Mitt Romney, who has a 3,600 foot basement, mocked John Kerry's home

It's almost as if Romney thinks he's somehow so far above it all, no one will hold him accountable for, or to, his words. From Buzzfeed's Andrew Kaczysnki:

“There's a Senator from my state who wants to get elected President. I don't know why he would want to do that because he would have to move into a smaller house.”

Romney's new home has a 3,600 square foot basement, and he has a separate elevator for his cars.

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UK economy fell more than previously reported last year

There's a cost to austerity that those on the right don't like talking about. It's not a magic cure all and it almost always means even more pain for the working public. The GOP in the US loves talking about the need to cut government spending but fail to discuss the severe impact it has on everyone. If money is no object and you're part of the 1% it may sound wonderful if you don't care about the 99% and the broader social implications.

So remind me again which side of the political spectrum is all about dividing rather than uniting? The Guardian:

Britain's economy was even weaker than expected at the end of last year, underlining the country's struggle to avoid another recession.

GDP fell 0.3% in the fourth quarter, more than the 0.2% drop previously estimated by the Office for National Statistics. The downgrade was mainly prompted by weakness in the country's dominant services sector.

Economists had not been expecting any change to the 0.2% fall, and the news that Britain's economy went into the new year in an even worse state will raise fears it could notch up a technical recession – defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction.

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Video: Street performer in Mexico City (simple and brilliant)

I love this.

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Romney recalls "humorous" story of his dad closing factory

What a knee-slapper. Who hasn't made jokes about shutting down a factory and leaving someone jobless? Get it? Families were on unemployment and had to struggle to get by. Hysterical! Life at the Romney mansion must be a laugh a minute as they cut down the 99%-ers who have to work for a living.

"One of (the) most humorous stories, I think, relates to my father. You may remember my father, George Romney, was president of an automobile company called American Motors," Romney said, according to audio of the call posted by ABC News and first reported by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

"They had a factory in Michigan, and they had a factory in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and another one in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And as the president of the company he decided to close the factory in Michigan and move all the production to Wisconsin. Now, later he decided to run for governor of Michigan and so you can imagine that having closed the factory and moved all the production to Wisconsin was a very sensitive issue to him, for his campaign," he said.

Romney laughed about the incident and about how it affected his dad, a three-term Michigan governor.

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Guns don't kill people, hoodies kill people

Isn't it rather an odd world where carrying a gun is always blameless -- but an unarmed person wearing a particular piece of clothing, look out.

Geraldo Rivera has apologized for his comments about hoodies (Riversa suggested that Trayvon Martin, the 17 year old recently killed in Florida, shared half the blame for wearing a hoodie), but the fact that that he fixes on clothing worn by the victim rather than the weapon carried by his killer illustrates how the Conservative mind works. Guns can never be the problem, so something else must be the problem, in the same way that big oil can never be a problem so climate change must be a hoax. The conclusion is true by definition, so any evidence that challenges it must be false.

In the wake of 9/11, one of my associates was offered secret service protection. Not the full bore presidential level detail, but one or two officers that would accompany him in public at all times. He rejected it when he discovered that all the protection could really do is limit the number of shots an assailant could fire and maybe kill or capture him. If a trained, armed and alert secret service officer who is only thinking about protecting the life of their protectee can't provide absolute security then I am pretty sure that the average bozo packing heat can't do much to protect themselves either.

The problem with guns is not simply that they provide a way in which one person can kill another, but that they make it possible to do so in an instant. Killing someone with a knife is hard. Suffocation even harder. Gunshots, a simple flick of the finger.

It is possible that Zimmerman or Martin might have been killed if neither one was armed, but it is much less likely that would have happened, just as it is much less likely that a domestic dispute will result in murder if no gun is present:

A 1997 study that examined the risk factors for violent death for women in the home found that when there were one or more guns in the home, the risk of suicide among women increased nearly five times and the risk of homicide increased more than three times. The increased risk of homicide associated with firearms was attributable to homicides at the hands of a spouse, intimate acquaintance, or close relative.

An analysis of female domestic homicides (a woman murdered by a spouse, intimate acquaintance, or close relative) showed that prior domestic violence in the household made a woman 14.6 times more likely, and having one or more guns in the home made a woman 7.2 times more likely, to be the victim of such a homicide.

Having a gun in the home makes it three times more likely that you or someone you care about will be murdered by a family member or intimate partner.

A firearm in the home may be a key factor in the escalation of nonfatal spousal abuse to homicide. In a study of family and intimate assaults for the city of Atlanta, Georgia, in 1984, firearm-associated family and intimate assaults were 12 times more likely to result in death than non-firearm associated assaults between family and intimates.

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Amazon's Bezos to retrieve Apollo 11 engines from ocean floor

Not that it's not interesting and sure, it would be fun to see them at the Smithsonian, but I'd rather hear about Bezos doing something about a bigger cause that actually impacts the future. Maybe it's just me but the costly mission to locate and then recover old rocket engines isn't as interesting as the less glamorous mission of educating or immunizing or feeding people or other critical issues of our time. MSNBC:

Amazon.com's billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos, says he's funded a successful effort to locate the mammoth rocket engines that sent the Apollo 11 mission on the first leg of its mission to the moon — and now he's planning to bring them up from the Atlantic Ocean floor.

It's shaping up as the latest high-rolling undersea adventure, alongside film director James Cameron's dive to the deepest spot in the Pacific, British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Oceanic expedition and the Deepsearch submersible project backed by Google's Eric Schmidt.

Bill Gates still takes flack in some circles but at least he put his money and his brain power into addressing some of the bigger issues of the world and not just stroking his ego like many of the other tech billionaires. Read the rest of this post...

CNN airs interviews with Afghan witnesses: "Were others involved in the killings?"

This is an excellent must-watch report, with witness interviews, of the Kandahar massacre story (h/t Steve Hynd via Twitter for the link).

I suspect this is CNN's international feed, the highly respected one you can't get at home. The British accent of the anchor suggests as much, as does the content.

From the CNN page describing this video:

Reporter Yalda Hakim of Australia’s SBS network has become the first western journalist to visit the villages where a U.S. soldier allegedly killed 17 people.

In a remarkable report she talks with some of the survivors and some Afghan guards on duty at the military camp from where Staff Sgt. Robert Bales left on his alleged killing spree. The video at the top of this story is Hakim’s account of her journey to the remote villages near Kandahar and what she was told.

A short rundown:

▪ Starting at 4:05, there's an excellent recreation of the events of that night, begnning with the layout — the relative locations of Camp Belambai and the two villages, Alkozai and Najiban. This provides an excellent sense of place, what those villages look like, what the houses feel like inside, how barren the countryside. An excellent job by this reporter and her team.

▪ The discussion of the number of shooters starts at 5:55. Note that it's the U.S. military that initially blocks interview (7:15). Interviews themselves start at 7:45.

▪ At 8:50, there is a clear eyewitness who saw more than one soldier performing the killings, in what an Afghan official said earlier looked like a helicopter-supported operation.

▪ Near the end of the CNN wrapper to the SBS segment, you'll see an interview with John Henry Browne, the accused lone gunman's attorney. That's a name to remember and watch for.

This is a terrific watch. Please do if you have the time. Ms. Hakim, the reporter, is the one in the green hijab, or headscarf.

(To see this report larger and in a new tab, click here.)



One final note: When Ms. Hakim describes Sgt. Bales' movements, she's taking the American view of events ("lone shooter") since she has no witnesses to his movements in or near the base to the contrary. (In other words, no one is saying "A group of men left the base at this or that time that night.")

When she describes the events in the villages, she lets the witnesses speak for themselves. Thus the apparent discrepancy.

In our three-legged stool on the Afghan massacre story, this is the first break in the media side of the story — some acknowledgement that the U.S. military's explanation is not the only one with credibility.

And on the U.S. side of the story, this attorney's public appearance means the pre-trial dance has begun.

It's interesting, by the way, how closely this comports with Marcy Wheeler's smart speculation. More as it develops.

GP

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Scalia mocks Obamacare provision that doesn't even exist

Nothing like having the best and brightest at the highest level of the American justice system. With knuckle-dragging blockheads like Scalia on the court, how is it possible for a country to prosper, let alone lead in this century? It hardly seems likely that there will be an honest debate about the legal issues when one of the strongest forces on the court isn't even paying attention to the details.

We should expect much more from the political class than this.  From Olivier Knox at Yahoo News:

Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia suggested on Wednesday that the Supreme Court could strike the "Cornhusker Kickback" from President Barack Obama's landmark health care overhaul without having to invalidate the whole law. He was right, in a way: The notorious provision isn't in the law.

The "Cornhusker Kickback" was the derogatory nickname of one of several sweetheart deals designed to ensure that the law had enough votes to pass. Amid a public uproar, lawmakers ultimately stripped the measure from the law.

But no one—not Scalia's eight colleagues on the highest court in the land, not Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler, there to represent Obama, and not the superstar lawyer challenging the law on behalf of 26 states, Paul Clement—challenged his claim.

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SCOTUS loss of legitimacy—"Conservative justices are happy to take radical action for political aims"

The "loss of legitimacy" part of the title is mine. The rest is Rachel Maddow:

"[In Bush v Gore, Conservative justices] were pretty happy to take radical legal action, as long as it achieved a political aim that they wanted." [7:54]

"If you go by what people tell pollsters — we think the majority of the Court is a partisan body that will do anything in their power to help politicians who are on their side, and to hurt politicians who are on the other side." [10:57]

Needless to say, this is another excellent segment from Team Maddow. It's about the mess that the Supreme Court has become (clearly by design).

The segment is in two parts:

■ She begins with the decision in Bush v Gore, which Bruce Ackerman calls "a constitutional coup". (Does that phrase sound familiar?)

Then she pivots to voter suppression, which is why the Florida election was stealable in the first place.

If you listen to just the first half of the segment (seven minutes or so), you might think the take-away is — Voters in Florida don't care that voter registration is a crime, so they deserve what they get.

A perfect half-segment, and she could have stopped there, with the mess in Florida. But there's more.

■ She then pivots back to the Supreme Court (7:30). First, back to Bush v Gore, then to Citizens United, and finally to this week's oral arguments on the ACA (at 9:20).

Watch:



Don't miss the chart at 10:32. And don't miss the comments (at 11:10) connecting the Koch Bros–funded AFP demonstration outside the Court with the MoveCon–"funded" Clarence Thomas & family.

It's a brave new world; glad it's being called out.

GP

(To follow on Twitter or to send links: @Gaius_Publius)
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US service member dies saving little girl in Afghanistan

This was a story I came across yesterday. It think it's important to remember that our service members are human beings too.  War is not a pretty thing.  And regardless of our feelings about the mission, or its aftermath, our troops are real people, and they're not all bad, by a longshot.  This story, below, is as about as human, and heartbreaking, as you can get.

CNN:

According to the Rhode Island National Guard and the U.S. Army, Weichel was in a convoy a week ago with his unit in Laghman Province, in northeast Afghanistan. Some children were in the road in front of the convoy, and Weichel and other troops got out to move them out of the way.

Most of the children moved, but one little girl went back to pick up some brass shell casings in the road. Afghan civilians often recycle the casings, and the girl appeared to aim to do that. But a Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicle was moving toward her, according to Lt. Col. Denis Riel of the Rhode Island National Guard.

MRAPs, as they are known, usually weigh more than 16 tons.

Weichel saw the massive truck bearing down on the girl and grabbed her out of the way. But in the process, the armored truck ran him over, Riel said.

The little girl is fine. Weichel died a short time later of his injuries.

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Spain begins general strike

This could be an important day for labor in Spain, as the strike is about mobilizing the country to highlight some of the "reforms" by the new government which may make strikes more difficult. The unemployment numbers in Spain continue to be painfully high and now the new austerity plan is likely to make the conditions even worse. On top of that, Citi analysts see problems ahead in the Spanish banking market that is overloaded with loans for a crumbling real estate market.

These are very tough times for Spain.

A strike has been called in Spain on Thursday - the first since Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy came to power.

The unions are angry about reforms that will make it easier to hire and fire workers. Their banners will read "Unfair - say 'no' to the labour reform law".

The government says these reforms are key to making Spain more competitive and eventually bringing down the country's chronic unemployment.

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