Last Call

There's a tentative deal on the table as of tonight.

After an intense day of direct and shuttle negotiations, and after a tentative agreement nearly fell apart, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took to the floor of the Senate late Sunday to announce an agreement in principle.

"The compromise we have agreed to is remarkable for a number of reasons, not only because of what it does, but because of what it prevents," Reid said.

"This is an important moment for our country," McConnell noted in response. "I can say with a high degree of confidence that there is a framework in place to assure a significant degree of cuts to Washington spending."

Both men announced the intent to meet with their caucuses Monday morning, to sell the plan, and round up votes for what will have to be rapid legislative action if both chambers are to pass the plan before the country's borrowing authority expires late Tuesday.

President Obama discussed the framework in a public statement at the White House Sunday evening, and urged members of both parties to support the plan. He also criticized Congress for touching off this crisis, and for being unable to arrive at a single grand bargain to improve the country's fiscal situation (with spending cuts and tax increases) and raise the debt limit as well.

The problem is the sell to the House.

House Speaker John Boehner told fellow Republicans on Sunday that he aims to bring a debt-ceiling deal up for a vote "as soon as possible" even though it is not perfect, his office said.

"My hope would be to file it and have it on the floor as soon as possible," Boehner said on a conference call, according to excerpts released by his office. "This isn't the greatest deal in the world. But it shows how much we've changed the terms of the debate in this town."

The Tea Party is being told now they are avoiding the "job-killing default" when voters know damn well that the Tea Party wanted to default in the first place because it was "no big deal" to default.  Now they are going to be furious.  There's a very good chance this deal falls apart.

But even if it does manage to pass as it is right now, President Obama still holds the power over the Bush tax cuts.  That's his weapon and the GOP knows it.

[UPDATE]  White House's fact sheet on the deal is here.

Mechanics of the Debt Deal

• Immediately enacted 10-year discretionary spending caps generating nearly $1 trillion in deficit reduction; balanced between defense and non-defense spending.
• President authorized to increase the debt limit by at least $2.1 trillion, eliminating the need for further increases until 2013.   
• Bipartisan committee process tasked with identifying an additional $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction, including from entitlement and tax reform. Committee is required to report legislation by November 23, 2011, which receives fast-track protections. Congress is required to vote on Committee recommendations by December 23, 2011.
• Enforcement mechanism established to force all parties – Republican and Democrat – to agree to balanced deficit reduction. If Committee fails, enforcement mechanism will trigger spending reductions beginning in 2013 – split 50/50 between domestic and defense spending. Enforcement protects Social Security, Medicare beneficiaries, and low-income programs from any cuts.    

Getting Randy About The Debt Ceiling

Arguably the least useful single legislator in this entire debt ceiling mess is Kentucky's own Sen. Rand Paul, who has basically been nothing but a Tea Party apologist trying to pretend he's "compromising".  CNN's Don Lemon takes him out back behind the woodshed.

“Let’s just do the interview without talking points– let’s just talk to each other,” Lemon began, though followed up with a barbed question: “Democrats and Republicans are both pointing fingers at you. What will make you and the Tea Party happy?” Sen. Paul immediately made a correction to his introduction: “In your lead, you said I rejected both plans. I actually accepted both plans… with an amendment.” Sen. Paul had proposed a balanced budget amendment which gained no traction in exchange for his vote. “I think that’s a very reasonable position,” he offered.

The launched an uncomfortable back and forth in which Lemon repeated asked how he had voted on the House bill, until Lemon moved on, with another tough question– whether Sen. Paul worried that voting against the bill would be “overreaching” that would make him “lose respect and clout.” At this point the conversation gets heated enough that Lemon has to remind the senator to “please be respectful here,” while an indignant Sen. Paul later argued that “there is no reason to default” and that the President “should have taken default off the table” rather than promote it. Either way, “we have plenty of tax revenue to pay the interest on our debt.”

Nice.  See, Rand Paul is perfectly happy for use to pay interest on our borrowing and not default, but to do that we would have to shut down the government and eliminate 25% spending immediately, including Medicare and SS.  Rand Paul figures "That's President Obama's problem, let him deal with it."  Then he whines about how Obama is a horrible person for mentioning default.

Useless.  So glad my fellow Kentuckians voted this clown into office where he can completely avoid doing anything to help Kentucky.

Arab Spring Becomes Slaughter Summer

Meanwhile, while we're all enraptured by this debt nonsense, Syria's government is sending tanks to quell its citizens and "scores" are reported dead all in the middle of a near press blackout situation.

Syrian security forces have launched a major assault on Hama, the country's third-largest city, a day before the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.


The National Organisation for Human Rights, a Syrian activist group, said 136 people were killed in Hama and three other centres across the country on Sunday.

The activist group reported at least 100 deaths in Hama, after tanks and soldiers stormed the city and said that dozens of anti-government protesters died in Deir ez-Zor, Harak and Al Bukamal.

Al Jazeera's Rula Amin said that the number of deaths "are on the rise and the government seems adamant in wanting to crush the protests".

"We have seen that the government had intensified its effort to try and end the wave of protesters or contain it over the past two weeks using more severe measures, like mass arrests of activists as well as just regular people who took part in the protests, or sometimes never even went to the streets.

"So it seems that the government is expecting some sort of escalation in the protest movement during the month of Ramadan and they are trying to pre-empt it," our correspondent, reporting from neighbouring Lebanon, said.

The Syrian government has banned Al Jazeera and many other foreign media outlets from reporting from inside the country, making it difficult to verify reports of fighting.

Just some much-needed global perspective as we decry how awful our own political system is...it could be worse.  A republic if you can keep it, and all that.  A gigantic chunk of the world never had a republic to try to keep.

What will the State Department's response be to this open slaughter?  I'd like very much to see Hillary Clinton go on record in some fashion.

Surprise!

A plane breaks in half and everyone survives, all 163 of them.  Check this out:

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Flight 523 from New York had just touched down and passengers were applauding the pilot's landing in the South American country Saturday when something suddenly went wrong.

The Boeing 737-800 slid off the end of a rainy runway, crashed through a chain-link fence and broke in half just short of a deep ravine. Yet all 163 people on board survived.

I'm sympathetic to plane crashes.  I can control myself, but I am painfully aware of being in the air when flying.  These guys weren't in the air, but when all hell broke loose they were still faced with the big scary monster that every flyer has faced.  They were helpless and at the mercy of a malfunctioning plane, in this case heading towards a ravine.  There's some serious pucker factor right there.

This gets a super good karma thumbs up.   

Today's WTH Is Brought To You By The Number Eight

A drunk Mississippi man reportedly let his 8-year-old son drive on a Louisiana highway, reported the Associated Press.    

Louisiana state police said they received a call at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday morning of a green pickup truck driving erratically on the highway.  Moreover, it appeared that a child was driving.

When the police finally stopped the car, they discovered 28-year-old Billy Joe Madden sleeping in the passenger seat, his 8-year-old son at the wheel, and his 4-year-old daughter sitting in the back seat.

Madden reportedly fell asleep while he made his son drive the vehicle on their trip from Hattiesburg, MS to Dallas, TX.

Okay, I don't think there is a whole lot to say here.  This is one of those "I just had to share this" sort of tales.  The article goes on to cite other instances where parents had children drive, though all of them were older than eight.


EIGHT.  On a highway.  


Tell me this man is never allowed to be around kids ever again.  

Miss Scarlett, In The Conservatory, WIth The Box Of Wine

Because Jennifer Rubin hasn't been hacktastic enough on the debt ceiling fight for the Washington Post, because Peggy Noonan hasn't chugged all the booze for the Wall Street Journal yet, we complete the Obama Derangement Syndrome harridan trifecta with Maureen "Sweetie, darling!" Dowd in the NY Times this morning in full AbFab mode.

Ancient incantations and eye of newt — not that Newt — would be the only way to conjure up a less embarrassing group of leaders.

The world is watching in fearful — and sometimes gleeful — fascination as the Tea Party drives a Thunderbird off the cliff with the president and speaker of the House strapped in the back. The Dow is hiding under the bed with a glass of single malt. Can it get more excruciating? Apple has more cash than the U.S. government.

Amid the chilling anarchy, there’s not a single strong leader to be seen — not even a misguided one. All the leaders are followers. You have to wonder if President Obama at some level doesn’t want to lead. Maybe he just wants to be loved. 

Yes, because the problem with the Tea Party is that President Obama isn't assertive enough.  Boy if he just gave those Tea Party maniacs a good talking to from the bully pulpit, they'd just wither like hothouse orchids and we'd never hear from them again.  But nobody loves Obama, especially not the people who voted for him.

Democratic lawmakers worry that the Tea Party freshmen have already “neutered” the president, as one told me. They fret that Obama is an inept negotiator. They worry that he should have been out in the country selling a concrete plan, rather than once more kowtowing to Republicans and, as with the stimulus plan, health care and Libya, leading from behind.

As one Democratic senator complained: “The president veers between talking like a peevish professor and a scolding parent.” (Not to mention a jilted lover.) Another moaned: “We are watching him turn into Jimmy Carter right before our eyes.”

Obama’s “We must lift ourselves to a higher place” trope doesn’t work on this rough crowd. If somebody at dinner is about to kill you, you don’t worry about his table manners.

More and more, 2008 looks like the tulip mania.

When Obama came before the cameras Friday to say that “any solution to avoid default must be bipartisan,” many Democrats wish he had just gone all unilateral and taken Bill Clinton’s advice to invoke the 14th Amendment. They yearned to see the president beat the political suicide bombers over the head with the Constitution. Impeaching a constitutional lawyer for saving the economy would be an even more difficult sell than impeaching a rogue for fibbing about a dalliance.

Boy she doesn't miss a single emoprog trope there, does she?  Obama is a bloodless wimp who has been emasculated, he's leading from behind, Clinton would have done better, he's a terrible negotiator, he's Jimmy Carter, why hasn't he gone all unilateral yet, yadda yadda.

Look, I want POTUS to consider the 14th too, but in order to do that and win the war that will come after, he has to do it as an absolute last resort.  He must make an abosolute good faith effort to negotiate.  And to do so, he has to show that absolutely nothing can pass the House and Senate and that compromise is impossible.

Then, and only then, can he "be all unilateral" against these clowns.  This "Obama has to be our daddy" thing is not healthy.  We shouldn't be insisting the President act unilaterally on anything, and here we are moaning about Obama doing exactly what we hated Dubya for doing.

And even then, the 14th would go to the Supreme Court.  No guarantee it would ever be allowed to be used.

We'll see what the Reid deal entails.

It's All The Horn Section

Black market rhino horns are going for so much in Europe and Asia right now that thieves are resorting to brazen daytime robberies of museums, science centers, and private collectors to get them.  The latest target?  The Belgian Natural History Museum in Brussels.

"For 80 years we took care of it and from one day to the next it's no longer there," said Georges Lenglet, vertebrate exhibit curator at the Brussels museum, who has little hope of seeing the head again.

The museum had never been robbed until the July heist, when it became the latest of a rising number of science museums in Europe targeted by thieves for rhino horns, which can fetch tens of thousands of euros on the black market.

"It's a nasty little piece of criminal activity," Patrick Byrne, head of the organised crime networks unit at the European police agency Europol, told AFP.

Europol suspects an Irish organised crime group is behind a spate of robberies that has hit not only museums but also zoos, auction houses, antique dealers and private collectors across the continent over the past 18 months.

The gang, known to use violence and intimidation, is involved in drug trafficking, money laundering and smuggling of counterfeit products, but has seized too on a lucrative niche market in the sale of rhino horns.

Scotland Yard says the spike in museum thefts is driven by a significant increase in the value of rhino horns in Asia. Depending on its size, a horn can sell for 25,000 to 200,000 euros (34,000 to 288,000 dollars), according to Europol.

The horns are usually ground into powder and end up in the Asian market where they are prized for purported medicinal virtues to cure fevers, headaches, typhoid and smallpox. Their use for impotence is merely a myth.

What's not a myth is these horns fetch big money in Europe's floundering economy, and that it's depressing to see people resorting to stealing from science museums in order to get them.  I mean I understand that a quarter-million in a smash and grab operation is nothing to sneeze at, but...a museum?

Geez.  Where's a superhero when you need one.

Last Call

It's down to triggers on the debt ceiling impasse.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) isn't saying why both sides aren't any closer to a debt deal after a day filled with feverish negotiations Saturday, but Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) spelled it out during a floor speech Saturday night.

The sticking point for Dems, Kerry said, involves detailed negotiations over an enforcement mechanism that would require Congress to act on entitlement and tax reform by a date certain or faces the consequences. Democrats want to ensure that such a trigger does not simply mandate severe spending cuts, but also includes tax increases -- the so-called "shared pain" Democrats have cited lately. 

Naturally, the GOP in the Senate aren't biting, and as such the vote has been postponed 12 hours from 1 AM Sunday morning to 1 PM Sunday afternoon.

As noted here, Republicans are insisting on skewed triggers. The source provided some fresh details on precisely what they're asking for. One of their proposals would alter the way the government calculates inflation. It would thus reduce automatic increases in tax bracket levels and Social Security cost of living adjustments -- in effect a regressive tax increase, and a Social Security cut, each of which would result in modest savings.

Democrats reject this so called "chained CPI" option because they fear Republicans would happily block a balanced spending cut/tax increase package in favor of an automatic Social Security cut.

Republicans have also proposed "automatic sequestration" -- across the board spending cuts, including to entitlements -- with no corresponding revenue increases.

And we're right back to square one: Republicans refuse any revenue increases whatsoever and insist we have to cut spending...and cut it from Social Security.  Once again the GOP is playing for "When the clock runs out we get everything we want" so they will run the clock out.  It's what they are playing for right now.  They never, ever, ever, ever were going to make a deal in good faith.

Time for the 14th.

"I'm talking about that there's precedents for presidents to do things where the Constitution doesn't give the president explicit authority but it doesn't prohibit the president from doing it, and I believe there's a basis in the 14th amendment as decided in Perry v. United States," Sen Tom Harkin (D-IA) said on the Senate floor. "I think the president - barring action from the Congress - not only has the authority to do so, he has the responsibility to not let this country default."

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who already called on Obama to invoke the 14th Amendment days ago, repeated the suggestion on the floor tonight as time marched on and the sun outside grew increasingly faint.

The Huffington Post's Jennifer Bendery reported Saturday night that Pelosi may be changing her tune on the idea. Citing an unnamed member of Congress, Bendery reports that Pelosi is supportive of a 14th Amendment option behind the scenes. 

Now we're getting somewhere.  What are the Republicans going to do, impeach Obama?  They were going to do that anyway, you know.  Let them play that card when a vast majority of the country, some 71% mind you, disapprove of how the GOP has handled the debt ceiling mess.

Take the gloves off.  No reasonable deal is forthcoming.

A Rare Chance

Thanks to the hard work of some creative scientists, you can now go on an accurate 3-D tour of the Great Pyramid of Khufu.  This gives teachers an innovative new tool to bring history to life.  For geeky folks like me, it is a chance to experience something we likely will never come close to otherwise.  The tiny robot is not invasive, and captures images to allow the 3-D rendering to be as realistic as possible.

With help of cutting-edge 3D technology, the video lets users take a peek inside the 146m-high Great Pyramid, the last of the seven wonders of the ancient world still standing.

The scene appears as it might have 45 centuries ago - full of the loyal people of the second ruler of the fourth dynasty.

But the film is not pure entertainment - besides the educational aspect, it tries to explain one of the theories behind the pyramid's construction.

Lying north of modern-day Cairo, the largest and oldest of the three pyramids of the royal necropolis of Giza is believed to have been built as Khufu's tomb.

Just... awesome.  

Land Of The Rising Core Temperature, Part 36

As if northeastern Japan needed any more disaster-related problems right now, the country is facing brutal summer rains and deadly flooding.

Floods claimed their first victim in Japan and nearly 300,000 people were urged to flee their homes Saturday as a weather system that killed dozens on the Korean peninsula swept the country.

Local governments in the central province of Niigata and tsunami-hit Fukushima issued the guidance after the national weather agency urged citizens to be on maximum alert against more flooding and mudslides.

Helicopter footage on NHK showed bridges over the Shinano River in Niigata partially submerged, while trees and telephone polls had been knocked down.

Kamo City in Niigata was extensively flooded, with water submerging roads.

Forecasters warned that the rains could continue to be torrential after reaching 1,000 millimetres (40 inches) to date in Sanjo City, Niigata, 250 kilometres (155 miles) northwest of Tokyo, since they started Wednesday.

Yes, you're reading that correctly, a meter of rain in 4 days, and more on the way.  And yes, this is the same part of Japan, Fukushima prefecture, that has the still hot nuclear power plant disaster continuing.

Japan still needs help desperately, please keep them in mind.

No Dealing On The Debt Ceiling, Part 47

News is that 43 GOP Senators have vowed to block the Reid debt ceiling amendment in the Senate early Sunday morning, meaning there's basically no way forward right now.  I'm not sure what actually can be done, because the GOP has the vote to filibuster anything in the Senate, and of course will not let anything remotely viable pass the House.

Unless something major changes in the next 10-12 hours or so, we are heading off the cliff Tuesday morning.  We'll see what will happen, but right now there's nothing remotely hopeful about the situation.

And yes, my mistake was underestimating the Tea Party's willingness to destroy America's economy and put us into a near-depression in order to bring down President Obama.

Second Verse, Little Bit Louder And A Little Bit Worse

When I created the Privacy Stupidity tag, I expected it to be specific, not not necessarily a regular.  Right now this will make 34, which is about 25 more than expected.  The sad thing is that I haven't even scratched the surface.

Microsoft has collected the locations of millions of laptops, cell phones, and other Wi-Fi devices around the world and makes them available on the Web without taking the privacy precautions that competitors have, CNET has learned.

The vast database available through Live.com publishes the precise geographical location, which can point to a street address and sometimes even a corner of a building, of Android phones, Apple devices, and other Wi-Fi enabled gadgets.

Unlike Google and Skyhook Wireless, which have compiled similar lists of these unique Wi-Fi addresses, Microsoft has not taken any measures to curb access to its database.

No measures to protect that information?  What the hell?  With all the headlines regarding cell phone privacy I can't believe this was an oversight.  So what was it?  Without legal definition, we are at the mercy of interpretation.  This cannot go on.  We should know what information is collected about us and have the right to opt out.  Neither can happen while ambiguous terms and selective enforcement leave wiggle room for criminal invasions.  This should be a major storm and right now it's more of an "oops, well lookit that" sort of reaction.


What.  The.  Hell.

Grudging Respect For Fanatics Is Still Idiocy, Taylor

I understand most people have written off Taylor Marsh since her PUMA days in 2007-2008, but at this point she's finally fully crossed over into the abyss she's been yammering about for three years.

Our political culture is so wrapped up in moderation, centrism, capitulation and compromise that the Tea Party extortionists are the only political class in this country who stand for anything, albeit a whole lot of crazy. Whereas, Democrats and Republicans are basically different sides of the same corrupt coin, with Mr. Wonderful at the top, whether you’re talking about Obama or Romney; both mean nothing to behold when it comes to leadership or standing on a line. Mitt Romney’s learned well from Obama’s straddling stance of non-declaration and is basically following his “present” political state of mind.

She then goes on to say President Obama has a chance, but only because the public isn't paying attention to how unremittingly awful Baritt Oromney is. 

Also notice we have both of the major Firebagger fallacies distilled into one paragraph, first that there is no discernible difference between the two major political parties or their candidates, and second that the Tea Party deserves your respect because "at least they stand for something."

One would think this week would have disproved the first theory, and that the long annals of history's most dangerous fanatics would have already disproved the second, but that's what happens when your agenda was always to get rid of Barack Obama in the first place.  You look for any reason to justify that position, and here we have Taylor Marsh now saying that there's some merit to the Tea Party that's literally days away from plunging us into another recession, if not depression.

The most dangerous human quality is our ability to justify anything, it seems.  Given the events of this week, that's one crossed line too many.

The Fourteenth Option, Part 3

Lawrence O'Donnell and UCLA law prof. Jon Zasloff discuss what President Obama can and cannot do with the 14th amendment.

The most important thing to understand is if on Tuesday morning the Treasury does not have enough money to pay its debts, to pay its obligations and pay appropriations that Congress has already appropriate appropriated, that puts the President in a tight spot.  He can either take on more debt to pay these obligations, which has a constitutional problem, or what he can do is say if the Treasury doesn't have enough money, I'm going to pick and choose which debts, which obligations, which appropriations I'm going to pay.

The problem is the Supreme Court has already specifically held the President does not have that constitutional power.  The President cannot pick and choose, so the idea that somehow the President doesn't have the authority to raise the debt ceiling by himself and so what he has to do is pick and choose which debts, obligations, and appropriations to spend creates as many constitutional problems as it solves.

The question now is we have a situation where you have a Congress that has put the President in a situation where damned if you do, damned if you don't.  Nevertheless, pretty much every Constitutional scholar has recognized, there's some reserve power the president has in an absolute emergency to avoid catastrophes like a default on the debt, a default on obligations, default on appropriations, appropriations which, by the way, Congress has told him he must spend, and it's that reserve power in an emergency in a very limited circumstance that the advocates of the 14th amendment are saying that that is why the President can lift the debt ceiling by himself.

More importantly, Zasloff argues that since that authority covers preserving the full faith and credit of previous Congresses in meeting their obligations, that in this case President Obama can use that power to say that the 112th Congress must meet the obligations of previous ones.

It's important to note that the way things are looking right now, the President may very well have to do this Monday night if as I expect there's enough Tea Party opposition to getting the Reid bill through the House...that is if it even survives a Senate GOP filibuster early tomorrow morning.  No guarantee on that for sure.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Tropical Storm Don has landed along the south Texas coast bringing needed rain but not much in the way of damaging winds.
• A federal judge has agreed to unseal President Richard Nixon's Watergate testimony for historical purposes.
• California has decided to move its presidential primary back to June rather than compete with the dozens of states trying to be first in the nation.
• Foreclosures and tougher lending standards have driven the percentage of Americans that own their own home down to levels from 1998.
• A federal appeals court has overturned a lower court ruling that held that genetic tests couldn't be patented.