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POPS"Stupidest Summer Ever" (by a former Republican) He concludes: I'm not trying to say that Democrats have a sparkling clean record or that this is anything particularly new. I expected to see a good deal of partisan sniping like we saw against Bush or Clinton during their administrations. But the level of stupidity on display this summer is just relentlessly, head-clutchingly astonishing.
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POPSNidal Hasan Terrorist Threat 'Not That Big a Deal'....Matthew Yglesias
I think a pretty good case can be made that this kind of situation actually is the main face of the terrorist threat. Not a big well-thought-out plot centrally directed from a “safe haven” in South Asia and undertaken by brilliant covert operatives, but the desperate violent act of a clearly disturbed individual. It’s going to be very hard to prevent this sort of thing. As long as the United States remains a country in which firearms are widely available"for the foreseeable future, in other words"we’re going to be unusually vulnerable to mentally ill spree killers of various kinds, including spree killers who nod in the direction of Islamist thinking. But the larger point is that while these incidents are serious crimes and major tragedies for the victims, they hardly rise to the level of a major macro-level social crisis. They’re certainly not a first-order national security threat. And even put in the lower-stakes context of violent crime in America
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POPSWhat’s Likely to Happen to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan? Perhaps what’s likely to occur, writes the Chron, is a court-martial under Article 2 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to punish offenses allegedly committed by a man wearing a U.S. military uniform against other military personnel on a military base. The Army’s Criminal Investigation Division is responsible for recommending charges, prompting the military equivalent of a grand jury, known as an Article 32 hearing, where both prosecutors and defense can present evidence. Those results would be reviewed by the base commander, who would decide whether to convene a court-martial. The 12-person jury would be composed of officers higher in rank than Hasan " lieutenant colonels and above. Lead Writer Ashby Jones The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog Before becoming a journalist, he worked as a litigator at a large law firm and clerked for a federal judge.
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POPSBioHacking: The Plot for the Next Real-life Blockbuster Thriller? Solitary citizens are toiling over test-tubes, sacrificing their time and money to create brand new lifeforms - but this isn't a science fiction movie, it's a hobby. "DIY Biochemistry" sees private citizens converting their dining rooms into DNA labs. It's only a pity that Michael Crichton has passed on, because we've got the plot of his next book right here.
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POPSParallels to Obamamania in ABC's "V" Sci-Fi Mini-Series An excerpt from Garvin's Sunday, November 1 Miami Herald review (“'V': The saucer-shaped bandwagon”), which the Chicago Tribune headlined “'V' aims at Obamamania.” Imagine this. At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care. The news media swoons in admiration -- one simpering anchorman even shouts at a reporter who asks a tough question: “Why don't you show some respect?!!” The public is likewise smitten, except for a few nut cases who circulate batty rumors on the Internet about the leader's origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed, offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit condescending: “Embracing change is never easy.”
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POPSDownload Street Dreams movie Free If you want to Watch "Street Dreams" dramatic movie that will shake you emotionally, you have come to the right website. Here you cannot only watch and download, but also burn a CD or a DVD with the original DVD quality print of Street Dreams movie.
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POPSOfficials: U.S. Army Told of Hasan's Contacts with al Qaeda The Associated Press reported Sunday that Major Hasan attended the Falls Church mosque when Awlaki was there. The Telegraph of London reported that Awlaki had made contact with two of the 9/11 hijackers when he was in San Diego. He denied any knowledge of the hijacking plot and was never charged with any crime. After an intensive investigation by the FBI , Awlaki moved to Yemen. People who knew or worked with Hasan say he seemed to have gradually become more radical in his disapproval of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. On Sunday, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) called for an investigation into whether the Army missed signs as to whether Hasan was an Islamic extremist. "If Hasan was showing signs, saying to people that he had become an Islamist extremist, the U.S. Army has to have a zero tolerance," Lieberman told Fox News Sunday. A fellow Army doctor who studied with Hasan, Val Finell, told ABC News, "He would frequently say he was a Muslim first and an American . .
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POPSNidal Hasan Bought A Para-Military Automatic Pistol With Armor-Piercing Capabilities The FBI dispatched agents from Austin, San Antonio and Waco to the scene, and pressed into service a 15-member forensic unit to help military police collect evidence. Agents from the bureau's Washington field office interviewed relatives, neighbors and friends who knew Hasan during his years in the Washington area. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also are on hand to help with weapons analysis. Investigators also focused on Guns Galore, a firearms store just down the highway from the mosque. Store owner David Cheadle said federal agents interviewed him about the sale of a FN Herstal Five-Seven pistol that was used in the shootings. "It is a popular choice for personal defense," Cheadle said, pulling one from his case, "but it's expensive" -- more than $1,100 at his store. The officials said a continuing search of Major Hasan’s computer indicates that he had logged on to Web sites that celebrated radical Islamic ideologies and that he had....
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POPSDana Milbank Is, as Mark Levin Describes Him, "A Punk, a Liar and a Coward" Constitutional attorney, bestselling author and hit radio show host Mark Levin certainly doesn't mince words. Alerted to Milbank's latest hit piece in The Washington Post, Levin called Milbank out as a propagandist of the first order. The reason: out of literally tens of thousands of patriotic signs and shirts at Thursday's Capitol Hill protest, Milbank picked out a handful as supposedly representative of a crowd he described as "hateful and gruesome." An outraged Levin called Milbank a "punk, a liar and a coward" while challenging him to a debate on his show. Here's a Nazi reference that Milbank might appreciate: I think of him as the Josef Goebbels of his age. He writes patent propaganda in service of the State. And I can prove it. Bubba visited DC for the rally and wandered through the crowd for hours taking scores of photos. I created a montage -- click to zoom if you'd like read the dozens of visible messages -- from his collection.
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POPSDispelling myths about meatless meals The right-wing blowhards getting their knickers in a twist over this is so amusing. Because it's indoctrination to teach kids that anything but meat for lunch is a good thing. How dare they! Like kids experiencing foregoing meat one meal a week is some sort of communist plot to weaken our children and make them susceptible to socialized medicine and nuclear disarmament or something.
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POPS Hunt For 9.11 Killers Finds Trail In Pakistan where his trail was just picked up by the Pakistan forces clearing out the hornet’s nest that is South Waziristan Agency: The suspected 9/11 plotter whose German passport was found in a mud hut in western Pakistan this week has not been in touch with his family for two years, his mother, Anneliese Bahaji, said in an telephone interview Friday. The Pakistani military said it found his German passport five days ago in a mud hut in the village of Sherwangai in South Waziristan, during a search operation. To me this is a good sign that Pakistan, US, NATO, Afghan forces are circling the last remnants of the al Qaeda brain trust and that we may finally get our hands on some long sought targets. Since being pushed out of Afghanistan, it has been my contention al Qaeda has been holed up in the tribal areas of Pakistan. This evidence, however, is a clear indication we may be marching to the big nest of bad guys. The violent responses in Pakistan to the military actions indicate we
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POPSObama Girls Spared Maoist Vaccination Indoctrination Wow. That’s a pretty loaded blog title. Maoist indoctrination? Hmmm. Well, I don’t buy into it being an excuse to declare martial law and enslave the white race. That’s a bit of a stretch. Engineered plague? Only if you buy into the martial law and enslavement thing, yeah I can see you believing this one too. But what really bites me is this swine flu vaccination is being shoved down our throat, and up our noses, under the guise of a national emergency while not nearly as many people have died from H1N1 as have those who get the regular flu every year and the Obama kids are not even going to be vaccinated. What’s up with that Mr. and Mrs. Obama? A money making scam for Big Pharma? Now this is a conspiracy I can sink my teeth into.
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POPSNational Novel Writing Month (2009) What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time. Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together. Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work. When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.
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POPS"No Shot" Wackos If you had something that's proven to prevent disease and suffering, you'd get it for the people you love the most — your children, wouldn't you? But suddenly, a bunch of cranks start saying its some kind of government plot, and people buy it, putting themselves, their children and everyone they come into contact with in danger? That's just stupid... dangerously stupid. The exact same technology and techniques that are protecting your children from diseases like polio and whooping cough are in those 'flu vaccines. It isn't anything new or dangerous, so get over your paranoia already... especially since the government is offering the shots for free! So leave your paranoia and conspiracy theories at home, and protect the people you care about. Get the inoculations, and stop being silly.
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POPSStudy Says Dabbling in Surrealism can Boost Your Brain Power During the study, Proulx and Steven J. Heine, a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia asked that participants to read an abridged and slightly edited version of Kafka"s "The Country Doctor," which involves a nonsensical -- and in some ways disturbing-series of events. And second group read a different version of the same short story, one that had been rewritten so that the plot and literary elements made sense.
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POPSMassachusetts Resident Charged With Plotting Jihad in U.S. . . booked at the Sudbury police station before being turned over to federal authorities. Federal agents have searched Mehanna’s home and say he is a U.S. citizen. A bail hearing has been scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in federal court. Abousamra left the United States for Syria on Dec. 26, 2006, officials said. He said he would be back within a month after visiting his wife, but has never returned, officials said. The plot included plans to fire at emergency responders, but was abandoned because the men could not obtain the weapons, authorities said. They declined to name the mall or mallsthe men were targeting. Automatic weapons may be more of a challenge, but if you can’t get your hands on guns, even in Massachusetts, you aren’t trying hard enough. It looks like the kind of bust that, during the Bush years, some people would have considered a joke. You don’t hear the sneering anymore. Instead, people behave and talk as though the threat is dated, passe, no longer a concern.
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POPS[SWITCH] Cool manga based on: "In the big city, drug crimes run rampant. Eto Kai and Kurabayashi Haru are two newcomer investigators who fight against them. In order to save people from modern society; poisoned with drugs, the two turn to face an invisible enemy..."
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POPSBritish High Court rejects U.S./British cover-up of torture evidence Yesterday, in a 38-page decision (.pdf), the Court reversed itself, and ruled that these paragraphs detailing Mohamed's torture should be publicly disclosed. It did so by making clear that, in essence, it simply did not believe that the U.S. would meaningfully reduce intelligence sharing; understood the Obama statements to be made at the request of British officials as a meaning of justifying ongoing concealment; interpreted the Obama administration to say only that disclosure "could" lead to reductions in intelligence-sharing, not that it "would"; and, most of all, that there are vital public interests that outweigh the minimal risk that the U.S. would withhold evidence of a terrorist plot from Britain as punishment for disclosure.
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POPS All-Aboard America: ObamaCare's Big Balloon Ride Hullabaloo: “We were working on an experimental craft. I call it the 3D-LAV, a low altitude-vehicle for people to pull out of their garages and hover over traffic for about 50 to 100 feet. It’s in the very early stages of the invention. But this little guy decided to kept going inside the utility compartment underneath. So anyway, this little guy got inside of it. I thought he did, anyway … “ OK, that’s not exactly how Digby put it. (With a nod to Fausta, who suggested in an email that Obama may want to pump some helium into his own ratings. She notes the Weather Channel is the only one he doesn’t dominate . Maybe, but it looks like some of the gas is coming out.)
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POPSSean Hannity helps Jerome Corsi promote his black-helicopter 'New World Order' conspiracy theories As Steven Thomma explained for McClatchy: In truth, Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., has proposed a bill that would order the Homeland Security Department to prepare national emergency centers — to provide temporary housing and medical facilities in national emergencies such as hurricanes. The bill also would allow the centers to be used to train first responders, and for "other appropriate needs, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security.
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POPSAuthorities Investigate Lake Elsinore Explosion My contact also says that the victim told the hospital it was a gun shot that blew up his hand, but doctors could obviously see that wasn't the case and alerted authorities. As my contact says. This could be as serious as domestic terrorism by a skinhead group, or as simple as a drug guy playing with explosives to protect his crop or lab. FBI Investigates California Man Injured by Explosive Device Investigators found explosives, a sophisticated marijuana growing facility and evidence that the home recently had been used as a state-licensed child care facility, Gutierrez said. "We do believe that when all this illegal activity was going on, that children were present," he said. However, no children were home at the time of the explosion, authorities said. Kuzelka's mother, Rebecca Kuzelka, 55, and brother Grey Kuzelka, 21, were arrested at the home for investigation of child endangerment, manufacture of explosives and cultivating marijuana
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POPSMichael Barone again Barone has the ability to cut to the bone with very little wasted space. He's like a surgical strike on Obamoid smartough diplomacy:
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