Midday open thread

post from Daily Kos on 15 May 2012 03:00:04 PM. © Daily Kos

Today's comic is Animation: Mitt on his high school pranks (actual audio) by Scott Bateman:
Tim "Snooze" Pawlenty is not interested in being Mitt Romney's incredibly boring white guy:
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who once had his sights set on the White House, said Monday that he absolutely is not vying to be vice president.
"I'm going to take my name off the list, so if ... you're a journalist, an observer, remove my name from the list," Pawlenty said. "I went through it before with McCain."
Hard to believe, but Missouri is actually proud of local son Rush Limbaugh:
On Monday, the right-wing radio host was inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians, meaning a bronze bust in his likeness will be placed in the state Capitol. Other Missourians who have received busts include Mark Twain, Harry Truman and Scott Joplin.
"This is something I never, ever considered would happen to me," Limbaugh said at the ceremony.
This nine-year-old boy is awesome:
The way Patty Akrouche tells the story, her Mother?s Day gift arrived a day early Saturday when her young son mounted a quiet counter-protest to the pickets of the Westboro Baptist Church. [...]
His sign, written in pencil on a small sketchpad, read simply, ?God Hates No One.?
We Americans have some very bizarre holidays.
Wow, that former governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, sure has some great judgment:
A man who was pardoned by former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has been charged with driving under the influence. The man was convicted for DUI three times before, Reuters reports.
Harry Bostick is accused of crashing a car into another vehicle while driving drunk. The collision killed the other driver, 18-year-old Charity Smith. Bostick, a former IRS agent, allegedly left the scene following the accident.
Bostick received one of the over 200 pardons from ex-Governor Barbour earlier this year. He was given the pardon for a 2009 felony DUI conviction. So why was a thrice convicted drunk driver allowed to go free?
Are you a Twitter junkie who worries that you might miss something in those three seconds of the day that you're not on Twitter? Worry no more:
That's the idea behind Twitter's new email digest ? it's basically a weekly newsletter with the things Twitter thinks were most important in your feed that day, things you might've missed. Because there are too many things.
And then you can tweet about your digest, and get an email about your tweet about your email, and then tweet that ...
Please take a second to feel very sorry for Patti Blagojevich, the wife of disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who says it is very sad to visit her husband in prison ... Okay, that should be enough.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/qW1Ib4_Jer0/-Midday-open-thread

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U.N. Monitors Attacked In Syria

post from ThinkProgress on 15 May 2012 03:00:02 PM. © ThinkProgress

A team of United Nations monitors were attacked today in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province. A U.N. spokesperson said an IED exploded in front of a four-vehicle convoy. None of the U.N. officials were injured and a team has reportedly been sent to evacuate the observers. The L.A. Times World Now blog has amateur video of the incident:

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/05/15/484693/un-monitors-attacked-in-syria
/

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The Upfronts: Race and Gender In Fall Television

post from ThinkProgress on 15 May 2012 03:00:02 PM. © ThinkProgress

This is the week when the television networks announce their fall lineups and try to persuade advertisers that they should spend bunches of money to sell products during their new shows. It’s also the time when those of us who care about the white dudely domination of Hollywood get to see how many?or how few?women and people of color will be creating and headlining new shows. Here are the basic numbers on who’s creating and starring in what you’ll see on your television this fall.

39: Number of new shows ordered by NBC, CBS, Fox, ABC, and the CW.

12: Number of those 39 shows created by women.

2: Number of those 12 shows co-created by a man and a woman.

5*: Shows from creators of color, including Michael Cuesta on Elementary, Ajay Sahgal on Groupon comedy Friend Me, Mindy Kalin’s self-titled The Mindy Project, Alessandro Tanaka’s Animal Practice, and Toni Trucks’ Do No Harm.

3: Number of new shows with African-American leads, Andre Braugher in Last Resort, Meagan Good in Infamous, and Jessica Lucas in Cult.

2: Number of new comedies with people of color as sole leads or parts of core ensembles?Anthony Anderson in Guys with Kids and Mindy Kaling in her sitcom (also per the Deadline item linked above).

*Calculated to the best of my ability given scanty availability of pictures of writers.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2012/05/15/484608/the-upfronts-race-and-gender-in
-fall-television/

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Survey: Small Businesses Believe Protection Of
Public Lands Is ‘Good For Business’

post from ThinkProgress on 15 May 2012 03:00:02 PM. © ThinkProgress

By Tom Kenworthy and Jessica Goad

Congressional Republicans who think the only purpose of public lands is to provide subsidized commodities to industry generally ignore the many economists who provide hard evidence that protecting natural spaces provides huge economic benefits.

If these lawmakers don?t believe economists, perhaps they’ll believe another group with political sway: small business owners.

A new survey conducted for the Small Business Majority finds that 63 percent of small business owners in Colorado say access to protected public lands and outdoor spaces is a major part of why they set up operations in the state.

The results show that these small business owners strongly support the president’s “all of the above” energy strategy — with more than half saying they would be more likely to support such a plan if it includes steps to conserve some areas and keep them free of development.

By a 4:1 margin, those small business owners say that creating new national parks and monuments would have a positive impact on jobs and the economy.

“Our nation’s most prolific job creators are asking that smart steps are taken to preserve Colorado’s natural assets because they believe it’s good for business,” said John Arensmeyer, founded and CEO of Small Business Majority.

These small businessmen understand intuitively what the experts continue to explain in their anaysis.

Last fall, for example, more than 100 economists wrote to President Obama urging him to expand efforts to protect more national parks, national monuments and wilderness areas. ?Protected public lands are significant contributors to economic growth,? they said in their letter.

More recently, Headwaters Economics, a consulting firm based in Montana, found that more than four times as many jobs are created in non-metro counties with protected public lands than in those without. Counties with more than 30% of their lands federally protected increased jobs by 344% over 40 years, compared to just an 80% increase in jobs in non-metro counties with no protected federal lands.

In its 2011 report ?The Jobs Case for Conservation,? the Center for American Progress described the broad spectrum of job opportunities and the economic benefits from protecting important forest, mountain, plains, and watershed areas among our inventory of federal lands.

Despite the accumulating evidence (and more is coming soon from the Western Governors? Association and the Outdoor Industry Association) Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee don?t seem to understand that outdoor recreation opportunities and protected public lands are huge economic drivers. As senior member Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) said during an October 2011 hearing: ”Contrary to claims by the administration and others, the designation of national monuments and wilderness are not a boon to local economies, but rather a detriment in most scenarios.”

Driving these untruthful opinions are the massive campaign support from the oil and gas industry, as Think Progress reported last November. At the time of that report, Republicans on the panel had received almost a half million dollars in contributions from oil and gas interests for the 2012 election — compared to less than $80,000 taken in by committee Democrats.

Don?t think that makes a difference? So far in this Congressional session, the House Natural Resources Committee has voted on more than a dozen bills to expedite oil and gas development while doing almost nothing to expand public lands protections. Tomorrow, they?re at it again, with markups on four drilling bills, and another two drilling bills being marked up in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Tom Kenworthy is a Senior Fellow with the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Jessica Goad is Manager of Research and Outreach for the Public Lands Project at the Center for American Progress.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/05/15/484543/survey-small-businesses-believ
e-protection-of-public-lands-is-good-for-business/

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Number Of Long Term Unemployed Workers Over Age
55 Has Doubled Since 2007

post from ThinkProgress on 15 May 2012 03:00:02 PM. © ThinkProgress

According to a Government Accountability Office report obtained by Reuters, “the number of long-term unemployed workers aged 55 and older has more than doubled since the recession began in late 2007.” “About 55 percent of jobless seniors, or 1.1 million, have been unemployed for more than six months, up from 23 percent, or less than 200,000,” the report says. Overall, more than 40 percent of the unemployed have been out of work for six months or more.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/05/15/484652/older-unemployed-workers/

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GOP Rep: No Domestic Violence Protections For
LGBT Families Because They Don’t Exist Under The Law

post from ThinkProgress on 15 May 2012 03:00:02 PM. © ThinkProgress

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), vice chairwoman of the House Republican Caucus, believes that domestic violence in LGBT relationships is a ‘separate issue’ and should not be included in a bill that aims to prevent domestic violence.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Hardball Host Chris Matthews, McMorris Rodgers pushed back against the Democrats’ call for a provision in the Violence Against Women Act that applies to LGBT couples, saying that domestic violence in LGBT couples is a “side issue,” and that Congress should not be addressing LGBT victims until they address the federal status of LGBT couples:

MATTHEWS: Why don’t you cover people who are not in a traditional marriage? Why would you limit it to just traditional marriage folk?
MCMORRIS RODGERS: Well– what I — Those are side issues that have been attached to this bill and I think it’s very important to–
MATTHEWS: Well it’s not side issues if you’re getting beat up by your partner. That’s not a side issue, it’s your life.
MCMORRIS RODGERS: That is an issue — there is nothing under federal law that currently recognizes same-sex couples and so if we’re going to have that debate in Congress is should be a separate debate from the reauthorization of the Violence against women act–
MATTHEWS: But Congresswoman, you write the law. You said there’s nothing in the law, you write the law, you can write it any way you want. Why not write it to include people in these different kinds of relationships that could involve physical violence?
MCMORRIS RODGERS: That’s a separate issue from the Violence Against Women Act and we are committed to getting it — it should be debated separately, if we’re going to change our federal law related to same-sex couples.

Watch it:

Cases of LGBT domestic violence increased 38 percent from last year. Seven people died from same-sex domestic abuse. And of those who sought it, 44 percent of LGBT victims were turned away from traditional shelters. McMorris Rodgers may consider it a separate issue, but abuse is abuse, no matter the victim’s sexual orientation.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/05/15/484599/mcmorris-rodgers-lgbt-vawa/

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GOP Iowa Governor: Anti-Gay Groups Likely To Try
To Oust Another Iowa Marriage Equality Justice

post from ThinkProgress on 15 May 2012 03:00:02 PM. © ThinkProgress

Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins

In 2010, anti-gay groups such as the Mississippi-based hate group the American Family Association spent close to $800,000 to remove three Iowa Supreme Court justices who joined that court’s unanimous decision holding that marriage equality is required by the Iowa constitution. This fall, Justice David Wiggins is also up for a retention election, and Iowa’s GOP Gov. Terry Branstad recently announced that a similar campaign against Wiggins is likely. Wiggins, however, actually plans to fight back:

Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins vows he won?t stand quietly by if opponents of same-sex marriage launch a potent campaign to oust him from the bench.
?If someone wants to attack me, I?m not going to let them bully me,? Wiggins said in a telephone interview last week with The Des Moines Register. ?If asked to, I?ll speak up for myself. The others didn?t do that last time. I will.?

Justice Wiggins’ statement that he actually plans to campaign to keep his job should not seem all that remarkable, if it were not for the fact that his three former colleagues essentially threw their retention races in 2010 by refusing to do the same:

[Former Justice David] Baker, in his speech accepting the Profile in Courage Award, said that he, Streit and Ternus made a deliberate decision not to form campaign committees in 2010.
?Our founding fathers chose wisely to not have judges in a political position,? Baker told the audience, which included Wiggins. ?Had we chosen to form campaigns, we would have tacitly admitted that we were what we claimed not to be ? politicians. ? We strongly believed that the people of Iowa did not want us to be in the position of raising money for a campaign.?

Pretending that you are above the fray may be a lovely way to earn awards, but it is no way to win an election. Moreover, by effectively throwing their elections, Baker, Streit and Ternus did a whole lot more to undermine judicial independence than they did to protect it — their defeats only emboldened their opponents, and encouraged more efforts to apply political pressure to judges.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/15/484552/gop-iowa-governor-anti-gay-gro
ups-likely-to-try-to-oust-another-iowa-marriage-equality-justice/

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Dept. Of Interior Finds 72 Percent Of Offshore
Acreage Leased By The Oil Industry Is ‘Idle’

post from ThinkProgress on 15 May 2012 03:00:02 PM. © ThinkProgress

by Daniel J. Weiss

The Department of Interior released an updated analysis of fossil fuel leases today, finding that more than two thirds of offshore leases and half of onshore leases are sitting idle — “neither producing nor under active exploration.”

The report, ?Oil and Gas Lease Utilization, Onshore and Offshore Updated Report to the President,? explained that oil and gas companies hold thousands of undeveloped leases. Despite holding these inactive leases, the oil industry continues to demand the opening of new, previously protected federal lands and waters areas to drilling.

The report found that:

More than 70 percent of the tens of millions of offshore acres currently under lease are inactive, neither producing nor currently subject to approved or pending exploration or development plans. Out of nearly 36 million acres leased offshore, only about 10 million acres are active ? leaving nearly 72 percent of the offshore leased area idle.
In the lower 48 states, an additional 20.8 million acres, or 56 percent of onshore leased acres, remain idle. Furthermore, there are approximately 7,000 approved permits for drilling on federal and Indian lands that have not yet been drilled by companies.
According to the Energy Information Administration, total federal oil production (offshore and onshore) has increased by 13 percent during the first three years of the Obama administration combined, compared with the last three years of the previous administration. According to independent analysis, the total number of active rigs operating on the U.S. outer continental shelf was higher in January 2012 than any time since May 2010.

The American Petroleum Institute ? Big Oil?s lobbying arm — claims that the Department of Interior ignores exploratory work on leases; however, that is clearly included in DOI?s assessment above.

API recently demanded that the Obama Administration open up the North Atlantic to ?seismic exploration? for oil. This is an area that supports vital American fisheries.

In addition to holding thousands of undeveloped leases while lobbying to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, off the New England Coast, and in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, the big five oil companies produced 12 percent less oil in 2011 than in 2006 — all while making record profits.

Daniel J. Weiss is Director of Climate Strategy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/05/15/484558/dept-of-interior-finds-nearly-
two-thirds-of-acreage-leased-by-the-oil-industry-lies-idle/

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Wisconsin recall to get fundraising help, but
apparently not funds, from DNC

The day after Wisconsin Democrats went public with their frustrations about the Democratic National Committee's lack of support for the effort to recall Gov. Scott Walker, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz tweeted an oblique and partial response:

Enjoyed our conversation, @Barrett4WI. Looking forward to my trip this month to raise money & recruit vols to win back the governor's seat.
? @DWStweets via HootSuiteRaising money and recruiting volunteers in Wisconsin may be helpful?if Debbie Wasserman Schultz's presence shakes loose money and volunteers that Democratic nominee Tom Barrett's campaign has missed. But fundraising in Wisconsin is not the way Wasserman Schultz can be most helpful. Raising money in Washington, D.C. or her own Florida district or anywhere else there are rich Democrats who aren't yet fully tuned in to the Wisconsin recall would be more helpful. Having the DNC help fund the Democratic Party of Wisconsin's ground campaign would be still more helpful than that.

This is a close race with few undecided voters; it will be decided by turnout. Republicans will have all the money they need for that, just as they had money to pour into television advertising supporting Scott Walker while Democrats didn't even yet have a nominee to rally around. And if Walker wins, Republican governors and legislators around the country who have looked at the consequences he's facing for his anti-worker, anti-woman, anti-everyone-but-rich-people actions and hesitated to push similar legislation in their states will figure they have the go-ahead to do what they like. It won't just be Wisconsin that will face more Walker policies.

The stakes are too high for the DNC to stop at half-measures. Please contribute $4 to Tom Barrett to help recall Scott Walker.

See Yosef 52's diary for more discussion.

12:52 PM PT: To add, while a Wisconsin Democrat was quoted yesterday complaining not only about the DNC but about the Democratic Governors Association, the DNC is the primary issue here?the DGA has committed significant funds to the recall election.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/_Otc7lR5ChI/-Wisconsin-recall-to-g
et-fundraising-help-but-apparently-not-funds-from-DNC

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Wisconsin recall to get fundraising help, but
apparently not funds, from DNC

The stakes are too high for the DNC to stop at half-measures. Please contribute $4 to Tom Barrett to help recall Scott Walker.

See Yosef 52's diary for more discussion.

12:52 PM PT: To add, while a Wisconsin Democrat was quoted yesterday complaining not only about the DNC but about the Democratic Governors Association, the DNC is the primary issue here—the has committed significant funds to the recall election.