The Hollywood Liberal

Clinton Signals a ‘Critical Moment’ for Afghanistan
Sounding a cautionary, and cautiously optimistic, note on the eve of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s second inauguration, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointed to a crucial “window of opportunity” for Afghanistan as she called for Karzai and his administration to tackle the corruption issue within their government.  —KA BBC: “We stand at a critical moment on the eve of the inauguration of President Karzai’s second term,” Mrs Clinton told staff at the US embassy. “There is now a clear window of opportunity for President Karzai and his government to make a compact with the people of Afghanistan to demonstrate clearly that they’re going to have accountability and tangible results that will improve the lives of the people,” she said. “We want to be a strong partner with the government and the people of Afghanistan – and I always say both. Because it’s not either or, it has to be both.” Read more READ THE WHOLE ITEM

Sounding a cautionary, and cautiously optimistic, note on the eve of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s second inauguration, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointed to a crucial “window of opportunity” for Afghanistan as she called for Karzai and his administration to tackle the corruption issue within their government.? —KA

BBC:

“We stand at a critical moment on the eve of the inauguration of President Karzai’s second term,” Mrs Clinton told staff at the US embassy.

“There is now a clear window of opportunity for President Karzai and his government to make a compact with the people of Afghanistan to demonstrate clearly that they’re going to have accountability and tangible results that will improve the lives of the people,” she said.

“We want to be a strong partner with the government and the people of Afghanistan – and I always say both. Because it’s not either or, it has to be both.”

Read more

READ THE WHOLE ITEM

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• November 16, 2009 We Need a Civilian ‘ROTC’

Behold the Food of the Future
Want some Frankenfood with your superfood? How about those functional foods? As you might imagine, a preview of what we may be eating—or at least what we may be told is good for us—in the future is best taken with a grain of salt. READ THE WHOLE ITEM

Want some Frankenfood with your superfood? How about those functional foods? As you might imagine, a preview of what we may be eating—or at least what we may be told is good for us—in the future is best taken with a grain of salt.

READ THE WHOLE ITEM

Related Entries

• November 18, 2009 Lipstick on a Rogue
• November 17, 2009 The Demilitarization of the White House
• November 16, 2009 Our Rogue Evita
• November 16, 2009 The New State Solution
• November 16, 2009 We Need a Civilian ‘ROTC’

Sebelius: Women should get mammograms by age 40
WASHINGTON — Women should continue getting regular mammograms starting at age 40, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday, moving to douse confusion…

Goldman Sachs’s Drop In The Bucket
On Tuesday, Goldman Sachs announced it would commit $500 million to help small businesses, garnering the financial giant headlines and buzz for its altruism. But…

Diane Francis: I Love Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin will lead the fanatical lemmings over the cliff so that the United States can avoid being governed by people who are superstitious, ignorant and intolerant.

Quick Fact: Beck falsely claims Holdren supported “force[d] abortions”

Glenn Beck again falsely claimed that White House science and technology adviser John Holdren proposed “steriliz[ing] the drinking water to stop overpopulation” and “forc[ing] abortions so we don’t have too many kids.”

From the November 18 edition of Fox News’ Glenn Beck:

BECK: Does this sound familiar? It should. One of the spookiest guys in the administration is John Holdren. He’s the “Hey, let’s sterilize the drinking water to stop overpopulation. Let’s force abortions so we don’t have too many kids.” He says now he didn’t really believe in those things.

Fact: PolitiFact.com previously gave Beck’s Holdren claims “pants on fire” status

Responding to Beck’s July 22 claim that Holdren “proposed forced abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population,” the website PolitiFact.com concluded that “the text of the book clearly does not support that. We think a thorough reading shows that these were ideas presented as approaches that had been discussed. They were not posed as suggestions or proposals. In fact, the authors make clear that they did not support coercive means of population control. Certainly, nowhere in the book do the authors advocate for forced abortions.” PolitiFact gave Beck’s claim “pants on fire” status. Indeed, Holdren and his co-authors advocated for noncoercive means of population control.

Tom Coburn Joins Campaign Against Muslim Group
Tom Coburn (R-OK) has become the first senator to cast his lot with the group of House Republicans pursuing a campaign — based on purported revelations in the book Muslim Mafia — against the Council on American Islamic Relations

C Street House No Longer Tax Exempt
Residents of the C Street Christian fellowship house will no longer benefit from a loophole that had allowed the house’s owners to avoid paying property taxes.

More Questions On Landrieu Camp’s Donation To Treasury — CREW Filing Complaint
The campaign of Sen. Mary Landrieu violated campaign-finance rules by making an unexplained donation of over $25,000 to the US Treasury, a good-government group is alleging. The campaign calls the payment routine, but one expert says that’s “bullshit.”

Hitler and Christmas
The newest article making the rounds this holiday season is entitled ”How Hitler’s propaganda machine tried to take Christ out of Christmas.”  Look for mention of it on the O’Reilly Factor soon. Replete with pictures of tree ornaments with swastikas, the article is about one woman’s obsessive search for such knick-knacks, along with her version of WWII […]

Quote of the Day
“It’s going to be a holy war.”

— Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), quoted by the Los Angeles Times, on the coming health care debate in the U.S. Senate.

Palin Hits the Trail
Sarah Palin may call it a book tour, but Politico says her first day on the road looked more like a presidential campaign.

“The stop in Grand Rapids felt like a political campaign event, not a book tour. For a woman written off as a disorganized celebrity on a tour run by monomaniacal book publicists, Palin and her aides were clearly thinking politics… Palin’s roadshow travels in a campaign-style bus painted to match the cover of her book, with a giant picture of Palin and Facebook and Twitter logos. She emerged with a wave for the adoring crowd, which had begun massing 24 hours earlier, and a few words for the television cameras.”

Newsweek Taps Bush Aide For Obama Reporting
See if you can follow this twisted logic.

Do Yearly Mammograms Save Women’s Lives?
Controversial new recommendations on breast cancer prevention have caused a stir in the women’s health community. But do yearly mammograms really change death rates?

How Limousine Liberals, Water Oligarchs and Even Sean Hannity Are Hijacking Our Water Supply
A group of water oligarchs engineered a disastrous privatization scheme to make a fortune out of California’s most precious natural resource.

Oklahoma Lawmaker Considering Bill To Opt Out Of Hate Crimes Act
Just when you think GOPers can’t get more disgusting, there’s Steve Russell.

Modern Life Is Probably Screwed by Peak Oil, But It’s Not Too Late to Avoid Mass Starvation
The challenge of feeding 7 or 8 billion people while oil supplies are falling is stupefying. It’ll be even greater if governments keep pretending that it isn’t going to happen.

Heads on Pikes
I made the point earlier in the month that much of the populist outrage against health care reform is really misdirected anger about the federal bailout of the Banks and AIG. This morning comes proof at how Geithner and Paulson…


American International Group – GoldmanSachs – Timothy Geithner – Henry Paulson – New York

Realists
I understand the desire of New York Times columnists to appear realist. Writers who advocate for US intervention to induce Israeli-Palestinian peace, in column after column, month after month, can get to look, well, idealist. Writers are assumed to be…


New York Times – Israel – Israeli–Palestinian conflict – Warfare and Conflict – Middle East

Is Islam Uniquely Violent?
The neocons (Bill Kristol. Jeff Goldberg, Frank Gaffney, John Bolton, Martin Peretz, Daniel Pipes, Charles Krauthammer, etc) are arguing among themselves about how much blame Islam deserves for the Fort Hood slaughter. In response, Americans for Peace Now produced a…


Daniel Pipes – Charles Krauthammer – Islam – Bill Kristol – United States

Rep. Louie Gohmert: Democrats want another terrorist attack so they can pass a new jobs bill.
Recently, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other terrorism suspects will be tried in U.S. courts in New York City, which has prompted outrageous reactions from conservative politicians and pundits. One of the most extreme reactions came last night during an exchange between Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) […]

Recently, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other terrorism suspects will be tried in U.S. courts in New York City, which has prompted outrageous reactions from conservative politicians and pundits. One of the most extreme reactions came last night during an exchange between Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Fox News Host Neil Cavuto. When Cavuto questioned Gohmert about whether we should try 9/11 terror suspects in New York City, the Texas congressman “joked” that Democrats who support bringing the alleged terror conspirators there for trial are hoping for another terrorist attack so they can “create a new jobs bill” to rebuild the city:

GOHMERT: You’ve got millions of New Yorkers that would be put at risk [by trying Khalid Sheik Mohammed in New York City] … Unless they’re trying to create a new jobs bill by allowing terrorism back in New York, this is insane. And even that would be insane.

Watch it:

(HT: Media Matters Action)

Fox News displays old campaign footage to claim Palin is getting ?huge crowds? at her book signings.
This afternoon, Fox News host Gregg Jarrett proudly announced that Sarah Palin is “continuing to draw huge crowds while she’s promoting her brand new book. Take a look at — these are some of the pictures just coming into us.” But the pictures that the network chose to display on-air appeared to be old file […]

This afternoon, Fox News host Gregg Jarrett proudly announced that Sarah Palin is “continuing to draw huge crowds while she’s promoting her brand new book. Take a look at — these are some of the pictures just coming into us.” But the pictures that the network chose to display on-air appeared to be old file footage of Palin rallies from the 2008 presidential campaign. Individuals in the crowd are seen holding McCain/Palin signs, and others are holding pom-poms and cheering wildly. “There’s a crowd of folks,” an enthused Jarrett observed, referring to the old footage. Watch it:

The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart recently caught Fox News’ Sean Hannity displaying crowd shots from a rally earlier this year to claim that a recent GOP health care protest drew a larger audience than it actually did. Hannity later acknowledged that he “screwed up.”

Judge rules Jefferson can remain free while he appeals conviction
Former congressman William J. Jefferson will not have to begin serving his 13-year prison term until his appeal of his conviction on corruption charges is resolved, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Sen. Byrd breaks congressional longevity record
In his almost six decades on Capitol Hill, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) has broken nearly every legislative record that anyone bothers to count. On Wednesday, two days shy of his 92nd birthday, Byrd reached yet another milestone: He became the longest-serving member of Congress.

Obama’s story infused Asia tour
SEOUL — After taking his message as the “first Pacific president” through four countries in eight days, President Obama wrapped up his tour of Asia on Thursday with talks with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and a planned visit to U.S. troops stationed in the shadow of nuclear-armed North…