"Did we just kill a kid?" he asked the man sitting next to him.

"Yeah, I guess that was a kid," the pilot replied.

"Was that a kid?" they wrote into a chat window on the monitor.

Then, someone they didn't know answered, someone sitting in a military command center somewhere in the world who had observed their attack. "No. That was a dog," the person wrote.

They reviewed the scene on video. A dog on two legs?






Der Spiegel
The Woes of an American Drone Operator



For more than five years, Brandon Bryant worked in an oblong, windowless container about the size of a trailer, where the air-conditioning was kept at 17 degrees Celsius (63 degrees Fahrenheit) and, for security reasons, the door couldn't be opened. Bryant and his coworkers sat in front of 14 computer monitors and four keyboards. When Bryant pressed a button in New Mexico, someone died on the other side of the world.


The container is filled with the humming of computers. It's the brain of a drone, known as a cockpit in Air Force parlance. But the pilots in the container aren't flying through the air. They're just sitting at the controls.
Bryant was one of them, and he remembers one incident very clearly when a Predator drone was circling in a figure-eight pattern in the sky above Afghanistan, more than 10,000 kilometers (6,250 miles) away. There was a flat-roofed house made of mud, with a shed used to hold goats in the crosshairs, as Bryant recalls. When he received the order to fire, he pressed a button with his left hand and marked the roof with a laser. The pilot sitting next to him pressed the trigger on a joystick, causing the drone to launch a Hellfire missile. There were 16 seconds left until impact.

"These moments are like in slow motion," he says today. Images taken with an infrared camera attached to the drone appeared on his monitor, transmitted by satellite, with a two-to-five-second time delay............


long article

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/pain-continues-after-war-for-american-drone-pilot-a-872726.html

USA today: Colbert responds to Senate opening

A new Twitter account -- @ColbertforSC -- was launched after GOP Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina announced he will resign to become president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.


A spokeswoman for Colbert did not directly say whether the comedian and political satirist is running the account.

"Stephen is honored by the groundswell of support from the Palmetto State and looks forward to Governor Haley's call," Carrie Byalick, a Colbert spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

DeMint will depart the Senate in January. Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, will appoint a replacement who will serve until a special election in 2014.

The first tweet from @ColbertforSC said: "Reporting for duty, South Carolina!" and there is a link to a Colbert for Senate website that doesn't exist yet.

Colbert, a South Carolina native, has run twice for president. Last year, he won approval for a super PAC -- the political action committees that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money in campaigns.Through the super PAC, Colbert raised awareness about political issues and held a mock presidential rally with Herman Cain during South Carolina's GOP primary.

Among other tweets so far on the new account:

"I will be laying out my 9 point plan for bear self-deportation shortly. In the meantime, kick a bear because Freedom."


http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2012/12/06/colbert-senate-south-carolina-demint/1751167/

11 Reasons You’re Glad Jim DeMint Is Leaving The Senate B

1. Stood with Akin after “legitimate rape” remarks

2. Led the opposition against Obamacare.

3. Wants to prevent gay or unmarried teachers from teaching in public schools

4. Pushed a bill outlawing the discussion of abortion over the Internet

5. Wants to strip all federal employees of collective bargaining rights


6. Blocked creation of the National Women’s History Museum

7. Likened striking Chicago teachers to “thugs” in the Middle East.



8. Threatened to single-handedly shut down the Senate.


9. Used a failed terrorist plot to attack unions.

10. Argued that people with pre-existing conditions got better care before Obamacare


11. “Willing” to cause “serious disruptions” in the economy in order to secure draconian cuts.



Details at thing progress

Link:http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/12/06/1293171/jim-demint-resign/


South Carolina should elect
Stephen Colbert but
Will elect another asshole instead.

Fox & Friends’ hosts: Why weren’t we invited to the White House with MSNBC?

“I’m shocked by that!” Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade exclaimed the next morning. “Invite five talk show hosts in? All from the same channel? That’s outrageous!”


“It might be outrageous, but what I’m saying is I’m not surprised by it,” co-host Gretchen Carlson remarked. “I mean, that station is delivering the message of this administration. So, it makes sense.”

“Yeah, but that particular channel, that’s all they’re going to do anyway,” co-host Steve Doocy opined. “It would be nice to see somebody from CBS, somebody from NBC… Fox News Channel invited as well.”

“Think about it, the president said he’s not talking to Republicans unless they agree to raise the rates,” Kilmeade insisted. “He hasn’t talked to Majority Leader [Eric] Cantor in over a year, but, yet, it’s time to meet the talk show hosts on another channel. That’s incredible.”

“Maybe it was a thank you of sorts for the re-election,” Carlson concluded.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/05/fox-friends-hosts-why-werent-we-invited-to-the-white-house-with-msnbc/

The Austerity Dictionary- Irish but still the same shit.

The Austerity Dictionary


Austerity [n] The taking of money from passive citizens and giving it to wealthy gamblers.

Bank: a virus capable of destroying all in its path. No known cure.

Banker: carrier of the Bank virus


Budget: (European) The financing of an economy with the agreement of the German government.

Capitalism: When it fails, see Socialism


Confidence Fairy: A fairy tale to promote trickle down economics


Fiscal Responsibility: Where you get to be responsible for the irresponsibility of government and banking.

Goldman Sachs: a form of alchemy where everything can in fact be monetized.


National Interest: Common term to advance the interests of banks and the markets



Standing up to the banks – a governmental maxim, meaning “not standing up to the banks”

Trickle down economics: the promise held out to the general public that if they are good, Europe will piss on their heads

Turning a corner (v.): Continuing at precisely the same angle around a perfectly circular circuit.

Zombie Bank: ghoulish unkillable horror creature that sucks the money from our childrens future


http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/12/the-austerity-dictionary/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheBigPicture+%28The+Big+Picture%29

There is more at the link
but it seems this dictionary applies internationally

When is Obama gonna put the solar panels on the White House?

LIKE HE SAID


Reagan is dead and gone
do what President Carter did.



At least show some what we can do
in the people's house.

No Joke Romney was served:White Turkey Chili

econd-place president Mitt Romney grinned uneasily in the Oval Office today after joining Barack Obama for what was certain to be an awkward lunch. "Governor Romney congratulated the President for the success of his campaign and wished him well over the coming four years," says the official statement. "They pledged to stay in touch, particularly if opportunities to work together on shared interests arise in the future."


While the exact details of the meeting remain private, the men dined on Southwestern grilled chicken salad and "white turkey chili," which is not a dig at the guest, even if it sounds like one, so stop giggling.

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/11/mitt-romney-ate-white-turkey-chili-at-white-house.html

The War on Christmas takes a new turn

Why Is The US Building A Secret $100 Million Underground Facility Outside Tel Aviv?

By Walter Pincus, Thursday, November 29, 2:38 AM

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to supervise construction of a five-story underground facility for an Israel Defense Forces complex, oddly named “Site 911,” at an Israeli Air Force base near Tel Aviv.

Expected to take more than two years to build, at a cost of up to $100 million, the facility is to have classrooms on Level 1, an auditorium on Level 3, a laboratory, shock-resistant doors, protection from nonionizing radiation and very tight security. Clearances will be required for all construction workers, guards will be at the fence and barriers will separate it from the rest of the base.



Only U.S. construction firms are being allowed to bid on the contract and proposals are due Dec. 3, according to the latest Corps of Engineers notice.

Site 911 is the latest in a long history of military construction projects the United States has undertaken for the IDF under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program. The 1998 Wye River Memorandum between Israel and the Palestinian Authority has led to about $500 million in U.S. construction of military facilities for the Israelis, most of them initially in an undeveloped part of the Negev Desert. It was done to ensure there were bases to which IDF forces stationed in the West Bank could be redeployed.

As recorded in the Corps’ European District magazine, called Engineering in Europe, three bases were built to support 20,000 troops, and eventually the Israeli air force moved into the same area, creating Nevatim air base. A new runway, 2.5 miles long, was built there by the Corps along with about 100 new buildings and 10 miles of roads.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-overseeing-mysterious-construction-project-in-israel/2012/11/28/e5682d8e-38b6-11e2-a263-f0ebffed2f15_story.html


Pincus also found this detailed description of the mezuzahs that will adorn every door in the facility:
These mezuzas, notes the [US Army] Corps, “shall be written in inerasable ink, on .?.?. uncoated leather parchment” and be handwritten by a scribe “holding a written authorization according to Jewish law.”

The writing may be “Ashkenazik or Sepharadik” but “not a mixture” and “must be uniform.”
Also, “The Mezuzahs shall be proof-read by a computer at an authorized institution for Mezuzah inspection, as well as manually proof-read for the form of the letters by a proof-reader authorized by the Chief Rabbinate.” The mezuza shall be supplied with an aluminum housing with holes so it can be connected to the door frame or opening. Finally, “All Mezuzahs for the facility shall be affixed by the Base’s Rabbi or his appointed representative and not by the contractor staff.”


Along with this request is another called 911 Phase 2.
Also in the $100 million range, Pincus finds the “complex facility with site development challenges” requiring services that include “electrical, communication, mechanical/ HVAC [heating, ventilation, air conditioning] and plumbing” requirements telling; and along with the fact that the contractor must posses a U.S. or Israeli Secret Security Clearance, he believes this phase to be a secure command center.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-is-building-secret-site-911-in-israel-2012-11#ixzz2DdQT7q4e

Will the white house lunch be serving

corneille rôtie to the porc capitaliste today ?