More Saturday Stuff

I know we know this and the inbred "please pass the sweet and sour shrimp" Beltway crowd refuses to accept it, but it bears repeating anyway from Thom Hartmann (and by the way, let's not forget that all that offshoring adds to the deficit that the Repugs and their pals claim to hate)...



...and I'm a week or two behind on this one from Bill Maher, but I think it's timely considering that tomorrow is Sunday.

Mikey Strikes Again On The Debt

He helped his Repug congressional playmates defeat the bill by Harry Reid to raise the debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion along with $2.4 trillion in cuts (here).

If you are predisposed to contact him to tell him what you think of his childish antics, click here.

In the meantime, this video goes out to him also.



...and oh yeah, this is a joke - ha, ha (yes, I know Bill Maher gets it, based on this).



Update: And one more thing - tell me why anyone should take John Thune seriously again after he said this.

Update 8/4/11: Appropriate indeed (here)...

Saturday Stuff

Yep, this is how the House Repugs acted under Dubya, but now that a Dem is in the White House (here, and oh yeah, this too)...



...and yeah, I think this tune fits.



Update: And by the way, I haven't said anything about this story, but kudos to Jon Stewart again for doing so.

Friday Stuff

Yep, your Republican Party on display here - threats of violence when all else fails...

The Daily Show
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...and this tune is appropriate on a couple of different levels for yours truly, I guess.

Bringing The Pain, Part 2

Note 1: This links to last week’s Area Votes in Congress writeup. Basically, Mikey the Beloved and his Repug playmates voted for Cut, Cap and Balance, which has no shot in the Senate (though “No Corporate Tax” Pat Toomey voted for it of course), and the House also voted on a bill to try and gut the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as part of their non-jobs agenda (that crap piece of legislation isn’t going anywhere either). Aside from that, I don’t have anything else to say on that subject.

Note 2: Part 1 with the setup for what I’m trying to do in this series of posts is here.

Connecticut

This tells us that The Land of Holy Joe Lieberman added 7,900 jobs last April, though “as (unemployed) benefits lapse, Connecticut’s unemployed face tough decisions” here (duuuh!).

When it comes to employer discrimination against the jobless, though, Dem U.S. House Reps Rose DeLauro of the My Left Nutmeg state along with Hank Johnson of Georgia introduced a bill in response here, and it looks like the WWE of one-time Repug U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon from that state was notified here that it owed about 7 grand in unemployment compensation (wow, that’s what I call a shot to the solar plexus! And more on Johnson a little later, by the way.)

Delaware

This tells us that that state’s “troubled” trust fund for paying benefits was solvent for the next six months as of last February, and I don’t have any further word on that. The state’s unemployment rate was 8.4 percent as of last April (here).

This also tells us that, along with Connecticut, Delaware is one of the worst states to collect unemployment (don’t know how our beloved commonwealth of PA managed to escape the list…I’ll refer back to this list again). Also, this tells us of free colon screenings offered for the jobless in Newark a year ago last March (don’t laugh, that’s a good idea – prevention makes better sense than an urgent trip to the ER).

District of Columbia

The unemployment rate was 10.4 percent as noted here in June (ugh). However, as noted here, the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va., area averages about 5.7 percent (probably explains why there’s no talk of jobs on the Sunday morning Beltway media gab fests, also noted here).

If there was ever a politician who you could consider an advocate for the unemployed, though, it would be Dem U.S. House Rep Eleanor Holmes Norton, as noted here (a stinking disgrace that, after all this time, D.C. still doesn’t have actual voting congressional representation).

Florida

Talk about the land that time forgot…

As noted here, that state’s lawmakers approved deep cuts in jobless bennies (listed as one of the worst states on the Daily Finance list with Delaware and Connecticut). It gets better, though – this tells us the state considered forcing the jobless to volunteer to receive unemployment (how many ways is that a stupid/cruel/counterproductive idea?). And on top of that, for something truly surreal, they were actually considering handing out shiny red superhero capes to unemployed people to wear as part of some PR campaign (no, this isn’t Halloween, and yes, I’m serious - here).

Good news? Well, the Metro Orlando area is apparently leading the state in hiring, as noted here (Wonder if The Mouse has anything to do with that? Maybe so).

Update 8/2/11: Maybe Lex Luthor should get recalled before Hosni Mubarak Walker and Snyder because of this (yeah I know, fat chance with the "sheeple" voters of this state).

Update 8/18/11: Add this to the pile also.

Update 8/26/11: And why am I not surprised that the state is engaged in this odious practice (defending it, of course)?

Update 9/14/11: Leave it to the "U.S." Chamber to pick Florida as a state for this.

Update 9/23/11: Florida, you deserve him (here).

Georgia

As noted here…

Paula S., from Acworth (who) said she was “sixty-something,” described “two eye-opening experiences of blatant age discrimination . . . . One twenty-something supervisor asked me if I had ever thought about coloring my hair . . . . Another manager told his assistant with the door open when I showed up to complete an application and interview: ‘We can’t hire any more old people’.”

Nice.

This tells us that the unemployment rate hit 10.4 percent in that state in January, and the state has to borrow $635 million from the Feds to cover hundreds of thousands of jobless Georgians (So what happened? Well, as noted here)…

In 1999, the state’s Unemployment Trust Fund — fueled by record growth — had squirreled away an astounding $2 billion for hard times. Far more than any recession required, thought the new governor, Democrat Roy Barnes.

He proposed and passed what he called the largest business tax cut in state history — a four-year payroll tax holiday that spared businesses $1 billion. (The tax hike applied only to state payroll taxes. Businesses also pay federal payroll taxes that roll into a separate fund.)

All was good until 9/11 and a 2001 shutdown of the American sky. Unemployment zoomed in airline-friendly metro Atlanta. The payroll tax holiday continued, which meant money gushed out of the trust fund — and none flowed in.

By the time the holiday and Barnes’ tenure expired in 2003, the trust fund was down by nearly two-thirds, to $703 million, according to a report released this week by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.

And of course, the second a Dem tries to end a payroll tax holiday, a Repug automatically starts screaming “Tax Hike! Tax Hike!,” so nobody does anything and we end up sinking further into debt (yes, blame the politicians, but gullible voters sop up this stuff every time).

Also, this tells us that Dem U.S. House Rep Hank Johnson, along with Rose DeLauro, has looked into bias against the jobless (more on Johnson in a minute).

Update 10/11/11: And people actually wonder why we have a federal government to tell some of these idiots what to do, or not do in this case (here).

Guam

Not much to say here, except that unemployment was 13.4 percent there last month (yikes!). And speaking of Johnson, this tells us about his quote at a Congressional hearing concerning the possibility of Guam tipping into the ocean, or whatever (yes, it was a dumb thing to say, but he was trying to make a point about a huge influx of military personnel on the island).

Hawaii

This tells us that the state’s unemployment dipped in June, but this tells us that it rose again in July (and this tells us that Gov. Neil Abercrombie vowed to cut Kauai’s unemployment by half).

And returning to the Daily Finance list, this tells us why Hawaii was rated as the best state for unemployment compensation…

Hawaii is the only state to provide the unemployed with an average of more than 50% of weekly wages, and its average weekly benefit is also the nation's highest…In Hawaii, the unemployment insurance program is entirely funded by employers.

Great tourism and UC too…must be a bunch of socialist heathens (and you-know-who came from there, after all, too busy to show that birth certificate while he was making sure bin Laden was killed – snark mode off).

I’ll plan to pick this up next week.

Update: And by the way, speaking of Number 44, as you read about this, think about this also (yes, he caves way too easily, but consider the alternative...and I wonder when Yahoo decided that The Daily Tucker was a "news" site?).

Update 8/1/11: Once more, another reason for these posts (here)...

Update 8/3/11: I think this is something else that's important to consider about job creation.

Thursday Stuff

Hey, corporate media, try paying as much attention to these folks as you did to the racist-sign-and-funny-hat crowd last year (and yes I know, Boehner vote debt blah blah, delayed not enough votes blah blah, Mikey Austerity Forever Oooga Booga Debt! blah blah - and by the way, about that, read this, and this)...



...and yeah, I suppose this fits considering all of the above.

Wednesday PM Stuff

Probably only able to do videos today that hopefully aren't crappy...

First, Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich helps us to keep our eye on the ball (I know we already know this, but we can't repeat it enough)...



...and RIP Dan Peek of America (this clip showcases Dewey Bunnell and I believe Gerry Beckley, but Peek was a collaborator on these songs also).

Wednesday AM Stuff

I'm a little late with this I know, but J.D. Mullane concocted the following idiocy here last Sunday...

If we believe the Washington wise men, Aug. 2 will be a day of economic apocalypse for America.

“Lights out” for the economy and a “new Depression,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Democrats.

President Obama, too, predicts catastrophe on Aug. 2 for Americans relying on government-issued checks for Social Security and others.

“I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on Aug. 3 if we haven’t resolved this issue,” he said.

The reason for the predicted apocalypse is that Obama wants to raise the U.S. government’s debt ceiling — the nation’s credit card limit. If not, the federal government (allegedly) will default on its financial obligations.

I doubt it. This is at least the third deadline Obama has given for this. Each deadline has passed and the Republic stands.

It’s why most of us yawn at such dire predictions. For more than 40 years we have been subjected to doomsday prophecies. None have come to pass.

The fact that this column ever saw print is pathetic for something that purports to be an almost-daily newspaper.

For the reality point of view, I give you the following here...

The financial website Zero Hedge reports that the cost of the U.S. debt being downgraded from our current AAA rating (in the event of a failure to extend the debt limit) would be a whopping $100 billion a year. That’s according to JP Morgan Chase expert Terry Belton who spoke to reporters on a conference call this morning. In short, even if the U.S. does not default, a downgrade alone “will offset any beneficial impact from any deficit reduction that will have to happen for the debt ceiling to be increased.” Belton predicted that a downgrade would cause “a permanent increase in borrowing costs,” which will make it more costly for consumers and businesses to borrow money, risking another recession.

At this point, Obama should just find a way to unilaterally raise the debt limit under the 14th amendment to the Constitution. No, I don’t know how he’s going to do that either, but I assume Geithner knew something about that or else he wouldn’t have opened his mouth on the subject awhile back.

Also, this tells us that PA-31 State House Rep Steve Santarsiero will hold a public hearing about Marcellus Shale drilling tonight in the Chancellor Center, Board Room, 30 N. Chancellor St., Newtown, PA.

In addition, check out this ad against Wisconsin State Sen. Luther Olsen (to help out, click here)...



...and here is a neat new tune by the Red Hot Chili Peppers (sorry, no video - gotta have that cowbell)

Tuesday Mashup (7/26/11)

I give you the following from David Brooks (here, and yes, we’re still stuck on the debt ceiling)…

…the White House negotiating process was inadequate. Neither the president nor the House speaker ever wrote down and released their negotiating positions. Everything was mysterious, shifting and slippery.

It’s truly hilarious that BoBo apparently doesn’t even read his own newspaper; click here to view an interactive graphic in the left-hand column of the story by Jackie Calmes to see a breakdown of the numbers between Obama and Orange Man.

Basically, what the numbers tell you is that the House Repugs are willing to ensure a downgrade of the credit of the United States of America over a $400 billion budget squabble.

And how exactly is the Boehner bunch an improvement over the 111th Congress that the voters, in their eternal, dunderheaded stupidity, removed from power last year?

Further, this post at The Hill tells us the following…

This week Congress is likely to take up a spending bill that would limit the EPA’s ability to enforce clean air standards that protect us from air pollution. At the same time, I’ll be joining the League of Women Voters in launching the Clean Air Promise campaign – an effort to bring the coordinated assault on the clean air act to the attention to parents, families, communities and our leaders and ask them to promise to protect clean air.

Author Alexandra Allred tells us the story of her son Tommy, who became very sick when Allred moved with the boy and her husband to rural Midlothian, Texas, where…

…the steam coming out of the cement plants near our house wasn’t just steam – it was filled with hundreds of thousands of pounds of mercury, lead, and other toxic chemicals. Suddenly, I understood why Tommy was always sick. The cement plants were poisoning the air. These companies were poisoning our kids.

And no one was doing anything to stop them.

Here is more on the Clean Air Promise Campaign that Allred started with the League of Women Voters, and speaking of the EPA, this tells us about the latest Repug games on the budget concerning that agency…

"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reduced by $1.6 billion, a 16% decrease from last year’s level. The cuts to the EPA alone represent 61% of the bill’s reduction compared to last year’s level. Funding levels for Land and Water Conservation Fund (land acquisition) programs are reduced $149 million (-33%), climate change funding bill-wide is cut by $49 million (-13%), and funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities is reduced by a combined $25 million from last year’s levels."

To (maybe?) contact Fred Upton of the House Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee to tell him to properly fund the EPA and leave it alone (I can dream, can’t I?), click here (good luck - I couldn't do it).

And speaking of DREAM (here), I give you the following from Alex Nowrasteh of Fix Noise (figures)…

The (National Council of La Raza) audience (in attendance for an Obama speech) seemed upset by the President’s praise for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, not because they oppose it, but because Obama has been so tepid in his support. The DREAM Act would allow some undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to gain conditional legal status. That would then be extended to permanent legal residency if they complete at least two years of college or join the military within six years.

The problem was that the DREAM Act directs federal education aid to these students. It failed last December for that very reason. Poll after poll show that American apprehension about immigration mostly concerns taxes to support immigrants, and rightly so.

In response, I give you the following from Obama Education Secretary Arne Duncan…

The second myth about the DREAM Act is that it would restrict the availability of federal student aid for U.S. citizens. Simply put, that will not happen. By statute, student loans are available to all students who are eligible to receive them. And because DREAM Act students would be ineligible for Pell Grants, passing this bill will not have costs associated with the program. All told, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the DREAM Act would generate $1.4 billion more in revenue than it would add in costs over the next decade. As we strive to reduce the deficit, we can't afford to leave that type of money on the table.

DREAM didn’t fail because voters were afraid illegal immigrants would benefit improperly from federal dollars. It failed because of typically fictitious wingnut garbage claiming it was another “big gumint” handout for those who, as far as I’m concerned if they had acquired a degree or served in our military, would have earned it.

Next, I give you the following letter that appeared in the Bucks County Courier Times today…

Recently my wife and I attended a meeting to hear about the possible effects of cuts to the Medicaid and Medicare programs. The presentation wasn't so much about cuts, since the specifics are largely yet unknown, but rather about how critically important these programs are to the populace, and even more so to the least fortunate among us.

The structure of the meeting was a presentation of relevant facts, followed by an open Q & A session. I'm not certain about the sponsorship behind this meeting, but one of the organizers was PennAction, a progressive-oriented action group. The ultimate goal was to educate attendees, and to present our views and concerns to Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick. That sounds like democracy in action to me.

However, as soon as the session opened up to Q & A, something very disturbing happened. Several tea party members had attended, and took over the entire meeting with rude shouting. When told to present a question, the arrogant shouter just continued his bullying rant, accompanied by shouts from others like him. During all of this, the shouter presented nothing in the way of real facts, just attempts to bad-mouth the Affordable Care Act, et cetera. His presentation was roughly at the intelligence level of a hyena doing lots of vicious snarling, but nothing coming from what could be recognized as human brain matter. This went on to the point of usurping most of the remaining time, thereby ruining the session for the other guests who conducted themselves in a civil manner.

I have to confess that as an Independent, I used to lean toward Republican candidates. I, like many Democrats that I know, share many of the same values as my Republican friends; the areas of disagreement are usually about HOW to get where we all want to be.

As I survey the damage that Republican policies are doing to our democracy, and the wanton hypocrisies of their positions, I am forced to take sides with the progressives. The meeting was an example of such hypocrisy: The tea party loves to cite the Constitution as their righteousness in their cause. Yet by infiltrating this meeting and taking complete control, thereby throwing the meeting into chaos, they deprived the mild-mannered, concerned citizens of their right to freedom of speech.

Tea partyers may think that this is the way to get their way, but in reality, they expose themselves as citizens unworthy of American citizenship, and they galvanize their opposition even further. Ironically, one of them stated that this nation is divided more than it ever has been since the Civil War. I agree, and their tirade last night is a primary reason why.

Bruce Cosaboom
Lower Makefield, PA

Yep, your typical “teabagger” mentality on display here for sure…

Oh, and speaking of “cut, cap and balance” Mikey, he should read this.

Finally, I give you more comedy from former Laura Bush employee Andrew Malcolm (here)…

"More than a third of Americans now believe that President Obama’s policies are hurting the economy, and confidence in his ability to create jobs is sharply eroding among his base"...

Here is the context Malcolm fails to provide…

Americans’ discontent does not stop there. The survey also found that Americans harbor negative feelings toward congressional Republicans. Roughly as many people blame Republican policies for the poor economy as they do Obama. But 65 percent disapprove of the GOP’s handling of jobs, compared to 52 percent for the president.

The dissatisfaction is fueled by the fact that many Americans continue to see little relief from the pain of a recession that technically ended two years ago. Ninety percent of those surveyed said the economy is not doing well, and four out of five report that jobs are difficult to find. In interviews, several people said that they feel abandoned by both parties, particularly as debates over the debt ceiling gridlock Washington.

It’s about jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs. And blame is getting spread around among both parties (though I distinctly remember Mikey The Beloved crowing constantly last year when he ran against Patrick Murphy that unemployment doubled on Murphy’s watch, though Mikey and his pals haven’t done a damn thing to keep it from continuing to rise).

I’ll tell you what – instead of all of these hypotheticals about how Obama would supposedly do against a generic GOP presidential candidate, let’s look and see how he would do against that supposed darling on the right who is being courted to run for the big chair because of his alleged popularity. And that would be Governor Bully.

As noted here (comparing registered and likely voters)...

Barack Obama (D): 56 (55)
Chris Christie (R): 39 (38)

And that’s in New Jersey.

Monday Stuff

A little late in the news cycle for this I know, but when it comes to Allen West, it's never too late (heckuva job, all you Floridians who voted for this numbnuts)...

The Colbert Report
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...and here's something a bit upbeat to cope with the summer heat and overall doldrums (God, just raise the damn debt ceiling already!).

Monday Mashup (7/25/11)

Remember all of those stories/posts/whatever that have appeared proclaiming Flush Limbore as the head of the Republican Party, as noted here (though I thought that mantle was worn by Roger Ailes of Fix Noise)? And remember how our “serious” corporate media scoffed at them?

Well, this tells us the following…

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) outlined the GOP's debt ceiling plan to conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh on Monday before showing it to his conference.

Limbaugh talked about the call he received from Boehner during his radio program Monday. Limbaugh's support of the plan would be advantageous to Republicans because it might help rally the conservative base.

The conservative radio host said Boehner outlined his two-step plan that includes $1.2 trillion in spending cuts and a $1 trillion hike to the debt ceiling. In the second step, a commission would be appointed to come back with additional deficit-reduction proposals, which the Congress could then vote on.

For the purposes of comparison, try imagining the reaction if Harry Reid or Charles Schumer had announced their debt reduction plans to Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow before their own party membership.

Further, this story tells us the following…

WASHINGTON - Strong second-quarter earnings from McDonald's, General Electric and Caterpillar on Friday are just the latest proof that booming profits have allowed corporate America to leave the Great Recession far behind.

But millions of ordinary Americans are stranded in a labor market that looks like it's still in recession. Unemployment is stuck at 9.2 percent, two years into what economists call a recovery. Job growth has been slow and wages stagnant.

"I've never seen labor markets this weak in 35 years of research," says Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University.

Wages and salaries accounted for just 1 percent of economic growth in the first 18 months after economists declared that the recession had ended in June 2009, according to Sum and other Northeastern researchers.

In the same period after the 2001 recession, wages and salaries accounted for 15 percent. They were 50 percent after the 1991-92 recession and 25 percent after the 1981-82 recession.

Corporate profits, by contrast, accounted for an unprecedented 88 percent of economic growth during those first 18 months. That's compared with 53 percent after the 2001 recession, nothing after the 1991-92 recession and 28 percent after the 1981-82 recession.

So what do our corporate masters have to say about this?

"Lack of clarity on a U.S. deficit-reduction plan, trade policy, regulation, much needed tax reform and the absence of a long-term plan to improve the country's deteriorating infrastructure do not create an environment that provides our customers with the confidence to invest," Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman said.

Tisk, tisk, the poor dears...

As noted here, Caterpillar threatened to move 23,000 jobs out of Illinois, even though the company is doing just fine. And it was accused here of demoting an executive who found a $2 billion tax dodge.

So no, I don’t believe corporate extortion and threatening a whistleblower who uncovered some financial malfeasance “provides our customers with the confidence to invest" either.

Next, Nick Kristof wrote a “Nail. Hammer. Head.” column in the New York Times yesterday…

IF China or Iran threatened our national credit rating and tried to drive up our interest rates, or if they sought to damage our education system, we would erupt in outrage.

Well, wake up to the national security threat. Only it’s not coming from abroad, but from our own domestic extremists.

We tend to think of national security narrowly as the risk of a military or terrorist attack. But national security is about protecting our people and our national strength — and the blunt truth is that the biggest threat to America’s national security this summer doesn’t come from China, Iran or any other foreign power. It comes from budget machinations, and budget maniacs, at home.

…

While one danger to national security comes from the risk of default, another comes from overzealous budget cuts — especially in education, at the local, state and national levels. When we cut to the education bone, we’re not preserving our future but undermining it.

It should be a national disgrace that the United States government has eliminated spending for major literacy programs in the last few months, with scarcely a murmur of dissent.

Consider Reading Is Fundamental, a 45-year-old nonprofit program that has cost the federal government only $25 million annually. It’s a public-private partnership with 400,000 volunteers, and it puts books in the hands of low-income children. The program helped four million American children improve their reading skills last year. Now it has lost all federal support.

“They have made a real difference for millions of kids,” Kyle Zimmer, founder of First Book, another literacy program that I’ve admired, said of Reading Is Fundamental. “It is a tremendous loss that their federal support has been cut. We are going to pay for these cuts in education for generations.”

And as Dr. Jim Taylor told us here in April 2010…

In 2009 alone, RIF gave out 15 million books at 17,000 sites nationwide. Since its birth in 1966, RIF has distributed more than 365 million free books to over 29 million children. All this on an annual budget of around $25 million a year (for those of you who are counting, that amounts to .0005 of the total 2011 discretionary budget for the Department of Education).

…

Why is RIF so important? As the program's name suggests, reading is fundamental to future academic success, upward mobility, and economic security. Yet, if you've seen any of the research on reading proficiency in the U.S., you would be appalled. Thirty-six percent of American 4th graders read below the "basic" level on reading tests and that percentage increases to 54 percent for economically disadvantaged children. And reading proficiency among high-school students in the U.S. has been on the decline for years. Moreover, fewer than half of families read to their young children every day and, by 8th grade, only 19 percent of children read on their own daily. Oh, by the way, an estimated 40 million adults can't read a story to a child. For many young children, RIF gives them the opportunity to learn to read and prepare for future success in school. And, for our country, RIF helps prepare these children to be vital and contributing members of our society.

Thus far, I haven’t been able to track down whether or not Mikey the Beloved voted to cut RIF funding or not. If and when I do, I’ll update this post accordingly.

Continuing, I came across the following sports-related tidbit here…

BALTIMORE -- Baltimore Orioles left fielder Luke Scott is probably done for the season, or at best headed for an extended stay on the disabled list with a troublesome shoulder injury.

Scott has a torn labrum in his right shoulder. He was activated from the 15-day DL before Friday night's game against the Los Angeles Angels, but after going 0 for 3 he was poised to be replaced by a pinch hitter for his final at-bat as the designated hitter. The game ended with Nolan Reimold in the on-deck circle in Scott's place.

"He was not going to take that last at-bat," manager Buck Showalter said of Scott.

…

Scott hit a team-high 27 home runs in 2010, but this year he's batting .220 with nine homers and 22 RBIs in 64 games.

Aww, poor Luke Scott. You remember him, don’t you? He was the guy who said here that “Obama does not represent America – he was not born here.”

Bye bye for 2011, wingnut.

Finally, on another sports-related note (shocking, I know), I wanted to comment on the following article…

The hard-partying ways of Flyers captain Mike Richards and center Jeff Carter played a major role in the organization's decision to trade both players in June, say two Flyers who played with the pair last season.

Carter was sent to the Columbus Blue Jackets for free agent forward Jakub Voracek and first- and third-round picks in the draft, and Richards was traded to the Los Angeles Kings for Wayne Simmonds and Brayden Schenn.

The two unnamed players said that the Flyers front office was disappointed in Carter and Richards' longstanding party lifestyle and that teammates were concerned about the pair's drinking.

Shortly after his arrival in December 2009, coach Peter Laviolette instituted what players came to call the "Dry Island." Laviolette asked team members to commit to not drinking for a month, and each player was asked to write his number on a locker room board as a pledge. No. 17 (Carter) and No. 18 (Richards) were absent from the board on the first Dry Island, as well as the estimated five more times the policy was instituted.

In a phone interview Thursday, Flyers General Manager Paul Holmgren confirmed that Richards and Carter hadn't put their numbers on the board, but said there had been others who declined. "We carry 23 players and there wasn't 23 numbers up there."

Holmgren was "really upset that this is out there. That's our locker room. Our inner sanctum. Our board. Someone's crossing a line here," in discussing the Dry Island.

First, I should point out that this appeared in a “gossip” column for The Daily News, which is exactly where it belongs (and it should be noted that Carter’s agent Rick Curran said the “story” was “bullshit” and criticized the last-year-Flyers who didn’t come forward with their names to back the accusations, which I think is a very good point).

However, I think this ties into the coverage of how the Flyers are supposed to be so much more able to compete for the Stanley Cup now that they’ve traded two marquee players for some rookies and young guys who haven’t established themselves yet, which I think is total fiction.

Yes, it’s possible that all of the team’s moves could pan out perfectly. But I see no coverage or commentary anywhere from our lapdog Philadelphia sports media (no doubt wetting themselves over the possibility of taking issue with The Almighty Ed Snider) in the event that it doesn’t.

And I don’t know what Mike Richards and Jeff Carter did in their time off ice, and I don’t care (it’s also nobody’s business, really). What I do know is that they developed into elite players and led the team to a level of accomplishment that hadn’t been seen around here in awhile (since the ill-fated Eric Lindros era, I guess). Their level of play and the statistics they compiled speak for themselves.

And when Jeff Carter is among one of the league leaders in scoring for Columbus next year and Mike Richards is helping the Los Angeles Kings to become a dominant Western Conference team once more, that will speak a hell of a lot louder to me than how much time they spent on “the Dry Island.”

All Paul Holmgren had to do after the 2010 finals was sign free agent Antti Niemi of the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks, and all of this could have been avoided. But we are where we are.

Saturday Stuff

John Nichols of The Nation talks to K.O. about the American Legislative Exchange Council (Wonder who's behind all of the nutty antics of the Republican Party? Here's your answer)...



...and here's some music to check out while we continue to broil.

Saturday Mashup (7/23/11)

The Repugs non-jobs agenda staggers on (here)…

A House committee has voted to reinstate a ban on US funding to organizations that offer or even refer women for abortions around the world. Often called the "global gag rule" or the "Mexico City Policy," the measure goes so far as to prevent health and aid organizations from even presenting abortion as an option.

Republicans on the House Foreign Relations Committee included the prohibition in an authorization bill marked up this week. Here's the pertinent portion of the legislation:

None of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or any amendment made by this Act may be made available to any foreign nongovernmental organization that promotes or performs abortion, except in cases of rape or incest or when the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term.

And as noted here…

Critics of the Mexico City Policy refer to it as the "global gag rule", arguing that, in addition to reducing the overall funding provided to particular NGOs, it closes off their access to USAID-supplied condoms and other forms of contraception.[13] This, they argue, negatively impacts the ability of these NGOs to distribute birth control, leading to a downturn in contraceptive use and from there to an increase in the rates of unintended pregnancies and abortion.[13] Critics also argue that the ban promotes restrictions on free speech as well as restrictions on accurate medical information.[14][15][16][17] The European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development presented a petition to the United States Congress signed by 233 members condemning the policy. The forum has stated that the policy "undermines internationally agreed consensus and goals".[18]

And as noted here…

The Mexico City Policy undoubtedly violates the free speech guarantees of international human rights instruments to which the United States is a party.ll3 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted without dissent by the UN General Assembly in 1948. The principles expressed in the UDHR include that all men and women are entitled to the right to freedom of opinion and expression.1I5 These principles are legally binding on the U.S. through the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states: "Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference . . . . Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds , regardless of frontiers , either orally, in writing or in print . . . . " The global gag rule expressly violates the spirit of this agreement, as well as the explicit rights it seeks to protect. As such, the rule not only impairs the freedom of expression of U.S. - funded foreign NGOs that wish to pursue expressive communications with their own, separate funds, it also violates the rights of patients and citizens seeking medical advice to be fully informed.

Gosh, the notion of universal human rights applicable to everyone regardless of your gender, ethnicity or political affiliation. How “pre-9/11” can you get (snark)?

Next, it looks like Turd Blossom is smiling (here)…

The Internal Revenue Service has abruptly stopped its investigation of whether gift taxes are due from fat-cat donors to nonprofit advocacy groups, which are emerging as increasingly powerful, and stealthy, players in American politics.

The tax is rarely levied, but the fact that regulators had finally questioned the donations raised hope that the I.R.S. might address an even more glaring problem: How partisan attack machines are allowed to pose as nonprofit social welfare organizations to avoid disclosing contributors. The agency’s timidity will invite even greater abuse of tax and election law by moneyed parties.

I.R.S. officials, besieged by Republican complaints, backed off the gift-tax issue this month, lamely claiming that greater study was needed for a clearer policy. This decision compounds the enormous damage done by the Supreme Court’s decision last year allowing unlimited corporate and union money in campaigns.

Dan Froomkin of HuffPo (remember him?) wrote a great piece here on this in which he notes the following…

In Crossroads GPS's solicitations for money, the group describes itself as a tax-exempt 501(c)(4) organization, and due to a controversial loophole in federal campaign finance rules, the names of donors to those organizations do not have to be disclosed publicly.

But contrary to popular belief, Rove's group has not formally attained 501(c)(4) status. The group's application, requesting the IRS to classify it as a "social welfare" group, is still pending.

And while the designation is typically not much more than a formality -- organizations routinely call themselves (c)(4) groups before they've been formally approved -- tax and campaign finance experts contacted by The Huffington Post said the IRS could well deny Crossroads GPS's application.

…

IRS guidelines for 501(c)(4) status state that social welfare groups "must operate primarily to further the common good and general welfare of the people of the community" -- which "does not include direct or indirect participation or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office."

Intervening in political campaigns isn't prohibited, it just can't be the primary activity.

Were Crossroads GPS denied its 501(c)(4) status, the organization could be on the hook for tens of millions of dollars in fines. And operating in secrecy would suddenly come with an enormous new price tag.

If anyone out there is disposed to contact the IRS and ask them why they utterly caved on this decision, feel free to do so by clicking here.

Continuing, I give you last week’s Area Votes in Congress (here – not a lot to add from yours truly)…

House

National flood insurance. Voting 406-22, the House passed a bill (HR 1309) to renew the taxpayer-subsidized National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) through 2016 and start key reforms. The bill authorizes the program to add $3 billion in new debt to the $17.8 billion it already owes the Treasury. The program insures about 5.6 million residential and commercial properties located in flood plains in 22,000 communities.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), John Carney (D., Del.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Michael Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Pat Meehan (R., Pa.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), Jon Runyan (R., N.J.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

Energy-efficient bulbs. Voting 233-193, the House failed to reach a two-thirds majority needed to repeal new standards designed to increase the energy efficiency of light bulbs by 30 percent. The standards are fostering bulbs such as compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that cost more than traditional bulbs but which are expected to save households $100 a year on average.

The standards will take effect next year under an energy law signed by President George W. Bush in 2007. Backers of this bill (HR 2417) denounced the efficiency rules as a federal overreach that will unfairly limit consumer freedoms, while defenders said they would cut nationwide energy costs by $12 billion annually.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Dent, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, LoBiondo, Meehan, Pitts, Runyan, and Smith.

Voting no: Andrews, Brady, Carney, Fattah, Holden, and Schwartz.

Your Republican Party – gluttons on energy now as always.

Clean Water Act. Voting 239-184, the House passed a bill (HR 2018) shifting power to administer certain sections of the Clean Water Act to the states. In part, the bill would strip the federal Environmental Protection Agency of authority to veto Army Corps of Engineers wetlands policies without state concurrence; bar the EPA from issuing new water-quality standards in certain instances without the approval of the affected state; and give states more leeway to issue clean-water permits without federal interference.

Backers said the bill would set a proper balance between federal and state powers, while critics said it was written to help polluters such as mountaintop mining and factory farming.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Dent, Gerlach, Holden, Meehan, Pitts, and Runyan.

Voting no: Andrews, Brady, Carney, Fattah, Fitzpatrick, LoBiondo, Schwartz, and Smith.

The clip below from The Rachel Maddow Show explains once more why this was an incredibly wrong-headed piece of legislation (actual good votes by Mikey the Beloved, LoBiondo and Smith).

Advanced energy research. The House voted, 214-213, to increase funding for the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency from $100 million to $179.6 million in fiscal 2012. This would restore the agency's budget to its 2011 level. Created in 2009, the agency, in concert with universities and corporations, fosters basic research and new technologies aimed at establishing U.S. superiority in the field of energy. The amendment was added to a $31 billion energy appropriations bill (HR 2354) for fiscal 2012, which was later passed.

A yes vote backed the amendment.

Voting yes: Andrews, Brady, Carney, Fattah, Fitzpatrick, Holden, Gerlach, LoBiondo, and Schwartz.

Voting no: Dent, Meehan, Pitts, Runyan, and Smith.

I hope Mikey is feeling all right – these are actually TWO good votes in a row; I’m shocked (and LoBiondo again and Gerlach? Wowsers!)

Update 10/3/11: By the way, here is more than a little bit of energy hypocrisy from Pancake Joe and Chris Smith, as well as Todd Platts, who rarely gets a mention around here.

Senate

Millionaires' taxes. Voting 51-49, the Senate failed to reach 60 votes for ending GOP blockage of a bill (S 1323) stating the sense of the Senate that any agreement to raise the national debt ceiling and curb deficit spending should include "a meaningful contribution" from millionaires and billionaires. The nonbinding Democratic bill was vague on what form the contribution should take but was widely seen as a call for higher taxes on the wealthy.

A yes vote was to advance the bill.

Voting yes: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Chris Coons (D., Del.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), and Robert Menendez (D., N.J.).

Voting no: Pat Toomey (R., Pa.).

“No Corporate Tax” Pat hearts his base once more (he is every bit as loathsome as I knew he would be during the election last year).

This week, both chambers took up fiscal 2012 appropriations bills as well as proposed constitutional amendments requiring a balanced federal budget.

Update 7/24/11: A hat tip to one of my senior correspondents for this (looks like Mikey voted to fund energy development but then, for some reason, voted against the final appropriations bill...a real head-scratcher there).

Finally, this tells us that “Comic-Con” is taking place in San Diego, and U.S. senators were asked to pick their favorite comic book heroes. John Kerry chose Charlie Brown “because he’s always screwing up,” John Cornyn and Orrin Hatch more or less chose Superman, and Joe Manchin chose “Bazooka Joe” (huh?). Oh, and Marco Rubio wondered whether Batman was really a superhero after all.

No word on whether or not Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao or Orange Man Boehner chose Aquaman, which would be appropriate because, if their gamesmanship on the debt limit continues, the probability exists that our entire economy could end up under water (here).

Friday Stuff

Couldn't quite get off a post today...

...Meanwhile, there go Orange Man and Cantor, doing what they do best in spite of all evidence to the contrary (here)...



...and I don't know about you, but I'm the mood for a bit of escapism ("F" blast at end).

Thursday Stuff

What balls by Cenk Uygur (more here)...



...and you wanna know why we have a Clean Water Act? Check this out (something else the Feds can do better than the states)...



...and Rachel is back with the House Repug vendetta against rural airports, to say nothing of unions of course (here - heckuva job)...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

...and this song works on a couple of different levels for yours truly at the moment, including Orange Man and his pals - long story.

Bringing The Pain, Part 1

I’ve been debating with myself about whether or not I should do this, but I’m going to give it a try anyway.

I can assure you that, along with probably every other sentient being on this earth, I am utterly sick and tired of the ridiculous debt limit charade going on in Washington, D.C. (and I still truly cannot find the words to communicate my disgust with the fact that we are toying with such calamitous consequences in the process). Also, though it is vital that Rupert Murdoch and his empire of evil are flayed alive in the square of public opinion (to say nothing of subject to civil and/or criminal prosecution), I’m going to leave that to my “A” list betters to cover for now.

And just so you know, calling out the right-wing idiots at the usual places on the web doesn’t necessarily make my day either. However, I’ve always believed that you need to engage these people when you know that they’re peddling nothing but lying garbage. For now, though, I’m going to give that a pass too.

Basically, I read this story in the New York Times recently about the jobless and came to the highly unoriginal conclusion that our media isn’t paying anywhere near the attention that it should to the unemployed. And I suppose that includes this blog too. Well, I’m about to try and change that.

My plan is to look for stories/posts/whatever online content I can find pertinent to all 50 states and the U.S. territories and publicize it here. I’ll do my best to make it interesting (and this being a blog and all, please feel free to contribute anything you may wish).

Alabama

As noted here, the rate in this state was 9.6 percent as of last month...

"It's very tough," said Athens resident Mike Staton, one of thousands of Alabamians who lost their job in May. Staton had worked as a contract engineer at Marshall Space Flight Center for almost ten years before getting a pink slip right before Memorial Day weekend. "It's hard not just on me, but on my family. I'm hoping that somebody will look at my experience and take a chance on me."

Officials said the April tornadoes had some impact on the numbers, but opinions vary as to how dominant a role they actually played. North Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks (R) said the real problem wasn't the weather, but Washington policies.

"To a very large degree, our unemployment situation is caused by Washington policies that simply don't work," said Congressman Brooks. Brooks believes costs associated with the new federal health care law along with talk of raising the corporate tax rate on businesses is causing many employers to hit the pause button on hiring. Many businesses have stated their unwillingness to hire due to cost uncertainty over both factors.

On the subject of Obama supposedly raising corporate tax rates, I give you this (and this tells you more about the antics of Mo Brooks; as I keep saying, people out there voted for boneheads like this guy).

Also, here is a story about help for unemployed Alabama homeowners, who may qualify for as much as $15,000 in assistance.

Alaska

Good news, residents of that state (well, good comparatively speaking) – your unemployment rate was 7.4 percent in May (here).

As noted here, though…

By the first half of 2010, the unemployment rate for Alaska Natives jumped 6.3 percentage points to 21.3%—the highest regional unemployment rate for American Indians.

And this tells us more about how to tackle joblessness in rural Alaska

Of course, when it comes to Alaska and unemployment, you know I just have to include an item like this (notwithstanding this, of course).

American Samoa

The only items I could find here was a story about how a 2007 increase in the federal minimum wage provided an excuse for Starkist and Chicken of the Sea to close their tuna canning operations; however, as noted here from last October, Chicken of the Sea transferred its operations to a U.S.-based company that will reopen the cannery in the territory (President Obama signed a bill into law “delaying implementation of the wage hike in American Samoa this year and next”…yeah, there goes that business-hating Obama again doing what needs to be done in this case).

Arizona

As noted here, the seasonally adjusted rate was 9.1 percent last month, “at least in part because more people will be serving up burgers and fries.”

Oh, goody.

And as noted here from last month…

The Arizona Legislature adjourned a two-day special session Monday without voting on a proposal to keep 20 weeks of federally funded extended unemployment benefits flowing to thousands of jobless people.

Gov. Jan Brewer had tried to get lawmakers to change a formula in state law so jobless Arizonans could continue to receive the benefits. But several GOP and some Democratic lawmakers blamed the Republican governor for failing to line up votes to support the measure and calling lawmakers into special session shortly before the deadline for making the change expired.

The extended benefits arriving in the mail this week will be the last without a formula change. The state's unemployment has fallen enough to stop benefits after 79 weeks under the current formula. About 15,000 people are now receiving the additional 20 weeks of benefits. Arizona's benefits are second lowest in the nation, averaging $216 per person each week and maxing out at $240 a week.

And I thought PA was cheap (and it is) – continuing…

Carla Mannes, a Mesa resident who has been unemployed for about 68 weeks since losing her job in the funeral industry, said she is approaching the threshold for receiving the extended benefits. She's frustrated those who argue that extending benefits would encourage people not to look for jobs.

"I am not sure how that counts as fraudulent in trying to pay a mortgage, buy food and take care of your kids," Mannes said.

Oh, and this tells us of “unemployed” former GOP “big shot” Brett Mecum (interesting reading).

Arkansas

As noted here…

Nonfarm payroll jobs in Arkansas declined 300 in May to total 1,178,700. Three major industry sectors posted job losses, more than offsetting minor increases in six industries. Employment remained stable in two sectors. The greatest decrease occurred in professional and business services (-2,600). The administrative and support services subsector posted the largest drop (-1,400), attributed in large part to reported declines at employment agencies.

So even the people working at the unemployment office are getting laid off…

Jobs in educational and health services decreased (-1,200), as some educational facilities have closed for summer break. Leisure and hospitality added 1,400 jobs. Gains were mostly seasonal and spread evenly throughout the sector.

Here is a website that seems to provide job listings in Arkansas for older workers, and here is more about that state’s workforce services department.

California

What I’m really trying to find above all else are stories of the jobless, and they are plentiful at this site dedicated to those seeking work in the Golden State.

And as noted here from last October…

…Silicon Valley, the capital of American innovation has a new creation: revival meetings for the unemployed. On weekends, they come by the hundreds.

"60 Minutes" joined a gathering called "Job Connections," held inside a local church.

It's part how-to-find-a-job workshop, part networking opportunity with the feel of a 12-step program.

The people in the group are the faces of unemployment in Silicon Valley, people in their 40s, 50s and 60s who thought they had done everything right: earned a degree, stayed with their company, saved for retirement.

"I'm curious. How many PhDs in this room?" Pelley asked. "One, two, three, four… several. Now leave your hands up. How many master's degrees? Oh boy. And how many of you went to college. Everybody keep your hands up if you have a college degree, a master's degree or a PhD."

Many in the room had their hands up.

"How many of you expected to retire from the company where you were working?" he then asked.

"More than half the room," he noted.

And as of May, the state’s unemployment rate was 11.9 percent (here).

Aside from the terrible human toll of unemployment, the waste of intellectual capital going on right now is positively staggering.

Colorado

As noted here…

July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Colorado, where unemployment topped the national average in three of the past five months, is looking to attract more technology jobs by helping employers access capital through a plan unveiled today by Governor John Hickenlooper.

"This is how we really are going to get this state going and get it back in gear," Hickenlooper said at a press conference in northern Denver at Taxi, a 20-acre complex where tech and biosciences startups replaced a storage yard for cabs and warehouses for freight.

The governor said he met yesterday with executives of Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft Corp., the world's biggest software maker, to discuss why Colorado would be a good fit with its plans to hire thousands of workers nationwide.

Oh great, Bill Gates to the rescue – let’s all learn how to make crappy software and cut the throats of our competitors (though I know beggars can’t be choosers).

Continuing…

The state's jobless rate fell to 8.7 percent in May, compared with 9.1 percent nationwide, after exceeding the U.S. level from January to March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

However, as noted here…

Colorado’s unemployment benefits system is “overwhelmed” according to its new director, with some claimants waiting on hold for as long as 3 hours to get questions answered.

“It’s unacceptable and we take it very seriously,” said Ellen Golombek, executive director of Colorado’s Department of Labor and Employment.

Golombek took over at Labor and Employment in January. She said the average wait time for claimants calling in for information on their unemployment claim now stands at 1 hour and 29 minutes. She thinks it should be 15 minutes or less.

“It’s overwhelming. The system is overwhelmed,” Golombek said several times during the on camera interview. “The problem persists because we are in a recession, people are laid off and are losing their jobs,” she said.

Golombek said there are now 137,000 Coloradans with active unemployment claims, compared to 2008 when about 30,000 were on unemployment. Callers now are so frayed and on edge, operators at the Labor Department undergo training to handle suicidal callers. Golombek acknowledged that 15 employees just went through “specialized training” to handle despondent claimants.

So good luck, all you Coloradans, along with the rest of us.

I’ll pick this up later but I’m not sure when – probably sometime next week.

Update 7/24/11: Here is a link to the story referenced in the comment, by the way - thanks.

Update 7/25/11: More here on a particularly repellent practice...

Wednesday Stuff

Yep, it's time for Jon Stewart to weigh in on the Murdoch-mania, if you will (here...God, that clip at the end of Stuart Varney is priceless - do a better job of brown-nosing and tell us what Rupert the Pirate had for lunch, why dontcha?)...

(OK, never mind, the video upload is hosed - just check it out from C&L instead.)

...and yes, there are a bunch of Dems out there who need to grow a spine (such as, shockingly, Dick Durbin in this "gang of six" nonsense, the latest Beltway kabuki), but this reminds us of the alternative...



...and RIP Jerry Ragovoy - here is one of his signature compositions...



...and I keep forgetting to wish former astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn a happy 90th birthday, so I'd like to do so now and put up this somewhat appropriate selection (overdue for a strange '80s video - wonder if Bowie got a royalty from this guy for using his character?)

Wednesday Mashup (7/20/11)

I honestly have been trying to avoid the whole Rupert Murdoch hacking scandal since it’s being covered pretty responsibly elsewhere, but I simply must comment on this unintentionally hilarious (in a darkly humorous vein) Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal today by Holman Jenkins, Jr. Basically, Jenkins’ premise is that the scandal reveals a “British Watergate” (yep, I suppose it was inevitable that that would be invoked at some point) in the “Scotland Yard corruption” sense.

Oh, and did you know that, because of the scandal, “As Nixon did, the News of the World leaves the world a better place”?

Yep, we are truly through the looking glass here, people…

…Three names to keep in mind are Jonathan Rees, Steve Whittamore and Glenn Mulcaire, all private investigators long accused of having made a living selling illegally obtained information to the press.

Rees was the subject of a 1999 police investigation, described in a detailed 2002 Guardian newspaper report. An official police summary was quoted as saying the Rees network of informants' "thirst for knowledge is driven by profit to be accrued from the media."

Whittamore's files were seized in a 2003 raid by Britain's Information Commissioner, becoming the basis for his 2006 report on "The Unlawful Trade in Confidential Personal Information." So undeafening was the response, the commissioner followed up six months later by releasing a list of 31 publications "positively identified" as trafficking with Whittamore. Top of the list, 58 reporters or editors of the Daily Mail ordered up 952 information requests. News of the World, the now-closed tabloid owned by the Journal's parent, was fifth on the roster, with 19 employees in 152 transactions.

Finally, Mulcaire. A former British pro football player, he was jailed in 2007, along with a News of the World reporter, for hacking phones of the royal household. His files, 11,000 of them, have been in the possession of Scotland Yard since 2006. The top police resignations that rocked the British Isles last week stem directly from Scotland Yard's uninterest in acting on this evidence.

In response about Rees, this tells us that he was paid 150,000 pounds a year by the News of the World to dig up dirt as recently as 2008. Which begs the question, why was News of the World continuing this thoroughly odious practice if they actually cared about the illegality?

And in April 2005, the News of the World was identified in open court as a private customer of the private investigator Steven Whittamore when he pleaded guilty to paying a civilian police worker to illegally obtain confidential information from a police national computer (Jenkins cites the 2003 bust by Britain’s Information Commissioner, though the illegal activity here, as with Rees, continued unabated afterwards).

Next is Mulcaire, and even though he was jailed in 2007 for hacking, why did Murdoch keep paying him until recently (here)?

And here is an example of Mulcaire’s handiwork…

…with the help of its own full-time private investigator (Mulcaire), the News of the World started illegally intercepting mobile phone messages. Scotland Yard is now investigating evidence that the paper hacked directly into the voicemail of the (missing British schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s) own phone. As her friends and parents called and left messages imploring Milly to get in touch with them, the News of the World was listening and recording their every private word.

But the journalists at the News of the World then encountered a problem. Milly's voicemail box filled up and would accept no more messages. Apparently thirsty for more information from more voicemails, the paper intervened – and deleted the messages that had been left in the first few days after her disappearance. According to one source, this had a devastating effect: when her friends and family called again and discovered that her voicemail had been cleared, they concluded that this must have been done by Milly herself and, therefore, that she must still be alive. But she was not. The interference created false hope and extra agony for those who were misled by it.

The Dowler family then granted an exclusive interview to the News of the World in which they talked about their hope, quite unaware that it had been falsely kindled by the newspaper's own intervention. Sally Dowler told the paper: "If Milly walked through the door, I don't think we'd be able to speak. We'd just weep tears of joy and give her a great big hug."

The deletion of the messages also caused difficulties for the police by confusing the picture when they had few leads to pursue. It also potentially destroyed valuable evidence.

Yes, the whole hacking scandal is making a lot of people look bad besides Murdoch, and they should face the proverbial music as well. But to imply that Murdoch was somehow responsible for exposing institutional police corruption and thus heroic in any way, shape, or form isn’t merely delusional, it is actually nauseating.

Returning to our shores, this bit of fluff at The Daily Tucker tells us the following…

It is not a partisan issue to support photo voter ID laws. Former President Jimmy Carter, the co-chair of the Commission on Federal Election Reform, has urged lawmakers to support voter ID laws “that make it easy to vote but tough to cheat.” In the Supreme Court decision that upheld Indiana’s photo voter ID statute, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that “not only is the risk of voter fraud real but … it could affect the outcome of a close election.”

Melanie Sloan and CREW have, yet again, weighed into a partisan debate, adding their voices to that of the national Democratic Party apparatus. (The Republican National Lawyers Association, which supports voter ID laws of course) is a political organization — and so is CREW, which should not continue to enjoy its 501(c)(3) tax status. Sloan is a Democratic operative and CREW is nothing more than a puppet of the DNC masquerading as a non-partisan organization. The IRS should take notice.

Oh, and have you guessed that CREW quite rightly opposes voter ID (and I don’t think the Indiana ruling by Stevens was one of his finest moments by any means)? And with all due respect to President Carter, I think he’s trying to find a remedy in search of a problem, as they say, also (here).

When someone presents to me a case of a ballot falsified by an actual voter at a polling station that ended up being entered into a vote count that affected an outcome, then I’ll take this supposed issue seriously. However, I’m a lot more concerned about the integrity of votes after they’re cast than before (though I'm highly concerned about the Repugs and their "voter caging" schemes also...and here is more anti-CREW propaganda).

And if CREW is supposed to be doing the bidding of the Democratic Party, then please explain this.

Continuing, this story appeared in the New York Times today…

WASHINGTON — Pakistan’s military, including its powerful spy agency, has spent $4 million over two decades in a covert attempt to tilt American policy against India’s control of much of Kashmir — including funneling campaign donations to members of Congress and presidential candidates, the F.B.I. claimed in court papers unsealed Tuesday.

The allegations of a long-running plan to influence American elections and foreign policy come at a time of deep tensions between the United States and Pakistan — and in particular its spy agency — amid the fallout over the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden at a compound deep inside Pakistan on May 2.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation made the allegations in a 43-page affidavit filed in connection with the indictment of two United States citizens on charges that they failed to register with the Justice Department as agents of Pakistan, as required by law. One of the men, Zaheer Ahmad, is in Pakistan, but the other, Syed Fai, lives in Virginia and was arrested on Tuesday.

Mr. Fai is the director of the Kashmiri American Council, a Washington-based group that lobbies for and holds conferences and media events to promote the cause of self-determination for Kashmir. According to the affidavit, the activities by the group, also called the Kashmiri Center, are largely financed by Pakistan’s spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, along with as much as $100,000 a year in related donations to political campaigns in the United States. Foreign governments are prohibited from making donations to American political candidates.

“Mr. Fai is accused of a decades-long scheme with one purpose — to hide Pakistan’s involvement behind his efforts to influence the U.S. government’s position on Kashmir,” Neil MacBride, the United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, said. “His handlers in Pakistan allegedly funneled millions through the Kashmir Center to contribute to U.S. elected officials, fund high-profile conferences and pay for other efforts that promoted the Kashmiri cause to decision-makers in Washington.”

And do you want to know who one of the beneficiaries was of the allegedly funneled funds?

Why, none other than Pancake Joe Pitts himself (as well as Dan “Let’s Shoot The Vince Foster Pumpkin” Burton – here, #7).

Oh, but not to worry; the story tells us that Pitts donated the $4 grand he received “to local charities in Pennsylvania on Tuesday” (good luck finding those charities or any mention of this story at Pitts’ web site).

And it should be noted that, if Syed Fai had had the wherewithal to donate through the “U.S.” Chamber of Commerce instead, no one would have known a thing.

Finally, this story tells the following…

Before he was named on Tuesday to lead the prominent but troubled Archdiocese of Philadelphia (taking over for Justin Cardinal Rigali), Archbishop Charles J. Chaput spent the last 14 years in Denver establishing himself as one of the nation’s most prominent advocates of a politically engaged and conservative Catholicism.

Yep, and here are the two “takeaways” for me from this story…

He is among a minority of Roman Catholic bishops who have spoken in favor of denying communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights. He helped defeat legislation that would have legalized civil unions for gay couples in Colorado. And he condemned the University of Notre Dame, a Catholic institution, for granting President Obama an honorary degree in 2009 because of his stance on abortion.

And…

Advocates for sexual abuse victims, however, bristle at the characterization of Archbishop Chaput as a reformer. They point out that he fought hard against legislation in Colorado that would have extended the statute of limitations for people who say they were sexually abused to sue the church.

And I suppose it’s OK to be “politically engaged” in the Catholic Church of Pope Benny as long as your name isn’t, say, Robert Drinan.

Seriously, though, could we have expected anything different from Rome than someone like Chaput?

In the meantime, I’ll watch to see if those pews start filling up a little more on Sundays.

Update 7/29/11: Good question for Rigali and Chaput here...