Last Call

Republicans have found a fun new game to play.  Find a government-provided service, point out that it wasn't in the Constitution, declare it unconstitutional, demand it be eliminated, then when somebody calls you on your logic, twiddle your thumbs.  You too can be an idiot.

In an interview about federal transportation issues, Streetsblog asked Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) about supporting legislation that would support things like bike trails. Hunter responded by saying that he doesn’t “think biking should fall under the federal purview of what the transportation committee is there for. If a state wants to do it, or local municipality, they can do whatever they want to. But no, because you have us mandating bike paths, you don’t want either.”


Streetsblog followed up by asking if he was okay with “mandating highways.” Hunter responded by saying that he doesn’t “see riding a bike the same as driving a car or flying an airplane” because “it’s more of a recreational thing“

Right.  Bikes aren't transportation, you don't actually go anywhere on one.  Hurr, stupid hippies, get an SUV!

I expect that kind of argument from the peanut gallery, not Congress.

Chickens Coming Out Swinging

And so it goes like this: Chick-fil-A is a restaurant where franchises frequently donate to anti-gay organizations like the Pennsylvania Family Institute, Focus on the Family and others. The restaurant's charitable arm, WinShape, holds conferences for opponents of gay marriage and praises their work. And this charitable arm's Retreat program puts a blanket ban on gay couples using their facilities, because they "do not accept homosexual couples."

Yet the President of Chick-fil-A still says that all people, including LGBT people, are treated with respect by the restaurant? Huh, what a funny definition of respect.

I heard rumblings weeks ago, but I waited to see if a fuller picture developed.  Businesses have the right to donate and operate within the boundaries of the law.  It becomes hypocrisy only when they try to deny the left hand knows who the right hand is flipping off. It's the same dilemma that challenges pharmacies whose owners don't want to sell birth control: when you operate a business that serves the public, it isn't wise to alienate your customers.  Especially by denying services or supporting charities that don't actually enhance society but merely try to control it.

Oppressed So Hard They Could Not Stand...

Let my people go.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says he has asked the government to resign, and that he will appoint a new government Saturday. He gave no indication that he would step down or leave the country. 

Talk about as stubborn as Pharaoh.   Somehow I don't think Mubarak is going to remain in power much longer.  He hasn't got a friend in the world right now and if he thinks people are going to settle for him remaining in power, well.

Meanwhile, protests are spreading east to Yemen and Jordan, where the people are demanding Prime Minister Samir Rifai step down.

In the third consecutive Friday of protests, about 3,500 opposition activists from Jordan's main Islamist opposition group, trade unions and leftist organisations gathered in the capital, waving colourful banners reading: "Send the corrupt guys to court".

The crowd denounced Samir Rifai's, the prime minister, and his unpopular policies.

Many shouted: "Rifai go away, prices are on fire and so are the Jordanians.''

Another 2,500 people also took to the streets in six other cities across the country after the noon prayers. Those protests also called for Rifai's ouster.

Members of the Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and Jordan's largest opposition party, swelled the ranks of the demonstrators, massing outside the al-Husseini mosque in Amman and filling the downtown streets with their prayer lines.

King Abdullah has promised some reforms, particularly on a controversial election law. But many believe it is unlikely he will bow to demands for the election of the prime minister and Cabinet officials, traditionally appointed by the king.

Rifai also announced a $550 million package of new subsidies in the last two weeks for fuel and staple products like rice, sugar, livestock and liquefied gas used for heating and cooking. It also includes a raise for civil servants and security personnel.

Things are getting ugly, folks.  The big fat domino at the end of this 2,500 mile chain that started in Tunisia is Saudi Arabia and our oil producing OPEC pals.  If the unrest goes that far, we're going to have all kinds of problems on our end and damn soon.  Last thing you want to see is Zimbabwe style hyper-inflation in an OPEC exporter.

Tunisia's down, Egypt's on the brink.  The whole of North Africa into the Middle East is looking bad. Stay tuned, folks.  This isn't one song on the jukebox, it's a symphony of chaos and it's been warming up for years.

Challenging The Stars

Some 25 years ago today, a knuckle-headed elementary school Zandar was watching the launch of the shuttle Challenger, just like every other schoolkid in the country.  Hey, we were going to get lessons from a teacher in space.  How awesome was that going to be?

Turns out it was awesome, but in the literal sense.

Seventy-three seconds.

That's how long NASA's space shuttle Challenger was in the air before an O-ring failure turned a routine mission into space into a tragedy on January 28, 1986.

Twenty-five years after NASA's first fatal in-flight accident, the memory of the Challenger disaster is still strong.


CNN's John Zarrella was at Kennedy Space Center to cover the launch - the first from NASA's new launchpad 39B. "I just remember seeing the cloud of smoke and what looked like fireworks coming out from the vehicle," says Zarrella. "We were all just looking at each other wondering 'OK, what's happened here?'"

CNN, still in its early years, was the only network to carry the launch live that Tuesday. Among those tuning in were children in classrooms across the country, watching what was to be a milestone: Christa McAuliffe, the program’s first teacher in space, lifted off as a member of the crew.

And we watched it live, and we all looked at each other, and asked the teacher what happened, and she shushed us, because she didn't know either.  None of us did.  I remember watching the booster rockets fork off in a V, going in different directions, and the thing cracked up.

And they were gone, the whole crew.  Just like that.  That was my first introduction to the concept that really, really bad things happen to really nice people, and there's not anything you can do about it.  Sometimes, things just go horribly wrong in life and people don't come home again.  Ever.

Yeah, by February we were all fine, cracking really bad jokes about the accident ("No, I said BUD LIGHT!") and dreading Valentine's Day.

But I remember my mom asking me if I was okay when I came home from school, and I said that I was okay, and I did my homework and ate dinner, and I remember thinking "Well, I guess there is a reason bad things happen" but for the life of me I still haven't quite figured out why that is.  Anybody in my generation, that was the event you remembered from school, you remember seeing it unfold live on TV and the entire country going..."Crap."

Now, 25 years later, I'm reminded the space shuttle program is all but over.  We thought it was over back then, too.  Life goes on.

But you remember that for some, life doesn't go on.

The Damn Hippie Scientists Save The World

UK-based Cella Energy has developed a synthetic fuel that could lead to US$1.50 per gallon gasoline. Apart from promising a future transportation fuel with a stable price regardless of oil prices, the fuel is hydrogen based and produces no carbon emissions when burned. The technology is based on complex hydrides, and has been developed over a four year top secret program at the prestigious Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford. Early indications are that the fuel can be used in existing internal combustion engined vehicles without engine modification.

Add to that Volkswagen's development of a car that can get over 235 miles per gallon, and advancements in carbon fiber technology that lets lightweight cars take the advantage back with consumers.  They are also able to learn how to make them more affordable, a bonus for the automobile industry that has struggled to turn a reliable profit.

NBC Snatches Up New Shows

It's Showtime at NBC: The Peacock late Friday picked up two big, bold pilots -- one a musical, the other a lesbian love story -- that very clearly seem to be the work of incoming chief Bob Greenblatt.

It's about time networks launched a show that represented the gay population. Ellen broke the ice, and Will And Grace opened a potential that was never fully realized. The best part of the concept, according to one source, is the  "opportunity to approach and break down stereotypes in a thoughtful manner. For example, there really ARE very nice, funny lesbians out there. The scowling, cargo-short-wearing dyke is just as reductive a stereotype as the hot pants/mesh shirt-wearing gay man."

Meanwhile, NBC yesterday also gave the thumbs-up to a half-hour romantic comedy pilot called I Hate That I Love You. It's from Will and Grace alum Jhoni Marchenko, and the logline is certainly eye-catching: "A straight couple introduces two of its lesbian friends to one another and what results is both instant attraction and a pregnancy."

It's already sounding better than more tired cop shows and "reality" programming.  It will surely take some time to develop, but really, this was long overdue.

Under The Radar, Over The Border

So, Mythbusters...what kind of catapult specs would you need to chuck bags of pot over the border, anyhow?

Mexican and American officials have foiled a scheme where smugglers tried to fling marijuana across the Arizona-Mexico border using a catapult.


National Guard troops operating a remote video surveillance system at the Naco Border Patrol Station say they observed several people preparing a catapult and launching packages over the International Border fence last Friday evening.

According to CBS affiliate KOLD, Border Patrol agents working with the National Guard contacted Mexican authorities, who went to the location and disrupted the catapult operation.

The 9-foot-tall catapult was found about 20 yards from the U.S. border on a flatbed towed by a sport utility vehicle, according to a Mexican army officer with the 45th military zone in the border state of Sonora.

The catapult was capable of launching 4.4 pounds of marijuana at a time, the officer said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Part of me is going "wow, not really smuggling if you're tossing weed over the wall with a 9 foot catapult in the back of a pickup."   That kind of thing gets noticed, people.  Get a damn tunnel like everyone else.

On the other hand...these guys had a 9-foot catapult in the back of a pickup truck.  Science, it works, bitches! 

StupidiNews Focus: Egypt Me Out Of My Internet, Or A De-Nile Of Service Attack

Ahead of today's planned protests in Egypt, several news sources are reporting that President Hosni Mubarak has either ordered the internet cut off or severely limited in functionality in order to stop protesters from using Twitter and Blackberries to coordinate.  Josh Marshall reflects on what this means.

We've now seen a series of waves of popular unrest which were, if not triggered by, at least accelerated and sustained for a period of time by social media, text messaging, easily-distributed digital imagery and all the rest of systems of our wired world. The latest reports out of Egypt are that the state has either disrupted or shutdown key social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter as well as text-messaging and Blackberry service. It's unclear to me in this report from the AP whether Internet connections themselves have been blocked; but clearly access to the Internet has been significantly curtailed.

On its face, this seems like an obvious step for any embattled regime to take. Taking a whole country off the grid for any period of time would likely be catastrophic in the early 21st century. But surely an authoritarian or episodically repressive regime could disrupt connectivity for some period to prevent its overthrow and not have it do too much damage to the economy.

So two questions occur to me. One is just how much digital media really plays into these episodes of popular unrest in Iran or Tunisia or Egypt. It seems clear to me that it plays a role -- just as print played an important role in creating a popular self-consciousness among hitherto scattered and isolated communities and in facilitating communication. But just how much is unclear to me. Does digital communications really make spontaneous organization and collaboration possible or does it just give us a window into a process that's taken place with less technology in countless popular revolts over the last few hundred years? I don't have an answer to that. But I think it's worth reminding ourselves that it's still an open question.

My personal thoughts are that, especially for those my age and younger, Twitter, Facebook and other social networks allow for nearly instant mass communication with not just people inside the protest zone, but outside as well.  Knowing that a world community has your back is a powerful incentive, and getting real-time updates from protests is powerful information, information that a regime cannot always control.

So yes, authoritarians have much to fear in tweets and texts.  Egypt's crackdown on the net ahead of today's protests are certainly a sign that the Mubarak government is very, very scared.

The question is, could it happen in the US.

Barack For A Benjamin For A Birther

Visibly annoyed Hawaii Democrats in the state legislature want to put an end to the whole President Obama birth certificate idiocy, and they're willing to make the state some money on the side.

Imagine: Your very own, handsomely embossed official Barack Obama birth certificate. It could soon be yours!! A bill introduced in the Hawaii state legislature would allow anyone to get a copy of the president's Hawaii birth records for just $100.


Now that Hawaii's governor, Neil Abercrombie, has officially confirmed the existence of Obama's birth records there, five Democrats have introduced the bill to "end skepticism over Obama's birthplace while raising a little money," according to the AP. It would change privacy laws to allow any American to get a copy of Obama's birth records, for a $100 processing fee.

Brilliant.  Hey legions of Birthers, put your money where your Obama Derangement Syndrome is and buy a copy.  I hope the state does pass this law. I'm sure they could use a couple million bucks or more from some fools who really do need to be parted from their money.  And hey, not stopping any Obama supporters from buying one in solidarity, too.  Certainly Hawaii could use the revenue.

Seems to me this is a novel idea.

StupidiNews!

• Egypt enters its fourth day of protests as security forces are cracking down with water cannon and riot gear, and President Mubarak has ordered the internet shut down in parts of the country.
• Senate Democrats have failed to change filibuster rules, with united GOP opposition and enough Democrats nervously rejecting the plan.
• California health insurers will delay large 2011 rate hikes for 60 days, but other insurers plan to go ahead with individual policy premium hikes as much as 59%.
• Moody's is threatening slapping a negative credit outlook on the United States unless "constructive efforts" to rein in entitlement spending happen soon.
• Microsoft's Xbox Kinect numbers last quarter were phenomenal, but that only barely makes up for a very disappointing quarter in Windows 7 OS sales.

Last Call

He's back, you $%#@*& bunch of %#$*&^!

Rahm Emanuel can run for mayor of Chicago. The Illinois Supreme Court unanimously ruled today that Emanuel is eligible, overturning an appellate court decision, and ending months of legal back-and-forth.

In the decision, the higher court offered this criticism: "the novel standard adopted by the appellate court majority is without any foundation in Illinois law."

Cannot wait for the acceptance speech, where he thanks every last %#*&$% one of us.

That's My Junior Senator, Folks!

Via Memeorandum I see my junior Senator Rand Paul is making friends all over the world...

Rand Paul (Ky.) and David Vitter (La.) are introducing a resolution this week that would amend the Constitution so that a person born in the United States could only become an American citizen if one or more of his or her parents is a legal citizen, legal immigrant or member of the armed forces, according to a joint press release Thursday.

Good luck amending that, boys.

"Citizenship is a privilege, and only those who respect our immigration laws should be allowed to enjoy its benefits," Paul said. "This legislation makes it necessary that everyone follow the rules, and goes through same process to become a U.S. citizen."

Which is funny, because right now the process is the same for everyone:  if you're born here, you're a US citizen.  When he says citizenship is a privilege, it's one he only wants to extend to certain people.  Meanwhile, there's a whole other demographic Rand's making friends with.

"Well, I think what you have to do is you have to look," Paul said. "When you send foreign aid, you actually [send] quite a bit to Israel's enemies. Islamic nations around Israel get quite a bit of foreign aid, too.

"You have to ask yourself, are we funding an arms race on both sides? I have a lot of sympathy and respect for Israel as a democratic nation, as a, you know, a fountain of peace and a fountain of democracy within the Middle East."

Blitzer pressed, "End all foreign aid including the foreign aid to Israel as well. Is that right?" he asked.

Paul answered, "Yes."

So really at this point Rand Paul's foreign and immigration policy is isolationism wherever possible, for both our enemies and allies.  Apparently he didn't get the standard "America is a leading force for good in the world" memo from the Bush years.  Rand here want us to pick up our ball and go home.

I wonder what Kentucky's other senator has to say about that.

Ground Control To Major Moose

Take your protein pills and put your helmet on.

Sarah Palin thinks President Barack Obama needs a history lesson on the space race between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union.

"He needs to remember that, uh, what happened back then with the communist U.S.S.R. and their victory in that race to space," the Fox News contributor said Wednesday night, reacting to Obama's reference to Sputnik in his State of the Union speech. Palin called the Sputnik name drop one of the "W.T.F." moments in the speech, a play of the President's call for "winning the future."

"Yeah, they won but they also incurred so much debt at the time that it resulted in the inevitable collapse of the Soviet Union," Palin said.

The Russians won the space race?  And that caused the demise of the Soviet Union some 25 years later?  And people think she'd make a good President?

Not me.

Well Yes, If You Don't Pay For The Bush Tax Cuts, The Deficit Goes Up

Steve Benen discovers Republicans are surprised by math.

Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office warned lawmakers that the budget picture was poised to get worse again, projecting a $1.5 trillion deficit this year.

Summarizing the thoughts of many, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) told Roll Call, "I think everyone is in a collective state of shock right now over the CBO numbers."

Really? Why is Congress so surprised? Frankly, I'm a little shocked by their collective state of shock.

This really isn't complicated. The deficit picture was starting to improve, but congressional Republicans insisted that Bush-era tax breaks get extended for another two years. How did Republicans propose paying for these tax cuts? They didn't -- the GOP said the price tag should just be added to the deficit.

And wouldn't you know it, that means ... I hope you're sitting down ... the deficit will go up, just as lawmakers were told it would if they cut taxes without paying for them.

Indeed, the CBO's estimate of the deficit with all the tax deals President Obama cut with Republicans added another $414 billion to the deficit for 2011, bringing the estimate now to over $1.5 trillion in the hole.  You give the wealthy tax cuts, you don't cut spending or raise taxes elsewhere to pay for them, the deficit goes up.

It's not rocket science.  It's exactly what both the Republicans and President Obama meant to happen.  No use acting all surprised, GOP.

SHAC Up With Mini-Moose

Bristol Palin has been selected as keynote speaker for this year’s Sexual Responsibility Week at Washington University. Student Union Treasury on Tuesday approved a $20,000 appeal by the Student Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) to sponsor a four-person panel featuring Palin. The appeal was initially set at $25,000 and renegotiated.

Bristol is going to speak regarding abstinence.  Not since Madonna sang Like A Virgin have they missed the mark by so far.

Privacy, Who Needs Privacy? Part V

The House Republicans' first major technology initiative is about to be unveiled: a push to force Internet companies to keep track of what their users are doing.  A House panel chaired by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin is scheduled to hold a hearing tomorrow morning to discuss forcing Internet providers, and perhaps Web companies as well, to store records of their users' activities for later review by police.

This, brought to you by the same guys who started snooping on your calls without a warrant.  There is no longer a need for the police to show evidence to snoop calling records, this will go much the same way.  You don't even have to be tied directly to a crime or suspect to be a person of interest, as long as you really are a person of interest. 

Yes, child porn and other scams are frustrating.  They are not, however, a reason to abandon our rights.  In the history of this country, when has government ever given back to the people or willing reduced its power?  Any ground we lose is gone for good.

Too Crazy (Like A Fox) To Stand Trial

Sir Allen Stanford, the Texas multi-billionaire who supposedly bilked a healthy chunk of that in a massive offshore Ponzi investment scheme, has been deemed incompetent to stand trial.

"In light of the testimony presented and the reports submitted by the three psychiatrists - including the Government's own expert, Dr. Rosenblatt - the Court has no viable alternative but to find that Stanford does not have the present mental capacity to effectively assist his attorneys in preparing his defense," writes Hittner.

Stanford wouldn't be released to a mental facility, as his lawyers had requested. Instead, U.S. District Judge David Hittner recommended that the Attorney General have Stanford moved to a federal facility with suitable medical capabilities to deal with his reported traumatic brain injury, addiction to an anti-anxiety medication and major depressive disorder.

"It is not lost on the court that Stanford's motion to be released to a local mental facility for treatment may be yet another attempt by Stanford to be released on bond," Hittner writes. "The Court's finding that Stanford is incompetent, however, does not alter the Court's finding that Stanford is a flight risk and that no combination of conditions of pretrial release can reasonably assure his appearance at trial."

Hittner recommends that "the Attorney General send Stanford to a medical facility within the Bureau of Prisons, such as the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina or to another suitable facility."

The judge also admonished both federal prosecutors and Stanford's lawyers "to diligently prepare this case to proceed to trial notwithstanding Stanford's absence."

A guy accused of a massive international con job is too depressed to face a trial?  A bravura performance, for sure.  Pay your defense team extra, my good man.  Both they, and you, Sir Allen, have earned it.

Home, Home I'm Deranged, Part 15

New home sales for 2010 hit the lowest level in almost five decades.

Sales for all of 2010 totaled 321,000, a drop of 14.4 percent from the 375,000 homes sold in 2009, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. It was the fifth consecutive year that sales have declined after hitting record highs for the five previous years when the housing market was booming.

The year ended on a stronger note. Buyers purchased new homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 329,000 units in December, a 17.5 percent increase from the November pace.

Still, economists say it could be years before sales rise to a healthy rate of 600,000 units a year.

"The percentage rise in sales looks impressive but 10 percent of next-to-nothing is still next-to-nothing," said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, referencing the December increase. "New home sales are bouncing around the bottom and we see no clear upward trend in the data yet."

Builders of new homes are struggling to compete in markets saturated foreclosures. High unemployment and uncertainty over home prices have kept many potential buyers from making purchases.

Home prices fell in November in 19 of 20 major cities measured by the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index, and nine of those cities fell to their lowest point since the housing bust.

Economists expect prices will keep falling through the first six months of this year.

Gosh, of course I was saying that 2010 was going to be a dismal year for home sales back in 2009, just like I said home sales in 2011 would continue to be dismal back in 2010.  I stick by that now.   There's a pretty good chance 2011's new home sales will come in under 2010's 321k, because 321,000 new homes is about 320,000 too many new homes being built with millions of existing homes clogging the market.

And more homes will be adding to that glut as the housing depression continues and layoffs and Foreclosuregate rolls on.  Home prices fall, homeowners end up underwater and they cut back on spending, the economy sputters, people lose their jobs, people lose their homes and add to the supply, and home prices fall.

We're approaching the fourth iteration of this cycle now, which appears to take about 9-12 months.  It's now self-sustaining and attempts to break the cycle by the Obama administration have failed.  Foreclosure activity has now spread into markets at all levels, places like Houston and Atlanta that didn't see big bubble gains in 2006-2007 are now seeing double digit decreases in housing prices.  As the fourth wave of foreclosures begins, we're seeing now evidence that housing prices will remain depressed in places like Las Vegas and California's San Fernando Valley for a generation or more.

In other words, housing prices in several areas of the country are effectively permanently broken for decades.  There will be no economic recovery for these areas.  They've become the ghost towns of the 21st century.

And each new cycle will drop more areas into this semi-permanent limbo state.  Some places in the country are now beyond any help.  More will be written off as the housing depression continues well into 2012.  And as housing prices and property tax revenues fall, more and more cuts will be made to local services, more city and county workers will be laid off, and more damage will be done to the economy.

With the stimulus now used up, the real long march begins for America.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Do Have A Plan

The Pentagon is expected to roll out its formal plan for integrating gay servicemembers into the armed forces on Friday.

Officials say Pentagon leaders will roll out a plan Friday that is expected to give the military services about three months to train their forces on the new law allowing gays to serve openly.

The plan will outline the swath of personnel, recruiting and other regulations that must be changed, And it will describe three levels of training for the troops, their commanders and the key administrators, recruiters and other leaders who will have to help implement the changes.

Officials familiar with the plan described it on condition of anonymity because it has not been finalized or made public. 

That's good news, that means hopefully by the end of April/early May we'll have openly serving gay and lesbian service members like gosh, all our major democratic military allies do.  Their militaries haven't exploded, and if the Brits, Israelis, and Canadians can survive it, so will we.


I look forward to seeing what the Pentagon has planned, and I keep shaking my head, wondering why it took so long.  "The Americans will always do the right thing," Winston Churchill once said, "after they've exhausted all the alternatives."

StupidiNews!

• State birds and flowers and mottos are one thing, but Utah lawmakers want to adopt a state gun: the Browning M1911.
• Homeland Security says it will officially scrap the color-coded terror alert system in April.
• Researchers warn that oil dispersants used in the Gulf oil spill remained active and lingered for months in layers deep under the ocean.
• UN officials say world food prices have surpassed June 2008 records, driving unrest across the globe.
• US Intelligence officials are hoping "Project Sirius", teaching spies to play video games, will help intelligence analysts unlearn bias to make better objective decisions.