StupidiNews!

• President Obama will make remarks today in Atlanta on plans to draw down troops in Iraq being on schedule, but the effort having a long way to go still.
• BP's COO Doug Suttles says he would "absolutely" eat Gulf of Mexico seafood right now.
• UC Davis researchers are working on a nanoparticle approach to treating breast cancer.
• House Democrats are going after life insurance companies that profit off of claims for soldiers killed in the line of duty.
• United Arab Emirates officials are unable to crack Blackberry security, so the country is now banning sales of the devices.

Last Call

It's a good thing Moose Lady isn't cheapening our public discourse or anything.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Sunday that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) has "the cojones" that President Obama "does not have" to take on illegal immigration. Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Palin blasted Obama for suing Arizona to block the state's controversial new law without addressing "sanctuary cities" -- in which local law enforcement are prohibited from asking people about their immigration status. 

The former governor said the president and congressional Democrats "are all wet" on plans to allow the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to expire. "It's idiotic to think about increasing taxes at a time like this," Palin said. She added that her "palm isn't large enough" to write all her notes down and she proceeded to read prepared notes about tax policy from a sheet of paper.

They were all GOP talking points, too.   And in about 28 months, you will be asked if you believe she should be your President.  Won't that be fun?

Entitled To Their Own Facts, Too

The Republicans asking for your vote in November so that they can take over leadership of the government sure don't seem very intrested in obnoxious things like "facts" or "figures".  Those are for egghead liberals.  Real Americans just make things up, like GOP Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona continuing to lie about Latinos and crime numbers in the Grand Canyon state.

Arizona politicians who support the state’s new immigration law have spent the past few months justifying the passage of SB-1070 by pointing to the high levels of crime that undocumented immigrants have brought to their state. However, over the past few weeks, the media has countered their claims of kidnappings and beheadings with reports that the border is “safer than ever” and “one of America’s safest places.” Today, when pressed by guest anchor Harry Smith on CBS’ Face the Nation, SB-1070 supporter Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) called the reports a “gross generalization”:

SMITH: One of the things that’s come to light over the past last couple weeks is that in some of these border towns that were thought to be susceptible to lawbreaking of illegal immigrants. Crime is actually down. Crime in Phoenix for instance is down significantly over the past couple of years.

KYL: Well, that’s a gross generalization. Property crimes are up, certain violent crimes on certain parts of the citizenry are up. Phoenix is a very large source of kidnapping. It’s called the kidnapping capital of the United States…So there’s a great deal of violence and crime associated with illegal immigrants.

Who needs fact when you've got an agenda to smear Latin Americans and scare voters into scapegoating them?

Far from being a “gross generalization,” as undocumented immigration has increased, crime in Arizona has dropped in almost every category — including property crime. FBI statistics show that Arizona’s overall crime rate dropped 12 percent last year and 23 percent between 2004 and 2008. More specifically, Media Matters reports that the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that the per capita property crime rate in Arizona was lower in 2006, 2007, and 2008 than any year since 1968. 

Silly American.  Facts do not matter to Republicans.  Scary brown people are taking over your country!  Booga booga booga!

FOX Hits Pay Dirt

Just goes to show you, no bad deed goes unrewarded by a President terrified of the Right Wing Noise Machine.

The White House Correspondents Association is moving Fox News up to the front row in the briefing room, according to sources familiar with the process. The WHCA board's decision was unanimous. [It's now confirmed; see update below]

Since veteran journalist Helen Thomas retired, three news organizations—Fox News, Bloomberg News, and NPR—have argued that they should move to the front row. Fox News will join the broadcast networks and CNN up front.

However, Fox News will not be taking Thomas's long-held seat in the center.


The Associated Press moves to the center under the new set-up, with Fox News taking the wire service's spot in the front row. (The Upshot reported last week on briefing room speculation that this is how the move would play out.)

I'm sure this will make FOX stop sliming the Democrats in general and Obama in particular.  Best part:

The WHCA, in a statement, confirmed the news and described the decision as "very difficult." However, the board said it was "persuaded by Fox's length of service and commitment to the White House television pool."

The same "committed" to the White House television pool FOX that refused to show this President's press conferences, no doubt.  I'm sure this will make FOX be even more "fair and balanced".

Sunday Funnies: Economy Of Words Edition

Uncle Alan and Mike Bloomberg explain it all in this week's Bobblespeaks.

Gregory: Welcome everyone to Recovery Summer! What the hell is wrong?

Bloomberg: Well Democrats won’t cut spending and the GOP won’t raise taxes and nobody knows what the future holds so no one hires anyone

Gregory: people won’t spend so employers won’t hire and so people won’t spend

Greenspan: our problem is that America doesn’t make anything anymore - we just shuffle financial papers around

Gregory: hey that’s very lucrative

Greenspan: that’s true

Gregory: how can we reinflate the housing bubble?

Greenspan: it’s touch and go

Gregory: Ed America has run out of money

Rendell: we need stimulus and re-build infrastructure and that’s perfect because we can do both at once

Bloomberg: the stimulus went to buy flat screen tvs

Gregory: what is the unemployment level

Greenspan: it’s half past Matlock

Gregory: what does that mean?

Greenspan: the unemployment I caused is very tragic

Gregory: Mike should we let the tax cuts for the rich expire?

Bloomberg: oh no it’s much too risky

Rendell: we raised taxes in 1993 and created 23 million jobs

Bloomberg: yeah but Bill Clinton cheated by not starting any wars 

Funny how that works, the one President in the last 22 years that didn't inherit or start a war in the Middle East balanced the budget.  I wonder if there's a correlation...

Greek Fire, Part 21

The Greek Fire has reached a new stage as austerity measures are being forced on the Greek public, the fire spreading from economic to social unrest.

Greek security forces have warned of a wave of violence reminiscent of the terror that stalked Italy in the seventies after urban guerillas threatened last week to turn the country into a "war zone".

"Greece has entered a new phase of political violence by anarchist-oriented organisations that are more murderous, dangerous, capable and nihilistic than ever before," said Athanasios Drougos, a defence and counter-terrorism analyst in Athens.

"For the first time we are seeing a nexus of terrorist and criminal activity," he said. "These groups don't care about collateral damage, innocent bystanders being killed in the process. They are very extreme."

The threats came from a guerrilla group called the Sect of Revolutionaries, as it claimed credit for the murder of Sokratis Giolas, an investigative journalist. Giolas was shot dead outside his Athenian home on 19 July, in front of his pregant wife.

The gang promised to step up attacks on police, businessmen, prison guards and "corrupt" media – and, for the first time, threatened holidaymakers.

"Tourists should learn that Greece is no longer a safe haven of capitalism," its declaration said.
"We intend to turn it into a war zone of revolutionary activity with arson, sabotage, violent demonstrations, bombings and assassinations, and not a country that is a destination for holidays and pleasure."

In an accompanying picture, the group displayed an arsenal that included AK 47 assault rifles, semi-automatic pistols and brass knuckledusters.

"Our guns are full and they are ready to speak," it said. "We are at war with your democracy."

No doubt the Greek government is playing the revolutionary card with the most heavy hand possible here, but there's a kernel of truth to the notion that there are people taking to the streets and violence is growing.  Peopl have been hurt and killed over this so far, and it's only going to get worse.

Greece is choosing to make the people pay for the government's mistakes...unfortunately, so are the revolutionaries.  It's going to be a long, hot summer.

No, The Bush Tax Cuts Didn't Help The Economy

They helped the rich, period.  Yves Smith at NakedCap takes a look at this morning's piece in the Washington Post on the subject.  The Post's article's last point is especially important:

One theory holds that the country's long-term budget shortfall is "just" an entitlements problem, the result of rising costs associated with growing Social Security rolls and increased health-care spending (via Medicare and Medicaid). Republicans like this idea because it plays down tax increases as a potential solution. Democrats like it because it makes the recent health-care package seem like even more of a triumph.

But it just isn't true. The deficits we face over the next decade reflect a fundamental imbalance between spending and revenue, one that goes beyond entitlements. Based on projections by the CBO, Alan Auerbach of the University of California at Berkeley and myself, among others, even if the economy returns to full employment by 2014 and stays there for the rest of the decade, the continuation of current fiscal policies, including the Bush tax cuts, would lead to a national debt in the range of 90 percent of GDP by 2020. That's already the highest rate since just after World War II -- and Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security aren't expected to hit their steepest spending increases until after 2020.

According to these same projections, the yearly deficit would rise to 6 to 7 percent of GDP by 2020. The Bush tax cuts would account for a significant chunk of this, considering that in each year they are in effect, the revenue lost because of them amounts to nearly 2 percent of GDP.

Compounding the problem: By increasing the government's debt, the tax cuts have already led to higher interest payments on that debt. So even if all of the cuts expire on Dec. 31, we will still be paying for them for years to come. 

As I have been saying for some time now, the largest single factor in our deficit is not Obama, is not entitlement spending, but Bush's tax cuts.  Period.  They are indefensible, especially on the rich.  We've lost hundreds of billions in revenue already over the last five years, and how has that helped the economy?  We're now in the worst economic straits in generations.

Yet Republicans keep spouting idiocies about how tax cuts pay for themselves when they are costing us billions, and eventually trillions.

Yves sums it up:

John Quiggin and others have pointed out that the benefits of income tax cuts over the last 30 years have accrued disproportionately to the top 10%. The Bush tax cuts were so egregiously skewed towards the well off that Warren Buffett objected to them, with Buffett noting that as a result, his secretary paid a higher percentage of her income in taxes than he did. Similarly, 100 uber rich individuals, including Steven C. Rockefeller and other members of the Rockefeller family, Metropolitan Museum board chairwoman Agnes Gund, and George Soros, signed a letter opposing a proposed 2001 estate tax repeal.

It's always been about restoring the Gilded Age for the Republicans, and always will be.  That is at the heart of everything they do:  taking the country backwards.

Last Call

Just a reminder what's at stake in November.  It's not just the House.  Nate Silver's latest Senate Rankings:



If Nate's right, the Republicans picking up 9 Senate seats is conceivable and that would leave Charlie Crist as the the man who decides who's in control of the Senate. Or hey, Ben Nelson. Or Joe Lieberman.

Just saying. A lot of noise has been made about the GOP retaking the House, but the Senate is in play at this point. It's not likely, but it's in play.

Upping The Ante By Calling Anti-Semitism

David Cameron and his UK government are learning what American lawmakers have known for decades:  anything less than full-throated support for Israel's policies will eventually lead to Israeli charges of anti-Semitism.  What, you thought Cameron was going to be allowed to point out the ridiculousness of the collective punishment in Gaza?

Shimon Peres said England was "deeply pro-Arab ... and anti-Israeli", adding: "They always worked against us."

He added: "There is in England a saying that an anti-Semite is someone who hates the Jews more than is necessary."

His remarks, made in an interview on a Jewish website, provoked anger from senior MPs and Jewish leaders who said the 87-year-old president had "got it wrong".

But other groups backed the former Israeli prime minister and said the number of anti-semitic incidents had risen dramatically in the UK in recent years.

The controversy follows the furore last week over David Cameron's remark that Gaza was a "prison camp", as he urged Israel to allow aid and people to move freely in and out of the Palestinian territory.

Mr Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who is three years into his seven-year term as president and was awarded an honorary knighthood by the Queen in 2008, said that England's attitude towards Jews was Israel's "next big problem".

"There are several million Muslim voters, and for many members of parliament, that's the difference between getting elected and not getting elected," he said. 

I really cannot think of another country on Earth that would say to a democratically elected ally "Your people hate us, your leaders hate us, and you have always hated us."

The real problem of course is that Israel feels Europe is embracing Muslims too much, and as a result they are now openly accusing Britain of being anti-Semitic.  And this guy won a Nobel peace prize?

Not that we don't have our own idiotic zero-sum flag wavers here in America.  Peres stopped just short of calling the UK an enemy of Israel, but not by much.  Here in America, we openly call our own citizens enemies of the state for not fully supporting another country.

I'd wonder what the Winger reaction to this will be, but I can already surmise that the calls for Britain to "purge" their Muslim population or else will soon be coming, and that some may even go so far as to say we should downgrade relations with the UK.  Even worse, more xenophobic and more inane suggestions will undoubtedly be made.

I wonder how many of our own politicians will fall all over themselves condemning our closest European ally?

What Digby Said

One of the reasons I started blogging is that some small part of me wants to someday write as well as the folks who have been doing this for years.  One of those exemplars -- and I mean that word in both the literal and connotative senses -- is Digby.  Today she continues to put our Washington media to shame with such a well-written and evocative observation on the cruel belittling of Shirley Sherrod's life experiences by the Noise Machine on the right that it actually gives me hope.

Forgetting about the implications for the administration, I've been struck for some time about the apparent need among a fairly large number of Americans to pretend that racism is ancient history with which we no longer need to be concerned (at least as it pertains to racial minorities.) The fact is that Shirley Sherrod lived during the great cataclysm of the civil rights movement and paid a huge personal price for standing up against the forces that killed her father. But that wasn't the end of it. She has spent the rest of her life trying to fight other insidious forms of racism like these discriminatory loan practices that continue to this day. I suspect that somebody forgot to send her the memo that the whole thing is over and that she just needs to move on. Indeed, it's been made crystal clear that the fight isn't over. (The fact that she was targeted for statements about racial reconciliation is even more galling.)

Do yourself a massive favor and go read the whole thing.   "She's one of the good ones" fails criminally to describe her impact, and as much as that pertains to Digby, it pertains doubly so to one Shirley Sherrod.

Liquid Courage

Gallup reports more Americans are tossing a cold one back.  And as always, it's not the lowbrow among us knocking back the Lowenbrau, it's the upper crust having more nightcaps.

Sixty-seven percent of American adults say they have an alcoholic beverage on occasion, the highest level in 15 years, with beer the preferred drink, followed by wine and liquor, a Gallup poll said Friday.

Drinking was most prevalent in 1976-1978, when 71 percent of Americans said they drank alcohol, and least popular in 1958, when only 55 percent admitted doing so, said Gallup, which began its drinking surveys in 1939.

By age, alcoholic beverages were most favored by 18-54-year-olds (72 percent), followed by the 55 and older crowd (59 percent), Gallup found in its July 8-18 survey of 1,020 adults.

There was also a marked difference in drinking habits by education, with college graduates topping people with a high school degree or less by 79 to 58 percent respectively.

Income also mirrored drinking levels, with 81 percent of people making 75,000+ dollars per year saying they drank, followed in descending order by lower incomes until only 46 percent of those making less than 20,000 dollars said they drank.

Beer costs money, you know.  No dinero, no drinky.  And if you look at the history of alcoholic beverages over the years, it's always been a moneyed thing traditionally.  It's college grads making six-figures who are having a tipple of ripple, and the rest of us are cutting back on the six packs.

But, it does look like everyone's having more of a stiff drink these days.  I guess we need it.

Auto-magic For The People

More needs to be made about the fact that President Obama's choice to save the auto companies when Republicans wanted them to die was a serious success.  Both Chrysler and GM are back into profitability now, and GM is planning to make a common stock offering soon in order to raise the rest of the money to pay back the American taxpayer.  The Village is finally paying attention.

But a year and a half later, many of the critics have retreated from their sharpest attacks as they watch the auto industry once again turn a profit and begin adding jobs in communities such as Detroit, which desperately need them.

Obama's visit to a Chrysler plant in Detroit on Friday was designed as a victory rally -- complete with campaign-style trappings -- an "I told you so" event aimed squarely at his Republican critics who had attacked the auto bailouts as government takeovers.

A feisty Obama was welcomed with loud applause by about 1,500 auto workers inside the plant that makes the Jeep Grand Cherokee, a vehicle the president said was the first new car he ever owned. If his critics had won, he said, the plant would have been shuttered and dark. 

There's no satisfying some, like radio host Rush Limbaugh, who this week referred to GM as Obama Motors. And the auto turnaround is not enough to fix places like Detroit, where 30 percent unemployment has ravaged the city like few others in the United States.  

But as Obama arrived here Friday to trumpet the industry's progress, Corker refrained from saying that the bailouts were bad for the country. He says the administration's methods were "heavy-handed" but also takes credit for helping to shape the bailout. He prodded the Obama administration to force the companies to lessen their debt and achieve a more favorable union agreement.

"The ideas we laid out there were followed through," Corker said in an interview. "I take some pleasure out of helping make that contribution. . . . I think what we did is we forced a debate and we forced a hard look at these companies." 

And now of course Republicans like Corker are trying to take credit for something that Republicans bitterly opposed, while the rest of the GOP is still bitterly complaining that Obama is a socialist.  At least the press is finally paying attention to the fact that if the Republicans were in charge right now, America wouldn't have an auto industry outside of Ford.

Sobering thought, indeed.

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

Jenna Bush's wedding two years ago?  A nice tasteful little exclusive affair that showed how down-to-earth she was and how her parents are good, American people and isn't she sweet?

Chelsea Clinton's wedding? A vulgar multi-million dollar display of the privileged in this economy where the Clintons are making sure that no Real Americans are invited and really this is all about how we all wanted to see Hillary as President anyway and  is Chelsea going to convert to Judaism or what and no wonder they didn't invite that Obama guy, I mean would you?

Charles No Longer In Charge

Politico is reporting that President Obama's remarks on the Charlie Rangel ethics situation are basically that Rangel needs to go.

"I think Charlie Rangel served a very long time and served-- his constituents very well. But these-- allegations are very troubling," Obama told Harry Smith in an interview to be aired on the "Early Show." and first broadcast on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.

"And he'll-- he's somebody who's at the end of his career. Eighty years old. I'm sure that-- what he wants is to be able to-- end his career with dignity. And my hope is that-- it happens. "

That's not just Obama throwing him under the bus, that's throwing him under the bus at near relativistic velocities, having top people then retrieve Rangel from under the bus, cleaned up nicely and then having Charlie given a tasteful little gilded sign to put on neck that reads "Enjoy your retirement there Chuck, Your pal, Barack."   CSI people should be walking around leaving little folded number cards and a chalk outline.

Rangel?  He's done.  President goes on network TV like that and "hopes" that you will "end your career with dignity", well folks, the "career ending" part is no longer in doubt, it's the "with dignity" that you have left to determine.  I'm not sure if Rangel will do it, he's so far into the Beltway Bubble parts of it are literally named after him, but if anyone can pop that thing it's the President.

The ending of the story has all but been written, it's just how the last act plays out.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• The death toll in Pakistan's deadly flooding has now topped 800 as officials search for survivors in the country's remote frontier.
• Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government is in danger of dissolving as the Italian parliament begins deserting him over several scandals.
• BP will try a "static kill" procedure on Tuesday to finish off the well cap in the Gulf of Mexico.
• A federal antitrust investigation into the country's nearly $3 trillion municipal bond market is heating up in New York.
• Blackberry maker RIM hopes to get into the tablet market later this year with the "Blackpad".