Reason Morning Links: Military Recruits Up, Mussolini the Spy, RNC Website Misfires

•? U.S. military reports best recruiting stats in 35 years.

• Senate to vote on measure that would require the Census to exclude illegal immigrants.

• Mussolini was a British spy.

• House Financial Services Committee starts measure overhaul of financial regulation.

• RNC flubs launch of its new website.

• French government has 17-member committee spend 18 months researching a French-appropriate term for cloud computing.

Comments

[Johnny Longtorso]

Longtorso morning links:

Awesome chart comparing education spending w/ test scorea

How bad is the global temperature data?
...The world's climate data has become increasingly sparse with a big dropoff around 1990. There was also a tenfold increase in missing months around the same time. Stations (90% in the United States which has the Cadillac data system) are poor to very poorly sited and not properly adjusted for urbanization. Numerous peer review papers suggest an exaggeration of the warming by 30%, 50% or even more. The station dropout can be clearly seen in the two maps below with the number of station going from over 6000 to just 1079 from April 1978 to April 2008....

[Abdul]

RNC flubs launch of its new website.

That Al Gore is a sneaky SOB.

[Mike Laursen]

While he does have the root password for the Internet, it could have been anyone smart enough to guess that that password is "Daisy."

[Tulpa]

I'm not sure whether the uptick in military voluntarism is due to renewed patriotism among young adults, and desire to serve our Peace Prize recipient in chief, or because it's tougher than ever for 18yo's to find a job.

Actually I am sure which one it is, but I'm being polite.

[John Tagliaferro]

Thank you for ceasing your racism.

Nothing says Peace Prize like a bigger military. Glad to see the president is coming around to that view.

[The Angry Optimist]

I know you're just reflexively militaristic, but do you think a 3 million person, 650-billion dollar institution is really necessary to defend this country?

The military is too big, and is too often deferred to on important political decisions.

[John Tagliaferro]

No.

I see you hate America.

[John Tagliaferro]

No, it should be bigger.

FTFM

[The Angry Optimist]

because...? for what purpose?

Because spending 21% of America's wealth isn't enough already?

[John Tagliaferro]

Just because. That's all.

Have a lovely day.

[@]

Be thankful it's still voluntary.

[Jonas]

Sort of voluntary. As Tulpa hints at, the govt is effectively making it involuntary for some by fucking up the economy enough that people have no choice but to join if they want to make a living.

It's sort of a back-door approach to mandatory service, the way I see things.

[Kolohe]

To be pedantic, it's only 4-5% of "America's Wealth" but 20ish% of the federal budget. (and over half the discretionary portion IIRC)

[Skid Marx]

Last night on "the ED show" Carl Levin was asked if Obama's deployment of 13,000 more troops to Afghanistan was an indication that Obama was escalating the war. Levin said no because it was determined back in December and January that these troops would be deployed, so in reality, it was Bush who was adding more troops, not Obama. So I guess Obama isn't the Commander in Chief yet. Can you get more impotant than this little bitch of a president?

[Minister of Obamapologies]

Obama inherited that deployment!

[Kolohe]

Actually neither one of them is correct. These are basically support troops that were part of the authorization that Obama made at the begining of his term. It was started under Bush but he deferred the final decision until Obama finally took office.

[huangzhixian67]

=== http://www.icfshop.com ===Our commitment,customer is God.

Welcome to --- http://www.icfshop.com ---- We are specialized

in offering all kinds of top brand shoes, jeans, t-shirts,

jacket, jerseys, watches, purses, handbags, belts, wallets ,

sunglasses and hats etc.
Accept paypal ,All the prices list on our website include

shipping cost,insurance,tax etc..

$50 UGG BOOT, $30 nike shoes,air jordan shoes,nike shox

shoes,gucci shoes
$33 true religion jeans, ed hardy jeans,coogi

jeans,affliction jeans, Laguna Beach Jeans
$16 ed hardy T-shirts,Coogi T-shirts,Christian Audigier T-

shirts,Gucci T-shirts,Polo T-shirts.
$30 coach handbag,gucci handbag,prada handbag,chanel

handbag,$15sunglasses,$9 caps.

I wish you a happy shopping and happy every day!

[brotherben]

Totally off topic. I don't know why, but about 2 months ago I got a real hinky vibe about today. Today's date and the time 9:23 a.m. central stuck in my head. I wrote it down and have had a sense of dread ever since. Or maybe I'm just a loon. I don't know.

[Citizen Nothing]

I'm voting for (lovable) loon. Or maybe the Higgs Boson is going to show up and bitch slap us.

[John Tagliaferro]

I vote yea as well.

[smartass sob]

We're all gonna remember you said that, brother ben. 😉

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

Mussolini was a British spy.

He was also a biofuel nut.

[Rob]

"The military is too big"

Not if you're on your 4th or 5th deployment, it's not.

[brotherben]

What? Did you think you would get that great pay and bennies to spend your career sitting home cleaning your gun?

[Skid Marx]

Less than 4 minutes...

[The Angry Optimist]

The problem is the fact that there are deployments, then.

[Chuck Beeno]

Well somebody has to ccome along and make sense of it all!

RT
http://www.true-privacy.net.tc

[Brett]

"It's a good thing when you get another email from Todd saying, 'It's down again.'"

Can Michael Steele just go away?

[BakedPenguin]

Mussolini was a spy for the Brits? Was he still a communist at that point, or had he developed his fascist theories yet?

I'm thinking he was probably still a commie, because the Brits were pretty godd at inviting communists into their "Intelligence" services.

[brotherben]

Nostradomus I ain't. I hate it when the voices are wrong.

[FrBunny]

We just don't know it happened yet. You get at least a week before you have to go back and claim we all misunderstood your prediction in the first place.

[brotherben]

When I am wrong, I admit it. (withe the exception of my vote for Obama of course 😉

[John Tagliaferro]

Somehow I knew this was all your fault.

[Kolohe]

You're not seeing a guy in a rabbit suit, are you?

[brotherben]

Nope, he charges extra for that. Just assless chaps and a ball gag for me thanks.

[Not a Libertarian]

From the Wall Street Journal story on French:

"A "start-up" company is referred to as "jeune pousse," or "young shoot" (the term pousse is used for vegetable sprouts)"

Heartened to see no french bashing (so far) but assuredly someone here can do something with a jeune pousse

[JB]

Stupid frogs.

[Rhywun]

Senate to vote on measure that would require the Census to exclude illegal immigrants.

I refuse to believe there's an illegal immigrant anywhere in America stupid enough to answer "Yes" to the question "Are you here illegally?"

[T]

I refuse to believe there's an illegal immigrant anywhere in America stupid enough to answer "Yes" to the question "Are you here illegally?"

No, they answer "Si".

I'll be here until Thursday, folks. Tip your waitress.

[Mike M.]

My unlinked news of the day: winter seems to be coming early this year, as there are record and near-record cold temperatures out the wazoo through the midwest, the west, and the north.

So how is global warming working out these days?