StupidiNews: Random Edition!

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Connecticut police say they are looking for the source of a 3 1/2-inch bolt that flew through the windshield of an SUV and killed a Waterbury woman.

Forty-year-old Sara Betancourt was killed Saturday afternoon as she was riding in the right front passenger seat of an SUV going south on Interstate 95 in Greenwich. State police say the bolt may have broken off a dump truck that was traveling in the opposite direction.

Something similar happened here with a buckle off a strapped down load of lumber.  It's awful and scary to feel like you were selected for random termination.

GOLDSBORO, NC (WTVD) -- A couple restoring an antique sewing machine made a startling discovery when they looked inside.

The Wayne County Sherriff's Office said Thursday that David and Susan Crooks of West Hill Road were working on the machine when they found what appeared to be a grenade in a drawer. 

It really was a live grenade, too.  My first thought was it was fake and intended to be sewn as part of a crafty project, but nope.  It was a live freaking grenade.  The owners have a vague idea of the history of the sewing machine, but have no idea where this came from.

CHICAGO (AP) — A former prison chaplain has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he plotted with convicted Chicago mobster Frank Calabrese Sr. to recover a violin reportedly hidden in a hit man's Wisconsin house. 

Apparently, Calabrese thought there was a Stradivarius hidden in the hit man's house. What's surprising to me is that it might have been the most interesting thing in a Chicago hit  man's estate.

Oil's Away, Folks

The US has announced a release of 60 million barrels of crude oil from International Energy Agency stockpiles, and "stands ready" to release more oil to prevent supply disruptions.

"The US stands ready to do more as is necessary to address this issue," a senior US official told reporters on condition of anonymity, adding that Washington would review the supply situation after one month.

International Energy Agency countries said earlier Thursday that they would draw down 60 million barrels from strategic oil stocks to make up for the loss of Libyan output.

The drawdown, only the third in the history of the IEA, was intended to complement "expected increases in output" by the major oil producing countries, the IEA said in a statement.

The US Department of Energy said that of the total, it would release 30 million barrels from its stocks, which at 727 million barrels were at a historic high.

That news dropped West Texas Intermediate crude prices to under $90 a barrel yesterday, but the oil price drop was short lived as oil rebounded to $92 a barrel after the news.  The price rally?  "Nothing has changed" in the fundamental global demand for oil, according to market watchers.  Increasing the supply hasn't done much to convince speculators that the price won't continue to go up.

Funny how even supply disruptions cause big price spikes, but supply overages "don't change the price fundamentals."  The usual suspects of course wasted no time in attacking the President.

President Barack Obama took withering fire from the oil industry and Republicans for agreeing to release the nation's emergency oil supplies, a decision that senior officials said was prompted by the need to prop up the ailing economy.

Critics blasted the release of 30 million barrels of oil -- half of a global injection coordinated by the International Energy Agency -- as an ill-timed misuse of reserves at a time when U.S. supplies are relatively high, despite the loss of Libya's exports for the past three months.

Some OPEC officials went further, calling it a political ploy that ignored Saudi Arabia's promise to step up production and the fact that oil prices had already fallen sharply.

But the move fueled questions about the timing and catalyst for releasing the stocks, which in the past have been reserved to address abrupt disruptions like natural disasters.

Remember when Republicans were attacking Obama for oil prices when they were approaching $115 a barrel because he "wasn't doing anything to increase oil supply" and that the American people "deserved relief at the pump?"

Obama does something and Republicans attack him for doing what they wanted him to do.  That's how it works.  And then they blocked Democratic efforts to lower oil subsidy payments to companies making billions.

Oh, and $3.50 a gallon instead of $4.00 a gallon is "a sharp drop" in prices?  We're supposed to feel sorry for the oil industry, which made tens of billions in profits last year.  You know where the GOP stands...whatever the opposite of Obama is doing.

Nuked Gingrich, Part 5

Can we just bury this thing or what, people?

A comeback for Republican presidential candidate appeared less likely Tuesday as two more high level staffers reportedly departed with the campaign carrying at least $1 million in debt.

Fundraising director Jody Thomas and fundraising consultant Mary Heitman both resigned, according to The Associated Press.

The setback comes less than two weeks after 16 other staffers quit en masse.

Officials told the AP that the campaign was facing more than $1 million in debt, which Gingrich may be forced to personally cover if he wishes to continue.

Recent reports have also said that the campaign did not have cash on hand for the $25,000 Ames Straw Poll filing fee or $30,000 for a list of previous Iowa caucus attendees.

Newt's campaign is broke, his financial folks are gone, his credibility is gone, and he's been reduced to a late night punchline.  Couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy, too.  Already a million in the hole and nothing to show for it?  Yeah, we need this guy running the country.

On conservative radio host Neil Boortz’ show this morning, presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich concocted an almost endearingly farcical explanation for his campaign’s latest woes, saying the media targeted him because he was best-positioned to beat President Obama. The media desperately wants to reelect President Obama, Gingirich said, and thus he was their “worst nightmare.” “I didn’t think they would realize this early just how dangerous this campaign is and go after it so hard,” he said.

Yep, he's pulling a Palin media victim card here, even though the polls had him nowhere near the "best-positioned" to beat Obama.  Let's see how far that goes.  The only person to blame for how awful Newt Gingrich is at this whole campaign thing is Newt Gingrich.

We're Not In Kansas Anymore, Folks, Part 2

Kansas Republicans (led by Gov. Sam Brownback) are about to finish off the last three clinics that provide abortion services in the state by saddling them with restrictions, licensing and remodeling requirements that will literally be impossible to meet by the July 1 deadline.  MoJo's Kate Sheppard:

Back in April, the state legislature passed a law directing the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to author new facility standards for abortion clinics, which the staunchly anti-abortion GOP governor, Sam Brownback, signed into law on May 16. The law also requires the health department to issue new licenses each year, and it grants additional authority to health department inspectors to conduct unannounced inspections, and to fine or shut down clinics.

The department wasted no time in drafting the new rules, issuing the final version on June 17 and informing clinics that they would have to comply with the rules by July 1, as the Associated Press reported Wednesday. Peter Brownlie, president of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, told the AP that inspectors were expected at their clinic in Overland Park, Kansas, on Wednesday. There are only three clinics left in the state: Planned Parenthood's, a clinic in Overland Park, and the Aid for Women clinic in Kansas City.

The new requirements require facilities to add extra bathrooms, drastically expand waiting and recovery areas, and even add larger janitor's closets, as one clinic employee told me—changes that clinics will have a heck of a time pulling off by the deadline. Under the new rule, clinics must also aquire state certification to admit patients, a process that takes 90 to 120 days, the staffer explained. Which makes it impossible for clinics to comply. And clinics that don't comply with the rules will face fines or possible closure.

The Kansas restrictions on clinics are part of a national effort called TRAP -- Targeted Restriction of Abortion Providers -- that GOP legislatures are using to drive all clinics that provide abortions out of business. And the anti-choice brigade, that celebrates freedom and liberty and smaller, less intrusive government, is loving every minute of this.

“We have doubts that any of the abortion clinics can meet the safety requirements of the new law,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “If they cannot comply, all three abortion clinics would be forced to cease abortion operations, making Kansas the first abortion-free state in the nation.

This is the plan for red state after red state: to saddle abortion providers with impossible hurdles and then shut them down for non-compliance.  Lawsuits are of course planned...but they will be a moot point if the clinics are shut down in the meantime as they almost certainly will be without an injunction against the law.

If this works in Kansas, it will be done in as many other states as possible...and with Republicans in Congress wanting to make it as difficult as possible to go across state lines to get an abortion, the plan seems painfully clear to me.

[UPDATE] Rachel Maddow had a segment on this yesterday evening.

StupidiNews!

• Captured fugitive crime boss Whitey Bulger will be heading back to Boston to face charges stemming from 19 counts of murder.
• New York state lawmakers are expected to vote on approving gay marriage legislation as early as today.
• President Obama's choice to replace Jon Huntsman as Ambassador to China has cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by unanimous vote.
• Bank of Italy Governor Mario Draghi will succeed Jean-Claude Trichet as President of the European Central Bank.
• The FTC antitrust investigation into Google will launch with the first set of civil subpoenas expected "within days".

Last Call

The "smaller government" GOP in Georgia would turn small businesses like taxi, limo and bus companies into de facto immigration police under the state's new immigration law.

Several taxi companies and more than 2,000 cab drivers have filed their own lawsuit against the law. Their grievance has to do with a specific provision which would make it a misdemeanor to transport fewer than seven undocumented immigrants and a felony to drive any more than that. The cab drivers claim that this would burden them with the responsibility of checking the immigration status of each and every one of their passengers. (Not to mention the potential invasion of privacy that the law would inflict on their customers). The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports:

On Monday, an Atlanta attorney Quinton Washington of the law firm Bell & Washington LLC, WXIA reporter Jeff Hullinger there are unintended consequences of the law that could affect passengers. Washington said if a cab or limo drivers is pulled over for speeding, or for a broken taillight, police have the right to ask for proof of citizenship of passengers. [...]

A concern is that many immigrants use cabs to buy groceries and run other errands, and cab drivers don’t want to be responsible for asking all of them for documentation paperwork.

“It is our hope that the legislature and local law enforcement authorities would not seek to penalize drivers for simply taking people from point A to point B,” stated Washington.

If companies are in violation of the law, they could face serious penalties including steep fines and jail time.  So who in their right mind in Georgia would give a cab ride to a Latino    Republicans like smaller government...except when it comes to using its power in making things as miserable as possible for those groups they don't like.  Then it's all about throwing civil liberties out the door in order to go after whomever disagrees with them.

This Week In GOP Pants On Fire Lies

Much was made by the right of PolitiFact.com's dinging of Jon Stewart's statement last Sunday of FOX News viewers being "consistently misinformed".

The way Stewart phrased the comment, it’s not enough to show a sliver of evidence that Fox News’ audience is ill-informed. The evidence needs to support the view that the data shows they are "consistently" misinformed -- a term he used not once but three times. It’s simply not true that "every poll" shows that result. So we rate his claim False.

In which case Jon Stewart was happy to clarify and correct his statement on the Daily Show on Tuesday night.

Stewart pointed out that FOX News (home of the 2009 and 2010 PolitiFact.com Lies of the Year) might have a few corrections they would want to make as well.  Jon Stewart can apologize and correct his misstatements, but FOX?  Good luck.

Who has more credibility, the comedian or the network full of jokes?

Out Of Moose Gas

So how's Sarah Palin's "Not Running for President Bus Tour" going?  Oh wait, she quit halfway through.

Former half-term Gov. Sarah Palin has reportedly packed in her bus tour...halfway through.

Real Clear Politics is reporting that Palin and her family have returned to Alaska from their "One Nation" bus tour, despite tentatively scheduled stops in Iowa and South Carolina.

From Scott Conroy at RCP:

Though Palin and her staff never announced a timeline for the remaining legs of her trip, aides had drafted preliminary itineraries that would have taken her through the Midwest and Southeast at some point this month. But those travel blueprints are now in limbo, RCP has learned, as Palin and her family have reverted to the friendly confines of summertime Alaska, where the skies are currently alight for over 19 hours a day and the Bristol Bay salmon fishing season is nearing its peak.

Palin's intent to visit Iowa and South Carolina, as well as one stop in New Hampshire, caused some speculation that she was starting to get serious about a run for president in 2012.

Whoops.  And it seems like all the people who did throw their hats into the ring starved Moose Lady of the media attention she thrives on, so since her entire point of the bus tour was to get attention and not to run for President, she packed up her bus and went back home.  She's now taking to her usual Facebook pulpit to deny she quit the bus tour and is in fact saying it will start again at some future unspecified date, so keep paying attention to Sarah Palin to see what wacky fun she'll have next.  Entire point of Sarah Palin, fin.  Chase that shiny object, boys!

Suckers.  Best part is next time Sarah Palin does an event, it'll be "speculation is growing that she's returning to her bus tour and is considering a 2012 run" and the media will chase her around the country again whenever she decides America isn't paying enough attention to her and her spawn (and their lucrative book contracts).

Thus, the cycle begins again and again.

No Dealing On The Debt Ceiling, Part 21

Republicans have now officially bailed on debt ceiling talks and say there will be no tax increases or tax subsidy cuts of any kind for anybody, and if they don't get their way the economy will now self-destruct.

Two top Republicans have bailed on bipartisan talks Thursday aimed at raising the nation's debt-ceiling in exchange for deficit-reduction measures.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) backed out of talks with Vice President Biden, furious at Democrats' demands that some tax increases be paired with spending cuts.

The Dems have argued that if Republicans want to close the gaping annual deficit with spending cuts, they have to concede some tax increases, too.

And it's not just some tax increases, but any and all tax increases.  Dems are arguing that this proves revenue increases will be necessary and that Cantor and Kyl don't want to be the ones making that kind of deal (forcing Orange Julius and Mitchy to eat that particular turdburger).  As a result, the Republicans are now demanding that President Obama go on record to say he wants to raise taxes so that the Republicans can crucify him.

This is how GOP negotiations work, apparently.  Demand 100% of what you want, then when you don't get it, demand 120% of what you want and then add that your opponent must commit political suicide.

Naturally, the Dems look to comply totally because if they don't, someone might call them liberals.  Then when the Republicans get what they want, they'll call the Dems liberals and the lesson the donks will learn is "if you capitulate sooner, the news cycle passes faster."

[UPDATE] Make that demand 300%, as Cantor now says the GOP controlled House will take up a balanced budget amendment in late July.  Can't wait to see what the 2012 budget negotiations look like.  Cantor should ask for cold fusion and the Cubs winning the Series.

ICANN See A Big Change Coming

.com is set to get some .competition, as the net’s governing body over names approved a plan Monday to radically expand the number of possible endings for web addresses.

Starting as early as November 2013, internet users will be able to visit sites with extensions such as .restaurant, .newyorkcity or .microsoft. As with .com, .org and the new popular .co, the dot will need to be preceded by a domain — such as timstacos.restaurant or xbox.microsoft.

That's a Pretty Big Deal.  It opens up a lot of change, and there seems to be little opposition except from traditionalists who hate to see .com lose its place as the default.  The article goes on to explain how the naming protocols are made, and if you've ever wondered who makes those decisions it's worth checking out.

Other possibilities include top-level domains for cities and regions so that restaurants like Mom’s Café can be momscafe.seattle and possibly other TLDs for businesses such as .bank, which could be controlled to keep scammers from ever registering a fake site.

And with one fell stroke, so many spoofing scams and Nigerian bank runs could be ended.  It's not all up to ICANN, however.  The public decides what grows and what dies on the Internet.  I think it's all great, but I'll be bonthegeek.com for years to come. 

Minty Fresh: How It Compares To Others

The 2011 Linux scorecard has been released.  It compares the versions and explains their strengths and weaknesses.  It also describes what types of users may be interested in particular features.  For example, if you're like me and you update every chance a new release comes out, some versions are better choices.  Levels of experience are measured, as are bugs and (ugh) dependencies.

For the last few weeks, I have been using Mint exclusively.  I picked it up very quick, but the differences between it and Ubuntu have all been improvements from my perspective.  There are a few weaknesses, but they don't apply to my habits so I have been unaffected.

For those who do not know how to approach Linux, this is a great article to read.  Each major version is described in plain terms and aimed for newbies who need a launching point.

But The GOP Cares About Women, Part 2

Following up on Tuesday's post on Indiana defunding Planned Parenthood clinics and leaving them on the brink of closing, Rebekah Dryden at Maddowblog reminds us it's not just the Hoosier State that's going to be hurt here.  The budget that did pass did make federal cuts to Planned Parenthood, and as a result, clinics are already starting to close across the country, not in just Indiana.

In Minnesota, clinics are closing. Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota announced this week that it'll be closing six Minnesota clinics because of federal cuts to Title X family planning funding that were made in this year's budget. 

Announcing the closures, the organization's president and CEO, Sarah Stoesz, said the budget cuts "were driven by ideological attacks on women's health, not by a desire to fix the economy."

There will be cuts in North Carolina and Kansas, too.

The North Carolina cuts won't affect Medicaid patients but their spokesperson, Paige Johnson tells us they stand to lose all of their Title X family planning funding from the federal government and state funding for programs aimed at preventing teen pregnancy and providing access to the most effective forms of birth control for low-income women.

Kansas also defunded Planned Parenthood through the state budget -- Kansas' budget includes a measure that essentially disqualifies Planned Parenthood from receiving Title X funding. Medicaid patients aren't affected in Kansas, either. But according to Peter Brownlie, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Kansas & Mid-Missouri, those Title X funds represent about half of the revenue that runs Kansas' two Planned Parenthood clinics. The cuts are set to take effect July 1 and Mr. Brownlie says the organization is still considering a lawsuit.

Why do Republicans want poor women to have so little family care?  One theory is that if Republicans cut access to Planned parenthood services, poor people will be shamed into not having sex, and stop having children or something.  More cynical people like myself think that Republicans want the opposite to happen...to keep them poor.  Oh, and Republicans just hate women, too...especially the ones that won't submit to their dominion.

Russia's War On Drugs

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev sounds an awful lot like a conservative Republican these days and he's getting a lot of props from tea party folks here who claim President Obama's now more of a Communist than Medvedev is (dur hur hur funny).

Well, Russia does seem to sound like a free-market laboratory of democracy...

Russia has more heroin users than any other country in the world – up to two million, according to unofficial estimates. For most, their lot is a life of crime, stints in prison, probable contraction of HIV and hepatitis C, and an early death. As efforts to stem the flow of Afghan heroin into Russia bring some limited success, and the street price of the drug goes up, for those addicts who can't afford their next hit, an even more terrifying spectre has raised its head.

The home-made drug that Oleg and Sasha inject is known as krokodil, or "crocodile". It is desomorphine, a synthetic opiate many times more powerful than heroin that is created from a complex chain of mixing and chemical reactions, which the addicts perform from memory several times a day. While heroin costs from £20 to £60 per dose, desomorphine can be "cooked" from codeine-based headache pills that cost £2 per pack, and other household ingredients available cheaply from the markets.  

So Russians should limit the codeine-based pills the way we do to prevent meth labs from getting supply, right?  Well...

President Dmitry Medvedev has called for websites which explain how to make krokodil to be closed down, but he has not ordered the banning of the pills. Last month, a spokesman for the ministry of health said that there were plans to make codeine-based tablets available only on prescription, but that it was impossible to introduce the measure quickly. Opponents claim lobbying by pharmaceutical companies has caused the inaction.

"A year ago we said that we need to introduce prescriptions," says Mr Ivanov. "These tablets don't cost much but the profit margins are high. Some pharmacies make up to 25 per cent of their profits from the sale of these tablets. It's not in the interests of pharmaceutical companies or pharmacies themselves to stop this, so the government needs to use its power to regulate their sale."

Gee, Russia is sounding more and more like the capitalist US every day.

Who Knew Layoffs Were Bad For The Economy?

Apparently not Republicans, who insisted that laying off government workers would improve the economy because that would free up more resources for private sector to create jobs.  How's that theory working out for you?

The layoffs of thousands of government workers may threaten the already slow-motion economic recovery in many U.S. metropolitan areas, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Brookings Institution.

"Job growth, though occurring in more metropolitan areas than in the past, was sluggish," the think tank said. "Those that suffered the most, as well as those with the weakest economic recoveries, typically lost government jobs."

Since the recession began in 2007, 19 out of the 20 metropolitan areas with the strongest economies gained government jobs, according to the report which focused on the first quarter of the year. Conversely, 13 of the lowest performing 20 areas lost government jobs.

Looking at the 100 metropolitan areas combined, Brookings said total employment rebounded by 0.8 percent after hitting its low point in the recession. But local government employment fell 1.2 percent and state employment dropped 0.2 percent, "reflecting the impact of reduced local and state revenues."

So if the conservative theory that government jobs are completely parasitical on the overall economy is true, the areas that lost government jobs should have stronger economies.  Surprise, the complete opposite of that is true.  Where the government served as the employer of last resort to help when the private sector was reeling, the economy has picked up. 

And right now we're looking at record profits, productivity, and cash on hand for the private sector.  The lean times for big business are certainly over.  But guess what?  They're not hiring as much either, because the demand for their products isn't expanding...at least in the US it's not.  Overseas expansion is much higher...and that's where the private sector jobs are going.  Ironically, we're seeing a return of manufacturing jobs because the cost of labor is less expensive here than it is in rapidly growing China.  With unions all but destroyed and real wages stagnant for decades, the US is starting to look like the place to go for cheap manual labor...and cheap jobs to go with it.

So if the Republicans are right, and laying off thousands of government workers was good for the economy, we should be seeing the exact opposite of what we're seeing now, which is jobs with good benefits vanishing and being replaced by cheaper, non-union manufacturing jobs with far less pay and benefits.

And that's wrecking the economy.  But that's excellent for big business.  And that's what the GOP wants.

StupidiNews!

• In a White House speech President Obama announced that all 33,000 extra troops he ordered into Afghanistan in 2010 will be home by October 2012.
• Former French minister Georges Tron has been arrested and charged with raping female city hall employees while Mayor of Evry, France.
• House Republicans want to open up more national park land to ATV and snowmobile use after strong lobbying from offroad vehicle manufacturers.
• The wealth of the world's millionaires gained an average of 8.3% in 2010, according to Merrill Lynch.
• Hacker group Lulz Security in now enmeshed in a war of bits and words with other hacker groups and government agencies looking for identities of the group's leaders.