Wimps

NATO shortcomings ‘could jeopardise Libya mission’ | The Raw Story

BRUSSELS (AFP) – US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned on Friday that military shortcomings among NATO members could jeopardise the alliance's air war in Libya....

"Furthermore, the mightiest military alliance in history is only 11 weeks into an operation against a poorly armed regime in a sparsely populated country -- yet many allies are beginning to run short of munitions, requiring the US, once more, to make up the difference," he told the Security and Defence Agenda think-tank.

Also, if we've been bombing the place for eleven weeks how come it isn't flattened yet? These NATO guys just aren't trying hard enough.

Duck!

Chocolate Chip Mint: 17,782 Ducks get in line at Magnuson Park

Rubber ducks make up world's longest row of rubber ducks in Seattle, WA, Sunday, June 5, 2011. Yellow rubber ducks stretched one mile long at Warren G. Magnuson Park.

Pix at the link

Picky, picky

H/T Charlie

And the really bad thing is, this is believable

White House considers CFPB’s Raj Date, an Elizabeth Warren adviser, for top job - The Washington Post

The White House is considering naming a senior staffer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to lead the agency as the deadline for its launch draws near...

Raj Date joined the bureau in February as associate director of research, markets and regulations, overseeing its work on key issues such as credit cards and mortgages. He is one of the top lieutenants to Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor appointed by President Obama to set up the agency....

Warren has become a lightning rod for criticism from Republicans, and the White House hopes Date’s decade of financial experience working with Capital One and Deustche Bank will make him a more palatable nominee...

Let's hear it for palatable nominees. 

Further down in this Washington Post piece we learn...

The White House has struggled to find the right candidate to run the consumer watchdog...

There is no struggle to find the right candidate. Elizabeth Warren is the right candidate. The so-called White House is simply struggling to find the candidate those mean old Republicans will let it have. 

Maybe if the White House says please and promises to take the garbage out for a month...

NSA secrets unveiled!

Now it can be told!

UNDERNEWS: Great moments in commitment to transparency

Secrecy News - The National Security Agency announced yesterday that it has declassified a report that is over two hundred years old.

The newly declassified report, entitled "Cryptology: Instruction Book on the Art of Secret Writing," dates from 1809....

 

Fortunately I wasn't planning to go to Kansas anyway

Kansas law allowing blind to carry concealed guns intact - KansasCity.com

Rep. Richard Carlson, a St. Marys Republican, said law-abiding citizens should be able to decide for themselves whether they are capable of carrying a concealed weapon. He conceded that his approach could lead to people being licensed to carry guns without being able to pass a basic firearms test, but said it didn't concern him.

 

Today's quote

Harry S. Truman Quotes - Page 3 - BrainyQuote

Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.



Harry S. Truman

Very extremely cool

Les Paul Google Doodle Lets You Strum Guitar, Record, Playback | PCWorld

Of course you have to go to Google's page to try it.

War Four (not counting Korea)*

U.S. Is Intensifying a Secret Campaign of Yemen Airstrikes - NYTimes.com

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has intensified the American covert war in Yemen, exploiting a growing power vacuum in the country to strike at militant suspects with armed drones and fighter jets, according to American officials.

Imagine if he hadn't got the Peace Prize.

* That we know of.

Of course nobody remembers Daniel Ellsberg any more so it doesn't really matter anyway

Ellsberg: All Nixon's Crimes Against me now Legal | Informed Comment

[Ellsberg]: “Richard Nixon, if he were alive today, might take bittersweet satisfaction to know that he was not the last smart president to prolong unjustifiably a senseless, unwinnable war, at great cost in human life. (And his aide Henry Kissinger was not the last American official to win an undeserved Nobel Peace Prize.)

He would probably also feel vindicated (and envious)that ALL the crimes [Richard Nixon] committed against me–which forced his resignation facing impeachment–are now legal.

Who says we haven't made progress here?

Long wars

Danger Room

The outgoing defense secretary, Robert Gates, recently told West Point cadets that the next likely conflicts will be fought on our under the seas, in the skies, and in space. But don’t think that means short conflicts. Gates’ deputy, William Lynn, thinks the “increasing duration of warfare” is a feature, not a bug.

Congratulations graduates: You could be 30 before you get a job

Lost decade: Debt fuels slow economic growth, unemployment - Jun. 8, 2011

Many experts say private debt owed by households, as well as businesses, is an even bigger problem than the government debt that's getting so much attention lately. And it won't be solved without a difficult stretch of high unemployment and slow growth that will likely last for six or seven more years, producing America's own version of Japan's "Lost Decade."

Worse, she was probably an English major

SWAT team busts into house over student loan default | Raw Replay

Acting on orders from the U.S. Department of Education, a S.W.A.T. team broke into a California home Tuesday at 6 a.m. and reportedly roughed up a man — all because of his estranged wife’s defaulted student loans. She wasn’t there.

More Brits: Where is Paul Revere when we need him?

Margaret Thatcher won't meet with Sarah Palin during her trip to London, en route to Sudan: report

Margaret Thatcher, the former U.K. Prime Minister - and heroine of the former Alaska governor - has no interest in meeting the "nuts" potential presidential candidate, Thatcher aides tell British media....

But wait!

"Margaret is focusing on Ronald Reagan...a source told the Guardian.

Speaking of, you know, nuts.

 

The beauty of this whole Weiner sex scandal is there's no sex in it

Anthony Weiner's career likely is ruined by Twitter pic scandal - and he didn't even have sex!

So Anthony Weiner's reputation - and probably career - are totally ruined and he didn't even get any.

Actual sex, that is.

The virtual world has arrived.

 

The day the whole thing died

In Wisconsin, Legislative Urgency as Recall Threat Looms - NYTimes.com

Stephan Thompson, executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party, acknowledged on Monday that Republicans were encouraging “protest candidates” (who he describes as conservative activists) to run as Democrats in the recall contests.

But my goodness gracious, we are certainly not trying to kill the man, whatever gave you that idea?

Qaddafi Compound Is Pounded in Day Raid - NYTimes.com

TRIPOLI, Libya — In a sudden, sharp escalation of NATO’s air campaign over Libya, warplanes dropped more than 80 bombs on targets in Tripoli...obliterating large areas of Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziya command compound...

Ooops

"Miracle On Hudson" Plane Gets Stuck In Burlington County « CBS Philly

U.S. Airways Flight 1549, the plane that made a miracle landing on the Hudson River in 2009, was being transported to a museum in North Carolina, and while en route, the craft got stuck turning a corner in Moorestown, Burlington County....

The Italians are just so much better at this kind of thing than we are

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi still having bunga-bunga parties, new wiretaps show

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi may have nearly killed his political career with so-called "bunga bunga" parties with underage prostitutes, but that doesn't mean he's stopped attending the X-rated gatherings.

He just moved them to a different location, The Telegraph newspaper of Britain reported....

 

We are all atwitter...

...which, by the way, is not the same thing as atweet...over the big Apple show in San Francisco today at which said technofruit announced three really cool new icons, one for iOS 5 (the operating system for iPods, iPads, and iPhones), one for something called Lion, which will be the new OS for Macs, and one for something called iCloud, which is something that does something, we're not quite sure what. Or. for that matter, when. Sometime this fall, Apple says, although the Lion thing is arriving in July, maybe. Something something that other one. It's not all that clear.

Of course today's big even was called a developer conference, which is not the same as a customer conference. So there's that. 

On the fence

Never mind what watching Fox News does to your IQ...

Fox News uses Tina Fey photo for Sarah Palin report | Raw Replay

During a segment reporting that Sarah Palin was undecided on whether or not to jump into the 2012 presidential race, the news channel showed a photo of Tina Fey imitating the former Republican vice presidential candidate in 2008...

Think what it must do to theirs.

Krugman on vouchercare

Vouchercare Is Not Medicare - NYTimes.com

Start with the claim that the G.O.P. plan simply reforms Medicare rather than ending it. I’ll just quote the blogger Duncan Black, who summarizes this as saying that “when we replace the Marines with a pizza, we’ll call the pizza the Marines.”

Thereby setting off a whole new fad for accent grafts

Oregon woman Karen Butler awoke from dental surgery with British accent, she claims

An Oregon granny says she awoke from dental surgery minus most of her teeth but with a British accent.

Look, Bunky, it's Captain Obvious!

Fighting Breaks Out on North-South Sudan Border - NYTimes.com

Broader Conflict Is Feared as Fighting Breaks Out on the Border

We are shocked

New study: You can't live on minimum wage | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

The Basic Economic Security Tables for Michigan, a study that analyzes the cost of essential needs for singles and families across Michigan, found the cost of providing basic necessities -- such as shelter, food and transportation -- far exceeds minimum wage and the paychecks of people working full-time in low-paying job categories.

Wooden bike

Splinter Bike and the Wooden Bicycle Land Speed Record | Bicycle Design

The Splinter Bike, created by British craftsman Michael Thompson is made entirely out of wood, without a single piece of rubber or metal. Aside from glue and paint, the entire bicycle (drivetrain, bearings, axles, and all) is made from various types of hardwood.

What? Not depressed? Read this.

Robert Reich (Why Washington Isn't Doing Squat About Jobs and Wages)

The silence is deafening. While the rest of the nation is heading back toward a double dip, Washington continues to obsess about future budget deficits. Why?...

According to research by the Urban Institute, once you’re laid off, your chance of finding another job within a year is 36% if you’re under the age of 34. But your odds drop the older you get. If you’re jobless and in your 50s, your chance of landing another job within the year is only 24%. Over 62, you’ve got only an 18% chance.

House on a bright spring day

We're thinking, Re-Hope

Obama Campaign Tries to Rebuild Envied Political Machinery - NYTimes.com

So uncertain are the economic indicators that Mr. Obama’s aides say they have not fully settled on an overarching campaign theme for next year.

Can Sperminator save the planet?

Arnold Schwarzenegger's affairs and love child shouldn't affect public image as advocate: journal

In the wake of revelations that the former California Governator fathered his housekeeper's now-teenage son, the Geneva-based editor of The Global Journal tells us Schwarzenegger's private scandal has not tarnished his achievements as an environmental hero.

Along the way

Color, Bolted On

Photo Abstract: Phil Compton