NewHampster's blog

On the eve of former president Bill Clinton’s 64th birthday, Bill and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton rocked-it-baby-all-night long under the tent at the annual “Summer” party hosted by Brooke and Dan Neidich at their estate in East Hampton’s private Georgica Association. The community was once the summer retreat of New England ministers, academics, and their families — and is still the last, best (albeit unaffordable) relic of the small township that once was East Hampton.

Before dancing with his wife, the former president, still as passionate about saving the world as a Yale undergrad, engaged in a spirited conversation about the need for focus on “micro-economics — not macro economics. Rahm is great on micro,” he said, referring to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, “But he’s tied up on politics.”

“Forgive me for saying so,” one styleite-ish party-goer interjected, “but in spite of your reputation, I notice there are more men waiting to talk to you than women.”

By Robert Kuttner over at Huffington Post

On Friday, the government moved to seize and temporarily shutter one of the truly heroic banking institutions of this dismal era for American finance -- ShoreBank of Chicago. More precisely, ShoreBank of Barack Obama's old neighborhood.

Over the years, since its founding in 1973, ShoreBank had enabled thousands of moderate income residents to become homeowners, and thousands of small businesses to get credit, without ever playing the subprime game or making a single predatory loan. It was a model bank that earned a modest profit by delivering on a social mission.

In the end, ShoreBank succumbed to the aftermath of a financial crisis made on Wall Street. Yet while the Treasury Department found hundreds of billions of dollars to rescue giant Wall Street institutions, it refused to come up with the $75 million for which ShoreBank qualified under the TARP program.

I was thinking of my mother's 90th birthday today.  She was born the day after.  Two days before, she would not have had the vote.

The 19th Amendment

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

H/T to Sharon ABC News

Employers appear to be laying off workers again as the economic recovery weakens. The number of people applying for unemployment benefits reached the half-million mark last week for the first time since November.

It was the third straight week that first-time jobless claims rose. The upward trend suggests the private sector may report a net loss of jobs in August for the first time this year.

Initial claims rose by 12,000 last week to 500,000, the Labor Department said Thursday.  More..

I'm not sure at all.  I do know I can't log in most of the time and by the lack of activity I have to assume others are having the same issues.  One user also pointed out problems with the comment editor not showing a text area.

So, this all started with an upgrade I applied to Drupal which fixed a backend issue I was having.  So much for upgrades.

Time is short in the hampster cage, due to work and fun obligations, but I will try my dangdest to move the site backwards over the next few days.  If that doesn't work, I just may abandon Drupal and move back to Wordpress.

any Drupal experts out there?

In the meantime;  enjoy summer.

News Corp. gave $1 Million to the Republican Governor's Association.

From Politico

News Corp., which owns Fox News and the New York Post, gave $1 million to Haley Barbour's Republican Governors Association this year, according to the RGA's most recent filing.

The company's media outlets play politics more openly than most, but the huge contribution to a party committee is a new step toward an open identification between Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and the GOP. The company's highest-ranking Democratic executive, Peter Chernin, recently departed.

The $1 million contribution this June 24 was first reported by Bloomberg and appears on the RGA's July 15 filing with the Internal Revenue Service.

The group's other seven-figure donor is the libertarian billionaire David Koch.

UPDATE: News Corp. Spokesman Jack Horner emails, "News Corporation believes in the power of free markets, and the RGA’s pro-business agenda supports our priorities at this most critical time for our economy."

Tthe giant check to the RGA dwarfs low four-figure checks from Fox's PAC to Democrats including Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer.

From Huffington Post

One more glass ceiling appears to have been broken as Long becomes the first woman to lead one of our intelligence agencies.

"Letitia A. Long is being elevated Monday to director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in a ceremony at the agency's half-built, high-tech campus in Springfield, Va.

Women represent 38 percent of total intelligence work force, according to Wendy Morigi, spokeswoman for the Director of National Intelligence. In six most prominent agencies, 27 percent of senior intelligence positions are held by women."

More here From Huffington Post

Just the formality of the swearing in, but she is confirmed.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/08/05/kagan.supreme.court/index.html?hp...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-05/kagan-is-confirmed-by-senate-as...

I'd like to wish the happy couple a long and peaceful love affair.  A love affair that continues into their elder years.

May they experience the love my parents still feel to this day as they kiss goodnight, twice, every night of their lives.  93 and 90 they are yet their love is no less than at 20.

Good luck Chelsea and Marc.

I wonder if the family values of Bill and Hillary Clinton will give pause to the right, to FOX and others. Listening to our local FOX 25 this morning, a fill-in for the off the wall winger VB, surmised that this weekend we witnessed the successful outcome of a kid raised with true family values, rather than talk.

Think about it.

Shy Chelsea moves into the White House when she's 12. She lives through the glare of the cameras, the onslaught of the right wing witch hunt of her mother and the scandal of her dad's affair. Yet, she turns out to be a wonderful woman who marries the guy she met in high school.

So, the commentator on TV wanted to give Bill and Hillary props for their undeniable family values. In comparing Chelsea's parents and Bristol Palin's parents he said something to the effect, that the "party of family values" could learn something from these two who actually practice it.

Bill and Hillary Clinton raised their daughter to be a woman that girls of every party and every religion can admire and emulate.

The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours

This is first verse of the poem by Leo Marks read at the wedding of Chelsea Clinton, a Methodist, and Marc Mezvinsky as their new lives began with the blessing of clergy from both faiths.

A press release from the family, reported in the New York Times, says Rabbi James Ponet and the Rev. William Shillady co-officiated for the Jewish groom and Methodist bride.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2010/07/chelsea-rabbi-minister-marc-wedding-clinton/1

The Taliban pounded on the door just before midnight, demanding that Aisha, 18, be punished for running away from her husband's house. Her in-laws treated her like a slave, Aisha pleaded. They beat her. If she hadn't run away, she would have died. Her judge, a local Taliban commander, was unmoved. Aisha's brother-in-law held her down while her husband pulled out a knife. First he sliced off her ears. Then he started on her nose.

This didn't happen 10 years ago, when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan. It happened last year.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2007238,00.html#ixzz0v63izry9

Thank you Richard Stengel for having the guts to hit America in it's collective gut.  His reasoning and preparation are a study in a journalistic thought process.  Click Here for his message to readers.

The idea of a Speaker Boehner scares this independent into realizing what is at stake this fall.  I don't want and the country does not need years of a Congress that does absolutely nothing.  No, I'm sorry, I misspoke.  They might actually put the country in reverse and throw out ideas their No votes could not stop.

No climate legislation.  No jobs programs.  No health care.  No nothing for those that don't have.

NO  NO NO NO NO

Politico article "Cash for Speaker"

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-07-27/former-astronaut-sally-ride

What a great woman she is promoting science and math for girls. 

Astronaut Sally Ride was the first American woman in space. Today she is on a new mission: to make science cool for kids – especially girls. How she plans to encourage students to prepare for careers in science, technology, engineering...

Listen:  thedianerehmshow.org/audio-player

Yes sirree!  He must be getting into full campaign mode now.  Not that he ever stopped.

From Huffpo

NEW YORK — ABC's "The View" has welcomed many notable guests, but none more prominent than President Barack Obama, who is scheduled to visit for Thursday's edition.

In making the announcement on Monday, executive producers Barbara Walters and Bill Geddie said this marks the first time a sitting U.S. president has visited a daytime talk show.

They said the majority of the hour will be devoted to Obama's appearance, which will touch on topics including jobs, the economy, the Gulf oil spill and family life inside the White House. It is scheduled to tape on Wednesday.

"We are so pleased and honored," Walters said.

What a novel idea!  Not sure why I always forget to put up open threads when I'm busy busy at work.  Here you go.

A pivotal spot in political history.

Don't we all feel dumb now?  Every talking head saying how every other talking head jumped the gun without doing the journalist's job of checking the facts.  The White House doing the worst in this mess by reacting to a clip on a blog post because it might have an effect on the evening Presidential ratings.

And not just talking heads.  Even this blog has a post showing the original short clip that Andrew Breitbart used to target the NAACP.  

This is the time for us all to have the conversation.  Not about race or immigration, rich or middle class, tax cuts or jobs programs, abortion or adoption.

No

This is the time for us to have a thoughtful conversation about how we as a nation wish to converse about our future as a nation.

Do we wish to continue the one minute news cycle that demands instantaneous responses thus feeding the one minute news cycle?  It has become a monster that feeds on itself.  It especially loves to feed on instant polls and un-verified writings by unknown self appointed journalists.

Filed under Sunday funnies.  The brilliant leaders of Gaza have decided to enforce lomg standing tradition banning women from smoking the hooka in public cafes.  Reason.  Their husbands may divorce them for public smoking so Hamas is really just preserving the family.

From AP via USA Today:

Gaza's Hamas rulers are banning women from smoking water pipes in cafes, claiming it violates tradition and leads to divorce.

Plainclothes security officials handed out the ban order to Gaza City cafes over the weekend.

Police spokesman Ayman Batneiji said Sunday that officers are enforcing Gazan traditions. He said husbands often divorce women seen smoking in public but offered no evidence to support that claim.

The pipes are popular with both men and women in Gaza.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-07-16/obama-ban-on-a...

Women’s organizations are crying foul at an Obama administration ban on abortion coverage in a new insurance program.

from the Daily beast Dana Goldstein

As President Barack Obama heads off to vacation in Maine, yet another interest group is furious with his administration. Feminist organizations say Obama has stepped beyond the letter and spirit of the new health-care reform law by banning abortion coverage in a new insurance program for people with pre-existing conditions.

<snip>

It is beginning to get lovely.  Little articles pop up here or there saying Mrs. Clinton should run against Obama for the 2012 nomination.  But as Mediaite said, "this is the first time I can recall seeing it in a serious publication".

Wall Street Journal op-ed by: Pete Du Pont

<snip>

And why would the Democratic Party want to do that? Because the re-election of President Obama is becoming more problematic. The latest Rasmussen Reports polls show the dramatic decline of the presidential approval index, the difference between those who "strongly approve" of Mr. Obama's performance and those who "strongly disapprove." It began at plus 25% when the new president was sworn in, and has steadily declined to minus 13%.

It isn't just the president whose poll numbers are falling fast. According to recent Harris polling, Vice President Biden viewed favorably by 26% of the public and unfavorably by 45%. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi does even worse, 20% positive to 49% negative. A June Nevada poll gave Sen. Harry Reid, the majority leader, 33% approval and 52% disapproval.

But the greatest contrast and most interesting statistic is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's ratings: 45% favorable and only 35% unfavorable.

<snip>

Meenal Vamburkar wrote and interesting piece based on Naomi Schoenbaum's piece in the New Republic concerning Elena Kagan and her gender identity or lack thereof.  Interesting reading both.

It’s almost human nature to reflect back and think, “look how far we’ve come.” In a sense, this is what The New Republic’s Naomi Schoenbaum does in her piece, “Post-Gender Justice.” Examining what being a woman means to Elena Kagan, Schoenbaum notes that Kagan does not explicitly define herself as a woman leader in the law. But while the soon-to-be-confirmed Supreme Court nominee might not be defining herself through her gender, the media has tried its best to do it for her.

Schoenbaum contrasts Kagan with those who came before her — citing that while Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg might not have had a choice, Sonia Sotomayor deliberately brought up her gender identity:

Schoenbaum's article.

An Iranian woman faces death by stoning after being convicted of adultery. Amnesty International yesterday called on the Iranian authorities to halt the imminent execution of mother-of-two Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and the hanging of another woman said to be a political activist.

Ashtiani was convicted of having an ‘illicit relationship’ with two men in May 2006 and received 99 lashes as her sentence. Despite this, she has also been convicted of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning. The 43-year-old has retracted a ‘confession’ she said was made under duress.

Appealing for help to the international community, her daughter, Farideh, 16, and son, Sajad, 20, said yesterday: ‘Please help end this nightmare and do not let it turn into a reality. Help us save our mother.’

Sign the Petition  Not that those barbarians will care what the rest of the civilized world thinks.

Me, NewHampster, thinks that the Wrong Wing, heads up their arses, supporters of big oil, big coal and everything else killing our planet;  I think they once again fooled the press and the world.  They successfully made the Copenhagen Climate Summitt into a non-event by using their skill at distraction.  They won on guns and now they're winning on doing squat about climate change. 

You know, I don't very much like Obama.  I think he is a lying, cheating, in way over his head definition of the word politician.  But if you trust Repugs to do a better job fixing our economy or world, then you have been conned as badly as the Obama Horde of 2008.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/climategate-scientists-cleared-of-all-acc...

From Glynnis MacNicol at Mediaite:

"In a blow to global warming deniers everywhere, an official review released today has cleared all the Climategate scientists from charges of dishonesty. Turns out what they were guilty of was not sharing enough.

You will recall that just ahead of last year’s big Copehenhagen Climate Conference, which was attended by many heads of state including President Obama, private emails were released to the public that together appeared to show some top scientists had fudged data to prove that global warming was taking place. Cue: Climategate. The timing of the release of the emails was considered suspicious at the time, though this did not stop a whole lot of climate change naysayers from jumping on the emails as proof that global warming was merely one big conspiracy. After today they may have to look elsewhere."

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.