California Scheming, Again

Meet the new California governor's draconian budget cuts because nobody can get a tax increase of any kind passed, same as the old California governor's draconian budget cuts because nobody can get a tax increase of any kind passed.

California governor Jerry Brown proposed spending cuts Monday, including shutting down state offices one day a week, as well as tax rises to curb an estimated $16 billion budget deficit.

Brown warned that the budget hole could balloon further if California voters reject plans to increase sales tax and levies on high earners, in a November public vote in the huge western US state.

“I’m linking these serious budget reductions with a plea to the voters: please increase taxes temporarily,” Brown told reporters as he unveiled a revised plan for the budget year that begins July 1.

Brown said over the weekend that California’s deficit has swelled to nearly $16 billion, almost double the expected figure in the Democratic governor’s initial budget proposal in January.

The shortfall was due to lower-than-projected tax revenues and increased spending on schools, among other things.

Brown’s updated draft budget included proposed cuts in Medi-Cal, the state’s healthcare program for the poor, and saving $400 million by shifting government offices to a four-day week.

Brown warned that, if voters reject tax hikes in November, funding for state schools would be cut by $5.5 billion, and the University of California and California State University systems would be cut by $250 million each.

And of course these tax measures are going to fail.  Republicans will simply flood the airwaves saying "You know if these tax measures pass, the rest of the state's rich people will simply move elsewhere.  Then what?"   The answer to that is California's schools basically stop functioning, period.  I know I've talked about Greece and France and Spain as issues affecting our economy, but if California falls apart this summer, it's going to be a lot worse for the country as a whole.

And please note Moonbeam's choice here is major suffering for everyone, or massive suffering for anyone with kids in school.  What a guy.

Some days, I'm glad all my lousy Democratic governor does is fund dinosaurs in arks rather than threaten to cut $5.5 billion from schools.

Casting A Paul Over The Proceedings

Diggy Diggy Hole is out, presumably to spend more time with his gold and weed.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) said Monday in a surprise announcement that he will no longer be campaigning in states that have not yet held primary elections.

“Our campaign will continue to work in the state convention process,” he explained in a campaign email. “Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted. Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have.”

The statement would seem to indicate that while he’s giving up on the remaining primary races, Paul’s not out of the running completely.

Though badly trailing presumptive nominee Mitt Romney, Paul has been gaining marginal ground by helping his supporters take over local and state Republican parties, mastering the old rules of party politics to jam as many of his delegates into the Republican National Convention (RNC) as possible. 

So at this point, all he's got are parlor tricks and technical maneuvers that will at best embarrass Mittens and at worst make Paul look even more like a crackpot than he already is.

I'll tell you what, if Ron Paul's message was so awesome, how come he couldn't convince people to give him the "tens of millions of dollars" needed to win?  Seems to me in the "free market of political ideas" where people vote with their fundraising donations, Ron Paul was a product that not even nutjob Republicans actually wanted.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Ronny.

Breakdown In Communication Doesn't Even Begin To Cover It

Imagine being lost at sea, and watching a friend die of exposure and thirst.  Sick and weak, and growing worse by the minute.  The hunger and terror must have been extreme, with nothing to think about other than inevitable death.  Death may even start to look good after suffering for sixteen days.  This is what happened to Adrian Vasquez.

Then his dreams were answered, or so he thought.

A cruise ship passed by, and the stranded men waved a red sweater.  They felt good that they had likely established contact, and clung to this hope while they waited.  And waited.  They were correct, passengers had seen them and told staff there were men afloat who needed help.  However, due to a "breakdown in communication" that information was never relayed to the captain.  So nothing was ever done.

Vasquez is suing, and he has a hell of a point.  An employee of the cruise line decided to sit on that information, and led to the death of at least one man.  To work at sea is to understand the most common rule: when someone is stranded, you freaking help them.

To die believing help is on the way is a horrible fate.  To wonder why help isn't coming would be torture as you feel your body wither and give up.  I don't have what it takes to survive that, I imagine few people do.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out in court.  I do not know how the enforcement works, or what obligations a vessel has to the stranded.

Bachmann Lies Again. Pretend To Be Surprised.

Yahoo News covers Bachmann's newest load of BS:

In several urgent fundraising appeals, Rep. Michele Bachmann falsely claims that biased “liberal judges” redrew her congressional district “in retaliation for repeatedly standing up to President Obama.” The truth is that only two of the five judges were Democratic appointees, and Bachmann’s Minnesota district has become even more Republican than it was before.

It’s true that a bipartisan panel of judges redrew district lines and placed the town where Bachmann lives in an abutting district represented by a Democrat. But she has chosen to again run in the 6th District, the one she has represented since 2007. And she doesn’t even have to move to do that.

I guess I have to change my constant gripe that she can't do anything without working "Obamacare" into the conversation.  But she can still blame everything on him whether it makes sense or not.  I mean, he has nothing better to do than mess with the (snicker) devastating threat that is Michele Bachmann.

But that’s certainly not the impression Bachmann leaves in the email when she states: “As the TEA Party Caucus Chairwoman in the U.S. House and one of President Obama’s sharpest critics, the Democrats are licking their chops over Minnesota’s new political map and will spend MILLIONS to defeat me.”

Delusions of grandeur, methinks.

Only In America

A lot of folks have torn into Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin for renouncing his US citizenship last week in order to avoid his tax bill from the company's IPO, which is really about as high up the Wall Street scumbag scale as you can get considering he's A) turning his back on the country that made this possible and B) stiffing the American taxpayer for about half a billion.  Ilyse Hogue at The Nation:

Saverin exemplifies the spoiled 1 percenter who erodes the fabric of the country that afforded such opportunity by not paying back the investment America made in him. His decisions are a slap in the face of every person who recognizes that, to be a place that can facilitate the birth of new innovations like Facebook, the United States needs resources. Doubt that? Remember what government funded the research that created the Internet and the web? Harvard University, where the Facebook plot was hatched, took in almost $700 million in federal grant support for tuition and research last year alone. But Saverin’s decision is even more insulting to the millions of his less wealthy fellow immigrants who work hard to gain the privilege of giving back to the country that affords them opportunity to pursue their dreams in relative safety. Not to mention the DREAMers who offer to fight and possibly die for the country that they yearn to make their own.

But no, Eduardo just got himself printed on the One Douchebag bill...on both sides.   When I say the problem in this country is "I got mine, screw you peons" this is exactly what I mean.

Good luck to him somewhere else.  I can't wait for the argument from the right that actually making Saverin pay any taxes at all is what drove him away from America, so we should just exempt rich people from everything:  taxes, laws, death.  Otherwise they'll go somewhere else, you know.

A Bunch Of Southern Prom Queens

Ahh the month of May, where news turns to Mother's Day celebrations, graduation statistics as a brand new class heads into the great unknown of the workforce, and gay and lesbian couples getting banned from various high school proms.

A teenage same sex couple was denied entrance to their Kentucky high school’s prom Saturday night because of the school’s Catholic principles.

According to Lex18 TV in Lexington, Kentucky, 18-year-old Hope Decker and her girlfriend Tiffany Wright explained their disappointment with Lexington Catholic High School not allowing them entrance with their fellow classmates.

“What I did experience in the dean’s office was blatant homophobia,” Decker said. “We were told this school had Catholic principles and so they we couldn’t let it happen.”

“Well first, I was really upset,” Wright said. “I mean, we both cried. I was like, this was ridiculous, there’s got to be something we’ve got to do about this. I just think it’s ridiculous that a school that fosters love and equality is doing something like this to its own students.”

Decker and Wright decided to still dress up and hold an outdoor version of their prom with their friends right outside.

Lexington Catholic High School has yet to comment on the issue but says that it adheres to the principles of the Catholic church. 

And Lexington is about as progressive at Kentucky gets, generally.   Still Kentucky.  Still pretty damn awful.  Still needs to be fought to the point it ends.  Still a long way to go, folks.

StupidiNews!

• Francois Hollande has officially been sworn in as President of France, the first Socialist since Mitterrand in 1995.
• Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee has issued an executive order recognizing out-of-state same-sex marriages as legal, but they remain illegal in-state.
• The National Hurricane Center plans to develop more long-range seven-day forecasts for hurricanes this storm season starting June 1.
• Italy's economy entered its third straight quarter of contraction as the country's recession continues, with the economy shrinking by 0.8% in first quarter 2012.
• Network startup LightSquared has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but the company insists its dream on a national public 4G wireless network will come true.

Last Call

The Kroog's possible worst-case endgame scenario for Greece/Spain/France doesn't exactly fill me with joy and happiness.  In fact, it scares the crap out of me.  The unquenchable Greek Fire, as I have been documenting here for years now, may finally consume the world economy.  It looks like this:

1. Greek euro exit, very possibly next month.

2. Huge withdrawals from Spanish and Italian banks, as depositors try to move their money to Germany.

3a. Maybe, just possibly, de facto controls, with banks forbidden to transfer deposits out of country and limits on cash withdrawals.

3b. Alternatively, or maybe in tandem, huge draws on ECB credit to keep the banks from collapsing.

4a. Germany has a choice. Accept huge indirect public claims on Italy and Spain, plus a drastic revision of strategy — basically, to give Spain in particular any hope you need both guarantees on its debt to hold borrowing costs down and a higher eurozone inflation target to make relative price adjustment possible; or:

4b. End of the euro.

And we’re talking about months, not years, for this to play out.

Once we hit step one there on this road, the rest falls apart very, very quickly.   Massive bank runs in Spain and Italy will not be isolated to just those two countries, but Ireland, Portugal, and who know how many others.  The EU would have to step in and the result would be trying to stand athwart a flash flood of debt yelling "What's all this then?"  It's unknown if Greece will even be able to make its May 15th bond payment.  If Greece misses it, all bets are off.

Mass European chaos at the height of the US election season, in the July-October timeframe.  Our economy would not exactly remain unscathed.  The largest factor in the elections may be completely out of the President's control.

By the way, as Digby points out, California's economy is larger than that of Spain.  They're facing a $16 billion shortfall and the answer there will almost certainly be more crippling austerity.

A sobering thought indeed.  And it all starts with Greece.

Four Kids Strapped To Hood And Taken On Drunken Joyride... BY PARENTS

And today's kid story is brought to you from Fort Wayne, Indiana:

FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- Two Fort Wayne parents have been charged after police said they drove their car with their four children strapped to the hood Monday.

Jessica Clark, 29, and Aaron Stefanski, 29, were both charged with neglect of a dependent.

That's right, strapped to the hood.  After a stop at a liquor store.  They were stopped by a U.S. Marshal after he noticed the children strapped.  To the hood.  Of a moving car driven by two drunk idiots.

The good news is they are relocated at this time, pending an investigation.  Now, I just have to believe people this dumb have to have left clues that will lead investigators down the rabbit hole of their personal insanity.  Foster parents may not be ideal, but I have a hard time believing this is an isolated incident, so perhaps the children will be relieved to be safe.

Strapped to the hood of a car.  And I read about this on Mother's Day, after a touching article about mothers who miss their children, mothers who know how to appreciate the lives they have created.

Google+ And YouTube Introduce Hangouts On Air

Thank you, Lifehacker.  This is why I love you so.

Google+ Hangouts, our favorite free video chatting service, is rolling out the ability to broadcast your Hangouts live and save them directly to YouTube with "Hangouts on Air."

A handful of content creators have been testing out the service for the last several weeks, and it is just now beginning to roll out to the public. Setup couldn't be simpler: just check the box to broadcast the Hangout before you begin, confirm your YouTube credentials, and start recording. Your Hangout will start broadcasting live on your Google+ page, YouTube Channel, and any site where you embedded the live player.

This has major implications, including letting people publish their own little productions with live interaction from friends.  It will give millions of creative people a way to collaborate.  Our communication can be preserved, from business meetings to chats to complete video series.

Simple but awesome.

Cop Kicks Pregnant Woman, Forcing C-Section

A Georgia police officer is under criminal investigation for allegedly kicking a woman who was nearly nine months pregnant in the stomach, WSB-TV reports. Raven Dozier told the station that DeKalb County Officer Jerad Wheeler kicked her in the stomach while she was trying to help calm down her brother who was arguing with police.

"I was upset because I couldn't believe an officer would kick me, with my child in my stomach," Raven Dozier told the station.

Dozier later filed a complaint with the DeKalb police department's internal affairs unit, but it was never investigated. At the time, four supervisors and an internal affairs detective signed off that Wheeler's use of force met police policy, according to WSB-TV.

Dozier was charged with obstruction of an officer. Police later dropped the charge. Two weeks after the kick, she had an emergency C-section. Baby Levi is doing well.

It's going to be hard to defend this one.  It's hard to imagine his excuse of not being able to tell she was pregnant will hold up.  The fact that they did not investigate her complaint and yet it was ruled legitimate is another major problem.  Charging her with obstruction seems like a hedge bet, something to negotiate with if they need a "you scratch my back" solution.

It's really hard to imagine any action on her part that would warrant such violence.  At this point, we must allow the possibility that a reason could exist, but it would have to be legendary.

Church Sues For Negative Reviews

When Julie Anne Smith and her family severed ties with the Beaverton Grace Bible Church a few years ago, she said, former friends acted like the Oregon mother and her family were complete strangers.

“If I went to Costco or any place in town, if I ran into somebody, they would turn their heads and walk the other way,” Smith told ABC affiliate KATU-TV in Portland.  “All we did was asked questions. We just raised concerns. There’s no sin in that.”

Smith may have lost her former friends, but she said she never imagined she and her daughter be hit with a $500,000 lawsuit for defamation for speaking her mind on the Internet. Three other commenters who criticized the church were also named in the suit.

“You will be fine at this church if you never question the elders or pastor,” Smith wrote on  Sept. 29, 2011, one of many online reviews she wrote critical of the church, according to court documents.

The comments given in the article don't show anything that seems over the line of free speech and opinion.  There were no accusations of criminal behavior or grossly twisted facts that amount to a smear campaign.  In fact, the controlling behavior she describes (the word "cult" was never used but fits the bill nicely) is creepy.  It's also completely in line with some cult-churches I have witnessed.

To sue her for such an inflated amount, not even to remove the comments, demonstrates a punitive and controlling nature.  I wish her the best of luck, but nowadays common sense is not the rule.  Follow-ups coming as they are released.

We Respect You, Just Not Enough To Let You Marry

GOP party chairman Reince Priebus would like you to know that LGBT Americans are respected members of American society, unless the little bastards decide to get married.

"People in this country, no matter straight or gay, deserve dignity and respect. However, that doesn't mean it carries on to marriage," Priebus said on NBC's "Meet the Press."


Although Priebus said he supports equal rights for gay Americans, including fair treatment in the workplace and hospital visitations, he pushed back against the suggestion that same-sex marriage falls in the same "civil rights" category.

"I don't think it's a matter of civil rights. I think it's just a matter of whether or not we're going to adhere to something that's been historical and religious and legal in this country for many, many years," Priebus said. "I mean, marriage has to have a definition, and we just happen to believe it's between a man and woman."

He also sought to contrast Jim Crow laws, which enforced segregation, with bans on same-sex marriage, a comparison some have made following the president's announcement Wednesday that he now supports such unions.

"I think there's a big difference between people that have been murdered and everything else that has come with Jim Crow, than marriage between a man and man and a woman and a woman," he said.

Right.  Because it's not a civil rights issue at all, it's just putting those filthy gays in their place.  Gays by the way in American history have never been killed or driven to suicide unlike African-Americans under Jim Crow laws. Never, ever.  Nope.

And half a century ago the definition of marriage was between people of the same race only.  The GOP just happened to believe that then.  And if you give them the opportunity, why they'll make sure all of us have no choice but to believe same-sex marriage is evil.

It'll be in the US Constitution.

Wright Between The Eyes

Remember, the GOP wants to talk about the economy.  Or so they say.  Since of course they can't actually win by talking about the economy, Rev. Jeremiah Wright is now back thanks to our friends at the New York FOX News Post.  And surprise, it's our old friend Edward Klein again.

Man, the media ate me alive,” Wright told me when we met in his office at Chicago’s Kwame Nkrumah Academy. “After the media went ballistic on me, I received an e-mail offering me money not to preach at all until the November presidential election.”

“Who sent the e-mail?” I asked Wright.

“It was from one of Barack’s closest friends.”

“He offered you money?”

“Not directly,” Wright said. “He sent the offer to one of the members of the church, who sent it to me.”

“How much money did he offer you?”

“One hundred and fifty thousand dollars,” Wright said.

“Did Obama himself ever make an effort to see you?”

“Yes,” Wright said. “Barack said he wanted to meet me in secret, in a secure place. And I said, ‘You’re used to coming to my home, you’ve been here countless times, so what’s wrong with coming to my home?’ So we met in the living room of the parsonage of Trinity United Church of Christ, at South Pleasant Avenue right off 95th Street, just Barack and me. I don’t know if he had a wire on him. His security was outside somewhere.

“And one of the first things Barack said was, ‘I really wish you wouldn’t do any more public speaking until after the November election.’ He knew I had some speaking engagements lined up, and he said, ‘I wish you wouldn’t speak. It’s gonna hurt the campaign if you do that.’

Then Obama apparently had Wright killed, and reanimated him as a zombie with his Obamacare witch doctor powers right after Bill Clinton called him an amateur and showed how how REAL Kenyan witch doctor reanimate things.

So, since nobody actually has proof of this, it's cool.  We'll just assume the President is the most evil human being in history based on the word of a guy who writes political slashfic for a living.  Way to go, New York Post.  The goofballs running this story look like numbskulls, but not as bad as the folks who figure this will sink the President in the end.  Because that worked so well in 2008.

The only thing they can't stand more than a black man in the White House is the thought of him winning a second term.

StupidiNews!

• Florida A&M University's board will meet to determine the fate of the school's marching band in the wake of the hazing death of drum major Robert Champion and the resignation of director Julian White.
• Egypt's leading presidential candidate has called Israel a "racist state" and the US operation against bin Laden "state terrorism".
• The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers' Union in Kansas City is defending the lavish salary and perks of president Newton Jones and other top officers.
• JP Morgan Chase may dismiss its entire London investment office in the wake of the company's $2 billion plus losses in the last six weeks.
• Yahoo has named Ross Levensohn as interim CEO as former CEO Scott Thompson has resigned over his fabricated academic record.