Motley Moose – Archive

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If only Mount Rushmore could talk! Think what thoughts these great and former Presidents might have on the anti-Union aggression of Gov. Scott Walker and his minions…

   “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”

– George Washington

   “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.”

– Thomas Jefferson

After days of nothing but unconfirmed yet compelling twitter messages of the dramatic events in Libya the mainstream media is finally catching up with the horrible reality.  Libya is ablaze and the regime of Muammar al-Gaddafi now hangs by a slender thread, but only at the cost of hundreds of lives.

We are finally getting the confirmation that has been delayed by an almost complete media blackout in Libya since the insurrection began:

CAIRO – The son of the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, warned in a nationally televised address early on Monday that continued anti-government protests could lead to a civil war.

The son, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, said the army continued to support his father, although he acknowledged that protesters had seized some military bases, as well as tanks and weapons.

David D Kirkpatrick – Qaddafi’s Son Warns of Civil War as Libyan Protests Widen NYT 20 Feb 11

Yes, tanks and weapons and about half of the country, as was accurately reported days ago.  And now Tripoli itself is in turmoil.  Curiously these dramatic events have been reported by eyewitnesses and retweeted widely for almost five days but have been virtually unremarked in the media.  

I wanted to share a bit of news I came across today, but, could not find a thread to drop it in. Since I thought other Moose might have off-topic things in their heads as well…Open Thread!

Join me below the fold, my fellow Geeks.

(oh, come on, I know most of you Moose are Geeks…don’t try to deny it)

Libya might be liberating, Bahrain seems poised on the brink of democracy, the Tunisian people have found massive blocks of cash and jewels stolen by their former “leader” and banjos still kill fascists.

What’s on your mind?

Yes, friends, it’s another apolitical, equine-centric diary.  

One of these days I’ll contribute to the purpose of the site; till then, you’ll have to settle for off-topic diversions, as those are what seem to flow most easily from my flying (or stumbling, let’s be honest here) fingers.  

So here goes:

This is the second part of three posts analyzing the congressional districts President Barack Obama underperformed in. It will focus on his relative weakness in the northeast. The third part can be found here.

The Northeast

In my previous post I created a map of congressional districts in which Mr. Obama performed worse than Senator John Kerry:

In this map the most obvious pattern is a roughly diagonal corridor of Republican-shifting congressional districts, stretching from Oklahoma and Louisiana through the Appalachians. This area has long been seen as a place in which the electorate is moving away from the Democratic Party.

The post then looked at the Northeast, another region in which Mr. Kerry did better than Mr. Obama.

More below.

First diary…I hope I get this right!

As we have the tendency to do in my short sojourn here at the Moose, a Mooser and I were discussing education and more specifically public schools in another diary.  I’ve decided to move over to another diary to continue what I found to be an interesting discussion.

As I’ve been proselytizing here and everywhere about Jonathan Kozol’s book, Savage Inequalities, I will rely on the text from the book to support my arguments.  As was pointed out, the book was written 20 years ago.  Sadly not much has changed for children in urban areas across the country.  I am so grateful that I was finishing high school when the author was conducting his research.  The district where I completed my high school education is immeasurably worse now.  

Thursday night, Democratic Representative Jackie Speier of California delivered an extremely personal speech on the House floor. Although her words were poignant and powerful, they were words which she shouldn’t have had to speak… words which revealed personal information she ought not have felt the need to divulge. It speaks to the callous, unfeeling nature of politics, particularly Republican politics, that Rep. Speier felt she needed to bring a bit of humanity — and in this case, her own humanity — to the table on the fly, in order to make a political point.

Her emotional words on Republican Rep. Mike Pence’s plan to de-fund Planned Parenthood came after another Republican representative finished reading graphic passages from a controversial book by an anti-abortion activist. What she had to say ought to have shamed many in attendance…emPHAsis on ‘ought’.  

President George W. Bush speaks to the press after the signing of the 2008 Economic Report Monday Feb. 11, 2008, in the Oval Office. Joining President Bush are, from left, Chuck Blahous, Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy; Pierce Scranton, Chief of Staff, Council of Economic Advisors; Eddie Lazear, Chairman, Council of Economic Advisors; Donald Marron, Senior Economic Advisor, Council of Economic Advisors; and Keith Hennessey, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian

That, is a shot from the George Bush Archives.

I pop it up because of this wee gem on the House slate.

Crossposted to The Suicidal Cactus Hour