| The most popular game on the boardwalk An Arcade owner in Surrey, England has taken the old Whack-a-Mole game idea and adapted it to Whack a Banker - and it is not only the most popular game in the arcade, patrons smack the priggish-looking little plastic fellows so hard that the proprietor has to keep replacing the mallet.
Wealthiest Americans call on Congress to strengthen the Estate Tax The super-rich and organized labor have joined forces to pressure the Congress to take action to strengthen the estate tax before the holiday recess. The tax will disappear for one year in 2010 unless Congress takes immediate action to either pass a one-year extension or a permanent estate tax.
Better late than never Finally, after 22 years of entrenched and recalcitrant stubbornness on the part of moral prigs, a ridiculous and harmful rule has been cast aside and the ban on allowing federal funds be used for syringe exchange has been lifted. It passed the house last week and the Senate yesterday on a 57-35 vote. The ban domestically was odious enough, but it extended beyond our borders and undermined global US efforts to battle the spread of AIDS.
Another ridiculous and unnecessary death, and yes, there was a TASER involved A 23-year-old Panama City, Florida man died after trying to swallow a "large bag of marijuana" and was tased for resisting arrest. The cause of death was listed as asphyxiation.
Where is the Eritrean soccer team, anyway? When the plane arrived back in Eritrea after a match in Kenya in which the team was eliminated from an African tournament, it was carrying only a trainer and the coach, the entire team had 'absconded' and no one knows where they are, although the repressive ruling regime refuses to acknowledge that any players are missing.
Louvre returns antiquities to Egypt Five fragments of Pharaonic frescoes, believed to be from the tomb of the high priest Tetaki, are being returned to Egypt. Egypt had demanded the return of he pieces and had broken off ties with the museum over them, accusing the Louvre of knowing at the time they were acquired that they had been stolen. The disruption of the relationship caused the cancellation of several conferences and the suspension of archaeological work. Many museums display works from ancient Egypt, but in recent years the nation has begun demanding the return of pilfered antiquities.
Sen. DeMint warns of an 'emergency rally' Tomorrow afternoon we will see just how many teabaggers can be moved to show up to protest healthcare reform when they aren't bussed in/paid to attend. The rally, scheduled to be held in Upper Senate Park will also feature Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, the one man giving Demented a run for his money in the far-right-wingnut category as well as radio talk show host Laura Ingraham and Rick Scott, chairman of Conservatives for Patients Rights. Rick Scott, you may recall, was the head of HCA and lost that gig when the company was caught defrauding the government and paid a fine of over $1.5 billion. That's billion. With a B. That is a lot of fraud, and begs the question: Why is his ass appearing at an anti-healthcare reform rally instead of sitting in prison?
Still with the 'birther' jokes? Earlier today the North Dakota state republican party had a real knee-slapper up on their official website that showed the now-famous pic of President Obama shaking hands with Michaele Salahi. The pic has been photoshopped to include speech balloons. The president's asks Mrs. Salahi if he can see her invitation, and hers says sure - as soon as I see your birth certificate. Once the outside world came calling, they quickly took it down, but TPM saved a screen shot for posterity.
22 million Bush administration emails recovered Technicians working for the National Security Archive and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington have recovered tens of millions of emails that the Bush administration swore never existed. "We may never discover the full story of what happened here," said Melanie Sloan, CREW's executive director. "It seems like they just didn't want the e-mails preserved." Sloan said the latest count of misplaced e-mails "gives us confirmation that the Bush administration lied when they said no e-mails were missing."
Step aside, Mr. President, the pitchfork-wielding mob is nigh "So the Wall Street elite, just months removed from their near-death experience, are now making a fortune shorting the U.S. dollar. One year ago, faced with the greatest financial panic in generations, the American people swallowed hard and bailed out the banks. Today, the banks have moved on, and are tearing down the currency of the nation that saved them."
If John Bolton even possesses a moral compass, the needle just spins Conservatives all over the country stifled themselves and mumbled 'good job' after President Obama's speech when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize last week. Except one. John Bolton. He thought it was a "pretty bad speech" that was "sort of at high school level."
"How did we get here?" That, reportedly, is what Bush the Elder thought when Joe Wilson shouted "You Lie!" at the President during his speech to a joint session of Congress last fall. We can tell him how that happened. He put us on the path when he hired Lee Atwater and Roger Ailes to get his sorry ass elected in 1988.
No hops over the pond this holiday season. "British Airways cabin crew have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action in a dispute over job cuts and changes to staff contracts. The strikes are set to begin on 22 December and run until 2 January. Cabin crew voted by nine to one in favour of the strike action, with an 80% turnout. BA's chief executive Willie Walsh said the decision was "cynical" and betrayed "a lack of concern for our customers, our business and other employees". Len McCluskey, assistant general secretary of the Unite union, said: "It goes without saying that we have taken this decision to disrupt passengers and customers over the Christmas period with a heavy heart." He stressed that the union was keen to continue negotiations."
And when the Greek economy sinks beneath the Aegean waves, will U.S. repugs stop pushing spending cuts? "The Greek prime minister has unveiled a series of spending cuts, warning that the country is at risk of "sinking under its debts". George Papandreou said the planned cuts would include a 10% cut in both social security spending, and overall government operating expenditures. Calling for national unity, he vowed to reduce Greece's public deficit from the current 12% to under 3% by 2013."
Space Geek alert. "A Nasa satellite designed to uncover hidden cosmic objects has blasted off from California. The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (Wise) blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Delta II rocket just after 1409 GMT. It will pick up the glow of hundreds of millions of astronomical bodies. The probe is expected to uncover objects that have never seen before, including some of the coolest stars and the most luminous galaxies. The $320m mission will do this by scanning the entire sky in infrared light with a sensitivity hundreds of times greater than ever before. Viewing the sky with "infrared glasses" can lift a veil on many objects that are not visible to the naked eye."
Or he'll what? Take them off his Christmas card list? "US President Barack Obama has told bankers to increase loans to small and medium-size businesses. The president was speaking after a meeting - which he described as "candid" - with executives of some of America's top banks. President Obama said US banks had received extraordinary assistance and demanded they show extraordinary commitment to rebuild the US economy. He also warned their lobbyists not to block moves for regulatory reform. Monday's meeting with executives from Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup, among others, came a day after the president said he had not run for office to help out "a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street"."
The "green light for genocide," 60 years later. "Before the six million, there were the 937. They were German Jews aboard the transatlantic liner MS St. Louis seeking safe haven from the Nazis in Havana and Miami four months before World War II broke out. Refused entry first by the Cubans then by the United States, the stateless refugees returned to Europe, where 254 died in the Holocaust. In a 1976 box-office smash, Hollywood called their story Voyage of the Damned. Sunday, at a reunion in Miami Beach, passengers called their ordeal the Third Reich's "green light" for genocide. "The signal to Hitler was that nobody cares about the Jews," said Col. Phil Freund, U.S. Army Reserve, retired. He turned 8 aboard the ship as it languished in Havana Harbor in May 1939."
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Best New SoapBlox - 2008
