Patty is one of our new regulars, and you’ll find excellent comments from her on almost every article, almost every day. She comes to us from Care2. One of Patty’s claims to fame is that she is a Jig Zone predator. Once upon a time, she used to complain that she would never be good enough to beat the average. Now she beats my tail with exasperating regularity! 🙁 😉
Congrats Patty! We’re glad you’re here.
Yesterday I felt tired and slept late. Because the GOP Debate was not worth watching, I did not watch it. Well I did flip it on for a moment during a commercial. I saw Ron Paul perform his ongoing whine that he is being ignored. That was enough for me. I’m current with replies. Tomorrow I have the same paperwork to do and an email backlog to catch up.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today it took me 4:14 (average 4:51). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Reuters: Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has a blunt message for voters such as Jim Shackleford who are trapped by falling housing prices: You’re on your own.
Santorum and other Republican candidates say the government should do little, if nothing, to ease the housing crisis that plunged the country into recession and continues to weigh on the recovery.
YOYO is the Republican solution for everyone except millionaires, billionaires and corporate criminals.
From Washington Post: Former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) officially won the Iowa caucuses Thursday — 16 days after the last vote was cast — when state GOP officials said a final count showed him 34 votes ahead of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
I understand that Iowa Republicans still cannot certify the vote. If Republicans are unfit to run caucuses, they they are unfit to run America.
From SPLC: With W-2s and 1040s in the mail, tax season is getting into full swing. And even white nationalists have to pay their taxes if they’re not living off the grid. But where does a proud Aryan go to find a tax preparer who understands the special needs of white people?
They needn’t look any farther than the classifieds at Stormfront.org, the massive Web forum run by a former Alabama Klan leader in West Palm Beach, Fla. Under “Tax Preparation” is this ad: “Please stop using main Jew owned tax services from H&R Block and use one of your own! Please share and pass along.”
Click on it, and it takes you to a Web page for Garfield Accounting Services, “a full service accounting firm specializing in small and individual owned businesses” based in New Berlin, Wisc.
Well, I can make a pretty good guess at who does Scott Walker’s taxes.
Cartoon:
Barack Obama must have felt like the wishbone from a turkey over the Keystone XL pipeline. Key groups of Democratic supporters are split, labor for and environmentalists against. At one point he had an environmental impact statement saying that it was environmentally safe, but then he learned that the statement had been rigged, and was nothing more than a claim from the pipeline company. So he correctly put the project on hold until an honest environmental impact statement could be prepared. It’s my guess that Republicans knew that an honest impact statement would kill the pipeline, because in return for a two month payroll tax cut extension, they demanded a decision on Keystone XL by next month, before an honest impact statement could be prepared in the hopes of bullying an approval from him. Their tactic did not work and Obama did the right thing.
The Obama administration on Wednesday denied a permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada, touching off a torrent of criticism from Republicans – whom the White House blamed for forcing a decision.
President Barack Obama, who was under a 60-day deadline imposed by congressional Republicans, left open the door to approve the 1,661-mile pipeline in the future. He also suggested the possibility of an alternative pipeline that could get Canadian oil sands crude to refineries and ports in Texas.
The company that wants to build Keystone XL, TransCanada Corp., said Wednesday it would apply for a new permit that, if approved, would allow the pipeline to be built by late 2014.
The decision was fraught with political complications for Obama over issues of energy security, jobs and the environment. Environmentalists had made the project a test case on whether the administration was serious about fighting climate change. And though Obama didn’t rule out future pipelines, they declared victory.
Business groups, congressional Republicans and the GOP’s presidential candidates hammered Obama for rejecting the project, which they said would create jobs.
In a statement, Obama said he was siding with his State Department and denying the permit because of a "rushed and arbitrary deadline" that congressional Republicans attached to a payroll tax-cut extension in December… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Kansas City Star>
What the article does not make clear is that Obama has to leave the door open, because the law allows any company to apply for such a permit at any time. It is my belief that they cannot meet required environmental standards. Otherwise, they would not have faked the original study.
Ed Schultz discusses the decision with Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY).
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
BY the way, the Republican claim of thousands of jobs is a lie. The project would have created about 600 permanent jobs, and about 60 of them would have been in the US.
The world of high finance can be confusing to experts, let alone to folks like me. But presently we have a situation in which US vulture capitalists, are threatening the financial integrity of Europe, and the way in which they are doing so provides us a window into how they operate and into understanding Vulture Capitalism.
Who are the real villains on Wall Street? When it comes to institutionalized greed and corruption, nothing tops the too-big-to-fail banks like JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs. But these financial giants form only one part of the financial oligarchy. Lurking in the shadows are aggressive hedge funds that are just as lethal to our economic well being. If Goldman Sachs is a vampire squid, as Matt Taibbi so aptly named it, then hedge funds are like schools of piranhas or sharks, eager to strip the financial carcass to the bone.
The sharks at this very moment are circling Greece, waiting to devour that nation’s resources. To understand this attack we need to enter into the rotting innards of our financial system.
But aren’t the Greeks lazy?
Let’s starts with a closer look at why Greece has accumulated so much debt. The answer is not because they sit around sipping retsina rather than working. Instead it has everything to do with the attempt of Europe to improve the lot of the Greek people so they would embrace democracy. Let’s not forget that from 1967 to 1974 Greece was ruled by a military junta that inflicted enormous pain on its people. Helping the Greek people escape poverty was critically important. Greece’s entry into the European Union and the access to capital it provided, allowed the Greek people to rebuild the foundations of prosperity and democracy.
Of course, our vampire squid banks also played a critical role in exacerbating the debt problem. When Greece hit the debt limits set by the EU, large U.S. banks profited mightily by structuring loans to Greece to skirt those rules.
But the biggest blow came from the 2008 financial crash, which was wholly caused by Wall Street’s reckless gambling spree. When the world economy nearly collapsed into another Great Depression, the weaker economies in the EU took the biggest hit. Ireland, Portugal and Greece suffered enormous job loss and massive declines in tax revenues. These countries became the victims of the vast housing bubble that was pumped up by Wall Street’s fantasy financial schemes. Yes, they had accumulated too much debt, but the problem would have been manageable were it not for the Wall Street-created crash.
Enter the piranha hedge funds
Hedge funds are lightly regulated, privately managed investment funds created and designed for the super-rich, who expect to get much higher rates of return than the rest of us. While you and I are lucky to see a 2 percent increase in our 401ks, hedge funds hope to see gains far in excess of 10 percent. Pension funds and endowments have also followed the super-rich into these funds to gain access to these outsized returns. There are 8,000 or so hedge funds that now manage a total of nearly $2 trillion.
But making these super-profits doesn’t come easy. Hedge funds don’t just get lucky on a few stocks or bonds. They look for an edge, and more than a few go over the edge by engaging in criminal activity like insider trading. Others hope to get to the Promised Land by being tough SOBs who don’t think twice about impoverishing people. Those SOB hedge funds are circling Greece right now, doing all they can to get their hands on the money the European Union wants to lend Greece to reduce its long-term debt problems.
Here’s the play: Greece does not have enough money to pay off the loans that are coming due in the next year. So the EU and the International Monetary Fund have assembled a bailout package to help Greece make those payments. In exchange, the Greek people are being asked to suffer through enormous cuts in government spending – which means cuts in jobs, incomes, healthcare, pensions and public education. Everyday citizens are making enormous sacrifices.
But the European Union also insists that the bond holders of Greek debt take a hit. After all, under the supposed rules of capitalism, if you make a bad loan, you suffer the losses. So the EU wants to recall the old bonds and replace them with new ones at lower interest rates more suited to Greece’s financial condition. Imagine that! Financial elites are being asked to sacrifice a bit to pay for the problems they helped to create.
Well guess what? The elites don’t like it. You see, hedge funds have been buying up Greek bonds at steep discounts. They want to milk the deal for as much as possible. So they are refusing to accept what the EU is offering. The hedge funds want to capture as much of the bailout money as possible. They could care less if the Greek people suffer. (Think Bain.)… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Alternet>
I strongly encourage you to click through and read the rest of this article to get a better understanding on how greed on the part of vulture capitalists, similar to Mitt Romney, could cause a financial crisis in Europe, which would quickly spread across the pond to the US.
These are the people that Republicans represent. They do NOT represent you!
Rick Santorum loves to wrap himself in the flag, and was one of the first to protest the end of the Republican war for oil and conquest in Iraq. He also went ballistic in blaming Obama for Defense cuts recommended by the Joint Chiefs, claiming that Democrats do not support our troops. One of the best measures of who supports our troops, and who doesn’t, is the way in which they treat veterans, who deserve the best we can give them. Santorum’s record is completely Republican.
…The Armed Forces Retirement Home, which is run by the Department of Defense, bills itself as "premier home for military retirees and veterans." The facility sprawls across 272 acres high on a hill in northern Washington, DC, near the Petworth neighborhood. The nearly 600 veterans who now live there enjoy panoramic views of the city—the Washington monument and US Capitol to the south, the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception to the east. At its peak, more than 2,000 veterans of World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War lived at the Home.
But with the rise of the smaller all-volunteer military, the Home began to run into serious financial problems. It was clear that one of its primary sources of revenue—a 50-cent deduction from the paychecks of active-duty servicemembers—wasn’t enough to keep the Home operating fully. In the 1990s, the Home scrambled to find ways to avoid insolvency, trimming its staff by 24 percent and reducing its vet population by 800. Still, the money problems began to show, with its older historic facilities slipping into disrepair and decay. To grapple with its worsening shortfall, officials running the Home eyed a valuable, 49-acre piece of land worth $49 million as a potential financial lifeline.
Under one scenario, by leasing the parcel of land and letting it be developed, the Home could pocket $105 million in income over 35 years for its trust fund, David Lacy, then-chairman of the Home’s board of directors, told Congress in 1999. Lacy stressed that the Home wanted to keep the property, and not offload it to a buyer. "Once land is sold," he said, "it is lost forever as an asset."
Enter Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn.). At the behest of the Roman Catholic Church, and unbeknownst to the Home, Santorum slipped an amendment into the 1999 National Defense Authorization Act handcuffing how the home could cash in on those 49 acres. The amendment forced the Home to sell—and not lease—the land to its next-door neighbor, the Catholic University of America. Ultimately, the Catholic Church bought 46 acres of the tract for $22 million. The Home lost the land for good, and by its own estimates, pocketed $27 million less than the land’s value and $83 million less than what it could’ve made under the lease plan. Santorum’s amendment sparked an outcry from veterans’ groups and fellow US senators, who barraged his office with complaints.
Laurence Branch, then the executive director of the Home’s board, says Santorum’s amendment was "a travesty" and the Church’s lobbying for the land a case of "coveting thy neighborhood’s goods." To this day, Branch says he blames Santorum for the Home not receiving more money for the 49-acre parcel of land. "I’m convinced Sen. Santorum is no friend of veterans," Branch says. (A spokesman for Catholic University did not respond to a request for comment.)… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Mother Jones>
There you have it. Santorum, frothed all over our veterans, ripping them off for $83 million to assuage the greed of his church. As much as Republicans claim to support our troops, they only support their own prerogative to use our troops as cannon fodder. Republicans do NOT represent our troops, and they do NOT represent you!
Yesterday I was quite tired so I slept late and napped in the afternoon. I made a big pot of my infamous rice and beans in my pressure cooker, so I am not fit company for man nor beast. I’m current with replies. Today housework beckons.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today it took me 3:34 (average 4:01). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From RSN: Spanish judge on Friday re-launched an investigation into the alleged torture of detainees held at the U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, one day after a British authorities launched a probe into CIA renditions to Libya.
The twin developments demonstrated that while the Obama administration has stuck to its promise not to investigate whether Bush administration officials acted illegally by authorizing the use of harsh interrogation techniques, other countries are still interested in determining whether Bush-era anti-terror practices violated international law.
Hat Tip to Lisa G for emailing me the link. I could not be more pleased.
From Crooks and Liars: On the heels of the announcement that Democrats gathered 1 million signatures toward the recall of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, activists have launched a campaign to draft Russ Feingold to run against Walker. Feingold is a former United States senator from Wisconsin who lost his last re-election campaign in 2010, but is still widely popular among progressives in the state and across the country. Feingold supporters can sign the petition.
While Feingold has said he does not want the job, I would be thrilled if he changed his mind. I signed. You?
From The Hill: House Democratic leaders are increasingly arguing that the next payroll tax package should not be fully paid for with spending cuts.
Top Democrats say offsetting the entire cost of a yearlong payroll tax package, as Republicans have demanded, is a bad idea in a fragile economy.
I disagree with the House Democrats. Because these are Social Security funds, they must be replaced with tax increases or spending cuts. I would favor cut in fossil fuel company welfare.
From Current: Keith Olbermann, Ron Wyden and Marcos Mark Ruffalo discuss SOPA/PIPA.
The Democratic sponsors are clinging to the AFL-CIO, not the motion picture industry. Kudos to Ron Wyden!
Cartoon:
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Most of you know that today, January 18, is a national day of protest against SOPA and PIPA. Although SOPA is now DOA, and I see no way that PIPA can survive the promised filibuster by my Senator, Ron Wyden (D-OR), I am happy to join in that protest until the last nail is in PIPA’s coffin.
Do not try to look up “Internet Censorship” or “SOPA” or “PIPA” on Wikipedia, the giant online encyclopedia, on Wednesday. SOPA and PIPA are two bills in Congress meant to stop the illegal copying and sharing of movies and music on the Internet, but major Internet companies say the bills would put them in the impossible position of policing the online world.
Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, says his site will go dark for the day on Wednesday, joining a budding movement to protest the two bills.
“This is going to be wow,” Wales said on Twitter. “I hope Wikipedia will melt phone systems in Washington on Wednesday. Tell everyone you know!”
Several sources said members of Congress, reacting to the online objections, were pulling back on parts of SOPA and PIPA to which Internet companies object. But the protest movement continued for the time being.
Click Here for More: SOPA and PIPA Explained
Other sites, such as Reddit and Boing Boing, have already said they would go dark on Wednesday. And some of the biggest names online, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, have vocally opposed the proposed legislation, though they have not said they are joining the online blackout…
Inserted from <ABC>
The original intent of this legislation is to stifle the epidemic of intellectual property theft. Because it increased Internet censorship, Republicans jumped aboard without considering the consequences. Because the entertainment industry unions support it, Democrats jumped aboard without considering the consequences.
The consequences are that any web site that has copyrighted material or even links to another website with copyrighted material, PIPA allows government to shut down that website without notice or warning of any kind, no matter if the violation is inadvertent. For sites like You Tube, Reddit, or even Politics Plus, this puts an insurmountable burden on Webmasters to police everything visitors upload instantly or be shut down.
I have no objections to a reasonable anti-piracy law that would allow the federal government to obtain a court order to shut down a site for piracy, if the webmaster of that site is provided notification of the specific material to be removed and refuses to remove it. But PIPA is not a reasonable anti-piracy law.
Contact your Senators and Say NO to PIPA!
Today I would not want to be the the Fuhrer of the Totalitarian Corporate Plutocracy of Fitzwalkerstan, formerly Wisconsin. As Scott Walker was in New York sucking up to a known corporate criminal, the heroic oppressed people turned on over one million signatures guaranteeing a recall election to oust Walker and other Republican tyrants this summer.
Democrats and organizers filed petitions Tuesday afternoon with more than a million signatures as they sought to force a recall election against Gov. Scott Walker – a massive number that seems to cement a historic recall election against him for later this year.
It would mark the first such gubernatorial recall in state history and would be only the third gubernatorial recall election in U.S. history. Organizers Tuesday also handed in 845,000 signatures against Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch as well as petitions against four GOP state senators including Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau.
The sheer number of signatures being filed against Walker – nearly as many as the total votes cast for the governor in November 2010 and almost twice as many as those needed to trigger a recall election – ensure the election will be held, said officials with the state Democratic Party and United Wisconsin, the group that launched the Walker recall.
"It is beyond legal challenge," said Ryan Lawler, vice chairman of United Wisconsin.
The filing marks a milestone following Walker’s controversial legislation ending most union bargaining for public workers… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Milwaukee Journal Sentinel>
Rachel Maddow provided more details, interviewed state Senator Jon Erpenbach, and extended the story into overcoming Republican tyranny in other states.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Again and again I see people making the foolish claim that the two political parties are alike. Let them ask the people of Fitzwalkerstan, who are struggling to take back their state from a Republican reign.
