DAYLEE PICTURE: A street scene in Salvador, Brazil. From National Geographic.
UP-FRONT SNOWDEN LEAKS NUGGET!!
Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald Challenge Independent Story from the Huffington Post
"NSA leaker Edward Snowden accused the British government on Friday of leaking sensitive material to a newspaper he'd never worked with, the Independent, and attributing the material to him — a charge the paper heatedly denied. The paper published an exclusive story about a secret British spy base in the Middle East on the front of its Friday edition. ... Snowden said he thought the British were "seeking to create an appearance that the Guardian and Washington Post's disclosures are harmful, and they are doing so by intentionally leaking harmful information to The Independent and attributing it to others.""
I think this story showcases very well some of the central difficulties with large-scale leaks like the ones let loose by Assange, Manning and now Snowden. They (including Greenwald, the Wikileaks people, and so many of their acolytes) really DON'T have a handle on the details of the materials they've disclosed. As I've noted before, it takes months to properly process with any degree of rigor even a couple hundred pages of this kind of material -- never mind TENS OF THOUSANDS of pages. And I see no evidence so far that any of these people made even a casual attempt to fully grasp what they had. It takes a lot of background knowledge to understand what is actually being disclosed. Foreign and domestic diplomats and national security experts can read this material and easily deduce a hundred times more intelligence from it than Assange, Manning, Greenwald (or even the folks at the Guardian for that matter). I strongly suspect that Snowden/Greenwald's cache of leaked material DID contain the intel cited by the folks from the Independent -- but that S-G did not have the expertise to see it. The editor from the Independent says as much. The second difficulty this episode showcases is that, as voters, we will NEVER know the harm these leaks have caused to national security. All we get is the asserted benefits of transparency with none of the costs. To hear Greenwald et al., you would think there have been no costs at all -- and the reality is we don't know.
Free at Last: On Martin Luther King's Dream 50 Years Later (Joshua Dubois) from the Daily Beast
"Instead of being in a state of perpetual struggle, an endless existential march, I believe there is far more evidence to support the idea that we are right on the verge of Zion. And the only thing that will stop us from getting there is the hopeless belief that we can’t."
Who Are the Long-Term Unemployed? from the Atlantic
The long-term unemployed tend to be people who 1) are a little bit older, and 2) got laid off from their last job..."
China's Water Pollution Off the Charts, Must Outsource Food Production (VL Baker) from Daily Kos
"With its successful bid to purchase the U.S. pork giant Smithfield, which is pending U.S. governmental approval, China has revealed its major vulnerability—that of feeding its own people. Its race to get to the top of global manufacturing has extracted the heavy cost of fouling its water, land and air..."
Rachel Maddow Tackles Voter Suppression In Boone, North Carolina from the Huffington Post
"In the video clip above, Maddow reveals the obstacle course thousands of Boone residents will now have to conquer in order to vote."
The Best Republican Efforts Are Not Enough to Defund Obamacare (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast
"The majority of congressional Republicans, as well as the public, think that defunding Obamacare is a bad idea. Michael Tomasky on what that means for the election cycles ahead."
Speaking of 'Republican best efforts'
Tea party: Obamacare is Now ‘BoehnerCare’ from the Washington Times
"Tea party activists are planning to rally outside of House Speaker John A. Boehner’s Ohio office on Tuesday, telling the Republican speaker that if he doesn’t use this year’s spending fight to defund the health care law, it will hence be known to them as “BoehnerCare.” “If he funds it, he will own it,” said Janet Porter, president of Faith2Action, one of the groups participating in the rally."
As we were noting last week, this is more evidence of DEEP divisions within the GOP. In case you've never done so, even trying to put together a rally is a lot of work! The fact that these Tea Party people are choosing to expend resources here rather than devote their energies to something else more potentially useful or something targeting, say, Obama or the Democrats, says something about how messed up relations are right now for the GOP at the grassroots level. Granted, I'd be surprised if they got 50 people to show up for this event -- but who knows? If a really big crowd did show, it would just further demonstrate the splintering of the GOP coalition.
GOP in Fantasyland (Eugene Robinson) from the Washington Post via Real Clear Politics
Charlatans are peddling the fantasy that somehow they can prevent the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act from becoming what it already is: the law of the land. Congress passed it, President Obama signed it, the Supreme Court upheld it, and many of its provisions are already in force and others will soon take effect."
GOP Poll Finds Strong Opposition to Government Shutdown (Byron York) from the Washington Examiner
"A new poll done for Republican members of Congress has found huge public opposition, and solid opposition among Republicans, to the idea of shutting down the government over the issue of funding Obamacare."
Republicans Only Have As Much Leverage As Obama Gives Them (Molly Redden) from the New Republic
"Acting as though they are trying to craft a win-win situation for themselves and Democrats, Republicans are creating a laundry list of expectations: “The more issues thrown in the same debate, the better—as they create more leverage points, Republicans say. ... And yet, it is not at all clear that Republicans have much leverage."
No, You’re Not Impeaching Anyone (Joan Walsh) from Salon
Tom Coburn, Ted Cruz and other crackpots can't stand up to their base and face reality. Can this party ever change?"
Demographic Shifts May Help Virginia Dems (John Harwood) from the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/us/politics/in-virginia-demographic-shifts-may-help-democrats.html
Axelrod Mocks Coburn Analysis that Obama is 'Perilously Close' to Impeachment (Jed Lewison) from Daily Kos
"“I think he was way out of bounds, and he speaks to a kind of virus that’s infected our politics that really has to be curbed,” Axelrod said."
Rep. Dave Joyce On Unfilled Jobs: Businesses Can't Find Enough 'Sober,' 'Drug-Free' Workers from Huffington Post
"In a speech to a local Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio) argued that part of the problem is that there are millions of jobs that remain vacant each month. ... "And the trouble is, it's because they either can't find people to come to work sober, daily, drug-free and want to learn the necessary skills going forward to be able to do those jobs," he added."
These days, is it possible for a Republican to open his mouth and not offend millions of Americans?
Theater Owner Won't Show 'Lee Daniels' The Butler' (Amber Coulter) from the News-Enterprise [of Kentucky]
"Fonda’s famous anti-Vietnam War statements and demonstrations caused Boutwell to view her as a traitor to America. He said no movie involving her will show in his theater as long as he’s in charge."
Normally I don't bother to discuss stories this trivial -- but this one further makes a case I've been harping on about for years: the inability of many baby boomers to EVER get over what happened in the 1960s! Conservative boomers especially can go from 0 to 60 on the rage scale so fast if some current political figure (say, Barack Obama) can somehow be linked to some 1960s-era event/figure/trend. These folks will be using their wheel chairs as brick bats until the end of their days!
TOO TRUE PARENTING NUGGET!!
Preparing to be 'Empty Nesters,' the Obamas Turn to Sunny (Kevin Liptak) from CNN
"His two daughters, Sasha and Malia, are still years away from heading off to college, but Obama said he and his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, are still bracing for it. "What I'm discovering is that each year, I get more excited about spending time with them, they get a little less excited," Obama said of his two daughters in an exclusive interview with CNN "New Day" anchor Chris Cuomo to air Friday."
HOPE-FOR-PAWS DOG RESCUE NUGGET!!
Rescuing two dogs, a brother and a sister from life on the streets from Hope for Paws
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