StupidiNews!

• Police in Ferguson, Missouri arrested several protesters who demonstrated against Police Chief Thomas Jackson, calling for his resignation in the wake of his apologies after the shooting death of Michal Brown.
• The International Space Station is set to receive its first female crew member from Russia as cosmonaut Elena Serova will arrive along another Russian and an US astronaut on Friday.
• US business groups are pressing Indian PM Narendra Modi to prove his reformist credentials and relax trade barriers ahead of his scheduled visit to Washington next week.
• British PM David Cameron has recalled Parliament into session to vote today on joining the US, France, and Arab nations in airstrikes in Iraq against ISIS forces.
• Apple has released a bug fix to their bug fix: iOS 8.0.2 is out today after the company pulled an earlier 8.0.1 bug fix that caused iPhones to lose phone service.

Last Call For No Holders Barred

While I agree with everything Steve M. wrote today about the GOP complaining that appointing Eric Holder's successor during the lame duck session after the elections would somehow be "unconstitutional" I think the bigger picture here is that the massive, massive disrespect shown by Sen. Chuck Grassley and others is truly awful.

“Rather than rush a nominee through the Senate in a lame-duck session, I hope the president will now take his time to nominate a qualified individual who can start fresh relationships with Congress so that we can solve the problems facing our country,” said Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Grassley, who voted to confirm Holder in 2009, lamented that his tenure “was strained by his lack of respect for Congress, the American taxpayer and the laws on the books. “

He noted, however, that Holder has committed to remaining on he job until a successor is named, allowing for the confirmation process to run its course.

Oh well.  Guess you lose on this one, Chuck.

“There’s no doubt the president will try to ram through a lame-duck Senate another partisan hack for attorney general,” said Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. “We cannot allow that to happen."

We cannot allow.  Exactly who are you to tell the President what he can and cannot do?  Sit the hell down and shut the hell up.  I am so bloody tired of this nonsense.  You get zero say, madam.  Zip.  Stuff it where the sun don't shine.

Republicans have repeatedly urged Democrats to refrain from pushing through any non-emergency legislation in a lame-duck session, arguing that lawmakers who have lost their seats would have no accountability.

That holds true for selecting Holder’s replacement, said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a member of the Judiciary Committee, which will consider the eventual nomination.

“Allowing Democratic senators, many of whom will likely have just been defeated at the polls, to confirm Holder’s successor would be an abuse of power that should not be countenanced,” Cruz said.

Nope.  100% Constitutional.  Nothing you can do about it.  You lose, sir.  Good day.  Enjoy your replacement.

Of course, the point is to raise so much outrage that our "liberal media" starts actively questioning whether or not President Obama should just resign because, well, you know that anyone that one appoints won't have credibility.

Optics, you know.

Pay To Play The GOP Way

Looks like some GOP intern screwed up, and CREW and the NY Times got their hands on the donor's list for the PAC for the Republican Governors Association, the Republican Governors Public Policy Committee.  The results are depressing:

Among the R.G.A. documents is a 21-page schedule of the policy committee’s Carlsbad meeting last year that lists which companies attended, who represented them and what they contributed. The most elite group, known as the Statesmen, whose members donated $250,000, included Aetna; Coca-Cola; Exxon Mobil; Koch Companies Public Sector, the lobbying arm of the highly political Koch Industries; Microsoft; Pfizer; UnitedHealth Group; and Walmart. The $100,000 Cabinet level included Aflac, BlueCross BlueShield, Comcast, Hewlett-Packard, Novartis, Shell Oil, Verizon Communications and Walgreen. 

Other documents detail, in part, what they got in return. 

One 2009 document states the benefits of a Governors Board membership, for a $50,000 annual contribution or a one-time donation of $100,000, saying it “offers the ability to bring their particular expertise to the political process while helping to support the Republican agenda.” 

Board members received two tickets to “an exclusive breakfast with the Republican Governors and members of their staff”; three tickets to the Governors Forums Series, where “a group of 5-8 governors discuss the best policy practices from around the country on a particular topic”; and a D.C. Discussion Breakfast Series, among other events. 

If they bump up to Cabinet Membership — $100,000 annually or a single payment of $200,000 — contributors also receive two invitations to “an exclusive Gubernatorial Dinner,” an “intimate gathering with the Republican Governors and special Republican V.I.P. guests” at the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington. 

Political finance experts say the practice apparently laid out in the documents is not illegal, and probably not unusual. In hundreds of pages posted on the web, the Republican governors group put it down in black and white. 

“It’s not that you don’t suspect this, but here you see these companies paying the governors for access,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW. “Americans all think it’s pay-to-play politics. This is what confirms it.”

Now, two things here.  One, don't kid yourself, Democratic governors are doing this too.  The donors are different and the price tags are probably similar, but the honest fact is Democrats do pay for play like Republicans do.

Two, all politicians are for sale and will be until we get the billions in cash  out of the system. These corporations are the only constituents that your governor, your representative, your senator, your mayor, and your city council or county commissioners care about.

BREAKING: AG Eric Holder Resigning, Sort Of

Eric Holder apparently stepping down, but will wait to resign until a successor is named.

Which, thanks to SCOTUS, cannot be done until after the elections when the Senate is back in session.  Expect the GOP to stall until January, when they'll have more seats in the Senate.  If they have 51 and control of the Senate, I can't see anyone Obama would appoint as getting confirmed.

Effectively, Holder may remain until the end of President Obama's term if that happens  I  mean, do you expect anyone Obama would pick would get through a confirmation hearing if the GOP's in charge?

Senate control always was important, but is even more so now.

Dennis The Menace Returns

If there's one person in the Democratic party more ridiculously obnoxious than Ralph Nader, it's Dennis F'cking Kucinich, who I am now convinced is running for the Dems' 2016 nomination on the platform of "Let's indict Obama the War Criminal".

Last week Congress acted prematurely in funding a war without following the proscriptions of Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. (The day of the vote, I urged Congress to resist this dangerous and misguided legislation.) But even while the funding was given, the explicit authorization to go to war was not. To authorize a war, Congress must vote for war. It has not done that yet. 

To sell its case, the administration is borrowing from the fear mongering tactics of the Bush administration. ISIS poses no direct, immediate threat to the United States --The White House even said so yesterday, just hours before bombing commenced - yet we are being sold make-believe about ISIS sleeper cells. 

This attack on Syria, under the guise of striking ISIS, is by definition, a war of aggression. It is a violation of international law. It could lead to crimes against humanity and the deaths of untold numbers of innocent civilians. No amount of public relations or smooth talking can change that. 

And yes, members of this Democratic administration, including the president who executed this policy, must be held accountable by the International Criminal Court and by the American people, who he serves. 

And while Congress really should debate Syria and hold a vote, they're too busy campaigning to care. Also, we have tried diplomacy with Iran and it's making progress, but Congress tried to kill that too. Look, I'm less than happy about us bombing ISIS targets in Syria. The best we can hope for is that it forces ISIS to the negotiating table, and even I think that's not going to happen.

Here's the real problem:  John Boehner refuses to hold a vote on authorization for Syria until the next Congress is in session.

“I have made it clear that I think the House and the Congress itself should speak,” the speaker said in an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with First Draft. 

But Mr. Boehner believes a post-election, lame-duck session is the wrong time for such a weighty decision. “Doing this with a whole group of members who are on their way out the door, I don’t think that is the right way to handle this,” he said. 

Mr. Boehner, who is open to a more expansive military campaign to destroy the Islamic State, thinks lawmakers should take up the issue after the new Congress convenes in January… 

“I would suggest to you that early next year, assuming that we continue in this effort, there may be that discussion and there may be that request from the president,” he said.

So complain all you want to about Obama not having permission from Congress, when Republicans in Congress refuse to even debate it.

StupidiNews!

• A third wave of US and coalition airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria have hit the group's oil refining capacity as well as a regional ISIS HQ in Syria's Deir Ezzor province.
• The Obama administration has reached an historic $554 million settlement with the Navajo Nation to deal with claims that the US mishandled tribal money and natural resources for decades.
• A new security bug has been discovered in Linux-based operating systems that could allow hackers to take total control of a targeted system.
• Apple has pulled its latest iOS8 bug fix release as reports find the new software may cause some users to lose cellular service on their iPhones.
• Microsoft will be unveiling the next version of Windows in San Francisco next week, even if the next version isn't called Windows 9.

Last Call For Orange Not So Crushed

We're a bit overdue, but as usual there's another article in The Hill about yet another attempt to dislodge GOP House Speaker John Boehner from his gavel, as certain Tea Party Republicans all think they can do a better job of making sure Congress is doing nothing for America.

A number of conservative lawmakers, both in interviews on the record and on background, described enormous frustration with Boehner and his top lieutenants for taking too safe a political route ahead of the 2014 elections. 

“In tough times, it doesn’t mean you play timid, it means to play bold, and I don’t see that. And you know what? Time’s up,” Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), who vowed to vote against Boehner, told The Hill in an interview. “I’m tired of the status quo of what’s going on in Washington, D.C. America’s tired, America’s angry and they’re scared, because they don’t have leaders in Washington, D.C.” 

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) was more succinct: “I’ll give him every bit as much support as I did last time.” 

Gohmert in 2013 was one of a dozen Republicans who didn’t support Boehner for Speaker. Ten of them will return to the next Congress and have a vote on Boehner’s future. 

Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), also said he’ll again vote against Boehner, even though he admitted it could be a suicide mission.

A handful of other conservative rabble-rousers, including Reps. Steve King of Iowa and Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, declined to say whether they would vote to give Boehner a third two-year term. 

“When he makes an announcement on what his career is, I’ll start to contemplate that, but I haven’t really given it any thought in any kind of broader discussion,” said King.

After the repeated failures of these clowns to get rid of Boehner last year, I don't see them being successful this time around either unless something completely new happens., like the GOP losing several House seats.

It could happen, but then again it's not like the Tea Party has shown any leadership beyond leading the nation in stupid quotes.

Boehner, sadly, isn't going anywhere.

The Modern GOP Poll Tax

Next time you have FOX screaming about the "thugs" in the New Black Panther Party scaring people at polling places, remind them of this Wisconsin militia group's plan to seek out and go after Democrats at the voting booth.

An armed militia group in Wisconsin plans to confront people who signed the petition to recall Gov. Scott Walker (R) at the polls on Nov. 4.

The "Wisconsin Poll Watcher Militia" will check the names of those on the petition and will then seek out the Democrats on that list, according to Facebook exchanges viewed by Politicus USA.

Why, that's not old fashioned lynch mob voter intimidation.  That's "GOP minority outreach"!

According to Politicus USA, the Facebook page for the group featured pictures of African-Americans, but the group denied that they are targeting blacks.

"We can assure you that we will be targeting all democrats, not just black ones," a Facebook message read, according to the Capital Times. "If you think we meant blacks only it is because you are a racist who thinks the only people with warrants are black. We know better because we have a nice list of people who are wanted democrat activist types. Most are actually white. We will target everyone."

Their plan is to of course keep Democrats from voting by any means necessary.  The guns?  Well, that tree of liberty may need to be watered, you know.   I wonder what Gov. Scott Walker thinks of his new friends.

Had enough Second Amendment remedies yet, America?

We're Number One!

America in fact leads the developed world in something, and it's jobs!

Percentage of low-paying jobs, that is.

In a new research note on inequality, Morgan Stanley economist Ellen Zentner included this fascinating chart showing that, among OECD countries, the United States has the highest proportion of low-paying jobs. 

The 2014 version of the OECD Employment Outlook report cited by Morgan Stanley defines low-paying jobs as those for which earnings are below 2/3 of a country's median income. According to the OECD analysis and the Morgan Stanley report, just over a quarter of jobs in the US fell in this low-paying category. 

In 2013, the median annual income in the US was $35,080, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment Statistics program. Under the OECD's definition, then, a low-paying job would earn less than about $23,390.

A quarter of US jobs pay less than $12 an hour, but why would we want to raise the minimum wage, Republicans say.  Why, we'll just drive out those low-paying jobs.  Who needs to support a family on $12 an hour anyway?  That's what second and third jobs are for, after all.

StupidiNews!

• India's Mars orbiter spacecraft reached the Red Planet Wednesday morning, becoming the first Asian nation to do so and at a fraction of the cost of NASA's MAVEN probe that arrived Sunday.
• Police in Ferguson, Missouri arrested at least three people after protests grew over the burning of a memorial to slain teenager Mike Brown.
• A second day of US airstrikes in Syria have hit ISIS targets near the Turkish border as thousands of Kurdish refugees fled the area as ISIS advanced on the ground.
• New figures show that America might be getting obesity under control as the rise in new diabetes cases has slowed down over the last few years.
• New iPhone 6 Plus users are finding that their phones may be bending slightly after being stuffed into tight pockets.

Last Call For Dinesh D'Felon

GOP operative, anti-Obama propaganda filmmaker, and convicted campaign finance violator Dinesh D'Souza faced sentencing today for his crimes and got a slap on the wrist.

Conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza avoided prison on Tuesday when a U.S. judge sentenced him to serve eight months in a community confinement center after he pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance law.

D'Souza, 53, was ordered by U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan to live in a center, which would allow him to leave during non-residential hours for employment, for the first eight months of a five-year probationary period.

Berman also ordered D'Souza to perform one day of community service a week during probation, undergo weekly therapy and pay a $30,000 fine.

D'Souza, a frequent critic of U.S. President Barack Obama, admitted in May to illegally reimbursing two "straw donors" who donated $10,000 each to the unsuccessful 2012 U.S. Senate campaign in New York of Wendy Long, a Republican he had known since attending Dartmouth College in the early 1980s.

"It was a crazy idea, it was a bad idea," D'Souza told Berman before being sentenced. "I regret breaking the law."

Sure you do.  It was especially funny when the judge played clips of D'Souza whining on the Sunday talk shows and on FOX how he was the real victim here.  Contrite my ass.

And yet the guy won't spend a day in prison.

Justice, huh?

Burning It Down In Kansas

Republicans are running scared in the Sunflower State, as both Gov. Sam Brownback and Sen. Pat Roberts are in serious danger of losing in November.  The vaunted "GOP wave" has not materialized, and instead it's what should be blood-red safe seats for Republicans that are no longer anywhere near safe.  The GOP is turning to all out war against Roberts's opponent, Independent Greg Orman.

With a two-man race now looking all but certain, national Republicans are planning a scorched-earth offensive to frame Sen. Pat Roberts’s (R-Kan.) independent opponent, Greg Orman, as a shady businessman.

Their first volley this weekend: reports that Orman represented Rajat Gupta — the former Goldman Sachs board member who incurred criminal and civil fines of more than $18 million and was jailed earlier this year for securities fraud — on a two-person board of a Cayman Islands private equity partnership. 

Kansas Republicans say to expect more information on his business dealings to come out in the coming weeks — likely as a systematic drip-drip of information, to keep the issue alive throughout the race. An Orman aide dismissed any potential damage, saying “the fundamentals of the race are still there, and that is, people are tired of the Washington dysfunction, and they’re tired of Pat Roberts.” 

The GOP will also begin propping up the vulnerable incumbent senator with support from revered national Republican figures to help him keep the seat. 

Former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) are both stumping for Roberts in the state this week, while former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) is heading there for campaign event next week. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) are both scheduled for appearances in October. 

The need to boost Roberts’s image is imperative with six weeks to go until Election Day. Democrats pushed to get their struggling nominee, Chad Taylor, out of the race in the expectation that Orman would caucus with them. With Taylor appearing now to be off the ballot for good, recent polling has shown Orman leading Roberts in a head-to-head fight by 6 to 10 points.

McCain! Jebby! Rand!  Boy, Republicans aren't just running scared, they're flat-out terrified.  They know losing Roberts's seat will almost certainly cost them the Senate, and Roberts is in real trouble of losing it.

If Democrats can hold on in North Carolina, Iowa, and Colorado, and Roberts goes down in Kansas, it's going to be a long, long night for the GOP on November 4.

When The Rats Are Away...

Greg Sargent argues that President Obama has made a pretty massive violation of the law by not getting congressional authorization for attacking ISIS targets in Syria, but that Congress has thrown away its duties by skipping town without debating or voting on that authorization.

The Obama administration has not made an even remotely credible case for undertaking this escalation without Congressional authorization, and Congress’ refusal to hold a vote on it remains an outrageous abdication of responsibility. One also hopes the administration’s claims about terror threats are subjected to intense scrutiny. But we aren’t going to get any serious Congressional debate about any of this until after the election. 

However, one place all of this will be debated is in the context of the Senate races. Republicans have cheerfully suggested to the press that the politics of national security will again shower them with political riches, and they are running multiple ads replete with the grainy terror footage they used to such great effect back in 2002 and 2004, which is to say, at least a decade ago.

So, will our attacks on ISIS help the Democrats as President Obama displays leadership, help the GOP as they reclaim their national security credentials, help both as we rally around both the President and congressional incumbents, or help neither as a war weary nation say "to hell with all of you"?

If Scott Brown is any indication, the GOP is not going to gain much, if at all, with WARREN TERRAH ONLY GOP CAN KEEP YOU SAFE ads.

In the ad, Brown, who is trailing, accuses Shaheen and Obama of being “confused about the nature of the threat” posed by “radical Islamic terrorists” who are “threatening to cause the collapse of our country.” He then says we must “secure the border.” 

It’s true that the President’s approval on terrorism has plummeted and the GOP now holds a huge advantage on foreign policy. Republican strategists have been pretty explicit in explaining that they see this as a way to exploit a general public sense that things have gone off the rails, and polls do show high wrong-track numbers and rising worry about terrorism. If things go wrong, which is certainly possible, this could well redound to the benefit of Republican candidates. 

But for now, it’s hard to imagine that arguments such as Brown’s above are going to cut it. After all, if GOP candidates are really going to paint the U.S. response to ISIS as insufficiently realistic about the nature of the threat, then that should theoretically open them up to the question of whether they support sending in ground troops. You’d think that if the criticism continues now that operations are underway, it would be harder for them to duck that basic follow-up.

We'll see, but I'm guessing that this is going to be a wash at best for the GOP, and they know it.

StupidiNews!

• The US has begun airstrikes against ISIS targets inside Syria as several Arab countries have joined in direct support of the attack.
• A Louisiana judge has found that state's ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional, but the ruling does not allow for same-sex marriages to be performed, and is expected to be appealed.
• Nearly 100 protesters were arrested in NYC Monday as police broke up demonstrations along Wall Street against the financial industry's contributions to climate change.
• California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a raft of new climate change legislation into law this month, with the eventual goal of putting 1.5 million electric cars on the road by 2025.
• Samsung hopes to dent Apple's 10 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus sales last week with its new Galaxy Alpha phone on sale Friday.

Serious Obama Derangement Syndrome

So the fellow caught by US Secret Service agents who jumped the White House fence on Friday?  Turns out that he had a pretty substantial pile of ammo and weapons in his car, and that he's had a couple of recent arrests.

On Friday, Omar Gonzalez hopped the north fence and sprinted just past the north portico White House doors when he was stopped, Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said.

Gonzalez carried a Spyderco VG-10 folding knife with a 3½-inch serrated blade in his pants pocket, according to an affidavit.

He allowed authorities to search his car, where police say they found more than 800 rounds of ammunition in boxes and magazines. They also found two hatchets and a machete in his car.

A Secret Service officer said he yelled at the intruder to stop. Gonzalez told a Secret Service agent "that he was concerned that the atmosphere was collapsing and needed to get the information to the President of the United States so that he could get the word out to the people," according to the affidavit.

President Barack Obama and his family were not at home at the time.

Friday was not Gonzalez's first run in with police. In July, he was arrested in Wythe County, Virginia, and charged with possession of a shotgun and a sniper rifle. He was also charged with eluding and evading arrest. In addition, police say they found a map with the White House circled.

In late August, Gonzalez was stopped while walking along the White House fence. He carried a hatchet and allowed police to search his car, where they found camping gear and two dogs. He was not arrested then.

OK, so this guy?  He needs some help, clearly.  He's a three-tour Iraq veteran, and he's obviously having some serious problems adjusting to being home.  His marriage broke up two years ago, and his family has said his mental state wasn't the best.

Needless to say, the judge at the arraignment Monday agreed that he was both a flight risk and a threat to President Obama.  Here's hoping that he can get the mental help he so clearly needs.

Our wars in the Middle East had, and still have, a cost.