March 2011
97 posts
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Another Dumb Thing Republicans Did Today →
From the St. Petersburg Times:
During last week’s discussion about a bill that would prohibit governments from deducting union dues from a worker’s paycheck, state Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando, used his time during floor debate to argue that Republicans are against regulations — except when it comes to the little guys, or serves their specific interests.
At one point...
GOP Rep. Tom Marino On Libya: ‘Where Does It Stop?... →
pantslessprogressive:
Looks like someone is stricken with Fox News Geography Syndrome.
#facepalm
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Cantor's not dumb, he's flanking the Speaker
As the April 8 deadline for the U.S. federal budget nears, it’s looking increasingly likely that a government shutdown is all but inevitable. We’re getting mixed messages, to be sure: While Vice Pres. Joe Biden has suggested, after recently meeting with Senate Democrats, that progress is being made at the negotiating table, a large bloc of conservative voters – notably those who march under the...
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Not All Interventions Are the Same →
Jim Arkedis explains — very slowly — the differences between neoconservative war hawks and pro-intervention liberals.
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Enough with the "Nuclear phase-out" talk
On NPR’s Talk of the Nation yesterday, a panel discussed how America might phase out nuclear power generation in light of the disaster in Japan. I’m sorry, but I can’t abide this frame.
If we’re going to talk about “phasing out” electricity generation methods because of the level of risk, it’s meaningless to have a discussion that does not take into...
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OMG SHARIA JUST STOPPED CREEPING AND TOOK A FLYING... →
motherjones:
Orrrr, as MJ’s Tim Murphy points out, a Florida judge just proved that you can respect Muslim customs in a court scene without a stoning suddenly breaking out.
In other news, the boogeyman is not real.
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Watchpantslessprogressive:
mediaite:
Pat Buchanan, noted idiot, explains that those pesky female emotions are to blame for war in Libya.
PP: That’s right, Pat! Being a woman has everything to do with the decision to intervene in Libya! Gee, we can never function based on intellect, skill and years of experience. It’s all about our lady-emotions!
I wonder where old fossil-lips got that idea. Oh...
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A Roundup of Rational Thought on the Legality of...
- by Ian Boudreau
While Republican senators like Jeff Sessions of Alabama usually never pass up an opportunity to criticize President Barack Obama, Sessions found himself unable March 20 on Meet the Press to answer in the affirmative when host David Gregory asked him if the president should have gone to Congress before committing troops to the United Nations interdiction effort in Libya against...
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EPA: Radiation Monitors Continue to Confirm That...
Press Release WASHINGTON – During a detailed analysis of four west coast RadNet air monitor filters, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified trace amounts of radioactive iodine, cesium, and tellurium consistent with the Japanese nuclear incident. These levels are consistent with the levels found by a Department of Energy monitor last week and are to be expected in the coming...
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“The choice was to bear witness to an atrocity, or to end it. President Obama...”
– D.B. Grady, in his Atlantic article, “War in Libya: Why We Had No Choice.”
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“Obama’s pusillanimity has been hugely magnified by the contrast with the women...”
– Mark Krikorian, posting on National Review Online’s “Corner” blog. This is what passes for intellectual argument at the nation’s conservative publication of record.
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Coal burning estimated to have killed 13,200... →
The Clean Air Task Force’s 2010 report, “The Toll From Coal.” It kind of puts this ridiculous nuclear fearmongering into perspective.
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“I think the worst part of the song is a five-way tie between the lyrics, music,...”
– Matthew Grosinger of Nerdist.com, commenting on YouTube sensation Rebecca Black’s song “Friday,” which may very well be the worst thing in the history of things.
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GATHER YOUR FLUORIDE TABLETS AND SHOTGUN SHELLS. →
motherjones:
SHARRON ANGLE’S BACK.
The weirdest part of this story is that Angle is referred to as a “heavyweight.” Really? I seem to recall her snatching defeat from the jaws of victory last November.
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“Japan’s nuclear crisis has sparked panic buying of iodine pills in the...”
– Al-Jazeera English, Live Blog of the crisis in Japan
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My guest post for Mashrabiyya
I wrote this for @s_a_cosgrove’s blog, Mashrabiyya, as part of her series on Women’s History Month. I’m not the usual type tapped for contributions on women’s issues, but I think it’s an apt time to point out that women’s rights - or lack thereof - is an issue that affects everyone.
Women’s History Month - A Half-Time Speech
If in the past we men have...
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A guest post I wrote on Women's History Month →
Thanks to @s_a_cosgrove for the invite to guest-blog on Mashrabiyya!
All Things Nuclear: Reactor Core Cooling →
allthingsnuclear:
Days after a severe earthquake and tsunami affected the nuclear power reactors at the Fukushimi Dai-Ichi nuclear plant in Japan, there continue to be problems cooling the reactor cores.
The reactors operating at the time of the earthquake shut down very shortly afterward. However, heat in the…
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Slate: House Republicans' defense of DOMA will be... →
Heightened scrutiny is required when the target group has experienced a “history of purposeful unequal treatment or been subjected to unique disabilities on the basis of stereotyped characteristics.” And the legislative history conservatives will be unspooling explicitly reveals that Congress intended to disadvantage homosexuals: “Closely related to the interest in promoting...
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Lots of room
Here are the names from the CPAC 2012 straw poll ballot last month. I’m going to cross out the ones who are silly or who have blown their chances at winning the nomination.
Michele Bachmann
Haley Barbour
Chris Christie
Mitch Daniels
Newt Gingrich
Mike Huckabee
Sarah Palin
Jon Huntsman
Gary Johnson
Ron Paul
Tim Pawlenty
Mitt Romney
Rick Santorum
John Thune
Apparently Donald Trump has flirted...
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Radiation 1,000 times higher than normal detected... →
The amount of radiation reached around 1,000 times the normal level Saturday in the control room of the No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.
The discovery suggests radioactive steam could spread around the facility operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co.
This is very, very bad.
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Snap analysis: Japan may have hours to prevent... →
Tokyo Electric Power Co is racing to cool down the reactor core after a highly unusual “station blackout” — the total loss of power necessary to keep water circulating through the plant to prevent overheating. […]
That caused Tepco to declare an emergency and the government to evacuate thousands of people from near the plant. Such a blackout is “one of the most serious conditions that can...
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An ideological quest against Islam
“[T]he Muslims coming in here will keep growing in numbers and override our system of law and impose sharia law.”
— Jim Daniel, former county Republican Party Chairman, Murfreesboro, Tenn.
“I believe Sharia is a mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and in the world as we know it. … I think it’s that straightforward and that real.”
— Newt...
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Reuters: Illinois governor signs death penalty ban →
This is a big deal.
The governor of Illinois signed a law on Wednesday ending capital punishment, saying it was impossible to fix a system that wrongly condemned 20 men who were later found to be innocent.
