The Kroog Versus Diggy Diggy Hole

Paul Krugman.  Ron Paul.  The Bloomberg TV top card fight between the King of the Keynesians and the Gollum of Goldbugs is pretty gripping stuff here, even for laymen.  For econ nerds like myself, it's watching Optimus Prime and Megatron slugging it out for 20 minutes.  Grab some popcorn and pull up a chair for this one:

Love this. Ron Paul opens up with about 5 minutes of stump speech, but Krugman is having none of Paul's "get off my lawn" crap and goes after him on policy arguments and doesn't back down. It's a good battle and Paul gets increasingly desperate at it progresses as Krugman points out that austerity is killing Europe. I'd like to see a longer debate on this, frankly. Do watch the whole thing.

Rupert's Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad, No Good Morning

It seems that Britain MP's have decided that Rupert Murdoch running a major media empire in their midst is not in Blighty's best interests.

Global media tycoon Rupert Murdoch is not a "fit and proper person" to run a major international company, British lawmakers investigating phone hacking at his tabloid the News of the World reported Tuesday. The ruling could prompt British regulators to force him to sell his controlling stake in British Sky Broadcasting, a significant part of his media empire.

This one's pretty big, folks. It means whether or not old Rupert here was actually the fellow behind the phone hacking nonsense, British lawmakers have decided that he should be held responsible for it. Bloomberg News is even more blunt:

Murdoch “turned a blind eye and exhibited willful blindness to what was going on in his companies and publications,” the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee said in a report published in London today. “This culture, we consider, permeated from the top throughout the organization and speaks volumes about the lack of effective corporate governance at News Corp.”

Ouch. The question now is the level of punishment that Murdoch and News Corp will receive. It could be nothing. It could be having to divest itself of all B Sky B holdings. We'll see. But this is the first real blow to Murdoch we've seen from the fallout of the phone hacking, and I'm betting it won't be the last.  The Guardian article contains the full text of the Select Committee report and opens with this:

Labour MPs and the sole Liberal Democrat on the committee, Adrian Sanders, voted together in a bloc of six against the five Conservatives to insert the criticisms of Rupert Murdoch and toughen up the remarks about his son James. But the MPs were united in their criticism of other former News International employees.

The cross-party group of MPs said that Les Hinton, the former executive chairman of News International, was "complicit" in a cover-up at the newspaper group, and that Colin Myler, former editor of the News of the World, and the paper's ex-head of legal, Tom Crone, deliberately withheld crucial information and answered questions falsely. All three were accused of misleading parliament by the culture select committee.

Interesting breakdown of the votes there.  We'll see how this treacle rolls downhill.

StupidiNews! Potpourri Stupidity

Short bits of stupidity from all over.

BEAVER, Pa. (AP) — Police say two teenage girls who fell asleep while sunbathing on a rural Pennsylvania road have been struck by a car. The Beaver County Police Department tells WTAE-TV (http://bit.ly/KoTXi9 ) that 13-year-olds Samantha Schermanhorn and Kaylie George were hit by the vehicle Sunday afternoon. Two of Samantha's cousins tell the station that their 19-year-old brother had stopped at a stop sign and made a turn before striking the girls with his car.

Jesus take the wheel.  But even He wouldn't likely think someone would be so stupid as to fall asleep in the middle of the road.

A 21-year-old woman stopped a deranged father who was slashing his son's arms in a San Diego cemetery, U-T San Diego reports.

Jaymisha Pires was visiting the Mount Hope Cemetery on Saturday afternoon with a friend when they spotted the man with three young children. He began slashing his 8-year-old son, saying, "We're going to Jesus."

The man, identified as Joseph Ramirez, 30, of San Diego, pushed his son aside and fled, but was tackled by a 60-year-old security guard. Pires' friend wrapped a T-shirt around the boy's bleeding arms before he was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Finally, we caught one before it happened.  I hope Mr. Ramirez gets the help he needs, but thank goodness his son was spared.

The New York mother who was fired after she donated her kidney to save her boss's life demanded that the woman return the organ. "You hate me so much, and I'm so despicable -- give me my kidney back!" wailed 47-year-old Debbie Stevens, of Long Island.

Her employer at Atlantic Automotive Group, Jackie Brucia, also 47, thanked Stevens for the gift Monday -- and then "wished her the best."

This is problematic because Stevens didn't actually give Brucia her own kidney, but donated one so that Brucia would be bumped up faster, which worked.  She blames Brucia for taking advantage of her, but I have to say that if you let yourself go to such extreme lengths, you can't really cry foul later.  Stevens donated a kidney to a man in Missouri.  Brucia's kidney was the gift of another donor.  While Stevens got the shaft, there is no kidney-swapping way to make this right.

Rethinking The Phrase "I Can't"

A woman named Lee Hee-Ah started playing the piano when she was seven.  She was born without limbs below the knee, and only four fingers.  It was likely suggested in hopes it would encourage dexterity and range of motion, but turned her into an amazing classical musician.

Please click here to watch the video.  It's ten minutes long, but the first ninety seconds is enough to show you the heart of her story.  With ten musical fingers I could never come close, and for those who play if you notice how perfect her timing is it will blow your mind.

The next time you want to say you can't, realize you may well be using the wrong word.  You may (even rightly so) be making a choice or drawing a line on what you are willing to do.  There are only a few people like Lee Hee-Ah, who make life happen after being dealt a few serious setbacks.  She's amazing by any standards, but I hope you go see for yourself.  

Ritchie Wretch

The always awesome Yellow Dog has the roundup of everything you need to know of the latest embarrassing scandal here in the Bluegrass State:  former KY GOP Ag Commissioner Ritchie Farmer's massive fraud, corruption and double-dealing while in office.  Joe Sonka, Page One Kentucky, Barefoot & Progressive all get in on the action on this week's big story.

A distant relative of former Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer worked in the Department of Agriculture for nearly five years as an amusement ride inspector despite never receiving certification to do the work.

George "Doug" Begley worked from July 1, 2007, to March 12 inspecting amusement park rides in Eastern Kentucky, according to documents obtained by the Lexington Herald-Leader under the state's Open Records Act.

 Documents in Begley's personnel file show he voluntarily accepted a demotion to the department's fuel-testing division in March after Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, who took office in January, discovered that Begley never received his certification.

And so on and so forth.  The real issue of course is the fact that Farmer's replacement, Jamie Comer, is even more of a wingnut asshole who is already taking all the credit for cleaning house.

What should have been new computers for employees, ended up missing from the Department of Agriculture office all together. State Auditor Adam Edelen says the man who was supposed to be leading the office took them. Of the three they were able to get back, they say they have no way of knowing what work was being done with them. "The hard drives were wiped in a way that would be beyond the capability to a lay person," explains Edelen.

Edelen says they are just one example of the many ways former Commissioner Richie Farmer was taking advantage of his role and the taxpayer dollars. "The former Commissioner had state employees on state time take him hunting and shopping, build a basketball court in his backyard, mow his lawn and even chauffeur his dog."

Current Commission Jamie Comer says he ordered the internal audit when his new staff started coming forward with concerns about their old boss. It looks at everything from hiring practices to the money spent starting back in January 2004 when Farmer took office. Edelen says they are only now uncovering the claims because people finally felt safe to speak up.

"This was a climate where staff was directed not to use email. There was a calculated effort to run the office for the benefit of the former Commissioner and folks who got in the way tended to be punished," says Edelen.

Farmer was just corrupt and stupid.  He's also counting on being a former UK college basketball star to get him out of this mess.  He's got another thing coming.  Comer is ambitious and a lot smarter, and he's figured out that he can propel his career rocket quite a distance if he stuffs Farmer in the fuel tank and lights this candle.

Of course, all that depends on Jack Conway, the current Attorney General.  He'd be the man who would have to serve up Farmer's head on a pike.  If he does, he removes a rival for Dinosaur Steve's job in 2015...only to open to door to Comer being able to make his bones and become an even more dangerous one down the road.  On the other hand, should Oldage Mutant Nimrod Turtle retire in 2014, all bets are off.

We'll see where this goes.

The Austerians Get The Boot

With ten countries in Europe now in the midst of a double dip recession (Spain officially made it ten with their 0.3% GDP contraction numbers on Monday and if you're wondering, the other nine are Britain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Czech Republic, and Slovenia) elections this year are going to be a referendum on the austerity measures ripping into the pocketbooks and wallets of the EU's middle class.  France's Sarkozy government looks to be the first to fall on Sunday, and it won't be the last as Socialist candidate Francoise Hollande is poised to take victory on a platform of reversing steep social cuts.

The American Prospect's Yannis Palaiologos dissects Hollande's rise:

Francois Hollande has long made it clear that he will not be the obedient junior partner to Angela Merkel that Nicolas Sarkozy has been. In particular, he has issued calls for a renegotiation of the fiscal compact agreed by 25 out of 27 EU members earlier this year, to make it more growth-friendly. He has insisted that without a supplementary package of pro-growth measures, he will refuse to ratify it. the German chancellor insists that the pact is not negotiable, but Hollande claims to have support for his approach from many European governments, including conservative ones. As he stated in a television appearance last Thursday: “It is not for Germany to decide for the rest of Europe." Even internally, Merkel cannot ratify the fiscal compact without support from the SPD, which, emboldened by Hollande, is demanding a stimulus program for weaker European economies as the price for its support. The fact that Mario Draghi himself, the head of the arch-conservative European Central Bank, spoke, after the first round of voting in France and the resignation of the Dutch prime minister, of the need for a “growth compact” to complement the agreement to tighten fiscal rules is a signal that the eurozone may, finally, be moving in a different direction.

This is not to underestimate the task facing Hollande and the European pro-growth alliance he hopes to lead. A party man without previous governmental experience, he is expected to goad the notoriously stubborn Merkel into a U-turn that, to be meaningful, will need to go beyond a relaxation of the pace of fiscal adjustment. Countries with strong public finances and high competitiveness will need to embrace stimulative short-run policies, which will increase consumption, allow the troubled countries of the periphery to export more and improve growths prospect throughout the continent. They will also have to accept some form of a joint guarantee of the debt of eurozone member-states, to put to bed once and for all market fears about a break up of the euro. The French Socialist must, at the same time, deal with deficits and structural sclerosis at home, the latter an area he has shown little inclination to tackle. It is a tall order but, as things stand, its success may be the eurozone’s last chance.

And Greece is also facing a round of parliamentary elections in the coming weeks as well, which could seriously change the political landscape in that country.  We'll see how it pans out, but Hollande is leading in all the polls right now because the French right remains split between Sarkozy and hard right National Party conservative Marine Le Pen.  Le Pen in fact has all but publicly said that she wants Hollande to win in order for him to fail so tremendously that she becomes the new de facto leader of the opposition with Sarkozy discredited.

2012 is not just about US elections, after all.

StupidiNews!

• Homeland Security is leading a separate investigation into the US Secret Service prostitution scandal as USSS director Mark Sullivan comes under increasing pressure.
• Oklahoma's state Supreme Court has unanimously ruled the state's "personhood" ballot measure that effectively outlaws abortion is unconstitutional.
• With the needle installed on the new One World Trade Center building, it captures the title of "tallest building in NYC."
• The Occupy Wall Street movement plans worldwide May Day protests and disruptions today to bring attention to worker conditions and income inequality across the globe.
• The case of Oracle vs Google is now before a California jury as Oracle's lawyers made closing arguments that claim Google's Android OS stole from Java.

Last Call

Please recall that the last time we had a Republican in the White House, it was stuffed to the gills with psychopathic nutjobs like CIA black ops man Jose "Big Boy Pants" Rodriguez here, who spent years justifying outright torture of suspects after the fact.

Jose Rodriguez: For the first time in our history, we had an enemy come into our homeland and kill 3,000 people. I mean, that was a huge deal. People jumping from the towers to their death. The people running away from the cloud of dust, terrified out of their mind. This was a threat. And we had to throw everything at it.

Which is why Jose Rodriguez says that when he ran the CIA's Counterterrorist Center, he came up with the idea of employing harsh interrogation techniques. And 10 years later, he feels he still has to justify their use.

Lesley Stahl: You had no qualms? We used to consider some of them war crimes.

Jose Rodriguez: We made some al Qaeda terrorists with American blood on their hands uncomfortable for a few days. But we did the right thing for the right reason. And the right reason was to protect the homeland and to protect American lives. So yes, I had no qualms.

Rodriguez spent 31 years in the CIA's Clandestine Service where spies are revered as "fighter jocks". He rose thru the ranks, eventually running covert operations as head of the Latin America division. When al Qaeda struck on 9/11, he'd had no experience in counterterrorism or the Middle East. But he wanted "in" on the war on terror, and went to the CIA's Counterterrorist Center, where the main objective was to stop another attack on the U.S. homeland.

And he went all in, folks.  Do  Watch the whole thing. These guys? Crazier than a warthog on fire.  Imagine what will happen when they take us to war with Iran for another decade, and what we'll justify after the fact when we round up whomever for even more indefinite detention?  And yeah, I'm aware of the fact we're still holding plenty of folks now under the Obama administration, but for the most part those programs have been dismantled.  Do you think that will be the case if Romney's elected?

As for the Big Boy Pants crack, well, that's from Rodriguez himself:

Jose Rodriguez: We needed to get everybody in government to put their big boy pants on and provide the authorities that we needed.

Lesley Stahl: Their big boy pants on--

Jose Rodriguez: Big boy pants. Let me tell you, I had had a lot of experience in the agency where we had been left to hold the bag. And I was not about to let that happen for the people that work for me.

All about the pants, man.  All about the pants.

Really, I'm Not Sniffling. It's Allergies.

Blair is a 1-year-old black Labrador mix brought to the Woodland West Animal Hospital in Tulsa, Okla., after she was shot while living on the streets.  After he recovered from his wounds, Blair remained at the clinic, a timid and nervous pup whose difficult history made her hard to place with an adopted family, the hospital's director, Dr. Mike Jones, told ABCNews.com.

Then there was Tanner, a two-year-old Golden Retriever puppy who was born blind and with a seizure disorder so severe he was sent to Woodland Hospital as a last resort after his first owner died and the Oklahoma City-based Sooner Golden Retriever Rescue organization that had assumed his care, was unable to find a family to give him the around-the-clock care he needed.

"One day they were exercising in a play yard together and they got together, Jones said.  "Blair all of a sudden seemed to realize that Tanner was blind and just started to help him around."
Recognizing the dogs' immediate connection, hospital staff began to board Tanner and Blair together, and the results spoke for themselves.

Tanner had been seizing almost nightly, Jones said.  "After two or three weeks, we realized Tanner wasn't seizing anymore.  He's not completely seizure free but it's not constant anymore." 

Blair is more comfortable now, and less prone to behavior issues.  He has a purpose, and he enjoys helping.  Two heartbreaking stories led to something great.

You can read the full article here, which tells more about their condition and how they got to where they are now.  It will take a special person with a lot of resources to care for them, but they will be adopted as a pair.

The world is full of people who should aspire to such nobility, but are instead inferior to a dog from the streets.

This Monster Was Created, Not Born

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – A man who was a poster child for victimized children has been sentenced to at least 25 years in prison for raping and choking a 10-year-old girl.  

 Adam Croote — whose own childhood was so wrenching that he was invited to the White House at age 7 as a symbol of the plight of missing children — was sentenced Friday, The Times Union reported. Croote, 23, pleaded guilty in March to attacking a child he was babysitting.

The girl's family knew Croote was a registered sex offender before the assault last June at a home in Berne, near Albany, the newspaper said, citing court documents. But the relatives nonetheless asked Croote to watch the child after school one afternoon, authorities said.

There is so much wrong here.  First, the tragedy that brought Croote to our attention in the first place.  As a boy, Croote learned the world was full of evil and experienced a lot of it firsthand.  Then there is the tragedy of the cycle running on, as he sexually assaults and chokes a girl who managed to get away from him.  The avoidable tragedy?  That her parents knew he was a registered sex offender and still left her in his company.  What.  The.  Hell.

For all the stupidity above, it was two kids who bore the price.  We would do well to remember that.  Every article we read about child abuse, child molestation, neglect, it's all contributing to these people as adults.  Some grow up damaged, some grow up fine, some grow up to choke little girls and rape them.

We can't ever give up the fight to stop this.  Ever.

Blind Doctor Beaten By Cop

CBC News has obtained video that shows a Windsor, Ont., police officer beating a doctor who is legally blind.

Det. David Van Buskirk, who attacked Dr. Tyceer Abouhassan on April 22, 2010, pleaded guilty Thursday to assault causing bodily harm.

Video cameras at the Jackson Park Health Centre captured the beating, although much of the physical altercation is slightly out of frame. Afterwards, Van Buskirk wrote in his report that the doctor ""immediately reached out and grabbed my throat and pushed me backward."

Of course he did, you jackhole.  You walked up to him and attacked him, with maybe five seconds of "discussion" beforehand.

In pleading guilty, Van Buskirk admitted that Abouhassan "did not strike him at all." He also confirmed that all of the doctor's reaction "was in lawful resistance to being assaulted by the accused."

And yet at first, the doctor was facing charges.  After they watched this video.  After the cop lied, saying he pushed him by the throat, and now says he didn't strike him at all.  I guess when an officer lies it's no big deal.  I wonder if his comments were revised when he learned about the video, and that it wasn't just a word of one man against another.

The man suffered a broken nose, torn eyelid, detached retina, and a bruised rib.  You know why his face took such a beating?  Because he's blind, dammit, and he couldn't see to defend his face, the most basic human reflex.

Both Bridgeman and Keane were charged with discreditable conduct for trying to prevent Abouhassan from filing criminal charges against Van Buskirk. Both were later exonerated.

Of course they were.

So help me God, if "he wasn't using that retina anyway" becomes part of the defense I will freaking lose it.  Considering how this case has gone so far, I wouldn't say anything is impossible here.

Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is Catholicism

Please know going in to this that I bear no ill will against practicing Catholics.  Like anyone else, they are following the path their heart calls them to, and I understand the kind old lady in the corner has no actual bearing on the stupidity of church officials.  If I can give the Catholic church credit for anything, it's for ignoring their followers and the conversations remain mostly one-way. 


Having said that, let's dig in, shall we?


Maureen Dowd wrote an awesome piece for the New York Times in which she questions the church and its priorities.  One line in particular jumps out at me, because it's something I have wondered about as well.  How can the church bark at women for being too busy helping and spreading the generosity of Christ, while proactively defending the child molesting priests that hide within?  In what screwed up world does that even approach common sense?  

It has become a habit for the church to go after women. A Worcester, Mass., bishop successfully fought to get a commencement speech invitation taken away from Vicki Kennedy, widow of Teddy Kennedy, because of her positions on some social issues. And an Indiana woman named Emily Herx has filed a lawsuit saying she was fired from her job teaching in a Catholic school and denounced as a “grave, immoral sinner” by the parish pastor after she used fertility treatments to try to get pregnant with her husband.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York recently told The Wall Street Journal that only “a tiny minority” of priests were tainted by the sex abuse scandal. But it’s a global shame spiral. The church leadership never recoiled in horror from pedophilia, yet it recoils in horror from outspoken nuns.  

Pope Benedict, who became known as “God’s Rottweiler” when he was the cardinal conducting the office’s loyalty tests, assigned Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle to crack down on the climate of “corporate dissent” among the poor nuns.

When the nuns push for social justice, they’re put into stocks. Yet Archbishop Sartain has led a campaign in Washington to reverse the state’s newly enacted law allowing same-sex marriage, and he’s a church hero.

Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a Catholic lobbying group slapped in the Vatican report, said it scares the church hierarchy to have “educated women form thoughtful opinions and engage in dialogue.”

Yeah, you read that right.  God's Rottweiler has assigned a task manager to keep those nuns in line, and make sure they only speak the words the church approves.  So the next time the church tries to say they have done all they can to stop the molesting of innocent children, or that they simply can't control the behavior of the priests, I think it's a fair question to ask for examples of them publicly denouncing the behavior and getting enforcers involved to stop them.  Then sit back and listen to the silence.

Auto-Mitt-ic For The People

And now Team Etch-A-Sketch is taking credit for the auto bailout, believe it or not.

At a Saturday forum hosted by the Washington Post, Fehrnstrom said that Obama’s auto industry rescue was successful because it was exactly what Romney himself proposed.

“[Romney’s] position on the bailout was exactly what President Obama followed,” Fehrnstrom said. “He said, ‘If you want to save the auto industry, just don’t write them a check. That will seal their doom. What they need to do is go through a managed bankruptcy process.’”

“Consider that the crown jewel,” Fehrnstrom said. “The only economic success that President Obama has had is because he followed Mitt Romney’s advice.”

Back here in reality, we recall that Mitt Romney's advice was "Let Detroit go bankrupt."

IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed. 

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.

They got that check.  Now they are thriving after being bailed out AND going through a managed process.   Here's what Mitt said back then too:

I believe the federal government should invest substantially more in basic research — on new energy sources, fuel-economy technology, materials science and the like — that will ultimately benefit the automotive industry, along with many others. I believe Washington should raise energy research spending to $20 billion a year, from the $4 billion that is spent today. The research could be done at universities, at research labs and even through public-private collaboration.

That of course got nowhere because the GOP has brutally decimated funding for energy research programs too.  And now Mitt is taking credit because it was all his idea.  It's laughable stuff, and yet Mitt resets history whenever he can, because he's an inveterate liar.

Nice.

Rotten Apple, Part 2

Gonna say that I wasn't aware as to the extent that Apple plays the bad corporate citizen game, but the NY Times continuing "iEconomy" series has been very illuminating. Apple's profits in 2011 doubled from 2010, their tax payments basically remained the same through a number of accounting gimmicks and offshore shell games.  This weekend's installment discusses those tax games, dubbed "The Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich".

Apple, the world’s most profitable technology company, doesn’t design iPhones here. It doesn’t run AppleCare customer service from this city. And it doesn’t manufacture MacBooks or iPads anywhere nearby.

Yet, with a handful of employees in a small office here in Reno, Apple has done something central to its corporate strategy: it has avoided millions of dollars in taxes in California and 20 other states. 

Apple’s headquarters are in Cupertino, Calif. By putting an office in Reno, just 200 miles away, to collect and invest the company’s profits, Apple sidesteps state income taxes on some of those gains. 

California’s corporate tax rate is 8.84 percent. Nevada’s? Zero. 

Setting up an office in Reno is just one of many legal methods Apple uses to reduce its worldwide tax bill by billions of dollars each year. As it has in Nevada, Apple has created subsidiaries in low-tax places like Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the British Virgin Islands — some little more than a letterbox or an anonymous office — that help cut the taxes it pays around the world.

And Republicans and conservatives will tell you that the problem isn't the tax code that allows states to play their zero sum games with jobs, nor is it Apple setting up their jobs in California to take advantage of Silicon Valley and paying zero taxes in Nevada as a contribution back.

No, the problem is California has a corporate tax rate above zero percent, and that's inherently evil.  Meanwhile, the reason why Apple stays in California includes some $400 million in R&D tax credits and grants.  Have your cake and eat it too, and other US multi-national corporations are following suit.

In the GOP world, it's Red States vs Blue ones.  We're not united at all, we're fighting each other for resources through war by any other means, most of it economic.  No wonder our national economy is weak.

They don't want anyone else to be a part of their "America".

StupidiNews!

• The trial of Adis Medunjanin, the Bosnian-born man accused along with 2 others of a 2009 plot to detonate suicide bombs in NYC subway stations, goes to a jury today.
• Continuing protests from college students in Montreal against substantial tuition and fee hikes has forced Canada's Liberal Party to move its planned convention out of the city.
• Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has returned from cancer treatment in Cuba to continue his campaign as he remains in the lead for another six-year term.
• The UN's Syrian peace plan is falling apart as killings by the al-Assad regime continue and the international community begins to ask what steps must be taken next.
• A Georgia teen is suing two classmates for libel after they allegedly created a fake Facebook page to bully her with.