October 2010 archive

First of all they’re preening pits of political hackery dominated by Radical Racist Republicans and Moronic Teleprompter Readers none of whom have any idea what it is to be a “real” American because they’re privileged pampered  assholes.

And also we will have “insightful analysis” like this, helpfully telegraphed by Jon Walker at Firedog Lake–

I find this memo from Third Way (PDF) to be comically poorly timed. No surprise they mine any and all data points to claim the need for Democrats to move to the right, but they also claim the path to victory this November is not rallying the liberal base, but winning over the moderates-despite the fact that Democrats have already won over moderates:

…

The irony is that, right now, Democrats are facing massive losses this November and they are actually doing extremely well with self-described moderates. According to Tom Jensen at Public Policy Polling, Democrats are winning over moderates by a two-to-one margin:

…

Winning over moderates has not saved the Democratic party this year. Despite the false narrative that is almost assured to follow this election, the problem is not that the Democratic party has moved too far to the left. Voters who consider themselves moderates overwhelming prefer Democrats. The problem is that voters that support Republicans are extremely excited to vote while the Democratic party has not made the moderates and liberals that support them excited about keeping them in.

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(O)n a policy front, the country is dramatically to the left of what dominates Washington, DC, thinking. A health insurance public option, prescription drug re-importation, ending “don’t ask, don’t tell,” closing the hedge fund managers’ tax loophole-and more-all have the support of huge majorities of the American people despite the idea that these are supposedly “too leftist” to get passed by the Democratic party in Washington. Hell, a plurality of the country actually wants a distribution of wealth resembling socialist Sweden.

Almost every economist will now admit that progressives were right when they said the stimulus was too small. With 9.6 percent unemployment and jobs being the top issue for almost all voters, there should be little doubt that Democrats would be better off politically if they had been more liberal and pursued a larger stimulus. Democrats are not being punished this election for ideology, they are being punished for incompetence in the face of a economic crisis.

This Third Way memo is just the first in what is sure to be a wave of advice from corporatists about how midterms prove Democrats suffered from liberal overreach, and so need to move to the right (i.e. more tax cuts for the rich). Just remember this: moderates actually prefer Democrats to Republicans. The problem this election year is that Democrats didn’t give their supporters, regardless of ideology, a strong reason vote for them.

Well, you see normally I’d have some pretty tables below the fold laying out the Starting Grid and Standings, but it’s not like that today.  Everything got washed out and for all I know it’s still raining and the crews are still sending paper boats floating down the gutters of pit lane (which is not nearly as original as the commentators are trying to make it appear since it’s happened at least twice this season already).

There was some talk about sending them off in numerical order which would be a big advantage for Hamilton, Button, and McLaren, but I doubt the rules are really that stupid and I expect that there’s some fallback based on Practice times (again, this is not the first race where Qualifying has been threatened by inclemency and you’d think people being paid for their purported “expertise” would be a trifle less ignorant and hide their Ferrari Fanboy worship just a little better).

I expect whatever the conditions and starting order that we’ll have some racing today because Formula One doesn’t have graceful Monday fallback plans like the PGA does (not that the plans are all that graceful, you lose most of your volunteers, audience, and TV time).  Indeed it’s even more unlikely that they’ll simply scrub it because the next race in Korea is problematic too.  They just laid down the track asphalt (or McAdam as they call it in Old Blighty) and 2 weeks is about the minimum curing time for a new surface unless you wish to court Daytona Debacles (remember the 2 hour Red Flag?).

All in all this is shaping up to be the Commonwealth Games period of the Formula One season and makes me wonder just a bit if they aren’t trying to expand their franchise a little too far, too fast.  Lack of testing time has definitely hurt the quality of the cars and hasn’t introduced any competitive balance at all.  Formula One Racing is the most boring racing to watch except for the Turn Left Bumper Cars that Inbred Brain Dead Bumpkin America calls Football.

Now with Starting Grid.

Not sure where these disappeared-

• F1 Official Site
• Speed Racecast

So, how are our brackets working out?  The only team underperforming at this point is the Braves while the Rangers and Yankees are poised to close out.  Tonight’s Divisional Playoffs on TBS are Rays @ Rangers and Twins @ Yankees.

In broadcast College Throwball you have Florida State at Miami or USC at Stanford.

Starting at 11 pm Formula 1 Debrief, Japanese Grand Prix- Qualifying, Japanese Grand Prix (yup, the real live jive race- if they’re able to hold it.  mishima says it’s supposed to rain until noon.).

• AMC– Cujo, Sleepwalkers
• Bravo– House marathon
• Disney– Repeats of last night’s premiers
• Discovery– Mythbusters marathon
• ESPN– College Throwball, LSU @ Florida
• ESPN2– College Throwball, Auburn @ Kentucky
• Food– Chopped marathon
• History– Swamp People marathon
• Lifetime– Because I Said So
• Oxygen– The Wedding Planner x 2
• Sci Fi– Lake Placid 3, Monsterwolf
• Spike– Without a Paddle, Stripes
• Turner Classic– Strangers on a Train, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
• TNT– Men In Black, Squeekball- Mavericks @ Suns
• Toon– Shrek
• USA– NCIS marathon
• Vs.– College Throwball, Oregon State @ Arizona
• VH1– The Lost Boys

Later-

• AMC– Pet Sematary
• Lifetime– Project Runway (this week’s)
• Oxygen– The Perfect Man
• Sci Fi– Monster Ark
• TNT– The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
• USA– Burn Notice, 16 Blocks
• Vs.– Bull Riding (this week’s)

SNL- Jane Lynch and Bruno Mars.  GitS: SAC– Lost Heritage, Captivated (Episodes 18 and 19).

Aah, gold’s a devilish sort of thing, anyway. You start out, you tell yourself you’ll be satisfied with 25,000 handsome smackers worth of it. So help me, Lord, and cross my heart. Fine resolution. After months of sweatin’ yourself dizzy, and growin’ short on provisions, and findin’ nothin’, you finally come down to 15,000, then ten. Finally, you say, “Lord, let me just find $5,000 worth and I’ll never ask for anythin’ more the rest of my life.”

$5,000 is a lot of money.

Yeah, here in this joint it seems like a lot. But I tell you, if you was to make a real strike, you couldn’t be dragged away. Not even the threat of miserable death would keep you from trying to add 10,000 more. Ten, you’d want to get twenty-five; twenty-five you’d want to get fifty; fifty, a hundred. Like roulette. One more turn, you know. Always one more.

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Hungary village evacuated as new toxic flood ‘likely’

by Janos Gal, AFP

1 hr 28 mins ago

Welcome to the Stars Hollow Health and Fitness weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes.

Questions are encouraged and I will answer to the best of my ability. If I can’t, I will try to steer you in the right direction. Naturally, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.

For Desserts Without Gluten, Crumbles Take the Cake

Quinoa-Oat Crumble Topping

Berry-Rose Crumble

Plum and Fig Crumble With Quinoa-Oat Topping

Peach or Nectarine and Blueberry Crumble With Quinoa-Oat Topping

Pear Ginger Crumble

Apple Crumble

“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.

Eugene Robinson: Needed: Competition for Black Votes

This has been such an unpredictable political year that it’s hard to have confidence in any of the forecasts for November. How unpredictable? Well, I’d like to meet the pundit or prognosticator who imagined that a major-party candidate for the U.S. Senate would begin a campaign ad by declaring, “I’m not a witch.”

Christine O’Donnell’s sorcery problem aside, there’s one thing I can say with confidence about next month’s midterm election: African-Americans will vote overwhelmingly for Democratic Party candidates at every level. This is perfectly rational political behavior-but in many ways it’s a shame.

Don’t misunderstand. I’m firmly convinced that the progressive agenda championed by the Democrats is much better for African-Americans, and for the nation as a whole, than the conservative agenda favored by Republicans. But I also believe that in politics, as in business, competition is good. Monopolies inevitably take their customers for granted.

David Sirota: Follow Wyoming on Fracking Regs

To review: Wyoming is as politically red and pro-fossil-fuel a place as exists in America. Nicknamed the “Cowboy State” for its hostility to authority, the square swath of rangeland most recently made headlines when its tax department temporarily suspended levies at gun shows for fear of inciting an armed insurrection. The derrick-scarred home of oilman Dick Cheney, the state emits more carbon emissions per capita than any other, and is as close as our country gets to an industry-owned energy colony.

So, to put it mildly, Wyoming is not known for its activist government or its embrace of green policies.

But that changed last month when Wyoming officials enacted first-in-the-nation regulations forcing energy companies to disclose the compounds they use in a drilling technique called “fracking.”

From an ecological standpoint, fracking is inherently risky. Looking to pulverize gas-trapping subterranean rock, drillers inject poisonous solvents into the ground-and often right near groundwater supplies. That raises the prospect of toxins leaking into drinking water-a frightening possibility that prompted Wyoming’s regulatory move. Indeed, state officials acted after learning that various local water sources were contaminated by carcinogens linked to fracking.

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

October 9 is the 282nd day of the year (283rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 83 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1967, socialist revolutionary and guerilla leader Che Guevara, age 39, is killed by the Bolivian army. The U.S.-military-backed Bolivian forces captured Guevara on October 8 while battling his band of guerillas in Bolivia and assassinated him the following day. His hands were cut off as proof of death and his body was buried in an unmarked grave. In 1997, Guevara’s remains were found and sent back to Cuba, where they were reburied in a ceremony attended by President Fidel Castro and thousands of Cubans.

Ernesto “Che” Guevara (June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as El Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat, military theorist, and major figure of the Cuban Revolution. Since his death, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol and global insignia within popular culture.

As a medical student, Guevara traveled throughout Latin America and was transformed by the endemic poverty he witnessed. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region’s ingrained economic inequalities were an intrinsic result of capitalism, monopolism, neocolonialism, and imperialism, with the only remedy being world revolution. This belief prompted his involvement in Guatemala’s social reforms under President Jacobo Arbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow solidified Guevara’s radical ideology. Later, while living in Mexico City, he met Raul and Fidel Castro, joined their 26th of July Movement, and travelled to Cuba aboard the yacht, Granma, with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to second-in-command, and played a pivotal role in the successful two year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime.

Following the Cuban Revolution, Guevara performed a number of key roles in the new government. These included instituting agrarian reform as minister of industries, serving as both national bank president and instructional director for Cuba’s armed forces, reviewing the appeals and firing squads for those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals, and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban socialism. Such positions allowed him to play a central role in training the militia forces who repelled the Bay of Pigs Invasion and bringing to Cuba the Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles which precipitated the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Additionally, he was a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal manual on guerrilla warfare, along with a best-selling memoir about his youthful motorcycle journey across South America. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad, first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia, where he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and executed.

Guevara remains both a revered and reviled historical figure, polarized in the collective imagination in a multitude of biographies, memoirs, essays, documentaries, songs, and films. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, while an Alberto Korda photograph of him entitled “Guerrillero Heroico”, was declared “the most famous photograph in the world.”

Gunmen in Pakistan torch nearly 30 NATO fuel tankers

 Attacks continue as Khyber Pass border crossing remains closed

By Gul Yusufzai

msnbc.com news services

QUETTA, Pakistan – Gunmen in southwestern Pakistan set fire to nearly 30 tankers carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan on Saturday, an official said.

The attack came two days after the United States apologized to Pakistan for an air raid that killed two Pakistani soldiers and which led Pakistan to close the famous Khyber Pass border crossing.

You know they’re guilty, your government said so–

Why, then, does the Obama administration seek to prosecute him in federal court? One answer might be that trials permit punishment, including the death penalty. But the Justice Department is not seeking the death penalty against Mr. Ghailani. Another answer is that trials “give vent to the outrage” over attacks on civilians, as Judge Kaplan has put it. This justification for the trial is diminished, however, by the passage of 12 years since the crimes were committed.

The final answer, and the one that largely motivates the Obama administration, is that trials are perceived to be more legitimate than detention, especially among civil libertarians and foreign allies.

…

But Mr. Ghailani and his fellow detainees at Guantánamo Bay are a different matter. The Ghailani case shows why the administration has been so hesitant to pursue criminal trials for them: the demanding standards of civilian justice make it very hard to convict when the defendant contests the charges and the government must rely on classified information and evidence produced by aggressive interrogations.

A further problem with high-stakes terrorism trials is that the government cannot afford to let the defendant go. Attorney General Eric Holder has made clear that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the 9/11 plotter, would be held indefinitely in military detention even if acquitted at trial. Judge Kaplan said more or less the same about Mr. Ghailani this week. A conviction in a trial publicly guaranteed not to result in the defendant’s release will not be seen as a beacon of legitimacy.

The government’s reliance on detention as a backstop to trials shows that it is the foundation for incapacitating high-level terrorists in this war. The administration would save money and time, avoid political headaches and better preserve intelligence sources and methods if it simply dropped its attempts to prosecute high-level terrorists and relied exclusively on military detention instead.

Well, it’s no secret I think Webber should have been black flagged at Singapore.  I haven’t seen a clearer violation since Piquet drove into the wall.  Even the talking heads are having a hard time excusing it.

McLaren has a bunch of fiddly new aero bits that kept Hamilton off the track during much of practice (well, and parking it so they all had to be replaced).  Even with only 3 races left (they’re highly uncertain about Korea) Lew has a chance to get back into it being a mere 20 points behind and all.  All you fucking Ferrari fanatics talking about Alonso’s 50 point surge should remember it only took 2 races to do. so shut your chain smoking Marlboro UPC yaps you losers.

Suzuka is considered a high downforce track so grip will be critical.  Qualifying will be replayed on Speed starting with Formula One Debrief (which I’m watching right now) at 11 pm and the race at 1 am, followed by the debrief again at 4 am and a race repeat at 2:30 pm Saturday.

If I seem a little crankier than usual it’s the lack of sleep.