Cuccinelli Gave Money To 'Crisis Pregnancy Centers'

According to Mother Jones, Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli gave thousands of dollars to "crisis pregnancy centers" (anti-abortion advocacy centers) and took it off his taxes. From Mother Jones's Molly Redden:

... [C]risis pregnancy centers... [are] controversial facilities that counsel pregnant women against abortions. Abortion rights advocates have criticized crisis pregnancy centers for showing women graphic simulations of abortions, providing medical misinformation, and opening offices near abortion providers in the hopes that women will confuse the two. At one of the centers Cuccinelli supported, staff told women that abortion increases their chance of breast cancer and that abortion will "haunt" them for the rest of their lives. At another Cuccinelli-backed center, employees falsely told a New York Times reporter that Margaret Sanger, an early advocate for legal abortion, was a Nazi sympathizer.

...

Out in the real world, abortion does NOT cause breast cancer, women who have abortions by and large get on with their lives untroubled (let alone haunted) by their abortions, and Margaret Sanger... oh, just go read about her; she had her flaws, but Nazi sympathy was not among them. Even the names of such crisis pregnancy centers are dishonest: e.g., "AAA Women for Choice" is NOT pro-choice in the conventional sense. *

People like Cuccinelli don't belong in any aspect of government, let alone as governor of a state. Fortunately, a recent Rasmussen poll (see TPM) shows McAuliffe leading Cuccinelli 50% to 33%.

(Reminder: don't forget to vote. These are "off-year" elections in name only; they are every bit as important as presidential elections.)

---

* I have tried to use well-known major sources for information about abortion and breast cancer, and abortion and depression. If you want a different answer, you can find it in individual statements and papers by org's with an ax to grind... by the thousands of posts... but the articles linked above, in the American Cancer Society web site and Time online, reflect the overwhelming majority of scientific opinion.

'Get Off My Lawn Town Hall!'

Ah, yes, Senator McPain. McCain, I mean; McCain. What would we do without him? Caitlin MacNeal at TPM:

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) shooed a man from a town hall in Phoeniz, Ariz., Tuesday after he repeatedly yelled at the senator about American aid to rebel forces in Syria.

The man accused the U.S. of giving weapons to al-Qaeda-affiliated groups in Syria.

McCain repeatedly asked the man if he was finished speaking so that McCain could respond, ...

...

When the constituent continued to loudly lecture McCain about terrorists in Syria, McCain told the man he was "rude" and shooed the him out of the town hall with a wave of his arm.

OK. McCain had every right to shut the guy up. Dumpy, late-middle-aged men wearing shorts and a T-shirt and sporting beards can sometimes be too loud‑mouthed. (Ahem.)

But McCain is far too self-assured. If he had spent less time in his presidential campaign lecturing people about their faults and more time addressing the needs they perceive themselves as having, he might have ended up as president. That would not have been a good thing; between arrogant Republican McCain and arrogant Republican Obama, I'll take the latter almost any day. But I'll admit I'll be glad when McCain retires.

Victory For Privacy: Federal Appeals Court Rules Police May Not Conduct GPS Searches Without Warrant

Kevin Gosztola at FDL:

A federal appeals court has ruled that police must obtain a warrant in a case involving a “slap-on” GPS tracking device, where defendants had argued they were victims of searches that violated their privacy rights.

The court found the attachment of a GPS tracking device to a defendant’s van was not excused by the argument that law enforcement were acting in “good faith.” All evidence obtained from the search was ordered to be suppressed in the case.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reacted to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision. “Today’s decision is a victory for all Americans because it ensures that the police cannot use powerful tracking technology without court supervision and a good reason to believe it will turn up evidence of wrongdoing,” ACLU staff attorney Catherine Crump said.

...

It's about time. Warrantless searches, under Bush Junior and then under Obama, have become almost the rule rather than the exception, to the point at which the Fourth Amendment almost doesn't exist anymore. Perhaps this will breathe new life into it, and discourage at least some cops from doing whatever they damned well please irrespective of the Bill of Rights.

Have You Ever Had The Feeling Something Just Isn't... Right... With The AP?

TPM, Daniel Strauss:

AP Reporter And Editor Fired Over False McAuliffe Report

The Associated Press has fired a reporter and editor in connection to a false story alleging Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe lied to a postal inspector in a fraud scheme, according to The Huffington Post.

The author of the report, which was retracted soon after it was published, Bob Lewis has been fired, the news services announced Monday. Dena Potter, a news editor for the Associated Press who covered Virginia and West Virginia, has also been fired.

...

It's not completely clear from the lede, but that's two people, a reporter and (separately) an editor, who were fired. I wonder how much Ken Cuccinelli paid them to release the story...

UPDATE: AP fired a third employee. Now the News Media Guild, representing AP employees, is getting involved. Pass the popcorn...

Texas: City, County, State Board Of Education Elections Early Voting Begins Today

A few basics...

Here's a map of locations where Harris County residents may vote early. (.pdf format.) IMPORTANT NOTE: in general, YOU CANNOT VOTE EARLY AT YOUR REGULAR ELECTION-DAY POLLING PLACE, AND VICE VERSA! To vote early, find a suitable polling place on the linked map; pick one reasonably close to home. Also: NOTE THAT EARLY VOTING POLLING PLACES ARE OPEN DIFFERENT HOURS FROM REGULAR ELECTION-DAY POLLING PLACES! If you live in Texas but not in Harris County, search the web for your county clerk's office or voter registrar's office. Something like this... "harris county TX 2013 election information" ... gets all the relevant sites on Google.

New this year, thanks to the goddamnGOP: You MUST present a photo ID to vote! Your driver's license will do, but ONLY IF YOUR NAME AS PRESENTED ON YOUR DRIVER'S LICENSE MATCHES THE NAME ON YOUR VOTER CERTIFICATE! If they differ... e.g., if you are a woman who married and took her husband's name, but who has not yet made the change on her driver's license, YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO PRESENT A MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE. The document you present MUST BE THE ORIGINAL, NOT A PHOTOCOPY. Other than a driver's license, several other forms of Photo ID are allowed; SEE HERE... but note that I HAVE HEARD YES AND NO ABOUT PASSPORTS. If you receive definitive information about passports as voter Photo ID, please inform me. (To me, the most interesting fact is that a concealed handgun license is a valid ID for voting. I suppose if you are known to be packing heat, your chances of being allowed to vote improve noticeably...)

If your Texas driver's license name and voter certificate name match except for, say, a middle name versus a middle initial, YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO HAVE THE CLERK FILL IN A LINE ON A "SIMILAR NAME AFFIDAVIT" WHICH YOU MUST INITIAL to confirm that the difference is incidental and only representational, i.e., that the names are the same and are the name of the same person (you). Expect this to take a while. If the goddamnGOP election judge at your poll is a very determined sort, expect this to take quite some time, i.e., don't bet on being able to vote on your half-hour lunch break.

If you have the feeling the goddamnGOP doesn't want women to vote, ask yourself: WHERE DID YOU EVER GET THAT IDEA? [irony /]

‘There's Nothing Surer: The Rich Get Rich...’

Stiglitz

"... and the poor get poorer," goes the increasingly accurate but abominably titled song, "Ain't we got fun." Well-known economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, whom the New York Times describes as "a Nobel laureate in economics, a Columbia professor and a former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist for the World Bank," may as well have quoted that song (omitting the "fun" part) to describe the growth in economic inequality among individuals within developed nations: since the 1980s, individual inequality has grown, using as a basis a paper by World Bank economist Branko Milanović, The Haves and the Have-Nots: A Brief and Idiosyncratic History of Global Inequality:

...

... While the gap between some regions has markedly narrowed — namely, between Asia and the advanced economies of the West — huge gaps remain. Average global incomes, by country, have moved closer together over the last several decades, particularly on the strength of the growth of China and India. But overall equality across humanity, considered as individuals, has improved very little. ...

So while nations in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, as a whole, might be catching up with the West, the poor everywhere are left behind, even in places like China where they’ve benefited somewhat from rising living standards.

From 1988 to 2008, Mr. Milanovic found, people in the world’s top 1 percent saw their incomes increase by 60 percent, while those in the bottom 5 percent had no change in their income. And while median incomes have greatly improved in recent decades, there are still enormous imbalances: 8 percent of humanity takes home 50 percent of global income; the top 1 percent alone takes home 15 percent. ...

The United States provides a particularly grim example for the world. ...

On the one hand, widening income and wealth inequality in America is part of a trend seen across the Western world. A 2011 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that income inequality first started to rise in the late ’70s and early ’80s in America and Britain (and also in Israel). The trend became more widespread starting in the late ’80s. ...

Of the advanced economies, America has some of the worst disparities in incomes and opportunities, with devastating macroeconomic consequences. The gross domestic product of the United States has more than quadrupled in the last 40 years and nearly doubled in the last 25, but as is now well known, the benefits have gone to the top — and increasingly to the very, very top.

Last year, the top 1 percent of Americans took home 22 percent of the nation’s income; the top 0.1 percent, 11 percent. Ninety-five percent of all income gains since 2009 have gone to the top 1 percent. ...

...

(Bolds mine. - SB)

Please note that this 30-odd-year decline in the economic wellbeing of the lower and lower-middle classes in America spans three Republican presidencies and parts of three Democratic presidencies. It spans vast improvements in technology, especially information technology. It also spans historically unprecedented growth in productivity.

Much good that has done the 99% of us. It doesn't seem to matter whom we elect to the presidency or to Congress. It doesn't seem to matter what we do... only the top 1% are able to get ahead, while the rest of us scrape for what we get, and get a portion of all that average economic growth that never really increases. (Beware any author who praises average incomes. Unless you are wealthy or at least well-off, averages have little meaning. The average— the mean— of your income and that of Bill Gates is probably in the billions of dollars; averages are used mostly by Republicans to paper over bad news for the lower and middle classes.)

And poverty... please see this chart for the US and Texas from 1980 to 2007. Note that poverty goes up and down, but never really descends below 11% in "the greatest nation on Earth."

Welcome to our brave new world.

Stiglitz concludes:

...

Inequality and poverty among children are a special moral disgrace. They flout right-wing suggestions that poverty is a result of laziness and poor choices; children can’t choose their parents. In America, nearly one in four children lives in poverty; in Spain and Greece, about one in six; in Australia, Britain and Canada, more than one in 10. None of this is inevitable. ...

For these reasons, I see us entering a world divided not just between the haves and have-nots, but also between those countries that do nothing about it, and those that do. Some countries will be successful in creating shared prosperity — the only kind of prosperity that I believe is truly sustainable. Others will let inequality run amok. ...

Stiglitz does not explicitly say which category includes the United States. What do you think?

Tom Foley (1929-2013)

They don't make 'em like Speaker Foley (see also) anymore. Some of us think that's a damned shame. • Eagle Scout back when being an Eagle Scout meant something more than parroting right-wing slogans (not to mention toppling ancient rock formations); • later an adult Scout leader for many years. • Prosecuting attorney. • Speaker of the House for 30 years. • Swept out of office in the great Republican purge of 1994; his successor as Speaker could only wish Foley's memory would go away... but it didn't. • As far as I could ever tell, deeply decent guy who cared a lot about our country.

R.I.P., Mr. Foley. All of us owe you a lot... even the liars who refuse to admit it.

The Mythology Of Cheney's Heart

As TPM put it, "Cheney Had Heart Device Disabled To Prevent Terrorists From Sending Fatal Shock."

To which I could only react, uninspiredly, in shock, "Cheney has a heart?"

Krugman: No Happy Days

Krugman, just after the shutdown ended:

The government is reopening, and we didn’t default on our debt. Happy days are here again, right?

Well, no. For one thing, Congress has only voted in a temporary fix, and we could find ourselves going through it all over again in a few months. ...

... the economic damage from obstruction and extortion didn’t start when the G.O.P. shut down the government. ... And the damage is large: Unemployment in America would be far lower than it is if the House majority hadn’t done so much to undermine recovery.

...

Yet it would be a mistake to conclude that Macroeconomic Advisers overstated the case. The main driver of their estimates is the sharp fall since 2010 in discretionary spending as a share of G.D.P. — that is, in spending that, unlike spending on programs like Social Security and Medicare, must be approved by Congress each year. Since the biggest problem the U.S. economy faces is still inadequate overall demand, this fall in spending has depressed both growth and employment.

What’s more, the report doesn’t take into account the effect of other bad policies that are a more or less direct result of the Republican takeover in 2010. Two big bads stand out: letting payroll taxes rise, and sharply reducing aid to the unemployed even though there are still three times as many people looking for work as there are job openings. Both actions have reduced the purchasing power of American workers, weakening consumer demand and further reducing growth.

...

[Bolds mine. - SB]

The damage is large. Some of the damage is permanent. Most of the damage falls on our society's most disadvantaged people. And Republicans are gearing up to do it all over again in a few months. Do you still insist "both sides do it"? I'm sorry; I don't care what pundit told you on what TV outlet, it's still a baldfaced lie. Republicans, and only Republicans, and only one species of Republicans, do it, damn them.

---

On the positive side, Prose Before Hos has gathered some great cartoons, and quotes the following tweet:

'One Might Even Call It A Lie'

That's George Zornick at The Nation, in his article, "Nothing Ted Cruz Said About the ACA Today is True," describing one of many, many "wildly, wildly overstat[ed]" arguments made by Sen. Ted Cruz about ObamaCare. And there are a lot of them.

Cruz is the worst example of the lawyer stereotype, and gives a by-and-large honorable profession a black eye. Of course he does it for the publicity, gearing up for a possible presidential run in 2016. I did not think it was possible for Republicans to contemplate someone for the presidency who was morally inferior to George W. Bush, but I was wrong. At what point will the American people say "enough" and relegate the GOP to history's dumpster?

Republican Backfire

Krugman on "The Backfire Effect":

I’m coming to this a bit late, but I see that there’s now extensive evidence that facts not only don’t win arguments, they make people on the wrong side dig in even deeper: “When your deepest convictions are challenged by contradictory evidence, your beliefs get stronger.”

...

No effing kidding!

It Is Done: Senate Bill Passes House

About five minutes ago the House passed its agreement to the Senate's version of the bill extending the debt limit and reopening the government. Once Obama signs it... which he promised to do tonight; I saw him say it... the deplorable government shutdown is over. I've read comments to the effect that it may take most federal agencies and departments a while to get up and running again. And I've also read an estimated cost of the whole shutdown as about $24 billion. Thank you, Republican Party... thanks for less than nothing.

'And They Cried Out Again, Cruz-ify Him!'

... Mark 15:13, King James version, give or take a few letters, or a language mixture. As far as I can tell, Grover Norquist is in no mood to forgive Ted Cruz and his fellow defund‑Obamacare pushers, and Norquist is scarcely alone among GOPers in that sentiment. Norquist, out of context but just as clear nonetheless:

I think if you make a mistake as big as what they did, you owe your fellow senators and congressmen a big apology — and your constituents, as well, because nothing they did advanced the cause of repealing or dismantling Obamacare.

If you work among a lot of Republican colleagues, be prepared to dodge all the pointing fingers in the next week or so.

Boehner: 'Fought The Good Fight; Just Didn't Win'

John Boehner said, "We fought the good fight; we just didn't win."

Bull-crackers! That was no "good fight." That was the most irresponsible act by a congressional caucus that I have seen in my 65 years of living. In a just world, that act would result in the total demise of the Republican Party as of the next election.

In the real world, on the other hand... (sigh)

Obama's Offer To GOP: Nothing. GOP's Inevitable Response: Surrender

Please read here and here. Wall Street's message to GOP? Get it over with. Ted Cruz? The Houston Chronicle apologizes... sort of... for having endorsed him. Various House GOPers? Busy berating the National Park Service for having closed parks. (Do TPers think we are as idiotic as they are?) Elijah Cummings (D-MD)? He believes Heritage, not John Boehner, is calling the shots.

This is a sorry, disgraceful business, and it's still not quite over. I wish there were a way the GOP could be made to see what they have wrought, but I'm as certain as I can be that even if they lose congressional seats in 2014, they won't have learned one damned thing.

UPDATE: at last, Cruz says he won't bust the deal. He was mighty quiet for a while there...

Fitch, Fitch, Fitch...

TPM's Igor Bobic:

Credit rating agency Fitch placed U.S. holdings, which remain AAA, on negative watch Tuesday, as Congressional negotiations over the federal debt ceiling stalled just two days before a Thursday deadline.

"Fitch continues to believe that an agreement will be reached to end the current political impasse and raise the U.S. debt ceiling," the agency said in a press release. "Even if the debt limit is not raised before or shortly after 17 October, we assume there is sufficient political will and capacity to ensure that Treasury securities will continue to be honoured in full and on time."

...

It's good of them to cut the US some slack. But I don't like the sound of this...

Luckovich: 'Trick Or Treat... Or Else!'

Extraordinary Rendition: It's Not Just A Bush-Cheney Thing

Kevin Gosztola of FDL, yesterday:

Rendition of Libyan Terror Suspect: What If Abu Anas al-Liby Had Nothing to Do With the Embassy Bombings?

By: Kevin Gosztola Monday October 14, 2013 8:11 pm

A Libyan terror suspect kidnapped from Libya in a raid by US special forces on October 5 was transferred from the naval ship, where he was being detained and interrogated, into “law enforcement custody” over the weekend.

The Justice Department indicated in a press release that he was “brought directly to the Southern District of New York, where he has been under indictment for more than a decade.” He was expected to be brought before a judge on October 15.

Al-Liby is suspected of being involved in the bombings of US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

Last week, a chief federal public defender, David E. Patton, according to the Los Angeles Times, had pressed a federal judge to order that he be “brought to court immediately,” as he was aboard a ship being interrogated by the High Value Detainee Interrogation Group, which is a special task force of personnel from the Pentagon, FBI, CIA and other agencies. He had not been read Miranda rights, which he and other terror suspects have a right to be read if they are being prosecuted under US law. But a federal judge would not issue such an order and would not appoint a defense lawyer to represent him either.

A more critical issue is that al-Liby, whose real name is Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, may not be the dangerous al Qaeda terrorist the United States government believes he happens to be.

...

Please read the rest of Gosztola's post. It is a case study in our government's unconstitutional (indeed un-American) actions in extraordinary rendition cases.

I have read the Bill of Rights many times. I skimmed it one more time before writing this post. And with the possible exception of the 10^th Amendment (and it's hard to tell on that one), none of the enumerated rights apply only to US citizens. In particular, in this case, foreigners retain judicial due process rights as surely as citizens.

In spite of this, we see extraordinary rendition inflicted not merely by the admittedly evil George W. Bush and Dick Cheney but also by the allegedly more moderate Barack Obama. Refusing to read Miranda rights as a protection of due process? moderate? refusing to appoint a defense attorney? moderate? Not hardly! Our nation's founders are surely spinning in their graves.

And remember, this is process for a man who appears (to some people at least) to be trying to cooperate with the government... to be sure, acting in his own best interest (that's his right), and possibly having been a terrorist (that's to be determined by trial, not merely assumed without trial), but apparently trying to cooperate.

If our courts begin abducting people who are trying to cooperate (perhaps to prevent their testimony?), if our courts begin denying due process rights (guaranteed by our Constitution not just to citizens, but to people in general when under US jurisdiction), what possible confidence can we have that they will not turn the same extreme measures against American citizens when they find it convenient? And... what a time to decide to do this, while most of us are distracted by the government shutdown!

Niemöller nailed it in 1946, though he was speaking about German Nazis... in one variant, "First they came for the Jews..." Well, now they're coming for the alleged terrorists, and I'm damned if I will remain silent. Even a terrorist deserves a fair trial. Even a terrorist deserves a defense attorney.

UPDATE: from an AP article:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Four years after his failed effort to bring the 9/11 mastermind to New York for trial, President Barack Obama has reinstated the federal courthouse as America's preferred venue for prosecuting suspected terrorists.

His administration has done so by quietly securing conviction after conviction in the civilian judicial system. Meanwhile at Guantanamo Bay, admitted 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's case moves at a snail's pace.

...

Right. It's amazing how many convictions you can obtain if you refuse to appoint a defense attorney...

Default And Prioritizing: The Horrifying Reality

So what's wrong with the course of action many Republicans seem unable to stop babbling about, namely, defaulting, then prioritizing the government's payments (according to what political scheme I wouldn't hazard a guess)? According to Krugman, there are four reasons not to do that; please read and think about them... especially if you are a GOPer facilely advocating this catastrophic strategy. You say you don't want to read Krugman? That's just too bad; you really need to. Stop wasting your time on this blog and go read his reasoning.

Does America Default? Does The GOP Then Collapse? Stay Tuned...

... for the next exciting episode. For the possibility of default, read here. For the latest poll ratings on the GOP's handling of budget talks, read here.

I have seen remarks to the effect that if this goes on any longer, people will learn they can live without a federal government.

Not me. And I don't think very many people really want that, if they think about it for 30 seconds (or 5 minutes, if they are GOPers).

I have, however, started contemplating life without Republicans, and I believe I can handle that just fine...

Jed Morey: 'The Book Of Morgan'

Yes, this video is an ad for a book. But the assertion Jed Morey makes is breathtaking: Morgan Stanley owns and/or controls most resources required for the delivery of gasoline to the pump, hides everything behind offshore corporations, trades on offshore exchanges whose operation is not visible to ordinary mortals, and makes bundles of money... your money... by doing this. Cynthia Kouril of FDL provides the video:



For me, there is real irony here. Back in my working days, when I began to accumulate a bit of money (it happens if you have an overpaid occupation, no house and no kids), I phoned around to find an advisor to help me do "socially responsible" investing. After considerable telephoning I fould one guy... one investment advisor in all of Houston... who was known to be willing to put up with the eccentricities of someone like me. He was a veep at Morgan Stanley (actually Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in those days).

The story does not have a happy ending: if you are a millionaire or above, Morgan Stanley probably takes the trouble to make money for you, 'cause you're "one of them." If not, well, your money is just fodder for the monster. The best I can say is that I did not lose too much of my hard-earned cash. But, socially responsible or not, I didn't provide myself a very good retirement, either. Younger folks, take note.

Martin Longman Tracking The GOP Folly

Martin Longman at The Washington Monthly (where he has been retained as one of their weekend bloggers) and also his own blog BooMan Tribune (see blogroll for both) has been following the play-by-play among Democrats in Congress and the White House and Republicans in both houses of Congress. I believe he has some insights into the nature and inevitable conclusion of the craziness. See Washington Monthly here, here, here and here. Similar posts are available on BooMan Tribune.

Surveillance Then; Surveillance Now

Kathleen Sharp of truthout explores "Living the Orwellian Life," starting with an examination of the life of actress Dorothy Comingore, best known for her role in the film Citizen Kane:

That was then; this is now. These days, it seems J. Edgar Hoover is not dead, and he has his panties in a knot. And his white index cards with our names on them have been committed to databases...

'Lesus Jesus Wept'

This has to be the typo of the century... Lisa Derrick of FDL explains:

Someone misspelled the name of the Vatican’s raison d’etre, Jesus, on a commemorative medallion, striking 6,000 gold, silver and bronze coins with the name Lesus. Several of the medallions were sold before someone noticed the error. The remaining medallions were recalled, making the four that were sold collectors items.

The coins were struck by the Italian Mint to honor the papacy of Francis I and carried a Latin inscription which the Pope said inspired him to join the Catholic priesthood:

Vidit ergo Jesus publicanum et quia miserando antque eligendo vidit, ait illi sequere me (Jesus therefore sees the tax collector, and since he sees by having mercy and by choosing, he says to him, follow me).

...

Sigh...

Fukushima: Radiation As Great As 13,000 Hiroshima Bombs Threatens Japan, US, Europe

That's right. If the remaining spent-fuel rods in the pool at Reactor #4 in Fukushima, currently suspended 100' in the air, are not lowered and cooled, or if there's an accident during the lowering and cooling, the zirconium cladding on the rods could spontaneously combust (remember the flashcubes your old camera used 40-50 years ago? those burned zirconium to create the flash), the radioactive fuel rods themselves could ignite and send clouds of radioactive smoke drifting across the entire Northern Hemisphere, carrying the radiation equivalent of 13,000 Hiroshima bombs and killing millions of people on three continents. Please read this post at FDL, and view the video by Harvey Wasserman above, for more information.

TEPCO, the Japanese power company which ran Fukushima when it was in use, as well as the Japanese government, has every reason to downplay the danger, and has shown no sign of having the technological capacity to perform the needed lowering and cooling of the rods, nor does Japan have the money it will cost. In light of the danger to the lives and/or health of literally more than half of humankind, an organization called nukefree.com is advocating that the US assume the technological challenge and the UN assume the financial burden. This org has floated a petition to that effect. It is hosted at MoveOn, but if you visit nukefree.com, you will see a direct link to the petition. Frankly, it's about all you can do. I've done it, and I hope you will too.

UPDATE a few minutes later: Here is a Guardian article about evidence of possible radiation poisoning symptoms— migraines, breathing problems, cancer— in Malibu High School. Californians, keep your eyes on the news.

Gallup: 60% Of Americans Say We Need A Third Party

So writes Igor Bobic of TPM. I presume those expressing that opinion mean a viable third party, a rational third party, a broadly compassionate third party. We already have "third" parties that are none of those.

The other thing people forget when they advocate (or even join) a third party is that if we have a third major party, we'll need a revised system of voting for president (at least); otherwise, the third party will play the role of spoiler and nothing more. Remember when Ralph Nadir... excuse me, Nader... ran for prez as a Green? That really helped us, oh boy, didn't it.

What we really need is a system in which parties offer clearly contrasting alternatives. Right at the moment, while the Republican Party is held by the 'nads by its craziest element, it is pretty easy to distinguish the GOP and the Democratic Party. But when it comes to the President exercising his purported unitary executive privileges, or a party's fulfilling its "obligations" to its large individual donors and corporations, there's not much to distinguish Bush Junior from Obama: both have been a hazard to our civil liberties. Give me two parties, please, representing two outlooks.

Meanwhile, just give me a GOP in control of itself...

Sad Story In Rhyme

From the Guardian:

Marc Blackburn has been a park ranger with the National Park Service for nineteen years and currently works at Nez Perce National Historical Park in Idaho. Due to the ongoing government shutdown, Marc hasn't been working for over a week. He will not be paid until the government reopens.

Sad indeed:

A park ranger who works at Nez Perce
Says that matters could hardly be werce:
"While the government's shut
I am stuck in a rut—
And my paycheck, no one can disberce!"

- SB the YDD

Even Heritage Action Opposes Conditioning Govt. Restart On Defunding Obamacare

This was bound to happen at some point: the CEO of a powerful conservative group, Heritage Action (related to Heritage Foundation... link is to wiki, not group website), announces his opposition to what the House is doing. It's not that they oppose defunding Obamacare (see graphic at right), but that they oppose tying that act to the threat of government default.

Via DSWright at FDL, from Howard Fineman at HuffPo:

...

Michael Needham, CEO of the powerful group Heritage Action, said that he opposed conditioning a crucial vote to increase the government's borrowing authority on the group's main goal: defunding Obamacare.

Under questioning at a breakfast with reporters, hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, Needham, a product of the Stanford Business School, conceded that failure to raise the debt ceiling would indeed disrupt the global economy.

...

I can't quite manage to put it in words of one syllable for the infantile Tea Partiers who need to understand this, but here it is, children, in words suitable for grownups: a default would be bad for all Americans and most people in the developed world, but it would be catastrophic for a central element of the Republican base... the business community. TPers: stand down before you fall down!

In 2016 GOP Presidential Race, NJ Gov. Chris Christie Looms Large

Actually, Catherine Thompson of TPM says merely that he "won't rule it out." Other candidates had better make room...

Oh, Great— 'Constitution' Truckers To Clog Roadways

Hunter Walker of TPMMuckraker:

'Constitution' Truckers Plan To Shut Down D.C. With Protest Convoy

A group billing itself as the "Independent Truckers of America" has vowed to flood the nation's roadways this weekend with a "Ride For The Constitution" in order to "save our nation" from "domestic enemies such as Barack Obama, John Kerry, Lindsay Graham and John McCain."

According to the Ride For The Constitution website, this "Truckers Shutdown" will feature "potentially hundreds of thousands of truckers and millions of citizens" converging Friday through Sunday on the nation's capital. There will also be affiliated rallies at rest areas and displays on highway overpasses. The faces of this event are a right wing radio host, outspoken gun activist and "libtard" hater Mark Kessler, as well as a former trucker who believes President Barack Obama is "a radical Islamist."

...

What could possibly go wrong?

(I have stripped the link to the truckers' web site because it starts immediately with audio that sounds like it might be a right-wing radio station. Go through the TPM article if you want to subject yourself to that; they have a link.)

Krugman On How We Got Here

... in his column titled The Boehner Bunglers.

(H/T ellroon.)

It's One Of Those Years

Olympic torch went out upon arrival in Moscow; torch had to be relighted with a cigarette lighter. Lose some, lose some more...

Englert, Higgs Win Nobel For Higgs Particle Discovery

TPM/AP has a tiny announcement. Fortunately, at age 84, British scientist Peter Higgs is still alive as one of the two recipients of the prize; he is responsible for the earliest theories of the Higgs boson particle and the Higgs field over five decades ago. The other recipient is Belgian scientist François Englert, also very much still alive and active at age 80, also very involved in the theoretical work in the early 1960s. Some of the other theoreticians involved have since died, and thus were ineligible for the prize. The particle was discovered in experiments over the last few years using at least two projects at the Large Hadron Collider, Europe's (!) particle collider, the largest and most powerful in the world.

If you want more info about the awarding of the prize for the Higgs boson, Matthew Strassler at Of Particular Significance has written a post, good if a bit overladen with sports metaphors. If the Higgs boson is completely new to you and you have some scientific curiosity, Strassler has written a whole series of posts, many about the Higgs, suitable for serious amateurs; they are tough going if you're not also somewhat familiar with the general state of particle physics... but Strassler can help you about that, too; he has written a large number of introductory papers suitable (if challenging) for nonscientists.

If you are my age (mid-sixties), the Higgs is by no means the first particle discovered in your lifetime... but its discovery is no less exciting for that; it is the particle that gives some other particles their mass, and hence is responsible for our existence. (Anyone who calls it the [you-know-what] particle in comments will have their comment summarily removed at my discretion. Just don't do it!)

NOTE: there are great pics at many of the above-linked sites, not of the Higgs discovery but of the LHC and various example particle collisions in the LHC. Not only would it be redundant for me to post these here, it would be impossible to select only one or two. Allow yourself 15-30 minutes to browse the pretty photos of equipment and its results; they're beautiful in a way.

NSA: No Surge Agency? No Shutdown Agency?

Zoe Schlanger at TPM:

NSA's Power Glitch Center, Utah

The National Security Agency's massive new data-storage center in Utah has been crippled by 10 meltdowns in the past 13 months, halting the agency's computer use in the facility, according to documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal.

Electrical surges described as "a flash of lightning inside a 2-foot box" have destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of machinery and delayed the opening of the one million square-foot facility, WSJ reported. The cause of the repeated failures is under investigation.

...

I am reminded of the early days of the Large Hadron Collider: perhaps humankind simply doesn't know, even to this day, how to build large, complex systems that are robust in the face of power problems.

Or perhaps God is not amused by attempts to spy on Her people in their private daily lives... nah. I'll stick with the abovementioned hypothesis until there's hard information to the contrary.

Once And For All

A long-ago girlfriend of mine used to tease people who said they were going to do something (organize their lives, sort their paper files, clean up their living space, etc.) "once and for all." She would say, with an impish gleam in her eye, "After you do that, then are you going to eat once and for all?"

Back in Newt Gingrich's heyday, many members of the GOP expressed an intent to gain and maintain control of the U.S. government on an ongoing, indefinite basis. They probably thought of themselves as having achieved at least a part of that goal during the Bush Junior years, with his Supreme Court appointments and that Court's rulings, and to the extent that Obama thinks like a Democrat (often not very much), having accomplished even more of that goal by stymieing almost all of that president's attempts at legislation since 2010 when the GOP took control of the House of Representatives. The GOPers held two of the four overtly established power centers of our government (we won't talk in this post about the undeclared power centers such as the No Such Agency and its ilk)... the House and the Supreme Court... and Democrats held two... the presidency (hence the entire Executive branch) and the Senate. Republicans were sitting pretty, for a party that had lost the presidency and the Senate.

This year, the GOP seems to have made its move: they decided to "eat once and for all." Their deciding to do that displays a fundamental lack of understanding of the diverse, multifaceted nature of the American body politic in its beliefs and voting habits: eating once and for all can have only one possible outcome, even if it's not clear yet just how or when that outcome manifests itself.

But I, having cleaned up after New Year's Eve parties in which people tried to "drink once and for all," really regret the necessity of whatever comes next. Like the post-drunken ralph and the post-party cleanup, the question is not "whether" but "when" and "how catastrophically." The outcome (upchuck?) will surely be bad for everyone concerned— Republicans, Democrats, people who think they're independent, and people who think they don't give a damn— all will have an absolute helluva mess to clean up. Welcome, Americans, willy-nilly, to the sorry world you now live in, thanks to Republican gluttony.

Charles Pierce Nails It: 'The Reign Of Morons Is Here'

Charles P. Pierce at Esquire's Politics Blog describes the whole phenomenon of

the shutdown so perfectly that I can only wish I wrote as well as he does. No samples. No excerpts. Go read the whole thing.

(In this Esquire pic, Pierce looks just like an old friend and sometime colleague of mine... except that the old friend is politically on the extreme right, quite beyond redemption the last time I talked with him.)

(H/T Kryten's comment on a thread at Bryan's Why Now?)

Scalia Believes In The Devil

Quoting Scripture for
his own purpose

Kay Steiger at TPM points to a New York Magazine interview of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in which Scalia is quoted as whispering, "I even believe in the Devil."

Well, I'm not Catholic. I'm not even Christian... I'm a UU. But I believe in the Devil. He walks the face of this Earth. He looks like an overgrown Catholic choirboy, and indeed often wears robes, though appropriately enough for the Devil, his robes are black. He dyes his hair black. Sometimes during the day he sits on a bench and wreaks havoc in people's lives. Oh, yes, there's a Devil...

"My horns are THIS wide..."

Among current Supreme Court Justices, six
(Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Alito, Sotomayor) are Catholic and three (Ginsburg, Breyer, Kagan) are Jewish. Whatever effect it may or may not have on their judgments, the religious composition of the current Court is certainly far from reflective of the American population at large.

Sporting a devilish smirk...

Historically (see same wiki), the diversity of Justices by religion has been quite wide, even including over history nine Unitarians. Now their may as well be a clause in the Constitution forbidding Unitarian Universalists on the Court, as unlikely as it is that such would ever be confirmed by the religious bigots in the GOP caucus in Congress. But at least we can point to one Devil on the Court, and know that he believes in himself...

Family Research Council 'Values Voters' — Dominionists — Talk Overthrow Or Secession

Phoenix Woman of FDL examines the FRC members most prominent among public figures, including some in or formerly in government and some currently in the military, and discusses the plans some are talking about publicly for overthrow of the US government or secession of some of the red states from the Union.

These Dominionists are people who want to establish by force a US government based on one or another version of Christian theology. Enough of them have loudly and publicly advocated a military takeover to force us to take them seriously.

So what is different now? what leads PW to bring up the subject? Follow some of the links in her post. It would be easy enough to dismiss the concerns if it weren't for the fact that some of these people are in a position to act on their rhetoric.

New Name For The Agency

In light of the enormity of the new (proposed? under construction?) 100,000 sq ft facility for the No Such Agency in Utah, I propose renaming them (at least in blog posts), not "Big Brother," but "Big Mother" (a contraction of "Big Motherfucker," which that facility is, and which their worldwide operations including domestic surveillance are). Remember, Big Mother is watching you! OK, I just googled it and the idea is not exactly new (see graphic), but I still think the association with the agency is a sound one...

Bill Moyers Essay: 'On The Sabotage Of Democracy'

Here.

AFTERTHOUGHT:  After you watch Bill Moyers, you may want to read a related post by Robert Parry at truthout, on the subject, "The White Man's Last Tantrum?" Here's a sample from the beginning:

American pundits are missing the bigger point about the Republican shutdown of the U.S. government and the GOP’s threatened default on America’s credit. The real question is not what policy concessions the Tea Partiers may extract, but rather can a determined right-wing white minority ensure continuation of white supremacy in the United States?

For years, political scientists have been talking about how the demographic changes in the United States are inexorably leading to a Democratic majority, with Hispanics and Asian-Americans joining African-Americans and liberal urban whites to erode the political domains of white conservatives and white racists.

But those predictions have always assumed a consistent commitment to the democratic principle of one person, one vote – and a readiness of Republicans to operate within the traditional standards of democratic governance. But what should now be crystal clear is that those assumptions are faulty.

...

The suggestion is that the battle is changing in both scope and nature, from an intense political battle in the American tradition to nothing less than a takeover attempt by the philosophical descendants of the Old South, trying to restore what they see themselves as having lost after the Civil War. It's scary stuff; don't read it late at night unless you have steady nerves.

AFTERTHOUGHT: Norman Solomon's post "The NSA Deserves a Permanent Shutdown" is also worth your attention. Solomon's approach is different, but the topic is still the survival of representative government and fundamental civil liberties in the United States. That really is what we're contending for, isn't it? Nothing less than that...

FBI Raids 2 Upscale Houston Homes, 1 Bryan, TX Apartment Re Purchase Of Chemicals For Making Gas

Ooooh, terra-ism in my very own neighborhood? Well, maybe. I'm trying to reserve judgment, but these incidents, one only perhaps 15-20 blocks from Our House ("next door" by Houston standards), are just too weird for words.

From the Houston Chronicle:

A federal law enforcement search of homes in upscale Houston neighborhoods Friday was prompted by the ordering of chemicals that could be used in the manufacture of some type of gas, according to an official.

Agents wearing Hazmat-type gear raided two homes in Houston and a third home in Bryan at about 9 a.m. [yesterday.]

The law enforcement source, who asked not to be identified, said the chemicals were not the type used in the manufacture of a traditional explosive.

The intent was "to make some sort of gas ... like tear gas or nerve gas," the source said.

The official said it was not known if any gas was ever produced or recovered.

...

The documents in the case were sealed, so there's not a lot of information. Apparently no one was arrested. All the news that the Comical saw fit to print seems to be from neighborhood gossip and the property tax rolls. The two Houston homes are owned by a local artist, and the apartment in Bryan is the residence of her son. I'm trying to figure out, presuming this is a put-up deal, just who benefits politically.

This has been your unofficial "be scared, be very scared" alert for the morning.

David Atkins On Why Grover Norquist's Current Self-Congratulatory Attitude Is Not Sustainable

Atkins

David Atkins (thereisnospoon) at Hullabaloo, in a persuasive editorial piece titled "The incredible hubris of Grover Norquist," explains why many factors but mostly demographics render the current self-congratulatory GOP attitude epitomized by Grover Norquist unsustainable, quite possibly starting next election. This opinion piece is thought-provoking and something of a leading indicator of hope in these otherwise discouraging times.

Is The 'Grand Bargain' Back?

As DSWright of FDL says, "It’s not too late for Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory." From Robert Costa at National Review's The Corner, the rumor is that Obama, despite overwhelmingly negative public reaction to suggested cuts during the last debt limit confrontation, still wants to be known as the president who whacked Social Security and Medicare:

...

“It’s the return of the grand bargain,” says one House Republican, who requested anonymity to speak freely. “There weren’t a lot of specifics discussed, and the meetings were mostly about just checking in. But he’s looking hard at the debt limit as a place where we can do something big.”

...

Per sources, entitlement reforms, such as chained CPI, an elimination of the medical-device tax, and delays to parts of Obamacare are all on the table as trades for delaying aspects of sequestration and extending the debt limit. Camp, especially, is pushing to have a tax-reform framework included.

...

I'd say "just shoot me now," but who knows how much GOPer spin Boehner is putting on this story for the sake of his hard-to-please public.

I'm not hard to please: just don't kill or maim SocSec and Medicare, and I'll at least listen to you.

AFTERTHOUGHT: I came back from lunch and all mention today of a "grand bargain" has vanished from the TPM site, at least if their search is any good. TalkingPointsMemo... we can rewrite the news faster than you can read it.

UPDATE 10/3 about 1:30pm CDT:  Politico has it a bit differently:

When House Speaker John Boehner raised the idea at a White House meeting Wednesday with Obama and congressional leaders, “everybody laughed at him because they’ve heard this song and dance so many times before,” said a Democratic aide briefed on the meeting. A Republican aide disputed the account, saying Democrats harangued Boehner to appoint budget negotiators. The speaker retorted, saying Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will not allow Senate Budget Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) to hold talks with House Budget Chair Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

Believe whomever you please. I'm tired of this b^llsh!t.

UPDATE 10/3, mid-afternoon time uncertain: Phoenix Woman at FDL assesses from multiple sources that Obama is not caving, and that Republicans are aware he's not. I suppose we'll see.

Sen. Franken Donates Salary During Shutdown

As you know, the XXVII^th Amendment to the Constitution prevents changing the compensation paid US Senators and Representatives until a House election has passed. Thus, as fair as it may seem to deprive members of Congress of their very considerable salaries during the shutdown, that deprivation cannot be done constitutionally.

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) has offered to donate his salary for the duration of the shutdown to Second Harvest Heartland, a hunger relief organization active in Minnesota. Here's Sen. Franken:

I believe that while the government is shut down, donating my salary to charity is the right thing to do, and I’m going to make sure that money goes toward helping people who might be badly affected by the shutdown.

That seems both fair and kind to me. And that's no joke! It seems such a good idea that I'm going to recommend it to my own US Senators and Representative, all Republicans:

Dear Senators Cornyn and Cruz, and Representative Culberson:

Your salary continues to be paid during the government shutdown. Exactly what are you doing to earn it? Surely you're not just going fishing.

When I was a working man, my income depended on my continuing to work... no work, no income. Yet the 27^th Amendment to the Constitution insulates you and all members of Congress from changes to your compensation for the duration of a term of the House of Representatives.

I noticed that Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) is donating his salary for the duration of the government shutdown to a charity that addresses hunger. How about you? Considering your role in the shutdown, do you have the common decency to redirect the taxpayers' money to people who need it, rather than simply putting it in your own already well-stuffed pockets?

Inquiring Texans want to know!

Very truly yours,

Stephen Bates
Houston, TX

Double Whammy: Man Shoots Himself... In Walmart Checkout Line

How many bad things can a fellow do to himself in one day (not to omit the ladies, but most of them aren't this stupid)? A 21-year-old man seemed determined to find the answer to that question by direct experiment: he went to Walmart (mistake #1 — it's always a mistake to go to Walmart, though I understand some people in small towns have no choice) with a .40‑caliber pistol stuck in his waistband (mistake #2 — he had a carry permit, much good that did him); while waiting in the checkout line, he apparently allowed the gun to slip (mistake #3), grabbed for it (mistake #4) and shot himself in the leg (mistake #5).

No charges were filed. On the positive side, how often can you go to Walmart and not be charged?

Josh Marshall Sums It Up: ‛Desperate, Ugly & Stupid’

Josh Marshall offers a pungent assessment of the shutdown:

Pressed on what House Republicans want to get out the national government shutdown, Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) said yesterday: "We're not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don't know what that even is."

We've seen this movie before. And I don't mean the 1995/96 shutdown or the impeachment sequel three years later. This is more like that 70s era made for TV movie.

...

Unlike Marshall himself, I lived through that era. The Seventies were "nasty, brutish, and" not nearly short enough... what good can come of a decade beginning with Richard Nixon as president. So far, that's also a good description of the shutdown, lacking only Nixon.

Oh, and as for Rep. Stutzman's claim... sorry, dude, but you're already disrespected... around the world.

The New, Improved NSA — Now With Internet Users' Metadata!

It never ends, or so it seems. Via Susie Madrak at Crooks and Liars, we find an article in The Guardian by James Ball:

The National Security Agency is storing the online metadata of millions of internet users for up to a year, regardless of whether or not they are persons of interest to the agency, top secret documents reveal.

Metadata provides a record of almost anything a user does online, from browsing history – such as map searches and websites visited – to account details, email activity, and even some account passwords. This can be used to build a detailed picture of an individual's life.

The Obama administration has repeatedly stated that the NSA keeps only the content of messages and communications of people it is intentionally targeting – but internal documents reveal the agency retains vast amounts of metadata.

...

I can't help noticing that the users are not designated as American or foreign, so we can reasonably assume they archive everything from everyone.

The article further states that the NSA is not restricted to archiving metadata only of target persons or persons of interest or suspects, but may collect and store information for up to a year (and how would you know if they held it for longer) on any internet user. The good news (for the moment) is that you can still use the 'net. The bad news... do I really have to tell you that you have no privacy if you do use any aspect of the internet?

Another Option For Obama: Ignore Debt Ceiling As Being Unconstitutional

Barkley Rosser of EconoSpeak, citing Henry Aaron (not the baseball great, but rather the economist at Brookings Institution), proposes that President Obama simply ignore the debt ceiling because it conflicts with the president's 14^th Amendment duty to pay the nation's debts.

From the US Constitution, 14^th Amendment, part 4:

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, ... shall not be questioned. ...

Particularly in the case of the ACA, the passage "authorized by law" is significant. The ACA is, in fact, law: it was passed by both houses of Congress, signed by the president, and even vetted by the Supreme Court when it was challenged.

This paragraph in Rosser's post is also straight to the point:

[Henry] Aaron notes that there was a discussion of this conundrum in 2012 in the Columbia Law Review by Neil H. Buchanan and Michael C. Dorf who concluded that indeed there are only three options in this case: 1) do not pay lawful bills, 2) arbitrarily raise taxes, and 3) simply ignore the debt ceiling and proceed as usual. After noting that these are all bad option and technically illegal, with Aaron adding "unconstitutional because violating the law," they conclude that #3 is the least bad of the bad options. Aaron notes that Obama doing this may well lead to him being impeached by the House, but he would not be convicted by the Senate, and it would avoid multiple disasters to the world economy. Aaron also notes that getting rid of the debt ceiling will end the periodic attempts at blackmail by opposition parties trying to achieve ends they could not get through normal legislative processes. All of this is correct, needless to say.

If this is the "least bad" option among bad options, why have I not heard it mentioned elsewhere? Actually, I've heard one vague reference to the president's using the 14^th Amendment requirement, but this is the most detail I have seen.

Legal experts out there... comments? Please consider that you have an audience comprising mostly non-lawyers, including me, who nonetheless read carefully and care about the result.

'Elect Republicans, And...' Rachel Maddow Will Tell You What Happens Next

... "they will burn the place down." None of this is new, says Rachel Maddow: Republicans have been promising for 2-3 years that if they are elected, the way they will govern is that they will shut down the government, and then... and then... well, there didn't seem to be a Republican consensus about governance, only about shutting down the government. Maddow's report was aired about two hours before the shutdown began, but there is considerable insight in her segment. I wish I could say that about anything Republicans have done or said since the shutdown began.

La, La, La, La, Life Death Goes On

He's gonna lose the
same leg I did...

The feral gummint is shut down, but the gun bidness goes on as usual:

An Arizona woman died after she was accidentally shot Tuesday while being hugged by her boyfriend, according to a release from Phoenix police.

The release stated the victim's boyfriend, 18, had a handgun tucked in his waistband that caused his girlfriend, 24, discomfort as he hugged her. The gun then discharged and struck the victim as the boyfriend removed it.

The woman died after being transported to a local hospital, the release stated.

Just because I haven't been reporting accidental gun deaths daily doesn't mean they haven't been happening.

Meanwhile, Starbucks says if you aren't in law enforcement, please leave your gat at home when you're in their shops... and a poll says most customers cheer the request. After all, you never know when Gov. Goodhair, who thinks Obamacare is a criminal act, might walk in for a frappuccino™...

This is not about what you are or are not permitted to do; it's about allowing people like me a cup of coffee in peace, mostly free from the threat of shoot-outs. Ah, sanity!

The Bastards Did It. Enough Is Enough

"We will not go to conference with a gun to our head." - Harry Reid

Quinnipiac poll shows substantial political damage to GOP

We all remember— well, at least Democrats remember— what happened in 1995-1996 to Clinton... and of course to Gingrich.

Murray: Republicans Refused To Go To Conference 18 Times. Democrats' fault? Really?

Watch Bernie Sanders on MSNBC.

Did Durbin just blink? Opinions differ.

Via NPR: Federal school lunch program has funds only through end of October. Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) would run out of money.

Krugman: The Economics and Politics of Chaos. Gotta read this one!

(Additional items will be posted here as I find them.)

---

Republicans are behaving like small children shrieking because they didn't get the toy they wanted. There's one difference, though... GOPers threaten to hold their breath until the voters turn Blue.

AFTERTHOUGHT: it was with due consideration that I labeled the GOP Teabaggers "bastards" in the post subject. It is not that I believe their parents aren't married, or that I would even care if they weren't. It is that there is no constitutional legitimacy to what they have done: the US Constitution provides no mechanism for repealing a law and passing a lot of other laws by blackmail or by forcibly shutting down the government. The GOPers' process is constitutionally illegitimate, plain and simple.

---

Henry Blodget of Business Insider says it well. He concludes:

...

The "Tea Party" Republicans are no longer even creating a pretense that their anti-American behavior is about debt or government spending — the issues they staked their last hijacking campaign on. Now, the "Tea Party" hijacking is based solely on their dislike of one law that many other Americans think doesn't go far enough.

America is a democracy. In democracies, people disagree about issues. They disagree, they make their best arguments, and then they do their jobs and move on.

The "Tea Party" Republicans aren't doing that.

They're disrupting and disgracing the entire country over a single pet cause that America has already voted into law.

That's not heroic.

It's not democratic.

And, despite what the "Tea Party" Republicans want you to think, it's also not patriotic.