Crooks and Liars

Updated: Bridge Collapses In Washington State

karoli — Fri, 24 May 2013 03:40:08 +0000

A bridge classified as structurally deficient in 2011 on Interstate 5 crossing the Skagit River has collapsed, throwing drivers and cars into the water below.

Reuters:

Part of a four-lane freeway bridge over the Skagit River in Washington state collapsed on Thursday, sending vehicles and people into the water below, authorities said.

The collapse on Interstate 5 took out the northbound and southbound sides of the span and occurred at about 7 p.m. local time in Mount Vernon, 55 miles north of Seattle, Washington State Patrol spokesman Trooper Mark Francis said.

"I've got reports of vehicles and people in the water," Francis said. He added that he did not know if anyone was injured.

Every single news report says the cause is unknown. I don't really think one needs to be a brain surgeon to check the definition of "structurally unsound." According to Washington's own list of structurally unsound bridges, it means the "bridge requires repair or replacement of a certain component, such as cracked or spalled concrete or the entire bridge itself." Of course, that same definition contains a disclaimer that there is no imminent danger of collapse. Sure there's not. Just look at that picture and tell me what you think.

Does anyone here remember the American Jobs Act proposed by President Obama in 2011? The one he introduced while standing in front of a bridge in Ohio that was also structurally deficient? The American Jobs Act that Senate Republicans killed with glee and great pride? That one?

You think maybe if they had taken it seriously instead of playing gotcha politics those people wouldn't be in the water right now?

Is it too soon to ask which Republicans will not only be fired, but go to jail for injuries and or deaths caused by their inattention to our infrastructure? Not for me, it's not.

Update 1: I tried to add video of the Washington DOT spokesman reacting, but the embed seems not to work. Here is the link.

Update 2: Let's also not forget what Republicans wanted in exchange for a transportation bill. Oil company incentives for infrastructure!

Update 3: According to the AP there are 759 bridges in Washington State that are more severely deficient than this one.

Also, this somewhat bizarre report of a guy praying on the bank in front of the bridge and then taking photos of the collapse:

Open Thread

Bluegal aka Fran — Fri, 24 May 2013 03:30:07 +0000

Dogs' owner knows the magic word! Open thread below...

C&L's Late Nite Music Club With Los Lobos

Jared Shade Reynolds — Fri, 24 May 2013 03:00:42 +0000

Title: Kiko And The Lavender Moon

Artist: Los Lobos

Kiko: 20th Anniversary Edition
	Artist: Los Lobos Price: $8.87 (As of 05/23/13 06:10 pm details)

Here's a sweet Terry Gilliam directed video to a great Los Lobos song. Got a video from a favorite film director?

Wells Fargo Forecloses on Homeowner For Paying Too Much

karoli — Fri, 24 May 2013 02:00:00 +0000

[h/t FireDogLake]

Gee, Wells Fargo Bank. A guy does what he's supposed to do and not only makes his regular payments but extra ones too and you decide to foreclose on him?

Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

Orlando news station WFTV has the details:

A man who made loan modification payments on time and early said Wells Fargo stopped taking payments and started foreclosing on his house.

Etienne Syldor said he's worked his whole life for a home in Orlando for his wife and three children.

Syldor is an immigrant from Haiti and a bus driver at Walt Disney World. At times, he said he has worked multiple jobs to make sure he never missed a mortgage payment.

Last year, Wells Fargo offered him mortgage modification, and he was told if he made four monthly payments during a trial period, the modification would be permanent.

So he made those payments and he made them on time, along with extra payments on the principal. What did he get for his trouble? Foreclosure. Wells Fargo's excuse? Not much of one.

"For some loans, completing trial payments is a significant step toward a permanent modification; however, in this instance, the loan was part of a mortgage-backed security and in a protected pool, with specific payment guidelines. We are working with Mr. Syldor to explain the guidelines and explore options that may help."

The bank told Eyewitness News Syldor didn't follow the modification guidelines because he paid early and sometimes his payments were sent one on top of the other.

Oh, you mean the billionaires playing potsie with CDOs might actually make a penny less interest and so this man has to lose his house?

WTF.

'ConservoTax,' The First Tax Software For Republicans

scarce — Fri, 24 May 2013 01:00:00 +0000

Click here to view this media

Conan O'Brien very helpfully produced this ad for conservatives who feel terrorized by Obama's IRS. As the dude in the tricorner hat says:

TEA PARTY GUY: "Filing your taxes can be a little scary, especially if you’re a God-fearing, gun-owning, freedom-loving Republican like myself. The fact is, Obama’s IRS is after us. Luckily, there’s ConservoTax, the only tax software made for conservative taxpayers.”

The segment would have been funnier if the intended targets of this would not be trying to find the 1-800 number for this product.

Heilemann Calls Out Priebus for Trying to Involve Obama in IRS 'Scandal'

Heather — Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Click here to view this media

Hey what do you know -- someone on Morning Joe got to call out a Republican for pulling factoids out of their posterior without Scarborough there screaming over them and interrupting. I guess he was taking a break during this segment. Don't worry though, his co-host Mika Brzezinski did her best to keep up scandal-mongering in his absence.

As a rule, you may as well turn on just Fox and be done with it than to sit through any of this show on MSNBC, but you do have some rare occasions where something like this happens: MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ Slams GOP Chair For Insinuating Obama Is Involved In IRS Scandal:

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe Thursday morning, panelist John Heilemann got into a heated argument with GOP Chairman Reince Priebus over President Obama’s role in the targeting of conservative groups applying for 501(c)4 status. Priebus offered a series of comments trying to tie Obama to the scandal — which Republicans have attempted to frame the IRS scandal as Obama’s ‘Watergate’ moment — leading Heilemann to shout “that’s an assertion that’s not actually borne out by any of the facts”:

HEILEMANN: Okay. You used two phrases just now saying we have to wait for the facts but I’m entitled to my opinion and before we have the facts just wait. You then said it’s lawlessness and guerrilla warfare and Obama is in the middle of. You say we need to have all of the facts before we can determine whether President Obama is in the middle of it and now you’re asserting the fact he’s in the middle of it. That is your public tweet.

PRIEBUS: I would say it is consistent. When I start out an investigation and say it’s low level employees in Cincinnati and then you find out there are senior level people in Washington. Then Pfeiffer goes on five Sunday morning shows and says the White House didn’t know anything about this and two days later you figure out that the chief of staff actually knew about it. You have a hundred and, what? 15 visits from Shulman to the White House and 132 Democratic senators pleading with the IRS to investigate this. And the Chief of Staff of the White House is now involved or at least knew about it when — two days earlier Pfeiffer said they didn’t know about it.

HEILEMANN: I thought you said you have the facts you need. If you don’t have the facts you need why are you saying he’s in the middle of it?

Never mind as they noted that the IG's report found nothing of the kind, and as Lawrence O'Donnell has been pointing out over and over again, the real scandal here is that any of these organizations doing political activities have been given tax exempt status as "social welfare" groups.

50 Chicago Elementary Schools To Be Closed. Thanks, Rahm!

karoli — Thu, 23 May 2013 23:00:00 +0000

After Chicago Public Schools received millions in billionaire bucks from the likes of Betsy Devos, the Bradley Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Michael and Susan Dell foundation, they made the brave decision to shut down 50 public schools in areas where students most desperately need the safety of a neighborhood school.

It's always awesome when those with power stomp on those with the least ability to defend themselves, isn't it?

Via All In with Chris Hayes' blog:

Wednesday afternoon, the Chicago Board of Educationvoted to close 50 reportedly “underutilized” schools—49 elementary schools and one public high school—in what was the largest round of school closures to ever occur in a single American city.

The board approved the school closures of the objections of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), as well as many parents and local community activists. Earlier this week, CTU led thousands of Chicago residents in a three-day series of protests against the closures. Opponents of the closures say that they would put children at risk by uprooting them from their learning environments and, in some cases, may require that they cross gang lines in order to get to their new schools.

Protests continued throughout the Board of Education’s deliberations, both inside and outside Chicago Public Schools (CPS) headquarters. At several points throughout the meeting, protesters were escorted outside for exhibiting unruly behavior.

Fifty-four schools were originally up for closure, but CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett withdrew her recommendation to close four of those schools the day before the Board of Education vote. CTU president Karen Lewis said sparing those four schools was “a good start, but it’s not enough.”

Here are some tweets I saw from people at the protest in real time Wednesday afternoon:

.@chipubschools Says they'll provide students what is needed to transition to new schools, does that include bulletproof vests? #CPSclosings

— Revolution MacInnes☮ (@From_Nothing) May 22, 2013

Privatization has infiltrated our prisons and the completion of the school to prison pipeline will soon be in full effect with #CPSclosings

— Viva la causa! (@70torinoman) May 22, 2013

The first tweet was particularly poignant for me. What they have done here is closed the schools where children need them the most. Those kids will now have to cross gang lines to get to school. That bulletproof vest question isn't entirely facetious when you consider it in the context of little kids having to get across gang territory to go to school.

So now those kids are dealing with poverty, more difficulty and risk getting to school, and once they get there they're expected to achieve on some superhuman level when taking stupid standardized tests.

AFT President Randi Weingarten predicted disaster for these kids:

“Separate and apart from what it means for the continuity and stability of children’s schooling, the evidence makes clear these mass closings will destabilize neighborhoods, and it has raised serious safety concerns for children in a city where there is already too much violence. “We are left at a loss as to why the board chose to ignore the parents, teachers, students and residents of Chicago in pursuing this reckless strategy that is not what the people want and will not help children."

But you see, Rahm doesn't work for the children. He works for the billionaires, and the billionaires are still piqued over last year's teachers' strike. They're looking for a nice big urban district to privatize. Who better than Rahm to accomodate that?

It's truly sickening. Those teachers the wingers call socialist thugs are the very same teachers who used themselves as human shields to protect kids during the tornado in Oklahoma, and the Newtown shootings. They're always heroes until it comes to things like paying them or improving the schools where they work. Then they're thugs, and the kids they protect are 'takers'.

The repercussions of this act will resonate for years and generations to come, and not in a good way, either.

Stupid Right-Wing Tweets:Dana Loesch Edition

Blue Texan — Thu, 23 May 2013 22:00:00 +0000

I'm not exactly sure what this SRWT even means, but it's probably some kind of "You Don't Need Guns To Kill You Can Do It With Knives Neener-Neener!" taunt. At any rate, Piers Morgan wasn't amused, and promptly banned Loesch from his show.

Regardless, if your first instinct upon hearing about some horrible act of violence is to take to Twitter to taunt your political opponents, you might want to get some help.

Looks Like 'Too Big To Jail' Was Based On ... A Feeling!

Susie Madrak — Thu, 23 May 2013 21:00:00 +0000

It's kind of a trick question. Because the whole point of the Obama "extend and pretend" policy was to pretend that the banks are financially sound (when they're not) and if they actually did do a study showing their precarious financial situation and it got out, that would present certain problems. So Sen. Warren has boxed them in nicely with this approach:

The U.S. Department of Justice appears to have neither conducted nor received any analyses that would show whether criminal charges against large financial institutions would harm the economy, potentially undermining a key DOJ argument for why the world’s biggest banks have escaped indictment.

Testimony by a top Justice official and fresh documents made public on Wednesday during a House financial services committee hearing revealed that financial regulators and the Treasury Department did not provide warnings to prosecutors weighing the economic consequences or fallout in the financial system of criminal indictments against large financial groups. DOJ also could find no records that would substantiate its previous claims that it weighed potentially negative economic or financial impacts when considering criminal charges, said Mythili Raman, acting assistant attorney general for the criminal division.

Wednesday’s revelations are likely to increase criticism of the Obama administration, which has been accused of a lackluster enforcement record against big banks in the financial crisis and other matters.It also may put further pressure on the Justice Department to strengthen future prosecutions. Recently, instead of filing criminal charges against large financial groups, federal prosecutors have begun to file criminal cases against subsidiaries. Observers including lawyers at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, a top defense firm, have warned that Justice may expand its limited use of criminal indictments in part due to public pressure.

Malkin on London Attack: British 'Brought It on Themselves' by Not Deporting Muslims

David — Thu, 23 May 2013 20:00:00 +0000

Click here to view this media

Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin on Wednesday asserted that the British people "brought it on themselves" after an apparent terrorist used a meat cleaver to hack a soldier to death in London.

Following Wednesday's horrific slaying, Fox News host Sean Hannity speculated that President Barack Obama would have refused to call the incident a "terrorist attack."

"What do you need to have? Neon lights that say, 'Islamic jihad,' 'Islamic jihad?' I mean, duh," Malkin agreed. "They were screaming at the top of their lungs, 'Allahu Akbar,' and repeatedly swore in the name of Allah that they would continue to fight against us."

"And in large part, unfortunately, in British culture, among the progressives there, they brought it on themselves in some ways because of lax deportation policies, and an unwillingness to screen out and profile Islamic militants who are now doing this in a homegrown manner on British soil," she added. "It's tragic."

Hannity, however, suggested that greater access to guns could have prevented the attack.

"And also it does bring into question gun laws," the Fox News host opined. "If the soldier had been able to protect himself and defend himself, which people all over the media in this country bragging about the fact, well, people don't have guns in England."

"Well, do you know who did have a gun? One of the assailants had a pistol!" Malkin exclaimed. "And everyone else was unarmed! Completely!"

Prior to being shot by police, the terrorist suspects also expressed the sentiment that the British people were to blame for the attacks.

"The only reasons we killed this man ... is because Muslims are dying daily," one attacker was caught on video saying. "This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth."

(h/t: Media Matters)