July 2012 archive

“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”.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

The Sunday Talking Heads:

Up with Chris Hayes: Joining Chris at the table will be: Gary Gensler (@cftc), chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission since May 2009. Gensler previously served as the under-secretary of domestic finance at the Treasury Department; Bryn Bird, second-generation farmer in Granville, Ohio at Bird’s Haven Farms.  She is also a field outreach coordinator for Rural Coalition; Akil Hashem (@AkilHashem), retired brigadier general who served in the Syrian army for 27 years (1962-1989); Col. Jack Jacobs (@ColJackJacobs), Medal of Honor recipient, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and military analyst for MSNBC; Stacy-Marie Ishmael (@s_m_i), adjunct professor at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, former editor of “FT Tilt;” Josh Barro (@jbarro), contributor to Forbes.com with “The Barrometer;” Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, author of “Breaking the Sound Barrier,” and syndicated columnist for King Features; and Sarab Al-Jijakli, member of the Syrian Expatriates Organization and co-founder of the National Alliance for Syria.

This Week with George Stephanopolis: Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper joins George Stephanopoulos to discuss the latest information on the shooting, and how his state and the Aurora community are coping with the tragedy.

The roundtable examines the violence in Aurora, with former Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, author of the new book “A Nation of Wusses,” ABC News’ George Will, ABC News’ Cokie Roberts, TIME Magazine political columnist Joe Klein, and The Washington Post‘s Jennifer Rubin.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Mr. Schieffer’s guests are Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper; Aurora mayor Steve Hogan; Rep. Earl Perlmutter; New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg; and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Chris Matthews Show: This week’s guests are Dan Rather, HDNet Global Correspondent; David Ignatius, The Washington Post Columnist; Gloria Borger, CNN Senior Political Analyst; and Kathleen Parker, The Washington Post Columnist.

Meet the Press with David Gregory: This Sunday’s MTP guests are Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D); former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, former chief of police for the Los Angeles Police Department William Bratton, and gun-control advocate Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY).

The roundtable guests are New York Times columnist David Brooks, former DC public schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, former senior adviser to the 2004 Kerry presidential campaign, Bob Shrum, and former senior strategist to the 2008 McCain presidential campaign, Steve Schmidt.

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Ms. Crowley’s guests are Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D);  Senator John McCain (R-AZ); Virginia Senate Candidates Republican George Allen and Democrat Tim Kaine.

Rambouillet / Paris Champs-Élysées (74.6 miles)

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

I ♥ a parade, as a matter of fact I dare say you’ll find The Stars Hollow Gazette is your leader among left blogs in Parade coverage.

Not to mention professional bicycle racing, Formula One, NCAA Tournament Basketball, Playoff Baseball, and Dog Shows.

Have I mentioned there’s a lot of data in the tables?  I’m having some trouble processing them and so you will have to wait until some late night between now and the Olympics (only Wednesday folks) for me to update the stage diaries and publish comprehensive lists.

I generally skip the Award Ceremonies and today most of my attention is going to be on collecting lap positions at Hockenheim, however that doesn’t start until tape delayed at noon.

The course has two category 4 climbs which will not be enough to change any positions.  They will ride up and down the Champs Élysées 8 times before a sprint which is meaningful mostly in terms of a spectacular stage victory, but should have very little effect on Points.

General Classification

Points

Team

Hill Climb

Youth

Coverage is on Vs. (NBC Sports) starting at 8 am with repeats at noon (on NBC), 2:30 pm, 8 pm, and midnight.  There will be some streaming evidently, but not all of it is free.

Sites of Interest-

• 2012 Le Tour
• Rambouillet / Paris Champs-Élysées (74.6 miles)
• Wikipedia
• Geek Guide (very basic)
• Guardian Interactive Guide

The Stars Hollow Gazette Tags-

• Le Tour
• 2010 Le Tour
• 2011 Le Tour
• 2012 Le Tour

U.S. Drug War Expands to Africa, a Newer Hub for Cartels

　

 By CHARLIE SAVAGE and THOM SHANKER

WASHINGTON – In a significant expansion of the war on drugs, the United States has begun training an elite unit of counternarcotics police in Ghana and planning similar units in Nigeria and Kenya as part of an effort to combat the Latin American cartels that are increasingly using Africa to smuggle cocaine into Europe.

The growing American involvement in Africa follows an earlier escalation of antidrug efforts in Central America, according to documents, Congressional testimony and interviews with a range of officials at the State Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Pentagon.

In both regions, American officials are responding to fears that crackdowns in more direct staging points for smuggling – like Mexico and Spain – have prompted traffickers to move into smaller and weakly governed states, further corrupting and destabilizing them.

crossposted at Voices on the Square

Elizabeth Kolbert addresses the effect the current drought is having on crops in The Big Heat.

It is now corn-sex season across the Midwest, and everything is not going well. High commodity prices spurred farmers to sow more acres this year, and unseasonable warmth in March prompted many to plant corn early. Just a few months ago, the United States Department of Agriculture was projecting a record corn crop of 14.79 billion bushels. But then, in June and July, came broilingly high temperatures, combined with a persistent drought across much of the midsection of the country.

 THE NUMBERS DON’T LIE

  A newly released poll found that 66 percent of Taiwanese people feel ties with Japan have “deepened” since the March 11 disaster.

At the same time, 51 percent said they “plan to refrain from traveling to Japan for the time being.”

An investigation by officials in Saitama uncovered 1,257 cases of welfare fraud in 2011, worth a total of ¥610 million.

A newly unveiled supercomputer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US has supplanted a Japanese machine as the world’s fastest. The new record holder, named Sequoia, can process 16.324 petaflops of data. (One petaflop is the equivalent of 1 quadrillion operations per second. Please don’t ask us how many zeros that is.)

Welcome to the Stars Hollow Health and Fitness News 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.

You can now find past Health and Fitness News diaries here and on the right hand side of the Front Page.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

When it’s as hot as it has been in so many parts of the country lately, hydrating foods like cucumbers are especially appealing. Cucumbers are a very good source of vitamin C and caffeic acid, compounds that help the body prevent water retention, a problem that many of us suffer from on hot summer days. [..]

Lately I’ve been buying Persian cucumbers more than any others. I like the small size, the absence of big seeds and the thin skin. I also love the locally grown Japanese cukes I’m buying at the farmers’ market. At other times of year I settle for the hothouse European variety, but they can’t compare with what you can get right now at your farmers’ market. Seek out unwaxed cucumbers so you won’t need to peel them and can benefit from their skin, a rich source of fiber and a good source of potassium and magnesium.

~Martha Rose Shulman~

“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”.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

Fred Guterl: Searching for Clues to Calamity

SO far 2012 is on pace to be the hottest year on record. But does this mean that we’ve reached a threshold – a tipping point that signals a climate disaster?

For those warning of global warming, it would be tempting to say so. The problem is, no one knows if there is a point at which a climate system shifts abruptly. But some scientists are now bringing mathematical rigor to the tipping-point argument. Their findings give us fresh cause to worry that sudden changes are in our future.

One of them is Marten Scheffer, a biologist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, who grew up swimming in clear lowland ponds. In the 1980s, many of these ponds turned turbid. The plants would die, algae would cover the surface, and only bottom-feeding fish remained. The cause – fertilizer runoff from nearby farms – was well known, but even after you stopped the runoff, replanted the lilies and restocked the trout, the ponds would stay dark and scummy. [..]

Mr. Scheffer and other scientists are now trying to identify the early-warning signals for climate that precede abrupt transitions. Tim Lenton, a climate scientist at the University of Exeter in England, has identified a handful of climate systems that could reach tipping points in the not-too-distant future. These are not so much related to global average temperatures – the main metric for climate-change arguments – as they are to patterns of climate that repeat themselves each year.

Paul Krugman: Why Iceland Is a Success Story

I was recently alerted to a remarkably stupid attack (and I use that term advisedly) directed at me from the Council on Foreign Relations on the subject of Iceland.

The C.F.R. people take me to task in a blog post titled ” ‘Iceland’s Post-Crisis Miracle’ Revisited” for measuring economic performance in Iceland and the Baltics relative to the pre-crisis peak, which they suggest is some kind of scam. Why not measure relative to the post-crisis trough, under which the Baltics look better?

Oh, boy. Economists have been studying business cycles for something like 90 years, and done comparisons to previous peaks all that time; apparently these guys don’t know about any of that. So let’s try this slowly.

Banks Caught Up In Libor Scandal Seek Group Settlement

By: David Dayen, Firedog Lake

Friday July 20, 2012 7:04 am

As regulators and law enforcement officials around the world begin to dig into the Libor scandal, the 15 or so banks who know they’re responsible for the massive rate-rigging are trying to limit the damage. That’s right, it’s time for another round of: let’s have a global settlement!

…

Reuters did add that regulators would like the idea of a global settlement because they would get to have a big press conference and announce a headline number, and I think that’s right. We saw the appeal of that in the foreclosure fraud settlement.

Yves Smith @ Naked Capitalism–

Dudes, we gave you a link last week from Sky News saying the same thing!

Exclusive: Banks in Libor probe consider group settlement – sources

By Katharina Bart and Diane Bartz, Reuters

2012/07/19

A group agreement would appeal to financial watchdogs because they would be able to announce a headline-grabbing figure, showing that they were dealing firmly with the banking industry’s misdemeanors, a banker told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Earlier this year, five top U.S. banks negotiated a $25 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department and other federal and state agencies to resolve allegations of mortgage services abuses.

…

However, if they were able to reach a group settlement it would enable them to share the pain of negative publicity.

…

Analysts have estimated that the scandal could cost the industry between $20 billion to $40 billion, further damaging a sector that is struggling to work its way through the aftermath of the 2007-2009 financial crisis, economic downturns in Europe and the United States, and increased regulatory demands.

Told you so–

Exclusive: Push For Libor Settlement

Mark Kleinman, City Editor, Sky News

Wednesday 11 July 2012

Investors believe that an industry-wide settlement will be necessary if other banks are to avoid a clear-out of their top executives, although one mitigating factor which might assist those who get fined for Libor-rigging is likely to be the fact that many of them have changed their top management since the periods under investigation.

“A drip-feed of Libor-related fines would be hugely damaging to investors with large exposures to international banks,” one leading shareholder told me.

Of course, it’s the view of many that banks which are found guilty of such an important offence as manipulating the rate of Libor should sack those responsible and that they should face further punishment under the law.

Hah hah hah.

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

July 21 is the 202nd day of the year (203rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 163 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1861, the first battle of Bull Run.. In the first major land battle of the Civil War, a large Union force under General Irvin McDowell is routed by a Confederate army under General Pierre G.T. Beauregard. . . .

On the morning of July 21, hearing of the proximity of the two opposing forces, hundreds of civilians–men, women, and children–turned out to watch the first major battle of the Civil War. The fighting commenced with three Union divisions crossing the Bull Run stream, and the Confederate flank was driven back to Henry House Hill. However, at this strategic location, Beauregard had fashioned a strong defensive line anchored by a brigade of Virginia infantry under General Thomas J. Jackson. Firing from a concealed slope, Jackson’s men repulsed a series of Federal charges, winning Jackson his famous nickname “Stonewall.”

Meanwhile, Confederate cavalry under J.E.B. Stuart captured the Union artillery, and Beauregard ordered a counterattack on the exposed Union right flank. The rebels came charging down the hill, yelling furiously, and McDowell’s line was broken, forcing his troops in a hasty retreat across Bull Run. The retreat soon became an unorganized flight, and supplies littered the road back to Washington. Union forces endured a loss of 3,000 men killed, wounded, or missing in action while the Confederates suffered 2,000 casualties. The scale of this bloodshed horrified not only the frightened spectators at Bull Run but also the U.S. government in Washington, which was faced with an uncertain military strategy in quelling the “Southern insurrection.”

Bull Run was the largest and bloodiest battle in American history up to that point. Union casualties were 460 killed, 1,124 wounded, and 1,312 missing or captured; Confederate casualties were 387 killed, 1,582 wounded, and 13 missing. Among the latter was Col. Francis S. Bartow, who was the first Confederate brigade commander to be killed in the Civil War. General Bee was mortally wounded and died the following day.

Union forces and civilians alike feared that Confederate forces would advance on Washington, D.C., with very little standing in their way. On July 24, Prof. Thaddeus S. C. Lowe ascended in the balloon Enterprise to observe the Confederates moving in and about Manassas Junction and Fairfax. He saw no evidence of massing Rebel forces, but was forced to land in Confederate territory. It was overnight before he was rescued and could report to headquarters. He reported that his observations “restored confidence” to the Union commanders.

The Northern public was shocked at the unexpected defeat of their army when an easy victory had been widely anticipated. Both sides quickly came to realize the war would be longer and more brutal than they had imagined. On July 22 President Lincoln signed a bill that provided for the enlistment of another 500,000 men for up to three years of service.

The reaction in the Confederacy was more muted. There was little public celebration as the Southerners realized that despite their victory, the greater battles that would inevitably come would mean greater losses for their side as well.

Beauregard was considered the hero of the battle and was promoted that day by President Davis to full general in the Confederate Army. Stonewall Jackson, arguably the most important tactical contributor to the victory, received no special recognition, but would later achieve glory for his 1862 Valley Campaign. Irvin McDowell bore the brunt of the blame for the Union defeat and was soon replaced by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, who was named general-in-chief of all the Union armies. McDowell was also present to bear significant blame for the defeat of Maj. Gen. John Pope’s Army of Virginia by Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia thirteen months later, at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Patterson was also removed from command.

Sigh.

Thank goodness this is the last tape delayed broad cast on Faux this season because it’s just impossible to keep up with the point paying positions without using Speed Racecast and that is live though there is some update lag.

Then you have to watch it to sync them up.

These are the same tricks I used for Valencia and Silverstone.

The good news is that it’s not quite as damp as Silverstone was.  In the morning Practice the weather wasn’t so bad and they were able to turn some laps on the Softs.  It rained all afternoon and the only tires that would work were the Inters.  This is kind of a problem because lots of teams have mid-season aero replacements that have never been tried.

Did I mention mid season?

Yup, race 10 of 20 followed next week by Hungary and then Formula One takes August off entirely.

If the race is run on dry tires the choices on offer are Mediums and Softs.  Hockenheim is known for a lot of brake and tire wear because of its high speed straights and tight corners.

Kobayashi was fined 25k euros for hitting 3 crewmen at Silverstone.  Maldonado received a 10k euro fine for wacking Perez.

• Formula One Official Site
• Hockenheim
• German Grand Prix
• Guardian Interactive Circuit Guide