I PAY ATTENTION TO CONSERVATIVE TALK RADIO...

and I was very surprised to come across this:

Glenn Beck: Sean Hannity-Mark Levin feud resolved
By TAL KOPAN | 1/31/14 6:32 AM EST
THE POLITICO

Radio and TV personality Glenn Beck says he has buried the hatchet with fellow conservative talk radio powerhouses Sean Hannity and Mark Levin and that they are coming together to activate their “Wonder Twin powers.”

“There is a stupid feud, and the three of us, Sean and Mark and I, have talked about it and we know where it came from and we know who was feeding us lies about each other,” Beck said Thursday. “And this individual just expected that we would, that if they fed us enough lies about each other, we would never talk to each other, and that way he would be able to divide us and keep the tea party movement at bay and control it as much as he could or destroy it. And we were foolish, and all of us have said to each other … ‘Man, how stupid were we? How did we not see that one?’”

I knew that Mark Levin and Michael Savage had a feud and I know that Levin is a petty, insecure man but I never got a whiff of problems between Beck and Hannity-Levin. About a month ago, I did notice that Beck seemed to be popping up on other conservative media outlets and I suspect that it was an effort to pump his ratings, not a sign that some squabble was over.

OVER 80 YEARS LATER, ONLY THE AMOUNTS HAVE CHANGED

Sally Denton (p.23) found this quote in the March 8, 1933 edition of The Nation:

"If you steal $25, you're a thief. If you steal $250,000, you're an embezzler. If you steal $2,500,000 you're a financier."

THEY AREN'T SPECIAL

I noted before that people in the military aren't our "best and brightest" and that remark applies to even the "best" of them:

Ryan Zinke campaigns in Bigfork, says Hillary Clinton is the "anti-Christ"
Posted: Thursday, January 30, 2014 11:55 am | Updated: 12:35 pm, Fri Jan 31, 2014.
By CALEB M. SOPTELEAN
Bigfork Eagle

Ryan Zinke helped kick start his campaign for Congress in Bigfork Monday.

Zinke, a former Navy SEAL and state legislator, came to Marina Cay Resort to speak to Republican partisans.

“We need to focus on the real enemy,” he said, referring to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whom he called the “anti-Christ.”

Zinke finished his speech by handing out 50-calibre bullets to each of the four men who sponsored the event before a crowd of about 30 people.

SEEGER, COMMUNISM AND EARLY POST-WAR CONSERVATISM

This section of an interesting article about Pete Seeger by David A. Graham has a connection to the beginnings of post-war conservatism in America:

As Seeger notes in this video, he had friends who died fighting with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain, as part of the Communist and republican opposition to Francisco Franco, who was backed by Hitler.

L. Brent Bozell Jr., the father of today's MRC bozo, moved with his family to Spain in 1960 and "was impressed by the Catholic domination of society enforced by the dictator Francisco Franco. ... Bozell returned to the United States inspired to use government power to inhibit citizens' freedom and enforce their virtue.... [Bozell believed that] the Founding Fathers' writings contained 'not a hint of the ideology of freedom...not a word suggesting that freedom is the goal of the commonwealth.' " (Source: Kabaservice, p. 82)

The inner quotes are from Bozell's important article, "Freedom or Virtue", in National Review, Sept. 1, 1962.

WASTING PIXELS

Sometimes liberal outlets get stuck in their own epistemic bubbles and here two examples:

-Bill O'Reilly makes the really unexceptional point that  black culture is "partially to blame" for black poverty and Media Matters gets all sniffy about it.

-Think Progress has yet another story about how terrible the name "Washington Redskins" is and manages to use the phrase "epic battle" in the piece. 

THIS SHOULD BE NO SURPRISE

Afghan ministries incapable of managing US aid
AFP via Yahoo News

2 hours ago

Washington (AFP) - Millions of dollars in US aid is flowing into Afghanistan even though the ministries receiving the funds are incapable of managing such large sums of money, a US official report said Thursday.

The US has committed some $1.6 billion in direct aid to the Afghan government this year to fund some 18 programs across 10 ministries.

But according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, "USAID contractors assessed 16 Afghan ministries and found they are unable to manage and account for funds."

This is a continuation of the Bush Administration's policy of putting incompetent boobs in charge of our overseas misadventures.

A RADAMISTO MILESTONE

The previous post was number 15,000!!!

MORE BANKSTER NEWS

The banksters are still paying for causing the Great Recession...

U.S. seeks $2.1 billion from Bank of America in fraud case

NEW YORK Thu Jan 30, 2014 8:54am EST
Jan 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. government has asked a judge to order Bank of America Corp to pay $2.1 billion, increasing its request for penalties stemming from a jury's finding that the bank was liable for fraud over defective mortgages sold by its Countrywide unit.

The Justice Department had previously asked for only $863.6 million based on gross losses it said government-sponsored mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac incurred on loans purchased from Countrywide in 2007 and 2008.

The new request for $2.1 billion is based instead on gross revenue generated by the fraud, the government said.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD HAS A PERFECT REBUTTAL TO REP. CATHY RODGERS

(h/t The Raw Story)
She gave one of the conservative replies to Pres. Obama's SOTU speech.

SOURCE

LEAVING ASIDE CORRUPTION & FRAUD & DISHONESTY...

and by those terms I primarily refer to banksters, there are many failures in the free market that the conservative gasbags almost never mention because they are committed to keeping up the illusion that there is a Free Market Fairy. So, don't expect Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck or Mark Levin to mention this fail by a major company:

Larry Page, Google’s co-founder and chief executive, likes to talk about “big bets” and “moonshots.” But the thing about moonshots is that they can crash into earth.

That appears to be what happened to Motorola Mobility, the cellphone maker owned by Google. The Internet giant announced Wednesday that it would sell Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion, less than two years after paying $12.5 billion to acquire it.

I'M NOT AN ECONOMIST...

in fact, I never took a course in Economics, something I now regret, but it nevertheless seems plausible that capitalism would increase income inequality over the long run for much the same reason that unless prohibited, capitalist production naturally leads to monopolies. In other words, in both the corporate and private capitalist realms, there is a natural tendency for the concentration of wealth.

I'm writing this because Thomas Piketty, a real economist, recently published a book that reaches a similar conclusion using real data:

Capitalism, according to Piketty, confronts both modern and modernizing countries with a dilemma: entrepreneurs become increasingly dominant over those who own only their own labor. In Piketty’s view, while emerging economies can defeat this logic in the near term, in the long run, “when pay setters set their own pay, there’s no limit,” unless “confiscatory tax rates” are imposed.

Piketty proposes instead that the rise in inequality reflects markets working precisely as they should: “This has nothing to do with a market imperfection: the more perfect the capital market, the higher” the rate of return on capital is in comparison to the rate of growth of the economy. The higher this ratio is, the greater inequality is.

LIMBAUGH & THE STOCK MARKET

In 2011, Fats said:

The market is too vibrant. It's too free flowing, and it's too irrational. The best way to describe the market is it's just irrational.

In 2014, Fats said:

RUSH: If you'll remind me tomorrow, I'll answer that. "So then why don't they make a bigger screen phone? Why don't they make a bigger screen phone like Samsung?" I'll be happy to answer that. Anyway, it's just fascinating. Let's say the average profit on an iPhone sale, I'm gonna pick a number that's close, $300. And so they sold four million fewer phones somebody that's not even in the business thought they were gonna sell, that's $1.2 billion of income they didn't make. The stock is down $40 billion because of this. It's irrational, except the market is rational. That's the thing. There are reasons for this. They might not make sense, but that's markets for you. We could spend an hour on this if I thought you were interested.

The point is not that someone who talks over 10 hours week for his living contradicted himself, the point is that Limbaugh & the other conservative gasbags would be demolished if they were in a real debate.

A LITTLE MORE ON BOOK SALES AND CONSERVATIVES

POLITICO discovered that the Senate Conservative Fund - the one that supports the hardcore wackos - pumped up sales of Mark Levin's book Liberty and Tyranny.  POLITICO later reported more details:

Since Sept. 10, SCF has spent $427,000 on copies of Levin's "Liberty and Tyranny," according to Federal Election Committee filings. Those books were given to donors who provided $25 or more to the group.

Levin is pissed off about this being made public knowledge, presumably because it tarnishes his radio star appeal.

THE AIR FORCE CHEATING SCANDAL & FOX NEWS

This is about what I would expect from a broadcaster that is so in favor of the military: only one mention since the scandal broke on January 15th:

Lou Dobbs Tonight
January 15, 2014 Wednesday
SHOW: LOU DOBBS TONIGHT 7:00 PM EST
Senate Intelligence Committee Benghazi Report Released; No Criminal Charges in IRS Investigation?; China and the Loss of U.S. Jobs; Job Creation
BYLINE: Lou Dobbs
GUESTS: Monica Crowley, Steve Cochran, Ebony Williams, Brad Meltzer, John Lonski, Jay Sekulow
SECTION: NEWS; Financial
LENGTH: 6722 words

DOBBS: The U.S. military says it's obtained new video apparently made by those holding the only American prisoner of war, Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. The -- the proof of life video, which was on a thumb drive intercepted by the United States last week, shows a frail Bergdahl making a reference to the recent death of South African leader Nelson Mandela. Bergdahl was captured while stationed in Afghanistan more than four years ago.

A cheating scandal rocking the Air Force's nuclear command. Nearly three dozen officers allegedly cheated by text on a routine test that they take to prove they're capable of watching over this nation's nuclear arsenal. Even worse, the cheating scandal emerged after investigators looked into separate allegations of recreational drug use at several bases, including those with the ability to launch those nuclear missiles.

Conservatives are blasting the Justice Department's investigation into the IRS targeting scandal after officials said they've turned up no evidence that would warrant criminal charges. The woman leading that investigation is Department of Justice Civil Rights attorney Barbara K. Bosserman. She donated nearly $7,000 to President Obama and Democrats.

And just today, House Oversight chairman Darrell Issa releasing federal documents that show that a federal government employee must recuse themselves from an investigation if their participation creates even the appearance of a conflict of interest.

It is now eight months since the investigation into the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups was supposed to begin, our first guest says not one of his clients has been interviewed by the FBI. He represents 41 organizations in 22 states in a federal lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.

Joining us tonight, the chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, Jay Sekulow. Jay, good to have you with us. This is outrageous, that there has not been a single point of contact between the FBI and your clients, who are the targets of the IRS...

AT FIRST I THOUGHT TOM PERKINS WAS JUST A CRANKY OLD MAN...

now I know he's another conservative asshole:

When asked on Bloomberg TV what should be done to improve the lives of “the ninety-nine per cent,” Perkins said, “I think that the solution is less interference, lower taxes, let the rich do what the rich do—which is get richer, and along the way they bring everybody else along with them, when the system is working.”

FOX NEWS AND THE FINANCIAL SCANDALS

I noted before that Fox News did a little better at covering the LIBOR Scandal than the Big 3 (ABC, NBC & CBS) and those networks have not caught up according to a LexisNexis search for "LIBOR" I ran a few minutes ago.  The clear leaders are  Bloomberg TV, which mentioned LIBOR 73 times, and Bloomberg's Surveillance Show, which mentioned it 57 times.  The next highest number of mentions are NPR (27 times) and CNN  International (21 times).    I'd say that FOX News, ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS have grossly underreported this story so how can we expect most Americans to support significant changes to the banking system?

I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST BLOWHARD BIDEN

According to Joe Biden, the summer of 2010 was going to see the beginning of the Great Recovery and we all know how that turned out.  I didn't realize until now that the White House was also pushing that bullshit:

(h/t Atrios)

OBAMA == FDR (SORT OF)

Gen. Smedley Butler testified before Congress that a group of capitalist pigs wanted him to lea a coup against FDR and today we have another general, this one retired, who's in favor of a coup against Pres. Obama:

Fox News analyst tells Tea Party group he can lead a military coup against Obama
By Travis Gettys
Monday, January 27, 2014 13:37 EST
The Raw Story

Paul Vallely, a retired major general and senior military analyst for the conservative news channel, told the Surprise, Arizona, Tea Party Patriots during a Dec. 3 speech that other retired military personnel and veterans groups had contacted him about the possibility.

“I had a call this afternoon from Idaho, the gentleman said, ‘If I give you 250,000 Marines to go to Washington, will you lead them?’” Vallely said as the group laughed and gasped. “I said, ‘Yes, I will, I’ll surround the White House and I’ll surround the Capitol building, but it’s going to take physical presence to do things.”

Vallely, who has suggested a variety of extra-constitutional remedies to remove President Barack Obama from office, said extraordinary means were necessary to achieve the legislative results he wanted.

“I don’t want to be criticized for starting a revolution, but I’d certainly head it if we had to,” Vallely said as the crowd applauded. “We all love a good fight if it’s worth it, right?”

THIS IS (TACITLY) SUPPORTED BY THE NRA, GLENN BECK & OTHER GASBAGS

A guy in Florida chased down a young man, killed him and later claimed self-defense.  In W. Virginia, two guys were looking over a plot of land one of them recently purchased and both were killed by a nearby resident "because he thought they were trespassing on his property." Also in Florida, a retire swat team officer killed a fellow movie patron for apparently throwing some popcorn at him:

Retired Tampa Police Captain Curtis Reeves claims a fellow patron, Chad Oulson, struck him in the face with an unknown object, which turned out to be popcorn:
Romine [defendant's lawyer] told 10 News stand your ground focuses on one thing: Did somebody do something to you where you felt you were going to be harmed? If so, even if it's popcorn, you have the right to defend yourself.
In fact, Romine admits the reason the two men fought doesn't even matter. It all boils to whether or not Curtis Reeves thought Chad Oulson would hurt him. In fact, it's considered a felony if a person over 65 is struck with something as small as a marshmallow.

I THINK I KNOW WHY THE WAPO CHANGED STORIES

Moon of Alabama reports that in 2009, the WaPo reported that the CIA's interrogation and torture of Abu Zubaida was a FAIL:

...not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of Abu Zubaida's tortured confessions, according to former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations. Nearly all of the leads attained through the harsh measures quickly evaporated, while most of the useful information from Abu Zubaida -- chiefly names of al-Qaeda members and associates -- was obtained before waterboarding was introduced, they said.

In 2014, the WaPo decided that torture worked great on Zubaida and I suspect it's because the American Intelligence Establishment, especially the NSA, has been under attack for violating Constitutional protections on privacy.

TAX EVASION IS OK IF YOUR IN THE TOP 1%

That seems to be the GOP message here:

Republicans bash U.S. law targeting offshore tax dodgers

By Patrick Temple-West

WASHINGTON Fri Jan 24, 2014 2:36pm EST
(Reuters) - The Republican National Committee (RNC) on Friday called for the repeal of a U.S. anti-tax-evasion law, siding with big banks, libertarians and American expatriates that have criticized the Obama administration statute.

At its winter meeting in Washington, the RNC approved by voice vote a resolution in favor of abolishing the 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), set to take effect in July, marking the party's first explicit attack on the law.

FATCA will require most foreign banks and investment funds to report to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service information about U.S. customers' accounts worth $50,000 or more. The law was enacted after a scandal involving Americans hiding assets in Swiss bank accounts to dodge U.S. taxes.