Last Call

I know it's greatly oversimplifying things to portray oil companies like BP as megalomaniacal, cartoonish James Bond villains, but when the somewhat evil patent leather shoe fits...

Plans to exploit Iraq's oil reserves were discussed by government ministers and the world's largest oil companies the year before Britain took a leading role in invading Iraq, government documents show.


The papers, revealed here for the first time, raise new questions over Britain's involvement in the war, which had divided Tony Blair's cabinet and was voted through only after his claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

The minutes of a series of meetings between ministers and senior oil executives are at odds with the public denials of self-interest from oil companies and Western governments at the time.

The documents were not offered as evidence in the ongoing Chilcot Inquiry into the UK's involvement in the Iraq war. In March 2003, just before Britain went to war, Shell denounced reports that it had held talks with Downing Street about Iraqi oil as "highly inaccurate". BP denied that it had any "strategic interest" in Iraq, while Tony Blair described "the oil conspiracy theory" as "the most absurd".

But documents from October and November the previous year paint a very different picture.

Five months before the March 2003 invasion, Baroness Symons, then the Trade Minister, told BP that the Government believed British energy firms should be given a share of Iraq's enormous oil and gas reserves as a reward for Tony Blair's military commitment to US plans for regime change.

The papers show that Lady Symons agreed to lobby the Bush administration on BP's behalf because the oil giant feared it was being "locked out" of deals that Washington was quietly striking with US, French and Russian governments and their energy firms.

Minutes of a meeting with BP, Shell and BG (formerly British Gas) on 31 October 2002 read:

"Baroness Symons agreed that it would be difficult to justify British companies losing out in Iraq in that way if the UK had itself been a conspicuous supporter of the US government throughout the crisis."

The minister then promised to "report back to the companies before Christmas" on her lobbying efforts. 

Hey, but Bush was handing out contracts, so the UK agreed to go to war because BP wanted in on the oil too.   It's not that anyone ever believed Iraq wasn't about the oil, but to have it confirmed at least partially is another thing.

Hell of a mess.  And gosh, we're looking forwards, not backwards.  Don't expect anything to happen to the people who pulled the trigger.

Birthers Get A Trump Card, Part 9

Steve M. argues convincingly that Trump has now crossed the line and is effectively done.  Oh no, he can insult the current President all he wants to, but as Steve says, he's committed the unpardonable sin of pointing out Ronald Reagan's feet of clay.

...in his bestselling book, Art of the Deal, published at the conclusion of the Reagan presidency, Trump cited Reagan as an example of someone who could "con people" but couldn't "deliver the goods." Trump said Reagan was "so smooth" that he "won over the American people." But at the conclusion of his presidency, "people are beginning to question whether there is anything beneath that smile," Trump writes. 

That's it, Donald -- thanks for playing. You can be an ex-Democrat, an ex-supporter of a wealth tax, an ex-Obama fan, an ex-pro-choicer ... but you cannot insult the most perfect human being who ever lived and expect to win votes in the Republican Party. This alone will do more to deflate the Trump bubble than anything terrified establishment 'pubs have unearthed so far.

And it was Think Progress that dug this up. Dammit, guys, you should've let him make the party elders squirm for a few more weeks.

Well, Republicans do lie about pretty much everything, including Reagan. He never would have survived today's Republican Party to make it to the White House, in fact he would have been primaried out of California's Governor's mansion if not recalled. But telling the truth about Ronnie to counter that lie, well. That's breaking the final, inviolable law. I'm going to have to go with Steve here without much reservation at all.

Trump's done, folks. Enjoy the veal.

But You'll Never Take Our Freed...Oh Never Mind

I've talked about Michigan's GOP Gov. Rick Snyder and his dictatorship of Michigan here:

So at this point, Gov. Snyder can appoint an "emergency manager" over a local government who has the power to remove any local or county government he wants to, eliminate all local government contracts, close schools and offices, disband state employee unions, layoff any government workers, and do all this with basically no oversight.

The best part?  Governor Snyder can pro-actively appoint an emergency manager "long before a city gets into trouble".  What's the criteria for appointing this manager and throwing out the elected city or country government?

Well, nobody seems to know, actually.  But Snyder can do it starting now.

Meet the first Michigan town to feel the wrath of Rick Snyder's "Appoint-A-Satrap" program:  Benton Harbor's new head, Joe Harris.

[O]ne of the first things that Joseph Harris did was to fire a number of people on both the Planning Commission and the Brownfield Development Commission in Benton Harbor and replace them with people he hand-picked. These two commissions are the ones most intimately involved in decision-making about real estate development in Benton Harbor. They will decide who gets permits, what developments will look like and who gets to pick the ripe plums present in Benton Harbor. And they are now staffed largely by people chosen by the Czar of Benton Harbor.

This is where the rubber meets the pavement. If you are looking for motivations for Snyder and his Republican friends to take over Benton Harbor, watch who gets development rights of the Lake Michigan shoreline. They are already setting things up to ensure that it is not the local residents of Benton Harbor.

Sure glad Snyder's not abusing his power to rid himself of any local officials he wants to or anything.  Welcome to the Banana Republic of the Wolverine.  Oh, it gets worse.  The real target is Detroit.

As if to prove correct those who argued that the Emergency Manager bill would be used to alter or eliminate union contracts, Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Robert Bobb said Thursday that he will use those new powers to do exactly that.

Just poof, all union contracts thrown out, all teachers given potential layoff notices, all opposition to the plan squelched.  And it gets worse.  E.D. Kain explains:

So who is Robert Bobb?

It turns out, he’s a recent graduate of the Broad Foundation’s Superintendent Academy. The Broad Foundation, along with the Kellogg Foundation, pays Bobb $145,000 a year on top of his $280,000 government salary. For those of you not familiar with Broad, it is one of the leading foundations promoting school choice and privatization across the country. One might almost think that paying a public official hundreds of thousands of dollars a year might amount to nothing short of bribery, especially given the very specific agenda of a foundation like the Broad Foundation.

Now, Bobb is proposing to create charter schools for 16,000 students from 41 schools slated for closure. He argues that this will save millions of dollars. I have to wonder, however, at the conflict of interest.

Did I mention it gets even worse?

This is nothing short of a coordinated effort between the billionaire foundations pushing school reform and Tea Party conservatives intent on slashing benefits and ending collective bargaining rights. Public schools are under assault by the forces of privatization, and public school teachers face benefit and salary cuts while the very rich are promised tax cuts. Similar efforts are underway in Florida and Wisconsin.

That's right, Scott Walker and Rick Scott are very, very interested in passing a similar dictatorship law to what Michigan has now.  They are very much intrigued by being able to exterminate any opposition at the local and county level by simply appointing a financial manager to run out whomever they want to.  And with Florida's GOP having a super-majority, I fully expect Rick Scott to absolutely have a law like this in place so he can simply dismiss any local or county elected official he doesn't like in the state.

But keep in mind that's conjecture.  Michigan's Rick Snyder?  He has this power now, and he's already using it to dispose of anyone who gets in his way.

But remember, Democrats are the fascists.  Snyder's a patriot.

No Dealing On The Debt Ceiling, Part 5

Seems GOP Sen. Jim DeMint didn't get the memo from the US Chamber of Commerce on that whole "ixnay" on the debt ceiling thing.

Throwing down the gauntlet, Republican Sen. Jim DeMint threatened Monday to block a vote in Congress on raising the U.S. debt ceiling unless he wins a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution.

The filibuster threat comes a day after Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner suggested Republican leaders had offered private assurances to the White House that they ultimately would vote to raise the $14.3 trillion ceiling, regardless of whether a deal is reached on long-term spending cuts.

Publicly, Republicans say they will demand spending cuts as a condition for supporting a hike in the debt ceiling. They stood by that claim following Geithner's comments, and DeMint took their demands a step further.

"I will oppose any attempt to vote to raise the limit on our $14 trillion debt until Congress passes the balanced-budget amendment," the South Carolina conservative said. He first made the remarks to McClatchy, which his office confirmed to Fox News.

A balanced-budget amendment would prohibit the U.S. government from running a deficit. Such a provision would take a two-thirds vote in Congress, in addition to ratification by the states. 

So Jim DeMint really is threatening to destroy the economy unless he's allowed to destroy the economy.  Brilliant.  Keep posturing like this, Republicans.  Not even Republicans believe in a balanced budget amendment, let alone two-thirds of Congress, and all this is supposed to happen before the debt ceiling forces a default?

Please.  DeMint is full of DeCrap.  When he fails to deliver on this, will the Tea Party primary him out of Washington?

Advance In Cancer Treatment Given Approval

WASHINGTON – Device maker Novocure said Friday that the Food and Drug Administration approved its first-of-a-kind treatment that fights cancerous brain tumors using electrical energy fields.

The FDA approved the device for patients with aggressive brain tumors that have returned after treatment with chemotherapy and other interventions. Patients with recurring brain cancer usually live only a few months.

Studies showed that people using the device lived about as long as those taking chemotherapy, roughly six months. However, patients using the device had significantly fewer side effects.

Because cancer cells replicate so quickly, this allows the new technology to affect cancer cells while having minimum impact on healthy cells.  While it isn't extending life beyond that of chemotherapy at the moment, it's a baby step in the right direction. The problem all along has been how to target cancer cells rather than healthy cells, and chemotherapy can be brutal.  If it does nothing but improve quality of life for those facing terminal cancer, it's still a help for those who have suffered enough.

A Medical And Ethical Dilemma

I have thought this one over for a few days now.  I don't completely agree or disagree with either side in this story.  I can see the flaws in logic that worry me in many ways, including a parent's right to make medical choices for their children.

In a nutshell, a mother decided to deny her child treatment, and as a result the child died of leukemia.  That the child was autistic, developmentally disabled and nonverbal further complicates the issue.  The mother's explanation was that she could not bear to make her child suffer.  The child would have most likely died a slower and far more painful death, and been completely unable to comprehend or express their suffering.  What some call medical and parental neglect others may call compassion.  A jury recently found her guilty of attempted murder.  Her decision was made without support or guidance, but I do understand that some see extending life while others only see extending suffering.  That is the train of thought I rode around in circles.

"It can be so overwhelming for a single parent to deal with a child who is autistic, nonverbal, and developmentally delayed," said Carney. "It is cruel to add to that burden a diagnosis of cancer and a requirement that the mom administer medicine that will cause the child even more pain."

Is a parent at liberty to forgo treatment? According to the courts, apparently not.

The closest analogy appears to be a 1986 case in which Christian Scientist parents rejected surgery for their son, suffering from a bowel condition, in favor of spiritual treatment. In that situation, Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court ruled that parents, despite their religious beliefs, are obligated to rely on conventional medicine to treat their critically ill children.

The mother's real mistake was in making the decision without a doctor's input.  It's worrisome that the system allowed this to happen without setting of any type of red flags so that someone looked deeper.  I can see why it was good to have traditional medicine treat a bowel disorder, and I can also see why refusing to prolong the suffering of an already devastated patient is worth intense discussion and scrutiny.  What I can't find for myself is the line that separates the two, defined in a way that makes it fair and applicable.  I also wonder how this will be applied, including parents who decline immunization to dangerous diseases.


One thing is for certain.  This poor woman did not see justice in any way, at any time.  That her son isn't suffering is surely a bitter comfort while she faces prison.

It Taxes The Imagination

Mother Jones' Dave Gilson has a thoroughly depressing article on taxes and and the rich.

"We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes," billionaire hotelier Leona Helmsley famously (and allegedly) sniffed. She wasn't entirely correct: The superrich do still pay taxes. The wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers pay 32 percent of all income tax collected by the federal government.

But the superrich don't pay as much as they used to—and thanks to a combination of tax cuts and preferential tax policies, their tax obligations can be less demanding than the so-called little people's. In fact, the very wealthiest Americans' tax burden has been steadily dropping for years, even as they've enjoyed astounding income growth not seen by the vast majority of Americans.

Tax rates for the wealthy have fallen substantially since they peaked in the 1940s. During the past 30 years, they have been cut at a much faster rate than middle- and low-income taxpayers'.

Just how much of a windfall are tax cuts for the wealthy? The extension of the Bush tax cuts passed last year will provide $146,000 in annual tax savings, on average, to each of the wealthiest 0.1% of Americans.

Well, what about the rest of us?  This chart should tell you everything you need to know:

Kind of a bummer, huh?  The Bush tax cuts are saving the vast majority of Americans only a few bucks a year.  But the wealthiest one-tenth of the top one percent?  They get an extra $140,000 or so after their income has skyrocketed.  The last 12 years or so have been very, very good to the wealthy.  But they are "over taxed" and we dare not ask them to pay more in relation to the massive increase in income they've recieved or there will be terrible consequences.

Like, say, a financial crisis and Republicans screaming that we need to end Medicare, maybe?

Still think the problem is spending and not revenue?

Rating The Funny Business Of S&P's Rating

CounterPunch.org economic reporter Dave Lindorff wonders openly if yesterday's negative outlook by Standard & Poors on US debt was the perfectly-timed the next step in the GOP war on the social safety net.

So what’s going on here?

There would seem to be only two possibilities:

Either S&P has been pressured by powerful Republicans and/or Wall Street Bankers to issue this warning, in order to add to national hysteria about the national debt and win more drastic cuts in social programs, or S&P is simply blowing it again.

“Political shenanigans cannot be ruled out,” says Galbraith. “That’s what lawyers would call the ‘rebuttable presumption.’ After all, who benefits? The Republicans and perhaps the banks. But of course the other possibility is that S&P doesn’t know what it’s talking about, and after their disastrous missing of the mortgage bubble, that’s quite possibly what it is.”

The Obama administration, for its part, has reacted with surprising restraint to the S&P bombshell, saying only that the administration expects to reach an agreement with Congress over how to reduce the nation’s debt. Mary Miller, assistant treasury secretary for financial markets, for her part said that S&P "underestimates the ability of America's leaders to come together to address the difficult fiscal challenges facing the nation."

How pathetic is that? How about a call for the SEC, or the Federal Reserve or the Attorney General to investigate whether S&P was improperly pressured to issue its absurd “negative warning”? How about a call in the Senate for hearings to look into any such possible improper political pressure?

I’m not suggesting that there are no consequences for the failure of the US political system to pay for the nation’s trillions of dollars in wars, or for its craven preference over the last 30 years to hand tax cuts to corporations and the rich while continuing to encourage corporations to shift their investments abroad, taking the nation’s jobs with them. There will surely come a reckoning. But it won’t be in the form of default.

So we're back to the main argument in the financial crisis playbook:  are they destroying the economy because they are evil, or are they destroying it because they are just incredibly stupid?   Why not both, they say.  My theory yesterday is that the ratings agencies fired the first shot in revenge against the Obama administration for trying to regulate them more tightly, which would dovetail quite nicely with Lindorff's theory that the GOP controls S&P.

But it's not like the regulation is anything serious or even effective.  The financial reform bill was and still is a complete joke.  Banks are continuing exactly as they have done previously, and it's doubtful that the Consumer Financial Protection Agency created by the law will ever even open its doors.  What's S&P's long game here?  Helping the GOP destroy Medicare and Medicaid (and eventually Social Security) does seem pretty obvious here.

Enough to make you wonder, at least.

Sometimes I Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me...

It sounds like the plot of a movie thriller:  a Chinese exchange student in Toronto is having a webcam chat with the folks back home when the student was attacked live, and the friend in China witnessed what may have been the student's murder.

A 23-year-old exchange student, attacked in her Toronto apartment while a friend in China watched via computer webcam, was found dead there hours later, police say.


Toronto Police on Monday identified the student as Qian (Necole) Liu of Beijing. She was talking early Friday morning to a male friend from home when a man allegedly knocked on her door, asking to use her phone, police said in a news release.

The online witness said he saw Liu and the unknown man struggle for a time before the attacker turned off her laptop, the news release said.

The friend in China then started a desperate bid to find out what happened, CNN-affiliate CTV reported.

Ten hours later, police arrived at the basement apartment to find Liu's body, naked from the waist down. Her laptop was missing.

"It was obvious that she had been dead for some period of time," Detective Sgt. Frank Skubic said in the news release.

The cause of the death is yet to be determined, the news release said. There were no obvious signs of sexual assault or severe physical trauma, and police are awaiting toxicology reports, it said.

Police are unsure whether Liu, an exchange student at York University, knew the man. The attacker was described as white, age 20 to 30, 6 feet tall, weighing 175 to 200 pounds, with a muscular build and medium-length brown hair, and wearing a blue crew-neck T-shirt.

With no suspects and no one in custody, police have been questioning neighbors, CTV reported. A cell phone found in the apartment is also undergoing forensic examination, police said.

A pretty horrifying turn of events, and yet it shows that technology today means that even halfway across the planet, one can be a witness to crime.  I'm not sure what Canada's laws are on witnesses like that, or even US laws, but I would think if anything good comes from this tragic death that it's a solid legal review of webcams and the legal rights of witnesses who may see crimes through them.

StupidiNews!

• Pentagon investigators have cleared Gen. Stanley McChrystal of any wrongdoing as a result of the Rolling Stone article that cost him his job.
• Riots spread across Nigeria after election results from Saturday's presidential vote showed a commanding lead for incumbent Goodluck Jonathan amid allegations of vote rigging.
• Syrian security forces fired on thousands of protesters in the central square of the city of Homs after Monday's funeral for eight killed protesters.
• Both Republicans and Democrats say yesterday's negative outlook by S&P on US debt bolsters their respective claims for what needs to be done.
• An interfaith coalition of Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Islamic leaders want Americans to lay off the technology during this "Screen-Free Week."

Last Call

Now this is going to be interesting for Arizona Republicans.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Monday vetoed a bill that would have required President Barack Obama and other presidential candidates to prove their U.S. citizenship before their names could appear on the state's ballot.

The bill would have made Arizona the first state to pass such a requirement. Opponents had warned the bill would give another black eye to Arizona after last year's controversy over the state's illegal immigration enforcement law.

Brewer said in her veto letter that she was troubled that the bill empowered Arizona's secretary of state to judge the qualifications of all candidates when they file to run for office.

"I do not support designating one person as the gatekeeper to the ballot for a candidate, which could lead to arbitrary or politically motivated decisions," said Brewer, who was secretary of state until she became governor in 2009.

"In addition, I never imagined being presented with a bill that could require candidates for president of the greatest and most powerful nation on Earth to submit their 'early baptismal circumcision certificates' among other records to the Arizona secretary of state," she said. "This is a bridge too far."

Arizona Republicans have finally put up a bill that even Jan Brewer won't sign into law.  Never thought I'd see that one happen.

How long do you suppose it will take for the recall/primary effort to get under way?  If I recall, Arizona Republican Gov. Evan "I canceled Martin Luther King Day in Arizona" Mecham was almost recalled, but he was impeached and removed before the recall vote could happen.  He tried to run on the recall ballot, but Arizona stopped him.  So yes, a recall of Brewer?  Certainly could happen, although recall petitioners would need 25% of the total votes cast in Brewer's election to do it.

I seriously doubt it would happen.  Of course, I seriously doubted Trump would run as a birther stalking horse, either.

Birthers Get A Trump Card, Part 8

Didn't take the rest of the 2012 GOP field's opposition research guys long to Google The Donald's past political positions over the weekend and discover that's he's been all over the map, including deep into "Socialist Redistributionist" territory.

The Club For Growth wants The Donald's hairpiece on a pike, and organization president Chris Chocola came out with all weapons set on "swiftboat".

And for those who would rather he stay more sideshow than serious contender, Trump's past is providing plenty of ammunition with which to take on his maybe-maybe-not-campaign. As Dave Weigel first pointed out last week, Trump's previous flirtations with presidential politics have left him with a political history that's full of single-payer health care advocacy and massive tax increases on the rich to pay off the national debt.

Other issues include his past support for prominent Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY), to whom Trump's donated cash. That along with what appears to be some concern over Trump's birtherism and you've got a recipe for some blowback.

But don't worry, conservatives, Trump told TPM over the weekend: he's not the man he used to be.

Chocola's concerns stem from Trump's 2000 campaign tome, The America We Deserve. In it, Trump calls for a Canadian-style health care system and a one-time 14.25% tax on the wealthiest to pay down that era's $5.7 trillion national debt.

"Donald Trump has advocated for massive tax increases that display a stunning lack of knowledge of how to create jobs," Chocola said in the statement. "His love for a socialist-style universal health care system and his alarming obsession with protectionist policies are automatic disqualifiers among free-market conservatives."

Get that?  Donald Trump, mega-millionaire businessman, isn't enough of a free-market conservative.  I love it.  That's how you know the right is taking the threat of Trump very, very seriously.  They want him gone now...so they can run some other clown with no chance against Obama, I guess.  Trump is not that clown, apparently.

Who knew?  I thought he was plenty clown enough for the GOP.  And like I've said, he's giving the rabid anti-Obama dog whistle birthers who make up a majority of the GOP primary vote precisely what they want to hear.

No wonder the rest of the party is scrambling to destroy him.

No Dealing On The Debt Ceiling, Part 4

I can't help but believe that this is motivated partly by vengeance upon the Obama administration for daring to impose new regulations on the financial ratings agencies.

Standard & Poor's on Monday downgraded its credit outlook for the United States, citing a risk that policymakers may not reach agreement on a plan to slash the huge federal budget deficit.

While the credit rating agency maintained the country's top AAA credit rating, it said authorities have not made clear how they will tackle long-term fiscal pressures.

S&P said the move signals at least a one-in-three chance that it could cut its long-term rating on the United States within two years.

"Because the U.S. has, relative to its AAA peers, what we consider to be very large budget deficits and rising government indebtedness, and the path to addressing these is not clear to us, we have revised our outlook on the long-term rating to negative from stable," S&P said in a release.

Asariel has the Treasury response here.  Dow was off 200 points as a result of that little torpedo and gold is knocking at the door of $1,500 an ounce now.  Ahh, but note I said "partly" above.  The other half of the equation involves the debt ceiling:

Industry officials said they have been warning lawmakers that a failure to act would reverberate not only through the bond markets, but across America. The government would no longer be able to pay for its commitments, such as Medicare and Social Security.

The officials said they try to make clear to lawmakers that raising the debt limit does not spur new spending. Instead, it enables the government to pay off maturing debt, or spending obligations already made.

And, they point out, if the nation goes into default, its borrowing costs would spike.

“We say: ‘Guys, if we breach it, if we default on our debt, it would make it even harder to pay it back because of the interest costs. And we know that’s not your goal, so just FYI,’ ” said one financial industry executive who, like some others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to recall private conversations with lawmakers.

Members of the Financial Services Forum — which represents the chief executives of 20 of the nation’s largest financial institutions — the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other industry groups have fanned out across Capitol Hill to press lawmakers.

In some cases, lawmakers have been visited by community bankers and local business leaders from their districts — to put a friendly face on the lobbying effort and to underscore the point that it’s not just Wall Street, but also Main Street that would take the hit.

And when they see lawmakers at trade gatherings or dinner parties, Wall Street chief executives seek them out: “Hey, Congressman, I know you have to do what you need to do, but this debt ceiling vote is coming up, and I just want to take 10 seconds and talk about the economic consequences,” one executive said, describing conversations he and others have had.

This is the corporate arm of Washington DC making it abundantly clear that refusal to raise the debt ceiling will not be tolerated by the Powers That Be.  I've been saying this would happen the moment the GOP took control of the House.

Here's the problem with this particular game of chicken:  The people that stand to lose the most here, especially from the threat of a sovereign debt default, are the investor class.  They are the ones who spent billions to get the GOP into power, and the threat of default will annihilate the bond market.  The big players, especially the hedge fund giants, stand to lose hundreds of billions from a treasury meltdown as interest rates on long bonds skyrocket and yields drop like lead elephants on gravity steroids.

They will not allow the Republicans to toss satchel charges into their cathedral of cash. 

Behold now Washington being told to find an agreement on the debt ceiling or else.  It will be raised.  It will be raised with another face-saving deal like the FY 2010 budget mess.  But it will be raised.  The corporate interests in the US will not allow the Tea Party to blow a hole in the bottom of the economy.  They will be split.  The howls will cause the Tea Party arm of the GOP to go into full revolt.

But the debt ceiling will be raised.

That is as certain as things get.

Something Nasty Is Brewing At The Playboy Mansion

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles County health officials say the bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease was found in a hot tub at the Playboy Mansion where scores of people became ill after attending a fundraiser in February.

The Los Angeles Times says health officials presented their findings Friday at an annual conference at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

I'm both amused and a little grossed out.  What I'm not is surprised.   

StupidiNews! On A Sad Note

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- [As Zandar reported yesterday] the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra, long considered one of the best in the nation, will be filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection - an apparent first in recent history for a major U.S. orchestra.

Board chairman Richard Worley said members made a nearly unanimous vote Saturday to file for reorganization in a federal bankruptcy court in Philadelphia after a "long meeting, thoughtful meeting, emotional meeting."

One of the Big Five, the Philadelphia Orchestra has been famous for a century.  Their history includes some of the most played performances of all time, and soundtracks for movies such as Disney's Fantasia.  Musicians have agreed to pay cuts in the past, and are being asked to take yet another while the board tries to gather the funds necessary to keep the doors open.


Practically speaking, the arts don't hold up to food and shelter in the hierarchy of needs.  However, that isn't to say they aren't important.  We are at the beginning of a long, slow recovery.  Over the next decade or two, our priorities are going to be reorganized.  While it is inevitable that these cuts must take place, it is equally important that we do so in a way that allows us to preserve what was so important in the first place.  Museums, small attractions, nonprofit historical landmarks, all of these must be remembered and not abandoned completely during lean times.  Think of the losses we have mourned from history, the documents and artifacts that have been lost.  We have an opportunity here to avoid the mistakes of our ancestors.

Turn On The Lights, Watch The Roaches Scatter Part 69

The battle over Foreclosuregate continues.  I've mentioned before that the banks are looking for a settlement agreement that gets them off the hook for defrauding millions of homeowners on their mortgages, and while the federal settlement looks to be very much in the banks' favor, the 50 state collective lawsuit is running afoul of the states very, very badly needing the cash and wanting very much to rightfully collect.

Attorneys general negotiating a settlement of a 50-state investigation of foreclosure practices have reached agreements with lenders on some terms while failing so far to reach an accord on potential monetary payments by the banks, said a person familiar with the talks.

The probe was triggered by claims of faulty foreclosure practices following the housing collapse which law enforcement officials said may violate state law. Significant progress has been made on a deal with lenders, which include Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), with agreements in principle reached on several issues, said the person, who didn’t specify the areas of accord as they may change as talks proceed.

It may take at least two months to reach a final agreement, said the person, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. An accord remains out of reach because states want principal reductions for borrowers, which is more than banks agreed to in deals reached with U.S. regulators last week, said Allison Schoenthal, a lawyer at Hogan Lovells in New York.

“Principal reductions I don’t think are going to be agreed to by banks, and I don’t think the banks see a need for a penalty when, in their view, they haven’t done anything wrong,” said Schoenthal, who represents lenders and servicers and isn’t involved in the talks. 

Nothing wrong except, you know, destroy the economy in a blizzard of fraud and hang the multi-trillion dollar bill for it around the necks of the US taxpayer.  The state AGs aren't stupid, either.  They know that without principal reductions, the banks are going to get the money and the property and actually end up in far better financial shape than they were in 2007...and the states are going to get stuck with the clean up and lost tax base as property values continue to drop.  They want the banks to eat the pile of crap they made so that housing prices can start to recover again.

Little chance of that happening, of course.

An Anniversary We'd Like To Forget

Wednesday marks one year after the deadly Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion that sank the rig and spewed millions of gallons of oil into the ocean.  From Texas to Florida, the Gulf Coast is still flooded with uncertainty about the safety of the waters.

About 40 surfers paddled off St. Pete beach Sunday with a dozen roses in hand to mark the one-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

"It's sad to see that we're naïve to think that because it happened, we have all the answers," said Thomas Paterek, chairman of the Surfrider Foundation's Suncoast chapter. "Truth be told: We don't have any of the answers yet."

The nonprofit environmental group organized the event, during which surfers paddled out about 100 yards and tossed 11 roses into the water, remembering the 11 members of the Deepwater Horizon crew who died when the oil rig exploded off the Louisiana coast on April 20, 2010. The final rose represented wildlife impacted by the spill.

"This disaster is enormous, and there's still oil out there," said Dave Rauschkolb, founder of Hands Across the Sand, which opposes offshore oil drilling along Florida's coastline. "No one can be sure the sand and the Gulf (are safe). We're hearing that it is, but those of us who live up there who've been affected by this ... it's still scary for us."

Rauschkolb lives in Seaside, a coastal community east of Pensacola, and owns three restaurants, one of which serves seafood.

"We're buying our seafood from the eastern Gulf because I don't feel comfortable with the seafood that's coming towards the west coast further west from us."

And very few Americans do.   Do you blame the guy?  I don't.  Maybe because as Mac McClelland reports, the oil's still washing up on shore.

At the entrance to Grand Isle State Park, we're issued the same warning DW was, that the beach is closed to the press and everyone else because there are workers on it. That doesn't seem like that good of a reason to keep a reporter off a beach, and in any case it is a lie. Last August, when I walked out of sight of the park staffer at the entrance and onto the beach, two private guards escorted me away. This time, the beach is deserted of rent-a-cops and cleanup workers alike. It's covered in tarballs, little and sometimes not-so-little brown blemishes all over the sand. They're shiny and smell like gas when you break them open.

After a while, some workers arrive. Five of them. One shows me how they get the tarballs. He's holding a broken-off rake handle; he's taped a lens from a pair of sunglasses to the end of it, which he uses to scoop up the tar. He was originally issued a shovel, but the workers, finding this wildly inefficient, now make their own tools. In his other hand he's got a rake with too much space between the tines to pick up smaller pieces of tar. He affixed mesh to the inside of it. "I've had this job since May," he says. There's a laminated "Ten Ways To Be A Successful Husband" card in the pocket of his denim shirt. "We're just grateful for the work."

Asked if any of this oil is from the new, non-BP spill that started washing up on Grand Isle last week, he says no, that's already all been cleaned up, anything that's left over is still Deepwater Horizon oil. A group of Coast Guard guys I ran into earlier said the same thing. BP spokesperson Blake Scott also confirms this after I make it through security at central command.

We still have a major problem in the Gulf of Mexico, and it's one I'll be highlighting this week.

Mean Old Scary Black President Guy Is Back

Via Alan Colmes this morning, we learn whenever President Obama holds the line to defend Democratic party and American values, we always get back to the GOP default position that he is mean, belligerent, disrespectful, intemperate and most of all angry black guy. 

Odds are we will see more of this meaner side of the Obama persona in the months ahead because, as columnist and former GOP presidential aide Pete Wehner notes, "now that he finds himself intellectually outmatched by Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, and in a precarious situation when it comes to his re-election, Obama is dropping his past civility sermons down the memory hole. Decency and respect for others has suddenly become passe. Talking about our disagreements without being disagreeable has been overtaken by events. Not impugning the character of the opposition is fine as long as it's convenient, but it's to be ignored whenever necessary." In other words, we're now seeing the real Obama in what promises to be an ugly campaign.

If there were any more projection from the right here, you could read that Moonie Times editorial clearly on the side of the moon at night.  Please observe how the editorial hits all the low notes:  Obama is rage-filled, disrespectful towards "real America" and "intellectually outmatched" by the GOP (instead of their usual attacks on Obama claiming he's too detached, too politically correct and too much of an egghead, while the Tea Party is celebrated as passionate, authentic, and common sense, see how all this works?)

The barely unspoken message here is that Obama is a stupid, angry black guy, along with all the connotative baggage that goes along with that image over the decades.  This attack doesn't get pulled out by the right unless they are extraordinarily desperate to try to make everything about Obama, rather than about whatever con the Republicans are trying to pull on the American people, so blowing that dog whistle of "Paul Ryan is clearly smarter, but what did you expect" is the way forward.

And as I noted above, the Republicans have spent the last several years reveling in ignorance, saying that doubting things the elitist science guys tell you about climate or evolution or anything for that matter is really the intellectual superiority of the "open mind".  Now they are projecting that same state onto Obama after years of saying he's basically Tuvok from Star Trek: Voyager by now saying Obama clearly hasn't done his homework, got "outsmarted" by the GOP, and is now resorting to being angry and mean.

The whiplash alone on that 180 should have flipped the GOP clown car, but apparently it rolled over enough times to land on those little wheels.  Whenever the Republicans go after Obama personally like this, you know they've admitted that they've lost the argument on the merits of fact and are now scrambling to drag things as deep into the mud as possible.

All while Obama remains as cool as a spring breeze over an iceberg.  He drives them nuts, you know.

StupidiNews!

• The five coalition soldiers who were killed over the weekend in Afghanistan by a suicide bomber were US troops from the Army's 101st Airborne Division, officials say.
• Ivory Coast President Alassane Outtara is ordering the country's civil service workers back to work in order to try to get the country back on track.
• California wildlife officials and environmental groups are warning that widespread use of new rat poisons are causing harm to more than just rats.
• In a major reversal, formed Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan is now saying the Bush tax cuts should be allowed to expire.
• Oracle is giving up on a commercial version of OpenOffice as the open source community presses on with the consumer version.

Last Call

Back home in North Carolina, the state got walloped by a series of tornadoes this weekend that left 22 dead and dozens injured from Raleigh to the Albamarle Sound.

Half of the North Carolina fatalities were in Bertie County, a rural county about 120 miles northeast of Raleigh that has just 21,000 residents.

Two suspected tornadoes cut a wide swath across the county, flattening houses and tossing around farm equipment and vehicles, said Zee Lamb, Bertie’s county manager.

“There are homes that are just totally leveled,” he said. “Anybody who was in those homes could not have survived.”

Among the dead were several elderly residents of an assisted-living facility that was caught in the path of the storm, Lamb said.

Similar scenes of destruction could be found in elsewhere in the state, notable in Wake County, Sanford and Dunn.

In Northeast Raleigh, three children were killed when the mobile home they lived in was crushed by a falling tree. A fourth child, a six-month old girl, is in critical condition.

The scene left neighbors of the victims screaming in vain to help them get their babies out from under the tree.

In the neighborhoods just east and south of downtown Raleigh, there was substantial wind damage, but remarkably no one was killed. Shaw University, founded in 1865 as the first historically black college in the South, announced Saturday it would remain closed for the remainder of the semester because of the damage.

The city of Raleigh had roughly 30 teams out working to clear away debris.

I have friends out that way who so far have checked in and say they are alright, but they all tell me that this is the worse storm damage since Hugo in 1989.  We just don't get tornadoes in the eastern part of NC.  And yet when we do get them, they are devastating.