Former Bush political adviser Karl Rove seemed a bit flustered Tuesday night after his speech to Johns Hopkins University was interrupted by a group of about 15 protesters connected to “Occupy Baltimore,” who got under his skin enough to get him cursing.
A reporter for The Johns Hopkins News-Letter said Rove even challenged one of the protesters to a fight.
WASHINGTON—Pentagon officials expressed outrage when an independent audit revealed Tuesday that defense contractor KBR Inc. had charged them up to five times more than market price for the service of torturing Iraqi citizens. "At a time when our government is facing budget cuts across the board, it is reprehensible that someone would charge $150,000 to grab an innocent civilian off the street, fly him to a prison in an undisclosed location, and deprive him of sleep while forcing him to maintain an excruciatingly painful stress position for 40 hours," said Douglas B. Wilson, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, adding that the service should have cost "$40,000, tops." "Sure, they got this particular individual to talk, but is that any reason to tack on $250 dollars per nipple-clamp used to electrocute him?" The Defense Department later confirmed it looked forward to continuing its work with KBR on projects throughout the region.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and make an early prediction that Jon Huntsman Jr. is going to be the Republican nominee for president in 2012. By all accounts, the odds are I will be proven wrong. But I'm not so sure. I think the former Utah governor and Ambassador to China truly stands an excellent chance of winning.
(yada-yada - G)
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In the end, what it boils down to is this: will early primary and caucus voters ultimately dump the wild girls and bring a nice girl home to mama? Huntsman's smart, witty and squeaky-clean, and with his impeccable bi-partisan credentials, diplomatic and foreign policy expertise, and moderate positions he just may be the prom queen voters want to send up against President Obama next November. On paper, Huntsman certainly has the best chance of beating him.
... The intellectual corruption of Scalia, and the pure cussed fk-you-I'm-still-here arrogance of Clarence Thomas, continue to be marvels to behold.
So naturally I was caught off guard when I came upon a Foxnews.com Veterans' Day story highlighting a divide between military members. The story -- headlined, "Generation Gap Felt at Veterans Day Cook-Out in Chicago" -- reported that the VFW "lost about 200,000 people in just the last year. Younger vets aren't joining groups as commonly as they did generations ago." Attempting to explain this, reporter Ruth Ravve forwards the notion that younger veterans are somehow lacking in "patriotism":
The 1963 constitution guaranteed civil and individual rights, and endorsed civilian control of the military. These and other changes, such as land reform, struck conservative landholders and military officers as radical and threatening, particularly when juxtaposed against three decades of somnolent authoritarianism under the Trujillo Regime. The hierarchy of the Catholic Church also resented the secular nature of the new constitution, in particular its provision for legalized divorce. The hierarchy, along with the military leadership and the economic elite, also feared communist influence in the republic, and they warned of the potential for "another Cuba". The result of this concern and opposition was an U.S. supported military coup d'état on September 25, 1963.
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The pro-Bosch rebels, known as "Constitutionalists" for their focus on restoring the constitutionally elected president, took to the streets,...
Scalia and Thomas dine with healthcare law challengers as court takes case
During our coverage of the eviction of the Occupy Wall Street protesters early this morning, a NPR reporter, a New York Times reporter, and a city councilmember were arrested. Airspace in Lower Manhattan was closed to CBS and NBC news choppers by the NYPD, a New York Post reporter was allegedly put in a "choke hold" by the police, a NBC reporter's press pass was confiscated and a large group of reporters and protesters were hit with pepper spray. According to the eviction notice, the park was merely "cleaned and restored for its intended use." If this is the case, why were so few people permitted to view it?
Columnist: ‘Registering The Poor To Vote Is Un-American’ Piece ‘Indelicately Worded’
It's people like this guy who routinely collect the most benefit from the government they elect! His so-called "cheese line" is penny ante compared to tax breaks and corporate welfare enjoyed by the lobbyist-class.
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Funny thing how Catholicism and the Dixie version of Christianity gets themselves all in a tizzy about gays marrying. But all of that stuff that their Savior preached about caring for the poor and the sick and the lame doesn't seem to matter to them ...
Mayor Bloomberg is saying that people can return after the park has been cleaned and restored. Many are complaining that the police provided no noticed and discarded personal belongings during the process. This will be a story to follow today to see if the NYPD and city of New York can keep their word ...
A New York judge on Tuesday issued a temporary restraining order allowing protesters to return to Zuccotti Park only hours after police forcibly removed them, arresting dozens.
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Let's put this in perspective. For the last year, Republicans have been walking around with big hard-ons, sticking them in everyone's face, saying, "Yeah, aren't you so impressed with how big my cock is?" For a good chunk of the year, the media and the public and, indeed, many Democrats have been responding, "Yes, yes, that's a really huge erection you've got there, Cantor." And some of them have added, "Can we get some work done now?" To which the tumescent Republicans have said, "No. We can't get any work done at all until you talk more about how big my cock is with this raging boner." Which would lead to more talk about, oh, gee, just how enormous a hard-on it is. So instead of actually accomplishing anything. all everyone does is sit around and talk about Republican dicks.
Yesterday, voters across the country smacked those erections and said, "Get those fucking things out of our faces."
The lesson here is not that the nation is turning against Republicans, per se, but it is saying, "Whoa, we're not that crazy and cruel." The real lesson is that the Tea Party is dead. The only hard-on it's got left is the one that rigor mortis causes. It's sinking into the ocean like so many boxes of fine Earl Grey. The only thing Republicans need to figure out is if they are tied so tightly to the corpse that it drags them down into the drink, too.
"I'm feeling a lot better, with a long road in front of me," Olsen wrote. "After my freedom of speech was quite literally taken from me, my speech is coming back but I've got a lot of work to do with rehab."
The post is accompanied by a photo of Olsen, smiling with a neck brace on and a visible scar on his forehead.
"Thank you for all of your support, it has meant the world to me," he continued. "You'll be hearing more from me in the near future and soon enough we'll see you in our streets!"
1. "He has a right to speak," said the cop to the banker
When Daily Kos community member marvinborg was distributing flyers outside of local Chase and Bank of America branches encouraging customers to move their money to credit unions, one of the managers called the police on him. When they arrived, the police promptly told the manager off:
"He has the right to speak and the right to hand out flyers. Unless he blocks you or causes a disturbance, he has the right to be here - please don't call the police again if he is not bothering you. If you don't like free speech you should move to another country."
6. "Management is nervous"
NBA: Owners to Move Operations Overseas
Foreign workers will be paid twenty-five cents an hour to play basketball.
GOP Wants to Crack Down On Voter Fraud
Suggests poll tax.
Wealth Gap Between Older, Younger Americans Widest on Record
Parents advised to change locks on doors, hide car keys.
Like Governor Perry, Americans commonly forget the 3rd thing on a list. Here are the most commonly forgotten 3rd things:
1. Orange juice
2. Tomato juice
3. Vodka
1. Car keys
2. Grocery list
3. Wallet
1. Put out guest towels
2. Spray air freshener
3. Flush Toilet
1. Fold beach umbrella
2. Gather towels, beach toys
3. Count your children
1. Review talking points
2. Comb hair
3. Take your meds
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But of course, powerful people lying about matters of life and death is not material about which Our Mr. Brooks "reports", but instead is the contaminated water in which he swims.
From his full-throated support of the Operation Iraqi Clusterfuck and contempt for the filthy hippies who opposed it...to his full-throated support of the Scooter Libby and contempt for the filthy Lefties who opposed him...to his full-throated support of the Oligarchs and his contempt for the filthy Occupiers who opposed them..to his full-throated support of Paul Wolfowitz and his contempt for the filthy anti-Semites who questioned him...Mr. Brooks' career has had one, utterly consistent and very profitable theme: Afflicting the afflicted and comforting the comfortable.
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Missoula, Montana, Votes Against Corporate Personhood: "Corporations Are Not Human Beings"
Remember Atlas Shrugged, the blink-and-you-miss-it adaptation of Ayn Rand’s unwieldy novel of ultimate evil? The film has hit DVD (which means you can attempt to watch it in your own home, where you have easy access to booze and razors), but the producers are recalling the remaining copies on store shelves (probably all of them) because of an error on the packaging.
The error is in this sentence. See if you can figure out what it is:
“AYN RAND’s timeless novel of courage and self-sacrifice comes to life…”
Yes, the word ‘self-sacrifice.’ Seriously. [...]
The new covers will read:
“AYN RAND’s timeless novel of rational self-interest comes to life…”
The company has a web page where you can register to get a new version of the cover. Oy.
Referring to the grumpy, prejudiced dinosaur he played in his last role, he grinned: “In this p.c. era, I’d be the ‘Gran Torino’ president.”
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Texas Gov. Rick Perry got a big round of applause from the crowd when he said, “The foreign aid budget in my administration for every country is going to start at zero dollars, zero dollars — and then we’ll have a conversation in this country about whether or not a penny of our taxpayer dollars needs to go into those countries.”
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Well, the Republican idiots did it this time. They're saying "foreign aid should start at zero". Have any of them talked this over with AIPAC? You know, being Israel gets the largest chunk of American foreign aid? And these are the people who say President Obama is dissing Israel? I wonder how loud they'd scream if Obama cut off Israel's foreign aid? Idiots.