Mitt Romney was so busy slamming President Obama over the deficit yesterday that he somehow managed to forget two little wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and US involvement in Libya. In a Union-Leader op-ed on America’s debt problem, Romney knocked Obama for “one of the biggest peacetime spending binges in…
Continue reading …Nissan Leaf entered in 2011 Pikes Peak Hill Climb, can feel free to just coast back down again
April 26, 2011 No Comment
There are many, many tests of automotive performance throughout the average calendar year, yet the Pikes Peak Hill Climb stands out as one of America’s most historic and most brutal. Oh, and most pucker-inducing, what with the general lack of guardrails and corner edges bounded by nothing but thousands of feet of free-fall — then rocks. This is the challenge that an unmodified Nissan Leaf will face this summer, all 110 horsepower dedicated to hitting the summit in a time that hopefully won’t be too embarrassing but surely won’t challenge the current EV record of 13 minutes and 17 seconds. Driver Chad Hord will sit behind the wheel when the event gets underway on June 26th, burning nary a drop of gas on the way up and putting on something less of a show than Ari Vatanen did in his (traditionally-powered) Peugeot back in 1990. That rather invigorating performance is embedded below for your viewing pleasure. Continue reading Nissan Leaf entered in 2011 Pikes Peak Hill Climb, can feel free to just coast back down again Nissan Leaf entered in 2011 Pikes Peak Hill Climb, can feel free to just coast back down again originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 11:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Greta Van Susteren and Ken Cuccinelli Weep over SCOTUS Decision Not To Fast-Track HCR Lawsuits
April 26, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Yesterday the Supreme Court declined to fast track the Virginia challenge to the Affordable Care Act, which has Greta Van Susteren in a tizzy over those lazy Supreme Court justices who dare to take their three-month break while the health of America teeters in the balance. Ken Cuccinelli was happy to oblige her, jumping right in with his assessment that states will spend “millions before taxpayers even see a band-aid or any health care”, due to the cost of setting up exchanges in advance of implementation of the Affordable Care Act. If their estimate is correct and June 2012 would be the earliest a Supreme Court decision would be made on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, that throws it right into the middle of the 2012 general election, which could really be a political neutron bomb. If the Supreme Court decision were a 5-4 ruling it unconstitutional, for example, it could play right into the hands of conservatives who will then begin touting their market-based reforms, a la Ken Cuccinelli at the end of this clip. Maybe I’m just being cynical here, but I don’t see the decision to delay it as particularly good news. It feels just as political as a decision to fast-track it would have been, delaying the outcome until we’re right in the thick of the 2012 general election.
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Ben Bernanke, chairman of Federal Reserve, expected to maintain loose monetary policy The US dollar has fallen to new lows against other major currencies, undermined by predictions that the US would continue to resist pressure to raise interest rates. In early trading, the dollar dropped to its weakest level ever against the Swiss franc, having touched a record low against the Australian dollar overnight. It also hit a four-week low against the yen, while the dollar index, which measures it against a basket of rival currencies, was close to its lowest level since August 2008. The fall came a few hours ahead of the start of the Federal Reserve’s monthly two-day meeting to set monetary policy. City experts believe that this will be a defining week for the dollar. Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Fed, will for the first time hold a press conference on Wednesday evening immediately after the Federal open market committee has voted. Traders expect no change to the Fed’s current loose monetary position. “The market will, as usual, be hanging off every word from Bernanke,” said Jane Foley, senior currency strategist at Rabobank. “There is a small risk that the Fed will toughen its stance on inflation, but in the absence of this, loose monetary policy in the US is likely to continue to weigh on the dollar at least for the remainder of the year.” The critical US interest rate has been pegged at a record low of 0% to 0.25% since December 2008. The Fed is pushing ahead with its second quantitative easing (QE) programme – buying up government and corporate bonds with freshly created money in an effort to stimulate the economy. Joshua Raymond of City Index predicted the dollar could strengthen rapidly if the Fed indicates that it will speed up its QE exit strategy. But with eurozone interest rates having been raised this month, there are concerns around the US’s more relaxed approach to the risk of inflation. Standard & Poor’s threat last week to cut America’s triple-A credit rating has focused attention on its swelling deficit. There are also fears that its recovery from recession is running out of steam. Preliminary US GDP data for the first three months of 2011 will be released on Thursday, and is expected to show that growth slowed. Uwe Parpart, Cantor Fitzgerald’s chief economist in Asia, is concerned that global economic growth remains weak. He also fears that world stock markets have been driven higher by the Fed’s policy of effectively creating more dollars though QE. Parpart warned: “While stock markets globally have had bull runs since March 2009 thanks to excess dollar liquidity, certainly global economic performance has not, and as global growth slows under the impact of higher interest rates, even US investors will have to ask themselves if [dollar] printing press-enabled stock market valuations will be sustainable when liquidity dries up.” The recent surge in the price of oil could also hamper the global economy, according to the head of Saudi Arabia’s state oil firm Aramco, Khalid al-Falih. He told a conference in Seoul that Saudi was “not comfortable” with the current oil price, saying: “I am concerned about the impact it could have on the global economy.” Dollar Currencies Ben Bernanke US economy Quantitative easing Global economy Economics United States Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
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John James Audubon, the French-American naturalist and artist born on 26 April 1785, is the subject of a Google doodle John James Audubon was born on this day 226 years ago. Unlike previous Google doodles, such as the interactive submarine which celebrated the birth of Jules Verne, this time Google has kept things simple. But while the specially designed logo on the search engine’s home page boasts no moving parts or any other type of animation, its latest graphic might just go down as one of the more beautiful of recent times. The letters of the internet giant’s name are barely recognisable amid the branches and colourful plumes of the birds which adorn the logo, created in the style of the French-American painter and ornithologist’s creations. Born on April 26, 1785, John James Audubon developed a deep appreciation of nature from early childhood and moved to America from France at the age of 18 in order to avoid joining Napoleon’s army. He was to go on to make name for himself by painting birds in a signature life-like manner that was to overshadow contemporaries and predecessors. “I felt an intimacy with them … bordering on frenzy must accompany my steps through life”, recalled the painter of his relationship with his feathered subjects. His far reaching influence on ornithology and natural history extended to being quoted by Charles Darwin in ‘On the Origin of Species’ while Audubon’s field notes are regarded as having made a significant contribution to the understanding of bird anatomy and behavior. As recently as December, 2010, a copy of Audubon’s ‘Birds of America’ was sold at a Sotheby’s auction for £7,321,250, a record price for a single printed book. Google doodle Internet Search engines Google Wildlife Ben Quinn guardian.co.uk
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It is often said that Britain and America are “two nations divided by a common language.” And now we know why. As the royal wedding draws ever closer, NewsFeed is hereby performing a most useful service: the decoding of some of the slang terms that could crop up this week. You may know of it
Continue reading …You can’t have Four Loko anymore in certain states, but why not give Snoop Dogg’s “Blast by Colt 45” a try? Yes, that’s right. Snoop Doggy Dogg has endorsed an alcoholic energy drink – marketed as a “binge in a can.” But it’s not all fun and games. Politicians and advocacy groups are outraged over
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On Saturday, Joe Johnston and his crew took to the streets of New York City to shoot a scene with Chris Evans and another actor for Captain America: The First Avenger. The shoot appears to be from the end or epilogue of the film — we know that Captain America climaxes with Cap being frozen, and that he’ll be thawed in the ‘current’ timeline to prepare him for The Avengers. (Which starts shooting today.)… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : /Film Discovery Date : 24/04/2011 23:07 Number of articles : 2
Continue reading …Fox News Gives Frank Luntz A Full Hour To Sell Fear and Loathing of Government
April 25, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Until about 2 months ago I never, ever watched Fox News. Never. What little I knew about them came from the clips here on C&L in posts (I’ve been a C&L reader since 2005). I knew they were horrible because of those clips. But a few months ago I decided the time had come to face the Fox beast head-on and really see if it was as bad as I thought it was. I discovered it was worse. And the Frank Luntz/Sean Hannity special on the “real voters of America” has to be one of the worst examples of it. In this Hannity propaganda piece special, they claim to have compiled an audience of voters who are a blend of Obama voters and conservatives. They’re careful to note that they’re Obama voters, not Obama supporters. There is a difference. Assume the audience is a group of ultra-conservatives, conservatives, and conservative independents who crossed over to vote for Obama. The premise is to deal with why people hate government, feel disconnected, have no confidence in Congress. The true goal, in my opinion, was to reinforce why people hate government. To bring on Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan and their insane plans for this country under the pretense of understanding voter anger is absurd. To bring on 18 tea party freshmen Congressmen just makes them bigger lying liars than they already are. And to cap it off with Jeb Hensarling and Rob Andrews just proves that it’s not about any sincere effort to bring “government and the people” together. It’s about giving Republicans free air time to sell their odious plans with Frank Luntz guiding the discussion with handheld meters of approval or disapproval. Suffice it to say, whenever a Republican opened his or her mouth, the HappyMeter went up to 100%. If a casual viewer were to flip through channels and land on this special, they’d think that every American on the planet stays awake at night wondering how their precious little babies will pay off the national debt, that there’s only one party in Congress, and there are no alternatives other than to lower taxes on the rich and end Medicare and the entire social contract which has worked so well up till now. Which is, of course, exactly what these evil men want people to think. I don’t often call people evil, but what is going on right now in the media at the hands of Fox News is evil. Pure, bold, propaganda. Click here to view this media I have one final clip for you. In this one, they play a commercial which ran in Wisconsin, sponsored by unions. In particular, watch the reaction lines, which start out quite low and rise. Predictably, Democrats approve of it and Republicans disapprove. But when the audience is asked to react, there isn’t one Democrat speaking. Only conservatives who loathe — abhor — unions. There isn’t enough hyperbole in the English language to express how dishonest this segment is. It isn’t until one audience member speaks up and says he’s a teacher and resents the suggestion that he doesn’t work hard that any “liberal” voice is heard. Luntz sums up this segment by saying he understands why Wisconsin looks and sounds like it does. Oh really? Because I really don’t think his understanding and mine come even close to being the same. Here’s what I really want to know. Of the most vocal tea party members in the audience like the woman in this union segment who practically spits venom when she talks, how many of them are high-level operatives and how many are just “ordinary citizens”? I’m betting they might have “forgotten” to disclose that information. The show concludes with Luntz claiming a Citizens United ad run back in January against deficit spending is universally popular with his “bipartisan audience.” And just for good measure, he points to paintings of Lincoln and Reagan as evidence that our country has been far more divided than it is right now. There appears to be no bottom low enough for them to scrape.
Continue reading …Fox News Gives Frank Luntz A Full Hour To Sell Fear and Loathing of Government
April 25, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Until about 2 months ago I never, ever watched Fox News. Never. What little I knew about them came from the clips here on C&L in posts (I’ve been a C&L reader since 2005). I knew they were horrible because of those clips. But a few months ago I decided the time had come to face the Fox beast head-on and really see if it was as bad as I thought it was. I discovered it was worse. And the Frank Luntz/Sean Hannity special on the “real voters of America” has to be one of the worst examples of it. In this Hannity propaganda piece special, they claim to have compiled an audience of voters who are a blend of Obama voters and conservatives. They’re careful to note that they’re Obama voters, not Obama supporters. There is a difference. Assume the audience is a group of ultra-conservatives, conservatives, and conservative independents who crossed over to vote for Obama. The premise is to deal with why people hate government, feel disconnected, have no confidence in Congress. The true goal, in my opinion, was to reinforce why people hate government. To bring on Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan and their insane plans for this country under the pretense of understanding voter anger is absurd. To bring on 18 tea party freshmen Congressmen just makes them bigger lying liars than they already are. And to cap it off with Jeb Hensarling and Rob Andrews just proves that it’s not about any sincere effort to bring “government and the people” together. It’s about giving Republicans free air time to sell their odious plans with Frank Luntz guiding the discussion with handheld meters of approval or disapproval. Suffice it to say, whenever a Republican opened his or her mouth, the HappyMeter went up to 100%. If a casual viewer were to flip through channels and land on this special, they’d think that every American on the planet stays awake at night wondering how their precious little babies will pay off the national debt, that there’s only one party in Congress, and there are no alternatives other than to lower taxes on the rich and end Medicare and the entire social contract which has worked so well up till now. Which is, of course, exactly what these evil men want people to think. I don’t often call people evil, but what is going on right now in the media at the hands of Fox News is evil. Pure, bold, propaganda. Click here to view this media I have one final clip for you. In this one, they play a commercial which ran in Wisconsin, sponsored by unions. In particular, watch the reaction lines, which start out quite low and rise. Predictably, Democrats approve of it and Republicans disapprove. But when the audience is asked to react, there isn’t one Democrat speaking. Only conservatives who loathe — abhor — unions. There isn’t enough hyperbole in the English language to express how dishonest this segment is. It isn’t until one audience member speaks up and says he’s a teacher and resents the suggestion that he doesn’t work hard that any “liberal” voice is heard. Luntz sums up this segment by saying he understands why Wisconsin looks and sounds like it does. Oh really? Because I really don’t think his understanding and mine come even close to being the same. Here’s what I really want to know. Of the most vocal tea party members in the audience like the woman in this union segment who practically spits venom when she talks, how many of them are high-level operatives and how many are just “ordinary citizens”? I’m betting they might have “forgotten” to disclose that information. The show concludes with Luntz claiming a Citizens United ad run back in January against deficit spending is universally popular with his “bipartisan audience.” And just for good measure, he points to paintings of Lincoln and Reagan as evidence that our country has been far more divided than it is right now. There appears to be no bottom low enough for them to scrape.
Continue reading …