Daily Archives: January 8, 2013

January 8, 2013 · 7:15 PM

Fresh Off Completely Sane Piers Morgan Interview, Alex Jones Says Mayor Bloomberg is Sending Crackheads to Kill Him for Speaking Truth to Mafia

Black helicopters,”Mafiosa”, “Goodfellows looking guys”and “Crackheads”.  That’s the world of conspiracy Alex Jones describes regarding his trip to New York to appear on the Piers Morgan Show.

Here he is again, explaining what happened in New York.  He wants to prove that he’s not crazy!

Gawker – Neetzan Zimmerman

(Ed. Note:)  Moments later Jones added this video to You Tube:

You have to admire Alex Jones.

If not for his tin-foil political views than at least for the breakneck speed with which he can spin a web of conspiracy so thick with heavy-breathed paranoia it makes Robert Ludlum look like a historian.

Just one hour after filming his instantly infamous interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan, Jones was on his YouTube channel claiming the “panicked” producers pulled the plug early and kicked him out with tears in their eyes, and he was now scared for his life because Mayor Bloomberg had sent undercover cops dressed as crackheads to kill him and his crew.

“The way this’ll work is, ‘oh, see here they were protesting gun grabs and some crack dealers shot them,’” Jones told his 344k subscribers. “If something happens to us, we’re killed by crackheads, it was the NYPD or the mafia [Bloomberg] hired.”

Hey, it’s not paranoia if the Bloomberg mafia’s army of crackhead cops is really after you.

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· 6:35 PM

How budget battles in Congress are killing the GOP’s image

Senate Minority Leaders Mitch McConnell and his GOPosse: Playing the bully isn't winning Republicans any voter friends.

The Week

New polls show that voters largely disapprove of the GOP’s handling of the fiscal cliff

As the U.S. approaches a possible debt default in the next couple of months, Republican leaders say they have the edge to get President Obama to agree to significant spending cuts. “We have to use whatever leverage we have,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) recently said. “The debt ceiling is one of them that hopefully would get the president engaged.” However, new polls suggest that the GOP may want to think twice before it tries to strong-arm the president: Voters overwhelmingly disapprove of the GOP’s handling of the fiscal-cliff talks.

According to a poll conducted by Pew, 48 percent of Americans approved of Obama’s approach to the negotiations that resulted in an extension of the Bush tax cuts for all but the wealthiest Americans, while 40 percent disapproved. In contrast, a whopping 66 percent of voters disapproved of the performance of Republican leaders, compared with a paltry 19 percent who approved.

Granted, one major reason Republicans got such low marks is that members of their own party were unhappy with a deal that included a tax hike for the rich, but no spending cuts. However, in a worrisome sign for the GOP, independents were especially unhappy with Republican leaders, with 69 percent disapproving of their performance, and only 14 percent approving.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll released this week for the most part backed up Pew’s findings. Obama won majority approval, 52-37, while House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) numbers were upside down, 31-51.

There is some debate over whether Republicans in the House even care about public approval ratings, given that many members benefit from gerrymandered districting that makes them immune to challenges from the center of the political spectrum. But Senate Republicans can’t like what they see: Even though almost all of them joined Obama to raise tax hikes on the wealthy, they run the risk of being tarred with the same brush as their more intransigent counterparts in the House. Ditto for national Republican leaders who want to soften the GOP’s image in the wake of Obama’s victory over Mitt Romney.

And it could get worse as the fight over the debt ceiling intensifies. The skirmish over the Bush tax cuts only strengthened accusations that the GOP is more concerned about protecting the wealthy than preventing tax hikes on the middle class. The GOP’s goal to cut popular entitlement programs, all while threatening to hold the U.S. credit rating hostage, could tarnish the party’s brand even further.

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· 4:03 PM

New Rules for the New Year

HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher is on hiatus right now, so running across this New York Times op-ed by Maher was like finding an oasis in a desert.   I admit that not all of the following “new rules” are politically correct, but neither is Bill Maher…

The New York Times 

2012: I call it the year in “meh.” Not the worst we’ve ever experienced, but nothing particularly great to say about it either. Like being a socialite, but in Tampa.

I am looking forward to 2013, however, because I love the odd-numbered years — they’re the ones without congressional elections, Olympics, World Cups or weird extra days tacked onto the calendar by so-called scientists. Odd-numbered years are chill. They’re the 3 p.m. of years — that small sliver of time when lunch is digested and it’s too early to think about dinner and you stand at least a fighting chance of getting something done.

In that spirit, here are the New Rules for the new year:

NEW RULE Now that their end-of-the-world prophecy has proved to be complete baloney, the Mayans must be given a job predicting election results for Fox News.

NEW RULE Sometime during the 2013 awards show season, “Gangnam Style” must be given an award for the shortest amount of time between my finding out what something is to my being completely sick of it. Besting the time of 7 hours, 12 minutes, set by “The Macarena” in 1996.

NEW RULE Congress must make it a tradition to drive off the fiscal cliff every year. And I mean really off the cliff, like Toonces the cat drove that car. This way Republicans can learn that lower military spending won’t lead to China invading. And Democrats can learn that no one cares what the Commerce Department does anyway.

NEW RULE No more mixing politics with pizza. The filthy rich founder of Papa John’s, John Schnatter, said he’d cut his employees’ hours to avoid the costs of Obamacare. This is where I’d normally suggest boycotting Papa John’s, but that’s like telling people to boycott sadness. Nobody eats Papa John’s because they like it. They eat it because Domino’s won’t deliver to crack houses.

NEW RULE The winners of next month’s Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show must later compete against the winners of “Toddlers & Tiaras” — so we can get their handlers in one place, lock the doors and let the kids and dogs run for their lives.

NEW RULE The New Year’s Eve ball drop must be moved to one of the two states that recently legalized pot, so we can hear the crowd sing in unison, “Should old acquaintance be… what are the words again?”

NEW RULE Second-term Obama must have a few laughs by acting out the Tea Party’s worst fears. He must order Air Force One to fly everywhere upside-down like Denzel and replace Bo the White House dog with two pit bulls named “Malcolm” and “X.”

NEW RULE Drugstores, supermarkets, department stores and all other retail establishments must stop asking me to join their “club.” A club is a place to have a few drinks. What you’re offering me is two dollars off a bottle of NyQuil. And that’s nothing like being in a club. Unless I drink the whole bottle at once.

NEW RULE You can’t run for president if you don’t know how old the world is. Quizzed recently, Marco Rubio answered, “I’m not a scientist, man.” As if you have to be Galileo to Google, “How old is the earth?” And when asked his thoughts on evolution, Chris Christie said, “None of your business!” Which is what you say when someone asks you if you made a baby with the maid. Fellas, if you and your party want to be taken seriously, you don’t have to recite the collected works of Stephen Hawking — just stop regurgitating the Facebook page of Sarah Palin.

NEW RULE If we must sit through a 30-second ad to see your Web site, you have to take down all of those banner ads, which no one has clicked on since 1997. Please — I’m trying to watch a video of a nipple slip from last night’s episode of “Real Housewives of Atlanta.” Let’s not cheapen it.

Bill Maher is the host of “Real Time With Bill Maher” on HBO.

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· 3:39 PM

John McCain and Chuck Hagel were once BFFs. What happened?

John McCain and Chuck Hagel, best friends no longer.

We’re talking about John McCain here, so anything could have happened to set him off…

The Washington Post – Chris Cillizza

When Chuck Hagel sits before the Senate Armed Services Committee, one face staring back at him will be decidedly familiar — that of Arizona Sen. John McCain.

McCain, the ranking Minority member on Armed Services, and Hagel were once inseparable — two decorated Vietnam veterans who found common-cause in rebelling against their own party orthodoxy.  McCain campaigned for Hagel in the latter’s first race back in 1996 – here’s visual evidence — and Hagel was one of four Senators to endorse McCain’s 2000 presidential bid. The duo even had Senate offices close to one another to stay in constant touch.

Now, the two mens’ friendship has, by most accounts, dissolved entirely. McCain, in a statement shortly after Hagel’s nomination as Secretary of Defense was made official Monday, said that he has “serious concerns about positions Senator Hagel has taken on a range of critical national security issues in recent years.”

So, what happened? And why?

The answer, as you might suspect, isn’t a simple one. One Republican familiar with the two men insisted there was “no blow up or argument really” and that Hagel simply “stopped coming by the office or socializing outside the Senate.” In conversations with a number of people familiar with the relationship, however, it’s clear that a combination of policy disagreements, political slights and personality conflicts led to the collapse of a once-close friendship.

The most obvious break in the McCain-Hagel relationship came in the early 2000s over the war in Iraq. While Hagel, like McCain, voted for the use of force resolution against Iraq, he was always wary of America going it alone in the conflict and, as time wore on, became a more and more outspoken critic of the war.

McCain, on the other hand, remained a stalwart defender of the necessity of the war and went on later in the decade to become the face of the surge strategy to put more troops in the country.  Hagel opposed that strategy and panned it repeatedly.

“Quite simply, the split began over the length and cost of the Iraq war and Hagel’s decision to not support the surge, which John took as a personal insult,” said one McCain ally granted anonymity to speak candidly about the relationship. “It’s very sad.”

While a disagreement over the right course of action in Iraq might have been the biggest factor in the dissolution of the friendship, politics also played a role in the split.

While Hagel was intimately involved in McCain’s 2000 presidential bid — he served as national co-chairman and was in New Hampshire the night the Arizona Senator won the Granite State presidential primary — by the time McCain ran for president again in 2008 Hagel was much less on board.

Not only did he not endorse McCain, but Hagel also didn’t entirely dismiss the idea of serving as then Sen. Barack Obama’s vice presidential nominee. (Hagel’s wife endorsed Obama in the 2008 race.)

Then, in 2012, Hagel endorsed the candidacy of former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey (D) in the Cornhusker State’s open seat Senate race, a move that badly rankled McCain, who had endorsed Kerrey’s opponent — Republican Deb Fischer — and campaigned with her the day after Hagel made his endorsement of Kerrey public.

Adding to their policy and political disagreements, there was (and is) the fact that McCain and Hagel are similar enough in terms of their personalities — hard charging, irascible, certain that their deeply-held beliefs are correct — that they were always destined to be either best friends or the exact opposite.  Put simply: The very personality traits that made McCain and Hagel fast friends in the mid 1990s is what has driven them apart in the last few years.

While no one disputes that the once-close relationship is in tatters, one source familiar with the two men voiced hope that the break is temporary, not permanent. ”It’s like brothers who get in a big fight and don’t talk for a while.” said the source. “They’re still brothers.”

Maybe. How McCain treats Hagel during the confirmation process will be a telling indicator of whether a reconciliation is in the offing or whether the relationship has been irreparably damaged.

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· 9:58 AM

Poll: 77 percent say Washington politics causing serious harm

Finally, someone asked the American people about the toxic politics going on in Washington.

The resounding answer should make pols and pundits alike take notice and work at fixing the problem…asap.

The Hill

A vast majority of Americans worry that politics in Washington is causing serious harm to the country, according to a new Gallup survey released Monday.

Of those surveyed, 77 percent said the way politics works is causing the nation serious harm, versus just 19 percent who say the effects were not serious. Republicans were most pessimistic, with 87 percent arguing federal politics was damaging the country. But support for the sentiment was broad — 79 percent of independents and 68 percent of Democrats responded in the same way.

“The finding that most Americans think politics are hurting the country fits with a number of additional measures showing that Americans hold the federal government in general and Congress in particular — the main instruments of how American politics work — in low regard,” said Gallup’s Frank Newport in a release.

“The 19 percent of Americans who do not feel negatively about the way politics are being handled is quite close to Congress’ current 18 percent job approval rating,” he added. “Confidence in Congress as an institution — the percentage with a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in it — is at 13 percent, and 10 percent and 14 percent of Americans rate the honesty and ethics of members of Congress and senators, respectively, as high or very high.”

But despite a gloomy opinion of Congress and politics, Americans remain optimistic about the future. Of those surveyed, 52 percent said they believed the way politics worked would improve in Washington over the next 10 years.

That optimism is driven primarily by Democrats, who believed in a better coming decade by a 63-34 percent margin. By contrast, 56 percent of Republicans were pessimistic, believing politics would get worse over the next 10 years. Young respondents were the most likely to be optimistic, with 55 percent of those between 18 and 29 years old hopeful about the future. Older voters were more evenly split on whether things would improve.

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· 9:17 AM

How foreclosure settlement affects borrowers

foreclosure sign florida 2012

Information some TFC readers may be able to use or pass on…

USA Today

Many details of the $8.5 billion mortgage foreclosure settlement that federal banking regulators announced Monday have not been finalized yet. Here are some answers for borrowers.

Q: How much money is in it?

A: Ten banks and mortgage companies will pay $3.3 billion in cash to borrowers and $5.2 billion in mortgage relief to settle federal regulators’ investigations into alleged foreclosure abuses. This settlement largely replaces a 2011 settlement between the same regulators and leading home loan servicers.

STORY: Ten banks settle foreclosure charges for $8.5 billion

Q: Who’s eligible for compensation?

A: That hasn’t changed. You’re eligible if your primary home was in some stage of foreclosure in 2009 or 2010 and your loan was handled by one of the participating servicers.

Q: If I think I’m eligible, what should I do now?

A: Nothing. If you’re eligible, regulators say you’ll be contacted by the end of March by a company that will function like a claims administrator.

Q: Must I prove that I was harmed?

A: Probably not. Your servicer will place your case in one of 11 categories representing different kinds of harm. Regulators will spot check those placements.

Q: What’s the purpose of that?

A: The categories will be used to decide how much you get. Servicers are supposed to place you in the category that would net you the highest payment, based on your case.

Everybody in the same category will get the same compensation. For bigger payouts, expected to be up to $125,000, “some verification” may be required, says OCC spokesman Bryan Hubbard. Few are likely to get that much.

Q: I asked for a review of my case under the 2011 settlement. What happens now?

A: About 495,000 people did that. If you did, you’ll likely get an extra, undetermined payment, regulators say.

Q: What if I didn’t suffer a foreclosure abuse?

A: You’ll still be paid. But it will may be a small amount.

Many details of the $8.5 billion mortgage foreclosure settlement that federal banking regulators announced Monday have not been finalized yet. Here are some answers for borrowers.

Q: What if I think I should get more than what I do?

A: No appeals allowed. You could still sue the servicer.

Q: How do I get a piece of the $5.2 billion in mortgage relief?

A: Servicers will decide that. The kind of help they provide will earn them different levels of credit toward meeting their obligations under the settlement. For instance, if they reduce your home loan balance, they’ll get $1 in credit for every dollar in debt forgiven, regulators say.

Other types of relief will not be dollar for dollar. Those formulas are still being worked out.

Q: How is this settlement different from the $25 billion national mortgage settlement reached last year?

A: Under that settlement, just five servicers are participating. They are Bank of America, Chase, Citibank, Ally/GMAC and Wells Fargo. They’re paying out $1.5 billion to borrowers who actually lost a home to foreclosure from 2008 through 2011 and meet other requirements. They’re also extending more money in mortgage relief. The settlements are more similar now in that actual errors won’t have to be discovered for borrowers to be compensated.

Q: Can servicers get credit for both programs by helping the same homeowner?

A: No, the OCC says.

Q: What if my servicer was part of the first settlement but not the new one?

A: Talks are continuing with them, the OCC says. If they never sign on, their old foreclosure reviews will continue. Those servicers are HSBC, Ally (formerly GMAC), EverBank and IndyMac, part of OneWest Bank.

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· 3:47 AM

Piers Morgan, radio host who wants him deported face off

CNN

The man who wants Piers Morgan deported for advocating gun control faced off with the CNN host on Morgan’s show Monday night, denouncing Morgan as “a hatchet man of the New World Order” and warning of a new American revolution.

Radio talk show host Alex Jones backed a petition on the White House website calling on Morgan, a British citizen, to be deported “for his effort to undermine the Bill of Rights and for exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens.”

“We did (this) to point out that this is globalism, and the megabanks that control the planet and brag they have taken over in Bloomberg, AP, Reuters, you name it — brag they’re going to get our guns as well,” said Jones, who said his show is carried on 140 U.S. stations. “They have taken everybody’s guns but the Swiss and the American people. When they get our guns, they can have their world tyranny while the government buys 1.6 billion bullets, armored vehicles, tanks, helicopters. Predator drones, armed, now in U.S. skies, being used to arrest people in North Dakota.”

Morgan has been outspoken in calling for restrictions of semi-automatic rifles like the kind used in last year’s mass killings in Newtown, Connecticut, and Aurora, Colorado. But Jones said the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of a right to bear arms “isn’t there for duck hunting. It’s there to protect us from tyrannical government and street thugs.”

“Hitler took the guns. Stalin took the guns. Mao took the guns. Fidel Castro took the guns. Hugo Chavez took the guns. And I’m here to tell you, 1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms,” Jones shouted.

“You’re a very loud man. You make a loud noise,” Morgan said at another point, as he attempted to quiz Jones about the comparative difference in firearm homicides between the United States and the United Kingdom, where 35 people were killed in shootings in 2012, compared to more than 11,000 in the United States.

Jones replied that Britain was “a total police state.”

“England has a lot lower gun crime rate, because you took all the guns,” Jones said. “But you’ve got hordes of people burning down cities and beating old ladies’ brains out every day.”

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· 3:25 AM

Disaster relief for me, not for thee

Shamefully, political partisanship is at an all time high…

The Maddow Blog – Steve Benen

Though it took far longer than it should have, Congress approved $9.7 billion on Friday for the National Flood Insurance Program, giving a boost to victims of Hurricane Sandy. In all, only 67 lawmakers opposed the relief, and in this case, all 67 were Republicans, who opposed the spending under pressure from far-right lobbying groups like the Club for Growth.

Of the 67 opponents of the bill, failed vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) was easily the highest-profile member of the bunch, but TPM flagged another lawmaker whose vote against the emergency aid was even more striking.

Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-MS), whose Mississippi district is situated on the Gulf Coast, was one of 67 Republicans on Friday to vote against a $9.7 billion relief package to victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Mississippi’s Fourth Congressional District, which Palazzo has represented since 2011, includes the city of Biloxi, one of the most heavily damaged communities in the region by Hurricane Katrina. Congress quickly passed an initial $10.5 billion relief package in the immediate aftermath of Katrina in September of 2005.

Making matters slightly worse, Palazzo, about four months ago, stressed the importance of federal disaster relief for his district in the wake of Hurricane Isaac.

“Some of the counties in the fourth congressional district have been the hardest hit by Isaac,” Palazzo said in late August. “This determination comes as good news to our local communities who are dealing with the effects of the storm. We cannot thank the governor’s office and FEMA enough for their continued support.”

Hmm. It sounds an awful lot like the Mississippi congressman loves federal disaster relief, but only if it directly benefits Mississippi.

Asked for an explanation, the Republican’s office issued a statement.

“Congressman Palazzo fully supports a Sandy relief package that includes spending offsets. On the heels of a fiscal cliff deal that added $4 trillion to our existing $16 trillion national debt, we must ensure that disaster relief is paid for. He also hopes we will be able to have a much-needed national discussion on disaster relief reform in the coming days.”

First, mandating “offsets” in the wake of a natural disaster is a new development, that didn’t apply when it was Palazzo’s district that was slammed. Second, the bipartisan fiscal agreement does not ”add $4 trillion” to the debt.

And third, it’s interesting how “disaster relief reform” is needed when New Jersey is hit, but not when it was Mississippi that needed a hand.

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