Your mental health break

This may have come from Facebook. It made me smile. Read the rest of this post...

Is Obama going to win in a landslide?

Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast think so.

There’s a secret lurking behind everything you’re reading about the upcoming election, a secret that all political insiders know—or should—but few are talking about, most likely because it takes the drama out of the whole business. The secret is the electoral college, and the fact is that the more you look at it, the more you come to conclude that Mitt Romney has to draw an inside straight like you’ve never ever seen in a movie to win this thing. This is especially true now that it seems as if Pennsylvania isn’t really up for grabs. Romney’s paths to 270 are few.

Sure, something big could happen to alter the dynamic completely. But we’ve watched these guys go, what, six or seven rounds now (out of 15). After seven rounds, you can pretty well tell some things. All the supposedly game-changing events of the last few weeks haven’t changed much of anything. This is a paradoxical situation that has little or no modern precedent, which makes it hard for people to accept. Liberals are too nervous to think it, reporters too intent on a “down to the wire” narrative, and conservatives too furious and disbelieving, but it’s shaping up to be true: An extremely close election that on election night itself stands a surprisingly good chance of being not that close at all.

I will say that the level of vitriol, and outright lies, coming from the Romney folks, and the Republicans generally, have started to make me wonder if the GOP isn't already in panic mode about November election. Read the rest of this post...

How one guy got seriously hacked, and Apple blew it

Horrific story on WIRED.

In the space of one hour, my entire digital life was destroyed. First my Google account was taken over, then deleted. Next my Twitter account was compromised, and used as a platform to broadcast racist and homophobic messages. And worst of all, my AppleID account was broken into, and my hackers used it to remotely erase all of the data on my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook.

In many ways, this was all my fault. My accounts were daisy-chained together. Getting into Amazon let my hackers get into my Apple ID account, which helped them get into Gmail, which gave them access to Twitter. Had I used two-factor authentication for my Google account, it’s possible that none of this would have happened, because their ultimate goal was always to take over my Twitter account and wreak havoc. Lulz.

Had I been regularly backing up the data on my MacBook, I wouldn’t have had to worry about losing more than a year’s worth of photos, covering the entire lifespan of my daughter, or documents and e-mails that I had stored in no other location.

I didn't even know that you could link those various accounts. Jesus, read this part about how they hacked Amazon:

Getting a credit card number is tricker, but it also relies on taking advantage of a company’s back-end systems. Phobia says that a partner performed this part of the hack, but described the technique to us, which we were able to verify via our own tech support phone calls. It’s remarkably easy — so easy that Wired was able to duplicate the exploit twice in minutes.

First you call Amazon and tell them you are the account holder, and want to add a credit card number to the account. All you need is the name on the account, an associated e-mail address, and the billing address. Amazon then allows you to input a new credit card. (Wired used a bogus credit card number from a website that generates fake card numbers that conform with the industry’s published self-check algorithm.) Then you hang up.

Next you call back, and tell Amazon that you’ve lost access to your account. Upon providing a name, billing address, and the new credit card number you gave the company on the prior call, Amazon will allow you to add a new e-mail address to the account. From here, you go to the Amazon website, and send a password reset to the new e-mail account. This allows you to see all the credit cards on file for the account — not the complete numbers, just the last four digits. But, as we know, Apple only needs those last four digits. We asked Amazon to comment on its security policy, but didn’t have anything to share by press time.

One thing I don't like about the article is that the writer assumes you know what he's talking about when he writes of "daisy chaining" two accounts together. I'm not entirely sure whether he means using the same "id" for both accounts, or literally is there some way to link the two accounts? Or what "two-factor authentication for Gmail" is. Okay I looked up two factor verification, I know what it is - it's a pain in the ass. Keeps phoning you when you want to log in to gmail or Blogger. Seriously annoying "fix." Read the rest of this post...

Did Fox cause Olympian Gabrielle Douglas to stumble

We wrote yesterday about Fox News' subtly racist attack on Olympian Gabrielle Douglas.  Other media decided to go after her mother.  And some folks decided to criticize her hair.

Well, she spoke out about all of this, as it was clearly getting to her.  Not something an Olympian needs before a competition.

Click image to see larger version.

So what happened next?  She stumbled and lost what might have been her next medal.  Was it because her country was rooting for him, but rather was criticizing her, incessantly, in her moment of glory?

More on this from Sally Jenkins at the Washington Post:

It took just four days to suck all the energy out of Douglas.First, she awoke after the achievement of a lifetime to a ludicrous, racially loaded conversation about the neatness of her coif, started by a bunch of Twitter critics. To be frank, anyone who eyed Douglas’s ponytail was looking for a reason to criticize. Her performances were so entrancing that you could only notice her hair if you dragged your eye there with a malicious purpose. So instead of reveling in her victory, Douglas found herself addressing her coif.

Fox is worried about black Olympians' patriotism.  Perhaps it should examine its own. Read the rest of this post...

Light years beween Missouri and Mars

The contrast between the Mars Discovery triumph and yesterday's election results in Missouri couldn't be more stark.

As the nation eagerly looks to bold new horizons, the state of Missouri hightailed it for the stone age -- beginning with the passage of their science smack-down, Amendment 2.

Amendment 2 lets parents and children opt out of any curriculum they feel contradicts their religious teachings. Josh Rosenau, programs and policy director for the National Center for Science Education, says that allowing students to opt out of assignments would be problematic.

"What if a student says that long division is against his religion? Would he be accommodated by his math teacher? How?" he asked. "It's clearly a frivolous objection, but do we want the state deciding whose religion is frivolous and whose sincere?"

In fact, not so frivolous at all when you consider what religious-right science books are already teaching children in Louisiana.  The curriculum accommodates far-right religious objections to the teaching of modern math, among other things. Here's an excerpt from one of Louisiana's new religiously-correct public schoolbooks:

"Unlike the 'modern math' theorists, who believe that mathematics is a creation of man and thus arbitrary and relative, A Beka Book teaches that the laws of mathematics are a creation of God and thus absolute…A Beka Book provides attractive, legible, and workable traditional mathematics texts that are not burdened with modern theories such as set theory."

Another of the books praises the Klan.

In order to further solidify its conservative majority, the rural-focused & GOP-dominated state government has successfully sabotaged the two major metropolitan areas, St. Louis and Kansas City, at every turn. Most recently with outrageous redistricting that eliminated urban districts, shifting even more power to outstate areas that are more politically conservative and intellectually backwards.

Progressives in the beleaguered urban centers had already suffered a number of recent indignities. The state GOP dismantled the voter-approved Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act, heavily favored in the metropolitan areas, and they erected a statue of Rush Limbaugh in the state capitol.

There were other disappointing results in Missouri last night, and while the once bellwether state wasn't considered to be in serious play this fall, tonight's results seem to be the final nail in the state's Biblical coffin.

Hope, promise and reason would find more fertile ground on Mars. Read the rest of this post...

Louisiana using pro-Klan books in public schools

And GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal is helping to facilitate the entire thing.  (I'm guessing someone just got dropped of the VP short list.)

Deanna Pan at MoJo quotes from a few of the books Louisiana is now using to educate children.

1. Dinosaurs and humans lived side by side:

"Bible-believing Christians cannot accept any evolutionary interpretation. Dinosaurs and humans were definitely on the earth at the same time and may have even lived side by side within the past few thousand years."—Life Science, 3rd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 2007

2. Fire-breathing dragons may actually have existed (the Bible includes numerous references to dragons, thus the need to prove that they're real):

"[Is] it possible that a fire-breathing animal really existed? Today some scientists are saying yes. They have found large chambers in certain dinosaur skulls…The large skull chambers could have contained special chemical-producing glands. When the animal forced the chemicals out of its mouth or nose, these substances may have combined and produced fire and smoke."—Life Science, 3rd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 2007

3. Majority of slaves in the old south were treated well: "

A few slave holders were undeniably cruel. Examples of slaves beaten to death were not common, neither were they unknown. The majority of slave holders treated their slaves well."—United States History for Christian Schools, 2nd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 1991

4. The Ku Klux Klan was a force for good:

"[The Ku Klux] Klan in some areas of the country tried to be a means of reform, fighting the decline in morality and using the symbol of the cross. Klan targets were bootleggers, wife-beaters, and immoral movies. In some communities it achieved a certain respectability as it worked with politicians."—United States History for Christian Schools, 3rd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 2001

"Klan targets were bootleggers, wife-beaters, and immoral movies." Hmm... aren't we missing someone?

This is why I keep harping about the South's lingering racism and bigotry.  It's a real problem, and it's affecting real people's lives, still.  Especially when southern bigots run for national office and try to impose their hate on the rest of us.

The Klan was a force for good?  Seriously, Jindal? Read the rest of this post...

Labor has mixed reactions as Democratic Convention approaches

This year's DNC (Democratic National Convention) is in North Carolina — a right-to-work state.

And the key Democratic hotels — Hilton Charlotte Center City and the Westin Charlotte, Dem party headquarters and their base of operations, respectively — are non-union hotels. (More here: read just the first sentence.)

Gives one major pause.

But let's not ask how we feel. Let's ask how labor feels, the rank-and-file people.

Rank-and-file labor — you know, the part of labor that's not in the pocket of national labor leaders, who are themselves in the pocket of the Democratic party, which is happily snuggled in next to the wallet of labor's biggest enemies, Mr. and Ms. Plutocrat (Our Betters).

Those people, boots-on-the-ground labor, are not "going gentle" into that good night. I'm starting to see more and more of this, from lower down in the labor movement.

Read for both facts and tone; start with the title (h/t a friend in the labor movement, via email):

Wake Up and Smell the Hypocrisy!

Yep. The h-word. Now from the piece (my emphasis and a fair amount of reparagraphing):

BOHICA (bend over, here it comes again), an old military acronym, that is what comes to mind as the November 2012 election draw ever closer.

The upcoming Democratic National Convention, you know, "the Party of the Labor movement" is being held in anti-union Charlotte, N.C.

In early September, the Democratic Party leadership, the folks that failed to pass the Employee Free Choice Act [EFCA], failed to pass the Fair Paycheck Act, managed to avoid filling over 100 vacant Federal Judgeships, avoided the fights against the anti-union GOP in Wisconsin and across the USA like the plague, and avoided the Occupy Wall Street movement with alacrity, will meet to reaffirm their support for President Obama and his lackluster labor policies.

"Lackluster labor policies" — how polite. Put an R context next to that list of betrayals and the phrase would be "successful anti-unionism."

Note this:

The Non-union hotels; Hilton Charlotte Center City and the Westin Charlotte, will be the headquarters and base of operations for the Democratic National Convention, the Democratic National Committee, and Obama for America.

On Thursday, September 6, 2012, President Obama will accept the nomination of the DNC at Bank of America Stadium. Somehow this says it all.

The writer then discusses the lack of enthusiasm — with excellent sourcing, by the way — for Obama and Democrats in general, among labor rank-and-file and some local leaders.

Here's his bottom line:

[W]e keep throwing good money after bad in support of Democrats that throw us under the bus so consistently, I wish I had gone to diesel mechanic school. ...

[T]here is much disillusionment with the Democratic Party, with many union members seeing little difference between the rich corporate contributors that control the Dems and the other rich corporate moguls that control the GOP. ...

[O]nce again, the choice is clear, the road is hard, and yes, even if we win, we really only lose less.

I won't give the President one dime of my hard earned money, nor will I ask my union sisters and brothers to do so, but I will show up and vote for a second term for President Obama and will continue to lobby everyone else to do so as well. I just won't be happy about it.

Now me. We cannot go on like this. "Only losing less" means ending the game 40–6 instead of 80–6. Some path to "victory" — this is how coaches get fired.

I'll just point you to these two posts in the Progressive Coalition series:

• Four Rules for Managing an Effective Progressive Coalition
  
  
• Goals of an Effective Progressive Coalition: Move the ball. Guard the progressive frontier.

And to this, from the first piece:

Rule 3. The Coalition serves the Coalition, not the Democratic Party or any other group or goals. ...

[E]xamples abound where national Democrats and the party as a whole — dominated as it is by Rubinites and NeoLiberals, Blue Dogs (however rebranded) and conservatives — too often betray progressive values and goals.

Progressives will never win by serving the Democratic Party. Progressives will only win by using the Democratic Party the way the "Tea Party" uses the Republican Party.

I know — progressives really are grassroots, and the Tea Party is at least in part a Koch Bros Joint, well financed and corralled. Still, this is the only path to victory, as I see it, short of serious chaos as things really do fall apart.

Let's close by echoing the writer above. If Obama loses this election, these betrayals — yes, betrayals — will be the reason.

And if the labor movement disappears, it will have only itself to blame:

[I]t's a long-term survival problem. If unions and progressives don't get off their Dem-serving kiesters and force concessions from the NeoLibs (yes, Mr. Obama, I'm looking straight at you), the only union members will be found in museums — next to your civil rights. ...

[Playing] to win. Unions used to do that I hear, back in the day.

Progressively yours,

GP

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

Another man arrested for bringing Glock, four knives, ton of ammo to Dark Knight movie

Westlake Patch (Ohio):

No one else was in the theater when Smith sat down in the middle of the back row, Arcuri said.

"Where he was sitting, he had the tactical advantage," Arcuri said. "He had targets to the left, to the right, and straight ahead."

While the manager had let Smith through, off-duty Westlake police officer Jeremiah Bullins grew suspicious of Smith and followed him into the theater. When he spotted Smith in the back row, Smith had removed the bag from his waist and placed it on the floor.

Bullins asked Smith if he could search the bag and Smith agreed. That's when Bullins opened the zippered compartment and found a loaded 9MM Glock semiautomatic handgun, two additional fully loaded magazines, and three knives. A fourth knife was found elsewhere on Smith.

Also in the bag, Arcuri said, were a flashlight, medicated bandages that help clot blood, and a capsule that is dropped in fresh water to make it safe to drink.

At his home, police found pistols, shotguns and rifles, "thousands" of bullets, and a gas mask.

Because what rabbit hunter doesn't need thousands of bullets and a gas mask?

The NRA, and their gun nuts in Congress, keep defending our lax gun slaws, claiming they're all we need to keep crazy people from getting guns.  Yet the crazy people keep getting guns, lots of them, not to mention additional gear like kevlar and gas masks that will help improve their kills during the next mass slaughter.

We've tried it the NRA's way, and they failed. Read the rest of this post...