Marlon Brando's (creepy?) love letter to a flight attendant in 1966

Some think it's creepy. I think it's kind of quaint. Your thoughts? Read the rest of this post...

Touching video of Egyptians seriously happy minutes after Mubarak stepped down

The description from the guy who filmed it:

For the first time in 7000 years or more, egyptians peacfully were able to overthrow their Dictator. No one in Egypt could've imagined this happening.

I shot this 20 minutes after the VP announced the president's departure, people are chanting that the army and the people are one hand and the army closed the road to help people celebrate.

I just witnessed history.

Bye Bye Mubarak from Ramy Rizkallah on Vimeo.
(h/t HuffPost Hill)) Read the rest of this post...

Someone misplaced a giant new planet in our solar system

Okay, they're not 100% sure yet, but two scientists are saying that we've got another planet in our solar system that no one ever knew about - and it's huge.

If you grew up thinking there were nine planets and were shocked when Pluto was demoted five years ago, get ready for another surprise. There may be nine after all, and Jupiter may not be the largest.

The hunt is on for a gas giant up to four times the mass of Jupiter thought to be lurking in the outer Oort Cloud, the most remote region of the solar system. The orbit of Tyche (pronounced ty-kee), would be 15,000 times farther from the Sun than the Earth's, and 375 times farther than Pluto's, which is why it hasn't been seen so far.

But scientists now believe the proof of its existence has already been gathered by a Nasa space telescope, Wise, and is just waiting to be analysed.

I remember when my nephew, several years back, had a take-home science quiz, and asked my help on it. One of the questions was "how many planets are there in our solar system?" And the possible answers, multiple-choice, were 6, 7, 8, 9. I remember telling him, "well, it depends." He looked at his Uncle John quizzically, and increasingly annoyed, while I explained that some people felt Pluto was not a planet, but it hadn't really been decided yet. I miss Pluto. Read the rest of this post...

GOP Wisconsin governor threatens to call out Nat'l Guard on unions

And here I thought Wisconsin was in the USA as opposed to China. Go figure.

Walker wants to remove all collective bargaining rights, except for salary, for roughly 175,000 public employees starting July 1. Any requests for a salary increase higher than the consumer price index would have to be approved by referendum.

Starting April 1, Walker wants to force state employees to contribute 5.8 percent of their salaries to cover pension costs and more than double their health insurance contributions. That would generate $30 million this fiscal year. Currently, most public workers don't contribute anything to their pensions.

Walker said Friday that he updated emergency plans and alerted the National Guard just in case they are needed to ensure state services aren't interrupted. His plan would remove collective bargaining rights for prison guards, but it would exempt local police and firefighters and the state patrol.

Remember when Wisconsin used to have solid Democrats with solid values? How did this transition to this happen? Once again, we're seeing yet another GOP governor who is blaming the public service unions for the financial problems the country is facing. How can a middle class that has struggled for years be responsible for such an enormous economic collapse? How sad that everyone except the guilty are being punished. If the GOP loved law and order so much, they'd throw the book at the bankers. But then who would finance their campaigns? Read the rest of this post...

Obama's 2012 defense budget bigger than Bush's or Reagan's, largest since WWII, to grow 5% next year

It would be easier to tolerate some of the budget hysteria if someone in Washington had the guts to chop the defense budget down to size. The military's feeding frenzy has to stop, yet neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are serious about doing anything. There's something fundamentally wrong if this is truly "the minimum level of funding we can live with."

ThinkProgress has the gory details.

Indeed, while Gates promised to cut $78 billion over five years, most of that reduction would take place in 2014 and 2015. As Center for American Progress senior fellow and President Reagan’s former assistant secretary of defense Larry Korb points out, Obama’s request is “5% higher than what the Defense Department plans to spend this year. In inflation-adjusted dollars, this figure is higher than at any time during the Bush years or during the Cold War.” In fact, the total military budget this year “comes in at a thumping $750 billion — an annual tax of more than $7,000 on every household in the country.” And while there are clear ways to cut $1 trillion from the Pentagon budget, it seems that many in the GOP have no intention of doing so.

While we're at it, can someone explain why we're still stuck in either the quagmire in Afghanistan or the other one in Iraq? We could certainly use the spare cash at home as opposed to it being stuffed in the pockets of corrupt politicians overseas and dropped off in banks in Dubai. Let them get their own money. Read the rest of this post...

Wall Street causes huge economic meltdown, so GOP guts SEC oversight

So besides helping the next Wall Street meltdown, how is this helping create jobs? Heck, how is this helping America outside of Wall Street? Did I miss the memo that confirmed regulation caused the financial collapse? No? I didn't think so either.

The new financial regulation law gave the Securities and Exchange Commission a big new job to police hedge funds, derivatives dealers and credit agencies — some of the main culprits in the financial meltdown. It authorized raising the commission’s budget to $2.25 billion, over five years. Now Congress is threatening to deny the S.E.C. the necessary financing to carry out its duties.

What makes this even more absurd is that the S.E.C. doesn’t cost taxpayers a dime. Its budget, like that of other financial regulators, is covered by fees assessed on Wall Street firms. While the other regulators decide their own financing needs, Congress sets the S.E.C.’s budget.

The agency’s budget was due to rise $200 million this year to $1.3 billion, but hasn’t because of the across-the-board freeze in discretionary spending. If House Republicans get their way and roll back spending to 2008 levels, the S.E.C. budget would fall to $906 million.

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Post-Egypt, will America's youth vote turn on Obama in 2012?

"The official foreign policy position of the United States toward both its client dictatorships and those populations who attempt to overthrow them" — Mr. Fish.

Click it to view it.

You see, Obama has a problem. Let's pretend for a second that, unlike the rest of us, he's driven purely by self-interest. What does he care about most? Why, 2012 of course.

And what's his route to get there, at least in his own estimation? The magical American Youth Vote. That is, the people who bought his spiel in 2008, the people with whom he tried and failed to win in 2010, and the starry-eyed horse he plans to ride in 2012, if his constant campus appearances are any indication. FDL:

The DNC pursued a risky GOTV strategy in 2010: instead of turning out likely midterm voters, they focused on 2008 surge voters. That meant young people in urban areas who had not voted before, who nonetheless turned out to elect Obama in 2008. Predictably, they weren’t very interested in a non-Presidential election and did not turn out in numbers sufficient to forestall a Democratic drubbing. Democrats who hailed from non-urban districts were left to fend for themselves when it came to GOTV efforts.

But that just underscores how important young voters are to Obama right now. The DNC was willing to throw Democratic congressional seats on a risky strategy that failed as a 2010 GOTV effort, but successfully began the outreach for Obama 2012. It’s no coincidence Obama favored college campuses when he personally hit the campaign trail.

Which means that no matter how much the whole U.S. establishment wants another pro-Israel strongman in Egypt, and says so — surprise, Suleiman is strongly pro-Israel — Obama himself has to come out on the side of the "youth revolution" in Egypt because, well, he wants to hold onto power in 2012.

And that means that he has to personally say he wants different things than the whole rest of the government — which wants to keep Omar Suleiman in charge. And Obama's market for this pitch isn't in Egypt; it's in the U.S., among those magical Youth Voters he's already trying to influence.

The problem is that the youth of Egypt may be listening as well, and that listening may extend to belief. He is, after all, the guy who gave that great Cairo speech. And to some extent, Obama, the first black president, son of a Muslim father, is a magical figure himself in their own starry eyes.

So what may be the outcome of all this? I'm reminded of 1991, when the Shi'ites rose up against Saddam Hussein with the fatal encouragement of the U.S.:

The revolt was fueled by the perception that the power of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was vulnerable at the time; as well as by heavily fueled anger at government repression and the devastation wrought by two wars in a decade, the Iran-Iraq War and the Gulf War. United States also played a role in encouraging the uprisings, which were then controversially not aided by the U.S. forces present on Iraqi soil.

Thus Obama's Scylla-and-Charybdis dilemma, a kind of Catch-22. What happens if he doesn't encourage "democracy" in Egypt? Those starry-eyed magical Youth in the U.S. may not keep him in position to mediate between the needs of the people and the demands of corporations past his 2012 sell-by date. Bummer for Team Change (we'll call that Scylla).

But what happens if the youth of Egypt believe him and think that the U.S. might actually support people like Mohamed ElBaradei, Wael Ghonim, and the Egyptian magical youth? Let's just say that Suleiman's Mukhabarat has an answer for that — unless Obama actually matches words to deeds. Bummer for the magical believers in Egypt (let's call that Charybdis). And since Suleiman has their names and addresses, he could be putting down the January 25 Revolution for decades.

And all that battering, all that blood, could splash back at Obama as he stands on the world's bright stage. Waiting for 2012. Will the target magical Youth of America stay starry-eyed, if the actually magical youth of Egypt are beaten to a pulp? Bummer for Team 2012 (oops, Scylla again).

In other words, will Obama sacrifice Egyptian protesters to win the U.S. youth vote in 2012? Or will he support the protesters in fact and risk losing the Israel lobby and the well-funded, politically savvy U.S. "security" establishment in 2012?

Obama's dilemma in a nutshell. According to Mr. Fish, all lights are green at this point. Full speed ahead.

GP Read the rest of this post...

'Bye bye, Big Bird. Hello, e. coli!'

Welcome to the House under Republican rule in 2011. Sounds an awful lot like the House under Gingrich rule in 1994. Do these guys ever get any new ideas?

In absolute terms, the cut to the USDA's food inspection program may seem a lot smaller--just $100 million. But that will almost certainly mean fewer inspectors, which is no small thing. As the non-partisan organization OMB Watch has noted, in recent years the number of inspectors has not kept up with the number of food producers--and "at no other regulatory agency does the size of the inspectorate need to be so closely aligned to the size of the industry it regulates."

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Germans to buy New York Stock Exchange

But wait, they're socialists so how could this be? We all know that the US is the only country in the world that is truly capitalist so there must be some mistake. Obviously the Germans don't understand that the US is number one in everything.

The board of NYSE Euronext is expected to meet on Sunday to discuss a planned takeover by Deutsche Boerse and a deal announcement is likely to come by Tuesday, according to news reports.

Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext said on Wednesday they were in advanced talks to merge, just hours after London Stock Exchange unveiled a bid for Canadian market operator TMX Group Inc.

Other exchanges said they were considering striking their own deals or looking to take advantage of the distraction, in early signs of ripples through the world's capital markets.

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China overtakes Japan as #2 global economy - yikes or yawn?

So I guess the xenophobes and business school experts that told us in the 1980s that Japan was taking over the world were wrong. It sounded like such a convincing story. Of course, the business school experts also told us that the housing market would always grow and that China's economy is to be feared since it will continue to grow at bubble rates. Or was that what they said about Japan? Either way, be afraid. Reuters:

The latest GDP figures also confirmed that China overtook Japan as the world's second-largest economy in 2010 on a seasonally unadjusted, nominal dollar basis, at $5.8786 trillion against $5.4742 trillion.

Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano said Japan needed to make the most of China's growth to boost its own fortunes, as it increasingly relies on demand from its Asian neighbour.

"The fact that China's economy is booming is welcome news for Japan as a neighbouring country," Yosano told reporters. "We want to deepen the amicable economic relationship between Japan and China."

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Obama-haters still at it, birther bills introduced in at least 10 states

Politico:

The opening of 2011 state legislative sessions has been accompanied by a spate of birther-related bills, the clearest indication yet that the controversy surrounding President Barack Obama’s place of birth will continue to simmer throughout his reelection campaign.

Lawmakers in at least 10 states have introduced bills requiring presidential candidates to provide some form of proof that they are natural-born citizens, a ballot qualification rule designed to address widespread rumors on the right that Obama was not born in the United States.

Republicans refuse to address the problems confronting our nation. They always, always, always focus on fringe "angry" issues that have nothing to do with the future of our country or its current problems. Read the rest of this post...

Will the Egyptian military be an honest broker until the elections?

It's not obvious why a unity government wasn't possible until elections. The military could have been a lot more one-sided during the protests but they also weren't neutral either. Will the military be an honest broker until elections?

The Egyptian military has rejected the demands of pro-democracy protesters for a swift transfer of power to a civilian administration, saying it intends to rule by martial law until elections are held.

The army's announcement, which included the suspending of the constitution, was a further rebuff to some pro-democracy activists after troops were sent to clear demonstrators from Cairo's Tahrir Square, the centre of the protests that brought down Hosni Mubarak. "We do not want any protesters to sit in the square after today," said the head of the military police, Mohamed Ibrahim Moustafa Ali. Many agreed to leave but a hardcore refused, saying they would remain until the army took a series of steps toward democratic reform including installing a civilian-led government and abolishing the repressive state of emergency.

The ruling military council said it intends to retain power for six months or longer while elections are scheduled and will rule by decree. It suspended the constitution and said a committee will draw up amendments that will be put to a referendum. It also dissolved the widely discredited parliament, elected in a tainted ballot last year.

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Shirley Sherrod suing Andrew Breitbart, halle-freaking-lujah

He was served at the recent CPAC gathering. Salon:

Former USDA official Shirley Sherrod has filed a lawsuit against conservative firebrand and web entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart. The suit stems from the notorious video Breitbart posted online last year, showing an out-of-context excerpt from a speech Sherrod gave to the NAACP Freedom Fund in March 2010. The clip suggested she had used her position at the Department of Agriculture to discriminate against white farmers. The media devoured the Breitbart's version of story so voraciously that the NAACP denounced Sherrod and the Obama administration fired her. The charge was, in fact, entirely untrue.

Sherrod argues in the lawsuit that the clip "damaged her reputation and prevented her from continuing her work." Breitbart, meanwhile, denounced the suit, saying he "categorically rejects the transparent effort to chill his constitutionally protected free speech."

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Do terrorists really deserve to get out early for good behavior? US releases London 7/7 terrorist after only 5 years.

There's a lot more behind this story that has yet to emerge. Just as many were furious over the release of Libyan terrorist Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, many in the UK are upset about this odd release.

The unreported sentencing of Mohammed Junaid Babar to "time served" because of what a New York judge described as "exceptional co-operation" that began even before his arrest has raised questions over whether Babar was a US informer at the time he was helping to train the ringleader of the 7 July tube and bus bombings.

Lawyers representing the families of victims and survivors of the attacks have compared the lenient treatment of Babar to the controversial release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.

Babar was imprisoned in 2004 – although final sentencing was deferred – after pleading guilty in a New York court to five counts of terrorism. He set up the training camp in Pakistan where Mohammad Sidique Khan and several other British terrorists learned about bomb-making and how to use combat weapons.

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Egypt down, Iran, Bahrain and Yemen up next

As you might have guessed, the Egyptian and Tunisian rallies were glorious moments against US puppets according to the Iranian government. Rallies against the Iranian government are completely wrong and probably the result of Western influences. Not that Iran is alone in playing such games. The Guardian:

Activists in Iran will go ahead with a banned rally in central Tehran on Monday in defiance of warnings by the regime and a heavy security presence, a figure in the green movement has told the Guardian.

Ardeshir Amir-Arjomand, a spokesman for the former presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, accused the government of hypocrisy in voicing support for protest in Egypt and Tunisia while refusing to allow a peaceful demonstration at home.

"Our dictators in Tehran are ruling the country with terror and panic," he said. "They are afraid of their own people. They only sanction whatever pleases themselves, and disapprove of anything that is not under their surveillance. The call for renewed street protest in Iran is a clear sign that the green movement is still alive, and that's why they're afraid of it."

Bahrain is also having anti-government protests. In Yemen, protesters marched yesterday. Read the rest of this post...