Sunday, January 31, 2010

White People Power

Since some Yanks, even in the land of The First Amendment, may not receive Al Jazeera on their cable systems.We suppose that, just like Bin Laden, this bunch of dirty Arab America-haters think that climate change is some sort of threat.

Tip o' the chapeau to Red Tory.

The Usual Gang Of Idiots. Again.

The sky is falling. Again. "Wolf!" is being cried. Again.

"Banned" Rocky & Bullwinkle Episode

Hey, is this the one the gov't. told Jay Ward never to run again, because it mocked a certain bear?

Research may ensue. Tomorrow, maybe.

[MOMENTS LATER, CACKLING:] "Why yessss, yes it is, can't fool us for long. Partly because we linked to the story a few wks. ago. And we quote:"
Ward loved tweaking anyone and everyone. Walt Disney was a favorite target; he even appears as Prince Charming in Ward's daughter's favorite installment of "Fractured Fairy Tales," in which Sleeping Beauty is turned into a theme park.

But even he had his limits.

One Dudley Do-Right bit included a character called Stokey the Bear who, contrary to his namesake, set fires instead of putting them out.

After it aired, Tiffany Ward [Jay's daughter — Ed.] recounted, "there was a knock on the door, and it was the (U.S.) Forest Service, saying, 'If that episode ever airs again, you're going to jail.' "

The episode never aired again, Ward said.
Really? The Forest Service? Never again? Were they granted a YouTube exemption?

BREAKING: Just Into The Newsroom, Earlier Footage Of Disastrous Flood

It stopped after about an hr. & we found a reason for the continued existence of the L. A. Times.
They owe us a bog-roll.

Rare Images Of The Famous

By "rare" they mean old, when the famous, just like most of us, were younger.
On the coat-tails of ME.

What Fucking Now?

Of course the bldg. manager is either not in or not answering the door.

31 January: State Murder: Guy Fawkes, Pvt. Slovik Executed; Trotsky: "I'm Outta Here!" U.S. Rocket Actually Launches; Great Day In African-American History: Jackie Robinson Born, Michael Steele Elected RNC Chair

Today is Sunday, Jan. 31, the 31st day of 2010. There are 334 days left in the year. The UPI Almanac.Today's Highlight in History:
On Jan. 31, 1950, President Harry S. Truman announced he had ordered development of the hydrogen bomb.
On this date:
In 1606, Guy Fawkes, convicted of treason for his part in the "Gunpowder Plot" against the English Parliament and King James I, was executed.
In 1797, composer Franz Schubert was born in Vienna, Austria.
In 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee was named general-in-chief of all the Confederate armies.
In 1917, during World War I, Germany served notice it was beginning a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
In 1919, Baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, who broke the sport's color barrier in 1947, was born in Cairo, Ga.
In 1929, revolutionary Leon Trotsky and his family were expelled from the Soviet Union.
In 1944, U.S. forces began a successful invasion of Kwajalein Atoll and other parts of the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
In 1945, Pvt. Eddie Slovik, 24, became the first U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion as he was shot by an American firing squad in France.
In 1953, nearly 2,000 people died when the North Sea flooded the Netherlands.
In 1958, the United States entered the Space Age with its first successful launch of a satellite into orbit, Explorer I.
In 1961, NASA launched a rocket carrying Hamp the Chimp into space. [That's Ham, not "Hamp," you fucking UPI Moonie morons. — Ed.]
In 1971, astronauts Alan Shepard Jr., Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa blasted off aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon.
In 1990, McDonald's Corp. opened its first fast-food restaurant in Moscow.
In 1995, after the U.S. Congress failed to act quickly, U.S. President Bill Clinton used his emergency authority to provide financially troubled Mexico with a $20 billion loan.
In 1996, a suicide bombing at Sri Lanka's main bank killed nearly 100 people and injured more than 1,000.
In 1999, a team of international scientists reported it traced the predominant strain of the AIDS virus to a subspecies of chimpanzee that lived in parts of Africa.
In 2000, an Alaska Airlines jet plummeted into the Pacific Ocean, killing all 88 people aboard.
Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker was suspended by baseball commissioner Bud Selig for disparaging foreigners, homosexuals and minorities in a Sports Illustrated interview. Pro Bowl linebacker Ray Lewis was charged with murder in the deaths of two people outside an Atlanta nightclub hours after the Super Bowl. (Lewis ended his trial early by pleading guilty to obstruction of justice; two codefendants were acquitted.) Illinois Gov. George Ryan halted all executions in his state after several death row inmates were found to be innocent of the crimes for which they were about to be put to death. Also in 2000, the European Union warned that its members would diplomatically isolate Austria if its anti-immigrant Freedom Party, led by avowed Nazi sympathizer Jorg Haider, entered a coalition government.
In 2001, a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands convicted one Libyan and acquitted a second in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
In 2005, a U.S. judge in Washington ruled the process for determining "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was unconstitutional. SBC Communications Inc. announced it was acquiring AT&T Corp. for $16 billion.
In 2006, Coretta Scott King, the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died at age 78. Samuel Alito was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in as a Supreme Court justice. The Senate approved Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
In 2007, more than 1.5 million Iraqi civilians were reported to have been forced to abandon their homes by rising violence in the war-torn country. Also in 2007, arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents were issued by a Munich court related to the alleged kidnapping of a German citizen for terror interrogation.
In 2008, in the U.S. presidential primaries, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton continued to vie for the Democratic nomination while John Edwards pulled out. On the Republican side, John McCain, once struggling to stay in the race, made his move with wins in South Carolina and Florida as Rudy Giuliani ended his bid.
In 2009, Iraqis passed through security checkpoints and razor-wire cordons to vote in provincial elections considered a crucial test of the nation's stability. A gasoline spill from a crashed truck erupted into flames in Molo, Kenya, killing at least 115 people. Serena Williams routed Dinara Safina 6-0, 6-3 to win her fourth Australian Open. Bruce Smith and Rod Woodson were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility; they were joined by Bob Hayes, Randall McDaniel, Derrick Thomas and Buffalo owner Ralph Wilson. Republicans chose Michael Steele, former lieutenant governor of Maryland, to head the GOP National Committee, He is the first African-American to hold the post.
Today's Birthdays: Former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall is 90. Actress Carol Channing is 89. Former NAACP Executive Director Benjamin L. Hooks is 85. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Ernie Banks is 79. Composer Philip Glass is 73. Former Interior Secretary James Watt is 72. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands is 72. Actor Stuart Margolin is 70. Actress Jessica Walter is 69. Former U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., is 69. Blues singer-musician Charlie Musselwhite is 66. Actor Glynn Turman is 64. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Nolan Ryan is 63. Singer-musician KC (KC and the Sunshine Band) is 59. Rock singer Johnny Rotten is 54. Actress Kelly Lynch is 51. Actor Anthony LaPaglia is 51. Singer-musician Lloyd Cole is 49. Actor John Dye is 47. Rock musician Jeff Hanneman (Slayer) is 46. Rock musician Al Jaworski (Jesus Jones) is 44. Actress Minnie Driver is 40. Actress Portia de Rossi is 37. Actor-comedian Bobby Moynihan is 33. Actress Kerry Washington is 33. Singer Justin Timberlake is 29.
Those Born On This Date Include: Western novelist Zane Grey (1872); actors Eddie Cantor (1892) & Tallulah Bankhead (1902);
boxer Jersey Joe Walcott (1914); radio and television personality Garry Moore (1915); actor/singer Mario Lanza (1921); novelist Norman Mailer (1923); actress Suzanne Pleshette (1937).
Today In Entertainment History
In 1949, the first TV daytime soap opera, "These Are My Children," was broadcast from the NBC station in Chicago. It lasted four weeks.
In 1956, 11-year-old Brenda Lee made her TV debut on ABC's "Junior Ozark Jubilee."
In 1970, bluesman Slim Harpo died of a heart attack in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was 46.
In 1978, saxophonist Greg Herbert of Blood, Sweat and Tears died of an accidental drug overdose in Amsterdam during the band's European tour. He was 30.
In 1985, Barbara Cowsill, mother of the group The Cowsills, died in Arizona. She was 56.
In 1989, Playboy hit newsstands with nude photos of La Toya Jackson.
In 1993, Michael Jackson and 3,500 children performed during halftime at the Super Bowl. He sang a variety of his hits, including "Heal The World." The game began with country star Garth Brooks singing the "Star-Spangled Banner." Actress Marlee Matlin interpreted the song in sign language.
In 2005, jury selection began in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial. He was later acquitted.
In 2007, Boston authorities responded to calls of bomb scares for blinking electronic signs on bridge overpasses and near transit stations. The signs ended up being promotional items for Cartoon Network's "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."
Thought for Today: "The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking." — A.A. Milne (born in 1882, died this date in 1956).

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Sometimes, Unlike The Item Below, People Are Predictable

People Can Tell Your Politics From Your Face

Scientific American reports on a new study in which subjects "were able to accurately identify candidates from the 2004 and 2006 U.S. Senate elections as either Democrats or Republicans based on black-and-white photos of their faces. And subjects were even able to correctly identify college students as belonging to Democratic or Republican clubs based on their yearbook photos."
You can always spot a stupid jerk.

Holy Crap

A few yrs. back, wallowing in depresion & nostalgia more than we usually do, we looked for some of our one-time collegiate pals on the Internet.

While it appeared that the principal object of obsession, our first college honey (who became a lesbian after having sex w/ us for about six mos.) hadn't done anything web-worthy since a few shots from the school's Theater Dep't. were thrown up for public consumption, another actressing friend's name came up as well, but this person was a student at a seminary. Not the [NAME REDACTED] we're looking for, we thought, & were then almost as astonished to find that the [NAME REDACTED] we had been looking for had entered the seamy world of law enforcement, & on the side of the law, yet.

Whatever, you say. Our reaction too. Who knows what the hell people will do? Nothing to worry about, really. And we didn't, until J.D. Salinger's timely passing brought [NAME REDACTED] to mind; she & her then-boyfriend (R. I. P., [NAME REDACTED]'s then-boyfriend, [NAME ALSO REDACTED].) had done summer stock together one summer in Salinger's habitat of Cornish, N. H., where (so we were told) she met & befriended the "reclusive" Salinger. We heard about this long before the Joyce Maynard story came out, & have no reason to suspect [NAME REDACTED] was up to any such thing w/ the recent corpse.

But we were idly curious (& even the idlest of curiosities may be indulged these days) if [NAME REDACTED] had surfaced to mention, defend or whatever Salinger, so we plugged her redacted name into the fount of all knowledge, & were horrified (Shocked, we tell you!!) to discover that seminarian [NAME REDACTED] was the very same [NAME REDACTED], whom we, apparently, had never truly known, & who, after her law enforcement career, had attended more school & became a certified tool of Jesus. (Even pictures of her in full liturgical drag.)
[Good taste, common sense, & decency has required us to redact even the merest of the glowing recommendations we found, which we had intended to quote here; there's no reason for someone so obviously wonderful to suffer because she went to the same school as some creep XX yrs. ago. Suffice it to say they seem to like her there. This also means we lose a couple of self-deprecating funnies here, but we will say that it's terrible that someone a yr. older than we are should display any energy ("Energy" not being very specific.) at all. — Ed.]
People certainly are a strange lot, you can never know another human being, & so on. Bears repeating on occasion. The question though, is, should we, just for the hell of it, see if we can be Facebook friends? A retired cop joining the priesthood is a cinematic cliché already, innit? Or a conflation of the forces of repression & theocracy, even. Maybe not.

No Recent Atrocities Upon Which To Report

So we'll frighten w/ photographs.

30 January: Gandhi Gets It; You Know Who Took Over Germany Today? HITLER, That's Who! Tet Offensive Begins; "Bloody Sunday;" Beatles' Last Gig: A Mere Four Yrs. Later, KISS Debuts

Today is Saturday, Jan. 30, the 30th day of 2010. There are 335 days left in the year. The UPI ALmanac.Today's Highlight in History:
On Jan. 30, 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi was shot and killed by a Hindu extremist.
On this date:
In 1649, England's King Charles I was beheaded.
In 1798, a brawl broke out in the House of Representatives in Philadelphia, as Matthew Lyon of Vermont spat in the face of Roger Griswold of Connecticut.
In 1835, a gunman fired twice on President Andrew Jackson, the first attempt on the life of a U.S. president. Jackson was not injured.
In 1882, the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was born in Hyde Park, N.Y.
In 1883, James Ritty and John Birch received a U.S. patent for the first cash register.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.
In 1943, the British air force bombed Berlin in a daylight raid timed to coincide with a speech by Joseph Goebbels in honor of Hitler's 10th year in power.
In 1960, the American Football League awarded a franchise to Oakland, Calif.
In 1962, two members of "The Flying Wallendas" high-wire act were killed when their seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit.
In 1964, the United States launched Ranger 6, an unmanned spacecraft carrying television cameras that crash-landed on the moon, but failed to send back images.
In 1968, the Tet Offensive began during the Vietnam War as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals.
In 1972, 13 Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as "Bloody Sunday."
In 1979, the civilian government of Iran announced it had decided to allow Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (hoh-MAY'-nee), who'd been living in exile in France, to return.
In 1991, Iraqi armored forces charged out of Kuwait and engaged allied forces in Khafji, Saudi Arabia. 12 U.S. Marines were killed in the heaviest ground fighting of the Gulf War.
In 1993, parents donated portions of their own lungs to their daughter with cystic fibrosis in pioneering transplant surgery in Los Angeles.
In 1995, 42 people were killed when a car bomb exploded in Algiers, Algeria. Also in 1995, the U.N. Security Council authorized deployment of 6,000 peacekeepers to Haiti.
In 1999, NATO ambassadors gave the organization authority to attack military targets in Serbia if Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic continued to violate the 1998 cease-fire negotiated with the rebels in Kosovo.
In 2000, Elian Gonzalez's grandmothers returned home to a hero's welcome in Cuba, vowing to continue the struggle to wrest the six-year-old shipwreck survivor from relatives in Miami. A Kenya Airways A-310 crashed shortly after takeoff from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, killing 169 people (10 people survived). The St. Louis Rams won Super Bowl XXXIV (34), defeating the Tennessee Titans 23-16.
In 2003, Richard Reid, the British citizen and al-Qaida follower who'd tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoes in 2001, was sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge in Boston. Also in 2003, AOL Time Warner said it was writing down the value of AOL by $35 billion and of its cable division $10 billion, bringing a total loss of assets since the 2001 merger of AOL and Time Warner to nearly $100 billion.
In 2004, Cuban President Fidel Castro, in a militant five-hour speech in Havana, accused the Bush administration of plotting to kill him.
In 2005, Iraqis voted in their country's first free election in a half-century; President George W. Bush called the balloting a resounding success. The downing of a C-130 military transport plane north of Baghdad killed all ten British servicemen on board; the militant group Ansar al-Islam claimed responsibility. In Northern Ireland, Robert McCartney, 33, was killed in a fight at a Belfast pub by members of the Irish Republican Army. Marat Safin defeated Lleyton Hewitt 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to win the Australian Open.
In 2007, Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system went on sale.
In 2008, the U.S. Federal Reserve cut short-term interest rates by one half of a percentage point in an effort to help the sagging economy while the U.S. Senate sought passage of the $161 billion economic stimulus package. Also in 2008, Egypt reported it had foiled a suicide attack on Israel by arresting five Palestinians alleged carrying rifles and explosives.
In 2009, Michael Steele was elected the first black chairman of the Republican National Committee. President Barack Obama signed a series of executive orders that he said should "level the playing field" for labor unions in their struggles with management. Unemployment remained up and the stock market down in the first reports of 2010. U.S. stock exchanges reported their weakest January in more than a century with the Dow Jones industrial average showing a one-month decline of 8.8 percent, closing at 8,000.86. The January unemployment picture jumped to 7.6 percent. Ingemar Johansson, who stunned the boxing world by knocking out Floyd Patterson to win the heavyweight title in 1959, died in Kungsbacka, Sweden at age 76. Former Alabama Gov. Guy Hunt died in Birmingham at age 75.
Today's Birthdays: Actress Dorothy Malone is 85. Producer-director Harold Prince is 82. Actor Gene Hackman is 80. Actress Tammy Grimes is 76. Actress Vanessa Redgrave is 73. Chess grandmaster Boris Spassky is 73. Country singer Jeanne Pruett is 73. Country singer Norma Jean is 72. Former Vice President Dick Cheney (CHAY'-nee) is 69. Rock singer Marty Balin is 68. Rhythm-and-blues musician William King (The Commodores) is 61. Singer Phil Collins is 59. Actor Charles S. Dutton is 59. World Golf Hall of Famer Curtis Strange is 55. Maine Gov. John Baldacci is 55. Actress-comedian Brett Butler is 52. Singer Jody Watley is 51. The King of Jordan, Abdullah II, is 48. Actor Norbert Leo Butz is 43. Country singer Tammy Cochran is 38. Actor Christian Bale is 36. Pop-country singer-songwriter Josh Kelley is 30. Actor Wilmer Valderrama is 30. Actor Jake Thomas is 20.
Those Born On This Date Include: Historian Barbara Tuchman (1912); comedian Dick Martin (1922).
Today In Entertainment History:
In 1933, the first episode of the "Lone Ranger" radio program was broadcast on station WXYZ in Detroit.
In 1956, Elvis Presley recorded a version of Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes," in New York.
In 1969, the Beatles performed as a group for the last time in public in a 45-minute gig on the roof of their Apple Records headquarters in London during the filming of "Let it Be."
In 1973, Kiss performed their first show, in New York.
In 1989, singer Randy Travis won three American Music Awards, including one for favorite male country artist.
In 1990, Bob Dylan was named Commander in France's Order of Arts and Letters by the country's culture ministry.
In 1996, 21 people were injured at an overcrowded concert for the group Immature in Atlanta when the crowd surged toward the stage.
Thought for Today: "History repeats itself in the large because human nature changes with geological leisureliness." — Will (1885-1981) and Ariel Durant (1898-1981), American historians.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Staring At The Sun

"Seattle Exopolitics Examiner" Alfred Lambremont Webre brings to the world's attention the possibility that, according to
physicist Nassim Haramein [...] Earth-sized UFOs are in fact giant extraterrestrial or interdimensional spacecraft, which are accessing our solar system, using the Sun as a black-hole singularity, or star gate.  Mr. Haramein contends that NASA Stereo data of giant solar UFOs prove that extraterrestrial civilizations access our solar system via a star gate on the Sun when using large (Earth-size) vehicle spacecraft.
Great, something else to worry about.
If we must.

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR/Annals Of Nostalgia

Out of Auschwitz

By SAMUEL PISAR
Published: January 28, 2010

Paris

SIXTY-FIVE years ago this week, the Soviets liberated Auschwitz, while the Americans were approaching Dachau. For a survivor of these two infernos to still be alive and well, with a new family that has resurrected for me the one I had lost, seems almost unreal. When I entered Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele’s gruesome universe at the age of 13, I measured my life expectancy in days, weeks at the most.

In the early winter of 1944, World War II was coming to an end. But we in the camps knew nothing. We wondered: What is happening in the world outside? Where is God? Where is the pope? Does anyone out there know what is happening here to us? Does anyone even care?

Russia was devastated. Britain had its back against the wall. And America? It was so far away, so divided. How could it be expected to save civilization from the seemingly invincible forces of darkness?

It took a long time for the news of the American-led invasion of Normandy to slip into Auschwitz. There were also rumors that the Red Army was advancing quickly on the eastern front. With the ground shrinking under their feet, the Nazis were becoming palpably nervous. The gas chambers spewed fire and smoke as never before.

One gray, frosty morning, our guards ordered those of us still capable of slave labor to line up and marched us out of the camp. We were to be shunted westward, from Poland into Germany. I was beside myself with excitement — and dread. Salvation somehow seemed closer — yet we also knew that we could be killed at any moment. The goal was to hang on a little longer. I was almost 16 now, and I wanted to live.

We marched from camp to camp, day and night, until we and our torturers began to hear distant explosions that sounded like artillery fire. One afternoon we were strafed by a squadron of Allied fighter planes that mistook our column for Wehrmacht troops. As the Germans hit the dirt, their machine guns blazing in all directions, someone near me yelled, “Run for it!” I kicked off my wooden clogs and sprinted into the forest. There I hid, hungry and cold, for weeks, until I was discovered by a group of American soldiers. The boys who brought me life were not much older than I. They fed me, clothed me, made me a mascot of their regiment and gave me my first real taste of freedom.

Today, the last living survivors of the Holocaust are disappearing one by one. Soon, history will speak about Auschwitz with the impersonal voice of researchers and novelists at best, and at worst in the malevolent register of revisionists and falsifiers who call the Nazi Final Solution a myth. This process has already begun.

And it is why those of us who survived have a duty to transmit to humankind the memory of what we endured in body and soul, to tell our children that the fanaticism and violence that nearly destroyed our universe have the power to enflame theirs, too. The fury of the Haitian earthquake, which has taken more than 200,000 lives, teaches us how cruel nature can be to man. The Holocaust, which destroyed a people, teaches us that nature, even in its cruelest moments, is benign in comparison with man when he loses his moral compass and his reason.

After so much death, a groundswell of compassion and solidarity for victims — all victims, whether from natural disasters, racial hatred, religious intolerance or terrorism — occasionally manifests itself, as it has in recent days.

These actions stand in contrast to those moments when we have failed to act; they remind us, on this dark anniversary, of how often we remain divided and confused, how in the face of horror we hesitate, vacillate, like sleepwalkers at the edge of the abyss. Of course, they remind us, too, that we have managed to stave off the irrevocable; that our chances for living in harmony are, thankfully, still intact.


Samuel Pisar, a lawyer, is the author of “Of Blood and Hope.”

Whatever.

Back To The Veterinary Hospital Biz For Ensign?

Ensign Halted Fundraising Amid Scandal

Politico finds something interesting in the campaign finance filings of embattled Sen. John Ensign (R-NV): Since the surfacing of his extramarital affair and the ensuing controversy, "he has virtually stopped fundraising."

Ensign has not yet declared whether he will run for re-election in 2012 and reported raising just $4,700 in the final quarter of 2009.
We'd like to see the Senator raising money for a legal defense fund soon.

Mountains From Molehills Dep't. (UPDATED)

TPM blockquotes Pimp of The Wk. James O'Keefe as typing, in his defense,
I learned from a number of sources that many of Senator Landrieu's constituents were having trouble getting through to her office to tell her that they didn't want her taking millions of federal dollars in exchange for her vote on the healthcare bill. When asked about this, Senator Landrieu's explanation was that, "Our lines have been jammed for weeks." I decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of touch with her constituents for "weeks" because her phones were broken. In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu's district office - the people's office - to ask the staff if their phones were working.
Uh, we imagine that a simple 'phone call, or three, or fifty, or (the four lads not being busy w/ actual jobs) a thousand, for a serious sample, might have made it obvious "if their 'phones were working." Which is an absurd question on the face of it. How does "our lines have been jammed for weeks" become "the 'phones are broken?" They really do create their own molehill-based reality.

UPDATE (2153 PST on 29 January 2010): We see that Weigel of The Wash. Independent has noticed (We did too, but are lazy enough that we figured "Just pick up the 'phone, dummy" was enough w/o going over this too.) the other clever thing that Mac Daddy O'Keefe pulled off:
I noted an error in the statement — the controversy is not over whether Landrieu is “taking millions of federal dollars,” but why the Senate added $300 million in Medicaid subsidies that stood to benefit Louisiana.

The BestOnly Possible Defense Is (Not Very Good) Offense

It's the Slatest!

ACORN Pimp: I'm a Victim of "Journalistic Malpractice"

James O'Keefe wants you to know that he did not try to bug a senator's office—he just wanted to make sure her phones were working. This according to a self-defense piece O'Keefe posted on Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment Friday. O'Keefe says he and his three co-investigators (two of whom were dressed as phone company employees) didn't try to "wiretap or bug" Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office. All they wanted to do was "ask the staff if their phones were working," because O'Keefe had heard that the senator's office wasn't taking constituents' phone calls. The result, of course, was the arrest of the four men and a tongue-lashing from Landrieu. O'Keefe does admit that, "On reflection, I could have used a different approach to this investigation." But the thing that bothers O'Keefe most about this situation isn't his own lack of judgment, it's the "journalistic malpractice" that's been committed by the mainstream media. O'Keefe rattles off the names and crimes of several news organizations—MSNBC, the AP, the Washinton Post—that got facts about the story wrong. He finally invites "the public" to decide "whether reporters who can't get their facts straight have the credibility to question my integrity as a journalist."
Read original story in BigGovernment | Friday, Jan. 29, 2010

At Least One Can Break An Arm Or Smash Someone's Head In W/ One Of These

Via bulbul at FMM. We still couldn't care any effing less, but as we are contractually obligated to visit FMM occasionally, we were faced w/ it. (We're from the Mr. Wonderful school ourself.)

Mini Van

29 January: Today's Excuse For A Snoot Or Two: W. C. Fields Born, 130 Yrs. Ago

Today is Friday, Jan. 29, the 29th day of 2010. There are 336 days left in the year. The UPI Almanac. Plus which.Today's Highlight
On Jan. 29, 1860 (according to the New Style calendar), Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov was born in the port city of Taganrog (TAG'-uhn-rahg).
On this date:
1820: 10 years after mental illness forced him to retire from public life, King George III, the British king who lost the American colonies, died at Windsor Castle at the age of 82.
1843: The 25th president of the United States, William McKinley, was born in Niles, Ohio.
1845: Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" was first published, in the New York Evening Mirror.
1850: Henry Clay introduced in the Senate a compromise bill on slavery that included the admission of California into the Union as a free state.
1861: Kansas became the 34th state of the Union.
1900: The American League, consisting of eight baseball teams, was organized in Philadelphia.
1919: The ratification of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which launched Prohibition, was certified by Acting Secretary of State Frank L. Polk.
1929: The Seeing Eye, a New Jersey-based school which trains guide dogs to assist the blind, was incorporated by Dorothy Harrison Eustis and Morris Frank.
1936: The first members of baseball's Hall of Fame, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, were named in Cooperstown, N.Y.
1939: Irish poet-dramatist William Butler Yeats died at age 73.
1963: The first members of pro football's Hall of Fame were named in Canton, Ohio. Poet Robert Frost died at age 88.
1979: President Jimmy Carter formally welcomed Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping to the White House, following the establishment of diplomatic relations.
1995: The San Francisco 49ers became the first team to win five Super Bowl titles when they beat the San Diego Chargers 49-26 in Super Bowl XXIX.
1998: A bomb rocked an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Ala., killing security guard Robert Sanderson and critically injuring nurse Emily Lyons. (The bomber, Eric Rudolph, was captured in May 2003 and is serving a life sentence.)
2000: Delegates meeting in Montreal reached an international agreement on the trade of genetically modified food and other products. Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott, architects of San Francisco's Super Bowl dynasty, were among five individuals elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
AP Highlight in History:
On Jan. 29, 2002, in his first State of the Union address, President George W. Bush warned of "an axis of evil" consisting of North Korea, Iran and Iraq.
2004: A suicide bomber struck a bus in Jerusalem, killing 10 Israelis.
2005: Jetliners from China landed in rival Taiwan for the first time in 56 years. Serena Williams defeated Lindsay Davenport 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 in the Australian Open final. Ashley McElhiney, the first female coach of a men's pro basketball team, was fired after an on-court dispute with Sally Anthony, co-owner of the Nashville Rhythm of the ABA. Irina Slutskaya won a sixth title at the European Figure Skating Championships.
2006: ABC "World News Tonight" co-anchor Bob Woodruff and a cameraman were seriously injured in a roadside bombing in Iraq.
2008: Margaret Truman, the only child of President Harry S. Truman, died at age 83.
2009: The Illinois Senate voted, 59-0, to convict Gov. Rod Blagojevich of abuse of power and throw him out of office, nearly two months after his arrest on charges of trying to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat. President Barack Obama issued a withering critique of Wall Street corporate behavior, calling it "the height of irresponsibility" for employees to be paid more than $18 billion in bonuses while their crumbling financial sector received a bailout from taxpayers.
Today's Birthdays: Actor John Forsythe is 92. Actor Noel Harrison is 76. Author Germaine Greer is 71. Actress Katharine Ross is 70. Actor Tom Selleck is 65. Rhythm-and-blues singer Bettye LaVette is 64. Actor Marc Singer is 62. Actress Ann Jillian is 60. Rock musician Tommy Ramone (Ramones) is 58. Rock musician Louie Perez (Los Lobos) is 57. Rhythm-and-blues/funk singer Charlie Wilson is 57. Talk show host Oprah Winfrey is 56. Country singer Irlene Mandrell is 54. Actress Diane Delano is 53. Actress Judy Norton Taylor ("The Waltons") is 52. Rock musician Johnny Spampinato (NRBQ) is 51. Olympic gold-medal diver Greg Louganis is 50. Rock musician David Baynton-Power (James) is 49. Rock musician Eddie Jackson (Queensryche) is 49. Actor Nicholas Turturro is 48. Rock singer-musician Roddy Frame (Aztec Camera) is 46. Actor-director Edward Burns is 42. Actress Heather Graham is 40. Actor Sharif Atkins is 35. Actress Sara Gilbert is 35. Actor Andrew Keegan is 31. Actor Jason James Richter is 30. Blues musician Jonny Lang is 29. Pop-rock singer Adam Lambert ("American Idol") is 28.
Those Born On This Date Include: Swedish scientist and philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg (1688); American colonial political philosopher Thomas Paine (1737); businessman John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874); actor W.C. Fields (1880); dramatist Paddy Chayefsky (1923); actor Victor Mature (1913).
Today In Entertainment History
1958: Actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were married.
Also in 1958, Challenge Records released the single "Tequila" by The Champs.
1962: Peter, Paul and Mary signed a record deal with Warner Brothers.
1977: comedian Freddie Prinze died, two days after shooting himself in the head. He was 22. He's probably best known for his role on "Chico and the Man."
1983: Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac married Kim Anderson at her Los Angeles home. They divorced the next year.
1992: Blues great Willie Dixon died of heart failure in Burbank, California. Among his classics are "Back Door Man," "Little Red Rooster" and "Spoonful."
1994: Former Supremes singer Mary Wilson hit a freeway median and flipped the Jeep she was driving while outside of Los Angeles. She was injured and her 14-year-old son was killed.
1996: Garth Brooks refused his American Music Award for favorite overall artist. Brooks said Hootie and the Blowfish did more for music that year than he did.
1998: Paul Simon's musical "The Capeman" premiered in New York, with Marc Anthony in the title role. It opened to poor reviews and closed after 68 performances.
Thought for Today: "Any idiot can face a crisis — it's this day-to-day living that wears you out." — Anton Chekhov (1860-1904).

Thursday, January 28, 2010

More About Which We Could Not Possibly Care Any Fucking Less

We care so little it took days to get around to sharing our un-caring. Also: MAD TV + iPad. Google™ it.

King Douche Speaks

"How much money does MSNBC get from Obama's stimulus money? I believe it's in the billions."

Another Breitbart Employee Implicated In Douchery

Anti-Obama Hackers Attack House Web Sites

In the hours following Obama's State of the Union address last night, a team of hackers calling themselves the "Red Eye Crew" attacked the Web sites of as many as 20 members of the House. The National Journal broke the story shortly after 3:30 a.m. on Thursday, and by later in the morning, more sites had reportedly been affected. Several of the sites had their usual homepages replaced with this line of text: "FUCK OBAMA!! Red Eye CREW !!!!! O RESTO E HACKER !!! by HADES; m4V3RiCk; T4ph0d4 -- FROM BRASIL." Others went down entirely. Despite their anti-Obama rhetoric, the Red Eye Crew doesn't seem to operate on partisan lines: At least 12 Democrats and seven Republicans were attacked, as was the homepage for the Republicans on the House oversight committee. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is likely to order a review to look into the matter, Politico says.

Read original story in Politico | Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010


Mr. Greg Gutfeld, another person who writes for Mr. Andrew Breitbart, might just be implcated in this mess, as he is the host of FOX News' "Red Eye" program. It's very popular. Check it out at 0200 ET wkdys. on FOX News.

Douchebag Asshole Motherfucker Of The Day

Jesus fugging Christ, we'll see if it can be located & displayed here, but Andrew Blartblart is on MSNBC (1200 PT) being a total asshole & buffoon concerning his employee James O'Keefe. Totally & absolutely.

Again, this has nothing to do w/ actual politics. It has more to do w/ Breitbart's deep-seated psychological problems, which he pretty well displays. No finger for the dirty libs at MSNBC, Andy?

28 January: Hank Cinq, Frank Drake Die; Frogs Surrender To Krauts (1871 Version); Alfaro Burned To Death By Lynch Mob; WWII Underway As Japanese Occupy Shanghai

Today is Thursday, January 28, the 28th day of 2010. There are 337 days left in the year. The UPI Almanac.
Today's Highlight
1999: India and Pakistan meet in their first cricket match in the subcontinent in 12 years. Pakistan walks away with a 12-run victory after a nail-biting finish.
Other Notable Events
1547: England's King Henry VIII dies and is succeeded by his 9-year-old son, Edward VI.
1596: English navigator Sir Francis Drake dies off Panama's coast and is buried at sea.
1782: The U.S. Congress authorized creation of the Great Seal of the United States.
1853: Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti was born in Havana.
1871: France surrenders in the Franco-Prussian War.
1878: The first commercial telephone switchboard began operation in New Haven, Conn.
1885: British relief force reaches Khartoum, and the Sudan is evacuated.
1909: US control in Cuba is ended.
1912: A lynch mob drags former President Gen Eloy Alfaro and his lieutenants through the streets of Quito, Ecuador, and burn them to death.
1915: The Coast Guard was created by an act of Congress, as President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill merging the Life-Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service.
1916: Louis D. Brandeis is appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to the Supreme Court, becoming its first Jewish member.
1932: Japanese troops occupy Shanghai in China.
1936: Richard Loeb, who as a teenager participated in a "thrill killing" with Nathan Leopold Jr. in Chicago in 1924, was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate in the Stateville Penitentiary in Illinois.
1945: Allied supplies began reaching China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
1949: UN Security Council adopts resolution to establish a cease-fire in Indonesia, then known as the Dutch East Indies.
1958: The Lego company receives a patent for their toy building blocks.
1959: Vince Lombardi was named head coach of the NFL's Green Bay Packers.
1960: The National Football League awarded franchises to Dallas and Minneapolis-St. Paul.
1961: Rwanda's provisional government proclaims republic.
1964: Riots break out in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia -- known today as Harare, Zimbabwe.
1965: The Canadian Parliament accepts a new national flag design. The new flag includes a red maple leaf in its center.
1973: A cease-fire officially went into effect in the Vietnam War.
1974: Israel lifted its siege of Suez City and turned over 300,000 square miles of Egyptian territory to the United Nations, ending the occupation that had begun during the October 1973 war.
1978: Fire swept through the historic downtown Coates House hotel in Kansas City, Mo., killing 20 people.
1980: Six US diplomats who avoided being taken hostage at their embassy in Tehran fly out of Iran with the help of Canadian diplomats.
1982: Italian anti-terrorism forces rescued U.S. Brigadier General James L. Dozier 42 days after he had been kidnapped by the Red Brigades.
1983: Labour group Solidarity's underground leaders call on Poland's factory workers to prepare for nationwide general strike as "the only way to break down the existing dictatorship."
1986: Space shuttle Challenger explodes moments after lift-off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, killing all seven crew members.
1990: Life in Azerbaijani capital of Baku returns to normal as Armenian and Azerbaijani separatists withdraw from border regions.
1991: Soviet troops seize and shut down two Lithuanian customs posts.
1992: Leadership of National Liberation Front, which won Algeria's independence and ruled for three decades, resigns.
1993: France's ambassador to Zaire is killed by a stray bullet as soldiers riot and loot shops and foreigners' homes in Kinshasa. [Keep those damn bullets on a leash! — Ed.] A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that the U.S. military's policy against homosexuals was unconstitutional because it was "based on cultural myths and false stereotypes."
1995: In the bloodiest day so far in Egypt's Islamic insurgency, police shoot to death 14 suspected militants, and extremists kill two policemen and two civilians. The United States and Vietnam agreed to exchange low-level diplomats and open liaison offices in each other's capital cities.
1997: Five former police officers in South Africa admitted to killing anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko, who died in police custody in 1977 and whose death had been officially listed as an accident.
1998: A judge in Poonamallee, India, convicts 26 conspirators linked to Sri Lanka's separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in the 1991 suicide bombing assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and orders all to be hanged.
1999: Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, honoring a personal request for mercy from Pope John Paul II, spared a triple murderer from execution.
2000: A plane brings 19 sick and weak-looking adolescents home to Uganda after months -- or possibly years --of captivity under Ugandan rebels based in southern Sudan. Some 5,000 children are believed to have been kidnapped by the rebels over the past decade according to UNICEF. The U.S. government admitted that workers making nuclear weapons were exposed to radiation and chemicals that led to cancer and early death. Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, the Florida nun selected by Attorney General Janet Reno as a neutral party in the custody battle over Elian Gonzalez, sought unsuccessfully to persuade Reno to change her mind about returning the six-year-old to Cuba.
2001: A Ukrainian vessel sinks in the Black Sea, killing at least 14 people. Five were reported missing and 32 were rescued.
2003: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's right-wing Likud party wins the parliamentary elections, soundly defeating the centre-left Labour Party and extending Sharon's leadership for another four-year term. The Labour Party suffered its worst-ever defeat at the polls. President George W. Bush said in his State of the Union address that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had sought uranium from Africa. (The claim was later disputed by former ambassador Joseph Wilson, who had been asked by the CIA to investigate.) Bush also called for a sharp increase in U.S. funds dedicated to the global battle against AIDS, to $15 billion over the next five years. At least 42 passengers burned to death when a luxury tourist bus collided with a truck carrying paints and chemicals in India's eastern state of West Bengal.
2004: the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq told Congress "we were almost all wrong" in believing Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and called for an outside independent investigation of the apparent intelligence failure.
2005: Condoleezza Rice was sworn in as the 66th U.S. secretary of State. She was the first African-American woman to hold the office. Also in 2005, European scientists confirmed the first known case of "mad cow" disease in a goat. Iraqis overseas began three days of voting in 14 nations. Senate Democrats criticized President George W. Bush's plan to add personal accounts to Social Security and accused his administration of improperly using the Social Security Administration to promote the idea. Consumer products giant Procter and Gamble Company and Gillette Company announced a $57 billion merger.
2007: The Israeli government overwhelmingly approves the appointment of Raleb Majadele, the country's first Muslim Cabinet minister, billing it as an important step for a long-suffering minority. U.S. and Iraqi forces killed a reported 300 enemy fighters in a major battle near Najaf in southern Iraq. The U.S. military death toll for the month was set at 84. Also in 2007, British researchers warned climate effects from global warming would be irreversible in 10 years without "serious reductions in carbon emissions."
2008: Thousands of machete-wielding youths riot in Kenya, setting buses and homes ablaze and hunting down members of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe. A month of violence triggered by rigged presidential elections gathers frightening momentum with a death toll topping 800. U.S. President George Bush delivered his final State of the Union address, focusing on the Iraq war, the uncertainty of the economy, a proposed tax rebate and another warning for Iran.
2009: A caterpillar plague in Liberia is spreading, and has now affected 400,000 people in more than 100 villages in the West African nation, the UN says. In a swift victory for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House approved a huge $819 billion stimulus bill 244-188 with Republicans unanimous in opposition, despite Obama's pleas for bipartisan support. Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboard player Billy Powell, who survived the 1977 plane crash that killed three band members, died in Orange Park, Fla. at age 56.
Today's Birthdays: Musician-composer Acker Bilk is 81. Sculptor Claes Oldenburg is 81. Actor Nicholas Pryor is 75. Actor Alan Alda is 74. Actress Susan Howard is 68. Actress Marthe Keller is 65. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) is 63. Former leader of Liberia Charles Taylor is 62. Ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov is 62. Actress-singer Barbi Benton is 60. Evangelical pastor Rick Warren is 56. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is 55. Actress Harley Jane Kozak is 53. Movie director Frank Darabont is 51. Rock musician Dave Sharp is 51. Rock singer Sam Phillips is 48. Rock musician Dan Spitz is 47. Country musician Greg Cook (Ricochet) is 45. Gospel singer Marvin Sapp is 43. Singer Sarah McLachlan is 42. Rapper Rakim is 42. DJ Muggs (Cypress Hill) is 42. Actress Kathryn Morris ("Cold Case") is 41. Rhythm-and-blues singer Anthony Hamilton is 39. Rock musician Brandon Bush is 37. MLB player Jermaine Dye is 36. Singer Joey Fatone Jr. ('N Sync) is 33. Rapper Rick Ross is 33. Actress Rosamund Pike is 31. Singer Nick Carter (Backstreet Boys) is 30. Actor Elijah Wood is 29.
Those Born On This Date Include: Roman Catholic St. Thomas Aquinas (1225); John Barclay, Scottish satirist (1582-1621); John Baskerville, English typographer (1716-1775); Canadian Prime Minister and statesman Alexander MacKenzie (1822); French novelist Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873); concert pianist Arthur Rubinstein (1887); abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock (1912).
Today In Entertainment History
1948: the first Emmy Awards were given for excellence in television. The first Emmy winner was Shirley Dinsdale and her puppet, Judy Splinters, for Most Outstanding Personality.
1955: the "Top Ten R&B Show," starring The Clovers and Fats Domino, among others, kicked off in New York.
1956: Elvis Presley made his first national TV appearance on "The Dorsey Brothers Stage Show" on CBS. After the appearance, sales of his "Heartbreak Hotel" single skyrocketed.
1965: The Who appeared for the first time on the British program "Ready, Steady, Go." The band's performance helped put the single "I Can't Explain" into the British top ten.
1980: entertainer Jimmy Durante died at the age of 87.
1985: the African famine relief benefit song "We Are The World" was recorded in Los Angeles after the American Music Awards ceremony.
1991: During the American Music Awards ceremony, Gloria Estefan performed for the first time since breaking her back in a bus accident. She got a standing ovation.
1992: First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton apologized to country singer Tammy Wynette, who was angry over comments Mrs. Clinton made on "60 Minutes." Mrs. Clinton had said "I'm not sitting here like some little woman standing by her man like Tammy Wynette."
1995: 27-year-old Edward Burns won the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize for his homemade movie "The Brothers McMullen." He was able to quit his job as a production assistant for "Entertainment Tonight."
1996: the original Bert and Ernie Muppets were stolen from an exhibit in Germany. They were later returned.
1999: The Beastie Boys and Rage Against The Machine headlined a benefit concert for convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. New Jersey police officers called for a boycott of both the concert and the bands.
2005: 45 Fiona Apple fans picketed outside Sony headquarters in New York in what they called Free Fiona Day. They wanted Sony to release Apple's "Extraordinary Machine" album, which had been shelved for two years.
2009: Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboard player Billy Powell, who survived the 1977 plane crash that killed three band members, died in Orange Park, Fla. at age 56.
AP Thought for Today: "Organisation can never be a substitute for initiative and for judgement." - Louis D. Brandeis, U.S. Supreme Court justice (1856-1941).
A UPI thought for the day: Edward George Bulwer-Lytton said, "Talent does what it can; genius does what it must."

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

U.S. Defense Establishment Falls For Global Warming Hoax

Among other things, the draft QDR suggests the military will have to start planning for operations in which rising sea levels, an ice-free Arctic and higher overall global temperatures may be an important factor. What’s more, it suggests that military planners will have to prepared for the knock-on effects of climate change: forced migration, resource scarcity and the spread of disease.

In parallel, the draft QDR calls for a bigger push for energy independence by the military. The Defense Department, the document notes, is already “moving out smartly” to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, and to tap more renewable sources of energy.
"We have in our hand a list of several hundred Comm-u-niss employed in The Pentagon."

Read More

"Obama to Announce High-Speed Rail Plan Post-Speech"

Claims The AP, via abcNEWS.

That About Which We Could Not Possibly Care Any Fucking Less

SOTU. And arrogant elitists pointing their fingers at us.


Enough.

Hackery

Pat Buchanan's The American Conservative has been hacked. (Please refrain from "They're all hacks, what's the big deal?" jokes; we just made one for you.)

Let's look at it "in context."

For The Easily Amused

Words Fail Us: Thomas L. Friedman Fails Words

Sometimes you wonder: Are we home alone?* Obviously, the political and financial elites to whom we give authority often act on the basis of personal interests. But we still have a long way to go to get out of the mess we are in, and if our elites do not behave with a greater sense of the common good we could find our economy doing a double dip with a back flip.
A three-sentence paragraph, unedited by us (or others, it seems) as published by The Paper Of Record.

Titled:

Adults Only, Please


*Is our children learning?

Early A. M. AP Video Douche-Bag Wrap-Up

Earlier:Later:Entirely Separate Douche:Heavy-Duty Douche:

27 January: Tee Vee Demonstrated In Public; Incandescent Lamp Patented; Mozart Born, Verdi, Crapper Die; WWII Continues; Open Air Atomic Testing Begins; Apollo Fire Kills Spacemen Three; Little Richard Goes To Jesus School; Last Telegram Delivered

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 27, the 27th day of 2010. There are 338 days left in the year. The UPI Almanac.Today's Highlight in History:
On Jan. 27, 1880, Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric incandescent lamp.
Other Notable Events:
In 1340, Edward III of England declares himself king of France, a claim that leads to the Hundred Years' War. The kings of England call themselves kings of France until 1801.
In 1606, the surviving conspirators in the "Gunpowder Treason" plot to blow up the English Parliament and the king of England on Nov. 5, 1605, were convicted and executed four days later.
In 1695, Mustafa II succeeds as Sultan of Turkey on death of Ahmad II.
In 1756, composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria.
In 1785, the first public university in the United States is founded as the University of Georgia.
In 1822, Greek independence is formally proclaimed.
In 1832, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" under the pen name Lewis Carroll, was born in Cheshire, England.
In 1865, a treaty between Spain and Peru recognised Peru's independence.
In 1888, the National Geographic Society was incorporated in the US.
In 1901, opera composer Giuseppe Verdi died in Milan, Italy, at age 87.
In 1910, Thomas Crapper, often described as the prime developer of the flush toilet mechanism as it is known today, died in England.
In 1914, Haiti's President Oreste abdicates during revolt, and US Marines land to preserve order.
In 1926, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird launched a revolution in communication and entertainment with the first public demonstration of a true television system in London.
In 1943, some 50 bombers struck Wilhelmshaven in the first all-American air raid against Germany. Germany began civil conscription of women.
In 1944, the Soviet Union announced the complete end of the deadly German siege of Leningrad, which had lasted for more than two years. At least 650,000 people died during the 872-day siege.
In 1945, Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland.
In 1951, an era of atomic testing in the Nevada desert began as an Air Force plane dropped a one-kiloton bomb on Frenchman Flat.
In 1964, France establishes diplomatic relations with China.
In 1967, astronauts Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo spacecraft.

More than 60 nations signed a treaty banning the orbiting of nuclear weapons.
In 1973, the Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris.
In 1977, The Vatican reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's ban on female priests.
In 1981, President Ronald Reagan greeted the 52 former American hostages released by Iran at the White House. Indonesia's Tampo Mas II passenger ship catches fire and sinks in Java Sea, killing 580 people.
In 1985, the secret three-day military-satellite mission of the space shuttle Discovery ended with a smooth landing in Florida.
In 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan acknowledged mistakes and accepted responsibility in the Iran arms scandal.
In 1991, President Mohammed Siad Barre of Somalia flees the capital, Mogadishu, as a coalition of rebels seize power. The country plunges into virtual anarchy. U.S. planes bombed the pipelines to Kuwaiti oil fields to cut off the flow of oil into the Persian Gulf.
In 1993, Police in New Delhi lob tear gas shells to disperse rioting mobs of Hindus and Muslims who attack a mosque and a temple and burn down dozens of shops.
In 1994, terrorists struck three times in Northern Ireland, killing the first two victims of the new year and wounding two others.
In 1995, Burmese soldiers won a key battle against one of the world's oldest insurgencies, capturing the base of Burma's largest Karen rebel army in the Burmese jungle.
In 1996, Niger's first democratically elected president, Mahamane Ousmane, was ousted in a coup and army Col Barre Mainassara Ibrahim takes over as head of state. France conducted an open-air nuclear test in the South Pacific.
In 1997, the people of Chechnya went to the polls to elect Aslan Maskhadov for president, only months after Russian forces turned most of the capital to rubble.
In 1998, in his State of the Union address, U.S. President Bill Clinton hailed the fact that the federal government would have a balanced budget in 1999 -- the first in 30 years. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, appearing on NBC's "Today" show, said that allegations against her husband were the work of a "vast right-wing conspiracy." Bowing to the wish of the pope, the Catholic Church in Germany stops issuing certificates allowing abortion.
In 2000, President Bill Clinton proposed a $350 billion tax cut, big spending increases for schools and health care and photo ID licenses for handgun purchases in his final State of the Union address. Human rights officials announce that they have unearthed the remains of 50 people at a clandestine cemetery in Zacualpa, a village 64 kilometres (40 miles) north-west of Guatemala City. The victims, including two children, were apparent casualties of Guatemala's 36-year civil war.
In 2001, police fired tear gas and warning shots as thousands of rock-throwing students in Jakarta stormed the gates of Indonesia's Parliament in the largest protest yet against the country's president.
In 2002, munitions at an army base in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital, exploded, sending fireballs and shrapnel into the air forcing hundreds of area residents to flee. As many as 600 people drown in a canal that blocked their way to safety.
In 2003, the head U.N. inspector for atomic weapons said no evidence had been found that Iraq was reviving its nuclear weapons program.
In 2005, Condoleezza Rice, in her first day on the job as Secretary of State, reached out to European allies and partners in the war on terrorism and echoed President George W. Bush's inaugural charge to promote liberty across the globe. Frail survivors and humbled world leaders remembered the victims of the Holocaust as they marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz. A court sentenced Peru's former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos to eight years in prison for paying tabloids hundreds of thousands of dollars to run smear campaigns against opponents of ex-President Alberto Fujimori. At least 13 Iraqis were killed and 15 wounded as violence swept Iraq days before national elections. Also in 2005, U.N. officials in Sudan said about 100 people were killed or injured in the bombing by Sudanese government planes of a north Darfur village.
In 2006, Western Union delivered its last telegram. Bolivian President Evo Morales cut his salary in half and ordered that no Cabinet minister collect a higher wage than his own, with the savings being used to hire more public school teachers.
In 2007, suspected Muslim separatists ambushed police patrols and torched a school in southern Thailand, a day after killing a police sergeant and setting fire to a government school. As the Bush administration sought more troops for Iraq, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in Washington to urge a U.S. troop withdrawal.
In 2008, former Indonesian president Suharto, whose regime killed hundreds of thousands of left-wing political opponents, died in Jakarta at age 86.
In 2009, saying, "The American people expect action," President Barack Obama held closed-door meetings with House and Senate Republicans on the eve of a key vote on an economic stimulus package. The U.S. Defense Department announced that Afghanistan militants had directed 3,276 roadside bombs at Western troops in 2008. The bombings claimed 161 lives. A man in Wilmington, Calif. fatally shot his wife, five young children and himself after faxing a note to a TV station claiming the couple had just been fired from their hospital jobs. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist John Updike died in Danvers, Mass. at age 76.
Today's Birthdays January 27: Singer Bobby "Blue" Bland is 80. Actor James Cromwell is 70. Actor John Witherspoon is 68. Rock musician Nick Mason (Pink Floyd) is 65. Rhythm-and-blues singer Nedra Talley (The Ronettes) is 64. Ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov is 62. Chief US Justice John Roberts is 55. Country singer Cheryl White is 55. Country singer-musician Richard Young (The Kentucky Headhunters) is 55. Actress Mimi Rogers is 54. Rock musician Janick Gers (Iron Maiden) is 53. Sports and political commentator Keith Olbermann is 51. Sportscaster & former NFL player Cris Collingsworth is 51. Rock singer Margo Timmins (Cowboy Junkies) is 49. Rock musician Gillian Gilbert is 49. Actress Bridget Fonda is 46. Actor Alan Cumming is 45. Country singer Tracy Lawrence is 42. Rock singer Mike Patton is 42. Rapper Tricky is 42. Rock musician Michael Kulas (James) is 41. Actor-comedian Patton Oswalt is 41. Actor Josh Randall is 38. Country singer Kevin Denney is 34. Tennis player Marat Safin is 30.
Also: Edouard Lalo, French composer (1823-1892); labor organizer Samuel Gompers (1850); U.S. Navy Adm. Hyman Rickover, "father of the nuclear Navy" (1900); Pittsburgh Steelers founder Art Rooney (1901); U.S. newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, Jr. (1908); musicians Elmore James and Skitch Henderson (both 1918); actress Donna Reed (1921); Canadian novelist Mordecai Richler (1931-2001).
Today In Entertainment History January 27
In 1885, Broadway composer Jerome Kern was born in New York City.

In 1958, singer Little Richard enrolled in a college run by the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Huntsville, Ala. He was inspired after his plane caught fire while flying over the Philippines.
In 1968, "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding was released, six weeks after he was killed in a plane crash.
In 1970, John Lennon recorded "Instant Karma."
In 1972, singer Mahalia Jackson died of heart failure in Chicago. She was 60.
In 1976, "Laverne and Shirley" premiered on ABC.
In 1984, Michael Jackson was burned on his scalp during the filming of a Pepsi commercial that featured special effects. He was briefly hospitalized.
In 1991, Whitney Houston sang the "Star-Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl. It was revealed later she actually sang over a pre-recorded version of the anthem.
In 1992, C&C Music Factory dominated the 19th annual American Music Awards, winning five trophies.
In 1993, Warner Brothers Records announced that it was releasing rapper Ice-T from his contract due to what it called "creative differences." The previous summer, the record company was in the middle of the controversy over Ice-T's song "Cop Killer."
In 2004, Jack Paar, who brought sophisticated humor to late-night TV as the host of "The Tonight Show," died following a long illness. He was 85.
Thought for Today: "Who never doubted, never half believed. Where doubt is, there truth is — it is her shadow." — Gamaliel Bailey, American abolitionist (1807-1859).