Jane Meyer‘s excellent New Yorker article, The Predator War, suggests that the U.S. reliance on drones to carry out overseas assassinations may be quick and efficient, but it’s hardly without consequence.  Sticky moral issues aside, delivering death from above—and beyond—has been taking a toll on the drone pilots safely ensconced at their video feeds thousands of miles away. 

I found it oddly telling that pilots sometimes feel compelled to, “wear flight suits when they operate a drone?

Hey that’s my name up there in pretty red letters ! Sorry for the self-indulgence so early in my tenure, but this here atheist Jew has composed and recorded a Christmas song for the 8 days of Hometapes event and today is my day. Hometapes is the fine and happening Portland-based label that released my 2007 solo debut LP, Neighbor Singing and is due to release my 2nd, Natural Selections some time next year.

 
African Giant Pouched Rats are being trained to detect unexploded landmines in Tanzania. Socyberty says:

The idea occurred to Weegens as he realized that rats were both easy to train and had an excellent sense of smell. Combining these two would, he considered, provide a cheap way to detect unexploded mines and ?

 
It’s a story that is getting surprisingly little national attention: former Mod Squad actress Peggy Lipton has inadvertently found herself at the center of New York’s pension fund scandal. Lipton was the object of the affections of a political operative named Jack Chartier who abused taxpayer supported town cars and other perks of his job in an effort to woo the actress. Chartier has been described in rather unflattering terms in the majority of the articles I’ve read on the matter. (The back story is told here in great detail). But now the scandal is getting deeper.

Tom Robbins write in the Village Voice:

The only victims in the Tiger Woods episode, for instance, are an SUV and the golf star himself, possibly due to a few swings on a nine-iron by his gorgeous wife. Compare that paltry disabled list to the lethal fallout produced after a schlubby late-middle-aged political hack from Queens fell hard for Lipton, the aging but still charming TV starlet. Lovestruck Jack Chartier was chief of staff to the New York state comptroller with influence over billions in state pension funds. The result has been financial scandal history.

Since Chartier, 64, started confessing to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s investigators about how he abused his office in order to better impress Lipton, at least five powerful figures have been forced to plead guilty to crimes involving the pension fund. Those admitting felonies so far include the former leader of the state’s Liberal Party, a Texas hedge-fund manager, a hugely successful investment adviser, and a pension fund broker.

The latest victim is the biggest catch yet: Elliott Broidy, 52, is the former national finance committee chairman of the Republican National Committee and a personal friend of George W. Bush. Broidy was such a generous and prolific giver that he qualified as a “Super Ranger” on Bush’s fundraising team, a designation for those ponying up $300,000-plus. One glittering evening in 2006, Broidy and his wife had Dubya as the guest of honor at their Bel Air mansion where more than $1 million was raised for the Republican cause. Broidy’s wallet was so wide open that Bush named him to the board of the Kennedy Center, placed him on the Homeland Security Advisory Council, and had him to dinner at the White House with another famously randy figure, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

None of those powerful connections, however, were any help once Chartier started singing after having been being nailed on his own transgressions.

The Peggy Lipton Affair Brings Down Another Mogul (Village Voice)

Watch as Bill O’Reilly gets his panties in a twist! This REALLY bugs him. It’s obvious that this got under his skin and really drove him nuts! At approx 2:10 he says something so ridiculous I am surprised he didn’t spontaneously combust from the hypocrisy. Bill, tell us what you really think… And then he pulls out Laura Ingraham to help back him up, and she of course, obliges. It a classic! (Something tells me John Larroquette and Ice-T had a good time with this dialogue!)

From Yahoo News:

Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly lashed out at “Law & Order” franchise creator/executive producer Dick Wolf Thursday night. The bombastic host, upset over how he was recently characterized on the long-running NBC drama, called the “far left” Wolf a “despicable human being” whose show is “out of control.”

Sparking O’Reilly’s ire was an episode of “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” that aired earlier in the week, in which a crazed anti-immigration activist set out to murder the children of illegal immigrants. In one scene, a character named Randall Carver, played by veteran actor John Larroquette, is sitting on a park bench talking to Fin, the detective played by Ice-T. In defending the actions of the man who killed the immigrants?

 
As the proud owner (parent?) of an ultra-cute little Chihuahua mutt myself (he’s half Chihuahua and half cartoon), I read this item from today’s Los Angeles Times Metro desk with tears welling up in my eyes. About 20 to 30 of these CUTE little guys and gals are being dropped off at Los Angeles dog pounds every single day. Call it the “Paris Hilton syndrome” if you like, she—and the Taco Bell commercials—are only partly to blame: It’s really the dog breeders who went way overboard in recent years.

As Maria L. La Ganga reports:

“We need a constant supply of new foster homes, because we have a constant supply of new Chihuahuas,” [Kim Durney, administrative director of Grateful Dogs Rescue] said, calling for a halt to “irresponsible” backyard breeding.

In January, Santa Barbara County will begin an effort aimed in part at such breeders. That’s when a new ordinance will go into effect requiring owners of unaltered dogs to get a special license.

Fourteen months ago, the county staged Adopt-a-Chihuahua Week to find homes for more than 100 of the abandoned breed that had ended up in its three animal shelters.

Each dog came with its own pink carrying case, trimmed in black fake fur.

Look into those soulful little eyes. Can you stand the idea that this sweet little creature probably won’t live into the new year? Feel your heart strings being tugged here? Full disclosure: I am trying to manipulate you. If you can provide a home for one of these sweet, hyperactive li’l critters—trust me, rescued dogs know they’ve been rescued and they love you all the more for it—why not pick up the phone right now, before you change you mind, and adopt?

Kudos to actress Katherine Heigl for her generous support of these defenseless creatures. Heigl’s charity, the Jason Debus Heigl Foundation, paid for 25 Chihuahuas to be airlifted to New Hampshire last week, where all of them found loving homes in a single day. On Saturday, the charity’s mobile adoption center will be at Topanga Feed and Seed, 106 S. Topanga Canyon Blvd., from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Cross posting this from BrandX
Photo: A Chihuahua at the East Valley Animal Care Center in Van Nuys on Dec. 9, 2009. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

The ACLU took a hard swing at the Obama administration today for upholding the Bush administration’s torture policies. Almost a year on into the Obama administration (quite hard to believe), we’re opening more secret prisons and upholding all the torture doctrines that got us into this mess. What next, starting more wars? Oh wait…

“The Bush administration constructed a legal framework for torture,” Jameel Jaffer, Director of ACLU’s National Security Project, said in a conference call with reporters. “Now the Obama administration is constructing a legal framework for impunity.”

While he credited Obama for having disavowed torture under his watch, Jaffer said that “on every front, the administration is actively obstructing accountability by shielding Bush officials from civil liability, criminal investigation and even public scrutiny for their role in authorizing torture.”

“It’s the last month of 2009, and not a single torture victim has had his day in court,” said ACLU Attorney Ben Wizner. “Not a single court in a torture case has ruled on the legality of the Bush administration?

 
Apparently there are too many of these suckers to take out of circulation. From Payvand:

Anti-government activists are not allowed to express themselves in Iranian media, so theses activists have taken their expressions to another high circulation mass-medium, banknotes. The Central Bank of Iran has tried to take these banknotes out of circulation, but there are just too many of them, and gave up. For the activists?

File under “terrifying shit which will keep you up at night for weeks on end.” More Americans believe in the existence of guardian angels than the role of humans in global warming. I’m so glad we have our heads on right as a nation.

More Americans believe in guardian angels than humans’ role in global warming, according to recent polls.

A Pew poll released late last month found that just 36 percent of Americans believe humans are responsible for accelerating global climate change, which scientists say mushroomed after the industrial revolution due to humans’ dependence on carbon-based fuels.

(The Raw Story: More Americans believe in angels than humans’ role in global warming)

 
Another sort of art forgery is being investigated by British police, but there’s a twist: someone is impersonating Turner Prize-winning artist Tracey Emin in a mass mailing sent to her neighbors “explaining” her supposed plans for a swimming pool to be constructed inside of a building in Spitalfields she acquired in 2008 for ?Ǭ