Rand Paul blew off MTP, and instead talked to Kremlin-backed 9/11-conspiracy-embracing Russian 'news' outlet

From Attytood:

It's amazing what gets lost in the vortex of long holiday weekend -- not just Roy Halladay's perfect game but of course Obama and Sestak and Clinton in THE SCANDAL OF THE CENTURY and then there was also this from Rand Paul and his quixotic GOP Senate campaign in Kentucky, in which he questioned the 14th Amendment (also a slavery thing, but I digress...) and its interpretation that it grants citizenship to children of undocumented parents born within the United States.

That's an interesting and important debate, but what was really amazing was where he made his comments -- particularly since this was the same time frame in which he cancelled an appearance on NBC's "Meet The Press," when it was clear that the dons of the GOP wanted to reduce the exposure of libertarian Paul and his unorthodox views on matters like the 1964 Civil Rights Act or President's Obama's "un-American" treatment of British petroleum.

So instead of talking to NBC News, Paul talked to a venue in which he clearly felt more comfortable: The Kremlin- linked, conspiracy minded Russia Today.

Um, wait, who's anti-American?

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Navy tipped off Kirk about military service lie, Kirk lied about that too

GOP Senate candidate Mark Kirk has been caught repeatedly, and repeatedly, lying about his military record. Now it appears he lied about the lie. From the Chicago Tribune:

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk says his staff discovered he was mistakenly claiming to be the U.S. Navy intelligence officer of the year, but a military spokesman said today the Navy alerted Kirk about the inaccuracy after media inquiries.

Cmdr. Danny Hernandez, a Navy spokesman, said the service notified Kirk’s office last Thursday that the Navy was releasing information to the media, including to the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post.

“We just let him know that you, the media, were asking questions about who the Intelligence Officer of the Year was,” Hernandez said. “We let him know that there was an individual who was named reserve intelligence officer of the year.”

That person was not Kirk.

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China property market 'more than [just] a bubble problem'

Despite previous talk about how this market could only go up (something that everyone in the US also used to hear) reality is starting to sneak in to the discussion. A collapse would be ugly in so many ways.

The problems in China’s housing market are more severe than those in the US before the financial crisis because they combine a potential bubble with the risk of social discontent, according to an adviser to the Chinese central bank.

Li Daokui, a professor at Tsinghua University and a member of the Chinese central bank’s monetary policy committee, said recent government measures to cool the property market needed to be part of a long-term push to bring high housing prices under control.

He added that there were still signs that the economy was overheating and recommended modest increases in interest rates and the level of the currency.

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Second video surfaces of GOP IL Senate nominee Kirk lying about military record

Yikes. The video is bad. It's a Kirk campaign video. And talks about integrity, then lies again about Kirk receiving some Navy award. More from Bloomberg.

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White House finally coming around on BP

So maybe, just maybe, the "left of the left" was right. No? It's a good thing the administration has been enthusiastic about distancing themselves from the left and burning bridges along the way. That's what bringing people together is all about. How is that GOP support going, by the way?

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says BP was not forthcoming about the possibility oil could leak faster as a result of the latest attempt to contain the Gulf spill.

White House Energy Adviser Carol Browner said over the weekend that cutting and capping the damaged oil riser could result in a temporary 20 percent increase in the flow, a figure Gibbs repeated Monday. BP has said it didn't expect a significant increase in flow from the cutting and capping plan.

And, Attorney General Holder has opened a criminal investigation into the oil leak. The US wanted action and there you go. It only took over five weeks, unlimited barrels of petroleum, dead birds and dolphins, ruined businesses, sickened cleanup workers, lawsuits, countless lies and overwhelming negative polling to get action but there you have it. Better still, we didn't even have to worry about too much ugly criticism of the GOP policies that got us here in the first place because that would be much too partisan. The last thing we need is to destroy the spirit of bipartisan cooperation, since it's been working out so well for everyone. Read More......

More examples surface of GOP IL Senate candidate Mark Kirk fibbing about his military record

From Brian Beutler:

U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate, has apologized for misstating the name of an award the received while in the Navy, but there are other instances in the past few years wherein Kirk has embellished or fudged his service record, while stopping short of outright lying about it. In each instance, Kirk's statements have served to cast his record and his proximity to danger in a more, rather than less, heroic light: fostering the impression that he served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and claiming he did a tour of duty in Afghanistan, when both are misleading.

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BP hires former Cheney spokeswoman to run PR

Suddenly BPGlobalPR sounds even more accurate than previously imagined. More from ThinkProgress:

Under threat of receivership and criminal investigation for its destruction of the Gulf of Mexico, foreign oil giant BP has hired a former top aide for Vice President Dick Cheney to be their new spokeswoman. Anne Womack-Kolton has been hired to be “head of U.S. media relations.” A rising star in the Bush-Cheney White House since the 2000 campaign, Womack-Kolton served as Cheney’s press secretary during the 2004 election before running public affairs in the Bush Department of Energy.

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Famous British historian: Obama should fire Emanuel and Axelrod

It's hard to argue with Simon Schama on this one. This is from someone who was an early, die-hard supporter of Obama. The loss of mission and vision is increasingly noticeable beyond the border.

At a debate on Obama's America, the historian Simon Schama had some advice for the US president. "He is really hopeless, disastrous, feeble at telling the American story. One example would be in the way the right wing has managed to represent bank regulation as bank bailout. Obama has been somewhat soft and soggy. American politics ought to be about the noble clash of ideas, but can also be about soggy mud wrestling. Obama seems reluctant to take up the knuckle dusters … He has failed to come up to scratch on what happens next to the great American democratic experiment. I really think he should fire his chief advisers, David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel."

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'No fishing' zone expanded in Gulf, now up to 26%

Obviously this percentage will be increasing for many months to come. The Obama administration continues to talk about how upset he is - furious, even - but BP continues to lead the effort.

US officials Monday expanded a fishing ban in the Gulf of Mexico by more than 1,000 square miles (2,600 square kilometers) amid a spreading oil slick.

Some 61,854 square miles (160,200 square kilometers) of Gulf of Mexico waters are now closed to fishing, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said. That area is close to the size of Tunisia, according to an AFP calculation.

NOAA'S last closed area announcement was on May 25, when 60,683 square miles (157,000 square kilometers) were closed to fishing.

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BP denies experts claims about additional leaks

At this point, who are you going to believe? BP, who stuck to the false "5,000 barrels per day" story forever or the scientists who are reporting other plumes beneath the sea? Is this the type of transparency that Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post was talking about when he praised BP? Unfortunately, this brings us back to the same old problem of Obama failing to take charge of this. Let BP use their expert engineering (however pathetic it may be or sound) to do the deep water drilling to add the relief wells but beyond that, shut them down now.

BP should not be involved in the process of cleanup other than paying the bill. They shouldn't be telling scientists about the environment when the only thing BP knows is how to kill the environment. They shouldn't be confiscating tainted clothing that could be used in legal action against BP. How thick is this team at the White House that they can't get this into their heads? For an arrogant bunch, they sure look like 98 pound weaklings who get sand kicked in their face five times a day for weeks on end.

BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward, said it had no evidence of underwater oil clouds. "The oil is on the surface," he said. "Oil has a specific gravity that's about half that of water. It wants to get to the surface because of the difference in specific gravity."

Hayward's assertion flies in the face of studies by scientists at universities in Florida, Georgia and Mississippi, among other institutions, who say they have detected huge underwater plumes of oil, including one 120 metres (400ft) deep about 50 miles from the destroyed rig.

BP's claim is likely only to further anger environmentalists and the White House, which has grown increasingly suspicious of the company's claims to be frank and transparent on developments. The president's environmental adviser and director of the Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, Carol Browner, has accused BP of misstating the scale of the leak.

"BP has a vested financial interest in downplaying the size of this," she said on CBS television. "They will pay penalties at the end of the day, a per-barrel per-day penalty."

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It's officially hurricane season and it's predicted to be an active one

As the President meets with the Co-chairs of the BP Oil Spill Commission this morning, there's another factor to consider: It's hurricane season. And, NOAA is predicting it will be an "active" season:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting an active season, with as many as 23 named tropical storms.

An estimated eight to 14 storms could strengthen into hurricanes. Of those storms, three to seven could become major hurricanes.

While scientists seem to agree that the sprawling oil slick in the Gulf isn't likely to affect the formation of a storm, the real worry is that a hurricane might turn the millions of gallons of floating crude into a crashing black surf.

Three to seven major hurricanes? That's a lot of big storms.

We already know that BP is predicting the oil could be gushing into the Gulf until August. A hurricane (or three to seven) won't help the situation. Read More......

Robert Reich: Why Obama Should Put BP Under Temporary Receivership

In other words, the Obama administration is losing support day after day. Talking about taking charge doesn't replace actually taking charge. More from Robert Reich:

It’s time for the federal government to put BP under temporary receivership, which gives the government authority to take over BP’s operations in the Gulf of Mexico until the gusher is stopped. This is the only way the public know what’s going on, be confident enough resources are being put to stopping the gusher, ensure BP’s strategy is correct, know the government has enough clout to force BP to use a different one if necessary, and be sure the President is ultimately in charge.

If the government can take over giant global insurer AIG and the auto giant General Motors and replace their CEOs, in order to keep them financially solvent, it should be able to put BP’s north American operations into temporary receivership in order to stop one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.

The Obama administration keeps saying BP is in charge because BP has the equipment and expertise necessary to do what’s necessary. But under temporary receivership, BP would continue to have the equipment and expertise. The only difference: the firm would unambiguously be working in the public’s interest. As it is now, BP continues to be responsible primarily to its shareholders, not to the American public. As a result, the public continues to worry that a private for-profit corporation is responsible for stopping a public tragedy.

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Back at it after the long holiday weekend.

This oil spill really seems like it will never end. Now, we're hearing from BP that it might keep spewing oil into the Gulf until August. BP has a full-page ad in today's Washington Post titled, "We Will Make This Right." The ad includes the numbers to report "oil on the shoreline" and "impacted wildlife." Um, as far as I know, no oil has hit the Potomac yet. Are they running these ads in all the papers along the gulf? Or is this just a P.R. stunt.

And, what a coincidence: This morning, the President is meeting with the BP Oil Spill Commission Co-Chairs, former Senator Bob Graham and former EPA Administrator William Reilly. He'll give remarks to the press after that session, probably around 12:15 PM. Obama is really trying to show us how engaged he is in this crisis. Unfortunately, BP is defining his presidency these days.

Memers of Congress won't see BP's ad either. They're in recess this week. Yep, they're all home doing their district work (and campaigning.)

And, this Israeli attack on the convoy heading to Palestine is going to dominate the news this week. Even for some allies of Israel, like Turkey, this went too far.

So, let's get it started. Read More......

Australia files lawsuit in The Hague against Japanese whaling

Who are the fools that really believes the whaling is about science? Well, besides the same fools who think that if you give in a little more, this will solve the problem.

Excess meat from the program is in Japan for consumption, available through limited outlets such as special whale restaurants and public school lunch programs.

Australia's case maintains that Japan's hunt is essentially for commercial purposes and that it fails to qualify for the scientific exemption, partly because of "a lack of any demonstrated relevance for the conservation and management of whale stocks," according to court documents.

New Zealand has said it will decide within weeks whether it will file a similar case against Japan.

Japanese officials say whaling is a national tradition and a vital part of the country's food culture. Tokyo also argues whale stocks have sufficiently recovered since 1986 to allow a resumption of limited hunts among certain species.

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UN condemns Israeli attack on charity ships

If there's a better example of how not to address a flotilla of charity ships, I doubt it. The Israelis produced a night vision video of their soldiers being attacked by the passengers, citing the video of proof that the passengers were dangerous but it was hardly convincing. Even in the Al Jazeera video you could see the passengers hitting the Israelis as this was well after many had been severely hurt or killed. As an avid supporter of Israel, this event is extremely upsetting. The state of Israel is going down a very dangerous path which will not do anyone, any good.

The UN security council has formally condemned Israel's botched assault on a flotilla carrying aid supplies to the Gaza Strip and called for an impartial investigation into the incident.

At least nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed in the raid yesterday as Israeli naval commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara, the largest ship in the flotilla carrying passengers. Dozens more were wounded and taken to Israeli hospitals. It sparked a wave of global condemnation and protests.

Israel said more than 10 of its troops were injured, two seriously, in the battle that began early yesterday in international waters, about 40 miles from the Gaza coast. Israeli officials say about 50 of the 671 activists aboard the flotilla have been taken to Israel's international airport for deportation.

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