The Speckled Axe

thedailyfeed: For this haunting photo series “Ghosts of War,”...

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:00:44 -0400

For this haunting photo series “Ghosts of War,” Jo Teeuwisse superimposed images of World War II soldiers onto images of present-day European streets where they once fought.

incredibly striking.

Robert Reich: The Final Days, the Biggest Issue, and the Clearest Choice

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:01:03 -0400

Robert Reich: The Final Days, the Biggest Issue, and the Clearest Choice:

robertreich:

As we go into the final days of a dismal presidential campaign where too many issues have been fudged or eluded — and the media only want to talk about is who’s up and who’s down — the biggest issue on which the candidates have given us the clearest choice is whether the rich should pay more in…

reuters: U.S. stock markets to close on Monday, possibly...

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:01:08 -0400

reuters:

U.S. stock markets to close on Monday, possibly Tuesday

U.S. stock trading will be closed on Monday and possibly Tuesday in response to Hurricane Sandy, NYSE Euronext said late on Sunday.

NYSE Euronext, which runs the New York Stock Exchange, had previously said that electronic trading would remain open and that only the exchange’s trading floor would close.

In a statement, the company said that “the dangerous conditions developing as a result of Hurricane Sandy will make it extremely difficult to ensure the safety of our people and communities, and safety must be our first priority.”

LIVE COVERAGE: Updates on Hurricane Sandy

Paul Ryan Takes a Side in the War on Poverty: He's Against What Works

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 18:04:51 -0400

Paul Ryan Takes a Side in the War on Poverty: He's Against What Works:

In 1959, 22.1 percent of Americans lived below the poverty line.

In 1969, 13.7 percent of Americans lived below the poverty line.

The poverty level has varied since 1969. It has gone as high as 15 percent. But it has never again gotten anywhere near where it was in 1959.

What changed during the 1960s to dramatically decrease poverty?

“Centralized, bureaucratic, top-down anti-poverty programs” like Medicare (1965), Medicare (1965), the initiatives launched with the Food Stamp Act of 1964 and Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 programs such as the Jobs Corps (1964) and Head Start (1965).

Those programs worked.

fotojournalismus: Honduran citizen Dorma Espinoza wipes away...

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:01:05 -0400

fotojournalismus:

Honduran citizen Dorma Espinoza wipes away tears as a picture of her son Alberto Sadai, who disappeared 10 years ago during his journey through Mexico to reach the U.S., hangs around her neck in Tultitlan October 26, 2012. A group of 60 mothers from Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala will cross Mexico on a journey called “Caravana de Madres Centroamericanas” (Caravan of Central American Mothers), following the route of the missing migrants, local media reported.

[Credit : Edgard Garrido/Reuters]

Mitt Romney in 2011: 'We Cannot Afford' Federal Disaster Relief

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 14:00:51 -0400

Mitt Romney in 2011: 'We Cannot Afford' Federal Disaster Relief:

remember this, folks.

imwithkanye: Waters Run High. Red Hook, Brooklyn is flooded....

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:01:04 -0400

imwithkanye:

Waters Run High. Red Hook, Brooklyn is flooded. [via]

stay safe, everyone.

wnyc: (One of the most recent satellite images of Hurricane...

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:39:34 -0400

wnyc:

(One of the most recent satellite images of Hurricane Sandy, via the NASA GOES project.)

Hurricane Sandy is nearing landfall this morning - and we’re keeping an eye on the storm.

Tune into WNYC for the latest news, and keep in touch with us on Twitter — we’d love to hear (and share) your stories!

(For a roundup of everything we’re doing on and off social media, try this page.)

WNYC’s Hurricane Resources:

Sandy Tracker | Transit Tracker | NYC Evacuation Zones | Storm Surge Zones In NY/NJ

r thedailyfeed: The rich got richer and the poor got poorer in...

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:58:40 -0400

thedailyfeed:

The rich got richer and the poor got poorer in 20 states last year.

The median income last year came in at $50,502, down from $51,144 for 2010; income inequality, using a measure called the Gini coefficient, jumped a statistically significant 1.3 percent in the same 12 months, new census statistics show.

Today, the 400 richest Americans have more money than the 150 million on the bottom of the pay ladder, economist Robert Reich pointed out on moveon.org.

Not such a peaceful shade of blue.

8bitfuture: Newly discovered galaxy could be oldest ever...

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 15:57:34 -0400

8bitfuture:

Newly discovered galaxy could be oldest ever seen.

A new paper published in Nature details what could be the oldest galaxy ever viewed, with light first shining from the galaxy when the universe was only 500 million years old.

Light from the primordial galaxy traveled approximately 13.2 billion light-years before reaching NASA’s telescopes. In other words, the starlight snagged by Hubble and Spitzer left the galaxy when the universe was just 3.6 percent of its present age. Technically speaking, the galaxy has a redshift, or “z,” of 9.6. The term redshift refers to how much an object’s light has shifted into longer wavelengths as a result of the expansion of the universe. Astronomers use redshift to describe cosmic distances.

Unlike previous detections of galaxy candidates in this age range, which were only glimpsed in a single color, or waveband, this newfound galaxy has been seen in five different wavebands. As part of the Cluster Lensing And Supernova Survey with Hubble Program, the Hubble Space Telescope registered the newly described, far-flung galaxy in four visible and infrared wavelength bands. Spitzer measured it in a fifth, longer-wavelength infrared band, placing the discovery on firmer ground.

Objects at these extreme distances are mostly beyond the detection sensitivity of today’s largest telescopes. To catch sight of these early, distant galaxies, astronomers rely on gravitational lensing. In this phenomenon, predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago, the gravity of foreground objects warps and magnifies the light from background objects. A massive galaxy cluster situated between our galaxy and the newfound galaxy magnified the newfound galaxy’s light, brightening the remote object some 15 times and bringing it into view.

cognitivedissonance: mediamattersforamerica: Well, this is...

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:00:07 -0400

cognitivedissonance:

mediamattersforamerica:

Well, this is awkward…

Bill O’Reilly said: Planned Parenthood should “be funded like Catholic charities, by individuals who believe in Planned Parenthood’s mission.”

Take a look at the organization Catholic Charities’ financial documents, and you’ll find that in 2010 62% of their total income was government revenue — $2.9 billion that year.

"Of all the things Republicans have called President Obama in the last four years—socialist, radical,..."

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:00:48 -0400

“

Of all the things Republicans have called President Obama in the last four years—socialist, radical, un-American, anti-American, elitist—perhaps the strangest is “divisive…”

There has seldom been a clearer political case of what psychologists call “projection,” the propensity to ascribe to someone else one’s own thoughts, feelings, and sins… Republicans have been, shall we say, vigorous in their opposition to this president, both completely unified and unrestrained in their criticism. Yet they remain convinced that Barack Obama is the one who bears responsibility for whatever division has been sown…

Don’t ask about Republicans’ unprecedented use of the filibuster to stifle Obama’s appointments and legislation, or how the Tea Party Republicans took the country to the brink of financial catastrophe, or how many elected members of their party question Obama’s patriotism and genuinely believe he isn’t actually an American. Don’t ask about conservative media figures who continually race-bait and encourage their legion of listeners to nurture a white-hot hatred for the president and liberals in general. No, the real viciousness belongs only to Barack Obama…

”

- The Projection Party: The Republican fantasy of Barack Obama’s “divisiveness” (via ryking)

nbcnews: Pakistan official offers $100,000 reward for killing...

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 08:24:23 -0400

nbcnews:

Pakistan official offers $100,000 reward for killing of maker of anti-Prophet Muhammad film

(Photo: Narinder Nanu / AFP - Getty Images file)

A Pakistani government minister on Saturday announced a $100,000 bounty for the killing of the person who produced an online film that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad.

Federal Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmed Bilour also asked the Taliban and al-Qaida to extend support to the would-be killer.

Read the complete story.

azspot: Steve Greenberg

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 17:55:36 -0400

azspot:

Steve Greenberg

"So Mitt Romney is releasing his 2011 tax returns. The top line is that the Romneys’ effective tax..."

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 15:58:16 -0400

“

So Mitt Romney is releasing his 2011 tax returns. The top line is that the Romneys’ effective tax rate last year was 14.1 percent.

The Romney campaign also released new info on how much he paid from the years 1990-2009, claiming: “Over the entire 20-year period, the average annual effective federal tax rate was 20.20%.”

That 20 percent figure sounds a lot better than 13 or 14 percent, right? Well, here’s the problem: It all turns on how that 20 percent figure was calculated…

The Romney campaign confirmed to me just now that the 20 percent figure was calculated [by averaging the rates against each other — treating the rates themselves as a collection of individual numbers — to calculate the overall average rate].

[Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center] tells me that this is a far less meaningful way to calculate the overall rate…

“You can be a person like Romney and have a highly fluctuating income year to year,” Williams said. “Some years Romney’s income could be much lower than in other years. When you average just the rates, you can distort the rate you’ve paid relative to your income over the whole period.”

Williams concluded: “The only way we can know for sure what rate he actually paid is to see what his tax payment and his income was for each of the 20 years.”

”

- Expert: Romney may have paid less in taxes over 20 years than it appears

So just to recap: The method the Romney campaign used to calculate his twenty-year average annual effective federal tax rate to get the 20.20% figure is basically bogus. But let’s not forget: Even 20.20% is obscence given that Romney is worth a quarter of a billion dollars and America’s top tax rate is 35%.

(via ryking)

thedailyfeed: Mother Nature Network put together an adorable...

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 13:54:18 -0400

thedailyfeed:

Mother Nature Network put together an adorable round-up of the cutest endangered species. Poor little guys!

D’aww.

azspot: Mitt Romney or “Class Struggle for Dummies”

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 11:57:49 -0400

azspot:

Mitt Romney or “Class Struggle for Dummies”

azspot: Adam Zyglis

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 17:59:09 -0400

azspot:

Adam Zyglis

liberalsarecool: Republicans obstruction needs to end Nov 6....

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 15:57:48 -0400

liberalsarecool:

Republicans obstruction needs to end Nov 6. Vote Democrat.

Class-A obstructionism.

futurejournalismproject: How Much Do You Trust the Mass...

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 13:58:46 -0400

futurejournalismproject:

How Much Do You Trust the Mass Media?

Via Gallup:

Americans’ distrust in the media hit a new high this year, with 60% saying they have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly. Distrust is up from the past few years, when Americans were already more negative about the media than they had been in years prior to 2004.

When broken down by political affiliation, Democrats are more trusting (58%) of the mass media than independents (31%) or Republicans (26%).

Gallup, U.S. Distrust in Media Hits New High.