Midday open thread

• For those in the path of Hurricane Irene, be aware that:

  Cellphone users could be incommunicado for the second time this week when Hurricane Irene slams the East Coast.

  It?s a concern that has both federal regulators and cellphone carriers ? not to mention millions of smartphone-dependent consumers ? bracing for the second major stress test of the nation?s wireless networks in just a few days.

  It was only Tuesday that a 5.8-magnitude earthquake rocked the eastern seaboard, shaking nerves and rattling wireless networks to the point that many could not make calls for hours.

  This time, it could be high winds and strong rain that could affect carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, and make communication difficult for those weathering the storm.

• An interesting look at what economic impact a hurricane near or in New York City might have:

  Time to think about the unthinkable. What if a major hurricane were to pass close to New York City, as several forecasting models now suggest that Hurricane Irene might?

  Apart from the potential loss of life in the most densely populated part of the country, history suggests that the economic damage could run into the tens of billions of dollars, depending on the severity of the storm and how close it comes to the city. Unlikely but theoretically plausible scenarios could have the damage entering the realm of the costliest natural disasters of all time, and perhaps being large enough to have a materially negative effect on the nation?s gross domestic product.

• Proving that Fox News never gives up, Eric Bolling tried to explain away Rick Perry calling Fed chairman Ben Bernanke "treasonous," saying:

  "Maybe he meant to say treacherous and then he said treasonous -- whatever." Bolling added: "But he's the real deal. ... He's the conservative choice is what it is."

  So, what did Perry actually say?

  If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don't know what y'all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. I mean, printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treacherous -- or treasonous in my opinion.

• North Carolina may be the next state to enshrine bigotry into its state constitution.
• The famous undisclosed location of former Vice President Dick Cheney is revealed:

  The Washington Post gets an early copy of former Vice President Dick Cheney's memoir, In My Time, and notes he writes that he was "surprised by the intensity of the media interest" in the "undisclosed location" where he was sometimes reported to be. He referred to a Saturday Night Live skit that imagined him in a cave in Afghanistan.

  But, Cheney writes, the "undisclosed location" was the more mundane Vice President's residence, his home in Wyoming and, most often, Camp David.

  How disappointing?most of us pictured a crypt in Transylvania.
• News Corp?the parent company for Fox News and who hack into the voice mail of murdered school girls?is doing a "documentary" about George W. Bush and the 9/11 attacks:

  Early reviews of the program, however, paint Bush as a hero who discarded politics and his right-wing agenda once the planes hit the towers. The film also depicts Bush as a leader bent on capturing Osama bin Laden, no matter what:
  

  ?It?s not one of those moments where you weigh the consequences or think about the politics,? [Bush] adds. ?You decide. And I made the decisions as best I could in the fog of war. I was determined. Determined to protect the country. And I was determined to find out who did it and go get them.?

  
  In reality, within hours of the 9/11 plane hijackings, Bush?s Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld began drawing up plans to launch a war in Iraq ?even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks.? Indeed, Bush aides quickly went to work undercutting the proposed commission to study the events leading up the 9/11, and despite the growing evidence linking the terrorist act with Osama bin Laden?s al Qaeda group, Bush never made bin Laden a priority. By January 2002, Dick Cheney told the press that bin Laden ?isn?t that big a threat.? The next month, Bush said bin Laden was ?not the issue.?

  Will producer Peter Schnall critically, and accurately, explain to the public Bush?s actions during and after the horrific 9/11 terrorist attacks? In a recent interview about the program, Schnall said he tried not to push ?it too far? with the former president, and that he was ?less interested in facts than how? Bush ?was feeling?:
  

  ?He would only take it to so far,? Schnall tells Zap2it. ?If I had pushed it too far, he might have shut down a bit more, and my goal was to get him to talk about those four or five days. I was less interested in facts than how he was feeling.?

• Uh, okay:

  Glenn Beck was in South Africa on Thursday, fresh off his "Restoring Courage" event in Israel. He understandably spent his Thursday show recapping and reflecting on the multi-day extravaganza he had just pulled off. [...]

  Beck also said he had been overwhelmed by one aspect of his trip. "I love the Israelis, he said. "I love the Jewish people. But they drive me out of my mind when they talk over each other. They're constantly talking!"

• Whodathunkit?

  Brazilian scientists have found a new river in the Amazon basin ? around 4km underneath the Amazon river. The Rio Hamza, named after the head of the team of researchers who found the groundwater flow, appears to be as long as the Amazon river but up to hundreds of times wider.

  Both the Amazon and Hamza flow from west to east and are around the same length, at 6,000km. But whereas the Amazon ranges from 1km to 100km in width, the Hamza ranges from 200km to 400km.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/75qnIQLPxsE/-Midday-open-thread

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