February 17, 2010 archive

Afternoon Edition

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Sarkozy makes aid pledge on historic Haiti trip

by Nadege Puljak, AFP

1 hr 3 mins ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) – Nicolas Sarkozy became Wednesday the first French president to visit Haiti, vowing to honor historic obligations to France’s former slave colony and promising almost half a billion dollars in quake aid.

“I have come to tell the Haitian people and their leaders that France, which was the first on the ground after the catastrophe, will remain firmly at the their side to help them pick themselves up again and open a new happy page in their history,” Sarkozy said in Port-au-Prince.

Sarkozy announced an aid package of some 326 million euros (446 million dollars) over the next two years, a sum that includes the cancellation of Haiti’s 56-million-euro debt.

Throw The Bums Out

Simulposted at Daily Kos

That is the mood of The People

Throw the bums out.

Now you can try to argue with The People. You can say The People are wrong. You can decry the lack of political sophistication of The People. And some of “the Pragmatists” here do.

But you can’t win elections without The People, it just isn’t…..Pragmatic…..to think you can.

The people want change. Not because they are stupid or unsophisticated, but because, very simply, things suck.

And if The Democrats don’t stop things from sucking, The People will throw them out. And no amount of clever parsing or desperate pleading is going to change that.

Majority Rule and the Senate

Whatever happened to majority rule? When is a “super” majority (2/3 of the House and Senate) was required by the constitution?

Article I: CREATES CONGRESS

Section 3: PRESCRIBES composition of Senate (2 Senators from each State), term of office (6 year elective term), and voting power (one vote per Senator). REQUIRES qualifications for Membership: 30 years of age, nine years a US Citizen, and a resident of the State electing him/her. Vice President is President of the Senate, with one vote that he may exercise only to break a tie. GRANTS power to choose their Officers, and a President Pro Tem; GRANTS power to try impeachments, with conviction only by a 2/3 majority. LIMITS penalty of impeachment to removal from office and disqualification from receiving government honor, trust or profit, but explicitly withholds any grant of immunity from separate criminal charges.

Section 7: REQUIRES all taxing bills to commence in the House, with the Senate having right of amendment. PRESCRIBES procedure for President to approve or refuse to enact legislation within 10 days (or it becomes law automatically); PRESCRIBES that a 2/3 majority of the Congress may override Presidential veto of legislation. REQUIRES Presidential approval or legislative override for all legislative enactments.

Article II: CREATES THE PRESIDENCY

Section 2:

GRANTS:

     Title of Commander in Chief of the Army, the Navy and the Militia

     Power to require written opinions of the Principal Officer of each Executive Department on any subject relating to their duties

     Power to Reprieve and Pardon for Offenses against the United States (except in cases of Impeachment)

    To make Treaties with 2/3 concurrence of the Senate

     To Nominate ambassadors, Supreme Court judges, and any other US Officers whose jobs aren’t defined in the Constitution (however Congress may create offices to be filled by appointment by the President, the Courts, or Dept Heads)

     To fill Senate vacancies

ARTICLE V: PROTECTS THE CONSTITUTION

PERMITS Congress to amend on 2/3 vote.

PERMITS 2/3 of State Legislatures to call for a Constitutional Convention.

PERMITS 3/4 of State Legislatures to adopt an amendment to the Constitution.

PROHIBITS Constitutional amendment that would deprive any State of its voting representation in the Senate without the State’s consent.

For Your Consideration: Conservative Beliefs, Values and Principles

Today a group of 80 Conservatives are meeting in Mount Vernon, VA to sign what is being called “Constitutional Conservatism: A Statement for the 21st Century”:

The Mount Vernon Statement

   We recommit ourselves to the ideas of the American Founding. Through the Constitution, the Founders created an enduring framework of limited government based on the rule of law. They sought to secure national independence, provide for economic opportunity, establish true religious liberty and maintain a flourishing society of republican self-government.

   These principles define us as a country and inspire us as a people. They are responsible for a prosperous, just nation unlike any other in the world. They are our highest achievements, serving not only as powerful beacons to all who strive for freedom and seek self-government, but as warnings to tyrants and despots everywhere.

   Each one of these founding ideas is presently under sustained attack. In recent decades, America’s principles have been undermined and redefined in our culture, our universities and our politics. The selfevident truths of 1776 have been supplanted by the notion that no such truths exist. The federal government today ignores the limits of the Constitution, which is increasingly dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant.

Would that these Conservatives could get their facts straight, the Constitution was penned in 1787. Do they even know the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution? Details aren’t important to these guys, nor is history, so long as it doesn’t interfere with their agenda, the continued corporate strangle hold on America and the government.

H/T to Demonsheep who is “off to sign the Mount Vernon Statement, in your blood.”

Open Air

Photobucket

U.S. Economy Grinds To Halt

As Nation Realizes Money Just A Symbolic, Mutually Shared Illusion

February 16, 2010

Bernanke

Calling it “basically no more than five rectangular strips of paper,” Fed chairman Ben Bernanke illustrates how much “$200”

is actually worth.

WASHINGTON-The U.S. economy ceased to function this week after unexpected existential remarks by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke shocked Americans into realizing that money is, in fact, just a meaningless and intangible social construct.

What began as a routine report before the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday ended with Bernanke passionately disavowing the entire concept of currency, and negating in an instant the very foundation of the world’s largest economy.

“Though raising interest rates is unlikely at the moment, the Fed will of course act appropriately if we…if we…” said Bernanke, who then paused for a moment, looked down at his prepared statement, and shook his head in utter disbelief. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. None of this-this so-called ‘money’-really matters at all.”

“It’s just an illusion,” a wide-eyed Bernanke added as he removed bills from his wallet and slowly spread them out before him. “Just look at it: Meaningless pieces of paper with numbers printed on them. Worthless.”

According to witnesses, Finance Committee members sat in thunderstruck silence for several moments until Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) finally shouted out, “Oh my God, he’s right. It’s all a mirage. All of it-the money, our whole economy-it’s all a lie!”

[snip]

Olympic Alternatives II

You thought I was not serious?

I’m dead serious.  The only way to effect change is through sacrifice (changing your habits) and protest (telling people what you think, publicly).

Plenty of other stuff out on the Hypnotoad.  Just look-

The Hypnotoad.

"Television is a vast wasteland"
hypnotoad

Cheney’s costly boast, and…..

Feb. 16, 2010 Author John Dean discusses whether former Vice President Dick Cheney’s support of waterboarding was indeed a confession to a war crime.

Muse in the Morning

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Muse in the Morning


Fatness

(Click on image for larger view)

After Fat Tuesday comes…

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Science

1 Firms scale back from US climate push

by Shaun Tandon, AFP

Tue Feb 16, 9:32 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Three major US companies said they were leaving a coalition pushing for action on climate change, dealing a potential fresh blow to landmark legislation to cut carbon emissions.

The news came on the same day that President Barack Obama announced an eight-billion-dollar drive for nuclear power — part of his controversial bid to bring a diverse coalition behind his efforts for a greener economy.

The three companies — oil groups ConocoPhillips and BP America and equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. — said they backed efforts for a green economy but felt that proposed laws were unfair to them.

Late Night Karaoke

Open Thread

I DEMAND media coverage of America’s wars NOW!

Crossposted at Daily Kos

    This will be, in the proper blogotoobz vernacular, a short diary.

    Simply put, I DEMAND media coverage of America’s wars NOW!

    If these wars are NOT worth media coverage, they are not worth fighting. If the threat America faces from it’s enemies is so great that it is absolutely necessary that we go to war, than it is absolutely necessary that the “free” press gives it ample coverage.

    Since the Presidential Primaries back in the Spring of 2008 coverage of America’s wars have almost entirely disappeared from the traditional media. With the exception of a few intrepid journalists the traditional media has given us NOTHING as far as details of what is happening in Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan except for the times when Dick Cheney emerges from his crypt, when President Obama sent more troops to Afghanistan, when an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at George Bush’s idiot of a son and when Rudy “9/11,9/11,9/11” shows up to collect his royalty fee.

   In short, I want DETAILS, and if you’re not in the mood you better GET IN THE MOOD, Mister.

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