Old Nick
Old Nick's JournalWhy Is Jay Leno Shilling for the Gun Lobby?
The comedian is booked to crack a few jokes at a gun industry dinnerAuthor: Abigail Tracy
Posted: 11/19/14 16:41 EST
Jay Leno, known for his 22-year stint on The Tonight Show, is set to make an appearance at the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in Las Vegas at the start of next year. According to the gun trade group’s website, you can see the comedian drop a few humor bombs on the gun lovers in attendance for the low price of $135 ($115 if you are a NSSF member).
Up to this point, Leno has never made any strong statements about gun control in one way or the other. However, a 2010 study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs did find that he aimed more of his partisan jokes at Democrats (67 percent) than Republicans (33 percent) between January and September of that year. He also gave Ron Paul a good deal of airtime to share his views on gun control and background checks on The Tonight Show in 2013. Ted Cruz also made an appearance on the late-night show later that same year to discuss Obamacare, gay marriage and background checks for gun buyers. So perhaps this gig is an extension—and escalation—of his potentially anti-gun control mindset.
Then again, it might just be the money. Leno, a two-time Emmy Award winner, charges from $150,000 to $500,000 for U.S. performances, according to Celebrity Talent International. To put this price tag in perspective, comedian Kevin Hart charges the same amount, while William Shatner rakes in between $75,000 and $150,000 for each appearance.
The video shows the kind of sellout Leno is, if the price is right.
Jonathan Gruber Once Also Worked for the Bush Administration
Source: Mediaite
by Andrew Kirell | 3:34 pm, November 19th, 2014
As more and more videos come out of Jonathan Gruber saying things like how a “lack of transparency” or “the stupidity of American voters” helped get the Affordable Care Act passed, one can’t help but wonder: On what other policies has this guy worked?
Former Romney foreign policy spokesman and current Fox News contributor Richard Grenell noticed an odd fact about the loose-lipped MIT economist’s past interactions with the federal government:
Gruber got $103,500 from the State Dept. have any State Dept reporters bothered to ask why? who approved?
10:41 AM - 18 Nov 2014
The Washington Post did some digging and found out from the State Department that Gruber’s services were retained in 2008 “to provide an expert opinion and expert testimony in the NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement] Chapter 11 investment claim (Grand River Enterprises v. United States of America).”
The Post notes that this means Gruber once also worked for the George W. Bush administration, under Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice. His assignment reportedly ended in 2010, under the Obama administration.
Read more: http://www.mediaite.com/online/jonathan-gruber-once-also-worked-for-the-bush-adminstration/
Condi "No Blood On MY Hands!" Rice, eh? What's next? He wrote some of Rumsfeld's snowflakes, too?
In the Sky, the Sign of a New Cold War?
Don't look now, but there is an unidentified object in orbit in outer space, launched there by the Russian military last spring that has satellite-trackers, amateur space-watchers, and bedroom Kremlinologists wondering, and wondering whether they should be worrying.
In May, Russia launched a rocket carrying three Rodnick communications satellites to be added to a Russian military constellation. Along the way, it deployed what some onlookers figured was space debris. But last weekend, the object rejoined with the remains of the rocket stage that launched it. That’s not how debris usually acts—the hookup seemed decidedly intentional. “I have no idea what it is!” Patricia Lewis, a space security expert, told the Washington Post.
The object has been dubbed, impersonally, Object 2014-28E; perhaps we need to know it better to give it a proper name. It could be, as the Financial Times put it, civilian in purpose: “a project to hoover up space junk, for example.” But Russia, which presumably would have crowed if it had invented such a useful device, has experts worried that it might mark the return of a space weapon.
In November, 1963, the Soviet Union gave birth to the first prototype of the Istrebitel Sputnik, or killer satellite. The goal was to approach an enemy satellite, and then blow it up. In November of 1968, the USSR managed to destroy a target satellite in orbit. Ten years later, it was wholly operational. As the Cold War came to an end, and the Iron Curtain lifted, however, the first president of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin, put a stop the program. That was right when the project became public, with a photo of the Istrebitel Sputnik.
By the beginning of 2010, the commander of Russia’s space forces, Oleg Ostapenko, was telling the country’s official news agency that the country had the capacity to respond to space threats. He said, according to Popular Mechanics, "The USSR was developing inspection and strike spacecraft. Our policy—there should be no war in space, but we are military people and should be ready for everything. Our activities in this direction would be dependent on others, but, trust me, we would be able to respond quickly and adequately."
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-11-18/in-the-sky-the-sign-of-a-new-cold-war
The "new" Cold War has been going on for a decade, ever since Putin's "reelection."
Republicans seek creative ways to avert a shutdown
Source: Republitico
By Jake Sherman and Manu Raju
11/17/14 8:04 PM EST
Republican leaders have intensified their planning to prevent a government funding showdown, weighing legislative options that would redirect GOP anger at Barack Obama’s expected action on immigration and stave off a political disaster, according to sources involved with the sessions.
Obama plans to use his executive authority to change the enforcement of immigration laws by the end of the year, a move that top Republicans warn could derail efforts to pass a long-term spending bill by a Dec. 11 deadline. Increasingly, some top Republicans believe that it will be difficult to pass the year-long spending package that they originally envisioned, and are refocusing on a shorter term bill.
Speaker John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and their top aides and deputies are mulling several options that would give Capitol Hill Republicans the opportunity to vent their frustration with what they view as an unconstitutional power grab by the White House — without jeopardizing the government financing bill.
The options include offering a separate piece of immigration legislation on the floor aimed at tightening border security and demanding the president enforce existing laws, promises to renew the effort next year when Republicans have larger numbers in both chambers, and passing two separate funding bills — a short-term bill with tight restrictions on immigration enforcement agencies, and another that would fund the rest of the government until the fall.
<snip>
The strategies are all designed to prevent another standoff over funding the government. Republicans take control of Capitol Hill in January, and have promised to govern responsibly and end crisis-fueled legislating.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/government-funding-shutdown-republicans-112971.html?ml=po
Ladies and gentlemen, I hereby present you with my nominee for Funniest Fucking Headline of 2014, as well as Year's Most Ridiculous Piece of Right-Wing Propaganda Disguised As a News Article.
Sanders ROCKED on Colbert tonight!
Wall Street? Eviscerated!
The 1%? Skewered!
Government by and For Billionares? Condemned with Facts!
FUCK THE CORPORATE GOVERNMENT AND CORPORATE MEDIA! SANDERS IN '16!
Iran nuclear talks: Now or never for a deal?
November 17, 2014 8:00PM ET
by Michael Pizzi @michaelwpizzi
With the deadline less than a week away for a deal to resolve the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, talks between world powers and Tehran resume this week with renewed urgency. The window of opportunity for an historic compromise could be closing as naysayers in Washington and Tehran — not to mention U.S. allies such as Israel, the Gulf Arab states and even possibly France — demand a harder line from their respective sides.
The recent Republican takeover of the Senate could hamstring President Barack Obama’s ability to deliver on promised sanctions relief — the key incentive for Iran to cede to Western demands and curtail its nuclear enrichment program beyond what's required by the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Hawkish U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have threatened to revive a proposal that would impose additional sanctions on Iran if negotiations produce a deal they deem unsatisfactory, citing the existential fear that Iran could furtively divert its nuclear enrichment programs towards more nefarious purposes — namely, a nuclear bomb. These threats from Congress could potentially unravel the delicately constructed nuclear cooperation framework between the West and Iran that has already born fruit. (The provisional agreement that expires on Monday has seen Iran, over the past year, voluntarily halt enrichment to the more worrisome level of 20 percent, and accept further caps and curbs on its nuclear work to reassure Western powers of the program’s non-military intent).
Despite the cooperation of the past year, the technical and political gaps between the negotiators meeting in Vienna remain wide. But according to Ali Vaez, a scientist and Iran analyst with the International Crisis Group, “the reality is that both sides want a deal, and no time is better for clinching it than right now.”
Waiting for Bibi's veto, though I'm hoping Obama goes commando and tells Netanyahu and his American sycophants, Republican and Democrat, to go fuck themselves!
American questioned for shipping human body parts
Source: AP
By THANYARAT DOKSONE
Nov. 17, 2014 10:00 PM EST
BANGKOK (AP) — A parcel delivery company in Bangkok put three packages bound for the United States through a routine X-ray and made a startling discovery: preserved human parts, including an infant's head, a baby's foot and an adult heart.
The body parts were stolen from the medical museums of one of Bangkok's biggest hospitals, its administrators said Monday.
Police Col. Chumpol Poompuang said the sender was a 31-year-old American tourist, Ryan McPherson, who told them he had he found the items at a Bangkok night market. Police tracked down McPherson after being alerted by the shipper, DHL.
"He said he thought the body parts were bizarre and wanted to send them to his friends in the U.S.," Chumpol said, adding that the man was questioned along with an American friend for several hours and released without charges.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/6b98d355c2374ccc8a91d917a81926af/american-questioned-shipping-human-body-parts
Gwyneth Paltrow's head was not among the items seized.
Scientists 'confident' comet lander will wake up
Source: AP
By FRANK JORDANS
Nov. 17, 2014 5:46 PM EST
BERLIN (AP) — A burst of sunshine in the spring could be just the wakeup call for Europe's comet lander.
Scientists raised hopes Monday that as the Philae lander nears the sun its solar panel-powered battery will recharge, and the first spacecraft to touch down on a comet will send a second round of scientific data back to Earth.
Since landing with a bounce on the comet Wednesday, Philae has already sent back reams of data that scientists are eagerly examining. But there were fears its mission would be cut short because it came to rest in the shadow of a cliff. Its signal went silent Saturday after its primary battery ran out.
Shortly before that happened, the European Space Agency decided to attempt to tilt the lander's biggest solar panel toward the sun — a last-ditch maneuver that scientists believe may have paid off.
"We are very confident at some stage it will wake up again and we can achieve contact," Stephan Ulamec, the lander manager, told The Associated Press.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/cb36c392a2454f14a8c80b05c6245147/results-comet-landers-experiments-expected
So, this $100 million probe is basically a bear, now.
AP Exclusive: Charles Manson gets marriage license
Source: AP
By LINDA DEUTSCH and SCOTT SMITH
Nov. 17, 2014 8:32 PM EST
CORCORAN, Calif. (AP) — Mass murderer Charles Manson plans to marry a 26-year-old woman who left her Midwestern home and spent the past nine years trying to help exonerate him.
Afton Elaine Burton, the raven-haired bride-to-be, said she loves the man convicted in the notorious murders of seven people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate.
No date has been set, but a wedding coordinator has been assigned by the prison to handle the nuptials, and the couple has until early February to get married before they would have to reapply.
The prospective bride and groom have near-matching carvings on their foreheads. Hers is an "X'' and his is an "X'' that was turned into a swastika after he carved it during his trial to show he was "X'ed out of society."
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/f0c4673fda064cb0b1f6eccba6420862/ap-exclusive-charles-manson-gets-marriage-license
Aww, isn't this wonderful? A) Charles Manson gets to reproduce, and B) The kid gets to be raised by a mother who's out of her fucking mind.
Profile Information
Name: Nicholas WGender: Male
Hometown: East Brunswick, New Jersey
Home country: United States
Current location: Pueblo, Colorado
Member since: Fri Oct 31, 2014, 10:47 AM
Number of posts: 468