Today's edition of quick hits:
* Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), returning to Capitol Hill to the first time since a major stroke last year, took an inspiring walk up a majestic staircase this morning.
* Clinton poised to return to work: "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was released last night from the hospital after being treated for a blood clot, is looking forward to coming back to work next week, spokesperson Victoria Nuland said today."
* If I were him, I wouldn't want to stick around for next month, either: "Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner plans to leave the administration at the end of January, even if President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans haven't reached an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, according to two people familiar with the matter."
* Pakistan: "A U.S. drone strike in the South Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan killed at least six people, Pakistani government officials said Thursday, including the powerful Taliban commander Maulvi Nazir Wazir."
* A stunning statistic: "More soldiers took their own lives than died in combat during 2012, new Department of Defense figures show."
* A new signing statement: "President Obama set aside his veto threat and on late Wednesday signed a defense bill that imposes restrictions on transferring detainees out of military prisons in Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. But Mr. Obama attached a signing statement claiming that he has the constitutional power to override the limits in the law."
* Good for party discipline, bad for democracy: "Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert -- the namesake of the rule requiring House legislation to have the support of the majority of the party in power -- warned House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday that if he continues to rely on Democratic votes to pass legislation, 'you're not in power anymore.'"
* Better late than never? "During his farewell speech Tuesday, outgoing House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-CA) listed climate change as a top problem facing the country -- a rare moment when a Republican leader in office openly acknowledged the need for climate action."
* A fascinating report from Kevin Drum on the connection between lead paint and crime rates.
* Oh my: "A Connecticut newspaper has apologized for running a print advertisement for a gun show next to an article about Sandy Hook Elementary students returning to school for the first time since last month's massacre in Newtown."
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Leave a Comment:
The Drum article is mostly about the correlation between crime rates and the use of the gasoline additive tetraethyllead, not lead paint.
Time to switch to electrics or clean diesel...
Still waiting to see more data (and my hardcopy MJ), since I'm one of the "correlation isn't causation!" crowd.
Also wanting to understand much, much more about the breakdown in the correlation over the last decade. It's not as if there were more lead-infused gasoline being burnt during the Dubya years. Or is something else taking over as a major causative agent?
More data!
Steve
The article does discuss lead based paint on the second page.
JIm
It is time to switch to alternative fuels but not because of lead(unleaded gas)
Helena
The article does discuss causation on the second page.
Provided you're time-traveling to the '70s to fill your tank, because that's when leaded gasoline began to be phased out.
In the spirit of bipartisanship, I am glad to see that both Hillary Clinton and Mark Kirk are able to go back to work.
It is nothing to joke about, strokes and blood clots are not funny.
Neither is putting a gun show ad next to Sandy Hook school story.
November 8th, 2004, I suffered my first stroke... I first noticed something was wrong when, as I was opening a can of cat food prior to heading for work, I realized I couldn't feel my left hand gripping the can opener... Then, after paying for gas at a local station, I stumbled and fell against my car... I changed my mind about going to work, and headed for a local hospital a few miles away...
I managed to stumble into the emergency room, collapsed into a plastic chair, and told them I was in the middle of having a stroke... Apparently, they didn't believe me, because I walked in rather than in an ambulance, as they stick me in an exam room but didn't have someone come in to see me for THREE HOURS... Meanwhile, my right eye went out of control, getting stuck aiming downward at a 30-degree angle compared with my left eye, and the numbness continued spreading on my left side... Finally, I got the attention of a passing nurse, who saw my eyes were misaligned, and, suddenly, I started to get attention... Whenever I was moved, I became extremely nauseous, spewing all over myself and the bed uncontrollably...
A few hours later, my usual doctor came into my room, and told me I'd be stuck in a walker and an eyepatch the rest of my life, so I'd better get used to them... At that point, I vowed in my mind to prove him wrong...
In the past few years, I'd been developing something of a reputation in certain establishments as an amateur psychic, doing tarot readings, aura readings, astrological charts and psychic healings for free... I'd handled migraine headaches, bruises and other minor afflictions, but never anything as drastic as a stroke... Well, now I had motivation...
I started using meditation, self-hypnosis and reiki techniques to balance my chakras... There were some interesting results when I would bring my vitals so low, they would set off alarms at the nurses' desk... I would picture the clot at the base of my brain shrinking, calling on my spirit guides and the Spirit Masters to help me work on it... I refused to wear my eyepatch, willing my right eye to get back in alignment with my left...
My nausea caused by movement ceased within two days... Within five, I was able to sit up, stand next to the bed, and using it for support, make my way around it... I went in the hospital on a Monday morning... I was discharged the next Sunday...
A week later Monday, I walked into my doctor's office, no walker, no eyepatch... I occasionally had to touch the walls to keep my balance... My eyes were back in line, although there is a constant small rotation back and forth, which makes the whole world continually seem to be bouncing, called nystagmus... He was shocked, saying it was the fastest recovery from a stroke he'd ever heard of... Of course, he took credit, saying he'd motivated me... right...
Three weeks after my stroke, I went back to work... Everyone was amazed, telling me I looked like I'd never had the stroke... One guy even thought I had faked it to get three weeks off, but others who'd visited me in the hospital quickly dissuaded him of that notion...
My left hand, foot and the left side of my face still feel numb to a degree, but nowhere near as bad as right after the stroke...
Anyone can make miracles happen, if you only set your mind to it...
Minor correction... My stroke was in 2003, not 2004... In 2004, my company 'downsized' me, shipping my job to India...
It's a shame and maybe criminal that emergency room staffs don't know about tPA.
Luz...
Unfortunately, the medical use of t-PA in early stroke activity was not recognized until 2002... Since my stroke occurred in 2003, protocols concerning its use probably weren't in effect at my local hospital...
I do wish they had taken me seriously, though...
Denny Hastert needs to STFU. He was a horrible Speaker. And with some of the (alleged) shenanigans he's pulled since leaving Congress, he's probably an indictment away from the Illinois (Allegedly) Crooked Politician Hall of Fame.
He knew how to follow the rules laid down by his boss, Tom DeLay. Further proof that high school gym coaches are mostly morons.
u kill me TC lmao
ol rahm will clean up those dirty cook county illinois politics tho right? another example that obama turned out to be a poseur , how can anyone remain so silent while there own home town has the same murder rates as some syrian cities? now that is political discipline , and focused disconnectedness , he is a whitesox fan after all
Good God, is that corrupt meatsack still alive?
I too thought he was dead - you know, literally, not just intellectually.
in his district , they not only have dead people voting , they dig up dead politicians and vote them into office , so who really knows?
Not political news but in Italian soccer today at a Cup match game (AC Milan vs. Pro Patria ) a Ghanian player named Prince-Boteng was harassed by racial chants in the crowd in the opening minutes of the game. Boteng took off his jersey and headed to the locker room in protest....funny thing is, the rest of the AC Milan team followed him in protest too (in the 22nd minute)....and the game was postponed. Now those are team mates that you know are behind you all the way! Good for them!!!
"Pro Patria," isn't that the fascist team that Il Douche, Silvio Berlusconi owns?
I guess some Italians are like our Southerners - never learn from history. They lament that the trains don't run on time.
They had an article about Mussolini become popular again in Italy , that is enough to make most people puke
I am coming around to how Britain and Germany think about not allowing facist and racist hate mongers to have free speech , I think it is wise in a democracy to stomp out the brain dead haters on all levels , other wise they just mess up everything up eventually
Patango...
But, wouldn't that mean, you wouldn't be able to post here?...
That would be a shame...
The Hastert rule just turns our democratically elected representatives into a gang, basically a mob, with one head, one voice. Who needs it?
"More soldiers took their own lives than died in combat during 2012, new Department of Defense figures show."
This has to be one of the most appalling and shameful set of numbers to come out of the government and the DOD in a very, very long time.
How can we call it a department of defense when our soldiers are killing themselves faster than they are killing our enemies?!?!?!?!?
Those numbers don't even include December and should make every citizen pause.
I don't know what I can do, but intend to find out.
You could make a contribution to Under The Hood Cafe at Fort Hood, Texas, an organization that is trying to deal with this statistic.
http://underthehoodcafe.org
"During his farewell speech Tuesday, outgoing House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-CA) listed climate change as a top problem facing the country
So where was he the past 20 years???
God am I glad we redistricted this scumball - talks "liberal," votes fascist - out of office. (His district ended up not being upper-middle class/upper class lily white, so he decided not to run and be defeated by all of "those people" voting against him)
Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out, you closeted queen.
Best news in a while: Geitner is leaving. Good riddance. And hisses to Obama for ever listening to anything he had to say.
But in the usual depressing way Obama's instincts on where to look for Geitner's replacement -- Wall Street -- is enough to make you want to wish 2016 was already here and the Obama Presidency was ending instead of the 2nd four years just beginning.
Let the dismantling begin.
It's not just Obama that puts wall streeters in the government, that's the way it has work from the beginning and will continue regardless of who is in office. that is a big problem and is one reasons the country is like it is. They stay in office for awhile and then they go regulate the industry they came from. It works the same in congress, they usually get a big lobbying job after they leave congress. Billy Tauzin, the floor manager for pushing Medicare Part D through went to work for Big Pharma at about $2M/ year. Speaking of boondoggles Medicare parf D was the biggest gifts Big Pharma ever got. The government and the patient got the raw end of the deal.
afairhope,
No, that is NOT the way it has worked from the beginning. Wall Street was NOT a major factor in our politics until 1978 when Congress passed a tax bill that gave a deep cut in maximum capital gains tax rate and cut the top corporate tax rate.
This was the turning point and this was when Wall Street realized they could get what they wanted out of Congress and it was at this point that lobbying and corporate involvement in government really took off.
For the first time since FDR's time, corporations realized that Congress was willing to provide "goodies" to them in exchange for money for campaigns - and it hasn't slowed down since! Now Wall Street "buys" as many Democrats as they do Republicans because they know how to hedge their bets. And they get guys like Giethner to "oversee" them as a reward! Do you ever wonder WHY the Democrats and Obama are not trying to put controls in place to mitigate the effects of Citizens United? Does Obama EVER EVEN talk about Citizens United?
This corporate "influence" is all part of the "grand scheme" developed by Joe Coors and others through the Heritage Foundation after what the Civil Rights Act passed and Barry Goldwater got defeated.
And this is why I will probably never vote dem again , the democratic party needs to set some hard rules for the next person they try and vote into the presidential office , other wise , they are going to lose a lot of voters imo , the working class I know are done voting wall st puppets into office , let the gop destroy america as we know it
I got mine , screw everyone else , that's our new motto right?
Oh, I agree! Until we get rid of Citizens United, the people of the United States will only be able to vote for the candidates that Wall Street chooses for them - and you can bet none of those candidates will ever be for the working class - not even the Democratic candidate!
That is why I think we need to start a third party - one that represents the middle class and we need to be out there working our hearts out for those candidates who will never get corporate money!!
re #9.2
Oncearepublican
Great points again , I finished high school in 79 , and figured places like wall st wanted what was good for america like everyone else , we all work together for the good of america right?
Boy it was all really going to @!$%# about then , and we did not even realize it ,my dad tried to explain things to me , and I did trust his judgement when he put his foot down , but a few years later I had a lot more respect for what people like him knew , after watching it all unfold
re #9.4
we will never get rid of CITIZEN'S UNITED , the gop will never allow that to happen , I think there will eventually be a split within both the dem and gop parties tho , a four party primary would be interesting , and maybe really ugly in the end ...it will not happen in my life time tho
Regarding the article about lead/crime, as we've had some form of lead in our gasoline for decades, perhaps it's the type? Nor, if I understand my biology correctly, does the body get rid of lead once it's taken in; in other words, slow poisoning.
A football team in Steubenville, Ohio raped a girl multiply times. Anonymous gathered tweets, videos, pics, of them talking about the crime/confessing/etc. The town is a small town and everyone is connected. They dubbed themselves "The Rape Crew". Absolutely disgusting. Please get the word out on the show and blog! One of the team member's has a scholarship to Ohio State.
http://localleaks.blogs.ru/2013/01/01/steubenvillefiles/
Anonymous Leaks Video of High Schoolers Joking About Raping a Teenager "Deader than Trayvon Martin" - Chilling video adds new twist to sordid tale of alleged rape that's shattered the peace of a close-knit Ohio football town.
Rape, Lawsuits, Anonymous Leaks: What's Going On in Steubenville, Ohio?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/sports/high-school-football-rape-case-unfolds-online-and-divides-steubenville-ohio.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Chart showing how the law is connected with the attackers:
http://i.imgur.com/AlUk4.jpg
(I should note the chart isn't mine, I found it floating around online. I'm not 100% all of it is correct, but I know a lot of it is from various things I've read on the case/town.)
Absolutely appalling. I hope the media keeps the pressure on them. Good job, Anonymous.
I bet you don't need two guesses to figure out what party these incomparably sick asswholes identify with.
People like this are now making decisions in the House.
That is called being a coward.
Welcome back Madame Secretary, would you like another job by chance?!
"During his farewell speech Tuesday, outgoing House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-CA) listed climate change as a top problem facing the country..."
And yet...
In 2011, the Republicans eliminated the Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming which was created in 2006, by then Speaker Pelosi and chaired by Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA).
The Illinois state legislature may soon be considering legislation recognizing marriage equality. (And in a perfect world Illinois reporters would be given regular beatings until they stop writing/saying "gay marriage".) Clergy have lined up for and against the proposed legislation, which isn't exactly news. There is no single religious position on the subject. Both sides have issued open letters.
Here is the letter against
Here is the letter for
Note the curious (or 'obscenely evil', depending on how polite you want to be) understanding the anti letter has on the subject of religious freedom. Also, it's it funny how the anti letter prints the names of the signatories in bigger and bolder text than that of the letter itself? Contrast that to the pro letter where the names are printer in smaller text (and occupy more pages). It's like the authors of the anti letter are junior-high students trying to make their pathetic English composition look far wordier than it really is. I'm surprised they didn't go all-out with four-inch margins and triple-spaced lines. Maybe that's an indication of which side has the momentum.
A fairly short article begins 2 sentences with the words "gay marriage" and multiple other references to gay marriage (not including the headline).
This makes them appear to be biased against marriage equality or using the term gay for "same sex".
I did a search at the Tribune for those words and they really are overusing them.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/search_results/?q=gay+marriage
They have also made it appear religious leaders are anti marriage equality.
We have 3 reporters on one article that seem to have made it appear religious leaders have advise that marriage equality would be wrong.
The editor may have edited some, but the very end they threw in the one church on the pro side.
Tribune is a big paper, this article is not balanced.
But it's a local paper, which is the only reason I linked to it. And, in fairness, over-representing the anti side is typical of the media as a whole. There was a report on that a few months ago. I'd link to it but I need to get to work now. So, maybe later.
I think it made total sense to link to the Tribune. I am glad you brought it up.
I think the anti side of anything is predominate. It seems to be the easiest "sell". Change is hard for too many people. But we do change, inevitably,
Decided to lave work early (the advantage of having a huge pile of accrued time off). Anyway, here is the link to the report I mentioned this morning. It's from GLAAD.
That is an excellent report. Thanks. I think I will send it to Media Matters for an effort in "doing something" and perhaps the Tribune editor. I don't know of any other states than Illinois doing what CA did, legislatively. It passed, then enter NOM. Be ready Illinois.
Good day for leaving work early. My friends could have used it, their 18 month old needed a doctor appointment and Mommy took time off from work, which had to be made up.
I went over there and cared for the sick baby for 5 hours, who was really needing her Mommies.
I think Media Matters already knows about it. I think I initially learned about the report either from it or from the related web site Equality Matters.
(American businesses really need to join the civilized world.)
The Tribune replied to my email with a polite "brush off" about evolving story with different angles breaking .