The Worst Thing I've Heard All Year

HICKORY, N.C. – The stepmother of a 10-year-old disabled girl was indicted Monday on charges she killed the freckle-faced child and then desecrated her remains to cover up the slaying, according to court documents.
A grand jury in Catawba County charged Elisa Baker with second-degree murder in the death of Zahra Baker. Authorities planned to discuss the case at a news conference later in the day.

Zahra, who used a prosthetic leg and hearing aids after being stricken with cancer, disappeared four months ago. No one had been charged in her death, though Elisa Baker had been charged with obstructing justice in the investigation. Police eventually found the girl's remains in different locations around western North Carolina. Authorities still have not said how the girl died.

 No matter what details come to light, the tragedy has already befallen Zahra.  I spent years working with handicapped and long-term disabled children, and  I understand the strength it took for her to fight for her life.  My heart goes out to this poor little girl, who survived cancer only to be stricken with something far worse.

The State Of Unions: What's Next

Kay at Balloon Juice reminds us of why the union protests are spreading to other states as Republicans at the state level are doing everything they can to break up all unions, not just public employee ones.  The battle continues in Indiana:

Over the protests of thousands of labor union members who filled the Statehouse, a House committee voted on party lines today to send a bill that would bar unions and companies from negotiating contracts that require all employees to pay fees for representation.

House Bill 1468 — which supporters call the “right to work” bill and which opponents call the “right to work for less” bill — passed the House Employment, Labor and Pensions Committee on an 8-5 vote and now goes to the full House for debate.

In other words, unions that collect dues would be barred from any collective bargaining in Indiana.  All unions, public and private.  A number of states have these right-to-work laws, Kentucky is one of them. And this is happening in Indiana despite Gov. Mitch Daniel's disastrous plan to outsource social services to a private company.

Indiana and former outsourcing partner IBM sued each other Thursday, May 13, the latest chapter in an increasingly sour relationship that went bad when the state decided last year to cancel an ambitious social services system. In October 2009, Gov. Mitch Daniels pulled the plug on Indiana’s 10-year, $1.6 billion outsourcing contract with IBM to streamline welfare eligibility in the state. Launched in 2007, the new system let citizens apply for welfare benefits online, in person or via telephone, and it implemented process changes designed to speed up and standardize eligibility determinations. Daniels called the concept—which drew criticism for high error rates and slow processing of eligibility requests—unworkable.

It lost money, cost state taxpayers millions of dollars more than having state social workers, and failed in nearly every aspect.

This is what Republicans want to do, to attach profit motive to government services and send taxpayer money directly to the pockets of business interests in the name of the "free market".

On The Ground In Mad Town

A week's worth of protests in Madison, Wisconsin has drawn both sides into a stalemate.  Gary Farber at Obsidian Wings has an impressive recap of what's going on right now in the state.  "Moderate" Republicans are backing a plan to reinstate collective bargaining rights in two years, but:

One hardly need point out that a proposal to wipe out union rights, and then "reinstate" them:

a) makes no sense: either it's a good idea, or it's a bad idea (and it's a horrific idea), and that it would:

b) work exactly like the Bush tax cuts.  Once in place, these rights will never be restored, as the same interests will press against them, and the status quo is always easier to maintain in politics.  Which is precisely why this maneuver is both being attempted, and is so crucial both to those interested in the rights of workers, ordinary middle-class people, against the increase of income inequality, and who oppose what communist Teddy Roosevelt called the malefactors for great wealth:

Too much cannot be said against the men of wealth who sacrifice everything to getting wealth. There is not in the world a more ignoble character than the mere money-getting American, insensible to every duty, regardless of every principle, bent only on amassing a fortune, and putting his fortune only to the basest uses —whether these uses be to speculate in stocks and wreck railroads himself, or to allow his son to lead a life of foolish and expensive idleness and gross debauchery, or to purchase some scoundrel of high social position, foreign or native, for his daughter. Such a man is only the more dangerous if he occasionally does some deed like founding a college or endowing a church, which makes those good people who are also foolish forget his real iniquity. These men are equally careless of the working men, whom they oppress, and of the State, whose existence they imperil. There are not very many of them, but there is a very great number of men who approach more or less closely to the type, and, just in so far as they do so approach, they are curses to the country.

Teddy knew what he was talking about.  Gov. Scott Walker may have fatally weakened his case in his television appearances yesterday, as Josh Marshall suspects Walker is in trouble and his own party is bolting from the bad press.

Walker's position was best captured by the litany he used in his appearance this afternoon. He threatened that over a thousand state employees would need to be laid off if the budget bill isn't passed. He accused the Democrats of shutting down the government. And on and on. He's not acting like someone who thinks he has the strong hand.

Political opinion is often more driven by power and impotence than we believe. On the merits, I think Walker's probably on the wrong side of public opinion in his state on the collective bargaining issue. But quite apart from that, he's out giving press conferences daring his opponents to come back to the state and give him what he wants. But they're not. And his top legislative ally seems to be signaling that he doesn't have another card to play. Whatever you think on the merits of the question, that makes him look weak. And weakness is demoralizing. He's lost the initiative.

George Will says Walker is a Reaganesque figure who holds all the cards in his hands. He sees him heading toward a Reagan with Patco type moment. And the audacity of such a step might perhaps help him. Unfortunately for him though the dynamics of this situation don't give him the opportunity for such decisive action. He's lost the initiative. I confess without more polling information, I really have no more to go on than my gut. But I think Walker's political hand is a good deal weaker than Will thinks.

I'd have to agree.  Wisconsin Senate Dems say they want to come back to negotiate.  Wisconsin Senate Republicans say they want to negotiate.  But Gov. Walker says there will be no negotiations, period, calling them a "non-starter".  Early last weekend I would have said Walker had the upper hand.  Now, he has a major problem.  In a month where democracy is spreading across the dictatorships of North Africa and the Middle East, Walker is showing that his idea of democracy is dictatorship.

He's losing this battle, and deservedly so.

What Up With What's Going Down In Libya?

A metric crapton of second-hand reports and dispatches from brave journalists still in country are coming out of Libya as foreign nationals and citizens alike flee the country eastwards to Egypt.  Many point to the same thing, that Qaddafi's military crackdown has extended to using air strikes against protesters, and that in eastern Libya, protesters are in control of the country.  Meanwhile both the Arab League and the UN Security Council are meeting to determine how to move forward.  Foreign nationals are bugging out, big time.

A BBC correspondent in Tripoli says that while there is a heavy police presence in the capital, the second city, Benghazi, is in opposition control and there is no sign of security forces.

"People have organised themselves to get order back to the city. They have formed committees to run the city," said eyewitness Ahmad Bin Tahir.

Reports that military aircraft had fired on protesters in Tripoli on Monday have been backed up by Libyan diplomats who have turned against the leadership.

But Col Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam said the aircraft had been used only to bomb army bases which had defected to the opposition.


The BBC's Jon Leyne, in western Egypt, says the regime now seems to be fighting on multiple fronts, trying to put down the protests and fighting a bitter battle against a growing number of army units that have risen up against the Libyan leader.

Libya's diplomats at the United Nations in New York called for international intervention to stop the government's violent action against street demonstrations in their homeland.

Deputy Permanent Representative Ibrahim Dabbashi said Libyans had to be protected from "genocide", and urged the UN to impose a no-fly zone.

Ali Aujali, Libya's most senior diplomat in the US, also criticised the country's leader. He told the BBC he was "not supporting the government killing its people".

Meanwhile Libyan state TV denied there had been any massacres, dismissing the reports as "baseless lies" by foreign media.

Qaddafi has lost the people for sure.  Outside the country, Libyan diplomats and officials are resigning in protest, saying Qaddafi needs to go.  The reports leaking out of Tripoli paint a brutal picture of armed squads of still-loyal Libyan forces going after everyone and anyone still in the streets with deadly force, and entire platoons of military forces switching sides to join the people, especially in the east near the Egyptian border.  The wild card in all this?  Islamist forces looking to take advantage of the chaos.

Brent oil prices are up sharply, and will continue to rise.  We'll see where this goes.

StupidiNews!

• An 6.3 earthquake centered in the New Zealand city of Christchurch has left at least 65 dead and dozens of buildings destroyed.
• Conflicting reports amid the media and internet blackout in Libya suggest Qaddafi has ordered air strikes against his own citizens, and that much of the military has switched sides to join the people.
• Florida Republicans are looking to end the six year old ban on gifts from lobbyists to state lawmakers, arguing that a complete ban "destroys trust" between the two.
• Unrest in Libya is driving up oil prices as oil exports from Africa's largest oil producer are very much in doubt right now.
• Canadian citizens have stopped a plan to allow ISPs to charge metered internet service to businesses, and now the country is scrambling to contain the aftermath.

Last Call

Nate Silver throws the little red challenge baggie on Rasmussen's poll showing a plurality of Americans back Gov. Scott Walker over the unionized state employees.

According to the firm’s statement of question wording, these were the first four questions Rasmussen asked in the poll:

1: How closely have you followed news reports about the Wisconsin governor’s effort to limit collective bargaining rights for most state employees?

2: Does the average public employee in your state earn more than the average private sector worker in your state, less than the average private sector worker in your state, or do they earn about the same amount?

3: Should teachers, firemen and policemen be allowed to go on strike?

4: In the dispute between the governor and the union workers, do you agree more with the governor or the union for teachers and other state employees?

There is nothing wrong with the first question, which simply asks people whether they have been following events in Madison. But the second and third questions are arguably problematic.

You think, Nate?

Naturally the poll finds a 48%-38% plurality in favor of Walker.  Nate goes on to explain that the third question is especially thorny because in a great many states, police and firefighters are not allowed to strike, and in the case of Walker's proposal, they are also exempt from the collective bargaining limitations that would be imposed on teachers.

As far as the second question goes, well:

In fact, according to an analysis by USA Today, state employees earn about 5 percent less than comparable employees in the private sector, on average, although federal employees receive significantly (20 percent) more.

Naturally, the Rasmussen survey participants got that wrong too.

Thirty-six percent (36%) of all voters say that in their state the average public employee earns more than the average private sector worker. Twenty-one percent (21%) say the government employee earns less, while 20% think their pay is about the same. Twenty-three percent (23%) are not sure. 

It's not quite "So how long have you been beating your wife, anyway?" on the loaded question scale, but Rasmussen was definitely putting their thumb on the scale.   Nate's advice:

Because of the problems with question design, my advice would be simply to disregard the Rasmussen Reports poll, and to view their work with extreme skepticism going forward.

Little chance of that.   Meanwhile, there's word that Wisconsin Republicans are withering under the harsh spotlights.

The proposal, written by Sen. Dale Schultz and first floated in the Republican caucus early last week, calls for most collective bargaining rights of public-employee unions to be eliminated—per Mr. Walker's bill—but then reinstated in 2013, said Mr. Schultz's chief of staff Todd Allbaugh.

"Dale is committed to find a way to preserve collective bargaining in the future," said Mr. Allbaugh in a telephone interview.

Maybe the fact that people are taking a closer look at what's really in Scott Walker's budget has something to do with it.

I'd Say This Was The Pot Calling The Kettle Black, But That Would Insulting Pots, Kettle, And Black

El Rushbo, still keeping it classy.

Michelle Obama is taking heat from talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh after a report in the Vail Daily that she consumed a not-so-healthy-meal of ribs for dinner while on a recent visit to the Colorado resort, the latest example of conservative angst directed at the first lady's healthy-eating initiative.


"The problem is, and dare I say this, it doesn't look like Michelle Obama follows her own nutritionary, dietary advice," Limbaugh said Monday on his radio program. "And then we hear that she's out eating ribs at 1,500 calories a serving with 141 grams of fat per serving."

"She is a hypocrite," Limbaugh continued. "Leaders are supposed to be leaders. If we are supposed to go out and eat nothing, if we are supposed to eat roots, berries, and tree bark, show us how."

The Vail Daily reported Sunday Mrs. Obama dined at the restaurant Kelly Liken in Vail Village, ordering "a pickled pumpkin salad with arugula and a braised ancho-chile short rib with hominy wild mushrooms and sautéed kale." The first family, minus the president, went to Colorado for a long weekend of skiing.

I'm going to say "Not only was she on vacation, she worked it off skiing" which is more physical exercise than the Oxycontinfather ever gets in his chair all day, but to me that just seems like common sense to most Americans.  You know, diet and exercise.

Well, minus the Americans with the irrational hatred towards the First Lady, at any rate.  Kinda weird, I don't remember this kind of thing happening four years ago.

Said it before, I'll say it again, not all Obama Derangement Syndrome is directed at the President.

Resistance Is Feudal

So let's talk about Feudalism and crony capitalism, and the state of Wisconsin.  Ed At Gin and Tacos:

The lion's share of attention regarding Scott Walker's legislative proposal has been paid to the effort to revoke Wisconsin public employees' collective bargaining rights, but the 144-page bill (more reliable link here) is a far more exhaustive and inclusive list of the fundamentals of Republican politics in the 21st Century. Not many people have the time to plow through the whole bill but those who do will be rewarded with plenty of gems like this:

16.896 Sale or contractual operation of state−owned heating, cooling, and power plants. (1) Notwithstanding ss. 13.48 (14) (am) and 16.705 (1), the department may sell any state-owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state. Notwithstanding ss. 196.49 and 196.80, no approval or certification of the public service commission is necessary for a public utility to purchase, or contract for the operation of, such a plant, and any such purchase is considered to be in the public interest and to comply with the criteria for certification of a project under s. 196.49 (3) (b).

If this isn't the best summary of the goals of modern conservatism, I don't know what is. It's like a highlight reel of all of the tomahawk dunks of neo-Gilded Age corporatism: privatization, no-bid contracts, deregulation, and naked cronyism. Extra bonus points for the explicit effort to legally redefine the term "public interest" as "whatever the energy industry lobbyists we appoint to these unelected bureaucratic positions say it is."

This is good old fashioned crony capitalism at its finest, folks.  And Scott Walker's budget proposal is full of stuff like this. For those of you scoring at home, Walker's budget proposal is for no-bid contracts for whatever he wants to sell the plants for to the energy lobby.

In case it isn't clear where the naked cronyism comes in, remember which large, politically active private interest loves buying up power plants and already has considerable interests in Wisconsin. Then consider their demonstrated eagerness to help Mr. Walker get elected and bus in carpetbaggers to have a sad little pro-Mubarak style "rally" in his honor. There are dots to be connected here, but doing so might not be in the public interest.

This is what feudalism really is, folks.  Scott Walker is eliminating democracy for the corporate interests he truly serves.  That's how it works.  Meanwhile, he's up there squawking about how very undemocratic it is to protest against him as a state employee because of the taxpayers, all the while he's planning to screw Wisconsin taxpayers out of money by selling power plants for a song.

Funny how that works.

Gold Rush, Part 19

Gold is back above $1,400 an ounce on tensions in North Africa and the Middle East, not to mention the Euro getting pounded.

Spot gold rose as high as $1,403.38 an ounce and was bid at $1,401.30 an ounce at 1240 GMT, against $1,388.58 late in New York on Friday. U.S. gold futures for April delivery rose $13.60 an ounce to $1,402.10, having peaked at $1,404.30.

Gold priced in euros hit its highest since January 18 at 1,025.85 euros an ounce, and sterling-priced gold its highest since January 14 at 865.33 pounds an ounce.

"There is no doubt that the recent move higher across the precious metals reflects a degree of safe-haven buying as a result of the unrest in the Middle East," said Daniel Major, an analyst at RBS Global Banking & Markets.

"If (buying) is not through the exchange-traded funds or a clear change in the net long on Comex, it is most likely to be through the physical market -- coin and small bar buying, and I potentially wouldn't rule out larger purchases by high net worth individuals on the back of the unrest we're seeing," he added.

On the other hand, unlike three months ago there really are signs of inflation, at least at the commodity level.  If gold tops $1,500 things could get really weird for a while.  The real precious metal action these days is in silver, hitting $33.50.

We'll see where this is going.

Epic Fail: Mommy Dearest

FEBRUARY 17--A Pennsylvania woman is facing a child endangerment charge after a photo emerged online showing her posing next to her child, who was duct-taped to a chair, with tape over her mouth.
While the image appeared last week on mediatakeout.com, the site blurred out the faces of the smiling woman and the bound child, leaving them virtually unidentifiable to law enforcement.  That is until suspect Caira Ferguson, 21, approached police herself. She claimed that the person who leaked the photo--a copy of which she actually gave to cops--was also purportedly guilty of stealing her identity.

Thank God this woman wasn't bright enough to  see the flaw in her "master" plan.  Which leads me to yet another interesting article, which links to a study that suggests criminals are most often not as smart as their legal fellow citizens. There is a great deal of information about how the less you know the more likely you are to think you know it all.  Thank you, Captain Obvious.

Egyptian Protest Starts As Facebook Event

Instructions for the protest were clearly disseminated on Facebook: Stand 5 feet apart, so as not to break Egyptian laws against public demonstration; be absolutely silent; no signs; wear black, as determined in an online vote; stand on the banks of the river or sea for one hour only, then walk away.

No one yet knew who had organized this protest against police brutality. There were five Facebook page administrators, tech-savvy activists who didn't really know each other. They had communicated almost exclusively over Google's e-mail system, which doesn't allow outsiders to trace communications back to a specific computer's IP address.

What they did is described in detail in the article on CNN, but the point is that  through safe and private communication, a peaceful protest was launched.  Facebook is one of few places with the scope to unite so many people, and it's such an unusual method that there was no way to squash it. 

The power of communication, free speech and passion is sometimes all you need. 

Dinner With Schmucks

I'm not really sure what's more frightening, the Creation Museum itself, the idea of date night at the Creation Museum, or the idea of the Creation Museum rejecting a same-sex couple at date night.  But Barefoot and Progressive's Joe Sonka hit one out of the park with this one.

A Date Night event at the Creation Museum in Petersburg was disrupted when a same-sex couple was denied entry.

While accounts differ, what is clear is that a man who planned to enter the Feb. 11 event with a male friend was told the two would not be allowed to enter. Additionally, they did not receive a refund of the $71.90 cost for the two tickets they had purchased online.

"On the website, there was no mention of sexual orientation," said Jonathan Meador, who was involved in the situation.

Mark Looy, chief communications officer for the Creation Museum, said it was clear from the promotional material that the event was for heterosexual couples only.

The event included dinner, a talk from museum founder Ken Ham about love and the Biblical view of marriage and musical performances.

"The message was one of Christian marriage, which the Bible teaches is between a man and a woman," Looy said.

Meador attended the event with a female guest and a third man, who told security guards he was waiting for his date.

By Meador's account, when the male friend informed security personnel that the friend was also male they were told they would not be allowed to enter.

Meador and his date were allowed in.

And then it got nuts from there.  The museum is saying one thing,  Joe Sonka is saying another, and if anything the CM guys got punked.  Hard.  I laughed for a good five minutes.

Date Night at the Creation Museum.  I can hardly breathe.

Shutdown Countdown, Part 9

Republicans would probably have a much easier time convincing the country that their goal is not to shut the government down if they had, as Chuck Schumer said yesterday, actually taken the option off the table a month ago when asked.

Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York criticized Republican demands to cut spending in a short-term spending resolution that would continue funding the government while negotiations persist on a longer-term plan.

Appearing Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union," Schumer said compromise is necessary to avoid a government shutdown that will be bad for everyone.

"Here's the bottom line: we have said shutdown is off the table," Schumer said. "Speaker (John) Boehner, (Senate Minority Leader) Mitch McConnell, other Republican leaders have not taken it off the table when asked and there are lots of people on the hard right clamoring for a shutdown."  

Of course, they would also have a much easier time convincing the country that they don't want to shut down the government if, you know, they didn't want to actually shut down the government.  And passing a spending bill that cuts $61 billion from this year's budget and would cost thousands of jobs isn't exactly convincing people that the Republicans are even interested in compromise.  Wisely, Democrats are saying that they're ready to negotiate.

With 12 days left, the clock is ticking.  It seems pretty clear to me that there's a large percentage of House Republicans that are willing to turn John "Orange Julius" Boehner into Newt "Back of Air Force One" Gingrich.  I used to think that the GOP leadership would have gotten their house in order.  But the inmates are truly running this asylum now.

Zero To $3.5 Million In 17 Days

That's the kind of fundraising acceleration performance you can expect when you drive The All-New Reince Priebus.

The Republican National Committee raised $5.7 million in January, and new Chairman Reince Priebus said Sunday that $3.5 million of the total came in after his election Jan. 14.

“We owe a lot of our success to major donors who helped us reach 180 percent of our monthly major donor goal, and we were able to accomplish that in the last two weeks of January,” Priebus said in a statement. “I am thankful for the outpouring of support I’ve seen over the past month, from both long-time and first-time donors, but we have a lot of work to do.”

Priebus has been working to restore confidence among major donors and dig out from under the debt created during the 2010 election cycle. The RNC had $21.4 million in debt and only $2.1 million on hand by the end of the month, according to disclosure forms filed Sunday to the Federal Election Commission.

Because the RNC is still receiving bills from vendors, Priebus said he expects the committee’s debt to be more than $22 million, including $15 million in loans and more than $7 million to vendors.

The Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, raised $7.2 million in January and had $16.8 million in debt, including $15 million in loans taken out during the 2010 election cycle. It had $9.1 million on hand.

Granted, it's hard to do worse than Michael Steele did when your job consists of "Be Republican and have wealthy donors throw money at you without screwing things up" and as far as I can tell for the last month Priebus has completely stayed out of the news as far as "stupid controversies" go.  Already he's a success.

Meanwhile, it's interesting to note that in a post-Citizens United world, both the RNC and DNC are struggling badly with fundraising, are having to take out big loans, and have amassed some $35 million plus in debt between them.

Big donors don't have to deal with either anymore.  They can give directly to candidates now and can give as much as they want to in the final days of elections.  Both sides racked up quite a bit of debt during the 2008 elections too, but not quite as much as 2010, and 2008 was a Presidential election year to boot.

2012 is going to be pretty scary for both organizations, I think.

StupidiNews!

• In Libya, unrest has spread to the capital of Tripoli as Qaddafi's son and heir apparent warns of civil war amidst a brutal military crackdown.
• House Republicans have failed to repeal Davis-Bacon labor laws that allow government contractors to be paid fair wages.
• The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the bombing of an Afghan bank in the capital Kabul, killing 9 and injuring at least 70.
• Iceland's president has rejected a measure to pay $5 billion to Dutch and British investors, saying the people must decide by referendum.
• The completely mapped human genome turns 10 this week, marking a milestone in genetic knowledge.