IRS and Social Security to stop printing refund checks, go electronic

It's almost a surprise that they still do checks now. How often do most people even visit their bank in person? Processing payments should be less expensive for everyone, not to mention much less of a hassle. There may be some people who prefer physical checks and that should still remain an option for certain exceptions, but wouldn't most people prefer the ease of electronic payments? Read the rest of this post...

Labour Lord suspended for putting price on Obama's head

Britain is, of course, a famously progressive country. We still have a Parliamentary system that allows members of the Aristocracy directly to influence legislation because a distant ancestor was prepared to do something for a King that his wife could not contemplate. The system has been "modernised" by allowing the political parties to nominate so-called "Life Peers". The nominees are given the title "Lord" or "Lady" but are not able to pass the title on to their children.That may all sound weird, but not half as weird as what is to come.

One of the Labour Party's working peers is Lord Nazir Ahmed. He has close connections with Pakistan and has recently been visiting. According to a report in the Express Tribune he has been upset by the US offering a bounty on Hafiz Saeed.

Saeed is Head of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). LeT is alleged to have been behind the Mumbai massacre, and to have links with both Al-Qaeda and the ISI (the troubled Pakistani intelligence service). Whether you think there is anything in those allegations likely depends on the sources you prefer.
Here's more from Lord Nazir:

Lord Nazir said that the bounty [the US] placed on Saeed was an insult to all Muslims and by doing so President Obama has challenged the dignity of the Muslim Ummah.

"If the US can announce a reward of $10 million for the captor of Hafiz Saeed, I can announce a bounty of 10 million pounds on President Obama and his predecessor George Bush,” Lord Nazir said, adding that he would arrange the bounty at any cost even if he was left with the option of selling all his personal assets, including his house."

The Labour Party, perhaps understandably, has proven less than delighted at the thought that one of its most prominent members is putting a price on US Presidential heads. The BBC is now reporting that Lord Nazir has been suspended.

Lord Nazir denies offering the bounty. He says he merely wants to see George W. Bush and his own former party leader, Tony Blair, on trial for war crimes:

Asked about the reported comments, he said: ... "I did not offer a bounty. I said that there have been war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan and those people who have got strong allegations against them - George W Bush and Tony Blair have been involved in illegal wars and should be brought to justice."

Perhaps. Read the rest of this post...

Does Jack Welch hear voices or is he just a Teabagger?

Pretty much every time former GE CEO Jack Welch is on CNBC it's strange, but his most recent visit was beyond nuts.  If one were to believe Welch, President Obama would be the most daring socialist infiltrator with dictatorship tendencies that ever lived in the US.

Like the Teabaggers, Welch seems to believe that Obama has an enemies list, and that the President is only about dividing the country. (This criticism was curiously absent during the Bush years.)

Welch continues his rant with the ever-popular (in the Teabagging world) remarks about "the peoples republic of Massachusetts" - a state Welch hates so much that he lives there. He also criticizes Romney for his "lack of authenticity," but can overlook that since he's a great leader. The two share a love for closing down factories and destroying the livelihood of middle class workers.

One day it would be a pleasant surprise to hear an extremist such as Welch show an ounce of concern for the middle class. Don't hold your breath though, because he's much too interested in hobnobbing with his friends in the 1%. This is the man who showered himself with gifts and perks while at GE, including his own retirement, as if GE never grew before or after it was graced with his presence.

Meet the Obama that doesn't exist, courtesy of Jack Welch:

“It was the insurance executives in health care. It was the bankers in the collapse. It was the oil companies as oil prices go up. It was Congress if things didn’t go the way he wanted. And recently it’s been the Supreme Court,” he said.

“He’s got an enemies list that would make Richard Nixon proud.”

Welch, who helmed GE for 21 years and founded the Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University, penned an op-ed article for Reuters with wife Suzy Welch this week in which he tackled the idea of Obama’s enemies list.

“Surely his supporters must think this particular tactic is effective, but there can be no denying that the country is more polarized than when Obama took office,” Welch wrote, making a case for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

More polarized than the days of "you're either with us or against us"? Hmmm. Read the rest of this post...

Video: Vacuuming the dog

Apparently it helps to get the dog stone drunk first.  Seriously, my dog tolerated the vacuum cleaner near her, not on her, when she was a puppy.  Now she runs for the heavens.

Read the rest of this post...

Fred Hiatt is Atrios' "Wanker of the Decade," 1st runner-up

This is not only a great pick for this award, it's also an education in our sometime-topic — how to read the media.

First, the "great pick" — this award goes to the Fred Hiatt for collecting the "world['s] greatest gaggle of wankers" — the whole Washington Post editorial page (my emphasis):

Krauthammer. Broder. Hoagland. Kristol. Novak. Cohen. Lane. Cupp. Thiessen. Kurtz. Samuelson. Diehl. Kelly. Noonan. Will. Ignatius. Parker. Marcus. Milbank. Gerson.

Some of these people are no longer with us, and I have no idea which ones Hiatt is really responsible for, but I'm a lazy blogger so I'll just throw them all in his column. Imagine assembling this collection of horrors, and being proud of it. ... It's an award for individual achievement in wanking, and an award for the highest achievement in group wanking. Congratulations, Fred!

But do not miss this, students of media. Great catch by Atrios:

Some years back I had a wee epiphany when I realized that, for the most part, we aren't supposed to to read the WaPo editorial page. It isn't actually for us. It's a means for certain elites to send messages to each other, a way for the "Gang Of 500" to take their battles public, to signal their interests and priorities. There are some exceptions to this, some columnists who write for readers, but for the most part it's simply a conversation by and for elites. ... On his page is where the Washington Consensus is defended daily, truth be damned.

I've heard it said (by Sam Seder I think) that Morning Joe is not for you either; it's the first conversation the Beltway has with itself. Very nice epiphany, a tad more than "wee" in my humble etc.

Do read; these are just snippets. Atrios actually "writes long" this time — well, long for him. Six whole paragraphs (seven if you count the one with two words in it).

I can't wait for the Wanker Crown to grace the winning head. Whose will it be? Has Bush II been listed yet? Or his Sicilian Kingmaker?

GP

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

How the Buffett rule could expose the GOP's tax cut lie

With the economy beginning to improve and the electorate showing no interest in the GOP war on contraception, tax cuts and the deficit are the only issues left for the GOP to fight on. Kos has a great run down of Washington punditry on the looming tax fight.

Unsurprisingly absent from the establishment account is the rather obvious fact that reducing taxes will reduce revenues, the same way tax cuts reduced revenues under Reagan and Bushes I and II, and that further tax cuts will only make the budget problem worse. This is only to be expected from people who seem believe that policies are like neckties: The candidate can change them as often as he likes as they serve no purpose other than decoration.

For an example of the establishment discourse on the budget, this piece by Candy Crowley at CNN is typical. We are told that the $50 billion raised by the Buffett rule will do little to balance the budget, but the fact that the GOP House proposal to lower the corporate tax by 20% would be a budget buster goes without mention.

The current fight over the Buffett rule is being seen as a preliminary skirmish to the real fight over extending the Bush tax cuts. There we can expect the GOP to stage a repeat of their earlier ultimatum: No extension of the tax cuts for the 99% unless the 1% get theirs. The GOP is the party of the 1% and for the 1%. The whole point of the Bush tax cuts was that they were a shell game in which the 1% would take enormous tax cuts, then return the budget to a massive deficit that could only be funded by stealing your pension and your Medicare.

And so we come to the hidden genius of the Buffett rule.  With the Buffett rule in place, the Koch Brothers and Mitt Romneys of the world will be paying a tax rate of 30% on their income above $1 million no matter what is done to change the tax code for the not-so wealthy. The only way to deliver tax cuts for the Romney class would be to carve exceptions in the Buffett rule, and that would call the lie to the usual claim that tax cuts for Romney were really intended to help 'small businesses'.

The Buffett rule does not look like it will pass this year, but there is a very real chance that the Democrats might be able to pass something similar in the next Congress. They would first have to take back control of the US House, of course, but that is pretty much a precondition for anything constructive or worthwhile being achieved. Once passed, the Buffett rule would be very difficult to repeal. Read the rest of this post...

Why is the US healthcare system so cruel?

I'm reminded once again just how nasty and cruel the US healthcare system is. On Friday, my mother in law was rushed to the hospital here in Paris following a stroke. It's been a rough weekend for the family because her condition is so serious. Fortunately she was sent to the top hospital in Paris for this condition so she is in the best possible hands.

My father in law is a mathematician and generally the most logical and calm person that I know. Under these circumstances though, he's been struggling with the pain of wanting to help his wife of nearly 50 years. It's been difficult to say the least. What's noticeably absent from this process is worrying about fighting with his insurance company. The focus is completely on the patient and trying to make her comfortable and healthy. A few years ago when Jojo and I were taking care of an elderly friend here, it was the same.

I then compare this to what I witnessed in the US when my father was dying from poor cancer treatment. (I wrote this post comparing the two systems back in 2007.) My mother was a complete emotional disaster from both worrying about her husband and also trying to navigate the insurance coverage. As exhausting as it was trying to care for my father and hoping that his condition would improve, it was even more exhausting fighting over payment coverage. Both my mother and father always worried that his cancer treatment would bankrupt them.

Perhaps I'm preaching to the choir with this but really, the US healthcare system is about as mean spirited and nasty as I've ever seen. We allow the insurance and pharmaceutical industries to get away with almost whatever they want. We have too many people in the political class - mostly Republicans, but too many Democrats - that accept and allow this. It's all about campaign money and few people in Washington are willing to make the hard choices to stand up for regular Americans.

For the Dick Cheneys of the US, the healthcare system is fantastic. There's no question that the US is full of great doctors and world class medical care. The problem is, we don't call them the 1% for nothing and most of us are not part of that world. For the 99%, it's a struggle. How is it that in such a great and rich country like the US, we can't just focus on patients, but have to be so stressed about how badly we're going to be shafted by our insurance company?

Will Obamacare help make this problem less stressful? Like everyone else I don't know. But keeping the system as it stands today (or God forbid, moving backwards) is not an acceptable option. We have to start improving the healthcare system and start treating our own people with compassion - real compassion, not GOP compassion - if we're to remain a serious country. Americans deserve better than what exists today. Read the rest of this post...

Cenk blasts CNN for forcing Hilary Rosen to apologize—again

I've been on both sides of the Hilary Rosen affair for a very good reason — there are two sides. Last time I wrote about Rosen the not-lobbyist and all that implies.

But I don't want to leave it there. I'm appalled at the "Don't Hurt Me" Dems and their need to sell out their own, even when their own are right. And on this issue, Hilary Rosen is right.

Here's Cenk Uygur making this point, after Wolf Blitzer did the Beltway deed and broderized Hilary Rosen, on camera and to her face.

Via Crooks and Liars; watch:



As Ana Kasparian says (at 2:00):

The Republicans always paint Democrats as being weak, and this is a perfect example of that.

The run of Obama administration bus-tossings (sorry, apologies) is gathered into one cringe-making string at 1:15 in the clip. Amazing — we're ruled by a party that fights and a party that says "Don't hurt me."

Blitzer's performance starts at 5:12. "Look into the camera and talk to her [Ann Romney]" he says to Hilary Rosen. Rosen's reaction is pathetic, but Blitzer's provocation is beyond the bad word that's rolling through my mind. You have to watch to see just how *** he is.

Here's a thought — Let's fix the "Don't Hurt Me" party, shall we? As Princess Leia (might have) said, "It's our only hope."

GP

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

Spain's king Juan Carlos is a cowardly elephant hunter

Much like the lowlife CEO of GoDaddy, Juan Carlos also likes to pay big money to kill elephants in Africa. I am admittedly not a hunter but generally have no issue with people hunting what they eat. Killing one of the "Big Five" in Africa these days is mostly the domain of the ultra rich who spend tens of thousands of dollars to kill.

I traveled through Southern Africa and visited dozens of game parks throughout the region. Along the way I bumped into a number of these hunters and heard about the industry from locals. It's sickening. Perhaps the most disgusting story was how they used old lions that were sold off from zoos because they were in bad shape and easier to kill. If the hunter was a bad shot, the guides would drug the animals so they were even easier to kill.

We really don't know how good of a shot Juan Carlos may be, but what is certain is that this type of hunting is known for his type taking advantage of local communities who are need of money. When you have kings money, it's easy to throw around and participate in the seediest of seedy industries. Even worse, why is the king throwing around such cash on such a stupid event during this economic crisis in Spain? It's not macho, it's cowardly and abusive. Read the rest of this post...

Romney says he may get rid of HUD

The man with multiple houses doesn't think housing is important. Priceless. Read the rest of this post...

Mitt Romney thinks his wife lacks "dignity"?

Mitt Romney said this past January that he thinks stay at home moms taking care of small children are lacking in dignity since they're not working real jobs.

Romney was talking about moms on welfare, but he might as well been talking about Martians, it doesn't matter - his point was that stay at home moms don't have real jobs, or at the very least their jobs aren't as good as the jobs of women working paid jobs in the workplace, and that stay at home moms don't have the same level of dignity of women who with paying jobs in the workplace.

Ouch.

What Mitt Romney said this past January is far worse than even the worst interpretation of what Hilary Rosen said this past week.

Hilary was questioning whether stay at home moms were intimately familiar with the ins and outs of the paying workplace. Mitt Romney was suggesting that women who stay at home taking care of their kids aren't working real jobs, and therefore don't have the dignity of women with "real" jobs.

Here's what Mitt Romney said, followed by the video.

"I said, for instance, that even if you have a child two years of age, you need to go to work... I want individuals to have the dignity of work."

In other words, if you're a mom at home taking care of a child two years of age, you're not "working," and you don't have "the dignity of work."

And here's the video via Chris Hayes, who unearthed the quote:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Romney knows he's in trouble on this. You should read the convoluted answer non-answer he gave to the Huffington Post after he was confronted with his "dignity" quote from January.

I think Mitt Romney owes his wife, and every stay at home mom in the country, an apology for questioning their work and their dignity. Read the rest of this post...

UN observers arrive in Syria as cease fire falters

The shelling of civilian targets hasn't stopped but maybe this next round of outside observers will help more than the initial round. With Assad's troops bombing Homs (again) he continues to show little regard for international authority. With friends like Russia, Syria knows that they have the flexibility needed to ignore world outrage. More from Al Jazeera. Read the rest of this post...