Last Call

To recap, Mitch Daniels is confident he could have beaten Obama, but he didn't want to put his family through the opposition research wringer.

“Yes, I think so,” Daniels said when asked whether he could have beaten Obama on ABC’s “This Week.” “I mean no one can know.”

Daniels said that his decision to not run was based on his family’s desire for privacy and security, which he said would inevitably have been lost in a campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

“We've got young women, three of them that have been married not too long,” Daniels said. “They're looking forward to building lives, starting families and this was just a - a disruption that - that they were very, very leery of. And who wouldn't understand that?”

The interesting part is his fellow Republicans would of had the first crack at him and not Obama or the Dems.  Wonder what he's afraid he'll find?  It's an interesting story.  Gov. Daniels fooled everyone into thinking he was going to run when he singed a bill banning public funding for Planned Parenthood in his state of Indiana last month. Alas, he fooled me as well, bowing out of the race last weekend.

There's a story there, but I wonder honestly if it was his wife and three daughters who figured out their husband and father were willing to screw over thousands of Indiana women just to score points with the GOP.  Could it be possible that his young, relatively newly married daughters perhaps visited a Planned Parenthood clinic at some point for a low-cost basic checkup?  Could it be that his daughters or wife objected to their father signing the bill as a down payment to get into the big race in 2012?

Something sure as hell changed Mitch's mind in the space of a couple of weeks.  I'm curious as to what it was.

Heimdall Has A Ridiculous Spot Score Before He Touches The Dice

Saw several movies over the course of my vacation, so we'll start with Thor.





Thor, played by Australian actor Chris Hemsworth, is very very large. He's also a completely self-absorbed jagoff, but his dad being Odin (Anthony Hopkins, devouring entire cubic parsecs of screen when he's on it) means he gets to get away with it.  His emo-tastic brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) really despises him, but Thor is too busy to hear this important plot point over the deafening sound of how completely awesome he is.  They all live in Asgard, which is like Mt. Olympus, only in space and with Heimdall (Edris Ilba), a really big dude with a Spot skill score and feats all blown on Spot score, who is relegated to doorman. (Thanks, Marvel.)

When Thor and his buddies are manipulated into declaring war on the Frost Giants in the realm next door, and breaking Odin's peace with their leader King Laufey, it ruins everyone's week and he is banished to Earth along with HIS MIGHTY HAMMER MJOLNIR until he Learns Something(tm).  He meets Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and has wacky adventures involving drinking and fighting, which are apparently the top, bolded points on his resume'.

Meanwhile, the shock of just how much of a muscle-brained meathead his son is has put Odin into some sort of Asgardian Space Coma, and Loki takes over.  Thor then has to save Asgard and Earth and everything, completely predictable but actually amusing and fun due to the fact Chris Hemsworth is really, really perfect for Thor (even better than Robert Downey Jr. was as Tony Stark) and that Natalie Portman really does try hard to be an actress and not an arm accessory for the big guy.  Tolstoy this ain't, but as far as a matinee popcorn flick, it's a good time.

Do stay for the credits and the obligatory Nick Fury scene afterwards.

This Is Starting To Become A Trend

Dave Weigel's interview with freshman Republican Rep Joe Walsh of Illinois is very, very illuminating.

On MSNBC, after the State of the Union, asked whether there should be a social safety net:

"No. It's not in the Constitution."

On ABC News after voting for the House GOP's funding bill—the one about three times larger than the compromise that passed:

"Keep cutting, baby."

How come he's on TV more than any other freshman?

"I think it goes to this," he says. "A big freshman class comes to D.C., and here you've got one guy that said a lot of things during the campaign and he's doing everything he said. He's doing things that strike some people as unusual. Sleeps in the office. Turns down health benefits. Turns down pension benefits. Believes in term limits. Comes home all the time, holds more town halls than anybody. And then he's not at all afraid to talk about these things he believes in. So he's not afraid to go on MSNBC or CNN and get into a good jostling." He racks his brain for any more reasons he's on TV. "I mean, I'm a white male freshman congressman. There are a lot of those! I don't know."

If it seems like Joe Walsh is nothing more than a walking GOP talking point, that's his entire schtick.  That's why he's been on TV weekly at this point, because he feels part of his job as a Congressman is to go on TV and spout the party line:  Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are welfare, and they're not promised to anyone.  I'm here to cut trillions from government.  Oh, but the real meat here is Walsh's opinion of the President.

If Walsh gets a few more lucky breaks, and he gets a district to campaign in next year, he'll have to confront another problem. President Obama will be on the ticket. Obama has never won less than a landslide in Illinois. He's always carried the Chicago suburbs. I ask Walsh why he thinks that's true.

"Look," he says, "I don't think this is complicated. He doesn't really have a history. I say all of this respectfully—he is the least well-known guy we have ever put in the presidency, and there's no one even close. He's probably got easily the lightest résumé of anybody we've elected."

Yes, despite the largest opposition research effort in political history, first by Hillary Clinton, then by the Republicans, an opposition research effort that laid to bare everyone he had ever talked to as "proof" he was a terrorist sympathizer and secret Kenyan communist, his life dissected literally from birth to the present moment, he's the "least well known guy we have ever put in the presidency."

That's patently false, of course.  But why does Joe Walsh keep this facade that Obama is an unknown running?  He has to to justify his next theory.

Walsh leans forward and taps me on the knee with a bumper sticker.

"Why was he elected? Again, it comes back to who he was. He was black, he was historic. And there's nothing racist about this. It is what it is. If he had been a dynamic, white, state senator elected to Congress he wouldn't have gotten in the game this fast. This is what made him different. That, combined with the fact that your profession"—another friendly tap of the bumper sticker—"not you, but your profession, was just absolutely compliant. They made up their minds early that they were in love with him. They were in love with him because they thought he was a good liberal guy and they were in love with him because he pushed that magical button: a black man who was articulate, liberal, the whole white guilt, all of that."

The only reason Barack Obama got elected was because of massive white liberal guilt and massive anti-white racism in America.  Everyone who voted for him must be a racist, because we know  "nothing about him. "  His election was 100% the product of massive racism plied upon the American public by the evil liberal media.  Do you see why Walsh needs the "mystery man" theory on the President now?

It's jarring to hear a congressman say that, but there are a lot of people who agree with him. Walsh has a gift for saying out loud things that many Republicans believe but won't say, and he says them because he's worried. He'd been hoping Mitch Daniels got into the race. He wanted someone who offered voters the complete opposite of what they'd gotten from Obama.

"I pity the candidate running against him, because it will continue," he says. "That profession will protect him, and they will crucify whoever the Republican nominee is."

No wonder Joe Walsh is on TV all the time.  And if this sounds familiar, it's exactly what Shelby Steele said in the Wall Street Journal not more than a few days ago.  And yes, Republicans are now officially playing the race card against Obama in 2012.

Practical News

CNN has a great article on their front page about stray dogs.  It gives good advice about how to approach, befriend, and take care of a stray dog.  Many well-meaning folks have made common mistakes while doing this, and nobody benefits.

As for your stray, many vets offer discounted services. Consider getting a rabies vaccination, too. If you want to get it spayed or neutered, there are low-cost options available. Check the ASPCA website for programs that offer free or discounted programs in your area.

Once you get a clean bill of health, it is OK to gradually introduce the new animal to your pets. Kids should never be left unattended around animals, especially when you don't know the pet's history. Use extreme caution when allowing children to interact with the stray dog.

With the storms and more abandoned pets than ever, this is only one of many practical tips to help reunite a pet with their owner, or do your best to help a lost animal.  For those folks who would like to help but aren't sure where to begin, this is the article for you.

This Week's WTH: Shake Rattle And Roll Edition

Rob Wolfe over at Randomly Walking caught my eye with this post:

The Associated Press: 7 experts to be tried over 2009 Italy quake: "ROME (AP) — Seven scientists and other experts were indicted on manslaughter charges Wednesday for allegedly failing to sufficiently warn residents before a devastating earthquake that killed more than 300 people in central Italy in 2009."

What the hell?  It's hard to imagine the thought process behind that, as sources more esteemed than the scientists bluntly state that it is impossible to predict earthquakes.  While I understand the grief in the wake of such a tragedy, blaming scientists is not the answer, nor is it encouraging the science that they believe can help predict earthquakes.  Who would risk that type of liability?


Idiots. 

Greek Fire, Part 29

Keep a careful eye on Greece tomorrow.  If this translated Der Spiegel article is correct, then the IMF, the ECB, and the EU Commission on Financial Affairs is going to announce Monday that Greece has effectively failed to meet its end of the bailout bargain, and the Greek Fire will indeed consume Europe.  In other words, its looking like Greece will have no choice but to default on its bailout debt and be cut off by the EU, turning the Euro into a smoking crater. Reuters UK has more info:

Greece has missed all fiscal targets agreed under its bailout plan, a mission from an international inspection team found, putting further funding for Athens at risk, according to a German magazine.

"The troika asserts in its report to be presented next week that Greece had missed all its agreed fiscal targets," weekly Spiegel magazine reported in a prerelease.

The International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank -- known as the troika -- currently have a team in Greece assessing how sustainable the country's debts are.

The mission will be holding meetings next week before an expected finalisation of the report.

"The deficit in the public budget was higher than expected," the magazine said, referring to the report's findings.

"The reason is that the Greek government still spends more than agreed in the aid programme. On top of that tax income is still lower than demanded."

The IMF has already said it cannot release its part of a 12 billion euro (10.4 billion pound) aid tranche to Greece next month if fiscal conditions underpinning the bailout are not met and the European Commission's top economic official was quoted as saying the EU was setting the same conditions.

"We Europeans have the same conditions as the IMF," EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn was quoted as saying in the same prerelease for Monday's Spiegel magazine.

"We will decide on the next tranche after the troika's report. The situation is very serious," Rehn added.

Monday's going to be ugly in Europe.  Very, very ugly.   PS...this proves that austerity isn't the answer.  But the GOP wants trillions in spending cuts anyway...

Last Call

Well, thanks to Bon the Geek for letting me hang out with her in Missouri for a bit.  It was fun...even if I never quite got up on time early enough to write StupidiNews more than one or twice last week.  Got to see the storms that caused the Joplin tornado close up, folks.  It wasn't pretty.  Keep in mind the death toll could have been much, much higher.  Improved tornado and severe storm forecasting gave the people of Joplin several additional minutes to find shelter that even ten years ago they would not have had, and that went double for the Oklahoma tornado outbreak on Tuesday.

PS:  Republicans voted across the board to cut NOAA funding (including tornado and severe storm forecasting) and FEMA disaster relief in order to give more tax cuts to the wealthy.  Government sure is useless until an EF4 or EF5 tornado shows up on the government-funded radar headed for your hometown, right?

No Dealing On The Debt Ceiling, Part 11

If even the low end of the estimate of Democratic House #3 man Jim Clyburn is correct, then Democrats have totally folded on the debt ceiling and have all but lost across the board in 2012.

Representative James Clyburn, the assistant Democratic leader in the U.S. House, said the “odds are very, very good” that negotiators will agree on a $3 trillion to $6 trillion package of spending cuts and tax increases in time to raise the U.S. debt limit before an Aug. 2 deadline.

Any agreement with Republicans “absolutely” must include provisions to raise more revenue, even if it also cuts corporate tax rates, said the South Carolina lawmaker, who holds the third-ranking position in the House Democratic leadership and is part of a bipartisan negotiating group of Senate and House members led by Vice President Joe Biden.

“We cannot get an agreement without revenues” being raised, and absent that “I don’t think we can get to what our goals are,” Clyburn said on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend.

Democrats will resist any Republican plan to reduce Medicare benefits for future recipients, he said.

“We are not going to reduce benefits at all” because Medicare is “a very important part of the safety net” in American society, Clyburn said.

His comments underscore the difficulty negotiators face in reaching an agreement, as Republicans insist on no tax increases and demand significant cuts in spending, including a readjustment of entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

Republican leaders also insist that a package of spending cuts without any net increase in federal tax revenue must be part of an agreement to raise the U.S. debt ceiling. 

So, hands off Medicare, but the Republicans get a minimum of $3 trillion in cuts?  If this is the new position of the Dems, then it's over, folks.  We've lost.  So much for the "clean" debt ceiling bill.  The GOP is getting everything it wants, and the second President Obama signs this bill, they will be cutting ads saying the brave heroic Republicans cut trillions in gubment spending, and the evil, horrible Democrat Party raised your taxes so you must PUNISH THEM.

If at this point we're up to trillions in cuts, and the only question now is how much and where, then it's just about over for the Dems in 2012.  And if there's a dime's worth of cuts in Medicare and Obama signs it, the Republicans will end up with the whole ball of wax in 2012.

I really hope this is just Clyburn pushing the panic button and forcing progressive groups to get involved here.  If this is the deal, $3-$6 trillion in deficit reduction at a time when the government is the lender and buyer of last resort, then this economic disaster will last a decade.

A Little Good News For A Change

The Joplin tornado set a record, but they are just the most recent victims.  It's hard to imagine how it feels to lose everything, but anyone who has been through an experience like that can tell you that giving up on pets is one of the many things that weigh on your heart after your home has been destroyed.

A scruffy Alabama terrier mix named Mason was whisked away by fierce twisters last month, prompting his owners, who lost their home in the storm, to fear the worst. But the redoubtable mutt apparently crawled back to his home days later with two broken legs in a remarkable tale of survival.

Local news outlet WBRC reports that Mason was blown away by the storm from the garage in Birmingham where he was hiding on April 27. His owners looked for him everywhere but couldn't find him. Two and a half weeks later, though, they found Mason waiting for them on their front porch when they returned to the house to look through the debris.

Every bit of good news helps.

RIP, Mr. Conaway

Yesterday, Jeff Conaway died.  He was taken off life support, surrounded by loved ones.  The actor had suffered from many illnesses over the years, and at sixty he just couldn't take any more.  He did not seek treatment in time for a bacterial infection, and his ravaged body could not defeat it.

You can click here to read the obituary on Yahoo! Entertainment.  It lists his accomplishments, and what he is known for by different generations.  I'm just going to  explain why his life and death is so memorable for me.  I just plain liked him in Grease, and he disappeared off my radar for many years.  When I saw him on other shows, it was as himself.  A polite, well read and scary intelligent guy who was eaten up with pain.  The line between his physical and mental anguish surely blurred over the decades.  I saw in him the same deep soul I saw in John Candy and the great Clark Gable... pain without relief, life without comfort.  He will be remembered for his acting, perhaps for his drug addictions, but those who ever saw a glimpse of the real man will carry his true legacy.  Above all things, when he wasn't in so much pain that he could function, Jeff Conaway was kind.  And now, though it's a sad ending to a sad life, he is no longer in pain.

Minty Fresh

As I posted earlier, I have made the move from Ubuntu to Linux Mint.  It was meant to be a temporary move, but if things continue in this direction it will be permanent.   I'm still running some tests and checking for bugs (none so far!) and will have a few follow-ups.

Mint is Ubuntu-based, so the feel is the same.  What is missing are all the annoying things about the Ubuntu 11.04.  You can still control your machine, get your geek on, and enjoy a product that works right out of the box.  The look and feel is similar to Ubuntu (pre-Unity) but the differences are all positives.  The window and desktop controls are detailed and thoughtful, and you can jump right in and start working.  I have played on it all day long and it's only gotten better.

I have not given up on Ubuntu, but I am going to fully enjoy this phase of my Linux usage.  As I learn more, I will post updates.  My first impression is that this is a stunning cousin of Ubuntu, and they have managed to avoid the bloat and requirements that may cost Ubuntu first place in the Linux wars.

Ubuntu To You, Too

At first, I wasn't too concerned when I read negative reviews about Ubuntu 11.04.  I've read some scathing reviews and been impressed all the same.  This time, however, they were right.  Ubuntu has brought a lot to the table with this revamp but they have lost the things that made them heroic.  No longer is it intuitive and thoughtful.  The controls are complicated and unnecessarily compartmentalized so that you have to hunt and pray if you wish to avoid the command line.  The hardware functionality took a big hit, as there is a rather intimidating problem with certain (and common) graphics cards.  Grub has issues, and that is scary as hell to a novice.  The graphics card issue prevents being able to log in, a paralyzing problem for someone who just moved over to try Ubuntu.  Worse yet, the graphics issue didn't exist in the generic drivers, so we had no reason to expect a problem until an update made booting up throw an error that for some just led to a flat black screen.

This is not the ideal version for a newbie. Previous versions are stable and delightful, this has a lot of growth and bugfixing required.  The graphics card issue can be resolved by booting into recovery mode and then selecting failsafe graphics mode.  This is a fancy way of saying your graphics card is considered out of date, with no fix date in sight.  I have not found a way to permanently set that, so each time you log in you will have to repeat the process.  The methods I found don't always stick, and may reset to the buggy default at random.  Not the worst thing in the world, but not great either.  The other bugs are significant and can make for a poor experience if one isn't used to tinkering around in Ubuntu.  Experienced users with better hardware will have a great time, everyone else will find it frustrating to navigate.

Ubuntu has been great for years.  I'm still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume with some time they can get this up and running.  These massive changes will require a certain amount of catching up while they get drivers and patches for older systems.  I have come to expect a high quality product, and I will continue to hope that the developers bring Ubuntu along to where it used to be.  But for now, I recommend staying with an older version and giving the a chance to get a grip on some pretty serious issues.  Just because I enjoy solving problems and learning doesn't mean I have time to do that for every single function I want to perform, and it sure has felt that way lately.

Which leads to a few things.  One, the new geekery tag will keep all my Ubuntu and other articles together, as I open up a on a wider variety of topics.  Two, I will be posting more geeky news and updates here, because the response has been good.  Three... after four years of faithful love, I have left Ubuntu.  Oh, it's just a trial separation and we're still on good terms for the kids sake, but I needed more.  I have just installed Linux Mint and it could be love.

More will follow.

Rick Perry's Not Going Anywhere

He has a good gig in the Governor's Mansion in Texas, but Txas GOP Gov. Rick Perry is staying put.  Anyone who runs stories about Perry considering a White House bid is insane.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Friday he will consider a run for the Republican presidential nomination.

"I'm going to think about it" after the Texas legislative session ends on Monday, Perry told reporters in Austin after a bill signing. Perry added, "But I think about a lot of things."

Perry's remarks come on the heels of a Fox News interview this week in which he admitted that he is "tempted" to run for president.

"Oh, I can't say I'm not tempted, but the fact is this is something I don't want to do," Perry said.

A spokesman for Perry's office immediately sought to walk back his comments, noting that the governor has said he has no plans to run and that his position on the matter "remains the same."

And it will remain the same for a very long time.  He's not running for a reason, and that reason is simple:  his Presidential ambitions died in April 2009 when he said this:

Texas is a unique place. When we came into the Union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that.


We got a great Union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it, but if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what may come out of that. 

You cannot suggest that a viable solution to fix Washington is secession from the union, and then later take it back and decide to run for President.  Rick Perry may end up Senator from Texas someday, but he will never, ever run for President, and that quote there is absolutely the reason why any effort to recruit him would be doomed within hours of announcing he'd be running.  A sitting governor advocating secession?  The opposition research would have a field day.

Rick Perry has less of a chance of being President than Herman Cain, people.  Herman Cain.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• An expedition off the North Carolina Outer Banks has located a ship anchor that belonged to the Queen Anne's Revenge, the ship of the feared pirate Blackbeard.
• Hackers may have penetrated a number of computer networks belonging to Lockheed Martin and other Defense Department contractors.
• Deadly fighting may have reached a lull in Yeman's capital, Sanaa, but not calls for the resignation of President Saleh.
• Greek PM George Papandreou says he will continue to push ahead for even tighter Greek austerity measures in order to satisfy EU bailout critics.
• California may be the first state to probe the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger as the state's public utilities commission has some questions.

Last Call

Painfully cognizant of just how much of a disaster their Couponcare program is, ol' Mitch McConnell has decided that the only way they're getting out of this mess is to force Democrats to be the ones to burn Medicare down, or the GOP will default the country's debt.

In a Capitol briefing with reporters Friday, McConnell declared affirmatively that unspecified Medicare cuts are on the table in bipartisan debt limit negotiations, led by Vice President Joe Biden, and, he expects, will be part of the solution. But in response to a question from TPM, he went further than he has in the past in laying down a marker on that issue. Medicare cuts must be part of that deal to get his support — even if negotiators manage to find trillions of dollars in savings elsewhere, even if his other priorities are met.

“To get my vote, for me, it’s going to take short term [cuts, via spending caps]… Both medium and long-term, entitlements.,” McConnell said. “Medicare will be part of the solution.”

Steve Benen sorts it all out.

In fact, now that McConnell has admitted it, Democrats should probably let the public know. The talking point isn’t complicated: Senate Republicans will create a recession unless Democrats agree to Medicare cuts.

Of course, the talking point will ineffective if Dems decide to go along with McConnell’s hostage strategy and pay the ransom.

And there are more than a few Dems who I am sure will agree with McConnell, and will do so publicly.   Nancy Pelosi will fight this.  Will Harry Reid and President Obama do so as well before, say, Ben Nelson or Heath Shuler go on TV and say they're willing to "work with the Republicans on real entitlement reform" (and by that I mean scrapping Medicare like the GOP wants then acting all surprised when the GOP spends all of 2012 running ads that the Democrats are the ones wrecking Medicare)?

In other words, Democrats aren't really stupid enough to fall for this, are they?