05/26/2013 archive

May 26 2013

Rant of the Week: Jon Stewart: Priorities USA

Priorities USA

The Obama administration believes in freedom of the press — just not freedom of speech for people who might talk to the press.

Priorities USA – Too Big to Jail

The Obama administration’s legal priorities tilt towards unusually harsh punishments for individuals whose crimes don’t seem to merit them.  

What Gaius Publius said.

May 26 2013

On This Day In History May 26

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 image to enlarge

May 26 is the 146th day of the year (147th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 219 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1637, an allied Puritan and Mohegan force under English Captain John Mason attacks a Pequot village in Connecticut, burning or massacring some 500 Indian women, men, and children.

The Pequot War was an armed conflict in 1634-1638 between the Pequot tribe against an alliance of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies with American Indian allies (the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes). Hundreds were killed; hundreds more were captured and sold into slavery to the West Indies. Other survivors were dispersed. At the end of the war, about seven hundred Pequots had been killed or taken into captivity. The result was the elimination of the Pequot as a viable polity in what is present-day Southern New England. It would take the Pequot more than three and a half centuries to regain political and economic power in their traditional homeland region along the Pequot (present-day Thames) and Mystic rivers in what is now southeastern Connecticut.

The Mystic massacre

Believing that the English had returned to Boston, the Pequot sachem Sassacus took several hundred of his warriors to make another raid on Hartford. Mason had visited and recruited the Narragansett, who joined him with several hundred warriors. Several allied Niantic warriors also joined Mason’s group. On May 26, 1637, with a force up to about 400 fighting men, Mason attacked Misistuck by surprise. He estimated that “six or seven Hundred” Pequot were there when his forces assaulted the palisade. As some 150 warriors had accompanied Sassacus to Hartford, so the inhabitants remaining were largely Pequot women and children, and older men. Mason ordered that the enclosure be set on fire. Justifying his conduct later, Mason declared that the attack against the Pequot was the act of a God who “laughed his Enemies and the Enemies of his People to scorn making [the Pequot] as a fiery Oven . . . Thus did the Lord judge among the Heathen, filling [Mystic] with dead Bodies.”  Mason insisted that any Pequot attempting to escape the flames should be killed. Of the estimated 600 to 700 Pequot resident at Mystic that day, only seven survived to be taken prisoner, while another seven escaped to the woods.

The Narragansett and Mohegan warriors with Mason and Underhill’s colonial militia were horrified by the actions and “manner of the Englishmen’s fight . . . because it is too furious, and slays too many men.” The Narragansett left the warfare and returned home.

Believing the mission accomplished, Mason set out for home. Becoming temporarily lost, his militia narrowly missed returning Pequot warriors. After seeing the destruction of Mystic, they gave chase to the English forces, but to little avail.

May 26 2013

Sunday May 26, 2013: Up with Steve Kornacki Tweets

Today’s show was about immigration reform, Oklahoma disaster relief, Apple tax shelters, Apple, Congress, tax law, and corporate taxes. #Uppers is now.

Thank you for reading.

May 26 2013

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”.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

The Sunday Talking Heads:

Wow, just Wow. A No Sen. John McCain Sunday.

Up with Steve Kornacki: Joining Steve will be: Marin Cogan,  contributing writer, The New Republic & GQ; Basil Smikle, Jr., political strategist, professor, Columbia University; Richard Kim, executive editor, TheNation.com ; Garance Franke-Ruta, senior editor, The Atlantic; Chris Geidner, senior political and legal reporter, Buzzfeed.com; Mui Ylan, financial reporter, The Washington Post; and Frank Clemente, campaign manager, Americans for Tax Fairness.

This Week with George Stephanopolis: Guests on “This Week” are; Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY); and Former Commander of International Forces in Afghanistan Gen. John Allen (Ret.).

Guests on the roundtable: Rep. Peter King (R-NY); DNC Chair/Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL); Former Director of National Intelligence Adm. Dennis Blair (Ret.); Mark Mazzetti, New York Times; Jim Avila, ABC News; and Maggie Haberman, Politico.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Mr. Schieffer’s guests are Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK); Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY); Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R); Harvard University Prof. David Gergen; and Michael Gerson, Washington Post.

His roundtable guests are Climatologist Dr. Heidi Cullen; Jeffrey Kluger, TIME; and Meteorologist David Bernard and President of the American Meteorological Society Marshall Shepherd.

The Chris Matthews Show: The guests this week are Bob Woodward, Washington Post; Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times; Michael Duffy, TIME; and Gloria Borgia, CNN.

Meet the Press with David Gregory: Preempted for the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix.

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Ms. Crowley’s guests are Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R); Mayor of Joplin, MO Melodee Colbert-Kean; Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY); Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX); Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA); Ron Brownstein (CNN); Clarence Page. Chicago Tribune.

May 26 2013

Six In The Morning

On Sunday

Bangladeshi garment factory owners on defensive, fear losing ‘lifeline’

By Sohel Uddin and John Newland, NBC News

As many of the world’s largest clothing labels signed a pact earlier this month to try to bring safer working conditions to the Bangladeshi garment industry, factory owners in the country were on the defensive, saying they were already struggling to comply with the labor standards Western companies demand while keeping prices at a level they will tolerate.

“Look, we make a particular brand of polo shirt, which they pay us $15 to make and they sell for $150. We only make five percent on that by the time we pay the bank, the workers and compliance costs,” said Adnan Bhuiyan, who along with his father owns the major manufacturer MIB near Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital.

His comments came in the wake of the Apr. 24 collapse of the Rana Plaza, a complex housing five garment factories on the outskirts of Dhaka, collapsed and killed more than 1,100 people. Six months ago, a fire killed 112 people at Tazreen Fashions, also in the city’s garment district.




Sunday’s Headlines:

Industry, fires and poachers shrink Sumatran tigers’ last stronghold

Terror in Woolwich: Internet is the vital frontline in war against extremism

Tunisia’s long, difficult path to a new constitution

China must stick to ecological ‘red line’: Xi

Proposed law to protect Afghan women faces backlash

May 26 2013

Formula One 2013: Circuit de Monaco

Monaco is the oldest, slowest, and shortest track in Formula One.  The only things that keep it going are greed and tradition.  The drivers hate it because there are no opportunities to pass and plenty of chances to crash.  In fact, about the only time the lead changes is when there’s an accident or on pit stops.

Speaking of, the sole reason to pit now is to change tires and Pirelli is sending them out on the two compounds most prone to failure- Softs and Super Softs.

And by fail I mean huge chunks of rubber lifting off like Semi re-treads littering the sides of the road with the same danger to following traffic while the driver cruises on oblivious because the stress is on the rears which he can’t see and the steel belted core remains intact and pressurized.

There’s a reason they prefer Mediums.

Other than dodging the debris and avoiding the walls there’s not a lot to it.  Because the Mercedes are notably harder on the rubber than the Red Bulls (especially the rears) it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that tomorrow we’ll be reading about their “surprise” victory.  Alonso (the most resourceful driver in contemporary Formula One and who is only starting 6th) says accurately he has no chance for victory.

And so we’re reduced to debating whether Raikkonen’s tribute to James Hunt (an obvious movie plug) is the equivalent of Vettel’s obscene naked bikini girl.

Perhaps it deserves to die.

Pretty tables below.

May 26 2013

What We Now Know

On this week’s segment of “What We Know Now,” Up host Steve Kornacki discusses what we have learned this week with guests Eleanor Clift, contributing editor, Newsweek/The Daily Beast; Julian Zelizer, professor and political historian, Princeton University; Ann Lewis, former director of communications for President Bill Clinton; and Perry Bacon, Jr., msnbc contributor,  political editor, TheGrio.com.

Tim Murray, Massachusetts Lt. Governor, Resigning To Take Job At Worcester Chamber Of Commerce

from Huffington Post Politics

Massachusetts Lt. Governor Tim Murray (D) is resigning his post, according to reports Wednesday from WBZ-TV Boston and The Boston Globe.

Murray had already decided not to run for governor in 2014, after Gov. Deval Patrick (D) steps down.

Tom Tancredo Announces Run For Governor In 2014

from Huffington Post

Former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo announced over the radio Thursday morning that he will be making a run for Republican governor in 2014.

During the announcement on KHOW’s Peter Boyles show with 9News cameras standing nearby, Tancredo said that he was prompted in part to make a run for the office after Gov. John Hickenlooper’s controversial decision the day before to grant a reprieve for convicted death row inmate Nathan Dunlap. Perhaps an even bigger motivating factor however was the governor’s support for this year’s gun control bills.

Anthony Weiner’s N.Y. mayor Web site features skyline … of Pittsburgh?

by Aaron Blake, The Washington Post

Anthony Weiner just launched his campaign for mayor of New York City.

His campaign Web site, though, suggests he’s running for mayor of another Eastern city – Pittsburgh.