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I’ll be on weekend alert for any developments in the grand bargain. There’s another meeting between the President and Congressional leaders Sunday. We should know more after that.
• Breaking: being out of work for a long time has negative consequences.
• Humberto Leal was executed by the state of Texas yesterday, in violation of international law according to the United Nations. And this could put Americans abroad at great risk should they get in trouble with the authorities. Surely they can just tell the foreign police “Don’t Mess With Texas” and everything will be fine.
• Patty Murray solicited the Koch Brothers for campaign donations in her duties with the DSCC. That just seems like an epic mistake.
• I don’t know that uncertainty about the debt limit is a drag on the economy, but there’s no doubt that the crowd yelling about uncertainty is creating that uncertainty through threatening a default without massive austerity. Related: Bruce Bartlett’s five myths about the debt limit.
• I don’t know that I buy the notion of a coming housing boom. Don’t people have to have, you know, money and jobs, to form households?
• We saw this coming: Wisconsin Republicans will try to sneak redistricting in before they lose their Senate majority. This will also hurt efforts of Democrats to actually have a legislative majority after 2012.
• Six months after the Tucson shooting, Obama will release a series of gun safety reforms.
• Bank of New York Mellon actually recommended the settlement to Bank of America on their MBS issues. The fix is so in on that one. But I don’t think this attempt to use the Wal-Mart suit as a way to stop a class action from investors on MBS repurchases is going to work.
• Never got to it, but the Morgensen/Story article about the DoJ’s choice to allow the financial industry to essentially self-police is the must-read of the day.
• Behold the poor, henpecked corporate jet industry, and shed a tear for them, as the tax breaks for the owners of their products may be coming to an end.
• The ethanol industry, on the other hand, is thrilled that their compromise at least preserves a tiny sliver of their subsidies, albeit in a different form (funding for installing new pumps at gas stations that can handle more ethanol). Meanwhile, Lufthansa is running biofuel flights on short trips.
• South Sudan comes into being on Saturday, and must struggle to determine the role of government there.
• More protests in Syria and Yemen today as the Arab uprising continues.
• Pro-lifers are worried that a “fetal heartbeat” bill in Ohio, which would ban abortions at around 6 weeks, will end up leading to a reaffirmation of Roe v. Wade at the Supreme Court.
• Kentucky plans to privatize its Medicaid program. That sound you hear is a cash register at the headquarters of insurance companies.
• So much for repeal and replace.
• The whole incandescent light bulb issue shows you how many leaders in this country are simply militantly anti-progress.
• This Kafkaesque nightmare could also be described as “dealing with your bank in 21st century America.”
• Montana’s Governor Brian Schweitzer, accusing Exxon of hiding information about the Yellowstone River oil spill and cleanup, pulled out of the unified command team overseeing the response.
• A truth and reconciliation campaign in Honduras ruled the 2009 removal of Mel Zelaya to be a coup. Now they tell us!
• Wisconsin repealed its concealed carry ban, leaving Illinois as the only state left in the country with one. Total domination from the NRA.
• I think the fastest way to lose an election in America is to pledge to ban pornography. Why don’t you ban football and demolition derbies while you’re at it?
• Apologies to Atrios, but I’m going to name Tony Blair Wanker of the Day for this hit job on Gordon Brown, combined with the conceit that he was the one true Labour champion.
• The latest in my Silvio Berlusconi obsession. “I never supported the Libyan war anyway!”
• The mysteries of Pittsburgh… protractors edition
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“Never got to it, but the Morgensen/Story article about the DoJ’s choice to allow the financial industry to essentially self-police is the must-read of the day.”; concur but for those who won’t take the time, here’s the essence of the article:
A year after the settlement, Kenneth M. Donohue, the inspector general of HUD at the time, raised questions about its handling. He said he was disturbed by the interference by the Justice Department and its calls to stop pursuing Beazer executives so the deferred prosecution deal could be completed. “As a law enforcement official for over 40 years,” Mr. Donohue wrote in a letter to Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney general, “I have never witnessed a like action in any of my varied dealings.”
“Given the scanty resources that have been committed to corporate crime enforcement, I think the government’s leveraging of its prosecution power from corporations and their lawyers has been critically important,” said Daniel C. Richman, professor of law at Columbia and a former assistant United States attorney in New York.
“We will not get an explanation of why there haven’t been prosecutions; at best, we will get a reference back to the Department of Justice manual that leaves the discretion to the prosecutors,” said Professor Ramirez of Washburn University. “The legal representatives will argue that since recoveries can be had by using civil measures, even private litigations, there’s no need to bring criminal measures. I disagree with that very much.”
Patty Murray solicits funds from the Koch brothers for the same reason Dillinger robbed banks. That’s where the money is. And for my money, I’d rather meet up with John Dillinger in a dark alley than Patty effing Murray.
Yeah it was pretty shocking that she didn’t seem to know who she was calling, or–worse–didn’t seem to care.
The Graph People have been saying for a year that the housing market would reach its nadir this summer. And truth be told they were right about the auto market. But there are economic cycles and then there’s the slow backward slide that everybody but the rich is experiencing.
Speaking of street art in Pittsburgh, if anybody still hasn’t seen “Exit Through The Gift Shop” I highly recommend it.
Court restores ban on newspaper, TV ownership
Dept of No Recourse:
This Pakistani couple is suing American Airlines because, in the course of investigating a bomb threat hoax, the pilot apparently pointed them out to police as seeming “agitated.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/pakistani-couple-detained-over-false-plane-threat-sues-american-airlines-san-francisco-police/2011/07/08/gIQAV04l3H_story.html
First thing I was surprised by is that according to the “Treaty of Montreal” you apparently can’t sue an airline in state court.
Secondly the FBI can evidently read you your Miranda rights and interrogate you and then make you sign a declaration that you were never under arrest in order to be released.
Who knew. What I do know is these folks will get no apologies from our Security State.
If Obama cuts Social Security…
The president indicates that funding for the hallmark Democratic program is on the table. Is this the last straw?
“Indeed, when a political candidate promises to try to pass a public option to compete with private insurers, attempt to crack down on Wall Street abuse, do what he can to stop unfair trade deals, oppose extending his predecessors tax cuts and avoid initiating initiate costly new wars sans congressional approval, and then once in office works to kill a public option, refuses to prosecute Wall Street crimes, presses the rigged trade deals he opposed, supports the extension of his predecessor’s tax cuts and starts a new war in Libya with no congressional authorization — whose fault is it that he ends up in reelection trouble?
“I’d say the answer is obvious — I’d say that if such a politician wasn’t in reelection trouble, it would be a sign that our democracy is in a deeper crisis than it already is.
. . .
“This is not real politik, it is not triangulation and it isn’t even Bush-ism (that is, taking unpopular positions and then just arrogantly pursuing them without regard for public will). No, we are watching a sort of Orwellian dystopia. Indeed, it is a sight to behold: a regime that believes it can say one set of things over and over and over again, and then do exactly the opposite.”
LINK.
Joseph Stiglitz, Barney Frank Respond to ‘Reckless Endangerment’ Allegations
LINK.
If that’s not the last straw, this is:
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/170507-senate-dems-abandon-obama-pledge-to-end-bush-tax-rates-for-rich
please get rid of the ads
well said Dave Sirota.
Frederick the Great:
“If my soldiers were to begin to think, not one would remain in the ranks”
Really! And “Good Morning”, too.
Or, to reverse the old adage, maybe this attack on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will be the camel that (FINALLY) broke the straw’s back.
Here’s this, too:
Bernie Sanders: Senators Have Told Me If Obama Sends A ‘Piece Of Crap’ Debt Deal To Us, We’ll Defeat It
LINK.
US Taxpayers Just Paid $780 Million To Fund The Latest Greece Bailout Tranche
“So as the banks have been selling Greek debt, who has been buying? Mostly hedge funds, such as everyone’s favorite John Paulson. So to recap: US taxpayers have just paid out about $780 million of the $4.6 billion in order to fund interest owed to… hedge funds.”
LINK.
Is this true?
Yay! Thank you, MODS, for tidying up the place. Looks great now.