Tea Bird

What I’m Reading Today 11/13/2008 Edition

Bailout Lacks Oversight Despite Billions Pledged by Amit Paley of the Washington Post
A Senior Fellow at the Institute of Nonexistence by Richard Perez Pena at the NY Times
Supreme Court Rules for Navy in Sonar Case by Adam Liptak of the NY Times

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll Dies

Our Lt. Governor, Catherine Baker Knoll, has died following her battle with cancer.
Key facts:
· 1930-2008, of McKees Rocks
· Sworn in Jan. 21, 2003
· 30th lieutenant governor
· First elected female Lt. Governor
· St. Mary’s High School alumnus
· Served eight years as state treasurer, winning huge % of statewide vote
· Formerly schoolteacher, businesswoman
· Had four children with [...]

Imagine a Progressive United States

Well, some jokesters did and created a fake New York Times website complete with articles.
Headlines include such gems as:
“National Health Insurance Act Passes”
“Nation Sets Its Sites on Building a Sane Economy”
and
“Troops to Return Immediately”

The last swing of the boom

After living through sixteen years of two Presidents’ terms, the Baby Boomer generation appears to have run its Presidential course. When Obama, on his way over to Grant Park for his election night event, emailed his millions of plugged-in supporters, he wrote “We just made history.”
As Damien Cave noted:

With that simple “we” in millions [...]

Will the GOP Consider Latinos White?

From TAPPED:

There’s been lots of discussion during the past week about the future of conservatism. David Brooks and First Read consider the topic today. In short, the GOP can’t continue to appeal primarily to less educated, Southern, rural, and racist voters in an age of increasing education levels, diversity, tolerance, and migration back into [...]

What I’m Reading Now 11/11/2008 Edition

The New Liberalism by George Packer of the New Yorker
Generation O Gets Its Hopes Up by Damien Cave of the NY Times
Forest-friendly Farming at the Economist
The Charm of Big Cities by the Economist
Census of the Ocean Finding New Wonders by Randolph E. Schmid of the AP
Franklin Delano Obama? by Paul Krugman of the NY Times
Obama [...]

Port Hope’s Nuclear Power Memorial

Nuclear power production is leaving behind monumental piles of radioactive soil as memorials of the heyday of nuclear power. Way back in the middle of the 20th century when everybody was giddy over nuclear power, the Canadian government set about mining and refining uranium and radium to power its massive nuclear power plants. [...]

Gitmo Going Out of Business

The biggest political news story of the day:
President-elect Obama’s advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial [...]

Center-Right No More

Liberal economist (and Nobel winner) Paul Krugman states his case that the “center-right nation” meme is a canard:

Did progressives get a mandate from last week’s election? Lots of people would like to claim that they didn’t — that we’re still a “center-right nation.” And one of the assertions you hear to back that claim [...]

In pictures: Barack Obama’s election triumph - the front pages

From Britain’s Guardian, a collection of newspaper front pages from around the world: