Transportation Nation

As fully expected, House Republicans waited until the last minute to pass the Transportation Bill, after holding nearly 2 millions jobs hostage in an election year.

Moments ago, the House of Representatives passed a re-authorization of the highway bill by a vote of 373-52. House Republicans had previously been blocking the package, holding up funding for 1.9 million transportation jobs. The bill also includes an extension of the student loan rates that will prevent them from doubling on Sunday. The legislation will now go to the Senate, where it’s likely to pass.

Republicans were always going to lose this fight, and the Democrats held out to keep the legislation alive without the Republicans getting what they wanted, namely the Keystone XL pipeline project.  The GOP overplayed its hand badly and got burned even worse.  The GOP did get streamlining and federal review for transportation projects in the future, bypassing some federal directives to state concerns, but that's down the road.

The Senate passed the bill 74-19 and President Obama will sign it later today.

For now, this is the second major win for the Dems and millions of Americans in as many days and should be treated as such.

Google: GDocs Offline Capability Soon

SAN FRANCISCO - Google announced today at it's Google I/O conference here that Google documents is going offline.

The Google word-processing service is a Web-based alternative to programs such as Microsoft Word. Because Google Docs is a Web-based service, people who use the application have not been able to use it unless they have an Internet connection. But now that will be changing. And people will now be able to work in Google Docs on airplanes and other places where a Web connection may not be available.

Travelers will eat that up, but so will students, professionals and even people like me, who write constantly and struggles with finding trustworthyWiFi.  The masses who don't understand security should avoid open WiFi, but it's no fun for people who get it, either.  However, free connections have become common enough that you can work in peace and still enjoy regular synchronization with your storage.  Phones already have the capability, and this will give Google Docs  a serious edge over traditional, physically stored documents because it is portable and always protected.  Sharing is easy, there is no risk of losing everything, and you can milk more life out of laptop and tablet batteries.

Win win win win win.  The Bon is pleased, and even more likely to get that new laptop.

Blackberry Jam: Endgame

It’s all losses and delays for Research In Motion (RIM), the struggling mobile company best known for its once-popular BlackBerry devices. RIM lost $518 million in the last three months and has announced plans to cut 5,000 jobs and delay its BlackBerry 10 platform until 2013, according to the company’s first-quarter earnings report released Thursday.

RIM announced BlackBerry 10 in May, indicating that the upcoming platform would be available by the end of this year. But in its Q1 earnings report, the company backpedaled on its original promises.

The company attributes the setback to the time it takes to implement new features, stating that “the integration of these features and the associated large volume of code into the platform has proven to be more time consuming than anticipated.”

You don't lose half a billion dollars in 90 days and not feel the punch.  Honestly, that they can keep going forward is a miracle.  The world has moved on, and Blackberry doesn't have much to work with but a very established name and sketchy delivery.

I loved them once, you know.  The people who are pre-mourning the fall of RIM and I have a twinge in common.  But they blew it time and again, almost purposely it seems.  However, the promise of not releasing before it is absolutely ready does show a little growth, one last glimmer of hope but surely not enough.

John Roberts' The Bored Supremacy, Part 2

Reaction and aftermath time on yesterday's SCOTUS decision on the ACA. First and foremost is the notion that the immediate Republican response to it is a vote to repeal the measure a week from Wednesday.  The larger issue is that should the GOP get control of the House, Roberts' decision to enforce the mandate under Congress's power to tax rather than the Commerce Clause means it can be treated as a budget bill legislatively, that means reconciliation...and that means the GOP would only need 51 votes to put the bill on an immediate ten-year moratorium.

The House will hold a symbolic vote to repeal the law on July 11, but the real long-term strategy for rolling back the law is already under way. Republicans are stoking voter anger over the law until Election Day, which they hope will produce a Mitt Romney presidency and an all-Republican Congress. And it ends by employing budget rules that would allow a fast-track repeal with a 51-vote majority in the Senate, circumventing a Democratic minority and potential filibuster.

That process — known on Capitol Hill as budget reconciliation — would give Republicans a serious shot at repealing the individual mandate and the heart of the law before 2014 when much of it is scheduled to take effect.

So it’s not surprising that the word “reconciliation” was on the tip of virtually every Republican tongue Thursday, just hours after the landmark Supreme Court ruling upholding most of the health care law.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, chairman of the Republican Conference, said budget reconciliation could be a “vehicle” for repeal, promising Republicans would make “every attempt” under a GOP Senate majority and Republican White House to do just that.

“I’ve already heard discussions that it can be done through 51 votes in the Senate, which is an easier threshold,” said Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a member of House GOP leadership and a key Romney adviser.

“With a 50-vote majority in the Senate, Republicans could do the same thing Democrats did with 50 votes on Obamacare — and that is to use the reconciliation process — to reverse the more onerous provisions of Obamacare and replace them with what Republicans have been talking about,” Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said.

The argument in conservative circles is that anger over the bill will motivate moribund supporters who are blase' about Romney, but will absolutely turn out to give the Senate to the GOP to put a measure to obliterate the law on President Romney's desk before the end of January.

That's an entirely possible scenario, folks.  To pull it off, the GOP only needs to pick up 3 seats and elect Romney.  That's it.  Affordable Care Act effectively dies. So more than ever we have to get out there and get people to vote at the state level and for POTUS.

The good news is even conservatives are admitting that motivating people to vote for Mitt Romney at the "anti-Obamacare" candidate after his MassCare history is going to be a huge problem.  Conservatives instead may just stay home and declare both candidates are evil Socialists, and the independents, well...  David Frum:

First, today's Supreme Court decision will make it a lot harder to elect Mitt Romney. President Obama has just been handed a fearsome election weapon. 2012 is no longer exclusively a referendum on the president's economic management. 2012 is now also a referendum on Mitt Romney's healthcare plans. The president can now plausibly say that a vote for the Republicans is a vote to raise prescription drug costs on senior citizens and to empower insurance companies to deny coverage to children for pre-existing conditions. Those charges will hurt—and maybe hurt enough to sway the election.

Second, even if Republicans do win the White House and Senate in 2012, how much appetite will they then have for that 1-page repeal bill? Suddenly it will be their town halls filled with outraged senior citizens whose benefits are threatened; their incumbencies that will be threatened. Already we are hearing that some Republicans wish to retain the more popular elements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Which means the proposed 1-page bill will begin to grow.

Frum's not a complete moron, it seems. On the other hand, the complete morons actually think the President threatened to kill John Roberts' kids and won the case through intimidation.

Your call.  Things in the ACA you like?  GOP can now destroy the law if they get in charge.  November is even more important now.

Contemptible Conduct

As expected yesterday afternoon, House Republicans voted to hold AG Eric Holder in Contempt of Congress in a cheap poltical stunt (shocking I know).  The vote was 255-67 as a number of Democrats, including the Congressional Black Caucus and Nancy Pelosi, walked out of the vote.

A large number of Democrats -- including members of the Congressional Black Caucus and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi -- walked off the House floor in protest and refused to participate in the vote. Speaking in New Orleans immediately after the vote, Holder dismissed it as "the regrettable culmination of what became a misguided -- and politically motivated -- investigation during an election year."

The criminal contempt charge refers the dispute to District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen, who will decide whether to file charges against Holder. Most legal analysts do not expect Machen -- an Obama appointee who ultimately answers to Holder -- to take any action.

The Dems who voted against Holder?  17, including Kentucky Rep Ben Chandler.  I'm so verrrrrry surprised at that, gosh.  Not.

• Jason Altmire (PA-04)
• John Barrow (GA-12)
• Dan Boren (OK-02)
• Leonard Boswell (IA-03)
• Ben Chandler (KY-06)
• Mark Critz (PA-12)
• Joe Donnelly (IN-02)
• Kathy Hochul (NY-26)
• Ron Kind (WI-03)
• Larry Kissell (NC-08)
• Jim Matheson (UT-02)
• Mike McIntyre (NC-07)
• Bill Owens (NY-23)
• Collin Peterson (MN-07)
• Nick Rahall (WV-03)
• Mike Ross (AR-04)
• Tim Walz (MN-01)

 And it turns out GOP Reps. Steve LaTourette of OH-14 and Scott Rigell of VA-2 both voted no on the final contempt vote.  More courage than nearly a dozen and a half of our own guys.  Nice.  Meanwhile, Rep. Allen West (R-Nutjob) went on Facebook to pull a Sarah Palin and flat out accused the Congressional Black Caucus of being racists.

America holds this Congress in contempt.  We vote on that in November.

StupidiNews!

• A massive heat wave continues through the eastern half of the US this week and will linger well into next week in many locations.
• While the US has exempted a number of larger trading partners from its Iranian oil sanctions, smaller countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan could face serious punishment starting Monday.
• Nearly all of California's state parks will avoid closure this weekend thanks to private donors, but the budget situation is temporary at best.
• An emergency meeting of EU leaders has resulted in Germany relenting and relaxing bank funding rules on Spain, something the rest of the EU demanded.
• France's national dial-up terminal network Minitel will finally go dark after almost 30 years of service as the country's precursor to the web.

Last Call

And tonight, I leave you with this.





And this.


Night, folks.

Poll Arising Positions

Time to go into the weeds on this month's WSJ/NBC News presidential poll (PDF) and take a look at the internal numbers.

First of all, while strong enthusiasm for President Obama isn't great (29% see him as very positive, 48% positive overall) or for the Democratic Party as a whole (14%, 37%) they are both ahead of Mitt Romney (9%, 33%) and the GOP (10%, 31%).  George W. Bush (13% very positive, 36% overall positive) has better personal numbers than Mitt right now.  That should terrify the GOP.

The country's still split on the role of government in helping people, 49% think the government should do more, 47% think government should do less.  Given how bad things are right now for most Americans, that's notable.

People are also split (45% D to 44% R) about which party they want to see in control of Congress.  It makes sense considering it's a split Congress now.

72% of Obama leaners are voting for the President, whereas 58% of Romney voters are voting against POTUS instead.  Literally the GOP could have fielded a child's crayon drawing of a pot-bellied pig with wings and more than half of the party would have backed the piece of paper  against the President in this election.

The numbers on what the President's religion happens to be really hasn't changed in 4 years.  About 8% still think he's a Muslim, and 40% don't know. 43% believe he's Christian.  67% know Mitt Romney's a Mormon though.

Only 1% of respondents think of "outsourcing jobs" when they hear Mitt Romney.   I'm thinking that number will go up.  10%think "Good businessman".  However, 9% of respondents think "Lack of experience" for Barack Obama.  How long does he have to be President, one has to wonder.  19% combined mentioned health care, as a positive, a negative, or as a neutral fact about him.  It's his legacy from this term, certainly...even more than the economy (15%, all negative).

Dems get a major advantage overall on the middle class (+19%), Medicare (+14%), health care (+13%), Social Security (+12%) , but Republicans get big advantages on government spending (+17%), the deficit (+12%) and terrorism (+9%)...and yes, the economy overall too (+6%).  Both parties fail on Wall Street/bank oversight and taxes, and split on upward mobility.

The country is divided into thirds on if President Obama's economic policies have helped, hurt, or made no difference.

More people think our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (63%) have contributed a lot to our deficits, than the recession (56%).  Congratulations, America, you're actually right on this one...but only 26% have tagged the biggest cause of deficits in recent years as a big deficit offender:  the Bush tax cuts.  More people (28%) think the problem is Medicare/Social Security and other government programs.  Boo.  When it comes to naming the biggest single deficit reason, 47% blame the wars, 21% the stimulus (eyeroll) and only 15% the recession.  7% blamed again the correct answer, the Bush tax cuts.  Yikes.

Health care reform numbers basically haven't changed in two years:  35% think it was a good idea, 41% a bad one, 22% no opinion.  55% believe if SCOTUS strikes down the ACA insurance mandate that it will make no difference on their lives.  Oy vey.

Overall it's an interesting picture to say the least.

The Return Of Feeling Randy, Once Again

And just 18 months into his Senate term, I get to say "You'll regret electing this asshole" for the 6234th time concerning Rand Paul being a national embarrassment for the state of Kentucky.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) expressed his frustration on Tuesday at Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who offered an anti-abortion amendment to legislation that would renew the flood insurance program.

“I’m told last night that one of our Republican senators wants to offer an amendment — listen to this one — wants to offer an amendment on when life begins,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “I think some of this stuff is just – I have been very patient working with my Republican colleagues in allowing relevant amendments on issues, and sometimes we even do non-relevant amendments. But really, on flood insurance?”

Yes.  That's right.  Rand Paul wants to attach a fetal personhood amendment to a flood insurance bill, knowing full well he can scuttle the legislation with it.   That's the point:  as Florida contends with feet of rain, Rand Paul says the government shouldn't lift a finger and that Florida should notonly have to deal with it alone, but should have budgeted for it ahead of time.

Meanwhile Paul's not only trying to sink federal flood insurance, he's absolutely trying to decimate any legislation having to do with the residents of the District of Columbia getting anything close to self-determination.

One Paul amendment would require the District to allow residents to obtain concealed weapon permits for handguns, and would require the city to honor permits issued to residents of other states. Another amendment would make the District “establish an office for the purpose of facilitating the purchase and registration of firearms by DC residents,” in response to reports that there is only one licensed gun dealer in the city.

Paul has also submitted an amendment to codify the city-funded abortion ban. The prohibition — a continuing source of frustration for local leaders that is strongly supported by anti-abortion groups — has been extended via appropriations bills every year that Republicans have controlled one or both chambers of Congress since the mid-1990s.

Paul proposed another amendment saying “membership in a labor organization may not be applied as a precondition for employment” in the District, and protecting employees “from discrimination on the basis of their membership status” in a union.

“I think it’s a good way to call attention to some issues that have national implications,” Paul said in an interview Tuesday. “We don’t have [control] over the states but we do for D.C.”

Small government my ass.  And yes, Paul's ridiculous amendments have now caused the bill to be pulled completely.   All those black people in DC have to be told what to do by Republicans, with the intent of course of turning the place into a Tea Party hell that will force DC's urban residents out.  Rand Paul has no problem bringing ridiculous government interference to bear when it suits him, folks.  Remember that.

Starry Awesome

A man recently spent ten hours making Vincent Van Goh's Starry Night with dominoes.  It's pretty impressive.  When he knocks them over, the resemblance is even stronger.  I'm not a follower of hot domino action, so this was a surprise to me.  Just seeing it with them standing was cool enough for me.

Enjoy!

It It Looks Like A Hate Crime And People Die Like It's A Hate Crime

You probably have a hate crime.

Police in Texas are searching for an assailant who targeted a lesbian couple in a close-range shooting that left one woman dead and the other in the hospital, however authorities said it is not being investigated as a hate crime.

Detectives are constructing a timeline of events, processing bullet casings found at the scene and are interviewing witnesses to understand what led up to the shootings of Mollie Olgin, 19, and Mary Kristene Chapa, 18, in the small town of Portland, Texas, which is located a few miles from Corpus Christi.

Mollie Olgin was dead at the scene.  Chapa is still alive, but in serious condition from a gunshot wound to the head.  Cops admit they don't know much, so I would like to know why it isn't being investigated as a hate crime until they rule it out.  It doesn't change the result, but it changes the reality if it applies.  It may also change how the shooter(s) are found.


Whether someone was shooting two random girls or two lesbians is important, however.  To the girls, the families and the people who want to know how something like this really just happened.

John Roberts' The Bored Supremacy

Jumping in a bit early with the ten spot post given the import of today's expected Supreme Court news as today, the Affordable Care Act decision comes roughly around that time.  Ian Millhiser goes over the worst-case scenario:

It is, of course, mildly interesting to speculate upon how tomorrow’s decision could influence whether a man who currently lives in a luxurious house in Washington will continue to live there for several more years or will instead be forced to move to a different luxurious house in Chicago. But you know what matters a whole lot more? Whether the Supreme Court decides to strip millions of Americans of their future access to health care.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of Americans file bankruptcy because they cannot afford their medical bills. Thousands more are locked into jobs their hate because they cannot risk losing their employer-provided health insurance while they have a preexisting condition. According to one study, about 45,000 people die every year because they do not have health insurance. So, in a very real sense, the Supreme Court is deciding tomorrow whether to allow tens of thousands of people to die every year until Congress is able to pass another health care bill. Something, by the way, which took seventy years to accomplish the first time around.

That’s a bit more important than whether or not Barack Obama is slightly more or slightly less likely to keep his job.

Not to the Villagers, who, by the way, have pretty good health care plans.   And the same conservatives who are today going to more or less lynch Attorney General Eric Holder in the House today, supposedly over the death of a Border Patrol agent, are going to wildly cheer several million Americans losing their health insurance and some dying as a result.



Hell, they see those deaths as inevitable.   

A rejection of health care egalitarianism, namely a recognition that the wealthy will purchase more and better health care than the poor. Trying to equalize health care consumption hurts the poor, since most feasible policies to do this take away cash from the poor, either directly or through the operation of tax incidence. We need to accept the principle that sometimes poor people will die just because they are poor. Some of you don’t like the sound of that, but we already let the wealthy enjoy all sorts of other goods — most importantly status — which lengthen their lives and which the poor enjoy to a much lesser degree. We shouldn’t screw up our health care institutions by being determined to fight inegalitarian principles for one very select set of factors which determine health care outcomes.

The rich live, the poor just die, you see.  Most of us are one layoff and one accident or illness away from joining their ranks.  Congress, meanwhile, concentrates on Eric Holder and ignores this, because that is the burden of the unwashed to bear, just as AmEx titanium black Centurion cards are the burden of the rich.  Accept your fate and you'll be happier, citizen.  We strongly suggest you do.


And so it goes.  I'll update this when the decision is out.

[UPDATE]  Called it.  ACA survives, with some narrowing of the law forcing states to expand Medicaid.

[UPDATE 2]  Chief Justice Roberts saved this law, literally.  Alito, Thomas, Scalia and the dissenting conservatives led by Kennedy flat out said within the first sentence that they believed the entire law was patently and completely unconstitutional on its face.   Roberts was apparently the deciding vote, and as Chief Justice he apparently stepped in as the fifth vote to uphold the law.

Wow.

Turn On The Lights, Watch The Roaches Scatter, Part 88

The US city hit hardest by the subprime/foreclosuregate crisis, Stockton, California, is now facing the largest civil bankruptcy filing in America's history.

Officials said Tuesday that Stockton would become the nation's largest city to seek protection under the U.S. bankruptcy code.

The city stopped making bond payments, and City Manager Bob Deis said he expected to file bankruptcy papers immediately.

Stockton has been in negotiations with its creditors since late March under AB 506, a new California law requiring mediation before a municipality can file for reorganization of debt. It was the first use of the law, and policy analysts who watched its torturous and tedious progress have titled their report on it "Death by a Thousand Meetings." Mediations ended Monday at midnight.

Recent council meetings have been contentious. Tuesday night's meeting was quieter, with an evident sadness on faces in the packed audience. Many residents said they were there mostly to hear for themselves that the day so long expected had finally come.

"It's a seminal moment in this city's history and I needed to be here," said Dwight Williams, who runs a nonprofit housing organization. "I can't just read about this in tomorrow's paper. I need to hear for myself if there is some inkling as to where we go from here."

People outside the state forget given all of California's big cities that Stockton has 300,000 people, making it a larger city than Lexington, KY, Baton Rouge, LA, and Springfield, MO and roughly the same size as Cincinnati, Toledo, or Buffalo proper.  That makes this bankruptcy a serious deal.  The city deciding to stop bond payments is just staggering, it's basically surrender to the creditors at this point.  So what happens to Stockton now?

The city made $90 million in drastic cuts from the general fund in the last three years, including reducing the Police Department by 25%, the Fire Department by 30%, and cutting pay and benefits to all employees. There is a state investigation into whether Stockton's financial devastation was entirely due to shortsighted optimism or if there was corruption. The state mediation law requires assigning blame.

The blame will go around for years here.  And down the road I foresee a city larger than Stockton going under as well.  Who knows.  The housing market is showing signs of recovery again, but it did that two years ago before falling another 10%, and the backlog of foreclosures is still absolutely massive.  There's no lasting recovery until that backlog goes away folks, and more Stocktons will follow as sure as night follows day.

StupidiNews!

• Embattled News Corp. will split its film and entertainment division from its news operations as two separate companies, according to a board vote.
• Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel vows that police will be freed up to catch violent criminals as the city council voted 43-3 to decriminalize small amounts of pot.
• A record slate of fines totaling some $450 million has been levied against British banking giant Barclays, prompting new debate about bank regulation and executive compensation.
• German unemployment is up slightly as the looming European financial crisis is now starting to affect that country's numbers.
• Google's Glass project has officially gone into orders for limited pre-production for developers as the wearable eyeglass-based display will see beta next year...for $1500 a piece.

Last Call

In probably the greatest black culture smash hit since Homeboys in Outer Space, former Ohio GOP Secretary of State Ken "Voting Machine Integrity" Blackwell and former Clown Car Cavalcade contestant Herman "Dressed to the Nines" Cain want you to know how Republicans are working to protect the African-American vote. You know, by protecting voting precincts from African-American voters actually voting in them. Or something. Jim Newell at Wonkette is nicer than I am:

Herman Cain and Ken Blackwell, the former Ohio secretary of state who STOLE THE 2004 ELECTION WITH MACHINES, have teamed up to produce this video about the Right to Vote. They do so by criticizing the Justice Department’s attempts to ensure black people can vote in the face of new laws that are clearly trying to suppress black turnout. And how could DoJ also refuse to pursue the New Black Panther Party scandal? Herman Cain and Ken Blackwell would have pursued it, for civil rights.

Me, I couldn't resist the whole Mantan/Hollywood Shuffle angle, but then again that's probably why I'm a blogger as a hobby and not getting paid for it professionally.

Seriously, folks. Ken Blackwell talking about protecting the black vote is pretty much the equivalent of Gargamel explaining how all the Smurfs will be much safer and will be free from the sorrows of fungus-based housing if he just cages them, removes their skins, and uses them to make gold out of lead. Blackwell invented digital vote swiping and as both Secretary of State in charge of the election process WHILE STILL DUBYA'S STATE CAMPAIGN CHAIR, he sure did a great job of disenfranchising a whole hell of a lot of African-Americans in 2004 to give the state and the country to Bush. Look where THAT got us, right? Here's the video if you want a chuckle.



Me, I'm going to be over here, so completely outraged that an entire Super Star Destroyer hasn't crashed into Ken Blackwell's muppet head yet that I'm liable to start building one just for this purpose. Assholes.