This comes to the news desk via No More Mr. Nice Blog:
Pope's 'revenge' as LA gets Opus Dei bishop
A member of the radically-orthodox Catholic group Opus Dei has been appointed as the new Archbishop of Los Angeles.
Maybe Geeziz does love us. A self-flagellating loon spouting off to Hollywood about morality is just what we'd pray for.
Which reminds us: Last Sunday, just after the quake, the current bishop, Roger Cardinal Mahony, called a radio station* & proudly recounted how he'd been performing whatever bizarre superstitious rite they perform at his almost new cathedral, & didn't notice the rolling because the dump is on rollers, not a firm foundation, yada yada, isn't that great? He closed w/ "Happy Easter." That's all he's good for?
*What happens in L.A. after an earthquake: Radio & tee vee stations allow dullards & the common clay on the air to share their stories of where they were, how long it lasted, what it felt like, blah blah blah, until someone from the USGS gets to the office, figures out what happened, & calls in. On telebision, the great un-washed call-in stops when pictures or blurry & pixelated mobile 'phone footage trickle in. It's even stupider than the "STORMWATCH!" hysteria local broadcasting engages in when precipitation over a quarter of an inch is predicted.
All of this is understandable, given the gravity of the scandal, and it’s obviously preferable to the see-no-evil, pre-Pope Benedict status quo.
Wait a minute, insufferable jerk. Are you implying that Pope Benedict, in his previous identity as Cardinal Rat, Defender of The Faith, ran an "uncover all the evil" campaign? Or that The Holy Father (not the gay marriage-lusting liberal media, who want to destroy the Church so abortions can be mandatory) is responsible for bringing these horrors to the attention of the world in his noble effort to clean up the Church, but not responsible for his real world function of covering up?
Idle Musing: If our imaginary offspring were criminally, physically abused, we'd be at Rampart Division filing charges, rather than complaining to the alleged abuser's superior. What sort of cultish brainwashing do Catholics undergo that they wouldn't go to the police?
Violent Protests Rattle Kyrgyzstan Capital
Four people are reported to have been shot dead in anti-government protests in the capital city of Bishkek. Read original story in BBC| Wednesday, April 7, 2010 Thai Protesters Break Into Parliament
The Thai prime minister declares a state of emergency as a massive security breach sends lawmakers scrambling over walls and running to rescue helicopters to escape protesters. Read original story in The Associated Press | Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Large-scale protests appear to have overthrown the government of Kyrgyzstan, an important American ally in Central Asia, after violence between riot police officers and opposition
demonstrators on Thursday killed at least 17 people.
The country's president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, fled the capital, Bishkek, on his plane, and the opposition declared that it was forming its own government.
Earlier in the day, the police used bullets, tear gas and stun grenades against a crowd of thousands massing in front of the presidential office in Bishkek, according to witness
accounts. At least 17 people were killed and others were wounded, officials said.
The upheaval raised questions about the future of an important American air base that operates in Kyrgyzstan in support of the NATO mission in nearby Afghanistan. American officials said that as of Wednesday evening the base was functioning normally.
Although the Mormon leader wanted a giant property, he skillfully drew boundaries to avoid conflicts with established outposts such as the California gold fields or Oregon's newly popular Willamette Valley. And he made sure to grab a bit of coastline in southern California. At this point in history, southern California was pretty empty. Hard to imagine.
Today is Wednesday, April 7, the 97th day of 2010. There are 268 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On April 7, 1862, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. On this date: In 30 C.E., by many scholars' reckoning, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified in Jerusalem. In 1199, King Richard I of England (also known as The Lion-Heart) died in the Limousin region of France at age 41 after being mortally wounded by an arrow. In 1795, the meter was adopted as basic measure of length by France. In 1859, Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football," was born in New Britain, Conn. In 1860, Will Keith Kellogg, founder of cereal maker Kellogg Co., was born in Battle Creek, Mich. In 1927, the image and voice of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover were transmitted live from Washington to New York in the first successful long-distance demonstration of television. In 1939, Italy invaded Albania, which was annexed less than a week later. In 1948, The World Health Organization was founded. In 1953, the U.N. General Assembly elected Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden to be secretary-general. He served until his death in a 1961 plane crash.
In 1959, a referendum in Oklahoma repealed the state's ban on alcoholic beverages. In 1969, the Supreme Court, in Stanley v. Georgia, unanimously struck down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material. In 1976, China's leadership deposed Deputy Prime Minister Deng Xiaoping. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter announced he was deferring development of the neutron bomb, a high-radiation weapon. In 1983, space shuttle astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson took the first U.S. space walk in almost a decade as they worked in the open cargo bay of Challenger for nearly four hours. In 1990, a display of Robert Mapplethorpe photographs opened at Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center, the same day the center and its director were indicted on obscenity charges (both were acquitted). An arson fire aboard a ferry en route from Norway to Denmark killed 158 people.
UPI Version: Suspected arson fires aboard the ferry Scandinavian Star killed at least 75 people in Scandinavia's worst post-war maritime disaster.
Former national security adviser John M. Poindexter was convicted of five counts at his Iran-Contra trial. (A federal appeals court later reversed the convictions.) AP Highlight in History: On April 7, 1994, civil war erupted in Rwanda, a day after a plane crash claimed the lives of the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi.
In 1999, NATO stepped up its airstrikes in Yugoslavia after rejecting President Slobodan Milosevic's cease-fire declaration. Yugoslav authorities, meanwhile, closed the main exit route where a quarter-million ethnic Albanians had fled Kosovo. In 2000, Attorney General Janet Reno met in Washington with the father of Elian Gonzalez; Reno later told reporters that officials would arrange for Juan Miguel Gonzalez to reclaim his son, but she gave Elian's Miami relatives one more chance to drop their resistance and join in a peaceful transfer. In 2001, NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft took off on a six-month, 286-million-mile journey to the red planet. An unarmed black man wanted on 14 misdemeanor warrants was fatally shot by a white police officer in Cincinnati, sparking three days of riots. In 2003, U.S. troops in more than 100 U.S. armored vehicles rumbled through downtown Baghdad and seized one of Saddam Hussein's opulent palaces. In 2004, Mounir el Motassadeq, the only Sept. 11 suspect ever convicted, was freed after a Hamburg, Germany, court ruled that the evidence was too weak to hold him pending a retrial. In 2005, the blockbuster painkiller Bextra was taken off the market, and the FDA said all similar prescription drugs should strongly warn about possible risk of heart attacks and strokes. Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, was named Iraq's interim prime minister; Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani was sworn in as interim president. Historic bus service began between the two parts of Kashmir, one controlled by India, the other by Pakistan. In 2006, three suicide bombers set off explosives in a Baghdad mosque, killing at least 90 people and injuring an estimated 175. Also in 2006, the United States and the European Union suspended financial aid to the Palestinian Authority because its ruling Hamas party refuses to recognize Israel. In 2007, a published report said the United States allowed Ethiopia to buy arms secretly from North Korea in January, three months after the U.N. imposed sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear program. In 2008, as the disputed presidential election in Zimbabwe rocked along with no settlement in sight, opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai, who claimed victory over incumbent Robert Mugabe, left the country, saying he feared for his life. Anti-China protesters disrupted the Olympic torch relay in Paris, at times forcing Chinese organizers to put out the flame and take the torch onto a bus to secure it. Kansas won the NCAA championship, defeating Memphis 75-68. Coach Pat Riley, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Adrian Dantley and broadcaster Dick Vitale were among those selected to Basketball's Hall of Fame. In 2009, President Barack Obama capped his eight-day European trip by addressing college students in Istanbul, Turkey; he then made an unannounced trip to Baghdad where he visited with U.S. troops and Iraqi officials. Vermont became the fourth state (after Connecticut, Massachusetts and Iowa) to legalize gay marriage. Three members of the Congressional Black Caucus met with former Cuban President Fidel Castro in Havana. Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a Lima court for death squad killings and kidnappings during his struggle against Shining Path insurgents. Connecticut routed Louisville 76-54 to capture its sixth women's basketball title. Sally Mae, the U.S. government-backed student loan lender, announced it would bring back to the United States some 2,000 jobs based overseas, such as some call centers and technology positions. Also in 2009, Kim Jong-il, the North Korea leader, was re-elected to a third five-year term despite failing health since his reported stroke in August 2008. Today's Birthdays: Actor R.G. Armstrong is 93. Sitar player Ravi Shankar is 90. Actor James Garner is 82. Country singer Cal Smith is 78. Actor Wayne Rogers is 77. Media commentator Hodding Carter III is 75. Country singer Bobby Bare is 75. Rhythm-and-blues singer Charlie Thomas (The Drifters) is 73. California Attorney General Jerry Brown is 72. Movie director Francis Ford Coppola is 71. TV personality David Frost is 71. Singer Patricia Bennett (The Chiffons) is 63. Singer John Oates is 61. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is 61. Singer Janis Ian is 59. Country musician John Dittrich is 59. Actor Jackie Chan is 56. Football Hall-of-Famer Tony Dorsett is 56. Actor Russell Crowe is 46. Christian/jazz singer Mark Kibble (Take 6) is 46. Actor Bill Bellamy is 45. Rock musician Dave "Yorkie" Palmer (Space) is 45. Former football player-turned-analyst Tiki Barber is 35. Actress Heather Burns is 35. Actor Kevin Alejandro (TV: "Southland") is 34. Extra Birthdays: Missionary St. Francis Xavier (1506); English poet William Wordsworth (1770); baseball Hall of Fame member John McGraw (1873); CIA Director Allen Dulles (1893); gossip columnist Walter Winchell (1897); conductor Percy Faith (1908); & singer Billie Holiday (1915). 7 April In Entertainment In 1949, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "South Pacific" opened on Broadway. It ran for more than 1,900 performances. In 1962, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards met future Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones at a London blues club. In 1970, "Midnight Cowboy" was named best picture at the Academy Awards. John Wayne won the best actor award for "True Grit." In 1975, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple. He went on to form Rainbow. In 1995, models Elle Macpherson, Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell opened the Fashion Cafe in New York. It has since closed. In 1997, singer Liam Gallagher of Oasis married actress Patsy Kensit in a secret civil ceremony in London. In 1998, singer George Michael was arrested for committing a lewd act in a park restroom in Beverly Hills, California. Also in 1998, drummer Tommy Lee of Motley Crue pleaded no contest to felony spousal abuse. He was accused of kicking his wife, actress Pamela Anderson Lee, while she held their son. Lee was sentenced to six months in jail. In 2003, actor Russell Crowe married Danielle Spencer in Australia. Thought for Today: "Lying is done with words and also with silence." — Adrienne Rich, American poet.
Grant handed the document to Lee. After reviewing it, Lee informed Grant that the Cavalry men and Artillery men in the Confederate Army owned their horses and asked that they keep them. Grant agreed and Lee wrote a letter formally accepting the surrender. Lee then made his exit.
Fuck you, traitorous losers. Really, what part of "loser" don't you understand?
After suffering HCR defeat at the hands of The Usurper, Hinderaker of Power Line looks over the sea through the piercing gaze of professional paranoid Frank Gaffney ("Who Lost Iraq?" Yes, it's China 1949 again.) & some other cluck's rightist Mid-East analysis; neither cheers him up, but it's a good excuse to get on Obama again. Except then he has to admit how Obama handed him his corn dog.
This is what I don't understand: why doesn't Obama bring to bear on foreign policy the lessons he learned in Chicago? Is "Be a faithless friend and a toothless enemy" the Chicago Way? Hardly. Maybe if Obama could just pretend that Ahmadinejad, Assad, Nasrallah et al. are Republicans....
Say what you will about a parliamentary system, what if it were possible in these United Snakes to call for a dissolution of Congreƒs like these Thai hicks are?
A leader of the anti-government movement known as red-shirts Tuesday called on supporters from all provinces to immediately come to the Thai capital Bangkok for final showdown against the government, local media said.
Late Monday, the UDD announced that they would on Tuesday march to 11 areas, starting from 11:00 a.m. local time, which are banned from entering.
The red-shirts, mainly supporters of the former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in 2006 coup, started occupying the central commercial area last Saturday with roads blocked and shops forced to close to push the government to dissolve parliament and hold early elections.
Source: Xinhua
We'd never hear the end of it whenever the cry-baby reactionaries lost an election. Not that there's no bitching & whining now, but at least they're stuck until the next election.
Intrepid reseachers are invited to spend the several hrs. it will take to uncover just how many have been "thrown in jail" for failure to fill out an ACS form. No research necessary for what gives the Commerce Dep't. the right, though you'd think lawyer Erickson would know it's that census bit in the Constitution, as enacted by Congreƒs.
After asking ourself "Huh?" & "From Whom?" for the last X mos., we finally realized who (other than the "colored guy," obviously) these aging wretches think "took their country" from them. Their children. Who else? And they should be scared of the yout'.
Earlier today:So, we're just as goofy as Chris Matthews; merely earlier to the inane. And we don't invite people to our web log & then cut off their shtick w/ our inane theory, as Matthews does on his program. (Note Richard Wolffe's grimace after Tweety gets going.) As stupid, but still a better human being. Whew.
Another Tea Partier poll, from Gallup, has 28% of "adults" identifying as 'Baggers (many more than the self-proclaimed 17% in the Winston Group undertaking).
Gallup's new survey of the Tea Party movement is instructive for what it didn't find: the movement does not encompass Democrats, including independent-leaning Democrats, or more than half of true Independents. In other words, the 28% or so of adults who say they're Tea Partiers are very much likely to vote Republican when the chips are down.
Yet only eight percent of those Gallup polled claim to be "Democratic," while the Winston Group claimed 13%.
Pay attention to terminology: it's true that just half of those Tea Partiers surveyed called themselves Republicans. Yes, the lion's share of the other half say they're independent. But they're not: they're Republican-oriented conservative voters who are dismayed by the direction of the GOP and who don't want to identify with the party's brand. That's not surprising, given how tarnished that brand is. Only 8% identify as Democratic; 7% identify as liberal; 70% percent identify as conservative; two-thirds are pro-life; nearly 90% were opposed to the health care bill.
Just saw memeorandum, which has several column inches devoted to this (Actual analysis.) so, having highlighted the obvious, we are gone, except to note that Ambinder has the solution to the entire polling, damned lies & statistics problem: Go deep.
Next time, I'd love for Gallup, or any other pollster, really, to ask self-identified Tea Partiers for their vote histories, for their views on immigration and race, for their views on questions about Obama attributes (is he a socialist?), for their specific views on policy matters (do they support a "fair tax?").
Couldn't be tossed around for political advantage or dismissed in 30 seconds of headline reading if they did that though.
Damnit, you crippingly attack our cyber & you deserve to be nuked from the face of the earth.
Breaking News Alert
The New York Times Mon, April 05, 2010 -- 8:15 PM ET
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Obama Limits When U.S. Can Use Nuclear Weapons
WASHINGTON -- President Obama said Monday that he was revamping American nuclear strategy to substantially narrow the conditions under which the United States would use nuclear weapons, even in self defense.
The strategy eliminates much of the ambiguity that has deliberately existed in American nuclear policy since the opening days of the Cold War. For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons, or launched a crippling cyberattack.
Sully informs us that Europe has a "less generous and less tort-friendly judicial system."
From which we can only conclude that those whose greatest contribution to the health care reform debate was "Tort Reform! Tort Reform!" wanted America to become more like the socialist cesspool of Europe. Consistency is indeed foolish.
Capitalist scum, floating to the top as always, will get together to "discuss" something economic.
This is such a travesty that it's hard to know where to begin.
For starters, note the prominent role of Robert Rubin and Alan Greenspan. If any two Americans are responsible for the economic, financial and fiscal mess we're in, they are Rubin and Greenspan. Much of the rising deficit, after all, is the result of the financial collapse. The main reason for the big deficits is that tax revenues are down in a severe recession. The financial collapse also required the government to step in with increased public spending.
If the orgy of financial deregulation that led to the crash had two prime sponsors, the Democratic one was Rubin and the Republican one was Greenspan. Inviting these characters to a fiscal summit to devise a way out of the crisis is like inviting arsonists to design a seminar on fire prevention.
Peterson himself, who underwrites the work of the foundation with a billion dollar gift, made his money as one of America's private-equity moguls. Private equity companies have been among main offenders in the world of shadow banking that helped cause the collapse, and are now lobbing against tough financial reform and regulation.
[...]
The Peterson Foundation and its president, David Walker, already know exactly what they want -- strict budget caps on social outlay, enforced by a rigid formula, with cuts in Medicare and Social Security leading the way.
We'd love to see some public action in front of whichever luxury hotel this confab will be occurring in. We wouldn't mind seeing some action inside the event as well. We got your Town Hall meeting right here, exploiters.
We have to wonder if the creators were getting the same amusement from this we do, or if they were just cretins. (Not that one excludes the other, but, you know, intentionality, or?)
In January, the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District board voted 4 to 1 to adopt a new Chinese language and culture class at Cedarlane next fall, at no cost to the district.
Confucius Classroom is paid for by the Chinese government's Chinese Language Council International, also known as Hanban.
"I am not against the teaching of foreign languages, but this is a propaganda machine from the People's Republic of China that has no place anywhere in the United States," said John Kramer, 73, a former superintendent of the district who has been vocal in the debate.
[...]
Hacienda Heights was more than 36% Asian, primarily Chinese, when the last census was taken in 2000. The area has changed dramatically since longtime residents such as Mary Ann King arrived.
"We don't need to accept money from a Chinese government," said King, who has lived in Hacienda Heights for 42 years and once hosted the children's television show "Romper Room." "If it's funded by them, their doctrine will be part of the curriculum. It's wrong. We don't need to do this to our children."
[...]
Asians now also dominate the school board, 3 to 2. Kramer, the former superintendent, says that could change.
"Our kids need to be taught Americanism," he said. "This board is going to pay a price. I think the community is upset enough to vote them out."
Might as well ship 'em all back to China while you're voting them out, right, Kramer?
And what's all this "need to be taught Americanism" shit? We picked it up on the street, that oughta be good enough for today's little creeps.
Four in 10 Tea Party members are either Democrats or Independents, according to a new national survey.
We're surprised to find out that there are "members" of a "Tea Party." Thought it was all unorganized & random, grass-rooty. No? Or by members do they mean the various hucksters, consultants, former Congressweasels & beneficiaries of corporate largesse who've incorporated & then run bus tours & conventions, & their employees? Is there a Tea Party registered as such in any state in the union, even the ones in which the AGs are claiming that Health Care is unconstitutional?
(We ask only because this all occurred as a result of
three national polls by the Winston Group, a Republican-leaning firm that conducted the surveys on behalf of an education advocacy group.
No, really? "An education advocacy group." Never identified. What sort of education do they advocate that needs to know what the T.P.s think?)
Doc 40 thinks you can't handle it. We have a higher opinion of our audience, but it may be a smaller (& therefore elite) audience than the UDT that visit him.
This is dynamite stuff, but kinda hardcore and mildly demented, and will probably make more sense if you’ve had previous exposure to Gene and the bop that just won’t stop.
The New York Times knows where the important part of the story is: Wherever the fuck WE are when it happens.
Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Sun, April 04, 2010 -- 7:03 PM ET
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Large Earthquake Felt in Downtown Los Angeles
An earthquake centered in Baja California in Mexico shook buildings as far north as Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon.
The earthquake was centered in Baja California, about 108 miles east-southeast of Tijuana, the United States Geological Service said. The quake had a magnitude of 6.9.
High-rise buildings in Los Angeles and San Diego rocked back and forth as the quake hit. The earthquake shook houses in Los Angeles for roughly 60 seconds, and aftershocks then followed.
JUDITH GAP, Mont. (AP) — Here in America’s nuclear heartland, where underground missile silos dot the landscape, a proposed U.S.-Russia treaty to reduce nuclear weapons is nothing short of alarming.
The military workers who maintain those missiles support cities as large as Great Falls, where 40 percent of the economy depends upon Malmstrom Air Force Base, and businesses as small as the Judith Gap Mercantile, where passing airmen buy milkshakes by the dozen. If they follow the missiles out of town, the economies here could be crippled.
The fate of the 450 intercontinental ballistic missiles around Malmstrom, F.E. Warren Air Force Base near Cheyenne, Wyo., and Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota is not yet clear, but politicians and community leaders are ready to fight to keep them. Even if it means not cutting nuclear weapons.
“I would keep Malmstrom at full strength, regardless,” Great Falls Mayor Michael Winters said. “Each and every facet of our economy has something to do with Malmstrom.”
Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming business leaders over the past year have lobbied their congressional delegations, all the while avoiding arguments about whose base is more important, said Dale Steenbergen, president and CEO of the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce.
Instead, they are trying to persuade Congress to keep the ICBM silos at full strength, arguing that they are relatively cheap to maintain and are more secure compared to bombers and submarines that also carry nuclear weapons.
“You can sink a sub or shoot down a plane. That’s very different from attacking American soil, and that’s what you’d have to do (to get to the ICBM silos),” Steenbergen said.
The proposed treaty would require the U.S. and Russia to reduce their nuclear warheads over the next seven years by 30 percent, to 1,550 from a previous maximum of 2,200. But it doesn’t say where those cuts would come.
That’s expected to be detailed in the Defense Department’s Nuclear Posture Review, a comprehensive strategic review of the U.S. nuclear force. The review could be released as early as next week, Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Bob Mehal said.
Officials at the Air Force Global Strike Command, which oversees the nation’s nuclear equipped bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles, declined to comment.
Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev are expected to sign the treaty April 8 in Prague. It must then be ratified by two-thirds of the Senate, where opponents are directing their lobbying.
Sen. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, said he is inclined to support ratification and that the reduction of nuclear warheads is an admirable goal. ICBMs like those at Malmstrom are likely to be spared deep cuts because they are cost-effective and could eventually be converted to carry conventional warheads, he said.
“I see no change in American force structure in the foreseeable future,” Baucus said.
Malmstrom’s 341st Missile Wing employs about 4,000 military personnel and civilians to manage its 150 ICBMs. One maintenance duty is to extend the life of aging Minuteman III missiles — the last of which were produced in 1978 — and the Air Force has committed nearly $6.2 billion to such life-extension programs, according to Malmstrom’s Web site.
Quantifying the economic contribution of the three bases on their surrounding communities is difficult, but their importance to those cities and towns is clear.
The bases employ thousands, provide contract work for local businesses and base personnel spend money and pay taxes to the towns. There also is the fierce pride of each community being at the center of the nation’s defense.
Airmen who service and maintain the missiles pass daily through Judith Gap, a town of about 150 in the center of Montana. Residents are used to regular emergency drills that involve lines of Humvees, helicopters overhead and soldiers crouched on hillsides, rifles at the ready. Their advice to a visitor: Don’t stop at the silos to test the security.
The Judith Gap Mercantile, which boasts that its milkshakes are famous worldwide, takes pride in serving the military men and women who make up an estimated 70 percent of its business. A shrine is dedicated to them. Models of missiles, plaques of appreciation and shoulder patches from various military units cover a wall.
“They like to play a little game with us,” said Jancy Kowalski, who makes the milkshakes. “They’ll come in and say, ‘We need 15 milkshakes,’ and we’ve got like 10 minutes to close. They love to do that to us.”
Neither Kowalski nor the few customers in the store Tuesday ventured a guess what losing the military trade would do, but longtime resident Andrew Arneson said it would devastate a farming and ranching community already hurt by recession.
“You’ll find more people going out of business, selling their farms. They can’t take it. Everything’s going downhill,” he said.
One city that has suffered from nuclear arms reductions is Grand Forks, N.D., which lost its 150 ICBMs to Malmstrom in a 1995 Base Realignment and Closure round.
City Councilman Eliot Glassheim said the city hired lobbyists and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight the closure, but to no avail. More than 2,000 people left in the years that followed, and the city fell from second to third in the state in population and economy, Glassheim said.
Grand Forks Air Force Base has a new mission supporting unmanned aerial vehicles, but the city has diversified its economy so that it’s not as reliant upon the military.
Steenbergen said he believes the three states can maintain their nuclear manpower and number of operating silos — which can house more than one missile — but may see fewer missiles because of the cuts.
“I think anytime you’re going through this process there’s reason to be concerned, but we don’t want to cry wolf,” Steenbergen said. “I know some folks are getting nervous, but I think they’re leaping to some conclusions.”
___
Associated Press writer Matt Gouras in Helena, Mont., contributed to this report.
"Glenn Beck has done 28 different programs on it," [Nation Senior Editor Richard] Kim says. "There are hundreds of thousands of Google hits on it, and what it suggests is that, basically, the Left has cynically manipulated the system for the past forty-four years to crash the global economy, commit massive voter fraud, elect Barack Obama so we can nationalize the banks, take over the government and install a communist, totalitarian regime."
Kim, author of the recent Nation cover piece "The Mad Tea Party", argues that the strategy has become the meta-narrative for the Tea Party. According to them, in the 1966 article, the Cloward-Piven strategy seeks to flood the system with government bureaucracy, thus creating an economic collapse. They have relied on a web of associations to bring the conspiracy more legitimacy--however illegitimate their claims against the Left may be. Now, the Right is working hard to corral the craziness and harness the conspiracy to their cause.
There's one more paragraph. "Mad Tea Party" looks good too. We're always amused to discover what's been misrepresented, twisted or used as the vaguest possible basis for the paranoid fantasies these cretins delight in.
Today is Easter Sunday, April 4, the 94th day of 2010. There are 271 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was shot to death at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. (James Earl Ray later pleaded guilty to assassinating King, then spent the rest of his life claiming his innocence before dying in prison in 1998.) On this date: In 1818, Congress decided the flag of the United States would consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with a new star to be added for every new state of the Union. In 1841, President William Henry Harrison succumbed to pneumonia one month after his inaugural, becoming the first U.S. chief executive to die in office. In 1850, the city of Los Angeles was incorporated. In 1859, “Dixie” was performed publicly for the first time by Bryant’s Minstrels at Mechanics’ Hall in New York. (The song is popularly attributed to Daniel Decatur Emmett, although his authorship has been called into question.) In 1887, Susanna Medora Salter was elected as the first woman mayor in the United States, serving for one year as head of the municipal government of Argonia, Kan. In 1896, the Yukon gold rush began with the announcement of a strike in the Northwest Territory of Canada. In 1945, U.S. troops on Okinawa encountered the first significant resistance from Japanese forces at the Machinato Line. In 1949, 12 nations, including the United States, signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, D.C. In 1975, more than 130 people, most of them children, were killed when a U.S. Air Force transport plane evacuating Vietnamese orphans crash-landed shortly after take-off from Saigon. Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. In 1979, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the deposed prime minister of Pakistan, was hanged after he was convicted of conspiring to murder a political opponent. In 1983, the space shuttle Challenger roared into orbit on its maiden voyage. In 1991, U.S. Sen. John Heinz, R-Pa., and four others were killed when their chartered airplane collided with a helicopter near Philadelphia. In 1992, Sam Moore Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, died of cancer at 74. His retail store chain helped make him one of the world's richest men. In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin ended a two-day summit in Canada, with a larger than expected U.S. aid pledge of $1.62 billion. In 1999, NATO warplanes and missiles attacked an army headquarters, oil refineries and other targets in and around Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres 8-2 in baseball's first season opener held in Mexico. In 2000, in a volatile day on the U.S. stock market, the Nasdaq composite index and the Dow Jones industrial average each plunged more than 500 points before reversing course as buyers flooded back into the market. In 2001, former Philippine President Joseph Estrada, ousted in January during a popular uprising, was indicted for allegedly taking millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks. In 2002, as Israel stepped up its attacks on Palestinians on the West Bank, U.S. President George W. Bush demanded Israelis stop and pull back. In 2003, coalition forces encircled Baghdad and secured Saddam International Airport in overnight fighting. In 2004, three explosions killed five people and hurt at least 100 others at a residential housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, an anti-American cleric, rioted in four Iraqi cities, killing dozens of Iraqis, eight U.S. troops and a Salvadoran soldier. In 2005, tens of thousands of pilgrims paid their final respects to Pope John Paul II after his body was carried on a crimson platform to St. Peter’s Basilica. The Supreme Court ruled creditors could not seize the Individual Retirement Accounts of bankrupt people. The Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal captured two Pulitzer Prizes apiece; Marilynne Robinson received the fiction award for her novel “Gilead,” while John Patrick Shanley received the drama Pulitzer for “Doubt.” Kyrgyzstan President Askar Akayev, who’d fled the country from an uprising, signed a resignation agreement. Coaches Jim Boeheim and Jim Calhoun were elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2006, an Iraqi tribunal announced that former leader Saddam Hussein will face additional genocide charges for gassing Kurds in the 1980s. Also in 2006, prosecutors said there was no sign of foul play in the death of Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic who suffered a fatal heart attack March 11 while on trial at The Hague for war crimes. In 2007, radio talk show host Don Imus was fired for making what was termed a sexually and racially offensive remark about the predominantly black Rutgers University women's basketball team. In 2008, police raided a West Texas polygamist ranch owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and removed 400 minors after reports of sexual abuse of children. Lisa Montgomery was sentenced to death in Kansas City, Mo., for killing Bobbie Jo Stinnett, a mother-to-be, and cutting the baby from her womb. Pirates seized the French luxury yacht Le Ponant and its 30 crew members off the coast of Somalia. (The crew was released a week later; six alleged pirates ended up being captured.) Also in 2008, Chinese paramilitary police killed eight people after opening fire on several hundred protesting Tibetan monks and villagers at a monastery in the Sichuan province. In 2009, a gunman killed three Pittsburgh police officers responding to a domestic disturbance call; suspect Richard Poplawski is awaiting trial. Police in Washington state found the body of James Harrison, who’d apparently shot to death five of his children, ages 7 to 16, at their mobile home in Graham. NATO leaders appointed Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the alliance’s new secretary-general during a two-day, 60th-anniversary summit in Strasbourg, France. North Korea launched a long-range test missile despite warnings from the United States, the United Nations and others. North officials said they sought to determine how to put a satellite into space. Also in 2009, rescuers searched for bodies of drowning victims after a fishing boat jammed with a reported 257 illegal immigrants sank 19 miles off the Libyan coast. Today’s Birthdays: Actress Elizabeth Wilson is 89. Author-poet Maya Angelou is 82. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) is 78. Recording executive Clive Davis is 78. Bandleader Hugh Masekela is 71. Author Kitty Kelley is 68. Actor Craig T. Nelson is 66. Actor Walter Charles is 65. Actress Caroline McWilliams is 65. Actress Christine Lahti is 60. Country singer Steve Gatlin (The Gatlin Brothers) is 59. Writer-producer David E. Kelley is 54. Actor Phil Morris is 51. Actress Lorraine Toussaint is 50. Actor Hugo Weaving is 50. Rock musician Craig Adams (The Cult) is 48. Actor David Cross is 46. Actor Robert Downey Jr. is 45. Actress Nancy McKeon is 44. Actor Barry Pepper is 40. Country singer Clay Davidson is 39. Rock singer Josh Todd (Buckcherry) is 39. Singer Jill Scott is 38. Rock musician Magnus Sveningsson (The Cardigans) is 38. Magician David Blaine is 37. Singer Kelly Price is 37. Rhythm-and-blues singer Andre Dalyrimple (Soul For Real) is 36. Actor James Roday is 34. Actress Natasha Lyonne is 31. Actress Amanda Righetti is 27. Actress Jamie Lynn Spears is 19. Easter Babies Who Have Not (As Yet) Been Resurrected: Social reformer Dorothea Dix (1802); inventor Linus Yale, developer of the cylinder lock (1821); dance school founder Arthur Murray (1895); baseball Hall of Famer Tris Speaker (1888); author/playwright Robert E. Sherwood (1896); broadcast news commentator John Cameron Swayze (1906); blues musician Muddy Waters, born McKinley Morganfield (1915); actor Anthony Perkins (1932); & baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti (1938). 4 April in Entertainment History In 1960, "Ben Hur" won the best picture and best director Academy Awards. The film's star, Charlton Heston, was named best actor. Elvis Presley recorded “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” in Nashville for RCA Victor. In 1963, The Hollies auditioned for EMI Records at Abbey Road studios. In 1964, The Beatles held the top five positions on Billboard's Hot 100. "Can't Buy Me Love" was number one, followed by "Twist and Shout," "She Loves You," "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "Please Please Me." In 1977, The Clash's first album, "The Clash," was released in Britain. It wasn't released in the US until 1979, because some of the songs' content was judged to be too violent for American ears. [Doesn't that kind of crap just make you want to beat the living shit out of someone? — Ed.] In 1983, actress Gloria Swanson died in New York. She was 84. In 1996, Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia's widow, Deborah, scattered part of Garcia's ashes in the Ganges River in India. He had died the previous August. [Stupid, awful hippies! — Ed.] In 2000, Diana Ross announced a Supremes "reunion" tour, even though the other two Supremes, Scherrie Payne and Lynda Laurence, had never performed with Ross. The tour was later canceled due to poor ticket sales. [The free market works!! — Ed.] In 2002, guitarist Aaron Kamin of The Calling suffered a severe electric shock during a sound check in Bangkok, Thailand. The band had to call off the rest of their international tour. In 2004, musician Beck married actress-screenwriter Marissa Ribisi. Thought for Today: “The only sure thing about luck is that it will change.” — Bret Harte, American author and journalist (1836-1902).
CAREFUL: Loud, thumping, irritating, martial choral music almost immediately, followed by not for work (Probably. Depending.) spoken content.Tip o' the chapeau to Green Eagle.
The data collected by John Jay College of Criminal Justice show that between 1950 and 2002, 81 percent of the victims were male and 75 percent of them were post-pubescent. In other words, three out of every four victims have been abused by homosexuals. By the way, puberty, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, begins at age 10 for boys.
No problem can be remedied without an accurate diagnosis. And any accurate diagnosis that does not finger the role that homosexuals have played in molesting minors is intellectually dishonest. The cover-up must end. And so must attempts to muzzle my voice. Everything I am saying is what most people already know, but are afraid to say it. It's time for some straight talk.
Did we miss the Internet outrage about this? Here's some, though Bill's only giving 12 or 13 as the age of "post-pubescence." Funny, but isn't doctrine in Catholic World along the lines of "Wait 'til you're married, & then only for reproduction?" Maybe that's just for heterosexing lay people. If you're "celibate," there may be double-secret rules for you.
Ironic that without sin I suppose there would be no need for religion, Catholicism, or any other church. But without religion, Catholicism, or churches as a whole, there would still be sin. Of that much I am devoutly convinced. Many of the current arguments over the Catholic church re-affirm that, perhaps even more so than do they accomplish any thing else.
Then, an ugly attack on "elitist media hack" Peggy Noonan.
The ugliest attacks are coming from the Left. And I've no reason to believe there's any principle to them, given a willingness to distort facts. I also thing [sic] some in the Jewish community are over-playing this. And Peggy Noonan disappoints, as she seems to do more and more over the years.
Evidently Noonan felt compelled to defend the press, suggesting any potential bias is irrelevant. That's nonsense, especially given the rampant bias employed everyday [sic] when the press reports on politics.
Ultimately, that paints her as neither Catholic, nor conservative, but simply an elitist media hack invested in protecting her position, more so than anything else. But then, I suppose that's an accurate depiction of what she's become. And it seems to be taking forever for people to figure out and admit that her time has come and gone. I doubt the same thing can be said of the Catholic church. But clearly they've found yet another issue to address with some type of reform. Churches do do that from time to time, for better, or worse.
Conveniently unmentioned: The nature of "the scandal," or "issue" that it as the root of the "current arguments."
[C]onversations with those immersed in a right-wing ideology tend to be rather frustrating, if not futile, experiences. In order for political discourse to have any meaning or value, there have to be certain agreed upon facts that serve as a foundation for the dialogue. But as the McClatchy piece notes, that foundation is no longer stable -- conservatives frequently choose to believe versions of events that aren't real, because the make-believe version makes them feel better.
[...]
For all the talk about getting reasonable people with different ideologies into a room to find common ground on a host of complex issues, it's worth remembering that for many political actors in 2010, there isn't even agreement on the basics. When dealing with a large group of influential conservatives who believe FDR created the Great Depression, Theodore Roosevelt was a socialist, and Joe McCarthy was a hero, what's there to talk about?
There you have it. Can't live w/ them, & can't even point out what idiots they are. What more do we need before we round them up & ship them to education camps? (Not reëducation camps: That would imply these remarkable simulacra of humanity had received education in the first place.)
Read original story in The Nation | Friday, April 2, 2010
We give no moral authority whatsoever to the Whore of Babylon. Half the damn mackerel-snappers themselves don't. So who the hell does? (Oh crap, now do we have to read it if we want to know who the authoritarian sheep are? Do we care enough? Hell, we like scathing. What are we complaining about? Some would say, "What aren't you complaining about, Bouff?")
Boy Scout Leader Blames Parents for Sex Abuse at Hands of Scoutmaster
Timur Dykes molested young boys as an assistant Scoutmaster. This is a fact. He admitted it. Now, Dykes is in the middle of a $29 million sex abuse case filed against the Boy Scouts of America that is heating up. Eugene Grant, the president of the Boy Scouts council for the Portland metro area, told parents of abused children that they "should not have allowed boys to stay overnight with a single man at his apartment," the Associated Press reported. During cross-examination, Grant called the parents' decisions "negligent" and "criminal." At the time of the abuse—the mid-1980s—the Boy Scouts didn't have an official policy on sleepovers. "I just find it almost incomprehensible to think their children were going to be safe in that type of environment," Grant, an attorney, said, according to the Associated Press. Earlier in the trial, one attorney for the prosecution called Dykes a "pied piper" who filled his apartment with things that would lure young boys in "such as exotic pets, an aquarium and games." The trial, which began in mid-March, is expected to last about a month.
I was going to send you all to another “NO ONE HERE IS RACIST” tea party apologia at Reason magazine [...] but it just gets so tiresome I figured why bother.
[...]
Again, this may be an artifact of my political movement, but I do not remember libertarians being such complete shitheads under Bush.
That being hrs. ago (& how the hrs. pass when crawling through these tubes) we'll throw our two cts. in & note what none of the usual gang of idiots typing there seemed to.
The Reason element looks at the T.People, sees tax-haters, & the familiar ding of the register goes off in the libertarian mind. New financial blood for their magazine & website. (Both refutations of their free market theories.) Add to potential profit the possibility of the political/media energy of those who've taken to the streets w/ their unprecedented show of force, anger & delusion, & you betcha they'll be sticking up for the angry, middle-aged likely voter. No matter how much of an asshole or shithead s/he is.
And it is generally agreed, at Balloon Juice & throughout the civilized world (as well as California) that glibertarians are complete shitheads & assholes.
An array of fantasy projects - from a tank weighing 1,000 tons that no road could support to a long-distance rocket that could have pounded London or New York into brick dust - were debated on the ABC TV show Nazi Secret Weapons.
on the ABC-TV we have in these United Snakes, we have to wonder if this was one of those April Fool deals. One must doubt that they would have called this thing "The Rat."
Today is Friday, April 2, the 92nd day of 2010. There are 273 days left in the year. The UPI Almanac.Today's Highlight in History: On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany, saying, "The world must be made safe for democracy." (Congress declared war four days later.) Also in 1917, Jeannette Rankin, a representative from Montana, took her seat as the first woman elected to Congress. [She voted no to that war, was the only representative to vote against WWII, & remains the only woman to be elected to Congress from Big Sky Country. Twice, in 1916 & 1940. Dirty commie. — Ed.] On this date: In 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in present-day Florida. In 1792, Congress passed the Coinage Act, which authorized establishment of the U.S. Mint. In 1805, author Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark. In 1860, the first Italian Parliament met at Turin. In 1863, rioting erupted in the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va., sparked by an angry crowd's demand for bread at a bakery. In 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va., because of advancing Union forces. In 1872, Samuel F.B. Morse, developer of the electric telegraph, died at age 80. In 1877, the first White House Easter Egg Roll was conducted. In 1932, aviator Charles A. Lindbergh and John F. Condon went to a cemetery in The Bronx, N.Y., where Condon turned over $50,000 to a man in exchange for Lindbergh's kidnapped son. (The child, who was not returned, was found dead the following month.) In 1974, French President Georges Pompidou died in Paris. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed into law a windfall profits tax on the oil industry. (The tax was repealed in 1988.) In 1982, several thousand troops from Argentina seized the disputed Falkland Islands, located in the south Atlantic, from Britain. (Britain seized the islands back the following June.) Audio Fun: British Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington announces the invasion. In 1986, four American passengers were killed when a bomb exploded aboard a TWA jetliner en route from Rome to Athens, Greece. In 1987, the U.S. Senate overrode a Reagan veto by one vote to enact a highway bill that allowed states to raise speed limits to 65 mph in certain areas. In 1991, Iraq crushed monthlong insurgencies by northern Kurds and southern Shiite Muslims. In 1992, mob boss John Gotti was convicted in New York of murder and racketeering. In 1995, an explosion in the city of Gaza killed eight people, including a leader of the military wing of Hamas. In 1999, the Labor Department reported that the nation's unemployment rate fell to a 29-year low of 4.2 percent in March 1999. In 2000, more than 600 people set out on a five-day, 120-mile protest march to Columbia, S.C. to urge state lawmakers to move the Confederate flag from the Statehouse dome. Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi suffered a debilitating stroke (he died more than a month later). Connecticut won its second women's NCAA national championship with a 71-52 victory over Tennessee. In 2002, Israel seized control of Bethlehem; Palestinian gunmen forced their way into the Church of the Nativity, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, beginning a 39-day standoff. In 2004, a judge in New York declared a mistrial in the grand-larceny case against two former Tyco executives after a juror apparently received an intimidating letter and phone call for supposedly siding with the defense. (Former CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski and CFO Mark H. Swartz were convicted in a retrial of looting Tyco of more than $600 million in corporate bonuses and loans; each was sentenced to 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison.) Flags of seven new NATO members from former communist Europe rose at alliance headquarters in Brussels for the first time, marking the biggest expansion in NATO's 55-year history. In 2005, Pope John Paul II, who left a deeply conservative stamp on the church that he'd led for 26 years, died in his Vatican apartment at the age of 84.
Terri Schiavo's body was cremated as disagreements continued between her husband and her parents, who were unable to have their own independent expert observe her autopsy. An Australian helicopter on a relief mission in Indonesia crashed on earthquake-devastated Nias Island, killing nine people on board. In 2006, U.S. journalist Jill Carroll returned to Boston after being held in Iraq for 82 days by kidnappers. Also in 2006, at least 50 people were killed in Iraq in violence that included a mortar attack, military firefights and roadside bombings. In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act. And, in 2007 sports, the University of Florida repeated as NCAA Division I basketball champion, becoming the first school to win both the national collegiate basketball and football titles the same academic year. In 2008, President George W. Bush suffered a painful diplomatic setback when NATO allies rebuffed his passionate pleas to put former Soviet republics Ukraine and Georgia on the path toward membership. Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, who'd helped broker peace in Northern Ireland but couldn't survive a scandal over his collection of cash from businessmen, announced he would resign. The opposition leader in the Zimbabwe presidential election, Morgan Tsvangirai, declared himself the winner over long-time leader Robert Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, with a reported 50.3 percent of the vote. Mugabe refused to concede, official election results were postponed and widespread violence began. In 2009, leaders of the world's rich and major developing countries met at an emergency G-20 economic summit in London; afterward, President Barack Obama hailed agreements they had reached as a "turning point in our pursuit of global economic recovery," but cautioned, "there are no guarantees." The House and Senate passed companion budget plans, giving President Barack Obama and his allies on Capitol Hill a key victory. A 19-count federal racketeering indictment was returned against former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who denied doing anything illegal. Penn State beat Baylor 69-63 to win the NIT title. Today's Birthdays: Actress Rita Gam is 82. Actress Sharon Acker is 75. Singer Leon Russell is 68. Jazz musician Larry Coryell is 67. Actress Linda Hunt is 65. Singer Emmylou Harris is 63.
Social critic and author Camille Paglia ia 63. [Photograph of Miss Paglia courtesy of Ann Althouse. — Ed.]
Actress Pamela Reed is 61. Rock musician Dave Robinson (The Cars) is 57. Country singer Buddy Jewell is 49. Actor Christopher Meloni is 49. Singer Keren Woodward (Bananarama) is 49. Country singer Billy Dean is 48. Actor Clark Gregg is 48. Actress Jana Marie Hupp is 46. Rock musician Greg Camp is 43. Rock musician Tony Fredianelli (Third Eye Blind) is 41. Actress Roselyn Sanchez is 37. Country singer Jill King is 35. Actor Adam Rodriguez is 35. Not Celebrating: Charlemagne, founder of the Holy Roman Empire (742); Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova (1725); French novelist Emile Zola (1840); surrealist artist Max Ernst (1891); actors Buddy Ebsen (1908) Alec Guinness (1914) & Jack Webb (1920);
Australian auto racer Jack Brabham (1926); singer/songwriter Marvin Gaye (1939). 2 April In Entertainment In 1956, the soap operas "As the World Turns" and "The Edge of Night" premiered on CBS. In 1968, the science-fiction film "2001: A Space Odyssey" had its world premiere in Washington, D.C. In 1971, Ringo Starr's first solo single, "It Don't Come Easy," was released. It became a Top Five hit. In 1974, "The Sting" won the best picture Academy Award. "The Way We Were" from the movie of the same name won the best original song and score awards. In 1987, jazz drummer Buddy Rich died of a heart attack. In 1992, country singer Wynonna Judd began her first solo tour in Midland, Texas. In 1997, singer Joni Mitchell was reunited with Kilauren Gibb, the daughter she gave up for adoption 32 years earlier. In 1998, Rob Pilatus of Milli Vanilli died after consuming alcohol and pills in a hotel room in Frankfurt, Germany. He was 32. In 2003, dozens of fans walked out of a Pearl Jam show in Denver after singer Eddie Vedder impaled a mask of President George W. Bush on a microphone stand. Thought for Today: "The future starts today, not tomorrow." — Pope John Paul II (1920-2005).
