30 January 2010

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid Census Commercial

A current PSA for the Census is pretty damn stupid.  Don't get me wrong, it is an enumerated power of the federal government in the Constitution and is necessary for apportionment of representatives.

What it is NOT for is figuring out how many school teachers a town needs from one year to the next!  Yes, that is what the stupid commercial is informing people.  'If we have x number of students this year, we need y number of teachers.  If we have x*2 students next year, we need y*2 teachers.'

Fine and nice-ish, if you were talking about the American Community Servey (NOT enumerated in the Constution), you only mention The Census, like it is the once every ten years one enumerated in the Constitution.

Note to the self-important federal government: The School System will know long before you compile your forms how many students are enrolled in their school system.

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Suki's Weekend Links: Obama SOTU, Super Bowl Ads, UN and UFOs

Post State of the Union Obama Drinking Game Results.  Pick one, pick a dozen!  Thousands to choose from!  Practice for next year!


Group warns UN that extraterrestrials live among us.
Obama ignores extraterrestrial threat in SOTU.


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29 January 2010

Morning News: Osama bin Laden and Nancy Pelosi

bin Laden blames US for Global Warming, calls for boycott of goods and the dollar.  Sounds like an Obama speech without so many "I"s. He also endorses Noam Chomsky's view of America.


Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, has condemned the US and other industrial economies, holding them responsible for the phenomenon of climate change.
In an audio tape obtained by Al Jazeera, bin Laden criticised George Bush, the former US president, for rejecting the Kyoto pact and condemned global corporations.


"This is a message to the whole world about those responsible for climate change and its repercussions - whether intentionally or unintentionally - and about the action we must take," bin Laden said.
"Speaking about climate change is not a matter of intellectual luxury - the phenomenon is an actual fact."


The tape follows one released earlier this week in which the al-Qaeda leader praised a Nigerian man accused of a failed attempt to blow up an airliner heading for Detroit on Christmas Day.
'Grave repercussions'
In the new recording, bin Laden says "all the industrial states" are to blame for climate change, "yet the majority of those states have signed the Kyoto Protocol and agreed to curb the emission of harmful gases".



He continued: "However, George Bush junior, preceded by [the US] congress, dismissed the agreement to placate giant corporations. And they are themselves standing behind speculation, monopoly and soaring living costs.



"They are also behind 'globalisation and its tragic implications'. And whenever the perpetrators are found guilty, the heads of state rush to rescue them using public money."
The Kyoto Protocol, a UN treaty aimed at combating global warming, was adopted in December 1997 and has since been ratified by 187 states, but not by the US congress.
Although a signatory to the agreement, the US under Bush refused to ratify the treaty, saying that it should contain binding goals for developing countries to reduce emissions as well as those for industrialised nations.
Targeting US dollar
In the new recording, bin Laden said: "Noam Chomsky [the US academic and political commentator] was correct when he compared the US policies to those of the Mafia. They are the true terrorists and therefore we should refrain from dealing in the US dollar and should try to get rid of this currency as early as possible.
"I am certain that such actions will have grave repercussions and huge impact."
While continuing to attack America, bin Laden's comments mark a shift from his earlier, more regionally focused commentary.
In his previous tape, bin Laden warned that there would be further attacks on the US unless Barack Obama, the current US president, took steps to resolve the Palestinian conflict.
The Obama administration dismissed bin Laden's comments on the earlier tape and said intelligence analysts had not confirmed that the voice was that of bin Laden.


Nancy Pelosi vows to get healthcare reform passed even if commando tactics are needed.
"We will go through the gate. If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn't work, we will parachute in. But we are going to get health care reform passed for the American people for their own personal health and economic security and for the important role that it will play in reducing the deficit."



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27 January 2010

Maobamathon

Watching the MaoBamathon the perfect way for someone my age.  In a bar, drinking at my own pace, no sound.  Biden has not yet caused me to spit beer across the bar.  Not yet.

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More Morning News: Jefferson Memorial Dancer Lawsuit Tossed Out


Jefferson Memorial dancer's suit against Park Service tossed



A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit that alleged the National Park Service violated the rights of a District woman who was arrested in 2008 for dancing with 17 others at the Jefferson Memorial.
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates ruled in a 26-page opinion Monday that the interior of the memorial is not a public forum where people might dance, even if they are silently boogying to music on headphones.
"The purpose of the memorial is to publicize Thomas Jefferson's legacy, so that critics and supporters alike may contemplate his place in history," Bates wrote. "The Park Service prohibits all demonstrations in the interior of the memorial, in order to maintain 'an atmosphere of calm, tranquillity, and reverence.'
"Prohibiting demonstrations is a reasonable means of ensuring a tranquil and contemplative mood at the Jefferson Memorial," the judge added.
The suit stems from a dance by Mary B. Oberwetter and her friends inside the memorial at 11:55 p.m. April 12, 2008, the eve of Jefferson's birthday.


"You know things are going south when all the sycophants are jumping ship. The other day it was Jon Stewart goofing on Obama's TelePrompter crutch, now today Obamagirl is having second thoughts.



I bet she's got the hots for Scott Brown."
Spotted at Hit & Run.
View Lobster Girl here.

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Avatar: Sort of Biggest Movie Ever



"Avatar" becomes king of the (box office) world



Self-proclaimed "king of the world" director James Cameron has just upstaged himself.
The filmmaker's sci-fi fantasy epic "Avatar" has surpassed his own 1997 record-setting disaster movie "Titanic" to become the highest-grossing movie ever, not accounting for ticket price inflation, foreign currency fluctuations and surcharges on 3-D screens.
Through Monday, "Avatar" racked up $1.85 billion in worldwide ticket sales, edging past "Titanic's" $1.84 billion -- a feat it achieved in less than 40 days, according to the film's distributor, 20th Century Fox.
"Avatar's" domestic take of $554.9 million still slightly trails "Titanic's" $600.7 million, but overseas it has taken in slightly more, $1.30 billion to the earlier film's $1.24 billion.
However, "Titanic" still rules the universe in terms of how many people went to see it compared to the number that have lined up for "Avatar."

China renames mountain after movie 'Avatar'

A mountain in Zhang Jiajie, Hunan Province in China was recently renamed "Avatar Hallelujah Mountain" because the local government said it is the prototype of the floating mountain in the movie Avatar.
"Pandora is too far away, but Zhang Jiajie is close. Welcome to Zhang Jiajie and explore a real Pandora world," read the government statement.
The government told local media the decision was made based on discussion with local residents.
"We hope the new name will help promote Zhang Jiajie to the world and bring us more tourists," said one of the local authorities.

That second image makes more sense if you know that China pulled Avatar from most of screens across the country because it was reminding the peasants how horrible their own government is.  Give us your tourists but we ain't showin' your movies!

Other Avatar coverage here and here.  My favorite Avatar site.

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26 January 2010

Never saw a toy review before: Aurora

Interesting here. A review of Aurora?  How common is this anyway?


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25 January 2010

Another Dick in the News: Christmas Bombing Try Is Hailed by bin Laden

From the NYT:

Christmas Bombing Try Is Hailed by bin Laden

WASHINGTON — Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, spoke publicly for the first time about the botched Christmas Day airliner bombing, praising the attempt — but not explicitly taking responsibility for it — in an audiotape broadcast Sunday that was aimed personally at President Obama.
An audiotape boradcast does not check the "spoke pubicly" block for me.  Any word from Fort Hood terrorist/murderer MAJ Hasan?  Same words, perhaps.

Mr. bin Laden said that the bombing attempt was a heroic act meant to recall the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington. He warned that more strikes against the United States were looming because of American support for what he called Israel’s repression of the Palestinians, one of Mr. bin Laden’s recurring themes in his occasional audiotaped anti-West invectives.
Sounds like it was written by Hasan.  Plus, bin Laden has a US President that one would think he would love.  Obama seems to want Israelis to willingly march into the sea.  Maybe not announcing that he wants them all shot is a step too short for bin Laden, so he addressed this tape to Obama.

Oh, for you terrorist embracing PLO, Hamas and Hezbollah loving types.  Stop denying that you are identical to al Qaeda, you are the same.  Okay, there are a few Marxists in your ranks, but everything else is the same.  You get your funding from the same idots who think they are donating to "schools and hospitals"  (honest brokers call them armories and ammunition caches).  You attack civilians as your primary targets.  You are all terrorists and so are the ones who support you.

“America will never dream of security unless we will have it in reality in Palestine,” Mr. bin Laden said. “God willing, our raids on you will continue as long as your support to the Israelis will continue.”

Mr. bin Laden said his statement was “from Osama to Obama.”

The one-minute recording, broadcast by Al Jazeera’s Arabic news channel, was the first time Mr. bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding in Pakistan near the Afghanistan border, had issued an audiotape in four months.
White House officials said they could not immediately authenticate the recording, but did not dispute that the voice was Mr. bin Laden’s. David Axelrod, a White House senior adviser, told CNN’s “State of the Union” that whatever the source, the message “contains the same hollow justification for the mass slaughter of innocents.”

It was not clear why Mr. bin Laden waited nearly a month to say anything about the Dec. 25 bombing attempt on Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit, which was carried out by a passenger who sought to detonate explosives sewn into his underwear but was overpowered by other passengers. Federal investigators have said the suspect, a 23-year-old Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, received training and the explosives in Yemen.

“The message delivered to you through the plane of the heroic warrior Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a confirmation of the previous messages sent by the heroes” of Sept. 11, Mr. bin Laden said.
More at the link above, to include a blurb for an al Qaeda expert quoted by the Times saying bin Laden is not claiming responsibility, he is just praising the December bombing attempt.

Other reports across the internet and on the air report the tape as a claim of responsibility.

Amy Alkon covers this too.


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A Dick in the News

Stupid?  Publicity stunt?  Both?  Ministry of Gossip reports.  You decide.

Andy Dick arrested. Again. While still on probation.

Comedian Andy Dick is out on bail after his arrest early this morning in West Virginia on two counts of felony sexual abuse. He is accused of grabbing the crotch of a bouncer at the Rum Runners bar in Huntington.




The managing partner of the Lucky Bone Comedy Club, which had hired Dick, posted the comic's $60,000 bail -- and surprise, Andy's "absolutely still on the schedule for Saturday and Sunday."



Such a shock this is, given Andy's choir-boy past.



The alcohol-monitoring bracelet he got in 2008 after pleading guilty to misdemeanor battery and pot possession -- related to the incident in which he allegedly pulled down a 17-year-old girl's tank top at a chicken wings restaurant -- was due to come off in October 2009. The probation? That wasn't due to come off for three years after the plea.


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24 January 2010

Jon Stewart vs. Olbermann, spotted on Hit & Run

Jon Stewart vs. Olbermann on Senator Brown, R-Mass.

h/t heller

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Suki's Other Weekend Links



Good morning world!



Car thief caught while playing GTA




UN Climate Change Expert Cites More Errors in Report


Asian terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba has purchased 50 para gliders from suppliers in Europe. The Indian Express discusses possible attacks in India.

From the Reason blog, Hit & Run:



The Art-P.O.G.|1.24.10 @ 10:02AM|

So apparently Lashkar-e-Toiba has seen Escsape From L.A.


Bruce Schneier reports for CNN that Google had email back doors ready for China to use, courtesy of complying with the US government.


Should have linked back to John's post on this.  Female terrorists in training or she is woman, hear her boom.




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