FAA Releases New Drone List - Is Your Town On the Map?
02/07/2013
The Federal Aviation Administration has finally released a new drone authorization list. This list, released in response to EFF’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, includes law enforcement agencies and…
He is the most interesting man.
There is a fascinating exploration of memes at Cyborgology, though not one for the faint of heart.
Bloggers here at Cyborgology have explored the internet meme in interesting ways. Most…
Reich once more generates light and not heat.
The latest Pew Research Center poll shows Mitt Romney ahead of President Barack Obama among likely voters, 49% to 45%. But the latest Gallup poll shows the President Obama leading Romney among likely voters, 50% to 45%.
What gives? The Pew poll covered the days immediately following last…
I’m sure this foreshadows something very dastardly Moffat-like in this season’s story arc. There’s something not very advantageous in the long run about Oswin wiping the Dalek’s memory of the Doctor. We’ll look back to this scene and be enlightened.
(Source: martincrief)
Everybody looks pretty happy.
sds:
This is a great idea for a family picture. I guess I need two more kids to make it work, though.
brb
Environmental Racism On Display In Google Earth Images
Environmental racism as seen from space, via Google Earth.
In an article by Mashable writer Matt…
shared via WordPress.com
By now we’ve all seen this revolting display in part or in its entirety. But Robert Reich clarifies Romney’s distortions and provides analysis.
THE REAL MITT REVEALEDThis video is significant in two ways.
First are the distortions. Romney says 47 percent of Americans don’t pay income taxes. That’s literally true, except it’s misleading because it includes every retiree who hasn’t enough income to pay income taxes (most retirees), every poor and lower-income person who doesn’t have enough income to pay, and a few multi-millionaires (perhaps like Romney himself — we don’t know because he won’t release his tax returns), who don’t pay because of tax loopholes and tax-avoidance schemes. Moreover, just about all working Americans, regardless of income, pay federal payroll taxes. Everyone pays state and local sales taxes. And so on.Romney also distorts reality by purposely mixing “entitlements” with “a sense of entitlement,” and lumps in all recipients of Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment benefits into his 47 percent. Even though these programs are considered “entitlement” spending, their recipients are not undeserving; they don’t consider themselves entitled to handouts. They’ve paid into these insurance plans through their payroll taxes.
But the the most important revelation here isn’t Romney’s witting distortions. It’s his indignant condemnation of almost half the American electorate. A president is supposed to represent all of America, not just the 51 percent who elect him, and have a modicum of sympathy for the less fortunate among us.
Yet here is the real Mitt Romney — a fabulously wealthy financier, presumably speaking to other wealthy people (note the waiters scurrying about), with a passion we haven’t before seen in him — saying it isn’t his “job” to worry about Americans who he describes as “irresponsible,” who fail to take care of themselves, and whose neediness is presumably their own fault.Some of us thought Romney was without core or principle, an empty suit that would say anything to be elected. But here, evidently, is the real Mitt — a man whose core principle is clearly on display, and articulated with deep conviction: social Darwinism — survival of the richest, the hell with those who need a helping hand.In a subsequent news conference he attempted to make it sound as if he was talking here about political strategy, not social conviction. Watch and see for yourself.
Or, a Mario Cuomo said it best in a convention speech in 1984,
We must win this case on the merits. We must get the American public to look past the glitter, beyond the showmanship to the reality, the hard substance of things. And we’ll do it not so much with speeches that sound good as with speeches that are good and sound; not so much with speeches that will bring people to their feet as with speeches that will bring people to their senses. We must make — We must make the American people hear our “Tale of Two Cities.” We must convince them that we don’t have to settle for two cities, that we can have one city, indivisible, shining for all of its people.
Mario Cuomo’s Keynote Address at the 1984… | Gather
President Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Convention was long on uplifting rhetoric but short on specifics for what he’ll do if reelected to reignite the American economy.
Yet today’s jobs report provides a troubling reminder that the economy is still in bad shape. Employers added…
Remove one letter from popular movies, stir in a fanciful poster, and you have the “Removies” blog.
