Last Call

The Super Committee was never going to get a deal, folks.  With ten days to go, it looks even more bleak then it did when the Super Committee was announced.

 The congressional "super committee" is at a difficult point in negotiations on deficit-reduction, but lawmakers said on Sunday they had not given up on reaching an agreement by this month's deadline.

The special congressional committee is tasked with finding at least $1.2 trillion in budget savings over 10 years, but with a November 23 deadline looming, Republicans and Democrats have not yet sealed a deal.

Republicans have been reluctant to allow tax increases, and Democrats do not want to agree to cuts in healthcare and retirement programs until tax increases are on the table.

House of Representatives Republican Jeb Hensarling, committee co-chair, acknowledged on CNN's "State of the Union" program that tax increases would likely have to be part of any bipartisan deal.

"We believe that, frankly, increasing tax revenues could hurt the economy, but within the context of a bipartisan negotiation with Democrats, clearly they are a reality," Hensarling said.

House of Representatives Democrat James Clyburn, a member of the super committee, said on "Fox News Sunday" that while he was "very hopeful" that a compromise could be reached by the deadline, "I am not as certain as I was 10 days ago."

Not happening.  Time to figure out what happens when the deal isn't reached, and the answer to that will most likely be nothing at all.

What if they fail – and nothing happens? After all, the automatic cuts kick in after the 2012 elections – when a new Congress will be in Washington. Will that Congress feel bound by the decisions of the previous Congress?

It depends on who's in charge of both Congress and the White House.  Of course, long before this deal plays out, the continuing resolution that funds the government expires on Friday.  So yeah, shutdown could come as early as Saturday.  Who knows where we're going on this mess?

Playing Bibi's Game

So what's Israel's game here, and what's the point of doing something silly, petty, and childish like this?

The US leader was rebuffed last month when he demanded private guarantees that no strike would go ahead without White House notification, suggesting Israel no longer plans to "seek Washington's permission", sources said. The disclosure, made by insiders briefed on a top-secret meeting between America's most senior defence chief and Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's hawkish prime minister, comes amid concerns that Iran's continuing progress towards nuclear weapons capability means the Jewish state has all but lost hope for a diplomatic solution.

On Tuesday, UN weapons inspectors released their most damning report to date into Iran's nuclear activities, saying for the first time that the Islamic republic appeared to be building a nuclear weapon. It was with that grave possiblity in mind that Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, flew into Israel last month on what was ostensibly a routine trip.

Officially, his brief was restricted to the Middle East peace process, but the most important part of his mission was a private meeting with Mr Netanyahu and the defence minister, Ehud Barak. Once all but a handful of trusted staff had left the room, Mr Panetta conveyed an urgent message from Barack Obama. The president, Mr Panetta said, wanted an unshakable guarantee that Israel would not carry out a unilateral military strike against Iran's nuclear installations without first seeking Washington's clearance.

The two Israelis were notably evasive in their response, according to sources both in Israel and the United States.

"They did not suggest that military action was being planned or was imminent, but neither did they give any assurances that Israel would first seek Washington's permission, or even inform the White House in advance that a mission was underway," one said. 

So is this Israel's usual blustering and sabre-rattling in proxy for the US, or is Netanyahu really off the chain and about to strike?  I'm thinking it's the former here:  not much to be gained by saying that you're not going to tell your biggest ally that they can find out about your "strike on Iran" via Al-Jazeera.

If it is Bibi's hurt feelings, then this is a remarkably petty way to show it, too.  It's no secret that the Israelis would rather have the GOP in charge so that they can get away with 99% of whatever they want as opposed to 75% from Obama.  We'll see what happens.

Not So Fast, Holder's Furious

It looks like AG Eric Holder has finally realized that the GOP won't stop flogging his continuation of Bush's "Gunwalker" program until he's gone, so now Holder is fighting back.  Hard.

But amid dozens of calls for his resignation and a series of heated comments —one Republican implied that he’s an accessory to murder — Holder has stepped up his approach.

“I'd like to correct some of the inaccurate, and frankly, irresponsible accusations surrounding Fast and Furious,” Holder announced at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week.

The hearing was Holder’s first before the committee since internal DOJ memos raised questions about whether he misled the House Judiciary Committee in May when he testified that he had first learned about Fast and Furious “over the last few weeks.”

The memos launched a spate of Republican calls for his resignation as lawmakers debated whether Holder lied to Congress under oath and questioned whether he was fit to hold office.

At Tuesday’s hearing Holder immediately clarified his remarks from his House testimony in May, saying that he first learned about Fast and Furious and its gun-walking tactics after news reports emerged based on the concerns of whistleblowers. He said he immediately asked for an IG investigation.

And what the bigger issue here remains is the fact these programs were created and implemented by the Bush administration, continued by the staff inherited by Holder, and only questioned once whistleblowers came forward to point out that A) this Bush program was still going on and B) it was a stupid idea.

The GOP wants to pin all of the blame on Holder and have been trying to do so for nearly six months now, but nobody's buying it.  Remember, these are the same Republicans who approved the Bush torture regime without blinking but are now accusing Holder of being an accessory to murder.

Excellent to see Holder fight back on this.

Michael Jackson: History Of An Addict Emerges

Muchas gracias to TMZ, who doesn't stop digging when the others move on.

Michael Jackson took Propofol as early as 1999, a former manager claims in a new book -- and says Jackson was late to his 30th anniversary concerts because he was drugged up.

Frank Cascio, a former personal assistant to Jackson who eventually became his close friend and manager, writes that he first noticed Jackson taking Demerol in 1993 during his "Dangerous" tour. He says Jackson was first introduced to the drug in 1984, after Jackson burned his head during a Pepsi commercial shoot.

In the book, an advanced copy of which was obtained by the AP, Cascio claims Jackson took Propofol in 1999 after a stage accident in Munich.

Cascio says he spoke to Jackson's siblings about his drug use in 2001 and they tried to approach Jackson about it -- but MJ "simply pushed them away."

Writing about Jackson's death, Cascio says Michael "died in his endless quest to attain some inner peace."

That pretty well sums up what makes sense, that this was a long-standing problem that led to an inevitable end.  I also wondered, while Jackson didn't self-administer the fatal shot, how much he had given himself over the years.  I'm just saying, when you have that kind of money and resources you can get what you want.  Though what led him to the drugs was not his fault, it introduced him to the escape that he had been craving for years.  He never stood a chance

Again, not contradicting Murray's guilt but shows this train was in motion years before he came on board.  According to TIME, Jackson and Murray did not meet until 2006.

Remembering Jack Palance

Jack Palance was a great actor, and a hell of a man.  According to his daughter Holly, he was also a hell of a parent.

Sure, when we lose someone we love we tend to forget their flaws and remember them with an exaggerated loyalty.  But Holly's storytelling and memories couldn't come from someone with a shallow or disconnected upbringing.  It's a short read but touching and gives a few comments about her generation and loss as well.

This morning, on the fifth anniversary of my father's death, I saw a raisin pie in the bakery and burst into tears. My Dad adored raisin pie. And I adored him.

I may be 60, but I've discovered that you don't outgrow being a Daddy's girl.

His memory is with me every day. He was tall, talented and a man of few words. When he spoke, I listened. He made me feel like the best little girl/young woman/woman in the world. In his book, I could do no wrong.

Boomers like to call themselves orphans after their parents have 'slipped the surly bonds of earth,' but that doesn't make sense to me. On my eighth birthday my father took me to a real orphanage to hand out Ukrainian costumed dolls, identical to the present he had just given me. I didn't understand what we were doing there, but he soon made the reason clear. These girls, he said, had no mother or father. I had both. The least I could do was share the bounty I'd been given. He said it would make me feel grateful for my good fortune. He was right.

The rest of the article tells an even better story, one that I think more parents should read.  My own dad said once that the reward of living a good solid life is being able to respect yourself and be comfortable and confident with who you are.  That also meant believing in yourself and being willing to listen but firm in your understanding.  Palance believed in something similar, and taught the lessons the easy way first, the hard way if necessary, but he never failed to teach his daughter what she needed to know.

I went out looking for a nice read, and I found one. I hope you enjoy it as well!

The Big GOP Debate Thread

Last night's GOP foreign policy debate in South Carolina went pretty much exactly as you expected it to.  CNN's Peter Hamby noted that the Clown Car Crew put up an increasingly awful isolationist front, starting with Rick Perry:

Perry said that's the amount of foreign aid every country in the world would receive at the outset of his administration. Each nation would then have to explain why they deserve American funds -- even Israel. Perry later clarified that Israel, a staunch ally, would continue to receive "substantial" money from Washington.

The proposal was a warning shot to Pakistan, which continues to receive billions of dollars in aid from the United States even though its intelligence services have been linked to terrorists.

Several of the candidates seemed to agree with Perry, even former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who said aid to Pakistan should be zeroed out and re-evaluated. And so, not only did Perry escape Spartanburg without another embarrassing gaffe on his hands, he actually made news with a policy proposal.

Then the second tier tore into the media.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann was handed an opportunity to take a similar path on Saturday when CBS Political Director John Dickerson accidentally copied a Bachmann aide on an email saying that the candidate was largely irrelevant and would not be asked many questions in the debate.

The Bachmann campaign called on Dickerson to be fired and accused the network of sidelining a candidate based on her diminished standing in the polls.

Bachmann's campaign manager stormed through the post-debate spin room and called Dickerson a "piece of sh-t" and a "fraud." Dickerson's response: "Bachmann is at 4% in the polls and has been for a while. Other candidates aren't. I sent an email based on that."

Because it's the media's fault Michele Bachmann is in the single digits, you know.  Has nothing to do with her policies or her totally crazy ideas.  Finally, Mittens didn't screw up.

Improbably, after 10 presidential debates -- or is it 11? - the putative GOP frontrunner survived unscathed once again. His rivals, particularly Perry and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, will almost certainly pick apart his answers on the foreign policy front.

But Romney has yet to suffer the kind of campaign-altering blunder that these nationally televised debates tend to produce. And this is in a presidential campaign that has been almost entirely defined by the marathon debate schedule.

Who CNN didn't mention at all in the article?  The supposedly "surging" New Gingrich was ignored.

All these debates prove that once again the most qualified person in the race right now is Barack Obama.  But please, keep reminding people of that, guys.

Oh and if you're worried about Michele Bachmann, even the SC GOP threw her under the bus. They want nothing to do with her either.

Last Call

It's not every day a lost Leonardo da Vinci painting is put on display, so when it happens, it's a good thing.  Could there be more out there?

A newly discovered painting by Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci has sent shock waves through the art world, prompting speculation that more of his paintings could be as yet undiscovered.
The "Salvator Mundi" was, for years, thought to be a painting by one of da Vinci's pupils or associates. But after a lengthy period of study and conservation, it has been authenticated as a da Vinci.

The painting was sold in 1958 for £45 -- about $125 in today's currency -- by descendants of British collector Sir Frederick Cook, who bought the painting in 1900. Today, the painting is estimated to be worth $200 million, according to some scholars.

Though the conservator who helped to reveal the painting's true identity called it "the rarest thing imaginable," speculation is rife that there are other Leonardo da Vinci paintings still at large, possibly lying unknown in private collections.

There are currently some 15 authenticated Leonardo da Vinci paintings in the world. But they are difficult to attribute, because da Vinci often left his works unfinished and some are thought to have been worked on by other artists in his workshops.

Martin Kemp, Emeritus Research Professor in the History of Art at Oxford University and a leading expert on Leonardo da Vinci, gives the careful estimate that there are probably no more than 20 paintings by the master in the world, which suggests there could be five more to be discovered.

$125, and worth more than a million times that: arguably the greatest attic sale fail in modern history (or win, if you're the folks who bought it and then had the painting authenticated.)  Still, the notion that Leonardo's other lost paintings are out there may be one of the greatest treasure hunts of all time.  Going to make a hell of a movie.

Missouri Madness Continues

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A 64-year-old man on his way to his post as a school crossing guard in northeast Kansas City died after being hit by a pickup truck.

Kansas City police say James R. Suman died in the accident early Friday.

Suman, who lived near where he was struck, was wearing a reflective vest and carrying a plastic school crossing sign when he was hit. Investigators said he apparently was walking to a city bus stop to go to a school in the northeast area.

Some people were making the obvious jokes about this, but I'm just sad.  When a reflective vest and sign aren't enough, what is?  At least no kids were hurt, and I'm sure he would have been relieved to know that.

GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. (AP) — Arrest warrants have been issued for a Grain Valley couple whose daughter lost several fingers to a pet ferret in January.

The warrants were issued after Ryan and Carrie Waldo did not appear for pre-trial conferences last Friday.

The Waldos were arrested in January after authorities found their ferret had chewed on their 4-month-old child's hands, leaving only two thumbs and part of a pinkie remaining. They were charged in June with first-degree child endangerment. The couple has pleaded not guilty.

The couple was charged in July, after seven fingers were amputated because of the damage.  This is on my list of articles I follow, so you can expect updates as they come.

Last week, I was asked where we are moving to.  West, away from tornadoes and stupidity steeped in generations of ignorance and stubborn spite.  You can't get away from tragedy, but you can put miles between stupidity and its (unofficial) headquarters.

Ultimate Criminal Neglect- "The Chair Lady"

KANSAS CITY -- A suburban Kansas City woman was left sitting in a vinyl recliner for so long that her skin had fused to the chair and she had to be pried out to be taken to a hospital after suffering an apparent stroke, authorities said.

Carol F. Brown's adult son told a state official he had left his 74-year-old mother in the chair for five days without helping her get up to use the bathroom or bathe because he was honoring her wishes to die in her Independence home, according to court documents that described the woman as a "rotting corpse that was still breathing." Brown later died.

Brown's son, James Owens, told an official with the Missouri Division of Senior and Disability Services that his mother had been in the chair since Oct. 23 and that he was honoring her wishes to be left to die, the documents said.

Owens, who the documents said had started the application process to gain state aid to be his mother's caretaker, said he did give the woman tomato and chicken noodle soup.

I watched this develop and hoped it was dramatized.  It turns out it only gets worse.  This poor woman died, but the misfortune is how she lived until death rescued her from the filth and pain that had to be tormenting her.  Maggots were eating at open wounds, and the smell of her living but rotting body was brutal. The only addition has been that her son is now charged with forgery for cashing her Social Security check.

It's just upsetting beyond words.  I've seen elderly people come into nursing homes from such situations, and neglect so pitiful that it makes your heart hurt.  But this is hands down the worst neglect article I've read in years, and all I can do is feel sad for the woman who lived in agony and then died knowing her child wasn't going to help her.  There's just too much wrong here to even begin.

One Good Deed Leads To Another

HILLSBORO, OHIO: A Southwest Ohio couple who adopted a Saint Bernard to save him say he saved their home from burglary a few hours later.

Rubert “Lee” Littler says he was taking Hercules outside Wednesday night when the 135-pound dog started growling, then charged after a man running out of their basement. The dog bit into the man’s ankle as he climbed a fence and got away. Police say the home’s phone and cable lines had been cut.

Lee and Elizabeth Littler brought the dog home from Highland County’s pound less than seven hours earlier. The dog had been found, bloody and dehydrated, by hikers on Oct. 31.

The Littlers tell The Times-Gazette of Hillsboro they wanted to keep him from being euthanized but now figure he’s earned a permanent home.

Good news all around.  And the doggy gets a new home, and an angel gets her wings.

Lameness, Thy Name Is Ashton

Pledging on Wednesday night to stop Tweeting until he finds "a way to properly manage this feed," Ashton Kutcher has arrived at a solution.

"I feel responsible for delivering an informed opinion and not spreading gossip or rumors through my Twitter feed," Kutcher wrote in a blog post entitled "Twitter Management" on Thursday. "While I feel that running this feed myself gives me a closer relationship to my friends and fans, I've come to realize that it has grown into more [than] a fun tool to communicate with people."

Reiterating that he's "truely (sic) sorry if I offended anyone," Kutcher explains although he will still post 140-character updates, he is turning the management of the feed over to his team at Katalyst Media "to ensure the quality of its content."

Lame. Manage content? Just check before you speak, or be cool with accepting an occasional mistake. Anyone who posts constantly will make mistakes. We don't drop and let a publicist filter our content. We say oops, correct ourselves and go on.

I'm sick of overreactions in face of a mistake. What is so wrong with taking the hit? Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect much from old A.K. but I think it represents a problem many bloggers and tweeters have. If you are going to publish thousands of things, at least once you are going to be wrong. It's going to be embarrassing. It happens to everyone, take your turn and make it right. If you go to a thousand charity dinners, you will fart loudly once during a quiet moment. This principle of "farts happen" echoes throughout frail humankind's history.

To err is human. To push it off onto a person to filter stupidity is for swine.

Doubling Down On Red InThe Bluegrass State

After Republicans here in Kentucky spent quite a bit of time and money trying to convince everyone that all Democrats here personally worked for Barack Obama's army of Thug Life baby-eating New Black Panthers and failed miserably, it looks like they've discovered the keys to their defeat:  One, their Tea Party candidates in a state that produced Rand Paul for them last year are simply not insane enough, and two, Democrats are still allowed to vote.  Both oversights apparently must be fixed.

Loyalists in Kentucky's Tea Party movement who helped propel Republican Rand Paul to the U.S. Senate last year say they share no blame for the GOP's poor showing in Tuesday's state elections, especially in the race for governor.

Instead, they point to the Republican Party establishment, which they say too often backs and fields candidates who don't adhere to their call for limited government and fiscal responsibility.

"I'm a registered Republican, but my reasoning for Tuesday's loss is that we saw an establishment candidate, Republican David Williams, get rejected by the Tea Party," said Lexington conservative radio talk show host Leland Conway. "The establishment part of the Republican Party of Kentucky needs to learn that its candidates have to be true conservatives for the Tea Party to line up behind them and to win."

Now, the funny part is if you're a Kentucky Democrat like myself, you've long since realized that a Democrat like Gov. Steve Beshear would be a Republican in any other state in the nation, save maybe West Virginia, and a Kentucky Republican in any other state would be laughed out of the party for being a complete nutjob.  Instead, we get Sen. Rand Paul.

The notion that David "The Axe Man" Williams lost huge because he wasn't conservative enough in his crusade to rid the state of income tax, is both hysterically funny and outright bone-chilling.  Here's the thing:  if that notion is true, independent candidate Gatewood Galbraith and his Ron Paul glibertarianism would have stomped Williams AND Beshear.  Instead, Beshear got 56% of the vote anyway.

But sure guys, go ahead and run a candidate next time who has a platform of dissolving the Commonwealth of Kentucky, firing every state employee and turning us back into a territory so we can play Oregon Trail for real everyday.  I'm sure people will go for that.

The War Against Ourselves

The key component of any Republican argument is a tautology involving whatever it is they don't like being the greatest threat to our universe since the Weeping Angels.  As yesterday was Veteran's Day, at least one Republican from Tennessee has decided that the Big Bad threat is Muslims in our military.

State representative Rick Womick (R-TN) has made no secret of his anti-Muslim views. A New York Times article from July described Womick on the statehouse floor, warning his constituents that Islamic law was the most urgent threat to their way of life. But in an interview on the sidelines of the “Preserving Freedom Conference” at the Cornerstone Church in Madison, TN, Womick went to new extremes to paint Muslim Americans as dangerous and seditious.

Somebody's been watching too many episodes of Homeland.  Back to back.  While mainlining whatever Rick Perry's been on for the last month.

"Personally, I don’t trust one Muslim in our military because they’re commanded to lie to us through the term called Taqiyya. And if they truly are a devout Muslim, and follow the Quran and the Sunnah, then I feel threatened because they’re commanded to kill me."

I had no idea Mr. Womick here was a theological expert on the Muslim faith, not only able to interpret the Quran and its meaning, but able to divine Islam's tenets and their individual meaning to every one of our men and women serving in the military who are Muslim.  I mean his argument is "If you're a good Muslim, you'd be trying to kill me" seems, oh, what's the word I'm looking for?  Insanity to the point of a persecution complex that has probably already compromised his ability to effectively serve as Representative to his constituents, and that he should resign immediately after saying this?

But no, behavior like this is not only tolerated in the Republican Party, it's encouraged because it's a political plus with voters.  Ten yeas after 9/11 and they're still demanding the great purge of The Enemy from America.

Sad.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Kidnapped Washington Nationals pitcher Wilson Ramos has been found alive, two days after disappearing in Venezuela.
• In Vermont, Occupy Burlington protesters cheered as Mayor Bob Kiss personally saw to the release of one arrested demonstrator.
• New data suggests that the depletion of world fishing stocks is happening due to overfishing at an even faster pace than first thought.
• America's youngest veterans are having tremendous difficulty finding work, with unemployment figures for 18-24 year old veterans reaching 30%.
• Apple's 5.0.1 upgrade to fix the iPhone 4S battery life bug may have in fact introduced several new problems.

Last Call

What happened in Ohio on voters rejecting Issue 2 was a big victory statewide for public workers like firefighters, cops, and teachers.  But people are forgetting that Ohio voters also rejected more than half the school levies on the ballot on Tuesday, and that means while public unions aren't busted in Ohio, public schools are in real trouble.

Voters rejected more than half the school levies that were on Ohio ballots on Tuesday, making layoffs and other cuts likely in one of the state's big-city school districts and other school systems, officials said.

The levy's defeat in Cincinnati means layoffs are likely as officials try to close a $30 million budget gap for the public schools, which already have eliminated 200 jobs this year, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported. The district has not said how many additional positions could be cut.

"We believe our community supports us, they just didn't have the money," Superintendent Mary Ronan said. "We'd still like to thank all our voters. We came up a little bit short."

That $30 million gap is a big problem here in Cincy.  As good as Tuesday's election was for the progressive transformation of the City Council, the school levy losing was a major blow as it went down 47-53%.  Cincy schools will haveto make more serious cuts.  It's bad in other counties in Ohio, too that saw new levies lose. Just how bad is it?  This bad.

Districts that lost out at the polls had contingency plans in place to make up for the tax money they won't be receiving and will now move toward cutbacks, he said.

For example, the Westerville schools in suburban Columbus plan to eliminate all sports and other extracurricular activities next year, scale back busing to state minimums and eliminate about 175 teachers, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The planned cuts are "very grim," said Chris Williams, the Westerville teachers union president.

The union battle may have been won this time, but the larger GOP war on government in the state is still going very much in favor of the Republicans wishing to dismantle as much of Ohio's public infrastructure as possible.

Oh, and the Tea Party in Ohio is already gearing up for their next assault on the middle-class:  turning Ohio into a "right-to-work" state to eliminate what waning power unions in the Buckeye State have left.

The constitutional amendment would prevent any Ohio worker from being forced to join a union or pay union-fees as a condition of employment. There were provisions in Senate Bill 5 that would’ve enacted similar rules for public employees by eliminating “fair share” payments for those with bargaining-unit jobs that did not want to be union members and cancelling automatic paycheck deductions for political causes unless the employee gave written permission.

“Unions obviously are powerful political machines,” Thompson said. “One of the reasons for that is they have the ability to reach into the pocket of each of their workers through work and fair share fees and use them for political purposes.”

Passage of Issue 2 would’ve changed that — and greatly limited collective bargaining for public labor unions — but more than 2.1 million voters squashed those provisions on Tuesday.

The GOP will not give up until every union in the country is dead and gone, and every worker is at the complete whim of their employer.  It's useful to keep that in mind.  This is far from over.