Blessings on a pagan holiday

Blogging to the highest common denominator
Last year, Americans paid Comcast a monthly average of $153 for television, telephone, and Internet. According to a New America Foundation study, Parisians paid as little as $34.47 a month for the same bundled services, with Internet speeds five to 20 times faster than Comcast.She even has an solution to break their monopoly.
Instead, she believes the answer is for local communities to build their own fiber networks, as more than 250 have done already. The largest is probably Chattanooga, where homes and businesses can obtain Internet that is 200 times faster than the national average and is cheaper than cable. Meanwhile, Google is building a fiber system in Kansas City and planning others in Austin and Provo. Such networks, Crawford says, will help the public see the benefits of real regulations, just as they once did with electricity. “Until Americans understood how useful [electricity] was and Americans understood it didn’t have to be a luxury, it didn’t change,” she says. The drawback to this strategy is that the industry will fight these grassroots efforts as fiercely as it does FCC reforms. So far, it has gotten 19 states to effectively ban local alternative networks.My own North Carolina is one of those states. When I first moved to my little city they had big plans to have a free wifi downtown system. Then the Republicans took over the state government. The little city locals don't talk about it anymore.
Labels: Broken Government, Corporatocracy, What's Wrong with Everything
Labels: Broken Government, Senate, What's Wrong with Everything
Two years after a triple meltdown that grew into the world’s second worst nuclear disaster, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is faced with a new crisis: a flood of highly radioactive wastewater that workers are struggling to contain.Don't think it couldn't happen here. Dr. Jaczko, now retired regulator says we should shut down every reactor in the US.
Groundwater is pouring into the plant’s ravaged reactor buildings at a rate of almost 75 gallons a minute. It becomes highly contaminated there, before being pumped out to keep from swamping a critical cooling system. A small army of workers has struggled to contain the continuous flow of radioactive wastewater, relying on hulking gray and silver storage tanks sprawling over 42 acres of parking lots and lawns. The tanks hold the equivalent of 112 Olympic-size pools.
... In a sign of the sheer size of the problem, the operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, plans to chop down a small forest on its southern edge to make room for hundreds more tanks, a task that became more urgent when underground pits built to handle the overflow sprang leaks in recent weeks.
All 104 nuclear power reactors now in operation in the United States have a safety problem that cannot be fixed and they should be replaced with newer technology, the former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Monday. Shutting them all down at once is not practical, he said, but he supports phasing them out rather than trying to extend their lives.Meanwhile the current regulatory commission is talking about extending their operating licenses for another 20-40 years beyond what was supposed to be the life of the plants.
Labels: bad science, environment, Nuclear Power
Obama’s speech at the White House correspondents’ dinner was well received, and for good reason — it was very funny. But there were a lot of moments when Obama seemed to be subverting the rules of the evening in order to get away with telling harsh truths that he could later claim were just jokes.Screw that noise. It's supposed to be a roast. You can't hear it in a written transcript but in the instant, Obama's comedic timing was impeccable. Jay Leno can only dream of mastering the delivery of topical humor as well as Obama did. The jokes were funny because they were true.
“Some folks still don’t think I spend enough time with Congress,” the president said. “‘Why don’t you get a drink with Mitch McConnell?’ they ask. Really? Why don’t you get a drink with Mitch McConnell?”
Everyone laughed. But do you detect an actual joke there? And lest you think I’m cutting the punchline, here’s Obama’s next sentence: “I’m sorry. I get frustrated sometimes.”
Labels: Media, President Obama
The House Judiciary Committee reported Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, traveled around the world on an official trip in February that cost $23,646. The Feb. 16-22 trip on commercial flights was to Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia.Mary Landrieu organized this little jaunt to the far east that "included several members of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption" and for what, you ask?
The delegation was to meet with local community leaders, adoption officials, and other government officials, such as the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.Seriously. If they're so hot to find unneccesary spending they should start here. What's so damn important about these trips? Who the hell do they think they are, the freaking State Department? According to them, we can't afford to feed kids in America and they're jetting off for a week or so to discuss adoption with foreign bureaucrats? This is 2013. We have this thing called teleconferencing. Almost like being there in person.
Detailing a decade of research, Oxford University political economist David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu, an assistant professor of medicine and an epidemiologist at Stanford University, said their findings show austerity is seriously bad for health.The effects of forced austerity has reached practically genocidal proportions in Greece and if our homegrown austerity maniacs get their heart's desire we won't be far behind in the USA. They've been fraying the edges of the social safety net at the state level since GOPers took over the local legislatures and now with the stupid sequestration cuts, the federal safety net is in danger of falling apart altogether.
In a book to be published this week, the researchers say more than 10,000 suicides and up to a million cases of depression have been diagnosed during what they call the "Great Recession" and its accompanying austerity across Europe and North America.
"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."Not making any grand accusations, but as the world economy hinges more and more on a relative handful of people making money simply by moving around their money, the blue collar working class is becoming as obsolete at the buggy whip.
Labels: Corporatocracy, Oligarchy, Social Safety Net, Working Poor
I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay. — I didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I'm happy to start the conversation.I'm told he's the first major team sport player to admit it. My only reaction is, (and not to diminish his courage in any way), think it's rather sad that in 2013, this is still such a big deal.
Labels: gay rights, sports
Labels: Photography, Virtual Travel, Your Moment of Zen
But Health Quality Partners, with its emphasis on continuous nurse-to-patient contact, did work. Of the 15 programs, four improved patient outcomes without increasing costs. Only HQP improved patient outcomes while cutting costs. So Medicare extended it again and again — now it’s the only program still running under the demo. But Medicare has notified Coburn that it intends to end HQP’s funding in June.Medicare mumbled something about the program not being scalable, which isn't really true. The real reason comes down to corporate control over our health care system.
But not all hospitals are run by the local Village Improvement Association. Many seek to turn a profit. That makes models like Health Quality Partners something of a threat. “If we scaled what Ken is doing,” Brenner says, “you would probably shut down a third of the hospitals in the country. It’s a disruptive innovation. It just guts the current business model.”See also this:
Labels: Broken Government, Corporate Welfare, health care
Labels: Consumer Society, Corporatocracy, environment
Related: White House Correspondents’ Association dinner isn’t costly, but the parties areIt's bigger than just this decadent weekend where their place in the pecking order is determined by which parties they're invited to. The self-absorption is invading the daily news cycle more and more every day. This tweet was from days ago.
White House Correspondents’ Association dinner complete coverage
WHCD photos, tweets, breaking news on “The Grid”
Jake Tapper: "I wish the media covered the media more. We're so much more important than, like, wars and poverty and stuff."Of course, this isn't new. Marshall McLuhan saw it coming decades ago. But back then, it was at least about shaping the news. Now it's about building a brand. Context has no value in the world of infotainment. Controversy trumps facts every time. As the twitter God said:
TheTweetOfGod: When CNN says they're "breaking news" they are, in a sense, right.Referring of course, to CNN's dismal coverage of the Boston bombing. But here's the thing. Jeff Zucker welcomes your mockery. He praised his team for "doing a good job" because ratings only count the numbers, not the reasons you're there. Incentives are all screwed up. Sensational bad information drives more traffic than boring facts. The money is in being obnoxiously wrong. How do you fix that? [graphic via]
Labels: Photography, Virtual Travel, Your Moment of Zen
The voiceless people who are the most affected by these cuts can’t afford high-priced lobbyists to get them an exception to the sequester, the way that the agriculture lobby was able to fend off a furlough to meat inspectors, which might have disrupted beef and poultry operations. And what was cut in order to keep those inspectors on the job? About $25 million from a program to provide free school breakfasts.The sequester also cut Head Start funding. Because it's so much easier for a child born into poverty to lift themselves out of the ghetto when they start life homeless and hungry. [photo via]
Labels: Broken Government, Oligarchy, Republicans
Labels: Broken Government, Media Fail
The U.S. economy has recovered for households with net worth of $500,000 or more, a new study shows. The recession continues for almost everyone else. Wealthy households boosted their net worth by 21.2 percent in the aftermath of the recession, according to the study released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center. The rest of America lost 4.9 percent of household wealth from 2009 to 2011.Meanwhile our Congress, with astonishing haste, is addressing the very important problem of frequent flyers being forced to wait an extra hour or two in airport bars. I'm hearing they're ready to throw $357 million to the FAA to fix it. No questions asked. Too bad about you poor olds who won't get Meals on Wheels. Wheel your ownself over to the food bank and cook your own damn food. And so sorry hungry poor kids who need free food at school. There's no free rides. Maybe they'll let you six year olds sweep floors and clean bathrooms to earn a cafeteria ticket.
Pew attributed the disparity to gains during that period in the stock and bond markets, benefiting affluent households, while the housing market's decline hit others harder. The report underscores the nation's growing income inequality, with the top 13 percent of households recovering their losses from the 18- month recession that ended in June 2009, and the rest of the country continuing to hemorrhage wealth.
Labels: Congress, Income Inequality, Oligarchy
The coverage of the opening of this vast temple to prevarication and ruin is not about bricks and mortar. It's about an attempt by the courtier press to absolve itself of a dereliction of duty that rivaled even that of the president in question... (That dereliction of duty, it should be noted, now and forever, began with the coverage of the 2000 presidential campaign, and the disgraceful performance of the elite political press corps towards Al Gore.)In some way, this library is more a standing testament to the greatest media fail in history than it is to W's eight year reign of error.
Labels: George Bush, President Obama
Labels: Congress, Crackpot Conservatives, State Politics
Savader is a political science student at SUNY Farmingdale who’s interned for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan as well as Romney. He’s charged with illegally obtaining nude pictures of 15 women and threatening to make them public unless the women sent him more naked pictures of themselves.Clearly he's a better hacker than he is an extortionist. He somehow retrieved the photos from the victim's personal email accounts and then launched his blackmail scheme. But he wasn't looking for money, just some forced virtual sexytime with the women of his dreams.
His Facebook page is filled with photos of him with several prominent politicos and actors, including Ryan, former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, Georgia Rep. Tom Price, Michelle Duggar from the TV show "19 Kids and Counting," tax lobbyist Grover Norquist, actor Allen Covert, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.And he "often bragged about about dressing up as 'Ellis the Elephant.'" In fact he was in the suit at the big annual ConCon, CPAC. So if you were a woman at CPAC and ever in proximity to Ellis the Elephant, chances are creepy intern stealthily took upshots of your undies if you were following the dress code and wearing a tasteful skirt with sensible pumps. And especially if you ignored the dress code and showed up in a miniskirt and cowboy boots.
Labels: Crackpot Conservatives, crime, Republican hypocrisy
Labels: Photography, Virtual Travel, Your Moment of Zen
Labels: Democrats, Senate, State Politics
It is a surreal and difficult-to-explain dynamic. Americans seemingly place an inordinate fear on violence that is random and unexplainable and can be blamed on "others" – jihadists, terrorists, evil-doers etc. But the lurking dangers all around us – the guns, our unhealthy diets, the workplaces that kill 14 Americans every single day – these are just accepted as part of life, the price of freedom, if you will. And so the violence goes, with more Americans dying preventable deaths. But hey, look on the bright side – we got those sons of bitches who blew up the marathon.The ordinary threats to the public safety surround us but the daily death toll is as unnoticed as the scenery on our daily commutes. If we actually want to find the real existential threats to our way of life, we should be looking in the board rooms of multi-national corporations instead of pinning the blame on a misguided, hapless teenager.
Labels: Boston Marathon, Domestic Terrorism, Republicans, rule of law
Although Sanford's unpopularity is clearly the main reason Democrats have a chance to win in this district, it's interesting to note that there is some backlash against Republicans over last week's vote on background checks. 86% of voters in the district say they support them to only 12% opposed, and 45% of voters say the GOP's opposition to them makes it less likely they'll support the party in the next election compared to only 21% who consider it a positive. That anger over the gun vote comes despite Barack Obama having only a 41% approval rating in the district with 51% of voters disapproving of him.When they've lost the gun loving deluded rubes over gun safety reform, maybe that pathetic display of general cowardice and GOP obstruction on background checks will turn out to be the seminal moment that broke the Republicans' stranglehold on the House.
Labels: Congress, Election 2014, Gun Law, Republican obstructionism
More than 1,000 FBI operatives were last night working to track down the cell and arrested a man and two women 60 miles from Boston in the hours before Dzhokhar’s dramatic capture after a bloody shootout on Friday.Which of course would explain why they botched their getaway so thoroughly. Maybe they didn't stay in terrorist school long enough to get to the part of the lesson where the other cell members drive the getaway car. Preferably out of town.
A source close to the investigation said: “We have no doubt the brothers were not acting alone. The devices used to detonate the two bombs were highly sophisticated and not the kind of thing people learn from Google.
Labels: Boston Marathon, Domestic Terrorism, Media Fail
Dan Adams: Incredible scene at #WatertownPD HQ. Grateful, tearful residents arriving every minute w home cooked meals, pizza, flowers, cards.And then read Charlie Pierce's eyewitness account of the bomber's capture. In fact read Charlies blog for the last few days. It's a whole different picture than the manufactured media hysteria on the TV.
Labels: Boston Marathon, Domestic Terrorism, rule of law
Labels: Red Sox, Viral Video
The fight ended when Tamerlan Tsarnaev, after leaving cover to close in on the officers while firing his weapon just “five to ten feet” away, ran out of ammunition. He was tackled by multiple officers and handcuffed. ...In other words he drove over his own brother to get away. More details at the link.
In the confusion, Dzokhar Tsarnaev returned to the stolen car and made his escape — apparently fatally wounding his sibling in the process.
Labels: Boston Marathon, Domestic Terrorism, guns
As more information on the origin of the alleged perpetrators is coming to light, I am concerned to note in the social media a most unfortunate misunderstanding in this respect. The Czech Republic and Chechnya are two very different entities - the Czech Republic is a Central European country; Chechnya is a part of the Russian Federation.This of course launched a snark contest on the twitters. The winner being:
Atrios: time to invade chechnyaslovakiaSo much of the fear of the far right extremists is based on pure ignorance, fostered and reinforced by the grifters who profit from manufactured terror. Helluva cruel way to make money.
Labels: Crackpot Conservatives, dangerous idiots
Labels: Boston Marathon, Domestic Terrorism
Labels: Flora, Photography, Your Moment of Zen
The fertilizer plant that exploded Wednesday night in West, Texas, reported to the Environmental Protection Agency and local public safety officials that it presented no risk of fire or explosion, documents show. [...]The company claims to have "implemented proper safety rules," but who know if that's true. The plant hasn't been inspected in the last five years. And chances are if it hadn't blown up, it might never be inspected for decades:
[T]he report, reviewed Wednesday night by The Dallas Morning News, stated “no” under fire or explosive risks. The worst possible scenario, the report said, would be a 10-minute release of ammonia gas that would kill or injure no one.
The second worst possibility projected was a leak from a broken hose used to transfer the product, again causing no injuries.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is chronically understaffed, which means that a given plant like West Fertilizer can only expect to get a state inspection once every 67 years on average.And of course, under the sequester cuts OSHA's funding will be slashed further. OSHA is one of the cons favorite punching bags. They love to talk about the stupid safety rules that interfere with the free market and corporate profits. We should just trust Big Business to police itself, because we can't afford to keep spending tax dollars to make sure they're not cutting corners on safety measures that might result in killing people. Besides, they need that money to pay off the politicians --er, I mean to create jobs -- you know.
Labels: Big Business, deregulation, Public Safety
Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I’m furious. I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators have done, and until we have changed our laws so we can look parents in the face and say: We are trying to keep your children safe. We cannot allow the status quo — desperately protected by the gun lobby so that they can make more money by spreading fear and misinformation — to go on. [...]As Gabby and the parents of the Newtown dead and so many others have vowed, this is not over. If anything this blazing display of political cowardice has only hardened the determination to change the status quo. And as Gabby said in the op-ed, if we can't reform the laws with this Congress, then we'll change the Congress members. In the end, anger may bring more change than hope ever could.
They looked at these most benign and practical of solutions, offered by moderates from each party, and then they looked over their shoulder at the powerful, shadowy gun lobby — and brought shame on themselves and our government itself by choosing to do nothing.
They will try to hide their decision behind grand talk, behind willfully false accounts of what the bill might have done — trust me, I know how politicians talk when they want to distract you — but their decision was based on a misplaced sense of self-interest. I say misplaced, because to preserve their dignity and their legacy, they should have heeded the voices of their constituents. They should have honored the legacy of the thousands of victims of gun violence and their families, who have begged for action, not because it would bring their loved ones back, but so that others might be spared their agony.
Labels: Broken Government, Gun Laws, Republican obstructionism, Senate
"Today, the U.S. Senate decided to do the unthinkable about gun violence --- nothing at all," - Gabby GiffordsAnd to add insult to injury, on the same day our broken Senate refused to pass gun safety reform to protect 300million+ living Americans, they unanimously passed a resolution to pardon one man, Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight boxing champ. He deserves the pardon, but he died over 50 years ago.
Labels: Broken Government, Gun Law, Republican obstructionism, Senate
Contrary to widespread reporting, no arrest has been made in connection with the Boston Marathon attack. Over the past day and a half, there have been a number of press reports based on information from unofficial sources that has been inaccurate. Since these stories often have unintended consequences, we ask the media, particularly at this early stage of the investigation, to exercise caution and attempt to verify information through appropriate official channels before reporting.Most of the media, old and new, rushed to report CNN's erroneous "scoop" in a hot race for ratings. This mad horde reporting is not only stupid and useless, it's damaging to the investigation. If a suspect really had been IDed, prematurely reporting some vaguely sourced leak could tip him off. He could escape because of it and do it again somewhere else.
Labels: Boston Marathon, Media Fail
Officials said more than 30 bombings and a shooting hit 12 different areas of Iraq, leaving 50 people dead and nearly 300 injured, making Monday the country's deadliest day since March 19.The worst part is, for Iraqis, this is an improvement over the years of terror they suffered during the war when the stench of death was never absent from the streets, not for a single day. These horrors happen to innocent men, women and children regularly, all over the world. So while we obsess over our own trauma about the senseless violence in Copley Square, we might also take a moment to remember how lucky we are that it doesn't happen more often.
The deadliest attacks were in Baghdad, where eight bombings struck in seven neighbourhoods across the capital despite tougher checkpoint searches and heightened security.
Among them was a car bomb in a parking area used by vehicles making their way to Baghdad's heavily guarded airport, a rare bombing on the road famously known as "Route Irish".
In Tuz Khurmatu, 175 kilometres north of Baghdad, six people were killed and 67 wounded by three near-simultaneous car bombs, and in Kirkuk, five people were killed and 44 wounded by six more car bombs.
Attacks elsewhere killed nine people and wounded 92 others.
A total of 14 election hopefuls have already been murdered and just 12 of the country's 18 provinces will be taking part in this weekend's vote.
Labels: Boston Marathon, Domestic Terrorism, World politics
For runners from around the world, the marathon is a life goal. They train not for months, but years, to meet the daunting qualifying times. Crossing that small strip of pavement is an accomplishment that’s as hard to explain as the attack that bloodied it is impossible to understand.Even if you're feeling as overwhelmed by the horror as I am, this is worth reading in full. I found oddly comforting.
This time, some of the last runners to cross kept going, to the hospitals to give blood. Doctors and nurses among them volunteered to help.
But all of that extraordinary generosity couldn’t reverse time. ...
Labels: Boston Marathon
@JackieBrunoNECN: I saw people's legs blown off. Horrific. Two explosions. Runners were coming in and saw unspeakable horror.Also this photo showing some serious blood on the sidewalk. Hearing reports there may still be unexploded devices in the area. Just horrible. A curse on the soulless perps who would ruin this tradition and hurt innocent people.
Labels: Boston Marathon, Domestic Terrorism
Labels: Photography, Your Moment of Zen
Labels: Crackpot Conservatives, Gun Laws, State Politics
Authorities allege that late on the evening of Feb. 21, Schiliro contacted the young man by text message and had a Marcus Hook police officer deliver him to his borough home. There, with Schiliro’s 13-year-old daughter sleeping upstairs, the mayor allegedly gave the young man alcohol and produced three firearms, one of which was fired into papers inside the house.However Mayor Schiliro does intend to serve out the remainder of his term because, he needs "to see it through." [via Taegan Goddard][photo via]
During the encounter, the mayor repeatedly asked the young man if he could give him oral sex, according to court documents. Schiliro is not charged with any sex-related offenses.
Labels: Republican hypocrisy
Labels: mother nature, Photography, Your Moment of Zen
The leak seems to have backfired, helping to strengthen McConnell in the state. Most of the focus has been on the FBI investigation into who bugged McConnell's office, and on Conway's comments about his discussions with Progress Kentucky's leaders.Moreover, they have no apparent talent for raising money, yet they managed to pay for the racist ads in the beginning and high powered legal counsel now. The investigation is likely to last until the 2014 election. The gift that keeps on giving -- to McConnell. Funny how that works.
The story has also given McConnell's allies a chance to tie the fringe group to Democrats in and outside of the state.
Labels: Election 2014, Mitch McConnell, Republicans
1. Any private business that displays signage which prohibits public invitees, business visitors, and employees from carrying a concealed weapon on the premises owned or occupied by such private business shall be liable for any injury or damages incurred by such public invitees, business visitors, and employees as a result of such prohibition if such public invitee, business visitor, or employee establishes by a preponderance of evidence that having access to a firearm may have prevented his or her injury or damage.See what he did here? If you prohibit guns in your place of business and some wacko comes in and shoots the joint up, any litigation happy wahoo can sue you for preventing them from carrying a gun inside to shoot back because, for sure they would have been a hero. But if you allow guns into the establishment and some wacko shoots the place up, business owner is legally off the hook because, well, you should have been carrying your own damn gun so you could be the hero and stop the wacko from committing mass murder.
2. Any private business that does not prohibit public invitees, business visitors, and employees from carrying a concealed weapon on the premises owned or occupied by such private business shall be immune from any liability arising from its decision to permit concealed weapons to be carried on business premises.
Labels: Crackpot Conservatives, Gun Law, Republicans, State Politics