Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Socialist Leader: "Obama's No Socialist. I Should Know"

As yet another confirmation that conservatives throwing around the word "socialist" have absolutely no clue what socialism really is, the editor of the Socialist Party's monthly magazine assures Americans and Republican obstructionists/revisionists that President Obama is far, far from being a socialist. He may not even be a true liberal.

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Drug-Legalizing Cop Wins Back His Free Speech Rights

SEATTLE, WA -- A Mountlake Terrace police sergeant who was fired after publicly criticizing the "war on drugs" has reached an $812,500 settlement in a lawsuit he filed against the city and police department, among others.

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MI cops shoot unarmed, 20-year-old marijuana activist

Coming through an apartment's back door, an Ottawa County deputy allegedly shined a flashlight into the student's face, causing him to raise his right hand in front of his eyes. The officer, whose name was not released, fired a single bullet into Derek Copp's chest. The 20-year-old said he had no idea the man was an officer. -=W/ VIDEOS=-

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Small Banks Thrive As Giants Fall

Financial giants are wobbling. Lending is tight. The FDIC is murder on start-ups. But there's never been a better time for a small bank. Since last summer, at least 30 groups have filed to start new banks.

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Obama Orders Treasury Chief to Try to Block A.I.G. Bonuses

The president said that he has instructed Timothy F. Geithner to “pursue every single legal avenue” to block bonuses to the insurer’s top executives.

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Americans Are Rearing for a Fight with Corporate Power

3/4 of Americans want to see a huge worker protection bill pass through Congress, and corporate America is working up a feverish panic over the very notion of linking the term "employees" with the concept of free choice.

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Ten Ideas That Are Changing the World Right Now

In the face of economic contraction, we're rethinking things we used to take for granted. Amid all the anxiety out there, if there's a theme this year, it's renewal. This is not false hope or irrational optimism but the power of ideas and innovation to transform the world and us.

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Women in Congo Speak out about Brutal Rapes

Despite taboos, under a U.N. program women and girls in the Congo who have been viciously tortured and maimed have begun coming forward and naming what was done. One sign of success is that more men than women have volunteered for training to encourage victims to come forward and their communities to confront the issues.

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Americans Want Justice for Wall Street Crooks: Ralph Nader

Jailtime not bailtime! Here are seven avoidance indicators which outline what Washington is not doing to prevent another round of greed and misdeeds by the Wall Street few against the innocent many throughout the country.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders: Time to Prosecute Bank CEOs

I have introduced legislation calling for a thorough investigation of the financial meltdown and the prosecution of those CEOs who might be guilty of illegal behavior. The culture of greed, fraud and excessive speculation must come to an end.

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Atlantic City shows gambling isn't recession-proof

Business at Atlantic City's 11 casinos is falling at a record pace. Aggregate revenue plunged 19.2 percent in February from a year earlier, the sharpest decline in the 30 years since gambling was legalized in the city, according to the New Jersey Casino Control Commission.

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American Legion Opposes Obama Plan to Charge War Wounded

The leader of the nation's largest veterans organization says he is "deeply disappointed and concerned" after a meeting with President Obama today to discuss a proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans who have suffered service-connected disabilities and injuries.

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6 Year Old Boy with 176 IQ

"Pranav Veera, 6, can recite the names of the U.S. presidents in the order they served in office. He can say the alphabet backward. Give him a date back to 2000, and he'll tell you the day of the week . . ."

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U.S. Military Deserters Once Again Flock to Canada

Looks like this time they picked the wrong country.

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Israel could use ballistic missiles against Iran

Ballistic missiles could be Israel's weapon of choice against Iranian nuclear facilities if it decides on a pre-emptive attack and deems air strikes too risky, according to a report by a Washington think-tank.

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Apple criticized for iPod shuffle's new 'authentication chip

Apple this weekend was hit with a media assault after reports suggested that a mysterious authentication chip in the third-generation iPod shuffle, responsible for supporting the player's new headphone-integrated playback controls, signaled a rogue attempt on the company's part to block third parties from developing their own replacement headphones

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AIG executives should take responsibility - Sen. Charles Grassley

Expressions of outrage across the political spectrum reached a new crescendo Tuesday when Sen. Charles Grassley suggested in an Iowa City radio interview that AIG executives should take a Japanese approach toward accepting responsibility for the collapse of the insurance giant by resigning or killing themselves.

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Engadget - Live from Apple's iPhone OS 3.0 preview event

Live blogging from Apple's iPhone OS 3.0 preview event

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The 10 Best St. Patrick's Day Festivals in the U.S.

St. Patrick’s Day started out as a religious holiday commemorating the patron saint of Ireland. Today “St. Paddy’s” in America has become a celebration of Irish food, culture, and drink, as well as anything having to do with the color green. Typically observed with loud music, dancing, parades and green beer, St. Patrick’s Day festivities...

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Family Guy Wins Court Battle Citing Fair Use

"Creators of the U.S. television show Family Guy did not infringe copyright when they transformed the song When You Wish Upon a Star for comical use in an episode, a U.S. judge ruled . . ."

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NFL Union Uses Background Check to Select New Leader

NFL Players elected DeMaurice Smith as their new union leader after a background check revealed that the front runner, former NFL Player Troy Vincent, had been involved in controversial business dealings. Congratulations to the union for making an informed decision based on a thorough employment background check.

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NFLPA Elects Smith, Potential NFL Work Stoppage On Horizon?

The NFLPA has elected DeMaurice Smith to serve as their new Executive Director. Smith wins based on vision on how he would plan to lead the NFLPA through the upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL.

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Josh McDaniels part of Bill Belichick's evil plan

Bill Belichick is working to destroy all other competition in the NFL by tricking the other franchises into hiring his assistants, who promptly make these team uncompetitive and disfunctional. The Denver Broncos and the Kansas City Chiefs are the latest victims of this cheating scandal which far surpasses the earlier spy-gate scandal in scope.

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Trauma Response Center grabs NFL star's heart

Albert Haynesworth, who recently signed with the Washington Redskins, tours the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, falls in love with the mission and the couseling center's therapy dog Courtney, opens up about his past and decides to chair a fundraising event, Survivor: Celebrate! Tampa Bay on March 21, to party for a purpose!

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Patriots close to acquiring defensive end Julius Peppers

NFL.com’s Vic Carucci is reporting that the Patriots are close to acquiring Panthers’ defensive end Julius Peppers for a second round draft pick.

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Top 10: NFL's Most Injured Teams

A painful look at the 10 most injured teams in the league.

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More Week 3 Pro Day Workouts From Top 10 Schools

Don’t be surprised if the Pittsburgh Steelers select an Ohio State player come April’s NFL Draft.

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NFL players may have died hours after boat toppled

The lone survivor, Nick Schuyler, told the Coast Guard that one by one, the other three men took off their life vests and disappeared during the ordeal that began the evening of Feb. 28, according to a 23-page report provided to The Associated Press Monday under a Freedom of Information Act request.

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Radio host Don Imus announces on air he has prostate cancer

More at Inside Bay Area: “Controversial radio host Don Imus announced on the air Monday morning that he has Stage 2 prostate cancer.
Colleagues said the cancer was considered treatable and that the prognosis was good.
"The day you find out is fine," Imus told his listeners on the "Imus in the Morning" show. "But the next morning when you get up, your knees are shaking. I didn't think I could make it to work."”

Israeli forces shoot American activist Tristan Anderson

IWant Democracy Now -- US Consul General Says Awaiting Israeli Report on IDF Shooting of American Citizen

An American activist from Oakland, California was critically injured Friday when Israeli soldiers fired a tear gas canister directly at his head at the close of a weekly nonviolent protest against the wall in the West Bank village of Nalin. Thirty-seven-year old Tristan Anderson underwent brain surgery on Saturday, and parts of his right frontal lobe and shattered bone fragments were removed. He remains in critical condition. We go to the hospital in Tel Aviv to speak with Andersons partner, Gabrielle Silverman, and to Andrew Parker, the US Consul General in Tel Aviv.

Chaos at 'America's Next Top Model' Audition in Manhattan

From NewsPoliticalNews - Pandemonium erupted outside of an "America's Next Top Model" casting call at CW Studios in midtown Saturday when an overheating car triggered a stampede of catwalk-craving cuties. Screaming as they ran for their lives, hundreds of hotties in heels toppled over barricades along W. 55th St. after several people in the crowd started yelling, "There's a bomb!"

Immigrants not welcome in the U.S.? The Irish weren't.

While the history of the "No Irish Need Apply" signs may have grown in the telling, there was resistance to Irish immigration to the United States; the Ku Klux Klan greeted the newcomers (with their unpopular Christian religion and their strangely fair skin) with the intolerance, rumors about lifestyle, and prejudice previously reserved for non-white people. Perhaps the KKK was confused by the term "Black Irish." There is abundant evidence that such "NINA" signs were prevalent among a certain class in London in the early 1800s, (the British had famously broken away from the Catholic Church under Henry VIII) and scattered elsewhere throughout continental Europe, and no doubt they appeared in the USA as many Irish were fleeing violence and famine in their native land - arriving in America full of dreams and hope.

Regardless, today the President of the United States, Barack Obama, traces some of his ancestry to the Emerald Isle, and one of the better-known "ethnic" holidays in the USA is St. Patrick's Day, and people from all walks of life will take note of it today. Many will adopt caricatures of Irishness for the day, hats fit for a Leprechaun, green buttons and shirts saying "Kiss me, I'm Irish!" as they celebrate Irish culture, tradition, and people. Reporters and journalists across the country will cover people across the country enjoying parades and parties where people sing in faux accents, marvel about Irish jigs, drink beverages from Ireland, and put an O in front of their last name while overlooking the fact they'd never venture into a Catholic church and aren't quite sure how to pronounce shillelagh.

This is a success Americans could do well to reflect on as they consider their current struggle with immigration laws and issues. More than a president noted for an ethnically rich heritage, the United States is a country strengthened by the nature of being an alloy of many cultures and philosophies. The Irish endured invasions over the centuries, yet retained a unique (albeit somewhat misunderstood) cultural identity: both unity and diversity persist proudly on that one smallish island. Surely there is room in the United States for all who dream of freedom and hope to improve their lives.
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
It's time for the great minds of American leadership to embrace the American dream, to bring immigrants who treasure the opportunities embodied into our constitution into full participation in our way of life. They must be required to abide by our laws, to value their citizenship and patriotism as highly as their neighbors, to participate in our democracy in every way, and if they don't want to participate wearing green on St. Patrick's Day they must at least recognize that it's about more than a Catholic saint - it's about valuing diversity by walking a mile in somebody else's shoes for one day each year.



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Star Trek Movie: Where Are The Black Men?

There's a lack of Black men in the Star Trek trailers and director J.J. Abrams called and invited Tyler Perry to be in the movie to make up for the oversight

Star Trek Movie: Where Are The Black Men?

There's a lack of Black men in the Star Trek trailers and director J.J. Abrams called and invited Tyler Perry to be in the movie to make up for the oversight