Welcome! "What's Happenin'?" is a casual community diary (a daily series, 8:30 AM Eastern on weekdays, 10 AM on weekends and holidays) where you can hang out, talk about what is going on with you, listen to music, talk about the news and the goings on here and everywhere.
Maybe you have seen some news stories that you think are not receiving enough attention and you'd like to post links to them. Maybe you'd like to just chat among friends about your life, your health, your family or social circle, your pets, etc. You can also post links to your own writings here on dkos or elsewhere. Perhaps you want to share some pictures or music or links to other things. This is your kind of place to talk about what's happening.
Just about anything goes, but attacks and pie fights are not welcome here. If that is what you want, find another place to do it. This is a community diary and a friendly, peaceful, supportive place for people to interact. This diary series is produced by the TeamDFH group but anyone who wants to join in peaceful interaction is welcome.
Good Morning!
|
Drop in any time of day or night to say hello. |
 |
Forgiveness
John Greenleaf Whittier
My heart was heavy, for its trust had been
Abused, its kindness answered with foul wrong;
So, turning gloomily from my fellow-men,
One summer Sabbath day I strolled among
The green mounds of the village burial-place;
Where, pondering how all human love and hate
Find one sad level; and how, soon or late,
Wronged and wrongdoer, each with meekened face,
And cold hands folded over a still heart,
Pass the green threshold of our common grave,
Whither all footsteps tend, whence none depart,
Awed for myself, and pitying my race,
Our common sorrow, like a mighty wave,
Swept all my pride away, and trembling I forgave!
|
|
|
|
News
"The US believes".....remember when that actually carried weight?
Iran supplying weapons to Syria crackdown: US officials
WASHINGTON — The United States believes Iran is supplying munitions to aid Syria's bloody protest crackdown in an initiative spearheaded by Tehran's revolutionary guard supremo, according to senior US officials.
Qasem Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps elite Quds force, was in the Syrian capital this month, one official said on Friday, in what Washington sees as the most concrete sign yet that Iranian aid to Syria includes military hardware.
"We are confident that he was received at the highest levels of the Syrian government, including by President Assad," the official said on condition of anonymity.
Ah, I feel for the Egyptian people. We know what its like when someone promises change, and then....
ElBaradei pulls out of Egypt vote, faults generals
Mohamed ElBaradei pulled out of the race for the Egyptian presidency on Saturday, the Nobel Peace Prize winner saying "the previous regime" was still running the country which has been governed by army generals since Hosni Mubarak was deposed.
"My conscience does not permit me to run for the presidency or any other official position unless it is within a real democratic system," said the former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, once seen a leading contender for the presidency.
ElBaradei has been a vocal critic of the military council which has been governing Egypt since Mubarak was toppled in February, swept from power by mass protests driven by demands for accountable and democratic government.
Stability! Yay! The world is safe for business!!!!
Taiwan's China-friendly president wins re-election
Taiwan's president won re-election Saturday, paving the way for a continuation of the China-friendly policies that have delighted Beijing and Washington, and caused consternation among some in Taiwan worried about the durability of their de facto independence.
With about 99 percent of the vote counted, the official Central Election Commission said President Ma Ying-jeou had garnered 51.6 percent of the total against 45.6 percent for Tsai Ing-wen of the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party. A third candidate, James Soong, once a heavyweight with Ma's Nationalist Party, had 2.8 percent.
Ma's Nationalist Party also retained control of the 113-seat legislature, though with a reduced majority.
This is all foreign policy theater. Since we are fed nothing but lies, my inclination is to believe the exact opposite.
U.S. Warns Israel on Strike
U.S. defense leaders are increasingly concerned that Israel is preparing to take military action against Iran, over U.S. objections, and have stepped up contingency planning to safeguard U.S. facilities in the region in case of a conflict.
President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other top officials have delivered a string of private messages to Israeli leaders warning about the dire consequences of a strike. The U.S. wants Israel to give more time for the effects of sanctions and other measures intended to force Iran to abandon its perceived efforts to build nuclear weapons.
Stepping up the pressure, Mr. Obama spoke by telephone on Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and U.S. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will meet with Israeli military officials in Tel Aviv next week.
How sad. So much tragedy for this family.
Source: John Edwards has life-threatening heart condition
A federal judge disclosed Friday that former presidential candidate John Edwards has a life-threatening heart condition, a court source confirmed to CNN.
Edwards had sought a delay in his criminal corruption trial, scheduled to begin this month.
Attorneys and the federal judge met in a North Carolina courtroom Friday afternoon for a status hearing regarding the pending trial of Edwards, a former U.S. senator.
Why does the government take so much care to negotiate with "white-collar" criminals, but they crack down heavily on the medical marijuana dispensaries in California?
Attorneys General, Frustrated With National Foreclosure Settlement, Consider Alternate Course
Attorneys general or representatives from nearly 15 states met in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to discuss and share different enforcement options and strategies around various mortgage-related issues, according to sources familiar with the conversation.
The meeting was prompted by the slow pace at which a national foreclosure settlement led by the Obama administration is progressing, and is likely to be the first in a series, said these sources.
The participating attorneys general, from states including California, Nevada, Delaware, Massachusetts and New York, discussed how they could possibly join together to investigate and potentially file lawsuits against abusive mortgage lenders and servicers. Principals or representatives also attended from Hawaii, New Hampshire, Missouri, Mississippi, Maryland, Kentucky, Minnesota, Oregon and Montana.
Oops
Transplant team drops heart on way to hospital
In urgent medical situations, there's always a risk that frenzied professionals may drop the ball. When rushing to a Mexico City hospital for a transplant, some medics did just that - by dropping a human heart.
For the life-saving operation, a helicopter was used to deliver the heart in "a rapid, precision maneuver," Mexico City police told the Associated Press.
But after exiting the chopper, a medic stumbled, and the plastic-wrapped heart tumbled out of a cooler and onto the street.
Sometimes, size matters!
New Storage Device Is Very Small, at 12 Atoms
Researchers at I.B.M. have stored and retrieved digital 1s and 0s from an array of just 12 atoms, pushing the boundaries of the magnetic storage of information to the edge of what is possible.
The findings, being reported Thursday in the journal Science, could help lead to a new class of nanomaterials for a generation of memory chips and disk drives that will not only have greater capabilities than the current silicon-based computers but will consume significantly less power. And they may offer a new direction for research in quantum computing.
“Magnetic materials are extremely useful and strategically important to many major economies, but there aren’t that many of them,” said Shan X. Wang, director of the Center for Magnetic Nanotechnology at Stanford University. “To make a brand new material is very intriguing and scientifically very important.”
