Cheney’s Favorability … UP? WTF?

According to the latest CNN/Opinion Research Corp. Poll, Darth Cheney’s favorability number has waxed since January.  In January, Cheney’s favorability was at 29%.  In polling conducted last week, it had risen to 37%.

Saving Grace: Cheney’s “Job Approval Rating” can no longer be measured.

CNN Story

The Numbers

Video: Dick Cheney AEI Speech – National Security – May 21

Google CEO Schmidt Won’t Run for California Governor

The Financial Times will be running an interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt on FT.com in the coming days. Today they made a bit of news by running a story based on the interview where Schmidt says the company will not be buying a newspaper.

The story also dispelled a rumor that Schmidt may run for California governor:

Mr Schmidt, a member of US president Barack Obama’s economic team, ruled out a move into political life in spite of loose speculation that he might be tempted by the California governorship.

“I can assure you I’m not going to run for politics. There is no second life after Google,” he said.

The Audacity of Dopes: The Children of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

You would think that one of the most important figures in American or world history’s words and images would be in the public domain – a lasting memorial to the good works and forward thinking philosophy of a hero who left the world a better place.

If you think this about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. you are sadly mistaken.

In just the latest fit of childish pique over the use of their father’s words, MLK’s adult children are acting like — children.

Stephen Spielberg would like to make a film about the civil rights hero, yet the rapacious greed of Dexter King, Bernice King, Yolanda King and Martin Luther King III may get in the way of a work of art that surely should be made.

Earlier this year, the King Kids sank to their lowest when they charged the non profit group building a memorial to their father on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. $800,000 to use MLK’s words and images:

The King family has long been criticized for insisting on payment for the use of their father’s name, image, speeches and virtually anything that they can claim for themselves or their foundation. The family reached a new low this week when it was revealed that they had been paid more than $800,000 by the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation for the use of King’s image and words on the planned King memorial on Washington’s Mall.

If a film were made about MLK’s kids, it might be called the Audacity of Dopes.

Just being the child of Martin Luther King, Jr. should have opened and continue to open doors that would be closed to most people.  To think that such an historic, revered figure’s words – the very words that changed a nation and continue to inspire change in other parts of the world – could be held for ransom and the object of petty family squabbles is astonishing.

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy does not belong to his children alone – it belongs to the entire world.  From the standpoint of the King brats, if that seems unfair, it says volumes about the content of their character.

To get these idiots out of the way of society being able to share and honor Dr. King’s legacy, the federal government should pay each one of the four chiselers $1 million.  In exchange, the federal government would take control of and promise to maintain the King Center in Atlanta in much the same way presidential libraries are maintained.  This would eventually mean a charitable organization’s involvement.  Perhaps a seat or seats on its board could be reserved for King family members.  The mission of the King Center should be education and social justice, not personal profit for a greedy bunch who can’t stand on their own.

The public, through the National Archives or the King Center would then have unfettered access to Dr. King’s legacy.

These King kids are just crass chiselers.  If we can spend trillions on welfare for bankers and brokers, surely we could pay the King Kids $4 million to go crawl under a rock.

Daily Graphic: U.S. Violent Crime Rate, 1960-2008

The graph below was made with data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.  The numbers on the vertical axis are the number of violent crimes committed in the U.S. per 100,000 people.  Violent crimes include:

• Murder & Non-negligient Manslaughter
• Rape
• Robbery
• Aggravated Assault

Cleveland Media Another Day of Fun With Political Wannabe Who Wouldn’t Clean His Room

You gotta love this story.  Here’s how channel 19 in Cleveland milked another day out of Andrew Mizsak (pronounced MEAT-sack).

Obama’s Big Step in Right Direction on Auto Fuel Efficiency and Emissions

The Rose Garden announcement made today by President Barack Obama is perhaps the first tangible example of the political and public policy synergy among environmentalists, national security interests, big business and consumers.

The president’s “National Fuel Efficiency Policy” will serve consumers with more fuel efficient cars – cheaper to drive – big business by streamlined and equal application of federal regulation, and the nation’s national security interests by decreasing our dependence on foreign oil.  Finally, less gasoline burned means less pollutants into the atmosphere, a policy environmentalists should heartily support.

According to information released by the White House, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the federal Dept. of Transportation and the state of California all collaborated with auto industry and environmental interests on the new fuel efficiency policy.

Among other things the new program will:

• Require that all sizes of cars and trucks become more energy efficient;
• Requires automakers to maintain an average fuel economy rating for their fleets of 35.5 mpg by 2016;
• Create a uniform national policy cutting compliance costs for automakers;
• Projects a reduction in oil consumption of 1.8 billion barrels over model years 2012-16;
• Projects a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 900 million metric tons over the same period.

UPDATE! Cleveland TV Tracks Down Man Child Politician Who Wouldn’t Clean His Room

For the saga of Andrew Mizsak (pronounced MEAT-sack) see this.  For what a local yokel TV news guy does on a slow news day, watch below:

Another Version

Medical Costs for Family of Four Up $1,162 from 2008 to 2009

Employee Share of Medical Costs Rose by 14.7%

Milliman Inc. is a large actuarial and consulting firm which has been in business since 1947.  Its Milliman Medical Index (MMI) measures measures average annual medical spending for a typical American family of four covered by an employer-sponsored preferred provider organization (PPO) program.  The most recent MMI can be found in full here.

2009′s MMI Highlights Include:

• The total 2009 medical cost for a typical American family of four is $16,771, compared with the 2008 figure of $15,609. This is a 7.4% increase from 2008 to 2009.
• The employee’s share of medical costs increased 14.7% from 2008.
• This is the third straight year of decreasing cost trends. Even so, the $1,162 increase is the highest since the 2006 increase of $1,169, when cost trends were at 9.6%.
• Every category of costs except inpatient and outpatient facility care experienced lower cost trends than last year.

Swine Flu Update – May 18 – Possibility for Summer Flu Season

Sixth U.S. Death is New York Teacher

From Centers for Disease Control Briefing this afternoon:

Dr. Anne Schuchat:  … My first statement to you is the H1N1 is not going away, despite what you may have heard. As you know, the World Health Assembly is convening from Geneva, and the Department of Health and Human Services is at the Assembly. We are expecting the H1N1 issue to dominate the meeting, and I wanted to alert you to Director General Margaret Chan’s statement from the W.H.O. She said that influenza viruses are the ultimate moving target, and I think that really captures that scenario we’re coping with right now. This novel H1N1 virus is still circulating in the United States. People are continuing to get sick, to get hospitalized, and unfortunately, to die. At this point, there are six deaths that have been reported officially. And, you know, we feel for the families that are experiencing those losses. …

Dr. Schuchat was asked if H1N1 has a higher death rate than seasonal influenza:

Dr. Schuchat:   … You know, the death rate – are we seeing more fatalities than we would expect with seasonal influenza, or a higher proportion of illness than with seasonal influenza?  I think our best estimate right now is that the fatality is likely a little bit higher than seasonal influenza, but not necessarily substantially higher.  On the other hand, the hospitalizations that we’re tracking have this disproportionate occurrence among younger persons.  That’s very unusual to have, you know, so many people under 20 requiring hospitalization and in some of those intensive care units.  We’re trying to actively investigate those and get better characteristics of what the illness looks like. …

• Swine Flu Kills New Yorker, Virus Not Going Away – Bloomberg
• U.S. Health Officials Troubled by New Flu Pattern – Reuters
• Japan Acts to Contain Swine Flu Outbreak – New York Times

Cleveland Politician’s Dad Calls 911 On Him – For Not Cleaning His Room!

Pure. Gold.

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

According the report, “Andrew was sent to his room to clean it. He was crying uncontrollably and stated he would comply.”

Mizsak said he was embarrassed to take police away from more important work.

“My dad and I love each other very much,” he said, promising to keep his basement room clean. “I’m lucky to be living in their house.”

Who is Andrew?  He is a 28 year-old member of the Bedford School Board near Cleveland, Ohio.  He also lives in his parents’ basement.  Andrew is apparently a bad, bad boy.

Mizsak’s dad, also Andrew, called 9-1-1 on Thursday after his son threw a plate of food across the kitchen table and balled his fist up at his dad when told to clean his room.

The senior Mizsak, 63, wouldn’t press charges and told police, “I don’t want to ruin his political career.” According to the report, he said: “Andrew is 270 pounds and he can’t fight him, that they do everything for Andrew and he doesn’t even pay rent.”

The article also says Junior is a “political consultant.”  Hmmmm.

Video Update Here

California Quake Shake Map – USGS

USGS Site

Video – President Barack Obama Commencement Address, Notre Dame, Full Speech

Full Text – President Obama Commencement Address, Notre Dame

(As Prepared for Delivery – Source: Huffington Post)

Thank you, Father Jenkins for that generous introduction. You are doing an outstanding job as president of this fine institution, and your continued and courageous commitment to honest, thoughtful dialogue is an inspiration to us all.

Good afternoon Father Hesburgh, Notre Dame trustees, faculty, family, friends, and the class of 2009. I am honored to be here today, and grateful to all of you for allowing me to be part of your graduation.

Read more

Daily Graphic: Unemployment During the Recession – EU & U.S.

Data from Eurostats.  The title of the graph may be a bit misleading.  You can break down EU unemployment by gender in Eurostats.  This graph is men and women, hence the word “total.”

Daily Graphic: The Huge Decline in State Tax Revenue

PIT = Personal Income Tax

(Source: The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government)

Full Text – Leon Panetta Letter to CIA Employees – Re: Pelosi

(Source: Central Intelligence Agency)

There is a long tradition in Washington of making political hay out of our business. It predates my service with this great institution, and it will be around long after I’m gone. But the political debates about interrogation reached a new decibel level yesterday when the CIA was accused of misleading Congress.

Let me be clear: It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress. That is against our laws and our values. As the Agency indicated previously in response to Congressional inquiries, our contemporaneous records from September 2002 indicate that CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing “the enhanced techniques that had been employed.” Ultimately, it is up to Congress to evaluate all the evidence and reach its own conclusions about what happened.

Read more

Feds Now Bailing Out Life Insurers – Stop the Madness

This is total B.S.

If you haven’t already left and followed the link above, the B.S. is that now the federal government is shoveling TARP funds to life insurers.  As Glenn Hall over at the Street.com points out:

People pay insurers monthly premiums to transfer the risk of fire, car crashes and in some cases even investment losses. So when those things happen, the insurance pays. …

… I reluctantly acknowledged the need to shore up AIG because that is a special type of behemoth insurer whose activities underpin the entire financial world. But these other insurers are just lapping up the dole, and the government seems entirely too willing to keep giving out corporate welfare checks.

When do the princes and princesses of capitalism get to see some of the market’s ultimate accountability?  That’s called failure.  It’s real simple.  If you mismanage your company, you fail.

What the Bush and now Obama Administrations are saying to us is that if you’re a well-heeled bank, insurer or brokerage you’re too big to fail.

I don’t buy the “Socialist” argument from the right.  I don’t doubt that the Barack Obamas and Timothy Geithners of the world would rather not be running or propping up the private sector.  But I also believe that these big companies – who finance political campaigns – are getting treated differently than the average Joe.

Here’s what the next bailout should be.  In order to level the playing field the feds should cut a check to every taxpayer for, say, a hundred thousand bucks.

Perhaps others would do with their bailout as I would do with mine:

• $12,000 would go to Chase Bank to pay off my car loan
• $25,000 would go into some sort of savings
• $25,000 would go into home improvements
• $10,000 would go to investments
• $5,000 into a vacay
• The rest would be for general pump priming

Daily Graphic: Cheney’s Big Mouth Wasn’t Always Open So Wide

Great piece from yesterday’s Washington Post and Dan Balz on Dick Cheney’s sudden love of the limelight.  Here’s a graphic from the story.

Did Cheney Try to Waterboard Iraq War Justification Out of Detainees?

Devastating piece by Olbermann tonight on the widening pool of slime around the former Veep.  Links to stories which are mentioned in video below.

• Daily Beast Story by Robert Windrem – Cheney’s Role Deepens
• Lawrence Wilkerson – The Truth About Richard Bruce Cheney

« Previous Page — Next Page »