09/21/2010 archive

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 NATO chopper crash makes 2010 deadliest year of Afghan war

by Lynne O’Donnell, AFP

51 mins ago

So it’s OK for REPUBLICANS to stab our Troops in the back to advance their bigoted, racist, anti-immigrant, anti-gay social agenda.

Not only did Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor join the Republicans, but Barack Hussein Obama and the White House DID NOTHING to lobby in support of this bill.

Why vote Democrat?  Because Republicans are worse?  You can’t prove it by results of which this White House has none.  Anyone who claims to care about electoral victory is a LIAR!

As Joe Sudbay at Americablog says-

There’s plenty of blame to go around — and I have every intention of playing the blame game.

Americablog coverage of today’s vote-

• We lost in the Senate, ‘The whole thing is a political train wreck’
• Obama complains about Dem. base, but fails to say a word about DADT repeal
• DADT repeal: Progress today or a ‘massive failure of leadership’
• Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Previously posted at Daily Kos as Six Degrees of Separation

Soldier Shares Story:

I was sent an email by a friend early in the year that the Army was going to retroactively pay me for the approximately one year I was “stop-lossed” while I was deployed to Iraq. My initial reaction was one born of experience: “This is not going to be easy, I’m never going to see this money.”

But he did…

This soldier was stop lossed during the Bush Administration. Then,

Under legislation President Obama signed into law last year, servicemen and women… whose service was extended due to ‘stop loss’ are eligible for $500 per month in retroactive pay for each month their service was extended.

Unfortunately, according to Admiral Mike McMullen, there is a lot of unclaimed money:

The Congress generously set aside $534.4 million to pay out those funds, but as of the end of last month only $219 million in claims have been paid.

You’ve all heard about the six degrees of separation.  You may not think you know a veteran who was stop lossed, but maybe your friend or your cousin or your sister does.

Help a veteran, spread the word.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Roger Cohen:  Democracy Still Matters

LONDON – One mystery of the first decade of the 21st century is the decline of democracy. It’s not that nations with democratic systems have dwindled in number but that democracy has lost its luster. It’s an idea without a glow. And that’s worrying.

I said “mystery.” Those who saw something of the blood expended through the 20th century to secure liberal societies must inevitably find democracy’s diminished appeal puzzling. But there are reasons.

The lingering wars waged partly in democracy’s name in Iraq and Afghanistan hurt its reputation, however moving images of inky-fingered voters gripped by the revolutionary notion that they could decide who governs them. Given the bloody mayhem, it was easy to portray “democracy” as a fig leaf for the West’s bellicose designs and casual hypocrisies.

Dean Baker: The Terrible Tale of the TARP Two Years Later

Two years ago, the top honchos at the Fed, Treasury and the Wall Street banks were running around like Chicken Little warning that the world was about to end. This fear mongering, together with a big assist from the elite media (i.e. NPR, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, etc.), earned the banks their $700 billion TARP blank check bailout. This money, along with even more valuable loans and loan guarantees from the Fed and FDIC, enabled them to survive the crisis they had created. As a result, the big banks are bigger and more profitable than ever.

Now, the same crew that tapped our pockets two years ago is eagerly pitching the line that their bailout was good for us. It may be the case the history books are written by the winners, but that doesn’t prevent the rest of us from telling the truth.

Joe Conason: Coalition of fear: Tea Party, the religious right and Islamophobia

At Values Voters summit, anti-Muslim paranoia connects evangelical right with secular Tea Party movement

If the leaders of the religious right aspire to join forces with the Tea Party movement, their hopes were surely encouraged by the Values Voters Summit  in Washington — where such Tea Party celebrities Michele Bachmann and Jim DeMint shared the podium with Delaware sensation Christine O’Donnell — all of whom enthusiastically blessed the proposed marriage. Certainly they have much to share in their seething fury at the President and the congressional Democrats.

Bringing together the disparate elements of the right without a charismatic and credible leader like Ronald Reagan remains a challenge, however, since many Tea Party voters are libertarians and independents who have never felt called to the battlements of the culture war. What they seem to share, aside from the perennial aversion to taxes, is a powerful instinct to stigmatize Muslims and seek confrontation with Islam.

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

September 21 is the 264th day of the year (265th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 101 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1780, during the American Revolution, American General Benedict Arnold meets with British Major John Andre to discuss handing over West Point to the British, in return for the promise of a large sum of money and a high position in the British army. The plot was foiled and Arnold, a former American hero, became synonymous with the word “traitor.”

Born in Connecticut, he was a merchant operating ships on the Atlantic Ocean when the war broke out in 1775. After joining the growing army outside Boston, he distinguished himself through acts of cunning and bravery. His actions included the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, successful defensive and delaying tactics despite losing the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in 1776, the Battle of Ridgefield, Connecticut (after which he was promoted to major general), operations in relief of the Siege of Fort Stanwix, and key actions during the pivotal Battles of Saratoga in 1777, in which he suffered leg injuries that ended his combat career for several years.

In spite of his successes, Arnold was passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress while other officers claimed credit for some of his accomplishments. Adversaries in military and political circles brought charges of corruption or other malfeasance, but he was acquitted in most formal inquiries. Congress investigated his accounts, and found that he owed it money after he had spent much of his own money on the war effort. Frustrated and bitter, Arnold decided to change sides in 1779, and opened secret negotiations with the British. In July 1780, he sought and obtained command of West Point in order to surrender it to the British. Arnold’s scheme was exposed when American forces captured British Major John André carrying papers that revealed the plot. Upon learning of André’s capture, Arnold fled down the Hudson River to the British sloop-of-war Vulture, narrowly avoiding capture by the forces of George Washington, who had been alerted to the plot.

Arnold received a commission as a brigadier general in the British Army, an annual pension of £360, and a lump sum of over £6,000. He led British forces on raids in Virginia, and against New London and Groton, Connecticut, before the war effectively ended with the American victory at Yorktown. In the winter of 1782, Arnold moved to London with his second wife, Margaret “Peggy” Shippen Arnold. He was well received by King George III and the Tories but frowned upon by the Whigs. In 1787, he entered into mercantile business with his sons Richard and Henry in Saint John, New Brunswick, but returned to London to settle permanently in 1791, where he died ten years later.

Lots of premiers if you watch broadcast.  But I don’t.  I don’t watch HBO either but if I did I could hardly escape Boardwalk Empire.

• ABC Family– Independence Day (enthralls me less and less with each viewing.  How come every alien computer can be accessed by a Mac and yet no Windows computer can?)
• AMC– Mad Max x 2 (normally I skip Gibson films because he’s a raging racist anti-semite theocrat, but this one really is a classic)
• Disney– High School Musical (I’m going to stop covering it after this because Disney is wasting a whole week on teen dancing musicals showcasing their stage mom slaves)
• ESPN– Pro Throwball, Who ‘Dat @ ‘9ers
• Food– Unwrapped (premier), America’s Best (Series Premier as far as I can tell.  Alton!  Get your wiki people on this!  Stat!), Triple D (premier)
• FX– The Transporter 2
• History– New Pawn Stars
• Lifetime– Bond of Silence
• National Geographic– How Nero Saved Rome (new, also Decoding Bible Relics and Ghost Ships of the Black Sea.  I’d look them up but it’s a pain in the ass.)
• TBS– Family Guy night
• Turner Classic– The Prowler, The Red Shoes (yes I know it’s a classic, I hate it)
• Toon– New Regular Show, MAD, Total Drama World Tour (one of the Adventure Times with Finn and Jake may be new too)
• Vs.– Bull Durham
• Travel– At least we have a Man v. Food marathon
• TV Land– When Harry Met Sally (still watchable)

Later-

• AMC– Rubicon, Mad Men (this week’s)
• Turner Classic– Shadows

Dave hosts Bill Clinton and Chromeo.  Jon has Jimmy Carter (dueling Presidents), Stephen Pavement.  Alton does Pretzels (he won’t give you the good recipe that uses lye, but you know they use lye to cure olives and lutefisk so I don’t understand what the big deal is).

Boondocks– The Lovely Ebony Brown.

Yeah, I was in the show. I was in the show for 21 days once – the 21 greatest days of my life. You know, you never handle your luggage in the show, somebody else carries your bags. It was great. You hit white balls for batting practice, the ballparks are like cathedrals, the hotels all have room service, and the women all have long legs and brains.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Intimidation and fraud claims cast shadow over Afghan poll

by Sardar Ahmad, AFP

24 mins ago