I remember the evening distinctly. It was early in 2007, on a night in late January, or perhaps early February. I was just on my way home from a political event that had run a little late, and the temperature was unseasonably cold. Bear in mind that by the standards of a Los Angeles winter, temperatures in the lower or middle forties count as unseasonably cold.

My path home took me through a canyon cutting across the Hollywood Hills that separate the San Fernando Valley from the greater Los Angeles basin. As my elevation rose, the outside temperature dropped. It was an overcast night with a hint of moisture in the air, and when I got to the top of the canyon, I saw something that will likely not be seen again around these parts for a few more years: snow flurries. An extremely light and fine dusting, to be sure, and not something that would count for anything by the harsh standards of an East Coast winter. But then, that's why people like to live in Los Angeles, precisely because that sort of thing is indeed such a rarity.

I happened to be waging an online argument with a climate denier conservative at the time--for some reason, it seemed like a worthwhile idea back then. And yes, he loved to bring up the fact that it had recently snowed in Laurel Canyon as evidence of the fact that global warming was bunk. Every single graph in the universe showing record average temperatures across the entire world meant nothing--because for one night, in one small portion of one city, something rare and unexpected had happened.

We went through the same thing on a national level just a few short months ago when the so-called "snowpocalypse" struck DC. Conservatives mocked Al Gore and crooned about the hoax that was global warming. And it didn't matter that climate science expressly indicated that extreme temperature fluctuations in both directions and uncharacteristic weather patterns in local areas were expected consequences of an average increase in global temperatures. The mockery continued unabated.

But now we're faced with a different set of statistics. Let's take a look at a small sample:

Iraq had its hottest day in history on June 14, 2010, when the mercury hit 52.0°C (125.6°F) in Basra. Iraq's previous record was 51.7°C (125.1°F) set August 8, 1937, in Ash Shu'aybah.

Pakistan had its hottest temperature in history on May 26, when the mercury hit an astonishing 53.5°C (128.3°F) at the town of MohenjuDaro, according to the Pakistani Meteorological Department. While this temperature reading must be reviewed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for authenticity, not only is the 128.3°F reading the hottest temperature ever recorded in Pakistan, it is the hottest reliably measured temperature ever recorded on the continent of Asia.

Myanmar (Burma) had its hottest temperature in its recorded history on May 12, when the mercury hit 47°C (116.6°F) in Myinmu, according to the Myanmar Department of Meteorology and Hydrology. Myanmar's previous hottest temperature was 45.8°C (114.4°F) at Minbu, Magwe division on May 9, 1998. According to Chris Burt, author of the authoritative weather records book Extreme Weather, the 47°C measured this year is the hottest temperature in Southeast Asia history.

Ascention Island (St. Helena, a U.K. Territory) had its hottest temperature in history on March 25, 2010, when the mercury hit 34.9°C (94.8°C) at Georgetown. The previous record was 34.0°C (93.2°F) at Georgetown in April 2003, exact day unknown.

Just to name a few. Heck, it was even sweltering in DC this past week. And from the climate deniers on the right who mock us with every increasingly extreme winter? Not a word. No surprise there, of course. Hard to come up with anything when you have no integrity or respect for the truth, as long as it serves your personal and political agenda.

That one,  smart Republican speaks. Yglesias has the goods:

The Fed’s operational independence doesn’t mean this isn’t a subject people should have opinions about (politicians talk about the Supreme Court all the time) and it’s important. But Paul Ryan seems to have some odd views on how this works:

We need to do things to free up credit. We need regulatory forbearance there. Right now, the policymakers and regulators are doing opposite things. So you’re right that there’s a lot of capital parked out there, and we need to coax it out into the markets. I think literally that if we raised the federal funds rate by a point, it would help push money into the economy, as right now, the safest play is to stay with the federal money and federal paper.

Krugman:

I don’t even know where to start with this. What does Ryan think the fed funds rate is? (It’s the rate at which banks lend each other money overnight, usually to help meet reserve requirements.) He obviously doesn’t know the the Fed funds rate basically equals the return on federal paper, so that raising that rate would make banks more, not less, likely to stay with that federal paper. I’m sure someone will try to come up with a reason why Ryan is being smart here, but the truth is that he’s stone-cold ignorant....

So this is the smartest Republican Congress has to offer?

Of course, Ryan’s idea of fiscal reform is to run huge deficits for decades, but claim that it’s all OK because we’ll cut spending 40 years from now; and he throws a hissy fit when people challenge his numbers, or call privatization by its real name.

But hey, he’s intellectually ambitious.

Ryan's the wunderkind of the Republican caucus, House and Senate. Heaven forfend these people get the Congress back.

What's coming up on Sunday Kos ….

• Dante Atkins will have a motivational message in the aftermath of Netroots Nation.
• Decades ago, a science fiction editor set a goal for his authors: "Give me a creature that thinks as well as a man, but not like a man." Now progressives face another challenge, Mark Sumner wonders if we can build a movement that works as well as the conservatives on all levels without becoming like the conservatives.
• Brooklynbadboy will take a decidedly "good riddance" stance towards the downfall of Harlem's "Gang of Four."
• The primary schedule will get back on track this coming week with high-profile primaries in four different states. Steve Singiser will criss-cross the country offering a preview of the goings-on in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Tennessee.
• Laurence Lewis will remind everyone that the right-wing racism now exploding into the open is neither new nor incidental.
• Now that racism and sexism in America are over, Kaili Joy Gray aka Angry Mouse will explore the plight of the new oppressed minority: white men.

Thanks to you guys I'm now infamous enough to be personally attacked on Fox Nation over this post. Reportedly by Steve Milloy no less. And thanks to News Corpse we learn that Milloy et al employ the same level of careful, precise analysis as when tricking the public about climate change for the corporate clients:

He repeatedly refers to Steven Andrew as Steven Alexander. Secondly, Andrew was writing this column for The Examiner .. so it can hardly be attributed to Daily Kos, as both Fox Nation and Milloy did. Thirdly, Milloy falsely claimed that the posting was removed. In fact, it was just edited to satisfy Milloy’s tender sensitivities. Fourthly, Andrew never advocated either euthanasia or suicide for Milloy or anyone else. He merely invoked a humorous reference to the iconic film Soylent Green.

If Milloy and friends really want to crack down on violent rhetoric, they might check a network and a political movement a little closer to home. Where "jokes" and not-so-funny references to strangling or choking people to death, inciting deadly shooting sprees, or national politicians celebrating blowing up occupied buildings are regular events. The list of documented violent rhetoric and calls for violence going out to millions of viewers, readers, and thousands upon thousands of paranoid gun-toting maniacs coming from Milloy's side of the aisle, indeed often from his own news network, go on and on and on right through to this very day:

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton received hundreds of threats at her court offices within hours of her ruling last week on Arizona's tough and controversial immigration law. "She has been inundated," said U.S. Marshal David Gonzales, indicating his agents are taking some seriously.

But Milloy and company conveniently ignore all that, naturally, and instead somehow finds -- or perhaps feigns -- great offense at an offhand reference to a science fiction movie and a hypothetical future corporation that turns volunteers into food. On a website that gets a few thousand hits on a good day. That's telling. Methinks he doth protest too much.

For those who may not have seen the news, the bigots at National Organization for Marriage--the group most prominently opposed to marriage equality and the main sponsors of Proposition 8 in California and Question 1 in Maine--have been on tour. They've been going around the country in an archetypical bus tour trying to promote their special brand of outmoded discrimination. As could have been expected, the tour has been an epic boatload of fail. At many stops of the tour, marriage equality supporters have equaled or outnumbered those who show up to hate on gay people.

NOM has been tweeting statements from spokesman Brian Brown during the course of the tour--and while a variety of them have been offensive in a lot of ways, this one probably takes the cake:

“It is 1972 for marriage. This is the same as the time as before Roe v. Wade. . . . What if William Wilberforce listened to those telling him not to bring his religion into the public square?”

Let's get the obvious out of the way. William Wilberforce was a British member of Parliament who was best known for his religiously based opposition to the slave trade, and was instrumental in outlawing slavery throughout the British empire in the mid-19th century. And in invoking the ghost of William Wilberforce, NOM has just compared opposition to bigotry against gays to...supporting the slave trade. Now it's not quite full Godwin, but by the time you're talking about the slave trade, you're getting pretty damned close.

That's bad enough. But what's actually just as interesting is in this little snippet, Brian Brown is making an argument that is expressly theocratic. By devolving to a rationale that is based simply on religion in the public square, NOM is essentially admitting that theocratic values are the only reason to oppose marriage equality (truth be told, if you had seen their closing arguments in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, such an admission should come as no surprise).

But when it comes down to it, what Brian Brown is actually doing here is making a unwitting yet fundamental attack on the value of Christian morality. The implication of Brown's statement regarding Wilberforce's motivations is that if Wilberforce had not been so religiously inclined, he would not have pursued his opposition to the slave trade. Does Brian Brown really think that your average Christian believes that slavery is wrong because God said so, and that because in their view God says that gay marriage is bad, it has to be opposed with equal vigor? Is Brian Brown really suggesting that regular believers are so rigidly doctrinaire that they see no nuance?

If anyone needs a lesson in Christian values, it's obviously Brian Brown.

It’s taken me a while to catch up, but there have been two excellent books looking at race, class, economic status and destiny in the past six months. The first reviewed here is less formal, an excellent memoir/study in personal stories, and the second is more academic in nature, an updated tenth anniversary edition of a book that looks at wealth transmission across generations in disadvantaged communities. Both are excellent, thought-provoking resources for discussion and further inquiry.

The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates
By Wes Moore
Hardcover, 256 pages, $25.00
Spiegel & Grau
April 2010

Money quote:

This is the story of two boys living in Baltimore with similar histories and an identical name: Wes Moore. One of us is free and has experienced things that he never even knew to dream about as a kid. The other will spend every day until his death behind bars for an armed robbery that left a police officer and father of five dead. The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his. Our stories are obviously specific to our two lives, but I hope they will illuminate the crucial inflection points in every life, the sudden moments of decision where our paths diverge and our fates are sealed. It's unsettling to know how little separates each of us from another life altogether.

Author: First-time author, former Army combat veteran, youth advocate, former special assistant to Secretary of State Condeloeezza Rice as a White House Fellow, speaker at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, investment professional.

Basic premise: Two African American men. Same name. Born around the same time, living in the same city, of roughly the same class. Ultimately, radically different lives. One imprisoned for life, the other a respected professional. Moore explores his life story and that of his doppelganger, hoping to tease out the reasons why some succeed and some fail in very similar circumstances.

Readability/quality: Smooth reading, nice “plot” development if one can say that about non-fiction (you can, regarding memoirs, in my view). Good character description and thoughtful consideration of difficult topics--nature versus nurture writ large in all its complexity.

Who should read it: Fans of memoirs and sociological explorations for laypeople, as well as anyone interested in race and class issues, urban settings, influence of family and peers on personal outcomes.

Bonus quote:

... when I finish my story, the question that comes up the most is the one that initiated this quest: "What made the difference?"

And the truth is that I don't know. The answer is elusive. People are so wildly different, and it's hard to know when genetics or environment or just bad luck is decisive. As I've puzzled over the issue, I've become convinced that there are some clear and powerful measures that can be taken during this crucial time in a young person's life. Some of the ones that helped me come to mind, from finding strong mentors to being entrusted with responsibilities that forced me to get serious about my behavior. There is no one thing that leads people to move in one direction or another. I think the best we can do is give our young people a chance to make the best decisions possible by providing them with the information and the tools and the support they need.

Moore took a subject that could easily veer off into self-indulgence--his personal history and that of someone similar--and made it larger than himself. Weaving his own story and the other Wes Moore’s together, he is able to draw attention to the places of similarities (missing fathers, early rebellions, overworked mothers) and places of difference (strong and involved grandparents, private school). But the parallels and divergences become about so much more than just these two men; the author’s luck in finding mentors, and in finding his own responsibility and strength in military experience outline the importance of structure, peers and adults who are committed to guiding the next generation. Both stories are, in every sense of the phrase, very American stories, with tragedy, challenge and success in our system often pegged to very small steps and missteps along the way.

Being Black, Living in the Red: Race, Wealth, and Social Policy in America
By Dalton Conley
University of California Press: Berkeley, CA
Softcover updated reprint, 217 pages, $24.95
Tenth anniversary edition

Money quote:

In 1865, at the time of the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans owned 0.5 percent of the total worth of the United States. This statistic is not surprising; most black Americans had been slaves up to that point. However, by 1990, a full 135 years after the abolition of slavery, black Americans owned a meager 1 percent of total wealth. In other words, almost no progress has been made in terms of property ownership. African Americans may have won "title" to their own bodies and to their labor, but they have gained ownership over little else.

Author: Dean of Social Sciences at New York University, Conley has spent his career focusing on class and intergenerational economic patterns. Other books include Honky, a memoir of growing up white in a predominantly minority neighborhood in the 1970s; The Starting Gate: Birth Weight and Life Chances; and The Pecking Order: A Bold New Look at How Family and Society Determine Who We Become.

Basic premise: We’re asking the wrong question when we’re limiting inquiries about economic disparities and race to income and earnings only. What matters, says Conley, at least as much as salary is the ability to amass assets across generations. And there is ample evidence that historical and current policies in America penalize minorities in this area in subtle, yet devastating ways. This edition is updated from 10 years ago when it first was released, with a new introduction that looks at what has changed (or, more sadly and accurately, what has not) since initial publication.

Readability/quality: Free of jargon yet grounded in research. Charts and graphs with strong clarifying summaries make this a relatively easy read.

Who should read it: Anyone interested in delving into the policy behind race, class, economics, education and intergenerational inheritance issues.

Bonus quote:

Herein lie the two motivating questions of this study. First, why does this wealth gap exist and persist over and above income differences? Second, does this wealth gap explain racial differences in areas such as education, work, earnings, welfare, and family structure? In short, this book examines where race per se really matters in the post-civil rights era and where race simply acts as a stand-in for that dirty word of American society: class. The answers to these questions have important implications for the debate over affirmative action and for social policy in general.

Accumulating wealth and transmitting it across generations seems like a no-brainer for explaining many disparities in our society, yet most research that looks at why minorities continue to end up at the bottom of the social and economic ladder seem to focus on education, occupation and income in the contemporary generation. Conley makes a very strong case that the roots of many of socio-economic problems experienced by the African American community are based in wealth transmission problems. He also teases out where class and race diverge, and where they overlap as lower-income Americans of every stripe try to catch hold of the American Dream, which for those at the bottom seems to recede more and more each year. Highly recommended as a book to keep on the shelf as permanent reference and ammo against those who would argue that there is something in transmitted black culture--not economics--that creates hurdles for moving into the middle class.

This thread will not yield. The Gentleman is out of order and is correct in sitting down.

• The Krazy Kims, acting up once again, as the North Korean soccer team was publicly humiliated in a six-hour ordeal:

  The entire squad was forced onto a stage at the People's Palace of Culture and subjected to criticism from Pak Myong-chol, the sports minister, as 400 government officials, students and journalists watched.

  The players were subjected to a "grand debate" on July 2 because they failed in their "ideological struggle" to succeed in South Africa, Radio Free Asia and South Korean media reported.

• Hilarity from CA-03 and its incumbent Republican, Dan Lungren, who was pulled over for speeding in the middle of a radio interview:

  "Uh, uh, I have to get off the phone just a moment here. ... I'm sorry, I'm talking with a police officer here," Lungren told the hosts of KFBK Morning News just after being introduced on the air.

  Lungren, who was on his way to his Washington office from his Alexandria, Va.-area home, quickly explained that he had just been pulled over for driving "probably just slightly over the speed limit" as he was chatting behind the wheel (he said his phone was in his lap).

  The officer could be heard asking Lungren to get off the phone -- "Can you hang up the phone sir? ... You need to hang that up."

  Even worse for Dan Lungren: His red-to-blue Democratic opponent Ami Bera has outraised him for four straight quarters and just released a site attacking him for circumventing ethics rules. This is a race to watch.

• This can't be said enough, because it's an unheralded success story of this administration:

  The telltale numbers for grading the auto rescue now are the first-quarter profits posted by GM and Chrysler while overall industry sales were still rotten -- compared with the horrific losses in pre-rescue years when people were buying cars like crazy.

  These are stunning results. Obama is right to celebrate them. We all should.

  Republicans, though? They would have been happy to see the American automobile industry fold if it ensured Obama would be a one-term President, because they don't care about this country.

• What does it say about the current state of the country when sweeping reforms to the offshore drilling industry can only pass by a thin party-line vote?

The crew over at Netroots Nation got some wingnut attention last week. Beck's and Limbaugh's retrogrades responded. See several of them below the fold.

New studies show that as much as 40 percent of the ocean's critical phytoplankton have disappeared. Who wants to guess why that might be?

But in the long-term, nothing predicted the numbers of phytoplankton better than the surface temperature of the seas. Phytoplankton need sunlight to grow, so they’re constrained to the upper layers of the ocean and depends on nutrients welling up from below. But warmer waters are less likely to mix in this way, which starves the phytoplankton and limits their growth.

No doubt our crack media will either not report theses alarming trends. Or they'll resort to industry shills like Junkman Steve Milloy, one of many energy funded rentboys who regularly carpet bombs newspaper editorial pages with climate change disinformation, to present a 'balanced' approach. Speaking of skeptics and assorted ignoramuses, whatever became of all those clowns yelling about global cooling last winter? Oh, yeah:

An in-depth analysis of ten climate indicators all point to a marked warming over the past three decades, with the most recent decade being the hottest on record, according to the latest of the U.S. National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration's annual "State of the Climate" reports.

If the first studies are borne out, put them together with the latter and do the arithmetic. Hint: Soylent Green is people.

Sam Stein reports that the federal judge assigned to the first of the cases against the Affordable Care Act  "has financial ties to both the attorney general who is challenging the law and to a powerhouse conservative law firm whose clients include prominent Republican officials and critics of reform."

The judge, District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson, could issue a procedural verdict on Virginia AG Ken Cucinelli's law suit, which seeks to deem the ACA unconstitutional, next week.

[A]s judgment day approaches, a Democratic source sends over judicial disclosure forms Hudson filed that could raise questions about his impartiality. From 2003 through 2008, Hudson has been receiving "dividends" from Campaign Solutions Inc., among other investments. In 2008, he reported income of between $5,000 and $15,000 from the firm. (Data from 2009 was not available at the Judicial Watch database.)

A powerhouse Republican online communications firm, Campaign Solutions, has done work for a host of prominent Republican clients and health care reform critics, including the RNC and NRCC (both of which have called, to varying degrees, for health care reform's repeal). The president of the firm, Becki Donatelli, is the wife of longtime GOP hand Frank Donatelli, and is an adviser toformer Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, among others.

Another firm client is Ken Cuccinelli, the Attorney General of Virginia and the man who is bringing the lawsuit in front of Hudson's court. In 2010, records show, Cuccinelli spent nearly $9,000 for Campaign Solutions services.

How convenient for the Republicans.

In a reality-based nation in a reality-based world, scientific reality would be deemed important. This kind of scientific reality:

The report emphasizes that human society has developed for thousands of years under one climatic state, and now a new set of climatic conditions are taking shape. These conditions are consistently warmer, and some areas are likely to see more extreme events like severe drought, torrential rain and violent storms.

“Despite the variability caused by short-term changes, the analysis conducted for this report illustrates why we are so confident the world is warming,” said Peter Stott, Ph.D., contributor to the report and head of Climate Monitoring and Attribution of the United Kingdom Met Office Hadley Centre. “When we look at air temperature and other indicators of climate, we see highs and lows in the data from year to year because of natural variability. Understanding climate change requires looking at the longer-term record. When we follow decade-to-decade trends using multiple data sets and independent analyses from around the world, we see clear and unmistakable signs of a warming world.”

While year-to-year changes in temperature often reflect natural climatic variations such as El Niño/La Niña events, changes in average temperature from decade-to-decade reveal long-term trends such as global warming. Each of the last three decades has been much warmer than the decade before. At the time, the 1980s was the hottest decade on record. In the 1990s, every year was warmer than the average of the previous decade. The 2000s were warmer still.

This kind of scientific reality:

Global temperatures in the first half of the year were the hottest since records began more than a century ago, according to two of the world's leading climate research centres.

Scientists have also released what they described as the "best evidence yet" of rising long-term temperatures. The report is the first to collate 11 different indicators – from air and sea temperatures to melting ice – each one based on between three and seven data sets, dating back to between 1850 and the 1970s.

This kind of scientific reality:

Scientists at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies reported recently that the average global temperature was higher over the past 12 months than during any other 12-month period in history. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released corroborating data, adding that the past four months, including June, have each individually been the hottest on record as well.

This kind of scientific reality:

Marine phytoplankton have a crucial role in Earth's biogeochemical cycles, and form the basis of marine ecosystems. Data from satellite remote sensing — available since 1979 — have provided evidence that phytoplankton biomass has fluctuated on the decadal scale, linked to climate forcing, but a few decades of data are insufficient to indicate long-term trends. Daniel Boyce and colleagues now put these results in a long-term context by estimating local, regional and global trends in phytoplankton biomass since 1899, based on a range of sources including measurements of ocean transparency with a device known as a Secchi disk, and shipboard analyses of various types. What emerges from the records is a century of decline of global phytoplankton biomass. The authors estimate that the decline of phytoplankton standing stock has been greatest at high latitudes, in equatorial regions, in oceanic areas and in more recent years. Trends in most areas are correlated significantly to increasing ocean warming, and leading climate indices.

But this was last week's political reality:

Conceding that they can't find enough votes for the legislation, Senate Democrats on Thursday abandoned efforts to put together a comprehensive energy bill that would seek to curb greenhouse gas emissions, delivering a potentially fatal blow to a proposal the party has long touted and President Obama campaigned on.

Instead, Democrats will push for a more limited measure that would seek to increase liability costs that oil companies would pay following spills such as the one in the Gulf of Mexico. It also would create additional incentives for the development of natural gas vehicles and would provide rebates for products that reduce home energy use. Senate Democrats said they expected to find GOP support for the bill and pass it in the next two weeks.

Which led to this week's political reality:

Senate Democrats and Republicans appear on a collision course that would sink chances of passing oil-spill and energy legislation amid disagreements over both substance and process.  

Democratic leaders Wednesday foretold the likely failure of the package and blamed Republicans for obstructing it and other legislation.

But when political realities fail to meet the demands of such scientific realities the blame must be shared by all. Just as the scientific realities that will result from the failures of the political realities will be shared by all.

Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy future.

Of course, if some folks had their way, none of this would be happening at all.  This plant might not exist.  There were leaders of the “just say no” crowd in Washington who argued that standing by the auto industry would guarantee failure.  One called it “the worst investment you could possibly make.”  They said we should just walk away and let these jobs go. 
 
Today, the men and women in this plant are proving these cynics wrong.  Since GM and Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy, our auto industry has added 55,000 jobs – the strongest period of job growth in more than ten years.  For the first time since 2004, all three American automakers are operating at a profit.  Sales have begun to rebound.  And plants like this that wouldn’t have existed if all of us didn’t act are now operating maximum capacity.

Following up on yesterday's visit to Detroit in which he touted the overlooked success of the auto industry bailout, President Obama in this morning's weekly address again discussed the program's effectiveness--before he took an opportunity to blast Senate Republicans for failing to help small business this week by blocking legislation. He called on the GOP obstructionists "to stop holding America’s small businesses hostage."

As we work to rebuild our economy, I can’t imagine anything more common-sense than giving additional tax breaks and badly-needed lending assistance to America’s small business owners so they can grow and hire.  That’s what we’re trying to do with the Small Business Jobs Act – a bill that has been praised as being good for small businesses by groups like the Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business.  It’s a bill that includes provision after provision authored by both Democrats and Republicans.  But yesterday, the Republican leaders in the Senate once again used parliamentary procedures to block it. Understand, a majority of Senators support the plan. It’s just that the Republican leaders in the Senate won’t even allow it to come up for a vote.
 
That isn’t right. And I’m calling on the Republican leaders in the Senate to stop holding America’s small businesses hostage to politics, and allow an up-or-down vote on this small business jobs bill.

What does the president want?

An up-or-down vote.

When does he want it?

Now.

Thankfully, his solid political instincts guided him well as he closed with a righteous framing: Sure, times are tough. But not only are the Republicans obstructing any relief or progress, they don't believe in the American people!

At a time when America is just starting to move forward again, we can’t afford the do-nothing policies and partisan maneuvering that will only take us backward.  I won’t stand here and pretend everything’s wonderful.  I know that times are tough.  But what I also know is that we’ve made it through tough times before.  And we’ll make it through again.  The men and women hard at work in this plant make me absolutely confident of that. 
 
So to all the naysayers out there, I say this:  Don’t ever bet against the American people.  Because we don’t take the easy way out.  That’s not how we deal with challenge.  That’s not how we build this country into the greatest economic power the world has ever known.  We did it by summoning the courage to persevere, and adapt, and push this country forward, inch by inch.  That’s the spirit I see in this plant today, and as long as I have the privilege of being your President, I will keep fighting alongside you until we reach a better day. 

Good stuff. Let's bring that small business relief bill back to the floor and let the Republicans stake their electoral chances on blocking it.

The full transcript can be found at the White House website and beneath the fold.

Genetically modified E. coli bacteria may eat and excrete their way to energy independence:

According to renewable energy company LS9,  a fuel a little like diesel can be generated by feeding glucose to genetically modified versions of the Escherichia coli bacteria. ... By identifying the genes which are responsible for the creation of hydrocarbons, scientists can manipulate the bacteria to create a super-strain that could create fuel on an industrial level.

• I just couldn't resist playing with some freepers on climate change. Don't worry, that link is safe.

• Meanwhile, back in the real world, Jeff Masters notes that 2010 is well on its way to breaking more heat records globally than any other year; Moscow surpassed 100°F for the first time ever on Friday. If you think that's hot, Qatar set a new record this month too: 122.7°F at Doha Airport. But Pakistan "wins," clocking in at a blistering 128.3°F, the highest temperature ever recorded on the entire Asian continent.
• Really good post on autoimmune disease: But You Don't Look Sick.  
• Speaking of autoimmune disease, a new class of potent painkillers made from snail spit may be as powerful as morphine without the risk of tolerance and other side effects.
• FDA clears Geron for first human trial of embryonic stem cells:

  Pilot studies, or Phase I human clinical trials, are intended to judge the safety of new treatments, rather than their efficacy. A small number of patients with mid-back spinal injuries will receive the cells in the pilot study, 7 to 14 days after their injury.

  BTW folks an important heads up: the more regenerative medicine works, the more frauds and dangerous scams there are going to be taking advantage of hopeful people.

Saturday, and not a moment too soon.

Bob Herbert:

The treatment of workers by American corporations has been worse — far more treacherous — than most of the population realizes. There was no need for so many men and women to be forced out of their jobs in the downturn known as the great recession.

More discussion in bobswern's rec diary.

Charles Blow:

After the N.A.A.C.P. asked the Tea Party "to condemn extremist elements" within its ranks, the right went on a witch hunt for black racists in the N.A.A.C.P. Not finding any, it created one. Andrew Breitbart presents: "The Sherrod Charade."

Journalism is being tarred with the sins of some on JournoList, a now defunct listserv through which a handful of people wrote heretical things like the possibility of calling conservatives racist to divert attention from Obama’s connection to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.

This was hardly a vast left-wing conspiracy, but it fed the right’s defensive narrative that the word "racism" has become a weapon — not the shot of a rifle carefully aimed at a clear target, but a shotgun blast sprayed wide and loose at all things anti-Obama.

There’s also the charge that the president is protecting the New Black Panthers from voter intimidation charges. This nonstory has been knocked down more times than a blind boxer, but the right keeps pushing it.

Gail Collins speaking up for the vertically challenged:

"These couches were made for these little people," he complained mildly.

I cannot tell you how happy this moment made me. During the presidential campaign, whenever Obama was sharing a stage with Hillary Clinton, the seating arrangement always seemed to involve high stools. He draped his tall, lanky frame over his stool gracefully. Clinton, who would have looked like a middle-aged schoolgirl doing detention if she perched up there, opted to stand and be uncomfortable.

On behalf of all the short women of America I say — go for it, women of "The View." I’m sure you did not want to cause the president of the United States any distress, but he was so totally due.

Ruben Navarrette Jr.:

But like the saying goes, common sense isn't always common -- even in Texas. State Rep. Leo Berman, a Republican, is drafting an Arizona-style bill for Texas and plans to introduce it next session.

Adding fuel to the bonfire, Texas Republicans recently adopted an over-the-top platform at their state convention that, among other things, encouraged the Legislature to create a Class A misdemeanor criminal offense "for an illegal alien to intentionally or knowingly be within the state of Texas," and to "oppose amnesty in any form leading to citizenship." Texas Republicans also want to deny citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants, ban day-labor work centers, limit bilingual education to three years, and deny non-U.S. citizens access to state or federal financial assistance for college.

In Texas, Latinos are forecast to make up nearly 80 percent of the population growth over the next 30 years (compared with only 4 percent for whites), and Latinos could outnumber whites by 2015, the San Antonio Express-News reported last month. What the Texas GOP drafted was a pact with the devil.

All of which leads me to ask my friends in the Lone Star State the same question my mom used to ask me growing up: "If all the other kids jumped off a cliff, would you do the same?"

Apparently they would.  

Dana Milbank:

It's not fair to blame Beck for violence committed by people who watch his show. Yet Williams isn't the only such character with a seeming affinity for the Fox News host. In April 2009, a man allegedly armed with an AK-47, a .22-caliber rifle and a handgun was charged with killing three cops in Pittsburgh. The Anti-Defamation League reported that the accused killer had, as part of a pattern of activities involving far-right conspiracy theories, posted a link on a neo-Nazi Web site to a video of Beck talking about the possibility that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was operating concentration camps in Wyoming. The killings came after Beck told Fox viewers that he "can't debunk" the notion that FEMA was operating such camps -- but before he finally acknowledged that the conspiracy wasn't real.

The Villagers finally speak up.

Mark Zandi (McCain's econ advisor):

The Bush tax cuts should be extended permanently for families with annual incomes of less than $250,000 and should be phased out slowly for those making more than that.

Others commenting include Alan S. Blinder, Diane Lim Rogers, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Leonard S. Burman and Robert Greenstein

Tonight's Rescue Rangers are vcmvo2, Louisiana 1976, HoosierDeb, YatPundit, and rexymeteroite, with sunspark says doing double duty diving for pearls among today's diaries and running the edit machine.

It's July 30. On this day in 1956, the phrase "In God we trust" was adopted as the official motto of the United States. 54 years later, aided undoubtedly by the Texas Board of Education, the Tea Party is convinced that it is a part of the Constitution.

Here are the hidden gems uncovered by the intrepid explorers of the DR:

In the Oil and the Environment category:

• While the Oilpocalypse has brought new concern about possible threats against nature, RLMiller informs us about the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline: A Failure of Environmental Security. (Louisiana 1976)
• paradox looks to a future without oil (which might by itself be a paradox) and finds himself Yearning for the Electron Dream. (sunspark says)

In the Those Wacky Right Wingers category:

• Avenging Angel takes a well-documented, frightening look at the 50 million Evangelicals in this country and their leaders in It Was the Best of Times, It Was the End of Times. (sunspark says)
• Mokurai identifies and untangles some of the ties that bind in Translating Code: Libertarian. (HoosierDeb)
• JDWolverton recognizes that, to save the failing economy, we must do much more than merely start Tweaking the Expiring Tax Cuts. (rexymeteorite)

In the Concerning Your Health category:

• DavidW offers A word of caution on your hearing and alerts us to a common, often permanent, cause of hearing loss. (HoosierDeb)
• It's unusual to rescue a link without the diary in which it is attached, but I think even the diarist would not care in this case, as his entire goal was simply to point you to what he called "The Most Important Health Care Info You May Ever Read."(HoosierDeb/sunspark says)

And finally, some Miscellany About Race:

• Ojibwa discusses "the most comprehensive study of Indian reservations ever done" in Indians 101: The Meriam Report. (YatPundit)
• LiberalTexan explains the reasons Why Justice is Not Color Blind, and discusses racial disparities in the justice system. (rexymeteorite)

jotter has today's High Impact Diaries: July 29, 2010.

asimbagirl has Top Comments: Chocolate Decadence Cupcakes Edition.

Don't hesitate even for a microsecond to promote your favorite diaries (even your own) in the Open Thread. That's what Open Threads are for. (At least this one.) Besides, it's the last Friday of the month. What else do you have to do?

From Mark Twain:

'In God We Trust.' It is the choicest compliment that has ever been paid us, and the most gratifying to our feelings. It is simple, direct, gracefully phrased; it always sounds well -- 'In God We Trust.' I don´t believe it would sound any better if it were true.

In a letter sent to BP earlier this month, Texas Governor Rick Perry and Attorney General Greg Abbott say that BP General Counsel Jack Lynch told them that the reason BP wasn't limiting claims to the statutory cap of $75 million was that gross negligence led to the disastrous explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

"Finally, we note that your letter states: 'We have not asserted the cap provided under the Oil Pollution Act,'" Perry and Abbott say in reference to BP's statement it wouldn't invoke the post-Exxon-Valdez law that limits a company's spill related liabilities to $75 million. "We read that as an attempt to suggest that BP is voluntarily paying claims associated with the oil spill. The truth is that BP has not asserted the cap because it acknowledged that evidence would reveal that the explosion and resulting spill were the product of gross negligence -- which renders the statutory cap irrelevant. We know this because, during a conference call with Gulf Coast attorneys general, BP General Counsel Jack Lynch acknowledged that gross negligence would be revealed as a cause of the explosion that led to the oil spill."

Such a finding would be significant not only because it would render the $75 million cap moot, but because it would also quadruple the fine-per-barrel that the government could assess on BP. The Houston Chronicle runs the numbers:

If the courts find BP was negligent in activities that caused the Gulf of Mexico oil spill it's fines could nearly quadruple.

• Per barrel fines under the Clean Water Act

• Without gross negligence: $1,100

• With gross negligence: $4,300

• Size of total fines assuming 55,000 barrel-per-day spill rate

• $5 billion without negligence finding

• $19.6 billion with negligence finding

Not surprisingly, BP is now publicly denying that Lynch ever told Perry or Abbott that BP would be found guilty of gross negligence. Call me bipartisan, but this is one scenario where I actually believe Perry and Abbott, both of whom are Republicans.

Interesting note: in explaining why it believes it is entitled to a $10 billion tax deduction bailout to defray the costs of the spill, BP includes among its expenses $5 billion in fines, tallied at $1,100 per barrel, the per barrel rate if they are not found guilty of gross negligence. If they are found guilty of negligence, that fine would rise to nearly $20 billion, but from BP's perspective, the upside would be that they believe that they'd be entitled to a larger tax deduction bailout. Of course, that assumes BP is able to get its hands on a bailout in the first place: legislation is on its way to make sure they can't profit from the spill. Let's hope it gets passed quickly.

What's coming up on Sunday Kos ….

• Dante Atkins will have a motivational message in the aftermath of Netroots Nation.
• Decades ago, a science fiction editor set a goal for his authors: "Give me a creature that thinks as well as a man, but not like a man." Now progressives face another challenge, Mark Sumner wonders if we can build a movement that works as well as the conservatives on all levels without becoming like the conservatives.
• Brooklynbadboy will take a decidedly "good riddance" stance towards the downfall of Harlem's "Gang of Four."
• The primary schedule will get back on track this coming week with high-profile primaries in four different states. Steve Singiser will criss-cross the country offering a preview of the goings-on in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Tennessee.
• Laurence Lewis will remind everyone that the right-wing racism now exploding into the open is neither new nor incidental.
• Now that racism and sexism in America are over, Kaili Joy Gray aka Angry Mouse will explore the plight of the new oppressed minority: white men.

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

Put Your Brain in Neutral with Late Night Snark:

"BP CEO Tony Hayward complained that he was unfairly 'demonized' in the U.S. over his handling of the Gulf oil spill. In response, demons complained that they were unfairly compared to BP CEO Tony Hayward."
---Jimmy Fallon
-
"'THE SEA-NATE'...Of Course, This Boat Is Not The Actual Senate, An August Body, Of Which I Am Proud To Be A Member, Serving Humbly With 99 fellow Americans, But In Fact, A Nautical Pun Utilizing My Place Of Work Lo These Past Many Years, As Well As A Synonym For The Word Ocean, Which Is In No Way To Suggest This Craft Will Purely Navigate Ocean Waters. In Fact, I Have Made Plans This Very Weekend With The Fergusons To Navigate The Merrimack, Retracing The Steps Of The Famed Sea Captain, Arnold Merrimack, Obviously Steps Being A Figurative Form Of Speech. If Anything, We'd Be Following In The Wake, Which Obviously Has Long Since Diminished, That Trip Having Been Embarked On Centuries Ago. But I Digress. The Point Is, I Have A Very Nice Boat."
---The name of John Kerry's new yacht, as read by Jon Stewart
-
"Microsoft is getting ready to debut a brand new slogan. A three-word motto: Control Alt Delete."
---Jimmy Kimmel
-
"Obama is blowing off the Boy Scouts Jamboree! ... For Pete's sake, Mr. Obama! Every president in the last hundred years has gone...except twelve of them.  Reagan never went, but he honored the Boy Scouts every day by wearing the neckerchief.  Technically it was just his neck wattle."
---Stephen Colbert
-
"Sarah Palin was delivering a speech and she said 'refudiate.' It's not a word---you have refute and repudiate, and she combined them. A lot of times that will happen and people will confuse combinations of words. I remember a couple years ago John McCain mistakenly combined the words Vice President and Palin."
---David Letterman

More at Dan's place

Last weekend of July. Unbelievable. Oh, well...Bottoms up!  Your west coast-friendly edition of  Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

The DNC has a walk down memory lane.

Let's fight to keep it. The DSCC sends out a reminder that "Coats, Vitter, Johnson, Boozman, Blunt, Norton, Buck, Angle, Paul All Want To End Medicare For Seniors In Their States."

Actually, pretty much all Republicans do, though up until recently it hasn't been fashionable (or politically smart) to say so out loud. But the war on the New Deal and the Great Society has really never ended for the GOP.

It was not exactly a surprise to learn that BP believes thinks it is entitled to a $9.9 billion tax benefit, including refunds on taxes paid in previous years, to pay for the cost of cleaning up its own oil spill.

That's right: despite earning $80 billion over the past four years, despite saying that it will pay for the expense of recovery in the Gulf, BP now wants a $10 billion bailout from taxpayers.

Makes you want to scream out loud, eh? Of all companies in the world that do not deserve a bailout, BP might just be the leading example. (Though, to be fair, Goldman does give it stiff competition.)

It's a horrible idea, and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) agrees. Today he announced plans to block the taxpayer bailout of BP, promising to introduce legislation that would block BP taking advantage of the deduction and any associated tax credits or refunds.

Aside from being the right thing, Engel's idea is political gold: imagine the difficult position it would put Republicans in. Do they support Democratic efforts to make sure BP doesn't profit from its oil spill, or do they believe in bailouts for BP? If Joe Barton's apology is any guide, the results could be a political disaster for the GOP...and another big win for Democrats.