Headlines - Thursday July 7

To no one's surprise, Exxon/Mobil was lying about the severity of the Yellowstone River oil spill

Like Rachel Maddow said last night, this is the single most profitable company in the entire world ($5 million every hour 24 hours a day) and yet they are cleaning up the oil with freaking paper towels.

 

 

###

 

Iraqis look at the damage from a rocket attack on a residential compound in central Baghdad on July 5 after several Iraqis were killed and wounded in the strike

Tuesday: 47 Iraqis Killed, 59 Wounded

###

###

How much money does it cost to build a computer system which shares real-time intelligence among troops fighting in both Iraq and Afghanistan? The question is still out, but we know for sure that the $2.7 billion the Army has spent didn't accomplish the goal.

###

Supply-side horseshit

It never worked, not even once Link

The theory of supply-side economics tells us that if you cut taxes on rich people and corporations, the newly
liberated moguls and businessmen will take their windfall and invest it, creating jobs and accelerating the rate
of economic growth. The benefits of a light hand on the upper class, therefore, will "trickle down" to the
working man and woman.

Ever since Ronald Reagan first attempted to make supply-side economics a reality and proceeded to inaugurate an era of persistent government deficits and growing income inequality, it has become harder and harder to make the trickle-down argument with a straight face. But we've never seen anything quite like the disaster that's playing out right now.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that corporate profits are looking quite strong for the second
quarter of 2011. Even the Journal can't sugarcoat the basic facts:

While the U.S. economy staggers through one of its slowest recoveries since the Great Depression,
American companies are poised to report strong earnings for the second quarter -- exposing a dichotomy
between corporate performance and the overall health of the economy.

But that's just the tip of the nightmare.

That supply-side shit never worked because the super-rich are greedy.

The truth is, if you give a rich man more money, he COULD hire some people,
but the fact is he won't, as witnessed by today's mountain of unspent cash.

When people are desperate for jobs, nobody asks for a raise - and that's how the super-rich like it.
When Clinton created 24M jobs, people got raises and the super-rich don't like that.

###

###

This blockbuster article by Sam Stein is a must read. It would appear that all these tea party freshmen are lobbying hard to bring home the pork for their constituents all the while voting against government spending in general. Sometimes they brag about it. Sometimes, they just do it in secret. But they are doing it. Shocker, I know.

###

Many people thought it was a bit odd when Governor Rick Perry indicated that he might run for President of the United States after previously suggesting that Texas may want to secede from the United States. Perry seems not only want to be the John C. Calhoun of presidential aspirants, but he has also decided to add the violation of international law and treaties as a resume booster. Over the objections of President Obama and a host of leading international figures, Perry has refused to stop the execution of of Humberto Leal Garcia — a Mexican national denied his rights under the Vienna Convention.

###

Chris Hayes on MSNBC last night putting the Casey Anthony coverage into proper perspective.

####

Bob Cesca: The Republican Spectrum of Ignorance

###

Morford: 2050, the year we all eat each other

###

What a revolting bunch.

###

Maybe Big Oil can dismiss this as they did with the Yellowstone River spill. The Guardian

####

Given what a sellout Barack Obama has shown himself to be, I'm ready to believe that if Republicans gave him a bill that made it illegal for anyone black or poor or elderly to vote, he'd sign it just to try to get Rand Paul to like him.

So good for Bill Clinton....

###

I don't know.

Maybe Barack Obama really in his heart still believes, despite being depicted as a monkey, the target of an e-mail depicting his parents as chimpanzees, called a liar in the middle of the State of the Union message, described with lynching metaphors by a leading presidential candidate, and a nonstop barrage of obstructionism by Congressional Republicans during the last two-and-a-half years, that he still can negotiate with Republicans; that he's so special that he can part the waters. Maybe he has some deep-seated self-loathing that's so pervasive that he gets some kind of perverse gratification out of being abused by Republicans.

Maybe he's even just doing what he's wanted to do all along -- set himself up for a nice cushy eight-figure job with an investment bank after he leaves office and join the ranks of the very people we elected him to keep under some kind of control.

Whatever it is, it's pretty clear that the poor and the elderly in this country are going to be sacrificed, not by some right-wing Republican greedmeister, but by a Democrat that those very poor and elderly elected.

###

Good. Those casualties are combat deaths, period. They should never have been treated otherwise.President Obama today reversed existing policy and will send condolence letters to families of military service members who commit suicide while deployed. In a statement, the president said, "This issue is emotional, painful, and complicated, but these Americans served our nation bravely. They didn't die because they were weak. And the fact that they didn't get the help they needed must change."

 

###

 

That fat, closeted homophobe Michele Bachmann is married to may prove to be her biggest liability. "Politico's James Hohmann published a story Tuesday on the unique role of Rep. Michele Bachmann's husband, Marcus, on the campaign trail. Aside from the obvious points about how he's had to pick up the slack on the home front since his wife left for Washington, the piece notes a few of the recent controversies that could become "liabilities" on the campaign trail -- namely, the fact that his family farm received subsidies, and that his Christian therapy practice accepted Medicaid funding. ... That might be a stretch. The fact that Marcus Bachmann received farm subsidies is bad because they're the kind of government handout the candidate loves to hate, but it's really not the kind of thing that sways voters -- especially when you consider that a lot of Republican primary voters also receive farm subsidies. There is one part of the Marcus Bachmann story, though, that is already becoming an issue for the Bachmann campaign. ... In addition to the fairly commonplace practice of accepting Medicaid payments, Bachmann's Christian therapy clinic has also been accused of dabbling in something called "conversion" or "reparative" therapy, in which gay people are supposedly cured of their gayness through steady doses of prayer. The American Psychiatric Association does not endorse "conversion therapy" and has suggested it might have damaging mental health consequences. But as Hohmann's story notes, Marcus Bachmann is not a member of any of Minnesota's three major professional organizations for psychologists. For Marcus Bachmann, this is bigger than science; it's a moral imperative. Gays, he has said, are like "barbarians" that need to be "disciplined.""

 

###

 

Rupertgate: The Smoking Phone