Smog? Worse! Oil Spill? Even worse! Teabuggery? Yep! 🙁
On Friday night, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin “stormed” into Oregon for a speech at the Lane County Republican’s Lincoln Dinner. She called on the crowd to help elect more Republicans, joked about speaking in such a liberal state, and hit the “lame-stream media”:
During a question and answer session, Eugene City Councilwoman Jennifer Solomon read a pre-screened question from the audience about her role at Fox News. Palin said she was proud to be a part of Fox News for being “fair and balanced.”
She also praised Fox host Glenn Beck and said with “his chalkboard technique he’s changing our country.”
Journalists who covered Friday’s speech were subject to strict restrictions from the Palin camp. No cameras or recording devices of any kind were allowed and reporters were only allowed to watch the speech on a video feed in an adjacent room.
I didn’t know she was coming, and if I had it’s too far to go heckle without a car. No wonder my kashit detector kept going off. The environmental cleanup could be massive.
Yesterday I felt a little better. I caught up on replies to comments and returning visits. Today I may not. I have to go to a doctor appointment. What I wouldn’t give for a rubber chicken.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today it took me 4:47. To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Raw Story: Oil is leaking from the ruptured well of a large rig that exploded, burnt and sank in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this week, the US Coast Guard said Saturday.
The Coast Guard estimated that up to 1,000 of barrels of oil, or 42,000 gallons (158,987 liters) were spewing each day from a riser and a drill pipe, prompting further concerns of damage to Louisiana’s fragile ecosystem, already stressed by hurricanes and coastal erosion.
Offshore drilling is hazardous to living things.
From Ashville Citizen-Times: Asheville Regional Airport police arrested a 23-year-old Ohio man who was carrying a handgun and listening to police radio scanners near the runway around the time President Barack Obama’s flight was leaving Asheville, according to investigators.
Joseph Sean McVey, of Coshocton, in southeastern Ohio, pulled his vehicle in front of a gate in the rental car parking lot as Air Force One was taxiing on the runway just before 2 p.m., according to a case summary filed by police.
Pray for our President. The GOP’s minions are seriously out to get him.
Raymond Johansen is looking for advice. Perhaps we can help.
Tim Phillips, lobbyist and chairman of Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is in Europe and Oslo to endorse and teach the Norwegian right wing party (Fremskrittspartiet) how to organize so-called grassroots campaigns. But the grass root campaigns such as those the Tea Party Movement and AFP holds aren’t bottom-up crowds, but pure lobbying campaigns financed by billionaires with a clear political agenda.
When the financial crisis was a fact Mr. Phillips and AFP among others funded and organized campaigns to spread disinformation, fear and hatred. Crowds called the American president a Marxist to fight against government intervention to counteract the financial crisis. To the contrary Newsweek interviewed our Party Leader and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg this week about the financial rescue that really worked.
The campaigns have also traveled the country with a bloody hand logo to deny poor Americans the right to health insurance, and launched the "Hot Air Tour" to claim that the climate crisis is conspiracy and carbon cap and trade is the expressway to national bankruptcy. These so-called grass root movements and Mr. Phillip’s salary is for the most part paid by the oil and gas company Koch Industries. This week he shared the podium with Party Leader of the right wing party Ms. Siv Jensen, called Scandinavia’s Margaret Thatcher by her own International Secretary. Next week he shares the stage with non other then the Tea Party queen herself, Sarah Palin, to fight their common goal of tax cuts and limited government.
Until now we in Europe have watched this absurd political theatre from afar, but now I truly worry that the right wing party will learn from these extremely reactionary forces and adapt the same strategies, in Norway and Europe. It represents a form of campaigning that the Norwegian Labour Party fears. I am truly afraid that our society will not be recognizable in 20 years if the right wing party comes to power, with the help of a speculative American lobbyist – far away from the real grass root.
I ask you American progressives and people from the real grass root movements. How can we disclose and prevent these pure lobbying campaigns financed by billionaire’s political influence? Please tip me on Twitter or Facebook.
Raymond Johansen, Party Secretary of the Norwegian Labour Party, which is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government, with Jens Stoltenberg as the current Prime Minister of Norway. The Labour Party has been the central actor in building the Norwegian Welfare State after the Norwegian Model post World War Two.
Raymond the first thing I can tell you, should the Teabaggers establish themselves in your country, is to be ready for an end to civility in politics. You will receive none from them.
The second thing you can expect is an end to honesty and integrity. The Teabaggers specialize in the big lie. No matter how absurd, they will repeat a lie over and over again until it sinks in. You will be tempted to ignore the big lie, because you will not think that anyone will believe it. We made that mistake here. At one point, over 25% of Americans actually believed that the health care reform Democrats proposed actually contained provisions for death panels to kill senior citizens. You must challenge every lie they tell, adamantly and forcefully, using unequivocal evidence, and keep up the challenges as long as they persist in the lie.
The third thing you can expect is outrageous behavior. They do it for media attention, and they will get it. I don’t know if Rupert Murdock has media outlets in Norway, but I know he does in other European nations. His outlets will promote the Teabaggers. Hopefully you can turn the behavior against them by holding it up to ridicule. Here I coined the term Teabuggery to label their more distasteful activities, including virtually everything they do.
The best advice I can give you is to start organizing authentic grass-roots opposition to them before they become established.
This morning, Leslie, aka Tnlib, who writes a fine blog, posted this video on Facebook.
This is the face of your enemy. Take him seriously. I know little of Norwegian politics. What I do know is good. Yet I have no doubt that you have a Quisling there, just waiting to embrace this foul philosophy, hoping to ride it to power.
I hope our readers will add to this advice in comments.
I have seen Lloyd Blankfein on CSPAN stating unequivocally that Goldman Sachs did not see the the housing crisis coming.
In an internal e-mail released Saturday, Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein wrote in November 2007 that the firm "didn’t dodge the mortgage mess," but "made more than we lost" by betting against the U.S. housing market.
Blankfein’s e-mail, which a Senate investigations panel released with three other subpoenaed company documents, appears to contradict Goldman’s denials that it profited from the subprime mortgage meltdown by secretly betting that housing prices would fall. At the same time, Goldman was selling tens of billions of dollars in risky mortgage securities.
Goldman has said that its contrary bets were largely on behalf of its clients.
The release of the documents sets the stage for a confrontation on Tuesday, when Blankfein and six other present and former Goldman executives are scheduled to testify to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which will begin revealing the results of a yearlong investigation.
In a second e-mail, in July 2007, Goldman’s chief financial officer, David Viniar, updated company President Gary Cohn on the performance of residential mortgage securities.
"Tells you what might be happening to people who don’t have the big short," Viniar wrote, referring to Goldman’s negative — or "short" — bets on housing.
Goldman Sachs, the world’s most elite investment bank, was the only major Wall Street firm to escape much of the subprime crash that set off the global economic crisis.
Goldman reported $1.7 billion in mortgage-related losses, but the company has never divulged how much it earned from exotic contrary bets using insurance-like contracts known as credit-default swaps.
McClatchy reported last November that Goldman marketed $57 billion in risky mortgage securities, including $39 billion backed by risky home loans in 2006 and 2007 without telling investors it was secretly shorting the housing market.
Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who chairs the committee, said in a statement releasing the e-mails that Goldman Sachs and other investment banks were "self-interested promoters of risky and complicated financial schemes that helped trigger" the economic crisis ravishing the nation the past two years.
"They bundled toxic mortgages into complex financial instruments, got the credit rating agencies to label them as AAA securities, and sold them to investors, magnifying and spreading risk throughout the financial system, and all too often betting against the instruments they sold and profiting at the expense of their clients," Levin said. "These e-mails show that, in fact, Goldman made a lot of money by betting against the mortgage market."… [emphasis added]
One of the reasons Goldman Sacks came out smelling like a rose is that most of their losses were paid when the Fed opted to but out AIG’s obligations at 100 cents on the dollar, even when Goldman was in the midst of negotiating the payment rate with AIG. This crime against US taxpayers was facilitated by Paulsen, Bernanke, and Geithner. Their claims of innocence are totally transparent. The practice of regulation of Banksters by Banksters must end.
Yesterday I caught up replying to comments. Today, I’m feeling a little better, and unless I feel the need to rest later, I’ll try to get some visiting in.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today it took me 3:46. To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From NY Times: In Illinois, a telemarketer recently sold an elderly woman a fraudulent health insurance plan that supposedly protected her against “death panels,” the state insurance director says.
That’s criminal! Teabuggery in the first degree!!
From Common Dreams: Vermont lawmakers made clear Friday that recently enacted federal health care reform did not go far enough toward a public model, passing legislation that could bring to the state the "public option" health insurance rejected by Washington or even a Canadian-style single-payer system.
By a vote of 91-42, the Democratic controlled House passed its own version of legislation passed earlier by the Senate. Both bills call for designing a single-payer system, in which a government agency would administer and make all payments for health care.
Vermont may become the best place in the US to live.
From Newshounds: In recent years, at least twenty Fox News personalities have endorsed, raised money, or campaigned for Republican candidates or causes, or against Democratic candidates or causes, in more than 300 instances and in at least 49 states. Republican parties and officials have routinely touted these personalities’ affiliations with Fox News to sell and promote their events.
Is it any wonder that I call Faux Noise the GOP Reichsministry of propaganda.
Although I am no longer their customer, I still receive action alerts from Credo Mobile. This one is too important not to pass on.
Our ability to have a free and open Internet is under attack.
The Federal Communications Commission has been attempting to enforce net neutrality safeguards that would keep big telecoms from inspecting and filtering the Internet content you access, blocking websites and applications they don’t like, and overcharging you for using the Internet. But a recent court decision prevents the FCC from regulating net neutrality in the way it tried.
The FCC now faces an important decision. Will it stand up for consumers and reclassify broadband Internet providers to ensure the Internet stays free?
The FCC has asked for public comment on its net neutrality plans. Join thousands of other Americans in submitting a comment in support of the FCC doing everything it can to protect a free and open Internet.
Net neutrality is the principle that Internet users, not Internet service providers, should be in control. It ensures that Internet service providers can’t speed up, slow down, or block Web content based on its source, ownership, or destination.
Without strong net neutrality rules, we might have to rely upon the good will of large telecoms to protect our access to the diversity of political perspectives. We might have to trust companies like Comcast, which actively and secretly interfered with users’ ability to access popular video, photo and music sharing applications; AT&T, which censored anti-Bush comments made by Pearl Jam’s lead singer during a concert; and Verizon Wireless, which interfered with NARAL Pro-Choice America’s ability to send text messages to its members.
In 2002, the FCC, working in alliance with the Bush administration and its corporate backers, went on a deregulation binge. The FCC decided to classify and treat broadband Internet service providers outside of the pro-consumer legal framework that traditionally applied to companies that offer two-way communications services.
This Bush-era decision has recently come back to haunt FCC under President Obama. Earlier this month, a federal court ruled that as long as that Bush-era reclassification stands, the FCC lacks the authority to impose on broadband providers certain important regulations, including net neutrality.
There is, however, still a way for the FCC to ensure that broadband customers enjoy the protection of net neutrality rules. All the FCC needs to do is reverse the decision to treat broadband companies differently than telecommunications carriers. By reversing the decision and reclassifying broadband, the FCC would increase its authority to regulate the industry and enforce net neutrality rules.
We know that the FCC wants to make net neutrality the law of the land, but we also know that reclassification is something that will face immense opposition from the broadband industry and its army of well-connected lobbyists. Let’s show the FCC that there is strong public support for net neutrality to make sure the decision-makers know we’ll back them up if they take on this fight.
Before the April 26 deadline, submit your comment telling the FCC you support reclassifying broadband Internet providers in order to impose net neutrality.
We’ve made it easy to submit your comment to the FCC — but we’ll need it by 10 a.m. Pacific time on April 26 to get it into the docket by the deadline.
Please join me in submitting your comment to the FCC. To do it, click here.
If you need a thorough explanation, Bill Moyers Journal last night covered it superbly.
Let me tell you a story about a story that isn’t a story but became a story because it was broadcast from major news sources with an air of breathless indignation, laced with a tiny bit of naughtiness intended to disguise the true story because the Republicans aren’t thrilled with the SEC right now.
Senior staffers at the Securities and Exchange Commission spent hours surfing pornographic websites on government-issued computers while they were being paid to police the financial system, an agency watchdog says.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) is shocked — SHOCKED — that such a thing would happen while the market is in meltdown mode.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said it was “nothing short of disturbing that high-ranking officials within the SEC were spending more time looking at pornography than taking action to help stave off the events that brought our nation’s economy to the brink of collapse."
"This stunning report should make everyone question the wisdom of moving forward with plans to give regulators like the SEC even more widespread authority," Issa said in a subtle jab at ongoing financial reform efforts.
In the clip at the top of this post, Rep. Barney Frank patiently explains the "culture of the SEC" in response to Andrea Mitchell’s question about whether the Madoff scandal might have been caught sooner if SEC officials weren’t surfing porn instead of doing their jobs. He walks Mrs. Greenspan through the fallacies of her husband’s philosophy of "let markets be king" and resulting underregulation that led to rampant fraud in the system.
Everything old is new again
The only problem with all this fuss? This story is all about a story already reported in November, 2008. ProPublica gave us the full scoop on it in November, 2008. November, 2008. That would be when the SEC was run by a Republican administration with George Dubya Bush as its leader, wouldn’t it?
You can read the entire Inspector General’s 94-page report for yourself, right here. The pornography allegations are only a very small part of a much more disturbing picture, actually. It’s interesting to me to see the fuss around pornography when other, more serious and chilling allegations are contained within it. Here are a few of the interesting ones:
Investigation of Conflict of Interest, Improper Solicitation and Receipt of Gifts from a Prohibited Source, and Misuse of Official Position
Follow-up Investigation of Disruptive and Intimidating Behavior by a Senior Manager
Investigation of Failure to Maintain Active Bar Status
The report also has details about the investigation into reasons for Bear Stearns’ collapse. The conclusions there are far more interesting than anything to do with SEC employees accessing pornography.
On a weekend where negotiations are moving ahead to get to a vote on financial regulation Monday, Issa’s latest effort to manufacture scandal is just a cynical ploy to manipulate public opinion… [emphasis original]
The main GOP talking point here is that the SEC, under Obama, cannot be trusted. Now I cannot guarantee that the practice has cot continued. However, everyone seems to have forgotten to mention that all the porn viewing contained in the report occurred during the Bush/GOP regime. It’s a shame it was not more widespread. Otherwise, it might have distracted them from invading Iraq, torture, and trashing our constitutional rights.
On Friday night, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin “stormed” into Oregon for a speech at the Lane County Republican’s Lincoln Dinner. She called on the crowd to help elect more Republicans, joked about speaking in such a liberal state, and hit the “lame-stream media”:
