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n2doc's JournalThe GOP's strategy to block Obama’s regulations
By Tim Devaney and Lydia Wheeler - 11/30/14 06:00 AM EST
The GOP is preparing to mount a full-scale assault on President Obama’s regulatory agenda, using the party’s strengthened hand in Congress to delay, soften or block contentious administration rules at every turn.
As long as Obama sits atop the executive branch, Republicans’ power to derail scores of rulemaking efforts now under way is limited. But control of both the House and Senate in the next Congress will enable GOP lawmakers to ratchet up their attacks on what they view as overzealous regulation.
“So long as we have this president the federal agencies can go around Congress," said Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) "But we can make it very, very difficult for them."
Inhofe, who is poised to become chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, is certain to take a leading role in the GOP push against regulations at the center of Obama’s climate action plan.
more
http://thehill.com/regulation/225398-the-gops-strategy-to-block-obamas-regs
Coal's costs keep adding up
We hear a lot about a war on coal. But, to borrow another trendy phrase, amnesty is the real threat — amnesty for the coal industry.
How many more examples do we need of coal operators' lawlessness, aided and abetted by government apathy or impotence?
First, a stunning series by NPR and the Mine Safety and Health News this month detailed how 2,700 mine owners have gotten away with dodging nearly $70 million in safety fines.
Why should you care? Miners are injured in these delinquent operations at much higher rates than in those that pay their fines. Seven of the top 10 scofflaws, including West Virginia billionaire Jim Justice, control mines in Eastern Kentucky.
Then, last week, a ruling by Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip J. Shepherd laid bare the charade that is Kentucky's enforcement of coal industry compliance with the Clean Water Act. The judge described a state agency that barely even goes through the motions of enforcing the law.
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/11/30/3567147_coals-costs-keep-adding-up.html?sp=/99/349/&rh=1
Here are the 17 books Obama bought with his kids today
President Obama and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, visited a well-known independent bookstore named Politics and Prose in Washington on Saturday. The visit was meant to show support for small businesses and to mark a day sometimes known as "small business Saturday," when consumers are encouraged to follow-up the big-chain purchases of black Friday by patronizing small businesses.
The visit is perhaps of most interest, though, for the books that Obama picked up with his daughters. It's hard to imagine the purchases were entirely spontaneous — the White House knows presidential reading gets a lot of scrutiny — but it's still interesting to see. The two that most stand out to me are Evan Osnos's book on life in contemporary China — China is a major and quietly successful foreign policy issue for Obama — and Heart of Darkness. I would be very curious to know who in the Obama White House has taken an interest in reading about colonial depravation and horror in 19th-century sub-Saharan Africa.
Here are the books, largely a mix of young adult fiction (Sasha and Malia are 13 and 16), kids' books (probably a gift), and contemporary non-fiction.
Grown-up books
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, by Atul Gawande (non-fiction, about aging, death, and end-of-life care)
Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune Truth and Faith in The New China, by Evan Osnos (non-fiction, a National Book Award-winner about life in today's China, by the former New Yorker correspondent there, who now covers DC politics)
Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson (fiction, a National Book Award-winner about growing up black in 1960s and '70s America)
more
http://www.vox.com/2014/11/29/7307289/obama-books
NYT Toon: Uncivil Defense
by Brian McFadden
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/07/08/opinion/sunday/the-strip.html?_r=0#1
Marijuana fights Alzheimer’s disease, new study indicates
Another study is adding evidence to the case for the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease with the compounds in cannabis.
Research published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease this September “strongly suggest that THC [the main active ingredient in marijuana] could be a potential therapeutic treatment option for Alzheimer’s disease through multiple functions and pathways.”
More than five million Americans have Alzheimer’s today. One in three seniors will die with Alzheimer’s or another dementia, and Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in the nation, costing America about $203 billion in 2013.
Chuanhai Cao and other researchers at the University of South Florida and Thomas Jefferson University wanted to investigate the “potential therapeutic qualities of ?9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) with respect to slowing or halting the hallmark characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease.”
more
http://blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2014/11/29/marijuana-fights-alzheimers-disease-study-indicates/
Egypt court tosses charges against Mubarak
Source: LA Times
An Egyptian court on Saturday dismissed charges against former President Hosni Mubarak, who had been accused in connection with the killings of hundreds of demonstrators against his rule.
The 86-year-old ex-dictator was forced from office in a 2011 popular uprising that was a landmark of the so-called Arab Spring revolts, galvanizing regionwide demands for the toppling of old regimes.
Wearing dark glasses and a dark jacket, Mubarak listened expressionlessly as the lengthy ruling was read out, occasionally nodding. At its conclusion, the courtroom erupted in scenes of jubilation, with aides and lawyers hugging one another.
Mubarak’s former interior minister, Habib Adly, and other top aides were also acquitted Saturday in connection with the deaths of about 900 protesters. And the former president, his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, and an Egyptian tycoon were acquitted on corruption charges stemming from a business deal.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-egypt-court-mubarak-20141129-story.html
Politico’s normal, awful story on EPA’s new air rule
Tuesday night, the top story on Politico.com was headlined, “‘The most expensive regulation ever.’” It is unremarkable in that it follows the same template as a thousand pieces like it, with quotes from both sides on all the right beats and no big factual errors. In a sense, though, it is a perfect artifact, a case study in how the U.S. political media handles air regulations, environmentalists, and the left generally.
Here’s the lede:
Right off the bat, here are the two narrative frames through which Washington understands air regulations: first, their alleged high cost, and second, as a move to the left, which everyone in D.C. knows is perilous almost by definition. (Why, Republicans might get upset and oppose you!)
Consider an alternate lede:
Both ledes are factually accurate. The first lets business groups and costs set the stage, the second lets scientists and health benefits set the stage. How might you choose between them?
more
http://grist.org/politics/politicos-normal-awful-story-on-epas-new-air-rule/
Having homosexual thoughts 'is an essential part of human evolution' study suggests
In evolutionary terms, homosexuality presents something of a paradox. According to Darwin, any trait that makes an animal less likely to reproduce will die out in a few generations, yet the percentage of people born gay or lesbian remains more or less constant.
Now researchers at the University of Portsmouth believe they may have found the evolutionary reason for homosexual behaviour: it helps us bond with people of the same sex.
A study of predominantly heterosexual men and women found that people with higher levels of the hormone progesterone are more likely to have homoerotic thoughts.
Because progesterone, which is produced by both men and women, is associated with affiliation, the researchers concluded that homosexual thoughts can go hand in hand with the need to forge same-sex alliances, which can be traced back to the teamwork of the earliest hunter-gatherers.
more
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/11251206/Having-homosexual-thoughts-is-an-essential-part-of-human-evolution-study-suggests.html
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