Last Call

Reiuters conveniently gives the Republican party a way out of having to consider Sen. Marco Rubio for the Veepstakes later this year by noting of all things that like thousands of Floridians who are his constituents, Rubio is way, way underwater on his ritzy Miami mortgage.

In some ways, the story of Rubio's finances is similar to those of hundreds of thousands of his constituents in a state where more than 40 percent of homeowners are "underwater," owing more on their homes than the homes are worth.

It is a crisis driven by falling property values and ill-advised home equity loans that drove up homeowners' debts.

Rubio owes far more on his $384,000 Miami home than it is worth, and at times has had difficulty paying his mortgage.

He bought the home in 2005 for $550,000 with a $495,000 mortgage. He soon had it appraised for $735,000 and took out a home equity line of credit for $135,000.

In 2008, despite earning a declared $400,000 - including his $300,000 salary from the Miami law firm Broad and Cassel - Rubio failed to pay down the principal on his home for several months, according to Florida campaign finance disclosures.

During the same period he did not make payments on a $100,000-plus student loan from his days at the University of Miami, the disclosures said.

Rubio's spending habits also have gotten attention in Florida.

Before joining the Senate last year, he was caught up in an Internal Revenue Service investigation of the Florida Republican Party's use of party-issued credit cards. He frequently had used his party credit card for personal use, and later reimbursed the card company for about $16,000.

Rubio's handling of his personal finances contrasts sharply with the image of him on his Senate website, which highlights Rubio's efforts to prevent Washington from "piling up debt."

"We need a government that stops spending more money than it takes in," the website says.

Rubio's financial issues have led Florida Democrats to cast him as a hypocrite.

I'm honestly not sure whose neck Rubio would be a bigger anchor around:  Romney (who could pay off Rubio's debts with the collective change in his couch cushions in all of his many, many houses) or Gingrich (whose awful comments on Latinos "not understanding" wealth and entrepreneurship aren't exactly going to resolved by a guy who can't pay off his debts in a fiscally austere party of wackos.)

And that's before you factor in what race would mean to Republican voters with Rubio on the ticket.

On the other hand, counting anyone out when the party in question nominated Sarah Palin last time this happened is a huge mistake, frankly.  Guessing veeps at this point is an exercise in futility.  But I finally get to break out the Veeps tag again, huh.

Just The PolitiFacts, Ma'am

I tossed PolitiFact from this blog last month, and I'm glad to see others in the media finally getting sick of their "but we're a fact-check outfit that equivocates our judgment!" nonsense.  Rachel Maddow unloaded on them last night.

During the State of the Union address on Tuesday night, Obama stated: “In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than 3 million jobs. Last year, they created the most jobs since 2005.”

PolitiFact confirmed that both statistics were correct, only to rate Obama’s statement as “half true” on their Truth-O-Meter. The site said the statement was only half true because “he implicitly credited his administration.”

“PoiltiFact, what is wrong with you?” Maddow said. “You think the president calls himself ‘businesses?’ Like it is a nickname for himself?”

PolitiFact later revised its Truth-O-Meter rating to “Mostly True.”

“Mostly true? PolitiFact, you are fired,” Maddow said. “You are a mess. You are fired. You are undermining the definition of the word ‘fact’ in the English language by pretending to it in your name.”

Ouch.  But she's right.  It took a completely awful spin in order to make a TV news host cast them out of the temple, but it's done.  I hope that others follow suit pretty quickly.  PolitiFact trades solely on its credibility and reputation in keeping that credibility, and they failed that smell test months ago.

They're done, hopefully.  Maybe they'll be replaced by an actual fact checking outfit, other than the Washington Post's even worse Glenn Kessler.

Dirty Art (Totally Safe For Work)

Who would have thought dirty cars would be so pretty?  This article has some awesome examples, but I wanted to share my two favorites with you.  I'm not sure if Scott Wade, the artist featured here, is the same guy I have seen in the past, but I saw one "car dirt artist" chased and assaulted by the car owner, who didn't understand what was happening.





Because I like the unusual, if any of our readers know of some great and unique types of art, please share them!

Heroes, Heroes Everywhere!

An 85-year-old woman saved her husband by beating a moose with a shovel.

I know, it's cool.  Roll that around and digest it slowly.  You read it right.  She heard the dogs barking, and knew her husband was outside.  She originally thought the moose was charging her pets, it wasn't until she had grabbed a weapon and been charged herself that she saw her husband in the snow, seriously injured.  She is only five feet tall and doesn't weigh a hundred pounds, but she didn't waste a second when it came to defending those she loved.

Everybody survives, including the dogs.  It's a feel-good story that reminds us that older people aren't shells of faded youth.  They are capable of mighty impressive things, and have the wisdom to back up their instinct.

Oh Google, How Could You?

Google's decision to unite user information across services isn't surprising.  It makes good sense, actually.  Instead of having to manage several sub-accounts, users can set one group of rules and their favorite services will fall into line.  Preferences, privacy controls, even color schemes can unite.

What is a big deal, however, is that you can't opt out of this information use.  It's mandatory, and that sucks.  Not because my color schemes is a moral dilemma, but the fact that users have no choice in how the information is used sure is.  While I can understand the benefit of selling the merged accounts, in the end users should be able to maintain their privacy, if they are willing to deal with the inconvenience.

I do understand the logic that says Google has the right to run their services however they wish.  After all, we don't pay for them, so we don't have a lot of say in how the business is run.  However, like paying customers, we directly control their future success.  If Google can take our info, tell us it's just the law, and flourish... well, we've voted in our own way to accept it.

I will begrudgingly accept it, but the first cloud service to dare break the mold and honor its customers requests will come through this like a wrecking ball.  I can't wait.

Timmy's Tentative Tenure

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says that he doesn't believe President Obama will ask him to serve again in a second term.

“He’s not going to ask me to stay on, I’m pretty confident,” Geithner said in an interview with Bloomberg Television yesterday in Charlotte, North Carolina. “I’m confident he’ll be president. But I’m also confident he’s going to have the privilege of having another secretary of the Treasury.”

Geithner, 50, has led President Barack Obama’s efforts to pull the U.S. economy out of the worst recession since World War II, including overseeing bailouts of automakers General Motors Co. (GM) and Chrysler Group LLC, which have since emerged from bankruptcy. Before joining the administration in 2009, Geithner was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, playing a key role in the government’s rescue packages for banks such as Citigroup Inc. (C) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC)
 
In the interview, Geithner said he would do “something else” after leaving the Treasury Department, without specifying what that would be. In August, an administration official said Geithner would stay in his job at least through this year’s presidential election.

Erskine Bowles, chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, and Democratic Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota could be among the potential candidates to succeed Geithner, said Mark Calabria, director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute in Washington. 

I have to say I'd rather have Geithner over anyone the Cato Institute would mention.   Both of those meatballs would be as bad as Larry Summers on deficits and cutting the safety net.  If Geithner is replaced, he needs to be succeeded by someone who actually got the last 3 years plus right financially and economically, but that's just my opinion.

The Odious Primary

Back home, I see my good friend The Odious Patrick McHenry has drawn a particularly mean primary challenger in Ken Fortenberry, who's wasting no time in attacking McHenry ahead of May's primary in NC-10 over ethics and his whole "lapdog to the banks" act.

“When I asked Rep. Patrick McHenry last week why he would not co-sponsor the STOCK Act, a bill that would prohibit insider stock trading by members of Congress, he replied that the legislation was the creation of  ‘liberal Democrats’ and not worthy of his support,” Fortenberry said.

“Restoring the public’s trust in government has never been a priority for McHenry, who turns everything into a petty partisan battle,” he added. “This is one of the reasons Washington is broken and not working for the people, and why we need to clean House on Election Day.”

“Members of Congress should play by the same rules as all Americans,” Fortenberry asserted. “McHenry is dead-wrong in putting his friends above the people he is supposed to represent.”

When asked for comment on these allegations, Ryan Minto, who handles press for the congressman’s office, offered a statement from McHenry to the Times-News on Tuesday.

“While I personally don’t trade stocks, I understand the concern over this issue,” McHenry said. “The STOCK Act does not address holes in the existing insider-trading law, which may allow lawmakers to improperly enrich themselves. It would not, for example, address the troubling practice of access to exclusive IPOs by high-ranking members.

“Members of Congress should have to report all of their stock trades publicly in every instance — period,” McHenry added. “Increased disclosure will add transparency to help enforce the current insider-trading law, and anyone guilty of committing a crime should be prosecuted.”

In his release, Fortenberry additionally stated that ethics and honesty in government should not be viewed as a partisan issue.

Furthermore, he also said he would introduce legislation, if elected, that would prohibit members of Congress and Cabinet-level officials from lobbying for four years after they leave their positions, in addition to requiring them to fully disclose all of their personal finances during that time period.

“It’s bad enough that Mr. McHenry ignores the shenanigans of the big banks and securities firms, but it’s made even worse when he turns a blind eye to the corruption among his colleagues,” Fortenberry concluded.

It's damn impressive to see with as many bank employees in the Charlotte suburbs of NC-10 that the Republican is attacking McHenry on being too friendly with banks and stocks.   It's entirely true, of course.  But it's interesting seeing the Republican challenger pull a Ron Paul and go after McHenry on this angle in arguably one of the reddest districts in the country.

We'll see how it turns out.

StupidiNews!

• Fed chairman Ben Bernanke will keep interest rates low through the end of 2014 in order to assist the economy.
• New Jersey Governor Chris Christie drew the ire of Democrats and activists alike with his promise to veto any same sex marriage legislation.
• Solar storms are making this week's viewing of the Aurora Borealis in Alaska into something legendary as the sun enters a new cycle of activity.
• Netflix is back in the black after signing up more than 600,000 new customers in 4th quarter 2011, handily beating analysts' estimates.
• EU officials have proposed new electronic privacy rules that would give citizens the right to limit or delete information collected by businesses.

Last Call

To the moon, Alice!

As he says, Newt Gingrich thinks grandiose thoughts. Today’s pitch to Florida’s Space Coast: a lunar base within the next eight years.

“By the end of my second term we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American,” he said. According to Newt, the base would be used for “science, tourism, and manufacturing” and create a “robust industry” modeled on the airline business in the 20th century.

From there, Gingrich suggested moving towards a Mars mission by the end of the next decade. He proposed setting aside 10% of NASA’s budget in prize money for private research into interplanetary exploration.

“I accept the charge that I am grandiose,” he said. “Because Americans are instinctively grandiose.”

This is actually a pretty awesome idea...until you see the budget cuts in non awesome moon base parts of our spending Newt will need in order to do this.  And considering how much Newt plans to lower revenues by cutting taxes on the rich with his flat tax shell game, the odds of being able to afford a moon base on NASA's budget is about as likely as I would be needing a pap smear in the next month.

I mean, we could totally have USA MOON BASE GO! if we didn't want to fund, you know, Social Security and Medicare.  Which I think is his point.

Taxing America's Patience, Part 6

So which recent Presidential candidates paid the highest and lowest effective tax rate in the last 25 years or so?  You might be surprised. Brad Plumer at Ezra's House O' Charts:

Late on Monday, Mitt Romney released his 2010 tax returns, showing that he paid 13.9 percent of his income in federal taxes. (His rate is relatively low because most of his money comes from investment income, which is taxed at a lower rate than wages.) But how does Romney stack up to previous presidential candidates? Here’s a chart for comparison:

John Kerry married into the Heinz fortune and as you can see, low capital gains rates means it's good to be ridiculously rich, because you stay that way.  Romney certainly benefited from his family's fortune too.  On the other hand, Republicans scoff at President Obama "never having a real job" but he paid a pretty penny in federal taxes in 2006.

Not included on the chart:  Newt Gingrich, who actually put down a hefty 32% effective tax rate back to Uncle Sam on his $3.2 million last year.    The difference:  Newt's certainly a one percenter, but he's not a .01 percenter like Romney and Kerry.

Still, is it any wonder why all the current Republicans are running on lowering or eliminating the capital gains tax?

Nuked Gingrich, Part 16

I wonder what Herman Cain would make of Newt Gingrich's statement that African-Americans don't understand entrepreneurship back in 1993 when he was running his Contract With America shell game?

But before Gingrich could deliver his grand new theory of American civilization to the public in a 1993 speech, his deeply divisive racial stereotypes would need to be removed.

“For poor minorities, entrepreneurship in small business is the key to future wealth,” Gingrich wrote by hand in a first draft. “This is understood thoroughly by most of the Asians, partially by Latinos, and to a tragically small degree by much of the American black community.” [...]

By the time a member of Gingrich’s staff typed up the notes and prepared the speech for delivery at the National Review Institute, the racial stereotypes were gone.

Racist stereotyping assholes never change, people just forget what they say.

Life Quality VS Quantity

A study has gotten a lot of attention recently, explaining that doctors are more likely to put off chemotherapy or other risky procedures, and enjoy their remaining days as much as possible.

As a culture, we are obsessed with living forever.  That the people who know the most are willing to put those treatments aside shouldn't be taken lightly.  There is no data as to whether they recommend this for their patients, or  if it's just an accepted medical standard that they do everything possible.

I have a long history with cancer, medical treatments, and the quality vs. quantity argument.  It's a personal decision, but I think it should be presented more often as an actual option.  Most people are determined to fight to the bitter last breath, as should be their right if they choose.  However, most people don't consider letting nature run its course and enjoying those last few months or years instead of suffering in a hospital bed.  As with any medical choice, we should be able to choose our own destiny.  Maybe this study will remind patients there is another option, and for some it will be the right one.

What A Dick

Seriously, when are they going to put Andy Dick away?  He was in the news this week for assaulting a man over a picture, and sobbing in a bar on a strange woman's arm and hitching a ride home.  He needs help, but we also need protection from him.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -- Two Kentucky men who say they were sexually assaulted by comedian Andy Dick at a West Virginia nightclub two years ago have filed a lawsuit against the comedian.

The 26-year-old from Ashland and the 35-year-old from Catlettsburg are also involved in a pending criminal case against Dick, their attorney said Tuesday. Dick's trial on two counts of felony first-degree sexual abuse is set for May 1 in Cabell County Circuit Court in Huntington.

Dick pleaded not guilty last summer to charges he grabbed a bouncer's crotch, and groped and kissed a patron while performing a series of shows in Huntington at a comedy club. The alleged acts occurred Jan. 23, 2010, at the Rum Runners nightclub.

I'm all for innocent until proven guilty, but when you hear the same thing a million times you start to see a pattern.  Get help, already!

And THAT Is How You Handle A Burglar

RALEIGH -- A burglary suspect wound up in the hospital with a broken ankle, cuts, bruises and a badly swollen eye after the victim bashed him in the face with a bedpost, authorities reported.

Lucio Medina Miranda, 40, of 2834 Avent Ferry Road, remained in custody at the Wake County jail Monday on charges of first-degree burglary, larceny after breaking and entering and felony possession of stolen goods, according to records filed at the Wake County Magistrate's Office. His bail is set at $108,000.

Federal immigration officials also have placed a retainer on him because they think he may be in this country illegally, a jail spokesman reported.

When her kids were threatened, the victim beat him into submission and held him until the cops arrived. I'm not a fan of vigilante justice, but when someone intrudes into a home, they get what they get. As we fight back more and more, the war on crime will become more personal. But that is also when we get to shine and declare loudly that we've had enough.

Take a good look. That's what hero looks like.

The State Of This Union

President Obama's State of the Union address was basically his 2012 "If I'm re-elected, here's what I'll do in 2013 if I have enough Democrats in Congress" speech.  The odds of getting any of the things he mentioned in the speech passed in 2012: removing tax breaks for outsourcing jobs, comprehensive immigration reform, a trade "enforcement unit" to check on China, fixing No Child Left Behind and increasing college student aid, fixing the banks and streamlining the executive branch all have about as much chance of passing this Republican House as I do spontaneously sprouting wings.

Everything you needed to know was delivered by Speaker John Boehner before the speech bashing it, and by Indiana GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels immediately after.  Boehner all but accused the President's message of being "un-American", while expecting him to offer Republicans the olive branch of giving him everything Orange Julius wants.  Daniels' GOP response to the President called him "an extremist" whose "constant efforts to divide us" gives rise to his "troubling contention" that "Americans can't cut it anymore."

Republicans in 2012 have no intention of working with the President, but working him over instead.  At this point, anything that isn't 100% GOP red meat dogma is "extremist".  Daniels showed the GOP hand with promises of massive budget cuts and more hostage situations in order to "save the safety net."  It's going to be a long, ugly year in Washington, and the only course that's going to improve anything in 2013 is getting the GOP out of power.