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POPSThe Freedom Index To learn how any representative or senator voted on the key measures described herein, look him or her up in the vote charts. The scores are derived by dividing a congressman’s constitutional votes (pluses) by the total number he cast (pluses and minuses) and multiplying by 100.
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POPSGamers Make Better Surgeons Yet another study, by Fordham University, measured the effect of learning a new video game on problem-solving skills in middle school aged children. It found that "playing video games can improve cognitive and perceptual skills." "Certain types of video games can have beneficial effects improving gamers' dexterity as well as their ability to problem solve - attributes that have proven useful not only to students but to surgeons," the researchers found. There are actually "games" where you perform virtual operations, BTW.
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POPS"Stillborn Baby" Comes Back to Life The baby was then taken to the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit for further treatment, but doctors were not sure how long she would live. Motti Ravid, a professor of internal medicine, told Israel's Channel 10 that the low temperature inside the cooler had slowed down the baby's metabolism and likely helped her survive. What a wonderful miracle!
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POPSShould The US Join The ICC??? McCain thinks so! Here is another article on the opinions of candidates who were are still are in the race for POTUS. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/02/MNLUU4LBH.DTL
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POPSThe Dangers of Having a "Maverick" as POTUS
McCain’s top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, was until recently a paid lobbyist for Georgia’s government. McCain also announced this week that two of his closest allies, Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), would travel to Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi on his behalf, after a similar journey by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The extent of McCain’s involvement in the military conflict in Georgia appears remarkable among presidential candidates, who traditionally have kept some distance from unfolding crises out of deference to whoever is occupying the White House. The episode also follows months of sustained GOP criticism of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who was accused of acting too presidential for, among other things, briefly adopting a campaign seal and taking a trip abroad that included a huge rally in Berlin. Obama made a speech and shook hands w/ people. He was criticized for meddling in foreign policy.
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POPS"You Furnish the Pictures and I'll Furnish the War" Both repeatedly called for armed intervention, then later, all-out war. The atrocities General Weyler committed in Cuba were massively hyped and sensationalized in the US newspapers, then engaged in a practice known as "yellow journalism". The two kingpins of the press at the time were William R. Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, who were embroiled in a vicious circulation war, in which Hearst even "stole" Pulitzer's most popular writers by convincing them to defect through promises of money and positions. Hearst's major publication was the New York Journal and Pulitzer's publication was the New York World. In order to grow their circulations, both men were willing to go so far as to make up stories. The Spanish-American War was not the height of Hearst's power. Afterwards, he continued to grow his media empire for several decades, and even successfully ran for a seat in Congress. Hearst was the rough basis for the wealthy journalist-baron in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.
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POPSSpanish-American War The U.S. government was also moved by the heavy losses of American investment in Cuba caused by the guerrilla warfare, an appreciation of the strategic importance of the island to Central America and a projected isthmian canal there, and a growing sense of U.S. power in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere. There was an unspoken threat of intervention. This grew sharper after the insurgents, refusing a Spanish offer of partial autonomy, determined to fight for full freedom. The warfare that commenced was short and very one-sided. Peace was arranged by the Treaty of Paris signed Dec. 10, 1898 (ratified by the U.S. Senate, Feb. 6, 1899). The Spanish Empire was practically dissolved. Cuba was freed, but under U.S. tutelage by terms of the Platt Amendment (see under Platt, Orville), with Spain assuming the Cuban debt. Puerto Rico and Guam were ceded to the United States as indemnity, and the Philippines were surrendered to the United States for a payment of $20 million.
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POPS12-year-old US Girl Escapes Georgian Crisis Watch her interview, it has already been taken down on some sites for some reason. Also the part where she states that Georgia was the aggressor has been omitted from a few, this was how she saw it as, she was in it.
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POPSI do not have time to waste on Bill Kristol’s musings Powell’s spokeswoman Peggy Cifrino echoed the former Secretary of State, saying there is “no truth” to Kristol’s claim. “I have no idea why Bill Kristol would be making this statement. There is no imminent endorsement,” Cifrino said. Ouch, what an idiot Kristol is. My favorite part is when Powell said, “I do not have time to waste on Bill Kristol’s musings,”. Score one Colin Powell and ZERO for the clown named Bill Kristol.
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POPSAdmiral: Scrap Enlistment Age Limits Here, here! I agree! I hear Rush Limbaugh has gotten himself into shape, this would allow him the chance to make up for avoiding Vietnam! Ted Nugent too, I heard an interview where he expressed regret for showing up with urine and fecal matter in his pants to avoid being drafted for Nam! He's in pretty good shape for his age.
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POPSIt's Good to be a Corporation in US! More than 38,000 foreign corporations had no tax liability in 2005 and 1.2 million U.S. companies paid no income tax, the GAO said. Combined, the companies had $2.5 trillion in sales. About 25 percent of the U.S. corporations not paying corporate taxes were considered large corporations, meaning they had at least $250 million in assets or $50 million in receipts. The GAO said it analyzed data from the Internal Revenue Service, examining samples of corporate returns for the years 1998 through 2005. For 2005, for example, it reviewed 110,003 tax returns from among more than 1.2 million corporations doing business in the U.S. Dorgan and Levin have complained about companies abusing transfer prices -- amounts charged on transactions between companies in a group, such as a parent and subsidiary. In some cases, multinational companies can manipulate transfer prices to shift income from higher to lower tax jurisdictions, cutting their tax liabilities.
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POPSWhat?! The Weather Channel Has Been Muzzled? More on this here: http://www.ncac.org/science/20051004~USA~NOAA_Restricts_Scientists_Access_to_the_Press.cfm Well, if our government has done this, I am sure there was a very good reason. The weather stations were probably asking for it, rogue reporting and such!
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POPSPolitical Interference of the Surgeon General (No way!) Surely they are lying! There is no way they controlled free speech! I am astonished that they would even suggest such things! Like this: On the increasing politicization of the Surgeon General's position: -Previous Surgeon Generals agreed that: "never had they seen Washington, D.C. so partisan or a new Surgeon General so politically challenged and marginalized as during my tenure." -" he reality is that the nation's doctor has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget, and with supervisors who are political appointees with partisan agendas. Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological, or political agenda is ignored, marginalized, or simply buried." - "Politicians in the late 1960s decided that the Office of the Surgeon General should be disempowered and its authorities placed within offices of Department of Health and Human Services political appointees."
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POPS200 Years of Diplomatic Relations~ US and Russia Highlights of Russian-American cooperation: Russia-U.S. trade has been growing by nearly 30% a year since 2004, exceeding $25 billion in 2006. In 2006, U.S. investments in Russia increased by nearly 50%. There are now more than 800 U.S. companies operating in Russia. They have created over 100,000 jobs. Russia is the second largest buyer of American Boeing 787 aircraft after Japan. In turn, the Boeing Corporation intends to buy titanium from Russia. In 2007, the United States issued nearly 20% more visas to Russian tourists and businesspeople, and 30% more to students, compared to last year. Over 90% of Russian applicants were granted US visas.
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POPS Limited US attack on Iranian Revolutionary Guards Bases in Sight Tehran would view a US attack on the IRGC bases as a casus belli and might react in ways and on a scale unanticipated in Washington. Two days ago, Iran’s defense minister Gen. Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar warned: “Iran’s Armed Forces are fully prepared to counter any military attack with any intensity and to make the enemy regret initiating any such incursions.” According to DEBKAfile’s Iranian and military sources, the IRGC had by mid-May completed their preparations for a US missile, air or commando assault on their command centers and bases in reprisal for Iranian intervention in Iraq. These preparations encompass al Qods’ arms, most of them undercover, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Sudan. At home, the Revolutionary Guards have evacuated their key bases together with manpower and equipment to regular army sites or temporary quarters in villages located in remote corners of eastern and northern Iran.
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