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Sep 22 2011

Media Blackout

Sep 22 2011

Evening Edition

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From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Suu Kyi urges world to keep eye on Myanmar

By Sebastian Smith, AFP

3 hrs ago

Myanmar’s pro-democracy hero Aung San Suu Kyi urged the world Wednesday not to take its eye off her country as it enters what she said were the first small steps to freedom.

In a rare appearance via videolink from Myanmar — also known as Burma — to an international conference in New York, Suu Kyi said the political thaw needs close scrutiny by the outside world.

“What we really need is awareness of what is going on in our country,” she told the audience of political and business leaders at the Clinton Global Initiative.

Sep 21 2011

On Suskind

What digby said–

It certainly does clear up any thought we might have had about whether or not the president is a real fiscal conservative or whether he was just flogging this deficit obsession for political effect. He’s a true believer. And we know this because of his reliance on other deficit hawks and because when the political bloodbath the jobless recovery had predicted came true, his first move was to validate the Republicans’ manufactured narrative about what had motivated their voters and launch his program of budget cuts and deficit reduction.

I have thought that his fetish for a Grand Bargain was mostly born of a delusional belief that he was someone who could bridge unbridgeable differences and be remembered as the man who brought cats and dogs together. But it looks as though he was just as motivated by the fact that he’s a true blue, Concord Coalition, Pete Peterson deficit hawk.

Sep 21 2011

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Sep 21 2011

Evening Edition

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From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Death toll hits 60 as violence rocks Yemen capital

By Jamal al-Jabiri, AFP

7 hrs ago

Gunfire and shelling rocked Sanaa for the third straight day on Tuesday as the toll from the worst outbreak of violence in Yemen’s capital in months spiralled to 60 dead with hundreds wounded.

The violence has hampered attempts by regional and international mediators to clinch a power transfer deal between political rivals, with the opposition saying it will not negotiate “while blood is flowing in Sanaa.”

Fighting between dissident military troops and those loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh broke out at dawn after a brief lull overnight and raged into the morning, leaving seven people dead, medics and witnesses said.

Sep 20 2011

Site weirdness.

Soapblox upgrades are producing some site weirdness.

At least we’re not being censored by Yahoo like Occupy Wall Street.

Sep 20 2011

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Sep 20 2011

Evening Edition

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Now with 53 stories.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Dale Farm wins legal reprieve

By Robin Millard, AFP

44 mins ago

Residents at the country’s largest illegal traveller camp won a last-minute court injunction on Monday delaying a bid by the local authority to evict them from the sprawling site.

The High Court ruling, stopping any action before a further hearing Friday, came as bailiffs prepared to enter the Dale Farm camp outside the town of Basildon.

A party atmosphere erupted among the 200 residents and outsider activists, some of whom have chained themselves to the hastily-erected barricades blocking the entrance to the 2.4 hectare camp.

Sep 19 2011

It Be International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Reprinted from The Stars Hollow Gazette, September 19, 2010

Now with more Pirate Carols!

Ahoy matey!

Wikipedia, which as we know can be trusted in all things (especially Colbert Elephants), tells us that in the modern era celebration of Talk Like a Pirate Day started in 1995.  Those who accept Our Noodly Savior know that Pirates were the Original Apostles of Pastafarianism.  Unfortunately the Revealed Scripture (known as The Ramen Texts) is unavailable for modern study as it was consumed during a particularly long calm in the Doldrums.

Still it is accepted as an article of faith proven by the historical record that decline in Piracy is directly correlated with Global Warming and many choose to spend this day in Worship at Church in addition to emulating the manners, customs, and language of their Pirate forbearers.  I myself have the good fortune to be 1/4 full blooded Pirate through my Viking ancestors (indeed Viking is a verb which means ‘Pirate’).

I generally celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day by telling the 3 Pirate Jokes.  There are only 3, all the others are just variations.  As Cap’n Slappy says:

Thar be only three pirate jokes in the world. The biggest one is the one that ends with someone usin’ “Arrr” in the punchline. Oh, sure, thar be plenty o’ these, but they’re all the same damn joke.

“What’s the pirate movie rated? – Arrr!”

“What kind o’ socks does a pirate wear? – Arrrrgyle!”

“What’s the problem with the way a pirate speaks? – Arrrrticulation!”

…and so forth.

The second joke is the one wear the pirate walks into the bar with a ships wheel attached to the front o’ his trousers. The bartender asks, “What the hell is that ships wheel for?” The pirate says, “I don’t know, but it’s drivin’ me nuts!”

And finally. A little boy is trick or treatin’ on Halloween by himself. He is dressed as a pirate. At one house, a friendly man asks him, “Where are your buccaneers?” The little boy responds, “On either side o’ me ‘buccan’ head!”

And there ye have it. A symposium on pirate humor that’ll last ye a lifetime – so long as life is violent and short.

And singing some Pirate Carols, for which you can join me below the fold.

Sep 19 2011

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