Video- Attention Kelly O'Donnell & Media: A Naturalized Citizen IS THE SAME As A Natural Born Citizen

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Pertinent part starts about 2:50.

Mitchell- And the chairman of the committee, Joe Lieberman, Kelly, also suggested that he thinks it's time to strip someone who's under such a watch list of their citizenship.* Strip them of their citizenship, we heard Senator John McCain saying earlier today that there should not have been any Mirandizing so there's going to be a lot of focus on what some critics of the administration are going to be saying, republicans are raising a whole lot of issues.**

O'Donnell- All about how you would then proceed, if someone is, especially a naturalized citizen as was the case in the Times Square incident, could you pull away the citizenship to deny them some of the rights that we as American citizens would have. That's part of what is prompting Lieberman's comments. And if you were even a natural born*** citizen and commit what they said could be an act of treason would you then forfeit your citizenship benefits. And there was a discussion today that went into the fact that a citizen could be determined to be an enemy combatant, a classification that gives the government some different avenues to go through prosecution. So, these are really tough issues because they go right to the heart of the constitution, and right to current day events that have everyone on edge.

Ms O'Donnell, I see that you graduated from Northwestern, so you really can't be this stupid. Are my parents and sister less American than you****? Or is the fact that they've been "naturalized" longer a factor? Craig Ferguson's only been naturalized about as long as Shahzad, so maybe Craig should be careful not to be accused of anything? How long do you have to be naturalized for it to really stick? Can you make me a graph showing the different levels of American? Is it like the wedding anniversary thingie? I mean, if I've been naturalized for 5 years I get Free Speech, 10 years the Right to Bear Arms? I'll be waiting for your reply.

* Mitchell stumbles around too much for me to type every damn word she says, I tightened it up.

** Is there ANYONE that is paid to be on television that cooks up a bigger word soup that Mitchell? It's bloody painful.

***Note the emphasis on "born".

**** I dare you to say that to her U.S. General husband.

BBC poll-itics: World warming to U.S. under Obama

By GottaLaff

No, that doesn't say global warming up there in the title, read it again. The world is warming up to the United States under President Obama's watch. Imagine.

Now that's the kind of global warming we like:

For the first time since the annual poll began in 2005, America's influence in the world is now seen as more positive than negative.

2005. ... ... 2005. Now who was in charge then? I remember! BushCo! Is it me, or did they negatively affect everything they got within inches of?

No, it's not me.

Of course, the Party of No will see this as another component of big scary commie pinko liberal French abortionist fascist Jew Marxist Obama's "Old Europe" evil socialist agenda. How unAmerican of him to get the rest of the world to like us again.

And work with us again.

And cooperate with us again.

And communicate with us again.

And support us again.

What a traitor.

Chart- Health care spending: U.S. v. Abroad

By GottaLaff

Tech issues fixed... Now, take a gander at this:

(click on image to enlarge)

H/t: Jdkidd81

Haaretz Poll: Most Israelis see Obama as fair and friendly

I thought the Israelis didn't trust President Obama? Another right wing meme imploded.

Some 27 percent of Israelis believe that U.S. President Barack Obama is anti-Semitic, according to a Haaretz-Dialog poll conducted this week.

Anpther 56 percent questions said they don't believe politicians who call Obama anti-Semitic or hostile to Israel, or who say he is "striving to topple Netanyahu."

On the whole, Obama's popularity may be declining in American public opinion, but a sweeping majority of Israelis think his treatment of this country is friendly and fair.

Prison population to have first drop since 1972

Of course, it's because of the economy, not any sort of sensible sentencing.

DALLAS – The United States may soon see its prison population drop for the first time in almost four decades, a milestone in a nation that locks up more people than any other.

The inmate population has risen steadily since the early 1970s as states adopted get-tough policies that sent more people to prison and kept them there longer. But tight budgets now have states rethinking these policies and the costs that come with them.

"It's a reversal of a trend that's been going on for more than a generation," said David Greenberg, a sociology professor at New York University. "In some ways, it's overdue."

Pentagon thought Canada spied on us via Canadian coins

By GottaLaff

Note: I have made corrections and amended the title. Thank you to those who caught my mistake.

Yes, it's true, according to an e-mail, the Pentagon thought Canada had implanted radio transmitting devices into coins in order to spy on the U.S. of A.

Espionage warnings from the Defence Department caused an international sensation a few years ago over reports of mysterious coins with radio frequency transmitters, until they were debunked. The culprit turned out to be a commemorative quarter in Canada.

But at the height of the mystery, senior Pentagon officials speculated whether Canadians were involved in the spy caper, according to emails marked "Secret/NoForn" and obtained this week by The Associated Press under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

No, not Canada! Not our BFF! 'Kay, we would so break up with them over that.

Not that we'd ever really, really doubt the Canadians, right?

"I don't think it is an issue of the Canadians being the bad guys," the Pentagon's counterintelligence chief wrote, "but then again, who knows."

What? Wait. "Who knows"? "Who knows"?? Eeks! Dude! That's even more uncool than some famous celebrity athlete guy cheating on his wife and leaving incriminating voice mails!

Canada is among the closest of U.S. allies, its continental northern neighbour and the leading oil supplier for the U.S. The intelligence services of the two countries are extraordinarily tight and routinely share sensitive secrets.

Oh em gee, I so know! We totally confide in each other at, like, every meet-up, and that whole oil thing is, like, amazing! This whole double ultra superdupersecret spy coin thingy is so bogus. I mean, I am so seriously serious.

In sensational warnings that circulated publicly in late 2006 and early 2007, the Pentagon's Defence Security Service said coins with radio transmitters were found planted on U.S. army contractors with classified security clearances on at least three occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors travelled through Canada.

No way. Like, I mean, that was during the BushCo years! OMG, were the contractors, like, Blackwater dudes? Come on, tell! Isweartogod I can keep a secret.

In January 2007, the government abruptly reversed itself and said the warnings were not true.

'K good, cuz that would have so been a major deal breaker and there is like, no way we coulda stayed together.

What suspicious contractors believed to be "nanotechnology" on the coins actually was a protective coating the Royal Canadian Mint applied to prevent the poppy's red colour from rubbing off. The mint produced nearly 30 million such quarters in 2004 commemorating Canada's 117,000 war dead.

This is totally humiliating. I want. To. Die. No, seriously, totally, I mean it. I hope we can still be BFF. Pleeeeze? It will never EVER happen again. Sweartogodandeverythingprecious.

Many of the emails were censored over what the Pentagon said was national security and personal privacy.

Kewl. Cuz, I mean, if anyone saw those, we'd be so grounded and laffed off Facebook and the world stage.

Serious.

H/t: Tymlee

A Thanksgiving tale: Woman in labor insists on being served

I'm a cynical tough old bitch, and this made me tear up. Land of plenty my ass.

ANCHORAGE — On a day when hundreds flocked to the Central Lutheran Church in Fairview for all the Thanksgiving fixings, one woman in line stood out in more ways than one: She was pregnant, in labor, and wasn't leaving without her turkey.

A neighbor had brought her Monday evening to the annual Thanksgiving Blessing, as the big pre-holiday giveaway organized by the Food Bank of Alaska and area churches is known. People line up at churches all over town for yams, cranberry sauce, potatoes, apples, stuffing, gravy mix, pie, rolls, vegetables, and a turkey and roaster -- everything they need for a feast at home.

Alan Budahl, the incoming executive director of Lutheran Social Services, was in his first day on his new job when a flustered man came up to him.

"Hey I have my neighbor," the man told Budahl. "She's in labor, and she's in the line and she won't go to the hospital until she gets her food because she needs her Thanksgiving basket."

"I said, 'Well, what do you mean in labor?' "

"Literally. She's in labor. You'll see it," the neighbor answered.

Budahl told the neighbor to bring the pregnant woman inside.

Once she got to the front, Budahl saw she was breathing through contractions. "Shouldn't you be in the hospital?" Budahl asked.

"She said 'I need this Thanksgiving basket. I do. I do. I do. If you don't get it today, you don't get it.' "

(snip)

"She was nice. You could tell, she must be having a contraction because the look on her face was, I need it now," Budahl said.

Some teenage volunteers carried her food basket to the neighbor's car. Her daughter held her hand.

"We helped them out and away they went," Budahl said.

So how did it turn out? In all the commotion, no one got her name or which hospital she was going to.

Video- Senator Al Franken draws map of USA

Pretty impressive. When Sundance ran his radio show, each one opened with him doing this.

Video- Complete President Obama, President Calderon, PM Harper: Joint Press Conference

President Obama reaches out to Iran... with hot dogs

But, I'm guessing, no beer. Some winger somewhere is bound to take this as a bad thing any minute now...

SAN SALVADOR — Having sent the Iranian people a video greeting on their New Year, President Obama is now inviting them to help celebrate a quintessentially American holiday, the Fourth of July.

Last Friday, the State Department sent a cable to its embassies and consulates around the world notifying them that “they may invite representatives from the government of Iran” to their Independence Day celebrations — annual receptions that typically feature hot dogs, red-white-and-blue bunting and some perfunctory remarks about the founding fathers.

Administration officials characterized the move as another in a series of American overtures to Iran. The United States has not had relations with Iran since the American Embassy in Tehran was seized by protesters in 1979; the country’s diplomats have not been formally invited to American events since then.

CNN Poll: Many Americans hold unfavorable view of Muslim world

Wonder if all that "crusade" and "Axis of Evil" talk had anything to do with it?

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Hours before President Barack Obama departs for a trip to the Middle East, a new national poll suggests that only one in five Americans has a favorable view of Muslim countries.

That compares to 46 percent of the people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey who say they have an unfavorable opinion of Muslim countries. That's up five points from 2002, when 41 percent indicated they had an unfavorable view.

Three in ten meanwhile say they have a neutral opinion of Muslim countries.

The poll also suggests that most Americans think people in Muslim countries don't think highly of the United States. Nearly eight in ten questioned say people in Muslim countries have a unfavorable opinion of the U.S., with 14 percent saying Muslims hold a favorable view.

But the poll indicates Americans seem to be split on whether such negative opinions by Muslims matter. Fifty-three percent of those questioned say they think Muslim views of the U.S. matter a great deal or a moderate amount, with 47 percent saying that Muslim opinions of the U.S. don't matter very much or at all.

Democrats to rule until 2049?

Don't know about you, but that really doesn't sound all that healthy for the country...

Former Homeland Security SecretaryTom Ridge: We were wrong to torture

By GottaLaff

Was Tom Ridge for torture and illegal detention before he was against it?

America's first homeland security secretary has accepted some criticisms of the US "war on terror" made in a recent report by legal experts.

Tom Ridge told the BBC that the report's attacks on extended detention and torture were justified. [...]

The report the International Commission of Jurists said anti-terror measures worldwide had seriously undermined international human rights law.

After a three-year global study, the ICJ said many states had used the public's fear of terrorism to introduce measures including detention without trial, illegal disappearance and torture.

It said the framework of international law that existed before the 9/11 attacks was robust and effective, but had been actively undermined by the US and the UK.

Mr Ridge, who was appointed to the new post of homeland security secretary after the 11 September, 2001 attacks on the US, said the ICJ was on "solid ground" in its commentary "with regard to torture and sustained detention without due process".

In an interview with the BBC's World Today programme he said that regardless of what terrorism suspects had done, the US still needed "to afford them some sense of due process."

"It has taken a while for us to get to that point but we are certainly there now," he said.

He added that there was now a consensus in the US and beyond that water-boarding - a harsh interrogation technique that simulates drowning - was torture, saying there had been no allegations of its use since 2003.

Oh goody. He says we only waterboarded people until 2003. That's a relief. I bet he can't wait for those who were brutally tortured to get wind of this... the ones that survived.

And how nice that he finally feels free to openly acknowledge these horrendous, illegal abuses... in 2009.

Oh, did I forget to mention this?

However, Mr Ridge also defended US policy, saying counter-terrorism work was now about detaining people before they were able to commit terrorist acts. [...]

Many suspects had "embraced an ideology, a belief system, that said it's perfectly all right in order to advance a cause to kill innocents along the way", he said.

"They had no loyalty to a country so they're not the traditional prisoner of war, they don't wear the uniform of a country so we can't treat them as we have done in previous wars."

Mr Ridge added: "How we dealt with them in terms of returning them to their potential country of origin was a difficult issue that not only the United States but other countries have had to deal with.

"So, we're in the process of dealing with it."

But are we in the due process of dealing with it?

Sidebar: I wonder if Mr. Ridge is currently employed. If so, he may be one of the lucky 25%.

"The United States is now back on the side of the enlightened on this issue of basic human rights.”

By GottaLaff

There is nothing more essential to co-existence than basic human rights. How nice that we now have an administration that agrees with that statement:

U.S. allies and human rights groups criticized the Bush administration’s position as it stood “in contradiction with America’s long tradition as a defender of human rights”:

– [France’s human rights minister Rama] Yade and the Dutch foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen, said at a news conference that they were “disappointed” that the United States failed to support the declaration.

– “The Bush administration is trying to come up with Christmas presents for the religious right so it will be remembered,” said Scott Long, a director at Human Rights Watch.

But as with a number of other important issues, the new Obama administration has come with a change in attitude and a new position. At preparations for the U.N.’s so-called “Durban Review Conference” on racism and xenophonia in Geneva, the U.S. offered support for a proposal to condemn “all forms of discrimination and all other human rights violations based on sexual orientation”:

The Czech Republic on behalf of the E.U., with the support of New Zealand, the United States, Colombia, Chili on behalf of the South American states, the Netherlands, Argentina and a few others, took the floor in support.

While the measure faced resistance and eventually failed, U.N. Dispatch’s Mark Leon Goldberg notes, “Still, it’s relieving to see that the United States is now back on the side of the enlightened on this issue of basic human rights.”

How pathetic and embarrassing that Bush put us on the other side for way too long.

Happy Presidents Day!!

They're going to have to add a new chord. Another one here.

Five States With Highest Obama Approval Ratings

Just because I love my trivia.

Obama has majority support in all of the 14 major states polled

1. New York (78 percent approval)
2. Massachusetts (78 percent approval)
3. California (77 percent approval)
4. Wisconsin (70 percent approval)
5. Washington (69 percent approval)

Not Bankers

Nope, and it's not just the US losing jobs.

TORONTO — General Motors of Canada Ltd. is laying off 700 more workers at its Oshawa, Ont., operations, the Canadian Auto Workers union said Friday.

The layoffs at the car plant will take place in February.

The auto maker also told the union that it is delaying plans to assemble new transmissions in St. Catharines, Ont., CAW chief Ken Lewenza said.

Poland denies Barack Obama cannibal 'joke'

I totally believe it since it's exactly the kind of joke my dad would have told. And "strain relations"? C'mon folks, it was a stupid joke not an invasion of Hamtramck....

In an episode that could potentially strain relations between Warsaw and Washington, Radek Sikorski, an Oxford-educated politician who has lived in the US, was reported to have made the jibe by an opposition politician, Ryszard Czarnecki.

Writing in his blog, Mr Czarnecki, an MEP, quoted the foreign minister as saying: "Have you heard that Obama may have a Polish connection? His grandfather ate a Polish missionary."

A spokesman for the Polish foreign office conceded that Mr Sikorski had made the controversial comment, but denied that the foreign minister had intended to insult Mr Obama, whose father was Kenyan.

UK Won't Take US Word On Torture Anymore

If our greatest ally doesn't trust us anymore.....

The British government should not rely on US assurances that it does not use torture, a report by MPs says.

The foreign affairs select committee said the UK and US differ on their definitions of what constitutes torture and it urged the UK to check US claims.

It recommended the government carry out an "exhaustive analysis of current US interrogation techniques."

(snip)

The committee highlighted the technique of "water-boarding" - a practice which simulates drowning.

The US describes it as "a legal technique used in a specific set of circumstances" and President Bush has refused to ban it.

Given the clear differences in definition, the UK can no longer rely on US assurances that it does not use torture

However, the UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said it is torture and "the UK unreservedly condemns the use of torture."

In its report, the committee said: "Given the clear differences in definition, the UK can no longer rely on US assurances that it does not use torture, and we recommend that the government does not rely on such assurances in the future."