Yes, another Palin thread to unrecommend:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/20/palin-... /

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin was in Indiana yesterday for a book-signing at a Borders store. One thousand lucky fans with wristbands to meet Palin stood in the rain all day waiting for her to arrive. However, Palin quit the event before she had the chance to sign all the books, leaving 100 supporters out in the cold:

“I’m very disappointed. I think it was very rude. She could have at least apologized, and she didn’t even do that,” said Teresa Hedrick. <...>

“We bought two books from Borders to have our receipt and our wristband to get it signed tonight,” said one woman. “My books are going back to Borders tomorrow.”

“We gave up our entire workday, stayed in the cold. My kids were crying,” said one man. “They went home with my wife. She was out here in the freezing cold all day. I feel like I don’t want to support Sarah.“

People who didn’t get to meet Palin “went home only with a piece of paper with Palin’s signature.” Video from the event shows angry wristband-holders loudly booing Palin and yelling, “Sign our books!” and “Quittin’ on the job!” <video at link>

From FiveThirtyEight.com:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/11/its...

All right -- this is my favorite graph in quite some time. Let's show the picture first and ask questions later.



What we have is a comparison of Barack Obama's approval ratings on the economy to his approval ratings overall. It includes all polls in the Pollster.com database that asked about both approval of Obama on the economy and his overall job performance -- a total of 109 polls dating back to the start of his term. I've then drawn in some LOESS curves to illustrate the trend.

The two lines track each other uncannily well. From the very start of Obama's term, there's been about a 5-6 point gap between approval of his performance on the economy and his performance overall, with the latter figure consistently being somewhat higher. Although Obama's approval has declined in both departments (particularly during period between about April 1 and August 1; it may not be declining any further now), the magnitude of the gap has been exceptionally steady over time.

The economy, I suppose, is sort of boring to talk about: it's a slow-moving sort of thing, and one over which the President has only a certain modicum of control. And so you'll have pundits attributing Obama's slide to all various and sundry sorts of things -- Health Care! Henry Louis Gates! Torture Trials! -- when really it's just been very much about the number of people who have come to blame Obama about the economy has tended to accelerate faster than perceptions of the economy itself.

Let's now add a third variable, which is Obama's approval on health care. We'll look only at those polls that asked about health care in addition to the economy and job performance, in order to create a truly apples-to-apples comparison:




...

From Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, so take it with a grain of salt. :


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...


Washington Times editor files EEOC complaint
Disclosing his dismissal, Miniter says paper forced him to attend religious event

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The former editorial page editor of the Washington Times has filed a discrimination complaint against the paper, saying he was "coerced" into attending a Unification Church religious ceremony that culminated in a mass wedding conducted by the church's leader, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

Richard Miniter, who was also vice president of opinion, made the claim in a filing Tuesday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that also disclosed he was fired last month. He said in an interview that he "was made to feel there was no choice" but to attend the ceremony if he wanted to keep his job, and that executives "gave me examples of people whose careers at the Times had grown after they converted" to the Unification Church. A Times spokesman said the paper would not comment.

Miniter, an Episcopalian who tried to avoid attending by saying he had to worship at his own church, said he found the religious weekend in New York last December to be "creepy" and that the Times had invited him to other such events. He said that Moon spoke for about an hour, that ceremonies were conducted in which water was poured from small urns into larger ones, and that Moon married 20 to 30 couples.

The Times paid for his travel, Miniter said, and he and other company executives, including church member Thomas P. McDevitt, then the Times' president and publisher, stayed at the church-owned New Yorker Hotel.

The Times, owned by Unification Church officials, has said since its 1982 founding that it is editorially independent of the church; numerous editors and reporters have said over the years that they encountered no interference from the ownership. Still, Miniter's complaint raises a sensitive issue for the newspaper.

...

The next month, Miniter alleges, the Times conducted a second investigation after he joked to his deputy about Moon's long, flowing garb in a church brochure. That probe was never concluded, Miniter said, and in July the company asked him to work from home. He said he was never given a reason for his termination.

That's why they want to bring the KSM trial coming to NYC, the Texan dipshit says:



http://mediamattersaction.org/blog/2009111...

....Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas suggested yesterday that Democrats may actually want another terrorist attack because rebuilding the city would create jobs.

"You've got subways, tunnels, bridges all subject to terrorism. And unless they're trying to create a new jobs bill by allowing terrorism back in New York then this is insane. And even that would be insane."

Last night, Gohmert said that "it is extremely helpful to have a community organizer in the White House because you'll need lots of community organization in order to adequately evacuate massive areas of the most densely populated area in America."

These are facts. It's tempting, of course, to draw correlations. It's tempting for New Englanders to gloat. Having grown up in Maine and lived in Massachusetts and Connecticut, I can't help but feel proud of New England.

But having spent lots of time in Arkansas, Florida, Virginia and Tennessee, I can honestly say I love the South and Southern culture--minus the wreckage slave culture wrought. In fact, I would argue that the main reason the South is so fucked up in terms of its health and religion and politics is precisely because of its heritage being steeped in slave culture. That should not be controversial.



PS: I should also mention that some of the South's dysfunction no-doubt is a by-product of "The War of Northern Aggression."


http://health.yahoo.com/featured/67/the-he... /

The Healthiest and Unhealthiest States.
More from Forbes.com


By Rebecca Ruiz

States in New England top a new set of rankings, while the South still lags.

If you want to be healthy, live in Vermont--or at least act like you do. It is the healthiest state in the country, according to a new report from the nonprofit United Health Foundation.

The annual ranking looks at 22 indicators of health, including everything from how many children receive recommended vaccinations, to obesity and smoking rates, to cancer deaths. (The foundation is funded by the insurer UnitedHealth Group.)

Vermont ranked first this year thanks in part to its low rate of obesity, high number of doctors and a low rate of child poverty. New England in general sets a benchmark for the country, the report found: All six New England states are in the top 10. These states have favorable demographics and an excellent public health infrastructure, including a large number of doctors per capita.

Eight of the 10 bottom-ranked states are from the south, with Mississippi coming in dead last for the ninth consecutive year. Mississippi has a sky-high death rate from heart disease and high infant mortality. In general, residents of these states are more likely to be smokers or to be obese, the report found. They also have worse health insurance coverage, fewer physicians per capita and live in areas with high violent crime and more child poverty.

UnitedHealth Group Executive Vice President Dr. Reed Tuckson says the report is meant to draw attention to public health issues, particularly the twin challenges of smoking and obesity. While the smoking rate has decreased in the past 20 years, nearly one in five Americans still smoke. More than one-quarter of American adults suffer from obesity, a condition that the report estimated will cost $344 billion in annual health care costs by 2018. "We are about to deliver a tsunami of preventable chronic illness that will come pouring into the medical care delivery system," says Reed.

Is the problem with Americans or with the way food is produced and distributed?

I'm reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, so you might be able to guess where I stand on the issue. I think we need a food production and delivery system revolution in America. We need to stop the corn and soybean industrial farming monoculture and return to a local, grass-based food chain.

Who's with me?

:insert smiley holding aloft pitchfork:

From mediabistro and GalleyCat:

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/autho...


Sarah Palin's Diary

By Jason Boog on Nov 16, 2009 04:23 PM

As millions watch former Alaskan governor on The Oprah Winfrey Show this afternoon, GalleyCat dug through the interview excerpts that ended up on the cutting room floor of Oprah's show.

In one particularly illuminating clip, Palin discussed her life-long vocation as writer, giving readers a peek into her childhood diary. It's an interesting defense of her writing credentials, just a few hours before the release of her memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life."

Here's an excerpt from the unused clip: "I have a journalism degree, I've always loved writing, <and> I've journaled all my life ... since younger than than Piper even, since <I was> a little girl. My sister and I, a few years ago, went through our little kid diaries, you know, <the ones> with a little lock and key. We opened those up and saw what we had ... Maybe some of my entries were a little different than yours were at second grade: I'm talking all about hunting trips we were heading out to and chopping wood and stacking the firewood ... I don't think it's accidental either, I think it is providential that I had had that desire throughout my life to record and memorialize things that were perhaps ordinary events at the time... so logistically speaking, practically speaking, it wasn't a real difficult exercise to write the book."

when it comes to brainsize.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/...


Science News
Not Necessarily Better, When It Comes to Brains


ScienceDaily (Nov. 17, 2009) — Tiny insects could be as intelligent as much bigger animals, despite only having a brain the size of a pinhead, say scientists at Queen Mary, University of London.


"Animals with bigger brains are not necessarily more intelligent," according to Lars Chittka, Professor of Sensory and Behavioural Ecology at Queen Mary's Research Centre for Psychology and University of Cambridge colleague, Jeremy Niven. This begs the important question: what are they for?

Research repeatedly shows how insects are capable of some intelligent behaviours scientists previously thought was unique to larger animals. Honeybees, for example, can count, categorise similar objects like dogs or human faces, understand 'same' and 'different', and differentiate between shapes that are symmetrical and asymmetrical.

"We know that body size is the single best way to predict an animal's brain size," explains Chittka, writing in the journal Current Biology. "However, contrary to popular belief, we can't say that brain size predicts their capacity for intelligent behaviour."

Differences in brain size between animals is extreme: a whale's brain can weigh up to 9 kg (with over 200 billion nerve cells), and human brains vary between 1.25 kg and 1.45 kg (with an estimated 85 billion nerve cells). A honeybee's brain weighs only 1 milligram and contains fewer than a million nerve cells.

...

Alas, where teabaggers gather, unpleasantness follows:

http://www.bluestemprairie.com/bluestempra...

Activist punks Tea Party Against Amnesty; rally supporters assault protesters (updated)

Teapartyagainstamnesty One of Bluestem's young friends tipped me off yesterday that one of the speakers at this morning's Tea Party Against Amnesty, organized in Minnesota by Ruthie Hendrycks, would have an interesting message for the fans of Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform (MINN-SIR) and their fellow travelers.

DJ Danielson of I Don't Hate America was intrigued by the tip as well and so joined me at the state capitol. Together, we watched "Robert Erickson" of Minneapolis rally the anti-immigration part of the crowd with his objections to the mass invasion of America by immigrants who brought disease and took away jobs. They stayed with him as he called for a mass deportation of these invaders.

To Europe.

Most of the MINN-SIR supporters were slow to catch the satire, and so the cheering from that side of the crowd took a while to subside. As they realized they'd been punked, they stood in a cold, stunned silence, while the 30 or so counter-protesters urged Columbus to go home.

Unfortunately, some of the pro-MINN-SIR audience made up for what they lacked in humor through the use of violence. Both Danielson and I saw middle-aged men attack young protesters, knocking one off a bike before he started throwing punches at aggressively shoving the young man. < Update Nov 17: see second Youtube clip here for this incident end update>

Just as shocking was the reaction of the state police working the rally, who pushed back those being attacked, rather than those attacking the counter protesters.

...

The Indiscreet Charm of America's Bourgeoisie, noted by Hullabaloo's tristero:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/49-...


49 Million Americans

by tristero

I am so glad that Wall Street is on track for such huge bonuses this year. That's because they can use all that money to buy food for the 49 million Americans - 49 million Americans! Jesus! who "lacked consistent access to adequate food" by the end of the Bush administration.

49 million Americans. Shameful. Shameful!

And check this out towards the end:

“Very few of these people are hungry,” said Robert Rector, an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “When they lose jobs, they constrain the kind of food they buy. That is regrettable, but it’s a far cry from a hunger crisis.”

49 million Americans have been "struggling with hunger" - as the director of the food center who sponsored the study says - and all conservatives can say is, "Hey, that's not so bad."

Jesus.

My God, that anyone takes conservatives seriously on anything simply boggles the mind. 49 million Americans can't eat well on a regular basis - not won't, but can't - and this asshole pooh-poohs the problem. (By the way, you might want to Google "Robert Rector Heritage Foundation" for a good idea of how wrong someone can be. Authoring flawed studies on immigration. Advocating worthless sex education programs. He's one more extreme-right conservative clown clone.)

...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...


By Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 16, 2009; 12:04 PM

The number of Americans who lack dependable access to adequate food shot up last year to 49 million, the largest number since the government has been keeping track, according to a government report released Monday that shows particularly steep increases in food scarcity among families with children.



In 2008, the report found, nearly 17 million children -- more than one in five across the United States -- were living in households in which food at times ran short, up from slightly more than 12 million children the year before. And the number of children who sometimes were outright hungry rose from nearly 700,000 to almost 1.1 million.

Among people of of all ages, nearly 15 percent last year did not consistently have adequate food, compared with about 11 percent in 2007, the greatest deterioration in access to food during a single year in the history of the report.

Taken together, the findings provide the latest glimpse into the toll that the weak economy has taken on the well-being of the nation's residents. The findings are from a snapshot of food in America that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued every year since 1995, based on Census Bureau surveys. It documents both Americans who are scrounging for adequate food -- people living with some amount of "food insecurity" in the lexicon of experts -- and those whose food shortages are so severe that they are hungry.

It's the Wasilla Hill Billies! Take yer shoes off. Set a spell:

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/200...


Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been making more and more forays back out into the public eye as the date of her memoir's release grows closer. Now, with the book due out in just eight days, she's been hit with news that's probably going to put a crimp in her whatever plans she's had for getting positive coverage during her book tour.

Levi Johnston, the former fiancé of Palin's daughter Bristol -- and the father of the former governor's first grandchild, 10-month-old Tripp -- reportedly plans to sue for joint custody of his son.

"It's not working. I'm done," Johnston told the Insider. "It's going to have to go to court. They just finally pushed me over the edge."

This could end up being a real headache for Palin. Johnston has previously said he has potentially damaging information about the woman who was once set to be his mother-in-law, and he's already made some accusations that could hurt her. (Palin has denied them all.) Having more of them in court documents won't help matters much, not as she's trying to promote a book and herself. Plus, this means some outlets will be asking her about Johnston during interviews about the book. Palin's booked for an interview with Oprah Winfrey, for example, who has enough power that she can ensure that no questions are off-limits; that could mean that Palin will be pulled off-message during the big launch of her tour.

May they never learn the right lessons:

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/200...

GOP learned wrong lessons in New York race

When Dede Scozzafava, then the Republican nominee, dropped out of a congressional race in upstate New York last month, conservatives celebrated. And why not? Victory looked imminent for their chosen candidate, Doug Hoffman, and the whole affair seemed to confirm their basic idea of how ideological conflict works: Be assertive enough, and you will get your way. You know -- “You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”

Of course, Hoffman didn’t win. Instead, after dropping out, Scozzafava helped deliver the race to Democrat Bill Owens with a well-timed endorsement of her former opponent. In an interview written up in Tuesday's Washington Post, she tells the story of leaving the race and throwing it to the Democrat. The piece reads like a morality play aimed at a wayward GOP.

After a wave of hostile -- often nastily so -- coverage from right-wing media and attacks from Republicans like Sarah Palin, Dick Armey and George Pataki (who had encouraged her to run), Scozzafava decided to leave the race. National Republicans were obviously relieved to be rid of her, and made that clear, getting in a few final kicks after she was down. Then, although Hoffman apparently expected her endorsement, he didn’t bother to call after she dropped out.

But Owens did call to offer his condolences. At the behest of the White House, so did New York Attorney General Andy Cuomo, who talked with Scozzafava about his own political humiliation in 2002, when he withdrew from the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination after it became clear he would lose. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and even former President Bill Clinton sought out Scozzafava as well.

Obviously, Cuomo, Schumer and the rest of the Democratic apparatus were acting out of self-interest, not just old-fashioned good-neighborliness. They wanted her endorsement. But that’s just the point; the GOP has been acting like it can win by doing what feels good. Meanwhile, the Democrats have gone about the actual work of coalition building, and it paid off with a seat in Congress.

Meanwhile, back in upstate New York, Scozzafava has been demoted from her GOP leadership position in the State Assembly, and is being courted to switch parties. This, of course, in a 150-member legislative body in which the Republicans control only 40 seats.

STEELE SCARES WHITE REPUBLICANS.... It's been a couple of weeks since the RNC's Michael Steele said something foolish and had to walk it back, so I suppose we were due for another gem.

Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Michael Steele, who is known for making controversial statements, on Sunday said that white Republicans are afraid of him. <...>

The Republican chairman appeared on NewsOne's "Washington Watch" this weekend, a new Sunday political talk show aimed at a black audience. The host, Roland Martin, asked Steele how Republicans could reach out to black voters.

Roland Martin noted that he's long believed that white Republicans "have been scared of black folks."

Steele replied, "You're absolutely right. I mean I've been in the room and they've been scared of me."

From Steele's perspective, if he walks into a room of his fellow Republicans, and they're afraid of him, shouldn't that tell him a little something about his party's approach to diversity? Steele is the chairman of a major political party, a former Senate candidate, and a former lieutenant governor. Why, exactly, would a room full of Republicans be "scared" of him, unless he thinks his fellow party members are racists?

And from the party's perspective, Steele really isn't helping with that minority outreach effort. It's not exactly a pitch that's likely to resonate with minority communities: "Vote GOP, The Party That Finds Non-Whites Scary."