First One Out

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is out as Obama's Commerce Secretary, citing an investigation into a company that has done business with New Mexico's state government.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, tapped in December by President-elect Barack Obama to serve as secretary of Commerce, has withdrawn his name for the position, citing a pending investigation into a company that has done business with his state.

"Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact," he said Sunday in a report by NBC News' Andrea Mitchell. "But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process."

He said he plans to continue in his role as governor. "I appreciate the confidence President-elect Obama has shown in me, and value our friendship and working partnership. I told him that I am eager to serve in the future in any way he deems useful. And like all Americans, I pray for his success and the success of our beloved country."

The obvious question is why Richardson agreed to this in the first place if the investigation was pending, but it's possible the investigation just got under way. Still...Richardson and Obama's team must have known this was a possibility. On the other hand, Richardson is doing the right thing, there's no way the GOP would have allowed his confirmation with this investigation pending.

The other more cynical theory is that with Blagogate, Obama now has a zero tolerance scandal policy and he hasn't even been sworn in yet. Richardson was therefore told to withdraw. That of course leaves a number of controversial cabinet picks that may be withdrawing in the future.

I like Obama, but even I think this is starting to smell bad. Obama clearly didn't have a problem a month ago with Richardson, and neither did Richardson. Now this investigation is too much to handle? Something must have changed besides Blagogate, and that something is bad enough for Obama's team to decapitate Richardson. With talk of Richardson's people in New Mexico going before a grand jury, this one is looking serious enough for Obama to pull the trigger. Either this is a bad apple that had to be picked off the tree, or Obama is cleaning house across the board. Time will tell which this is.

Either way, the GOP can smell the blood in the water and they will now go after Obama's cabinet picks in full force: Eric Holder at Justice, Hilda Solis at Labor, and of course Hillary Clinton at State.

Who will replace Richardson, I wonder?

Franken Time

With the recount all but over, it looks like Al Franken has won election in Minnesota. But the problems are just beginning, and the Land of 10,000 Lakes may be the Land of Only One Senator for quite some time.

Minnesota's other senator, Democrat Amy Klobuchar, told the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune this week that if the state Canvassing Board -- which is tasked with tallying votes -- certifies a winner, the Senate should "consider seating that person pending litigation."

Klobuchar's statement prompted Cornyn, a Republican from Texas and the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, to threaten a filibuster to block Democrats from seating Franken before an official certificate is signed by Ritchie and Pawlenty.

The governor and secretary of state are barred by Minnesota law from making the election official until all legal proceedings have been completed.

"It is very clear that the people of Minnesota and the courts in Minnesota should make the decision about who won the Minnesota Senate election and not political leaders in Washington, D.C.," he said.

Klobuchar spokesman Ross Corson told CNN that the senator had only said it would "be an option to look at for the Senate, to consider seating the person who is certified by the Canvassing Board."

The new Congress will be sworn in Tuesday, and it's unlikely a certificate would be signed by then. Speculation over what could happen in the interim included the possibility that the Democratic-controlled body would provisionally seat Franken if he remains in the lead.

"There will be no way that people on our side of the aisle will agree to seat any senator provisionally or otherwise," Cornyn said.

In other words, there's a very good chance that come Tuesday there will be only 98 Senators seated, and Illinois' Roland Burris and Minnesota's Al Franken will not be sworn in.

Inevitability

As widely expected, Israel's ground assault into Gaza is underway.

At least four Palestinians have been killed as a direct result of the ground assault, Palestinian medical sources said, bringing the death toll in Gaza to 460 since the conflict erupted December 27.

The ground assault followed a weeklong campaign of airstrikes in what Israel says is an offensive to halt rocket attacks from Hamas militants in Gaza.

"We want to create a situation where the civilian population in southern Israel is no longer on the receiving end of those deadly Hamas rockets," Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told CNN.

"We haven't articulated regime change as the goal of this operation. Our goal is to protect our people," Regev said.

After Israel's failure in Lebanon, if the Israeli army can't put an end to Hamas rockets, then the whole operation is a political failure. Let us not mince words here, Israel's real goal is nothing less than the end of Hamas in Gaza. Hamas is talking tough, but their leaders are expecting Israel to remove them and to replace them in Gaza with the more moderate Fatah.

Fatah officials in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that Hamas militiamen had been assaulting many Fatah activists since the beginning of the operation last Saturday. They said at least 75 activists were shot in the legs while others had their hands broken.

Wisam Abu Jalhoum, a Fatah activist from the Jabalya refugee camp, was shot in the legs by Hamas militiamen for allegedly expressing joy over the IDF air strikes on Hamas targets.

"Hamas is very nervous, because they feel that their end is nearing," a senior Fatah official said. "They have been waging a brutal campaign against Fatah members in the Gaza Strip."

Nature abhors a vacuum, after all. The enemy of Israel's enemy is their friend and Fatah is more than willing to step in after being run out of Gaza.

But will it work? Not without many deaths and a long, ugly campaign. How far is Israel willing to go to rip out Hamas and install a Fatah-led government in Gaza, a government the people of Gaza will never accept?

After all, we're still in Afghanistan after seven years after doing the same thing to the Taliban and replacing them with Karzai's government...a government that doesn't even reach outside Kabul's city limits.

Israel is falling into the same trap we did, and many Palestinians and Israelis will die as a result.

StupidiNews, Weekend Econ Edition

• Obama has laid out a five-point economic recovery plan, but will it be enough?
• Blue state governors say they need upwards of a trillion federal dollars in 2009.
• A federal commission says it's time to raise the gas tax.
• California Governor Schwartzenegger's latest budget proposal cuts a billion from the state's prisons.
• Wikipedia has passed its $6 million donation goal.

Ground Game

As I pointed out on Tuesday, Israel's airstrikes on Gaza could never last more than a few days. Israel is now out of targets for airstrikes to hit militarily, and politically airstrikes would allow Hamas to play the survivor card. Israel either has to retreat or go to ground attacks, and with "news" that Hamas has somehow "acquired" Iranian short-range Fajr-3 missiles, that conveniently could be fired from Gaza in range of Israel's Dimona nuclear facility (arguably the worst kept secret in the Middle East) Israel seemingly has no choice but to unleash a full ground assault into Gaza. What better way to report it than from the Village's London division, the Times?

Israel is poised to launch a major ground offensive into Gaza tonight after allowing hundreds of foreigners living in the devastated territory to evacuate.

After a week of air strikes that have killed at least 420 Palestinians and left scores of buildings in rubble, the Israeli army was set to fling hundreds of troops and tanks into a blitz to stamp out Hamas’s military wing, The Times understands.

Despite the looming onslaught, more Hamas rockets – which have so far killed four Israelis – were fired into southern Israel today.

The Islamist group vowed that its attacks, which have lasted for years and which finally provoked the massive Israeli campaign, would not stop.

Those dirty Palestinians have regrettably borough collective punishment upon themselves, you see. Of course, the ground offensive part of Operation Cast Lead was the plan all along. Sometime this weekend, Israel is expected to roll in and crush perhaps thousands of Palestinians in order to protect Dimona. It will be a massacre. Having experienced a failure in Lebanon 18 months ago, the Israelis are determined not to repeat their mistakes. With the Palestinians of Gaza safely roped in behind a huge concrete wall, the fish in the barrel will be not only shot, but bombed, burned, crushed, smashed, and butchered.

Our wonderful humanitarian President of course blames the Palestinians for this. It's no surprise then with the Israelis taking a page from Bush's Muslim-killing cookbook, drumming up a climate of fear that the mere threat of Palestinian rockets are infinitely more dangerous and deadly than the Israeli military machine. Israel certainly should be able to defend itself from these rockets. But the imminent slaughter of several orders of magnitude more Palestinians than have been killed by Gaza rockets isn't defending your country...it's collective punishment.

A war crime.

But then again, Americans do that sort of thing too. Why not Israel? Honestly, who's going to stop them?

Dear America:

"Since eight years of Bush shredding and then defecating upon the Constitution of the United States of America and then repeatedly interpreting it to mean that it's okay to constantly violate the laws within didn't work out so well for conservatives, I've determined the best way for conservatives to get back into power is an amazing document called the 'Constitution of the United States of America' that, if the laws are actually applied to him (unlike Bush), can be interpreted in such a manner that it can be used to stop Barack Obama and the liberals from doing anything. I'm a genius for the annals of humanity."

--Peter Berkowitz, WSJ

Thank You For Not Flying Air Stupid

You're flying home on New Year's Day, when you overhear people in the next row saying the following:

"The conversation, as we were walking through the plane trying to find our seats, was just about where the safest place in an airplane is...[w]e were (discussing whether it was safest to sit near) the wing, or the engine or the back or the front..."

Now, probably you're looking at a mental picture of a nervous Seinfeld-like moment with a family of neurotic flyers, maybe a kind of morose-looking college student and his girlfriend, an insurance guy coming home from a conference discussing probabilities with his buddy from risk assessment, a group of extreme sports enthusiasts talking up an adrenaline rush, or maybe a couple of pro poker players doing what pro poker players always do: talking odds.

Now imagine when you turn around to look at the people holding the conversation, that they are a traditionally-dressed Muslim family. What would your reaction be? Would it result in something like this?

Atif Irfan said federal authorities removed eight members of his extended family and a friend after passengers heard them discussing the safest place to sit and misconstrued the nature of the conversation.

Irfan, a U.S. citizen and tax attorney, said he was "impressed with the professionalism" of the FBI agents who questioned him, but said he felt mistreated when the airline refused to book the family for a later flight.

AirTran Airways late Thursday said they acted properly and that the family was offered full refunds and can fly with AirTran again.

"AirTran Airways complied with all TSA, law enforcement and Homeland Security directives and had no discretion in the matter," the company said in a prepared statement.

Family members said FBI agents tried to work it out with the airline, but to no avail.

"The FBI agents actually cleared our names," said Inayet Sahin, Irfan's sister-in-law. "They went on our behalf and spoke to the airlines and said, 'There is no suspicious activity here. They are clear. Please let them get on a flight so they can go on their vacation,' and they still refused."

"The airline told us that we can't fly their airline," Irfan said.

America still has a long, long way to go to recover from the damage caused over the last 8 years.

"When we were talking, when we turned around, I noticed a couple of girls kind of snapped their heads," said Sobia Ijaz, Irfan's wife. "I kind of thought to myself, 'Oh, you know, maybe they're going to say something.' It didn't occur to me that they were going to make it such a big issue."

Some time later, while the plane was still at the gate, an FBI agent boarded the plane and asked Irfan and his wife to leave the plane. The rest of the family was removed 15 or 20 minutes later, along with a family friend, Abdul Aziz, a Library of Congress attorney and family friend who was coincidentally taking the same flight and had been seen talking to the family.

A very long way to go. No doubt there are those out there who think that not only are the two girls on the plane heroes, but that Muslims have no business flying in airplanes in America in the first place, or even having any of those "civil rights" we keep talking about. We interred Japanese-Americans during WWII, after all.

Seven years later and we're still yanking Muslims off planes and telling ourselves "well, no harm done in overreacting like that!"

What if it was you and your family marched off a plane by the FBI?

Like I said...a long way to go.

StupidiNews!

• Capitol Hill sources say Blago pick Roland Burris will be barred from the Senate floor at Tuesday's swearing-in ceremony.
• AG Michael Mukasey is recommending that Bush invokes executive privilege to protect Dick Cheney.
• Israel rejects the idea of a truce with Hamas and continues to attack Gaza with an "iron fist".
• The US steel industry is eagerly awaiting details of Obama's infrastructure spending plan.
• The controversy over the UK's plan to track every e-mail and phone call in the country is growing.

A Month Of Black Fridays

With the worst holiday shopping season in decades now in the books, it's looking more and more like many retailers on the edge will soon be pushed over the cliff into bankruptcy.

The ugly sales year that was 2008 will haunt U.S. retailers in 2009, with industry experts warning that disastrous holiday sales will spark a domino effect of store closures and bankruptcy filings.

And, with thousands of fewer stores, the "shop-'til-you-drop" mentality that has characterized American consumerism could be coming to an end.

"There's going to be a massive sea change in the retail landscape," said Nina Kampler, executive vice president with Hilco Real Estate, which advises retailers on their property management.

She said many strip shopping centers already have multiple big-box vacancies after several large stores filed for bankruptcy in 2008. Some eventually went out of business.

When that happens, the smaller stores in the strip centers can't attract the requisite customer traffic to stay productive and profitable.

Michael Burden, principal with industry adviser Excess Space Retail Services, expects as many as 14,000 stores will close in 2009. "We could see among the highest ever number of closures," he said.

You figure if those 14k stores employ an average of twelve people a piece, that's 168,000 people out of work. Add up the domino effect of anchor stores closing and leaving strip malls, shopping centers and entire malls too weakened to operate, and that number can go much higher.

As retailers' sales continue to tumble and mall traffic evaporates, one of the biggest challenges for sellers is their rent occupancy costs.

Kampler explained that the amount of rent a retailer can comfortably pay for a given store location is proportionately related to the volume of sales generated at that location.

Ideally, she said a retailer's occupancy cost should be equal to 10% of its sales. But a long stretch of slumping sales and rising mall vacancies can dramatically push up the occupancy costs.

"Once rent and occupancy costs hit the 20% to 25% of sales threshold, you are treading water," she said. "You can't run a viable business with those numbers".

Also, once a retailer faces a cash shortage, the likely next step is to file for bankruptcy protection. To that end, Kampler predicts that retail bankruptcy filings will " be huge" in January.

But given the implosive impact of the overall economy on the retail sector, Kampler said filing for bankruptcy could be the death knoll for those merchants.

"It used to be that when [a company] filed for bankruptcy, it was to restructure its debt and realign its operations in order to emerge alive," she said.

"Now it's almost impossible to restructure," she said, pointing out that a significant number of retailers that did file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this year have eventually gone into liquidation.

In other words, the jobs lost in the retail sector are going to be gone for a long, long time. Seeing that happen in manufacturing is scary enough, there's plenty of expensive factory equipment that goes idle when factories close, and changing them over to another manufacturer is expensive and tough to do. As a result, the Bush economy saw those manufacturing jobs replaced with retail jobs.

But seeing that kind of thing happen with retail jobs means there's nowhere to go to replace those jobs easily. Obama's "green jobs" program seems to be more necessary than ever.

The US Government as employer of last resort? It's worked in America's past...and it may very well be the key to America's future.

StupidiNews, New Year's Edition

New Year...slightly different Stupid.

• A nightclub fire in Bangkok has killed 58.
• Blago's appointment of Roland Burris goes before the Illinois Supreme Court.
• Final numbers in for the Dow, down a staggering 34% in 2008.
• Hamas's rise to power in Gaza may be ironically due to the US and Israel.
• Six years of online holiday sales growth came crashing to a halt in 2008.

Have a safe and happy New Year. I'm going back to bed.

Ten For '09

And now, ten things I wish would happen in 2009, but won't.

1. CNN's Ruben Navarette will stop rationalizing the GOP's institutionalized racism.
2. Dick Cheney will write a tell all book about how stupid Dubya really is.
3. Mike Huckabee will leave politics for good and start a band.
4. Obama will lose his temper. Once. Just once. That's all it will take.
5. Five words: Super Bowl Champion Carolina Panthers.
6. NBC will bring back John Laroquette in his own show. Again.
7. The Ghostbusters video game will not only be on time, but it'll kick serious ass.
8. Same goes for Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3.
9. Quiznos brings back the Triple Q sub.
10. Obama fixes the universe.

Would be nice, huh.

The Million Dollar Question

The question isn't "What the hell is Blagojevich thinking?" but, as John Cole brilliantly points out:

Not to be too much of a smart-ass, but since when has anyone ever paid a political price for going against Harry Reid? Has it ever happened? On the other hand, Jane may be right. In my limited time as a Democrat it sure does seem like the only time Democrats take a stand is when they are attacking… another Democrat. And, if you ask Joe Lieberman, they don’t even do it very well then.

As to Blagojevich, it really isn’t that ballsy of a move at all. The only thing he has going for him right now is the legitimate power he commands as governor. Democrats hate him. Republicans hate him. His approval ratings are lower than Bush. Patrick Fitzgerald has him by the short hairs on tape. All he can do is keep insisting he is innocent and act as if nothing has happened. He really has no other options.

And there you go. Everything you need to know about Rod Blagojevich is summed up by the fact Harry Reid is a spineless twit. The one thing the GOP does better than the Democrats is enforce party order. Once again, the Dems look like morons because the party leadership gets called on their bluff and then does exactly nothing about it. The GOP has been doing this to the Dems for years, and apparently Blagojevich was actually paying attention.

Go figure. Just seat Roland Burris already and be done with it.

Alberto Gonzales: Professional Victim

Steve Benen nails it.

GONZALES FEELS SORRY FOR HIMSELF.... Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales left office in disgrace 16 months ago, and has kept a low profile since. His reputation has not improved in the interim -- Gonzales has struggled to find a law firm willing to hire him -- but at least he hasn't said or done anything ridiculous since his departure from public life.

Gonzales, however, is apparently interested in some kind of comeback. The former A.G. is writing a book about his tenure in the Bush administration and chatted with the Wall Street Journal about how mean everyone has been to him.

"What is it that I did that is so fundamentally wrong, that deserves this kind of response to my service?" he said during an interview Tuesday, offering his most extensive comments since leaving government.

During a lunch meeting two blocks from the White House, where he served under his longtime friend, President George W. Bush, Mr. Gonzales said that "for some reason, I am portrayed as the one who is evil in formulating policies that people disagree with. I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror."

Is Gonzales really that confused about what he did that was "so fundamentally wrong"? I suppose he proved during multiple congressional hearings that his memory is similar to that of someone who's suffered serious head trauma, but Gonzales' list of scandals is hard to forget.

Just off the top of my head, there was the U.S. Attorney purge scandal, Gonzales signing torture memos, his conduct in John Ashcroft's hospital room, his oversight of a Justice Department that was engaged in widespread employment discrimination, and his gutting of the DoJ's Civil Rights Division. Gonzales was even investigated by the department's Inspector General on allegations of perjury and obstruction.

On warrantless-searches, the Military Commissions Act, policy on detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and the Geneva Conventions, Gonzales was a disaster. On managing the Justice Department, he filled his staff with Pat Robertson acolytes, feigned ignorance while structural disasters unfolded, and showed shocking tolerance for corruption and politicization of a department that, for the benefit of the nation and the rule of law, needed to maintain independence.

And I'll add a hearty "screw you" to Gonzo and ask him to stand in the same room with the family of any of our troops or any of the 9/11 families, any Iraqi, Afghan, Pakistani family that got bombed, or the family of any of the millions killed since 9/11 and say to their face that he believes he is a casualty.

The Ought Nine Outlook

As promised, my predictions for 2009:

1. Obama's stimulus package is passed, but it makes Bush's tax cuts permanent. It fails to do much of anything and real unemployment rises dramatically as entire malls close across the country and millions in retail lose their jobs.
   
2. The S&P 500 indeed drops to 500. The Dow hovers around the 5k mark. A number of banks go under and are bought out and merged. The financial sector sits on the TARP money and housing prices continue to tumble. Another bank bailout is passed, and it fuels a major wave of bank consolidation across the country. Job losses in the sector for the year approach 250,000.
   
3. Benjamin Netanyahu is elected Israeli PM, and Israel bombs Iranian "nuclear sites", forcing a very ugly global confrontation. The US backs Israel, and Iraq and Afghanistan spiral out of control as a result. Reprisal attacks against American interests if not the US itself rage on.
   
4. GM closes its doors, putting hundreds of thousands out of work. Chrysler is spared barely, merging with Ford, and the remaining automakers band together to share suppliers. Still, layoffs in the rust belt states are brutal, with real unenployment in Michigan hitting 25%.
   
5. Universal health care fails to pass at all thanks to Blue Dog Democrats and prime-time commercials showing huge lines outside ER rooms and doctor's offices. As a result, Tom Daschle resigns his cabinet position. The bill that does pass is a gift package to Big Pharma that greatly curtails generic drugs.
   
6. California, New York, and Michigan declare bankruptcy. Essential government services in those states will be shut down for a time while Washington drags its ass. Other states will begin to ask for billions in bailout money.
   
7. The resulting riots in a major American city forces Obama to call in the Army. At least one GOP lawmaker will publicly say Obama should be impeached for doing so. Bonus points if that lawmaker turns out to be somebody other than Ron Paul.
   
8. The Blagojevich appointment of former Illinois AG Burris to Obama's old seat and the Senate's refusal to seat him causes nothing but problems for the Dems as Burris v. United States reaches the Supreme Court. The Senate loses the case. Burris is greatly pressured by the Dems to resign once the state law in Illinois is changed to accomodate a special election and/or Blagojevich is impeached and removed...that is if the impeachment doesn't go to the Supreme court too.
   
9. Vladimir Putin once again becomes President of Russia and makes his move demanding the Eurozone pay up for oil and gas. Oil goes to $80 a barrel.
   
10. At least one major assassination attempt on Obama's life is made/broken up as he is blamed for the miserable economy, the riots, and the job losses. The country rallies for a while around him, but the GOP sets the table for taking back Congress in 2010.
    

Here's hoping I'm wrong.

StupidiNews!

• An extra second is being added to official clocks worldwide tonight.
• Republicans consider accusing Bush and GOP lawmakers that supported the bailout as guilty of "socialism".
• California's AG sues Bush over his changes to the Endangered Species Act.
• Broadcaster Viacom is threatening to pull 19 cable channels from Time Warner customers tomorrow.
• "Information Overload" could be costing US workers almost a trillion dollars in productivity.