Hammer...*

Hagel Nomination, Jan 2013.

McCain backing the Bush administration and its neoconservative and Hagel was part of the growing movement of dissent. 

One of McCain's favorite parts of the Bush strategy was the surge, which sent 20,000 additional troops into Iraq [total 130,000].
McCain attempted to re-litigate whether the surge was the right decision, aggressively pressing Hagel on whether he stands by his past statements. He quoted Hagel as saying in 2007 that the surge was the "most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam."

"Were you right?" McCain asked. "Were you correct in your assessment?"
"Well, I would defer to the judgment of history to sort that out," Hagel said.

Hagel added that his comment about the "most dangerous foreign policy blunder" was not just about the surge, but about the overall decision to invade Iraq -- 

A belief he stood by because it took the U.S. focus off Afghanistan.
Nothing much changed since Bush, 
Now is Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Yemen. 

If all you have is a hammer, everything you see looks like a nail.  Just a thought.

Seductress...

 

Maria Butina, who allegedly weaseled her way into the NRA and other political groups to influence US politics, was wrongly portrayed by prosecutors as “some type of Kremlin-trained seductress, or spy novel honeypot character, trading sex for access and power,” according to court papers cited by the Washington Post.

Prosecutors spun the false “Red Sparrow”-style story based on a playful 3-year-old text message exchange between Butina and a longtime male friend.

The friend, who worked in public relations for the Russia-based nonprofit Right to Bear Arms, texted Butina after taking her car in for an annual inspection.

“I don’t know what you owe me for this insurance they put me through the ringer." Butina responded: “Sex. Thank you so much. I have nothing else at all. Not a nickel to my name.”The friend shot back that he’d pass on taking her to bed.

Prosecutors have claimed that the 29-year-old Butina’s romantic relationship with a 56-year-old American political operative was “duplicitous” and that she offered sex to another man “in exchange for a position within a special interest organization.

Aspirin...

The latest studies are some of the largest and longest to test this pennies-a-day blood thinner, low dose aspirin,  in people who don't yet have heart disease or a blood vessel-related problem.

Aspirin did not help prevent first strokes or heart attacks in people at moderate risk for one because they had several health threats such as smoking, high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

Another tested aspirin in people with diabetes, likely to develop or die from heart problems, and found that the modest benefit it gave was offset by a greater risk of serious bleeding.

"If you're healthy, it's probably not worth taking it."

Cancun...

Officials in Mexico discovered eight bodies in multiple locations across Cancun, Mexico

At least one victim had been bound before being shot, while another was  killed while lying in a hammock, the Associated Press reported.
The bodies of a man and a woman were found in an abandoned taxi, and the dismembered bodies of two men were found in a several plastic bags at another spot.

The U.S. State Department issued an updated travel advisory for Mexico.

Prayers...

The New Guard...

Nothing...

How can I fill 24hrs/7 Days a week on a story.

McCain...

Co-Determination...

Through a process called "codetermination," large German companies are required to elect half their board of directors by a vote of their employees, rather than of their shareholders. And it's "now the economic powerhouse of Europe.  

Germany does not have the kind of widespread unemployment that plagues the rest of the continent, but has wage stagnation.   

But similar policies in the United States have borne fruit. Studies of Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), in which employees are encouraged to take an ownership stake in their own firms, find that they increase overall compensation, job satisfaction, productivity and profitability.

"Evidence suggests that combining employee ownership with increased employee participation may generate astounding returns on investment,"  

Giving workers more control over their firms seems to help both them and the companies. Maybe U.S. companies could take the hint.  

Another Round...