It’s all about the money.

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

The FBI helps fabricate and then thwart a terrorist plot to blow up a van at the Christmas Tree lighting in Portland, OR. You can’t make this stuff up but apparently the FBI can. The suspect, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, a naturalized United States citizen living in Corvallis, Ore., is the only person arrested and other than the FBI agents, the only one involved in this so-called plot. For over a year the FBI prompted a gullible and angry teenager and led him into believing that he was participating in a jihadist plot. The more details that the FBI reveal the more it seems that it was the FBI who targeted Mohamud and radicalized him into believing that he could pull this off. It appears almost impossible that a high school student even with terrorist contacts would have been allowed to be privy to the details of the plans, let alone help formulate it.  

Teddy Partridge who has been following this story at FDL said it best in is first article:

Clearly, the Pacific Northwest has been too complacent about terror brewing in our midst. Thank goodness for the heroic FBI that allowed one silly young man trying to impress older, more senior “terrorists” with an operational plan. And thank goodness they saved us from this attack, moments before it didn’t occur.

How long are we going to let the cowboys shoot up our country with their false terror plots and operations that would go nowhere without their instigation, planning, and coercion? How long will we allow our own federal constabulary to justify its own recklessly inflated budget by permitting actions like this to develop, fester, and grow operational in our midst?

This is terror, pure and simple. State-sponsored terror. Big-splash terror designed to make people compliant and fearful, and grateful to their federal government – in a city which has not yet installed the Rapiscan porno-scanners at our airport.

Someone needs to put an end to it.

Exactly.

Glenn Greenwald expounds on this further:

It may very well be that the FBI successfully and within legal limits arrested a dangerous criminal intent on carrying out a serious Terrorist plot that would have killed many innocent people, in which case they deserve praise.  Court-approved surveillance and use of undercover agents to infiltrate terrorist plots are legitimate tactics when used in accordance with the law.

But it may also just as easily be the case that the FBI — as they’ve done many times in the past — found some very young, impressionable, disaffected, hapless, aimless, inept loner; created a plot it then persuaded/manipulated/entrapped him to join, essentially turning him into a Terrorist; and then patted itself on the back once it arrested him for having thwarted a “Terrorist plot” which, from start to finish, was entirely the FBI’s own concoction.  Having stopped a plot which it itself manufactured, the FBI then publicly touts — and an uncritical media amplifies — its “success” to the world, thus proving both that domestic Terrorism from Muslims is a serious threat and the Government’s vast surveillance powers — current and future new ones — are necessary.

Greenwald goes further, examining the evidence already put out by the FBI and shredding their case against Mohamud with numerous violation of his Constitutional rights that will never hold up in a court of law. The prosecution must also be able to show that this was not entrapment by the FBI by showing that the defendant “was independently predisposed to commit the crime for which he was arrested.”. They must also prove that they did not manipulate the accused by him from traveling domestically for employment.

I would think that there are bigger fish to fry out there that don’t need the help of the FBI to plan and carry out their attacks. A little less time and money spent on manipulating a lone teenager and a little more effort into catching real bad guys would go a long way into protecting the US, and the world, from criminals.

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

November 28 is the 332nd day of the year (333rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 33 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1970, George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” is released.

 1095 – On the last day of the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II appoints Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy and Count Raymond IV of Toulouse to lead the First Crusade to the Holy Land.

1443 – Skanderbeg and his forces liberate Kruja in Middle Albania and raise the Albanian flag.

1520 – After navigating through the South American strait, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.

1582 – In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 bond for their marriage licence.

1660 – At Gresham College, 12 men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray decide to found what is later known as the Royal Society.

1729 – Natchez Indians massacre 138

Frenchmen, 35 French women, and 56 children at Fort Rosalie, near the site of modern-day Natchez, Mississippi.

1785 – The Treaty of Hopewell is signed.

1811 – Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, was premiered at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig.

1814 – The Times in London is for the first time printed by automatic, steam powered presses built by the German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer, signaling the beginning of the availability of newspapers to a mass audience.

1821 – Panama Independence Day: Panama separates from Spain and joins Gran Colombia.

1843 – Ka La Hui: Hawaiian Independence Day – The Kingdom of Hawaii is officially recognized by the United Kingdom and France as an independent nation.

1862 – American Civil War: In the Battle of Cane Hill, Union troops under General John Blunt defeat General John Marmaduke’s Confederates.

1893 – Women vote in a national election for the first time: the New Zealand general election.

1895 – The first American automobile race takes place over the 54 miles from Chicago’s Jackson Park to Evanston, Illinois. Frank Duryea wins in approximately 10 hours.

1905 – Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founds Sinn Fein as a political party with the main aim of establishing a dual monarchy in Ireland.

1907 – In Haverhill, Massachusetts, scrap-metal dealer Louis B. Mayer opens his first movie theater.

1910 – Eleftherios Venizelos, leader of the Liberal Party, wins the Greek elections again.

1912 – Albania declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire.

1914 – World War I: Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opens for bond trading.

1918 – Bucovina voted for the union with the Kingdom of Romania.

1919 – Lady Astor is elected as a Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. She is the first woman to sit in the House of Commons.

(Countess Markiewicz, the first to be elected, refused to sit.)

1920 – Irish War of Independence: Kilmichael Ambush – The Irish Republican Army ambush a convoy of British Auxiliaries and kill seventeen.

1929 – Ernie Nevers of the then Chicago Cardinals scores all of the Cardinals’ points in this game as the Cardinals defeat the Chicago Bears 40-6.

1942 – In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub kills 491 people.

1943 – World War II: Tehran Conference – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin meet in Tehran, Iran to discuss war strategy.

1958 – Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon become autonomous republics within the French Community.

1960 – Mauritania becomes independent of France.

1964 – Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 4 probe toward Mars.

1964 – Vietnam War: National Security Council members agree to recommend that U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson adopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam.

1965 – Vietnam War: In response to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s call for “more flags” in Vietnam, Philippines President Elect Ferdinand Marcos announces he will send troops to help fight in South Vietnam.

1972 – Last executions in Paris, of the Clairvaux Mutineers, Roger Bontems and Claude Buffet, guillotined at La Sante Prison. (Bontems had been found innocent of murder by the court, but as Buffet’s accomplice is condemned to death anyway.) The chief executioner is Andre Obrecht.

1975 – East Timor declares its independence from Portugal.

1975 – As the World Turns and The Edge of Night, the final two American soap operas that had resisted going to pre-taped broadcasts, air their last live episodes.

1979 – Air New Zealand Flight 901, a DC-10 operated sightseeing flight over Antarctica, crashes into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board.

1984 – Over 250 years after their deaths, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn are made Honorary Citizens of the United States.

1987 – South African Airways flight 295 crashes into the Indian Ocean, killing all 159 people on-board.

1989 – Cold War: Velvet Revolution – In the face of protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces it will give up its monopoly on political power.

1991 – South Ossetia declares independence from Georgia.

Holidays and observances

   * Ascension of Abdu’l-Baha (Baha’i Faith)

   * Christian Feast Day:

         o Catherine Laboure

         o Herman of Alaska and Stephen the Younger, the anniversary of their actual deaths. Eastern Orthodox

         o Pope Gregory III

   * Feast of the Holy Sovereigns in honor of King Kamehama IV and Queen Emma, the founders of the Anglican Church of Hawaii (Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii)

   * Independence Day / National Day / Flag Day, celebrates the independence of Albania from Ottoman Empire in 1912, the first Albanian flag raise by Skanderbeg in 1443, and for the new parliamentary constitution in 1998.

   * Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Mauritania from France in 1960.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

The Sunday Talking Heads:

This Week with Christiane Amanpour: Berkshire-Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, Microsoft founder and Chairman Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda Gates, of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CNN founder Ted Turner and hedge fund manager Tom Steyer sit down with Christiane Amanpour in a “This Week” exclusive and explain their reasons for making the Giving Pledge – a commitment by some of America’s wealthiest individuals to give the majority of their wealth to philanthropy. Joined by 40 billionaires, boosting diverse causes such as education, the environment, AIDS, human rights and nuclear arms reduction these visionaries offer their insights on changing the world.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer:] Roundtable: Edmund Morris, Ron Chernow, Arianna Huffington and Bob Woodward.

.

The Chris Matthews Show: This Week’s Guests John Heilemann, New York Magazine, National Political Correspondent, Norah O’Donnell MSNBC Chief Washington Correspondent, Anne Kornblut, The Washington Post White House Correspondent and Reihan Salam, National Review.

They will discuss along with Mr. Matthews these questions:

Can Sarah Palin Remake Herself Into a Serious Presidential Candidate?

Will the U.S. Turn the Airport Security Focus to the Bomber Instead of The Bomb?

Meet the Press with David Gregory: This Sunday Mr. Gregory will be joined by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Assistant Majority Leader and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Assistant Minority Leader.

The Round Table pudits, Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne, Republican Strategist Ed Gillespie, The Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan, and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Arizona Sen. John McCain, who just won his fifth term in the Senate, will join Candy to discuss the lame duck Congress and the conflicting priorities of a Democratic White House and a more powerful Republican Party in Congress.

Then, Sen. Byron Dorgan and Rep. David Obey will tell us why they’re thankful to be leaving Washington. Both of them announced their retirements earlier this year and have just over one month left in the nation’s capital.

We’ll also share the final segment from our interview with former President George W. Bush and his brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Jeb will tell us how many copies of his brother’s book he purchased and whether or not he’s actually read it.

And finally, a fascinating interview with White House photographer Pete Souza who captures history 1/500th of a second at a time.

Fareed Zakaris: GPS: This week on GPS: It’s that time of year when American’s gather together with their loved ones to give thanks for all that they have. But Fareed says the puritanical roots of that tradition are hard to find in America these days…and you’ll be surprised where you need to look to find them today.

Then, the nation’s top military man, Admiral Mike Mullen the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff sits down with Fareed. On the agenda with the President’s top military adviser: the world’s trouble hot spots from Afghanistan to North Korea and beyond.

Next up, has somebody in China know what web sites your visited? Have they read your email? Maybe.

After that we have a fascinating discussion with the man who helped engineer the largest tax cuts in American history. Fareed sits down with President Reagan’s budget director, David Stockman, to talk about how to fix the economy. Stockman says his own party – the GOP – has all the wrong ideas…and has abandoned its core economic principles.

Finally, a last look at Afghanistan’s brutal national sport and what the US military just might learn from it.

Frank Rich: Still the Best Congress Money Can Buy

SO America’s latest crisis – until it wasn’t – was airport screeners touching our junk. As this long year lurches toward its end, we all agree that something has gone wrong in America, and we’re desperately casting about for a coherent explanation for our discontent, if not a scapegoat. Alas, the national consensus that the T.S.A. and full-body scans might be the source of all evil fizzled in less than a week. Most everyone got to Grandma’s house for Thanksgiving without genital distress.

The previous transient scapegoat was the Democrats. They were punished in yet another “wave” election – our third in a row – where voters threw Washington’s bums out. But most of the public remains bummed out nonetheless. In late October, the NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll found that only 31 percent of respondents believed that America was on the right track. When the survey asked the same question after the shellacking, the percent of optimists jumped to … 32. Regardless of party or politics, there’s a sense a broken country can’t be fixed. Few have faith that even “wave” elections are game-changers anymore.

John Nichols: Official Washington Worries WikiLeak Will Reveal Inconsistent Approach to Terror

Usually, when a WikiLeaks document dump is in the offering, US officials play like it could not possibly matter.

“More of the same,” “nothing new,” “just a repeat of what everyone was already aware of”: these have been the standard lines.

But not this time. Washington is abuzz with Holiday weekend talk about how officials at the White House, the Department of Defense and the State Department are “holding their breath” in troubled anticipation of an imminent release of thousands of classified documents by the controversial website.

WikiLeaks is tweeting that officials in Washington are “hyperventilating again over fears of being held to account.”

That’s not hype. They really are worried this time.

Why so? Because this release of documents could pull back the curtain on how the United States practices international diplomacy.

Nicholas D. Kristof A Woman. A Prostitute. A Slave.

Americans tend to associate “modern slavery” with illiterate girls in India or Cambodia. Yet there I was the other day, interviewing a college graduate who says she spent three years terrorized by pimps in a brothel in Midtown Manhattan.

Those who think that commercial sex in this country is invariably voluntary – and especially men who pay for sex – should listen to her story. The men buying her services all mistakenly assumed that she was working of her own volition, she says.

Yumi Li (a nickname) grew up in a Korean area of northeastern China. After university, she became an accountant, but, restless and ambitious, she yearned to go abroad.

Jeffrey Rosen: Why the TSA pat-downs and body scans are unconstitutional

Courts evaluating airport-screening technology tend to give great deference to the government’s national security interest in preventing terrorist attacks. But in this case, there’s a strong argument that the TSA’s measures violate the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

Although the Supreme Court hasn’t evaluated airport screening technology, lower courts have emphasized, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled in 2007, that “a particular airport security screening search is constitutionally reasonable provided that it ‘is no more extensive nor intensive than necessary, in the light of current technology, to detect the presence of weapons or explosives.’ ”

In a 2006 opinion for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, then-Judge Samuel Alito stressed that screening procedures must be both “minimally intrusive” and “effective” – in other words, they must be “well-tailored to protect personal privacy,” and they must deliver on their promise of discovering serious threats. Alito upheld the practices at an airport checkpoint where passengers were first screened with walk-through magnetometers and then, if they set off an alarm, with hand-held wands. He wrote that airport searches are reasonable if they escalate “in invasiveness only after a lower level of screening disclose[s] a reason to conduct a more probing search.”

William Rivers Pitt: The TSA, the Right, and My Busted Watch

or the last several days, I have been trying to locate what would appear to be the appropriate and necessary level of angst and fury over the issue of heavy-handed TSA searches at American airports. I say “appropriate and necessary” because, well, all the noise surrounding the matter seems to suggest I have no alternative other than outrage, and if I fail to react that way, I am some sort of dupe, a fool who doesn’t understand the Constitutional issues at hand or the dangers represented by what has been described as a glaring governmental over-reach. . . .

What I do know is that the leading voices of outrage over this issue are the likes of Charles Krauthammer of the Post, Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee, incoming House Transportation Committee chairman John Mica (R-FL), a bunch of rabid right-wing websites which are also leading the “Obama is not a citizen” birther charge, and a “mainstream” media that continues to push messages that auger inexorably toward the claim that the “Tea Party” is right about everything even remotely related to government.

That is not the kind of company I like to keep, and it gives me great pause about jumping on the TSA-outrage bandwagon. I mean, sure, I have a busted watch at home that’s right twice a day, so it’s possible these far-right mouthpieces may have stumbled onto some truth for a change. But the fact that the attacks against Obama and the TSA happen to be coming from the same people who have made a cottage industry out of claiming Obama is a secret terrorist who wants to bring Sharia law to America, yet who are now saying he has gone too far in defending the nation from terrorism, even in the face of credible threats to the airline industry, leads me to suspect there is a different game afoot.

Well, it’s that holiday time of year again when all you want is some mindless entertainment to spare you from dealing with your relatives and TV programmers screw with you by replacing all your familiar favorites with sappy specials and marathons of your least liked shows made more inpenetrable by the one line crawl of uselessness that TV Guide channel has become.

Thank goodness kindly uncle ek is here to highlight a few moments of blessed distraction as well as some of the potential pitfalls to be avoided.

I look on it as a public service.

My job is made a little easier because of a neat little network ‘day at a glance’ feature of Zap2it TV Listings.  Click on the channel name.  I’m going from my last diary to Paid Programming.  I’m putting the main meat below the fold because the table is too long for the Front Page.  It’s arranged by time and marathons (4 half hour episodes, 3 hour episodes, double features, themes, and Instapeats) may be noted earlier than you expect, but they do also include the running time so you know when they end.

Nothing like watching A Christmas Story 25 times in a row.

Today is the last day of your special 24 hour Holiday coverage.  Prime Time tomorrow as usual.  I’m rolling publishing again because it’s much easier.  Right now this covers until noon.  Expect an update.

Update: Good until 6 am.

7 am

• AMC– Three Stooges marathon until 10:30 am, starts at 5 am
• FX– Rules of Engagement
• Speed– Hot Rod TV marathon until 2 pm
• TBS– Zathura (starts at 6:30 am)

7:30 am

• ABC Family– Richie Rich

8 am

• E!– Bruce Almighty
• Oxygen– Shall We Dance?
• Style– Doc Hollywood

8:30 am

• Comedy– Major League
• TBS– Stuart Little
• Turner Classic– The Beggar’s Opera

9 am

• Disney– Phineas and Ferb marathon until 10:30 am
• Discovery– Mythbusters
• Sci Fi– Judge Dredd
• Spike– Star Wars IV: A New Hope (start of a triple feature with repeat)
• TLC– Say Yes to the Dress marathon until 1 pm
• Toon– Ben 10: Alien Swarm
• USA– Psych

9:30 am

• ABC Family– Richie Rich’s Christmas Wish
• FX– The Transporter

10 am

• Discovery– Auction Kings
• Style– Pretty in Pink
• TBS– Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
• Turner Classic– The Nanny
• TNT– The Bucket List
• USA– Burn Notice

10:30 am

• AMC– The Terminator
• Discovery– Auction Kings
• Toon– Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster

11 am

• Discovery– Mythbusters
• Lifetime– On the 2nd Day of Christmas
• Sci Fi– Skinwalkers
• TV Guide– Ugly Betty marathon until 9 pm (so it will be useless all day long)
• USA– NCIS marathon until midnight

11:30 am

• ABC Family– Home Alone 4 (start of a triple feature)
• FX– The Day After Tomorrow

Noon

• A&E– Murder by Numbers
• Discovery– Dirty Jobs marathon until 8 pm
• Spike– Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
• Style– Chicago
• TBS– The Cat in the Hat
• Turner Classic– The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima
• TNT– Runaway Jury
• TV Land– I Dream of Jeannie marathon until 2 pm

12:30 pm

• Comedy– Employee of the Month
• Toon– Yours, Mine, & Ours (no better than the 1968 original)

1 pm

• CBS– Throwball
• NBC– Skiing
• Fox– Throwball
• AMC– Predator (start of double feature)
• Lifetime– A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride
• MTV– Drumline
• Sci Fi– Jurassic Park

1:30 pm

• ABC Family– Home Alone 3

2 pm

• NBC– Figure Skating
• FX– Anger Management
• Speed– Pimp My Ride marathon until 5 am
• TBS– Shark Tale
• Turner Classic– Of Mice and Men
• TV Land– Bewitched marathon until 4 pm

2:30 pm

• A&E– The Fugitive
• TNT– John Grisham’s The Rainmaker
• Toon– Hoodwinked!

3 pm

• Comedy– Barbershop 2: Back in Business
• E!– Bruce Almighty
• Lifetime– A Diva’s Christmas Carol
• Spike– Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

3:30 pm

• ABC Family– Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
• AMC– Predator 2

4 pm

• CBS– Throwball
• Fox– Throwball
• Bravo– Real Housewives marathon until 2:30 am
• Sci Fi– Serenity
• TBS– Bring It On: In It to Win It
• Turner Classic– Jailhouse Rock
• Toon– Surf’s Up
• Travel– Man v. Food marathon until 1 am (with minor interruptions)

5 pm

• Lifetime– A Different Kind of Christmas

5:30 pm

• A&E– Paranormal State marathon until 10 pm, 3 am with breaks (2 premiers)
• Comedy– Bringing Down the House
• TNT– The Client

6 pm

• ABC Family– The Dog Who Saved Christmas
• AMC– The Mummy
• Disney– Good Luck Charlie marathon until 8:30 pm
• Spike– Star Wars IV: A New Hope
• TBS– The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
• Turner Classic– The Odd Couple
• Toon– Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

6:30 pm

• Sci Fi– The Rocketeer

7 pm

• CBS– 60 Minutes
• Animal Planet– Planet Earth marathon until 6 am
• ESPN2– College Hoopies
• Food– Next (Season Finale repeat)
• FX– The Family Stone
• History– Top Gear
• Lifetime– 12 Men of Christmas
• Nick– iCarly (1 hour special)
• TLC– Sarah Palin’s Alaska marathon until 10 pm (Series Premier repeat)
• Vs.– Rocky II

7:30 pm

• Comedy– Employee of the Month

8 pm

• CBS– Amazing Race (premier)
• NBC– Throwball, Chargers @ Bolts (you know how to root)
• Fox– Simpsons (premier)
• PBS– Nature
• ABC Family– The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation (World Premier)
• Discovery– Nitty Gritty (Series Premier)
• Food– Challenge (premier)
• History– Ice Road Truckers
• Nick– Fred: The Movie
• TBS– The Wizard of Oz
• Turner Classic– No Orchids for Miss Blandish
• TLC– Sarah Palin’s Alaska (Episode 2, clubbing a fish)
• TNT– Michael Clayton
• Toon– Clone Wars (Series Premier)
• TV Land– Hot in Cleveland marathon until 1 am

8:30 pm

• Fox– Cleveland Show (premier)

9 pm

• CBS– November Christmas (World Premier)
• PBS– Great Performances
• AMC– The Walking Dead
• Discovery– Dirty Jobs (premier)
• ESPN2– College Hoopies
• Food– Chopped (premier)
• FX– Deck the Halls
• History– Ice Road Truckers (premier)
• Lifetime– Comfort and Joy
• National Geographic– Wild Justice (premier)
• Sci Fi– Eragon
• Spike– Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
• TLC– Sarah Palin’s Alaska (premier)
• TV Guide– Weeds marathon until 2 am (so it will be useless all night long too, also)

9:30 pm

• Fox– American Dad (premier)
• Vs.– Rocky II

10 pm

• ABC Family– The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation (World Premier Instapeat)
• AMC– The Walking Dead (premier)
• Discovery– Brew Masters (premier)
• Food– Iron Chef America (premier)
• History– Top Gear (premier)
• National Geographic– Wild Justice (premier)
• Nick– George Lopez marathon until 6 am
• TBS– The Wizard of Oz (Instapeat)
• Turner Classic– The Criminal
• Toon– Delocated

10:30 pm

• TNT– Michael Clayton (Instapeat)

11 pm

• AMC– The Walking Dead (premier Instapeat)
• Discovery– Nitty Gritty (Series Premier Instapeat)
• Lifetime– Deck the Halls (so you can see both the 2005 and 2006 versions tonight)
• MTV– Drumline
• Sci Fi– Dragon Wars

Midnight 11/29

• Discovery– Dirty Jobs (premier Instapeat)
• Food– Chopped (premier Instapeat)
• FX– The Family Stone
• History– Ice Road Truckers
• National Geographic– Wild Justice (premier Instapeat)
• Spike– Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi
• Turner Classic– Where East is East (shhhh, Lon Chaney Sr.)
• Toon– Childrens Hospital, Frankenhole
• USA– Semi-Pro

12:30 am

• TBS– Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

1 am

• AMC– The Walking Dead (premier Instapeat)
• Discovery– Brew Masters (premier Instapeat)
• Food– Iron Chef America (premier Instapeat)
• History– Ice Road Truckers (premier Instapeat)
• National Geographic– Wild Justice (premier Instapeat)
• Sci Fi– Fire & Ice
• TLC– Sarah Palin’s Alaska (Episode 2, clubbing a fish)
• TNT– The Client

2 am

• AMC– Predator
• Discovery– Dirty Jobs
• History– Top Gear (premier Instapeat)
• Turner Classic– The Flowers of St. Francis
• TLC– Sarah Palin’s Alaska (Series Premier)
• USA– Stick It

2:30 am

• TBS– Mars Attacks!
• Toon– Childrens Hospital, Frankenhole

3 am

• Food– Challenge (premier Instapeat)
• Sci Fi– Dragon Wars
• TV Land– Three’s Company marathon until 6 am

3:30 am

• ESPN– College Throwball, Boston College at Syracuse (repeat)
• Turner Classic– The Friends of Eddie Coyle
• TNT– Runaway Jury
• Toon– Delocated

4 am

• ESPN2– College Throwball, Michigan State at Penn State (repeat)

4:30 am

• AMC– Three Stooges marathon until 6 am

6 am

• Turner Classic– Dames

N. Korea preps missiles amid U.S. war games

Pyongyang warns of ‘merciless’ assault if further provoked as joint naval drills begin

msnbc.com news services

YEONPYEONG ISLAND, South Korea – The sound of new artillery fire from North Korea just hours after the U.S. and South Korea launched a round of war games in Korean waters sent residents and journalists on a front-line island scrambling for cover Sunday.

None of the rounds landed on Yeonpyeong Island, military officials said, but South Korea’s Defense Ministry later ordered journalists off the island.

Don’t let us down: UN climate change talks in Cancun

As world leaders meet in Mexico, people in poor countries fear little will be done

By Jonathan Owen and Matt Chorley  Sunday, 28 November 2010

As government ministers from more than 190 countries gather today in the Mexican city of Cancun for the start of talks aimed at minimising the impact of climate change, the need for a deal could scarcely be more pressing. The stakes are high, the expectations are low.

There is scant sign of the dramatic cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases needed to stop global warming exceeding 2C and devastating vast areas of the planet..

USA

F.B.I. Says Oregon Suspect Planned ‘Grand’ Attack



By COLIN MINER, LIZ ROBBINS and ERIK ECKHOLM

Published: November 27, 2010

PORTLAND, Ore. – A Somali-born teenager who thought he was detonating a car bomb at a packed Christmas tree-lighting ceremony downtown here was arrested by the authorities on Friday night after federal agents said that they had spent nearly six months setting up a sting operation.

The bomb, which was in a van parked off Pioneer Courthouse Square, was a fake – planted by F.B.I. agents as part of the elaborate sting – but “the threat was very real,” Arthur Balizan, the F.B.I.’s special agent in charge in Oregon, said in a statement released by the Department of Justice. An estimated 10,000 people were at the ceremony on Friday night, the Portland police said.

U.S. strategy for treating troops wounded in Afghanistan, Iraq: Keep them moving



By David Brown

Washington Post Staff Writer  

AT BAGRAM AIR BASE, AFGHANISTAN Only the head and feet of Sgt. Diego Solorzano are visible outside his camouflage blanket and below the skyline of medical devices keeping him alive.

Clamped to his litter is an over-the-legs shelf. On it are three vacuum canisters putting gentle suction on wounds in Solorzano’s thighs and abdomen, two IV pumps delivering drugs to his veins, a ventilator breathing for him, and a monitor recording his pulse, EKG rhythm and blood pressure.

Europe

Which domino will be the next to fall in the eurozone?

Margareta Pagano, Mark Leftly and Laura Chesters answer all your questions about what the Irish bailout will mean for UK banks and whether the euro could be in danger

Sunday, 28 November 2010

In the beginning, in 1951, was the European Coal and Steel Community, which begat the European Economic Community, which begat the European Union, and which led, in 1999, to what seemed at the time the promised land of the eurozone. Here, for the 11 participating countries (five more have been added since then), was an apparent world of centrally subsidised milk and honey, where they would share a single currency, and benefit from the economies of scale. And, lo, the milk and honey flowed.

Moldova seeks to end stalemate  

Moldovans vote while deadlock over the appointment of a new president continues to lock the country in an impasse.

Last Modified: 28 Nov 2010  

Moldovans are voting in a parliamentary election as Europe’s poorest country seeks to end a political stalemate that has left it without a full-time president for more than a year.

The four-party liberal coalition that has ruled the former Soviet state since June 2009 has been unable to find the necessary parliament majority to elect a new head of state.

With 20 political parties and 19 independent candidates contesting this Sunday’s parliamentary poll, the country’s third in 18 months, analysts have warned that the impasse might not be broken.

“There is no guarantee that the elections will offer a way out of the political crisis,” Anatol Taranu, a political analyst, told the AFP news agency.

Middle East

Egypt’s discredited elections blighted by shadow of police violence  

As Egypt goes to the polls today, allegations are multiplying of political torture and killings by a security service beyond the control of the courts

Jack Shenker in Alexandria

The Observer, Sunday 28 November 2010  

The Mahmoudia canal wends its way through some of Alexandria’s poorest quarters before eventually reaching the middle-class suburb of Somoha, where elegant blocks of flats abut the water’s edge and a rickety old footbridge connects one bank to the other.

It was here that 19-year-old Ahmed Shaaban’s body was found floating among the reeds, battered and bruised. The police say he drowned himself deliberately, though it is difficult to see how – the channel is so shallow it barely reaches one’s knees.

Yemen’s tragic tide of trafficked humanity  

The poorest Arab state is the target of criminal people-smuggling

By Maryrose Fison Sunday, 28 November 2010

There is a tide of death and misery that washes up almost daily on the shores of Yemen. This is the Arab world’s poorest nation, a land whose lawlessness has made it a fiefdom of al-Qa’ida, and the launch pad for the recent attempt to bring down a plane over the US. It is also at the centre of a vast people-smuggling industry.

Nearly 80,000 were trafficked by criminal gangs last year. There would have been more, but some of the human cargo die en route. Treated no better than consignments of contraband freight, they perish on the hazardous sea crossing from the Horn of Africa.

Asia

Monsoon gives pledge on minimum wage for Indian women

Retailer says that thousands of women workers will receive minimum legal pay within 12 months  

Gethin Chamberlain in Panjim

The Observer, Sunday 28 November 2010

The retailer Monsoon has said it will ensure that thousands of women workers in India will receive the minimum legal wage within 12 months.

The company pledged to tackle the issue of illegally low payments to women who stitch its goods after the issue was highlighted in the Observer last week. In a statement on its website, the company confirmed that the women – who currently receive about 21p an hour for their intricate hand stitching – would be paid the legal minimum wage within 12 months.

The statement added: “Supply chains are complex, particularly where home working is involved, and it requires considerable effort to ensure that payments made to our suppliers reach the workers involved in the production of our products.”.”

North Korea’s undercover journalists reveal misery of life in dictatorship

With its ruthless dictator, network of forced labour camps and iron grip of its ruling party, North Korea is the last country one might expect to see a middle-aged woman berating a policeman for demanding a bribe.

By Julian Ryall in Tokyo 12:01AM GMT 28 Nov 2010

But extraordinary video images smuggled out of North Korea, combined with reports of graffiti and posters critical of the regime, indicate a growing willingness among a previously cowed public to speak out and demand change.

Such dissent would once have been unthinkable in the reclusive state, but now hunger and plummeting living standards are now triggering demands for freedom – something that no North Korean has ever experienced.

Evidence of the rising tide of discontent has been captured on film by a small group of “citizen journalists”, who newsgather at great personal risk to themselves. They then carry the footage across the heavily guarded border into China.

Africa

Gadaffi’s ‘cultural’ tours to Libya for Italian models



Nov 28 2010 07:18

Maria M, aged 28, declined to give her full name, but allowed the Observer to examine her account of a lavish trip to the Libyan desert in October after she was recruited by the Rome-based agency Hostessweb. In her diary Maria tells of an eccentric week-long tour for which she and 19 other young women were reportedly each paid €3 000.

Six such “cultural” visits to Libya by agency recruits have been organised since Gadaffi visited Rome in 2009. The next is scheduled for next month. On one visit Gadaffi tried to marry off one of his guests to his nephew

Diamond warfare

Kurotwi takes Mpofu to court to demand gems

By ZOLI MANGENA and HARARE CORRESPONDENT  

Kurotwi, who recently accused the minister of soliciting bribes, last week took Mpofu – along with state-owned entities the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), Marange Resources, Minerals Marketing Corporation of (MMCZ) and Canadile Miners, half-owned by government – to court accusing them of clandestinely grabbing and selling diamonds worth more than $80-million without involving him in violation of their contract.

Kurotwi is involved in a mining venture with the government.

Latin America

Haiti presidential election gains in drama

The vote had seemed an obscure piece of theater foisted by the world on a country reeling from a catastrophic earthquake, a near-miss from a hurricane, and an ongoing deadly cholera epidemic. No more.

By Joe Mozingo, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Port-au-Prince, Haiti – In the final hours of a chaotic presidential campaign in a country that needs no more drama this year, candidate Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly sent out a “breaking news” announcement: He had survived an assassination attempt by a member of the nation’s leading party.

His campaign called a news conference in the capital Saturday, and Martelly’s cousin – the manager of a hotel immortalized by Graham Greene as a place where you expect to be greeted by “a maniac butler, with a bat dangling from the chandelier” – gave his account of the shooting.

Ignoring Asia A Blog

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Union Drops Health Coverage for Workers’ Children

One of the largest union-administered health-insurance funds in New York is dropping coverage for the children of more than 30,000 low-wage home attendants, union officials said. The union blamed financial problems it said were caused by the state’s health department and new national health-insurance requirements.

Just squeezed out.

The union fund faced a “dramatic shortfall” between what employers contributed to the fund and the premiums charged by its insurance provider, Fidelis Care, according to Mitra Behroozi, executive director of benefit and pension funds for 1199SEIU. The union fund pools contributions from several home-care agencies and then buys insurance from Fidelis.

“In addition, new federal health-care reform legislation requires plans with dependent coverage to expand that coverage up to age 26,” Behroozi wrote in a letter to members Oct. 22. “Our limited resources are already stretched as far as possible, and meeting this new requirement would be financially impossible.”

And the hits just keep on coming.  

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Bluefin tuna gets scant relief at fisheries meet

by Marlowe Hood, AFP

1 hr 22 mins ago

2 Deadly violence, fear of fraud jolt vote in troubled Haiti

by Clarens Renois, AFP

1 hr 6 mins ago

3 Leading Haiti candidates are study in contrasts

by Clarens Renois, AFP

Fri Nov 26, 5:04 pm ET

4 Irish in mass protest against cuts to seal bailout

by Loic Vennin, AFP

1 hr 16 mins ago

5 World braces for WikiLeaks flood of US cables

by Shaun Tandon, AFP

Sat Nov 27, 11:32 am ET

6 PM says Spain ready to ‘accelerate’ economic reforms

AFP

2 hrs 35 mins ago

7 New Zealand slam Wales in rugby

by Julian Guyer, AFP

27 mins ago

8 ‘Extraordinary’ Games close with China dominant

by Martin Parry, AFP

Sat Nov 27, 12:25 pm ET

9 England face battle to save Ashes opener

by Robert Smith, AFP

Sat Nov 27, 4:32 am ET

10 Families say goodbye at site of New Zealand mine disaster

by Marty Melville, AFP

Sat Nov 27, 1:50 am ET

11 Europe set to approve bailout for Ireland

By Peter Graff and Lorraine Turner, Reuters

4 mins ago

12 Haiti rally gunfire stirs tensions on eve of vote

By Pascal Fletcher, Reuters

58 mins ago

13 Where do I vote? Much confusion clouds Haiti polls

By Pascal Fletcher, Reuters

Fri Nov 26, 4:33 pm ET

14 Deal on Ireland’s euro85B bailout could come Sunday

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK and DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press

1 hr 39 mins ago

15 Suicide bombers kill 12 at Afghan police HQ

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY, Associated Press

Sat Nov 27, 1:00 pm ET

16 Troops buck historical trend by saying gays OK

By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press

1 hr 46 mins ago

17 One scientist’s hobby: recreating the ice age

By ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press

1 hr 45 mins ago

18 Through the past, darkly: The ’60s at 50, blurred

By TED ANTHONY, AP National Writer

1 hr 30 mins ago

19 Broncos, coach fined for taping of 49ers’ practice

By ARNIE STAPLETON, AP Pro Football Writer

1 hr 34 mins ago

20 Qantas A380 returns to air after engine blowout

By ROHAN SULLIVAN, Associated Press

Sat Nov 27, 7:10 am ET

21 Global crises overshadow Obama’s economic message

By JULIE PACE, Associated Press

Sat Nov 27, 1:34 pm ET

22 Nevada stuns No. 3 Boise State 34-31 in overtime

By TIM DAHLBERG, AP Sports Writer

Sat Nov 27, 7:19 am ET

23 How Congress’ tax-cut decision may affect economy

By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer

30 mins ago

Extending the Tax Cuts IS NOT A STIMULUS!  People already have that money.  THINGS WILL NOT GET BETTER!

24 Black Friday retail sales edge up 0.3 percent

Associated Press

24 mins ago

Pitiful.  All those breathless stories about how good things were for retailers this year were LIES!  Check the body of this lying beat sweetening puff piece.

25 Shiite deal gives militants new Afghan access

By KATHY GANNON, Associated Press

Sat Nov 27, 7:18 am ET

26 Rio cops, troops preparing to invade gang haven

By JULIANA BARBASSA, Associated Press

24 mins ago

27 US briefs allies about next WikiLeaks release

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press

Fri Nov 26, 11:29 pm ET

28 Sweet success: Fannie May back after bankruptcy

By CARYN ROUSSEAU, Associated Press

45 mins ago

Not what you were expecting.

29 Marines most resistant to openly gay troops

By JULIE WATSON, Associated Press

Sat Nov 27, 3:44 am ET

30 Debt turmoil, contagion fears sweep Europe

By BARRY HATTON, Associated Press

Fri Nov 26, 10:44 pm ET

31 DeLay’s conviction starts lengthy appeals process

RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press

Fri Nov 26, 5:14 pm ET

32 Backlash feared as some in GOP push social issues

By JOHN HANNA, Associated Press

Fri Nov 26, 3:06 pm ET

It was announced at Daily Kos on Friday that a good blog friend and a courageous spirit, exmearden, has died of complications from cardiac angiosarcoma in a Seattle hospital at age 52. Her daughters were at her bedside.

Through the veil of tears, the Wheel turns

May the Goddess guide her on her journey to the Summerlands. May her family and her many friends find Peace.

Blessed Be

There are two beautiful tributes to her posted at Daily Kos where she was a front page contributor, one from Meteor Blades and today’s from Laurence Lewis (Turkana) a fellow Portlaner.