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The Confluence
Thursday Mid-Morning News and Views
6 hours 49 min ago
Hello Conflucians!!!
Things must be really bad in Obot land these days, because TC is starting to get more trolls dropping in–reminders of the old days. They still think we’re “bitter,” too.
janeandpaul, on July 29, 2010 at 12:59 am Said: Edit Comment
oh please…keep up your petty vindictive judgements. you are worse than those you condemn on The View – and you wonder why some called you all bitter during the primaries?
if you think this is a cheap gesture why are you even bothering to comment on it? just cannot leave him alone can you?
Poor “Jane” doesn’t even have her own separate identity on the internet.
But enough hilarity, what’s in the news today? Well, the National Archives unveiled a collection of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s papers, including some donated by Roosevelt’s secretary Grace Tully.
Tully worked for Roosevelt for four years in Albany while he served as governor of New York and moved to the nation’s capital when he took office as president.
It was Tully who took Roosevelt’s dictation after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 for his speech describing Japan’s secret attack as a “day of infamy.”
Among the nine documents in her collection made public Wednesday is a 1933 handwritten letter from Italy’s Benito Mussolini to Roosevelt expressing his hope to someday “discuss the outstanding world problems in which the United States and Italy are mutually interested.”
Another is a 1935 note from Roosevelt to Works Progress Administrator Harry Hopkins, asking him to hire 280,000 Americans to make overalls and other clothing on a project that would provide work for the unemployed and increase cotton prices. It ends with four exclamation points.
Other papers in the collection came from FDR himself and from his other chief secretary, Marguerite Lehand.
It’s interesting to see how the major mainstream newspapers play this story. The Washington Post emphasizes a letter from FDR’s mistress Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd shortly before FDR’s death, while The New York Times uses this opportunity to embarrass the Kennedy family by highlighting Joseph P. Kennedy’s opposition to the war against Hitler. I wonder, has the NYT ever written about the Bush family’s monetary support of the Third Reich?
Back in 2010, fif linked to this NY Daily News story on the previous thread:
Bam’s coalition is imploding: Women, white men, Jews, even Hispanics are abandoning President Obama
A Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted this month reveals that only 40% of whites approve of the job the President is doing. Worse yet, these cracks have penetrated his own base: Among white Democrats, approval on the economy is down since April from 80% to 60%.
Dig deeper and the polling points to another ominous sign: Obama’s approval with white college-educated females has dipped below 50% for the first time in his presidency. Tasked with making household budget decisions, women are skeptical of the President’s health care plan and disappointed in our economic outlook. This explains Obama’s effort to woo the women of “The View.” It also explains his administration’s backing of an equal-pay bill in Congress – the rallying cry of bra-burning feminists. But don’t expect them to buy it. Talk is cheap.
Jewish and Hispanic voters are also abandoning Obama, according to the poll.
But the largest and perhaps most telling dip in support is among independents – a key factor in his 2008 win. His approval with them is a mere 38%, with spending and deficits cited as the primary issue of concern. It’s because of them that campaigns fight so hard for the middle, and without the backing of this bloc it’s unlikely Obama will be awarded a second term.
Bra-burning feminists? Isn’t that reference a little out of date? I think many women are probably angry about Obama’s banning insurance coverage of abortions, don’t you?
Speaking of people who are serious about women’s rights, someone (I’m sorry I lost track of whom) posted this story in comments yesterday: The persistence of Hillary
…Clinton, who was supposed to ignite the flames of conservatives’ hatred, is becoming more popular every day across the political spectrum. Her hawkish foreign policy views gain her support on the right, and her well-known views on domestic policy keep the home fires burning on the left. The two fields intersect in one of the areas where she displays the greatest passion, her signature foreign- policy issue: the need to empower women in poor countries in order to transform the world.
Nobody has worked more successfully to advance this vision and put it into practice. Since she electrified an audience in Beijing in 1995, declaring that “it is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights,” her run for the presidency and her time as America’s top diplomat has helped girls everywhere aim higher and forced oppressors of women to deal with a woman if they want to speak with America. Her town-hall meetings around the world promote America’s values and human rights.
Clinton, whose approval ratings easily surpass those of the president and the vice president, has acted as something of a bad cop to Obama’s good cop. It’s impossible to know how much of what she says is directed by the White House and how much is her personal message.
In the ongoing catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, BP is making every effort to conceal how much oil has spewed out of their damaged well, and the MSM seems to be trying to help with the cover-up. There have been a number of stories claiming that it’s getting hard to find any oil on the surface of the Gulf or on the beaches. Somehow these “reporters” seem to have forgotten the huge underwater plumes of oil created by BP’s massive applications of Corexit and other poisonous chemicals in their attempts of hide the damage they have done.
From MacMcClelland at Mother Jones: Mainstream Media Helps BP Pretend There’s No Oil
“WASHINGTON (AFP) – With BP’s broken well in the Gulf of Mexico finally capped, the focus shifts to the surface clean-up and the question on everyone’s lips is: where is all the oil?”
I don’t know who the fuck these everyones are, but I’m happy to help out them, and ABC, and this AFP reporter writing that due to BP’s stunningly successful skimming and burning efforts, “the real difficulty now is finding any oil to clean up.”
I sent one text message to Bloomberg’s Lizzie O’Leary, who’s standing on Grand Isle, Louisiana, right now, asking how the beach looks. “Lower part past the barrier untouched with globs of oil that washed up last night,” she said. By “untouched,” she means by cleanup crews, and that “barrier” she’s talking about is the one the press isn’t allowed past. I sent another text to Drew Wheelan, who’s also in Southwestern Louisiana, doing bird surveys for the American Birding Association, asking him how big the biggest tar mat on Grand Terre—the scene of those now famous horrifying oiled-bird photos—is. “20 feet by 15,” he said. “But bigger ones submerged slightly.”
If I managed to find that much oil with my BlackBerry without getting dressed or leaving the house, let’s hope Thad Allen, who is quoted in the article as saying, “What we’re trying to figure out is where is all the oil at and what can we do about it,” can locate some more with the staff and craft of the United States Coast Guard at his disposal.
Thank you, Mac. At least one mainstream source is asking the right questions. From the Washington Post: Majority of spilled oil in Gulf of Mexico unaccounted for in government data
Up to 4 million barrels (167 million gallons), the vast majority of the spill, remains unaccounted for in government statistics. Some of it has, most likely, been cleaned up by nature. Other amounts may be gone from the water, but they could have taken on a second life as contaminants in the air, or in landfills around the Gulf Coast.
And some oil is still out there — probably mixed with chemical dispersants. Some scientists have described it floating in underwater clouds, which one compared to a toxic fog.
“That stuff’s somewhere,” said James H. Cowan Jr., a professor at Louisiana State University. His research has shown concentrations of oil still floating miles from the wellhead. “It’s going to be with us for a while. I’m worried about some habitats being exposed chronically to low concentrations of toxins. . . . If the water’s contaminated, the animals are going to be contaminated.”
This weekend, BP is going to try again to kill the well from hell. Commander Thad Allen will be meeting with New Orleans parish presidents today to discuss future plans in the event engineers are successful in putting a stake through the heart of the Macondo well:
The Obama administration is trying to make it even easier for the FBI to spy on our e-mails and other internet activities:
The administration wants to add just four words — “electronic communication transactional records” — to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge’s approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user’s browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the “content” of e-mail or other Internet communication.
But what officials portray as a technical clarification designed to remedy a legal ambiguity strikes industry lawyers and privacy advocates as an expansion of the power the government wields through so-called national security letters. These missives, which can be issued by an FBI field office on its own authority, require the recipient to provide the requested information and to keep the request secret. They are the mechanism the government would use to obtain the electronic records.
Gee, I wonder why President Obama has gotten the nickname “Bush III”?
So what are you reading this morning? Please share your links in the comments, and have a terrific Thursday!!!!
Filed under: abuse of executive power, Barack Obama, broken promises, Failbots Tagged: abortion, Barack Obama, BP oil gusher, domestic spying, FBI, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hillary Clinton, MacMcClelland, mainstream media lies, National Archives, obama administration, Obot trolls, Thad Allen, Women's Rights
Categories: Our Friends
Breaking News from “The View” – Obama Not Invited to Chelsea Clinton’s Wedding
Wed, 07/28/2010 - 10:14pm
The big question the women on The View had for President Obama today? they all wanted to know if he would be going to Chelsea Clinton’s wedding.
Obama started out by joking, “You don’t want two presidents at one wedding! All the secret service, guests going through (metal detectors), all the gifts being torn apart …”
Then host Barbara Walters asked directly if he was even invited to the nuptials, which are being held in upstate New York this weekend. The president said no.
“I was not invited to the wedding,” he said. “because I think Hillary and Bill, properly, want to keep this thing for Chelsea and her soon-to-be husband.”
Well….I suppose that *could* be the reason.
Clinton, 30, will wed investment banker Marc Mezvinsky on Saturday in Rhinebeck, New York, at Astor Courts, a secluded estate along the Hudson River built as a Beaux Arts style playground for John Jacob Astor IV more than a century ago. The estate features the sort of commanding view that once inspired Hudson River School painters, as well as 50 acres of buffer space to shield the party from prying eyes. [....]
The Hudson Valley News reports that other people that might attend the wedding are Barbara Streisand, Steven Spielberg, Ted Turner, former Clinton adviser Harold Ickes and former DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe.
Former Vice President Al Gore will not be attending, according to the New York Daily News.
This is an open thread.
Filed under: Barack Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton Tagged: "pimped out", Barack Obama, Chelsea Clinton, David Shuster, The View, wedding
Categories: Our Friends
31 Days of Action
Wed, 07/28/2010 - 1:10pmCheck it out. Help end violence against women worldwide.
Women Thrive Worldwide presents the 31 Days of Action—a grassroots campaign intended to push Congress to pass the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA). Watch the video. Get inspired. Take action. Visit us at: www.womenthrive.org.
Find more videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/WomenThriveWorldwide
Information from Amnesty International.
Information from UNIFEM.
Information from the Bill’s Sponsors SEN. JOHN F. KERRY & REP. BILL DELAHUNT & KERRY KENNEDY & LARRY COX via Politico.
IVAWA will support innovative programs that challenge public attitudes and cultural practices that perpetuate and condone violence against women and girls. In settings where women are prevented or discouraged from seeking justice, IVAWA will support training for police and judicial officials on countering violence against women and respecting the rights of victims. It will allow long-term prevention efforts such as increasing women’s economic security, expanding access to jobs and education, and engaging men to change behaviors and attitudes. Societies in which women are able to live and function in relative safety, empowered to realize their aspirations and move their communities forward are healthier, better developed, and more stable. Societies that take measures to deter discrimination and violence against women are better equipped to root out terrorism, less prone to conflict, and therefore more secure.
This isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s in our own interests. Investing in women makes sense because when they are safe and free to earn a living they invest in education and grow economies – making U.S. assistance dollars go farther. And, U.S. security benefits from the elevated status of women. The Joint Chiefs of Staff recently stated that one of the most effective forces for defeating extremism is female education. IVAWA will help make this possible
Filed under: General, Violence against Women
Categories: Our Friends
The Nutroots Are Nuts
Wed, 07/28/2010 - 7:10am Ian Welsh violates the “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” rule with an eyewitness report from Netroots Nation:
I had a good time in Vegas, so I didn’t spend a huge amount of time at NN, but I did spend enough time to take in the mood, and it was schizophrenic. About half the people there are some combination of angry, disappointed and bitter with Democrats in general and Obama in particular. This group sees him as not a heck of a lot better than George Bush, and in fact the Democrat who extended some of Bush’s worst policies, especially in civil liberties. This includes a lot of feminists (angry at what they see as betrayals on abortion), many Hispanics angry at the continued harsh enforcement of immigration laws, gays who feel Obama has betrayed clear promises on gay rights, anti-war activists saddened by escalation in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and a mishmash of folks who think health care reform was a dog’s breakfast and that the general way the economy and financial reform has been handled is a disgrace.
Then there are the folks who would characterize themselves, in general, as hard nosed pragmatists and “realists”. These range from the “Obama is the greatest liberal president since FDR” types, who think that the Obama is just wonderful and those progressives and liberals who don’t agree are simply delusional to those who feel that a lot of what he’s done has been watered down pap in general but that it’s certainly better than nothing and that those who are disappointed are unrealistic idealists who simply don’t understand the constraints Obama and Congressional Democrats are working under.
Apparently those of us in the “we told you so” contingent didn’t receive our invitations. Or maybe we threw them out with the spam we still get from the DNC, MoveOn and all the other crooks and sell-outs.
There’s a lot more at Ian’s blog, and don’t skip the comment thread. (Obama’s Troll Army has been recalled to duty)
Filed under: General
Categories: Our Friends
Is Nature Trying To Tell Us Something?
Tue, 07/27/2010 - 8:01pm
Oiled Canadian Goose in Calhoun County, Michigan
Here we go again. Last night there was another massive oil spill, this time in Michigan near the Kalamazoo River. Michigan Oil Spill May Be Largest In History Of Midwest
Crews along the Kalamazoo River in Michigan were busy Tuesday skimming oil and placing booms to prevent further damage from what is likely the largest oil spill in the history of the Midwest.
More than 800,000 gallons of oil made its way into the river on Monday, the result of a leak from a pipeline belonging to Enbridge Energy Partners that runs crude oil between Canada and the United States.
Enbridge President Patrick Daniel said Tuesday that the company has already placed booms along the banks of the rivers and as far away as 16 miles downstream from the spill to try to contain the oil.
The pipeline ruptured Monday, spilling oil into Talmadge Creek, which feeds the Kalamazoo River near Battle Creek, Mich.
As you can see in the photo above, the spill is already impacting wildlife; and there are concerns that toxic chemicals may end up in drinking water. Long-term spill effects concern health officials
An oil spill considered one of the largest in Michigan history is expected to have lasting consequences for underground water contamination, Health Officer Jim Rutherford of the Calhoun County Public Health Department said this morning.
“It’s not going to show up right now, but over time there is a real possibility that it will leach into the water supply,” Rutherford said. “I think it’s inevitable that, with as much as has leaked, that it will get into the water supply.”
Meanwhile down in the Gulf of Mexico: New spill in Gulf area after barge crashes into abandoned oil well
An abandoned oil well is leaking into a Louisiana bay about 35 miles south of New Orleans after a barge crashed into the well head early Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
A 1-mile-long sheen of oil from the new spill has been detected in the northwest corner of Barataria Bay, a delicate wetland area crisscrossed by a network of canals cut over the years by oil and gas companies.
“The pipeline well head is discharging a mist of orange and brown oil about 100 feet in the air,” Gov. Bobby Jindal said. He added that the Coast Guard was sending response teams to the site.
The collision near Bayou St. Denis occurred at about 1 a.m. when a dredge barge pulled by a tug vessel hit the orphaned well, owned by Houston-based Cedyco Corp.
Are you scared yet? As the following article makes clear, this problem of toxic spills from oil rigs and pipelines is a nationwide and world-wide issue.
Second Spill in the Gulf: State Dept. Delays Tar Sands Decision
Man nearly drowns in oil after pipeline explosions in China
Today, emergency response teams in the gulf are torn between two disasters: the ongoing cleanup of the BP disaster and a new oil geyser spewing into the Gulf near Jefferson Parish, LA. In Michigan, teams are still working to contain a spill from a ruptured pipe that threatens the Kalamazoo River. Horrifying images are emerging from China, where an emergency worker nearly drowned in oil while working to contain a spill that now covers over 150 square miles off the coast of China.
At the same time as these pipelines are spewing toxic oil into bodies of water around the country and around the globe, the State Department has pushed back its decision on permitting the Keystone XL project, a huge pipeline carrying extraordinarily toxic tar sands oil from Canada down to the gulf coast. On its proposed 1700-mile path, this pipe crosses over numerous bodies of water and productive farmland, and, were a spill to occur, could contaminate the largest aquifer in the Great Plains.
And then there are the escalating health concerns in the Gulf Coast states. Since this is Tinfoil Hat Tuesday, I might as well post this article from the Baltimore Chronicle that summarizes health warnings from a number of researchers and activists: Growing Health Crisis in the Gulf
The combination of millions of gallons of oil and dispersants has made large areas of the Gulf toxic and dangerous, marine toxicologist Ricki Ott saying if she lived there with children she’d leave – based on her firsthand experience after the 1989 Prince William Sound, Alaska Exxon Valdez disaster and subsequent research, documented in her books titled, “Sound Truth & Corporate Myth$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill” and “Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.” [....]
Geologist Chris Landau [told] Petroleum World that “BP has drilled into a deep-core oil volcano that cannot be stopped, regardless of the horizontal drills the company claims will stop the oil plume in August.”
Ocean Energy Institute Founder Matthew Simmons [told] Bloomberg we’ve killed the Gulf of Mexico – its $2.2 trillion economy by depleting oxygen, decimating aquatic life and poisoning the food chain. We’ve also created a public health crisis, problems showing up first in cleanup workers experiencing dizziness, fainting, nausea, nosebleeds, vomiting, coughing, headaches, stomach upset, and difficulty breathing, compounded by heat, fatigue, hydrocarbon smell, and combined toxicity of oil and dispersants.
Besides other toxins, crude oil contains benzene, in even small amounts associated with leukemia, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, other serious blood and immune system diseases, ventricular fibrillation, congestive gastritis, toxic gastritis, pyloric stenosis, myalgia, kidney damage, skin irritation and burns, swelling and edema, vascular congestion in the brain, and lethal central nervous system depression among others, depending on length and degree of exposure.
The EPA’s safe level is 4 parts per billion (ppb), yet Gulf levels reach or top 3,000, smelled hundreds of miles away, meaning residents inhaling fumes are ingesting dangerous toxins, raising their risk for serious future health problems, some potentially lethal.
There’s lots more scary stuff in that article, which admittedly may be a bit over the top. But this sounds legit: BP says top kill mud was toxic: Tony Hayward testimony may now be perjury
Congressman Ed Markey revealed that a BP official recently confirmed that the top kill drilling mud contained lye and ethylene glycol – both toxic. According to NBC News, “ BP used tens of thousands of barrels to try to close the gusher back in May. Most if not all of that drilling mud went into the Gulf.”
Oil Industry expert Bob Cavnar told MSNBC that someone who has been in the oil business for as long as Hayward has, had to know about the mud’s toxicity. With BP’s confirmation that it was indeed toxic, Hayward has now been exposed as possibly having committed perjury before the Senate inquiry committee.
Nice.
This article is from the generally reliable Christian Science Monitor: Gulf oil spill: Could ‘toxic storm’ make beach towns uninhabitable?
Fears about ecological damage have dominated concerns around the spill, which began when the Deepwater Horizon rig, leased by BP, exploded on April 20, killing 11 people. The rig sank two days later and oil began rushing into the open Gulf.
But if a Gulf hurricane whips the toxic rusty mousse hovering offshore onto land, the impact on human communities and health could become a focal point. At the very least, return for residents could take much longer, potentially forcing dissolution, residents fear, of entire island, bay and river communities along the densely populated Gulf Coast.
That scenario is part of what’s driving frustration among many local officials on the Gulf, who want a more concerted and ramped-up skimming effort by the BP-Coast Guard Unified Command in New Orleans.
Toxic storms?! Yes, I’d say nature is sending us a message loud and clear. Is anyone in the Obama administration paying attention?
Filed under: Barack Obama, Worst President Ever Tagged: BP oil gusher, Corexit, Michigan oil spill, second Gulf oil spill, tinfoil hat tuesday, toxic mud, toxic storms
Categories: Our Friends