Some excerpts from the Harper’s Index:
Number of U.S. states that include cursive writing in their educational standards: 24
Portion of Americans who believe that people who commit violence in the name of Islam are “really Muslim”: 2/5
Who believe that people who commit violence in the name of Christianity are “really Christian”: 1/5
Number of the 100 highest-paid city employees in Boston last year who were members of the police department: 98
Average percentage change in suicide rates among gay and bisexual teens after their states legalized same-sex marriage: –14
Percentage change since 2005 in the volume of the global arms trade: +44
Portion of Americans who believe The Onion is a credible news source: 1/5
Percentage change since 1997 in the number of times married Americans have sex each year: –19
Portion of married Japanese men under age 49 who say that work makes them too tired for intercourse: 1/3
Length, in minutes, of a weekly break during which employees of a Swedish town are encouraged to have sex: 60
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QUOTATION
“God, how patient are Thy poor! These corporations and masters of manipulation in finance heaping up great fortunes by a system of legalized extortion, and then exacting from the contributors—to whom a little means so much—a double share to guard the treasure.”
~Robert M. La Follette, Sr., address to the State Agricultural Society at Milwaukee, 1898
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2005—Another glowing Reid piece:
While the GOP leadership is under assault from their imcompetence and corruption, ours continues to get glowing praise.
There's nothing fancy about Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate. Sartorially, he is a symphony in brown. He hails from a Nevada eye-blink called Searchlight, but isn't at ease in the spotlight. "I would just as soon never have a press conference," he says. An amateur boxer in his youth, the 65-year-old Reid's idea of a good time is to watch reruns of famous bouts on ESPN Classic. A favorite was on the other night: the 1955 epic between Archie Moore and Rocky Marciano. "Moore flattened Rocky early," Reid said. "Had him down, almost out. But by patience and sheer determination Marciano came back, round by round, and won. Both guys were cut and bloody when it was over." [...]
Reid, with 37 years in politics, is prospering partly by doing what shrewd boxers do in the early rounds to survive: let the other guy overreach. Proudly unphilosophical, he thinks the Democratic Party needs no soul-searching. "I believe in simplicity," he says. "Health care, pensions, energy independence--that's my agenda." [...]
While Reid himself is low-key, the allies he organizes throughout the city--polltakers, consultants, liberal lobbyists--are not. He has commissioned virtual "war rooms," which coordinate the use of focus-grouped attack language in ads and speeches on two main issues. The first was Social Security. Now comes the war of words over the Senate's hallowed "filibuster rule," which allows a minority of 41 members to use the privilege of talking endlessly to kill any legislative action--such as a judicial nomination they don't like. Reid's poll-tested line of attack: ending the filibuster rule would destroy the separation of powers envisioned by the Founding Fathers. It's not clear whether Frist has the support—or the nerve—to press for a vote on ending the rule. His own advisers are divided. […]
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin and Armando round up top headlines. KS-04 fallout. HuffPo allows that Daily Kos is “back.” GOP contracts Hitlerrhea. Trump flips on currency manipulation, NATO; learns North Korea’s complex and the Easter Egg Roll has nothing to do with China.
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