Six recalls in Wisconsin

Not unexpectedly, Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg conceded to the sitting judge, ultraconservative David Prosser. I remain convinced that election was stolen by the GOP operative who "lost" 7,000+ votes and then suddenly found them when Prosser lost, but no matter. Impossible to prove she rigged it.

That should serve as a reminder that activists need to work on verified voting starting yesterday, but of more immediate import, three more recall petitions against Wisconsin Statehouse Republicans were certified today, bringing the grand total to six. On the flip side, the three recall challenges to Wisconsin Democrats were so fraught with fraud they appear to be unlikely to go forward.

Meanwhile, the certification commission asked the Wisconsin legislature for more funds to continue their work. Shockingly the GOP dominated body is ignoring their request.

I know what you're thinking

By Capt. Fogg

My first thought was: I've seen this scenario in some cheesy Tom Cruise infected Sci-Fi movie. Apparently that thought occurred to the Nature.com editorial staff as well. The Department of Homeland Security it would seem, is testing a system to detect malicious thoughts. No really.

They call it Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) because that's what government departments do with their doings, lest clear speech shed clear light. They make up acronyms that disguise the tunnels they dig under the foundations of liberty, but I digress. The technology purports to identify individuals who are planning to blow things up or have "malintent" as they say in the dialect.

Like a more traditional polygraph, FAST measures heart rates, among other things. Heart rates respiration and perspiration go up, after all when you're nervous about the bomb in your shorts or wishing you could throttle some thick-skull TSA twit as he gives you grief over an aspirin in your pants pocket that shows up on a scanner and starts groping you for explosives as you put your hands over your head in abject submission. Hell I'm sure I'd set off all kinds of alarm bells right now just thinking of how I've so often been treated as a felon on his way into the penitentiary instead of a tired traveler trying to get home.

I have no idea about what else this electro-mechanical night club bouncer measures and I'm not sure it invades any privacy that hasn't already been taken away by the cowardly traitors who passed the "Patriot" Act. I'm too lazy and too unwilling to provoke myself into another Lewis Black style tantrum to read the " Privacy Impact Assessment" our bureaucratic brethren at DHS have given us. I'll leave that to you. Besides my loathing of people who seem to exist only for the purpose of inserting that fly-blown and putrid metaphor into every sentence, it was written, most revealingly, by someone any German speaker will recognize as the Devil himself: Hugo Teufel III, Chief Privacy offer at the DHS under George W. Bush.

Does it work any better than the Polygraph does at detecting the evasions of sociopaths? It would have to, since those tend to be the people we're looking to put on no-fly lists and of course we won't have the results interpreted by a seasoned professional, but rather someone who was promoted from K-Mart security officer last week.

No, it's the stuff of B movies or sarcastic Dr. Strangelove sequels or even Orwell novels, but perhaps we've lost the ability even to see what the politics of fear has done to us in our cringing, cowardly new century.

No dicking around

While our lily-livered establishment media continues to treat Breitbart and his minions as credible instead of as criminal fabulists, the silver lining in the hacking of Anthony Weiner's social media accounts is that it may be the "prank" that finally takes down Breitbart's House of Cheats and Liars. Weiner has hired legal counsel and the activist left is doing the legwork for the FBI.

In a sane world, Brietbart would end up in jail, but I'd be happy enough to see his BigJerks empire destroyed and see Andy regulated to shouting on street corners.

Cock and bull story

I know that politicians can't always keep their junk in their pants. And yeah, I remember how we got burned on John Edwards after we all defended him. But let's be real here. Weiner is a New Yorker and he's young enough to understand how the internets work. No matter how new he is to twitter, I find it extraordinarily difficult to believe he would be so stupid as to tweet a photo of his dick to some young groupie, even by DM.

Let's look at the facts for a moment. The usual cretins are now piling on this unfortunate young woman and selectively choosing their "facts" to make a bogus case. Cripes. If I had a buck for every time I saw some fangirl call a well known person her boyfriend, I'd be rich enough to retire. Hell, I've done it myself.

This isn't the National Enquirer. It's the usual vicious idiots of Breitbart Nation driving this faux scandal. So not sure why anyone is taking it at all seriously. Except maybe to expose the fakery.

Feel like I won a Pulitizer

Wow. I've been blogging politics for eons in blog years, so it's fair to say I'm pretty jaded. But some things still excite me like a teenager who just got asked to the prom by the most popular guy in school and this is one of them. I just figured out that a long time dream of mine has been realized. I'm now on the Balloon Juice blogroll.

I suspect the relentlessly kind and generous Doug J had something to do with this, but whoever is responsible for this impossible honor -- thanks so much. Really appreciate the encouragement.

The inner Santorum

Maybe I'm just punchy from exhaustion, or maybe you have to know a lot of the subtext behind Rick "Man on Dog" Santorum, but these tweets via Mistermix literally had me laughing out loud for a very long time.

Maybe he should be praying to his God for some revelations on how this internet thing works...

Palin's Murky Murika Tour - Updated 2X

Thousands of aging bikers, tenaciously clinging to their wild youth, are assembling in DC today for the Rolling Thunder rally and most are eagerly awaiting the arrival of "real" Murika's most accomplished grifter, Sarah Palin, who invited herself via a press release. And ever the master of media manipulation, the Mistress of Mystique will arrive late and inform the minions of her plans whenever she damn well feels like it.

Ms. Palin, the former governor of Alaska, had yet to arrive by 9 a.m., and her aides did not offer any details about her participation in the event.

Maybe she and the Toddster will jump on a hog and ride with the boys. Maybe she'll deign to speak to the masses. Or maybe not. Me, I'm wondering if she'll arrive in full leathers and motorcycle boots or just stick to a vest, assless chaps and high heels.

Murika's most famous "true Patriot" invited herself to the rally under the pretense of launching an East Coast tourist trip clearly designed to generate photo ops and speculation about her presidential intentions. But in keeping with her prima donna persona:

The nature of Ms. Palin’s bus tour also remained murky even as it prepared to begin on Sunday. Aides would not say where, exactly, she would go during the next several days, saying only that reporters should keep an eye on her Web site. As of Sunday morning, a schedule of events could not be found on the Web site.

Nor will there ever likely be any. Our Narcissus of the North wants to maximize the media attention by forcing them to chase her, which conveniently also creates the illusion that the big bad liberal press is hounding her. As I've said before, you do have to give her credit for self-promotion. Every move she makes is calculated to maintain her fan base and build her brand.

Update: Well her Highness made a grand entrance visibly enjoying herself as a crush of reporters and bikers swarmed her motorcycle. Well it wasn't exactly her motorcycle but she did go for a ride of sorts:

Ms. Palin climbed aboard a chopper, assisted by a member of the Rolling Thunder staff, but was unable to move because there were so many members of the press snapping photos. Organizers eventually brought in police, also on motorcycles, to clear a path.

After moving just a few feet, Ms. Palin got off the bike to sign autographs and talk with the crowd.

As I've long said, Mooselini is incurious and uninformed but she's not stupid. What a perfectly executed photo op. As for her outfit, she wore a black Harley-Davidson helmet and a black leather jacket. Couldn't see her shoes in the photo. Assuming she wore boots with those black jeans.

Update Two: Not sure why I'm so obsessed with her wardrobe today but AP updates Palin's Rolling Thunder outfit. Apparently, the leather jacket was just a quick prop for the opening photo op. She spent most of her time in heels, black flair slacks and a short-sleeved black T-shirt. Also, too, Rolling Thunder organizers were unhappy about her grandstanding entrance and even some of her fans were somewhat disgruntled about her shamelessly using an event that is meant to focus on veterans as a vehicle for personal opportunism.

Wisconsin union busters foiled

This is also kind of old news but to the extent I've been on the grid, I didn't see much buzz about it. The courts tromped on Gov. Walker's union busting bill:

Ruling that Republicans in the State Senate had violated the state's open meetings law, a judge in Wisconsin dealt a blow to them and to Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday by granting a permanent injunction that voided a law curbing collective bargaining rights for many state and local employees.

Of course, this is just the District Court and the State Supreme court may well overturn this ruling, considering it's overrun with conservatives most likely beholden in some secret way to the Kochs. Still, good to see the GOPers too clever by half machinations struck down, even if it's only temporary.

Romney and Palin and Cain, oh my!

Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore... This is old news already but the header on this told me Romney, Palin and Cain are lead contenders for the GOP nomination. Which is sort of true. But none of the above is actually outpolling them all. Since then I've seen Rick "good hair" Perry is contemplating throwing his hat into this three ring circus. The only thing missing from this ongoing freak show is Meghan McCain announcing her intent but I guess we'll have to wait a few more years till she gets old enough to run.

Meanwhile, having so enjoyed her relative absence from the daily news frenzy, I'm a bit irritated that Palin is pretending harder to be running again. Guessing it's just a ploy to drum up interest in the upcoming documentary about her life, which would also explain why Fox isn't pressing her to declare or leave the station as they did to Huck.

On some level you do have to sort of admire her talent for self-promotion. She's a supreme manipulator. Via Doug J, thinking Steve M sees Palin's future correctly:

If I had to guess, I’d say she’s never going to announce a run, she’s never going to announce that she’s not going to run, she’s going to threaten to jump into the race until the last conceivable second, and even then she’s going to threaten to declare herself a candidate at a brokered convention as long as the race is in flux. Oh, and she’ll also never declare herself a third-party candidate, but she’ll never stop floating rumors that she might become one.

I curse John McCain for inflicting this woman on us. But on the bright side, at least she stopped carting poor little Trig around like a sack of flour as campaign prop. So there's that...

GOPer to retirees: Move to Canada for your health care

Georgia Congressman Rob Woodall is a real Georgia peach. He's had it with whiny voters who expect big gummit to take care of them in their old age. When a constituent at a town hall meeting asked him what she was supposed to do about health insurance because her employer doesn't offer health care benefits into retirement Woodall told her to pay for her own damn health care:

"Hear yourself, ma'am. Hear yourself," Woodall told the woman. "You want the government to take care of you, because your employer decided not to take care of you. My question is, 'When do I decide I'm going to take care of me?'"

And he added if she doesn't like that answer she should move to Canada or some other country with "soshulized" medicine.

"If you want a socialized health care program, there are lots of places to find that," he said. "But, for your children's sake, I beg you: There aren't many places to find the freedom to succeed by the sweat of your brow like we have here.”

Spoken by a guy who has been dining on big government largess for years and will be well taken care of in his retirement with a hefty pension and a gold plated health insurance policy at the taxpayer's expense. Just peachy.

GOP to disaster victims: Screw you

Sorry natural disaster victims. The GOP majority in the House say they simply can't afford to send you federal relief funds.

The No. 2 House Republican said that if Congress doles out additional money to assist in the aftermath of natural disasters across the country, the spending may need to be offset.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said “if there is support for a supplemental, it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental.”

You know the Republican drill newly homeless people, now living in devastation. You need to take personal responsibility for this stuff. Shouldn't have built your homes in a tornado zone.

Oh and by the way, the GOP wants you to pay for your own tornado warning systems too. You've been counting on big gummit to protect you for far too long. If the GOPers have anything to say about it, those days are over now.

Upset in upstate New York

Shocking. Turns out killing Medicare isn't popular, not even among the "git the gummit outta my life" crowd. Democrat Kathy Hochul easily wins the special election vacated by the disgraced Craig's List Congressman Chris Lee in a ridiculously Republican district.

The results set off elation among Democrats and soul-searching among Republicans, who questioned whether they should rethink their party’s commitment to the Medicare plan, which appears to have become a liability heading into the 2012 elections.

Gee whiz. Ya think? The numbers speak for themselves. Hochul pulls it out with a 6 point margin and the erstwhile Tea Party candidate Jack Davis didn't turn out to be enough of a spoiler to console the GOPers on the loss.

The Dems have a winning narrative here that could potentially flip their 2010 losses into a gain in 2012. DCCC chairman Steve Israel seems to get it:

“We served notice to the Republicans that we will fight them anywhere in America when it comes to defending and strengthening Medicare.

Meanwhile, it appears the GOP is going to explain away the loss to the rank and file by evoking voter fraud.

Jane L. Corwin this afternoon obtained a court order from State Supreme Court Justice Russell P. Buscaglia barring a certification of a winner in the special 26th Congressional District race pending a show-cause hearing before him later this week.

Wouldn't be surprised to see an attempt at a long term block of certification similar to the Norm Coleman/Al Franken debacle. But that ended well. So there's that...

World without end

Well wasn't that was the worst Rapture ever? End of the World Day is long over and all the crazy Christians are still here. Of course the bus company in NYC made a ton of money on all those ads. So there's that...

When the going gets tough, the weird turn pro

I've been basically off the grid for a week now so I'm just catching up briefly. I see the GOP field for 2012 has narrowed down. Mitch Daniels is out and so is Huck and Trump. Of course Trump was never serious anyway. So we're down to TPaw who threw his hat in today, Mittens and maybe Huntsman who I predict will drop out well before the convention. And is Newt still sort of in? I lost track of him. Oh wait. I almost forgot Cain. Who appears to be this season's Sarah Palin. I see he made a major blunder on the Mid-East policy today.

So in essence, the GOP's got nothing. Don't believe Jeb would run and neither will Ryan after the disastrous reception to his Roadmap to Ruin. Their best chance for a dark horse is Christie. Who I predict would be the new Fred Thompson. All bluster and no work ethic to speak of. But if they play it coy they'll still get their face time on the bobblehead shows. Maybe they can parlay that into a Fox "News" gig...

Technical problems

In case anyone has missed me, I'm having internet access issues that won't be solved for at least a couple of more days. I'll be back...

Meanwhile, I'm kind of sad that Donald Trump dropped out of the race. Would be so much fun to watch that campaign.

Health insurers rake in record profits

Now that employers are raising deductibles, co-pays and otherwise passing the rising costs of health insurance to their employees, even those with employer based health insurance are deferring necessary health care. This is very good for insurers:

The nation’s major health insurers are barreling into a third year of record profits, enriched in recent months by a lingering recessionary mind-set among Americans who are postponing or forgoing medical care. [...]

Yet the companies continue to press for higher premiums, even though their reserve coffers are flush with profits and shareholders have been rewarded with new dividends.

Many defend proposed double-digit increases in the rates they charge, citing a need for protection against any sudden uptick in demand once people have more money to spend on their health, as well as the rising price of care.

An obviously bogus argument since health care costs are still rising at a pace well over the rate of overall inflation and wages aren't going up outside of the executive salaries at big corporations.

Meanwhile insurance underwriters continue to "make room for profits" by over-estimating costs. Apparently they're getting better at it all the time.

If people were only foregoing unneccessary tests this trend might be beneficial in bringing costs under control. However, it appears they're skipping important preventative treatments simply because they can't afford it, even with the employer picking up the largest share of the costs. In the long run, this will probably lead to higher costs for serious illnesses and premature deaths.

Hard to believe the "greatest country in the world" can't come up with a better way to deliver health care. [If you're locked out of NYT, article is reprinted here.]

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Bipartisan is just another word for choosing who will lose

Our political duopoly is destroying democracy as we once knew it. Of course, this has been obvious for a very long time, but now, for reasons that aren't clear to me, the GOPers decided not only not to bother to hide it, but are openly boasting about it. Jon Walker captures my reaction to Mitch McConnell's remarks about the debt ceiling fight.

It is no wonder so many Americans are cynical about politics. You have our political leaders openly admit the reason the two parties should work together is so they can get away with conspiring against the will of the people, and most of the pundits clap loudly, calling this strategy for undermining the principles of democracy “courageous.”

Jon is riffing off Dave Weigel's report on McConnell's candor when he said:

I was running for the Senate the first time in 1984. This was the year after the bipartisan agreement between Reagan and O'Neill raised the retirement age for Social Security. I do not exaggerate when I say I was not asked about it a single solitary time. Not once in the course of a whole race. And the reason was that they did it together. When you do something together, the result is that it's not usable in the election. I think there's an understanding that if there's a grand bargain, none of it will be usable in next year's election."

Dave reminds me that "the 1983 crisis was explicitly about Social Security becoming insoluble." Then they raised the payroll tax and the retirement age. Now they want to use the same "crisis" ploy to destroy the social safety net altogether. Seriously, McConnell is salivating over cutting Medicare and Medicaid.

I keep hearing Obama isn't going to let them do it, but I haven't seen any strong evidence yet that he's going to come through to save the day. Thinking Steve Benen gets Obama's choice right.

With that in mind, the White House is also effectively left with two options. Option #1: tell Republicans there will be no deal and when the economy crashes, it will be their fault. Option #2: tell the GOP negotiations can proceed after Republican leaders start adding details to their own ransom note.

Exactly. Obama is holding all aces. It's time for him to show he's willing to play that hand. Call their bluff and make them show their cards. [graphic via Engaging Conflicts]

Ain't nobody's business if they do

I have no clue who this rapper Common is, but I'm astounded so many people are peeved he's been invited to the White House. Seriously. Screw the haters. It's none of their damn business who the Obamas invite into their home for a visit.

And where the hell were they when Bush was appointing known criminals to high government positions? If memory serves these complainers were all about executive privilege back then.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Tea Party Freshmen Mediscared

Turned out to be kind of a crazy day. Been offline for most of it and off to a pick-up shift at work so only have a moment to pass this gem on. Steve Benen catches our Tea Party freshman whining about being picked on:

A group of House Republican freshmen, tired of getting hammered on Medicare, is leading a fresh protest against Democrats’ tactics on the senior citizen health care program.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger sent a letter to the White House Tuesday signed by 41 of his classmates “calling on President Obama to end the ‘MediSCARE’ tactics,” according to a release today.

So say the same people who lied their pudgy little faces off about Medicare in order to get elected. And it's just so unfair that the Democrats are telling the truth about their hero Paul Ryan's plan to destroy the program completely. Now their constitutents aren't being nice to them anymore. Throw me a crying towel. As my ex used to say, payback's a bitch.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Ryan: Just need better sloganery

The GOP's golden boy of budgetary voodoo is losing his luster both on the Hill and in the public arena. It turns out his Roadmap to Ruin isn't popular anymore. Not that anyone is calling him "unserious" yet, but the booing in the audience is starting to drown out the applause.

However Ryan is sticking with his plan. He thinks it's just a tiny messaging problem:

"Anything this big takes a while to sink in for people to understand," Ryan said. "As soon as people realize just how dire our fiscal situation is, and what our drivers are -- namely, our entitlement programs -- the more they're supportive of this."

Good luck with that. While I've long admired the GOP's talent for coming up with sticky doublespeak slogans that sell their policies under false pretenses, there aren't enough words in the English language to conjure up a vision that sells killing Medicare as "saving" it.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Boehner on his own

Boehner issued his ransom demand for raising the debt ceiling in a speech to some Wall Street bigwigs. Two trillion in unspecified spending cuts and no tax raises on wealthy campaign donors. However, Medicare "reform" or as I like to call it, killing Medicare as we know it, is on the table. Hell, it's the main course.

Shorter Wall Street response was: "Meh. He's just posturing." Which was pretty much mine as well. This is clearly the same game he played with the government shutdown. Talk tough until the last possible moment to please the clueless base and then make a deal that won't piss them off so much that they'll remember it for very long.

But this time the Senate Dems won't be giving Boehner any cover. They're going to let the Dems pass the bill on their side so they can accuse them of being spendthrifts. Which I know assumes Dems have the balls to pass it alone without caving into the cuts. And the savvy to understand passing it that way would give them them the "we saved Medicare" card.

But if the Senate Dems were smart enough to call the GOPers' bluff in their chamber, Boehner is suddenly left to play a hand full of wild Tea Party Jokers while the Dems hold the aces. And in this round of the game, the Jokers are not trump cards.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Japan rejects reliance on nuclear energy

In the aftermath of the tsunami and the ensuing disasters at their seaside nuclear power plants, Japan announced it will "start from scratch" on its long term energy policy.

Kan told a news conference that nuclear and fossil fuel used to be the pillars of Japanese energy policy but now it will add two more – renewable energy such as solar, wind and biomass, and an increased focus on conservation.

Good choice. And on a related note, a new report by the UN's IPCC, said that renewable energy could account for 80% of the world's energy supply by 2050 – but only if governments pursue the right policies.

In other words we could still mitigate man-made climate disruption if only our political class could find the will to do what's best collectively for all, instead of what is politically expedient for their own short term interests. Not planning to hold my breath while I'm waiting.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Fracking crazy

One of these days, our energy addiction is going to destroy this planet. A new peer-reviewed study, conducted by Duke University and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, discovered severe methane contamination in the proximity of gas fracking extractions:

“Our results show evidence for methane contamination of shallow drinking water systems in at least three areas of the region and suggest important environmental risks accompanying shale gas exploration worldwide,” the article states. [...]

In Dimock, Pa., where part of the Duke study was performed, some residents’ water wells exploded or their water could be lit on fire. In at least a dozen cases in Colorado, ProPublica’s investigation found, methane had infiltrated drinking water supplies that residents said were clean until hydraulic fracturing was performed nearby. [...]

Methane is not regulated in drinking water, and while research is limited, it is not currently believed to be harmful to drink. But the methane is dangerous because as it collects in enclosed spaces it can asphyxiate people nearby, or lead to an explosion.

I wonder how it's possible something that can asphyxiate you is still safe to drink, but that aside, how is it possible that there's "an exemption in federal law that prohibits the EPA from regulating hydraulic fracturing?" That's a rhetorical question, of course. The answer is obviously industry campaign donations.

The study suggests the methane migration could be natural seepage. However, my unscientific guess is when they're drilling through porous rock, the drilling process itself would open new rifts that allows the gas to migrate.

And another downside to the study is they found no evidence of contamination by the chemicals used in the fracking process which will surely be seized on by the gas corps to justify continuing the operations unfettered by tiresome safety regulations. However, if memory serves, we don't actually know chemicals they are using because it's an industry secret. So the study raises as many questions as it answers, but one thing is clear. This process is dangerous and there's so many unknown hazards, there should be an immediate moratorium on any fracking until those questions are fully answered.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Dems put oil subsidies on the table

In a sane society, we would stop subsidizing multinational conglomerates that have been raking in obscene profits for years and also happen to be major polluters of our planet. We would take those taxpayer dollars and invest in clean energy. But we live in Crazytown, USA where clean energy is viewed by a large percentage of the population as an evil plot against "our way of life" so I'm thinking the Democrats have a good strategy here.

Linking two of the politically volatile issues of the moment, Senate Democrats say they will move forward this week with a plan that would eliminate tax breaks for big oil companies and divert the savings to offset the deficit.

Politically, it's the most brilliant move the Dems have made in years. Pits the GOPers against their Tea Party base. And they seem to have a good narrative going:

“Big Oil certainly doesn’t need the collective money of taxpayers in this country,” said Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, one of the authors of the legislation that Democrats intend to showcase. “This is as good a time as any in terms of pain at the pump and in revenues needed for deficit reduction.” [...]

“I am happy to have this debate on the floor for days,” Mr. Menendez said.

Hell, I'd be happy to watch that debate for days. Even weeks. And if ending the subsidies is the actual outcome -- all the better. Even if the savings aren't used all that wisely.

Adding, on a different note, the slant of this article is interesting. If you read the whole thing you'll note that the Democratic strategy is being portrayed in terms of political manuvuering, but the lame GOP response in trotting out the old canard about a backdoor tax that will be passed onto the consumers isn't characterized as a political sleight of phrase to please their base. Darn that liberal media. [graphic]

They make their own reality

Working an early shift again today and it's a long one, so no time to blog till this evening. Which is probably a blessing because there's no current news worth talking about anyway. But if you were wondering what wingnuttia is "thinking" about the death of bin Laden, or even if you weren't, Public Edroso reads the wingnuts so you don't have to.

Not even going to excerpt it, because Edroso's hilarious rundown should be read in its full snarky glory.

Idle pleasures

Happy Mother's Day if it applies to your situation and if not, hope you had as lovely a day as I did. Had to work an early shift but I was out in time to enjoy the glorious weather this afternoon. Walked over to see the family and hung out watching the mockingbirds fight off the robins while the cardinals under cover of the ruckus slid to the feeders undetected. I weeded my Dad and Mom's little garden. I love to weed. It's so grounding and the finished product is so satisfying to view.

Lots of people wished me a Happy Mother's Day today. None of them so far was my only child. It's okay. We don't really have a Hallmark holiday kind of relationship. I'm sort of used to it by now.

Anyway, I'm mellow and not feeling at all like dealing with the crazy tonight. Cruised the news and I just don't want to talk about it. But I did love this photo essay that Avedon unearthed. If this guy wasn't already taken, I would beg this pinball wizard to marry me. In the alternate, I want to be his BFF.

Little Brown Jug, how I love thee

So I think my computer is dying. It's crashed at least ten times in the four hours I've been online today. And productivity has also been thwarted by Doug J's recent obsession with karaoke. Spent at least an hour musing over my many and various karaoke life experiences.

And then I remembered the original karaoke. They used to play these cartoons at 7:00am. Every day. So you could watch before you went to school.



Those were different times. The generation of baby boomers grew up on this stuff. But nobody would air anything like this today. And by the way, for you young folks, pink elephants were the original +4 or more.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

The Great White Dopes

I didn't watch the Battle of the Half-Wits last night but the pre-game show says everything about today's GOP:

In Greenville, South Carolina tonight, five presidential contenders will meet for the first GOP presidential primary debate. According to the official program of the pre-debate “Freedom Rally,” is sponsored by several extremist groups, including the Oath Keepers militia group and the radical anti-communist John Birch Society. You can see a picture of the program here.

Seriously. All that was missing from this gathering of Hatriots was the KKK. Maybe they don't have the money. But plenty of dough in the pockets of the Birchers, who are in essence the rich man's version of our white cloaked Supremists.

Probably a tossup between the KKK and the JBS as the oldest or most powerful segregationist hate group in our country, but the Oath Keepers are certainly in contention for the kookiest and brook no rival in capitalizing on the rage and paranoia of fringe right rubes. See the Think Progress link for the gory details if you don't who they are. And even if you do know, click over to see the photo of SC's Tea Party governor standing in front of their banner.

See also AZ's crackpot Congressman Trent Franks who's surely destined to become the GOP's next Great White Dope. Mark my words. He'll be challenging Chris Christie for the title in 2016.

The Dog of War

I don't care about seeing photos or videos of the execution of bin Laden. I know they can't really release a lot of details about the SEAL team that took him down, but I really would love to hear more about the one dog that went on the mission.

So far, all I've seen is some very general info on the military canine unit, but even that is fascinating. I had no idea there were some 2,800 dogs deployed in combat. And the idea of a dog skydiving just blows my mind. I know a lot of humans that would be too terrified to do even a tandem jump, which in reality is safer than driving to the airport.

Somebody at the NYT likes me

Or maybe it's somebody at Blogrunner. I find my little blog in the NYT's Blogrunner links sidebar all the time. Usually it's at the NYT's own blogs, but today I found it attached to an actual article. I don't know how long
this page lasts but even after all the years I've been blogging, I get a thrill when I see my name and little blog listed with all the big guys like Josh Marshall and Ezra Klein.

I don't know why I get picked up on this feed, but I really appreciate the encouragement. So thanks, to whoever is responsible for this occasional heartwarming miracle. [Graphic via webresourcesdepot.]

[Big thanks to Doug Harlan J at Balloon Juice for so kindly linking in.]

Boehner refuses to honor successful bin Laden mission

The Senate already passed their own resolution but Speaker Boehner won't allow the House to honor the team that took down bin Laden. Boehner cites the new House rules passed along party lines in January that "prohibit the consideration of any measure that “expresses appreciation, commends, congratulates, celebrates, recognizes the accomplishments of, or celebrates the anniversary of, an entity, event, group, individual, institution, team or government program; or acknowledges or recognizes a period of time for such purposes.”

However, the House was allowed to pass measures naming a Texas courthouse for the two Presidents Bush and a post office for a U.S. soldier slain in Iraq. The rules apparently allow this sort of tribute one day a month. But that aside, if memory serves, those new House rules were passed on January 5, 2011. Yet on Jan. 12, 2011 a sobbing Boehner called up a resolution honoring those killed and wounded in the Gabrielle Giffords shooting. "First responders and those who helped subdue the gunman were also noted in the resolution and Boehner pointed out their contributions."

Furthermore, the rule doesn't appear to prohibit the introduction and tabling of resolutions. A look at the list of current House actions lists 251 single resolutions alone. Among them are resolutions "Calling on the State Department to list the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as a 'Country of Particular Concern' with respect to religious freedom", expressing condolences with Australia over the deadly floods, recognizing the anniversary of the tragic earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, supporting the contributions of Catholic schools, supporting "Hockey is For Everyone Month" and "Celebrating the life of President Ronald Wilson Reagan on the 100th anniversary of his birth." Granted none of these appear to have come to a vote but they still take up time on the floor to introduce.

Also, it's not like the GOP doesn't have a history of pushing numerous honoray resolutions themselves. In July of 2010, Boehner co-sponsored a resolution honoring the troops in Iraq. And no complaints about wasting time when the House similarly honored a basketball player/jazz musician in July 2009, honored a pro-surfer in May 2010, and honored a former Congressman in December 2010.

And of course, the most infamous resolution of all was when 32 Republicans sponsored a resolution honoring serial liar James O'Keefe stating that O'Keefe was "owed a debt of gratitude by the people of the United States" for doctoring the videos that led to the demise of their hated enemy ACORN.

Funny, I'm so old I remember when every other phrase out of the GOP's mouths was "honor the troops." Now that these same troops took down US Public Enemy Number One after he was at large for almost ten years, Boehner's response is meh? Don't suppose that has anything to do with the fact there's a Democrat in the Oval Office, does it?

Show me no pictures

The media is whining about transparency and the need for "proof." But let's be real, they just want to exploit the images to spike their traffic. The far right is screeching that "those people" behead their victims on teevee and they want to see the mangled body of our conquest. Well, the violence porn fanatics are going to have to just use their imaginations. President Obama decided not to release the dead bin Laden photos.

Mr. Obama was direct in an interview with the CBS News program “60 Minutes,” to be broadcast Sunday, according to a transcript released by the network. “It is very important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence — as a propaganda tool.”

“That’s not who we are,” Mr. Obama added. “You know, we don’t trot out this stuff as trophies.” He said, “We don’t need to spike the football.”

“Certainly there’s no doubt among Al Qaeda members that he is dead,” he said on “60 Minutes.” “And so we don’t think that a photograph in and of itself is going to make any difference. There are going to be some folks who deny it. The fact of the matter is, you will not see Bin Laden walking on this earth again.”

This strikes me as the correct choice. The only purpose releasing the photos would ultimately serve is as a graphic for recruitment posters for AQ. The photo is the modern day equivalent of displaying a head on a pike. Civilized societies don't parade the corpses of their vanquished foes.

Mr.Bush sends his regrets

I saw yesterday the bloviators on Fox were whining that President Obama wasn't sharing the glory with Bush for the killing of bin Laden by inviting him to the Ground Zero event tomorrow. As it turns out, Obama did invite his predecessor to share the limelight but Mr. Bush sent his regrets. The official statement said Bush prefers to avoid the public stage post-presidency and certainly, that's been true enough. We've seen little of him and he hasn't engaged in the sort of Obama bashing that many of the former Bush administration cronies *cough* Cheney *cough* have delighted in.

Of course, many of us feel like Bush deserves more blame than glory, but inviting him was the correct and gracious to do. And while I suspect a big part of the reason Bush declined was he knew he would look very small standing next to the man who actually got bin Laden, it was gracious of him to leave the moment to President Obama alone.

In related news, Nancy Pelosi also showed her graciousness this week:

"House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said she called former President George W. Bush on Tuesday to congratulate him on the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden."


“'I wanted him to know the appreciation that many of us have in a bipartisan way ... that his role was important,' she said."

Admit I choked a little bit on that line, but -- classy. This is what it looks like when politicians act like adults. The GOPers on Capitol Hill could take a lesson from this, but they probably won't.

[Thanks to The Week for kindly linking in.]

Osama bin Laden laughs in Hell

Speaking of of old friends today, Radley Balko is an old pal I lost touch with when I moved out drug policy reform blogging. I picked this link up on Twitter a couple of days ago and now some of the big bloggers are linking, so he won't notice I've linked in. But if you missed this post, it's worth reading for the list of what we've lost in the last ten years and this is still worthy of quote of the day:

Yes, bin Laden the man is dead. But he achieved all he set out to achieve, and a hell of a lot more. He forever changed who we are as a country, and for the worse. Mostly because we let him. That isn’t something a special ops team can fix.

As I said before, with bin Laden dead we've served vengeance and that is a victory we probably needed. But Osama left us living in our own, self-created, hell on earth. Justice will never be served unless and until we restore our lost civil liberties and regain our sense of reality on the limits of protecting ourselves against terrorism.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

The Loony Left

Blogging over many years is kind of like traveling. You meet a lot of people along the way. Some you stay friends with forever. Sometimes you form a friendship that slowly peters out and you lose touch. Thus it is with my old friend Michael van der Galien. We connected when I first started blogging at The Reaction. He was posting at The Moderate Voice in those days. We were rather close before we went our separate ways over the years, both creatively and politically. I haven't "seen" him in a long time.

Today, I just happened to follow an unfamiliar link in my referrals and discovered he has a new project, Right Across the Atlantic. He put me on his blogroll under the heading, "Loony Left." Interesting to see who else is in that category. Speaks volumes about the evolution of blogging relationships. I suppose, being a democratic soul who likes to give new sites a little boost, I should put him on my blogroll too. Maybe I'll invent a new category for him too considering how far to the right he's ventured since first we met.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Obama owns this mission

Going to take days to shake out the speculative chaff from the grains of truth rattling around the competing narratives about bin Laden. It's been perversely amusing to watch the contortions among the usual suspects on the fringe right as they try to twist the facts to fit their personal mythology where Bush is the hero and torture always works. Doug J summarizes it best with his post title, Midway through the Obama recession, George W. Bush wins the war on terror. They're sure to convince each other.

In the real world, it's clear that Obama is not George W. Bush. Obama is not swaggering around pretending to be President while others make the decisions. Look at the close up of his face. Obama owns this mission.

With due credit to the 79 commandos and one dog that actually accomplished the deed, it was Obama's decision to send them in there and the choice obviously weighs heavy on him.

Whatever else can be said about the killing of bin Laden, and much more surely will be, it's undeniable his death is a major victory in bringing a symbolic closure to 9/11 and as a reminder that the United States still has capabilities that need to be respected in the world order. Like it or not, that's important to our national security. Despite my mixed emotions about the event and Obama's presidency in general, I'm enormously proud of him for keeping this campaign promise.

One reason to celebrate bin Laden's death

Okay, John Cole reminds me, I did have one moment of pure joy at the news of bin Laden's death. Now the next two or more news cycles will not be devoted to Trump's hurt feelings about being mocked at Saturday's dinner.

Also, too, whether it was planned or not, learning that the timing of the announcement interrupted The Apprentice, delighted me much more that it probably should have.

Vengeance is served: Osama bin Laden is dead

Not sad that Osama bin Laden is dead, but neither do I feel any joy. Mostly I feel kind of detached, like I'm watching this unfold, alone, from a great distance.

I keep hearing people talk about this event as justice served. But this wasn't justice. It was vengeance. There's a difference. Not to say it's necessarily a bad thing that 9/11 has now been symbolically avenged. And to the extent that it brings some sense of closure to the families of the dead, both on 9/11 and throughout all the invasions and current occupations that followed, I guess that's a good thing. Not so sure it's a cause for great celebration though.

I had dozed off last night watching dumb teevee. Woke up and heard the newsman say bin Laden is dead. Then they broke to commercial and sleep took me again. When I woke up this morning and saw the dancing in the streets my first reaction was surprise, followed closely by discomfort.

I know everyone processes emotional events like this differently, but as a life long anti-war and anti-death penalty activist, I found the cheering of death, even of such a vile person as bin Laden, to be somehow ugly and inappropriate. But then, in cruising the internets, I was reminded that these were mostly college kids in the streets. The tragedy of 9/11 was the defining moment of their generation and within their limited historical experience, I can understand how this would feel like a victory to be celebrated, even if I don't share their relief.

In contrast, I read that when the active duty troops heard the announcement, they reacted with silence. I would guess many were thinking what one soldier told a reporter.

"OK, he's dead," he said. "Can we go home?"

Sadly, the answer is likely to be no and as long as war and death continue, the victory belongs to bin Laden. Destruction and chaos were his express desire and these things won't end with his death. Neither victory or justice can be claimed until they do. When our world leaders lay down their arms against each other and agree to mutually deploy our forces in a battle against the real enemies on this planet -- climate change, poverty, sickness and hunger -- then will I celebrate with champagne in the streets.

I expect it will be a long wait. So for now, think I'll just engage in some quiet reflection and send my silent thanks to those troops who not only won't be coming home today but will also be facing increased danger from bin Laden's remaining loyalists. May the God of their choice protect them from harm.

Jokers wild

Guessing all the President's jokes about The Donald are going to stifle the news cycle for at least another couple more days, while this story goes down the memory hole. The very serious Paul Ryan said oil subsidies should be ended at a town hall last week. Boehner also said as much a few days earlier. In response, the White House issued a statement on oil subsidies, saying in part:

While there is no silver bullet to address rising gas prices in the short term, there are steps we can take to ensure the American people don’t fall victim to skyrocketing gas prices over the long term. One of those steps is to eliminate unwarranted tax breaks to the oil and gas industry and invest that revenue into clean energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Our outdated tax laws currently provide the oil and gas industry more than $4 billion per year in these subsidies, even though oil prices are high and the industry is projected to report outsized profits this quarter. In fact, in the past CEO’s of the major oil companies made it clear that high oil prices provide more than enough profit motive to invest in domestic exploration and production without special tax breaks. As we work together to reduce our deficits, we simply can’t afford these wasteful subsidies, and that is why I proposed to eliminate them in my FY11 and FY12 budgets.

I was heartened that Speaker Boehner yesterday expressed openness to eliminating these tax subsidies for the oil and gas industry. Our political system has for too long avoided and ignored this important step, and I hope we can come together in a bipartisan manner to get it done.

The House Dems also issued a letter asking Boehner to take a vote on ending the cursed oil subsidies. I'm sure you'll be shocked to learn that Boehner refuses to do so.

In fact, both Ryan and Boehner voted to extend those subsidies more than once and have no intention of ever ending them. Everybody who's paying attention knows that, and also knows it's unlikely to be mentioned again in the near future. Hells. It's already old news.

I wish we would be talking about this tomorrow. Sadly, it's much more likely we'll be talking about that idiot Trump.

Poor Little Rich Man

Republican Congressman Denny Rehberg held a town hall in his home state of Montana and tells his constituents he feels their pain:

"I’m a small businessman. My wife is a small businessman. She hasn’t taken a salary in ten years as a result of business. We’re struggling like everyone else. With the economy," Rehberg said.

Yep just a small businessman running a multi-million dollar ranch, who, "as of 2009 records, is the 14th richest member of the House of Representatives. Opensecrets.org estimates that his average net worth in 2009 was $31 million." And maybe he's just the 23rd richest guy in Congress. The calculations vary. And of course he doesn't mention that he gets a high six figure annual base salary at the expense of the taxpayers. Poor guy says he is just "land rich and cash poor."

I guess to be fair, even though he's getting that dependable hefty paycheck and is holding on to real assets that he could sell for millions or borrow against, when you're hanging out with multi-billionaires like the Koch Brothers, you just feel poor dammit. That's just like some poor, landless working schlub, scraping by from week to week on a couple of hundred bucks or less.

Banksters stick together

This important story is destined to sink into the memory hole over the weekend. Our dear TreasSec Geithner laughs off regulating foreign derivatives:

The Treasury Department plans to exempt foreign exchange derivatives from new Wall Street reform regulations, a Treasury official said Friday, dismissing concerns about a market that prompted $5.4 trillion of emergency support from the Federal Reserve in late 2008.

David Dayden has this one nailed already:

Even beyond the foreign exchange market’s problems post-Lehman, which are well-documented, simple common sense would dictate that you don’t keep a $30 trillion segment of the market unregulated. When I wrote about this possibility in March, I said just that: “It’s obvious that whatever financial innovation exists in the shadows will be the one used most frequently to maximize risk. So it’s not the type of instrument but how well-regulated it is relative to others that matters.”

The other fear is that derivatives traders could attain an exemption simply by attaching a ForEx trade to their standard derivative deal. So this decision could be a cro-bar to pry the entire derivatives market away from regulation. Before long the entire market could wind up back in the shadows. And your humble blogger isn’t the only one saying this: it’s the argument of CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler, the guy who would be responsible for regulating the derivatives market.

We are so screwed. The wolves are guarding the henhouse and us little people are ones who will get plucked again.

Scenes from the Red Carpet

Unhooked from the grid and took a day trip to the mountains yesterday to visit the Biltmore Estate. Gorgeous day. The grounds were magnificient. The views were stunning and uplifting. As for the house itself, the simplest way I can describe it is -- oppressive opulence. Which strikes me as a pretty good description of the current incarnation of the White House Correspondents Dinner and its attendant peripheral parties.

However nothing is all bad. I missed the live action, but The Caucus sums up the resounding thumping of Donald Trump at the event:

But in the end, it was Mr. Trump who served as the punching bag for the evening. As it turned out, Mr. Obama’s swipes were just the warm-up act for Seth Meyers, the headliner for the evening, who spent most of his routine going after Mr. Trump, who sat at the Washington Post table, grimacing.

Painful.

Wasn't all that impressed with Meyers myself. Came across as a bit too heavy on mean-spirited cheap shots to me, but our President was brilliant. Video is well worth watching in full.



Kind of makes it all worthwhile. Which is not to say the whole affair hasn't become an obscene exercise in celebrity worship. As Mark Knoller noted on Twitter: "There’s actually a red carpet for celebrity arrivals. When did the Correspondent’s dinner become the Golden Globes?"

And I hear Politico did live blogging all day, literally under the banner "Scenes from the Red Carpet" from whence I stole the title for this post. In any event, I'm done bitching about it for this year. Besides, Thers has the ultimate takedown, so there's really no point in saying anything else.