Author: luimbe

WI Supreme court justice allegedly choked colleague

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Justice Prosser previously called Justice Bradley a “bitch” in a previous dispute. From the Wisconsin State Journal:

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser allegedly grabbed fellow Justice Ann Walsh Bradley around the neck in an argument in her chambers earlier this month, according to three knowledgeable sources.

But a different account of the incident emerged Saturday, and Prosser said the allegation “will be proven false.” The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quoted sources saying Prosser made contact with Bradley to defend himself after she charged toward him.

Details of the incident, investigated jointly by Wisconsin Public Radio and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, remain sketchy. The sources spoke on the condition they not be named, citing a need to preserve professional relationships.

[…]

The sources say Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs was notified of the incident. One source says Tubbs came in to meet with the entire Supreme Court about this matter. Tubbs, contacted by WPR, declined to comment but on Saturday he told WPR he would issue a statement Monday.

via Sources: Argument between Prosser, Bradley becomes physical.

The police better investigate this carefully. And if this is being investigated by police, what’s up with the meeting with the entire Supreme Court?

UPDATE: From TPM

Dane County Sheriff’s office opens investigation of Supreme Court ‘chokehold’ incident.

Good.

Huntsman Ad: I am a sitcom dad or something

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A very important social rule: a person can’t give themselves a nickname. Why? The people who want to call them by a nickname don’t really care about what they may prefer to be called, they just got tired of calling them dude, sport, homie or jerk-face. People that actually want to call them by their name will be annoyed that they are trying so damn hard to be so damn chummy.

That’s exactly what Huntsman’s Campaign Ad is attempting. Their media folk are trying to force us to see Huntsman as some kind of Republican Mr. Huxtable (swapping black for white, track for motocross and hoagies with potato chips for pancakes and omelets). The results are pretty much counter productive.

And the Huntsman motocross ad was stupid too. Learned nothing about the Huntsman as an executive except that he can ride the vehicle most approved for use in movie apocalypses.

Not running for something, Not running a damn thing. Treat her that way.

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The pitbull wearin’ lipstick doesn’t have many camera friends today. So she took her bus and went home.

Ignore her, and she goes away. She doesn’t want to give you a schedule and wants to play games, ignore her. She thrives on media attention, so much so that her flacks like Mansour get all worked up when you don’t immediately publish her facebook ramblings. Ignore her.

via Balloon Juice » Not Fade Away.

Not running for something, Not running a damn thing.

Controversy Censorship is the “facebook revolution”

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Facebook is there, above all things, to make money from your information, not to make it easier for you to communicate.

And now Facebook has stepped in, presumably in light of complaints against Ebert, to remove his page on the social network site (Ebert has already tweeted his displeasure). The debate will rumble on as to the extent that well-known users should discuss topics that, in the eyes of some, aren’t their business.

via Roger Ebert Sparks War of Words After Tweeting About Ryan Dunn’s Death – TIME NewsFeed.

Ebert tweet about the death of “Jackass” crew member Ryan Dunn was offensive to his friends and family. Ebert clarified his thoughts in a blog post. Facebook spokesperson said said they only took the page down out of error even though Ebert was notified his page was removed for violations of Facebook’s Term of Use. Basically, Facebook wants to be seen as a bastion of free expression. They aren’t.

Anyone who has used a corporate owned, for profit social network to disseminate information for revolutionary purposes has done so in spite of that social network’s ownership and fealty to governments. It is the simple fact that was ignored by everyone calling the Arab Spring the “twitter revolution”. Dave Winer is ahead of those who hail the applications of big social media as engines of free speech:

We need to work on creating places where journalism is possible, where you can say what you have to say. And the service is provided by a vendor who has no interest in what you say.

via Scripting News: No journalism on Facebook.

BitTorrent, Wikileaks and the like are the foundation technologically and operationally for a true free speech web.

 

Afghanistan Drawdown: 30K of 100K troops by end of 2012

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President Barack Obama is expected to announce this week that 30,000 U.S. “surge” forces will be fully withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2012, an administration official has told CNN.

via Obama to announce plan to pull 30,000 troops out of Afghanistan – CNN.com.

Here’s Obama in 2008, almost 3 years ago to the day:

Sen. Barack Obama said Sunday that United States needs to focus on Afghanistan in its battle against terrorism.

“The Afghan government needs to do more. But we have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent here in Afghanistan. And I believe this has to be our central focus, the central front, on our battle against terrorism,” Obama said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Obama said troop levels must increase in Afghanistan.

“For at least a year now, I have called for two additional brigades, perhaps three,” he told CBS. “I think it’s very important that we unify command more effectively to coordinate our military activities. But military alone is not going to be enough.”

via Obama calls situation in Afghanistan ‘urgent’ – CNN

He did what he said he would with regards to Afghanistan and now the President must begin to execute a plan to extract our military from Afghanistan without a total descent into chaos.

 

Estate taxes do not hurt the economy

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The estate tax has a net positive effect on the economy:

So does the estate tax, as it is currently formulated, constrain economic growth? If it does, the impact is probably very minimal and could be minimized with an exception that applies to small businesses. But in other ways, the existence of an estate tax likely does more to encourage economic growth than it does to discourage it. While there may be some decent moral arguments for eliminating the estate tax, but the economic arguments don’t hold up.

via Does Taxing Inheritance Harm Growth? – Daniel Indiviglio – Business – The Atlantic.

Also, it only affects estates of the deceased that exceed 5 million dollars in worth. Yes, just 2% of Americans.

We shouldn’t let facts get in the way.

Consider the trends: The effective federal tax rate of the wealthiest 400 Americans dropped from 29 percent to less than 17 percent over the past 15 years. Americans have one of the lowest rates of taxation in more than half a century. And according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, federal, state, and local income taxes consumed 9.2 percent of all personal income in 2009, the lowest rate since 1950.

The gap between the wealthiest and the rest of us has grown wider as that tax burden has declined. The United States at the same time needs federal investments in health care, energy, education, and defense.

Plain and simple: Estate Tax Holiday has helped to increase the deficit.

CIA hacked

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The CIA can’t secure their web servers as well as Nintendo can.

“Web sites are the low-hanging fruit,” said Richard Stiennon, a cyber expert and author of “Surviving Cyberwar.” “But the Web sites are running on a server. Once you completely own the server that the Web site is on, you can watch the insiders log in and record their activity, and that can be a front door into the organization.”

Web sites are not the low hanging fruit. In 1995 they were low hanging fruit. Today, entire companies are running enterprise systems with users using browser applications, mobile applications, web service APIs to bank, communicate and research via the web. The Question is: Would the CIA know who hacked them if the attack wasn’t claimed?

“Get” Cole! U of Michigan Professor alleged CIA target in 2005

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CORRECTION: Title corrected. Year was written as 2000. Actual year of events described in this post were 2005.

Find Bin Laden? Nope! As detailed in the New York Times the Bush Administration had real menaces to worry about: Get Juan Cole!

Glenn L. Carle, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was a top counterterrorism official during the administration of President George W. Bush, said the White House at least twice asked intelligence officials to gather sensitive information on Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who writes an influential blog that criticized the war.

In an interview, Mr. Carle said his supervisor at the National Intelligence Council told him in 2005 that White House officials wanted “to get” Professor Cole, and made clear that he wanted Mr. Carle to collect information about him, an effort Mr. Carle rebuffed. Months later, Mr. Carle said, he confronted a C.I.A. official after learning of another attempt to collect information about Professor Cole. Mr. Carle said he contended at the time that such actions would have been unlawful.
They wanted to collect information to defame Cole because he was deemed influential and deeply anti-Iraq War. Cole wants to find out if this illegal action took place. If this is true, the CIA, may have broken the law (and I doubt Cole was the only person).
“These allegations, if true, raise very troubling questions,” said Jeffrey H. Smith, a former C.I.A. general counsel. “The statute makes it very clear: you can’t spy on Americans.” Mr. Smith added that a 1981 executive order that prohibits the C.I.A. from spying on Americans places tight legal restrictions not only on the agency’s ability to collect information on United States citizens, but also on its retention or dissemination of that data. 

 

 

An unethical, Illegal misuse of our intelligence resources in a time of war. Was there any dissent during George W. Bush’s White House years that didn’t drive them to overreact?

Tantrum Protests fail liberals

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Tantrum protests are that involve some sort of mildly belligerent spectacle meant to embarrass a public figure. Glitter bombs are a tantrum protest. No one knows why a public figure was glitter bombed, pied in the face or whatever when it is reported, people just know that they were mildly bullied.

It doesn’t embarrass any public figure worth protesting. The brief, surprising interruption and spectacle serves to anger and energize that politicians’s staff and loyalists and it annoys people who work the venues because they have to clean up the mess. Most folks who see or hear about the protest decide that the tantrum protester is someone with time to waste and is limited to the ingenuity of a schoolyard bully. The tactic is the focus.

It worked for Tea Partiers in town halls because they sought to derail, not to build. Liberal political action requires a base of consensus and calculated action to achieve a new goal to improve social justice and/or the value or efficiency of governments function. Blasting people with props from the local costume store doesn’t seem to aid that cause.

Dear Majority Leader, Raise the Debt Ceiling, Sincerely “The Gipper”

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President Reagan needed the debt ceiling raised. The Obama administration is circulating Reagan’s reasoned argument in favor of a debt ceiling hike. From the pen of the role model for all republicans:

This country now possesses the strongest credit in the world. The full consequences of a default — or even the serious prospect of default — by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and on the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The Nation can ill afford to allow such a result.

via First Read – WH invokes Ronald Reagan in effort to raise debt ceiling.

How soon until someone whack job alleges this letter was forged.

Another win for Boston

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Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins have all won championships in the last 10 years. With that run, can Boston put the tortured sports fan angst costume in storage? That getup is just to small for you all now and I would suggest this makes them the top sports town (as far as wins go) in the last decade or so.

Also, wtf with the riots in Vancouver?

Over a year out, what does a debate win mean?

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Over a year out from the November 2008, Senator Obama was a blip on the radar and Senator Edwards was the big challenger as both campaigns were trying to lay the groundwork to steal Iowa from the inevitable Senator Hillary Clinton who was gearing her attacks and infrastructure towards the general election not her opponents in a proportional primary.

Romney’s pundit declared “win” in the 2nd debate of the season against a field isn’t completely set and in front of a voter base that isn’t completely dialed into the 2012 election is a qualifying heat. There are many more heats to run before they even get to the Pro tour: primary season.

New Tag: The Bold & Courageous

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Here’s the deal: When there is huge complex problem that we as a country have to deal with (Al Qaeda, Energy, Unemployment, Poverty, Education, Credit Crisises, Drug usage) the first ideologue that delineates an extreme solution is known as being the adult in the room. Even if the implementation of the law is hasty, the design of the plan ignores the subtleties of context, the import of expert empirical analysis, and the most likely or real outcome of the legislative/executive action is exacerbation of the complex problem, the solution is still regarded by the punditry as serious, bold and courageous.

Why? Because the punditry all claim: no one else suggested an alternative solution. Except, in most all cases, someone did propose an alternative.

Then when the plan is implemented, and things go wrong, the pundit reaction is to protect their ignorance and their favorite bureaucrat with statements like: “who could have known?” or “it’s no ones fault”. These very serious people are The Bold & Courageous. Two prime examples?

Boehner is leading his party against raising the arbitrary debt ceiling without massive, recession generating spending cuts:

As one who’s been arguing that the US is sleep walking off a cliff by flirting with defaulting on the federal debt for the first time in the nation’s history, even I’m a little stunned to see news that some of the biggest US banks are already making plans (sub.req.) to cut their use of US Treasuries in August as a preparation for default.

via On to Catastrophe | Talking Points Memo

Paul Ryan’s budget is another example.

Over the last 24 hours, media pundits have been heaping praise on House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) for releasing a proposal with massive cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. New York Times columnist David Brooks called it the “most courageous budget reform proposal any of us have seen in our lifetimes.” Time’s Joe Klein said it was “without question, an act of political courage.”

via VIDEO: Pundits Gush Over Paul Ryan’s ‘Courageous’ Rip-Off | ThinkProgress.

As we know from both initiatives they can not actually be called insane.

 

 

Real News: IMF Hacked

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Maybe we can pull some people off of Weiner dick gazing and Palin Bus stalking to figure out what the IMF knows about the cyberattack on their systems:

Because the fund has been at the center of economic bailout programs for Portugal, Greece and Ireland — and possesses sensitive data on other countries that may be on the brink of crisis — its database contains potentially market-moving information. It also includes communications with national leaders as they negotiate, often behind the scenes, on the terms of international bailouts. Those agreements are, in the words of one fund official, “political dynamite in many countries.” It was unclear what information the attackers were able to access.

via Sophisticated Cyberattack Is Reported by the I.M.F. – NYTimes.com.

Preserving original publications

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When it comes to books, are we keeping the originals? Barely:

A prudent society keeps at least one specimen of all it makes, forever. It still amazes me that after 20 years the only publicly available back up of the internet is the privately funded Internet Archive. The only broad archive of television and radio broadcasts is the same organization. They are now backing up the backups of books. Someday we’l realize the precocious wisdom of it all and Brewster Kahle will be seen as a hero.

via The Technium: When Hard Books Disappear.

One big problem, this archive is only in California. It needs redundancy and hopefully, this can be done in the south, north east and mid-west as well as in overseas locations. Maybe a consortium of the library of congress, museums, local libraries and non-profits? The other question, what happened to newspapers on rolls of microfiche that was available at libraries around the country? Google has stopped scanning in microfiche archives and much more is on microfiche than newspapers (including public records) .

2010-11 Sportsmen of the Year: anti-villains Tiger & Lebron

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I have one simple reason for these two anti-villains being sportsmen of the year: the fervor of fans rooting against them matches the fervor of fans rooting for them.

NBA Store: Beat the Heat Tees

 

People I know who haven’t watched the NBA or The Masters ever or for years watched them both this year. And who did all these people support? They were pro or anti-anti-villain.

Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods Press Conference April 10, 2010 (Joe Skipper/EPA)

Tiger Woods Press Conference April 10, 2010 (Joe Skipper/EPA)

Newly minted golf fans, some of them former believers in the inevitability of Tiger (without ever being someone who sat down to watch a round of golf) picked (on the last day) between McElroy, Day, Scott, Donald, Ogilvy, Cabrera and the eventual winner Charlie Schwartzel. In sports bars, in twitter feeds and FB feeds a fantastic round of golf was made all the more compelling because Tiger was playing well, and the field of not-Tigers responded. The anti-villian had arrived.

In a huge reversal, one of the most well liked sports figures became one of the worst liked.

Tiger supporters and golf fans were glad to see him play. The people that balked when the perfect family picture that had been marketed by Woods was trampled by the serial adulterer’s cavalcade of porn stars, cocktail waitresses and diner servers were glad that Tiger Woods played hard, and lost.

Woods’ return in 2010 and the 2011 Masters were the two highest rated Masters of the last ten years.

Lebron James

Off the hard court, LeBron James showed really bad form and took an unbelievable hit. I know one guy from Cleveland. A few more folks from Ohio. If they are so inclined to be pissed off about their former hoop King’s abdication of the throne, it makes complete sense. The era of King James was the best seven years the Cavaliers ever had. R&B star Usher bought in. The Cavs became must see TV. He was theirs until he said I’m from Akron not Cleveland and then picked the Heat over the Cav’s (Knicks, Nets and Bulls). Nevermind that the Cav’s were coach-less and had brought no other star player besides James. Never-mind the well jeweled Lakers, Celtics and Spurs were packed full of guys who were all but in the NBA Hall of Fame or big time playoff players. LeBron was theirs. As much as they give Dan Gilbert an irrational pass, I can understand them rooting against the Heat.

But the rest of the “anyone but the Heat” NBA fans? Are they staunch Cleveland defenders? Do they love The Flats, Shaker Heights or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame so much that whomever may defile them must be the devil incarnate? As Joakim Noah made plain and simple prior to “The Decision”, that’s probably not true.(Sidebar: did Cavs fans cheer for Noah’s Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals?).

In a huge reversal, one of the most well liked sports figures became one of the worst liked.

People that rooted for LeBron but never called him king because he had never won the crown had no problem with him joining forces with D. Wade’s Heat: super teams make for super basketball. People that believed the prophecy of King James rising from a fiefdom in Akron, ascending to the crown-less, champion-less throne in Cleveland he promised to adorn with a championship hated “The Decision” and want to see him lose more than they want to see Dirk and the Mavs win.

This years NBA Mavs vs. Heat Finals are the highest rated in the last seven years. The NBA regular season was the highest rated in the history of the NBA on TNT.

The anti-Woods people and the anti-James people are of the same cloth. They personally bought into towering infallible images manufactured and sold to them by Woods, James and their marketing teams. When they figured out they had been believing the hype, they blamed LeBron and Tiger and they want nothing more than their actually sports legacies to be as devalued as their images.

Tiger’s Achilles Tendon and knee are forcing him to pull out of majors left and right. Lebron James has had some abysmal fourth quarters in the finals (despite solid overall numbers) in games mostly decided by under 5 points. The anti-villains may be falling to defeat right on cue. Either way, the sports world is watching.

Post-Scandal To Do List: Don’t quit, Come Clean, Say Sorry & Work Hard

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Anthony Weiner (by Marc Faletti on Flickr)

Anthony Weiner (by Marc Faletti on Flickr)

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has appropriately called for an ethics investigation. His mentor and predecessor, Senator Chuck Schumer has let Rep. Anthony Weiner deal with his own crisis management. The normally wooden Harry Reid dissed Weiner the hardest:

“I know Congressman Weiner,” Reid said. “I wish there was someway I could defend him but I can’t.”

Reid declined repeated questions about whether or not Weiner should resign. Reid again dodged when asked by TPM what he tell Weiner to do if he asked him.

“Call somebody else,” Reid said.

via Reid On Weiner: ‘I Wish I Could Defend Him But I Can’t’ | TPMDC.

DCCC officials and a former DNC chair have called for Weiner to resign ASAP. About the only guy in House leadership who initially defended Weiner in this whole saga of lewd tweets had this to say June 3rd:

“I told him that he needs to handle this and he needed to give the facts accurately to the public,” [House Minority whip Steny] Hoyer said.

Rep. Weiner is definitely in some political trouble. What it seems like to me is that Weiner lied to everyone who would have his back after his mis-tweet (wtf) resulted in him being caught sex-ting while representing. Sources say that the Clintons are furious with Weiner for his behavior and exceedingly awkward attempts to cover up his behavior. Both Clintons are close to his wife Huma Abedin who is a long time aide (since the 1990’s) for Secretary Clinton. I would hope Bill is able to temper his anger with some humility borne of his own numerous public infidelities, ill-advised denials and fumbling admissions from his time as Governor of Arkansas, Presidential candidate and President. Secretary Clinton seems to be fully supportive of her aide while Abedin deals with her husbands extra-martial sexual exhibitionism. Also, Weiner seems to be without much political capital. (Unlike many members of congress, Weiner is not rolling the dough nor is he on the power committees).

Weiner’s wife is staying with him and expecting their first child. His constituents, overall, value his continued representation as polls show. He still has the mandate of the majority of the people who elected him to office. He can probably win some back over the remainder of his term. So despite assertions that sex-ting while married constitutes an irreparable violation of what the Atlantic’s Josh Green and now James Fallows call the “fiduciary duty” to staff and supporters or a loss of “respect of [his] constituents” (as asserted by Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa)), the political career of Rep. Anthony Weiner is not dead yet.

Weiner’s behavior, however embarrassing, is not illegal nor did he neglect his professional duties (he didn’t go AWOL on his constituency like former SC Governor Mark Sanford or use illegal lobby connections to cover up his infidelities like former NV Senator John Ensign). Of course some heavy handed, tasteless political hacks have put out a web ad against Weiner and the RNC has sent fundraising e-mails lambasting Weiner and goading Democrats who have received money from Weiner’s campaign to turn the funds over to charity (some have complied). Representatives Dumping Weiner’s campaign contributions is a step that is too pious for my tastes. Did Weiner trade nude photos and sext women for those monies? Does the cash have cooties on it now? Have Rep. Eric Cantor and other Republicans unequivocally demanded the same of anyone who received money from Ensign, Schwarzaneger, Craig, Vitter, Foley or Sanford?

The real and unresolved issues with Weiner are three fold in my opinion:

  • Referral for Prosecution: If the results of ethics investigation result in a referral to the Department of Justice if the panel reveals him to have broken the law (which seems very unlikely)
  • Unintentional Sexual Harassment Allegations: If in the process of sexting from his capital hill office or community office he unintentionally sexual harassed his staff or House staff (say they witnessed him engaging in said activities or had access to his online accounts and saw certain messages) then that could result in real damages being sought.
  • House Ethics Rules violation: The House rules do allow for some sort of reprimand or censure based upon decorum not fitting of a member of congress, so some sort of penalty will be added to his record.

The 1st seems unlikely in my opinion. The second, who knows. The last seems to be very likely.

On the left, disappointingly, reactionary behavior has ruled the day.

Cenk Uygur was on MSNBC yesterday proposing that Democrats should follow his 3 step “Fight Back” plan for crisis management:

  • defend (protect Rep. Weiner at all costs),
  • attack (eg they should have jumped on the John Ensign or Larry Craig scandals and demanded immediate resignation), and
  • counter attack (say look, his was illegal and point at Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) still holding office).

This is a generally a bad strategy when someone actually did something wrong all by their lonesome. Anthony Weiner’s a grown man who made some very personal adult mistakes. He can defend himself even though he shouldn’t. He appropriately (finally) came clean and apologized to everyone publicly. His behavior is indefensible, but it is not unforgivable.

Democrats who are quick to demand Weiner’s resignation are foolishly setting a harsh precedent when it comes to scandals. People don’t usually demand the janitor, travelling salesperson, engineer or accountant who’ve been caught cheating on their spouse to resign. In addition, Democrats have learned nothing from Gary Hart, Bill Clinton and others: the best guy for your politics may not be the best guy to his wife. I would definitely bet there are some more folks in their caucus who may be cheating on their spouses or engaging in sexual behavior that is embarrassing when brought to light. Pro golfer Tiger Wood’s mistresses and Weiner’s sexting counterparts Megan Broussard and Lisa Weiss prove that it doesn’t take much to get an ex-lover to open up and tell their side of the story complete with the artifacts (clothing, emails, images and texts) of their dalliances. There will probably be more humans who happen to be members of congress who get caught in perfectly legal, lewd and adulterous behavior. It may not be so convenient for them to cast aside more prominent members of their caucus the next time a scandal arises, but now they will be judged as hypocrites if they do not react to future scandals in the same way. If Weiner weathers this, which I believe he will, and stays out of trouble (time will tell) will Rep. Schwartz never work with him again because she thinks he should have resigned?

Censured Rep. Charlie Rangel is the only Dem to publicly rebuf calls from Democrats and Republicans for Weiner to resign. I guess you got the friends you got.

On Monday, Weiner returns to the Hill and some of the circus will return with him. At least he will have no illusions about who his allies really are. Instead of currying favor with members of his caucus who are quick to discard him, he can focus on the people who still support him: his wife, his family, his constituency and his staffers. He has three down and one to go: don’t quit, say sorry, come clean and work hard.

UPDATED: Beginning a private social conversation with a 17 year old girl is completely out of bounds. Weiner is taking a leave of absence.It seems he didn’t truly come clean at his last presser so each time he holds a presser and more info comes out, the less people will trust him.