Wednesday Reads: Now Voyager…to seek and find.
Posted: September 5, 2012 Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, Barack Obama, morning reads, Republican politics, U.S. Politics, Women's Rights | Tags: DNC, Milky Way Solar System, NASA, Voyager 1 44 Comments
Good Morning
If you missed the DNC party last night, check out these two post during the live blog:
It looks like some of the basturds were tweeting their usual kind of comments. CNN’s Erick Erickson Apologizes For “Vagina Monologues” Tweet | Blog | Media Matters for America
During the first night of the Democratic National Convention, CNN contributor Erick Erickson tweeted, “First night of the Vagina Monologues in Charlotte going as expected”:
What an ass…speaking of which: RNC Delegate ‘Highly Offended’ By ‘Mexican’ Employee Working Disney’s ‘America Pavilion’ | Mediaite
Prior to their visit to the Republican National Convention last week, Pennsylvania Republican delegate Mark Harrisand his wife Irene spent a few days at Walt Disney World in Orlando, and were “highly offended” to find a Mexican employee working at the American pavilion of the resort’s Epcot Center.
Epcot features a “World Showcase” which contains pavilions representing eleven countries including the United States. On the couple’s personal blog, Harris wrote that her husband complained to staff that they were “highly offended” that a “person from Mexico” was “working in America” while the other representative pavilions were staffed by employees from each respective country.
“He was very civil but his point was well-made,” the blog post concluded.
But get this, he took the time to clarify his comment.
Harris contacted a local newspaper to defend himself, saying that, “This is getting taken out of context.”
He explained: “What we said is that in Epcot we saw a man that had a name tag that said ’Eddie, from Mexico,’ and we felt that in the America section of the park, there should have been Americans.”
Epcot employees typically wear name-tags bearing their hometown. Disney is known for its rigorous hiring process and it is unlikely that the employee the Harris couple spotted was just some Mexican citizen haphazardly working the America pavilion, but rather a Mexican-born man who is now also an American citizen.
Those do exist, you know.
These people are unbelievable. I mean, this is something Cartman would say, am I right?
Not My Waterpark (Season 13, Episode 14) – Video Clips – South Park Studios
Not My Waterpark
Season 13
Cartman sings a heartfelt ode about how his water park isn’t the way he remembered it.
I couldn’t get the video to embed. Give it a listen, and tell me if these GOP dipshits aren’t all Eric Cartmans.
Well, there is one group of people the Dems are focusing on, Democrats Seek to Fire Up Female Voters – NationalJournal.com
Chet SusslinSisterhood is powerful: Democrats courting women.
At the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, every night is ladies’ night.
And it looks like Michelle Obama made her mark on the evening. Michelle Obama makes the political and personal case for four more years | World news | guardian.co.uk
Michelle Obama acknowledges the cheering crowd during her speech at the Democratic national convention in Charlotte. Photograph: Brian Blanco/EPAMichelle Obama electrified Democrats on the opening night of the party’s national convention with a powerful and unashamedly personal speech in which she invoked the future of her own children as she made the personal and political case for her husband’s re-election.
On now to a few links from the pundits about last night.
Charlie Peirce is on: Joe Kennedy Convention Speech – Joe Kennedy III and the Neverending Kennedy Magic – Esquire
Ed Schultz interviews Sandra Fluke: Women Care About More Than Just Being Put at the Podium | Video Cafe
Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel’s Speech to the Democratic National Convention — FULL TEXT – NationalJournal.com
And HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius: ‘ObamaCare is a badge of honor’ – The Hill’s Healthwatch
One news story that I want to share, that I think is really cool, and it has nothing to do with politics!
NASA’s Voyager 1 on verge of leaving solar system – CBS News
Artist’s rendering provided by NASA shows Voyager spacecraft. (AP Photo/NASA)
(AP) PASADENA, Calif. — Thirty-five years after leaving Earth, Voyager 1 is reaching for the stars.
Sooner or later, the workhorse spacecraft will bid adieu to the solar system and enter a new realm of space — the first time a manmade object will have escaped to the other side.
Perhaps no one on Earth will relish the moment more than 76-year-old Ed Stone, who has toiled on the project from the start.
“We’re anxious to get outside and find what’s out there,” he said.
When NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 first rocketed out of Earth’s grip in 1977, no one knew how long they would live. Now, they are the longest-operating spacecraft in history and the most distant, at billions of miles from Earth but in different directions.
Wednesday marks the 35th anniversary of Voyager 1’s launch to Jupiter and Saturn. It is now flitting around the fringes of the solar system, which is enveloped in a giant plasma bubble. This hot and turbulent area is created by a stream of charged particles from the sun.
Outside the bubble is a new frontier in the Milky Way — the space between stars. Once it plows through, scientists expect a calmer environment by comparison.
When that would happen is anyone’s guess. Voyager 1 is in uncharted celestial territory. One thing is clear: The boundary that separates the solar system and interstellar space is near, but it could take days, months or years to cross that milestone.
When I hear the word Voyager…I think of two things.
The movie, whose title comes from a Walt Whitman poem.
Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Leaves of Grass. 1900.
289. The Untold Want
THE untold want, by life and land ne’er granted, Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find.
And the Moody Blues album, Long Distance Voyager.
Remember this album cover? Take a look at the sky, do you see it?
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
JJ Lopez aka Minkoff Minx
NW Luna
peggysue22
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Here are the lyrics to Cartman’s song:
Hmmmm, makes me think of the Romney slogan, remember? Mitt Romney Slogan Similar To One Used By Ku Klux Klan, Anti-Immigrant ‘Know Nothing’ Party [UPDATED]
Sorry to go O/T, but NPR covered a story from yesterday’s NYT – the massacre of elephants in Africa. A herd of 22 elephants was found shot in the head – shot from above. A Ugandan military helicopter had been spotted in the area at the time the elephants were killed. I’ve been depressed, on the verge of tears, since I heard the story yesterday afternoon. Another story from NPR this morning said Hillary is discussing the illegal ivory market with China on her current visit. Here’s the story from the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/world/africa/africas-elephants-are-being-slaughtered-in-poaching-frenzy.html?hp
On a more positive note, listening to some political commentary on my local NPR station, it looks like Dems may gain 2 seats in the House. Alan Grayson has a good chance of beating Todd Long (the Repugs aren’t going to send him any $$$ because they see it as a losing proposition) and Val Demmings (former Orlando police chief & an AA woman) could defeat Daniel Wester (R).
The slaughter of elephants is horrible! It’s impossible to find the words to describe how awful that makes me feel.
BTW, nothing is OT in the morning news posts.
Here are a few more links on Voyager:
Nasa’s Voyager 1 close to leaving solar system 35 years after launch | Science | guardian.co.uk
AFP: 35 years on, Voyager ‘dancing on edge’ of outer space
Voyager 1 set to burst solar system bubble, move to parts unknown – latimes.com
As an example of how quickly time passes, the Obama daughters went from being adorable little girls to lovely young ladies in 4 years.
Republicans don’t know this, but Mexico is in America. So is Canada. And then there’s South America….
no surprise that a republican flunked geography
Good piece in The Nation about the US Chamber of Commerce’s influence on the elections:
Full story here: http://www.thenation.com/article/169637/us-chamber-commerces-multimillion-dollar-attack-plan
This caught my eye, but have to get ready for work so don’t have time to read the entire piece. It’s on my list for tonight. This paragraph, in particular, is seriously disturbing:
Full piece here at Truthout: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/11305-never-mind-super-pacs-how-big-business-is-buying-the-election
One more before I go – where our tax dollars are really going……to the DEFENSE (offense, might be a better name for it) Department: http://truth-out.org/news/item/11211-your-must-do-assignment-for-this-year-read-this-chart-and-pass-it-on
Michele Obama is both being blasted or praised today, depending upon which side of the aisle you happen to reside.
She is either being criticized or damned for her wardrobe choice again depending upon how she is perceived. Damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t.
Some scorn is being issued for her choice of being a “stay at home Mom” rather than as a high powered business executive which frankly leaves me baffled.
When I was involved in the “feminist movement” it was my understanding that what the movement was about involved “choice”. The choice to reproduce or not. The choice to marry or not. The choice to seek a career or remain at home. Choice left up to the person without the dictates of religion, society, or what the in laws expected.
Hillary Clinton benefited greatly from that second wave. She chose to devote her life to public service which was a role she was born to live out. In that role she too was castigated by her critics by meandering from the “traditional role” that feminism tore down.
Michele Obama has made the decision in moving to DC to remain the “Mom in Chief”. With two young daughters who were being thrown into the public arena her job, as she sees it, is to protect them and offer them a sense of normalcy for being uprooted from all they had known.
This is what “feminism” was all about. The right to choose without having to explain, qualify, or defend whatever decision a woman makes that suits her needs.
Bravo to Hillary for pursuing her goals. Bravo to Michele for pursuing hers. Each is an example of a strong, determined, and viable women who made their choices based on the logic that was right for them.
This is the theory that “feminism” brought to the table and realized by women free to make their choices based on their own individual needs.
Criticizing those choices misses the entire point of what feminism is all about.
A-women (as opposed to A-men). I’m in total agreement with you Pat.
The Feminist Movement said it was “okay” if you did not want to stay home and bake cookies. Hillary was pilloried for that one.
Michele chose to stay home with her kids. She felt the same backlash.
Few women have those “choices” that are as readily available to do either.
Except Michelle isn’t exactly sitting around the house doing nothing. She travels around, visits school, works with kids. Kat says Michelle has spent time in the poorest schools in NOLA, without a lot of publicity.
Exactly. But according to some she is “not living up to her potential”. That this is seen somehow as a “failure”.
What they fail to realize is that she shifted her priorities – also based on her own decision making – by putting her two girls as her primary focus.
Her choice.
I’m not going to criticize Michelle Obama because I’ve come to like her and respect what she’s doing, especially her focus on fitness and fighting obesity although her approach felt somewhat condescending in the early days. HOWEVER, a convention is about optics. I watched last night and I was very impressed by the speakers and yet there was something gnawing at me. I watched on CNN not CSPAN, so I was seeing what the party wanted me to see from 7:30 eastern time on and what I saw was several men speaking and the First Lady who reminded us at the end of her speech that she retains her place, as Mom-In-Chief.
Everyone here knows that I’m not going to stray off the reservation and vote for the other guy or even for a third party candidate in the event that might hurt the Democrats’ chances, but let’s not pretend that last night’s show was a victory for women. We’ve headed in the wrong direction since the ’08 convention. Women were relegated to outside-of-prime-time and off-camera conferences this year. And of course, the obligatory on-stage display of the handful of Congresswomen currently in office. I think I find this the most offensive of all. Imagine if the Dems paraded some African Americans on the stage or a handful of Latinos to show how big-tent they were. Everyone would be screaming. Well, at least I would.
I agree that women are still being condescended to. The reason everyone is talking about choice is because they know Obama has to win women by a lot. Still it’s good to see the emphasis on women’s rights no matter what the reason. Politicians never do anything without ulterior motives. What’s important to me is what they actually do–not their motives. They fear us. That’s a step in the right direction. We don’t yet know if the Obama administration will follow through.
Elizabeth Warren is speaking in prime time tonight. Her speech is scheduled for 10PM, right before Bill Clinton. Quite a few women will speak earlier tonight: Cecille Richards of Planned Parenthood will appear in the 8:00 hour. In the 9:00 hour, Karen Mills of the Small Business Admin., CA Attorney Gen. Kamala Harris, Sandra Fluke, and some people who were put out of work by Bain Capital–I don’t know if they are male or female, probably both.
I hope the rest of the convention does get better, but I found myself up in the middle of the night, bothered by last night’s optics. There are some brilliant Congresswomen who should be front and center at the convention every night.
NYT: Eduardo Porter explains why Richard Nixon was far more liberal than Barack Obama.
He also enacted the Endangered Species Act, my personal favorite. As much as I still loathe Nixon, he did make the environment and its protection law. Reagan, Cheney & GW are far worse than Nixon………and, at the time, I couldn’t imagine anyone could be worse than Nixon. Time has a way of changing one’s perspective.
As paranoid and as personally unlikable as he was, Nixon has also been credited with being the “smartest president” we have had.
Like Bill Clinton who came after, Nixon “gobbled up” as much information as he could, was vastly well read, and could expound on most topics without referring to notes.
However, he lacked the charm of Clinton and the much needed ability to “connect”.
Watergate will always be the legacy of the Nixon years regardless of how much his domestic policies benefited the nation.
True. The point of the op-ed was that the Republicans have moved the center so far to the right that today’s Democrats are like the center right Republicans of old.
I think it’s hilarious that many people are now saying Deval Patrick should run for president–even Joe Cannon wrote that. Based on what, a speech? Patrick is politically a lot like Obama, not that liberal, and he’s a former business executive like Romney. He had very little experience in government before he was elected. I doubt if he has much knowledge of foreign policy. He wouldn’t be my first choice for 2016.
Wasn’t the adoration of Obama based on speeches–“just words”? I think we need someone who really knows what he or she is doing. If Hillary doesn’t run, Joe Biden would probably be a lot better than Deval Patrick.
Hey, don’t forget that Obama was “hurled” onto the national stage by his one speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004. The pundits went wild and he had as much foreign policy experience as I did.
Both the GOP and Dem Party offered up those who will possibly be contenders in 2016.
Christie, Rubio, Jindahl, Santorum, Jeb, and Scott Walker for the GOP.
Castro, Warren,Booker, and whoever speaks next from the podium are probably safe bets as well for the Dems.
But I will say it: I personally don’t believe that either Hillary or Biden will run in 2016 because of their age. Just my opinion but in a culture where the majority will be under the age of 40, I have a feeling they won’t much matter in 4 years regardless of their achievements.
I agree, Pat. Neither Clinton nor Biden will run in 2012.
Oops! I meant to say 2016.
Biden is planning to run and he already has an impressive staff. What will keep him out of the race, in your opinion?
I don’t think Castro is ready to run for President. He suggested last night he’d be running for governor next.
I don’t think Warren would or should run for president either. She may not even win the Senate seat. She’s consistently lagged behind Scott Brown. If she does win, I would hope she’d finish her term, not start running for president immediately like Obama did. At least he had held state office for seven years or so.
Biden has run several times in the past: that plagiarism speech will haunt him forever for one thing. He is known for his “gaffes” and the GOP will make mincemeat out of his chances long before the primaries.
We can’t overlook the age of the population nor discount the change in ethnic demographics. It is also relevant to keep in mind the “lack of hisotrical knowledge” that has become apparent over the years when watching these races. Few people under the age of 50 have our recollection or interest in politics which makes it so easy to “lie” to them without fear of recourse.
This is a nation consumed with the idea of “something new” at all times. They can’t wait for the next iPod upgrade to come out.
Four years from now both Hillary and Biden will be close to 70 years of age. Campaigning takes a huge toll out of the contenders for one thing.
The next campaign will be geared more toward “the youth vote” since these are the consumers and are more apt to vote on the “wow” factor than from any meaningful vision offered up by real experience.
I want Sen. Sherrod Brown, former governor of Ohio, as the Democratic nominee in 2016. I expect him to run. He’s already gone national with his fight against Citizens United.
Sherrod Brown would be a great candidate. His speaking voice isn’t very good. Does he give good speeches anyway?
Elizabeth Warren will be 67 in 2016. Sherrod Brown will be 64. Biden will be 74. I agree there will be younger candidates, and there should be. I suppose Corey Booker is a possibility. I don’t really see how he’d be better than Obama or Patrick. Julian Castro will be 42 in 2016. Booker is 14 years older. Who knows what will happen. If Obama loses, all bets are off.
Oy, I “misspoke”. Sherrod Brown was Sec. of State in Ohio, not Governor ( I need to go back to bed! ).
BB, I have heard Brown on many news programs, but never giving a major speech, so I can’t attest to his skills as an orator. He does have unruly hair, a definite minus. 🙂
I sort of like Brown’s rumpled look, but I imagine it could be fixed. He’s probably too liberal for today’s Dems though.
Brown looks like he sleeps on the couch in his office. He’s a “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” type. Rather appealing in today’s plastic world.
But there’s so much time between now and 2016. Who knows what might happen?
Interesting, the women at 64 or 67 are too old, but Biden at 74 isn’t! All the names being tossed around are men, Deval is like Obama but is OK…yup, us women folk have been set back 24 years as projected by the women’s orgs after the Democrats under Nancy Pelosi pushed Obama forward because of the narrative of “Dreams Of My Father”… 😥
Maybe one day, my gran kids will see a viable woman candidate for POTUS again, and maybe Nancy Pelosi will have retired by then…I pray…
Mike Dukakis calls Romney “a fraud” and says Elizabeth Warren’s ads haven’t been very good and will be changed.
Warren’s campaign says they don’t know anything about her ads changing. They’d better change something pretty soon.
Interesting opinions on Romney’s ideology:
I agree. I think we are seeing the “real Romney.”
In contrast to Erick son of Erick’s tweet, here’s atrios on Michelle’s speech.
https://twitter.com/Atrios/statuses/243182821756268545
We need to swamp CNN with calls for the head of Erick son of Erick … let’s see if they hold him to the same standard they held Roland Martin and Octavia Nasr.
Where wingnuts are concerned, no one seems to have any standards. Erickson was nuts long before CNN put him on the air. I can’t imagine how he got there?
Romney learns to speak jive.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/mitt-romney-allen-west-12403462#comments
Barbara Billingsley did die too soon 🙂
Michelle Obama’s DNC Speech Written at 7 Grade Levels Above Ann Romney’s
Just FWIW/
I’d believe it. Ann thinks all of us servants are stupid.