Later On

Kate Sheppard in the Washington Independent:

Earlier this year, when it seemed plausible that Congress would address climate change in 2009, energy industry representatives were hyping the need for legislation to fend off regulation from the Environmental Protection Agency. When the EPA first declared carbon dioxide a threat to humankind in April – the necessary first step before they could begin regulating the greenhouse gas – industry groups were quick with the condemnations of EPA action.

“A more potent Anti-Stimulus Package would be difficult to imagine,” wrote Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow Marlo Lewis. The American Petroleum Institute called the motion on regulation “an endangerment to the American economy and to every American family.”

But now Congress doesn’t seem likely to pass a new law regulating planet-warming emissions this year. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid indicated to reporters this week that a climate bill could wait until 2010. And with the delay, attention is turning once again to what the EPA will do to regulated greenhouse gases in the absence of a new law.

But instead of pitching a fit, the same anti-environmental groups that once decried EPA regulation are now welcoming it.

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When shoes (such as the MBT shoes) are made only in “Medium” width, what is a wide-footed woman to do? Ans: check out the men’s shoes.

“Medium” in men’s shoes is D width, and in women’s shoes is B width. European sizes (e.g., 38.3) are unisex, so if you wear a woman’s shoe in 38.3 and have a wide foot, check out the men’s shoes in 38.3. For something like sandals, you might find a style you like in a width you can wear.

The Eldest is also the one who told me the secret of crockpot settings: “Low” = 200º F and “High” = 300º F. With this information, you can cook crockpot recipes in a covered pot in the oven.

Amanda Terkel in ThinkProgress:

This week, ThinkProgress pointed out that women often face extra hurdles in obtaining health care on the individual market since some insurers refuse to cover maternity care, disqualify women who have had a Caesarean-section pregnancy, or consider domestic violence a pre-existing condition. Yesterday in a speech, First Lady Michelle Obama addressed these disparities:

Women are affected because, as we heard, in many states, insurance companies can still discriminate because of gender. And this is still shocking to me. These are the kind of facts that still wake me up at night; that women in this country have been denied coverage because of preexisting conditions like having a C-section or having had a baby. In some states, it is still legal to deny a woman coverage because she’s been the victim of domestic violence.

And a recent study showed that 25-year-old women are charged up to 45 percent more for insurance than 25-year-old men for the exact same coverage. And as the age goes up, you get to 40, that disparity increases to 48 percent — 48 percent difference for women for the exact same coverage in this country.

Consumer Watchdog has released internal industry “underwriting” guidelines showing some other “pre-existing conditions” that insurers have used to either deny people outright or charge exorbitant fees for coverage:

Somehow I’m not astonished. Glenn Greenwald:

In a truly shocking development being treated as major news, seven former CIA Directors — including all three who served under George W. Bush — jointly concluded that the CIA should not be criminally investigated for torture deaths, and they have written a letter to President Obama (.pdf) expressing that view.  Do leaders of organizations in general ever believe that their organizations and its members should be criminally investigated and possibly prosecuted for acts carried out on behalf of that organization, and do CIA Directors specifically ever believe that about the CIA?  Has a CIA Director ever advocated that CIA agents be criminally investigated for illegal intelligence activities?

But what’s most notable about this letter is that it is not addressed to the individual charged with making decisions about whether an individual should be prosecuted:  namely, the Attorney General of the U.S. Instead, it is addressed to the President himself, and they "urge [him] to exercise [his] authority to reverse Attorney General’s August 24 decision to re-open the criminal investigation of CIA interrogations."  What so-called "authority" are they talking about?

The way our criminal justice system works is that the President has the authority to set generalized policy priorities for the DOJ (e.g., spend more resources on drug and terrorism offenses but less on pornography and gambling), but decisions about whether specific individuals will or will not be prosecuted are supposed to be immunized entirely from White House influence, and are the province of independent Justice Department prosecutors (led by the Attorney General).  That’s what it means to have an apoliticized justice system:  the President doesn’t order specific people to be prosecuted or shielded from prosecution.  Only Justice Department officials, assessing purely legal factors, make those determinations. 

In fact, the entire U.S. Attorneys scandal was grounded in exactly this concern:  that Karl Rove and the Bush White House were directing that certain prosecutors be fired either for criminally investigating specific Republicans or refusing to prosecute specific Democrats.  Decisions about specific prosecutions aren’t for the White House to make.  No DOJ official with the most minimal integrity would allow the President to block specific criminal investigations as these CIA Directors urge. 

Richard Nixon tried that and …

Continue reading.

Useful information. I avoid fabric softeners because they seem to make towels waterproof, but I think the occasional refreshing as described in the post at the link is a good idea.

Michael Winship at Salon:

If you ever needed proof that Washington is governed by the Golden Rule — the one that says, he who has the gold, rules — you only have to look at the wagon loads of cash being dumped by big business into crushing President Obama’s domestic agenda.

Good gosh, how the money rolls in. And I’m not only talking about the millions bankrolling the gang war over healthcare reform. A couple of weeks ago, the Washington Post reported that the energy lobby is barnstorming around the country holding rallies and concerts, giving away free lunches and T-shirts, spreading the wealth like a drunken oil tycoon — all to defeat the cap-and-trade climate bill that squeaked through the House and now awaits a vote by the Senate.

The paper noted that in the first half of the year oil and natural gas groups spent $82.1 million lobbying Capitol Hill — but that environmental, health and clean-energy interests scraped together less than a quarter of that amount, $18.7 million. Money talks, and it’s murmuring in your ear, "Global warming, what global warming?"

Those energy lobby high rollers in denial aren’t the only ones who know how to throw a party. Last month, Public Citizen, the consumer advocacy group that was founded by Ralph Nader, released an investigation of the 10 banks receiving the most federal bailout money plus five trade associations fighting government attempts to more closely regulate consumer banking.

In the period between Election Day last November and the end of June, the groups scheduled 70 fundraisers for members of Congress. Along the way, they made $6 million in federal campaign contributions.

Thirty-five of those 70 wingdings — half! — were thrown by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its lobbyists. And a third of the money contributed to candidates came from the American Banking Association and affiliated lobbyists. Both organizations are fighting hard to keep the government from clamping down on the financial industry. In fact, the Chamber of Commerce is planning on spending a hundred million bucks to keep the noses of federal snoops out of their business.

It’s not hard to figure out why they’re so eager to grease palms and throw the regulatory bloodhounds off the scent. On Aug. 31, Bloomberg News reported that …

Continue reading.

Good column in Salon, which begins:

Watching the healthcare debate unfold these days is a little like watching scenes from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” — the ones showing a collage of strung-out, deranged or otherwise incapacitated patients rotting away in a squalid psychiatric ward.

As the insurance industry’s Nurse Ratched lurks in the background, congressional Democrats cower in the corner, fearing the phantom menace of their own shadows. Standing next to the window, suicidal Republican leaders rant about “death panels” and threaten to splatter their electoral prospects onto the pavement below. Nearby, White House officials struggle with multiple-personality ailments as they mumble contradictory statements about the public option. Meanwhile, tea party protesters lie on the floor in a fetal position, soiling their hospital diapers as they throw incoherent tantrums about everything from socialism to communism to czarism to Nazism. And, not surprisingly, Washington reporters just stare off into the distance, having been long ago lobotomized in the wake of their Watergate heyday.

Clearly, the inmates in America’s political sanitarium are each struggling with different maladies. However, they are all suffering from Selective Deficit Disorder — an illness whose symptoms can be particularly difficult to detect.

When we see tea party activists bemoan deficit spending or watch rank-and-file senators like Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., say, “I’m not going to vote for a [healthcare] bill that’s not deficit-neutral,” it is easy to think these poor souls are perfectly healthy. When President Obama promises to “not sign a [health] plan that adds one dime to our deficit” and then New York Times writers such as David Brooks praise this “dime standard” as the epitome of “pragmatism” and “fiscal sanity,” these victims seem absolutely sane.

Yet, Selective Deficit Disorder is a sickness of omission. Attacking the neural synapses that maintain rudimentary logic, it presents itself not in what its carriers say and do, but in what they refuse to say and do.

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I feel somewhat lazy this weekend—partly to balance The Wife, who is up against a project deadline and will be working through the weekend. Out to Toasty’s for my breakfast, including reading Richard Brodie’s Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme. The book is written in an odd tone—sort of self-help mode—but it is based on what we’re learning about memes, so I think it’s worth reading.

I’ll be watching movies and reading, of course. I now have a set of waterstones—500, 2000-3000, 6000, and 8000 grits—so I plan to practice sharpening with the inexpensive carbon-steel Chinese knife I bought. I use it occasionally, but really it’s a way to master sharpening techniques without ruining a good knife. When I actually use a Chinese knife, this is the one I use.

I think I’ll also bring in my laptop and sit here with the desktop at hand and try to get the laptop to recognize my HP printer. That should be a lot of fun.

J.M Fraser’s shaving cream is a marvel—people would kill to get it if they doubled the price per container and cut the size of the container by three-fourths and spend some money on packaging and marketing. As it is, you get almost a pint of superior shaving cream for $14 Canadian. They now have several fragrances—I must try Mosswood, since I like that Booster’s aftershave so much—but the original lemony fragrance is perfectly delightful.

I did soak the Omega boar brush, and it did a fine job. The HD with the gold-laced ebony handle from Elite Razors performed flawlessly with its slightly used Astra Keramik blade: a wonderfully smooth shave. And Booster’s Oriental Spice (and J.M. Fraser now has an Oriental Spice shaving cream) was a great finish.

From Cook’s Country:

Test Kitchen Discoveries

• In order to achieve a respectable crust, the steaks’ exterior must be dry. After trying numerous drying-out methods, including salting and aging, we considered the freezer. The freezer’s intensely dry environment sufficiently dehydrated the steaks’ exteriors, and since we were only freezing them for a short time, the interiors remained tender and juicy.

• Rub the steaks with a mixture of salt and cornstarch before freezing. [First, dry the steaks completely with a paper towel, then rub with 1 tsp salt mixed with 1 tsp cornstarch for 4 strip steaks – LG] The salt assures they are well-seasoned, and cornstarch—a champ at absorbing moisture—allowed us to cut the freezing time in half [to a total of 30 min up to 1 hour – LG].

Interesting post (with video) by Dan Colman in Open Culture.

Fascinating talk by Michael Lewis on the topic of his forthcoming book.

And take a look at this excellent post, from which comes this chart:

Gets public lesson from HHS Sec Kathleen Sebelius:

From the Center for American Progress:

In what the Guardian called "arguably the most concrete shift in foreign policy from that of the Bush administration," President Obama announced yesterday that the United States would abandon President Bush’s plan to construct a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic and instead focus defensive measures on more immediate threats, such as short-range Iranian missiles capable of targeting the Middle East and parts of Europe. Obama said yesterday that the new system "will provide stronger, smarter, and swifter defenses of American forces and America’s allies," noting that the new system is "more comprehensive than the previous program" and that its capabilities are "proven" and "cost-effective." The new program, at the recommendation of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will unfold in three stages. First, by 2011, the Navy will deploy Aegis ships carrying SM-3 missiles to the eastern Mediterranean Sea to better protect U.S. allies in the Middle East and East Europe. The second phase, beginning around 2015, "will field an upgraded, land-based SM-3 in allied countries," perhaps even Poland and the Czech Republic, while the third phase envisions larger, longer-range defense missiles based in Europe to protect against intercontinental ballistic missiles.

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Particularly the provision on student loans. From the Center for American Progress:

The House voted 253-171 to pass a sweeping education bill yesterday that would "effectively end private-lender involvement in the student loan market." "This bill will end the billions upon billions of dollars in unwarranted subsidies that we hand out to banks and financial institutions, and will use that money to guarantee access to low-cost loans," Obama said in a statement.

Ben Nelson must be having a fit.

From the Center for American Progress:

A new study released by researchers at Harvard Medical School has calculated that 45,000 Americans a year die because they lack health insurance — nearly one every twelve minutes. "We’re losing more Americans every day because of inaction…drunk driving and homicide combined," said Dr. David Himmelstein, a co-author of the study.

That’s an annual death toll equal to 15 9/11s every year. That should get the public’s attention.

An editorial in the Wichita Eagle:

Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., isn’t the only lawmaker to claim that illegal immigrants would benefit from health care reform. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, said at town hall meetings last month that the health reform plan in Congress would pay for insuring illegals.

But as nonpartisan fact-checking organizations have repeatedly stated, such claims are false or vastly overstated. House and Senate bills explicitly prohibit "individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States" from receiving federal assistance to buy health insurance.

Though he has apologized for yelling "You lie!" at President Obama, Wilson still contends that he isn’t wrong about illegal immigrants. He argues that it might be possible for an illegal immigrant to benefit from health care reform, because there isn’t a strict verification method in the House bill for determining whether a person is an illegal immigrant.

But haven’t we gone down this dead end before?

Because of unsubstantiated concerns that illegal immigrants were receiving Medicaid benefits, states were forced in 2007 to verify the citizenship of Medicaid beneficiaries. That resulted in long delays for U.S. citizens and high enforcement costs for states — but very few cases of illegal immigrants seeking benefits.

A study of six states by a House oversight committee found the states spent $8.3 million on enforcement and caught only eight illegal immigrants. Kansas spent $1 million and turned up one illegal immigrant among the applicants.

Requiring strict citizenship verification as part of this reform likely also would be costly and punish U.S. citizens who happen not to have the correct paperwork. Nonetheless, the White House and Senate negotiators have stated that verification of immigration status would be required for anyone seeking to purchase coverage…

Continue reading. The GOP needs to have its collective head examined.

Daphne Eviatar in the Washington Independent:

Late Thursday, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., granted yet another detainee at Guantanamo Bay the right to go free. That makes 30 out of 37 habeas corpus cases decided so far in which Guantanamo prisoners have won orders for their release. In each case, a federal judge has concluded, after reviewing all of the government’s evidence, that there is no justification for continuing to keep the detainee behind bars.

Yesterday’s ruling appears to be another case where, like in the case of Mohammed Jawad, the government’s primary evidence was based on coerced confessions following abusive interrogations, according to the detainee’s lawyers. (An unclassified version of the judge’s opinion laying out her reasoning is not yet available.) It’s also the second case in which a Guantanamo detainee who faced a war crimes charge by a U.S. military commission has been ordered freed.

In the habeas corpus petition granted yesterday, Fouad Mahmoud Al Rabiah, a 50-year-old Kuwaiti aeronautics engineer and businessman, claims he went to Afghanistan in 2001 to do charitable work in accordance with the requirements of Islam. But he was kidnapped and held hostage by the Northern Alliance, he says, which turned him over to U.S. authorities, which then sent him to Guantanamo Bay where he was imprisoned and interrogated for the next seven years.

The United States claimed …

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I’m now reading The Go Consultants, by John Fairbairn and T. Mark Hall. Quite interesting. From the link:

Have you ever wondered what pros think about during a game? This book gives you a unique opportunity to find out and you will frequently be surprised. The book follows a game between two teams: Go Seigen and Kitani Minoru (the young hot-shots) versus Segoe Kensaku and Suzuki Tamejiro (the established top players). The members of the teams were allowed to consult with each other in another room between moves, and a reporter made notes on what they said and what they did on the practice board. As a result we have an incredible record of what the players were planning and hoping for, what they thought their opponents were doing, and what they decided not to do as well as why they made the choices they did. There could not be a more thoroughly commented professional game.

You can see sample pages here (PDF). It is indeed interesting and informative to read their discussions  of their moves.