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Here is a report on reports.
• Adam Serwer gives the gas face to Obama’s Solicitor General Donald Verrilli. I think the justices will go the way they want to go, but it does seem like Verrilli did a poor job. Maybe John Roberts should take over for him. Transcript here.
• I haven’t paid much notice to tomorrow’s Supreme Court argument on the Medicaid expansion, but maybe I should.
• President Obama’s new student loan program is being undercut by the government’s own debt collectors. Scary story.
• I’m going to need to read up on this LIBOR scandal, but it sounds pretty horrendous.
• Another day, another multimillion dollar settlement on lies told by banks to their investors.
• Among other things, the Paul Ryan budget seeks to cancel out a deal on disaster relief from last year’s debt limit agreement.
• Ilya Sheyman claims that a whisper campaign questioning his commitment to Israel sunk his primary effort last week.
• The Spanish version of Occupy Our Homes is called the Platform of Mortgage Victims.
• Pretty good set of commentators at this panel discussion on Wall Street and the revolving door tonight.
• I don’t care about the President’s “flexibility” remark if confined just to missile defense. It’s if it branches out to, say, “reforming” Social Security then I’ll get worried.
• The National Organization for Marriage’s entire worldview is based on division, so how could this possibly surprise anyone?
• I suppose Republicans might as well try to take credit for the recovery. But after shouting “where are the jobs” for four years, they might have some trouble with that.
• Out of Afghanistan, please.
• The idea of having large pension funds run them for companies is decent enough, though it’s been around for a while.
• There’s nothing worse than a big-city mayor installed by a political machine. Boston’s Menino is an ass.
• Olympia Snowe is upset that the President didn’t suck up enough to Olympia Snowe.
• Goldman Sachs’s proprietary traders can’t really make money without the power of Goldman behind them.
• Lost in the uproar over the ultrasound mandate in Virginia and other states is that the state will not even pay for this medically unnecessary procedure, adding costs to the individual seeking the abortion. That’s not a bug, but a feature.
• The lead investigator in the Trayvon Martin case actually wanted to pursue a manslaughter charge for George Zimmerman.
• More dodgy uses of the foreclosure fraud settlement fund, from South Carolina this time. If 20% gets to homeowners at this point I’ll be surprised.
• Mike Daisey has thought about it, and he’s now very, very sorry.
• I’m not mad that Newt Gingrich charges $50 for photos at his campaign events. I’m mad that anyone pays it.
• Good for Harvey Weinstein. The stranglehold that the MPAA has over the movie business is just crazy.
• Bob Kerrey will not be the next Senator from Nebraska.
• I feel pretty bad for Dennis Rodman. Bankruptcy for absurdly well-paid athletes is far more common than you’d think.
• “Mr. Minister of International Development, can you explain the role of the +7 Vorpal Weapon in this public health report?”
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About FDL News Desk
Another interesting report:
The New Jim Crow How the War on Drugs Gave Birth to a Permanent American Undercaste
LINK.
Here’s a wrinkle coming in July that will further exacerbate the student loan program mess:
Students Protest Debt as Student Loan Debt Collectors Make a Billion
36 students arrested at headquarters of student loan provider Sallie Mae
“Congress initially cut student loan interest rates in 2007, when they voted to chop the subsidized Stafford loan rate in half—from 6.8 percent to the current 3.4 percent. But these provisions were only put into place for five years and will expire on July 1, causing the loan rates to double to the original rate of 6.8 percent. ”
LINK.
TSA made him take his toys and go home, so there!
Gun-shy TSA gets critic booted from Congressional panel
“Bruce Schneier, the security expert who coined the term “security theater” to describe the Transportation Security Agency’s airport screening procedures, was uninvited from speaking on a Monday Congressional panel at the insistence of the TSA.”
LINK.
From the Department of Who Could Have Predicted?:
John Roberts is the voice of corporatism on the Supreme Court so I would not be surprised if he votes to uphold Obamacare.
My personal belief is that single payer is Constitutional as a matter of public health, with the option of buying private medigap insurance for additional services. Forcing people to buy private insurance that includes things like fertility treatments and ICU care for extreme preemies is fascism, which is pretty much where we’re headed anyway.
Flexibility, etch-a-sketch, whatever. These motherfuckers don’t even care if they BROADCAST how much they lie to everybody, because it’s common knowledge.
As he’s looking right into the camera and spewing the pablam du jour, his face IS a marketing disclaimer. And every one of these liars is exactly the same. The president is nothing more than a press secretary for the MICC, and our “representative” government is a bald-faced LIE.
From the student loan debt collector’s article: This should be the official slogan of Corporatist America, “You’re dealing with the federal government. You have no other options.” It’s so much more honest than “Hope and Change.”
Lots of I-yiy-yees in this post, David.
thanks for the Medicaid heads-up, I haven’t heard a peep on this from anyone else.
If the Supremes ( Baby, baby, baby, where did our love go?) knock down the individual mandate, will it become unconstitutional for the states to require auto insurance as well?
Seconded. Alexander’s work is outstanding. Read it, folks.
“Where we’re headed”? We’re already there.
Love the picture, David. Thanks for lots of fascinating links, and for me transcripts are where it’s at, so oldfashioned as they may be in that respect, I do appreciate that one. Got my morning read here for sure.
“the Spanish version of Occupy Our Homes is called the Platform of Mortgage Victims.”
Spain has mean banks that have had laws passed like our student loan law – you can never get out from under your loan – bankruptcy does not do it – and even a release by the bank when you pay it off may take 10 years in the Courts because the Banks like to ignore your needs.