The Hollywood Liberal

Sunday Talking Heads: July 24, 2011
Surprise! We have the debt ceiling looming, some bipartisaniness and a dash of equal marriage. Stop back for FDL Book Salon, The Illusion of Free Markets, and Monday’s movie, Florent “Queen Of The Meat Market.”

Surprise!  We have the debt ceiling looming, some bipartisaniness and a dash of equal marriage.

Stop back for FDL Book Salon, The Illusion of Free Markets, and Monday’s movie, Florent  “Queen Of The Meat Market.”

This lovely video is from Edger’s diary, so go there to comment.

And now a word from our Scarecrow:

Interesting: no one from the nominal Republican leadership, and no one who can represent liberals/progressives, but there are several conservatives and Tea Zombies.

So the negotiations must be between the White House and the Tea-GOP Zombies, and the only nominal Dems we’re allowed to hear are those Pod people likely to be 100% loyal to the White House.

I guess the Democratic Party just disappeared last week.  Do they care?  Will anyone miss them?

Also missing: economists and public policy advocates who might say this is all nuts; budget experts and defenders of public programs that are being slashed every day in the House Committees while no one notices — defenders of the forgotten programs that get lumped together in the “$1.5 to $3 trillion or so in discretionary spending,” as though it were just some extra money you might have sitting around to go to the movies.  Just one example:  All climate research and regulation is being defunded, while most of the country is baking.

No one to represent the jobless, the homeless, the uninsured, the record number of children in poverty or any of the millions of America’s whose real crises are ignored by the most irresponsible Congress and White House in my lifetime.  There are not enough rotten tomatoes . . .

And Teddy remarks, in Teddy style: “Oh, those pesky starving millions in the Horn of Africa.  How dare they nudge into our Potomac drama? …with their dire prediction of what our future will look like.”

Hot enough for you?

Washington Journal: 7:45am – Jennifer Rubin (Wash. Post) & Jim Gerstein (Dem. Pollster) on Politics.  8:30am – J.J. Messner (Fund for Peace Senior Associate) on Failed States.  9:15am – Jon Jarvis (National Park Service Director) on State of Nat’l Parks.

ABC’s This Week: Debt Ceiling – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.  Bipartisanship – Former Senate leaders Trent Lott (R-MS) and Tom Daschle (D-SD).  Equal Marriage – Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I-NYC) and then some.  Roundtable: George Will, Arianna Huffingtont, Charlie Gasparino, Alice Rivlin.  Ends with ABC News correspondent Lama Hasan on the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa.

CBS’ Face the Nation: Debt Ceiling – White House Chief of Staff William Daley, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin  (D-IL), Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ), and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA).

CNN’s State of the Union: Debt Ceiling – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Then, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Rep. Tom Price (R-GA).  Horse Race – Tim Pawlenty.

Chris Matthews: The Anatomy Of A 2012 Obama Reelection Plan. Can Obama Run On Hope And Still Look Credible?

Fareed Zakaria – GPS: Historian David McCullough.  Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan with Anne-Marie Slaughter and Gideon Rose. And more.

Fox News Sunday: Debt Ceiling – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Then, Tea-GOP freshmen Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL). Roundtable: Brit Hume, A. B. Stoddard, Bill Kristol, Juan Williams.

NBC’s Meet the Press: Debt Ceiling – White House Chief of Staff William Daley. Sen.Tom Coburn (R- OK). Roundtable: Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE);  Tea party freshman Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL); Mayor of Newark, Cory Booker (D); Doris Kearns Goodwin; Andrea Mitchell.

Newsmakers: Rep. John Larson (D-CT) told Newsmakers that he would prefer Congress “pass a clean debt ceiling” without any other proposal or policy measure attached.  He blamed Republicans for “holding hostage the debt ceiling and the nation’s economy.” …

Q & A: Erik Larson, author of a new historical narrative detailing with the life of William E. Dodd when he became America’s first ambassador to Adolf Hitler’s Germany in Berlin during 1933. The story follows Dodd and his family, including daughter Martha, as they interact with Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Goring and other top level members of the Third Reich during the years leading up to World War II. …

Religion & Ethics.

60 Minutes: Resurrecting Eden – In Southern Iraq where many biblical scholars place the Garden of Eden, Scott Pelley finds a water world where the “Marsh Arabs” are making a comeback after Saddam nearly destroyed the “cradle of civilization.” Mitch Landrieu – The New Orleans mayor talks to Byron Pitts about the city he loves and his efforts to heal wounds it still suffers from corruption and Hurricane Katrina. The “Sharkman” – Anderson Cooper dives unprotected with great white sharks and the South African who’s spent more time up close with the ocean’s most feared predator than anyone else.

To The Contrary: Guest Host: Cokie Roberts. Topics: Should birth control should be free to women; Senators’ efforts to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act as New York becomes the largest state to legalize gay marriage; and Former Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy’s transition from the corporate world to nonprofit work. Panelists: Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC); Genevieve Wood; Judge and Debra Carnahan; Nicole Kurokawa Neily.

Univision’s Al Punto: Oscar Alvarez, Minister of Public Security of Honduras; Sen. Charles Schumer, (D-NY); Santiago Creel, Former Interior Minister of Mexico and Presidential Hopeful (PAN); Janet Murguia, President and CEO, NCLR; and Isabel Allende, Chilean Novelist.

Virtually Speaking: Chicago Dyke and Jay Ackroyd consider developments of the week, highlighting issues neglected or misrepresented on the Sunday morning broadcasts of traditional media.  9pm ET.

C-SPAN’s Book TV.

FDL’s Book Salon: The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order. “It is widely believed today that the free market is the best mechanism ever invented to efficiently allocate resources in society. Just as fundamental as faith in the free market is the belief that government has a legitimate and competent role in policing and the punishment arena.”   Chat with Bernard E. Harcourt about his new book. Hosted by George Grantham, 5pm ET.

FDL Movie Night Monday: Florent  “Queen Of The Meat Market.”
With Director / Producer / Cinematographer David Sigal, Florent Morellet and Lisa Derrick. “Let Julianne Moore, Isaac Mizrahi, Michael Musto and other famous (and infamous) faces take you on a fantastic voyage to New York City’s legendary Florent diner.” 8pm ET.

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Late Late Night FDL: Ready, Woolen and Able
Ready, Woolen and Able featuring Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog. This Warner Bros. Pictures Inc. Merrie Melodies cartoon was released on July 30, 1960.

Ready, Woolen and Able featuring Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog.  This Warner Bros. Pictures Inc. Merrie Melodies cartoon was released on July 30, 1960.

Directed by Chuck Jones.  Story by Michael Maltese.  Animation by Ken Harris, Richard Thompson, and Ben Washam.  Backgrounds by Philip DeGuard.  Layouts by Maurice Noble.  Film Editing by Treg Brown.  Voices by Mel Blanc (Ralph Wolf; Sam Sheepdog).  Original Music by Milt Franklyn.

Grab your popcorn, put your feet up on the seatback in front of ya, and aim your spitballs at the ushers please. This is Late Late Night FireDogLake, where off topic is the topic … so dive in. What’s on your mind?

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Abbie Hoffman Was Here
Hoffman famously said, “You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.” This was in 1989, when he was just 52, the same year that he killed himself, making everyone wonder if freedom wasn’t really just another word for nothing left to lose.

Hoffman famously said, “You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.” This was in 1989, when he was just 52, the same year that he killed himself, making everyone wonder if freedom wasn’t really just another word for nothing left to lose.

Related Entries

• July 23, 2011 Bernie Sanders, a Violin and the Disappearing Middle Class
• July 22, 2011 Pentagon Ready to End ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

Murdoch’s Giuliani Connection
Monday, ahead of Rupert Murdoch’s inquiry by the British Parliament, former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani appeared on CNN to defend his beleaguered friend against accusations of knowledge of his employees’ hacking and bribing offenses. The men’s relationship goes back at least 15 years, when Giuliani gave Murdoch one of New York City’s five public-access channels to launch Fox News Channel. As the article below shows, the sordid, often concealed Murdoch-Giuliani partnership is exemplary of the kind of societal destruction that becomes possible when public officials merge their interests and power with private wealth, and confirms the urgent need to write and enact laws that prevent such an occurrence. —ARK The Nation Institute in conjunction with The Daily Beast: Let’s start in 1996, three years after Murdoch’s New York Post helped make Giuliani mayor with the narrowest win in modern city history. That year, Rupert and Ailes, who’d actually managed Rudy’s unsuccessful mayoral run in 1989, were launching Fox Cable News and they had one rather daunting problem: Time Warner controlled the prime NYC cable franchise, with 1.2 million viewers, including virtually all of Manhattan, where every advertiser who might buy a spot lived or worked. And Time Warner refused to give Fox a channel for its new venture. In those days, Time Warner only had space for 77 channels on the dial, and 30 applicants had lined up before Fox. Richard Aurelio, who ran the NYC cable system for Time Warner, recalls now that he assured Ailes that in a year or so, they would “get more capacity and put you on.” But, says Aurelio, now long retired at age 83, “Murdoch was furious.” A former deputy mayor under John Lindsay, Aurelio says he’d “never seen such a display of raw political power,” branding it “ferocious.” Records revealed that after Murdoch and Giuliani talked directly about the matter on Oct. 1, their aides had 25 conversations and two meetings in the space of a few weeks. A deputy mayor instantly warned Time Warner about the possibility that their franchise, granted by the city every 15 years, might not be renewed and volunteered to fly anywhere in the country to meet with a Time Warner executive above Aurelio. When Time Warner wouldn’t budge, Giuliani came up with an extraordinary remedy. The city controlled five public-access channels, written into law as alternatives to commercial television, and the mayor decided to give one of them to Fox. In fact, presumably to make it look like this wasn’t something he would just do for Murdoch, he offered another to Mike Bloomberg’s then fledgling TV network. The Bloomberg News channel actually had its debut one night before a federal judge could stop the deal, but soon the courts blocked this transparently extralegal adventure. Read more

Monday, ahead of Rupert Murdoch’s inquiry by the British Parliament, former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani appeared on CNN to defend his beleaguered friend against accusations of knowledge of his employees’ hacking and bribing offenses.

The men’s relationship goes back at least 15 years, when Giuliani gave Murdoch one of New York City’s five public-access channels to launch Fox News Channel. As the article below shows, the sordid, often concealed Murdoch-Giuliani partnership is exemplary of the kind of societal destruction that becomes possible when public officials merge their interests and power with private wealth, and confirms the urgent need to write and enact laws that prevent such an occurrence. —ARK

The Nation Institute in conjunction with The Daily Beast:

Let’s start in 1996, three years after Murdoch’s New York Post helped make Giuliani mayor with the narrowest win in modern city history. That year, Rupert and Ailes, who’d actually managed Rudy’s unsuccessful mayoral run in 1989, were launching Fox Cable News and they had one rather daunting problem: Time Warner controlled the prime NYC cable franchise, with 1.2 million viewers, including virtually all of Manhattan, where every advertiser who might buy a spot lived or worked. And Time Warner refused to give Fox a channel for its new venture. In those days, Time Warner only had space for 77 channels on the dial, and 30 applicants had lined up before Fox. Richard Aurelio, who ran the NYC cable system for Time Warner, recalls now that he assured Ailes that in a year or so, they would “get more capacity and put you on.” But, says Aurelio, now long retired at age 83, “Murdoch was furious.” A former deputy mayor under John Lindsay, Aurelio says he’d “never seen such a display of raw political power,” branding it “ferocious.”

Records revealed that after Murdoch and Giuliani talked directly about the matter on Oct. 1, their aides had 25 conversations and two meetings in the space of a few weeks. A deputy mayor instantly warned Time Warner about the possibility that their franchise, granted by the city every 15 years, might not be renewed and volunteered to fly anywhere in the country to meet with a Time Warner executive above Aurelio. When Time Warner wouldn’t budge, Giuliani came up with an extraordinary remedy. The city controlled five public-access channels, written into law as alternatives to commercial television, and the mayor decided to give one of them to Fox. In fact, presumably to make it look like this wasn’t something he would just do for Murdoch, he offered another to Mike Bloomberg’s then fledgling TV network. The Bloomberg News channel actually had its debut one night before a federal judge could stop the deal, but soon the courts blocked this transparently extralegal adventure.

Read more

Related Entries

• July 23, 2011 Bernie Sanders, a Violin and the Disappearing Middle Class
• July 22, 2011 Pentagon Ready to End ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

Boehner Set To Call Obama’s Bluff In Push For Short-Term Debt Ceiling Deal
WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is set to call the Democratic Party’s bluff on the debt ceiling. The Ohio Republican, in a briefing…

Debt Talks Break Up After 50 Minutes
WASHINGTON — A tense White House meeting on the expiring debt limit broke up after less than an hour today, with the president and leaders…

Tanya M. Acker: It Takes Strength to Compromise — and It Costs Less Too
Openness to compromise often allows “real world” problem solvers to avoid this ceaseless spiral. Rare is the situation where everyone ends up perfectly happy, but sometimes eating a little less pie is better than starving.

Presented By:

Colbert On Voter ID Laws: Why Not Let Only GOP Lawmakers Vote? (VIDEO)
Stephen Colbert has only one explanation why politicians he doesn’t vote for are elected: voter fraud! Colbert on Wednesday addressed the rise of restrictive voter ID laws around the country, saying they ensure only the right people vote. Take New…

Endangered Species
Or should be. Happle Tea – Same As It Ever Was.

Debt Talks Break Down Again
“Congressional talks dissolved in recrimination again Saturday night, as the latest proposal for cutting the deficit and raising the government’s debt limit hit a wall with 10 days left before the U.S. begins defaulting on its obligations,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), hosted the leaders of both parties in his conference room at 5:30 p.m. in an attempt to resolve the impasse. The leaders were expected to issue a joint statement following the meeting, in part to reassure the markets. But no such statement was issued, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) instead released a bleak statement of his own.”

The Washington Post notes that after the meeting, Reid issued a statement saying he was “deeply disappointed in the status of negotiations” and urging Republicans “to reconsider their intransigence.”

Said Reid: “Their unwillingness to compromise is pushing us to the brink of a default on the full faith and credit of the United States. We have run out of time for politics. Now is the time for cooperation.”

The High Price of Nukes
As President Obama and Republicans in Congress go down to the wire in negotiations over a package of budget cuts that would clear the way for raising the debt ceiling, we shouldn’t lose sight of one key source of reductions:…

Prevention as the Best Defense
President Obama and key members of Congress have finally acknowledged that any deal on the deficit must include reductions in Pentagon spending. The figures being discussed are far too small, but the principle has been accepted. But the underlying question…

Peer Pressure: House of Lords Tells Climate Denier Monckton to ?Cease and Desist? Claim He?s a Member
Clerk of parliaments publishes letter on Lords’ site saying peer is not and has ‘never been a member of the House of Lords’ The UK Guardian reports, “Climate skeptic Lord Monckton told he’s not member of House of Lords“: The House of Lords has taken the unprecedented step of publishing a “cease and desist” letter […]

Clerk of parliaments publishes letter on Lords’ site saying peer is not and has ‘never been a member of the House of Lords’

The UK Guardian reports, “Climate skeptic Lord Monckton told he’s not member of House of Lords“:

The House of Lords has taken the unprecedented step of publishing a “cease and desist” letter on its website demanding that Lord Christopher Monckton, a prominent climate skeptic and the UK Independence party’s head of research, should stop claiming to be a member of the upper house.

The move follows a testy interview given by Monckton to an Australian radio station earlier this month in which he repeated his long-stated belief that he is a member of the House of Lords.

When asked by ABC Sydney’s Adam Spencer if he was a member, he said: “Yes, but without the right to sit or vote … [The Lords] have not yet repealed by act of parliament the letters patent creating the peerage and until they do I am a member of the house, as my passport records. It says I am the Right Honourable Viscount Monckton of Brenchley. So get used to it.”

The letter, sent by David Beamish, clerk of the parliaments, to Monckton last Friday and now published on the Lords’ website, states: “You are not and have never been a member of the House of Lords. Your assertion that you are a member, but without the right to sit or vote, is a contradiction in terms. No one denies that you are, by virtue of your letters patent, a peer. That is an entirely separate issue to membership of the House. This is borne out by the recent judgement in Baron Mereworth v Ministry of Justice (Crown Office).”

The letter from Beamish to Monckton continues: “I must therefore again ask that you desist from claiming to be a member of the House of Lords, either directly or by implication, and also that you desist from claiming to be a member ‘without the right to sit or vote’. I am publishing this letter on the parliamentary website so that anybody who wishes to check whether you are a member of the House of Lords can view this official confirmation that you are not.”

… Monckton is currently on a lecture tour of Australia discussing climate change. The tour has been dogged by venue cancellations after he referred to the Australian government’s former climate advisor Prof Ross Garnaut as a fascist during a recent lecture in Los Angeles. Footage of the lecture also showed Monckton displaying a swastika next to one of Garnaut’s quotes.

Monckton is one of the most notorious disinformers in the world.  This is just one more lie he has been pushing.

Related Posts:

• Monckton Myths: A one-stop-shop for debunking The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley
• TVMOB hate speech shocker: Lord Monckton repeats and expands on his charge that those who embrace climate science are “Hitler youth” and fascists.
• Lord Monckton Promotes Hate Speech and Disinformation

New Study Suggests Food Deserts Require More Than Fresh Produce
By Matthew Cameron After I wrote yesterday about a 2004 study showing that supermarket availability leads to greater fruit consumption among low-income individuals, my ThinkProgress comrade Amanda Beadle pointed out that a similar report was just released earlier this month. Its findings paint a more complicated picture of the “food desert” problem than did those […]

By Matthew Cameron

After I wrote yesterday about a 2004 study showing that supermarket availability leads to greater fruit consumption among low-income individuals, my ThinkProgress comrade Amanda Beadle pointed out that a similar report was just released earlier this month. Its findings paint a more complicated picture of the “food desert” problem than did those of the Richards and Rose study I cited previously:

Fast food consumption was related to fast food availability among low-income respondents, particularly within 1.00 to 2.99 km of home among men (coefficient, 0.34; 95% confidence interval, 0.16-0.51). Greater supermarket availability was generally unrelated to diet quality and fruit and vegetable intake, and relationships between grocery store availability and diet outcomes were mixed.

This conclusion is important for a number of reasons. First, the study followed individuals throughout a 15-year period rather than taking a snapshot of their conditions at a specific point in their lives. This enabled researchers to compile a significant pool of data points and control for numerous confounding variables that could impact the progression of individual health over time.

Furthermore, the portion of the study dealing with supermarket availability used a more comprehensive measurement of diet quality than did the Richards and Rose study. The system is known as the Diet Quality Index, and it measures nutritional health based on individuals’ success in meeting the daily recommended intake of certain food groups such as fruits and vegetables.

That is crucial because it means that while the report’s findings don’t necessarily contradict the Richards and Rose study, they significantly detract from the argument that expanding access to supermarkets is key to improving low-income dietary habits. Individuals who live close to supermarkets might consume more fruits on net than they would otherwise, but this might not be enough to significantly improve their health if they still aren’t meeting the daily recommended intake of fruits. Additionally, fruits might not be the only thing people consume in greater quantities when they live near supermarkets — chips, soft drinks and dessert items also might find their way into individuals’ shopping carts.

Finally, the report looks at the related issue of fast food availability among low-income individuals. It concludes that living near certain fast food establishments does, in fact, increase fast food consumption among low-income men. This further suggests that locating supermarkets in low-income neighborhoods might not be enough to improve overall health outcomes if individuals still live in close proximity to unhealthy fast-food restaurants.

Union drive at IKEA plant in US takes aim at Swedish furniture giant’s worker-friendly rep

RICHMOND, Va. — The union attempting to represent workers at IKEA’s only U.S. plant is challenging the Swedish furniture giant’s vaunted corporate ethos, accusing the retailer of paying its American workers low wages and tolerating unsafe working conditions.

Approximately 320 workers at IKEA’s Swedwood Danville plant will vote Wednesday whether to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

The machinists union has put IKEA’s reputation as a labor- and environment-friendly Swedish employer at the forefront of its organizing drive as it attempts to organize workers at the company’s subsidiary, Swedwood. They assemble the sleek, low-cost bookshelves and coffee tables that the big-box retailer sells in its distinctive, cheery, blue-and-yellow stores.

Read full article >>

Oregon’s Rep. Wu faces sex allegation

Rep. David Wu spoke with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Saturday about his future after reports in his hometown newspaper that a young woman called the congressman’s office this spring complaining of what was described as an “unwanted sexual encounter.”

The woman, whom the Portland Oregonian did not name, reportedly left a distraught voicemail accusing Wu (D-Ore.) of aggressive sexual behavior.

The Oregonian, citing anonymous sources in the congressman’s office, said Wu has acknowledged a sexual encounter with the woman but said that it was consensual. The congressman separated from his wife in 2009 and has been seeking a divorce.

Read full article >>

Huntsman shifts campaign strategy to take on GOP rivals, Obama

Jon M. Huntsman Jr. is overhauling his struggling presidential campaign, aides said, with plans to strike a more aggressive tone against his GOP rivals and President Obama, step up appearances in key states and emphasize his conservatism.

That represents a clear shift in strategy for the former Utah governor, who has presented himself as a candidate eager to follow a more civil style of campaigning and appeal to voters in both parties.

Since Huntsman entered the race with great fanfare last month, he has not converted initial excitement about his candidacy into support, either in polls or among major Republican officials.

Read full article >>

Three GOP leaders with three ideas on the debt

For Republicans, the debt talks have shown three leaders calling three different plays, each trying to push and pull congressional Republicans in his direction. So far, all three have failed to find a plan that all of them can support.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared on June 19 that there wasn’t enough time to approve any of the plans to raise the government’s debt ceiling by the Aug. 2 deadline. He proposed a short-term hike to buy more time.

Two days later, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) declared short-term deals a non-starter and said “there are no votes” for any grand bargain including higher tax revenue.

Read full article >>

The Next Debt Crisis Could Come from Paris
Mark Deen, Business Week
Buy a link now!By Mark Deen President Nicolas Sarkozy has been a key player in shaping Europe’s response to the debt crisis that has so far infected Greece, Ireland, and Portugal. Yet the most important thing he can do to shore up the euro may be to deal with the mounting economic problems in his own country. “On our current trajectory, we’re driving straight into the wall,” says Jacques Mistral, an economist at the Paris-based IFRI think tank and member of the French prime minister’s council of economic advisers….

Is Boehner the “Adult in the Room”?
Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post

The GOP Does Not Know How to Say Yes
Andrew Leonard, Salon
A Friday afternoon that will live in infamy? Just hours after the markets closed in the United States, Speaker of the House John Boehner released a statement announcing that he was abandoning negotiations on a debt ceiling deal with President Obama. The White House, he wrote, “is simply not serious about ending the spending binge that is destroying jobs and endangering our children's future.”The timing was significant. If Boehner had bailed on negotiations while markets were open, the Dow would have plummeted — and with good reason. There are very few people outside of the…