Where's the Outrage?

There was no South Carolina surprise. Romney took care of business and kicked butt. I don’t know if this is good or bad for the GOP. I know that it doesn’t matter to Democrats. I have heard the talking heads say that Obama would like to face Romney or Perry or whomever. I just find that funny, since President Obama hasn’t publicly said anything.

(This table is from DK)

I will repeat what I said the other day. Newt isn’t a serious candidate. He is running so that his rich donor friends will continue to believe that he is a factor in Washington and will continue to write those large checks. How do you explain the fact that Newt hasn’t come out with a major campaign theme yet? Nothing. He won in South Carolina with a direct attack on Mitt Romney and Bain Capital. Because of criticism, he decided to back away from the only theme that has resonated with voters? Since when has Newt backed down from criticism? He isn’t serious about winning the nomination.

Update: If you can stomach it, here is a few moments of Mitt Romney’s speech in Florida.

Tags: Elections by ecthompson md
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Last week I watched President Obama’s State of the Union speech.

On my Facebook that evening, I saw a number of reactions to the speech from both moderate and liberal Democrats, from Green Party supporters, from Occupy Wall Street backers and from socialists.

The Democrats all liked the speech, while some of my friends further along on the left had reactions ranging from partial approval to scorn.

This is all fine with me. While I am not President Obama’s most ardent supporter, I am on the side of all good people who want to  help move our great nation to the left.

There is no point in a rigidity that excludes people on our side of the aisle.

Here is the entirety of  chapter 76 of the Stephen Mitchell translation of the Tao Te Ching—

Men are born soft and supple;

dead, they are stiff and hard.

Plants are born tender and pliant;

dead, they are brittle and dry.

This whoever is stiff and inflexible

is a disciple of death.

Whoever is soft and yielding

is a disciple of life.

The hard and stiff will be broken.

The soft and supple will prevail.

Yet–of course–we must move in a hopeful direction and this does require at the least a measure of coordination.

The good news is that different sets of tracks can lead in the same direction. We see this in picture below of railroad tracks that I took in Houston last year.

There are multiple tracks, but they merge.

See who your friends and allies are and see the good in them. Focus on where you agree and move forward.

We can be both flexible and focused on a common goal.

Tags: Domestic Issues, Other Political Thoughts by Neil Aquino
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This just burns me up. Why isn’t it illegal??

From TP:

On Monday, 43 Senate Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) introduced legislation to circumvent the Obama administration and approve the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. A ThinkProgress Green analysis reveals at least 35 of the 44 senators backing the proposal have received special interest political action committee contributions from the biggest backers of the pipeline since the start of the 2010 cycle.

$644,400 went to 35 of those senators who have endorsed this measure. Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Rob Portman (R-OH) received the most, with $43,500 each. Manchin received $2,500 and the rest went to Republicans.

The most active companies and trade associations lobbying for the pipeline over the last three months were the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ConocoPhillips, the Business Roundtable, Shell Oil, ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, Deere & Company, TransCanada Pipelines, and Devon Energy.(more…)

Tags: Congress, Energy by ecthompson md
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Sometimes you just have to wonder what makes a man say certain things. How do you tell a bunch of reporters that there’s a new poll coming out which shows that you are neck and neck with Mitt Romney? I don’t understand how you do that. There was no such poll, yet Newt Gingrich told reporters and a room full supporters,  “We just got word of a brand new poll from about an hour ago that says we have a tie!” Newt Gingrich’s spokesperson stated that the candidate was referring to an earlier poll. This is one of my major problems with Newt Gingrich. He’ll say anything.

Tags: Elections by ecthompson md
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The United States Department of Agriculture has updated the map it issues to help gardeners across the nation determine what they can plant.

Because the nation is getting warmer, people are now able to plant various flowers and trees in parts of the country that before would have not been hospitable to such a wide range of plantings.

Above you see the map. Here is the link to the USDA site that has facts on how to use the map, and also has specific information for each of the states.

The Chicago Sun-Times has a story about how this warming is being acknowledged in the ways everyday people are planting their gardens.

From this story—-

“Vaughn Speer, an 87-year-old master gardener in Ames, Iowa, said he has seen redbud trees, one of the earliest blooming trees, a little farther north in recent years. “They always said redbuds don’t go beyond U.S. Highway 30,” he said, “but I’m seeing them near Roland,” 10 miles to the north….“It is great that the federal government is catching up with what the plants themselves have known for years now: The globe is warming and it is greatly influencing plants (and animals),” Stanford University biology professor Terry Root wrote in an email.”

Do folks who think global warming is a scam believe that these map changes are a government plot? Is it better to deny even the prospect of warming than to at least admit the possibility, and to prepare for what might be on the way?

Here is a synopsis of current warming facts from the co-conspirators at the New York Times.

Folks on the right can go on creating an alternate reality about just about everything. I’m certain that press bashing will by itself change the facts in just the same way the idea that the rain will follow the plow made arid places wet.

(Below–The Eastern Redbud Tree. You might be seeing more of them in Iowa before long.)

Tags: Environment by Neil Aquino
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Sure looks like President Obama and the stimulus package have done something.

Tags: Economy by ecthompson md
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I’m sure that I’ve mentioned this before, but I really love movies. I’m probably one of the few people who can say that he has seen Attack of the Killer Tomatoes three times in the theater. It was an awful movie and the guys who were making it knew it was an awful movie. Contraband is not awful. It just isn’t that good. For me, this is disheartening. I love movies in which one character outsmarts everybody else. I can’t remember the first movie that I saw with that kind of formula, but the movie Hopscotch with Walter Matthau is the first one that I can think of off the top of my head. Of course, all of the James Bond-type movies are exactly like this.

Our hero, Mark Wahlberg, is a famous smuggler who has now gone legitimate. His brother-in-law, Andy, is played by Caleb Landry Jones, who is terrible in this movie. Jones’ character has gotten into the business and is in trouble. He has had to dump a shipment of cocaine and now the bad guys are after him. So far, we’ve seen this movie before. Mark Wahlberg to the rescue. He confronts the bad guys. Personally, I didn’t think the bad guys seemed to be all that bad. Why doesn’t our hero break open a can of whoop ass and call it a day? Well, for some reason, he doesn’t. Instead, he has to come up with some ungodly sum of money or badness will rain down on his family. He decides that he’s going to do one last run. Surprised?? He’s got a go to Panama and pick up some phony money. Up until now, the movie is somewhat believable. From here on out, you really need to suspend any connections with reality.

Once in Panama with his crew, our hero rushes to make the drop-off. Unfortunately, the counterfeit money is bad. It’s made with terrible paper and our hero has to go and find the big boss. The big boss is so laughable as a character that it almost completely ruins the movie. (Think of drug runner from Romancing the Stone who was supposed to be a parody of Latino druglords.) The big boss convinces our hero to help with a daylight assault on an armored vehicle (this just happens to be going down right now, great timing!!) which turns into a shooting match with the police. Everybody dies except for our hero and his smuggling buddy. Surprised? Our hero somehow comes away with a rolled-up drop cloth (turns out to be a Jackson Pollock painting) and loads of counterfeit money. Oh, did I mention that his best friend, who is supposed to be protecting our hero’s family back in Louisiana while he is in Panama dodging bullets, is actually the mastermind drug dealer behind the bad guys? He is the same best friend who tries to make a move on his wife. Kate Beckinsale, as the wife, is very nice to watch, but does almost nothing to help this bad script. He then somehow almost kills his wife, who we are supposed to believe is dead, but who is really not. Confused? Don’t be. The movie really divorces itself from reality. A wife who has been hit over the head, wrapped in plastic and then nearly drowned in wet cement can wake up in the hospital a couple hours later just fine.

If you like these kind of movies, check out last year’s Mechanic with Jason Statham or, from a few years back, Gone in 60 Seconds with Nicholas Cage. Both are much better movies. I give this movie a C - which probably reflects grade inflation. (The commercials are highly deceptive and really do not give you any flavor for what the movie is about.)

Tags: Movies by ecthompson md
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It is hard to overemphasize how important Greece and Europe are to our eventual economic recovery. Whether we like it or not our fortunes are tied to Europe. We do a ton of trade with Europe. If they fall in the tank, they’re not going to buy US exports and that will cause a significant slowing of our economy. No matter how much we’d like to think that we are strong and independent, we are tied to the world economy, especially to Europe.

From WSJ (may need a subscription):

Greece and its private sector creditors said Saturday they were on the verge of a deal to write off €100 billion ($132 billion) worth of the country’s debt, pending the outcome of separate talks on a new, multi-billion euro bailout for Athens.

In separate statements, Greece and the creditors both noted significant progress in the talks and said a final deal would be announced next week in tandem with the new loan program.

Effectively, the focus now shifts to a European summit in Brussels Monday where the continent’s leaders will sanctify — or not — the terms of the debt restructuring and the new loan. But complicating those discussions are concerns that Greece’s funding needs might be bigger than originally thought, while Europe appears divided over how to cover the gap.

Tags: Economy by ecthompson md
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Last Thursday, Governor Bev Perdue announced that she would not run for reelection. She is one of the few Democratic governors in the nation. I think she has done an excellent job with a very contentious Republican legislature and am deeply saddened that she has decided not to run for reelection.

From the News and Observer:

Gov. Bev Perdue’s surprise announcement last week that she would not seek re-election left the party scrambling to find a nominee, creating a 100-day sprint to the May 8th primary. Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton jumped in Thursday. He was joined Saturday by state Rep. Bill Faison, who announced his candidacy in Greensboro.

But what about Erskine Bowles, the former White House chief of staff and UNC system president? He wasn’t in Greensboro, but he was said to be considering the race.

“I think Erskine would be a very formidable candidate,” said state Revenue Secretary David Hoyle. “I think the business community would fall in love with that. He would be the Republicans worst fear.” (more…)

Tags: State and Local Politics by ecthompson md
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I don’t know about you but I’m really hating the these debates. There is nothing new. It is like watching a rerun of a bad sit-com without the laugh track. We need a new debate format. We need to have a real debate. Don’t we need a moderator who can really ask questions without being afraid of being attacked by the candidate? I need a moderator who can ask follow-up questions actually delve into the details of the candidates plan. Don’t we need the candidates to be able to get into a real discussion about policy issues? I don’t think enough to say that you support Israel. What does that mean? What you going to do in order to try to promote peace in the region? That doesn’t mean they simple soundbite saying that you love Israel. Instead, that should mean some sort of detailed answer about the give-and-take that must happen in order for there to be peace in the region. We should be able to have a detailed discussion on the economy. Why can’t this happen? We get the same old soundbites of free markets and tax breaks. Don’t we deserve more specifics?

What system of debate would you favor?

The latest polls out of Florida show Newt Gingrich losing ground.

From 538:

Tags: Elections by ecthompson md
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Four banks (numbers four through seven for the year, if you are counting) were closed on Friday. This is a sad reminder that we have much more work to do to fix our economy.

• BankEast, Knoxville, Tennessee was closed today by the Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with U.S. Bank National Association, Cincinnati, Ohio, to assume all of the deposits of BankEast.
• Patriot Bank Minnesota, Forest Lake, Minnesota was closed today by the Minnesota Department of Commerce, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with First Resource Bank, Savage, Minnesota, to assume all of the deposits of Patriot Bank Minnesota.
• First Guaranty Bank and Trust Company of Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida was closed today by the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with CenterState Bank of Florida, National Association, Winter Haven, Florida to assume all of the deposits of First Guaranty Bank and Trust Company of Jacksonville.
• Tennessee Commerce Bank, Franklin, Tennessee was closed today by the Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Republic Bank & Trust Company, Louisville, Kentucky to assume all of the deposits of Tennessee Commerce Bank

Tags: Economy by ecthompson md
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In my mind there are two types of people on Capitol Hill. There are those who are really trying to fix America’s problems and there are those who are really trying to line their own pockets. I really love those who are trying (even those who are misguided but who are trying to fix America). I really, really loathe those who are simply padding their bank accounts.

From NYT:

Soon after he retired last year as one of the leading liberals in Congress, former Representative William D. Delahunt of Massachusetts started his own lobbying firm with an office on the 16th floor of a Boston skyscraper. One of his first clients was a small coastal town that has agreed to pay him $15,000 a month for help in developing a wind energy project.

Amid the revolving door of congressmen-turned-lobbyists, there is nothing particularly remarkable about Mr. Delahunt’s transition, except for one thing. While in Congress, he personally earmarked $1.7 million for the same energy project.

So today, his firm, the Delahunt Group, stands to collect $90,000 or more for six months of work from the town of Hull, on Massachusetts Bay, with 80 percent of it coming from the pot of money he created through a pair of Energy Department grants in his final term in office, records and interviews show.

Experts in federal earmarking — a practice of financing pet projects that has been forsaken by many members of Congress as a toxic symbol of political abuse — said they could not recall a case in which a former lawmaker stood to benefit so directly from an earmark he had authorized. Mr. Delahunt’s firm is seeking a review of the arrangement from the Energy Department. (more…)

More from CREW:

Rep. Delahunt’s case may be more direct than most, but he isn’t alone. CREW’s research found five other former lawmakers, all of whom left office within the past five years, collecting lobbying fees for institutions they earmarked to while in office (two others are registered to lobby for institutions they have earmarked to, but reported earning only nominal fees). The members collectively earmarked more than $70 million to the organizations they went on to represent, and have pulled in a total of nearly $1.9 million from the work. Former Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), for example, earmarked $1.6 million for defense contractor Northrop Grumman in the 2008 budget. Then he left office – but apparently kept up the relationship. The company was one of his early lobbying clients, and lobbying disclosure records show the contract brought in nearly $1.3 million in fees between 2008 and 2010.

Tags: Congress, Ethics by ecthompson md
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When this whole presidential hoopla started, more than a year ago, I was surprised when Newt Gingrich announced that he was running for president. I figured that his time had passed. He had been out of Washington for more than a decade, during which time he started multiple enterprises. All of his enterprises seem to be tied into his former political life as a US Congressman and Speaker of the House. Upon further reflection, all of these enterprises seem to require rich businessmen handing money over to Newt Gingrich, because, and this is important, he still had access to power. These enterprises seem to require that Newt Gingrich is still important in Washington. Therefore, I concluded that he really wasn’t running for president, but was running so that he could prove to his benefactors that he was still extremely important person.

Over the first several months of his campaign, my theory held up. He never really spent money on infrastructure or campaign personnel. Instead, Newt Gingrich seemed to go from city to city selling books. He had a lot of early upheaval with turnover in his extremely small campaign staff, but this did not seem to faze him. Then, somewhere in Iowa, it seemed that he began to believe the press. It seemed that he was beginning to become serious about running for president. In South Carolina, his stop seemed to be more about campaigning and less about selling books or any of his other products. Newt Gingrich was serious.

Now, Newt Gingrich was a front runner. I don’t know whether he lost his mojo or whether he did not know what to do with his front-runner status, but Newt Gingrich seemed to lose focus. He is in the middle of a knock-down, drag-out fight with Mitt Romney. He needed to sharpen his message. How is he going to improve the country? How is he a better Republican candidate then Mitt Romney? How could he turn the economy around? Can someone explain to me how a “major” Republican candidate in the middle of a tight primary can even suggest America going to the moon? He said it with a straight face. Did he just say this to please a Florida space crowd? Did he think through this lunar colony?

I think that this is yet another example of how Newt is not a serious candidate. This isn’t the 1970s, where the sky was the limit. Our economy is struggling to make jobs. Europe is on the brink of implosion as Greek debt seems to be an unsolvable problem. Yet, Newt is talking about spending billions of dollars not just to go to the moon but to build a colony. Wow. I can’t wrap my mind around how irresponsible a statement that was.

Tags: Elections, NASA by ecthompson md
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As usual, the Republicans cannot stop attacking. President Obama traveled to Las Vegas yesterday and was speaking at a UPS facility. The facility was stocked with specially made natural gas trucks. Republicans have stated that these are not practical. In fact, this is American ingenuity at work. I don’t think that natural gas cars are the answer for everyone, but they simply makes sense in this particular sector of business. UPS was big enough to be able to set up the infrastructure and then reap the cost savings.

From WP:

On Thursday, President Obama traveled to Las Vegas to pitch a few new energy policies — including tax breaks for firms that buy natural gas-powered trucks. T. Boone Pickens, for one, has argued that fueling vehicles with natural gas is the best way to curtail oil use. Is it?

President Barack Obama speaks at a United Parcel Service (UPS) freight facility about greater use of natural gas . (Ethan Miller – Getty Images)In small doses, perhaps, though it depends what the alternatives are. Fueling up cars and trucks directly with natural gas could help cut America’s reliance on crude oil. Yet some experts have cautioned that plug-in electric vehicles should play a much more pivotal role in weaning the country off oil. After all, it’s far more efficient to take natural gas, burn it to generate electricity, and power a bunch of plug-in vehicles, than it would be to fuel up cars and trucks with all that natural gas directly. (That’s because the combustion engines in cars and trucks lose waste more energy than the modern-day combined-cycle gas turbines that produce electricity.)

The counterargument is that electric vehicles are expensive and hard to scale up — and they typically require a vast new charging infrastructure. That’s true. But natural-gas vehicles could face similar hurdles. A 2002 analysis in the journal Energy Policy found that natural-gas fueling stations have historically had trouble getting built precisely because they turned out to be far more costly than anticipated.

For those reasons, a 2009 report from MIT on “The Future of Natural Gas” predicted that natural-gas vehicles would likely play a modest role in transportation — mostly confined to long-haul trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles like buses and delivery vans. Meanwhile, the MIT analysts expect natural gas to play a much more prominent role in the electric sector. That, in itself, could be an environmental boon: The report found that electric utilities could very rapidly cut their carbon emissions up to 22 percent by switching from coal to natural gas in key areas (and that’s without making major capital investments).

Tags: Elections, Energy, Obama administration by ecthompson md
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After being prompted by a commenter, I thought that we could take a stab at putting together some the greatest American songs of all time. Please notice that I said “we.” I think that this could be a an absolutely fabulous project, but I’m going to need some help. This is going to be an interactive project. Please post songs that you think should be included in the Great American Songbook. The criteria for Great American song is somewhat loose. It has to be more than simply a popular tune. It really has to transcend its time. For that matter, let’s not restrict the genre to pop music or rock ‘n roll or symphonic.

Let’s see what we can come up with. Tell your friends. I look forward to your input.

Tags: Great American Songbook by ecthompson md
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A friend of mine has sent me a great article on Newt Gingrich. Personally, I think conservatives are extremely desperate. They’re looking for someone, anyone, who will be able to take on Obama. Remember way back in October of 2008, John McCain’s campaign was clearly flailing and he was at an event in Wisconsin. A man, a black man, stood up and begged John McCain to take the fight to Barack Obama. (James T Harris, the man who stood up, was a conservative talkshow host on a local radio station, but he didn’t identify himself.) It is the desperation in this man’s voice that I feel is reflected in all conservatives right now. They are desperate. Most conservatives don’t think that Mitt Romney will roll up his sleeves and seriously take on the president. They are, therefore, left with Newt Gingrich. They KNOW that Newt Gingrich will do whatever it takes. If it means bringing up Bill Ayres every single day three times a day for year, Newt Gingrich will do it. If it means bringing up Rev. Wright and Bill Ayres in the same sentence, Newt Gingrich will do it.

Anyway, here’s what my buddy sent me about Newt and morality:

Nor is the issue an unrealistic demand for perfection. No one has a perfect past, and few, if any have a perfect present. But it is a stunning impoverishment of standards to dismiss multiple lies, adulteries, and hypocrisies as mere foibles that fall just somewhere shy of perfection. While Newt was going hard after Clinton for his moral failures and campaigning on family values, he was engaged in an ongoing adulterous affair.

So again, am I suggesting we demand perfection of our candidates? Should we make an issue of every high school and college prank, indiscretion, drunken weekend, wild party, and so on? Of course not. But we are not talking here about adolescent behavior. We are talking about his behavior as a mature adult, while holding elected office.

The fact that Newt thinks his history of moral and ethical infidelity is irrelevant to his qualifications to be President, the fact that he can wax passionate with moral indignation against those who raise these issues, represents a wildly distorted sense of moral judgment and moral proportion. Ironically, he is the mirror image of the postmodern who rejects traditional morality, but knows exactly how to draw a huge ovation from an audience by attacking intolerance with passionate fervor.

King David fell into adultery and he repented and was forgiven. Notably, when confronted with his adultery, he did not turn on Nathan, and say, “Seriously, I am appalled you can be making an issue of the fact that I banged Bathsheba, given the enormous political and economic issues facing this country.” David was forgiven. But he never regained the moral credibility he previously had, and after this incident, his Kingdom began to unravel in various ways, as Nathan predicted. Indeed, it is surely no coincidence that we see this beginning to happen one chapter after Nathan’s confrontation with David, precisely in the form of his sons mimicking his worst behavior (2 Samuel 13). Amnon rapes his sister Tamar, and when David ignores the matter and does nothing about it, Tamar’s brother Absalom plots Amnon’s murder and successfully carries it out. Given David’s adultery and devious murder of Bathsheba’s husband Uriah, he was poorly situated to confront his sons with any sort of moral credibility or hold them accountable for doing the very same sort of things he had done. The King inevitably set a moral tone for the nation, whether for good or for ill. David eventually lost so much of his previous authority that his own son Absalom could successfully garner enough support to lead a rebellion and temporarily usurp the throne. (more…)

Tags: Elections, Ethics by ecthompson md
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For those of you who missed the State of the Union address, I’ve got it for you.

A few facts about the SOTU:

• Since the last SOTU, the economy has created 1.9 million private sector jobs. [Source]

• The top one percent take home 24 percent of the nation’s income, up from about nine percent in 1976. [Source]

• Private sector job creation under Obama in 2011 was larger than seven out of the eight years Bush was president. [Source]

• The top one percent of Americans own 40 percent of our country’s wealth, while the bottom 80 percent owns only seven percent. [Source]

• Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 2.5 million young adults gained health insurance. [Source]

• For every one job opening, there are four people looking for work. [Source]

• Last year, China spent nine percent of its GDP on infrastructure. The U.S. spent 2.5 percent. [Source]

• 2.65 million seniors saved an average of $569 on prescriptions last year thanks to the Affordable Care Act. [Source]

• “In 2011, the United States killed Al Qaeda’s most effective propagandist, Anwar al-Awlaki; its operating chief, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman; and of course its founder, chief executive and spiritual leader, Osama bin Laden.” [Source]

• Union membership is at a 70-year low. [Source]

• Unemployment benefits have lifted 3.2 million people out of poverty. [Source]

• The United States used to have the world’s largest percentage of college graduates. We’re now #14. [Source]

• One quarter of all contributions to federal campaigns come from 0.01 percent of Americans. [Source]

• 47.8 percent of households that receive food stamps are working, because having a job is not enough to keep them out of poverty. [Source] (A friend of mine asked me about how many of our military families are on food stamps. I don’t have that answer, but usage of food stamps is clearly up in the military.)

• In the last three years, 30 major corporations spent more on lobbying than they paid in taxes. [Source]

• 50 percent of U.S. workers make less than $26,364 per year. [Source]

• More than one in 70 homes faced foreclosure last year. [Source]

• Since 1985, the federal tax rate for the 400 wealthiest Americans dropped from 29 percent to 18 percent. [Source]

Tags: Congress, Domestic Issues, Obama administration by ecthompson md
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There are probably 25 or 50 Great American songs making up the American songbook. These songs are uniquely American and iconic in some way. Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” is one of those songs. Miles Davis’ “So What” is another. Etta James’ “At Last” also belongs in our songbook.

From RS:

Etta James, one of the great voices of the 20th century, who fused R&B with gospel and blues and scored landmark hits with “At Last,” “Tell Mama” and “All I Could Do Was Cry,” died today from complications related to leukemia. She was 73. James had been battling health problems for years.

James had an enormously turbulent personal life with numerous periods of drug addiction and poverty, but she channeled all of that heartache into her music. “There’s a lot going on Etta James’ voice,” Bonnie Raitt told Rolling Stone in 2008. “A lot of pain, a lot of life, and most of all, a lot of strength. She can be so raucous and down one song, and then break your heart with her subtlety and finesse the next. As raw as Etta is, there’s a great intelligence and wisdom in her singing.”

Born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles in 1938, James was largely abandoned by her teenage mother at a young age, and was raised by her grandparents and foster families. She formed the the doo-wop singing group the Creolettes with her friends in the early 1950s, and they scored a minor hit with “Roll Me Henry” in 1955.

Read more

Tags: Music by ecthompson md
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It is kind of funny to see Mitt Romney all red in the face and angry. He is fighting for his political life. He’s been running for president of the United States for six years straight and his dream is slipping away. Although he has all the facts correct, he still is very awkward in making his point. Newt Gingrich, on the other hand, is very good at the counter attack. He never seems that awkward at the podium. He always seems prepared for the attack or the “gotcha” question. Mitt Romney has his hands full.

Tags: Elections by ecthompson md
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From TP:

America’s television meteorologists are theprimary source of climate information for most Americans, and are second only to scientists — who have much less access to the general public — in the level of trust they are given. Yet more than half of TV weather reporters don’t believe in human-induced climate change, even as our poisoned weather grows more extreme.

Forecast the Facts, a new campaign of 350.org, the League of Conservation Voters, and the newCitizen Engagement Lab, aims to turn the tide. The first call to action challenges the American Meteorological Society to vote next week for a strong climate change statement that rejects science denial:

It’s a big problem: weather reporters reach millions of people every night, and right now they’re not telling their viewers the full story. We can change that. Meteorologists are meeting this month at the annual conference of the American Meteorological Society, where the AMS Council will vote on a new official statement on climate change. Denier meteorologists don’t want the statement to pass, and are doing everything they can to derail the process. We can’t let that happen.

In 2009, ThinkProgress Green exposed weathermen James Spann and Joe D’Aleo as Marc Morano’s go-to climate deniers. Forecast the Facts has identified dozens more zombie weathermen (yes, they’re all male) from around the country. These climate denier meteorologists are betraying the public’s trust and distorting America’s airwaves with ideological science denial: (more…)

Tags: Environment by ecthompson md
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