Toon: Rudolf The Red State Reindeer

Toon- "Attrition Accomplished"

Ha ha ha- Chuck Asay compares Newt to St. Ronnie

Toon: 'tis the season

China’s growing share of solar market comes at a price

By Steven Mufson, Friday, December 16, 12:21 PM

China was mentioned 59 times when Energy Secretary Steven Chu testified last month before a House subcommittee on the U.S. loan guarantee program for renewable-energy projects.

“Countries like China are playing to win in the solar industry,” Chu said.


“My big thing is that I worry about China,” said Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-Calif.).

“The Chinese are eating our lunch,” said Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.).

Yet if Chinese solar companies are eating our lunch, they’re also choking on it. Growth in global solar manufacturing capacity is outpacing global demand, and prices of solar energy products are plunging. And while U.S. politicians portray Chinese firms as heavily subsidized rivals gobbling up global market share, Chinese solar companies are suffering from some of the same ills afflicting their U.S. competitors.


more

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/chinas-growing-share-of-solar-market-comes-at-a-price/2011/11/21/gIQAhPRWyO_story.html?hpid=z9

Obama says 'no options off table' on Iran

By Peter Nicholas
December 16, 2011, 2:54 p.m.
President Obama can't show enough love for the Jewish vote – er, community.

With his approval rating among Jews down 20 points from his showing in the 2008 election -- and with Republicans eager to exploit Jewish anxieties about Obama's commitment to Israel -- the president isn't passing up many chances these days to proclaim that he's a loyal friend of the Jewish state.

On Friday, he spoke to the Union for Reform Judaism and maintained that his administration has done right by Israel. Under his watch, he said, the U.S. has "secured the most funding for Israel in history." What's more, America has worked with Israel to devise an anti-missile system and is taking "no options off the table" in its effort to deprive Iran of nuclear weapons. "No option off the table" is code for a possible military strike.

Obama got a "rock star reaction," according to a pool report recounting the event.

more
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-jewish-vote-20111216,0,1044028.story

Oh really? Pre-emptve nuclear strike on the table? Full out ground invasion on the table? Maybe he can tell us just how far he is willing to go

Football underdog 'Rudy' sacked for stock fraud

Reuters
5:57 p.m. CST, December 16, 2011

Daniel Ruettiger, the legendary Notre Dame football underdog who inspired the 1993 movie "Rudy," couldn't do an end run around the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The SEC on Friday charged Ruettiger and 12 others with running a stock scam associated with Rudy Nutrition -- a company Ruettiger founded to try to compete against Gatorade in the sports drink market.

The company sold modest amounts of the sports drink "Rudy" with the tagline "Dream Big! Never Quit!" but the company was primarily a pump-and-dump stock scheme that created more than $11 million in illicit profits, the SEC said.

The SEC said Rudy Nutrition, which is no longer in business, provided false and misleading statements to investors.

For example, the company said that "Rudy outsold Gatorade 2 to 1!" in a major U.S. Southwest test, and boasted that the drink outperformed Gatorade and Powerade by 2 to 1 in a blind taste test, the SEC said. Both claims were false, it said.

more
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-football-underdog-rudy-sacked-for-stock-fraud-20111216,0,7813146.story

Friday rant: the future is here edition

By Tom Toles
Why can’t we build a better America? Here we are the richest country in history and WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?? People collecting government help because there are no jobs when at the same time our infrastructure is perpetually crumbling into smaller and smaller particles that will soon be harder to see than the Higgs boson.

Why can’t we fix the crumbles, and then build some NEW infrastructure too? Why not build a transportation infrastructure of the future? We used to talk about building cities of the future, but that was in the past. Flying cars are still impractical for the reason that trying to land one in front of the convenience store would blast grandma and her walker into the shrubbery, but how about gleaming mass transit with lots of trains and stations and escalators that work? Stuff that’s better and more beautiful than the lowest possible bid and the most prosaic functionality! Cities that we would get excited about and want to live in and show off to the world and be proud of?

Because things are not “shovel-ready?” Because we are a poor nation? Because we have no workers who could do this work? COME ON! What is the MATTER with us? You don’t OFTEN GET TO BE the richest country the world has ever known, now do you? And what are we doing with the opportunity? Can’t we at least build some stuff that will be impressive ruins for future archeologists to bother with? Or are we just skipping the glories part, and going straight to the ruins?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/tom-toles/post/friday-rant-the-future-is-here-edition/2011/12/15/gIQAWKgNwO_blog.html

TSA lets rapper keep his weed, leaves note

Rapper Freddie Gibbs got his stash by airport security… kind of.
The baggage screeners at the Denver airport found a half ounce of weed in his luggage and scribbled him the words “C’mon son” on the screening notice.



“The TSA found my weed and let me keep it,” he wrote. “They just left me a note. ‘C’mon Son.’”

Houston rapper Bun B, who’s collaborated with Freddie Gibbs in the past, replied on Twitter, “easy…”

http://blog.sfgate.com/hottopics/2011/12/16/tsa-lets-rapper-keep-his-weed-leaves-note/?tsp=1

Toon: The Trump Debate