....Afghans seem increasingly uncertain about their country’s fate once the Americans withdraw. Asylum applications to other countries are at an all-time high, while passport applications have overwhelmed the Afghan Foreign Ministry’s ability to process them. More than 500 people line up outside the passport office in Kabul every morning even in the bitterest weather.
...this is the state Romney recently said should serve as a model for the nation....and 36% aren't sure what he is, 12% say he is Christian. Talk about low information voters. This is the GOP base.
More than half of likely Republican voters in Mississippi say they think President Barack Obama is a Muslim, according to a survey conducted by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic polling firm. Fifty-two percent said that Obama practiced Islam, while just 12 percent said he was a Christian. Thirty-six percent said they were not sure.
GOP leader Senator Graham, SC, stay forever, 'win' ABC TV transcript:
I hope a strategic partnership agreement, George, between the United States and Afghanistan will stop the narrative we're leaving, that there will be a follow-on force post-2014 with air bases and special forces units to make sure the Taliban never come back, and at NATO we'll stay past 2014......We can win this thing.....
Republicans, another example of not enough guns? Shows why all hospital or university doctors, staff, professors, students (and patients?) should be allowed to carry loaded sidearms?
"Police have told us there were 9 total victims ... 2 of whom have been confirmed dead," UPMC said on Twitter.
"According to police, 1 of 2 confirmed dead... is believed to be the shooter," it said on Twitter.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Republican leader said Monday the United States should use overwhelming military force against Iran if American intelligence shows that Tehran has decided to build a nuclear weapon.....
Forget election year politics and polls for a moment, will the apparent negligent disposal by burning of Korans at Bagram signal the final conclusion of not only our 'fragile and reversible gains' there, (Gen. Petraeus, 2011) - but our entire mission? Perhaps speed an end to the whole campaign and occupation, and hasten our exit?
Should Obama have apologized for the Koran disposal? Should he have waited for the investigation to be concluded, as the Korans in question may have already been defaced with messages written by prisoners, and as such were a security risk. On the other hand, did Karzai apologize for the deaths of 4 Americans by Afghan personnel this week? Should we be apologizing or leaving?
Should Obama be quietly or loudly telling the Pentagon to speed plans for departure, leaving Afghans on their own sooner rather than later, while also withdrawing the billions in financing they get from the presence of US and NATO troops? Does Obama have the moxie to exit faster, or will he stick to the ridiculous plan to stay until 2014 or beyond? Would the Republicans pounce on an Afghan exit and say 'Obama lost the war'? Would voters say 'we left too early', or just 'we should never have gone in to start'? Are there enough non-fanatical Afghans, and do they care enough, to stay and stop a Taliban return, or will they just try to get out while they can?
The 'rescue package' appears to reduce interest rates on some bonds held by hedge funds and banks, while more than making up for that 'relief' with a new EU loan which is more than the purported savings on the previous bonds. This is 'relief'? For Greece or hedge funds and banks?
...The deal in Brussels gives Greece its second financial lifeline in less than two years — a combined package of foreign loans equivalent to about €22,000 ($29,000) for every Greek citizen, children included. National debt already amounts to about €32,000 ($42,300) each....
OK..Corral...not the most accurate word....it was a Wal-Mart men's room, not technically a 'corral', but if the guy at the urinal had drawn a weapon, it might have gotten dicey. Arizona requires no certificate, license or education on gun use or safety, anyone can carry a gun, concealed or unconcealed, almost anywhere. So we don't know whether the guy with the hot .357 Ruger was just too dumb to engage the safety before doing his business, or whether he just has an itchy trigger finger and is always 'ready'.
The Arpaio-like border defending Arizona Republican county sheriff, and leading GOP rising star for candidacy for Congress, reportedly maintained a profile at the gay website adam4adam under the name studboi1 and had a gay Mex pal, who says Babeu threatened him with deportation if he talked about their relationship, link to screen capture of studboi1 page.
Joe Arpaio is called the 'America's toughest Sheriff', but Maricopa County is not so tough if you are white, booked on suspicion of 8 felonies, caught with stolen items in the home of your grandmother who is trying to kick you out, along with body armor, guns and drug paraphernalia.
$6.2 million in tax on $45 million income for two years. Clearly loves America, particularly its 'system' of taxation. And don't imagine he would volunteer to pay more if the GOP starts or joins in a war on Iran!
Apparently, Mitt's Great Grandpa, Great Great Grandpa, and/or his #1 Grandpa were Mormon polygamists. The Great Grandpa fled the US to Mexico with a harem of wives after an anti-polygamy law was passed in 1882. Mitt's Dad was born in Mexico. Some of the Romney clan still live there south of the border. From Geraldo Rivera, Fox:
In an exclusive interview outside a Manchester polling place, Ron Paul lashed out at fellow Republicans for making unfair and ignorant attacks on Mitt Romney's business record. "I think they're wrong. I think they're totally misunderstanding the way the market works," Paul told me. "They are either just demagoguing or they don't have the vaguest idea how the market works"...."I think they're way overboard on saying that he wants to fire people, he doesn't care, Paul said. "You save companies, you save jobs when you reorganize companies that are going to go bankrupt.
....Using analysis of orbital data as well as samples from rock cores drilled in the ocean floor, Dr Skinner's team identified an episode called Marine Isotope Stage 19c (or MIS19c), dating from about 780,000 years ago, as the one most closely resembling the present.
The transition to the Ice Age was signaled, they believe, by a period when cooling and warming seesawed between the northern and southern hemispheres, triggered by disruptions to the global circulation of ocean currents.
....The Democratic administration was expected to announce Monday it would block new uranium mine stakes on 1 million acres near the canyon, extending an expiring 2009 interim ban that lets more than 3,000 existing mines and mining claims made before 2009 continue but blocks new claims....
..hard hitting look at Bain Capital, from the Gingrich campaign, funded by a casino owner, and apparently to run in SC, why can't the Democrats come up with ads like this, or will they?
Huntsman slams video featuring images of adopted kids
....The video asks whether Huntsman, President Obama's first U.S. ambassador to China and a former Utah governor, is the "Manchurian candidate." That's a reference to the 1962 movie about a Chinese plot to assassinate an American presidential candidate.
The video includes footage of Huntsman speaking Mandarin and holding his daughter, Gracie, who was abandoned in a Chinese vegetable market shortly after she was born. Gracie is now 12.
Link is to Boston Globe graphic in pdf format. In short, Bain put up $5 million in cash to buy American Pad and Paper in 1992, the company went bankrupt in 2000. Over that 7+ years Bain drained $100 million off the backs of the workers, debt holders and stockholders of Ampad. From the Des Moines register 1 January, 2012:
....Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, for instance, is not worried about OWS:“Who gives a crap about some imbecile?” Marcus said. “Are you kidding me?”....
Just trust Mitt on this, he really really really pays taxes. Lots of taxes. He would show you his tax returns, but he isn't, trust him. Maybe the dog did eat them, they might have fallen into the Alpo bowl, or maybe the dog got real hungry.
