Telegraph: 'Giant flying dinosaur fossil found'

It used to fly over Dallas. Cool.

Evidence of flying dinosaurs with a 9ft wingspan and more than 100 razor-sharp teeth that dominated the skies 95 million years ago has been discovered on a building site.

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Airline passenger detained in Pakistan with circuits in shoes

The early reports out certainly sound suspicious though it's a positive sign that this was detected.

A passenger was detained by airport authorities in Pakistan after electrical circuits and batteries were found in the soles of his tennis shoes, an airport security official said today.

Officials were investigating what the components could be used for and why they were concealed. Similar materials can be used in the construction of bombs.

The man, Faiz Mohammad, was arrested at Karachi's Jinnah International Airport las night, said Munir Ahmed, a spokesman for the airport security force. The materials were detected by a scanner.

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Lots more on Kagan

Media Matters debunks the myths and falsehoods about Kagan.

AP: Kagan in '97 urged Clinton restrict late abortions

The Post on what Obama sees in Kagan.

Wash Post: Is Kagan a bleeding heart or right-wing 'Bushie'?

WSJ: On Kagan Confirmation, Early Winds In Her Favor

Cillizza on Kagan:

Kagan was regarded in some political circles as a somewhat safe pick given that she was confirmed to her current post last March by a 61 to 31 vote.

Politico:

“She’s very smart and very thoughtful, really wanting to hear all sides of things and wanting to understand what the other side thought,” said Richard Socarides, an attorney who served as the Clinton administration’s liaison to the gay community. “I always found her very progressive,” he said.

“Kagan's actions on Don't Ask, Don't Tell and other gay-rights issues will be prominent, in part because this is one area where she's been vocal and in part because it appears that she's let her policy preferences warp her legal views,” said Ed Whelan of the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center. “I doubt that the American public will be impressed that Kagan kicked the military off campus in wartime but welcomed law firms that were donating their services to terrorists.”

While in the Clinton White House, Kagan was involved in efforts to ban discrimination against gays in federal employment. “From what I can tell and from my personal experience with her, her positions on gay rights are right in the mainstream of American thinking…When it comes to jobs, be it in the military or the private sector, you ought to be judged by your ability, not your orientation,” Socarides said. “That she believes these things passionately should not disqualify her—it makes her uniquely qualified.”

538.com: On Kagan's minority hiring record. Read the rest of this post...

SecDef Gates suggests Obama, Levin, Pelosi, Reid are 'stupid' for wanting to move ahead with DADT repeal this year

And if they let Gates get away with this ongoing and increasing rank insubordination, they are stupid. Read the rest of this post...

Airports in Europe opening again though many disruptions

This is definitely going to be a miserable year for flying in Europe. Airports started to reopen again on Sunday though flight patterns are still being disrupted. With the summer holiday season arriving soon, this could end up being one more economic problem for quite a few countries and businesses. BBC:

Airports across Europe are reopening after travellers faced weekend flight disruption caused by the volcanic ash cloud.

Most European airports, bar a few in Portugal, are due to open as normal.

Eurocontrol, the European air safety body, said some airspace closures were still in place over Iceland, the Atlantic and Portugal.

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The Greek economic crisis: Cui bono?

NOTE FROM JOHN: Today we welcome a new writer to AMERICAblog, someone who has been a longtime reader and commenter, and who will be writing for us under his longtime pen name Gaius Publius. I always find Gaius' writing thoughtful and thought-provoking. We hope you agree.
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Cui bono? As in, who benefits?

I think it's finally dawning what the Greek economic crisis, and all this German intransigence, is about. One lens through which to view the story is national and moral -- as in, who's been bad, and who's holding the bad guys' feet to the fire? The answer is that the Greeks and their enablers (*cough* Goldman Sachs *cough*) have been very bad indeed. And the Germans, strict disciplinarians and moralists that they are, have been holding Greek feet to the fire.

Yet even though that's been the mainstream story, from Krugman on down, it almost turns drama into melodrama, with the Germans cast as mustache-twirling Puritans. So let's look further. According to this Jeff Kaye piece at FireDogLake, there's another way to see our Greek redemption: Who's the predator? Who's the prey?

Viewed through that lens, a simpler, more believable story emerges. Kaye's conclusion:

The people of Greece seem determined they will not pay for the orgy of corruption and double-dealing that has left their economy in tatters. Whether it was Goldman Sachs playing funny with derivatives to help the Greek government to hide its debt, or German companies rushing to buy up newly privatized industries, or the wide-spread corruption of Greek politicians, they are saying something that American workers and middle class might be thinking, and that has some people afraid: “‘let the plutocracy pay’…’Why should we, the little man, pay for this crisis?’” [my emphasis]

About that privatization, Kaye quotes a Gerson Lehrman analysis on where the money for this (German-driven) austerity will come from. Among the options:

Given that Greek debt is expected to continue to rise before it peaks at 140-160% of GDP over the next 5 years (ceteris paribus), a very significant retrenchment of the activities of the state and its influence over the economy should be expected:

The government will accelerate privatizations (€ 2.5 bill. budgeted for 2010) and may change its mind regarding majority ownership by strategic (foreign/EU) investors of types of assets / industries that have been protected under the existing social /political model, including utility/infrastructure, transport or special state (monopoly) assets. Examples might include the railway company, water distribution companies, the electricity grid or the power company (PPC), as well as the soccer betting company (OPAP), gambling Casinos and the remaining stake in Hellenic Telecom (OTE), which will probably be sold to Deutsche Telekom. Other interesting candidates for privatization might include airports and seaports and enhanced PPP/PFI models will be considered for infrastructure investments. [again, my emphasis]

So what do we have, if this analyst is right? Not melodrama, with large cartoonish national groups, but that old familiar combo — predators and prey:

• Cash-rich big business eager to buy up public goods for pennies
• Cash-starved governments in crisis
• Easily corrupted pols

Shades of Naomi Klein. And why are those governments cash-starved? The long-term reason, of course, is their own bad behavior, plus that pesky Euro problem that ties Greek hands.

But the near-term reason may be this — that the German big-business types whispering into Chancellor Angela Merkel's shell-like ear (and through her ear to Brussels) will make out like bandits if Greece has to sell itself off to survive.

"Welcome to the Athens-Peiraios Causeway, brought to you by Deutsche Telekom. €4.00 please."

I can't guarantee this analysis; there's some "might" and "maybe" in the Gerson Lehrman piece. But keep it in mind as the Greek drama unfolds. Cui bono? The vultures, if they can pull it off. And keep it in mind as well for our other states in crisis. Portugal could well be next; then Spain. Can, ahem, California be that far behind?

"Welcome to I-12 west, brought to you by Goldman Sachs. $5.00 please."

I remain,
Your interested correspondent,

GP Read the rest of this post...

My appearance on CNN to talk about the politicization of the attempted Times Square attack

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Sen. Menendez (D-NJ) urges boycott of Major League Baseball All Star Game in Arizona

20100510ltr_BaseballAZ Read the rest of this post...

In PA Dem. primary, Sestak has moved into lead over Specter

Taegan Goddard links to two Pennsylvania polls showing Joe Sestak now leading Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary by a five-point margin: 47% - 42%. Election day is next Tuesday, May 18th.

And, to top it off, turns out then-Republican Senator Arlen Specter voted against Elana Kagan's nomination as Solicitor General.

Chris Bowers analyzed some of the key points about this race, as Specter seeks to stop Sestak's momentum. This is key:

Sestak is more electable than Specter The first attack Specter will use will be to argue that he is more electable than Sestak. Problem is, this simply isn't true. Even before Sestak's surge in the polls, he needed 68.2% of the undecided vote to hit 50.1% against Pat Toomey (17.4% of 25.5% undecided), while Specter needed 75.5% (10.5% of 13.9% undecided). Given that the general election polls used for those numbers were all taken before Sestak gained 25 points on Specter in the primary, it is highly likely that margin, which was already favorable to Sestak, is much more favorable to now. It is just flat wrong to say that Specter is more electable.

Specter is running out of arguments and time. Read the rest of this post...

GOP attacked Obama by defending slavery one year ago; same attack made today on Kagan

The Republicans are at least consistent. They were for slavery a year ago. And today the RNC is attacking Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, for agreeing with Thurgood Marshall that the Constitution shouldn't have approved of slavery. The exact same attach they launched against Obama almost exactly one year ago.

You'd think that recognizing that slavery was flawed would be an obvious point, but not in a party that appoints Republican Alabama Senator Beauregard Sessions as their point man on court nominees. With a southern Republican at the helm, suddenly slavery becomes a controversial topic. Republicans, and southern Republicans in particular, really need to get over their problem with blacks. And latinos. And gays. And women. And... Read the rest of this post...

GOP attacks Kagan by defending slavery. Seriously.

Is it racism or rank stupidity that motivates Republicans nowadays? But attacking Thurgood Marshall? Why, because he's black? Oh, I know, everyone officially will say "no, it's not that." But really? And the specific Marshall quote that the GOP is so upset about - that the Constitution was defective as originally drafted. Thurgood Marshall was talking about, among things, slavery. So, the Republicans don't think approving slavery was a defect of the Constitution? That's really their argument, defending three-fifths a man and slavery?

I get the desire to win over the Beauregard Sessions vote, but seriously, they're going to build a national majority on racism?

Here is exactly what Thurgood Marshall said - slavery:

[T]he government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war, and momentous social transformation to attain the system of constitutional government, and its respect for the individual freedoms and human rights, we hold as fundamental today. When contemporary Americans cite "The Constitution," they invoke a concept that is vastly different from what the Framers barely began to construct two centuries ago.

For a sense of the evolving nature of the Constitution we need look no further than the first three words of the document's preamble: 'We the People." When the Founding Fathers used this phrase in 1787, they did not have in mind the majority of America's citizens. "We the People" included, in the words of the Framers, "the whole Number of free Persons." On a matter so basic as the right to vote, for example, Negro slaves were excluded, although they were counted for representational purposes at threefifths each. Women did not gain the right to vote for over a hundred and thirty years.

These omissions were intentional. The record of the Framers' debates on the slave question is especially clear: The Southern States acceded to the demands of the New England States for giving Congress broad power to regulate commerce, in exchange for the right to continue the slave trade. The economic interests of the regions coalesced: New Englanders engaged in the "carrying trade" would profit from transporting slaves from Africa as well as goods produced in America by slave labor. The perpetuation of slavery ensured the primary source of wealth in the Southern States.

Despite this clear understanding of the role slavery would play in the new republic, use of the words "slaves" and "slavery" was carefully avoided in the original document. Political representation in the lower House of Congress was to be based on the population of "free Persons" in each State, plus threefifths of all "other Persons." Moral principles against slavery, for those who had them, were compromised, with no explanation of the conflicting principles for which the American Revolutionary War had ostensibly been fought: the selfevident truths "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

And here is the GOP disagreeing with Marshall on slavery:

Republicans are questioning Elena Kagan’s ties to a liberal icon and the nation’s first African American Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall.

In its first memo to reporters since Kagan’s nomination to the high court became public, the Republican National Committee highlighted Kagan’s tribute to Marshall in a 1993 law review article published shortly after his death.

Kagan quoted from a speech Marshall gave in 1987 in which he said the Constitution as originally conceived and drafted was “defective.” She quoted him as saying the Supreme Court’s mission was to “show a special solicitude for the despised and the disadvantaged.”

“Does Kagan Still View Constitution ‘As Originally Drafted And Conceived’ As ‘Defective’?” the RNC asked in its research document.

Read the rest of this post...

Conservative opposition to Kagan is motivated by politics, not substance

Not that this should surprise. From Media Matters:

Bill Kristol says he "endorsed Elena Kagan," but Republicans "should oppose her" anyway. On the April 11 edition of Fox News Sunday, when host Chris Wallace asked if Republicans' "decision as to how much of fight they want to make" over the nomination would depend in part on who Obama nominated, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol responded, "Not that much." Kristol added that while he "endorsed Elena Kagan" as a nominee, he believed that "most Republicans would oppose her and, honestly, should oppose her, with respect and with deference to her, you know, impressive academic credentials, because she will be a reliable liberal vote."

Conservative activist Viguerie signals that conservatives will paint any nominee as "radical." The New York Times reported in an April 16 article:

Richard Viguerie, a conservative fund-raiser who is developing direct-mail and Internet campaigns about the coming nominee, said conservatives relished the prospect of a fight with Democrats over the Supreme Court before the November election.

"The more material he gives us to work with, the easier the battle will be," Mr. Viguerie said. "The more quickly we can identify that person as an ideological liberal, the easier it is for us to communicate to the American people how radical the president is and the nominee is."
Coulter urges "huge court battle" to benefit GOP election hopes. On April 12, conservative commentator Ann Coulter said: "A huge court battle is fantastic for Republicans. The reason the Democrats need the courts to legislate for them is their ideas are heinous to the American people. They can't win in democracy so they do it through the courts. This is always good to have a fight over the courts."

Hannity agreed that it was a good idea to have a court battle "whether you win or lose." In response to Coulter's statement that "it's always good to have a fight over the courts," Fox News host Sean Hannity said: "I agree with you, whether you win or lose."

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House Dems get (much needed) lessons about language

It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks, but Drew Westen is trying. Westen is an expert on language and how people respond to language. Democrats on Capitol Hill talk like wonks. They do. Very few know how to talk to real people. But, Westen is trying to help them translate policy-speak into language that real people understand:

House Democrats need to drop their wonky policy talk if they want to capture voters this fall.

The party should emphasize what it stands for, and ensure its argument for remaining in power is not lost in the weeds of policy, political consultant Drew Westen told the caucus this week, according to people who attended his briefing.

“His message, essentially, was to stop being so wonky and to start talking to people about our values,” a senior Democratic aide said.

Democrats face a challenging electoral environment this fall that could see them lose dozens of House seats. It’s possible they could lose their majority given the public’s mood with Congress.

Westin told House Democrats in the House to start talking more about what they stand for and less about the intricate details of the bills they’ve passed and the laws they’ve enacted.

Democrats spend an inordinate amount of time talking about intricate details of policy and way too much time explaining the process. Too many of them talk like their always in the Capitol -- and too many of them (and their staffs) spend too much time in that building. It's one of my political pet peeves. And, that's when they lose people. Changing the way Democrats speak won't solve all their problems, but it can only help.

Unlike Frank Luntz, who teaches GOPers to use language that misrepresents what they're doing, Westen wants Democrats to own what they do. He just wants them to own it in a way that works. Read the rest of this post...

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Big news day. The President will announce that he's chosen Elena Kagan as the next nominee for the Supreme Court. Ms. Kagan is currently the Solicitor General. She's never been a judge, but did serve as the Dean of Harvard Law School. Apparently, she's considered brilliant and tough. And, she's 50.

Also this morning, 125 veterans who are in town to lobby for the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell will meet with White House staffers. Not sure which staffers will be there. But, it would be wise for Jim Messina, the Deputy Chief of Staff who is overseeing the gay issues, to meet these men and women. For Messina and his colleagues, DADT is a pesky political issue (albeit one that their boss repeatedly promised to end both during the campaign and as president.) But, for the men and women lobbying to end DADT, it's not about politics. It's about their lives and their willingness to put their lives on the line for the rest of us. And, it's not an excuse for anyone at the White House to say "we don't have the votes." If the President engages and leads, we can get the votes. If DADT isn't repealed this year, as promised, the Obama political team will be starting the reelection campaign with a big gay problem.

The Senate continues its debate on Wall Street reform. No votes on amendments today, but there will be more as the week progresses.

And, the impact of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues to spread. The Times-Picayune has a day-by-day animation of the spill's movement.

Let's get it stated. Going to be a busy week... Read the rest of this post...

Tories begin blame game, criticize Cameron's old boy network

It's doubtful that the Conservatives could have done much better without the US-style debate or if they leveraged more of the old guard, but don't tell that to the old guard. They somehow believe that they're a lot more popular than they really are. Meanwhile, the Lib Dems are still considering the Tory offer for sharing power but again, that sounds highly unlikely. Then again, almost every option for power sharing sounds unlikely at this point. The Guardian:

Angry Conservatives are telling the party's leadership that David Cameron must break up his "chums circle" running the party and bring on board veterans who were largely excluded from the election campaign.

Amid mounting recriminations over Cameron's failure to secure an overall parliamentary majority, Tory anger is focused on the tight circle that ran the campaign and the relatively inexperienced shadow ministers who sold the Tory message on television.

Conservative officials, who will start to be laid off tomorrow, turned on the party's director of strategy, Steve Hilton, in a series of tense encounters on Friday. Hilton is blamed for the big society, the party's central campaign message about embarking on the biggest devolution of power in a generation, that crashed on the doorstep and is being dubbed by senior party figures as "gimmicky nonsense".

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EU rolls out massive €500 billion package - euro surges

The European Union went with a substantial rescue plan that immediately calmed the markets. The IMF is also providing an additional €250 billion in credit. Much like the massive bank bailout plan in the US, it appears to have brought an end to the constant speculation of who might be next to fail. The euro immediately reacted, bouncing back over $1.30, up a few cents from the Friday $1.27 close. Now that this panic has been settled - for now - where will the market look next? California?

EU finance ministers have agreed on emergency measures worth 500bn euros (£430bn) to prevent the Greek debt crisis from affecting other countries.

The 16 members of the single currency bloc will have access to 440bn euros of loan guarantees and 60bn euros of emergency European Commission funding.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will also contribute up to 250bn euros.

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A battle where everyone is a winner

Mmmmmmm, hummus.

Some 300 chefs set the new record, creating a huge 10-tonne vat of the chickpea-based dip in Fanar.

That more than doubles the previous record of about four tonnes, set in January by cooks in the Israeli-Arab town of Abu Ghosh near Jerusalem.

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Green exercise is good for you

Going outside and smelling the roses really is good for you.

His paper, A Dose of Nature, finds, in a sample of some 1,250 people, across a range of age groups, that both mood and self-esteem improve significantly in quantifiable ways from contact with nature, especially if that contact includes "green exercise" – i.e. walking, gardening, cycling and countryside sports. "And self-esteem and mood," he says, "are strong indicators of good mental health, and also, in the long-term, of good physical health."

The study shows, for example, that being in a green environment is better than being in an urban one in terms of a measurable positive effect on blood pressure, hormones and stress levels. Intriguingly, it also concludes that the biggest beneficial boost from exposure to nature is gained within the initial five minutes of each encounter with the great outdoors. While it continues to reap a harvest thereafter, the crop of positives diminishes. So, it will be the first few steps of a walk through a spring garden that changes your mood most, rather than clocking up the first mile.

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