Welcome! "What's Happenin'?" is a casual community diary (a daily series, 8:30 AM Eastern on weekdays, 10 AM on weekends and holidays) where we hang out and talk about the goings on here and everywhere.
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Good Morning!
Twister Gecko
Photo credit: original Kid Lib with slight adjustment by Lady Libertine (Mom)
Twister Gecko 2
Photo credit: Kid Lib original photo and digital enhancement
Okay wait, one more! ;-)
Twister Gecko 3
Photo credit: Kid Lib original photo and digital enhancement topped off with one more digital tweak by LL/Momma
“I won't tell you that the world matters nothing, or the world's voice, or the voice of society. They matter a good deal. They matter far too much. But there are moments when one has to choose between living one's own life, fully, entirely, completely—or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands. You have that moment now. Choose!”
~Oscar Wilde
“Alice came to a fork in the road. 'Which road do I take?' she asked.
'Where do you want to go?' responded the Cheshire Cat.
'I don't know,' Alice answered.
'Then,' said the Cat, 'it doesn't matter.”
~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
“If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise.”
~Robert Fritz
“To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.”
~Kofi Annan (Ghanaian diplomat, seventh secretary-general of the United Nations, 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.
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"Like most of the others I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent, and at times a stupid hell-raiser. I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that my instincts were right. I shared a vagrant optimism that some of us were making real progress, that we had taken an honest road, and that the best of us would inevitably make it over the top.
At the same time, I shared a dark suspicion that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between these two poles- a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other- that kept me going."
~Hunter S. Thompson
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News
McClatchy's Washington Bureau establishes no-alter quote policy
To our staff and to our readers:
As you are aware, reporters from The New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg and others are agreeing to give government sources the right to clear and alter quotes as a prerequisite to granting an interview.
To be clear, it is the bureau’s policy that we do not alter accurate quotes from any source. And to the fullest extent possible, we do not make deals that we will clear quotes as a condition of interviews.
ACLU: Government Wins Right to Pretend That Cables Released by WikiLeaks Are Still Secret
This morning [7/24] a federal judge ruled that the government is free to continue pretending that the contents of State Department diplomatic cables already disclosed by WikiLeaks are secret. The case concerns an ACLU Freedom of Information Act request seeking 23 embassy cables that had been previously released by WikiLeaks, posted online, and widely discussed in the press. The government had responded by releasing redacted versions of 11 cables and withholding the other 12 in full.
Syria conflict: Aleppo bombed by fighter planes
Fighter jets have bombed eastern areas of Syria's second city Aleppo, a BBC reporter near the city says.
The attack, which followed an artillery barrage, is seen as a significant escalation in the conflict.
China slammed over sea garrison plan
Vietnam and Philippines say plan to station troops in disputed island in South China Sea "violates international law".
With Warming, Peril Underlies Road to Alaska
...But climate change is most worrisome of all. Not only is the world warming: it is warming fastest in high northern latitudes. And the problem is getting worse, with no easy solutions. ...
In Chesapeake Bay, Army Corps tries to build a better island
In a bay where waves and rising water levels are sweeping islands away, the corps is turning those few fragile pieces of land – totaling less than five acres – into a re-created 1,700-acre island with wetlands and a forest to restore decimated bird populations. Already, before all the marshes are in and the forest is planted, the number of bird species has increased from 10 in the 1990s to 170 today, including some threatened species.
The corps and U.S. scientists think they’ve outdone nature itself.
For Ecuadorian village, a struggle to adapt to changing climate
About 95 percent of major Latin American cities are planning for climate change, according to a recent survey by the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the United States, only 59 percent of major cities are making similar efforts, the survey showed.
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But according to Vergara, the region needs to adapt to the problems caused by a changing climate and also help prevent further change. Prevention would include strict power, transport and land-use policies, with two goals to eliminate deforestation by 2020 and emissions from land use by 2030. Adaptive measures would only respond to problems as they occur.
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“You can do all the adaptation in the world – that’s not going to stop the glaciers from melting,” he said.
Bernie Sanders: Saving American Democracy
July 24, 2012
Sen. Bernie Sanders told a Senate panel on Tuesday that a constitutional amendment is needed to undo the Supreme Court ruling that let corporations and wealthy individuals spend unlimited sums to sway American elections. Vermont and five other states have adopted resolutions asking Congress for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision. More than 200 local governments, including about 60 towns in Vermont, have passed similar measures.
"What the Supreme Court did in Citizens United is to say to these same billionaires and the corporations they control: ‘You own and control the economy, you own Wall Street, you own the coal companies, you own the oil companies. Now, for a very small percentage of your wealth, we're going to give you the opportunity to own the United States government.'
"That is the essence of what Citizens United is all about - and that's why it must be overturned," said Sanders, the sponsor of the Saving American Democracy Amendment. A companion measure in the House is sponsored by Florida Rep. Ted Deutch.
Millions of Americans now fall within government's digital dragnet
Will government surveillance finally become a political issue for middle-class Americans?
Washington State will enable voter registration via Facebook
The State of Washington says that early next week it will become the first state in the nation to offer voter registration via Facebook.
In 2008, the Pacific Northwest state became just the second in the union to offer online registration. This week, a new Facebook app created by Microsoft (a Washington company, naturally) will provide a new interface to let voters access the MyVote system.
Today, Washington and 12 other states, including Utah, California, Connecticut, Indiana, counties in Nevada, and others offer online voter registration.
Blog Posts of Interest
The reason why they will never hold Wall Street accountable by gjohnsit on dailykos
The Moral Hazard of Drones by John Kaag and Sarah Kreps on NYT Opinionator
John Kaag is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Sarah Kreps is an assistant professor of government at Cornell University.
Greenland Heat, Melting & Darkening Stuns Scientists as Ice Goes Into Death Spiral by FishOutofWater (for Climate Hawks) on dailykos
The Evening Blues - 7-24-12 by joe shikspack on dailykos
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Sail Away lyrics
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