After seven straight drops, the Dow landed at 8579.19 on Thursday, a year to the day after hitting a record of more than 14,000 points. The owners of the national debt clock in New York, meanwhile, announced they will add two digits to the board in order to display a quadrillion—because that’s where we’re headed.
BBC:
The digital counter marks the national debt level, but when that passed the $10 trillion point last month, the sign could not display the full amount.
The board was erected to highlight the $2.7 trillion level of debt in 1989.
The clock’s owners say two more zeros will be added, allowing the clock to record a quadrillion dollars of debt.
Washington - A draft report by American intelligence agencies concludes that
Afghanistan is in a "downward spiral" and casts serious doubt on the
ability of the Afghan government to stem the rise in the Taliban's influence
there, according to American officials familiar with the document.
The classified report finds that the breakdown in central authority in Afghanistan
has been accelerated by rampant corruption within the government of President
Hamid Karzai and by an increase in violence by militants who have launched
If Barack Obama is elected president of the United States on Nov. 4 - a prospect
that is beginning to seem likely now - it may turn out that he closed the deal
with a simple answer to a not-so-simple question posed by Tom Brokaw in the
second presidential debate: "Is health care in America a privilege, a right
or a responsibility?" This is familiar territory for Democrats. The question
was framed many years ago by Senator Ted Kennedy, who must have been smiling
up on Cape Cod.
Berkeley, California - Both presidential candidates have been criticized for failing - at Tuesday's
debate and previously - to name any promises or plans they're going to have
to scrap because of the bailout and the failing economy. That criticism is unwarranted.
The assumption that we are about to have a rerun of 1993 - when Bill Clinton,
newly installed as president, was forced to jettison much of his agenda because
of a surging budget deficit - may well be mistaken.
At first glance, January 2009 is starting to look a lot like January 1993.
Then, the federal deficit was running at roughly $300 billion a year, or about
5 percent of gross domestic product, way too high for comfort.
In 2003, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) declared that global warming is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.” During a debate this past Tuesday night, when asked whether he stands by that claim, Inhofe offered a defiant defense of his position:
INHOFE: I think I was right on that, and I do believe — first off, let’s keep in mind, though, what the issue is. It’s not whether or not we’re going into a global warming period. We were. We’re not now.
You know, God’s still up there. We’re now going through a cooling spell. And the whole issue there was is it man-made gases, anthropogenic gases, CO2, methane. I don’t think so.
Asked whether John McCain is a victim of the global warming [base ']Äúhoax,[base ']Äù Inhofe responded, “People are afraid of some the environmentalists out there because they pour all the money into campaigns and, consequently, we have a lot of people who fall in that category, and some of them are Republicans.[base ']Äù
Summing up his assessment of global warming science, Inhofe declared: “It’s hysteria.” Watch it:
This chart prepared by NASA[base ']Äôs Goddard Institute clearly disproves the notion that we[base ']Äôre in a cooling period:
Far from a “cooling spell,” the U.S. is now entering a period of [base ']Äúglobal boiling.[base ']Äù Each day brings new, troubling headlines of a world wrought with extreme storms, floods, droughts, rising seas, catastrophic change, and species loss.
In addition, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) recently reported that Arctic sea ice volume likely hit a record low in 2008. NASA data shows that for a four-week period in August 2008, sea ice melted faster during that period than ever before. Apparently, the [base ']Äúcooling spell[base ']Äù hasn[base ']Äôt been felt in the Arctic.
Ever since President Bush confirmed the existence of a National Security Administration wiretapping program in late 2005, he has insisted it is aimed only at terrorists’ calls and protects Americans’ civil liberties:
– If somebody from al Qaeda is calling you, we’d like to know why. … In the meantime, this program is conscious of people’s civil liberties, as am I. This is a limited program designed to prevent attacks on the United States of America — and I repeat: limited. [1/1/06]
– This is a — I repeat to you, even though you hear words, “domestic spying,” these are not phone calls within the United States. It’s a phone call of an al Qaeda, known al Qaeda suspect, making a phone call into the United States. I’m mindful of your civil liberties. [1/23/06]
– People who analyze the program fully understand that America’s civil liberties are well protected. There is a constant check to make sure that our civil liberties of our citizens are treated with respect. [2/28/08]
[Former Navy Arab linguist David Murfee] Faulk says he and others in his section of the NSA facility at Fort Gordon routinely shared salacious or tantalizing phone calls that had been intercepted, alerting office mates to certain time codes of “cuts” that were available on each operator’s computer.
“Hey, check this out,” Faulk says he would be told, “there’s good phone sex or there’s some pillow talk, pull up this call, it’s really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, ‘Wow, this was crazy’,” Faulk told ABC News. […]
“We knew they were working for these aid organizations,” [former Army Reserves Arab linguist Adrienne] Kinne told ABC News. “They were identified in our systems as ‘belongs to the International Red Cross’ and all these other organizations. And yet, instead of blocking these phone numbers we continued to collect on them,” she told ABC News.
Kinne called Bush’s assurances that the U.S. was only tracking phone calls of a “known al Qaeda suspect” “completely a lie.” Click here to watch ABC’s report.
Obama Projects Cool and Steady Temperament. Senator Barack Obama is a very different kind of candidate than Bill Clinton, judging by his performance at the town-hall-style debate and on the campaign trail.
Reynolds basically thinks that the Obama campaign could treat him a whole lot better than they have been. Let me summarize: Obama's "campaign schedule" is too full! "Baggage calls are preposterously early!" They once "idled for two hours in a Miami hotel parking lot!" They "airily dismiss" complaints about the timeliness of schedule printing! They aren't as "friendly" as the McCain camp, who have out schedules in the form of "actual books you can hold in your hand!" The "events are designed" for the "simple needs" (and the simple minds!) "of the press corps!" Obama's plane is messy and smelly! McCain's plane is better!
Seriously. I don't know what world Dean Reynolds is living in, but where I live, people need another story about reporters reporting on reporters about as badly as they need a polonium enema. There are legitimate, serious, necessary inquiries that need to be put to these two candidates, and if Reynolds isn't up to the task, maybe he should tag out and give someone who is of sterner stuff a crack at the CBS's newshole. Someone who's less sensitive to the smell, maybe. The smell that's no doubt been generated by...uhm...reporters.
Think about this: that bright shiny McCain plane that Reynolds loves so much is going to be traveling this weekend to Davenport, Iowa. DAVENPORT! Wasn't it just last week that Mike Murphy - who's no doubt got a fondness for John McCain's modes of travel - asked, "<a href="http://time-blog.com/swampland/2008/10/des_moines_register.html";>What the Hell was McCain even doing there in the first place?" If Reynolds gets on that plane, he's going to be traveling about as far from the election battleground - and the story - as you can get. But I suppose that if they get him the schedule on time and keep his drink refreshed, he's just gonna be as happy as a pig in leavings!
Reynolds, puffed up with fake bellicosity, concludes his post by warning, "...in politics, everything that goes around comes around." OOOH. Whatcha gonna do, hyper-sensitive reporter that I've never heard of before you started whining about your luggage? Are ya gonna leave your tray table in the down position as the Obama plane descends? Grow up.
Ever since President Bush confirmed the existence of a National Security Administration wiretapping program in late 2005, he has insisted it is aimed only at terrorists’ calls and protects Americans’ civil liberties: 