How Long Can You Tread Water, Cincy?

With six days to go April 2011 may go down as the wettest month on record for Cincinnati.  And not just the wettest April (which we passed yesterday), but the rainiest month of all time.  It's getting mighty inconvenient out there.

Rains continue to fall on the Tri-State, adding water to already swollen rivers and creeks and putting the month of April 2011 on the record as the wettest April in Cincinnati History.

Right now, the Ohio River stands at about 54.9 feet. flood stage is 52 feet.   The Ohio is expected to crest tomorrow at 2 a.m. at 56 feet, and then fall to 53 feet on Wednesday.  The Licking River at Falmouth is at 30.8 feet now, and will crest at 33.5 at 8 p.m. tonight, about a half foot above flood stage.

Sandbags are becoming a familiar site at the Covington Landing. As the river has risen over the weekend, water is now covering the Serpentine Wall on the Ohio side. Floodgates remain in place at Mehring Way and Harriett and at Mehring and Carr Street. Those were installed last Thursday in preparation for the flooding.  Several roads remain closed due to high water but early Monday morning, officials added a new closure-the ramp from State Route 32 West to 125 East and the ramp from 125 West to 32 East in Newtown are both closed.

At Coney Island the flooding forced Cirque Du Soleil to cancel its performances over the weekend. The show's organizers hope to be back on stage performing tomorrow.

High water is also forcing some students out of their classrooms. The parking lot of Riverview East Academy on Kellogg Avenue is under water. Therefore, students will be roaming the halls of Burton Elementary today. Buses will pick the students up at their normal times. Walkers and car riders can meet at the ball field on Stanley Avenue to get to school. This is the second time students have had to be relocated due to flooding.  

We're at 10.86 inches through yesterday, the all time record is 13.68 inches...and we're expecting rain all week.  More and more extreme weather records are falling here in the last few years but of course...it's all in your head if you think global climate change has anything to do with it...

Right?

The Smartest Econo-Moose In The Room

The winger logic this morning goes something like this:

1. The NY Times notes that ordinary Americans have not really benefited much from Helicopter Ben's QE2 program.
2. Therefore, this is proof that QE2 has failed.
3. Sarah Palin said QE2 would fail.
4. Therefore, given 2 and 3, Sarah Palin is the smartest person on Earth.

No, really.

She did this back in November in a speech at Phoenix, which the Wall Street Journal, in a laudatory editorial at the time, characterized as zeroing in on the connection between a weak dollar and rising prices for oil and food. “We don’t want temporary, artificial economic growth brought at the expense of permanently higher inflation which will erode the value of our incomes and our savings,” the Journal quoted Mrs. Palin as saying. “We want a stable dollar combined with real economic reform. It's the only way we can get our economy back on the right track.” Now here is the New York Times quoting a raft of economists who have reached the conclusion that Mrs. Palin’s warning was right down the line.

No really, she's a visionary genius.

Will any of this bring some humility to the Fed and its chairman? It will be something to watch for in his first big press conference Wednesday. No doubt it will be one of the most crowded press conferences in recent memory, and there will be lots to ask about. But one of the questions will be how in tarnation Mrs. Palin figured it out so far ahead of everyone else.

The usual supplicants are crowing, in awe of Sarah Palin's supreme intellect.  But here's what I said almost six months ago:

I'm a Keynesian, but I think this is bad Keynesian policy.  It's certainly not the best way to stimulate the economy.  It is the best way for the banks to make a hell of a lot more money to sit on and not invest in workers and capital, and unless the banks loosen credit, there's not going to be anything useful out of this.  It's trying to water your crops by blowing up the reservoir dam. You will get water to the crops, it just might take your farm with it.

The problem is the more useful ways to stimulate the economy have been summarily rejected, blocked, and killed by the GOP.  That will not improve in the next two years, so the Fed has to step in.

However this has got to be the most painful way of doing it...short of you know, doing nothing at all.  And we've got nothing else to try. 

Investors want to borrow money cheaply and then get a high rate of return for it.  Since interest rates are near zero, investors are borrowing that money from the Fed cheaply and plowing it into commodities:  wheat, corn, oil, silver, gold.  This is bad for consumers as prices for those go up, but they are an excellent rate of return for investors.

And since the GOP has blocked literally everything else the government can try that would be remotely stimulative, we're left with literally the worst option of the lot.  Surprise, it's not working very well.  It was a long shot at best and all it ended up doing was feeding more Big Casino games that would hurt the American people.  Everyone bet commodities futures would go up...and wow, they did!  Shocking, I know...it's called a "speculative bubble."  The markets loved it.  It did nothing for 90% of America other than make food and gas prices go up.

Any actual stimulus plan would have been killed in Congress.  When Obama and the Democrats had the chance to do a real stimulus plan, they punted.

And if figuring out that wasn't going to work real well makes Sarah Palin smart, that makes me Einstein having Socrates' babies.  What would Sarah Palin have done instead?  Well...nobody seems to have an answer for that, least of all Sarah Palin and her supporters. 

Oh wait, we know exactly what she would have done, cut taxes on the rich and wait for it to trickle down to the rest of us.  We tried that, of course.  It was called The George W. Bush Years.  You see where that got us.  And yet, the fiscally responsible plan is completely ignored by everyone.

Funny how that works.

StupidiNews Focus: Gitmo And Mo Leaks In This Place

The latest raft of WikiLeaks documents involving Gitmo are pretty sobering.

The documents, more than 750 individual assessments of former and current Guantanamo detainees, show an intelligence operation that was tremendously dependant on informants — both prison camp snitches repeating what they'd heard from fellow captives and self-described, at times self-aggrandizing, alleged al Qaida insiders turned government witnesses who Pentagon records show have since been released.

Intelligence analysts are at odds with each other over which informants to trust, at times drawing inferences from prisoners' exercise habits. They order DNA tests, tether Taliban suspects to polygraphs, string together tidbits in ways that seemed to defy common sense.

Guantanamo analysts at times questioned the reliability of some information gleaned from other detainees' interrogations.

Allegations and information from one Yemeni, no longer at Guantanamo, appears in at least 135 detainees' files, prompting Navy Rear Adm. Dave Thomas, the prison camps commander in August 2008, to include this warning:

"Any information provided should be adequately verified through other sources before being utilized."
The same report goes on to praise the captive as an "invaluable intelligence source" for information about al Qaida and Taliban training, operations, personnel and facilities," and warns that he'd be at risk of retaliation if he were released into Yemeni society. He was resettled in Europe by the Obama administration.

In fact, information from just eight men showed up in forms for at least 235 Guantanamo detainees — some 30 percent of those known to have been held there. 

It gets worse.  Bush officials rounded up people for no good reason at all, but also a good hundred or so "high risk" detainees have been freed or transferred to other countries.  Some high risk detainees have now become US allies and informants.  One of those released high risk detainees and suspected AQ member is now a Libyan rebel leader.

The worst part, even when the information from informants was considered suspect or even flat out wrong, the Cheney "One Percent Doctrine" kicked in, and the Bush Pentagon used the information anyway to continue to detain some on the "one percent chance" it might be the break in a major terror case that saved American lives.  One percent was far too generous.

The crazy part?  Some detainees in Gitmo were originally rounded up because they wore a specific make of Casio wristwatch that the Pentagon suspected may have been a favored bomb timer of AQ operatives.  We arrested people in Afghanistan for wearing the wrong wristwatch and called them terrorists.

Our Gitmo policy was a mess.  It still is.  Yet we can never, ever close the place or America will be flooded with supervillains who are wearing wristwatches that could kill your entire family.

StupidiNews!

• WikiLeaks has released hundreds of documents pertaining to Gitmo detainees, including frank assessments of the detainees' danger to the United States.
• Bloody weekend police raids in Syria are continuing as a crackdown on protesters has resulted in over a hundred killed in the last two days.
• Libyan rebels say they are winning the war in the country's remote western reaches, but need NATO firepower to finish the job.
• TEPCO workers in Japan continue to pump radioactive water out of the flooded Fukushima Daiichi compound in order to install backup power cables.
• The number of PhDs given out each year is up 40% since 1988, but in this economy PhD employment is down sharply.

Last Call

Some good news at least involving Gabby Giffords and her husband, NASA shuttle commander Mark Kelly.

Friday, the Arizona congresswoman will witness her husband's own inspiring moment: Commanding the space shuttle Endeavour on its last launch.

Doctors have cleared Giffords, who was shot in the brain at a January 8 event in Tucson, to attend the scheduled launch in Florida, a source close to her said Sunday.

The source told CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen that Giffords will be accompanied by a nurse. There will be no doctor or medical assistance on board.

The source was not sure what kind of plane Giffords will be going on, but it will not be a commercial airliner. "She'll probably be going either Wednesday or Thursday," the source said.

Asked by "The CBS Evening News With Katie Couric" what Giffords' reaction was to the decision allowing her to go, Kelly replied, "I think she said, 'awesome' and she pumped her fist."

Kelly's comments on the flight and his wife's recovery will be broadcast on CBS Monday evening. The network Sunday released excerpts of the conversation.

Nothing short of remarkable.  My usual politics aside, I'm just astounded that she'll be able to attend this, and I'll take it as the hopeful, reaffirming sign that it is.

Keepin' The Beat

I'm a history nut, and the greatest regret I read about over and over is how careless people were with their history.  We learn from the past but can be remarkably ignorant about our present, and not see the importance of what we have right in front of us.  In a slew of storms and earthquakes, it's easy to forget hurricane Katrina and the damage that not only took down a city but almost destroyed a unique and historically rich region.  While the area has made large leaps towards recovery, much was lost and needs to be documented.  I think about how centuries from now, a student will wonder what life was like before Katrina, and what was so special about New Orleans.  Besides books and journals, there will also be fictional portrayals that capture elements of the people who bore witness to incredible devastation.  Treme is the cream of that crop.

But in the second season of Treme, which is set 14 months after the storm, New Orleans and its citizens are still really at the beginning of the climb. "That second year, in some ways, was harder than the first," Overmyer says. "That period was a very dark period in New Orleans. There were some really tough times."

"The first year was the return of people amid almost a sea of adrenaline," Simon says. "People were in a rush to get back. They were furious, they were angry, they were politicized. They wanted to rebuild their city. The adrenaline ran them through that first Mardi Gras. Season 2 is where New Orleanians realized, 'Man, this is going to be a long haul.' ... There's a lot of reflection and there's a lot of weariness."

I admit I was first drawn to Treme because I am a fan of Lucia Micarelli, but I am sticking around because I fell in love with the area when I stayed there for a year, and they've done a wonderful job at capturing the best of New Orleans.  They do not dwell, but neither does their vision shy away from the ugliness of the poor and struggling people who were at the heart of preserving the culture and traditions. New Orleans thrives on music, and the cultural references are accurate and realistic.  There's a lot to enjoy, and the plot moves quickly enough that it doesn't get stale.  Here's looking forward to the next installment in the journey.

The Idiot Of The Day Award Goes To...

Once in a while, the news is just plain fun.  I wonder if this guy hadn't just kept the 4/20 celebrations going.

On CNN's video site, an Ohio cab driver said a fare tried to pay him with pot.  It's amusing enough to link to.  Sometimes, you just gotta wonder what people are thinking.

Let's Do The Twist

According to CNN, an EF2 or EF3 tornado hit St. Louis recently, and did some major damage to the airport.  The damage included 750 homes, but no life-threatening injuries or deaths reported.  Considering the strength of the twister, that's a pleasant surprise.  Tornado season is just beginning, unfortunately.  For even better news, they plan to be up to 70% of capacity by Sunday.  Flights have been diverted to Kansas City and Chicago, even Springfield, MO.

Spring has hit the Midwest.  The humidity and the temperatures will soar, steaming the great state of Missouri for a long hot summer.  I will officially be ticked off until September or so, when the air conditioners can catch up.  I hope it's a low tornado season, but so far that hasn't been the case.

Your Easter Message Of Generosity

...has been cancelled to bring you yet another "compassionate conservatism" state legislative proposal from the GOP, this time in Michigan.

Under a new budget proposal from State Sen. Bruce Casswell, children in the state’s foster care system would be allowed to purchase clothing only in used clothing stores.

Casswell, a Republican representing Branch, Hillsdale, Lenawee and St. Joseph counties, made the proposal this week, reports Michigan Public Radio.

His explanation?

“I never had anything new,” Caswell says. “I got all the hand-me-downs. And my dad, he did a lot of shopping at the Salvation Army, and his comment was — and quite frankly it’s true — once you’re out of the store and you walk down the street, nobody knows where you bought your clothes.”

Under his plan, foster children would receive gift cards that could only be used at places like the Salvation Army, Goodwill and other second hand clothing stores.

Spoken like someone who never realized just how grim the foster care system in this country can be.  But, hey, on paper, foster kids don't vote.  But people who think we should be cutting as many dollars from foster kids as possible do vote.  It's just politics, GOP style:  leave the country arguing about how much icing should be put on the cake while the guys at the top steal the cake itself.

Skippy has the right of it:

now, to be honest, i shop at thrift stores as i believe in recycling and reusing but i am an adult. i have a choice. i am not at that tender age where slights can scar one so easily.

i am also, not a foster child, where an underlying, unspoken message of "you are different"..."you are not one of us"..."you are not wanted" often permeate a psyche.

this state senator wants to codify those messages with this law. this is unconscionable. this is cruel and, unfortunately in these days of social darwinism run amok, is not all that unusual. 

He's right about the social Darwinism. Time to rid America of the looters and moochers, starting with those who need us the most, the GOP says.  They talk about what Jesus would want us to do on Easter Sunday, and how we have to do X and Y to live a good life in His image, and then say that the laws of this country made by men must codify these "Christian beliefs" into law, and then they pull crap like this and say "It's not the government's job to get involved in caring for the poor."  Indeed, if you care, you should donate your money to charities, not expect the government to do it.

It's more than social Darwinism, it's Christian objectivism bordering on the Divine Right of Kings.  It results directly in the nonsense that the people that have money and power also have self-evident morality and that the most anti-Christian thing you could do is to have a government program that helps those who lack money and power...because they are the least moral among us.  After all, if they were good people, they wouldn't be poor, would they?

ABL is even less kind to the GOP on this one, by the way.

On this day of rebirth and resurrection, keep that in mind.  Happy Easter!

Last Call

My BS detector could really use a day off.

Amid rising scrutiny of their practices, Google Inc. defended the way it collects location data from Android phones, while Apple Inc. remained silent for a third day.

The companies' smartphones regularly transmit locations back to Google and Apple servers, respectively, according to data and documents analyzed by The Wall Street Journal.

Research by a security analyst this week found that an Android phone collected location data every few seconds and sent it to Google several times an hour. Apple disclosed in a letter to Congress last year that its phones "intermittently" collect location data, and the company receives it twice a day.

Twice a day is pretty darn consistent, and way more than what makes sense.  And then we have a nice about-face in facts from Google, which further clouds the issue.  Users can allow their location to be used for certain services, such as GPS mapping.  Sharing that information and sending it back so it can be recorded are two different things.

He added that "any location data that is sent back to Google location servers is anonymized and is not tied or traceable to a specific user."

Tests of the Android phone showed the transmissions included a unique ID that is tied to the phone. Google says this ID is associated with location and not with other user information. The user can change this number by performing a "factory reset" of the device, which deletes the phone's data.

So if you want to use programs that can use your location, you can't trust your phone to share it anonymously, or in a way that isn't recorded.  And you are perfectly welcome to reset it to factory settings because that's logical.  Jerks.

Where's The News On The People's Budget?

I talked about The People's Budget, the liberal answer to the Ryan Unicorn Plan, the week before last and asked:

It's got the whole kitchen sink in there:  the public option, killing the Bush tax cuts on the upper class and replacing them with Rep. Jan Schakowski's 45-47% tax rate on the wealthiest Americans, taxing capital gains and foreign income, getting rid of the limit on Social Security taxable income, putting in the Medicare doc fix, and increases education and infrastructure spending.

Oh, and they cut $5.7 trillion from the deficit and balance the budget by 2021.  Rep. Grijalva has a pretty good blueprint here and is putting it up to give the President ammunition for Wednesday.

Oh yes, it has about the same chance of passage as the Ryan plan, if not less.  But it's on the table.  You want to see if anyone in the Village praises it as "serious" like the Ryan plan, or even mentions it at all? 

Well, have YOU heard of "The People's Budget?" after a good ten days?  No?  Rachel Maddow wondered about that too.



As she says, the House Progressive Caucus's budget actually balances the budget faster (in just eight years compared to the decades for the Ryan Unicorn Plan) and does it with a public option and spends more on education and infrastructure, and does it in a balanced way.  When Clinton raised taxes on the rich to 39.6% and balanced the budget, the country was doing really well.

Then Bush destroyed the economy.  And before we go apoplectic about the 45% tax rate, let's keep in mind that the Ryan Unicorn Plan wants to lower the tax rate on the top Americans to 25% and is the main reason why the plan can't balance the budget for 20 plus years and oh yes, adds six trillion dollars to the national debt, unlike the Progressive Caucus plan.  Oh, and during the Reagan years?  The top tax rate?  It was 50% through 1986.  Before that, from 1932 all the way through 1981, the top tax rate was much, much higher.  That includes the boom years of 1945 through the 60's.

Yet the more responsible plan is completely ignored by the media...the media owned by the corporations who would have to pay higher taxes under the Progressive Caucus plan.  The one where the corporations who own the media have to pay less in taxes?  Courageous and gets daily coverage!

And yet the media continues to not cover the angry town hall meetings where House Republicans on Easter recess had to defend their votes for the extremely unpopular Ryan Unicorn Plan.  When the town halls were about "Obamacare" it was wall-to-wall coverage, remember?

The Progressive Caucus budget is being completely ignored and it's being ignored by the people who don't want you to know that America's wealthy paid a lot more in taxes in the past...and America prospered.  By the way, the last time the top marginal tax rate was 25%?  The Roaring 20's...right before the massive stock market crash and the Great Depression.

Something to think about.

Who Has Two Thumbs and 675,000 Stolen Credit Card Accounts?

This guy:

WASHINGTON – A computer hacker from Georgia pleaded guilty Thursday to fraud and identity theft after authorities found more than 675,000 stolen credit card accounts on his home computers.

Credit card companies have traced more than $36 million in fraudulent transactions to the accounts that were breached by Rogelio Hackett Jr., 26, of Lithonia, Ga.

Court documents indicate that Hackett built a reputation for himself as a teenager in the hacking community and had been stealing account information for roughly a decade. Typically, he sold the account data to others, who would use them to make fraudulent charges.

With a dipslay of some astounding legal haggling skills, he is only facing 2-12 years in prison.  It is believed that he has earned over $100,000 in selling accounts to fellow thieves.  Authorities say he may have supported himself for the last few years solely from income from this activity.  This is the new criminal of our era.  He isn't a big brute, he doesn't have to be.  He can weigh a buck thirty and as long as he can type fast and think like a computer, he is a threat to any organization or person who crosses his path.  This is the guy who would be able to exploit something like Apple's recent fiasco  

Well, If Assumptions Aren't Good Enough I Guess We Can Go Check. Sheesh.

This takes some marbles, folks:

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. told California regulators Thursday that it will never find documents for some of its older gas pipelines, and that if the state doesn't accept "assumptions" about some pipes, the company will have to spend five years shutting them down and testing them with high-pressure water.

In a filing with the California Public Utilities Commission, PG&E said it cannot satisfy a state order to come up with "traceable, verifiable and complete" records on all 1,800-plus miles of its pipeline in and around urban areas.

So in other words, if the state is going to hold them accountable for reporting some data as to the safety and condition of the pipelines running through the state, PG&E is willing to heave a sigh and see what they can do about that.  That's right nice of them, perhaps they could have done this all along.  I think we have learned from recent events that natural disasters cannot be predicted.  We can only do our best to be prepared.  Maintaining and reporting on gas and water structures should be a no-brainer.  Factor in that the area is prone to earthquakes and along a coast.  Up the no-brainer status to epic fail.


Without a trace of remorse or comprehension.  Let's see how they handle this one.

Embracing The Ignorance

Count on the 2012 Republican presidential nominee to have flip-flopped on being a birther, on fiscal responsibility, and to have abandoned global warming.  The current crop of hopefuls are lining up their bona fides by taking the ignorant GOP mob's position on all three subjects to embrace the stupid.  Today's example:  the story of how T-Paw threw Minnesota environmentalists into the lake.

When Will Steger was 15 years old, he and his brother piloted an old motorboat down the Mississippi River from Minnesota to New Orleans. At 17, he journeyed to the Arctic. At 41, he became the first man in history to travel unsupported to the North Pole and come back alive. He's traveled across Antarctica by sled (another first), hopped freights, and found his purpose at a mountain monastery.

But there's just one challenge the Arctic explorer couldn't complete: Keeping Tim Pawlenty honest on global warming.

After working closely with Steger for two years to combat climate change, the former Minnesota governor and current GOP presidential contender abruptly reversed himself on the issue in 2008, just as his name was being floated as a possible presidential running mate for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Steger and Pawlenty haven't spoken since. Today, the politician who once cut a radio ad with Janet Napolitano calling for a federal cap on greenhouse gas emissions calls his work on climate change "stupid" and says the science is uncertain at best.

"I'm baffled by that—did he actually say that?" says Steger, when asked about Pawlenty's recent statements. "I'm baffled by that. But I think he's getting information from the wrong source and it's really too bad for our children. It's reckless."

Steger should have known better than to trust a Republican as an "environmental moderate".   No such creature exists, having been hunted to extinction in the 2008 and 2010 primaries.

Like Mitt Romney's effort to reform Massachusetts' health care system, Pawlenty's global warming initiative is now anathema to the GOP base. With Steger's support, Pawlenty signed into law a bill that would force the state to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. But that won't do him much good in the GOP primary: According to a recent survey, only 29 percent of Republicans believe man-made global warming is happening.

"It's misguided; I made the mistake," Pawlenty said on Laura Ingraham's radio show last week, addressing his past support for climate change legislation. "The question is, once you made a mistake, do you recognize it? Do you admit it? Are you willing to come forward? Are you a big enough person to say it was the wrong thing to do?"

It's a mistake now.  It's politically inconvenient.  The damage has already been done.

If you're magically expecting a moderate Republican to ride to the party's rescue in 2012, I have news for you.  Won't happen.  The person who does win the nomination will have one job:  to ensure that the last 80 years of civil rights, social rights, and economic rights since the New Deal are reversed, and that America becomes a corporate state in truth as well as in name.

Only the anti-science, anti-environment, anti-women, anti-minority, anti-worker ignorance will survive the GOP primary.  The 2012 nominee will be a complete nutjob.  Count on it.

Patently Ridiculous

The patent battle between Apple and Samsung over touch-screen smartphones and tablets is turning into a full-out war.

Samsung Electronics Co has filed patent lawsuits against Apple over the U.S. firm's iPhone and iPad in a tit-for-tat case after Apple claimed Samsung's smartphones and tablets "slavishly" copied its products.


Apple filed a lawsuit last Friday alleging Samsung violated patents and trademarks of its iPhone and iPad, as the popular gadgets are being threatened by the fast rise of rival devices based on Google's free Android operating system.

The legal battle between Apple and Samsung could jeopardize business ties between the two technology companies, as the Cupertino, California-based company depends heavily on Samsung for components such as chips and LCD displays.

Operating systems have emerged as the key battlefield for dominance of the world's smartphone market.

Android became the most popular smartphone software in the United States in the three months ending in February, ahead of Apple and Research in Motion, according to a recent survey by research firm comScore.

Samsung is one of the fastest growing smartphone makers on the back of the Android boom and has emerged as Apple's strongest competitor in the tablet market, with models in three sizes.

First business partners, now bitter foes suing each other as Apple's iOS and Samsung's Android products are now the biggest kids on the block, especially on the tablet side as the Samsung Galaxy takes on the Apple iPad.

I can see how Apple feels betrayed with buying Sansung parts for the iPad only to see the company build the tablet's top competitor, but that's business, guys.  So now both sides are duking it out, and the only losers here are going to be consumers.  Samsung could make things very painful for Apple if they choose to and depending on who wins this lawsuit, the loser could be gone from the market for good.

Less competition and all.  Not a good thing.