StupidiNews!

• France's first lady, Valerie Trierwieler, has been been hospitalized following allegations French President Francois Hollande has been having an affair.
• A federal judge has ruled that a flea market painting that turned out to be a stolen Renoir artwork has to be returned to the Baltimore Museum of Art, where it was taken from 60 years ago.
• The US State Department has issued a travel warning for the Sochi Olympics, advising Americans to be careful of possible terror attacks.
• Defense contractor Honeywell is under investigation for producing avionics parts for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in China before moving production to the US.
• A year after the suicide of internet activist Aaron Swartz, hacker group Anonymous hit the website of Swartz's former university, MIT.

Iran Into A Heck Of A Deal

Looks like the tentative deal with the P5+1 nations (The five permanent members of the UN security Council, the US, Russia, France, the UK and China, plus Germany) and Iran announced last November is now going forward as a real framework for peace starting January 20th.

Iran and six world powers have agreed on how to put in place an accord that would temporarily freeze much of Iran’s nuclear program, American and Iranian officials said on Sunday. 

That accord would go into effect on Jan. 20. 

International negotiators worked out an agreement in November to constrain much of Iran’s program for six months so that diplomats would have time to pursue a more comprehensive follow-up accord. 

But before the temporary agreement could take effect, negotiators had to work out the technical procedures for carrying it out and resolve some of its ambiguities in concert with the International Atomic Energy Agency. 

Under the interim agreement, Iran would stop enriching uranium beyond 5 percent, a level that would be sufficient for energy production but that would require further enrichment for making bombs. 

Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to 20 percent would be diluted or converted to oxide so that it could not be readily used for military purposes.

So the interim deal is in place and is moving forward.  Now, the real work of a lasting deal with Iran will begin.

Republicans of course are already screaming bloody murder.

Long Time Coming For Leading Ladies

As Buzzfeed writer Adam Vary points out, The Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire, became the #1 box office movie of 2013 finally surpassing Iron Man 3.  I enjoyed the film myself and thought it was a stronger movie than the first, and Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen is simply amazing.

There's another more notable reason for the film's box office take:

Remarkable stat: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is the first movie with a solo female lead to be the year's #1 film since The Exorcist.
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) January 10, 2014

To be fair, since The Exorcist opened in 1973, there have been films featuring women in arguably lead roles that have topped the domestic box office for the year: 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone both starred Emma Watson; 2009’s Avatar starred Zoe Saldana; 1997’s Titanic starred Kate Winslet; and 1978’s Grease starred Olivia Newton-John. But all of those movies also featured a male actor either as a co-lead or the film’s main protagonist (respectively, Daniel Radcliffe, Sam Worthington, Leonardo DiCaprio, and John Travolta). 

Jennifer Lawrence, by contrast, is inarguably the sole protagonist of Catching Fire. Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, and Sam Claflin fill in the main supporting roles, but we do not track their emotional story in the movie. We only track Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen. 

In truth, The Exorcist just barely qualifies as a film with a solo female protagonist. The Oscar-winning horror film starts off following Chris MacNeil’s (Ellen Burstyn) terror at the deteriorating health of her young daughter Regan (Linda Blair). But the second half of the film essentially drops Burstyn’s role as two priests played by Max von Sydow and Jason Miller perform the titular exorcism on Regan. 

If you want to find a No. 1 movie with a woman as the clear, unambiguous lead, you’ve got to go back to 1968’s Funny Girl, starring Barbra Streisand as groundbreaking comedienne Fanny Brice. (Omar Sharif plays Brice’s first husband Nicky Arnstein, and though the film tracks the arc of their relationship, it does so from Brice’s point of view.)

So it's been 40 (or 45, depending on your view) years since a #1 box office movie in the US had a solo female lead as the star.

That's a devastating indictment of Hollywood, frankly.  And more power to Jennifer Lawrence with her upcoming films.

More Breaches Of Trust

Meanwhile, the credit card information breach announced by Target earlier this month is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to compromised credit info during the holidays last year.

Target Corp and Neiman Marcus are not the only U.S. retailers whose networks were breached over the holiday shopping season last year, according to sources familiar with attacks on other merchants that have yet to be publicly disclosed. 

Smaller breaches on at least three other well-known U.S. retailers took place and were conducted using similar techniques as the one on Target, according to the people familiar with the attacks. Those breaches have yet to come to light. Also, similar breaches may have occurred earlier last year. 

The sources said that they involved retailers with outlets in malls, but declined to elaborate. They also said that while they suspect the perpetrators may be the same as those who launched the Target attack, they cannot be sure because they are still trying to find the culprits behind all of the security breaches. 

Law enforcement sources have said they suspect the ring leaders are from Eastern Europe, which is where most big cyber crime cases have been hatched over the past decade.

This is the kind of thing that worries me most about information security and privacy.  Having been a victim of identity theft in the past and all I had to go through in order to get my information back in proper order, I'm far more worried about sloppy corporate abuses and data thieves actively making my life miserable than I am the federal government in theory.

You also have to wonder about Republicans yelling that we don't need anything like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau either because government is baaaaaaaaad.

It's not government that's screwing up here, folks.

The Kroog Talks Kentucky

Paul Krugman talks about Owsley County, Kentucky to be precise.

National Review has an actually interesting report by Kevin Williamson on the state of Appalachia, providing a valuable portrait of the region’s woes — plus an account of how people turn food stamps fungible by converting them into soda. But the piece also has a moral: the big problem, it argues, is the way government aid creates dependency. It’s the Paul Ryan notion of the safety net as a “hammock” that makes life too easy for the poor.
But do the facts about Appalachia actually support this view? No, they don’t. Indeed, even the facts presented in the article don’t support it. 

Williamson dismisses suggestions that economic factors might be driving social collapse:

If you go looking for the catastrophe that laid this area low, you’ll eventually discover a terrifying story: Nothing happened. 

But he almost immediately contradicts himself, noting that employment in eastern Kentucky has fallen with the decline of coal and what little manufacturing the area once had. True, there was no sudden moment when the town’s main employer closed up shop; it was a gradual process. But so what? The underlying story of Appalachia is in fact one of declining opportunity. Here’s the unemployment rate for Owsley county:

Is it any surprise that people have turned to food stamps?

Reminder:  the vast majority of Americans who recieve SNAP benefits and unemployment benefits, like nearly all forms of social assistance, are white.  It's folks in places like Owsley County who are poor, not just "inner city Detroit" and whatnot.

But hey, FOX News convinces folks to vote against this stuff, then blame "those people" when things keep getting worse.

Jumping Off That Bridge Too Far

New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie is toast.

He told everyone at his long, bizarre, rambling press conference on Thursday that he hadn't heard anything about the Fort Lee bridge closures until that day.

He lied.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie complained in a phone call with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo that a Port Authority official has been wading too deeply into controversial and potentially politically explosive lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, according to a report Thursday. 

The issue involves bridge toll lanes in Fort Lee, N.J., that were cut from three to one in September, causing a massive traffic backups.

That article was from December 12 of last year, a month ago.

So why would he need to talk to Gov. Cuomo about this if there was nothing wrong, and nothing to cover up when the Port Authority was investigating why the closures happened?

Toast.

Stupidinews, Weekend Edition!

• New Jersey legislators released some 2,000 pages of documents related to GOP Gov. Chris Christie's staff and the closure of lanes on the George Washington Bridge for possible political reasons.
• Diplomatic ties between India and the US are strained after the arrest of an Indian diplomat and Indian retaliation by asking the US to remove an individual from the embassy at New Delhi.
• The first permanent detainee case to come before President Obama's new parole review board at Guantanamo has been cleared for prisoner transfer out of the facility.
• A New Jersey man has been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle F35 Joint Strike fighter plane plans to Iran.
• A new UK startup is offering "vault storage" of Bitcoins, backed by Llloyd's of London, as a new service to Bitcoin holders.

Last Call For High-Way Robbery

Nothing I can say can improve on this tweet.

People kept stealing the 420 mile marker in Colorado. This was CDOT's solution. pic.twitter.com/xDsZkTe0Fv
— StuffJournalistsLike (@JournalistsLike) January 10, 2014

Never change, Colorado.

For The One Percent, By The One Percent

If you're wondering why Congress just doesn't understand what it's like to be an average American, it's because we've finally reached the point where the majority of Congress's 534 members are worth at least $1 million.

For the first time in history, most members of Congress are millionaires, according to a new analysis of personal financial disclosure data by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Of 534 current members of Congress, at least 268 had an average net worth of $1 million or more in 2012, according to disclosures filed last year by all members of Congress and candidates. The median net worth for the 530 current lawmakers who were in Congress as of the May filing deadline was $1,008,767 -- an increase from last year when it was $966,000. In addition, at least one of the members elected since then, Rep. Katherine Clark(D-Mass.), is a millionaire, according to forms she filed as a candidate. (There is currently one vacancy in Congress.) 

Last year only 257 members, or about 48 percent of lawmakers, had a median net worth of at least $1 million.

Members of Congress have long been far wealthier than the typical American, but the fact that now a majority of members -- albeit just a hair over 50 percent -- are millionaires represents a watershed moment at a time when lawmakers are debating issues like unemployment benefits, food stamps and the minimum wage, which affect people with far fewer resources, as well as considering an overhaul of the tax code.

"Despite the fact that polls show how dissatisfied Americans are with Congress overall, there's been no change in our appetite to elect affluent politicians to represent our concerns in Washington, said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center. "Of course, it's undeniable that in our electoral system, candidates need access to wealth to run financially viable campaigns, and the most successful fundraisers are politicians who swim in those circles to begin with."

When only the rich can get elected, and money buys influence, they represent only the rich. The rest of us get screwed.

But campaign finance reform is unconstitutional.

Think about that.

Wild, Dangerous West Virginia

Some 300,000 West Virginians are without safe drinking water this morning as a coal company spill has contaminated the Elk River.

Residents of nine counties in West Virginia have been told not to use or drink their water after a chemical used by the coal industry spilled into the Elk River on Thursday. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency as more than 100,000 customers, or 300,000 people, are without safe drinking water. 

“Don’t make baby formula,” said West Virginia American Water Company president Jeff McIntyre. “Don’t brush your teeth. Don’t shower. Toilet flushing only.”

King Coal has his price, folks.  Always.

The chemical, 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol (MCHM), is used to wash coal of impurities and spilled from a tank at Freedom Industries into the river. While the amount of MCHM that spilled wasn’t immediately known, West Virginia American Water has been conducting water quality testing every hour. According to Laura Jordan, a spokesperson with the water company, they believe the chemical is leaking at ground level and “there is a possibility this leak has been going on for sometime before it was discovered Thursday,” WSAZ reported.

But I'm sure that's Obama's fault, because War on Coal, right?

Yes, the people of West Virginia deserve good-paying jobs that can support their families.  All Americans do.  But maybe somebody ought to be keeping a closer eye on these energy companies and their chemical spills, you think?

StupidiNews!

• The unemployment rate in the US dropped to 6.7% in December, but the percentage of people in the labor forced dropped to 62.8%, the lowest since 1978.
• A suppressed Holocaust documentary created by Alfred Hitchcock in 1945 has been restored by Britain's Imperial War Museum and will be shown in its complete format.
• On Monday, the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments from a number of US Senators in a case involving President Obama's power to make recess appointments.
• Retail chain Target says in addition to some 40 million credit card numbers exposed to hackers in December, some 70 million names, addresses, and emails may also have been stolen.
• The plan to bring municipal broadband to Seattle is officially DOA as startup Gigabit Squared owes the city nearly $50,000 in unpaid bills.

Some Good Obamacare News

New Health and Human Services guidelines on drugs covered under the Affordable Care Act means that certain breast cancer prevention drugs will now be covered as part of preventative care.

Women at increased risk of breast cancer can receive so-called chemoprevention drugs, including tamoxifen and raloxifene, without a co-pay or other out-of-pocket expense.
Under Obamacare, most health insurance companies and employer plans must offer certain preventive services at no cost to patients. 

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network praised the announcement in a statement Thursday. 

"This policy means millions of women at high risk for breast cancer will know they can access proven risk-reducing medications at no cost to them," said spokesman Steve Weiss. "Studies show that even modest cost sharing can keep patients from taking advantage of proven preventive tests and therapies. By making prevention more accessible and affordable, the health care law is helping people stay healthy and avoid the high costs of treatment after diagnosis.”

So yes, preventative care is a good thing, especially when it comes to something as devastating as cancer.   It's certainly less expensive than treating the disease when it's full-blown in the latter stages.  The downside is that many of these chemoprevention drugs have some serious side effects.  Hopefully we'll be able to come up with better ones as well.

Mr. Gruden Goes To Washington

Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden is a smart guy.  He's not waiting around to see if he gets the axe after yet another first-round playoff choke for Cincinnati over the weekend, instead he's taking the head coach job for Washington.

Jay Gruden will be introduced as the new coach of the Washington Redskins on Thursday afternoon, becoming the team’s eighth head coach since Daniel Snyder purchased the franchise in 1999. 

Gruden, most recently the offensive coordinator of the Cincinnati Bengals, succeeds Mike Shanahan, who was fired by the Redskins after a 3-13 season in which the team finished last in the NFC East. 

Gruden, the brother of former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders coach Jon Gruden, never has been an NFL head coach. He has been a head coach in the Arena Football League and the United Football League. He oversaw the NFL’s 10th-ranked offense this season with the Bengals. He inherits a Redskins team that lost 40 games in four years under Shanahan. 

“I’m really happy for my brother,” Jon Gruden, now an analyst for ESPN, said. “He’s worked extremely hard to get this opportunity. The Redskins are one of the great NFL franchises and I expect him to make the most of this opportunity.”

I'm sure he will.  The franchise deserves Gruden, and I'm sure he'll make a bigger mess in Washington than he did in here in Cincinnati.

That Bridge Too Far Again

Things are getting distinctly worse for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, as yesterday's story directly tying his office to a series of lane closures on the George Washington Bridge in order to punish the mayor of Fort Lee, NJ as revenge for the mayor refusing to endorse Christie apparently had far more serious consequences:

Emergency responders were delayed in attending to four medical situations – including one in which a 91-year-old woman lay unconscious – due to traffic gridlock caused by unannounced closures of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge, according to the head of the borough’s EMS department. 

The woman later died, borough records show. 

In at least two of those instances, response time doubled, noted EMS coordinator Paul Favia, who documented those cases in a Sept. 10 letter to Mayor Mark Sokolich, which The Record obtained.

And it gets worse.

"There was a missing child that day. The police had trouble conducting that search because they were tied up directing traffic," says Jan Goldberg, a Fort Lee councilman who works with local emergency personnel. Police found the missing child, a four-year-old. "But with the streets in the condition they were, I would venture to say that the search took longer," Goldberg says. 

Ila Kasofsky, a Fort Lee councilwoman, tells Mother Jones that ambulances and other emergency vehicles could not get through the gridlock. In the aftermath of the lane closures, Kasofsky says she spoke with a Fort Lee resident who couldn't get over the bridge to support her husband through major surgery. Another Fort Lee woman was unable to pick up her son after his dialysis session.

Steve M argues that Christie has been too moderate for the Tea Party lunatics to try to save him.

In Christie's, um, glory days, Fox Nation would have been dominated by items intended to spin this story his way. The most damaging information available would be dug up about the mayor of Fort Lee. We'd be told that the first responders there do a lousy job on ordinary days, so any ambulance delays must be the result of something other than the lane closure on the bridge. There'd be smears against reporters working the story, and against Jersey Democrats denouncing the lane closure. You know the drill. 

But none of that pushback is being generated by the conservative noise machine because Christie hasn't been tickling right-wing pleasure centers the way he once did. When was the last time he yelled at a teacher and posted the video online anyway? Seems as if it's been a while. I guess he wanted to seem like America's new bipartisan dreamboat, going into his reelection campaign and into 2016. 

He should have kept up the on-camera partisan nastiness, because he needs backup now, and he's not getting it. The right has abandoned him.

Indeed.  The right is more annoyed that Christie is distracting the media from BENGHAZI(tm)! than they are worried about saving his national image.  They could care less about him.  They don't want Christie as the nominee anyway, not after McCain and Romney.  They want someone who will make being a woman, a minority, LGBTQ, or a Democrat all but illegal, and Christie's not that guy.

We'll see how the Sunday shows handle Christie's situation.  If the regular Village Pundits there turn on him, he's done.

[UPDATE]  Christie is holding an 11 AM presser, and the NY Post is reporting he's fired Kelly (the aide in the emails from his office) and his campaign manager, who was in charge of "damage control".

StupidiNews!

• In the wake of this week's Supreme Court decision to stay same-sex marriages in Utah, the state is voiding any current same-sex marriages and will not recognize them.
• President Obama has invited German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the White House to discuss revelations over the last several months involving the NSA.
• Alaska marijuana advocates say they've collected enough signatures to put legalizing pot in the state on the ballot in August.
• With flights expected to increase 50% over the next decade, Singapore officials say the goal is to double the size of Changi International Airport.
• The Obama administration says it will commit another four years of funding to the International Space Station, extending funding through 2024.