A day after New York City came up with a $1,000 bagel, a local restaurateur unveiled a $25,000 chocolate sundae on Wednesday, setting a Guinness world record for the most expensive dessert.
November 2007 archive
Nov 09 2007
Let Them Eat Gold
Nov 09 2007
House Dems Propose Iraq Funding With Timetables
Speaker Pelosi today announced:
House Democrats said Thursday they would send President Bush $50 billion for combat operations on the condition that he begin withdrawing troops from Iraq. The proposal, similar to one Bush vetoed earlier this year, would identify a goal of ending combat entirely by December 2008. It would require that troops spend as much time at home as they do in combat, as well as effectively ban harsh interrogation techniques like waterboarding.
In a private caucus meeting, Pelosi told rank-and-file Democrats that the bill was their best shot at challenging Bush on the war. And if Bush rejected it, she said, she did not intend on sending him another war spending bill for the rest of the year.
“This is not a blank check for the president,” she said later at a Capitol Hill news conference. “This is providing funding for the troops limited to a particular purpose, for a short time frame.
As always, we know Bush will veto.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Bush would veto any bill that sets an “artificial timeline” for troop withdrawals.
As always, I applaud the Speaker’s STATED stance today.
As always, the important point here is that the House Dems MUST stick to their guns and tell the President – of he vetoes then he is abandoning the troops in the field. I repeat, the President of the United States will be ABANDONING AMERICAN TROOPS IN THE FIELD!
President Bush is proposing to stab the troops in the back by vetoing funding for them.
A disgraceful man. The worst President in history.
Nov 09 2007
Pony Open Thread: a little Astaire, Rogers, and Gershwin
it’s the way you wear your hat…
Nov 08 2007
This will be a quickie! Add your voice!
For those of you who do not receive E-Mail from The Pen, here is an Action Page, where you can show your support for the Impeachment of Vice-President Cheney and support H.R. 333.
In addition, they will send you, at your request, Impeach Cheney posters and a hat, as well.
Your personal message will be sent to individual House members, and copies will be sent to BOTH Nancy Pelosi and the House Judiciary Committee itself, as well as any newspaper you may designate.
The names are being added like crazy — just in the last hour there have been 500 or more signatures, getting close to 16,519 now and it’s non-stop.
Nov 08 2007
Four at Four
Some news and your afternoon Open Thread.
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The New York Times reports Giuliani’s friend Kerik is to be indicted. “Federal prosecutors will ask a grand jury today to indict Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York police commissioner, on charges that include tax fraud, corruption and conspiracy counts, according to people who have been briefed on the case… Charges could complicate the presidential campaign of Mr. Kerik’s friend, patron and former business partner, Rudolph W. Giuliani, a Republican, whose mentorship was partly responsible for Mr. Kerik’s sharp ascent into prominence. Mr. Giuliani declined to comment through a spokeswoman yesterday, but has said he is not worried about the impact such charges might have on his campaign.”
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The coup within a coup continues in Pakistan. The Guardian reports Pakistan’s rulers break law by delaying election. “Pakistan’s ruling party today dashed hopes that the country’s scheduled January elections would go ahead as planned. The country’s state TV quoted the president, General Pervez Musharraf, and Chaudhury Shujaat Hussain, the president of the ruling party PML-Q, as saying the vote would be delayed until mid February.” The Independent reports that “The former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto has issued her most defiant statement yet since the imposition of emergency rule, as her supporters were attacked by riot police firing tear gas in the heart of the capital yesterday.” Of course Musharraf has promised to hold elections according to the BBC News, but by that time all the opposition will be in prison.
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The Guardian reports Aung San Suu Kyi agrees to talks with Burma junta. “The Burmese opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, today said she was ready to cooperate with the country’s military government, according to a statement released on her behalf by the UN. The apparent offer of cooperation by Ms Suu Kyi, who has spent 12 of the past 18 years in detention, came at the end of a six-day visit to Burma by the UN special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari.”
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Copley News Service reports that California is suing the Bush administration. “Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will team up with Democratic state Attorney General Jerry Brown today to take on… Bush over global warming. Schwarzenegger and Brown plan to file a lawsuit asking a federal court to order the Bush administration to decide whether to approve California’s landmark law requiring automakers to gradually reduce tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming.” The Los Angeles Times has an update: California sues EPA over emissions.
So, what else is happening?
Nov 08 2007
New poll: Opposition to Iraq War at record high, while large majority opposes attack on Iran
A new polll has good news, on two fronts.
On the Iraq War:
Opposition to the war in Iraq has reached an all-time high, according to the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll released Thursday morning.
Support for the war in Iraq has dropped to 31 percent and the 68 percent who oppose the war is a new record.
Only a quarter of those polled think the U.S. is winning the war. The American people get it. Those with brains, anyway. Now, if only someone would do something about this disaster…
The other result is very encouraging, particularly to those who saw the strange recent Zogby Poll, which concluded that a slight majority of Americans favored an attack on Iran. That poll struck me as an outlier, although we’ll have to see more results, to really know. But the CNN/ORC result shows this:
The public also opposes U.S. military action against Iran. Sixty-three percent oppose air strikes on Iran, while 73 percent oppose using ground troops as well as air strikes in that country.
That sounds more accurate. We’ll see.
The new polls also says 56% say they are dissatisfied with the progress in the “war on terror.” Which begs the questions:
What progress?
What war on terror?
Al Qaeda and the Taliban are resurgent, and Pakistan now has a dictatorship. Okay, maybe there is progress. Just not in the right direction.
Nov 08 2007
Oh Yeah! Let’s Make Even MORE Enemies!
From our great Congress, a resolution:
Iran Sees Venezuela as Doorway to Americas, Republican Says:
Top U.S. officials who avoid confrontation with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez should exchange their passivity for a more forceful Latin American policy, Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.) said in an exclusive interview with the Cybercast News Service.
Otherwise, rogue nations and terrorists will continue to use Venezuela as a conduit for dangerous enterprises that jeopardize U.S. interests, the Florida Republican argued. As it stands, Iran’s influence in the region is already growing at a quick pace thanks in large measure to the Chavez government, said Mack.
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In October, Mack worked with colleague Rep. Ron Klein (D-Fla.) to help pass House Resolution 435. It calls on the U.S. government to combat the influence and clout that Iran and Hezbollah now exercise in Latin America.
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Mack declined to comment on specific details as they relate to the military arrangement between Iran and Venezuela. However, he indicated that U.S. officials need to entertain “more severe polices” towards Venezuela in the near-future, if they do not otherwise re-kindle key alliances in the region.
Yeah, those damned terrists are everywhere!
Nov 08 2007
Oh Canada!!! Rachel Marsden Fired From Toronto Sun
posted at the Big Orange Monster
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I love the smell of schadenfruede in the morning…I’ve got to give a tip to the Canadian blog site A Creative Revolution, of which I am a proud effin’ member this mornin’…way to go, guys, and pale…luv ya!!
Looks like our letters to the editor rubbed someone at the Toronto Sun the wrong way, and she’s been dumped from the silly rag…
Oh, it’s still a silly right-wing rag, but it is so much less odious this morning…
Canadian Kossacks, take a bow!!!
Nov 08 2007
I am NOT a “healthcare consumer”
I have health insurance through my employer. I guess that makes me “lucky” in some respects. I have also been fairly lucky with my health in general (knock on wood) and have not really had to navigate the hell that is Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois.
Yet.
Every November, we receive a batch of information related to the “employee benefits open enrollment period”, which allows us to make any changes to our elections for the upcoming year. Pretty basic and self-explanatory. And while there is the usual bit of frustration when realizing that I have to choose between bad or worse versions of the same one insurance provider’s plans, this year was different.
Nov 08 2007
Dodd Leads On FISA Telco Amnesty
Against the odds, Senator Chris Dodd has led the fight against FISA telco immunity.
The first step is to make sure retroactive immunity doesn’t make it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee — where it will be considered shortly.
If we can get it stripped there, it will have to be offered as an amendment to the overall bill where it will be a lot easier to get 41 votes against retroactive immunity than 41 to sustain my filibuster if necessary
This is a vitally important issue, as the Dodd campaign demonstrates in this video of the whistleblower Marc Klein, who told the story of the telco’s failure to respect the privacy of its customers that the law (the Communication Storage Act) requires.
My name is Mark Klein. I used to be an AT&T technician for 22 years.
[Former AT&T Technician Mark Klein Speaks Out on Retroactive Immunity and Domestic Surveillance]
“What I figured out when I got there is that they were copying everything flowing across the internet cables, the major internet links between AT&T’s network and other companies’ networks.”
“It struck me at the time that this was a massively unconstitutional, illegal operation.”
“It affects not only AT&T’s customers, but everybody because these links went to places link Sprint, Qwest, a whole bunch of other companies.”
“And so they’re basically tapping into the entire internet.”
[But isn’t the government only monitoring suspected terrorists and not ordinary Americans?]
“To perform what they say they want to do, which is look at international traffic, none of this makes any sense. These installations only make sense if they’re doing a huge, massive domestic dragnet on everybody in the United States.”
[Shouldn’t the telecoms trust that the Bush administration’s requests are legal?]
“These companies know very well what’s legal and illegal. They’ve been dealing with this for decades. And it’s a fact that Qwest refused the NSA’s approaches because they didn’t have, they weren’t shown any legal justification for it. And they did the right thing and said, “no.” “
“What I’m here for is it looked like a few weeks ago that the Senate bill which passed the Intelligence Committee would give immunity to the telecom companies and that would probably put an end to the lawsuits.”
[The Senate Judiciary Committee is currently reviewing retroactive immunity]
“So I came here to lobby against giving immunity to the telecom companies. Let the court cases proceed and Congress should not interfere in that.”
Chris Dodd, leading on the issues now and demonstrating the leadership we will need from our next President.
Now call the Judiciary Committee Senators now. Use this. Chris Dodd will pay for your call.
Nov 08 2007
Sustainability and Prefiguration in a Couple of Acres: The Pomona College Natural Farm
This is a revision of an earlier essay I published on DailyKos.com, in preparation for its republication in the Environmental Analysis journal (and perhaps elsewhere). Its major premise is as follows:
Sustainability is nowhere to be found, and so we appear to be groping in the dark when looking for it. One of the ways in which we can proceed to build knowledge about sustainability, however, is in the community garden. A conceptual guide to the idea of sustainability is located in the concept of prefiguration (as described by Joel Kovel in his book The Enemy of Nature), which describes the sense in which social institutions point to the possibility of a global, ecologically sustainable, society. Community gardens have important prefigurative qualities, too. The bulk of this diary, then, will be about one such community garden, one located on the campus of a college: the Pomona College Natural Farm. The Pomona College Natural Farm will be presented as a place where sustainability, both in social and ecological terms, can be studied. Its conclusion will attempt to speculate about the significance of the Farm and of community gardens as “prefigurations.”