September 2014 archive

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover  we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

This Day in History

Breakfast Tunes

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.

September 11 is the 254th day of the year (255th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 111 days remaining until the end of the year. It is usually the first day of the Coptic calendar and Ethiopian calendar (in the period AD 1900 to AD 2099).

On this day in 1941, ground is broken for the construction of The Pentagon.

The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, “the Pentagon” is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.

Designed by the American architect George Bergstrom (1876-1955), and built by Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, general contractor John McShain, the building was dedicated on January 15, 1943, after ground was broken for construction on September 11, 1941. General Brehon Somervell provided the major motive power behind the project; Colonel Leslie Groves was responsible for overseeing the project for the Army.

The Pentagon is the world’s largest office building by floor area, with about 6,500,000 sq ft (604,000 m2), of which 3,700,000 sq ft (344,000 m2) are used as offices. Approximately 23,000 military and civilian employees and about 3,000 non-defense support personnel work in the Pentagon. It has five sides, five floors above ground, two basement levels, and five ring corridors per floor with a total of 17.5 mi (28.2 km) of corridors. The Pentagon includes a five-acre (20,000 m2) central plaza, which is shaped like a pentagon and informally known as “ground zero”, a nickname originating during the Cold War and based on the presumption that the Soviet Union would target one or more nuclear missiles at this central location in the outbreak of a nuclear war.

On September 11, 2001, exactly 60 years after the building’s groundbreaking, hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 was crashed into the western side of the Pentagon, killing 189 people, including five hijackers, 59 others aboard the plane, and 125 working in the building.

Sneakers on the  ground. Mercenaries don’t wear boots, they wear sneakers, and give obots and democrats the excuse that there will be no boots on the ground, and kill for money. And because they aren’t army there’ll be no messy veterans affairs bureaucracy or benefits or hospitals to pay for to get in the way of making money. If any of them get mangled or crippled there are lots of alleys all over America they can live in, and if any of them get killed before they get paid there are lots more suckers where they came from. It’s the American way in obama’s project for a new american century.

Bushed yet?

Obama Tells the Nation That America Is Going Back to War in Iraq

By Jason Leopold, September 11, 2014  

Were we briefly not at war… and I missed it?

Hey, those plaques are not cheap!

They charge you by the letter for engraving.

The real news, as well as this week’s guests and the 3 part web exclusive extended interview with Kirsten Gillibrand below.

It’s not you, it’s me. Okay, that’s a lie…it’s you. I can’t take all of your caffeine anymore! I’m not that same badass bitch who bragged about slamming two pots before dinner. Now, I know you’re thinking about that stupid fling with the Celestial Seasons back in the 80s and how I came crawling back. The truth is that Lemon Zinger, Sleepytime and Tummymint never really did it for me. No, not even Emperor’s  Choice, all of that was really just to prove that I could give you up, but I knew I’d be back the whole time, they were, to me at least, literally–weak tea.

You see, I have a new doctor now, and she doesn’t just medicate. It’s also about what I eat and drink, and apparently not enough vitamins D and B2, but that’s beside the point, I was having way too much of you. No more than 16 oz a day, she said, so where does that leave us? And no, I’m not interested in your bastard offspring decaf. That’s a foul beverage trick and I want no parts of it. I know people say they’re fine with it, but I’m not one of them, I’d wind up right back at your doorstep, and then what? Yeah.

What will I do now, you ask? Smug bastard, ain’t ya? Perhaps you haven’t noticed that fancy new gizmo sitting next your shiny glass pot the past few days. Know what that is? It’s a loose leaf tea steeper, bud, and not for any weak-ass chamomile either. Oh, I see I have your interest now, huh?

I’ve found a brew to replace you, coffee, and it’s Rooibos. They call it red tea, but it kind of looks more like needles than leaves, I don’t care, really, it tastes great. It brews up to a beautiful color, it tastes good plain, chai or with vanilla and I can drink it after supper. You heard that right. I can drink it right before bed if I feel like it, so there.

I don’t think I’ll be back this time, coffee. We had a good run. I gotta go now, the tea kettle is whistling~

The NFL’s Ray Rice saga keeps going. America has seen the horrible abuse video. Now news is coming out of a cover-up that goes all the way to Roger Goodell. He thought a two-game suspension was good enough. He thought the video was under wraps. But it’s hard to keep something like this quiet  in the age of the Internet.

No, Roger Goodell, two games was not good enough. Only after public outcry did Goodell and the NFL act. The evidence is starting to show that he covered this up. Covered this up so the NFL could make more money. Covered this up since April. The NFL’s coverup and enabling of domestic abuse sullies the reputation of all levels of the organization, all the way to Roger Goodell.

Goodell is a greedy little executive that cares only about profit. The NFL enjoys non-profit tax-exempt status. It is time for that status to be revoked.

The Democrats are supposed to be the party that stands for womens’ rights. Now a time to put that in action.

The NFL makes tens of billions of dollars a year. Players like Ray Rice are millionaires. The NFL are not a nonprofit organization. It’s common sense. But in this corporate-skewed world we live in, common sense is in short supply.

The NFL should not be able to enable violence against women and still avoid paying taxes as a phone “nonprofit”.

Will Democrats act, or do what they usually do: nothing? Will the Democrats stand with women, or will they stand with greedy corporate donors?

Today is Internet Slowdown Day, a day of protest and action seeking to preserve “Net Neutrality”- the concept that no content is privileged in it’s delivery to your computer by censorship or commerce.  Our old friend d-day explains.

“Cable companies could make this page so slow, it will still be loading”

David Dayen, Salon

Wednesday, Sep 10, 2014 07:43 AM EST

(T)he spinning wheel is meant to dramatize what would happen if Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler, a former cable industry lobbyist, succeeds in creating an Internet “fast lane.” Under a proposal put out by the FCC in April, companies could pay Comcast or AT&T or Verizon to speed their preferred content to consumers more quickly. This paid prioritization would create a permanent digital divide, reducing competition and innovation on the Internet and discriminating between content for the first time.

…

Wheeler argued that the FCC would not allow telecoms to “divide haves and have-nots,” saying that under his strategy, the agency would police any abuse of the fast lane on a case-by-case basis. More important, the proposed rules offer a choice, between the Wheeler proposal and a plan that would reclassify broadband Internet as a common carrier service, like phone lines, giving the FCC stronger authority to ensure that no company could discriminate against any kind of content. “We look at reclassification as the only path forward for real net neutrality protections,” said Tim Karr, senior strategy director at Free Press, one of the organizations putting together the Internet Slowdown. “The issue is about our rights to control our Internet experience.”

The FCC’s public comment period for its new Internet rules closes Sept. 15. So during the Internet Slowdown – where the spinning wheel icon will be accompanied by text like “Cable companies could make this page so slow, it will still be loading” – users will be encouraged to sign a letter to the FCC backing reclassification and opposing Internet fast lanes, through an action website called Battle for the Net. The letter will also forward to congressional representatives and the White House. In addition, if users leave their contact information and ZIP code, they will receive a phone call connecting them to the office of their member of Congress, so they can register their personal support for net neutrality.

Even though 4 million people have already delivered comments to the FCC – “it’s the largest response on any rule making in their history,” Karr told Salon – with near-unanimous support for reclassification, the groups organizing the Internet Slowdown feel the issue could still benefit from increased public awareness. The participation of so many websites and advocacy groups ensures that tens of millions of people will see the message today that Internet content should remain free of discrimination. And it’s likely to be just the beginning. “This is an escalation, but it leaves room for further escalation,” said David Segal of Demand Progress, another organizer of the Slowdown.

…

For someone like me who worked his way into journalism from a personal blog, there would be no way to do what I do without the protections of an open Internet. In a country increasingly dependent on Internet use, people intuitively understand that controlling their daily Web experience will lead to disastrous outcomes. The forces fighting for the Internet are using old-fashioned methods – calls and letters, protests and mass collective action – to protect the most modern technological achievement. Do we still have a society where organizing against concentrated power matters? We’re about to find out.

Because of technical limitations (basically my own hazy understanding of the actual mechanics of our sites and the disastrous results of my last tinkering) we will not be displaying the official logo, but I don’t want you to get the impression that this is a cause that TMC and I and our sites, The Stars Hollow Gazette and DocuDharma do not fully support.

Please contact the FCC today and let them know in language that is polite but capable of no other interpretation or misunderstanding that you are against the Wheeler ‘Fast Lane’ proposal and in favor of regulating broadband Internet as a ‘Common Carrier’.

The primaries are over and the campaigning for November will now commence. There were no real surprises last night except perhaps for nine term Democratic Representative John Tierney who lost to political newcomer Seth Moulton in the state’s 6th Congressional District.

Tierney is the fourth House incumbent and first Democrat to lose a primary this year.

He joins Republican Reps. Kerry Bentivolio of Michican, Eric Cantor of Virginia, the former majority leader, and Ralph Hall of Texas on the House casualty list.

Governor Andrew Cuomo and his running mate for lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul, won but not as big as the Cuomo camp would have liked

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) won his primary and will very likely go on to win re-election as governor, but it was an ugly victory. With 98.3 percent of precincts reporting Cuomo took 62.1 percent of the primary vote compared to 34.2 percent for his main opponent Zephyr Teachout, who ran to his left. That may seem like a decent margin but it is actually a very weak performance by historical standards for an incumbent governor.

In Rhode Island, the voters chose a woman and an Asian man to run for the governorship, the time in RI history that there isn’t a white male running.

Democrats chose General Treasurer Gina Raimondo over Providence Mayor Angel Taveras and former Obama administration official Clay Pell. On the Republican side, Cranston Mayor Allan Fung beat businessman Ken Block.

If elected, Raimondo would be the Ocean State’s first woman governor, while Fung would be its first Asian-American governor.

The Democratic race was especially contentious, as Raimondo was sometimes characterized as too sympathetic to Wall Street, due in part to a controversial pension reform plan she helped usher through the state legislature.

Fung, for his part, has had to explain his involvement in a car crash 25 years ago, when he was 18, that resulted in a man’s death. All charges against Fung, who claims he lost consciousness while driving, were eventually dropped.

In New Hampshire, former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown secured his spot on the ballot to challenge Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. Incumbent Governor Maggie Hassan easily won her primary and will vie to keep her seat out of the hands of Republican businessman Walt Havenstein.

Massachusetts State Attorney General Martha Coakely will face the Republican Charlies Baker in his second try to become governor. He lost to current Gov. Deval Patrick in 2010

The best summation of last night’s results come from Charlie Pierce who wants to talk about the Democrats we don’t like and why:

In Rhode Island, the Democratic nominee for governor is Gina Raimondo, and the national press loves her already because, as state treasurer, she knuckled the public employee unions, and there’s nothing the national press loves more than Democratic politicians who give their most faithful constituents a damn good public rogering.

  Analysts were already predicting that if she won in November, Ms. Raimondo could go on to become a national star in the party, showing fellow Democrats that responsible policy is not necessarily bad politics, although organized labor may choose to differ.

Lovely sentence, that. “Responsible policy” set up as the direct opposite of “organized labor.” In praise of a Democratic candidate. And a hint as to who these “analysts” were would be helpful.

Raimondo’s raid on public employee pensions began just about as soon as she was elected state treasurer. And, as Matt Taibbi pointed out in a lengthy Rolling Stone piece, Raimondo was not acting on her own. The “tough choices” she was making, she was making on behalf of people who haven’t made tough choices since they were in diapers. [..]

And then there’s Andrew Cuomo, who is as beholden to the thieves as Raimondo is, but he’s far more of an obvious dick about it. Cuomo won re-nomination last night, albeit not as overwhelmingly as he needed to in order to start booking rooms in Ottumwa for December of 2015. So, as is customary, defeated candidate Zephyr Teachout tried to call Cuomo to congratulate him on his victory.

   Apparently, Cuomo kept up the act straight through primary night. He did not hold a victory party (which would have suggested he participated in a primary), and Teachout was reportedly unable to concede to the governor with a phone call, as he wouldn’t give her his number.

What kind of an arrogant jackeen doesn’t give his opponent his phone number? As far as I know, that’s unprecedented in a major political campaign. But the success of Cuomo and Raimondo, and who their friends are, and who they’re beholden to, makes me exceedingly nervous over what may happen on the Wednesday after election day in November. If the Democrats lose disastrously, losing their Senate majority, a bloodbath in the House, I guarantee you that the conventional wisdom of how the party was “dragged too far left” by that liberal lion, Barack Obama, and how it must purge the remnants of the “Occupy” movement in order to court the votes of “independents” and “centrists,” will spring up all over the elite political media like mushrooms after a hard rain; “Analysts” will tell you that Elizabeth Warren’s time is done, and that Gina Raimondo is the future of the Democratic party. And the rich will get richer, which is how it’s supposed to be.

There aren’t any really good choices for New Yorkers or Rhode Islanders.

“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

Ruth Rosen: ‘We Will Not Be Beaten’: Thoughts on the 20th Anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act

Until the women’s movement organized in the late 1960s and early 1970s, most Americans considered wife beating a custom.  The police ignored what went on behind closed doors and women hid their bruises beneath layers of make-up.  Like rape or abortion, wife beating was viewed as a private and shameful act which few women discussed. Many battered victims, moreover, felt they “deserved” to be beaten – because they acted too uppity, didn’t get dinner on the table on time, or couldn’t silence their children’s shouts and screams. [..]

Throughout the 1970s, feminists sought to teach women that they had the right to be free of violence. “We will not be beaten” became the slogan of the movement against domestic violence. Books and pamphlets argued that violence violated women’s rights. But it wasn’t until 1994, during the Presidency of Bill Clinton, that Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act, legislation that allocated funds to investigate crimes against women, created shelters for battered women, provided legal aid, and protected victims evicted from their homes because of domestic violence.

Feminists considered VAWA landmark legislation.  It gave the federal government the authority to punish domestic violence.  Studies showed that the law had some positive impact by creating refuges and forcing the judicial system to deal with domestic violence. But as daily newspapers reported, it didn’t stop violence against women in private or in public –  at home, at universities, on streets and in parks.

Amy Kroin: The Internet Slowdown Is Here. Join the Fight

When it comes to broadband speeds, the U.S. still ranks far behind Internet powerhouses like South Korea and Japan (not to mention Latvia). And in many parts of the country, there’s no access at all – or just sloth-like dial-up.

This situation couldn’t get worse, right? Wrong. If the FCC signs off on Chairman Tom Wheeler’s Net Neutrality-killing plan to allow discrimination online, much of what we love about the Internet will be relegated to the slow lane, regardless of how we connect.

That’s why the Free Press Action Fund has teamed up with Demand Progress, Engine Advocacy and Fight for the Future to organize the Internet Slowdown – which could become one of the biggest online protests of all time (step aside, SOPA).

Today, Sept. 10, the sites for dozens of major tech companies and thousands of organizations will display a slow-loading icon to give people a taste of what the Internet could look like without Net Neutrality. Clicking the icons will take Internet users to a series of actions at battleforthenet.com/september10th. The main push: to get Congress to stand up for the open Internet – and to get Wheeler to drop his proposal.

Going lighter today. I ran across this video of Tim Minchin’s address to the grads of the University of Western Australia in the same ceremony when he received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the university. It’s good and I really really love Tim.

Jump!