Fire Walker Chronicles: Rolling In The Deep

Team Koch is stomping a dollar sign shaped mud hole in Tom Barrett and then drying it out, with the super-PACs backing GOP Gov. Scott Walker outspending the Democrats by more than 3-to-1 in the Wisconsin recall.

Walker's campaign, which has raised a record $25 million+ for the recall campaign, spent over $7 million for TV buys from March 20 through Election Day, according to a source tracking ad buys in the state. In anticipation of the recall, the governor has been on the air since last December, with spots touting his record, including his controversial budget repair bill curbing collective bargaining for public employees. In total, Walker's campaign has spent over $12 million on recall election campaign ads.

Republicans are apparently absolutely giddy with the thought that Walker's win will usher in a new era of permanent GOP dominance.  If it takes millions of dollars to purchase said dominance, and they have it to spend, why by gum, they're going to do just that.  Thanks, Citizens United!

Walker is the frontrunner in the campaign, but Democrats released two polls this week showing the governor with only a small, single-digit lead. The outcome of the race will largely rest on which side can turn out its base. There are very few uncommitted voters, with nearly everyone holding a firm opinion of Walker. 

The two candidates will debate tonight and once more next Thursday.

It's not over with yet, folks.  It's all about getting people to the polls.  Badger, badger, badger, don't be a mushroom.

Bunch Of Bubble Heads

Conservative Michael Barone has figured out why liberals don't always win, their refusal to accept wingnut framing of arguments means we're "cocooned" away from "reality".  His clever assault begins thusly:

It's comfortable living in a cocoon -- associating only with those who share your views, reading journalism and watching news that only reinforces them, avoiding those on the other side of the cultural divide.

Liberals have been doing this for a long time.

It may be the the least self-aware passage ever penned by a conservative pundit.  It gets worse from there, but the gist of it is since Barone lives in his own impenetrable cocoon of Derp, he argues that because liberals don't choose to accept the perfection of the FOX News reality simulator, they can't win arguments with conservatives.

In other words, liberals can only win in Barone's eyes if they accept the fact they've already lost.  And since they've already lost, why bother winning?  Didn't you know all real Americans go to megachurches and watch Hannity and listen to Rush?  The rest of you people live in a cocoon.  You should try it!

Of course, the outfits that are dedicated to fighting the right's message on their own terms by listening to Rush and watching FOX and going after them?  Yeah, they don't exist in Barone's world, apparently.  Funny how that works, right?

Engagement Lawsuit Raises Questions

Either this is the worst "gold digger" ever, or she has a hell of a defense, returning a ring worth $32,000.

Kendra Platt-Lee decided she no longer wanted to get married to Steven Silverstein.  She broke off the wedding and returned the ring, only to find he was suing her.  Silverstein wants to be compensated for wedding expenses and two years of rent for the time they lived together.

I can only pray he doesn't have a leg to stand on when it comes to the time living together, but when it comes to legal matters I take nothing for granted.  She lived with him, with his full consent and permission, and owes him nothing (or so one would think).  As far as wedding expenses, she voluntarily returned the ring, worth over thirty grand.  It's going to be hard to portray her as victimizing or taking advantage when she initiated the return.  I found mixed results when it comes to the forced return or compensation for engagement rings, so she by no means had to be so forthcoming with it.  While splitting the wedding costs may be nice, I'm not sure how the law will fall on that one either.

Silverstein does claim she wiped out a joint account.  However, good luck doing anything with that, as it's a joint account for a reason.  It will be interesting to see if she did.  It doesn't at all jibe with the return of the ring.  If she did though, it will give some weight to his claims of greediness and shady play.  It would also be just about impossible to prosecute, so she's either very clever or he's very determined to smear her reputation.

Love hurts, baby.

Crappy News Day

Well, crap.

Three bodies were pulled out of a septic pond (a fancy phrase for poo pit).  They are believed to be those of a father and his two sons.  A tractor was found parked and still running on the scene.

The family had been working at the manure pit, but foul play has not been ruled out.  The obvious question is, who would purposely dive into something that smelled like that?

In other news, we have a woman who beat up her own mother for money.  To make sure the double-amputee could not follow her, she also took her mother's cane, ensuring she would stay put.

Jessica Strahl (Click for crazy-eyed photo goodness) jumped into a truck after assaulting her mother, and has not been seen since she pawned the necklaces she ripped from her mother's neck.

Shocked To Discover Gambling At This Establishment, He Says

Over at Salon, ex-Reagan operative and National Review writer Michael Fumento takes a long hard look at the abyss of the right-wing punditry in America and decides "That's it, I'm outta here."

This is nuts! Literally. As in “mass hysteria.” That’s a phenomenon I wrote about for a quarter-century, from the heterosexual AIDS “epidemic” to the swine flu “pandemic” that killed vastly fewer people than seasonal flu, to “runaway Toyotas.” Mass hysteria is when a large segment of society loses touch with reality, or goes bonkers, if you will, on a given issue – like believing that an incredibly mild strain of flu could kill eight times as many Americans as normal seasonal flu. (It killed about a third as many.)

I was always way ahead of the curve. And my exposés primarily appeared in right-wing publications. Back when they were interested in serious research. I also founded a conservative college newspaper, held positions in the Reagan administration and at several conservative think tanks, and published five books that conservatives applauded. I’ve written for umpteen major conservative publications – National Review, the Weekly Standard, the Wall Street Journal and Forbes, among them.

But no longer. That was the old right. The last thing hysteria promoters want is calm, reasoned argument backed by facts. And I’m horrified that these people have co-opted the name “conservative” to scream their messages of hate and anger.

Well, took you long enough.  But welcome to what I've been saying for almost four years now.  We need a better Republican party, because you can't always count on the Democrats to do the right thing.  But the choices in 2012 are between the Democrats and the Insane Party Of Effing Bonkers.  I'll stick with the Dems, thanks.

The Republicans?  Yeah, this house needs to be torn down and rebuilt from the ground up.  They're doing most of the tearing down themselves.  The bad news is they're trying to take the rest of us with them.

The Old Line State Gets A New Line

Yeah, I know, it's a Huffington Post article, but it's actually great news:  the streak of same-sex marriage bans on state ballots may be headed for a huge failure.

In a dramatic shift, Maryland voters overwhelmingly would vote to uphold a law allowing same-sex marriage, according to a survey released Thursday by Public Policy Polling.

Fifty-seven percent of likely voters would vote to uphold the law allowing same-sex marriage, while 37 percent would not, representing a 12-point shift from an identical survey in early March. Fifty-two percent think gay marriage should be recognized, while 39 percent do not. Both polls were commissioned for Marylanders for Marriage Equality.

Maryland passed a gay marriage law, but it doesn't take effect until January 1, 2013. Opponents of the law are seeking to get 55,736 signatures to force a referendum on it by June 30, which is likely to happen. Maine and Minnesota will vote on gay marriage in November.

The poll notes that the shift can be explained "almost entirely" by a change in black voters' attitudes. Previously, 56 percent said they would vote against the new law, with 39 percent saying they would vote for uphold it. Now, 55 percent say they will vote for the law and 36 percent are opposed.

And yes, PPP attributes the shift in Maryland's black voters entirely to President Obama backing same-sex marriage.  The end result is that if this trend continues, Maryland's expected ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage in the state's constitution before the state's same-sex marriage law can take effect in January 2013 will go down to a serious defeat.  Ta-Nehisi Coates sums it up:

It would not simply mean that same-sex marriage held by a majority vote, but that it did so in one of the blackest states in the country. I don't think that says anything distinctive about African-Americans, except that in the climate, it seems exceptional to point out that black people are, in fact, not aliens permanently in the grip of pathology, but Americans.

I was skeptical that Obama would actually influence black opinions. I'm not sure he has. But I can't rule it out. It's clear that the trend was toward support. Maybe Obama gave it the final push. On a related note, preachers who thought they were going to use this to test, for better or ill, the most popular man in black America, should reconsider.

Amen.

StupidiNews!

• The SpaceX Dragon unmanned spacecraft is expected to dock with the International Space Station today, delivering supplies to astronauts.
• PFC Naser Jason Abdo has been convicted by a jury of a terrorism bomb plot to kill his fellow soldiers, and faces life in prison.
• Lockheed Martin will hire temp workers in Texas to get around striking machinists at its aircraft production plant in Fort Worth.
• The latest plan to save money in Detroit?  Putting out half the city's streetlights.
• Google has revealed for the first time who is asking it to remove searches over copyright issues, and #1 is Microsoft.

Last Call

If you want to know why Republicans are so very interested in vote suppression among Latino voters (and minorities in general, but especially Latino voters) at the state level, it's because of this right here:

Less than six months before November’s presidential election, President Obama enjoys a sizable lead over Mitt Romney among Latino voters, according to a new national NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Telemundo poll of Latino respondents.

The challenge for the Obama campaign, however, will be turning out these voters, who aren’t as interested in the election as all other Americans are.

The GOP vote suppression efforts are working at an organic level.  You decrease turnout of minority voters, Republicans win.

In this survey, Obama holds a 34-point lead over Romney among registered Latino voters, 61 to 27 percent. In 2008, according to the exit polls, Obama defeated McCain among this key voting bloc, 67 to 31 percent.

In addition, Obama’s approval rating among all Latino adults stands at 61 percent (compared with 48 percent of all Americans in the new NBC/WSJ poll), and approval of his handling of the economy is at 54 percent (versus 43 percent overall).

Meanwhile, Romney is struggling with Latinos, the poll shows. Just 26 percent view him positively, while 35 percent see him in a negative light. By comparison, Obama’s positive/negative score among Latinos is 58/23 percent.

State efforts like Arizona's ridiculously racist immigration nonsense (mirrored in other Southern states), Voter ID laws, voter ballot language laws, all designed to keep minority turnout down, but it's absolutely weighted towards killing Latino turnout.  If Latino turnout is high, Barack Obama will win, and Democrats will keep the Senate.  If they don't...

But here’s a troubling sign for the Obama campaign: Latinos aren’t as excited about the upcoming election. A combined 68 percent of Latino voters say they are highly interested in the upcoming election (registering an “8”,”9”, or “10” on a 10-point scale). That’s compared with 81 percent of all voters who express high interest.

Getting Latino voters to the polls will decide it in 2012.   The GOP knows it.  They've been preparing for this for years now.  There's a method to this madness, folks.  And it's working for them.

Number Crunched

I was going to engage in my favorite sport of pointing out why Jim Pethokoukis is a meathead, but John Cole handily and beat me to it.

You’d think that would be the end of it. But not when you have outrageous hacks like James Pethokoukis on the case. You all remember him, right? He’s the clown who, in AUGUST OF 2008, was denying that we were in a recession. He then, a few months later in October 2008, was forced to admit we were in recession (since the economy had crashed and the DOW had dropped 5,000 point), decided that the reason the economy tanked and the DOW dropped was because investors were afraid that Obama was leading in the polls, otherwise known as the Goldberg theorem. He later theorized that Obama’s interaction with Joe the Plumber would cost Obama the election. His crimes against reality and reason are so severe that we’ve almost had to dedicate an entire server to document the atrocities, but yet, for some reason, he is still held in some regard in some circle-jerks circles.

Jim attacks this solid article by Rex Nutting at CBS Marketwatch showing that the Obama administration's "record deluge of government spending growth" is in fact...not.

Here are the facts, according to the official government statistics:

• In the 2009 fiscal year — the last of George W. Bush’s presidency — federal spending rose by 17.9% from $2.98 trillion to $3.52 trillion. Check the official numbers at the Office of Management and Budget.

• In fiscal 2010 — the first budget under Obama — spending fell 1.8% to $3.46 trillion.

• In fiscal 2011, spending rose 4.3% to $3.60 trillion.

• In fiscal 2012, spending is set to rise 0.7% to $3.63 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of the budget that was agreed to last August.

• Finally in fiscal 2013 — the final budget of Obama’s term — spending is scheduled to fall 1.3% to $3.58 trillion. Read the CBO’s latest budget outlook.

The big surge in federal spending happened in fiscal 2009, before Obama took office. Since then, spending growth has been relatively flat.

Over Obama’s four budget years, federal spending is on track to rise from $3.52 trillion to $3.58 trillion, an annualized increase of just 0.4%.

There has been no huge increase in spending under the current president, despite what you hear. 

You want to know why deficits have exploded?

THE BUSH TAX CUTS.

And that's because during the recession, revenues have plummeted.  Because Barack Obama cut taxes even more on middle class families and businesses, just like economists advised him to do and Republicans screamed at him to do.  Again, total government spending has remained flat.  Revenues have dropped.  Republicans will never, ever let us raise revenues.  Ever.

And that's where Jim comes in, saying that as a percentage of GDP, spending under Barack Obama was up.  This is true.  You want to know why? 

THE ECONOMY CRASHED.

The economy crashed, to spending remained constant but the GDP contracted.  Therefore spending as a percentage of GDP went up.  That's called "math."  When revenues and GDP both decrease, and spending remains constant, deficits and debt go up.

The other thing that's constant?  Jim Pethokoukis is a hack.

I Believe I Am Detecting A Policy Trend Here

Mitt Romney's solution to public education?  Add profit motive at the expense of the taxpayer.  Actually, that's Mitt Romney's solution to everything, now that I think about it.

Mitt Romney proposed a series of steps to overhaul the public education system, reigniting the debate over school choice as his campaign intensifies its effort to introduce the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to a general-election audience.

The education plan, detailed in a speech today in Washington, would create a voucher-like system to give low- income and disabled students federal funds to attend charter schools, private institutions and public schools outside their district.

“I don’t like the direction of American education, and as president, I will do everything in my power to get education on track for the kids of this great land,” Romney told a gathering of Latino business owners at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 

Hey, if vouchers are good enough for Grandma's health care, they're good enough for Junior's edumacation.  Best part:

“President Obama has made his choice, and I have made mine: As president, I will be a champion of real education reform in America, and I won’t let any special interest get in the way,” he said. “We have to stop putting campaign cash ahead of our kids.” 

You know, like the campaign cash from charter school lobbyists eager to take tens of billions in taxpayer dollars and wring out profits rather than graduates.

Even better part:

Romney’s plan wouldn’t increase the federal budget, said domestic policy adviser Oren Cass. 

Just like the Bush tax cuts, am I right?

The Bon Salutes You

A man teeing off at the 14th over the weekend hooked his shot, watched the ball disappear and then heard screams, according to a Murfreesboro Police Department incident report. He followed the scream to find a woman clutching her bloody mouth.

Her husband told police that they were riding their motorcycles when he saw the ball bounce across the road and near her motorcycle. There, it careened into her face. She was able to avoid wrecking her bike, but the ball knocked out “several” teeth, the report said. She was taken to Middle Tennessee Medical Center for treatment.

Scream?  I freaking bet she did.  I don't have the brain processing power to handle so much pain, and with zero time to prepare for it.  And you know what else is incredible?  She kept her bike up.  That is one tough bird, folks.  Stud muffin doesn't even come close to touching this.  It is clear she is riding a motorcycle because those GIANT BRASS BALLS making flying such a hassle.

Dear Lady: If you ever read this, I really did salute you, after horrified tears on your behalf dried up.

Getting It Right: Jim Parsons Comes Out

Jim Parsons is gay, and we know this due to an incredibly dry biography.  He has been in a ten-year relationship, which was also delivered with no emphasis whatsoever.

And that's how it should be.  It means we are moving towards a time when it's just a fact, not circus tickets.  He is not a poster child to be forced into talking about his personal life, and he is not subject to approval.  He's the same awesome guy who made the character Sheldon Cooper come to life like nobody else could.  He is no more and no less talented than he was last week, but in the eyes of some, this will diminish him.  That is a sad reminder that some folks just aren't ready to grow up.

I still love my Shelly Bean, and I imagine most of you do, too.

Oiled Up, Bent Over

Oil prices in May have plummeted $15 a barrel from $105 to under $90 this week as European woes take their toll on crude and drop prices to a new a seven-month low.

Oil prices fell below $90 a barrel for the first time in seven months Wednesday as tumult in the eurozone, excess supply and positive news out of Iran weighed on prices.

Crude oil for July delivery fell as low as $89.55 a barrel, marking a 2% decline before settling at $89.90. The selling spilled across multiple commodities, with gold dropping more than $28 to $1,548.4 an ounce.

"Crude prices are really dropping because of concerns about Europe and optimism about Iran," said Phil Flynn, a market analyst at PFGBest. "That's really what's driving the market right now."

Adding further pressure was the Department of Energy's weekly report that showed crude supplies climbed by 883,000 barrels to 382.5 million barrels.

Once again we're in a situation where decreased demand and increased supply has lowered oil prices.

But not of course gasoline prices.

But just when you thought it was safe to get back into long-road-trip mode, gas prices are climbing in some locations again. "There is no good reason to raise the price based on what is going on in the market right now," AAA spokesman Roger Boyd told The Courier-Journal of Kentucky, where the average price of regular rose 5 cents overnight.

In Clark County, Ohio, "many stations listed gas for $3.59 a gallon Tuesday morning. By 3 p.m., several stations had jumped to $3.79 a gallon," the Springfield News-Sun reports. A GasBuddy analyst said Ohio's average price jumped 6 cents in 24 hours. 

Gotta gouge those drivers ahead of the holiday weekend, you know.

Lies, Damn Lies, And GOP Statistics Involving Planned Parenthood

Republicans just can't tell the truth about Planned Parenthood, and the false outrage they generate is more than enough smoke to cover defunding the organization in state after state.  The latest battleground is Pennsylvania, where lawmakers there are literally hitting cut and paste on Arizona's horrific (and unconstitutional) abortion law, justified by the lie that Planned Parenthood performs an abortion "every 95 seconds."

Following in the footsteps of Republicans in Texas and Arizona, Pennsylvania State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R) proposed on Wednesday a bill that would prohibit the Planned Parenthood Federation of America from receiving any taxpayer funding in his state.

Metcalfe was due to appear at a press conference on Wednesday morning with anti-abortion activists who wrote the bill, including representatives from the Alliance Defense Fund and the Susan B. Anthony List. Both groups boast on their websites of how effective they have been in harming Planned Parenthood’s funding, with the Susan B. Anthony List claiming that it played an integral role in sapping more than $61 million from the women’s health provider in legislative battles across the nation.

In a prepared statement describing his bill, Metcalfe invented a number of allegations about the women’s health group, including a bizarre claim that they perform “an abortion every 95 seconds.” A similarly bizarre, admittedly invented claim landed Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) in hot water last April, when he alleged that abortions are “well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.”

Planned Parenthood says approximately 3 percent of their patients request referrals for abortion services. The vast majority of their work pertains to preventative care, like cancer and STD screenings, birth control prescriptions and reproductive health education, for lower-income patients who are underserved by the health care industry.

The federal government and many states, including Pennsylvania, have already prohibited Planned Parenthood from using taxpayer funds to carry out abortions.

Less than 3%.  Referrals.  You know, to other clinics where abortions can be performed.   But somehow, that becomes "every 95 seconds" Planned Parenthood is doing this with taxpayer funding because all Republicans have to do is yell SLUT loudly and often enough and women magically lose the ability to determine their own reproductive health choices.

Oh, and while we're at it, let's set some facts straight about the Affordable Care Act and your rights under it, which the GOP is also trying to take away from you.

StupidiNews!

• With still a week before the June 1 official opening of hurricane season, a second named storm swirls in the Pacific as Hurricane Bud forms off of Mexico's west coast.
• Iowa Democrats are blasting GOP Rep. Steve King, calling on him to renounce his comments comparing immigrants to dogs.
• Republicans continue to block re-authorization for the Violence Against Women Act as House GOP leaders refuse to take up the Senate version passed earlier this month.
• Britain's Q1 GDP numbers have been revised downward still as the UK's economy shrank 0.3% in the first three months of the year due in part to a construction slump.
• Microsoft will apparently be releasing a full version of Office for tablets in November, similar to a leaked beta seen in February.