Overnight Open Thread
—Maetenloch
Hey hey it's Sunday. So let's make the weekend count for something.
The Wizard of Dogz
The doggeh version of the movie. And yes always be on the look out for evil flying kittehs.
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Killing Time on Sunday Evening
—Gabriel Malor
I had intended to be around for more blogging today; that obviously didn't work out. If you're wondering when we'll have more content, I'll be blogging up a storm tomorrow.
For now, I saw something at the Dodgers game yesterday that simply cannot go unremarked. And that's the "Top Ten Comic Book Super Villain" list they put up during one of the commercial breaks. I'm not gonna spoil my own poll by telling you what they'd selected as the Number 1 villain, but it was all wrong...I think. Now I want to know what you think.
I couldn't remember all ten from their list, but these at least were on it.
This is an open thread.
In Case You Were Wondering Where All That Scandi Volcanic Ash Was Going
—Dave In Texas
Here's a pretty cool animation of it.
Sådan har askeskyen bredt sig, bitch.
Scroll down to the first image and get yourself some f'n knowledge.
Meanwhile, airlines begin to try to determine whether the concerns are warranted with test flights through the Gaiasmog.
Flight danger or aircraft damage from volcanic ash: Unclear, but tests seem to show nada.
Revenue damage from indefinitely suspended flight schedules: Very clear.
That'd make me put a couple of aircraft up to see if this was real or bullshit. And I'd take a look at the maintenance records for planes flying in and out of LA myself.
via Cuffy
ALSO: my point is not to encourage travel danger or aircraft damage, but rather to suggest airlines know how to mitigate that already, being in the business of flying that they are. You don't have to fly through the shit, and it isn't floating around Heathrow at minimums. One wonders, about this whole "shut down airports" stuff. Anyone who flys or fixes planes for a living can put me some knowledge.
Sunday Morning Inspiration
—Dave In Texas
Col. Allen West opens his campaign in Broward County by encouraging his supporters to hold the line.
Florida's 22nd voted Democrat in the last three Presidential elections, Obama 52-48, Kerry 51-49, and Gore 51-46, but had a Republican Congressman from 1993 to 2007 when Ron Klein won in 06.
Personally I'd love to see West greet Pelosi the way he says he could.
video via Andy
Gibbs Is Tired of White House Reporters Behaving Like Reporters; Whines About Fox News (Again)
—Gabriel Malor
Talking on CNN's Sunday Morning show, Gibbsy wants to end the practice of "anonymous sourcing". In other words, he wants the White House press corps to report only on approved topics.
During that meeting with the press corps, Gibbs offered correspondents a no-background policy, in which the White House would only give on-the-record interviews if reporters promised not to cite unnamed sources, he explained to host Howard Kurtz in an interview on "Reliable Sources.""I think we could all put what we want to say to the American people and to the news media all on the record," he said. "I've offered to end it. But it's got to be a two-way street."
The news arrives as tensions between the White House and its devoted correspondents are growing, in part because of the minimal access they had to last week's Nuclear Security Summit.
I'm sure it's a pleasant fantasy for Gibbs, but thankfully not the way reporting works in the real world.
Gibbs had another couple of fantasy moments on the morning talk shows:
Responding to repeated questions from host Howard Kurtz about why Obama has held no press conferences since July 2009, Gibbs seemed to dismiss their relevance, calling it “an arbitrary Washington measure” of the president’s accessibility. “This president has taken questions through countless interviews through – answering questions directly from the media,” Gibbs said.While more broadly expressing frustration with press coverage, Gibbs singled out Fox, saying that while the administration understands the need to “play the game” by giving the network access, it has a definitive “slant” in its coverage, including its news programs, and that it caters to a viewership that’s already made up its mind.
“I don't think many people have to watch Fox to understand the—the political slant that they have,” Gibbs said. “They're feeding an audience that they know want to see and hear a certain side of that argument.”
He cited the president’s sit-down with Fox News’s Bret Baier just before the health care vote as an example of the conservative-leaning outlet attempting to push an agenda.
First, President Bush was routinely abused by commentators for not holding enough press conferences during his first term, making this another "What if Bush had done it?" moment.
Second, when the President of the United States voluntarily appears on the most-watched cable news channel, you better believe that he's the one attempting to push a political agenda. By contrast, Fox News' non-political agenda can be summed up in just one word: "ratings."
New Shiny New Server
—Pixy Misa
Hi everyone. If you were awake for some reason and noticed the downtime, that was us moving to our new server, which is even shinier than our previous new server.
I emailed Ace to let him know it was happening today, not realising he was taking a few days off. Sorry about that!
Server specs by request:
Dual Xeon 5670 (total 12 x 2.93GHz cores)
24GB ECC Registered RAM
Adaptec 5805 RAID controller with battery backup
3 x 2TB disks, RAID-5
3 x 32GB Intel Enterprise SSDs, RAID-5
2 x Gbit ethernet - 1 for the the private network, 1 for the internet link (yep, we have a full gigabit link to the internet)
Dual (redundant) power supplies
Running CentOS 5.4, latest OpenVZ and CPanel
The server is upgradeable to 12 disks total and 144GB of RAM.
Jack M. and Suzanne Sena: If the World's Rockin', Don't Come Knockin'
—Jack M.
On behalf of Suzanne and myself, I apologize to the Iranians.
TEHRAN: A senior Iranian cleric has claimed that dolled-up women incite extramarital sex, causing more earthquakes in Iran, a country that straddles several fault lines, newspapers reported on Saturday."Many women who dress inappropriately ... cause youths to go astray, taint their chastity and incite extramarital sex in society, which increases earthquakes," Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi told worshippers at Tehran Friday prayer.
If I've asked Suzanne once, I've asked her a hundred times. Stop tainting my chastity, you inappropriately dressed hussy!
I have to give these Islamic-geoscientists credit though. At least they didn't accuse me and Suzanne of putting Guam at risk of capsizing.
On advice of our attorneys, however, I am not to comment on the current situation in Iceland.
Overnight Open Thread - Caturday
—Maetenloch
Welcome all M&M-types to just another Caturday ONT.
Introducing the Psycho Dog Man
Apparently a pair of dogs was terrorizing residents of a town in Australia and a local tv station interviewed some of the victims. One of them was Ray Graham who described and reenacted the dogs' attack a little too well. Since then he's become an internet sensation and is now known as Psycho Dog Man. I like how his wife seems relatively nonplussed at his snarling - I'm guessing she's heard this impersonation before.
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SecDef Gates Warns "We Do Not Have an Effective Strategy To Deal With Iranian Nukes.
—Dave In Texas
We have a strategy Secretary Gates. It's called "let them". (NYT link)
But in his memo, Mr. Gates wrote of a variety of concerns, including the absence of an effective strategy should Iran choose the course that many government and outside analysts consider likely: Iran could assemble all the major parts it needs for a nuclear weapon — fuel, designs and detonators — but stop just short of assembling a fully operational weapon.
This is actually Gates saying "ok, you've decided not to keep it from happening, and you've asked us to come up with contingencies for dealing with a nuclear-armed Iran,"
"we don't have any."
Great.
Obama is Lying About the Permanent Bailout
—Gabriel Malor
President Pants on Fire said today in his weekly radio address:
Never again will taxpayers be on the hook because a financial company is deemed 'too big to fail'."
He also decried Republican "misinformation" about the bill.
Like the thousand-page healthcare reform bill, the President apparently hasn't bothered to read the financial overhaul bill. Here's a summary of the bailout provisions (PDF):
First, the bill contains a $50 billion fund for resolution of systemically risky institutions. The bill allows a 2/3 vote of the Financial Stability Oversight Council to deem any firm (financial or non-financial) as coming under its rubric and then authorizes the FDIC and Treasury Secretary to treat each of the firm's shareholders and creditors as they choose, without regard to bankruptcy law. Second, the bill gives the Treasury and the FDIC authority to grant an unlimited number of loan guarantees to systemically risky institutions. No Congressional authorization or appropriation is required. Third, the bill gives the Fed the authority to fund any "program" to assist these institutions accepting as collateral anything it deems appropriate.
So when the President says there will be no more bailouts, he must mean that Congress won't have to pass and the president won't have to sign the icky, unpopular bills. Because they'll have delegated permanent bailout authority to a couple Executive Branch agencies.
Overnight Open Thread - Monster Island Edition
—Maetenloch
It be Friday. You know what to do.
So how about a little Godzilla to start the weekend
Along with Blue Oyster Cult's ode to the monster himself as the soundtrack. There's nothing like watching a guy in a rubber suit beating up other guys in monster suits. The funny thing about most Godzilla movies is that the parts with the fire-breathing atomic dinosaur himself are basically silent movies with explosions and monster sounds thrown in.
Oh and a little Godzilla trivia...in Japan he's known as Gojira which comes from the words 'gorira' (gorilla) and 'kujira' (whale). It's believed that the english version of his name came from a translation error.
Another true fact: the first concert I ever went to was a BOC concert. I was in middle school and no, I don't know what my parents were thinking. It was one of their few failures to say 'No' to one of my crazy-over-the-top-but-what-the-hell requests.
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Friday Evening Open Thread
—DrewM.
I got nothing but an amusing video from F1.
Also, the NHL post season is underway and the first two nights have been fantastic...7 games, all decided by 1 goal (two in sudden death overtime), two eight seeds defeating number ones and steeling home ice advantage. And now it gets good because you're going to start seeing desperate teams and tempers flaring.
For all your hockey needs, check out Moron Hockey. You might recognize the two bloggers and our very own @slublog designed the logo.
Mitt Romney to Endorse Marco Rubio in One Hour
Update: Endorsement Will Come Tomorrow Instead of Today
—Ace
Just leaked.
Update: Timing has changed -- now the endorsement is set for tomorrow.
Thanks to Star Chamber Maid.
Sen. Graham Is a Useful Idiot for the White House
—Gabriel Malor
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-Dingusville) proposed a bump in the federal gasoline tax of 15 cents as part of global warming legislation.
Right there, before anything else happens, there are at least three errors: The clown just proposed a tax increase. The clown wants to raise gasoline prices to combat a planet-wide natural phenomenon that scientists don't understand and that the U.S. only marginally affects, even under the most outlandish projections of global warming alarmists that Graham apparently believes in. And the clown doesn't realize that a 15 cent bump isn't going to change gasoline consumption behaviors enough to make any difference, again even under the global warming assumptions he believes in.
But then there's the MEGA WHOPPER of an unforced error: the White House is now trumpeting that the President opposes Graham's tax increase because it will force higher prices on consumers still struggling through the Great Recession.
The dolt just let the President pretend to oppose tax increases on gasoline. The same President that once said he supported raising the price of gas to combat global warming. Now the President gets to prance and preen while Graham looks like a tax-happy fat-cat disconnected from the plight of Americans.
Meanwhile, the GOP is saying, "Dude, you're on your own."
The Senate GOP leadership today took pains to say this tax idea is Graham's and Graham's alone. It's not the first time Graham has been out on a policy limb. Graham insists his approach is better than one-size-fits-all federal regulations.
Oh, and Graham is in retreat too:
Graham's office, via spokesman Kevin Bishop, described the senator's efforts this way:"Senator Graham does not support a gas tax. And the bill he is working on does not include a gas tax. He is working with the energy industry to protect consumers from a cap-and-trade system which would do great damage to our economy and national security by driving our refiners overseas."
Putz.
Recovery? Hah! Just Oscillating Unemployment Claims. [Nice Deb]
—Open Blogger
Chartmaster Geoff, of Uncommon Misconceptions has been trying to make this point, first at Innocent Bystanders, and again this morning at his own blog. Since it hasn't been pointed out anywhere else in the media, I thought I'd give it a wider audience here at AoSHQ:
For the past 5 1/2 months, the initial unemployment claims data have not really changed. Here’s what I mean:
The data are oscillating about a slowly increasing value, indicating that, if anything, unemployment claims are increasing.
For the rest of his analysis, go to Uncommon Misconceptions.
See also his excellent take on Obama's Famous Tax Cuts.
And in case you're interested, here's the GOP.gov take on Obama's "tax cuts":
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Judge Rules Unconstitutional the National Day of Prayer
—Gabriel Malor
Yesterday a district court judge struck down the statute that instituted a National Day of Prayer. The judge held that it was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
"[I]ts sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function," a Wisconsin judge wrote in the ruling, referring to the 1952 law that created the National Day of Prayer."In this instance, the government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience," wrote the judge, Barbara B. Crabb.
The injunction against the National Day of Prayer will not take effect until the defendants in the case, President Obama and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, have exhausted their appeals, the decision said.
It is expected that they will appeal.
Establishment Clause jurisprudence has been drifting further and further afield in the past twenty years. Eugene Volokh thinks there might be five votes on the Supreme Court to curb the anti-religious drift.
There now seem to be five votes on the Court for jettisoning the endorsement test. While Justice Kennedy takes a broader view of the Establishment Clause than do Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas (and, probably, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito), he is on the record — in his County of Allegheny dissent (1989) — as opposing the no-endorsement interpretation of the Establishment Clause. What’s more, Justice Kennedy’s County of Allegheny opinion expressly pointed to the National Day of Prayer as something that should be upheld.
Of course, this rosy scenario relies on Justice Kennedy to do the right thing...
This also gives GOP senators some ammunition when questioning the President's court nominees. It's timely and something that seems so obviously constitutional to conservatives and so obviously not to leftists.
Top Headline Comments 4-16-10
—Gabriel Malor
FRIDAY!
Obama Orders Hospitals to Give Visitation Rights to Gay Couples
—Gabriel Malor
Didn't we just spend ten months altering the provision of healthcare in this country? This time he isn't going to muck about waiting for Congress.
Earlier today, he issued a memorandum to DHHS, ordering the agency to set new requirements for U.S. hospitals that receive Medicare or Medicaid funding (which is almost all of them).
The hospitals must respect a patient's wishes regarding who is allowed to visit, including in advance directives when the patient may be incapable of designating visitors. This applies to all patient's wishes, not just regarding gays. Also, the hospitals may not discriminate in their visitation policies on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.
The stealth provision that has gone unremarked in the title of the memo and the media coverage so far is that hospitals must also comply with advance directives giving non-family individuals the right to make decisions about patient care.
That's the real coup for gays in this order. There have only been, to my knowledge anyway, a few isolated incidents of hospitals denying visitation to gays who have a hospitalized spouse or partner. I'm glad the President is acting to end it, at least in hospitals that take federal funds. There's little reason not to fix a bad thing even if it's scarce, particularly when it can be fixed with little cost. (Support for allowing gay couple visitation rights is somewhere around 90% and Obama needed to throw a bone to the permanently pissed off Gay Left.)
But the real drama is when more than one person claims to have the right to make medical decisions for an incapacitated patient. What's the hospital to do when the parents want one thing but the gay spouse or partner wants something else? What about in a state like Virginia which bans legal recognition of statuses that "approximate the design, qualities, significance, or effects of marriage"? Go with the parents or the gay spouse/partner?
Obama's order will end a great deal of uncertainty, both for gay spouses, who already have to spend more money than straight spouses to get the same rights, and for hospitals, who have to face the threat of legal action if they guess wrong about who gets to make medical decisions for incapacitated patients.
Overnight Open Thread
—Maetenloch
Happy Thursday M&Ms.
So Where is Obama Still Popular
Obama's overall approval ratings have been pretty consistently falling over the last year and are now at an all time low of 47%. But when you look at his approval ratings state-by-state, it turns out that he's very popular in just a few states (basically the Northeast and California) and unpopular everywhere else including the usual swing states. This bodes ill for the Democrats' long term branding and makes a wipeout election all the more likely.
Note that the dark blue and red states are where Obama's approval rating is greater than +10 and -10 respectively.
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Major cancer treatment breakthrough - drug stops metastasis in its tracks
—Purple Avenger
This sounds like a pretty big deal.
...In the current study, the researchers revealed the mechanism. They found that macroketone targets an actin cytoskeletal protein known as fascin that is critical to cell movement. In order for a cancer cell to leave a primary tumor, fascin bundles actin filaments together like a thick finger. The front edge of this finger creeps forward and pulls along the rear of the cell. Cells crawl away in the same way that an inchworm moves.Macroketone latches on to individual fascin, preventing the actin fibers from adhering to each other and forming the pushing leading edge, Dr. Huang says. Because individual actin fibers are too soft when they are not bundled together, the cell cannot move...
..."More than 90 percent of cancer patients die because their cancer has spread, so we desperately need a way to stop this metastasis," Dr. Huang says. "This study offers a paradigm shift in thinking and, potentially, a new direction in treatment."...
Obama: Ha ha...can you believe those anti-tax rubes?
—Slublog
Well, at least he's consistent.
MIAMI (AP) -- President Barack Obama said Thursday he's amused by the anti-tax tea party protests that have been taking place around Tax Day.Hey, nothing says post-partisan unity like mocking average citizens doing nothing more than exercising their right to peaceably assemble in protest of their government's actions. I don't remember our former cowboy warmongering Constitution-shredding president saying anything similar about anti-war protesters, do you?Obama told a fundraiser in Miami that he's cut taxes, contrary to the claims of protesters.
"You would think they'd be saying thank you," he said.
At that, many in the crowd at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts stood and yelled, "Thank you!"
You've got to wonder what the One is thinking here. Is it simple delusion about his power to control the narrative, as Dan Riehl suggests, or is he so consumed by his own press clippings that he honestly doesn't realize the extent of the public's anger? Most likely: he just doesn't care and is completely playing to his base at this point, because there's nothing the nutroots like more than some sweet, sweet tea party hatin'.
Over/under on how low Obama will go in approval ratings before he starts referring to protesters as "teabaggers?" 40%? 35%? Your guess is as good as mine.
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Administration finds someone new to blame for economy
—Slublog
The need to protect Obama from bad press has brought out the inner poet in government officials. Another miracle in the age of Obama.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that first-time requests for jobless benefits rose 24,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 484,000, the highest level since late February. Economists were predicting claims would fall.George W. Bush, take heart. You're no longer the villain who ruined the economy. The real culprit?It marked the second week that claims took an unexpected leap. In the prior week, claims rose 18,000 to 460,000.
A government analyst, however, cautioned against reading too much into both weeks' figures, saying they were clouded by seasonal adjustment difficulties related to the Easter holiday, which falls on different weeks each year.
The Easter Bunny.
To paraphrase Howie Carr, first they blamed the snow. Then the rain. Now it's the innocent Easter Bunny. I wonder what the excuse will be for April's numbers? Maybe people were too busy looking for the May flowers to find work? Hmmmm..."seasonal adjustment difficulties related to garden preparation." It has potential. Get on it, unnamed government analysts!
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Crash The Tea Party Organizer Being Investigated At Work
—DrewM.
Woops! Turns out everyone can read the internets.
Jason Levin, the Portland man who caused a ruckus over his plans to "infiltrate" Tea Party protests in an aim to discredit them, teaches in a Beaverton middle school and now faces an investigation by the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission.Melody Hanson, the commission's director of professional practices, said Wednesday that the agency opened an investigation because "there was enough concern that there was some neglect of duty" on the part of Levin.
Levin teaches in the media lab at Conestoga Middle School, although he described himself in an interview earlier this week with Talking Points Memo as a technology consultant.
Levin started a web site called "Crash the Tea Party" that he said was aimed at encouraging people to pose as Tea Party protestors while acting in outlandish ways in hopes of discrediting the movement.
Both the school district and the teachers licensing commission received calls protesting Levin's actions and saying it was inappropriate for teachers.
I'm sure you all join me in wishing Levin all the best in getting exactly what he deserves.
Thanks to @slublog
Obama At Kennedy Space Center Talking Space Policy
—DrewM.
Obama is such a uniter that he has legendary astronauts taking sides.
He just thanked a shuttle astronaut for fixing the Hubble Telescope since he has a photo taken by it in his private White House office. It's all about him.
Also, he mentioned that Buzz Aldrin is 'in the house'. Let me just say, I'm sick and tired of the President of the United States treating events as if they are comedy shows. "In the house" is a juvenile expression and simply an unworthy way to refer to these types of events.
Now he's whining about previous administrations and their changing priorities. He inherited this NASA budget!
Upping NASA's budget by $6 billion over 5 years.
Focusing on robotic exploration of solar system and more focus on Earth challenges like...climate change!
Partner with private sector for access to low earth orbit.
So far, nothing that new.
Transforming the Orion capsule, which was supposed to be part of the lunar mission, into a rescue capsule for the ISS. Talk about a shrinking mission.
Nothing new here. This sounds more like a bid to hold down electoral losses in Florida this year. I wonder if this visit was scheduled before the health care bid or if it was a pay off for Suzanne Kosmas' flip on health care. She's pretty much considered a dead duck because of NASA cuts that hurt her district.
Now he says he wants to send astronauts to an asteroid then to Mars in the 2030's. Look for lots of comparisons to Kennedy's 'Land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade' speech from the Lapdog Media.
Says we don't have to go back to the Moon to get to Mars because we've been there. Not a lot of applause for that because they know it's stupid.
NASA has to come up with breakthrough propulsion technologies. Space bio-fuels!
Says the job cuts are result of decisions made 6 years ago, not 6 months to retire the shuttle. True but he cut the replacement program that people would have segued into. Nice try but the Blamer in Chief.
You can tell when Obama cares about stuff and when he doesn't. This is the latter. It's a check mark in a list of things he had to do today. Nothing new. People were hoping that he might announce an extension of the shuttle program but nope.
BTW- the network I'm watching this on is slobbering over how wonderful the speech was. MSNBC? Nah, Shep Smith on FNC.
Overall he made it sound nice but every President says nifty stuff about what they want to do with NASA and it never gets done.
Shep just said, "I don't see where the detractors of this President get off". Man, he'd be at home at MSNBC.
His guest, Homer Hickman is lambasting Obama and the NASA administration. Here's his blog.
Quite honestly, at this point, I don't much care what they announce and pronounce. I do not think any of them are capable of organizing a DAR scrap drive. This includes Senator Bill Nelson who is about a mile wide and a millimeter deep when it comes to almost any intellectual pursuit. Am I being unkind to all concerned? I don't care. They've made me lose sleep, worrying about their erratic drive toward spaceflight mediocrity.With this crowd, all I can do is hope they won't screw things up so much it can't be fixed later. My guess is after they're done talking, we still won't know what's actually going to happen, mainly because they don't know, either. These are folks who, in more serious times, might be considered, well, loons. President Obama operates at about 110,000 feet (e.g., he still can't tell anyone what's in his health care plan after all these months of angst), Charlie Bolden would rather be home with his grandkids (great idea), John Holdren is a radical "global warmer" (which requires a suspension of intellectual curiosity), and Bill Nelson is a space who needs to be filled (with someone else). The rest make Lady Gaga look smart.
Charlie Crist's Day So Far: Reads Poll Saying He's More Popular With Non Republican Voters, Vetoes Republican Sponsored Teacher Tenure Bill
—DrewM.
I'm not saying there's a causal relationship but clearly these two things foretell something pretty obvious...Charlie Crist is likely to run for the Senate as an independent candidate.
First the poll.
Marco Rubio has opened up an elephant-sized 56 – 33 percent lead over Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida’s U.S. Senate Republican primary, but in a three-way general election with Rubio on the GOP line, Crist as an independent and Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, Crist has a razor-thin edge, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.Gov. Crist leads Meek 48 – 34 percent in a general election matchup, while Rubio’s margin over the Democrat is just 42 – 38 percent, the independent Quinnipiac University survey finds.
If Crist were to file as an independent for the general election, he would get 32 percent of the vote, compared to Rubio’s 30 percent and Meek’s 24 percent.
Now the teacher bill.
Republican Gov. Charlie Crist announced shortly after noon he is vetoing the controversial bill that would end tenure for public school teachers and base future pay raises mostly on student test scores."This bill is contrary to my firmly held principle to act in the best interest of the people of Florida," Crist said. "It is the right thing to do."
...
Florida Senate Majority Leader Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, said in a statement that Crist had joined the naysayers who "object, obfuscate and imperil our children's future."
He rejected Crist's claim that "the process" of crafting SB 6 was flawed.
"In fact, SB 6 included months of work with stakeholders, and at every step of the way, the Senate invited participation and public testimony, Diaz de la Portilla said. "Teachers, parents and students were all participants. Our colleagues in the Florida House had unprecedented deliberations that included days of public debate."
Crist has also fallen well behind Rubio in fundraising.
Crist is denying that he'll run as an independent but everyone who has switched teams, like Arlen Specter and Joe Lieberman say that right up until they do.
He can't stay Governor and he's not going to win the GOP nomination for Senate, so what else does Crist have to do? I can't wait for Crist's announcement and David Frum's explanation of how this is all our fault.
Heh: Early Crist backer and head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, John Cornyn confirms that the Republicans will work against Crist if he runs as an independent. That's a relief.
"I would think that would be the end of his political career as a Republican," Cornyn, chairman of the NRSC, told POLITICO. "So I doubt that will happen. My hope is that this is all resolved in the Republican primary by Florida voters."Cornyn said that Crist would be a "man without a party" if he decided to mount a three-way race against Rubio and Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek, who is pursuing his party's nomination in the state.
"And I think he’s got other potential and aspirations, so I think from that standpoint, it would be a bad decision," Cornyn said.
Asked if that meant the NRSC would work to defeat Crist, Cornyn warned: "Our job is to elect Republicans so that’s what we’ll do – and I don’t care who it is."
I like Cornyn in general but the early endorsement of Crist was a mistake at the time and Rubio's success has only made it worse.
Heck of a job Senator, heck of a job!
More: Via Twitter "Bannon007" says Crist has until April 30th to decide on an independent bid. According to Florida law, Crist would have to bail on the Republican primary by then to run in November. It won't be like Lieberman who lost and then decided to run as an independent.
Former NSA Employee Charged With Leaking To Newspaper
—DrewM.
A former senior executive at the National Security Agency was charged Thursday with lying and obstruction of justice in an investigation of leaks of classified information to a newspaper.Federal prosecutors said Thomas Drake, 52, served as a source for many articles about the NSA in an unidentified newspaper, including articles that contained classified information.
A federal indictment filed in Maryland charges that Drake used a non-government e-mail account to transmit classified and unclassified information. Authorities also charge that Drake lied to federal agents about what he'd done.
The indictment does not identify the reporter, the newspaper, or the subject matter of the stories. It says the stories were published between February 2006 and November 2007.
I always found it interesting that liberals assume the intelligence apparatus is a bunch of right wing nut jobs dying to institute some conservative police state. That seems an unlikely goal for people who thought it was 'funny'to leak information designed to hurt George Bush's electoral prospects.
Add to that the absurdly politicized NIE on Iran that no one thought was accurate and was clearly designed to tie the hands of the last administration, you start to wonder where the idea that the intelligence services were Bush's pawns came from.
Hopefully this guy will get a fair trial followed by the long prison sentence he seems to have merited.
More: Mainjustice.com takes a look at the indictment and has interesting information on Drake's relationship with the reporter and a congressional staffer.
Gaia Is Trying To Kill Us
—DrewM.
That's the only conclusion to be drawn by these two stories.
First, Volcano!
All UK flights have been grounded until tomorrow morning as a spreading cloud of volcanic ash heads south from Iceland towards continental Europe.In the first extended closure of British air space in living memory, millions of airline passengers face travel chaos as National Air Traffic Services (Nats) said no civilian planes would fly until at least 7am on Friday morning because of the eruption in Iceland.
"The cloud of volcanic ash is now spread across the UK and continuing to travel south. In line with international civil aviation policy, no flights other than agreed emergencies are currently permitted in UK controlled airspace," a spokesman from Nats said.
...
The plume of almost Biblical proportions was hurled into the sky above Iceland following an eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which surged back into life on Tuesday. The cloud severely limits visibility but could also endanger the aircraft if flown through, clogging the engines with molten glass. No flights are reported to have been caught in the cloud itself.
You'd think the enviro nuts would be thrilled with the grounding of planes, what will all the carbon not being spewed into the air and all. Problem is, I'd bet the volcano is releasing a hell of a lot more carbon than those planes ever will.
Meanwhile, the planet almost let a meteor hit the ground.
Oh sure you can say it happens all the time and yeah it's spectacular to look at but I think it's clearly a warning from Gaia..."start showing me some respect or I'll let this stuff through and then we'll see who is so tough."
Economy surges, biggest jump in 5 years!
—Purple Avenger
Oh....my bad, did I say "economy"? I meant to say foreclosures.
A record number of U.S. homes were lost to foreclosure in the first three months of this year...Lets do a little back of the envelope calculation here....the number of U.S. homes taken over by banks jumped 35 percent in the first quarter from a year ago. In addition, households facing foreclosure grew 16 percent in the same period and 7 percent from the last three months of 2009...
..."We're right now on pace to see more than 1 million bank repossessions this year,"...In all, more than 900,000 households, or one in every 138 homes, received a foreclosure-related notice...
~1,000,000 foreclosures in the pipeline, right?
If the banks take say a 20% haircut blowing them out into an already soft market (I think this is very conservative figure), and they had maybe $150,000 left on the loans on average (also probably conservative), then someone gets clipped for $30,000+/unit.
That's a $30,000,000,000 (30 billion) kick in the balls to a bunch of institutions that aren't exactly a paragon of rock sold stability right now.
In reality, I suspect the losses can be doubled to tripled from my crude estimate in some markets. Many of those joints will be trashed/stripped needing major wiring/plumbing work to replace what was removed and scrapped and won't sell anywhere near a "modest" 20% loss.
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I Heard A Great Joke Yesterday...Former NY Governor George Pataki Might Be Thinking Of Running For President!
—DrewM.
Oh dear God, it's not a joke?
I wanted to blog about this last night but things got in the way. Still, I think it's worth covering today.
Pataki, as you may recall started out as a fairly conservative governor of NY who won on the strength of the Al D'Amato- Bill Powers machine and Cuomo fatigue. Not long after that he became quite the liberal.
Look at it this way, he's Rudy Giuliani without the colorful personality and actual accomplishments.
Does Pataki really think there's a clamor for a big spending, pro-choice candidate in the Republican Party. Don't think he's a big spender? Take a look at what he did to Medicare in New York and the deal he cut with the local SEIU crew.
Medicaid thus came to dictate spending priorities in Albany. The most recent (and glaring) example is the career of Republican governor George Pataki, who arrived in office in 1995 railing against Medicaid overspending but then blasted it even higher by cutting politically expedient deals. In 1999, Pataki added billions to Medicaid with funds from cigarette taxes and the states’ share of revenues from the national Master Tobacco Settlement. The next year, he signed the Health Care Reform Act, which used Medicaid dollars to offer a new plan, Family Health Plus, that extended coverage to adults who earned too much to qualify for traditional Medicaid. And in 2002, to help cement his reelection bid, Pataki helped funnel an additional $1.8 billion in Medicaid funds into raises for SEIU 1199’s private-sector home-care workers; a few months after the bill passed, the union endorsed Pataki in the general election. Pataki won, but New York paid a steep price: by the time he left office in 2006, Medicaid spending had nearly doubled since 1995.
The New York Times had the details of the Patiki-Joe Bruno (then the Republican leader of the NY State Senate and now convicted on federal corruption charges) deal with SEIU.
I get Pataki not wanting to run for the Senate. It's a special election for the last two years of Hillary's term which means the winner will be running again in '12. That means 3 years of fundraising and campaigning across God forsaken places in NY. And if you're lucky and win...you get to be a Senator. Yeah, I don't blame him for not wanting that.
But President, George? No. I think we've had our fill of big spending, socially liberal candidates for President.
As for NY this year...forget it. The GOP had to recruit a Democrat to flip parties to run for Governor. He's now running a nasty campaign against Rick Lazio who has Rudy's support and that's about it. Neither has a chance against Andrew Cuomo. Oh, there's another guy running who is either a Republican or a tea party type, it's not really clear. He's been caught forwarding racist and sexually explicit emails around. So....
There are some no names lining up to run against Gillibrand but none have a shot. They are local gadfly types as far as I can tell. Too bad, Pataki or Rudy could have beaten her easily but they didn't want to make the run.
Chuck Schumer is up this year as well but he and his $20 million war chest are likely running unopposed.
The Republican wave may reach unexpected places across the country like California but when it comes to statewide races, NY will likely be a breakwater for Democrats. Do expect to see a few House seats go Republican (Massa's district, the 23rd where Doug Hoffman is running again and NY 20 look like good opportunities for pick ups).
Top Headline Comments 4-15-10
—Gabriel Malor
I am ANGRY! Raaar!
April 14
—Dave In Texas
Yes. I'm doing my taxes. I am one of those procrastinators, because a) I hate it and b) the past several years I'm writing a check.
Tonight is no exception.
Other notable things about April 14. 98 years ago tonight they were filling lifeboats in the north Atlantic. Of the 2200 aboard, fifteen hundred perished.
On April 14, 1986 President Ronald Reagan ordered Operation El Dorado Canyon, a series of air-strikes against ground targets in Libya in response to Gaddafi's sponsorship of terrorism.
But April 14 isn't all heavy. That same morning my eldest kid was born. Happy birthday punk.
...
I kinda miss the deduction though.
UPDATED: crap, I forgot Lincoln's assassination. ErikW reminded me.
Overnight Open Thread
—Maetenloch
Good evening and happy Hump Day all.
Lindsey Graham: Hey Now Would Be A Good Time To Raise Gas Taxes!
Okay WTF is wrong with this guy. After looking at his biography I doubt he's being blackmailed by the Democrats, I think he's really just a DiC (Democrat in the Closet). Because he essentially acts like a Democrat albeit a conservative one. Well actually what a conservative Democrat would have looked like back when they still existed. So his ACU rating of 88 notwithstanding, it's a fair question which party his heart really belongs to. So I guess it's no surprise that he's sponsoring this bill with Lieberman and Kerry.
Celebrities With and Without Makeup
What a difference a thin layer of cosmetics makes.
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NYT: Outing Valerie Plame? Baaad. Outing Covert DoD folks in Afghanistan? Super! [jdub]
—Open Blogger
I have just received word that the New York Times is preparing to go public with a list of names of Americans covertly working in Afghanistan providing force protection for our troops, as well as the rest of our Coalition Forces.
The writer frames this as a kind of payback/pissing match scenario, with CIA and the NYT ganging up on DoD. Frankly, it's the first I've heard of it.
If anyone can put me some f'in knowledge, I'll try to update this post.
Hit the link for the full article.
Oh, and call the NYT and tell them not to do this. (Yeah, like they care.)
Update! Here, here for some background on CIA's efforts at undermining DoD operations.
NB: Please do note that at this time, AFAIK, the main post is single-sourced, and the supporting material is all by the same writer (although multiply-sourced, appears.)
Background on the eminence grise at CIA who might be causing the ruckus here.
Revenge of Update! Eminence Grise, Greased. Well, retired. Last night, apparently. Absolutely, positively nothing to see here.
Commenter The Q puts knowledge, per request, below the jump. Thank you, The Q.
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Obama's End Run Around Congress
—Gabriel Malor
Congress has delegated so much power to the Executive Branch that this type of power grab is not only possible, it's legal and it's common:
That's from Americans for Prosperity, an advocacy group. The group's vice president for policy had an opinion piece at Fox News over the weekend.
A taste:
While Congress considers sweeping new legislation to permanently institutionalize the bailouts and federal control of our financial system (right on the heels of their health care takeover, of course) several other sweeping power grabs are going on outside the spotlight of legislative debate. Indeed President Obama seems to believe that most of his sweeping agenda to transform the country can be accomplished without even a vote of Congress.
It's short; go read the whole thing.
Thanks to Mike S.
Video: Obama & Bush on Nuclear Terrorism - [Cuffy Meigs]
—Open Blogger
The latest video in my popular "Let's Make Lefty Heads Explode" series with near interchangeable clips of Obama and Bush talking about the threat of nuclear terrorism. Meet the new boss, moonbats:
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Smart Diplomacy: Syria Transfers Longer Range Missiles To Hezbollah
—DrewM.
Obama has been pretty clear about his desire to improve relations with Syria. He appointed an ambassador, which Bush had refused to do for a number of years, with the express idea of wooing Syria away from Iran and Hezbollah.
Baby Assad is unimpressed.
Syria has transferred long-range Scud missiles to the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, Israeli and U.S. officials alleged, in a move that threatens to alter the Middle East's military balance and sets back a major diplomatic outreach effort to Damascus by the Obama administration....
The Scuds are believed to have a range of more than 435 miles—placing Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Israel's nuclear installations all within range of Hezbollah's military forces. During a monthlong war with Israel in 2006, Hezbollah used rockets with ranges of 20 to 60 miles.
Israeli officials called Scud missiles "game-changing" armaments that mark a new escalation in the Mideast conflict. They alleged that Mr. Assad is increasingly linking Syria's military command with those of Hezbollah and Iran
...
A senior U.S. official involved in Mideast policy said Washington was uncertain why Mr. Assad would escalate tensions with Israel. But in recent months, Israeli and Syrian officials have publicly charged each other with preparing for war. The U.S. official said Syria's arms transfer could have been meant as a form of deterrence.
...
White House supporters replied that the U.S. needs close engagement with Syria all the more because of provocations like the Scud surprise, in order to be better placed to sway Syria."If anything, we need (an ambassador) in Damascus full time just to ensure that reality gets its day in court now and then," a senior administration official said.
Well, I'm sure our new ambassador, who was approved by the Senate Foreign Affairs committee today, will give Dr. Assad the same kind of dressing down Prime Minister Netanyahu received from Secretary of State Clinton and Vice President Biden.
And don't worry, Sen. John Kerry says Syria is committed to peace. Uh huh.
I love how the unnamed administration official idly wonders if maybe this move is defensive in nature. Damn Jews always threatening terrorists!
Back in the real world, why would Assad to this? Well, let's take a quick stroll around the neighborhood...Obama can't wait to get out of Iraq and has shown zero interest in changing Iran's political structure or dealing with their nuclear program. The only things he's shown real interest in is snuggling up to tyrants and slapping Israel around as much as possible.
Assad on the other hand is in bed with Iran and their assorted terror groups.
It's pretty clear that Iran looks at Israel as the only real threat to their nuclear ambitions, so they had their under-boss in Damascus ship some weapons to the foot soldiers in the field.
The message from the home office in Iran? "Attack us and guess what you're going to be facing 10 minutes later."
It's pretty clear that not only won't Assad pay a price for doing this with his new found friend in the White House but he will probably receive all sorts of new goodies. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for Obama to lift the sanctions on Syria or exert pressure on Israel to deal with Syria on the Golan Heights or other bilateral matters. In exchange Syria will no doubt deliver some nebulous promises of cooperation and good behavior.
Thanks to Obama's super awesome powers of diplomacy, thugs can smell America's weakening resolve. Now we see what that translates to on the ground... Israel has a new military threat to factor into their Iranian calculations and they have confirmation that Obama's willingness deep held desire to put daylight between Israel and the US is emboldening mid-level players like Syria against them.
It's almost as if a weak America invites not cooperation but more aggressive behavior form thug nations. Who knew?
Fuckabee moves to Hlorida.
—Jack M.
Is this significant? Could be. Might indicate he isn't planning on running in 2012 as he likes raking in the Fox cash more than remaining in his "home turf". Might mean he is running because he wants to claim a more electorally important/delegate rich home state. Could mean neither option.
I don't care, really. I just wanted to type that headline.
Democrats in Retreat on Signature Issues
—Gabriel Malor
Just for the election season, mind, but there's no indication that putting this stuff on the back burner now is going to help them in November.
First, Claire McCaskill says that card-check isn't going to come back this year and she seems to realize that Democrat policies are in trouble:
"It has not come up, and believe me: If card-check, the way it was drafted, was going to come up, it probably would have come up early in 2009, as opposed to now."
Yesterday, Harry Reid noted that comprehensive immigration reform isn't a priority either.
Seven months between now and the election. Will the memory of Dem overreaching fade to soon?
Bailout Mania: Democrats Now Want To Bail Out Schools
—DrewM.
Of course, it's all for the children. And by "children" what they really mean is bloated teacher salaries, pension and health care plans.
Meh, close enough for government work.
The Senate's leading Democrat on education issues proposed a $23 billion bailout Wednesday to help public schools across the country avert widespread layoffs, a sequel to the economic stimulus law that has propped up teetering state budgets for the past year.The Obama administration immediately expressed support for an education jobs bill to help states through fiscal crisis, hoping to build momentum for the proposal from Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).
In an appropriations hearing on Capitol Hill, Harkin noted that layoffs of teachers and other school personnel could exceed 100,000 before the next school year starts. The budget axe is falling in school systems from Prince George's County to Los Angeles, prompting an array of education groups to mobilize for help.
"We must act soon," Harkin said. "This is not something we can fix in August. We have to fix it now." Harkin is chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on education.
The Democratic-led House late last year approved a measure of similar scope to help save education jobs, but it stalled in the Senate. Whether Harkin's proposal will gain traction remains to be seen. Senate Republicans, who have opposed the Democratic majority on most spending programs, can seek to block legislation through filibuster.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan seconded Harkin's assessment of the gravity of the situation facing schools. He estimated that schools face layoffs in the range of 100,000 to 300,000.
Of course the Repbulicans are shouting bloody murder about this. Well, er, not so much it turns out.
Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) said after the hearing that he was considering Harkin's proposal. "We cannot get ahead by underfunding education," he said.
Damn northeast RINOs. Wait a second...
A couple of things,
Kirsten Gillibrand must feel like a real cheap date only asking for $1 billion for grocery stores. What's the difference between a senior senator and a freshman? Apparently $22 billion.
The federal government doesn't actually have any money. It's broke and living on borrowing. It's in no position to bail anyone out.
People may lose their jobs? Those left behind might have to contribute to more to their own pension and health care? Welcome to the world everyone else is living in. There's no reason teachers and other government hacks should be immune for the realities of the world.
Well, there's one reason...Democrats need union voters to turn out this November if they are to have any hope of slowing down the building Republican tsunami. If they have to spend our money or the money of the next 3 or 4 generations to do it, well, that's no skin of their nose.
Open Blog
—Ace
You probably noticed my output has declined to almost nothing. I did, too.
I think I just need to take a week off to recharge. Just after ObamaCare passed I got a bad case of burnout, writer's block, and a little depression.
So, I'm thinking I just need to step away from the blog through the weekend and get my mojo back. Instead of doing this thing where I'm putting up weaksauce stuff and just waiting for the weekend.
Sorry for the weak performance the past several weeks. I'll get my head on straight.
Nomentum: Waxman Cancels Show Trial of CEOs
—Gabriel Malor
Democrat Chief Inquisitor Henry Waxman has retreated from his attempt to intimidate companies who dare speak out about the costs and consequences of Obamacare.His April 21 witch hunt session has been cancelled, according to left-wingers. (Update: Fox also reporting same.)
Someone must have told him that publicly-traded businesses are required to publicize when they take a charge against earnings. With ObamaCare trending ever more unpopular, he must have realized that chastising CEOs for complying with the law would only make Democrats look more out of step with America.
