- Today’s comic by Tom Tomorrow is The counter-intuitivist:
- This is what you missed on Sunday Kos:
Follow your passion, and don’t forget to dream, by Mark E Andersen
The argle bargle blowing through the windmills of Justice Scalia’s mind, by Steven Payne
Book review: ‘Latino America’ by Matt Barreto and Gary M. Segura, by Susan Grigsby
Can California Democrats save their supermajorities? A look at the Golden State’s legislative races, by Jeff Singer
The great Republican tax cut scam of 2015, by Jon Perr
Not even a much-improved Obama economy can save the middle class, by Egberto Willies
These ballot measures may shake up your state, by David Jarman
Voter suppression is un-American, by Ian Reifowitz
Sane approaches to health epidemics: Medical anthropologists address Ebola fearmongering, by Denise Oliver Velez
- If we turn out, we win. Chip in $3 to help Get Out The Vote for Daily Kos’ endorsed candidates.
- Columbus Day swapped in Seattle for Indigenous People’s Day:
“This is about taking a stand against racism and discrimination,” Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant told the Seattle Times. “Learning about the history of Columbus and transforming this day into a celebration of indigenous people and a celebration of social justice … allows us to make a connection between this painful history and the ongoing marginalization, discrimination and poverty that indigenous communities face to this day.” […]
On Monday, the streets of Seattle will likely be filled with drums, singing, and the faces of citizens from the cities surrounding Native Nations: The Lummi, Nooksack, Tulalip, Sauk-Suiattle, Swinomish, Puyallup, Colville and 22 other Washington tribes, as well as citizens from other Indian Nations that call Seattle home.
- Thousands of spiders drove couple from their home: Brian and Susan Trost bought the $450,000 home in suburban St. Louis in 2007. Soon, the very walls seem to be oozing brown recluse spiders, whose bite in more than half reported cases can cause systemic symptoms (vomiting, rashes, joint pain) and deep skin lesions that destroy tissue and can take months to heal, leaving major scars. The Trosts sued and won a $472,000 judgment for non-disclosure, but the previous owners declared bankruptcy and the insurance company still failed to pay the Trosts who moved out fhte home two years ago. At trial, an expert estimated 4,000 to 6,000 spiders were in the house. Last week the home, now owned by the Federal National Mortgage Association was covered with tarps to trap the gas that an exterminator said would kill all the spiders.
- The web is not infinite for political ads:
It turns out that the Internet does not have infinite capacity. At least not for political ads.[…]
“Many political strategists don’t think of the Internet as something that can sell out,” said Rob Saliterman, leader of the elections team at Google, which owns YouTube. “But in these smaller states, just as there’s a finite amount of TV inventory, there’s a finite amount of YouTube inventory.”
- A very British newspaper correction.
- Six extra years in prison because she was pregnant:
Lacey Weld of Dandridge, Tennessee, was 26 years old and in the final weeks of pregnancy when a camera attached to an undercover police officer captured her 40-minute visit to a methamphetamine manufacturing plant. In July, despite her cooperation in the case and testimony against co-defendants, Weld (who pleaded guilty) was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison and five years of supervised release for her involvement in meth manufacturing. The federal judge in the case, Thomas Varlan, determined that “enhanced sentencing” guidelines regarding harm to a child justified around six years of her punishment because she carried a fetus when the crime was committed.
Now a coalition of reproductive-rights organizations is calling on outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder to publicly condemn sentencing practices that impose harsher punishments for women on the basis of pregnancy alone.
- Of course, they do: Archives of Sexual Behavior, the official publication of the International Academy of Sex Research, looked into the question of “Do American States with More Religious or Conservative Populations Search More for Sexual Content on Google?”
- On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Greg Dworkin’s Ebola update, including claims that budget cuts impeded the vaccine search. Armed UT teacher’s in trouble. Memoir of a GunFAIL “gun guy”. Big Coal’s go-to doc on black lung proven outrageously wrong. Of course.
Midday open thread: Web gets too crowded for political ads, 6 extra years because she was pregnant
