Wednesday Reads: Winter…Sunlight, Monsters and Tolkien
Posted: December 12, 2012 Filed under: 2014 elections, 2016 elections, abortion rights, American Gun Fetish, Barack Obama, Democratic Politics, Environment, Federal Budget and Budget deficit, Fiscal Cliff, Hillary Clinton, Labor unions, legislation, morning reads, nature, Planned Parenthood, PLUB Pro-Life-Until-Birth, polling, Republican politics, Rick Perry, Right to Work, science, the GOP, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics, War on Women, worker rights | Tags: Ashley Judd, Beowulf, Earth, JRR Tolkien, Michigan Labor Unions, Mitch McConnell, Sen. Jeff Sessions, shooting Portland Oregon, Soledad O'Brien, Space 50 Comments »
Good Morning!
Finally…we have a nippy morning here in Banjoland! I love the cold weather, it makes sleeping late in a nice cozy bed even more enjoyable.
There was another shooting late yesterday, this time in Portland, Oregon. Gunman Opens Fire in Oregon Shopping Mall. According to VOA, the gunman shot and killed two people before turning the gun on himself…no final number of wounded as I write this post. I will be sure to update you on this latest shooting as more information comes forward.
Okay…I’ve got plenty of politics for you this morning, if it is okay I will give them to you in link dump fashion. (Honestly, I am still a bit “gun-shy” with WordPress. It may take a few post before I feel comfortable writing a lot of words in these threads. I think it is a slight case of PSTD, from way back in college…when my final thesis went phffft, poof and gone…just as I was printing the thing out on the day it was due. Nightmare!)
Anyway, here are some of the political stories of the last 24 hours:
Soledad kicked some major ass yesterday. She is awesome at her job, which btw is being a journalist and a real savvy reporter. Soledad Grills Jeff Sessions: ‘You Hurt People Who Need Food’ with Food Stamp Cuts
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) on Tuesday faced tough questions from CNN host Soledad O’Brien for his plan to cut the food stamp program and “hurt people who need food,” including 20 percent of his own constituents in Alabama.
Speaking to Sessions in an interview on CNN’s Starting Point, O’Brien wondered if cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) should be on the table as part of the so-called fiscal cliff negotiations.
“Absolutely,” Sessions insisted. “This month was a record increase in food stamp participation at a time when unemployment is declining.”
“But there are people who say if you’re doing cuts, you invariably hurt people who need food,” O’Brien observed. “It’s 61 percent of households in your state have children who are recipients of the food program that they’re on.”
Sessions continued to spew his crap, I mean opinion:
“Soledad, this program has been growing out of control at an incredible rate and there are a lot of people receiving benefits who do not qualify and should not receive them,” Sessions remarked. “No child, no person who needs food should be denied that food. Nobody proposes that. We are talking about an amendment that I offered that would have reduced and closed a loophole of $8 billion when we would spend $800 billion was opposed by saying it would help — it would leave people hungry in America, but it would have only eliminated abuses in the program.”
The CNN host, however, pointed out that the Alabama Republican had voted twice to grow the program and the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities had determined that “SNAP has one of the most rigorous quality control systems of any public benefit program.”
“People highlight the program as actually not having a lot of fraud,” O’Brien explained. “Most people who are on it are not somehow working the system. They’re just hungry people.”
Snap for SNAP…Video at the link.
From ABC News, and what looks like the back of Barbara Walter’s head: EXCLUSIVE: President Obama Predicts GOP Will Cave on Taxes
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama participate in an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Dec. 11, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)As the clock ticks toward a tax hike on all Americans in 20 days, President Obama predicted Republicans would join Democrats to extend current rates for 98 percent of earners before the end of the year.
“I’m pretty confident that Republicans would not hold middle class taxes hostage to trying to protect tax cuts for high-income individuals,” Obama said today in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Barbara Walters.
You wanna bet?
These right-wing Republicans are like bulldogs locked down on a hunk of red meat…they do not give up. Just take a look at these headlines:
Angry with Obama, GOP threatens political war next year – CNN.com
Rick Perry: Outlawing All Access To Abortion Is ‘My Goal’ | ThinkProgress
Yes, threats and promises of all out war to get what they want. Basturds!
In other GOP political news:
You didn’t think Michigan Republicans had an original idea:
Michigan Passes “Right to Work” Containing Verbatim Language from ALEC Model Bill
I’ve got to share this political cartoon with you, it can’t wait until our Friday Nite Lite:
Cagle Post – Political Cartoons & Commentary – » Right to Work Pee
Yup, piss on…piss on!
This latest PPP poll shows that people are sick of the mutant asshole turtle, I mean…Mitch McConnell…he is highly unpopular according to Public Policy Polling
Mitch McConnell is the most unpopular Senator in the country. Only 37% of Kentucky voters approve of him to 55% disapprove. Both in terms of raw disapproval (55%) and net approval (-18) McConnell has the worst numbers of any of his peers, taking that mantle from Nebraska’s Ben Nelson.
McConnell is predictably very unpopular with Democrats (23/73). But his numbers are almost as bad with independents (33/58) and even with Republicans he’s well below the 70-80% approval range you would usually expect for a Senator within their own party (59/28).
If only this disgust toward McConnell would relate in votes against the man.
The reason McConnell does decently well in the head to head match ups despite his poor approval numbers is that even though a lot of Republicans dislike him, most of them would still vote for him in a general election before they would support a Democrat. This is the same phenomenon we saw in Florida and Pennsylvania this year where Bill Nelson and Bob Casey won by solid margins despite middling approval numbers because Democrats that weren’t thrilled with them still voted for them. And although independents don’t like McConnell they don’t like most of the Democrats either, and they support McConnell in every match up we tested.
The PPP article mentions Ashley Judd, go read the rest at the link. (I sure hope Judd does run for McConnell seat in 2014. But my hope is up there with a Hillary run in 2016….I think it is kind of a long shot they will run period.)
Speaking of Hillary, Nate Silver has this to say about Hillary 2016: Why Hillary Clinton Would Be Strong in 2016 (It’s Not Her Favorability Ratings)
Let’s start by stating the obvious: Hillary Rodham Clinton would be a formidable presidential candidate in 2016.
Mrs. Clinton’s credentials as secretary of state, as a United States senator and as a politically engaged first lady would be hard for any of her Democratic or Republican rivals to match. She would have little trouble raising funds or garnering support from the Democratic officials, and she might even come close to clearing the Democratic field of serious opposition.
Be sure to read the rest of Silver’s post.
With the release of The Hobbit later this week, J.R.R. Tolkien is figuring in lots of blog post, like this one from Medieval.net: Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics
Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics
By J. R. R. Tolkien
Introduction: In 1864 the Reverend Oswald Cockayne wrote of the Reverend Doctor Joseph Bosworth, Rawlinsonian Professor of Anglo-Saxon: ‘I have tried to lend to others the con-viction I have long entertained that Dr. Bosworth is not a man so diligent in his special walk as duly to read the books… which have been printed in our old English, or so-called Anglosaxon tongue. He may do very well for a professor.’ These words were inspired by dissatisfaction with Bosworth’s dictionary, and were doubtless unfair. If Bosworth were still alive, a modern Cockayne would probably accuse him of not reading the ‘literature’ of his subject, the books written about the books in the so-called Anglo-Saxon tongue. The original books are nearly buried.
Of none is this so true as of The Beowulf, as it used to be called. I have, of course, read The Beowulf, as have most (but not all) of those who have criticized it. But I fear that, unworthy successor and beneficiary of Joseph Bosworth, I have not been a man so diligent in my special walk as duly to read all that has been printed on, or touching on, this poem. But I have read enough, I think, to venture the opinion that Beowulfiana is, while rich in many departments, specially poor in one. It is poor in criticism, criticism that is directed to the understanding of a poem as a poem. It has been said of Beowulf itself that its weakness lies in placing the unimportant things at the centre and the important on the outer edges. This is one of the opinions that I wish specially to consider. I think it profoundly untrue of the poem, but strikingly true of the literature about it. Beowulf has been used as a quarry of fact and fancy far more assiduously than it has been studied as a work of art.
It is of Beowulf, then, as a poem that I wish to speak; and though it may seem presumption that I should try with swich a lewed mannes wit to pace the wisdom of an heep of lerned men, in this department there is at least more chance for the lewed man. But there is so much that might still be said even under these limitations that I shall confine myself mainly to the monsters—Grendel and the Dragon, as they appear in what seems to me the best and most authoritative general criticism in English—and to certain considerations of the structure and conduct of the poem that arise from this theme.
Click here to read this article from the College of Southern Idaho
Click here to read this article from TeacherWeb
Click here to read this article from the University of Georgia
Hopefully one of those three links will work for you. Enjoy it!
And finally, a big hat-tip to Fiscal Liberal, who emailed me these links below…kewl as hell!
First link is to a blog that details the movement of sunlight and weather during the day, via Opentopia – World Sunlight Map
A world map showing current sunlight and cloud cover, as of Dec 12 2012 02:00 UTC.
This is the rectangular projection. You can also see a more realistic hemispherical projection.
Image provided by die.net.
Click the link to see the updated real/time image.
This next link is to a 19 minute video, OVERVIEW on Vimeo
On the 40th anniversary of the famous ‘Blue Marble’ photograph taken of Earth from space, Planetary Collective presents a short film documenting astronauts’ life-changing stories of seeing the Earth from the outside – a perspective-altering experience often described as the Overview Effect.
The Overview Effect, first described by author Frank White in 1987, is an experience that transforms astronauts’ perspective of the planet and mankind’s place upon it. Common features of the experience are a feeling of awe for the planet, a profound understanding of the interconnection of all life, and a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment.
‘Overview’ is a short film that explores this phenomenon through interviews with five astronauts who have experienced the Overview Effect. The film also features insights from commentators and thinkers on the wider implications and importance of this understanding for society, and our relationship to the environment.
I’ve embedded the video below…however if you want to see a larger screen image, click on that Vimeo link up top. Hope you enjoy this one too.
That is all I got for you this morning, should be a good start, right? What are you all reading and thinking about today?
Sima
ecocatwoman
fiscalliberal
grayslady
JJ Lopez Minkoff
mablue2
NW Luna
peggysue22
quixote
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
“back in college…when my final thesis went phffft, poof and gone…just as I was printing the thing out on the day it was due. Nightmare!)”
I had a similar experience with an early Xerox home computer that my Dad got from work. Unbeknownst to me, the thing insisted on making a backup file on the 5″ floppies when you saved. If you wrote more than half the disk’s capacity, then saved, it just wiped out the entire thing. Geniius, eh? Lost most of my Master’s thesis that way.
That horrible sinking feeling, when you realize you lost all that work is like an avalanche of emotions.
When I was doing the final changes on my dissertation that had to be turned in by the end of the day, my printer overheated and I barely managed to get the thing printed out by the deadline. I had to call the graduate office and luckily the woman in charge stayed late to let me turn it in. I was a nervous wreck!
While I was writing it, I saved it on two different flash drives and carried one with me at all times. My adviser had lost much of his dissertation once and he warned me to always have multiple back-ups.
I had one on a flash drive that I carried. The original stuff on my hard drive. Then, I subscribed to Mozy so it would all get stored off sight. The thought of losing my data base just would keep me up at night.
When that happened, I just said Fuck It and did the rest of my papers on a typewriter.
Updates on Oregon: Oregon Mall Shooting: Gunman ‘Tentatively’ Identified – ABC News
There is an image on that link of police in riot gear, pictures like that seem less jarring to me but still disturbing as hell.
North Korea puts something in orbit:
US Condemns ‘Highly Provocative’ N.Korean Rocket Launch « VOA Breaking News
US Calls North Korea Rocket Launch a ‘Provocative Act’ – ABC News
North Korea launches successful rocket in face of criticism | World news | guardian.co.uk
And, Ravi Shankar passed away: In Memoriam: Ravi Shankar teaches George Harrison to Play Sitar | Informed Comment
It is 12/12/12! And I get the feeling it is going to be one of those days…lots of stuff going on, and everyone one day closer to cliffs…Christmas and the Mayan, end of the world.
And in other music news: Disco queen Donna Summer named to Rock & Roll Hall of Fame | The Raw Story
Also inducted…Rush, Heart, Public Enemy and Randy Newman.
Please don’t leave out Albert King, the greatest blues guitarist evah.
Yup, and Quincy Jones and Lou Adler
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Inductees
They’ve been playing a concert with him and Stevie Ray on the local PTV. It’s a joy to watch him play.
Wow, that’s really scratching the bottom of the barrel … maybe they need to declare a time out for a decade or so.
Meanwhile in Michigan:
Union Groups Huddle To Figure Out What’s Next In Michigan | TPMDC
Northwest Herald | Michigan lawmakers approve right-to-work bills
Mich. becomes right-to-work state – Omaha.com
Also in Michigan: Why Are Michigan Politicians Adopting Ireland’s Deadly Abortion Policy?
Because they hate and fear women?
Because the Republican party is ruled by religious fanatics.
Because there is nothing more threatening to the GOP Boyz Club than a woman with a mind of her own and an opinion that wasn’t dictated to her.
I wonder how long the GOP can hold on when in almost every state with a majority legislature the anti union, anti voter, anti woman measures are enacted against the will of the public at large?
Are they really thinking they are acting on behalf of their constituents as they dismantle policies that have have built up the middle class? And for what reason?
And Rick Perry is a first class ass! Fashioning public policy against women’s rights is going to lead to a terrible backlash come 2014 since most people refuse to be led by fools and morons.
The ignorance in this party is astounding. Say what you will about the Dems but I have yet to hear one Democratic politician proposing this nonsense. It is all coming from the other side.
The Sessions comment is so obviously ignorant. Is he aware of the number of Wall Mart employees on food stamps because their jobs don’t pay them enough to eat?
Dak…..I heard last night that the Teamsters, AFL-CIO and the SEIU are going to attempt to organize the 2 million Wal Mart workers. Then the shit will hit the fan!!!
They should go straight for Georgia Pacific and slay the beast that funds the Kochs.
Ditto That!!!!
I don’t use anything produced by Georgia-Pacific, I don’t want my hard won dollars going to ALEC, the Tea Party or any Neo-Con causes or scams.
haikuprogress @haikuprogress
cut this, don’t cut that / rearranging our deck chairs / austerity kills… #FiscalCliffHaikus #proghaiku #fiscalcliff
Dan Froomkin @froomkin
LEAK! LEAK! RT @ThePlumLineGS: White House has Boehner’s demand for permanent tax cut on rich on paper Dem source says http://wapo.st/UBSmaN
Austerity for every on but the ultra rich.
Fuck the tan-man.
Somebody needs to close the 18th Hole Bar so this SOB can sober up and experience reality. He’s liable to lose his Speakers Hat if he does compromise and he’s liable to lose his seat in the House if he doesn’t. Fuck the Tan-Man!!!!
Over the cliff we go, Wheee! With the higher tax rates, wouldn’t the debt ceiling increase be put off for a bit?
Boehner should be getting desperate now but I doubt there’s much he can do since he’s the head looney of the looney bin that is congressional republicans.
Mouse I love ya!
I love you too JJ.
Petition to protect SS and Medicare from cuts, as in, no deal is better than a bad deal.
http://democracyforamerica.com/petitions/1-no-deal-is-better-than-a-bad-deal
Reuters Top News @Reuters
Video: Indian sitar maestro Ravi Shankar dies http://reut.rs/QVp5Ke
Charles Johnson @Green_Footballs
Wall Street CEO: Efforts to Rein in Banker Pay Will Turn America Into Communist Cuba http://lgf.bz/SR94DA
and guess who it is?
yup,yup, gamed markets always have the correct outcomes … brilliant!
Showing all the brilliance that led to that $6 billion loss through the Whale.
“We need to have a conversation about what makes it equitable. You can go do it the way that Cuba tried.” “If you don’t want a free society then start dictating what compensation can be.”
That’s horseshit. No one I know is championing the Cuba Model and no one is saying that everyone should make the same amount of money. We’re saying that the game is fixed and that the playing isn’t level unless you’re born to the correct team or you’re selected to join the correct team or unless you’re born with some extraordinary skill that sets you above the crowd. 99.9% of the population isn’t extraordinary, not even Dimon. Jamie Dimon was born with a silver spoon, he was given a golden ladder to success from the get-go and has no clue how to value work because his life has been one setup after another. He doesn’t value people, he only values connections, money and power. I’d love to see Jamie Dimon throw off all of his contacts and connections, divest himself of all of his wealth and to work at a minimum wage job making $7.25 for 6 months. I guarantee he’ll never work harder and he’ll have a completely different view of what is required to “lift soceity up”. He needs to just STFU and quit pontificating about things he doesn’t understand.
Personally I don’t worry for a moment about the gentle fiscal incline. However, the potential for debt ceiling combat is worrisome because of the Republican economic terrorists.
Bloomberg: Obama Wins Almost 50% Republicans on Tax Mandate in Poll
According to TarheelDem, who’s got a pretty good record of knowing what’s inside these things, this is what we get going over the cliff.
Check this out Ralph. It lists all of the exceptions and exemptions. Very interesting and inline with what TarheelDem reports
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42050.pdf
That was really good information. Let’s go over the cliff! With the Fed announcing better goals today for monetary policy, it might not hurt much at all. We have a lot to gain.
The more I look at it, the more I think going over the cliff may be Obama’s strategy,
The Dept of Defense Budget for 2013 is $672.9 billion, $666 of which is discretionary. Maybe we can begin by leaving Afghanistan and closing down bases we’ve had in Europe and scattered over the South Pacific since WWII. I know many of those bases rely on U.S. money to spur their economy, but we’ve thrown away enough money projecting our power all over the globe.
Mouse, you may be right. It seems like whoever wrote that sequestration bill did it with things the Dems could let go in mind.
Yep, It might be the ace Obama has up his sleeve.
And with the GOP Governors refusing to setup exchanges for Obamacare, opting instead to let the Federal Govt do the lifting, I have a suspicion we may get to the Public Option or maybe even SPUHC in short order.
Can we get to the Public Option pronto? Economy of scale, and all that.
Billions of pure waste are right here. Can we please cut the Pentagon budget?
7 absurd ways the military wastes taxpayer dollars
Unbelievable. I visited the Naval Air Station at Pensacola last summer and it’s like a Country Club for the officers. There is Lodging right on the Gulf and a Golf Course and Clubhouse as well as an Officers Club. I wasn’t expecting it to be so luxurious, I had something a little more spartan in mind.
Damn there’s a whole lot of generals……..and all kinds of staff to go with each general……….234 golf courses. Damn, old Lt. Col. Earl Woods taught his son, Tiger the SHOTS of the game on those military bases. Yup, they all learned how to improve their strokes, before pissing on the $400 toilet lids that the hired help (women) had to mop up.
Do you really think that military staff who are women were/are allowed to play on those golf courses. Bet not.