The Ugly American 
What, me worry?
Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
Mr. Bean
Khamenei has died. The formal announcement is expected to be made tomorrow morning (Tehran time) .
Relative to this, all regime organizations including the official regime news agency “Seda va Sima” are beig draped in black…
SondraK, Lympian Slayer 
I think I’m missing something here.
Russia and the United States have tentatively agreed to a weapons inspection program that would allow Russians to visit nuclear sites in America to count missiles and warheads.
Okay, well, that’s a fine start, I guess. And in exchange...?
Clinton said the U.S. would be as transparent as possible.
“We want to ensure that every question that the Russian military or Russian government asks is answered,” she said, calling missile defense “another area for deep cooperation between our countries.”
Well, sure, ok, but…
On another critical issue, Lavrov declared that it would be counterproductive to threaten Iran with more sanctions over its nuclear program—as he resisted efforts by Clinton to win agreement for tougher measures should Iran fail to prove its program is peaceful.
Okay fine but before you change the subject I REALLY REALLY THINK THERE’S SOMETHING MISSING HERE.
Like...any benefit or concession to the United States whatsoever. Nothing. Nada. That’s the sorta thing I’d think might be important to mention if it existed.
I wonder if they even asked for anything? I mean, an all-access backstage pass to Rocky Flats has to be worth something, right? I mean at least a bottle of the good stuff and a nice set of matryoshka dolls.
apotheosis, unrepentant milkaholic Rolling Stone’s Obama Cover Wins ASME Prize
...but this kinda is:
The overall winner this year was Rolling Stone, which also won for the Best Obama cover category.
Category.
fundamental
Evidential.
Claire, Ideologically Stubborn Heatist Ruralite 10/14 at 03:17 PM •
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hawt
CONGRESSWOMAN BACHMANN: And I think that’s why Speaker Pelosi has made me her number one congresswoman to defeat next year.
...The Community Reinvestment Act… [which] demands that banks make loans to people who are poor credit risks. [passed in 1996]
Then what happened, the federal government hung a threat over these banks because banks didn’t want to make loans to people who were poor credit risks. So as part of the demand from the federal government, what they said is if the banks fail to lower their lending standards, then the federal government would shut down their interstate bank branches and they would not allow banks to open new branches. So in other words, the federal government would essentially shut these banks down if they refuse to make bad loans to people who wouldn’t be able to pay them back.
... one way the banks could satisfy their requirement under the Community Reinvestment Act is they could partner with ACORN. So a bank could either make a cash donation to ACORN, they could give equipment donations or they could work with ACORN to provide these loans to people who are poor credit risks.
... But one way you can satisfy your Community Reinvestment Act rating, because you have to get a certain score, one way you could satisfy your score, give money to ACORN. Work with ACORN. You work with ACORN, you’re good with us, says the federal government.
Claire, Ideologically Stubborn Heatist Ruralite 10/14 at 01:27 PM •
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rank incompetence
Presidential Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev also singled out the U.S. and NATO, saying Moscow’s Cold War foes still pose potential threats to Russia despite what he called a global trend toward local conflicts.
...Moscow reserves the right to conduct pre-emptive nuclear strikes to safeguard the country against aggression on both a large and a local scale…
Bemember—this was A] not a rumor B] still exists.
Claire, Ideologically Stubborn Heatist Ruralite 10/14 at 01:12 PM •
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A Palm Bay woman and her boyfriend were arrested Monday for child abuse after the couple went old school to punish their 8-year-old daughter for swearing.
They washed her mouth out with soap.
Raise your hand if this never happened to you when you were a kid. I know I got my share.
Then again, I caught a few whippings - in retrospect, each and every one well-deserved - that would also have landed my mom and dad in the slammer in this new, “enlightened” age.
So once again, the rights of the state to determine what’s good for your kid supersedes the rights of the parent. And it just...keeps...going.
...the Navy assault ship USS New York sails through the Mississippi River Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009, after departing Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in Avondale, La. The ship has 7.5 tons of steel from the World Trade Center in its bow, and is scheduled to be commissioned in November 2009 in New York.
Because I can see myself in your pants
PepsiCo is facing criticism for an iPhone application that promises to help men “score” with women.
[...]
The application lets users select from stereotypes of women, like the “celebrity” or the “nerd” and offers possible pickup lines like, “Wasn’t I in Space Academy with you?”
Ladies, help me out here. A company is marketing a product (badly) by convincing the target consumer that it can make them more attractive to the opposite sex. Doesn’t that basically describe EVERY SINGLE FREAKING ADERTISEMENT ever? Beer, cosmetics, cars, jewelry, whatever? So what makes this particularly offensive?
Every single ad makes assumptions about not only the people buying it, but the people that the buyer wants to bump uglies with. Drinking this beer will make you irresistible to college coeds. Driving that convertible will give you back the sexual magnetism you left behind three decades ago. This isn’t new, it’s just a silly spin on the exact same theme.
So what’s the big deal?
No horizontal tango tonight!
