Reliable Sources: David Shuster Pwns Jennifer
Rubin, Politico, and Conservative Whiners

post from Crooks and Liars on 10 June 2012 10:00:04 PM. © Crooks and Liars

David Shuster Rips Jennifer Rubin: Obama's Pot Smoking Not Like Romney's Gay Bullying

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This segment is entitled "The Media vs. Mitt" on CNN's website. Evidently there's some whining (when is there NOT whining?) in conservative quarters that Mittens isn't getting a fair shake by the media. Never mind that Pew found that President Obama had received far less positive coverage than negative during the first four months of the year, and followed that up with another study more recently affirming that at no time has President Obama received more favorable coverage than Mitt Romney.

Never mind all of that, because Politico has now weighed in with their "concerns", which involve the number of stories about Mitt's mendacity, meanness, and other character flaws, things Ari Fleischer thinks are "personal" and which Jennifer Rubin thinks are "shiny things."

Of course, right about the time Rubin refers to them as shiny things, she's off to the races listing the number of media "vetting failures" there were over President Obama's drug use as a college student.

Shuster is great at debunking their manufactured poutrage, calling it "just more Republican BS," which is a great characterization to use on a cable news channel that actually thinks it's a good idea to employ Dana Loesch and Erick Erickson as commentators.

Fleischer and Rubin are just playing the refs, and hoping to nip any media curiosity about Mitt Romney's penchant for impersonating fake cops in the bud before that story actually gets in front of the American people. As to the so-called "failure" of media to vet President Obama, well, here's a pretty clear picture from The Grio as to how much of a lie that is.

Really, Ari? You?ve got to be kidding. The press is still running probing, sneering stories about PresidentObama. Are you familiar with Maureen Dowd?s work? It is not for the faint of heart. And if you are brave enough to venture into the outer reaches of the Internet where World Net Daily resides, you are sure to find tales of Obama munching on puppies for lunch.
As for candidate Obama? I have two words for you: Jeremiah Wright. In 2008, the electorate was treated to ?God d**n America!? on a loop for what seemed like ever. And now, thanks to Romney surrogate Donald Trump, Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett, and an assortment of conservatives, we are going to be treated to six months of intense Birther speculation that the media is still loathe to call racist because the word ?racist? is so uncivil.

Shuster really nails Rubin, though, when he hammers her on her false equivalencies with regard to the different stories. On the one hand, there is the self-disclosed drug use on Obama's part. On the other, there's Mitt Romney pinning down a gay student and cutting his hair while he cried and screamed. What is equivalent about those two stories? Answer: Not a darn thing, and as Shuster explains, to try to equate them is ridiculous.

I'll clarify further: Romney's treatment of that student and fake cop incident are entirely relevant because they go straight to the question of how he relates to and treats others. Obama's drug use is relevant to the extent that it was better for him to disclose it and rob conservatives of screaming headlines, but it says nothing about how he regards other members of the human race.

It isn't a shiny thing, these things Romney does. And it's not wrong to bring them into the light. Voters deserve to understand how Mitt Romney views his relationship to others and his place in the larger sea of humanity. It's clear he sees himself as One Appointed To Bully Them.

h/t David at Video Cafe for the clip.

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Krugman vs. Keen: Rhetoric vs. Reality

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 10 June 2012 09:45:59 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

About two months ago economists Paul Krugman and Steve Keen got in a very public, somewhat unpleasant, and very unusual, online spat. It is worth noting that not only did Krugman not win the debate, he was pretty convincingly defeated. [...]

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Citizens United, June 5th, and Money, Money,
Money, Money! by Geminijen

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 10 June 2012 09:07:53 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

"When the madness is directed towards the likes of you and me,Then our blindness may be lifted and we might begin to see.For when others are afflicted, with the scourge that has no end,Then we practice our denial -- and the purging, we defend.So the[...]

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Pique the Geek 20120610: More on Fireflies

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 10 June 2012 09:05:16 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Last time we had a rather technical discussion about the biology and chemical mechanics of fireflies. I appreciate all of the comments, and some of them indicated that I should expound a bit.Most of the comments were concerned with firefly ecology[...]

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Obama & Clinton Pal, Bahrains King Al Khalifa,
Jails Kids

post from Firedoglake on 10 June 2012 09:00:50 PM. © Firedoglake

At left you see the photo of Ali Hasan. Ali is 11 years old and has been in a Bahraini jail for three weeks now. His crime ? ?Illegal gathering.? His trial will be held tomorrow.[...]

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Urban Gadabout: Jamaica Bay, Newtown Creek, et
al. -- here I come!

post from DownWithTyranny! on 10 June 2012 09:00:13 PM. © DownWithTyranny!

See below for information about the Jamaica Bay Ecology Cruise leaving from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, on June 24.

by Ken

Some years back I had the pleasure of providing overnight accommodations to a friend who had a layover in New York on his journey from the Midwest abroad, and because he'd never been in the city, I went to the airport to meet him and drag him all the way back to my place in Washington Heights -- not quite as long a distance as you could have within the five boroughs of NYC, but a long distance anyways.

The Air Train was up and running by then, providing -- for the first time! -- easy access from JFK to the Howard Beach station of the A train for the long trip back to my place, but I still feel kind of bad about what I did. Instead of doing the logical thing and planting us on the Manhattan-bound platform, I dragged my poor friend to the opposite platform, from which the A train begins what I consider an amazing trip across Jamaica Bay to the Rockaway peninsula.

I think of this as one of the amazing rail journeys a person can make for the price of a subway fare. I do it at least a couple of times a year, even if I have no desire actually to be in the Rockaways. I realized, though, that my friend had no interest in this little ocean voyage by rail, or in my labored efforts to explain the geography of our journey. I suppose it was understandable that his mind was more wrapped up in the long and laborious trip still ahead of him, and the several months he would be spending in his remote destination.

I thought about that day when I took my most recent trip across Jamaica Bay, but for the first time not all the way across the bay. At the Broad Channel station, the next stop after Howard Beach, I was getting off to meet a tour group led by the incomparable Justin Ferate, which would begin with a walk through the community of Howard Beach -- an extremely right-wing neighborhood with a heavy concentration of police and firefighters -- as the start of a mile-and-a-half walk to the visitor center of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. As many times as I've made the train crossing of Jamaica Bay, I never had any idea there even was such a destination.

I was caught short again when some of my fellow tour-group members not only had never done the Jamaica Bay train ride but really didn't even know where they were. They had followed Justin's instructions (in some cases never having set foot on an A train before) and arrived at the designated subway station and found the designated meeting place, but the rest was a mystery to them.

Jamaica Bay has always been a mystery to me, but not that kind of mystery. I've always been a compulsive map-reader, and when my family moved to New York when I was 12, and I began to become obsessed with the map of NYC, my eyes were riveted by that enormous expanse of bay bounded by the coasts of Brooklyn, "mainland" Queens, and the Rockaways. So when I saw that Justin was doing a walking tour of the Wildlife Refuge, I got my check in the mail immediately. And it was a terrific afternoon tramping around the most accessible portions of the refuge guided by Don Riepe, director of the Northeast Chapter of the American Littoral Society, and the enormously capable and charming Elizabeth, who works with Don.

It was a wonderful but exhausting afternoon, and I'm going to share something with "Urban Gadabout" readers which I somehow managed not to mention to readers of my DownWithTyranny "Sunday Classics" posts. (I'm figuring there isn't much overlap between the readerships, even making the large and presumptuous assumption that either has any readership.)
I've written several posts now based on the New York Concert Artists series of "Evenings of Piano Concerti," including today's, and while it's true that most of what interested me had already happened in the first three concerts, I never got around to mentioning that I blew off the fourth and final one, because that Saturday I would have had to go straight from the Jamaica Bay outing to Good Shepherd-Faith Presbyterian Church on Manhattan's West Side, with possibly time to stop at a conveniently located branch of my gym to shower. And the next day I had walking tours scheduled first in the Bronx (the second walk in Jack Eichenbaum's terrific Municipal Art Society series of South Bronx walks, which began in March with Mott Haven and concludes June 24 with Morrisania) and then in Brooklyn (the New York Transit Museum tour of several historic subway stations, which I wrote about recently).

There's more to that story, including tales of a number of other upcoming events around the city, but I'm going to leave that for sometime soon, maybe even tomorrow, in order to pass on news that Don and Elizabeth shared with us before we left the Wildlife Refuge.

June 24 - Jamaica Bay Sunset Cruises (3pm-6pm)

Leave from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn aboard the "Golden Sunshine" for a narrated tour of Jamaica Bay. Learn about the history, ecology, wildlife and management of the refuge and see egrets, herons, osprey, peregrine falcon, terns, shorebirds and waterfowl. Cost: $45 includes tour, wine & cheese, fruit, drink, snacks. Call (718) 318-9344; e-mail: donriepe@gmail.com. You can also make payment here. (With Gateway NRA and NYC Audubon.)

You may have noticed that the date is the same as Jack Eichenbaum's walk through Morrisania in the Bronx. Yes, once again, as with both previous installments in Jack's Bronx series, I'm headed straight from there to Brooklyn!

More about upcoming walking tours of Jack's, and some other tantalizing events, in the next installment.
#

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Coulter: Romney Has a Midas Touch With Everything
He's Done

post from Crooks and Liars on 10 June 2012 09:00:02 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Coulter: Romney Has a Midas Touch With Everything He's Done

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From ABC's This Week, after formally attacking Mitt Romney and saying if the Republicans nominate him, they're going to lose, Ann Coulter now says "Romney has had a Midas touch with everything he's done." I would imagine some of his investors might have felt that way. Not so much if you were unfortunate enough to work at one of the companies his firm took over.

COULTER: It's not just that I was magnificent at Bain and I should be president; it's that Romney has had a Midas touch with everything he's done.
RENDELL: Massachusetts?
COULTER: Hang on. You keep interpreting me. This is going to get through. First of all, yes, as governor of Massachusetts, with an 85 percent Democratic legislature, he -- he slashed spending, which is what our federal government needs.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you didn't like his health care plan in Massachusetts.
RENDELL: Great health care plan.
COULTER: Then, at Bain -- I mean, about, what 75 percent, 80 percent of the businesses that were going to bankrupt, he does turn around. He's a green eyeshade kind of guy. He will do what no president, not even Ronald Reagan, has ever done, and that is go through the budget and cut the spending. And there's a lot to be cut.
And the Olympics, which was also going bankrupt and is an enormous business. And the Midas touch man comes in and turns around this nearly bankrupt institution. It is not just Bain. It is everything he touches.
And these ads are unfair because -- and they keep changing, to my notice.
Because, if you look at what he's actually done and who's talking here, they're always the president of the union that shut down a plant in a business that was going out of -- bankrupt.

I'm not so sure the people who lived in Massachusetts would agree with her either.

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At The Intersections: Blogging (and Working) for
Transgender Equality

post from Firedoglake on 10 June 2012 08:00:26 PM. © Firedoglake

Quoting Jos at Feministing from her post entitled Netroots ?12: watch Blogging for Transgender Equality: I?m on a panel at Netroots Nation this morning about blogging on transgender issues, and you can watch the panel right here ? it?s streaming live at[...]

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The California 'top two' open primary format: A
postmortem

post from Daily Kos on 10 June 2012 08:00:05 PM. © Daily Kos

Golden Gate Bridge?San Francisco, CA (Photo by elfling)Last Sunday, in advance of the June 6th primary elections, I posed three questions about Tuesday's California primaries.

The genesis of the piece was born in the new "top two" primary elections format that made its debut five days ago in the Golden State, which had aroused a fair amount of attention and scrutiny in the political arena in the run-up to the actual balloting.

Now that we have some actual data to deal with, what do we know now about the process? The elections created intrigue, to be sure, but also had some glaring flaws which were quickly exposed on Tuesday night.

Before we get to that glaring (but not totally unforeseen) circumstance, let's recap those three questions posed last week, and take a minute to analyze those questions. But first, a caveat?in a state as big as California, there are still loads of ballots to count, and some of the things that are being described here as foregone conclusions just might not be, when all is said and done.

Now, about those questions:

1. Will the new system embolden independent candidates, or kill them off?

The answer: By and large, kill them off.

Before this "top two" system was put in place, third-party candidates could participate in the general election, and could play a pivotal role in the outcome of the November elections, especially in races or districts that are closely contested.

Now, the only way for a third-party or independent candidate to be relevant is to crack that top two. Currently, four golden tickets to November were punched by a candidate who was neither a Republican nor a Democrat. Three candidates aren't even worth mentioning, because they are running in uber-blue or uber-red districts. Those are the kind of districts where the incumbents are often unopposed, anyway.

Only one candidate has the capacity to make things even marginally interesting. That candidate is little-known, but very well-heeled, independent candidate Bill Bloomfield in CA-33. Bloomfield is the wealthy owner of a real estate firm who dumped over $1.1 million in self contributions to his campaign, and earned 26 percent of the vote on primary day. He had several things working in his favor, however, that were somewhat unique to his case. For one, the aforementioned seven-figure bit of personal assistance is not something that many candidates are going to be able to swing. Another key factor: The blue-tinted district had a Republican Some Dude, which allowed Bloomfield to play up his fiscally conservative street cred to pick off Republicans that never heard from their party's lone candidate in the field, in addition to swing voters who might've been attracted to Bloomfield's "throw out the bums" message. Don't get me wrong, he'll be lucky to crack 40 percent in a district which has a distinct blue tint. But his money makes him at least worth watching.

However, three higher-profile (but lesser-funded) indie candidates failed to crack the top two. In two of those cases, Congressional candidates Chad Condit (CA-10) and Linda Parks (CA-26) had the advantage of some name recognition, but failed to crack the 20 percent barrier. The third indie, Nathan Fletcher (San Diego Mayor), was a former GOP state legislator whose candidacy was hyped to the moon and back. In the end, enough Democrats stuck with Rep. Bob Filner, and enough Republicans stuck with Carl DeMaio, to relegate Fletcher to third-place status, albeit with 24 percent of the vote.

However, in fairness, that doesn't render those candidates powerless. Whether via official endorsement or not, the candidates that survived Tuesday will have to romance Fletcher, Parks, or Condit supporters, in particular the Democratic candidates, all of whom came in second place in round one.

2. Will June be a predictor for November in key races?

I won't belabor this point, because I already did it earlier this week in response to a piece by WaPo's Aaron Blake.

The short answer is: Almost certainly not. Turnout was pretty darned weak (it currently sits at 24 percent of registered voters, whereas turnout in 2010 was 33 percent, and turnout in 2008 was 28 percent. Furthermore, it was a skewed sample?51 percent of voters drew a Democratic presidential primary ballot (the only contest which, by rule, had to be restricted to one-party primary rules). 47 percent cast ballots in the GOP primary. Absolutely no one, in either party, thinks that will be the composition of the electorate in November.

3. Will this new system inadvertently screw Democrats?

Heh. This is where that big, but not totally unforeseen, flaw in this system comes to the fore. However, when I posed this question last Sunday, I looked at this purely from a campaign finance perspective.

That will be a consideration, still. Democrats are going heads-up in a handful of districts, though only a few of those (CA-15, CA-30 and CA-44) are liable to be big money affairs.

Republicans, meanwhile, look like they will have two such contests. One was foreseen, to an extent: the high desert district in CA-08. In a wild, almost absurd multi candidate field, Republicans went 1-2-3. However, the gap between Republican frontrunner Paul Cook and fourth place Democrat Jackie Conaway was less than 1000 votes.

The second contest was, in its own way, more absurd than the first. In the newly drawn and marginally Democratic 31st district, Republicans accounted for 52 percent of the vote and Democrats accounted for 48 percent. And yet, there will in all probability be two Republicans on the ballot in November.

How did such a catastrophe occur? Because there were only two Republicans on the ballot (incumbent Rep. Gary Miller and state legislator Bob Dutton), and a quartet of Democrats. Because there was little real estate between the two Republicans, they scored at 27 percent and 25 percent, respectively. Even though Democrat Pete Aguilar actually got about half of the Democratic vote, the three remaining Democrats in the mix claimed the rest. This left Aguilar at 23 percent, and out of the running.

And herein lies an institutional problem with the "top two" structure, one which might actually counteract one of the stated goals of the new system. If one of the rationales for this system was to weaken the influence of political parties, it may have failed miserably. Because one has to assume now that parties in 2014 will be working double time to clear the decks for their preferred candidates in the filing process. Whether it is indirect "take one for the team pressure," or a raft of party assistance being dropped in the laps of the favored horses in the field, one has to guess that the sting of losing a winnable district will compel the Democrats (and the GOP, if they were paying close attention) to interfere more in the primary process, not less.

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, might be done to rectify this particular malady. The nightmare scenario of both parties running "fake" candidates of the opposite party, in an effort to enlard the ballot and split votes, seems to demand some kind of a fix. That fix could still work within the confines of the "open" primary structure?it could simply be the top two candidates, but moving on to the third candidate in the queue if the top two came from the same party, for example. Whether it will happen or not is an open question, but you can bet after the debacle in the 31st, people in party headquarters are going to be talking about it.

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On This Week, Ann Coulter and Mike Huckabee Roll
Out Of The GOP Clown Car

Lordy, Lordy, Lordy. "Aw Shucks" Huckabee, Lady Ann Coulter-Crazy, Van Jones and Ed Rendell on This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

Poor Ann. She starts blathering inanity, Van Jones and Ed Rendell jump on her statement and she clutches her pearls. "All you mean boys are interrupting me! Please, someone help poor little me!"

But I also love when she says that Bill Clinton is very frustrated with the "far left" President Obama. Host George Stephanopoulos, of course, remains silent when the proper response would be hearty laughter. But he adheres to the Very Serious Journalist Code of The View From Nowhere.

And she also asks where are the Democrats upset about drone attacks when we were all howling about everything George Bush did! (You'll have to excuse Lady Ann, she doesn't get out much. Her servants bring her booze now.)

I also love the part where she waxes rhapsodic about Mitt Romney and his magical touch (I get an icky feeling just thinking about it):

COULTER: Then, at Bain -- I mean, about, what 75 percent, 80 percent of the businesses that were going to bankrupt, he does turn around. He's a green eyeshade kind of guy. He will do what no president, not even Ronald Reagan, has ever done, and that is go through the budget and cut the spending. And there's a lot to be cut.
And the Olympics, which was also going bankrupt and is an enormous business. And the Midas touch man comes in and turns around this nearly bankrupt institution. It is not just Bain. It is everything he touches.

And then she wriggled erotically in her chair. Okay, maybe not, but it felt like it.

Yes, the Olympics were going bankrupt until Mitt glommed onto $1.5 billion in FEDERAL MONEY to cover himself in glory. And a lot of that money went to pay off corrupt organizers who were caught taking bribes - just to make them go away. (Several of them have since resurfaced as Romney campaign donors).

Hounddog Huckabee also says this, with a completely straight face!

HUCKABEE: You know, I like -- anybody he picks I believe is going to be the result of a very thoughtful and methodical choice. The one thing I admire most about Mitt Romney is that he is not a guy that just acts out of some impetuous visceral reaction. He's very thoughtful, methodical.
He will make what would really be a very careful business decision. And whoever he selects, I believe, will be the result of a very thoughtful process. And we'll all get behind him as a Republican.

Yes, Mitt Romney is a robot, and the Republicans just don't care!

The entire episode was so bizarre, I think you'd be best served by the Bobblespeak Translations:

Stephanopoulos: please bash Obama for me
Huckabee: the private sector is not fine!
Jones: losing in Wisconsin is good because it gave Obama a wake-up call
Coulter: the entire country is enraged against public school teachers! [ psychotic laugh ]
Rendell: bashing firefighters? really?
Huckabee: I love firemen but first we must fire teachers who make $100,000 if you include
all benefits which is outrageous
Jones: Republicans won?t pass their own bills so they can blame Obama for failing
Stephanopoulos: are you saying they are rooting for failure?
Jones: no I?m not - I?m saying they are creating failure!
Coulter: firefighters have huge pensions!
Rendell: would you fire firefighters?
Coulter: [ lunatic chortle ]
Stephanopoulos: Should Obama attack Bain Capital?
Rendell: first Mitt says he created 10,000 jobs and then it was 100,000 - which is it?
Huckabee: Romney was not supposed to create any jobs at all and he wassuccessful at that
Coulter: Mitt Romney has the Midas touch!
Jones: didn?t Midas destroy everything eventually
Coulter: [ sociopathic chuckle ]
Stephanopoulos: let?s use Bill Clinton to bash Obama!
Huckabee: Bill Clinton was a great President!
Stephanopoulos: you tried to impeach Clinton and called him a murderer
Huckabee: I miss Bill !!
Rendell: the GOP only wants to destroy Obama
Jones: Republicans lawmakers - are so insane they are almost as crazy Ann Coulter
Coulter: Bill Clinton was wonderful! [ demented giggle ]
Huckabee: Clinton is right - Mitt Romney should be President!
Stephanopoulos: who should be Vice President?
Huckabee: Romney will choose carefully unlike John McCain who picked a unqualified ditz
Coulter: I have not been asked to be Vice President
Stephanopoulos: what a surprise
Coulter: he should choose Chris Christie because has ethnic appeal and hates public unions
Stephanopoulos: Marco Rubio could help the GOP win Hispanics in Florida
Jones: Obama wants to help homeowners in Florida and of course the GOP won?t do it
Stephanopoulos: OMG the guy Obama defeated in 2008 attacked him!
Huckabee: Obama is killing terrorists and it is terrible that we know that!
Jones: He?s killing people! That?s also bad!
Rendell: to leak information about our deadly viruses against al qaeda or Iran or whatever is terrible
Coulter: leaks show Obama is being tough on terrorism which means Barack Obama hates America [ hysterical laughter ]
Jones: I don?t have to support everything Obama does
Coulter: Conservative don?t blindly support Republicans - also Mitt Romney is the greatest thing ever!
Stephanopoulos: people think the Supreme Court has become entirely political
Huckabee: therefore the Supreme Court should look at the polls and overturn Obamacare
Stephanopoulos: they should ignore the law and only apply politics?
Huckabee: yes - following popular opinion is required by the Constitution!
Jones: like they did in Bush v Gore
Coulter: Bush v Gore was a great decision!
Huckabee: the mandate is evil and unconstitutional
Jones: holy f**k the individual mandate was an idea from the Heritage Foundation
Stephanopoulos: and yet polls say it is wildly unpopular
Jones: what a f***ing coincidence
Coulter: [ disturbing howl ]
Stephanopoulos: and that?s another episode of This Week with George Stephanopoulos