Apr 28 2011

Six In The Morning

Devastating storms swirl into Georgia as death toll rises  

Alabama sees the most damage yet from a massive tornado

msnbc.com news services

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A wave of tornado-spawning storms that ravaged Mississippi and Alabama, having splintered buildings in its path and leaving scores dead in its wake, is now in Georgia.

Authorities said early Thursday that nine people had been killed in that state,increases the death toll to 82 across four states in the South. Alabama is by far the hardest-hit, with at least 61 deaths, including 16 in Tuscaloosa, according to the city’s mayor. The death toll was expected to rise.

The university town of Tuscaloosa was obliterated, a nuclear power plant had to use backup generators and even a weather service office had to be evacuated because of the storms. The mayor said the city’s infrastructure was devastated.

 

Jimmy Carter leaves North Korea after peace mission

North Korea wants US guarantees in return for abandoning nuclear programme, says Jimmy Carter as he prepares to leave

Associated Press

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 April 2011 08.40 BST

North Korea has demanded US security guarantees in return for abandoning its nuclear weapons programmes, former US president Jimmy Carter has said.

As he prepared to leave North Korea on Thursday, a meeting with leader Kim Jong-il still uncertain, Carter said that throughout his three-day trip he had heard that North Korea wants to improve relations with the US and is willing to talk with Washington and Seoul without preconditions.

“The sticking point and it’s a big one is that they won’t give up their nuclear programme without some kind of security guarantee from the US,” he wrote in an online message on Wednesday night.

Lawyers called to clarify rules of conflict in Libya



By Kim Sengupta, Defence Correspondent Thursday, 28 April 2011

The United Nations resolution under which Britain and Nato allies have intervened in Libya does not allow the training of rebel forces or helping them to plan military missions against Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, according to government lawyers in London.

In echoes of the controversy surrounding the legal justification for the Iraq invasion presented by the Blair administration, senior British military officers have privately stated that they would like clarification on the standing of their forces under international law as pressure grows for greater involvement of UK forces.

Syria: Baath party officials ‘quit in protest’



Some 200 members of Syria’s ruling Baath party are reported to have resigned over the violent crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrations.

The BBC  28 April 2011

The resignations were centred on the southern city of Deraa, a focal point of violence that has allegedly killed 450 people in six weeks.

Shooting was heard in Deraa overnight, where the government this week sent tanks and troops to regain control.

Meanwhile, the UN failed to agree on a statement condemning the crackdown.

A draft proposed by France, Britain, Germany and Portugal was opposed by several within the 15-member Security Council, with Russia insisting events in Syria were not a threat to international peace.

The Guantanamo File on Germany’s Murat Kurnaz

An Innocent in the Terror Prison  

By John Goetz and Britta Sandberg

The “Detainee Assessment” for Murat Kurnaz, prisoner US9TU-000061DP, is nine pages long and dated May 19, 2006. The cover page includes a photo, but all you can see are his eyes and forehead, the rest of his face is ominously drowned in darkness.

Number 61 in the identifier indicates that the prisoner arrived at Guantanamo during its very early days. Kurnaz, a Turkish national who was born in Germany, was prisoner No. 61 out of an eventual total of 779 inmates held here.

At the time he landed at Guantanamo on a US Defense Department aircraft on Feb. 13, 2002, the camp had only existed for a few weeks, and the world was seeing the first images of prisoners there wearing orange overalls and being held in cages

Ugandan opposition leader detained for fourth time



BARRY MALONE KAMPALA, UGANDA – Apr 28 2011  

This is the fourth time in three weeks that Besigye, runner-up to veteran President Yoweri Museveni in a disputed February election, has been detained by police over the protests that have killed at least five.

Museveni, in power since 1986, blames drought for high food costs and soaring oil prices for surging local fuel costs, and has warned Besigye that his protests will not be tolerated.

Besigye had initially tried to walk to work again in protest at rising living costs, but was stopped by police at his gate. He decided to drive, tailed by police and supporters, before being blocked at a junction by security forces.

Apr 28 2011

DocuDharma Digest

Regular Features-

Featured Essays for April 27, 2011-

DocuDharma

Apr 28 2011

My Little Town 20110427: Perilee and Sarge Wilson

(9 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Those of you that read this irregular regular series know that I am from Hackett, Arkansas, just a mile of so from the Oklahoma border, and just about 10 miles south of the Arkansas River.  It was a redneck sort of place, and just zoom onto my previous posts to understand a bit about it.

I never write about living people except with their express permission, but since these folks are long gone, they are fair game.  They were actually very nice folks, but had some huge quirks, as most folks in my little town did.

Perilee and Sarge were just a little older than my parents.  Sarge (to this day, I never knew his real first name) had been in the Army during World War II. thus the name.  As far as I know they were both native of the area.

Sarge was a big old guy, whilst Perilee was very petite.  She was very quiet and very nice, whilst he was boisterous but also very nice.  I remember that they had a blue Volkswagen Beetle, this being around 1967, give or take a year or two.  Sarge had had cataract surgery, which at the time meant wearing glasses with extremely thick lenses, since lens implants in the modern sense did not exist.

I remember one afternoon my mum and I had walked to the store (only a few hundred feet from our house) and ran into Sarge.  He had just gotten his surgery and was getting used to his new glasses.  He went on and on about how he just could barely see (he was trying to get disability for that at the time, I strongly suspect).  After serenading my mum and me about how he was just about blind, he got into his car and started to drive away.  He hesitated, realizing the position into which he had just put himself.  Then he told us that he did not know why, but as soon as he got behind the steering wheel that the windshield made it so that he could see just fine for driving!  I know that German engineering is world class, but had not ever heard of corrective windshield lenses before.

That was typical Sarge.  He was, as I said, a really nice guy, but he was a tall tale artist.  I think that he actually believed his own tales, as is often the case with tall tale artists.  He was never the type to tell bad things about people, just to inflate (or make from whole cloth) his adventures and situations.

Perilee liked to dress up nicely.  I mean literally wearing evening gowns to come to the little country store to get groceries.  They just lived up the street from the store, so often she would pull a red children’s wagon to tote her groceries back, in evening wear and a parasol to keep the sun off of her.  She was quite a site.  She sort of resembled Aunt Clara (the original one) in Bewitched, but was more petite.

They never had children, which is probably a good thing, but they always had a dog.  The one that I remembered (they live across the street from my friend’s grandparents) was a larger chihuahua, and not an unpleasant one.  They treated it like a child, to the point of serving it dinner at the table with them.  I forget the dog’s name, but remember that bacon sandwiches were his favorite dinner.  He did not much care for the lettuce and tomato, though

Once my friend and I were at his grandparents house and Sarge got to talking about the constellations.  It was getting on towards fall, so he started telling us about “Arthur”.  He went on and on and on, and I had never heard of a constellation named Arthur.  He finally described it well enough that I knew about what he was speaking, especially when he told us that Arthur was also called “The Hunter”.  How in the world he got Orion confused with “Arthur” is still beyond me, but as I said, he was a tall take artist.

Another time he began telling us about praying mantises.  He correctly told us about how they ate other insects, and then really went off the deep end.  He started raving about how they would emit “blue smoke” to subdue other insects by blinding them.  He also told us that if that smoke got in our eyes, it would blind us, too.  We both wanted to laugh, but had been brought up to show respect to our elders so we did what we had been taught, just to smile and nod.

I did not have as much contact with them as I had with some of the others about whom I write from time to time, so this is a rather short piece.  I will leave you with a memory that I have of him that was so funny that I did have to laugh, but only when my friend and I got out of earshot.

Sarge was painting his house, in a traditional white.  My friend and I were playing at his grandparent’s house again and as kids are wont to do, began watching him paint.  He was on the ladder, so his back was towards us for quite a while.  He know that we were there, so it was not like we were sneaking up on him or anything.  He was doing a competent job painting, so I guess that he had gotten used to his glasses.

He got tired of being on the ladder and climbed down to change position for a while.  Now, I know that if I paint with a brush I often get paint on my hands, and I suspect most people do as well.  Sarge had also gotten paint on his fingers.  That is not a big deal.  He was wearing old painting clothes and old painting shoes, so nothing was really a problem.

It was when he turned around that my friend and I just about lost it.  Sarge, and I have said, was a veteran, and at the time veterans tended to keep with the military haircut and to be clean shaven.  Sarge did not have a lot of hair, but he did keep what he had trimmed in the military style and was clean shaven.  He also did not a single spot of paint on his face.  However, he did have two streaks, from his upper lip, each going into a nostril!  The interiors of each nostril were also bright white as far as we could see.

My friend and I politely told him that we had to go and we wished each other a good afternoon and the two of us went to his grandparent’s house and got behind it so he could not see or hear us collapsing onto the ground with convulsions of laughter.  It was one of the strangest sights that I had ever seen.

If you have any stories about your early memories, please feel free to add them in the comments.  I would ask that you confine your comments to childhood memories, as I would rather not have this series be a de facto Facebook.

Warmest regards,

Doc

Apr 28 2011

What’s Cooking: Baked Rigatoni with Ham and Mushrooms

(8 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

In case you still have a few slices of that ham left and are truly sick of ham sandwiches, don’t let it go to waste. Here’s an easy recipe that can make use of those last few slices.

Baked Rigatoni with Ham and Mushrooms

Ingredients:

* 1/3 oz. dried porcini mushrooms or 6oz. fresh button mushrooms

* 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, if using fresh mushrooms, plus 6 tbsp.

* 12 oz Rigatoni

* 1/3 cup all purpose flour

* 2 1/2 cups of milk (low fat is fine)

* pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

* salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

* 4 oz of Fontina or Swiss cheese, cut into julienne strips

* 6 oz ham, roughly chopped

Preparation:

If using porcini, place in a bowl with lukewarm water ans soap until softened about 30 minutes. Drain. squeeze out excess water and chop finely; set aside. . If using fresh mushrooms, cut off and discard the stems, wipe clean with a towel and thinly slice. In a frying pan over medium heat, melt 2 tbsp. butter. Add the sliced mushrooms and sauté fir 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

 In a large pot bring 5 quarts of salted water to a boil. Add rigatoni and cook for about 6 minutes; they should be very al dente. Drain the pasta and transfer to a bowl. Ass 2 1/2 tbsp of the butter and toss well.

Preheat an oven to 350 F. In a sauce pan melt 2 1/2 tbsp. of the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and stir until smooth, about 2 minutes. Stirring constantly, gradually add the milk. Continue to stir until it thickens and is smooth and creamy, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, ass the porcini or fresh mushrooms, sprinkle with the nutmeg and stir well. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Grease an 8 by 12 inch oven proof dish with the remaining butter. Arrange 1/3 of the rigatoni in the dish. Sprinkle one third of the cheese and ham over the top and spoon on one third of the sauce. Repeat the layers in the same order two more times, ending with sauce.

Place in the oven and bake until heated through and bubbly, about 20 minutes. Serve at once.

Serves 6

My daughter says to increase the sauce by half for a creamier dish

Apr 28 2011

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Libyan tribes call on Kadhafi to go

by Marc Bastian, AFP

18 mins ago

MISRATA, Libya (AFP) – Libya’s tribes urged Moamer Kadhafi on Wednesday to cede power, as rebels backed by NATO air strikes said they forced the strongman’s missiles out of range of the lifeline port of Misrata.

Chiefs or representatives of 61 tribes from across the North African country called for an end to Kadhafi’s four-decade rule, in a joint statement released by French writer Bernard-Henri Levy.

“Faced with the threats weighing on the unity of our country, faced with the manoeuvres and propaganda of the dictator and his family, we solemnly declare: Nothing will divide us,” said the statement, released on Wednesday in Benghazi.

AFP

2 Allies say Kadhafi compound a legitimate target

by Marc Bastian, AFP

Tue Apr 26, 4:21 pm ET

MISRATA, Libya (AFP) – The United States and Britain said on Tuesday that Moamer Kadhafi’s compound is a legitimate target of NATO strikes, as the Libyan strongman’s forces launched a deadly attack on Misrata’s port.

British Defence Secretary Liam Fox said, meanwhile, that rebels fighting to oust Kadhafi since mid-February were beginning to gain the upper hand as battles raged around the besieged western city.

The western allies made the statement hours after Kadhafi’s forces fired Grad rockets at the strategic port, killing at least three refugees and forcing an aid ship sent to rescue the stranded to stay out to sea.

3 Syria opposition puts Assad on notice as troops tighten grip

AFP

Wed Apr 27, 12:50 pm ET

DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) – Syria’s opposition warned President Bashar al-Assad Wednesday he will be toppled unless he ushers in democratic changes, as his troops kept their grip on the flashpoint town of Daraa.

And in a new blow to the regime, 30 members of the ruling Baath party in the restive city of Banias announced their resignation in protest at the deadly crackdown on protesters, in a statement received by AFP.

The warning came as world pressure mounted on Damascus, with the European Union mulling sanctions and the UN human rights body calling for a special session in the wake of a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

4 Assad under pressure as hundreds of Baathists quit

AFP

8 mins ago

DAMASCUS (AFP) – Foreign pressure mounted on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday and hundreds of members resigned from his party, as troops kept their grip on the flashpoint town of Daraa.

Syria’s opposition warned Assad that he would be toppled unless he ushered in democratic reforms, although the UN Security Council failed to agree on a condemnation of the violence.

And in a fresh blow to the regime, 233 members of Syria’s ruling Baath party announced their resignation in protest at the deadly crackdown on protesters, according to lists seen by AFP.

5 Syria deploys troops as UN meeting urged

AFP

Tue Apr 26, 4:58 pm ET

DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syria bolstered its troops on Tuesday in the flashpoint town of Daraa as a rights group appealed for UN intervention in a bloody crackdown it said has killed 400 people since mid-March.

As the Daraa crackdown raged into a second day, UN Security Council nations discussed a statement proposed by four European powers who want to condemn deadly violence against protesters in Syria.

But the United States said that for now it will limit its response to the violent crackdown on civilian protests in Syria to diplomacy and possible sanctions.

6 Nine Americans dead after row with Afghan airman

by Usman Sharifi, AFP

46 mins ago

KABUL (AFP) – An Afghan ex-pilot opened fire after a row at a Kabul training centre Wednesday, leaving eight US troops and an American contractor dead in the worst attack of its kind in almost a decade of war.

Although the killings appear to have stemmed from a disagreement rather than a rebel attack, they highlighted the prevailing insecurity in Afghanistan, 10 years after a US-led invasion ousted the Taliban from power.

The deaths also raise fresh questions over the massive NATO-led effort to expand and train Afghanistan’s military and police so they can take control of security when foreign combat operations end in 2014.

7 Obama shakes up national security team

by Dan De Luce, AFP

18 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – In a major shakeup of US President Barack Obama’s national security team, CIA director Leon Panetta is due to take over as defense secretary later this year, officials said Wednesday.

As part of the overhaul, Obama also plans to nominate his war commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, to succeed Panetta at the helm of the Central Intelligence Agency, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Panetta, 72, would replace Defense Secretary Robert Gates, an influential figure in the cabinet whose tenure began under Obama’s Republican predecessor George W. Bush.

8 BP raises profits, Gulf oil spill costs

by Roland Jackson, AFP

Wed Apr 27, 12:33 pm ET

LONDON (AFP) – BP’s first-quarter net profits leapt 17 percent thanks to high crude prices, the British energy giant said Wednesday, adding it was raising the cost of last year’s fatal Gulf oil spill disaster.

Earnings after tax jumped to $7.124 billion (4.9 billion euros) in the three months to March, compared with the first quarter of 2010, BP said in a results statement.

It added that the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill would cost BP $41.3 billion, up from a previous guidance of $40.9 billion, and warned of “significant uncertainty” surrounding the company’s ultimate exposure.

9 Fed signals stimulus plan to end on schedule

by Andrew Beatty, AFP

1 hr 27 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Federal Reserve on Wednesday signaled it is ready to scale back support for the US economy, despite what it called a “moderate” recovery.

Hinting at a second attempt to edge back from crisis-era policies, the Fed said it would complete hundreds of billions of dollars of crisis spending in June as planned.

In a statement, the Fed’s top interest-rate setting panel said it “will complete purchases of $600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities by the end of the current quarter.”

10 Obama slams birthplace claims as ‘silliness’

by Stephen Collinson, AFP

Wed Apr 27, 12:35 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – In a surreal moment in US political history, President Barack Obama Wednesday released his birth certificate and slammed rumors that he was not American born as carnival-style silliness.

Obama tried to quash conspiracy theories that have raged since he was a little-known candidate, which are gaining traction again, fanned by figures like billionaire mogul Donald Trump as the 2012 White House race begins.

In a moment when the modern media culture of online rumor and reality shows clashed with the somber pageantry of the presidency, Obama appeared behind a podium in the White House briefing room to address Americans.

11 Himalayan farmers give early pointers on climate change

AFP

Tue Apr 26, 7:09 pm ET

PARIS (AFP) – Himalayan villagers have won the backing of climate science for their suspicions that snow cover, water resources and the ecosystem are changing in their region, a study published Wednesday said.

The authors of the research carried out by Britain’s Royal Society say this is the first time that subjective perceptions about climate change have been put to a wide scientific test.

And, they argue, it shows that local knowledge, far from being snubbed or sidelined, can be a useful tool for combatting the climate threat.

Reuters

12 Fed signals no rush to tighten after bond buying

By Mark Felsenthal and Glenn Somerville, Reuters

1 hr 38 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve signaled on Wednesday it is in no rush to scale back its support for the U.S. recovery as it cut its forecast for 2011 economic growth.

The Fed’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee said after a two-day meeting it intends to complete its $600 billion bond buying program in June as scheduled and suggested it would not let its balance sheet to run down immediately.

In the face of headwinds from high oil prices, the U.S. central bank said in a statement the economic recovery was proceeding at a “moderate pace,” a change from a statement in March when it said the economy was on “firmer footing.”

13 Obama to shake up security team, Panetta to Pentagon

By Phil Stewart and Steve Holland, Reuters

Wed Apr 27, 12:32 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will name Leon Panetta, a veteran Washington politician and the current CIA director, as U.S. defense secretary as he resets his national security team ahead of the 2012 presidential campaign and a battle over the Pentagon budget.

Obama will nominate General David Petraeus, who is running the war in Afghanistan after leading the campaign to quash the insurgency in Iraq, to replace Panetta at the CIA, U.S. officials also said on Wednesday.

Trouble-shooting diplomat Ryan Crocker, who has served as ambassador to Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait and Lebanon, will be named as ambassador to Afghanistan.

14 To quell debate, Obama issues birth document

By Steve Holland, Reuters

Wed Apr 27, 1:36 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Wednesday released a longer version of his birth certificate to answer Republican charges he was not born in America, and blasted “carnival barkers” who refuse to let the issue die.

Obama took the unusual step of making a statement in the White House press briefing room to comment on the controversy, which has been raised most recently by real estate tycoon Donald Trump, who is considering a 2012 run for the Republican presidential nomination.

“We do not have time for this silliness,” Obama said in an easy-going appearance that turned serious when he addressed what he called a distraction from the real issues.

15 Republicans turn up heat on Obama over oil prices

By Richard Cowan, Reuters

Wed Apr 27, 12:59 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With Americans upset about rising gasoline prices, Republicans in Congress aim to fix the blame on one person when they return next week from recess: President Barack Obama.

Congress wrapped up its last work session on April 15 with Democrats and Republicans in a blistering debate about budget deficits and the size of the federal government.

Now, Republican leaders in the House of Representatives aim to pivot to another hot-button issue: high gasoline prices that are hitting consumers who are already struggling to recover from a prolonged economic downturn.

16 Republican White House race may gain steam

By John Whitesides, Reuters

Wed Apr 27, 11:00 am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The slow-starting race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination promises to heat up in the next few weeks, with new candidates and a face-to-face debate injecting life into what has been a dormant campaign.

Barely nine months before the first nominating contest, Republicans are still trying to launch a 2012 race that has been overshadowed by President Barack Obama’s battles with his Republican foes in Congress on spending and debt.

That could begin to change in the coming weeks, when several more potential candidates announce their plans and the first Republican debate is scheduled for South Carolina.

17 S&P cuts Japan sovereign rating outlook on quake costs

By Leika Kihara, Reuters

Wed Apr 27, 7:41 am ET

TOKYO (Reuters) – Standard and Poor’s threatened to cut Japan’s sovereign credit rating again, warning the huge cost of last month’s devastating earthquake will hurt already weak public finances unless bickering politicians can agree to raise taxes.

It affirmed its long-term sovereign credit rating on Japan at AA minus — the lowest among the major agencies — but downgraded the outlook to negative from stable.

The change comes three months after S&P had cut Japan’s sovereign credit rating — the first reduction since 2002 — saying the government had no plan to deal with its mounting debt while adding the administration’s loss of an upper house majority had compounded the problem.

18 J&J to buy Synthes for $21.6 billion

By Katie Reid, Reuters

Wed Apr 27, 9:35 am ET

ZURICH (Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson is to buy Swiss medical devices maker Synthes Inc for 19 billion Swiss francs ($21.6 billion) in its largest ever buy, boosting its orthopedic business.

The U.S. healthcare group will pay 159 Swiss francs in cash and stock for each Synthes share, the two companies said on Wednesday, in a deal that will give J&J a leading position in equipment to treat trauma.

J&J’s offer is a premium of 8.5 percent over Synthes’s closing share price on Tuesday.

19 Syrian army tightens control over protest hotspots

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Reuters

Wed Apr 27, 8:36 am ET

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian troops tightened control on Wednesday over flashpoints of protest against President Bashar al-Assad, who faced growing international calls to end violence that a rights group said had killed over 450 people.

Tanks patrolled the southern city of Deraa, where the uprising against Assad erupted nearly six weeks ago, troops poured overnight into the Damascus suburb of Douma and security forces surrounded the restive coastal city of Banias.

Germany said on Wednesday it strongly supported European Union sanctions against the Syrian leadership, and the bloc’s executive body, the European Commission, said all options were on the table for punitive measures against Damascus.

20 Analysis: Syria neighbors fear future without Assad family

By Samia Nakhoul, Reuters

Wed Apr 27, 10:32 am ET

BEIRUT (Reuters) – From Israel to Iran, Syria’s neighbors are starting to contemplate the possibility of a future without the Assad family as Lords of Damascus, and, whether friends or foes, some don’t like what they see.

Indeed, some are in denial about what they are witnessing.

Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi’ite movement widely seen as an Iranian proxy in the Middle East, purports to believe the government of President Bashar al-Assad is putting down an insurrection by armed gangs of Salafi or Sunni Muslim fanatics.

21 Pakistan denies reports of efforts to split U.S., Afghanistan

By Chris Allbritton, Reuters

Wed Apr 27, 7:13 am ET

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan denied media reports on Wednesday that it was lobbying Afghanistan to drop its alliance with Washington and look to Islamabad and Beijing to forge a peace deal with the Taliban and rebuild its economy.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani “bluntly” told Afghan President Hamid Karzai to “forget about allowing a long-term U.S. military presence in his country,” according to Afghans present at an April 16 meeting between the two men.

“Reports claiming Gilani-Karzai discussion about Pakistan advising alignment away fm US are inaccurate,” Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington, Hussain Haqqani, wrote on his Twitter feed.

22 Furor at Sony after hackers steal Playstation user data

By Isabel Reynolds and Liana B. Baker, Reuters

Wed Apr 27, 8:06 am ET

TOKYO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Sony Corp warned that hackers had stolen names, addresses and possibly credit card details from the 77 million user accounts of its video game online network, in one of the largest Internet security break-ins ever.

The Japanese electronic giant pulled the plug on the network on April 19 after finding out about the breach in its popular PlayStation Network, a service that produces an estimated $500 million in annual revenues.

Sony did not tell the public about the stolen data until Tuesday, hours after it had unveiled in Japan its first tablet computers.

23 Sony PlayStation suffers massive data breach

By Liana B. Baker and Jim Finkle, Reuters

Tue Apr 26, 8:55 pm ET

NEW YORK/BOSTON (Reuters) – Sony suffered a massive breach in its video game online network that led to the theft of names, addresses and possibly credit card data belonging to 77 million user accounts in what is one of the largest-ever Internet security break-ins.

Sony learned that user information had been stolen from its PlayStation Network seven days ago, prompting it to shut down the network immediately. But Sony did not tell the public until Tuesday.

The electronics conglomerate is the latest Japanese company to come under fire for not disclosing bad news quickly. Tokyo Electric Power Co was criticized for how it handled the nuclear crisis after the March earthquake. Last year, Toyota Motor Corp was slammed for being less than forthright about problems surrounding its massive vehicle recall.

24 Special report: Does corporate America kowtow to China?

By Nick Carey and James B. Kelleher, Reuters

Wed Apr 27, 1:33 am ET

SHEBOYGAN, Wisc. (Reuters) – China’s rise as a manufacturing power has benefited American factory owners in at least one way.

The Middle Kingdom’s insatiable appetite for second-hand machinery means that small U.S. businesses can make a quick buck by selling old equipment there.

For some American manufacturers, however, the idea of shipping even used stuff with no book value to their chief overseas rival is anathema.

25 Deadlock in Libya exposes international rifts

By Lin Noueihed, Reuters

Tue Apr 26, 10:11 pm ET

TRIPOLI, April 27 (Reuters) – Military deadlock in Libya has exposed growing international rifts, with critics of NATO bombing calling it another case of the West trying to overthrow a regime by stretching the terms of a U.N. resolution.

“Is there a lack of such crooked regimes in the world?” Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin asked Tuesday. “Are we going to bomb everywhere and conduct missile strikes?”

And a senior African Union official accused Western nations of undermining an AU peace plan that would not require the departure from power of Muammar Gaddafi.

26 Gaddafi forces try to cut off Misrata from port

By Hamid Ould Ahmed, Reuters

Tue Apr 26, 6:35 pm ET

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi tried to deny rebels in the city of Misrata their only lifeline to the outside world by shelling the port and nearby areas on Tuesday, rebels and residents said.

Misrata, the biggest rebel stronghold in the west of Libya still resisting Gaddafi’s forces, is encircled on three sides and depends on its Mediterranean port — under fragile rebel control — to bring in supplies.

Gaddafi’s forces have pulled out of the center of Misrata after weeks of shelling and gun battles failed to root out rebel fighters who harass government troops from the cover of bombed-out buildings.

AP

27 Afghan officer opens fire, kills 9 Americans

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press

8 mins ago

KABUL, Afghanistan – A veteran Afghan military pilot said to be distressed over his personal finances opened fire at Kabul airport after an argument Wednesday, killing eight U.S. troops and an American civilian contractor.

Those killed were trainers and advisers for the nascent Afghan air force. The shooting was the deadliest attack by a member of the Afghan security forces, or an insurgent impersonating them, on coalition troops or Afghan soldiers or policemen. There have been seven such attacks so far this year.

Although the individual circumstances may differ, the incidents of Afghans turning against their coalition partners seem to reflect growing anti-foreigner sentiment independent of the Taliban. Afghans are increasingly tired of the nearly decade-long war and think their lives have not improved despite billions of dollars in international aid.

28 Obama sending Panetta to Pentagon, Petraeus to CIA

By ANNE GEARAN and KIMBERLY DOZIER, Associated Press

58 mins ago

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama plans to name CIA Director Leon Panetta as the next secretary of defense and move Gen. David Petraeus, now running the war in Afghanistan, into the CIA chief’s job in a major shuffle of the U.S. national security leadership, senior administration officials and other sources said Wednesday.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates will retire on June 30 with Panetta taking over in July. Gates told senior staff that he recommended Panetta as his replacement six months ago.

Gates described his plans ahead of a White House announcement, expected Thursday, that Panetta would be the president’s choice to replace Gates.

29 Bernanke sees risks in further steps to spur jobs

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer

24 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday that the Fed can’t take additional steps to try to ease high unemployment without escalating inflation.

If inflation were to accelerate, the Fed would have to raise rates to slow borrowing and spending and blunt price increases. Hiring might then slow.

Speaking at a news conference with reporters, Bernanke sketched a picture of an economy growing steadily but still weighed down by a prolonged period of unemployment, now at 8.8 percent. He acknowledged the pain that is causing, noting that around 45 percent of the unemployed have been without a job for six months or longer.

30 Nev. governor names Heller to Ensign’s Senate seat

By SANDRA CHEREB, Associated Press

36 mins ago

CARSON CITY, Nev. – U.S. Rep. Dean Heller will enter next year’s U.S. Senate race from the perch of incumbency after Gov. Brian Sandoval on Wednesday said Heller will succeed John Ensign next month.

Heller’s appointment was anticipated and sets up a political scramble on how his House seat will be filled. State law says a special election must be held within 180 days of a vacancy.

Ensign, 53, has been dogged by an ethics investigation after acknowledging in 2009 to having an extramarital affair with a former staffer. The Senate Ethics Committee was investigating whether he tried to illegally cover it up.

31 Indiana may cut Planned Parenthood

By TOM DAVIES, Associated Press

1 hr 3 mins ago

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana is poised to become the first state to cut off all government funding for the Planned Parenthood organization, providing a significant victory for the anti-abortion movement but posing a political predicament for the state’s governor, Mitch Daniels, as he considers running for president.

The Indiana House is expected to vote as soon as today to cut off the $3 million in federal money the state distributes to the organization for family planning and health programs. The Senate approved the measure earlier this month.

The action would open a new legislative front in the conservative assault on the organization, which has been targeted for its abortion services. Efforts to cut off federal funds in Congress failed this year, but bills are moving in a number of statehouses.

32 Apple denies iPhones store user location

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer

2 hrs 1 min ago

NEW YORK – Apple Inc. denied Wednesday that iPhones store a record of their users’ movements for up to a year and blamed privacy concerns partly on a misunderstanding.

A data file publicized by security researchers last week doesn’t store users’ locations, but a list of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in their general area, the company said. It promised software fixes to address concerns over that file.

The data, downloaded from Apple, help the phone figure out its location without having to listen for faint signals from GPS satellites. That means navigation applications can present the phone’s location faster and more accurately, Apple said.

33 Goodell: NFL preparing for every contingency

By DAVE CAMPBELL, AP Sports Writer

2 hrs 14 mins ago

MINNEAPOLIS – NFL players urged a federal judge Wednesday to deny the league’s request to essentially restore the lockout, saying their careers were at stake. Commissioner Roger Goodell, meanwhile, said owners were preparing for every contingency.

U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson is weighing a request from the owners for a stay, which means the injunction she issued to stop the lockout would be frozen during the appeals process.

The waiting game was on.

34 Obama releases birth form, decries ‘silliness’

By JULIE PACE, Associated Press

1 hr 10 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Responding to critics’ relentless claims, President Barack Obama on Wednesday produced a detailed Hawaii birth certificate in an extraordinary attempt to bury the issue of where he was born and confirm his legitimacy to hold office. He declared, “We do not have time for this kind of silliness.”

By going on national TV from the White House, Obama portrayed himself as a voice of reason amid a loud, lingering debate on his birth status. Though his personal attention to the issue elevated it as never before, Obama said to Republican detractors and the media, it is time to move on to bigger issues.

Citing huge budget decisions in Washington, Obama said, “I am confident that the American people and America’s political leaders can come together in a bipartisan way and solve these problems. We always have. But we’re not going to be able to do it if we are distracted.”

35 Fed says $600B bond program to end in June

By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer

2 hrs 4 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The economy and job creation have strengthened enough for the Federal Reserve to end on schedule a program of buying Treasury bonds to help the economy, the Fed said Wednesday.

Ending a two-day meeting, the Fed made no changes to the program. The decision was unanimous. The bond purchases were intended to lower loan rates, encouraging spending and boost stock prices. But critics worried that the purchases would feed inflation.

The Fed downplayed inflation risks. It acknowledged a spike in oil prices, but concluded that the pickup in inflation will be temporary.

36 Doctor says 12 protesters killed in Yemen

By AHMED AL-HAJ, Associated Press

2 hrs 32 mins ago

SANAA, Yemen – Yemeni security forces opened fire on a massive anti-government demonstration in the capital Sanaa on Wednesday, killing 12 protesters and wounding some 190, a doctor at the scene said.

The violence broke out as about 100,000 government opponents filled a landmark square at the epicenter of the uprising, spilling into the streets around the state TV building. Witnesses said security forces, including members of the elite Republican Guard, fired live ammunition and tear gas into the crowd to break it up. Snipers were seen on nearby rooftops aiming at the crowd.

“Many of the dead and wounded were shot in the head and torso,” doctor Mohammed al-Ibahi told The Associated Press.

37 Tibetan exile community get new political leader

By ASHWINI BHATIA, Associated Press

Wed Apr 27, 1:29 pm ET

DHARMSALA, India – A Harvard legal scholar has been elected the next prime minister of Tibet’s government-in-exile, officials announced Wednesday, paving the way for new leadership in the Tibetan community as the Dalai Lama gives up political power.

Lobsang Sangay, 43, a lawyer and scholar who has spent years studying international law and conflict resolution, won with 55 percent of the votes cast by tens of thousands of Tibetans around the world, chief election commissioner Jamphel Choesang said in the north Indian town of Dharmsala, where the exile government is based.

He praised the Dalai Lama on Wednesday for handing over political power and vowed to continue Tibet’s struggle for autonomy.

38 1 in 4 children in US raised by a single parent

By CHRISTINE ARMARIO, Associated Press

Wed Apr 27, 6:17 am ET

MIAMI – One in four children in the United States is being raised by a single parent – a percentage that has been on the rise and is higher than other developed countries, according to a report released Wednesday.

Of the 27 industrialized countries studied by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. had 25.8 percent of children being raised by a single parent, compared with an average of 14.9 percent across the other countries.

Ireland was second (24.3 percent), followed by New Zealand (23.7 percent). Greece, Spain, Italy and Luxemborg had among the lowest percentages of children in single-parent homes.

39 Syrian city at heart of uprising under siege

By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press

1 hr 6 mins ago

BEIRUT – The city at the heart of Syria’s monthlong uprising ran low on food, water and medicine Wednesday as the army sent in more tanks and reinforcements as part of a widening crackdown against opponents of President Bashar Assad’s authoritarian regime, witnesses said.

Two residents in Daraa said at least five army officers had sided with demonstrators, and conscripted soldiers sent into the city were quietly refusing orders to detain people at checkpoints and were allowing some people through to get scarce supplies. But the Syrian government denied that there had been any splits in the military, which is seen as fiercely loyal to Assad.

Gunfire and sporadic explosions were heard in Daraa, two days after the military rolled in – backed by tanks and snipers. The army also deployed tanks around the Damascus suburb of Douma and the coastal city of Banias, the site of large demonstrations recently.

40 NATO jets stop attack on rebel-held port in Libya

By BEN HUBBARD, Associated Press

Wed Apr 27, 2:02 pm ET

MISRATA, Libya – NATO warplanes pounded forces loyal to Libyan leader Moaamar Gadhafi attacking the rebel-held city of Misrata, blasting fighting vehicles advancing on the port that serves as the besieged city’s sole lifeline, a NATO spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

The battle for Misrata has become the focal point of the uprising against Gadhafi’s regime, and the near-constant shelling of the city by government troops over the past two months has spurred calls for more forceful international intervention to stop the bloodshed.

In Brussels, the EU commissioner for humanitarian aid said the shelling of the Misrata port has worsened the already bad humanitarian situation in the city and that the 27-nation group has set aside more than euro100 million ($146 million) to address pressing humanitarian needs.

41 AP sources: Crocker top pick for Afghan post

By ANNE GEARAN and BRADLEY KLAPPER, Associated Press

Wed Apr 27, 6:18 am ET

WASHINGTON – Seasoned diplomat Ryan Crocker has emerged as the top candidate to become the next U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, part of a far-reaching revamping of the nation’s top leadership in the conflict there, now in its 10th year.

Crocker is the only person being considered currently to replace Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, a former Army general whose two-year tenure has been marred by cool relationships with major players in the Afghanistan war, including the White House, U.S. military leaders and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, administration and other sources said. The sources emphasized that the White House has not made a final decision.

Sending Crocker to Afghanistan would reunite him with Gen. David Petraeus, re-creating the diplomatic and military “dream team” credited with rescuing the flagging American mission in Iraq.

42 Push for Pentagon cuts tops Panetta’s agenda

By DONNA CASSATA, Associated Press

31 mins ago

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s choice of expert budget-cutter Leon Panetta to lead the Defense Department is a clear signal that the White House perceives the nation’s deficit crisis, not the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as its toughest challenge.

After winning the presidency in November 2008, Obama asked Robert Gates to remain defense secretary as the administration struggled to bring clarity to the fog of two wars. In tapping Panetta to replace Gates, Obama is turning to a Washington insider and veteran of budget fights as the administration wrestles with reining in an estimated $1.6 trillion deficit.

A military budget that has doubled since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks faces certain cuts amid the clamor from fiscal-minded lawmakers, emboldened tea partyers and an electorate insistent on Washington changing its spending habits. The prospect of the United States drawing down the number of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan pumps up the volume in the call for cuts.

43 As recession persists, 1 rural town clings to life

By JEFFREY COLLINS, Associated Press

1 hr 45 mins ago

WHITMIRE, S.C. – This town of 1,600 used to live by the steady thump, whirr and whistle of the looms in its giant textile mills, churning out socks and yarn to be used by other mills in a vast region that stretched from the Appalachian foothills to the coastal plains of the Carolinas.

The mills and the jobs they created led to decades of economic stability that earned Whitmire the nickname “Pearl of the Piedmont.”

Now the last of those plants is gone, leaving the town caught between two forces of decline: the evaporation of its job and tax base, and a recession that has hammered governments at all levels.

44 Court imposes limits on class actions

By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press

2 hrs 35 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Wednesday limited the ability of people to combine forces and fight corporations together when they want to dispute contracts for cell phones, cable television and other services, a move consumer advocates called a crushing blow.

In a 5-4 ideological split, the high court’s conservatives said businesses can block their customers from using class actions. The court said the federal arbitration law trumps state laws that invalidate contracts banning class actions.

The decision came in a dispute between AT&T Mobility and a California couple who objected to being charged around $30 in sales tax for what they were told was a free cell phone.

45 Cadillac powers up CTS

By ANN M. JOB, For The Associated Press

Wed Apr 27, 12:32 pm ET

Cadillac’s most powerful two-door model for 2011, the CTS-V Coupe, is a hard-charging gas guzzler that looks like a futuristic concept car that escaped from its auto show turntable.

Even before gasoline prices rose to above $4 a gallon, the federal government tagged the 556-horsepower CTS-V Coupe a gas guzzler, imposing a $1,300 tax that has to be paid by every CTS-V Coupe buyer.

The government’s fuel economy ratings for this car are just 14 miles per gallon in city driving and 19 mpg on the highway.

46 Race complaints in La. gov’s plan to merge schools

By KEVIN McGILL, Associated Press

Wed Apr 27, 11:22 am ET

NEW ORLEANS – Eye-level watermarks, gutted buildings and rows of mobile classrooms linger as reminders of the flooding from Hurricane Katrina that nearly wiped out Southern University at New Orleans in 2005.

Now the predominantly African-American university faces what students and administrators view as a new threat: Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposal to consolidate the school with the nearby, mostly white University of New Orleans.

“It will be the death of SUNO,” student government vice president Ellis Brent Jr. said recently as he worked on a letter-writing campaign in hopes of killing the idea in an upcoming legislative session.

47 EPA puts out global call for environment photos

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, Associated Press

Wed Apr 27, 5:46 am ET

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Got a camera? The Environmental Protection Agency wants you.

The federal agency has embarked on a yearlong campaign to collect photographs from across the United States and around the world for its State of the Environment Photo Project.

Launched just before Earth Day, April 22, the project is modeled after the Documerica effort during the 1970s in which the agency hired dozens of freelance photographers to capture thousands of images related to the environment and everyday life in America.

48 Congressional Republicans go home to mixed reviews

By MIKE SCHNEIDER and DINESH RAMDE, Associated Press

Tue Apr 26, 7:47 pm ET

ORLANDO, Fla. – Freshman Rep. Daniel Webster was armed with a rainbow of graphs and pie charts, ready to make the GOP’s case for budget cuts before his own constituents. He was barely a minute into his prepared remarks Tuesday when the yelling started.

The first heckler shouted his doubts about the Florida congressman’s promise to do what is right in Washington. From there, the hour-long meeting in Orlando was filled with a constant stream of boos and questioners in the crowd of 300 shouting over each other.

Twelve minutes into his remarks, Webster couldn’t be heard over the shouting on both sides. He tried to continue but then stood quietly for a minute smiling, his hands clasped together in front.

Apr 27 2011

Bernanke Press Conference Open Thread

I’m not even sure I’ll watch it because I’m sure I won’t understand most of it.  While fluent in C and Basic I don’t understand Fedese (if there is indeed any understanding of it and it’s not just insincere shamen babbling nonsense in tongues to confuse and impress the ignorant).

Clearly Samuelson economics works and in the words of Krugman (who only has a Nobel Prize in Economics)-

(R)ight now, we’re living in a world in which basic economics points to conclusions utterly at odds with what Very Serious People are supposed to believe, in which radical outsiders base their views on standard economics while orthodox types turn to heterodox, highly dubious speculations.

Econ 101, buttressed if you like by fancier New Keynesian models, says that contractionary fiscal policy is, well, contractionary. Yet much of the world of movers and shakers bought into the exotic notion that expectational effects – the confidence fairy – would make contractionary policy expansionary. And they clung to this belief even as the supposed historical evidence in favor of expansionary austerity was thoroughly debunked.

The blogosphere is full of intellegent questions that will never be asked but my favorite so far was propounded by Sen. Bernie Sanders (via dday).

Sanders’ report found-

(N)umerous instances during the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 when banks took near zero-interest funds from the Federal Reserve and then loaned money back to the federal government on sweetheart terms for the banks.

The banks pocketed interest on government securities that paid rates up to 12 times greater than the Fed’s rock bottom interest charges.

…

“This report confirms that ultra-low interest loans provided by the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis turned out to be direct corporate welfare to big banks,” Sanders said. “Instead of using the Fed loans to reinvest in the economy, some of the largest financial institutions in this country appear to have lent this money back to the federal government at a higher rate of interest by purchasing U.S. government securities.”

Chairman Bernanke, in light of this report, do you consider it good policy for the US to hand over money to the nation’s largest banks directly through this kind of scheme? Would it make just as much sense, if you find it good for the economy, to make the same investment strategy available to small businesses, states or the US government itself to deal with their budget problems? After all, it would take a true idiot not to make fantastic amounts of money if they can borrow at zero and loan money back at high rates. Why should individuals be deprived of this money-conjuring strategy?

Furthermore, shouldn’t those profits, rather than boosting the balance sheets of the large banks, have been put back into the economy? Shouldn’t that have been a condition of the direct subsidy?

I dare someone to ask that.

Anyway, your questions and reactions below and hopefully by tomorrow we’ll have some idea of what Bernanke actually said.

Apr 27 2011

9/11 First Responders Bill: Not Quite Right

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Jon Stewart, who was so influential for getting the 9/11 First Responders Health Bill passed, found a major in the bill, put there by the GOP with the blessings of the Democrats. They really do hate the 9/11 First Responders.

Jon Stewart On Congress’ ‘Final Kick To The Nuts’ Of 9/11 First Responders

Jon Stewart tonight tackled the absurdity of a provision in the recently passed 9/11 first responders bill that requires any potential beneficiaries to first have their name run through the FBI’s terrorism watch list before they could collect any money. Some commentators described it as “adding insult to injury,” but Stewart more bluntly called it Congress’ “final kick to the nuts” of the first responders.

Transcripts for these videos can be read in this diary by Bruinkid at Daily Kos

Apr 27 2011

Punting the Pundits

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”

Wednesday is Ladies’ Day. Scroll down for the gentlemen,

Katrina vanden Heuvel: Why Afghanistan could upend Obama’s reelection strategy

The outlines of President Obama’s reelection strategy are becoming more distinct. He’ll bet that the faltering recovery has enough momentum to sell, particularly to college-educated suburban independents. He’ll find a way to cut a deal with Republicans on deficits that doesn’t completely derail the recovery.

At the same time, he’ll draw bright lines to defend largely social issues that appeal to both his base and to independents – ending “don’t ask, don’t tell”; defending Planned Parenthood and family planning; protecting the environment. He’ll contrast Republican promises for more tax cuts to the rich with his plan to invest in areas vital to our future – education, innovation, infrastructure.

But in addition to the economy, the disastrous war in Afghanistan threatens to upend this game plan.

Laura Flanders: Oil Prices: Gouge Us Baby One More Time

Gas prices have been edging up since February, reaching $4 a gallon this Easter, and Republicans are gearing up to make a stink about it.

To blame Democrats, that is, for setting things up this way. Blaming green energy initiatives for driving up prices, House Republicans are planning to hold hearings on a slurry of bills aimed at expanding domestic oil production in response to high gasoline prices. Even the president admits gas prices effect his standing in the polls.

But it should be easy enough to fight back. While the five biggest oil companies report historically high profit earnings, the same GOP that would slash juice programs for poor kids in school stands firm for federal subsidies for big oil.

Amanda Marcotte:  The Authoritarian Agenda Behind Attacks on Contraception

In a recent piece for the American Prospect, Sarah Posner outlined how the fringe of the religious right increasingly dictates the larger conservative agenda, as evidenced by the bold Republican push towards open war on contraception.  Sarah writes about the reason for the attacks on Planned Parenthood:

   It is not solely about shutting down Planned Parenthood’s federal funding because the organization provides abortion services (indeed federal funding of abortion is already banned by the Hyde Amendment). It’s about shutting down Planned Parenthood because it provides contraceptives. That is a target because, as Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota has put it, “an arrogant corrupt Washington elite” has “declared war on marriage, on families, on fertility, and on faith.”

Mike Huckabee has started to join the chorus of anti-contraception voices as well, calling Planned Parenthood “Planned Barrenhood”—basically signing off on the idea that any attempt to control fertility is wrong, no matter how you do it.  While the official argument is that this is still just about abortion, the mask slips more and more all the time, and the public is beginning to be clear about how radical the anti-choice agenda really is. And the thing is that when you drop the bloviating about fetal life and attack contraception head on, it’s much harder to distract people from how viciously misogynistic this agenda really is.

Joan Walsh: Haley Barbour’s neo-Southern strategy fails

Maybe America isn’t ready for a president who claims Mississippi racism wasn’t “that bad”

Only a few hours after the Washington Post reported that Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour was less than a week from his declared deadline to make a decision, “and most expect him to run,” Barbour announced the opposite. “I will not be a candidate for president next year,” the Republican said in a statement Monday. “A candidate for president today is embracing a ten-year commitment to an all-consuming effort, to the virtual exclusion of all else. His (or her) supporters expect and deserve no less than absolute fire in the belly from their candidate. I cannot offer that with certainty, and total certainty is required.”

In a primary field still crowded with people who will never be president, Barbour’s departure is nonetheless good and bracing news. Late last year, the man from Yazoo City floated a new Southern strategy in what was probably intended as a positive Weekly Standard profile, and it went nowhere. Barbour told the Standard that racism in his hometown wasn’t “that bad,” and praised the local chapter of the notorious White Citizens Council for policing the Ku Klux Klan; later he refused the state NAACP’s request that he denounce efforts to issue a state license plate to honor KKK founder Nathan Bedford Forrest. I said at the time that Barbour’s Weekly Standard comments weren’t a gaffe, but a trial balloon for politics in post-Obama America: C’mon, isn’t everybody sick of all the whining about racism? It wasn’t that bad!

Dean Baker: What We’re Not Being Told About Paul Ryan’s Medicare Plan

The mainstream media has failed to report that the Ryan plan is a privatisation programme that will hand $30tn to insurers

The film Casablanca features one of greatest moments in movie history. With Humphrey Bogart standing with a smoking pistol over the body of the dead Gestapo major, Claude Rains, in the role of the French colonel, tells his troops: “the major has been shot, round up the usual suspects.”

Unfortunately, the Washington policy gang is busy following Claude Rains’ instructions. The nation is drowning in endless accounts of how the huge deficit will sink the economy and the country. These accounts invariably feature stories of a Congress addicted to spending and a nation that wants government benefits that it doesn’t want to pay for.

This story has nothing to do with reality, as all budget analysts know. The explosion of the budget deficit in the last three years is a response to the plunge in private sector demand following the collapse of the housing bubble. If the budget deficit were smaller, we would simply have less demand and fewer jobs.

The New York Times Editorial: The Republican Threat to Voting

Less than a year before the 2012 presidential voting begins, Republican legislatures and governors across the country are rewriting voting laws to make it much harder for the young, the poor and African-Americans – groups that typically vote Democratic – to cast a ballot.

Spreading fear of a nonexistent flood of voter fraud, they are demanding that citizens be required to show a government-issued identification before they are allowed to vote. Republicans have been pushing these changes for years, but now more than two-thirds of the states have adopted or are considering such laws. The Advancement Project, an advocacy group of civil rights lawyers, correctly describes the push as “the largest legislative effort to scale back voting rights in a century.”

E. J. Dionne, Jr.: Why ‘False Choices’ Still Matter

WASHINGTON-The idea that “false choices” are distorting our politics is under attack. I want to defend the concept for both substantive and personal reasons.

The canary in the coal mine was my colleague Ruth Marcus’ column on March 31 in which she argued directly: “It’s time to retire the false choice.”

“As a rhetorical device, particularly as a political rhetorical device, the false choice has outlived its usefulness, if it ever had any,” she wrote. “The phrase has become a trite substitute for serious thinking. It serves too often to obscure rather than to explain.”

While I empathize with Marcus’ frustration that false choices are sometimes invoked to evade choices altogether, I respectfully but passionately disagree with her. And she has company in her skepticism.

Apr 27 2011

National Security Musical Chairs

(4 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

While everyone was focusing on the bogus issue of President Obama’s citizenship and busily examining the authenticity of the newly released long form, there was a national security shake up going on that finally got it’s 5 minutes of attention by the media. Defense Secretary Robert Gates had announced that he would be leaving the Pentagon this year. There was some speculation about his replacement that included Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She has since made it clear that she was not interested and would remain in the critical job steering Obama’s rudderless foreign policy. By law, the Defense Secretary must be a civilian and disqualified if having served in the military in the last 10 years, thus eliminating any of the current or recently retired generals.

The President met this morning with his national security advisors at the White house and announced that current CIA Director Leon Panetta would be replacing Gates and Gen. David Petraeus, the current Afghan war commander, would take over the CIA. The other announcement at the meeting was that Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who was ambassador to Iraq under President Bush, would move to Afghanistan to become the Ambassador there, replacing Karl Eikenberry. One of the most experienced diplomats in the foreign service Crocker has also served as Ambassador to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Marine Lt. Gen. John Allen would replace Petraeus as the commander of the war effort in Afghanistan. Not yet decided, or atleast not announced today was who would replace retiring Gen, Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Once again, as we did with Bush CIA Director, Gen. Michael Hayden who continued to wear his uniform, the military dominates the national security agencies. As David Dayen puts it

So the merging of the military and the intelligence community is complete. Within a few years it’ll just be one big black op. The good news is they can cut the military budget then, and put everything into the secret, off-the-books intelligence budget so as not to raise suspicion.

h/t David Dayen at FDL

The New York Times

Susan Crabtree at Talking Points Memo

Apr 27 2011

On This Day In History April 27

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

April 27 is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 248 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1805, Naval Agent to the Barbary States, William Eaton, the former consul to Tunis, led an small expeditionary force of Marines, commanded by First Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon, and Berber mercenaries from Alexandria, across 500 miles to the port of Derna in Tripoli. Supported by US Naval gunfire, the port was captured by the end of the day, overthrowing Yusuf Karamanli, the ruling pasha of Tripoli, who had seized power from his brother, Hamet Karamanli, a pasha who was sympathetic to the United States.

Lt. O’Bannon raised the US flag over the port, the first time the US flag had flown over a foreign battlefield. He had performed so valiantly that newly restored Pasha Hamet Karamanli presented him with an elaborately designed sword that now serves as the pattern for the swords carried by Marine officers. The words “To the shores of Tripoli” in the Marine Corps official song commemorate the battle.

Sources:

Wikipedia

About.com  

 1296 – Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England.

1509 – Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict.

1521 – Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.

1539 – Re-founding of the city of Bogota, New Granada (now Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastian de Belalcazar.

1565 – Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.

1578 – Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favourites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise.

1650 – The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from Orkney Island but is defeated by a Covenanter army.

1749 – First performance of Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks in Green Park, London.

1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Ridgefield: A British invasion force engages and defeats Continental Army regulars and militia irregulars at Ridgefield, Connecticut.

1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The “shores of Tripoli” part of the Marines’ hymn).

1810 – Beethoven composes his famous piano piece, Fur Elise.

1813 – War of 1812: United States troops capture the capital of Upper Canada, York (present day Toronto, Canada).

1840 – Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, is laid by wife of Sir Charles Barry.

1861 – President of the United States Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.

1865 – The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state’s land grant institution.

1865 – The steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,400 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom are Union survivors of the Andersonville and Cahaba Prisons.

1904 – The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.

1909 – Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.

1911 – Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.

1936 – The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.

1941 – World War II: German troops enter Athens.

1941 – World War II: The Communist Party of Slovenia, the Slovene Christian Socialists, the left-wing Slovene Sokols (also known as “National Democrats”) and a group of progressive intellectuals establish the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People.

1945 – World War II: German troops are finally expelled from Finnish Lapland.

1945 – World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.

1950 – Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.

1959 – The last Canadian missionary leaves the People’s Republic of China.

1960 – Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.

1961 – Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.

1967 – Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day.

1974 – 10,000 march in Washington, D.C., calling for the impeachment of US President Richard Nixon

1977 – 28 people are killed in the Guatemala City air disaster.

1978 – Former United States President Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.

1981 – Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.

1987 – The U.S. Department of Justice bars the Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States, saying he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.

1992 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.

1992 – Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.

1992 – Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics become members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

1993 – All members of the Zambia national football team lose their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon in route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.

1994 – South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote.

The Interim Constitution comes into force.

1996 – The 1996 Lebanon war ends.

2002 – The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10.

2005 – The superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.

2006 – Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.

2007 – Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.

Holidays and observances

   * Christian Feast Day:

       Liberalis of Treviso

       Virgin of Montserrat

       Zita

       April 27 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   * Day of the Uprising Against the Occupying Forces (Slovenia)

   * Freedom Day (South Africa)

       UnFreedom Day (South Africa, unofficial)

   * Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Sierra Leone from United Kingdom in 1961.

   * Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Togo from France in 1960.

   * National War Veterans’ Day (Finland)

   * World Graphic Design Day (Communication design discipline)

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