Daily Kos Radio is on the air!

post from Daily Kos on 17 July 2012 09:00:06 AM. © Daily Kos

Portrait, Chief Justice John Roberts I just call balls and strikes. And when it comes
to Daily Kos Radio, I say, "Balls!"Daily Kos Radio is on the air, Monday through Friday, now from 9 a.m. to noon, ET. We start with two hours of the Kagro in the Morning show from 9-11, and then it's The Ministry of Truth, with Armando Llorens, starring Jesse LaGreca from 11-12. And then it's a contest to think of better names! And more ways to sneak "Balls!" into posts!

Just click here or on the sometimes invisible Flash player below to listen in. And you can play program director by sending me a tweet during the show, letting me know what's in the news or on your mind. Reach me at @KagroX, and try playing the, "I type it in here, and it comes out there" game!

What'd you miss if you skipped Daily Kos Radio yesterday? Well, some of it was like this:

Jennifer Rubin's horrible column:

Non-Flash

You can find all of yesterday's highlights here, and the full show podcast here. (Now with links to non-Flash players that you can even access on your mobile devices.)

The Daily Kos Radio Player

Non-Flash

What's happening in Congress today?

In the House

Late start, and nothing but suspensions today. Though it's of some slight interest that one of the suspension bills is the FY13 Foreign Relations Authorization bill. Ordered reported out of committee by voice vote, it sounds like they might actually have basic agreement on this one and be able to get the job done.

In the Senate

After failing to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the DISCLOSE Act yesterday, the Senate pulled an all-nighter (well, a til-1-am-er, I guess) on the subject, and will reconsider the vote today. No telling where they'll go next if the vote fails again. Why did the Senate stay in session all night for this? I don't know. I think they thought it was dramatic. I hate to get down on 'em when they try to generate some excitement, but they do these things to highlight the absurdity of filibusters, but the thing is, no Republicans have to talk. The Republicans are perfectly happy to leave the floor and go relax. So what ends up happening is that a bunch of Democrats make themselves tired, but that's about it.

On the Radio

I'm predicting a strong chance of continued Bain storms for Tuesday, with instability in the atmosphere remaining throughout the week. DemFromCT will join us for his regular morning shift, and we'll see if we can't pull a few surprises, too. Come on by, and let me know via Twitter what's burning up the wires in your world. And bring the kiddies, why don't ya? (Well, maybe not. We sometimes take extra advantage of not being regulated by the FCC, if you know what I mean.)

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/HSkKPWVHJ_w/-Daily-Kos-Radio-is-on
-the-air

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National Security Brief: U.S. Builds Up Military
In Persian Gulf

post from ThinkProgress on 17 July 2012 09:00:05 AM. © ThinkProgress

– The U.S. is adding to its already beefed up presence in the Persian Gulf, building a missile-defense radar system in Qatar and organizing its biggest-ever minesweeping exercises. The Navy is also sending an aircraft carrier “much earlier than expected to keep two carriers in the region.”

– Dick Cheney is on the Hill today to talk military spending cuts with Republicans. Meanwhile, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) said Democrats won’t deal on the sequester unless the GOP agrees to new taxes on the rich.

– The UAE inaugurated a much-anticipated overland oil pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz, giving the OPEC member insurance against Iranian threats to block the strategic waterway.

– The Pentagon sent a $75 million counterterrorism package to Yemen that includes light weapons, aerial drones and two new operating bases. The money came from State and DOD funds meant to back counterterror operations around the world.

– Russia said it would not agree to a new U.K.-sponsored U.N. resolution to enact new sanctions on Syria, while a Chinese state run newspaper said there can never be a pretext for foreign intervention in Syria no matter how good the intentions.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/07/17/528701/national-security-brief-us-bu
ilds-up-military-in-persian-gulf/

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Louis C.K. Deletes Daniel Tosh Tweet, Explains It
On ‘The Daily Show’

post from ThinkProgress on 17 July 2012 09:00:05 AM. © ThinkProgress

I’m relieved to know that I can apparently go back to thinking of Louis C.K. as the person I thought he was?though with some newly-acquired doubts about his taste in comedy?after his appearance on The Daily Show last night. Apparently, I?and the people who thought he was mocking Daniel Tosh?was wrong to interpret his Tweet to Tosh praising his television show, sent in the teeth of a…er…vigorous conversation about Tosh’s response to a woman at a show who told him rape jokes weren’t funny, as a show of support. And I’ve rarely been more glad to be wrong. C.K. apparently sent the Tweet while he was on vacation in Vermont, inspired by an episode of Tosh.0 that amused him, and not meant to condone Tosh’s actions at all, given that C.K. was largely offline and was unaware of them (an excuse that if it was anyone else, I’d probably be skeptical of, but that I’m willing to do C.K. the credit of believing). C.K. explained that chain of events?what he didn’t say is that he’s since deleted the relevant tweet?and explained his reaction to the controversy since. Watch it:

The Daily Show with Jon StewartMon – Thurs 11p / 10cLouis C.K.www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

The key bit is here:

It’s also a fight between comedian and feminists, which are natural enemies, because stereotypically speaking, feminists can’t take a joke…And on the other side, comedians can’t take criticism…I’ve read some blogs during this whole thing that have made me enlightened to things I didn’t know. This woman said how rape is something that polices women’s lives. They have a narrow corridor. They can’t go out late, they can’t go to certain neighborhoods, they can’t get a certain way, because they might get?That’s part of me now that wasn’t before. And I can still enjoy a good rape joke…This is also about men and women…Couples are fighting about Daniel Tosh and rape jokes. That’s what I’ve been reading on blogs. But they’re both making a classic gender mistake on this. Because the women are saying ‘This is how I feel about this.’ But they’re also saying ‘My feelings should be everyone’s primary concern.’ But the men are making this mistake, they’re saying ‘Your feelings don’t matter. Your feelings are wrong, and your feelings are stupid.’…To the men I say, ‘Listen. Listen to what the women are saying for a minute.’ And to the women, I say ‘Now that we heard you, now shut the fuck up for a minute.’

The way C.K. talks about his education in rape culture is the kind of thing that’s made me extend him so much credit in the past?even though, yes, to all the people who’ve sent me disturbing bits he’s done in the past, I’m aware?and the reason I’m willing to reup here. His curiosity is interesting to me, and I think it makes the women in Louie‘s audience, and the audience for C.K.’s shows feel like, even if C.K. crosses our personal lines, there’s a chance that he’s working through something in a way that will be useful to both him and us. And if I thought we could get the same deal he’s proposing here?folks who have been impacted by and have a direct stake in an issue talk, people who are less directly impacted listen, we give them room to think it through?more generally, I’d take it.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2012/07/17/528161/louis-ck-deletes-daniel-tosh-tw
eet-explains-it-on-the-daily-show/

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July 17 News: German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Warns ‘Time Is Of The Essence’ To Reach A Global Climate Deal

post from ThinkProgress on 17 July 2012 09:00:05 AM. © ThinkProgress

A round-up of the top climate and energy news.

Chancellor Angela Merkel warned on Monday that global warming will accelerate at a dramatic rate unless leaders reach a deal on limiting greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible. [Reuters]

A drought gripping the Corn Belt and more than half the United States has reached proportions not seen in more than 50 years, the government reported Monday, jacking up crop prices and threatening to drive up the cost of food. [Washington Post]

Shoppers across the country should stand up and take notice of the Midwestern drought that has already hurt supplies of corn and soybeans. [MSNBC]

Global warming, a concern for its effects on the world’s oceans, is also causing harm to the globe’s freshwater lakes, researchers in Switzerland say. [UPI]

Deploying giant space mirrors and spraying particles from stadium-sized balloons may sound like an engineer’s wild fantasy, but climate models suggest that the potential of geoengineering to offset rising atmospheric carbon dioxide may be significantly overstated. [Wired UK]

The government’s current policies will only deliver one-third of the 150 terawatt hours (TWh) of annual energy savings that are potentially available by 2030, according to new research that should help shape its forthcoming energy-efficiency policy. [Business Green]

A wide swath of the U.S., from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic, was bracing for the onslaught of another heat wave Monday and Tuesday as high temperatures approaching triple digits was in the forecast for cities like Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Chicago. [Climate Central]

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/07/17/527991/german-chancellor-angela-merke
l-warns-039time-is-of-the-essence039-to-reach-a-global-climate-deal/

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On This Day In History July 17

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 17 July 2012 09:00:00 AM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow GazetteThis 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.Click on images to enlargeJuly 17 is the 198th day of the[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.docudharma.com/diary/30375/on-this-day-in-history-july-17

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Woody, Harry, and Irving

post from The American Prospect on 17 July 2012 08:55:38 AM. © The American Prospect

This past weekend, American journalism commemorated the 100th birthday of one the nation?s greatest songwriters, Woody Guthrie. Many of the articles noted that Guthrie?s universally known national counter-anthem, ?This Land is Your Land,? was written as a rebuttal of sorts to Irving Berlin?s ?God Bless America.? America had too much squalor, too much disparity of wealth, Guthrie believed, to be thought of as blessed, and his song includes a seldom sung verse identifying ?private property? as the culprit.

What?s far less widely known is that Guthrie was the second songwriter to have a critical take on ?God Bless America.? The first, Harry Ruby, actually delayed its release for 20 years.

Berlin wrote ?God Bless America? in 1918, while he was in the World War I army and stationed at Camp Upton, in the town of Yaphank, outside New York City. It was one of a number of songs he composed for his upcoming all-soldier Broadway review, ?Yip, Yip Yaphank,? among them ?Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning,? a national anthem for the nocturnal. Harry Ruby, then a 23-year-old song-plugger and aspiring songwriter, was working as Berlin?s assistant. When Berlin played him ?God Bless America,? Ruby wasn?t wowed. The patriotic-song market was already glutted with wartime songs like George M. Cohan?s ?Over There.? As Ruby told the story many years, later, ?There were so many patriotic songs coming out at the time. Every songwriter was pouring them out. I said, ?Geez, another one???

Berlin didn?t argue. The song, he allowed, was ?just a little sticky.? He stashed it away in his trunk, and didn?t pull it out again until 1938, at which time Hitler had already begun his march across Europe, and the United States looked increasingly like the last refuge of democracy. Berlin changed the lyric just a big, tightened one musical line, and gave the song to Kate Smith. We all know the rest of the story.

By 1938, Ruby, in collaboration with his songwriting partner Bert Kalmar, had already written a national anthem of his own: ?Hail, Hail Freedonia, Land of the Brave and Free.? Kalmar and Ruby wrote pretty much all the Marx Brothers? songs (Ruby was Groucho?s best friend for more than half a century), including the magnificent ?Going to War?mock-oratorio in Duck Soup, for which they also co-authored the script. Patriotism was fine in its place, Ruby believed, but it could be and often was carried to absurd lengths. And no American songwriter of the Tin Pan Alley/Broadway/Hollywood generation wrote better or as many deliberately absurd songs as Ruby (check out ?Show Me a Rose,? ?Father?s Day,? or ?Whatever It Is, I?m Against It?).

Let?s close with a counter-factual: Suppose Ruby had told Berlin, ?Yeah, that?s great? and Berlin had released the song in 1918. It would have been old news by the end of the Thirties. Would Guthrie even have written ?This Land Is Your Land? if ?God Bless America? had already been around for 20 years?

One more reason to be grateful for the life and work of Harry Ruby.

Read The Full Article:
http://prospect.org/article/woody-harry-and-irving

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CNN'S Soledad O'Brien Deflates Right-Wing Media
Myth That Green Energy Investments Were "Crony Capitalism"

post from Media Matters for America - Latest Items on 17 July 2012 08:54:28 AM. © Media Matters for America - Latest Items

From the July 17 edition of CNN's Starting Point:

Previously:

Media Fail To Fact Check Romney's Solyndra Speech

What The Press Is Getting Wrong About Solyndra

Fox News Raises Solyndra Red Herring To Deflect Attention From Romney's Record

Fox News Trumpets Imagined Green Energy Failures

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.mediamatters.org/~r/mediamatters/latest/~3/IdVVd7jGvPY/187166

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Another Way Washington Just Robbed Retirees

Whenever Washington is given an opportunity to stand up for savers and retirees, they almost always do the opposite.

Just look at interest rates — they’re keeping them so low that it’s nearly . . . → Read More: Another Way Washington Just Robbed Retirees

Read The Full Article:
http://jutiagroup.com/20120717-another-way-washington-just-robbed-retirees/

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Cannabis Is "An Effective Treatment" For Cancer
Patients

Because of the findings of information from the 2006 study showing that medical marijuana can really reduce the amount of cancer cells, medical marijuana patients can now feel good again regarding the relief component malaise largely removed located in[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.docudharma.com/diary/30379/cannabis-is-an-effective-treatment-for-canc
er-patients

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President Obama and First Lady kiss at USA
Basketball game

PRESIDENT OBAMA AND FIRST LADY KISS AT USA BASKETBALL GAME Let’s lighten things up with all of this serious political talk going on right President Barack Obama, an avid basketball fan, and first lady Michelle Obama took in the USA-Brazil game at the Verizon Center in Washington on Monday night. The Obamas even appeared on [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://glciii.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/president-obama-and-first-lady-kiss-at-usa
-basketball-game/

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