Every Breath You Take; Every Move You Make

You are being watched right now. Social networking sites greatly aid the government in tracking down tax cheats and other delinquents.  Mediaite asks if the CIA is monitoring your Facebook and Twitter pages.

…a lot of people volunteer a LOT of information about themselves, albeit at 140 characters or less. Also, watch out who you friend! Apparently there are undercover agents in disguise roaming unsuspecting Facebookers.

As the New York Times said over the weekend:

The government is increasingly monitoring Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites for tax delinquents, copyright infringers and political protesters…In some cases, the …

Did You Forget Who Died This Year?

We all know Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Walter Cronkite are gone. But did you remember that Bea Arthur, David Carradine, Ricardo Montalban, and Dom DeLuise also left us in 2009?

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Lieberman Says He’ll Vote Against Health Bill

Senator Joe Lieberman met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Sunday and told him he’d vote against the current Senate health care bill.  Lieberman says he’ll oppose any bill that has a public option or expands Medicare.

“Leadership was definitely a bit surprised with the lines being drawn in the sand the way they were,” said the source. “We expected that he would say critical things about [the bill]. But he is not even giving us a chance to get it scored.”

The pledge by Lieberman to oppose the bill represents a potentially huge setback for reform proponents, …

Senate Passes $1.1 Trillion Spending Bill, $650 Billion Of It Mandatory

Democrats overcame a Republican filibuster attempt and passed a spending bill that is $650 billion in mandatory funding, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and $447 billion in operating budgets. Among the provisions:

-Includes an improved binding arbitration process to challenge the decision by General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC to close more than 2,000 dealerships.

-Renews a federal loan guarantee program for steel companies.

-Permits detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be transferred to the U.S. for trial, but not to be released.

-Calls for federal worker pay increases averaging 2 per cent.

Other highlights:…

Copenhagen Basics

World leaders join the rest of the summiteers in Copenhagen this week to work on plans to limit global warming and prevent catastrophic climate change.  Here are the goals:

-Agreeing how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases each industrialized country should be allowed to produce and how much such major developing countries as China and India should aim at restraining the growth in their emissions.

-Agreeing how much wealthy countries should pay poor nations to help them protect themselves from climate change and to shift away from burning coal or oil, which contribute to climate change. These …

Lawrence Summers: “The Recession Is Over”

President Obama’s top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, Director of the National Economic Council, appeared on “This Week” and pronoucned the end of the recession.

Summers: First GDP goes up. That’s happened.  Then hours that are worked by workers who already have jobs go up.  That’s starting to happen. Then employment starts to happen.  We got very close to that this year–this month–with only 11,000 jobs lost, and then unemployment starts to come down.

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Eliot Spitzer’s Former Call Girl Now NY Post Advice Columnist

Ashley Dupre, the woman whose trysts with former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer escorted him out of office, has gone from being the New York Post‘s front-page story to its advice columnist. Who better to slip on a pair of librarian-type glasses in order to answer questions like:

How do I know if my daughter may be getting into trouble? — Meredith, 40, Queens

or:

My girlfriend says she doesn’t like porn. Is she lying? — David K, 36, TriBeCa

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Tony Blair Says He’d Have Justified Invading Iraq, Even Without Claiming WMD’s

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, one of President Bush’s staunchest allies in the Iraq war, says he’d have justified the invasion of Iraq, even if the basis were not WMD’s.

“I would still have thought it right to remove him. I mean, obviously you would have had to use and deploy different arguments about the nature of the threat,” Blair told the BBC in an interview to be broadcast this morning.

Blair was immediately denounced by critics who accused him of dragging Britain into the war under false pretenses.

Hans Blix, who led the United Nations …

Houston Elects Openly Gay Mayor

City Controller Annise Parker is the winner in what had become a contentious race for mayor of Houston, with anti-gay forces attacking Parker based on her sexuality. Parker defeated former city attorney Gene Locke, 53-47%.

Throughout the campaign, Ms. Parker tried to avoid making an issue of her sexual orientation and emphasized her experience in overseeing the city’s finances. But she began her career as an advocate for gay rights in the 1980s, and it was lost on no one in Houston, a city of 2.2 million people, that her election would mark a milestone for gay men and …

AP Study Shows Climategate Does NOT Disprove Climate Claims

An Associated Press investigation shows that “Climategate” does not show that the science of global warming was faked. What it does show is that some scientists had their doubts when they went public about climate change, but that the science behind the warming of the earth as caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions is real (h/t The Political Carnival).  What was also shown is scientists at the University of East Angola’s Climate Research Unit (CRU) tried to keep their work away from those who disagreed with them.

The e-mails show that several mainstream scientists repeatedly suggested keeping their …

US District Judge Says Government Defunding Acorn May Be Unconstitutional

US District Judge Nina Gershon has granted a preliminary injunction against the federal government, saying withholding funds from ACORN violates the Constitution’s Bills of Attainder.   What this means is, it’s illegal to target a specific group or person for punishment.

The Court’s ruling stated, “The plaintiffs have raised a fundamental issue of separation of powers. They have been singled out by Congress for punishment that directly and immediately affects their ability to continue to obtain federal funding, in the absence of any judicial, or administrative, process adjudicating guilt… The public will not suffer harm by allowing the plaintiffs …