Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion.
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"News that's not known, or not known enough." Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion. |
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Obama is playing checkers President Obama's spending freeze is perhaps the most stupid combination of stupid policy and stupid politics into a spectacularly stupid Presidential decision since George W Bush decided to parlay
I mean, has anybody here seen my old friend John Maynard Keynes? Government spending — payroll, contracting, entitlement programs, and a stimulus that should've been a lot bigger — is just about the only life support that's keeping the US economy alive. If you think the economy is already dead or dying just pull that plug and watch rigor mortis set in. And sure, Obama's spending freeze is phony, but the phoniness only makes it stupider. You really get the impression that Obama is playing checkers, while everyone else is playing hi-tech video games or three-dimensional chess. More about Obama's latest sell-out later (you've been warned) but first let's do the unknown news: ♦ "License to kill" orders from President George W Bush are still in effect, never having been countermanded by President Obama. The Bush (and now Obama) orders grant "authority to kill U.S. citizens abroad if strong evidence existed that an American was involved in organizing or carrying out terrorist actions against the United States or U.S. interests". I don't think instant executions of Americans was what the founding fathers had in mind as they drafted the Bill of Rights.
♦ President Obama again dropped in for tea and crumpets with Republicans last week, this time at some funky Republicans-only "retreat" in Baltimore. And what did he say? Obama again begged Republicans to work with him, like him, maybe stop calling him a Marxist and a Nazi, whatever. A long sigh. How long, Lord, how many times will Obama grovel for bipartisanship? Obama has reached out to Republicans so many times and in so many ways you'd need special software to keep a count, and every time he reaches out to Republicans he gets slapped away. Perhaps it was politically necessary at first, for Obama to go through the motions of reaching out to Republicans and reaching out to Republicans and reaching out to Republicans some more. But sweet jeebers, is enough ever going to be enough? Someone please tell President Neville Chamberlain that the Democrats control the House, the Senate, and the White House, so they can maybe do something even if Republicans don't like it. Does Obama have a big ol' boner for Republicans' love or what? Isn't it clear after a year that Republicans are not going to play nice and bipartisan? And why would Republicans do anything else, so long as Obama and the Democrats keep cheerfully caving in to Republicans on everything, making it clear that Republicans will have their way on everything? ♦ Congressman Peter King (R-New York) has introduced legislation to block a trial in New York for alleged
And eager to find something else to surrender to the right-wing about, the Obama administration asked the Justice Department to look around for someplace else to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. It was announced on Friday that the trial won't be held in New York after all. ♦ In his State of the Union address, Obama repeatedly described nuclear power, offshore oil and gas drilling, and coal as "clean energy". And there's your Obama change, and it's a real change: The previous President probably didn't know the difference between clean energy and dirty energy, but President Obama knows the difference and understands why it's important. What hasn't changed is that the politics of sucking up to Big Money is more important than telling the truth or dealing with problems. ♦ Obama also announced an executive order establishing a bipartisan deficit reduction committee. It's yet another Republican move by the Obama administration. Assuming that Obama's order is for something similar to the proposal Obama was pushing that was rejected by the Senate, the committee will give too much power to its too many Republican members, virtually ensuring the wrong kind of cuts will be recommended. ♦ While folks with common sense debate whether Ben Bernanke is merely incompetent or openly criminal, folks without common sense — specifically, the US Senate — have reconfirmed his Bernankeship for a second term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. It's worth noting with a sigh that President Obama unleashed the full force of the White House in lobbying the Senate to keep Bernanke's sorry ass in the job he's done so poorly so far. That's something the White House is willing to seriously work for, while the long list of things the Obama administration refuses to work for includes health care reform, ending America's war agenda, gay rights, justice for Bush-Cheney era criminals of government or high finance, or anything much that carries even a whiff of progressivism. ♦ Newsweek is reporting that the Justice Department has (predictably) softened a report from the Office of Professional Responsibility that had found professional misconduct by two Bush-Cheney attorneys, Jay Bybee and John Yoo, who wrote official memos explaining how very legal it is to torture people. The new, whitewashed report will say that Bybee and Yoo just made some oopsies, nothing serious.
♦ But the winner for Obama's Stupid Move of the Week has to be the spending freeze. It's all phony, of course, just empty (but stupid) symbolism — there's a giant exception for anything even tangentially related to military spending, which is by far the largest money-for-nothing sinkhole of federal cash. And another giant exception for education. Another exception for veterans' affairs. And it starts in 2011? You can probably hear my eyes rolling. So it's just a really lame and obvious political stunt, and it's a stunt that can't work. The Obama administration will carve out more and more loopholes, so many loopholes and exceptions (as with their laughable ethics "requirements") that they'll make themselves the butt of bipartisan jokes, and they'll be unable to backtrack without inspiring another round of jokes. And in Chris Matthews-speak, where everything is only politics and reality matters not at all, it's just another Republican strategy. It's announcing on prime time telly that on the rather hotly debated political issue of governmnt spending, John McCain and Ron Paul were right, and John Maynard Keynes and the Democrats were wrong. And you know, if Americans wanted Republican strategies they would've voted a Republican into the White House. Maybe they did. Certainly, they will next time. So there's no spending freeze for the ongoing wars on brown people, and no spending freeze on the massive never-ending military build-up that fuels such wars, and no spending freeze on bailouts for billionaire high-finance criminals, AIG crooks, Goldman Sachs crooks, and all the other crooks. But there's a spending freeze on programs that might help ordinary people whose lives have been devastated by the economic consequences of the above. I've got your spending freeze, President Obama. I've got it right here, in my middle finger and in the crack of my ass. My spending freeze, for what little it's worth, is — not one red penny for Democratic Party candidates for any office, and a pledge of whatever support I can afford in time and money for any honest-to-Christ progressive candidates who challenge Democratic office-holders. ♦ In the state where I live, Wisconsin, you don't qualify for a public defender in court unless you're remarkably poor — so poor you probably couldn't survive the winter without government assistance. Resolved: In a society where justice is more than a cliche, public defenders would be publicly funded at a rate equal to the public funding for prosecution attorneys. ♦ Appropriately, since he never denied doing the deed, it took a Kansas jury no time flat to find Scott Roeder guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of Dr George Tiller. ♦ Uh, is there someone out there who can translate this into some language understandable by human beings? In a decision that could spark a constitutional showdown over privacy rights, a judge Tuesday gave lawyers representing multi-millionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein the right to subpoena abortion records from women who are seeking millions in damages from the part-time Palm Beach resident. Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Donald Hafele said the records could help Epstein refute the women's claims that they suffered psychological ills after being paid to give him sexually-charged massages at his Palm Beach mansion when they were as young as 14. Hafele told Epstein's attorneys they couldn't go on a fishing expedition. ... ♦ The Kentucky Senate has passed legislation that would require doctors to show women ultrasound images of a fetus, and explain the fetus imagery, and wait 24 hours before performing an abortion. Hey, while you're at it why not brand pregnant women with a big scarlet letter? ♦ An initiative that would legalize marijuana will be on the ballot in California this autumn. ♦ Torture architect John Yoo is, of course, teaching constitutional law at U-Cal Berkeley, where he's been the target of protests. So even the location of his classes is kept secret, known only to Yoo and his students. ♦ John Kiriakou, the ex-CIA operative who spoke publicly about how marvelously effective torture had been, now admits he was lying.
♦ A few thousand non-violent criminals in California will be released, as a budget-tightening measure. Why does it take a fiscal catastrophe and looming state bankruptcy to bring about such common-sense thinking? Why are non-violent criminals imprisoned at all? ♦ Voters in Oregon decided to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy. What a good idea. What an obviously good idea. Why not try it in 49 other states and the United States? The media paid little attention to last week's vote in the Beaver State, but it's at least as interesting and indicitive of a "trend" as what happened in Massachusetts two weeks ago (which still holds all the pundits' attention). ♦ Sarah Palin says it on Fox News, and it promptly becomes a talking point for Senator Evan Bayh (D-Indiana). ♦ Bad news for Alexi Giannoulias, the alleged Democrat running for Senate in Illinois. The frickin' bank his frickin' family owns is in trouble with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC).
♦ White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs got all pissy at pissy talker Ed Schultz when Schultz pointed out that the proposed health care reform legislation will be mannah from heaven to the insurance industry. Gibbs reportedly got so very angry he used the f-word, or at least that's what both the White House and the Schultz camp want us to believe. So we finally get to see what really riles the Obama White House, what they're really willing to stand up and get pissed about. Not Republicans' lies. Not Republicans' obstructionism. Not health care reform. Nope. But they're willing to be seen hollerin' and stompin' their feet when somebody who's nominally on the left tells the truth about health care reform. ♦ In last week's fake Republican outrage, we saw the indignation of Congressman Tom McClintock (R-California) because, in the run-up to the recent Senate race in Massachusetts, the aforementioned radio and MSNBC host Ed Schultz made hyperbolic comments claiming he'd vote ten or twenty times in that election, if he could. Or at least, that's what McClintock says Schultz said. I haven't heard an audio clip and you'd have to pay me to listen to Schultz's godawful radio show, but assuming that the quote is accurate then Schultz is an irresponsible jackass who made an indefensible statement and I won't waste a moment defending the statement of the jackass. Of course, if a Republican had said something like that, it would be just one more turd in the right-wing's overflowing sewer of irresponsible statements, and Congressman McClintock wouldn't be bothered at all. * Also, much Republican indignation because President Obama occasionally puts his feet on the furniture. * Also, Republicans are furious because Obama dared to criticize the Supreme Court's decision on free speech for corporations. * ... Can't wait to see what next week's fake Republican outrage be about. It's always something.
But in the interest of fairness, we'll also give Obama and the Democrats a pat on the back when they get something right. This week... * The Obama administration has ended a stupid ban on Scottish haggis that's been in effect since 1989. * And that's about it. Thank you, President Obama.
♦ The New York Federal Reserve (then headed by now Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner) asked the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to use claims of "national security" to keep the bailout of AIG under wraps. ♦ You would think banks would be rather cautious about foreclosures, a messy and time- and money-consuming legal act, but maybe you would think wrong. On at least three recent occasions, Bank of America seems to have foreclosed on the wrong houses, in One in Spring Hill, FL, in Galveston, TX, in Fresno, CA — and all these are just in January, just from one reader's news search. ♦ Amazon is using its large share of on-line book sales to dictate terms and retail prices. Macmillan hasn't played ball, so Amazon has pushed a button and poof, stopped selling Macmillan's e-books. Author Tobias Buckell explains what's going on, in detail but in easily-understood terms. Worth a read. ♦ The Obama administration has OK'd the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation, giving the combined entity complete control of most major venues in America for concerts and live performances. A few modest and probably unenforceable concessions are required, but it's nothing that would stand in the way of monopolistic control. ♦ John Mackey, the founder and CEO of Whole Foods who's also an outspoken opponent of even the meekest and mildest health care reform, continues to seek out new ways to be a jackass. He's introduced a new employee-incentive program that rates workers on body mass index and increases the employee discount for low-BMI employees. Because skinny people are better, and people who aren't skinny deserve to pay more, I guess. And yes, Mackey is a skinny wisp of a guy — how did you guess?
In Oregon, at least, Whole Foods’ new “No Fatties” policy might be illegal. It sure sounds like it would potentially run afoul of the state’s Bureau of Labor and Industries. ♦ Murray Hill Inc. is running for Congress, because corporations are people too. It's a public relations firm with a progressive track record, and they're doing this stunt for the right reasons. ♦ Those $170 running shoes might be doing your feet more harm than good. ♦ Urban Outfitters sells shirts in a color called "Obama Black", but it's not as offensively crass as it sounds. ♦ Thanks to a court settlement, the sweethearts at the eHarmony hook-up service will be required to treat gays and lesbians almost as if they're people. ♦ Pacific Gas & Electric is spending millions of dollars to install new meters that can remotely shut off customers' electric service, without the company needing to send a crew, as soon as someone at PG&E determines that you're past-due on your electric bill. ♦ Wal-Mart established a fake "community group" as part of its effort to get approval to build a store in Chicago. ♦ An Akron hotel has refused to lodge a disabled man, because he had accidentally soiled the sheets in a previous stay. Libertarians will say that the hotel owner is within his/her rights, and I'm not sure I'd disagree, but the hotel is obviously owned by a jackass. It would be a different matter if the man had pooped in bed on purpose, but he's frickin' disabled. Where are people who can't control their bodily functions supposed to sleep?
So basically, Yemen has become another country where America is fighting another war. How many countries is America at war with and within? Hard to say, as even this report about the war in Yemen is calling it "secret". It's not a secret to the people of Yemen, of course — it's only the people of America that America keeps such "secrets" from.
Over the next two decades, some 3,000 Haitians were killed by the occupiers, while the Marines themselves suffered just 16 fatalities.
At this inquest, Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has no regrets about launching a war on Iraq on false pretexts. And he says he'd do it again, even if he knew the whole "weapons of mass destruction" thing was a lie, which he must've known the first time around. There's a word for this. ♦ Weapons inspector Hans Blix offers a few frustrating memories of the build-up to war. Most [UN Security Council] members continued to want more UN inspections. What was the sense of letting inspectors wait for more than three years, only to let them inspect for three and a half months? The UN path did not lead to the resolution of weapons issues, nor to the alternative council authorisation for armed intervention which the UK had originally hoped for – and gambled on. What was worse, the armed action and occupation that followed failed, as the inspectors had before them, to find any WMD in Iraq.
The US and the UK were deprived of the justification on which they had tried so hard to sell the war. They were driven to claim that an armed action that was opposed by three permanent members of the council – China, France and Russia – and that could not obtain the support of a majority was a way of "upholding the authority of the council". The only positive result was the toppling of a ruler who was a horror to his own people, but hardly even a long-term threat to his region. ♦ UN human rights experts have warned that "widespread and systematic" secret detention of terror suspects could pave the way for charges of crimes against humanity.
There is no rush, says Senator Reid. About 120 Americans died yesterday due to lack of health insurance, and another 120 will die today, but Senator Reid says there's no hurry. ♦ The White House is signaling that the lame-o health care reform that dominated headlines for six months is now a back-burner item. ♦ The California legislature is again trying to pass genuine health care reform — single-payer health coverage for everyone. "If it's not to be done at the national level, let us take the lead," said state Sen. Christine Kehoe, D- San Diego. Of course, Republicans are opposed and Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-California) has already said he'll veto it. ♦ We're apparently going to see some serious spending on high-speed rail, or so we're told. And as a life-long rail and public transit enthusiast I ought to be excited. But instead I'm skeptical indeed. It's almost impossible to envision that we're going to see high-speed rail done right, in a nation where the old-fashioned passenger rail system is so thoroughly neglected, underfunded, and discombobulated. Beyond some commuter routes on the eastern seaboard, a train trip in America is an epic adventure into frustration, with long waits on sidelines as freight trains take precedence, long stretches where the track is so dilapidated that the train can't exceed fifteen miles an hour, adding up to service that simply can't be counted on to reach its destination within hours of its scheduled time. At least, without exception, that's been my experience when riding Amtrak.
Even discussing plans for high speed rail feels like chatting about excellence in public education or universal health care or flying cars. It smells like a pipe dream, in other words. But I'd love to be mistaken. ♦ If we’d spent as much federal stimulus money on public transportation as we spent on highways, we would have created twice as much work and put a bigger dent in the unemployment rate. That’s the analysis of stimulus spending by Smart Growth America, the Center for Neighborhood Technology and U.S. PIRG the public-policy lobbying group.
'Cuz in what we're constantly, laughably told is America's "liberal media", if you're a Republican in the Bush administration and the author of a book predicting a limitless never-popping stock bubble, your bad ideas have no consequences at all. ♦ George Will's right-tilted commentary has never been something I've eagerly read or heard. Generally speaking, I don't agree with his opinions and he doesn't present his points with the style, wit, imagination, or whatever might compel me to follow along anyway in hopes of smacking myself on the forehead with a eureka moment. He also has a tendency to lie, but even disregarding that, I've at least always assumed that George Will was presenting George Will's opinion. And now I doubt even that. Will is lying when he says that corporations like Microsoft are "not interested in getting into political fights". He's not stupid enough to believe that. ♦ MSNBC's Chris Matthews was so enraptured by President Obama's State of the Union address that he briefly forgot the President is black. It takes a certain weird talent to say intelligent and thoughtful things on live television. I know I don't have the gift — it sometimes takes me ten minutes to make one sentence say what I want it to say, and we have a whole week between deadlines. But whatever that elusive live-TV talent is, Matthews sure as heck doesn't have it. Even when he's not putting his foot in his mouth, it's awfully rare to hear him say something worth hearing. ♦ NPR turned to right-wing crank David Horowitz to criticize historian Howard Zinn — in NPR's obituary of Zinn.
♦ California Watch is at least temporarily having its reporters work out of coffee shops that offer free wi-fi. A newsroom without the rent on the room — sounds like a smart way to hold down expenses, so long as the coffee shops don't mind. ♦ It's hardly surprising, but Arianna Huffington's journalism charity primarily helps the Huffington Post. ♦ CBS says it has changed its long-standing policy forbidding advocacy ads, so it's happy to take the money and run Focus on the Family's anti-abortion ad during the Super Bowl. You might recall, CBS famously rejected a left-leaning advocacy ads from some church a few years ago. If the network has yanked its corporate head out of its corporate back-pocket and will now accept paid advertising without the traditional persnicketiness about standards and practices, that's a good thing. If so, then the airing of Focus on the Family's ad won't bother me any more than the rest of the right-wing's throat-throttling control of mass media. But CBS is probably lying. I don't really think they'd accept a pro-choice ad, even at full price, and run it during the Super Bowl. Here's a little stunt-work that shows where CBS draws the line, and here's another, and here's hoping Planned Parenthood (donate) can afford to buy an ad and find out. ♦ Great moments in journalism: US Weekly’s exclusive report on Jessica Simpson’s farts.
♦ Here's a momentary diversion that's painful but delightful, a rock video performed by Glenn Hubbard, Dean of Columbia Business School, back in 2006. It has a zillion views so maybe you've seen it, but I never had. Mr Hubbard, please note, is very much a Republican, humorously but presciently blasting George W Bush's original nomination of Ben Bernanke as Fed Chairman, mostly because Hubbard wanted the job himself. ♦ There's something beautiful about the way folks in Vermont who knew J. D. Salinger helped protect him from perpetually invasive media and literature students. A favorite pastime at Cornish General Store, in Cornish Flat, was sending people searching for Salinger out into the weeds. "I never told where he lived," Mike Ackerman, a 42-year-old Cornish native who's run the store for two years, said yesterday. The directions given to Salinger-seekers varied, he said. "It really depended on the attitude of the person coming in how much fun we would have with that person," said Ackerman... ♦ Can someone 'splain to me please why anyone on earth should care what Sammy Alito mouthed under his breath at the State of the Union event? Or for that matter, why Supreme Court Justices and the military high command are present, and why it kicks our nation's fine corporate-sponsored sit-coms and reality shows off television for the night? ♦ Pastor Ted Haggard has been cured of the gay, says his wife. Good god, these people's lives are so sad. ♦ Pope John Paul II was apparently into some kinky sh*t.
If the charges aren't immediately dropped or pleaded down, this should at least lead to answers for generally un-asked questions like, who's paying this guy's expenses? He's on Andrew Brietbert's payroll at the right-wing website biggovernment.com, but one suspects that O'Keefe is more than merely Brietbart's plaything. ♦ Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, ninth husband of Zsa Zsa Gabor, is running for Governor in California. Snicker if you like, and of course he doesn't stand a chance, but I like the snippets of his platform presented here: * Create a Sin Tax: Legalize marijuana and tax it * Open the border with Mexico: Let in more workers, then tax them * Adjust DMV fees: DMV fees are outrageous and hurt the "working class." * Taxing bad drivers * Mandatory solar panels on every new building * Overturn Prop 8: Throw divorce lawyers "a bone" and quiet the "gays." He says he believes in marriage between an man and woman, but also defends the constitution which says equal rights for all. "Let them be as miserable as the rest of us" * Lift the ban on Cuban cigars. ♦ Unknown News is updated once weekly, usually on Mondays. It's our attempt to spotlight news that was underplayed, ignored, or simply lost in the non-stop news cycle. Have a seat and some cheese puffs but please, no smoking. A tip o' the hat to Daniel D., the letter Z, AK for CSS help, Inebriated Discourse, E & P in Exile, Mark T., JR Mooneyham, Jim B., Sherri B., Cassandra, Joseph D., Joe G., Lon Garm, J.S. (not the Watergate felon) Magruder at Eat the Blog, Alexander Shaumyan, SirJ, Bill T., wlgriffi, our first web-home at pitas.com (1999-2003, and still a great place for publishing your blog), and the love of my life (who prefers to remain anonymous).
Recommended sites for gathering unknown or underreported news: Media Matters Pro Publica ThinkProgress Washington Monthly TruthOut
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