They're only about six months behind me.
repugicans overreach
According to an administration account, the president told Mitch McConnell that he was holding up an extraordinary number of appointments.
The Senate confirmed a huge bloc of administration nominees on Thursday, following a tense exchange between President Barack Obama and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (retard-Kentucky).
At a White House meeting with bipartisan congressional leaders on Tuesday, Obama warned that he would make recess appointments if the logjam over nominees wasn’t broken before the Senate left for the Presidents’ Day break.
“Mitch, this is unprecedented,” the president said, gesturing forcefully on the Cabinet Room table, according to aides. “If you don’t move any, I’m going to do some [recess] appointments.”
Obese children are twice as likely to die before age 55 as normal-weight children, a study finds.
Preparation and the right frame of mind are key if you're serious about making a switch.
Buying generic brands and raising the deductible on your insurance can mean big savings.
Many Asperger's syndrome sufferers are upset about a new way to classify their condition.
If tax rates go up in coming years, only one kind of retirement account will be unaffected.
A major bank will let homeowners on the verge of foreclosure stay for six more months — on one condition.
A $78.5 mil plan to keep the fish from invading the Great Lakes passes over the surest solution.
The Marines call in 40-foot, 72-ton explosives-laden behemoths to take on Afghan mines and IEDs.
Zach Motl believes that the more stuff you put in a room, the bigger it seems.
The former president, 63, is said to be "in good spirits" after undergoing a heart procedure.
Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda. Terrorists are not 100-feet tall. Nor do they deserve the abject fear they seek to instill. They will, however, be dismantled and destroyed, by our military, our intelligence services and our law enforcement community. And the notion that America's counterterrorism professionals and America's system of justice are unable to handle these murderous miscreants is absurd.
On Faux News' Special Report, senior White House correspondent Major Garrett reported that Congressional repugicans "stepped up their calls for President Obama's top counterterrorism advisor, John Brennan, to resign or be fired." Pete Hoekstra: "This guy is poisoning the well. I think the President probably should fire this guy, because he's off-base and inconsistent with how national security issues should be dealt with." Kit Bond "called on Brennan...to resign yesterday and...repeated that, somewhat indirectly, today."
Appearing on Faux News' Special Report, Roll Call's Mort Kondracke contended Brennan "made a serious political mistake when he accused repugicans of aiding Al Qaeda. ... It ought to be just off the table. And he did that toward Republicans and that's not the way you ought to treat the people who oversee the intelligence community." Tucker Carlson, also on Faux News' Special Report, said, "You can't accuse your opponent, simply because they disagree with you, of putting the country at risk. ... This is over the top. And the White House clearly was behind it."
Also appearing on Faux News' Special Report, Charles Krauthammer commented, "The reason the Administration is so defensive is because it's on the wrong side of what is obviously a bad decision it made on Christmas Day."
Image via Boston Dynamics
We should have just assumed by the rate technology was advancing that we'd live to see the day when those robot walkers from Star Wars were actually developed for the military. After all, we've got drones flying over Afghanistan piloted by men in New Mexico with X-box controllers. So why not an all-terrain robotic mule that can carry 400 lbs, provide a power source, and aid in combat operations? Boston Dynamics was just awarded $32 million to develop exactly that. And CleanTechnica reports that it may have some green uses to boot.
"Despite repeated requests, a spokeswoman for Emaar was unable to provide further details or rule out the possibility of foul play. Greg Sang, Emaar's director of projects and the man charged with coordinating the tower's construction, could not be reached."
Now it is revealed that the problem was an elevator failure; instead of just stopping, there was what sounded like an explosion and one observer said they saw smoke. The developer claims in Top News that he kept quiet for "security reasons", but that everything is now fixed and the tower will reopen on February 14th.
That's a direct quote from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman.
Ma Zhaoxu was asked earlier today about a Beijing court upholding an 11 year jail term for Liu Xiaobo, one of China's most high-profile activists.
According to him, they simply don't exist.
And with the Lunar New Year around the corner, China's foreign ministry spokesman also wished reporters at the press conference a "Happy New Year." But that wish came with a warning.
Ma said, "I just want to remind all journalists that next year is the Year of the Tiger and to be very careful when asking questions, to be cautious at our pressers. Otherwise the tiger here might not be very happy with you."
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs then proceeded to give a toy tiger to each reporter in the room.
*****
Loco is the Spanish word for this, yes, Loco.
The palm reading hockey mom is falling out of favor even with her wingnut troglodyte base.
More on Palin and Broder here.
Poll finds most Americans are unhappy with
government and Sarah Palin
DNA from a Greenlander who died 4,000 years ago helps answer questions about our ancestors.
Image from the Guardian
Some TreeHuggers, mainly men, love to write about toilets and composting and poo. They should move to Britain: an estimated 40,000 houses in the UK still have outdoor toilets in their backyards. And the owners love them.
According to UGA campus police chief Jimmy Williamson, Dehelean "offered to make the situation go away in exchange for money." He promised not to inform Judicial Programs, so the student in question would be free from any kind of disciplinary measures the University usually takes in similar cases.The student in question didn't have any money and alerted a University employee who called in the police. The police decided to look into the case and sent over an undercover officer who went over to Dehelean, impersonating the student.
After Dehelean accepted the payment he was fired immediately and taken into custody for extortion practices. According to the campus police, Dehelean may have tried the same trick with other students, and they believe that at least one other student paid up.
Nicholas George, a senior in Middle-Eastern Studies at Pomona College, was detained, handcuffed, and intensively questioned by the TSA while trying to catch a flight back to school from Philadelphia. The TSA guards found English-Arabic flashcards in his luggage and said that because Osama bin Laden spoke Arabic, "these cards are suspicious." The FBI was called in, and an agent called him a "fucking idiot" when he asked why he was being held. After being asked if he was a communist or a Muslim, he was released. He was not read his rights at any time.
The ACLU has taken on his case, and they're suing.
TSA supervisor: "You know who did 9/11?"George: "Osama bin Laden."
TSA supervisor: "Do you know what language he spoke?"
George: "Arabic."
TSA supervisor: "Do you see why these cards are suspicious?"