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News, analysis, commentary, social trends, culture, politics, government, books, movies, travel, cycling and other stuff
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T H E T E R R Y R E P O R T
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The former head of the International Monetary Fund who was accused of sexual assault in New York, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has been arrested again in France. The question is whether he knew prostitutes who were used in an orgy were, in fact, prostitutes being paid for by corporate funds. Thus, this gem of a quote from his lawyer:
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“He could easily not have known, because as you can imagine, at these kinds of parties you’re not always dressed, and I challenge you to distinguish a naked prostitute from any other naked woman,” Mr. Leclerc told a French radio station, Europe 1, in December.
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SANTORUM COMES OUT AGAINST SEX
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Rick Santorum continues to throw the advantage in this year’s presidential election toward Obama as he, Santorum, makes inflammatory statements that surely appeal to some small section of the Republican party, but can’t be easily explained to the rest of the country. This is the normal pattern for Santorum, a devoted Catholic who is highly “conservative” on social and religious issues. The TerryReport will have more on this in coming days. Meanwhile, here is a clip from a column in Tuesday’s (2.21.12) Washington Post. The column is by Eugene Robinson, who generally favors Democrats.
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Rick Santorum could take Republicans down with him
Republicans haven’t quite thrown away what they see as a winnable presidential election, at least not yet. But they’re trying their best.
In GOP circles, there is more than a whiff of panic in the air. Unemployment is still painfully high, Americans remain dissatisfied with the country’s direction, even the most favorable polls show President Obama’s approval at barely 50 percent and yet there is a sense that the Republicans’ odds of winning back the White House grow longer day by day.
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At times, it seems as if Santorum is running to become theologian in chief.
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Go to the WashPost here:
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From CNN.com:
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There is something called agenda control," said one unaffiliated GOP strategist. "Santorum does not have it. Instead of talking about the economy, he's been going down rabbit holes for the last four or five days."
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COMING WEDNESDAY OF THIS WEEK: A SUGGESTION FOR REPUBLICANS ON HOW THEY CAN SOLVE THEIR RADCIALISM PROBLEM AND WIN BACK THE WHITE HOUSE.
I hate to do it, but things have gotten so bad and they won’t listen to any outsiders anyway.
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The FBI arrested a would be suicide bomber on his way to the US Capitol. If the early reports prove correct, this appears to yet another case of a lone person deciding to try to carry out an attack. The man was arrested near the Labor Department, a big white building that sits near the base of Capitol Hill and just across the street from the East Building of the National Gallery of Art. He had parked his car and was walking near the Charlie Palmer Steak House. Crossing the street in front of that restaurant would have put him on Capitol Hill itself.
The FBI had been tracking this guy for a long time and while he thought he had a suicide bomb pack around his body, both the bombs and the gun he was given were useless. There have been a good many of these cases where the suspect tries to carry out an attack and winds up making contact with law enforcement instead.
The good news is that another minor (but potentially deadly) attack has been stopped. The bad news? Sooner or later, one of these guys will get through. In contrast with the 9-11, 2001, plot, most of the rest of the efforts at bombings have been brought to us by the amateur hour. People have been plotting, but they don’t really know how to do it, so they reach out and, guess what!, someone sets them with law enforcement.
It is only a matter of time and circumstance until one of these types of plots succeeds. It’s like grains of sand slipping through a net: you can’t catch all of them. We are fortunate that those “inspired” to carry out attacks on their own or in a small adhoc group have not known what they are doing and wind up catching themselves, more or less. This luck cannot hold forever.
We need to be mentally and emotionally prepared for an attack that succeeds. If and when it does, it will not be a sign that the terrorism age is here to stay or that we can expect a multitude of similar attacks. It will just mean, as stated, that no matter how hard they work, no matter how dedicated, law enforcement can’t catch everyone. If we are really lucky, the current wave of terrorism will play itself out before a random attack is successful. Given the US continued involvement in the middle-east, and the growing problems with Iran, this seems unlikely.
Doug Terry, 2.17.12
From CNN.COM
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The smart phone is threatening to kill off a host of consumer devices, including GPS receivers, handheld FM radios, music players and, most of all, entry level (and just above) digital cameras. Why carry even a small camera when your phone can take all the pictures you want, including video?
The answer for some consumer electronics companies is to push back with better cameras at the lower end of the scale. Here is a clip from a BusinessWeek article with a link at the bottom.
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FROM BUSINESSWEEK: “The strategy is aimed at reversing a crippling slide in entry level digital cameras, the industry’s largest market segment, and to carve out a profitable niche that can compete effectively against the expanding smartphone market. To combat improved camera technology in smartphones from Apple Inc., Nokia Oyj and others, manufacturers at the show opening in Las Vegas on Jan. 10 will, among other things, introduce models that beam photos directly to TVs and computers.
All manufacturers, including Samsung, need to focus on the value proposition of a camera and what differentiates it versus a smartphone, Reid Sullivan, a senior vice president of Samsung, said in an interview. The Suwon, South Korea-based company will introduce eight models that wirelessly transmit images to other devices.” LINK
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IS MICHELE OBAMA BEING TREATED UNFAIRLY BY HER CRITICS, ESPECIALLY THOSE IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY?
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A clip from the same article:
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Every successful Democrat after 1972, from Carter to Clinton to Obama, has had at least one foot in the party’s center. A Gingrich rout in November might have the same effect on Republicans. it might drive their party back toward the center, and toward mental health, in 2016. But if Romney wins the nomination and loses the election, the party will continue down into the same dark hole where Palin, Bachmann, Perry, Cain, Santorum, and now Gingrich all lurk. So a sane Republican has a terrible dilemma, today in Florida and beyond. That’s what happens when political parties are captured by a minority of fervent believers.
Read more click: : http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/01/the-republicans-1972.html#ixzz1l0HudJbD
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Maryland sunset reflected in car window with bike wheel inside the car.
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JON CARAMANICA writing in the NY Times about the state of rock music in 2012 |
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From the NY Times, an article about how the Lauder cosmetics family, and specifically Ronald S. Lauder, use tax breaks and loopholes to reduce the tax burden while amassing billion of dollars in assets.
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The tax burden on the nation’s super elite has steadily declined in recent decades, according to a sliver of data released annually by the I.R.S. The effective federal income tax rate for the 400 wealthiest taxpayers, representing the top 0.000258 percent, fell from about 30 percent in 1995 to 18 percent in 2008, the most recent data available.
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Water fountain joy in Charleston, South Carolina
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copyright, 2012, Doug Terry
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The TerryReport is edited by Doug Terry, a former reporter in Washington, DC, for NPR who has appeared on more than 100 network affiliated television stations across the US as a Washington correspondent. He has also reported for the CBC in Canada, Israeli (English) Radio, The North Carolina News Network. Book reviews by Terry have appeared in the Phildelphia Inquirer and he his reporting work for radio has appeared in two books of collections of distinctive reporting. Terry began his career in television news at WFAA-TV, Dallas, Texas, one of the leading local/regional news stations in the United States.
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