Open Thread: C&L's Saturday Night Podcast Round
Up

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Here at C&L we realize there are a lot of great liberal podcasts out there. We've been running the Professional Left Podcast for the past year, and now it's time to start highlighting other podcasters and the great work they do, too.

Tonight, we raid the archives of the Virtually Speaking Podcasts. Virtually Speaking broadcasts live programs Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 9pm ET; produced before a studio audience via IRC, in the virtual world of Second Life, and on iTunes. The podcasts include conversations with thought leaders in politics, media, economics, science and more.

Virtually Speaking with Jay Ackroyd: Bruce Schneier and James Fallows discuss security theater and civil aviation

Virtually Speaking A-Z: Stuart Zechman outlines the foundations of movement liberalism

Virtually Speaking Susie: Susie Madrak talks to Dave Johnson about the Democratic leadership on the Hill

Virtually Speaking Sundays: Digby and Glenn Greenwald on civil liberties

VIrtually Speaking Science: Tom Levenson and Seth Mnookin discuss Seth's book, The Panic Virus

Open Thread below....

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The Bet

And here's Mitt's great $10k bet moment. A bit awkward and already been chewed up by Romney's many foes. [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/Elg6fuZrk6M/the_bet.php

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Getting Down To It

10:09 PM: Mitt: "I'm not a bombthrower." Newt: "I will tell the truth even if it's at the risk of causing some confusion sometimes with the timid."10:10 PM: This exchange over Israel is really the key exchange. From the point of view of the intended[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/koTIpBHIhMQ/getting_down_to
_it.php

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Occupy Evening Shift

Mr. Green and I stopped by this morning and heard that help would be needed to keep a peaceful presence at Burnside Park, when the Occupation would move to the State House.

What with one thing and another, I didn’t get Downtown until about 6pm, after the demonstration, and I decided to stay at the Park and find some useful thing to do.

Sometimes that useful thing is simply being there, which I’m good at so that’s what I did.

I stationed myself at the plywood booth and kept people company. I spent a long time talking to a woman who, in my nursing opinion, urgently needs preventive care and education now. She is one of the many underinsured. She pays a lot for catastrophic insurance but has a heavy co-pay for the medications and tests she needs, which sometimes makes that care unaffordable.

I felt a little like a mechanic, trying to convince someone that their engine will fail down the line if they don’t get their oil changed. And knowing that the driver is using every penny to fill the gas tank to drive to work. To earn the money to keep the car. The difference is that a car is replaceable and a human life is not.

So next time I stop by with coffee I’ll bring some information about health care options for that percent of the 99% that has no health care security. (I’ll add a link about what percentage that is that tomorrow, but tonight I’m kind of beat.)

What stays with me is the good cheer of the Occupiers even in biting cold and facing each day without any idea what the next 24 hours will bring.

People stopped by the booth, some Occupiers, (including one guy in a wheelchair who has been putting in effort that endurance athletes would respect), old people, young people, donators and hungry people.

A young couple showed up with a tin tray of felafel and hummus. We put them out and explained to people what those fried chick pea balls were and recommending the hummus if you wanted to really appreciate them. I came away with part of a large bag of spinach there was no way to cook in the Park, so I’ll have to invent an Occupy Rustic Urban Greens recipe.

Someone stopped by with gloves, much appreciated.

This week there was another report of a fire department that refused to put out a fire because the the homeowners had failed to pay a fee. I posted on this once before, and got a refutation from a firefighter who said he knew the details of the case, and who said that my post set off his PTSD. Is it possible that our Nation has fallen into such confusion that we are breaking the hearts of the most brave and dedicated of our citizens?

What is the American spirit? Is it the spirit of the bucket brigade, the barn raising, the men and women filling sandbags when the levees break? Or is it the spirit fear and scarcity? The politician who gets elected on promises of tax cuts? The politician who fuels resentment against the poor? Is it the spirit of the gated community–raising the walls and narrowing the gates, believing that resources are valuable and humans are cheap?

I was sitting in Burnside Park, and did not get to hear the Native American drum ceremony that was performed at the State House. The history of the Narragansetts has much to teach us about change, accommodation, justice and injustice. Who has the right to Occupy what is debatable.

We are here now, under a full moon in an unnatural December when the weather has just turned from a prolonged mild fall to winter.

In the cold, in tents, We the People are petitioning for justice. It’s hard to pin this down, without leader or slogan. 99% is a lot. This is the tipping point where the economic pain affects so many people that a cry for justice cannot be ignored.

It’s amazing that Occupy Providence prevails. What the Occupiers are doing is being there. Like Gandhi’s fasts, it gets to you. Day after day– they are there. They are there for all of us.

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Negotiators Strike Wide-Ranging Deal During
Extended Climate Talks in Durban

Update

5:00 am: Tweets of the morning from Christina Figueres, executive secretary of the UNFCCC:

After a grueling two days of negotiations with almost no rest, the international community gathered at COP 17 in Durban, South Africa was able to agree on an extension of the Kyoto Protocol, a framework for negotiating internationally-binding emissions targets, and more details on an international fund for financing adaptation and mitigation projects.

Before the meeting even began, people were ready to write off the negotiations as a failure. With almost all major priorities outlined by negotiators coming into the meeting adopted, the international community has taken far bigger steps than anyone expected.

As Figueres pointed out, they are still not enough to get us on a sharply declining emissions path. And a number of environmental groups are criticizing the package, saying it won’t get the job done. But it’s a decent start ? and certainly far better than predicted coming into this meeting.

I’ve been updating this piece all day. But now I have to drop off and catch a plane. We’ll have plenty more analysis on how this will all be implemented soon. So stay with us.

Update

4:50 am: Text establishing a transitional committee for a $100 billion Green Fund was just adopted. That means the major priorities that were fought for at Durban were passed.

Update

4:45 am: The text for the Kyoto Protocol and the Long-term Cooperative Action were both adopted. Lots of clapping and cheering for adoption of the LCA — a 56-page document that outlines the frameworks for negotiations around binding commitments, an international fund for financing adaptation and mitigation, and a technology transfer program.

Update

4:00 am: COP 17 has adopted text that would set a path for negotiating binding emissions reductions beyond 2020.

Leading into this plenary, there were major disagreements between the Europeans and the Indians on the language around establishing a new negotiations process for binding targets. At issue was the following text:

Decides that the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action shall complete its work as early as possible but no later than 2015 in order to adopt this protocol, legal instrument or legal outcome at the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties and for it to come into effect and be implemented[.]

India and other developing countries supported the term ?legal outcome,? which other players ? particularly the EU ? had a problem with. The Indians threatened to open the entire text of the Long-term Cooperative Action document up if the term was stripped out. During a ten minute break from the meeting, it was decided that the term be changed to ?legal force,? which the EU and India agreed to.

Update

3:45 am: The meeting of the COP has begun. “Time is not on our side,” exclaimed Nkoana-Mashabane

Update

Maite Nkoana-Mashabane: “I am making a humble, humble appeal” to work together to put this package together at 2:45 in the morning to “save the UNFCCC process.” This is about more than a climate bill. This is about saving what the UNFCCC has worked for.

Update

2:30 am: We are still in a stock taking session before we get into the negotiations to actually hash out the text. We’ve been hearing from a variety of countries expressing support for and concerns about the text being considered. But we haven’t even considered it yet. COP 17 president Maite Nkoana-Mashabane has made a plea for countries to stop making statements, but it looks like there are a handful of countries left.

It may be late, but many of the speeches ? particularly those from China and India ? have been somewhat dramatic and impassioned. They’ve certainly kept people awake.

This isn’t just overtime. This is double sudden-death overtime. This is far and away the longest COP ever ? and the negotiations are far from over. Expect a few more sparks to fly.

Update

11:45: If you want a sense of the frustration and angst here in Durban, follow the #COP17 feed on twitter.

After four and a half hours of discussion, the Kyoto Protocol and the Long-Term Cooperative Action documentation will be forwarded on to the COP for consideration. The COP plenary will take place in 30 minutes.

Before recommending the passage of the LCA, the chair stressed there’s “a great deal of disappointment” with the text, sounding almost like he wasn’t going to pass it on for consideration.

U.S. Special Envoy Todd Stern expressed his support for the LCA, saying “this is obviously not a perfect agreement…and of course it can’t be.” But delaying it will “threaten to unravel” the UNFCCC process. Even though many people would like to see the document moved forward, Stern received scant applause ? a sign of frustration from the belaugered crowd with the U.S. stance in the meeting.

Update

The sessions are underway to discuss the various pieces of text developed in negotiations today. You can see the text here, and watch negotiations here.

Update

6:50 pm: Opening of the plenary lasted about 5 minutes. You can watch the upcoming negotiations here. A statement from South Africa’s Minister of Foreign Relations Nkoana-Mashabane: “We cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good….The world is watching.”

They promised the documents would be coming as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, outside the Ministerial meeting, a European Diplomat leaving the meeting: “Nobody wants to close anything until they close everything. The way this is going, yes” we will be here all night.

Update

5:40 pm: Chief U.S. diplomat Todd Stern just left the negotiating room. A few reporters went up to ask questions, thinking that something had happened. Turns out, he was just going to the bathroom.

People are still sitting, standing, pacing around the convention center ? anxiously waiting for diplomats to strike a deal. No major news to report, other than the meeting hasn’t blown up yet.

We heard constant back and forth speculation that parties were calling for an extension of the COP 17 meeting. But we’re now hearing that we could be closing in on some sort of compromise that includes a legal instrument for future international targets. Please note: that is unconfirmed. Speculation is running wild here.

There’s an informal ministerial meeting currently underway. An open plenary is supposedly planned for 6.

The best outcome, of course, would be an agreement by China to commit to negotiations for a legal framework or for binding targets. That would bring the U.S. on board, which has held out until developing countries like India and China consider emission reduction targets. If that were the case, it would also encourage the Europeans to support an extension of the Kyoto Protocol — they said they’d only agree to a Kyoto extension if a roadmap toward a binding treaty were formed.

There are many balls still in the air. Will we we catch them? Or let them fall to the ground?

Update

3:30 pm: A coalition of youth from the political-action organization Avaaz are outside the conference hall chanting “don’t block the talks” ? referencing the U.S., which they have hammered on throughout the negotiations.

Kudos to Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones for providing the picture via twitter. She clearly has a better cell phone camera.

Update

2:50 pm: Things could get very tricky in the final hours of negotiations. Some ministers have already left. Others are trying to re-book flights at the last minute. I’ve overheard from a couple people ? including Samantha Smith of WWF International quoted below ? that ministers from developing countries are finding it difficult and cost-prohibitive to re-book flights.

There’s an informal ministerial meeting scheduled for 5 pm, which leaves very little time to get through all of the major priorities at hand.

Update

2:20 pm: In the oddest moment of the day, a fake negotiating text was sent around to delegates this morning, burning up the last remaining hours of negotiating time during today’s emergency negotiations. No one is quite sure if it was a mistake, or an attempt to sabotage the talks.

Rumors have been floating around all morning, but no one could verify that there was actually a fake text. Fiona Harvey and John Vidal of the Guardian were able to actually get their hands on the text:

If the text was a forgery, it was a poor one: it was headed with the wrong date (Friday 10 December, instead of Saturday 10 December) and was printed in the wrong typeface (Arial, instead of Times New Roman) for an official document.

The president of the conference, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, was forced to issue an official denial of the text, but only after the bizarre episode had wasted valuable time.

Update

1:20: Workers begin disassembling the conference center to prepare for the next event before any agreement at COP has been reached. Will we get kicked out before something happens?

Update

12:48 pm: Samantha Smith, Leader of the Global Climate and Energy Initiative for WWF International, thinks we’ll leave Durban “with some of the keys unresolved and not very strong text.” Rumors of an extended meeting of COP 17 have been floating around since last night, but are still unconfirmed.

“You can lead them to water, but you can’t make them drink,” says Smith.

Meanwhile, ministers from various countries are reportedly trickling out of the conference hall, leaving for home.

Update

12:30 pm: Jake Schmidt, international policy director for NRDC, sums up the mood at COP right now: “Everything is fuzzy at this point. We are close to a good move forward, but some key countries are still blocking. A deal has to be reached quickly or the talks in Durban could crater.”

Update

12:05 pm: best tweet yet from today:

Update

11:50 am: New text from for the Long-term Cooperative Action track has been released. It outlines a general agreement to “work towards identifying a global goal for substantially reducing emissions by 2050″ that will be considered at the 18th session. In other words, they are working on creating a new track to establish any new mitigation targets. We call this the ad hoc working group “to be named later.” Also, no agreement on financing for REDD. It’s already approaching noon, so the window for hashing out the substance of the document is closing.

Update

10:20 am: The plenary session has been delayed, with no schedule and no new text released as of yet. This likely means that the negotiators are hashing out details in hopes that they can go into the plenary ready to make a grand bargain.

9:30 am: Negotiators were meeting until after 5 am Durban time this morning. Late last night, new text came out for the Green Climate Fund and the Kyoto Protocol. These are still being worked out. Also being considered is the possibly of a framework for starting negotiations on emissions targets ? whether “legally binding,” a looser “legal framework” or a new protocol. The talks have spilled over for an open, high-level session Saturday, and will likely go all day.

The next high-level plenary was set to start at 10 am Durban time, and we’re expecting 5-6 hours of session. Some are speculating whether the parties will be able to agree on text before the end of the day.

Many are concerned that the meeting could blow up, or we could simply run out of time. If the U.S. doesn’t agree to a process that ends in a new binding agreement, the Europeans may pull out of Kyoto. If that happens, developing countries could block some of the other important frameworks like the Green Climate Fund (which is now mostly agreed to). Anything could happen at this point.

For an overview of how things may play out, check out Andrew Light’s analysis from last night. Not much has changed since.

If you want to read any of the new text, you can find it on the right-hand column of the UNFCCC page. If you want to watch the plenary online, you can find it here (Baobab).

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Late Night FDL: Weve heard this song before

So there I was, doing my daily surfing of various news and web sites when I noticed this from CNN about folks in Russia protesting the recent election that returned Vladimir Putin to the Russian leadership...[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/JtADWmIKRGA/

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C&L's Late Night Music Club with King Curtis &
The Kingpins

Genre: SoulTitle: Memphis Soul StewArtist: King Curtis & The Kingpins

King Curtis cooks up some soul food. Hungry?

What you got cookin' tonight?

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Saturday Night Liveblog #8: Professor Gingrich
vs. Mandate Mitt (and four other Republiclowns)

Talk about it here. Watch it live on ABC or desmoinesregister.com.

7:44 PM PT: Rick Perry gives another good answer, again not really speaking about anything. He sends some love to Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann. Mitt Romney sends love to Paul as well. But I'll guarantee you this: none of the people on that stage will ever endorse Ron Paul. Ever.

7:46 PM PT: Newt Gingrich salutes Terry Branstad, and both Ricks on the stage: Perry (10th and Santorum (Iran).

7:47 PM PT: Ron Paul says if everybody thinks about it long enough they'll eventually agree he's right. Michele Bachmann salutes Herman Cain because he taught people to "reduce things to a very simple level so people can understand it." She points to his 9-9-9 plan ... which she opposed.

7:48 PM PT: And that's it ? the debates over. Now it's up to the pundits and spinners. What'd you think? If you lived in Iowa, what kinda' havoc would you like to wreak in the caucuses?

7:51 PM PT: Romney certainly didn't do himself much good in this debate. True, some lines of attack on Gingrich were fleshed out, but Gingrich certainly was able to return fire. Worse for Romney though: he said the payroll tax cut was a bandaid, offered to make a $10,000 bet, said he knew Netanyahu because he'd worked with him on Wall Street, and also said he didn't grow up poor.

7:54 PM PT: The $10K bet is all the talk of the ABC post-debate panel, which isn't good for Romney. I think they are downplaying the importance of the "Palestinian People" portion of the debate. Overall, Newt Gingrich is being seen as a winner, but Stephanopoulos brought up the "Newt Romney" line from Michele Bachmann.

8:01 PM PT: My basic take: Romney didn't really draw any blood, and Gingrich put him on defense with foreign policy. Gingrich also responded to every attack that came his way. I think most Republicans will feel more confident in Gingrich as their nominee after the debate, not less?and that's bad news not just for Romney, but any other Republican hoping to win the nomination.

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Saturday Stuff

Is anybody out there looking for a holiday ?stocking stuffer?? Here?s a suggestion (probably a little late on this video, I?ll admit ? I never imagined a line of sorts from shielding a certain R.M. Nixon all the way to shielding the banksters, Big Pharma, and the rest of the one percent, but fortunately, Glenn Greenwald did more than imagine it)?



?and I thought this was a catchy little seasonal number (sorry, no video).



Read The Full Article:
http://liberaldoomsayer.blogspot.com/2011/12/saturday-stuff.html

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Saturday Night Liveblog #7: Professor Gingrich
vs. Mandate Mitt (and four other Republiclowns)

Talk about it here. Watch it live on ABC or desmoinesregister.com.

7:27 PM PT: Michele Bachmann brings up TARP, yet another thing that she opposed from the very start but was too incompetent to actually defeat. (Suddenly I'm having flashbacks of Sarah Palin's TARP support.) She then says some people on the stage supported TARP without naming names. And she also clips coupon.

7:29 PM PT: Stephanopoulos says the Yahoo! audience wants more background on Mitt Romney's support for health care mandates (and I think Gingrich's as well).

7:32 PM PT: Romney: "States can do whatever the heck they want." He says he likes MassCare, if other states want to follow it, that's great, he says it's a good model. Steph asks if he means mandates. Romney says sure, if they want to. He also mentions exchanges as something states might want to do. That was a mistake: in mid-2009, Romney specifically said he was "glad" that President Obama had copied MassCare's exchanges in the national plan. That really destroys the substance of Romney's argument for state's rights. His argument is really about surviving the GOP primary.

7:34 PM PT: Gingrich says he realized the mandate was bad when he realized that if you can mandate health insurance you can mandate that people must buy anything. That's a total B.S. answer. But the difference with Romney is that Gingrich never actually signed a law that created a mandate.

7:35 PM PT: Rick Perry has his best answer of the debate. I won't bother with the details, but the key thing is that he didn't use a single number in his answer, and spent the entire time talking about what he wants the federal government to not do. That's really what he's best at: doing nothing. He shouldn't talk about anything else.

@RebeccaDNC: So to @MittRomney...$1500 is a 'little band-aid' and $10,000 is a quick bet?

7:41 PM PT: I want to know what Diane Sawyer smoked before this debate. She seems high as a kite.

7:43 PM PT: Oh, Kaili just reminded me that Sawyer said she had a cough. So maybe she's hopped up on NyQuil. Anyway, we're now in the closing argument round of the debate. And some random dope named Rick Santorum is talking. He's nowhere in the polls, which probably means he'll be leading the field in two weeks time.

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