Barney Frank Marriage: Retiring Congressman Intends To Marry Longtime Partner Jim Ready

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/26/barn...

That was one crazy trip to the moon. Looks like fun.

STOCK Act: Insider Trading Bill To Receive Senate Vote Next Week

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/26/stoc...

What, a 5000% increase in Amazon traffic to #65 on the BS list wasn't good enough?

I prefer this version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOG3eus4ZSo

the Moon. That is the graphic used by The Daily Show to depict Newt's idea of the moon colony, compoledte with the cannon shell in his face.

ACTA goes farther than SOPA/PIPA. It creates an international court outside any nations' jurisdiction to pass and enforce copyright violation laws. It has been negotiated over the past six years largely in secrecy. Last year President Obama signed the accord without Congressional approval. Senator Wyden has challenged his authority to do so.

This week Polish internet users rose ur when the Polish Prime Minister also signed the agreement without consulting the Polish people. News of their riots and web-hacking is what alerted me to ACTA.

WRITE YOUR CONGRESS PEOPLE !! THIS IS WORSE THAN SOPA/PIPA !!

There's swelling anger in Poland over the country signing up with others to a global anti-piracy pact. Critics say the deal is as bad, if not worse, than America's planned laws, which were shelved when web giants like Wikipedia and Google went on a protest blackout. RT's Alexey Yaroshevsky is in Warsaw where the fear is that big corporations now have the power to take individual internet users offline at a whim.

ACTA of War: Cyber attacks & street protests over 'censorship' bill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBwE111ZzfU

Key websites are being hijacked, on a day that thousands of internet freedom supporters marched outside in a major two-pronged protest. It's because the country's just signed up to a global web piracy pact, covering everything from movies and music to fashion and pharmaceuticals. But its net stretches wide. One of the key problems seen with ACTA is that it's completely bypassed people and their governments as Polish liberty activist Katarzyna Szymielewicz has been explaining to RT.

ACTA Anger: Poland signs up to 'censorship' without debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BIoOquElWg

Thousands of people took to the streets in front of the European Parliament office in Warsaw to protest ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. It's an international agreement that lumps piracy and counterfeiting into one, which has been discussed behind closed doors for nearly 6 years. Last year, President Obama signed an executive agreement to get the US on board, without asking for Congressional approval. But in a secret ceremony in Japan yesterday, several European nations also signed on, hence the protests in Warsaw. The Atlantic Wire's Adam Clark Estes discusses.

Thousands Protest ACTA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Za2BR9VEgM

Oct 12, 2011 Washington, D.C. – As the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) prepares to ratify an international agreement related to the enforcement of intellectual property rights, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) – chairman of the Senate Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Trade – sent a letter to President Obama today asking why the administration believes the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA) does not require Congress’s formal approval. According to legal experts, cited by Wyden, if the USTR ratifies ACTA without Congress’ consent it may be circumventing Congress’s Constitutional authority to regulate international commerce and protect intellectual property and would therefore represent a significant expansion of the executive branch’s authority over international agreements. ..

Last year, Wyden raised concerns about the lack of transparency surrounding the ACTA negotiations which took place largely in secret over the course of five years and encouraged the USTR “to give the public a say over issues that so profoundly affect their lives.” Last month, he applauded the USTR for not including controversial proposals to expand the enforcement of copyrights in the digital environment in ways that threaten the development of the Internet as a viable platform for commerce, and again stressed the need to be more inclusive: “The public has a right to know what its government is seeking in these trade agreements, especially as it relates to the Internet, and it’s time for the Obama Administration to tell them.”

Wyden to President: Isn’t Congress Supposed to Approve International Trade Agreements?
http://wyden.senate.gov/newsroom/press/releas...

As Wyden notes in his letter http://wyden.senate.gov/download/?id=f20e3fd3... (pdf) international law considers the consent of the head of state as binding, although domestic law prohibits the president from entering into binding international agreements without the consent of Congress.

Jan 9, 2012 - The conflict between Senator Wyden and the administration over the constitutionality of ACTA continued anew last week.

As previously reported, Senator Wyden wrote a letter to President Obama in October, 2011, challenging USTR’s claimed authority to bind the United States to ACTA without Congressional consent. The complaint, echoing several academic commentators (Flynn, Lessig & Goldsmith, Hathaway & Kapczynski) and a submission to USTR signed by 30 law professors, is that Congress must approve any binding international agreement on intellectual property minimum legislative standards because the regulation of intellectual property and of international trade are Article I section 8 powers of Congress. The President can only constitutionally use a sole executive agreement to bind the country on matters that within the sole executive province of the President, which making IP law is not. So Wyden demanded the Administration submit the agreement to Congress or explain why it does not have to.

Sen. Wyden Challenges ACTA Constitutionality Again
http://infojustice.org/archives/7031

carried around an empty plastic bucket? WTF?

To strip Indefinite Detention language from NDAA !!

Thom Hartmann on the News - January 26, 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_d...

surfaces again, now in GA.

for Mitt, who could not remember an ad Wolf the Nimble asked him about in which Romney attacks Newt for calling Spanish a ghetto language. Newt, of course denied it, and Willard could not remember the ad.
Blitzer came back later and proved the ad was running and that is was Romeny's, with his "I approved this message disclaimer." Newt denied some more.

Poor Willard. Wolf teed up the ball for him just like King teed up Newt in SC. And Willard walked up to the tee, dropped his bat, whined, and went back to the bench.

For those who like Mystery Science Theater 3000, here is a blast from the past about this event as it happened back in 2007.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og0HqSZVKqA

Includes several informative annotations - and a coupla hilarious annotations!

Security Cam Video Of Sen Rand Paul Being Detained By TSA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVryPjugNo8

Zzzzzzzzzzz

Sex tourism. http://motherjones.com/mojo/2012/01/your-dail...

"In his 1984 book, Window of Opportunity (and again in his 1994 book, To Renew America), he suggested that private space flight would open up business opportunities for space tourism — specifically for honeymooning couples. As he put it: 'Imagine weightlessness and its effects and you will understand some of the attraction.'"

So, maybe he's just, you know, practicing.

never say never.

BIG NEWS: President Obama announced this week that our friend Eric Schneiderman, New York's progressive Attorney General, will lead a new Special Unit to prosecute Wall Street illegality.

Hillary's too old for this political shit. Pat and Vanna admit they'd get drunk during Wheel of Fortune segments. CNN fact-checks Newt. ATT reports Q4 loss over failed T-Mobile buy-out. MA DirectTV dispute resolved. Aussie pol plagiarizes Michael Douglas movie. No, Barry, the problem is you don't second-guess yourself more often. Obama to ignore birther subpoena. Egyptian lawyer tries to pass the buck and pin protestor shootings on the U.S. and Israel. U.S. lawmaker to pursue limited China bill. Kim K. still trying to be relevant. Justin Long parodies Mitt. Senate declined to block Obama debt request. FCC wants Comcast to play ball on tennis channel. New Robert Reich doc on economic inequality in the works. Cali forced to pay up $950,000 for pointless video game legal battle endorsed by Schwarzenegger. Castro tells it like it is about the GOP. CDC says more U.S. babies born at home. Thirty-six Obama staffers delinquent on taxes? A SOTU fit for an 8th grader. Why blackhawks buzzed L.A. Special forces unit which killed Bin Laden to expand presence globally. Another day, another report of corruption at the Vatican. Via @tomtomorrow:

Ron Paul invoking Community Reinvestment Act -- standard right wing dog whistle. 2 cartoons I wrote about 1997 incident with East Haven police in which a young black man was shot at point blank range http://thismodernworld.com/archives/6629 The media area now becomes a "spin room" where candidates surrogates literally stand around holding signs indicating for whom they bullshit. Oh you Republicans applauding anti-war are so pathetic. If not for you assholes we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. Saul Alinsky! DRINK! Cue the English-as-official-language responses. Half the tech we use on a daily basis is thanks to the space program, that's a little more than "for the fun of it" Ron Paul GOP always obsessed with "rewarding behavior". Makes sense, for such a Pavlovian bunch. Oh isn't that lovely, the GOP audience applauding Ron paul's comment about "overraction" after ten years of pointless war. RT@hunterdk By March Newt will be claiming to have had passionate sex with Reagan. RT@joshuahol Not really fair -- Newt's been auditioning wives for FLOTUS for years, Nothing infuriates me more than free marketers explaining why free market health care is the answer to everything.

Via @lloydkaufman and @techdirt:

Court Finds Copyright Trolling Lawyer Evan Stone In Contempt; Orders Him To Pay Attorneys' Fees http://dlvr.it/17Sfhr

Via @zerudah:

I wish they showed this kind of anger over @rupertmurdoch illegally hacking a phone. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jay-len...

Via @mmflint:

(Pt.1of 2) Who would've guessed that a Republican presidential debate would include one candidate attacking the other for... (2/2) ...owning part of a Goldman Sachs investment fund that forecloses on people? This is not the America I knew!

Via @rolandkelts:

Apocalypse Now: Tokyo evacuation plans for 36 million, 3/11, kept under wraps @nyt: http://nyti.ms/zDjcFr

Via @joethepeacock:

A Day Without The Internet http://www.buzzfeed.com/amandad25/a-day-witho... via @BuzzFeed

Via @hirokotabuchi:

Japan says summer power cuts can be avoided, even if all reactors offline http://reut.rs/yLYHhk Press Freedom Index 2011/2012 - full list http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2011-20... Japan still highest-ranked in Asia & ranks above US, UK, France, Australia .@WilliamPesek: Who's right? Krugman or Fingleton? http://bloom.bg/yNGuu0 RT@markwillacy Japan slumps in latest freedom of press rankings from 11th to 22nd. "Excessive restrictions" on reporting Fukushima disaster cited as reason

Via @sirkowski:

Claiming to be an outsider is so fucking cliché it's pathetic. #CNNdebate Latinos candidate for cabinet member, nobody's naming Elian Gonzales? I'm disappointed. For a Canadian, this health care debate is so fucking absurd I'm speechless #CNNdebate Ron Paul says the unemployed should pay for private health care insurance. With what money?? #CNNdebate The real farce is that Romney, Santorum and Paul aren't laughing in Newt's face. #CNNdebate Ron Paul says cutting taxes for the rich would help the 99%. How? He didn't say. #CNNdebate Newt says he wants the Hong Kong tax system in America? Who's the secret commie now? Ron Paul has a simple solution: If you don't care when people die, then it's a problem anymore, is it? #CNNdebate From his prison cell, Republican ex-representative Duke Cunningham endorses Newt http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/201... via @SlogFirehose

Via @albertbrooks:

If only a machine could combine all four republican candidates together then one giant man could lose to Obama.

Via @annzac:

Ron Paul Cookbook full text: "fuck you, get your own food, you can't have any of mine, now get off my property" #cnndebateGingrich has yet to mention that his lunar base plans are derived from the Star Trek episode "Mudd's Women" #CNNdebate Rick Santorum asked that this version of the National Anthem include the words "and a rape baby is just a gift from god" #cnndebate

Via @21stprincipal:

Santorum: Obama's Plan For Higher Education Is About 'Indoctrination' | ThinkProgress http://bit.ly/x2zxK6 Romney Steps Up Culture War, Claims Obama Is Waging ‘An Assault On Religion’ | ThinkProgress http://bit.ly/zCU5Xk Santorum: Gays Glitter Bomb Me Because They're 'Intolerant' And 'Afraid Of The Truth' | ThinkProgress http://bit.ly/ze4KUs New Census Estimates Show Increases in Student Poverty Across the Country | http://NewAmerica.net http://bit.ly/Asoz0v State Board of Ed in Texas Questioning Amount of Time Spent in Test Prep http://bit.ly/AchwJo Oklahoma Introduces Its 6th Anti-Evolution Instruction Bill http://on.wsj.com/zyFU4b As Some School Plunge into Technology Poor School Left Behind http://trib.in/yVxWhT According to Santorum, Universities Used by Left for Indoctrination http://huff.to/xJZrKK States weaken tenure rights for teachers – http://USATODAY.com http://usat.ly/wa84cg

Via @latimescitybeat:

Turns out the woman who drove down the Verdugo Wash is 53 -- not elderly. Getting the car out is hard: http://lat.ms/w1kSpG Santa Ana winds prompt red flag brush fire warning: http://lat.ms/zW7JTt

Via @mralanspencer:

The GOP is changing the plaque on the Statue of Liberty to “Keep your tired & poor and just give me the deed to your home.”