Juan
Friday, October 31, 2014
Something to Know - Period !
Juan
Something to Know - 31 October
Juan
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Andy Borowitz
Obama Urged to Apologize for Anti-Fear Remark
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—President Obama is coming under increasing pressure to apologize for a controversial remark that he made on Tuesday, in which he said that the nation's Ebola policy should be based on facts rather than fear.
While the anti-fear tenor of Mr. Obama's comment was offensive enough to some, the President made matters worse by suggesting that science would play the leading role in guiding the nation's Ebola protocols—a role that many Americans believe should be played by fear.Across the country, Democratic candidates have sought to distance themselves from the President's incendiary statement, especially in states like North Carolina, where science and facts have record-low approval ratings.
Carol Foyler, a Democratic consultant in Colorado, said that she was "smacking my head" at the President's divisive comment.
"He's unpopular enough as it is," she said. "Aligning yourself with science and facts is a surefire way to alienate millions of Americans."
The Return of the NJ Bully
Juan
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Andy Borowitz
Midterms Prediction: Billionaires to Retain Control of Government
The poll, conducted by the University of Minnesota's Opinion Research Institute, shows that the proxy candidates of billionaires are likely to win ninety-eight per cent of next Tuesday's races, with the remaining two per cent leaning billionaire.Although the poll indicates that some races are still "too close to call," the fact that billionaires funded candidates on both sides puts the races safely in their column.
Davis Logsdon, who supervised the poll for the University of Minnesota, said that next Tuesday should be "a big night for oligarchs" and that both houses of Congress can be expected to grovel at the feet of their money-gushing paymasters for at least the next two years.
Calling the billionaires' upcoming electoral romp "historic," Logsdon said, "We have not seen the super-rich maintain such a vise-like grip on the government since the days immediately preceding the French Revolution."
Juan
Monday, October 27, 2014
Andy Borowitz
Dr. Christie acknowledged that becoming a doctor generally requires pre-med classes, four years of medical school, plus additional years of residency, but he said that the Ebola epidemic compelled him to take "extraordinary measures, as we say in the medical profession." x Dr. Christie said that, beginning on Monday, he would begin a series of random "house calls" to check New Jersey residents for Ebola and assign them for quarantine. "I can usually diagnose someone with Ebola in under a minute," Dr. Christie said. "Even faster if I don't actually see them."
The doctor said that before moving forward with his plan to quarantine scores of New Jersey citizens he suspects of having Ebola, he consulted with other prominent epidemiologists, including Dr. Rick Perry, of Texas. "He concurs," he said.
Dr. Christie defended his quarantine plan against critics, noting that unorthodox procedures in medicine often face opposition at first. "We're used to hearing that the nurses and doctors who treat Ebola patients are heroes," he said. "But the real heroes are the people who lock up those heroes."
Juan
Something to Know - 27 October
Paul Krugman
Ideology and Investment
OCT. 26, 2014
America used to be a country that built for the future. Sometimes the government built directly: Public projects, from the Erie Canal to the Interstate Highway System, provided the backbone for economic growth. Sometimes it provided incentives to the private sector, like land grants to spur railroad construction. Either way, there was broad support for spending that would make us richer.
But nowadays we simply won't invest, even when the need is obvious and the timing couldn't be better. And don't tell me that the problem is "political dysfunction" or some other weasel phrase that diffuses the blame. Our inability to invest doesn't reflect something wrong with "Washington"; it reflects the destructive ideology that has taken over the Republican Party.
Some background: More than seven years have passed since the housing bubble burst, and ever since, America has been awash in savings — or more accurately, desired savings — with nowhere to go. Borrowing to buy homes has recovered a bit, but remains low. Corporations are earning huge profits, but are reluctant to invest in the face of weak consumer demand, so they're accumulating cash or buying back their own stock. Banks are holding almost $2.7 trillion in excess reserves — funds they could lend out, but choose instead to leave idle.
And the mismatch between desired saving and the willingness to invest has kept the economy depressed. Remember, your spending is my income and my spending is your income, so if everyone tries to spend less at the same time, everyone's income falls.
There's an obvious policy response to this situation: public investment. We have huge infrastructure needs, especially in water and transportation, and the federal government can borrow incredibly cheaply — in fact, interest rates on inflation-protected bonds have been negative much of the time (they're currently just 0.4 percent). So borrowing to build roads, repair sewers and more seems like a no-brainer. But what has actually happened is the reverse. After briefly rising after the Obama stimulus went into effect,public construction spending has plunged. Why?
In a direct sense, much of the fall in public investment reflects the fiscal troubles of state and local governments, which account for the great bulk of public investment.
These governments generally must, by law, balance their budgets, but they saw revenues plunge and some expenses rise in a depressed economy. So they delayed or canceled a lot of construction to save cash.
Yet this didn't have to happen. The federal government could easily have provided aid to the states to help them spend — in fact, the stimulus bill included such aid, which was one main reason public investment briefly increased. But once the G.O.P. took control of the House, any chance of more money for infrastructure vanished. Once in a while Republicans would talk about wanting to spend more, but they blocked every Obama administration initiative.
And it's all about ideology, an overwhelming hostility to government spending of any kind. This hostility began as an attack on social programs, especially those that aid the poor, but over time it has broadened into opposition to any kind of spending, no matter how necessary and no matter what the state of the economy.
Never mind that the economic models underlying such assertions have failed dramatically in practice, that the people who say such things have been predicting runaway inflation and soaring interest rates year after year and keep being wrong; these aren't the kind of people who reconsider their views in the light of evidence. Never mind the obvious point that the private sector doesn't and won't supply most kinds of infrastructure, from local roads to sewer systems; such distinctions have been lost amid the chants of private sector good, government bad.You can get a sense of this ideology at work in some of the documents produced by House Republicans under the leadership of Paul Ryan, the chairman of the Budget Committee. For example, a 2011 manifesto titled "Spend Less, Owe Less, Grow the Economy" called for sharp spending cuts even in the face of high unemployment, and dismissed as "Keynesian" the notion that "decreasing government outlays for infrastructure lessens government investment." (I thought that was just arithmetic, but what do I know?) Or take a Wall Street Journal editorial from the same year titled "The Great Misallocators," asserting that any money the government spends diverts resources away from the private sector, which would always make better use of those resources.
And the result, as I said, is that America has turned its back on its own history. We need public investment; at a time of very low interest rates, we could easily afford it. But build we won't.
Juan
Friday, October 24, 2014
Something to Know - 24 October
Juan
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Something to Know - 23 October
Juan
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Something to Know - 21 October
Juan
AUSTIN (The Borowitz Report) — A controversial new bill in the Texas House of Representatives would require those running for governor to show proof of the minimum I.Q. necessary to perform the duties of the office.
If the bill were to become law, every politician in Texas with gubernatorial ambitions would be issued an I.D. card featuring his or her photo, current address, and performance on a state-administered I.Q. test.
Carol Foyler, one of the co-sponsors of the bill, acknowledged that the idea of a minimum I.Q. for candidates was viewed as incendiary in some circles, but insisted that the requirements of the I.D. card were not onerous. "All they have to do is show mastery of simple tasks, such as uttering complete sentences and things of that nature," she said.
But the bill faces an uphill fight in the House, where representatives like Harland Dorrinson, of Plano, have vowed to defeat it.
"I know that the folks behind this so-called bill are well meaning," Dorrinson said. "But if this had been enacted fifteen years ago, it would have choked off our supply of governors."
Juan
Something for Toyota Owners to Know - 21 October
Consumer Advisory: Vehicle Owners with Defective Airbags Urged to Take Immediate Action
Contact: Karen Aldana, 202-366-9550, Public.Affairs@dot.gov
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urges owners of certain Toyota, Honda, Mazda, BMW, Nissan, and General Motors vehicles to act immediately on recall notices to replace defective Takata airbags. The message comes with urgency, especially for owners of vehicles affected by the regional recalls in the following areas: Florida, Puerto Rico, Guam, Saipan, American Samoa, Virgin Islands and Hawaii.
Consumers that are uncertain whether their vehicle is impacted by the Takata recalls, or any other recall, can check onwww.safercar.gov/vinlookup. On the site, consumers can search by their vehicle identification number (VIN) to confirm whether their individual vehicle has an open recall that needs to be addressed. In addition, consumers can sign-up for NHTSA recall alerts, which go out before recall letters are mailed by the manufacturers to the affected owners.
Affected Vehicles, by Manufacturer, Impacted by CY 2013 and 2014 Recalls Involving Takata Airbags
Toyota: 778,177 total number of potentially affected vehicles
2002 – 2004 Lexus SC
2003 – 2004 Toyota Corolla
2003 – 2004 Toyota Corolla Matrix
2002 – 2004 Toyota Sequoia
2003 – 2004 Toyota Tundra
2003 – 2004 Pontiac Vibe
Honda: 2,803,214 total number of potentially affected vehicles
2001 – 2007 Honda Accord (4 cyl)
2001 – 2002 Honda Accord (6 cyl)
2001 – 2005 Honda Civic
2002 – 2006 Honda CR-V
2003 – 2011 Honda Element
2002 – 2004 Honda Odyssey
2003 – 2007 Honda Pilot
2006 – Honda Ridgeline
2003 – 2006 Acura MDX
2002 – 2003 Acura TL/CL
Nissan: 437,712 total number of potentially affected vehicles
2001 – 2003 Nissan Maxima
2001 – 2003 Nissan Pathfinder
2002 – 2003 Nissan Sentra
2001 – 2003 Infiniti I30/I35
2002 – 2003 Infiniti QX4
2003 – Infiniti FX
Mazda: 18,050 total number of potentially affected vehicles
2003 – 2004 Mazda6
2004 – Mazda RX-8
BMW: 573,935 total number of potentially affected vehicles
2000 – 2005 3 Series Sedan
2000 – 2006 3 Series Coupe
2000 – 2005 3 Series Sports Wagon
2000 – 2006 3 Series Convertible
2001 – 2006 M3 Coupe
2001 – 2006 M3 Convertible
General Motors: 133,221 total number potentially affected vehicles
2002 – 2003 Buick LeSabre
2002 – 2003 Buick Rendezvous
2002 – 2003 Cadillac DeVille
2002 – 2003 Chevrolet Trailblazer
2002 – 2003 Chevrolet Impala
2002 – 2003 Chevrolet Monte Carlo
2002 – 2003 Chevrolet Venture
2002 – 2003 GMC Envoy
2002 – 2003 GMC Envoy XL
2002 – 2003 Oldsmobile Aurora
2002 – 2003 Oldsmobile Bravada
2002 – 2003 Oldsmobile Silhouette
2002 – 2003 Pontiac Bonneville
2002 – 2003 Pontiac Montana
- Receive recall alerts on Apple devices, Android devices, RSS feed, or Email.
- Information on Consumer Recalls and VIN Fact Sheet
Stay connected with NHTSA via: Facebook.com/NHTSA | Twitter.com/NHTSAgov | YouTube.com/USDOTNHTSA | SaferCar.gov
Juan
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Andy Borowitz
Man Infected with Ebola Misinformation Through Casual Contact With Cable News
CANTON, OH (The Borowitz Report)—An Ohio man has become infected with misinformation about the Ebola virus through casual contact with cable news, the Centers for Disease Control has confirmed.
Tracy Klugian, thirty-one, briefly came into contact with alarmist Ebola hearsay during a visit to the Akron-Canton airport, where a CNN report about Ebola was showing on one of the televisions in the airport bar. "Mr. Klugian is believed to have been exposed to cable news for no more than ten minutes, but long enough to become infected," a spokesman for the C.D.C. said. "Within an hour, he was showing signs of believing that an Ebola outbreak in the United States was inevitable and unstoppable."
Once Klugian's condition was apparent, the Ohio man was rushed to a public library and given a seventh-grade biology textbook, at which point he "started to stabilize," the spokesman said.
But others exposed to the widening epidemic of Ebola misinformation may not be so lucky. "A man in Oklahoma was exposed to Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Fox for over three minutes," the C.D.C. spokesman said gravely. "We hope we're not too late."
Juan
Monday, October 6, 2014
Andy Borowitz
TODAY 10:38 AM
G.O.P. Leader: Five Million Forced Back to Work Under Obama
BY ANDY BOROWITZ
CREDITPHOTOGRAPH BY ALEX WONG/GETTYWASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In a blistering indictment of the Administration's economic policies, the chairman of the Republican National Committee has accused President Obama of forcing five million Americans back to work since he took office, in 2009.
"When President Obama took office, there were five million Americans at home all day who are now, sadly, not at home," said Reince Priebus, on Sunday's edition of "Meet the Press." "They have to go to work five days a week and they're mad as hell about it."
He said that he expected G.O.P. candidates in the midterm elections to hammer away at the President's greatest vulnerability, which he called "the ugly side of employment."
"You don't take five million Americans, uproot them from their families, and make them leave their homes for eight hours a day," Priebus said. "This isn't a dictatorship. This is America."
He added that the President's failure on this issue has helped sharpen the Republican Party's message to voters. "If you're sick and tired of employment, vote for us," he said.
Juan
Something to Know - 6 October
Juan
Saturday, October 4, 2014
Something to Know - 4 September
Juan
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Something to Know - 1 October
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