GOP purges moderates in Kansas

Interesting article on how Kansas conservatives are purging their party of moderate Republicans, with the help of the Koch brothers and the Chamber of Commerce. Read the rest of this post...

Today's mental health break

I love these things. Read the rest of this post...

Programming note—Gaius on Thom Hartmann this Friday talking Climate Catastrophe

UPDATE: A complete list of climate series pieces is available here:
The Climate series: a reference post.
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In case you're interested, you can listen to me and guest host Mike Papantonio talking about climate catastrophe and who's really responsible on this Friday's Thom Hartmann radio show.

The show airs live at 3:00 pm EST. The climate segment is scheduled for 3:30 EST.

The Thom Hartmann radio link is here. The listen-locally link is here. It looks like there's an outlet in almost every state (and several countries).

In the Washington D.C. area, you can listen and also support an excellent local progressive radio station, WPWC-AM We Act Radio 1480. Click the link to learn more about WeActRadio.com; they're something special.

By the way, Mike Papantonio is one of the people I wrote about here as someone who really gets it on climate. Thanks, Mike.

GP

To follow or send links: @Gaius_Publius Read the rest of this post...

More on DHS domestic terror office that was shut down by GOP pressure

Amy Goodman interviews Daryl Johnson, former Dept of Homeland Security analyst who authored a key report on domestic terrorism in 2009 - a report that the Republicans went nuts over, and effectively shut down the report and the office that was studying the domestic terror threat.

Apparently, Republicans in Congress were congress that a few too many of their supporters might be classified as domestic terrorists - which, if true, means that the report is either too broad, or the Republican base is a tad too crazy.

Here's an excerpt of the interview:

AMY GOODMAN: How did your report get picked up? How did it get disseminated in the media? What was the trajectory it took?

DARYL JOHNSON: Well, basically an anonymous person sent the report out. Obviously they didn’t agree with its findings, and sent it out to Roger Hedgecock out in southern California who is kind of a conservative radio shock jock who really banters the immigration issue a lot. He is credited with disclosing publicly this report which was not meant for public distribution.

AMY GOODMAN: And so what happened to you, Daryl Johnson, and your unit within the Department of Homeland Security that was looking at domestic terror threats and particularly at white supremacy and neo-Nazi groups?

DARYL JOHNSON: What happened was quite shocking actually. I never anticipated that the Department of Homeland Security, my employer, would actually clamp down on the unit and stop all of the valuable work we were doing. Leading up to this report, and I will talk about this at length in my book, my team was doing a lot of good things throughout the country. We received numerous accolades from law enforcement, intelligence officials, talking about the great work we were doing in the fight against domestic terrorism. Then in lieu of the political backlash, the department decided to not only stop all of our work, stop all of the training and briefings that we were scheduled to give; but they also disbanded the unit, reassigned us to other areas within the office and then made life increasingly difficult for us. Not only did they stop the work that we were doing, but they also tried to blame us for some of the attacks that were occurring.

AMY GOODMAN: And so you lost your job.

DARYL JOHNSON: I didn’t lose my job. They just made it a very difficult environment for me to continue working there so I, on my own recognizance, sought employment elsewhere and started my own consulting company.

AMY GOODMAN: I’m looking at a quick piece from Wired which says, “Since Johnson released his ill-fated report, the Witchita, Kansas, abortion doctor, George Teller, was assinated. A security guard was killed when a gunman with neo-Nazi ties went on a shooting spree at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, the FBI arrested members of a Florida neo-Nazi outfit tied to drug dealing and motorcycle gangs, a man was charged with attempting to detonate a weapon of mass destruction at a Spokane, Washington, march commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday and several mosques around the country have been vandalized or attacked, including a Missouri mosque that burned to the ground on Monday, which had been attacked before. Were you surprised by the attack on the Sikh temple and all that has taken place since?

DARYL JOHNSON: Unfortunately, Amy, I was not shocked. In fact, I was sitting in my living room with my wife and immediately when I saw the news coverage, I turned to her and said that this was likely a hate motivated crime against Sikhs perpetrated by a white supremacist who may have had military background.

AMY GOODMAN: It is interesting also that President Obama spoke yesterday in Denver with Sandra Fluke who introduced him, the Georgetown University law student who was speaking out for contraception and was targeted by Rush Limbaugh and others, and was talking about women’s health and women’s rights in this country. The neo-Nazi movement, along with the anti-choice movement, do you see links? I’m talking about the extremist wing.

DARYL JOHNSON: There’s definitely links between white supremacists and the anti-abortion issue. That is one of the causes that they rally around and use as a recruitment tool to bring people into the movement. I wouldn’t necessarily say it is strictly neo-Nazi. It could be, also, the Christian Identity Movement, it could be skinheads, it could the Ku Klux Klan.

Read the rest of this post...

Should Harry Reid apologize because Romney didn't pay taxes for ten years?

Sounds like Romney owes us an apology.

I will say this: The Republicans are doing a great job of giving Reid free press on his claim that an inside-Bain source told him that Mitt Romney didn't pay taxes for ten years.  And while Romney denies it, he refuses to release his taxes - which every other presidential candidate has done - so not only does no one know the truth, we're left wondering what is so bad in Mitt Romney's tax returns that he's forced to hide them from public scrutiny?

Not paying any taxes for ten years is certainly a good reason to hide your taxes. Read the rest of this post...

Dad reportedly waterboarded 11 year old daughter

From CNN:

A Delaware doctor and his wife were arrested this week after their daughter told authorities that she was punished by "waterboading," police said.

The 11-year-old girl told police that her father, pediatrician Melvin Morse, would hold her face under a running faucet causing the water to shoot up her nose, the Delaware State Police said. The punishments happened at least four times over a two-year period and the girl's mother, Pauline Morse, witnessed some of them and did nothing, police said.

Morse specializes in near-death experiences in children and wrote a book about the subject called "Closer to the Light" in 1991.

But lest anyone think he's an uncaring father:

The girl said her father said "she could go five minutes without brain damage," the newspaper reported, citing court documents.

But remember, waterboarding isn't torture. So it's ok.

This is what the Republicans have done, and are doing, to our country. They're coarsening it, making it more violent, uncaring (and dumb) - far worse than any music video could ever do.

Mom used to call the TV "the idiot box."  I'm more worried about the Idiot Party. Read the rest of this post...

U.S. says drop the "2°C guarantee" from the global warming deal, calls for "flexibility"

UPDATE: A complete list of climate series pieces is available here:
The Climate series: a reference post.
________

News on the climate catastrophe front:

■ I've been working on the close-out posts of the Climate Catastrophe series. (If you're interested, the most recent post in the series contains an organized list of all the previous posts.)

The final posts will deal with the "what to do" problem. We're not helpless, and this isn't hopeless yet. Stay tuned.

■ We've started attracting some interest in the issue and its catastrophic implications. The global warming bottom line (below) is simple, easy to grasp and truly hugs the monster.

That bottom line is expressed in just four numbers:

1. If we stop right now, global warming will reach 1½°C (about 3°F) by the end of this century. About .8°C has already occurred, and .8°C more is unavoidable, "in the pipeline."
   
   
2. Elite consensus says total global warming must stay below 2°C (3½°F) — and even that will cause challenges for human habitation.
   
   
3. There's a mass extinction scenario at 3°C (5½°F) warmer. 20–50% of species could go extinct.
   
   
4. Yet the planet is on track for an astounding 7°C (12½°F) increase by 2100 — the "do nothing" scenario and certain death. The price of making the Oil Barons richer.

This is both stark and clear, perhaps game-changing. For example, a leading Koch-funded denier has recently turned, and the denier camp, though powerful, is slowly shrinking.

The media hasn't turned yet, but maybe the tide has. The time to press is now.

■ In that context, this. As the headline says, the U.S. wants to go backward. In effect, the U.S. position is now, "The most practical way to get agreement is to insist on nothing."

From RTCC.org (h/t commenter Start Loving):

The 2°C guarantee should be dropped from the global climate change deal to allow for more flexibility and avoid deadlock, US Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern has said.

Speaking at Dartmouth College he said removing the 2°C specification from the agreement would allow countries to get on with actions to limit climate change now while leaving it open for further ambition at a later date.

“It is more important to start now with a regime that can get us going in the right direction and that is built in a way maximally conducive to raising ambition, spurring innovation and building political will,” he said adding that insisting on an agreement that would guarantee the 2°C limit would only lead to deadlock.

Please take a second, read the global warming bottom line above, then read just the first paragraph of the quote.

With "leadership" like this, we're dead. Thanks, Mr. Obama. Climate Change Envoy Todd Stern works for you, last time I checked.

■ The good news. There's a growing number of people in a position to both think clearly and make real noise — people who are getting it, hugging the monster, calling a catastrophe a catastrophe, and pushing for a real solution. More on that shortly.

GP

To follow or send links: @Gaius_Publius
  Read the rest of this post...

Both Mars and Rembrandt

When did the GOP become the party that hates science?

Ever the drama queen, GOP super-strategist Grover Norquist is vewy vewy upset about this breathtaking photo of the sunset on Mars:

Norquist is implying that the Mars mission wasn't worth it.

And Iraq was?

George Bush's vendetta war in Iraq is costing us $3 trillion, or 1,200 times the cost of "that picture of Mars" (the Curiosity mission cost only $2.5bn).  So, actually, had the Republicans not invaded Iraq on a lie we could have afforded both Mars and Rembrandt.

This is something that bothered me way back in 2001.  I remember when George Bush was proposing the huge $1.6 trillion tax cut, and when Democrats, led by Tom Daschle, immediately caved and countered with a $1.3 trillion tax cut (that'll show 'em).  At the time I thought, yeah we have a surplus thanks to Bill Clinton, but shouldn't we save this for a rainy day rather than run out and spend it like a drunken Reagan?  Yet that's what the Republicans did, and it's what they always do.

The Republicans never met a surplus they didn't spend.  They wasted America's rainy day fund on tax cuts for the rich and wars of convenience, and now we're all paying for it.

Of course, it gets even funnier.  Had Norquist taken a few more science and math classes he might have had the smarts to Google the photo before sending it out to the world as a new photo from Mars.  It's not a new photo at all.  It's a photo from 2005, and has nothing to do with Curiosity's current mission to Mars.

And Grover, there's one more difference between the Mission to Mars and the $3 trillion Republican war of convenience in Iraq.

The Mission to Mars didn't kill anyone.

PS Oh, and Grover, the pic you're complaining about was from the Bush administration.  But funny you didn't complain about the cost of the Mars mission, or Bush's various wars, then. Read the rest of this post...

How David Pogue got his iPhone back

A very cool story about technology and a neat little setting on the iphone that lets you trace it if it's lost or stolen. Read the rest of this post...