Sarah Palin Passes Her Condolences Via Facebook and Twitter To Geraldine Ferraro's Family

By Kathleen

LA Times Obituaries reports that Geraldine Farraro, who was the first woman to break the political glass ceiling for high office when she ran with Walter Mondale as the 1984 Democratic nominee for vice president, died earlier today at Massachusetts General Hospital. She was seventy-five years old.

Like Sarah Palin, Ms Ferraro was relatively unknown to the public when she was launched into the limelight at the Democratic convention in 1984. As Ms Ferraro was the first woman to run for such high office she was recognised as the original "trail blazer" in furthering the cause of women in politics, long before Sarah Palin came on the political scene. However, she was not selected purely because she was a woman. She was also chosen because of her strong working class, Italian Roman Catholic background which was a demographic that it was thought that Mondale might have problems appealing to.

Ms Ferraro was an intelligent woman and the online World Encyclopedia of Biography reveals that she was an excellent student who won a full scholarship at the age of sixteen to Marymount Manhattan College and later studied law at Fordham University's evening law classes. She served three terms in the U.S House of Representatives and after the election worked on behalf of female Democratic candidates in New York as well as pushing for more government spending and more federal programmes for the underprivileged.

Today Sarah Palin through the cold and impersonal medium of facebook and twitter offered her condolences to Ms Ferraro's family. Palin could have sent a sincere and unobserved card or asked RAM to do so on her behalf but why pass up on the chance of drawing more attention to herself? After all it is quite clear that Palin has very "excited expectation that someday that final glass ceiling would be shattered by the election of a woman president."

I wonder who it is that Palin has in mind for the honour?

UPDATE:

Twitter, Facebook, and now on Fox News: Geraldine Ferraro's death made Sarah Palin "even more inspired to serve the public good." You don't say, Sarah!

Centennial of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: Why Should This History Ever Repeat Itself?

Guest Post by Mrs. Tarquin Biscuitbarrel

My grandmother first told me about the Triangle Fire when I was very little. "I trained as a typist, so I was spared working on the shop floor, hunching over a sewing machine. But I always remembered how many girls died that day, girls the same age as I was," Nana said. "And the young men, too, of course," she added, ever the egalitarian.

On March 26, 1911, a makeshift morgue at the end of Manhattan's Charities Pier was filled with the remains of more than a hundred young women and two dozen young men, victims of a catastrophic fire in a garment factory housed on the top three floors of what was then called a "high-rise": the ten-story Asch Building. Sprinkler systems, though already considered very effective in controlling fire, had not been installed in what was claimed to be a "fireproof" building. The bodies that had plunged from windows (some holding hands) were readily identified. The remains of the workers who had been trapped by flames and a locked door or elevator shafts were not so easily reclaimed. And more than a hundred thousand people lined up in "Misery Lane," as it was called on days of disaster, that day to peer into row after row of coffins. Heartbroken relatives searching for missing family members were there, of course, but so were gawkers and pickpockets.

http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/images/story/mourningProtest.jpg

The day before, March 25, 1911, the worst industrial fire in New York City history had gutted the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, and cost the lives of 146 Triangle employees--virtually all recent immigrants from Europe who had left behind poverty in Jewish shtetls or from Italy, seeking a better life in what was then known in Yiddish as the Goldeneh Medinah ("the Golden Land"). Had the fire started on a weekday rather than a Saturday, the death toll would have been much higher, including those of the factory's six hundred workers who upon that Saturday had chosen to forgo a day's pay in order to observe the Sabbath, or for other personal reasons. The three floors of the Triangle work space had only one exit that had not been padlocked to prevent theft, though the garments and their components were carefully counted at the beginning and end of each work shift, and women's pocketbooks were searched before they could leave. Within minutes, the shop's refuse bins holding highly flammable scraps of lightweight cotton lawn material and the thin paper tissue used for pattern-making had ignited, and the conflagration had spread to the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors. There were a few dozen pails of water scattered around the three floors, if one needs an illustration for "a drop in the bucket."

The New York Fire Department's extension ladders reached only to the sixth floor, and its most powerful fire hoses had little effect on quenching the fires consuming the three highest floors. Most of the workers who were able to reach the two rickety fire escapes were doomed. Only twenty women escaped before the metal ladders collapsed, sending burning bodies hurtling to the pavement below. Two heroic elevator operators ferried grossly overloaded carloads of terrified workers down to safety before the two freight elevators in operation that day stopped, leaving many workers trapped to die in the elevator shafts.

http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/images/story/mourningProtest.jpg

"The entire blaze, from spark to embers, lasted half an hour," noted David Von Drehle in his definitive book, Triangle: The Fire That Changed America (Grove Press: 2003). Until another "nine-eleven" event gripped the world's attention ninety years later, the Triangle fire was the deadliest workplace disaster in New York City history. "Death was an almost routine workplace hazard in those days," wrote Von Drehle. "By one estimate, one hundred or more Americans died on the job every day [emphasis added] in the booming industrial years around 1911. Mines collapsed on them, ships sank under them, pots of molten steel spilled over their heads, locomotives smashed into them... Just four months before the fire at the Triangle, an almost identical fire in a Newark garment factory trapped and killed twenty-five young women, and experts predicted that it was only a matter of time before a worse calamity struck in Manhattan. Yet workplace safety was scarcely regulated, and workers' compensation was considered newfangled or even socialistic." Sound familiar?

As the second paragraph of the March 26, 1911, article below indicates, The New York Times would have won even Glenn Beck's approval by demonstrating such tender concern for the condition of the building. "It shows now hardly any signs of the disaster that overtook it. The walls are as good as ever so are the floors, nothing is the worse for the fire except the furniture and 141 of the 600 men and girls that were employed..." See? Good as new! Except for the furniture and all the dead people, of course.

"141 Men and Girls Die in Waist Factory Fire; Trapped High Up in Washington Place Building; Street Strewn with Bodies; Piles of Dead Inside" New York Times, March 26, 1911, p. 1.

"Three stories of a ten-floor building at the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place were burned yesterday, and while the fire was going on 141 young men and women at least 125 of them mere girls were burned to death or killed by jumping to the pavement below.

"The building was fireproof. It shows now hardly any signs of the disaster that overtook it. The walls are as good as ever so are the floors, nothing is the worse for the fire except the furniture and 141 of the 600 men and girls that were employed in its upper three stories. [...]"

Evidently the Times reporter didn't see this:

Von Drehle gives a total of 140 named victims, the correct number at the time his book was published. But thanks to the efforts of independent researcher Michael Hirsch, who spent several years poring over manuscripts, newspapers, and official records, the final six individuals have been identified. Their names, photos, and what data is known about them has been entrusted to the Kheel Center at Cornell University, which maintains a heartbreakingly essential historical and memorial site documenting the Triangle fire. Numbers vary as to how many employees Triangle maintained at the Asch Building, but I'll trust the Kheel Center's estimate of 500 women and 100 men, mostly between the ages of sixteen and thirty-two. One victim was just fourteen, another the mother of five children and the sister of yet another Triangle victim.

A massive strike in 1909 by women garment workers for better working conditions and wages, as well as pressure from the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and the Women's Trade Union League, were resisted by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, owners of the Triangle and a number of other profitable garment factories. They were "rich men, and when they glanced into the faces of their workers they saw, with rare exceptions, anonymous cogs in a profit machine," observes Von Drehle. (Harris and Blanck also had collected handsomely in insurance payouts for at least two fires in their factories that had occurred, fortunately, during non-working hours.) Taking advantage of the "shirtwaist" craze--the long-sleeved, high-necked blouses worn with long skirts by the swan-like models of the wildly famous artist Charles Dana Gibson--Blanck and Harris also profited from the influx of penniless immigrants seeking jobs, the rise in the purchase of ready-to-wear clothing as the twentieth century began, and the fact that a shirtwaist constituted not only demure workplace wear but was quite a labor-intensive item to make at home. And when People v. Harris and Blanck went to trial after the 1911 fire, the defendants were charged with seven counts of second-degree manslaughter, for unlawfully locking the exits. The jury of twelve men from business and the trades voted on their fourth ballot to acquit the Triangle owners of liability.

Following this verdict, twenty-three individual civil suits were brought against the owners of the Asch building. On March 11, 1914, three years after the fire, Harris and Blanck settled. They paid seventy-five dollars per life lost, and continued to maintain unsafe working conditions in their garment factories. One woman who was strongly affected by the Triangle fire was Frances Perkins, whose downtown tea time was interrupted by the screams of the crowd and the unforgettable thump of falling bodies. Perkins became a powerful advocate for workplace safety in her role as Secretary of Labor during Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency.

Facilities that employ poor women continue to lock fire exit doors, right up to this day, especially in chicken- and catfish-processing plants located in Southern states. To state just one instance, in 1991, twenty-five women were killed and fifty more were injured when a fire broke out in a chicken-processing plant run by Imperial Food Products in Hamlet, N.C. The doors had been locked from the outside, said management, in order to keep its minimum-wage employees from stealing the raw meat of dubious freshness that they were weighing, cutting, deep- frying, and bagging for fast-food restaurants. How many more Hamlets and Triangles will blacken our nation's history?

Given the concentrated efforts in Wisconsin to strip the rights of public-sector employees from collective bargaining, these efforts foreshadow a terrifying return to the so-called "Gilded Age," when the great bulk of America's wealth was in the hands of very few. Though a strong plurality of state voters support amending the Wisconsin state constitution to protect collective bargaining in three states--Maine, New Jersey, and Ohio--are proposing massive tax cuts for the wealthy and tax hikes for the middle class. I wince for Politicalgates readers from those states. As I do for our country, which appears to be moving economically in many ways that would bring a gleam of recognition to the eye of a Gilded Age plutocrat: at the expense of everyone who isn't already rich.

++++++++++++++++++

Thank you Mrs. TBB for an excellent post.

Further information regarding the fire can be read here -- be sure to pay the site a visit. Attention -- some of the photos are very graphic and may also not be safe for viewing at work.

You can also buy a copy of David von Drehle's passionate book, Triangle: The Fire That Changed America at Amazon. The book examines the sociopolitical context in which the fire occurred and the industrial reforms that followed. It also gives a moment by moment account of the fire.

UPDATE:

A Link to the list of victims names is here. You can read details about the victims lives if you click on the names on the list. Thank you Seraph!

Sarah Palin Wannabe Michele Bachmann To Set Up An Exploratory Committee in June -- Perhaps Even Earlier.

By Kathleen

CNN reports that Michele Bachmann, Republican Congresswoman for the sixth district of the State of Minnesota, will likely compete in the race for the 2012 presidency of the United States and that she is preparing to file the necessary papers to set up an exploratory in June this year.

Republican participants in the race are required to set up exploratory committees in order to raise funds for their campaigns.

CNN also reveals that a spokesperson for Bachmann says that an announcement may even come earlier than June to allow Bachmann the opportunity to participate in the primary debates between Republican candidates. The first debate is scheduled for May 2nd, 2011 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California.

If Sarah Palin believes as she stated in India, that it is time that a woman became President of the United States, then Bachmann has taken her at her word. In a race where brand, recognition and bringing in the money means everything Bachmann appears to be taking advantage of the fact that Palin's popularity is declining by declaring her intentions sooner rather than later.

Bachmann has many things in common with Palin. They are both right wing conservatives. They are both the darlings of the tea party and the far right wing base. They are married and have children. They present themselves as fundamentalist christians. And so on.

But essentially, and more important, they share the same ability to walk themselves into serious situations caused by their ignorance and confusion on issues that they have stupidly or thoughtlessly fluffed due to their lack of a keen intellect.

They are the "buy one get one free" examples of what passes as a serious right wing female contender for the highest office in the western world. My feminist heart weeps.

Like Palin, Bachmann is all over the media insisting that urgent reform of social security is needed and that the US tax code is a "weapon of mass destruction". She even thinks that Glenn Beck and his chalk board can solve the economic problems facing the USA. Naturally she believes that the rich are overtaxed and that they need a break.

Can Bachmann win the selection? Many think not as she is way too extreme for the majority of US voters. It should be noted however that Bachmann has a strong following amongst the religious right and that she has received favour from figures like David Barton and Lou Engle.

Brian at Right Wing Watch reveals that Bachmann,

Once elected to the House of Representatives, she became a Religious Right leader on a national level, finding favor with figures like David Barton, Rick Scarborough, Tony Perkins, and Lou Engle, along with a whole litany of far-right organizations and radical religious groups. Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones details the Congresswoman’s close ties to the Dominionist movement, which believes that fundamentalist Christians must run the government to hasten the end-times, most notably Coral Ridge Ministries.

The GOP primaries are inching closer -- so far two people have declared that they will definitely run. Fred Karger, a republican gay rights activist and Jimmy McMillan a registered democrat. Five have announced that they have either formed or are planning to form an exploratory committee. Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain and Buddy Roemer. I expect that more will announce their intentions before the debate in May.

Politicalgates reader BfromC, left an interesting observation in the comments:

Geesh. Next, Bristol Palin will be setting up an exploratory committee.

I hope Michele doesn't get her feelings hurt when her exploratory committee comes back with the news that people don't want batshit crazy as the leader of the free world.

Here are two videos of Bachmann's latest gaffs.

Congressman Don Young Associated To Militia Leader Francis Schaeffer Cox

By Kathleen

Bill Morlin of The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote yesterday on the SPLC blog that Republican Congressman Don Young of Alaska is attempting to disassociate himself from Francis Schaeffer Cox who was arrested in Fairbanks on the 10th March, 2011. Cox and five associates are accused of plotting to kidnap and murder a U.S district Court Judge and State Troopers. He has also been charged with stockpiling weapons. Cox has a history involving violent acts but I have not been able to find any charges relating to his present arrest in the Alaska court records. Perhaps they have yet to be filed as the arraignment was held yesterday. I will update the post when they become available.

Bill Morlin goes on to report that shortly after the arrests a video showing Rep Don Young and Francis Schaeffer Cox emerged on the blog of Political Correction, a project of Media Matters Action Network:

In April 2009, with a video camera rolling, Rep. Don Young signed a “Letter of Declaration” being circulated by the Second Amendment Task Force/Alaska Peacemakers Militia, led by Francis Schaeffer Cox. The “declaration” called on “sovereign Americans” to “alter or abolish” any government that tries to “further tax, restrict or register firearms” or prevents individuals from exercising their “God-given right to self-defense [that] precedes all human legislation.”

The following screen shots were taken by me today from the video. They clearly show Young signing the "letter of declaration" in the presence of Cox.

Don Young signing the letter.

Don Young sits across from Francis Schaeffer Cox

In the video, Cox makes it clear that he drafted the "letter of declaration". Despite this, Morlin informs that Young's Press secretary, Meredith Kenney, claimed that "The Congressman has absolutely no affiliation with Mr. Cox."

According to Kenney,

"Congressman Young attended solely as a staunch defender of the Second Amendment. The letter the Congressman signed expresses the view that we should elect those who will defend the Constitution, and in turn the Second Amendment, as written, or vote them out of power."

Here is a screenshot taken from the video of the "letter of declaration" that Cox drafted. Click on the image to enlarge.

By signing Cox's "letter of declaration" Young has declared that he is prepared to use violence against the US government. In doing so he has violated his oath to defend it. Crooks and Liars writes that the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has drawn up a petition that you can sign here calling on Don Young to reswear his oath to the Constitution and repudiate the letter drafted by the militia leader Cox.

The following is a copy of the oath that a US House of Representatives takes. According to the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence Young has taken it numerous times. In it Young affirms that he will defend the Constitution of the United States, which is the supreme law of the land, against all enemies, foreign and domestic

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

CSGV further confirms that "the Constitution does not support insurrection or violence against the Government" and that "one of the express powers of the Constitution (Article 1, Section 8) is the ability of Congress to call out the Militia to suppress insurrections, not forment them."

Let Don Young know that you expect him to stand by his oath to the US Government.
Please sign the petition.

The full video can be viewed here.

UPDATE:

Bandit Basheert sent me the following link to an article published yesterday in the Fairbanks Daily news which reveals that a further person has been indicted in association with those charged of plotting to kidnap or kill state troopers and court officials in Alaska.

Rachel A Barney is the wife of one of the accused, Coleman L Barney. She has been accused of harbouring Francis Schaeffer Cox on various dates. Read more here.

Has Carl Gatto Cooked His Goose? New Bill Sponsored By Him to End Collective Bargaining Rights For State Workers In Alaska

By Kathleen

Photo by Bob Lynn

CNN politics writes that Sarah Palin's friend, rep. Carl Gatto, Republican Palmer, has sponsored a Bill in Alaska which would end fundamental collective bargaining rights for many public employees. Rights that would be affected are the right to “bargain for hours, benefits and working conditions.” Health and retirement benefits will likely be amongst those targeted.

Firefighters, police officers and emergency medical technicians have been exempted from the Bill as they provide essential services they are not permitted to go on strike under Alaska State Law.

Gatto's Bill is similar to the one passed by the Wisconsin Legislature which sparked extensive and ongoing protests and now faces a legal challenge as to its validity. Numerous other states are also considering similar Bills.

CNN interviewed Beth Kerttula, Dem Juneau, who commented that Gatto’s bill:

“would be a particularly onerous thing to drop on state employees."

Kerttula said public employees are still smarting from a 2005 overhaul of the state's retirement, pension and health care system. Kertulla called the switch "a disaster" in a state that has a difficult time retaining qualified teachers and police officers.

Kerttula also said the bill would face tough sledding in the state Senate, where unlike the GOP-controlled House, the balance of power between Republicans and Democrats is evenly divided. Kertulla, nevertheless, said the Democratic minority leadership is taking the bill seriously.

Many states, including Alaska, already face problems retaining teachers and other public employees who work for lower wages in the public sector because of the guaranteed benefits that they expect at the end of their working careers. Stripping employees of their fundamental rights to bargain collectively means that they will no longer have a voice when it comes to dealing with their employers. If Gatto’s bill passes then the State of Alaska will find it more difficult to hire quality employees and the state will suffer.

Carl Gatto declares that his bill aims to curb state costs. This seems a spurious claim as according to a recent article in the New York Times “Alaska is sitting on a 12 billion revenue surplus, a sum driven directly by the high price of oil. Taxes on oil production provide nearly 90 per cent of state revenue.” The article also affirms that Sean Parnell wants to reduce the tax burden on oil corporations which will result in a reduction of state revenue. In my opinion Gatto’s bill is an attempt to clawback some of the losses that a reduction in oil taxes will ensue.

Parnell's plan would, by one state estimate, result in up to $1.8 billion a year in revenue losses, though critics, including House Democrats, say the figure could be much higher. The estimate notes a number of "indeterminate" costs that also might factor in.

Once again corporations are the winners. It appears that Carl Gatto expects state workers to help pay for the corporations gain. Moreover, it is a two fold gain as Carl Gatto's bill will weaken public sector workers rights for the foreseeable future. It is also an idealogical one because it strikes hard at unions who speak up for their members and negotiate their benefits and working conditions.

Hopefully, as Beth Kertulla predicts, the bill will not pass through this session, but it would be unwise to think that it will be permanently shelved. I hope that State workers in Alaska are preparing themselves.

+++++++++

UPDATE

Politicalgates reader TrueGal left a comment which I would like to share.

"HBO has a fantastic documentary commemorating the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911, where 146 people (mostly young women) died.It shows how important the rise of labor unions were for workplace safety. Although I've never been a union member, I'm grateful to all the people who fought hard to make changes which, today, we all seem to take for granted. The Republican agenda that rewards business owners and "corporations" at the expense of the American WORKER is horrendous, and there needs to be a massive pushback. NOW."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Weekly Roundup, March 14-20, 2011

By Blueberry Tart

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Why we need gun control (and why we don't have it)

Sunnyjane’s excellent guest post looks into the politics of regulating guns in the United States. Gun violence is a rampant problem that defies (real) common-sense solutions. Some of the litany of shame: Columbine, Washington area sniper, Red Lake, MN, Lancaster County, PA, Virginia Tech, Omaha Mall, and now Tucson. In a powerful comparison, the post shows that in 2007 alone, about three times as many Americans were killed by gun violence as have died to-date in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the attacks of 9/11, combined. The number of deaths of children is especially staggering. Sunnyjane then documents the rise in both gun violence and violent rhetoric of the right-wing since Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination and then the presidency. The meme that it’s people, not guns, that kill people is so flimsy, yet the extreme positions of the NRA continue to prevail over reasonable solutions, including more rigorous background checks of those buying guns. SJ exhorts us to hold the NRA and the Supreme Court accountable for their roles in fostering gun violence.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Palin blames President Obama for oil-gas prices

Graph from February 2008

(but it's probably President Obama's fault anyway, right, Sarah?)

Kathleen reports on the most recent Sarah Palin Facebook screed, blaming President Obama for the recent rise in oil and gas prices. Palin’s deceptive criticisms ignore the reality of how oil and gas prices react to world events, and that the U.S. has a limited supply which is not adequate to meet our voracious appetite for these commodities. Opening the ANWR or the Chukchi Sea have so much risk and so little potential for solving our problems. “Drill, baby, drill” is a simplistic mantra that solves nothing, but only offers a catchy slogan that obscures the complexities of how to address our oil-gas dependency. It is worth noting that, as Palin's popularity plummets, Republicans in Alaska are now distancing themselves from her energy policies while Governor.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Wake Up to the Dangers of Deregulation

It is absurd that Republicans can call for more deregulation, when deregulation (and lack of regulation in the first place) has proven so damaging to Americans’ safety, health, welfare, economy and jobs. During a nuclear crisis, Republicans have the audacity to call for more nuclear power, just as they called for more offshore oil drilling during the Deepwater Horizon disaster and resisted gun regulation after Columbine, Tucson and other gun tragedies. It is the Republican MO: call for LESS regulation to forestall regulatory reforms that could address the weaknesses that allowed these disasters to happen. This strategy needs to be called out for what it is each time it happens; it is against the interests of the American people. It is anti-American.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Oliver North and the Rewriting of History

photo and text from stopwarblog.blogspot.com

Remember Ollie North? Nomadic Joe traces the connections between the abuse of power of the Reagan Administration during the Iran-Contra Affair and the abuses during the regimes of George Bush I and II and the rise of the extreme right-wing that we see today. One of the common threads is Dick Cheney, whose “quest to accumulate unaccountable power” and disdain for Congress and the Constitution grew into the extremism of the Republican Party of today. Another chilling connection links North and the Contras to the drug trade. Nomadic Joe points out the irony of how, despite being convicted on three felony counts, North escaped any consequences for his illegal activities and was treated by many as a hero; Joe contrasts this to the current treatment of Bradley Manning. Watch the video of George Mitchell if you want to remember what civility in politics was like.

Some comments and links:

Jollyroger: Mama Grifter as President would be a disaster that dwarfs even the worst nuke meltdown.

Sunnyjane: Sarah Palin wouldn't know real intellect and humor if she met them at the intersection of Victimhood Boulevard and Paranoia Avenue.

Linda1961: Scott Walker and the WI GOP better watch out - The Ides of March hasn't been kind to tyrants!

Maelewis: It is easy to see why Rebecca enjoys being the alter ego of pretty, charismatic Sarah. RAM is almost like Cyrano writing love letters for the tongue-tied lover, or whispering poetry for him to recite to the beautiful Roxanne from behind the bushes. Except Cyrano loved with all his heart and poured out messages of beauty. Rebecca seems to have anger issues. (She spent days finding seven other people who used the term 'blood libel' to justify her use of an objectionable phrase).

Older_Wiser2: What good does it do society for someone to to have 100 pairs of shoes… when a child has none? What good does it do society to live in a 15,000 sq ft mansion when we have the homeless? What good does it do society to have an Ivy League education and simply use it to enrich oneself when our children can't read, write and do simple arithmetic? What good does it do for society to be able to hire the best doctors when an expectant mother cannot get medical care for herself and her baby? What good does it do society to have a comfortable, rich retirement when someone's elderly parents live in a shack and skimp on food, medicine and heat? Because this is what is happening and will continue to happen if we don't organize and continue to fight for what is right for the entire society.

Ltl1: A related quote from "Gooserock" over at dKos: "No nuclear plant has ever been designed to withstand ownership evasion of standards and regs."

PA_John: Does anyone have a chart that shows the financial benefit to major corporations due to their sizable tax breaks from the Federal gov't? i.e. Company .... Net Profit .... Tax cuts provide savings of $$$ I would be very interested to see how the Federal handouts to corporations stacks up to the "handouts" we provide to frivolous activities, such as the NEA, Planned Parenthood, NPR, etc. I suspect the data will show a vast gap between the corporate handouts and the 'frivolous' handouts, with much more of the benefit going to the companies.

dusty17: ...My question to all of you is does this make sense? We elected a person as President with a Constitutional Law Background and he is now doing his job exactly as the Constitution lays out whether we like it or not he is doing his job. I think that is why his approval rating are going up as well people are seeing he is not a reactionary like the 2 Bushes or even Clinton. The GOP and the Koch Bros are pissed for that very reason as they are only happy when the US is in a state of chaos so they keep drumming up more fake chaos to distract us from their plan but it didn't work this time.

Aview999 found this on 23 reactors in the U.S. with the same design as Fukushima No.1, this on reactor design flaws, and this from Der Spiegel (here is one excerpt from longer, interesting article).

Conservative Die Welt writes: "The earthquake of March 11 was no terrorist attack. But its political and psychological consequences will be as great as 9/11 because it has shown what a terrorist attack on nuclear plants would look like…Faith in redundant, coincidence-proof security precautions has been wiped out by Fukushima. The high-tech democracy Japan has shown what could happen if an Internet attack on German or French nuclear reactors were to happen as it did with the 'Stuxnet' program against the Iranian nuclear program. Or if a determined, technologically skilled terrorist group were to seize control of a power station. One knew it before. Seeing it has made the difference."

Wooljunkie linked to this excellent comment.

ProChoiceGrandma pointed this out on Alternet on TEPCO building nuclear plants in TX.

NomadicJoe linked to this excellent piece on financial deregulation.

HopeforAmerica found this great comment on Salon: …IRTV had also reported that some people at India Today weren't happy with the selection of Palin as a keynote speaker, on account of her being a no-account failed former politician with a shrinking base of support and a mostly illusory influence on American affairs…

Also this on judge blocking Wisconsin anti-labor law.

Cheeriogirl had many excellent links; here is one.

TruGal found this (prepare to be outraged).

CaliGirl22 pointed out this site on the “dark red secrets” of Sarah and Bristol.

Alwaysthink linked to DailyKos on ALEC and the Koch Bros.

BellPeppery alerted us to a 100-mile long oil slick in the Gulf.

Major hat-tip to Pundit Commentator for the live-blogging of Palin’s India speech!

The Last Word from Jimi Hendrix (with H/T to Linda 1961):

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


HAPPY BIRTHDAY BELLA!

Perigee moon open thread

The last few weeks have been pretty stressful. I thought you might all enjoy an open thread and a beautiful image to contemplate as you share your thoughts.

Here is a little info on the perigee moon. And here are some beautiful photos on HuffPo.

Enjoy!