David Letterman seems to be making news more than mocking it lately: Just days after a drunk bashed his way into the Ed Sullivan Theater, where Letterman’s Late Show is taped, another man has been charged with breaking into the same storied building. New York City cops say the 42-year-old…
Continue reading …
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul is using his first campaign television ad to promote his opposition to a compromise on raising the federal debt ceiling. In the ad, the Texas congressman criticizes both Republicans and Democrats for striking deals in the past, and notes that he always has voted against raising the federal limit on borrowing. It’s an important issue to… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Blaze Discovery Date : 14/07/2011 16:02 Number of articles : 5
Continue reading …
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul is using his first campaign television ad to promote his opposition to a compromise on raising the federal debt ceiling. In the ad, the Texas congressman criticizes both Republicans and Democrats for striking deals in the past, and notes that he always has voted against raising the federal limit on borrowing. It’s an important issue to… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Blaze Discovery Date : 14/07/2011 16:02 Number of articles : 5
Continue reading …
• Republicans insist on spending cuts without raising taxes • Obama sets 22 July deadline for action • JP Morgan chief warns of severe damage to global economy if US defaults The US faces the prospect of a “catastrophe” as President Barack Obama stands firm against Republican demands for deep spending cuts without any tax increases as the condition for raising the country’s borrowing limit and avoiding a debt default. With Washington gripped by a growing sense that it may be too late to avert a crisis, the president has said he will give the increasingly rancorous negotiations until the end of next week to reach agreement on the terms for raising the US’s $14.3 trillion (£8.9tn) debt ceiling. The White House has said that if there is no agreement by 22 July, then discussion about budget cuts and taxes should be abandoned in favour of legislation dealing solely with raising the debt ceiling before the borrowing limit is reached on 2 August. But the Republicans have rejected legislation without agreement on budget cuts. With European leaders also facing a potentially ruinous debt crisis, a leading Wall Street figure described the prospect of a US default as catastrophic. Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan, one of Wall Street’s biggest banks, said: “No one can tell me with certainty that a US default wouldn’t cause catastrophe and wouldn’t severely damage the US or global economy. And it would be irresponsible to take that chance.” On Wednesday, Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, warned of a “huge financial calamity” if a political agreement is not reached. He told Congress a default would “send shockwaves through the entire financial system”. Hours later, the credit ratings agency Moody’s warned that it may downgrade the US’s AAA credit rating, saying there is a “rising possibility” that no deal will be reached by next month’s deadline. On Thursday, Moody’s threatened to downgrade the AAA ratings of government lenders Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Federal Home Loan Banks and Federal Farm Credit Banks, illustrating the vulnerability of the already depressed housing market to a government default. China, the US’s biggest creditor, added to the pressure (on Thursday by publicly urging Washington to protect investors’ interests. The dollar continued its fall as investors shifted to other assets such as gold, which hit a record high on Thursday. At the heart of the political wrangling is a determination by each side to blame the other for a stagnant economy, with unemployment remaining stubbornly high at above 9%. The latest economic figures showed only a 0.1% increase in retail sales and a minor drop in the number of new jobless claims – by 22,000 to 405,000 last week – suggesting the rate at which companies are laying off workers is falling. If the debt ceiling is not raised by 2
Continue reading …
A dean at Emory University law school says News Corp. could face charges in the US Over allegations in the UK simply because it is based here. (July 14)
Continue reading …
Actress Melissa McCarthy, who plays Molly on ‘Mike & Molly,’ got a happy surprise this morning when she and Joshua Jackson announced the Emmy nominations. (July 13)
Continue reading …
Click here to view this media Rachel Maddow takes the inside the beltway conventional wisdom to task that the “tea party”– or as I like to call them the astroturf Republican re-branding effort — were somehow going to be all about the economy and fiscal issues. As she clearly shows in her chart with just how many anti-abortion laws have been passed since the election, it’s still all just guns, gays and god with these people. They may have managed to get the Bush-name-stink off of them by latching onto this phoney third party movement, but it’s still the same old GOP and it’s now controlled by its TeaBircher rabid right-wing base.
Continue reading …Gates Foundation Initiative To Revolutionize The Toilet For Clean Drinking Water
July 14, 2011 No Comment
The newest project from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is set to revolutionize the toilet. Together with the German government, the project aims to provide 800,000 people in Kenya with access to sanitation facilities and clean drinking water for 200,000 people, reports TIME. According to the magazine, Bill Gates says it’s time to leave the era of the classic toilet behind, and he points out that despite all of the recent achievements, 40 percent of the world’s population, or some 2.5 billion people, still live without proper means of flushing away excrement. Toilets aren’t the only focus for the Foundation. The Associated Press reports that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is planning to provide a dozen researchers with an additional $1 million over five years to test life-saving ideas, such as using microwaves to kill malaria parasites. The toilets seem to be another unique focus for the Foundation, with potentially huge results. TIME reports that the lack of sanitation facilities increases the spread of disease, and UNICEF estimates that globally, 1.1 billion people don’t have access to any kind of toilet or means of safely eliminating waste. At least 1.2 million children under the age of five die from diarrhea each year, caused by undrinkable water. The project is working on two important initiatives. The first is to construct sanitation facilities in rural areas and slums, and the other is a research project that is giving grants to scientists who come up with new ideas for using human excrement. TIME writes: In view of the world’s limited water resources, both the Gates Foundation and German Development Policy support various projects for dry toilets that do not use water to flush and that separate excrement from urine in order to dry it. World-wide access to adequate sanitation is a long time goal for the Gates Foundation. At the Techonomy conference last year, Gates took the stage to discuss something most people shy away from, reports TechCrunch: “We’re gonna have a breakthrough in the latrines,” he continued. He said that while the flushable toilet is the gold standard, it isn’t efficient at all. Someone is going to fix that, according to Gates. According to TechCrunch, Gates read many books on the subject, and later discussed investing in sanitation. “When it comes to things like investing in new toilets, not much money goes into that. You end up with the low IQ guy on the toilets.” The Gates Foundation has a strong history of philanthropic projects. In 2008, the organization began helping thousands of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia grow more productive, profitable and sustainable crops. Since 2006, they have committed more that $1.5 billion in grants to agricultural development efforts. Just last week, Reuters reported that the Foundation received a boost when investor Warren Buffett donated $1.78 billion to several charities, with over $19 million going to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Continue reading …India still has no idea who was behind the three explosions that killed 18 people in Mumbai yesterday, and the government has admitted it had no inkling the attacks were coming. “Whoever planned this attack worked in a very, very clandestine manner,” Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram told reporters yesterday,…
Continue reading …