automakers, and everyone else associated with the money and power structure in this country and we can't manage to come up with funding for health care...? un-fuckingly-believable...
Obama Initiatives Hit Speed Bumps
On Capitol Hill
High Price Tag For Reform Bill Prompts Sparring And a Delay
President Obama's hopes for quick action on comprehensive health-care reform ran headlong this week into the realities of Congress, as lawmakers searching for the money to pay for a broad expansion of coverage discovered that it wasn't easy to find and descended into partisan -- and intraparty -- bickering.
A set of unexpectedly high cost estimates -- arcane data that nevertheless carry enormous import in the legislative process -- sent shockwaves along Pennsylvania Avenue and forced one key committee to delay action on its bill, probably until after the July 4 recess.
In a high-level meeting at the White House yesterday, Obama conveyed his concern over early pronouncements by the Congressional Budget Office that a bill drafted by the Senate health committee would cover just 16 million additional people at a cost of $1 trillion, said one official with knowledge of the session who was not permitted to talk to reporters and so spoke on the condition of anonymity.
somebody grab me quick and slap me really, really hard... i'm rapidly losing all grip on reality...
Source: feedproxy.google.com
Here's a story presented as a "gee-whiz" technology piece that should make your blood run cold
Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times
imagine looking up and seeing one of these circling your neighborhood... imagine knowing what it can do... imagine living with that kind of terror day in and day out...
this article reminds me of the public-service ads praising the brave men and women who proudly defend our country using only the very latest technology selflessly dished up by our glorious defense establishment that you'd see on tv in the late 50s and early 60s... what it really is, of course, is a continuing glorification of death and destruction, only rendered more horrifyingly anonymous with the shift to hapless paid assassins raining death from the skies as they sit comfortably in barcaloungers in the nevada desert many thousands of miles from their victims... then, after a hard day at the "office, " they go home to the wife and kids for dinner and a night in front of the tv...
The Pentagon is preparing to graduate its first pilots of unmanned drones from the elite U.S. Air Force Weapons School -- a version of the Navy's Top Gun program -- in a bid to elevate the skills and status of the officers who fly Predators, one of the military's fastest growing aircraft programs.
The elite flight schools of the Air Force and Navy are most closely associated with smart, tough fighter jocks. But over the course of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the MQ-1 Predator and more heavily armed MQ-9 Reaper craft have become, to many in the Pentagon, the most important aircraft the U.S. has deployed.
[...]
The Predator and Reaper pilots do their debriefings and classroom work at Nellis with weapons school students specializing in other aircraft. They fly the drones from nearby Creech Air Force Base, the control station used to fly drones in Afghanistan and Iraq.
since we're so hot on this new method of killing and destroying, how about using those new teeny-tiny robot drones to film what happens on the ground and then making that required viewing at the conclusion of each pilot's mission...? maybe watching children screaming and dying, bodies being blasted into raw, bloody bits, and buildings collapsing on and crushing their occupants would bring a better sense of reality to the whole affair...
while we're at it, why not include a slaughter-house photo gallery with each neat, shrink-wrapped package of meat in the supermarket butcher case as a reminder of how it came to be there...?
just sayin'...
Source: feedproxy.google.com
Walk and Learn a Language
I recently started downloading podcasts of Italian lessons to my iPod and it is working very well. I can listen to the podcasts while I am taking a walk or traveling. Of course, people look at me oddly since I am talking to myself while I walk. There are a bunch of free podcasts you can subscribe to at iTunes if you have an iPod.
Many sites other than iTunes also offer free and subscription based podcasts. I subscribe to the free ones and if I like them I either make a donation to that organization or if they have a higher level subscription rate that adds value I will buy that.
Source: www.discoverwalking.com
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