Saturday, July 06, 2013

Listening to Now: Leonard Cohen - "Bird on a Wire"

By Richard K. Barry

True story. I was on the phone a couple of days ago with the national passenger rail company where I live, which happens to be Via Rail. I had to get a copy of a receipt for a business trip I had taken a few weeks before. While on hold for what must have been 15 minutes, they helpfully played music through my telephone to help me to relax while I sat and waited for an agent. The music was successive Leonard Cohen songs sung by the original artist. I think the first was "Hallelujah," the second was "Sisters of Mercy," and the third "Bird on a Wire."

I so enjoyed the music that I really had forgotten just for a moment why I was on hold and even got a little annoyed when the cheerful agent broke in to ask how he could help. I wanted to say he could help by putting the music back on.

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

P.M. Headlines


(Fox News): "At least 10 injured after Boeing 777 crashed at San Francisco International Airport"

(Bloomberg): "ElBaradei becomes Egypt interim premier after deadly clashes"

(New York Times): "Seeing military tamed, Morsi spurned deals until the end"

(Associated Press): "Heated NYC mayor's race a star-studded affair"

(Washington Post): "Jobs report shows steady growth as U.S. added 195,000 jobs in June"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

Behind the Ad: Rep. Rush Holt, New Jersey Rocket Scientist

By Richard K. Barry

Who: Rep. Rush Holt U.S. Senate campaign

Where: New Jersey (web ad)

What's going on: Rush Holt is running for the open Senate seat in New Jersey, left vacant when Frank Lautenberg died. He's a Democrat as is some guy by the name of Cory Booker, also running. This ad is an attempt by Holt to establish some kind of brand differentiation between the two. The difficultly of doing that is made clear in the ad, which has someone saying that though she likes Booker, she is voting for Rush. Harsh words!

One of the interesting things about Holt is that he actually is a rocket scientists, in fact an astrophysicist, which has always made for good jokes in his part of New Jersey that, yes, his constituents have a rocket scientist for a representative. Hence the name of the ad, "Orbit."

The spot also draws attention to Holt's progressive voting record during his 14 years in the House, which is, truth be told, pretty progressive.

The Democratic primary is on August 13th. Rep. Frank Pallone and state Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver are also going after the Democratic nomination.

It's hard to believe Booker can be beat, but, as they say in football, you never know and that's why you play the game.

On a scale of one to ten, I give the ad a five. It's cute and inoffensive, though it's hard to know how he'll make up much ground with that approach.




(Cross-posted at Phantom Public.)

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share

A.M. Headlines


(The Dallas Morning News): "George W. Bush expected to talk about immigration reform Wednesday at Bush institute"

(Wall Street Journal): "Snowden is offered asylum by Venezuela"

(Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel): "Scott Walker signs abortion bill; providers quickly sue"

(New York Times): "Weiner's surprising rebound from scandal"

(BBC): "International concern over Egypt clashes"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

Friday, July 05, 2013

The glorious Fourth and the meaning of America

By Michael J.W. Stickings and Mustang Bobby

MJWS:

We're posting this a day late -- though I did wish everyone a Happy Fourth yesterday -- but it's well worth it. I have a few things to say about my attachment to America, but it is Mustang Bobby's post, below, that is such a moving, and such a deeply personal, expression of what America means and of the love he has for his country. I encourage you to read it in full. (I also encourage you to check out Frank's July Fourth post over at his place.)
_____

Unlike Mustang Bobby, and most of our contributors here, I'm not American, at least by citizenship, though I do have a lot of American in me.

One of my grandfathers, in fact, was from Alabama, injured on the beaches of France in World War II and later a sportscaster, and back through him I can even trace my lineage, by marriage, to one Davy Crockett (specifically through his first wife, Polly Finley). And it is a direct ancestor of mine, John Finley, who encouraged one Daniel Boone to venture into Kentucky, with Boone later taking settlers through the Cumberland Gap.

Like Mustang Bobby, though, I love America "not for what it is but for what it could be." America is a great country, to be sure, but it is the promise of America that truly inspires. And it is that promise, I think, that should be the driving spirit of all those who care to work for the country's betterment. And I count myself, even as a non-citizen, as one of them.

**********

MB:

When I was a kid I was very outgoing in putting up displays for the holidays — Memorial Day, Christmas, the Fourth of July — I liked the flags, the lights, the stuff. It was cool to make a big splash. But as I grew up I grew out of it, and today I don't go much for things like that. I don't have a flag to fly on national holidays, and the most I'll do for Christmas is a wreath on the door because it has good memories and the scent of pine is rare in subtropical Florida.

I suppose it has something to do with my Quaker notions of shunning iconography — outward symbols can't show how you truly feel about something on the inside — and more often than not they are used to make up for the lack of a true belief. This is also true of patriotism: waving the flag — or wrapping yourself in it — is a poor and false measure of how you truly feel about your country.

Read more »

Labels: , , ,

Bookmark and Share

A.M. Headlines


(New York Times): "Crackdown on Morsi backers deepens divide in Egypt"

(The West): "Analysis - Cautious toward Middle East, Obama gets second chance in Egypt"

(Washington Post): "Review of Mark Leibovich's 'This Town'"

(Gallup): "Most in U.S. still proud to be an American"

(Gawker): "Rupert Murdoch caught on tape: 'We will hit back'"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

Thursday, July 04, 2013

Behind the Ad: Mitch McConnell loses his mind

By Richard K. Barry

Who: The Mitch McConnell Senate campaign

Where: Kentucky

What's going on: Well, it's hard to know what's going on. This may be the dumbest political ad of all time. Okay, that's saying too much. Still, it is stupid. The piece uses that annoying computer generated music to make fun of McConnell's Democratic opponent Alison Lundergan Grimes. But it's almost impossible to explain how McConnell's team thinks they're making fun of her. Do they think her name sounds funny? Is that it? Is McConnell recruiting his campaign team from a class of twelve-year old boys? Looks like it.



(Cross-posted at Phantom Public.)

Labels: ,

Bookmark and Share

In GOP Land, America is 89% white

By Frank Moraes 

Benjy Sarlin has a great article about the New Southern Strategy that I've been writing about, "How the GOP Stopped Worrying About Latinos and Learned to Love the Base." It lays out the best statistical counter argument to Sean Trende that I've read. As you know, I don't think any of this really matters. The Republican Party has no intention of changing. For one thing, they have a long history of getting people to vote against their best interests by voting Republican. That's what the "Reagan Democrats" were: people who resented blacks more than they cared about their own well-being. So it only makes sense that they would continue to think that they can win elections while remaining unpopular. And the recent damage to the Voting Rights Act only makes that opinion all the more compelling to the Republican Party.

And that got me thinking: voter suppression. There is a very old theory about liberals and conservatives. It claims that liberals make policies based upon the way they want people to be, but conservatives base their policies on the way people actual are. I think there actually used to be something to this. A lot of socialist thought assumed that incentives didn't matter whereas conservatives were all about incentives. For the last few decades, though, liberals have been all about incentives. In as much as conservatives think about incentives, they now believe they are the only thing that matters, which is just as big a mistake as thinking that they don't matter at all.

But in a more fundamental way, the Republican Party believes things that are clearly untrue. We saw this most clearly last year where even Mitt Romney went into election day thinking he was going to win despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. But more to the point, I have noticed that a lot of conservatives really do think that any time a Republican loses an election it is a sign of voter fraud. I believe this comes from the extremely insular nature of conservative politics. Just look at the Deer Lady: it is clear she never hears anything about politics that is not filtered through a right-wing extremist.

Read more »

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Bookmark and Share

July 4, 2013 -- Independence Day

By Michael J.W. Stickings 

We had our day three days ago. Now it's the Americans' turn.

Happy Fourth of July, my American friends and family!

Go watch some baseball or eat some apple pie or something.

**********

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share

About that whole thing with the president of Bolivia and Edward Snowden not being on his plane

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I tweeted yesterday about the appalling treatment of Bolivian President Evo Morales after he left Moscow on his way home -- European countries not allowing his plane into their airspace:


And I'm in agreement with Drum:

Did we really, seriously, strong-arm the governments of France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy to deny the president of Bolivia permission to fly over their airspace? All because some moron in one of our intelligence services that supposedly tracks every communication on the planet decided that Evo Morales was serious when he joked about taking Edward Snowden home with him from Moscow?

If every country in South America responded by expelling every diplomat in every American embassy, it would hardly seem like an overreaction to me. This would have been outrageous and thuggish behavior even if Snowden had been in Morales' plane. But he wasn't, so it's actually outrageous, thuggish, and clownish. Jesus.

*****

I think the treatment of Morales's plane was outrageous behavior, and quite likely a result of pressure from the United States.

Yup.

Labels: , , , ,

Bookmark and Share

The government is reading your mail -- at least the outside of it

By Michael J.W. Stickings

So, all you apologists for the surveillance state, how do you feel about this?

Oh, it's just "metadata," you say? Just the outside of mail: "the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program, in which Postal Service computers photograph the exterior of every piece of paper mail that is processed in the United States — about 160 billion pieces last year."

Oh, but they can tell a lot about you just from that, and of course if they want to, if they can get that warrant, which hardly seems like a difficult thing these days, they can see what's inside.

At what point is enough enough, you apologists?

Will you finally have had enough when you wake up one day and find that it's all gone, that your life, liberty, property, and pursuit of happiness are no longer really yours?

Happy Fourth of July.

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share

A.M. Headlines


(BBC News): "Egypt swears in Mansour as interim leader after Morsi ousted"

(The White House): "Statement by President Barack Obama on Egypt"

(USA Today): "Business say health care act delay was needed"

(New York Times): "Postponing health rules emboldens Republicans"

(CBC): "Deadly Arizona wildfire 45% contained"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Everything's all white

By Mustang Bobby

Brit Hume of Fox News thinks that the GOP chasing after the Hispanic vote is a waste of time: the white vote is more important.

"And I am absolutely convinced that this trope that you're hearing that says that if the Republicans don't go for immigration reform much as the Senate has done, they'll never win another presidential election. Oh, baloney," Hume said during an appearance on the conservative cable news channel. "If you look at the statistics, you find there was one significant bloc of voters who turned out in smaller numbers this time in a major way — way below expectations, below even their '08 turnout — and that was white voters. Now, that doesn't mean that if they turned out that Romney would have gotten them all but it shows you that this Hispanic vote, which is I think now 8.5 percent of the electorate or something like that, is not nearly as important as, still, as the white vote, which is above 70 percent.

That sounds like an excellent plan going forward for the GOP: alienate the fastest-growing bloc of voters in the country while at the same time the good folks in Texas, Ohio, and North Carolina are really going after the women.

Keep it up, Republicans; you’re doing great.

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

Labels: , , , ,

Bookmark and Share

P.M. Headlines


(CNN): "Morsi out in Egypt coup"

(Weekly Standard): "Rubio to introduce Senate bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks"

(USA Today): "Oil spike could hurt stocks, economy"

(The Guardian): "Bolivian president's treatment stirs up fury in Latin America"

(New York Times): "U.S. Postal Service logging all mail for law enforcement"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

Delayed but not denied

By Carl

I’m not sure if this is a brilliant tactical move on the part of the President or a tacit admission that getting Obamacare fully enacted will be more difficult than anticipated:

(CBS News) The delay of a key provision in President Obama's health-care law is being called a major setback for the president's signature issue.

The controversial provision that requires companies with more than 50 employees to provide coverage or face fines is being delayed by a year. The rule is now on hold until 2015 - after the 2014 midterm elections.

That last clause is the key: “after the midterm elections.”

This move prevents Republicans in Congress from running against the rollout of the legislation, especially as there will likely be hiccups and false starts along the way at the beginning of implementation.

And it gives the Democratic heir to the Presidency – because let’s face facts, no Republican is going to win in 2016 – a leg up to point to the successes of the Obama legacy, including his signature advance in progressive thinking.

Not surprisingly, Max Baucus, who is to Democratic politics what Vidkun Quisling was to Norwegian sovereignty, has called the entire piece of legislation a “train wreck.”

It probably wouldn’t have been such a train wreck if serious efforts to bring you and the other party-unfaithful into the fold.

Indeed, it’s particularly galling to see this parallel:

With next year's midterm elections looming, that kind of feedback troubled leading Democrats like Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, who staked a lot of political capital on the law. He said, "I just see a huge train wreck coming down."

On Tuesday night, Republicans who remain staunchly opposed to the law, which passed without a single GOP vote, said the announcement was vindication. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said, "Even the Obama administration knows the 'train wreck' will only get worse."

Weaker Boener. Senator Baucus. Both use the same blast-fax metaphor.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)

Bookmark and Share

Good report card

By Mustang Bobby

This is very good news.

The nation’s 9-year-olds and 13-year-olds are posting better scores in math and reading tests than their counterparts did 40 years ago, and the achievement gap between white students and those of color still persists but is narrowing, according to new federal government data released Thursday.

The scores, collected regularly since the 1970s from federal tests administered to public and private school students age 9, 13, and 17, paint a picture of steady student achievement that contradicts the popular notion that U.S. educational progress has stalled.

“When you break out the data over the long term and ask who is improving, the answer is . . . everyone,” said Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, a nonprofit organization that works to close the achievement gap between poor and privileged children. “And the good news, given where they started, is that black and Latino children have racked up some of the biggest gains of all.”

Imagine how much better they could do if they had good facilities to work in, if salaries for teachers and support staff were competitive with the private sector to keep them in the jobs, and the Jesus-freaks would stop trying to replace science with mythology.


HT to LGM.

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

A.M. Headlines


(Time): "Obama Administration delays health care law employer penalty until 2015"

(Washington Post): "Egypt's Morsi defiant under pressure as deadline looms"

(The Guardian): "Bolivian president's jet rerouted amid suspicions Edward Snowden on board"

(The Hill): "Intelligence chief Clapper apologizes for 'erroneous' statement to Congress"

(Maine Sun Journal): "LePage announces re-election campaign at private fundraiser"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Photo of the Day: Dilapidated house in Northern Ontario


Jim Kelley

A friend took this picture a few years ago, not far from North Bay, Ontario. The house, alas, has finally collapsed. 

Labels: ,

Bookmark and Share

P.M. Headlines


(USA Today): "Arizona officials seek answers after 19 firefighters die"

(Politico): "Glenn Greenwald: New bombshell coming"

(The Hill): "Conservative groups struggling to recruit candidates in key 2014 races"

(CBS News): "Morsi defiant after military's reported plan to overturn government"

(Roll Call): "Voting Rights Act puts GOP in pickle"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

Hoist on his own petard

By Carl

The problem with becoming the story rather than a part of the story is this:

Snowden has been stuck in a Moscow airport's transit zone since arriving there on June 23 from Hong Kong after releasing explosive allegations about Washington's vast global spying programme.

The 30-year-old lashed out at the United States late on Monday, accusing US officials of pressuring foreign leaders to refuse him refuge after Washington charged him with espionage for going through with his leaks.

"These are the old, bad tools of political aggression," Snowden said in a statement published by the anti-secrecy WikiLeaks group.

"Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me."

Actually, I think the purpose is to pressure you to come home and face criminal charges. Just like Daniel Ellsberg did. Just like Andrei Sakharov did in the Soviet Union. Just like Bradley Manning did.

Had you done that, stayed behind and took the heat, you could have given far more encouragement to future whistleblowers to come forward. You would have had a steadier platform to orate from.

Instead, you decided that wasn’t diva-ish enough. Meanwhile, your actions, including the leak, have done little if nothing to move the needle of public opinion. We were sheep before you revealed known facts, and we are sheep now. If anything, the backlash against you comes not from the government, but from the citizens of the United States.

And for what? You’re like the little boy in the back of the station wagon who points out the cop by the side of the road after he’s already turned on his lights and started his siren when dad is speeding. Gee…thanks for pointing that out, Captain Obvious!

You took an unnecessary risk, in other words, and then ran like a scared rabbit. And now that the trap has been snared, you don’t have a whole lot of ground to stand on here, whining about how unfair it is that your privilege to escape has been revoked. In other words, you planned to go in and steal “secrets” from the government without planning one step further down the road, there ain’t no one to blame but yourself.

Now you’ve become the story. Now any real discussion of the things you re-revealed will get lost because you’re just another fame-seeking moron look for his fifteen minutes.

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)

Bookmark and Share

Childbirth is dangerous; abortion is not

By Frank Moraes 

There is a great deal of pretending in public life. For example, people pretend to care about children who float away in balloons. But they don't really. They like the drama. But they don't know the kid or the parents. The kid is probably a brat and the parents, as we now know, are assholes. This situation is so much worse in politics. The Onion made fun of this recently in an article, "Romney Drops By To See How Down-And-Out Family He Met On Campaign Trail Doing." As we all know, "humanizing" campaign stops are about as real as the Tooth Fairy. Think: Paul Ryan cleaning pots at a soup kitchen.

But the fakery goes much deeper than that. What I most hate are claims by politicians that they are helping rather than hurting. The common argument is that we need to gut welfare programs to protect the poor from the horrors of government dependence. You see, it is those meanie liberals who want to help the poor who are really hurting them. Of course, if conservatives really wanted to help the poor, they would provide universal healthcare for the poor; they would provide good (equalized) schools; they would provide free college. Think about it on the most basic level: if conservatives wanted to help the poor, they would at least provide good food for their children. But what did the conservatives in the House of Representatives just do? The moderates voted to cut nutritional assistance. The extremists voted against this because it didn't cut enough. So I think we can reasonably conclude that when it comes to the poor, conservatives are only using claims of helping as an excuse for taking money away from them.


Read more »

Labels: , , , , , ,

Bookmark and Share

Russia codifies extreme anti-gay bigotry

By Michael J.W. Stickings

While I respect the position Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking on the whole Snowden saga, there's really nothing else I like about the guy, and more and more it looks like he and his ilk want to turn their country into a right-wing dictatorship resembing the fascist states of old. For example:

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law [on Sunday] one of the most draconian anti-gay laws on the planet.

The new law, coming only seven months before Russia is to host the Winter Olympics in Sochi, would ban anything considered pro-gay, from gay-affirmative speech, to gays holding hands in public, to even wearing rainbow suspenders.

The law also contains a provision permitting the government to arrest and detain gay, or pro-gay, foreigners for up to 14 days before they would then be expelled from the country.  That provision ought to send chills to anyone gay, lesbians, bisexual or transgender who is planning to attend or participate in the Winter Olympics.

It is now literally illegal in Russia to say that you are gay.  It is illegal to kiss your partner in public – say, after you win a gold medal.  It is illegal for a gay athlete to wear the rainbow flag.  Or even to acknowledge during an interview that they are gay – or for the foreign press to acknowledge it – unless they mention that gay sexual orientation in a negative way.

Yes, Russia makes even Texas look progressive.

Labels: , , , ,

Bookmark and Share

The truth shall set you free, Edward Snowden. Hopefully.

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Edward Snowden, stuck in Russia, keeps taking his lumps back home -- from media types who think that journalism amounts to nothing more than passing along government propaganda; from defenders of the surveillance state of all types, including the apologists on the left who are shamefully taking a stand against freedom; from Obama supporters who think the president can do no wrong and so must be right about this; from ordinary citizens who have swallowed the government's propaganda without any doubt at all.

And the U.S. -- more specifically, the Obama Administration -- is ratcheting up the pressure. Obama stupidly called him a "hacker" recently, but, then, he has proven himself time and time again to be a proponent of the national security state, a continuation of Bush-Cheney, enabling the authoritarianism that threatens American democracy and principles of liberty enshrined in the Constitution. And Biden personally intervened to try to talk Ecuador out of providing asylum to Snowden.

The latter seems to have worked. Ecuador is now saying it won't provide asylum and that helping him was a "mistake." Oh, really? Just what threats did Biden make? Or, rather, what promises did he offer in exchange for this?

Russia, for its part, continues to protect Snowden, but one wonders for how long, and at what cost. In response to Snowden's request for asylum in Russia, Putin, finding him in a tough spot (what's worse for him: driving a wedge into relations with the U.S. or appearing to bow to U.S. pressure?), said this:

If he wants to go somewhere and they accept him, please, be my guest. If he wants to stay here, there is one condition: He must cease his work aimed at inflicting damage to our American partners, as strange as it may sound from my lips.

I would say that he is doing a great service to the U.S., and it's interesting that Putin, who has been an admirable voice on the Snowden saga, chose those words, implying that Snowden may be "inflicting damage" specifically on the U.S. government ("our American partners") but not on America beyond that, and certainly not in any universal sense.

But will Snowden comply this this? He may be on the run, but he's a whistleblower, a truth-teller, a reporter of what the powers-that-be would rather remain unreported. Would he really just... stop?

Apparently he's made a request for asylum to 15 different countries. According to an official at the Russian Foreign Ministry:

In the document Snowden reiterated once again that he is not a traitor and explained his actions only by a desire to open the world's eyes on the flagrant violations by U.S. special services not only of American citizens but also citizens of European Union including their NATO allies.

I hope he finds a welcoming home. I really do. It would be awful were he to be returned to the U.S. to face nothing like a fair trial and to be held up as a traitor for having the courage to expose the flagrant transgressions of his homeland. That would be unwarranted vindication not just for Obama but for the national security state generally, allowing the American people once more to close their eyes to what is being done in their name.

For his part, Snowden issued a statement yesterday, via Wikileaks. It concludes:


In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.

I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.

This isn't just about the Obama administration, it's about what it stands for, about what it's doing. It's the national security state that is afraid -- afraid of the people, afraid of genuine democratic rule.

Be informed. Be angry. Demand constitutional government.

A lot of us stand with you, Mr. Snowden. Stay strong.

Labels: , , , , ,

Bookmark and Share

Monday, July 01, 2013

Picture this

By Carl 

It's January in the South. Two teams are gearing up to play a professional football playoff game, the semi-finals. The winner gets bragging rights to be the conference champion. The host city spent billions in taxpayer dollars on a stadium to keep the team local. Worldwide television is covering the game, Tens of thousands of live spectators and millions around the globe are watching two of the premier American football teams square off. 

Meanwhile, outside, the masses of poor residents gather. They have signs protesting the amount of money the city has spent on this spectacle, and how it could have been spent creating jobs, or feeding and housing the poor. The police move in. Teargas flies, some of it filters into the stands, causing spectators to choke.  

It would never happen here. But it did happen in Rio de Janeiro Sunday night: 

Mood changes do not come much more dramatic than the shift within two hours and four blocks near the Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday night. 

Inside that small window, one neighbourhood was choked with angry protests, clouds of teargas and volleys of rubber bullets, while a short walk away joyful crowds sang, danced and exploded in celebration at Brazil's victory in the Confederations Cup final. 

It was an odd sensation strolling from one to the other, past recently fired cartridges and fallen placards to garage forecourt TV screens where locals and police stared up together at the events on the pitch, in reality only a stone's throw or two away. 

But it also brought home the contrast between the local street and the global stadium, which has been at the heart of the remarkable events in Brazil over the past two weeks as a series of largely spontaneous, somewhat inchoate but often huge demonstrations have coincided with and overshadowed Fifa's tournament. 

The World's Game. Not a crappy little "sport" that is mass marketed to the world as the best of America (really? an actual athletic endeavor every five minutes or so punctuated, or rather punctuating, beer and truck commercials is the best we can export?) The people protesting were the very population that provided many of the players on the pitch for the Brazilian team. Brazil bills itself as “o Pais de Futebol”  -- the country of football. More than 10,000 Brazilians play the game professionally worldwide.  

And yet, the working classes protested. And protested for the entire tournament. And will protest next year when the World Cup is held in Brazil. And in 2016 when Rio hosts the Summer Olympics. 

Sports are sports. Why do Americans treat them as if they are life? 

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share

Canada Day 2013

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Happy Birthday, Canada!!!

We're 146 years old today.
 

Born in 1867...

To all my Canadian friends and family, have a safe and happy day. And to everyone else, to all of you from around the world, take a bit of time today to think of us. This is a pretty wonderful country.  

To help celebrate, here's the great Roger Doucet singing our anthem before a game of the 1978 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship, held from December 22, 1977 to January 3, 1978 in Montreal and Quebec City. This particular game was played at the old Montreal Forum, as you can tell from the Canadiens logo at center ice. (The Soviet Union won the tournament, but the leading scorer was a young kid by the name of Wayne Gretzky.)

As a hockey-crazed kid in Montreal in the '70s, I grew up with Doucet, as I did with Lafleur, Dryden, Robinson, and the other players on those incredible Canadiens teams. Going to games at the Forum with my dad (including the Stanley Cup clincher against the Rangers on May 21, 1979, when I saw the Habs carry the Cup around the ice, their fourth-straight championship) or watching Hockey Night in Canada with my family on CBC on Saturdays, it was always Doucet's magnificent voice that set the tone. To all of us who are from Montreal, there was no one like Doucet, no one who could sing an anthem quite like he could.

Labels: , , , ,

Bookmark and Share

New York Times publishes Politico-style smear job targeting Hillary Clinton right on its front page

By Michael J.W. Stickings

As far as political reporting goes, the transformation of The New York Times into another Politico -- gossipy, with a right-wing bent, regurgitating Republican talking points and otherwise kowtowing to the right-leaning Beltway establishment -- is almost complete.

Okay, okay, the Times has had problems for some time now. Remember when it was regurgitating the Bush-Cheney lies about Iraq, cheerleading the country into a disastrous war? Well, it may not be The Washington Post, which editorially has fully embraced the center-right, but the Times continues to get worse on the political reporting front.

And the connection to Politico is clearer than you might think. 

One of the Times's newest reporters, holding the lofty position of national political correspondent, is none other than Jonathan Martin, who had been at Politico for almost seven years and who was one of the key figures at that mostly wretched place.

And yesterday the Times published -- on Page A1 -- a piece by Martin that is exactly the sort of thing you'd expect to find at... Politico.

Entitled "Republicans Paint Clinton as Old News for 2016 Presidential Election" for the web version, the piece acts as a vehicle for the latest Republican line of attack on Hillary: her time is done, she's a thing of the past, she's way too old.

And just to make that clear, Martin hands the first three paragraphs to three leading Republicans, quoting each one: Romney strategist Stuart Stevens, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. The next two paragraphs reiterate this "theme," telling us what "Republican strategists and presidential hopefuls" are going to say about Hillary and stating, citing "Republican leaders," that Hillary is "vulnerable to appearing a has-been." 

Does the article then at least give us the other side? Maybe quote some Democrats leaders? Maybe something about how Hillary was both a senator and secretary state after being first lady for eight years, and before that in Arkansas, and all that after a long and successful career in law? Maybe something about how her age doesn't really have anything to do with it, about how her extensive experience actually means she's qualified to be president, about how there would be nothing odd about her becoming president at her age and with all that experience behind her, about how others have run for president and won at similar ages and also with a lot of experience behind them, like, say, Ronald Reagan?


Read more »

Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bookmark and Share

Sluts should suffer for sex

By Frank Moraes

On Friday's Real Time, Bill Maher performed a really good "New Rules." He cut right to the heart of what we all know is true. All this concern about abortion and birth control and abstinence has nothing whatsoever to do with religion or keeping people safe. It is all about making sluts pay for the sin of enjoying sex. And just look at how sexist it is. Everyone expects that men will enjoy sex. But if that happens to a woman, she needs to pay. These religious people are small-minded and evil.

Maher's rant is pretty funny:

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Global warming in perspective

By Frank Moraes

I know it's not global warming. Weather is not global warming. But here is the seven day forecast for my hometown of Santa Rosa, California: 106, 106, 106, 106, 95, 97, 91. Three days ago it was in the 60s and pouring rain.

This is not typical weather for this place at any time. The truth is that in the last decade, this area hasn't been getting as much rainfall as it normally did. I suspect that's global warming. I suspect that we will be seeing more and worse heat waves because of global warming. That's the thing about climate science. We've never been that concerned that average temperatures would go up by a couple of degrees. The big problem is extreme weather events. This five-day period of 100+ temperatures (yesterday was the same) will cause people to die unnecessarily. They don't die because it is a bit hotter on average. They die because a two-day heat wave of 99 degrees is now a five-day heat wave of 106.

The other issue, perhaps even more important, is rainfall. Hotter surface temperatures will lead to more rainfall. The problem is that all that extra rain and then some will be falling over the oceans. Agricultural areas like my hometown will be screwed -- as will all those avocado farmers in the valley. In fact, over the next hundred years, most of the really productive farm land in the United States will go away. Things are looking mighty good for Canada! (Not that they weren't anyway.) Siberia is likely to become very fertile land as well. (The reasons for this are complicated, but the main thing is that carbon radiative forcing affects polar regions much more than equatorial regions.)

Read more »

Labels: , , , ,

Bookmark and Share

Europe not terribly happy it's being spied on by the U.S.

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Germany's Der Spiegel is reporting, based on documents obtained by Edward Snowden (whom that publication calls a whistleblower, in stark contrast to the way he's being treated by the corporate U.S. media), that the NSA spied on the European Union, apparently bugging its offices in Washington and even breaking into its computer network:

The attacks on EU institutions show yet another level in the broad scope of the NSA's spying activities. For weeks now, new details about Prism and other surveillance programs have been emerging from what had been compiled by whistleblower Snowden. It has also been revealed that the British intelligence service GCHQ operates a similar program under the name Tempora with which global telephone and Internet connections are monitored.

The documents SPIEGEL has seen indicate that the EU representation to the United Nations was attacked in a manner similar to the way surveillance was conducted against its offices in Washington. An NSA document dated September 2010 explicitly names the Europeans as a "location target".

The documents also indicate the US intelligence service was responsible for an electronic eavesdropping operation in Brussels.

Understandably, the Europeans aren't amused. As President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz put it in a statement:

I am deeply worried and shocked about the allegations of US authorities spying on EU offices. If the allegations prove to be true, it would be an extremely serious matter which will have a severe impact on EU-US relations. On behalf of the European Parliament, I demand full clarification and require further information speedily from the US authorities with regard to these allegations.

Furthermore:

German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger "said if the accusations were true, it was reminiscent of the Cold War," ministry spokesman Anders Mertzlufft said, adding that the minister "has asked for an immediate explanation from the United States."

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called for a swift explanation from American authorities.

"These acts, if they are confirmed, would be absolutely unacceptable," he said in a statement.

Now, let's not pretend that such activities aren't going on on all sides. Surely the French and the Germans are engaged in espionage as well, including against the U.S.

At the same time, these new revelations -- thanks to Snowden -- are indeed concerning, and "full clarification" and "an immediate explanation" are the least the U.S. ought to provide to try to mend fences with its friends.

Because, really, would you trust the U.S. given what you know of it, knowing that there's a whole lot more you don't know?

Labels: , , , , ,

Bookmark and Share

Ernie and Bert and the meaning of marriage equality

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Here's one of the greatest magazine covers ever. In its quiet way, it its expression of love, it explains what the whole fight over same-sex marriage, over equal rights, is all about. I find it deeply moving.


Labels: , , ,

Bookmark and Share

Vienna Teng: "City Hall" -- a celebration of same-sex marriage

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Now would be a good time to post a clip of the wonderful Vienna Teng performing "City Hall," a pre-Prop 8 celebration of same-sex marriage.

It's off Vienna's 2006 album Dreaming Through the Noise (her best, in my view), and here she is performing the song at the famous Sun Studio in Nashville.

Some of the lyrics:

Outside, they're handing out
Donuts and pizza pies
For the folks in pairs in the folding chairs
My baby's lookin' so damned pretty
With those anxious eyes
Rain-speckled hair
And my ring to wear

Ten years waiting for this moment of fate
When we say the words and sign our names
If they take it away again someday
This beautiful thing won't change

Oh, me and my baby driving down
To a hilly seaside town in the rainfall
Oh, me and my baby stand in line
You've never seen a sight so fine
As the love that's gonna shine

At City Hall

The bigots are trying to take it away, even after this past week's historic Supreme Court rulings, but the country has changed, public opinion is on our side, and we're not going to let them take it away. Period.

Love shall prevail.

Labels: , , , ,

Bookmark and Share