The Nightowl Newswrap

Oh, Honey! We are anything but bored! You and the rest of the cast of the Wasilla Hillbillies took care of that! Sarah Palin mulled a cask of whine to go with the cheese that's been aging since McCain picked her ignorant ass and lashed out at 'bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers who lie' in her latest histrionic screed against the media. How rude of her to turn on Red State and the rest of her fan-boys like that.

Not that she couldn't handle the job, or at least grow into it...after all, she's whip-smart Pentagon Spokesman Geoff Morrell gave Michelle Obama a hell of a promotion today in a press briefing. He committed a slip of the tongue and announced her as a nominee for Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. Reaction from the assembled press corps prompted an immediate correction.

Obama sets the rules President-elect Obama told his former colleagues that if Congress passes a resolution blocking release of the second half of the financial bailout funds he will veto it. Until today, an Obama veto of a so-called disapproval resolution had been discussed as a theoretical possibility. But the promise made to the Democratic caucus represents a firm stand on behalf of an extension of the $350 billion in Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) funds. The original TARP legislation required the president to specifically request the second half of the funds. Congress then has fifteen days to disapprove of the request or else the money is dispersed. If Obama vetoes the disapproval, Congress would need a two-thirds majority to override that veto to prevent the money from being spent. "I was glad that he said that," said Lieberman, an independent who still caucuses with Democrats, of the veto threat. "He made an appeal," he said, arguing that Obama "really needs this extension of the TARP money."

They will kick and fuss for a day and a half, but it's a common error Obama's nominee to be Treasury Secretary had an error on his taxes when he worked for the IMF and had to pay self-employment taxes. The taxes have been paid, and there are no remaining issues to be resolved. Here I feel I must insert a personal anecdote. I did the taxes for my husband for the five years he owned and operated a residential contracting company after he left the Air Force. I made the same errors he did three years running, and the CPA who lived down the block and checked my work didn't catch them either. I had to make the same correction, both to an employees taxes that I underpaid and our own self employment taxes. The person at the IRS office in Mission, KS (who was pleasant, affable and helpful, by the way) told me it happens all the time. Soooo...

Howler monkeys who lose their minds over Doug Lute keeping his gig need to keep it away from me He is exactly the guy we want. He is staying in his position, but the mission changes as does who he will be answering to. Without telling tales out of school, just let me say that Doug Lute (and his wife) are two of the finest people who ever trod the sod of this planet, and he is a man we want in that position, and I am not saying any more, but I won't be entertaining any trashing of him or the decision to keep him, either. You have no fucking idea the debt this country - this world - owes that man.

Say it with me now: "charm offensive" So Barack Obama went to dinner at George Will's house tonight for dinner with Will, David Brooks and Bill Kristol. Good. I have a hunch that if any swaying of opinion was done, it was him swaying them. Or at least making it more difficult for the conductors of the wingnut chorus to find their tempo.

Again with the much ado about nothing When 49 of the 50 Attorneys General got together and looked at the actual incidents of internet sexual predation of minors, they discovered that the problem has been waaaayyyy overblown. Bullying among peers, both online and off, is a much more serious problem. "This shows that social networks are not these horribly bad neighborhoods on the Internet," said John Cardillo, chief executive of Sentinel Tech Holding, which maintains a sex offender database and was part of the task force. "Social networks are very much like real-world communities that are comprised mostly of good people who are there for the right reasons."

Good! It strokes Dick Cheney's fur the wrong way that he New York Times won Pulitzers for exposing the unconstitutional violations of civil liberties that his administration routinely engaged in.

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Ummm...sociopaths are never fazed by anything so no one should be too terribly surprised that the Blagojevich is 'unfazed' by his impeachment this morning in the Illinois House of Representatives on a vote of 114 for and 1 against. He insists that he is the wronged party. "The causes of the impeachment are because I've done things to fight for families," he insists. The Illinois House of Representatives, you see, is sporting wood for him because he undertook efforts to improve health care and cut property taxes. At least that is his story, and he is sticking to it.

This country needs a First Nana and we are getting one. Michelle Obama's mother, Marion Robinson, will be taking up residence in the White House when her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughters move in on January 20. Good for her, and good for them! During the presidential campaign, she was the rock in that family. She has always been involved in the raising of her granddaughters, and became their primary caregiver while their parents were on the campaign trail.

I hope this works out so one of the last vestiges of my childhood lasts a bit longer The lease on the Rainbow Room, the legendary restaurant atop Rockefeller Center, has been canceled after the Ciprianis, the family of restaurateurs that operates the Rainbow Room fell behind in the rent. Tishman Speyer Properties, the landlord at Rockefeller Center, told the Cipriani company today that the lease was being terminated because the company had failed to pay millions of dollars in rent since September. Under the terms of the lease, the Ciprianis have three days to get out. As this saga involves the Ciprianis, you know that it isn't going to end there...they have already won a rent-gouging dispute in arbitration, and they are pledging a public tussle that will definitely be worth the price of admission. The style section of the Times just got a lot more interesting.

This looks interesting. Might as well go ahead and bookmark it. The New York Times has a new commentary blog, Room for Debate, that will feature commentary by experts who will discuss news and issues. They kicked it off with a forum on unemployment and workplace anxiety, and it looks promising.

Hearst puts the Post-Intelligencer on the auction block Seattle's oldest newspaper was put up for sale today, saying that if a buyer isn't found within the next 60 days, the paper will either close down completely or become an internet-only entity. Hearst's statement was blunt: "In no case will Hearst continue to publish the P-I in printed form following the conclusion of this process." Hearst has owned the P-I since 1921, and the paper has had operating losses every quarter since 2000. It lost a staggering $14 million last year alone.

I suspect a whooping cough outbreak would change attitudes here So many parents in Ashland Oregon refuse to vaccinate their children that researchers are willing to pay them $50 to spew their hippie-dippy bullshit for a couple of hours. I could save the researchers a lot of time and money...these people are fucking crazy. But I have an idea for salvaging something from the exercise in futility...sell the list of participants to a psychological researcher who is studying conspiracy theories and group psychosis.

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The most authoritarian, power-mad fascists in America are running Homeowners Associations A Loudon County, Virginia man has invoked the ire of the Beige Gestapo in his neighborhood and accrued $900 in fines for painting a kolam on his driveway.

Ram Balasubramanian is a devout Hindu, and painted the (stunningly beautiful) kolam on his driveway to welcome the Hindu goddess of prosperity and honored guests to a Thread Ceremony for his son. (A Thread Ceremony is a coming-of-age ritual akin to a bar mitzvah or confirmation.) The kolam upset his homeowners association and they fined him ten dollars a day to the maximum $900. The symbol has since been covered but the HOA is still not placated because the outline is still visible through the black paint that was used to cover it over. (BG makes an observation: For what it’s worth, in my neighborhood, the person who created that symbol would not invoke anyone’s wrath. Instead, he would be beset by requests to create one in front of everyone else’s house, too.)

How can they continue to call Tasers ‘non-lethal‘ when they have killed iver 400 people? A new study commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has found that Tasers, marketed to police departments throughout the country as a non-lethal way of stopping and capturing suspects without causing permanent harm, have killed more than 400 people. Canadian police departments have begun banning the use of Tasers after the units were found to deliver a higher charge than the manufacturer says is possible. Yet in spite of the corpses piling up, the manufacturer refuses to acknowledge the weapons can kill.

Democracy in Russia slips ever further away On a 355-85 vote, the lower house of the Russian parliament, the Duma, voted to give control of verdicts to judges in some cases where defendants are charged with terrorism, hostage taking, insurrection, sabotage and civil disturbances. The measure now goes to the upper chamber where passage is assured. In a deliciously ironic twist, it was Communist lawmakers who rebuked the measure, saying it was an unnecessary step away from democracy under Vladimir Putin.

And just in time, too! Russian police detained dozens of anti-government protesters today who defiantly assembled for an unauthorized rally in Moscow. Police and riot troops in body armor and overwhelming numbers prevented the planned protest in central Moscow from materializing. It was the latest sign that public expression of dissent against the authorities will no more be tolerated under President Dmitri Medvedev than they were under his puppetmaster, Vladimir Putin, who is now prime minister.

55 dead in bus accident in Egypt A crowded bus plunged off a main road south of Cairo and came to rest in a canal. At least 55 people, many of them students, perished by drowning before rescuers could reach them. It was the deadliest road accident in Egypt since 1987, when 63 people died in a bus-train collision.

Greece has been rocked this past week: Athens was calm Sunday after eight days of the worst riots Greece has seen in decades, sparked by the police killing of a teenager. Traffic returned to normal in the center of town and open-topped double-decker buses carried tourists around the city's main sights. The cafes in the Thissio area under the Acropolis were busy, and couples took their children for Sunday walks. But Greek youths who have protested daily since the boy's death have vowed to remain on the streets until their concerns are addressed. Protesters are angry not just at police but at a government already on the defensive over a series of financial scandals, and over economic issues. "We are not in this for the short term," said Petros Constantinou, an organizer with the Socialist Workers Party. "We want the protests to continue after Christmas and New Year, until this government of murderers goes."

Yet another reason why not having a functioning State Department matters: Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and southern Sudan launched a joint military offensive on Sunday against Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in a remote northeast corner of Congo, their armies said. The three governments agreed in principle in June to start joint operations against the LRA guerrillas -- notorious for mutilating civilians and kidnapping children -- if their leader Joseph Kony did not sign a final peace deal to end two decades of conflict. He repeatedly has failed to sign prepared deals. "The armed forces of Uganda (UPDF), DRC (FARDC) and Southern Sudan (SPLA) in a joint intelligence-led military operation, this morning the 14th of December 2008 launched an attack on LRA terrorists of Joseph Kony in the Garamba forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo," the three nations' military intelligence chiefs said in a joint statement. "The three armed forces successfully attacked the main body and destroyed the main camp of Kony codenamed camp Swahili, setting it on fire," they added, saying further details would be released as the offensive progressed. Officials from southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo were not immediately available for comment.

Another reason to laugh and wonder what all the fuss is about: Russian officials donated generators and computers to Nicaragua on Saturday during a visit by three Russian warships to the Central American nation that opposition leaders condemned as illegal. Russia donated about $200,000 worth of equipment to hospitals, police and the army during the stop at the southern port of Bluefields, Gen. Julio Aviles, the Nicaraguan army's chief of staff, told state radio. The visit by the anti-submarine destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and two support vessels was the first since the 1990 fall of Daniel Ortega's Marxist Sandinista government, which allied itself with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Let's hope the GOP clings to their failed ideology for all time: California is bleeding Republican red as the state's minority party tries to squeeze a spending cap and pro-business policies from fiscal chaos. Badly outnumbered and often ignored by the Democratic-dominated Legislature, the GOP is not getting sand kicked in its face these days. California is hurtling toward a financial abyss, projecting a $40 billion shortfall by July 2010, and no deal can be struck without at least three Republican votes in both the Assembly and Senate. GOP officials clutch that trump card with relish as the state braces to pull the plug on $5 billion in public works projects and warns it won't be able to pay all its bills by February or March.

Time to write off the Cuban-American vote: Throughout his campaign, President-elect Barack Obama said that he'd loosen some restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba and rebuild the already slight ties to the communist nation cut by the Bush administration. With an Obama government soon to become reality, many in the U.S. capital are pushing for much more. The question of what U.S. Cuban policy will look like under Obama has fed one of the moment's biggest foreign-policy debates, and a loose coalition of legislators, free-trade advocates and leftist groups thinks that it has an ally in the president-elect.

Another view on torture: Few post-9/11 issues have produced more anxiety and revulsion than the Central Intelligence Agency's use of "aggressive interrogation" and the extrajudicial rendition of terrorist suspects to countries that practice torture. President-elect Barack Obama has promised to ban waterboarding and other pain-inflicting soliciting techniques, as well as rendition. He has also promised to close the Guantánamo Bay prison. More broadly, liberal Democrats in Congress intend to deploy a more moral counterterrorism, where the ends — stopping the slaughter of civilians by Islamic holy warriors — no longer justifies reprehensible means. Winning the hearts and minds of foreigners by remaining true to our nobler virtues is now seen as the way to defeat our enemies while preserving our essential goodness. Sounds uplifting. Don't bet on it happening.

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Goode Riddance The Virginia Secretary of State has certified the election in the congressional race for the VA 05 - and it is Democrat Tom Perriello by 745 votes out of more than 316,000 cast. The margin of 0.24 percentage points entitles Goode to a recount at taxpayer expense, and he is exercising that option. The odds are with Perriello and he is moving ahead with transition plans.

The invisible man leaves the room Alan Colmes is leaving ‘Hannity & Colmes.’

Heh! Freedom’s Watch, the hyper-hawkish and uber-conservative 527 is closing up shop. It was formed before the 2006 midterms to make third-party, fear mongering commercials that were supposed to scare the bejebus out of Americans by convincing them that terrorists were comin’ to behead us all so they would vote for republicans was a spectacular failure and republicans experienced devastating electoral losses two elections in a row as a beleaguered populace looked at them, rolled their eyes, said “whatever” and got back to worrying about the war in Iraq in 2006 and the economy in 2008, and voted for Democrats.

Dick Morris used to patronize whores, now he is one Dick Morris has spent a lot of airtime and column inches soliciting donations for the National Republican Trust PAC lately - but in no instance as he been forthright and told the readers/viewers that he benefits financially from the PAC.

Begging his pardon? Bush has pardoned 14 convicted criminals and commuted the prison sentences of two others. The offenses ranged from drug charges to tax evasion (like Mark Rich, who the wingnuts have spent eight years verklempt about.)



That cheer you heard was from Facebook users everywhere A United States court has slapped a Canadian spammer with an $837 million penalty for sending unwanted messages to users of the popular social networking site.

Kewllll!!! An underwater camera on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico has captured 25 seconds of images of a giant finned squid…with elbowed tentacles.

Lukashenko picks his pony The President of Belarus is tossing his lot in with Moscow. Lukashenko, who has ruled the former Soviet republic for 14 years plans to run for another term in 2011, and that Belarus would retain "very strong relations" with Russia. "You fly NATO planes near our country's borders. Why? We begin strengthening our air defences. This is pushing a mini arms race," Lukashenko said in an interview. "We are very concerned about what's happening on our borders. Why expand and strengthen NATO? Let's rather think about how we can dismantle this military machine... It's absolutely unnecessary," he added. Hey - sounds good to me - you think you can get Putin to make Medvedev say that, too?

Russians see Obama as flexible on missile defense Speaking at the Asia-Pacific forum in Peru, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev expressed hope that incoming president Obama would be willing to come back to the table and negotiate about the missile defense system that the Bush administration wants to put on Russia’s borders in the Czech Republic and Poland. What really impressed me was the way Putin was making a show of drinking a glass of water while Medvedev spoke.

Nobel laureate joins Obama’s transition team Mario Molina, the winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, is joining the Obama transition team to lead the new administrations science and ecology efforts. Molina was a science and ecology adviser to Mexican President Felipe Calderon and teaches at the University of California-San Diego and the Scripps Oceanographic Institute. Since 2005, he has headed the Mario Molina Center for Strategic Studies on Energy and the Environment located in Mexico City, where he currently makes his home.

Holy shit, sixty really could happen Saxby Chambliss is polling under 50% going into the December 4 runoff election against Democrat Jim Martin. His ultra-sleazy negative ad blitz isn’t putting him over the top - and might actually be working against him. Chambliss is running fear mongering ads accusing Martin of being soft on crimes against children. Does he really think that the people of Georgia don’t remember that Martin’s daughter was abducted when she was eight? Not an experience that makes a man sympathetic to criminals who prey on children.

Biden‘s Senate replacement named Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner has named Ted Kaufman, long-time aide to Senator Joe Biden, to serve out the next two years of Senator Biden’s term, until a special election can be held in 2010. Speculation is that Kaufman will serve as a placeholder and Senator Biden’s son Beau, the Delaware Attorney General, who is currently deployed to Iraq with his National Guard Unit, will run for the seat in 2010.

Dr. Susan Rice likely to be Obama’s Ambassador to the U.N. What a wonderful choice. After the insult of John Bolton, sending Rice to the UN indicates that Obama is serious about rehabilitating our jingoistic image. Apparently it will no longer be standard operating procedure for our etic to run over your emic.

Finally someone gets it right The wingers have been screaming against the Employee Fair Choice Act, claiming it would lead to “coercion” and “disenfranchisement.” This is, of course, bullshit, and any time a winger claims to be sticking up for a workers right to unionize, you know they are full of shit. Just the opposite is true, of course. it would enfranchise employees by limiting employers' ability to coerce them into opposing organization efforts. Anyone who has ever worked in a job that a union tried to organize damned well knows it, too. I was a shift supervisor (one pay-grade below a management title) in 2003-2004 when the SEIU tried to unionize the hospital lab. I know who was doing the coercing, and it wasn’t the union - it was HCA.

So? The CEO of GM says he “got the message” and won’t be flying the corporate jet any more. The question is…will he sell it on eBay?

Richard Clarke for CIA director? As good a figurehead as any, I guess. But intel is a military operation now, so it could be a potted plant if it could do the Sunday shows without stepping on it’s own dick or getting a visible woody at the thought of using torture against brown people.

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Look Out - delays in approving disability claims for injured veterans are about to get a whole lot longer Feds arrest 14 people in Louisville for falsifying veteran disability claims - the ringleaders are Service Officers for the Disabled American Veterans. In Kentucky, the DAV has - had - a reputation as the best claim-filers of all the veterans service organizations. Bet it's a few decades before a DAV-filed claim gets approved now.

The grave of Copernicus has been found: Researchers said Thursday they have identified the remains of Nicolaus Copernicus by comparing DNA from a skeleton and hair retrieved from one of the 16th-century astronomer's books. The findings could put an end to centuries of speculation about the exact resting spot of Copernicus, a priest and astronomer whose theories identified the Sun, not the Earth, as the center of the universe. Polish archaeologist Jerzy Gassowski told a news conference that forensic facial reconstruction of the skull that his team found in 2005 buried in a Roman Catholic Cathedral in Frombork, Poland, bears striking resemblance to existing portraits of Copernicus.

I bet they just laughed: China has stepped up computer espionage against the US government and American businesses, according to an influential Washington congressional panel. In its annual report to Congress, the panel warned that China was gaining increasing access to sensitive information from US computer networks. It said China was aggressively pursuing cyber-warfare capabilities to gain an advantage over the US in any conflict.

The republican brand continues to lose share In the latest Gallup poll, taken since the historic presidential election two weeks ago, only 34% of Americans have a favorable view of the GOP, while fully 61% hold an unfavorable view of the party. That is the highest disapproval the party has ever ranked since Gallup established the measure. When the question turns to “where do we go from here?” the picture doesn’t look any better. 59% want the republicans to become more conservative, 28% think it should remain about the same, and only 12% want to see it become less conservative. Enjoy the wilderness, repubs. Neither party can win without appealing to Independents who occupy the broad middle, and the attitudes expressed in this poll are not going to bring in many of those voters.

The Wall Street Journal tops last weeks effort and publishes what is well and truly the stupidest column ever written Did you know that the current economic woes have nothing to do with Credit Default Swaps, deflationary spirals, unregulated markets or greedy bastards stuffing other peoples money in their off-shore accounts. No. None of that is a culprit in this mess. We are rogered roundly because of the “War on Christmas” - because a nation whose people can't say "Merry Christmas" is a nation capable of ruining its own economy. We know that you have been struggling with this proper assignation of blame, and we are glad we could fulfill our civic duty and clear that up for you.

With Minnesota recount under way, Franken gains With only 215 votes separating Franken and the incumbent republican Coleman when the recount got underway, the 43 votes Franken gained today are significant.



Petland chain tied to puppy mills After an exhaustive eight-month investigation that looked into 21 Petland stores and dozens of breeders and brokers, the Humane Society of the United States has accused the chain of selling dogs from puppy mills that breed animals in inhumane and cruel conditions. The Petland stores are supplied by large-scale puppy mills, although customers who inquire are routinely lied to and told that dogs sold at Petland come only from “good breeders.”

Rahm does outreach Incoming Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel went calling on the Hill today, reaching out to republican lawmakers and telling them he “welcomes their ideas.” He even gave out his personal cell phone number and promised that he would respond within 24 hours if anyone uses it.

First military execution since 1961 scheduled Pvt. Ronald Gray, who has been housed on death row at the disciplinary barracks at Ft. Leavenworth will be executed by lethal injection on December 10. Gray was convicted of raping and killing a female Army private and a civilian near his post at Fort Bragg. He was also convicted of the rape and attempted murder of another fellow soldier in her barracks at the post. He was convicted by both military and civilian courts and has been housed on Death Row of the US Military Disciplinary barracks since 1988. I remember vividly when these crimes were committed - my brother was at Bragg at the time - so I will volunteer to come out of retirement for a few hours on December 10. If they need a professional with clearance to drop in the line for the lethal injection, they know where to find me. Literally.

US asks Gulf states for $300 Billion The Kuwait daily Al-Seyassah reported today that the United States has gone hat-in-hand to four oil-rich Gulf states asking for financial assistance in the to help it curb the global financial meltdown.

Contractors lose their immunity in Iraq: Private contractors working for the U.S. government in Iraq will lose their immunity from Iraqi law under a new pact with Baghdad, senior American officials said on Thursday. The contractors, who provide everything from personal security to meals for U.S. forces and officials in Iraq, were told they should expect to lose their immunity starting Jan. 1, the State and Defense department officials said. The agreement, which has yet to be approved by Iraq's parliament, allows U.S. forces to stay in Iraq three more years. A vote is expected next week on the pact, which replaces a United Nations mandate that expires at the end of this year.

The Aussies are staying out of the fray: Australia will not send a fisheries patrol ship this year to shadow Japanese whalers and protests near Antarctica, the government said on Friday, appealing for activists to keep high seas protests peaceful. As Japan's whaling fleet heads to the Southern Ocean to hunt close to 1,000 minke and fin whales, Canberra said it was pursing a diplomatic solution to Tokyo's yearly research hunt after Japanese complaints last season about the Australian patrol ship. Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the ship had already gathered photographic and video evidence of the hunt to back a possible international legal challenge to the cull, while this season's hunt would be mostly in New Zealand patrol areas. That's the former lead singer of Midnight Oil, of course, and he is exactly the kind of leader we need to find in our own country to run for the Senate in 2010 and beyond to challenge the feckless bastards who betrayed us--someone who has stood up and done something and has gone from the world of the arts to the world of actually getting shit done. The problem is, the US equivalent of Peter Garret is probably that asshole from Skid Row, and I'm not sure how that's gonna work out.

Unemployment hits China: China has said its employment outlook is "grim", amid worries that economic problems could lead to social unrest. Unemployment is expected to rise next year as businesses close because of a lack of orders. Chinese leaders are already warning that an economic downturn could lead to further protests by those facing financial hardships.

Now that the election is over, Michele Bachmann can resume acting crazy Now she is saying that she didn’t say what we all heard her say. She told Hannity and Colmes that it’s just an “urban legend.” Something tells me that she is confused about what an urban legend actually is, so I will clear it up - an urban legend is an apocryphal tale, such as the person who didn’t really wake up in a hotel bathtub full of ice, relieved of a kidney. A wingnut crazy person caught on tape calling for a revival of McCarthyism…isn’t.

Speaking of stupid things said by crazy people… Dana Perino doesn’t know what the hell the Endangered Species Act is, or what it does. She told the White House press corps today that the ESA doesn’t actually protect any species, even ours. Whatever, Dana. Tell it to the Snail Darter, the Grizzly Bear, the Grey Wolf, the California Condor and the Bald Eagle.

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Fifteen days on, McCain gets Missouri's eleven EV's It was really close - only 3632 votes separated them, and keep in mind that Bush won Missouri in 2000 by 80,000 votes.

Waxman wins the first round in his bid to unseat John Dingle as chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce committee when he won the support of the Democratic Steering Committee.

Cole bows out of NRCC Oklahoma Republican Tom Cole has stepped aside and will not seek another term at the helm of the republican congressional committee, clearing the way for Texas Rep. Pete Sessions to step into the position.

Huckabee takes a shot at Palin “What John McCain did for her was to give her the capacity to sort of leapfrog over the process and get right to the center stage,” he told a group of reporters this morning at breakfast. “By naming her (his running mate) he was able to put her in a position where she did have to go through the bruising process of the primaries. Many of us had been out there for 15 months … she walks into the hot spotlight and she’s a blank slate nobody knows so Republicans are fired up.” Watching those two go after one another in a very un-christianlike way in 2012 is gonna be a hoot. Buy your popcorn futures now.

Here is some more vindication for Howard Dean and the 50 State Strategy Barack Obama won Salt Lake County, Utah. It is the first time in decades that a Democratic presidential candidate has won the states most populous county. For perspective, consider that Bush took the county by a 20-point margin.

If Teddy had his druthers Hillary Clinton would stay put in the Senate and be the driving force behind health care reform, and he has already asked her to lead a working group to explore reforming insurance coverage as a means to achieve comprehensive healthcare reform.



Say hello to the basement: Wall Street hit levels not seen since 2003, with the Dow Jones industrial average falling below the 8,000 mark, as the fate of Detroit's Big Three automakers and the economy disheartened investors. Stocks finished at their lows of the session after the automakers pleaded for relief during a second day of hearings in Washington. The heads of General Motors Ford and Chrysler are asking for a massive infusion of cash to prevent millions of layoffs and stave off bankruptcy.


Where the hell does the word "ecoterrorism" come from? The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest of four alleged environmental extremists accused of sabotage attacks in five Western states - including a 1998 firebombing at a Colorado ski resort that caused $12 million in damage. The four are believed to be members of a radical environmental group known as "The Family" that is blamed for a series of arson attacks, vandalism and other crimes in Oregon, Washington, California, Wyoming and Colorado from 1996-2001. They've been quiet for over seven years and haven't been caught--are they a bigger priority than actual fucking "terrorists?" Apparently so. Now, yes--they should be caught. But come on. Priorities, people. Priorities.


Can we bring them back? Scientists are talking for the first time about the old idea of resurrecting extinct species as if this staple of science fiction is a realistic possibility, saying that a living mammoth could perhaps be regenerated for as little as $10 million. The same technology could be applied to any other extinct species from which one can obtain hair, horn, hooves, fur or feathers, and which went extinct within the last 60,000 years, the effective age limit for DNA. Though the stuffed animals in natural history museums are not likely to burst into life again, these old collections are full of items that may contain ancient DNA which can be decoded by the new generation of DNA sequencing machines. If the genome of an extinct species can be reconstructed, biologists can work out the exact DNA differences with the genome of its nearest living relative. There are talks on how to modify the DNA in an elephant's egg so that after each round of changes it would progressively resemble the DNA in a mammoth egg. The final-stage egg could then be brought to term in an elephant mother, and mammoths might once again roam the Siberian steppes.

Hedge Funds take a beating: September was a world-class bad month in Hedgistan, and it looks as if October has been no kinder. With continued losses at many funds and investors increasingly leery of risk, the thinning of this herd will continue...Hedge funds capped their worst two months in at least eight years in October, as global declines in stocks and commodity prices curbed returns and investor withdrawals cut assets, according to Eurekahedge Pte. The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index, tracking more than 2,000 funds that invest globally, dropped 4.5 percent last month after falling 5 percent in September, the Singapore-based data provider said. October's drop, based on 71 percent of constituent funds reporting as of today, pushed the index down 12 percent on the year, the worst since Eurekahedge began publishing data in 2000.

Unsold goods are piling up in Long Beach, California: It's always a bit dangerous to generalize from one data point, even if if it is a big data point, like Long Beach, one of America's most active commercial ports. Nevertheless, the New York Times uses it to present a vivid image of the economic, and in particular, trade slowdown. One focus is how imported cars are being warehoused there, indicating that even more competitive automakers have more pain to come. I dimly recall that when Daimler bought Chrysler (admittedly billed as a merger of equals that turned out otherwise) one of the reasons Chrysler decided to give up its independence was that the auto industry, globally, had production capacity vastly in excess of any reasonable demand scenario. And as has been visible for quite some time in the US, automakers have responded by using cheap financing as a means to get consumers to turn their cars in much faster than they ever did historically (when I was a kid, you bought a car and expected to keep it for, say, 6-10 years, depending on how heavily you drove it).

Proof of dark matter? Maybe. A balloon-borne instrument soaring high over Antarctica has found potential evidence of a large clump of mysterious dark matter relatively close to our solar system, scientists said Wednesday. It detected an unexpected amount of very high energy cosmic-ray electrons coming from an unknown source within about 3,000 light-years of the solar system.

Arlen Specter has a keen grasp of the obvious Specter, who has been pretty vocal about criticizing the Bush administration, and who is also the ranking republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee said today that he is ready to move forward on confirming Barack Obama's choice for Attorney General, saying he hopes that the selection will "reprofessionalize" the Justice Department. "This business of wiretapping is not in order in accordance with Constitutional rights and where you have the immunity granted to the telephone companies," Specter told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Wednesday. "That is still a festering wound and some speculation as to whether that will be asserted by a new administration."

Too funny! Bill O'Reilly's website has a recommended holiday reading list.

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Schadenfreude alert! After pouring half a million bucks into the effort to codify second-class-citizen status to the California's gay and lesbian citizens, Colorado-based Focus on the Family announced today that they are slashing jobs in both the ministry and the media operation.

Racist bigots are finding that they just can't catch a break these days Glenn Beck was accosted at a Wendy's on Saturday night by a truck driver who called the racist bigot a racist bigot to his racist, bigoted face.

Okay, this just strikes me as odd Mike Huckabee is back, kicking off his 2012 primary bid, promoting a book and settling scores. He is especially pissed off at the big name celebrity preachers who fell under the sway of lust for power. The confusing part is his antipathy for John Hagee. Rather than being relieved that he dodged the bullet and wasn't faced with denouncing Hagee like McCain was, you would think he would be relieved, but he seems like he is still pissed off that he didn't get Hagee's blessing. Weird.

Dark days at the National Review In less than a year, they have lost two Buckley's and a whole bunch of political clout. I mean, let's put Mr. Buckley's brainchild in perspective...not only do they employ Johah Lucianne and K-Lo, but Rich "she winked at me!" Lowry is their standard bearer. It doesn't get any sadder than that.

Vendors want lead rules relaxed Sellers and manufacturers of children's products are asking the government to back off on tough new regulations that were passed following several product recalls of products found to be contaminated with dangerous levels of lead.

Hunger on the rise in the United States The number of American children went hungry at some point last year, and at least one in eight people struggled to provide enough to eat. The numbers for 2007 not only represent a 50% increase over the numbers for 2006, they also represent a snapshot in time taken before the current economic downturn.



Huge cuts at Citibank: Citigroup Inc. is cutting approximately 53,000 more jobs in the coming quarters as the banking giant struggles to steady itself after suffering massive losses from deteriorating debt. The presentation of the company's plans, posted on the company's Web site, are being discussed by CEO Vikram Pandit at the company's town hall meeting in New York Monday with employees. The company said total headcount is being reduced by 20 percent from its peak of 375,000 at the end of 2007; the company had already announced in October that it was eliminating about 22,000 jobs from those levels.

Greenpeace sounds warning about whale hunt: The mother ship in Japan's whaling fleet left Monday for the country's annual hunt in the Antarctic, the environmental group Greenpeace said, as anti-whaling activists vowed to disrupt the expedition once again after high-seas clashes forced an early halt last year. Government officials declined to confirm the departure of the Nisshin Maru, hoping to avoid protests. The ship left the port of Innoshima near Hiroshima on Monday afternoon under tight security, Greenpeace said. The rest of the fleet is expected to leave from another port this month.

Must be the weather: What's the healthiest city in America? It appears to be Burlington, Vt. Vermont's largest city is tops among U.S. metropolitan areas by having the largest proportion of people - 92 percent - who say they are in good or great health. It's also among the best in exercise and among the lowest in obesity, diabetes and other measures of ill health, according to a recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Just don't try to bring this to Burlington: Digital video recording company TiVo Inc. said Monday it is teaming up with Domino's Pizza Inc. to allow subscribers to order pizza for delivery or pick-up from their TV sets. "This is the first time in history that the 'on-demand' generation will be able to fully experience couch commerce by ordering pizza directly through their television set," said Rob Weisberg, vice president of precision and print marketing at Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Domino's. Weisberg said TV watchers will see an ad for Domino's and will be able to click "I want it" from their TV remote. In about 30 minutes, the pizza will be at the door, he said.

Yahoo! CEO gone: Yahoo Inc. co-founder Jerry Yang is stepping down as chief executive, ending a rocky reign marked by his refusal to sell the Internet company to Microsoft Corp. for $47.5 billion — more than triple Yahoo's current market value. The change in command announced Monday won't be completed until Yahoo finds his replacement. The Sunnyvale-based company said it is interviewing candidates inside and outside Yahoo in a search led by its chairman, Roy Bostock, and the executive recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles.

Again with this crap? A year after problems emerged in the construction of the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, another State Department post being built largely by the same Kuwaiti-based company is engulfed by delays, recriminations, and an Inspector General's probe, according to U.S. officials. The embassy building, in the central African nation of Gabon, was supposed to be finished by April 2009. Instead, according to U.S. officials and to documents obtained by McClatchy, the $55 million complex is only 7 percent complete. Workers are still excavating the construction site in the Gabonese capital of Libreville, and early 2010 is the new target date for completion. State Department officials confirmed that the department's inspector general is actively examining the project, but declined to provide details

First we thought it was really cool that Barack Obama collects Spiderman comics and that made us feel happy because we love, love, love, love, love Stan Lee. I mean, c'mon! He created Spidey and he was in a Kevin Smith movie! Now he has been awarded a National Medal of the Arts.

Bark Beetles kill millions of acres if trees in the west From New Mexico to British Columbia, pine forests are succumbing to a huge infestation of mountain pine beetles that are turning green forests rust red. Montana alone has lost a million acres of trees to the parasite.

Newest veterans hit hardest by economic downturn Jesus Christ. We watched the God Boys take over as SAC drew down, and thought we had a hard time. Who knew that what we experienced would be the good old days for members of the U.S. military? That's a sad fucking commentary, by the way.

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No evidence of wrongdoing in Minnesota Senate race Tim Pawlenty told Chris Wallace today that there is no evidence of fraudulent election practices in the contentious senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken, and that there was no truth to the rumor spread by Coleman's lawyer that ballots had been found in the trunk of an election official's car. "As of this moment we know of no actual evidence of wrongdoing or fraud in the process," Pawlenty said.

Waxman challenges Dingell for Chairmanship of House Energy and Commerce Committee Dingell, the longest serving representative in the House and the number one apologist for the auto industry and a thorn in the side of environmentalists, is being challenged by Henry Waxman, who has chaired the House Oversight and Governmental Affairs Committee since January 2007 when Democrats took over as the majority party. Waxman has a strong environmental record, and his performance at Oversight indicates he would be tough on the auto, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries that are regulated by the Energy and Commerce committee. Waxman is a skilled, savvy operator, and he knows how to count votes. If he didn't think he could pull this off, he wouldn't be mounting the challenge. We'll be watching this as it develops.

Lieberman's fate will be decided Tuesday The Senate Democratic caucus will decide by secret ballot whether to strip Traitor Joe of his Homeland Security gavel on Tuesday. Does it piss anyone else off that the weaselly Senate Democrats aren't going to have to cast this vote on the record?

Gulf states look abroad for arable land With increasing populations, dwindling water supplies and escalating food prices, gulf states are quietly changing the way they feed their people. Where they used to almost exclusively buy their food on the open market, now they are looking abroad for arable land that they can lease or buy outright to produce the food to feed their populations.

More study needed to learn about how climate change displaces humans: As highlighted in the latest issue of Forced Migration Review (FMR) - which focuses on climate change and displacement - humanitarian and development workers are under pressure to respond to the consequences of global warming without really knowing what they're up against. The U.N. deputy high commissioner for refugees, Craig L Johnstone, describes the status quo in stark terms - arguing that we've hit an "analytical stone wall" and are in "desperate need of a better understanding of the size and the characteristics of this issue". Oli Brown, a programme manager with the International Institute for Sustainable Development, notes in an article entitled "The numbers game" that even the generally accepted estimate of 200 million climate migrants by 2050 from Oxford University professor Norman Myers was calculated - by the academic's own admission - using some "heroic extrapolations". "Intuitively we know that climate change migration is likely to be a serious issue in future. We just don't know how serious," Brown writes. "And it is hard to persuade policymakers of its importance without concrete (or at least more sophisticated) figures."



More dismissals from the Colombian Army: Colombia fired 10 army officers and three soldiers on Sunday in a widening scandal over the killing of innocent civilians that threatens to further complicate a U.S. trade deal bogged down over human rights. The soldiers and officers are accused of shooting seven young men in the northern province of Cordoba and passing the bodies off as leftist guerrillas killed in combat. Here's to the notion that President-elect Obama will put a stop to trade with Colombia's right-wing government.

That ship has sailed, Macca: Paul McCartney says it's time an experimental Beatles track saw the light of day. McCartney says he wants to release "Carnival of Light," a 14-minute experimental track the Fab Four recorded in 1967 but never released. The band played the recording for an audience just once, at an electronic music festival in London. It reportedly includes distorted guitar, organ sounds, gargling and shouts of "Barcelona!" and "Are you all right?" from McCartney and John Lennon. Look, there are no "lost" Beatle songs or tracks--it's a gimmick. What's there is there and what's done is done. Let it go.

Airstrike in Gaza: An Israeli air strike has killed four Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip, officials have said. The Israeli military said the strike, east of Gaza City, had targeted gunmen preparing to fire rockets at Israel. It came as the Israeli cabinet met on Sunday to discuss the fragile five-month-old ceasefire and whether to lift a blockade on the territory.

Methane gas explosion in Romanian mine: Two gas explosions at a colliery in south Romania have killed 12 miners and at least eight others are being treated for serious burns, officials say. Four were killed when they went to the aid of those caught in the first blast at the mine in the town of Petrila. A union representative said conditions underground were very difficult as the mine is one of Romania's deepest. It is one of the country's worst accidents since seven miners were killed in a blast nearly two years ago.

Censorship everyone can agree upon: YouTube has removed a number of videos glorifying the Columbine High School killers, after a BBC investigation. Videos found on the site praised Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold - also known as "Reb" and "Vodka" - for carrying out the shooting, in which 13 people died. The killings near Denver, Colorado nine years ago, were romanticised in some of the videos which have now been removed.


Teacher shortages in Scotland force schools to recruit overseas: A local authority is recruiting teachers from abroad to tackle a problem with filling vacancies at its most rural schools. Aberdeenshire Council - which is advertising more than 90 posts - said recruitment was a challenge. Highland Council also revealed five of its 16 advertised posts had been vacant for more than three months. Meanwhile, probationers - thousands of whom seek jobs each year - are also being lured to work in England.

That soon? SETI, (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Senior Astronomer Seth Shostak and host of the weekly radio show "Are We Alone," predicted during a recent conference in San Francisco that "We'll find ET within two-dozen years", according to CNET News staffer Daniel Terdiman. The prediction is based on a few qualifiers. The first is the assumption made by researchers within SITI that the power, range and speed of the Allen Telescope Array with 42 radio camera dishes currently on line and a projected total of 350 dishes will evolve into new technologies capable of distances and speed unfathomable presently. Secondly, an obvious component is necessary funding for evolving technologies. The current Allen Telescope Array , (ATA) was made possible by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft making a $25-million donation to SETI. Mr Allen flipped the go- switch in 2007 for the initial 42 radio-camera dishes phase. Since that time ATA has produced amazing images, including atomic hydrogen disposition, heretofore stifled by a lack of exactitude. The completed project will include a total of 350 separate dishes and collectively may act as one virtual dish spanning 2700 miles across. Further funding for ATA is critically needed.

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The taxpayers are going to get soaked, no matter what: The government is expected to inject $14 billion into Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance company under federal control, after it reported today that it lost $25 billion from July through September. The losses were due to substantial charges the company took on the falling value of mortgage securities and growing number of people who fell behind or defaulted on their mortgages. The company more than doubled the amount of money it reserves to cover future losses. In addition, it wrote down the value of tax credits it was unlikely to use. The numbers are astounding. The company's losses, when combined with those since the housing downturn started, eviscerate nearly all the company's earnings over the past decade.

The fix is in: Nations are close to adopting a series of measures aimed at combating a global recession and laying the groundwork for a broad reconstruction of the international financial system, as world leaders arrive in Washington for a major economic summit this weekend. Among the most notable measures would be a new body to supervise the regulation of global financial institutions. The "college of supervisors" would bring together international regulators to coordinate oversight of the world's 30 largest financial institutions, according to officials familiar with the plans. The new body would be designed to add an extra level of scrutiny to the way banks are monitored and to catch excessive risk-taking of the sort that contributed to the current economic crisis.

Sarkozy must know something: French President Nicolas Sarkozy undercut the American rationale for a U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe on Friday by saying that the system would do nothing to improve European security. Sarkozy's comments were the strongest to date by an American ally against the missile-defense plans, which have infuriated Russia despite the Bush administration's insistence that they are aimed at protecting Europe from Iran. "Deployment of a missile defense system would bring nothing to security in Europe ... it would complicate things, and would make them move backward," Sarkozy said after a summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Disaster in Gaza: The UK-based aid agency Oxfam has warned of catastrophe for Gaza and nearby areas of Israel if a truce agreed last June is not maintained. Oxfam called on world leaders to do everything they could to break Israel's blockade of Gaza and urged Israel to resume supplies without delay.


Indian probe lands on the moon: India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft, Chandrayaan 1, has placed a probe on the surface of the Moon. The probe, painted with the Indian flag, touched down at 2034 (1504 GMT), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said. It will perform various experiments, including measuring the composition of the Moon's atmosphere. The mission is regarded as a major step for India as it seeks to keep pace with other space-faring nations in Asia. The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says the success of the mission has been hailed in India where many see it as another sign of the country's emergence as a global power.

Interesting... Three months before announcing his improbable candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president in May 2007, Obama and [Arizona Governor Janet] Napolitano held a long discussion on a wide range of policy issues during a break at the governors’ winter meeting in Washington. “From that point forward,” Napolitano spokeswoman Jeanine L’Ecuyer said, “she began thinking about him as a viable presidential candidate.” Over the next 21 months, the two developed a close relationship. Napolitano, 50, became an early supporter of Obama, endorsing him some weeks before Arizona’s Feb. 5 primary, one of those held on Super Tuesday. The endorsement reportedly upset Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), then the party front-runner. She went on to win the state’s primary, 50 percent to 42 percent. Napolitano continued to support and campaign for Obama and is said to have acquitted herself well on the hustings. Now, she has been named to the 11-member transition advisory committee assisting the president-elect in the selection of hundreds of high-level officials — the only elected official on the panel.

Wildfire devastates Montecito, California: Firefighters and a squadron of aircraft launched a desperate daylight attack Friday to push back a wind-whipped wildfire that destroyed at least 100 homes and a college dormitory, and forced thousands to flee the longtime celebrity hideaway of Montecito. At least 13 people were injured. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

The economic slowdown hits Dubai: The world financial crisis has hit Dubai's economy, slamming the brakes on its surging development and dimming its gold rush status. Development projects are being delayed, tourism is expected to decline and the government is even exploring how to begin collecting taxes, once almost unthinkable in this freest of free market enclaves. All this is troubling news for the fortune seekers who flocked here in recent years but a surprisingly welcome development in some respects for one group: Emirati natives, the 10 percent or so who trace their lineage to the Bedouins and traders who once had this baking sliver of sand to themselves.

The slowdown slows down NASCAR:NASCAR has suspended all testing at its sanctioned tracks next season in a cost-cutting measure that should help teams save several million dollars in their 2009 budgets. The moratorium, which includes the traditional "preseason'' Daytona 500 testing, is for NASCAR's top three divisions. Teams cannot test at any track where a Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series or Truck Series event is held. NASCAR told teams its decision Friday morning at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The decision is an about-face from just a few months ago, when NASCAR considered expanding the testing schedule to as many as 24 days at any track.

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President Elect Barack Obama will resign his Senate seat effective Sunday The following email landed in my inbox about 2:30 central: “It has been one of the highest honors and privileges of my life to have served the people of Illinois in the United States Senate. In a state that represents the crossroads of a nation, I have met so many men and women who’ve taken different journeys, but hold common hopes for their children’s future. It is these Illinois families and their stories that will stay with me as I leave the United States Senate and begin the hard task of fulfilling the simple hopes and common dreams of all Americans as our nation’s next President,” said President-elect Barack Obama.

Stevens' pollster calls it for Begich Uncle Ted's survival looks highly unlikely. David Dittman, an Alaska-based GOP pollster who worked for Stevens during the primary, believes Begich has it sewn up. "I don't think Stevens can come back," Dittman said, noting that he thinks the remaining trove of uncounted ballots will help Begich "increase his lead." But he also doesn't think Stevens will concede defeat until every last vote is counted. Dittman believes early and absentee ballots, which comprise the approximately 40,000 votes left to count, will likely reflect Begichs' overall advantage so far among those who took advantage of either process. Heavy early voting occurred in the period that directly followed Stevens' conviction on seven felony counts of making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms.

And that kinda makes this a moot point Stevens has spent the last few days angling to keep his seat while he appeals his conviction, in the face of angry and embarrassed republicans who are calling for him to be expelled from the Senate, screw the crooked sonofabitch and his appeal. Now that it looks like he's lost his seat...never mind.

Coleman abandons NRSC bid Senator Norm Coleman will not be the next chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a position he has long coveted, even if he survives the recount and hangs on to his seat. But wait! There's more! With Coleman out of the running, the position is likely to go to John Cornyn of Texas, is also the Republican chair of the Senate Committee on Ethics - and Coleman has an ethics violation breathing down his neck. Two lawsuits -- one in Texas the other in Delaware -- allege that the Senator and his wife took $75,000 in payments from a GOP benefactor that they failed to report on their personal financial disclosure form.

This is NOT how you make friends and influence people As my friend Steve put it - the GOP Governors NOT named Sarah Palin are right pissed about the way the presser unfolded this afternoon. They showed up under the pretext of party unity, and ended up standing there mute in silent support of Sarah. Another Republican governor eyeing a presidential run in 2012 told CNN the event was “odd” and “weird,” and said it “unfortunately sent a message that she was the de facto leader of the party." Good luck getting their support the next time she throws her tiara in the ring.

Not that there is a groundswell of demand for her on the national stage Only 45% of Americans would like to see her become a major national political figure for many years to come, while a slight majority - 52% - say they would not. These sentiments are sharply divided along partisan political lines, but everyone is a Democrat these days, so...



I've heard worse ideas than Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. I would prefer that she become the Senate Majority Leader, because she would run a tight ship and get stuff done, and republican obstruction would be a thing of the past. But she also has tremendous international credibility, especially on women's issues, so SoS would be a good fit, too.

Sci-Fi fans rejoice!!! Astronomers at the NRC Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics have published the first-ever direct images of planets outside of our solar system in the current issue of the journal Science. The pictures include a visible-light snapshot of a single-planet system and an infrared picture of a multiple-planet system. I dunno about you, but I've been waiting for this for years. I'm as giddy as a schoolgirl at the possibilities!

That's odd--we have a leader who is cut off from the day to day functions of our government as well: The CIA says Osama Bin Laden is isolated from the day-to-day operations of al-Qaeda, but that the organisation is still the greatest threat to the US. CIA director Michael Hayden said the Saudi militant was probably hiding in the tribal area of north-west Pakistan. The quickest way to find yourself joining the group of ex-DCIs out there before you're ready is to go around pronouncing things that everyone already knows.

Now that's poverty: A 200-year-old church building has disappeared from a village in central Russia, officials from the Russian Orthodox Church say. The building had stood near the village of Komarovo since 1809. It was intact in July but some time in early October thieves made off with it brick by brick, they said. Local prosecutors had been informed and an investigation was under way, a spokesman for the local Russian Orthodox Church said. The disappearance of the Church of the Resurrection, some 300 km (186 miles) north-east of Moscow, was not immediately noticed.

Chile tries to come to terms with its failures regarding the spread of HIV: Chile's public health service may have failed to tell 512 people they had tested positive for HIV, which can lead to Aids, the health minister has said. The government is now trying to locate the patients and inform them of their condition, said Alvaro Erazo. He disclosed the numbers to lawmakers amid an Aids scandal which forced his predecessor to resign last month. Maria Soledad Barria quit after it was found a hospital had not told dozens of patients they were HIV-positive.

Really? Songbirds learn to sing from a hymn sheet in their head, according to a new study. Swiss researchers have identified a region of the Zebra Finch brain which they believe has an internal recording of how the birds ought to be singing. A separate region seems to enable the birds to identify mistakes in their songs, they wrote in Nature journal. The research could also shed light on how humans learn to speak, according to scientists from Zurich University.

Human error to blame for crash near Fallujah: A cargo plane chartered by FedEx crashed Thursday west of Baghdad after reporting a malfunction, the U.S. military said. It ruled out hostile fire and said the crew was presumed dead. The Russian-made An-12 plane with up to seven crew members - none of them American - was flying from al-Asad air base to Baghdad International Airport when it lost radio contact and crashed around 11:35 a.m., the military said. The crash happened south of Fallujah, where insurgents once held sway. The military said mechanical failure or pilot error was the likely cause, but declined to elaborate. The military also secured the crash site.

Weird: Powerful signals from a secret U.S.-Australian navy communications base could have caused a Qantas Airbus jet to suddenly dive last month, injuring scores of passengers, Australia's air safety agency said on Friday. But the agency said it was more likely the accident was caused by a glitch in an air data inertial reference unit, which feeds flight information to the Qantas aircraft's main computer. The Airbus, with 303 passengers and 10 crew, was cruising at 37,000 feet (11,200m) from Singapore to Perth on October 7 when it suddenly gained altitude, then plummeted more than 1,000 feet in little over a minute. In a preliminary report into the incident, Australia's Transport Safety Bureau said investigators were looking at the possibility the aircraft's flight computers were affected by a strong burst of electromagnetic interference. "Possible external sources of electromagnetic interference are being explored and assessed, including from the Harold E. Holt very low frequency transmitter near Exmouth, Western Australia," bureau capability director Kerryn Macaulay said. However, Macaulay said it was more likely the mishap was caused by something else, including an electronic device or laptop computer, as the aircraft was 200kms (124 miles) away from the naval base when the nosedive occurred. She said the bureau hoped to establish whether the navy base was transmitting signals at the time of the accident. Many people living near Exmouth have blamed the top-secret naval base, which transmits signals to U.S. and Australian navy ships, including nuclear submarines, in the Pacific and Indian oceans.

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Well, they were right about John Edwards The National Enquirer is "reporting" that Cindy McCain is doing the nasty with dome dude - not Mr. Strait Talk - who looks like a "washed up 80's rock star." No, it ain't David Coverdale. Stop asking! They have a grainy photo, just like they did when they broke the Edwards story. So...

This is gonna make Bill O's head explode The American Humanist Society is placing ads on Washington DC city buses that proclaims "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake." The ads will appear next week and run through December. A spokesman for the AHS said that the purpose of running the ads through the holiday season is not to challenge believers, but to remind Agnostics and Atheists that there are others like them out there. And planting seeds of rational thought and critical thinking is a bonus, too.

The economic downturn comes knocking on Intel's door The largest manufacturer of computer chips lowered its fourth-quarter sales forecast by about $1 billion amid ``significantly weaker'' demand across its entire product line.

Another $100 billion in fake money disappears The global hedge fund industry contracted by 3.3% last month according to an estimate by Singapore-based hedge-fund research and publishing company Eurekahedge Pte. The biggest market losses since the Great Depression and investor withdrawals hurt the $1.7 trillion hedge funds industry, largely unregulated pools of capital. The index measuring global funds has lost 11 percent this year, set for the worst performance since 2000 when the data provider began tracking the performances.

Connecticut steps into the 21st Century Same-sex couples gained full equality in Connecticut today after a final court hearing cleared the way for gay marriage, ending a long legal battle in the Constitution State.

Why doesn't this pervert have the decency to just stay gone? A little over two years after losing his congressional career in a sex scandal involving underage male congressional pages, Mark Foley has broken radio silence. He says he isn't a pedophile because the young men he engaged in inappropriate electronic conversations with were almost eighteen.



Begich pulls ahead of Stevens in Alaska Senate Race The recount is still underway, but as of this writing, Begich is ahead by three votes.

We have been in worse company After Sarah-geddon whined about bloggers being mean to her and dismissed us as just sitting around in our parents basements in our pajamas - Rachel Maddow expressed her solidarity with us, saying she considers herself “a blogger on TV” - and did her show in her pajamas.

The Grand Dame of the White House press pool is back at work Helen Thomas returned to the press pool today after battling a stomach infection for several months. She has covered nine presidents and intends to be there to cover the President-Elect, but warns that he shouldn't expect much of a honeymoon from her, "maybe a month," she said.

Blast from the past: About that boon to gun sales - what the M$M is not reporting in their breathless coverage of guns flying off the shelves after the election - it is the result of carefully planned manipulation by the ad wizards at the NRA. They spent tens of millions of dollars whipping up a frenzy of fear among their reactionary minions, even though President-Elect Obama never mentioned gun control on the trail. (Click the link - the article goes to a Politico post from last June...)

Something else I voted for: As a transition team for the Obama administration begins work on a Justice Department overhaul, the key question is where to begin. Political considerations affected every crevice of the department during the Bush years, from the summer intern hiring program to the dispensing of legal advice about detainee interrogations, according to reports by the inspector general and testimony from bipartisan former DOJ officials at congressional hearings. Although retired federal judge Michael B. Mukasey, who took charge of the department last winter, has drawn praise for limiting contacts between White House officials and prosecutors, and for firmly rejecting the role of politics in law enforcement, restoring public confidence in the department's law enforcement actions will be central, lawmakers and former government officials say. A-fucking-men it is.

Assclowns abound: Madison County, Idaho was once dubbed "the reddest place in America" by Salon, but that didn't make it any less shocking when elementary school children started chanting "assassinate Obama on the school bus. Matthew Whoolery told KIKD News he found out about the chanting from his second and third graders, who had no idea what the word "assassinate" meant. "They just hadn't heard anything like this before," Whoolery stated. "I think the thing that struck us was just like, 'Where did they get the word and why would they put that word and that person together?'" I dunno--the parents? Duh.

It gets fishy when these banks start talking about what they will and won't do: US regulators urged banks Wednesday to "fulfill their fundamental role" in the economy by maintaining lending to creditworthy borrowers. A joint statement by the US Treasury, Federal Reserve and other bank regulators said the economic outlook could be worsened if banks retreat or tighten lending standards too much. "At this critical time, it is imperative that all banking organizations and their regulators work together to ensure that the needs of creditworthy borrowers are met," the statement said.

And this is news? North Korea may be hoping to squeeze concessions from the international community by refusing to let inspectors remove samples from a plutonium-producing nuclear plant, the South's foreign minister said on Thursday. North Korea said on Wednesday that the issue infringed on its sovereignty and was not part of a disarmament-for-aid deal reached with five countries, including the United States and China. "If we consider North Korea's clear negotiation pattern, its strategy has always been to create a crisis before resolving something, and trying to use that point to secure further concessions," Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan told a seminar.

Let's pray that Saxby Chambliss is utterly destroyed, and soon: With Sen. John McCain returning to the campaign trail on Thursday on stump for Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss in his runoff race in Georgia, Democrats are reminding voters and donors of a controversial ad aired by Chambliss in the heated final weeks of the 2002 campaign that shows pictures of Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, a triple-amputee from wounds suffered during his service in Vietnam, just after shots of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. The ad — which has a voice-over warning that, "As Americans face terrorists and extremist dictators, Max Cleland runs television ads saying he has the courage to lead," then lists votes where the Democrat opposed President Bush before concluding that "the record proves Max Cleland is just misleading" — helped propel Chambliss to an unexpected victory. "I'd never seen anything like that ad," McCain said at the time of the spot, which was widely condemned by Democrats. Putting pictures of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden next to the picture of a man who left three limbs on the battlefield is "worse than disgraceful," said McCain. "It's reprehensible."

The Spanish word is "pirámide" Thousands of Colombians rioted around the country on Wednesday, demanding their money back after being defrauded in a series of pyramid schemes and in some cases mocked by those who took their cash. In some of the nine cities where the protests erupted, police used batons and tear gas to subdue angry victims. In recent months, a number of phony loan companies have vanished after promising depositors interest rates as high as 150 percent. Regular savings accounts are unpopular in Colombia due to high banking fees.

A breakthrough?A bone marrow transplant using stem cells from a donor with natural genetic resistance to the AIDS virus has left an HIV patient free of infection for nearly two years, German researchers. The patient, an American living in Berlin, was infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS and also had leukemia. The best treatment for the leukemia was a bone marrow transplant, which takes the stem cells from a healthy donor's immune system to replace the patient's cancer-ridden cells.

Human rights under attack in Bahrain: Bahrain's government should withdraw a threat by the interior minister to prosecute human rights activists for having met with foreign government officials while abroad, Human Rights Watch said today. In a statement published by Bahrain's official news agency on November 5, 2008, the interior minister, Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, threatened Bahraini activists with prosecution for having meetings abroad "for the purpose of discussing internal affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain in violation of the law," citing article 134 of Bahrain's penal code. "Bahrain points to its membership on the UN Human Rights Council as proof that it's committed to human rights, then threatens to jail people who exercise them," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North African director at Human Rights Watch. "The kingdom should change laws that violate human rights and stop threatening people who exercise them."

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The Nightowl Newswrap

Heh. All the wingnut hand-wringing aside, it turns out that an overwhelming majority (62%) of Americans like the idea of Democrats having both chambers and the White House. While the Democratic party has a 62% favorable rating and a 31% unfavorable. The GOP, on the other hand, does not fare nearly so well, pegging a 54% unfavorable/38% favorable rating in the latest CNN poll.

Eight arrested in Klan initiation murder A woman who traveled from her home in Oklahoma to Louisiana to be initiated into the Ku Klux Klan was killed by the leader of the group initiating her. Her body was found after a tip was received by local police and the suspects who were still in the woods nearby were arrested without incident. The leader of the group has been charged with second-degree murder and the other seven were charged with lesser crimes related to the attempted cover up.

The SPLC draws a bead on the Klan in Kentucky The second largest Klan group in the nation is being sued by the Southern Poverty Law Center in civil court after the 2006 severe racially-motivated beating of a black teenager. The SPLC has successfully used the civil courts to confiscate the property and decimate other Klan/white supremacist groups. Jury selection starts tomorrow - here's wishing them luck.

What? You mean he didn't have other priorities today? Dick Cheney emerged from his undisclosed location today to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns today, the last Veterans Day we have to tolerate the draft-dodging prick acting like he gives a rat's ass about those who have, do and will serve this nation he tried to ruin and the Constitution he shredded.

This is NOT a person who should have any contact with children! A Pennsylvania teachers aide has been suspended after disparaging the President-Elect to students in violent and racist terms. "One of the teacher's aides ... said that Obama was going to be shot and killed," Mara Gilligan told KDKA News. "And that our flag is going to be the KFC [Kentucky Fried Chicken] flag and that the new national anthem will be 'Moving On Up' -- and that all my daughter's beliefs were wrong and her children's lives were going to be ruined because Obama was elected."

Thankfully, that teacher is what is known as a "29%-er" Fully 71% of the nation is optimistic about the next four years. By party, 88% of Democrats and 51% of Republicans believe that Obama will be an effective president who will be good for all Americans. By contrast, only 17% of Americans are pessimistic about the coming administration.



Our thoughts are with Congressman Dennis Kucinich and his family Beth Ann Kucinich, an Army Veteran and the youngest sister of Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich succumbed to respiratory distress today at the Veterans Hospital in Cleveland after a three week battle during which she had been on life support.

Too filthy for basic cable: Yesterday, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough accidentally dropped the f-bomb while live on air. After apologizing, Scarborough said, "My wife is going to kill me when I get home." The show will now have a seven-second delay to protect against future outbursts. An MSNBC spokesman said that no other shows on the network will have the delay, which was reportedly a "mutual decision." No, it was not "mutual" because had Scarborough refused, he probably would have been fired. Listen, villagers--we know you have filthy minds and filthy mouths--we lived through the Clinton era, you see. So stop clutching your fucking pearls...

UN needs help in the Congo:UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has made a fresh plea for 3,000 more peacekeepers to be sent to the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In New York, Mr Ban also called for a ceasefire so aid workers could urgently help "at least 100,000 refugees" cut off in rebel-held areas near Goma. Ban is the worst Secretary-General in a generation--he has no influence or power. He needs to quit so Bill Clinton can finally get the job.

Michael Barone has finally come completely unhinged Michael Barone said today that journalists trashed Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, because "she did not abort her Down syndrome baby." After being booed for making the stupid assertion, he tried to walk it back, saying he "was attempting to be humorous and ... went over the line." Riiiggghhhttt. Does this sound like he was joking? “The liberal media attacked Sarah Palin because she did not abort her Down syndrome baby," Barone said, according to accounts by attendees. "They wanted her to kill that child. ... I'm talking about my media colleagues with whom I've worked for 35 years.”

Public hospitals unsafe in Australia: Australia's public hospitals are unsafe, overcrowded and underfunded, resulting in 1,500 unnecessary deaths a year, a national doctors group said on Wednesday in a report titled "Public Hospitals Flatlining". The Australian Medical Association (AMA) report said not one public hospital was operating at a safe international occupancy level and the hospital network risked "systematic breakdown". The AMA called on the national government to inject A$3 billion (US$1.9 billion) into public hospital funding, warning that hospitals will not cope with the nation's ageing population. Cuts in Australian health funding have resulted in hospital bed capacity slashed by 67 percent in the past 20 years and there was now a national shortfall of 3,750 beds, said the report. "Emergency departments are over full. Corridors are lined with patients on trolleys because beds are simply not available," said AMA President Dr Rosanna Capolingua. Remind you of any countries that happen to be named "the United States"?

The only thing worse than Mexican drug violence is Guatemalan drug violence: Guatemala authorities are hunting for a group of people police believe are behind the burning of a bus full of Nicaraguans last weekend in a rural region thick with drug gangs. Police said they found bullet casings and fuel containers next to the blackened shell of a burnt-out bus where the remains of 16 people were found late on Saturday on a rural road in eastern Guatemala.

Nope--ain't happening: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will urge NATO allies this week to place Ukraine on a path to alliance membership despite Russian objections and doubts about the former Soviet state's political future. But Gates, who arrives in Estonia for NATO meetings on Wednesday, will face resistance from allies who want to move more slowly and are concerned about Moscow's response, especially after its war with another NATO aspirant, Georgia. Alliance leaders are already looking ahead to the next U.S. administration under President-elect Barack Obama, who takes office Jan. 20. That leaves little hope for Bush administration aims to give Ukraine and Georgia a path, known as a membership action plan (MAP), to join NATO this year, analysts said.

Lieberman's fate rests with the caucus A Democratic leadership aid confirmed to Talking Points Memo that the entire Democratic caucus would take a vote next week to decide whether Joe Lieberman will keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee. Click here to get the contact information for your Democratic Senators. When I called Claire, I didn't just urge her to vote against him, I recommended a firing squad.

Infortunate headline of the day: Criticism mounts among gays over Calif. ban

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