REUTERS: Abraham Lincoln ranks first in leadership skills among the 42 former White House occupants, according a C-SPAN survey of 65 presidential historians released on the eve of the Presidents Day holiday. It’s a repeat performance for the 16th U.S. president, who also took the top spot in the first ”Historians Presidential Survey” by the cable television network in 2000. At No. 36, George W. Bush ranks near the bottom of the 2009 survey. MORE THE NATION: Abraham Lincoln has always provided a lens through which Americans examine themselves. He has been described as a consummate moralist and a shrewd political operator, a lifelong foe of […]
WEEK IN REVIEW: The Good News Flower Hour
The Good News Flower Hour #9 The week that was in five minutes. Read by a flower that sounds an awful lot like me. Just do it, people.
PERSPECTIVE: How High Is $789 Billion?
Using $100 bills, $789 billion would create a pile 57 miles high. Note that the atmosphere begins seven miles above the Earth’s surface. RELATED: The House approved a $787 billion economic stimulus package Friday afternoon, with Democrats successfully promoting it as a boost for middle-class Americans and Republicans countering in vain that it will only stimulate wasteful government spending.The vote was 246 to 183, reflecting the Democrats’ considerable majority in the House and the Republicans’ deep dissatisfaction with the measure, whose estimated price tag has fluctuated daily and was finally placed at $787 billion on Friday. Not a single Republican […]
NO SURVIVORS: Buffalo Commuter Jet Crash Kills 48
NEW YORK TIMES: A Continental flight from Newark to Buffalo crashed into a house about five miles from Buffalo Niagara International Airport on Thursday night, killing 49 people, officials said. The plane carried 44 passengers and a crew of 4, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. All the people aboard the plane and one person in the house were killed in the crash. David Bissonette, the emergency coordinator for Erie County, speaking at a news conference about 4 a.m., said the plane made “a direct hit” on the house. “It’s remarkable that it only took one house,” he said. “It […]
STAR WARS: U.S. And Russian Satellites Collide
BLOOMBERG NEWS: U.S. and Russian satellites collided over Siberia yesterday in the first crash between such objects at orbital speed, space agencies from both countries said. The collision occurred 491 miles (790 kilometers) above Siberia at 11:55 a.m. New York time yesterday, destroying an Iridium Satellite LLC communications satellite and a defunct Russian Cosmos 2251 craft, National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman John Yembrick said in an e-mail, without identifying the cause. It was the first crash between two intact space craft traveling at orbital speed, about 17,500 miles per hour, NASA spokeswoman Beth Dickey said by phone. While the […]
MR. PEANUT GOES TO WASHINGTON: Pleads 5th
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Stewart Parnell, the Peanut Corp. owner, refused to answer the congressional subcommittee’s questions Wednesday, repeatedly invoking his 5th Amendment rights. Internal company e-mails obtained by the subcommittee show the company’s president was alerted on numerous occasions to the fact that batches of the company’s products were infected with salmonella. Yet according to Parnell’s e-mail responses, he instructed staff to “turn the product loose.” At the hearing, Parnell said only: “Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, on advice of my counsel, I respectfully decline to answer your questions based on the protections afforded me under the U.S. […]
THE POLITICS OF DANCING: When One Man’s Terrorist Is Another Man’s Freedom Fighter
NEW YORK TIMES: To many Americans, Maya Arulpragasam, known as M.I.A., is the very pregnant rapper who gyrated across the stage at Sunday’s Grammy Awards. Yet in Sri Lanka, where she spent her childhood years, M.I.A. remains virtually unknown. And some who do know her work say she is an apologist for the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels fighting in the country’s long-running civil war. M.I.A. — who has been nominated for an Oscar for the song she co-wrote for the hit film “Slumdog Millionaire” — has branded herself through music videos and interviews as the voice of the country’s Tamil […]
HACKERY: McCain Fiddles While Rome Burns
PHOENIX BUSINESS JOURNAL: U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Tuesday he is definitely running for reelection in 2010 and has begun using criticism of the $838 billion federal economic stimulus plan as a platform to raise money. McCain, 72, had given indications of a run for fifth term, but publicly told supporters in a fundraising e-mail Tuesday he is definitely seeking reelection. He also used the opportunity to criticize Democrats over the spending package. “The economic challenges currently confronting our nation are immense and unfortunately, the Democrats in Congress propose addressing these challenges through increased spending that wastes billions of […]
THE WAGES OF CONSERVATISM: The FDA Is A Joke
NEW YORK TIMES: The Peanut Corporation of America closed its processing plant in Plainview, Tex., on Monday night after a laboratory test indicated possible salmonella contamination, a development that threatens to widen one of the largest food recalls ever and raises more questions about why the government allowed the plant to operate. The company’s plant in Blakely, Ga., was identified a month ago as the source of a nationwide salmonella outbreak. And even though investigators soon determined that the company may have deliberately shipped contaminated products to some of the nation’s largest food makers, officials allowed the company’s plant in […]
HELLER: It’s A Thin Line Between Love And Hate
INQUIRER: On the stand, Fumo was somber yet personable and expansive, his voice an alto scratch. He would take frequent verbal peregrinations on any number of subjects, going off-question, offering a five-minute answer when five words would do. Many were the times that lawyers, on both sides, asked him to return to the task at hand. “I can go into depth,” Fumo said. “No, don’t do that,” Cogan admonished. Fumo described an approach where “everything in my life was intertwined,” he said. “I don’t know how to run an organization without that familial methodology,” he said. He referred to staff […]
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: Being Shepard Fairey
FAST COMPANY: Shepard Fairey, the artist who created the famous Obama poster image, and who was accused by the AP last week of copyright violation, has now counter-sued the AP claiming his use of the image was fair use. Arguing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Fairey’s lawyers acknowledged that he had used the photo, which was taken by Mannie Garcia for the AP, but said he had transformed the literal depiction into a “stunning, abstracted and idealized visual image that creates powerful new meaning and conveys a radically different message.” Fairey’s getting some powerful help in his fight. The […]
STIMULUS PACKAGE: Just Do It, Gallup Poll Says
ABC NEWS: Sixty-seven percent of the American people approve of how President Obama’s handling his efforts to pass an economic stimulus bill, as opposed to 48% for Democrats in Congress and 31% for congressional Republicans. Congressional Republicans actually have a staggeringly high 58% DISapproval rating for how they’re handling the stimulus debate, compared to 42% for Hill Democrats and only 25% for President Obama. Gallup says that 51% of those polled believe that passing the economic stimulus plan is “critically important” for the economy, with 29% saying it’s important. Only 16% say it is “not that important.” MORE GALLUP POLL: […]
200 YEARS AFTER THE BIRTH OF DARWIN: You Still Gotta Fight To Live On The Planet Of The Apes
DAILY MAIL: On the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, professors at Southern Oregon University will devote the week to emphasizing that evolution is more than a theory — it’s hard science.”It’s theory and it’s fact. You can say it’s ‘just a theory’ like the theory that the earth goes around the sun,” says biology professor Charles Weldon, lead speaker of Darwin Week. “In science, a theory is not speculation. It’s supported by mountains of evidence. It’s one of the best supported theories in science.” A century and a half after publication of Darwin’s “On the Origin of […]