Sticking Around For More

Several members of President Obama's cabinet are staying for a second term, most notably Attorney General Eric Holder.

A White House official says Attorney General Eric Holder and the secretaries of Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs will remain with the Obama administration as it enters a second term.

The official said Holder, who leads the Justice Department, and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki will remain with the administration amid changes to the Cabinet as President Barack Obama moves into his second term.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis submitted her resignation.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel changes, said the three remaining officials were not an exhaustive list of which Cabinet members intended to stay.

Holder has been a solid AG, and Sebelius is definitely going to be needed to implement the Affordable Care Act over the next several years, so there are some clear advantages for the Obama administration to keep some people in the same roles.  That's something of a change from Bill Clinton and George Bush, who pretty much flushed everybody in a second term, and in a couple cases had several nominees for various cabinet posts over 8 years.

On the other hand, it's not like President Obama will be able to get anyone confirmed for anything at this point, thanks to unprecedented GOP obstruction of everything and everybody.

We will see how it shakes out.

But It's Not About Race

President Obama is pretty magical, not only can he sell record guns and ammo, he can triple the membership of the Klan in Virginia just by being President.  Nobody seems to know why, though...

Residents in Richmond, Virginia have reported seeing more recruitment flyers from the Ku Klux Klan, in part of what one Klan member told WTVR-TV is a push for a membership surge fueled by opposition to President Barack Obama.

“Since Obama’s first term our numbers have doubled,” said the hooded man, who identified himself as a “Grand Dragon,” a leader of the state network. “And now that we’re headed to a second term it’s going to triple, this is going to be the biggest resurgence of the Klan since 1915.”

Think Progress reported that hate group membership is on the rise around the country, with racial animus against Obama cited as a reason.

However, the Klansmen told the station they see their group as the “white separatist” equivalent to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples.

“Everyone thinks that we’re a hate group,” he said. “We’re not a hate group, we don’t hate anyone, and we want to see good things come to our race.”

Yeah, because white men have had it so terribly hard in America over the last 150 or so.  Can't possibly imagine what's so different about President Barack Obama that would make Klan enrollment go up. 

Funny how that turned out.

StupidiNews!

• Pentagon officials will continue high-level talks today with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
• Australian research on how insulin binds to glucose molecules could be a major breakthrough in the treatment of diabetes.
• White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew is expected to replace Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary, but Republicans are signaling yet another tough confirmation fight.
• Vice President Joe Biden says that the President is considering executive orders to combat gun violence as his task force continues to meet with pro-gun lobbyists.
• Military radar technology is getting a boost from quantum physics, with the goal of making an "unjammable" radar system.

Last Call

From the Department of Asymmetrical Warfare, it seems that if US cyber cowboys can go around ruining Iranian centrifuges with tailored viruses, Iranian hackers can do it the old fashioned way and launch denial of service attacks on US bank websites.

The skill required to carry out attacks on this scale has convinced United States government officials and security researchers that they are the work of Iran, most likely in retaliation for economic sanctions and online attacks by the United States. 

“There is no doubt within the U.S. government that Iran is behind these attacks,” said James A. Lewis, a former official in the State and Commerce Departments and a computer security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. 

Mr. Lewis said the amount of traffic flooding American banking sites was “multiple times” the amount that Russia directed at Estonia in a monthlong online assault in 2007 that nearly crippled the Baltic nation. 

American officials have not offered any technical evidence to back up their claims, but computer security experts say the recent attacks showed a level of sophistication far beyond that of amateur hackers. Also, the hackers chose to pursue disruption, not money: another earmark of state-sponsored attacks, the experts said. 

“The scale, the scope and the effectiveness of these attacks have been unprecedented,” said Carl Herberger, vice president of security solutions at Radware, a security firm that has been investigating the attacks on behalf of banks and cloud service providers. “There have never been this many financial institutions under this much duress.” 

Since September, intruders have caused major disruptions to the online banking sites of Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp, PNC, Capital One, Fifth Third Bank, BB&T and HSBC. 

Well, you know it's not like we haven't orchestrated crippling sanctions against Iran's economy or anything, so.  They're going after our online banking sites.  Sure, that's about par for the course for this nifty little war, right?

Oh but this seems like propaganda, you say?  Most likely.  Dumping every bank DDoS attack on Iran for the last 4 months seems awfully sloppy on our part.  You'd think we'd be able to stop it if it was them.  Curiously, we can't.

Funny how that works.

Do The Huckleberry Block

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham is moving on from complaining about Chuck Hagel as Pentagon head and is the first to jump into the pool of GOP senators threatening to block John Brennan as the President's choice to lead the CIA because of Benghazi.

Sen. Lindsey Graham threatened Tuesday to block Senate consideration of President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the CIA in retaliation for the Obama administration’s failure to provide more details about the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

The South Carolina Republican’s threat to place a hold on the nomination of John Brennan as CIA director raises doubts about a second senior national security leadership pick by Obama, with several senators already questioning former Sen. Chuck Hagel’s qualifications to be defense secretary.

Needless to say, here we go again.  Graham doesn't want to block his friend John Kerry, so he's going after John Brennan instead with his endless Benghazi stupidity.

“I have not forgotten about the Benghazi debacle and still have many questions about what transpired before, during and after the attack on our consulate,” Graham said in a prepared statement.

“In that regard, I do not believe we should confirm anyone as director of the CIA until our questions are answered – like who changed Ambassador Susan Rice’s talking points and who deleted the references to al Qaida?” Graham said. “My support for a delay in confirmation is not directed at Mr. Brennan, but is an unfortunate, yet necessary action to get information from this administration.”

Big surprise, Huckleberry here will block anyone and everyone because he's President, you know.  He's the most important man in Washington.

It's entirely possible the President will have to make a recess appointment to a cabinet position.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/01/08/179324/sen-lindsey-graham-might-block.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/01/08/179324/sen-lindsey-graham-might-block.html#storylink=cpy

Maybe This Time Really Is Different

On Sunday, newly minted North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp was not only dismissing the President's position on gun control out of hand, sight unseen, but then she called gun control something that "shouldn't even be talked about."

That lasted approximately 48 hours before the rookie got her welcome to DC. This time around, it's different.

Chalk one up for the gun control crowd? A spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence said Tuesday that his group had scared freshman Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) off of her tough criticism of the White House gun violence task force.

The group ran newspaper ads on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. and North Dakota, two days after Heitkamp went on television to express serious concerns about gun control ideas the White House was reportedly considering in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. school massacre. A spokesman for the group said the ads worked.

“She got the message,” Ladd Everitt, spokesperson for the CSGV, told TPM. He said the 48 hours since Heitkamp went on TV showcase a new, more aggressive tactic by gun control advocates to push politicians to back its agenda.

In fact, it didn't take long at all for Heitkamp to go the Full Manchin:

“Senator Heitkamp believes that Americans have a right to bear arms. But with that right, come responsibilities. And we have a responsibility to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill, while protecting the rights of law abiding gun owners. Senator Heitkamp also believes that the problem of violence in America must be dealt with in a multifaceted way. While every option must be considered there is no one single answer. The discussion and ultimate solution to these mass violence tragedies must go beyond a singular focus on gun laws, and that the discussion must examine mental health, school security, and community development to help parents identify and address children potentially suffering from mental illness. Senator Heitkamp has clearly stated that all options must be on the table when it comes to addressing gun violence in America.” 

It's a start, at least.  We'll see where her votes lie.

StupidiNews!

• US officials say the White House is considering the possibility of removing all US troops from Afghanistan in 2014.
• Cyclist Lance Armstrong will discuss allegations of doping in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, scheduled to air on January 17th.
• Tunisian authorities have released the only suspect held so far in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks in Benghazi, prompting new worries about the Libyan investigation.
• After five years of steep cuts, state and local governments are expected to finally start adding more than 200,000 jobs in 2013.
• As more and more gamers turn to online purchases, brick and mortar GameStop has cut 4th quarter estimates from a slight gain to a 7% loss.

Last Call

As you probably expected if you followed the weather news this year or live in the continental US and experienced it yourself, 2012 is now in the books as the warmest year on record.  The staggering piece of news here is that the old warmest year on record, 1998, was beaten by a full degree.

The warmest weather compared to average was concentrated in the central part of the U.S. but was so pervasive that only coastal sections of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska had average or below average temperatures. In the contiguous U.S., every state had above average temperatures. Nineteen states had their warmest year on record and an additional 26 states had one of their top 10 warmest years.

2012 contributed to a streak of 16 consecutive months of above average temperatures over the U.S. that started in June 2011.

“That has never occurred [before in U.S. climate records] and is clearly symptomatic of a changing climate,” NCDC’s director Tom Karl said.

The year began very warm with the fourth mildest winter on record followed by a record-setting spring, more than five degrees above average.

The early warmth produced a “tremendous green-up” in corn and soybean growing areas of the Midwest and farmers planted their crops as early they could, Karl said.

But this backfired as temperatures continued to climb and rains diminished. July was the hottest month ever recorded in the U.S. and the summer overall ranked second warmest on record.

“An estimated 99.1 million people experienced 10 or more days of summer temperatures greater than 100°F, nearly one-third of the nation’s population,” NCDC said.

And not only was 2012 the hottest year on record, it was one of the driest.  Enjoy folks, you'll be wishing for 2012's "cool" temps ten years from now.

The Right Kind Of Payback On DADT

Yet another example of social justice that would never have happened under Presidents McCain or Romney:  the Pentagon is giving full back pay to servicemembers discharged under Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

In a landmark settlement, the Pentagon has agreed to give full back pay to U.S. service members who were discharged due to their sexual orientation under the military's “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

The payouts will be granted to service members dismissed from the military under the now-repealed policy on or after November 2004.

“This means so much to those of us who dedicated ourselves to the military, only to be forced out against our will for being who we are,” former Air Force Staff Sgt. Richard Collins said in a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the lawsuit.

Under "Don’t ask," service members who were honorably discharged automatically had their separation pay cut in half.

The ACLU of New Mexico sued the Pentagon on behalf of 181 service members who were dismissed under the policy to recover their full pay. Each solider, sailor, airman and Marine in the case will receive, on average, a payout of $13,000, the ACLU said.

The Defense Department will pay a total of $2.4 million to the plaintiffs.

It's the least we could do for these folks, in a federal job where they were fired for even suggesting they were LGBT.  It was nonsense when Clinton proposed it, and the country finally caught on to what an ingrained policy of discrimination meant for the federal government.  The rest of the country (and especially this President) is coming around, thankfully.

No doubt we'll be hearing about Republicans screaming to cut the defense budget now, right?

The Weight Of Finali-Tea

When even Rasmussen has the Tea Party in the single digits among Americans, you know the movement is dead.

Views of the Tea Party movement are at their lowest point ever, with voters for the first time evenly divided when asked to match the views of the average Tea Party member against those of the average member of Congress.  Only eight percent (8%) now say they are members of the Tea Party, down from a high of 24% in April 2010 just after passage of the national health care law. 

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 30% of Likely U.S. Voters now have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party. Half (49%) of voters have an unfavorable view of the movement. Twenty-one percent (21%) are undecided.

And yet the GOP is scrambling to serve the whims of 8% of America at the expense of the other 92% of us.  Sounds like the death knell of a fringe party to me.

StupidiNews!

• The Alabama Crimson Tide rolled to their second straight BCS college football championship and third title in four years, dispatching Notre Dame 42-14 and prompting talk of a new dynasty.
• With NASA's estimation of 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, data suggests there may be as many as 17 billion Earth-sized planets out there.
• South Sudan's second anniversary approaches, as civil war continues to rage on the border with Sudan to the north.
• New noise rules being proposed this week would require electric cars to be outfitted with external speakers to prevent the near silent cars from injuring the visually impaired.
• GOP Rep. Darrel Issa wants the Federal Trade Commission investigated as the possible source of leaks in 2012's antitrust case against Google.

Last Call

But racism is dead, they told me.  It's all "reverse racism" now.  Old racism simply doesn't ha...errm, uh-oh.

 

A Mexican restaurant in Columbia, South Carolina is being criticized for its racist T-shirts showing a wooden trap using tacos as bait with the caption “HOW TO CATCH AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT”.

As the Palmetto Public Record notes, a South Carolina reporter tweeted a photo yesterday of someone who appears to be a Taco Cid restaurant employee wearing the offensive shirt.

ThinkProgress spoke with an employee at Taco Cid who confirmed that restaurant workers indeed wear the shirt. He also noted that patrons can purchase it as well.

Taco Cid, a one-star restaurant that has shuttered franchises in recent years, appears to have cribbed the design from the “Offensive Obscene & Sex Related Tees” section of an online apparel designer.

Keep it classy, South Carolina.  Home to a bunch of racist jagoffs who can't even come up with an original racist idea and steal it off a website because they're lazy on top of being clueless bigots.

Nice work, clowns.

Reading The Hagel-ography

Fred Kaplan over at Slate thinks he has the reasons why Republicans hate Chuck Hagel as Defense Secretary:

The real question is what kind of job Obama wants his next secretary of defense to do. I have no inside knowledge on this, but judging from some of his actions and remarks on matters of national defense, Hagel seems to be the right choice. And that’s what disturbs the most outspoken Hagel-resisters.

These resisters have four main concerns. They fear that Hagel will cut the military budget. They fear that he’ll roll over if Iran builds a nuclear weapon. They fear that he’s too reluctant to use military force generally. And they fear he doesn’t much like Israel; the extremists on this point claim he’s anti-Semitic.

Kaplan then discusses these points, and finds they're all nonsense.

Let’s look at the real issues. Hagel is a former two-term Republican senator. He won two Purple Hearts as an infantry squad leader in Vietnam. No one could possibly dispute his devotion to the country, its security, or its armed forces. But he is a pragmatist, and there may be the rub. What Republicans seem to fear most is that by appointing Hagel as secretary of defense, Obama can claim a false bipartisanship in his national-security team. In fact, these critics say Hagel does not reflect the values or positions of the Republican Party; his presence in Cabinet meetings would not constitute real bipartisanship.

If that is true, the real problem is with the present-day Republican Party. It’s often said that today’s GOP wouldn’t nominate Ronald Reagan for president. By the same token, much of its leadership would rail against Robert Gates for secretary of defense.

For once, Kaplan is right.  Also, let's not forget that the real reason the Republican party will fight Chuck Hagel as Pentagon head is the fact that Barack Obama is the one nominating him.  President Obama could nominate anyone -- even a Republican, mind you -- and they would be shot down.

Republicans are going to block anything the President tries to do, and then cry "DICTATORSHIP!" when the President is forced to use executive orders and recess appointments to do anything at all.  That certainly didn't change just because the President, you know, won the election.

Drunk With Power

Sen. Rand Paul, call your office please.

The son of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, and the grandson of former presidential candidate Ron Paul, was arrested Saturday morning at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

Police said William Hilton Paul, 19, was traveling early Saturday from Lexington, Ky., to Charlotte.

When the plane landed about 10:49 a.m., Paul was charged with consuming beer/wine underage, disorderly conduct and being intoxicated and disruptive.

“He was possibly served alcohol on the flight,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Lt. Blake Hollar said.

Rand Paul’s office issued a brief statement: “Sen. Paul is a national public figure and subject to scrutiny in the public arena. However, as many parents with teenagers would understand, his family should be afforded the privacy and respect they deserve in a situation such as this.” 

Really?  He's legally over 18 and doing a drunk and disorderly in an airport at ten in the morning.   That's 60 to 120 days in jail and a suspended license for a year on just the underage charge, plus the D&D.  Now, nobody expects a US senator's son to end up in the Mecklenburg County jail for two months, but you know, isn't that a states' rights issue, as both Rand and Ron Paul have said?

Should get interesting if the charges aren't dismissed outright.  He's still the son of a senator.  Not exactly subject to the laws their parents write, you know.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/01/06/3768359/man-idd-as-rand-pauls-son-arrested.html#storylink=cpy

StupidiNews!

• President Obama is expected to formally nominate former Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel to the post of Secretary of Defense.
• Scientists studying dark matter have managed to break the absolute zero temperature barrier, creating readings below zero degrees kelvin.
• Construction is finally complete on a new hybrid airship that combines a zeppelin and an airplane for large cargo lifting, with the airship's first flight soon.
• As Chinese flat screen TV makers are getting into the US market, analysts say competition could sharply lower prices of new TV sets in 2013.
• The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas gets underway this week as tech companies show off the latest and greatest for 2013.