StupidiNews!

• Wildfires in Washington state have scorched 28,000 acres and 60 homes as firefighters try to contain the blaze.
• The Secret Service is investigating a burned cat staked to an Obama campaign sign in a Minneapolis park as a possible threat.
• Retiring Blue Dog Dem Rep. Dennis Cardoza of California is now resigning immediately, citing both personal issues and the House's recess for all but a few weeks between now and Election Day.
• Hong-Kong based Standard Chartered has settled with the State of New York for $340 million over violation of Iranian sanctions, but the company still faces federal probes.
• With its software upgrade complete, the Mars Curiosity rover is now beaming back panoramic views of the red planet as it explores the surface of Mars.

Last Call

Since I’m feeling kinda floaty today anyway, I’ll warn you about getting out of the boat into Jennifer Rubin country.  Do not go there, brave traveler.  It is a silly place.

The latest media obsession (or is it an Obama campaign talking point?) is to demand Mitt Romney explain how his budget and entitlement ideas differ from those Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). When he declines, the media screams, “Evasion!” 

Why on earth would Romney answer that, and, more important, does anyone care? If the media is really interested in a compare and contrast exercise they can do their own analysis or ask some staffers. Romney, of course, is running at the top of the ticket, and both Romney and Ryan are running on Romney’s agenda. All Romney need do is explain what HE is for and how that differs from the president’s plans. Is there any voter who will decide to vote for or against Romney because of deviations from the plan his VP has proposed? That would be a first.

The media might have a point if Ryan had criticized Romney’s plans or if his own plans were vastly different from Romney’s. But in basic framework there is no difference between the two. They both want to lower tax rates and expand the base. Both Ryan and Romney want to block grant and reform Medicaid. Both favor a premium-support plan for Medicare. In short, they are in sync on every significant fiscal issue, and Ryan has agreed to be Romney’s VP.

I don’t even have to say anything at this point, she is the tautology of terribadness, the existential essence of ERHMAGERD, the dao of derp.

I’ll say it anyway.  Jennifer Rubin is so shamefully awful a shill for Romney, that if his programming included the advanced neural algorithms to approximate embarrassment he’d have to sit her down and let her cry on his synthetic pauldrons for a while until he had to flush his cache.  It actually causes physical pain for me to contemplate how bad the other employees of the Post have to feel when they read Rubin’s whiny, adolescent crap.  Why somebody in charge up there hasn’t told her “look, you’re pretty much the worst political pundit on the planet, and we would actually gain readership on a sustained basis if we fired you just from the intensity of the euphoria generated by your terminated employment” I have no idea, other than I guess they like what she writes.  That thought alone could rip apart suns.

Here’s another thought.  The Romney camp should just hire her.  They really, really do deserve each other, and she can go on pundit shows and say “Why should Mitt Romney have to answer that question?  Who cares?” because why should our media do anything that mitt Romney doesn’t like?  Why should they ask questions when everyone knows the purpose of the media is to crap out talking points like owl pellets and nod seriously?  Heck, then she could get paid in energon cubes or whatever Romneybot runs on these days and we could all be really happy far, far away from the both of them.

Dark Money Days

A new Pro Publica investigation finds that Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS and the Koch Brothers' Americans For Prosperity have already spent $60 million in ads targeting President Obama, burying spending by both parties' outside SuperPACs and dwarfing both political parties' internal PACs.  Democrats in particular are getting destroyed by this unprecedented level of spending by these "dark money" groups, which thanks to Congress, don't have to disclose donors and can take unlimited money from those donors.

Crossroads GPS, or Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, is the brainchild of GOP strategist Karl Rove, and spent an estimated $41.7 million. Americans for Prosperity, credited with helping launch the Tea Party movement, is backed in part by billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch, and spent an estimated $18.2 million.

Campaign-finance reform advocates say the spending by the two organizations highlights the role anonymous money is playing in this election, which will be the most expensive in history.

"First of all, it shows how much desire there is for secrecy among huge donors who want to be able to spend money to influence this election without leaving any fingerprints," said Fred Wertheimer, who runs Democracy 21, a watchdog group. "Secondly, it shows that so far, there is an enormous advantage being played in this election by just two groups that are exercising undue influence in the elections."
In an email, Jonathan Collegio, a spokesman for Crossroads GPS, defended the group's work. Wertheimer's concern reflected partisan bias, he charged.

"Liberal partisans are attacking conservative nonprofits for doing the same things that environmentalist groups, anti war groups, and labor groups have been doing for years without a single complaint," Collegio wrote.

Americans for Prosperity did not respond to a phone call or an email.

Conservative social-welfare nonprofits have spent about $70 million on TV ads in the election cycle so far, compared to just $1.6 million by liberal groups, CMAG data shows. 

Unlimited millions to buy the election?  Republicans have it.  They have enough money to put the Robot/Zombie '12 ticket in the White House, and all they would need is three more Senators, and the Republic is gone.  Of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations.  They'll have enough money to run as many ads as they want, and as the election draws near, you won't be able to avoid them.

Until we get a Congress that will overturn Citizens United with a Constitutional amendment, corporations will forever own our political process and our politicians.

Civil Rights, Uncivil Wrongs

So which is more important, one person's religious freedom of creed, or another person's civil rights, when they come into opposition?  The town of Big Sandy, Texas is about to find out.

A Hawkins man is claiming his civil rights and religious freedom were violated earlier this year when a black man sacked his groceries and a Big Sandy grocery store owner banned the customer from the business.

DeWitt R. Thomas filed a federal lawsuit in July against Keith Langston, owner of Two Rivers Grocery & Market.

According to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Tyler, Thomas entered the market on March 5 to buy food.

He stated in a nine-page, hand-written lawsuit that he told the grocery sacker, a black man, “Wait a minute, don’t touch my groceries. I can’t have someone negroidal touch my food. It’s against my creed.”

Thomas claimed the cashier was “perplexed” by his request and yelled at him to take his items and leave.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Thomas said, “It’s pretty simple. They treated me really bad because I told them it was against my creed.”

Now, so far at least in the last 50 years or so, the courts have been pretty damn clear that a person's civil rights beats racist "religious freedom to be racist" baloney when you openly claim you have the religious freedom to violate another person's civil rights.

But this is Texas, and this jackass is literally making a federal case over it.  And so we have a case now where one person is claiming his religious freedom of creed is being violated by having a black person bag his groceries.   The more you think about this, the more obvious that it becomes that if religious freedom has its limits, and must, or one could conceivably violate any law and claim persecution under religious beliefs.

But there are a number of Republicans who have openly said that the Civil Rights Act needs to be abolished, and that civil rights simply don't exist.  Would this become the test case to do so?  That's what worries me.  It would have three votes in SCOTUS almost assuredly, if not four, to void the entire law.  Remember, the conservatives on the court had no problem completely annihilating the Affordable Care Act because of what they proclaimed was a legal technicality, and John Roberts basically saved the law out of not being the man who rolled back the clock.

I don't know if he has another one of those in him, either.  So yeah, as moronic as this sounds, the SCOTUS conservatives would find a way to ignore precedent and side with Mr. Negroid Touchin' Ma Groceries here if it meant the end of the Civil Rights Act.

Keep an eye on this case.

License To Fail

INDIANAPOLIS -- A central Indiana judge has granted a preliminary injunction restoring driving privileges for a woman whose license was suspended in June for not having autoinsurance even though she didn't own a car to drive. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana said the ruling in Marion County could have an impact on others who also have had their licenses suspended.

What brought this about, they do not say.  But this is a perfect example of government fail.  You don't need insurance to have a license to drive a car, so how was this system ever put in place?  It seems the judge couldn't just point to a common sense document and end the case, so this must be on the books somewhere.

Fail.

New Series Highlights Rapes In Military

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The enormous obstacles and emotional torment that a female solider confronts in reporting a sexual assault in the military are the focus of the three-part Web series "Lauren" debuting Monday on YouTube's new channel WIGS, which focuses on drama for women. 

Featuring "Flashdance" star Jennifer Beals and Troian Bellisario, "Lauren" gives a close-up look at the challenges women service members face in trying to find justice after being raped. It's a problem that military leaders have given unprecedented attention to this year.

Thousand of women reported being raped last year, according to the article and other sources.  There were wide ranges in figures, and the numbers soar higher when even modest estimates are given for unreported rapes.  The most conservative number I found was 2,400.  That's still way too many, and a lowball figure to boot.

Women want to fight to defend their country.  They deserve the same respect as men, and safeguards against men who would do them harm on downtime.  It will always be a problem,  but improvements in policy and attitude could go a long way towards bringing the numbers down and ensuring justice and fair treatment for victims.

They're willing to die for us.  Supporting them is the least we can do.

STOCK-ing Up For The Recess

The House has time to not pass jobs, but it does have time for its little feel-good STOCK Act, which of course actually does the opposite of what House Republicans says it does.  And as usual, the devil is in the details that differ from the Senate version which also sailed through last week.

The House on Thursday joined the Senate in overwhelmingly approving a congressional insider-trading ban.

Now the question is whether the two chambers can make a deal — or whether they’ll find a way to stall over details and prevent a bill from reaching President Barack Obama’s desk.

Both measures passed overwhelmingly — 417-2 in the House and 96-3 in the Senate last week — but the bills differ in some respects.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) had released several changes to the STOCK Act earlier this week that broadened the bill’s disclosure requirements and insider-trading ban to the executive branch and ensured that lawmakers convicted of a crime couldn’t collect their pensions.

It also puts in place tougher rules on public officials participating in initial public offerings.

But the bill also scrapped a provision that would have required so-called political intelligence firms to disclose their activities much like lobbyists already do – much to the dismay of Democrats who favored tougher rules on the industry.

Cantor knows how this game works.  He wants to sting Obama, but let the lobbyists continue to be able to play their little games.  Even Chuck Grassley wanted this in, but Cantor dropped his public intelligence amendment like a hot potato.  Hey, Peepaw Chuck, Tea Party doesn't give a damn about FREEDOM and LIBERTY and DON'T TREAD ON ME.  They work for the lobbyists.  All Republicans do.

Whether they want to or not.

Stopped Clock Is Right Alert

And credit where credit is due:  Glenn Greenwald does sufficiently manage to capture just how unremittingly awful NBC's new war porn reality show "Stars Earn Stripes" really is, and just how far Gen. Wesley Clark has fallen as he has all but damned himself as the ringmaster of the proceedings, but equally complicit in this hell is out Village media and the military complex that owns them, lock, stock, and smoking barrels.

Venerating the military is such a common American cultural ritual that one barely notices when it happens any longer. This morning, ABC News‘ Jake Tapper pointed to a fun, playful video of his ABC News colleague, Pentagon correspondent Luis Martinez, jumping out of a military airplane with the Golden Knights, the U.S. Army team that regularly parachutes into football stadiums during halftime as the adoring crowd cheers. In the four-minute video, Martinez plays the role of the hapless clown, acting goofy and nervous with his manly, stoic military guide, Sgt. 1st Class Aaron Figel, over whom Martinez openly slobbers and to whom he is symbolically tied as he jumps.

That worshipful, tongue-wagging fun and games with the U.S. military might not be the most appropriate activity for someone who is supposedly an adversarial reporter covering the Pentagon would never occur to any of them, because, like NBC, they’re just practicing America’s national religion — military worship — and who would ever object to that? Martinez was the reporter who gave anonymity to military officials to smear Michael Hastings over his Rolling Stone article that ended the career of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, allowing the anonymous officer to claim — falsely — that the quotes used by Hastings were off the record. Martinez did the same when he gave anonymity to a military officer to falsely attack a story by Jeremy Scahill exposing the network of secret prisons in Somalia which the U.S. effectively operates. Nobody practices this religion of military worship like the Pentagon Watchdogs who work at the nation’s major television networks.

I hate reality shows.  I'm not too particularly fond of watching military video games either, but dropping Todd Palin and Dean Cain into Call of Duty and expecting me to watch is pretty much a brand new low. Greenwald concludes:

It’s actually necessary that America have a network reality show that pairs big, muscular soldiers with adoring D-list celebrities — hosted by a former Army General along with someone who used to be on Dancing with the Stars – as they play sanitized war games for the amusement of viewers, all in between commercials from the nation’s largest corporations. That’s way too perfect of a symbol of American culture and politics for us not to have.

Even I have to agree with him on that sentiment.  I can't think of a show I want to see be pulled faster from a network than this for a variety of reasons:  it's crude, shallow, it glorifies our military and demeans our troops as lavishly trained animals, but most of all it's bread and circus nonsense that given the actual horrors of war is a bridge way the hell too far.

It also neatly absolves the drooling armchair generals we already have in Washington, too.  They're the ones who send real people off to die quite real deaths, and often cause all new ones from innocent bystanders.  I understand war is necessary whenever there's human conflict, but there's no need to glorify it like this to sell fast cars and beef jerky.

To hell with this show.

StupidiNews!

• Three are dead after a shooting spree in Texas, including the gunman and the county constable who served the gunman an eviction notice.
• No injuries were reported at an Islamic school in the Chicago suburb of Lombard, Illinois after it was targeted by someone with a thrown device filled with household chemicals.
• As rates of obesity continue to rise in US, a new government survey finds that Colorado remains the least obese state, while Mississippi has nearly 35% of adults in the obese category.
• The eurozone has officially entered recession with its second consecutive quarter of contraction as Q2 GDP shrank 0.2%, pulled under by Italy and Spain's descent.
• Game-maker Blizzard is facing more criticism for weak password security, and experts warn a significant percentage of its online service passwords may already be compromised.

Last Call

How bad is the US Drought of 2012?  This bad.  As in "G20 crisis bad."

France, the United States and G20 president Mexico will hold a conference call at the end of August to discuss whether an emergency international meeting is required to tackle soaring grain prices caused by the worst U.S. drought in half a century.

A French agriculture ministry official said the call would decide whether to convene the first meeting of the G20's Rapid Response Forum. The body was created last year to promote early discussion among decision-makers about abnormal market conditions with the aim of avoiding unilateral action.

"If the situation requires it, a meeting of the Rapid Response Forum could be called as soon as the start of September," the official said, adding the forum could hold its discussions in person or by a conference call.

"The aim is to talk about the situation and avoid measures like export embargoes which would be damaging for everyone," he said.

Benchmark Chicago corn climbed to an all-time high on Friday after the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut its production estimate by 17 percent, intensifying fears the world is headed for a repeat of the 2008 food price crisis.

2008 was brought on by speculation.  2012 will be brought on by serious lack of supply.  The US is still the breadbasket of the world and as it is we have people going hungry in this country every day.  With the drought pushing prices for all food up this fall, it's going to be even harder to feed the country in a healthy manner.

Something else that we need to have a political discussion about, but won't or can't thanks to another monolithic lobby preventing oversight, in this case Big Agra...not to mention the whole climate change issue.

It's getting old.

Stephen Baldwin, Hero

Rarely do the words "Baldwin" and "hero" collide in the same sentence, so let's enjoy this one while there are no photographers around.

Stephen Baldwin was visiting his publicist when he heard a loud sound, which startled everyone.  He then did something sweet, kind and brave and took care of the woman, recognizing the signs of an epileptic seizure.

"All of a sudden every head turned," Baldwin told the New York Daily News. "It was this girl, fallen on the floor." 

A young woman had suddenly gone into violent convulsions which Baldwin, who grew up with an epileptic family member, immediately recognized as an epileptic seizure. As other patrons ignored the episode – "A guy right next to us was just sipping his martini and didn't look up," Taylor said – the actor rushed to her aid. 

"I held her hand and said a few prayers," said Baldwin. The seizure lasted three terrifying minutes before the young woman came to. Baldwin was on hand to comfort her. "She started going, 'Where am I? What happened?' And then I asked, 'Do you have epilepsy?' and she said, 'Yes.' Then she started crying," he said. 

There is little a regular citizen can do besides comfort and make sure the person's environment is as safe as possible.  He comforted her and gave her a light physical contact, and that's all there was without the benefit of drugs or medical equipment.

Could you imagine a person in such distress and not looking up from your martini?  Frankly, that's more what one might expect from a celebrity family member who has enjoyed privilege and fame.  Our littlest Baldwin is growing up.  *sniff*  Good for him.  And in this case, good for her.

Tennessee Judge Suspected Of Pre-Signing Warrants

ATLANTA (AP) - A prosecutor says a judicial watchdog agency is investigating a north Georgia judge for allegedly pre-signing warrants for law enforcement officials.

District Attorney Bert Poston said the Judicial Qualification Commission is investigating Chief Magistrate Bryant Cochran of Murray County over the accusations. Public defender Mike McCarthy said he was aware of the investigation.

This is what happens with safeguards supposedly in place.  Imagine what is being done under the protection of the Patriot Act.  Imagine what happens without judicial oversight or checks and balances to prevent abuse.

A judge knows the full consequences of this, as well as the reasons why his actions were so despicable.  If he is truly guilty, I hope the citizens he has deprived of due process get their day.  The sad thing is, if the police do their job right, they should be able to justify a warrant.  This can't be for any reason other than laziness or cutting corners. Neither are acceptable when people's lives and reputations are at stake.

Voter Fraud: Those Pesky Facts Keep Getting In The Way

A new nationwide analysis of 2,068 alleged election-fraud cases since 2000 shows that while fraud has occurred, the rate is infinitesimal, and in-person voter impersonation on Election Day, which prompted 37 state legislatures to enact or consider tough voter ID laws, is virtually non-existent.

In reality, there have been about ten cases of voter fraud, or about one for every fifteen million potential voters.  Yeah, that's worth changing the laws, and if you don't agree then you're not a patriot.

According to Pennsylvania’s Department of State and the Department of Transportation, as many as 758,000 people, about 9 percent of the state’s 8.2 million registered voters currently don’t have the identification that now will be required at the polling place.

Even if 90 percent of those voters got the correct identification by Nov. 6, that still could leave 75,800 voters disenfranchised. 

A coalition of civil-rights groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union has sued Pennsylvania in state court, arguing the voter ID law would deprive citizens of their right to vote. The trial began July 25.

This is criminal.  There is no other explanation for it.  There are plenty of ways to improve the voting process and experience.  If these numbers are correct, the only people you have to worry about manipulating votes and cheating are the politicians themselves.  I'll try to pretend to be surprised.

Chad Johnson Uses His Head

NFL star Chad Johnson was arrested Saturday night for domestic violence ... allegedly against new wife Evelyn Lozada, one of the stars of VH1's "Basketball Wives," this according to various reports.

Johnson allegedly head-butted Lozada during an argument, says the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, reportedly while the two were in a car. The paper says when cops arrived to the scene, Lozada had lacerations on her forehead. 

That's bad enough, his explanation of the events is even worse.  He says it was an accident.  Yeah, sure, and she just walked into that door.  Seriously, if that's the best defense or explanation he can give, this should be a cut and dried case.

And She Said "No Moose! No Moose!"

You wont have Sarah Palin to kick around at the GOP National Convention anymore, dammit!

Sarah Palin will not speak at the 2012 Republican National Convention, the party's 2008 vice presidential nominee said in a statement Sunday.

"This year is a good opportunity for other voices to speak at the convention and I'm excited to hear them," Palin wrote. "As I've repeatedly said, I support Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in their efforts to replace President Obama at the ballot box, and I intend to focus on grassroots efforts to rally Independents and the GOP base to elect Senate and House members so a wise Congress is ready to work with our new President to get our country back on the right path."


In her statement, Palin did not say whether or not she would attend the convention, which is to take place in Tampa at the end of this month. 

The fact that she immediately released this flatulence when Paul Ryan was announced makes me honestly think Sarah here was expecting Mittens to call her up.   Considering her main source of funding is her grifting through speechifying at rubes, the fact that she's not speaking at the GOP convention makes me also think that she's grasped the concept that Romney and Ryan are screwed.

She's distancing herself from this mess and holding out for 2016, bless her blackened little heart.  Republicans will be back for her.  She'll make sure of that.