StupidiNews!

• Credit rating agency Moody's is again threatening a downgrade of the US's credit rating unless Congress approves a significant long-term debt reduction plan in 2013.
• Back in Congress before the fall campaign break, House Republicans plan legislation to strip President Obama's state reporting waivers from welfare reform legislation.
• A smaller than expected rise in employer-based health insurance premiums in 2012 is good news, but costs are still outpacing inflation and wages.
• Germany's top court cleared the way for the ECB's bailout fund program, but conditions have been imposed on its use.
• Some publishers are already seeing lower e-book prices in the wake of the Department of Justice settlement with Apple.

Last Call

FOX News:  still the propaganda arm of the GOP.



The "real" unemployment rate doubled under the black guy!  IMPEACH!  IMPEEEEEE...wait, they're comparing the actual unemployment rate (U-3) to the underemployment rate (U-6) and lying that they are both the same thing.

Sure.  Because that's what FOX does.  They lie to attack the Democrats, because they are the cable channel for the Republican Party.  Nobody who regularly believes FOX is going to check the stats, you know.

The 7.8 percent figure is the official unemployment rate from January 2009. This statistic reports on people who are unemployed and actively looking for a job. But as of the latest report, the official unemployment rate is 8.1 percent (0.3 percent higher than it was in January 2009), not 14.7 percent.

The 14.7 percent figure is a completely different measurement of the unemployed, which in addition to those who are actively looking for work, also counts people who are unemployed and discouraged from looking for a new job, part-time workers who prefer full-time employment, and more. This alternative measure of unemployment, which conservatives often call the "real" unemployment rate, was 14.2 percent in January 2009 -- 0.5 percentage points lower than it is today.

So yes, they are dirty liars.  I've talked about the U-6 number before, and it's gone *down* under Obama.  But FOX isn't a news channel, it's a party platform channel.  See?

Seriously Unfinished Bush Business

The NY Times drops this op-ed from Kurt Eichenwald, detailing a parttern of how intelligence on the 9/11 attacks were ignored because the crazy neocon assholes in the Bush administration thought it was -- get this now -- disinformation to distract us from the real threat, Saddam Hussein.

No really.  That's the deal.

The direct warnings to Mr. Bush about the possibility of a Qaeda attack began in the spring of 2001. By May 1, the Central Intelligence Agency told the White House of a report that “a group presently in the United States” was planning a terrorist operation. Weeks later, on June 22, the daily brief reported that Qaeda strikes could be “imminent,” although intelligence suggested the time frame was flexible.

But some in the administration considered the warning to be just bluster. An intelligence official and a member of the Bush administration both told me in interviews that the neoconservative leaders who had recently assumed power at the Pentagon were warning the White House that the C.I.A. had been fooled; according to this theory, Bin Laden was merely pretending to be planning an attack to distract the administration from Saddam Hussein, whom the neoconservatives saw as a greater threat. Intelligence officials, these sources said, protested that the idea of Bin Laden, an Islamic fundamentalist, conspiring with Mr. Hussein, an Iraqi secularist, was ridiculous, but the neoconservatives’ suspicions were nevertheless carrying the day. 

In response, the C.I.A. prepared an analysis that all but pleaded with the White House to accept that the danger from Bin Laden was real. 

“The U.S. is not the target of a disinformation campaign by Usama Bin Laden,” the daily brief of June 29 read, using the government’s transliteration of Bin Laden’s first name. Going on for more than a page, the document recited much of the evidence, including an interview that month with a Middle Eastern journalist in which Bin Laden aides warned of a coming attack, as well as competitive pressures that the terrorist leader was feeling, given the number of Islamists being recruited for the separatist Russian region of Chechnya. 

And the C.I.A. repeated the warnings in the briefs that followed. Operatives connected to Bin Laden, one reported on June 29, expected the planned near-term attacks to have “dramatic consequences,” including major casualties. On July 1, the brief stated that the operation had been delayed, but “will occur soon.” Some of the briefs again reminded Mr. Bush that the attack timing was flexible, and that, despite any perceived delay, the planned assault was on track. 

Yet, the White House failed to take significant action. Officials at the Counterterrorism Center of the C.I.A. grew apoplectic. On July 9, at a meeting of the counterterrorism group, one official suggested that the staff put in for a transfer so that somebody else would be responsible when the attack took place, two people who were there told me in interviews. The suggestion was batted down, they said, because there would be no time to train anyone else. 

So, if this is all true, the neocons in the Bush administration were always, always, always going after war with Iraq, and they got it.  We kind of knew that already, so I don't see what this op-ed ultimately changes, but it's a nice reminder going into the election in two months that the same people now want open war with Iran.

You think Romney will stand up to stop them?   Sure he will.  Just like Bush did with Iraq, right?

Now Here's A Question I'd Like Answered

So, what the hell is North Carolina Republican Rep. Walter Jones doing on a white supremacist radio show?

A North Carolina Republican congressman appeared on a notorious white nationalist radio program on Saturday to talk up legislation he co-authored accusing President Barack Obama of committing impeachable offenses. Rep. Walter Jones, a fiercely anti-war congressman who often breaks with his party on key votes, appeared on the "Political Cesspool," a Memphis-based program hosted by ardent white nationalists James Edwards and Eddie Miller. The show has been condemned by groups like the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center for promoting racist, homophobic, and anti-semitic beliefs. Jones is the first member of Congress to appear on the program.

An avowed white nationalist who says David Duke is "above reproach," Edwards has referred to African-Americans as "heathen savages" and "subhuman" and suggested that slavery was "the greatest thing that ever happened" to blacks. The show's mission statement is blunt: "We represent a philosophy that is pro-White and are against political centralization," it declares. It then outlines a series of issues the show exists to promote. "We wish to revive the White birthrate above replacement level fertility and beyond to grow the percentage of Whites in the world relative to other races," reads one plank. Another bullet-point endorses the Confederacy: "Secession is a right of all people and individuals. It was successful in 1776 and this show honors those who tried to make it successful in 1865."

Yeah, so please explain to me how Freedom Fries Walter here is, as a sitting member of Congress up for re-election, allowed to do this without a national outcry, when he's on a white supremacist radio show with the express purpose of pushing his bill to impeach our first black President.

Go ahead, I'd love to hear the explanations of how I'm a racist for pointing this out.

Rory McIlroy Excels

CARMEL, Ind. – Rory McIlroy beat the strongest leaderboard in golf this year Sunday in the BMW Championship and joined some elite company.

Everyone knew Boy Wonder was a special player when he won the U.S. Open last summer with a record score. The last month has established him as the dominant player in golf, with three wins in four tournaments loaded with the best players – the PGA Championship and two FedEx Cup playoff events.

McIlroy became the first player since Tiger Woods in 2009 to win in consecutive weeks on the PGA Tour, and with his sixth career win, he joined Woods and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to win at least six times at age 23.

By all accounts, he's a great kid and an all-around good guy.  The real story isn't that he won, but how he has handled himself in his short but rising golf career.  He has shown sportsmanship and honor in a sport that values those highly.  Watching him Sunday, I also saw him show a lot of grace when he was under pressure and things didn't go the way he wanted.  Unlike some golfers, he simply moved on to the next shot, and that patience and control served him well.

There's no doubt we will keep hearing more about McIlroy as he continues to climb the ladder, but at this stage he has already stepped onto a very small stage and set himself apart.  Good luck to him, he will need it against Tiger and even Mickelson, who won't give up easily.  He picked a heck of a time to be a runaway success.

Hero Kid Saves Father, Sister

PEABODY, Mass. — Massachusetts state police say a 12-year-old boy steered his family's car to safety along Interstate 95 after his father suffered what appeared to be a seizure while driving.

Troopers say the boy, who's from Dracut, took the wheel Saturday, steered it into the southbound breakdown lane and applied the brakes. He also used his dad's cellphone to call 911 and described his surroundings to a dispatcher, then brought his 9-year-old, special needs sister to safety behind a guardrail.

That's a kid who was raised well, and taught how to handle a crisis.  Many adults would be overwhelmed under such circumstances.  What a brave boy, I hope his father is okay and can tell him in person what a great job he did.

The Greatest 9/11 Troll Poll Ever

I do love it when Tom Jensen and the Public Policy Polling crew stick in a completely bizarre question to ask a specific group of voters, and this week's Ohio poll was no exception as Nick Baumann at MoJo notes:

In what some (one guy on Twitter) have called "a stroke of comic genius," Public Policy Polling decided to ask Ohio Republicans who they thought "deserved more credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden: Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. In what some (my colleague Tim Murphy) have called "the greatest thing ever," a full 15 percent of Ohio Republicans surveyed said Romney deserved more credit than the president. Another 47 percent said they were "unsure." 

So, 62 percent of Ohio Republicans are pretty much Obama-hating dipsticks.  No "news" there.  Here's the interesting part:

The poll didn't offer an option for "the Navy SEALs" or "the troops," who undoubtedly would have blown out Romney and Obama if they were options. The news in this poll—as much as any one poll can be news—is that it found Obama leading Romney by five percentage points in Ohio. (The full poll results are here.) No Republican has ever won the presidency without winning Ohio. Here's a reality check on the state of the presidential race: Nate Silver, the New York Times' polling guru, now gives the president a nearly 80 percent chance of winning reelection.

But yeah, 62% of Ohio Republicans flat out refuse to give Obama credit for killing bin Laden.  You can fill in your own reasons as to why.

Underneath The Hood

Just a reminder this morning that we've made some improvements to Podcast Versus The Stupid, and we now have an archive page with all the PVTS episodes in mp3 and Windows Media Player format that you can download or listen to on your PC or mobile device, so we can get MOAR LISTENERS.  Tell your friends.  You DO have friends, right?  Maybe?  I'm hoping?  C'mon, even I have friends.

We've got big plans for PVTS in the coming weeks and months, first to get the show on iTunes so you all can get the latest episodes in one place automatically, and second, as we get better at this, we're going to expand the show to an hour and try to have guests on a regular basis.

As the hip kids say, stay tuned, true believers...

StupidiNews!

• On the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on NYC and the Pentagon, Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Cuomo say that budget issues for the planned 9/11 museum/memorial have been resolved.
• The central figure in a campaign scandal involving Florida GOP Rep. David Rivera has vanished, as campaign strategist Ann Alliegro has failed to appear before federal prosecutors.
• Somalia has finally selected a new President amid allegations of vote-buying and election rigging, to replace outgoing head Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.
• Ireland's tiny Dorinish Island is on sale again, signifying that Ireland's real estate market may finally be coming around as the island once owned by Beatle John Lennon is on the market.
• Web hosting giant Go Daddy is denying that yesterday's outage that knocked thousands of domains offline was caused by hacker attacks.

Last Call

Things are beginning to all line up as green lights for the Obama bus heading forward.  Or at least, greenbacks are lining up.

President Barack Obama's re-election campaign and supporting committees brought in more than $114 million last month – the first time the incumbent has outraised his opponent, Gov. Mitt Romney, since April.

Obama’s Campaign Manager Jim Messina announced the figure for August late Sunday night.

Romney’s campaign brought in $111 million last month.

But for three months in a row – June, July, August – Romney’s camp brought in more than $100 million, with $106 million in June and $101 million in July.

“No celebrating, because they're going to have an even bigger September. But now we know we can match them, doing this our way,” tweeted the Obama campaign.

Part of that was me, darnit.  The Republican convention was so awful, I made sure to donate last  month, especially after seeing Team Obama get beaten on.  Romney's sitting on hundreds of millions here, and the last two months of the campaign are going to be vicious.

Proud to help them.  Let's go...forward!

Deaf Dolphin Moving To New Home

NEW ORLEANS (AP)  A deaf dolphin found stranded in March off the Louisiana coast is being taken to live among other dolphins at a facility in Mississippi.

Suzanne Smith is the rescue coordinator at the Audubon Nature Institute. She says the 2 ½-year-old dolphin will be taken Tuesday to the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies because he would be unable to survive in the wild.

His deafness was likely the reason he was lost, and will live a happy life of comfort and love.   Since guaranteed suffering and death was the other choice, we'll call this one a happy ending.   I hope it made you smile, it made my day.

Ebola Travels Between Towns

GOMA, Congo — An outbreak of the Ebola virus has killed 15 people in northeastern Congo and the local communities are quickly learning how frighteningly deadly the disease is, and how to prevent its spread.

"Ebola entered my house and I did not know what it was," said Gabriel Libina Alandato, who survived the hemorrhagic fever. "My three daughters and their mother died in August, but it is only when I was taken to the quarantine center that I learned about the disease."

Health officials say the population lacks knowledge of Ebola and must learn that the tradition of washing of corpses before funerals spreads the epidemic.

Although it is the ninth Ebola epidemic in Congo, it is the first one in the Haut-Uélé territory, in northeastern Congo. Ebola has no cure and is deadly in 40 percent to 90 percent of cases. The disease causes severe internal bleeding.

They believe a woman who traveled for a funeral touched the body and brought it back to her town.  The longstanding traditions create a perfect chance to spread the disease. If any of you ever read The Hot Zone you are surely squirming right now.  Once Ebola crops up, it continues to do so.  Oh yeah, and once it landed in the U.S. in a couple of trash bags.

The difference between here and there is education and resources.  These people have no idea they are risking their lives, and how to prevent outbreaks.  This is something the world should pay attention to, as Ebola is only one of many risks that threaten the population.

Ann Romney Does Him No Favors

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's wife Ann said that her husband has been unfairly 'demonized,' during a joint appearance on NBC's Meet the Press aired on Sunday.

Ann Romney said she took to the GOP convention stage to convey that her family has faced struggles even though they have been well off financially.

“Well, I think the thing that I want to communicate to people, and that it's so important that people understand, is that Mitt and I do recognize that we have not had a financial struggle in our lives. But I want people to believe in their hearts that we know what it is like to struggle. And our struggles have not been financial, but they've been with health and with difficulties in different things in life,” she said, in an interview aired Sunday.

 "But I want people to believe in their hearts that we know what it is like to struggle."  She says this after acknowledging that they have not.  Nobody's life runs smoothly all the time, and they are no exception.  However, she has never faced her challenges and wondered how they were going to afford food next week.  She never had to go through cancer as a single parent on $12 an hour, though I watched two brave women go through that, in freakishly similar circumstances.  

So yo, poor people, she's had a hard time of it, too.  I mean, she always had insurance, and a staff to help with the house and the kids, and a comfortable bed to sleep in.  She has never had to choose between a dollar box of mac and cheese or a single piece of fruit.  But somehow, she knows where we are coming from, and we should be gosh-darned happy to have Mitt deciding what is right for us, rather than representing us.  

If she had a clue she would be dangerous.  

One Lucky Kid

Swooped up by rushing water, Jeffrey was forced more than a quarter-mile through multiple storm sewer pipes, at times completely submerged, before finding enough breathing room to wait for rescuers, the Associated Press reports.

"It was dark, it was scary, it was nasty," Jeffrey says. "It was like somebody is putting you in a big whirlpool and spinning you around and getting your head knocked on the ground."

As emergency crews got to the scene, they started taking off sewer lids, yelling into the sewers waiting for a sign of Jeffrey.

"The water was moving so quickly it sucked him into the drain," said Doug Turner, a Parma Fire Department spokesman. "It sucked him in and pulled him probably 100 yards, full of water, where he couldn't take his breath."

The full story is pretty scary.  One second, everything is fine, the next he is in underground in a tube full of water.  It doesn't get much scarier than that, folks.  He is fine, and knows how lucky he is to be alive.

On a side note, in a land far, far away a bunch of horror writers were sitting at a table, brainstorming.  We were trying to think of things to meditate on that put you in that mental place.  I threw out being water in a pipe underground, waiting for someone to turn the tap and let you out.  We all successfully freaked ourselves out and had to move on to another topic. This kid lived that.  I can't say I would have been sane coming out of that.

Good for you, kid.

Money Where Your Mouth Is

As I mentioned in the podcast on Sunday, Hustler Magazine owner Larry Flynt is now offering $1 million for Mitt Romney's tax returns.

Hustler publisher Larry Flynt has offered up to $1 million to anyone who releases details of Mitt Romney’s tax returns.

In a full-page ad to be featured in The Washington Post and USA Today, the porn mogul offers the huge sum of cash to anyone who can provide verifiable information regarding the Republican presidential candidate’s “unreleased tax returns and/or details of his offshore assets, bank accounts and business partnerships.”

“What is he hiding?” Flynt asks in the ad. “Maybe, now, we’ll find out.”

As I said Sunday, I agree with Bon's take that we will see Mitt's dark secret before the campaign is out, it was always inevitable.  Flynt's just speeding up the process, because now whoever breaks this news first gets a million bucks.  Go capitalism!  What's more American than good ol' supply and demand?

The demand price is now one million dollars.  I'm betting someone's going to supply the info, and soon.