May 2009 archive

Renaissance

Let It Grow

Mother Russia

     “Greed isn’t good.”

    “Americans will do anything to each other for money.”

    When Bill is good, he is great. In this weeks show, though, he really out does himself. Every issue gets nailed, from torture to empathy on the Supreme Court, to gay marriage and health care. In my opinion, this is one of the, if not the best episode ever.

    This week, Bill Maher had on Michael Pollan in a great exchange about food and what type’s of food are evil. That exchange was worth an essay alone, and can be viewed here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

    You can view the other segments of this episode on Youtube as well.

    This weeks guests were Fmr. Ambassador John Bolton and Fmr. Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM). When faced with a 2 on 1 disadvantage, Bill hits the ball out of the park on every issue. Bill calls John Bolton out for being part of the Bush Cabal, he demands that America tortured to justify Iraq-Al Qaeda link and trick us into war. The whole episode is available on YouTube but I thought I would post the best segments right here.

    Watch Bill at his best here. Some pundits would fold and play nice if they were outnumbered ideologically by a 2 to 1 margin. Not Bill. He attacks these two Conservatives on the issues and moves the direction of the debate into his frame. If only other pundits and non-Conservatives could learn how to do the same.

    Bill dares both of these GOPosaurs to choose on the spot between Rush and Colon Powell. He nails single payer, health care, the MIC.

    I will say this about John Bolton, he is a war criminal through association, but at least he is competent at his job. Bill Maher and his two guests have a very in depth conversation on North Korea, all of which is included in the videos. The summation is that North Korea is flat out crazy, and as dangerous as a bear trapped in your garage.

    Hill Harper, who is a friend of President Obama, joins the panel in the sixth part of the show, and the conversation moves over to the Sotomayor controversy amongst shitheaded Conservatives, and watching Hill Harper destroy John Bolton is a very enjoyable experience.

    The fact is that the Supreme Court should be a body that is representative of the people, not the Corporations and Special Interests that own the people.

Another Week And

The Media Just

Plays Along With

The Republican Racists  

Bias Case Looms Large for Nominee

Ruling on Firefighters’ Lawsuit Raises Questions About Sotomayor’s Philosophy

By Robert Barnes and Eli Saslow

Washington Post Staff Writers

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Judge Sonia Sotomayor has heard thousands of cases and has issued as many rulings in her nearly two decades on the federal bench, but the early debate over her judicial philosophy in her Supreme Court confirmation battle comes down to one paragraph.

It is the 134-word summary order in Ricci v. DeStefano, which upheld the decision of New Haven, Conn., to throw out the promotion test it had given city firefighters when no African Americans and two Hispanics qualified for advancement.

The case is under review by the Supreme Court that Sotomayor would join. If the decision is reversed — which, from the tone of oral arguments in April, seems a distinct possibility — the high court’s ruling will probably come at the end of June, just as the Senate and the nation begin to consider Sotomayor’s qualifications.

Kidnappers swoop on China’s girls

The state’s one-baby policy has led to a shortage of females that gangs are ruthlessly exploiting

Michael Sheridan in Kunming, CHINA From The Sunday Times

May 31, 2009

WHEN Li Xiang Xiang, aged 2½, went out of her family’s home on April 1 to the shop around the corner, as she did every day, her mother expected to see her back in minutes with a big smile and a bag of sweets.

Instead, Xiang Xiang – whose rhyming name means “thoughtful” – vanished and her heartbroken mother and father joined the ranks of Chinese parents who fear they have lost their little girls to child kidnappers.

Small boys have long been abducted for sale in China, but in recent years the country’s strict birth control policy, which has led to abortions of girls in families intent on having a boy, has left the countryside short of female babies.

According to a recent report in the British Medical Journal, 124 boys are born for every 100 girls in the country as a whole, and in one province the figure has risen to 192.

USA

Contractors Vie for Plum Work, Hacking for the United States

CYBERWAR

By CHRISTOPHER DREW and JOHN MARKOFF

Published: May 30, 2009

MELBOURNE, Fla. – The government’s urgent push into cyberwarfare has set off a rush among the biggest military companies for billions of dollars in new defense contracts.

The exotic nature of the work, coupled with the deep recession, is enabling the companies to attract top young talent that once would have gone to Silicon Valley. And the race to develop weapons that defend against, or initiate, computer attacks has given rise to thousands of “hacker soldiers” within the Pentagon who can blend the new capabilities into the nation’s war planning.

Nearly all of the largest military companies – including Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon – have major cyber contracts with the military and intelligence agencies.

Relax Its Sunday