Classy Romney Florida staffer hates unions

Read the rest of this post...

MSNBC, CNN calls Wisconsin recall vote for GOP Gov. Walker

Cillizza analyzes how Walker won.

ABC has the exit polls. Read the rest of this post...

Using Romney math, Obama added 3.7m jobs to economy during his term

The Washington Post's Greg Sargent explains how Mitt Romney is again lying, this time about President Obama's record on jobs' growth. Here Greg quotes the NYT:

Mr. Romney frequently says that Mr. Obama has presided over an economy that has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs. In a recent news release, the Republican campaign said, “Under President Obama, the nation has lost 552,000 jobs.”

But that statistic includes Mr. Obama’s first year in office, and especially the months of February, March and April, when monthly job losses from the economic collapse were at 700,000 or higher.

Just ignoring February of 2009, before any of Mr. Obama’s policies — including the economic stimulus — had been put into place, would wipe away all 552,000 lost jobs, giving the president a record of creating 172,000 jobs.

If Mr. Romney’s team were to ignore Mr. Obama’s first year in office — as Mr. Gillespie suggested should be done for Mr. Romney’s first year as governor — then the president would have added about 3.7 million jobs to the economy.

Of course, Mr. Romney’s campaign is unlikely to change its rhetoric or strategy. His bid for the White House depends on the idea that Mr. Obama has made the economy worse. Because the country has been adding jobs for nearly two years, Mr. Romney’s argument depends on the steep job losses in Mr. Obama’s first year in office.

So basically Mitt Romney is trying to blame President Obama for the jobs lost by George Bush. Read the rest of this post...

AP is rooting for the Republicans again

This is pretty bad. From Media Matters:

The Associated Press published an article implying that Democrats are not focused on jobs and the economy, and are instead pandering to women by pushing a measure to protect women from workplace discrimination. In contrast, AP reported that the Republican agenda focuses on job creation.

The article, written by Laurie Kellman, reported on Senate Republicans' efforts to successfully block a law that would have required equal pay for women. The piece included a passage that strongly suggests that Democrats are not focused on jobs, while portraying concerns over fair pay to be hollow:

The vote was the latest effort by Democrats to protect their lead among critical women voters this presidential and congressional election year. Republicans are focusing on the No. 1 concern for all voters: jobs and the economy.

In suggesting that Democrats are not focused on jobs and the economy, AP ignores President Obama's repeated calls for Congress to pass a jobs bill. Friday, when the Labor Department reported that jobs growth slowed during May, the president again called on Congress to "get to work" and pass a jobs bill that economists say could create 2 million jobs.

So, Democrats are focusing on a bill dealing with women's jobs, but that's not "jobs" to the AP. The Republicans, who have pretty much been trying to force the country back into a Depression from the first day of Obama's term, are the only party "really" focusing on jobs and the economy.

I guess in fairness to AP they the Republicans are focusing on jobs and the economy... in order to destroy them in time for the election. Read the rest of this post...

How to watch Venus cross the path of the sun, starting at 6pm ET

NASA is streaming the venus solar eclipse live.


This is very cool.  Okay, so if you have binoculars, don't use them to look at the sun, rather you can use them to point the light on to a piece of paper and then look at the paper.  Or make a shadow box, like I did - see pics below.

Via CNN:

Another way is to use a pair of binoculars and point them so the light from the sun goes in the front and comes out the eyepiece. Hold a piece of paper in front of the eyepiece and focus it. If everything is working right, "you'll get a nice, round image of the sun several inches across - and you can see Venus as it comes across," says Duncan.

Here are the times and places in the U.S. to see it:

Eastern time zone: A few minutes after 6 p.m.
Central time zone: A few minutes after 5 p.m.
Mountain time zone: A few minutes after 4 p.m.
Pacific time zone: A few minutes after 3 p.m.
Alaska: a few minutes after 2 p.m.
Hawaii: A few minutes after noon

Okay, so I set up a shadow box. The box is pretty long, but the image of the sun is still pretty small. The pictures are pretty self-explanatory - basically, cut a one inch square hole in the box, tape a piece of foil across the hole, poke a small hole in the foil, project the image on the back of the box (preferably on white paper you've taped there).

Read the rest of this post...

US confirms Stuxnet cyber-attack on Iran

Cyber photo via Shutterstock

The US Department of Defense has admitted responsibility for the Stuxnet cyber attack that is believed to have crippled the Iranian uranium enrichment plant at Natanz in 2010.

The admission comes in a book by David Sanger released today. The author interviewed many sources with direct knowledge of the program in what was clearly an authorized disclosure.

When the attack was first discovered in 2010, all that was known was that it was extremely sophisticated. Whoever wrote it had employed four 'zero day' attacks. A zero day attack being one that was previously unknown and provides 'zero days' to protect systems against it. As further details were uncovered, researchers quickly concluded that Stuxnet had been written by a well funded government lab.

What set Stuxnet apart however was the target which was clearly an industrial control system of some sort. Previous attacks on control systems had occurred when a hacker had found a way to connect over the network. These were like planting a bomb on a plane or a bus: the attack required only a certain amount of technical skill and access to the target area. Stuxnet was like a cruise missile: The payload was delivered by an automated delivery system. Whoever had developed Stuxnet was confident that they knew enough about the target to write a program that would break it without any other intervention.

At first the only clue as to the target of Stuxnet was the obvious cost of writing something so complex. Analysis of the code showed that each of the exploits and the payload had all been written at different times. This was not the act of a lone obsessive, it was a team effort that had taken many months work.  There was no evidence, but Iran's nuclear program appeared to be the only target that could justify this level of attention.

Only the US, China and Russia had the means and opportunity to perform the attack. If the target was Iran, China had no motive and Russia would only have a motive if the attack would provide an opportunity to sell Iran spare parts for their civilian power plant. This made the US the most likely culprit.

Then researchers at the Institute for Science and International Security showed that the control parameters being manipulated by Stuxnet precisely match parameters reported to the IAEA for the Natanz centrifuges and that they appeared designed to cause damage:

Based on Symantec’s deciphering of infection sequence A, which is the attack involving a preponderance of Finnish frequency converters, Stuxnet can destroy centrifuges.In sequence A, there are two specific attacks that are separated by about a month. The first, called sequence one, would raise the speed of the centrifuge as high as a frequency of 1,410 Hz during a 15 minute attack, before the malware returns the control system to normal operation. After waiting about 27 days, Stuxnet would launch attack sequence two. The first part of this attack would lower the frequency toward 2 Hz and last 50 minutes. The second part would raise the frequency back to the nominal frequency of 1,064 Hz. After another 27 days, the first attack sequence would start again; followed by sequence two 27 days after that.

Since the target was not a facility Russia had either built or was likely to provide spare parts for, the US emerged as the most likely culprit but there was also the possibility that the attack was a false flag operation designed to implicate the US.

Now we have final confirmation that the country with the biggest glass house decided to be the first to throw stones. In the next post I will discuss some of the consequences that flow from that decision. Read the rest of this post...

Wall Street CEO pay up 20% in 2011

Heck, when you own the government, you can write the rules. It doesn't matter whether it's a Democrat or Republican in office because they're all in the pocket of Wall Street. Obama cashed in on Wall Street money in 2008 and now Romney is doing the same this year.

It's a fixed game and political class has campaign money to raise so no questions will be asked. The most highly paid Wall Street CEO in 2011 was Henry Kravis who received $30 million, closely followed by his co-CEO George Roberts at $29.9 million. Heads they win, tails they win.

Kravis and Roberts, 68, lead a list of 50 financial CEOs whose compensation collectively rose by an average of 20.4 percent in 2011 -- a year when most big banks and brokerages saw their revenues, profits and stock prices plummet. The 2011 pay rise followed a 26 percent increase in 2010 for CEOs who held the same job in both years.

In a comparison of 2011 financial CEO incentive pay against stock returns over three years, Citigroup Inc. (C) CEO Vikram Pandit, who was awarded $15 million in 2011, ranks as the executive who provided the least shareholder value. That award is being reconsidered after shareholders rejected it.

Read the rest of this post...

Why does US require shoes-off at airport, while Europe does not?

TSA:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday she could see a future where air travelers do not have to remove their shoes at security checkpoints. However, the technology to scan shoe-wearing passengers for bombs does not exist yet and may not be available in the near future, Napolitano said.

The thing is, in Europe you don't have to take your shoes off at airport security. Not in Paris. Not in Amsterdam. Not in Stockholm.

Why?

It's not that the Europeans are more slack on security than we are. So what is it?

I'm not one who complains much about airport security.  If there's even a slim chance that taking off my shoes will help me not blow up at 40,000 feet, then I'm game.

What I don't like, however, is being told by US officials that there's no way to ensure our safety without the TSA making us take off our shoes pre-flight, when in Europe they seem to be doing just fine.  It feels like we're not getting the whole truth, and that bothers me.

It also doesn't do much for TSA's already tepid credibility with the public. Read the rest of this post...

Dems could win state senate today in Wisconsin

The vote to recall the GOP governor is going to be close, but another outcome is just as possible - that Dems take back the state senate, robbing Walker of a majority to cause more mayhem. From Rachel Weiner at the Post:

Last summer, Democrats ran recall campaigns against six Republican state senators in response to the collective bargaining reforms championed by Walker and passed by the the GOP-controlled legislature. Two Republicans were unseated, so while Democrats failed to take over the state Senate, they narrowed the GOP majority from 19-14 to 17-16.
When they filed petitions to recall Walker himself last fall, Democrats also filed papers to recall another four state senators — Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, and Sens. Pam Galloway, Terry Moulton and Van Wanggaard, (Galloway resigned earlier this year; Republican state Rep. Jerry Petrowski is running for her seat.)
They need only win one race to take control.

Read the rest of this post...

Feingold: Turnout is the key to today's Wisconsin recall—Vote!

This is the day, folks, when the rubber meets the road (to overuse a phrase). Today is voting day in Wisconsin. Will Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett unseat Gov. Scott Walker in the recall election? Can't wait to find out.

If you live in Wisconsin, you not only need to vote — you need to make sure others do as well. Here's Russ Feingold with a prediction and a reminder (my emphasis and some reparagraphing):

Former Wisconsin Democratic Senator Russ Feingold is confident Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) is going to unseat Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) on Tuesday.

"Let me say this: I believe, that in a stunning upset, Barrett is going to win this thing. I think Barrett's going to win," said Feingold in an interview with The Huffington Post at a Starbucks in downtown Milwaukee on Thursday.

Barrett lost to Walker in 2010, but narrowly.

Feingold said he wasn't deterred by the recent Marquette University poll showing Walker with a seven-percentage point lead, noting that other internal polls had the race significantly closer. ... Feingold said it's important for Democrats to make sure that turnout is higher than in 2010, predicting it will help Barrett.

"He didn't win by an overwhelming margin in 2010, and we know that by all estimates, it's going to be a higher turnout than 2010. It won't be as great as 2008," he said. "But we also know that those people that will be voting are going to be tilted heavily to Barrett. You know, the other side maxed out with their people in 2010. They had extremely good turnout."

There's pretty compelling logic in the article, but as Captain Picard might say, progressives and Democrats have to "make it so."

Vote. Get out the vote. Talk up the vote. Take the day off work, pack your car with voters and take them to the polls.

If Walker wins, you know what's coming, right? The Citizens United Money crowd — already on steroids in the current cycle — will put their steroids on steroids.

They will assume, perhaps correctly, that the last corner in the destruction of American democracy has been turned. No more hairpin corners — just full speed ahead, straight to the finish.

This is a decision point, Wisconsin, and both sides know it. Over to you.

GP

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

90% of Americans who gave $200 to Obama '08 haven't given in '12

From Buzzfeed:

In 2008, more than 550,000 gave more than $200 to Barack Obama, entering their names in the longest list of individual donors ever seen in American politics.

That list was a snapshot of the hope Obama inspired in a cross sections of liberals, young professionals, African-Americans, and Democrats who saw in him a generational and historic moment. But now, as Obama struggles to keep pace with his 2008 fundraising clip, that list offers a cross-section of Democratic disappointment and alienation. According to a BuzzFeed analysis of campaign finance data, 88% of the people who gave $200 or more in 2008 — 537,806 people — have not yet given that sum this year. And this drop-off isn’t simply an artifact of timing. A full 87% of the people who gave $200 — the sum that triggers an itemized report to the Federal Elections Commission — through April of 2008, 182,078 people, had not contributed by the end of last month.

I suspect gay money will come in, and it will be deserved. The President came through for the gay community, after much cajoling - but in the end he did, and that's the bargain you make when you vote for someone: If they come through sufficiently on their promises, you support them for re-election.

Now, we didn't get everything we wanted, but we got some (enough) big ticket items nonetheless - items that will make a serious difference. To wit: DADT repeal, refusing to defend DOMA in court, and coming out in favor of marriage equality for gay couples (and passage of the Hate Crimes law was important, and would get the President more credit if his Justice Department used it more).

The problem for the President is that a lot of other communities feels that the President has sufficiently come through for them.

I'd argue that the gay community's relationship with the President is a template for presidential relations with other communities in at least two ways. 1) It shows other communities that they need to kick butt if they want their promises kept. And 2) it shows the President that he needs to actively woo voters, and voting blocs, if he wants their continued support.

I've written before about the administration's "failure to woo."  And as we predicted, it was likely to come home to roost around the election. Read the rest of this post...

Unemployed bused into London for unpaid work during queen's celebration

Who would ever guess that it's a Tory government running the UK? Anyone with a sense of decency and respect for the hard times in the UK would want to scale back if not postpone a celebration for the monarchy, but we are talking about the British royal family after all.

It's absurd to imagine any taxpayer money funding a "party" for one of the richest families in the world. It's even more absurd to bus unemployment recipients to London, ask them to sleep under bridges and then work for such an event. Royalists are naturally claiming that the event generates millions for the economy, no doubt using the same twisted logic that sports teams use when they spend millions to move a team into a new location.

Smile, you're working for the queen now.

A group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid stewards during the diamond jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge before working on the river pageant.

Up to 30 jobseekers and another 50 people on apprentice wages were taken to London by coach from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth as part of the government's Work Programme.

Two jobseekers, who did not want to be identified in case they lost their benefits, said they had to camp under London Bridge the night before the pageant. They told the Guardian they had to change into security gear in public, had no access to toilets for 24 hours, and were taken to a swampy campsite outside London after working a 14-hour shift in the pouring rain on the banks of the Thames on Sunday.

Read the rest of this post...

Scary charts from Krugman show we haven't learned the mistakes of the past

Government spending has plummeted as the economy has remained stagnant.  Not exactly a recipe for success. Read the rest of this post...