Category — Uncategorized

Via Holden at First Draft, the Associated Press reports Bill Easing Tax Clears House

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats on Friday pushed through an $80 billion bill to block the spread of a dreaded tax on middle-income people. The White House and Republicans, protesting tax increases in the bill affecting mainly investment fund managers, maintained that it would never become law.

The 216-193 vote to ”patch” the alternative minimum tax for a year sends the issue to the Senate, where its prospects are at best uncertain. Not one House Republican voted for it.

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Greg Sargent at TPM Election Central says that Reid Allowed Vote On Mukasey In Exchange For Military Funding Bill

According to sources inside and outside the Democratic leadership, Harry Reid allowed a vote on Mukasey because in exchange the Republican leadership agreed to allow a vote on the big Defense Appropriations Bill, which contains $459 billion in military spending but doesn’t fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Quiddity has harvested some major snark from the Post‘s comments section that should cause anyone who thinks the former mayor of New York City is worth hiring for any job in the public sector to consider having their meds adjusted.

While we are all aware of people padding their résumé and/or CV, Rudy is way over the limit.

Why are Democrats supporting torture?

The Dem candidates running for President opted for plausible deniability and didn’t vote.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich has said that he has seen a UFO, and defines it as an object that was flying and he couldn’t identify it. Most of the planet have seen things in the sky they couldn’t identify.

The local community of Gulf Breeze has reputation as a hot spot for UFO sightings, and, not coincidentally, UFO frauds. There is a reason, and it has nothing to do with E.T.

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There’s a word for what CNN is reporting: FBI warns of uncorroborated threat to malls

WASHINGTON (CNN) — In what one FBI spokesman described as “almost an annual ritual,” the bureau has obtained uncorroborated intelligence indicating al Qaeda would like to strike shopping malls during the holiday shopping season, two law enforcement sources said Thursday.

Those sources confirmed there is intelligence dating back to August that al Qaeda would like to attack malls in Los Angeles, California, and Chicago, Illinois.

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But fine for hurricane evacuees.

CBS News reports that FEMA Protecting Itself, But Not Evacuees?

CBS News has learned that while telling the residents of its trailers that it is still working on the formaldehyde problem, it appears it prohibits its own staff from even briefly stepping inside trailers once residents have moved out.
…

In July the head of the agency told Congress he was working quickly to deal with the toxic formaldehyde issue.

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Since the same corporations that the Writers Guild of America is in dispute with, also own the bulk of legacy media™ outlets, it’s difficult to find much reporting on the issues involved, so it was nice to see this included in the CBS report on the Writers Strike

The first strike by Hollywood writers in nearly 20 years got under way with pickets on both coasts after last-minute negotiations on Sunday failed to produce a deal on payments to writers from shows offered on the Internet.

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This is certainly going to cause some ripples: Senate Panel Probes 6 Top Televangelists

CBS News has learned Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is investigating six prominent televangelist ministries for possible financial misconduct.

Letters were sent Monday to the ministries demanding that financial statements and records be turned over to the committee by December 6th.

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At 8PM CST The Associated Press is saying that Kentucky has come to its senses, but Mississippi still isn’t thinking clearly: Ky. governor loses bid for 2nd term; Miss. governor likely to win

(CNN) — Republican Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher lost his bid for a second term Tuesday, while his GOP counterpart in Mississippi, Gov. Haley Barbour, was expected to breeze to victory in the marquee races of the 2007 off-year elections.

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CNN reports Air Force grounds F-15s in Afghanistan after Missouri crash

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A mandatory grounding of Air Force F-15s has been expanded to cover those flying combat missions over Afghanistan after a crash in Missouri last week, Air Force officials said Monday.

The F-15Es in Afghanistan can fly only in emergency situations to protect U.S. and coalition troops in a battle, according to Maj. John Elolf, a spokesman for the U.S. Air Force Central Command.

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The GOP doesn’t create droughts. I know that every time we have a major disaster in the economy and widespread drought the GOP seems to be in charge, but it’s just a coincidence. They could have helped by doing something constructive about greenhouse gases a long time ago, but they don’t believe in science or facts, so you can’t really blame them because mental incompetence is a valid defense.

Remember, the last time it was a “dust bowl”, out on the plains, and this time it’s the hills in the South. It’s different.

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Who knows: Protest At Marine’s Funeral Costs Church

(AP) A grieving father won a nearly $11 million verdict Wednesday against a fundamentalist Kansas church that pickets military funerals out of a belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality.

Albert Snyder of York, Pa., sued the Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified damages after members demonstrated at the March 2006 funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.

The federal jury first awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages. It returned in the afternoon with its decision to award $6 million in punitive damages for invasion of privacy and $2 million for causing emotional distress.

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The BBC reports that an Iraqi dam ‘at risk of collapse’

The largest dam in Iraq is at risk of an imminent collapse that could unleash a 20m (65ft) wave of water on Mosul, a city of 1.7m people, the US has warned.

In May, the US told Iraqi authorities to make Mosul Dam a national priority, as a catastrophic failure would result in a “significant loss of life”.

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