China sentences disabled activist to prison

Of course, the activist is disabled because of alleged abuse by the police before. China doing what China does so well.

Ni Yulan 51, was tried with her husband Dong Jiqin. Both were both arrested in April 2011. Dong was sentenced to two years in jail.

Ni’s daughter Dong Xuan said Ni attended her court appearance lying on a bed with an oxygen supply, according to a report in the Global Post. Ni is confined to a wheel chair and suffers other health problems that she says were caused by torture at the hands of police during two previous jail terms.

Ni had been an outspoken advocate for citizens forced to leave their homes to make way for development and provided what she argued was grossly inadequate compensation for the sacrifice. She lost her own home this way, so she camped in a tent in a public park for a time, The Global Post reported.

Great business partner though, right? Read the rest of this post...

Regular guy Romney discusses his horses

He's such a regular guy, you know. Read the rest of this post...

Trump calls Paul Ryan budget "catastrophic"

I know, it's Donald Trump.  But as annoying as he is, he does matter - kind of.  He has a megaphone.  He abuses it.  A lot.  But that doesn't mean he doesn't have it.  It's embarrassing for the Republicans to have one of their prominent figures dissing them publicly.  And it only reinforces the message that the Paul Ryan budget (he's the Republican chairman of the US House Budget Committee, and the GOP's top "thinker" on budget issues) is too extreme.

Just to clarify. Trump doesn't disagree with the substance of the draconian Ryan budget. He just thinks it's a mistake to tell voters what's in it. And he's right. Since the Republicans usually only win by lying to the voters about legislation, and elections.

Everyone knows that honesty has a Democratic bias.

From Sam Stein at the Huffington Post:

"It is catastrophic what he's done," Trump told CNBC. "If they lose, it will be the single biggest reason why the Republicans lost: the Ryan plan."

Trump said he took issue not with the content of the Ryan budget -- though he declined to weigh in on that -- but rather, the timing of its introduction.

"I think the worst thing [Romney] can do is strongly embrace that budget if he wants to get elected," he said. "This will be the single worst move in the Republican Party for many years. This is going to be catastrophic."

Read the rest of this post...

Two gay guys and a Hillary

Hillary meeting with her two spoofers, Stacy Lambe (l) and Adam Smith (r).

I've been following this Tumblr site for the past several days - we even wrote about it the other day - but didn't realize two local DC gay guys, Stacy Lambe and Adam Smith, created it. It really is brilliant. And even funnier, Hillary Clinton responded and invited the guys to her office.  Very cool story, all the way around. Click and read. Read the rest of this post...

Corruption is responsible for 80 percent of your cell phone bill

This is actually pretty straightforward. You're being robbed; here's how. So let's call this a Quick Hits.

Per Matt Stoller writing at the Republic Report (my emphasis and paragraphing):

Last year, a new company called Lightsquared promised an innovative business model that would dramatically lower cell phone costs and improve the quality of service, threatening the incumbent phone operators like AT&T and Verizon. Lightsquared used a new technology involving satellites and spectrum, and was a textbook example of how markets can benefit the public through competition.

The phone industry swung into motion, not by offering better products and services, but by going to Washington to ensure that its new competitor could be killed by its political friends.

And sure enough, through three Congressmen that AT&T and Verizon had funded (Fred Upton (R-MI), Greg Walden (R-OR), and Cliff Stearns (R-FL)), Congress began demanding an investigation into this new company. Pretty soon, the Federal Communications Commission got into the game, revoking a critical waiver that had allowed it to proceed with its business plan.

Ignore the LightSquared part of the story for a moment (our LightSquared story is here, by the way).

This is about how your phone bills are five times what people pay in much of the rest of the world for the same quality of service:

Americans continue to have a small number of expensive, poor quality cell phone providers. And how much does this cost you?

Take your phone bill, and cut it by 80%. That’s how much you should be paying.

You see, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, people in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Finland pay on average less than $130 a year for cell phone service. Americans pay $635.85 a year.

That $500 a year difference, from most consumers with a cell phone, goes straight to AT&T and Verizon (and to a much lesser extent Sprint and T-Mobile). It’s the cost of corruption.

It’s also, from the perspective of these companies, the return on their campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures. Every penny they spend in DC and in state capitols ensures that you pay high bills, to them.

It's cheaper to buy politicians than to spend on service and equipment. As near as I can tell the ROI on buying Congress is about 100:1.

On the other hand, be comforted. It's nothing personal — it's just about the money.

[Update: Replaced a phrase lost in editing.]

GP

To follow on Twitter or send links: @Gaius_Publius Read the rest of this post...

Employers banned from asking for Facebook passwords in Maryland

We had reported earlier that employers have been asking prospective employees, in job interviews, to provide their Facebook username and password, so the job interviewer can purview your entire Facebook account, including any private sections (with photos, etc) that it might contain.

When Justin Bassett interviewed for a new job, he expected the usual questions about experience and references. So he was astonished when the interviewer asked for something else: his Facebook username and password.

Bassett, a New York City statistician, had just finished answering a few character questions when the interviewer turned to her computer to search for his Facebook page. But she couldn't see his private profile. She turned back and asked him to hand over his login information.

We learn today that at least one state cares about privacy. It's creepy and an invasion of privacy for an employer or potential employer to ask for password details and it may also be illegal.  And if it's not, it should be.

Maryland on Monday became the first state in the nation to ban employers from requesting access to the social media accounts of employees and job applicants.

The state’s General Assembly passed legislation that would prohibit employers from requiring or seeking user names, passwords or any other means of accessing personal Internet sites such as Facebook as a condition of employment.

NOTE FROM JOHN: The Obama administration, and congress, really ought to intervene here. Putting an end to this is not only a pro-"jobs" message, it also is a no-brainer in terms of something the public would easily support, and thus gain kudos for whichever politicians jump on this first. Read the rest of this post...

Rick Santorum drops out of presidential race

Santorum photo
via Shutterstock

Having finally solved his Google problem (as of today's search Dan Savage's website is no longer the top result for a Rich Santorum Google search), Rick Santorum is reported to have suspended his campaign.

This leaves the Republicans with virtually no option but to elect Mitt Romney the flip-flopping candidate that Republican primary voters have gone out of their way for two presidential cycles to avoid.

Congratulations to the Republican party. You have your candidate. Read the rest of this post...

Dental X-rays linked to brain tumors

At the moment the options are limited for dentists and patients, so this news is not very comforting. X-rays are weaker than they used to be but that still may be too much.

The study in the US journal Cancer showed people diagnosed with meningioma who reported having a yearly bitewing exam were 1.4 times to 1.9 times as likely as a healthy control group to have developed such tumors.

A bitewing exam involves an X-ray film being held in place by a tab between the teeth.

Also, people who reported getting a yearly panorex exam -- in which an X-ray is taken outside the mouth and shows all the teeth on one film -- were 2.7 to three times more likely to develop cancer, said the study.

Read the rest of this post...

Republicans reinvent math in order to claim health care reform increases deficit

When the numbers don't add up to the way you want, simply adopt a new form of math.

And who's behind this new math? The Koch brothers, of course, and their creepy friends at George Mason university, also funded by the Koch brothers.

You have to hand it to the Republicans, if you don't mind lying, then politics can be quite fun.  You get someone who has a title next to his name to just make up a lie, then have Limbaugh, Fox, the religious right, and the more extreme GOP members in Congress (aka the entire GOP leadership) repeat the lie ad infinitum until the media writes about it as a kind of he-said-she-said, implying that it might just be true.

Not only is our side more uncomfortable lying (which is a good thing), we outright stink at adopting a larger coordinated messaging strategy, in part because our guys are always too afraid to use the hard-hitting message that's needed, lest we appear "mean."

So get ready for GOP math, coming to a school new you (that already teaches GOP science). Read the rest of this post...

VIdeo: How to master your taxes, the Romney way (humor)

Read the rest of this post...

US cellphone carriers agree to disable stolen phones

Remember when the US used to be the leader rather than the follower? Permanently shutting down cell phones that have been stolen - in ordert to make them useless, and thus not worth stealing - has been the practice in Europe and Australia already but the US mobile carriers are never keen to do much of anything that might benefit their customers. Why? Because they rarely have to thanks to a bought Congress. It's almost a miracle that anything like this has even happened.

Overdue, but thanks to Senator Schumer for this one.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said in a statement late Monday that major cellphone carriers and the Federal Communications Commission have agreed to set up a database of identification numbers that are unique to each phone.

Using the list, cellular carriers will be able to permanently disable a phone once it's been reported stolen. Until now, U.S. carriers have only been disabling so-called "SIM" cards, which can be swapped in and out. That's enabled a black market to exist for stolen phones.

Read the rest of this post...

Obama JOBS Act (now signed) appears "specifically written to encourage fraud in stock markets"

Matt Taibbi totally fails to put too fine a point on it. Read:

Boy, do I feel like an idiot. I've been out there on radio and TV in the last few months saying that I thought there was a chance Barack Obama was listening to the popular anger against Wall Street that drove the Occupy movement, that decisions like putting a for-real law enforcement guy like New York AG Eric Schneiderman in charge of a mortgage fraud task force meant he was at least willing to pay lip service to public outrage against the banks.

Then the JOBS Act happened.

The "Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act" (in addition to being a viciously stupid and dishonest law, the Act has an annoying, redundant title) will very nearly legalize fraud in the stock market.

Actually, that's not putting things in strong enough language. In fact, one could say this law is not just a sweeping piece of deregulation that will have an increase in securities fraud as an accidental, ancillary consequence. No, this law actually appears to have been specifically written to encourage fraud in the stock markets.

As Taibbi notes, the law:

■ Exempts start-ups from "independent accounting requirements for up to five years after they first begin selling shares"

(Pause; reread; consider, that's five years without independent accounting for start-ups; now go on.)

■ Reverses rules that "prevent bank analysts from talking up a stock just to win business"

■ Will let start-up executives give "pre-prospectus" presentations — yep, you read that right — for which "they will not be held liable for misrepresentations"

And contains other atrocities. Please, do read. Then weep. Then tell your children never to give good money to the stock market.

Why is this happening? you ask. Guess:



And in case you don't recognize yourself, sir, this is addressed to you, our Signer-in-Chief. I don't see Boehner's hand around that pen.

Side note — Voice-in-the-wilderness here, but what fool disabled embedding for all YouTube versions of the original Liza Minelli–Joel Grey performance? That film was made in 1972; what are you protecting? (Just thought I'd ask.)

GP

To follow on Twitter or to send links, click here: @Gaius_Publius
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Local Fox affiliate in trouble for calls neo-Nazis a "civil rights group"

On the good side, at least they weren't hacking into anyone's phone.  From MediaBistro:

At the top of its 10 p.m. newscast on Saturday, Orlando Fox O&O; WOFL reported that a “civil rights group” was starting to make its presence felt in Sanford, FL, where racial tensions have escalated following the shooting of Trayvon Martin.

The “civil rights group” at the center of reporter Jennifer Bisram‘s piece: the National Socialist Movement, an apparent neo-Nazi organization.

WOFL’s labeling of the National Socialist Movement–which has a swastika in its official insignia–as a “civil rights group” has drawn the ire of social affairs activists and bloggers, who believe that the station was negligent in its characterization of the organization.

“Civil rights groups attempt to expand freedom to more people,” Judd Legum, who wrote about the WOFL report for ThinkProgress, explained via email. “They are a neo-Nazi group who doesn’t think the constitution applies to anyone who isn’t white.”

Remember, at Fox the mistakes only skew to the right. Read the rest of this post...

Banks in Portugal borrowing heavily from ECB

If this is a sign of things to come for Portugal, the near term future is not looking good. Banks in Portugal had been unable to borrow from other European banks as they were considered too risky, so going to the ECB has been the only option. That the number being borrowed is hitting new highs should also be a warning sign. The Guardian:

The reliance of eurozone banks on the European Central Bank was demonstrated on Monday when Portugal revealed that its domestic banks were tapping the central bank for record amounts of funding.

The Bank of Portugal said the use by domestic banks for the various facilities available from the ECB rose to €56.3bn in March – up from €47.5bn in February and greater than the previous record level of €49.1bn in August 2010.

Bailed out by the EU and International Monetary Fund in April 2011 for €78bn, Portugal has €12bn earmarked for bolstering its banks' capital positions if necessary in the months ahead.

Read the rest of this post...