05/01/2011 archive

May 01 2011

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 British, Italian missions torched as Kadhafi son killed

by W.G. Dunlop, AFP

8 mins ago

TRIPOLI (AFP) – Demonstrators torched British and Italian diplomatic buildings in Tripoli on Sunday, after Libya accused NATO of trying to assassinate Moamer Kadhafi in an attack that killed one of his sons and three young grandchildren.

And the port in the besieged rebel-held city of Misrata was set ablaze in a deadly bombardment by forces loyal to the Libyan strongman, witnesses said.

Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli that the house of Kadhafi’s second-youngest son, Seif al-Arab, “was attacked tonight with full power.

May 01 2011

Rant of the Week: Seth Meyers

Seth Meyers, the head writer for Saturday Night Live, hosted the White House Correspondents Dinner, taking on everyone from Wil-i-am to the Donald and the President of the United States who was LHAO and watch The Donald, he does not look pleased.

White House Correspondents’ dinner: Seth Meyers mocks C-SPAN, Obama, James O’Keefe.

And then there is Thers.

Special

May 01 2011

On This Day In History May 1

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

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

Click on images to enlarge

May 1 is the 121st day of the year (122nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 244 days remaining until the end of the year.

   

On this day in 1786, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro premieres in Vienna

By 1786, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was probably the most experienced and accomplished 30-year-old musician the world has ever seen, with dozens of now-canonical symphonies, concertos, sonatas, chamber works and masses already behind him. He also had 18 operas to his name, but none of those that would become his most famous. Over the final five years of his life (he died in 1791), Mozart would compose four operas that are among the most important and popular in the standard repertoire. This remarkably productive period of creative, critical and popular success for Mozart began with Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), which received its world premiere in Vienna, Austria, on May 1, 1786.

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May 01 2011

Punting the Pundits: Sunday Preview Edition

“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.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

The Sunday Talking Heads:

This Week with Christiane Amanpour: Ms. Amanpour will have an exclusive with Rep. Ron Paul (R-WI) and her round table guests will be ABC News’ George Will, Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post, former Reagan budget director David Stockman, and Chrystia Freeland of Thomson-Reuters debating the Ryan plan and what the country needs to do to get back on firm financial footing.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Mr Schieffer’s guests Sen. John McCain, (R-AZ), Gov. Robert Bentley, (R-AL), Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson and

Georgetown University’s Michael Eric Dyson will discuss the Alabama storms, Syria and Obama’s birth certificate.

Sheesh, the MSM needs to stop talking about CT’s.

The Chris Matthews Show: This week’s guests Howard Fineman, The Huffington Post Senior Political Editor, Kelly O’Donnell, NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent, Gloria Borger, CNN Senior Political Analyst and Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune Columnist who will discuss:

Is Racism Behind Attacks On President Obama’s Qualifications?

How Has President Obama Changed The Job Description?

Meet the Press with David Gregory: NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) grant exclusive interviews. Virginia Governor and Vice-Chairman of the Republican Governor’s Association, Bob McDonnell (R-VA), and Former White House Senior Advisor, David Axelrod discuss the 2012 Republican Presidential candidates. Head Writer for Saturday Night Live, Seth Meyers, sat down with David to talk about hosting the White House Correspondents Dinner and the power of political parodies.

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: This Sunday Republican Sen. John Barrasso and Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen discuss the debt ceiling, gas prices and stuff. Former National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and a former ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, former Rep. Jane Harman will speculate on the national security shuffle. Ms. Crowley will host a education panel debating why are our kids falling behind in the classroom? Joining her will be former superintendent of Denver public schools, Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet; the former U.S. Secretary of Education, Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander; CNN education contributor and the founder of the Capitol Preparatory Magnet School, Steve Perry; and the president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten.

Go back to bed

Rania Khalek: News Media Too Busy Covering Spectacle to Do Its Job

Dear Media:

Since you have been busy this week with non-stop coverage of the royal wedding and the spectacle that is Donald Trump, I thought I would take it upon myself to fill you in on the less newsworthy items that you missed.  Clearly, the royal wedding of a country that is not your own, in addition to the frantic rantings of an ego obsessed real state tycoon, take priority over middle east turmoil, vicious attacks on labor, and deadly tornadoes ripping through the country.

I assume you haven’t heard-since there has been little to no coverage-that Wikileaks has released the Guantanamo Files, which include classified files on more than 700 past and present Guantanamo detainees.  These documents shed new light on the six-year long persecution of a journalist because he worked for Al-jazeera, the unreliable evidence used to justify due-process free detentions, and the capture of children and men as old as 89.  Of course, I wouldn’t expect such large and important outlets to be bothered with such silly, insignificant revelations.

Michelle Chen: Anti-Union Forces Try to Knock Out New York City’s Hard Hats

On Thursday, construction workers held hard hats in thick hands in the glow of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan. In honor of International Workers’ Memorial Day, they solemnly honored the sacrifices of fellow workers who had been injured or killed on the job. The scene embodied the heavy legacy of the city’s building trades: the labor that sculpted gotham’s majesty, muscular but embattled, angled precariously against the city’s powers that be.

Historically, the building trades unions have been known as shrewd political players and a formidable counterweight to developers and the city’s bureaucracy. But now, a civic organization and the real estate industry have teamed up to try to dismantle the construction unions’ political clout.

The Regional Plan Association has issued an extensive report (which as of this writing seems to have been taken down from the RPA’s home page and was only retrievable in cached form), which argues that the pending expiration of 30 city union construction contracts provides an opportunity to roll a little disaster capitalism down 5th Avenue.

Saul Landau and Jack Willis: Same Old from the Nuclear Gang after Fukushima

Wishful thinking about energy generation has apparently induced both temporary blindness and long-term amnesia.

The nuclear industry has promised the world cheap, safe, and clean energy for over 60 years.

As the Japanese government continues to extend its nuclear evacuation zone around the Daiichi nuclear complex in Fukushima, the pushers of nuclear power–including President Barack Obama–still demand that Congress approve ever-larger subsidies for new reactors.

Wishful thinking about energy generation has apparently induced both temporary blindness and long-term amnesia about the history of nuclear “mishaps.”

In 2009, the government subsidized the nuclear industry with $18.5 billion in loan guarantees, which failed to anticipate the total costs of “the next generation of plants.” The Nuclear Energy Institute–the industry’s lobbying group–now wants $20 billion more in loan guarantees to get the so-called “nuclear renaissance” underway.

May 01 2011

The Internationale

Arise ye workers from your slumbers

Arise ye prisoners of want

For reason in revolt now thunders

And at last ends the age of cant.

Away with all your superstitions

Servile masses arise, arise

We’ll change henceforth the old tradition

And spurn the dust to win the prize.

So comrades, come rally

And the last fight let us face

The Internationale unites the human race.

No more deluded by reaction

On tyrants only we’ll make war

The soldiers too will take strike action

They’ll break ranks and fight no more

And if those cannibals keep trying

To sacrifice us to their pride

They soon shall hear the bullets flying

We’ll shoot the generals on our own side.

So comrades, come rally

And the last fight let us face

The Internationale unites the human race.

No saviour from on high delivers

No faith have we in prince or peer

Our own right hand the chains must shiver

Chains of hatred, greed and fear

E’er the thieves will out with their booty

And give to all a happier lot.

Each at the forge must do their duty

And we’ll strike while the iron is hot.

So comrades, come rally

And the last fight let us face

The Internationale unites the human race.

A DocuDharma tradition now found on The Stars Hollow Gazette.

May 01 2011

Six In The Morning

Costly Afghanistan Road Project Is Marred by Unsavory Alliances



By ALISSA J. RUBIN and JAMES RISEN

Published: May 1, 2011

GARDEZ, Afghanistan – When construction crews faced attacks while working on a major American-financed highway here in southeastern Afghanistan, Western contractors turned to a powerful local figure named simply Arafat, who was suspected to have links to Afghanistan’s insurgents.

Subcontractors, flush with American money, paid Mr. Arafat at least $1 million a year to keep them safe, according to people involved in the project and Mr. Arafat himself.

May 01 2011

DocuDharma Digest

Regular Features-

Featured Essays for April 30, 2011-

DocuDharma

May 01 2011

The Week in Editorial Cartoons – So, Who’s the Hair Apparent Now? (Special Appeal)

Crossposted at Daily Kos  and Docudharma



GOP Hair Apparent by Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune, Buy this cartoon

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Note: Sections 1-4 contain dozens of additional editorial cartoons and commentary.  I’m not sure why but I was getting the below error when trying to post the complete diary.  Check out the remaining portions of the diary at Daily Kos.

java.sql.SQLException: Incorrect string value: ‘xC2x8CxC2xA9=1…’ for column ‘extendedText’ at row 1

May 01 2011

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Kadhafi call for Libya talks rejected

by Afaf Geblawi, AFP

1 hr 56 mins ago

TRIPOLI (AFP) – Moamer Kadhafi vowed Saturday not to step down and proposed talks to end Libya’s conflict, a call rejected by rebels and by NATO, as his forces pressed an offensive against the key port of Misrata.

At the same time, a rebel spokesman said he feared loyalists were seeking to open a new front in the eastern desert to advance on Ajdabiya, a strategic road junction and gateway to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

In an early-morning speech on state television, the Libyan leader said NATO “must abandon all hope of his departure.