1838 - The telegraph was demonstrated for the first time in public at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, New Jersey.
1930 - The first diesel-engine automobile trip was completed this day.
1942 - The first commercial around-the-world airline flight took place today.
COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT!
"To work hard, to live hard, to die hard, and then to go to Hell after all would be too damned hard."
-- Carl Sandburg
FROM THE CHURCH OF INEFFABLE STUPIDITY:
a) "God has ordained my selection."
The father of his very own 2fer, Roland and Rolanda, the former Illinois Attorney General who ignored staffers' strong warnings, and tried to convict an innocent man of murder, even after the actual killer confessed, the man who lost, badly, in his previous runs for governor and the US Senate, and the man appointed to the US Senate by the second most corrupt governor in America, Roland Burris arrived in DC today to accept a seat which will not be open to him.
Oh, and Roland, not only is there no god, she did not ordain your senate seat.
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b) Palinoscopy, Ver. 3.1.1
Levi, the son of a drug dealing mom, the unwed father (Ahem, on edit, "baby daddy") of Family Values Candidate Sarah Palin's daughter, both of whom are high school drop outs, is back in the news.
Apparently Wassilly Sarah managed to accomplish two more ethically questionable moves. She got her State Police to delay Levi's mom's arrest UNTIL AFTER THE ELECTION; and she got Levi a job for which he did not have the basic qualifications. So he did what seems natural to the Palin family - he dropped out again.
Levi Johnston, the boyfriend of Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol, has quit his North Slope oil field job over questions about his eligibility to work in an electrical apprenticeship program, Johnston's father said Monday.
Johnston, 18, began working this fall in the Milne Point oil field with ASRC Energy Services Inc., a major Slope contractor.
In a Sunday newspaper column, Anchorage radio talk show host Dan Fagan questioned how Johnston could take part in ASRC's apprenticeship program without a high school diploma.
http://www.adn.com/...
A great 2fer. Levi and Bristol dropped out of high skule, and both now can really, truly, honestly, really get married, because his work doesn't interfere with his family life anymore.
To the GOP supporters of Ms. Family Values, the rest of America cannot tell you how proud and excited we are for you, especially those of you who are putting all your chips on the race horse from Wassilly. Please, don't ever stop. She's young! She can be your candidate for the next 12 years!
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c) Ruth Marcus - WaPo's very own Village Idiot
It is no surprise that a paper that suffers with Deb Howell as its class clown, apologist extra-ordinaire, and pseudo ombudsman, or Fred Hiatt as it's prolific, purulent publisher/editor, that it would have its writers support those who torture, start wars based on lies, or steal America blind through organized, massive contractor fraud in Iraq.
Put simply, rather than punish war crimes committed by US war criminals, (that would be you, Dick Cheney), she wants us to forgive and forget.
Let's see. Did we forgive and forget when German death squads exterminated millions of jews? Did we forgive and forget when we tried, convicted, and put to death Japanese leaders who ordered waterboarding and torture of US and British POWs?
If you ever wanted to be entertained by a collection of illogical, rambling, apologist ravings of a neocon loving loon,
Ruth Marcus is here for you:
When Vice President Dick Cheney acknowledges having participated in the development of "enhanced interrogation" policies that most civilized people consider torture, when he expresses his approval of the use of waterboarding to obtain information from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, is he subjecting himself to -- should he be subjected to -- prosecution for war crimes? Should President Bush, on his way out of office, issue the Carter equivalent of a blanket pardon to officials who crafted and participated in torture in the interrogation and surveillance programs? Should the new administration launch criminal investigations of its predecessors or turn the page to a new era?
---
In the current unspooling, I unexpectedly find myself more in the camp of Reagan than Nields. I understand -- I even share -- Nields's anger over the insult to the rule of law. Yet I'm coming to the conclusion that what's most crucial here is ensuring that these mistakes are not repeated. In the end, that may be more important than punishing those who acted wrongly in pursuit of what they thought was right.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
that's right. forgive and forget. Let the criminals be pardoned.
Because.
Glen Greenwald has a great article on this pathetic excuse of an argument. His allegorical example about murder perfectly shows how baseless Ruth's argument is here:
http://www.salon.com/...
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d) Bernie Madoff with even more
Bernie, Bernie, Bernie. This move wasn't even close to smart. Trying to hide millions in jewels and watches by sending them to family as "gifts?"
Contending that Bernard L. Madoff sent at least a million dollars worth of jewelry as gifts to family members and friends last month, federal prosecutors asked a judge on Monday to revoke his bail and send him to jail.
Mr. Madoff, who has been free after posting bail of $10 million when he was charged last month with securities fraud, remained free after the hearing pending a ruling by the magistrate judge, Ronald L. Ellis of United States District Court in Manhattan.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Considering how hard it was for the US to waste $700,000,000 on a badly built embassy in Baghdad, even while your contractors were stealing you blind, it is almost impossible to realize how large $52 BILLION dollars really is. And to squander, steal, lose or fraudulently remove $52 Billion - now, that really took a brilliant scamming criminal mind. That is why such a petty crime, hiding mere millions in assets from the feds, seems so beneath Bernie.
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e) Pastor Ag's Sneed Watch
Chicago Suntimes' worstwhile gossip monger, Michael Sneed, has two things in common with Condi Rice: they both think George Bush has done a great job, and on any specific decision, you can count on both of them agreeing - and being absolutely wrong.
So, given her questionable, eyebrow raising, love affair with Wassilly Sarah Palin, it is notable that for 12 straight days, she (Sneed) has not mentioned her girl-idol once.
Of course, today's was the first gossip column in 12 days, too.
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F) OH NO! CONDI WARNING! CONDI WARNING!
MSNBC just announced that Condi Rice is heading to the UN to fix the Gaza Strip problem.
There goes the neighborhood.
Unfortunately, what she and George are really trying to do is create a fixed, unworkable situation in which this administration binds the new administration and prevents it from changing America's policies towards the region generally, and Israel specifically.
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"There was never a good war or a bad peace."
Benjamin Franklin