Taliban would like to send Wikileaks founder some flowers — Charlie Rangel’s luck just ran out — NYT editorial board doesn’t understand why Obama is doing this — Deficit anxieties freeze Congress —
Weird assemblage of freaks and geeks run Charlie Crist’s campaign — Fifteen years from now, China could own everything

1.) The Taliban would like to thank Wikileaks founder for the awesome intel — The only people happier with the recent Wikileaks dump than the pacifist ninnies who, had we listened to them 70 years ago, would have guaranteed the transformation of London into Little Berlin, are the Taliban. According to the Telegraph, “In an interview with Channel 4 News, Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said they were studying and investigating the report, adding ‘If they are US spies, then we know how to punish them.'” The documents were leaked by Julian Assange, an Australian anti-war activist whose idea of bringing peace to the Middle East is consigning hundreds of pro-America Afghans to possibly having their bodies and the bodies of their families mutilated and desecrated by retaliatory insurgents. In the big scheme of things, say Assange’s defenders, this is not very important. What really matters is Freedom of Speech! Transparency! Access to Information! [Insert other first world Democratic conveniences that don’t mean shit in Afghanistan here.]
Share: 2.) In lighter news, Charlie Rangel is finally getting what’s coming to him — Have you heard? Rep. Charlie Rangel, the harlot of Harlem, had his worst day in 60 years yesterday! According to the AP, “House investigators accused Rangel of 13 violations of congressional ethics standards on Thursday, throwing a cloud over his four-decade political career and raising worries for fellow Democrats about the fall elections. The allegations — which include failure to report rental income from vacation property in the Dominican Republic and to report more than $600,000 in assets on his congressional financial disclosure statements — came as lawyers for Rangel and the House ethics committee worked on a plea deal.” But there will be no plea deal, because Republicans gave Rangel “multiple opportunities to settle this matter. Instead, he chose to move forward to the public trial phase,” according to Rep. Jo Bonner. And also, justice is hungry.
Share: 3.) Bozos at New York Times are shocked–SHOCKED!–that Obama wants to grant additional warrantless search powers to FBI — “It is just a technical matter, the Obama administration says: We just need to make a slight change in a law to make clear that we have the right to see the names of anyone’s e-mail correspondents and their Web browsing history without the messy complication of asking a judge for permission,” begins a New York Times editorial. The piece then charges that “it is far more than a technical change. The administration’s request, reported Thursday in The Washington Post, is an unnecessary and disappointing step backward toward more intrusive surveillance from a president who promised something very different during the 2008 campaign.” God, so infuriating, right? Here’s this guy who swore up and down on a stack of New York Times op-ed pages that he would bring more freedom to America. Turns out, he meant more freedom for the executive branch to treat the rest of us like specimens in a petri dish.
Share: 4.) Congress is not passing any bills right now, because of the deficit thingy — “Election-year deficit concerns are slowing the annual appropriations process as lawmakers wrestle with how much spending is palatable on everything from healthcare to homeland security,” reports The Hill. “The House had passed just one of the 12 annual spending bills before Thursday’s vote on the Transportation-HUD bill — leaving it far behind last year’s pace — while the Senate has yet to pass any.” Republicans are holding up the budget process in order to get Democrats to adhere to the five-year plan they revealed last year under the impression that no one would actually read it. “Senate Democrats have set a 2011 discretionary spending cap of $1.114 trillion — $14 billion less than Obama’s proposal. But Republicans want spending to be $20 billion lower than the president’s plan, which would be the same amount for 2011 that Democrats supported in their five-year budget, passed last year.” OBSTRUCTIONISTS!
Share: 5.) Charlie Crist is a tool — Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is “retooling” his “bid,” according to POLITICO. “His third-party bid is staffed by a collection of misfits who run the gamut from longtime loyalists to out-of-state hired guns. They have worked for Democrats, for Republicans and even for prominent independents. As with Crist, ideology appears to take a back seat to winning office,” which is apparently something that no one else running for Congress cares about! That said, Crist’s inner sanctum is pretty funky: It “runs the gamut from a onetime, in-state foe — the former political director for the Florida Democratic Party — to a press aide who has worked for party switchers in New York and Missouri. Even his older sister, Margaret Wood, plays a special role.” She brings him mama’s nut cake, Charlie Crist’s favorite!
Share: 6.) China is coming for us — “China has overtaken Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy, the fruit of three decades of rapid growth that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty,” reports Reuters. China’s race to the top has also subjected hundreds of thousands of people to the vicious whims of a technologically enhanced socialist police state, but also, money! “Depending on how fast its exchange rate rises, China is on course to overtake the United States and vault into the No.1 spot sometime around 2025, according to projections by the World Bank, GoldmanSachs and others.” Maybe Arne was right, and the only way to beat this is with year-round school. TURN OFF THE BACKYARDIGANS AND GET IN THE DAMN CAR, KIDS! SUMMER’S OVER, FOREVER!
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