Niall Ferguson Has a Sad About Liberal Bloggers

post from Firedoglake on 21 August 2012 08:00:36 PM. © Firedoglake

The Niall Ferguson Newsweek saga has moved swiftly from tragedy to farce. After getting called out for numerous factual errors in his cover story on his opposition to Barack Obama's re-election, Ferguson has now struck back with a broadside against the[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/08/21/niall-ferguson-has-a-sad-about-liberal-blo
ggers/

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Daily Kos Elections Polling Wrap: Will Todd Akin
stall a semi-legitimate Republican surge

post from Daily Kos on 21 August 2012 08:00:04 PM. © Daily Kos

The ~~Griswold~~ Singiser Family road trip is finally in the books, and that means it is time to crank up that data machine yet again.

Mitt Romney got several polls in key states over the past two days that looked, quite frankly, too good to be true in some cases. But any buoyant celebration has to be stunted by the fact that all of those good polls were B.A. (Before Akin).

The same could be said for a raft of Senate polls, to say nothing of GOP internal polls in House races over the past couple of days, all of which looked, on balance, really good for the GOP.

As for Akin himself, the polling picture for the GOP standard-bearer (snicker, snicker) in Missouri is infinitely more complicated.

And, with that, on to the numbers:

PRESIDENTIAL GENERAL ELECTION TRIAL HEATS:

NATIONAL (Gallup Tracking): Romney d. Obama (47-45)
NATIONAL (NBC/Wall Street Journal): Obama d. Romney (48-44)
NATIONAL (PPP for Daily Kos/SEIU): Obama d. Romney (49-45)
NATIONAL (Rasmussen Tracking): Romney d. Obama (45-44)
NATIONAL (SurveyUSA/Braun for Monmouth University): Obama d. Romney (45-41)
FLORIDA (Foster McCollum White/Baydoun): Romney d. Obama (54-40)
MICHIGAN (Foster McCollum White/Baydoun): Romney d. Obama (48-44)
NEW YORK (Siena College): Obama d. Romney (62-33)
OKLAHOMA (Sooner Poll): Romney d. Obama (58-29)
VIRGINIA (PPP): Obama d. Romney (50-45); Obama d. Romney and Virgil Goode (50-42-4)
WISCONSIN (PPP): Romney d. Obama (48-47)

DOWNBALLOT POLLING:

CA-41 (EMC Research for Takano): Mark Takano (D) 42, John Tavaglione (R) 38
CO-07 (OnMessage for the Coors campaign): Joseph Coors (R) 45, Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D) 36
FL-SEN (Foster McCollum White/Baydoun): Connie Mack IV (R) 51, Sen. Bill Nelson (D) 43
IL-17 (Public Opinion Strategies for the Schilling campaign): Rep. Bobby Schilling (R) 50, Cheri Bustos (D) 37
MA-SEN (PPP): Sen. Scott Brown (R) 49, Elizabeth Warren (D) 44
MI-SEN (Foster McCollum White/Baydoun): Pete Hoekstra (R) 48, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D) 46
MO-SEN (PPP): Todd Akin (R) 44, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) 43
MT-SEN (Rasmussen): Denny Rehberg (R) 47, Sen. Jon Tester (D) 43
NV-04 (Public Opinion Strategies for The American Action Network): Danny Tarkanian (R) 46, Steven Horsford (D) 35
NY-SEN (Siena College): Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) 65, Wendy Long (R) 22
NY-27 (Siena College): Chris Collins (R) 47, Rep. Kathy Hochul (D) 45

A few thoughts, as always, await you just past the jump...

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/L4Llj0uZojw/-Daily-Kos-Elections-P
olling-Wrap-Will-Todd-Akin-stall-a-semi-legitimate-Republican-surge

Digg this

The Life and Times of One of the Wisconsin
Working Poor

post from Crooks and Liars on 21 August 2012 07:30:56 PM. © Crooks and Liars

This is a blog post written by a long-time Wisconsin reader of my own site who, against daunting odds, pulled herself out of a crappy minimum wage job, chronic poverty, a bad relationship, and an assortment of major health issues (both hers and her daughter's) and put herself in college, where she's doing quite well and has, I hope, much more of a future before her - at least, if Wisconsin doesn't cut the programs on which she and her daughter depend. I thought this was important to share:

enlarge

See that low-income-program-cuts graph?
Daughter is on SSI ? Supplemental Security Income. My tuition is covered by Pell Grants, with secured loans and grants making up the rest. We both are on Medicare-Medicaid. We live in low-income housing. We get Food Share.
We got into all of these programs WHILE I WAS WORKING FULL-TIME, just so you don?t think I?m some low-life slacker.
So. If Paul Ryan has his way (poor people are not suffering enough) I will be homeless. Maybe my daughter will be too, I don?t know. I?ll have to quit school, but all that ? homeless, out of school ? will be moot, because without health insurance I?ll be dead. My prescriptions run well over $500 a month. I get one of them, the $350/month one, through low-income support programs that the pharmaceutical companies run, so their drugs will be covered on some federal insurance programs. Do you think that will continue when Medicaid gets cut? I don?t.
But rich people will pay less in taxes.
I?m taking it pretty personally. You would be too, if somebody thought you didn?t deserve to be alive.

Now send this to every Republican voter you know. You never know, one might accidentally learn something.

Read The Full Article:
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/life-and-times-one-wisconsin-working-

Digg this

Americans Oppose Voucherizing Medicare But Dont
Know It Is Paul Ryans Plan

post from Firedoglake on 21 August 2012 07:15:25 PM. © Firedoglake

Yet another poll shows that the general idea of voucherizing Medicare is very unpopular with voters. According to the most recent Pew Research poll only 34 percent of adults favor the idea of turning Medicare into a system were people get credits to buy[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/IODzJDHn130/

Digg this

Let’s Talk War

post from The Omnipotent Poobah Speaks! on 21 August 2012 07:01:28 PM. © The Omnipotent Poobah Speaks!

There were plenty of smoking holes left after the Shitkicker-in-Chief retired to a life of Texas Rangers baseball games and interviews about how swell it was being President. Everything from the big league economic pooch-screwing to an erosion of civil rights so complete we?re barely left with a ground down pencil nub haunts us. The Big O is responsible now, by virtue of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, but it is still an unusually big burden to bear. The screeching flock of Republican albatrosses around his neck nipping his ass doesn?t help either.

But among those towering monuments to crapitude stand the twin Wars of Error, Iraq and Afghanistan. And being monuments to crapitude, the Big Guy doesn?t want to talk about them. Neither does Mittens. He has enough unanswerable tax questions to flub.

Iraq is now subdued and peaceful ? if by peaceful you mean Saturday night on the wrong side of Detroit?s 8-Mile. People still die by the score, infrastructure is an iffy thing, and the politicos still debate the size of the erstwhile President?s desk. If it weren?t for betting on suicide bombers, there?d be no recreation at all. In fact, we?re still footing their bill as they sit on piles of cash and steal what we send.

Sweet deal. I bet Mittens would like to get in on that.

The Withdrawal Capital of the World, Afghanistan, is a bigger mess by the day. Afghan police blow themselves up so often each policeman has a second policeman as a minder topped by a platoon of Green Berets just to keep the death toll down.

Yep. Spreading the fruits of democracy is a thankless job ? especially when Hamid Karzai steals anything not nailed down while whining he needs more than the steady stream of bullion already headed his way.

Yes, it is the economy stupid. Yes, people need work and health care, and educations, and tons of other stuff. Yet, we have plenty of time to talk seriously about some ?moran? who wouldn?t recognize rape if he dropped the soap at San Q.

It is deplorable.

Tens of thousands of Americans are fighting to keep someone else?s country free?well, at least freer than?oh hell, let?s face it, they aren?t accomplishing a damn thing. Plus, the money we?re spending to keep Karzai in goatskin caps and fashionable capes could pay for a lot of that stuff people need. Worse, people die for the chance to lord it over a bunch of people living a cargo-cult life in a rock-strewn hellhole.

Barry and Mittens, please drop that next campaign stop for a donut and Lardburger Supreme. Stop trying to keep your under-minions from pissing off Rage Against the Machine or schooling them not to use ?keep ya?ll in chains? as a metaphor while talking to a large group of African Americans. Pull over, jump out of the old Forked Tongue Express RV, and talk?just a little, about why people have to die and why we should have to pay for it.

It is a reasonable question and people expect a reasonable answer, even if history shows we?ll never get it.

Zardari, Karzai discuss trade, strategic ties (nation.com.pk)
Karzai Approves Sacking of Key Afghan Officials (theepochtimes.com)
U.S., Afghan officials concerned over ‘insider attacks’ (rawstory.com)
Panetta Discusses Afghanistan Progress With Karzai (defense.gov)
Afghan-Pakistani team to probe border shelling: Kabul (dawn.com)
Insurgents Kill 4 NATO Troops, 2 Civilians in Afghanistan (blogs.voanews.com)
Analysis: Afghanistan’s peace hopes may rest on Taliban captive – Reuters (reuters.com)
Negotiations In Afghanistan – Karzai Asks Berlin For Help With Taliban Talks (freeinternetpress.com)
It’s Tuesday and There is a War Going on in Afghanistan (reason.com)
Bombs Kill 46 Across Afghanistan (wemeantwell.com)

Share/Bookmark

Read The Full Article:
http://omnipotentpoobah.com/2012/08/21/lets-talk-war/

Digg this

Akin Goes Full Fetus In New Call for Support

post from Talking Points Memo on 21 August 2012 07:01:12 PM. © Talking Points Memo

I think we're at the point where we can say the Akin debacle is moving in a direction national Republicans distinctly don't want it to go in. After categorically refusing to drop out of the race, Todd Akin has now come out with graphic new imagery of a[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/DLKhpy-XDvw/akin_goes_full_
fetus_in_new_call_for_support.php

Digg this

Who's Really Being Raped

post from Talking Points Memo on 21 August 2012 07:01:11 PM. © Talking Points Memo

Social conservative Bryan Fischer says the person who's really being raped is Todd Akin. [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/5eQF3VFEQjY/whos_really_bei
ng_raped.php

Digg this

Social justice in the classroom That's crazy talk

post from US Politics | AMERICAblog News on 21 August 2012 07:00:51 PM. © US Politics | AMERICAblog News

It's no secret that American education is in crisis.So you'd think people would welcome any creative way to give our kids a break, as budgets get squeezed, teachers are laid off, class sizes grow and critical thinking skills give way to rote learning by textbook and standardized test. In fact, creativity is actually flourishing against the odds.In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has embraced...

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Americablog/~3/BCefIYuXdbA/draft-social-justice-in
-classroom-thats.html

Digg this

STUDY: Massachusetts Minimum Wage Legislation
Would Give 580,000 Workers A Raise

A century ago, Massachusetts became the first state in the country to pass a minimum wage law. Now, the state legislature is considering legislation to increase its minimum wage — currently at $8.00 an hour, $0.75 above the federal minimum — to $10.00 an hour. If the legislation becomes law, it will give more than a half-million low-wage workers a pay increase and could generate 4,500 new jobs because of increased economic activity, according to a study from the Economic Policy Institute:

Increasing Massachusetts?s minimum wage to $10.00 on January 1, 2013, would give a raise to more than 581,000 of the state?s lowest-paid workers. It would provide nearly $824 million in additional wages to directly and indirectly affected families, who would, in turn, spend those extra earnings. Indirectly affected workers?those earning close to, but still above, the proposed new minimum wage?would likely receive a boost in earnings due to the ?spillover? effect (Shierholz 2009), giving them more to spend on necessities. [...]
Using these same standard fiscal multipliers to analyze the jobs impact of an increase in compensation of low-wage workers and decrease in corporate profits that result from a minimum-wage increase, we find that increasing the Massachusetts minimum wage from $8.00 to $10.00 per hour would result in a net increase in economic activity of approximately $522 million and would generate roughly 4,500 net new jobs.

Though Republican lawmakers across the country consistently oppose minimum wage increases on grounds that they hurt job growth, small businesses, and overall economic growth, multiple studies, including EPI’s, contradict those claims. An analysis by the Center for American Progress found that “a significant body of academic research has found that raising the minimum wage does not result in job losses even during hard economic times.”

At the beginning of 2012, scheduled minimum wage increases were set to benefit 1.4 million workers, and such policies tend to benefit women and minorities, workers who typically face pay gaps and other disadvantages in the workplace.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/08/21/723311/study-massachusetts-minimum-wa
ge-legislation-would-give-58000-workers-a-raise/

Digg this

Flashback: Todd Akin Is Also Deluded On Climate
Science

As Lisa Hymas of Grist noted today, “Todd Akin is not only fundamentally deluded about the basic facts of women?s reproductive systems. He?s also fundamentally deluded about the basic facts of climate change.”

We have been reporting on this delusion for a long time. Three years ago, we excerpted an amazingly ignorant floor address by Akin, a Missouri House member who is now the GOP nominee for Senate.

In this address, Akin celebrates the seasonal change from winter to spring as ?good climate change? and confuses ?weather? with ?climate.? He calls the threat of global warming a ?comedy? and twice suggests his fellow climate zombie GOP congressmen are more knowledgeable than Democrats because they have ?passed high school science?:

AKIN: This whole thing strikes me if it weren?t so serious as being a comedy you know. I mean, we just went from winter to spring. In Missouri when we go from winter to spring, that?s a good climate change. I don?t want to stop that climate change you know. Who in the world want to put politicians in charge of the weather anyways? What a dumb idea….
Some of the models said that we?re going to have surf at the front steps of the Capitol pretty soon. I was really looking forward to that….
We?ve been joined by another doctor, a medical doctor but also a guy who graduated from high school science as well, from Georgia, my good friend, Congressman Gingrey.? So to have actually a guy who?s passed high school science is tremendously helpful. And Dr. Fleming from Louisiana.

Here is a short clip from the speech:

Since Akin is a guy who clearly knows very little science, he was a natural for the GOP to stick on the House Science Committee. He offers more pearls of non-wisdom in his website’s discussion of global warming:

As a member of the House Science and Technology Committee, Congressman Akin has participated in hearings on global warming, including its causes and possible effects.
While the political climate change debate continues, research into the effects of human caused CO2 is ongoing. Although some of the physics and meteorology surrounding climate is well understood, the question of predicting future climate trends as well as man?s ability to definitively influence them is still an active field of scientific research. Moreover, despite our desire for complete certainty, we must understand that global climate is very complex phenomena. No one variable can be taken as the sole driver of climate and there exist cycles within cycles of meteorological variability. Scientists state that the planet has gone through many natural heating and cooling cycles over the last thousand years.

Actually scientists don’t state that. Even a top disinformer, like Fred Singer, authored a lame denier treatise, Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years. Akin may mean “last million years” but then it is always perilous to try to figure out what people who don’t know what they’re talking about really mean when they fail to reproduce the “correct” version of their erroneous talking points.

Nor has Akin bothered to update his website, which states “Currently, scientists are somewhat puzzled by a current-extended minimum in solar activity.” Well, they were a little puzzled when we were still in that minimum a couple of years ago, but now we aren’t. Scientists should be puzzled by how Akin can supposedly have “participated in hearings on global warming” but know so little about it.

Then again, as Hymas noted, Akin is a guy who “categorizes rape based on its legitimacy and would oppose abortion in every conceivable scenario save his being abducted by space worms who then laid eggs in his brain. Or maybe that already happened. That would explain a lot.”

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/21/723351/flashback-todd-akin-is-also-de
luded-on-climate-science/

Digg this