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A lot seemed to pile up at the end of the day, so here’s a full link-fest and we’ll see you tomorrow:
• Sorry to have missed that Harold Koh hearing on Libya, it sounds like he took a beating. Marcy has two good posts on the subject.
• Voter ID (read: voter suppression) laws to solve the non-existent voter fraud problem are in vogue as we near 2012, and a few public officials are showing some courage. North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue (D) and New Hampshire Governor John Lynch (D) just vetoed respective voter ID bills, and the Republican Secretary of State in Ohio, Jon Husted, blasted the proposed voter ID bill in his state, which would be one of the more restrictive in the nation.
• Wisconsin Democrats caught a break in their recall elections, when a Republican state legislator was disqualified from challenging Senate Democrat incumbent Dave Hansen because he didn’t get the required signatures. The remaining Republican challenger has, er, some criminal justice issues. Because there’s now only one challenger to Hansen, that general recall election will take place July 19, on a different schedule than the other Democratic recalls.
• Ron Johnson is apparently pulling a Sen. Stackhouse in the Senate, which distracts the nation from Johnson’s own fundraising scandal, and stops the Senate from doing the important work of… I’m sorry, I’m not sure what the Senate does anymore.
• Damange from natural disasters in the US hit $23 billion this year. That would be the cost of inaction on climate change.
• French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde was named the new head of the IMF today. The old order won out over the emerging markets.
• Senate Democrats held the first ever Congressional hearing on the DREAM Act. Judging from the comments of the Republicans, I don’t think much will come of it.
• The Administration is pressing carmakers to accept a new fuel economy standard of 56.2 mpg. I do think this is unusually and pleasantly ambitious, although CAFE standards may not be the best path to efficiency.
• Angling for the neocon vote, Tim Pawlenty gave a speech full of bluster today. He also lined up with the President by saying that the War Powers Act doesn’t apply to Libya.
• Sticking in riders in bills to help out specific industries is a bipartisan affair, and can even happen by Democrats when Republicans run the House.
• A remarkable story by Mac McClelland on sex and her personal struggle with PTSD.
• No, a thousand times no, contractionary fiscal policy cannot be expansionary.
• Eric Cantor holds a bunch of ETFs that short US Treasuries. This is a massive conflict of interest for the guy who just walked out of the debt limit talks.
• Tea Party activists want the Republican campaign arm of the Senate to stay the heck out of primaries.
• Good piece in Washington Monthly on tax expenditures and how big they’ve become over the years.
• Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA) is the focus of an ethics inquiry for forcing her staffers to work on her campaigns. Richardson has been an embarrassment to the California delegation for a while. Fortunately, there are a bunch of candidates ready to take her out next cycle, no matter where she runs.
• War on women watch: Kansas will probably see all its abortion clinics close after Republicans used obscure licensing laws (I thought they hated regulations!) to push them out; the Ohio House passed a “fetal heartbeat” bill that would restrict abortions to the first 6-7 weeks of pregnancy.
• Heartless Republicans watch: Florida’s Rick Scott signs a bill reducing unemployment benefits to 12 weeks; in Arizona, a low-income man needing heart surgery makes $12 a year too much to qualify under Medicaid.
• Not just Republicans watch: Missouri’s Democratic Governor Jay Nixon cut aid to abused children to pay for disaster relief in Joplin; Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter vetoed a bill which would have mandated paid sick leave in the city.
• Haven’t been following the potential government shutdown in Minnesota, but Laura Clawson has an update.
• Lynn Woolsey will retire. This district is now really screwy, stretching 400 miles along the coast from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border in northern California. I hope that changes.
• Maggie Koerth-Baker takes a look at the Nebraska nuclear power plant. Just because it’s been idle since April doesn’t mean there’s no danger.
• Mitt Romney sees the Bachmann warning signs ahead, is now pushing an early primary for Utah to front-load states favorable to him.
• MSNBC holding most of their audience without Keith Olbermann, though Olbermann is now cutting into Lawrence O’Donnell’s viewers with his show on Current. Me, I’ll take that slightly odd RT network any time. I’ve actually been a guest on The Alyona Show on a few occasions.
• We can’t even save money on printing our own money in America.
• An Israeli man’s video claiming that the latest Gaza flotilla is anti-gay has been revealed as a hoax.
• The pope tweets! I’m not responding to his direct message, though. Just not going there. Too many twitpics out there. I’m hoping that was a mitre, put it that way.
• So excited for a new Monty Python movie, this time an animated feature using the voice of and based on the life of Graham Chapman.
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Interesting analysis here:
Arab Spring: Nature of armies decisive in revolutions
In the wave of dissent sweeping over the Arab world, an old lesson is being re-learnt: that armies are the key to unlocking a revolution’s potential.
LINK.
Good riddance to Woolsley. Worthless sellout POS. And isn’t her district getting redrawn?
I think so. My daughter’s BF’s father ran against her twice. He lost. but he is also a repug.
Do those OH abortion nuts not know that a tadpole has a heartbeat? What a crazy way to define human life.
I second the rec of that PTSD story. I don’t know if it’s great writing, but it sure is gripping.
Goldman Sachs Is Firing Employees In The US So It Can Hire 1,000 In Singapore
LINK.
Egyptian policeman sentenced to death for killing protesters
“Mohamed Ibrahim Abdul Monem, still at large, was sentenced for firing at protesters gathered a Cairo police station, killing 23. Egyptians brace for more trials of officials from the former regime, including ousted President Hosni Mubarak in August.”
LINK.
Handy info sheet from EFF
“The police want to search my server, my personal computer, or my phone. What do I do now?”
LINK.
Go get a warrant. Now leave!
Cantor shorting Bonds while negotiating the debt ceiling seems more than a conflict of interest. It should be an expulsion ethics issue, if not a criminal act. I would like to hear what others more versed in law have to say about this.
fatster @ 6: I just explained to someone today how GS et al already has a percent financialization of India and China by the introduction of increased job and financial systems automation to the point there is discernible unemployment of young graduates attempting to enter the job market. GS et al is just doing to India and China what’s already been done here because that’s how the machine works– it’s a wealth-transfer pyramid scheme.
If you’re from India: Check out “Save the Jan Lokpal.”
All the employees associated with the scheme, fraud, in America?
• Damange from natural disasters in the US hit $23 billion this year. That would be the cost of inaction on climate change.
In 23 days America will waste in excess of $23 billion of economic value right out our collective tailpipes, which is in part contributing to climate change.
BTW, the Tobacco Institute claimed smoking did not cause cancer. Does anyone today believe this dissolved tax exempt trade corporation funded with Tobacco Money? DEJA VU
business as usual!
• Heartless Republicans watch: Florida’s Rick Scott signs a bill reducing unemployment benefits to 12 weeks; in Arizona, a low-income man needing heart surgery makes $12 a year too much to qualify under Medicaid.
Scumbags…….
ten years from now, that will seem like a good year.
Dr. Jeff Masters:
“Earth’s hottest year on record
Unprecedented heat scorched the Earth’s surface in 2010, tying 2005 for the warmest year since accurate records began in the late 1800s. Temperatures in Earth’s lower atmosphere also tied for warmest year on record, according to independent satellite measurements. Earth’s 2010 record warmth was unusual because it occurred during the deepest solar energy minimum since satellite measurements of the sun began in the 1970s”
“. But the wild roller-coaster ride of incredible weather events during 2010, in my mind, makes that year the planet’s most extraordinary year for extreme weather since reliable global upper-air data began in the late 1940s”
underground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1831
Thnx, mzchief. Everyone should read your link, whether from India or not.
And here’s some more, mafr, though this is specifically for the US.
Oh, no, what a shame.
Bank of America expects loss after settlement
“The largest U.S. bank said it expected to post a loss of 88 cents to 93 cents per share for the quarter.
“Bank of America said its charges would include an $8.5-billion settlement with bond investors for allegedly selling them mortgages that did not meet their investment criteria, and another $5.5-billion to cover expected payments to other mortgage bond investors.”
LINK.
Yes!
Doctors file lawsuit to stop Kansas abortion clinic restrictions
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/06/29/116697/doctors-file-lawsuit-to-stop-kansas.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13944550
“Some parts of the Horn of Africa have been hit by the worst drought in 60 years, the UN says.
More than 10 million people are thought to be affected across the region.
The UN now classifies large areas of Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya as a crisis or an emergency.
Charity Save the Children says drought and war in Somalia has led to unprecedented numbers fleeing across the border into Kenya, with about 1,300 people arriving every day.
Three camps at Dadaab, just inside Kenya, are home to well over 350,000 people, but they were built to hold just 90,000 and are severely overcrowded.
A prolonged failure of rains, which began in late 2010, is now taking its toll.”
I wonder what it would take, to get people off their a***s and get started on this, before it no longer matters.
When the Ross Ice Shelf collapsed, I thought, surely this was it. People will now understand what is happening, particularly since the tee vee showed it, and they will join in efforts to try and halt this thing.
That’s how naive I am, mafr.
And now, people are on the move–but they are moving in search of food, water and higher ground. And it’s going to become much, much worse.