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Economy

Republican Freshman Blames Obama For Debt From Iraq War

By Tanya Somanader on Jul 20, 2011 at 7:25 pm

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL)

As MSNBC host Contessa Brewer discovered today, Republican Rep. Mo Brooks (AL) does indeed have an economics degree. But in flexing his supposed expertise, Brooks decided to deploy the GOP’s disingenuous talking point that the nation’s debt crisis was somehow created by President Obama for President Obama.

Parroting the Republican claim that the GOP has already conceded in the debt negotiations by agreeing to consider raising the debt limit at all, Brooks declared that this whole debacle is “[Obama's] debt. It’s his debt ceiling.”

Brewer, however, noted that, given the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, someone else — namely President George W. Bush — might also be responsible for the debt. But Brooks decided that that debt was still Obama’s fault as “he could’ve removed our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan” if “he had so chosen”:

BROOKS: We have already compromised. Why should we give Barack Obama $2.4 trillion? It’s his debt. It’s his debt ceiling. We have already agreed to give him $2.4 trillion if he will just agree with us to solve the problem. And a long-term solution, the only long-term solution, is a balanced budget constitutional amendment.

BREWER: Why do you lay all that debt at the feet of President Obama when it’s clear that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan added to the nation’s debt?

BROOKS: It did. And he’s the commander-in-chief and he could’ve removed our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan at any point of time if he had so chosen.

Watch it:

It is important to note that Obama has called to remove troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, plans which will reduce costs by $42 billion. But more importantly, while Obama certainly could lower the continuing costs of the war through faster withdrawal, he could not have stopped the massive blow Bush landed on the debt.

At the start of his term, Bush inherited a $230 billion surplus. At the end, he had added more than $4 trillion to the national debt, “the biggest increase under any president” at that time. In June of 2008, the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars alone hit $850 billion, or more than $1.5 trillion when veterans’ benefits and other indirect costs are included.

What’s more, 130 Republicans voted to raise the debt ceiling to allow for Bush’s spending spree. And as the economic degree-heavy Center for Budget and Policy Priorities notes, it is Bush’s policies that “explain virtually the entire federal budget deficit over the next ten years.”

In order for Brooks to win his blame game, Obama would have to go back in time, elect himself president in 2000, reverse his positions, and go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s a hollow accusation — unless, of course, Brooks’ economics degree came with a concentration in time travel.

Climate Progress

It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Stupidity: Limbaugh Calls Heat Index a Liberal Government Conspiracy

By Joe Romm on Jul 20, 2011 at 6:47 pm

http://vortex.plymouth.edu/usheat.gif

Wikipedia:  “The heat index … combines air temperature and relative humidity in an attempt to determine the human-perceived equivalent temperature — how hot it feels….  The heat index was developed in 1978 … and was adopted by the National Weather Service a year later.”

Rush Limbaugh:  They’re playing games with us on this heat wave, again. Even Drudge, drudge getting sucked in here.  Gonna be a 116 in Washington. No, it’s not.  It’s going to be a 100, maybe 99.  The heat index, manufactured by the government, they tell you what it feels like when you add the humidity in there.  116 -  When’s the last time the heat index was reported as an actual temperature?  It hasn’t been.  But it looks like they’re trying to get away with doing that now.

Yes, the black helicopters are after Limbaugh and the whole country now.  Well, actually if there were UN helicopters, I’m sure they’d be white, since the black ones would just get too damn hot in this weather!

In the real world, the heat index adds to the actual temperature the effect of humidity, which interferes with the body’s ability to perspire and carry away heat:  “When the relative humidity is high, the evaporation rate is reduced, so heat is removed from the body at a lower rate causing it to retain more heat than it would in dry air.”

Now it just so happens we’ve had record rainfall and flooding in the spring — precisely what you would expect from human-caused global warming (see “Two seminal Nature papers join growing body of evidence that human emissions fuel extreme weather, flooding that harm humans and the environment“). That helps boost the heat index, as one meteorologist explained today:

We are into a very dangerous heat wave this week that will last until the weekend.  Millions of people are affected, and with heat indices forecast above 100 degrees for dozens of states, the warnings are dire.   Here’s a list of the peak heat index numbers for Tuesday.  One of the reasons we’re seeing such high values is because of the record flooding that we saw this spring across the Midwest and Mississippi Valley.   There is plenty of available moisture that is evaporating and combined with the soaring temperatures, this is causing a “sauna effect” for dozens of states.

That is Janice Dean, a Fox News Channel meteorologist!  I guess she would be part of the conspiracy Limbaugh is warning us about.

For those who don’t believe Limbaugh would actually say something this inane — I know there’s a couple of you out there — here’s the video and full transcript:

Read more

Alyssa

World Peace Is Good For The World, Bad For The Movies

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Jul 20, 2011 at 6:35 pm

Robert Farley is totally right about how our ambivalence about China plays out in our movies:

Later this year, a remake of Red Dawn will hit the screens in the United States. Initially, the producers had planned to replace the original version’s coalition of Russian, Nicaraguan and Cuban soldiers with Chinese invaders. Unfortunately, a sense of commercial viability prevailed over the studio: Reports now indicate that the remake’s invaders will be the even less realistic North Koreans, a change designed to preserve the film’s marketability to the ever-growing Chinese movie-going audience.

In 1984, no one needed to worry about the preferences of Russian movie viewers. The Kremlin hated Red Dawn — as well as Rocky IV, in which an American boxer defeats a steroid-laden Soviet stereotype to the cheers of a Russian crowd — but no one in Hollywood cared. The Russian market was irrelevant to the United States, both in terms of film specifically, and in terms of trade more generally. Such is not the case with the United States and China, however. On virtually every conceivable set of economic metrics, the United States and the People’s Republic of China are tightly integrated. For the international system, this is probably a good thing, as hopefully the potential costs of conflict to both sides render war unimaginable.

It’s better for world peace to have a great power rivalry defined by economic competition and interdependence, but it’s not so great for pop culture, generally. The (unusually timely) solution is, of course, to have American and Chinese forces team up to stop the external forces, among them comically media moguls, who want to bait them into World War III:

That, or have Christian Bale stop the Nanjing massacre.

NEWS FLASH

Wells Fargo Fined $85 Million By Fed Over Its Subprime Mortgage Lending Practices | In its largest consumer protection enforcement action ever, the Federal Reserve today slapped an $85 million penalty on Wells Fargo, a bank scrutinized for pushing subprime loans on borrowers who qualified for lower prime lending rates. According to the official press release, Wells Fargo received the order both for its strong-arming of borrowers into subprime loans and for falsifying income information on mortgage forms. In addition to the civil fine, the Federal Reserve mandated that the mega-bank compensate those borrowers who were adversely affected, estimated to number “between 3,700 and possibly more than 10,000.” Wells Fargo received $25 billion in the taxpayer-funded bailout.

– Sarah Bufkin

By Guest Blogger on Jul 20, 2011 at 6:15 pm

Yglesias

Organic Agriculture Needs More Government, Fewer Pesticides

By Intern on Jul 20, 2011 at 6:15 pm

By Matthew Cameron

Blogging at Scientific American, Christie Wilcox offers an informative smackdown of several common misconceptions about organic agriculture. In particular, she takes on the myth that organic foods are produced without the use of any chemicals:

[It] turns out that there are over 20 chemicals commonly used in the growing and processing of organic crops that are approved by the US Organic Standards. And, shockingly, the actual volume usage of pesticides on organic farms is not recorded by the government. Why the government isn’t keeping watch on organic pesticide and fungicide use is a damn good question, especially considering that many organic pesticides that are also used by conventional farmers are used more intensively than synthetic ones due to their lower levels of effectiveness. According to the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, the top two organic fungicides, copper and sulfur, were used at a rate of 4 and 34 pounds per acre in 1971. In contrast, the synthetic fungicides only required a rate of 1.6 lbs per acre, less than half the amount of the organic alternatives. [...]

Just last year, nearly half of the pesticides that are currently approved for use by organic farmers in Europe failed to pass the European Union’s safety evaluation that is required by law. Among the chemicals failing the test was rotenone, as it had yet to be banned in Europe. Furthermore, just over 1% of organic foodstuffs produced in 2007 and tested by the European Food Safety Authority were found to contain pesticide levels above the legal maximum levels – and these are of pesticides that are not organic.

These are significant shortcomings, but they are not reasons for abandoning the concept of organic agriculture altogether. Rather, they reinforce the point that good governance is key to setting and enforcing agricultural standards that protect the environment. If the USDA and the EPA are aware that certain organic producers are using large enough quantities of nonsynthetic pesticides to negatively impact the environment, then the solution should involve setting more stringent regulations on the types and quantities of pesticides that may be used in organic production. Similarly, if the European Food Safety Authority is finding synthetic pesticides in organic food products, then it should implement more robust enforcement mechanisms to ensure that producers aren’t skirting the rules.

LGBT

Vermont Lesbian Couple Sues Reception Venue For Discriminating Due To ‘Personal Feelings’

By Zack Ford on Jul 20, 2011 at 6:00 pm

Kate Baker and Ming Linsley

A Vermont same-sex couple represented by the ACLU is suing the Wildflower Inn for refusing to allow them to have their wedding reception there in blatant violation of the state’s nearly 20-year-old nondiscrimination laws. Under Vermont law, only privately owned inns with five or fewer rooms are exempted from public accommodation protections based on sexual orientation; the Wildflower Inn has 24 rooms. It is also not a religious institution or even a religiously-affiliated business.

Shortly after Kate Baker and Ming Linsley got engaged, Ming’s mother Channie began investigating venues for the wedding and reception. She had an amiable phone call with the Wildflower Inn’s Meeting and Events Director, in which she disclosed there was not a “bride and groom,” but two brides. Shortly after the call, she received an email with the subject “I have bad news”:

After our conversation, I checked in with my Innkeepers and unfortunately due to their personal feelings, they do not host gay receptions at our facility.

Baker and Linsley are not suing for monetary damages, but merely for an injunction against the Inn’s discriminatory practices. The Wildflower Inn responded to the suit this week on its Facebook page:

The Wildflower Inn is a small family owned and operated country inn. We are a devout practicing Catholic family who believes in the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman. We have never refused rooms or dining or employment to gays or lesbians.

Opponents of marriage equality often take umbrage at lawsuits like this one, claiming that the defendants’ religious freedoms are being challenged. Two examples that are commonly referenced are a New Mexico wedding photographer who refused to take pictures of a same-sex wedding and a New Jersey Methodist boardwalk pavilion that refused to host civil union ceremonies; the anti-gay Alliance Defense Fund defended in both cases. In this new suit, Vermont’s laws are quite clear about what constitutes discrimination and as a large public business, Wildflower Inn is out of compliance by this rejection of service.

Kate, Ming, and Channie discuss the suit (PDF) in a video from the ACLU. Watch it:

/p>

NEWS FLASH

Actor Martin Sheen: I Shut Down The Government As President Bartlet And ‘If That’s Required I’ll Do That Again’ | Today on ABC’s Top Line, host Jonathan Karl asked actor Martin Sheen — more fondly known as President Bartlet (D-NH) from NBC’s The West Wing — how his alter ego would handle the current crisis. Harkening back to a Season 6 episode, Bartlet says, “I think I shut down the government if I’m not mistaken. And I walked up Pennsylvania Avenue to the Hill and waited in the speaker’s office and if that’s required I’ll do that again as well.” Watch it:

By Tanya Somanader on Jul 20, 2011 at 5:57 pm

Justice

News Corp. Hires Same Law Firm Leading U.S. Chamber Campaign To Weaken Anti-Bribery Law

By Josh Dorner on Jul 20, 2011 at 5:48 pm

Photo Courtesy of News Corpse

Last week, ThinkProgress raised questions about the timing of a $1 million contribution from News Corp. to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that came shortly before the Chamber launched a high-profile campaign to weaken the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) — the very same anti-bribery law that News Corp. could be prosecuted under in the United States. The Chamber quickly dismissed any links between the News Corp contribution and its campaign as “preposterous.”

Today, however, it was revealed that News Corp. has retained Debevoise & Plimpton, the firm of former Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey, the very same lawyer who just so happens to be leading the Chamber’s campaign to weaken the FCPA.

The legal blog Main Justice, which has been covering the unfolding scandal, spoke to a legal expert about News Corp.’s new lawyers and writes:

The reports linking the two “might have been described fairly speculative before today,” said Heather Lowe, legal counsel at Global Financial Integrity.  But the decision to hire Mukasey “goes a long way toward shoring up that allegation,” Lowe said.

Last month, Mukasey testified before Congress and suggested changes to the FCPA, some of which would appear to potentially benefit News Corp., such as limiting the liability of a parent company if it can prove it was not aware of its foreign subsidiary’s criminal activities. (Yesterday during testimony before Parliament, James and Rupert Murdoch both disclaimed any knowledge of the alleged criminal activities taking place at U.S.-based News Corps’ U.K. subsidiary, News International.)

For Mukasey’s services fronting their campaign to weaken the anti-bribery law, the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) paid Debevoise & Plimpton, News Corp’s new firm, $10,000 during the first quarter of this year. Just two days ago, Debevoise & Plimpton reported that it had been paid another $110,000 by the Chamber’s ILR during the second quarter. The Chamber’s ILR has also engaged several other DC lobbying firms to assist it with its campaign.

The Chamber’s campaign to weaken the FCPA is already paying dividends, with Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), the chair of a key subcommittee on the House Judiciary Committee, indicating that he is writing a bill to weaken the FCPA based on the Chamber’s complaints and Mukasey’s testimony before his committee during last month’s hearing.

For its part, News Corp’s PAC has contributed $28,000 to Sensenbrenner’s campaigns since 1989 (the oldest year available) — enough to make News Corp. Sensenbrenner’s 11th largest all-time donor.

NEWS FLASH

Allen West Claims He Apologized To Debbie Wasserman Schultz, She Says It’s ‘Absolutely Untrue’ | Following Rep. Allen West’s (R-FL) tirade yesterday against Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), the Tea Party Republican told the Huffington Post that he had “just apologized” to his fellow Floridian this afternoon. Wasserman Schultz told CNN this afternoon, however, that reports of West apologizing to her were “absolutely untrue.” Watch it:

West’s spokeswoman Angela Sachitano called reports of the congressman’s apology “absolutely false.” In fact, West was “waiting on an apology from the Congresswoman,” said Sachitano, for a remark Wasserman Schultz made last year. The Huffington Post is standing by its initial report of West’s apology.

Security

Discredited WSJ Op-Ed Writer Sees Liberal Conspiracy In The U.S. Intelligence Community On Iran

By Ali Gharib on Jul 20, 2011 at 5:39 pm

This morning, the neoconservative opinion page of the Wall Street Journal published a little-known former intelligence analyst making claims of a vast left-wing conspiracy in the U.S. intelligence community to cover up Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program. Fred Fleitz‘s analysis posits – in a style more befitting Newsmax (where he now writes) or David Horowitz‘s conspiracy-riddled site than a major newspaper — that “liberal professors and scholars from liberal think tanks” gave biased (good) reviews of the still-classified 2011 National Intelligence Estimate (N.I.E.) on Iran because — well, basically because they’re (supposedly) liberals. Fleitz concludes:

It is unacceptable that Iran is on the brink of testing a nuclear weapon while our intelligence analysts continue to deny that an Iranian nuclear weapons program exists.

The accusations would be hilarious if they weren’t so serious. In essence, Fleitz is writing that the consensus of the U.S.’s 16 intelligence agencies — that Iran has still not made the decision to build a nuclear weapon — should be thrown out and everyone should listen to him.

But Fleitz’s own tenure in government was so plagued by scandal and deeply flawed and biased analysis that it raised hackles from experts worldwide. He espoused a worldview that considers anything insufficiently edgy or hawkish enough “wimpy.” Here are some of Fleitz’s greatest hits:

– Fleitz was a CIA officer who, in 2002, took on a position as reflexive überhawk John Bolton‘s chief of staff, where, wrangling with the intelligence community about Cuba’s (non-existent) biological weapons program, he wrote to his boss that it is a “political judgment as to how to interpret [intelligence] data.”

– Fleitz was also reportedly involved in the leaking of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame’s name to the media in retaliation for her husband’s public questioning of the Bush administration’s assertions about Iraq’s WMDs. Fleitz worked in the same CIA office as Plame and reportedly passed her name to Bolton, who gave it to I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby‘s aides.

– By 2006, Fleitz made his way to the House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee as a staffer under then-GOP Chairman Pete Hoekstra. In August of that year, Fleitz authored a report about Iran’s nuclear program that was so overblown that it elicited a letter of complaint about “erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated information” from the U.N. atomic watchdog.

Given his record of sloppy analysis, bullying, and close association with some of the Bush administration’s leading hawks, there is a special irony in Fleitz’s complaint in the Journal that the intelligence community is “affected by the wave of risk aversion that has afflicted U.S. intelligence analysis since the 2003 Iraq War.” Perhaps Fleitz was the perfect man to write an op-ed for a paper that’s already more or less called for war with Iran.

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