Video of Mukasey collapsing

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CNN: Verizon employees breach Obama's private cell phone records

No one is safe. CNN is reporting that Obama was notified yesterday that Verizon employees breached Obama's cell phone records for personal gain - be it for fun, to sell them, or to give them to the Republicans. No one is safe, and Congress isn't doing a damn thing about it. Zero. We have had so many privacy breaches come up and the Democrats simply don't care. It's not clear whether the telcom lobbyists are basically bribing the Democrats with donations in order to get them not to better protect our privacy, or whether the Democrats are simply morons. It's a no-lose issues, privacy - that is if you're not in the pocket of business lobbyists. Disgraceful. Read More......

Att General Mukasey has collapsed

I found this out five minutes ago, via a friend of a friend at the dinner, but didn't post it because it wasn't confirmed. No more info, though CNN has the story now. Okay, that's weird, Joe just watched Mukasey's ambulance drive by on the way to GW hospital. Talk about small town.

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Franken slices further into Coleman's lead

Day two of the recount in Minnesota has concluded. I'll admit to being a little obsessed -- I really can't stand Norm Coleman. He's loathsome.

Based on my math, using the "official" Minnesota Secretary of State's numbers, Al Franken has picked up 86 votes since the recount started. That would drop Coleman's lead to 129 votes, with 42.33% of ballots recounted.

With mores counted (46%), the Minneapolis Star-Tribune has Coleman's lead down to 136 votes. Still a lot of votes to be counted including 58% in Hennepin County, which Franken originally won by 50% - 36% margin, and 70% in Ramsey County, home of St. Paul, which Franken won by 52% - 34% margin. Also, 64% of the vote remains to be counted in St. Louis County, which includes Duluth. Franken won that county 55% - 32%. (I got the county percentages from MSNBC's Minnesota page.)

Both campaigns have challenged over 400 ballots. Read More......

Sarah Palin pardons turkey, while others are being slaughtered, on camera, behind her

She just gave an entire press conference for five minutes in front of a guy killing turkeys on camera. Oh my God, I'm laughing so hard I'm crying. I know it's sick, but she's such a blithering idiot. At one point, oblivious to the fact that some guy is killing turkeys on camera ten feet behind her, she says "we'll probably invite criticism for doing this!" This is a Saturday Night Live skit, with nothing extra needed.

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They may have found Copernicus

Very cool story. And even cooler, they figured out it was him (or are pretty sure) based on hairs they found in one of his old books. Imagine. Over four hundred years ago he was reading a book and some hairs fell off his head and lodged between the pages, only to be discovered nearly half a millenium later, when we finally had the capability to analyze the DNA of those hairs That's just wild. Read More......

Message to Gingrich: "We are not the aggressors. We are learning to fight back."

From Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters:

I keep hearing all of this nonsense about us lgbts attacking people, about us using intimidation and violence to oppress people, about us somehow being ugly aggressors.

Newt Gingrich (who wrote the book on deceptive messaging during his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives) actually accused us of being "secular fascists."

Gingrich's attack on us seem to be the prevailing theme with those on the other side of the Proposition 8 argument....

How is it that you can dare call us aggressive when for over 30 years, you have done everything in your power to make America hate and fear us?

How it is that you can dare infer that we don't have a right to get just a tad angry when for over 30 years, you have done everything in your power to make us hate and fear ourselves?

Every lie, every indignity, every attempt to dehumanize the lgbt community has brought us to this point. The Proposition 8 vote was the last straw in a chain of indignities that stretch as long as Jacob's ladder.

This ain’t just about marriage. Nor is this a single moment in time.

We are not the aggressors. We are learning to fight back.

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Dems delay the auto bailout

Yeah the markets didn't like it, but the markets need to grow up and stop freaking out at the drop of a hat. No one in Washington, serious Washington, is saying that we're just going to let the auto industry die. What we're saying is that we're not going to rush things and just hand over cash like it's Chrismas (even though it is). The Democrats have simply given the auto industry two weeks to come back and present a plan that will work. That's hardly unreasonable. And it's exactly what Wall Street should want Washington to do. Not hand out money that will be blown through in weeks, and wasted. But rather, come up with a real plan to fix the industry's woes.

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Dow drops over 400 for the second day in a row

Waiting for the final number, but the Dow is down over 444 right now, which means it will close below 7600. On CNN, Ali Velshi just reminded us that just over a year ago, the Dow was over 14,000. It has lost almost half of its value since October of 2007. And, it's lost about 10% over the past two days. Read More......

Just ignore any so-called "conventional wisdom" when it comes to Obama and the Georgia Senate race

Of course the conventional wisdom-mongers think it's bad for Obama to go to Georgia to campaign for Jim Martin. Of course, they do. But, it doesn't matter what they think because Obama is constantly redefining the conventional wisdom. And, Obama is always so far ahead of the punditocracy, it's amusing.

Cillizza explored the issue today:

For Obama, it may not make sense to head to Georgia as it would be painted by Republicans -- rightly, so -- as a partisan act inconsistent with the president-elect's post-partisan message. And, if Martin winds up losing, which conventional wisdom suggests he will, then some of Obama's luster will have worn off before he even takes the oath of office.

Rightly, so? Give me a break. Lest we forget, all those Republicans engage in partisan acts every single day. For Christ sakes, the RNC already started trashing Eric Holder, which Cillizza's paper deemed worthy of page 3 article. So, the GOP launches partisan attacks on Obama's nominees and that's okay. But it's somehow wrong for Obama to campaign for a Democratic Senator. I just love when political writers intimate that there is something wrong with politicians being politicians. What's Obama got to fear? That David Broder will echo the complaints of the Republicans who say Obama is being too partisan. Who cares? What do they want Obama to do? Endorse Chambliss?

Obama actually has political capital. If he can help Martin, he should. But, it should be a sheer political calculation based on insuring the passage of the Obama agenda with that 60th Senate vote:

But, with Democrats currently holding 58 seats, Sen. Norm Coleman's (Minn.) margin over entertainer Al Franken narrowing and polls showing Martin within shouting distance, the pressure on Obama to make a visit to get Democrats to 60 seats in the 111th Congress is sure to increase.

"When you're President of the United States it pays to remember who your friends are," said one senior Democratic operative granted anonymity to speak candidly about the president-elect. "Thinking Barack Obama has anything to risk by campaigning for Jim Martin is like most conventional wisdom -- just plain wrong."

It is just plain wrong.

If Obama can help, he should. And, he probably will in many ways. What matters is having the votes to pass the agenda for change that the American people are expecting. We are much more likely to see that with Jim Martin in the U.S. Senate than Saxby Chambliss. And, while that may not comport with the purveyors of the conventional wisdom, it's all that counts.

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Retire Admiral Mullen

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, thinks he's the president of the United States. He's thought this for a while. Unless Obama wants the US military freelancing at running its own government from the Pentagon, Obama should give Mullen the boot and explain to the rest of the military leadership that America is not a banana republic, and they didn't get elected to office.

Mullen, and his oversized ego, are now freelancing publicly with the media (again) in an effort to pressure Obama into not withdrawing from Iraq. Last time I checked, it wasn't Mullen's call if and when and how we withdraw from Iraq. And more importantly, I'm pretty sure trying to publicly pressure your boss is really bad form, generally, and kind of reeks of a bit of a coup when your boss in the president and you're an admiral living in a democracy.

Then again, this wouldn't be the first time Mullen appointed himself lord overseer of the entire US democracy. You may recall that it was Admiral Mullen who, back in July, publicly opined that Obama's Iraq plan was "dangerous." (Gee, wonder who Mullen was trying to get elected.) Then there was the time, last April, that Mullen seemed to question whether it was wise to hold the presidential election at all since the new guy might have a different opinion about Iraq. Anybody else get the sense that Admiral Mullen would be happier living in North Korea, or at least John McCain's America? Read More......

Bipartisan group of Dems and Repubs reportedly wants to gut fuel-efficiency program to help bail out auto industry

Gee, the "bipartisan" proposal to cut the fuel efficiency program came from a group of "auto-state senators" - anybody surprised?

Why don't we just cut AIDS research, LIHEAP, and incubators for premies while we're at it? Are you people insane?

Aides to a bipartisan group of auto-state senators say they have reached a compromise to speed emergency loans to Detroit's Big Three car makers.

Republicans and Democrats plan to present the proposal at a mid-afternoon news conference Thursday. But it was not immediately clear whether the compromise plan could draw enough support to get through a reluctant Senate.

It temporarily would divert to troubled automakers money from a program that currently finances the development of fuel-efficient vehicles. The aim would be to cover their immediate expenses.

Temporarily my ass. Why don't we temporarily cut corporate welfare? Why don't the auto execs temporarily stop flying on their ridiculously expensive corporate jets all over the country? The spirit of Dinosaur Dingell lives on. Read More......

Michael Moore on the auto bailout

I don't always agree with him but think that he makes some valid points. The ripple effect of a collapse would just add to the current problems so Congress needs to get creative about this. Do we push Detroit to build infrastructure? Maybe not a bad idea. Do we force them to build environmentally friendly cars regardless of what their co-dependent Congressman Dingell wants? Of course. Do they need to clean house in the management ranks? Without a doubt. Management and the GOP won't be happy until the executive team is rewarded for failure and the unions are cut to the bone without benefits and with slightly above minimum wage. It's an interesting theory but then who is going to be able to buy anything when there's no more middle class? Take a trip to the Third World and see how such economic policy works in real life. Read More......

Dinosaur Dingell goes down!

Hallelujah.

Congressman John Dingell of Michigan just lost his chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to California congressman Henry Waxman. Ding dong.

Dingell was horrible. A suck up for the auto industry, he stymied efforts to increase the fuel efficiency of American cars (how's that going for the industry now that everyone is buying more fuel efficient foreign cars?) This committee will oversee global warming legislation. Do we really want some dinosaur in the pocket of the auto industry deciding whether we cut back on our fuel emissions? Dingell was a disaster for any kind of progressive politics. He was an auto industry spokesman, and now he's history. The House shows us how change is really done.

(If only Dingell had pulled a Lieberman and stabbed Obama in the back he could have been made Speaker.) Read More......

Hollywood gossip mogul Perez Hilton not going to Sundance because of Prop 8

This is a big deal. Perez Hilton runs probably the largest Hollywood gossip site on the Net. His traffic is several times DailyKos' (I've heard a good 7 or 8 times their traffic). He's huge, and hugely influential. On an interview on CNN last night - I'm still looking for the tape - Perez says he's not going to Sundance this year because of Prop 8. He added this on his own Web site:

You will support the Mormons if you go. You WILL support the taking away of equal rights for gays!

And good for Perez. The Sundance people don't seem all that concerned that the principal cinema their using is run by a man who gave nearly $10,000 to Prop 8 - yes, their money, your money if you're going to Sundance, is literally helping to finance a Prop 8 donor.

This is the kind of thing I'd like to see Prop 8 activism targeted at. Go through the Prop 8 donor database, down individual donors and expose them to the light of day. Hold companies accountable for their support of bigotry. I was contacted yesterday by a Web site called BigThink that decided to partner up with the John Templeton Foundation. BigThink wanted me to promote some new thing they were doing with Templeton. Templeton gave $1 million to Prop 8. I told BigThink to stuff it (I was a little meaner than that), then I emailed other top blogs to let them know not to publicize BigThink's embrace of hate. Activism should be about affecting change. I suspect BigThink, if enough of us let them know how they feel, may avoid Templeton in the future. We advance the cause of making Prop 8 donors a pariah.

I'd like to see organizing in the wake of Prop 8 that specifically comes up with ways the grassroots can do things that have a practical real impact. I'm not sure sending the White House postcards about DOMA is enough. Nor is staying home for a day because you're gay. I'm not sure what the practical impact is of either action. Obama is already against DOMA and a few postcards isn't going to speed up its repeal. And staying home because your gay, again, what's the impact? What's the visual for the media? What does it help us achieve? I'm also not sure what a March on Washington achieves. These are grand events that cost multi-millions of dollars, take a good year-plus of planning, and always seem to result in no change whatsoever. Since 1963, there hasn't been a March on Washington that's had a lick of impact. We need to stop going for the glitzy cute idea, and start thinking like guerrilla fighters. What can we do that will hurt the enemy and help us win long-term?

We know the Mormons like to parachute into other states and drop a ton of bucks in order to take away the civil rights of gays and lesbians. But we also know the Mormons hate being the focus of attention. They hate having the public discuss, be made aware of, some of their more unconventional beliefs, such as Jesus being the brother of the devil, Jesus having had 3 wives including his mother, Native Americans being red and Africans being black because they're bad people, and so on. We know the Mormons don't like the world to find out that they are forcibly baptizing Jewish Holocaust victims into Mormonism against the will of the victims' families. We know that the Mormons do this to every living soul on the planet - they quite literally steal your soul at death and force you to convert to their religion. I suspect a lot of people wouldn't like that. Now why do this? Why expose this? Because the Mormons fear this kind of exposure and will learn that there's a price to paid for their anti-gay activism. Perhaps in the long-run they'll decide that the price isn't worth it.

We need to come up with actions that actually impact something, that move us along closer to some discrete achievable goal. Targeting Prop 8 donors and businesses, for example, and/or boycotting Utah or Sundance, if done right, keeps the story in the news and puts real pressure on those who are subsidizing this hate. It teaches Prop 8 donors not to make the same mistake twice. That helps us in a concrete way. And finding ways to keep the pressure on the Mormons will eventually teach them that jamming their religion down the throats of other Americans comes at a price.

Local activists are trying to fill a void. No one is taking the lead on Prop 8 activism at a nation level. And it's not clear that any of the California groups are either. Local activists have no choice but to assume leadership. And they have, and that's admirable. But they need to move beyond "cute." This is a war we're fighting. So fight it. Read More......

Even more bad economic news: Jobless benefit claims hit 16 year high

This economic hole just keeps getting deeper and affecting more people:

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose by a larger than expected 27,000 last week to their highest level in 16 years, Labor Department data showed on Thursday, as a harsh economic environment forces employers to cut back on hiring.

The last time these numbers were this high, George H.W. Bush was president. That Bush family and the GOP really do a number on working people.

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After one day of recount, Al Franken closed the gap by 43 votes

Okay, we've been warned by the Minnesota Secretary of State's office not to read too much into the early recount. It will take some time to see if there is a trend or if the gap is truly closing. That being said, via Braublog at Minnpost.com, we learn the Franken picked up 43 votes yesterday:

I calculate Franken netted 43 votes today. That's derived by downloading the Secretary of State's recount spreadsheet here and some simple Excel math.

Feel free to check me and see if you agree. The equation is:

(Coleman recount votes - Coleman canvass votes) - (Franken recount votes - Franken canvass votes) = -43, or a 43-vote Franken pickup.

So, we'll wait a couple more days to see how it goes. The new totals are the ones that matter.

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Thusday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

It's another cold day in DC. Way too early to be this cold.

Congress is in session this week. Looks like no bailout for the automakers. They've been protected for years by Rep. John Dingell (D-MI). Yep, Dingell has protected them into failure. His wife, coincidentally or not, works for General Motors. (They're apparently darlings of the D.C. social circuit, such as it is.) Today, Dingell will find out if he keeps the chairmanship of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee. Yesterday, Dingell lost a vote in the House Steering Committee to Rep. Henry Waxman. Today, the full Democratic caucus votes. This truly is a vote between the failed past of Dingell and the future with Waxman. We'll find out today if the House Democrats are serious about energy and global warming issues. Dingell has been -- and would be -- the biggest obstacle.

So, that's one thing on the agenda today...we'll see what unfolds.

Start threading the news....

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A North versus South fight with auto bailout?

Really? Is it a North versus South fight when every year hurricanes blow through the South and destroy the region? I seem to remember people from across America pitching in to help. It's disgusting to listen to politicians from the South from both parties play this line, especially considering the financial fact that it's their own states who are the spongers. That's right, I'm looking at you, Alabama and Mississippi.

They're a bunch of freeloading tax spongers who are only too happy to accept federal dollars - more than say, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois - but oh no, no taxes can be spent to help out those Northern states during their time of need. In the best of times I detest the Southern attitudes of moral superiority despite regular evidence to the contrary but this fight turns my stomach. If anyone in Congress had a spine they'd tell Alabama and Mississippi to go Cheney themselves and find their own money the next time they have an emergency.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R- Ala., told reporters Wednesday, “I can not imagine a real justification for a worker in Alabama who does not have any health insurance at his company to be taxed to maintain a Cadillac health care plan for somebody in Detroit.”

Honda and Hyundai, Sessions said, “are building steadily, and they are progressing steadily” even though they are being hurt by the economic downturn just like the Big Three U.S. automakers of Ford, Chrysler and General Motors.

Let's mark this down and remind the Senator how much federal aid he receives next hurricane season. I wonder what the Bible has to say about greedy, selfish bastards. Anyone? Read More......

Fed cuts growth rates again, hints at more rate cuts

The US is going to be fortunate to see positive growth in 2011 but even that may be optimistic. I can't say what the Fed is seeing out there that suggests the bad news will be gone by the end of 2009 but I don't see anything that hints of growth out there. As for cutting interest rates again (as the Japanese tried after their bubble) it would be enlightening to see when we've ever used interest rates to grow the economy.

It's a bit easier to think of the recent example - the Mr Bubble example - of cutting interest rates and seeing short term growth, followed by long term failure. Without the credit vehicles available today that we had a few years ago the end result may be different which is why the Japanese model may be closer to what we could expect. We should not confuse interest rate cuts with real economic policy for growth.

Federal Reserve officials slashed economic growth forecasts through 2009 and hinted that further interest rate cuts may be needed if growth slows further, minutes of their October policy meeting show.

"Even after today's (half-point cut), the committee judged that downside risks to growth would remain," the Fed, the U.S. central bank, said in minutes released Wednesday.

"Members anticipated that economic data over the upcoming intermeeting period would show significant weakness in economic activity, and some suggested that additional policy easing could well be appropriate at future meetings," the minutes of the Oct. 28-29 meeting said.

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Briton's "national pastime" is over

Shopping, of course. The US used to be the world leader in personal debt but today it's the UK, where it's even greater than the GDP. (The US is slightly lower.) As the economy melts down the endless shopping days are coming to an end. Here in France - where credit is a few decades behind the US and UK, thankfully - shopping is generally done with debit cards and it's tumbling as well. The UK shopping, from The Independent.

Evidence of the turnaround in shopping habits – from extravagance to frugality – is clear, says the Bank of England. Instead of lavishing money on big money items such as televisions and sofas, shoppers have turned into bargain hunters and are scouring discount stores and factory outlets.

Its summary of business conditions for this month, released yesterday, states: "More generally, discretionary spending was seen to be shrinking, with retailers reporting that fewer consumers were treating shopping as a leisure activity – reflected in reductions in both impulse spending and visitor numbers at shopping centres."

Pundits agreed that for a significant number of Britons the days of enjoying a spot of retail therapy seem to be over – for now. Retail sales fell for the first time in three years last month, down 0.1 per cent, but the number of shoppers fell 3 per cent year-on-year in October, according to the research company Synovate.

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Yet another reason why Big Auto is failing

Clueless. Absolutely clueless. Anyone who is serious about keeping their company afloat - let alone snag billions - needs to re-think the way they do business. Management always loves to criticize the unions for costing too much but this royal spending hardly makes sense for an industry in a death spiral.

The CEOs of the big three automakers flew to the nation's capital yesterday in private luxurious jets to make their case to Washington that the auto industry is running out of cash and needs $25 billion in taxpayer money to avoid bankruptcy.

The CEOs of GM, Ford and Chrysler may have told Congress that they will likely go out of business without a bailout yet that has not stopped them from traveling in style, not even First Class is good enough.

All three CEOs - Rick Wagoner of GM, Alan Mulally of Ford, and Robert Nardelli of Chrysler - exercised their perks Tuesday by flying in corporate jets to DC. Wagoner flew in GM's $36 million luxury aircraft to tell members of Congress that the company is burning through cash, asking for $10-12 billion for GM alone.

"We want to continue the vital role we've played for Americans for the past 100 years, but we can't do it alone," Wagoner told the Senate Banking Committee.

While Wagoner testified, his G4 private jet was parked at Dulles airport. It is one of eight luxury jets in the GM fleet that continues to ferry executives around the world despite the company's dire financial straits.

"This is a slap in the face of taxpayers," said Tom Schatz, President of Citizens Against Government Waste. "To come to Washington on a corporate jet, and asking for a hand out is outrageous."

Wagoner's private jet trip to Washington cost his ailing company an estimated $20,000 roundtrip. In comparison, seats on Northwest Airlines flight 2364 from Detroit to Washington were going online for $288 coach and $837 first class.

After the hearing, Wagoner declined to answer questions about his travel.

Ford CEO Mulally's corporate jet is a perk included for both he and his wife as part of his employment contract along with a $28 million salary last year. Mulally actually lives in Seattle, not Detroit. The company jet takes him home and back on weekends.

Honestly, don't we all take the jet home for weekends? Isn't this what anyone would do if their industry was falling apart and asking for billions? This is as bad as Wall Street who hand out bonus money to failures even when they're fired for being failures that have lost billions. Read More......

Housing starts fall to lowest levels since 1959

A nation of whiners or is the unrepentant Phil Gramm just an arrogant buffoon? From CNN:

Housing starts and permits, both of them key measurements of home construction, hit record lows in October, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

Housing starts reached an annual rate of 791,000 last month, the lowest level since the department began tracking starts in 1959. The rate tumbled 4.5% from the revised reading of 828,000 in September.

Building permits fell 12% to an annual rate of 708,000 in October, breaking the previous low of 709,000 in March 1975. The annual rate for September was revised to 805,000.

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