23 26 / 33 of the Chilean miners have been safely retrieved. Nothing but positive speculation concerning the rest. Go, Chile.

26 and counting.

I'm sure that everyone is well aware of this story, but wth ... we were due for some good news.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BIOH4Z4RD,

‘We Are Not Doomed to Endless Gridlock’

I think he's right I've been pretty impressed with the last year or so.

Banking regs

Health Care including, in part, the following,

Pre-existing conditions covered by medical insurance

All kids covered by insurance either under medicaid or under their parents plans through age 26.

Expand medicaid eligibility.

Boost funding to training medical staff, nurses, and doctors.

and dozens of other new regs to make medical insurance less opaque over the next few years as far as costs and coverages. These are all things that will not be subject to reversal by the courts.

An extra $15 billion for the VA including more mental health professionals

Cutting banks out of the federal student loan game, lending money directly to students rather than paying banks to act as pass through lenders.

Increased the National Park Service budget by 10%, allowing them to start planning for, among other things, dealing with climate change in the huge national park system.

Expand the Pell Grant program for students (the Girl got $3500 in grant money for Spring semester, WOOT!)

Repealed DADT, since the kids ACTUALLY doing the fighting don't seem to really give a crap anymore

Create a office of Urban affairs, although this doesn't sound important in the past couple of years we have become a nation where the majority of people live in cities. Making sure money goes to good programs, such as efforts in Philadelphia and Detroit that buy vacant properties and convert them to green uses, is a big deal.

Boosted the budget of NASA dramatically.

Support high speed rail projects ($1.3 billion to Florida this year alone)

Ended restrictions on stem cell research that has shown promising progress in treating, among other things, Parkinson's, Altzheimer's, and spinal injuries.

These are just some of the biggest and I totally jacked the list from the much longer list of achievements on the politifact website. Currently they are tracking the Obamameter stats as,

quote:

The Obameter Scorecard
Promise Kept 127
Compromise 40
Promise Broken 28
Stalled 82
In the Works 226
Not yet rated 3

Furthermore, the banking bailouts by and large have been successful at what they were supposed to do.. And they allowed Obama to strongarm the banks into not opposing tighter regulations. My favorite bit was how they forbade executive bonuses to companies that accepted bailout funds until those were repaid.

Bailed out domestic automakers, who support a huge domestic and foreign supply chain.

Although there are a lot of folks that wanted more, or felt the measures he took weren't going far enough (the public option for health coverage comes to mind) more has been done in the past two years than I could have imagined and I'll wager more than any previous pres since FDR.

I just felt like pointing out all the really great shit this guy has done.

In the end the guy is a law professor and he's tweeking at the legal system with skill. Next 2 years'll be intoresting.

LMAO!

quote:

Originally posted by Gromit:

quote:

Originally posted by ArkanGL:
Egypt's Muslims attend Coptic Christmas mass, serving as "human shields"

I saw that. Just when I'm losing all hope for humanity, someone does something a loving God might actually approve of.

Pakistan needs to observe. This is how a civilization operates. And survives.

Now if Christians would only do something similar in NYC.

Fat chance.

Unlike predecessor, Brazilian president Dilma went to RJ/SP to see with her eyes what's happening (floods/storms) and take proper actions.

Lula would "be doing something important" (like visiting Ahmadinejad)...

First Brazilian Indian (native) woman to enter Army: http://noticias.uol.com.br/cot...litar-no-brasil.jhtm

Hope more news like this one (overrun of extremely negative prospects, study, success).

"Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury" is a finalist for this year's Hugo Awards in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category. If it doesn't win, it's proof that there is no justice in the world.

quote:

Originally posted by editengine:
To win reelection now Obama could say fuck you guys, invoke the 14th, get sued, give Congress the finger and then do the helicopter on the Resolute desk.

He is doing it too, among the executive orders this week, students loans taken out in 2012 and after are now forgiven after just 20 years and payments are capped at 10% of discretionary income for direct loans. Since he took student loans away from the banks already this means that college just got a lot more affordable for everybody since the federal government is now essentially going to subsidize it. Some of the reports on this are downplaying the impact but, taken in context with the restructuring in how loans are made, this is a big deal. The vast majority of college grads WON'T be going on to big salaries and rising costs eat away at the 'discretionary' part of your income, further reducing your payments.

So I love the 'fuck you' nature of this story. For over a year folks around here have been pushing to forbid beggars at our intersections. Panhandling bans are popular with voters because they feel uncomfortable or angry when they see people at the side of the road asking for money. So they concoct bs reasons to ban them, although this is public space that they have as much right to as anybody. The safety problems, with aggresive panhandling and jaywalking, are already illegal.

Most of these folks that I have spoken with aren't really 'right'. Typically they are ex-felons, mentally ill, and/or chemically addicted. In this economy especially, that makes them almost completely unemployable unless they have special skills.

Well they finally passed the law here to ban them, with exception for newspaper vendors.

So somebody started a news paper for the homeless.

Started by a guy who already published a small neighborhood paper it is called the Epoch, and focuses mostly on the problems of homelessness and drug addiction with some local community news thrown in. It costs a buck, and the vendor selling it get $.75 to $1 of it depending on volume.

They also get to stare at all the heartless fucks that were so angry at having to see poor people begging for change and give them a silent 'fuck you' that I love.

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We here in Seattle have had "Real Change", the local homeless newspaper, for decades.

Victoria Street Newz, here. Nice paper, I always buy a copy when I see one.

Here, it's not so much about circumventing a ban as earning a little money, with dignity. I forget if it costs the vendor 50 cents or a dollar per copy, but the minimum price is a dollar, and beyond that it's pay-what-you-like. The vendors have particular spots in town staked out, and try not to step on each other's toes. Very amicable arrangement, with room to grow.



Cheers,

Patrick.

building the elevator to space

quote:

according to Bloomberg News, 2011 marked the first time that investment in renewable energy was greater than investment in fossil fuels: $187 billion versus $157 billion. The cost of solar energy is dropping rapidly, but even with a loss for the most recent quarter and a trade complaint, the Motley Fool still praised Chinese solar power company Yingli Green Energy as a solid investment. At a time when global investment is down in general, investment in solar and wind power is soaring, and could be the key to reducing CO2 emissions before we reach another point of no return.

FBI to revise definition of Rape for the first time since 1929

Sadly, it doesn't cover rape-by-interest rate.