Utah House passes bill to let schools skip sex ed

Then more Utah kids may get sexual transmitted diseases and HIV as a result - oh yeah, they'll also get pregnant at 13 years of age.  How that's more Christian, or Mormon, I'll never know.  From the Salt Lake Tribune we learn that it's actually even worse than that:

Lawmakers also, however, changed the bill on the House floor to prohibit schools that continue to teach sex education from instructing students in "the use of contraceptive methods or devices."

And what would Utah be without people using government to jam their religion down the throats of others:

King also noted that not everyone in Utah believes premarital sex is harmful, and it may not be right to "force our beliefs down the throats" of those Utahns.

And perhaps my favorite quote from the entire article:

"Maybe you’ve noticed that the world has figured out how to populate itself over thousands of years without sex education," said Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper.

Right, because that's what sex education is about. Making sure that kids know how to get naked.

Also, did you get his reference to the world populating itself "over thousands of years"?  Modern humans originated around 200,000 years ago, but people have been having sex and populating the planet a lot longer than that - human-like primates go back millions of years.  Thousands of years.  These guys, Republicans of course, wear ignorant as a badge of honor. Read the rest of this post...

Wikileaks: Pakistan intelligence was in regular contact with bin Laden

The Wikileaks Stratfor email dump is telling us what most (if not all) suspected all along. The US is in a bad position if they're counting on any cooperation from Pakistan. The Telegraph:

According to one of the e-mails, the firm was shown the information papers collected from bin Laden's Abbotabad compound after the US special forces attack last May that resulted in his death. The e-mail, from a Stratfor analyst, suggested that up to 12 officials in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency knew of the al-Qaeda leader's safe house. The internal email did not name the Pakistani officials involved but said the US could use the information as a bargaining chip in post raid negotiations with Islamabad.

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Video: Clips of all the swear words from the Oscar "best picture" nominees

It's surprisingly disturbing. I feel like my mother, watching this. And I swear. But this just feels like too much. I made it a minute and a half in and got a bit overwhelmed. It's also interesting that not every movie has the same level of profanity. It gets better as additional films are screened.

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GOP supported algae research they now knock Obama for

As the President said during the campaign when he correctly talked about how much energy we could save if people simply inflated their tires the correct amount (the GOP mocked him, and fact checkers discovered the President was correct), it's almost as if they're proud of being ignorant.

Well, party of dumb is at it again. This time they're criticizing the President for, correctly, talking about the energy implications for, of all things, algae. Here's from the President's energy speech:

We’re making new investments in the development of gasoline and diesel and jet fuel that’s actually made from a plant-like substance -- algae. You’ve got a bunch of algae out here, right? (Laughter.) If we can figure out how to make energy out of that, we’ll be doing all right.

Believe it or not, we could replace up to 17 percent of the oil we import for transportation with this fuel that we can grow right here in the United States. And that means greater energy security. That means lower costs. It means more jobs. It means a stronger economy.

Now, none of the steps that I’ve talked about today is going to be a silver bullet. It’s not going to bring down gas prices tomorrow. Remember, if anybody says they got a plan for that -- what?

Republicans immediately mocked the algae line. Without fact checking it, of course. I think this is what the President is referring to, it sounds kind of cool. From CNet:

The Lawrence Berkeley group's goal is to implant genes from other organisms, including algae and cyanobacteria, which encode for enzymes that produce hydrocarbons known as isoprenoids and alkanes. After harvesting, the tobacco leaves would be crushed down, the hydrocarbon molecules separated, and then converted into diesel, jet fuel, or gasoline, according to Berkeley.

And here's another method, described in Popular Mechanics.

And this appears to reference the study the President was referring to. I'm not convinced he should have been so unequivocal about the 17% figure, but he's right to mention that we're investing in new things that might some day create a lot of energy from unexpected places.

Of course, it's funny that some prominent Republicans have also been supporting the algae research, including Senator Johanns, Cong. Darrell Issa, and Cong. Mike Pence.  So if this is 'weird,' as Newt Gingrich, the kind of weird, just proclaimed, then Johanns, Issa and Pence are weird too.

When the Republicans have a chance to knock science, knock knowledge, they take it (thus the reason Rick Santorum said last night that going to college is a bad idea, and anyone who helps kids go to college is a snob).  Their party regularly panders to racist, bigots, and end-of-world nutjobs.  Facts and education are hardly the way to appeal to a crowd that respects neither. Read the rest of this post...

Warren Buffet: "Corporate taxes are not strangling American competitiveness"

Besides being a billionaire investor, what does that communist know anyway? Read more at Think Progress. Read the rest of this post...

Retired general: U.S. can’t stop Iran from making nukes, bombing them won't be enough

I've been covering the possible run-up to a war with Iran — see here and here for the background on this.

Now we find that retired Gen. James Cartwright, former vice chair of the Joint Chiefs, is saying that even if we (or Israel) attack Iran, we still can't stop them from getting nukes. It's just impossible (my emphasis and some reparagraphing below):

A former high-ranking military official says the U.S. does not have the ability to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. “If they [Iranians] have the intent, all the weapons in the world are not going to change that,” retired Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said late Thursday.

Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., Gen. Cartwright also said that Israel will not be able to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, even if the Jewish state attacks the Islamic republic’s atomic sites.

“They can slow it down. They can delay it, some estimate two to five years. But that does not take away the intellectual capital,” he said.

At the end of the article, Adm. Fallon, former commander of U.S. Central Command is quoted as saying, “No one that I’m aware of thinks there’s a real positive outcome of a military strike.” (Central Command, or CENTCOM, is the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia; the war zone.)

Note that Cartwright is speaking on the record; this is not "friends are reporting" thing he's saying privately. He's laying down a marker.

Factor that into your Iran thoughts, on two levels. On the Iran level, that nation is saying it wants only peaceful uses of nuclear power. Whether that's true or not, even if we strike at Iran, we can't produce a positive military outcome (according to these generals). Whatever trouble we bring on ourselves (the U.S. and Israel), we still won't get a pony for it.

On the second level, this is now retired generals weighing into the U.S. discussion. It would be interesting to see if active duty generals are wheeled out by the Pentagon to counteract this evaluation.

If the Pentagon generals, or civilian Pentagon chief Panetta, says Cartwright and Fallon are wrong, put your ears on high alert and start listening carefully. Something will definitely be in the works at Smarter Than You headquarters.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Gallup: 47% of Americans support Obamacare repeal

It's easy to see how Obamacare doesn't go far enough, but how could anyone want to go back to the expensive disaster of the past? The Democrats - and Obama's team in particular - did and continue to do a poor job of selling the health care program. Surely people can't honestly like the old model, no? Gallup:

Americans divide evenly when asked if they favor (47%) or oppose (44%) a Republican president's repealing the 2010 healthcare law if elected this November. Republicans overwhelmingly favor repeal (87%) and Democrats overwhelmingly oppose it (77%). However, Republicans hold their views much more intensely than Democrats, with 56% of Republicans strongly favoring repeal and 39% of Democrats strongly opposing it. Thus, a Republican president would have a clear mandate from his own party's supporters to attempt to overturn the law, as all of the Republican candidates have vowed to do if elected. However, such a position may turn off about as many independent voters as it attracts.

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Latest poll: Obama on the rise, Romney going down

Politico:

"A POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground Poll reveals the prolonged nominating battle is taking a toll on the GOP candidates ... [Obama] leads Romney by 10 ... and Santorum by 11 ... A third of Americans believe the country is on the right track ... twice the number who believed it in November. Romney is bloodied after nine contests, five of which he has lost. Only 33 percent of independents view him favorably, compared with 51 percent who see him in an unfavorable light. In a head-to-head match-up against Obama among independents, Romney now trails 49 percent to 27 percent. Among Republican voters nationally, Santorum narrowly edges out Romney, 36 percent to 34 percent. Gingrich is a distant third with 13 percent, and Ron Paul gets only 7 percent."

Some of this is the drawn out GOP primary and some of it may be the results of the President's new management style in which he fights back against the Republicans. People like a strong president. Also, the Democrats have been quite good at exploiting Romney's various gaffes. Would Romney not have made those gaffes had the primary not been drawn out. Perhaps. But maybe this is simply the public's getting to know you period with Romney, and what they're getting to know isn't making them happy. Read the rest of this post...

"Culture of illegal payments" at Murdoch newspaper

And the hits keep coming for Rupert Murdoch's troubled news empire. This latest charge comes from the head of police investigations into crimes by journalists in the UK. Again, News Corp. is a rogue organization. How can they talk about law and order when they can't follow the law themselves? Hacking into the personal information of individuals and bribing public officials hardly sounds like something a respectable organization would do. The Guardian:

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers told the Leveson inquiry that one public official received more than £80,000 in total from the paper, currently edited by Dominic Mohan. Regular "retainers" were apparently being paid to police and others, with one Sun journalist drawing more than £150,000 over the years to pay off his sources. "The cases we are investigating are not ones involving the odd drink, or meal, to police officers or other public officials," she said. "Instead, these are cases in which arrests have been made involving the delivery of regular, frequent and sometimes significant sums of money to small numbers of public officials by journalists." "A network of corrupted officials" was providing the Sun with stories that were mostly "salacious gossip", she said. "There appears to have been a culture at the Sun of illegal payments, and systems have been created to facilitate such payments whilst hiding the identity of the officials receiving the money."

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Video: Democrats for Santorum (humor)

This is Second City's homage to Markos' call for Democrats to vote for Santorum in the open primaries. (Markos calls it "Operation Hilarity." I keep read it as "Operation Hillary." Though perhaps the double entendre was intentional.) More on that here.

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Is Preet Bharara, current Mahhattan DA, Obama's next AG?

There's speculation that Preet Bharara, current U.S. District Attorney for the southern district of New York (that's Manhattan and environs), will replace Eric Holder as Obama's AG.

The source of that rumor is Charlie Gasparino, whom Emptywheel calls a "noted Wall Street booster".

Gasparino (my emphasis):

All of the good publicity flowing from the crackdown on insider trading has one of the nation’s top law enforcement officials looking at what he might do in the future, and he’s seeing a lot of green.

Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for the Southern District, is telling friends that if he should leave his job today, he could earn as much as $6 million in the private sector, according to people with direct knowledge of these conversations. Bharara's private statements come as speculation grows in Washington that the politically savvy prosecutor might also replace his boss, US Attorney General Eric Holder, if President Obama wins re-election.

Let's analyze this piece. "Noted Wall Street booster" (read, go-to media mouth for Wall Street players) says Bharara is "telling friends" he could make a killing in the private sector.

Now ask yourself: How does Wall Street's top cop make a killing in the private sector? The same way everyone else in financial regulation does? (They call that "Thank You" money in revolving door parts of the world.)

Bharara's not exactly "known bad" — but if the qualification for Holder's job is "failing to prosecute" he might just fit. After all, Bharara's big-deal prosecution, of hedgie Raj Rajaratnam, was actually started under George Bush, prior to Bharara's taking office. Oops, taking false credit? Maybe that's what Gasparino means by "politically savvy":

Bharara has ruffled feathers of late among long-time prosecutors who believe he is taking undue credit for his office’s high-profile investigation into insider trading. President Obama appointed Bharara to the job in May of 2009, but the roots of the investigation began during the Bush Administration in 2007.

Not to mention, if Bharara's office found only one illegal hedgie, he's not looking. Just like the big-deal Chicago investigation into traffic-ticket-fixing some years ago, the one that found two bad lawyers and one corrupt judge. Heck, I could find ten corrupt traffic judges today; just give me a ticket and a list of law firms.

Emptywheel sums it up nicely (my paragraphing):

When ... Harvey Pitt, whose enabling of financial corruption set new standards even from the Wall Street-coddling SEC ... hails what your office is accomplishing, it usually means Wall Street crooks are getting a legal pass. As they are.

Click through for more, and don't forget to admire the nice Time magazine cover shown there. When Time pimps you as "busting Wall Street," look at your feet for the rising fog.

I have to say, though, I am disappointed in Time's cliché-checking department. I know they didn't use the phrase "blue-eyed boy" but really ... (the wonders of Photoshop).

If your little heart said, "Ah, branding" — you have a smart little heart. Yes, Time mag is part of the plan.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Philly Cardinal reportedly ordered shredding of child rape docs

The conservative Cardinal Bevilacqua of Philadelphia, and the Catholic church, is not looking very good, again.  Philly.com:

The result was his February 1994 memo that identified 35 priests suspected of abuse or pedophilia. Lynn allegedly gave it to his superior, Msgr. James Molloy, the assistant vicar for administration, who shared his duties documenting abuse complaints.

Bevilacqua discussed the memo in a March 15, 1994, meeting with Molloy and Bishop Edward P. Cullen, then the cardinal's top aide, the filing says. After the meeting, Bevilacqua allegedly ordered Molloy to shred the memo.

One week later, Molloy allegedly destroyed four copies, with the Rev. Joseph Cistone as a witness. "This action was taken on the basis of a directive I received from Cardinal Bevilacqua," say Molloy's handwritten notes.

But Molloy apparently had second thoughts. Without telling anyone, he took a copy of the memo, and his notes, and placed them in a portable, locked safe.

According to the motion, that safe remained untouched and unnoticed until 2006, when archdiocesan officials found it and hired a locksmith to open it. It's unclear why the records inside were only recently turned over to Lynn's lawyers and prosecutors, although church lawyers have said they have been reviewing thousands of files to comply with trial subpoenas.

NOTE FROM JOHN: Yeah, it took six years for them to fully appreciate what they'd found.  Sure.

It absolutely blows my mind that we continue to have to listen the Catholic church bloviate about the moral ills of society. These men have zero moral authority - hell, they have negative moral authority at this point.  How many times do they have to pull this game before people stop treating them as a serious voice on moral issues?  It's no wonder the church has so closely tied itself tothe Republican party - birds of a feather.  Simply sickening. Read the rest of this post...