Shakesville: But my religious freedom!

Alicublog: Goodbye, tin foil hat.

Naked Capitalism: The uprising of the second tier in a time of late capitalism.

Lance Mannion: Promised Land and fracking.

Lawyers, Guns & Money: Let us return to the gloriously bipartisan government of the late 90s.

Guest post by Batocchio. E-mail tips to mbru AT crooksandliars DOT com.

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:

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

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?

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.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (134)

PLAYS: (1859)

Embed

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.

DOWNLOADS: (116)

PLAYS: (1494)

Embed

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.

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.

Continue reading »

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.

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.

Continue reading »