Libya no-fly zone could cost $100m to $300m a week? Up to $1.2bn a month?

That's $400m to $1.2bn a month. You've got to be kidding me.

Numerous polls show people opposed to this intervention, and that's before they hear the possible price tag.

How about some of those rich Arab oil governments in the region finance our operation to free their own brethren? I'm sorry, but if we're going to play the "money is short, cut everything" game then we shouldn't be joining open-ended operations if we're talking about it potentially costing us billions upon billions of dollars.

There's always billions extra for defense. Read the rest of this post...

Video: Baby French bulldog is stuck on its back

Don't worry, you can sleep well tonight - he finally made it:


(H/t Huff Post Hill) Read the rest of this post...

Wisconsin anti-union law blocked by judge

May only be temporary, but still good news:

Dane County District Judge Maryann Sumi granted the temporary restraining order in response to a lawsuit filed by the local Democratic district attorney, alleging that Republican lawmakers violated the state's open meetings law by hastily convening a special committee before the Senate passed the bill.

Sumi said her ruling would not prevent the Legislature from reconvening the committee with proper notice and passing the bill again.

In addition to restricting the bargaining rights, the law would require most public workers in the state to contribute more to their pension and health care costs, changes that will amount on average to an 8 percent pay cut. Walker's spokesman Cullen Werwie was confident the bill would become law in the near future.

Read the rest of this post...

What's next in Wisconsin?

There's the near term and the longer term. From The Nation, about the near term (h/t Meteor Blades; my emphasis and paragraphing):

[T]he pro-worker movement seems at last to have something resembling a battle plan. Next up for Wisconsin activists is a crucial state Supreme Court election on April 5, in which Walker’s favored anti-worker candidate, David Prosser, faces a strong challenge from the Democratic assistant attorney general, JoAnne Kloppenburg.

Then there’s the recall effort against eight Republican senators who voted for the bill, with Joint Committee on Finance co-chair Alberta Darling, Walker’s point person on budget issues, as the choicest target. These drives may prepare the way to recall Walker himself early next year.

Meanwhile, a shrewd Move Your Money union campaign is targeting one of Walker’s big bank backers, Wisconsin’s M&I; Bank.

If you're a Wisconsinite, participate. It's your time. You can volunteer to help Kloppenberg here.

About that Prosser-Kloppenburg state Supreme Court race, watch out for covert Koch-ish money entering on the Prosser side. Among the controversies involving that court's recent decisions is this (my emphasis):

The Court has ruled that business groups making donations to the election campaigns of justices may have cases affecting their companies decided on by a justice who received a donation from the party involved. The rule was proposed by two powerful Wisconsin business groups, the Wisconsin Realtors Association and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. This ruling has been controversial.[2]. The vote was 4-3 Voting in favor of Justices receiving donations from plaintiffs were Prosser, Gableman, Roggensack, and Zeigler. Voting against were Abrahamson, Crooks, and Bradley.

This tells you several things: (1) "Business groups" can contribute to this election; and (2) Prosser, a Tommy Thompson appointee, is a reliable pro-bought-judges vote. Time to send him home; his family needs some of that quality pro-business presence.

About the longer term, the first step is widening the movement to other states (The Nation again, my paragraphing):

Progressives everywhere will be watching these developments keenly, offering solidarity and support. But the question on everyone’s mind is, How can the pro-worker movement born in Wisconsin be nurtured into a national force?

This won’t come easy—the state, with its storied progressive past, is in a class by itself—but the action there has offered an inspiring spectacle and a practical model. With that in mind, Communications Workers of America, together with Jobs With Justice and other progressive groups, is spearheading a week of action focused around April 4—the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.—with rallies and teach-ins in hundreds of cities.

JWJ has been active for months in many states, including Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Florida, Maine and Indiana, confronting the array of legislative threats facing not only unions but women, gays, immigrants and all working people. By making these links—and focusing protesters’ ire on specific political and corporate targets—the organizers aim to build the diverse movement needed to fend off the multipronged right-wing assault.

Teach-Ins; smells like ... education. One of the most critical aspects of building the anti-war movement (aside from the draft, of course) was the teach-ins, which educated people about the movement, what prompted it, and its goals.

My thought — Time to go on offense. It's not enough to play not to lose, to surrender fewer yards that they might have otherwise gotten. (By that I mean, trying not to lose on Social Security as badly as we could have, by giving up only the retirement age, for example, and holding onto benefit adjustments.)

How about pushing the ball in their direction, so they lose ground? In Wisconsin, this means running recall campaigns against all eight eligible Republicans, not just the ones with weak support. AND it mean recalling Walker, regardless of the outcome.

Our Contribute to the Wisconsin Recall link is above. At the moment, we're close to the goal. Let's shoot above it. Thank you.

GP Read the rest of this post...

70 year old man stoned to death because Bible says to stone homosexuals

I don't ever want to hear anyone invoke the Bible on any political matter again. Because the guy is right, the Bible does say to stone gays to death. Read the rest of this post...

Judge asks why Obama admin is seeking unusually tough charges against GetEqual DADT protesters, invokes MLK

A rather interesting day in court for the anti-"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" protesters who chained themselves to the White House fence last year. Federal Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola, we've just heard, was not at all pleased that the Obama administration is seeking much harsher charges against the LGBT protesters than what it usually sought against people who protest at the White House (which is a pretty regular occurrence). The judge then went on to invoke Martin Luther King. Joe has the story over at AMERICAblog Gay.

Wouldn't it be neat if the Obama administration were as zealous about prosecuting torture, or even just Scott Bloch. Read the rest of this post...

Are cell phone carriers going to take 3 months to send your disaster relief donation to Japan?

March 18, 2011

Dan Hesse
Chief Executive Officer
Sprint Nextel
6391 Sprint Parkway
Overland Park, KS 66251

Philipp Humm
Chief Executive Officer and President
T-Mobile USA
12920-South East 38th Street
Bellevue, WA 98006

Daniel S. Mead
President and Chief Executive Officer
Verizon Wireless
1 Verizon Way
Basking Ridge, NJ 07920

Randall L. Stephenson
Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President
AT&T Inc.
208 S. Akard St., Suite 3700
Dallas, TX 75202

Dear Messrs. Hesse, Humm, Mead and Stephenson:

Images of the devastation and suffering in Japan have touched Americans nationwide, leading to an outpouring of financial support as the scope of this humanitarian disaster has become clear.

Advances in mobile technology have made it possible for Americans to contribute to relief efforts using their cell phones. Unfortunately, while those who have donated are likely under the impression that making a mobile donation means funds are being rushed to the affected area, the reality is it takes quite a bit longer.

In fact, according to mGive, one of the leading mobile donation platforms, it can take 30 to 90 days for mobile contributions to be distributed to relief organizations. This is because wireless carriers first register the donation from a customer, add that amount to the customer’s next bill, then wait until the bill is paid to transmit the donation.

In past global humanitarian crises, American mobile phone companies have remitted donations immediately to nonprofit organizations. In light of the scale of destruction in Japan, American wireless carriers should again immediately remit mobile donations to organizations conducting relief efforts on the ground.

Guaranteeing a speedy transmission of funds will not only match customers’ expectation that their donations are having an immediate impact but will also ensure that donations are rushed to those most in need.

I thank you for your contributions to the relief efforts thus far and I appreciate your swift attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Barbara Boxer
United States Senator

Read the rest of this post...

Krugman: The unemployed are the new Forgotten Men — Where is the jobs bill?

OK, the "Forgotten Man" reference is mine (click for a nice video), but the idea is all Paul. He calls them "The Forgotten Millions". Krugman (my emphasis):

More than three years after we entered the worst economic slump since the 1930s, a strange and disturbing thing has happened to our political discourse: Washington has lost interest in the unemployed. ... [N]o jobs bills have been introduced in Congress, no job-creation plans have been advanced by the White House and all the policy focus seems to be on spending cuts.

So one-sixth of America’s workers — all those who can’t find any job or are stuck with part-time work when they want a full-time job — have, in effect, been abandoned. ... In short, we’re well on the way to creating a permanent underclass of the jobless.

Krugman notes that while in the country the interest in jobs is paramount, inside the Beltway, spending cuts is the only actor on stage. Krugman faults Obama:

Yet the obsession with spending cuts flourishes all the same — unchallenged, it must be said, by the White House.

I still don’t know why the Obama administration was so quick to accept defeat in the war of ideas, but the fact is that it surrendered very early in the game. In early 2009, John Boehner, now the speaker of the House, was widely and rightly mocked for declaring that since families were suffering, the government should tighten its own belt. That’s Herbert Hoover economics, and it’s as wrong now as it was in the 1930s. But, in the 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama adopted exactly the same metaphor and began using it incessantly. ... No wonder, then, that according to a new Pew Research Center poll, a majority of Americans see “not much difference” between Mr. Obama’s approach to the deficit and that of Republicans.

Krugman correctly mocks the "we care about the children" mantra that makes the rounds at the spending-cuts sleep-overs in DC. He notes a 2009 point made by Peter Orszag that, in Krugman's phrasing, "young Americans who graduated during the severe recession of the early 1980s suffered permanent damage to their earnings."

A permanent underclass of the jobless. Good job, Team Surrender You Can Count On. How's that Reagan worship working out?

I swear, as dispirited as his base has become, a credible opponent could actually give him a run; or a viable split-the-ticket third partier, like Bloomberg. Either way, I wouldn't yet assume that 2012 will be a quiet recoronation.

GP Read the rest of this post...

House GOP oversight chair failed to disclose he took campaign contributions from witness before his committee

Not that it's a surprise that the Republican committee chair in charge of government oversight is himself in need of oversight, but still. It is sad how so-called "independent" voters keep forgetting what the Republicans are really like (and Democrats keep failing to fight for what they believe in, thus losing the majorities they have and had). From Political Correction:

On Wednesday, we pointed out that at a February hearing, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) hosted Western Growers Association president and CEO Tom Nassif, a major Issa donor. While introducing Nassif and purporting to provide "full disclosure," Issa mentioned that Nassif was a "personal friend," but not that Nassif and his organization's political action committee had donated nearly $20,000 to Issa's campaigns.

Yesterday, The Washington Post picked up the story, reporting that such selections do not "violate congressional rules, but watchdogs say it raises the question of whether expert panels are assembled based on their donations." The Post also got the following response from Issa's spokesman:

Issa spokesman Frederick Hill noted that agriculture is one of the largest industries in California and, therefore, Nassif was an important part of the hearing on "Regulatory Impediments to Job Creation."

"Mr. Issa certainly thought that [Nassif's] testimony was both important and relevant to the hearing taking place," Hill said. Nassif did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Read the rest of this post...

After UN Vote on no-fly zone, Libya announces cease-fire

Last night, the UN Security Council voted to support a no-fly zone over Libya.

Today, Gaddafi's government announced a cease-fire:

Libya has announced it will halt all military operations in the country following a decision by the United Nations Security Council to back a no-fly zone over the country.

Mussa Kussa, the Libyan foreign secretary, said his government was interested in protecting all civilians and foreigners in a statement televised on Friday.

He said Libya was disappointed over the agreement to install a no-fly zone.

That was fast.

But, the action to enforce the no-fly zone was happening fast, too:

Before the announcement, French and British officials said Friday that military action would start soon in an attempt to contain forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi as they threaten a final assault on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

In London, Prime Minister David Cameron told Parliament that Britain, a leading backer of the no-flight resolution, had begun the preparations to deploy Tornado and Typhoon warplanes along with aerial refueling and surveillance aircraft. He said the planes would move “in the coming hours” to bases where they could start implementing the no-flight zone.

Read the rest of this post...

Concerns grow that Dems. are letting GOP take 'human element' out of budget debate

I think there's truth to this article in The Hill:

A growing chorus of Democratic loyalists argue their party is losing the messaging battle over spending by failing to put a human face on cuts proposed by the GOP.

Instead of shining the spotlight on the programs slashed and the people affected, Democrats have let the debate revolve around the cumulative size of the cuts, the critics charge. That attention to an arbitrary figure — and not the underlying programs on the chopping block — has spun the debate into a fight over numbers that lacks a human element.

It’s a strategy, the critics warn, that gives Republicans a definitive upper hand as lawmakers joust over how to fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year.

If only we had someone in the bully pulpit at the White House who could define and explain this debate to the American people. From what I hear -- and hear often -- the White House is sitting on the sidelines right now. Apparently, it's the number one topic of conversation at the weekly Common Purpose (a.k.a. the "veal pen") meetings. Last week, White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley was asked when the White House would engage. His response was (and this is pretty much verbatim from what I've told) the White House will engage "when the fire gets closer." Closer? There's a hell of a fire burning now -- and Dems. are being burned politically. Also, a lot of people who voted for Obama are going to get screwed.

Will they let the GOPers take the human element out of the debate on Social Security, too? Read the rest of this post...

IL legislators trying to lift smoking ban in bars and casinos

Bull. Someone's not going to gamble because they can't smoke? Right, that's like saying someone is going to stop having sex because they can't smoke. Not gonna happen. Same goes for drinking. This is a cute way to curry favor with the smoking, bar and restaurant lobby. Read the rest of this post...