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Archive for November 12, 2011

Why defense spending should be cut

Why defense spending should be cut

        Why defense spending should be cut By Fareed Zakaria Published: August 3 The scary aspect of the debt deal meant to force all of Washington to its senses is the threatened cut to defense spending. If the congressional “super-committee” cannot agree on cutbacks of $1.5 trillion, the guillotine will fall and half of those cuts will have to come from expenditures on national security. As with so much Washington accounting, there is lots of ambiguity in baselines ... Full Story

Rick Perry, God and Me: When I Got the Call

Political satire by Katha Pollitt,  Trying to find humor in politics     Rick Perry, God and Me: When I Got the Call By Katha Pollitt God called me a couple of months ago and told me to run for president. It was late at night, and he had this weird voice. It sounded like he’d been drinking, so I hung up on him He called me back a few nights later. He explained that he’d been experimenting with a new voice—instead of deep and gravelly, nudgy and insinuating, like Jon Lovitz. ... Full Story

Social Security cuts don’t add up

Social Security cuts don’t add up

  Note: The following article states that new research shows that Americans over 65 are disproportionately wealthy. The word "disproportionately" is used in a pejorative manner in this sentence. The report from Pew Research entitled "The Rising Age Gap in Economic Well-Being: The Old Prosper Relative to the Young" does not use this negatively charged word. If NPR were exercising journalist excellence here, they would not use this negatively charged word. The Pew Report, and the HuffPost ... Full Story

Texas executes, and executes and …

Texas executes, and executes and …

  The following article looks at the emotional involvement of Texas prosecutors in the executions of their defendants. The next to the last paragraph compares their commitment to getting the execution over to Calaphas, the prosecutor of Christ. Oddly, the prosecutors in this state display similar properties. Calaphas is no hero to Christians, yet, ironically, Bible-belt Texans would condemn Calaphas behavior while apparently approving it in their state prosecutors. It appears that they are ... Full Story

NY Judge critical of SEC

NY Judge critical of SEC

  Federal Judge Jed S. Rakoff was not pleased with the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed settlement with Citigroup. Citigroup violated previous agreements, lied to its customer about the mortgage bonds they were selling and bet against the bonds. Citigroup's customers lost $700 million while the bank made a profit of $160 million. The SEC was willing to let Citigroup off with no admission of wrong doing and what the judge considered to be an inadequate fine. The two articles ... Full Story

Rick Perry: The Best Little Whore In Texas

Rick Perry: The Best Little Whore In Texas

            Rick Perry: The Best Little Whore In Texas The Texas governor has one driving passion: selling off government to the highest bidder By Matt Taibbi October 26, 2011 8:00 AM ET In an era when there's exponentially more money in politics than we've ever seen before, Perry is the candidate who is exponentially more willing than we've ever seen before to whore himself out for that money. On the human level he is a nonpersonality, an almost perfect cipher ... Full Story

Eagles earn point as Utah powers way to shootout win

  WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah - The Utah Grizzlies scored four power play goals and Andrew Engelage shutout the Eagles in a shootout to give the Grizzlies a 5-4 win. Michael Forney scored two game-tying goals in the third period, while Aaron Schneekloth registered three points (1-2-3) in the loss. The Grizzlies finished the first period with a 2-1 lead despite the Eagles striking first when Chad Costello found the back of the net at 13:10 of the first period after taking a drop-pass from Kyle ... Full Story