Red, White & Blue are not colors that run.

Monday, October 26, 2009

nuclear reactor manufacturers have begun developing small nuclear power systems for both developed and emerging countries,

The new reactor, the Toshiba 4S, is designed to minimise the need for monitoring and maintenance, with an automatic shutdown function to ensure safety in case of problems, the newspaper said.

Toshiba plans to market the reactor first in the United States, while foreseeing demand from emerging countries in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe as well as in Africa, it said.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.314f8f63df41800c448cd89e0a88dd31.331&show_article=1#

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn't absolutely control,"

One of the reasons we did so many of the David Plouffe videos was not just for our supporters, but also because it was a way for us to get our message out without having to actually talk to reporters," said Dunn, referring to Plouffe, who was Obama's chief campaign manager.

"We just put that out there and made them write what Plouffe had said as opposed to Plouffe doing an interview with a reporter. So it was very much we controlled it as opposed to the press controlled it," Dunn said.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=113347#

Saturday, October 10, 2009

a star who wanted to be an actor

a legendary hedonist who wanted to be taken seriously as a writer and a man who deliberately placed himself in the heart of two revolutions.



Page last updated at 07:54 GMT, Saturday, 10 October 2009 08:54 UK
E-mail this to a friend
Printable version
Errol Flynn's Cuban adventures

Errol Flynn was inspired by the Cuban revolution to write and make films
By Patrick Humphries Presenter, Robin Hood and the Cuban Revolutionaries
Newspaper articles written by film star Errol Flynn documenting his last years spent in Cuba with Fidel Castro's rebels have been unearthed in a university library.
Mention the name of Errol Flynn, and an image of a larger-than-life, swashbuckling screen hero comes to mind. Or the sly grin of a sexual athlete who sparked the saying: "In like Flynn."
But towards the end of his life, Flynn was at the epicentre of Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution.
I think he was a hero-worshipper, and I think Errol thought that Castro was a good guy trying to free the country for everyday citizens
Beverly Aadland, former girlfriend
It was a surprise to discover the famous actor moonlighted as a newspaper correspondent who wrote a number of articles about his adventures.
His features "Me and Castro" and "I fought with Castro" for the New-York Journal American remained unread for 50 years, buried in the archives of the University Of Texas at Austin's Center for American History.
I have always been a fan of Flynn's films and believe he was a far better actor than he gave himself credit for.
Errol Flynn was cinema's biggest star from the mid-30s until the late 1940s, thanks to his debut in Captain Blood and a series of swashbuckling epics such as The Sea Hawk, The Dawn Patrol and The Adventures Of Robin Hood.
But even I was unprepared to find the man who was a screen idol as Robin Hood to a generation of movie-goers in the company of revolutionary pin-ups Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. But, ever the hero, he admired those who fought on others' behalf.

Flynn wrote that he spent five days with Fidel Castro in the mountains
I was surprised to find there was a serious side to Flynn - he sympathised with the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War, and set off for Spain "to follow in Hemingway's footsteps" in February 1937.
While in Madrid, Flynn condemned the fascist General Franco. He was shelled, survived an aerial attack and narrowly avoided being machine-gunned by an over-enthusiastic Republican.
Errol's daughter Rory Flynn said the public image of her father did not accurately reflect the man who wrote two novels, an autobiography and newspaper reports.
'Swashbuckling hedonist'
She said: "It is said that he was a swashbuckling hedonist, but my father was a serious man.
"He thought about things, he wrote books, he wrote poems and he wrote documentaries, this is not just something that came about.
"He wrote for the Hearst (news)papers. I think underneath it all, he was a journalist."
Flynn had been a regular visitor to Batista's Cuba, where the dictator welcomed distinguished tourists, drawn to the island for its brothels and legalised gambling.
By the time he returned to the country in late 1958 with his teenage girlfriend Beverly Aadland, a lifetime of hard-living had taken its toll, and roles were hard to find - although ironically, during the dog days of his career, Flynn gave two of his best-received performances - The Sun Also Rises and The Roots Of Heaven.
I feel that the citizens will know who you are... and it will cheer them to know that someone from the United States, whom they perhaps have seen on the screen, is interested enough to come and see them
Fidel Castro to Errol Flynn
Flynn claimed Castro invited him to Cuba at the very dawn of the revolution.
Beverly Aadland said: "Errol had talked to Hearst newspapers in New York about interviewing Castro, and through some contacts in the 'Havana Hilton', went up into the Sierra Mistra mountains to talk to Fidel."

Beverly was installed at the capital's prestigious Commodore Hotel, while Flynn went off to the mountains with the rebels, spending five days with Castro and interviewing him.

In his articles, he described how Fidel Castro told him that "no American knew him or his brother Raul better than I did" and how he gave Cuba's leader lessons in public speaking.
Castro is quoted as saying to Flynn: "I feel that the citizens will know who you are... and it will cheer them to know that someone from the United States, whom they perhaps have seen on the screen, is interested enough to come and see them."

Flynn also reportedly had a brief encounter with Che Guevara, who did not recognise the bloated and faded film star when they met.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8298582.stm

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Investors Against Genocide is trying to dissuade Americans from investing in companies

"I needed something to do," she says.

First Haskell joined a book group, whose members had spent years reading and discussing Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time." "But it wasn't enough for me," she says.

Then a friend took her along to a talk about the situation in Sudan's wartorn Darfur region. "I knew from the newspapers what was happening there, but that evening I realized I didn't know anything," she recalls.

Now, two years later, Haskell is at a shareholder meeting in Boston. She steps up to take the cordless microphone, and asks a question. "Why isn't Exxon, an American company, allowed to do business in Sudan, while Fidelity is allowed to invest in funds that have shares in companies involved with the Sudanese government, like Petrochina?" She has summed up the problem in a nutshell.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,649943,00.html

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Sen. Carl Levin's announcement today that he opposes sending more U.S. combat troops to Afghanistan.

President Obama's Afghan policy faces even greater challenges in Congress, where there is growing group of Democrats who aren't just opposed to sending more troops but would like to reduce the amount already there.

Levin's position is more nuanced. The Michigan Democrat said he opposes more combat troops but is open to sending more U.S. trainers.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Afghanistan/afghanistan-war-faces-battle-congress-democrats-pushing-withdrawal/story?id=8547211

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

“You ultimately get to the question: Is it worth it?”

Boeing acknowledges that the problems have sorely tested the patience of suppliers and customers, and damaged its credibility. Already, 60 orders have been canceled, partly because of the delay.

Even after the cancellations, the Dreamliner has more advance orders from airlines — about 850 — than any other commercial plane in history. Part of what gives Boeing an edge is that its main rival, Airbus, does not expect to complete its first composite plane until 2013.
At an average sales price that aviation analysts believe to be about $125 million each, those 850 Dreamliners could turn into $110 billion.

The appeal to the airlines is clear: With half of its structure made of plastics reinforced with carbon fiber, a composite that is both lighter and stronger than aluminum, and more efficient engines, the 787 could cut fuel costs by up to 20 percent, Boeing says. That could enable it to fly greater distances, opening more routes for point-to-point service and lessening the need for passengers to change planes at hubs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/business/06boeing.html

Monday, September 07, 2009

White House czar resigned over the weekend, President Obama announced the appointment of another one Monday.

"What you see with President Obama is this reliance on czars," GOP strategist Kevin Madden said. "And I think there are probably even some corridors of power within the administration that probably didn't like the idea that you have czars that are encroaching on their policy portfolios."

David Gergen, a CNN contributor and former aide to past presidents, said the czar controversy has given Republicans an opening to question the administration's decisions.

"Now with President Obama, we have a number of people who answer to the president but not to Congress," he said. "When the Congress looks at it and sees over 30 people with czar titles, it naturally begins to worry that a lot of authority has been taken away and stripped of the Cabinet."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/07/obama.czars/

Dirt diggers, mud slinngers looking for garbage.

With Glenn Beck getting credit for Van Jones resigning, Keith Olbermann is now asking Daily Kos readers to find out anything they can about the Fox host and others associated with him.

Tuesday we will expand this to the television audience and have a dedicated email address to accept leads, tips, contacts, on Beck, his radio producer [Stu] Burguiere, and the chief of his tv enablers, [Roger] Ailes (even though Ailes' power was desperately undercut when he failed to pull off his phony "truce" push).

Olbermann said this action will help "save this nation from the Oligarhy of The Stupid." Since going up yesterday, Olbermann's diary entry had over 1,400 responses by this morning.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0909/Olbermann_wants_dirt_on_Beck_Ailes.html

you don't use your majorities, you lose your majorities

"There's a lot of discontent out there and when that's the case the party in power pretty inevitably gets the blame," said Dean Debnam of Public Policy Polling, a private firm.

Democrats now are expected to lose seats in the House of Representatives in 2010, though not enough to surrender control, analysts say. Democrats currently have 256 seats in the House versus 178 for the Republicans with one independent.

Democrats had been expected to increase their majority in the U.S. Senate but may lose a few seats. Democrats reached 60 this year, giving them the number needed to override Republican procedural hurdles.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090906/pl_nm/us_usa_congress_preview