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Monday Reads

Posted: August 29, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, morning reads | Tags: , , , , , |37 Comments

Good Morning!

Paul Krugman has a great piece in the NYT on how Republicans are against science.  They do appear to ignore it in favor of myth, conspiracy theories and wishful thinking.  However, it does us no good to send Democrats into office that won’t fight for science and rational thought, either.  How much more nonsense do you think will come out during the 2012 political season?

Mr. Perry, the governor of Texas, recently made headlines by dismissing evolution as “just a theory,” one that has “got some gaps in it” — an observation that will come as news to the vast majority of biologists. But what really got peoples’ attention was what he said about climate change: “I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. And I think we are seeing almost weekly, or even daily, scientists are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change.”

That’s a remarkable statement — or maybe the right adjective is “vile.”

The second part of Mr. Perry’s statement is, as it happens, just false: the scientific consensus about man-made global warming — which includes 97 percent to 98 percent of researchers in the field, according to the National Academy of Sciences — is getting stronger, not weaker, as the evidence for climate change just keeps mounting.

In fact, if you follow climate science at all you know that the main development over the past few years has been growing concern that projections of future climate are underestimating the likely amount of warming. Warnings that we may face civilization-threatening temperature change by the end of the century, once considered outlandish, are now coming out of mainstream research groups.

But never mind that, Mr. Perry suggests; those scientists are just in it for the money, “manipulating data” to create a fake threat. In his book “Fed Up,” he dismissed climate science as a “contrived phony mess that is falling apart.”

I could point out that Mr. Perry is buying into a truly crazy conspiracy theory, which asserts that thousands of scientists all around the world are on the take, with not one willing to break the code of silence. I could also point out that multiple investigations into charges of intellectual malpractice on the part of climate scientists have ended up exonerating the accused researchers of all accusations. But never mind: Mr. Perry and those who think like him know what they want to believe, and their response to anyone who contradicts them is to start a witch hunt.

All the candidates are pushing bad economics as well.

I’ve been kind’ve “blown away” by the news coverage of the remnants of Irene today.  It seems like most of the TV coverage has been 24 hours now worth of people saying we dodged a bullet and trying to find people impacted by the storm.  You’re beginning to see headlines like this now: Get Real: Hurricane Irene Should Be Renamed “Hurricane Hype”.  Last night Geraldo looked like he’d just re-opened that silly empty vault again.

Irene has put on a remarkably similar show. Within the limits of forecasting error, Irene’s projected path makes it was impossible to rule out a major disaster. But, as a dangerous Category 3 storm within two days of land, something similar to what happened to Gloria occurred. Instead of going slightly off course, the power of her winds dropped markedly, at least as measured by hurricane hunter aircraft. Because it is prudent to not respond to every little tropical cyclone twitch (such as Gloria’s jog or Thursday’s wind drop), the Thursday evening forecast was virtually unchanged, the Internet went thermonuclear, and the Weather Channel’s advertising rates skyrocketed. From that point on, it became all Irene, all the time. With this level of noise, the political process has to respond with full mobilization. Hype begets hype.

A day later, the smart money is still riding a very Gloria-like track, but with a cyclone that will be weaker than projected. It is doubtful that Irene will even cough up eight bodies (the number killed by Gloria), though power outages east of where the center makes landfall (probably on Long Island) may be extensive.

I think the body count’s at 21 now which kind’ve makes this hype on all the hype look like hype.  Well, at least all the governors of the mid Atlantic states got some air time praising civil servants instead of demonizing them for a change.  Is it just me or does Chris Christine remind you of those big boy statues in front of those 1960s hamburger joints?  That man looks like a heart attack about to happen.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell–who cross party lines last year to hype Obama–is having second thoughts about hyping an Obama second term. Powell was on Face the Nation yesterday.

“I haven’t decided who I’m going to vote for,” Powell said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “Just as was the case in 2008, I am going to watch the campaign unfold. In the course of my life I have voted for Democrats, I have voted for Republicans, I have changed from one four-year cycle to another.

“I’ve always felt it my responsibility as a citizen to take a look at the issues, examine the candidates, and pick the person that I think is best qualified for the office of the president in that year. And not just solely on the basis of party affiliation,” he said.

Asked about the Republican field, Powell said there are some “interesting candidates,” but no one who has “emerged into the leading position.”

“So let’s see if anybody else is going to join, and we’ve got a long way to go,” he added.

Powell, the nation’s first African-American secretary of state, praised Obama’s leadership style in 2008 in endorsing him, saying shortly before the election that Obama “has a definite way of doing business that will serve us well.” He also said at the time that he didn’t think the GOP vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, was “ready” to be president.

The really, really bad thing about the political system these days is that PACs are getting bigger and more powerful.  They also seem more closely aligned with candidates.  Here’s an interesting story from the NYT.  The Supreme Court decision on corporations and first amendment rights has definitely impacted the political money machine.

But some advocates for tighter campaign regulation say existing rules on independent groups did not anticipate the emergence of Super PACs so closely tied to a single candidate, leaving so much room to maneuver that the independent groups are able to act as surrogates for the candidates.

“There’s not a big difference between these candidate-specific Super PACs and candidate campaign committees,” said Paul S. Ryan, associate legal counsel at the Campaign Legal Center. “I think it’s a joke. What they are doing is abiding by the very meager restrictions on coordinations on expenditures and solicitations. But that leaves a wide swath of activities that can be fully coordinated under present law.”

Increasingly, the new Super PACs are taking on tasks that in previous years were handled by — and paid for — the candidates themselves. But instead of using money raised in the $2,500 increments that federal law imposes on candidates, the Super PACs can accept donations of unlimited amounts. (The groups must disclose their donors, though some Super PACs, including Priorities USA and the Karl Rove-founded American Crossroads, have affiliated nonprofit arms that do not have to disclose donors.)

Just in case you haven’t read Rick Perry’s outrageous lies about Social Security, here’s some more information.  Perry calls the popular government program unconstitutional and refers to it as a Ponzi Scheme.  I want to hear him say this in Florida.

But Perry returned to the “Ponzi scheme” description on the campaign trail in Iowa last night:

“It is a Ponzi scheme for these young people. The idea that they’re working and paying into Social Security today, that the current program is going to be there for them, is a lie,” Perry said. “It is a monstrous lie on this generation, and we can’t do that to them.”

Later, in Des Moines, when a reporter asked about the suggestion that his campaign was backing off some positions in the staunch states-rights book, Perry said, “I haven’t backed off anything in my book. So read the book again and get it right.”

Kay Henderson has more on this:

Another reporter pressed the issue, asking if Perry believes Medicare is “unconstitutional” as well.

“I never said it was unconstitutional,” Perry said. “I look at Medicare just like I look at Social Security. They’re programs that aren’t working and we ought to have a national conversation about it. You know, those that have said I’ve said they’re unconstitutional — I’m going to have them read the book. That’s not what I said.”

In his book, Perry called Social Security something akin to a “bad disease” that was created “at the expense of respect for the Constitution and limited government.”

This is going to be one weird, strange, political season. I’ve never seen so many people pushing so many unpopular positions.

Women may have hit the glass ceiling in the US, but women in emerging market countries are winding up in board rooms more and more all the time.  Remember, many of these countries have already had women presidents and prime ministers.

Seven of the 14 women identified on Forbes magazine’s list of self-made billionaires are Chinese. Many firms in emerging markets do a better job of promoting women than their Western rivals, some surveys suggest. In China, 32% of senior managers are female, compared with 23% in America and 19% in Britain. In India, 11% of chief executives of large companies are female, compared with 3% of Fortune 500 bosses in America and 3% of FTSE 100 bosses in Britain. Turkey and Brazil come third and joint fourth (behind Finland and Norway) in the World Economic Forum’s ranking of countries by the proportion of CEOs who are women. In Brazil, 11% of chief executives and 30% of senior executives are women.

Young, middle-class women are overtaking their male peers when it comes to education. In the United Arab Emirates 65% of university graduates are female. In Brazil and China the figures are 60% and 47% respectively. In Russia 57% of college-age women are enrolled in tertiary education; only 43% of men are. Business schools, those hothouses of capitalism, are feminising fast. Some 33% of students at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai and 26% at the Indian School of Business are female, a figure comparable with those of Western schools such as the Harvard Business School and INSEAD.

In “Winning the War for Talent in Emerging Markets: Why Women are the Solution”, Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Ripa Rashid point out that businesswomen face steep obstacles in emerging markets. How can they stay on the fast track if, as in the UAE, they cannot travel without a male chaperone? And how can they be taken seriously if, as in Russia, the term “businesswoman” is synonymous with prostitute? In every emerging market women bear the lioness’s share of family responsibilities. In many places, deals are sealed with booze and male bonding.

So, there’s some things to get us started on this Monday.  Hopefully, those of you on the east coast are getting back to normal after the storm.  Let us know how you’re doing!  What’s on your reading and blogging list today?

37 Comments on “Monday Reads”

  1. Rick Reynolds says:
    August 29, 2011 at 7:09 am

    The idea that Social Security is a ponzi scheme is a pretty old idea, and I believe that it has it’s root in politicians going through some legislative exercise of “saving it” every so often.

    The main “problem” with Social Security is the loss of personal freedom comes when our system makes people into beggars for their own money, and places the most vulnerable at the mercy of bureaucrats and politicians…. politicians who threaten to break the promise to everyone who has, under compulsion, contributed their money to this system.

    • WomanVoter says:
      August 29, 2011 at 10:26 am

      Ron Paul compares Social Security and Medicare to slavery

      The legality of Social Security and Medicare must be reversed, just like slavery was abolished in 1865, according to Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.

      “You talk a lot about the Constitution,” Fox News’ Chris Wallace noted Sunday. “You say Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid are all unconstitutional.”

      “Technically they are,” Paul insisted. “There is no authority. Article 1, Section 8 doesn’t say I can set up an insurance program for people. What part of the Constitution — liberals are the ones that use this general welfare clause.”
      http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/05/ron-paul-compares-social-security-and-medicare-to-slavery/

      😯 So, employees/employers paying into an insurance program for retirement is unconstitutional? Why then do they make us buy fire/flood insurance?

      • dakinikat says:
        August 29, 2011 at 10:42 am

        That is a state law. Under Paul’s world view, the state we live in can enslave us and that is fine. He is a nasty little neoconfederate.

      • Gregory says:
        August 29, 2011 at 1:07 pm

        Since I believe in free speech and the Constitution of the United States of America I feel that Paul has a right to say anything he wants. However, I just don’t think that people should listen to the kind of nonsense he brings to the table. At some point, the people of this country are going to have wake up, become informed and tune out these charlatans and phonies.

      • northwestrain says:
        August 29, 2011 at 3:30 pm

        This is what happens when cognitive dissonance becomes a way of life — two opposing factions are warring in his brain.

        Libertarian is just another religion — no science or proof — just their believe that their way is right.

        And by the way Ron Paul is anti choice anti abortion — women’s bodies are state or Federally owned.

        “I talk a lot about right-to-life,” said Paul, who called it “the most important issue of our age.”

        Asshat

  2. Minkoff Minx says:
    August 29, 2011 at 7:13 am

    Morning Dak, I have another Perry link for you, this time a 5 page post that asks the question:

    Is Rick Perry dumb? – Jonathan Martin – POLITICO.com

    Perry’s reading list includes:

    In an illustration that Perry knows what he needs to know, his spokesman said the governor is currently reading Henry Kissinger’s recent China book – “On China.”

    And that’s not the only practical guide the governor is thumbing through.

    Mark Miner, the spokesman, said Perry is also reading Charles Stanley’s “Turning the Tide,” a Baptist pastor’s how-to for Christian conservatives who want to change the country’s direction, and the Bible. Perry also carries an Apple laptop as well as an iPad with him on the road, said Miner, who called his boss “an avid reader.”

    • northwestrain says:
      August 29, 2011 at 8:43 am

      Yes — Rick Perry is dumb. But he knows how to play the game. He’s a chameleon just like 0bowma. Both are narcissists — and basically toxic for we the people.

  3. Minkoff Minx says:
    August 29, 2011 at 7:16 am

    BBC News – Yoshihiko Noda wins Japan leadership race

    Japan’s governing Democratic Party (DPJ) has chosen Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda as its leader, lining him up to become the country’s sixth prime minister in five years.

    Mr Noda secured victory in a run-off against Trade Minister Banri Kaieda, after a first-round vote in which no candidate won a clear majority.

  4. Pat Johnson says:
    August 29, 2011 at 7:40 am

    The only good thing about the all day coverage of the storm and my two day trip to Boston is that I did not have to listen to these ignoramuses mouthing their dumb theories on the issues as they elbow one another out of the way to become the “front runner”.

    Denying science and the desire to eviscerate long standing social programs in favor of superstition and poor policies is mindnumbing for those of us who “think”.

    How these morons can gain any traction with their ignorance on display is astounding. Just another reason to accept that the pubic at large is made up of dimwits.

    • dakinikat says:
      August 29, 2011 at 11:37 am

      “I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending.”

      – Rep. Michele Bachmann, speaking to an audience of “evangelical and Tea Party voters” in Sarasota, Florida.

      • Gregory says:
        August 29, 2011 at 12:53 pm

        Didn’t the really bad hurricane that wiped out the Gulf coast happen when a religious zealot was on duty? These people just don’t make any sense. If I was a whack job I’d take Katrina as a major rebuke to using God to win elections. These people are all insane and they all failed logic 101.

  5. foxyladi14 says:
    August 29, 2011 at 9:34 am

    morning Skydancers.
    hope every one survived Irene’ s wrath alright. 🙂

  6. bostonboomer says:
    August 29, 2011 at 9:34 am

    At least Gloria was still a hurricane when it hit Boston. I personally lost my power for 5 days after that one, and there was very bad flooding along the coast.

    I still didn’t think it was worse than lots of nor’easters and blizzards I’ve been through.

    • Pat Johnson says:
      August 29, 2011 at 9:51 am

      I lost count of the number of times I had to clear my car of snow this past winter or clear the driveway every other day from late December to early April.

      Nonstop.

  7. bostonboomer says:
    August 29, 2011 at 10:09 am

    Wife of Army Ranger who served 8 tours in Iraq and committed suicide rather than serve a 9th tour dragged out of Donald Rumsfled book signing. Her husband was 25.

    http://www.coffeestrong.org/press-release-veteran-and-military-spouse-dragged-from-rumsfeld-book-signing/

    Isn’t it great that Obama protected Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush from any accountability so they could write their memoirs and have security people drag the wives of their cannon fodder out of book signings?

    • paper doll says:
      August 29, 2011 at 10:21 am

      good for her and Rumsfeld is damn lucky she didn’t bring some heat… the gaul of these people! Book signing!! Using blood for ink no doubt!

    • dakinikat says:
      August 29, 2011 at 10:40 am

      Did you see George Will said cheney should have apologized for Iraq in his book?

      • Gregory says:
        August 29, 2011 at 12:59 pm

        You know an apology just doesn’t cut it.

        Many countless lives on both sides have needlessly perished. Thousands and thousands of innocent people have died.

        Our country is bankrupt as a result.

        There is no end in sight.

        We haven’t even reaped the benefits of opening up the oil. Gas and energy prices have skyrocketed in effect reducing the standard of living for just about everyone in this country and to top it off initiated a major recession.

        Sickening. Really.

  8. paper doll says:
    August 29, 2011 at 10:18 am

    US government intervenes against faculty at Youngstown State University

    http://tinyurl.com/3obm7ze

    The US Department of Education instructed the administration of Youngstown State University in Ohio to withhold federal financial aid from students while the faculty threatened to strike, according to the university’s president.

    On August 19, after negotiations between the university administration and faculty broke down, the university sent thousands of students a letter informing them that they would not receive financial aid until their faculty dropped their plans to strike on August 26.

    YSU President Cynthia Anderson wrote a letter August 22 to students stating that the university made the move under the direction of the Department of Education, an agency of the Obama administration…..

  9. dakinikat says:
    August 29, 2011 at 11:52 am

    Why the Fukushima disaster is worse than Chernobyl

    Japan has been slow to admit the scale of the meltdown. But now the truth is coming out. David McNeill reports from Soma City

  10. dakinikat says:
    August 29, 2011 at 12:59 pm

    From CNN breaking News:

    The wife and three children of Moammar Gadhafi are in Algeria, that nation’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday. His wife Safia, his daughter Aisha and two of his sons, Hannibal and Mohamed, came to Algeria via the Libyan border. U.N. and National Transitional Council officials were informed of the development, the ministry said.

  11. dakinikat says:
    August 29, 2011 at 1:01 pm

    feministing Feministing
    D.C. activists fight back against violence targeting trans women: Another hate crime against trans women in the …

  12. Minkoff Minx says:
    August 29, 2011 at 1:28 pm

    Source: Warren Jeffs In Coma, May Not Survive – ABC News

  13. dakinikat says:
    August 29, 2011 at 3:56 pm

    It’s the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina:

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