Holiday procrastinators packed stores Friday morning, grabbing those last few presents, snagging gift cards and the finishing touches for Christmas dinner. For stores, this 11th-hour dash caps the best holiday season since 2007. (Dec. 24)
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Click here to view this media Vice President Joe Biden suggested Friday that it’s just a matter of time before same-sex marriage is legal in all US states. “I think the country is evolving,” Biden told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “I think there’s an inevitability for a national consensus on gay marriage.” Same-sex marriage is one issue where the president and the vice president don’t seem to agree. Obama has long supported civil unions but not marriage equality. “This is the president’s policy, but it is evolving,” Biden said. Earlier this week, Obama signed into law a measure that repeals the military’s ban on gays and lesbians serving openly. At a press conference following the signing event, ABC’s Jake Tapper gave the president a chance to explain whether his views on gay marriage had changed in light of the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” “Is it intellectually consistent to say that gay and lesbians should be able to fight and die for this country, but they should not be able to marry the people they love?” Tapper asked . “My feelings about this are constantly evolving,” Obama replied. “I struggle with this. I have friends, I have people who work for me who are in powerful, strong, long-lasting gay or lesbian unions and they are extraordinary people. And this is something that means a lot to them and they care deeply about.” “At this point, what I’ve said is that my baseline is a strong civil union that provides them the protections and the legal rights that married couples have and I think that’s the right thing to do,” he added. “But I recognize that from their perspective it is not enough. I think we are going to continue to debate and I personally am going to continue to wrestle with going forward,” Obama said. “It’s good to hear his views are not solidly where they have been, but he’s still not there on marriage,” Brian Moulton, chief legislative counsel of the Human Rights Campaign, told The Washington Post .
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The placebo effect even if you know it’s a placebo, the conglomerate approval of the Comcast-NBC merger, and the introduction of Google Body. These discoveries and more after the jump. On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies. The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top. You Can Have the Placebo Effect, Even If You Know It’s a Placebo A new study shows that patients taking placebos don’t have to think they’re getting real drugs to enjoy the placebo effect. FCC Chairman Approves Comcast-NBC Merger The chairman of the FCC has green-lighted the merger of Comcast and NBC Universal, to the dismay of consumer advocates who say a merger between the nation’s largest cable provider and a prominent broadcast network will create antitrust issues. Google Adds the Human Body to Its Search Functions On Dec. 16, Google released the first version of its Body Browser, a simulation of the human body. Users can travel, as in the 1980s movie “Innerspace,” through various layers of human anatomy, zooming in on internal organs, navigating around bones and peeling back layers of the human body until all that’s left are the stringy tangles of the nervous system. Should the Rise in Temporary Workers Scare Us? Temporary workers have been a growing segment of the labor force since the recovery began. In 2010, 26.2% of private sector hiring can be accounted for by temporary workers alone. My Name Is Dalu. I’ll Be Your Robot Tonight Service with a smile also comes with an electronic voice at the Dalu Robot restaurant, where the hotpot meals are not as famous yet as the staff who never lose their patience and never take tips. Community Radio Gets a Big Boost Little noticed but extremely important to progressives, on Saturday afternoon Congress also passed the Local Community Radio Act. This legislation opens up radio spectrum to hundreds, if not thousands, of local independent radio stations. Wikileaks: Documents Confirm US Plans Against Venezuela A substantial portion of the more than 1600 State Department documents Wikileaks has published during the past two weeks refer to the ongoing efforts of US diplomacy to isolate and counter the Venezuelan government. The 9 Biggest Conservative Lies About Taxes and Public Spending It’s difficult to know where to begin deconstructing conservative rhetoric on taxes and spending. It’s such a central part of their worldview, and yet it’s a view informed by a whole slew of falsehoods that have been repeated again and again during this year’s debates over the Bush tax cuts, public spending and the deficit. Former British Drug Chief: Legalize It All All illicit substances, including heroin and cocaine, should be legalised, according to a former drugs minister who will today become the most senior politician to push for a dramatic change in the strategy for tackling Britain’s drug problems. Related Entries December 23, 2010 Christmas Stocking December 23, 2010 Holiday Foreclosures
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Though politically vague and without immediate action, the Environment Protection Agency has announced it will put some regulative pressure on power plants and oil refineries to limit greenhouse gas emissions by the end of 2012. —JCL The New York Times: The Environmental Protection Agency announced a timetable on Thursday for issuing rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and oil refineries, signaling a resolve to press ahead on such regulation even as it faces stiffening opposition in Congress. The agency said it would propose performance standards for new and refurbished power plants next July, with final rules to be issued in May 2012. Proposed emissions standards for new oil refineries will be published next December, it said, with the final rules due in November 2012; rules for existing plants would come later. But the E.P.A. was vague on how stringent the rules would be and how deep a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions would result. Read more Related Entries December 24, 2010 Award Recognizes Uncompromising Change Makers December 23, 2010 Good News for the Places Where the Wild Things Are
Continue reading …When Governments Shortchange Their Pension Funds To Finance Tax Cuts, Misery Follows
December 24, 2010 No CommentWhen municipalities refuse to raise taxes to meet their obligations, this is what happens. Alabama prides itself on low taxes — but when you’re giving tax cuts against future earnings, you’ve essentially robbed the pension funds. We live in a society where Wall St. brokers must have their million dollar bonuses, but it’s somehow okay to stiff working people on their pensions. Maybe we should have a robust national pension instead of cutting Social Security! PRICHARD, Ala. — This struggling small city on the outskirts of Mobile was warned for years that if it did nothing, its pension fund would run out of money by 2009. Right on schedule, its fund ran dry. Then Prichard did something that pension experts say they have never seen before: it stopped sending monthly pension checks to its 150 retired workers, breaking a state law requiring it to pay its promised retirement benefits in full. Since then, Nettie Banks, 68, a retired Prichard police and fire dispatcher, has filed for bankruptcy. Alfred Arnold, a 66-year-old retired fire captain, has gone back to work as a shopping mall security guard to try to keep his house. Eddie Ragland, 59, a retired police captain, accepted help from colleagues, bake sales and collection jars after he was shot by a robber, leaving him badly wounded and unable to get to his new job as a police officer at the regional airport. Far worse was the retired fire marshal who died in June. Like many of the others, he was too young to collect Social Security. “When they found him, he had no electricity and no running water in his house,” said David Anders, 58, a retired district fire chief. “He was a proud enough man that he wouldn’t accept help.” The situation in Prichard is extremely unusual — the city has sought bankruptcy protection twice — but it proves that the unthinkable can, in fact, sometimes happen. And it stands as a warning to cities like Philadelphia and states like Illinois, whose pension funds are under great strain: if nothing changes, the money eventually does run out, and when that happens, misery and turmoil follow. It is not just the pensioners who suffer when a pension fund runs dry. If a city tried to follow the law and pay its pensioners with money from its annual operating budget, it would probably have to adopt large tax increases, or make huge service cuts, to come up with the money. Current city workers could find themselves paying into a pension plan that will not be there for their own retirements. In Prichard, some older workers have delayed retiring, since they cannot afford to give up their paychecks if no pension checks will follow.
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The folks at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) have lovingly referred to their latest contribution to the world of science as the “poor man’s X-FEL.” An X-FEL, or X-ray Free-electron Laser, is like a super strong video microscope that converts electrons to X-rays to observe high-speed molecular movement. TU/e’s super laser alternative depends solely on a very specific bunching of electrons to do the same thing, allowing for a much smaller (it fits on a tabletop), much cheaper setup. With an estimated cost of half a million euro, the laser is hardly cheap, but it’s far more affordable than the competition: Stanford ‘s X-FEL runs hundreds of millions of dollars, and measures a whole kilometer. TU/e researchers admit that their laser can’t do everything that an X-FEL can, but, hey, you get what you pay for. Up next for TU/e? In vitro pork products. Yummy. Dutch scientists develop half million euro, ‘affordable’ super laser originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Dec 2010 13:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Like a metaphorical piece of Swiss cheese, U.S. sanction policy is allegedly riddled with loopholes. A former Treasury official claims licenses to trade with blacklisted countries like Iran have been distributed to the tune of billions of dollars of profits, all at the behest of lobbying groups. Officials are worried about damaging U.S. “integrity” with such loopholes. —JCL The BBC: US sanctions tend to be riddled with exceptions that are neither humanitarian nor democracy-related, a former US sanctions official has said. Stuart Eizenstat, a deputy treasury secretary in the Clinton era, told the BBC World Service that such loopholes were created by lobbying groups. A New York Times report found evidence of US firms trading legally with blacklisted countries such as Iran. Read more Related Entries December 24, 2010 Award Recognizes Uncompromising Change Makers December 23, 2010 Good News for the Places Where the Wild Things Are
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Some 12 Israeli fighter jets flew over Lebanese territory Thursday, Lebanon Army says
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Version 2.0 of the app already brought support for the new Apple TV and the iPad, but Apple’s has now just released another more minor update to its Remote app for iOS devices that adds another much-anticipated feature: support for AirPlay video streaming. What’s more, the app now also boasts the ability to access internet radio stations from iTunes on your computer, as well as the ability to control movies and TV shows on your computer that are rented from iTunes — not to mention the usual stability and performance improvements. As always, it’s also completely free — you know where to find it. Apple Remote app updated for AirPlay video streaming originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Dec 2010 13:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Raising the debt ceiling will be one of many battles facing President Obama in 2011
December 24, 2010 No Comment
Click here to view this media Stuart Varney, a FOX News pro-business a-hole, was on during Megyn Kelly’s show yesterday and was all giddy because Republicans in the House passed a new rule which will make it tougher to pass legislation to raise the debt ceiling, House Republicans set to release their recommended rules changes Wednesday will change the names of several committees and repeal a rule making it more difficult to raise the debt ceiling. They will also require that all bills be posted online three days before a vote. {} The draft rules would repeal the “Gephardt Rule” that allows the House to raise the debt limit automatically when a conference report on the budget is approved. If the rule is repealed, a separate vote on raising the debt ceiling must be held. The Republicans will play chicken with Obama over the debt ceiling and of course the budget, which will come up, I believe, in March. How will the President handle these fights? Dan Pfeiffer says Obama will fight. Pfeiffer described 2011 as a “year with compromise and confrontation,” and on spending issues, he at least talked the language of confrontation. “The President is willing to draw tough lines in the sand… we’re not going to let the Republicans take the country in the wrong direction. You can’t make the car go faster by taking out the engine,” he concluded, referring to spending cuts. The President echoed some of these sentiments in his press conference yesterday , saying “I expect we’ll have a robust debate about this when we return from the holidays — a debate that will have to answer an increasingly urgent question — and that is how do we cut spending that we don’t need while making investments that we do need — investments in education, research and development, innovation, and the things that are essential to grow our economy over the long run, create jobs, and compete with every other nation in the world.” He’s made a distinction between “programs we don’t need” and programs that deserve investment, so the question becomes what programs does the President have in mind that are no longer necessary. As I said, Varney was very pleased that Republicans passed the new rule so they can hold hostage the government, which they hope will allow them to cut as much spending as they inhumanly can from the federal government. Varney makes the case that if Republicans don’t get what they want, they will at least threaten to shut down the government, which includes Medicare, Social Security and those screwed-up wars. Varney: There’s a new sheriff in town, it’s called the Republican Party that now runs the House of Representatives and they’re going to introduce new rules which will make it much more difficult-time consuming to raise that debt ceiling. You know it used to be automatic. That’s gone. Kelly: And if Republicans do freeze the debt ceiling it would mean the immediate succession of more than 40% of all federal government activities including Social Security, military operations in Afghan and Iraq, Homeland security, medicare, unemployment insurance. This would threaten the safety and economic security of all Americans. Why is he wrong? Varney: (Gleefuly) Oh, he’s not wrong. What we’ve done here is to raise the possibility of that happening if the Republicans don’t get their way on spending. It’s a political contest with the Republicans and the Democrats and President Obama. Who is going to win? What’s the price the Republicans will extract from raising the debt ceiling, what’s the price? They want to cut spending…The economist is right, You shut the government down and that’s a very serious thing. They will try to ram down spending cuts of all kinds to justify anything that the President will need when it comes to the purse strings. And Mitch McConnell already said ” just wait till next year ” which means that the GOP must rule or else. Doesn’t sound like Republicans want to be too bipartisan to me. Don’t look for the media to be offended if the government is shut down with some extra crispy obstructionism. They’ll salivate for it and hope it happens. Will the Obama administration finally call their bluff? The debt ceiling is now just a move on the game board for Republicans. The President should make them either shut down the government if they do indeed try to get him to cut spending on anything. Protecting Social Security will be one of my main goals in 2011.
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