Primary results from FL. Still waiting on AZ.

First, if you want the most up-to-date info., go to Swing State Project. The crew over there are always on top of what's going on electorally, but they truly shine on election nights.

In Florida, Congressman Kendrick Meek is the Democratic nominee for Senate. He beat shady billionaire Jeff Greene tonight by a pretty convincing margin. Meek will now face Republican Marco Rubio and Independent (former GOPer) Charlie Crist.

Looks like Rick Scott, another shady billionaire, won the GOP nomination for Governor. AP just called it. He beat Attorney General Bill McCollum (of George "Rentboy" Rekers infamy.) Scott spent almost $40 million of his own money on this race. His name is synonymous with Medicare fraud. We'll be hearing a lot more about that over the next few months. His Democratic opponent, Alex Sink is ready for him. Earlier this year, her campaign said:

"If Scott proposes the same accountability measures for Florida government that he used at Columbia/HCA, we'll have to back up the paddy wagon to the front door of the Capitol," Sink spokeswoman Kyra Jennings said in a May 18, 2010, press release. "Florida simply can't trust someone who was forced to resign as the head of a company that pled guilty to massive amounts of systematic fraud, including 14 felonies, leading to a historic $1.7 billion fine."

And, the key thing is that Politifact reports this is true.

In FL-02, hard-core Blue Dog incumbent Allen Boyd is locked in a close race with State Senator Al Lawson, who is much more progressive. Boyd pulled it out, but it was pretty darn close.

And, in the 8th Congressional District, Alan Grayson will face Daniel Webster, described by Howie Klein as "the hapless imbecile who drummed up the Terri Schiavo controversy."

In Arizona, where polls closed at 7 PM local time, the results haven't been reported yet. The Arizona Republic reports turnout was light.

UDPATED @ 11:19 PM: McCain will likely be was just declared the winner of his primary against butthead JD Hayworth. I'll add more when the numbers come in from Arizona. We're interested in the results of the Democratic Senate primary and how the Ben "Brock Landers" Quayle kid did in his primary. (Watch Andy Cobb's video mocking Quayle here.) Read More......

Debt Commission co-chair Simpson: Social Security is 'like a milk cow with 310 million tits!'

I'm monitoring election results and will have a post up soon, but I had to post this. It's just too much. The Debt Commission, a.k.a. the Cat Food commission, appears intent on dismantling Social Security. And, it's co-chair, Alan Simpson, confirmed it. Via Ryan Grim:

Alan Simpson believes that Social Security is "like a milk cow with 310 million tits," according to an email he sent to the executive director of National Older Women's League Tuesday morning. Simpson co-chairs the deficit commission, which is considering various proposals to cut Social Security benefits.

Simpson's email, which OWL chief Ashley Carson released publicly, (PDF) was sent in response to an April blog post Carson wrote for the Huffington Post. Carson criticized Simpson for repeatedly describing his Social Security opponents as "Pink Panthers," arguing that the description had sexist connotations.

His email is peppered with exclamation points and condescension. At one point he urged Carson to read a certain graph, "which I hope you are able to discern if you are any good at reading graphs."

Simpson was appointed by President Obama. He should resign. But, he won't. Obama needs to fire him.

Here's the key paragraph in the email from Simpson:

Anyway, have a look at it and if you should choose, you might communicate with me. If you have some better suggestions about how to stabilize Social Security instead of just babbling into the vapors, let me know. And yes, I’ve made some plenty smart cracks about people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree. You know ‘em too. It’s the same with any system in America. We’ve reached a point now where it’s like a milk cow with 310 million tits! Call when you get honest work!

Honest work. Ha. Read More......

Gas prices hit eight-month low, and it's apparently a bad sign for the economy

Fascinating.

With the end of the summer driving season just around the corner, traders and investors on Monday drove gasoline prices to an eight-month low on U.S. commodities markets, providing the latest sign of pessimism about the economic recovery.

The surge in U.S. consumption that many refiners expected earlier this year has not materialized. Last week, the American Petroleum Institute reported that in July, U.S. gasoline deliveries (a measure of demand) were 9.3 million barrels a day, down slightly compared with July 2009. Except for 2008, it was the lowest July gasoline demand number since 2003.

A lack of consumer confidence and continuing high unemployment have kept people cautious about spending and traveling. "With unemployment high and July regular gasoline prices more than 20 cents a gallon above those a year ago, consumers likely have been shopping and vacationing less and trimmed their gasoline purchases accordingly," said John Felmy, the institute's chief economist.

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Daily Show on 'terror funder' & Fox co-owner Prince al-Waleed bin Talal

A stunning segment, not because the news is new, but because it's really well analyzed. Funny is just gravy on this very meaty dish (h/t Blue Texan).



Bottom line (for those of you who want to read the meaty bits):

1. Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal ("the world's 22nd richest person") is the second-largest owner of Fox News.
   
2. Billionaire Prince al-Waleed also funds the Kingdom Foundation.
   
3. Fox says that the Kingdom Foundation "funds terror groups."
   
4. The Prince also funds Imam Rauf, the man behind the Park 51 Muslim community center.
   
   
5. Bonus: Fox & Friends announces points 2–4 without ever naming al-Waleed.

For Fox, this means Imam Rauf is financed by terror-funders. For Stewart, this means that Fox is either Stupid or Evil.

But for us, this is valuable information, including the part about connections to Bush II. Forget the "mosque"; the Saudi royal family's relationship to right-wing and GOP politics has needed a spotlight for years. Thank you, Daily Show, for shining it.

Just wait till the Saudis start flexing their Citizens United muscles. Mr. Roberts, you are truly a "revolutionary force".

GP

(By the way, I'm with Evil all the way, even though Evil can also be "inspiringly Stupid." Why?

Because about 1:55 into the segment (repeated at 5:08), Dan Senor says, "The Kingdom Foundation, so you know, is this Saudi organization headed up by the guy who tried to give Rudy Guilani $10 million after 9/11 that was sent back, he funds radical madrassas all over the world" — with a picture of Imam Rauf, not our billionaire Prince, behind the voice-over.

It's the Prince he's talking about. From Dan Senor especially, that's not Stupid, that's inspiringly Evil.) Read More......

Egg producers consolidate, putting us all at risk

Wash Post:

The largest egg recall in U.S. history comes at a point of great consolidation in the egg industry, when a shrinking number of companies produce most of the eggs found on grocery shelves and a defect in one operation can jeopardize a significant segment of the marketplace.

Just 192 large egg companies own about 95 percent of laying hens in this country, down from 2,500 in 1987, according to United Egg Producers, an industry group. Most of those producers are concentrated in five states: Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and California.

Read More......

GOP says they won't get anything done until the 2012 eletions

From ThinkProgress:

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Assuming it’s accurate that Republicans will get the House, how effective will that be in throwing a monkey wrench in the gears of everything Obama does?

[Rep. Jim] JORDAN [R-OH]: If we win, what will we get done? Mostly, I’ll be honest, most of what we can get done is have the big fight, have the big debate, and have the framework for the 2012 election.

Read More......

Boehner wants Obama to fire Geithner and Summers

Get in line John because so do quite a few Democrats though for different reasons. Democrats are fed up with Geithner and Summers (and Obama) continuing GOP economic policies or scaling back the stimulus to win over Republican support that never materialized. Maybe Boehner could tell us how the Obama economic team has differed from the Bush team because it's not obvious.

U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner in a speech today called on President Barack Obama to fire Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and the other remaining members of the president’s economic team.

In a speech to the City Club of Cleveland, Boehner said Obama’s stimulus policies are failing to create jobs.

It would be interesting to hear Boehner expand more on his plan to privatize Social Security and turn health insurance back in the wrong direction. Read More......

Boehner attacks stimulus again

The White House should blow him out of the water. The data is irrefutable. The stimulus created millions of jobs. Not enough, to be sure. (And I do blame the White House for the fact that the stimulus wasn't enough - they were told it wasn't enough, but refused to even try for more.) But to say that the stimulus didn't work at all, is an outright lie. It shows the minority leader to be a liar, or a moron. Read More......

Federal Reserve loses again in court over secret bailout of financial industry

Wouldn't it be nice to know what really happened behind closed doors? If our government is going to talk about openness and transparency then perhaps - crazy thought, I know - they ought to actually deliver openness and transparency. The more the Fed moves to keep the bailout details secret, the more voters will be suspicious of the deep connections linking government and industry. It does make one wonder if those links are even more extensive than we currently know.

Let's have the ugly details.

The U.S. 2d Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Fed's motion on Friday to rehear the case in which Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News and News Corp's Fox News Network sought information on the U.S. central bank's emergency lending programs that began in late 2007.

The programs, designed to shore up the financial markets, more than doubled the Fed's balance sheet to well over $2 trillion, especially in the wake of the September 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers.

The Fed maintained that disclosing the information sought by the news outlets under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) could stigmatize banks, causing a loss of confidence that could lead to deposit runs and the demise of some lenders. The Clearing House Association, a group of major U.S. and European banks, supported the Fed's efforts.

Read More......

Massive fish kill at mouth of Mississippi River

Just a coincidence, surely. Dig in though because the government has given the green light to eat fish from the region.

Thousands of fish have turned up dead at the mouth of Mississippi River, prompting authorities to check whether oil was the cause of mass death, local media reports said Monday.

The fish were found Sunday floating on the surface of the water and collected in booms that had been deployed to contain oil that leaked from the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Times-Picayune reported.

"By our estimates there were thousands, and I'm talking about 5,000 to 15,000 dead fish," St Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro was quoted as saying in a statement.

Read More......

Much more detail on the WikiLeaks–Assange non-rape story

From the always-good Scott Horton, comes a whole lot more detail on the Assange rape-but-not-really story.

This is bar none the best account I've found of what's happened. I really want to print the whole thing — it's that good. But I'll make do with a taste (I'll find a prime slice) and then strongly suggest you read it all. Horton's a lawyer and an expert in these things; he's also a hell of a researcher.

The prime slice (with my secondary emphasis):

This weekend, the controversies surrounding WikiLeaks took another strange turn. Late on Friday, the Swedish newspaper Expressen disclosed that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was the subject of an arrest warrant arising out of charges by two female witnesses that he had raped them within a three-day period. The late-hours special duty prosecutor, Maria Häljebo Kjellstrand, issued an arrest warrant for Assange, who quickly protested his innocence and charged that the claims against him were a “dirty trick.” Within twenty-four hours, Swedish prosecutors did a near complete about-face. . . . One of the women behind the charges gave an interview to the Swedish paper Aftonbladet on Sunday, backpedaling furiously. She stated that she was surprised to learn that the accusations were treated as a rape charge and denied that there had been any encounter with Assange involving violence or force. She suggested that the controversy had to do with Assange’s failure to use a condom during intercourse. In the meantime, Sweden’s Justice Ombudsman was demanding a formal investigation into how the accusations came to be sensationalized by the press on the basis of an improperly issued arrest warrant.

A few points should be noted about this case. . . . [U]nder the Swedish criminal justice system, like in many others, the preliminary investigation of allegations of a crime is a secret matter. That is doubly the case in questions relating to sexual misconduct, since disclosure may do severe damage to the reputation of all the parties involved. In this case, the information was fanned in a tabloid-style paper within minutes of its being opened. The prosecutors involved insist that they did not disclose this information. Who did? The Guardian speculates that it was the Swedish police.

Assange, however, quickly laid the blame on the Pentagon.

This doesn't begin to do justice to this valuable piece. Please do click through.

Note in just this small bit, we get the name of the prosecutor, the way that system works, and links to original sources — Expressen, Aftonbladet and de Verdieping Trouw — with information none of the English-language papers offered.

Why are we getting this information? Because Horton's consulting Swedish and Dutch sources and passing the info along instead of keeping it all safely low-key. (I assume Horton reads Swedish and Dutch himself; he reads everything else.)

Scott Horton is a valuable resource, someone to keep on the radar. For me he's a daily read.

Our own earlier coverage of the rape charge is here. The asymmetrical war, coming to a homeland near you. As I said, stay tuned.

GP

UPDATE: From The Local: Sweden's News in English, the initial prosecutor has been "reported for violating rules on the confidentiality of preliminary investigations."

The prosecutor on duty, Maria Häljebo Kjellstrand, decided on Friday to issue a warrant to arrest Assange on suspicion of rape. She later confirmed to Expressen that there was a case and that Assange was charged in absentia. The warrant was withdrawn one day later. . . .

According to the organisation, the prosecutor violated the confidentiality of preliminary investigations by giving the media information about this case, DJ reported.

Two dots left to connect. The on-call prosecutor confirmed the case to the tabloid. Who tipped the tabloid to ask about it? (Thanks to Marshall for tipping us.) Read More......

Know John Boehner who really knows the ways of Washington

GOP leader John Boehner is on a p.r. offensive this week. He's introducing himself to America as the man who could be speaker. This morning, he's making a "major economic address" in Cleveland. Yes, Boehner, as one of the leading GOPers, helped create the economic crisis and ballooned the deficit. Then, Boehner and his party failed to lift a finger to help fix the crisis, instead, they did everything possible to undermine any solutions. Despite all that, this morning, Boehner is going to be giving advice about the economy. (Speech is heavy on gimmicks, like fire Geithner and Summers, but really weak on substance, just more tax cuts for the rich.)

The DNC thinks people should know Boehner and his ways.


UPDATE: Just saw a tweet from AFL-CIO's Eddie Vale that summed up the Boehner speech:

No matter what kind of fake tan you slap on it Boehner has the same washed up policies that only benefit Wall Street and the very rich.

Read More......

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The President is on vacation. The Veep is holding down the fort. He's doing an event on the Recovery Act's investment in science, meeting with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, then swearing in James Clapper as Director of National Intelligence.

It's primary day in Alaska, Arizona and Florida. In Alaska, Sarah Palin's endorsee, Joe Miller, is challenging incumbent Lisa Murkowski in the GOP Senate primary. Palin's endorsements aren't worth much in the lower 48, but we'll see if people in Alaska pay attention to her.

In Arizona, the GOP Senate primary has been a battle between incumbent John McCain and right-wing butthead JD Hayworth. McCain will win, but Hayworth pretty much set the agenda in the U.S. Senate this year. McCain swung hard to the right on a range of issues, flip-flopping to save his seat. (And, of course, McCain's lapdog, Lindsey Graham, did the same thing.) On the Democratic side, the two main contenders are Randy Parraz and Rodney Glassman. I like Parraz. He's smart, aggressive and will make McCain work for it.

In Florida, the GOP Senate primary fizzled when Charlie Crist became an independent. But, there's been a really ugly GOP gubernatorial primary between Attorney General Bill McCollum and anti-health care reform crusader Rick Scott, a billionaire with a shady past. In the Democratic Senate primary, Rep. Kendrick Meek is being challenged by Jeff Greene, also a billionaire with a shady past.

So, busy political day for late August. Read More......

Jerusalem light rail reviews segregation by sex

Religious extremists are religious extremists, regardless of religion. What's with the obsession of so many to step backwards in time? How does any government, whether in the US, Israel or wherever, move a country forward when such a substantial percent of the population controls so much political power? Some politicians are speaking out but there appears to be precedent for segregating trains, unfortunately.

The company building a light railway across Jerusalem is considering segregating some carriages along gender lines to serve the city's ultra-orthodox Jewish population.

The railway, which is due to be operational next spring, could have separate compartments for men and women, Yair Naveh, the chief executive of CityPass, said today.

"The train was built to serve everyone," he said. "It is not a problem to declare every third or fourth car a mehadrin [kosher] car."

The suggestion was swiftly condemned by Jerusalem city councillor Rachel Azariya, who said: "Naveh was appointed to run a project – that doesn't mean that he can tell people where to sit and where not to sit, nor does it mean that he knows anything about values and democracy."

Read More......

New scientific research suggests Darwin may have been wrong

And it's real science, as opposed to the wacko-Christian-right rubbish that disputes Darwin. More research will be required but it's an interesting challenge to the well known theory. BBC:

The new study proposes that really big evolutionary changes happen when animals move into empty areas of living space, not occupied by other animals.

For example, when birds evolved the ability to fly, that opened up a vast range of new possibilities not available to other animals. Suddenly the skies were the limit, triggering a new evolutionary burst.

The extinction of the dinosaurs gave mammals their lucky break.

This concept challenges the idea that intense competition for resources in overcrowded habitats is the major driving force of evolution.

Read More......

Be careful when using your credit cards abroad

I recently had a hunch that my various American credits were charging me different amounts for purchases made in Europe.

Now put aside for a moment the fact that our credit card companies refuse to use the microchips that European credit cards now have, so you can't even use American credit cards in many places in Europe anymore (we're number one!). The other problem many Americans might not be aware of is that our credit card companies are charging us an extra fee to use our cards outside of the US. (Probably because it's really really hard for them to do the math.)

Now, lest they claim that this fee is being used to pay for the cost of the currency conversion, why is it that every credit card issuer charges a different fee for the same transaction? That's because they're simply gouging us.

Here's a quick comparison of my credit cards:

United States Senate Federal Credit Union
1% conversion fee to use credit card from abroad (i.e., they charge you an additional 1% of your purchase)

ING Direct
2% conversion fee to use credit card from abroad

American Express
2.7% conversion fee to use credit card abroad

Needless to say, I won't be using either ING or AMEX ever against while I'm abroad. It really ticks me off that a European bank (ING) is charging me extra to use my credit card in... Europe. Then there's AMEX, a company that prides itself on members services. In addition to the fact that it's simply inconvenient to use them as your travel card -a lot of places simply refuse to take them - but they charge you the highest annual fee of any other credit card, and they end being the biggest gouger of them all. Read More......

AIG repays 2% of bailout money

Oh hooray, we're saved. Let's talk when the entire $180 billion plus interest is received. Read More......