Author: Serkadis

“The Tea Party movement is a groundswell of conservative-minded, Constitution-centered, independence-loving individualists bound together not by party platform but by governing principles. We are united not by affiliation to a traditional party but by affection for traditions borne of a unique set of American principles.”

Just this past Friday we talked about Kerry just not getting the Tea Party movement…but it isn’t just Kerry, it’s all the DNC elite, the MSM and the moonbats on the Left (you know, the ones that Tweeted and FB’ed how Obama “smacked down” House Republicans the other day…puh-lease!)

Eleanor Clift, an unabashed Lefty, wrote an article for Newsweek 1/29/10 that was condescending at best and purposefully deceptive at worst. The first paragraph definitely sets the tone: “It was conventional wisdom to dismiss the tea-party activists who disrupted town-hall meetings around the country last summer as a bunch of crazies orchestrated by Republican activists. They equated President Obama’s policies with socialism, communism, and fascism, whichever -ism was handy, and their angry rhetoric was so over the top that Democrats dismissed them as a fringe group not worth worrying about…”

But don’t bother reading her prosaic article though…just go right to the rebuttal (the rebuttal’s author penned the astutely succinct Tea Party patriot description that heads this post).

His first two paragraphs also set the tone for his article nicely:

“It wasn’t until the election of Barack Obama that I ever really considered myself a party person. Okay, I was a registered Republican, and I tended to vote for (R) candidates. Not because I truly believed in any set of guiding GOP principles, and especially not in recent years. But more because of a general feeling that Democrat contenders were, like termites, almost always more likely to eat away the foundations of the America I love.

Now, though, it’s different. The termites are swarming. They are more voracious than ever. And because we must engage in serious pest control, I passionately proclaim, “Party on!” Now that Obama defiantly pursues his relentless assault on liberty in order to fundamentally transform the United States of America, I am a party animal. A Tea Party Patriot and proud of it!…” (Read Norvell Rose’s responses to Clift’s Tea Party talking points)

Filed under: Etc., Videos, Audi, Canada

Audi‘s got a thing going with its Truth in Motion films. The first installment took a lush, slow-motion look at what it took to win the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans, and this second installment charts the U.S. ski team’s snow-and-drama-covered run to the 2010 Winter Olympics. Like that first doc, it is now available free in iTunes in both regular and HD resolutions. You can read Audi’s press release after the jump, or better yet, click the link and get straight to downloading.

[Source: Audi]

Continue reading Audi’s ‘Truth in Motion’ documentary available for free on iTunes

Audi’s ‘Truth in Motion’ documentary available for free on iTunes originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 07:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Rip Torn is headed for rehab after he was released on $100,000 bail on Monday. Torn 78, is facing charges of burglary, criminal trespass, and weapons offenses after Connecticut State Police found him “highly intoxicated” and armed with a loaded gun in a small bank near his Salisbury home last Friday night.

Torn’s lawyer, A. Thomas Waterfall, said the actor — who has history of alcohol-related arrests — was disoriented and believed he was at home at the time of his arrest.

“He will enter rehab on Tuesday,” Waterfall said.

Torn’s most recent role has been as a network TV boss on the NBC comedy 30 Rock. He is expected to plead not guilty at his next court hearing on Feb 17.

Most of you probably saw this picture of Bow-Gate Part III yesterday. But, what you might not have seen was the Obamatrons explaining it and defending it.

The best explanation became the title for the post. Yes, someone actually said, “he’s checking to see if he stepped on chewing gum.”

This was the most common sentiment: “It’s not like the tea baggers and talking heads or even their elected reps are big on courtesy.” So, it’s only about manners? Did I move to Japan without my knowledge?

No, I take that back, Blame Bush was the most common: “You didn’t get the memo? Obama bowing is Bush’s fault…just like everything else in the world.”
“Actually, the ways in which Bush screwed up the country before skipping back to the ranch are Bush’s fault.” (source)

Is this the end of the world? Of course not…but it’s WEIRD, no? The Saudi King Abdullah and Japanese Emperor Akihito were at least understandable in the sense that Obama might have been unsure of the etiquette, but a MAYOR…in FLORIDA? It’s just too bizarre…maybe there was gum on his shoe? His back went out? Lactose intolerance? Jock itch?

As I continue to research and write my upcoming book on wikis, I keep hearing one word over and over again. That word is “BUT” (complete with all-caps), as in, “I would like to use a wiki, BUT…” or “We tried using a wiki, BUT…”

What follows is usually an excuse for why the speaker feels that a wiki isn’t a worthwhile tool for collaboration in his or her environment. I use the word “excuse” deliberately, because rarely does anyone articulate an actual business reason, such as a lack of need. When I ask deeper questions, I invariably find that the objection isn’t to the wiki technology itself, but instead to the concept of collaborative authoring and a perceived loss of control over the content.

The true business benefits of collaborative knowledge sharing, such as improved productivity, greater efficiencies, removing cross-functional boundaries, enabling customer feedback etc., are often lost to a perceived, and understandable, fear. In the modern workplace, we have traditionally been defined, both in terms of success and hierarchy, based on what we know.

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Article

But…but…Scott Brown’s election proves that the GOP is surging.

After Republican Scott Brown’s election to the Senate in Massachusetts on Jan. 19, a coalition of liberal groups released a survey of Bay State voters who backed Obama in 2008 and who voted for Brown or did not vote in the special election. The findings, according to MoveOn.org, one of the groups, showed that respondents “worry that Democrats in power have not done enough to combat the policies of the Bush era” and want “stronger, more progressive action on health care reform.”

Those findings parallel MoveOn’s priorities; other surveys might suggest another course for Democrats. But the poll illustrates a shift in tactics by liberal groups, which are increasingly funding polls that buttress their view that Democrats should govern as a populist, liberal party instead of from the center. The blog Firedoglake recently released polls showing the political weakness of some conservative Democrats, whom the blog has been criticizing.

The idea that Americans gave Democrats control of every lever of government just so they could act like Republicans never made much sense.

Some of the results of the new Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll about the GOP are here.

Later this morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will drag poor Anne Hathaway out of bed at the ungodly of hour of 8:30/5:30 AM to announce this year’s Oscar nominees in 10 major categories.

Don’t panic, there are still 6 months to go!

I think this is about the time that resolutions start to fade, willpower wanes and people get discouraged. Hold strong…maintaining a weight is much easier than getting there.

The gods of gluttony are aligned against us…between all the delectable Valentine’s day chocolates and those maniacal little girl scouts callously waving boxes of Thin Mints. But we must resist! (Unfortunately for your family this probably means they must abstain also…best not to even have the offending items in the house).

I am happy to report that I have 24 of my 36 workout commitment finished (of course it doesn’t end there–then I start P90X)! 3 inches have vanished from my waist and the positive results and nice compliments are motivating the hell out of me! How are you guys doing? Highs? Lows? Results?

This week’s homework is to find a bathing suit that you love -a tangible goal…and have it on your desk top so you can look at it when you need a push. Mine is that cute little Kenneth Cole from Victoria’s Secret (in black of course).

Lost star Evangeline Lilly has shocked fans with the announcement that she plans to quit acting once the desert island drama ends this spring.

The actress, who also starred in the Oscar-favored The Hurt Locker, wants to “drop off the radar” when the show wraps in May. In fact, Evangeline may not return to Hollywood at all. She insists she definitely won’t be planning any more acting roles for the foreseeable future.

She tells Eonline.com: “Acting is something I appreciate, and I think it’s been an amazing experience, but I’m not passionate about acting the way you probably should be to call yourself an actor. I want to have some quiet space… and enjoy a little bit of normalcy again (before deciding what’s next).”

Lilly says her first retirement will involve a charity tour to Rwanda.

The final season of Lost premieres tonight.

Do you care about color? We mean do you really care about getting the most true-to-life color reproduction on your monitor? Then you’ll probably be wanting an IPS panel, preferably with 99.3 percent coverage of the Adobe RGB color spectrum and 100 percent of the sRGB stuff. What’s that — you’d also like more headroom than what these silly new 16:9 ratio displays can give you — yup, the PA241W has you covered with 1200 pixels of vertical workspace as well. A solid 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 360 nits of brightness, 8ms response time and 178-degree viewing angles flesh out the spec sheet, while a tilt-and-swivel ergonomic stand, USB hub and DisplayPort connectivity figure as the predictable extras. Less foreseeable is the generous 4-year parts and labor warranty, but then you’d want nothing less when splashing a cool $1,079 on a monitor. NEC is ready to ship it to you today, but if you’re feeling in a thrifty mood we’d suggest also checking out Dell’s competing model, which offers a similar spec at a much lower price point.

NEC MultiSync PA241W brings full 1920 x 1200 IPS glory to the well-heeled old schooler originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 07:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink SlashGear  |  NEC  | Email this | Comments

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Article

We all know we want an SSD, but do we truly know what to do with one when we get it? Sure, you could plug it into the familiar SATA and power cables and consider your job done, but that’s not really the way of the geek. To educate us wistful, hopeful, soon-to-be SSD owners, TweakTown have put together a comprehensive guide on optimizing your solid state storage — starting from the very first step of picking out the right drive. What lies ahead is a full breakdown of the controllers available on the market today, along with helpful reminders of the importance of Trim command and garbage collection support. After you pick out your perfect life partner, you’ll be wanting to ensure it plays along nicely with Windows 7 as well, and they’ve got you covered on that front too. Just hit the source link and get informed. We did, even though we still can’t afford to buy one of these mythical drives.

Windows 7 gets a thorough SSD optimization guide originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  TweakTown  | Email this | Comments

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Article

Filed under: Rumors, Apple

Just when you thought Apple tablet rumors were dead — because, you know, they kind of announced one already — another has emerged like a zombie rising from its grave to feast upon the brains of gullible fanboys. You may want to grab your salt shakers and wash its grains down with a stiff shot of whiskey for this one though. TechCrunch (a company familiar with tablet devices *wink*) is reporting that Apple may be hard at work developing a second tablet device – this one more computer than consumer device, said to be bigger and badder than its recently announced sibling. TC’s MG Seigler claims to have “heard” from second-hand sources (I didn’t realize Goodwill sold rumors) that iPad Maxi will feature a more robust software stack with more in common to the desktop flavor of OSX rather than iPhone OS, and powered by Intel’s Atom processor.

Before the iPad was revealed last week, rumors circulated for a long time that Apple might be working on two different sizes for the screen of the device. Some had the device as small as 7″, others were saying it would go up to 10.6″. (The actual size of the iPad is 9.7″.) But the information we’re hearing is that Apple is thinking much larger for another version of the product, maybe all the way up to the 15.4″ size that it currently uses for one version of the MacBook Pro.

Aside from the fact that Apple is now rolling its own chips, and hence no longer requires Intel’s power-sipping Atom processor, why on earth fragment and possibly cannibalize your product line with TWO competing products that essentially attack the same markets from two different points? It isn’t in Apple’s nature to throw pasta at walls in hopes something adheres. Did we learn nothing from Steve’s mobile device chart last week? He clearly outlined where the company has positioned iPad: as a tweener, straddling the iPod and Mac segments — serving a role that Netbooks have failed to fill. So where does this fella fit in? And pray tell, how would strapping OSX to Netbook hardware (ala Atom) make it comparable in terms of features and performance to a MacBook? This rumor does not compute.

Believe it? Neither do I. I call shenanigans.

TUAWRumor: Apple developing second tablet device, made from unicorn tears originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]

Read Original Article

Amnesty International has again expressed its concern for a Yemeni journalist and government critic held incommunicado by the authorities since September, after fellow journalists said he appeared before a prosecutor in the capital Sana’a on Monday.

Yemeni journalists told Amnesty International that Muhammad al-Maqalih appeared before a prosecutor for the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC), whose proceedings have been reported to fall short of international fair trial standards.

He was reportedly not allowed a lawyer during his interrogation and it is not known what charges he faces or when his trial is to begin.

A member of the Yemeni Socialist Party and the former editor of its website, Muhammad al-Maqalih is thought to have been detained for his comments on the government’s conduct in its conflict with followers of the late Zaidi Shi’a cleric Hussein al-Huthi in the northern region of  Sa’da.

Human rights activists in Yemen suspect his detention is linked, in particular, to his criticism of the army’s killing of civilians in Sa’da, which was published on the Socialist Party’s website.

Amnesty International said it believes that he is likely to be a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression. If so, the organization demands that he be released immediately and unconditionally.

Muhammad al-Maqalih was abducted on a street in Sana’a on 17 September 2009 by men believed to be from the security forces. Eyewitnesses said that he was taken by a group of plain-clothed men who arrived in a white minibus which had its licence plates obscured.

Since his detention, Muhammad al-Maqalih’s family has staged a number of sit-in protests outside government offices, which have been attended by journalists and the general public.

Amnesty International wrote to Yemen’s Minister of Defence on 21 October 2009 asking where the journalist was being detained, and raising concerns that he had been detained incommunicado since he was seized, that he was at risk of torture or other ill-treatment and may have been subjected to enforced disappearance.

The Minister of Information acknowledged in December 2009 that Muhammad al-Maqalih was being detained by the state.

However, the Yemeni authorities have since refused to disclose his whereabouts and legal status or allow him access to his family or lawyer.

Critics and opponents of the state in Yemen are often at risk of arrest and detention, particularly at times of political crisis.

Although the SCC follows regular Yemeni criminal procedures, defence lawyers say its judges are not impartial and do not allow them to mount an effective defence; they say that their right to prepare a defence is hindered by restrictions that are placed on their access to their clients’ case files and that when they challenge procedural irregularities by the court these are routinely ignored.

Yemen’s Sa’da region, whose inhabitants are predominantly members of the country’s Zaidi Shi’a minority, has experienced several periods of conflict in recent years. There have been recurrent armed clashes between government security forces and followers of Hussein al-Huthi, who was killed by government forces in 2004.

The latest rise in violence began in mid-August 2009, when the area was placed under a virtual state of emergency and government forces mounted an escalating series of attacks.

I was going to ignore this, because based on what’s known there’s not much interesting or surprising, but people keep submitting the research done by a student of professor Ed Felten of a sample of some content available via BitTorrent (erroneously described as a “census” rather than a “sample”) that suggested that 99% of what was available on this particular slice of the BitTorrentsphere was infringing. While there may be some legitimate concerns with the methodology, I have to say that my response to the original was: of course. So what?

Of course the majority of files shared on BitTorrent are infringing. And I don’t see how it much matters if the percentage is 60% or 90% or 99%. I don’t think anyone has ever denied that a ton of infringing content is shared on BitTorrent — and, as some have rightly suggested part of the problem is that those who provide the content haven’t done a good job making alternatives available, and that drives people to these potentially illegal options.

But what I don’t get is the claim by industry lobbyists and lawyers that this somehow proves that BitTorrent needs to be stopped/fixed/held back/filtered/whatever. I read into it exactly the opposite. It shows what a piss poor job so much of the industry has done figuring out how to embrace the obvious demand that’s out there, and how to leverage that smartly. The fact that so much is infringing should be a siren waking the industry up that it’s time to stop fighting what people want, and start figuring out how to serve them. And for those who think this is evidence that BitTorrent needs to be blocked (wow) because so much is infringing, I’m wondering how they defend the legitimate parts that do get tossed out along with that. So just because NBC Universal is too clueless to figure out how to take advantage of a great distribution and promotion mechanism, people who want to use those tools and want to embrace better forms of distribution and marketing shouldn’t be able to? That makes no sense to me.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Christopher Reitz, Alfa Romeo’s design director since April 2008, has resigned, as Quattroruote reports.

Apparently, the Italian magazine’s sources unofficially obtained the information that Reitz has decided to leave the company. Alfa Romeo’s design department will now be led by interim Marco Tenconi, former head of design at Lancia and Maserati.

Born in Austria in 1968 and related to Wolfgang Porsche, Christopher Ritz graduated in Transportation Design from the European Art Center Colleg… (read more)

Article Tags: Alex Jones, Marc Morano, YouTube

Alex welcomes back to the show Marc Morano, the man behind the climate website ClimateDepot.com for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow. Morano is a former journalist with Cybercast News Service. He has written articles critical of NASA global warming scientist James E. Hansen. Morano was also a producer and correspondent for the nationally syndicated television newsmagazine American Investigator.

Read in full with comments »   

According to a report by the Financial Times, Geely will leave Volvo as is and will run it as a separate entity to protect the Swedish brand’s luxury image.

“We want to be careful not to damage the Volvo brand,” said Freeman Shen, Geely’s vice president for international operations. “We don’t want the image of a luxury car made in a third world country. We want the image of a European luxury car, albeit owned by a Chinese owner.”

Shen said that Volvo will be in good hands since Geely has “100 years of automotive history” and since its boss is more flexible in trying new ideas. He also said that Geely is considering setting up production in China and that 10 provincial and municipal Chinese governments are offering the automaker incentives to build a plant in their area.

Geely is hoping to finalize its $2 billion purchase of Volvo from FoMoCo by Feb. 14.

– By: Kap Shah

Source: AutoCar

areview.co.cc: MQM and PPP traded barbs during the Sindh Assembly session, which was ensued by a walk out on part of the former, Dunya News reported today. The session was chaired by Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza.MQM reacted strongly on PPPs comments regarding Karachi situation and interference of civil administration. Dr Sagheer Ahmed was trying to comment on Interior Ministers remarks; however he was barred from doing so by the acting speaker.On this, MQM made crescendo in the assembly and walked out. Health Minister Dr Sagheer remarked that shouting at Sultan Rahi and Mustafa Qureshi would not serve any purpose.