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.

December 3 is the 337th day of the year (338th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 28 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1947,A Streetcar Named Desire opened on Broadway.

Marlon Brando‘s famous cry of “STELLA!” first booms across a Broadway stage, electrifying the audience at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre during the first-ever performance of Tennessee Williams‘ play A Streetcar Named Desire.

The 23-year-old Brando played the rough, working-class Polish-American Stanley Kowalski, whose violent clash with Blanche DuBois (played on Broadway by Jessica Tandy), a Southern belle with a dark past, is at the center of Williams’ famous drama. Blanche comes to stay with her sister Stella (Kim Hunter), Stanley’s wife, at their home in the French Quarter of New Orleans; she and Stanley immediately despise each other. In the climactic scene, Stanley rapes Blanche, causing her to lose her fragile grip on sanity; the play ends with her being led away in a straitjacket.

Widely considered a landmark play, A Streetcar Named Desire deals with a culture clash between two iconic characters, Blanche DuBois, a fading relic of the Old South, and Stanley Kowalski, a rising member of the industrial, urban working class.

The play presents Blanche DuBois, a fading but still-attractive Southern belle whose pretensions to virtue and culture only thinly mask alcoholism and delusions of grandeur. Her poise is an illusion she presents to shield others (but most of all, herself) from her reality, and an attempt to make herself still attractive to new male suitors. Blanche arrives at the apartment of her sister Stella Kowalski in the French Quarter of New Orleans, on Elysian Fields Avenue; the local transportation she takes to arrive there includes a streetcar route named “Desire.” The steamy, urban ambiance is a shock to Blanche’s nerves. Blanche is welcomed with some trepidation by Stella, who fears the reaction of her husband Stanley. As Blanche explains that their ancestral southern plantation, Belle Reve in Laurel, Mississippi, has been “lost” due to the “epic fornications” of their ancestors, her veneer of self-possession begins to slip drastically. Here “epic fornications” may be interpreted as the debauchery of her ancestors which in turn caused them financial losses. Blanche tells Stella that her supervisor allowed her to take time off from her job as an English teacher because of her upset nerves, when in fact, she has been fired for having an affair with a 17-year-old student. This turns out not to be the only seduction she has engaged in-and, along with other problems, has led her to escape Laurel. A brief marriage marred by the discovery that her spouse, Allan Grey, was having a homosexual affair and his subsequent suicide has led Blanche to withdraw into a world in which fantasies and illusions blend seamlessly with reality.

In contrast to both the self-effacing and deferential Stella and the pretentious refinement of Blanche, Stella’s husband, Stanley Kowalski, is a force of nature: primal, rough-hewn, brutish and sensual. He dominates Stella in every way and is physically and emotionally abusive. Stella tolerates his primal behaviour as this is part of what attracted her in the first place; their love and relationship are heavily based on powerful-even animalistic-sexual chemistry, something that Blanche finds impossible to understand.

The arrival of Blanche upsets her sister and brother-in-law’s system of mutual dependence. Stella’s concern for her sister’s well-being emboldens Blanche to hold court in the Kowalski apartment, infuriating Stanley and leading to conflict in his relationship with his wife. Blanche and Stanley are on a collision course, and Stanley’s friend and Blanche’s would-be suitor Mitch, will get trampled in their path. Stanley discovers Blanche’s past through a co-worker who travels to Laurel frequently, and he confronts her with the things she has been trying to put behind her, partly out of concern that her character flaws may be damaging to the lives of those in her new home, just as they were in Laurel, and partly out of a distaste for pretense in general. However, his attempts to “unmask” her are predictably cruel and violent. In their final confrontation, Stanley rapes Blanche, which results in her nervous breakdown. Stanley has her committed to a mental institution, and in the closing moments, Blanche utters her signature line to the kindly doctor who leads her away: “Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”

 1800 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Hohenlinden, French General Moreau defeats the Austrian Archduke John near Munich decisively, coupled with First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte’s victory at Marengo effectively forcing the Austrians to sign an armistice and ending the war.

1818 – Illinois becomes the 21st U.S. state.

1854 – Eureka Stockade: In what is claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 gold miners at Ballarat, Victoria, Australia are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences.

1901 – US President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the House of Representatives asking the Congress to curb the power of trusts “within reasonable limits”.

1904 – The Jovian moon Himalia is discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at California’s Lick Observatory.

1910 – Modern neon lighting is first

demonstrated by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show.

1912 – Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia (the Balkan League) sign an armistice with Turkey, ending the two-month long First Balkan War.

1912 – First Balkan War: The Naval Battle of Elli takes place.

1917 – After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic.

1929 – Great Depression: US President Herbert Hoover announces to the U.S. Congress that the worst effects of the recent stock market crash are behind the nation and the American people have regained faith in the economy.

1944 – Greek Civil War: Fighting breaks out in Athens between the ELAS and government forces supported by the British Army.

1959 – The current flag of Singapore is adopted, six months after Singapore became self-governing within the British Empire.

1964 – Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Police arrest over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover and sit-in at the administration building in protest at the UC Regents’ decision to forbid protests on UC property.

1967 – At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, a transplant team headed by Christiaan Barnard carries out the first heart transplant on a human (53-year-old Louis Washkansky).

1970 – October Crisis: In Montreal, Quebec, kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross is released by the Front de liberation du Quebec terrorist group after being held hostage for 60 days. Police negotiate his release and in return the Canadian government grants five terrorists from the FLQ’s Chenier Cell their request for safe passage to Cuba.

1971 – Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: Pakistan launches pre-emptive strike against India and a full scale war begins claiming hundreds of lives.

1973 – Pioneer program: Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter.

1976 – An assassination attempt is made on Bob Marley. He is shot twice, but plays a concert two days later.

1979 – In Cincinnati, Ohio, eleven fans are suffocated in a crush for seats on the concourse outside Riverfront Coliseum before a Who concert .

1982 – A soil sample is taken from Times Beach, Missouri that will be found to contain 300 times the safe level of dioxin.

1984 – Bhopal Disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, kills more than 3,800 people outright and injures 150,000-600,000 others (some 6,000 of whom would later die from their injuries) in one of the worst industrial disasters in history.

1989 – Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, US President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the cold war between their nations may be coming to an end.

1990 – At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 collides with Northwest Airlines Flight 299 on the runway, killing 7 passengers and 1 crew member aboard flight 1482.

1992 – UN Security Council Resolution 794 is unanimously passed, approving a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, with the task of establishing peace and ensuring that humanitarian aid is distributed in Somalia.

1992 – The Greek oil tanker Aegean Sea, carrying 80,000 tonnes of crude oil, runs aground in a storm while approaching La Coruña, Spain, and spills much of its cargo.

1997 – In Ottawa, Canada, representatives from 121 countries sign The Ottawa treaty prohibiting manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel landmines. The United States, People’s Republic of China, and Russia do not sign the treaty, however.

1999 – NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.

1999 – Six firefighters are killed in the Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse fire in Worcester, Massachusetts.

2005 – XCOR Aerospace makes first manned rocket aircraft delivery of US Mail in Mojave, California.

2007 – Winter storms cause the Chehalis River to flood many cities in Lewis County, Washington, also closing a 20-mile portion of Interstate 5 for several days. At least eight deaths and billions of dollars in damages are blamed on the floods.

2007 – The 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference opened in Bali, Indonesia

Holidays and observances

   * Advocate’s Day (India)

   * Christian Feast Day

         o Birinus

         o Francis Xavier (Roman Catholic Church and Anglican communion)

   * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_observance#December International Day of Persons with Disabilities (International)

   * International Day of the Basque language

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

So. the frayed ends finally rip and tear. It finally becomes clearer: most Democratic politicians aren’t interested in being courageous. They are, however, interested in cash, campaigns, and power. They love to wordsmith and dazzle progressives with fabulous politicSpeak: yes, they do. More and better words delivered by more, but not necessarily better, Democrats.

Perhaps it is just plain decency that Democrats lack… the decency to stop playing both sides of issues. The decency to stop exploiting Republicans. Yes. You heard me. The Democrats have been the minority, the majority, with and without a sitting president and STILL the fucking Republicans are road blocks? It’s always the Republicans’s fault? No matter how it is sliced and diced, the Dems are always having their hands tied by some outside force.  I’m not buying it.

cross posted at writing in the rAw and Daily Kos

And another thing: Democrats don’t have the true courage to enact a truly progressive agenda. But they are indecent enough to lie to Progressives in order to get their votes and stall them from moving on their own.

I don’t think the problem is the Republicans . . . .The problem is the Democratic Party.  This is a party that has told its progressives …to sit down and shut up.  That’s what Rahm Emanuel, the Chief of Staff at the White House, in effect told progressives who stood up as a unit in Congress and said: “no public insurance option, no health care reform.”

And I think the reason for that is — in the time since I was there, 40 years ago, the Democratic Part has become like the Republican Party, deeply influenced by corporate money.  I think Rahm Emanuel, who is a clever politician, understands that the money for Obama’s re-election will come from the health care industry, from the drug industry, from Wall Street.  And so he’s a corporate Democrat who is determined that there won’t be something in this legislation that will turn off these interests. . . .

^{Bill Moyers interview with Glenn Greenwald, 29 August 2009}

It becomes clearer… the bad guys are still in charge. Who’s stopping them? Who’s probing them via grand juries?

Eric Holder announces investigation based on Abu Ghraib model

… the scope of the “review” is limited at the outset to those who failed to “act in good faith and within the scope of legal guidance” — meaning only those interrogators and other officials who exceeded the torture limits which John Yoo and Jay Bybee approved. Those who, with good faith, tortured within the limits of the OLC memos will “be protected from legal jeopardy.”

As a practical matter, Holder is consciously establishing as the legal baseline — he’s vesting with sterling legal authority — those warped, torture-justifying DOJ memos.  Worse, his pledge of immunity today for those who complied with those memos went beyond mere interrogators and includes everyone, policymakers and lawyers alike…

^{Glenn Greenwald, 24 August 2009}

It becomes clearer that without decency in Washington, without courage to make the powerful accountable to the law, all the legislation churned out will have very little to do with most of us 300 million Americans. It will have even less to do with the real perils facing all of us earthlings collectively.

I’ve said it 100s of times before: those we elect and appoint to uphold our laws must be held accountable to those laws. They must be accountable to enforce the law and to obey the law. It’s basic. It even borders on being simple.

We are dealing with people who don’t believe there are any consequences to their actions. While they have most of us worrying about Glenn Beck and the out-of-portion coverage of men hoisting guns at presidential speaking engagements… let me scream this out: THEY ARE NOT OUR PROBLEM. ARE YOU LISTENING?

Those directing the politics and policies devastating our treasury, planet, jobs, and way of life are the problem. The red necks or whatever you want to call them are in the same boat as we are: the exploited.

It’s time to focus. It’s time to focus. It is time to pray that a places like Daily Kos et al will start to use their clout to give life to citizen coalitions that work at local levels and regionally to

• stop ill conceived development projects

• overturn the eminent domain laws poorly interpreted by the Supreme Court

• insuring that water is a public utility (key)

• take back school boards and start implementing education and not testing strategies in our schools

• fight the use of plastics and reduce use of them drastically

• ethical treatment of farm animals… and all creatures… but revamp industrial farming

• take hormones and antibotics out of our food

• air/water/soil… fight for responsible industrial processes and start to expect people to be honorable and do what they say they will do

• yeah. that’s part of it. we all need to up our expectations. that means Dem or Repub, no more lying is accepted FOR WHATEVER THE REASON.

I could go on and on. Not more democrats. God forbid, not more republicans. But citizens and neighbors, some pro life and others pro choice… some pro gun some not… but together in coalitions fighting against the bad guys … coalitions of people who begin to see the BIGGER picture here.

We need evolutionary thinking. We need better questions, better thinking, and a far better understanding of scale of our actions, from buying an SUV to buying plastic lawn chairs. And I know it’s hard work to even imagine how to begin talking to those guys toting guns at President Obama’s events. But we have to deal with it. Because it’s gonna take all of us to fight the few who know how to keep us fighting the wrong fronts.

This train-wreck-of-a-decade happened becauses nobody addressed the criminals in Watergate, Irangate, and the real crooks of the S&L debacle… again, I could go on, but maybe you get my point? That since we breathed a sigh of relief in 2006, after the Dems were in the majority again, we have been continually disappointed, given excuses, and lied to. The Iraq war never got defunded… rather it just moved to Afghanistan. Our economy has tanked and what did we do? We gave trillions to the guys and gals who tanked it and then we feel better when the corporate media says the stimulus worked. Sure it worked… for the few who got the rest of the money out of treasury. But the only way to have a healthy economy is via JOBS.

In fact, our country is more frightening, and people are a bit more whacky. We still have signing statements and nobody has revoked FISA or the Military Commissions Act (where I, as a citizen, can be named an enemy combatant). Nobody. Has. Yet.

This isn’t about one man. Or a political party. This is about gravity-defying politics… trickle up politics.

This is about us, folks.

WikiLeaks goes off-line after ‘multiple’ attacks

U.S. firm says denial of service attacks on site threatened nearly 500,000 others

msnbc.com staff and news service reports

WikiLeaks went off-line late Thursday after a U.S. firm providing its domain name system said the controversial website had come under mass denial-of-service attacks.

EveryDNS.net said it had “terminated” its services to WikiLeaks as the attacks and ones expected in the future would “threaten the stability” of the company’s services to nearly 500,000 other websites.

WikiLeaks has been continuing to release classified cables sent by U.S. officials, causing huge embarrassment to diplomats and world leaders amid growing outrage and calls for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be prosecuted under the U.S. Espionage Act.

Counting the cost of a drugs revolution

Western medicines are making China’s ancient medical practices increasingly redundant, but their high price tag is also pushing millions further into poverty

By Jeremy Laurance Friday, 3 December 2010

Cheng Jianguo drapes a towel over his patient’s shoulder, douses it in alcohol and sets it alight. He has already prodded and poked it to identify the trouble spots, applied suction cups to “drag out the dampness and coldness”, painted it with herbs and spices and wrapped it in clingfilm to “drive in the active ingredients”.

As the flames flare alarmingly, he explains that the burning is vital to soften the tissue before a vigorous massage, the insertion of three long needles and the waving of a smoking cigar above them – in the process known as moxibustion.

USA

Obama, GOP closing in on tax deal

Pact would extend Bush-era cuts and jobless benefits; partisan outbursts continue  

msnbc.com news services  

WASHINGTON – A critical compromise to head off a year-end tax increase for millions of Americans took shape fitfully Thursday in private talks between the White House and congressional Republicans punctuated by outbursts of partisanship.

An extension of unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed appeared likely to become part of any deal. Additionally, Democrats sought to expand the package with a tax break providing as much as $400 for individual working people and $800 for couples – even if they pay nothing to the IRS.

Two days after he and newly empowered Republicans exchanged pledges of cooperation at the White House, President Barack Obama expressed optimism about the prospects for agreement in time for enactment by year’s end.

World is running out of places to catch wild fish, study finds  



By Juliet Eilperin Washington Post Staff Writer

Global fisheries have expanded so rapidly over the past half-century that the world is running out of places to catch wild fish, according to a study conducted by researchers in Canada, the United States and Australia.

The findings, published Thursday in the online journal PLoS ONE, are the first to examine how marine fisheries have expanded over time. Looking at fleets’ movements between 1950 and 2005, the five researchers charted how fishing has been expanding southward into less exploited seas at roughly one degree latitude each year to compensate for the fact that humans have depleted fish stocks closer to shore in the Northern Hemisphere.

Europe

French socialist candidate claims dirty tricks after third break-in



By John Lichfield in Paris Friday, 3 December 2010



A disturbing feeling of déjà vu settled on French politics yesterday.

Ségolène Royal is running for the presidency. Her Socialist rivals and colleagues are furious with her. And her home has been broken into, under mysterious circumstances, for the third time in four years. The defeated centre-left candidate in the 2007 presidential elections took the country – and especially her own party – by surprise earlier this week when she announced that she would run in the Socialist presidential primary next year.

Hungary under fire over ‘totalitarian’ media law proposal  

The Irish Times – Friday, December 3, 2010

DANIEL McLAUGHLIN in Budapest

A MONTH before assuming the presidency of the European Union, Hungary is under fire over a proposed media law that a major watchdog has compared to those of totalitarian regimes.

Two prominent Hungarian magazines are publishing blank covers this week in protest at new rules allowing a government-controlled council to fine any media outlet, including websites, whose reports are deemed to be unbalanced or whose content breaches guidelines on content involving sex, violence and alcohol.

The media council – all of whose members were chosen by government parties – would have considerable leeway to interpret the new law and could impose fines of up to €90,000 on print and internet media and more than €700,000 on radio and TV broadcasters.

Middle East

IAEA worried about uranium enrichment site in North Korea  

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog voiced his concern as the US warned that North Korea may be hiding even more atomic sites

Reuters guardian.co.uk, Friday 3 December 2010 02.57 GMT  

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog has voiced deep concern about North Korea’s expanded nuclear programme, as Washington warned that the secretive state may be hiding even more atomic sites.

North Korea boasted about its nuclear advances earlier this week, saying it was operating a uranium enrichment plant with thousands of centrifuges. Centrifuges are devices that spin at supersonic speed and refine uranium so that it can serve as fuel for nuclear power plants or, if refined to a much higher degree, for atomic bombs. If confirmed, such a facility could offer it a second pathway to make a nuclear bomb.

Hamas leader sets out conditions for peace with Israel  

 

Jason Koutsoukis HERALD CORRESPONDENT

December 3, 2010

Hamas, the militant Islamic movement that controls the Gaza Strip, has demanded that any peace negotiated between Israel and Palestinians be ratified by the Palestinian diaspora.

Making a rare appearance at a press conference in Gaza City, Ismail Haniyeh, the Prime Minister of the Hamas government in Gaza, said the movement would accept the outcome of any referendum even if it contradicted Hamas’s own policies.

Asia

Beijing pledges support for N Korea

The Irish Times – Friday, December 3, 2010  

CLIFFORD COONAN in Beijing

CHINA HAS told Pyongyang that the relationship between the allies has withstood international “tempests”.

“The traditional friendship of China and North Korea has withstood the tests of international tempests and changes, and replenished itself over time,” Wu Bangguo, China’s chief legislator, told a visiting North Korean delegation.

The story was reported in the Communist Party’s official organ, the People’s Daily.

Beijing has been under pressure from Washington to bring North Korea to heel after last week’s artillery attack on South Korea’s Yeonpyeong island.

US sails with Japan to flashpoint channel

 

By Todd Crowell

 

TOKYO – This month, Japan’s Self Defense Forces will hold their first-ever island defense exercise in concert with the United States military in Japan. The exercise, which will take place at a base in Kyushu, will simulate the retaking of one of Japan’s small East China Sea islands from “hostile” forces that seized the island and installed anti-aircraft missiles. Ships from the US Seventh Fleet, including the aircraft carrier USS George Washington will take part.

Examination of an atlas helps explain the importance of simulation exercises on the retaking of any of these islands. Stretching more than 1,600 kilometers from the southern tip of Kyushu through Okinawa and almost as far as Taiwan, is a string of islands that are all Japanese, although one small group off to the side, called the Senkaku by the Japanese, is also claimed by China.

Africa

Côte d’Ivoire in lockdown as leaders reject vote results  



DAVID YOUANT | ABIDJAN, CôTE D’IVOIRE – Dec 03 2010

World powers sharpened their warnings to Ivorian leaders to settle the dispute peacefully, but the chaos in the West African state deepened after days of bloodshed and fraud allegations that have disrupted the landmark vote.

“The land, air and sea borders are closed to all movement of people and goods from this Thursday at 8pm GMT until further notice,” the army said in a declaration on state television.

Shortly afterwards foreign television news channels including France 24 and CNN as well as Radio France International went off the air in Côte d’Ivoire. An official statement said this was to “keep the peace”.

Ignoring Asia A Blog

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

The “Crushing Irony” of Interpol’s Red Notices and the tangles web that the Obama administration has woven to cover the Bush administration cabal of criminals and crimes, may soon come to a new reality.

Julian Assange is wanted by Sweden and a “red notice” issued by Interpol for his arrest. The Obama administration would love nothing more than to see Assange silenced. Now the Nigerian government is asking Interpol to issue a international warrant, a “red notice”, for the arrest of former US Vice President Richard Cheney for his alleged role in a bribe scandal in which Halliburton-owned company KBR gave $180 million to Nigerian officials between 1994 and 2004 in exchange for lucrative natural gas contracts.

This presents quite a dilemma for “restoring the rule of law” President Obama. There is no way that he will be able to save face in the international community if he supports Assange’s arrest and not Cheney’s. The other “sticky” problem for Obama and his DOJ is that there is an extradition treaty between the US and Nigeria. How much longer can Obama and his DOJ protect Cheney, or for that matter George W, Bush, from justice?

Jonathan Turley, George Washington University Law professor and Constitutional law expert, gives his analysis of international legal problem for the Obama justice department.

The US has in the past deported ill, elderly, war criminals to other countries to face trial for their crimes. Just because Dick Cheney has a serious heart condition should not be a deterrent to his extradition to Nigeria to face these charges.  

Hello, all.  I wish everyone a very happy month.

Warmest regards,

Doc

Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town.  Some premiers, but basically a freaking desert.

I can’t get the antlers glued to this little guy. We tried Crazy Glue, but it don’t work.

Did you try staples?

…

You know what they say about people who treat other people bad on the way up?

Yeah, you get to treat ’em bad on the way back down too. It’s great, you get two chances to rough ’em up.

• ABC Family– The Santa Clause x 2 (unfortunately not pre-empting The 700 Club
• AMC– Scrooged x 2 (enough is enough)
• Animal Planet– Life marathon
• Bravo– Real Housewives marathon (with premier)
• Disney– High School Musical
• Discovery– The Kennedy Detail (premier)
• ESPN– College Throwball, Arizona State @ Arizona
• ESPN2– College Hoopies, Arizona State @ Baylor, UCLA @ Kansas
• Food– Food Feuds (premier)
• FX– It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The League x 3 (premiers)
• History– Aliens! (premier)
• Lifetime– The Christmas Shoes
• National Geographic– Aliens! AND The End of the World! (premier)
• TBS– Along Came Polly
• Turner Classic– A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ah, Wilderness!
• TNT– Hoopies, Heat @ Cavaliers, Suns @ Warriors
• Travel– Man v. Food marathon (thank goodness)
• USA– Gone in Sixty Seconds, Burn Notice (premier)
• VH1– SNL marathon

Later-

• AMC– Summer Rental
• Turner Classic– Riffraff
• USA– Psych (yesterday’s), Burn Notice (Instapeat)

Dave in repeats (10/29).  Jon has Stacy Schiff, Stephen David Stockman.  Conan hosts Kardashians, Kevin Nealon, and Deerhunter

I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream; past the wit of man to say what dream it was. Methought I was… -man is but an ass if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was… -and methought I had… -man is but a patched fool if he will offer to say what methought I was and what methought I had.

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Russia, Qatar triumph at World Cup vote

by Rob Woollard, AFP

2 hrs 1 min ago

2 FA condemn pitch invasion on eve of 2018 vote

by Julian Guyer, AFP

Wed Dec 1, 7:38 pm ET

3 Tension, acrimony as World Cup vote looms

by Rob Woollard, AFP

Thu Dec 2, 7:40 am ET

4 WikiLeaks chief faces new arrest warrant

by Igor Gedilaghine, AFP

Thu Dec 2, 1:01 pm ET

5 Tempers rise over WikiLeaks revelations

by Shaun Tandon, AFP

Wed Dec 1, 6:18 pm ET

6 Violence clouds I.Coast vote results

by David Youant, AFP

1 hr 29 mins ago

7 Ouattara named winner of I.Coast election

by Christophe Koffi, AFP

Thu Dec 2, 12:57 pm ET

8 Eight killed in I.Coast election violence

by Christophe Koffi, AFP

Thu Dec 2, 12:31 pm ET

9 US space agency finds new form of life… on Earth

by Kerry Sheridan, AFP

2 hrs 12 mins ago

10 Obama reverses oil drill expansion after BP spill

by Karin Zeitvogel, AFP

Thu Dec 2, 9:54 am ET

11 ECB extends bank loans, holds fire on bond buying

by William Ickes, AFP

Thu Dec 2, 1:03 pm ET

12 Qantas threatens Rolls-Royce as probe reveals engine problem

AFP

Thu Dec 2, 10:48 am ET

13 Qantas prepares to sue Rolls-Royce over engine blast

AFP

Thu Dec 2, 6:32 am ET

14 Eurozone braces for ECB liquidity moves

by William Ickes, AFP

Thu Dec 2, 8:30 am ET

15 Climate talks hit bump as Lula expects no result

by Richard Ingham and Claire Snegaroff, AFP

Thu Dec 2, 7:08 am ET

16 Deficit-cutting plan advances in uphill climb

By Donna Smith and Kevin Drawbaugh, Reuters

38 mins ago

17 House takes symbolic vote on taxes, talks go on

By Kim Dixon, Reuters

16 mins ago

18 Lawyer for WikiLeaks’ Assange denies warrant valid

By Stefano Ambrogi and Patrick Lannin, Reuters

1 hr 37 mins ago

19 ECB reported buying bonds in euro zone debt crisis

By Sakari Suoninen and Marc Jones, Reuters

Thu Dec 2, 11:42 am ET

20 Senator McCain says too soon to end military ban on gays

By Phil Stewart and Thomas Ferraro, Reuters

1 hr 30 mins ago

21 Russia, Qatar take World Cup to new lands

By Paul Radford, Reuters

Thu Dec 2, 2:09 pm ET

22 Tiny Qatar brings 2022 World Cup to Middle East

By Regan E. Doherty, Reuters

Thu Dec 2, 11:44 am ET

23 Deficit panel recalibrates, seeks more support

By Kevin Drawbaugh and Donna Smith, Reuters

Wed Dec 1, 4:23 pm ET

24 WikiLeaks shows U.S. concern at Berlusconi-Putin tie

By James Mackenzie, Reuters

2 hrs 28 mins ago

25 U.S. cables lift mask on Putin’s "corrupt autocracy"

By Guy Faulconbridge, Reuters

Thu Dec 2, 12:37 pm ET

26 WikiLeaks founder said in UK, Sweden rejects appeal

By Patrick Lannin and Michel Rose, Reuters

Thu Dec 2, 8:14 am ET

27 Geithner and lawmakers seek deal on Bush-era tax cuts

By Kim Dixon and Jeff Mason, Reuters

Wed Dec 1, 9:15 pm ET

28 Heading off tax increases; resolution taking shape

By DAVID ESPO and STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press

4 mins ago

29 The noose tightens around WikiLeaks’ Assange

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER and MALIN RISING, Associated Press

1 min ago

30 U.S. wants to lift protections for wolf and grizzly

By Laura Zuckerman, Reuters

Wed Dec 1, 9:04 pm ET

31 Deficit-cutting plan picks up 2 Republicans

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press

41 mins ago

32 McCain faults military gays study, wants ban kept

By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press

43 mins ago

33 Microbe found that can use arsenic as nutrient

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer

44 mins ago

34 Qatar selected as 2022 World Cup host

By RAF CASERT, AP Sports Writer

45 mins ago

35 Mercury busts charts; 2010 in top 3 hottest years

By ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press

11 mins ago

36 Manufacturing flaw possible in superjumbo engine

By ROHAN SULLIVAN and KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press

Thu Dec 2, 12:36 pm ET

37 Obama restores eastern Gulf drilling ban

By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press

Thu Dec 2, 5:36 am ET

38 Clinton: US will consider keeping Kyrgyzstan base

By ROBERT BURNS, AP National Security Writer

Thu Dec 2, 10:19 am ET

39 Chefs become teachers at Harvard science class

By GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press

2 hrs 56 mins ago

40 What’s message in billboard touting Vicki Kennedy?

By GLEN JOHNSON, AP Political Writer

Thu Dec 2, 2:43 pm ET

41 Town that Disney built has 1st killing since start

By TAMARA LUSH, Associated Press

Thu Dec 2, 11:54 am ET

42 Chicago shutters infamous public housing complex

By KAREN HAWKINS, Associated Press

Thu Dec 2, 12:11 am ET

43 Remains of 6 killed by rogue Afghan cop come home

By ANNE GEARAN, AP National Security Writer

Wed Dec 1, 9:39 pm ET

44 Ill. Senate approves civil unions for gay couples

By CHRISTOPHER WILLS and CARLA K. JOHNSON, Associated Press

Wed Dec 1, 8:30 pm ET

45 Holidays about survival as jobless benefits end

By TOM BREEN, Associated Press

Wed Dec 1, 7:42 pm ET

46 Yogurt in, soda out: Army revamps training diet

By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER, Associated Press

Wed Dec 1, 6:04 pm ET

Liberal groups blast Obama for considering tax compromise

By Perry Bacon Jr., Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, December 2, 2010; 10:50 AM

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a liberal group that has repeatedly attacked President Obama on the left, is airing an ad demanding that he not agree to any compromise with the GOP that would extend tax cuts for household incomes above $250,000 a year.

The spot is called “Obama Promised,” and the group says it will air on CNN and MSNBC and on Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central over the next few days. It shows Obama in 2007 declaring that “we will also allow the temporary Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to expire.”

Meanwhile, Moveon.Org has its own new ad, titled “Obama Back,” which in cludes a video montage from Americans all over the country urging the president not to compromise.

“MoveOn members worked countless hours to help elect President Obama so we would have a leader who would go to the mat for regular Americans,” said Justin Ruben, Executive Director of MoveOn.org. “…We need the Obama of 2008 back to lead the fight and make the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share.”

Lefty group running ad slamming Obama — in Iowa

By Greg Sargent, The Washington Post

Posted at 11:01 AM ET, 12/ 2/2010

This means actual voters will see the spot, the first hitting Obama from the left of the new cycle. Iowa has special significance, because it’s there that Obama made his 2007 campaign promise to let the tax cuts for the wealthy expire, which is the centerpiece of the ad. The spot demands that Obama stick to his promise and not “cave” to Republicans by extending the tax cuts for the rich.

“We’re bringing our ad to the place President Obama made his core campaign promise of letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire,” Green tells me. “There is no room for compromise on an issue where the promise is so clear and where the Republicans are standing with the wealthiest 2% of Americans against the entirety of the American people.”

Between this spot and the new one unveiled this morning by MoveOn, it’s clear that the left has settled on a strategy of actively trying to damage Obama politically with the base and with left-leaning independents by painting him as weak, to force him to draw a harder line against Republicans. The left, clearly, has no intention of stopping with these efforts.

Surely some will insist that it only helps Obama to be attacked from the left. But efforts to encourage the perception that Obama is weak and refuses to fight — which is gaining some traction with the mainstream media, whether fair or not — could very well damage Obama politically over the long term. And the White House will probably have to deal with it sooner or later.

“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”.

Bill Clinton: We need to save more lives – with less

We risk losing our momentum, unless we find new ways to fill gaps left by reductions in Aids funding caused by the economic crisis

On World Aids Day 10 years ago, as I was preparing to leave office, the world was only beginning to grasp the severity of the Aids crisis. Nearly 36 million men, women and children were living with the disease, but only about 200,000 were receiving the treatment they needed. Funding was nowhere near the levels needed to prevent the disease from reaching pandemic levels.

Over the last decade, we have seen dramatic progress in both treatment and funding. In 2008 alone, $15bn was invested to fight Aids in developing countries, up from $6bn just three years earlier, due in large part to the US Government’s PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief) programme.

Josh Silver: FCC Chairman Announces Fake Net Neutrality Proposal

This morning, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced that he will finally seek a vote on President Obama’s top tech issue, “Net Neutrality.” Except for one problem: according to the New York Times, it’s not even close to the real Net Neutrality that President Obama promised the American people.

The Times report, based on an advance copy of a speech the Chairman plans to give today, indicates that the proposed rule is riddled with loopholes, and falls far short of what’s necessary to prevent phone and cable companies from turning the Internet into cable TV: where they decide what moves fast, what moves slow, and whether they can price gouge you or not: a shiny jewel for companies like AT&T and Comcast who have met with the Chairman more than anyone else during the past month, and whose affection he seems to crave more than making good on President Obama’s promise.

Now that the FCC’s proposed rulemaking has been officially announced, it will be deliberated and modified for the next three weeks, leading to a final vote on December 21st.

Nicholas D. Kristof: Haiti, Nearly a Year Later

Ultimately what Haiti most needs isn’t so much aid, but trade. Aid accounts for half of Haiti’s economy, and remittances for another quarter – and that’s a path to nowhere.

The United States has approved trade preferences that have already created 6,000 jobs in the garment sector in Haiti, and several big South Korean companies are now planning to open their own factories, creating perhaps another 130,000 jobs.

“Sweatshops,” Americans may be thinking. “Jobs,” Haitians are thinking, and nothing would be more transformative for the country.

Let’s send in doctors to save people from cholera. Let’s send in aid workers to build sustainable sanitation and water systems to help people help themselves. Let’s help educate Haitian children and improve the port so that it can become an exporter. But, above all, let’s send in business investors to create jobs.

Robert Reich: The Big Economic Story, and Why Obama Isn’t Telling It

Quiz: What’s responsible for the lousy economy most Americans continue to wallow in?

A. Big government, bureaucrats, and the cultural and intellectual elites who back them.

B. Big business, Wall Street, and the powerful and privileged who represent them.

These are the two competing stories Americans are telling one another.

Yes, I know: It’s more complicated than this. In reality, the lousy economy is due to insufficient demand — the result of the nation’s almost unprecedented concentration of income at the top. The very rich don’t spend as much of their income as the middle. And since the housing bubble burst, the middle class hasn’t had the buying power to keep the economy going. That concentration of income, in turn, is due to globalization and technological change — along with unprecedented campaign contributions and lobbying designed to make the rich even richer and do nothing to help average Americans, insider trading, and political bribery.

Jerome Taylor: Crusader for transparency or reckless anti-American? Crusader for trasnsparency or reckless anti-American?

Who is Julian Assange and what does he want? To some, especially in the United States, the Wikileaks founder is a dangerous information anarchist who revels in the chaos he creates and should be treated as an enemy.

Supporters laud the lanky 39-year-old as a champion of transparency – a man who has harnessed the power of the internet

to steal from the information rich and hand it back to the poor. The reality, as always, is probably somewhere in between.

Howard Fineman: Obama’s Naivete on Bipartisanship Has Finally Caught Up to Him

There were some, including some in the media, who listened to President Obama’s account of yesterday’s meeting with Republicans and concluded that there was hope for a surprisingly bipartisan conclusion to the lame duck Congress.

My questions are: what planet do he and they think they are on? And have they paid any attention to Sen. Mitch McConnell?

The president emerged from the meeting yesterday to say, hopefully, that the he had suggested that they work together not just on taxes and spending, but on the other issues pending, including an extension of unemployment insurance.

But at that very moment McConnell and the rest of he GOP Senate leadership were beginning work on a plan to force the Senate to do just the opposite: a unified GOP threat to filibuster debate on anything but taxes and spending.

Johann Hari: China’s Bullying of the Nobel Committee Is a Betrayal of its own Citizens

When the Nobel Peace Prize is presented next week, the stage will be empty and echoing. The winner — Liu Xiaobo — will be 5,000 miles away, in a filthy cell, alone, for the crime of trying to defend his fellow Chinese citizens. As the ceremony unfolds and the prize is not presented, a blindfolded and shackled man will be paraded through the streets of London in a traditional Chinese yoke. He will be a symbol of what the Chinese dictatorship is doing — but there will be an even more powerful and practical symbol in the hall in Oslo. There will be a row of empty seats, for the six countries that have been intimidated and bullied by China into not even attending the ceremony.

The Chinese government wants us to believe that this fight for greater freedom is a Western plot to weaken China. It is the opposite. It is a Chinese plot to strengthen China. Liu is a patriotic Chinese citizen who believes his people should be able to think and speak freely, and, in time, choose their own government. All he has ever done is peacefully advocate that goal — and it has got him an 11 year prison sentence.

Obama and GOPers Worked Together to Kill Bush Torture Probe

By David Corn, Mother Jones

Wed Dec. 1, 2010 2:47 PM PST

In its first months in office, the Obama administration sought to protect Bush administration officials facing criminal investigation overseas for their involvement in establishing policies the that governed interrogations of detained terrorist suspects. A “confidential” April 17, 2009, cable sent from the US embassy in Madrid to the State Department-one of the 251,287 cables obtained by WikiLeaks-details how the Obama administration, working with Republicans, leaned on Spain to derail this potential prosecution.

…

It would still be up to investigating Judge Baltasar Garzón-a world-renowned jurist who had initiated previous prosecutions of war crimes and had publicly said that former President George W. Bush ought to be tried for war crimes-to decide whether to pursue the case against the six former Bush officials. That June-coincidentally or not-the Spanish Parliament passed legislation narrowing the use of “universal jurisdiction.” Still, in September 2009, Judge Garzón pushed ahead with the case.

The case eventually came to be overseen by another judge who last spring asked the parties behind the complaint to explain why the investigation should continue. Several human rights groups filed a brief urging this judge to keep the case alive, citing the Obama administration’s failure to prosecute the Bush officials. Since then, there’s been no action. The Obama administration essentially got what it wanted. The case of the Bush Six went away.

Back when it seemed that this case could become a major international issue, during an April 14, 2009, White House briefing, I asked press secretary Robert Gibbs if the Obama administration would cooperate with any request from the Spaniards for information and documents related to the Bush Six. He said, “I don’t want to get involved in hypotheticals.” What he didn’t disclose was that the Obama administration, working with Republicans, was actively pressuring the Spaniards to drop the investigation. Those efforts apparently paid off, and, as this WikiLeaks-released cable shows, Gonzales, Haynes, Feith, Bybee, Addington, and Yoo owed Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton thank-you notes.

Another perspective-

The Madrid Cables

By Scott Horton, Harper’s Magazine

December 1, 3:51 PM, 2010

These cables reveal a large-scale, closely coordinated effort by the State Department to obstruct these criminal investigations. High-ranking U.S. visitors such as former Republican Party Chair Mel Martinez, Senator Greg Judd, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano were corralled into this effort, warning Spanish political leaders that the criminal investigations would “be misunderstood” and would harm bilateral relations. The U.S. diplomats also sought out and communicated directly with judges and prosecutors, attempting to steer the cases into the hands of judges of their choosing. The cables also reflect an absolutely extraordinary rapport between the Madrid embassy and Spanish prosecutors, who repeatedly appear to be doing the embassy’s bidding.

…

The cables also reflect a high level of concern at the prospect that Spanish and German prosecutors-both looking at aspects of the kidnapping and torture of Khaled El-Masri-would share notes and begin taking action. In fact exactly this sort of cooperation occurred (as it has occurred between Spanish, German, and Italian prosecutors in several other cases involving the CIA extraordinary rendition program), and U.S. concerns that it would block their efforts were proven correct. After political pressure was applied to Germany to withdraw the arrest warrants, they were simply reissued by the Spanish magistrates, who were better shielded against political manipulation.