Health officials confirm case of plague in Oregon

It's hard to believe that the problem still exists today but fortunately the odds of surviving it are very high. What used to wipe out cities and villages is now very treatable, thankfully. Even so, it's still creepy enough to hear of new cases. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery.

Health officials have confirmed that an Oregon man has the plague after he was bitten while trying to take a dead rodent from the mouth of a stray cat.

The unidentified Prineville, Ore., man was in critical condition on Friday. He is suffering from a blood-borne version of the disease that wiped out at least one-third of Europe in the 14th century — that one, the bubonic plague, affects lymph nodes.

There is an average of seven human plague cases in the U.S. each year. A map maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that most cases since the 1970s have been in the West, primarily the southwest.

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Obama presses for higher air quality standards

If this makes Republicans mad, sorry, but they're being ignorant. If the GOP cares at all about rising health care costs (though it's not clear if they do) they should care a lot about soot. With record corporate profits in recent years, it's not clear why it would be acceptable for corporations to skip charges and pollute so they can pollute and then pass on those costs to consumers by way of more health problems.

Let corporations pay to keep the environment clean and help cut consumer health care costs. My own friends and family in the Buckeye state and Pennsylvania are struggling enough with this crisis and don't have the additional money to help fund corporate polluters. Asking them or anyone else to pay for it is just crazy and should not be controversial at all.

Clean air makes good sense for everyone.

The move, to be announced Friday, is likely to win support from environmental groups and public health advocates but exposes the president to potential criticism from congressional Republicans and industry officials that the rules are overly strict and could hurt economic growth and cause job losses in political swing states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Perhaps wary of the rule's political risk, the administration had sought to delay the new soot standards until after the November elections. But a federal judge ordered officials to act after 11 states filed a lawsuit seeking a decision this year by the Environmental Protection Agency.

An administration official said the new rule was based on a rigorous scientific review. Virtually all counties in the United States would meet the proposed standard with no additional actions needed beyond compliance with current and impending rules set by the EPA, the official said. Administration officials described the rule to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because it has yet to be announced.

If the GOP wants to make this controversial, please, let's have an open and honest discussion about corporate profits versus health care cost impact on families. Read the rest of this post...

McCain: Romney receiving foreign money for campaign

And McCain is also correct when he says that "corporations are not people" during the interview. The playing field is a mess and we need to fix this problem. Enough of the 1% running the show. Read the rest of this post...

Right wing journalist heckles Obama during immigration announcement

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This happened yesterday, but with John still woozy from his second cataract surgery having taken place Thursday night, we missed a few things on Friday (John says he's fine, the eye is still blurry from the dilation, and hopefully should improve in a few days.)

Now back to the jerk who heckled the President at the White House.  Classy bunch, as always. Imagine what Fox News would do if a liberal journalist did this during the Bush years. The heckler should have been removed immediately. In no way was he waiting for the right moment as he now says. It's obvious he was heckling and not interested in doing anything other than be a jerk and getting his 15 minutes.

Obama's mistake was to give the guy an answer or refer to him in any way. That will only encourage more hecklers.  Remember what happened after "You lie!"  They scoured the health care bill to see if they could tighten up its anti-immigrant provisions, in order to assuage the jerk's concerns.  If you let these guys get away with coarsening the culture, things will only get worse. Read the rest of this post...

Five Questions: Cliff Schecter with Gaius Publius at Netroots Nation 2012

This is another of the nine [now ten] short interviews I made while at Netroots Nation last week. Our guest this time is Cliff Schecter, who comments in many places, most notably (to me) as a Friday regular on majority.fm.

The series is called "Five Questions" — I asked the same four questions of each respondent and tailored a fifth question to the person I was speaking with. You can see the list of questions by clicking here.

I'll say as an introduction, this is one of the best pro-progressive statements I've heard from Cliff. Schecter is clear and strong-voiced in support of progressive wins. May the Spirit in the Sky reward him for that.

Five Questions: Cliff Schecter with Gaius Publius, recorded at Netroots Nation 2012. Enjoy:



A couple of quotes I found interesting:

About progressives and Dems: "Now, I consult with Democrats as a progressive." He means what you think he means. More, please.

About the Progressive Caucus in Congress: "What would work differently is if you say you're going to do something, you do it."

Pause to ponder that. The example he used here was the Public Option in Obama's health care bill. Progressives said it, but they didn't do it. (My sad thoughts here; needless to say, agreeance.)

His answer to the question about the future (question 4) was interesting as well, thoughtful and nuanced. No one brought up what he brought up.

About the WeAct radio station Cliff is involves with, it's 1480 AM (WPWC) in Washington DC. Internet is WeActRadio.com. The lead talent is David Shuster, a man who has taken a wonderful path into the light (OK, I used to watch Ghost Whisperer.)

Cliff is not the first person I spoke with at the convention, by the way, who talked about a general strike. General strike — we should keep that arrow available in my opinion, for whatever that thought is worth.

The full list of "Five Questions" interviews includes the following. Links to names will take you to previously-published interviews.

• Alan Grayson, former (and perhaps future) U.S. Congressman
• Marcy Wheeler, of emptywheel.net
• Cliff Schecter, who comments regularly with Sam Seder at Majority.fm among many other places
• Tom Tomorrow, cartoonist with DailyKos and This Modern World
• Alex Lawson of StrengthenSocialSecurity.org
• Josh Orton, with Russ Feingold's Progressives United
• Frances Causey, producer–director of Heist, the documentary
• Chris Pearson, a Progressive Party Vermont state legislator
• Susan Smith, Progressive Caucus chair of the Florida Democratic Party
• Sarah Burris, labor activist and progressive youth organizer

These interviews will be presented in some order in the upcoming days.

(If you have trouble with this audio, please let me know in the comments and I'll address it as quickly as I can. Thanks.)

GP

To follow or send links: @Gaius_Publius
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Billionaire Sheldon Adelson now raining millions on Mittens

There are so many angles to this story, it's hard to know where to start. John touched on this earlier in a Romney-porn piece (yep), but I want to focus on just Adelson for a bit:

■ Sheldon Adelson is the 7th richest man in the U.S. and the 14th richest man in the world (up from 8th and 16th last time we reported). On the "World Billionaires" list (second link), he's just a skosh behind David Koch.

■ Sheldon Adelson is (was) Newt Gingrich's billionaire.

■ He's a Las Vegas casino owner who has a very strong penchant for a very muscular Israel.

For example, he's reported to be a fan of Gingrich in part because of Gingrich's support for moving the U.S. Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

■ Adelson was a huge Scott Walker backer during the Wisconsin recall ($250,000 cool ones went Walker's way).

■ To get the full Adelson flavor, Rick Perlstein's profile in Rolling Stone is a must-read.

Click just to watch the embedded video in which Adelson plays man-games with a deposing lawyer in a session recorded in Adelson's kingly office. The performance is a classic, must-watch, for entertainment value alone.

■ There's more, especially on the Likud front, but that's for later.

Now the news — Sheldon Adelson is dropping big bucks Mitt Romney's way, raining them like roses before the candidate's feet, as it were.

The Wall Street Journal (who really need to be keeping its mouth shut about this stuff) has the story; my emphases and [bracketed glosses]:

Adelson Gives $10 Million to Pro-Romney Super PAC

Billionaire conservative casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who helped keep Newt Gingrich’s failed presidential campaign alive during the Republican primaries, is giving $10 million to the super PAC supporting the presumptive GOP nominee, Mitt Romney, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The leader of the super PAC Restore Our Future, Carl Forti, [keep that name in mind] wouldn’t confirm the donation and said his policy was to not comment on donors or potential donors. ... The $10 million figure appears to be the largest single donation towards Mr. Romney’s efforts so far.

That's the broad stroke ... so far. Now two short ones. Note:

People close to Mr. Adelson said that he wants to be certain about Mr. Romney’s positions on key issues, including support for Israel against aggressors in the Middle East.

Agressors. I take that to mean Iran, as noted here. And:

Mr. Adelson has told friends that he intends to give at least $100 million to conservative causes and candidates this election cycle. ... But he has also told his friends and colleagues that he would prefer to keep his contributions under wraps in order to avoid controversy, and will likely focus donations mostly on non-profits affiliated with political PACS, which don’t have to disclose the names of donors.

Karl Rove's name comes up, and his Crossroads GPS SuperPAC. Will Adelson blow right past that $100,000,000 candidate-buy (yes, that's what $100 million looks like in zeros) and get to really big numbers?

Who knows? He does have $24 billion to play with, and the country is for sale. Time to buy, say I, while the offer's on the table.

I think that's enough for one post, but there really is more, including some mavericky speculation about the Chinese source of some of that Adelson purchase-money. Stay tuned; a follow-up is coming.

Welcome to your democracy. Sorry, I meant "their democracy." We gave it to them, and it's theirs now. I coulda told folks during Reagan days — Once you give stuff to the rich, you don't get it back by asking.

Tick-tick-tick.

* * * *

Sorry. I dozed a sec, and when I woke I found myself thinking of this.



Odd that.

GP

To follow or send links: @Gaius_Publius
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The Dead Milkmen - Punk Rock Girl

Anyone remember these guys? I always had some laughs listening to their music.

So after a great deal of stress (mostly for my sister) my no longer little nephew who now has the nerve to be taller than me graduated from high school yesterday. I crashed his class a few days ago at his school when he presented his senior project, which was just amazing.

Last year for his science fair project he constructed a water filtration system that could be easily built in the Third World and this year, he actually did it for real. He traveled to Guatemala last month and spent three weeks in a village helping construct a school out of old tired and dirt. When the villagers told him that an elderly woman in town was having difficulties with water (and getting sick) he built a filtration system for her, then built another for the school. It's simple, but effective.

Now he's preparing for a bit of work closer to home for the summer, then off for engineering at Purdue. We're all really proud of him and even his grandparents think he's going to end up doing something good for people in challenging conditions with his engineering degree. Who knows, but if nothing else the project in Guatemala was a fantastic experience. Read the rest of this post...