Archive for November, 2010
Obama Claims ‘I Don’t Think About Sarah Palin’
Come on Barack, ‘fess up, none of us want to think about Sarah Palin, but she’s become infuriatingly unavoidable. Oxford University Press even awarded her “Word of the Year” for her dumbass “refudiate” tweet, fer chrissakes. From BBC News:
President Barack Obama has said he does not think about Republican former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, a possible contender for his job in 2012.
In an interview, Mr Obama acknowledged her popularity among Republicans and said he “respected those skills”.
But he told ABC television: “I spend most of my time right now on how I can be the best possible president.”
Mrs Palin, in the midst of a national book tour, said recently she could beat Mr Obama in the 2012 election.
But a recent poll showed Mr Obama comfortably leading Mrs Palin in a hypothetical 2012 match-up.
“My attitude has always been, from the day I started this job, that if I do a good job and…
What Is It With Rush Limbaugh and the Chevy Volt?
Rush is doing wonders for the marketing of the Volt electric car — even flush with all their new IPO cash, I doubt that General Motors could have bought this much ad space following the Volt being named Motor Trend magazine’s “Car of the Year.” Ben Armbruster reports for Think Progress:
Limbaugh said of the Motor Trend award, “[O]f all the cars in the world, the Chevrolet Volt is the Car of the Year? Motor Trend magazine, that’s the end of them. How in the world do they have any credibility? Not one has been sold [and] the Volt is the Car of the Year.” Last week, one of the magazine’s editors, Todd Lassa, shot back at Limbaugh, noting that GM hasn’t sold any Volts “because it’s not on sale yet“:
So, Mr. Limbaugh; you didn’t enjoy your drive of our 2011 Car of the Year, the Chevrolet Volt? Assuming you’ve been anywhere…
PETA’s Banned Thanksgiving Day Commercial
[disinfo ed.'s note - Diggin' in the crates, this story is a couple of years old, but it's evergreen on Thanksgiving Day!]
PETA purchased ad spot airtime on NBC during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, however the network rejected PETA’s ad because the “commercial does not meet NBC Universal standards.” I guess they found PETA’s take on Thanksgiving a little disturbing.
Chris Matthews Defends Michael Chertoff And The TSA
Benjamin Franklin wrote, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” I’m not sure Chris Matthews would agree.
The Possibility of Hope
A great extra from the fantastic movie Children of Men. Modern philosophers, political scientists, and climate scientists weigh-in on the state of the Earth, global politics, militarism, mass-migration, global warming, and the future of humanity.
(For the disinfo regular, I’d recommend the watching the movie The Constant Gardener and the documentary Darwin’s Nightmare, but perhaps you already have…)
Google News Censors Liberal Blogs
In case there was actual doubt that Google was a powerful corporate entity biased in all the same ways as other large scale media empires, here’s a little jewel from the folks at SFGate:
Yep. You read that correctly: “Google News Politics: Anti Sarah Palin Post Gets Google Censorship.” That’s another way of saying this blogger’s Zennie62.com blog was not included in Google News after a blog post called “Will Sarah Palin Ever Shut Up?”
Prior to Friday, November 19th, when that post, and others on Zennie62 for that day were included on Google News, then taken off and moved to Google Blog Search, Zennie62.com had become a major presence on Google News, outperforming many news sites, and showing a way toward a positive future for media that can be done by anyone. A truly democratic effort. But what’s Google News?
Google News is a news aggregator that places the “news of the day”…
Ron Paul is a Dancing Queen (Video)
Based on some of the comments here. DEMOCRACY!:
Abba – Dancing Queen from Viva on Vimeo.
Download Girl Talk’s New Album and ‘Rip: A Remix Manifesto’
All Day, the fourth album by mashup maestro Girl Talk, is his first album in two-plus years, and it’s available as a free download from his label’s official link. Fans should also check out Brett Gaylor’s mashup documentary Rip: A Remix Manifesto, which you can pay what you want to download.
Nuclear Weapons Transporters Were Driving Drunk
It’s dangerous enough having drunk drivers on the road, but it’s even more dangerous when those drivers are transporting nuclear weapons. The Washington Post reports:
Federal agents hired to transport nuclear weapons and components sometimes got drunk while on convoy missions, a government watchdog said Monday. In an incident last year, police detained two agents who went to a bar during an assignment.
The Energy Department’s assistant inspector general, Sandra D. Bruce, said her office reviewed 16 alcohol-related incidents involving agents, candidate-agents and others from the government’s Office of Secure Transportation between 2007 through 2009. Nearly 600 federal agents ship nuclear weapons, weapon components and special nuclear material across the U.S.
Two incidents in particular raised red flags, the report said, because they happened during secure transportation missions while agents checked into local hotels while on extended missions. In these cases, the vehicles were placed in “safe harbor,” meaning they were moved to…
Erik Davis on ‘Nomad Codes’
From Technoccult:
Erik Davis has been covering fringe spiritual movements, underground music and subcultures for magazines like Wired, Arthur and Spin for the past two decades. He’s probably best known for books his books TechGnosis and Visionary State. He’s currently a contributor to several publications, including Reality Sandwich and HiLobrow. His web site is here and you can follow him on Twitter.
Erik’s latest book, Nomad Codes, is a collection of several of his articles and essays. I talked with Erik about the new book, the changing American spiritual landscape, and why he’s now pursuing academia.
Klint Finley: Over the last few years, while writing the essays that comprise this book, have you seen any significant shift in American spirituality? Has much changed since the publication of TechGnosis?
Erik Davis: Spirituality is always changing, because “spirituality” itself is almost defined by its informality, at least in contrast to those more organized movements we call “religion.” And even religions are…
Daily Pill Helps Prevent HIV Infection
While this pill would be an amazing achievement helping to reduce the spread of HIV, even the volunteers in the trial couldn’t remember to take it everyday. The best prevention of HIV is the knowledge of how it is transmitted and how ways to prevent it. From BBC News:
A daily pill to prevent HIV infection would be a significant development. A trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that an established treatment for HIV infection is also powerful in protecting gay men from catching the virus.
This is not, however, the answer to the nearly 30 year epidemic of HIV and AIDS. Since it is just one trial, many more studies will need to follow. But according to the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) it is “potentially very significant and could change the HIV landscape in the future”.
Some brief facts about the trial: it involved about 2,500 men at…
Sarah Palin Weighs In On Fair Use
Andrew Sullivan makes note of a tweet which hints that a hypothetical Sarah Palin presidency would be a grim era for freedom of speech:
Naked German Man Spotted In Car Trunk On Google Street View
Look beneath the surface of everyday life, and strangeness awaits. In Mannheim, Germany, Google Street View captured this image of a naked man climbing out of a car trunk…one can only speculate as to the reason. Via CNET:
Dalai Lama To Step Down As Head Of Government
Via TIME:
Tibet’s spiritual leader plans to step down as head of the Tibetan government-in-exile, his spokesman said.
The Dalai Lama, 75, has scaled back his duties leading Tibet since 2001, when the Tibetan movement first directly elected a political leader. Since then, his government role has been mainly ceremonial as he travels around the world giving speeches. His spokesman said he would discuss retiring with the next session of parliament in March. Though it might not be too easy to get away; the speaker of Tibet’s parliament said that a retirement requires consideration, since it would mean a sweeping political change.
“Retirement” would mainly mean stepping away from ceremonial duties as head of government, like signing resolutions. The Dalai Lama would still remain an advocate for the Tibetan movement and a Buddhist spiritual leader.
The Dalai Lama, who was born Tenzin Gyatso, is the highest-ranking Buddhist priest and seen as an incarnation of…
Proud Patriot Beats TSA Using iPhone and the Constitution
Many of you will be traveling in the United States this week for the annual Thanksgiving celebrations. At this point no one can be unaware of the new government policy regarding Backscatter X-Ray machines and the option to suffer a humiliating full body pat down (or groping) by TSA agents. Thanks to Matt Kernan, it seems that those of you with sufficient patience and knowledge of the your constitutional rights may have a third option. It’s well worth reading his entire blog post — this is just a taste:
I said, “I am aware that it is policy, but I disagree with the policy, and I think that it is unconstitutional. As a U.S. citizen, I have the right to move freely within my country as long as I can demonstrate proof of citizenship and have demonstrated no reasonable cause to be detained.”
Policy restatement. “You have two options – the Backscatter or the…
The Fake Taliban Scam That Fooled NATO
Taliban flag
Joshua Foust’s analysis of the fake Taliban scam that duped the U.S. Army and NATO is spot on, for The AfPak Channel at Foreign Policy:
Remember last month, when all the news was atwitter about the prospect of meaningful negotiations with the Taliban in Kabul?
The story was moderately shocking: a senior Taliban figure was being flown around the region, talking directly with General Petraeus, President Karzai, and other senior figures in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the Afghan government. The driving force behind coverage of those negotiations was New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins, who wrote that NATO had provided air transportation and secure road travel for Taliban leaders to visit Kabul for the negotiations.
Almost precisely one month later, Filkins and Carlotta Gall are writing the exact opposite:
In an episode that could have been lifted from a spy novel, United States and Afghan officials now say the Afghan man was an impostor, and high-level discussions conducted with the assistance of NATO appear…
Congressman Says He Lost Because He Took ‘Satan’s Side’
Rep. Bob Inglis
There’s just nothing you can say that will help me come to grips with a belief in global warning being Satanic. Take it away Congressman (via The Hill):
Rep. Bob Inglis, the defeated South Carolina Republican who is attacking climate skepticism in the GOP ranks, says his belief in global warming put him on “Satan’s side” in some voters’ eyes.
The outgoing lawmaker — who lost his GOP primary in a challenge from the right — told ClimateWire that his views damaged him politically in his district, which is in the northwest part of his state.
Inglis said several of his positions led to his primary defeat at the hands Rep.-elect Trey Gowdy, who went on to win the general election. But his belief in global warming had the most effect, he said.
“The most enduring heresy was just saying that climate change was real,” Inglis said in the ClimateWire account. “That was…
Remembering JFK’s Assasination As A Death of Democracy
Site editor’s note: This post from DJ Pangburn originally appeared on death + taxes:
The Kennedy assassination and the conspiracies surrounding it are imbued with such meaning for Americans because the distortion radiating in waves almost immediately following the spectacle was the aftershock of a system convulsing in its own death.
I do not use the “death” metaphor in regards to the JFK assassination lightly, for death is no light matter. Follow me through the looking glass.
Oliver Stone taught an entire generation to invoke Cicero’s Senate speech when thinking about any event and the official version of such events, through the voice of the character X (based on Fletcher Prouty) in the movie “JFK.” He taught people that the “how and the who” is all scenery for the public, and the real questions are: why?, who benefits?, and who has the power to cover it up? ”Cui bono?” The greatest thing the filmmaker ever did was…
