The Manchurian Democrat Strikes Again

Congressional Democrats are freaking out at Barack Obama's repeated attempts to gut cut Social Security:

Democratic senators are pleading with President Obama to abandon his proposal to trim Social Security benefits before it becomes a liability for them in the midterm elections.

The president proposed a new formula for calculating benefits in his budget last year, in hopes that the olive branch to Republicans would persuade them to back tax increases in a broader fiscal deal.

But Democratic lawmakers say Obama should shelve the idea now that they are facing a difficult midterm election where they need to turn out the liberal base to preserve their Senate majority.

“I’m not sure why we should be making concessions when the Republicans show absolutely no willingness to do the same,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).

Democrats acknowledge it may be awkward for Obama to rescind his proposal, but say it would unwise of him to repeat the offer in the budget that is due out next month.

“I think it’s difficult for the president to pull it back after he already floated it but I would love to see it shelved until Republicans show they’re actually going to do something on their side of the ledger,” Murphy said.

Obama proposed nearly $1 trillion in spending cuts in his budget, including a switch to using the Chained Consumer Price Index (CPI), which liberal policy experts estimate could cost seniors thousands of dollars in benefits over their lifetimes.

Senator Bernie Sanders nails the consequences of such a policy in a nutshell:

“I certainly hope that the president has learned a lesson from this whole process,” Sanders said. “To be honest with you, I just can’t imagine what staff people gave him the disastrous advice to propose a chain CPI, which from both a public policy point of view and political point of view is totally absurd.”

First, it's bad politics.  Second, the "Chained" CPI does not accurately reflect the cost of living of Seniors, which is dominated by healthcare costs.

Senate Democrats should be more forceful about opposing this proposal, and if some of them were to say that they would support a filibuster of any such proposal, it would be a much needed warning to Obama.

Tom Tomorrow looks more prescient every year:

One Reason that My Insurance is Not Through the Exchanges

Because Maryland's insurance exchange is completely f%$#ed up:

More than a year before Maryland launched its health insurance exchange, senior state officials failed to heed warnings that no one was ultimately accountable for the $170 million project and that the state lacked a plausible plan for how it would be ready by Oct. 1.

Over the following months, as political leaders continued to proclaim that the state’s exchange would be a national model, the system went through three different project managers, the feuding between contractors hired to build the online exchange devolved into lawsuits, and key people quit, including a top information technology official because, as he would later say, the project “was a disaster waiting to happen.”

The repeated warnings culminated days before the launch, with one from contractors testing the Web site that said it was “extremely unstable” and another from an outside consultant that urged state officials not to let residents enroll in health plans because there was “no clear picture” of what would happen when the exchange would turn on.

Within moments of its launch at noon Oct. 1, the Web site crashed in a calamitous debut that was supposed to be a crowning moment for Maryland officials who had embraced President Obama’s Affordable Care Act and pledged to build a state-run exchange that would be unparalleled.

Instead, by the next morning only four people had signed up using the Web site — and amazed that anyone had gotten through the system successfully, state officials contacted each of them to make sure they were real. The site’s problems continue to prevent Marylanders from signing up for health insurance. As of Friday, 20,358 people had selected private plans, and state officials have said they do not expect to come close to their initial goal of 150,000 by the end of March.

This report is based on a Washington Post review of thousands of pages of previously undisclosed documents, including e-mails, internal reports, audits and court records, along with interviews with dozens of current and former contractors, state officials and others. The review shows that the creation of the exchange was dysfunctional from the start and that there were repeated missteps at almost every level.

I had to do something, MHIP was going away in June, as a result of the implementation of the PPACA, but the web site is a horror show.

It pushed me to take a serious look at the plan offered by the job shop that cuts my paycheck, and it turned out that an HSA offered through my employer, with the attendant tax advantages of pretax contributions, was the best deal.

Kewlest School Bus Ever!* (Updated)

Updated Pic. Starfleet Transportation

We were driving to an SCA event in DC, and I drove by a school bus, and saw this.

I pointed it put to Natalie, who then snapped these pix.

[on update]

There were issues with the photographs, etc.  because of the mobile posting app.

So I have updated this to include:

• Proper superscripting.
• Replaced two identical pictures with two different ones.

BTW, in case you missed it, the bus is from Starfleet Transportation.

^*Obviously, I am limiting my set "School Bus" to those vehicles that are actually colored school bus colors.

Posted via mobile.

Libertarians Owned by Colorado Marijuana Legalization

Over at Pruning Shears, Dan Fejes the incredibly conspicuous silence of Libertarians, and the Libertarian movement on pot legalization in Colorado:

For as long as I can remember the joke about libertarians is that they are Republicans who like to smoke pot. Those who identify as libertarian seem to go to great lengths to point out their ideological differences with Republicans (and conservatives more generally). They stress liberty above all and oppose anything - like, say, non-military government spending - they perceive as even peripherally infringing on it. In addition to heartily approving of the freedom to, say, die without insurance, libertarians have long denounced the drug war as a hateful incursion on peoples’ freedom.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many opportunities to tease out whether libertarians truly are independent gadflies or just slightly heterodox Republicans. To get a solid answer, we would need to see one of their favored policies enacted. Since their ideas (agree with them or not) aren’t really in the political mainstream, their commitment to them never really gets put to the test.

Happily, the decriminalization of marijuana in Colorado provides just one of those rare cases. Libertarians have long criticized the drug war, with leading voices such as Radley Balko and John Stossel weighing in against it, Matt Welch reporting on its hoped-for demise, and so on. (This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive survey. I pick up libertarian names from ambient political noise, so in this post I checked ones I was familiar with.)

………

We aren’t hearing that; what we are mostly hearing is crickets. If this really meant as much to libertarians as they’ve always claimed, they should be shouting the news from the rooftops - but that would not sit well with the GOP establishment. Or: They can either act as gadflies or as slightly heterodox Republicans. Most are choosing the latter. While that’s a little disappointing I can’t honestly say it’s surprising.

This is telling.

Not only are the "mainstream" Libertarians remarkably quiet about all this, but the Ron Paul "batsh%$ insane" wing is quiet as well.

Libertarians: Nothing more than a way for some people to feel good about pulling the lever for Republicans.

Uh-Oh………

Labor force participation rate

It looks like the Fed was a little bit premature in its decision to ease off quantitative easing:

Today’s U.S. unemployment figures were surprisingly bad. Only 74,000 jobs were added to payrolls in December, barely half what analysts had expected. The news was a reminder of how far from normal the economy still is -- and of how tricky it will be for Janet Yellen, who’s about to take over as chairman of the Federal Reserve, to explain the central bank’s policy.

That jobs number by itself is more worrisome than alarming. It’s a noisy statistic, subject to seasonal disturbances and big revisions. But it can’t be dismissed, either. It’s enough to suggest that the economic acceleration that looked to be getting under way in recent months isn’t yet a done deal. Some of the markets’ recent enthusiasm on that score needs to be reined in - - and, thanks to these numbers, it will be.

At first sight, the big fall in the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent from 7 percent tells a much happier story. Sadly, no. The fall reflects a further drop in the number of people looking for work. A shrinking labor force reduces the economy’s productive capacity, to say nothing of the effect on the dropouts’ prospects. And the proportion of long-term unemployed -- the workers most at risk of dropping out of the jobs market in future months -- remains close to 40 percent of the total.

In one way, the implications for policy are clear: This is no time to be tightening either fiscal or monetary policy. Extending unemployment benefits, which already made sense on economic and humanitarian grounds, is now all but mandatory. If this can be financed by extra borrowing rather than by offsetting cuts in other spending, so much the better: Some new fiscal stimulus, however modest, wouldn’t go amiss.

The bad jobs news will make the Fed think twice about its plan to phase out asset purchases -- the policy of quantitative easing, which it has been using to supply unconventional monetary stimulus. Until better numbers come along, this policy may be paused or even reversed, a possibility Chairman Ben S. Bernanke mentioned in his last news conference. Financial markets will also expect a delay in any decision to start raising interest rates. On news like this, the Fed will want to avoid any suspicion of wishing to tighten monetary conditions.

It is true that these numbers can be volatile, but it has to give the Federal Reserve a case of gas.

Remember I Promised to Post Maddow's Video of an Alternate Motive for the Bridge Rat F%$#ing?

Kinda long, 17:51, but worth the watch

Well, here is the video.

We still don't have a clue as to why the hell Christie aides, and possibly Christie himself, decided to make the George Washington Bridge the largest parking lot on the Hudson river, but what is presented here is certainly credible.

I really hope that someone rolls on their co-conspirators, because the justification for something this epically stupid will be fascinating.

Because ……… Freedumb!

Specifically, Freedumb Industries, who just dumped massive quantities of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol-methylcyclohexane methanol into West Virginia's Elk River upstream of the water treatment plant, leaving hundreds of thousands without water:

A chemical spill along a West Virginia river on Thursday triggered a tap water ban for up to 300,000 people, shutting down schools, bars and restaurants and forcing residents to line up for bottled water at stores.

Governor Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency for nine counties following the spill of 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol, a chemical used in the coal industry.

The spill occurred on the Elk River in Charleston, West Virginia's capital and largest city, just upriver from the eastern U.S. state's largest water treatment plant.

Why did this Happen? Because ……… Freedumb!

Today, at the time they were shutting off water for all those people, the House of Representatives voted to gut the Superfund act.

Why, Because ……… Freedumb!

The House passed legislation Thursday aimed at easing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules and requiring more cooperation between the EPA and states on environmental cleanup projects.

Members voted 225-188 in favor of the Reducing Excessive Deadline Obligations Act, H.R. 2279. The bill is made up of three Republican bills that were combined together, and it includes some provisions that House Democrats found unobjectionable while they were considered in committee.

The bill was supported by just five Democrats in the final vote, while four Republicans voted against it.

Specifically, it removes a requirement that the EPA revise solid waste disposal regulations every three years, and prohibits the government from imposing solid waste regulations on states that overlap current state-wide rules.

Other language in the bill would require all federally owned facilities to comply with state rules on hazardous substances, and require the government to consult more closely with states before imposing cleanup requirements under Superfund, the federal program that funds the cleanup of abandoned waste sites.

The legislation would also ensure that if a state has rules requiring companies in polluting industries to post a bond or offer other financial sureties for possible cleanup costs, those rules cannot be affected by possible rules the EPA might develop in the future.

………

But several Democrats criticized the legislation as an attempt to weaken current law. Many argued that the bonding language would let companies avoid the cost of cleaning up pollution, and pass those costs onto taxpayers.

"The outcome of enacting this bill should be obvious," said House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). "If polluters don't pay to clean up their pollution, then it just becomes one more burden to the taxpayer, and none of us should want that."

Others argued that the bill could further confuse how the federal government and the states must work together on clean-up efforts, which could slow down that process. That argument was also made by the Obama administration earlier this week, in a statement saying President Obama would veto the bill.

"H.R. 2279 would unnecessarily increase the potential for litigation between the Federal government and the States, negatively impacting the timeliness and number of cleanups," the White House wrote.

Why are they doing such a stupid thing, and why are they doing it on the day of what looks to be one of the worst chemical spills?

Because ……… Freedumb!

Un-Dirtyword, Believable

Jon Stewart Thinks that Chris Christie's Problem is that he is Caught Up In a Piss-Poor, 3rd Rate Quality of Corruption

Part 1


Part Deux

Jon Stewart brought on The Daily Show's New Jersey correspondent ……… Jon Stewart, who excoriated Christie on the scandal:

I'm ashamed of the state I grew up. Political payback through traffic congestion? To see New Jersey sink to such a piss-poor, 3^rd-rate quality of corruption... this is New Jersey. A state renowned for its piss-rich, first-rate quality of corruption!

Rather surprisingly, he is gentle about all this to Christie, by the standards of Jon Stewart, anyway.  (Apart from that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?)

Watch both vids.  They are some of his best work.

Of rather more interest is Rachael Maddow's theory of motivation, which has nothing to do with endorsement for the Governor's race.

Maddow suggests that the issue was actually driven by a conflict over appointing state Supreme Court Judges, and that this was not directed at the mayor, but rather at the Democratic leader of the New Jersey Senate, who represents Fort Lee, was the actual target.

The video is not available yet, but I will try to post it tomorrow.

F%$#ing Civil Liberties, How Do They Work?

Insane Clown Posse - Miracles, (Completely NSFW) it explains the reference in the post title

It's not odd that a group would object to being characterized as a criminal gang by the FBI.

What is odd when a the group in question are fans of music group.

Here's a hint to the FBI, if you are being accused of being over the top by a a group called Insane Clown Posse, and they are making cogent arguments that the response is excessive and an unconstitutional violation of the constitutional right to free assembly, perhaps it is time for some self examination:

The Michigan rap group Insane Clown Posse filed suit on Wednesday against the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, saying that the United States government had made the “unwarranted and unlawful decision” to classify fans of the band as criminal gang members, leading to their harassment by law enforcement and causing them “significant harm.”

The lawsuit was filed in Federal District Court in Detroit by lawyers for the band and for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. Plaintiffs include the Insane Clown Posse founders Joseph Bruce and Joseph Utsler, who perform as Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, and whose fans call themselves Juggalos.

Also listed as plaintiffs are four Juggalos from Nevada, California, North Carolina and Iowa, who offered details of incidents in which they said they had been subjected to police harassment or other punishments for identifying with Insane Clown Posse.

………

The seeds of this lawsuit were sown in 2011, when the F.B.I.’s National Gang Intelligence Center published a report that described Juggalos as “a loosely organized hybrid gang” whose members were “expanding into many U.S. communities.”

The report, titled “National Gang Threat Assessment: Emerging Trends,” cited a 2011 incident in which “two suspected Juggalo associates were charged with beating and robbing an elderly homeless man,” and another in 2010 in which “a suspected Juggalo member” shot and wounded two other people.

The report also included a photograph of a woman described as a “Juggalo member,” wearing face paint similar to the kind used by Insane Clown Posse and pointing a gun at the camera.

………

The lawsuit asks the court to set aside the findings of the 2011 F.B.I. gang assessment, order the elimination of “criminal intelligence information” on Juggalos from government and law-enforcement databases and prohibit the gathering of further information without “sufficient facts” of a “definable criminal activity or enterprise.”

Mark Parsons, a Juggalo from Las Vegas and one of the plaintiffs listed in the suit, said in the complaint that he had been detained in July by state troopers outside Knoxville, Tenn., for displaying Insane Clown Posse’s insignia, known as “the hatchet man,” on his semi truck.

………

Jeff Engstrom, a lawyer and blogger who writes at Abovethelaw.com under the pseudonym Juggalo Law, said in an email that the government’s actions were “laughably off base” and “the equivalent of placing Phish fans on a terrorist watch list.” He added, “It elevates an Internet punch line into something even more absurd.”

You've seen this FBI report used to cancel concerts, refuse enlistments in the military, and deny custody in divorces.

This is not just a bit of silliness. This is a McCarthyesque abuse of power, and I hope that ICP, and the ACLU get their case to court, get the full story, and discover which nut job did this.

Whoever did this should not be in law enforcement.

Guess Who is Seen as the Greatest Threat to World Peace in the World Today?

USA!!! USA!!! USA!!!:

US President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize four years ago. Today, the country he leads is seen — according to a new poll — as the biggest threat to world peace.

The global survey, conducted by WIN/Gallup International, polled residents in 68 countries on everything from the global economy to politics and living conditions.

According to the poll, 24 percent of the surveyed countries ranked the United States as the greatest threat to world peace today, followed by Pakistan at 8 percent, China at 6 percent and four countries (Afghanistan, Iran, Israel and North Korea) tied at 5 percent.

Thirty-seven percent of Mexicans ranked their northern neighbor the top threat to the world.

We're Number One!!!!! We're Number One!!!!!

Gee, I wonder if the Swedes are feeling now about about giving President Drone Strike a f%$#ing Nobel f%$#ing Peace Prize.

Dafuque?!?!?!?

This is a sign of the apocalypse

I went to UMass from 1983 to 1987.

I got my degree there.

There was a fair amount of weirdness there when I went there.  I imagine that there is still a fair amount of weirdness there now.

At least, there is symmetry.

Still, nothing could prepare me fopr tne news that UMass was rated as having the best college food in the nation.^*

I remember eating there.

I remember when my friends ordered pizza delivered to the cafeteria.

I remember when they served chicken pucks.  I remember when they served chicken pucks with tomato sauce and mystery cheese, and they called it "chicken parmesan."  (I called it "scabs", which my table partners did not appreciate.)

What the f%$# has happened to my alma mater?

^*And yes, "having the best college food in the nation," is a lot like being the, "World's tallest midget," or being the, "Nation's most ethical Republican."

It's Jobless Thursday!

H/T Steve Benin for the graph pr0n.

The initial unemployment claims numbers are out, with initial claims falling by 15K to 330K, and the 4-week moving average falling to 349K.

Continuing claims increased by 50K to 2.87 million, and as to extended claims, there are none, because the House let extended benefits expire.

Preach It, Brother

I agree with New York Times reporter Richard Pérez-Peña, that the range for the baby boom generation, 1946 to 1964, covers two distinct generations:

There is no baby boom generation.

Oh, sure, there was a baby boom: a neatly defined, pig-in-the-python bulge from 1946 to 1964. But the kind of broadly shared cultural experiences that could bind together people across that whole span? That just didn’t happen.

This year the youngest of the baby boomers — the youngest, mind you — turn 50. I hit that milestone a few months back. But we aren’t what people usually have in mind when they talk about boomers. They mean the early boomers, the postwar cohort, most of them now in their 60s —not us later boomers, labeled “Generation Jones” by the writer Jonathan Pontell.

I never had to worry about being drafted and sent to Vietnam.

I wasn't a part of the job market until after the post war economic dynamism, along with the great compression between rich and poor, had ended.

I do not remember the Kennedy assassination.

I do not remember when the Beatles came to the US.

I do not remember the civil rights protests.

When I entered college, it was Punk and New Wave, not folksong inspired protest songs.

I have never felt any kinship with the generational experiences of the early Boomers.

I would also note that my experience is somewhat atypical, I was born in 1962, and lived in Alaska from 1963-1969, so I missed the 60s even from the perspective as a child.

Alaska was much more isolated than it is now.  It didn't even get direct dialed long distance until after we left the state.

Winner of This Week's Award for Stupid Motherf%$#er With a Gun Is………

 Jerome M. Hauer, commissioner of the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services,  who pulled his loaded Glock in a state office building and used the laser sight to point at locations on a map:

Jerome M. Hauer, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's director of homeland security, took out his handgun and used the laser sighting device attached to the barrel as a pointer in a presentation to a foreign delegation, according to public officials. It happened Oct. 24 in Albany at the highly secure state emergency operations center below State Police headquarters.

These officials, one of whom claimed to be an eyewitness, said that three Swedish emergency managers in the delegation were rattled when the gun's laser tracked across one of their heads before Hauer found the map of New York, at which he wanted to point.

Hauer, commissioner of the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, was disabled by a stroke a few years ago and can be unsteady. He isn't a law enforcement official. He carries the loaded 9-millimeter Glock in a holster into state buildings, an apparent violation of state law barring state employees from bringing weapons to the workplace, several witnesses say.

So, you have a guy who, "can be unsteady" from a stroke waving a gun around in a meeting in order to use it as a laser pointer.

Am I the only one to think that maybe this guy not only should not have a gun permit, but that he should not cut his own steak, because he is too out of it to use a sharp knife?

H/T Talking Points Memo.

Bridgegate

The Chris Christie George Washington Bridge shutdown scandal has hit the big time, or times, specifically the New York Times, which is now writing about what only be called smoking gun emails: (You can peruse the emails here)

The mystery of who closed two lanes onto the George Washington Bridge — turning the borough of Fort Lee, N.J., into a parking lot for four days in September — exploded into a full-bore political scandal for Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday. Emails and texts revealed that a top aide had ordered the closings to punish the town’s mayor after he did not endorse the governor for re-election.

“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Bridget Anne Kelly, a deputy chief of staff to Mr. Christie, emailed David Wildstein, a high school friend of the governor who worked at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the bridge.

Later text messages mocked concerns that school buses filled with students were stuck in gridlock: “They are the children of Buono voters,” Mr. Wildstein wrote, referring to Mr. Christie’s opponent Barbara Buono.

The emails are striking in their political maneuvering, showing Christie aides gleeful about some of the chaos that resulted. Emergency vehicles were delayed in responding to three people with heart problems and a missing toddler, and commuters were left fuming. One of the governor’s associates refers to the mayor of Fort Lee as “this little Serbian,” and Ms. Kelly exchanges messages about the plan while she is in line to pay her respects at a wake.

First, it should be noted that the mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, is not a Serb, he is of Croatian extraction, so I am pretty sure that the hizonner the mayor is even more pissed off now.

So, now Jabba the Governor is saying that he was misled by his staff, the last refuge of scoundrels:

What I've seen today for the first time is unacceptable. I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge. One thing is clear: this type of behavior is unacceptable and I will not tolerate it because the people of New Jersey deserve better. This behavior is not representative of me or my Administration in any way, and people will be held responsible for their actions.

Yes, misled, that's the ticket.

We also know that the traffic backup hindered emergency services, and may have resulted in the death of a 91 year old woman:

Emergency responders were delayed in attending to four medical situations – including one in which a 91-year-old woman lay unconscious – due to traffic gridlock caused by unannounced closures of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge, according to the head of the borough’s EMS department.

The woman later died, borough records show.

In at least two of those instances, response time doubled, noted EMS coordinator Paul Favia, who documented those cases in a Sept. 10 letter to Mayor Mark Sokolich, which The Record obtained.

On Sept. 9, the first day of the traffic paralysis, EMS crews took seven to nine minutes to arrive at the scene of a vehicle accident where four people were injured, when the response time should have been less than four minutes, he wrote.

It also took EMS seven minutes to reach an unconscious 91-year-old woman who later died of cardiac arrest at a hospital. Although he did not say her death was directly caused by the delays, Favia noted that “paramedics were delayed due to heavy traffic on Fort Lee Road and had to meet the ambulance en-route to the hospital instead of on the scene.”

I think that the definitive word so far on all this comes from, of all places, the New York Daily News who started their article with:, "In the best possible light, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie built a top staff of lying thugs who threatened lives and safety to serve his political ends. If not, Christie is a lying thug himself."

Whether he specifically knew or not, it is clear that Christie is a bully and a punk, and he surrounded himself with bullies and punks.

So Debate has Started, but can They End It?

Today's vote to allow debate to begin on continuing emergency unemployment compensation is not the same thing as either voting for the bill, nor is it a vote to shut off debate.

Instead, it is posturing by Republicans with a dash of blackmail down the road thrown in:

If you think Tuesday’s vote in the Senate to extend unemployment benefits means that Washington has finally come to its senses, think again. Although six Republican senators broke with their party and joined Democrats in supporting the notion of preserving benefits for about 1.3 million Americans who have been out of work for more than six months, this was just a procedural vote that paves the way for a full debate on the measure. And Republicans, in both the Senate and the House, have made clear that they won’t approve any actual legislation unless the White House agrees to cut spending in other areas, to cover the cost of the extension—about 6.4 billion dollars over ten years.

From a political perspective, it’s easy to see the appeal of this maneuver. Going into an election year, the last thing the Republicans want is to be depicted as heartless goons with no sympathy for the millions of Americans struggling to find work, the blameless victims of the Great Recession and its aftermath. (Of course, this is exactly how the Democrats would like to portray them.) At the same time, though, the average G.O.P. congressman or senator lives in mortal fear of upsetting right-wing groups, such as Heritage Action for America and the Club for Growth, which are leading the fight against extending jobless benefits. (On Monday, Heritage Action said it would include the Senate vote on its “legislative scorecard,” which ranks elected officials on their fealty to the conservative cause.)

Personally, I would call the Republican's bluff, and cut things like abstinence only education and oil company subsidies, and maybe tax private jets, but I am not an elected official, nor do I work for one.

AT&T is Evil, but Thankfully, they are also Stupid

There must be something about their heritage as "Ma Bell" that leads them overplay their hand.

The FCC gave a space for wireless providers, and AT&T jumped full in with a pay for play Internet:

Today, AT&T announced a "Sponsored Data" plan that would put it in a position to pick winners and losers online. This plan would require that Internet services pay to make sure customers are able to view their content by exempting it from data caps. Service providers that can't meet the price tag that AT&T sets could be left behind.

The following can be attributed to Michael Weinberg, Acting Co-President:

"The FCC needs to protect consumers and creators from internet service providers (ISPs) who want to pick winners and losers online. This is but the latest example of how data caps are increasingly becoming used to threaten the open internet. As AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson announced in May, data caps are all about forcing content creators to pay and are no longer about any sort of network congestion. In December, Stephenson admitted to investors that they had addressed the network capacity issues that were used to justify data caps in the first place. It is time for the FCC to heed Public Knowledge's over two year old call to investigate data caps and gather basic information about their use. It is impossible for the FCC to examine the impact of today's announcement on net neutrality until it develops an understanding of data caps.

"When it was reported in May that ESPN was in negotiations with a major carrier to pay to be exempt from data caps, Public Knowledge highlighted that this was an obvious violation of net neutrality. The company that connects you to the internet should not be in a position to control what you do on the internet. AT&T's announcement positions itself to do just that.

"In addition to being a ripoff for both consumers and content creators, AT&T's plan erects a massive barrier in front of anyone hoping to be the next big thing online."

In addition to the more general philosophical concerns addressed above by Public Knowledge, the Daily Beast observes AT&T's new business model is primarily an attempt to stop investing in improving its network and start shaking down content providers:

AT&T has proudly moved past the days when the iPhone crashed its network for millions of excited subscribers.  In May of last year CEO Randall Stephenson told investors that AT&T anticipated reducing expenditures on its network and that data caps were really about charging content providers He repeated his confidence in AT&T’s network in December.

The sponsored data plan itself further highlights AT&T’s confidence in its network: if the network truly was fragile AT&T probably would not be inviting creators to dump a lot more content onto it.  Any problems in the network that exist going forward should be traced back to the fact that AT&T is investing in its special paid access lanes instead of the parts of the network available to everyone else.

Furthermore, even if AT&T is painting an overly rosy picture to investors and deluding itself about its network capacity, monthly data caps are an incredibly inefficient way to deal with momentary network congestion.

But they are a great way to gouge content creators.

And let us not forget that it's not just AT&T that is trying to junk copper, and replace it with overpriced and limited wireless. Remember how Verizon tried to foist Voice Link™ fixed wireless on the residents of Fire Island, NY?

What about people who don't live in places like Owings Mills, MD?  People who not only cannot choose between Comcast Xfinity or FIOS?

What about poor neighborhoods, or rural neighborhoods, where the Telcos are systematically starving land line infrastructure?

The consumer is going to get F%$#ed over this.

Burglars Who Took On F.B.I. Abandon Shadows - NYTimes.com

Now We Know Who These Heroes Are

On March 8, 1971, in Media, PA, a group of anonymous brave dissidents stole records from a local FBI office, revealing J. Edgar Hoover's COINTELPRO program, of domestic spying and sabotage, and they mailed to various media sources.

Well, they are no longer anonymous:

The perfect crime is far easier to pull off when nobody is watching.

So on a night nearly 43 years ago, while Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier bludgeoned each other over 15 rounds in a televised title bout viewed by millions around the world, burglars took a lock pick and a crowbar and broke into a Federal Bureau of Investigation office in a suburb of Philadelphia, making off with nearly every document inside.

They were never caught, and the stolen documents that they mailed anonymously to newspaper reporters were the first trickle of what would become a flood of revelations about extensive spying and dirty-tricks operations by the F.B.I. against dissident groups.

The burglary in Media, Pa., on March 8, 1971, is a historical echo today, as disclosures by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden have cast another unflattering light on government spying and opened a national debate about the proper limits of government surveillance. The burglars had, until now, maintained a vow of silence about their roles in the operation. They were content in knowing that their actions had dealt the first significant blow to an institution that had amassed enormous power and prestige during J. Edgar Hoover’s lengthy tenure as director.

“When you talked to people outside the movement about what the F.B.I. was doing, nobody wanted to believe it,” said one of the burglars, Keith Forsyth, who is finally going public about his involvement. “There was only one way to convince people that it was true, and that was to get it in their handwriting.”

Mr. Forsyth, now 63, and other members of the group can no longer be prosecuted for what happened that night, and they agreed to be interviewed before the release this week of a book written by one of the first journalists to receive the stolen documents. The author, Betty Medsger, a former reporter for The Washington Post, spent years sifting through the F.B.I.’s voluminous case file on the episode and persuaded five of the eight men and women who participated in the break-in to end their silence.

Unlike Mr. Snowden, who downloaded hundreds of thousands of digital N.S.A. files onto computer hard drives, the Media burglars did their work the 20th-century way: they cased the F.B.I. office for months, wore gloves as they packed the papers into suitcases, and loaded the suitcases into getaway cars. When the operation was over, they dispersed. Some remained committed to antiwar causes, while others, like John and Bonnie Raines, decided that the risky burglary would be their final act of protest against the Vietnam War and other government actions before they moved on with their lives.

These people are patriots and heroes, and the end

The passage of years has worn some of the edges off the once radical political views of John and Bonnie Raines. But they said they felt a kinship toward Mr. Snowden, whose revelations about N.S.A. spying they see as a bookend to their own disclosures so long ago.

They know some people will criticize them for having taken part in something that, if they had been caught and convicted, might have separated them from their children for years. But they insist they would never have joined the team of burglars had they not been convinced they would get away with it.

“It looks like we’re terribly reckless people,” Mr. Raines said. “But there was absolutely no one in Washington — senators, congressmen, even the president — who dared hold J. Edgar Hoover to accountability.”

“It became pretty obvious to us,” he said, “that if we don’t do it, nobody will.”

Law breaking and abuse of power, revealed by patriots.

J. Edgar Hoover was a deeply evil man who had no respect at all for civil rights and due process, and he had managed to blackmail his way into an unassailable center of power, and they helped stop him.

The distribution of these documents to the press, may not have been the end of abuses by the US state security apparatus, nor even the beginning of the end of abuses by the US state security apparatus, but at the very least it was the end of the beginning, to paraphrase Winston Churchill.

I would also note that in 1971 the press was not so cowed by the government that they would sit on the story, as the New York Times did in 2004.

People like this, and I am including Edward Snowden in this, are essential for the protection of democracy and civil rights.

Deep Thought

It's currently about 5° F (-15° C) outside.

I am considering wearing my winter coat.

The FBI's No Longer Chases Crooks. It Spies on Us

The FBI has officially removed law enforcement as its primary function, and replaced it with domestic national security:

The FBI's creeping advance into the world of counterterrorism is nothing new. But quietly and without notice, the agency has finally decided to make it official in one of its organizational fact sheets. Instead of declaring "law enforcement" as its "primary function," as it has for years, the FBI fact sheet now lists "national security" as its chief mission. The changes largely reflect the FBI reforms put in place after September 11, 2001, which some have criticized for de-prioritizing law enforcement activities. Regardless, with the 9/11 attacks more than a decade in the past, the timing of the edits is baffling some FBI-watchers.

"What happened in the last year that changed?" asked Kel McClanahan, a Washington-based national security lawyer.

McClanahan noticed the change last month while reviewing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the agency. The FBI fact sheet accompanies every FOIA response and highlights a variety of facts about the agency. After noticing the change, McClanahan reviewed his records and saw that the revised fact sheets began going out this summer. "I think they're trying to rebrand," he said. "So many good things happen to your agency when you tie it to national security."

………

"Violent crime, property crime and white-collar crime: All those things had reductions in the number of people available to investigate them," former FBI agent Brad Garrett told Foreign Policy. "Are there cases they missed? Probably."

Last month, Robert Holley, the special agent in charge in Chicago, said the agency's focus on terrorism and other crimes continued to affect the level of resources available to combat the violent crime plaguing the city. "If I put more resources on violent crime, I'd have to take away from other things," he told The Chicago Tribune.

So, now the FBI is in the business of manufacturing terrorism busts by entrapping Islamic losers who could not blow up a paper bag otherwise, not prosecuting interstate criminals, pursuing gun smugglers, or the banksters.

Their job is now to manufacture crimes on people who are disfavored, and spying on the rest of us.

Much Stasi anyone?

H/T Seriously, somewhere in Hell, Crooks and Liars.

Expected Unfabulousity

The Supreme Court has issued an order staying gay marriages in Utah.

This is not a surprise. It probably would have happened at the appellate level, but for the fact that the scandal crippled Utah Attorney General's office was to preoccupied to file an appeal in time.

Welcome Madam Chairman

The Senate has approved Janet Yellen as the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

While it important is that she is the first woman to Chair the Fed, more important is that she is not Larry Summers.

The Democratic wing of the Democratic Party managed to prevent Barack Obama from pursuing into his Wall Street Neoliberal inclinations.

Hopefully, this means we can stop him when he (once again) tries to sell out Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare in the name of a "Grand Bargain."

OK, I Did Not Expect this from Pope Francis

Francis' Message to The Culture Warrior Bishops

I know about outreach and all, but he just called for outreach to the children of LGBT and divorced parents:

Pope Francis has called for a rethink in the way the Catholic Church deals with the children of gay couples and divorced parents, warning against "administering a vaccine against faith."

"On an educational level, gay unions raise challenges for us today which for us are sometimes difficult to understand," Francis said in a speech to the Catholic Union of Superiors General in November, extracts of which were published on Italian media websites on Saturday.

………

The pontiff said educational leaders should ask themselves "how can we proclaim Christ to a generation that is changing?"

"We must be careful not to administer a vaccine against faith to them," the 77-year-old added.

Though the Church has often been in conflict with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community over its opposition to same-sex marriage and to homosexuality, Francis has drawn praise for attempts to be inclusive.

I think that is equal parts pragmatism (the current crop of Catholics are not getting any younger) and a new focus on ministry as a duty, but nonetheless I am impressed.

Linkage

• Australia’s sharks will now tweet before attacking - (Salon.com) Headline of the day
• Michael Hirsh Aims at Edward Snowden, Accidentally Blows Off Own Leg (MichaelMoore.com) In which Mr. Hirsh announces that American involvement in the Vietnam War ended before 1971, much to the surprise of the 250,000 troops stationed there, and even more of a surprise to the 2,414 servicemen killed in Indochina that year.
• For human rights to flourish, religious rights have to come second (The Guardian) Religious freedom does not include the right to oppress non-believers.
• I Was An NFL Player Until I Was Fired By Two Cowards And A Bigot (Deadspin) Former Viking punter Chris Kluwe makes a good case for his being let go for supporting LGBT civil rights

This is genius. You need to watch the whole minute thirteen.

This guy owes me a screen wipe.

This is an Affront to Human Decency

For anyone who has followed the conservative movement, it comes as no surprise when they alter reality to match their own conclusions.

However, the recent actions of dead eyed Canadian PM Stephen Harper go far beyond this. He is aggressively destroying historical documents in an attempt to prevent to double down on Canada's fossil fuel economy:

Back in 2012, when Canada's Harper government announced that it would close down national archive sites around the country, they promised that anything that was discarded or sold would be digitized first. But only an insignificant fraction of the archives got scanned, and much of it was simply sent to landfill or burned.
Unsurprisingly, given the Canadian Conservatives' war on the environment, the worst-faring archives were those that related to climate research. The legendary environmental research resources of the St. Andrews Biological Station in St. Andrews, New Brunswick are gone. The Freshwater Institute library in Winnipeg and the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Centre in St. John's, Newfoundland: gone. Both collections were world-class.

An irreplaceable, 50-volume collection of logs from HMS Challenger's 19th century expedition went to the landfill, taking with them the crucial observations of marine life, fish stocks and fisheries of the age. Update: a copy of these logs survives overseas.

The destruction of these publicly owned collections was undertaken in haste. No records were kept of what was thrown away, what was sold, and what was simply lost. Some of the books were burned.

The news source The Tyee has what I think is the money quote on all of this:

"It must be about ideology. Nothing else fits," said [Dalhousie University biologist Jeff] Hutchings. "What that ideology is, is not clear. Does it reflect that part of the Harper government that doesn't think government should be involved in the very things that affect our lives? Or is it that the role of government is not to collect books or fund science? Or is it the idea that a good government is stripped down government? "

Hutchings saw the library closures fitting a larger pattern of "fear and insecurity" within the Harper government, "about how to deal with science and knowledge."

That pattern includes the gutting of the Fisheries Act, the muzzling of scientists, the abandonment of climate change research and the dismantling of countless research programs, including the world famous Experimental Lakes Area. All these examples indicate that the Harper government strongly regards environmental science as a threat to unfettered resource exploitation.

"There is a group of people who don't know how to deal with science and evidence. They see it as a problem and the best way to deal with it is to cut it off at the knees and make it ineffective," explained Hutchings.

They are now literally book burning fascist barbarians, and they are destroying our heritage (all of us, not just Canadians) to pursue an agenda of greed and spoil.

This is unalloyed evil.

Unsustainable, Dangerous, and a Threat to the American Way of Life

I am referring, of course to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, whose price is twice what we are being told:

The massive government and industry lobbying and PR efforts behind the troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighter are starting to pay off for JSF-maker Lockheed Martin and the military users of the radar-evading jet.

In recent weeks several news outlets have repeated the pro-JSF camp’s assertion that the F-35—planned to be the main warplane for the Air Force and Marines and half the Navy’s future fighter fleet—will soon cost just $85 million a copy or less in near-future dollars, thanks to an increasingly efficient production line.

The “good news” helps bolster the $400-billion weapons program, the most expensive ever.

But it’s not true. Not by a long shot. The much-maligned, single-engine F-35—which suffers from a complex design and a lack of maneuverability—currently costs twice what its proponents are projecting. And don’t buy the argument that the jet’s sticker price will substantially drop in coming years. Lockheed’s been making that claim for a long time now, and it hasn’t happened yet.

………

To put the F-35-boosters’ claims in context, Winslow Wheeler, an analyst at the Project on Government Oversight in Washington, D.C., has calculated the true current cost of an F-35. It’s way more than anyone in official circles likes to admit.

Sticker shock

Forget the $85-million or $60-million figure being bandied about in the press. Each of the 29 F-35s the Pentagon is purchasing from Lockheed in 2014 costs between $182 million and $299 million. And that’s leaving out research and development spending since the late 1990s, which could soon exceed $50 billion and add $16 million to true long-term acquisition cost of each F-35.

No, Wheeler calculated only the per-plane production cost, which includes advance funding for long-lead parts, the main funding in the year of authorization plus modification funds to fix design flaws on the planes shortly after they roll out of the factory.

By that measure, one Air Force F-35A—the simplest of the three JSF models—currently costs $182 million. A vertical-landing Marine F-35B sets taxpayers back $252 million. The Navy’s carrier-compatible F-35C, still mired in serious development problems, comes in at a whopping $299 million per plane.

Bear in mind that in 2010, Lockheed predicted an F-35 would soon cost just $60 million. “Actual F-35 unit costs are today multiples of what Lockheed says they will be,” Wheeler points out.

This is insane.

We are living the Arthur C. Clarke story Superiority, (story here, read it, it is a hoot) which depicts a war lost by a superior power because of its superior scientific achievements, and its continual grasping for a technological leap forward.

Why We Can't Have Nice Stuff

Because our definition of "Nice Stuff" includes aircraft that require 4 years of repair work after an engine fire:

Almost four years after the Air Force said a B-2 sustained “minor damage,” the aircraft returned to the fleet at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., on Dec. 16, according to the service.

An engine fire grounded the “Spirit of Washington” in 2010. Since then, Air Force maintainers and engineers have worked to get one of the 20 B-2 stealth bombers remaining in the Air Force fleet back in the air.

The fact there are only 20 B-2s in the Air Force’s fleet increased the urgency of the repair and helped Air Force officials to make the decision not to scrap the project even though it took three years and nine months to complete.

………

Maintaining the B-2’s stealth qualities added to the challenge, according to officials. A particular challenge was removing the charcoal created by the fire from the aircraft’s skin.

Maintainers created a process in which they used dry ice pellets to remove charcoal from the skin.

The increasingly exotic technology upon which The Pentagon relies have become unsustainable.

It's Nice to Know that Someone Has a More F%$#ed Up Defense Procurement Process than the United States Does

I am referring, of course, to the Republic of India, which has a long history of incompetent weapons development programs (Arjun tank, Kaveri engine, etc.) and corrupt foreign purchases.

We have one of the latter right now, with the India Ministry of Defense cancelling a helicopter purchase in response to a bribery scandal:

India has reacted to the scandal surrounding its purchase of 12 VVIP-roled AgustaWestland AW101 helicopters with the apparent cancellation of the €556 million ($776 million) deal.

In a statement posted late on 1 January on the Indian ministry of defence website, it says it has "terminated with immediate effect the agreement that was signed with AgustaWestland on 8 February 2010 for the supply of 12 VVIP/VIP helicopters on grounds of breach of the pre-contract integrity pact”.

Although the Anglo-Italian manufacturer had been pressing for arbitration talks to resolve the stalled deal, New Delhi has seemingly rejected this.

“Based on the opinion received earlier from the attorney general of India, it has been the view of the government that integrity-related issues are not subject to arbitration,” it says.

Nonetheless, there appears to be some ambiguity about its position until the country's attorney general offers a fresh opinion. "However, [AgustaWestland] has since pressed for arbitration and appointed an arbitrator from its side. In view of this [the ministry of defence] sought afresh the opinion of the attorney general. With a view to safeguard the interests of the Government, [it has] nominated Mr Justice BP Jeevan Reddy as its arbitrator."

………

A total of €51 million is alleged to have been paid as kickbacks by AgustaWestland to secure the order, an accusation strenuously denied by the company.

I have no clue why much smaller nations, like Israel and Sweden, manage to create sophisticated and effective weapons systems.

You Have to be F%$#ing Terrified to F%$#ing Threaten the F%$#ing Pope

It appears that Pope Francis has spooked the 1%, because they are threatening the Pope and the Church:

If anyone wonders whether Pope Francis has irritated wealthy conservatives with his courage and idealism, the latest outburst from Kenneth Langone left little doubt. Sounding both aggressive and whiny, the billionaire investor warned that he and his overprivileged friends might withhold their millions from church and charity unless the pontiff stops preaching against the excesses and cruelty of unleashed capitalism.

According to Langone, such criticism from the Holy See could ultimately hurt the sensitive feelings of the rich so badly that they become “incapable of feeling compassion for the poor.” He also said rich donors are already losing their enthusiasm for the restoration of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan – a very specific threat that he mentioned directly to Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York.

Langone is not only a leading fundraiser for church projects but a generous donor to hospitals, universities, and cancer charities (often for programs and buildings named after him, in the style of today’s self-promoting philanthropists). Among the super-rich, he has many friends and associates who may share his excitable temperament.

While his ultimatum seems senseless – would a person of true faith stiff the church and the poor? – it may well be sincere. And Langone spends freely to promote his political and economic views, in the company of the Koch brothers and other Republican plutocrats.

Still, a Pope brave enough to face down the Mafia over his financial reform of the murky Vatican Bank shouldn’t be much fazed by the likes of Langone.

Langone, a co-founder of Home Depot, is also known for Dick Grasso's obscene golden handshake when he left his chairmanship of the NYSE.

I have an affection for this guy; he certainly has the right enemies.

Why They are Protesting Against Democracy in Thailand

Per capita GDP


Thai vs. Australian per capita GDP


Government Debt


Social (health) spending

Look at the graphs on economic statistics for Thailand.

Why is anyone complaining about results like this?

Anti government forces Bangkok have vowed to rid Thailand of all vestiges of Thaksin — including Thaksinomics. So let’s pause to cast a medium-term eye over the country’s economic performance during the period (2001 to the present) that has been dominated by Thaksin-esque policies.

………

I’m sure there are plenty of other indicators and comparisons – good, not-so-good and bad – that could be used to plot Thailand’s economic performance since 2001 (comments on other indicators would be very welcome). But the overall point is that Thailand’s voters have some sound economic reasons to keep on electing Thaksin and his allies.

Strong economic growth, and increasing government spending on health, welfare and rural development, didn’t start with Thaksin, but he and his allies have been able to effectively place growing prosperity at the heart of their political success.

What the protesters are objecting to is not economic growth, but rather they are objecting to the fact that there are benefits accruing to the rural peasants.

So the hoi polloi are doing better.

There are new roads, new bridges, new rural clinics, and the position of the rural poor has improved.

It has improved a lot, and their lot relative to the urban elites has also improved.

So the protestors are upset that poor rural families are no longer forced to sell their daughters into prostitution in the big cities, and this is why they want to remove any vestige of Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra while insisting that there be no elections.

When I say that, "The Thai protesters are revolting," I am using the last word as an adjective, not a verb.

The First Uber Death

30 Miles, 40 Min, over the Bay Bridge, a toll road.
View Larger Map

Yesterday, I posted about the Libertarian delusional dream that is Uber.

Today, I read about an Uber driver hitting 3 pedestrians, killing a 6-year old girl
:

Update, 11:35 a.m.: Uber confirmed that Muzzafar was, indeed a contractor with the company. It's since deactivated his account. An Uber spokesman stressed, again, that Muzzafar was not "providing services through the Uber system" at the time he struck and killed a 6 year-old girl at Polk and Ellis Streets.

Update, 9:46 a.m.: Police release name and photo of the self-identified Uber driver (See bottom).

It's been a rough year for Uber thus far. Just four hours before the car-hire startup planned to ring in 2014 -- ideally with an onslaught of high-priced trips through San Francisco's bustling downtown corridor -- one of its contracted drivers allegedly hit a family in a Tenderloin crosswalk, killing a 6-year-old girl and critically injuring her mother and brother.

"There are no words to express the deep sadness and grief felt for young San Francisco resident, Sophia Liu," Supervisor Jane Kim wrote in a statement issued shortly after the young girl's death.

Kim added that the accident would have been "100 percent avoidable" had the driver followed basic traffic laws. She considered the incident a harbinger for app-based car-hire startups, indicating that it raises questions about driver training and compliance.

Notice the non denial denial?

In their blog, they said that, "This tragedy did not involve a vehicle or provider doing a trip on the Uber system.

Notice what they did not say?  They did not say that he wasn't logged in, and that he wasn't waiting for some of those lucrative,  "Onslaughts of high-priced trips."

Why else would he be driving around San Francisco on New Years Eve?

Driving?  In San Francisco?  On New Years Eve?  That is nucking futs!  ……… Unless, of course, you are there to make some bank by getting dispatches from a certain Techno-Randian transportation company.

Then, it makes lots of sense.

It is telling that Uber has deliberately chosen a model which is structured largely to evade any responsibility, or liability, for the misdeeds of its drivers.

H/t Crooks & Liars.

Jon Stewart Rejoices

Rob Ford, the crack smoking, bike and bus hating, drunk driving, Chris Farley stunt double Mayor of Toronto has registered to run for reelection.

Jon Stewart, and his entire team at The Daily Show, have broken out the Champagne.

It is Called Price Gouging, You Moronic Free Market Mousketeer!

The latest poster boys for techno-Libertarians is the taxi service Uber, which is a smartphone based car hire service.

At the core of their business model is the idea that there is no need for any pesky regulations, because ……… Internet.

Ignoring for the moment supply restrictions like New York City's Medallion^* system, there is a reason that cabs, and cabbies, are regulated.

There is a need to ensure that the cars are safe, that the cabbies are properly trained,^† and that pricing is consistent and transparent, so, for example, we do not see price gouging, on New Year's eve, or during a rain storm.

So, what does Uber do?  It triples rates for New Year's Eve, and Randroid morons like Rob Leathern, the Chief Product Officer of Brand Networks, has this is not like price gouging at all, because ……… Internet:

Uber’s pricing isn’t price gouging. It’s just in an area we are deeply conflicted about, and missing some transparency that would increase consumer trust. They could certainly give all or some more of their excess surge profits to the drivers, or show us more of the extensive data their Math Team produces but doesn’t yet share– if their algorithms are as sophisticated as they claim then the benefit they get from sharing information with customers will outweigh any competitive concerns.

Bullsh%$.

This is price gouging, and it has been defined as such throughout the developed world for something over 80 years.

One of the reasons that we as a society make laws against this is because it is unethical, and dishonest.

I really hope that if he ever has a heart attack, that Mr. Leathern does not find an ambulance driver who jacks up the rate to take him to the hospital.

^*Apart from that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? The medallion system sucks.
^†Uber has already had at least 1 rape allegation attached to its service so far, and it turns out that rape by gypsy cab drivers is endemic.

While I Do Not Think that Netanyahu is Operating In Good Faith, This Demand Should Not be a Deal Killer

For some reason, it appears that the Palestinians feel unable to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

The transaction here is at its core to be "Land for Peace", but if the Palestinians are unwilling to acknowledge Israel, the "peace" part becomes pretty iffy:

As Middle East peace talks churn on, Israel has catapulted to the fore an issue that may be even more intractable than old ones like security and settlements: a demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made such recognition the pillar of his public statements in recent weeks, calling it “the real key to peace,” “the minimal requirement” and “an essential condition.” Israeli, American and Palestinian officials all say it has become a core issue in the negotiations that started last summer.

But Mr. Netanyahu’s argument that this single issue underpins all others is exactly what makes it unacceptable to Palestinians. At its heart, it is a dispute over a historical narrative that each side sees as fundamental to its existence.

Critics skeptical of Mr. Netanyahu’s commitment to a two-state solution to the long-running conflict say that recognition of a Jewish state is a poison pill that he is raising only to scuttle the talks. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has repeatedly said that the Palestinians will never agree to it, most recently in a letter to President Obama last month.

The Palestinians cite both pragmatic and philosophical reasons: They contend that recognizing Israel as a Jewish state would disenfranchise its 1.6 million Arab citizens, undercut the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees and, most important, require a psychological rewriting of the story they hold dear about their longtime presence in the land.

But Israeli leaders say that the refugee question can be resolved separately and that the status of Israel’s Arab minority can be protected. Without acceptance by the Palestinians that their neighbor is and will be, in Israel’s favored formulation, “the nation-state of the Jewish people,” Israelis argue that they can never be convinced that an agreement truly spells the end of the conflict.

“The core of this conflict has never been borders and settlements — it’s about one thing: the persistent refusal to accept the Jewish state in any border,” Mr. Netanyahu said last month in a video statement to the Saban Forum in Washington.

He added: “We recognize that in peace there will be a nation-state for the Palestinian people. Surely we’re entitled to expect them to do the same.”

Netanyahu probably isn't mooting this in good faith.  He has made a career of putting road-blocks in front of the peace process, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

It's why 73% of the famously fractious Israeli Jews support the idea.

Israeli thought has changed over the past 66 years, Golda Mier denied the existence of a Palestinian people, and this has not been relegated to the frothing at the mouth lunatics of Israel's body politic. 

No one in Israel with any political power is claiming that they are Jordanians, or "Southern Syrians" any more.  (Though to be fair there are a bunch of profoundly stupid reactionaries in the United State, both Jewish and Evangelical Christians who do.)

The Palestinians, on the other hand, are unwilling to go much beyond a statement that Israel exists, and that this (currently) is a fact on the ground that they (grudgingly) accept.

Both sides need to acknowledge their respective personhoods and nationhoods in order for negotiations to be fruitful.

It's not an end point, it's a start point.

For F%$#'s Sake, Why?

It appears that France is more evil than I had been believed.

Some scientists in Bordeaux have found a way to block the euphoric effects of marijuana:

Leave it to science to find a way to harsh the mellow of marijuana.

A French research team has discovered a natural chemical brake that can tamp down the effects of THC, the main intoxicant in marijuana. They believe it could lead to ways to protect against memory loss, torpor and other side-effects better known as being stoned.

“We have this built-in negative feedback mechanism, a brake” on cannabis intoxication, said University of Bordeaux neurobiologist Dr. Pier Vincenzo Piazza, principal author of a study published Thursday in the journal Science.

The researchers were investigating the role of neurosteroids in addiction. These are a class of hormones produced in the brain, and they have been implicated in regulating mood and cognitive activities.

After getting rats and mice high on the active ingredients of cocaine, morphine, nicotine, alcohol and marijuana, the researchers measured the increase in pregnenolone, a precursor to all steroid hormones that was thought to be otherwise inactive.

Getting mice stoned is not as easy as you think. They tend to Bogart that joint.

But more seriously, marijuana is not physiologically addictive, so why are harshing our buzz?

What the f%$# is wrong with you guys?

A joke in a related vein after the break:


Dr. Calvin Rickson, a scientist from Ohio State University, has invented a bra that keeps women’s breasts from jiggling and prevents the nipples from pushing through the fabric when cold weather sets in.

At a news conference, after announcing the invention, a large group of men took Dr. Rickson outside and beat the sh%$ out of him.

Who Hit the Democrats with a Clue Stick?

It seems that Democrats are looking to stop running away from Obamacare, (a good idea, the Dems own it whether they like it or not) and instead want to push for a minimum wage increase as their signature issue for 2014:

Democratic Party leaders, bruised by months of attacks on the new health care program, have found an issue they believe can lift their fortunes both locally and nationally in 2014: an increase in the minimum wage.

The effort to take advantage of growing populism among voters in both parties is being coordinated by officials from the White House, labor unions and liberal advocacy groups.

In a series of strategy meetings and conference calls among them in recent weeks, they have focused on two levels: an effort to raise the federal minimum wage, which will be pushed by President Obama and congressional leaders, and a campaign to place state-level minimum wage proposals on the ballot in states with hotly contested congressional races.

With polls showing widespread support for an increase in the $7.25-per-hour federal minimum wage among both Republican and Democratic voters, top Democrats see not only a wedge issue that they hope will place Republican candidates in a difficult position, but also a tool with which to enlarge the electorate in a nonpresidential election, when turnout among minorities and youths typically drops off.

“It puts Republicans on the wrong side of an important value issue when it comes to fairness,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the president’s senior adviser. “You can make a very strong case that this will be a helpful issue for Democrats in 2014. But the goal here is to actually get it done. That’s why the president put it on the agenda.”

This is good politics, and good policy, though having your hired guns run to the press (I'm talking to you, Mr. Pfeiffer) crowing about how this is such good politics does not serve to reinforce their message.

The minimum wage fight is an opportunity to create a space for the discussion about political values on a terrain that favors Democrats, it's not about allowing self important political consultants crow about their genius.

Your Bit of Religious Archeology Geek of the Day

It appears that archaeologists have found a fabric fragment containing traces of Techelet, the blue dye mentioned in Torah:

In a rare discovery, scientists have confirmed that an almost 2,000-year-old piece of fabric found near the Dead Sea contains remnants of the Biblical blue color known as tekhelet.

It is only the third piece of fabric ever found to contain this precious blue dye derived from snail glands. In accordance with a Torah commandment, tekhelet was used in ancient times to dye the tassels, or tzitzit, attached to the four-cornered garment traditionally worn by men, as well as the clothing worn by the High Priest during the days of the temple.

The finding was revealed on Monday at a special conference held in Jerusalem to mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of the doctorate of Rabbi Yitzchak Halevi Herzog, the former chief rabbi of Israel, on the subject of tekhelet. In attendance were many of the former chief rabbi’s grandchildren, including the keynote speaker, Isaac Herzog, the new chairman of the Labor Party.

Announcing the discovery, Dr. Na'ama Sukenik, a curator at the Israel Antiquities Authority, said the tiny piece of fabric had been discovered in the 1950s in a cave at Wadi Murba’at, where Jewish fighters hid during the Bar Kokhba revolt in the second century. As part of her doctoral dissertation at Bar Ilan University, Sukenik recently tested the color found in the fabric and was able to determine that it was derived from the Murex trunchular, a mollusk widely believed to be the marine animal known as the khilazon in the Talmud -- the source of the rare blue dye.

To this day, scientists and scholars have not reached a consensus on whether tekhelet was a light sky-blue color, as most modern day experts on the subject now believe, or a darker, more purple-hued blue. The shade discovered on the piece of fabric tested by Sukenik was sky blue. The tassels on the fragment were spun in a way that was common in Israel in ancient times, she said, demonstrating that the dye was locally produced.

The dye color varies with exposure to sunlight during the dyeing process, so it is unclear what color was actually applied in ancient times.

Kewl.

H/t Failed Messiah.

Our Pundit Class is Evil and Stupid

Case in point, Ruth Marcus. Her latest article is titled, "Snowden, the insufferable whistleblower."

She is certainly upset that Edward Snowden opposes the DC consensus of global hegemony and contractor excesses that pays for those cocktail parties that she hangs out at.

Linkage

• Good Grief and Great Tits (The Stranger) Dan Savage's takedown of Sarah Palin's is epic.
• Crushing Christmas: How to Win Every Argument (The Daily Beast) How to deal with that crazy uncle at family get togethers by out crazying them all.
• But I'd like, just once, for someone to have the balls to admit their bigotry without trying to blame it on Jesus (Squatlo Rant) Not bishop Shelby Spong, but pretty good
• Scientists Link Spike in Thyroid Disease to Fukushima Disaster (Real News Media) Be afraid, be very, very, afraid.
• Stanford Researcher Proves NSA Can Probably Identify Individuals From Phone Records (TechCrunch) Seriously, this sh%$ is data mining 101. Your phone records reveal who you are.

H/T Distractify