Terrible Two’sday News-n-stuff

Posted on February 8, 2011 by myiq2xu

Here comes Santa Claus:

Obama Plans Jobless Aid Help for States

The Obama administration is proposing short-term relief to states saddled with unemployment insurance debt, coupled with a delayed increase in the income level used to tax employers for the aid to the jobless.

The administration plans to include the proposal in its budget plan next week. The plan was confirmed to Fox News late Monday by a person familiar with the discussions on the condition of anonymity because the budget plan is still being completed.

Rising unemployment has placed such a burden on states that 30 of them owe the federal government $42 billion in money borrowed to meet their unemployment insurance obligations. Three states already have had to raise taxes to begin paying back the money they owe. More than 20 other states likely would have to raise taxes to cover their unemployment insurance debts. Under federal law, such tax increases are automatic once the money owed reaches a certain level.

Under the proposal, the administration would impose a moratorium in 2011 and 2012 on state tax increases and on state interest payments on the debt.

Do you know what would be even better than jobless aid?

JOBS!

I know who wants .clown:

Rush is on for custom domain name suffixes

The pillar of the basic Web address – the trusty .com domain – is about to face vast new competition that will dramatically transform the Web as we know it. New Web sites, with more subject-specific, sometimes controversial suffixes, will soon populate the online galaxy, such as .eco, .love, .god, .sport, .gay or .kurd.

So will you have to be gay to get the .gay suffix? Because you know somebody like Westboro Baptist Church will try to grab it if they can.

Department of So What?

Democratic Leadership Council will fold

The Democratic Leadership Council, the iconic centrist organization of the Clinton years, is out of money and could close its doors as soon as next week, a person familiar with the plans said Monday.

Apparently some people on the left think this is wonderful news. They think the DLC is some kind of evil cult. These are the same people who think Bill Clinton was a bad president.

Too bad it’s not the Home Shopping Channel:

Olbermann Said to Be Going to Current TV

Keith Olbermann, the former top-rated host of “Countdown” on the news channel MSNBC, will announce his next television home on Tuesday, and people familiar with his plans pointed Monday to a possible deal with the public affairs channel Current TV.

I would rather see him somewhere where they run electrical current through his body. Not to kill him, just for laughs.

Media circus:

Assange attorneys cast doubt on accusations at extradition hearing in London

Attorneys for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange launched a blistering attack on the credibility of Swedish prosecutors and two women who are accusing the 39-year-old Australian of sexual assault, arguing on the first day of an extradition hearing that he faces the prospect of a closed-door show trial if British authorities send him to Stockholm.

The Swedes are notorious for their kangaroo courts. Or is that the Aussies? I dunno. But isn’t this asshole’s 15 minutes of fame up already?

Turns our it was life sentence:

Man given 1-year term for child rape dies in jail

A man whose one-year sentence for a child rape conviction drew national outrage has died in jail while awaiting trial in a separate case involving a minor, a law enforcement official said Monday.

David Earls, 66, died Saturday afternoon at McAlester Regional Health Center where he was taken after Pittsburg County Jail personnel noticed he was ill, Undersheriff Richard Bedford said Monday night.

This is one reason I don’t like political labels. On most stuff I lean to the left but on child molesters I’m with the reactionary right. Give the perverts a fair trial and then hang them. I hope he burns in hell.

I wish I had something cheerful to tell you. I’ll try to find something and update this post.

Until then, have a nice day.

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53 Responses

  1. bemused_leftist, on February 8, 2011 at 3:21 am said:

    On the ‘rape’ charges, I’ve posted a lot of cites at my LJ, mostly in early December, a couple lately.

    Note that what sounds like ‘rape’ by our terms was made a lesser charge by the Swedish police; what they call ‘minor rape’

    • bemused_leftist, on February 8, 2011 at 3:25 am said:

      That should read:
      Note that what sounds like ‘rape’ by our terms (with Miss A) was made a lesser charge by the Swedish police; what they charged as ‘minor rape’ was the accusation of initiating sex with a sleeping woman (Miss W) who said she “could not be bothered” to tell him to stop when she woke.

      (Sorry the previous post went off too soon for some reason. Pls delete it?)

      More detail on this case at my LJ.

      • Valhalla, on February 8, 2011 at 5:18 am said:

        Or you could read here where I link to the actual Swedish statutes governing sexual assault.(chap 6). The statutes do not define anything as “minor rape.”

        “Minor rape” sounds suspiciously like the “sex by surprise” cannard pushed by Assange’s lawyers and picked up by Assange-fans everywhere, after a long trail of extremely dubious sourcing which turned out to be, surprise! not true.

        And in the end, it really doesn’t matter what Swedish police call it (if that part’s even true).

        • bemused_leftist, on February 8, 2011 at 12:44 pm said:

          Translations differ. I’ve pasted the relevant section of the pdf at http://bemused-leftist.livejournal.com/94669.html

          Apparently ‘minor’ is someone’s translation of the pdf’s “less serious” degree.

          I do wish the Mods would delete my post at February 8, 2011 at 3:21 am which is garbage that went off too soon. My later garbage is better. Slightly better. I’ll try to put something reallly clear at my LJ when I can. If I can.

        • Valhalla, on February 8, 2011 at 9:50 pm said:

          Can you source your quotes on the lj entry? Where are you getting this from?

          I think your information that the Miss A’s circumstances are something “that most US states would not call ‘rape’* at all” is probably about 30 years out of date. The Swedish statutes are pretty unremarkable in comparison with the U.S. counterparts.

          CA, for instance, stats here.

          Sec 261 (a) Rape is an act of sexual intercourse accomplished …under any of the following circumstances:
          (4) Where a person is at the time unconscious of the nature of the act, and this is known to the accused. As used in this paragraph, “unconscious of the nature of the act” means incapable of resisting
          because the victim meets one of the following conditions:
          (A) Was unconscious or asleep.
          …
          (a) Except as provided in subdivision (c), rape, as defined in Section 261 or 262, is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for three, six, or eight years.

          I picked CA law bc it tends to be one of the model code states (and I’m too lazy to do a survey of the other 49). But virtually all states’ sexual assault laws turn on consent, not whether the perpetrator beat the crap out of the victim.

          * one thing that is quite unfortunate is that ‘rape’ is a term with both a very specific legal definition within most jurisdiction’s statutues but also a more generalized term used to apply to sexual assault. Many are using the two different types of meaning interchangeably, usually depending on whether it supports or detracts from their admiration or dislike of Assange. The idea that the Swedish statutes “”that most US states would not call ‘rape’* at all” is extremely misleading, because the states that would not consider Assange’s alleged actions ‘rape’ obscures the fact that nearly all those states would consider them criminal (and a felony crime at that) just under a different term (whether molestation, coercion, sexual assault of x degree, etc.).

  3. Bull J. Moose, on February 8, 2011 at 4:05 am said:

    So now that the evil DLC is going, what will the Obots cling to as the reason for all the ills in the New Dem party and for Obama’s problems?

  4. OldCoastie, on February 8, 2011 at 4:07 am said:

    so Obama is ordering businesses to add more jobs?

    if there is no one to sell to, then how does that work?

    it all seems rather ethereal…

  5. Bull J. Moose, on February 8, 2011 at 4:22 am said:

    The latest from Egypt:

    Protesters in the Egyptian capital are holding mass demonstrations, with a new wave of optimism reaching the pro-democracy camp following the release of the detained cyber activist, Wael Ghonim.

    As demonstrations seeking an immediate end to Hosni Mubarak’s rule enter their 15th day, protesters – set up in makeshift tents in central Cairo’s Tahrir [Liberation] Square – are refusing to leave until their demands are met.

    In a bid to counter the political challenge, the government offered on Monday a pay rise to public-sector workers, but the pro-democracy camp feels the government has conceded little ground in trying to end the current crisis.

    “[The pay rise] doesn’t mean anything,” Sherif Zein, a protester at Tahrir Square told Al Jazeera on Tuesday. “Maybe it will be a short-term release for the workers … but most of the people will realise what this is, it’s just a tablet of asprin, but it’s nothing meaningful.”

    • votermom, on February 8, 2011 at 6:10 am said:

      I really admire how the protestors are sticking to their position. And I have to acknowledge that the Mub camp is being wily and patient too.

      I am reminded of how Egyptians are masters in the fine art of haggling, and frankly, I can think of a lot of our so-called leaders here who could take lessons from them.

      • okasha skatsi, on February 8, 2011 at 7:04 am said:

        What “the Mub camp” has been is brutal. His persistence is basically blackmail. If the US moves to force him out or otherwise support the protestors further, he and his brand new VP will spill the beans on US rendition and torture–because Suleiman is the guy who was in charge of it. They’re counting on Bush3′s tender concern for his “lightbringer” image to keep the dirt under the rug and themselves in the Palace.

        • votermom, on February 8, 2011 at 7:18 am said:

          Not to be a Mub apologist, I am just saying that he could be more brutal. I am just comparing to the horror of Tiananmen & Tehran or even Bangkok at the moment. Not to say that he could not still decide to do that. And I don’t really know how much of that is to his credit of to the Army’s credit.
          As for blackmail, no doubt that is one of the cards he’s using. He has others in his hand as well.

        • votermom, on February 8, 2011 at 8:04 am said:

          Can I ask, why did you put quotes around the Mub camp — when I read that my reaction was that it was air-quotes which are meant to condescend. Was that the intention?

        • okasha skatsi, on February 8, 2011 at 2:04 pm said:

          I put quotation marks around it because it’s a quotation.

  6. Bull J. Moose, on February 8, 2011 at 4:23 am said:

    Obama sounds a bit like a baby. Businesses, if you don’t hire, I’m going to hold my breath.

    • djmm, on February 8, 2011 at 3:58 pm said:

      Yeah, like that will work.

      When is he going to “welcome their hatred”? My guess is never.

      djmm

      • Three Wickets, on February 8, 2011 at 11:17 pm said:

        He really should be getting rid of those tax breaks for multinationals on offshore profits earned from operations employing lower wage workers overseas. All this talk about reforming the corporate tax code, but he refuses to do this.

  7. Pips, on February 8, 2011 at 5:11 am said:

    … a person familiar with the discussions … (FoxNews)
    “… a person familiar with the plans …” (Politico)
    “… people familiar with his plans …” (NY Times)

    Is “familiar” the media’s new (or maybe not so new?) “buzzword” to make their anonymous sources sound more credible? … Or should I say more familiar?

    • DeniseVB, on February 8, 2011 at 7:30 am said:

      My pet peeve is unnamed sources in news articles and by spinning heads. When I throw those out, there really is very little “real” news out there :D

  8. Pips, on February 8, 2011 at 5:29 am said:

    With all due respect crawdad, I see the public hearing/prosecution/sentencing in the Assange case more (and more!) like a farce rather than a circus. Getting more bizarre by the day.

    To me it seems clear – and I guess that’s what the OpenLeaks (nice logo!) people leaving WikiLeaks last September saw too – that Julian Assange has become addicted to being in the limelight, to having celebrity status. He seems to crave and revel in the attention to the point where he can’t pass a camera or a microphone without having the urge (to which he regrettably always responds!) to … make a statement. Pathetique!

    He – and his bloviating English solicitor both – has become utterly ridiculous. Does anyone even still take any of them – or the Sancho Panza like entourage, including Looking-for-a-cause socialite Bianca Jagger – serious anymore?

    • Three Wickets, on February 8, 2011 at 11:37 pm said:

      Nope. Don’t take Julian seriously at all. But that doesn’t mean all “leaking” is wonderful for our democracy either. There are degrees of transparency and privacy/security of information that are necessary for most organizations to function usefully. I think the wikileaks kids don’t give a crap about any of that. When it’s not about anarchy and there are actual solutions being discussed, I will pay attention. Otherwise it’s the National Enquirer or Gawker doing their thing on a different level and sphere…which is not always useless, but wouldn’t exactly call it journalism.

  9. votermom, on February 8, 2011 at 6:20 am said:

    The wind is howling like a banshee right now where I am. Ugh.

    Crawdad, I agree with you about being a reactionary rightist on child molesters. Here’s another guy I woldn’t mind seeing get the death penalty either:
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/08/us-crime-beheading-idUSTRE71703F20110208

    • WMCB, on February 8, 2011 at 6:50 am said:

      I agree. For many crimes, I favor a “reasonable punishment” approach, but a child?

      I think it should be an area where potential perpetrators crap their pants at the thought of the hell that will rain down on them if they dare even touch a child. I want penalties so harsh that they are filled with terror at the very thought of molesting a child.

      That said, I’m not in favor of the neighborhood notification of sexual predators as it currently exists. I’d be in favor of it if it was limited to actual predators, but too many crimes (i.e. homeless guy peed in the park, and he gets nabbed for “exposing himself to a child’) get put in that category.

      • yttik, on February 8, 2011 at 10:56 am said:

        I agree with you on the notification thing, WMCB. I kid you not, we have over 300 convicted sexual predators in our dinky little community, but only four who meet the qualifications for public notification. One is a woman, one is a black man, one is a 17 yr old boy, and sure enough, one is a homeless guy who exposed himself. These people are all creepy, but they are about the only four people in the community I am not really worried about.

    • Three Wickets, on February 8, 2011 at 11:46 pm said:

      Yes I was reading about that wife beheading case today. Had not heard of it before, but apparently the case has been a long battle because the husband was being defended by liberal groups for being unfairly targeted for his Muslim religion.

  10. Mr. Mike, on February 8, 2011 at 6:53 am said:

    Think where we would be if all that bail out money went to the homeowners instead of the too big to fail cronies of Bush the Lesser and his kidnapped at birth twin Obama the Plastic.
    Those home owners could have met their obligations and the mortgage holders would have gotten their cash like they were supposed to instead of one in big bonus generating lump.
    As to the argument of bailing out people who were stupid enough to over buy on their primary residence, what is the difference between them and the idiot investment bankers that bought up the bad paper?
    Other than the size of the contributions they made to Obama’s campaign fund?
    Oh … never mind, I answered my own question.

    • Anna Belle, on February 8, 2011 at 1:01 pm said:

      HONK! So true. Exactly true, in fact. Now the banksters get to double dip by being bailed out AND trying to force all those mortgage-holders to pay on crap pricing, or have their homes foreclosed upon so the banksters can make more money THAT way. All fiscal paths lead to the banksters wallet, in other words. Pathetic.

  11. votermom, on February 8, 2011 at 10:44 am said:

    The Google logo for today (Jules Verne’s bday) is very awesome and interactive!
    Be sure to check it out before the day ends.

  12. Not Your Sweetie, on February 8, 2011 at 11:17 am said:

    The “Obama is likable enough” edition of the DUdies
    http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/dudies-3/

  13. Valissa, on February 8, 2011 at 3:40 pm said:

    Here’s an interesting post…

    Sorry, Ariana and Markos, No More Free Content For You http://www.thestarshollowgazette.com/diary/1948/sorry-ariana-and-markos-no-more-free-content-for-you

    • Mr. Mike, on February 8, 2011 at 8:12 pm said:

      Interesting way to silence Liberal voices.

    • Three Wickets, on February 8, 2011 at 11:59 pm said:

      That will be interesting to watch because so many writers have been writing because of their political passions without getting paid. Surprised they have put up with it this long. I’d be royally pissed at Google and aggregators like HuffPo if I were them…I mean look who’s getting rich off of this. Arianna will pocket $100 million from the deal.

    • WMCB, on February 9, 2011 at 6:22 am said:

      Well, we tried to tell them she was not a liberal, merely a canny former republican who saw which way the wind was blowing in the Bush years, and hopped on the most profitable train. She’s about money and influence, always has been.

      Guess what, progressives? You are no longer the most profitable or influential train. Arianna sez “Buh-Bye”.

  14. ralphb, on February 8, 2011 at 4:53 pm said:

    New Deal 2.0

    Obama’s Half Measures Won’t Save the States

    Much could be done to help state budgets and reduce unemployment. None of them will happen.

    Business Week reports that President Obama is considering seeking aid for state unemployment insurance programs burdened by debt because of high unemployment rates. At the margin, no complaints here about the idea, but it’s fairly limited in scope and may not make that much of a difference.

    • djmm, on February 8, 2011 at 6:08 pm said:

      Anyone from New Deal willing to primary him?

      djmm

    • Three Wickets, on February 9, 2011 at 12:04 am said:

      If the Fed or Treasury don’t bail out the States, it will either be grinding austerity or defaults on creditors and pensions…or both.

  15. Mr. Mike, on February 8, 2011 at 8:18 pm said:

    Terrible does come in twos.
    Today on the way to work I got blown into the weeds by a BMW 350i then got to hear Rush Limbaugh interview former Sec. of Def. Donald Rumsfeld. Since I was commuting I couldn’t pour bleach in my ears to clean out the tremendos wads of crud.

  16. ralphb, on February 8, 2011 at 8:41 pm said:

    Republicans defect

    House rejects measure that would extend key Patriot Act provisions through December

    A measure to extend key provisions of the Patriot Act counterterrorism surveillance law through December failed the House Tuesday night, with more than two-dozen Republicans bucking their party to oppose the measure.

    That’s a nice side effect of 2010. Maybe.

    • Bull J. Moose, on February 8, 2011 at 9:50 pm said:

      I noticed that. It’s very weird and surreal that it’s the tea party members blocking the bill Obama and the Republicans desperately want. That is, to continue destroying the constitution and spy on citizens.

      But don’t get your hopes up, I think this will go again in a week or two and pass next time. They vow to run it again but this time not needing a supermajority. We’ll see what the Senate does.

      Obama has promised to sign it of course.

  17. Three Wickets, on February 9, 2011 at 12:11 am said:

    Not sure if this has been posted yet from Ayaan Hirsi Ali about her experience in the Muslim Brotherhood. As usual, very edifying from her.

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