Last Call

Years of right-wing scapegoating American Muslims as the enemy would never have any harmful effects, they tell me.

Roger Stockham, a 63-year-old Army veteran from California who was reportedly angry at the U.S. government, was arrested by police in Michigan and charged with allegedly threatening to blow up a Mosque in Dearborn.

Dearborn police allegedly found Stockham inside his vehicle outside the Islamic Center of America with a load of M-80s in his trunk and other explosives, the Detroit News reported.

Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Counsel on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), told the newspaper that police told him the suspect was drinking in a Detroit bar on Monday and threatened to do harm to a mosque in Dearborn. An employee at the bar followed the man outside and wrote down his license plate, which he reported to police, Walid told the newspaper.

The 63-year-old grandfather is charged with one count of a false report or threat of terrorism and one count of possession of bombs with unlawful intent, according to the newspaper.

"He's very dangerous," Dearborn Police Chief Ron Haddad told the Free Press. "We took his threat to be very serious."

But we don't have a right-wing anti-Muslim, anti-minority domestic terror problem in the US.  Anyone who says otherwise is an enemy of the state, and we have "Second Amendment remedies" for those types of problems...

So they tell me.

[UPDATE]  Steve M. says the story here is a lot more complex (it often is) but still this guy was running around free for quite some time despite having been treated for mental problems on and off for nearly three decades.

Don't Make Us Hurt The Hostage

Republicans agree on two things:  one, that failing to raise the debt ceiling would be a economic catastrophe for the country...and two, in order to prevent that catastrophe, Obama better give Republicans 100% of their demands, or else.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) says it's not a threat.

Even as he admitted that not raising the debt ceiling would mean a "financial disaster" for the US and the world, the Speaker said Sunday that Democrats must agree to big spending cuts before the GOP-controlled House will support the Obama administration's spending plans.

"I know you're not threatening to default, but do you agree with administration officials and other economists that defaulting on the full faith and credit of the United States would be a financial disaster?" Fox News' Chris Wallace asked Boehner.

"That would be a financial disaster," the Speaker agreed. "Not only for our country, but for the worldwide economy. Remember, the American people on election day said we want to cut spending and we want to create jobs. You can't create jobs if you default on the federal debt."

"Listen, there has been a spending spree going on in Washington the last couple of years that is beyond control," he added. "And the president is going to ask us to increase the debt limit, he's going have to be willing to cut up the credit cards. We've got to work together by listening to the American people, and reducing these obligations that we have."

"So, defaulting on the full faith and credit is unacceptable to you?" Wallace pressed.

"I don't think it's a question that is even on the table," Boehner replied.

Sure, it's "not on the table".  But the President has to give Boehner exactly what he wants or he'll destroy our economy.   "It would be a shame if anything happened to your recovery there, Mr. President."   The self-fulfilling prophecy of doom that Republicans keep promising will come to pass if the House fails to raise the debt limit.

Boehner knows he can ask for everything he wants, from Social Security cuts to the full repeal of Obamacare to drastic reductions in anything he wants to get rid of.  They'd hate to let the country default, but...well, let's just say earlier I was convinced that the powers that be would never let the Republicans wreck the financial markets.

Now?  Now I'm not so sure.

Pay That Tiger!

The Cincinnati Bengals, like most pro sports franchises and their corresponding cities, are finding out the sweetheart franchise deals of the last two decades are very much over. 

Commissioners in the county that includes Cincinnati say the county can't afford the $43 million the Cincinnati Bengals want for repairs and upgrades at their football stadium over the next decade.


The Cincinnati Enquirer obtained the plan through a public records request. It says the Bengals want four times the amount Hamilton County expected to spend. The county owns the stadium and must pay for improvements under the lease terms.

The team says the total includes $8 million for a new scoreboard within two years. Most of the money would be for maintenance and improvements to keep the decade-old Paul Brown Stadium from deteriorating like the one before it.

And the relatively new Paul Brown stadium is quite nice, but Hamilton County doesn't have $4.3 million a year to fork over to the Bengals.  Not anymore.  Not without raising revenues.  And no lawmaker in the Midwest will win re-election on raising taxes, fees, or levies a dime here in the Tea Party Teens.  They'd get run out of town on a rail.

Cincy is no different.  So the question is, who's going to pay for the stadium, and what happens if the city doesn't give the Bengals what they are looking for?  After all, who's going to build a new stadium to attract a football franchise thee days?  Who would be allowed to?

A lot of cities and a lot of franchises are going to be hurting over the next decade.  It really wouldn't surprise me at all if at least one of the big four pro sport leagues, the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL went under before 2020.

It's the NFL that will face the next major contract test after next week's big game if there's no agreement by March 3, there may not even be a 2011-2012 season. 

A lot of cities are going to want to seriously redo their sports franchise deals over the next several years, and I foresee a number of teams folding altogether.  The nexus of sports, economics, and politics is going to be a messy one for dozens of major US cities.

Stuck In The Pyramid-dle With You

President Obama is in a no-win situation.  Notice that when Iran's Green revolution happened last year, Obama took heavy flak for not coming out forcefully enough for regime change.  The opposite has happened in Egypt. Now Republicans are lighting Obama up for "destabilizing a secular ally and handing it over to Islamist terrorists."

The concern is that both Israel and Saudi Arabia want to see Mubarak stay right where he is, and both countries have made it clear to the United States that neither one will allow Islamists to gain power in Cairo.  Better the dictator you know than the Muslim Brotherhood fanatics you don't.  They are worried about their own countries, Israel because of yet another front on its seemingly endless war with everyone in the neighborhood and its Sinai Peninsula border with Egypt, and Saudi Arabia doesn't want anyone to start calling for King Abdullah's removal either.

So, on the one hand, Obama has been going all out this weekend urging Mubarak to listen to protesters and heed their calls for his removal, and warning him not to use the military to crack down.  (The Egyptian military seems to be spending the weekend going "meh" anyway and hasn't seemed to have picked a side yet.)  On the other hand, Israel and Saudi Arabia and the oil emirates want this Mubarak noise over and the country back under some sort of stability yesterday, and they clearly expect Obama to make this happen or else.

Thing is, it's not up to Obama.  It's not up to Israel or Saudi Arabia, either.  We'll see.  Egypt has shut down Al Jazeera in the country, so getting information out may become more and more of a problem.

Who's In Charge Here, Anyway?

Frank Rich figures the Tea Party rump of the GOP is having a grand old time driving the station wagon through every plate glass window they can find.

Obama must be laughing about how the party that spent a year hammering him for focusing on health care over jobs is now committing the same supposed sin. And one can only imagine his astonishment on Tuesday night, when the G.O.P. respondents to his speech each played Jimmy Carter to his Reagan by offering a grim double-feature of malaise and American decline. Hardly had the president extolled record corporate profits and a soaring stock market in his selectively rosy spin on the economy, than Ryan, who has the television manner of a solicitous funeral home director, was darkly warning that America could be the next Greece. Bachmann channeled Glenn Beck to argue that we are living in a nascent police state where government “tells us which light bulbs to buy” (G.E.’s, presumably).

The most revealing moment in either Republican response, though, came from Ryan, who, as chairman of the House Budget Committee, implicitly threatened another government shutdown, or catastrophic fiscal meltdown, if the House majority doesn’t get its way. “The president is now urging Congress to increase the debt limit,” he said with distaste, referring to the vote required possibly as soon as March to allow the Treasury to keep paying its bills. Should the House majority hold that vote hostage to its vision of the budget, it will throw the markets into turmoil and upend our still-embryonic recovery.

It tells you all you need to know about Ryan’s tilt to the right that, for all his professed disapproval of increasing the debt limit during an Obama administration, he voted to do so twice himself during the gushing deficits of the Bush years. Funny he didn’t mention that Tuesday night. It tells you all you need to know about the G.O.P.’s overall tilt to the right that not just the Tea Party is making barely veiled threats to play dangerous political games with the debt limit. Mitch McConnell and Cantor did so last weekend, as have a plethora of potential 2012 presidential candidates, from Tim Pawlenty to Gingrich. The Bachmann-Beck-Palin tail is now firmly wagging the Republican dog.

Like virtually every other week since the shellacking, the State of the Union week was another salutary one for Obama. But the state of the union itself could yet be in the hands of radicals whose eagerness to see the president fail is outstripped only by their zeal to make an ideological point, even if it forces America into default. 

But let's face it, we're seeing those same 20% of the country that is the Tea Party manhandling the other 80%, not just the dwindling Republican center.  2010's primaries made clear what happens if the base doesn't think you're crazy enough, so yes, Michele Bachmann continues to speak of coming revolution and Paul Ryan warns of imminent disaster, and it simply hasn't occurred to them that the Tea Party will be the cause of both.

They have no choice but to ride this crazy train off the rails.  The problem is when it happens and the GOP shuts the government down, it'll blow a hole in the economy wide enough to sink all of us...and it's no guarantee it'll get rid of the Tea Party either.

Marching Orders

I've noticed when President Obama meets with billionaires, they have the good grace to pretend like they're human beings (plus it's good press.)

The ones who want to talk to the Republicans instead, well they don't have time for niceties, apparently.  They just want their orders followed.  Forget Davos, the real deal this weekend is in Palm Springs.

This weekend, at a posh resort near Palm Springs, California, two billionaire corporate titans will convene a semi-annual meeting of a politically well-connected set. It will include wealthy donors and powerful Republicans, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.


At David and Charles Koch's meeting, attendees will discuss items like how best to promote free markets and how to help elect conservatives. Donors are expected to be asked to donate to conservative causes.

It will be conducted virtually in secret, with no press or public allowed and many attendees keeping event details on the hush.

That's fueled criticism that this gathering is a sort of secret cabal - a "Billionaires Caucus," critics say. Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary in the Clinton administration, even said that the Koch brothers' meeting represents "a threat to our democracy."

Those and other criticisms were leveled during a Thursday telephone press conference for reporters organized by the liberal-oriented, nonprofit group, Common Cause. On Sunday, the group will hold events to counter the Koch's weekend conference: hosting a panel discussion titled, "Uncloaking the Kochs" and spearheading a protest rally, both near the Rancho las Palmas resort, the site of the Koch meeting.

A central issue inflaming this debate: the role of corporate money in politics, especially after last year's landmark Supreme Court campaign finance ruling. That decision, in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, found that the "government may not suppress political speech on the basis of the speaker's corporate identity." 

Hey, these guys already bought the ability to use their nearly unlimited financial influence on campaign politics.  I wonder what else they are getting for their "donations" to Republicans this weekend?  Make no mistake, the GOP leadership is getting their marching orders for 2012 from the people really in charge in America.

Tea Party populism will only go as far as the Koch Brothers allow it.

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

So...is Taco Bell's meat 88% beef, 35% beef, or what?

"Our reputation's been falsely tarnished," said Greg Creed, Taco Bell's president. He told CNNMoney that he's meeting with outside counsel to possibly take legal action on these "egregious" accusations against his beef.

"We clearly take this very seriously," he said, noting that a decision on legal action will be made in the next week. "We're reacting to this onslaught against our food and reputation."

The fast-food company said that its beef is "100% USDA inspected," and insisted that its meat mix is "88% beef and 12% Secret Recipe." But the lawsuit, filed in federal court within the Central District of California, claims that the mix is about one-third beef.

"We would like Taco Bell to stop referring to its products as beef products, when in fact they're not beef products," said the plaintiff's lawyer, Dee Miles, to CNN's Jeanne Moos.

Based on lab tests, the law firm said that Taco Bell's "beef" was actually less than 35% beef.

"Their number is so wrong, it's ludicrous," Creed said.

Well, somebody's certainly 100% full of crap here.   On one hand, considering Taco Bell makes millions of products daily, it's not like they can hide if somebody wanted to test it.  On the other hand, the thought of "besmirching Taco Bell's reputation" is equally laughable when the whole point of the chain is to sell cheap, mass-produced Mexican food.

It'll be interesting to see who's telling the truth.

Jeddah Gotta Be Kidding

As I said yesterday, the biggest, fattest domino at the end of the Tunisia-Egypt revolution chain is Saudi Arabia, and Saudi King Abdullah has just backed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Saudi Arabia’s state news agency reported that King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud criticized the protestors (claiming they are instigated by "infiltrators") and strongly backed Mubarak.


The king said protesters were "exploited to spew out their hatred in destruction . . . inciting a malicious sedition” and that outside agitators “infiltrated into the brotherly people of Egypt, to destabilize its security."

"No Arab or Muslim can tolerate any meddling in the security and stability of Arab and Muslim Egypt by those who infiltrated the people in the name of freedom of expression, exploiting it to inject their destructive hatred," King Abdullah was quoted as saying. 

Needless to say, that's not going over well with the Saudi people.

Saudi authorities detained dozens of demonstrators yesterday who gathered in Jeddah to protest against poor infrastructure after deadly floods swept through Saudi Arabia's second biggest city.

Mass messages were sent over BlackBerry smart-phones calling for popular action in response to the flood, an unusual move in the Gulf state.

Protesters gathered for about 15 minutes after Friday prayers on a main shopping street and shouted "God is Greatest" before authorities broke up the protest and detained participants.

If things go casters up in Riyadh and Jeddah, then you can kiss any hope of recovery goodbye here in the US, folks.  Five, six dollar a gallon gas is not exactly going to endear the American people.  After that, all bets are off.  Things at this point have the potential of getting very ugly, very quickly.

Be aware.

StupidiNews! Five Crazy Things Edition

1. 

Molly DeWolf Swenson is making news.  She was an intern for the Obama administration, and apparently sings pretty well, too.  Make your own jokes about her changing her tune, I was on punchline overload.  But good luck to her, she earned her way before the fact was known.


2.

So Facebook has sidestepped the problem of how to control your mind and get you to buy things or recommend them to your friends. They don't need to control your brain to get you to advertise for them. They just need to know who your friends are, and what you're saying to them. Their ad placement algorithm does the rest.

The science of advertising is still scary, even if it isn't as effective as they would like.

3. 

A ten-year-old girl won a spelling bee without uttering a sound.  Tanu Shivaswamy suffers from cerebral palsy but her mind is in top shape.  With the help of an interpreter, she spells out her words using sign language.  It's cool if you teared up a little after reading the article.  I did.

4. 

"Your honor, my best guess is that he was either a dog in a former life, or never learned the art of shaking hands."  This is the best possible defense for a man who apparently tackles women joggers and buries his nose in their... rear.

5. 

The nonprofit Consumer Wellness Center reported Thursday that its investigation found "blueberries" that were nothing more than a concoction of sugar, corn syrup, starch, hydrogenated oil, artificial flavors and -- of course -- artificial food dye blue No. 2 and red No. 40. The offenders are well-known manufacturers such as Kellogg's, Betty Crocker and General Mills, and the fakes were found in bagels, cereals, breads and muffins. Some products contain real blueberries mixed with fakes.

This is disheartening on so many levels.  Blueberries have been popular for their antioxidants and other health benefits, and some of our largest food providers have been purposely covering this up.

Denial Really Is A River In Egypt

Lot of stuff this morning on Egypt to discuss.  First, President Obama has made his official statement on the matter, saying "All governments must maintain power through consent, not coercion."



Second, a report from the UK's Telegraph newspaper indicates America has been secretly backing regime change in Egypt for the last three years as part of the trove of WikiLeaks State Department cables.

In a secret diplomatic dispatch, sent on December 30 2008, Margaret Scobey, the US Ambassador to Cairo, recorded that opposition groups had allegedly drawn up secret plans for “regime change” to take place before elections, scheduled for September this year.

The memo, which Ambassador Scobey sent to the US Secretary of State in Washington DC, was marked “confidential” and headed: “April 6 activist on his US visit and regime change in Egypt.”

It said the activist claimed “several opposition forces” had “agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition to a parliamentary democracy, involving a weakened presidency and an empowered prime minister and parliament, before the scheduled 2011 presidential elections”. The embassy’s source said the plan was “so sensitive it cannot be written down”.

Ambassador Scobey questioned whether such an “unrealistic” plot could work, or ever even existed. However, the documents showed that the activist had been approached by US diplomats and received extensive support for his pro-democracy campaign from officials in Washington. The embassy helped the campaigner attend a “summit” for youth activists in New York, which was organised by the US State Department.

Cairo embassy officials warned Washington that the activist’s identity must be kept secret because he could face “retribution” when he returned to Egypt. He had already allegedly been tortured for three days by Egyptian state security after he was arrested for taking part in a protest some years earlier.

Finally, protests continue today as demonstrators are not happy at all with Mubarak remaining in power in any way.

Thousands of anti-government protesters clashed with police in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria on Saturday after President Hosni Mubarak spurned demands that he end his 30-year authoritarian rule.

A Reuters witness said police used teargas and live ammunition against demonstrators in Alexandria. Protesters also gathered on a main square in the capital Cairo in defiance of military orders for them to disperse.

The fresh unrest broke out as Mubarak clung to power, replacing his cabinet in an effort to appease angry Egyptians, complaining about poverty, corruption and unemployment.

The president ordered troops and tanks into Cairo and other cities overnight and imposed a curfew in an attempt to quell the protests that have shaken the Arab world's most populous nation, a key U.S. ally, to the core.

Despite dozens of deaths in clashes on Friday, Egyptians said they would press on with protests until Mubarak quits.

"We are not demanding a change of cabinet, we want them all to leave, Mubarak before anyone else," said Saad Mohammed, a 45-year-old welder who was among about 2,000 people gathered in Cairo's central Tahrir Square.

Needless to say, things are getting deadly and quite serious in Egypt this weekend.  I'll continue to keep an eye on the news.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Egypt's government has resigned but protesters continue to call for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
• The IMF is warning at Davos that the US must rein in spending now and make tough choices like Britain and Ireland.
• The Pentagon says they will begin training troops for the end of DADT starting next month, but it may take until the end of the year before the policy is fully lifted.
• Australia has raised a levy on citizens to pay for massive flooding damage over the last month.
• The FCC has responded to lawsuits over net neutrality rules by saying the rules aren't even in effect yet.

Last Call

Republicans have found a fun new game to play.  Find a government-provided service, point out that it wasn't in the Constitution, declare it unconstitutional, demand it be eliminated, then when somebody calls you on your logic, twiddle your thumbs.  You too can be an idiot.

In an interview about federal transportation issues, Streetsblog asked Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) about supporting legislation that would support things like bike trails. Hunter responded by saying that he doesn’t “think biking should fall under the federal purview of what the transportation committee is there for. If a state wants to do it, or local municipality, they can do whatever they want to. But no, because you have us mandating bike paths, you don’t want either.”


Streetsblog followed up by asking if he was okay with “mandating highways.” Hunter responded by saying that he doesn’t “see riding a bike the same as driving a car or flying an airplane” because “it’s more of a recreational thing“

Right.  Bikes aren't transportation, you don't actually go anywhere on one.  Hurr, stupid hippies, get an SUV!

I expect that kind of argument from the peanut gallery, not Congress.

Chickens Coming Out Swinging

And so it goes like this: Chick-fil-A is a restaurant where franchises frequently donate to anti-gay organizations like the Pennsylvania Family Institute, Focus on the Family and others. The restaurant's charitable arm, WinShape, holds conferences for opponents of gay marriage and praises their work. And this charitable arm's Retreat program puts a blanket ban on gay couples using their facilities, because they "do not accept homosexual couples."

Yet the President of Chick-fil-A still says that all people, including LGBT people, are treated with respect by the restaurant? Huh, what a funny definition of respect.

I heard rumblings weeks ago, but I waited to see if a fuller picture developed.  Businesses have the right to donate and operate within the boundaries of the law.  It becomes hypocrisy only when they try to deny the left hand knows who the right hand is flipping off. It's the same dilemma that challenges pharmacies whose owners don't want to sell birth control: when you operate a business that serves the public, it isn't wise to alienate your customers.  Especially by denying services or supporting charities that don't actually enhance society but merely try to control it.

Oppressed So Hard They Could Not Stand...

Let my people go.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says he has asked the government to resign, and that he will appoint a new government Saturday. He gave no indication that he would step down or leave the country. 

Talk about as stubborn as Pharaoh.   Somehow I don't think Mubarak is going to remain in power much longer.  He hasn't got a friend in the world right now and if he thinks people are going to settle for him remaining in power, well.

Meanwhile, protests are spreading east to Yemen and Jordan, where the people are demanding Prime Minister Samir Rifai step down.

In the third consecutive Friday of protests, about 3,500 opposition activists from Jordan's main Islamist opposition group, trade unions and leftist organisations gathered in the capital, waving colourful banners reading: "Send the corrupt guys to court".

The crowd denounced Samir Rifai's, the prime minister, and his unpopular policies.

Many shouted: "Rifai go away, prices are on fire and so are the Jordanians.''

Another 2,500 people also took to the streets in six other cities across the country after the noon prayers. Those protests also called for Rifai's ouster.

Members of the Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and Jordan's largest opposition party, swelled the ranks of the demonstrators, massing outside the al-Husseini mosque in Amman and filling the downtown streets with their prayer lines.

King Abdullah has promised some reforms, particularly on a controversial election law. But many believe it is unlikely he will bow to demands for the election of the prime minister and Cabinet officials, traditionally appointed by the king.

Rifai also announced a $550 million package of new subsidies in the last two weeks for fuel and staple products like rice, sugar, livestock and liquefied gas used for heating and cooking. It also includes a raise for civil servants and security personnel.

Things are getting ugly, folks.  The big fat domino at the end of this 2,500 mile chain that started in Tunisia is Saudi Arabia and our oil producing OPEC pals.  If the unrest goes that far, we're going to have all kinds of problems on our end and damn soon.  Last thing you want to see is Zimbabwe style hyper-inflation in an OPEC exporter.

Tunisia's down, Egypt's on the brink.  The whole of North Africa into the Middle East is looking bad. Stay tuned, folks.  This isn't one song on the jukebox, it's a symphony of chaos and it's been warming up for years.

Challenging The Stars

Some 25 years ago today, a knuckle-headed elementary school Zandar was watching the launch of the shuttle Challenger, just like every other schoolkid in the country.  Hey, we were going to get lessons from a teacher in space.  How awesome was that going to be?

Turns out it was awesome, but in the literal sense.

Seventy-three seconds.

That's how long NASA's space shuttle Challenger was in the air before an O-ring failure turned a routine mission into space into a tragedy on January 28, 1986.

Twenty-five years after NASA's first fatal in-flight accident, the memory of the Challenger disaster is still strong.


CNN's John Zarrella was at Kennedy Space Center to cover the launch - the first from NASA's new launchpad 39B. "I just remember seeing the cloud of smoke and what looked like fireworks coming out from the vehicle," says Zarrella. "We were all just looking at each other wondering 'OK, what's happened here?'"

CNN, still in its early years, was the only network to carry the launch live that Tuesday. Among those tuning in were children in classrooms across the country, watching what was to be a milestone: Christa McAuliffe, the program’s first teacher in space, lifted off as a member of the crew.

And we watched it live, and we all looked at each other, and asked the teacher what happened, and she shushed us, because she didn't know either.  None of us did.  I remember watching the booster rockets fork off in a V, going in different directions, and the thing cracked up.

And they were gone, the whole crew.  Just like that.  That was my first introduction to the concept that really, really bad things happen to really nice people, and there's not anything you can do about it.  Sometimes, things just go horribly wrong in life and people don't come home again.  Ever.

Yeah, by February we were all fine, cracking really bad jokes about the accident ("No, I said BUD LIGHT!") and dreading Valentine's Day.

But I remember my mom asking me if I was okay when I came home from school, and I said that I was okay, and I did my homework and ate dinner, and I remember thinking "Well, I guess there is a reason bad things happen" but for the life of me I still haven't quite figured out why that is.  Anybody in my generation, that was the event you remembered from school, you remember seeing it unfold live on TV and the entire country going..."Crap."

Now, 25 years later, I'm reminded the space shuttle program is all but over.  We thought it was over back then, too.  Life goes on.

But you remember that for some, life doesn't go on.