Gays on verge of winning marriage in NY state

With just a week left in the legislative session, things are very close in New York. Joe has all the details over at AMERICAblog Gay. Read the rest of this post...

$6.6 billion of US taxpayer money missing in Iraq

If they can't properly follow money like this, chances are good that there is a lot more waste where that came from. Where's the accountability in the Pentagon?

This month, the Pentagon and the Iraqi government are finally closing the books on the program that handled all those Benjamins. But despite years of audits and investigations, U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion in cash — enough to run the Los Angeles Unified School District or the Chicago Public Schools for a year, among many other things.

For the first time, federal auditors are suggesting that some or all of the cash may have been stolen, not just mislaid in an accounting error. Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, an office created by Congress, said the missing $6.6 billion may be "the largest theft of funds in national history."

The mystery is a growing embarrassment to the Pentagon, and an irritant to Washington's relations with Baghdad. Iraqi officials are threatening to go to court to reclaim the money, which came from Iraqi oil sales, seized Iraqi assets and surplus funds from the United Nations' oil-for-food program.

Read the rest of this post...

GOP Presidential debate, live chat - debate starts at 8pm Eastern

Read the rest of this post...

Boehner gets "thank you" letter from Qaddafi

Oops.

Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi wrote to members of Congress thanking them for criticizing President Obama last week over his involvement in the NATO-led military campaign in Libya, the New York Times reports.

Read the rest of this post...

Powerful new Romney ad blames Obama for GOP recession

That's what happens when you fail to defend yourself, and fail to keep reminding people of your accomplishments - well, and fail to focus on jobs and, instead, embrace GOP talking points about the deficit.

If Mitt Romney were president, unemployment wouldn't be at 9.1%, it'd be at 10.9%. Romney opposed the stimulus (after he found out other Republicans were opposing it - of course, Romney was for the stimulus before he realized GOPers didn't like it).

Here is Romney's ad:



It's pretty criminal that any Republican could try to pin George Bush's recession on Barack Obama, especially since the Republicans in Congress made the recession worse by forcing the President to accept a smaller stimulus than he knew was needed (not that the President doesn't share in the blame, for not fighting for a larger stimulus).

Like death panels before it, these lies become truth when you have a President and a party that don't fight back. Every day the GOP talks about Obama's deficit, but how often do you hear Obama talk about how the deficit saved the country from a Republican Depression? The man isn't going to get credit for anything if he constantly lets the people forget what he did, and let's the Republicans then redefine it.

PS As Judd Legum notes, it's ironic that Romney himself has used the phrase "bump in the rode," something he criticizes Obama for in this new ad. Read the rest of this post...

Scientist who once said global warming "not significant" now says new data shows it is

Another right-wing data point gone with the increasingly warm wind. From the BBC:

Climate warming since 1995 is now statistically significant, according to Phil Jones, the UK scientist targeted in the "ClimateGate" affair.

Last year, he told BBC News that post-1995 warming was not significant - a statement still seen on blogs critical of the idea of man-made climate change.

But another year of data has pushed the trend past the threshold usually used to assess whether trends are "real".

Dr Jones says this shows the importance of using longer records for analysis.

Read the rest of this post...

What to expect at tonight's GOP presidential debate

Via Taegan:

With seven of the most likely Republican presidential candidates set to gather in New Hampshire tonight for the CNN/WMUR/Union Leader debate, the New Hampshire Union Leader isn't expecting to see much, as "early debates rarely result in focused attacks, as candidates usually try to stay on message and not run the risk of alienating themselves from voters."

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal sees the debate as Mitt Romney's first big test, where he "will likely face questions on policies that disquiet some conservatives, including his Massachusetts health plan and earlier positions on abortion and climate change -- and potentially sleeper issues, such as his stewardship of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics."

The debate is at 8 Eastern on CNN. Read the rest of this post...

Lieberman proposes "privatizing health insurance for seniors"

Paul Krugman (my emphasis):

Every once in a while a politician comes up with an idea that’s so bad, so wrongheaded, that you’re almost grateful. For really bad ideas can help illustrate the extent to which policy discourse has gone off the rails.

And so it was with Senator Joseph Lieberman’s proposal, released last week, to raise the age for Medicare eligibility from 65 to 67.

Like Republicans who want to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with (grossly inadequate) insurance vouchers, Mr. Lieberman describes his proposal as a way to save Medicare. ... And here’s what you need to know: Medicare actually saves money — a lot of money — compared with relying on private insurance companies. And this in turn means that pushing people out of Medicare, in addition to depriving many Americans of needed care, would almost surely end up increasing total health care costs.

Krugman focuses on the last point bolded above, that Medicare actually saves money over private insurance. That's true, and he expands that point in this blog post.

But let's focus on the messenger, Sen. Joe Lieberman. Is he a kind of closet Obama surrogate? Isn't he the guy whom Obama supported in 2006 over the actual (and betrayed) Democratic Party candidate, Ned Lamont?

Didn't Obama save Lieberman's chairmanship after the 2008 election? I think I remember that.

Seems like Lieberman is Mr. Trial Balloon from time to time. Does he speak for Obama now? Because if he does, here's how Krugman characterizes Lieberman's proposal (my emphasis):

The point, however, is that privatizing health insurance for seniors, which is what Mr. Lieberman is in effect proposing — and which is the essence of the G.O.P. plan — hurts rather than helps the cause of cost control.

I think someone needs to nail this down. Does Obama support Lieberman here as well? The President sure hasn't been that strong on Medicare lately.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Palin refers to big nose of Jewish politician she doesn’t like

Hmmm...

Sarah Palin's reply to Ivy Frye couldn't possibly be any worse:

From: Palin, Sarah (GOV sponsored)

To: Frye, Ivy J (DOA)

Sent: Sun Oct 21 14:36:58 2007

Subject: Re: Ramras

Oh yeah- and I jsu read your letter online @ Frontiersman!!!! I'm cheering. Todd's cheering.

I'll be in Juneau tonight. But not to hold Jay Bird-Nose Ramras' hand. What a doof.

Rep. Jay Ramras is Jewish, which is a very well-known fact in political circles in Alaska. A more inappropriate comment than this one about "Bird-Nose" Jay Ramras is hardly conceivable. It's not the email conversations of a teenager we are reading here, but the remarks of Sarah Palin, who is rumored to aspire to become that most powerful person in the world.

These are by far not the only nasty remark which Sarah Palin makes about Jay Ramras in the published emails. In an email exchange from June 7, 2008 she calls Jay Ramras "Vajayjay", and in an exchange from October 5, 2007 Sarah Palin makes a particular insensitive remark about Rep. Ramras when she writes to Ivy Frye:

Maybe Jay's missing his little lady and feels frustrated lately. I'll have to keep him away from Bristol.

Read the rest of this post...

GOP presidential debate tonight, 8PM Eastern on CNN - this one should be fun

All the crazies are going to be there, except, sadly, Palin.  We'll be hosting a live chat to follow the fun.

** Tune in to CNN at 8 p.m. ET for the first
GOP Primary Debate in New Hampshire **

CNN, Hearst Television’s WMUR and the New Hampshire Union Leader kick off the first debate in New Hampshire today at 8 p.m. ET at Saint Anselm College in Manchester. CNN anchor and chief national correspondent John King will moderate the debate with questions from WMUR-TV’s Jean Mackin, Josh McElveen and Jennifer Vaughn and New Hampshire Union Leader’s John DiStaso and Tom Fahey. The debate will also include questions from New Hampshire voters inside the debate hall and from three remote locations around the state.

The following Republican candidates are scheduled to participate: Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, businessman Herman Cain, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum.

Read the rest of this post...

Obama working on raising cash from Wall Street, again

Despite the cute little stories about grandmothers donating $10 the real money behind Obama in 2008 was Wall Street. By a mile. Sure he gave lip service to the rest of the country that despises Wall Street since they crashed the economy and were then re-rewarded for it, but we're back to square one again. There's no way normal voters can keep up with the Wall Street cash, so we're being left behind (again) so Obama can win back Wall Street and fund his 2012 campaign. Yes, the bad guys have indeed won and as long as you vote for Obama or give him cash, they will keep on winning.

The latest love affair with Wall Street started a few months ago and it's likely to grow over the next month. We're so far beyond the "hold your nose and vote or else" stage. NY Times:

A few weeks before announcing his re-election campaign, President Obama convened two dozen Wall Street executives, many of them longtime donors, in the White House’s Blue Room.

The guests were asked for their thoughts on how to speed the economic recovery, then the president opened the floor for over an hour on hot issues like hedge fund regulation and the deficit.

Mr. Obama, who enraged many financial industry executives a year and a half ago by labeling them “fat cats” and criticizing their bonuses, followed up the meeting with phone calls to those who could not attend.

Read the rest of this post...

Roubini talks about "perfect storm" for global economy

It's a brutal combination but it's hard not to see them all coming together in the not so distant future. Bloomberg:

There’s a one-in-three chance the factors will combine to stunt growth from 2013, Roubini said in a June 11 interview in Singapore. Other possible outcomes are “anemic but OK” global growth or an “optimistic” scenario in which the expansion improves.

“There are already elements of fragility,” he said. “Everybody’s kicking the can down the road of too much public and private debt. The can is becoming heavier and heavier, and bigger on debt, and all these problems may come to a head by 2013 at the latest.”

Elevated U.S. unemployment, a surge in oil and food prices, rising interest rates in Asia and trade disruption from Japan’s record earthquake threaten to sap the world economy. Stocks worldwide have lost more than $3.3 trillion since the beginning of May, and Roubini said financial markets by the middle of next year could start worrying about a convergence of risks in 2013.

Read the rest of this post...

IMF hacked by "nation state"

What "nation state" would want to cause economic instability? This could be a long line. The Guardian:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is investigating a serious cyber-attack in which some of its systems were compromised and used to access internal data.

Security experts said the source seemed to be a "nation state" aiming to gain a "digital insider presence" on the network of the IMF, the inter-governmental group that oversees the global financial system and brings together 187 member countries.

Tom Kellermann, a cybersecurity expert who has worked for the IMF and was in charge of cyberintelligence in the World Bank's treasury team, said the intrusion could have yielded a treasure trove of non-public economic data used by the IMF to promote exchange rate stability, support balanced international trade, and provide resources to remedy members' balance-of-payments crises. "It was a targeted attack," said Kellermann, who serves on the International Cyber Security Protection Alliance.

Read the rest of this post...

New Zealand hit with strong earthquakes again

Fortunately nobody died this time. It's seems like an especially active year this year though it probably has more to do with the locations of the earthquakes than the actual quantity. BBC News:

Several serious aftershocks have hit the New Zealand city of Christchurch, almost four months after a quake that killed 181 people.

A magnitude 5.2 quake struck at Taylors Mistake beach, 9.6km (six miles) from the city centre.

A second quake, magnitude 6.0, struck an hour and 20 minutes later, shaking buildings and causing injuries.

A number of people suffered minor injures; boulders have been reported to be tumbling down hillsides.

Read the rest of this post...