Why burgers and ice cream control us

So long tartiflette and your gooey, cheesy, bacony goodness. Now I know why I really need to stay away from the fatty foods. So are potatoes cooked in duck fat still OK?

A U.S. study by UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas has found that fat from certain foods such ice cream and burgers heads to the brain.

Once there, the fat molecules trigger the brain to send messages to the body's cells, warning them to ignore the appetite-suppressing signals from leptin and insulin, hormones involved in weight regulation — for up to three days.

Read More......

Movement for the Democratic candidates for Governor in NJ and VA

In New Jersey, a new poll shows incumbent Governor Jon Corzine (D) leading -- by one point among registered voters -- but it's a lead:

Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine has for the first time gained the lead in the gubernatorial race among all registered voters, according to a new Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey Poll.

Among all registered voters polled, Corzine holds a one percent lead with 41 percent for the governor and 40 percent for Republican challenger Chris Christie. Christie had a 4 point lead among registered voters in the August poll and a 6 point lead in July.

Jon Corzine and his running mate, Loretta Weinberg, are true progressives. He's going to sign the marriage equality bill when it passes the legislature -- and it will pass. Thanks to Corzine's policies, the number of uninsured people in NJ has dropped, yes dropped, 11 percent. The Corzine/Weinberg campaign website is here. And, of course, BlueJersey is the go-to site for all things political in the Garden State.

And, in Virginia, Creigh Deeds is closing the gap:

Creigh Deeds, Virginia’s Democratic nominee for governor, has narrowed the lead of his Republican rival to five percentage points, according to a new Clarus Research Group poll out Tuesday night.

Deeds, a state senator, now trails former Attorney General Bob McDonnell 42-37 percent after lagging by double digits throughout the summer. Twenty percent of 600 registered voters polled September 10-14 remain undecided.

Deeds raised more money in July and August than McDonnell, which cannot be underestimated. I also think McDonnell's extreme, theocratic background will take awhile to sink in. Living in the D.C. media market, I get to see the ads for this campaign. McDonnell is trying way too hard to seem "normal." He's not. And, he's also trying way too hard to distance himself from himself. He can't. The campaign website for Creigh Deeds is here. Read More......

Anti-deficit or anti-Democrat?

Cynthia Tucker raises a good point about the Teabaggers:

I doubt that the tens of thousands who marched on Washington on Saturday would have been there if John McCain had been elected and the deficit was the same. I can’t believe those conservatives/libertarians would have mounted the same demonstration against a Republican president.

Are they aware that the largest two-year tax cut in U.S. history — $282 billion — was enacted as part of Obama’s stimulus package.

Which goes to show you that if you give conservatives what they want, and you're a Democrat, they'll still criticize you for the very thing you conceded on. Read More......

More on the Teabaggers claiming they had 2m people when they actually had tens of thousands

From Eric Boehlert at Media Matters:

It turns out that's what kicked off the right-wing blogosphere's comically inept misinformation campaign last weekend to try to swell the size of Saturday's anti-Obama protest in the nation's capital, to jack the crowd size up to the wildly inflated -- and erroneous -- number of 2 million people.

Nice try....

Why the shamelessness? Sadly, members of the GOP Noise Machine are acutely aware there is no downside to just lying 24/7. Malkin knows that no TV producers are going to deny her an on-air spot because she purposefully spread the patently phony claim that 2 million people gathered in Washington, D.C. (i.e. that the city's population quadrupled overnight). The Beltway press rarely holds the Noise Machine accountable, so of course they're going to just keep lying (what's the downside?), since it's obvious they don't really care about facts to begin with.

Read More......

Bernanke: recession 'very likely over'

Not that he's been the most accurate with his predictions, but still encouraging news. The downside is that he too sees a stubbornly slow recovery.

Taking questions following a speech at the Brookings Institution, Bernanke gave his most explicit endorsement yet to the idea that the economy bottomed out sometime this summer and has begun growing again, at least as measured by gross domestic product.

"Even though from a technical perspective the recession is very likely over at this point, it's still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time, as many people will still find that their job security and their employment status is not what they wish it was," Bernanke said.

Read More......

Rebuke of Rep. Joe "You Lie" Wilson passed by vote of 240 - 179

The House of Representatives just voted to rebuke Rep. Joe Wilson by a margin of 240 - 179. The language of the resolution is here.

I'll post the roll call when it's available. Roll call is here. Read More......

Congressional Dems looking to take advantage of GOP obstructionism

Hallelujah. This is the way they should be thinking. How to turn the GOP's obstructionism and ire against itself. Politics is a game of chess when it's played right. And this is right.

Already, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has threatened to cancel a week-long October recess if Republicans slow things down in committee and on the Senate floor.

"We won't miss the window," the aide said. "Everyone's cognizant of it."

But though time is of the essence, and some on the left are anxious for Democrats to move forward without Republican support, there could be an undiscussed political upside to doing things this way.

"There's a strategic and a message value to letting this play out on the floor for the American people to see," said another Democratic aide. "Especially if this plays out on the floor and Republicans try to kill the bill. [That] would make it easier if we had to come back to a reconciliation."

Read More......

US House taking up censure resolution of Joe "You Lie!" Wilson right now

It will be offered by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip James Clyburn:

RESOLUTION
Raising a question of the privileges of the House.

Whereas on September 9, 2009, during the joint session of Congress convened pursuant to House Concurrent Resolution 179, the President of the United States, speaking at the invitation of the House and Senate, had his remarks interrupted by the Representative from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson; and

Whereas the conduct of the Representative from South Carolina was a breach of decorum and degraded the proceedings of the joint session, to the discredit of the House: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives disapproves of the behavior of the Representative from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson, during the joint session of Congress held on September 9, 2009.

Read More......

Wash. Post on Baucus Bill: "Reform Bill Will Address GOP Fear"

There's a Democratic President. There are 59 Democratic Senators (soon to be 60 again.) The Democrats have a huge majority in the House. The election provided a mandate for Democrats to solve problems. So, what is the major thrust of the bill written by Senator Max Baucus, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee? Addressing the concerns and needs of Republicans:

The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee said Monday that he will propose an overhaul of the nation's health-care system that addresses a host of GOP concerns, including blocking illegal immigrants from gaining access to subsidized insurance, urging limits on medical malpractice lawsuits and banning federal subsidies for abortion.

What a sad joke.

Someone in the Senate better get control of this process. It's embarrassing. Just embarrassing. And, Baucus will never, ever be able to assuage the concerns and fears of Republicans. They want Obama and health insurance reform to fail.

Jed Lewison focuses on another major flaw with the Baucus/GOP bill: It "could hit the middle-class hard." That's what one would expect from the GOP, not the Democratic Party. Read More......

Arianna on Obama's "well intentioned but naïve" Wall Street speech

Arianna wasn't impressed with Obama speech about cleaning up Wall Street.

But instead of telling the Wall Street power players watching him today that he was going to insist on making cramdown a part of his financial reform package, he tried to appeal to their better angels, reminding them that they didn't have to wait for Congress to pass new laws... they could just start acting better on their own.

It was shockingly naïve. Wall Street has been spending hundreds of millions of dollars, doing everything in its power to kill things like cramdown legislation, derivatives regulation, and the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency, and the president is asking them to be nicer people. That's like tossing a wounded seal into the middle of a school of Great White sharks and hoping the beasts will nurse it back to health.

Read More......

You really need to watch this video of the Teabagger protest in DC this past weekend

Seriously, you need to watch this. The entire video is people at this weekend's Teabagger protest speaking, and explaining why they came to protest, what they believe in. Towards the second half, the interviewer starts explaining the truth to people, and it's fascinating to watch their reaction.

Read More......

To reiterate: They fear the public option because it might just work

Via Atrios. Read More......

Anti-gay forces, funded by Catholic Bishop, are on the air in Maine -- with an ad filled with lies and distortions, of course

I posted the first anti-gay ad in Maine over at gay.AMERICAblog.com. It looks like something out of the 80s. One example of a distortion is that the Associated Press never issued a headline with the term "Homosexual Advocacy Group" as this frame indicates:

That headline only exists on anti-gay, wingnut sites like CNS.com. It's not from the Associated Press. We know the AP gets really irritated over use of its content. What will AP do when its content is distorted in a homophobic t.v. ad?

Don't forget: The Bishop of Maine is financing this effort. He ordered a second collection this past weekend. The Bishop's top aide, Marc Mutty who has been detailed to run the anti-gay campaign, claimed they "could have raised as much as $100,000 to $300,000." (Meanwhile, the Bishop is shutting down parishes and trying to launch a capital campaign because of the dire financial situation of the Diocese.) The Catholic Bishop of Maine learned something from the Mormons who funded the anti-gay Prop. 8 in California last fall. He's "lying for the lord," too.

According to an email from No on 1/Protect Maine Equality campaign manager Jesse Connolly:

Today, our opponents launched their first TV ad -- and not surprisingly, it's full of the same sort of distortion and fear-mongering that was so successful in passing California's Prop 8. They've already bought $700,000 in airtime-- that means every voter in the state will see their ad at least 20 times.

$700,000 for this ad alone. The Bishop is going all out. We can win this one, but our side needs the resources. No on 1/Protect Maine Equality needs resources to counter the lies. Donate here. We can't let the lies win this time. Read More......

Robert Reich reflects on the prospects for change on Wall Street

Delayed action, lack of boldness and the same old tricks by the same old people on Wall Street.

So will the President succeed on financial reform? I wish I could be optimistic. His milktoast list of proposed reforms is inadequate to the task, even if adopted. The Street's behavior since its bailout should be proof enough that halfway measures won't do. The basic function of commercial banking in our economic system -- linking savers to borrowers -- should never have been confused with the casino-like function of investment banking. Securitization, whereby loans are turned into securities traded around the world, has made lenders unaccountable for the risks they take on. The Glass-Steagall Act should be resurrected. Pension and 401 (k) plans, meanwhile, should never have been allowed to subject their beneficiaries to the risks that Wall Street gamblers routinely run. Put simply, the Street has been given too many opportunities to play too many games with other peoples' money.

But, like the health care industry, Wall Street has platoons of lobbyists and an almost unlimited war chest to protect its interests and prevent change. And with the Dow Jones Industrial Average trending upward again -- and the public's and the media's attention focused elsewhere, especially on health care -- it will be difficult to summon the same sense of urgency financial reform commanded six months ago.

Read More......

How you can help the blog

I was recently talking to Joe and Chris about how Reddit and Digg really help to drive traffic to the blog, when I realized that I may never have explained these services to our own readers. So let me explain the services, with the goal of asking all of you to consider submitting particularly interesting content from from the liberal blogs - by doing so, you will help all of our traffic grow.

Basically, Reddit and Digg are services that permit readers to vote "for" a particular blog post, article, etc. that they find particularly interesting, and would like to recommend to other people. You'll note that under each of our posts, there are a series of small images. If you click on those images, you can submit that post to Reddit, to Digg, or even to your own Facebook page. I know, it doesn't say which image is which - if you hover your mouse over the image for a few seconds, it will tell you.

Now, the first time you visit Reddit or Digg you have to create an account. It's easy. The good thing is that you can tell Reddit and Digg to remember you, and it will the next time you visit (no need to log in - though I find Digg often forgets, which is annoying). After you create an account, the next time you click on a Reddit or Digg link beneath a particularly good post you like, it will take you to a page where you can fill in a small amount of information about that link - title, subject area, and for Digg also a quick explanation of the post - assign the post an issue area, usually "politics" or "political news" - and then you submit it. From then on, other visitors to the blog can click the Reddit and Digg links at the bottom of the post to add their vote for the post - thus increasing the Reddit or Digg number for that post. The higher the number, the higher the post rises on Reddit's and Digg's pages, and the more people come to read that particular post or article.



And the neat thing is, if all goes well, Reddit and Digg should prepopulate the link and the headline of the post - though you're always welcome to change it to something more interesting or more enticing. Here's an example of what pops up when you submit something to Reddit that hasn't been submitted before (oh, and don't submit Open Threads).

Why does this matter? First, you help drive traffic to your favorite blogs or news sites. Second, you help drive traffic to a particularly interesting or useful blog post or article - say a post or article that's really damaging to Republicans. By voting for it, you help ensure that more people online will see it.

Here's an example of a post of our that somebody else already submitted - you can see that 36 people have already voted in favor of that post, that they like it, which raises it higher up on Reddit's page.



It's difficult to explain well how this works, but once you click those links below the post, sign up for the two services, and then actually use them, it will be obvious how to use them. They really are easy (I think Reddit is absurdly easy, Digg a tad more work). And from then on, submit and vote for whatever posts on this blog, or other blogs, or even news articles on news sites that use these services, that you like. You'll be helping the site out a lot, but also helping to raise awareness of particular news items and blog items that you care about. It's pretty cool, try it. Please :-) Read More......

Being a victim of domestic violence is a pre-existing condition in eight states, plus DC (seriously)

I can't help but channel SNL channeling Michael Dukakis: I can't believe we're losing to these guys.

What upsets me when I read stories like this is that Democrats have been "trying" to fix the problem since 1993. As an activist that has been pretty successful blowing outrageous stories up in the news, it angers me when I read things like this. It's easy to pass legislation fixing something like this. E-a-s-y. They even have the names of GOP Senators who voted against fixing this problem. One of them is Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), a member of the "Gang of Six." Did I miss the TV ads attacking Enzi for voting against women who are beaten up by their husbands? Or is that too "mean"? (Meaner than beating up your wife, apparently.) This is indicative of the larger problem we have in the Democratic party. They don't know how to fight. Read More......

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The president is on the road today. He's going to hold a discussion on the economy at a General Motors plant in Warren, Ohio. I guess he's going there to see our tax dollars at work. Then, he's heading to Pittsburgh to speak at the AFL-CIO convention. Be interesting to see what the President has to say about health insurance reform there. The incoming president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, stated, "we won't support the bill if it doesn't have the public option in it."

At 11:00 a.m. this morning, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and several other members of Congress, including Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI and Jared Polis (D-CO) will be introducing legislation to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Finally, a bill to repeal DOMA.

We'll see what else pops up... Read More......

Wells Fargo fires senior executive who squatted in beach house

Shocking though not shocking for a banker. If only this is what Wall Street did to the rest of the country we would be in better shape. What Wall Street banks was considerably worse than this disgusting squatter but nobody in charge is willing or able to fire people. To their credit, at least Wells Fargo went beyond a stern speech and fired the employee.

Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) has fired a senior vice president after investigating reports she held lavish parties at a foreclosed beachfront Malibu house owned by the bank.

The fourth-largest U.S. bank said in a statement on Monday that it had terminated one employee, senior vice president Cheronda Guyton, who it found had violated its policies.

Read More......

Patrick Swayze died

Way too young to die. CNN:

Patrick Swayze, whose good looks and sympathetic performances in films such as "Dirty Dancing" and "Ghost" made him a romantic idol to millions, died Monday. He was 57.

Swayze died of pancreatic cancer, his publicist, Annett Wolf, told CNN.

Swayze's doctor, Dr. George Fisher, revealed in early March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from the disease.

Read More......

British executives game the system, again

When is enough enough with this crowd? Even worse, they're probably having the companies they work for fund their own accounting and legal activities. While lump sum payouts in cash clearly benefit the recipient, how does such a payout benefit the company that they're supposed to be leading? In this economic climate, cash is a pretty good thing to have around.

Company directors switched millions of pounds worth of pension contributions into cash last year to avoid a government clampdown on tax relief for wealthy pension savers, according to the Guardian's survey of directors' pensions.

Some directors were granted all of their pension contribution as a one-off cash lump sum while others received a proportion of the money as a separate payment.

Pension experts said most directors asked for cash instead of a pension to dodge a cut in tax relief affecting people with pension pots worth more than £1.75m. The 50p-in-the-£1 tax rate was implemented in 2006 on pots worth more than £1.75m, prompting executives to rely less on their occupational schemes and more on individual savings plans.

Read More......

Sonic canons used to protect health care town hall in San Diego?

Just another sign of our healthy democracy. Read More......

Report: Cuomo to file charges against Bank of America execs

Clearly he's part of the 'left of the left' that believes it's important to hold Wall Street accountable for destroying the wealth of average Americans and creating a global recession. Couldn't he just give a firm speech asking Wall Street to try harder and hope for the best?

The New York Attorney General's office is preparing charges against several high-ranking Bank of America executives over the bank's alleged failure to disclose details about its acquisition of Merrill Lynch, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office is likely to file civil charges against the executives over their role in failing to alert shareholders to mounting losses as well as accelerated bonus payments at Merrill, said the person, who requested anonymity because no charges have been filed yet.

Read More......