Video: Kilauea volcano erupting in Hawaii

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Interest plummets in having Obama at commencements

CBS got their hands on a memo showing a marked decrease in interest in having the President speak at college commencements.

"As of yesterday we had received 14 applications and the deadline is Friday," the memo said. The memo also urged recipients to, "please keep the application number close hold."

A follow-up memo on February 28 reported receipt of 68 applications. Noting the competition among more than 1,000 schools last year, the memo said, "Something isn't working." It called on staffers to ask "friendly congressional, gubernatorial and mayoral offices" to encourage schools to apply.

I think this story matters as an example of growing disaffection with the President. Now, it's entirely possible the GOP demonization campaign is what's at play, or it's possible that students feel the President's shine has simply worn off. It's hard to know. But I think the White House would be remiss to simply write this off as "the honeymoon is over." It's not just the honeymoon. A lot of damage was by done, by the White House, to the President's relationships with core Democratic constituencies. That is finally being addressed, but it's hard to completely fix something like that once you break it. Read the rest of this post...

Michele Bachman is a little bit nutty

I'm going to assume that Nancy Pelosi won't object to me taking her entire blog post about crazy Bachmann's latest antics:

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is making accusations about so-called “secret” funds she discovered in the Affordable Care Act, signed into law nearly a year ago after an open, thorough and transparent debate in the House and Senate–including 79 House hearings and 53 Senate hearings–with the provisions she is referencing online for all Members of Congress and Americans to read for months before passage. Even conservative commentator Bill Kristol is on the record calling the Affordable Care Act “the most thoroughly debated piece of legislation in my memory in Washington.”

While Rep. Bachmann claims she is exposing $105 billion of “hidden” mandatory spending included in the Affordable Care Act, the information has been available for 446 days. The charges have gotten her a lot of press coverage; they just happen to be completely false. Here are the facts:

There is no “secret money.” Three full months before the House passed the Senate bill, CBO – charged with accurately estimating the cost of legislation – provided a cost estimate of the legislation (Dec 19, 2009) that included the provisions Rep. Bachmann has just “discovered.” The final cost estimate was available on March 20, 2010 – a year ago. (CBO also concluded that the Affordable Care Act will reduce the deficit by $210 billion).

The funds Rep. Bachmann are referring to are allocated for patients’ and other consumer protections such as the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), high risk pools for individuals with pre-existing conditions, grants for states to review health insurance premium increases, abstinence education, and background checks on long-term care providers. [CRS, 10/14/10]

Others weigh in on Rep. Bachmann’s claim:

Alec Vachon, a former Republican congressional staffer:

“It’s a bill — the text is public! Is Congresswoman Bachmann saying there are no House Republicans, members or staff, who can read a bill?” [Politifact, 3/8]

Steve Ellis, Taxpayers for Common Sense:

“I’m not saying that everybody knew everything that was in the health care bill, because it’s almost impossible to do that. But it was documented that the money was in there. Shame on them if they didn’t know that.” [Politifact, 3/8]

Senior GOP Official:

A senior GOP official also told Fox News that “there are revenue streams” mandated for most of the programs, but they don’t add up to $105 billion as Bachmann claims. “It’s wrong,” the official said, adding that, besides, “no Congress can bind a future Congress.” The official also disputed the charge that the money was hidden. [FOX, 3/8]

NOTE FROM JOHN: What troubles me is how Bachmann is feeding the anti-government paranoia on the far right, the kind of thing that gets people shot. Suggesting that Democrats are so evil that they somehow intentionally usurped the Constitution and are running their own rogue government, in essence. That's the kind of talk that inspires revolutionaries, of the violent sort. The very nutjobs who likely already find Bachmman their goddess. Read the rest of this post...

Ireland points finger at ECB and demands 'shared burden' for debt

They are absolutely right. In the US and many other countries, despite the banks causing the crisis, it has been everyone else who has had to fund the bailout and slow recovery. Even today, the QE2 program is all about helping the banks boost their liquidity rather than helping the Americans who lost their jobs because of the economic crisis. The banks and the bankers should be much more responsible for the financial recovery. In addition, people like Greenspan and the entire Federal Reserve deserve much more responsibility for ignoring what they had to know was a growing problem.

John Bruton, premier in the 1994-97 centre-right, Fine Gael-led coalition, on Monday accused British, German, Belgian and French banks of “irresponsible lending... in the hope that they too could profit from the Irish construction bubble.” Mr Bruton said in a speech to the London School of Economics that banks had “lots of information available to them about spiraling house prices in Ireland”.

They were supervised by their national central banks and by the ECB which “seemingly raised no objection to this lending.”

Burden-sharing – the notion that European banks and bondholders should share with Irish taxpayers the cost of restructuring Ireland’s broken financial system – is likely to be a key demand of the new Irish government as it seeks easier terms on a €85 billion bail-out provided by the European Union and International Monetary Fund. A joint coalition program, agreed by Fine Gael and Labour at the weekend, said the new government “secured a strong mandate from the Irish electorate to renegotiate a more credible package that is better for both Ireland and Europe”.

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So Apple, are you trying to kill gay kids with the iPhone?

Apple just approved an app for the iPhone that, in part, targets children for a message that they can pray away the gay. With one in three gay kids attempting suicide, per the federal government's own statistics, is such an app, whose "science" has already been debunked a thousand times over, really appropriate for the iPhone at all, let alone with no age restriction whatsoever on who can download it. More on AMERICAblog Gay. Read the rest of this post...

Ford Chairman and CEO to make $100 million. Is it too much?

To the credit of CEO Mulally, he did a lot to bring back Ford from major problems. He also deferred a significant amount of income during the down years. It's not that his pay isn't as crazy as many other executives (often, who under-perform) but these are still eye-popping numbers. So many middle class people are being asked to do more with less so I wish we could see some level of fairness brought back into this system instead of skyrocketing executive pay. It may not be a Mulally-specific problem, but he's certainly part of the problem. CNBC:

Together, it is one of the richest pay packages ever given top executives in the auto industry.

Too much?

Depends on who you ask. If you ask Ford workers who have seen Mulally steer Ford back from the brink of bankruptcy, they probably won't grouse too much. Nor will we hear much from many Ford investors who have seen Ford shares go from $1.56 to more than $14 a share. Ford dealers? I doubt it. Their dealerships are raking in cash with one of the strongest line-ups around.

So who will blast the Ford board for rewarding Mulally and Ford with tens of millions? Mainly the average American who doesn't follow the company closely. Most will not realize that Bill Ford deferred compensation when the company was losing money. Nor will many of the Ford critics ask themselves this question: where would Ford be if Alan Mulally were never picked to run the company?

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FL Gov Rick Scott: $1.6 billion in education cuts go straight to corporate & property tax breaks

Rachel Maddow on what Teabag Governor Rick Scott of Florida is doing.



From the St. Petersburg Times:

"We're going to deal with the deficit," Scott said Wednesday. "But the way to get the state back to work is reducing property taxes and phasing out the business tax."

I'd like to see a list of his campaign contributors, matched up against those corporate tax breaks. "From your pocket to mine, sucker" right in the open.

Republican branding note: Did you notice the signage behind Gov. Scott? "Holding Government Responsible" — just the opposite of what he's actually doing. You MBA and marketing students, stay in school. There will always be work like this.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Chinese editorial admonishes Charlie Sheen, whose father 'was once the president of the US'

We wish.

As much as Sheen has lived a life most Chinese men can only fantasize about, our admiration of him can only go so far. He has not only lost face with his public rants, but also crossed a cultural barrier no Chinese can abide.

He ignored his own father's advice to keep quiet, who was once the president of the US. Sheen is a disgrace, unfilial to his father and his fatherland.

Martin Sheen should at once go on television and tearfully apologize on behalf of his son for his inability to keep up appearances and keep his mouth shut.

Second best part of the piece:

Sheen goes on television and boasts that he has two girlfriends, who both sleep in the same bedroom. Is he too poor to set up his wives and mistresses in different houses?

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Alan Simpson is upset at singers 'Snoopy Snoopy Poop Dogg' and 'Enema'

There has been much mockery in Twitterland over this this morning.

The co-chairman of President Obama’s deficit commission tried to scold the elderly on Monday for complaining about their Social Security funds being targeted, but instead he found himself making a reference to “Snoopy Snoopy Poop Dogg.”

“This is a fakery,” Simpson said on Fox News. “If they care at all about their children or grandchildren, and sometimes I doubt that – I think, you know, grandchildren now don’t write a thank-you for the Christmas presents, they’re walking on their pants with the cap on backwards listening to the enema man and Snoopy Snoopy Poop Dogg, and they don’t like them!”

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Top three execs at Barclays receive nearly $50 million in bonus money

Crisis? What crisis? Remember, Barclays was one of the largest recipients of loans from the Federal Reserve during the crisis. They obviously did a lot with the free money that they received courtesy of the US. Once again they are talking about lending to small businesses but that's what they were supposed to do when they were saved from ruin. Now that the immediate crisis has settled, they know that it's easier to make big money from gambling as opposed to business lending. Besides setting themselves up for the next crisis, very little has changed with the banks.

Barclays has revealed that Bob Diamond, its chief executive, and two of his top lieutenants received nearly £30 million ($48.6 million) in pay and bonuses for 2010 and another £77 million for past performance.

Amid a row over bankers’ pay in the UK, Barclays released a remuneration report on Monday that provided a glimpse into the pay packets of its most senior executives.

Some 231 senior employees – known as “code staff” – took home £554 million between them, an average of about £2.4 million per executive.

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Spain trims speed limit in plan that will save billions of dollars

Just a few miles per hour cut can make a difference is over $3.3 billion per year. Spain is of course much smaller than the US so imagine the costs savings if we tried the same (potentially) temporary measure? Big Oil clearly won't like it but why is conservation such an out of date idea in so many quarters? Even back in the early '70s the GOP was on board with the idea but now it's somehow communist or something silly. Saving money and resources should not be silly at all regardless of political affiliation.

Spanish drivers have begun keeping their speed to below 110 km per hour (68mph) on motorways after the government made a cut in the speed limit a key measure in moves to lower Spain's energy bill.

The controversial 10 km/hr change to the speed limit will remain in place at least until the end of June as part of a series of measures designed to cut consumption by more than 5%.

Other measures included schemes for replacing old tyres, switching public lighting to low energy bulbs and helping town halls hire consultants to reduce their electricity consumption.

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China closes Tibet to foreign tourists

So in other words, communist China is going back to their roots of shutting down the media and anything with the potential to be controversial. This is a very scared and paranoid regime.

The region's top official confirmed the restrictions after travel agents reported orders not to arrange trips for tourists, who need a special permit to visit the region in addition to the visa for China.

Zhang Qingli, the Communist party secretary in Tibet, said there were "some control measures" for safety reasons, citing potential overcrowding and freezing winter weather.

He told reporters at an annual political meeting in Beijing that the region was stable. "It's not that the anti-Chinese forces and the Dalai clique haven't thought of it but the fact is they haven't been able to stir up any unrest since the March 14 incident."

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US, UK and France reviewing no-fly over Libya

The plans were not enthusiastically received last week but as the pro-Gaddafi attacks continue against the uprising, the UN and NATO are warming up to the idea. Until Gaddafi's air force is shut down there's a high likelihood of daily attacks against protesters and a protracted civil war. Without an air force, Gaddafi's troops will have a much more difficult time going on the offensive against the protesters.

Barack Obama has stepped up pressure on Colonel Gaddafi, saying the US and Nato allies were considering a military response to violence in Libya, with the list of options including arming the rebels.

Obama's remarks came as Britain and France made progress in drafting a resolution at the UN calling for a no-fly zone triggered by specific conditions, rather than timelines. Downing Street is hopeful that a resolution with clear triggers such as the bombing of civilians would not be subject to a Russian veto at the security council.

The foreign secretary, William Hague, told the Commons a no-fly zone would have to be supported by north African countries and rebel leaders and would also need an appropriate legal basis.

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