Stuck In The Past

Hey Republicans?  If you don't want people thinking some of you may not be telling the truth when you vehemently declare there's no possible way you could be remotely considered racist, let's not use the perjorative "tar baby" to refer to the nation's first black President, mmmkay? Think Progress:

Appearing on the Caplis and Silverman radio show last Friday, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) said, “Now I don’t even want to have to be associated with [Obama], it’s like touching a tar baby and you’re stuck, you’re part of the problem now. You can’t get away.” The term “tar baby” is often considered a slur towards African Americans. Indeed, the term has such a derogatory history that the Oxford American dictionary revamped its definition to reflect the word’s racial undertones. If Lamborn wishes to cross-check, he should ask both then-Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) and Sen. John McCain (R-MA) — both of whom caught controversy for uttering the distasteful phrase.

And as TP notes, it's not like this is the first time Republicans have used the phrase in reference to President Obama.  Feigning ignorance here, especially by a sitting member of Congress, is not an excuse. 

But then again, what do you expect?  Can't help themselves.

Land Of The Rising Core Temperature, Part 37

Meanwhile, some brutally depressing perspective from Japan as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster has by no means "just gone away".

Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, said it detected the highest radiation to date at the site.

Geiger counters, used to detect radioactivity, registered more than 10 sieverts an hour, the highest reading the devices are able to record, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility, said today. The measurements were taken at the base of the main ventilation stack for reactors No. 1 and No. 2.

The Fukushima plant, about 220 kilometers (137 miles) north of Tokyo, had three reactor meltdowns after the March 11 magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami knocked out power and backup generators. Radiation leaks displaced 160,000 people and contaminated marine life and agricultural products.

The utility, known as Tepco, tried to vent steam and gas the day after the earthquake as pressure in reactor No. 1 exceeded designed limits. A buildup of hydrogen gas subsequently caused an explosion that blew out part of the reactor building.

“I suspect the high radiation quantity was an aftermath of venting done,” Matsumoto told reporters in Tokyo. “The plant is not running. I don’t think any gas with high radiation level is flowing in the stack.” 

Yes, TEPCO doesn't think enough radiation to outright kill a human in 15-20 minutes coming out of the vent shaft is a problem.  And please note we're not sure how much the actual radiation is because the friggin Geiger counter doesn't go any higher, you've pegged the damn thing out when you vented that stuff out into the environment.

Absolutely wonderful.  You think our government is incompetent and trying to kill you, well...here you go.

Hello Admiral Obvious, Here Is Your Recipe For Disaster

A state-funded residential program designed to teach young adults how to live safe, productive lives mixes 16-year old-girls in foster care with sex offenders in their 20s.

The program groups juvenile offenders — including registered sex offenders — with foster teens. Each person in the program lives alone in one of 15 apartments in a building on West University, near Kellogg and Seneca.

Dorothy Loyd, vice president for transitional living services at Ozanam Pathways, the nonprofit provider that operates the program, said Ozanam isn't the only provider that commingles offenders and foster teens. It occurs at programs across the state, Loyd said. Ozanam is following state policies, she said.

"If the program is guilty of anything," Loyd said, "it's for taking kids that nobody wants to work with."

So let me get this straight in my head.  Mixing teenage girls with low self-esteem and sex offenders at just the right age to lead them astray is okay because there is a lack of reporting?  And the defense is to say the kids are unwanted so it's okay?


The other people featured in the article make more sense.  Still, holy cow.  Just... holy cow.

Facebook Facepalm

It's time to do a massive Facebook friend-purge, Missouri teachers. A new bill signed into law by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon makes it illegal for students and teachers within the state to have private relationships on Facebook.

We should note that the new law isn't targeting Facebook exclusively–or even social networks. The entire point of the legislation centers on curbing sexual misconduct between teachers and students. The "Amy Hestir Student Protection Act," named for a former Missouri public school student who was molested by a teacher decades prior, increases penalties for school districts that fail to report abuse allegations within a timely manner and fail to disclose instances of past abuse by former staff members.

Steps to protect kids from predators is great if it makes sense (for example, mandated reporting).  The Facebook restriction is stupid.  Facebook is a communication tool, and laws should not be used to replace good parenting or good judgment.  If parents want to see what their kids are doing on Facebook they (theoretically) have the right to check it out.  Just because some parents find it uncomfortable or unpleasant to monitor their kids and their activities does not make it appropriate to restrict communication.  This is like saying thou shalt not use Yahoo messenger or email, as Facebook is just a slight step away from those services. Meanwhile, thousands of healthy and productive interactions are hindered by good old Jay Nixon.  We should be grateful, really, that he is willing to step in and save us from ourselves. 


In Jay's honor (though he will not be alone for long) a new tag is created: Jackass. 

No Dealing On The Debt Ceiling, Part 48

Today, both parties try to sell the Big Deal(tm) to their respective caucuses with votes today.  With some 40 hours until the deadline, time is of the essence.  But in no way is everyone on board.

Urbandale, Iowa -- Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann issued the following response to President Obama's statement on the proposed debt limit deal:

"Mr. President, I'm not sure what voice you're listening to, but I can assure you that the voice of the American people wasn't the 'voice that compelled Washington to act.' It was you that got us into this mess, and it was you who wanted a $2.4 trillion dollar blank check to get you through the election. Everywhere I travel across the country, Americans want less spending, lower taxes to create jobs, and they don't want us to raise the debt ceiling.

"The President continues to press for a 'balanced approach,' which everyone knows is code for increased spending and taxes. Throughout this process the President has failed to lead and failed to provide a plan. The 'deal' he announced spends too much and doesn't cut enough. This isn't the deal the American people 'preferred' either, Mr. President. Someone has to say no. I will."

First of all how does a $2.4 trillion blank check work?  Second of all, for us not to raise the debt ceiling, we would have to go back and rework the 2010 budget resolution which already passed, and we would have to cut Social Security and Medicare.  Thirdly, raising the debt ceiling is so we can meet the obligations that Congress itself directed us to take, not to create additional spending.  Bachmann's simply lying about things.

Cinci-Hottie

After nearly setting an all time wettest month record in April, Cincinnati may be about to set a summer heat wave record for most consecutive days hitting 90 degrees or more.

Sunday was the 15th consecutive day the area had a high temperature of 90 degrees or more. The high was 93. The record - set back in 1901 - is 17 straight days.

Jim Lott, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wilmington, said "it looks like we got a good shot at" breaking the record this week. He said the high temperature today will be around 92 and Tuesday will have a high of 93. There's no chance of precipitation on either of those days.

Lott said there is a chance of showers and thunderstorms during the day on Wednesday.

"Depending on when those storms get in, they could affect the temperature," he said. "Right now we're forecasting a high of 91 degrees. But ... if the rain comes a little sooner then we're thinking we might not make it to 91. But right now it looks like we have a chance to make it."

As the hot weather continues, air pollution remains an issue.

A smog alert has been extended through today for Hamilton, Butler, Clermont and Warren counties in Ohio and Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties in Northern Kentucky.

Oh and the extended forecast into August?  Hitting 90 or close to it for the next ten days.  All time records for rain, now records for heat.  I know weather events are not climate events, but these are some scary weather events.

Collection Connection

Cash-strapped states are getting serious about collecting sales taxes from internet vendors, and they have a voice in Washington in Sen. Dick Durbin, who has introduced a bill to set federal standards for online taxation.

Struggling with weak economies, states will lose an estimated $10 billion this year and $11.4 billion next year in sales taxes that go uncollected on online purchases, according to studies by three professors at the University of Tennessee.

Although the fate of the bill by Democratic Senator Dick Durbin was uncertain given the anti-tax environment on Capitol Hill, his measure is backed by the National Governors Association and the National Retail Federation and even earned a pledge of cooperation from giant online retailer Amazon.

"It's being brought to a head by actions at the state level," said Indiana state Senator Luke Kenley, who heads the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board, a group of 24 states that has been lobbying Congress to enact a uniform sales tax for all retailers -- online and bricks and mortar alike.

Also pushing the issue to the forefront has been the sheer size of the online retail market -- $165 billion last year, according to Bernstein Research, which predicts 15 percent annual growth over the next decade.

"Online sales are growing exponentially and this loophole is creating winners and losers based on the tax code," says Jason Brewer of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, a trade group in favor of federal rules.

Durbin argued his bill involved no new taxes and applied only to taxes already imposed by the states that are not being collected. His goal is to provide states with the clear authority to require retailers to collect sales taxes already owed, treat all retailers equally regarding sales tax collection, and release consumers, currently expected to calculate and send in the taxes themselves, from that responsibility.

That last point is important, and exactly why the GOP will kill it and say we can't raise taxes ever blah blah blah when the reality is these are taxes states should be collecting but can't, because there's no federal laws regulating the mess.  Retailers will say "we don't want to collect sales taxes, we can undercut our competition that way."

So we'll see how far this goes.  My honest opinion is nowhere.

StupidiNews!

• Mexican police say captured suspected Juarez drug cartel leader Jose "El Diego" Hernandez may have ordered up to 1,500 killings.
• The EPA is using new pollutant rules to take on natural gas fracking as the Obama administration wants to lay down ground rules on the process.
• Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak may not attend his own trial this week due to health reasons, according to Egypt's information ministry.
• Apple has taken over the number one spot in smartphone market share beating out Nokia in second quarter sales.
• According to a new theory, the entire universe can be summed up as a two-dimensional projection similar to a hologram.

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.