Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

All the News Fit to Share: Weekend Edition

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Welcome to your nearly-nightly news diary that we leave open throughout the weekend! JanF and I are combining forces for an open news thread we hope will please all of you.  

Please comment on any of the stories in the diary or comments, or share any news stories you like from anywhere!  

News stories may be added throughout the day and night, so please stop back if you are inclined.  

This will serve as the open news thread until Sunday overnight.  

Followup:  Amish group sentenced – the Cleveland.com site for the Plain Dealer had an original article too, but I was unable to link to it.  This is the AP’s work hosted at New York Daily News.  

Tonight, I thought I would share some domestic news.  Except for the first story, which came in a tweet.  

Kashmiri women join hands across the LoC

The International News; Aman Ki Asha

Rifaat Swati from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) met her cousin from Indian-administered Kashmir after 62 years, at the historic meeting of women from across the Line of Control (LoC) last November. Their reunion highlighted the human dimension of the divide that keeps people across the border from meeting.

At her presentation later, she shared an emotional narrative of the suffering of divided families, emphasising the need to empower women and ensure their proactive role in dialogue processes.

This is the happy story of the night.

Silicon Valley wants voice in high-tech immigration reform

San Jose Mercury News; Matt O’Brien

Technology-focused immigration has reshaped Silicon Valley diversity and boosted its economic output, but for years the tech world has clamored for upgrading U.S. visa laws enacted when the World Wide Web was still a lab project.

The flaring immigration debate on Capitol Hill is inspiring hope of reform.

One high-tech engineer chafing under what he sees as a likely decline in entrepreneurial spirit is Ash Rush, a British immigrant swimming in the fast-paced world of Bay Area startups. The glacial pace of congressional action to open immigration to more high-tech workers and visionaries astounds and frustrates him.

It’s not just farmworkers.  Maybe this will put some positive pressure on Congress – there are mini-Silicon Valleys all over the place.  

A new normal for snow

High Country News; Sarah Jane Keller

Idaho hydrologist Phil Morrisey has been fielding some complaints lately. Although the Natural Resources Conservation Service — the federal agency he works for — reports normal snowpack, skiers say they’re schussing through thin powder. And they have a point, Morrissey says: The agency just started using a new standard for measuring average snowfall — and it’s drier than the old one.

I really love HCN.  

Niece of Scientology leader describes rocky youth in church, “harrowing escape”

Tampa Bay Times; Joe Childs and Thomas C. Tobin

She was six years old and dreamed of being a princess. But her life was far from a fairy tale.

She spent mornings working as a grounds keeper at a Scientology youth camp in California, where she lived with 15 other children whose parents were away, toiling for the church.

At seven, she became the camp’s “medical officer.” Her job: visit the kids who were sick and treat them with vitamins or ointments.

Scientology – it’s everywhere!

Jackson Jr. mum amid plea deal reports

Chicago Tribune; Jeff Coen and Katherine Skiba

With his lawyers seeking the least-damaging end to a federal corruption investigation against him, former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. maintained his silence Friday amid reports he had agreed to terms to plead guilty to misusing his campaign funds.

Jackson’s lawyers in Washington also declined to comment, though his legal team previously has said it was in negotiations to end the case. When he stepped down from the seat he had held for 17 years last fall, Jackson said he would “accept responsibility for my mistakes” and would cooperate with the government on a resolution.

FDR’s Four Freedoms

Rick Cooley blog

The first is freedom of speech and expression – everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way – everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want – which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants – everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear – which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor- anywhere in the world.

This came in a tweet.

JanF’s clue for sharing a link in the comments:

Simple, three step procedure:

1. Put a pair of square brackets into the comment:

[]

2. Copy the link (URL) to your story and paste it into the brackets:

[http://www.theonion.com/articles/northeast-braces-for-historic-blizzard,31208/]

3. Copy the headline (or type your own) into the brackets at the left and put a space after it (the space before “http” is essential):

[American Voices: Northeast Braces For Historic Blizzard http://www.theonion.com/articles/northeast-braces-for-historic-blizzard,31208/]

You can add a block quote from the news story by copying/pasting text, highlighting it then using the quote button to surround it with the “quote” html pairs:

<quote>”As a 12-year-old, should I have lived through this many storms of the century by now?”</quote>

Voila! (that is French for “Holy mackeral!! It works!!”):

 

American Voices: Northeast Braces For Historic Blizzard

“As a 12-year-old, should I have lived through this many storms of the century by now?”

Add bolding to taste:

American Voices: Northeast Braces For Historic Blizzard

“As a 12-year-old, should I have lived through this many storms of the century by now?”

JanF’s news sites table:

  TPM Livewire     ThinkProgress.org     The Onion  
  the guardian     Salon     The American Prospect  
  Newseum News     Newseum Front Pages     The Daily Beast  
  Mother Jones     Discovery News     BBC  
  McClatchy     Reuters     NPR News  


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 20 Comments

20 comments

  2. iriti

    Which is another way of saying ‘I got nothing’. Except a bad case of tired.

    Hai jlms qkw, and goodnight.

    yawns and toddles off to bed*

  4. Chris Blask

    Good.

    Reading a bit more makes me even happier with the verdict. He sounds like a bad man generally, a d the crime fits the punishment. Hope it is long enough for some healing in that damaged community.

  5. JanF

    And excellent idea to keep this as the news thread all weekend. When I used to aggregate the news for another web site, I found it nearly impossible to find new news for Sunday morning. Most of the news sites shut down and it is slim pickings.

    Found on the Internets from a Chicago guy:

    “Cool. My ex-congressman will be in the same prison as my ex-governor”.

  6. JanF

    Josh Marshal on Chris Christie and The Doctor

    Calling this women up and berating her over the phone is the sign of someone whose anger has the better of him and lacks impulse control.

    Josh thinks this is a big deal (no pun intended). I have always felt that people need to be careful about picking on Chris Christie for his weight (I think it backfired on Jon Corzine). But as a peek into his temperament? I am not sure it exposes anything: Gov. Christie is volatile and always has been. From what I understand, New Jerseyians like his in-your-face-take-no-crap attitude.

    ~

    White House Paints Bleak Picture Of Sequestration Consequences

    If Congress fails to delay or turn off the sequester, the government and economy will be on highly uncertain terrain on March 1 – when nearly all government agencies will begin restructuring and curtailing their operations in ways that cut $85 billion from federal spending between then and the end of September.

    “If we go past this date, there’s no way to implement the sequester without significant furloughs of hundreds of thousands of federal employees,” said [Danny] Werfer [,the federal controller of the Office of Management and Budget]. That’s in large part because there’s no ways for departments and agencies to move money around to protect top-tier services and programs.

    ~

    Mississippi Power Battle Harms Obamacare Implementation

    The core division lies between Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, who took office one year ago and is determined to stonewall the implementation of Obamacare, and state Commissioner of Insurance Mike Chaney, who believes that building an exchange as encouraged by the health care law is the right way to go.

    The entire “exchanges” issue is fascinating to watch. If states don’t provide their own exchanges, then people will be put into federal exchanges. So the red states refusing to implement the Affordable Care Act may actually speed up our move to single-payer. States rights ceded to the federal government because of a knee jerk reaction to President Obama? Grab your popcorn.

    ~

    Teachers Union Pushes Voting Rights

    “Reactionary state laws, unequal and unethical administration of voting procedures, and the unfettered access of corporations to influence electoral outcomes has severely damaged our democracy,” wrote NEA president Dennis Van Roekel in a letter Friday to Obama. “We must correct this threat to our democracy by ensuring: 1) universal voter registration (as promoted by the Brennan Center); 2) equitable administration by states of voting procedures and access to the polls; and 3) that we curb the influence of money in politics that has resulted from the infamous Citizens United decision.”

    Voting rights is the single most important issue threatening our democracy. That one of the two major parties in our country is intent on disenfranchising people in order to get/retain power is unconscionable and we need to fix this before 2014.

    ~

    How The GOP Would Make Undocumented Immigrants America’s Next Permanent Underclass

    Conservatives in the House of Representatives are rejecting the growing bipartisan consensus for permitting undocumented immigrants to earn citizenship. Instead, one prominent negotiatior, Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID), suggested a legal status “compromise” that would keep 11 million immigrants in a probationary grey area for an indefinite period of time, unable to participate in the full rights of citizenship. As the Washington Post warned, this so-called compromise would establish “a permanent underclass of workers.”

    This article discusses the four times in American history when a sub-class was created and the consequences of those actions.

    ~

    Quick Hits:

    For Rural Towns, Postal Service Cuts Could Mean A Loss Of Identity

    Yes, Cats Know How To Fall On Their Feet. But These Guys Do It Better

    ~

  7. Moozmuse

    Schavan resigns

    Merkel Loses Minister: Schavan Steps Down amid Plagiarism Scandal

    One of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s closest confidants stepped down on Saturday following a plagiarism scandal. Stripped of her doctorate on Tuesday, Annette Schavan became a heavy burden to her party as Germany heads into an election year.

    I’m glad this didn’t drag on. The woman is a disgrace, and the hypocrisy breathtaking – Minister of Education, no less. Just ugh. Personally, I found her thoroughly unlikeable, but I can’t vote, lol, and no one asked me for my opinion!

  8. Moozmuse

    few days ago about diversity in Germany.

    ‘Asian-Looking’: Minister’s Heritage Sparks Racism Debate

    Do Germans accept public figures with foreign roots? A politician who asked this question about Vietnamese-born Vice Chancellor Philipp Rösler has critics calling him racist. But his party has come to his defense, saying the problem must be addressed.

    …snip

    In response to questions about his familial background, Rösler, who was taken in by nuns as a foundling during the Vietnam War, has said that he is a German and feels no connection to his birthplace. Still, in a country with a largely homogenous society struggling to accept its growing immigrant population, the issue continues to crop up for him.

    This is definitely an important discussion to be had. Interestingly enough, the only other prominent politician from an immigrant background that I know of is the co-chair of the German Green Party, Cem Özdemir, the son of a Turkish-Circassian gastarbeiter from Tokat, Turkey.

  10. nomandates

    Wish this idea had occurred to me when I was posting for Obama Nightly News. I had bookmarked a bunch of news sites, but clicking from this table seems so much easier.

  11. JanF

    McCain Leaning Toward No Vote On Hagel

    But McCain reaffirmed that he would oppose Republican efforts to filibuster Hagel’s confirmation. “The fact is, we have never filibustered a cabinet appointee and that [is] why I do not believe we should filibuster his nomination.” He added, “elections have consequences, unfortunately.”

    Apparently not on Sunday Talking Head TV.

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