Noontime News Roundup – August 1, 2011

August 1, 2011

Noontime News is a snapshot of our RSS feeds from the noon (Eastern time) hour.

Obama, Congressional Leaders Announce Deal To Avoid Default

“President Obama and Congressional leaders announced Sunday evening they’ve agreed to a major, and controversial deal to raise the national debt limit and advance major cuts to government services.”

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Michigan AG Appeals ‘Nutty’ Ruling Against State’s Affirmative Action Ban

“Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette appealed a federal court’s decision to overturn the state’s 2006 ballot initiative that banned affirmative action.

Schuette requested Friday that the full 6th Circuit panel rehear the case, after an Appellate panel ruled 2-1 earlier this month that Proposal 2 violated the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment. “The majority may not manipulate the channels of change in a manner that places unique burdens on issues of importance to racial minorities,” Judges R. Guy Cole and Martha Craig Daughtrey wrote in the majority opinion.

On Thursday, Schuette called the court’s decision “nutty” and said it “simply defies common sense and turns the 14th Amendment on its head, upside down, and inside out.”"

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Former Obama Adviser Brews A Different Tea Party

“Van Jones left his post as “green jobs czar” in 2009 amid a firestorm of criticism. Now he’s back with the “American Dream Movement,” a grass-roots organization looking to mobilize what Jones considers the silent anti-Tea Party majority.”

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GOP 2012 Presidential Candidates
Editor’s Note: There were no Republican candidates in the news. Two possibilities: 1) the debt ceiling is the only news; 2) they are all hiding so that no one asks their opinion on the debt ceiling. I vote for #2: being on the wrong side of this debate may be the kiss of death.

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Math Can Predict Insurgent Attacks, Physicist Says

“Attacks by insurgents in Afghanistan for Iraq might seem to come at random intervals. But an American physicist says he’s come up with a mathematical equation that might help war planners anticipate them.”

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Syria: 100 die in crackdown as Assad sends in his tanks

“Activists describe massacre in central city of Hama after armoured units break through barricades to crush protests”

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German security official warns of Breivik copycats

“BERLIN (Reuters) – The recent mass killing in Norway could easily serve as a blueprint for other anti-Muslim militants, one of Germany’s top security officials warned in a magazine interview Sunday.”

Good News: Blind Teens Tap Into Senses At Chemistry Camp

“For some kids, summer camp season means crafts, campfires and sunshine. For teenagers at one Northern California camp, the focus is chemistry.

At Camp Enchanted Hills, about 40 miles north of Napa, the students have something else in common beyond an interest in science: They’re all blind or visually impaired. The camp is a rare chance for the kids to compare notes on what it’s like to be blind in a sighted world.”

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16 Responses to “Noontime News Roundup – August 1, 2011”

winterbanyan Says:
August 1, 2011 at 12:03 pm
JanF Says:
August 1, 2011 at 12:06 pm
Mitt Romney did weigh in … eventually. Let me paraphrase: “I am taking a self-serving jab at a sitting president who was backed into a corner by the crazy people in my own party who don’t care if the economy crashes and grandma starves … brink … leadership … pushed … cliff … lemmings”
JanF Says:
August 1, 2011 at 12:11 pm
Here is the latest No News on the debt ceiling bill:

Reports: House To Vote First On Debt Limit Deal

The House will vote before the Senate on the debt ceiling deal, MSNBC and others report. The timing of the vote is still uncertain.

TPM looks at some problems and some silver linings.
Jim W Says:
August 1, 2011 at 12:12 pm
July heat in Washington was unprecedented

Relentless and punishing, July’s heat was unrivaled in 140 years of Washington, D.C., weather record-keeping. The July temperature averaged 84.5 degrees at Reagan National Airport — Washington’s official weather station — more than a degree above July 2010 and July 1993, which previously held the mark for hottest month. July’s heat piled onto a torrent of recent hot-weather records and attained all sorts of unenviable hot-weather milestones….

But long-term temperature trends in our region suggest man-made factors are almost certainly playing a role in the heat’s intensity.

Since the late 1800s, the average number of days per year at or above 90 has increased from 25 to 36, almost 50 percent. The average number of days per year with low temperatures at or above 75 has increased from about three to 14 in this same span. Washington closed out July with 13 such days consecutively.

The U.S. Global Change Research Program projects substantial increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme heat across the United States because of the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere….

Greenhouse gas warming and urbanization, however, have loaded the dice for more summers like the current one, and quite plausibly worse.

The MSM reports Greenhouse gas warming. BHD!!!
- winterbanyan Says:
  August 1, 2011 at 12:39 pm
  agree it’s a BHD when the MSM actually mention climate change. As if it’s real. As if it’s really happening. Wowsers. Wonder if someone took away their Kool-Aid.
addisnana Says:
August 1, 2011 at 12:13 pm
Somebody’s getting a pony ride:

My five year old granddaughter is coming to stay with me for three days before the rest of her family arrives. My boss has a six year old daughter and a couple of ponies. When I asked Addi if she would want to ride a pony, she said, “I’ve waited my whole life long for a Pony!”

Someone is very pleased, shrieking pleased at the prospect of a pony ride.

As for the rest of the news, I have no comment.
- JanF Says:
  August 1, 2011 at 12:22 pm
  That is the best news of the day.
  
  Happy Nana, Happy Addi, and PONIES!!
- winterbanyan Says:
  August 1, 2011 at 12:40 pm
  That is great news, addisnana. It made me grin ear-to-ear. Woohoo for Addi and her pony ride.
JanF Says:
August 1, 2011 at 12:25 pm
And words of wisdom (no link … you do not want to read the comments) for electing more and better Democrats:

If the zombie demons from DOOM invade my home and start threatening my family, I’m going to fight them with whatever weapons I have. If my best weapon is a butter knife, I use the butter knife. Screaming at the butter knife “DAMN YOU WHY AREN’T YOU A CHAINSAW? OR A BFG 9000?” doesn’t save my family.

So the Democratic Party is a butter knife. It’s the best weapon we’ve got to fight the zombie demons of the GOP. Don’t tell me your principles require you to wait for a better weapon.

From blue aardvark on DKos
- NCrissieB Says:
  August 1, 2011 at 12:41 pm
  As this is BPI, I can tip that 100x. But I’d get really tired doing it. So I’ll settle for just a few more tips….
- winterbanyan Says:
  August 1, 2011 at 12:42 pm
  That’s the best comment of the day, I do believe. I read another great one over on TPM, but it’s very long, and I’m not going back to hunt for it. This one beats it hands-down anyway.
  
  The other comment suggested that if people wanted more progressive government, they needed to get away from their poison keyboards and register voters. Ya think?
winterbanyan Says:
August 1, 2011 at 12:51 pm
and from bdr1796 at TPM:

Because it was Obama! He was the enemy all along, It was HIM, that half white, self made, Lily Ledbetter passing, 3.5 million job saving, Bin Laden killing, don’t ask don’t tell repealin’ Obama, he was to blame!
Jim W Says:
August 1, 2011 at 2:41 pm
Good news. This months treasury payment is in the bank account.
- winterbanyan Says:
  August 1, 2011 at 3:06 pm
  that’s great news, Jim.
winterbanyan Says:
August 1, 2011 at 3:16 pm
http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/01/markets/debt_ceiling_treasury_bills/

Check this out for cost to taxpayers over this debt ceiling mess.
- Jim W Says:
  August 1, 2011 at 4:06 pm
  Thanks for the link.
  
  The important quote about the trust that investors have in the strength of Treasuries.
  
  While investors demanded higher interest rates at Monday’s auctions, there was still plenty of demand. Treasury received more than 4.5 bids for every dollar’s worth of T-bills it auctioned, only slightly below recent auction activity.