Wednesday Open Thread

post from My Left Wing - Front Page on 25 May 2011 07:00:00 AM. © My Left Wing - Front Page

Every mind must make its choice between truth and repose.
It cannot have both.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Born May 25, 1803

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Mad Hatter Time for Tea Party and Palin

post from Connecting.the.Dots on 25 May 2011 06:00:06 AM. © Connecting.the.Dots

In these Alice-in-Wonderland days, occasional signs of sanity emerge, such as the Democratic victory in a traditionally Republican upstate New York House district, fueled by voter worries about Medicare and a Tea Party candidate on the ballot drawing just enough votes to make the difference.

This used to be known as shooting yourself in the foot, but that won?t deter John Boehner, Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor and other House GOP leaders, who contributed to the loser?s campaign, from pressing their hopelessly ideological agenda on the national stage.

Posturing has become all--reality seems beside the point. Never mind that three Senate Republicans?Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins?are not supporting the House zealots, eliminating any possible chance of victory on the House budget manifesto. Politics has morphed from the art of the possible to proclamations of purity.

This same kind of loony disconnection from what most Americans call reality can be seen in a new Sarah Palin movie, intended to ?catapult her from the presidential afterthought she has become in the eyes of many pundits directly to the front lines of the 2012 GOP conversation.?

The film?s thesis is that Palin drove the Republican Congressional victory in 2010, when a sober analysis shows that, if the GOP had nominated more plausible Senate candidates than Palin-backed Christine O'Donnell in Delaware, Linda McMahon in Connecticut, Sharron Angle in Nevada and Carly Fiorina in California, they might have swept both houses of Congress. Even in Alaska, Lisa Murkowski overcame a Palin vendetta with a write-in effort to beat Joe Miller.

But crazy and clueless are still the specials on the Republican menu, and what voters want only occasionally appears as a side dish. Until the Tea Party is over, they are going to have to find ways of ordering a la carte.

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Muse in the Morning

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 25 May 2011 06:00:00 AM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Muse in the MorningTime for a break from poetry...in order to create some art.I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.-- Mahatma GandhiMetallic I know you have talent. ?What sometimes is forgotten is that being practical is a[...]

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British Conservatives now promoting
abstinence-only for sex education

post from AMERICAblog News on 25 May 2011 05:00:41 AM. © AMERICAblog News

First they went New World with higher education and now this. Haven't we seen these abstinence-only programs fail time after time? If they can hold their coalition together long enough, they may completely out flank the Teabaggers on the right and become the gold standard for modern right wing extremism. The Guardian:

A group which is opposed to abortion in all circumstances and favours an abstinence-based approach to sex education has been appointed to advise the government on sexual health.

The Life organisation has been invited to join a new sexual health forum set up to replace the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV.

Stuart Cowie, Life's head of education, said: "We are delighted to be invited into the group, representing views that have not always been around on similar tables in the past."

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Racial politics and Obama: A new era

post from Occasional Planet on 25 May 2011 05:00:21 AM. © Occasional Planet

Daedalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, published in 1965 two issues on ?The Negro American.? Some 56 years later, in 2011, the journal has published a kind of follow-up, a two-volume issue on race in the age of Obama. The first issue, edited by Washington University?s own Gerald Early, takes [...]Related posts:

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On Hole Cards, Or, "Drill, Baby, Drill" Why Is
Canada Out Of Sand

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 25 May 2011 04:36:35 AM. © Docudharma - Front Page

In America, today, there are three kinds of drivers: those who look at the other gas pumps down at the ol' gas station and think: "Oh my God, I can't believe how much that guy's spending on gas", those who look at their own pump down at the ol' gas[...]

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Rehash The War on Tiara

post from Firedoglake on 25 May 2011 04:30:09 AM. © Firedoglake

If at first you don't succeed lie lie again[...]

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Dollar strengthens on weak risk appetite
prospects

Source: Advanced Currency Markets | G10 Advancers and Decliners vs USD JPY 0.11 CHF -0.11 GBP -0.18 EUR -0.49 The Bank of Japan indicated its willingness to expand lending programs to support reconstruction efforts after the nation?s earthquake crippled factory production and pushed the economy into a recession. The BOJ Governor Shirakawa said that they are examining whether there?s a way to enhance a 3 trillion yen ($37 billion) lending program for industries that can spur economic growth. Many BOJ…

Kathy Hochul (D) wins Upset in NY-26 Special
Election because of Medicare

Democrat Kathy Hochul Wins Upset In NY-26

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A huge win happened tonight for the Democratic Party and to Congresswoman-Elect Kathy Hochul because Republican voters are afraid that they will lose their Medicare at the hands of the GOP.

NY Times:

Voters, who turned out in strikingly large numbers for a special election, said they trusted Ms. Hochul, the county clerk of Erie County, to protect Medicare.
?I have almost always voted the party line,? said Gloria Bolender, a Republican from Clarence who is caring for her 80-year-old mother. ?This is the second time in my life I?ve voted against my party.?
Pat Gillick, a Republican from East Amherst, who also cast a ballot for Ms. Hochul, said, ?The privatization of Medicare scares me.?
The district, which stretches from Buffalo to Rochester, has been in Republican hands for four decades, producing influential figures like Representative Jack Kemp and siding with Carl P. Paladino, a Republican, over Andrew M. Cuomo in the governor?s race last year.

via emailed press release: DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement after Congresswoman-Elect Kathy Hochul?s victory in the New York Special Election:

?I wholeheartedly congratulate Congresswoman-Elect Hochul and her grassroots supporters for their hard work and dedication despite being outspent by a 2-to-1 margin. Tonight?s election result is not just a victory for Congresswoman-Elect Kathy Hochul, it?s a victory for the residents of Western New York and for Americans who believe that our elected leaders should fight to protect Medicare and ensure that our government works for our seniors, working families and young people. Kathy?s Republican opponent, and those who spent a small fortune on her behalf in a solidly Republican district, found out the hard way that their extreme plans to abolish Medicare and slash Medicaid and investments in health care, education, innovation and job creation are wrongheaded and unpopular even in a district that should have been a cakewalk for the Republican candidate.