VIDEO: Irish anger

Here's a healthy sample of Irish anger. An Irishman in the U.S. is interviewed about the bankers and the Irish situation in general.

The video got a million hits at YouTube. If this pot boils over, the stove will never come clean. Audio NSFW (h/t SCLiberal):



Is this the next Irish Troubles?

GP Read the rest of this post...

Bill Clinton PETA's person of the year

Despite not being a vegetarian, I still think this is pretty cool. I had no idea Clinton had gone vegan and still thought of him as a burger/junk food eating guy. It's certainly hard to argue against the positive results for Clinton and for vegans everywhere. Now I'm thinking about all of the great vegetarian restaurants in London and can't wait to get back.

Because he uses his influence to promote the benefits of following a vegan diet, PETA is pleased to name Bill Clinton its 2010 Person of the Year.

Studies have proved that vegetarians and vegans live, on average, six to 10 years longer than meat-eaters. One reason why President Clinton took a step toward going vegan is that he wanted to make sure that he would be around to enjoy his future grandchildren now that his daughter, Chelsea, is married. Since then, Clinton says that his metabolism has improved, and he now weighs as much as he did in high school—so he's definitely on the right track. "I live on beans, legumes, vegetables, fruit," he said. "I drink a protein supplement every morning. No dairy."

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Comcast, Verizon, AT&T;, Time Warner Cable and wireless carriers 'win' in Net Neutrality update

Oh hooray for having a Democratic majority at the FCC. Is it really always necessary to fold to corporate interests instead of providing the regulation that consumers need? Let's just call them Republican-Lite Another name might be "hardly a chance they're getting my vote in 2012."

This is a dramatic turnaround from the first round of Internet regulations proposed. The mere idea of regulating how Internet Providers transmit data was considered a negative for those carriers—regulation's a bad thing, right? And so-called "net neutrality" regulation was expected to be great for the likes of Netflix, Google's YouTube and Amazon, who stream content. The Open Internet Coalition, of which they're all members, praised efforts to ensure that their content wasn't discriminated against.

Yes, sure, they get reassurance that they won't face unfair discrimination, but they also could face new costs when Internet providers decide to charge more for certain, data-heavy content on the grounds that handling that traffic slows the network overall.

The group that gets off the easiest are wireless carriers like AT&T;, Verizon Wireless and Sprint—the FCC regulates them far more loosely than hard line Internet providers. They are given permission to discriminate against particularly bandwidth heavy content because of their capacity constraints. This is good for the wireless carriers but not so good for streaming companies like Netflix and Google.

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Greg Mitchell's non-stop blogging about Wikileaks

Interesting, and exhausting. Reminds me of what Nico Pitney over at HuffPost did covering the Iranian protests. Read the rest of this post...

Montanans speak out on Sen. Jon Tester's DREAM betrayal

Much unhappiness in the land about Jon Tester's vote against the DREAM act. And the last people I'd want to tick off are Adam and Markos. Read the rest of this post...

Apple removes WikiLeaks app from iTunes App Store

Between the high cost and our all-too-common quality problems with our MacBooks and iPhone from Apple, their game is wearing thin. More from TechCrunch. Read the rest of this post...

'Millions, if not billions, of dollars' squandered or diverted in Afghanistan

The waste of taxpayer money needs to end in Afghanistan. The news out of there never gets better.

Waste and fraud in U.S. efforts to rebuild Afghanistan while fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban may have cost taxpayers billions of dollars, a special investigator said Monday.

Arnold Fields, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, said the cost of U.S. assistance funding diverted or squandered since 2002 could reach "well into the millions, if not billions, of dollars."

"There are no controls in place sufficient enough to ensure taxpayers' money is used for the (intended) purpose," said Fields, whose independent office was created in 2008 to energize oversight of what U.S. auditors have described as a giant, poorly coordinated aid effort that has sunk some $56 billion into Afghanistan since 2002.

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Pope's Christmas address to cardinals: child porn and child rape was 'normal' in 1970s

It was obviously "normal" inside the church but out in the real world, it wasn't and isn't. How does one even have a discussion with such a loon? He's a very sick person.

In his traditional Christmas address yesterday to cardinals and officials working in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI also claimed that child pornography was increasingly considered “normal” by society.

“In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children,” the Pope said.

“It was maintained — even within the realm of Catholic theology — that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a ‘better than' and a ‘worse than'. Nothing is good or bad in itself.”

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Scarborough says Holbrooke told him Afghanistan was a losing proposition

Interesting, though not surprising, if true. So, are your comments no longer "off the record" once you die? Read the rest of this post...

'White House is exuding confidence' over START

To win ratification of the START Treaty, the President needs 67 votes in the Senate. He's got all 58 Democrats and is on his way to securing the nine GOPers. That's the indication from the White House this morning according to David Jackson at USA Today's blog, The Oval:

The White House is exuding confidence heading into a key Senate vote today on the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia.

Senate Democrats will seek to cut off debate today on the treaty, clearing the way for a final vote on START amid Republican criticism that it could undercut U.S. missile defense efforts.

President Obama and Senate Democrats said the treaty will have no effect on missile defense, but will instead cut the number of nuclear weapons and assure inspections of Russia's nuclear arsenal.

Last night, Alexander Bolton at The Hill, who has been counting the GOP votes, reported "[Scott Brown] was the ninth Republican senator to announce publicly that he would vote to ratify or is leaning strongly in favor of doing so." Read the rest of this post...

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

So, it looks like the START Treaty is going to pass after all, maybe even today. Opposing START over DADT was too much for even some Republicans.

Tomorrow, the President will the sign the DADT bill into law. There's a signing ceremony at the auditorium in the Interior Department Building. They needed a big space to accommodate the crowd. The White House did invite a broad range of people, including John and me. Pam and Andy Towle also got invites, as did GetEQUAL's Robin McGehee and Lt. Dan Choi.

I'm sure a lot of servicemembers will be there, too. And, they should be. They made this happen. As one might expect, there are a lot of people claiming credit for the win. But, credit must start with the tenacious advocacy of Servicemembers United and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network -- and the men and women they represent. They never backed down, they never stopped pushing. They knew this repeal bill had to pass THIS year, not next year. And, they were right. Meeting the men and women who were willing to put their lives on the line for the rest of us -- and for a country that discriminated against them -- was all the inspiration I needed.

(And, I'm sure that Alex, Jarrod and Aubrey have some amazing stories about what really happened. Look forward to hearing them once DADT is gone for good.)

What else is happening out there? Read the rest of this post...

UN drops 'sexual orientation' from protected minorites list

Stupid decisions like this undermine the UN's credibility. The Guardian:

The issue will come to a head today when the general assembly votes on renewing its routine condemnation of the unjustified killing of various categories of vulnerable people.

It specifies killings for racial, national, ethnic, religious or linguistic reasons, and includes refugees, indigenous people and other groups.

But because of a change promoted by Arab and African nations and approved at committee level, the resolution drops "sexual orientation" and replaces it with "discriminatory reasons on any basis".

The US government says it is incensed at the change, as are gay rights campaigners. "Even if those countries do not support gay rights, you would think they would support our right not to be killed," said Jessica Stern of the New York-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

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More winter weather slows European travel

It's warm and sunny in Paris today but elsewhere in Europe is not as lucky. Flights continue to be canceled and the trains are backed up for days. BBC News:

Overnight snowfall has compounded transport misery for travellers in Germany, as Europe continues to struggle with freezing conditions.

Germany's main air hub, Frankfurt, was forced to cancel many flights after being hit by unexpected snowfall.

In the UK, Heathrow Airport said it would continue to run only 30% of flights until 0600 GMT on Wednesday.

At London St Pancras rail station the queue for Eurostar trains to France and Belgium was already 1km by 0800 GMT.

(My father in law lived in Montreal, Canada for twenty years and he was even talking about the difficult road conditions here in Paris.) Read the rest of this post...