Author's posts
Nov 05 2009
Afternoon Edition
Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread
Now with U.S. News. 48 Story Final.
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 UN in Afghanistan to evacuate 600 foreign staff
by Waheedullah Massoud, AFP
1 hr 31 mins ago
| KABUL (AFP) – The United Nations announced Thursday it will evacuate more than half its international staff based in Afghanistan after a deadly Taliban attack on a guesthouse for UN workers.
But the UN said it had no intention of abandoning Afghanistan, where 100,000 US-led foreign troops are battling a bloody insurgency eight years after the extremist Taliban regime was driven from power. About 600 expatriate staff, from a total of 1,100 foreigners, will be temporarily relocated either within Afghanistan or abroad, UN spokesman Dan McNorton told AFP. |
Nov 05 2009
Changiness
OFA Email (h/t John Aravosis @ AmericaBlog).
Friend —
One year ago today, you made history.
We all knew that electing Barack Obama President was only the opportunity to bring about change; that we would all have to keep working to fulfill the promise our victory offered.
And you’ve come through — by making hundreds of thousands of calls to Congress to push health reform forward, by pouring your effort into seemingly insurmountable challenges time and again, and, since January, by building on the power of our campaign to create Organizing for America.
And now, with the finish line on health reform in sight, we need your voice more than ever before.
To mark this special day, President Obama just recorded a video for supporters like you — please watch his message, and sign up to join OFA in your community today.
Thank you so much for fighting so hard and giving so much to make the promise of a stronger, more just and prosperous America in the years ahead a reality:
http://my.barackobama.com/Year
My best,
David Plouffe
Nov 05 2009
World Series Liveblog
| Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd; Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don’t care if I never get back. Let me root, root, root for the home team, If they don’t win, it’s a shame. For it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out, At the old ball game. |
Nov 04 2009
Afternoon Edition
Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread
Now with World and U.S. News. 61 Story Final.
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Karzai re-election as leader illegal: Abdullah
by Sardar Ahmad, AFP
30 mins ago
| KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan’s former presidential challenger on Wednesday slammed Hamid Karzai’s re-election as illegal, piling pressure on the head of state as his foreign allies warned him to deliver on reform pledges.
Three days after quitting a scheduled run-off, Abdullah Abdullah said the subsequent decision by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to hand Karzai another five years in power had no basis in law and underlined its bias. “This (IEC) decision does not have a legal basis,” the former foreign minister told reporters, albeit refraining from calling on his supporters to take to the streets in protest. |
Nov 04 2009
Wednesday Morning Science Supplement
Wednesday Morning Science Supplement is an Open Thread
27 Story Final.
| From Yahoo News Science |
1 Obama urges action as Europe ups pressure on US
by Michael Mathes, AFP
1 hr 1 min ago
| WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama stood shoulder to shoulder with Europe pressing to “redouble” efforts to combat global warming, but opponents in Congress made clear there would be no smooth path to a climate deal.
Fresh from a White House meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who also made a heart-felt plea for a climate protocol in a speech to US lawmakers, Obama held talks with European Union leaders to assure them his administration supported a new treaty at next month’s summit in Copenhagen. At a EU-US summit here, which continues Wednesday with talks with US Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the Europeans pressed Washington to take action on climate change ahead of December’s climate summit, warning that not enough had been done. |
Nov 03 2009
Afternoon Edition
Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread
Now with World and U.S. News. 80 Story Final.
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Karadzic defiant over boycott at first court appearance
by Mariette le Roux, AFP
1 hr 5 mins ago
| THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) – Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic defiantly demanded more time to prepare his defence Tuesday as he made his first court appearance since the start of his genocide trial.
Karadzic called the proceedings “bad from the start” after he entered the accused dock of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for a hearing on how to move forward in the face of his trial boycott. He faces 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity over the 1992-95 Bosnia war. |
Nov 03 2009
Get Out And Vote!
Goodness knows we have little enough control over our government and political class but if you snoot this opportunity to make your voice heard I have no respect for you at all.
You see, unlike some Admins, I’m not afraid of controversy.
Politics is the art of controlling your environment.
That is one of the key things I learned in these years, and I learned it the hard way.
Anybody who thinks that ‘it doesn’t matter who’s President’ has never been Drafted and sent off to fight and die in a vicious, stupid War on the other side of the World – or been beaten and gassed by Police for trespassing on public property – or been hounded by the IRS for purely political reasons – or locked up in a New York City Jail with a broken nose and no phone access and twelve perverts wanting to stomp your ass in the shower.
That is when it matters who is President or Governor or Police Chief. That is when you will wish you had voted.
We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world, a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully.
We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts.
We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us. No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we’ll kill you.
Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having all this innocent blood on our hands?
Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid little rich kids like George Bush?
They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks.
They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character.
They are the racists and hate mongers among us; they are the Ku Klux Klan.
I piss down the throats of these Nazis. And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. Fuck them.
We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear – fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts, or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer.
Not even the foulest atrocities of Adolf Hitler ever shocked me so badly as these Abu Ghraib photographs did. I have been in this business a long time and I have seen many staggering things, but this one is over the line. Now I am really ashamed to carry an American passport.
I take no pleasure in being Right in my dark predictions about the fate of our military intervention in the heart of the Muslim world. It is immensely depressing to me. Nobody likes to be betting against the Home team.
The Rumsfeld-Cheney axis has self-destructed right in front of our eyes, along with the once-proud Perle-Wolfowitz bund that is turning to wax. They somehow managed to blow it all, like a gang of kids on a looting spree, between January and July, or even less. It is genuinely incredible. The U.S. Treasury is empty, we are losing that stupid, fraudulent chickencrap War in Iraq, and every country in the world except a handful of Corrupt Brits despises us. We are losers, and that is the one unforgiveable sin in America.
The utter collapse of this Profoundly criminal Bush conspiracy will come none too soon for people like me… The massive plundering of the U.S. Treasury and all its resources has been almost on a scale that is criminally insane, and has literally destroyed the lives of millions of American people and American families.
Exactly. You and me, sport – we are the ones who are going to suffer, and suffer massively. This is going to be just like the Book of Revelation said it was going to be – the end of the world as we knew it.
Own it or prove me wrong you chickenshit bastards.
Nov 03 2009
World Series Liveblog
| Oh, Mama, can this really be the end To be stuck inside of Mobile With the Memphis blues again. |
Nov 02 2009
Afternoon Edition
Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread
Now with World and U.S. News. 52 Story Final.
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Abdullah pulls out of Afghan run-off election
by Sardar Ahmad, AFP
Sun Nov 1, 7:10 pm ET
| KABUL (AFP) – Challenger Abdullah Abdullah on Sunday pulled out of Afghanistan’s run-off election, plunging the country into fresh political chaos amid international pressure for the one-horse race to be scrapped.
Two-and-a-half months after Afghans went to the polls to elect a president for the second time, Abdullah’s move appeared to guarantee President Hamid Karzai a second term but flung his legitimacy into doubt. After Karzai snubbed a series of demands promoted by his rival as a chance to avoid a repeat of massive first-round fraud, Abdullah said he saw no point in standing, but stopped short of calling for a boycott. |
Nov 01 2009
Weekend News Digest
Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread
35 Story Final.
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Abdullah pulls out of Afghan run-off election
by Sardar Ahmad, AFP
56 mins ago
| KABUL (AFP) – Challenger Abdullah Abdullah on Sunday pulled out of Afghanistan’s run-off election, plunging the country into fresh political chaos amid international pressure for the one-horse race to be scrapped.
Two-and-a-half months after Afghans went to the polls to elect a president for the second time in history, Abdullah’s move appeared to guarantee President Hamid Karzai a second term in office but flung his legitimacy into doubt. After Karzai snubbed a series of demands promoted by his rival as a chance to avoid a repeat of massive first-round fraud, Abdullah said he saw no point in standing, but stopped short of calling for a boycott. |
Nov 01 2009