Obama in 2002: Toppling Brutal Dictator a ‘Dumb War’

President Barack Obama pauses during his speech on America's energy security, in this photo taken Wednesday, March 30, 2011, at McDonough at Gymnasium Georgetown University in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama, as an Illinois state senator in 2002, said that using military force to topple...

Exclusive: Obama authorizes secret help for Libya rebels

By Mark HosenballWASHINGTON | Wed Mar 30, 2011 6:16pm EDT (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government...

The New York Times Prays to God That Obama Gets Lucky in Libya

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I hold here, ladies and gentlemen, in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers today's column in the New York Times by Thomas L. Friedman. Can I read to you the last line of this piece? This is hilarious, but that doesn't do it justice. z"Dear Lord, please make President Obama lucky." That's the last line of the lead foreign...

Prepared text of Obama’s address on Libya – March 28

To be completely honest, I have not had time to watch any news at all in the last week or even the president’s address on Libya last night, but I know Jim will be discussing it on the big radio show today. Here is the video and text of the speech -- as it was prepared -- for President Obama. March 28, 2011 at the National Defense University Tonight,...

Ron Reagan Jr.: My Father Is A “Fetish Object For The Far Right”…

class="alignnone size-full wp-image-16378" src="http://weaselzippers.us/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/4075168161_d97a9aa7fe.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /> Asswipe. In a new interview with the BBC, Ron Reagan, Jr., son of the late president, called his father “a fetish object for the far right.” Expanding on his point, the younger Reagan...

SHOCKING DISCOVERY: The Day After 9-11 Van Jones Led Rally Where They Cheered American Killers (Video)

Hero of the Left– Kristinn Taylor and Andrea Shea King reported recently at Big Government on a long lost video of Van Jones leading a rally in Oakland, California the day after 9-11 where they cheered the American killers. BizzyBlog reported on this video back on September 8, 2009. But, Kristinn just recently captured some of Jones’ remarks at the...

Morale Sinks As Libyan Rebels Lose Ground (Video)

NBC's Richard Engel reports Qaddafi forces are now using jeeps (similar to the rebels) instead of tanks to avoid detection and making it very difficult to be spotted by the air. Engel says the rebels have no communications, no commanders. They have mortars and surface to surface rockets but have no idea how to use them, they even fired rocket in the...

Low Levels of Radiation Found in US Milk

Washington state... yahoo news WASHINGTON – Very low levels of radiation turned up in a sample of milk from Washington state, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday, but federal officials assured consumers not to worry. The FDA said such findings were to be expected in the coming days because of...

Handmade Interview: Anna Clifton

For this installment of the Handmade Interview we have Anna Clifton, her website is at annaclifton.com. You can also find her on twitter and facebook. Please introduce yourself and your business I’m a 34 year old mum of 2, wife and designer/maker of jewellery. I have a degree in jewellery and silversmithing and design and make innovative pieces...

Reasssessing the Notion of a "Brain Drain"

The idea of a drain hardly ever evokes a positive reaction especially in the context of the siphoning of intellectual capital from developing countries. The impact of the “brain drain” phenomenon has been hotly debated in development circles, particularly in relationship to the flight of health care workers who emigrate from countries facing ...

Where's the Funding: Rural Health Care

Health Care is an important issue for everyone in Saskatchewan. Our taxes are meant to provide everyone with REAL access to doctors, home care, hospitals and long term care services so that we can get the right level of care at the right time. So why are people who live in Rural Saskatchewan being asked to pay an additional tax to get the same...

Budgetary Allocation to Health: Shame of a Nation

The lack of commitment on the part of the federal government of Nigeria to increasing the budgetary allocation needed to improve the health of Nigerians remains a disturbing one. Recently, it was reported that Nigeria earmarks 3.5 per cent of its national budget to the health sector. With the well documented intrigues surrounding the release of...

Dr. Stephen R. Keister : Health Care and the Congress from Bedlam

Birth of the Republican Congress: "The Interior of Bedlam" (Bethlem Royal Hospital), from A Rake's Progress by William Hogarth, 1763. Image from McCormick Library, Northwestern University / Wikimedia Commons. The Congress from Bedlam: Health care and American priorities By Dr. Stephen R. Keister / The Rag Blog / March 30, 2011"I know of no country...

Dr. Kevin Patterson on Western Diets and Health

A few readers have pointed me to an interesting NPR interview with the Canadian physician Kevin Patterson (link). He describes his medical work in Afghanistan and the Canadian arctic treating cultures with various degrees of industrialization. He discusses the "epidemiological transition", the idea that cultures experience predictable changes in their...

Top doctor says health care needs to move off of the election waiting list

CALGARY - The president of the Canadian Medical Association wants health care moved from the waiting list to the top of the agenda in the federal election campaign. Dr. Jeff Turnbull told a Calgary audience that Canada's health-care system is at a crossroads and the federal government needs to expand its role. "That's why, in this newly launched...

Mental health concerns mount as Japan tsunami realities sink in

Via Reuters: Mental health concerns mount as Japan tsunami realities sink in. Excerpt: Japanese tsunami survivors mourning lost loved ones and struggling to replace shattered homes and workplaces also face daunting mental health concerns, experts warn. Three weeks after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami left more than 27,500 people dead...

Public health caravan dispatched to help southern victims

BANGKOK, 31 March 2011 – The Ministry of Public Health has dispatched a caravan carrying consumer supplies and 30,000 sets of medical kits in an urgent effort to aid flood victims in the southern region. Public Health Minister Jurin Laksanawisit stated that the public health caravan is bringing the necessities to eight southern provinces currently...

Quotes of the day

“I don’t know what motivates people who insist on doubt here,’ said Brooks Jackson, director of FactCheck.org, who went on to say that Obama’s U.S. citizenship had been proven “beyond any reasonable doubt.… But it’s natural human tendency to believe what you want to believe and ignore any evidence that would make you change your mind. “‘Some people...

Hillary to Congress on not seeking authorization for Libya war: Too bad

I don’t know how else to read this except as the White House telling Congress that they don’t want to hear from them going forward, period. And based on the reactions from both Republicans and Democrats at the briefing, sounds like they don’t know how else to read it either. Unbelievable. They said one dynamic was very clear: The administration...

ABC: GOP, Dems reach tentative budget deal involving “at least $33 billion” in cuts; Update: No deal?

So there’s the secret top-line figure we knew of but didn’t have a number for. $33 billion — and maybe a bit more — pegging this just north of half of the GOP’s target for the year. Good enough, tea partiers? Sources tell me that budget negotiators on Capitol Hill have tentatively agreed on a deal that would involve at least $33 billion in spending...

CNN: US changing war “strategy” to all-out attack on Gaddafi forces

Is this really a change? For the last eleven days, the US has attacked Libyan military targets almost exclusively under the wide definition of “protecting civilians,” which looks more like air cover for the rebellion. It hasn’t worked very well to stop Moammar Gaddafi, as the rebels now have begun falling back along a long line, losing Ras Lanuf...

Q-poll puts Obama approval at 42%, 48% disapproval

We can officially call the post-New Year bump in Barack Obama’s job approval ratings finished.  A new poll out this morning from Quinnipiac of over 2000 registered voters nationwide puts Obama’s approval level at 42%, the lowest in any Q-poll for Obama, with 48% disapproving.  His re-elect number is actually even lower: American voters...

Boeing to Upgrade Australia’s MHFCS

26 Maret 2011 Australia's High Frequency Communications System (photo : BDA)Boeing Receives AUS$15.5M MHFCS Support Services ContractBRISBANE, Queensland – Boeing [NYSE: BA] on March 11 received a $15.5 million Support Services Contract (SSC) from the Commonwealth of Australia for the Modernised High Frequency Communications System (MHFCS).Under the...