Last Call For Iran Across The Finish Line

We've got proof that the Obama/Kerry Iran deal is a serious diplomatic breakthrough of historic proportions, mainly because Charles Krauthammer loathes it.

Taken together, the catalog of capitulations is breathtaking: spot inspections, disclosure of previous nuclear activity, gradual sanctions relief, retention of nonnuclear sanctions.

What’s left? A surrender document of the kind offered by defeated nations suing for peace. Consider: The strongest military and economic power on earth, backed by the five other major powers, armed with what had been a crushing sanctions regime, is about to sign the worst international agreement in U.S. diplomatic history.

How did it come to this? With every concession, Obama and Kerry made clear they were desperate for a deal.

And they will get it. Obama will get his “legacy.” Kerry will get his Nobel. And Iran will get the bomb.

Sure.  Just like we had to go to war to prevent Saddam Hussein from getting the bomb, remember that?

It would be funny except for the fact that he's remained gainfully employed by the Washington Post despite a 13 year track record of idiocy about foreign policy.  None of Krauthammer's dire predictions came true about Iraq, and none of the benefits of invasion were ever found.  Hell, more than a dozen years later we're still dealing with the aftermath.

Invading Iraq was the greatest diplomatic mistake of our time, and Krauthammer used his position to push for it.

Why would anyone listen to this fool now?

Escape From New York

New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling for additional security measures for the long holiday weekend as the federal government is suggesting possible activity by Islamic State is increased.

“We are keenly aware that New York State remains a top target for terrorists,” Cuomo said in a statement.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have issued an alert calling for local authorities and the public to remain vigilant for possible threats following recent calls for violence by Islamic State militants.

In New York City, the nation’s largest municipal police force assigned about 7,000 officers and nearly all its counterterrorism personnel to handle security around Independence Day events.

Cuomo expanded the stepped-up security measures to include the entire state in a directive to the New York Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.

“In response to the warning by the federal government, New York State is taking steps to increase monitoring and communication with our local, state, and federal emergency management and law enforcement partners through the holiday weekend,” Cuomo said.

The state’s homeland security department also will increase the staff on Saturday at its 24-hour Emergency Operations Center and the New York State Watch Center, which monitors events across the state.

New York is taking this seriously after attacks last month in France, Tunisia and Kuwait.  Can't really blame them for some additional vigilance.

Hopefully this weekend will be quiet.

Paxton, Some Heat

It looks like Texas GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton, who's been spending the last six weeks having one long temper tantrum over same-sex marriage, suddenly has far bigger problems to deal with in the form of a securities fraud investigation that could land him in prison for the rest of his life.

The criminal investigation against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has taken a more serious turn, with special prosecutors now planning to present a first-degree felony securities fraud case against him to a Collin County grand jury, News 8 has learned.

Special prosecutor Kent Schaffer told News 8 Wednesday afternoon that the Texas Rangers uncovered new evidence during the investigation that led to the securities fraud allegations against the sitting attorney general.

"The Rangers went out to investigate one thing, and they came back with information on something else," Schaffer told News 8. "It's turned into something different than when they started."

Schaffer, a Houston criminal defense attorney, said the securities fraud allegations involve amounts well in excess of $100,000. He declined to comment specifics of the fraud allegations.

A first-degree felony conviction is punishable by up to life in prison.

Now, securities fraud isn't sexy or anything, but an attorney general facing a felony fraud indictment is a pretty big deal.  I'm interested to see how this plays out.  Paxton is such a raging asshole that he can't have made too many friends among prosecutors and cops in Texas.  If there's a special prosecutor that was looking for one crime and managed to find a much bigger one hiding nearby, it's a pretty safe bet ol' Ken here has some pretty dirty laundry.

How he made it this far, well that might be a question for, say, Rick Perry.

Who is facing his own investigation.

StupidiNews!

• Former Democratic Senator Jim Webb of Virginia has announced his bid for the White House in 2016, becoming the fifth Democrat to join the race.
• The first US measles death since 2003 has been reported in Washington State, according to health officials, who say the woman's cause of death was only discovered during autopsy.
• The International Monetary Fund is warning that Greece will need another 50 billion euros over the next three years in order to pay its bills.
• Energy giant BP has settled claims with several Gulf Coast states to the tune of $18.7 billion stemming for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest settlement in US history.
• North America is officially out of IPv4 addresses for internet assignment, but the newer IPv6 standard is now gaining momentum.

Last Call For Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads

This is the court's boomstick, as states in the South's 5th Circuit Court are finding out as they are now officially ordered to comply with allowing same-sex marriages.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday afternoon directed the district courts in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas to issue final orders ending enforcement of the states’ respective bans on same-sex couples’ marriages.

In the Texas case, in which the trial court had struck down the ban, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, in an opinion by Judge Jerry E. Smith, wrote that “the injunction appealed from is correct in light of Obergefell, the preliminary injunction is AFFIRMED.”

In the Louisiana case, in which the trial court had upheld the ban, the appeals court, in a second opinion by Judge Smith, wrote that “the judgment appealed from is REVERSED, and this matter is REMANDED for entry of judgment in favor of the plaintiffs.” Notably, Smith added: “The district court must act expeditiously on remand, especially in view of the declining health of plaintiff Robert Welles,” a plaintiff in the case.

In the Mississippi case, in which the trial court had struck down the ban and refused to issue a stay of the ruling during the state’s appeal — leading the appeals court to issue a stay — the court stated that “the injunction appealed from is correct in light of Obergefell” and, therefore, “the preliminary injunction is AFFIRMED.” It also lifted its earlier stay of the district court’s ruling.

The Mississippi opinion came last, likely a result of the fact that Gov. Phil Bryant initially had said he opposed the plaintiffs’ motion to put a quick end to the case after the June 26 Supreme Court ruling striking down marriage bans.

In all three cases, the appeals court ordered the trial courts to act on the final resolution of the cases “by July 17, 2015, and earlier if reasonably possible.”

The last bastions of stupid, bureaucratic bigotry are falling on this, and as they say, power concedes nothing without being forced.  Meet the force, guys.  Especially you, Bobby Jindal.

And have a happy ceremony.

That Poll-Asked Look In The South

In what should surprise precisely no one, an overwhelming majority of white Southerners still see the Confederate flag as a symbol of Southern pride in a new CNN poll.

American public opinion on the Confederate flag remains about where it was 15 years ago, with most describing the flag as a symbol of Southern pride more than one of racism, according to a new CNN/ORC poll. And questions about how far to go to remove references to the Confederacy from public life prompt broad racial divides.

The poll shows that 57% of Americans see the flag more as a symbol of Southern pride than as a symbol of racism, about the same as in 2000 when 59% said they viewed it as a symbol of pride. Opinions of the flag are sharply divided by race, and among whites, views are split by education.

Among African-Americans, 72% see the Confederate flag as a symbol of racism, just 25% of whites agree. In the South, the racial divide is even broader. While 75% of Southern whites describe the flag as a symbol of pride and 18% call it a symbol of racism, those figures are almost exactly reversed among Southern African-Americans, with just 11% seeing it as a sign of pride and 75% viewing it as a symbol of racism.

Among whites, there's a sharp divide by education, and those with more formal education are less apt to see the flag as a symbol of pride. Among whites with a college degree, 51% say it's a symbol of pride, 41% one of racism. Among those whites who do not have a college degree, 73% say it's a sign of Southern pride, 18% racism.

A majority of Southern whites with college degrees are okay with the Confederate flag. And among Democrats (if you dig into the crosstabs) 34% find the flag a symbol of pride (77% among Republicans) and 34% of liberals do too (71% among conservatives, 60% among moderates.)

The real killer: 58% of Millennials see the flag as a symbol of pride, which is actually slightly higher than Gen X-ers (56% or Boomers under 65 (53%).  Seniors, well, They're at 64%.  I hope we're well past the whole "Young people aren't as racist as their parents" nonsense, because Millennials are just as awful.  Indoctrination is awesome.

I grew up in North Carolina, and this doesn't surprise me one damn bit.  People ought to know better.

Jobapalooza Update

Good numbers in the June jobs report today: 223K new jobs, unemployment down to 5.3%.

Oh wait I'm sorry THAT'S HORRIBLE NEWS.

The addition of 223,000 jobs followed a 254,000 increase in the prior month that was less than previously estimated, a Labor Department report showed Thursday in Washington. The jobless rate fell to a seven-year low of 5.3 percent as more people left the labor force. 

The figures indicate corporate managers are confident they can temper hiring and meet demand against a backdrop of stronger consumer spending and feeble overseas markets. At the same time, more moderate job gains may still be enough to reduce the unemployment rate, consistent with the Federal Reserve’s perceived timetable to raise borrowing costs by year-end.

An increase in June payrolls followed smaller gains in the prior two months and wages were little changed as U.S. job market reflected a more moderate pace of economic growth. 

“One month’s low number wouldn’t shake our optimism,” Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania, said before the report. “The job market still has a ways to go but we’re making progress.” 

Again, when we were losing 800K jobs a month under Bush, 223K new jobs and more than five straight YEARS of job growth is "disappointing" and equals "low numbers".

Good news for President Romney though.

You assholes are going to miss Obama when he's gone.

StupidiNews!

• A train car derailment south of Knoxville, Tennessee has forced officials to evacuate nearly 5,000 in Blount County due to toxic fumes caused by the chemicals on board catching fire.
• The US Episcopal Church has overwhelmingly decided to allow same-sex marriage ceremonies during a vote at the national convention in Salt Lake City.
• Tunisian authorities have arrested 12 in connection with last month's deadly terror attack on Sousse beach hotels, targeting foreign tourists and killing 38.
• Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis says he will resign from his position if Greeks vote yes on another EU bailout at Sunday's referendum.
• Chicago's new ruling on "Amusement Tax" will subject the city's existing 9% tax to the cost of digital streaming subscriptions like Netflix, Pandora, and online games like World of Warcraft.

Viva Barack Cubano

That hopey changey stuff is working out pretty well, thanks.

The United States and Cuba will re-establish diplomatic ties and open their long-shuttered embassies on July 20, the Cuban government said Wednesday.

Cuba’s foreign ministry made the announcement after the U.S.’s top diplomat in Havana delivered a letter from President Obama to Cuban President Raúl Castro. 

The move is the biggest step yet in Obama’s push to end hostilities with Havana that date back to the Cold War, which he announced in December with Cuban President Raúl Castro.

President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry will speak about the plan on Wednesday morning, according to a senior administration official. 

The Obama administration cleared the biggest obstacle to the shift after it formally dropped Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism in May. 

But U.S. and Cuban negotiators still had to work through thorny issues, such as freedom of movement for American diplomats in Cuba and their ability to speak with people outside of the government.

Anticipation for the move built earlier this month after flagpoles were installed at the U.S. and Cuban interest sections, which have served as the countries’ informal diplomatic missions. 

Obama and Castro agreed last December to begin restoring long-broken ties between their two countries.

The two leaders met in April in Panama, the most significant interaction between U.S. and Cuban leaders in five decades.

No big deal, we'll only have embassies opening up in a few weeks after 50 years or so of diplomatic silliness.  Of course, the moment America elects a Republican president, will they close the embassy again?  Republicans like Marco Rubio have vowed to block any nominee as Ambassador to Havana and that's just for starters.

Somehow being on the wrong side of history yet again doesn't seem to bother the right.

Kentucky, Same-Sex Marriage, And November

If I were a clickbaitin' kinda man, I'd have entitled this one "Did Justice Kennedy Just Hand The 2015 Kentucky Governor's Race To Matt Bevin?"  Or I'd be a Lexington Herald-Leader writer, which amounts to the same thing.

Political fallout from the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to legalize gay marriage will likely show up first in Kentucky, one of the few conservative states where Democrats still control state government. 

The issue has already split two of the state's most powerful Democratic leaders five months before voters go to the polls to elect six statewide officers, including governor and attorney general. 

It began in March 2014 when Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway — a former U.S. Senate candidate who is now running for governor — decided not to appeal the initial federal court decision that overturned Kentucky's same sex marriage ban. During an emotional news conference at the Capitol, he said that to appeal would be to defend discrimination. 

However, Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear later overruled Conway and hired private attorneys to defend the state's ban in federal court. 

"His job as governor was to take the emotion out of it and say, 'What's the rule of law going to be?" said Colmon Elridge, Beshear's longtime aide. "And the only way to do that was to get a final ruling from the Supreme Court." 

For more than a year, Beshear never strayed from that sentiment. Asked repeatedly about his views on gay marriage, Beshear said his personal opinion didn't matter. He was simply appealing the decision in the hopes that the court would rule, one way or another. 

Even Elridge, who has worked closely with Beshear for eight years, doesn't know how he feels about it. 

"It's interesting, we just have not talked about it," Elridge said. 

Conway, meanwhile, has faced critics who suggest he ignored his duties as attorney general. While Republican nominee for governor Matt Bevin criticized the Supreme Court's ruling, he especially targeted Conway, who he said "abandoned his oath of office." Bevin said Conway's "failure to do his job ... disqualifies him from being elected to the office of governor." 

"How can voters trust him not to break his oath again?" Bevin said.

Bevin's an idiot, but he's an idiot leading the polls right now, albeit not by too much.  Still, the race shouldn't be this close considering voters thought Bevin was a nutjob that made Mitch McConnell preferable just last year.

We'll see how things go, but I expect to see Conway start getting very tough with Bevin soon.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/06/29/3923245_gay-marriage-ruling-faces-political.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&rh=1#storylink=cpy

StupidiNews!

• The United States and Cuba have come to terms on reopening diplomatic embassies and reestablishing normal relations, a move already being opposed by Republicans.
• Yet another black church has been burned down, this time in Greeleyville, SC, a church that prveiously had been burned down by Klan supporters 20 years ago.
• Greece has defaulted on its loan and is now unable to secure financing as the government of PM Alexis Tsipras has not made a scheduled payment of nearly $2 billion...
• ...But rumors that Greece has accepted basic terms from its creditors as a compromise move has rallied markets ahead of Sunday's referendum.
• The expected six-month "orderly transition" away from NSA bulk metadata collection has been approved by the federal government's surveillance court.

Last Call For Clinton Kentucky

I've been holding out hope that Hillary Clinton could win here in Kentucky in 2016 and help beat Rand Paul, but the other half of that Public Policy Polling survey on Kentucky shows that Kentucky Democrats are mostly Reagan Democrats, and Clinton will have an extremely tough battle here.

On the Democratic side Clinton is ever dominant, getting 56% to 12% for Bernie Sanders, 7% for Jim Webb, 5% for Lincoln Chafee, and 3% for Martin O'Malley. Clinton is over 80% with African Americans, 70% with liberals, 60% with younger voters, and 50% with moderates, women, men, whites, and seniors. The only group she fails to get a majority with is the swath of Kentucky Democrats who are conservatives and don't tend to vote Democratic in national elections despite their registration.

Clinton doesn't have much of a chance in the general election in the state outside of ending up running against Trump though. Paul (50/40) and Huckabee (49/39) fare the best against Clinton with 10 point leads. Carson has a 9 point lead at 49/40 and Bush's is 8 points at 48/40. Holding more modest leads over Clinton are Cruz with a 6 point one at 48/42, and Walker (46/41), Rubio (46/41), and Fiorina (45/40) each with a 5 point advantage.

But before you go believing that it's Clinton they dislike, understand that any of the other Democratic hopefuls fare even worse here in the Bluegrass State.

Clinton may not do great in Kentucky but it's really bad for any of the other Democratic hopefuls. Scott Walker would lead Sanders 42/29, O'Malley 40/22, Chafee 41/23, and Webb 42/22. Obviously that has a lot to do with name recognition but it's still somewhat jarring to see potential Democratic candidates polling in the low 20s for the general election in any state.

So Clinton would lose by 5-10 points here and any other Dem would lose by double digits.  It's not looking good here for Team Blue.  Yes, it's 16 months out and anything could happen, but I'm thinking the Clinton campaign isn't going to be making very many visits here.

Ask Alison Grimes how much Hillary was able to help last year.

Golden Brown, Texture Like Sun

Cincinnati's heroin epidemic is just that, a public health issue that's costing the tri-state area millions of dollars and ruining tens of thousands of lives. Dan Horn and Terry DeMio at the Cincinnati Enquirer report on this area's biggest drug problem, and how lawmakers and police have only made it worse. If you want to see why America has lost the War on Drugs, the story of Samantha Gibson and other addicts is where you want to start looking for answers.

Jails are housing thousands of addicts, but they lack the resources to provide effective drug treatment. Most courts still insist on zero-tolerance rules that bounce heroin users from the streets to jail and back again. And long-term treatment remains a crapshoot for addicts and their families, who often can't find, or can't afford, quality care. 

"Our entire approach to this is wrong," says Dr. Mina "Mike" Kalfas, a certified addiction expert and family physician in Northern Kentucky. "Our approach as a society has failed miserably." 

For too long, Kalfas says, policy makers treated the heroin epidemic as a law enforcement problem and put the onus on addicts to get clean or go to jail. 

But heroin is as complicated as it is cruel. It comes with an intense physical addiction that alters brain chemistry and punishes those who try to stop using it with brutal withdrawal symptoms. 

Threats and punishment alone don't work because addicts want heroin more than anything else. More than their jobs, their homes, their health or even their children. 

That's why more than 13,000 heroin users spent time in Greater Cincinnati jails last year, and why more than 300 ended up in the morgue. 

It's also why Kalfas and others now say new approaches are needed, before taxpayers spend more money and families bury more overdose victims. 

"Heroin," Synan says, "is not something you can arrest your way out of." 

Gibson, a mother of three from Newport, is a case in point. She is no stranger to the system. Police have arrested her. Judges have sentenced her. Jails have locked her up. Hospitals have patched her wounds. Treatment centers have put her on waiting lists. Children's services has taken her kids. Paramedics have restarted her heart after an overdose. 

Society is heavily invested in her. Thousands of dollars already have been spent.
Yet here she sits, in jail again, biding her time until her next fix. 

Gibson runs her fingers over her scarred left hand and crosses her legs. It's been several hours since she shot up. She's getting impatient. 

"I can't get through the day without heroin," she says.

It's a devastating story, and there is some hope at least, the notion that more and more police and legislators are realizing that treatment, not incarceration, is the only way out of hell here.  But that requires money for government services, and lawmakers aren't going to go to bat to save the lives of heroin addicts who aren't exactly dependable voters.  Society doesn't give a damn about these guys, so why should taxpayers have to pay?

Of course, the reality is we do pay.  All of us.  And some pay a very final price.

San Juan By Way Of Athens

Greece isn't the only government this week who says it can't make its payments and wants a bailout, not by a long shot.  Much closer to home here in the states, Puerto Rico's governor says the island can't pay off the $72 billion it owes creditors.

The governor, Alejandro García Padilla, and senior members of his staff said in an interview last week that they would probably seek significant concessions from as many as all of the island’s creditors, which could include deferring some debt payments for as long as five years or extending the timetable for repayment.

“The debt is not payable,” Mr. García Padilla said. “There is no other option. I would love to have an easier option. This is not politics, this is math.”

It is a startling admission from the governor of an island of 3.6 million people, which has piled on more municipal bond debt per capita than any American state.

A broad restructuring by Puerto Rico sets the stage for an unprecedented test of the United States municipal bond market, which cities and states rely on to pay for their most basic needs, like road construction and public hospitals.

That market has already been shaken by municipal bankruptcies in Detroit; Stockton, Calif.; and elsewhere, which undercut assumptions that local governments in the United States would always pay back their debt.

Puerto Rico’s bonds have a face value roughly eight times that of Detroit’s bonds. Its call for debt relief on such a vast scale could raise borrowing costs for other local governments as investors become more wary of lending.

Perhaps more important, much of Puerto Rico’s debt is widely held by individual investors on the United States mainland, in mutual funds or other investment accounts, and they may not be aware of it.

Puerto Rico, as a commonwealth, does not have the option of bankruptcy. A default on its debts would most likely leave the island, its creditors and its residents in a legal and financial limbo that, like the debt crisis in Greece, could take years to sort out.

This is going to be a big political and financial problem going forward.  It's going to be up to Congress to figure out how and if they are going to help Puerto Rico, but I don't see how they can turn the island away without risking America's credit rating.

We'll see what happens, but this on top of Greece is going to be the next major financial mess for Washington to deal with.

StupidiNews!

• An Indonesian Air Force C-130 transport plane has crashed near the city of Medan, killing all 12 aboard and at least 38 total as the plane went down in a crowded residential district.
• President Obama will expand overtime eligibility for salaried workers making up to $970 a week from the current $455, which would affect nearly 5 million American workers.
• European Union officials are trying to persuade Greece to take a last-minute offer ahead of a proposed July 5th referendum as the country plans to default on this week's debt payment.
• Spanish prosecutors say Russian allies of Vladimir Putin helped the Russian mob operate out of Madrid for over a decade.
• After being hacked by Chinese earlier this year, the federal government's Office of Personnel Management is shutting down its online background check portal due to vulnerabilities.