First toxin-free & 100% recyclable computer, from India

What a fantastic idea and something that the world desperately needs.

IT and business transformation services company Wipro Infotech is the first Indian company to build a 100% recyclable and toxin-free computer. Wipro joins a small number of manufacturers worldwide to develop toxics-free electronics.

The eco-friendly Wipro Greenware desktops are manufactured to be completely free from harmful chemicals such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs).

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Our favorite college videographers infiltrated the Teabagger convention last weekend where Sarah Palin was speaking

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Patrick Kennedy is retiring from Congress

Big political news tonight from Rhode Island:

Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy will not run for reelection, he will announce in a television advertisement to air Sunday night.

``I will not be a candidate for reelection this year,'' the 42-year-old Kennedy, first elected in 1994, said in an emotional advertisement that mentions his years of service and the death of his father, Sen.Edward M. Kennedy, last summer.

I don't think anyone saw this coming. Read the rest of this post...

Glenn Beck's radio show has had zero ads for the past three days in the UK, following boycott

From StopBeck.com:

During the last week and a half, Glenn Beck lost his 100th, 101st and 102nd sponsors. A full list of all 102 sponsors that dropped Mr. Beck (or Fox News as a whole) can be found here. Please note that this total includes sponsors that have dropped him both United States and/or in the United Kingdom.

It seems like our efforts are having an effect…

Glenn Beck’s show in the United Kingdom has not run any commercials during the past three days (Tues-Thurs). Glenn Beck’s show in the UK used to run commercials. The shows that come on before and after Glenn Beck still run commercials. But, for the past three days, Mr. Beck hasn’t had any sponsors in the U.K. During the commercial break, instead of running ads, they cut away to Sky News updates or the weather. Perhaps they’re having trouble finding sponsors willing to subsidize Glenn Beck’s misinformation, vitriol, sexism and race-baiting?

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GOP blinks on nominations

Excellent. See this is what bullies do when you stand up to them. You're in charge, they're not.

The Senate confirmed a huge bloc of administration nominees on Thursday, following a tense exchange between President Barack Obama and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

At a White House meeting with bipartisan congressional leaders on Tuesday, Obama warned that he would make recess appointments if the logjam over nominees wasn’t broken before the Senate left for the Presidents’ Day break.

“Mitch, this is unprecedented,” the president said, gesturing forcefully on the Cabinet Room table, according to aides. “If you don’t move any, I’m going to do some [recess] appointments.”

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Please vote in this contest and help these two kids get the wedding of their dreams

I wouldn't normally put this kind of thing on the blog, but it's nice, and if we can help in any way, why not.

A coworker of my sister back in Chicago has two daughters. Both recently announced that they're getting married. Great news in any family, but now there's some concern about how they're going to pay for the weddings. The girl's father recently had heart surgery, and the mother was recently laid off. The family is facing a pretty large debt. So, in an effort to help, one of the daughters, Raiyah, decided to enter a contest with a local radio station in Chicago. If she wins, the station pays for the wedding. And not just any wedding - it will be at the Sofitel Hotel at Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago. They'll be covering a gourmet meal for 150 guests, wedding cake, the bar tab, and more. And best of all, the daughter has already made the final cut - she and her fiancé Doug are one of three couples vying for the prize.

The contest is open until tomorrow morning, Friday, at 11am Chicago Time (noon eastern), you can vote online via the link I'll provide below.

Here's Doug and Raiyah's video submission to the contest (the video may pop up as a separate box, once enough of it downloads just press the play button - unless you have a pop-up blocker, it might stop the video from showing up).

Then you have to go to this page to vote - there's a box below the faces of the contestants, you enter your email address there, click the button, then it takes you to another page that asks for more info, including who you want to vote for (hopefully "Doug & Raiyah"). You might get an error message when you click the button after entering your email address - if so, go back, enter your email again and click again, it should work the second time (or so) - happened to me too! It's a bit of a pain, but it really is for a good cause. Hope you can help. Thanks, JOHN Read the rest of this post...

Black Helicopters Over Nashville: A report from the Teabagger conference

From Jonathan Kay, writing in Newsweek:

[T]here is the double-whopper of all anti-Obama conspiracy theories, the "birther" claim that America's president might actually be an illegal alien who's constitutionally ineligible to occupy the White House. This point was made by birther extraordinaire and Christian warrior Joseph Farah, who told the crowd the circumstances of Obama's birth were more mysterious than those of Jesus Christ. (Apparently comparing Obama to a messiah is only blasphemous if you're doing so in a complimentary vein.) To applause, he declared, "My dream is that if Barack Obama seeks reelection in 2012 that he won't be able to go to any city, any city, any town in America without seeing signs that ask, 'Where's the birth certificate?'"

Perhaps the most distressing part of all is that few media observers bothered to catalog these bizarre, conspiracist outbursts, and instead fixated on Sarah Palin's Saturday night keynote address. It is as if, in the current overheated political atmosphere, we all simply have come to expect that radicalized conservatives will behave like unhinged paranoiacs when they collect in the same room.

That doesn't say much for the state of the right in America. The tea partiers' tricornered hat is supposed to be a symbol of patriotism and constitutional first principles. But when you take a closer look, all you find is a helmet made of tin foil.

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Republican's new complaint: Obama killing too many terrorists

Now that's a new one. Read the rest of this post...

BREAKING: Bill Clinton hospitalized, chest pains

UPDATE: Hillary is off to NY, reportedly "very nervous."

ABC seems to be downplaying it.

CNN confirms they've also heard chest pains, and says Clinton's condition is unknown.

Statement from Clinton's office:

Today President Bill Clinton was admitted to the Columbia campus of NY Presbyterian Hospital after feeling discomfort in his chest. Following a visit to his cardiologist, he underwent a procedure to place two stents in one of his coronary arteries. President Clinton is in good spirits and will continue to focus on the work of the foundation, and Haiti's relief and long-term recovery efforts. In 2004, the President underwent a successful quadruple bypass operation to free four blocked arteries.

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Reid scraps Baucus 'jobs' bill after it's discovered Baucus put lots of non-jobs provisions in to win GOP support

It's a jobs bill. Make it about jobs. And if the Republicans don't want to vote for jobs, let them vote it down. Thank God Harry Reid is standing up to Max Baucus and his incessant need to do everything for the Republicans and big business. From The Hill via DailyKos:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is rewriting a jobs bill after Democrats complained of too many concessions to Republicans.

Reid announced Thursday that he would cut back on the jobs bill Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) introduced only hours earlier, essentially overruling the powerful chairman....

Baucus had stuffed the bill with many provisions that Democratic senators thought went beyond the goal of creating jobs, such as $31 billion in extensions to expiring tax provisions, including the research and development tax credit. That and other tax cuts were included to win GOP votes....

Democrats complained the bill did not focus enough on job creation.

McJoan adds:

How novel, focusing a jobs bill on job-creating initiatives. In addition to the tax extenders, the Baucus bill had "a short-term extension of the USA PATRIOT Act, flood insurance provisions, Small Business Administration loan provisions, and a $1.5 billion package of agriculture disaster relief provisions." Good show, Reid and Senate Dems. The bill might have to be done through reconciliation, but if Dems have to bring jobs to America on their own, so be it.

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China files charges against foreign business workers

If filing charges against business people operating in China who are involved in bribes, the courts may be able to hire quite a few new workers to help with the heavy load. It could take care of the unemployment problem though they'll need to build a few more prisons, thus creating even more jobs. Everything will be fine until someone below figures out that all roads lead to party leadership. Who really wants to do business with that government? Can we quit acting as though the communist regime is a good business partner?

The four employees of the mining giant's Shanghai business – including an Australian national, Stern Hu – have been held since July. Although the original, more serious, charges of stealing state secrets have been downgraded, they still face more than 20 years in prison if convicted.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency yesterday reported that the four are accused of requesting and accepting "huge" bribes from Chinese steel companies, as well as using "improper" means to obtain commercially sensitive information.

"Many times they used personal inducements and other improper means to obtain information from Chinese steel firms, causing serious consequences for the steel companies concerned," Xinhua said.

In other words, it was business as usual in China. Read the rest of this post...

Homosexual is a slur

I've said it before, and gotten blowback for it. Now there's proof. Read the rest of this post...

Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart retiring. Over 10% of House GOP caucus now leaving.

Via Hotline On Call comes the news that yet another GOP House member is retiring. South Florida's Lincoln Diaz-Balart is quitting. And, in a classic move, his brother (also a Congressman), Mario, is giving up his seat to run for his brother's safer Republican seat:

Diaz-Balart is the 18th House GOPer to step down, and one of the few who holds a seat that Dems could target. In '08, he defeated Dem Raul Martinez by 16 pointes, even though the DCCC spent money in his Miami-Dade and Broward Co. district.

The district is heavily Hispanic, thanks to Miami's large Cuban population. 73% of district residents call themselves Hispanic, while just 16% are white. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) won a narrow 51%-49% victory in the seat.

First elected in '92, Diaz-Balart has had little trouble holding on to his seat. His brother, Mario, represents another heavily-Cuban part of Miami. CongressDaily reports that Mario Diaz-Balart will abandon his district to run in Lincoln's, which is seen as tilting more toward the GOP.

Keeping it all in the family.

This latest announcement means that 18 GOP House members are retiring. There are 178 Republicans in the House. As Jonathan Singer pointed out on Twitter, this means "More than 1-in-10 House GOPers retiring." One would think the pundits would be wondering why so many Republicans are getting out. But, that might ruin their "GOP is ascendant" story line. Read the rest of this post...

I think this interview is a bit of a disaster

From BusinessWeek:

President Barack Obama said he is “agnostic” about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit.

Obama, in a Feb. 9 Oval Office interview, said that a presidential commission on the budget needs to consider all options for reducing the deficit, including tax increases and cuts in spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

“The whole point of it is to make sure that all ideas are on the table,” the president said in the interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. “So what I want to do is to be completely agnostic, in terms of solutions.”

Yes, I get it. In a Spock "we're all mature adults, so let's be brutally honest" sense, we do need to put everything on the table if we're truly going to get the budget in order and address federal spending over the long term. But in a "do you really want every single Democrat to lose the next election?" sense, I'm not entirely sure that brutal honesty - and I mean, brutal - was the most appropriate response from the President.

I'm not saying he should lie. I'm saying that if the point of a commission is to take the heat off of Democrats, or any one political party or politician, and spread the blame around for the necessarily painful cuts we need to be facing (in order to spare any politician or party from the political damage they'd face embracing such cuts - and in the end, undermining the cuts themselves), then you don't start off the negotiation by quasi taking public responsibility for those very same cuts. And in a Spock sense, the President did not take responsibility for raising taxes on people making under $250k and cutting Social Security and Medicare. But in a real American sense, that's exactly how his words will be twisted by the Republicans, and perceived by the public.

Who is in charge of messaging at the White House? From the beginning of the Obama administration the White House's messaging has been quite poor. It's why lots of Republicans say the man is a socialist, and do so with impunity, it's why 75% of Americans think the stimulus was wasted (when it wasn't), and it's why health care reform is now a rather large mess. This White House kind of sucks at messaging. And this is another, rather horrifying, example.

Who is in charge of messaging at this White House? Why do we have to keep receiving "clarifications" telling us that the President, or some unknown staffer, didn't really mean what they very clearly said?

This interview today is going to be used against every single Democrat in the next election, and it's going to be used against President Obama in 2012. The Republicans won't be so kind as to tell the voters the truth about deficit reduction. They'll simply choose smart politics over smart policy - they'll reject any such budget cuts or tax increases and make us look like fools.

The President's instinct at the beginning of a hugely important negotiation was to go public and negotiate with himself, taking partial ownership of something incredibly dangerous. The entire point of the negotiations was to spread the risk around. Not to permit the Republicans to yet again hang this around our necks.

Seriously. Who is in charge of messaging at the White House? They need to be fired. And God help us if it's the President himself. It's been a year now. These mistakes are no longer forgivable nor acceptable. Read the rest of this post...

Still waiting for the plan to repeal DADT, which means there still isn't one

Politico has an article today on the movement, or lack thereof, to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell from the Obama administration and on Capitol Hill (and this Poltico piece actually quotes some people by name, including Rep. Anthony Weiner.) We posted it at AMERICAblog Gay.

The crux of the article is that since the State of the Union, there's been little, if any communication from the White House on a strategy for moving forward. The White House lead on this is issue is Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina. He's been an instrumental player in the health care strategy, particularly on the Senate side. This excerpt aligns with what John and I have been hearing:

House and Senate aides praised Obama, Mullen and Gates but say the administration’s point man in the Senate, Jim Messina, hasn’t followed up with a detailed plan for how to proceed, leading to some confusion.

“We need a clear path forward,” a senior House Democratic aide said.

Yes, at this point in time, we don't need "confusion." We need a plan. Yesterday, Servicemembers United, whose members are directly impacted by the law, presented a path forward that would insure repeal while addressing the needs of military leaders. It could be a breakthrough. That is, if the White House wants one.

As we've noted repeatedly, to succeed, the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell should be part of the Defense authorization bill. So far, the Obama administration has not included repeal language in its budget requests. There's still time, but not much.

In the real world, outside of DC where every word is parsed for hidden meaning, people think that the President has made a commitment to repeal DADT this year. Both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue have to step up to make it happen. Read the rest of this post...

FOX/GOP want Brennan fired for speaking the truth

Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan has had it with the GOP's political games over national security. And, he's been calling them out for it:

Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda. Terrorists are not 100-feet tall. Nor do they deserve the abject fear they seek to instill. They will, however, be dismantled and destroyed, by our military, our intelligence services and our law enforcement community. And the notion that America's counterterrorism professionals and America's system of justice are unable to handle these murderous miscreants is absurd.

The GOP functions solely on its political motivations -- even when national security is involved. That was the underlying premise of the Bush/Rove years.

Now, if we know one thing about GOPers, they're very, very thin-skinned. And, they completely hyperventilate and overreact when someone busts them. They're not used to being challenged. And, Brennan really let them have it.

So, that means Republicans are in attack mode -- at Brennan (whose job it is to keep us safe.) It's important to see who is saying what -- and where it's being said. Via email from the Political Bulletin, it's no real surprise who is pushing the story and where it's being pushed (with my emphasis added):

On Fox News' Special Report, senior White House correspondent Major Garrett reported that Congressional Republicans "stepped up their calls for President Obama's top counterterrorism advisor, John Brennan, to resign or be fired." Rep. Pete Hoekstra: "This guy is poisoning the well. I think the President probably should fire this guy, because he's off-base and inconsistent with how national security issues should be dealt with." Sen. Kit Bond "called on Brennan...to resign yesterday and...repeated that, somewhat indirectly, today."

Appearing on Fox News' Special Report, Roll Call's Mort Kondracke contended Brennan "made a serious political mistake when he accused Republicans of aiding Al Qaeda. ... It ought to be just off the table. And he did that toward Republicans and that's not the way you ought to treat the people who oversee the intelligence community." Tucker Carlson, also on Fox News' Special Report, said, "You can't accuse your opponent, simply because they disagree with you, of putting the country at risk. ... This is over the top. And the White House clearly was behind it."

Also appearing on Fox News' Special Report, Charles Krauthammer commented, "The reason the Administration is so defensive is because it's on the wrong side of what is obviously a bad decision it made on Christmas Day."

It's all politics for FOX and the GOP. Read the rest of this post...

Over 70% think Sarah Palin is 'not qualified to serve as President' (they're right)

Fresh off her widely covered book tour and overblown media coverage of her keynote speech at the teabagger convetion, Sarah Palin is riding high. Yes, she's a big hit with a bloc of hard-core right-wingers, but, in the real world, most Americans don't buy it. In the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, she has astoundingly bad numbers. Over 70% of Americans don't think she's qualified to be President:

There is a growing sense that the former Alaska governor is not qualified to serve as president, with more than seven in 10 Americans now saying she is unqualified, up from 60 percent in a November survey. Even among Republicans, a majority now say Palin lacks the qualifications necessary for the White House.

Palin has lost ground among conservative Republicans, who would be crucial to her hopes if she seeks the party's presidential nomination in 2012. Forty-five percent of conservatives now consider her as qualified for the presidency, down sharply from 66 percent who said so last fall.

Among all Republicans polled, 37 percent now hold a "strongly favorable" opinion of Palin, about half the level recorded when she burst onto the national stage in 2008 as Sen. John McCain's running mate.

Among Democrats and independents, assessments of Palin also have eroded. Six percent of Democrats now consider her qualified for the presidency, a drop from 22 percent in November; the percentage of independents who think she is qualified fell to 29 percent from 37 percent.

That whole quit your job to cash in thing might have made her rich, but it's not going to get her into the Oval Office.

But, if there's one thing we know about Palin, she loves the spotlight. And, she did intimate this weekend on her employer's network that she's thinking about running for President. Bad numbers like this won't deter Palin. Today, she got some encouraging news. Gallup reports that Romney and Palin are the top candidates for 2012 among GOP voters. (Okay, he's at 14% and she's at 11%, but still, they're at the top.)

I really want her to run in the GOP primary. Can you imagine the very serious Newt and Mitt trying to have a real debate with her? That will be fun to watch. She'll run circles around them. Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Same update as yesterday. Everything "official" in DC is closed, although the Senate convenes at 2:30 PM.

The President doesn't have any major events on his schedule. He does have a meeting with Tim Geithner. I wonder if Obama grasps the damage Geithner -- and Larry Summers -- have done to him. Last year, we were all waiting for some big news about reining in Wall Street. Never really happened. Obama's comments yesterday on the huge bonuses and the "very savvy businessman," whether intended or not, didn't reassure people that he's on the side of Main Street.

Our local stations have been in storm frenzy for the past week or so. There's really only so much wall-to-wall coverage about snow storms that one can take. But, this little guy is loving it:


Let's get it started... Read the rest of this post...

Berlusconi shuts down political discussions on TV prior to elections

The terrorists hate the Western democracies because they are jealous of our freedom and our ability to stick to our principles. Another proud moment for Berlusconi.

Silvio Berlusconi's supporters in the Italian parliament last night outraged opposition MPs and journalists with a controversial clampdown on political talk shows ahead of next month's regional elections.

The ruling PDL Party's majority on the parliamentary watchdog that oversees public broadcaster RAI forced through rules that mean the state broadcaster's most popular talk shows will have to scrap their political content – or face a transfer from mid-evening to graveyard shifts. Programmes such as Ballarò and Annozero, which have frequently held Mr Berlusconi to account for alleged sex scandals and even Mafia links, will be the main victims of the month-long clamp down that prompted accusations of censorship.

Political content will be allowed – but only if all 30 or so parties standing in the elections are represented on every show, which programme-makers said would make their formats unworkable.

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British judges: MI5 complicit in torture

So far, nobody is tripping over themselves in a Dick Cheney way to proudly defend torture though the Tories might be waiting until the election is over. The Guardian:

MI5 faced an unprecedented and damaging crisis tonight after one of the country's most senior judges found that the Security Service had failed to respect human rights, deliberately misled parliament, and had a "culture of suppression" that undermined government assurances about its conduct.

The condemnation, by Lord Neuberger, the master of the rolls, was drafted shortly before the foreign secretary, David Miliband, lost his long legal battle to suppress a seven-paragraph court document showing that MI5 officers were involved in the ill-treatment of a British resident, Binyam Mohamed.

Amid mounting calls for an independent inquiry into the affair, three of the country's most senior judges – Lord Judge, the lord chief justice, Sir Anthony May, president of the Queen's Bench Division, and Lord Neuberger – disclosed evidence of MI5's complicity in Mohamed's torture and unlawful interrogation by the US.

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