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I’m sure Jon Walker will have updates tonight from primary elections in Indiana, North Carolina, Wisconsin and West Virginia. I will have this:
• Looking forward to reports from tomorrow’s Bank of America shareholder meeting in Charlotte, which is being treated with all the security that would attend a papal visit.
• Wow, this latest from the conservative masses, that there actually wasn’t any austerity coming out of Europe the past couple years, is really quite amazing. Ryan Avent responds. By the way, it’s intellectually consistent to believe that tax increases are a better option relative to spending cuts in an economic downturn, and to regard them as both forms of budget tightening, which is unwise during said downturn.
• Somewhat related to this, David Brooks doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
• Speaking of taxes, Democrats are putting a lot of faith in the notion that Republicans will crack in the fiscal cliff negotiations because they will want to avoid the expiration of all the Bush tax cuts. I just don’t think that’s a credible threat. The Democratic establishment also wants to avoid the expiration of all the Bush tax cuts. We saw this movie in 2010.
• Gas prices are gradually decreasing, a good sign for the US economy, driven in part by a lessening of tensions with Iran, which you have to chalk up to some decent diplomacy to lower the temperature.
• Here’s another program initiative released to wide fanfare that has not delivered on its promises: stopping tax evasion. Some wealth taxes would put a stop to that.
• As I noted previously, those “national” fracking guidelines are restricted to Bureau of Land Management parcels, meaning they really don’t apply to the overwhelming majority of fracking happening today. H/t to Steve Horn for pointing out the article.
• That same Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill that House Democrats are trying to improve has drawn a veto threat from the White House.
• Tim Duy on Greece. The first brick in the Eurozone wall will fall this summer, that’s becoming clear. Unfortunately, I don’t think it will change course in Europe.
• I don’t know if the President’s marriage equality equivocation is about suburban voters or winning North Carolina or what, but I’m having a lot of trouble picturing a single-issue gay marriage voter that would be perfectly happy to vote for an Obama “evolving” on the issue, but would angrily object if he came to the end of the evolution.
• It’s certainly handy that the second underwear bombing plot came along at the same time as another array of drone strikes in Yemen, which can now be said to have taken out the perpetrators of that failed plot.
• This Interpol “red notice” for Iraqi VP Tariq al-Hashemi on terror charges is really incredible, and will surely raise tensions in Iraq and throughout the region.
• This Heartland Institute implosion shows that there actually is a previously undiscovered line in the sand on offensive political billboards. Who knew?
• Kathleen Sebelius has been asked to speak at Georgetown, just a few months removed from her agency’s rule on religiously affiliated institutions and birth control. It’s a strong statement.
• The Kansas legislature’s new abortion restrictions force doctors to actually lie to their patients about the procedure.
• I know and like Faiz Shakir, so best of luck to him as Nancy Pelosi’s new online director.
• Could Rick Santorum have buried that emailed endorsement of Mitt Romney any more?
• Senator Mark Kirk’s stroke looks from this video to be far more serious than previously described.
• Matt Yglesias’ MCA-inspired story on sampling leaves out several of the artists who have worked around the new rules and made sampling-heavy albums since the Biz Markie decision in the 1990s. Beck, Fantastic Plastic Machine and The Avalanches come to mind.
• Sasha Baron Cohen tried to send all of Washington to the Zimbabwean embassy for a fake screening of his new movie, The Dictator.
• A fond RIP to Maurice Sendak.
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About FDL News Desk
Pentagon sending trainers back into Yemen
“. . .for “routine” counterterrorism cooperation with Yemeni security forces amid an intensified battle against an offshoot of the al-Qaida terror network. . . . [But another] American official said the arriving troops are special operations forces, who work under more secretive arrangements than conventional U.S. troops and whose expertise includes training indigenous forces.”
LINK.
Chicago pulls permit for nurses rally planned for NATO summit LINK.
Re: “marriage equality equivocation”
Biden comments on same-sex marriage expose internal White House divisions
By Peter Wallsten and Dan Eggen, The Washington Post
Published: May 7
This Interpol “red notice” for Iraqi VP Tariq al-Hashemi on terror charges is really incredible, and will surely raise tensions in Iraq and throughout the region.; Interpol has become a truly political creature, not an international police force. Anyone else remember Assange being put on a ‘red notice’?
Salazar approves Utah gas wells
Despite there being a glut of gas in the ‘market’ and that fracking will be used in getting to this ‘natural gas:
“The approval of the natural gas project comes on the heels of the department’s release last week of proposed new regulations for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in natural gas development on public lands.
The Utah field is not in a shale gas play – where much of the attention on fracking has been. However, Christiansen said wells drilled in the field still require fracking, as do about 90 percent of gas wells drilled on federal lands.”
Labor Dept. cancels child-labor proposal
“The decision to withdraw this rule — including provisions to define the ‘parental exemption’ — was made in response to thousands of comments expressing concerns about the effect of the proposed rules on small family-owned farms. To be clear, this regulation will not be pursued for the duration of the Obama administration,” the Department of Labor said in a statement.”
“I know and like Faiz Shakir, so best of luck to him as Nancy Pelosi’s new online director.”; yeah, it will be interesting to see if and how he walks back Pelosi’s willingness to accept Bowles-Simpson.
“The Kansas legislature’s new abortion restrictions force doctors to actually lie to their patients about the procedure.” ;well given that the Kansas congressional delegation is considered the most “conservative“-even over South Carolina- such isn’t surprising. BUT there truly NEEDS to be a reckoning about how the label ‘conservative’ is used by the media; a much better and ACCURATE description is the word fascist. And intentional lying is NOT a ‘conservative’ value.
Yeah, invite Tom Morello and you will be thrown into the ‘agitator’ grouping; can’t have truth being spoken to power don’tcha know.
Nor sung to it, either.
Would-be underwear bomber a double agent
“The plot was revealed to U.S. intelligence officials based on a tip by Saudi intelligence services, and had been revealed by a Saudi intelligence source who had been inside Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and providing information through the Saudis for some time.”
LINK.
Just one more fracking benefit:
Couple denied mortgage because of gas drilling
Brian Smith lives near Marcellus Shale well in Daisytown
“Clean Water Action said that in other parts of the country, when shale gas drilling has arrived, mortgages at nearby properties sometimes get denied. This is the first case they’ve heard in Pennsylvania.”
LINK.
Based on this AP reporting ,I do have to wonder, given how dependent everyone is on what the government says and the fact that all governments lie, whether or not this is really about pushing the scanners all over the world: “The U.S. has worked for years to try to improve security for U.S.-bound flights originating at international airports. And many countries agree that security needs to be better. But while plots such as the Christmas attack have spurred changes, some security gaps that have been closed in the U.S. remain open overseas.
Officials believe that body scanners, for instance, probably would have detected this latest attempt by al-Qaida to bring down a jetliner. Such scanners allow screeners to see objects hidden beneath a passenger’s clothes.
But while scanners are in place in airports nationwide, their use is scattershot overseas. Even in security-conscious Europe, the European Union has not required full-body imaging machines for all airports, though a number of major airports in Paris, London, Frankfurt and elsewhere use them.”
Such stories also keep alive the funding for ‘fighting terrorism’ and ‘endless war’; apologies to those that believe this but I’ve been lied to too many times to just accept what the government says as being honest and factual.
Krugman: How to End This Depression LINK.
Please, David, no consorting with, or supporting of, the enemy.
Nothing on Liz Warren’s ancestors? Too bad, you are missing out on some serious fun.
It’s certainly handy that the second underwear bombing plot came along at the same time as an election, too, also.
watching the news. right now the colorado house is in recess as republicans stall until midnight to keep civil union vote from coming up before the legislative session ends. lots of other bills are going to die because of this. if it comes up it will pass due to a couple of female republican reps who will vote to pass it. democrats tried to seize control of the house. don’t know how but it didn’t work. repubs are shocked that dems woult try to force a vote.
Saddened to see that all the hoopla around Wisconsin recall and the unions came out on the short end of the vote, again. Even Dems are in the mood for beating up on the working class stiffs. Minimum wages and benefits should be re-badged under a bill entitled The Living Wage and Minimum Benefits Act of 2012. 5 year step increase from 7.25 to 10.50 federal and community based cost-of-living adjustments up to 14.00-15.00 plus 250-300 monthly health and dental with long-term disability ins. That’s what it takes to survive in America today if you’re single and 30. Anything less and you’re in the poverty zone. Where’s Democracy For America on this central issue? I don’t want to hear about the usual b.s. after 4 years of Dem rule. ” Sucking less means you still suck, Barack. “
Yeah, and I predict they won’t have done anything about the sucky ending.
“Even Dems are in the mood for beating up on the working class stiffs.”
I’ve noticed that, though it’s more a feature, and not a “mood” I think. That’s why I’m no longer a Democrat, just a bleeding heart liberal, part of the 99%….who I daresay are majority working stiffs, or working stiff wannabees.
It’s family lore, it must be true.
This kind of politics–principles are worth defending only if they poll well with swing voters–was one of the main reasons why I didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton in the primary four years ago. So what do we get? Hillary Clinton’s policies, and a heaping helping of leftovers from her husband’s administration.
My level of respect for Team Obama and the Democratic Party is close to absolute zero.
The Trail of Tears discovery is certainly interesting, I look forward to FDL digging deeper on this sad little tale.
I see that fracking is a big topic here today. In that vein I will add another aspect: the funding based on the downward revision of the probable reserves. Go to nakedcapitalism.
WOW!!! That was damned fortuituous.
So, if I may, not necessarily the “fine work of the CIA” as much as dumb luck.
Excellent article. A MUST read.
I heard that they’ve been trying to lauch this plot for some time but were having trouble finding someone willing to blow his penis off for “the cause”. Considering the Islamic reward for martyrdom, 72 virgins, one can see the conundrum.