Last Call

And the big deal is now off:  AT&T has officially dropped its bid to buy T-Mobile after massive opposition from consumer groups, competitors, and the government.

AT&T had said it urgently needed to buy T-Mobile USA to help overcome a spectrum shortage, while Deutsche Telekom saw it as a way to exit the U.S. market to focus on its European operations. Once a cash cow, T-Mobile USA has been loosing customers.

An agreed $3 billion break up fee to be paid by AT&T, roaming agreements with AT&T and additional mobile licenses for T-Mobile USA will soften the blow but puts Deutsche Telekom back at square one.
"It was definitely a miscalculation (by AT&T)," said Steve Clement, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities.

"I don't know that it's such a big deal to the extent that you're going to have people looking for a change of management (at AT&T). But they definitely miscalculated what they would be able to push through to regulators'" he said.

AT&T will have to look elsewhere for the wireless airwaves it has said it needs to support the high demand for mobile data services and to compete with larger rival Verizon Wireless, which has agreed to buy spectrum from cable operators.

Considering wireless outfits just got stung for "sticker shock"  a couple months ago and have agreed to a "voluntary" measure to send out alerts to let people know they've gone over their plan minutes, it's not like wireless carriers have any real goodwill built up with consumers or the government right now.  AT&T's muscle deal to try to obtain critical mass to squeeze out competition would have given it control of too much of the market.  We need more wireless carriers, not less.

The deal's been doomed for some time now, but it's good to know it's finally finished.

Getting Soaked ByThe Free Market

The endless drive to privatize public government services is beginning to hit consumers right in the wallet.  We're told by the corporatists that private companies can provide services and utilities more cheaply and efficiently that evil old government.  Increasingly, that list of privatized services is including basic necessities like water itself.

Ask Texas resident Robert White how that's working out.

When Robert White opened his water bill last month, his jaw dropped: $250 for a month's worth of water and sewer service. The 63-year-old construction contractor, who shares a three-bedroom home with his wife in the bucolic Springbrook Centre subdivision, said he likes to keep his lawn green and expects hefty water bills. "I just don't want to be hijacked," he said.


White's water service is provided by a private utility owned by California-based SouthWest Water Co. LLC. Just across the four-lane Pflugerville Parkway, where White's neighbors in the Springbrook Glen subdivision — a nearly identical grid of neatly arranged brick-faced homes — get their water from Pflugerville, rates are on average about 60 percent less.

And White's bill for water service may nearly double soon, if SouthWest Water gets the latest rate increase it has requested. "I have never felt so helpless," he said. 

So White and other Texans are facing up to $2,000 a year for just for water and sewer service.  No competition, bound to a company who only cares about profiting off water.  And Texas's Utility Commission is designed to make it all but impossible to fight these massive rate increases.  The private water companies say they are simply passing on the true cost of water these days...because states simply don't want to pay to fix aging pipes.  They pass it all over to the private companies and they are making a killing.

Do read the whole story.  Privatized water systems are becoming more and more common...and so are massive rate increases.

Beware Of Funny Money This Holiday Season

The Cincy office of the US Secret Service reminds us that this time of year is pretty bad for counterfeit bills, and that there's a rise in funny money being used for online transactions.

Two-thirds of fake money is now printed on ink jets, not the printing presses of years ago, and because of the low-cost options, more people are doing it according to Cincinnati Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Mark Porter.

"The better color and duplication of color, how easy that is, and now the low prices. When the first started ten years ago not everybody could afford a printer and a scanner. Almost anybody can get their hands on this now."

One technique the Secret Service is seeing more often is the bleached bill. Counterfeiters take the ink off a five dollar bill and print that piece of paper with the markings of a 100. Assistant Steve Schwarz opens a loose leaf binder with laminated real and fake money, and points to a security symbol.

"That one is fairly close, but a lot of times it will be a blur." 

I would probably never sell an item for cash like that if I did that online just for that reason alone.  Worth more to me to have the piece of mind of an eBay or PayPal transaction instead.  To each his own, however.

Be careful out there this year.

Boy Chokes To Death At School While Workers Stand By

I had to take a first aid course before I could work with kids.  We had to take a basic one and pass before we could graduate high school.  I voluntarily took a refresher course just so I knew I had practice and was prepared.  I've performed CPR twice in my life.  Once it saved the person, the other time it failed.  But I knew what to do and in the heat of the moment I was calm and confident.  This fall, I choked and if my husband hadn't been there to help me I would have died.  I was trying to do the Heimlich maneuver on myself, and it wasn't enough (that was one stubborn chicken nugget).  I was starting to get dizzy and gray out when it worked.

I know the terror and pain of being unable to breathe.  I have seen the moment firsthand when you realize this may be it, you may die right here and now.  I hurt now realizing a 9-year-old boy's last memories will be of this, while the adults who worked at the school stood around unsure of how to help him.

NEW YORK -- Family members and a witness say a New York City fourth grader choked on meatballs during lunch earlier this month while school cafeteria workers stood by. The boy later died.

A parent at the school, Andrea Perez, told the newspaper she saw the boy choking but cafeteria workers did nothing. She said at one point they yelled at him to put his fingers down his throat.

"He was on the ground and not moving after a while," Perez said through a Spanish-speaking translator. "Nobody was paying attention and they didn't know how to give aid, nobody knew what to do."

Jonathan Jewth later died from the brain damage he suffered. A room full of people, and nobody knew how to perform the Heimlich?  My first job ever was at McDonald's.  My shiny CPR card meant nothing, we were trained in the Heimlich maneuver before we were allowed to work in food service, no exceptions.  Did the school lapse in training, or did the employees just forget in the panic?  Nobody knows yet and the comments are few and far between from those who were there.

Please, if you don't know basic medical aid sign up for a course.  They're often free, and can save lives.  The world is missing an adorable and gifted child because of ignorance.  That is inexcusable.

Viral Happiness - It's Catching

Okay, I laughed and I also got a bit teary at the pure damn happiness of this guy.  But first, a foreword from Jezebel:

The Surprise Pregnancy Announcement Youtube Video is practically its own genre, but this one has a twist: The expectant and delighted grandparents are two men. And they're jump-up-and-down excited.

I won't ruin the delight of watching the whole thing yourself, but suffice to say, their joy is contagious. If this is what happens when "traditional" families are destroyed by gay couples, then sign me up.

Tell me again why this is so dangerous to the world?

Legacy Of The Big Mistake

The most brutal casualty of the Iraq war from a political standpoint is that without Saddam keeping sectarian violence in check, Saudi Arabia and Iraq are now bitter enemies as the Saudis believe that Iraqi PM Al-Malaki is an Iranian puppet.

The Saudis charge that Iraq has come under the sway of Saudi archrival Iran. But they themselves have also tried to affect Iraqi internal politics: they've thrown their support and funds behind Ayad Allawi, Maliki's main political rival, who's blocked the appointment of top security officials in the Iraqi government.

"We're trying to contain them ... it's a sectarian government," said an adviser to the Saudi government who agreed to discuss the delicate Saudi-Iraqi relations anonymously because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.

For its part, Iraq charges that insurgents are still infiltrating from Saudi Arabia. "There are a lot clerics and religious organizations that encourage and incite people to go to Iraq and fight in a so-called jihad," Labeed Abbawi, Iraq's deputy foreign minister, told McClatchy in Baghdad, skirting direct criticism of the Saudi government.

The enmity between Saudi Arabia and Iraq is just one of the many fissures in the Middle East that have widened in the almost nine years since the U.S. toppled Saddam. Now, the Arab Spring has exacerbated already existing sectarian tensions in the region at a time when the U.S. departure from Iraq leaves it with less capacity to act in the region to intervene if military conflict seems imminent.

The biggest fissure is the division between Sunni-led Saudi Arabia and Shiite-led Iran. The two countries have been at loggerheads for centuries, in large part over whose branch of Islam should lead the Muslim world. But the replacement of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led regime with Maliki's Shiite-led government unsettled the playing field for the two countries.

And without that balance of power which we promptly wrecked over nine years, Iraq and Saudi Arabia aren't even talking anymore.  The Iraqi-Saudi border is now a major flashpoint in the world.  We knocked the Saudis off their block, something the neocons fail to mention...or wanted to happen.

Strange Definition Of "Not Hating"

Michele Bachmann doesn't hate Muslims, she just wants to compare them to Nazi Germany as the greatest threat to America right now.

Fox News host Mike Huckabee told Bachmann Saturday that he had never seen her act like she hated Muslims.

“You never have because I never have said anything that foolish,” Bachmann explained. “What I believe is that I love the American people and I love this country, and I want this country to be safe, sovereign and free.”

“Let’s address that specific allegation that you hate Muslims,” Huckabee pressed. “Do you hate Muslims?”

“Of course not,” Bachmann insisted. “I don’t hate Muslims. It’s outrageous to say that, but I do recognize that we have a very real threat. Just like when Hitler was building up the threat prior to World War II. All of the signs were there and they were evident, and there were people that wanted to bury their heads in the sand.”

So if we just rounded them up and put them in internment camps, I'm sure we'd be fine or something, right, Michele?  Just awesome.

StupidiNews!

• North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is dead at the age of 69, his son Kim Jong-Un is said to be his successor as the world reacts to the new order in the Communist regime.
• Cancer researchers have found a way to keep tumor cells alive outside of the human body, which could revolutionize cancer treatment.
• Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC are competing to be the site for the FBI's new headquarters building in 2020, the site could be selected as early as next year.
• Euro zone leaders are trying to secure another 200 billion euros in crisis funding from the IMF today, trying to get a deal in place before Christmas.
• A vote on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act was delayed indefinitely on Friday as House Judiciary Committee chair Lamar Smith of Texas pulled it from the schedule.

Last Call

Looks like the two-month payroll tax extension hashed out in the Senate on Friday was never going to pass the House in the first place as Orange Julius completely changes his tune.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said today that House Republicans oppose the Senate bill to extend for two months the payroll tax holiday and other measures, setting up a major legislative clash a week before Christmas.

A day after the Senate approved a hard-fought compromise and then adjourned for the year, the Speaker made clear in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that House Republicans will put forward their own bill instead. The House is set to reconvene Monday and could vote on the Senate bill and a House counterproposal by Tuesday.

“It’s pretty clear that I and our Members oppose the Senate bill,” Boehner said. “How can you do tax policy for two months? We believe it’s time for the Senate to work with the House to complete our business for the year.”

Boehner suggested the House and Senate could resolve their differences in a Conference Committee if the Senate declines to support the path forward favored by House Republicans. The legislation involves an extension of the payroll tax holiday, set to expire Dec. 31; continuing unemployment insurance for the long-term jobless; and stopping a scheduled pay cut to doctors who treat Medicare patients.

Translation:  Oh no you don't, we're going to get everything we want now or else the Middle Class gets it.  That's why it was vitally important to have the deal worked out in the Senate first, a deal that passed overwhelmingly. 89-10.  On Saturday, Boehner called the Senate plan a "good deal" and a "victory".  24 hours later, he opposes it and promises it will get voted down.

The Tea Party nutjobs in the House will burn 160 million Americans to get what the 1% want.

Re-Birther Of The Uncool, Part 2

The Birthers are at it again, and they will never, ever stop. This time Georgia Republicans are trying to get President Obama removed from the ballot there because TEH BERF CERTIFICUT IS A FAAAAAAAKE!!one!11!

Georgia State Representative J. Mark Hatfield (R-Waycross) will plead the case before the Office of State Administrative Hearings on behalf of Mr. Kevin R. Powell of Duluth, Georgia, who filed the suit on the grounds that “Obama does not satisfy the ‘natural born Citizen’ requirement of Article II, Section I, Clause 5 of the United States Constitution. Obama’s father, Barack Obama, Sr., was a native of Kenya and a British subject who never became a United States citizen.”

Presumably the lawsuit does not address the question of the nationality of President Obama’s mother, whose status as a U.S. citizen would confer citizenship upon her son, no matter the nationality of his father.

The challenge, which Georgia Politico reports is styled “Kevin Richard Powell v. Barack Obama,” was submitted to Secretary Kemp’s office on November 28, and has been referred to the State Office of Administrative Hearings for further action.

And this nonsense will continue in state after state, continuing to eat away at the President's credibility and his authority, all because millions of "patriotic Americans" will never accept we have a black President.  Ever.  It simply doesn't apply to "him".

How does any GOP candidate win the nomination without bowing down to this idiocy?  Several of them already have, and you're crazy if you think Romney can win without doing so.

Will The Last Soldiers Out Please Turn Off The Lights?

Meanwhile, another President Obama promise kept as our last convoy of 4,500 combat troops are leaving Iraq today, and course President Obama's role in that is all but ignored.

The final column of around 100 mostly U.S. military MRAP armored vehicles carrying 500 U.S. troops trundled across the southern Iraq desert from their last base through the night and daybreak along an empty highway to the Kuwaiti border.

Honking their horns, the last batch of around 25 American military trucks and tractor trailers carrying Bradley fighting vehicles crossed the border early Sunday morning, their crews waving at fellow troops along the route.

"I just can't wait to call my wife and kids and let them know I am safe," Sgt. First Class Rodolfo Ruiz said as the border came into sight. Soon afterwards, he told his men the mission was over, "Hey guys, you made it."

For U.S. President Barack Obama, the military pullout is the fulfillment of an election promise to bring troops home from a conflict inherited from his predecessor, the most unpopular war since Vietnam and one that tainted America's standing worldwide.

For Iraqis, though, the U.S. departure brings a sense of sovereignty tempered by nagging fears their country may slide once again into the kind of sectarian violence that killed many thousands of people at its peak in 2006-2007.

And no, violence in Iraq will not vanish overnight.  But we're finally coming home and letting Iraq run itself, which is something that Bush couldn't or didn't do.  The only credit he deserves is the foolish decision to start the Iraq War in the first place.

A Ray Of Common Sense Shines Again

I'm starting to get all giddy, there have been two really good articles written that eloquently capture what I've been trying to say (but lacked the perfect words).  Now we have the talented Aaron Anson with a thoughtful and completely correct assessment of our ego and hypocrisy as a people.  He nails the root cause of why some people try to force their moral code on others.  He reminds us that our country has begrudgingly given rights to people but that in the beginning only rich white men could vote.

Our short-term failures jeopardize our long-term successes in improving our country. Please click here to read the whole article.  Below is my favorite section.

These learned behaviors and beliefs, arbitrary but strong, make us contradict our own natural impulses. We can desire peace, but easily be provoked to fight; we can say that we love, but then justify our hate and hostility. We encourage fidelity and honesty in others, but fornicate and cheat on our taxes. We deny marriage rights to all, yet abuse that right if we're entitled. Sadly, hypocrites often speak for government and religion today. Most disturbing, is our continuing to accept both as the supreme authority to direct our own moral compass. The allowable hypocrisy permeates the laws adjudicating marriage, abortion, the environment, deportation, stem cell research and so on.

Oops! Scared Of The Dark Edition

This poor kid.  I had something similar happen, and the worst thing of all is that time stops and you forget a new day will eventually come.  I bet he felt like he lived and died a thousand lifetimes in the hours he was locked in.

PHILADELPHIA -- A 13-year-old boy says he spent more than nine cold, hungry and lonely hours trapped in a stairwell at a Philadelphia school.

Seventh-grader David Fields says he was looking for a new way out of Roosevelt Middle School on Thursday afternoon but ended up locked inside an emergency exit tower when a door closed behind him.

Janitorial staff apparently didn't hear his cries for help. His mother, Angela Johnson, says workers wouldn't allow family members to look for him after he didn't come home.

Shortly after midnight they changed their minds and overheard him shouting for help.  He was out within 20 minutes, and his folks were greatly relieved.  With all the violent crime in this world, they had to have been terrified.  There should be an inspection done before locking up, so somebody has some explaining to do.  Still we'll call this a win because we have a happy ending.

Reagan Wouldn't Even Get A Full Percentage Point In 2012

Steve Benen quietly flags two important items on America's Israel policy, first, President Obama's speech speech in Maryland on Friday to the 71st General Assembly of the Union for Reform Judaism:

“We’re going to keep standing with our Israeli friends and allies, just as we’ve been doing when they’ve needed us most. In September, when a mob threatened the Israeli embassy in Cairo, we worked to ensure that the men and women working there were able to get out safely. Last year, when raging fires threatened Haifa, we dispatched fire-fighting planes to help put out the blaze.

“On my watch, the United States of America has led the way, from Durban to the United Nations, against attempts to use international forums to delegitimize Israel. And we will continue to do so. That’s what friends and allies do for each other. So don’t let anybody else tell a different story. We have been there, and we will continue to be there. Those are the facts.”

But he also flagged down this Ben Smith piece on another President's relationship with Israel, specifically the man who said this:

“The immediate adoption of a settlement freeze by Israel, more than any other action, could create the confidence needed for wider participation in these talks.”

Ronald Reagan said that.  He would probably be where Jon Huntsman is in the polls if he ran for office today, if not further down in the proceedings.  He also said this in 1987:

He said the effect of the occupation [of Gaza and the West Bank] ‘also damages the self-respect and world opinion of the Israeli people.’

And yes, for that statement alone, Ronald Reagan would have been called and anti-Semite and a terrorist sympathizer by today's Republican party. My mother voted for Reagan in 80 and again in 84.  Somehow I don't see her voting for the Republican in 2012.

Hyper-Hypocrisy Time

OK, self-hating "family values" Republicans are really starting to piss me off.

A Republican mayor in Mississippi admitted this week that he was gay after an audit revealed that he spent taxpayer money at a gay adult store in Canada.

Greg Davis was elected as the mayor of Southaven in 1997 on a platform of conservative “family values,” but he says he recently realized that he was gay.

“At this point in my life and in my career, while I have tried to maintain separation between my personal and public life, it is obvious that this can no longer remain the case,” the mayor, now in his third term, told The Commercial Appeal.

“While I have performed my job as mayor, in my opinion, as a very conservative, progressive individual — and still continue to be a very conservative individual — I think that it is important that I discuss the struggles I have had over the last few years when I came to the realization that I am gay,” he added.

Davis claimed that he has already paid $96,000 of the of more than $170,000 in expenses that state officials allege he improperly billed the city for.

Thousands of dollars were spent on lavish meals and liquor, but it’s a $67 charge that Davis made to Priape, “Canada’s premiere gay lifestyle store and sex shop,” while on a recruiting trip that has gotten the most attention.

The mayor said that he didn’t remember what he bought while at the shop.

A $67 ticket out of the Mayor's office, apparently.  Oh, and it's not the $170,000 he basically stole from the taxpayers of Mississippi that will cost him his career, it's being gay that will.

Republicans are just sad.