Image credit: Matthew McDermott , used under Creative Commons license. (This photo was taken in Copenhagen, not Cancún.) From a point-by-point debunking of his slideshows , to the House of Lords telling him to stop using their emblem , Lord Monckton is one of the m… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Based on what the New York Times describes as President Obama’s “substantial concessions to Republicans,” Democrats in Congress have reason to fret. Not only did Obama agree to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, but he caved into Republican demands to neuter the estate tax. Apparently a deficit hawk is someone who adds to the deficit—in this case $900 billion over two years. To keep things in perspective, Republicans otherwise refused to extend unemployment benefits at a cost of $56 billion, because, you know, that would add to the deficit. Unemployment benefits will be extended as part of the compromise.
Continue reading …DIY Star-Trek style air powered sliding doors are something from the future that you can have at home right now
December 7, 2010 No Comment
So, we don’t mind a small home renovation project every now and then, and this is one we’re seriously considering. Instructables has posted a step-by-step guide on installing sliding doors which are powered by an air compressor , and which look super cool. As you’ll see in the video which is after the break, it’s a pretty simple idea, which requires a pretty fair amount of work, but the results are very impressive. The sliding doors are controlled by a panel switch and have a key which can lock them open or shut, and the door also boasts a vent above it for air ventilation after operation. Yes, we actually want one of these. Continue reading DIY Star-Trek style air powered sliding doors are something from the future that you can have at home right now DIY Star-Trek style air powered sliding doors are something from the future that you can have at home right now originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 00:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …BREAKING: Obama Presents The Tax-Cut Deal Cut With GOP Leadership. Will Rank-and-File Republicans Pass It? Will Dems Say No?
December 7, 2010 No Comment
Click here to view this media H/T Heather. Senior administration officials talked to bloggers tonight after President Obama addressed the nation on the results of the extortion negotiation with the Republican leadership, and I have to tell you, I’m not all that unhappy with the results. This is an actual compromise deal . (And, as I’ve said before, giving tax cuts to the rich is the best insurance policy we can get for Social Security.) First of all, the unemployed who are still collecting benefits get to heave a sigh of relief, because they’re covered for the next 13 months. (I did ask about the 99ers. Sorry, nothing. Apparently we’re still invisible . I also said if they were still in negotiations, they might want to considering exempting unemployment benefits from the income tax, the way they used to before Reagan.) But that’s not all. The package includes a shiny new one-year 2% payroll-tax cut for employees, which will stimulate the economy because the people who get it are the ones most likely to spend it. Thumbs up on the payroll-tax cut, which by the way, will be revenue-neutral for Social Security via a credit for the amount that would have been otherwise collected. It also includes a fix to the Alternative Minimum Tax. The aforementioned millionaires and billionaires do get their tax cuts — but only for two years. (That will cost us $95 billion, by the way, and will be financed by borrowing from China.) But they’ll have a merry Christmas anyway, because of the jingle in their pockets from (you knew this was coming) reinstating the estate tax with a $5 million exemption . (The officials said that issue will be fought again at a later date.) If the president had his way, one of the officials said, they would only be making the middle-class tax cuts permanent, but it “wasn’t possible to get through. If there was a compromise, though, he wanted lots of other pieces included.” Bottom line, as the officials pointed out, if he didn’t deal with the Republicans, they would have dragged this out for “months and months and months,” and there was a good possibility they wouldn’t get any UI extensions at all. Honestly, I don’t care that he promised not to raise these taxes. With a gun to his head , he didn’t have much choice. But Obama needs to learn that an occasional piece of cheese from the Republican rats doesn’t mean a new era of understanding.
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Click here to view this media The founder of the whistleblower website responsible for releasing thousands of secret documents should be treated as an enemy of the US, according to a former Republican Speaker of the House. Newt Gingrich became the latest conservative Sunday to suggest that WikiLeak’s Julian Assange deserves to be hunted and executed Sunday by calling him an “enemy combatant.” “I approach this very seriously,” Gingrich told Fox News’ Chris Wallace. “Information warfare is warfare. Julian Assange is engaged in warfare.” “Information terrorism, which leads to people getting killed is terrorism. And Julian Assange is engaged in terrorism,” he continued. “He should be treated as an enemy combatant and WikiLeaks should be closed down permanently and decisively,” Gingrich said. The former House Speaker added that the Obama administration deserved much of the blame for the leaked documents. “This is a system so stupid that it ought to be a scandal of the first order,” he said. “This administration is so shallow and so amateurish about national security that it is painful and dangerous.” Gingrich, who is now a paid pundit at Fox News, is just the latest conservative to call for violence in response to the WikiLeaks releasing 250,000 secret US diplomatic cables. Townhall’s John Hawkins wrote a column last week entitled “5 Reasons The CIA Should Have Already Killed Julian Assange.” Fox News contributor Sarah Palin took to her Facebook page to suggest that Assange deserved the same treatment as terrorists and insurgents. “Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?” she asked. Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told NBC’s David Gregory Sunday that Assange is a terrorist. “I think the man is a high tech terrorist…he’s done enormous damage to our country and to our relationships with our allies around the world, and he should be prosecuted,” McConnell said . Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was caught on video at a book signing at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif. saying that the person that leaked the documents to WikiLeaks should be executed. “Whoever in our government leaked that information is guilty of treason,” Huckabee said. “I think anything less than execution is too kind a penalty.” Palin, Huckabee and Gingrich are all paid Fox News contributors who are thought to be contenders for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Gingrich indicated Sunday that he was likely to make a presidential bid. “We’re much more inclined to run than not run,” he said.
Continue reading …(h/t ThinkProgess ) It’s brilliant. Newt Gingrich, disgraced former Speaker of the House, elder statesman and alleged great brain of the GOP and rumored Republican presidential candidate for 2012 has come up with the most novel approach to whether to extend the Bush tax cuts: ask the rich (or as he calls them “business owners”) how long they want them extended. Wow. Why hasn’t anyone thought of this earlier? Of course, those millionaires would be completely altruistic in choosing to make their tax cuts permanent, right? And of course, the wealthy elite know exactly what’s best, but those on the other end of the scale? Well, there, it’s important for the government to step in and dictate a cut in their benefits. ThinkProgress : Yet, while Gingrich is perfectly happy to let the nation’s foxes decide what to do with the henhouse, he takes a very different view of how Congress should treat the most vulnerable Americans. In practically the same breath that he proposes giving a massive tax cut to Paris Hilton , he also suggests that “we change the entire [unemployment benefits] program into a worker training program and not give anybody money for doing nothing.” [..] Gingrich’s proposal, to cut off unemployment benefits while giving a massive windfall to the most fortunate, is a recipe for skyrocketing unemployment. The economy grows by nearly two dollars for every dollar spent on unemployment benefits “because recipients typically spend all of their benefit payments quickly.” The money “ ripples through the economy into supermarkets, gasoline stations, utilities, convenience stores.” Flush with the revenue provided by these new consumers, those businesses are then able to hire additional workers and diminish the ranks of the unemployed. In other words, history and FACTS (those pesky little things) have shown that Gingrich’s proposal is the EXACT OPPOSITE of what should be done, not that Chris Wallace would ever point that out. And yet, this is the Very. Serious. Contribution. of someone hoping to run the country in two years. We are in Very. Serious. Trouble.
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Acting as if we live in some sort of fantasy world, the Obama administration and the Pentagon have both forbid their hundreds of thousands of federal workers to view the Wikileaks secret cables—unless those employees have the requisite security clearance. The move, experts believe, is futile as the dispersion of the information, as well as the incapacity of the government to monitor private Internet usage, makes the decision by the Obama White House seem a bit out of touch. —JCL The New York Times: In a classic case of shutting the barn door after the horse has left, the Obama administration and the Department of Defense have ordered the hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contractors not to view the secret cables and other classified documents published by Wikileaks and news organizations around the world unless the workers have the required security clearance or authorization. “Classified information, whether or not already posted on public websites or disclosed to the media, remains classified, and must be treated as such by federal employees and contractors, until it is declassified by an appropriate U.S. Government authority,” said the notice sent on Friday afternoon by the Office of Management and Budget, which is part of the White House, to agency and department heads, urging them to distribute it to their staff. The directive applies to both government computers and private devices that employees or contractors might have, as long as they are accessing the documents on nonclassified government networks. It does not advise agencies to block WikiLeaks or other websites on government computer systems, a White House official said Saturday. And it does not prohibit federal employees from reading news stories about the topic. But if they have “accidentially” already downloaded any of these documents, they are being told to notify their “information security offices.” Read more Related Entries December 4, 2010 Lebanon Gave Israel Tips on Fighting Hezbollah November 29, 2010 Iran Casts Suspicions After Bomb Attacks
Continue reading …‘An Absolute Disgrace’: CNN’s Parker Spitzer Finds Blast of Dissent Against Tax-Evading Rangel
December 5, 2010 No CommentWhile the “objective” network newscasts strenuously sought to hornswoggle the public into thinking everyone in Washington was sympathetic to unethical tax-evading liberal Rep. Charlie Rangel getting censured on the House floor for 45 seconds, CNN's Parker Spitzer asked about Rangel on Thursday night and received a dissenting blast from sports journalist Stephen A. Smith, who called him an “absolute disgrace” and said “I'm done with him.” Former Air America host Sam Seder, so enraged by the corruption of the Bushies, was just as partisan in insisting Rangel didn't commit a crime and shouldn't receive a censure and was “open with the committee.” Eliot Spitzer didn't want to dwell too long on the ethical-politician subject: SPITZER: All right, guys. Does he persuade you? Should Charlie be shown the exit or has Charlie persuaded you he deserves to continue on fighting for central Harlem? SMITH: Well, I'm not going to sit there and say he deserves to be shown the exit, but he certainly hasn't convinced me. I think it's an absolute disgrace that he, of all people, conducted himself in this fashion. read more
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Photo: Ben+Sam Not a moment too soon the House passed The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act just two days ago after it passed the Senate in August. This is long overdo as far as I’m concerned and just before the holiday season, it puts school nutrition and our kids on the front burner again. That’s not to say that disconcerting compromises didn’t make for a less than perfect bill, but getting
Continue reading …PETA Offers To Help Kansas Overcome Budget Deficit By Paying For Anti-Fishing Signs
December 4, 2010 No Comment
Pisces the constellation. Image credit: Aspin, 1825, via University of Oklahoma “History of Science” exhibit Hoping for a way to sustain the world’s fisheries? PETA has a better idea: end fishing. Immediately on reading the headline ” PETA offers state budget help with anti-fishing sign ,” which was published at State House Live , I thought PETA is like a technical rock climber grabbing for whatever ledge i… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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