Last Call

Over at ABLC, Angry Black lady made it pretty clear that Mitt Romney went to the NAACP convention in Houston on Wednesday to score points with his own reactionary base rather than try to make any sort of concerted effort to sway black voters to his side.  Today, Vice President Joe Biden made the case for the Democrats and why black voters should continue voting for the President Obama/VP Biden ticket in November.  Both Romney's cynically calculated outrage and Biden's call for continued support were political in nature, but the difference between the two men couldn't have been a more demonstrative example of the vast gulf between the way Democrats and Republican view the black vote.

 Romney came in with the clear appearance of starting a fight.  His comments to a group of donors in Montana late yesterday made it evident where he thought he stood Wednesday after his speech to the NAACP:

When I mentioned I am going to get rid of Obamacare they weren't happy, I didn't get the same response. That's ok, I want people to know what I stand for and if I don't stand for what they want, go vote for someone else, that's just fine. But I hope people understand this, your friends who like Obamacare, you remind them of this, if they want more stuff from government tell them to go vote for the other guy -- more free stuff. But don't forget nothing is really free. it has to paid for by people in the private sector creating goods and services, and if people want jobs more than they want free stuff from government, then they are going to have to get government to be smaller. And if they don't want to repeal Obamacare they are going to have to give me some other stuff they are thinking about cutting, but my list takes Obamacare off first and I have a lot of other things I am thinking of cutting.

Really?  Because it seems to me Mitt Romney here is saying that black voters only care about getting free stuff, and that he's more than happy to advance the most awful stereotypes about the "lazy welfare parasites" of black culture while dripping with privilege himself.  More importantly, it reveals that Romney was never interested in speaking to black America, but speaking down to us, which is a huge difference if you've ever been in a situation like that.  Of course Romney was going to get booed when his speech was laden with red state red meat and delivered in a tone where the Superior White Male is telling us Poor Dumb Black Folk what we need to know, and if we knew what was good for us, we'd vote Republican. And yet Romney's trip to Houston was a rousing success. 

He clearly showed up to be controversial, got his optics and headlines, and moved on.  It was a cynical ply by a political manipulator in order to win points with the angry part of the GOP base that thinks all black people exist to do is collect government checks for free, the money coming solely from taxes the evil Obama administration extorted from the blood and sweat of hard-working, morally superior white people.  He immediately played the victim card, as if coming to the nation's oldest civil rights group was a burden he had to gird his loins for, and bravely faced the vicious brown mob baying for his very soul.  He came out blooded, our hero Mitt.  Hail, gladiator!

Hail, indeed.

The NAACP has released the following statement: “This morning Governor Romney laid out his policy agenda for this nation. Unfortunately, much of his agenda is at odds with what the NAACP stands for – whether the issue is equal access to affordable health care, reforming our education system or the path forward on marriage equality. We appreciate that he was courageous and took the opportunity to speak with us directly.”

The Romney camp is of course perfectly fine with that. Which brings us to one Joseph R. Biden.  This morning Vice-President Biden took the stage in Houston and showed the staggering difference in the way Republicans and Democrats treat black voters.  One looks at us like everything that's wrong in America.  The other treats us like everything that can be right in America.

Biden drew cheers as he credited Obama for championing a landmark health care law, launching the mission that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and stepping in to rescue the financial system and U.S. automakers General Motors and Chrysler.

“He has put country first,” Biden said.

Biden addressed the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People a day after Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said he'd do more for African-Americans than Obama, the nation's first black president.

Romney was booed when he said he'd repeal Obama's sweeping health care reform law but otherwise got a polite reception as he reached out to a traditionally Democratic voting bloc.

The vice president countered that Romney's policies would hurt black working families, and he outlined detailed differences between Obama and Romney on health care, education, energy, women's rights and research.

Imagine that...treating African-Americans as....Americans.  Biden was so well received the crowd actually booed when he said he had to wrap up.  They didn't want him to leave, and Biden made the case, treating the audience as intelligent and informed members of the body politic rather than targets to score political points off of.  Even more illuminating, Biden did so by appealing to issues all Americans are worried about. So yes, not only was sending the Vice President a brilliant political move, but it was an excellent speech as well.  Treating black voters as voters rather than black.  What a novel idea. An idea that will never occur to Mitt Romney's limited programming.

Penn State In Freeh Fall

The hotly anticipated independent review of Penn State's conduct in the conviction of former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky on pedophile charges is out today, and it paints a brutal and unflinching picture of a university that literally ignored Sandusky's vile, criminal conduct for 14 years, going so far as to say the purposeful ignorance actually empowered Sandusky to hurt kids for over a decade.

In a statement released along with the 267-page report, Louis Freeh, the former FBI director and federal judge who spearheaded the review, blasted several top former officials at the school.

"Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State," Freeh wrote.

"The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized."

He went on to name four former school officials -- former President Graham Spanier, former Vice President Gary Schultz, legendary former head coach Joe Paterno, and former athletic director Tim Curley.

The four men "never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well being of Sandusky's victims until after Sandusky's arrest," Freeh wrote.

Their failure "to protect against a child sexual predator harming children" lasted "more than a decade," the full report says.

"They exhibited a striking lack of empathy for Sandusky's victims by failing to inquire as to their safety and well being, especially by not attempting to determine the identity of the child who Sandusky assaulted in the Lasch Building in 2001. Further, they exposed this child to additional harm by alerting Sandusky, who was the only one who knew the child's identity, of what (Mike) McQueary saw in the shower on the night of February 9, 2001."

Pretty awful stuff here.  I've long said that as hideous and abhorrent as Sandusky's evil acts were, they pale in comparison to people like JoePa knowing about it for years and doing absolutely nothing to fix the problem or to more importantly save those kids.  Penn State is in really deep legal trouble here based on the review, and frankly I'm glad to see that more heads will roll.

And it's about damn time.

Overstaying Your Welcome

The Boston Globe drops this semi-well known secret into the political arena:  Mitt Romney's been lying for months now when he said he left Bain Capital in 1999 and "wasn't involved" in the company's profiting from outsourcing American jobs to China and other foreign countries.  He was actually there until 2002.

Government documents filed by Mitt Romney and Bain Capital say Romney remained chief executive and chairman of the firm three years beyond the date he said he ceded control, even creating five new investment partnerships during that time.

Romney has said he left Bain in 1999 to lead the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, ending his role in the company. But public Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed later by Bain Capital state he remained the firm’s “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president.”

Also, a Massachusetts financial disclosure form Romney filed in 2003 states that he still owned 100 percent of Bain Capital in 2002. And Romney’s state financial disclosure forms indicate he earned at least $100,000 as a Bain “executive” in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings.

The timing of Romney’s departure from Bain is a key point of contention because he has said his resignation in February 1999 meant he was not responsible for Bain Capital companies that went bankrupt or laid off workers after that date. 

Which means surprise!  Mitt Romney is an inveterate liar.  He's been lying about this for months and months now on the campaign trail, and he's got a lot of ugly questions he needs to answer now.  Most of all, this means the Obama campaign is now fully on the offensive, and even Gallup is showing now that Mitt's money is costing him with voters.

The Obama campaign has targeted Romney's wealth in recent weeks, stressing his net worth and how he earned it as head of Bain Capital, where he has invested it, and the fact that he has not released all of his tax returns from the last decade. Obama's campaign is apparently using Romney's wealth in its efforts to convince voters that Romney is not as well-equipped as Obama to understand the problems and needs of middle- and lower-class Americans. The Romney campaign has pushed back, stressing that voters are more interested in fixing the economy than in the candidates' personal financial situations.

Gallup's July 9-10 results show that most Americans say Romney's wealth does not matter. Those who say it does make a difference tilt five to one toward saying it makes them less likely, rather than more likely, to vote for him for president.

And as more and more Americans find out how he got that money, it will cost him even more with the voters.   Team Mittens is bleeding out now, and it's getting worse.

Farm Kids Need Protection

FULTS, Ill. — Families and agriculture groups say farming can be dangerous but parents are in the best position to protect their children while helping them learn about the family business.

I agree.  Learning hands-on about how to run the family farm teaches the value of hard work and inside knowledge about a trade.  It also helps families keep food on the table in poorer areas.  I grew up in a farm community, and I remember exceptions planned around hunting season and time to put up hay.  This was necessary for the kids and the families to keep profitable while feeding the region.

Agriculture organizations succeeded last spring in convincing the U.S. Labor Department to drop proposals that would limit farm work by children. Now they say the government should leave safety to parents.

I don't agree.  Farming isn't just dragging a hoe or driving a tractor.  Modern farms use chemicals, pesticides, large machinery and tools that are sharp enough to cut off limbs if used incorrectly.  While parents are in a great position to teach kids how to work a farm, it's clear that there should be some standards for safety like those that protect any other worker.  We have read dozens of articles now about parents who think they know best for their kids and putting them at risk.  While some may cry about government interference, an OSHA-like authority to make sure guides are followed is not a bad idea.

There is room for compromise.  Parents should be smart and understand that basic standards for safety and education are necessary to protect kids, and themselves, from harm.

 

Bowie Jagger Story Is Not New

I heard this years ago, like ten years ago, but it was never more than an urban legend at the time.  It seems that Mick Jagger and David Bowie were friends with benefits.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.

David Bowie and Mick Jagger’s friendship was once, apparently, a friends-with-benefits situation. In his new biography of the Rolling Stones front man, “Mick,” author Christopher Andersen describes how Bowie and Jagger coupled during their 1970s heyday.

“Where Jagger was still coy about his own sexual preferences, Bowie made no effort to conceal the fact that both he and his wife were bisexual and often shared partners,” Andersen writes in an excerpt of the book published by theNew York Daily News. ‘”Mick looked at David and wondered if maybe this was the wave of the future,’ said Leee Black Childers, former executive vice president of MainMan, the management firm that handled Bowie. ‘Mick was very conscious of doing whatever it takes to stay hot; David was the hottest thing around at the time.’”

I had to snicker at the "doing what was hot at the time" comment, but otherwise this is the story I heard verbatim.  So now we know.

I suppose it's important to point out that people who enjoyed their music haven't started sleeping with animals or slaughtering children, as the 'phobes would have us believe.  Two guys slept together, made awesome music, and nobody got hurt.

It's amazing what can happen when people mind their own business.

Another Poll Arising Position

The wingers are mocking the President for this National Journal analysis of recent poll numbers showing that the GOP's strategy of running as the party of non college-educated white folks against a black President is working pretty well for them.  But there's some interesting data in there that should have the Republicans worried.

No one expects Obama to win these blue-collar men, who are now among the most reliably Republican segments of the electorate. But even so, these numbers, if sustained through Election Day, would represent a modern nadir for Democrats. Since 1980, the worst performance for any Democratic nominee among these working-class white men was the 31 percent Walter Mondale managed against Ronald Reagan in 1984; the meager 39 percent Obama drew in 2008 was actually the party's best showing over that period. These new surveys show Obama that these non-college white men represent Obama's largest source of decline in the white electorate since 2008. 

And that decline has been pretty steep, from 39% to 29% in the latest polls.

Still, Obama is also facing weak numbers among working-class white women. The Quinnipiac Poll shows him drawing just 37 percent of white women without a college education, and the ABC/Post poll puts him at 40 percent with those women. In each poll that's up five percentage points from his showing in the most recent national survey, a change within the margin of error. But even so, Obama's performance in the new polls shows the continued Democratic struggles with those "waitress moms" that Bill Clinton and then Al Gore targeted successfully (Clinton won 48 percent of their vote in 1996 and Gore 45 percent in 2000). Obama appears on track to do no better, and possibly slightly worse, than the modest 41 percent he won with those women in 2008, which was itself essentially unchanged from John Kerry's weak 40 percent showing in 2004.

So he's actually rebounding a bit among non-college educated white women, but losing the men.  I can see that.  The real news is the entire electorate is less white, so these numbers are less important to Obama and more important to Mitt Romney.

But if Obama's doomed, how come he keeps polling ahead consistently in states like Ohio?

Such a poor performance among working-class whites would enormously complicate Obama's hopes in older Rust Belt states where they predominate, including Ohio, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin (and to a slightly lesser extent Pennsylvania). But in several of those states, recent polls (like Quinnipiac's most recent Ohio and Pennsylvania surveys) show Obama running slightly better with non-college whites than he's run nationally, which has allowed him to maintain a lead. 

So he's running even better in the swing states, because Mitt Romney's that bad of a candidate. That makes sense:  the economy is doing better in most of these states (Ohio especially) and you have to remember in these Rust Belt swing states, working-class white voters are also...tada!  UNION VOTERS.  And Republicans have been directly hostile to union voters especially in Ohio and absolutely in Wisconsin.

Those Bain Capital and offshore Cayman Island account attacks on Romney are scoring points, regardless of race and gender.

Peregrine's Final Flight

The bizarre suicide attempt of derivatives trader Russ Wasendorf has taken another strange turn as it turns out Reuters is now reporting his outfit, Peregrine Financial Group, had been cooking the books for more than two years in an attempt to cover up hundreds of millions in missing cash.

Wasendorf, 64, is reported to be in a coma after a suicide attempt Monday morning, according to a complaint filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Tuesday that accuses Wasendorf and Peregrine of fraud.

The source offered new details on how Wasendorf allegedly carried out the deceit, which involved the forging of confidential documents that the NFA uses to verify a broker's cash balance with its depository institution.

Wasendorf intercepted these documents after they were mailed by the NFA, the broker's first-line regulator, to U.S. Bank, where PFGBest had said it had well over $200 million on deposit, the person said. The NFA has said the account actually held just $5 million this week.

Wasendorf had set up a post office box in Cedar Falls, Iowa, according to a second person involved in the matter. It was to that post office box that NFA sent the documents, which were addressed to the bank.

The post office box was neither in Wasendorf's name nor registered to the bank, the second person said.

Wasendorf then forged signatures and fabricated bank balances on the documents and simply mailed them back to the Chicago-based NFA, the person said.

Good old fashioned mail fraud.  Gotta love it. Yves Smith over at nakedcap is a bit less nice about the whole rotten deal.

However, it needs to be stressed that this is not how a regulated broker is supposed to fail. As many seasoned traders stressed at the time of the MF Global collapse, customer accounts are supposed to be sacrosanct. And as a result, it is normally possible to have fairly smooth transfer of customer accounts out of failed firms. If it turns out that twice in a relatively short period that customers had their funds pilfered under regulators’ noses, it means that investors should vote with their feet until they have some assurance that these failings have been rectified.

And a good half of that money, $200 million of the firm's $400 million, is now missing.  But we need less regulation to unleash the power of capitalism on the markets, so that guys like Russ Wasendorf can make nine figures vanish into thin air.  Sure.

The American way.

How many more firms ripping off client accounts for hundreds of million and billion will it take before we do something about it?

StupidiNews!

• Syria's ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf al-Fares, has become the latest al-Assad regime official to defect and join the Syrian rebels, urging the country's military to turn on the regime.
• 2012 is the Year of the Woman in Congress, with a record number of women, at least 295, running for federal office.
• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is pledging to spend nearly $1 billion over the next eight years on contraception access to the world's poorest nations.
• European carmaker Peugeot will shut down a French auto plant and cut 14,000 jobs amid Europe's continuing economic crisis.
• The DEA has installed license-plate recognition cameras in southweest border states trying to record patterns of vehicles used to smuggle drugs, but privacy experts are appalled.

Last Call

Mitt Romney's NAACP speech?  Yeah, about that whole repeal Obamacare on Day One thing, Mitt...

The crowd was not amused. Romney was booed again later in the speech when he told the crowd he knows what the black community needs.

“If you want a president who will make things better in the African American community, you are looking at him,” Romney said. The line was followed by a smattering of applause and some more boos. 

Oy.  If sideeyes could kill...

Of course, Mittens wanted the boo-birds on purpose so that he and the winger clown car cavalcade could play the victim card. Col. Mustard:, Attorney At Fail:

I thought it was disrespectful and racist to boo, even on policy matters.

At least that’s what we’re told when there is a virtual boo of Obama in the right blogosphere, or someone shouts out at Obama.

Now I don’t think there was a racial motive to the booing of Romney when he said he would repeal Obamacare.  Just sayin’.

Yep.  The only racists in America are black people, you see.

 

 

The National Association for the Advancement of Trolled People.

 

Mission accomplished.

Turn On The Lights, Watch The Roaches Scatter Part 89

Last month I told you how Stockton, California, one of the cities hit hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis, declared bankruptcy.  I said it wouldn't be the last California city to do so.  That prophetic statement took all of two weeks or so to be proven correct.

San Bernardino on Tuesday became the third California city in less than a month to seek bankruptcy protection, with officials saying the financial situation had become so dire that it could not cover payroll through the summer.

The unexpected vote came at the suggestion of the interim city manager, who said the city faces a $46-million deficit and depleted coffers.

"We have an immediate cash flow issue," Andrea Miller told the mayor and seven-member City Council.

Mayor Patrick Morris called the decision, passed on a 4-2 vote, a "stain" on the city. But he said the only other option was "draconian cuts" to all city services, including the police and fire departments.

"It means the bills will be paid," said a dejected Morris, who is not a voting member of the council.

The city's fiscal crisis has been years in the making, compounded by the nation's crushing recession and exacerbated by escalating pension costs, lucrative labor agreements, Sacramento's raid on redevelopment funds and a city reserve that is tapped out, officials said.

And in California, raising taxes at any level is an absolute impossibility.  The only solution is either massive cuts or bankruptcy.  California is failing by design, and more cities in the Golden State will quickly follow.

And it will only get worse.  Count on it.

Early Bird Special

Will the Romney campaign name a Veep earlier rather than later?  Reuters asks the question and finds the Romney camp is considering it, at least.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney acknowledged on Tuesday he is considering naming his choice to serve as vice presidential running mate earlier than usual to better compete with President Barack Obama.

As they work from a short list of leading Republicans, Romney and his advisers say they are weighing whether he should announce his choice some weeks earlier than the traditional time of around the Republican National Convention, which is to be held in Tampa in late August.

The reasoning, advisers say, is that two candidates would be able to raise more money and engage Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in battle with polls showing Americans closely divided on whether to pick the Republican challenger or Democratic incumbent in the November 6 election.

But here's the real reason why naming a Veep before the RNC convention will happen, and soon:

Picking the choice early could also serve to guarantee some positive news coverage at a time when Romney is under fire from Obama over whether he should release more financial information about his wealth.

The offshoring thing is really starting to score hits on Team Romney.  They're on the defensive, and a Veep pick now will get them back on offense and shift the news narrative, at least for a while.

The names I keep hearing now are Mike Huckabee, Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Rob Portman, aka The Huckster, Zombie-eyed Granny Starver, and The Most Boring Man On Earth.  My money's on the safe, boring, dull Portman.  Huckabee won't help Romney, and Ryan would hurt him.

We'll see.

Cruising The Crazy Seas

Perhaps Tom Cruise knows he looks bat-crap crazy, or perhaps Scientology has something to fear.  I'm sure we will find out eventually, but what we do know for sure is that Katie Holmes must have had some amazing dirt and leverage to bring Tom to his knees and settle the terms of the divorce.

TMZ, through several updates, has released more details than anyone else.  Katie will get primary custody, but Tom will get regular visitation.  there have been rumors (vehemently denied) that Katie has insisted on having a person present while Suri is with her dad.  Though they have yet to leak, there is some discussion about religion and age appropriate behavior.

With all the money and resources he has, Tom Cruise must have something pretty bit at stake to fold so early into the game.  At least it keeps him from coming off like a bully.  Still, I pegged him to be the type to fight bitterly just because he could, and the publicity could get him some sympathy in the courts.

I really hope we learn what she used to stop him so quickly.  She's already back at work, laughing with her daughter and moving on.  She is one smart cookie, I'll give her that.

Well Played, Pitt

Using honesty and simplicity when dealing with potentially embarrassing no-win topics: you're doing it right.

Doug Pitt was asked about his mother's letter to the News-Leader on The Today Show.  Matt Lauer put him in a bit of a hard spot, though he surely saw it coming.  Disagree with his mom, support something he has made no declarations about before, or look guilty of something even worse?

The best Hollywood writer in the world couldn't have come up with a more believable and respectable response.  Seriously, he answers so well that it couldn't be turned against him, damn near impossible when family and politics are both involved.

The interview turned more serious when Lauer asked about his mother's headline-grabbing letter, published last week in the News-Leader.

Much has been made of Jane Pitt's pro Mitt Romney letter, which showed she didn't share Brad's strong support of gay rights.

Pitt acknowledged his mom and brother disagree on some political and social issues.

“Moms and dads and kids agree to disagree all over the world, so why would our family be any different?” he said.

It's true.  It's respectful.  Anyone can tell you the family rarely agrees on politics.  He said maybe the only thing that could have worked.  Well played, sir.

With Campaign Surrogates Like These...

...Mitt Romney doesn't need critics, apparently.  His own guys are torpedoing his chances in November, guys like Sen. Lindsey Graham of SC are more than happy to say some really moronic things about Mittens.

Mitt Romney shouldn't be criticized for using off-shore tax havens because "it's really American to avoid paying taxes, legally," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday.

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee has come under fire for stashing assets overseas in places like Bermuda and Switzerland.

Graham argued that Congress is responsible for tax avoidance because it has crafted such convoluted rules and said he was fine with Romney's taking advantage of the loopholes.

"As long as it was legal, I'm OK with it," Graham said. "I don't blame anybody for using the tax code to their advantage. I blame us for having it so complicated and confused. Pick a rate and make people pay it."

In the meantime, anything within the rules goes, he argued.

"It's a game we play," Graham said. "Every American tries to find the way to get the most deductions they can. I see nothing wrong with playing the game because we set it up to be a game."

Congress set it up to be a game that people like Mitt Romney can win, and regular Americans lose.  Big time.  Considering more than two-thirds of Americans believe that the "game" Lindsey Graham wants Americans to play is rigged to help people like Mitt Romney get richer at their expense, maybe bragging about how rich Mitt is because Congress set up the tax code so that Mitt can avoid paying taxes and that he should be applauded for it is about as tone-deaf as it comes.

This is why Americans give Congress an 9% approval rating, folks.  By all means Dems, run ads on Graham saying this over and over again, while pointing out Mitt Romney believes that the rich are still paying too much in taxes and that he wants to give millionaire hundreds of thousands in more tax breaks yearly while telling the rest of us "Sorry, we can't afford roads, school, and police.  You're on your own."

Dems need to crush this fastball out of the park.

Hoosier Daddy, Republicans?

Indiana's anti-Planned Parenthood Medicaid law just got a huge hole blown in it, and it's taking on water and going down fast.

A controversial Indiana law that would keep low-income women from using federal Medicaid benefits to receive any kind of reproductive medical care from Planned Parenthood is unacceptable because it denies women the freedom to choose their health care providers, according to a federal hearing officer.

 In June 2011, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) of the Department of Health and Human Services ruled the state law, which would alter the way Medicaid is run in Indiana, violates federal laws, making it unacceptable.

The state has argued the law, HEA 1210, simply intended to block Medicaid money from going toward abortions, and filed an administrative appeal to CMS to reassess the ruling.

“Like any other petitioner who is entitled to a hearing, the State of Indiana appreciated the opportunity to try to explain to CMS the Indiana Legislature's public policy decision that private providers ought not indirectly subsidize abortion procedures through Medicaid dollars and that the legislation had that separation in mind,” Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said in a statement.

Overseeing the administrative appeal, Hearing Officer Benjamin Cohen said that the law violated a federal requirement that individuals must have the liberty to obtain care from any qualified provider, and recommended CMS administrators uphold their original ruling.

“Indiana’s own Legislative Services Agency advised prior to the passage of HEA 1210 that, in fact, ‘Federal law permits states to define a qualified provider, but requires that this definition is related to a provider’s ability to perform a service and not what services are provided,’” Cohen wrote in his recommendation.

It's funny, Republicans scream about freedom and government intervention in health care coming between citizens and their doctors, then they pass laws that literally tell women where they can and can't go for their health care without having the grace to be even slightly apologetic for the massive hypocrisy.

Sorry boys, you lose again.

StupidiNews!

• Egypt's constitutional woes continue as the country's high court has overruled President Mohammad Morsi's call to reconvene the dissolved parliament.
• The NSA's top cyber cop says that tough new legislation is needed to combat computer crime that costs the US as much as $1 trillion yearly in losses.
• The continuing drought across the US will soon affect food prices as feed crops like corn and soybeans are struggling in record heat.
• Spain's fourth austerity package in seven months will cut 65 billion euros from the country's budget as cash-strapped banks continue to crumble.
• Apple's pullout from an eco-friendly product certification due to repairability access has prompted San Francisco to pull the plug on any future Apple purchases.

Last Call

It wouldn't be a week without Rep. Allen West (R-Self Hating) comparing government to slavery, this time it's Social Security.

No, really.

"What we're doing is we're creating a welfare entitlement class," West told Fox News on Sunday, naming the rising number of Americans on Social Security disability and the poverty roll as well as increase in food stamp recipients and extension of unemployment benefits. “So once again we are creating the sense of economic dependence which, to me, is a form of modern, 21st-century slavery.”

West blasted the “liberal media” for reporting that he equated Social Security and slavery in the comment. West suggested his Facebook followers watch the interview for themselves.

“It seems that there is absolutely no level the attack machine will sink to deliberately distort my comments,” he wrote. “I was clearly talking about the number of people on Social Security disability- a completely separate issue then claims that I said I am against Social Security.”

Oh yes, saying that the number of people in Social Security evokes slavery is such a very, very different prospect than calling Social Security itself slavery, much like the number of tea party assholes in Congress evoking the concept of the Taliban is different from calling these tea party assholes "Talibangelicals".   Then as usual, Allen West blasts the liberal media for, you know, quoting him verbatim.

Idiot.  Did I mention Allen West is stupid enough to dump on Social Security while being a Congressman from Florida, the retirement capital of the country?  Yeah, thought so.  After all, this is a guy who constantly invokes his military service as making himself more of a man and a leader and brags about how intelligent he is, but he's too chickenshit to debate his political opponents, even his Republican ones ahead of next month's primaries.

It's getting old.  West screams about how whatever program/policy X Obama does is slavery, slavery slavery and when he gets called on it, he denies that's what he meant.  This guy is certifiable.

Fell On Black Days

The battlefield for Medicare expansion under the Affordable Care Act is playing out in an unlikely place:  right here in Kentucky.  Dinosaur Steve Beshear is in his second term as governor through 2015, and the Democrat actually seems to maybe want to implement as much of the ACA as possible to help Kentucky's poor, rural folks...who are mostly white (and everyone knows it, Kentucky is 89% white.)  The Great Brown Horde card doesn't work here, and it means a relatively conservative Southern state may very well be one of the first to implement reforms (and take that federal Medicare money).

Naturally, Kentucky House Republicans are pissing themselves trying to stop Beshear.  For his part, Beshear is playing his cards close to his vest.

The top Republican in the Kentucky House wants Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear to halt an expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor and disabled.

The expansion of Medicaid is a central element in President Barack Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which says the federal government will pay 100 percent of the costs to add certain people to the program in 2014. After three years, the states must pick up some of the costs of the expansion, which Kentucky can't afford, House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover of Jamestown said.

Currently, the federal government pays 70 percent of the costs of the insurance program and the state picks up 30 percent. Under the expansion proposal, after three years the federal government would pay about 90 percent for those people added under the expansion, but the state would have to cover the other 10 percent.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld the controversial federal health insurance law but ruled that states can't be penalized financially if they opt out of the Medicaid expansion. In Kentucky, more than 700,000 people receive insurance through the $6 billion program. It is Kentucky's largest insurance provider.

Yeah, you read that right:  Medicaid is already the state's largest insurance provider.  You'd think even Beshear would jump at the chance to do this.  Sadly, he's up against the coal industry, and they're doing everything they can to kill anything close to resembling health care in the state.  This is the result:  Black Lung is back big time in coal mining country.

A joint investigation by NPR and the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) has found that McCowan is not alone. Incidence of the disease that steals the breath of coal miners doubled in the last decade, according to data analyzed by epidemiologist Scott Laney at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

Cases of the worst stage of the disease have quadrupled since the 1980s in a triangular region of Appalachia stretching from eastern Kentucky through southern West Virginia and into southwestern Virginia.

Black lung experts and mine safety advocates have warned of the resurgence of the disease since 1995. New reporting by CPI and NPR reveals the extent to which federal regulators and the mining industry failed to protect coal miners in the intervening years.

An analysis of federal data by CPI and NPR also shows that the mining industry and federal regulators have known for more than two decades that coal miners were breathing excessive amounts of the coal mine dust that causes black lung. CPI and NPR also found that the system for controlling coal mine dust is plagued by weak regulations and inaccurate reporting that sometimes includes fraud.

Suddenly the notion that people need long-term health care in the poorest part of the state has taken on quite the urgency, yes?

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/07/05/2249479/house-republicans-want-beshear.html#storylink=cpy

 

Ye

Mitt's Laughing All The Way To The Bank

Say what you will about the truly awful optics of Romney's fundraisers among the ultra-rich bringing out the most callous and heartless of America's wealthiest people, the cold hard fact are all about the cold hard cash, and in that department Team Romney posted their second consecutive monthly spanking of the Obama campaign in the cash race.

According to the early details of Romney’s latest fundraising totals, the glitzy optics are in tune with the reality. The Romney campaign announced Monday it took in a dominant $106 million in combined donations to the campaign, the RNC and assorted committees, compared with just $71 million for Obama.

The FEC reports are not online, but the New York Times reported that a staggering $70 million of Romney’s haul came through his victory fund, a collection of state and national party committees that are designed to take much bigger donations than the main campaign. While donors can only give $2,500 each to Romney’s general election and primary campaign, the limit on Romney Victory Inc. is $75,800. Romney’s campaign itself raised only $24 million. It’s not yet known how much of Obama’s $71 million haul came from its regular campaign.

Romney’s joint fund releases its finances on a quarterly basis, so there’s no way to tell what percentage of its cash is coming from big-money backers until July 15, but it’s extremely likely the bulk will be exactly the types of donations you’d expect to be collected at, say, Romney’s $50,000-a-plate gala in Aspen, Colo., on Monday. Obama’s own victory fund, for example, which releases its reports on a monthly basis, reported that as of May 31, only about 8 percent of its year-to-date fundraising came from un-itemized donors who gave less than $250.

Romney, of course, is not alone in attending ostentatious events aimed at high-dollar donors. Obama recently held a high-profile $40,000-per-ticket Hollywood fundraiser with George Clooney, for example. Obama also held more fundraisers than any recent president. Overall, however, Obama has been much more reliant on small donors and much less reliant on max-money contributors than Romney. 

The fact remains that in the last two months Romney has opened up a $42 million advantage in fundraising and has become the first this year to break the $100 million per month mark.  At this pace Romney could end up with a nine-digit advantage in the campaigns by late October and taking into account Super-PAC money, that advantage could be several hundred million dollars if not approaching the billion-dollar level.  That kind of money is enough to bury the Obama campaign in ad buys in the last six weeks of the election season, and both sides know it.  They could run ads in every market in the country for weeks, non-stop.

Citizen's United?  Working as intended.

Mom Gives Birth, Smokes Bath Salts... You Know What's Coming

A Pennsylvania mom who had just given birth is accused of smoking synthetic "bath salts" in the hospital and going on a violent rampage, assaulting a nurse and a police officer.

Carla Murphy, 31, of Altoona, was recovering in the hospital on June 17 after delivering her baby two days earlier, The Altoona Mirror reported. Police say that Murphy smoked the synthetic drug, prompting her to strip off her clothes and go wild in the bathroom.

Murphy rolled around on the shower floor, confused and unable to state her own name. Cops arrived to calm her, and found in her purse a dismantled black pen with powder inside that the mother later called "Disco" -- a street name for bath salts -- the paper reported.

As Murphy flailed about, a nurse administered the anti-psychotic drug Haldol. Murphy responded by punching a nurse in the face, the New York Daily News reported.

She tried to bite a police officer, was so forcefully resistant she was a danger to herself and others, and  faces at least two felonies and a slew of misdemeanors.

And she has a newborn baby.

This woman likely didn't control her drug use, so we may have a child who was developing while her mother used an experimental drug.  This is the stuff of nightmares.

Say what you like about marijuana, it never caused anything like this.  That war on drugs we keep hearing about?  Maybe they should pool their resources and take this stuff out before it's all too late.  There is a substance out there that is cheap, easy to get and makes people want to eat other people.  Time to pull all the plugs and save everyone we can, because shit just got real.