Keith Olbermann leaves MSNBC - sounds like he was fired

UPDATE: I've created a petition for folks to stand with Keith. I'm not usually a petition fan, but this deserves one. The message is simple: I stand with Keith.

Keith says he was told "this is going to be the last edition of your show." Here's the rather curt statement from MSNBC.

Wow. Not a smart move by MSNBC. More than a few folks on Twitter, and elsewhere, are noting the interesting coincidence of Comcast being given approval to take over NBC just three days ago. Rather interesting timing. It's also interesting that the Republicans take over the House and suddenly Keith is gone - perhaps MSNBC has decided it wants more conservatives, or at least to lose its fiercest liberals.

If I were CNN, I'd hire him fast. This is the kind of energy and intellect CNN needs in its evening shows (not that it doesn't have some good talent). But Olbermann knows TV. And he's no Glenn Beck, but at the same time is a perfect counterpoint to the Becks of the world.

Here is Keith's goodbye from MSNBC.
Read the rest of this post...

Thailand takes drastic action to save coral reefs

It has to hurt the very critical tourist industry but it's something that had to be done. I remember feeling sick to my stomach watching tourists walk on coral at Ko Phi Phi years ago. Other tourist destinations really need to do the same if they want to have any tourism in the future. A few years ago I could no longer stand watching tourists who could barely swim put on life jackets and then kick the coral around Dahab, Egypt. Nobody cared what was happening so we packed our backpacks and moved on until we found a nature reserve and people who cared. Unfortunately, too many who rely on the coral for their business don't care. Well done by Thailand for taking what has to be an unpopular but correct decision.

Some of Thailand’s most popular diving sites are now off limits to tourists: Thai officials announced on Thursday that they were restricting access to seven marine national parks for up to a year to prevent further harm to coral reefs severely damaged by a long period of elevated sea temperatures last year.

Reefs are plentiful in Thailand and serve as a major tourist draw, and the announcement met with opposition from some hotel and tourism operators.

More than 80 percent of the corals at 18 dive sites have undergone bleaching, a symptom of severe stress caused by excessively warm water temperatures. Corals can recover from bleaching, but if the stress is too acute, they die.

Read the rest of this post...

House liberals urge Obama to draw hard line: 'Hands off Social Security!'

Somewhat disturbing that the line needs to be drawn at all. Not to mention, can we please stop negotiating with ourselves and making huge concessions as some kind of nice-guy opening move that is supposed to win the public to our side and convince the Republicans to go all mushy on us. It hasn't worked yet. Read the rest of this post...

GOP House members proposing massive cuts in government services

I'm going to guess that their salaries and socialized-medicine health benefits won't be touched:

If imposed across the board, such a cut would mean 42 percent less for health care for veterans; 42 percent less for K-12 education; 42 percent less for protecting the environment; 42 percent less for the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and border security; 42 percent less for the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 42 percent less for food safety and inspection; and so on.

Read the rest of this post...

Verizon files lawsuit against mild net neutrality rules

Just imagine how they would react to real net neutrality. With the White House making a hard right turn to appease business (who are enjoying record profits, despite no jobs) don't be surprised if the administration caves here as well. The US internet and phone industry lags far behind the industrialized world in terms of quality and price, but somehow ripping off customers isn't enough. Wired:

Verizon’s suit, filed in a federal appeals court in Washington D.C., wasn’t unexpected, but it is extraordinary in that the rules have not yet gone into effect.

The still-proposed rules prohibit cable and DSL companies from blocking or slowing down legitimate internet traffic and require them to allow users to use their choice of devices, applications and online services. Mobile carriers face fewer restrictions but are not allowed to block VoIP applications such as Skype and may not block websites in their entirety.

Verizon is the country’s largest mobile phone carrier and is one of the country’s largest broadband providers to homes. The company has long fought against the FCC’s net openness rules, including those attached to valuable 4G spectrum it bought in 2008. However, Verizon and Google together issued a controversial compromise policy statement this summer that proposed such rules for cable and DSL providers, while exempting wireless companies.

Read the rest of this post...

Meet Obama's choice for head of Economic Advisor Panel

Besides the outsourcing of jobs, the double standards for "Buy American", the sucking up to China, and the dislike of fair trade, he sounds great. Weren't we supposed to have a Democrat in the White House? There seems to be an obsession in the administration with kicking the core supporters of the party. If we wanted GOP-Lite we would have voted that way. So much for "change we can believe in." This is just sad.

General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt has fooled the media and the White House into believing that he cares about American manufacturing jobs. I have a hard time imagining a worse pick, unless Obama would have tapped Immelt's predecessor Jack Welch, who seemed fine with the idea of putting factories on barges in search of the lowest wages in the world.

Let's look at GE's jobs record. You would have difficulty finding a company that has outsourced more jobs and closed more American factories than GE. While they have slashed their American workforce to fewer than 150,000, GE has dramatically expanded its global presence, now employing over 300,000 workers worldwide. Yes, GE has brought a trickle of jobs back to the U.S. over the past two years, but it still outsources more than it insources. And those executives at GE are not clueless--they realize the value of good publicity as it announces new hires at a time like this. But they do not devote nearly the same amount of publicity to their factory closings.

Read the rest of this post...

House GOP runs on 'jobs' - now that they're in power, ignore 'jobs'

MSNBC's First Read:

As President Obama discusses the economy today and taps GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt to lead a new White House board (more on that below), the GOP-led House has spent its first two weeks in power focusing on other issues. On Wednesday, it voted to repeal the president’s signature health-care law. On Thursday, it introduced legislation permanently barring taxpayer subsidies for abortion. And today comes the headline that House conservatives want an immediate cut of $100 billion in discretionary spending, a higher amount that GOP leaders have called for, as well as federal outlays to be reduced by $2.5 trillion over the next 10 years. So after spending months talking about how the Obama administration wasn’t talking about jobs, House Republicans are, well, not talking directly about jobs. First impressions are everything in politics. And the House GOP’s first impression has not been jobs.

Read the rest of this post...

GOP Rep. Broun: Mixed seating at SOTU is 'a trap' to 'silence Republicans' when 'Barack Obama spews out all his venom'

In other words, if we sit together we can't yell at the President like a bunch of boors. Read the rest of this post...

Limbaugh mocks Chinese language, Hu Jintao

Classy guy, as always. Read the rest of this post...

Scientists claim 2010 was the second hottest year on record

Oh sure, if you believe science and facts. They used to be valued and important, but today, science and facts are so old fashioned and out of date. We now have the Bible and political extremists to make everything clear.

In Britain it ended in freezing temperatures and weeks of snow and ice. Globally, though, 2010 was still the second warmest year on record, according to Met Office scientists who yesterday reaffirmed that the world is continuing to get warmer.

Preliminary data gathered from thousands of weather stations, ships and buoys stationed across the world show that 2010 was second only to 1998 in terms of global average temperatures and that nine out of the 10 hottest years on record have now occurred between 2001 and 2010.

The Met Office analysis found that 2010 was exceeded only by 1998, when there was a large El Niño weather phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, associated with warmer global temperatures. However, two other organisations involved in analysing global temperature records found that 2010 was in fact the hottest year.

Read the rest of this post...

Kerry Eleveld to President Obama: 'evolve fully on marriage equality'

On October 27, 2010, during the blogger meeting with President Obama I asked him about his position on same-sex marriage. That set off an interesting back-and-forth. He reiterated his support for civil unions, but also said, "I also think you’re right that attitudes evolve, including mine."

In December, Kerry Eleveld interviewed the President and asked him about marriage. He responded:

Joe asked me the same question. And since I've been making a lot of news over the last several weeks, I’m not going to make more news today. The sentiment I expressed then is still where I am — which is, like a lot of people, I’m wrestling with this. My attitudes are evolving on this.

So, there's been a lot of talk about evolving. From her new perch at Equality Matters, Kerry has an op-ed in today's Washington Post (it appears in the print edition, too.) She urges the President to "evolve fully" on marriage soon, as in, before the reelection campaign gets underway. It's worth a read. She makes a strong case for how and why Obama should come around on marriage. Here's the conclusion:

With equality legislation stalled in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, one of the most significant advances Obama can make between now and his 2012 reelection campaign is to evolve fully on marriage equality.

The repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" was a turning point in the marriage discussion. It poses a major challenge and an opportunity for the president.

While he, like many Americans, grapples with the fact that civil unions provide no remedy for gay taxpayers with regard to federal spousal benefits, he has enlisted the most powerful lobby in the nation to work on behalf of gay rights - the U.S. military.

Once repeal is implemented, the military will begin to move toward eradicating the inequalities endured by gay service members.

Indeed, 67 percent of service members told the Pentagon's study group that lifting the ban would have a positive effect or no effect at all on readiness - surely those service members will care that their comrades in arms get equal treatment. I would bet they will insist on it.

This is a political calculation for the President and his reelection team, which will be led by Jim Messina. Let's hope they make the right decision.

Cross-posted at AMERICAblog Gay. Read the rest of this post...

Report: US generals convinced Tunisian military to turn against dictator

If true, this would be good news.

According to Le Canard Enchaîné it was US generals who convinced their Tunisian counterparts to turn against Ben Ali. This allegedly is what led to his fleeing the country. The French diplomatic corps and secret service were caught completely off-guard.

“America took control of the situation.” This quote is attributed to Michèle Alliot-Marie, France’s Foreign Minister. According to Le Canard Enchaîné, she admitted in private last Monday that American generals spoke to their Tunisian counterparts and put pressure on them to turn on Ben Ali. It seems this is what sparked the Tunisian President’s sudden departure from the country. “We were in a fog of confusion the whole time,” Alliot-Marie allegedly confessed, admitting that France’s diplomatic corps and secret service were caught off guard. “Needless to say, the Americans did not keep us informed.”

Read the rest of this post...

Food crisis hits Sri Lanka following flooding

It hasn't been a great start to the year in terms of extreme weather. The flooding has hit Sri Lanka especially hard because a fifth of the rice crops have been destroyed. In a country where rice is a critical part of the diet, this is a major problem.

Up to 400,000 children in Sri Lanka are facing a food crisis caused by devastating floods, a children's charity warned as it launched a £1m appeal to help those in the worst-hit areas today.

As the floodwaters begin to recede, many of the 350,000 displaced people driven into temporary refugee camps are returning home only to find that their homes, schools, crops and livelihoods have been wiped out by the rains.

In the worst-affected part of the country, the Eastern Province, the damage to agricultural land could leave up to 1 million people, including 400,000 children, without enough food, Save the Children said.

Read the rest of this post...