Mercury Rising 鳯女

Sauce for the goose…

Charles II — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:53:50 +0000

Via Rachel, Virginia Republicans nearly find themselves hoist on… well, read this.

Dear General Mills…./updated

Charles II — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:05:09 +0000

Dear General Mills:

As an investor in General Mills, I am disappointed that it has been silent regarding the decision of the Susan G. Komen Foundation to suspend its association with Planned Parenthood. Yoplait, a General Mills brand, is a major sustainer of the Komen Foundation. As a consumer, I was always willing to cut Yoplait a little slack even though I think it’s overpriced and not the best brand on the shelf because it had associated itself with doing good. As an investor, I believe that companies that consciously devote themselves to doing good end up with better governance and more profitable outcomes. So the fact that Yoplait has stood silent while the Komen Foundation has descended into playing politics is disappointing. The reality is that Komen is not nearly as effective as Planned Parenthood in preventing and treating breast cancer.

As an investor, I think that Yoplait should re-direct any donations to breast cancer detection and treatment by Planned Parenthood. At the very least, it should disassociate itself from Komen.

People should mark well: McCarthyism is not just politicians using their office to attack and silence opponents. Most tragically, it is the willingness of ordinary citizens and organizations to go along with it.

Planned Parenthood gets $100 extra dollars from me as a FTSGKF.
_______
Update. Not all oil men are evil:

Amy and Lee Fikes said: “Our family is saddened that the far right has relentlessly and successfully pressured the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation to cut funding for breast screening, referral, and education support to low-income women who, until now, have been able to depend on the partnership between Komen and Planned Parenthood for their health. In response to this disappointing news, our family foundation has granted $250,000 to establish a Breast Health Fund at Planned Parenthood, so that their health centers across the country can continue to put the real needs of women ahead of right wing ideology. We encourage others to join us in replacing the funds lost, so that no woman’s health is imperiled by Komen’s unfortunate decision.” (See below for full statement.)

Lee Fikes is the head of Bonanza Oil.

The Republicans’ Enthusiasm Gap

Phoenix Woman — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:47:43 +0000

I’ve been trying to gauge relative voter enthusiasm by comparing 2012 primary and caucus results to those of 2008, on the idea that the more folks who turn out for the early primaries, the ones that decide the end result months in advance, are the key ones to watch as the motivation factor to participate will be higher in those than in the primaries held after them.

Up to this point — aside from South Carolina which was the Tea Party’s Last Hurrah, hence the huge TheoCon turnout which disproportionately benefited Newt — turnout’s been similar to 2008, especially when you take population growth into account. But then we came to Florida, and Florida’s GOP turnout this year was much lower than four years ago: 1,663,698 to 2008′s 1,949,498, or nearly 300,000 less.

I believe this means that while the Republican’s Tea-Party/Bircher base may have grudgingly accepted Romney as the only Republican who stands a chance against Obama this year, the operative word here is “grudgingly”. This was an incredibly hard-fought state — Romney needed Florida’s winner-take-all system to put a stake through Newt’s heart, which is why he outspent Newt there by a five-to-one margin — and if there really was the huge “dump Obama” fervor the GOP/Media Complex says exists, one would expect turnout to have been much higher than in 2008. Instead, the opposite happened, and there was a fifteen percent drop in turnout from 2008.

From now on, the rest of the primary schedule will have a decreasing amount of relevance aside from padding Mitt’s delegate totals. Money that was either on the sidelines or committed to other candidates will now start flowing Mitt’s way, and he’s going to need it: He outspent Santorum by nearly 100-to-1 in Iowa and still lost by a hairsbreadth, he outspent Gingrich by over two-to-one in South Carolina and got beaten like a gong, and he had to pull out all the stops and outspend Newt by five-to-one to beat him in Florida. His easiest win was in New Hampshire, where he had the advantage of being the only New Englander in the race, and even there he still had to spend over $10 million.

David Paul Kuhn of the Republican-run RealClearPolitics addresses the Republicans’ enthusiam gap in a roundabout way, asking: “Will Romney’s Strengths Prove Moot Against Obama?” Well, when even the Republican stalwart Scott Rasmussen’s polling shows Obama beating Romney by four percentage points in the general, I suspect that the answer is “no”.

Why is this? A number of reasons have been advanced, one of them being anti-Mormon prejudice, but I suspect that another factor is this: Having Romney as the nominee would mean that the Republicans’ biggest weapon to date against Obama and the Democrats — the unpopularity of the Affordable Care Act — is now permanently neutralized, as the ACA is in essence a national version of the “Romneycare” that Mitt introduced in Massachusetts, and too many Republicans are all too aware of this.

If Romney is ever foolish enough to criticize the ACA during any of his debates with Obama, all Obama has to do is tell the stark truth: “Funny you should say that, Governor, as we used your Romneycare plan as a model for the Affordable Care Act.”

The budget

Charles II — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:28:49 +0000

To no one’s surprise, if you do not tax the rich, the budget remains in massive deficit. CBO explains here

They Made Sure Everyone Knew Convicted Killer Ira Einhorn Was Part Of Earth Day…

Phoenix Woman — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:24:12 +0000

…yet when a locally-prominent Republican gets noticed nationally for doing something similarly wrong, his party ID is tucked away.

I was reminded of that when I saw the teaser for a Huffington Post story: “Politician Arrested for 1979 Murder”.

When I read the story, I noticed that it left out the political party of the city councilman, Gregory Scott Hopkins, arrested for the 1979 murder of his lover, Catherine Walsh.

I’ve noticed in the past that whenever a politician or prominent activist figure is accused of a crime, his or her political affiliation can usually be guessed by whether or not it’s mentioned in the coverage of said crime. If the politician or figure is a Democrat or anyone that’s ever so slightly to the left, that fact gets mentioned early and often, typically within the first couple of paragraphs. If the politician is a conservative and/or Republican, that fact often doesn’t get mentioned at all.

Sure enough, most other coverage, national and local, left out the accused killer’s party ID.

It was left out of this CBS Pittsburgh story.

It was left out of this Beaver County (Pennsylvania) Times story.

It was left out of this other Beaver County Times story.

It was mentioned in this other Beaver County Times story, but only in a sidebar.

Interestingly enough, the only paper to not only note the accused perp’s party ID, but to put it in the story’s title, was a overseas one, the UK’s Daily Mail.

Make of that what you will.

A basket case of sick puppies

Charles II — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:39:05 +0000

Carl Hiassen, The Guardian:

The Florida Republican primary: a basket case of sick puppies

Between Mitt hoping Fidel Castro will ‘self-deport’ from the planet and Newt’s moon shot, it’s a weird GOP race. But this is Florida
…
In the debates, Romney doesn’t twitch like Rick Santorum or ramble like Ron Paul. He doesn’t get confused. He doesn’t blurt stupid things. His line about the voluntary “self-deportation” of illegal immigrants didn’t cost him many votes among conservatives.

Usually, Mitt stands orderly and composed, doing his standard Mitt thing. Many Florida Republicans are underwhelmed, because suddenly it’s a close race. As a result, Romney has been forced to ramp up his rhetoric, which doesn’t come easy for the guy.

Campaigning in Little Havana last week, Romney said:

“If I’m fortunate enough to become the next president of the United States, it is my expectation that Fidel Castro will finally be taken off the planet. We have to be prepared.”

The phrase “taken off the planet” was a weird choice, conjuring an image of Fidel being dragged by pointy-headed aliens into a spaceship. What Romney should have said was: “Castro is old and sick, and soon he’ll be dead. We need to be ready for change in Cuba.”
…
Castro has outlasted 10 American presidents, yet Gingrich without a smirk promises to be one who will vanquish the 85-year-old tyrant. He didn’t reveal his secret plan for eliminating Fidel, but perhaps the CIA could devise an exploding Depends.

More on Oakland mass arrests/updated

Charles II — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:41:34 +0000

Figuring out exactly what happened is going to take some time. However, one key piece of information is this from the NYTimes:

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Oakland Police Department to consult with a court-appointed monitor before all major decisions, bringing the department one step closer to a federal takeover.

The order comes less than a week after the court-appointed monitor released a report that cited “serious concerns” about the department’s handling of the Occupy protest and its capacity to “adopt and hold true to the best practices in American policing” on its own.

The department has been under court monitor since 2003. The monitor was supposed to help carry out necessary reforms within five years.

Nine years later, Judge Thelton E. Henderson said sufficient changes still had not been made.

So the protests are taking place within the context of serious past abuses.
(Click for more)

Doubtless some demonstrators want a federal takeover and would like to provoke misbehavior of the kind seen with the wounding of Scott Olsen, which was followed by the police obstructing first aid. On the other hand, the Oakland PD has a long record of misbehavior and is currently facing a lawsuit by the National Lawyers Guild for behavior dating back to November 2010 and another for behavior during the protests of last year. A fuller catalog of the history is contained here, and it makes for some sobering reading. The Oakland PD does seem to have a scofflaw attitude and may have ceased to be capable of serving as a law enforcement unit.

If this statement by a National Lawyers Guild observer is substantiated, the entire media narrative about Oakland falls apart:

Cathy Jones, an attorney with the NLG gave the following statement to Occupy Oakland’s media team: “Through everything that has happened since September, from Occupy to the acceleration of “Bills” — NDAA, SOPA, PIPA, ACTA — never have I felt so helpless and enraged as I do tonight. These kids are heroes, and the rest of the country needs to open its collective eyes and grab what remains of its civil rights, because they are evaporating, quickly. Do you want to know what a police state looks like? Well, you sure as hell still do not unless you were watching our citizen journalists.”

What is clear is that the conflict on 1/30/12 began when the protesters attempted to enter a long-vacant building, the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center. From film that PW linked, the first fences torn down were around the Center to try to get to it for the occupation. It does look to me as though the police did not provide an exit for people wishing to disperse, if there were any. That was a major complaint of the protesters. From KTVU:

After the mass arrests, the Occupy Oakland Media Committee criticized the police’s conduct, saying that most of the arrests were made illegally because police failed to allow protesters to disperse. It threatened legal action.

“Contrary to their own policy, the OPD gave no option of leaving or instruction on how to depart. These arrests are completely illegal, and this will probably result in another class action lawsuit against the OPD,” a release from the group said.

You can see the extent of the vandalism at City Hall here. It looks like less than $500 in damage to me (lock on the door, broken window, flags, model of city hall, pick up flyers left). Quan claims to have pictures of the people who broke the lock on the front door with a crowbar; so prosecute. In this film, police also make claims of being barraged by rocks and bottles filled with human waste. You can see additional film about vandalism at Frank Ogawa Plaza here.

Here is one more story that deserves watching:

Shortly after these first three arrests, the police rush back into a group of protesters and forcibly grab Tiffany Tran, a small Asian woman. A policeman says she was arrested for says “instigating that first one … when you cause other people to be arrested, then you get arrested too.” [3]

According to the combined statements of the police on the scene, Tiffany Tran was arrested for instigating other people to have property in the plaza.

All of the arrestees are held in hot van without water or food for 8 hours before they are taken to Santa Rita prison. At the prison, 13 hours after first being arrested Tiffany is charged with the crime of “lynching”.

The anti-lynching California law dates back to 1933, and was created seeking to prevent white vigilante mobs from taking black prisoners away from “peace officers”, such that these racist mobs could hang black prisoners without trial.

I strongly oppose violence, whether to persons or to property. I encourage anyone who joins an Occupy movement to study Martin Luther King and Gandhi’s satyagraha tactics. These change things in a way that violence cannot. They expose the underlying violence and hypocrisy of the system of repression. They transform the practitioners, such that they become both capable and worthy of replacing the leaders they oppose, as happened with Mandela. But non-violence also incredibly hard to adhere to. It takes the strength of a saint. I find it difficult to judge protesters who turn to violence. Certainly if I am called for jury duty for a case like Oakland, I will be forced to say that I can no longer give the State the presumption of innocence.

There were 400 people arrested in Oakland out of a population of 400,000. That might not sound like a lot, but it’s huge. We forget that the arrests that caused such outrage in New York City were of 700 people…out of a population of eight million. While there is a long way to go in determining the facts of what happened, this is a tidal development. Oakland is nearing a state of insurrection.
_____________
Update: Thanks to PW, I came across the release in which The National Lawyers Guild says:

Once in Alameda County custody, the arrestees have been held for a prolonged period under horrendous conditions, often remaining overnight in holding areas with no beds or blankets. Some arrestees were apparently held in a shower room. NLGSF has received many reports of injured persons being denied medical care and arrestees denied access to necessary medications. Women arrestees were forced to give urine samples in front of male officers, ostensibly for pregnancy testing.

Also thanks to PW, I came across Allie’s call in to Sam Seder about events in October.

Here’sAlyssa’s account, which includes denial of medication and being roughed up:

I told him that I have Multiple Sclerosis and that my medicine (I only had a limited amount on me as I thought I’d be home in a few hours) is in my bag. He said “too bad.” As he pulled me away I kept repeating my MS medicine is in my bag. My wallet, keys and ID were in my bag as well. The arresting officer was essentially stealing my purse. Another officer heard and handed me my bag.

Shh! Don’t Let On That The Freeloading 1%ers Are The Problem!

Phoenix Woman — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:28:47 +0000

The exercise today for you, the reader, is to connect the dots between the following stories and bits of information:

– The real news (and the motivation for the otherwise-inexplicably-appropriate move by the usually-1%-loving French leader) is buried at the end of this Bloomberg article on Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to charge a 0.1% tax on all French financial transactions:

Socialist candidate Francois Hollande leads in the French presidential election polls. He has the support of 31 percent of voters in the first round, 6 points more than Sarkozy, and his second-round lead has risen to 20 points at 60 percent, according to a CSA poll published last week. Hollande, too, has pledged to impose a tax on financial transactions, if he’s elected.

– Fred Hiatt once again whines that we must kick Grandma and Grandpa in the groins yet again and finish giving to the 1%ers the last remaining nickels from the pockets of what used to be America’s middle class, all in the name of “deficit reduction”. Dean Baker eviscerates him for us: “The House is on Fire and Fred Hiatt is Worried About What Color to Paint the Kitchen“.

– Prominent American Enterprise Institute wingnut-welfare recipient, Powerline darling, and 1%er apologist James Q. Wilson gets caught echoing Ayn Rand worshiper and idiotic 1%er apologist Paul Ryan’s lies about taxes and upward mobility; contrary to Wilson’s and Ryan’s shared spew, upward mobility is greater in the nations that actually tax their rich — such as most of Europe — than it is in America.

Oh, by the way, the Powerliner who waxed so wet-pantily over Wilson’s prose? None other than Steven Hayward, a typical hypocritical libertarian stand-on-your-own-two-feet kinda guy who has seldom if ever held a real job and who has depended most of his adult life on Claremont and AEI wingnut-welfare subsidies for his daily bread — subsidies that are themselves provided in part by the lumber firm Weyerhauser, which pays him to trash environmentalists.

Betty McCollum On Boondoggle Bridge: “Albatross”, “Bad Policy”

Phoenix Woman — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:32:15 +0000

Proponents of the Boondoggle Bridge proposal are fond of mythmaking. One favored myth is that there is no sensible alternative to a $700 million four-lane bridge that will see less than 20,000 cars a day and which will connect a small Minnesota river town with an even tinier Wisconsin river hamlet in an area where the real-estate bubble’s bursting has pretty much ended for the next few decades the dream of its becoming the next major Twin Cities exurb. Another favored myth is that the Boondoggle Bridge is unstoppable and that resistance is futile.

My congresswoman, Betty McCollum, begs to differ with both of these myths. From her newsletter:

Congresswoman McCollum Reacts to Senate Passage of St. Croix Legislation (S. 1134)

This week, the Senate passed legislation, which would authorize the construction of a $700 million extra-dosed mega-bridge over the St. Croix River. S. 1134 would also grant permission for this bridge to violate the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act – an essential environmental protection. For over 20 years, Congresswoman McCollum has advocated for a smaller, more cost-effective solution that doesn’t violate environmental policy. Local officials, community advocates, and Minnesotans agree.

“It’s no surprise that Senator Klobuchar’s bill passed the Senate,” responded Congresswoman McCollum. “But in the House, we need to find a common sense compromise because a $700 million bridge across the St. Croix River is bad fiscal policy, bad transportation policy, and bad environmental policy.”

This is where we get to see how serious Republicans are about avoiding pork-barrel politics.

Just how big of a wasteful, platinum-plated, luxury albatross is this thing? It’s planned to cost nearly three times as much as did the new I-35 bridge in Minneapolis, which was built with top-of-the-line materials, carries 140,000 cars a day, and was built for less than $250 million. They weakened the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act for this?

DeSmogBlog And PolluterWatch: Two Good Blogs To Follow

Phoenix Woman — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:27:55 +0000

Here are some good links from both DeSmogBlog and PolluterWatch:

http://www.desmogblog.com/alec-model-bill-behind-push-require-climate-denial-instruction-schools

http://www.polluterwatch.com/category/freetagging/desmogblog

Into the blogroll they go!