Movement under way in California to ban divorce

This is good. Read More......

Joe and Carlos got to see elephants

My jealously is growing.

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Only .125% of Republicans say Dick Cheney best reflects GOP core values

Via the Plum Line:

Just 1 percent pick George W. Bush as the best reflection of the party’s principles, and only a single person in the poll cites former vice president Richard B. Cheney. About seven in 10 say Bush bears at least “some” of the blame for the party’s problems

First off, I wonder if Bush and Cheney did so poorly because, in a ranking of all GOP officials, Palin outranks them - and if you can only vote for one person, the conservative fringe that now makes up today's GOP would vote for Palin. Secondly, conservatives never trusted Bush in the first place, so now that they make up most of the GOP - moderate Rs walked a long time ago - it's no wonder that they don't give Bush high marks. Still, a good deal of schadenfreude to be gleaned from the poll. Read More......

Slate on "Obama's Brilliant First Year"

I won't weigh in on this one. What do you think? Is the writer correct?

This conventional wisdom about Obama's first year isn't just premature—it's sure to be flipped on its head by the anniversary of his inauguration on Jan. 20. If, as seems increasingly likely, Obama wins passage of a health care reform a bill by that date, he will deliver his first State of the Union address having accomplished more than any other postwar American president at a comparable point in his presidency. This isn't an ideological point or one that depends on agreement with his policies. It's a neutral assessment of his emerging record—how many big, transformational things Obama is likely to have made happen in his first 12 months in office....

Obama has wisely deferred some smaller, politically hazardous battles over issues such as closing Guantanamo, ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and fighting the expansion of Israel's West Bank settlements. Instead, he has saved his fire for his most urgent priorities—preventing a depression, remaking America's global image, and winning universal health insurance. Chow time indeed, if you ask me.

Do you agree? Read More......

H1N1 strikes during the hajj

It's a big enough problem that five people have already died and another seventy three cases documented. Saudi Arabian authorities are dismissing the figures as insignificant though it hardly sounds irrelevant. And as some are suggesting, we may not know the full extent of the problem until visitors return home.

Speaking on the final day of the Islamic pilgrimage, Abdullah al-Rabeeah said authorities recorded 73 cases — including the five deaths — of H1N1, commonly known as swine flu. He said only 10 percent of the some 2.5 million pilgrims were vaccinated against the virus.

"Our safety precautions have secured a very successful and safe hajj for pilgrims from around the world with no infectious disease outbreaks," al-Rabeeah said.

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Joe and Carlos meet a roaring lion

Joe is still in South Africa, back Wednesday morning. I just saw him online and he sent me the link to this video he posted of their safari. Too freaking cool (and a bit odd, in a way - something about the car near the lion is jarring to me.)



Someone clearly didn't have their coffee. Read More......

Sup Ct upholds Obama's refusal to release torture photos

Doesn't make it right. (NB In April, the White House had no problem with releasing the photos.) Read More......

Secret Service director and State Dinner crashers to testify before Congress

I agree that we have to get to the bottom of this. I'm not entirely sure I want to give these boors any more air time. Perhaps a close door hearing? Read More......

Swiss ban Muslim minarets

Fascinating, and somewhat odd, story.

Swiss voters defied their Government and clerics yesterday and approved a ban on building minarets — reflecting an alarming hostility to a rising Muslim minority.

Fifty-seven per cent of voters in a referendum supported the direct democracy initiative...

I'm not sure I totally get it, but let me pose a few devil's advocate questions:

1. Is it okay for municipalities, in any country, to regulate if and when Islamic centers, or mosques, can play their call to prayer on speakers outside?

2. Is it a valid concern if immigrant groups refuse to assimilate? I remember someone mentioning this to me a while back, and I told them how my grandmother, who had been in the US for, what, sixty years, knew probably 20 words of English. I used to love how we'd visit her home and knock on her door, and she'd answer "who ees?" Yiayia (as we Greeks call our grandmothers) was 100% American, and proud of it. She simply didn't assimilate.

3. But is there a difference between my yiayia and a Muslim fundamentalist? Is there a difference between a Muslim fundamentalist in Europe and a Christian fundamentalist, or Mormon, in America? Don't all three groups sometimes try to impose their minority views on the rest of the population? Read More......

Politico's typical bitchiness undercuts a few valid concerns

Politico has its moments. Ben Smith, one of their bloggers, is an actual journalist. He doesn't write for sensation, or to help one party over there other. He writes his blog to be interesting political news. The rest of Politico, not so much.

That's why a story like today's "7 stories Barack Obama doesn't want told," is so frustrating. There are some important nuggets in the story - at its core, the article is about certain memes about President Obama that are taking hold, and potentially damaging to him and his presidency. Of course, being Politico, even the title of the article reads like it's straight out of Cosmopolitan or the National Enquirer - hinting at sex and scandal and who knows what other sordid secrets. Don't get me wrong, much of the story is crap, precisely because it seems to have been written to titillate, if just politically. But, I would argue that perhaps five of the seven memes (if you ignore Politico's partisan-tainted analysis) are worth paying attention to - not that they're necessarily true, but that the GOP is succeeding in convincing the public that they're true. Here they are:

1. He thinks he’s playing with Monopoly money - YES

He doesn't, but I do think that the Republicans have done a great job of painting Obama, and Democrats generally, as profligate spenders. It's absurd, since starting in the Reagan years, it's been Republicans who have repeatedly broken the bank with their spending. But Democrats did a poor job of raising the deficit as an issue during the GOP administrations, while the Republicans did a pretty amazing job of tagging the Dems in just the past 11 months. The Obama team should have done a much better job defending the stimulus package and the bailouts AFTER they occurred. It's almost as if the legislation passed, or the package was implemented, and the administration washed its hands of it. The administration and the Dems on the Hill should be in constant campaign mode. All promote, always defend, always attack. They're not.

2. Too much Leonard Nimoy - YES

The point being: All brain, not enough heart. I do think the President runs the risk of coming across as too cerebral. That every decision will be analyzed to death. That he never gets angry (like real people do).

3. That’s the Chicago Way - NO

I don't get this one. I've heard the GOP repeatedly push this theme, but being from Chicago, I don't get it. Many of us wish Obama would show a more hard-hitting side. We're not concerned that he's too tough, too nasty, too hard-hitting. Perhaps the attack is taking hold - I don't see it.

4. He’s a pushover - YES

This one is dangerous for Obama. A lot of people, Democrats and Republicans, think that he's a pushover. That he doesn't like - will actively avoid - controversy. That he refuses to spend political capital. That he won't keep a political promise if it might upset the Republicans, or conservative Democrats. Even the president's greatest victories in the past year - the stimulus and it's 40% give-away to tax cuts in order to woo 3 Republican votes, comes to mind - hold a very mixed message of "success" and "psyche!"

5. He sees America as another pleasant country on the U.N. roll call, somewhere between Albania and Zimbabwe - YES AND NO

I don't think there's any basis for this claim, it's absurd. But, it is a key talking point of the far right, always - that world government is going to take over and ruin our American way of life. It's batty, but the conservative wing of the GOP - which is now most of the GOP - believes it. The question is whether it ever matters what the FOX News crowd thinks. They're still a minority of the public, regardless of how angry and nasty they are.

6. President Pelosi - NO

I don't see it, and I don't get it. The notion that Pelosi has somehow taken advantage of Obama and run rough-shod over him. If anything, I think the opposite has happened. And regardless of the truth of the accusation, I'm not convinced it even is an accusation. The GOP has tried to demonize Pelosi, often in a rather sexist manner, but they haven't claimed that she's somehow stolen Obama's manhood. I just don't see it. (Oh, and Politico's claim that the Speaker is as popular as Dick Cheney is crap. She's at 41% approval. Cheney has consistently hung out around 20%.)

7. He’s in love with the man in the mirror - YES

I'm not saying he IS in love with himself, I'm saying that such a perception is out there - that Team Obama thinks they're the smartest folks in the world, so you should go away and let them save the world - and it's dangerous for the President and Democrats in general. Read More......

Wash Post: Palin particularly popular among fans of Limbaugh and Beck

You think? This isn't news. What is interesting, however, is the fact that yet another poll shows that the remaining people left in the GOP are far more conservative than just a few years ago.

Those who identify as Republicans today see themselves as more conservative politically than those who said so during the last years of the presidency of George W. Bush.

This is the challenge for Republicans. How do you deal with the pressure in your own party to veer to the right, when by doing so, you risk alienating the very people who left your party because it veered too far to the right - people you need back in order to win elections? Read More......

How the Public Option would work

From the NYT:

HOW IT WOULD WORK Both bills would create new insurance exchanges, with an array of plans to choose from, for a limited number of Americans — those who lack group coverage and must buy policies directly from insurers and those who work for small employers, about 30 million people within a few years. With millions of potential new clients, all major insurers are expected to participate. And Congress willing, a new public plan would also be available.

The government would run the public plan, but both the Senate and House versions would require it to compete on a “level playing field.” It would have to follow the same rules as the private plans, meet the same benefit standards, maintain the same reserves, and support itself entirely with premium income, with no federal help beyond start-up money that would have to be repaid.

The secretary of health and human services, as the head of the plan, would have to negotiate rates with health care providers just as the private plans do.

As the Times points out, the current bills are no great shake. Yet, a few Democrats still threaten to bring the entire bill down if we don't protect the industry that's lining their, and their wives', pockets. Read More......

Reconciliation as savior for health care reform?

David Waldman over at Daily Kos writes a detailed analysis of the pluses and minuses of using the Budget Reconciliation process to pass health care reform. As David notes, we're still hearing the usual threats from Lieberman et. al. to join the Republicans in filibustering the health care bill if it contains the rather weak public option that we've been left with. It real is time for the President and Harry Reid to tell the hold out to get with the program. If they're willing to screw with Obama's number one policy item, then imagine the damage they're going to cause if we embolden them here and now. Read More......

Monday Morning Open Thread

It's gonna be a bad week for Mike Huckabee. It's also another bad week in gay-land for the Obama administration, after we found out on Friday that the Office of Personnel Management, run by an openly gay man, intervened to stop Blue Cross from extending health benefits to a lesbian. As for me, I'm still in Chicago, getting ready to go power shopping with my sister - a feat not for the feint of heart. And finally, sometime this week, Mr. Sudbay will grace us with his presence, after his two week trek to South Africa. Hopefully, he'll have some stories and photos to share. Read More......

Magnets for fighting cancer?

Not that the Big Pharma industry will like this, but wow. What should also be noted is that despite what the loony right wing says in the US, studies like this are done by global groups. In this case including, France, UK and US. How foolish does someone have to be to think the US stands alone in technological advancements? Just because a loon who has never experienced anything outside of the US says the US is number one in everything, doesn't mean that it's true. Smart people (and stupid people) can be found anywhere. AFP:

Tiny magnetic discs just a millionth of a metre in diameter could be used to used to kill cancer cells, according to a study published on Sunday.

Laboratory tests found the so-called "nanodiscs", around 60 billionths of a metre thick, could be used to disrupt the membranes of cancer cells, causing them to self-destruct.

The discs are made from an iron-nickel alloy, which move when subjected to a magnetic field, damaging the cancer cells, the report published in Nature Materials said.

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EU accused of creating problem for new climate change treaty

There may be a lot of truth to this report, but it's going to be a hard time to find any country - EU or US - that is willing to increase funding for much of anything. The rich countries are the major polluters so yes, they most definitely should be funding the poorer countries. It may not be right but that is simply the state of the global economy for the time being. The Guardian:

The papers, seen by the Guardian, show that the EU has removed lines in the negotiating text of next month's Copenhagen climate change summit which stress the principle that climate change aid comes on top of existing development aid. The EU negotiating team has written: "Cannot accept reference to 'additional to', and 'separate from' ODA [official development assistance] targets."

Aid agencies said Europe threatened to fatally undermine the talks.

"No developing country will sign up to an agreement that could give them no extra money at all. The EU and other rich countries must provide new and additional finance, otherwise there will be no deal at all," said Rob Bailey, Oxfam's senior policy adviser. Developing nations have been unanimous and implacable on the terms of the finance deal.

Read More......