LIKE WEARING A SOLID LEAD LIFE PRESERVER

This is not from The Onion....

Vatican Gets Fox Media Adviser

By NICOLE WINFIELD and VICTOR L. SIMPSON
06/23/12 05:07 PM ET AP

HM...THE FREE MARKET DOESN'T ALWAYS SCREW UP

Moody's recent downgrade of 15 major worldwide banks seems to be an instance of the Free Market Fairy working properly.

UPDATE 6-Moody's cuts ratings of 15 banks, Morgan Stanley down 2 notches
Thu Jun 21, 2012 11:13pm EDT

By Rick Rothacker and Steve Slater

CHARLOTTE, N.C./LONDON, June 21 (Reuters) - Ratings agency Moody's downgraded 15 of the world's biggest banks on Thursday, lowering credit ratings by one to three notches to reflect the risk of losses they face from volatile capital markets activities...

"All of the banks affected by today's actions have significant exposure to the volatility and risk of outsized losses inherent to capital markets activities," Moody's Global Banking Managing Director Greg Bauer said in the announcement.

LOCAL STUFF

McSally is running for the GOP nomination in Arizona CD-2 and today she was on a local wingnut show and affirmed that she is both and austerity and a social conservative.  Also too, she wants a continuation of the bloated defense budget.

ONCE AGAIN: WHERE ARE THE JOBS???

The "producers" - the top 1% - pretty much recovered by the end of 2009 and have gone on to take an even larger share of US income. In addition, corporate profit margins are at all all-time high.

If these two facts have nothing to do with how the bottom 99% live, then we need a radical transformation of our economic system.

MITTENS THINKS THAT WE ARE ALL AS STUPID AS...

SEAN HANNITY.

Romney campaign: 'outsourcing' does not equal 'offshoring'

ONCE AGAIN, REAL FINANCIAL NEWS IS BARELY NOTICED

Matt Taibbi has a great piece in Rolling Stone magazine about how the banksters criminally manipulated the municipal bond investment game but as of now, only Angry Bear and Crooks & Liars have posts about this.

It's as if the mainstream news refuses to reveal the dirty inner workings of American capitalism.

CORRECTING HANNITY

(If that were a paying job, I'd be pretty well off)

Today on his radio show, Hannity attempted to portray America's economic situation as worse than it is by asserting that Moody's downgraded 15 AMERICAN banks.  Here's the truth:

World's top banks hit with Moody's downgrade
By Andrew Beatty | AFP – 15 hrs ago

The 15 banks downgraded were: Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Societe Generale and UBS.

DID NBC NEWS FEEL THE HEAT?

Talk radio gasbags like Billy Cunningham and Sean Hannity have been deliberately conflating NBC News with MSNBC in an attempt to make NBC News responsible for the liberal commentary on MSNBC and it may have had an effect.

NBC News to launch NBCNews.com
By DYLAN BYERS |
6/21/12 2:42 PM EDT
POLITICO

NBC News, which has long had to share its website with MSNBC at msnbc.msn.com, is finally set to get its own website.

NBC Universal has hired a new press representative and brand manager who tells POLITICO that her assignment will be to "ramp up political coverage through the November election for MSNBC.com and also introduce/promote/roll out/etc. what will be NBCNews.com."

The new site, which sources say is tentatively scheduled for September, would enable NBC News to distance its digital presence from that of its sister cable network, where programming has becoming increasingly liberal.

TEH STUPID IS A VIRUS THAT PREFERS THE GOP

Mittens tried to be hip with an IPhone app but a misspelling does him in: AMERCIA. Similarly, the GOP PAC for Massachusetts misspells the state's name. While I'm at this, let's not forget all the voting bungles in the state GOP primaries.

MITTENS LOVES TALK RADIO TACTICS

Mittens may not be a true, Mark Levin conservative but he sure can campaign one.

Romney Campaign Said to Ask Scott to Downplay Job Gains
By Michael C. Bender - Jun 21, 2012 1:46 PM MT
BLOOMBERG

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign asked Florida Governor Rick Scott to tone down his statements heralding improvements in the state’s economy because they clash with the presumptive Republican nominee’s message that the nation is suffering under President Barack Obama, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Scott, a Republican, was asked to say that the state’s jobless rate could improve faster under a Romney presidency, according to the people, who asked not to be named.

What’s unfolding in Florida highlights a dilemma for the Romney campaign: how to allow Republican governors to take credit for economic improvements in their states while faulting Obama’s stewardship of the national economy. Republican governors in Ohio, Virginia, Michigan and Wisconsin also have highlighted improving economies.

RADIO TIDBITS

- Even though it's 2012,  Arbitron still can't figure out how to value radio advertising and is fiddling with at least 3 different statistical models.

- Fats Limbaugh gets some coverage for being a pig.

- Most of the major gasbags have been pushing AMAC, the conservative alternative to AARP.  The last I heard, AMAC had less than 300K members so I'd be interested in learning if this massive ad campaign is working.

MAYBE THE ATF SHOULD BE CLOSED DOWN

Over the years, I've come to believe that the ATF isn't very competent but I didn't have much evidence for that claim so I used LexisNexis to search for "ATF" and "mistake" in American newspapers and wires. There were 1,414 results going back to 1/27/1988:

The Associated Press
January 27, 1988, Wednesday, PM cycle
Agents Get Wrong Apartment In Search
SECTION: Domestic News
LENGTH: 475 words
DATELINE: CHICAGO


Federal agents said it was a mistake. Susan Chornomaz said it was a nightmare for her and her family.

"I'm still shaking," Ms. Chornomaz said Tuesday night, recalling the search by federal agents who raided the adjoining apartments of her mother and brothers.


The agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, along with Cicero police, were trying to search for contraband weapons at what they believed was the second-floor residence of a man named Ronald Connaly, said Jim Reeves, special agent with the federal agency.

Reeves said the agents were given the wrong description of the apartment by a "reliable confidential informant," and he said address numbers were not posted outside the building.

The agency would pay for any damages, he said.

Special Agent Robert Gorecki of the ATF said the agency discovered it had made a mistake after reporters began calling. But he denied that officers had caused any damage beyond the front security door.

Here's another from 1991:

Orange County Register (California)
August 29, 1991 Thursday MORNING EDITION
WRONG RESIDENTS;
Agents deny trashing home in raid conducted month late
BYLINE: Tracey Eaton, The Orange County Register
SECTION: METRO; Pg. B04
LENGTH: 570 words
DATELINE: ORANGE, CA

Federal agents raided an apartment here Wednesday, forced a man
to the ground at gunpoint and rousted his wife and young children
from bed. Only after ransacking the home did it dawn on the agents:
They'd made a mistake.

Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
had expected to find heavily armed gang members, but neighbors said
they had moved out nearly a month ago.


Henry Truong, an electrical engineer who moved into the East
Adams Avenue apartment eight days ago, said he was handcuffed and
ordered to lie on the pavement outside his front door.

"I was very, very scared," he said.

This may be ATF's worst moment:

USA TODAY
October 1, 1993, Friday, FINAL EDITION

ATF lied about Waco raid / Report shows bungling and coverup by agents

BYLINE: Debbie Howlett; Robert Davis
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 353 words



Federal agents bungled the raid on the Branch Davidian sect near Waco, Texas, and then lied to cover their mistakes, says a sharply critical Treasury Department report.

Once the ATF learned sect members had been tipped, the raid should have been aborted, said the report, out Thursday.

And agents compounded that "error in judgment" by making a "concerted effort" to conceal evidence.

THE NRO LOVES EXTREMISTS

The National Review Online had to fill the gap left by the forced departure of racist pig John Derbyshire and it seems they found a true conservative All-Star, David Yerushalmi. Wonkette listed some of this creep's more egregious postions:

- It shall be a felony punishable by 20 years in prison to knowingly act in furtherance of, or to support the, adherence to Islam.

- The Congress of the United States of America shall declare the US at war with the Muslim Nation or Umma.

- The President of the United States of America shall immediately declare that all non-US citizen Muslims are Alien Enemies under Chapter 3 of Title 50 of the US Code and shall be subject to immediate deportation.

- No Muslim shall be granted an entry visa into the United States of America.

Wonkette didn't give a link to support its claims but Think Progress did:

Back in September 2010, ThinkProgress examined Yerushalmi’s long history of extremists statements, which include a proposal making it “a felony punishable by 20 years in prison to knowingly act in furtherance of, or to support the, adherence to Islam.” In a 2006 article, Yerushalmi lamented in the inability to engage in “a discussion of Islam as an evil religion, or of blacks as the most murderous of peoples (at least in New York City), or of illegal immigrants as deserving of no rights” without being labeled a racist. He also wrote that the American founders were on to something when they limited the vote to white men. “There is a reason the founding fathers did not give women or black slaves the right to vote.”

As Mother Jones noted, the Anti-Defimation League said Yerushalmi has “record of anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and anti-black bigotry.”

MITTENS IS GOING TO GET REALLY NASTY

I thought the punk-ass bus stunt may have been just a couple of low-level clowns screwing up but now that I learn that Mittens has hired Nathan Sproul, a professional hate monger, I expect much worse to come.

THE F&F "SCANDAL"

The wingnuts are going to try to make the botched "Fast and Furious" operation a Nixon-level scandal and from listening to Hannity's radio show today, I expect the Baggers to fall in line.  Jay Sekulow, professional whore legal consultant for any wingnut pundit, claimed that the DOJ hasn't turned over ANY documents but THAT IS A LIE.

The LA Times has an entire section devoted to some of the documents already released and it's news coverage also contains many references to released documents. Even GOP Sen. Cornyn admits that DOJ had turned over thousands of documents:

CORNYN: “You have defied the lawful and legitimate oversight responsibilities of the House of Representatives, and of the Senate. You have resisted producing documents — you have produced about 7,600 documents out of a pool of at least 80,000 documents that would be responsive.”

In addition, there have been some personnel changes related to F&F:

U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke resigns
by Robert Anglen - Aug. 31, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Seven months after controversy erupted over a botched federal gun-running probe, a major shake-up hit Justice Department offices Tuesday that included the resignation of Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke.

The departure of Burke and the reassignments of two others who oversaw Operation Fast and Furious, however, were cast as voluntary rather than disciplinary by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Former acting ATF Director Ken Melson was assigned to the Office of Legal Policy as an adviser on forensic science.

The lead prosecutor for Operation Fast and Furious cases in Burke's office was also reassigned Tuesday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley was transferred to the civil division in Arizona at his own request, a spokeswoman for Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office said.

I KNEW THE VOICE IMMEDIATELY

It's hard to forget a really bad voice and tonight I was treated to one of the very worst, Tammy Bruce.  She subbed for another bad voice, Laura Ingraham.  I still think Mark "Foamer" Levin has the worst voice on talk radio but Tammy is still a close 2nd.

I THOUGHT THESE WERE A FRINGE OF THE FRINGE

(h/t The Dish)

Years ago I read a few pieces about how some Fundies think Jeebus created the Free Market Fairy.  I never followed up on these hints but Paul Froese has.

How Your View of God Shapes Your View of the Economy
By Paul Froese | June 13, 2012
RELIGION & POLITICS

As a researcher and social scientist, I have found that economic perspectives are indelibly tied to religious cosmologies. Voters need not choose between God and mammon. Instead, they tend to see their money, the market, and the economy as a reflection of their God.

In fact, for many white evangelicals, religious and economic spheres are conceptualized as two sides of the same coin. They describe their worldview as one in which the spiritual and the material are mutually dependent and interactive. And the popularity of this worldview cuts across social class.

Around two-thirds of believers in an Authoritative God conjoin their theology with free-market economics, creating a new religious-economic idealism. Nearly one-fifth of American voters hold this viewpoint, signaling that it can be a major political force.

WHY IS S. E. CUPP DOING SO WELL?

I wondered about that after reading this and I think I now know a major part of the reason:

MITTENS AND THE 33 PAGES

(h/t Atrios)

The Post Office change of address form is a single postcard so Mittens was trying to create another wingnut myth when he falsely claimed a doctor had to fill out 33 pages of forms to get his address changed. Mittens nay have been referring to the change of address process for Medicaid or Medicare but he did not make that clear.

Today on his radio show, Glenda Beck is making a huge issue out of this and trying to deflect this criticism of Romney to NBC.

MITTENS AND TOUCH SCREENS

According to this article in the Economist, "Touching the Future,"  the touch screen came from a person who worked for the Federal government and taught at state university:

Elo TouchSystems’ first touch screen grew out of the work of Sam Hurst, a physicist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, who was on teaching leave at Kentucky University.
...
What he came up with, in 1971, was a device consisting of two pieces of electrically conductive paper, separated by an insulating layer.

MITTENS & MUNITIONS

In addition to promising to spend zillions more on defense, Mittens also thinks the U.S. could not survive if we tried to contain a nuclear Iran.   Daniel Larison has a nice riposte to this Bush-era madness. and I think it's time the DNC start reminding people that Mittens will attempt to re-start the belligerent neo-con foreign policy.

MITTENS IS SURE NO "JOE SIX-PACK"

This is saved from triviality by all the other Mittens facts, like his money in the Cayman Islands, that separates Mittens from the 99%.

Romney says gas station’s touch-screen ordering is ‘amazing’
By David Edwards
Monday, June 18, 2012 14:16 EDT
The RAW STORY

“I was at Wawas,” Romney explained. “I went in to order a sandwich. You press a little touchtone keypad, alright? You just touch that and, you know, the sandwich comes up. You touch this, touch this, touch this, go pay the cashier. There’s your sandwich. It’s amazing!”

UPDATE: Mittens isn't quite as lame as I made him out to be. His broader point was that the private sector is innovative but the public sector isn't.

THE SIMPLE TRUTH ABOUT AUSTERITY

(h/t Atrios)

IT DOESN'T WORK!!!

Ed Balls: Austerity has failed in Europe - we must all now go for growth
18 June 2012
London Evening Standard

There is no easy option for Greece, given its problems. Difficult reforms are vital. But how can an austerity plan — which has seen recession turn into depression, youth unemployment soar to more than 50 per cent, the economy shrink by six per cent in the last year alone and the national debt grow further — be seen as a success? As even the credit rating agencies now recognise, as Standard and Poor’s puts it, that “austerity alone risks becoming self-defeating”.

Atrios also has a nice snark on the morals of economic conservatism:

But remember kids, moral hazard is what happens when a single parent gets $10 more per week in extra food stamp money.

DISCRETION NOT DEFIANCE

This McClatchy report is the 1st I've found that lay out the legal grounds for Pres. Obama's new immigration policy:

Did Obama exert too much executive power on deportations?
By Michael Doyle | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Friday, June 15, 2012

The executive branch’s authority to defer deportation, as an act of prosecutorial discretion, is not explicitly spelled out either in regulations or in statutory law. The Immigration and Nationality Act, though, gives the Department of Homeland Security the general authority to enforce immigration laws. Federal courts, moreover, have recognized that officials can exercise their discretion in determining deportation priorities.

In the mid-1970s, for instance, a native of South Korea named Soon Bok Yoon came to Hawaii legally, and then when her visa expired she sought to avoid deportation back to her home country. She failed, with appellate judges noting that the Immigration and Naturalization Service had the discretion to “grant or withhold non-priority status” when handling immigrants.


“To ameliorate a harsh and unjust outcome, the INS may decline to institute proceedings, terminate proceedings or decline to execute a final order of deportation,” Justice Antonin Scalia, quoting from another writer, added in a 1999 Supreme Court decision.

IMMIGRATION PROBLEMS FOR THE BAGGERS

Mike "The Huckster" Huckabee and William "The Bloody" Kristol support Pres. Obama's new immigration policy. Worse, other prominent Fundies also support a humane immigration policy.

Finally, Mittens refuses to say that the will  reverse the order.