- The company @GOPLeader keeps...We already know that Pammy Atlas is a genocidal nutcase who justifies the murder of children by a Christian terrorist with a glib, blase, "Note the faces which are more MIddle [sic] Eastern or mixed than pure Norwegian." No, we are more interested in the picture of her arm-in-arm with Eric Cantor accompanying the post.
- Crazy-eyes Bachmann can't count on a vote from Cher. ""Just got spam letter from M. Bachman! My reply: Woman go back to school take history! If I was on my deathbed & your best friend was JESUS, I wouldn't vote for your gay-hating, bully-loving, poser Christian ass!'" - Cher, tweeting about Michele Bachmann."
- Wingers will be appoplectic and threaten boycotts over this, but so what? They aren't exactly Whole Foods customer base, anyway, so we're sure that the six people who actually follow through won't be noticed, much less missed. "Whole Foods has become the first prominent supermarket chain to run a Ramadan marketing campaign--and they're hoping Muslim customers will return the favor as they break fast. Even though Muslims traditionally forego meals during the day, lavish evening Ramadan meals could mean big bucks for the natural foods giant ... as well as brand loyalty from a demographic not traditionally courted by megastore advertising. ... Whole Foods is teaming up with Halal frozen entree brand Saffron Road (who sell a variety of Indian-, Thai-, and Moroccan-flavored dinners) to host several promoted blog items on Whole Foods' website along with sponsored giveaways of Saffron Road food and supermarket gift certificates. Additional content for the campaign is being added by Yvonne Maffei of the My Halal Kitchen blog. While it is a relatively small promotion, it also marks a new benchmark for the Muslim-American community: the first coordinated Ramadan promotion by a national supermarket chain."
- Is your state lege in the control of republicans? If it is, you need to inform yourself about the chicanery and shenanigans of ALEC. If you have a republican state rep or senator, ask them point blank if they are a member, and make them answer. If they try to weasel out of answering, assume yes. And a "yes" means they do not work for you. A yes means that they work for the Koch Brothers.
- Yup. those Koch Brothers sure do love them some democracy and fair elections! The David Koch-underwritten propaganda and election stealing outfit Americans for Prosperity has been especially active in Wisconsin, spending millions to boost Scott Walker and trying to help doomed republican state senators who are facing recall as backlash over supporting Walkers union-busting bill. Now they are sending out absentee ballots to Democratic voters in two districts. The mailers were obtained by Dave Catanese of Politico and tell the voters to return the paperwork by Augustt 11 -- two days after the election. "These are people who are "ones" in the voterfile who we already knew. They ain't AFP members, that's for damn sure," said a Democrat who is deeply involved in the recall efforts.
- Rick "Medicare Fraud" Scott throws a party to celebrate abridging the constitutional rights of Florida women. "Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) knows how to throw a party. The conservative governor on Saturday hosted pro-life activists and Florida lawmakers at the governor's mansion to celebrate a handful of new anti-abortion laws, the Miami Herald reports. ... But the laws actually went into effect about a month ago, so why host the ceremonial bill-signing event now? ... "A lot of people put a lot of effort into these things," Scott said, speaking to why the event was held over the weekend. "I think they want to have an event to memorialize it. For these bills, a lot of these people have worked on these bills for years and years, and it's a way for them to celebrate the accomplishments.""
- Sorry Dude. You can't unring a bell or unblow a dogwhistle."After the media picked up on his comment, Lamborn's office issued a public apology to Obama. ... "Lamborn was attempting to tell a radio audience last week that the President's policies have created an economic quagmire for the nation and are responsible for the dismal economic conditions our country faces," a statement by his office said. "He regrets that he chose the phrase 'tar baby,' rather than the word 'quagmire.' The Congressman is confident that the President will accept his heartfelt apology.""
- We suspected as much. "Yesterday Newt Gingrich laid out a new argument for why he should be the GOP presidential nominee: He's got the most Twitter followers. But according to a former Gingrich staffer, he bought them. ... Gingrich complained yesterday that the press is ignoring his prodigious Twitter audience: "I have six times as many Twitter followers as all the other candidates combined, but it didn't count because if it counted I'd still be a candidate; since I can't be a candidate that can't count." Which is true! Gingrich currently boasts 1,325,842 followers, whereas competitors Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann have yet to crack 100,000. ... But if Newt is winning the Twitter primary, it's because of voter fraud. A former staffer tells us that his campaign hired a firm to boost his follower count, in part by creating fake accounts en masse."
- This sort of pragmatism will surely get TPM reader RW hounded by "progressives." " Let me get this straight. The President kept revenues on the table, did not touch the sunset provisions in the Bush tax cuts, ensured that military cuts keep the GOP honest, protected Medicare by adding in only provider cuts in the trigger, made the reduction apparently enough to stave off a debt downgrade, got the debt ceiling raised, wounded Boehner by demonstrating to the world that he is controlled by the Tea Party caucus, took out the requirement that a BBA be passed and sent to the states and got the extension through 2012? What exactly is wrong with this deal? ... The fact that there are cuts? If people don't like that, why in God's name didn't they turn out to vote and bring back our Congressional majority? Once these nut jobs were in there, it was inevitable that this crap was going to happen. Whether or not it is advisable to cut spending, what exactly was going to stop this from happening? My experience is that the primary factor in all negotiations are the facts on the ground. The complaints center on a ridiculous notion that if the President had only said "no" harder, that these guys would have caved in. This isn't negotiating over who gets the side of the bed near the A/C. This is a complex matter involving 3,000 members and staffers. Negotiations in these situations don't work like this. That's why I'm irked by the constant parade of people comparing the negotiations to movies and card games. These comparisons obscure more than they reveal."
- Is Bibi caving on pre-67 borders? "In a dramatic policy shift, Israel's prime minister has agreed to negotiate the borders of a Palestinian state based on the cease-fire line that marks off the West Bank, a TV station reported Monday. ... Up to now, Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to spell out his plan for negotiating the border. A senior Israeli official would not confirm outright that the prime minister was now willing to adopt the cease-fire line as a starting point, but said Israel was willing to try new formulas to restart peace talks based on a proposal made by President Barack Obama. ... In a speech about the Middle East in May, Obama proposed negotiations based on the pre-1967 line with agreed swaps of territory between Israel and a Palestinian state. Netanyahu reacted angrily, insisting that Israel would not withdraw from all of the West Bank, though that was not what Obama proposed. ... Now Netanyahu is basically accepting that framework, according to Channel 2 TV, offering to trade Israeli territory on its side of the line for West Bank land where its main settlements are located."
- The New York Times Sunday magazine really blew it with the James O'Keefe profile last Sunday. "The writer, Zev Chafets, capably sketches his subject's biography, and correctly intuits that any worthwhile feature story on the 27-year-old must grapple with the ethical questions raised by his activism. But the grappling is woefully incomplete, leaving readers unaware of the most damning critiques of O'Keefe's work and unable to render an informed judgment. ... Totally absent is any mention of CNN Correspondent Abbie Boudreau, who contacted O'Keefe in 2010. At O'Keefe's bidding, she traveled to Maryland, expecting to interview him. But he and his team had other plans. It was their intention to lure her onto a boat where O'Keefe would be waiting below deck, hidden camera rolling. In planning documents obtained by CNN, there was a list of potential props: "condom jar, dildos, posters and paintings of naked women, fuzzy handcuffs." ... O'Keefe later claimed he didn't approve such props. In any case, once he got her down there alone, he planned to make her uncomfortable by attempting to seduce her. Then he'd somehow humiliate Boudrea and embarrass CNN by releasing footage of the bizarre incident. It was averted at the last minute when a female member of O'Keefe's team became uncomfortable with the plan, and tipped off the reporter to what was intended. In the aftermath of the incident, which made national headlines..."
- A reminder that the News Corp mess is far from over "Employees of The New York Post, Rupert Murdoch's irreverent and hard-charging city tabloid, were told Friday to keep any documents that may pertain to the kind of illegal activity that has led to arrests and a widening investigation at the News Corporation's British newspapers. ... An e-mail to Post journalists on Friday afternoon said News Corporation lawyers had ordered them not to discard anything that relates to any unauthorized access of personal data or payments to government officials. ... The directive was the clearest sign yet that the company's lawyers believe the scope of two early-stage investigations in the United States -- one into whether journalists working for the company sought access to phone records of 9/11 victims and another into whether payments to the British police by News Corporation employees violated American law -- could broaden. ... News Corporation officials did not comment on the matter. But the notice raised the possibility that the firm either has received a subpoena for such documents, or has been notified by prosecutors that a subpoena is coming, legal specialists said. "
- Planned Parenthood wins a round in Kansas, at least for now. "A Kansas law that would have the effect of stripping funding from Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri was temporarily blocked by a U.S. judge. ... The measure, signed into law in May by Governor Sam Brownback, a Republican, made the Overland Park, Kansas-based organization ineligible for federal money the group said paid for cancer screenings, breast exams, birth control and basic family planning for the poor and the uninsured. ... U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten in Kansas City, Kansas, today granted Planned Parenthood's request for an order blocking the law, which took effect on July 1. ... "The court finds that the public interest supports injunctive relief," Marten said in a 36-page ruling. That interest, he said, is advanced by the use of the funding consistent with the intent of Congress and "free from punitive, viewpoint-based or associational discrimination." "
- We kinda hope they come up dry because we like the legend of D.B. Cooper and prefer the mystery stay unsolved. "The FBI says it has a "credible" lead in the D.B. Cooper case involving the 1971 hijacking of a passenger jet over Washington state and the suspect's legendary parachute escape. ... The fate and identity of the hijacker dubbed "D.B. Cooper" has remained a mystery in the 40 years since a man jumped from a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 flight with $200,000 in ransom. ... The recent tip provided to the FBI came from a law enforcement member who directed investigators to a person who might have helpful information on the suspect, FBI spokeswoman Ayn Sandalo Dietrich told The Seattle Times on Sunday. She called the new information the "most promising lead we have right now," but cautioned that investigators were not on the verge of breaking the case."
- If you compare public schools to Nazi Germany, you are a clueless, dogmatic moron and no one shouls ever take you seriously, ever. "Wisconsin tea party organizer and children's book author Kim Simac has admitted to comparing American public schools to the Nazi regime. ... Simac, also Republican candidate for the Aug. 9 recall election of Democratic state Sen. Jim Holperin, wrote a controversial post on tea party social network Patriot Action Network last October. The post recently disappeared from the site going into the general election, Talking Points Memo reports. ... From Simac's blog post: I am done raising my kids but if I was a young parent today I would take my kids out of the public school system today. At what point will we stop talking about the comparisons to what is occurring today and what actually happened by the regime of the Nazi's in the past?"
- Big step backwards "The Egyptian army deployed troops in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Monday and fired shots in the air to disperse remaining pro-democracy protesters. A few hundred demonstrators were staying put, state television reported, showing army vehicles in the square and people taking down tents and canopies. Local authorities say they asked demonstrators to allow traffic to move through the square, after local shopkeepers clashed with protesters for interfering with their businesses. Demonstrators reportedly refused, so the military and riot police moved in. The protesters responded by throwing stones and rocks at the security forces and several protesters were injured in the clashes, officials said. Activists said several protesters had been arrested. Members of the April 6th protest movement say the military did not just storm the square, but attacked the mosque where protesters had sought shelter."
- At this point, Assad NOT massacring his own citizens would be news. "Rights groups have estimated that at least 1,600 people have died since the start of the uprising in Syria in March, but that number might increase considerably by the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Since Sunday alone, at least 150 people have been killed in Deir ez-Zor, Hama and Al-Buka-mal - a bloody progression from battles and sieges in other cities and towns such as Deraa, Homs, Latakiaand Jirs al-Shughur. But how long can the protests - and the severe crackdowns on them - continue?"
- Sixty-three years ago, the Haganah's bid for nationhood wasn't given a chance of succeeding at the UN, either. "Palestinian officials have said they will begin mass marches against Israel's occupation of the West Bank on September 20, the eve of a largely symbolic UN vote expected to recognise their independence. Yasser Abed Rabbo, a Palestinian official, said leaders hope to attract millions of people, and the protest will be the first of a prolonged effort. He said the campaign would be called "Palestine 194" because the Palestinians hope to become the 194th member of the UN. "The appeal to the UN is a battle for all Palestinians, and in order to succeed, it needs millions to pour into streets," Abed Rabbo said. With peace talks stalled, the Palestinians have decided to ask the UN to endorse their independence, and plan to ask the Security Council - whose decisions are legally binding - for approval as a full member of the world body."
- Less talk, more action. "The African Union (AU) is to organise a donor conference later this month in a bid to raise money for millions of drought-affected people in Somalia. AU Deputy Chairman Erasmus Mwencha said African heads of states, regional economic blocs and international organisations would gather at the AU's headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to map out strategies to help starving Somalis. Mwencha issued the statement while visiting the AU peacekeeping mission in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. The UN, which has declared a famine in two regions in the country's south, says $2.5bn is needed to alleviate the crisis."
- Another border clash. "Israeli and Lebanese troops have exchanged fire along the countries' border, officials say. The Israeli and Lebanese sides offered different accounts of Monday's incident, which did not appear to have caused casualties. The Israeli military said its army unit was on a routine patrol within Israeli territory when it received fire on Monday morning from over the border in Lebanon near Ghajar, a disputed village which straddles a strategic corner where boundaries between Syria, Israel and Lebanon meet. It said UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force stationed on the border, was informed of the incident, which took place at dawn. A Lebanese army official told the media that the incident occurred when Israeli solders crossed the Blue Line, the UN-drawn border with Lebanon which was established in 2000."
And finally...
- This is cold comfort. One of us has expreince with pandemic models, and eighteen days -- while an impressive turnaround time for vaccine development -- is an eternity when dealing with a virulent contagion. "The Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) in Silver Spring, Maryland, quietly conducted a rapid-response exercise against two undisclosed bacterial and viral threats. ... The study required a participating biotech company to synthesize drugs on short notice for two unknown biological warfare agents. ... This exercise, which took place in June, was conducted in collaboration with the Joint Project Manager-Transformational Medical Technologies and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency--two government institutions specializing in countering weapons of mass destruction. ... The exercise proved to the military officials that drugs to prevent a presumed new biowarfare threat could be synthesized within 18 days. ... Government officials did not disclose the nature of the bacterial and viral targets that were used for the exercise. However, the bacteria was a gram-negative variety. ... In the exercise, a biotechnology firm named AVI BioPharma was essentially tasked with creating drugs on the fly to treat the two biowarfare threats. The drugs were conceived, designed and manufactured within the 18 day period."
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