StupidiNews!

• Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has suffered "new complications" related to his treatment for cancer, according to officials, and is in "delicate health" at this hour.
• Mexico City has launched a recycling-for-food program to help reduce the 12,000 tons of trash the city produces daily.
• Even if the fiscal cliff is averted, economists believe 2013 will be another mediocre year for the economy.
• End of year Census estimates give more evidence that the US is on pace for its lowest population growth rate since the Great Depression.
• Microsoft is warning that Internet Explorer 8 and earlier are vulnerable to remote hacking exploits, and that users need to upgrade to IE 9.

Last Call

A couple of stories as we head into the last day of the year tomorrow:

First, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been hospitalized as a routine procedure after her follow-up exam to clear her to return to work after her recent illness and concussion turned up a blood clot.  Her docs are not fooling around on this one, and it's a good thing this one was caught when it was.  Blood clots are no joke.

Second, still no fiscal cliff deal as of tonight, and all sides seem to agree that the defense sequestration cuts are going to happen regardless, which could lead to some 800,000 defense contractors having to take some unpaid leave.  Also, no joke.

We'll see where we are tomorrow night.  I'll also pull out my 2012 predictions from last year, and make my 2013 predictions.  Hopefully, we'll have some good news for you guys on New Year's Day, too.

Stay tuned.

Null If I Know

If there's a state currently trying to nullify federal regulations because STATE'S RIGHTS and whatever, you can bet that state is South Carolina.

Claiming that the federal government lacks the Constitutional authority to regulate firearms maintained within one state, a South Carolina State Senator has introduced a bill that would exempt the state’s guns, ammo and accessories from all federal regulation.

The bill, called the South Carolina Firearms Freedom Act, cites the Ninth and Tenth Amendments for legal support, in conjunction with the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The argument goes that the two Amendments give to states all powers not specifically given to Washington, and that since state’s regulate intrastate commerce—in this case, the sale and purchase of firearms—states have the sole authority to regulate firearms manufactured and used within their borders.

The bill’s scope is specifically limited to only natively built and sold firearms to keep it from broaching the federal government’s power to regulate interstate trade via the Commerce Clause.

State Sen. Lee Bright (R) pre-filed the bill earlier this month for the state legislature to take up the issue in the coming session. Bright filed the same bill during the current session, but it never reached a floor vote.

This is really a clever plan to create jobs by attracting the rocket-propelled grenade industry, right?

"If we make it and sell it within the state then the Feds can't touch us" is something that's been used before in legal arguments over the decades in the US, and for the most part, it hasn't worked.  But good luck for trying to have your own firearms industry, guys.  Maybe you haven't thought this through, but I'm sure gunmakers have.

Just declare nullification and secede already.  Worked well for you last time, I understand.

Press The Meat With POTUS And Fluffy

President Obama sat down with David "Fluffy" Gregory of Meet The Press and spent half an hour or so kicking Gregory's ass up and down the block, along with the collective asses of the GOP.




It's a very informative interview as President Obama makes his case for trying to work with both Republicans and the press, both of which have been less than respectful to him.  POTUS kindly informed Gregory exactly what he thought of that, and Gregory knew pretty early on he was being called on the carpet, and deservedly so.

Meanwhile GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham was on Fox News Sunday all but signalling a GOP cave.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Sunday morning that he believes the odds are quite good that Senate can pass a narrow measure to avert the “fiscal cliff” and prevent taxes from rising for most Americans.

Graham said on “Fox News Sunday” that the odds are “exceedingly good” a deal can get done. “I don’t think people want to go over the cliff,” he said. Graham added that such an outcome would be a “political victory” for President Obama.

Graham also said he spoke with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Saturday night about the deal, and Panetta said it wasn’t likely to address the defense sequester, the automatic reduction in military spending set to take place early next year.

It's looking more and more like the GOP is tripping over itself to try to give President Obama a deal good enough that the President doesn't go over the cliff and leave the GOP broken at the bottom of the ravine.

We'll see.

An Ugly Crime Tied Up With A Pretty Bow

It appears that the NYPD have a suspect in this week's bizarre subway murder, where a man was pushed in front of a 7 train at the Lowery Street Station on Thursday.  Only the suspect raises some more ugly, ugly questions.

The woman, Erika Menendez of the Bronx, has been charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime, Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney, said. 

“The defendant is accused of committing what is every subway commuter’s nightmare,” Mr. Brown said in an interview. “Being suddenly and senselessly pushed into the path of an oncoming train.” 

Mr. Brown said that the woman was motivated by hatred, telling the police, that she “pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I’ve been beating them up.” 

Ms. Menendez conflated the Muslim and Hindu faiths both in her comments to the police and in her target for attack, officials said. 

The victim, Sunando Sen, was born in India and, according to a roommate, was raised Hindu. 

So yes.  She's being charged with a hate crime because she thought she was killing a Muslim in cold blood.  Turns out her victim was Hindu, and she was too stupid to know the difference.  And a man died anyway, senselessly, tragically, because...why?

Because he looked like a Muslim.  And where were people in the NY subway getting the idea that Muslims were dangerous people who had to be killed pre-emptively?

Why, they saw ads like that daily thanks to our old friend, Pammycakes.

Anti-Islam activist Pamella Geller's "Support Israel, Defeat Jihad" ads didn't go over very well with subway riders, so she's is trying a different tactic. Her new ads, which go up next week, feature the Twin Towers engulfed in flames, along with this out of context quote from the Koran: "Soon shall we cast terror into the hearts of the unbelievers.” The New York Times reports that she's also made a much bigger ad buy, placing a sign beside each of the 220 clocks hanging in New York's subway stations. Geller notes that this time would-be vandals "would have to get a ladder." So when riders are accidentally covered in spray paint by activists aiming for the ads, we'll have Geller to thank.

That was earlier this month.  It seems this week Geller's ads claimed their first victim.  Somebody who had committed the crime of looking like a Muslim.   Did Geller push the man off the platform?  No.  Did her ads help?  Free speech, vile speech, only goes so far.

Perhaps as Adam Serwer suggests:

I await the NRA's press conference urging all Middle Eastern and South Asian Americans to buy guns nytimes.com/2012/12/30/nyr…
— AdamSerwer (@AdamSerwer) December 29, 2012

Won't that be fun.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Senate leaders are trying to work out a last minute fiscal cliff slope deal to avert tax hikes and spending cuts effective Tuesday.
• The Pakistani Taliban leadership says they are open to talks with the Pakistani government and US forces.
• A new proposal in California's legislature would shift coastal shipping lanes away from endangered whale breeding grounds.
• Russia's Foreign Minister says there's no way to convince Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to quit power peacefully.
• The US Senate has renewed warrantless wiretaps for another five years in a 73-23 vote.

Last Call

Another potential cabinet mess is looming thanks to the GOP:  with Environmental Protection Agency head Lisa Jackson announcing that she's stepping down in January, getting her replacement confirmed will of course be completely impossible, as Senate Republicans are already signalling a serious fight.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), a leading Capitol Hill critic of the EPA, fired an early warning shot on Thursday, suggesting that Jackson’s replacement should change the agency's direction.

“Although I take a skeptical view, this appointment would provide this administration an opportunity to change its regulatory course,” Inhofe said in a statement.While the heads of Obama’s energy and environmental team initially won Senate approval in 2009, nominees to a number of senior positions in more recent years have faced a bumpy road and procedural blockades.

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), who will replace Inhofe as the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said Thursday that he wished Jackson the best. But he added that during her tenure, EPA has been “stifling” the economy.

“Moving forward I’ll be working with my colleagues in the Senate to make sure the new nominee is thoroughly vetted, puts sound scientific standards above political ideology and understands that EPA’s avalanche of regulations can crush the growth of American businesses,” he said in a statement.

It's going to be a long slog for whomever gets the nod, the smart money is on current deputy Robert Perciasepe, who the White House says will become acting chief in case nobody is confirmed by the time Jackson leaves, i.e. Republicans block any action on the nomination in committee, an absolute certainty.

Let's not forget in addition to real winners like Inhofe and Vitter, the Committee is infested with anti-science GOP dipsticks like Wyoming's John Barrasso, who has repeatedly tried to block the EPA from enforcing any air or water pollution rules at all, Idaho's Mike Crapo, who has tried to block EPA regulations on animal waste from big farm producers and meat factory farms, and Alabama's Jeff Sessions, who is "offended" by climate scientists actually practicing science.

So yeah, expect to see "acting EPA head" in the news for a long time.

Rocked By The Docks

Heads up:  our hard-working union labor brethren at the International Longshoremen's Association are approaching a big strike deadline this weekend if their contract expires, and corporate America is about to see just what kind of damage dockworkers can do to their just-in-time shipping models.

Home Depot Inc. and Lowe’s Cos. have the most at stake among retailers facing a dockworkers’ strike, with possible port closings cutting off shipments right before the lucrative gardening season.

Home Depot, the biggest U.S. home-improvement chain, is making plans in case 15,000 workers at ports from Maine to Texas walk off the job, and Lowe’s said that it is monitoring the talks. About 45 percent of the commerce that flows in and out of the U.S. goes through East Coast ports, according to the National Retail Federation.

Retailers “would be hit far and wide from apparel to home goods to patio furniture to barbecues,” Jonathan Gold, the NRF’s vice president for supply chain and customs policy, said yesterday in a telephone interview from Washington. “It is a major concern. At this point, we don’t anticipate a settlement.”

The International Longshoremen’s Association has vowed to walk out if a deal isn’t reached before the Dec. 29 expiration of its contract with the U.S. Maritime Alliance, whose members include container-carrier companies. Talks broke down last week after nine months of negotiations. A strike would be the first at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports since 1977. 

That's a hell of a bottleneck, and a hell of a bargaining chip, and yet it's gotten to the point where most likely the docks will be shut down as of this weekend.  No doubt the workers here will be made into villains, as all workers are who dare to demand anything from CEOs making 400x what the average employee makes.

Funny, that.  Reuters is reporting there's a deal on the table to avert the strike this afternoon, but it looks like it's only a 30-day contract extension while negotiations continue.  We'll see.

Kentucky: Unbridled Racism

Casey County in central Kentucky is about 100 miles south of where I live, and I am once again reminded that if you get more than a few minutes outside of the cities around here, you get square into redneck hell.

Danny Hafley of Casey County, Ky. said this week that people are reading the mannequin in his front yard depicting President Barack Obama eating a watermelon completely wrong.

"The way I look at it, it's freedom of speech," Hafley told Lex 18 in a recent interview, going on to state that he had included the watermelon not in attempt to play to any racist stereotypes, but because the statue "might get hungry standing out here."

According to Hafley, the display is "popular" and a frequent draw for people passing by to stop and take pictures.

(Video above via Lex 18 reporter Adam Yosim)

Watermelon imagery has been utilized by anti-Obama efforts in the past, usually by those claiming there is no racist sentiment behind the choice.

But don't you dare call it racism, right.  I do get tired of saying that about all the racism around here, but there you are.  Freedom of speech is great and all, but it doesn't mean you're not a racist moron for exercising it in such a poor way.  Time to add Casey to the growing list of counties I won't visit here.

Boy I remember all those Bush mannequins eating watermelon, don't you?

StupidiNews

• Retired General "Stormin'" Norman Schwarzkopf, former commander of US and coalition forces in the first Gulf War, has died at age 78.
• President Obama has called Congressional leaders from both parties together in Washington today for marathon talks to break the fiscal cliff impasse.
• Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson announced her resignation Thursday, leaving behind an agency beloved by Democrats and despised by the GOP.
• Charles Dickens' home and museum in Bloomsbury, London has reopened for the holidays after a $5 million restoration.
• Digital security firm McAfee Labs predicts 2013 will be the year of "ransomware" on PCs and mobile devices, in an attempt to extort money from infected users.

Last Call

Over at Maddowblog, Steve Benen locks on to the Old Age Mutant Nimrod Turtle vs. Ashley Judd story.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), generally comfortable in the roll of dealmaker, has done very little work in the fiscal talks. The reason is widely known, but generally goes unsaid: McConnell is terrified of a primary challenger and working with Democrats on a debt-reduction deal will only generate more far-right ire.

But there's also McConnell's general election prospects to consider.

 Two weeks ago, Public Policy Polling found that McConnell, with an approval rating of just 37%, is the least popular senator in the nation. In a hypothetical match-up against actor Ashley Judd, the Republicans' Senate leader was ahead by only four points, 47% to 43%.

And McConnell cried "SKEWED" and released his own poll which found...that he was only ahead by 4 points, 47%-43%.

Mitch is in trouble in 2014 and he knows it.

For that matter, also note that McConnell is testing anti-Judd messages two years before the election -- against someone who's never held or sought elected office -- which suggests the senator is genuinely worried about his prospects. By releasing his internal poll, McConnell hoped to look stronger, but in this case, I'm afraid he doth protest too much.

Yep.  I didn't think Ashley Judd was a serious threat to Mitch until we saw his reaction.  If he's in this much trouble with two years to go against an anti-coal Hollywood type (even if that Hollywood type is a UK grad) he just might be actually vulnerable.

We'll see.  Sen. Ashley Judd?  Yeah, I'm down with that.

Fukushima Jujitsu

The incoming administration of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party is pulling the full flip flop on the country's post-Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster policy of eliminating nuclear reactors, and if anything, new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is eager to greenlight more reactors ASAP to make up for the country's power shortages.

Japan’s new leaders set to work Thursday on dismantling plans to rid the country of nuclear power by 2040, pledging to review a post-Fukushima policy.

The pro-business Liberal Democratic Party-led government also said they would give the green light to any reactors deemed safe by regulators, indicating shuttered power stations could start coming back online.

“We need to reconsider the previous administration’s policy that aimed to make zero nuclear power operation possible during the 2030s,” Toshimitsu Motegi told a news conference.

Shinzo Abe, who was elected as prime minister and unveiled his cabinet line-up on Wednesday, appointed Motegi as his economy, trade and industry minister, also in charge of supervising the nuclear industry.

Abe’s LDP won a landslide victory in the December 16 election, returning to power after a three-year break.

Despite anti-nuclear sentiment running high in Japan following the Fukushima disaster, parties opposing atomic energy made little impact at the ballot box.

Motegi said he was ready to give the go-ahead to resuming generation at nuclear power plants “if they are confirmed safe”.

Given that the LDP was swept back into power, Japan's voters are clearly far more worried about Japan's stagnant economy than nuclear safety.  To their credit, the LDP is already proposing big infrastructure projects to rebuild the damaged northeast coast of Japan and to put people to work immediately (something the US should emulate).  That stimulative rebuilding effort is going to include nuclear plants however.

I wish Japan would consider other power sources, but it's hard for me to complain when the US lacks the will to even try to rebuild anything at this point because the greatest country in the world "can no longer afford expensive boondoggles" like, you know, roads, bridges, schools and power lines.

Aloha And Mahalo

Well, looks like I was wrong about Gov. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii...he really did go for someone other than Colleen Hanabusa to replace the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, choosing Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz to fill the seat.

Schatz, 40, said he will fly to Washington tonight and be sworn in Thursday so he can participate in Senate votes to avert a fiscal cliff of federal tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to take effect in January.

Schatz said he is "humbled" and "honored" by the opportunity.

He said the first thing he would do is reach out to the rest of the delegation to establish Hawaii's game plan for the coming Congress.

Schatz said he would also reach out to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and to the White House on the pressing issues now before Congress.

"I am honored to serve in this capacity. ... If given the opportunity, I'll make Hawaii proud,"    Schatz said.

Next in line to be lieutenant governor is Senate President Shan Tsutsui of Maui. Abercrombie said Tsutsui is weighing it and must make a decision "promptly."          

Schatz, a former Makiki state lawmaker and Democratic Party of Hawaii chairman, was elected lieutenant governor in 2010.

Abercrombie chose Schatz from a list of recommendations from the Democratic Party of Hawaii that included U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa and and Esther Kiaaina, the deputy director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Schatz will also be the youngest Senator in the upper chamber at 40, while I don't see him lasting as long as Inouye (five decades), nothing's impossible.  I can't really fault Abercrombie:  he's replacing the longest serving senator with the youngest one.  Also, having Hanabusa jump to the Senate would have left her House seat open with Dems looking for someone to go to the mat with another rough battle against Republican Charles Djou, so again, Abercrombie does look like he's reasonably covering all sides as the titular leader of Hawaii's Democratic party.

Sen. Schatz's first vote may come in days as the term ends next week.  Due to Hawaii's laws on US Senate appointments, Schatz can serve until 2014 before having to run in a special election, and then again in 2016 for Inouye's full term.  He says he will plan to run in both elections.

At only 40, time is definitely on his side.

[UPDATE]  Bob Cesca points out that not only is Abercrombie the nation's least popular Governor(!!!) but that the fact the white Abercrombie picking the white Schatz to represent the least white state in the union (at 24%) is probably not going to help his numbers.  On the other hand...that does make Hawaii's delegation...25% white.

StupidiNews

• Former President George H.W. Bush remains in intensive care in guarded condition as he battles complications arising from a "stubborn" fever.
• The Supreme Court has rejected an emergency injunction against Obamacare's birth control coverage provision.
• House Republicans say Senate Democrats must now make the next move to avoid the fiscal cliff as time is running out.
• US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says the country will hit the debt ceiling on Dec 31, the same day as the fiscal cliff.
• A jury has awarded Carnegie Mellon University a whopping $1.17 billion patent verdict over chipmaker Marvell Semiconductor.

Last Call

It's bad enough when the press second-guesses the President with endless bad advice, but it's a whole other ball game when Democratic senators do it.  Ezra Klein:

On Fox News Sunday, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), the outgoing chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, made a proposal to solve the “fiscal cliff.” The proposal isn’t going anywhere, but its specifics explain something important about the White House’s negotiating strategy.

“My own belief,” Conrad said, “is what we ought to do is take Speaker Boehner’s last offer, the president’s last offer, split the difference, and that would be a package of about $2.6 trillion.”

Chris Wallace, to his credit, pressed Conrad for details. And Conrad provided them. “The spending cuts would be $1.45 trillion. The revenue would be $1.15 trillion. So, you see there, that’s a combination of $2.6 trillion.”

This in an amazing offer for a Democrat to make. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) has already accepted that “a balanced deal,” by his definition, would include a ratio of 1:1 spending cuts to tax increases. Indeed, his second offer included $1 trillion in tax increases in return for $1 trillion in spending cuts ($1.3 trillion if you count interest). By averaging Boehner’s second offer with Obama’s third offer — that is to say, by starting from a baseline that includes more rounds of Democratic concessions than Republican concessions — Conrad is proposing a more lopsided deal than Boehner is currently asking for. 

To recap, we have sitting Democratic senators going on national TV and blowing huge holes in the President's position, with this "If I were President" crap.  You're not.  Stop sabotaging your party, moron.

To make it clear just how much of a meathead Conrad is, he's giving Boehner and the Republicans a better deal than Boehner himself offered, for no other discernible reason than for the political edification of Kent Conrad as kingmaker, in his wild dreams of "The Senator who saved America from the Fiscal Cliff."

If I'm the White House, I'm calling up Conrad's office and telling him if he ever pulls this crap again, his head is going home to North Dakota about 2 weeks ahead of the rest of him.

Nonsense like this is exactly why President Obama never had 60 reliable votes in the Senate.  Kent Conrad, Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, Blanche Lincoln, Joe Lieberman...the list goes on.  Too many Senators thought they knew better than "that there Obama boy."

All of them, including Conrad, are gone for good as of January 3.   President Obama is still there.  There's a lesson there to be learned that won't be.