Posts from — December 2010

Mother and Child Reunion

ZZZ… zzz… ZZZ…

[Editor: This is Ringo in the front and her son, Income, in the back surviving the cold weather. Ringo is the smallest of the cats, and in the classic cat pose with straight from legs, Income is a full head taller than his mom. They are on an olive drab wool blanket that is at least a half-century old.

Friday Ark

A State Department press statement by Philip j. Crowley on December 7, 2010: U.S. to Host World Press Freedom Day in 2011

The United States is pleased to announce that it will host UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day event in 2011, from May 1 – May 3 in Washington, D.C. UNESCO is the only UN agency with the mandate to promote freedom of expression and its corollary, freedom of the press.

The theme for next year’s commemoration will be 21^st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers. The United States places technology and innovation at the forefront of its diplomatic and development efforts. New media has empowered citizens around the world to report on their circumstances, express opinions on world events, and exchange information in environments sometimes hostile to such exercises of individuals’ right to freedom of expression. At the same time, we are concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information. We mark events such as World Press Freedom Day in the context of our enduring commitment to support and expand press freedom and the free flow of information in this digital age.

Highlighting the many events surrounding the celebration will be the awarding of the UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize at the National Press Club on May 3^rd. This prize, determined by an independent jury of international journalists, honors a person, organization or institution that has notably contributed to the defense and/or promotion of press freedom, especially where risks have been undertaken.

I think the State Department is definitely hoping they don’t decide to give the prize to WikiLeaks. If they do, I have a feeling that Julian Assange won’t come to accept it.

On CNN Ticker – the Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives has refused to bring up Obama’s deal.

Maybe Obama should have included a few Democrats in his negotiations, instead of just springing this on them as a “done deal”. Maybe someone should direct Obama to the Constitution and the concept of the separation of powers. Maybe someone should explain the concept of negotiations to the White House.

Update for clarity: The caucus has voted against the proposal. Speaker Pelosi may still move a bill with those provisions to the floor of the House, but a majority of Dems have already said “no”, and it is unlikely that the Republicans can make up the votes to pass it. Pelosi would face problems with her role as minority leader in the new Congress if she moves the bill, which will apparently have to be proposed by a Republican.

Update 2: Pelosi will abide by the decision of the caucus and will not hold a vote on the bill without “changes”.

An aside to Obama: this is called reality. Cutting deals without involving the Democratic Congressional leaders has consequences. The White House really screwed up on this.

McClatchy reports Obama’s deal will raise taxes for some low-income workers

… the proposal eliminates the “Making Work Pay” tax credit that was originally part of President Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus package and reduced Americans’ taxes by up to $400 for an individual or $800 for a couple.

When comparing the Social Security reduction versus the current tax credit, middle- and upper-income Americans will fare far better under the new proposal. But some lower-income workers won’t.

The break-even point is $20,000 for an individual and $40,000 for a couple. All other things being equal, make less than those figures in a year, and your taxes will go up come Jan. 1, 2011. Make more and they’ll go down.

I assume that Obama’s next move will be to reduce the representation of a working class person in the Census to three-fifths of that of a wealthy person, and he will pass it by restricting to the vote to property owners to get the Tea Party to agree. 😈

Aside: Larry Summers is warning that a failure to pass this turkey could lead to a double-dip recession. Sorry, Larry, but your brain-dead under-sizing of the stimulus package, and including too many tax cuts, instead of real stimulus, guaranteed a double-dip recession when the original program ran out.

The Good: the Federal unemployment benefits for people out of work for more than 26 weeks may be renewed.

The Bad: the renewal is only for 13 months, when it should have been tied to the unemployment rate, i.e. in effect until the rate falls below 7%.

The Ugly: All of the tax cuts that are building the deficit ever higher have been renewed for two years. The estate tax cut was renewed, adding even more to the deficit. They are reducing the FICA tax withholding for two years. They are not extending the BABs [Build America Bonds], which were keeping state and local governments from bankruptcy in some cases. There was no extension of unemployment benefits beyond 99 weeks.

Taxes are the worse way of stimulating the economy, because the number of people paying taxes is shrinking. The employment numbers for last month show that Christmas hiring was pathetic because people can’t afford to spend on Christmas.

The FICA tax cut is part of the plan to destroy Social Security and was proposed by the Republicans.

People need to keep in mind that this was a “compromise” between Obama and the Republicans. The Democratic Congressional leaders were not part of this deal, and Obama had better get 100% support from the Republicans if he expects this thing to pass.

1940-1980

After a long battle with cancer Elizabeth Edwards died at home late this morning, surrounded by family and friends.

She was a military brat and a tireless advocate for health care and other issues that affect real people. Her voice will be missed.

“a date which will live in infamy…”

The official US Navy site on the Pearl Harbor attack.

There will be a memorial service aboard NAS Pensacola that normally features local survivors of the attack.

They have their own license plates:

Mark Seibel of McClatchy Newspapers says Forget policy, some of this WikiLeaks stuff is great to read. One of the stories he recounts, from Panama, is interesting because it is the most highly classified leak I’ve seen, and it is an admitted fiction. The cable was expected to be intercepted by Noriega’s security apparatus and was used to obscure the imminent US attack to arrest the Panamanian strongman. It is a prime example of why people should not accept these leaks at their face value.

Juan Cole wonders Is AIPAC a Wikileaks Operation? Dr. Cole notes the difference in reaction to Wikileaks, as opposed to other leaks which were a good deal more damaging to national security.

Greg Mitchell of The Nation is blogging the story every day and makes some wonderful catches today:

9:25 Interestingly, Guardian investigations chief David Leigh reveals in a tweet that his paper declined to publish the “terror list” below, while noting that the Murdoch-owned Times in London did. “Murdoch is helping terrorists?” he tweaked.

9:20 German mag Der Spiegel out with its 2nd issue on its access to cables. A lot on Iraq. One headline: “US Diplomats Bewildered and Bamboozled in Baghdad.” Say its based on their reading of 5500 cables. This raises key point: WikiLeaks itself has still posted less than 900 cables — due to relying on heavy redacting by its news org partners. But the same partners do have the complete 250,000 cables. So they, not WikiLeaks, are the ones breaking news and quoting from — even if not posting — all the cables.

8:50 WikiLeaks releases long list of potential U.S. targets around the world in “war on terrror,” all the way to China. Much controversy in UK as this broke, some claiming it was worst move yet by group.
[…]

They are Spartacus: The number of WikiLeaks mirror sites now up to 355…. WikiLeak tweets: “Sarah Palin says Julian should be hunted down like Osama bin Laden–so he should be safe for at least a decade.” Still, surprised that Palin, on Sarah Palin’s Alaska, did not shoot Assange from a helicopter last night..

[Read more →]

Yes, it is the day that kindly old Saint Nicholas fills the footware of good little girls and boys with treats [or his assistants beat the evil out of bad children, depending on the local customs – they didn’t just leave the sticks, in some places they use them.] Don’t forget the carrot if he rides a horse in your area.

He is the patron saint of Russian merchants and pawnbrokers.

CBS has done it now. Their report and headline: GOP Senators Reject Tax Cuts for Middle Class

Their subhead: “Republicans Pushing Tax Cuts for Rich Shoot Down Cuts for Everyone Else; Dems Criticize GOP Priorities:

Their lead:

(CBS/AP) Last Updated 12:32 p.m. ET

Republicans in the Senate shot down two Democratic plans to extend Bush-era tax cuts to the middle-class, because the proposals did not also extend them for the wealthiest two percent of Americans.

After two hours of debate, cloture vote failed to gain the 60 votes necessary to bypass a filibuster.

When LIEberman finishes with WikiLeaks he will be after CBS. Everyone knows that criticizing the Republicans isn’t allowed by the corporations or their vermin/minions [verminions?]

WikeLeaks included the US in its mix to see what would happen when push came to shove, and discovered, as they expected, there was no shove. US companies won’t support unpopular speech.

Amazon, EveryDNS, and PayPal dumped WikiLeaks rather than resist.

EveryDNS didn’t have much of a choice, because they just were unable to deal with the attack on their DNS server, and that was taking down the rest of their clients. They are a low-end operation, and you don’t expect this kind of abuse at .org sites.

WikiLeaks hasn’t been down as a result of these attacks, you just had to use one of the other multiple URIs they own, or use one of the mirror sites.

I expect a complete investigation of these illegal attacks against Wikileaks by LIEberman … right after he converts to Islam and finishes his first Hajj.

The BBC reports that Man indicted over ‘bomb factory’ in California home

Federal prosecutors in California have filed an eight-count indictment against a man accused of operating a bomb factory out of his home.

George Jakubec, who allegedly had the single largest horde of homemade explosives ever found in the US, is to be arraigned on charges involving the explosives and three bank robberies.
…

Crews have begun building a 16ft (4.8m) wall around Mr Jakubec’s home in order to protect other houses in the neighbourhood during next week’s controlled fire.

For those who weren’t aware of it, robbing a Federally insured bank [FDIC, etc.] is a Federal crime, and so is the manufacture of explosives. San Diego county officials have to be thrilled to hand off the expense of this case to the Feds.

It’s nice to see they agree with me on the disposition of the crime scene. I wonder if they’ll play Wagner: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”