Weather or whether, Sherlock...

Extreme Weather:

 

And more pictures.

The year in pictures. One, two and three.

 How to Occupy Populism.

The reason why corporations are dangerous without regulations?  Psychopaths are in power.

 Reviewers really liked the BBC's second season of Sherlock.

So much joy

Gays finally able to get married.

So much sorrow. Norway.

So many lies.

So much stupidity.

So much fraud.

So much of everything.

I think the Mayans messed up

And it should be 2011 that the world ends. Or at least unravels. Or idiots take over....

Supermoon!

Radiation from Japan reaches California... just a little bit.

The 'small government' Republicans would like to make the IRS the uterus police.

The NRA goes off half-cocked.

The reason the neocons were begging Obama to attack Libya. Wait for it.....Surprise!! Oil.

Washington DC doesn't give a fuck about the jobless.

Ann Coulter declares that radiation is good for you... which explains everything about her.

Happy New Year!

May next year not be as horrible as some are projecting... and may we survive whatever the Corporatocracy thinks up...

How can we miss you if you don't leave?

Iraq is preparing for a giant party in a Baghdad park and a special holiday as US troops approach their deadline to quit cities and towns.

American troops are due to withdraw to bases by Tuesday, which has been declared National Sovereignty Day and is a public holiday in Iraq.

The party is to begin shortly in Baghdad's Zawra Park, with poets and musicians due to entertain the crowd.

All US troops are scheduled to leave the country by the end of 2011.

Combat operations across Iraq are expected to end by September 2010.

But we'll be leaving just a few advisers there:

Recent evidence suggests that although the Iraqi military has made enormous progress, it is still dependent on small teams of American advisers who can rein in overly aggressive Iraqi commanders, call in U.S. airstrikes and help coordinate basic supplies such as food, rifle-cleaning kits and even printer cartridges.

The advisers could remain on the ground in Iraq long after most U.S. combat troops have left. Col. John Nagl, who resigned last month as commander of the U.S. Army's school for military advisers, says they are "the key to our exit strategy in Iraq."

Oh well... it's a start....

The door is open....

BAGHDAD – Iraq is willing to have the U.S. withdraw all its troops and assume security for the country before the end of 2011, the departure date agreed to by former President George W. Bush, the spokesman of the Iraqi prime minister said.

Spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh made the comment Tuesday, a day before President Barack Obama and his senior commanders were to meet in Washington to discuss the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama promised during the campaign to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office. The new president said in his inaugural address Tuesday that he would "begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people."

The government-owned newspaper Al-Sabah reported Wednesday that Iraqi authorities have drafted contingency plans in case Obama orders a "sudden" withdrawal of all forces and not just combat troops.

Al-Dabbagh told Associated Press Television News that Iraqis had been worried about a quick U.S. departure.

But with the emphasis on a responsible withdrawal, al-Dabbagh said the Iraqi government was willing for the U.S. to leave "even before the end of 2011." The Bush administration agreed in a security agreement signed in November to remove all U.S. troops by the end of 2011.

Alrighty, then! What's keeping us?