British archaeologists conclude York site was massive gladiator graveyard

Another incredibly discovery in Great Britain. The Guardian:

The results of forensic work, announced today, on more than 80 skeletons of well-built young men, gradually exhumed from the gardens of a York terrace over a decade, suggests that the world's best-preserved gladiator graveyard has been found.

Many of the 1,800-year-old remains indicate much stronger muscles in the right arm, a condition noted by Roman writers in slaves trained from their teens to fight in the arena. Advanced mineral testing of tooth enamel also links the men to a wide variety of Roman provinces, including North Africa, which was another a feature of gladiator recruitment.

The conclusions are consistent with York's importance in the Roman world as a provincial capital and major military base for years of campaigning north of Hadrian's Wall. Many senior generals and politicians held posts in the city and Constantine appointed himself emperor there in 306AD. Such distinguished residents would have required a high standard of social life, according to the York Archaeological Trust, which has supervised the excavations in Driffield Terrace.

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Glenn Beck's favorite Nazi

From Joe Conason:

Glenn Beck's latest excursion to the farthest fringes of the old American right, which occurred on his radio show last Friday when he endorsed "The Red Network" by the late Nazi author and activist Elizabeth Dilling, revealed much about his own weird outlook. According to the Fox News star, Dilling's book, a racist and anti-Semitic tract published in 1935 as an "exposé of Communism," strongly resembles the patriotic service that he performs today.

It is of course true that Dilling, and every other Nazi, Silver Shirt, Bundist and fascist of that era, promoted their ideology as "patriotic," "Constitutionalist" and devoutly "Christian," much as Beck does.

What McCarthy was "right" about, Beck didn't say specifically, and in fact "Red Network" has little bearing on McCarthy's later claims concerning Communists in the State Department and the United States Army. But he went on to blurb the Dilling book as "the who's who and handbook of radicalism for patriots, documenting who are the Communists in America ... Who were the overwhelming number of Communists? Labor unions!" Still cackling, he closes with what he clearly considers a note of contemporary relevance. Dilling had discovered that "there's this teachers union thing ... You want to know who the real radical Communists are? The NEA!" Evidently Beck believes that since this woman, a wildly anti-Semitic nutcase, charged that the National Education Association was somehow Communist in the 1930s, we should assume, with Beck, that the NEA is a hotbed of Marxism in 2010.

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White House Endorses Unlimited Liability Cap For Oil Spillers

Sam Stein at Huff Post:

Democrats in Congress and officials in the White House are making yet another major push to pass legislation to make the liability for oil companies involved in damaging spills unlimited.

On Monday evening, the White House confirmed that it favors the most recent piece of legislation that would drop any numerical ceiling to the amount of money an oil company like BP would have to pay for economic damages caused by a spill. Currently, the cap is $75 million.

"The president supports removing caps on liability for oil companies engaged in offshore drilling," said spokesman Ben LaBolt. "Oil companies should have every incentive to maximize safety and arbitrary caps on liability create a disincentive to achieve that goal."

The statement was the most detailed the administration has offered to date with respect to the debate surrounding BP's liability. And it reflects a growing sentiment within the White House that more aggressive action (if not optics) need to be in place to stem the fallout of the Gulf crisis.

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NYT: Afghan Guards Suspected of Colluding With Insurgents

What an ongoing mess:

For months, reports have abounded here that the Afghan mercenaries who escort American and other NATO convoys through the badlands have been bribing Taliban insurgents to let them pass.

Then came a series of events last month that suggested all-out collusion with the insurgents.

After a pair of bloody confrontations with Afghan civilians, two of the biggest private security companies — Watan Risk Management and Compass Security — were banned from escorting NATO convoys on the highway between Kabul and Kandahar.

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Helen Thomas

I was just talking a friend about the Helen Thomas brouhaha, and he made two points that I'm curious how folks would respond to:

1) She simply reiterated a position that the Arabs, and their governments, have held for years (and she is Arab-American).

2) They just got the scalp of a nearly 90 year old woman.

I've been a longtime defender of Israel, and have often said I wish the gay community would emulate the Jewish community's successful political tactics. But I'm not quite sure how what Helen Thomas said comes anywhere near what Rush Limbaugh has said about Jews, or worse, what Pat Buchanan has said. And they still have their careers. Perhaps some of you can help me out.

PS An interesting aside: The White House Correspondents Association, that had no problem with Jeff Gannon, has now weighed in. Read the rest of this post...

Time for Pat Buchanan to retire too

From Media Matters:

Just days after making grossly inappropriate comments about Jews in Israel, Hearst columnist Helen Thomas has retired.

It’s time for Pat Buchanan to retire, too.

Despite a decades-long track record of offensive comments about … well, nearly everybody, Buchanan continues to write columns and appear as a commentator on MSNBC.

During his time in public life, Buchanan has defended Adolf Hitler -- repeatedly. He has peddled Holocaust denial claims and compared suspected Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk to Jesus Christ.

Buchanan has reminisced fondly about his childhood in segregated Washington, DC, and complained that “Old heroes like ... Robert E. Lee are replaced by Dr. King." He wrote that “integration of blacks and whites” was likely to result in “perpetual friction, as the incapable are placed … side by side with the capable.” Buchanan's anti-integration views were so hard-core, even Richard Nixon characterized Buchanan’s them as “segregation forever.” When 67 blacks were shot to death by South African police, Buchanan dismissed the massacre as “a few South African whites mistreating a couple of blacks.” In 1989, Buchanan defended Bob Jones University’s ban on interracial dating. 1989!

In 1983, Buchanan wrote that "homosexuals ... have declared war on nature, and now nature is exacting an awful retribution." (During his 1992 presidential campaign, he stood by that view, insisting "AIDS is nature's retribution for violating the laws of nature.") He has compared gays to alcoholics.

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The question Paul Krugman can't answer

Paul Krugman and Brad Delong have been spending time lately discussing the recent G20 finance ministers' communique. Many of Krugman's posts have expressed astonishment that the deficit hawks are having their way. This post, "Lost Decade Here We Come", is pretty typical, and pretty good stuff.

Krugman's most recent is "Madmen In Authority", which he ends this way (my emphasis):

[H]ow much we spend on supporting the economy in 2010 and 2011 is almost irrelevant to the fundamental budget picture. Why, then, are Very Serious People demanding immediate fiscal austerity?

The answer is, to reassure the markets — because the markets supposedly won’t believe in the willingness of governments to engage in long-run fiscal reform unless they inflict pointless pain right now. To repeat: the whole argument rests on the presumption that markets will turn on us unless we demonstrate a willingness to suffer, even though that suffering serves no purpose.

And the basis for this belief that this is what markets demand is … well, actually there’s no sign that markets are demanding any such thing. [ . . . ]

So wise policy, as defined by the G20 and like-minded others, consists of destroying economic recovery in order to satisfy hypothetical irrational demands from the markets — demands that economies suffer pointless pain to show their determination, demands that markets aren’t actually making, but which serious people, in their wisdom, believe that the markets will make one of these days.

Awesome.

Recall that his title is "Madmen In Authority." The question he asks is: Why is the G20 demanding immediate fiscal austerity? His answer? Because they've gone crazy.

Really? That can't possibly be right — can it? Let's do what Krugman won't do — assume these people are rational, with understandable goals. After all, these are the G20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs — the economic slice through the little handful of people who . . . well, run the whole world. Really. The whole world.

So what are their goals? Well, what are the goals of any aristocracy? What would most people's goals be, if they had made it into the aristocracy. Simply put, to remain the aristocracy. In a famous essay, What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?, UCLA's Philip Agre writes:

Economic inequality and regressive taxation, while certainly welcomed by the aristocracy, are best understood as a means to their actual goal, which is simply to be aristocrats. [my emphasis]

I think Krugman has made a remarkable observation — that the G20 aristocracy has joined the Pete Peterson glee club and choir. Reduce debt now! Strangle government now! And in the midst of a world-wide economic recovery at that. It is indeed astonishing.

And Krugman asks the right question — Why?

So let me pass to you, dear readers, the task Krugman avoids. If the aristocats (hunting for a more up-to-date title here) haven't all gone mad, how does it achieve their goals to strangle this toddler recovery? I don't have an answer; I really don't. But I don't accept Krugman's easy out.

Remember, the goal of the aristocracy is to remain in power and to pass that power to their children. Does killing the economic comeback achieve that goal? Or conversely, does its murder avoid a feared outcome?

What is the threat inherent in this recovery? What do they see that we're not seeing? Given the scope of the consequences, I think it's important we figure it out. Your thoughts?

GP

(By the way, my own thinking is that this is connected to the BP oil spill, and the need to put the giant pool of money somewhere.) Read the rest of this post...

Fly the friendly skies of Delta

Delta has always had a special way with customer service.

An airport official says a flight attendant who was carrying a handgun in her purse has been arrested at Indianapolis International Airport.

Airport spokesman Corey Wilson says the gun was discovered as the woman passed through a security checkpoint about 6 a.m. Friday. The Delta flight to Atlanta on which she was due to be a crew member took off without her.

I'm sure the Republicans will now propose a law to permit flight attendants to be armed. Read the rest of this post...

White House joins major campaign to defend health care reform

Welcome news. Though it should have happened 18 months ago.

President Obama and his allies, concerned about deep skepticism over his landmark health care overhaul, are orchestrating an elaborate campaign to sell the public on the law, including a new tax-exempt group that will spend millions of dollars on advertising to beat back attacks on the measure and Democrats who voted for it.

Anita Dunn, President Obama's former communications director, will help orchestrate a campaign on health care.
Americans will see the first evidence of the public relations offensive on Tuesday, when Mr. Obama travels to Wheaton, Md., to conduct a nationally televised question-and-answer session with older citizens to trumpet one of the law’s most popular features: $250 rebate checks to help Medicare beneficiaries pay for prescription drugs.

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Rand Paul: Like MLK, but different

Rand Paul thinks he's a lot like Martin Luther King. He also is against government telling restaurants to ban smoking - Paul thinks non-smokers can simply "choose" to visit other restaurants (and bars).

This is the problem with Libertarians, but also conservatives (well, any political philosophy, really). The philosophy sounds nice in principle, but in practice it often doesn't work. As a non-smoker, with allergies, and now asthma because of my allergies, my "choice" was always between joining my group of friends at a particular bar or restaurant, or staying home alone. I wasn't about to tell 20 people, many of whom I barely knew, that instead of going to a bar tonight (since every single bar was smokey back in the day), maybe we could stay home and play Parcheesi instead. That's not much of a choice.

And what about the choice of the restaurant and bar staff? Could they choose to work in another less smoky restaurant and bar? No, all bars and restaurants were smokey. So maybe they could just work in a different field, since folks who wait tables usually have lots of career options

Then there are offices. I was in Greece for a conference a few years back, and my entire days were spent in smoke-filled rooms. No joke, half the people at any given time in any given office were chain-smoking. Then I spent my nights in restaurants filled with half the patrons chain-smoking. I guess Rand Paul would tell me I had a choice to simply never go to Greece again, the country my entire family is from. Uh huh.

That's a Hobson's Choice. And it's not a real choice at all. Read the rest of this post...

Americans now oppose offshore drilling

Such a brilliant move by the Obama Team to endorse offshore drilling back in March of this year. This is how Frank Rich described it:

Other White House geniuses persuaded the president to make his fateful claim in early April that “oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills” — a particularly specious (indeed false) plank in the argument for his spectacularly ill-timed expansion of offshore oil drilling. The Times reported last week that at the administration meetings leading to this new drilling policy the subject of the vast dysfunction at the Minerals Management Service, the agency charged with regulating the drilling, never even came up.

"Brilliant" idea in March. Disaster in April. Still wondering which of those geniuses at the White House came up with this idea.

There was support for offshore drilling when Obama flipped his position. Not anymore. The American people have shifted on offshore drilling (finally.) Via Political Wire: A new CBS News Poll finds that Americans are rapidly reconsidering their views of offshore drilling as oil continues to spill into the Gulf of Mexico.

In the latest poll, 51% of people believe increased offshore drilling is "too risky" with 40% still in favor. That is a huge swing from August 2008, when 62% of people favored increased offshore drilling and just 28% opposed it. It is also a large shift from just a month ago, when 41% believed it was too risky and 46% were in favor. Read the rest of this post...

Chinese workers paying the price for economic boom with their health

Whether China's claim that they are moving faster to reform the situation than any other country at this stage is debatable though every country has been through this. My father had an uncle who died when he was thirty years old after working in a battery factory in Philadelphia back before WWII. The toxic fumes killed him and others who were employed there.

Terribly sad story out of China these days and you have to wonder about the health care these workers are receiving.

Since last year, there has been an explosion of lead poisoning cases close to smelting plants. Studies have shown that communities that recycle electronic waste are exposed to cadmium, mercury and brominated flame retardants. Elsewhere, there have been protests against chemical factories that are blamed for carcinogens that enter water supplies and the food chain.

Nationwide, cancer rates have surged since the 1990s to become the nation's biggest killer. In 2007, the disease was responsible for one in five deaths, up 80% since the start of economic reforms 30 years earlier.

While the government insists it is cleaning up pollution far faster than other nations at a similar dirty stage of development, many toxic industries have simply been relocated to impoverished, poorly regulated rural areas.

Chinese farmers are almost four times more likely to die of liver cancer and twice as likely to die of stomach cancer than the global average, according to study commissioned by the World Bank. The domestic media is increasingly filled with reports of "cancer villages" - clusters of the disease near dirty factories.

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Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The President has a meeting this morning with several members of his cabinet discuss the oil spill. This afternoon, he's heading to Michigan to deliver the commencement address at Kalamazoo Central High School. The school won a contest to get the President as it graduation speaker.

Also, this morning, Admiral Thad Allen, who is overseeing the Gulf Coast response, is doing a press briefing from the White House.

Congress returns this week. Be interesting to see what kind of mood they're all in after spending a week back home. The Senate is going to vote on three judicial nominations today. The GOPers has been making a sport out of blocking all kinds of nominations.

Tomorrow is the runoff between Democrats Bill Halter and Blanche Lincoln for the Senate nomination in Arkansas. It's also primary day in California where the GOPers are picking Gubernatorial and Senate candidates. Also, in California's 36th CD, Marcy Winograd is challenging the incumbent, Jane Harman, for the Democratic nomination. We're going to find out which Republican will be running against Harry Reid. Recent polling has shown the teabaggers candidate, Sharron Angle, has moved into the lead. South Carolina has primaries, too. The state's GOP primary for Governor has become a real soap opera. Mainers are also picking candidates for Governor. Steve Singiser at DailyKos has a complete rundown on tomorrow's primaries. And, Swing State Project always has excellent and up-to-date info.

Should be a busy week.... Read the rest of this post...

Sri Lanka threatens to execute victorious military leader

How dare he even suggest war crimes after they've been talked about for decades. The Tamil Tigers may have set the pace with suicide bombers and children soldiers but there was plenty of horror on both sides. BBC:

The Sri Lankan government is threatening to execute Sarath Fonseka, the army commander who delivered victory over the Tamil Tigers, if he continues to suggest top officials may have ordered war crimes during the final hours of the civil war.

The threat, issued by Sri Lanka's defence secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is the latest sign of a bitter feud within the Sri Lankan political establishment, little more than a year after the end of the Tamil war.

Rajapaksa, who worked closely with Fonseka on the aggressive military strategy that crushed the Tigers and who is the brother of the president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, told the BBC's Hardtalk programme that the general had proved himself to be a liar and a traitor.

Fonseka resigned from the military soon after the defeat of the Tigers. He is an MP and was the main opposition candidate in January's presidential election – winning 40% of the vote – but within days of his defeat he was arrested. The former war hero is in detention facing a court martial on charges of corruption and politicking while in uniform.

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Union Carbide Bhopal verdict due this week

This case has some similarities to the Exxon Valdez case. Exxon has paid some but not all of the money ordered by courts as they are apparently above the law. In the case of Union Carbide, they previously paid fines that were ordered by the government though they the criminal case has taken longer. Justice appears to work at a different pace for corporations compared to individuals.

A court in the Indian city of Bhopal is due to rule on whether a gas plant leak that killed thousands of people more than 25 years ago was a criminal act.

The leak at the Union Carbide plant was worst industrial disaster in history.

Forty tonnes of a toxin called methyl isocyanate leaked from the factory and settled over slums on 3 December 1984.

Campaigners say at least 15,000 people were killed within days, and say the horrific effects of the gas continue to this day.

The site of the former pesticide plant is now abandoned.

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McCain in the race for his life

The primary is August 24. McCain is up against JD Hayworth, a former House member who is a neanderthal (he makes Palin look like Mensa). But that's what, unfortunately, works best with far too many Republican voters: stupid.

Among Hayworth supporters, there's a feeling that McCain hasn't been a loyal Republican, he's ignored Arizona and his time has passed. Many have voted for him for years — because, they say, there wasn't another option. With the 51-year-old Hayworth, people fed up with the status quo — and unwilling to automatically give McCain a new six-year term — have somewhere to turn.

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