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POPS Veterans Day 2009: Thank you
They are casualties of war… and as far as I’m concerned, Sergeant Kimberly Munley, who took their cowardly attacker down, is a veteran today. The terrorist enemy doesn’t have a formal chain of command that can sign an armistice, they don’t muster on clearly defined battlefields, and they’re quite happy to benefit from the efforts of deranged fanboys. If we don’t stand behind our professional soldiers, and give them the tools to do their jobs now, we will all become soldiers before this enemy is defeated. Somewhere in the world tomorrow, an American soldier will ring in the eleventh hour of the eleventh day with gunfire. Another will arrive home after an honorable tour of duty, perhaps passing brothers and sisters in arms saying farewell to their families. A mother’s tears will fall on a letter from the far side of the world. Old veterans will spend a beautiful afternoon watching children play beneath the flag they raised at Anzio, Guadalcanal, Incheon, or Khe Sanh.
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POPSThe Hole at the Heart of Our Strategy ~ Mark Steyn ...to the “noble” “heroism” of suicide bombers and, indeed, objectively supporting the other side in an active war is to be regarded as just some kind of alternative lifestyle that adds to the general vibrancy of the base. Since 9/11, we have, as the Twitterers recommend, judged people by their actions " flying planes into skyscrapers, blowing themselves up in Bali nightclubs or London Tube trains, planting IEDs by the roadside in Baghdad or Tikrit. And on the whole we’re effective at responding with action of our own " taking out training camps in Afghanistan, rolling up insurgency networks in Fallujah and Ramadi, intercepting terror plots in London and Toronto and Dearborn. But we’re scrupulously non-judgmental about the ideology that drives a man to fly into a building or self-detonate on the subway, and thus we have a hole at the heart of our strategy. We use rhetorical conveniences like “radical Islam” or, if that seems a wee bit Islamophobic .......
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POPSReport: Dozens in Congress Under Ethics Scrutiny The inquiry involves lawmakers who steered appropriations to clients of a now-defunct lobbying firm and received campaign contributions from the firm and its clients. The names included three lawmakers previously identified in the inquiry: the chairman of the defense subcommittee, Murtha; and Reps. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., and James Moran, D-Va. The Post said others whose names were in the report included Reps. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., and Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan. The committee, however, has not announced an investigation of any of these lawmakers. A committee statement said its security was breached through "peer to peer file sharing software" by a junior employee who was working from home. The staff member was fired. The committee said it is investigating whether Rep. Maxine Waters used her influence to help a bank in which her husband owned stock, and whether the couple benefited as a result.
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POPSNY Times: Afghan Opium Kingpin On CIA Payroll What have I been sayin' for over a year? Just like in Vietnam the CIA is nose deep in the heroin trade--it's fuckin' OUTRAGEOUS and disgusting. Our people and innocent civilians die foe the obscene profits of Karzai and the Godamned CIA.
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POPSThe pocket spy: will your smartphone rat you out? More: Sports Tracker also recorded what time I normally leave the house in the morning and when I return from work. "If I wanted more information, then I could just stalk you," says Neil Buck, a senior analyst at DiskLabs.… "Out of context, an individual piece of information such as an SMS is almost meaningless," says Jones. "But when you have a large volume of information - a person's diary for the year, his emails, the plans he's building - and you start to put them together, you can make some interesting discoveries."
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POPSAnother Bad Idea
The cost of this cash handout? $13 billion. And Obama says that money cannot come out of social security trust funds. But, in typical Obama fashion, he offered absolutely no alternative way to pay for it. And get this – he’s willing to BORROW MORE MONEY to fund the payouts. Perfect! All the clowns who you’d expect to be in favor of tihs (Reid, Rangel, et al) naturally lined up to kiss ass praise Obama for this plan. People with Actual Brains, like Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) said it’d be inappropriate to mess with a system which was specifically designed to reflect the cost of living. In January, social security recipients saw their payments go up by nearly 6%, which was the largest increase since 1982. Apparently, it was to combat the rising costs of energy at that time. Meantime, the working population has seen, on average, 2% raises for the past couple of years. Did our energy costs not go up too? We’re not even going to SEE social security payments when we retire, for crying ou
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POPSWall Street Derivatives: So complex as to be "Computationall intractable" MORE: In principle, an alert buyer can detect tampering even if he doesn't know which asset classes are the lemons: he simply examines all 1000 CDOs and looks for a suspicious overrepresentation of some of the asset classes in some of the CDOs. What Arora et al. show is that is an NP-complete problem ("densest subgraph"). This problem is believed to be computationally intractable; thus, even the most alert buyer can't have enough computational power to do the analysis. Arora et al. show it's even worse than that: even after the buyer has lost a lot of money (because enough mortgages defaulted to devalue his "senior tranche"), he can't prove that that tampering occurred: he can't prove that the distribution of lemons wasn't random. This makes it hard to get recourse in court; it also makes it hard to regulate CDOs. Everyone on Wall Street... UP AGAINST THE WALL, THE LOT OF YOU BASTARDS!
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POPSThis is following what the Honduran Constitution says? This is better than Zelaya just wanting to ask people if they thought that the president should have a right to run for longer terms? This is what happens when right-wing radicals in government usurp democracy. A policeman shooting a 13-year-old boy? In the back, yet? Contact your congressmen and members of Parliament. Get them to pressure Honduras to put the rightful president, Manuel Zelaya back in power, and end this savage, illegal coup!
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POPSMosul From the New York Times archives BY REV. DR. BACON. March 20, 1852, Wednesday Page 1, 1249 words Dr. BACON gave his second lecture on Eastern Travels at the Tabernac'e last evening, The lecturer proposed briefly to speak of the Euphrates, the Tigris, and the adjacent countries. Tile section attended to embraces nearly all the countries noticed in the New Testament as having been visited by the Apostles of Christ--the regions most celebrated in ancient history Babylon and Tyre, the first of tile great empire cities and the Syrian kingdoms. From Diarbakir you descend the Tigris to Mosul ... The scenery is far surpassed by any ever seen by the lecturer. It banks are covered by ancient tombs and cities, and in one place where the ruins of a massive bridge, with some arches and towers, that in its time must have surpassed in strength and beauty, the bridges that span the Thames in London.
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POPS"Girl From Ipanema": Plenty Time To Get Toned and Tanned And I have a sneaking suspicion that after the hobnobbing is done, the IOC members will check their gift bags, look at the boxset of DVDs from Obama … Anyway, Obama probably just thinks this a fun, feel-good sideshow, stepping up for the home team. Doesn’t seem like that big a deal. What he probably hasn’t figured out is that, taken with a health-care failure, an Iran debacle, bucking the generals on Afghanistan, and that climate change thing that has “health-care redux” written all over it, being dissed by the IOC is going to make him look like an Olympic-sized loser. Can’t get anything done. Especially since the wife said it’s “gloves off” and “take no prisoners.” It’s a big gamble. This idea that you can treat not only your own top agenda items but actual serious national security concerns with less apparent interest than a big, expensive party for your hometown, and think there won’t be consequences.
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POPSPractice Run for What the Future Could be Like.
Four thousand police were on duty plus 2500 National Guard plus Coast Guard and Air Force and dozens of other security agencies. A thousand volunteers from other police forces were sworn in to help out. Police were dressed in battle gear, bulky black ninja turtle outfits: helmets with clear visors, strapped on body armor, shin guards, big boots, batons, and long guns. In addition to helicopters, the police had hundreds of cars and motorcycles , armored vehicles, monster trucks, small electric go-karts. There were even passenger vans screaming through town so stuffed with heavily armed ninja turtles that the side and rear doors remained open. No terrorists showed up at the G20. Since no terrorists showed up, those in charge of the heavily armed security forces chose to deploy their forces around those who were protesting. Not everyone is delighted that 20 countries control 80% of the world’s resources. Several thousand of them chose to express their displeasure by protest
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POPSThe 1,400 legal benefits of marriage in the US
More: spousal exemptions to property tax increases upon the death of one partner who is a co-owner of the home; veterans' discounts on medical care, education, and home loans; joint filing of tax returns; joint filing of customs claims when traveling; wrongful death benefits for a surviving partner and children; bereavement or sick leave to care for a partner or child; decision-making power with respect to whether a deceased partner will be cremated or not and where to bury him or her; crime victims' recovery benefits; loss of consortium tort benefits; domestic violence protection orders; judicial protections and evidentiary immunity; and more.... Most of these legal and economic benefits cannot be privately arranged or contracted for. For example, absent a legal (or civil) marriage, there is no guaranteed joint responsibility to the partner and to third parties (including children) in such areas as child support, debts to creditors, taxes, etc.
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POPS Cops in a Wii Bit of Trouble Your Tax dollars at work. A detective cataloging evidence repeatedly put down her work to bowl. When she hit two strikes in a row, she raised her arms above her head, jumping and kicking. Kind of makes me wonder if all the drugs were categorized or taken home along with some of that stolen property. Ha ha on you Police jerks.
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POPSGet Lost, Khadafy! Realtor Nixes Uptown Rental! Residents of Englewood, NJ, had already rejected his plan to stay at a home the Libyan Mission owns there, so diplomats approached Haber about the swank rental pad he was peddling at 5 E. 78th St. "They were very rude on the phone, and I asked who it was for. They said it was for a high-ranking member of the Libyan delegation, and they said there would be high security," he said. "It sounded more and more to me as we spoke that this was for Khadafy." But while only one of the building's three apartments was on the block -- a 3,700-square-foot duplex for $28,000 a month -- the Libyans insisted on renting the whole building. "At that point, I knew the deal couldn't happen, so I was hoping maybe I could solve an international political situation through a simple real-estate deal -- but I guess it wasn't meant to be," he said. Following that rejection, the Libyans finally settled on housing their leader at the country's East 48th Street mission.
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POPSBetraying Our Dead Defending America, By the Numbers: 8 years: The amount of time the Clinton administration had to get Osama bin Laden 8 months: The amount of time the Bush administration had to get Osama bin Laden leading up to 9/11 2 Times: The increase in the number of border agents, as well as funding for border security during Bush's presidency. 6 million+: The number of people attempting to enter the U.S. illegally who had been apprehended and sent home during Bush's presidency Zero: The number of attacks on American soil since 9/11. What party really has our best interest in mind when it comes to keeping the citizens of this country safe?
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POPSCheetah-dog partnership at the San Diego Zoo More: Finally, when they died of old age, we decided to continue this dog and cheetah tradition. Chobe and Jessie were the second generation; Karroo and Sven are one of three current cheetah/dog pairs. We even have a wolf/dog pair: Akela and Nala! Where you can find them Karroo, a female cheetah, and Sven, her canine counterpart, appear regularly in shows and at the Wild Animal Park's Cheetah Run Safari. Their trainers talk about endangered species, our breeding success with cheetahs at the Wild Animal Park, and the importance of conservation and recycling. Also, look for a plaque commemorating Anna and Arusha, our first dog and cheetah pair, at the entrance of their first home, the Wegeforth Bowl, which hosts our sea lion shows.
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POPSTea Party Bus Sponsor's Negligence Killed 23 Seniors In Fire, Blames Federal Government. Global Limo's owner Jim Maples even listed Global Charters as his employer when he gave $5000 to the RNC in 2004. *BusBank CEO Bill Maulsby blamed insufficient federal oversight, "We're not safety experts," he said. "We clearly need to depend on the federal government." In November 2006, a federal court convicted Maples and sentenced him to five years' probation for failure to maintain his buses. Investigators found 168 violations in Maples' four-bus fleet. The following month, US Fed News reported that BusBank had been awarded a Homeland Security contract worth up to $55 million. In June, BusBank and Global Limo settled out of court for a total of $11 million, a pittance when split between the families of the 23 victims and the patients who survived the crash. BusBank's legal troubles are far from over. According to one report, more lawsuits are getting underway this month.
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