Monday Open Thread

"It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit."

–Noel Coward 

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Weekend Open Thread

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."

–Dan Quayle 

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Tuesday Open Thread

Pete Seeger, the singer, folk-song collector and songwriter who spearheaded an American folk revival and spent a long career championing folk music as both a vital heritage and a catalyst for social change, died Monday. He was 94 and lived in Beacon, N.Y.

His death was confirmed by his grandson, Kitama Cahill Jackson, who said he died of natural causes at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

Mr. Seeger’s career carried him from singing at labor rallies to the Top 10 to college auditoriums to folk festivals, and from a conviction for contempt of Congress (after defying the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s) to performing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at an inaugural concert for Barack Obama.

For Mr. Seeger, folk music and a sense of community were inseparable, and where he saw a community, he saw the possibility of political action.

In his hearty tenor, Mr. Seeger, a beanpole of a man who most often played 12-string guitar or five-string banjo, sang topical songs and children’s songs, humorous tunes and earnest anthems, always encouraging listeners to join in. His agenda paralleled the concerns of the American left: He sang for the labor movement in the 1940s and 1950s, for civil rights marches and anti-Vietnam War rallies in the 1960s, and for environmental and antiwar causes in the 1970s and beyond. “We Shall Overcome,” which Mr. Seeger adapted from old spirituals, became a civil rights anthem.

Mr. Seeger was a prime mover in the folk revival that transformed popular music in the 1950s. As a member of the Weavers, he sang hits including Lead Belly’s “Goodnight, Irene” — which reached No. 1 — and “If I Had a Hammer,” which he wrote with the group’s Lee Hays. Another of Mr. Seeger’s songs, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?,”became an antiwar standard. And in 1965, the Byrds had a No. 1 hit with a folk-rock version of “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” Mr. Seeger’s setting of a passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes.

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Thursday Open Thread

“Simplicity is the most deceitful mistress that ever betrayed man.”

–Henry Adams

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Friday Open Thread

“Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater.”

–George Washington Carver

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Wednesday Open Thread

“How easy it is, treachery. You just slide into it.”

–Margaret Atwood, from The Year of the Flood

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MLK Day Open Thread

"Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’"

–Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Tuesday Open Thread

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

“On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], ‘Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?’ I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.”

— Charles Babbage

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Weekend Open Thread

dustpuppy, that's offensive to me. I'll say it again – I want Republicans, conservatives, independents, libertarians, unaffiliateds, democrats, progressives, greens (not necessarily in that order) to feel OK about posting on here, without thinking that they're going to be insulted, told that they're insane or addicts or should be imprisoned for their ideas, or whatever.  I know I can't post my ideas on their blogs, because I've tried, and been shut down, deleted, ridiculed, and threatened.

I want people of all political affiliations to be able to put their claims out, and, hopefully, back them up with facts and evidence so we can have a substantive argument. Granted, usually, conservatives don't really have the facts to back stuff up, but that's what I want.

This is a comfortable place to post for progressives.  Usually people aren't ridiculed, unless they're ridiculous. I wish that it was comfortable  for reasonable conservatives to post reasonable arguments and try to back it up.

All that is to say that, though I often disagree with David T808, I think he's correct in wanting more diversity of opinions on here.

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Friday Open Thread

"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."

–Mark Twain

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Thursday Open Thread

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Gladstone to Disraeli: "I predict, Sir, that you will die either by hanging or of some vile disease." 

Disraeli's reply: "That all depends, sir, upon whether I embrace your principles or your mistress."

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Tuesday Open Thread

"Positive, adj.: Mistaken at the top of one's voice."

–Ambrose Bierce 

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Wednesday Open Thread

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies."

–Groucho Marx 

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Weekend Open Thread

"In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong."

–Abraham Lincoln 

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Thursday Open Thread

This is from "Nation of Change".

EPA Inspector General confirms regional office justified in legal intervention to protect water.

Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Inspector General found EPA Region 6 was justified in legally intervening to protect Parker County, TX residents’ drinking water from drilling impacts. At Sen. Inhofe’s (R-OK) request, the Inspector General investigated to determine if Region 6’s intervention against Range Resources was due to political influence by the Obama administration.

“The EPA’s internal watchdog has confirmed that the EPA was justified in stepping in to protect residents who were and still are in imminent danger,” said Sharon Wilson, Gulf regional organizer of Earthworks. “Now we need an investigation as to whether political corruption caused EPA to withdraw that protection.” (emphasis, mine)

The EPA invoked its power to protect drinking water in 2010, prompting Oklahoma Sen. Inhofe to request the Inspector General’s investigation in 2011. The EPA withdrew its legal complaint against Range Resources in 2012 despite having a report from an independent scientist showing that a gas well drilled by Range likely polluted nearby water supplies.
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The EPA’s withdrawal from Parker County appears to be part of a larger pattern, in which the Obama administration has blocked or abandoned investigations of whether drilling or hydraulic fracturing polluted drinking water. In addition to the case in Parker County, reports in major news outlets indicate that the Obama administration caused the EPA to abandon studies of potential drilling or fracking pollution in Pavillion, WY and Dimock, PA despite evidence of drilling-related harm.

Just prior to the release of the Inspector General report, the Texas Railroad Commission (regulator of oil and gas, not railroads) opened an investigation into the case. The EPA intervened in 2010 to protect area drinking water only after the commission refused to do so. The Commission’s new investigation prevents the EPA from legally intervening now as it did in 2010.

“Regulators shouldn’t have to be pressured into doing their job to protect people like me from drilling impacts,” said Shelly Perdue, a Parker County resident with drilling-polluted drinking water. “If what has happened to me is happening to others, I completely understand why communities across the country are voting to ban fracking and drilling.”

“Releasing this report at noon on Christmas Eve shows the Obama administration is obviously embarrassed by its findings,” said Earthworks energy program director Bruce Baizel. “As they should be. The withdrawal of Obama’s EPA is an abject failure of its mission to protect Americans’ health and environment.”

http://www.nationofchange.org/inspector-general-finds-epa-justified-intervening-protect-drinking-water-fracking-1387983304#comments

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Monday Open Thread

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace."

–Thomas Paine 

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Christmas Open Thread

Merry Christmas everyone! In my family this shall be known as "The Dollar Store Christmas" — you can imagine why.

All I really want is for Dems to start, God Help Us, acting like Harry Truman, Elizabeth Warren, et al……..and put the kibosh on our Sociopathic Enemies on the Right (sic).

And no, BOTH SIDES DON'T DO IT, Senator Bennet. That is a cowardly cop out on your part that let's them off with even more mischief:

The Congress of the United States left town this week very proud of itself. It had reached an accommodation by which the Republicans agreed that they would allow the government to function in a minimal capacity over the next two years and the Democrats agreed that they would be grateful to the Republicans for doing that.

And then they all wished themselves well and went home, many of them, the ones proclaiming themselves most loudly to be the followers of the Jesus Christ of the Gospels, looking forward to being able to say "Merry Christmas" freely again, free from the liberals who have placed imaginary shackles upon their fictional freedom to keep the day in their own way.

Here's a decent definition of Sociopathy from wiki, with items bolded that fit our Republican/Tea Party brethren to a 't':

A) There is a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others occurring since age 15 years, as indicated by three or more of the following::

failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest; (Trey Radel) deception, as indicated by repeatedly lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure; (Fox News) impulsivity or failure to plan ahead; (Tea Party) irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults; reckless disregard for safety of self or others; (Get rid of government regulations.) consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations; (Record low number of work days and bills past and governmental obliations met.) lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another; (They applaud all this behavior and are proud or it!)

Here's a little video that puts the lie to all this "President Obama should be more forthcoming with Republicans" bullshit. And it is bullshit.

They hate Obama, they hate us, and they hate the Middle and Working  and Poor Classes. 

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Weekend Open Thread

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."

–Albert Einstein 

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Monday Open Thread

~~
I just got this by e-mail from an impeccable source, though no link was included. I copied the entire thing as a consequence. It is worth reading.

Endocrine-disrupting activity linked to birth defects and infertility found near drilling sites.

A controversial oil and natural gas drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, uses many chemicals that can disrupt the body's hormones, according to new research accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's journal Endocrinology.

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or EDCs, are substances that can interfere with the normal functioning of the endocrine system. EDCs can be found in manufactured products as well as certain foods, air, water and soil. Research has linked EDC exposure to infertility, cancer and birth defects.

"More than 700 chemicals are used in the fracking process, and many of them disturb hormone function," said one of the study's authors, Susan Nagel, PhD, associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and women's health at the the University of Missouri School of Medicine. "With fracking on the rise, populations may face greater health risks from increased endocrine-disrupting chemical exposure."

The study examined 12 suspected or known endocrine-disrupting chemicals used in natural gas operations and measured their ability to mimic or block the effect of the body's male and female reproductive hormones. To gauge endocrine-disrupting activity from natural gas operations,  researchers took surface and ground water samples from sites with drilling spills or accidents in a drilling-dense area of Garfield County, CO – an area with more than 10,000 active natural gas wells – and from drilling-sparse control sites without spills in Garfield County as well as Boone County, MO.

The water samples from drilling sites had higher levels of EDC activity that could interfere with the body's response to androgens, a class of hormones that includes testosterone, as well as the reproductive hormone estrogen. Drilling site water samples had moderate to high levels of EDC activity, and samples from the Colorado River – the drainage basin for the natural gas drilling sites – had moderate levels. In comparison, little activity was measured in the water samples from the sites with little drilling.

"Fracking is exempt from federal regulations to protect water quality, but spills associated with natural gas drilling can contaminate surface, ground and drinking water," Nagel said. "We found more endocrine-disrupting activity in the water close to drilling locations that had experienced spills than at control sites. This could raise the risk of reproductive, metabolic, neurological and other diseases, especially in children who are exposed to EDCs."

Other authors of the study include C.D. Kassotis, J.W. Davis and A.M. Hormann of the University of Missouri, and D.E. Tillitt of the U.S. Geological Survey.

The study, "Estrogen and Androgen Receptor Activities of Hydraulic Fracturing Chemicals and Surface and Ground Water in a Drilling-Dense Region," was published online, ahead of print.

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Tuesday Open Thread

"He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors."

–Thomas Jefferson

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