You can vote by clicking the logo or clicking here.

This is the fourth year in a row we have been selected as finalists in the Weblog Awards, making us the Susan Lucci of Sunday night. Thanks to Rob, Bruce and Gregg for everything. Thank you to everyone who voted in the nominating process. Also, thanks to Kevin Aylward and those who work on these awards sifting through more than 5,000 nominations in 49 categories.

The voting begins tonight and closes on Monday January 12, 2009 at 10:00 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which is 5:00 p.m. (EST) and 2:00 p.m. (PST).

Vote early and often, Chicago-style politics is all the rage these days!

What is Pundit Review Radio?

Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 8-10 pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.

One of Boston’s best blogs is Martin Solomon’s excellent Solomonia. He returned to Pundit Review Radio to discuss the situation in Gaza and the local protests in support of Hamas. Martin has some great photos and video from the Boston rally this weekend.

What is Pundit Review Radio?

Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 8-10 pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.

Bruce McQuain from QandO joined us once again for Someone You Should Know, our weekly tribute to the troops. Bruce is a veteran of the Vietnam war and spent 28 years in the U.S. Army. He brings a perspective and understanding to these stories that we could never match.

Tonight Bruce told us how 10 Special Foces soldiers earned Silver Stars in a single battle.

About 100 Special Forces and Afghan soldiers each were carrying more than 60 pounds of equipment when they jumped from helicopters onto icy, jagged rocks and waist-deep running water in 30-degree temperatures on April 6 to assault a terrorist stronghold in Afghanistan.

Seven hours later, the members of Special Forces A-Team 3336 would have encountered a tenacious enemy in the Shok Valley and earned 10 Silver Stars, the Army’s third highest award for combat valor. The award of a single Silver Star is considered a significant combat decoration. The 12-man A-team is the basic fighting unit of Special Forces.

…“If you saw it in a movie, you’d shake your head and say it couldn’t happen,” Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland Jr., the commander of U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, said in his remarks at the ceremony.

The Someone You Should Know radio collaboration began as an extension of Matt Burden’s series at Blackfive. Bruce McQuain from QandO does an incredible job with the series every week.

What is Pundit Review Radio?

Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 8-10 pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.

Legendary jazz trumpet master Freddie Hubbard has passed away at age 70.

A towering figure in jazz circles, Mr. Hubbard played on hundreds of recordings in a career that began in 1958, the year he arrived in New York from his hometown of Indianapolis, where he had studied at the Arthur Jordan Conservatory of Music and with the Indianapolis Symphony.

Soon he had hooked up with such jazz legends as Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley, and Coltrane.

“I met Trane at a jam session at Count Basie’s in Harlem in 1958,” he told the jazz magazine Down Beat in 1995. “He said, ‘Why don’t you come over and let’s try and practice a little bit together.’ I almost went crazy. I mean, here is a 20-year-old kid practicing with John Coltrane. He helped me out a lot, and we worked several jobs together.”

… within a couple of years he would develop a style all his own, one that would influence generations of musicians, including Wynton Marsalis.

“He influenced all the trumpet players that came after him,” Marsalis told The Associated Press earlier this year. “Certainly I listened to him a lot. . . . We all listened to him. He has a big sound and a great sense of rhythm and time, and really, the hallmark of his playing is an exuberance. His playing is exuberant.”

Here he is playing the song I Remember Clifford, a tribute to another amazing trumpet pioneer, the one and only Clifford Brown.

When the loony left gets its humanitarian groove on, they can bring a ray of sunshine to almost any kind of disaster, man made or natural.

Former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is back in the news for all the wrong reasons.

“A boat carrying international peace activists, including former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, and medical supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip sailed back into a Lebanese port on Tuesday after being turned back and damaged by the Israeli navy, organizers of the trip said.”

Hot Air says that McKinney “gets a warm Israeli welcome” and notes her long history of being on the wrong side of history.

This incident is the latest in a series of regrettable, celebrity seafaring humanitarian rescue mission disasters. Who could forget Sean Penn’s New Orleans adventure?

PHOTO CAPTION: Efforts by Hollywood actor Sean Penn to aid New Orleans victims stranded by Hurricane Katrina foundered badly overnight, when the boat he was piloting to launch a rescue attempt sprang a leak.

Mr Penn had planned to rescue children waylaid by Katrina’s flood waters, but apparently forgot to plug a hole in the bottom of the vessel, which began taking water within seconds of its launch.

I woke up at 4am and watched BBC and CNN International coverage of the war in Gaza. I saw Benjamin Netanyahu destroy a female BBC anchor by turning her moral equivalency back at her. Netanyahu basically told her that blaming Israel for civilian causalities is morally wrong because it is Hamas that is using civilians in the Gaza Strip as “human shields” by placing its people and weapons in heavily populated areas. He said the sole purpose of Hamas is to inflict such civilian casualties on Israeli’s every day via rocket attacks. They celebrate civilian deaths while Israel regrets them and does all it can to avoid them. It was great television.

Netanyahu said something similar later in the morning to Reuters, another media audience who needs to hear it,

“I think the international community is right to be concerned about the death of civilians. This is precisely the point. The Hamas is deliberately targeting civilians, deliberately hiding behind civilians. That’s a double war crime in itself, and very different from us. We have tried to minimise civilian casualties. When they fire into Ashdod, one of our biggest seaport cities, or into Ashkelon, another city, they hope to get civilian casualties, they hope to get a kindergarten, they hope to get a school. When we go after the terrorists themselves, we hope not to have any incidental civilian casualties.”

I was reminded of something we did on Pundit Review Radio two and a half years ago when the international media bias against Israel was once again on full display. Rob put a montage together of anti-Israel bias from the BBC and CNN International and tied it together with a riveting live report by blogger and photojournalist Dave Bender. Dave joined us to discuss this incident and you can listen to that here.

I said at the time, “As Dave and the residents of Haifa know, Israeli citizens are under attack. Too bad the BBC and CNN can’t come to term with this. This is a great piece of citizen journalism by Dave Bender, and when put side-by-side with the international media’s work, it is really telling.”

From what I could tell watching TV this morning, nothing much has changed.

One of our favorite guests on Pundit Review Radio is retired Lt. Col. Ralph Peters. He had a great column in the New York Post yesterday,

DAMNED IF THEY DO BUT ISRAEL’S DEAD IF THEY DON’T

DEAD Jews aren’t news, but killing terrorists outrages global activists. On Saturday, Israel struck back powerfully against its tormentors. Now Israel’s the villain. Again.

How long will it be until the UN General Assembly passes a resolution creating an international Holocaust Appreciation Day?

… We may sympathize with the average Palestinian family, exploited by generations of corrupt leaders and now caught in yet another round of violence. But let us never forget that Israel hasn’t fired thousands of blind rockets into Palestinian cities, that Israeli suicide bombers don’t attack Arab restaurants and bus stops, and that Israel seeks to avoid harming civilians - while Hamas seeks to kill as many civilians as possible.

In a world where there are no good answers, Israel just answered as best it could. The world’s response? “How dare Jews defend themselves.”

Humanity doesn’t progress. It just changes clothes.

Read the whole piece.

Some really cool video from Gaza at the Israeli Defense Forces You Tube channel. Yes, the IDF has a You Tube channel.

UPDATE: Seems like You Tube is screwing with the IDF account already. Shocker, I know. Noah Pollack at Commentary has more, and he is asking the right questions,

The rank double-standard that YouTube has applied to Israel is disturbing. YouTube hosts all manner of similar footage — much of it far more gory than the grainy infrared images posted by the IDF — of U.S. air strikes. Why is YouTube capitulating to those who do not wish for Israel to be able to tell its side of the story?

This is not the first time we have mentioned You Tube censorship, remember F-You Tube?

Although the 11-win Patriots missed the playoffs, there is some positive local sports news. Manny Ramirez is losing millions every day as the free agent market doesn’t exactly work out as he had planned.

Here is ESPN’s Buster Olney yesterday saying that the market for Manny just isn’t there and that he’ll probably end up with the Dodgers,

Today, ESPN is reporting that the Dodgers may have moved on from the disgraced, aging, one-dimensional malcontent,

So long Manny? Dodgers call Dunn, source says

Apparently, the Dodgers aren’t going to sit around all winter, waiting for Manny Ramirez to beg to come back. They now have Adam Dunn on their shopping list.

The Dodgers contacted Dunn’s agent, Greg Genske, over the holidays, according to an executive of a team interested in Dunn. And that creates an intriguing option for both parties.

Sweet, sweet Schadenfreude.

The more “you know” Caroline Kennedy, the more ridiculous it is that she thinks she deserves a senate seat.

Nothing says Merry Christmas like robbing the taxpayers blind via pension abuses. Two absolutely outrageous stories this week that demonstrate the power of the Hack-Progressive Alliance.

The first is Sen. Jim Marzilli, the disgraced, indicted perv. This self-described “socialist” allegedly crudely demeaned and molested women who just happened not to be his wife. In a just world, this creep would be worried about simply holding on to his pension. This being Massachusetts, Marzilli is asking for HIS PENSION TO BE DOUBLED. If you think that takes balls, wait until you hear his reasoning,

Globe: Ex-senator wants double pension; Marzilli resigned amid criminal case

J. James Marzilli Jr., the former state senator from Arlington who resigned in disgrace after being charged with harassing or attempting to grope women in downtown Lowell, wants the state to nearly double his pension.

In a request submitted to the state Board of Retirement, Marzilli, a 50-year-old liberal Democrat with 23 years of local and state service, cites a state law that allows elected officials under age 55 with more than 20 years of creditable service to boost their pension if they fail to win reelection.

He failed to win re-election because he had been arrested for assaulting multiple women. A self-described socialist representing Arlington is about the closest thing one can think of to lifetime job security. Despite this, this creep allegedly assaulted multiple women like a filthy pervert. AND HE IS ASKING FOR HIS PENSION TO BE DOUBLED BECAUSE HE WASN’T RE-ELECTED. Why wouldn’t every hack in the legislature run right out and start a massive crime spree in order to get their juicy pensions further juiced?

The second whopper of the week occours over at Massport. I know, you’re shocked, shocked!

Mining vacation gold at Massport
Benefit is used to increase salaries, pensions of workers

In an arrangement that is extremely rare throughout the rest of state and local government, officials at the Port Authority of Massachusetts can take advantage of a little-known benefit to add as much as 6 percent to their paychecks by “selling back” up to three weeks of unused vacation time.

About 300 Massport employees cash in some vacation time each year, including both management and union workers, costing the agency about $750,000 annually. And it is a benefit popular among those contemplating retirement, because by boosting their income, they also increase their pensions.

In the case of its highest-paid administrator, executive director Thomas Kinton Jr., the perk was worth $15,875 this year. As a longtime employee, he gets five weeks of vacation. This year, he took two and sold back the rest. That payment came on top of Kinton’s $295,000 annual salary.

Anyone reading this who works in the DPS (dreaded private sector) who enjoys this perk? I’ve been toiling away in the DPS for 20 years and have never come across such a policy. When it comes to vacataion time, in the real world, it’s use it or lose it. If you’re lucky, maybe you can roll some days over if they are unused. Go ahead, go to your DPS boss and ask for cash instead. See what they say.

A spokeswoman for Massport, defended the benefit with this gem,

We operate as a business and we compete for the best talent with those in the private industry. And to compete with the private industry in attracting and retaining talented employees, we strive to provide a competitive benefit package. If someone chooses not to take vacation time they have rightfully earned, we believe they should be compensated for it.

Massport, the home of the infamous nationwide job search that typically ends in the selection of a niece or nephew of a state rep. Please Massport, don’t pee on our leg and tell the taxpayers it’s raining. Obviously, anyone with fifteen minutes of DPS experience knows this benefit, and the excuse for it, is complete and utter BS.

Fred Foulkes, a Boston University professor and director of the university’s Human Resources Policy Institute says,

“It’s an abuse - it’s not right and the public deserves better. You would be hard-pressed to find any examples like it anywhere in the workplace. It’s easy to keep track of lower-level folks, but at higher levels, there often isn’t adequate record-keeping. Nobody asks a top manager for a doctor’s note when he’s out sick, for example. There’s a high level of trust. You assume a lot. And that’s risky.”

Michael Widmer, head of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation said,

“This is an extremely unusual and lucrative arrangement, not found in either the public or private sectors,” Widmer said. Patrick administration officials declined to comment.

The problems in Massachusetts are not all Big Dig related. There is a generational culture of corruption in this state that has been festering for decades. It is in the agencies like Massport and the Pike and up and down Beacon Hill. Reform in Massachusetts has to start with the pension system. Yes, holding down taxes and tolls is important. But nothing will begin to correct the systemic abuses that are bankrupting this state like serious, draconian pension reform.

Here’s one recommendation. Every state worker who starts their job after Jan. 1, 2009 gets a nice 401K plan from Fidelity, like the rest of us. No more lifetime healthcare, no more pay for “unused” vacations, no more pensions, period!

Here’s to an awful 2009 for the Hack-Progressive Alliance. Cheers!

Now that the Yankees have signed Mark Teixeira, it looks pretty unlikely that they will make a move for Manny Ramirez. Manny was reportedly expecting a three year, $75 million offer any day now from the Evil Empire,

A source told New York Daily News that Ramirez is telling friends an offer is imminent.

Still more bad news for the disgraced, aging, one-dimensional malcontent,

Angels general manager Tony Reagins told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday that the club will not pursue Ramirez. “Manny will not be an Angel,” Reagins said. “

A shrinking market means less leverage and hopefully, less money for Manny, which is all he is about after all. That takes some of the sting out of the Yankees Teixeira signing.

Yesterday’s Toyota Headline: Toyota Expects Its First Loss in 70 Years

Today’s Toyota Headline: Toyota to Change Leader Amid Sales Slump

Rick Waggoner was promoted to CEO at GM in 2000. Seven years later, he led “The largest annual loss in the history of the auto industry.” And that was last year! He is still CEO today.

Hat Tip: Sondra K

A really good article in the Washington Times today about how President Bush and Vice President Cheney have quietly reached out to wounded veterans and their families.

Bush, Cheney comforted troops privately
Met with thousands of war injured, kin out of spotlight

For much of the past seven years, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have waged a clandestine operation inside the White House. It has involved thousands of military personnel, private presidential letters and meetings that were kept off their public calendars or sometimes left the news media in the dark.

Their mission: to comfort the families of soldiers who died fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and to lift the spirits of those wounded in the service of their country.

But the size and scope of Mr. Bush’s and Mr. Cheney’s private endeavors to meet with wounded soliders and families of the fallen far exceed anything that has been witnessed publicly, according to interviews with more than a dozen officials familiar with the effort.

“People say, ‘Why would you do that?’” the president said in an Oval Office interview with The Washington Times on Friday. “And the answer is: This is my duty. The president is commander in chief, but the president is often comforter in chief, as well. It is my duty to be - to try to comfort as best as I humanly can a loved one who is in anguish.”

Mr. Bush, for instance, has sent personal letters to the families of every one of the more than 4,000 troops who have died in the two wars, an enormous personal effort that consumed hours of his time and escaped public notice. The task, along with meeting family members of troops killed in action, has been so wrenching - balancing the anger, grief and pride of families coping with the loss symbolized by a flag-draped coffin - that the president often leaned on his wife, Laura, for emotional support.

Included in the story was this photo of Cheney, working on his fly fishing technique with wounded troops.

GIVING SUPPORT: Vice President Dick Cheney, an avid fly-fisherman, practices his cast with wounded troops from Walter Reed Army Medical Center during one of the half-dozen barbecues he’s hosted at his Naval Observatory home. (White House photo)

I was fortunate enough to get to visit Walter Reed in the spring of 2007 and one of the wounded veterans I met with was Captain Eivind Forseth. I met Capt. Forseth in the occupational therapy area and he expalined the role flyfishing plays in the rehabilitation process,

UPDATE: The WSJ is out with another excellent story along these lines, read the whole thing.

Bruce McQuain from QandO joined us once again for Someone You Should Know, our weekly tribute to the troops. Bruce is a veteran of the Vietnam war and spent 28 years in the U.S. Army. He brings a perspective and understanding to these stories that we could never match.

This week Bruce told us the story of U.S. Marine Lieutenant Andrew Kinard,

Freedom Alliance is an educational-charitable foundation that, among other things, provides college scholarships to the offspring of U.S. military personnel killed in action. Every year, coincident with the Army-Navy Game, the organization presents its “Defender of Freedom Award” to an individual whose character, courage and selfless deeds inspire virtuous service from the rest of us. This year’s recipient, U.S. Marine Lieutenant Andrew Kinard unequivocally meets these criteria.

The Someone You Should Know radio collaboration began as an extension of Matt Burden’s series at Blackfive. Bruce McQuain from QandO does an incredible job with the series every week.

What is Pundit Review Radio?

Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 7-10 pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.

Bruce McQuain from QandO joined us once again for Someone You Should Know, our weekly tribute to the troops. Bruce is a veteran of the Vietnam war and spent 28 years in the U.S. Army. He brings a perspective and understanding to these stories that we could never match.

This week Bruce told us the story of Marines in Afghanistan,

In their previous war with the USSR, the Taliban fought dispirited Russian conscripts. They are discovering that the warriors they’re facing now are nothing like those they fought before. These are volunteers and they’re looking for a fight. They don’t cower, they don’t cut and run, they don’t avoid the enemy; they look for him and when they find him, they kill him. What was supposed to be an ambush turned the hunters into the hunted when the Marine platoon turned the tables on them and counter-attacked. They then maintained the momentum of their attack and defeated the Taliban killing 50 without losing a single Marine. That sort of bravery, that sort of skill and that sort of will to win known as the warrior ethic is why the Marines of 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment are someone you should know.

The Someone You Should Know radio collaboration began as an extension of Matt Burden’s series at Blackfive. Bruce McQuain from QandO does an incredible job with the series every week.

What is Pundit Review Radio?

Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 7-10 pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.

James Pethokoukis is the money and politics blogger for U.S. News & World Report, where he writes the monthly Capital Commerce column. James returned to Pundit Review Radio tonight to discuss his list of The 10 Dopiest Business and Economy Leaders of 2008,

What is Pundit Review Radio?

Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week Kevin and Gregg give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 7-10 pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.

Nothing says Merry Christmas like forcing your underlings to humiliate themselves and do things they probably rather not do.  Below is a video Christmas card form First Round Capital, obviously an early stage VC firm. Their idea of spreading the Christmas cheer is to force their portfolio companies to dance for their supper. You want more funding? You want to be around in six months? Then DANCE bitches!

I can’t decide if this is funny or cruel. What do you think?

Earlier this week, AP science “reporter” Seth Borenstein wrote what should be a career-ending propaganda piece masquerading as a straight news story.

Obama left with little time to curb global warming

WASHINGTON (AP) - When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, global warming was a slow-moving environmental problem that was easy to ignore. Now it is a ticking time bomb that President-elect Barack Obama can’t avoid.

Since Clinton’s inauguration, summer Arctic sea ice has lost the equivalent of Alaska, California and Texas. The 10 hottest years on record have occurred since Clinton’s second inauguration. Global warming is accelerating. Time is close to running out, and Obama knows it.

That is only the intro, it gets worse from there. My friend Bruce McQuain at QandO took exception and highlighted some of Borenstein’s propaganda reporting, including this gem, that global cooling is proof of global warming,

“Ironically, 2008 is on pace to be a slightly cooler year in a steadily rising temperature trend line. Experts say it’s thanks to a La Nina weather variation. While skeptics are already using it as evidence of some kind of cooling trend, it actually illustrates how fast the world is warming.”

Wha? Cool = warm? How does one take AP seriously?

Michael R. Fox, a retired nuclear scientist and chemistry professor from the University of Idaho makes a critical, under-appreciated point about how damaging it can be when activism replaces journalism, especially when it comes from the AP,

There’s very little that’s right about it. And it’s really harmful to the United States because people like this Borenstein working for AP have an enormous impact on everyone, because AP sells their news service to a thousand news outlets. One guy like him can be very destructive and alarming. Yeah it’s freedom of speech, but its dishonest.

Can I get an amen! A geology professor at the University of Oklahoma, David Deming, agrees that Borenstein’s piece is especially awful,

He says global warming is accelerating. Not only is it continuing, it’s accelerating, and whether it’s continuing that was completely beyond the evidence. The mean global temperature, at least as measured by satellite, is now the same as it was in the year 1980. In the last couple of years sea level has stopped rising. Hurricane and cyclone activity in the northern hemisphere is at a 24-year low and sea ice globally is also the same as it was in 1980….Reporters, as I understand reporters, are supposed to report facts. What he’s doing here is he’s writing a polemic and reporting it as fact, and that’s not right. It’s not reporting. It’s propaganda.

Another scientist, James O’Brien, an emeritus professor at Florida State University, a Global Warming supporter, goes on in the article to also slam the AP’s science fiction writer,

“Global climate change is occurring in many places in the world,” O’Brien said. “But everything that’s attributed to global warming, almost none of it is global warming.”

He took issue with the AP article’s assertion that melting Arctic ice will cause global sea levels to rise.

“When the Arctic Ocean ice melts, it never raises sea level because floating ice is floating ice, because it’s displacing water,” O’Brien said. “When the ice melts, sea level actually goes down.

“I call it a fourth grade science experiment. Take a glass, put some ice in it. Put water in it. Mark level where water is. Let it met. After the ice melts, the sea level didn’t go up in your glass of water. It’s called the Archimedes Principle.”

He called sea level changes a “major scare tactic used by the global warming people.”

It sure is. Here is my interview with Chris Horner, author of Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed.

Ed Morrisey at Hot Air has it exactly right,

Unfortunately, that’s been the history of the global-warming cult over the last decade. They accept no challenges, demonize those who question their science, scoff at contradictory data (such as the fact that temperatures have stopped rising), and insist on politicizing their science rather than work from facts. The AP has become the cult’s propaganda arm.

For more coverage of Global Warming Climate Change insanity, click here.

Scientists Discover New Element, the Heaviest Yet Known to Science

Lawrence Livermore Laboratories has discovered the heaviest element yet known to science.

The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete. Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2- 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.

In fact, Governmentium’s mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of morons promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass. When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

Thanks to reader Brian D. for sharing.

This is an unbelievable story.

CNBC: Madoff’s Investors Facing Billions in Potential Losses

Investors scrambled on Friday to assess potential losses from the $50 billion fraud allegedly perpetrated by Bernard Madoff, a day after the arrest of the prominent Wall Street trader.

Prosecutors and regulators accused the 70-year-old former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market of masterminding a Ponzi scheme of epic proportions through a hedge fund he ran…

…Madoff said “there is no innocent explanation’ for his activities, and that he ‘paid investors with money that wasn’t there,” according to the federal complaint. Prosecutors also alleged that Madoff wanted to distribute as much as $300 million to employees, family members and friends before turning himself in.

One of those investors was Swampscott’s Lapin Foundation, via Wicked Local,

The programs of the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation and the Robert I. Lappin 1992 Supporting Foundation are discontinued, effectively immediately. This includes Youth to Israel and Teachers to Israel, the foundations announced in a press release early Friday afternoon, Dec. 12.

The money used to fund the programs of both foundations was invested with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities and all the assets have been frozen by the federal courts.

Madoff was arrested Thursday morning by the FBI and charged with criminal securities fraud by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. Click HERE to read the actual complaint.