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POPSpork barrel politics (cont.)Legislation authorizing improvements in rivers and harbors, flood control and dams, construction of federal buildings, and highway construction traditionally caused members to scramble to get something in for their state or district. More recently, energy and defense appropriations bills have attracted pork barrel amendments. Members of Congress defend their pork barrel efforts as a way of more evenly distributing federal money throughout the nation. But critics charge that Congress often diverts funds to projects and places not out of national need but to enhance members' chances of reelection. Senator Norris Cotton (Republican–New Hampshire), who served on the Appropriations Committee, spoke for many when he ca
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POPSLehman Bros Failure Looms, Stock in Free Fall Bear Stearns was first, then Freddie and Fannie last week, now Lehman is at the plate, and Washington Mutual on deck. The latter two are likely to strike out financially like the previous, all in the ninth inning of Bush's term and an inept Congress. (Democrats scramble to freeze foreclosures in an election season, which only delays the inevitable for people who have defaulted, and further stresses lenders who cannot liquidate bad debt.) As the article says, if they do, the Fed will ride in, absorb the debt and print the money for it (causing a weaker dollar, and thus inflation), as the major banking institutions of America become virtually Nationalized, and the Government will then play the Collection agency for defaulted loans. The mirage of America's financial prosperity and stability is falling, and as the Fed chairman warned a week ago, the fallout has not even begun.
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POPSSkunk at the Party Convention Roll Call columnist Stan Collender plays skunk at the garden party by pointing to the immediate governing challenges that President Obama or McCain will face. In essence, with the Bush administration planning to punt on the 2010 budget, the incoming administration faces a scramble to get its budget in by early February 2009. We'd point out that there will be big-ticket bills to attend to as well, such as the highway bill, up for reauthorization in 2009 (for more, click here http://www.forbes.com/beltway/2008/05/21/washington-lobbying-transportation-biz-wash-cz_atg_0521beltway.html)
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POPSFrench neocolonialism in Africa Johann Hari looks at the way that France has managed to maintain control of its colonies in Africa by using its forces to keep pliant dictators in power. He suggests that there is a new scramble for control of African resources, led by the Chinese.
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POPSThere's Dollars Under The Melting Ice Cap Wouldn't you know it. Now it might be doubly profitable for Big Oil to ramp up global warming. Beneath those melting ice caps are vast fields of black gold and the rush is on to claim them. So take heart. There might be oil to run the boats our grandchildren will need to live in a warming, flooding world.
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POPStheir greatest crime of all--ignoring the climate change
He added that they should, in his opinion, "be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature… I anticipate testifying against relevant CEOs in future public trials." That's a novel thought in our nation's capital. Oh, and while he was at it, he probably should have thrown in George W., Dick C., and crew. What they haven't done (and what they've blocked from being done) over these last eight years may turn out to be their greatest crime of all. Talk about smoking guns... or is it melting ice? And here's the sad thing, as with so much else in these last years, the only way global warming has gotten the slightest respect in Bush's Washington is as a national security issue. Big surprise. The Navy, for instance, was already holding a symposium entitled "Naval operations in an Ice-Free Arctic" in April 2001; now, it seems that by 2010, or 2015 at the latest, it may have its wish -- an iceless Arctic Ocean in the summer for the first time in perhaps one million years and a scramble for
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POPSAs Gas Prices Rise “You can increase and decrease the number of police riding around in cars, and the public can’t tell the difference. You can increase the number of police out interacting with the community, and people can tell the difference very quickly.”
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POPSCommon Wealth: Sustainable future We are in one another's faces as never before, crowded into an interconnected society of global trade, migration, ideas and, yes, risk of pandemic diseases, terrorism, refugee movements and conflict. We also face a momentous choice. Continue on our current course, and the world is likely to experience growing conflicts between haves and have-nots, intensifying environmental catastrophes and downturns in living standards caused by interlocking crises of energy, water, food and violent conflict. Yet for a small annual investment of world income, undertaken cooperatively across the world, our generation can harness new technologies for clean energy, reliable food supplies, disease control and the end of extreme poverty.
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POPSBig Push for Big OIL- Drill-Drill-Drill The propaganda machinery is in full throttle push and these politicians that have missed their leadership role for 30 years. Energy independence is impossible without alternative energy and we missed the boat and now BIG OIL wants more fossil fuels and more profits. What crap shoot and the people are being led by their noses and gas tanks. The scramble has begun.
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POPSOops... Destroyed the Wrong Evidence! I love this one! It made me laugh :) mostly because I think these dolls are menace to the minds of young, impressionable girls... but then again, I was a huge Barbie fan and "those" before me thought the same about her! ANYWAY, I clipped this because I loved the judges comment / question... destroying the very evidence that could have helped your case in court (when you were trying to hide your porn)... priceless!
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POPSWhat Ideas Will Shape our Future? The 10 Ideas of the 21st Century "More than money, more than politics, ideas are the secret power that this planet runs on." "The 21st century will overturn many of our basic assumptions about economic life. The 20th century saw the end of European dominance of global politics and economics. The 21st century will see the end of American dominance too, as new powers make their voices heard on the world stage." "The challenges of sustainable development—protecting the environment, stabilizing the world's population, narrowing the gaps of rich and poor and ending extreme poverty—will render passé the very idea of competing nation-states that scramble for markets, power and resources." "The defining challenge of the 21st century will be to face the reality that humanity shares a common fate on a crowded planet." "6.6 billion people living in an interconnected global economy producing an astounding $60 trillion of output each year."
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POPSObama gains +5-9 Delegates in Iowa - Edwards delegates break for Obama
More: More than half the 14 delegates allocated to John Edwards on the basis of caucus night projections switched Saturday to Obama. Iowa Democratic Party officials said that with all of the delegates picked, Obama claimed 52 percent of the delegates elected at county conventions on Saturday, compared with 32 percent for Clinton. Some of the delegates picked at Saturday's conventions were sticking with Edwards, even though he's dropped from the race since Iowa held its caucuses in January. Democratic Party projections said the results mean Obama increased by nine the number of delegates he collects from the state, getting a total of 25 compared with 14 for Clinton and six for Edwards. Counting Saturday's new figures from Iowa and California, an Associated Press delegate tally showed Obama with 1,617 delegates and Clinton with 1,498. "It means the Obama people are very organized," said Iowa Chairman Scott Brennan. "They have been working very hard for these conventions."
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POPSJapanese Scramble to Spin Shooting Story The Japanese Coast Guard and the Japanese Fisheries Agency have stated to the media that the devices were flash grenades and that warning shots were fired. Only the Institute for Cetacean Research is denying that warning shots were fired and describing the flash grenades as “warning balls.” “I think the video tells the story,” said Sea Shepherd volunteer Laurens De Groot, a former police officer from Rotterdam. “I’m familiar with the devices thrown. They are the type of flash grenade that specially trained SWAT teams used to combat armed and dangerous criminals.” The Japanese claim that Captain Paul Watson is lying about being shot was expected. When Giles Lane and Benjamin Potts were tied to the mast of the Yusshin Maru No. 2, the Institute for Cetacean Research claimed it was a lie until the video images were released. Dr. David Page, the ship’s medical officer, has examined and verified that there were three injuries sustained, all severe bruises. Ralph Lowe from Melbourne
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POPSScramble To Curb Suicide Websites Hmm. I am all for protecting the vulnerable, but this smells a little too much like censorship, to me What else could or would governments decide to deem "harmful information"? Do I trust they always would have my best interests at heart, if they get to decide what we can read or not? In my opinion, the causes of suicide largely lie offline, not on. If we want to reduce suicide, look to answer the questions why first, now how. "Guns don't kill people", and neither do webpages.
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POPSFarcial Democratic Pileup The most formative period in the Clintons' lives were the 1960s -- years of fairy tales, drug use, and empty eloquence. But at the end of their march they find before the final door an incarnation of the dream which they must destroy in order to enter it. The essential egotism of their project from the beginning is exposed for all to see: raw power, not idealistic principle, fueled it, and it is altogether fitting that these icons of a destructive generation choose as their last victim one who embodies its best hopes.
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