Russian minister: drink and smoke more to fund social services

There's a pitch that you don't hear every day. AFP:

"If you smoke a pack of cigarettes, that means you are giving more to help solve social problems such as boosting demographics, developing other social services and upholding birth rates," Kudrin said, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

"People should understand: Those who drink, those who smoke are doing more to help the state," he said, offering unconventional advice as the Russian government announced plans to raise excise duty on alcohol and cigarettes.

Alcohol and cigarette consumption are already extremely high in Russia, where 65 percent of men smoke and the average Russian consumes 18 litres of alcoholic beverages per year, mainly vodka, according to official statistics.

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Investigation into Joe 'You Lie!' Wilson's travel expenses continues

Wilson's Democratic opponent has also blasted those like Wilson who force the US military to remove troops from the field to provide security for "political stunts." McClatchy:

The congressional ethics investigation of Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., is broader than previously disclosed and goes well beyond his use of $12 in per diem expense money to buy six decorative goblets in Afghanistan last year.

Congressional staff members with detailed knowledge of the probe said ethics investigators are examining Wilson's unusually high number of foreign trips — at least 30 in the past eight years — and his use of per diem expense money while traveling abroad.

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Maddow: Jan Brewer 'retaliates' against TV station investigating her ties to prisons-for-pay

We've been following the Jan Brewer–"jail the immigrants"–prison-for-pay nexus for a while, thanks to excellent coverage on The Rachel Maddow Show. The latest: Brewer has now canceled all media buys on the CBS station investigating her.

As Rachel says it, "This is about political retaliation against journalism." (A quibble; I think it's about blackmail.) The clip below speaks for itself, however. Well done, Rachel.



Think Progress has more information and links.

Here's the money chain as I see it:

1. CCA ("we win when you rot in stir") funnels money to its lobbyists,
   
2. who also work for Brewer and the Brewer campaign.
   
   
3. That money goes into the Brewer campaign and her other causes,
   
4. and right back out the door to TV and radio stations for campaign ads.
   
   
5. Suddenly these lobbyists are investigated by KPHO's Morgan Loew.
   
   
6. So Brewer blackmails the beast that owns KPHO, by withholding that big campaign-season media-buy cash. The message: "You lean on Loew and we'll turn the spigot back on."

In other words, Brewer opened money-to-money talks directly with KPHO's corporate owners, bypassing Loew. So far she has failed to achieve rapprochement, but the conversation isn't over. Bummer for Brewer that the opening move went public. (Thanks, Rachel.)

Keep an eye on the corporate owner of KPHO, Meredith National Media Group, however. They've been heroes so far, but they have shareholders and a stock price. Here's a list of the stations they own. And here's a list of the top 100 TV markets. Meredith is a lower-tier player with only two big-market stations — Atlanta (No. 8) and, yes, Phoenix (No. 12).

So watch this one; if the spotlight winks off, Meredith could still make a money move. (Keep the pressure on, Rachel. And did we say Thanks?)

Side note: Check Brewer saying "complete the mission" and "Brewer is a fighter" at 1:20 in the clip. Good lizard-brain material, but a B-movie delivery of her lines. With that many lizards to sell to, however, you don't need first-tier acting.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Report: US troops repel attack in Baghdad

Obviously, there's a lot more to combat ahead for US troops in Iraq. BBC:

US forces have helped repel an attack on an army base in Baghdad in which seven people died, security officials have told the BBC.

If confirmed, it would mark the first such use of American troops since the official end of US combat operations five days ago.

Under a deal, US forces remaining in Iraq can only participate in operations at the request of Iraqi authorities.

The US military said it could not confirm or deny it had been involved.

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Democrats ask GOP for details on $700 billion in cuts

Of course they won't get an answer. That would be bad politics and there's an election around the corner. Details, details.

Democrats pounced Friday on a top Republican's suggestion he knew of plenty of spending to cut in order to pay for the extension of high-end tax cuts.

If Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) thinks he can identify $700 billion in cuts to offset the costs of extending Bush tax cuts, Democrats said, he should specify where.

“If veterans are going to have to give up their benefits to pay for the Republican leadership’s tax breaks for the richest 2 percent of Americans, then they deserve to know that immediately," Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) spokesman Ryan Rudominer said.

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Blair: Cheney wanted to invade Syria and Iran

The chickenhawk couldn't get enough of war, provided someone else's kid was on the front line. Imagine the possibilities of more GOP rule in Washington.

Describing the former US vice president as an advocate of “hard, hard power”, Mr Blair said Damascus was next on Mr Cheney’s hit list.

“He would have worked through the whole lot, Iraq, Syria, Iran, dealing with all their surrogates in the course of it – Hizbollah, Hamas, etc,” Mr Blair wrote in his autobiography, A Journey. “In other words, he thought the whole world had to be made anew, and that after September 11, it had to be done by force and with urgency.”

Syria’s correct assumption that powerful US forces wanted to attack it had profound implications, domestically and in Iraq. Although no friend of Saddam Hussein, Damascus had every reason to want the American occupation to fail and, therefore, no incentive to stop Islamist militants crossing the border to fight US troops.

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Krugman's comments on 'Rahmism'

Paul Krugman points us to this post by Jonathan Cohn at the New Republic about the mixed-bag internal deliberations at the White House about what to do next for the economy. It's nothing to write home about:

Reading between the lines, and based on what I’ve gleaned from some (mostly) informed sources, the argument is in some ways semantic. Yes, the White House is looking at initiatives that could both boost the economy. But while it’d prefer a bigger plan, focused more on infrastructure spending and aid to the states, Congress has no appetite for that. So it’s focusing on other, lesser measures that might have a shot. In a series of speeches and events next week, President Obama will propose and argue for these initiatives.

The White House doesn’t want to call the new package a “stimulus,” because the very term has become politically toxic. But the point of the initiative is to stimulate the economy--which means, technically speaking, it would be a stimulus, although probably a very small one. (I’m hearing the Post’s sources were wrong to say “hundreds” of billions of dollars, as in more than one hundred billion, although it’s always possible it’s my sources who are wrong about that.)

Cripes. Krugman comments:

Jon Cohn’s post about what the administration may be considering, and what it isn’t considering, makes we want to cry. ...

[W]hen you’re well down in the polls, minimal steps that won’t move the economy and won’t grab voters’ imagination are just a way of guaranteeing a devastating defeat.

I can understand why the people who persuaded Obama to go for the capillaries might still be claiming that they have the right strategy; but I don’t understand why Obama is still listening to them.

Lemmings. Very cocky ones.

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Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

It's Labor Day weekend, so a couple of the shows are actually talking about workers and the economy. If you want to hear that discussion watch CBS and CNN. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is one of CNN's guests. He should remind everyone what the labor movement has achieved for the American worker (you know, little things like weekends, holiday, overtime, child labor laws...)

John McCain and his sidekick,Lindsey Graham, are back on the circuit today. McCain is on FOX and Graham is on NBC. Providing the Democratic perspective on those networks, you'll see David Plouffe on NBC and Tim Kaine on FOX.

And, Tony Blair, fresh off a pelting of eggs and shoes at a book-signing in Dublin, is the guest on ABC.

The full lineup can be found here. Read the rest of this post...

Buckwheat Zydeco - Ya Ya

Here's to hoping the rest of the hurricane season goes easy on the Gulf Coast. How much more can people handle down there?

More sunshine over here today so I'll venture out on the bike again. After my little bike incident in Spain, Jojo was less than thrilled with any bike talk but just as time healed my broken bone, it's taken care of her as well. Looking back it was a little funny that she started barking each time another cyclist arrived in the ER, as if their accidents were somehow mine or something like that. Even she's laughing about that now. In a few more weeks, I may even be able to get her back out on to her bike too. Read the rest of this post...

Eggs and shoes hurled at Tony Blair at first book signing

Some people have no respect for those who launch wars that kill thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians. Didn't they hear Blair when he said that he cried for them? Also, he's a Middle East peace negotiator, for goodness sakes. The Guardian:

Skirmishes broke out between protesters and police at the first public signing for Tony Blair's memoirs, with shoes and eggs hurled at the former prime minister.

Four men were arrested and charged with public order offences for their part in the protest this morning outside Eason's bookshop on O'Connell Street in Dublin, Ireland, which involved anti-war demonstrators and the Continuity IRA-aligned Republican Sinn Féin, who oppose the Northern Ireland peace process.

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German Bundesbank votes to sack racist board member

It's not quite final, but almost. Some more background on the events that led to the vote here. If Sarrazin was in the US, he'd already be on Fox News and preparing his speech for the next Teabagger rally.

The board of Germany's Bundesbank said on Thursday it had voted unanimously to seek the dismissal of board member Thilo Sarrazin, who has sparked uproar with his comments about Muslim immigrants and race.

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