Last Call

I'm glad to see Eric Holder realizes exactly what's going on here as far as the GOP Fast and Furious witch hunt.

In his first interview since Thursday’s vote, Holder said lawmakers have used an investigation of a botched gun-tracking operation as a way to seek retribution against the Justice Department for its policies on a host of issues, including immigration, voting rights and gay marriage. He said the chairman of the committee leading the inquiry, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), is engaging in political theater as the Justice Department tries to focus on public safety.

“I’ve been doing all of these things all the time Darrell Issa and his band have been nipping at my heels,” a defiant Holder said. “They’ve been nipping, but I’ve been walking.”

The attorney general has long been a lightning rod for Republican lawmakers’ anger toward the Obama administration. But Holder said the debate over documents related to the gun operation, known as “Fast and Furious” — along with the National Rifle Association’s attempts to make it an electoral issue — have made matters worse.

“I’ve become a symbol of what they don’t like about the positions this Justice Department has taken,” he said. “I am also a proxy for the president in an election year. You have to be exceedingly naive to think that vote was about . . . documents.”

Ding ding ding!  Holder understands all too well what's going on here:  impeachment by proxy.  It's also impeachment for interfering in the GOP plan to disenfranchise millions of Democratic voters.  Holder has to go, he knows exactly how the game works.  There's a reason why there's such a massive show of force on the program with the intent of forcing Holder out and paralyzing the Justice Department.

Stopping GOP voter fraud is the number one issue in 2012's election.  The GOP knows it, and so does Holder...oh, and the race thing?  There's that, too.

I'm glad he's aware of what's at stake here, not that I doubted him.

What The Frack, North Carolina?

North Carolina Dem Gov. Bev Perdue has vetoed a GOP bill that would have turned where I grew up in North Carolina into the fracking capital of the universe, but odds are really good all she's done is bought the state a few days before the Republicans override her veto, cement state control and reduce my home state to an environmental nightmare.

Gov. Bev Perdue announced Sunday that she has vetoed a controversial proposal to legalize fracking in North Carolina.

The bill, Senate Bill 820, was backed by Republican leaders in the House and Senate, who said it would give state regulators up to two years to implement rules. Lawmakers would have to approve those rules before any commercial wells could be drilled.

But environmental advocates pushed Perdue to veto the bill. They say safeguards should be put in place before fracking is legalized, not the other way around.

In a statement released Sunday afternoon, Perdue said that, although she supports fracking, the legislation moves too quickly.

"This bill does not do enough to ensure that adequate protections for our drinking water, landowners, county and municipal governments, and the health and safety of our families will be in place before fracking begins," Perdue said.

She says she tried to work with lawmakers, but they refused to negotiate.

"I urged the sponsors of the bill to adopt a few changes to ensure that strong protections would be in place before any fracking would occur," Perdue said. "The General Assembly was unwilling to adopt the changes I suggested. Therefore, I must veto the bill."

The fact of the matter is even Perdue sees dollar signs before her eyes when it comes to the mountains and foothills of NC.   Ohio's recent ugly experience with fracking may have allowed the state some clock, but the fact of the matter is there's just too much money at stake here to think that NC will pass up on fracking.

And of course, they won't.

It's the second time Perdue has stopped legislation that would move the state toward fracking. Last year, she vetoed a proposal with far fewer safeguards. Republican leaders have not yet been able to override that veto.

Perdue has vetoed two other major bills in recent days – the Racial Justice Act repeal, and the state budget. Lawmakers are expected to attempt to override all three vetoes Monday or Tuesday.

In fact, all that happened last night.  And so it goes.  By January, the GOP will have pretty much total control of my home state, and then the pain will absolutely begin as $190 million is cut from schools to give tens of millions in tax credits to the state's burgeoning film industry.  And fracking could begin in as early as 2014, or sooner if Republican fast track "regulations" for the practice.  You can bet that's coming.  By the way, the new fracking capital of the state?  Durham County.  Where I went to high school, one of the largest concentrations of less affluent urban minorities in the state, and home to a hell of a lot of liberals.  GOP can't wait to DRILL BABY DRILL there. 

Can't wait for the flammable tapwater.

Could The Bush Tax Cuts Really End?

It's hard to imagine, but that's what Reuters is reporting:  if Democrats hold their ground and Republicans make good on their efforts to pull the trigger, December 31 could pass without a deal on the Bush tax cuts, meaning they would expire across the board.

Members of Congress from both parties are increasingly mulling the unthinkable: going home in December without acting to avoid the $4 trillion in tax hikes and deep spending cuts known as the fiscal cliff.

Neither Democrats nor Republicans claim this is their preferred option, as it could rattle global financial markets badly and anger their constituents.

But as they circle each other in an ever-more partisan atmosphere they see little prospect for a settlement acceptable to both parties in the lame duck session of Congress after the November 6 election.

That is when they confront the wave of fiscal cliff decisions including how to handle expiration of temporary tax cuts that originated during the presidency of George W. Bush, $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts and the need to raise the debt ceiling again.

Some members and partisan strategists are concluding that they might be better off doing nothing.

They would come back in January with a new Congress relatively flush with cash - at least on paper - from the impact of the tax hikes; hit reset and start over to structure a new series of tax cuts. Call them the "Obama tax cuts" or "Romney tax cuts," depending on the victor in the November election.

In other words, Republicans are confident they will win in November and figure they'll have the White House and Congress, and they'll do what they need to do in order to come up with a new set of tax cuts.  That's a dangerous plan...because they fact of the matter is they can't do much of anything if the Democrats win.

On the other hand, they're betting they can block any Obama move to make middle class tax cuts without massive tax cuts for the rich.  That's worked well so far.  We'll see.  BooMan's take:

It will be far easier to let all the Bush tax cuts lapse. This can be done easily. All Obama has to do is refuse to sign any deal or any short-term extension during the lame-duck. On the first of January 2013, the government would instantly get a $3.7 trillion boost on their books. This would free Congress up to redo the tax code in an more equitable way. In the worst case scenario, Romney would be in charge of this and would enjoy majorities in both houses. He might be able to use the budget reconciliation process to enact another Bush-like temporary (decade-long) tax cut, but it's unlikely that that would would work with the budget deficits we're facing. Bush had surpluses and still needed Dick Cheney to break the tie in the Senate for both his 2001 and 2003 tax cuts.

However, if, as now seems likely, Obama wins reelection, he will be in a great position to influence the new tax code. If Congress does nothing, everyone who pays taxes will see their taxes go up. Having won a second term, the president will have at least some initial political clout. And we've seen recently that the GOP will fold when put in a bad position, like letting student loan rates double or letting the payroll tax holiday run out. 

Fair enough.

15-Year-Old To Answer For Shooting, Killing Baby

Donald Ray Dokins appeared in court Friday and a judge set his bail at $3 million, a day after he was charged with murder and attempted murder. He did not enter a plea and his arraignment was postponed until July 16.

Prosecutors contend Dokins rode up on a bicycle on June 4 and opened fire on a crowd standing outside a South Los Angeles home.

Angel Cortez Nava was fatally shot in the stomach as his father cradled him. The father, 24-year-old Mauro Cortez, was hit in the shoulder.

A teenager killed a baby, and it's just routine news.  Possible gang ties, nothing to see here, gee that's sad but True Blood is on tonight.

I feel saddened that I'm starting to lose my hope that young criminals are able to see mercy and justice, and an opportunity to change.  I'm starting to believe that there really is no hope for youth determined to live fast and die hard.

Angel was shot while in his father's arms.  I wouldn't think anything could make this worse, but somehow that does.

The Enema Enigma

JUNE 29--A Florida man is under investigation for repeatedly returning boxes of used enemas to a CVS pharmacy where workers re-shelved the items, cops report.

The unidentified suspect, who has not yet been charged in a product tampering probe being led by the federal Food and Drug Administration, was arrested earlier this month on an unrelated outstanding warrant. He is currently locked up.

The repulsive probe began earlier this month when a worker told Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office deputies that the suspect, on four occasions, had purchased ready-to-use saline enemas only to later return the items.

The only reason this was discovered is because a manager did his job right, and checked the returned items.  They could have been ignored, skipped and put back on the shelves for an unsuspecting consumer.

Yes, managers have a job to do, but don't let it replace your duty as a consumer to inspect packaging.  Maybe it's because I remember the great Tylenol scare of the 80s, but I have always checked my seals and tamper labels.  We should be able to expect stores to be responsible and thorough, like this manager was.  But we should never trust enough not to use our own eyes and common sense as a final barrier to the ickdom that awaits us out there.

You Know Who This Guy Is, You Mooks?

It’s Chris Bag O’ Donuts, that’s freakin’ who it is here.  Born under a bad sign with a blue moon in his eye.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, known for his candor, snapped at a reporter Saturday while taking issue with his question at a press conference. 

Reporters were told the governor would only answer questions about a major problem at a water treatment plant, according to the Newark Star-Ledger.

Yet one reporter proceeded to ask an unrelated question involving the state legislature, as seen in video of the press conference from Monmouth County.

Christie, cutting him off, said: “Did I say on topic? Are you stupid? On topic, on topic. Next question.”

As the reported tried to follow up, the Republican governor again interjected and ended the press conference.

“Thank you all very much, and I’m sorry for the idiot over there. Take care,” he said before walking away.

Can you imagine if a Dem tried this, especially “arrogant, uppity Obama”?  Christie on the other hand, he’ll get away with it.  Hell, he’ll be a hero.  Republicans don’t have to answer your gorram questions, you know.  Open hostility to the press and the press takes it and we all have a good laugh, and then the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign guys announce that the press no longer matters because of Drudge and St. Andy Of The Pageview’s Ghost, so stay tuned while we make our own reality.  Fun for everyone.

Rest of you mooks, get outta here.

I'm LIBOR To Haul Off And Belt Somebody

Long-time readers will remember our old friend the LIBOR, the London Inter-Bank Overnight Rate, or in English, how much banks charge to lend to each other.  Turns out all this time the Libor's been played like a fiddle for the last five years, and the first bankster casualty in manipulation of the rate is the Chairman of Britain's Barclays Bank.

Barclays Plc chairman Marcus Agius quit on Monday, saying "the buck stops with me" after an interest rate rigging scandal that has dealt "a devastating blow" to the bank's reputation.

Agius, chairman of Britain's third biggest bank for 5-1/2 years, is the first major scalp from the scandal, which is likely to draw in more banks and could equally embarrass regulatory authorities.

But his resignation did not take the heat off chief executive Bob Diamond, who is also under pressure to go.

This is a big one, folks.  Just how big we're only beginning to find out.

Lawmakers are likely to quiz Agius and Diamond on what the Bank of England (BoE) and other regulators knew about the rate-rigging.

Details in documents released by U.S. authorities last week could prove embarrassing to the BoE, after sources said a key conversation held in October 2008 cited in the documents was between Diamond and BoE Deputy Governor Paul Tucker.

Some people at Barclays mistakenly believed the bank had been granted permission to submit artificially low Libor estimates after that conversation, the documents released last week showed.

More than a dozen other banks are being investigated in the long-running global probe by authorities in North America, Europe and Japan, including Citigroup, HSBC, UBS and Royal Bank of Scotland. Analysts and bankers expect more big fines.

So yes, everybody played the Libor table at Big Casino.  Only now, five years after the fact, is anybody noticing.  Awesome.  Customers paid billions more than they should have to borrow money and have been since 2005.  This scandal is pretty massive, considering trillions in derivatives depend on the Libor rate as well as -- you guessed it -- mortgage rates!

The British and US authorities said they had found evidence Barclays had attempted to manipulate a key borrowing rate for years, meaning that home owners could have paid millions more in mortgage payments than they might otherwise have had to.

And boom went the housing market and our economy.  Just another fraud scam perpetrated by the banks, and the banks are most likely going to walk.  Certainly nobody in the US is going to do anything with an election contest brewing and the EU is in financial chaos.

This one is going to get a lot, lot worse before it gets better.  And as I mentioned earlier this morning, the scandal has now claimed CEO Bob Diamond too.  In addition, COO Jerry del Missier is also out.  Something of a triple play here, and more banks are going to have issues with this.  Look for more resignations, and soon.

StupidiNews!

• Coming in fourth in the 50-meter freestyle and missing the cut at the US Olympic Trials, 45-year old swimming legend Dara Torres ended her career after 12 Olympic medals.
• Wisconsin state Sen. Van Wanggaard is considering legal action over losing the election and now the recount to Democrat John Lehman with control of the state Senate at stake.
• The fleet of several C-130 cargo planes used for firefighting in Western states has been grounded after one crashed in South Dakota Monday.
• The Libor scandal involving several of the world's top banks has now claimed Barclays Bank CEO Bob Diamond, who resigned this morning under a heavy cloud.
• Microsoft will be offering Windows 7 customers an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $39 once the OS launches, a deal good until the end of the year.

Last Call

Team Romney has decided to declare war on the Village and is only going to deal with the Drudge/Breitbart Axis Of Stupid from now on.  It's a win/win for them both:  Romney gets his own propaganda machine that the news organizations now have to kiss up to or be cut off, and the Breitbart kiddies get their legitimacy as Real Villagers.  It's a match made in Hell.  ROmney spokesman Lenny Alcivar explains the new media order:

When this election is over, one of the lessons that will be learned by the mainstream media is that they no longer have a toe-hold on how Americans receive their news. Never before – in a way that has taken Democrats off stride – have we seen the confluence of an aggressive online community, led by Breitbart, and an aggressive campaign team not willing to cede an inch of ground to Democrats. This combination has created a new political reality. We no longer allow the mainstream media to define the political realities in America. The rise of Breitbart, Drudge and others, combined with an aggressive Romney campaign is a powerful tool in the arsenal of the conservative movement.

…The governor will no longer allow the mainstream media to dictate the terms of this debate. This is just the beginning… We are witnessing the rise of the center right media.

Romney's made a deal with the Devil for his soul, and handed over his media operation to the Breitbart crew.  They are the new reality for Team Romney.   The message is clear to the rest of the Village:  suck up to the Birthers, the racists, the tinfoil lunatics and the nutjobs or be cut off as "in the tank for Obama" and become the enemy of tens of millions of slack-jawed drones.

Mitt's boys have decided the media no longer matters...they have Matt Drudge and the blogs.  I'd laugh, but our Stockholm Syndrome Villagers will go right along with this and America will suffer as these propaganda merchants will be running the campaign narrative for the rest of the year.

One side believes in a free and open press.  The other side believes in Drudge alerts.  Enjoy, Village.  You have outlived your usefulness to the Republican Party.

Will you defend yourselves or buckle under and be their patsies?

50% Accuracy Not Enough To Warrant Searches

The nose of a drug-sniffing police dog is not so sharp, but it's good enough to support cocaine charges against Herbert Green.

That was the opinion of federal Judge Glen Conrad, who denied a motion this week to suppress the drugs found in Green's sport utility vehicle with the help of a police dog named Bono.

Green's lawyer had argued that Bono's track record — drugs were found just 22 times out of 85 "alerts" by the dog — was so poor that police lacked probable cause to search Green's SUV.

They found a large amount of cocaine in the suspect's car.  But if you use a dog that turns out 63 false positives for every 22 successes, it seems that is unfairly stacking the odds against unreasonable search. It would make sense that dogs would have to perform to a certain percent of accuracy to be considered reason to trump our rights.

When explaining their reasons, the judge did himself no favors.

In some cases where nothing was found after an alert by Bono, police later determined that drugs had been in the vehicle earlier, likely leaving an odor the dog was trained to detect, Neese said.

Taking those cases into account, Conrad found that Bono's accuracy rate was at least 50 percent.

In determining whether police had probable cause, the judge wrote that he had to consider other factors beyond the dog's track record.

As a federal appeals court once put it, "the reliability of a drug-detection dog does not rise or fall on the basis of one sniff."

Just about every car has had trace amounts of drugs in it at some point, whether the owners knew it or not.  I'm not liking the lack of numbers that suddenly bring the dog up to at least 50%, but half is still not good enough.  If I did my job right only half the time, it wouldn't be my job much longer.

Meanwhile, police are letting this go unchecked, giving them access to people they may not normally.  And they wonder why people are naturally suspicious of law enforcement.

Local Stupidity: Jay Nixon's Silence Speaks Volumes

A letter to the editor in the Springfield News-Leader calls out Jay Nixon's utter silence on behalf of Missourians in need of health care.  He hasn't gone on record like Bobby Jindal has, refusing to implement in hopes it will be turned over.

Nixon gives the most neutral, useless response possible:

Gov. Jay Nixon today issued a statement at 10:30 a.m. 

“We’re just now beginning to review this ruling so that we can understand exactly what it means for Missouri.  This ruling has significant complexities and implications for families, health care providers and insurers in our state.  Here in Missouri, I'm committed to working collaboratively with citizens, businesses, medical providers and the legislature to move forward in a way that works best for families in our state.”

Kind of ambiguous, considering he thought it was best for Missouri to go without.  It may not be setting the stage for stalling and wading through the complexity of something he considers himself an expert in, but it sure sounds like it from here.  This was a token statement, something to put out there while he sits and plots his next move.

Mary Clemons gets right to the problem with this.

Now that the individual insurance mandate has been upheld by theUnited States Supreme Court, it is time for our governor to stand on the side of Missourians and be a voice of support for implementing the Affordable Care Act, the law of the land.

It is good for Missouri to have a health care law that provides subsidies to low- income citizens to purchase health insurance; a law that will create insurance exchanges making it possible for individuals and small businesses to purchase affordable insurance; a law that helps our seniors with prescription drug costs; a law that protects families from being denied insurance because of pre-existing conditions; a law that ends the gender gap and gives women equal access to health insurance; a law that allows everyone to receive preventive services with no co-pay; a law that keeps young adults on their parents’ policies until they reach 26; and a law that protects us from excessive insurance rate increases.

Several politicians have put their beliefs at odds with their sworn duties.  While some may play the martyr card (at the expense of the helpless) the reality is starting to show through the brave words and blind ignorance.  We have members of government failing to do their jobs because they are abusing their power.  Instead of following the people and the law, they believe themselves to be above it.  Jay Nixon has time to pull his head out of his arse and do the right thing.  I doubt he does, but he still has a chance.

Let's see if he takes it.

Coach Trips 13-Year-Old On Purpose

This is disgusting.  The coach claims the boy flipped him off at an earlier point in the game.  The headline says "do you think coach tripped this child?" but there is no question at all.  He raises his foot, hooks the boy, and drops him.  The boy broke his wrist, and I bet he has a hell of a headache from where his head struck the ice.

Jackass.

Did Millionaire Kill Himself In Court?

An Arizona millionaire who died minutes after he was convicted of arson appeared to have put something in his mouth while in the court room, sparking an investigation into whether the convicted arsonist had poisoned himself.

Michael Marin, 53, was convicted on Thursday of purposefully burning down his $2.55 million mansion in the tony Biltmore Estates neighborhood of Phoenix after he was unable to keep up with mortgage payments and a plan to raffle his house through a charity fundraiser failed. He faced up to 16 years in prison.

After the guilty verdict on one count of arson was read, a seemingly distraught Marin buried his face into his hands and appeared to place something in his mouth.

His face began to turn red. Minutes later, he took a sip of a liquid from a plastic sports bottle, turned to get a tissue, experienced convulsions and collapsed.

He was pronounced dead at the hospital, said Jeff Sprong, spokesperson for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, which is investigating the death.

"As you watch the video it does look like he is putting something into his mouth. Unfortunately we didn't find any evidence he left behind," Sprong said. "We are steering toward the fact he did ingest something. However, we're going to have to wait for toxicology results in two to three weeks."

It's surely not the first time, but it's rare enough to be interesting.  It seems Marin was a man who lived on his own terms, having self-published writing, climbed a mountain and generally lived to the fullest.  A prison sentence would have been worse than death to him.  Yeah, kind of like Patrick Swayze in Point Break. The full article gives more information on Marin's background, which is interesting.  I'm just amazed that someone would do that.

Throwing The Book At Them

This is what America has come to five years after Republicans destroyed our economy:  local residents putting together mini-libraries because community and county libraries are vanishing from the country.

Little Free Library was the inspiration of Todd Bol, who in the fall of 2009 landed on a way to honor his late mother, a book-loving teacher. He built a miniature wooden one-room schoolhouse, mounted it outside his Hudson, Wis., home and stocked it with books. Even on rainy days, friends and neighbors would happen by to make selections, drop off books and remark on the library's cuteness.

Bol, an entrepreneur in international business development, enlisted Rick Brooks, a community outreach specialist in Madison, Wis., to help spread the word. In the last two years, nearly 1,800 library stewards, as Bol calls them, have registered cabinet-size athenaeums in about 45 states and dozens of countries, including Ghana, England and Germany.

Each owner pays $25 to the Little Free Library, a nonprofit organization, for a sign and a number. The group's website features a locater map and photos of people attending grand openings for libraries.

Bol anticipates nearly 3,000 registered libraries by the end of July.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/07/01/154587/binding-neighbors-together-with.html#storylink=cpy

Make no mistake, this is a great idea.  I'd love to see thousands more of these.  Because the fact is the way austerity and income inequality in this nation is going, the Little Free Libraries are going to be the only ones left.

God In The Machine

When a sitting United States Congressman like Paul Ryan of Wisconsin tells America with a straight face that laws do not matter, the Supreme Court does not matter, and that your rights come from not the Constitution but from God, as an American you should be absolutely horrified and frightened.

“We’re going to repeal the entire law and then we’re going to advance patient-centered reforms that address these kinds of issues,” the Wisconsin Republican said.

“I think this at the end of the day is a big philosophy difference,” he continued. “What Ms. Kennedy and others were saying is that this is a new government-granted right. We disagree with the notion that our rights come from government, that the government can now grant us and define our rights. Those are ours, they come from nature and God, according to the Declaration of Independence — a huge difference in philosophy.”

Your philosophy, sir, would be laughed at by Thomas Jefferson.  Our Constitution was designed to make the United States a nation of laws, not a nation of whose God is more powerful.  And Republicans like Ryan have no issue with using laws to take those rights from whomever they see fit to punish for not agreeing with them.

This arrogant buffoon needs to resign.  You sir, serve and answer to your constituents and the Constitution of the United States of America, not God.  We absolutely have to resist this idiocy or we will not have a country of laws and rights enshrined, but laws and rights granted by people who will tell you what God means.

People like Paul Ryan.  I think not.