Bill McKibben explains the Tar Sands protests on Countdown

There were more tar sands arrests at the White House today, including actress Margot Kidder.

Bill McKibben, who got arrested on Saturday, was on Countdown tonight. The decision whether or not to move forward with this environmental disaster rests with the President -- and only the President.
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Goldman CEO Blankfein hires high profile defense attorney

Wall Street has skated by without a scratch so there's little reason to think anything significant is going to happen. Bloomberg:

Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein has hired high-profile Washington defense attorney Reid Weingarten, according to a government source, as the Justice Department continues to investigate the bank.

Blankfein, 56, is in his sixth year at the helm of the largest U.S. investment bank, which has spent two years fending off accusations of conflicts of interest and fraud.

The move to retain Weingarten comes as investigations of Goldman and its role in the 2007-2009 financial crisis continue.

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Romney, who’s "unemployed," is preparing to quadruple the size of his California home

The man actually claims to be "unemployed."  From the Washington Post:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is planning to nearly quadruple the size of his $12 million California beachfront mansion.
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and the nominal front-runner for the GOP’s 2012 presidential nomination, is planning to bulldoze his 3,009-square-foot home facing the Pacific Ocean in La Jolla, Calif., and replace it with an 11,062-square-foot home, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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John McCain, now and then on Libya

John McCain now:

"Americans can be proud of the role our country has played in helping to defeat Qaddafi, but we regret that this success was so long in coming due to the failure of the United States to employ the full weight of our airpower."

John McCain then

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — A delegation of U.S. senators led by John McCain met with Libya's leader Friday to discuss the possible delivery of non-lethal defense equipment.

"We discussed the possibility of moving ahead with the provision of non-lethal defense equipment to the government of Libya," McCain said at a news conference. He gave no details on the kind of military equipment Washington is offering.

Some might see this as mere hypocrisy. But militarists like McCain are genuinely saddened by the fact that dispatching Gaddafi was mostly performed by the Libyans themselves with the US playing a junior role to France and the UK. If something like the battle of Tripoli can happen without the US playing the leading role then maybe people will start thinking that the US does not need to spend $700 billion a year on its military and can leave the role of globo-cop to the UN. Read the rest of this post...

Report: Bank of America may need another $100-$200 billion

This is ugly, if accurate. After the poor handling of the bank bailout by both Bush and Obama, the public is going to have very little appetite for helping. It also raises the question of why the banks received so many tax dollars and then paid out rich rewards to the unrewarding, while still needing money. Business Insider:

So, taking some back of the envelope numbers, it looks as though we could easily come up with, say, $100-$200 billion in write-offs and exposures to "clean up" Bank of America's balance sheet.

A $100-$200 billion hit to Bank of America's $222 billion of equity capital, needless to say, would do some serious damage. Specifically, it would force the company to raise about the same amount to restore its capital ratios.

That's why Bank of America's stock is tanking. The owners of that stock will be the first folks to get hit if Bank of America has to raise more capital. And the lower Bank of America's stock is when it raises more capital, the more they'll get hit.

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Karl Rove wants Rick Perry to lose

We wrote earlier about how Rick Perry was Karl Rove's discovery (the man does have an eye for talent). Rove recruited Perry to run against Jim Hightower for Texas Agriculture Commissioner. Perry won and the the rest is history.

We also know, though, that there is now considerable bad blood between the Bush Texans and Perry. This is also something to watch, for you inside-baseball fans.

Here's Ed Schultz from last week on just this subject. Skip to about 3:25 in the clip and listen to Karl Rove on Rick Perry. Then listen to James Moore (at 8:00 in the clip) on the same subject.



Moore puts it pretty simply: "What Karl's trying to do is to destroy Rick Perry."

Be sure not to miss the answer to "Does Rick Perry need Karl Rove?" at 10:10.

Moore stands by his prediction that Perry will win the nomination. He's the author of the book on Karl Rove, Bush's Brain, and knows whereof he speaks.

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Today’s quake was in Cantor’s district, near 2 nukes plants, and he wants to cut funding for agency that tracks quakes

UPDATE: Via Marcy Wheeler at Emptywheel.net, the North Anna power station lost power and is operating on backup diesel generators.

Today's 5.9 East Coast earthquake was centered in Eric Cantor's district, near the Anna 1 & 2 nuclear facilities.

To get an idea how near, check out this image. The red pin is the epicenter of the quake. Note Lake Anna in the upper right corner. That's the area in which the Anna nuclear facilities are located. It's about 11 miles to the facilities.

Note: Eric Cantor is this guy:

What if we where to experience a disaster like Japan? How prepared are we in our country? Yesterday house republican leader Eric Cantor defended republican proposals to cut spending for the United States Geological Survey, the National Weather Service, and NOAA.

The US Geological Survey is in charge of... earthquakes.  More charts and analysis at Marcy's place. Again, great catch!

GP

UPDATE from Joe @ 5:11: Seems like DC is calming down. But, we're still having phone issues in DC. Cell phones coverage comes and goes, probably because of the surge in usage. And, my landline is out. Email and texts seem to be working.

The White House issued a statement a short time ago:

From Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest:

At 2:50 p.m. EDT this afternoon, the President led a conference call with DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, Homeland Security Advisor John Brennan, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, Senior Science Advisor for Earthquake and Geologic Hazards with the Department of Interior Dr. David Applegate, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Greg Jaczko, Deputy Homeland Security Advisor Heidi Avery, and Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough to discuss the earthquake and status of critical infrastructure. The President was told that there are no initial reports of major infrastructure damage, including at airports and nuclear facilities and that there were currently no requests for assistance. The President asked for regular updates on the situation. The President also was provided an update on preparations for Hurricane Irene by Secretary Napolitano and Administrator Fugate.

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Rape case against former IMF chief Strauss-Kahn dropped

UDPATE: The charges have been dropped.

I'm not sure how you proceed with the case when the only witness is this compromised. As a juror, how do you get beyond the conclusion that there is a very real chance she's lying again? From Reuters:

Prosecutors in May had said the maid's complaint was "truthful" and "consistent." But the case began to crumble when prosecutors found Diallo had lied on her immigration forms about a gang rape in Guinea, lied on her tax forms and gave three different versions of events surrounding the encounter in the Sofitel Hotel in Times Square.

"The nature and number of the complainant's falsehoods leave us unable to credit her version of events beyond a reasonable doubt, whatever the truth may be about the encounter between the complainant and the defendant," the court papers said.

"If we do not believe her beyond a reasonable doubt, we cannot ask a jury to do so."

Lying about the rape case is perhaps the biggest indictment here. It's a rape case, and the alleged victim has lied before, to the government no less, about being raped. And while it's entirely possible that she lied on her immigration form because she really wanted to stay in the US, and that in spite of that she was actually raped by Strauss-Kahn, that's not enough to sell a jury. There is a reasonable doubt that this woman lies. More from News24 and AFP:

One issue was her constantly changing story about what she did immediately after the alleged attack, ranging from hiding fearfully in a corridor to returning to the room to clean after Strauss-Kahn left.

Most seriously, Diallo admitted that she had entirely made up a story during her asylum application to the United States about being gang raped in Guinea.

During one session with prosecutors, she repeated the story with so much emotion that "she cried, spoke hesitatingly, and... even laid her head face down on a table in front of her".

Later, she said "she had entirely fabricated the attack".

"Most significant is her ability to recount that fiction as a fact with complete conviction," the motion said.

"That she has previously persuaded seasoned prosecutors and investigators that she was the victim of another serious and violent - but false - sexual assault, with the same demeanour that she would likely exhibit at trial, is fatal."

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5.9 Earthquake hits DC area, watch it take place on Twitter

UPDATE: CNN reports Nuke plant 11 miles from epicenter is running on back up power.

We just had an earthquake here in DC. CNN reported it was a 5.8. Check out the Twitter feed at the end of this post, and watch people react as the earthquake hits DC.

USGS just reported that it was a 5.9, striking 83 miles southwest of DC.

Info. from US Geological Survey is here . This is the USGS map:



I live on the fifth floor and my building was shaking pretty intensely. My partner, Carlos, is home today. He's from the Bay Area so knew we had to stand under an internal door. Easily the biggest earthquake I've ever experienced. Unexpected -- and intense.

UPDATE: Watch the earthquake hit, on Twitter -- this is John's Twitter feed, a lot of his/our friends and colleagues are in DC -- as always, read from the bottom up on Twitter.  The coolest part is watching it hit DC first (from the bottom), then NY, then finally Boston:

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Do John Boehner and Paul Clement agree that gays should be put to death?

It's hard to know who this exposes a bigger fool. GOP Speaker John Boehner, who has really botched the handling of DOMA from the beginning, or his new lawyer, Paul Clement, who seems about as competent as a law school drop out from a c-rate school.  (Then again, the list of fools grows longer to include Attorney General Holder, White House spokesman Carney, and Supreme Court Justice Kagan, all of whom stood by Clement - oops.)

I mean, seriously, Speaker Boehner - you actually cited a study in your DOMA brief that relies on the "Nazi" science of a guy who suggested that everyone with AIDS be branded with an "A", and if that fails, we can just put everyone gay in  a camp and then exterminate them.

You're paying half a million bucks of the taxpayers' money for this? Read the rest of this post...

Study: "Massive decline" in use of Facebook

Greg Pouy summarizes a new GlobalWebIndex study of Internet usage worldwide. Greg's post is in French, but the study is in English.  Here are some of the key points:

1. The data suggests a "massive decline" in the use of the Facebook, particularly in English-speaking countries.

Click image to see larger version.

2. For 16 to 24 year olds, the Web, and especially social media, is their primary information source.
3. Instant messenger use is declining (I think this means the use of instant messaging software such as AOL, MSN, iChat etc).
4. eCommerce remains weak in Italian and Spain.
5. Strong development of eCommerce and social media in Turkey, China and Brazil.
6. The use of mobile Internet (I think they mean Internet access via cell phones, but possibly also tablets) is strong in both Asia and Latin America, while the usage itself tends to take place at home.
7. Many consumers are willing to pay for online content, but there are big differences between countries and age groups.
8. Microblogging (retweeting news via Twitter, for example) is growing significantly in Brazil, Russia, India and China.
9. People are still watching lots of TV, even people who are very active online.

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S&P; president stepping down following US downgrade

His replacement is coming from Citibank, the original Wall Street freeloader.

The president of Standard & Poor's is stepping down, an announcement coming only weeks after the rating agency's unprecedented move to strip the United States of its AAA credit rating.

The McGraw-Hill Cos., the parent of S&P;, said late Monday that Deven Sharma will be replaced by Douglas Peterson, now the chief operating officer of Citibank N.A., Citigroup Inc.'s chief banking arm.

Sharma, 55, "was ready for new challenges" after helping S&P; separate its data, pricing and analytics business from its ratings business, McGraw-Hill said in a statement. The company unveiled that restructuring at S&P; late last year.

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NYT editorial says Schneiderman shouldn’t go along with foreclosure settlement

This is big. The New York Times editorial board is saying that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman shouldn't go along with the Obama administration's, and Iowa AG Tom Miller's, efforts to have a broad settlement of their ongoing foreclosure fraud investigation.  (John reported on the administration's efforts to push prosecutors to settle, here.)

The Times ed board then rebuffs HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, who has been pressuring Schneiderman to stop rocking the boat. The Times doesn't get all their facts right - the settlement in discussion isn't for a narrow immunization around robosigning. But what's most impressive, beyond them calling out the Obama administration's efforts to help Wall Street avoid investigation and accountability, is how the Times accurately calls the settlement inadequate and one of the weakest options out there for helping homeowners.

The administration also says that the proposed settlement would require the banks to write down the principal balance on underwater loans. According to news reports, the banks are likely to pay around $20 billion in the deal. With 14.6 million homeowners owing $753 billion more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, how far does the administration think $20 billion would go?

The administration should pursue principal reductions for stressed borrowers, and it could do so immediately by calling on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance the underwater loans of borrowers who are current in their payments. What it shouldn’t do is pretend that the proposed settlement is the only — or best — way to get quick relief to homeowners.

The numbers being tossed around with the foreclosure fraud settlement are tiny. Even at ten times what's being talked about, the settlement figure, which would be spread across five major banks, would be inadequate. And the administration already has tools at its disposal to directly benefit underwater homeowners. They're just refusing to use them.

Phillip Anderson of New York's top political blog, The Albany Project, suggested that people call and thank Schneiderman for standing up for the rule of law and for homeowners. If you're in NY, drop his office a line and tell him you stand with him:

Maybe we should all call our AG (800 771-7755 or 212 416-8000) or e-mail him and thank him for standing up to the banksters and their enforcers in DC. I bet he would appreciate the show of support.

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Libya update: Things are a wee bit unclear

From Al Jazeera:

Heavy fighting has broken out in the al-Mansoura district and near Gaddafi's compound in Bab al-Azizya between government forces and opposition fighters.

Saif al-Islam, the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was reported to have been captured by opposition forces, appeared in al-Mansoura early on Tuesday morning, which has raised questions on the streets of Tripoli over rebel claims about the extent of their control over the Libyan capital.

"There is confusion among the ranks of opposition fighters on the ground," Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reporting from Tripoli said. "Some people are asking whether the transitional national council has been infilitrated.

The head of Libya's opposition National Transitional Council (NTC) on Monday announced the end of Gaddafi's decades-long rule after rebel fighters had swept into the heart of Tripoli on Sunday night, prompting scenes of jubiliation.

But the re-appearance of Saif, an influential figure who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, in front of a crowd of supporters and bouts of fierce fighting in Tripoli on Monday threw doubt on opposition claims that the city had fallen.

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UN report: Syrian death toll over 2,200

Let's hope Assad finishes his life in The Hague. Al Jazeera:

The death toll from Syria's crackdown on anti-government protesters has passed 2,200, the UN says, as the world body's rights council held an emergency session to discuss the situation in the country.

"As of today, over 2,200 people have been killed since mass protests began in mid-March, with more than 350 people reportedly killed across Syria since the beginning of Ramadan," Navi Pillay, the human rights chief, told the council on Monday.

In Syria, activists told Al Jazeera that three more people were killed in the city of Homs on Monday, shortly after a UN humanitarian mission was deployed there to assess the situation on the ground. One of the dead was said to be a baby.

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