The Hollywood Liberal

Judge allows prison to drug Arizona shooting suspect as details emerge on fragile mental state

SAN DIEGO — The man accused in the Arizona shooting rampage kept himself awake for 50 hours straight after an appeals court stopped forced medication. He walked in circles until he developed sores and then declined antibiotics to treat an infected foot. Already thin, he stopped eating and shed nine pounds.

U.S. District Judge Larry Burns described Jared Lee Loughner’s behavior to explain his refusal to overrule prison doctors who decided to resume forced medication July 18. The drugging, he said, “seems entirely appropriate and reasonable to me.”

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IMF’s Lagarde: View is growing that policymakers can’t make tough choices

JACKSON, Wyo. — The world economic recovery is in new peril of derailing, the head of the International Monetary Fund said Saturday as she called on leaders in the United States and Europe to take aggressive and immediate action to address new cracks appearing in the global economy.

The global economy is in a “dangerous new phase,” said Christine Lagarde, the IMF managing director, speaking at a conference of top central bankers and economists. The world is endangered by “a growing sense that policymakers do not have the conviction, or simply are not willing, to take the decisions that are needed.”

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Hurricane Irene: FEMA, federal agencies ramp up

Updated 9:57 p.m. ET

With Hurricane Irene pummeling the East Coast on Saturday, at least nine states are seeking federal disaster assistance in anticipation of major flooding and wind damage.

President Obama has signed emergency declarations for New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, Rhode Island and New Hampshire after declaring similar emergencies in North Carolina and Puerto Rico earlier in the week.

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Don’t Panic, Mitt Romney!
Ross Douthat, New York Times
“Right now,” David Brooks writes today, in the wake of Rick Perry’s surge to the front of the G.O.P. field, “the Romney camp is passively hoping [Perry] implodes. That seems unlikely … Sooner or later, Romney is going to have to prove his own toughness by taking Perry on directly.”Ed Kilgore agrees: “At some point, and some time soon, Mitt Romney is going to have to begin making not only a more positive case for his candidacy but a comparative case by way of attacking his rivals … Mitt cannot safely continue to…

New Election Laws Limit Minority Voting Rights
Rep. John Lewis, NYT
AS we celebrate the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, we reflect on the life and legacy of this great man. But recent legislation on voting reminds us that there is still work to do. Since January, a majority of state legislatures have passed or considered election-law changes that, taken together, constitute the most concerted effort to restrict the right to vote since before the Voting Rights Act of 1965.Growing up as the son of an Alabama sharecropper, I experienced Jim Crow firsthand. It was enforced by the slander of “separate but equal,” willful blindness to acts of…

Our Oil-Constrained Future
Kevin Drum, Mother Jones
I've talked a few times about the possibility that world growth is now constrained by oil production. The basic story is simple: As long as there's spare oil-production capacity, increasing demand caused by economic growth produces only a steady, manageable increase in oil prices. But oil production is now close to its maximum and can't be easily or quickly expanded. When the global economy grows enough that demand starts to bump up against this ceiling, oil prices don't rise slowly and steadily; rather, they spike suddenly, causing a recession, which in turn reduces oil…

Keep Your Health Plan? Don’t Count On It
Byron York, DC Examiner
In June 2009, as he fought to pass the Democrats' national health care bill, President Obama made a clear, unequivocal pledge. “No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people,” Obama said. “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.”Spoken with great confidence, Obama's words were meant to reassure, and it's possible many Americans believed them. But at the…

Late Late Night FDL: Muppet Show Theme Song
OK Go and The Muppets — Muppet Show Theme Song. h/t Watertiger

OK Go and The Muppets — Muppet Show Theme Song.

Grab your popcorn, put your feet up on the coffee table, and try to keep the spitballs off the screen please.  This is Late Late Night FireDogLake, where off topic is the topic … so dive in.  What’s on your mind?

h/t Watertiger

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The World’s Most Powerful Gay Man
The media ignore the fact that new Apple CEO Tim Cook is gay; the ratings of both the Republican and Democratic parties decline; and the consequences of the defeat of Gadhafi’s regime are still up in the air. These discoveries and more, below. On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that have found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies. The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top. Don’t Ignore Tim Cook’s sexuality Tim Cook is now the most powerful gay man in the world. This is newsworthy, no? But you won’t find it reported in any legacy/mainstream outlet. Americans Want More Pressure on Students, the Chinese Want Less With U.S. students underperforming in international tests, it may not be surprising that more than six-in-ten (64 percent) Americans say that parents do not put enough pressure on their children to do well in school. In sharp contrast, about two-thirds (68 percent) of the Chinese public take just the opposite position in saying that parents in their country, with its surging economy, put too much pressure on their children to succeed academically. Obama Leadership Image Takes a Hit, GOP Ratings Decline The public is profoundly discontented with conditions in the country, its government, political leadership and several of its major institutions. Steve Jobs and America Jon Taplin lists his take-aways from Steve Jobs’ departure from Apple. Too Soon to Declare Victory Moammar Gadhafi’s whereabouts are still unknown, and the defeat of his regime may be near at hand. But the consequences of that defeat remain uncertain. The secret the politicians and media won’t tell you: Government is legally required to create jobs The debate about the debt ceiling should have been a conversation about how to create jobs. It is time for progressives to remind the government that it has a legal duty to create jobs, and must act immediately—if not through Congress, then through the Federal Reserve. Number of women working in TV falls The number of women working as writers and directors on prime-time broadcast programs took a big tumble in the 2010-11 season, a new study reports—part of an overall decline in women’s employment as actresses and in key creative jobs behind the camera. Is Sleep Brain Defragmentation? After a period of heavy use, hard disks tend to get “fragmented.” Data get written all over random parts of the disk, and it gets inefficient to keep track of it all. Another ‘not gay’ legislator pays a young man for a good time Indiana State Rep. Phil Hinkle admitted Tuesday that he paid a young man $80 to have a good time. But Hinkle insisted he isn’t gay and doesn’t know why he did it. Russian court bans Mickey Mouse as Christ painting A court in central Russia has ruled that a painting of the Sermon on the Mount that features Mickey Mouse instead of Jesus Christ is extremist, the regional prosecutor’s office said Friday.

The media ignore the fact that new Apple CEO Tim Cook is gay; the ratings of both the Republican and Democratic parties decline; and the consequences of the defeat of Gadhafi’s regime are still up in the air. These discoveries and more, below.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that have found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top.

Don’t Ignore Tim Cook’s sexuality
Tim Cook is now the most powerful gay man in the world. This is newsworthy, no? But you won’t find it reported in any legacy/mainstream outlet.

Americans Want More Pressure on Students, the Chinese Want Less
With U.S. students underperforming in international tests, it may not be surprising that more than six-in-ten (64 percent) Americans say that parents do not put enough pressure on their children to do well in school. In sharp contrast, about two-thirds (68 percent) of the Chinese public take just the opposite position in saying that parents in their country, with its surging economy, put too much pressure on their children to succeed academically.

Obama Leadership Image Takes a Hit, GOP Ratings Decline
The public is profoundly discontented with conditions in the country, its government, political leadership and several of its major institutions.

Steve Jobs and America
Jon Taplin lists his take-aways from Steve Jobs’ departure from Apple.

Too Soon to Declare Victory
Moammar Gadhafi’s whereabouts are still unknown, and the defeat of his regime may be near at hand. But the consequences of that defeat remain uncertain.

The secret the politicians and media won’t tell you: Government is legally required to create jobs
The debate about the debt ceiling should have been a conversation about how to create jobs. It is time for progressives to remind the government that it has a legal duty to create jobs, and must act immediately—if not through Congress, then through the Federal Reserve.

Number of women working in TV falls
The number of women working as writers and directors on prime-time broadcast programs took a big tumble in the 2010-11 season, a new study reports—part of an overall decline in women’s employment as actresses and in key creative jobs behind the camera.

Is Sleep Brain Defragmentation?
After a period of heavy use, hard disks tend to get “fragmented.” Data get written all over random parts of the disk, and it gets inefficient to keep track of it all.

Another ‘not gay’ legislator pays a young man for a good time
Indiana State Rep. Phil Hinkle admitted Tuesday that he paid a young man $80 to have a good time. But Hinkle insisted he isn’t gay and doesn’t know why he did it.

Russian court bans Mickey Mouse as Christ painting
A court in central Russia has ruled that a painting of the Sermon on the Mount that features Mickey Mouse instead of Jesus Christ is extremist, the regional prosecutor’s office said Friday.

Related Entries

• August 23, 2011 Amnesty for the Indefensible
• August 22, 2011 A Look at the ‘Bush-Obama’ Presidency

Chris Weigant: King’s Eloquence Goes Far Beyond “I Have A Dream”
The best-known parts of “I Have A Dream” have entered into a sort of comfortable familiarity, which allows everyone to view them without being challenged by the more pointed things Dr. King had to say that day.

Laura Mola: Why Not Health First
Lately, both supporters and detractors can’t help but poke President Obama on his accomplishments and purported failures, insisting he should have attacked the job situation…

Obama Declares Emergency For New York
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has declared an emergency for New York state in anticipation of Hurricane Irene, which has New York City in its…

Red State Falsely Claims NLRB Lacks Authority To Issue Rule On Labor Notification

An August 25 Red State post falsely claimed the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) “skirt[ed] Congress” by issuing a recent rule requiring employers to notify employees of their labor rights. In fact, the NLRB has legal authority to issue rules which regulate employers under the National Labor Relations Act.

Red State Claims NLRB “Skirting Congress” By Issuing Rule On Labor Rights Notification Practices

Red State: NLRB “Skirting Congress [By] Requir[ing] All Employers Covered by the National Labor Relations Act To Post Union Notices In the Workplace.” An August 25 Red State post claimed:

Barack Obama’s union appointees at the National Labor Relations Board are continuing their assault on America’s job creators with yet another attempt at doing union bosses’ bidding by skirting Congress to require all employers covered by the National Labor Relations Act to post union notices in the workplace to advise employees of their ability to unionize their company. [Red State, 8/25/11]

However The NLRB Has Legal Authority To Independently Issue Rules Supporting The Labor Relations Act

National Labor Relations Act (NLRA): The NLRB Can “Make, Amend, And Rescind” Rules And Regulations In Order To Carry Out The Act. Section 6 of the NLRA, grants the NLRB authority to issue rules “to carry out the provisions of this Act. From the NLRA:

The Board shall have authority from time to time to make, amend, and rescind, in the manner prescribed by the Administrative Procedure Act, such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act. [National Labor Relations Act, nlrb.gov, accessed 8/26/11]

Additionally, Jurisprudence Supports The NLRB’s Rule Making Ability

Chevron U.S.A., Inc. V NRDC: “The Power Of An Administrative Agency … Necessarily Requires … The Making Of Rules.” In the majority opinion delivered by Associate Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens in the 1984 case Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., the court cited a previous case to point out that “If Congress has explicitly left a gap for the agency to fill, there is an express delegation … of authority to the agency to elucidate a specific provision of the statute by regulation.” Further, the court ruled that “[t]he power of an administrative agency to administer a congressionally created … program necessarily requires the formulation of policy and the making of rules to fill any gap left, implicitly or explicitly, by Congress.” [Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., accessed 8/26/11 via Cornell University Law School]

Report: Millions Donated To Islamophobic Groups Since 2001
Seven foundations and wealthy donors gave Islamophobic groups $42.6M from 2001 through 2009, according to a new report from the Center for American Progress.

Feds Reportedly Capture Former Marine and Oath Keeper After Manhunt
Federal officials have reportedly captured former U.S. Marine and Oath Keeper Charles Dyer in Texas, following a manhunt after Dyer skipped a court appearance for a rape charge that he believed was concocted as part of a government conspiracy against him.

A Day in the Life of a GOP Congressman

5 Reasons Progressives Should Treat Ron Paul with Extreme Caution — ‘Cuddly’ Libertarian Has Some Very Dark Politics
He’s anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-black, anti-senior-citizen, anti-equality and anti-education, and that’s just the start.

How Do We Stop the Relentless Expansion of the American Empire? First, Uncover the Truth About It
AlterNet has dedicated some serious editorial muscle to do investigative reporting on US military operations around the globe — can you help?

Whose Economy Is This, Obama’s or the Republicans’?
A question. Who bears the blame for a depressed economy when the government’s actions are shaped more by the views of the opposition party than the president’s own policy preferences? It seems to me that as the 2012 election gets…

Anarchy In The UK… But Could It Hit The US?
Only a few weeks back, British columnists were jestingly describing the UK Parliament’s uproarious reaction to “Murdoch-gate” as “British Spring.” Newspaper articles were filled with playful puns on Arabic names, along with a mirthful contrast between the scale of the…