Sooners Fatter than Ever: Oklahoma Obesity Rate Goes Up

New obesity figures show that Oklahoma was one of 28 states where the rate of obesity went up.

 

Oklahoma ranked among the highest states in nation, most of which are in the South (see below). 

The top twelve states and their rates of obesity:

1. Mississippi                                                 33.8

2. Alabama and Tennessee (tie)                     31.6

4. West Virginia                                              31.3

5. Louisiana                                                    31.2

6. Oklahoma                                                  30.6

7. Kentucky                                                    30.5

8. Arkansas                                                     30.1

9. South Carolina                                            29.9

10. Michigan and North Carolina (tie)           29.4

Racial Politics: GOP Senators Use Kagan Hearing to Attack Thurgood Marshall

Republican senators, including Oklahoma's Tom Coburn, are using the Supreme Court hearings for Elena Kagan to attack the Court's first African American justice, Thurgood Marshall. 

Led by Alabama's Jeff Sessions, this is bad for the nation and a curiously nasty position, another aspect of the GOP's hostility to civil rights and its legacy.

At bottom, the Republicans are still pushing their discredited Southern strategy, subtly (or not) reinforcing and promoting white hostility to the social and economic gains of blacks and other minorities. 

Tom Coburn should know better, but his ideological blinders are so narrow that he can't see beyond his nose. The sorry details here.

Sen. McCain Goes Wrong: Phoenix is NOT the No. 2 Kidnapping Capital

He could have been president. But John McCain picked an airhead named Sarah Palin for his vice presidential—a colossal lapse of judgment that doomed his presidential ambitions.

Now John McCain is making up statistics to support his reelection campaign. The statistic in question had to do with kidnapping and McCain's assertion that that Phoenix has one of the highest kidnapping rates in the world. It's number two, McCain said.

Somebody checked the figures. McCain was wrong. He made it up. The full story here.

Flip-flop Wamp: Tennessee Republican Decries Stimulus, Touts the Money

Like a lot of conservative Republican lawmakers (several Oklahomans come to mind), Tennessee Rep. Zack Wamp has two positions on the federal stimulus.

These two positions are completely contradictory, of course.

Wamp, a candidate for governor in the Volunteer State, spent much of last year (and this) railing against the Federal spending package.

But when the dollars flowed to his district, Wamp was happy to claim credit for boosting the economy back home.

It's classic Republican nonsense, the same sort practiced by Oklahoma's GOP legislators, including Tulsa Rep. John Sullivan.

The flip-flop Wamp story is here.

Friday Night Wine Blogging: Woodbridge 2007 Pinot Noir (from France!)

Yes, we know that Woodbridge is a California winery started by the late wine evangelist Robert Mondavi. But this Pinot Noir is a French import—it says so right on the bottle.

That's just fine with us—we like good wine at a fair price no matter what its origin or label.

The 2007 Woodbridge Pinot comes from Pays de l'Herault, a place (in France, of course) we know nothing about.

Despite our ignorance, we found the wine worked with salmon, just like it said on the back label. And to continue the winemaker's blurb, it is somewhat "silky" with generalized "spice flavors."

For the price—we paid under $10—this Pinot a perfectly pleasant red wine, intense enough to stand up to the salmon and soft enough to drink with a mild cheese.

Or just to sip on an easy Friday night—that works too.

Recent Reading: Joseph O'Neill's Award-winning Novel, 'Netherland'

The AT gang likes to keep abreast of contemporary writing and writers, as our regular readers will attest.

We're deliberately eclectic in our literary tastes, reading nonfiction (recently, a lot of Iraq war books) as well as fiction, old and new.

Our most recent serious novel (we're skipping John Grisham's The Rainmaker) is Netherland, a 2008 novel by the Irish-born writer Joseph O'Neill. 

Netherland is a curious but lovely book, sophisticated enough to win critical praise and the Pen/Faulkner Award. It is the story of Hans van den Brock, a Dutchman working in New York who finds himself friends with a shady but lively cricket fanatic named Chuck Ramkissoon.

Indeed, the novel is something of a philosophical contemplation of cricket, a game we don't understand. Despite that problem, O'Neill's prose is so gorgeous and his story so unusual that we were quickly seduced, easily falling for his emotionally fraught characters and their lives.

To sum up: Netherland is a beautiful novel for the right reader, a reader open to sensitive language, delicate relationships and an original vision of the American city. 

Note: We'd like to hear from other Netherland fans. If you've read it and want to offer an opinion, post it below.

More Texas Republican Nuttiness: The Terrorist Baby Plot

Texas Republican are just about as silly as Oklahoma Republicans—but at least they are in Texas.

Still, we never cease to be amazed at the conspiracy theories these guys seem to believe.

Or maybe they don't believe them at all—they just want to scare the voters.

The latest such theory was articulated by Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert. It involves the birthing terrorist babies who can grow up to become radicalized and then destroy us.

Sure, it will take 20 or 30 years, but who's counting? The story, with video, here.

Annals of Conservative Hypocrisy: Taking that Dirty Federal Money

The Kansas City Star is reporting on a Missouri man railing against government handouts while—wait for it—accepting more than $1 million in government cash.

The Democrats, the man claims, are a party of parasites.  But his government handouts are different, of course.

Read the story here.

Sen. Coburn's Not-So-Straight Talk

Dr. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma's junior U.S. senator, prides himself on being a straight-talkin' regular guy.

He'll be the first to tell you that he's not one of those Washington weasels who will say whatever it takes to keep the voters happy.

But even Coburn turns into a weasel when it suits his purpose. The most recent example was Coburn's appearance on CNN, where he was a Big Time Weasel regarding the GOP line on BP and the oil spill.

Coburn didn't want to get caught on one side or the other, which is when the Big Weasel tactic comes into play. Read and see the video report here.

J.C. Watts Gets Mired in GOP Arizona Infomercial Controversy

Former Oklahoma congressman J. C. Watts, a Republican, is back in the news—but not in a good way.

Turns out that Watts was a television pitchman for a company that promoted "free money" from (where else?) the U.S. government.

What makes this news is the Arizona candidacy of another former congressman, conservative J. D. Hayworth, who is running against John McCain for the U.S. Senate. Hayworth as also a shill for the "free money" company.

It's the kind of thing that makes conservative Republicans look bad. In a sentence, it looks like this: Never let principles stand in the way of a quick buck.

The TPM link is here.

Politics According to Cohen: Smart is Out; Dumb is In

Richard Cohen, writing in the Washington Post, examines the rise of political know-nothingness, exemplified by the rise of clueless Tea Party candidates.

Turns out, Cohen writes, it's all the fault of smart people, especially those without values:

The oil industry is full of smart people, and so is the mortgage industry. Smart people seem to have brought us nothing but trouble. Smarts without values is dangerous -- threatening, scary, virtually un-American. This is why a succession of archconservative eccentrics have succeeded. Their values are obvious, often shockingly so. We know what they want, just not how they are ever going to get it. Experience has become a handicap and inexperience a virtue. Smart is out. Dumb is in.

Re-thinking Trash: Columnist Green Gets Close to the Problem

Tulsans throw away far too much.

We say this based on a visit to the Tulsa landfill, where we saw old computers, appliances and other pieces of junk being bulldozed under the dirt.To our untrained eyes, this didn't look economical or safe. 

This helps explain our interest in Tulsa World columnist Wayne Green's piece Sunday on the trouble with Tulsa's landfill and Tulsans' proclivity for throwing out far too much. It's an informative and thoughtful piece, well worth consideration.

It sounds like time for the city to reconsider its trash policies. Read Green's column here.

Texas Congressman Joe Barton Becomes New National Punchline

Thanks to Texas congressman Joe Barton, a pro-oil Republican, the late night comedians have a juicy new target.

Here's a quick sample from Jimmy Kimmel:

Rep. Joe Barton of Texas took it upon himself to apologize to BP CEO Tony Hayward for a political "shakedown." He later apologized for his apology and explained that he hadn't seen the news in two months, and didn't know that BP recently destroyed the ocean.

Texas Bonehead of the Week: Rep. Joe Barton Backs Down on Oil Comments

Don't we all just love British Petroleum?

No, we don't. 

But that didn't stop Texas Rep. Joe Barton from showing some love to BP yesterday when, incredibly, he apologized to the oil company for the government's treatment of the poor ole oil giant.

Even Barton's Republican allies were ashamed of the apology. 

Then there was Barton's comment that the $20 billion escrow account pushed by the Obama Administration that Barton called a "shakedown." He's apologized.

So it is with a great deal of false pride that we nominate Rep. Joe Barton for the highly coveted title of Texas Bonehead of the Week. The whole story here.

Wingnuts Still Pushing Obama's Secret: He's a Muslim—Not!

Ah, to be a Wingnut, to live in a fact-free world where whatever you want to believe can be true.

It must be a great way to live: Who needs facts? They're dull. Who needs evidence? That's silly. Wingnuts have tremendous faith in their own powers of imagination.

In other words, if they can imagine it, why—presto!—it could be true. Hell, it probably is.

All of which brings us to the radio stylings of G. Gordon Liddy, who this week advanced the "Obama is a secret Muslim" theory, a theory based on thin air. 

As Media Matters has documented, this idea won't die, despite weak links to hard facts and real evidence. Moreover, it shows the dishonest lengths some wingbags will go to discredit the president.

It's stupid and dangerous, but these folks keep trying. Read the full report here.

Public Support Rises for New Health Care Law

Oops! While the right-wing blowhards were scaring themselves silly, the public is slowly beginning to embrace the new health care law.

Here's new polling data, undermining the Chicken Little response of the Republicans and the their hysterical allies:

A new Associated Press-Gfk poll finds public support for President Barack Obama's health care law has risen to its highest point to date. Yet the nation remains divided over the new law, with 45 percent in favor and 42 percent opposed.

Still, that's a significant change from May, when supporters were outnumbered 39 percent to 46 percent. And it's the strongest backing for the overhaul since the AP-Gfk poll began asking in September.