Meteorite not worth crap

Sorry, but I couldn't miss this opportunity to provide a scatological joke for Joelle, who lives for bad humor like this. In South Africa you can buy elephant dung so I suppose I could see a market for dinosaur dung.

Some dinosaur dung was snapped up at auction in New York even as a 4.5 billion year old meteorite which was supposed to top the sale went unsold.

NOTE FROM JOHN: I know a thing or two about petrified dinosaur crap, as I own some. Seriously. It's cool stuff. That's mine to the left. Well, my petrified dinosaur crap, that is... Read the rest of this post...

457,000 construction jobs lost since September 2006

Wow, that's a brutal figure. Plenty of people are saying that we have hit the bottom and as great as that would be, I don't see it.

457,000. That’s the number of construction jobs that have been lost since the sector peaked in September of 2006.

What’s interesting to me about this number is that at the beginning of the downturn in housing we didn’t see a huge drop in construction jobs, primarily because workers moved from residential into commercial.

Now that commercial is slowing as well, construction workers are falling out of jobs like flies. And they’re not the only ones. Big surprise furniture manufacturing jobs are falling as well.

Read the rest of this post...

VIDEO: McCain caught lying to media about Iraq war being for oil (he also suggested that we abandon Israel)

McCain caused quite a stir earlier today when he said that the Iraq war just about oil, and that if we could become energy independent we'd never have to send troops to the Middle East ever again. Now McCain is lying, claiming that he was referring to the FIRST Gulf War being about oil, not the current one. Only problem, the transcript and video show quite clearly that McCain was talking about the current Iraq war and not the Gulf War.

(Also, there's the issue of McCain having just abandoned Israel - I'll address that further down, but the media seems to have totally missed that bombshell.)

Here's the transcript, the video is next:

Senator Obama and Senator Clinton want to set a date for withdraw. That's what they want to do is get everybody out. I believe that would lead to catastrophe and chaos and that we would have the whole region including the whole region and the country in such turmoil that we would be required to come back to the region. And I just want to promise you this. My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will - that will then prevent us - that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.

Now here's McCain's subsequent explanation of how he didn't mean what he just said:

"No, no, I was talking about that we had fought the Gulf War for several reasons," McCain told reporters.

First off, buh bye Israel. McCain just wrote you off. Yep, no more American soldiers in Middle East wars if we can just get ourselves off of foreign oil. So you mean if Iran nukes Tel Aviv we're not getting involved? Nope, McCain said no more American soldiers. So much for defending Israel. Kind of a massive story the media missed here.

Second, McCain clearly says that Obama and Clinton want to set a withdrawal date from the war in question. Is he now claiming that he meant Obama and Clinton want to set a withdrawal for the first Gulf War that concluded 17 years ago? I seriously think McCain isn't all there anymore. Why does the media accept these things? Because he's nice (which he's not, but that's another story)?

I'm sorry to say but you slow down in your 70s. You start confusing things, forgetting things. Just because the media thinks he's a nice man doesn't mean old age isn't kicking in. This isn't the first time he's confused an issue recently. He's getting old. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Carmela Blogging

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Consumer bankruptcies up 48%

Their big mistake was not being worth billions and having connections to the highest levels of Congress and the Administration. If they did, they too would receive billions upon billions and nobody would ask questions and everyone could live today as they did yesterday. Polite company doesn't ask uncomfortable questions about money. Especially when it's not even theirs to shovel out. What do the Democrats have to say for themselves now? They all too easily allowed the banks to get their bankruptcy law and then bailed out the damned banks without question.

Bankruptcy filings by U.S. consumers jumped 47.7 percent in April from one year ago as families cope with fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis, the American Bankruptcy Institute said.

The 92,291 bankruptcy filings in April also marked an increase of 7 percent from March, the non-partisan institute said.

Read the rest of this post...

Only 20,000 jobs lost in April - market prepares to celebrate

It is definitely good news that the US only lost 20,000 jobs last month. It's not quite celebration material but in this market, Wall Street will take anything. If only they reacted so positively when Americans had real extra cash in their pockets from jobs and not temporary (gimmick) incentives but then again, when is the last time we saw such growth in the middle class? Read the rest of this post...

Sadr continues to consolidate power in Iraq

Over at the Washington Independent, reporter Spencer Ackerman has been writing, among other things, a series on counterinsurgency. Today he takes a particularly interesting approach to the subject, writing about how the rise of Shia Islamist leader Muqtada al-Sadr in Iraq has been largely due to Sadrists adopting the type of approach lauded by counterinsurgency doctrine. The thing about counterinsurgency is that it's really just a military way of saying that *somebody* has to provide government-type services -- security, education, health, economic, etc -- and in times of conflict, whichever group can do that tends to gain legitimacy and support. In Iraq, several parties have tried to do this with varying success, and Sadr has been among the most effective. As Ackerman explains,

The principles of counterinsurgency are diverse, but they could be summed up as methods of warfare used to draw a civilian population's political and personal allegiance away from a guerrilla force. A counterinsurgent force seeks to coordinate military and civilian methods to offer both material and ideological incentives to a population so it will support a government and reject that government's enemies.

Currently, the U.S. military and its civilian associates have launched a "population protection" strategy to defend Baghdad residents against sectarian and criminal gangs; to promote competent and responsible governance at the provincial as well as national levels; to jump start commerce; and to provide social services like education health care and sanitation. But in the areas under his control, Sadr provides all these things -- and does so better than the Iraqi government.

And rather than recognize these facts as they are, the US seems to vacillate between condescending to Sadrists in an attempt to placate them and openly trying to eradicate the group. We underestimate the power of popular movements to our own peril, and while I find many of Sadr's beliefs and goals extraordinarily distasteful, he's not leaving the picture anytime soon. Read the rest of this post...

Update on Kantor brouhaha

ABC's Jake Tapper reports that when the movie "The War Room" came out, many people at the time heard the clip in question to be Kantor dissing Indiana voters by saying "those people are shit" (though there's no mention of the second comment that some heard as a far worse slur, while Kantor and the director of the film deny it).

It's all a mess, though I must say when "The War Room" came out other folks interpreted Kantor to be impugning Indiana residents.

In The Washington Post's review of the film in 1993, critic Desson Howe referred to "a Mickey Kantor comment about the people of Indiana (when it looks as though Clinton's ahead in Dan Quayle's state)."

And a 1995 story in the Sydney Morning Herald said that "As for the good folk of Indiana, they are still recovering from the 1993 documentary War Room, which revealed the grim truth behind the Clinton election campaign. It showed Mr Kantor bursting in on election night to tell other campaign staffers that incredibly, Mr Clinton was doing well even in Republican Indiana. 'And those people are s---!' he declared breathlessly."

More on this brouhaha here. Read the rest of this post...

US military chief seems to question wisdom of having elections, or he's campaigning for McCain

It's hard to read this in a good way. Navy Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in yesterday's Washington Post that the elections this year would make us vulnerable. It's a very weird quote, and one that a military officer in a country that isn't a banana republic probably shouldn't be making.

The nation's top military officer warned yesterday that the transition to a new American president will mark a "time of vulnerability" as the United States fights two wars, and he said military leaders are already actively preparing for the changing of the guard.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, said the U.S. political transition will be "extraordinarily challenging," particularly as the military is engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan and faces interference in both countries from Iran.

Okay, first off, sounds a little bit like he's questioning the fact that we're having elections. This strikes me as inappropriate coming for the uniformed military, or anyone else for that matter. It also sounds like he's cranking up the "scary" in order to help the Republicans win the elections. That's just as inappropriate from a member of our military. Then he said the following:

Offering an unusual insight into how senior military leaders are anticipating the transition to a new president, Mullen said he is continually thinking about how military decisions taken today will play out under a new administration.

"There are very few either briefings or meetings that I'm in that I'm not thinking about 'How does what we're talking about right now transition to next spring?' " Mullen said. He said U.S. commanders in regions overseas, as well as chiefs of the different services, are having similar discussions.

The transition is unlikely to be smooth, predicted Mullen, who assumed his position seven months ago for a two-year term. He said he hopes to offer a stabilizing influence as a military leader who will bridge two administrations.

Gee, you think? You just told all of your men and women that our elections are a "vulnerability" and that the transition won't be smooth - and now you think it might not go smoothly? Perhaps expressing a little confidence in our democracy might be a better lesson to give our troops. Totally inappropriate behavior from a military leader. Read the rest of this post...

Pelosi opposes Hillary's gas tax idea she stole from McCain. Hillary opposes it too - or did. It's so hard to keep up with the Clinton's lies.

From Huff Post:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has come out strongly against the idea of a gas tax holiday, versions of which are being proposed by Sens. Clinton and McCain:

"First of all, there's no reason to believe that any moratorium on the gas tax will be passed onto the consumer, first and foremost. This has not been the history, of a lowered gas tax being passed onto the consumer. Second of all, it would defeat everything we've been trying to do to lower the cost of oil. ... There are other remedies that are much better than that, and again, have a direct impact on the problem that we're trying to solve. I think the biggest answer to our challenges is to invest in renewable energy resources and to do it now."

Read the rest of this post...

On the DC Madam case, "this whole thing could have been ripped right out of an Edith Wharton novel"

I got an email from a friend that really struck at the core of what's been bugging me about this D.C. Madam saga:

Yesterday, when I heard about the DC Madam’s suicide, I kept thinking this whole thing could have been ripped right out of an Edith Wharton novel. It's so 19th century. Women are still paying the ultimate price for prostitution – death, humiliation and destitution – while men continue to thrive in positions such as a U.S. Senator or a well-paid attorney. Makes me wonder how much our country has progressed since the 19th Century.

I found a post about the ABC News report last year that Palfrey’s list consisted of “…thousands of names, tens of thousands of phone numbers,” Ross said. “And there are people there at the Pentagon, lobbyists, others at the White House, prominent lawyers — a long, long list.” Ross added that the women who worked for the service, potentially as prostitutes, “include university professors, legal secretaries, scientists, military officers.”

You don't hear much about any of those guys. I wonder if any of these men felt real remorse over these women, whose futures have been ruined. Their livelihoods have been destroyed, their reputations strewn all over the nation’s media.

Will Senator David Vitter mourn Deborah Palfrey who arranged pleasure sessions for him? Does Randall Tobias think about the women he paid and wonder whether they are now okay? Are food prices affecting their lives? How about their kids? Probably not. Sex is over. It is on the next cocktail party for them.

But not for the young naval officer who has lost her job.

Clearly, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

During the trial, Dana Milbank did a column documenting the public humiliation of the women who worked for Palfrey. The prosecutors were vindictive. I'm not saying they were without fault, but there is something very 19th century about this whole sordid affair. Read the rest of this post...

Another former DNC chair superdelegate endorses Obama

What if Hillary threw a delegate war and nobody came? Read the rest of this post...

Hillary adviser video, allegedly dissing Indinians, may have been doctored

UPDATE: The source for the video says it was not doctored at all, other than having enhanced the volume of Kantor's voice. I'm asking some other audio experts to do their own enhancing - anyone out there a super-duper audio expert? If so, please email me.

We reported earlier today that there was a video on YouTube, and flying around the Net, that clearly showed Hillary adviser Mickey Kantor, during the 1992 Clinton campaign, apparently using some nasty words for Indiana voters. It now appears that the video may have been doctored - i.e., it's not the original video. Huff Post has more, but I've listened to the original, which is linked to via HuffPost, and it's clear that Kantor's voice is of a different volume in the "new" version as compared to the original, so that's fishy right there. You can read the rest on HuffPost, but as the video's authenticity is now in question, I pulled the original post. Read the rest of this post...

Despite the media-induced drama and the kitchen sink attacks, "the Obama campaign is rolling along"

A funny thing happened on the way to the Democratic nomination. While the traditional media engaged in a feeding frenzy about Rev. Wright and the Clinton campaign threw the kitchen sink at Obama, he just kept moving towards the nomination, largely unfazed by the drama. Today's NY Times has an interesting analysis of the state of the Democratic primary, which captures that dynamic:

Still, despite a series of trials that have put Mr. Obama on the defensive and illustrated the burdens he might carry in a fall campaign, the Obama campaign is rolling along, leaving Mrs. Clinton with dwindling options.

Mr. Obama continues to pick up the support of superdelegates — elected Democrats and party leaders — at a quicker pace than Mrs. Clinton.

On Thursday, he got a boost from a high-profile defection: Joe Andrew, a former Democratic national chairman appointed by former President Bill Clinton, said he had changed his mind and would back Mr. Obama. Even after Mrs. Clinton’s victory in Pennsylvania, Mr. Obama has held on to a solid lead in pledged delegates, those selected by the voting in primaries and caucuses.

Although Mrs. Clinton has cut into Mr. Obama’s popular vote lead, it would be difficult for her to overtake him without counting the disputed results in Florida and perhaps Michigan.

By and large, the group that matters most at this point — the uncommitted superdelegates, who are likely to hold the balance of power — still seem to view their decision the way the Obama campaign would like them to see it. They suggest that they are more sympathetic to the argument that they should follow the will of the voters as expressed by the delegates amassed by the candidates when the primary season is done rather than following Mrs. Clinton’s admonitions to select the candidate they think would best be able to defeat Senator John McCain and the Republicans in November.

Obama just keeps his eye on the prize.

I've been struck by the way the media really, really wants the Obama campaign to play the game their way. On Tuesday, after Obama did the press conference about Rev. Wright, I was watching CNN. I was struck by these comments:

VOICE OF CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. He used two words. He said he was saddened, and he was angered. And I tell you, this is not a man given to a lot of public emotion. I think we -- he has been kind of calm and cool throughout this entire campaign.

I have not seen him -- and it may not have come across on the TV. It's hard to know when you're in the room. But he was clearly seething and he was clearly upset, particularly when he was asked about his future relationship with Jeremiah Wright.

It really sounded like the idea that Obama has been "kind of cool and calm" was a problem for Crowley. That's probably the buzz among the press corps.

The traditional media loves drama. The Clintons provide endless amounts of drama. But, while the drama is swirling, Obama just keeps moving towards the nomination. He has stayed focused. His campaign has been free of internal warfare. They've been able to largely ignore the hysterical punditry, who shouldn't have any role in the Democratic nomination process. As the NY Times put it, the Obama campaign is rolling along." Read the rest of this post...

Bush most unpopular president in modern American history

Via Atrios:

"No president has ever had a higher disapproval rating in any CNN or Gallup poll; in fact, this is the first time that any president's disapproval rating has cracked the 70 percent mark," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

Read the rest of this post...

Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

What a week. The obsession of the punditry with Rev. Wright will surely be viewed as a new low -- even for them. Imagine if they focused as intensely on the lies of the Bush administration about Iraq. Imagine if they focused on any issue with that kind of intensity.

I am continually struck by the ease with which the Clintons and their campaign staff just lie. It's clearly considered standard operating procedure. And, they lie about stuff that they don't need to lie about. It's really bizarre. And, we've been through eight years of liars. We don't need to go through that again.

Anyway, let's get it started... Read the rest of this post...

Cheney overrides scientists in whale conservation effort

Imagine that. The Republicans fighting against science, again. Clearly those whinging whales need to toughen up and learn how to survive in today's world. The world isn't going to stop just because the whales can't move aside from the steam engine of progress. They probably all drive Cadillacs and receive welfare too. Why can't they be like business and survive on their own with the help of thousands of laws giving them special privileges as well as billions in corporate welfare and tax code assistance? Those whales are such freeloading bastards.

Every year around three right whales are either injured or killed in collisions with ocean-going vessels like containerized cargo ships even though they are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Right whales frequently wash up on shore bearing deep scars from being struck by ships propellers.

To reduce ship strikes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) decided that ships should restrict their speed to 10 knots or less near whale feeding and calving grounds during parts of the year.

But Mr Cheney's office, which tends to operate in secrecy, sent letters repeatedly questioning whether the rule was needed according to leaked documents. Flatly contradicting the scientific research Mr Cheney's staff argued, "that we have no evidence that lowering the speeds of 'large ships' will actually make a difference."

Read the rest of this post...

The Gordon Brown countdown officially begins

New Labour took a beating at the polls yesterday with results not seen since the early 1970s. The years of Blair-spin finally caught up to Labour and Gordon Brown is not really the type that can ignite the troops. Much like the US, the UK economy is melting down with debt (personal debt is even higher than in the US) and voters are in a sour mood.

Blair extended Thatcherism and added a smiling face to the greed-is-good policies so it's hard to say just how well the Conservatives will do once they take over. Would the Tories really have avoided war in Iraq? Would their foreign policy look different than the Bush-loving Blair's policies? Doubtful. Would their fiscal policies be that much different? A bit, but doubtful as well. With the Blairite-New Labour goofiness with religion and demands for extended detention in so-called terror cases, it's not the stark difference that would have existed a few years before Blair. The Conservatives will surely push Gordon Brown out soon but how different actual policies will be is another story. Read the rest of this post...