them.ws

No more feeds
No more feeds. Download the soruce code here http://them.ws/stuff/tmp/feeds.zip

You'll need to create a database table for this to work properly. The required SQL commands are in themws_rss.sql. Open that in a text editor and and copy the command and run it in PhpMyAdmin in a database. Then in config.php edit the three variables $usr, $pwd and $db with the MySQL username, MySQL user password and the MySQL database where you created the rssfeeds table.

The Nation: All Weblogs

Altercation: Slacker Friday
by Eric Alterman
10 Jul 2009 at 11:16am

Wrap-up: We have a new "Think Again" column called "Conflicts by the Rich, for the Rich," here . I also did a Daily Beast post on Palin's defenders on Sunday, which is here.

And I do recommend that if you have a few minutes free, you give them over to the Samminator, here. Those were the days, huh? On to Mr. Pierce. I also recommend if you have a few minutes, try to pick up a copy of 'Rolling Stone' and read the wonderful account of the life of Mr. Gregory Allman, it is a wonderful piece of writing. It's not online and I never heard of the writer, but trust me...

This Week on Moyers:

With almost twenty years inside the health insurance industry, Wendell Potter saw for-profit insurers hijack our healthcare system and put profits before patients. Now, he speaks with Bill Moyers about how those companies are standing in the way of healthcare reform. Potter spoke out against the industry for the first time last month, testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee he said, "Recently it became abundantly clear to me that the industry's charm offensive, which is the most visible part of a duplicitous and well-financed PR and lobbying campaign, may well shape reform in a way that benefits Wall Street far more than average Americans." Wendell Potter is a senior fellow on healthcare for the nonpartisan watchdog group Center for Media and Democracy, for which he writes a blog on healthcare reform.

Charles Pierce
Newton, MA

Wrap-up:

We have a new "Think Again" column called "Conflicts by the Rich, for the Rich," here.

I also did a Daily Beast post on Palin's defenders on Sunday, which is here. (Otherwise, I've been at the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake which I'll write about a bit next week.) Meanwhile:

For my daughter the moment came in kindergarten. Even though she was the only African American girl in her classroom, she made friends easily, adored her teacher, and was growing in confidence as a student. Then in May, just a few weeks from the year's end it happened. She and a little white boy were playing together at recess as they had done all year when he looked at her and said, "You know, I would like you better if you would take off your brown skin and put on some white skin."

It was 2008 and we live in a liberal enclave in the Northeast.

She was confused, hurt, and surprised when she told the story. She wasn't completely sure what it meant, but I could hear in her voice the creeping, sticky shame of inferiority. I sat listening with my stomach in my feet and a voice in my head screaming, "Not yet. It's only kindergarten. Not yet. Not yet."

This comment appeared from a reader, responding to my post about how progressives view Obama and objecting to the notion that people who approve of his overall performance may not also harbor serious disappointment. As the reader put it:

If asked, I'd say that, overall, I approve of Obama's performance. However, the president has disappointed me on more than one issue since he was elected… So because I've been disappointed in some of the Obama administration's actions, I'm not supportive? If I express that disappointment and disagreement, I'm not supportive?

I'm really troubled by the trend of criticizing anyone who questions and disagrees with Obama. We are abdicating one of our fundamental rights as Americans if we offer unquestioning, blind allegiance to Obama or any other government leader.

In May, at a point when congressional Republicans and their amen corner in the media were attempting to defend the Bush-Cheney administration's torture regime, their primary defense was: Pelosi knew.

The spin held that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as a member of the House Intelligence Committee, had in 2002 been secretly briefed about the use of harsh interrogation techniques on terror suspects.

Pelosi said the Central Intelligence Agency had failed to inform her about the character and extent of the harsh interrogations.

With both the House and Senate looking to pass health care bills prior to the summer recess which begins August 8, now is the moment of truth for Democrats: will they offer a real public plan option to compete with private plans and drive down costs? Or will they cater to the healthcare industry which is now spending $1.4 million per day on lobbyists to protect their profits?

Throughout this debate, one Senator who has been willing to tell it like it is, with the people's interest at heart, is Bernie Sanders. This week he will publish 'The Health Care Crisis: Letters from Vermont and America'--a collection of healthcare stories sent to him from across the nation.

"In early June we sent out a letter to our email list--and we said two things," Sen. Sanders told me in an interview this week. "Number one, please sign a petition calling for a single-payer system; and two, give us some of your experiences with the private health insurance and your experience in terms of health care in general. Well, in a few weeks, we got 40,000 signatures on a single-payer petition. But, as important, we received well over 4,000 responses--from Vermont and all over the country--people telling us what's going on in their lives with regard to healthcare."

A few weeks ago, Rachel Maddow appeared on Charlie Rose and announced that conservatives weren't the only ones disenchanted with Barack Obama. "The President has disappointed the left," she said. Rose asked her to be more specific – on what exactly? "I would say on the war, on healthcare, on economic [policy]… on civil liberties and on civil rights," Maddow said.

That's pretty deep disappointment. But if it's true, it begs the question of what, exactly, constitutes "the left." Certainly not most Democrats, 90 percent of whom approve of Obama's job performance (that's from the latest Quinnipiac survey; other polls have recorded even higher figures). Or most African-Americans, among whom Obama's approval rating is 94 percent. Or most Hispanics, 70 percent of whom think Obama is doing a fine job. Or most voters under thirty-five.

Maddow, presumably, was referring to a much smaller cohort of self-identified (white) progressives: people who favor a single-payer universal health-care system, have attended antiwar demonstrations, believe catastrophic global warming is imminent, support shutting down Guantanamo immediately, champion full equality for gays and lesbians, and perhaps supported John Edwards or Dennis Kucinich in the Democratic primary before finally coming around to Obama.

Funerals tell us more about the living than the dead. It's why anthropologists often begin with rituals of death as an entry point for understanding societies and cultures.

I remember watching the funeral of Princess Diana. It was a perfectly British event: the poignant, silent march of her children, the bells tolling at Westminster Abbey, the red coat pallbearers. But I remember being taken aback as the car carrying Diana's casket drove through the streets of London. I was surprised because at that moment the mourners began to applaud.

They'd stood for hours lining the streets and as the casket passed they needed to grieve collectively and publicly. Stiff-upper lip British culture does not have a mechanism for such public grieving. There is no piercing death wail, no garment rending, no ceremonial dance, so instead the British applauded. Those applause revealed the missing place in English life for public mourning.

AlterNet Blogs: PEEK

Prison Officials Have Banned an Inmate From Reading Obama's Books
by Ian Millhiser
10 Jul 2009 at 12:25pm
Obama wrote that "the dealth penalty does little to deter crime" and said "no innocent person should end up on death row."
The Evilest of Evil CEOs Swiftboating Health Reform
by Digby
10 Jul 2009 at 9:00am
This guy's a creep with millions to burn.
More Right-Wing Whining Over Media's Coverage of Sarah Palin
by Eric Boehlert
10 Jul 2009 at 8:26am
Ho-hum, the poor misunderstood woman.
Hey Netherlands: Fox "News" Hates You! (VIDEO)
by PZ Myers
10 Jul 2009 at 8:03am
Oh, it's not just the pot and the hookers ...
Hitler, Darwin and the Sasquatch
by General JC Christian
9 Jul 2009 at 8:39pm
They're all inter-related, you know.
After Casting Sole No Vote on Slavery Memorial, Rep. King Keeps Digging Deeper
by Steve Benen
9 Jul 2009 at 6:37pm
This is one contorted excuse.
Airing of Grievances: Right-Winger Incensed over 'Commie's' Jab at 'Saturday ...
by Roy Edroso
9 Jul 2009 at 5:45pm
Oh, and Pinochet was a good guy, damnit!
Panetta: CIA Lied to Congress
by Booman
9 Jul 2009 at 4:34pm
Note to Obama: The object of oversight is to keep covert activities within a legal framework and protect people's rights.

Democracy Now!

27 Arrested For Erecting Anti-Logging Blockade in Oregon
by mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!)
10 Jul 2009 at 8:53am
The blockade in the Elliott State Forest began on Monday and continued until yesterday when the last of the protesters were arrested. The activists were blocking access to a timber sale on 79 acres of forest land. They say logging practices in the Elliot are damaging old-growth forests and endangering spotted owls.
Greenpeace Activists Hang Banner on Mt. Rushmore
by mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!)
10 Jul 2009 at 8:46am
Activists with the environmental group Greenpeace scaled the Mount Rushmore National Monument Wednesday and hung a banner urging President Obama to take action on global warming. The banner was hung next to the carved mountain face of Abraham Lincoln. It read: "America honors leaders not politicians: Stop Global Warming." The group of eleven Greenpeace activists were arrested and charged with trespassing. They each face up to six months in prison.[includes rush transcript]
Costa Rica Hosts Talks Over Honduras Coup
by mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!)
10 Jul 2009 at 8:42am
Talks between the ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and the leaders of last week?s military coup began on Thursday in Costa Rica. Zelaya and the military-backed Roberto Micheletti met separately with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias but there were no face-to-face meetings between the two sides.
"China Safari: On The Trail of Beijing's Expansion in Africa"
by mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!)
10 Jul 2009 at 8:28am
As President Obama heads to Ghana, we look at China's expanding role in Africa where it recently became the continent's second largest business partner, behind only the United States. We speak to author Serge Michel and analyst Nii Akuetteh.
President Obama Heads to Ghana On First Official Trip to Sub-Saharan Africa
by mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!)
10 Jul 2009 at 8:09am
President Obama arrives in Ghana today on his first official trip to sub-Saharan Africa since becoming President. He is expected to meet Ghana"s President John Atta-Mill today and speak to the country"s parliament on Saturday in what is expected to be a major policy address outlining US policy on Africa. Why Ghana? Some say it has to do the recent discovery of oil in Ghana. A quarter of US oil imports are expected to come from West Africa by 2015, according to estimates by National Intelligence Council.
Headlines for July 10, 2009
by mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!)
10 Jul 2009 at 8:00am
Conservative Democrats Oppose Public Option Health Plan, AIG Prepares To Hand Out Millions More In Bonuses, Costa Rica Hosts Talk Over Honduras Coup, Reporters At Murdoch Papers Accused of Hacking Into Cell Phne, Panetta Orders Inquiry Into CIA's Handling Of Secret Program, G8 Leaders Pledge Billions For Food Security Initiative, Greenpeace Activists Occupy Four Coal Plants in Italy, GM Exits From Bankruptcy, Thousands of Iranians Protest in Tehran, Canada Urges Iran To Free Newsweek Reporter, U.S. Frees Iranians From Iraq, UN To Help Gaza Remove Rubble From Israeli Bombing, 27 AIDS Activists Arrested on Capitol Hill, NY Senate Standstill Ends, Sen. Burris Won't Run For Election, Sen. Ensign's Parents Made Payments to Mistress, Her Family
Obama's War: Thousands of Marines Battle in Helmand in Major U.S. Offensive
by mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!)
9 Jul 2009 at 8:45am
In Afghanistan, a powerful truck bomb killed at least 25 people today, including up to 16 schoolchildren, in a province just south of Kabul. The latest bloodshed coincided with a major American military offensive in Helmand province in the south. US forces last week launched what?s being described as the largest Marine offensive since the Vietnam War. Some 4,000 Marines and hundreds of Afghan troops are targeting areas in the Helmand River Valley to wrest it from Taliban control. We go to Kabul to speak with Wall Street Journal journalist, Anand Gopal.[includes rush transcript]
Stella D'Oro Workers End 11-Month Strike After NLRB Victory, But Owner Threat...
by mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!)
9 Jul 2009 at 8:29am
More than than 130 workers at the Stella D?Oro Biscuit Company in the Bronx have ended an 11-month strike. The employees walked off the job last August after company officials tried to force them to accept a 20% pay cut, elimination of sick days and overtime and other cutbacks. The workers returned to their jobs a week after the National Labor Relations Board ordered the company to reinstate and pay back wages to the striking workers. The company's owner ? the Connecticut-based private equity fund Brynwood Partners - is now threatening to close the factory within 90 days.[includes rush transcript]

MoJo Articles

Coming Soon: 'Judge Sonia'?
by By Stephanie Mencimer
10 Jul 2009 at 7:00am

Monday kicks off the confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor, and by all accounts, the event promises to be a snoozer. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will speechify about empathy and legislating from the bench. They'll demand to know what Sotomayor thinks about Roe v. Wade or probe her reasoning in the infamous Connecticut firefighters case. And like all prospective justices, her answers will be unsatisfactorily vague. Republicans are no doubt longing to take swipes at President Obama's first nominee, but they don't have the votes to block her appointment, so they'll probably pull their punches to avoid alienating Latino voters with gratuitous attacks. Sotomayor has also given them precious little material to work with.

But there is one question to which Sotomayor might have to provide a straight answer—and that could trigger some drama. Her response could shed light on what kind of a justice she'll be and, at least in one respect, how she'll differ from the man she's replacing, Justice David Souter.

Here's how reporters Steven Lee Myers and Marc Santora of the New York Times described the highly touted American withdrawal from Iraq's cities last week:

"Much of the complicated work of dismantling and removing millions of dollars of equipment from the combat outposts in the city has been done during the dark of night. Gen. Ray Odierno, the overall American commander in Iraq, has ordered that an increasing number of basic operations—transport and re-supply convoys, for example—take place at night, when fewer Iraqis are likely to see that the American withdrawal is not total."

Acting in the dark of night, in fact, seems to catch the nature of American plans for Iraq in a particularly striking way. Last week, despite the death of Michael Jackson, Iraq made it back into the TV news as Iraqis celebrated a highly publicized American military withdrawal from their cities. Fireworks went off; some Iraqis gathered to dance and cheer; the first military parade since Saddam Hussein's day took place (in the fortified Green Zone, the country's ordinary streets still being too dangerous for such things); the U.S. handed back many small bases and outposts; and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki proclaimed a national holiday—"sovereignty day," he called it.

"Do you have anything to declare?"

Here's The Fog of War, as recommended by Brian, and me:

BTW: Robert Scheer on Robert Strange McNamara

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

News Quiz

Today in Pakistan, US drones killed:
A- 12
B- 37
C- 45
D- Some Pakistani heart and mind

Greenpeace placed an Obama banner, with a plea for the G8 to act on global warming, over: A- Mount Rushmore B- Neverland Ranch C- The Society of Illustrators

Later the G8:
A- Blew off CO2 cuts
B- Blamed nonmembers China and India
C- Ate great Italian food
D- All of the above

You've probably seen the ads. Ominous voice-overs warn you about how health care reform "could put a bureaucrat in charge of your medical decisions, not you." A massive bulldozer with "government-run insurance plan" written on the side crushes your health care "choices." Canadians and Britons relay horror stories of their experiences dealing with health care in those nightmarish socialist dystopias.

The ads are the product of a multimillion-dollar ad campaign designed to derail health care reform—especially what's been dubbed the "public option," which would set up a government-run plan to compete with private insurers. The man behind this ad blitz is the person who might be Public Option Enemy No. 1: one-time hospital executive and longtime Republican donor Richard Scott.

EARLY ONE MORNING in August 2005, a small team of game wardens and deputies climbed through coyote brush and manzanita in the Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve outside San Jose, California, searching for an illegal pot farm. As they crested a ridge, they discovered densely planted rows of cannabis stalks. Suddenly, a high-powered rifle cracked and an officer fell to the ground, shot through both legs. Seconds later, another deputy shot and killed a man wielding a sawed-off shotgun. "It was literally like a jungle firefight," recalls warden John Nores, who fired at the other shooter before he escaped into the woods. Left behind in a meadow just minutes from the heart of Silicon Valley were 22,000 marijuana plants worth some $88 million.

Over the past decade, marijuana patches known as "grows" or "gardens" have sprung up on public lands across the West, including a third of California's national parks and nearly 40 percent of all national forests. Where hippies once grew just enough weed to peace out, traffickers now cultivate more than 100,000 plants at a time on 30-acre terraces irrigated by plastic pipe, laced with illegal pesticides, and guarded by men with MAC-10s and Uzis. Grows have turned up everywhere from the deepest backcountry to the edges of suburban subdivisions. Farming pot on public land can be more profitable than smuggling it across the increasingly militarized border. The 3.1 million pot plants seized in national forests in the year prior to last September had an estimated street value of $12.4 billion.

THERE IS A MAN DRIVING FAST down a dirt road leading to the border. A rooster tail of dust marks his passage. He is very frightened and his 15-year-old son sits beside him in silence. The boy is that way—very bright, yet very quiet. They are unusually close. The father has raised him as a single parent since he was four.

The father and son are fleeing to the United States. Back in their hometown of Ascensión, Chihuahua, men with assault rifles are searching for them. These men are soldiers in the Mexican Army and intend to kill the father, and perhaps the son, also. As the man drives toward the border crossing at Antelope Wells, New Mexico, he thinks the soldiers are ransacking his house. No one in the town will have the guts to speak up.

The man knows this absolutely.

IT WAS THE GREAT LUPE VÁSQUEZ who first informed me of the existence of the baladas prohibidas. We were at the 13 Negro drinking early in the evening, which is to say that it was not yet midnight and Lupe had not yet blacked out. The jukebox exploded into another happy song, indistinguishable to my ignorance from the others, and the grim field workers at other tables nearly smiled, while the dancing couples on the metal floor grew livelier, and several men shouted along with the singer. Even Lupe, who trudged bitterly through life, cheered up when he heard this corrido, which was naturally so loud that he had to shout into my ear for me to apprehend that it dealt with the demure lady friend of a wanted drug lord who happened to be absent when two federales visited their residence, promising her that they wouldn't hurt him, so she told them to sit down and wait if so it pleased them; but while fixing refreshments she overheard their plan to liquidate her lover, so she sweetly invited them to rest just a moment longer, then strode out and blew them away!

Lupe's hatred of authority exceeded even mine, and for good reason; most days he had to deal with the lordly ways of United States immigration inspectors, of foremen who might or might not offer him a job and who if they did cared about their production quotas, not about his back; of companies who didn't pay him for the hours he had to sit in buses waiting for the frost to melt off the broccoli; and whenever he got a vacation from these entities, he got to visit the know-it-alls at the employment office in Calexico. Now and then he had also enjoyed the hospitality of Northside's police and judges. That was why a few beers at the 13 Negro soothed the pain of the 13 Negro's prices, and when a certain sort of corrido came on the jukebox, Lupe even smiled.

Apparently the swine flu is all the rage in London. This from Harper's Weekly:

Officials in Britain said that the number of new cases of swine flu in that country was doubling weekly and could reach 100,000 new cases per day by the end of August; Dr. Richard Jarvis, chairman of the British Medical Association's public-health committee, cited reports of people throwing "swine flu parties" to expose themselves to the virus and build their immunity. "I don't think it is a good idea," he said.

Here's my take (from The American Prospect):

them.ws

No more feeds
No more feeds. Download the soruce code here http://them.ws/stuff/tmp/feeds.zip

You'll need to create a database table for this to work properly. The required SQL commands are in themws_rss.sql. Open that in a text editor and and copy the command and run it in PhpMyAdmin in a database. Then in config.php edit the three variables $usr, $pwd and $db with the MySQL username, MySQL user password and the MySQL database where you created the rssfeeds table.

[CaRP] XML error: SYSTEM or PUBLIC, the URI is missing at line 26

them.ws

No more feeds
No more feeds. Download the soruce code here http://them.ws/stuff/tmp/feeds.zip

You'll need to create a database table for this to work properly. The required SQL commands are in themws_rss.sql. Open that in a text editor and and copy the command and run it in PhpMyAdmin in a database. Then in config.php edit the three variables $usr, $pwd and $db with the MySQL username, MySQL user password and the MySQL database where you created the rssfeeds table.

WorkingForChange

FAQ: Petraeus' testimony
by Will Durst
14 Sep 2007 at 4:00pm
Frequently asked questions about the General's congressional testimony
Republicans gone wild 2!
by Will Durst
31 Aug 2007 at 12:40pm
The most crazed, sexed up elected official footage ever accumulated
Rove bye bye
by Will Durst
23 Aug 2007 at 1:10pm
President's strategist to spend more time lying to his family
Me. Me. Me. Me. Me.
by Will Durst
15 Aug 2007 at 8:05pm
State-sponsored selfishness steals spotlight in Decision '08
Between the fringes
by Will Durst
2 Aug 2007 at 7:00pm
The center's still here, but all anybody hears is right and left
Skooter skates
by Will Durst
13 Jul 2007 at 6:40pm
Dubya deems Libby sentence 'excessive'
Boss Dick
by Will Durst
3 Jul 2007 at 2:50pm
Vice President Cheney reports to no one, and we should be glad
Darting squirters
by Will Durst
20 Jun 2007 at 12:20am
Bush eschews 'quagmire,' but when it rains it pours

In These Times

Sewer Socialism Down the Drain?
by Roger Bybee
10 Jul 2009 at 7:00am
Public water, one of the most important legacies of Milwaukee's Socialist Party, which led the city almost continuously from 1910 to 1960, is now under attack from those who see a chance to convert this fundamental resource into a profit stream via privatization. In the name of coping with rising deficits, privatization advocates led by City Comptroller Wally Morics have proposed leasing the water system to private operators for 75 to 99 years. Once the city moved to hire consultants on the water privatization proposal, it tapped into a broad current of citizen outrage in favor of preserving a vital part of "the commons," as public water advocates put it. The grassroots opposition to privatization came to a head at a June 12 rally of some 300 pumped-up citizens outside Milwaukee's City Hall. Environmentalists, health advocates, unionists, senior citizens and youth activists were present. "Public water is a trust that belongs to all of us," declared Cheryl Nenn, the interim executive director of the Milwaukee Riverkeepers. "Where there has been privatization, jobs have been lost and benefits cut for workers, while monitoring of water quality has been cut or eliminated, and prices have risen." "We must stand for public ownership?
Block ?Em, Sock ?Em
by Joel Bleifuss
9 Jul 2009 at 1:39pm
Across the country progressive groups are mobilizing to support legislative initiatives, but to what effect? On the climate change front, the Sierra Club heralds the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) that passed the House and is now in the Senate as "a great step forward for a clean energy future in the U.S." The group notes that the legislation needs to be strengthened by the Senate. How the more conservative Senate, America's House of Lords, will do anything other than muck up the bill remains unclear. Americans for Financial Reform, a national coalition of more than 200 state and local organizations, has come together to reform and regulate the banking system. "Our principles will only prevail if the voices of the public are heard over those of bankers, traders, mortgage brokers and their armies of lobbyists," says Heather Booth, the group's executive director. Health Care for America Now (HCAN), a mega-coalition of progressive groups, is promoting a 10-point set of healthcare reforms, one of which is "a public health insurance plan that guarantees affordable coverage without a private insurer middleman." These campaigns, though different in focus, are similar in that they urge constituents to pressure their elected representatives.?
Budgets by the People
by Michael Fox
8 Jul 2009 at 7:00am
On a chilly evening in late May, hundreds of Porto Alegre, Brazil, residents packed into the Cecores gymnasium of the working-class neighborhood of Restinga for their yearly regional Participatory Budgeting (PB) assembly. Mayor José Fogaça and his PB team sat before them at long tables. This year marked the 20th anniversary of the process in this southern city. The lively crowd cheered and waved banners. Residents spoke in support of their needs, or denounced the government for not fulfilling promises it had made. "Housing" was on the lips of many. ? "I struggled. I'm proof of this," said Fabiana dos Santos Nacimento, a mother of six, who won her own home through the PB process a decade ago. "I waited six or seven years to acquire my home. And now my daughters are here and I'm struggling to help them acquire a home next door."? More than 750 residents voted housing as this year's third most important priority, behind social assistance and roads. During the last decade and a half, thousands of working families with the National Movement for the Struggle of Housing (MNLM for Movimento Nacional de Luta pela Moradia) have won homes through participatory budgeting in this region?
Republicans: A Threat to the Republic?
by Robert Parry
7 Jul 2009 at 7:00am
Sarah Palin's abrupt decision to resign as Alaska's governor--and her rambling explanation--underscore again how the Republican Party over the past dozen years has put up candidates for top national offices who are unqualified or ill-suited for those sensitive positions. Like Palin, George W. Bush was a charismatic underachiever who hadn't accomplished much in life and showed little intellectual firepower but was nevertheless presented by the GOP as its candidate for one of the most powerful jobs on earth. However, unlike Palin who lost her vice presidential bid, Bush took the presidency for two terms--in two dubious elections--with disastrous consequences for the nation. Then, even amid the wreckage of the Bush administration's final days, the Republican Party enthusiastically nominated first-term Alaska Gov. Palin to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, which they hoped would be filled by 72-year-old cancer survivor John McCain. Shrill, baby, shrill The Republican Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, was a glimpse into Crazy Town, with a national party gone giddy over the folksy Sarah Palin, who we were told could "field-dress a moose." The dominant chant of the convention--sometimes led by Palin herself--was "drill, baby, drill." On the campaign trail, Palin tossed out the reddest of?
Fighting the Cloud Factory
by Kari Lydersen
6 Jul 2009 at 7:00am
For Marisol Becerra and other kids growing up in the Little Village neighborhood in Chicago, the smokestack from the Crawford coal-burning power plant is part of the gritty, industrial landscape called home. Located between a major highway, rail line and canal, the plant dominates the skyline of the southwest side neighborhood. Since age 14, Becerra, now 19, has been trying to do something about the plant's plumes of emissions, which include high levels of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and other pollutants that cause a range of respiratory and cardiovascular problems. One study estimates the Crawford and nearby Fisk plants cause 41 premature deaths and 550 emergency room visits each year. In 2003, Becerra started volunteering with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), a grassroots group fighting to clean up contaminated sites and win healthier conditions in her Mexican-American neighborhood. She founded a youth arm of LVEJO called Youth Activists Organizing as Today's Leaders, which publishes the newsletter El Cilantro and helped create an interactive map of toxic spots in Chicago and nationwide. Now a student at DePaul University in Chicago, Becerra has continued her environmental activism as co-chair of the Environmental Concerns Organization. In 2008, she won a?
Solidarity Reunited?
by David Moberg
4 Jul 2009 at 7:00am
CHICAGO--A square plaque in the pavement outside the Sheraton Chicago hotel commemorates the formation of the UNITE HERE union here five years ago. That event was an exuberant, optimistic celebration of the merger of the traditional hotel (HERE) and apparel (UNITE) unions. UNITE HERE's second convention at the same hotel this week was not so celebratory: Much of the old UNITE union broke away earlier this year with the active collaboration and support of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which then absorbed the breakaway units. But UNITE HERE president John Wilhelm and delegates seemed optimistic, even as they face a battle with their erstwhile ally, SEIU, over members, money and the right to organize traditional HERE industries. A three-front battle Wilhelm thinks UNITE HERE will prevail in a three-front battle with contentious employers, a rotten economy and the "company union" (as they label SEIU) by focusing the union's fight on companies, strengthening members' involvement in the union and rallying support from other unions and allies. The moves UNITE HERE announced at its convention, held from June 29 to July 1, do seem to strengthen its hand as it takes on SEIU, which is much richer and roughly eight times?
Death of the Newspaperman
by David Simon
3 Jul 2009 at 7:00am
The captains of the newspaper industry, martyrs all, claim they were heroically serving democracy to their utmost, only to be undone by a cataclysmic shift in technology and the arrival of all things web-based. Partisans of new media, weblogs and Twitter assure us that American journalism has a perfectly fine future online and a great democratization in newsgathering is taking place. In my city, there is a technical term we often administer when claims are plainly contradicted by facts on the ground. We note that the claimant is, for lack of a better term, full of it. High-end journalism is dying in America and, unless a new economic model is achieved, it will not be reborn on the Web or anywhere. The Internet is a marvelous tool and clearly the informational delivery system of our future, but thus far it does not deliver much first-generation reporting. Instead, it leeches that reporting from print publications, whereupon aggregating Web sites and bloggers contribute little more than repetition, commentary and froth. Meanwhile, readers acquire news from the aggregators and abandon its point of origin, namely the newspapers and magazines themselves. In short, the parasite is slowly killing the host. It is nice to?
The Stupidity of ?Smart? Phones
by Megan Tady
2 Jul 2009 at 7:00am
Apple's iPhone looks good enough to eat. I've yet to take a bite of this "smart" phone, but know that once I do, there will be no going back; I'll be reaching for it before I get out of bed and updating my Facebook status from yoga class. ("I think I just found my chi. Wait--it was my phone on vibrate.") The temptation to join the growing legions of iPhone admirers is strong. So what's stopping me from signing up? Purchasing an iPhone means I have to become an AT&T subscriber. The company has an exclusive deal with Apple to provide wireless service to iPhoners--meaning I'm backed into a corner. If I don't like AT&T, or it's not available in my area, I'm facing a digital impasse: no service, no phone. This is unfortunate, not because I'm missing out on the iPhone's "bar finder" application, but because smart phones are setting the stage for the future of the mobile Internet. They are revolutionary because they free us from our home or office computers. We can catch breaking news, create and upload content, and navigate online social networks and movements from anywhere. It's the Internet--some might say "the world"--in our pockets.?

Daily Kos

Daily Kos Weekly Tracking Poll: Voters Grumpy Across The Board
by Steve Singiser
10 Jul 2009 at 2:19pm

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 7/06-7/09/2009. All adults. MoE 2% (6/29-7/02/2009 results in parentheses):

Full crosstabs here. This poll is updated every Friday morning, and you can see trendline graphs here.

The slight dip in numbers across the board suggests there is some growing concern across the board directed at lawmakers, as voters start to feel a deeper sense of pessimism about the state of the nation.

Aside from the marginal drops in favorability for...well...everyone this week, this is also borne out by the right track/wrong track statistics. As you can see below, the percentage of Americans thinking the country is on the right track has receded noticeably over the last couple of weeks:

Republicans are not spared either in this week's poll, which is particularly remarkable, given the fact that the GOP's margin for further disdain is pretty thin. When Congressional Republicans are already sitting at 12% approval, how much lower can they truly go? The Democrats, with numbers that are a bit more lofty, have some soft support that can be easily swayed by a lousy jobs report or a spate of bad political news. But the GOP's soft support abandoned ship a couple of election cycles ago. If they are now shedding massive amounts of their base, that is perilous news for the minority party.

For several weeks in a row, the various ebbs and flows of public opinion has done little to change the 2010 generic Congressional ballot. Since its inception here several weeks ago, the tracking poll has seen a double-digit Democratic lead, with plenty of undecideds. As voters grew a tad more grumpy this week, that basic theme remained unchanged:

Would you like to see more Republicans or Democrats elected to Congress in 2010? (last week in parentheses)

Democrats 41 (42)
Republicans 28 (29)
Not Sure 31 (29)

The "takeaway" from this week's edition of the Daily Kos/Research 2000 tracking poll is twofold. First, the basic dynamics in place since Obama took the oath of office have changed only marginally. Democrats remain considerably more esteemed in the eyes of the voters than Republicans, and Barack Obama remains a fairly popular political figure. Much of his erosion of support can be owed to the simple fact that with every day he is in office, the country's difficulties become HIS problem, and not the problem of his predecessor.

And therein lies the second takeaway from this week's poll, and with it, a note of caution for the Democrats: voter patience is not in infinite supply. For Democrats to remain in an enviable political position, one of two things needs to be happening: there either needs to be demonstrable improvement in the state of the nation, or there needs to be a sense that the Congress and the President are successfully acting to bring about said demonstrable improvement. Absent those two things, one would expect to see a marked erosion in the considerable differences in popularity between the two parties.

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 7/6-7/8. Likely voters. MoE 4%.

General Election Trial Heat: Ohio Governor

Ted Strickland (D) 44
John Kasich (R) 39

Our new Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll out of the Buckeye State shows what other polls (such as this week's Quinnipiac poll) have also shown: Ted Strickland is going to have to expend a lot of energy to earn a second term as Ohio's governor.

Strickland still manages a modest lead over former GOP Congressman John Kasich, but he is quite far under the 50% threshold of comfort for an incumbent. Furthermore, Strickland's favorabilities are cause for concern: 44% favorable, 40% unfavorable.

Kasich can also claim that Strickland's narrow edge is owed to Kasich's own lack of name recognition: just 43% of Ohio voters had an opinion on Kasich (31% favorable, 12% unfavorable).

Of course, Strickland can also claim that Kasich's numbers are artificially high, as he is undefined as a political entity. To be sure, Kasich might have trouble gaining votes as the Strickland campaign works to offer its own definition of what a potential Kasich administration might look like.

On the Senate side, the Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll mirrors Quinnipiac's closely, as we see narrow advantages for both Democratic candidates over leading GOP candidate Rob Portman. The former GOP congressman and Bush administration appointee trails both Democratic Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.

General Election Trial Heat: Ohio Senate

Lee Fisher (D) 42
Rob Portman (R) 35

Jennifer Brunner (D) 40
Rob Portman (R) 36

None of the candidates has anything close to universal name recognition. Fisher's favorability spread is 36% favorable, 16% unfavorable. He is the only one of the three candidates that a majority of the electorate recognizes. Brunner's favorabilities are similar to Fisher's at 33% favorable, 17% unfavorable. Portman is an unknown quantity, but beloved by Republicans (46/5). Overall, Portman stands at 29% of voters with a favorable impression, with just 9% of voters having an unfavorable opinion of him. Worth noting: almost no Democrats have heard of him.

In the Democratic primary, undecided is the BIG winner here. Fisher has a nominal lead over Brunner, but nearly two-thirds of the electorate remains undecided (Fisher leads 22-17).

Barack Obama remains fairly popular in Ohio: 59% of voters hold a favorable opinion of Obama in the state, while just 35% of voters hold an unfavorable opinion. In a state with a flagging economy, these numbers could well be a sign that the emerging media meme that Obama is in the beginning stages of a tailspin might be a tad overblown.

It boggles the mind.

"Congressman Sestak is a flagrant hypocrite in challenging my being a real Democrat when he did not register as a Democrat until 2006 just in time to run for Congress," Specter said in the statement. "His lame excuse for avoiding party affiliation, because he was in the [military] service, is undercut by his documented disinterest in the political process."

His "lame excuse"? Sestak was an admiral, and the military should be an apolitical organization, at least in functioning democracies. That Specter -- the sleaziest political opportunist in the entire US Senate (a mighty accomplishment, given the bunch that inhabit that place) -- would deign insult a real Democrat for not politicizing his military service is beyond the pale. Given the nature of this attack, it's as if Specter has forgotten he switched parties, continuing to operate out of the Karl Rove playbook.

Sestak responded:

"Like Colin Powell (who was also registered as an Independent while he served), I believe that military officers should be nonpartisan," Sestak said. "The military depends on cohesion and unity, and the defense of this nation must never be political.  I’m proud that I was an Independent during my 35 years in the Navy, and I was proud to register as a Democrat as soon as I retired from active duty."

No fucking shit.

Despite her offer to campaign for fellow Republicans, it appears the newly-retired Sarah Palin may have some more time on her hands than she bargained for. The GOP's top two candidates in 2009, New Jersey gubernatorial hopeful Chris Christie and Virginia gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell, say they have no plans to campaign with Palin.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley also said that while he'd love her to hold a fundraiser for him, he didn't need her on the campaign trail.

Meanwhile, Palin has managed to get at least one Republican willing to pal around with a quitter: the pro-secession governor of Texas, Rick Perry.

Update (8:13AM) -- The Hill reports even more Republicans want Sarah to stay home.

School-age children will be among the population groups likely to get pandemic H1N1 flu vaccine in the fall, and they may get their shots at schools.

Howard Dean Liveblog: His Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform featured Dr. Dean commenting on his ideas about moving the health reform ball forward.    

The bottom line on healthcare reform is that it is not worth doing if it is not done right....

Subsidizing Americans to buy private health insurance without giving them the choice of a more rational and less expensive system is simply pouring money into a system that increases costs at twice the rate of inflation, serves preferentially those who don't need help, and offers not peace of mind to those at risk in difficult economic times.

In short, the healthcare reform bill is not worth passing unless the American people have the choice of signing up for a public option--a real public option.... If healthcare reform is not the desired outcome, this administration or the Democratic Party or the Congress as a whole should pass guaranteed issue and community rating and be done with it.

NY Times:

The Obama administration warned Americans on Thursday to be ready for an aggressive return of the swine flu virus in the fall, announcing plans to begin vaccinations in October and offering states and hospitals money to help them prepare.

and

Vaccinations will begin in October only if tests scheduled to begin in August prove that it is safe and effective. Even then, officials expect only tens of millions of doses to be ready, so they will have to decide who gets vaccinated first. The most likely candidates, Ms. Sebelius said, are school children, health care workers, pregnant women and people with asthma or other conditions that make the flu more risky.

DSCC press release:

Today, as the Obama Administration holds an important summit on flu preparedness at the National Institutes of Health, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is spotlighting Congressman Roy Blunt’s vote against crucial flu pandemic funding.  Blunt voted against the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2009, which appropriated $7.65 billion for flu pandemic funding.  

"When it comes to public health, politics should take a back seat," said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Communications Director Eric Schultz. "But as a Washington insider, Congressman Roy Blunt cannot help himself.  While Congressman Blunt's busy protecting wasteful pork projects, he's turning his back on the people who will suffer from H1N1 flu. The people of Missouri deserve better."

Those funds are badly needed at state level for vaccination programs. It is unfortunate that "just say no" extends to public health. But the larger picture is that public health infrastructure deserves congressional support. There's nothing wasteful about saving lives, and influenza doesn't care what party you belong to.

From the Gates Foundation, a reminder that there are other diseases that matter:

An international network of malaria scientists is to be established to map the emergence of resistance to antimalarial drugs and guide global efforts to control and eradicate the disease, thanks to a $20m (£12.5m) grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network (WWARN), which will be administered and supported from Oxford University, will provide the comprehensive and rigorous evidence base needed for policy makers to select the best antimalarial treatments and to formulate strategies to control the critical problem of resistance wherever it arises.

Shocking news: brilliant scientist appointed to important science post.

It's official: The White House intends to tap geneticist Francis Collins to lead the National Institutes of Health. President Barack Obama's announcement today ends months of speculation that Collins, leader of the international Human Genome Project, was about to be named to head the "0.6 billion agency. Collins has been rumored to be interested in the job since he stepped down as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) last summer.

Kaiser reports on stalling momentum for a health reform bill, at least in terms of meeting deadlines.

Drew Westen:

Economists may define "middle class" as the group whose income lies some distance from the mean family income (the average of all households) or the median income (the income level above which half of American families fall below and half above). But in the United States, as surveys over many years have shown, middle class is as much a state of mind as a state of wealth...

As the administration and Congress figure out how to pay for health care reform, they need to bear in mind the meaning of middle class in America, because understanding or failing to do so could make the difference between strong or weak popular support.

Want to get in the weeds of making health care cheaper and/or figuring out how to pay for it? Here's a trio of articles from the simple to the interesting to the complex. But any way you look at it, a health system overhaul has to be paid for.

House and Senate Democrats appeared on Thursday to be on a collision course over how to pay for a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system, with the House planning to propose an income tax increase on the wealthiest Americans, an idea that Senate negotiators have all but dismissed as unworkable.

If it were easy, it'd have been done already.

Friday punditry!

Adam Ross:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today that the United States will set aside billions of dollars to pursue a vaccine for H1N1, commonly referred to as swine flu.

The Obama administration has officially overreacted.

First comment on WaPo site:

Let me guess.

The WaPo editorial writers would rather US tax dollars be spent bombing Iran than defending America, right?

Seriously, are you all brain dead - or were you just dropped on your head as children?

Paul Krugman: Ok, I was right about the size of the stimulus. And don't pester me with comments about what could and could not pass the Senate after 30 years of 'govt spending is bad.'

What he needs, in short, is to do for economic policy what he’s already done for race relations and foreign policy — talk to Americans like adults.

William Schneider:

Right now, the economy is a good news/bad news story.

On the one hand, during the second quarter, stocks turned in one of their best performances in years. On the other hand, it would take several more such quarters to bring the market back to where it was before last fall's crash. And consumer confidence went down last month as job losses climbed sharply. The economy has shed nearly 3 million more jobs than the Obama administration originally forecast.

What to make of it all? Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said last month, "These early signs of improvement are encouraging, but the global economy is still operating well below potential and we still face very acute challenges."

Challenge #1: jobs

Charlie Cook:

Like the health care and the cap-and-trade proposals that have dominated center stage for months, another stimulus package would not be easy to move through Congress. In the June 12-15 NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Americans said, by 58 percent to 35 percent, that keeping the federal budget deficit down was more important than "boosting the economy even though it may mean larger budget deficits now and in the future."

Michael Kinsley:

Why doesn't the president give himself a well-deserved treat and slow down a bit on health-care reform? Instead of going for a total overhaul, go for some smaller successes, or what business executives and gorillas call the "low-hanging fruit"? Pick half a dozen, get Congress to swallow them and see where we stand?

More on Sarah Palin's Republican problem from the likes of Peter Wehner, Dan Schnur, and my favorite, Vin Weber:

...she has a core of supporters that will never desert her but can never elect her.

This is all, of course, good news for John McCain. Except that it reflects on his poor judgment to choose her.

Joe Conason: Franken's party up, Palin's party down.

Matthew Continetti:

Something about Sarah Palin riles people up.

Hint: it's that she was not remotely qualified for the job she auditioned for.

Her charisma is such that she does not need to hold an office to command attention or wield influence.

See Vin Weber.

John Petro of the Drum Major Institute writes:

Last month, Senators John D. Rockefeller and Frank Lautenberg introduced a bill that would establish performance-based goals for our surface transportation system. The bill would, according to Senator Lautenberg, "establish a national policy that improves safety, reduces congestion, creates jobs, and protects our environment."

Among these goals is to reduce the amount Americans drive, or more specifically, to "reduce national per capita motor vehicle miles traveled on an annual basis." Basically, Americans should be driving less—fewer trips over shorter distances. This has as much to do with the way we use our land as it does with transportation policy. Where we choose to live and work and get the groceries largely determines how much we drive. We are driving longer distances to work and to complete all the other little errands that populate our days.

However, Gabriel Roth argues in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that reducing the amount we drive should not be a policy goal of the federal government.
Reducing the total miles traveled—whether the length or number of trips—means people would have to reduce the activities they want and need to do. People would be "coerced," in effect, to live in less desirable places or work in less desirable jobs; shop in fewer and closer stores; see their doctor less frequently; visit fewer family members and friends.

Roth’s claim of coercion is absurd.

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The rescue begins below and continues in the jump. With this edition, the Green Diary Rescue departs for a two-week vacation. The next GDR will appear on July 26. If you haven’t yet joined DK GreenRoots, you’re missing out on a dynamic group of eco-blogger advocates.

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Haole in Hawaii posted Another Random Photo Diary from his island retreat. This is a shot from last winter off Laie Point.

Bruce Nilles announced a Milestone: 100th Coal Plant Stopped: "As of today, 100 coal plants have been defeated or abandoned since the beginning of the coal rush. Late yesterday, news came down that Utah-based Intermountain Power Agency is abandoning plans for a third coal-fired generator in the state. This news comes as President Obama is at the G8 summit in Italy discussing action on global warming. As other countries like China say they will not act until the U.S. does, these 100 stopped plants are a sign from Americans. We are taking action against global warming, and it's time to join us."

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The Overnight News Digest is posted. Included is the story Panetta orders internal probe of secret spy program after some members of Congress say CIA misled them.

Please enjoy reading these outstanding, ranger-selected diaries:

arodb claims he's too old to be an activist, but he sure seems like one as he becomes enmeshed in challenging the recent police overreaction at a Francine Busby fundraiser: Just back from speaking at City Council. (ItsJessMe)

ShadowSD analyzes Progressive vs. Moderate Voters: The Conservadem and GOP Myth. (ybruti)

First-time diarist snaxattack explains the importance of the insurance exchange model in The future of health insurance portability? (dadanation)

jimluce discusses one way to obtain an affordable, high-quality college education in Fall Pick: American University of Nigeria. (taylormattd)

BenGoshi reports that India Hikes Science Budget, Hard Times Notwithstanding. (ybruti)

greendem highlights how, in retaliation for losing a lawsuit to the residents of Richmond, California, Chevron gets busted, fires workers, attacks local tax laws. (dadanation)

Nulwee discusses an innovative scientist who radicalized conservation and re-branded it as a potent force for change: Richard Jenkins and Thinking Through Your Environmentalism! (taylormattd)

jotter has High Impact Diaries: July 8, 2009.

va dare has Top Comments 7.9.09 - Coal Country Film finds new WV venue.

Please feel free to promote your favorite diaries in this open thread.