Thursday, December 2, 2010

Berman Post

Berman Post

Food Safety Bill Hits Snag as Democrats Learned Their Action Was Unconstitutional

Posted: 02 Dec 2010 03:59 PM PST


Exactly how many people in the Democratic Senate caucus looked at this without realizing they were attempting do something illegally? There is no allegation it was an intentional attempt at usurping Constitutional provisions. The Constitution really is not that long a document, is it to much to ask our leasers to read it every once and a while?

http://www.rollcall.com/news/-201012-1.html

"A food safety bill that has burned up precious days of the Senate's lame-duck session appears headed back to the chamber because Democrats violated a constitutional provision requiring that tax provisions originate in the House.

By pre-empting the House's tax-writing authority, Senate Democrats appear to have touched off a power struggle with members of their own party in the House. The Senate passed the bill Tuesday, sending it to the House, but House Democrats are expected to use a procedure known as "blue slipping" to block the bill, according to House and Senate GOP aides.

The debacle could prove to be a major embarrassment for Senate Democrats, who sought Tuesday to make the relatively unknown bill a major political issue by sending out numerous news releases trumpeting its passage."

Obama Reverses Position on Offshore Drilling

Posted: 02 Dec 2010 03:49 PM PST


This is a horrendously bad idea, but is anyone really that surprised?

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/12/01/obama-to-reverse-position-on-offshore-drilling

"The Obama administration will reverse its policy on offshore drilling announced last March and bar further new drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts. The new ban will last seven years, and that will deliver a body blow to American exploration and energy independence
...
The official explanation will be that the Gulf oil spill requires a lot more reform in regulatory practices, which we certainly discovered in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill. The White House began backpedaling on this policy almost immediately after the disaster in April, even before Obama bothered to spend more time addressing the issue than the Arizona immigration-enforcement law. The complete reversal was almost inevitable, and delaying it until after the midterms even more so."

Evidence of a 'Mini-Nemesis' at The Edge of Our Solar System

Posted: 02 Dec 2010 03:21 PM PST


It is being referred to as Tyche (Nemesis' relatively more pleasant sister). Instead of a brown dwarf hiding in the outer reaches of our solar system tossing comets our way, it could be a planet just under 1.5 times the mass of Jupiter. Tyche is suspected of sending about a fifth of the comets our way.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/oort-cloud-companion

"This idea was a reaction to an earlier notion that a dim brown-dwarf or red-dwarf star, ominously dubbed Nemesis, has pummeled the Earth with deadly comet showers every 30 million years or so. Later research suggested that mass extinctions on Earth don't line up with the Nemesis predictions, so many astronomers now think that object doesn't exist.

"But we began to ask, what kind of an object could you hope to infer from the present data that we are seeing?" Matese said. "What could possibly tickle [comets'] orbits and make them come very close to the sun so we could see them?"
...
The cosmic snowballs that form the hearts of comets generally hang out in the Oort Cloud until their orbits are nudged by some outside force. This push could come from one of three things, Matese said. The constant gravitational pull of the Milky Way's disk can drag comets out of their icy homes and into the inner solar system. A passing star can shake comets loose from the Oort Cloud as it zips by. Or a large companion like Nemesis or Tyche can pull comets out of their comfort zones.

Computational models show that comets in each of these scenarios, when their apparent origins are mapped in space, make a characteristic pattern in the sky.
...
After examining the orbits of more than 100 comets in the Minor Planet Center database, the researchers concluded that 80 percent of comets born in the Oort Cloud were pushed out by the galaxy's gravity. The remaining 20 percent, however, needed a nudge from a distant object about 1.4 times the mass of Jupiter.

"Something smaller than Jovian mass wouldn't be strong enough to do the deed," Matese said. "Something more massive, like a brown dwarf, would give a much stronger signal than the 20 percent we assert.""

The Ninja Cat

Posted: 01 Dec 2010 08:58 PM PST


Video embedded below.

Gibbs - 'We're Not Scared Of Wikileaks -- It's Only One Guy With One Website'

Posted: 02 Dec 2010 03:08 PM PST

Star of David Spotted on The Roof of The headquarters of Iran Air (Al- Arabiya)

Posted: 01 Dec 2010 08:11 PM PST


This must have been one heck of on an inside joke for the construction workers for decades.

Picture embedded below.




"Did Israeli prankster architects sneak a Star of David onto the roof of the Teheran airport, or is the controversy in Iran over a Google Earth revelation much ado about nothing?

Regardless of whether it was happenstance or an act of architectural subterfuge, government officials in Iran were incensed this week when they discovered the outline of a Star of David atop the roof of the headquarters of Iran Air, Al- Arabiya reported on Monday.

The six-pointed star was discovered by an eagle-eyed Google Earth user recently, over three decades after the building that houses the national airline of the Islamic Republic was constructed by Israeli engineers.

Israel and the Shah's Iran maintained good ties until the Islamic Revolution of 1979 ended the relationship. Before 1979, Israel brokered arms deals with Iran, and there were regular flights between Teheran and Tel Aviv."

Biden Goofs on Kirk's (R) Swearing in

Posted: 01 Dec 2010 08:04 PM PST


Ultimately it will have no impact and it will not be redone.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-talk-biden-flub-1201-20101130,0,1804944.story

"Joe Biden, the gaffe-prone vice president, strayed from tradition Monday at the swearing-in of Republican Mark Kirk, the new senator from Illinois.

Biden, who is president of the Senate, began by instructing Kirk: "Please place your right hand on the Bible."

Kirk, a Republican, did as instructed, putting his right hand on the Good Book and raising his left.
...
Elizabeth Alexander, Biden's spokeswoman, said Tuesday there's no do-over in the works. "We've checked with the Senate parliamentarian, and he's told us that whether Senator Kirk held up his left or right hand is of no consequence and has no bearing on his status as a sitting senator," she said."

Boehner (R) to Install The First-Ever Women's Restroom Next to House Floor

Posted: 01 Dec 2010 07:40 PM PST


At long last; House of Representatives bathroom equality...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101201/ap_on_go_co/us_congress_ladies__room_2

"House Speaker-to-be John Boehner is planning to install the first-ever women's restroom next to the floor of the House of Representatives.

Boehner's office says he'll direct the Architect of the Capitol to convert an office into a ladies' room just steps away from where lawmakers cast votes and debate legislation. It mirrors the space occupied by a men's restroom on the other side of the House chamber.

Female members of the House have long complained that while their male colleagues can duck in and out of a men's room right next to the chamber, their closest available restroom is much further away in the Congressional Women's Reading Room, across the ornate Statuary Hall filled with sculptures of prominent Americans.

The new restroom will be located in what's now the office of the House parliamentarian — the official who advises lawmakers on legislative procedure. That office will be relocated."

Obama’s Embraces Two Year Freeze on Federal Government Salaries

Posted: 01 Dec 2010 07:26 PM PST


A pay freeze may not be much, but it is moving in the right direction (however slowly that movement might be). The only concern is that the freeze will do nothing if they do not implement some sort of hiring freeze or if perversely it actually freezes above the pay where it should be.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45704.html

"President Barack Obama's embrace of the politically symbolic two-year freeze on federal government salaries aligns him with House Republican leaders and against unions, public workers and some leaders in his own party.

A winner of incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's YouCut online spending-cut poll in May, the proposal would require the House and Senate, at the last minute, to include the freeze in any long-term federal spending bill dealing with the slate of unfinished fiscal 2011 appropriations laws."

Women Accused of Hiding Merchandise in Body Fat

Posted: 01 Dec 2010 07:12 PM PST


In order to have hidden that much 'stuff' on them they must be much bigger then the head shot would indicate. Could have been worse; inmate smuggling gun into prison worse.

Video embedded below.

 
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