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Taylor Marsh has been writing on line since 1996, with the archives provided here a representation of that work.

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Romney Raised Taxes to Get S&P to React

(…and other disingenuous moves by Republicans meant to fake out the people)

By on 11 August 2011

As Republican presidential hopefuls descended on Iowa for their second major debate on Thursday in Ames, the return of Mr. Romney came at a turning point in his candidacy. His wait-and-see approach toward campaigning in Iowa has been complicated by the expected candidacy of Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, whose strategy includes waging a full effort in the caucuses early next year that open the nominating battles ahead. – With Return to Iowa, Romney Heeds Call of G.O.P. Strategists

We’re headed into some busy Republican 2012 days of action, with Iowa the focus and no one wants to be left out, because even though the White House is preparing to run against Romney, anything can still happen.

What you’ve got to understand about Republicans as they make their case is how they lie to the working class, and have been doing so for decades, in order to convince people to vote against their interests, while utilizing Democratic ideas themselves when it suits them. Sam Stein reveals Michele Bachmann’s hypocrisy on this score today.

A Freedom of Information Act request filed by The Huffington Post with three separate federal agencies reveals that on at least 16 separate occasions, Bachmann petitioned the federal government for direct financial help or aid. A large chunk of those requests were for funds set aside through President Obama’s stimulus program, which Bachmann once labeled “fantasy economics.” Bachmann made two more of those requests to the Environmental Protection Agency, an institution that she has suggested she would eliminate if she were in the White House. Taken as a whole, the letters underscore what Bachmann’s critics describe as a glaring distance between her campaign oratory and her actual conduct as a lawmaker.

But Bachmann’s just a sideshow, though she looks a lot better than Sarah Palin these days, who is once again yanking the chain of her adoring fans. Ames may be overblown in importance, but Sarah isn’t going to let the circus pass her by (after all she needs her Fox contract).

Ronald Reagan could relate to what Mitt Romney did as governor of Massachusetts to impress S&P. Of course, like Romney, Reagan would have a lot of trouble winning the Republican nomination today, too. From Politico:

“When I was governor, S&P rewarded Massachusetts with a credit rating upgrade for our sound fiscal management and the underlying strength of our economy,” Romney boasted. “That didn’t happen by accident. The president’s failure to put the nation’s fiscal and economic house in order has caused a massive loss of confidence that resulted in an embarrassing downgrade.”

But Romney’s case to S&P is a far cry from the anti-tax absolutism of the Republican Party he hopes to lead. Indeed, it bears a far closer resemblance to the right-of-center grand compromise rejected by House Republicans this year — dismissed because it would include new taxes and end tax breaks President Barack Obama described as “loopholes” — or the more modest compromise that passed, than to the Cut, Cap, and Balance plan Romney “applauded.”

The presentation to the ratings agency reveals that Romney’s administration made the case to Standard & Poor’s that his state was creditworthy because of both spending cuts — the current preferred GOP method — and new revenues, including fees he imposed and tax “loopholes” he closed. The presentation also prominently cited a controversial set of tax increases in the summer of 2002, which Romney, then a candidate, had opposed.

This is sound fiscal policy compared to what we’re hearing from all other Republicans. The Tea Party hates Romney already, so this isn’t going to make them feel any cozier toward him.

What’s at the bottom of Romney and Bachmann’s hypocrisy is shared by most of their colleagues, though they won’t admit it, because they’ve tied themselves to a false premise and for whatever stupidity they’re going to allow everyone else to pay for it.

It’s why if Pres. Obama and the White House has any game left they’d take Steve Benen’s advice, which has also mentioned by Chris Matthews.

Here’s the pitch: have the White House take the several hundred letters GOP lawmakers have sent to the executive branch since 2009, asking for public investments, and let President Obama announce he’ll gladly fund all of the Republicans’ requests that have not yet been filled.

This is perfect for Pres. Obama: he gets to give Republicans money for jobs programs that make them look good, with the threat of exposing them if they don’t ascent to creating jobs. It would also make the progressive case the best way possible and manifest what’s needed a lot more than anything else right now: economic growth through jobs.

There is no more important act needed today.

There are innumerable ways for Democrats and progressives to beat Republicans up on their risky economic schemes, but Benen’s is the best I’ve heard so far. However, it takes action to actually do something, not just give meaningless speeches.

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That 1979 Feeling

By on 09 August 2011

Ten years into our involvement in the war in Afghanistan, in the mountains southwest of Kabul in the Tangi Valley, an elite group of Army Rangers were pinned down in a fight, when they called in their “Immediate Reaction Force,” according to reporting by Danger Room. It would be another elite U.S. fighting force, Navy SEALS, who would respond, but would end up blown out of the sky. It’s not Desert One, this mission having an even more desperately reckless cast to it. What was worth risking our finest elite force, around 7% of the total according to some experts, in a country that continues to revert back to it’s origin of a tribal nation?

“The Taliban knew which route the helicopter would take,” one unnamed Afghan official tells AFP. “That’s the only route, so they took position[s] on the either side of the valley on mountains and as the helicopter approached, they attacked it with rockets and other modern weapons.” “It was a trap that was set by a Taliban commander,” the official added. – Did a New Taliban Weapon Kill a Chopper Full of Navy SEALs?

The Taliban Haqqani network, operating in the extremely dangerous Wardak province, includes the most brutal fighting insurgents in Afghanistan, so any mission against them is high risk. U.S. Navy SEALS, as well as their Afghan counterparts, a translator and a working dow, came in via a U.S. Army A Special Operations MH-47G Chinook helicopter, seen as the best among these fighting machines but incredibly slow, bulky and vulnerable when navigating in between steep terrain. There are no defenses to deploy when a Chinook is within range of an RPG, though there are speculations that a newer weapon was involved. It was the worst single day loss of life since entering Afghanistan in 2001, with reports saying many of the Navy SEAL Team 6 who took down Osama bin Laden perished this day.

As the latest and worst news from Afghanistan continued to sink in, late yesterday, Pres. Obama addressed the S&P downgrade as the stock market plummeted, finishing with words about the horrific carnage that happened over the weekend. With words coming out of his mouth invoking his belief in America, the President’s grim facial features belied the pep talk that was weirdly surreal. It turned into the Twilight Zone when he got to the end, invoking the spirit of the fallen heroes while using the word “succeed” in the same sentence as Afghanistan.

“Their loss is a stark reminder of the risks that our men and women in uniform take every single day on behalf of their country,” Obama said from the White House. “I know that our troops will continue the hard work of transitioning to a stronger Afghan government and ensuring that Afghanistan is not a safe haven for terrorists. We will press on and succeed,” the US president said. – US will succeed in Afghanistan: Obama

Last year in October, I wrote a piece entitled Getting that 1979 Feeling Again. Today this feeling is palpable.

Every time Pres. Obama comes out to speak now there is a vacuousness to his purpose that goes well beyond what words can hide. It’s like he doesn’t even believe himself anymore, as he babbles on without presenting a single plan. The least he could have done was call Congress back to Washington.

The crisis of economic confidence…

The out of touch talk about “We will press on and succeed” in Afghanistan…

It’s clear individual Democrats in Congress better take up the charge on jobs and growth, because Pres. Obama is acting politically paralyzed.

The good news for Obama is that his poll numbers remain decent amidst his floundering. Everything else, however, is reminiscent of the run-up to 1979 when America seemed incapable of acting like a great nation amidst economic, energy and foreign policy crises that were overwhelming the current occupant of the White House.

America ended up handing the country to Ronald Reagan, who ballooned the deficit, raised taxes over and over, and deserved impeachment after Iran-Contra, but got away with it because it was a different time and an assassination attempt had bonded Pres. Reagan to the people.

There is an out of control, out of touch, out of sync feeling Pres. Obama reveals every time he takes to the podium. He’s been incapable of leading the events playing out during his presidency, instead just reacting to them. Obama needs to change this perception and he has until Thanksgiving to do it.

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Vacationing in Tuscany While London Burns

By on 09 August 2011

Well, that’s come to an end.

For good reason, as the New York Times outlines the spectacle.

“Descent into hell,” said a front page headline in The Sun tabloid which, like other newspapers, published a dramatic photograph of a woman leaping to safety in the arms of police from a blazing building.

“Mob Rule,” said the page one headline in The Independent, showing a masked rioter in a hooded track-suit against a wall of flame.

On Tuesday, the violence seemed to be having a ripple effect beyond its immediate focal points: news reports spoke of a dramatic upsurge in household burglaries; sports authorities said at least two major soccer matches in London — including an international fixture between England and the Netherlands — had been postponed because the police could not spare officers to guarantee crowd safety. The postponements offered dramatic testimony to the pressures on Mr. Cameron and his colleagues to confront the dark shadow that the rioting has cast on plans for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

[...] For a society already under severe economic strain, the rioting raised new questions about the political sustainability of the Cameron government’s spending cuts, particularly the deep cutbacks in social programs. These have hit the country’s poor especially hard, including large numbers of the minority youths who have been at the forefront of the unrest.

The New Yorker has the genesis of what caused it.

Austerity in Tottenham isn’t going down well at all.

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Dyncorp, Sex Trafficking, the UN and ‘The Whistleblower’

By on 06 August 2011

The movie debuts this weekend, with “Morning Joe” and Jon Stewart among those helping get the word out. The buzz has been huge.

Kathryn Bolkovac is still fighting to get the U.N. to do something about what she proved. The story goes like this, from 2001…

A former United Nations police officer is suing a British security firm over claims that it covered up the involvement of her fellow officers in sex crimes and prostitution rackets in the Balkans.

Kathryn Bolkovac, an American policewoman, was hired by DynCorp Aerospace in Aldershot for a UN post aimed at cracking down on sexual abuse and forced prostitution in Bosnia.

She claims she was ‘appalled’ to find that many of her fellow officers were involved. She was fired by the British company after amassing evidence that UN police were taking part in the trafficking of young women from eastern Europe as sex slaves.

She said: ‘When I started collecting evidence from the victims of sex trafficking it was clear that a number of UN officers were involved from several countries, including quite a few from Britain. I was shocked, appalled and disgusted. They were supposed to be over there to help, but they were committing crimes themselves. When I told the supervisors they didn’t want to know.’

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Pres. Obama’s Deficit Debacle, National Security, and Warmaking

By on 03 August 2011

I’ve been reading a lot about the Pentagon’s possible budget hit, with analysis all over the map. What this proves conclusively is that no one knows what will happen. That’s the real rub in Obama’s debt ceiling debacle. No one can possibly know the specifics in outlying years. There are too many unknown unknowables, to paraphrase big spender Rummy, which is proven by reading the myriad of opinions on what might manifest.

William Hartung, Director, Arms Security Project, Center for International Policy*:

“In the short-term, the budget deal crafted by the president and the congressional leadership gives the Pentagon virtually a free ride. It reduces projected Pentagon spending by less than one percent. These proposed reductions are further diluted by the fact that they will be counted against a broad ‘security’ category that will include the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies beyond the Pentagon proper. These miniscule reductions are unacceptable. Real cuts in Pentagon expenditures can be imposed without reducing our security. Any longer-term deal should reflect this reality.”

Andrew Bacevich, Professor, Boston University:

“The prospect of defense cuts ought to concentrate some minds in Washington. To avoid reductions that are arbitrary and capricious requires clarity of strategic purpose. The really big question is not how many billions should come out of the Pentagon’s bloated budget. No, the big question is this one: given our straitened economic circumstances and in light of the monumental catastrophes of the past decade, what is America’s proper role in the world? Simply reciting cliches about ‘global leadership’ won’t cut it. The time to make hard choices is at hand.”

Winslow Wheeler, head of the Strauss Military Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information, via Josh Rogin:

…said that the whole notion of the cuts is misleading anyway, because the numbers are being compared projections that were inaccurate in the first place.

“There will be reductions … but the actual figure is also masked by the fact that the debt deal is compared to a ten year CBO ‘baseline,’ which is [the fiscal] 2011 spending levels adjusted according to arcane rules and inflated by a highly unreliable projection of long term future inflation,” he said.

“The debt deal kicks the defense budget can down the road for this and future Congresses. People should not read precision and certainty into a political deal specifically designed to be uncertain and indistinct.”

From McClatchy:

Rather than cutting $400 billion in defense spending through 2023, as President Barack Obama had proposed in April, the current debt proposal trims $350 billion through 2024, effectively giving the Pentagon $50 billion more than it had been expecting over the next decade.

With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down, experts said, the overall change in defense spending practices could be minimal: Instead of cuts, the Pentagon merely could face slower growth.

“This is a good deal for defense when you probe under the numbers,” said Lawrence Korb, a defense expert at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning research center. “It’s better than what the Defense Department was expecting.”

[...] But the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform — known as the Bowles-Simpson proposal, for its two chairmen — proposed far deeper reductions last fall, saying the military could still maintain its power.

Korb, who studies defense budgets, said Congress could cut the defense baseline budget by $100 billion annually over the next decade and still spend more than it did during the height of the Cold War, adjusted for inflation. He noted that the baseline defense budget has climbed every year for 13 years, a record increase.

Anthony H. Cordesman from CSIS on the debt ceiling deal:

There is good reason why anyone who cares about the current legislation on the budget deficit should care about its near-term impact on national security:

  • The entire debate reflected a total disregard of the need for the State Department and other civil departments to play a major role in consolidating our victory in Iraq, supporting a transition to Afghan control in 2014, and preparing for the United States to play a major role in supporting democracy and political change in the Middle East.
  • This pressure comes at a time when the Defense Department has had years of growth in real spending, does little or no realistic long-term force planning, cannot control its manpower and procurement costs, and was already seeking cuts in programs between $78 billion and $400 billion. Even before the president added the goal of cutting the budget by $400 million over the next 12 years (long before the present debate), the Defense Department had planned to eliminate all real growth in defense spending after FY2013—which would reduce the total defense budget from $708 billion in FY2011 to $661 billion in FY2016—even if one assumes that the United States will still be spending $50 billion a year on its wars.
  • Not one word of the debate addressed the rise in the total interagency homeland defense budget to over $70 billion a year, a massive new effort that has grown with minimal efficiency and without adult supervision.
  • The new legislation layers a whole new set of cuts over the existing cuts forced on the defense secretary in preparing the FY2012 budget submission, which means massive new short-term pressure to find cuts—any cuts—in defense spending.
  • The debate that led up to the legislation produced a totally dishonest proposal for cuts in wartime spending amounting to $1 trillion dollars. This was matched by an equally dishonest Future Year Defense Program submission for FY2012 from the Defense Department, which claimed that the total cost of Afghanistan, Iraq, and the global war on terrorism would suddenly drop from $159 billion in FY2011 and $118 billion in FY2012 to a constant level of $50 billion in FY2013–2016. The real cost of our wars has to be over $75 billion in FY2013, and no one knows the out-year costs. As for the $1 trillion in savings, it would take 20 years to achieve a $1-trillion savings at a rate of $50 billion a year, and that would mean two decades in which the United States could not spend a dime on any overseas contingency.

But, the legislation is not going to survive in ways that have any real mid- or long-term impact. This becomes clear the moment anyone examines the real-world nature of the supposed longer-term plans for defense cuts in the legislation.

First, there is no way to usefully assess what the numbers involved actually mean or to regard them as politically credible. We are talking about making cuts to nonexistent plans and budget baselines some 12 years into the future.

Second, these cuts are to be made in undefined dollars, where no one can yet define current or constant dollars for the time period involved or estimate the extent to which the cost of defense rises faster than the average rate of future inflation.

Third, the cuts are purely political numbers that do not reflect any analysis of national security needs, where the cuts would come from, or the risk involved. They make no allowance for new contingency requirements. They are to be carried out over more than a decade without regard to future developments in the U.S. economy and competing needs for federal spending.

Fourth, the cuts are not based on any serious examination of the priority of national security spending relative to other discretionary spending and entitlements programs and sources of revenue. They do not look at the fact that national security—which everyone agrees is a legitimate priority for federal activity—costs less than 5 percent of a $14 trillion dollar economy even though we are still involved in two wars. They totally ignore the fact that it is the rising cost of medical treatment (rising from 5 to 6 percent of GDP in the past toward 19 percent) and the needs of an aging population (rising from 12 to 20 percent of the total) that is the key area that has pushed up our debt and deficit and where we need sound national programs—not simply budget cuts.

Fifth, the deadlines that could trigger the massive additional cuts are absurd. There is no credible way that the Special Joint Committee can really address the cuts that should be made in our national security efforts by November 23, 2011, or that the Congress as whole could properly evaluate the result for an up-or-down vote by December 23, 2011.

Lawrence Korb, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; former Assistant Secretary of Defense*:

 ”The proposed deal does not go far enough in reining in a military budget which in real terms is higher than at any time since World War II. In fact, the total reductions over the next decade are likely to be less than the $400 billion proposed by President Obama.”

Heather Hurlburt, Executive Director, National Security Network*:

“If a congressional commission includes a serious, bipartisan review of defense strategy and expenditures, and abides by its recommendations, this is an opportunity for all sides to show they’re serious about constructing an American defense strategy that is effective and affordable for our times.”

ABC News:

On first blush it appears the $2.1 billion debt ceiling compromise hits the Pentagon’s budget pretty hard in the next decade, but the reality is that in the short term the $350 billion in defense cuts is smaller than what Pentagon officials had been preparing for. However, the deal also holds out the possibility that in the long term there could be even deeper cuts in defense spending if a bipartisan committee is unable to come up with an additional $1.2 trillion in savings by the end of this year.

…and just in case you haven’t been paying attention, which plays into Pres. Obama’s hands on national security, as well as obliterates the line between Democrats and Republicans, secrecy still rules (n/t Noah Shachtman of Danger Room).

The Senate Intelligence Committee rejected an amendment that would have required the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence to confront the problem of “secret law,” by which government agencies rely on legal authorities that are unknown or misunderstood by the public.

The amendment, proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden and Sen. Mark Udall, was rejected on a voice vote, according to the new Committee report on the FY2012 Intelligence Authorization Act.

“We remain very concerned that the U.S. government’s official interpretation of the Patriot Act is inconsistent with the public’s understanding of the law,” Senators Wyden and Udall wrote. “We believe that most members of the American public would be very surprised to learn how federal surveillance law is being interpreted in secret.”

Finally, Adm. Dennis Blair, former United States Director of National Intelligence in the Obama administration, for all you wonks (substance starts at 3 min. in). Blair starts with a terrific quote from John Cleese, which is pretty perfect considering the absurdity we’ve all had to endure the last weeks.

*TM Note: Attribution on this quote has been changed.

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Bachmann’s Big Beauty Budget

By on 26 July 2011

It’s the Hillary effect again, this time on what it takes for a female candidate to run for president, including expenses a man doesn’t have to consider.

I’ve been following Michele Bachmann’s makeover, which was unveiled at one point in 2010 when Sarah Palin came to campaign for her in Minnesota. I did a piece on it at the time, because it was a signal Bachmann was gaming up for something.

But the Mother Jones piece by Andy Kroll has already made it to Minneapolis. Here’s one graph of Kroll’s story:

According to Bachmann’s latest campaign finance filings, her campaign spent nearly $4,700 on hair and makeup in the weeks after she entered the presidential race on June 13. Records show her campaign made three payments of $1,715, $250, and $2,704 to a Maryland-based stylist named Tamara Robertson. Robertson’s LinkedIn profile says she works as a makeup artist at Fox News in the DC area. She’s also listed in the “Make-up” section of the credits for the Citizens United-produced film A City Upon a Hill, hosted by Newt and Callista Gingrich—a pair who’ve raised eyebrows with their own spending.

No journalistic outfit should send a man to do a piece on a female candidate’s salon expenses, because they haven’t a flippin’ clue what’s required to maintain an image for the public or the media, let alone all day long.

Remember Hillary? The wrinkle effect blasted by Drudge, then picked up by Rush Limbaugh? Remember Hillary’s fabulous hairstyle during the campaign, the highlights within highlights? She’s never looked better than when she was running for president, but it was a lot of effort, which she quickly dropped once she became Pres. Obama’s secretary of state.

Women have a much higher bar on looks and appearance than men do, including in politics. So, there are a couple of ways to handle the challenge. Proclaim it’s your money and you’ll spend it however you want. Bachmann could also find a more modest stylist, take the pictures of appearances to this person and then ask he or she to replicate them.

Tamara Robertson obviously is incredibly talented and has done a formidable job turning the latest Tea Party star into a sensational knock out. But Bachmann looks fantastic in the video here from 2010 either, when she made Sarah Palin look dowdy. Bachmann now has a beauty road map to follow, which can be done on a budget (I do it all the time), though it will never be cheap.

The days of dowdy Phyllis Schlafly conservatism are over.

Like it or not, Bachmann’s makeover has been important to her image and profile rise. Crazy doesn’t seem so unappealing when a good looking broad is selling it.

Take Rick Perry, who’s nothin’ without his hair.

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Elect More Women, Not Wankers

By on 26 July 2011

U.S. Rep. David Wu’s behavior grew so erratic in the final weeks before his re-election last November that the Oregon Democrat’s closest political advisers staged two of what some of them termed “interventions” to urge him to seek psychiatric help, WW has learned.

Democratic Rep. David Wu of Oregon announced Tuesday that he will resign amid the political fallout from an 18-year-old woman’s allegations of an unwanted sexual encounter with him. – Congressman Resigns in Sex Scandal

Consider this your debt ceiling sanity break.

Another Democrat bites the dust, due to stupidity and personal insanity.

Oh, but not to worry, Sen. David Vitters is still safely ensconced in the Senate, where the old boys’ club still reigns.

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Norway Domestic Terrorist Reportedly Influenced by Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, U.S. Right-Wing

By on 25 July 2011

Oh, the inconvenience of facts when met with ugly reality. Pamela Geller and Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer are cited in today’s New York Times story:

Anders Behring Breivik

Marc Sageman, a former C.I.A. officer and a consultant on terrorism, said it would be unfair to attribute Mr. Breivik’s violence to the writers who helped shape his world view. But at the same time, he said the counterjihad writers do argue that the fundamentalist Salafi branch of Islam “is the infrastructure from which Al Qaeda emerged. Well, they and their writings are the infrastructure from which Breivik emerged.”

“This rhetoric,” he added, “is not cost-free.”

[...] Mr. Breivik frequently cited another blog, Atlas Shrugs, and recommended the Gates of Vienna among Web sites. Pamela Geller, an outspoken critic of Islam who runs Atlas Shrugs, wrote on her blog Sunday that any assertion that she or other antijihad writers bore any responsibility for Mr. Breivik’s actions was “ridiculous.”

“If anyone incited him to violence, it was Islamic supremacists,” she wrote.

The tragedy of the scores murdered can only be mitigated, however slightly, if we attempt to understand the fueling of people, including lone wolf domestic terrorists, though Breivik may have had accomplices, because it’s never just them in the picture.

All you have to do is take a look at the Republican party’s 2012 roster for examples of who’s fueling this stuff. William Saletan over at Slate did that today. Herman Cain comes to mind, but he’s by no means alone.

And the hypocrisy doesn’t end with Geller. It permeates the Republican presidential field. Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, and Newt Gingrich agree with Geller that no mosque should be built near Ground Zero. Herman Cain, in the style of George Wallace, just went to Murfreesboro, Tenn., to support local bigots who want to stop the construction of a mosque there. Rick Santorum told a Christian school audience: “The idea that the Crusades and the fight of Christendom against Islam is somehow an aggression on our part is absolutely anti-historical.” And Michele Bachmann defended a congressional inquiry into Muslim violence by pointing out that recently,

Two of our soldiers were gunned down in Germany, and the fellow who shot them shouted “Allah Akhbar” before he did that. And just the week before that, we had a 20-year-old from Saudi Arabia, here on a student visa in Dallas, who had accumulated all of the chemicals necessary to create a bomb on the order of the Oklahoma City federal building bombing. … If we don’t understand that there are Sharia-compliant terrorists in our midst … we will make ourselves more vulnerable.

Geller responds by calling anyone questioning her Islamaphobia and fearmongering “media assassins” against “voices of freedom.” People like Geller and others of her ilk simply think freedom is not for Muslims or anyone outside their wingnut hysteria club, with the impetus behind much of Geller’s invective style and hate speech her anti-Israeli paranoia, which is all consuming.

Charles Johnson over at Little Green Footballs has no problem writing the obvious:

There’s no doubt whatsoever that Anders Behring Breivik was seriously influenced by these people, and they know it. Their guilty consciences are showing.

But not to worry, there’s always someone willing to make excuses for these inciting wingnuts. Cue David Horowitz, writing under the title of “The Character Assassination of Robert Spencer,” which is as appalling as most of the wingnuttery from this man.

Hate is the driver, a reaction to what some right-wing fanatics see as all around them, which in Europe finds the numbers rising. From the Atlantic:

Over the last decade, the extreme right in Europe has become more palatable. The overt racism and chest-beating nationalism of previous years have been discarded. What characterizes the new far-right is a defiant, aggressive defence of national culture and history in the face of a changing world, of secularism, and even of democracy and liberty. While each has its idiosyncrasies, far-right parties are responding to genuine concerns of many voters: that modern globalization hasn’t benefitted them, that mass immigration — especially from Muslim-majority countries — is threatening local and national identity.

[...] Perhaps most important, these new far-right parties like Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party in the Netherlands or Marine Le Pen’s Front National in France expertly portray mainstream politicians as spineless, soft-boiled, venal, self-serving slaves to political correctness and orthodoxy. Recent events — such as banking bailouts, the Eurozone crisis, and the News International hacking scandal — certainly lend some credibility to the view that politicians are indeed out of touch with ordinary people.

[...] A significant chunk of European voters is clearly impressed. Le Pen is currently third in the polling for the 2012 French presidential election. Wilders’ Freedom Party is also the third-largest in the Netherlands. In Scandinavia, the True Finns, the Danish People’s Party, and the Swedish Democrats all secured their best-ever electoral results over the past 18 months. Germany and Austria’s far-right parties are resurgent, sparking atavistic European fears. Further east, the Jobbik Party is now the third largest political party in Hungary, having doubled its seats during the last election.

Right-wing “populism” is an oxymoron.

But as the Tea Party rose in America as a response to Barack Obama’s presidency, though the foundation was economic and born in the Bush era, the fuel has come from extremists questioning Pres. Obama’s Americanism. These individuals charge some bizarre otherness they feel about Obama, resembling the same paranoid fears of the Norway domestic terrorist, Anders Behring Breivik, a kinship of people who believe their future is being taken from them.

Right-wingers are having their day due to many things, including economic and cultural, but also because of feckless posturing from people who make false equivalencies under the guise of being “balanced.”

When you have someone like Donald Trump joining in on the rhetoric of birtherism it gives you the best example anywhere on earth at just how easy it is for this insidiously dangerous fearmongering to spread if even business tycoons feel comfortable repeating the most dangerous charges.

Poor Glenn Beck, he’s got to be really gnashing his teeth he doesn’t have his Fox megaphone anymore. But at least he was able to spew his “Hitler youth” invective on right-wing radio, so he shouldn’t feel he missed out.

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NORWAY: Twin Domestic Terrorists Attacks, Gunman Confirmed as Norwegian

By on 22 July 2011

Even as police locked down a large area of the city, a man dressed as a police officer entered the camp on the island of Utoya, about 19 miles northwest of Oslo, a Norwegian security official said, and opened fire. “The situation’s gone from bad to worse,” said Runar Kvernen, spokesman for the National Police Directorate under the Ministry of Justice and Police, adding that most of the children at the camp were 15 and 16 years old. Panicked youths jumped in to the water to escape or went into hiding on the island, which has no bridge to the mainland, a witness said. Many could not flee in time. – 16 Die in Norway Shooting and Bombing

As you know by now, this happened this morning, with the back and forth on Twitter focusing on Al Qaeda by many. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings in Oslo, but a Norwegian has been arrested as the suspected gunman in the Labour Party youth camp.

From the BBC:

Norway has been hit by twin attacks – a massive bomb blast in the capital and a shooting attack on young people at a governing Labour Party youth camp.

At least seven people were killed in the bombing, which inflicted huge damage on government buildings in Oslo.

At least 10 more died at the camp, on an island outside Oslo, police say. One witness said he had seen 20 bodies.

Police arrested the suspected gunman at the camp and the government have confirmed that he is Norwegian.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, whose Oslo offices were among those damaged by the bomb, described the attacks as “bloody and cowardly” in a news conference.

He said that Norway had been “shaken by evil” but that Norwegian democracy and ideals would not be destroyed.

What a tragic day for Norway.

As you hear any news, I’d really appreciate you putting links and other things you’re reading in the comments, because as I explained this morning I’m out of commission right now, but would like to keep this story updated.

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Obama’s Lost Moon Shot on Energy

By on 20 July 2011

“… We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.” – President John F. Kennedy (September 12, 1962, at Rice University, Houston, Texas)

On this date in 1969, we landed the first man on the moon, and part of this adventure concludes for the United States tomorrow, with the final space shuttle mission set to land at 5:56:58 a.m. EDT at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

I cannot begin to express the joy I’ve had in watching this American passage, remembering the wonder of this visionary journey and accomplishment. Betsy Mason over at Wired has an amazing piece and photo gallery on what NASA did to train the APOLLO astronauts. Thanks to everyone at NASA and all the supporters of this amazing feat, as we all await the next journey, provided Congress understands that investment, research and development is critical for America’s future. There’s absolutely no evidence at this point our politicians get this fact.

Thinking about the anniversary of the moon landing today, I’m reminded of what is required to make the seemingly impossible manifest.

When Pres. Bill Clinton ruminates about the wondrous explosion of economic growth in the ’90s he experienced as president, he never forgets to cite the amazing technological expansion of the internet that helped make it happen. He often says how he just put the pedal to the metal and exploited every aspect to help it work for America as he led the country to peacetime prosperity and a booming economy that left George W. Bush a record surplus.

Thinking of both Pres. Kennedy’s vision and Clinton’s initiative to harness what was happening in technology, is something that leads me to be unforgiving of the wasted opportunity for what Pres. Obama’s presidency might have meant to this country.

When Pres. Obama won the presidency things had turned sour economically, so what he inherited was a horrendous mess, including wars waged off the budget and a country whose leaders were disrespected around the world. His presidency held the hope that all that was about to change.

With the American people behind him wholeheartedly when he was inaugurated, the press cowed and the world waiting for greatness, Barack Obama had a once in a generation opportunity to do big things, really big things. Like tackle our energy challenges, which would impact us domestically, as well as our foreign policy and military priorities, a situation that has bled this country dry of resources we’ll never recover. He could have harnessed business leaders of industries, mayors and governors to commit to having their cities be bullet train depots, so we could finally get high-speech rail from New York to the Midwest to the Pacific Coast, from north to south and across this country, creating jobs by the thousands along the way, including side industries of workers and support, with the results manifesting a new way to travel, at least for America.

People in Europe have been traveling this way for years.

All of a sudden a tax on gas wouldn’t be so onerous. “Drill, baby, drill” a bad memory of bankrupt celebrity politicians and their fans.

But to imagine, implement and sell a nationwide building extravaganza focused on changing our energy focus Mr. Obama would have had to have had a vision. He did not. Instead he doubled down on military actions, reneged on campaign pledges to remove the stench of the Bush-Cheney legacy by doubling down on drone attacks, starting another war in Libya and continuing rendition and allowing “secret” prisons to continue. If you want to see the final gasp of “hope and change” read Jeremy Scahill’s article about Somalia. Our Nobel Peace Prize President now turned to ash.

So, as we all trudge into another presidential election cycle we’re stuck dealing with meager men and women running for the highest office in the land and the world, people who talk to interest groups, factions and fans, without having the core character to speak about a larger human purpose.

John F. Kennedy spoke of choosing to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, but then he did something about it at a time when American limitations didn’t exist. When leaders dreamed of big things and stuck their own neck out to sell them for the good of the country, not because it would help them win the Independent vote.

We are still a great nation, but we are now led by smaller men. …and women, because you can’t have a country in the mess it is today without a collapse of leadership from all quarters, including We The People. At some point the American public has simply got to walk away from the current political class to say enough is enough.

Last View This image of the International Space Station was taken by Atlantis' STS-135 crew during a fly around as the shuttle departed the station on Tuesday, July 19, 2011. STS-135 is the final shuttle mission to the orbital laboratory. Image Credit: NASA


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HIT PIECE: Michele Bachmann’s ‘Stress-Induced’ Headaches ‘Incapacitate’

By on 19 July 2011

Aw, come on, boys. If John F. Kennedy can do it on all the drugs he chugged, so can Michele Bachmann.

The Daily Caller headline is the tell:

Stress-related condition ‘incapacitates’ Bachmann; heavy pill use alleged.

It cannot possibly be a coincidence that with Rep. Michele Bachmann surging we now are privy to a potentially devastating report about the presidential candidate allegedly popping pills to alleviate pain.

Women have worked for over one hundred years to be taken seriously and considered as strong candidates for commander in chief. One has to wonder if this was leaked to make voters question her health, but also her strength. Headaches are not considered by most to be something serious, maybe even a frivolous complaint by someone with a weak constitution.

With such incredible details, it seems obvious Mrs. Bachmann has a very serious problem:

The Minnesota Republican frequently suffers from stress-induced medical episodes that she has characterized as severe headaches. These episodes, say witnesses, occur once a week on average and can “incapacitate” her for days at time. On at least three occasions, Bachmann has landed in the hospital as a result.
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“She has terrible migraine headaches. And they put her out of commission for a day or more at a time. They come out of nowhere, and they’re unpredictable,” says an adviser to Bachmann who was involved in her 2010 congressional campaign. “They level her. They put her down. It’s actually sad. It’s very painful.”

As someone who has worked tirelessly to cure myself of migraines, I find this report alarming.

There is something horribly wrong with a professional person who isn’t dealing with deeper issues that trigger a migraine. As the Daily Caller reports, she’s been hospitalized and had to recuperate at home, away from her job, because of them, after having been incapacitated by them. Being treated with medication is dealing with the symptoms and staving off the results of something in your life that precipitates the event.

You cannot get rid of any health issue without finding the root of the cause of your problem, whether it’s diet, lifestyle, maybe a spouse or even your job.

Now, I don’t pretend to know any specifics about Mrs. Bachmann’s debilitating pain issues, but as someone who once had to live with migraines from the time I was a kid, had to perform while throwing up off stage between numbers because of them, as well as having my long ago past riddled with 24-hour vomiting over 3 days before they broke, I sure as hell know the answer isn’t medication, which offers no definitive solution. Thankfully, I cured myself. Solving the riddle of pain means discovering what in your life is causing the stress that leads your brain to the pain seizures of migraines.

But if you don’t, can’t or won’t, pills it is. At least today there are new drugs that make the days of injections a memory.

Of particular concern to some around her is the significant amount of medication Bachmann takes to address her condition.

The former aide says Bachmann’s congressional staff is “constantly” in contact with her doctors to tweak the types and amounts of medicine she is taking. Marcus Bachmann helps her manage the episodes.

Sources who spoke to The Daily Caller said they did so because they are terrified about the impact the condition could have on Bachmann’s performance if she actually became president. They also worry that the issue could blow up in the general election campaign, giving President Obama an easy path to re-election.

The drugs that kept Pres. John F. Kennedy alive went well beyond migraine medications, as historian Robert Dalek wrote in “An Unfinished Life,” which was just one of the hundreds of sources I relied on for my one woman show on J.F.K.  If he had run for office today, let alone been president, there is no way he could have kept his double digit list of medications a secret. He had his women, his doctors and all the drugs that kept him alive:

  • Anesthetic procaine, for his Addison’s disease
  • Cytomel, for thyroid deficiency
  • Lomitil
  • Metamucil, now there’s a commercial for you
  • Paregoric
  • Phenobarbitol
  • Trasentine, to control his colitic diarrhea
  • Testosterone, to increase his energy and boost his weight after bouts of colitis
  • Penicillin, for urinary tract flare ups
  • Fluorinef, to increase his salt absorption due to Addison’s
  • Cortisone
  • Tuinal, for insomnia – a side effect of the cortisone
  • Antihistamines, for an array of allergies
  • Codeine
  • Steroids… Oh, and Vitamin C and calcium.

J.F.K. also had lots of doctors who gave him his “vigah,” including injections. They also led to rumors that Nixon tried to steal his medical records. He had an allergist; an endocrinologist for his Addison’s disease; a gastroenterologist for his colitis; a urologist, because he’d gotten a urinary tract infection from venereal disease; an orthopedist for his degenerative spine, but no one knew.

What this report is meant to conjure up is Rep. Bachmann’s physical frailty. It’s a political attack by “former aides” trying to take the bitch out.

There’s a reason Tim Pawlenty had a former aide of Bachmann do an op-ed hit piece in Iowa. A reason Rick Perry is being pimped by the conservative boys’ club. It’s not that he’s got anything Michele Bachmann hasn’t. He’s chock full of crazy, too. But at least he’s not a f*#!ing girl.

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Parliament Testimony Begins by Murdoch’s Being Denied Request to Make Statement

By on 19 July 2011

**UPDATED**

11:55 A.M. EST – HEARINGS SUSPENDED FOR 10 MINUTES… as someone seems to have lunged at Rupert Murdoch, though it’s not clear what happened. The Guardian reports Murdoch’s wife Wendy seemed to slap him away before man in checked shirt could reach her husband. Johnny Marbles tweeted his “attack.” Pictures of failed pie attack.

5.01pm: Jane Martinson reports from the hearing: “He was sitting four rows back, calmly walked up with a plate of shaving foam – smacked it in Rupert’s face – Wendi intervened.”

4.57pm: The suspect looks like he has a substance like white paint on his face.

My colleague Jackie Ashley tells Twitter: “Wendi [Murdoch's wife] can throw quite a punch.”

4.56pm: The BBC says the young man has been handcuffed. Sky showed the footage again – it seemed to be an attack from Rupert Murdoch’s left.

4.55pm: A young man in a checked shirt has been detained by police.

4.54pm: Someone has just tried to attack Rupert Murdoch. His wife Wendi seemed to slap the person.

More updates (original column) below…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“This is the most humble day of my life.” – Rupert Murdoch

The hearings begin with Rupert Murdoch & his son James Murdoch asking to make opening statement, but were denied. Guardian has statement of Rupert Murdoch:

Mr. Chairman. Select Committee Members:

With your permission, I would like to read a short statement.

My son and I have come here with great respect for all of you, for Parliament and for the people of Britain whom you represent.

This is the most humble day of my career.

After all that has happened, I know we need to be here today.

Before going further, James and I would like to say how sorry we are for what has happened – especially with regard to listening to the voicemail of victims of crime.

My company has 52,000 employees. I have led it for 57 years and I have made my share of mistakes. I have lived in many countries, employed thousands of honest and hardworking journalists, owned nearly 200 newspapers and followed countless stories about people and families around the world.

At no time do I remember being as sickened as when I heard what the Dowler family had to endure – nor do I recall being as angry as when I was told that the News of the World could have compounded their distress. I want to thank the Dowlers for graciously giving me the opportunity to apologise in person.

I would like all the victims of phone hacking to know how completely and deeply sorry I am. Apologising cannot take back what has happened. Still, I want them to know the depth of my regret for the horrible invasions into their lives.

I fully understand their ire. And I intend to work tirelessly to merit their forgiveness.

I understand our responsibility to cooperate with today’s session as well as with future inquiries. We will respond to your questions to the best of our ability and follow up if we are not capable of answering anything today. Please remember that some facts and information are still being uncovered.

We now know that things went badly wrong at the News of the World. For a newspaper that held others to account, it failed when it came to itself. The behaviour that occurred went against everything that I stand for. It not only betrayed our readers and me, but also the many thousands of magnificent professionals in our other divisions around the world.

So, let me be clear in saying: invading people’s privacy by listening to their voicemail is wrong. Paying police officers for information is wrong. They are inconsistent with our codes of conduct and neither has any place, in any part of the company I run.

But saying sorry is not enough. Things must be put right. No excuses. This is why News International is cooperating fully with the police whose job it is to see that justice is done. It is our duty not to prejudice the outcome of the legal process. I am sure the committee will understand this.

I wish we had managed to see and fully solve these problems earlier. When two men were sent to prison in 2007, I thought this matter had been settled. The police ended their investigations and I was told that News International conducted an internal review. I am confident that when James later rejoined News Corporation he thought the case was closed too. These are subjects you will no doubt wish to explore today.

This country has given me, our companies and our employees many opportunities. I am grateful for them. I hope our contribution to Britain will one day also be recognised.

Above all, I hope that, through the process that is beginning with your questions today, we will come to understand the wrongs of the past, prevent them from happening again and, in the years ahead, restore the nation’s trust in our company and in all British journalism.

I am committed to doing everything in my power to make this happen.

Thank you. We are happy to answer your questions.

Submitted statement instead. Clearing room of noisy reporters or people, hard to tell which, came next. Testimony is being heard by the Committee for Culture, Media and Sport.

James Murdoch, chairman and chief executive, apologizes again.

Then he was interrupted by his father, Rupert Murdoch, who touched his arm and offered the quote shown at the top of this post.

The questions and testimony continues… The Lede is liveblogging the testimony…

HIGHLIGHTS…

Rupert Murdoch states he didn’t know he was being lied to. Murdoch obviously shaken, says “NOTW is less than 1% of our company.. I employ 56,000 people around the world… and I’m spread watching and appointing people that I trust…”

James Murdoch tries twice to interrupt Tom Watson’s questioning of his father, saying he can offer details, but Mr. Watson says he’ll come to him after he finishes, because it’s Rupert Murdoch who’s in charge of corporate governance.

“Nope.” That’s Mr. Murdoch’s one-word response about payments to Taylor. James says his father became aware after the “settlement” of “civil claim.”

At what point did you find out that “criminality was endemic” at NOTW? Mr. Murdoch objects to word “endemic,” saying it is prejudicial. Then says he was “shocked, appalled and ashamed…”

“You’re not really saying ‘amnesia,’ you’re saying lie,” Rupert Murdoch offers.

James Murdoch interrupts again to rescue his father from the line of questioning. Watson refuses again. Continues… James interrupts, trying again to answer what his father obviously cannot or will not.

Why did you risk the jobs of 200 people… ? RupertM states these people are being employed by other segments of his empire.

Watson: Did you close the paper down because of criminality? “We were ashamed… We had broken our trust with our readers…”

Keith Olbermann points out what is very obvious, which is that Rupert Murdoch has a script of patterned apologies he is using.

“What happened at News of the World was wrong,” James Murdoch continues. “We have admitted liability…”

Do you accept you are responsible for this whole fiasco? “No,” is Rupert Murdoch’s one word answer. Mr. Murdoch continued, saying he relied on people he employed and trusted.

I found this observation from BBC’s Nick Robinson poignant, while revealing how small Rupert Murdoch appears today.

It is hard to equate the man sitting a few feet away from me with the global media mogul feared by political leaders throughout my adult lifetime.

James Murdoch: No “no immediate plans” to start new Sunday paper.

Are you familiar with the term “willful blindness”? James Murdoch asks for an explanation. Then Mr. Sanders invokes Enron. “I’m not aware of that particular phrase,” says James. RMurdoch adds that he’s familiar with the phrase and denies it applies.

“To say that we are hands off is wrong,” RMurdoch states. “News of the World, perhaps, I lost site of…” Murdoch continues, saying he works 10-12 hours a day and once again saying NOTW was “so small.”

James Murdoch also admits settlement was for illegal phone hacking by News of the World employees.

Later in the testimony James Murdoch delivered Rumsfeldesque known knowns & unknown unknowables on alleged criminality. Classic Murdoch moment of obfuscation and incomprehensible elite media idiocy.

AFTER FAILED PIE ATTACK… allegedly made by Jonnie Marbles, a comedian…

Tide turns for a time… MP now apologizing to Murdochs, including wife Wendy, one using word “guts” to describe her willingness to be present during questioning.  Rupert Murdoch now jacketless.

Have you considered resigning? Murdoch, “No.” Why not? People I hired let me down, they should pay. I’m the best person to clean this up.

“Mr. Murdoch, your wife has a very good left hook.”

Rupert Murdoch allowed to read closing statement. “… In all that’s happened, we needed to be here today. … “ “Sickened” by what the Dowler Fowler had to endure and grateful he was able to apologize in person. Will “work tirelessly to earn their forgiveness.” Murdoch says while trying to hold others to account, they failed on themselves. Paying off police and listening to people’s voicemail is “wrong,” “no excuses,” saying your sorry “isn’t enough.” When people went to prison in 2007, Murdoch thought it was over, as did his son. “I hope our contributions to Britain will one day be recognized.”

Committee thanks the Murdochs, apologizes for the comedic pie event.

Rebekah Brooks testifies next.

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Murdoch Faces Parliament

By on 19 July 2011

Prime Minister David Cameron cut short a state visit to Africa and bowed to demands for Parliament to delay its summer recess on Monday, as he confronted a growing scandal over his cozy ties with Rupert Murdoch’s top lieutenants in Britain and the opposition posed a fresh challenge to the survival of his year-old government. – Tabloid Scandal a Fresh Threat to Cameron’s Survival

At 9:15 a.m. EST, Rupert Murdoch appears before the British Parliament. Keith Olbermann will be doing live coverage on CurrentTV, testimony which I’ll be following along with the entire world.

It comes a day after the whistleblower is found dead, though nothing suspicious has been alleged.

The day after the Wall Street Journal embarrasses itself with the most self-indulgent editorial ever offered in the defense of the indefensible.

The last time the liberal press demanded a media prosecutor, it was to probe the late conservative columnist Robert Novak in pursuit of White House aide Scooter Libby. But the effort soon engulfed a reporter for the New York Times, which had led the posse to hang Novak and his sources. Do our media brethren really want to invite Congress and prosecutors to regulate how journalists gather the news?

That’s the best they’ve got? Invoking Scooter Libby and the late Bob Novak is hardly a laudatory defense for Rupert Murdoch’s alleged criminal gang that felt it wise to listen in on private phone calls to get a story, while possibly violating all sorts of criminal statutes in the process.

If the case regarding Jude Law turns out to be true Mr. Murdoch will have plenty of fresh hell for the WSJ to rant about in the near future.

But that pales in comparison to the trouble coming PM Cameron’s way if Murdoch’s Parliament performance isn’t pitch perfect.

Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour opposition, delivered a broadside against Mr. Cameron on Monday that sought to tap into the public outrage over the scandal by linking it to a series of crises in recent years — the role of the banks in the financial crisis that hit in 2008, the furor over lawmakers’ expense abuses in 2009 and now the tabloid scandal. Commentators said his goal was to weaken Mr. Cameron’s coalition government if the scandal continues to escalate, and to cast himself as a credible alternate prime minister should Mr. Cameron fall. …

[...] In Parliament there were cries from the opposition for Mr. Cameron to quit, with one left-wing gadfly, Dennis Skinner, shouting, “When is dodgy Dave going to do the decent thing and resign?” – John F. Burns

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Fundraising Truthiness from Obama Reelect

By on 17 July 2011

Multiply 680,000 by $69 and you get about $46.9 million. Messina’s appears to want things both ways–a record-breaking money haul AND the appearance of being a campaign “owned” by ordinary people. That may be the case to the extent that you think maxing-out donors from Wall Street, Silicon Valley and Hollywood are “ordinary people.”- Micah L. Sifry

The New York Times runs a piece today, which was actually broken last week by Micah L. Sifry at Tech President after Obama reelect’s fundraising numbers leaked.

Interestingly, it also tells us something else–of the approximately 3 million individual donors who gave to Obama for his 2008 run, so far less than 10 percent have re-upped. You can spin that two ways: either it’s a reminder that many 2008 Obama supporters have lost their enthusiasm for him (and the PCCC has garnered the names of nearly 200,000 former Obama supporters who donated $17 million and gave 2 million volunteer hours in 2008 who have pledged not one iota if he makes cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid), or it’s a big fat juicy target pool for the president’s campaign team to mine for the months ahead. Undoubtedly it is both.

But if you want to know why there’s not a primary challenge to Obama or why an Independent bid for president is impossible, Sifry notes, after Joe Raspars responded to Jim Messina’s latest fundraising announcement, which was indeed huge, the reality: Both sides have Super PACs that will be exploiting the latest loopholes in the law to raise and spend hundreds of millions of dollars, and the bulk of that money is going to come from rich people, corporations and labor unions, not small individual donors.

That’s the truth about “hope and change” 2.0 and how the U.S. presidency is bought.

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Murdoch Pet Rebekah Brooks Arrested, Scotland Yard Embroiled

By on 17 July 2011

“It’s embarrassing, and it’s tragic,” said a retired Scotland Yard veteran. “This has badly damaged the reputation of a really good investigative organization. And there is a major crisis now in the leadership of the Yard.” – Stain From Tabloids Rubs Off on a Cozy Scotland Yard

The piece by Don Van Natta, Jr. on how Scotland Yard allowed itself to be disgraced comes as news of Murdoch’s favorite corporate minion gets arrested. The bright side for Ms. Brooks is she’ll likely escape her date with Parliament.

Details come from the Guardian:

A spokesman for Brooks said she did not know she was going to be arrested when she handed in her resignation.

Brooks was taken into custody at midday on Sunday, after agreeing to attend a London police station for questioning. Her spokesman, Bell Pottinger chairman David Wilson, said she did not know she was to meet with police until late on Friday, and that she did not know the appointment would result in her arrest.

[...] “She was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to Section1(1) Criminal Law Act 1977 and on suspicion of corruption allegations contrary to Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906.

Not sure if her cluelessness about the legal peril she was in and the potential of being arrested is elitist hubris or attorney malpractice, but it reads as stupidity either way.

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Progressive Notes: More Black Women Would be Impoverished if SS Cuts Pass

By on 15 July 2011

Art offers his perspective as a movement progressive activist.

As President Obama and Congressman Cantor hash out trillions in cuts, which no economist says we can afford , our POTUS has tossed in cutting Social Security benefits among other programs. Let us be clear: these SS cuts will destroy lives in ways no Republican has been able to accomplish.

By ending COLA, which uses inflation to raise your benefit payments, most Americans would see by the year their SS checks get smaller. This is immoral and cruel. And as usual which group would pay the most of a price? Women. And among women black women will pay the worst fate.

African American women are most likely to be impoverished in this country. If COLA is abolished poverty will rise sharply, especially among black women. Strengthen Social Security, the progressive org fighting to save the program, is shouting from the rooftops against cuts:

According to the National Women’s Law Center’s analysis of Current Population Survey data, in their report on how the chained CPI would affect women, the median annual Social Security benefit for a 65-year-old single African American woman is $10,680. (By contrast, the median benefit for all single senior women is $13,200.)

That puts the median benefit for African American woman seniors just above the 2010 poverty line for individual seniors, which is an obscenely low $10,458.

So right now a black single woman on average gets just above poverty levels of SS. And what happens to black women if COLA is cut?

…by age 70–after just five years of collecting Social Security benefits–the median benefit for African American single women seniors would dip below the poverty line, and continue on a downward spiral as those women age, cutting nearly $1,000 by the time they reach age 95. …

…the median benefit would go below the poverty level for non-married African American women, and that a near-majority of non-married elderly African Americans rely on Social Security for all of their income–lead to the conclusion that the chained CPI would lead to an increase in poverty among elderly African Americans.

What is more, the fact that the chained CPI’s cuts increase as beneficiaries age will be especially harmful to African American women, who live longer than African American men. Life expectancy for African American women at age 65 is 83, compared with 79 for African American men.

So if these pols get their way black women face an even harder life in America. They live longer than black men and if COLA is scrapped more will face hellish poverty.

National Women’s Law Center has done a incredible report against ending COLA. In their report they highlight, for all women, the price that would be paid if cuts are made. I urge everyone to read their report here .

A graph from Strengthen SS starkly shows that many more seniors would face many hungry days with these cuts in place:

As someone on SSI the thought of anyone getting cuts in SS pay by the year is just sickening- literally.

I do not think the public is well educated on what is being hurriedly hashed in DC despite efforts by AARP and others running ad campaigns alerting folks to cuts. So it’s our job to spread the word as much as possible on facebook, by phone, and email (use the tools email feature on this page under this post). Hound your member of congress on this issue right now. Contact list:

White House
White House Comments Line: 202-456-1111

White House Switchboard: 202-456-1414

White House FAX: 202-456-2461

White House Email Page.

Congress
Capitol Switchboard: (202)224-3121
(Just ask for your Rep.’s or Senator’s office).

Look up your Representative’s / Senator’s contact information.

Democratic National Committee (DNC)
DNC by email .

DNC by phone: (202) 863-8000

DNC by snail mail: 430 S. Capitol St. SE, Washington, DC 20003

Social Networking:

White House Twitter ID: @WhiteHouse

White House Facebook Page .

Use TweetCongress to look up your Representative’s / Senator’s Twitter ID

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FBI Investigating; Murdoch Pet Rebekah Brooks, Dow Jones CEO Hinton Resign

By on 15 July 2011

Media Matters proves once again the cable hackery of Fox News Channel.

One note to add, Keith Olbermann on Current TV has covered the Murdoch scandal every single night as their lead story.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has confirmed the F.B.I. is also investigating what connection there might be to what’s happened in the U.K. and allegations in the U.S.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., asked FBI Director Robert Mueller to investigate.

News Corp. said on Thursday that it had no comment on the FBI investigation or the possibility of congressional hearings, but the 80-year-old Murdoch said on Friday that he plans to runs advertisements to apologize.

“We are sorry for the serious wrongdoing that occurred,” the ads will read, according to CNN. “We are deeply sorry for the hurt suffered by the individuals affected.”

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Bachmann, Bigotry and her Wacko Husband

By on 14 July 2011

“It will hurt her… If voters see the Republican Party, if they see us as intolerant and attacking a certain population of fellow Americans, it’s not a winning combination. I’m not the only one who says this. There are many other strategists that, regardless of their orientation, are concerned that we could lose the voters that we gained in the 2010 election cycle.” – Religious right rushes to Bachmann’s defense following ‘ex-gay’ reports

The Bachmanns have been making a lot of news lately. The few women who have attempted the national ticket tango have all had spousal issues, but Michele Bachmann breaks the mold for something Americans on the whole won’t accept. It was one thing when Geraldine Ferraro’s husband caused a scandal for her, or when Hillary’s former president husband became part of her campaign narrative. Marcus Bachmann is in a completely different category.

Even if you don’t understand that homosexuality is who someone is, you’d think people would get that if you’re heterosexual and you didn’t choose to be that it has something to do beyond what you decide to be.

Supposed “Christian values” put beside judgments that proclaim a person needs “curing” from who they are make a mockery of spirituality itself and the very nature of someone’s God that is supposed to be perfect. How can any god create a person or thing that is inherently flawed? Different, perhaps. Something you struggle to accept, absolutely. But a human trait that you decide needs curing? But, of course, this theory is nothing new.

Mr. Bachmann is not only a problem for Mrs. Bachmann, he’s a disgrace to her candidacy.

Problem is that the candidate for president is in cahoots with her crackpot mate.

And let’s be honest, shall we, the tape released earlier with audio of Mr. Bachmann talking about gays and their alleged “sinful nature” says a lot more about him than it does anything. It’s not only creepy to hear a grown man talk like this, using the word “barbarian,” but there’s something about Mr. Bachmann that just doesn’t seem quite right and I’m not the only one that felt this way when the tape came out. Why aren’t more people talking about that?

The candidate better keep Marcus under lock and key, because if this guy gets in front of a real reporter he’s going to be exposed for a lot more than a conversion therapy wacko. He just won’t pass the national ticket test. Because even those Americans who are still evolving on gay marriage and the reality that gays are who they are because, well, just like heterosexuals it’s who they are don’t want their bigotry to have a standard bearer like Marcus Bachmann. There’s just something un-American about pretending to cure gayness.

Michele Bachmann’s lunacy towards gays and lesbians isn’t a killer for the Republican party, unfortunately. However, for a woman gaining real support from the Right it is cause to pause when considering any role she might have on the GOP ticket.

Bigotry is so last century.

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Ahmed Wali Karzai Assassinated, U.S. General Reportedly Wanted him Burned

By on 12 July 2011

From the New York Times:

For years, the American military has believed that public anger over government-linked corruption has helped swell the Taliban’s ranks, and that Ahmed Wali Karzai played a central role in that corruption. He has repeatedly denied any links to Afghan drug trafficking.

According to three American military officials, in April 2009 Gen. David D. McKiernan, then the top American commander in Afghanistan, told subordinates that he wanted them to gather any evidence that might tie the president’s half brother to the drug trade. “He put the word out that he wanted to ‘burn’ Ahmed Wali Karzai,” one of the military officials said.

The gnashing of teeth over Ahmed Wali Karzai is because of the vacuum he leaves.

Also in Afghanistan, the man who mutilated Aisha, part of the torturers who cut off her nose, has been released. All sorts of excuses are being used, but the reality is that all the U.S. military might and money cannot change the culture of Afghanistan to save the women.

Now, with Pres. Karzai’s half brother dead, someone who was corrupt and also had an important role in negotiations with the Taliban and others, a dead end for the U.S. in Afghanistan seems even more apparent.

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Murdoch Global Sleaze Machine Continues to Unravel

By on 11 July 2011

… Whether or not the Mirror’s claims are verified, the allegations may raise the volume on questions about the editorial judgment and ethics employed by Murdoch titles in the U.S. “The News of the World has lots of reporters at any given time on the ground in the U.S.,” Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff tells CBS News. “Many of its stories, particularly many of its celebrity stories, are dateline here. So, I think that’s the next step.” [...] – Murdoch’s hacking woes grow; 9/11 victims eyed?

This story boggles the mind. Following it since it broke has been a stunning trip through the worst media scandals in modern times, with no parallel. The villain in this tale is a notorious conservative whose propaganda outreach includes the most popular cable TV channel in the U.S., Fox News Channel. Even after the worst was uncovered, with images of grubby people deleting phone messages from missing 13-year-old Milly Dowler’s phone, Ruppert Murdoch shows no remorse. It’s all about his enemies trying to get even with him.

What Murdoch seems most desperate about is saving his monopoly hunger from running aground. His bid to buy BSkyB is stalling since this scandal exploded, with Labour leader Ed Miliband vowing to challenge Mr. Murdoch until the bitter end.

Bloomberg’s Lizzy O’Leary mis-reported News Corp. was to bow out of the Sky bid earlier today.

Then Forbes reported that after News Corp. withdrew its pledge to spin off Sky News as a condition for acquiring BSkyB, Britain’s Competition Commission could go “for a full-scale inquiry,” which is exactly what has happened.

While the latest from the The Independent on the political targets brings in Gordon Brown:

… Brown joins a long list of Labour politicians who are known to have been targeted by private investigators working for News International, including the former prime minister Tony Blair and his media adviser Alastair Campbell, the former deputy prime minister John Prescott and his political adviser Joan Hammell, Peter Mandelson as trade secretary, Jack Straw and David Blunkett as home secretaries, Tessa Jowell as media secretary and her special adviser Bill Bush, and Chris Bryant as minister for Europe.

[...] The sheer scale of the data assault on Brown is unusual, with evidence of attempts to obtain his legal, financial, tax, medical and police records as well as to listen to his voicemail. All of these incidents are linked to media organisations. In many cases, there is evidence of a link to News International.

Scotland Yard recently wrote separately to Brown and to his wife to tell them that their details had been found in evidence collected by Operation Weeting, the special inquiry into phone hacking at the News of the World. It is believed that this refers to handwritten notes kept by Mulcaire, which were seized by police in August 2006 and never previously investigated. Brown last year asked Scotland Yard if there was evidence that he had been targeted by the private investigator and was told there was none.

Journalists who have worked at News International say they believe that Brown’s personal bank account was accessed on several occasions when he was chancellor of the exchequer. An internal inquiry by Abbey National’s fraud department found that during January 2000, somebody acting on behalf of the Sunday Times contacted their Bradford call centre six times, posing as Brown, and succeeded in extracting details from his account.

Scotland Yard involved in Murdoch’s messy and possible malfeasance, with all sorts of politicians being targeted is especially interesting when you consider what might happen if this had happened in the U.S. It puts the 2000 election finale in perspective, a time when Roger Ailes allowed the relative of George W. Bush to control the election results that fateful election. From Rolling Stone on Ailes, just to drive home the entire picture, now that we see what’s hitting the fan in Britain:

But it was the election of George W. Bush in 2000 that revealed the true power of Fox News as a political machine. According to a study of voting patterns by the University of California, Fox News shifted roughly 200,000 ballots to Bush in areas where voters had access to the network. But Ailes, ever the political operative, didn’t leave the outcome to anything as dicey as the popular vote. The man he tapped to head the network’s “decision desk” on election night – the consultant responsible for calling states for either Gore or Bush – was none other than John Prescott Ellis, Bush’s first cousin. As a columnist at The Boston Globe, Ellis had recused himself from covering the campaign. “There is no way for you to know if I am telling you the truth about George W. Bush’s presidential campaign,” he told his readers, “because in his case, my loyalty goes to him and not to you.”

In any newsroom worthy of the name, such a conflict of interest would have immediately disqualified Ellis. But for Ailes, loyalty to Bush was an asset. “We at Fox News,” he would later tell a House hearing, “do not discriminate against people because of their family connections.” On Election Day, Ellis was in constant contact with Bush himself. After midnight, when a wave of late numbers showed Bush with a narrow lead, Ellis jumped on the data to declare Bush the winner – even though Florida was still rated too close to call by the vote-tracking consortium used by all the networks. Hume announced Fox’s call for Bush at 2:16 a.m. – a move that spurred every other network to follow suit, and led to bush wins headlines in the morning papers.

[...] Dwell on this for a moment: A “news” network controlled by a GOP operative who had spent decades shaping just such political narratives – including those that helped elect the candidate’s father – declared George W. Bush the victor based on the analysis of a man who had proclaimed himself loyal to Bush over the facts. “Of everything that happened on election night, this was the most important in impact,” Rep. Henry Waxman said at the time. “It immeasurably helped George Bush maintain the idea in people’s minds that he was the man who won the election.”

After Bush took office, Ailes stayed in frequent touch with the new Republican president. “The senior-level editorial people believe that Roger was on the phone every day with Bush,” a source close to Fox News tells Rolling Stone. “He gave Bush the same kind of pointers he used to give George H.W. Bush – delivery, effectiveness, political coaching.” In the aftermath of 9/11, Ailes sent a back-channel memo to the president through Karl Rove, advising Bush to ramp up the War on Terror. As reported by Bob Woodward, Ailes advised Bush that “the American public would tolerate waiting and would be patient, but only as long as they were convinced that Bush was using the harshest measures possible.”

Fox News did its part to make sure that viewers lined up behind those harsh measures. The network plastered an American flag in the corner of the screen, dolled up one female anchor in a camouflaged silk blouse, and featured Geraldo Rivera threatening to hunt down Osama bin Laden with a pistol. The militarism even seemed to infect the culture of Fox News. “Roger Ailes is the general,” declared Bill O’Reilly. “And the general sets the tone of the army. Our army is very George Patton-esque. We charge. We roll.”

As an aside, Roger Ailes is the man who tried to save Sarah Palin from herself when she was choosing whether to wade into the Loughner tragedy, but even with Mr. Ailes’s formidable power and standing as the Republican political general, Sarah thought she knew best. Few people survive this type of arrogance in a party that considers FNC its megaphone and election death star.

Topping the already cruel cravenness is covering for Rebekah Brooks, as so many others lose their jobs.

Michael Wolff, who has written a biography on Murdoch, was a guest on Keith Olbermann’s “Countdown” all last week and though I find him an arrogant boor, he has made some interesting points amidst his mumbling pontification. With so many of those unemployed being journalistic types, this story has the possibilities of a never ending soap opera, with grudges sure to continue to pop up in salaciousness still to come.

Vendetta, anyone?

But could what happen over there hit Murdoch over here?

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