Clarence Thomas' wife becomes Teabagger leader, wants to stop Obama's 'hard-left agenda'

Republicans destroy institutions, it's what they do.

Science, media, government - their goal, for whatever reason, is to undermine. It's what they're doing to congress and the presidency, it's what they've been doing to the courts for years (arguing that courts are no longer impartial arbiters), and now it's what they're doing to the Supreme Court. It's no coincidence that at the same time Clarence Thomas' wife is taking corporation donations to influence elections and policy, Justice Roberts is picking a partisan fight with the White House, and Justice Alito had the temerity to speak out against the President at the State of the Union.

For whatever reason, Republicans believe in destroying institutions of authority in our country. It's a scary thought, and it's working.

In January, Virginia Thomas created Liberty Central Inc., a nonprofit lobbying group whose website will organize activism around a set of conservative "core principles," she said.

The group plans to issue score cards for Congress members and be involved in the November election, although Thomas would not specify how. She said it would accept donations from various sources -- including corporations -- as allowed under campaign finance rules recently loosened by the Supreme Court.

Must be nice to have your husband help give a kick start to your new financial venture. Read More......

Lehman triggers investigation into accounting practices

I guess I should have been more outraged with the accounting firm (E&Y) who worked with Lehman to play accounting games, but I'm not. It's not that I agree with their actions or think they shouldn't be punished but we've been seeing this over and over. Enron? Parmalat? Tyco? What the hell do the authorities need to see to actually change the system? Now that we're down to only the Big 4 auditors, should we expect anything else? As I mentioned the other day when the Lehman report came out, these firms desperately want to hold on to these lucrative contracts so they will agree to almost anything to hold them.

Thanks to consolidation in the market there are fewer alternatives and the size of these contracts grows every year. Until there's a serious effort in Europe and the US to address this situation we can expect more of these scandals. Maybe this latest effort will instigate reform but somehow that's doubtful. Political leaders have decided that they're OK with these scandals or else they would have done something serious after the last round of mega-accounting scandals.

When we can have reports showing the rapid collapse of multi-billion dollar operations such as Lehman yet no clear violation of the law, you have to wonder what is wrong and rotten in our legal system. It only reinforces the belief that business always has the upper hand and they own politicians. Look at how badly the Wall Street reform has gone in Washington. Trillions blown away yet Washington can't find agreement on reform? Yes it's the GOP who is blocking reform and backing Wall Street but how hard is it to shove the 82% down the throats of Republicans? It doesn't say much about the Democrats if they can't win over the public and force the GOP to back down on this issue. Time to call it a day if that happens.

Of course we should expect more from our political leadership. How many more Enron's or Lehman's before they care enough to ignore the lobbyists and do something? How many more billions need to be lost before the laws make that a criminal offense?

Prem Sikka, a professor of accounting at Essex University and a leading critic of the accounting profession, warned that without deep-rooted reform the crisis could repeat itself. "The report into the collapse of Lehmans is indicative of a deeper malaise," he said. "We rely on the discretion of eminent firms of auditors and lawyers that are paid millions of pounds for their efforts, but that discretion is too often abused."

A damning 2,200-page report commissioned by the US bankruptcy courts into the collapse of Lehman said that Ernst & Young's failure to act over off-balance sheet accounting practices which allowed the bank to hide $50bn of debts, and failing to investigate the concerns of a whistleblower, amounted to "professional negligence".

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The Pogues

Lots of birds chirping again in the mornings these days. It's definitely warming up. Though the birds can wake us up, Sushi is the wake-up artist at the moment. As he gets older, he becomes more clingy by the day. Since we went to see our cousin a few weeks ago in Bergamo, Sushi is even worse. He walks across us at night and stands on us. He stays on the bed almost all night. During the day, he stays close too and cries out when we move. If we pay attention to Nasdaq, he then attacks her. Nasdaq gets stressed out so she starts to chew the hair on her arms. Ugh and double ugh. At least they're both sleeping now. Read More......

Vatican: Everyone is trying to set up the Pope - he's the victim

Uh huh. It happened a few decades ago and the Pope, then archbishop of Munich, was involved in reassigning a paedophile priest and shuffling him around as seemingly every other Catholic diocese in the world has done. But he's being set up. Right. The bigger concern for the church is that more and more similar scandals are being aired out throughout Europe. It was the Irish scandal that triggered the German (and possibly Dutch) scandal. People are watching these events closely and have been disgusted by the actions of church leadership.

This obviously cuts close to the top leadership of the church so it's very likely going to receive more intense scrutiny and higher coverage. The church should be worried much more about the victims in these cases and their responsibility than throwing this back on the media. The media didn't create these scandals out of thin air. They were created by and covered up by the church for a long time. They have no one to blame other than themselves for failing to address serious problems. Live with it and quit blaming everyone else.

The pope's spokesman has launched a vigorous counter-attack against a report linking Benedict XVI to a sex abuse cover-up while he was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1981.

Father Federico Lombardi appeared to suggest in an interview on Vatican Radio that the pope, who also has strong links to the city of Regensburg, was the victim of a plot.

"It's rather clear that in recent days there have been people who have searched – with notable tenacity – in Regensburg and Munich for elements to personally involve the holy father in the question of the abuses," Lombardi said. "To any objective observer it's clear that these attempts have failed."

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Keith Olbermann's dad died today

From Keith's sports blog.

My father died, in the city of his birth, New York, at 3:50 EST this afternoon.

Though the financial constraints of his youth made college infeasible, he accomplished the near-impossible, becoming an architect licensed in 40 states. Much of his work was commercial, for a series of shoe store chains and department stores. There was a time in the 1970's when nearly all of the Baskin-Robbins outlets in the country had been built to his design, and under his direction. Through much of my youth and my early adult life, it was almost impossible to be anywhere in this country and not be a short drive to one of "his" stores.

My Dad was predeceased last year by my mother, Marie, his wife of nearly 60 years. He died peacefully after a long fight against the complications that ensued after successful colon surgery last September at the New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center. My sister Jenna and I were at his side, and I was reading him his favorite James Thurber short stories, as he left us.

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Winnie Mandela denies critical interview

Ahh, the good old "deny everything" approach. So ignore the photos of her meeting the interviewer Nadira Naipaul and her husband, Nobel laureate VS Naipaul during the interview. Sounds like a tough sell. Here's the original interview including the photograph.

The story took a new turn today when the 73-year-old rejected the inflammatory comments attributed to her.

"I did not give … an interview. It is therefore not necessary for me to respond in any detail to the contents of a fabricated interview," she said in a statement distributed by the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

"I will in the coming days deal with what I see as an inexplicable attempt to undermine the unity of my family, the legacy of Nelson Mandela and the high regard with which the name Mandela is held here and across the globe."

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The latest inanity from David Brooks

Sophomoric logic should be a capital offense.

David Brooks gets paid, we assume, a lot of money. He should be beyond using college-essay logic of "well, if both sides are criticizing you, you must be doing something right." In today's Brooks essay in the NYT we learn that because conservatives think Obama is a socialist, and liberals think he doesn't fight nearly hard enough for his stated principles, then Obama must actually be a man of the middle.

Liberals are wrong to call him weak and indecisive. He’s just not always pursuing their aims. Conservatives are wrong to call him a big-government liberal. That’s just not a fair reading of his agenda.

Or the right is dominated by nuts who would have called Jesse Helms a socialist were he a Democrat (and still alive), and the left is legitimately upset with a president who promised many things and then fought for very few of them. A fair reading of Obama's agenda is his own words. That's what liberals hold Obama to, his own promises, no more and no less.

Brooks' second logical conundrum is is failing to understand the difference criticizing Obama for not being liberal enough, and criticizing Obama for not even pushing for his own campaign promises. A rather huge difference that far too many in the media (and the administration) fail to comprehend.

Then there's this on health care reform:

Obama has pushed this program with a tenacity unmatched in modern political history; with more tenacity than Bill Clinton pushed his health care plan or George W. Bush pushed Social Security reform.

In the past three weeks, perhaps. But where was Tenacious Advocate much of last year when he abdicated his role as health-care-reformer-in-chief and directed Max Baucus to negotiate with Republicans for months on end? The President gave a few speeches, to be sure, but tenacious advocate he was not. He wouldn't even enunciate a plan he was for. He never fought for any votes, other than trying to kill the votes that Harry Reid was trying to round up for the public option.

If Brooks wants to claim that Obama fought tenaciously for health care reform, then let him prove it. Because it is simply not true.

In a sensible country, people would see Obama as a president trying to define a modern brand of moderate progressivism. In a sensible country, Obama would be able to clearly define this project without fear of offending the people he needs to get legislation passed. But we don’t live in that country. We live in a country in which many people live in information cocoons in which they only talk to members of their own party and read blogs of their own sect. They come away with perceptions fundamentally at odds with reality, fundamentally misunderstanding the man in the Oval Office.

Fine, don't read the blogs. Read Obama's own words about what he wanted out of health care reform - where's the public option, the single most important element in creating competition, lowering costs, and increasing benefits, per Obama himself?

Where is the Fierce Advocate on gay rights, who promised to push for the repeal of DADT and DOMA, and the passage of ENDA - none of them are happening because the White House refuses to push for them (yes, the President mentioned DADT in the SOTU - that was nice, but it was, yet again, a speech - the White House needs to learn the difference between giving an occasional speech and fighting for something, they're not the same thing).

Then there was the stimulus. The White House refused to even push for the amount of money that Democratic economists said we needed - on the order of $1.5 to $2.0 trillion. Instead they pushed for 780 billion, not nearly enough, and then gave 35% away to the GOP for near-useless tax cuts, in exchange for 3 Republican votes.

I know it's fashionable to claim that liberals are so demanding and just won't be happy with anything. But we are not asking the President to do anything more than what he promised. We're asking him to fight for his agenda. He hasn't been fighting, and he hasn't been very committed to his own promises. Read More......

Wall Street bonuses 'elegant form of theft'

Michael Lewis knows the game pretty well. This ought to be a good interview on 60 Minutes this week.

The big Wall Street banks "have access to a zero percent loan in virtually unlimited quantities from the Federal Reserve. You can take that money and reinvest it in Treasury bonds or government agency securities and you will get the spread and you could do it over and over," he said.

"You're essentially borrowing from the government ... and taking a cut," he said.

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Dog returns home after being snatched by bird

Unfortunately no video embed.

Dog lovers will understand why Elizabeth Todd cradles her chihuahua "Poppy" like a baby.

"Poppy's just my heart," said Elizabeth. "They become part of your family, part of your life."

Her 9-year-old son Tim was there. He remembers hearing something awful.

"It was a terrible yelp," said Tim. "Real loud and we heard wings flapping and we looked back and Poppy was flying right up there."

Some kind of large bird had picked up the three-pound chihuahua.

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Pope Benedict linked to paedophile priest in Germany

This is getting uglier by the day. Either the Pope was in charge of the diocese or he wasn't but claiming ignorance in such instances is at a minimum, cowardly. Whether in the church, business or government everyone keeps playing this card because they continue to get away with it. Until society says "enough" there's no reason to expect anything else. The Times:

The Pope was drawn directly into the Roman Catholic sex abuse scandal last night as news emerged of his part in a decision to send a paedophile priest for therapy. The cleric went on to reoffend and was convicted of child abuse but continues to work as a priest in Upper Bavaria.

The priest was sent from Essen to Munich for therapy in 1980 when he was accused of forcing an 11-year-old boy to perform oral sex. The archdiocese confirmed that the Pope, who was then a cardinal, had approved a decision to accommodate the priest in a rectory while the therapy took place.

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Rod Stewart - Maggie May

More sunny skies and the garden is showing more signs of life. The camellia plants are still another week or maybe even two away from starting their annual bloom. With a bit of luck they will be in good shape by the time a good friend from Toronto arrives in town. He also loves gardens and gardening so he's looking forward to seeing what's growing over here in late March. I passed a patch of daffodils that were almost up and probably a day or two from opening. Our forsythia is budding also but that too probably has a few weeks to go. Everything is late this year. Read More......

Report: EU to provide loan guarantees for Greece

Sounds like Germany has finally come around and started to be helpful. The steady stream of insults offered little other than to show how arrogant Merkel's colleagues could be. The Guardian:

Senior sources in Brussels said that Berlin had bowed to the bailout agreement despite huge resistance in Germany and that the finance ministers of the "eurozone" – the 16 member states including Greece who use the euro – are to finalise the rescue package on Monday. The single currency's rulebook will also be rewritten to enforce greater fiscal discipline among members.

The member states have agreed on "co-ordinated bilateral contributions" in the form of loans or loan guarantees to Greece if Athens finds itself unable to refinance its soaring debt and requests help from the EU, a senior European commission official said.

Other sources said the aid could rise to €25bn (£22.6bn), although it is estimated in European capitals that Greece could need up to €55bn by the end of the year.

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Utah paper buried story about Republican congressional hopeful who enjoyed a hot tub with a 15 year old

Even newspapers can lie for the lord.

House Majority Leader Kevin Garn admitted as the Legislature adjourned Thursday night to a nude hot-tubbing incident with a teenage girl 25 years ago.

In a tearful statement in a packed House chambers, Garn said the mistake has "now come back to haunt me" as the woman has gone public with the story. The Layton Republican said he entered into a confidentiality agreement with the woman in 2002 and paid her $150,000.

"I was 28 years old and I foolishly went hot-tubbing with a young woman nearly half my age. Although we did not have any sexual contact, it was still clearly inappropriate — and it was my fault," Garn said in a statement.

The Deseret News learned of the allegations against Garn just before the GOP primary election in 2002. Garn sat down and spoke about the incident with Deseret News reporters and editors.

At the time, Garn and now-U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, were in a tight primary race seeking the Republican nomination for the 1st Congressional District and Garn was the Utah House majority leader, a position he has, again, achieved.

Deseret News editors decided not to run a story about the indiscretion at that time, since the GOP primary was only weeks away and the incident had occurred years before.

The editors decided to wait to see if Garn advanced in the primary before deciding whether to publish a story.

What do you think? Newspaper acting responsibly, or newspaper influencing an election by claiming they're not? Read More......

Rare Siberian tigers die at Chinese zoo

Good grief. As a kid I loved going to the zoo because it was the only way to see exotic animals in real life. Many zoos do a fine job of taking care of the animals and it continues to be a great way for many to be exposed to these magnificent animals but this story doesn't come as a complete surprise to me. When I was in Africa, I heard too many stories about lions and other rare animals that were rescued due to similar poor conditions. Besides eating meat - and a lot of it - they also need to eat bone but that doesn't always happen. Another all too common problem is zoos selling older animals to be used for "big game" hunting. Wealthy "hunters" will pay tens of thousands of dollars to shoot one of the Big 5 in the wild. If they're an especially bad shot and can't hit a relatively tame animal, they'll even drug the big cats to make it easier.

What a horrible loss.

Eleven rare Siberian tigers have died at a wildlife park in a startling case that activists say hints at unsavory practices among some zoos and animal farms in China: They are overbreeding endangered animals in the hopes of making illicit profit on their carcasses.

The deaths of the tigers occurred in the past three months at the zoo in China's frigid northeast, officials and state media said Friday. Reports said the tigers starved to death, having been fed nothing but chicken bones, while a zoo manager said unspecified diseases killed the animals.

Either way, the animals had been ill-kept and ill-fed. The Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo has struggled financially, even withholding pay from staff, said a woman in charge of corporate planning for the zoo who would only give her surname, Wang. The zoo had been up for auction for some time without any bidders, she said.

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The NYTimes profiles 'The rise and fall of Desirée Rogers.' Does anyone really care?

I'm linking to the story, but only because of its absurdity. The demise of the White House Social Secretary apparently has provided NY Times reporter Peter Baker some really cool insight into the Obama operation. Seriously? We're in two wars. The White House can't pass its top agenda item, health care reform. The economy is still sputtering. And, the big story today from one of the top political reporters for the New York Times is about Desirée Rogers. Wow. Even Rahm Emanuel is interviewed on this important subject. This paragraph reads like a parody:

Mr. Axelrod called her in for a long conversation about her interviews and photo shoots, warning her explicitly that she was flying into dangerous territory and that Washington loves to watch people become too big and ultimately crash and burn, according to people familiar with the conversation.

Yes. That's what "the Villagers" do. In the real world, no one cares.

The Times article does one thing: It puts the Salahis back in the news. Read More......