Rape case against IMF chief Strauss-Kahn falling apart, "on verge of collapse" - accuser lied to prosecutors, possible links to illegal activities

Blockbuster NYT story. If what they allege is true, this calls into serious question whether the maid can be trusted at all.

The sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn is on the verge of collapse as investigators have uncovered major holes in the credibility of the housekeeper who charged that he attacked her in his Manhattan hotel suite in May, according to two well-placed law enforcement officials.

Although forensic tests found unambiguous evidence of a sexual encounter between Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a French politician, and the woman, prosecutors do not believe much of what the accuser has told them about the circumstances or about herself.

Since her initial allegation on May 14, the accuser has repeatedly lied, one of the law enforcement officials said.

Now, she could be a liar, a lousy human being, and a thief, and still be the victim of a sexual assault. The problem is it's her word against his, and her word is quickly losing value. Read the rest of this post...

Mayor Bloomberg calls out the gun lobby

Takes big brass ones to do this, so major points in his favor. Don't be confused; when you go against the gun lobby, you go against the arms industry.

Figured that out yet? People who sell guns make money by selling gun ownership. Common Dreams:

The National Rifle Association (NRA) receives millions of dollars directly from domestic and foreign gun manufacturers and other members of the firearms industry through an organized corporate outreach program according to a new report issued today by the Violence Policy Center (VPC).

The report, "Blood Money: How the Gun Industry Bankrolls the NRA" (http://www.vpc.org/studies/bloodmoney.pdf), reveals that since 2005 contributions from gun industry "corporate partners" to the NRA total between $14.7 million and $38.9 million.

So here's New York Mayor Bloomberg on the O'Donnell show:



Terrorism makes a good hook for the story. But it's not just Al Qaeda; it's the Mexican drug cartels and their border wars. They're a cancer, of course, the NRA; but a very well financed one.

(By the way, if 2012 starts to look shakey for Obama, keep your eye on Bloomberg. If he does decide to run, he'll be to the left of Obama. Just sayin'.)

GP Read the rest of this post...

China blocking human rights lawyers

The only real surprise is that they are doing more of this now than they were in the past. BBC News:

The UK-based human rights group Amnesty International has accused China of suppressing lawyers who become involved in politically sensitive cases.

It says many have been threatened with suspension or criminal charges.

If these measures fail, the lawyers can face detention - or even just disappear, it says.

Amnesty says the treatment of lawyers has worsened in recent months, after calls in China for Middle East-style protests.

Read the rest of this post...

Wisconsin: GOP food fight in recall election against Democratic Senator

In a pair of stories, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tells one tale.

According to this story, we find that a GOP Assembly lawmaker wants to be placed on the Senate recall ballot. He had originally petitioned (as in, "collected petition signatures for") the Senate seat, but had fallen short of the number of ballots needed (my emphasis throughout):

A GOP Assembly lawmaker is suing to be placed on the ballot in a recall election against a Democratic senator.

In a filing in Dane County Circuit Court, Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette) said the state Government Accountability Board wrongly took him off the ballot in the recall election for Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) in the 30th Senate District. ... The accountability board took Nygren off the ballot Monday after finding that he fell just short of collecting enough valid nominating signatures. The board found Nygren collected only 398 valid signatures, and 400 are needed.

The accountability board had initially found that Nygren had submitted 424 qualifying signatures from voters. But after a number of signatures were challenged by Democrats, the accountability board found that 26 of those were invalid.

That seems a low number to me, 400. I could get 400 signatures within a 12-block radius of my place, but I live downtown. Six percent invalid signatures out of a set that could be laid out on a decent-sized kitchen table seems like pretty sloppy sig-wrangling, but maybe they do things differently at his house.

So that's interesting, but ... why? Isn't there a Republican already in the race? Yep, there is:

Hansen is currently scheduled for a July 19 contest with GOP challenger David VanderLeest, who organized the recall against Hansen.

And that's where the Journal Sentinel comes through with a second story:

A GOP candidate from Green Bay running in a Senate recall race has been convicted of two misdemeanor counts, arrested on other occasions, and now faces another probe by the Oconto County Sheriff's Department.

The incidents involving David VanderLeest, which were brought forward by Democrats on Wednesday, stem from domestic violence allegations. VanderLeest, 34, helped organize the recall against Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) and is the only Republican on the ballot challenging Hansen in the July 19 election.

And now we know. Sounds like your typical authoritarian assault situation, not too different from others I could mention. More on VanderLeest:

VanderLeest ... said the case stemmed from a restraining order sought by his ex-wife in April. ... VanderLeest, a Green Bay wind farm developer with a history of other legal troubles, was convicted of two misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges in 2007 as part of a plea deal in Brown County Circuit Court. Also Wednesday, Democrats pointed to at least two other times - in 2006 and 2009 - when VanderLeest was arrested on domestic abuse allegations involving his ex-wife but was not convicted.

His former wife also obtained restraining orders against him in 2005 and again in 2006. VanderLeest, who is not a lawyer, represented himself in the court cases.

As part of the 2007 plea deal, VanderLeest avoided a felony charge of intimidating a witness and misdemeanor battery and bail-jumping charges. VanderLeest entered an Alford plea, which means he maintained his innocence but acknowledged there was enough evidence to convict him.

Those "other legal troubles" are no walk in the park — they involve VanderLeest's real estate company skipping out on loans and unpaid fines for building code violations, along with the domestic assault charges. But VanderLeest has the perfect explanation:

"I represent the average person who's struggling," he said.

As do we all.

This leaves Green Bay matters in a bit of a mess. According to the AP, arguments in Nygren's suit will be heard Friday. If he fails, an election between Hansen and VanderLeest will be held July 19.

But if Nygren is successful, there will be a Republican primary on that date, with the inter-party final set for August 16. I can't find polling for the race, but you can help out Dave Hansen by contributing and helping get out the vote.

And in other Green Bay news, Lambeau Field officials would like to know if the state's new concealed-carry gun law applies to them — seriously.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Why not lower all mortgage rates to lowest level, help consumers and pump prime economy all at once?

This comes from a blog post last fall, that I never saw, but it's just as topical today.  Why doesn't the President just mandate that every home mortgage in the country be reduced to the lowest rate available, freeing up hundreds, if not thousands, of dollar a month for most homeowners?

And let the GOP complain.  Let them tell some couple that they're not going to save $1000 a month on their mortgage because the Republican party is owned by the banks.  I don't know the feasibility of actually being able to pull this off, but it's the very definition of "bold" and "change":

There actually is a solution to the foreclosure mess which would go a long way to solving the underlying mortgage mess, increase consumer spending, cut tens of billions from the deficit and in all probability be the ultimate October Surprise that retains Democratic control of Congress and probably would reelect the President in 2012. It could be done with the combined power and authority of the Executive Branch in conjunction with the Federal Reserve.

It is the automatic refinancing of all outstanding mortgages to the currently available interest rates. The Fed has pushed down interest rates as low as they can – to almost zero between banks and to 4.25% for 30 year loans as of today. That should be resulting in a vast wave of refinancing – people bringing their 6%, 7% or 8% loans down to 4.25% -- unleashing a large effective increase in consumer spending.

Doing this automatic mortgage interest rate reset would actually be a great help to the Federal Budget. The Mortgage Home Interest Deduction is by far the largest itemized deduction on personal income taxes. The Urban Institute calculates it as $131 billion in forgone revenue a year. So if home interest was suddenly 40% less overall, the Treasury would take in additional $40 billion per year.

The foreclosure document crisis could be used as the carrot and stick to get the banks to reduce these interest charges. Refinancing everyone would produce a set of good clean documents, that hopefully the financial institutions could keep track of going forward. The President could also use his Pardon Power to free those who agree to these terms from the threat of civil or criminal prosecution. Finally for those who don’t agree, in addition to the threat of criminal prosecution, they could be cut off from future sale of their mortgages to Fannie and Freddie, which puts them effectively out of the mortgage business. And if that isn’t enough, the Fed can shut their access to the zero percent money window.

All of this can be done without Congressional action. It simply requires the act of will on the part of the Administration and to a lesser extent the Bernanke and the Federal Reserve (which is looking for new ways to help the economy now that interest rates can’t decline any further.)

Although, of course, the jolt it would give the economy and the help on the deficit are the most important things. But consider the political impact – after a day of high level meetings with Bernanke and various agency heads and perhaps bank heads – Obama announces this program from the Oval Office in a prime time address. And with those words, every homeowner would know that this President had significantly reduced their mortgage payments. (Someone owing $400K with a 7.25% mortgage would save a thousand dollars a month). Let the Republicans rail against it and call it an Election stunt. This would be the change that we could believe in.

Read the rest of this post...

Poll: 39% see US in state of permanent decline

Without changes to the system, it's hard to not be in the 39% camp. I'd like to think that it's not that bad but watching the Republicans show no willingness to have a serious discussion about taxes to solve very real problems, I can't see where there's much hope. Sadly, many of us voted for change yet all we've seen (from both sides) is more of the same, on steroids. The political class - again, both sides - have failed us badly.

Thirty-nine percent of those surveyed for a New York Times/CBS News poll released late Wednesday say they see the economy headed on a downward path - significantly worse than when the question was last asked in October and 28 percent of Americans said the economy was in permanent decline.

At the same time, fewer Americans see the economy as having the potential to eventually recover, with 57 percent of those surveyed saying they think things will, in time, be better. That’s down from 68 percent in October.

As the economy continues to sputter in the eyes of many Americans, President Barack Obama’s approval rating is at 47 percent and his disapproval is at 44 percent. In May, surging in the aftermath of the killing of Osama bin Laden, Obama’s approval rating in the same poll was 57 percent and his disapproval was 37 percent.

Ezra Klein has an interesting read over at Bloomberg today on the subject of old habits blocking reform. Read the rest of this post...

Social prejudice is bad for the economy

Interesting.

The report "Does Prejudice Prejudice Growth?" by UBS economist Paul Donovan compared data on competitiveness from the World Economic Forum and survey evidence of prejudice from the World Values Study Group.

The report found that there was a strong correlation between social inclusion, competitiveness and economic development, and argued that "prejudice, in whatever form – including racism, sexism, homophobia, religious intolerance – irrationally destroys the value of human capital."

While prejudice is something that rarely features in investment decisions, the destruction of human capital through social prejudice in the 21st Century is at least as significant as that the destruction of physical capital wrought by the Luddites, the anti-technology groups who sabotaged machinery during the industrial revolution, Donovan wrote.

Read the rest of this post...

The media’s bias against health care reform

Great piece by Steven Benen on how the media covers health care reform. Here Steve looks at how they're currently covering the court cases challenging the constitutionality of health care reform. As Steve notes, the media - all of it - is consistently publishing "health care reform stuck down" news on its front page, while relegating "health care reform wins in court" news to its lesser pages.

Washington Post
* 6th Circuit ruling (upholding the ACA): article on page A5, 1053 words
* Steeh ruling (upholding the ACA): article on page A2, 607 words
* Moon ruling (upholding the ACA): article on page B5, 507 words
* Hudson ruling (against the ACA): article on page A1, 1624 words
* Vinson ruling (against the ACA): article on page A1, 1176 words
* Kessler ruling (upholding the ACA): no article, zero words

New York Times
* 6th Circuit ruling (upholding the ACA): article on page A15, 853 words
* Steeh ruling (upholding the ACA): article on page A15, 416 words
* Moon ruling (upholding the ACA): article on page A24, 335 words
* Hudson ruling (against the ACA): article on page A1, 1320 words
* Vinson ruling (against the ACA): article on page A1, 1192 words
* Kessler ruling (upholding the ACA): article on page A14, 488 words

Associated Press
* 6th Circuit ruling (upholding the ACA): one piece, 832 words
* Steeh ruling (upholding the ACA): one piece, 474 words
* Moon ruling (upholding the ACA): one piece, 375 words
* Hudson ruling (against the ACA): one piece, 915 words
* Vinson ruling (against the ACA): one piece, 1164 words
* Kessler ruling (upholding the ACA): one piece, 595 words

Politico
* 6th Circuit ruling (upholding the ACA): one piece, 940 words
* Steeh ruling (upholding the ACA): one piece, 830 words
* Moon ruling (upholding the ACA): one piece, 535 words
* Hudson ruling (against the ACA): three pieces, 2734 words
* Vinson ruling (against the ACA): four pieces, 3437 words
* Kessler ruling (upholding the ACA): one piece, 702 words

My mom says she remembers seeing Walter Cronkite saying "the cat that doesn't get stuck in the tree isn't news" (or something to that effect). And she/he is right. Health care reform survives to another day is good news. Health care reform struck down is big news. Controversy is simply bigger news. But... the media has a job to balance their coverage. They can't always publicize cases where one side loses and downplay cases where that same side wins.

Steve had already done this analysis once before, in February. And it clearly didn't get through to the media. Read the rest of this post...

IMF: US should pass debt ceiling and delay spending cuts/tax increases

This is something that those of us who took Econ 101 already knew. You don't depress demand in a sickly economy. I still think the President erred by embracing the GOP's deficit talk only a year after the initial stimulus. He should have defended the stimulus much more strongly and regularly, explained that the deficit will have to wait until Americans are working again - and that any Econ 101 student knows this. Now we, and he, are trapped in a negotiation that seems destined to end in either bad or worse.

If the President is truly putting the country first, and saying to hell with politics, and that's the reason he's embracing the deficit talk and talks, then he should have never embraced the GOP meme on the deficit in the first place - or, at the very least he should have proposed spending cuts and tax increases that don't kick in for several years until the economy is back on its feet.

And politically speaking, it's hard to imagine how any deficit deal's impact on the electorate will offset the depressing effect such a deal will have on the economy.  And unlike policy wonks living in the only city in America where the economy seems to be truly recovering, people vote their jobs first.  And I suspect the GOP is counting on that. Read the rest of this post...

Time Magazine Editor, Mark Halperin, called Obama "a dick" on MSNBC; suspended

UPDATE: Halperin has been suspended indefinitely. MSNBC issued a statement:

Statement from MSNBC:
Mark Halperin's comments this morning were completely inappropriate and nacceptable. We apologize to the President, The White House and all of our viewers. We strive for a high level of discourse and comments like these have no place on our air. Therefore, Mark will be suspended indefinitely from his role as an analyst.

Statement from Mark Halperin:
I completely agree with everything in MSNBC’s statement about my remark. I believe that the step they are taking in response is totally appropriate. Again, I want to offer a heartfelt and profound apology to the President, to my MSNBC colleagues, and to the viewers. My remark was unacceptable, and I deeply regret it.

Mark Halperin is one of the most, if not the most, painful of the pundits. He thinks he determines conventional wisdom for the Villagers. To most of us, it seemed like Obama finally spoke forcefully about the dangerous games the GOPers are playing with our economy. Today, Halperin made it clear he thought the President was too mean to the GOPers yesterday:

While discussing President Obama's Wednesday press briefing on "Morning Joe," Mark Halperin made a gaffe about President Obama, calling him "a d*ck."

Halperin, a senior political analyst for MSNBC, first asked host Joe Scarborough, "Are we on the seven second delay?" implying that he wanted to speak freely but not have his comments broadcasted.

Scarborough and co-host Mike Brzezinski assured Halperin that he could speak freely and anticipated a controversial remark. Halperin said:

"I thought he was a dick yesterday."

Scarborough was in disbelief over Halperin's comment and quickly directed his attention off-camera, saying, "Delay that. Delay that. What are you doing?"

If Halperin thinks Obama was a dick, Obama must be doing something right.

Now, watch the Villagers rally around Halperin. He's one of them -- and they stick together. The video is below -- and this analysis from Steve Benen nails it:

There are a couple of angles to keep in mind here. The first is that Halperin’s credibility as an objective observer of political events has long been dubious, at best, but this morning’s little stunt should remove all doubt. In candor, I don’t much care that Halperin sides with the right over the left, and takes cheap shots at Democrats. I care that Halperin is presented to the public as a neutral, even-handed expert, when that’s plainly not the case.

To this extent, the “dick” comment only helps bring an end to a thin pretense.

The other point that’s worth remembering is the larger dynamic. Forget Halperin’s choice of words, and instead consider the argument he and his “Morning Joe” colleagues were pressing. They were annoyed, apparently, because President Obama wasn’t docile and conciliatory during his press conference. He showed some backbone, and this seems to have troubled the political establishment to no end.

If the president stays cool, he’s an emotionless Mr. Spock. If the president shows some fire in the belly, he’s “a dick.”

What passes for mainstream political punditry in 2011 is too often a national embarrassment.

Watch the leading pundit expose himself:
Read the rest of this post...

For GOPers, taxes trump everything, including national defense

I think we need to cut the defense budget and can do that without harming our national security. But, GOPers usually wail and scream over defense cuts. But, they're now willing to accept defense cuts in order to perserve tax loopholes for billionaires. Of course, we should do both. From The Hill:

Defense cuts proposed by the White House are unlikely to keep a debt-ceiling deal from passing Congress, sources say.

As few as 30 House Republicans would likely consider voting against a debt-ceiling deal that cuts $300 billion from security spending, according to a GOP aide.

The relatively small bloc of opposition to the level of defense cuts floated by the White House suggests the GOP’s traditional opposition to reducing military spending has taken a backseat to warding off tax increases.

“Robust defense spending and lower taxes have been two hallmarks of the Republican Party for years,” one former GOP House staffer said. “And those two things are going to be in direct competition with one another” in the debt talks.

Taxes win, clearly.

Bush should have raised taxes to fund our war efforts. He definitely should not cut them further back in 2003 when we were engaged in two wars. The GOPers put their money concerns over national security then, too.

Now, as Greg Sargent points out, it's tax breaks for corporate jets over funding for things like military jets.

Again, we need to do both: cut defense spending and raise taxes. But, for GOPers, this proves their fealty to billionaires. Read the rest of this post...

Bahrain king proposes human rights review

Surprising and a move in the right direction. Al Jazeera:

"We still need to look at what happened to know all the details of February and March and evaluate those events as they really were," al-Khalifa said, speaking at an extraordinary cabinet session on Wednesday.

The king said that the decision had been taken after consultations with the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, and that the committee would "be formed from internationally reputable figures well-versed in international human rights law".

He said that no member of the Bahraini government or anyone who was part of the "domestic political arena" would be a part of the committee.

"The committee will carry out its tasks and responsibilities, as defined after consultation with the members themselves in absolute independence without any intervention of any form, to present its report to me to take the actions necessary," he said.

Read the rest of this post...

Greece approves austerity plan as protests continue

From a distance (and perhaps on the ground as well) it looks like a lot of pain and stress for something that will fail anyway. Fewer and fewer people actually believe that Greece will be able to pay off the new bailout and stay in the eurozone. Default won't be a great ride either but why saddle everyone with debt only to satisfy the banks? The Guardian:

But no sooner had the MPs cast their ballots and European Union leaders had welcomed the "landmark" vote, the real drama began outside parliament where another approach to democracy saw protesters battle with riot police. The clashes continued into the early hours as MPs return to parliament today to vote on a law that will speed the austerity measures through parliament.

Teargas filled the air and Syntagma Square, the nerve centre of Greece's new resistance movement, descended into chaos. Within minutes, the plaza resembled a warzone. The detritus of battle lay everywhere with burning barricades, smashed pavements, shattered masonry, looted shops and destroyed kiosks.

"Dangerous amounts of teargas are being used to terrorise people," communist MP Athanasios Pafilis said as parliament wrapped up two days of debate on the debt-reduction measures. "It's an intolerable situation ... what we are seeing is chemical warfare and it has to stop."

Read the rest of this post...

VIDEO: Kitten afraid to leave couch

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