Monday, August 2, 2010

Headlines - Monday August 2

Republicans have abandoned their principles and crippled the economy.
 
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Credit card companies dream up new ways to screw you.
 
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Environmental news stories here.
 
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Mario Piperni:
 
Climate change and science vs ideologues and idiots 

A good little article on how climate change got to be the controversial issue it is today.

This analysis of right-wing politics and its impact on science shows how a handful of individuals have managed to obscure the truth on issues that range from the dangers of smoking to global warming. [...]
Funded by corporations and conservative foundations, these outfits exist to fight any form of state intervention or regulation of US citizens. Thus they fought, and delayed, smoking curbs in the '70s even though medical science had made it clear the habit was a major cancer risk. And they have been battling ever since, blocking or holding back laws aimed at curbing acid rain, ozone-layer depletion, and – mostly recently – global warming.

In each case the tactics are identical: discredit the science, disseminate false information, spread confusion, and promote doubt. As the authors state: "Small numbers of people can have large, negative impacts, especially if they are organised, determined and have access to power."

…scientists' warnings – that without action the world will get at least two degrees hotter this century – have been obscured by a small group of ideologues who believe individual liberties are more important than any other cause. Our planet may burn, millions may die, and cities such as Moscow and New York may smoulder, but at least we will be free of petty regulation and bureaucracy. It seems a stiff price to pay.

Few issues piss me off as much as this one so let me make my thoughts clear. If you are a climate change denier then regardless of what views you might hold on any number of other issues, you are undeniably a fool, a jackass, a simpleton, a moron, a dolt, an imbecile and an idiot. And if that wasn't redundant enough for you, let me add this: you really are a stupid human being.

I've had enough with debating these ignoramuses on this issue.  If they still don't get it given the wealth of data, information and expert opinion available, then they obviously lack the intellectual capacity or honest conviction to ever understand.  The powers that be, in the U.S. and across the world, need to understand this and just get the job done.  Pass comprehensive legislation that deals with this issue in a serious manner and let the denier's grandchildren thank you somewhere down the road.

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In what possible reverse PC universe does FOX beat out NPR as a news organization? It's amazing how the mainstream media just bends over backwards to "prove" to conservatives that it's not liberal. The Republicans, and the Republican propaganda organ, play the White House correspondents like a fiddle.

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From CNN.com: Florida church plans a Quran burning event.

In addition to being particularly hateful, what purpose does this serve aside from ratcheting up the tension? But, underneath it all, a Holy War is what these people want, isn't it?

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The Party Line ...

The guy who got us into this mess says, finally, that it was all bullshit:

He let the fiscal fiasco known as Republican tax and budget policy gut the finances of the US, former Fed President Mr. Andrea Mitchell finally says tax cuts do not increase revenues.

...
You would think the cable 'news' folks would be running around with their hair on fire, screaming how badly the Republicans screwed the nation, right?
 
Crickets. It's all OK if you're a Republican.
 
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The Missing Piece Meets the Big O - William Rivers Pitt:

Mr. Obama's performance to date has not lived up to expectations, to be sure. He simply must do better - and, pssssst, Mr. President, your best move might be to forego this nonsense about compromising with the GOP and just get stuff done through reconciliation, filibuster reform and the ever-handy Executive Order - but the public's collective impression of his performance to date has been thoroughly skewed by the absence in our national discussion of the last guy to occupy the Oval. The media wants you to forget George W. Bush ever happened.

Don't fall for it.
It's hard for anyone with a brain to forget something we've been slapped in the face with every day for the last ten years.
 
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They shoot horses, don't they?
 
Suddenly there is article after article about the demise of the American middle class. This is no longer a question of when the job market will improve, or when we get out of this recession. The American corporation has decided that Americans are simply not wanted or needed. They don't need us to build their products, they don't need us to buy their product, all we do is take up space and resources that could be put to better use expanding the wealth of those who already have more than they can possibly use.

The American working and middle class has been put out to pasture:
http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/08/they-shoot-horses-dont-they.html
 
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The White House wants to add just four words to the law that empowers the government to collect information on you w/o a warrant. But it would represent a huge expansion of the what the government could (legally) collect on you.

The administration wants to add just four words — "electronic communication transactional records" — to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the "content" of e-mail or other Internet communication.But what officials portray as a technical clarification designed to remedy a legal ambiguity strikes industry lawyers and privacy advocates as an expansion of the power the government wields through so-called national security letters. These missives, which can be issued by an FBI field office on its own authority, require the recipient to provide the requested information and to keep the request secret. They are the mechanism the government would use to obtain the electronic records.

Make no mistake. This is one of the most important pieces of civil liberties news in a long time. The Obama Administration is asking Congress to sanction the collection of internet records without a warrant–the kind of shit they used to do without a warrant, until people expressed their opposition.

But then Democrats took over and now they want legal sanction and now–Voila, a request that presumably provides cover.

Go read this article.

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The US State Department plumbing the depths of the stupid ocean

The State Department is planning to field an army of contractors in Iraq, complete with Blackhawk helicopters and MRAPs.

One of the biggest fiascoes in the whole Iraq War clusterfuck was the massacre of civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square by the trigger=happy goons of a past State Department security contractor: Formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, now known as Xe (and probably soon to be known as the Princess Sparkle Pony Armed Escort Service). Blackwater was not the only contracting company that acted like a pack of thugs, they were just the most prominent.

And so now the State Department is going to try it again.



When you do something that doesn't turn out right and you keep trying again, there is a line where you cross from "stubborn" into "stupid".

We have a group of people whose job is to provide security for embassies. They are called the United States Marines. If the problem is that the Iraqis don't want American soldiers in Iraq, then fine, put the Marines in civilian clothes and we'll all pretend they are not Marines.

It worked for decades when the Japanese said that they did not want nuclear weapons on their territory and everyone pretended that they didn't know that American warships during the Cold War had nukes in their magazines.
 
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Feel Free to Poison the Gulf of Mexico, BP"
 
That would seem to have been the official attitude of the Coast Guard, which has taken the attitude throughout the BP Oil Spill of "whatever you guys at BP want to do is all right with us."
The Coast Guard approved dozens of requests by BP to spread hundreds of thousands of gallons of surface oil dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico despite the Environmental Protection Agency's directive on May 26 that they should be used only rarely, according to documents and correspondence analyzed by a Congressional subcommittee.
Between allowing BP to forbid the use of safety gear, decide who can fly where and who can see what, the Coast Guard has been operating as though it were a subsidiary of British Petroleum, rather than an agency of the U.S. Government.

BP's overuse of dispersants means that the oil, instead of being seen as large globs and goops that might have been picked up by skimmers,
is now entering the Gulf's food chain. They've done a bang-up job of poisoning the Gulf.
 
Update: BP executive 'absolutely' would eat Gulf seafood.

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Michigan oil spill damages wildlife, forces residents to evacuate.

We clearly need to drill more.

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John McCain is going to hold up the confirmation of the new National Intelligence Director until you pay attention to him, by God. The Atlantic
 
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It was Diversity Day at the Teabaggers' Ball and TPM attended:

Was Saturday's Uni-Tea rally in Philadelphia a success? Well, it depends on your definition of "epic fail." If you're more on the defensive end of the tea party spectrum, you would have left the rally this afternoon even more convinced that the movement is not now about race and never has been. If you're the kind of tea partier who'd like to see that abounding not-racism result in some actual demographic diversity in the movement, the Uni-Tea rally appeared to be a borderline disaster… Among those who did make it, for most of the time the numbers of non-white faces could be counted on two hands, and maybe a foot.

But the best line of the TPM piece (I think) is:

Uni-Tea reached out the hand of tea party acceptance to young people, too — in the form of white conservative rapper Hi-Caliber and a band of veterans called The Bangers. "This reaches out to the 18-34 year-olds," organizer Jeffrey Weingarten said. It should be noted that Weingarten was successful in getting at least one 18-34 year-old to join him for the day: his son, Freedom Weingarten.

As they say, Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.

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They're on their own - no going back now. "July was Iraq's deadliest month for more than two years, figures show, amid fears insurgents are exploiting a political power vacuum. Last month, 535 people were killed and 1,000 hurt in bombings or other attacks, Iraq said, although the US insisted the tolls were much lower. Insurgent attacks have increased since inconclusive elections in March. Sunni, Shia and Kurdish factions that won most seats are still bickering over who should be the next prime minister. Both former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and incumbent Nouri Maliki insist that they are best placed to lead the war-torn country. March's elections left Mr Allawi's Sunni-backed secular Iraqiyya alliance with 91 seats, just two ahead of Mr Maliki's mainly Shia coalition. Both are well short of the 163 seats needed to form a government, meaning that some sort of wider coalition will be needed. People are getting fed up with the stalemate, the BBC's Hugh Sykes reports from Baghdad. It is very hot - above 50C (122F) some days - but there are incessant power cuts, and there have already been street demonstrations complaining about the failure to provide enough electricity for fans, air conditioners and fridges. And violence is beginning to re-occupy the political vacuum, our correspondent says."

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The undead still walk among us

Former US vice president Dick Cheney is out of intensive care but still in hospital more than five weeks after being admitted for his latest heart problems, his evil spawn said Sunday on Fox News, her personal Facebook.

"He is still in the hospital, but he's doing well.
He's out of the intensive care unit and hopefully will be home later this week. He's looking at fly fishing and hunting dates for later on this year, so we're very hopeful.

– Liz Cheney, the MOST IMPORTANT DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR NEAR EASTERN AFFAIRS In Our Nation's History, Maybe Ever

"In the meanwhile," the Princess of Darkness did not say, "we are looking for some old guys for him to shoot in the face, you know, to help him keep his morale up."

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General Petraeus has once again given the green light to airstrikes on "dilapidated buildings or other abandoned structures" in Afghanistan, which may be troubling because virtually every structure in Afghanistan is dilapidated to one degree or another. WSJ via Fox

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Maxine Waters is joining Charlie Rangel in the Congresspersons With Ethical Problems Who Will Make The Midterms Even More Awkward For The Democrats Caucus. [NYT]

When Bush was committing war crimes and other atrocities, I don't remember headlines about how bad that would be for the Republicans.
 
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Paul's broken 50 percent. It's over.  From the Courier:

A week before the traditional start of the fall campaign in Kentucky, Republican Rand Paul leads Democrat Jack Conway by eight percentage points in the U.S. Senate race, according to the latest Courier-Journal/WHAS11 Bluegrass Poll.

The poll, conducted last Tuesday through Thursday by SurveyUSA, found that 51 percent of likely voters would support Paul if the election were held today, while 43 percent said they would vote for Conway.


Congratulations, Jack. You had the best opportunity in 30 years to rally non-voting Democrats back to the polls, and you blew it.

 
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The real threat of economic cataclysm: deflation
 

While the Catfood Commission barrels merrily and irresponsibly toward
transferring the last dimes in the pockets of the middle class
to the overstuffed accounts of the already obscenely wealthy, the deficit hysterics are ignoring the real danger.

William Greider at The Nation explains:

The economic specter stalking Barack Obama is not the nonsense debate that captivates deficit hawks and witless political reporters. It is the threat of a full-blown monetary deflation that would truly put the US economy in ruin. In a general deflation, everything falls-prices, output, wages, profits. Unchecked, this can lead to another Big D-the Depression Obama claims he has avoided.

SNIP

There is one small silver lining in this grim news. If the Federal Reserve steps up to the deflationary threat, its warnings and actions can give President Obama and Congress a strong opening to change their economic policy too. Forget the stupid deficit scare-mongering. Government must embrace more aggressive fiscal measures-bigger deficits, not little bitty gestures. New stimulus spending is needed to fight off the downward pressures.

That, of course, will require the president to acknowledge what he now denies. The nation is not out of the danger zone. The government must act because it is the only sector in the economy that can lead the way.

Right now, though people are increasingly skeptical, the president is sticking to his optimistic assurances. Prosperity is right around the corner. That was Herbert Hoover's line and it doomed him.

 
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So long, Article 5. Nice knowing you. Let's get this up-front: The loss of the 1900 Dutch soldiers from Afghanistan isn't going to make that much difference on the ground. The significance of the Dutch leaving today is that with their departure, NATO officially became a lame duck. Now, apparently, Article 5 has been reduced to "Okay, we'll show up when called, but we'll be bugging out on our own timeline, thanks."
 
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How freakazoids teach science
 
If you had any doubt that "teaching the controversy" means "telling whopping lies to captive children," doubt no more.  PZ Myers:

Queensland is allowing fundamentalist Christians to teach religious instruction classes in the public schools - and, as we might have predicted, they are teaching nonsense.

Students have been told Noah collected dinosaur eggs to bring on the Ark, and Adam and Eve were not eaten by dinosaurs because they were under a protective spell.

Set Free Christian Church's Tim McKenzie said when students questioned him why dinosaur fossils carbon dated as earlier than man, he replied that the great flood must have skewed the data.

A parent of a Year 5 student on the Sunshine Coast said his daughter was ostracised to the library after arguing with her scripture teacher about DNA.

"The scripture teacher told the class that all people were descended from Adam and Eve," he said.

"My daughter rightly pointed out, as I had been teaching her about DNA and science, that 'wouldn't they all be inbred'?

"But the teacher replied that DNA wasn't invented then."


Creationists are crackpots and liars - they simply don't belong at all in positions of responsibility in the public schools, because they are going to intentionally miseducate. What do the education administrators in Queensland say? Why, that students can "opt out" of these classes. That isn't the issue, of course - why are the schools investing scarce resources to give religious extremists and lunatics a platform in the public schools at all?


I'll go further: any teacher who actually thinks creationist nonsense is true has no business ever stepping foot in a public school, even if she teaches PE. People who think Bronze Age myths are more true than 200 years of scientific discovery are not qualified for any job more intellectually challenging than cleaning toilets.

On second thought, anyone who thinks begging for help from an invisible sky wizard is an appropriate solution to any problem should not be entrusted with cleaning anything.

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