Monday, May 18, 2009

Around the Moronosphere in 60 Minutes 5/18/09

OK First Off I am stupid I misdated the last few of these so I need to go retitle them.

Now that I have confessed my retardation the roundup can begin.

Betsy - two related posts looking the effects of taxes on a states economic health:
Learn from California's mistakes and Voting with their feet.

Read and Learn people

Flopping Aces - Jim Webb comes to his senses - "Webb, however, has done a complete reversal from his original position on Gitmo stretching back to April 2007, when he not only advocated closing Gitmo, but either running the detainees thru the US judicial system, or declaring them prisoners of war."

Instapundit - The NY Times shows us how to kill a story.

Little Green Footballs - Muslim Brotherhood Faltering in Egypt - If true this is good news. Egypt has always been a leader in the Islamist movement. If it is faltering there that portends good things.

The Art of Manliness - Theodore Roosevelt Motivational Posters

Innocent Bystanders - Worlds Stupidist Video - This guy supposedly wants his girlfriend to forgive him for something but instead of apologing he makes an 8 minute video about what a stud he is. Missing the point I think. The cheese factor is awesome though.

The Other McCain - Centrist Geek at a Conservative Prom - I don't agree with everything McCain says here, for example on Bush and entitlement spending, yes he did bring in the prescription drug benefit, but he also tried to pass social security and medicare reform, but a lot of it is true.

Other Stuff:

Al-Jazeera - Pakistan holds Swat emergency talks - "Pakistan's prime minister has gathered political parties for emergency talks on the situation in the northwest, where security forces have entered two Taliban-held towns.

Yusuf Raza Gilani said the army would stay in the Swat valley until the more than one million displaced residents can return safely."

Dawn - Military closes in on Mingora, pounds militant targets - PESHAWAR: Military jets and helicopters on Monday bombarded militant targets in Swat, where troops entered strategic towns in a pincer thrust towards the Taliban-held capital of the northwest valley.

Pakistani authorities are claiming 1000 Taliban killed out of 4 to 5000 in the SWAT valley. If true that has to be devastating to the Taliban.

Pakistan rapidly adding to its nuclear arms, says US - WASHINGTON: In confidential congress briefings, members have been told that despite being racked by an insurgency, Pakistan is rapidly adding to its nuclear arsenal, raising doubts on Capitol Hill’s proposed military aid of billions of dollars being directed to Pakistan’s nuclear program, the New York Times reported.

but at least they're safe

Pakistan’s N-weapons are safe: Obama - NEW YORK: US President Barack Obama has expressed confidence that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are safe and said that the Pakistani military is equipped to prevent extremists from taking over the nuclear arsenal.

Fox News - Scholars Plan U.S.' First Four-Year Accredited Islamic College - PLAINSBORO, N.J. — A group of American Muslims, led by two prominent scholars, is moving closer to fulfilling a vision of founding the first four-year accredited Islamic college in the United States, what some are calling a "Muslim Georgetown."

No word on whether suicide bombing will be a required or elective course. (insert rimshot here) OK that was unfair I know not all Muslims are terrorists or suicide bombers but come the joke just had to be made. The bigger question I guess is will the cheerleaders be required to wear burkhas? OK Enough with the jokes back to the serious stuff.

France 24 - Thousands gather for protest in favour of a 'secular Turkey' - About 20,000 protesters gathered in Istanbul on Sunday, calling for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's resignation. The protesters accuse Erdogan of violating the nation's secular principles, as well as of mishandling the economy.

NY Times - Biblical Quotes Said to Adorn Pentagon Reports -WASHINGTON — A series of cover sheets for intelligence reports written for Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and other senior Pentagon officials during the early days of the war in Iraq in 2003 were adorned with biblical quotations, and appeared Sunday, six years later, on the Web site of GQ magazine.

...

Lawrence Di Rita, the Pentagon spokesman during Mr. Rumsfeld’s time as secretary of defense, said that he had no recollection of the biblical briefs, but that he doubted the famously acerbic and sometimes cranky secretary would have tolerated them for long, much less shared them with Mr. Bush.

“The suggestion that Rumsfeld would have used these reports to somehow curry favor over at the White House is pretty laughable,” Mr. Di Rita said. “He bristled anytime people put quotes or something extraneous on the reports he wanted to read.”

12 non consecutive cover sheets spread over a month. My opinion is someone was just trying to put together motivational images and quotes and not really thinking about the source but you judge for yourself.

Yahoo / Politico - Obama makes quiet play for GOP aid - President Barack Obama’s first date with House Republicans didn’t end so well: He made a high-profile trip to the Capitol to ask for their help with his economic stimulus plan, and they said no — unanimously, twice.

Now Obama is trying again — more quietly and with a smaller group of moderate Republicans who might be more willing to say yes. The goal: Try to get at least some Republicans to back big-ticket items such as Obama’s health care plan, but avoid the public spectacle of being rejected a second time around.

And suckers that we are the GOP will fall for it

,

No comments: