We're in the twighlight zone officially

A must read editorial from Gail Collins in the New York Times. Republicans want to deny terrorism suspects who are citizens their constitutional rights yet are quite happy to let them buy AK'47s and explosives.

There seems to be a strong sentiment in Congress that the only constitutional right suspected terrorists have is the right to bear arms.

“I think you’re going too far here,” said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina at a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday. He was speaking in opposition to a bill that would keep people on the F.B.I. terrorist watch list from buying guns and explosives.

Here is an example of the logic Graham's argument.

“when the founders sat down and wrote the Constitution, they didn’t consider flying.”

God, please help us. Sanity is in short supply and we badly need some.

Financial reform - GOP Sen. Shelby goes to bat for the finance industry

One of the bigger sticking points in the Financial Reform debate is the establishment of a badly needed consumer protection agency for the finance industry. If I buy a toaster oven that doesn’t work properly and the manufacturer refuses to take care of the problem I have an I can complain to. If I sign on to a new credit card company and I fail to see a clause on page 12 of the small print that gives the issuer the right to raise my rates at will, negating any other protections in the contract (and they do this sort of thing) I have no agency to complain to. I should have just read all the small print.

For obvious reasons the financial industry doesn’t like the idea of such an agency one little bit. They realize it is inevitable in one form or another so their preference is to give it as few teeth as possible and to open loopholes all over the place. This has their lobbyists scurrying all over Capitol Hill with a heightened sense of urgency. They have their supporters, mostly but not entirely made up of Republicans. Sen. Selby (R-AL) and minority leader on the Banking subcommittee has duly gone to bat for the industry with a lobby written amendment that will effectively retain the status quo at best or even weaken current controls at worst.

Shelby’s amendment is remarkable in that it not only gives a bank regulator veto power over the new consumer division’s rulemaking authority, but it prevents the division from enforcing consumer protection rules against almost the entire financial system. Commercial banks, investment banks, payday lenders, auto dealers, check cashers, and non-banks that deal in products other than mortgages (such as AIG) would all be exempt from the division’s enforcement. I'm not sure the amendment applies to anyone.

The current system allows Federal Bank regulators to override more stringent consumer protections laws that States enact. States like Georgia and New Jersey tried to reel in predatory subprime lending in 2002 and 2003, but federal bank regulators stopped them in their tracks.

The current proposed bill would force regulators to preempt state law on a case-by-case basis (which still isn’t great), while the Republican alternative would grant the banks blanket preemption, rendering every state’s consumer protection efforts moot henceforth. It seems odd that the party so concerned with states’ rights would advocate nullifying state laws before they’re even written.

One of the key tenets of Republican/Conservative philosophy is the idea of States Rights. In the new world of the right even core principles only apply when it suits them.

Die Antwoord

Zaf Rap from the one of the hottest trends in South African music. Zaf is Afrikaans for 'Redneck'. 'Die Antwoord is The Answer in Afrikaans. They were at the Coachella Festival with a U.S. tour scheduled later this year.

More insanity from the world of wingnuttery

Farad Zakaria is a conservative middle of the road writer for Newsweek. He is also a frequent guest on cable news, a host on CNN and also happens to be a Muslim. He has written a book titled, "The Post-American World". Here is the first paragraph of Amazon's review:

“This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else.” So begins Fareed Zakaria’s important new work on the era we are now entering. Following on the success of his best-selling The Future of Freedom, Zakaria describes with equal prescience a world in which the United States will no longer dominate the global economy, orchestrate geopolitics, or overwhelm cultures.

Sounds terrifying, doesn't it. A recent picture of Obama shows him with the book in his hand. This has prompted a flurry of e-mails from the delusional right to flood people's in-boxes.

THIS WILL CURDLE YOUR BLOOD AND CURL YOUR HAIR

The name of the book Obama is reading is called:
The Post-American World, and it was written by a fellow Muslim.
“Post” American means the world After America ! Please forward this picture to everyone you know, conservative or liberal. We must expose Obama’s radical ideas and his intent to bring down our beloved America !

They aren't called 'wingnuts' without good reason.

Some cheery morning music by Sarah Harmer, one of my favorite singer/songwriters.

American Idiot of the day - Andrew Breitbart

Most people haven't heard of Andrew Breitbart which is probably a good thing. For those who haven't he runs a few right wing websites. His biggest fame to claim is that he was behind the now infamous Acorn videos. In all the hysteria about the videos the aftermath has proved to be far less sensational than at first thought. For one it turned out that the perpetrators of the video dressed up in their pimp regalia purely for a show and tell complete with photographs. When they entered the various Acorn offices they were dressed normally. It also turned out that the videos were heavily edited and when the full uncut videos were shown to judges hearing the various cases all charges were dropped.

His idiot award is a result of the new meme among the right that the term, 'teabagger' is as insulting as the 'N' word. Tea Party adherents were happy to use the term until they found out that it referenced a homosexual act. I won't go into details but those who still don't know what it is can use their imagination.

A few days ago Obama used the term and all hell broke loose on the right wing blogosphere with Matt Drudge leading the charge. Breitbart was among them.

Here's what the Moonie run Washington Times wrote today,

"This remark is the equivalent of using the 'n' word. It shows contempt for middle America, expressed knowingly, contemptuously, on purpose, and with a smirk. It is indefensible to use this word. The president knows what it means, and his people know what it means. The public thought we reached a new low of incivility during the Clinton administration. Well, the Obama administration has just outdone them," ATR president Grover Norquist tells Inside the Beltway.

Here's a headline from one of Breitbart's websites a few days ago.

I'm proud to be a teabagger.

Sometimes it's just too damn easy to find a deserving Idiot of the day nominee. Breitbart is not just a deserving idiot award winner but a hypocrite as well.

Keith Olberman shreds John Mcain short order

Some late night Boogie Woogie 1940's style

BP charged with 29 violations since 1999

Pleaded guilty and paid fines in all of them. Here is a partial list of some of the offenses.

Unsafe working environment
Clear air act violations
Underpayment of oil royalties
Illegal disposal of hazardous waste
Exposing employees to explosion hazards
Conspiracy to manipulate the propane market
Alaska pipeline leaks
Texas City refinery explosion
Delays in installing leak detection systems
Leaking underground tanks and ground contamination (separately)
All the gory details here.

In all, they paid a little over $1.2 billion dollars in fines in that time. It seems a lot but not when their revenue was $258 billion last year with a net after tax profit of $20 billion. The fines paid average out to $120 million a year which is 0.6% of their profits last year. The fines for doing all the above are merely the cost of doing business. Lax enforcement through the Bush years let them get away with fines just being part of the ledger.

According to the current Oil Pollution Act, BP's liability is capped at #75 million. There is a #1.6 billion oil industry trust fund they can tap into but $75 million is A joke. They have already tried running around the Gulf Cost offering $5,000 in total damages to those affected by the spill. There were no takers and the Governor's of the affected states, to their credit, ran them out of town as quickly as they could. There is currently a bill being co-sponsored by Sen. Menendez (D-NJ) and Sen. Nelson (D-FL) to raise that cap to $10 billion. In any event if gross negligence is found the $75 million cap is waived.

Expect BP to fight all the way with the best team of lawyers money can buy. It took years to resolve the legal battles from the Exxon Valdez spill. Lawyers on both sides will be very well rewarded and everyone else will have to wait.

BP has spent the same $75 million that is their current liability on lobbyists in the last 6 years. It's been their best investment by far, but then with two former oil men running the country their job was made easy. We still don't know what was discussed or decided at the secret meetings Cheney had with the energy companies in early 2001.

The same theme of lax oversight runs through the financial collapse, the coal mining disaster and the Deep Horizon spill. If Obama is to leave a lasting legacy part of it should be that enforcement is far more vigorous and it has more teeth. It is obvious that too many corporations have no intent to be 'good citizens' and if more enforcement and stiffer penalties are needed so be it.

Times Square bomber admits to studying bomb making in Waziristan

We can be thankful that the University of Waziristan Bomb Making department is obviously incapable of producing any bomb makers who actually know what they're doing.

On a more serious note this puts the Dick Cheneys of the world who sneered at the idea that apprehending terrorists is as much an issue for law enforcement as it is for military and other options and that it can be done without torture and within the legal framework.

40 Years ago today

This wasn't supposed to happen in America.

What is it with right wing homophobes who are not as homophobic as they appear

The pictures on the Rentboy.com profile show a shirtless young man with delicate features, guileless eyes, and sun-kissed, hairless skin. The profile touts his "smooth, sweet, tight ass" and "perfectly built 8 inch cock (uncut)" and explains he is "sensual," "wild," and "up for anything"—as long you ask first. And as long as you pay. On April 13, the "rent boy" (whom we'll call Lucien) arrived at Miami International Airport on Iberian Airlines Flight 6123, after a ten-day, fully subsidized trip to Europe. He was soon followed out of customs by an old man with an atavistic mustache and a desperate blond comb-over, pushing an overburdened baggage cart.

That man was George Alan Rekers, of North Miami—the callboy's client and, as it happens, one of America's most prominent anti-gay activists. Rekers, a Baptist minister who is a leading scholar for the Christian right, left the terminal with his gay escort, looking a bit discomfited when a picture of the two was snapped with a hot-pink digital camera.

Reached by New Times before a trip to Bermuda, Rekers said he learned Lucien was a prostitute only midway through their vacation. "I had surgery," Rekers said, "and I can't lift luggage. That's why I hired him." (Though medical problems didn't stop him from pushing the tottering baggage cart through MIA.) Yet Rekers wouldn't deny he met his slender, blond escort at Rentboy.com—which features homepage images of men in bondage and grainy videos of crotch-rubbing twinks—and Lucien confirmed it.

Rekers is the co-founder of the wildly anti-gay Family Research Council and a member of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), an organization that claims to "cure" gay people.

He is also the author of Shaping Your Child's Sexual Identity. I'm guessing it encourages parents to believe that they can shape their children's sexual identities. Which, of course, they can't. Rekers is also a member of the American College of Pediatrics, a fake pediatricians organization formed by religious conservatives to counter the reality-based American Academy of Pediatrics (which opposes "curing" gay people, argues for more support for gay youth, and backs gay marriage and adoptions by gay couples).

Then again, maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt. He could have been doing some first hand research on the 'gay lifestyle'.

Pass this along to friends and family and maybe "Life my Luggage" will enter the lexicon of euphemisms along with Sen Larry "wide stance" Craig and Gov Mark "hiking the Appalachian Trail" Sanford.

(my apologies for including graphic descriptions of certain body parts but they are integral to the story)