March 22, 2013

Burger King may want to rethink its ad placement here

March 21, 2013

547 dead, 476 hurt in mass shootings since 1983

Public mass shootings like the slaughter of schoolchildren and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary have left 547 people dead and 476 more injured in the U.S. since 1983, according to a new report from the Congressional Research Service.

The CRS study—which was made public by the Federation of American Scientists —does not weigh in on whether restricting access to guns or ammunition would prevent future incidents, a cause President Barack Obama has championed since the December tragedy in Newtown, Conn.

The CRS study—which counts only the deaths of people other than the shooter or shooters—shows that mass shootings represent a relatively small portion of overall deaths by firearms in the United States. FBI figures show that guns were used to kill 8,583 people in 2011 alone.

“While tragic and shocking, public mass shootings account for few of the murders or non-negligent homicides related to firearms that occur annually in the United States,” the CRS study said.

What qualifies as a public mass shooting? CRS defined such incidents as “occurring in relatively public places, involving four or more deaths—not including the shooter(s)—and gunmen who select victims somewhat indiscriminately.The violence in these cases is not a means to an end—the gunmen do not pursue criminal profit or kill in the name of terrorist ideologies, for example.”

More: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/547-dead-476-hurt-mass-shootings-since-1983-182605303--politics.html

March 21, 2013

Mrs. Warren goes to Washington

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren’s credentials, support, and savvy make her almost untouchable — and she knows it.



By David S. Bernstein
The Boston Phoenix
March 21, 2013

Elizabeth Warren was the only senator on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, aside from the chair and ranking minority, to show up at last Thursday's hearing on indexing the minimum wage to inflation. This was unfortunate for the two witnesses representing the National Restaurant Association in opposition of the idea, because it meant that every 15 minutes it was Warren's turn to ask questions again.

She carved them up like a Thanksgiving turkey. Has their association ever, in its history, supported an increase in the minimum wage, Warren asked — and if not, does that mean they believe it should still be one dollar an hour? Where, she inquired, had the extra $14.75 per hour gone, representing the difference since 1960 between increased worker productivity and the increase in the minimum wage? And which should we take as more meaningful, your speculation about what might happen at your store, or this study of what did happen at tens of thousands of companies in states that adopted minimum-wage indexing?

It was quite a brazen performance for a Senate freshman, let alone one not yet three months into her first job in elected office. But it was relatively tame, compared with Warren's behavior in other recent hearings, where the victims were not such obvious foils for a Democrat. Like a trial lawyer exposing a witness's false alibi, Warren has used Banking Committee hearings to fluster Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury and Comptroller executives, and a Securities and Exchange Commission nominee — and by proxy, Barack Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder, whose approach to financial institutions Warren viciously summed up as "too big for trial."

This is not the head-down, limelight-avoiding playbook typically followed by Senate freshmen — especially celebrities, such as Hillary Clinton in 2001 or Barack Obama in 2005.

In fact, it is the kind of behavior that would get a lot of new lawmakers smacked down hard, or marginalized into ineffectiveness. Few new Senators behave this way — other than the occasional bomb-thrower more interested in headlines than results.

More: http://thephoenix.com/Boston/news/153162-mrs-warren-goes-to-washington/

March 21, 2013

Too over the top for American television?

I don't think so. This would be modest by European standards. How did America get to be so uptight about sex and so into violence? Is it religion? Something to do with our culture?

Heidi Klum stars as Mrs. Robinson-style seductress in sexy new Carl's Jr. commercial

The German supermodel pays homage to 'The Graduate' in a new burger ad, wearing a skimpy black dress and feeding a juicy burger to a lucky lad.


Um, my burger is up HERE.

Now that's what we call a hot meal.

Heidi Klum has been a Victoria's Secret angel and a reality show host, but her latest job is a babe who chows down on burgers.


Heidi Klum stars in the latest steamy Carl's Jr. ad for the Jim Beam Bourbon Burger. "Food and sauce is on my mouth and I'm licking my lips and he's looking at me and getting all sweaty," says Klum of the ad’s plot.

The "Project Runway" host, 39, sizzles in a new commercial for the Jim Beam Bourbon Burger from Carl's Jr. and Hardee's.


Mrs. Robinson, I think you’re trying to feed me.

Stripped down to a silky black dress that shows off her ample cleavage, the blond beauty uses the humble, saucy burger to seduce an unsuspecting young man.

The curvy supermodel flaunts her curves as she feeds the lucky lad a mouthful of sloppy burger.


Like a cougar, Klum devours her prey.

Klum's role is based on film's most famous cougar, Mrs. Robinson from "The Graduate."

More: http://www.nydailynews.com/heidi-klum-mrs-robinson-sexy-new-ad-article-1.1290066

March 20, 2013

Question: Why would the U.S. overthrow secular governments in the Middle East

and replace them with fundamentalist Islamic governments?

That's what I keep reading in the comments to OPs about Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria. What would the U.S. and Israel gain by doing this?

March 20, 2013

South America's rising star: President Rafael Correa of Ecuador

In the wake of Hugo Chavez's death, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has emerged as a leader of the Latin American left and an advocate of social reform. Are his policies viable?

Ecuador's recently re-elected President Rafael Correa is popular. So popular he earned twice the votes in the February election as his closest opponent, who snagged a meager 23 percent. So popular as a steady leader and populist, he's revered by the masses. But he may be most popular as "king of the hill" of Ecuador, a country so rich in natural resources he can swat away multinationals who covet his gold.

How long will his popularity last? That's the question.

Educated at the University of Illinois, the left-leaning Correa is the closest Ecuador has come to a stable leader since the 20th century ended. Before he took office in 2007 after a runoff election, the country had had seven presidents in the prior decade. The Ecuadorean sucre, its currency, had crashed in 1999. Poverty and unemployment rates were rising. And it appeared Ecuador would just stagger so long as its leadership failed to coalesce behind a central figure.

Correa has become that figure — for country and continent. Now that Venezuelan leftist icon Hugo Chavez has died, Correa scratched his way to the front of the pack as one of the most vociferously nationalist leaders in South America:

— He has declared his intention to "radicalize" his "citizens' revolution."

— He has consistently clashed with the United States, expelling its diplomats and refusing to renew leases of American air bases in Ecuador.

More: http://news.msn.com/world/south-americas-rising-star-president-rafael-correa-of-ecuador

March 20, 2013

Islamic law comes to rebel-held Syria

ALEPPO, Syria —The evidence was incontrovertible, captured on video and posted on YouTube for all the world to see. During a demonstration against the Syrian regime, Wael Ibrahim, a veteran activist, had tossed aside a banner inscribed with the Muslim declaration of faith.

And that, decreed the officers of the newly established Sharia Authority set up to administer rebel-held Aleppo, constitutes a crime under Islamic law, punishable in this instance by 10 strokes of a metal pipe.

The beating administered last month offered a vivid illustration of the extent to which the Syrian revolution has strayed from its roots as a largely spontaneous uprising against four decades of Assad family rule. After mutating last year into a full-scale war, it is moving toward what appears to be an organized effort to institute Islamic law in areas that have fallen under rebel control.

Building on the reputation they have earned in recent months as the rebellion’s most accomplished fighters, Islamist units are seeking to assert their authority over civilian life, imposing Islamic codes and punishments and administering day-to-day matters such as divorce, marriage and vehicle licensing.

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/islamic-law-comes-to-rebel-held-syria/2013/03/19/b310532e-90af-11e2-bdea-e32ad90da239_story.html

March 19, 2013

Blair Says Iraq Would Be ‘Worse Than Syria’ Now, if Antiwar Critics Had Prevailed

Source: The New York Times

Defending Britain’s participation in the American-led invasion of Iraq, former Prime Minister Tony Blair told the BBC that Iraq “would look a lot more like Syria, and probably a lot worse than Syria,” today if the war had not taken place.

Mr. Blair’s comments were broadcast as at least 52 people were killed by more than a dozen car bombs across Baghdad on Tuesday, the eve of the 10th anniversary of the invasion, which removed Saddam Hussein from power but led to a bloody insurgency and sectarian violence. Estimates of the civilian death toll in Iraq since 2003 vary, but The Associated Press has concluded that more than 100,000 Iraqis were killed, along with nearly 4,500 Americans and 179 British troops. The United Nations estimated in January that more than 60,000 Syrians had died in the civil war there.

Focusing the conversation not on the tens of thousands of civilian deaths but on the evil done by the dictator removed from power, Mr. Blair said: “When people say to me, you know, ‘Do you regret removing him?’ I say, ‘No, how can you regret removing somebody who was a monster, who created enormous carnage?’ ”

He added: “And if you look at what’s happening in the Arab Spring today, and you examine what’s happening in Syria — just reflect on what Bashar Assad, who is a twentieth as bad as Saddam, is doing to his people today, and the number of lives already lost, just ask yourself, ‘What would be happening in Iraq now if he had been left in power?’ ”

Read more: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/blair-says-iraq-would-be-worse-than-syria-now-if-anti-war-critics-had-prevailed/

March 19, 2013

Carl Levin: No Regrets About Stopping Filibuster Reform

Moments before he officially announced he won’t seek reelection in 2014, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) spoke with TPM about his central role in stopping filibuster reform early this year.

His message? No regrets.

“We did the right thing,” Levin said shortly after the resolution of a 13-hour talking filibuster mounted by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), which supporters of reforming the filibuster want to require for all filibusters.

Levin’s remarks came in the wake of a series of high-profile Republican filibusters on legislation and nominees that have left key Democrats deeply frustrated and threatening to revisit reform. They expressed high hopes that the bipartisan rules change enacted in January — which was constructed around an alternative proposal written by Levin and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) — would usher in a new era of comity in the Senate.

“It’s eased (gridlock) somewhat in terms of post-cloture. We’ve reduced the amount of post-cloture time. That’s a significant improvement,” Levin said, responding to his Democratic colleagues’ frustrations. “The changes are valuable in a number of ways.”

More: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/03/carl-levin-no-regrets-for-stopping-filibuster-reform.php

March 19, 2013

Sen. Levin Backs No-Fly Zone In Syria

Source: Talking Points Memo

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) on Tuesday said he supported creating a no-fly zone in Syria and attacking President Bashar al-Assad's air power and air defenses, Foreign Policy reported.

"I believe there should be the next ratcheting up of military effort and that would include going after some of Syria's air defenses," Levin said after a Senate hearing.

"You could protect that kind of a zone with these Patriot missiles, leaving the missiles in Turkey but having the zone inside the Syrian border," he continued. "It is a way without putting boots on the ground and in a way that would be fairly cautious, that would put additional pressure on Assad and also create a zone where Syrian people who are looking for protection and safety could come without crossing the border and becoming refugees."

Levin also said the military should be prepared to put troops on the ground in order secure chemical weapons, a move Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) endorsed Tuesday.

Read more: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/sen-levin-backs-no-fly-zone-in-syria