The Ledes

Monday, October 7, 2024

Weather Channel: “H​urricane Milton has rapidly intensified into a Category 3 and hurricane and storm surge watches are now posted along Florida's western Gulf Coast, where the storm poses threats of life-threatening storm surge, destructive winds and flooding rainfall by midweek. 'Milton will be a historic storm for the west coast of Florida,' the National Weather Service in Tampa Bay said in a briefing Monday morning.” ~~~

     ~~~ New York Times live updates are here for what is now a Cat 5 hurricane. 

CNN: “This year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their work on the discovery of microRNA, a fundamental principle governing how gene activity is regulated. Their research revealed how genes give rise to different cells within the human body, a process known as gene regulation. Gene regulation by microRNA – a family of molecules that helps cells control the sort of proteins they make – ... was first revealed by Ambros and Ruvkun. The Nobel Prize committee announced the prestigious honor ... in Sweden on Monday.... Ambros, a professor of natural science at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, conducted the research that earned him the prize at Harvard University. Ruvkun conducted his research at Massachusetts General Hospital, and is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School.”

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The Ledes

Sunday, October 6, 2024

New York Times: “Two boys have been arrested and charged in a street attack on David A. Paterson, a former governor of New York, and his stepson, the police said. One boy, who is 12, was charged with second-degree gang assault, and the other, a 13-year-old, was charged with third-degree gang assault, the police said on Saturday night. Both boys, accompanied by their parents, turned themselves in to the police, according to Sean Darcy, a spokesman for Mr. Paterson. A third person, also a minor, went to the police but was not charged in the Friday night attack in Manhattan, according to an internal police report.... Two other people, both adults, were involved in the attack, according to the police. They fled on foot and have not been caught, the police said. The former governor was not believed to have been targeted in the assault....”

Weather Channel: “Tropical Storm Milton, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, is expected to become a hurricane late Sunday or early Monday. The storm is expected to pose a major hurricane threat to Florida by midweek, just over a week after Helene pushed through the region. The National Hurricane Center says that 'there is an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and wind impacts for portions of the west coast of the Florida Peninsula beginning late Tuesday or Wednesday.'”

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

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Jun192013

The Commentariat -- June 20, 2013

John Broder of the New York Times: "President Obama is preparing a major policy push on climate change, including, for the first time, limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new and existing power plants, as well as expanded renewable energy development on public lands and an accelerated effort on energy efficiency in buildings and equipment, senior officials said Wednesday."

Jackie Calmes of the New York Times reports on reactions to President Obama's proposal "to limit American and Russian deployed strategic warheads to about 1,000 each, [which] would bring the two countries back to around the levels of 1954."

Michael O'Brien of NBC News: "FBI director Robert Mueller said Wednesday that the nation's top law enforcement bureau uses drones to conduct surveillance on U.S. soil, though only on a 'very, very minimal basis.'" ...

... New York Times Editors: "The basic justification for outsourcing government work is to get a job done better and cheaper. Outsourcing intelligence does not appear to achieve either aim.... The proliferation of private sector employees with top-secret clearances, now estimated at up to 500,000, makes breaches more likely.... The revolving door between government intelligence agencies and private-sector contractors ... conflates public and private interests and entrenches the status quo.... While it may still make sense to outsource specific projects, the practice of outsourcing vast swaths of national security, with little or no attempt to develop the needed expertise inside government, has gone on for too long with too little scrutiny." ...

... Glenn Greenwald: "Top secret documents obtained by the Guardian illustrate what the Fisa court actually does -- and does not do -- when purporting to engage in 'oversight' over the NSA's domestic spying. That process lacks many of the safeguards that Obama, the House GOP, and various media defenders of the NSA are trying to lead the public to believe exist.... Under [the Fisa Amendments Act of 2008], which was just renewed last December for another five years, no warrants are needed for the NSA to eavesdrop on a wide array of calls, emails and online chats involving US citizens.... The decision to begin listening to someone's phone calls or read their emails is made exclusively by NSA analysts and their 'line supervisors'. There is no outside scrutiny, and certainly no Fisa court involvement." ...

... Leakers' Solidarity. Ned Resnikoff of NBC News: "'We are in touch with [Edward] Snowden frequently, and we are involved in the process of brokering his asylum in Iceland,' Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said on a Wednesday press conference call. Also featured on the call were Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and previous National Security Agency leaker Thomas Drake. The joint gathering was an unusual show of solidarity from three men who have all found themselves under attack by the United States government for disclosing classified information."

Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, said on Wednesday that the central bank intended to reduce its monetary stimulus later this year -- and end the bond purchases entirely by the middle of next year -- if unemployment continued to decline at the pace that the Fed expected." ...

... Here's the Fed's statement. ...

... As Ed Kilgore notes, the statement indicates that "the Fed had decided to stand absolutely pat on monetary stimulus at its latest policy meeting. Whoever drafts their deliberately tedious statements even tried to use the same language as in previous announcements, clearly to stress there was no news to worry about.... But then Ben Bernanke held his traditional press conference, and let himself get talked into speculating about the future conditions under which these stimulative efforts would be slowly curtailed. Even as he spoke, stocks started to slide, and now it looks like you'd never know the Fed actually did nothing." ...

... Inyoung Hwang & Katie Brennan of Bloomberg: "The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index retreated the most in two weeks as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank may reduce bond purchases later this year as the economy strengthens."

** David Dayen in Salon: "Bank of America's mortgage servicing unit systematically lied to homeowners, fraudulently denied loan modifications, and paid their staff bonuses for deliberately pushing people into foreclosure: Yes, these allegations were suspected by any homeowner who ever had to deal with the bank to try to get a loan modification -- but now they come from six former employees and one contractor, whose sworn statements were added last week to a civil lawsuit filed in federal court in Massachusetts.... It is a testament to the corruption of the federal regulatory and law enforcement apparatus that we're only hearing evidence from inside Bank of America now, in a civil class-action lawsuit...." Read the whole article. CW: a friend of mine -- a very persistent, savvy friend -- was a victim of this runaround. I believe every word of the allegations.

Thomas Edsall in the New York Times on "our broken social contract." The remarks of Alan Krueger, who is the head of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, are worth reading. Charles Murray & David Brooks -- not so much.

This. Burns. Me. Up. Ernesto Londoño of the Washington Post: Facing a tight withdrawal deadline and tough terrain, the U.S. military has destroyed more than 170 million pounds worth of vehicles and other military equipment as it rushes to wind down its role in the Afghanistan war by the end of 2014. The massive disposal effort, which U.S. military officials call unprecedented, has unfolded largely out of sight amid an ongoing debate inside the Pentagon about what to do with the heaps of equipment that won't be returning home. Military planners have determined that they will not ship back more than $7 billion worth of equipment -- about 20 percent of what the U.S. military has in Afghanistan -- because it is no longer needed or would be too costly to ship back home."

Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post: "Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) yesterday followed Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio) and Sen. Mark Kirk (Ill.) to became the third Republican in the U.S. Senate to come out in favor of marriage equality. While her powerful statement was a testament to a politician willing to rethink a fraught policy position, it also is a clear expression of her conservative ideals. And that's a good thing. One I hope will be mirrored by the Supreme Court soon, maybe even today." CW: Capehart highlights this line from Murkowski's statement: "I am a life-long Republican because I believe in promoting freedom and limiting the reach of government." Uh-huh. Alaska receives more than $15,000 per annum per capita from the federal government. If she'd like the rest of us taxpayers to pull back some of that intrusive overreach, we'd be glad to.

Erica Werner & David Espo of the AP: "White House-backed immigration legislation is gaining momentum in the Senate, where key lawmakers say they are closing in on a bipartisan compromise to spend tens of billions of dollars stiffening the bill's border security requirements without delaying legalization for millions living in the country unlawfully.... Under the emerging compromise, the government would grant legal status to immigrants living in the United States unlawfully at the same time the additional security was being put into place. Green cards, which signify permanent residency status, would be withheld until the security steps were complete." ...

Right Wing World

... Dana Milbank: At a Washington rally (or press conference or some combination thereof), Tea Party members & their stalwarts in Congress trod on their former heartthrob Marco Rubio. Milbank doesn't mention it, but the remarks from Heritage Foundation "scholar" Robert Rector were pretty rich in light of the fact that the Congressional Budget Office -- where the green shades know how to weigh the data without putting their thumbs on the scale -- just totally refuted an earlier Heritage Foundation claim that immigration reform would bring a net cost to the U.S. ...

... More details of the rally (or whatever) from Emma Dumain of Roll Call: House "Speaker John A. Boehner ... met with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on Wednesday and hopes to cure his party's huge demographic challenge with Hispanics by passing an immigration overhaul this year. But the tea party energy on display outside the Capitol, which catapulted him into power in 2010, has turned on the speaker." ...

... Steve Benen: "... consider yesterday's event in the larger context: what have Republicans shown the nation lately? There was a Tea Party rally this week, which followed a big fight over an anti-abortion bill that can't pass. In the states, we see a focus on culture-war issues, including state-mandated, medically-unnecessary ultrasounds. On Capitol Hill, most Republican lawmakers are running around talking about 'amnesty' and 'illegals,' which is every bit as insulting as their rhetoric about women. Yesterday, we even heard talk about 'takers,' as if the '47 percent' video never happened. And on the horizon, many in the GOP are already planning another debt-ceiling crisis."

Ed Kilgore: "If ... Kansas and North Carolina are currently operating as sort of right-wing policy 'laboratories' thanks to the highly-focused ideological nature of their Republican state legislative majorities, then my own home state of Georgia might be viewed as sort of a petri dish, where wingnuts don’t necessarily wield great power but do exert an immoderating influence on the GOP." CW: as far as I can tell, Georgia's wingers think sex is icky. ...

Father Knows Best. You know, maybe part of the problem is we need to go back into the schools at a very early age, maybe at the grade school level, and have a class for the young girls and have a class for the young boys and say, 'You know, this is what's important. This is what a father does that is maybe a little different, maybe a little bit better than the talents that a mom has in a certain area. And the same thing for the young girls, that, you know, this is what a mom does, and this is what is important from the standpoint of that union which we call marriage. Of my three daughters and one daughter-in-law, they all work. They all work, some of them full-time, some of them part-time. But they're still there as moms. And when they come home and take over that responsibility, they need a shared partner, and that partner is that partner for life. And I'm talking about, of course, the father. -- Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), who is, BTW, an obstetrician, speaking on the House floor in support of the Defense of Marriage Act ...

... Steve Benen: "Is it possible Republicans are trying to make the gender gap worse? Are politicians like Gingrey embracing misogyny as some kind of deliberate campaign tactic?" ...

... Maybe So. Steve M. of No More Mister Nice Blog: "I mean, really, if he's going to say that boys and girls should be taught traditional gender roles from a young age, why not go all the way and say it was a mistake to allow women to vote? That great constitutional scholar Ann Coulter favors repeal ('If we took away women’s right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president'), as do such conservatives as National Review's Michael Walsh ('."let's just observe that without it Barack Obama could never have become president. Time for the ladies to take one for the team'"), Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson, and Vox Day." ...

... Sorry I missed this one, which James S. referred to in the Comments a couple of days ago ...

     ... Fetuses Just Wanna Have Fun. Kate McDonough of Salon: "Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said on Monday that he supports the proposed federal ban on abortion at 20 weeks because he has personally witnessed male fetuses with their hands 'between their legs' pleasuring themselves at 15 weeks. 'There is no question in my mind that a baby at 20-weeks after conception can feel pain. The fact of the matter is, I argue with the chairman because I thought the date was far too late. We should be setting this at 15-weeks, 16-weeks,' said the former OB-GYN during the House Rules Committee debate on the 'Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.'” Like Phil Gingrey (& Ron Paul), Burgess is an OB-GYN.

Here's obnoxious Food Network host Paula Deen appearing with Michelle Obama in 2008:

... AND here's Deen with Oprah Winfrey (apparently Oprah's network OWN produced a special on Deen):

... AND this makes you wonder what Deen said about Obama & Winfrey when the cameras weren't rolling.

Local News

CW: Yes, yes, I know this is an incredibly competitive contest, but Chris Hayes is coming down on the side of my highly-qualified contestant. Thanks, Chris! Screw you, Rick:

Tim Buckland of the New Hampshire Union Leader: "A man was arrested and two people, including a Concord police officer, were allegedly assaulted during a rally Tuesday in a clash between a gun control group and gun rights supporters. The event had people supporting the Mayors Against Illegal Guns movement, founded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, reading the names of those 'killed with guns' since the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.... Witnesses said Daniel Musso, 52, of Brentwood was asked by police to move. He placed his hand on an officer, was tasered and arrested." CW: not sure why this story is getting national attention, but it is. ...

... Okay, here's one reason. Philip Bump of the Atlantic: "Mayor Michael Bloomberg's organization Mayors Against Illegal Guns organized an event in Concord, New Hampshire, yesterday, during which the names of victims of gun violence since Newtown were read for several hours. Included among those names: Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Boston bombing suspect killed during a shoot-out with police." Mayors Against Illegal guns issued a statement saying Tsarnaev's name should not have been on the list. Bump explains how it got there.

News Ledes

Orlando Sentinel: " Six women, all but one of them white, will decide whether Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman murdered 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in a case that sparked widespread outrage and prompted civil rights marches. They will begin their work -- listening to testimony and evaluating evidence -- Monday morning."

Los Angeles Times: "A panel of federal judges on Thursday ordered Gov. Jerry Brown to immediately begin releasing inmates from the state's crowded prisons. In a 52-page order..., the court ordered Brown to expand good-time credits that allow inmates to finish their prison terms early. The judges demanded that the state take such steps 'commencing forthwith' and regardless of any laws that might prevent those releases."

Washington Post: "The stock market plummeted on Thursday, posting its biggest one-day drop since 2011, rocked by investor concern that the Federal Reserve is getting closer to pulling back on its stimulus program and by poor economic news from China." New York Times story here.

NBC News has some details of James Gandolfini's death.

AP: "Dozens of homes were evacuated near Denver as a wind-driven wildfire flared, one of many in the western states where hot and windy conditions were making it easy for the wild land blazes to start and spread."

AP: " The Afghan Taliban are ready to free a U.S. soldier held captive since 2009 in exchange for five of their senior operatives imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay as a conciliatory gesture, a senior spokesman for the group said Thursday."

Washington Post: "A new virus responsible for an outbreak of respiratory illness in the Middle East may be more deadly than SARS, according to a team of infectious disease specialists who recently investigated a set of cases in Saudi Arabia."

New York Times: "... at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, the tale of [Giovanni Palatucci's] heroic exploits is being removed from an exhibition after officials there learned of new evidence suggesting that, far from being a hero, he was an enthusiastic Nazi collaborator involved in the deportation of Jews to Auschwitz."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (16)

How appalling that the three bozo Ob-Gyns in the House--of course, all from the South--are such misogynists. I pity their (former) patients, but even more their disrespected wives and daughters. Would be interested to know if they are all "Stepfords," or if one or more has broken out of the bubble and discovered a SELF! Anybody know? Hard to find a Republican woman who is not a "wife of" or "former wife of!"

I long ago fired all my male MDs, and now use only women doctors. My husband (who is an MD) supported my decision when I made it, and he has mostly switched to the doctors I see. The best PCP we have had--including when we lived in a large metropolitan area with supposedly "the best of the best" physicians--is a Canadian woman physician who practices in a small town on the Oregon Coast. She is so turned off by the craziness of our Republican congressmen and the general Republican misogyny (which IMHO includes quite a few women) that she is thinking about returning to British Columbia. I may have to follow her if things keep getting crazier here!

BTW, is Ann Coulter the fraud I think she is? She certainly cannot believe the froth that spews from her frowny mouth! I've been thinkin' she is laughing all the way to the bank. Just another Greed Queen.

June 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

I have no idea what kind of mother James Gandolfini was blessed with, but as Tony Soprano his mother was the Medea of Bloomfield Avenue, never loved him and would probably have given the signal to some goomah to have him whacked. As Tony he was going through a rough anxiety period telling Dr. Melfi, he was short of breath, felt tingly inside. Later he collapsed while grilling pork. He struggled for a renewed sense of family, heritage, truths, mental health, and a "prime cut of the Esplanade construction projects." James Gandolfini had the good fortune to be in one of the richest achievements in television history and set the stage for more gritty ones to come. I grew so fond of Tony even though ...Yesterday Gandolfini died––too soon. This talented man whom, we have been told, was one of the nicest guys around.

Tony: The morning of the day I got sick, I been thinking. It's good to be in something from the ground floor. I came in too late for that I know. But lately, I'm getting the feeling that I came in at the end. the best is over.

June 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

I find this fetal obsession by many of the Republicans so cockeyed, border lying on a particular pathology that eludes me. Such concern for the unborn and at the same time no concern for the live children who don't have enough to eat, who don't have the opportunity to flourish educationally and emotionally, who are saddled with student loans, and can't find decent jobs. The extreme opponents of abortion have bombed clinics, stalked and killed doctors, spend their time standing outside Planned Parenthood clinics yelling their obscenities and holding up their awful signs. These same kinds of people display similar tactics when defending their championship of animal rights when the tactics they employ in pursuit of their high minded objectives. For example in New Jersey after sharpshooters were hired to cull its deer population, "the mayor's car was splattered with deer guts and the township animal control officer began wearing a bulletproof vest (like some Planned Parenthood workers have had to do) after finding his dog poisoned and his cat crushed to death." The irony here is outstanding.

And Kate––Ann Coulter is a bloody fraud who craves attention any way she can and she can. If she didn't have that long blond mane and that skinny (some say sexy?) body draped in black sheaths she might have been ignored––but you know Merica–-it jest loooves them pretty ladies with big mouths signifying nothin.

June 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

The long running saga of GOP misogyny continues apace but at least one member of that team has come right out and said what, it appears, they all believe: men are better than women; boys are better than girls. And the sooner all you girls cotton on to that, the happier you'll be barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen.

And don't worry about being raped. According to GOP mental giants, rape hardly ever ends in conception. Good thing too because if you were raped and that violation resulted in a pregnancy you didn't want, Republicans are here to say "No, nyet, nein, and no fucking way for an abortion". Oh, you might be able to convince them to let you have an abortion in certain cases of rape or incest, but only if you go to the authorities and convince them--PROVE to them--that you weren't the instigator of the act, providing plenty of salacious details to help support your weak-ass claim.

And not for nothing, but that bill passed by the Republican house was sponsored by Trent Franks ( R-Moron) Arizona, the rape and conception expert who declared that even "real rape" rarely ends in pregnancy. And if so, as other Republicans have finger-wagged, it's a gift from god so suck it up.

And speaking of god, why does no one in the media (at least none I'm aware of) press the point that the GOP's entire anti-abortion movement is based on religious principles. It's entirely grounded in religious dogma without a shred of scientific evidence or any other underpinnings that aren't mired in religious belief.

Turn this around a bit and I wonder how it would come across were some extreme Islamic groups trying to force an element of Sharia Law on the rest of the country. This is no different. Not a bit. It's religious extremists trying to inflict their beliefs on all of us, overturning the law of land to do so. How would that play out if it were Muslims pushing this rather than Christians?

And to make this week in conservative misogyny complete, I ran across (ran over would have been my preference) a completely fair and balanced article covering the rape/abortion issue on a website run by the GOP's media wing, foxnews.com. The article consisted of 25 paragraphs 24 of which were devoted to the point of view of Republicans, but just to show how fair and balanced conservative reporting can be, they devoted one whole paragraph (the last) to a very short reminder that pro-choice groups are unhappy about the whole thing.

Just another week in the alternative universe that is Right Wing World.

June 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Took me a while to find it, but our shared concern about the proper limits to our contemporary surveillance state reminded me of this:

"I like a country where it's nobody's damned business what magazines anyone reads, what he thinks, whom he has cocktails with. I like a country where we do not have to stuff the chimney against listening ears and where what we say does not go into the FBI files along with a note from S-17 (anyone know what that might be or have been?) that I may have another wife in California. I like a country where no college trained flatfeet collect memoranda about us...a country where when someone makes a statement about us to officials he can be held to account. We had that kind of country only a little while ago and I'm for getting it back."

--Bernard DeVoto, likely written during the McCarthy era and likely printed as part of one of his "Easy Chair" pieces in Harpers magazine...

DeVoto was a cantankerous romantic, best known for two or three exuberant histories of the American West, but no matter what he wrote, he liked to strike sparks...and his independent spirit, always writ large and maybe increasingly out of time and place in this post 9/11 world, still speaks to me. I'm not sure we ever had the country DeVoto yearned for, but except for the extra wife part (he was raised as a Catholic in Utah), I kinda like the idea of it, too.

The offensive intrusions that the Patriot Act allows aside, it's bad enough that Safeway knows so much about my hopeless addiction to Tillamook Mudslide ice cream.

June 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

In some ways I get Daniel Ellsberg's support for Ed Snowden, but in others I don't. The getting part is clear: Ellsberg believes that the American people are lied to on a regular basis by their government and Snowden's revelations support this.

As for the not getting part, the cases and situations are much different. Ellsberg did not flee the country, did not reveal information to foreign powers, and did not fight any attempts by the US to try him. He turned himself in and voluntarily went to trial. At the trial, however, it was revealed that his private conversations had been recorded through wiretaps, his doctor's office broken into by Nixon thugs, all in an effort to discredit him, the sort of stuff (at least the surveillance part) done professionally by Snowden for years.

I've said before that had Snowden made his revelations and stuck around (he himself claims to have done nothing wrong), his motives, or at least his actions, would have been more honorable. I also understand that he feared for his life. Maybe he was (is) right to do so. I read yesterday that the reporter, Michael Hastings, whose story damaged the bright career of General Stanley McChrystal, had died in a car crash, and for a brief instant I wondered if there should have been quotation marks around "car crash". Admit it. You did too. Whether or not it's true is beside the point. These things do happen.

And still, I wish Snowden had gone about it differently (including, and perhaps especially his revelations to the Chinese).

Some might consider him a hero, but for me, to paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, I'd have to say "Mr. Snowden, you're no Daniel Ellsberg."

June 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Ya know I've been thinking real hard, which wrinkles up my face worse than it already is, trying to figure out the all-day-every-day intense focus on as Pierce calls it "lady parts". There is constant concern over what goes in, stays in and comes out. I am sick of having of my (I'm speaking in the collective) lady parts being examined and passed around to a bunch of drooling nutless wonders like a Hustler centerfold. The discussion isn't serious, its at the level of pruerient pictures. I digress. The Why???? is what I'm after. Satisfying the "base" is the easy, rated general audiences, answer. Its a religious thing doesn't satisfy me - why now, why such fervor?Look at the make-up of this contingent - almost entirely men, mostly white, lots of them older men.

This behavior is perverted, period. I'm thinking it is a primitive response. The group (ignorant white men) is losing its ability to control their changing world, whether it has a cultural basis or a more personal physical one. Of course, physically, there's always the blue pill. These dickheads are hell bent on wreaking havoc before they are overtaken by demographics or fate.

June 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterDiane

Ken,

I'm guessing S-17 may have been a reference to some cloak and dagger pseudonym in the vein of Agent 86 or 99.

I'm pretty sure there are no DeVoto books on Dick Cheney's night table.

As for Tillamook Mudslide, I'm guessing you've never tried Ben and Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk. Exquisitacious.

June 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Akhilleus: Now that you mention it, it's interesting that I didn't have any thoughts about Hasting's accident being a possible assassination, yet back on 10/25/02 when I heard of Paul Wellstone's plane crash I immediately thought of it. He was, at the time, trying to push lots of controversial stuff through Congress and was one of the most liberal of Senators ––was vehemently against us going into Iraq. I had no problem believing that the Bush administration had a hand in this, yet at the same time thinking I was way off base believing such a horrific act.

June 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

OK, enough about assassination-by-crash. All the evidence you have ever seen in your life argues that the USG can't keep a secret, and is not good at smooth, simple, expeditious action. Why would you ignore your experience, and consider it to be capable of getting away with murder?

June 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

PD,

Whether Wellstone's plane crash was an accident or an "accident" I have no doubt the Bush White House hoisted a few upon hearing of his demise. And I thought the same thing (White House involvement) when I heard about Welltone's death.

I recall that there was a report that an FBI recovery team was at the crash site so quickly they would have to have left to get there around the same time Wellstone's plane took off. Wellstone was threatened by Cheney a couple of weeks before he died. Vice President Vader told Wellstone that there would be "serious ramifications" if he didn't. Guess he was right.

Whether he was killed or not though, I'm betting that many people on the Hill considered it a possibility and his death may have created just the kind of climate of fear and intimidation the Bush Administration reveled in, a situation that helped them cut through congressional red tape (ie, rules, regulations, laws) like an axe through suet.

Yet another reason Bush v. Gore is the worst SCOTUS decision in history.

June 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Food Network superstar Paula Deen is not happy with her millions and her fame. Now she wants slaves.

Okay, maybe not really, but when she claims that her routine use of the N word doesn't make her a racist one has to consider that such a casual use of derogatory expressions long expunged from the vocabulary of most Americans (at least I hope so) suggests a bigotry that is ingrained, somewhat like the deep seated misogyny and racism of Republican politicians (and, perhaps, many voters), so ingrained that it appears to them invisible and natural. "Well of course men are better than women! What are you thinking?"

Conservatives aren't the only ones guilty of this sort of casual bigotry. It's a human thing. The difference is what we do when apprised of our own bigotry. Do we confront it and try to make some adjustments or do we give everyone the finger and express outrage that such ugly qualities should be ascribed to us?

My guess is that many years into your life, if you're still yearning for the good old days of the Old South, of steppinfetchits, pickaninnies, and slaves, you might be beyond adjustments.

Lynchin' Lemonade, anyone?

June 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

The misogyny thing baffles me. If it hadn't been for a woman, none of them would be here..

June 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterBarbarossa

Whoa, Nelly.

Here's something you don't see everyday:

Christian group stops trying to heterosexualize gays AND apologizes!

Wow. I'm thinking this must have something to do with the fact that this group is located in California. I can't imagine a group with such a long history of trying to change, or "save" gays, located in Georgia or Alabama, giving up and then apologizing to all the people they fucked up over the years.

June 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

If any of you were following the farm bill (SNAP [crackle, pop]). here's where you can find out how your pet snake voted:

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll286.xml

June 20, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJames Singer

$7 billion in military equipment and the best idea the greatest, most technologically advanced military in the world can think of is to...burn it. Neanderthals. Do these elite generals and commanders not possess the rare quality of foresight? Did they think they'll be there forever and never have to pack up the goods and physically most the shit out of the country? When they brought the shit in did they not also think about maybe planning on its evacuation as well? Could we not transfer the equipment to another nearby base considering we have them ALL OVER THE FUCKING WORLD!?
Nobody in the region could have used any $70 brooms or shovels?

Astounding stupidity. Yet not a simple peep will be made by any VSP people because the military is sacrosanct. $7 billion that could have funded how many social programs that we "can't afford."

And Halliburton is writing up another contract to replace more unnecessary shit we don't really need, and Cheney's pockets get fatter and his heart grows blacker.

June 20, 2013 | Unregistered Commentersafari
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