i think this was one of the funniest videos ever

Tosh.0
Video Breakdown - Twitchy Weightlifter
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Web Redemption 2 Girls, 1 Cup Reaction Demi Moore Picture

Finally

I've found a reason (actually, two) to stop stalking Chelsea Clinton. And they are available.

priorities

check it out

Mass

The race to fill Ted Kennedy's Senate seat is approaching its end.

For some takes on the new 'winning formula' of pragmatic/centrist Democrat conundrum at play there check out this and this.

Also, Satan has something to say.

Stuff

Obama@1

A major newspaper advising abandonment?

It's about time the president was taken down a peg

She's single and not in prison...


Double standard? not so much. Lott publicly wished Strom Thurmond and the segregationist ticket had won back in the day. Reid said light skin and good diction are helpful in a presidential hopeful. Not quite the same thing there. Good gossip though.

Bring back fun with the internets

These are the experts?

James Thompson, a former member of the 'blue ribbon' 9/11 commission, was on FOX news today along with one of his equally idiotic cohorts from the commision, Slate Gordon. The most ridiculous thing Mr Thomson said was that this 'underwear bomber' was the first terrorist incident since 9/11. Of course, those of us without Alzheimers should remember there were both anthrax attacks and the shoe bomber in the years since 9/11. His cohort Mr Gordon ranted and raved that the underwear bomber should be treated as an enemy combatant and 'questioned and questioned'( I suspect he was hinting that this questioning should be of the enhanced variety). Granted I am not privy to the exact events that have transpired with this guy, but I highly doubt that he was not questioned. I also highly doubt that this latest mentally challenged individual that tried unsuccessfully to blow up a plane knows diddly about higher level terrorists plans and operations.

Guaranteed to work

I just can't wait to see new DVD releases, so now that I will have to wait a month for them to get to Netflix, I will just have to go out and buy them right away instead, just like they hoped I would.

please remove your britches

as if it wasn't bad enough to have to take off your shoes to go through the gate security check now thanks to this guy we'll probably have to take our pants off too.

Happy Winter Solstice

Unrelated to the holidays, here is one or two interesting reads about the health care reform.

Somewhat related to the holidays, below are some cheery songs to help elevate you to the holiday mood.

Unrelated to anything at all: fun with google patents

Something to be thankful for

I'm glad I don't look at porn or use p2p applications, and always use the 'safe search' setting on google search because I would hate to end up in the same situation as the guy in CA who might do from 3.5-20 years in prison for some images buried "deep within the hard drive".

In other news, Republicans are mad at Al Franken since people have 'attacked' the ones who voted no on his legislation to mandate court access to federal contractor employees who are sexual assault victims. My favorite quote from the article:

“I don’t know what his motivation was for taking us on, but I would hope that we won’t see a lot of Daily Kos-inspired amendments in the future coming from him,” said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, No. 4 in the Senate Republican leadership. “I think hopefully he’ll settle down and do kind of the serious work of legislating that’s important to Minnesota.”

Book Signing

Proof that we failed our collective IQ test

See it here

green mile

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - The Green Mile
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Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor U.S. Speedskating

Did Israel commit war crimes? The world may never know.

The US House today passed a resolution (seen here) condemning a UNHRC report (Goldstone Report) on Israeli and Hamas actions during its war on Gaza (Cast Lead). You can see the report here(pdf). The mandate for the report was to look into war crimes allegations by Israel and Hamas during the conflict. The reason it was determined by congress to be biased was that it did not investigate Hamas rocket attacks during the years preceding this conflict. Unfortunately for the US House and Rep Steven Rothman (D-NY), who said:

"The report was not written to talk about 12,000 rockets intentionally sent by Hamas to slaughter Israeli men, women and children, versus the Israelis trying in many respects to minimise the damage to Palestinian civilians. So there have been completely different standards applied,"

the report did actually cover this topic, as well as many other misdeeds by Hamas and the Palestinians.

The other main complaint, via Steny Hoyer, was that the report singles out Israel among all other nations. Apparently the US House believes that if there are some nations that have faced no repercussions for committing war crimes, it is then unfair to hold any nation at all accountable for war crimes because it would be singling them out. This, even though the report is critical of both sides in the conflict.

Richard Goldstone, the principal author of the report, sent a letter to Congress detailing the factual inaccuracies in their resolution, which ironically was meant to show factual inaccuracies in his report. He did an interview with Bill Moyers that i would highly recommend watching. It is slightly longish but worth a view.

The question and investigation of war crimes is not, as many would claim (including the House resolution), a denial of Israel or any other group their right to self defense. Attempting to ensure international law is adhered to during armed conflict can be construed as a denial of self defense only by an extreme stretch of logic. As Goldstone said in his letter:

It is again factually incorrect to state that the Report denied Israel the right of self-defense. The report examined how that right was implemented by the standards of international law. What is commonly called ius ad bellum, the right to use military force was not considered to fall within our mandate. Israel’s right to use military force was not questioned.

friends in low places

I would like to call your attention to an article about our Allies in Afghanistan.