StupidiNews!

• British police are asking for help in solving the death of a British intelligence worker found dead inside a padlocked duffel bag.
• Environmental scientists are saying more rigorous testing on Gulf Coast seafood is needed, but NOAA disagrees, saying it's safe.
• Afghan Taliban forces are targeting western music as Islamist influence spreads across the country.
• Concerns that western banks have too much exposure to European debt is dragging down stocks.
• It's Windows for your home windows as Microsoft's new Hohm power monitoring software aims to save you money.

Last Call

General Petraeus has stepped into the fray on Quran burning for 9/11.

The U.S. commander in Afghanistan on Monday criticized a Florida church's plan to burn copies of the Quran on September 11, warning the demonstration "could cause significant problems" for American troops overseas.

"It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan," Gen. David Petraeus said in a statement issued Monday.

The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, plans to mark the anniversary of al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington by burning copies of the Muslim holy book. The church insists the event is "neither an act of love nor of hate," but a warning against what it calls the threats posed by Islam.

The event has drawn criticism from Muslims in the United States and overseas, with thousands of Indonesians gathering outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sunday to protest the planned Quran burning. 

"The burning is not only an insult to the holy Quran, but an insult to Islam and Muslims around the world," said Muhammad Ismail, a spokesman for the hard-line Indonesian Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir.

But for an increasing number of Americans, that's perfectly fine.  That beast got loose some time ago and there's not a single Republican leader who has the ability to put it back in its cage.  They have to ride it to where it goes, or be trampled underneath.  They have no choice.

You, in November, do.  Remember that.

Obama The Roads Warrior

In Milwaukee today the President announced a $50 billion infrastructure program to build roads, rail, and runways.

"Today, I am announcing a new plan for rebuilding and modernizing America's roads, and rails and runways for the long term," said Obama, who spoke on Labor Day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin -- a state with competitive gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races.

"We used to have the best infrastructure in the world. We can have it again," he said to loud cheers from a crowd of union workers.

The proposal envisions -- over a six year period -- rebuilding 150,000 miles of roads, 4,000 miles of rail and 150 miles of airport runways. It also would include modernizing the nation's air traffic control system in an effort to reduce delays and travel time

"This will not only create jobs immediately. It's also going to make our economy hum over the long haul," said the president.

Obama hopes to work with Congress to enact an up-front investment of $50 billion -- an amount a White House statement said would represent a significant chunk of new spending on infrastructure.

The investment would then be paired with what the administration called a framework to improve transportation spending.

It'll be fun to watch the GOP block this, but I'm expecting the impact of that to be dulled if not destroyed by Democrats like Ben Nelson and Evan Bayh to turn against it, meaning there'll magically be "broad bipartisan opposition in Congress" to yet another of the President's programs.


Still, it's a necessary fight to have, especially since so many states are in the red that they can't do anything about extra building of roads and bridges right now.


Of course, since Republicans believe roads build themselves because government is incapable of ever doing anything useful, it'll be interesting to see what the excuse they use to kill this will be.  If the pattern holds what will finally get approved is about $2 billion in pothole repair.

The Kroog Versus The Annals Of History

It's not 2010 as 1994 or 1982, folks.  It's 2010 as 1938.

Here’s the situation: The U.S. economy has been crippled by a financial crisis. The president’s policies have limited the damage, but they were too cautious, and unemployment remains disastrously high. More action is clearly needed. Yet the public has soured on government activism, and seems poised to deal Democrats a severe defeat in the midterm elections.


The president in question is Franklin Delano Roosevelt; the year is 1938. Within a few years, of course, the Great Depression was over. But it’s both instructive and discouraging to look at the state of America circa 1938 — instructive because the nature of the recovery that followed refutes the arguments dominating today’s public debate, discouraging because it’s hard to see anything like the miracle of the 1940s happening again.

Now, we weren’t supposed to find ourselves replaying the late 1930s. President Obama’s economists promised not to repeat the mistakes of 1937, when F.D.R. pulled back fiscal stimulus too soon. But by making his program too small and too short-lived, Mr. Obama did just that: the stimulus raised growth while it lasted, but it made only a small dent in unemployment — and now it’s fading out.

It was a brutal year, 1938.  Democrats lost 70 seats in the House and seven in the Senate, and basically the only thing that got us out of that mess was fighting World War II.   I think about what would happen if the Republicans got in charge of things again and I'm thinking another one of those may not be too far off.  We had the only infrastructure game in town by the time it was all over, so we were able to pay off our debt by selling things to the countries that needed it, and that was everybody in Europe.

How will things play out this time?  Will we really need World War III to get us out of this hole?

Tax Cuts Uber Alles

The WaPo is reporting that later this week in Cleveland, the President will announce a $100 billion program to effectively make the business research and development tax credit from the stimulus permanent.

Under mounting pressure to intensify his focus on the economy ahead of the midterm elections, President Obama will call for a $100 billion business tax credit this week, using a speech in Cleveland on Wednesday to launch what administration officials said was a new policy push.

The business proposal - what one aide called a key part of a limited economic package - would increase and permanently extend research and development tax credits for businesses, rewarding companies that develop new technologies domestically and preserve American jobs.

It would be paid for by closing other corporate tax loopholes, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the policy has not yet been unveiled.

This is not the first time Obama has called for making the credit permanent. But with the economic recovery moving more slowly than the administration had hoped - and Democratic candidates nationwide panicking as the issue threatens their majorities in the House and Senate on Nov. 2 - he is increasingly eager to show he understands the depth of the problem and is trying to act. 

A Clintonian move if there ever was one.  The bad news:  actually helping the American people directly has now gone by the wayside.

The White House has decided to forgo a broad-based payroll-tax holiday at this point, officials have said. That proposal, which had been part of earlier discussions with key congressional officials, would have been an expensive measure, potentially costing hundreds of billions of dollars. It also could have deprived Social Security of needed cash even as Democrats are accusing the GOP of plotting the program's demise on the campaign trail. 

It also would have boosted America's paychecks directly, so there's no way the GOP was going to allow that to pass before an election and the Village has already given the GOP cover on this:  it may "deprive Social Security of needed cash".  That's cockamamie bull, considering that Social Security could have easily taken the hit for a couple of months.

But hey, the big Obama plan to save the Dems?  Tax cuts for businesses.  The GOP is already calling Obama out on this and are declaring that the real message is that tax cuts uber alles should have been the plan all along.  The actual real message is that the Republicans will attack Obama no matter what he does.

Shoulda swung for the fences, instead he lays down a bunt.  Forcing the GOP to vote against a payroill tax holiday that would have directly put money in America's paychecks would have been the wise thing to do.
Instead he's doing what the Republicans want now as a default position and they're pillaging him for it.

StupidiNews, Labor Day Edition

• Tropical Storm Hermine is heading for the Texas-Mexico border region.
• An analysis of 2008 Democratic party political donors finds many have switched to supporting the GOP this year.
• Florida mosques are calling for nonviolent protest against a church planning to burn Korans on 9/11.
• President Obama is expected to announce a major transportation infrastructure plan at a Labor Day event in Wisconsin.
• Google has quietly paid $8.5 million to settle a class action privacy lawsuit for its Google Buzz service.

Cut Off At The Knees

A lot is being made of today's NY Times story that the DCCC is concentrating on saving the House for the Dems and leaving longer shot candidates out in the cold.

As Democrats brace for a November wave that threatens their control of the House, party leaders are preparing a brutal triage of their own members in hopes of saving enough seats to keep a slim grip on the majority.


In the next two weeks, Democratic leaders will review new polls and other data that show whether vulnerable incumbents have a path to victory. If not, the party is poised to redirect money to concentrate on trying to protect up to two dozen lawmakers who appear to be in the strongest position to fend off their challengers.

Late this afternoon DCCC chair Chris Van Hollen shot back at the story, saying it was all false:

"The DCCC is heavily invested in these campaigns [referenced in the article]. In each campaign mentioned, the DCCC has provided and continues to provide support for field operations and other key campaign activities."


The Maryland Democrat went on to characterize the November election as a choice between individual candidates, drawing contrast with the GOP depiction of it as a referendum on Democratic governance.

It doesn't actually matter what the truth is here, the perception of "Democrats in disarray!" is all that matters to the Village.  And as usual when this kind of narrative happens, the circular firing squad is out in force heaping it all on the shoulders of the man in the Oval Office.  That's all the proof the Village needs that the narrative is true.



And so it has gone before, so it shall be now, so it will be in the future.


Forever and ever, amen.

That Poll-Asked Look

Couple of new polls in Kentucky are bad, bad, bad news for the Dems.

First, if Rep. John Yarmuth is now in the fight of his life in KY-3, (Louisville) then things are looking really grim for the Dems as a whole here.

If the election was today in Kentucky's Third Congressional District, the WHAS11/Courier-Journal Bluegrass Poll says it would be a photo finish.  Two term incumbent Democrat John Yarmuth is ahead by two points, but the relative unknown Republican Todd Lally appears to be riding an anti-incumbent, conservative wave.
Yarmuth (D)  47%
Lally (R)    45%
Undecided     5%

And that would probably explain the latest Senate poll here.

With just under two months until Kentucky's U.S. Senate election, a new WHAS11/Courier-Journal Bluegrass Poll shows Republican Rand Paul nearly doubling his lead in the last month, now up 15 points over Democrat Jack Conway, 55% to 40%. Since last month, Paul is up 4 points; Conway is down 3.

Kentucky U.S. Senate Race
Likely voters
Rand Paul (R) 55%
Jack Conway (D) 40%
Undecided 5%
Margin of error +/- 4.2%

A 15-point lead when they were basically tied just two weeks ago? Something has really pissed off the voters here and I hate to say it, but it looks like the Republicans got exactly what they wanted out of the Ground Zero mosque nonsense.

If the turning of the tide is predicated on Islamophobia, then I'm not sure what to make of the situation, other than to give a huge sigh.

Say It Ain't So, Joe Wilson

Looks like SC Republican Rep. Joe "You Lie!" Wilson has a few skeletons in his closet after all.

Congressional staff members with detailed knowledge of the probe said ethics investigators are examining Wilson's unusually high number of foreign trips — at least 30 in the past eight years — and his use of per diem expense money while traveling abroad.

Wilson, a relatively unknown lawmaker until he shouted "You lie!" as President Barack Obama addressed Congress last year, has a reputation among his peers as a frequent foreign traveler, these staff members said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly on the investigation.

Wilson confirmed earlier in the week that examiners with the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent nonpartisan agency established in 2008 following a wave of lawmaker scandals, had recently interviewed him about his use of per diem expense money.

Wilson said then that their focus was on his use of $12 to buy six small goblets in Afghanistan in August 2009.

However, Wilson acknowledged in an interview Thursday that the interrogation was more wide-ranging and covered other expenditures made on separate foreign trips, though he said he doesn't recall the details.

"I do not remember which trips they spoke about," Wilson told McClatchy. "I don't remember specifically."

Ahh, good ol' irony. How I've missed you. How quickly the fickle American voter forgets the reason the Republicans got kicked out of office in the first place. Can't blame the GOP from upgrading from career politicians to career lunatics, however. That's actually an improvement, in a sense.

I personally think we're going to have to go through a period of Republican government so awful that people will beg to have Obama, Pelosi, and Reid in charge again. The bad news is the country may not survive in recognizable form until that point.

Greek Fire, Part 22

The unquenchable flames of legend are becoming less of a metaphor and more of a reality in the era of massive austerity cuts.

“This tragedy does not have a solution,” said Hans-Werner Sinn, head of the prestigious IFO Institute in Munich.

“The policy of forced 'internal devaluation', deflation, and depression could risk driving Greece to the edge of a civil war. It is impossible to cut wages and prices by 30pc without major riots,” he said, speaking at the elite European House Ambrosetti forum at Lake Como. 

“Greece would have been bankrupt without the rescue measures. All the alternatives are terrible but the least terrible is for the country to get out of the eurozone, even if this kills the Greek banks,” he said.

Pretty heavy stuff for a Sunday morning, but there you are.  Greece is one stiff wind from collapsing again at this point, and the massive IMF/EU bailout has not worked.

The joint bail-out was hoped to safeguard Greece against the pressure from global capital markets for two and half years, but the relief rally proved short. Spreads on longer-term Greek government debt have surged back to crisis levels of about 800 basis points, implying a high risk of default. 

“We are in the second Greek crisis right now, today,” said Dr Sinn. 

Only a matter of time now before Greece defaults.  Instead of buying forgiveness until the end of 2012, the bailout bought only a few months.  Greek debt once again is threatening to bring down all of Europe and set the continent aflame.  What happens this time?

Better The Devil You Know...

...argues Double G on Alan Simpson and his multiple attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and veterans' benefits than the devil you don't know, in this case the rest of the Catfood Commission.

That's why Commission co-chair Alan Simpson -- with his blunt contempt for Social Security and and other benefit programs (such as aid to disabled veterans) and his acknowledged eagerness to slash them -- has done the country a serious favor.  His recent outbursts have unmasked this Commission and shed light on its true character.  Unlike his fellow Commission members, who imperiously dismiss public inquiries into what they're doing as though they're annoying and inappropriate, Simpson -- to his genuine credit -- has been aggressively engaging critics, making it impossible to ignore what the Commission is really up to. 

In June, he walked out of a Commission meeting and proceeded to engage in an amazingly informative, 8-minute colloquy streaming in real time on the front page of FDL, making unambiguously clear that the Commission is working to cut Social Security benefits.  And over the last several weeks, he has used increasingly flamboyant rhetoric to attack both defenders of Social Security and the program itself, as well as even attacking wounded veterans for failing to sacrifice enough by giving up some of their benefits.  Whatever one thinks of Simpson's remarks, I prefer his public, engaged candor to the extreme, arrogant secrecy of his fellow Members.

Greenwald certainly has a point here.  Simpson has single-handedly removed any and all doubt that the Commission's job is to cut these benefits deeply.  The fact that Simpson hasn't been shown the door by the Obama administration is all the evidence that you need that the fix is in.  The Village is fully on board with the plan as well.  It all goes back to the concept of "noble sacrifice" that Digby was talking about the other day.


Official Washington -- and that includes Obama -- has decided that it's time Americans paid for the excesses of the last decade or two.  Never mind the massive wealth imbalance in the country over that same period, one that has gotten far worse even in just the last two years.  Time to tighten your belts, America.  You're picking up the check so that the top 1% can continue the party.


Simpson's comments are being met with outrage and anger by some Democrats, but Republicans are silent, and the Village is too busy telling us it has to done for the "greater good".


Welcome to the new normal.

Orange Julius And The Shutdown

Steve Benen has the right of things when it comes to gaming out how John "Orange Julius" Boehner would have to approach government shutdown brinksmanship as majority leader of the House: he'd have no choice, and he knows it.

The House Minority Leader has already said scrapping the entire health care reform law is his top priority, and Boehner's caucus -- and the party base -- will expect follow-through. Boehner could pass a repeal bill in the House, but after it failed in the Senate or got vetoed, he wouldn't be able to say, "Well, we gave it a shot; let's move on to other issues now." It's too late for that -- defunding the law is already far too popular within the GOP. There's an expectation that the fight has to happen.

Bernstein's right that Boehner's role as Speaker might not survive a failed confrontation with the president, but I'm not sure Boehner's role as Speaker could survive if he decided not to force the confrontation.

OJ's riding his own Tea Party Frankenstein's Monster through the darkness and he no longer determines where and when it stops.  I also believe that not only is a defund health care/shutdown fight inevitable should the GOP control the House, but an Obama impeachment fight as well.


Even if the Dems somehow hold on to the House, those two articles are going to be the entirety of the Republican agenda in 2011.  And anyone who gets in the way of the Monster is going to get crushed.  Boehner damn well knows what happens to Republicans who don't listen to the Tea Party now.  The Monster has already left a trail of political corpses:  Bob Inglis, Bob Bennett, now Lisa Murkowski and next on the Monster's menu is Mike Castle of Delaware.


Orange Julius will be tested very soon, and if he is found wanting, he will be replaced.  Such is the nature of the beast the Republicans have unleashed.

Neo-Know-Nothings, Same Old Revisionist Histroy

The GOP's real political angle to Glenn Beck's "Let's take back Dr. King's legacy" garbage last weekend became far more clear this week when Republican Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi sat down with Newt Gingrich's boys at Human Events and proceeded to change the time-stream on the history of the civil rights movement in the South.

"The people that led the change of parties in the South ... was my generation," the 62 year old Barbour told an interviewer from Human Events. "I went to an integrated college. Never thought twice about it. And it was the old Democrats who had fought for segregation so hard. By my time, people realized that was the past, it was indefensible, wasn't going to be that way any more."

Got that?  The Democrats were the racists, and the implication of course is that they still are.  Rachel Maddow puts this to bed.



But now of course you see what the attack is against the charges of Republican racism: Democrats are the real racists and always have been according to Republicans like Haley Barbour, so of course the modern GOP is fighting for all of us and those nasty Dems can only play the race card.

Never mind the current GOP stance and scare tactics demonizing African-Americans, Latinos, Muslims, and anyone else who doesn't fit in with the Neo-Know-Nothings.

And if you point that out, you're the racist. QED.

Being completely unfettered by facts is a wonderful thing, especially when those facts produce guilt.

Kill The Interloper, Rip Out Its Lifeforce

At least somebody's been paying attention enough to the GOP plan to run the long-term numbers on what the Tea Party philosophy would mean for the federal government.

Now that we know the Republicans have settled on a campaign strategy pledging to "defund" health care reform if they win back Congressional power, it's time to take a look at what that actually means. Could it be a precursor to a Republican showdown with President Obama repeating the 1995 and 1996 government shutdowns?

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said he thinks the Republicans are hinting at shutdown with their promises to defund everything.

"They want to shrink it to where it doesn't work, and then when it doesn't work, they go, 'Look! It doesn't work, get rid of it.' And that's been their strategy all along," Trumka told TPM Thursday after speaking to reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. "They don't talk about how to make things effective; they talk about how to get rid of them."

Rich Trumka is dead right on this but he doesn't follow through on the natural, logical progression.  If the federal government's duties involving basic domestic infrastructure and social services are removed as per the GOP plan, the need for those services will still be there.  Somebody will have to fill them, and that's the second half of the plan:  privatizing as much of the federal government as possible, Pentagon military contractor style.

It's disaster capitalism on a Federal scale: to do what Bush and Cheney did to our military, stuffing its ranks full of private contractors on the take and corruption to no end, and do it with the domestic duties of the federal government.  Imagine the corruption of Blackwater spreading to all aspects of the government:  infrastructure, police and fire, roads and bridges, sanitation, you name it, all capitalized with the goal to make a profit rather than to provide a service.

Won't that be fun?  That's what's coming.  Rule by corporation.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Earl, now a tropical storm, heads for Nova Scotia and the Canadian Maritimes.
• Treating the fire at a Tennessee mosque construction site as arson, federal investigators are offering $20,000 for information that leads to an arrest.
• Israeli settlers on the West Bank say they will build more settlements no matter what Israeli PM Netanyahu says.
• HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan says the housing market has a long way to go before America can declare victory.
• A new analysis shows the Associated Press is taking bloggers far more seriously as news sources.