I just discovered this site that tracks all of the major layoffs in the tech industry and thought many people here might be interested in checking it out. It tracks the company, what country the layoffs are in, when it was reported, and a link to the news site that reported it.

http://www.techcrunch.com/layoffs /


Unisys: 1,300
Western Digital: 2,500
Sony: 8,000
AT&T Part 2: 2,001
AT&T Part 1: 9,999
Adobe Systems: 600
Sun Microsystems: 5,000
BT: 9,999
Motorola: 3,000
Xerox: 3,000
Dell: 8,900

The list goes on and on and on...

http://www.hnn.us/articles/56152.html

John McCain is running one of the most divisive, negative, and dishonorable presidential campaigns in modern history. By spreading the Big Lie that Barack Obama is a "terrorist sympathizer" who is not from the "real" America, McCain is fanning the flames of latent racism and xenophobia. He is doing everything in his power to divide and conquer the country. His robo-call smears and his surrogates' McCarthyite attacks against his Democratic opponent are strange ways to put "Country First." McCain wants to be president so badly he will do anything: Adopt the extreme social positions of James Dobson; put Karl Rove's Swift Boaters on the payroll; appoint a Christian Nationalist as his VP to stir up the faithful into a froth; and launch a racially-tinged class war against anyone who thinks the government might be able to do something positive for the working middle class.

Millions of Americans are reeling from record home foreclosures, rising unemployment, and shrinking retirement accounts and John McCain -- who married into a $100 million fortune and doesn't even know how many houses he owns -- is going around the country accusing Obama of being a "socialist" and ridiculing the idea of "spreading the wealth around." He promises to continue the Republican class war of recent years. McCain has shown that his real "base" consists of millionaires, billionaires, and huge corporations. Why else would he be still proposing, even after the epic failure of laissez-faire capitalism, more "trickle down" tax cuts to the wealthiest corporations and individuals along with more deregulation?

Why McCain can't run on the issues...

"In recent days I have set before the American people an energy plan, the Lexington Project -- named for the town where Americans asserted their independence once before. And let it begin today with this commitment: In a world of hostile and unstable suppliers of oil, this nation will achieve strategic independence by 2025."

John McCain, June 25, 2008


Actual voting record:
http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.p...

How he votes when he decides to show up for work:

NO: Energy Policy Act of 2005, 07/29/2005
NO: Reduction in Dependence on Foreign Oil 06/16/2005 (Description: To improve the energy security of the United States and reduce dependence on foreign oil imports by 40 percent by 2025.)
NO: Environmental Effects Caused by Ethanol Amendment 06/14/2005

McCain couldn't be bothered to vote on the most recent bills...

Didn't vote: Alternative Energy Tax Incentives, 06/17/2008
Didn't vote: Amendment on Certain Energy-Related Programs, Including the Development of Oil Shale and Offshore Natural Gas, 03/13/2008
Didn't vote: Energy Act of 2007, 12/13/2007
Didn't vote: Offshore Drilling in Virginia, 06/14/2007
Didn't vote: Clean Energy Achievement Criteria, 06/14/2007

http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/11/a...

The U.S. military does not have a tradition of abandoning its own soldiers to foreign militias, or of taking orders from foreign governments. No commander-in-chief who actually walks the walk, rather than swaggering the swagger, would acquiesce to such a thing. The soldier appears to be of Iraqi descent who is married to an Iraqi woman. Who authorized abandoning him to the enemy? Who is really giving the orders to the U.S. military in Iraq? These are real questions about honor and sacrifice and a war that is now careening out of any control. They are not phony questions drummed up by a partisan media machine to appeal to emotions to maintain power.

And where, by the way, is McCain on this? Silent on Cheney's "no-brainer" on waterboarding. Silent recently on Iraq. But vocal - oh, how vocal - on Kerry. It tells you something about what has happened to him. And to America.

I encourage everyone here to watch this short video and then pass it along to the women and girls in your lives. The concept of "beauty" is extremely distorted today and this video will show you why:


http://campaignforrealbeauty.com /

and much kudos to Dove for this campaign.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/09/...

(AP) A store surveillance video captured footage of two small children sneaking behind display cases to steal thousands of dollars in jewelry, apparently on instructions from their mother and grandmother.

Bedford police made the video public this week and said Wednesday that they believe they are close to making arrests. They started getting tips minutes after the video first aired on local television.

"We're fairly certain ... they are a family working together," Detective Matt Fleming said. "Can you believe a grandmother, mother and children?"

The video, taken Aug. 2 at a store called the Consignment Gallery, shows one woman, possibly the children's mother, directing them to pocket certain items. An older woman, believed to be the children's grandmother, stuffs items down her shirt.

In 2000 I considered myself moderate and although my beliefs haven't changed since then, I am now labeled as extreme. This tells me that the so called center has changed dramatically over the past six years. Where is it? What does it look like? How is it defined?

Better yet, is there a center? The ruling party has taken such extreme measures on a number of issues that I don't know what the concept of "center" means anymore. The center no longer has anything to do with fiscal responsibility. It has nothing to do with accountability. So what is it? Where is it? How do I get there and why should I?

Abby is only 6 yrs old and yesterday I fought back tears 5 times when she pre-boarded the plane and traveled to St. Louis by herself for the first time to visit Grandma and Papa. She'll be gone for 12 days. The longest I've ever been away from her was for 3 days and that 3rd day was pure hell for me. Abby, on the other hand was very excited and couldn't get on that plane fast enough.

I know I'll start going crazy in a few days but for now but I have to be honest with you and say that this has been the most relaxing Sunday I've experienced in 6 years. I woke up on my own. I didn't watch one single cartoon. The house has been very quiet. I don't have share snuggle time with my husband. We can get up and do whatever we want whenever we want. We have no idea what to do though so we haven't done anything, but it's nice knowing we could.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/I...

BAGHDAD, 30 July (IRIN) - He isn't a criminal, but just the sight of a police officer terrifies 14-year-old Omar.

The boy was released last month from an Iraqi prison, after being detained there for more than seven months. "They arrested me because they said I was a suspect after a car bomb exploded in a road near my home and resulted in the killing of an American," Omar explains. He happened to be near the explosion and was arrested along with adult Iraqis suspected of the attack.

Omar was one of 450 detainees who were let out of the two Iraqi and US-run prisons on 27 June, under a national reconciliation plan aimed at bringing insurgents into the political process and ending the bloodshed in Iraq.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...

Waiting around Beirut with bags packed and fingers crossed, U.S. citizens derided the embassy for busy phone lines, an exasperating lack of information, and gnawing uncertainty over when and whether they will get out. Hundreds were expected to be shipped to Cyprus Tuesday, but how long the full evacuation will take remains uncertain.

"I had heard it might take a week, two weeks. You hear so many things," said Pamela Pattie, a 65-year-old professor. "Why in the world aren't we getting it together?"

The frustration has been intensified by news that other countries have already pulled many citizens out of Lebanon, efficiently and free of cost. A ferry chartered by the French government carried some 800 French citizens and several dozen Americans to Cyprus Monday, for example.

Other nations have packed their citizens into rented tour buses and spirited them over the mountains to Syria. But the State Department has warned Americans against traveling to Syria.

Wish I was a bit more surprised over this but I'm not.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060717/ap_on_...

WASHINGTON - Women who consult with pregnancy resource centers often get misleading information about the health risks associated with having an abortion, according to a report issued Monday by Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee.

Congressional aides, posing as pregnant 17-year-olds, called 25 pregnancy centers that have received some federal funding over the past five years.

The aides were routinely told of increased risk for cancer, infertility and stress disorders, said the report, which was prepared for Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif

The Forgotten War...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...

The situation is dire. The Taliban offensive in the south and the counteroffensive by British, Canadian and U.S. troops under NATO has escalated into a full-scale war, with a dozen attacks every day and 700 lives lost since mid-May. Most Afghans are angry with the United States and the West for ignoring the alleged sanctuary provided to the Taliban by Pakistan, and with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for apparently supporting Karzai and the Taliban at the same time.

Papering over the cracks between Pakistan and Afghanistan, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to do in her recent visit to the region, is clearly not enough. The charges and suspicions on both sides have to be addressed. Ordinary Afghans say the Taliban virus is spreading. The Taliban have been reported just 25 miles from Kabul, and they have attacked in the north and the west -- hundreds of miles from their main bases in the south. According to the United Nations, every single day somewhere in Afghanistan a girls' school is burned down or a female teacher killed by the Taliban.

....

After reading this, I Googled to discover that the British are deploying 1,000 more troops to Afghanistan. By the way, a bomb killed 8 female students at a Herat University today...it's assumed that the bomber doesn't particularly care for educated women.

For more detailed information, visit http://www.dnc.org/agenda.html

1. Honest Leadership & Open Government
We will end the Republican culture of corruption & restore a government as good as the people it serves.

2. Real Security
We will protect Americans at home and lead the world by telling the truth to our troops, our citizens and our allies.

3. Energy Independence
We will create a cleaner and stronger America by reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

4. Economic Prosperity & Educational Excellence
We will create jobs that will stay in America by restoring opportunity and driving innovation.

5. A Health Care System that Works for Everyone
We will join 36 other industrialized nations by making sure everyone has access to affordable health care.

6. Retirement Security
We will ensure that a retirement with dignity is the right and expectation of every single American.


What are your thoughts on this? Do you agree/disagree with any of the points listed? Is this a good platform? Is it leaving anything out in your opinion?

As for my opinion, I think the DNC should make sure election fraud is included on the first point labeled "Honest Leadership & Open Government". Aside from that, I think this is a pretty solid message but since this is DU, I know many of you will disagree.

I'm emailing the DNC today to say they need a print out flyer on their website with this information. If they have one already, I haven't been able to find it.

A man died and went to heaven. As he stood in front of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him.

He asked, "What are all those clocks?"

St. Peter answered, "Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone on Earth has a Lie-Clock.

Every time you lie the hands on your clock will move."

"Oh," said the man, "whose clock is that?"

"That's Mother Teresa's. The hands have never moved, indicating that she never told a lie."

"Incredible," said the man. "And whose clock is that one?"

St. Peter responded, "That's Abraham Lincoln's clock. The hands

have moved twice, telling us that Abe told only two lies in his entire life."

"Where's President Bush's clock?" asked the man.

"Bush's clock is in Jesus' office.

He's using it as a ceiling fan.

What a sweet solution to such a horrible situation...


ARLINGTON, Va. - Spec. Maxwell Ramsey made small kissing sounds as he tried to coax Wylie, a muscular black Percheron horse, over to the platform where the soldier stood. He swung the metal and plastic limb that is his new left leg over Wylie's back and sat down in the saddle.

"Relax your leg. Take a deep breath. Remember you are sitting on a big old cushion," Mary Jo Beckman, a therapeutic riding instructor, said to Ramsey as he and Wylie headed out into a dusty yard at Fort Myer.

The black and white horses that usually pull caissons during military funerals at neighboring Arlington National Cemetery are helping soldiers such as Ramsey in their long struggle to learn to walk again, to regain strength and to believe in their new limbs.

"It gives me the confidence to know that I lost an arm and a leg but not the ability to do certain things," 1st Lt. Ryan Kules, 25, a Tempe, Ariz., native who was injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq in November, said Friday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060603/ap_on_... ;_ylt=AuGVEgjjtOTZHdBZpIeOYjFvzwcF;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-