.jpg)
Leading scientists, including a Nobel Prize-winner, have rounded on studies used by climate sceptics to show that global warming is a natural phenomenon connected with sunspots, rather than the result of the man-made emissions of carbon dioxide.
The researchers – all experts in climate or solar science – have told The Independent that the scientific evidence continually cited by sceptics to promote the idea of sunspots being the cause of global warming is deeply flawed.
One person standing in the way of expanded missile strikes: President Obama. Five administration officials tell NEWSWEEK that the president has sided with political and diplomatic advisers who argue that widening the scope of the drone attacks would be risky and unwise. Obama is concerned that firing missiles into urban areas like Quetta, where intelligence reports suggest that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and other high-level militants have sometimes taken shelter, would greatly increase the risk of civilian casualties.
A team of eight UK medical experts say that Dr David Kelly, a leading weapons inspector who was at the centre of a row about why Britain went to war in Iraq, was unlikely to have committed suicide.
McCain has emerged as one of the leading critics of the new president.
+on+Twitter%27+-+twitter_com_wolfblitzercnn.PNG)
Post movie listings are "reinstated"
A long-running battle between The Post and theater operators over paid movie listings appears to be over, with the theaters getting their way.
Apparently, nepotism only carries one so far, even a Tracy Flick impersonator:CNN’s Jay McMichael was the top vote getter in the Radio & Television Correspondence Association board elections today.
NBC’s Luke Russert, who ran a high stakes “Vote for Vigor” campaign, complete with fancy cupcakes, ultimately lost
But neither was this a man who could point to his own life as an example of almost anything.
And I also said why don’t you just abolish Medicare, because it’s so wildly corrupt and out of control.
As Atrios already noted, it's like all those Tom Friedman jokes we've made over the years, turned out to be the basis of American Foreign Policy:An Iraqi taxi driver may have been the source of the discredited claim that Saddam Hussein could unleash weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes, a Tory MP claimed today.
"It's a hell of a Christmas present," said actress Eileen Fulton, who will mark 50 years playing the character Lisa Grimaldi on the show. Her character has been through nine marriages and Fulton was hoping for a 10th before the signoff.
In what appeared to be a coordinated assault, a series of car bombings across Baghdad on Tuesday killed at least 101 people and wounded scores more, according to preliminary accounts by police and hospital officials.
But what we don't know is whether any of that is worth the life we see on the nightly news or read about in the newspaper.
Each day, when I read the names and pause to wonder about their lives, I have to wonder when I will be able to stop reading -- when there are no more names to read or simply too many of them?
We are a good country, attempting to do a good thing. In a post-Sept. 11 world, I thought the prudent use of violence could be therapeutic. The United States had the power to change things for the better, and those who would do the changing -- the fighting -- were, after all, volunteers. This mattered to me.
"Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business."
Jonah Goldberg—who has a career of any kind solely because his mother told Linda Tripp to secretly tape conversations with a lady who gave the president a blow job, and who is generally considered to be one of the most intellectually lazy pundits of any political persuasion of all time—writes about The Simpsons for The National Review Online...just got a million dollars to write another book. Hooray for the publishing industry!
Tell me a little bit about what the show is going to be.
John Stossel: It will be one subject. The first subject will be maybe Atlas Shrugged or global warming—Atlas Shrugged because I think 50 years ago, Ayn Rand predicted today. It sort of sums up what I’m going to be reporting about.
Of [Mel] Brooks, the President said:
Unfortunately, many of the punch lines that have defined Mel Brooks' success cannot be repeated here. (Laughter.) I was telling him that I went to see Blazing Saddles -- (laughter) -- when I was 10. And he pointed out that I think, according to the ratings, I should not have been allowed in the theater. (Laughter.) That's true. I think I had a fake ID. (Laughter and applause.) But the statute of limitations has passed. (Laughter.)
Hiatt: Obama talking about Afghanistan sounds like his predecessor talking about Iraq.
6:55: McG just compared his movie to The Dark Knight.
6:57: Question: how do you feel about making the horrible Charlie's Angels films?
6:57: McG: "I really like those movies. If you don't like them you can fuck off."
7:13: He just announced that he's making another Terminator movie. Seriously...
7:16: Oh and for those people who are punching themselves in the face that he's making another one? He said he's making one after that.
7:19: McG just confessed to verbal abuse from his father when he was growing up.
The Swiss bigotry against Muslims is really the Muslims' fault. Those poor Germanic countries, always the victim of those non-christian religions.
Teschner said that because of the tight quarters the boy was in, stunning the child with a Taser was a more effective way of arresting the youth rather than using pepper spray.
"They couldn't get close enough to deploy pepper spray without putting themselves in danger," Teschner said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator John McCain held a press conference just a few feet away from the Democrats' caucus room. “I don't like to refer back to the last campaign – for obvious reasons – all the time, but, are the CSPAN cameras here? Why aren't you in the room?”
Palin's father, Chuck Heath, gave a different account to Conroy and Walshe. According to him, the presence of so many Asians and Pacific Islanders made her uncomfortable: "They were a minority type thing and it wasn't glamorous, so she came home."
I am so very tired of all the distractions that are put in our way when we should be talking about issues of substance. This celebrity did something strangely and uniquely stupid, or that "family values" politician was caught in a compromising situation. Did that family over there do something really inane on television in an effort to appear to be famous?
Anyone get the odd feeling that we are perpetually living in a Monty Python skit?
This thinking can be summed up as: "Hey, there is a bright shiny thing over here that can distract you!" Distract you - and everyone else - from the fact that most of the politicians of either party really don't care about the state of... well, the state... without nearly constant supervision and questioning from folks who are not worried about getting invites to dinners and parties.
Apparently, they think we are all Homer Simpson, easily distracted by the bright and shiny things. And, given the state of today's bobbleheads on this morning's supposedly serious talk shows, I suspect that there may be more distractions in the world being dreamed up for us all. And Homer might well be considered a genius in comparison to these supposed 'policy' experts.
Come on McCain, your party... your imbecile did not get Bin Laden. It doesn't matter how many bright and shiny objects you hold up, we all know it.
For me, the greatest national security crisis in the United States is the crisis in education. We are turning out new generations of Americans who are whizzes at video games and may be capable of tweeting 24 hours a day but are nowhere near ready to cope with the great challenges of the 21st century.
Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus’ office confirmed late Friday night that the Montana Democrat was carrying on an affair with his state office director, Melodee Hanes, when he nominated her to be U.S. attorney in Montana.
According to a source familiar with their relationship, Hanes and Baucus began their relationship in the summer of 2008 – nearly a year before Baucus and his wife, Wanda, divorced in April 2009. The Senator had informally separated from his wife in March 2008 and they were living apart when he began dating Hanes, according to Baucus' office.
Shorter Broder: Boy things were so shitty before Obama took office, I don't see how he and his party won't be severely punished next year, since the problem he inherited is so difficult to fix.
Good thing I plainly can't remember who was in charge when it all was allowed to fall apart.
Must have been Clinton.
The White House has authorized an expansion of the C.I.A.’s drone program in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas, officials said this week, to parallel the president’s decision, announced Tuesday, to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. American officials are talking with Pakistan about the possibility of striking in Baluchistan for the first time — a controversial move since it is outside the tribal areas — because that is where Afghan Taliban leaders are believed to hide.
There is little doubt that “warheads on foreheads,” in the macho lingo of intelligence officers, have been disruptive to the militants in Pakistan, removing leaders and fighters, slowing movement and sowing dissension as survivors hunt for spies who may be tipping off the Americans. Yet the drones are unpopular with many Pakistanis, who see them as a violation of their country’s sovereignty — one reason the United States refuses to officially acknowledge the attacks. A poll by Gallup Pakistan last summer found only 9 percent of Pakistanis in favor of the attacks and 67 percent against, with a majority ranking the United States as a greater threat to Pakistan than its archrival, India, or the Pakistani Taliban.
Interestingly, residents of the tribal areas where the attacks actually occur, who bitterly resent the militants’ brutal rule, are far less critical of the drones, said Farhat Taj, an anthropologist with the Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy. A study of 550 professional people living in the tribal areas was conducted late last year by the institute, a Pakistani research group. About half of those interviewed called the drone strikes “accurate,” 6 in 10 said they damaged militant organizations, and almost as many denied they increased anti-Americanism.
A Fort Worth-area couple said one of their hens laid an egg with a cross on the end of it. Pam and Tracy Norrell of Burleson, who displayed the odd-shaped egg, said they believe it's a sign of encouragement during the holiday season.
$500 million FOX has poured into making and promoting “Ferngully 3: This Time The Sprites Are Big And Blue”
The Associated Press and MTV did a poll of teenagers and 'the young' to find out how much they sext. More than quarter fessed up and shared the details.
Q General, why should the U.S. expect to succeed in Afghanistan where other superpowers have failed?
GEN. MCKIERNAN: ...especially with the history of Afghanistan, there's always an inclination to relate what we're doing now with previous nations and history that have been in Afghanistan for other reasons. And I think that's a very unhealthy comparison.
We're in Afghanistan with the support of the Afghan people, to bring stability and a better future to that country. That's a, certainly, far different reason than, say, for instance, the Soviets were in there.
"That's not the way the world really works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act we create our own reality."
- Unidentified Bush Adm. official to Ron Suskind
Sarah Palin Strikes New Ground as Keynote Speaker at International Bowl Expo 2010
Bowling Proprietors' Association of America (BPAA) Welcomes Palin as Featured Guest at Bowling Industry's Premier International Convention
ARLINGTON, TX--(Marketwire - December 2, 2009) - The Bowling Proprietors' Association of America (BPAA), the bowling industry's leading trade association, announced today that the bowling industry rolled a strike, securing Sarah Palin as the keynote speaker at this summer's International Bowl Expo 2010."Sarah Palin is a great friend to the bowling industry and we're so proud and honored to welcome her as our keynote speaker at International Bowl Expo 2010," said Steven Johnson, executive director of the BPAA.
via Huffington PostBill Kristol, the man who is wrong about everything, in the world, consistently, thinks that this is the right strategy. Or, at least, he thinks that the entire speech was Barack Obama admitting that George Bush and Bill Kristol were right about everything and Michael Moore is fat. Maybe?
Bono has lent his support to the Republic of Ireland football team who were knocked out of the World Cup qualifiers by France following the Thierry Henry handball scandal.
In addition, the Secret Service has been bowing to pressure by some protectees such as Mary Cheney, Dick Cheney's daughter, who insisted that agents take her friends to restaurants. That is not the job of the Secret Service, and when agents refused she got her detail leader removed by Secret Service management.
You have to understand the topography of that portion of 61st Street. On the south side sits the Trump International Hotel and Tower, where room rates on Monday began at $595 a night, taxes not included. On the north side is 15 Central Park West, a new aerie for the gigarich that extends to 62nd Street. Condos there have sold for as much as $45 million.
Two days before Thanksgiving, a doorman at No. 15 made clear to a woman from the neighborhood (and a friend of mine) that only residents would be allowed to stand in front of that building during the parade. She asked him about it because similar restrictions were in place last year.
The doorman knew what he was talking about. On Thanksgiving morning, a public street was effectively privatized.
The former vice president is splitting his time among his houses in Virginia, in Wyoming and on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, with a place at each for working on his memoir, to be published in the spring of 2011. His eldest daughter, former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Liz Cheney, is collaborating on the writing and overseeing research.
Sullivan’s post merits reading as the quintessential Sullivan, leaping from nonexistent fact to blanket ad hominem without even a pause for a reality check.
I really do not even think marriage is a right. Marriage is a responsibility. It's not a gift that somebody says, 'Hey, now it's time for you to get married. It's our bestowal to you.' It's a commitment that you make and it is a responsibility that you accept."
Rising Hegemon
