Freaky water slide video

UPDATE: A fake, and apparently a Microsoft ad. And to those naysayers who said "obviously," you haven't seen kids jump off cliffs on their snowboards, and survive. If you had, you might not be so quick to judge fake :-)

Wow. I knew a kid in Canada who I met during a congressional trip to Banff a long time ago, and we all went skiing - I mean, it was June in Canada after all - and he insisted on snowboarding off the side of a cliff. Repeatedly. Coolest thing you ever saw. Didn't kill himself either. (Too bad it was pre-cellphone-video.) This is similar. (H/t Ezra.)

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US finally taking climate change seriously as security threat

Hallelujah. This is good news, well, bad news - but good that the US is finally taking it seriously. Having said that, there's been some serious criticism lately that not nearly enough is being done by the Congress or the administration to address climate change (actually, I believe the quote was "less than worthless"). So while these words are nice to hear, they're just words - we need real action. From the NYT:

The changing global climate will pose profound strategic challenges to the United States in coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics, military and intelligence analysts say.

The conflict in southern Sudan, which has killed and displaced tens of thousands of people, is partly a result of drought in Darfur.
Such climate-induced crises could topple governments, feed terrorist movements or destabilize entire regions, say the analysts, experts at the Pentagon and intelligence agencies who for the first time are taking a serious look at the national security implications of climate change.

Recent war games and intelligence studies conclude that over the next 20 to 30 years, vulnerable regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia, will face the prospect of food shortages, water crises and catastrophic flooding driven by climate change that could demand an American humanitarian relief or military response.

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Bill Maher says we live in a stupid country, rednecks flip out

From Bill Maher over at Huff Post:

And before I go about demonstrating how, sadly, easy it is to prove the dumbness dragging down our country, let me just say that ignorance has life and death consequences. On the eve of the Iraq War, 69% of Americans thought Saddam Hussein was personally involved in 9/11. Four years later, 34% still did. Or take the health care debate we're presently having: members of Congress have recessed now so they can go home and "listen to their constituents." An urge they should resist because their constituents don't know anything. At a recent town-hall meeting in South Carolina, a man stood up and told his Congressman to "keep your government hands off my Medicare," which is kind of like driving cross country to protest highways.

I'm the bad guy for saying it's a stupid country, yet polls show that a majority of Americans cannot name a single branch of government, or explain what the Bill of Rights is. 24% could not name the country America fought in the Revolutionary War. More than two-thirds of Americans don't know what's in Roe v. Wade. Two-thirds don't know what the Food and Drug Administration does. Some of this stuff you should be able to pick up simply by being alive. You know, like the way the Slumdog kid knew about cricket.

Not here. Nearly half of Americans don't know that states have two senators and more than half can't name their congressman. And among Republican governors, only 30% got their wife's name right on the first try.

Sarah Palin says she would never apologize for America. Even though a Gallup poll says 18% of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth. No, they're not stupid. They're interplanetary mavericks. A third of Republicans believe Obama is not a citizen,

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These protests "reveal a new level of viciousness in America's political dialogue."

Joel Connelly explained that there is something different going on in the country:

The health care protests are different. They are organized, manipulated by national conservative groups, and reveal a new level of viciousness in America's political dialogue. As well, there are inciters.

"Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate," Rush Limbaugh told listeners Thursday. A few moments later, he intoned: "(The) Obama health care logo is damn close to a swastika logo."

On the Fox News Channel, meanwhile, Glenn Beck was doing a skit with a joke about "put(ting) poison in Nancy Pelosi's wine." Beck recently called our 44th president a "racist" and charged that Obama has a "deep seated hatred for white people or the white culture."

House Republicans seem to be taking delight at watching Democratic colleagues' town meetings being turned replicas of 1933 sessions of the Reichstag.

House Republican leader John Boehner has chortled that House Democrats are "likely to have a very, very hot summer."

These protests are different. The anger and the vitriol are like nothing I've ever seen. The GOP leaders (including Rush and Beck) have unleashed something truly vile and vicious.

NOTE FROM JOHN: This shouldn't surprise us. It's what they do. They fight hard, and they fight dirty. While our side doesn't fight at all. We negotiate backroom deals with Big Pharma in the hopes that our opponents will "like" us, and join us in a chorus of cumbaya. If we just give away enough of the house, the logic goes, the bad guys will stop being mean to us. How many times do we have to hear this rationalization for Democratic cowardice and incompetence before we demand a change in the leadership of our party, the non-profit advocacy organizations, and the Democratic consulting class?

They're all screwing it up again, like they always do. Read the rest of this post...

Blithering idiot weighs in on health care reform

It was only a matter of time before Miss Alaska weighed in on the health care reform debate. And she weighed in with a whopper. You see, under Obama's health care plan, Sarah Palin informed us, her child would be put to death, or stoned, or retroactively aborted, or something. Palin is, in fact, repeating the current GOP talking points that Obama's health care plan will set up "death panels" that will decide which Americans live and die. Uh huh. As Ben points out, Jake Tapper has already dissected this latest GOP lie.

As an aside, how many times can you get away with using your child's disability as a cheap political prop? Just curious if there's a statute of limitations on tackiness.

PS Note to our leaders: Simply calling it a "lie" is not fighting back. Read the rest of this post...

Rahm to liberal groups: Stop targeting Dems with ads. Liberals to Rahm: You stop cutting deals with Billy Tauzin and the drug industry

You know, we're all supposed to be afraid of Rahm. When he speaks, Democrats are supposed to quake. This week, he apparently told liberal groups to stop targeting Democratic members of Congress:

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel warned liberal groups this week to stop running ads against Democratic members of Congress.

The powerful top aide to President Obama made his feelings known at the weekly closed-door strategy session of an array of progressive organizations, according to two sources who were there.

Rahm is infamous for making "his feelings known." According to Greg Sargent, Emanuel actually a more graphic term to describe his thoughts on this matter. But, there's a credibility issue here. Most liberals I know really don't trust Rahm to enact real health insurance reform (or any LGBT related legislation, for that matter.)

Rahm wants liberal groups to stop targeting Democrats. But, there's a reason Democrats are the target. Democrats already have had the power to pass real reform -- and haven't. Rahm and his Deputy, Jim Messina, have been busy dealing with the Blue Dogs and Max Baucus. What's that gotten us so far? Not a health care law, that's for sure.

But, Thursday, we learned that there is one real winner so far: drug makers. Why? Max Baucus, Rahm and Messina (who used to work for Baucus) cut a sweetheart deal with the drug industry lobbyists. But, they got rolled by the chief lobbyist for the drug-makers, Billy Tauzin, when he went public with that deal. It's embarrassing. And, as John notes in the post below, the controversy continues for another day as the Obama administration had to back-track on the deal.

So far, in the health insurance reform, who has won? Billy Tauzin and the drug makers. Who hasn't? The pro-reform liberal groups. Rahm wants liberals to shut up and leave Max Baucus and other conservative Democrats alone -- even as those Democrats undermine some of the key provisions of Obama's commitment to reform. We're think we're fighting for what Rahm's boss wants (or told us he wants.) But, Rahm doesn't like. He swore. Be afraid everyone on the left.

Liberals and liberal groups worked hard to elect Obama and the Democrats on Capitol Hill, in part, because of the commitments they made on health insurance reform. But, in Rahm's world view, we shouldn't expect them to deliver on the promises they made to us. Rahm sees us as the problem.

Meanwhile, selling out to the drug industry lobbyists while not delivering on campaign promises are the kinds of things that damage the Obama brand. That's a real problem. Read the rest of this post...

White House backtracks on secret deal with Big Pharma, suggests perhaps there wasn't a deal at all - Pharma okay with it all

Uh huh. What's most disturbing about this article isn't that the White house is trying to dig itself out of a hole, after being caught with its hand in the bipartisan cookie jar. No, what's causes me the greatest concern is the fact that Billy Tauzin and the drug industry say they're fine with where things now stand. Why would they now be fine with the White House denying, and/or backing off, a deal when earlier in the week they were willing to bring down the house? That sounds like Tauzin et. al. got some private assurances (aka another secret deal) that all was still well in bipartisan-land. Read the rest of this post...

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Almost every day, in the comments of the morning open thread, KarenMrsLloydRichards provides a laugh out loud moment (or two) with her series, Haiku for the Obama administration. In very few words, and only seventeen syllables, she captures the events of the day and week. Here are three of my faves from the week that was:

She quit on Twitter---
Erratic forty-something
Walked away from fans.

And:

Hands off Medicare!
He'll go after bingo next!!
Take back the country!!!

And, this one, which summed up the week:

Jerry Springer's on
Down at your local town hall:
Ready to rumble!

I'm heading out for a run. It's not too hot in DC, which is amazing for August (although, tomorrow starts a blazing heat wave.)

Start threading the news... Read the rest of this post...

Countries not so much in crisis

If Chris weren't in Switzerland, or Italy, or somewhere not-Paris at the moment, I'd like to think that he'd be serving you this article. It's a look by Nouriel Roubini at countries that are doing pretty well in spite of the economic crisis (among them: France). Read the rest of this post...

FOX's Glenn Beck warns viewers against "turning violent" days before he talks about "put[ting] poison" in Pelosi's wine

From Media Matters:

Today, Media Matters for America called for Fox News to immediately fire Glenn Beck after he talked about "put[ting] poison" in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's wine. As Media Matters noted, Beck warned his viewers on August 3 that "[i]f anyone thinks that it would be a good idea to turn violent, think again," adding that "[i]f you ever hear someone thinking about or talking about turning violent, it is your patriotic duty to stop them."

"Glenn Beck talking about poisoning the speaker of the House is just the latest in a series of actions, statements, and stunts that have no place on a credible news network," said Eric Burns, president of Media Matters. "Beck himself said that it is our 'patriotic duty' to stop someone who talks about turning violent. Doesn't he deserve to be held to this same standard?"

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