For the second night in a row Tuesday, MSNBC's Ed Schultz called Republicans liars. Also for the second night in a row, he did so moments before lying himself (video follows with transcript and commentary): ED SCHULTZ: Republicans have been lying about tax cuts for years, but the new breed of conservatives, well, they have taken it to another level. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. ERIC CANTOR (R-VIRGINIA): Congress doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem. REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WISCONSIN): We don't have a revenue or a tax problem in Washington. They're already high enough. We have a spending problem. HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER (R-OHIO): We don't have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem. (END VIDEO CLIP) SCHULTZ: Okay. You hear the Republican leadership there. Boehner, Cantor, and Ryan. You know what? They are completely wrong. Let's go to big Eddie’s chart. We have charts every night. You know, what I have to do is I got to get a Republican to come up here and tell me these charts are wrong. Any time this buffoon wants someone on his program to prove him wrong, as Michael Jackson once sang, all he has to do is call and I’ll be there: SCHULTZ: Bill Clinton’s first budget was the fiscal year '93-'94. Now pay attention here, folks. It's an easy one. Even I can follow it. The green line, well that's federal revenue and the red line of course is spending. So when Clinton got in office, holy smokes. Look at that. We were just spending way too much money. And so what did they do in '94? They raise taxes. Why? Because they didn't have enough revenue and they wanted to balance the budget. So they raised taxes right here and here comes the revenue. Here comes the revenue. There's the spending held in check by those tax-and-spend Democrats. Not surprisingly, the guy that just seconds earlier said, “Republicans have been lying about tax cuts for years” claimed it was Democrats that held spending in check when Clinton was President. I guess he forgot that Republicans took over Congress in 1995 and that they’re the ones that held Clinton's spending in check for six of his eight years. But that was just the beginning of Schultz's falsehoods expressed in this opening segment: SCHULTZ: So look what happened. We have a cross right here in about '97-'98. All of a sudden the revenue goes above the spending and the spending stays below. Well here comes President Bush. President Bush comes in here in the year 2000 and look at this. He says, “You know what? We got too much money going into the Treasury. It's your money.” Remember, they used to go on the campaign trail and say, “It's your money. We want to give it back to you.” So they get this right here. 2000. Here come the tax cuts. Honestly, is this man such an idiot that he doesn’t know Clinton was still president in 2000 and Bush wasn’t inaugurated until the following year? Or that the first Bush tax cuts were also implemented in 2001? Exactly what credibility does this guy have when he can’t remember who was president ten and eleven years ago? But there’s still more…a lot more: SCHULTZ: Here come the tax cuts right here, and what do we have right after 9/11 and right after the tax cuts? We have a dip in revenue but look at this. The spending keeps going up because you know we had to fight them over there instead fight them of over here and of course this stuff, the wars, that was off budget. In fact, we were told by the vice president, “The deficits don't matter.” Remember that? Deficits didn't matter. That's what we were told by the last guys in charge. While the revenue went down the spending continued to go up. And then of course, here is the re-election, and of course we were told right here, “Well, if we don't re-elect this crowd we're going to get hit again.” Hmm. So then we keep on going through the Bush years and the revenue starts to come back a little bit but the spending just keeps going. Where was Cantor? Where was Boehner? Where was Ryan when this spending was going through the roof? Well, the guys that they were genuflecting to said the deficits didn't matter. So here comes President Obama. President Obama comes in in 2008. 2008? No, actually, Obama was inaugurated in 2009. Shouldn’t a political commentator on a major news network know that presidents are elected in even years and start their terms in odd years? If this was Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) or former Alaska governor Sarah Palin making these kinds of mistakes on national television, Schultz and all of his colleagues on this joke of a “news” network would be calling the guilty party an idiot that doesn’t understand the basics of our political system or recent American history. But there’s still more…a lot more: SCHULTZ: Here is the housing bubble. This is the housing bubble right here. Oh, man. We're selling homes like crazy. Aren't we? We're doing all these quick mortgages and what not and here comes the revenue and then boom. There is the housing bust. Notice how Schultz talked about the housing boom and how it drove tax revenues up, but he neglected to address the stock bubble during the Clinton years and how that also caused tax receipts to dramatically increase. In his mind – such as it is – the '90s expansion was exclusively caused by higher taxes. One of the biggest technological booms and stock market bubbles in American history had absolutely nothing to do with that recovery or the subsequent rise in tax receipts. And this guy has his own show on national television wherein he gets to relay such nonsense to the public without any challenge. Making matters worse, Schultz also didn’t mention how much the decline in revenues when Bush became President – in 2001 NOT 2000, by the way! – was impacted by the bursting of the tech stock bubble – a bubble that popped under Clinton. The resulting recession and associated decline in tax receipts was not mentioned as leaving a mess for Bush to attend to, but of course, everything Obama faced despite him having been part of the majority in Congress for the previous four years was all his predecessor’s fault: SCHULTZ: And of course here we sit, President Obama, he comes in and the revenue is dipping down because of what he inherited and what's he do? He spends money to get out of it because every economist on both sides of the aisle said you got to spend money to get out of this problem. Every economist on both sides of the aisle said we have to spend money to get out of that problem? This might be Schultz's biggest lie of the night! Conservative economists across the fruited plain were saying back then that Obama should cut taxes to solve the crisis not raise spending. In fact, when Obama first met with Republican leaders after he was inaugurated, they strongly suggested that tax cuts be the primary focus of any recovery plan he proposed. His answer was, “I won.” But there was still more: SCHULTZ: So now if you look at this, we have the largest gap between money spent and revenue being brought into the Treasury. The largest gap we've had, well, actually my board's not big enough. Can you believe that? I actually could take you back another 20 years. This is the largest gap. But remember, the Republicans are telling us that we don't have a revenue problem. This is where the American people are way ahead of the Congress. The American people see this graph and they know exactly how to fix it, and that's raise taxes. President Obama’s right in line. He has a plan to solve our revenue problem. It's called taxing the wealthy. The dishonesty on display here was disturbing to say the least. Nowhere did Schultz inform his viewers that the main reason for this “largest gap” was a $1.1 trillion increase in spending after the Democrats – including Obama – took over Congress. By the way, that would be 2007 and not 2006. Although tax receipts did indeed plummet by $464 billion from 2007 to 2009, by far the bulk of our current deficit was cause by the $1.1 trillion increase in spending that began when Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took the legislative reins. Schultz not informing his viewers of this was media malpractice at its worst. But potentially Schultz's largest transgression was telling his viewers that our whole budget problem can be solved by raising taxes on the so-called rich. We currently have a $1.65 trillion deficit. The budget Obama proposed in February produces close to $1 trillion shortfalls every year for the next ten. As NewsBusters reported last August, the liberal think tank the Brookings Institution claimed the annual cost of the Bush tax cuts on the so-called rich is $67.9 billion. If these cuts were eliminated as Obama and Schultz want, the reduction to our annual budget deficits would be negligible.
Continue reading …An executive accused of illegally profiting from inside knowledge of his company’s promising new cancer drug jumped to his death from an airport parking garage in New Jersey. Zizhong Fan, manager of clinical programming at Seattle Genetics, is believed to have shared insider information on clinical trials involving the company’s…
Continue reading …April 19, 2011. at 20:11 Skynet goes online Trailer: ss07 has snapped! re-release dance2kill 'Terminator' Creator: Cell Phones Are The New Skynet | TMZ.com Today is THE DAY that doomed all of humanity … because according to ” Terminator 2 ,” April 19, 2011 … at 8:11 PM … Skynet became self aware,… April 19, 2011: Skynet becomes self-aware tonight! – Pop2it – Zap2it Are you saying it’s from the future?” asked Sarah Connor. Well, the future is now. Skynet Becomes Self Aware, Twitter Notices | MovieViral Briefly: In the fictional historical/future timeline of the Terminator franchise (specifically The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Skynet , the artificial. Brace Yourselves: 'Terminator's' Skynet Is Becoming Self-Aware … Tuesday night, if the events depicted in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chonicles are to be believed, is the night that Skynet , the giant computer network, gains consciousness. In fact, that moment is supposed to take place at precisely … Happy Skynet Self-Awareness Day | A Day In The Life Of An … Gunnies, time to get your arsenals and head for your bunkers! And for you non-shooters, don’t come running up to my perimeter and begging for shelter. Documentally says: RT @loudmouthman : April 19th 2012 Skynet becomes Self Aware; joins Facebook and everyone refuses its Friend Request. That was the reason it attacked !
Continue reading …Teen avoids jail in Nitin Garg murder case Back at School After 9 Years Teenager charged over murder of Nitin Garg Teen pleads guilty to Nitin Garg murder : World News Australia on SBS A Melbourne teenager has pleaded guilty to murdering Indian student Nitin Garg . Aussie teen pleads guilty to Indian student Nitin Garg's murder … Nitin Garg . An unnamed 16-year-old Australian has pleaded guilty to the murder of Indian student Nitin Garg — a case that strained bilateral relations. Garg, 21, was stabbed inCruickshankPark, Yarraville, on his way to work at Hungry … Australian teen admits killing Indian student Nitin Garg | The … An Australian teenager pleaded guilty on Wednesday to the stabbing murder of Nitin Garg , the worst in a series of violent crimes against students from India. Australian teen pleads guilty to killing Indian student Nitin Garg … PTI | Apr 20, 2011, 10.25am IST MELBOURNE: A 16-year-old boy on Wednesday pleaded guilty to killing Indian student Nitin Garg , a crime which threatened Australia’s ties with India. The teenager, whose identity has not been revealed, … Guilty plea over Nitin Garg death – Herald Sun | News 1 Guilty plea over Nitin Garg death. Herald Sun The 16-year-old, who cannot be named, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to charges of murder and attempted robbery. Mr Garg, 21, was attacked in Cruickshank Park, Yarraville, about 9.30pm … hyderabadtimes says: Australian teen admits killing Indian student Nitin Garg http://bit.ly/h50WTF
Continue reading …Scientists poring over satellite images and topographical charts have discovered a flood of new islands. A new study has identified 657 new barrier islands around the world, bringing the total number of islands in the world to 2,149, LiveScience reports. Such islands tend to occur in chains, forming a…
Continue reading …SriHarikota – 18th launch Of PSLV -Indiaecho.com PSLV-C16 successfully launched by ISRO ISRO’s PSLV C-16 Launch-SriHariKota-Indiaecho.com ISRO successfully launches PSLV-C16 – India News – IBNLive The Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO ) on Wednesday successfully launched Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C16 from Sriharikota. ISRO has launched PSLV C16 Successfully. |QualityPoint Technologies Last year saw the dramatic back-to-back failures of two of the larger rockets, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, that plunged down into the Bay of Bengal; Four ISRO made satellites failed one after the other. … ISRO PLSV-C16 launched successfully ISRO’s homegrown workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle placed in a ‘Polar Sun Synchronous Orbit’ Resourcesat-2, Youthsat and X-Sat about 18 minutes after it blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre launch pad here, … ISRO's PSLV-C16 Launch has been successful at SHAR in sriharikota … ISRO’s PSLV-C16 Launch has been successful at SHAR in sriharikota. PSLV-C16 has been successfully launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. The launch is made as per the schedule i.e. April 20, … India launches Resourcesat-2, two other satellites (Second Lead) On a bright morning at 10.12 a.m., the Indian Spac…Apart from its main cargo – advanced earth observa…Just over 18 minutes after the blast-off, the rock…Immediately after the ejections, ISRO with its net… pallarajasekhar says: # ISRO SPACE LOADING ███████████████████░ 100% COMPLETING AT ORBIT
Continue reading …Candlelight vigil for UNC student Ross Higuchi Tee_kay18 says: RT @lukegcoolhand RT @DOPEITSDEREK RIP Ross Higuchi
Continue reading …Lonely Planet ‘s Tom Hall has tips on how to see the world by yacht to where to find a small, family-friendly campsite in France I am looking into working on boats/yachts as a deckhand as a way of seeing the world. Can you or any of the readers recommend any websites/forums. I was looking to take the STCW 95 course as this seems like it may lead to paid employment rather than just volunteering in exchange for travel. Peepeeheenaz The idea of working on a yacht as a way to travel is, happily, still possible. As you might imagine it is highly competitive and you need a few breaks to get started and a strong work ethic to keep getting jobs. Getting started is still, in time-honoured fashion, a case of “dockwalking” – going boat to boat – in resorts such as Cannes, Nice and Monaco, but the best spots, according to Bethany Silcox, writer of the Fun Sized Adventures blog ( funsizedadventures.wordpress.com ) who has several years of crewing on superyachts under her belt, are Antibes and Palma de Mallorca. These are, she says, “the two Mediterranean superyacht hubs. You will find plenty of crew agents who help you to tweak your CV, perfect your ‘yachtie look’ and help you to find a position. Both superyacht hubs are equipped with crew houses (hostels for yachties) and plenty of bars for ‘networking’.” Should you be daunted by the cost of taking a course to get started, consider also Bethany’s advice: “Monetary investment in your career is recuperated relatively quickly with competitive salaries and expenses covered by the boat.” The STCW 95 you mention (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping certificate ( stcw.org ), the qualification that is legally required to work on board a sail or motor yacht over 24 metres in length, and is increasingly being asked for by owners of smaller vessels) may be enough to get you started, but you may also find that your rivals for crewing jobs also have diving, powerboat or waterspouts qualifications that can give them an edge. You can take the basic STCW 95 seafaring course at centres around Britain. It costs around £800 and takes five days. Once you get a job, you can expect to work hard and sleep little when guests are on board, but enjoy normal working hours and the perks of working on a very fancy boat and calling at plenty of different, interesting places at quieter times. That should be enough to get you started. The RYA ( rya.org.uk ) has plenty of information about training. Have a look also at The Crew Report ( thecrewreport.com/superyacht_crew_homepage.asp ) and crew agency sites such as Luxury Yacht Group ( luxyachts.com/default.aspx ). Should you find yourself crewing in Bora Bora of somewhere equally idyllic then be sure to drop me a line and let me know. I’m planning to go to Namibia in May/June and then on to Victoria Falls and I have a couple of questions. 1.) How safe is the Zimbabwe side of the Falls these days? 2.) Would you recommend Lüderitz in southern Namibia or going somewhere in the Zambia area after the falls? We have a spare two days in our schedule and are not sure where to use them. Dasaidanglo The Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls is safe to visit and tourists are starting to return to what was originally the main visitor area for the natural wonder. If you’re going over the next few months you should certainly book ahead, though you will find the Zambian side substantially busier. Visas for Zimbabwe can be obtained at the border (£35/US$55, bring cash) and it is certainly worth seeing the Falls from both sides. This must be one of the world’s most astonishing border crossings. I did it by bicycle two years ago and it was the noisiest, most spectacular bridge crossing I have ever made. The Falls should be very full of water at this time of year, at the start of winter after the end of the rainy season. I spent a few days around Chobe national park in Botswana on my visit, which is close to the Falls and offers a fun border crossing over the Zambezi on a rusty ferry. Lüderitz would be a much longer journey and as super as this part of Namibia is, you’ll have seen much of the country already so may wish to pause in somewhere green and pleasant, which this part of Botswana certainly is. My partner and I are hoping to do a fly-drive in Portugal in September. We’re hoping to spend a week or so travelling the Douro area and hope that it will be round about the time of the grape harvest. How advanced is vino-tourism in Portugal? Are we likely to be able to explore and enjoy any of the vineyards – and is there anywhere we can go for more information? Silverandroid As you might expect from one of the world’s oldest wine regions the answer to your second question is an emphatic yes. You’ll find no shortage of vintners offering you a tasting, often with a fine meal to go with it. The back roads which hug the steep contours of the Alto Douro wine country are pretty wonderful too. Driving up the river from Porto you’ll find plenty of quintas (wineries) to pause at along the way. The best place to look is at Rota do Vinho do Porto ( rvp.pt ), which lists dozens of vineyards which accept visitors. There’s more than just fine port and wine here. The hilltop town of Vila Nova de Foz Côa – one end of the superb drive from Pinhão is close to a superb collection of Palaeolithic cave art. Do deviate along the road, too, even unpromising spots like São João da Pesqueira have beautiful historic centres and leave the package tours behind. Here’s a thought: as you explore such a beautiful place and enjoy great wines and excellent food you’re also helping the Portuguese economy. It’s almost your duty to go. Visit Portugal ( visitportugal.com ) can help with planning too. I am going to France camping with my family (two girls, six and three, myself and hubby) for three weeks (looking around Nantes area). We can go any time from July to August. Any recommendations in terms of price? We would love a simple, “French” campsite in easy reach of the area’s beaches but seem to only find huge complexes on Google or very “English” sites. KassieB This is a common question – where in France can you find the kind of fun, informal, smaller campsites that have become much more commonplace in the UK over recent years. While France is still the world’s best camping destination, with a very canvas-friendly culture, proximity to the UK and friendly atmospheres at sites across the country it can be tricky to find sites that offer a little intimacy. Cool Camping France (Punk Publishing) has just published a second edition and is a good place to start, with 100 campsites on a variety of budgets. The sites ran by Camping Indigo ( camping-indigo.com ) should also fit the bill for what you’re looking for. Of course, camping buffs will be way ahead of me, offering suggestions at Rural Camping in France ( rural-camping.com ) and the Dutch site Kleine Campings Frankrijk ( kleinecampingsinfrankrijk.nl ; in English). Readers suggestions are most welcome. Boating holidays Working holidays Namibia Zimbabwe Zambia Camping France guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Juan of the Dead, set in contemporary Cuba and satirising social mores of Castro years, to get international release this summer Mysterious attacks break out across the island, leaving the victims disfigured and drenched in blood. The government and state media blame US-backed dissidents and assure the population the situation is under control. But as the attacks spread, Juan, a fortysomething loafer in Havana, identifies the true culprit – a plague of zombies – and does what Cubans traditionally do in times of crisis: becomes a capitalist. He sets up a business, Juan of the Dead, and makes a quick profit ridding customers of infected loved ones by bashing, smashing and stomping out their brains. Welcome to the world of Cuba’s first feature-length horror film in half a century, a gore-filled black comedy which satirises social mores in the twilight of Castro rule. “It makes obsverations about who we are,” Alejandro Brugués, the director and writer, said. “A government which blames the US for everything. A people who are very passive. And then when confronted with a crisis we go into business.” Juan of the Dead, whose title echoes the British 2004 zombie film Shaun of the Dead, is in post-production and due to be released in Cuba and internationally at the end of summer. One publicity poster features bloodied hands reaching for Havana’s Capitol and a tagline that reads: “Fifty years after the Cuban revolution a new one is about to start.” The reported $2.7m budget – much of it spent on heavily made-up monster hordes who chase the hero and his friends through Havana and into the ocean – makes it a blockbuster by Cuban standards. Most of the money came from Spanish backers but the state-run Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Industry and Arts (ICAIC) also chipped in. Brugués, 34, who has made one previous feature, Personal Belongings , said he grew up adoring US zombie movies and it seemed natural to make one in a city worn down by scarcity and resignation. “I was walking through Havana one day and looked at the expressions on people’s faces. Zombies. They didn’t even need make-up.” Juan of the Dead is rooted in a contemporary Cuban setting, but is not a political satire about a communist state edging towards a market economy, said Inti Herrera, an executive producer. “Zombie films are typically in an Anglo-Saxon context and we wanted this one to be contextualised here in Havana.” The director and producer are both graduates of Cuba’s International School of Film and Television. At 100 minutes, Juan of the Dead is believed to be Cuba’s first feature-length horror movie since the 1959 revolution. A handful of arthouse classics such as Death of a Bureaucract were made in the 60s, and Strawberry And Chocolate, which dealt with gays rights, made an Oscar-nominated splash in 1994, but otherwise Cuban cinema has had limited international impact. It remains to be seen whether its imminent gorefest will join Shaun of the Dead and Sam Raimi’s 1981 The Evil Dead as a classic of its genre. Key scenes were shot on the Malecon seafront with tight camera angles to give the impression of a depopulated city. Municipal rubbish collectors who found a zombie head thought it was the real thing and summoned police. The plot blends horror tropes with Cuban twists. Juan, played by Alexis Díaz de Villegas, in real life a stage director and drama professor, is a layabout loser who senses opportunity when flesh-eaters turn on friends and family. With the government paralysed, he sets up a lucrative service offering to eradicate infected loved ones “for a reasonable price”. He uses martial skills learned during Cuba’s military intervention in Angola and recruits his daughter and sidekicks into the business. It echoes the plot of Ghostbusters, except the Havana crew uses catapults, baseball bats and other objects to pound zombies to a pulp. In real life, Cubans are adept at finding opportunity in crisis. To supplement average state wages of $20 a month many have black market sidelines. Economic disasters such as the loss of Soviet Union subsidies in the 1990s, and the financial crunch since 2008, have fuelled commercial creativity. Juan’s enterprise founders, however, when zombies wipe out his client base and he must consider that other staple Cuban response to crisis: take to the sea and flee the island. Cuba Fidel Castro Raúl Castro Horror Rory Carroll guardian.co.uk
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