Friday Reads

Posted: June 17, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: morning reads | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Good Morning!

Political witch hunts are interesting things.  Ask me.  One of my senators used his senate cell phone to call up and hire prostitutes from the infamous Washington Madam. He’s still in the U.S. Senate after he made his wife beg the press to stop hounding the family and spent a summer fleeing any and all press.  The calls from Republican leadership for his resignation never came, yet Senator David Vitter broke the law and was caught with his “diapers down”.   Where’s the media outrage over this pervert?

So, here’s another story about a Breitbart Witch Hunt. A report by the “GAO Finds Little to Support Congress’ Abolition of ACORN: Grass-roots consumer organization was driven into bankruptcy by conservative critics”.  This was the predecessor to the current attacks on Planned Parenthood.  Unsubstantiated lies bandied about by partisan news outlets appear to be able to successfully take out liberal organizations and people.

A report issued today by the Government Accountability Office(GAO) finds little to support the charges that led to the demise of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a grassroots consumer advocacy organization driven out of existence by Congressional critics.

The GAO found that monitoring of awards to ACORN by government agencies generally consisted of reviewing progress reports and making site visits. Of 22 investigations of alleged election and voter registration fraud, most were closed without prosecution, the report found.

One of eight investigations of alleged voter registration fraud resulted in guilty pleas and seven were closed without action due to lack of evidence.

When will Democratic leadership and the press stand up to these witch hunts?

Robert Scheer has an excellent piece in The Nation called  “The Seven Republican Dwarfs”.  He points out at how the Republican candidates in the Presidential run are willfully ignorant of economic reality.  He doesn’t spare Obama either.

Obama, who has been inconsistent and weak in reining in the Wall Street greed that got us into this deep economic morass, is now under no pressure from the opposition to improve his performance. The Republican knee-jerk reaction—government bad, big business great, and don’t dare say that the Wall Street scoundrels who created this crisis need a timeout—gets Obama off the hook from legitimate criticism he needs to hear. As the Wall Street Journal headlined the non-debate: “Candidates Run Against Regulation.”

It’s as if the sound government regulation of the financial industry implemented in response to the Great Depression—not its polar opposite, the radical deregulation fueled by Republican free market zealots—was the source of our banking meltdown.

It’s only a matter of time before we experience similar problems.  It may come this summer if the game of playing chicken with US sovereign debt continues.  We shouldn’t be Greece but we are being set up to suffer their current fate by the inability of political leaders to do the right thing instead of the politically expedient thing.  The financial community is calling the current Greece situation the EU’s “Lehman moment”.  We may have a second Lehmann moment coming up shortly. If bond vigilantes don’t see progress in US debt ceiling talks  shortly, we may be facing increased borrowing costs.  Right now, the flee from Greece is helping us.  This disaster probably will not hurt the US unless the contagion goes from Greece to Ireland to Portugal and on to Spain.  However, many tea party Republicans seem hell bent on recreating the post-Lehman meltdown.

The euro lost more than 2 percent against the dollar in the past two days and the cost of protecting corporate bonds soared to the highest level since January, with credit-default swaps anticipating about a 78 percent chance that Greece won’t pay its debts. Equities declined around the world, while a measure of fear in fixed-income markets jumped the most since November.

Market moves suggest heightened concern that authorities won’t be able to keep Greece’s debt troubles from spreading after Moody’s Investors Service said it may downgrade BNP Paribas SA and two other big French banks because of their investments in the southern European nation. The collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008 caused credit markets worldwide to freeze as investors fled all but the safest government debt.

“The probability of a eurozone Lehman moment is increasing,” said Neil Mackinnon, an economist at VTB Capital in London and a former U.K. Treasury official. “The markets have moved from simply pricing in a high probability of a Greek debt default to looking at a scenario of it becoming disorderly and of contagion spreading to other economies like Portugal, like Ireland, and maybe Spain, Italy and Belgium.”

VP Biden held talks with his bi-partisan gang of six on Thursday.  He characterized the talks as progressing but also mentioned their are significant differences between the two parties.

Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that he and congressional negotiators have done a “first serious scrub” of the entire federal budget but differences remain over big-ticket items that philosophically divide the two parties in their quest for an agreement that would raise the nation’s debt ceiling while putting in place long-term reductions to the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt.

Those big-ticket items include whether to increase tax revenues – which many Democrats want – and making changes to expensive entitlements like Medicare – which many Republicans support.

“Everybody wants an agreement,” Biden told reporters after a meeting in the Capitol with the bipartisan group of lawmakers and other top Obama administration officials. “That is sufficiently realistic to get to $4 trillion over a decade or so – in terms of reductions.”

He said the group would meet four days next week, as opposed to three days this week, and that each meeting would be longer than the two hours or so each meeting has been to date. He also said their staffs would work “around the clock” to support the talks.

There’s some good news for the Arabian Oryx.  This is a fascinating herd animal that has been pulled back from the brink of distinction.

Believed by many to be the inspiration behind the legends of the unicorn, the Arabian oryx, Oryx leucoryx, is a species of antelope believed to be hunted to extinction in the wild in the 1970s.

However, with the help of the captive breeding program of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the species has been reintroduced into the wild, and a population has now grown back to 1,000 individuals.

The creature, known locally as Al Maha, jumped three categories on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species from “Extinct in the Wild” to “Vulnerable,” an unprecedented accomplishment.

“To have brought the Arabian Oryx back from the brink of extinction is a major feat and a true conservation success story, one which we hope will be repeated many times over for other threatened species,” says Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Director General of the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi, in a press release.

“It is a classic example of how data from the IUCN Red List can feed into on-the-ground conservation action to deliver tangible and successful results.”

Other good news for animals comes from Georgia where Pelicans that were coated with Oil from the Gulf Oil Gusher have found a new home.  The brown Pelicans have no only survived, they have laid some eggs!

Brown pelicans that survived being covered in oil during the April 2010 spill in Louisiana are laying eggs and having babies on Georgia’s coast, according to wildlife officials, Savannah Morning News reports. Hundreds of the birds were scrubbed clean following the disaster and moved to Georgia and other states. Wildlife officials were not sure if they would live, much less have babies. But they did, and they are, and wildlife officials are thrilled.

Tim Keyes, a coast bird biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources has reported what could be the first known successful nesting of brown pelicans at Little Egg Island Bar, a state-protected wildlife area about 60 miles south of Savannah, according to the newspaper’s website savannahnow.com.

Keyes told the newspaper Wednesday he has counted 17 brown pelican chicks since May spread among eight nests tended by a parent that survived the oil spill. The birds were identified as having been removed from the spill and released in Georgia by bands placed around their legs.

Nebraska has a nuclear plant that sits north of Omaha on the flooding Missouri River.  A breech has already occurred in a downstream levee and is flooding Hamburg, Iowa.  How safe is the plant? Well,historically, not very and it’s now on a yellow alert.  Here’s some information from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a “yellow finding PDF” (indicating a safety significance somewhere between moderate and high) for the plant last October, after determining that the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) “did not adequately prescribe steps to mitigate external flood conditions in the auxiliary building and intake structure” in the event of a worst-case Missouri River flood. The auxiliary building — which surrounds the reactor building like a horseshoe flung around a stake — is where the plant’s spent-fuel pool and emergency generators are located.

OPPD has since taken corrective measures, including sealing potential floodwater-penetration points, installing emergency flood panels, and revising sandbagging procedures. It’s extremely unlikely that this year’s flood, no matter how historic, will turn into a worst-case scenario: That would happen only if an upstream dam were to instantaneously disintegrate. Nevertheless, in March of this year the NRC identified Fort Calhoun as one of three nuclear plants requiring the agency’s highest level of oversight. In the meantime, the water continues to rise.

Yup, my youngest daughter is spending the summer with my oldest daughter not very far from the plant.  Believe me, I’m not happy about all of the information provided in that report.  You should definitely read the link because it seems the press aren’t reporting anything about the problem plant.

So, that’s what’s been on my computer screen this morning! What’s on your reading and blogging list today?

Tuesday Reads: Republican Freak Show, Obama’s Hypocrisy, and Other News

Posted: June 14, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, Barack Obama, fetus fetishists, morning reads, Republican presidential politics, Surreality, U.S. Politics, We are so F'd | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Yikes! We're in big trouble.

Good Morning!!

Last night several of the Republican presidential candidates participated in a debate in New Hampshire, hosted by CNN. John King was the moderator. I have never heard anyone talk that fast before. I could barely understand what he was saying. He also talked over much of what the candidates said, telling them they were going too long. For some reason, CNN only allowed 30 second answers. Here are some media reactions to what the candidates said.

The NYT Caucus blog: Fact Checking the Republican Debate

On economic policy:

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, said that while President Obama didn’t start the recession, “he made it worse, and longer.” Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, called President Obama “anti-jobs.”

While it is true that unemployment is far worse today than Mr. Obama’s advisers initially predicted, it would be even worse without the stimulus bill that many Republican candidates derided, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

On Michelle Bachmann’s inconsistencies:

“I don’t see that it’s the role of a president to go into states and interfere with their state laws,’’ said Ms. Bachmann, a favorite of Tea Party members who believe in states’ rights.

But then, after some other candidates said that they supported a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, she amended her answer.

“John, I do support a constitutional amendment on marriage between a man and a woman,’’ she told the moderator, John King of CNN, “but I would not be going into the states to overturn their state law.”

ABC News: Michele Bachmann Steals Show at GOP Debate to Announce Presidential Run

The Minnesota congresswoman was invited to the debate as an undeclared candidate, despite ample evidence that she was planning a White House bid, and she used the first question posed to her to announce she had officially filed to run.

[….]

“Our country needs a leader who understands the hardships that people across America have been facing over the past few years, and who will do what it takes to renew the American dream,” Bachmann said. “We must become a strong and proud America again, and I see clearly a better path to a brighter future.

“For these reasons, earlier this evening I instructed my team to file the necessary paperwork to allow me to seek the office of President of the United States.”

From The Fix: New Hampshire Republican debate: Winners and losers Chris Cilizza says the big winners are Michelle Bachmann and Mitt Romney, big losers – Tim Pawlenty and Herman Cain. Cilizza also liked John King (ugh!) and the “this or that” choices at the breaks (stupid!!).

Juli Weiner at Vanity Fair: Bachmann a Big Winner and Romney Is Bulletproof at CNN’s Republican Debate Here’s what Weiner had to say about Newt:

Most Obviously Disinterested

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appeared sullen, and his answers were notably terse. He seemed most excited about two things: talking about NASA—Gingrich is a longtime admirer of outer space—and when King asked him to choose between Dancing With the Stars and American Idol. For the record, he choose the latter—although how long until divorces it in favor of its younger, flashier update, The Voice?

We were wondering if Gingrich’s disgruntled former staff organized a watching party tonight? And if so, what was the drinking game like?

She loved Romney’s facial expression when Herman Cain was talking abut his muslim phobia.

Most Comically Skeptical Face
For a fleeting, glorious moment during Cain’s exposition about “peaceful” Muslims versus Muslims “who are trying to kill us,” the split-screen showed Romney making a face not dissimilar to the one your blogger was making—a face one might make after eating a lemon-soaked pickle, or a slice of Godfather’s Pizza. “Romney’s face during Herman Cain’s answer might just have won my vote,” Ezra Klein of The Washington Post tweeted. Romney’s rejoinder to Cain’s response was measured: “Of course Sharia Law isn’t going to be applied in our courts,” he said. “Our country was founded on a principle of religious tolerance.”

This isn’t a reaction to the debate, but is very relevant to the Republican candidates and their so-called economic policies: American Chronicle: Grover pulls GOP strings

Today’s Republicans love to point out that President John F. Kennedy saw the wisdom of tax cuts when he reduced the top income tax rate. However, congressional Republicans at the time were worried that this would cause a budget deficit. President Dwight Eisenhower supported the continuation of high wartime taxes to reduce the nation’s debt. President Richard Nixon defended the continuation of a surtax to pay for the Vietnam War. Fearing deficits, President Gerald Ford opposed a permanent tax cut.

All of these leaders would be RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) today, because they put balanced budgets ahead of cutting taxes. President Ronald Reagan remains a hero, but that’s because his rhetoric on taxes and smaller government is beloved. Never mind that he agreed to several tax increases (including a huge hike in the payroll tax that rescued Social Security for decades to come), never once proposed a balanced budget and oversaw an expansion of the federal government. The Reagan tax hikes were a responsible response to growing imbalances, but they would be shot down today.

The bipartisan national debt commission and the Gang of Six (now down to five senators) are looking at a simpler tax code that would widen the tax base, lower rates and eliminate many deductions as part of a debt and deficit solution, which includes significant spending cuts. But because this would increase revenue overall, the grand poo-bah of anti-tax purity has declared that this must be opposed by any politician who has signed a pledge to never raise taxes. He Who Must Be Obeyed is Grover Norquist, who invented the tax pledge and is the head of Americans for Tax Reform.

In other news, President Obama opened his big mouth and said that Anthony Weiner should resign.

In an interview that will air on the Today show on Tuesday morning, Obama said that Weiner’s online exchanges with women were “highly inappropriate” and that he “embarrassed himself.” And while Obama said the decision about leaving Congress would ultimately be up to him and his constituents, he made his own preference clear.

“When you get to the point where, because of various personal distractions, you can’t serve as effectively as you need to, at the time when people are worrying about jobs, and their mortgages, and paying the bills—then you should probably step back,’’ Obama said.

Frankly, I think a President who hasn’t done diddly-squat about jobs or foreclosures should step back. Maybe he’s distracted by all those White House parties and so many vacations. If I had failed as badly as Obama has, I’d resign.

This is a horrifying story from Think Progress: JP Morgan Records Largest Profit Ever, While Community Devastated By Its Predatory Lending Sheds 1,000 Workers

One of the many tragic stories of the Great Recession involves Jefferson County, Alabama. As Matt Taibbi explained in an article in Rolling Stone last year, mega bank JP Morgan Chase used a predatory refinancing deal on sewer bonds to reap billions while the local area was financially devastated.

Now, Jefferson County, still reeling from the effects of JP Morgan’s dirty deals, is moving to place nearly 1,000 public workers on administrative leave without pay, as the state Legislature failed last week to come to the municipality’s aid with any fiscal support. In doing so, the county hopes to save “just over $12 million.”

Yet while the public workers of Jefferson County will soon face the prospect of losing their wages and livelihoods through no fault of their own, JP Morgan Chase continues to rake in lavish profits. In 2010, the mega bank posted a profit of a whopping $17.4 billion; during this past quarter, the bank “reported the biggest quarterly profit in its history,” with a 67 percent rise in net income.

I’ll end with some provincialism: Bruins dominate the Canucks, force Game 7

The Boston Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals at the Boston Garden. That makes the two teams tied 3-3. Game 7 should be a doozey. The last time the Bruins won the Stanley Cup was in 1972.

So what are you reading and blogging about today?

Monday Reads

Posted: June 13, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Barack Obama, Foreign Affairs, morning reads, Republican presidential politics, Syria | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 39 Comments

Good Morning!

I’ve been following a few stories recently.  Of course, one is about my favorite blood sport: politics.  One interesting recent announcement is that the two Mormons contending for the Republican Presidential slot are skipping Iowa.  Most of the speculation has to do with the role of religionists in the Iowa Republican party.  Law professor Ann Althouse has some interesting observations on what appears to be the unwillingness of evangelical Christians to vote for Mormons.

It’s distressing to see this conflation of conservatism and prejudice. It’s one thing if Iowan Republicans tend to go for someone with a stronger message of social conservatism, quite another if they are hostile to Mormons. Plenty of Mormons are social conservatives, and it just happens that the 2 Mormons in the race are not social conservatives. Can we get some serious research on this point? It’s a dangerous thing to allow insinuations of religious bigotry to seep into the public consciousness. I can’t tell if the Times is really against bigotry or not. If you portray Iowan religious conservatives as anti-Mormon, in one way, it seems anti-bigotry. But it’s also inviting us to feel hostility toward the Iowan evangelicals.

Althouses’ comments are based on this NYT article which states that Iowa may have an ‘ebbing influence’ on national elections.

But there are signs that its influence on the nominating process could be ebbing and that the nature of the voters who tend to turn out for the Republican caucuses — a heavy concentration of evangelical Christians and ideological conservatives overlaid with parochial interests — is discouraging some candidates from competing there.

Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, announced Thursday that he would skip the state’s Republican straw poll this summer, saving his resources — and lowering expectations — for the state’s caucuses next year.

Earlier in the week, Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former governor of Utah, conceded that he was likely to skip the Iowa caucuses altogether, noting that his opposition to ethanol subsidies makes him unpopular in a state where support for the corn-based fuel is all but demanded.

“I’m not competing in Iowa for a reason,” he told The Associated Press. In addition to his stand on ethanol, Mr. Huntsman, who served in the Obama administration as ambassador to China, says he believes in global warming and has not embraced the Tea Party movement like some of his rivals. And like Mr. Romney, Mr. Huntsman is a Mormon, a religion viewed with wariness by some conservative Christians.

Repercussions from the Arab Spring are continuing through Summer. Syria appears to be the latest country where members of the military are having second thoughts about cracking down on civil unrest in the general population.

The escalating military offensive in northwest Syria began after what corroborating accounts said was a shoot-out between members of the military secret police in Jisr al-Shughur, some of whom refused to open fire on unarmed protesters.

A growing number of first-hand testimonies from defected soldiers give a rare but dramatic insight into the cracks apparently emerging in Syria’s security forces as the unrelenting assault on unarmed protesters continues.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Turkey, having crossed the border on Friday night, an activist based in Jisr al-Shughur and trusted by experienced local reporters described how a funeral on June 4 for a man shot dead by plain-clothes security a day earlier grew into a large anti-government protest.

“As the demonstration passed the headquarters of the military secret police they opened fire right away and killed eight people,” the activist, who was among the crowd, said. “But some of the secret police refused to open fire and there were clashes between them. It was complete chaos.”

There continues to be a mounting human crisis as Syrians fleeing violence pour into nearby Turkey.

As Syrian security forces move in to the besieged town of Jisr al-Shughour, thousands of refugees are fleeing across the Turkish border.  More camps are being set up to house the new arrivals.  Many of the refugees are in desperate need of medical help.

The emergency ward at Antakya hospital is about to receive its latest casualty from Syria.  It is a young girl who has fallen sick and was brought to the Turkish border by her desperate mother, who is also pregnant. The ambulance driver says the violence in Syria means hospitals there are either full with the injured, or the journey is too hazardous.

The clashes in and around the northern Syrian town of Jisr al-Shughour have forced thousands to flee.  Many of them have recorded the horrifying scenes on cellphones and cameras. In the border village of Harabjoz, people have set up tents as they wait to cross into Turkey.  One refugee, who did not give his name, described the conditions they are facing. “There is no milk for the children,” he says.  “We bought some but we have run out.  They are targeting homes and yesterday gunmen targeted us.  All these people will not survive because they burned all their crops,” he says. “Now it’s become sectarian for sure,” he said.

A spokesman for the United Nations’ refugee agency, Metin Corabatir, has warned of a growing crisis.  “The latest figures UNHCR received from the border is 5051 who fled from Syria because of violence and persecution in this country,” he said.

Witnesses believe the true figure could be double that number – including those who have crossed undetected.

The Economist believes Obama is beatable in 2012 but seems dismayed at the Republican field of candidates.  This was my Saturday night bath read and I found it interesting so I thought I’d pass it along.  They biggest question is that how does a candidate that ran as a change agent and outsider run as ‘Goliath’ this time?

In 2008 Mr Obama represented change. This time he will have to fend off charges that he is to blame for the achingly slow recovery by arguing that it would have been worse without his actions, such as his $800 billion stimulus package and the takeover of GM and Chrysler. That may be true but it is not easy to sell a counterfactual on the stump (as the first President Bush learned). And there are other holes in Mr Obama’s record. What happened to his promises to do something about the environment or immigration or Guantánamo? Why should any businessman support a chief executive who has let his friends in the labour movement run amok and who let his health-care bill be written by Democrats in Congress? Above all, why has he never produced a credible plan to tackle the budget deficit, currently close to 10% of GDP?

Asking these questions will surely give any Republican a perch in this race. But to beat the president, the Republicans need both a credible candidate and credible policies.

I may have to change my opinion of Larry Summers a little bit.  In this FT Op-Ed, Summers tries to fight the austerity agenda and a US “lost decade”.  Wow.

Beyond the lack of jobs and incomes, an economy producing below its potential for a prolonged interval sacrifices its future. To an extent once unimaginable, new college graduates are moving back in with their parents. Strapped school districts across the country are cutting out advanced courses in maths and science. Reduced income and tax collections are the most critical cause of unacceptable budget deficits now and in the future.

You cannot prescribe for a malady unless you diagnose it accurately and understand its causes. That the problem in a period of high unemployment, as now, is a lack of business demand for employees not any lack of desire to work is all but self-evident, as shown by three points: the propensity of workers to quit jobs and the level of job openings are at near-record low; rises in non-employment have taken place among all demographic groups; rising rates of profit and falling rates of wage growth suggest employers, not workers, have the power in almost every market.

A sick economy constrained by demand works very differently from a normal one. Measures that usually promote growth and job creation can have little effect, or backfire. When demand is constraining an economy, there is little to be gained from increasing potential supply. In a recession, if more people seek to borrow less or save more there is reduced demand, hence fewer jobs. Training programmes or measures to increase work incentives for those with high and low incomes may affect who gets the jobs, but in a demand-constrained economy will not affect the total number of jobs. Measures that increase productivity and efficiency, if they do not also translate into increased demand, may actually reduce the number of people working as the level of total output remains demand-constrained.

I’m beginning to feel like part of a chorus these days.  Nearly all economists are telling whatever news source they can that this is your basic demand problem.  Now if the TV media would hire some one other than lawyers and political consultants we might get some traction here on getting a conversation about policy solutions.

I’ve got one more interesting link given to me by our resident psychologist, Bostonboomer. TNR has an interesting article up on why poor people can’t escape poverty easily.

In a paper in April 2010, Harvard behavioral economist Sendhil Mullainathan (for whom, full disclosure, I once worked) and MIT’s Abhijit Banerjee applied this same notion to decisions requiring self-control. If a doughnut costs twenty-five cents, they wrote, then that “$0.25 will be far more costly to someone living on $2 a day than to someone living on $30 a day. In other words, the same self-control problem is more consequential for the poor.” And so, in addition to all the structural barriers that prevent even determined poor people from escaping poverty, there may be another, deeper, and considerably more disturbing barrier: Poverty may reduce free will, making it even harder for the poor to escape their circumstances.

All of this suggests that we need to rethink our approaches to poverty reduction. Many of our current anti-poverty efforts focus on access to health, educational, agricultural, and financial services. Now, it seems, we need to start treating willpower as a scarce and important resource as well.

Okay, so what’s on your reading and blogging list this morning?

Saturday: Remembering Griswold and Anne Royall

Posted: June 11, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: morning reads | 15 Comments

1920's Japanese advert for tea suitable for pregnant and nursing women. Apparently it was also good for colds!

Morning news junkies… here are my picks from the week to go with your Saturday morning cuppa. Enjoy.

(the Anne Royall stuff is at the end!)

Women’s Rights

I loved this headline from RH Reality Check’s Andrea Grimes, so I’ll start off with it — “The Pill Kills” Protesters Unwittingly Help Hundreds of North Texans Get Contraception. Last Saturday, about a 100 American Life League (ALL) activists gathered outside a Dallas Planned Parenthood to protest birth control pills for “killing” marriage, babies, and women, using all kinds of lame canards, including feigning concern for women’s health of all things (see the link for details, it’s just too laughable to repeat.) In turn, Planned Parenthood of North Texas asked supporters to donate money for every control freak that showed up to ALL’s protest. More than 600 women will get free pills thanks to the anti-choicers going right off the cliff with their neverending campaign against women, which I’m convinced is the oligarchy’s “gateway drug” to controlling the rest of the 99 percenters. What a way to honor the anniversary of Griswold, too.

Via the American Prospect… Reading between the Rights:

Nearly 50 years after Griswold v. Connecticut, conservatives think the Constitution protects your privacy.

This week marks the 46th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court reproductive-rights case Griswold v. Connecticut […] Despite the permanent entrenchment of the right to privacy in American constitutionalism, the reproductive rights that Griswold helped to expand are now under siege. Protecting the reproductive rights of American women, in particular, will require determined action in all branches of federal and state government. Progressives should begin by defending the rights announced in Griswold unapologetically. The Court was right 45 years ago, and the rights it articulated in that case are worth preserving.

Taylor Marsh has a great piece up on this as well that she crossposted over at The Moderate Voice under the title “Thank the Gods for Griswold v. Connecticut“:

That Speaker Pelosi, the first female speaker in U.S. history, and Pres. Obama helped Democrats like Rep. Stupak marginalize women’s freedoms in the health care bill was breaking faith with women who helped elect these officials. When Obama doubled down to take funding away from the women of Washington, D.C. he made matters worse.

To teach Democrats a lesson, putting a Republican in the White House would simply hurt more women. However, the economics of the times, which hits women very hard, has taken our eyes off reproductive health care to the economy. The sad truth is we’re not getting equal attention from either big party who’ll be hawking their policies for 2012 and promising the moon.

Don’t believe Obama or the Republican nominee.

Precisely. I know I won’t.

Stem Cell & Heart Research

Next up… Encouraging news, via Reuters… Scientists show heart can repair itself, with help. The BBC has some good coverage as well:

You can read James Gallagher’s report on the breakthrough here, but the research raises the astonishing prospect that we might, one day, teach the human heart to repair itself. A new golden age of regenerative medicine now seems tantalisingly close.

From the British Heart Foundation, which is responsible for the research:

Our Associate Medical Director, Professor Jeremy Pearson, said:

“To repair a damaged heart is one of the holy grails of heart research. This groundbreaking study shows that adult hearts contain cells that, given the right stimulus, can mobilise and turn into new heart cells that might repair a damaged heart. The team have identified the crucial signals needed to make this happen.”

Also in related stem cell heart research news: Cytori Reports Sustained Benefits at 18 Months in Cardiac Cell Therapy Heart Attack Trial (press release, via Reuters).

2012/Politics Reads

I found this next one interesting, even if it has no impact on anything… LA Times: Democrat Michael Dukakis, who didn’t get to be president, wishes the same for GOP’s Mitt Romney. Here’s what Dukakis said on CNN when Eliot Spitzer asked him if there was anyone amongst the GOP slate he could respect:

DUKAKIS: Yes, John Huntsman. I have a lot of respect for him. I don’t want him to be the president, I want the current president to be re-elected, but I have a lot of respect for Huntsman.

I’m really not sure why he wants a “Democratic” president who won’t fight for jobs to be re-elected, other than it’s the politically correct thing for a Democratic partisan to say of course, but speaking of Huntsman… According to a Politico report on his “no-names strategy,” Huntsman and Obama have an agreement not to attack each other personally by name, at least for now.

If Huntsman were to end up putting his hat in for 2012, I wonder how long he could actually last the GOP primary cycle without referring overtly to the incumbent President. Especially in the debates.

In other 2012 developments: The bad news about Newt’s campaign falling apart is that it’s giving the “Rick Perry for president” peanut gallery more to yap about. All I can say is if Goodhair runs in 2012… eesh, that’s too scary to even contemplate. If you’re looking for a short horror story to read this morning, look no further than the Wapo’s piece on Perry weighing a candidacy this go-around, which came out before the Perry people abandoned the sinking Gingrich ship:

Perry has been a virtual crusader against what he calls an increasingly intrusive federal government and a defender of the states to run their own affairs.

The legislative priorities in Texas as of late have been forced sonograms, guns on campus, tax breaks for yachts, etc. The Austin Chronicle has called what just transpired in our legislature the Worst. Session. Ever. Not a state government record to be bragging about, and far from fighting governmental intrusion considering Perry’s declaration of an “emergency” priority for anti-abortion legislation. Keep in mind, too, that Perry is the guy trying to pray the national debt and natural disasters away and elevating hate groups to carry out such nonsense…

Perry‘s Day of Fundie Bullshit

From the UT Austin schoolpaper — Perry’s proclamation draws national attention, incites criticism from non-Christians:

Gov. Rick Perry is attracting national attention after organizing “The Response: A Day of Prayer and Fasting” to deal with a nation “in crisis.”

The daylong “non-denominational, apolitical, Christian prayer meeting” scheduled for Aug. 6 at Reliant Stadium in Houston is modeled after a ritual in the biblical Book of Joel, according to a press release. The American Family Association will cover the costs of the event, a move that has raised alarm from the Secular Coalition of America.

Sean Faircloth, executive director of the Secular Coalition of America, said the civil rights firm Southern Poverty Law Center designated the American Family Association as a hate group in 2010.

“It is sad to see a governor pandering to the most extreme and hateful fundamentalist groups,” Faircloth said.

Earlier this week, Joyce Arnold did an excellent news diary about Perry’s prayer lunacy, as well.

Normally I try to ignore stupid religionist pet tricks of this nature, because there’s always that fine line to walk in terms of making them more important than they are by paying them any attention, but I’ve really had it with this endless Christian Nation crap and their perpetual state of hate this time. It’s too much, and Perry’s involvement in all of this just stinks to high heaven. He should run for President of the American Taliban already, but then maybe that’s what running for POTUS is these days… Anyhow, the long and short of this being, I’m almost tempted to attend the August 6th protest and bring others with me if I can work it out:

Anybody that values the separation of Church and State is welcome to join — non-theists, non-Christian, secular Christians. Please be aware that we are NOT trying to convert or mock anybody’s religion,” the event’s page said.

Happy Pride

All LGBT voters and supporters, and all liberal constituencies of the Democratic party really, need to read Joyce’s post from last Saturday, “A Measure of Pride,” in honor of Pride month:

A photo on the “Winning the Future” LGBT website was taken on June 17, 2009, when Obama signed an executive order increasing benefits for Federal employees with same-gender partners. When I saved it for possible use, I noticed how it was tagged on the website: “lgbt hero image.” That, apparently, is how the O campaign is measuring their pride in accomplishments for Queerdom, at “hero” heights.

I tend to measure accomplishments, and pride in accomplishments, by way of employment non-discrimination protection; housing protection; marriage equality; the end of DADT discharges while the repeal process plays out; prosecution of hate crimes; LGBT kids free to go to proms, protected from bullying … things like that. And more often than not, those I most admire and appreciate are the people – usually at the non-Insider level – who spend years and decades working to make such things happen. These people are the real heroes, the real standard for the measure of pride in being and living as who they are.

Don’t forget Joyce’s Queer Talk later today. I never miss it, and neither should you! (That link should update with her latest post up top whenever it goes up.)

How Did America Get Here

Over at foreignpolicy.com, Steve Walt has food for thought up on what’s ailing our political system and how we got here, which FP is previewing on its frontpage as “Fiddling with Weiners While Washington Burns”:

If we were facing an imminent threat of invasion, we’d be looking for our Lincolns, Marshalls, Roosevelts, and Eisenhowers, and we wouldn’t be wasting our time with the Palin circus, which is nothing more than a “reality TV” version of real politics. Back when another Great Depression was looming in 2009, you actually saw the political system work, precisely because even head-in-the-sand politicos dimly understood that we were in Big Trouble and needed to do something. But once that immediate crisis was over, it was back to gridlock and grandstanding as usual.

That’s because the crisis wasn’t over. The head “politico” himself just bailed out the big banks and told the American people to “sacrifice.”

It’s too bad Walt tags his post only with “Bush’s legacy.” Obama has been given enough time to “change Washington,” and one of the reasons the Palin reality show circus continues is precisely because Obama is not a Lincoln or a Roosevelt. Most of America was looking for a leader to come in and fix the mess Bush made. When there isn’t any meaningful alternative to the corporate welfare agenda facilitated by both the D and R parties, that’s all the more oxygen in the room left for Palin and her tribe, as well as Bachmann and hers, to suck up.

Don’t get me wrong. Palin and Bachmann would make horrible presidents. But, it’s weird to mention one of them in a post about where it all went wrong that says absolutely *nothing* directly about the sitting president of the United States or his personal contribution to this mess.

Well enough about the guys and gals who are failing us on the domestic stage. Yup, that’s a cue up for my reads on you-know-who.

Hillaryland

Hillary and Huma: June 9, 2011, Abu Dhabi

John Kerry ’04 blogger Pamela Leavy over at the Democratic Daily had this to say on the rumor that Hillary is in talks to take over World Bank and subsequent pushback from Foggy Bottom and the White House:

There has never been a woman in charge of the World Bank. Maybe it’s time and who better than Hillary Clinton. Of course, it’s a story that wasn’t, so the speculation is just that. Speculation.

Leavey also noted this on the Kerry-to-succeed-Hillary angle:

Kerry of course would make a phenomenal Secretary of State, but his staff has always squelched those rumors as well.

I don’t know whether Hillary is angling for the World Bank spot or not, but Kerry’s been angling for that SecState spot for what seems like forever now.

Via Jezebel, on Merkel’s photo to Hillary:

Presumably Merkel is trying to own the fact that a large daily in her country thought it was so interesting that two middle-aged women in public life might dress alike, or be shaped alike, or whatever.

But two can play this game. Look, it’s Obama and David Cameron! Except for that pesky American flag, they’re twins. Uncanny.

Heh.

Alright, I’ve got some more links.

Here’s Hillary…

…laughing her heart out with Merkel at the luncheon where Merkel gifted Hillary the photo.

…attending the wedding of Andrea Catsimatidis And Christopher Nixon Cox last weekend.

…in more pictures of her looking elegant in Abu Dhabi. Click to see Still4Hill’s slideshow. (Reuters has more pics just of Huma Abedin smiling at the airport. Huma is an incredible woman.)

…wheeling down in Zambia yesterday. Stacy’s got some great photos up at the link.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton looks over products made by members of the African Women's Entrepreneurship Program at the Mulungushi International Conference Center in Lusaka, Zambia, Friday, June 10, 2011. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool)

…speaking informally to the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program:

Business is not an end in itself, it is a means to an end, to be able to educate children, to be able to have a better home, to be able to provide healthcare, to build economies and create more opportunities. And you are living examples of that.

…the action hero, via CNN political ticker…

(CNN) – Powerful. Popular. Able to leap between campaign battles and diplomatic landmines in a single pantsuit.

The latest modern day comic book hero is none other than Hillary Clinton, who is being profiled in a new political comic, “Political Power: Hillary Clinton.”

FULL STORY

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton wraps herself with chitenge material after she was presented with it by members of the African Women's Entrepreneurship Program at the Mulungushi International Conference Center in Lusaka, Zambia, Friday, June 10, 2011. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool)

Open Letter to Hillary Clinton from Ethiopia, By Eskinder Nega. I love these open letters to Madame Secretary from around the world (last week it was from women in Saudia Arabia)–it seems like a whole new avenue for political expression has been opened up! There’s just something “extra” in letters to Hillary that I can’t remember seeing in letters to other US officials in recent history–a sense of dialogue with someone these activists and journalists actually respect. Read the two I’ve linked to and see for yourself. A tiny snippet from Nega’s letter:

The story of Hilary Rodham Clinton is stirring, to say the least. I would be hard pressed to class it amongst conventional rags to riches narratives. While not classically rich, your father, Hugh Rodham, was neither a pauper in any sense of the word. I think the chronicle of your phenomenal rise to fame and prominence rather stands for the ideal absent in far too many countries, but not in the US: the early recognition of merit, its cultivation, and ultimate reward.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton claps as she is sung to by members of the African Women's Entrepreneurship Program at the Mulungushi International Conference Center in Lusaka, Zambia, Friday, June 10, 2011. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool)

That blurb may make you think it’s all a love letter to Hillary, and there is a huge serving of that in there, so all you Hillaristas out there need to click over if you haven’t already. The crux of Nega’s argument though is about imploring Secretary Clinton and the US not to make the same policy slip-up in Ethiopia that was made in Egypt:

The word on the street, unfairly I believe, is that Hilary favors old, violent autocrats over young, peaceful democrats. This would have had dire consequences for America’s already precarious reputation if not for the personal popularity of President Obama.

What’s funny is if you read through, the entire thing reads like Hillary’s the one who can change anything and Obama’s the one who’s just there to smile and look nice.

Today in Women’s History (June 11)

Anne Royall

1769: Anne Royall, Godmother of Muckraking, was born. From the link, which was published on Alternet right after the 2010 midterms (and was a reworking of an earlier post on Royall’s birthday in 2008):

She would have skewered the rising Tea Party phenomenon with her take-no-prisoners wit.

She would have lectured President Obama and his floundering Democrats for their electoral train wreck.

More importantly: Just as she did on the heels of the 1836 elections, with another speculative banking and economy crisis readying to explode and lead to our country to its first bonafide great depression, Anne Royall would have admonished our nation’s journalists and bloggers to expose the corruptive influence of money in politics.

In many respects, Anne Royall was our nation’s first blogger–the godmother of muckrakers whose wicked and insightful newspaper in the 1830s in Washington, DC serves as a compelling story of her pioneering role for contemporary women journalists, commentators and writers like Arianna Huffington, Rachel Maddow, Amy Goodman. Molly Ivins, Laura Flanders, Katrina vanden Heuvel and Maureen Dowd.

Somehow I’m having a hard time imagining Anne Royall writing the “Your Tweetin’ Heart” column that Maureen Dowd just wrote.

Well that’s it for me… what’s on your blogger’s plate this morning?

[originally posted at Let Them Listen; crossposted at Taylor Marsh and Liberal Rapture]

Friday Reads

Posted: June 10, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: abortion rights, Economy, Federal Budget and Budget deficit, fetus fetishists, Foreign Affairs, Hillary Clinton, Libya, Middle East, morning reads, religious extremists, Reproductive Rights, Women's Rights | Tags: , , , | 30 Comments

Good Morning!!!

The news continues to be fairly depressing as news tends to be, but we’ll try to cover some interesting things today!

It’s really hard to believe, but we’re about to mark the 30th anniversary of the AIDS epidemic.  All of us that came of age during that period have a lot of lost friends and stories to tell. Thankfully, AIDS is a manageable disease now.  Unfortunately, too many people still don’t do what it takes to protect themselves.  Here’s an interesting story of how Congress came to realize that we had a growing health threat on our hands.

Oddly enough, it was the specter of Republican budget cuts that led to the first awareness of the AIDS epidemic in Congress. Ronald Reagan’s budget director, David Stockman, had targeted public health agencies for massive cuts. A Waxman staffer, concerned about their potential effects, had gone to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta to do reconnaissance. CDC scientists were alarmed and predicted that the cuts would lead to an epidemic, although they imagined it would involve a preventable childhood illness, since Reagan had proposed cutting the immunization budget in half. Waxman was worried enough by what he learned to join with a Republican colleague, Pete Domenici, to protect the immunization budget.
The epidemic came anyway. While in Atlanta, the Waxman staffer was told that he should meet with a doctor named Jim Curran, who had noticed an outbreak of an unusual and deadly pneumonia among gay men in Los Angeles. Today, Curran is renowned as the doctor who first raised the alarm among epidemiologists. But back then, he declined the offer of a congressional hearing to help direct research funding to his work because he was afraid that the attention would interfere with his access to a gay community that was fearful of the government (homosexuality was a felony in many states). “I’ll call you when I’m ready,” he told Waxman’s staff. Let’s pause here to note that before AIDS even had a name, members of Congress were aware of the disease and working to help.

Curran called a year later. In 1982, Congress held its first hearing on what was now called AIDS, a field hearing in Los Angeles. A single reporter showed up. But eventually Waxman and a group of colleagues succeeded in drawing attention to the epidemic

Texas continues its attacks on women’s right to choose.  It has revived an anti-abortion measure to omnibus legislation. It’s also continuing the Republican extremist attack on Planned Parenthood.

Besides the two health care provisions to privatize Medicare and Medicaid, the Texas House attached several anti-abortion amendments to the omnibus legislation: (1) a bill to “ban hospital districts from using local tax revenue to fund abortions, except in emergency situations — or else risk losing state funding,” (2) “limit the state family planning funds received by Planned Parenthood,” (3) force physicians who provide abortions to collect more data on their patients.

More Kind and Kompassionate Konservative philosophy comes from a Republican in Massachussetts who believes that any undocumented worker who has been raped “should be afraid to come foreward”.

Massachusetts GOP state Rep. Ryan Fattman has such contempt for illegal immigrants that he believes undocumented women who are raped should be afraid to go to the police. Yesterday, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported on Fattman’s incendiary comments, which he made while defending a controversial federal immigration program that many say will damage the relationship between law enforcement and immigrant communities. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) has refused to join the program out of concern that immigrants who are victims of violent crimes will be afraid to report them and seek help…

Representative Fattman supports deporting any undocumented rape victim who goes to the police immediately.  That appears to be more important to him than preventing crimes and supporting victims of crime.  Unbelievable.

Robert Reich continues to be an outspoken advocate for the unemployed and for a stimulus to correct the current economic problem.  He accuses Obama of going over to the supply side fairy tale spun by Republicans.  Yup, it’s not about more business incentives, it’s all about the lack of customers.  He joins me and other economists who say it’s all about the Demand side right now.

Obama says he’s interested in exploring with Republicans extending some of the measures that were part of that tax-cut package “to make sure that we get this recovery up and running in a robust way.”

Accordingly, the White House is mulling a temporary cut in the payroll taxes businesses pay on wages. White House advisors figure this may appeal to Republican lawmakers who have been discussing the same idea. It would, in essence, match the 2 percent reduction in employee contributions to payroll taxes this year, enacted as part of the deal to extend the Bush tax cuts.

Other ideas under consideration at the White House include a corporate tax cut, accompanied by the closing of some corporate tax loopholes.

Can we get real for a moment? Businesses don’t need more financial incentives. They’re already sitting on a vast cash horde estimated to be upwards of $1.6 trillion. Besides, large and middle-sized companies are having no difficulty getting loans at bargain-basement rates, courtesy of the Fed.

In consequence, businesses are already spending as much as they can justify economically. Almost two-thirds of the measly growth in the economy so far this year has come from businesses rebuilding their inventories. But without more consumer spending, businesses won’t spend more. A robust economy can’t be built on inventory replacements.

The problem isn’t on the supply side. It’s on the demand side. Businesses are reluctant to spend more and create more jobs because there aren’t enough consumers out there able and willing to buy what businesses have to sell.

The so-called Gang of Six are close to releasing their budget ideas.  They’ve shared what they’ve come up with so far with some members they feel may be responsive.  Will it be enough to head off Republican calls for default on US debt?

Freshman Republican Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, who was in the meeting, said she was open to looking into any potential plan that would address the deficit in a serious and responsible way. She characterized the meeting as an update on the group’s progress.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) who is spearheading the group’s efforts with Chambliss was tight-lipped about the presentation and refused to take any questions or even vaguely describe the mood of the meeting.

“Do you really think, as somebody who’s obsessed about this that I’m going to do anything to screw it up now?” Warner said emphatically Thursday afternoon.

Even Dick Durbin, another Gang member and the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, was coy with reporters after the meeting. The Illinois Democrat is typically quick to present even a basic line expressing optimism or progress made in the meeting, instead opting to playfully pretend with reporters he knew nothing about the group or the meeting.

“I can neither, confirm, deny or retract [anything about the meeting,” Durbin teased with reporters.

Aides on the Hill are quick to point out that lawmakers will talk more when things are going poorly and less when things are going well. Perhaps after a few weeks of uncertainty, the remaining “Five Guys” trying to forge a deal are close to one.

NATO has upped the ante in Libya by hammering Tripoli and directly targeting Colonel Gaddafi. Some countries are seeking to give access to the country’s frozen assets to the rebels.  Many believe that the regime’s days are coming to an end shortly.  Qaddafi is said to have ordered mass rape and to have handed out Viagra to troops. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in the middle east working with other nations to plan for a post-Gaddafi Libya.

But another U.S. official indicated there was a conscious effort by NATO military planners to target air strikes closer to where Gaddafi is thought to have been taking shelter — and the Obama administration  is privately supporting the intensified strikes.

So, that’s a little bit of what I found is going on in the world.  What’s on your reading and blogging list today?

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