Last Call

And apparently that $560B "crisis fund" for Greece has been approved by the various EU ministers.

The ministers, meeting in Brussels, Belgium, sought to ease markets shaken by the Greek economic crisis before they re-opened Monday.

Under the deal announced early Monday, the International Monetary Fund could provide up to 220 billion euros (US $280 billion) to the crisis fund in addition to the EU's contribution of 440 billion euros, Spain's Finance Minister Elena Salgado said.

 That'll last.  Monday's going to be real interesting.

Especially since the EU doesn't have the money.  Guess they'll print it.  Hey, it's working for Helicopter Ben, right?

Right?

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

If you're wondering why the bad guys are still able to recruit people to die for them in suicide attacks in the Middle East, it's because we make it so very easy for them to hate us.

Hannity: I've actually had an idea -- no one listens to little ol' Sean Hannity. But I'm like -- I think the Iraqis, with all their oil resources, need to pay us back for their liberation. Every single solitary penny. Because we really need --

Johnson: I really thought that from the beginning. I thought that that was kind of, part of the equation.

Hannity: It should have been part of the deal.

Johnson: Should have been part of the deal.

Hannity: I think it should be now. I think they owe us a lot for that.

This of course happened after Hannity suggested that Obama resign over the Nashville floods.

Gosh, I can't think of any reason why the Iraqis can't pay us back for all the wonderful things we've done for them...

Greek Fire, Part 18

The latest casualty to be burned to ashes in Greek Fire?  Germany's coalition government, headed by Angela Merkel.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, beleaguered by her handling of the Greek financial crisis, her squabbling government and disgruntlement over hardship in Germany’s rust belt, had historic losses Sunday in crucial regional elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, where exit polls suggested her coalition was trounced.

If the results are confirmed, Mrs. Merkel will lose her majority in the Bundesrat, the upper house of Parliament, which signs off on legislation and contains representatives from each of the 16 states in Germany.

That would mean that Mrs. Merkel would no longer be able to push through decisive changes. She had initiated few since taking office for a second term eight months ago because of infighting in the coalition of her conservative Christian Democrats and pro-business Free Democrats.

Just three days after British voters left their national leadership in limbo, the biggest state in Germany followed suit, punishing Mrs. Merkel’s coalition but handing little satisfaction to the opposition Social Democrats. The future shape of the state’s government was unclear. 

Results aren't in yet, but exit polling shows that clearly Merkel's government is in real trouble.  Germany's proposed 600 billion euro bailout of Greece just might have peeved the locals.  Like throwing water on the legendary unquenchable flames, the Greek Fire cannot be put out.  What happens after that too fails?  Tyler Durden's on the right track:

And once this money is exhausted which it will be, Europe will default as the playbook is TARP then immediate monetization, however without a reserve currency backstop. The EURUSD is spiking by 3 handles right now, however once traders realize that the ECB will commence printing money in earnest it will go straight down to parity. 

Marvel as the euro collapses!  The alternative?  A European central treasury to go along with the bank and the currency, and austerity measures for everyone!  Ambrose Evans-Pritchard:

But if the early reports are near true, the accord profoundly alters the character of the European Union. The walls of fiscal and economic sovereignty are being breached. The creation of an EU rescue mechanism with powers to issue bonds with Europe's AAA rating to help eurozone states in trouble -- apparently €60bn, with a separate facility that may be able to lever up to €600bn -- is to go far beyond the Lisbon Treaty. This new agency is an EU Treasury in all but name, managing an EU fiscal union where liabilities become shared. A European state is being created before our eyes.

No EMU country will be allowed to default, whatever the moral hazard. Mrs Merkel seems to have bowed to extreme pressure as contagion spread to Portugal, Ireland, and -- the two clinchers -- Spain and Italy. "We have a serious situation, not just in one country but in several," she said. 

And the Greek Fire is now going to force Europe down the same path we're on.  Over here in America, pay attention to the markets this week.  It's going to be ugly...it may turn out to be downright brutal.

Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

When it comes to Lake Palin, the greatest engineering minds of the Twenty-First century have a Plan B, folks:

If using a massive dome to cover the source of the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico doesn't work, crews are preparing for another option: clogging it.

Engineers are examining whether they can close a failed blowout preventer by stuffing it with trash, said Adm. Thad Allen, the commandant of the Coast Guard. The 48-foot-tall, 450-ton device sits atop the well at the heart of the Gulf oil spill and is designed to stop leaks, but it has not been working properly since the oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20 and later sank.

"The next tactic is going to be something they call a junk shot," Allen told CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "They'll take a bunch of debris -- shredded up tires, golf balls and things like that -- and under very high pressure, shoot it into the preventer itself and see if they can clog it up and stop the leak."

We're pretty much screwed to the point of this being a Mel Brooks film, folks.  Honestly, was Aquaman not available to help with Giant Concrete Box Thingy?  Now we're using Junk Shot.

What plans did they turn down to go with Junk Shot?

Liz Cheney: Not As Smart A Her Dad

Greek Fire is a serious problem, but we're not "bailing Greece out" any more than we are, say, Israel.

Conservatives have responded to the massive economic crisis in Greece — which is spreading to the rest of Europe — by trying to score political points against President Obama’s domestic economic policies. This morning on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace and Liz Cheney pushed the myth that the United States was “bailing out” Greece, and Cheney even suggested that America adopt Greek-like austerity measures to counter the budget deficit:

CHENEY: When you look at the question over whether the US tax payer ought to be contributing to bailing out Greece, I think you also got to say wait a second at the same time that we are looking to put $7 billion to bail out Greece… we’ve got the same types of policies being put in place here in the United States that frankly are much more likely to lead us down the path that we see Greece on.

 For the record, we've given more money to Israel, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq in direct aid and loan guarantees than we have Greece here.  It's funny how fiscal conservatives don't complain about that outflow of US money that doesn't get paid back, either.

And of course that means Liz's dad and his buddy George gave out tens of billions in aid and loan guarantees every year too.  Guess we "bailed out the world" on a yearly basis.

Sunday Funnies: Blowing Up On Broadway Edition

The Bobblespeaks, they live. 

Gregory: how did a guy with a MBA become an unethical radical soulless dipshit?

Holder: it’s a mystery

Gregory: how come you didn’t arrest him
before he committed a crime?

Holder: it’s doesn’t work that way Dancing Dave

Gregory: these are homegrown terrorists!

Holder: they are people with clean skins

Gregory: like who use ivory soap?

Holder: yes - also white people

Gregory: why don’t you track all people
who go to Pakistan

Holder: 200,000 people!?

Gregory: yes dammit!

Holder: I heard you were a moron

If you can fail in New York, you can fail anywhere!

Happy Mother's Day!

Call your mom.



Treat your mother right!

More Wishful Thinking On "Obama's Katrina"

Wingers seem to think if they say it enough times, the federal government's response to Lake Palin will become an impeachable offense.  Steve Benen and the AP put this nonsense to bed for good.

For several days, the national media seemed heavily invested in characterizing the BP oil spill disaster as "Obama's Katrina." Major, mainstream outlets -- not just Limbaugh and Fox News -- "concocted the absurd 'Obama's Katrina' claim in the first place, and then helped actively push it. Journalists did it by pointing to mostly faceless, imaginary 'critics' of the Obama administration in order to float the phony storyline."

But it didn't take. It may have had something to do with the intervention of other world events -- the attempted terrorism in Times Square, the European debt crisis, the British elections -- but vague criticism of the administration's response to the Gulf was relatively short-lived. Even conservatives found it easily dismissible.

When House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) held a press conference to blast the president's handling of the issue mid-week, he couldn't explain why he was unsatisfied, and most of the political world found it best to just blow off his shallow nonsense.

While the oil spill disaster remains an ongoing crisis -- indeed, oil continues to gush into the Gulf as I type -- the questions surrounding the speed of the Obama administration's response seem to have been answered. To the wire service's credit, the AP's H. Josef Hebert and Erica Werner published a lengthy report this morning on the "aggressive" federal response to the disaster.

That AP piece is a good read.  Unlike Katrina, which was predictable and indeed seen barreling towards the Louisiana coast for days before it hit, BP just now got around to trying to stop the oil flow, a good two and a half weeks after the accident...and their plan A failed miserably.  It's not Obama failing to fix this problem on national TV, it's BP dropping the ball.

Oh, and let's not forget the government's quick response to the Tennessee floods as well.

Last weekend's storm system devastated Tennessee and neighboring states, leaving at least 31 people dead across the Southeast, authorities say. Flooding has caused more than $1.5 billion in property damage in the Nashville area alone, city officials said Friday.

Napolitano said that as of Saturday morning, 16,000 people had requested assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and more than $4 million in federal assistance had been approved for individuals.

More of that help is coming.   Sorry Wingers, this isn't Obama's Katrina either.

If anything, the events of the last two weeks (Times Square, Tennessee, the Gulf Coast, and the stock market roller-coaster) show that a strong, responsive federal government is indeed necessary, and when it does its job, our government can get it done.

It's not the free market that's going to solve any of these problems, folks.

Last Call

Here's how the Kagan nomination to SCOTUS plays out:

1. Everyone says what a genius Obama is except for a few folks who have honest questions about her.
2. Since it's liberals who are asking those questions, conservatives will then defend Kagan to attack liberals.
We're on 2 right now.  The rest goes like this:
3. Since it's liberals who will be under attack, the Village will pile on and declare that liberals hate bipartisanship centrist choices.
4. Republicans will then bring up the same concerns liberals have about Kagan and attack her, saying it's bipartisan opposition.
5. The Village will wonder if Kagan should withdraw (It would be irresponsible not to speculate...)
6. Everyone on the D side will rally around her anyway after liberals have been beaten on enough and it becomes clear she's going to be confirmed anyway.
7. Liberals will then be blamed for "almost blowing another one for Obama."
8. The meme that Democratic Presidents can never appoint liberals to anything continues. 

Count on it.

Utah's Bob Bennett Gets Hoffmaned

The Hoffman Effect rolls on unabated.  Dave Weigel:

Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) lost his bid for a fourth term today after being eliminated in the second ballot of Utah's Republican convention. Bennett came in third with 26% of the vote behind businessman Tim Bridgewater with 37% and lawyer Mike Lee with 36%.

The strong showing for Bridgewater came as a surprise, as national conservatives -- including FreedomWorks -- have strongly supported Lee. But Cherilyn Eagar, a Republican activist who was knocked out on the first ballot, had vocally opposed Lee, and her votes largely went to Bridgewater. But Bennett was never able to overcome an anti-incumbent sentiment in the GOP base. In his speech after coming third in the first round, Bennett pleaded for delegates to consider which candidate had the most influence in Washington.

"Don't take a chance on a newcomer," said Bennett. "There's too much at stake."

That message fell flat with Utah Republicans, who now face a choice between two conservative activists who have never held elective office. Bennett's only option to continue his political career is, as he told the Associated Press, an unprecedented write-in campaign. At this hour, it's unclear if he'll proceed.

Bridgewater and Lee will battle it out at the convention for the right to a flat-out win. If one candidate gets 60% of the vote, he is the nominee. If neither candidate does, they will face each other in a June primary. Notably, Lee gave his one-minute time for a pre-ballot speech to a video from Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who called Bennett a "friend who's made a difference" before endorsing the lawyer and first-time candidate.

Teabaggers have burned a Utah Republican at the stake for not being wingnutty enough.  That should tell you how crazy 2010 is going to be at the polls.  The GOP is going to have to run so far to the know-nothing, fundie, anti-minority, corporate lackey right that those massive gains they are counting on simply won't materialize.

And when that happens, they'll completely break down.

Oh You Mean THESE Nuclear Weapons...

Why, I have no idea what you are talking about, sir.

Israel's secretive nuclear activities may undergo unprecedented scrutiny next month, with a key meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency tentatively set to focus on the topic for the first time, according to documents shared Friday with The Associated Press.

 A copy of the restricted provisional agenda of the IAEA's June 7 board meeting lists Israeli nuclear capabilities as the eighth item - the first time that that the agency's decision-making body is being asked to deal with the issue in its 52 years of existence.

The agenda can still undergo changes in the month before the start of the meeting and a senior diplomat from a board member nation said the item, included on Arab request, could be struck if the U.S. and other Israeli allies mount strong opposition. He asked for anonymity for discussing a confidential matter.

Even if dropped from the final agenda, however, its inclusion in the May 7 draft made available to The AP is significant, reflecting the success of Islamic nations in giving concerns about Israel's unacknowledged nuclear arsenal increased prominence. 

Despite Israel's nuclear capabilities being the worst kept secret in the Middle East, expect to see howling and screaming from the usual suspects (and open calls of the AP being anti-Semitic, along with Obama, Hillary, the UN, the IAEA, and everyone else who might have anything to do with being interested in reading the report.)  Discussion of Israel's nukes means Israel actually has nukes and is a country with nukes that has not signed on to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and admitting that means Israel is a "rogue nuclear state" by several definitions (along with India and Pakistan.)

Most importantly it means Israel is a nuclear power, and that changes the calculus of power in the entire theater.  Israel has had plausible deniability on this for a while now (despite this being a terribly badly secret.)  Admitting they have nukes means Israel is subject to the same inspection game that they've helped to force on to other countries, like Iraq and Iran, and that's going to make things real interesting.

Then again, if you wanted to force Israel's military hand and by proxy America's military hand, this is the prime way to do it.  Cui bono is the question to ask here, who benefits the most from something like this?

Watch the response on this carefully.  If the talk quickly turns to "Well now Israel has no choice but to attack Iran while it has the advantage" then you'll know.

Oil's Well That Doesn't End Well For This Oil Well, Part 8

GIANT CONCRETE BOX THINGY!  He is our hero!

GIANT CONCRETE BOX THINGY!  He will save the Gulf!

...Or not.

A mammoth white containment dome placed over a leaking oil well 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico had to be moved away from the well Saturday after ice-like crystals clogged the massive steel-and-concrete box.

The buildup of crystals also made the box too buoyant, BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said.

"I wouldn't say it failed yet," he said. "What I would say is what we attempted to do last night didn't work."
The lowering of the containment device was a slow-moving process. It took about two weeks to build the 40-foot box, and the effort to lower it by crane and cable to the seafloor began late Thursday night. After it hit bottom Friday afternoon, the crane gradually eased off to allow it to settle.

By Saturday, workers had to move the box, which is still on the sea bed, some 200 meters away from the leaking oil well.

To try to contain the spill, engineers hoped to thread a slot in the dome over the well's main leaking pipe, then let the dome sink into the mud, creating a water-tight seal. After that, engineers planned to hook a pipeline to it and pump the oil it collects into a waiting barge.

Officials had warned that many things could go wrong with the effort, which has never been tried at that depth.

"This hasn't been done before and it will undoubtedly have some complications but we are committed to making this work," Suttles said Friday.

Everything's fine here, got an oil leak here, very dangerous, just give us a second to lock it down...how are you?

The War On Science, Part 3

Steven D has an excellent piece today on the continuing Wingnut War on Science, with Virginia's Republican AG Ken Cuccinelli going all Scopes Trial on climate scientist Michael Mann.  Mann used to be at the University of Virginia, and now this knucklehead AG thinks he can sue Mann for "fraud" for his global warming work while at UVA on a state grant.

No matter that Professor Mann and the East Anglia climate scientists have been absolved of any improper conduct with respect to the research they conducted on climate change by Penn State University's investigation into the charges against Prof. Mann (his current employer) and by an independent international panel convened by the University of East Anglia, respectively.

First an excerpt from the investigation by Penn State's "Inquiry Report: Concerning the Allegations of Research Misconduct Against Dr. Michael E. Mann:"

After careful consideration of all the evidence and relevant materials, the inquiry committee finding is that there exists no credible evidence that Dr. Mann had or has ever engaged in, or participated in, directly or indirectly, any actions with an intent to suppress or to falsify data. While a perception has been created in the weeks after the CRU emails were made public that Dr. Mann has engaged in the suppression or falsification of data, there is no credible evidence that he ever did so ...

And now an excerpt from the international panel convened by East Anglia University to investigate the actions of the scientists at the Hadley Climate Research Unit located there:

We saw no evidence of any deliberate scientific malpractice in any of the work of the Climatic Research Unit and had it been there we believe that it is likely that we would have detected it.

Not to mention the voluminous publicly available NASA data sets related to global temperatures that support the conclusions of Mann's work. 

It seems to me that Virginia's better served investigating why their AG is filing frivolous lawsuits with taxpayer money against scientists, the EPA, and the Obama administration over health care legislation, frivolous lawsuits that Virginia taxpayers are footing the bill for, and that the state has zero chance of winning.

But that's Republican "science" for you.  Willful ignorance to the point of absurdity.  Anything they can't control, like "facts", must be destroyed.

Arizona Liars Club

Conservatives are liars.  Period.  But wait, I must be the liar, because conservatives tell the truth, conservatives like Marco Rubio and J.D. Hayworth who want to represent the people in Congress next year.

Over the past few weeks, right-wing proponents of Arizona’s draconian immigration law inexplicably claimed that the majority of Latinos in Arizona support the new anti-immigrant law. Some examples:

Marco Rubio: Polling has shown that Americans of Hispanic descent in Arizona support this bill just as strongly as the general population does.
J.D. Hayworth: Interestingly, a majority of Hispanics agree that this law should be enforced here in Arizona.
Bill O’Reilly: I’m not buying the fact that Hispanic-Americans en masse are against the law.

Now I know we can settle this charge of mine that "conservatives are liars" if only somebody would actually ask Latinos in Arizona what they think about the law.

A new survey released today by Latino Decisions, and commissioned by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) shows Latino registered voters in the state of Arizona are strongly opposed to new immigration law, 1070, which was signed into law on April 23. Overall, 81% of Latinos are opposed to 1070 and 16% in favor. When asked if they thought police would also stop legal immigrants or U.S. born Latinos, 85% of Latino voters said yes, and 72% said they thought police would primarily target people who are Hispanic when deciding who to question.

Oh wait...umm...I know!  If only somebody would actually ask Latinos in Arizona what they think about the law, and got a second opinion!  It must be an outlier!

This Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll of the Arizona immigration law is pretty astounding.

Based on what you know or have heard about the new Arizona Immigration Law, do you favor or oppose it?
      Favor  Oppose  Not Sure
ALL     53      36      11
DEM     12      79       9
REP     89       7       4
IND     46      28      26
WHITE   63      26      11
LATINO  15      76       9
BLACK    8      80      12

Umm....gosh...errm....but Arizonans still overwhelmingly support the bill, right? Latinos included?

On the national level, polls show that an overwhelming majority Latinos across the nation support comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level. Eighty-seven percent of Latino respondents said they would not consider voting for a Congressional candidate who was in favor of forcing most of the undocumented population to leave the country. A new poll released this week also reveals that the percentage of all Arizonans who support SB-1070 has fallen from 70 percent to 52 percent. 

Wait!  I know!  Marco Rubio and J.D. Hayworth never ever said those things!  It's all a lie!



CLONES!  GEORGE SOROS FUNDED CLONES!  No conservative would EVER lie...

Would they?

Kaganology 101

The erstwhile Digby reminds us that the White House never really changed its mind on Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court.  The why of that should raise red flags:

There's a lot of talk today about the White House settling on Elana Kagan for the Supreme Court, along with some fairly alarming reports that she didn't care about diversity when she was the dean of Harvard Law. This doesn't speak well of her, especially since she is such a blank slate that such actions tend to be the only clues we have about her worldview. (I have assumed that if Obama ends up nominating her we will know for sure that he's decided to run for the hills in anticipation of a right wing surge, which only means he's decided on appeasement rather than leadership. Surprise.)

Oh yeah, and she was on a Goldman Sachs advisory panel too.   This is starting to make a certain amount of sense now as to why Kagan was always the frontrunner.

So I'm told by various people that Kagan is the only confirmable possibility. I would love to know why that should be true. The Republicans have had little trouble since Bork confirming far right federalist society clones, whether they had a Democratic or Republican Senate. It doesn't seem logical to me that there isn't room for an unabashed liberal on the court with a 59 vote majority in the Senate.

Kagan is an unknown quantity, unlike Roberts and Alito who were clearly both conservative a highly political. Yet Bush managed to get them confirmed. I guess I just don't understand the double standard when it comes to Democrats and I refuse to capitulate to the common wisdom that says no Democratic president can ever confirm a known liberal.

Pay-Bork is a bitch, as they say.  30 years of painting liberals as everything that has gone wrong in America, when the reality has been the opposite (Reaganomics, Poppy Bush's Gulf War I, Clinton's post 1994 triangulation and impeachment, and Dubya's complete wrecking of the country to really put the icing on the cake).  We've had 4 recessions since then thanks to the free market.

Conservatism is all about sending money up the chain, Liberalism is about sending it down.  Ergo, Liberals are the enemy.  And poor people don't own media conglomerates and get to frame the debate.

Really is that simple.  Obama raised the white flag on this a long time ago.