Bizarre

The explanation may end up being mundane (and, of course, tragic) but this Malaysian Airlines mystery is suddenly something out of a Bond movie.

U.S. investigators suspect that Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU -2.04% Flight 370 stayed in the air for about four hours past the time it reached its last confirmed location, according to two people familiar with the details, raising the possibility that the plane could have flown on for hundreds of additional miles under conditions that remain murky.

Well, that all worked out

Boy that short-lived dose of "Shock and Awe" sure continues to work its magic eleven years later.

Since the US military left Iraq in December 2011, and within two months of the first national election since then, Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq has quietly emerged as one of the most powerful players in the country's political and public life. Through a mix of strategic diplomacy, aggressive military operations and intimidation – signature methods of its main patron, the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani – the group is increasingly calling the shots in two countries.

Those countries are Iraq and Syria. Making, as predicted by us effing hippies so long ago, Iran as the real-winner of the Iraqi invasion and occupation. Now, if we hadn't had that plan all along, this would not have happened. But of course, there is only one real plan for us now in regard to dunghills of our own making.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan says al-Qaida is in "survival mode," but that if all international forces left this year, the terrorist network would regroup and use the region to plan and conduct operations against the West.

We must stay...forever. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

"Sock it, to me?"

Apparently, Obama is just like Hitler again.

If Hitler did a few improvs and open mic nights. 

Granted, the latter did have the perfect facial hair for the modern hipster.

DiFi draws a line "now it affects me!"

For years there have been few more reliable excuse makers for the intelligence agencies snooping into your life than Dianne Feinstein. For example, two weeks ago.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) offered a full-throated defense of the government's collection of data on billions of American phone calls, saying Wednesday that the National Security Agency’s practices have safeguarded the nation without trampling on civil liberties.

Boo who Mr. and Ms. Non-Dianne Feinstein, your privacy concerns matter not when it comes to amorphous undocumented threats to our security...in perpetuity. But when spying gets too close to DiFi, well things are somehow different yesterday.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) accused the CIA on Tuesday of illegally searching her committee’s computers to find an internal CIA review of Bush-era interrogation policies... Feinstein also said the search may have “violated the Fourth Amendment,” which prohibits unreasonable government searches.

Here's a thought, maybe both acts violate the Fourth Amendment?

Maybe if Dianne Feinstein cared more about the Fourth Amendment's protections for ordinary citizens, she wouldn't be in a position to complain about being treated like one of them?

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Truthers United!!!

Damn the facts, it is how I feel.

Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group backed by the Koch brothers, is running Obamacare attack ads featuring a cancer patient who claimed her treatments were "unaffordable" under the new health law.

On Monday, The Detroit News reported that the patient will actually save more than $1,000 a year. Julie Boonstra says in the anti-Obamacare ad that she was diagnosed with leukemia five years ago, and her health care plan was canceled when Obamacare went into effect. "Now, the out-of-pocket costs are so high, it's unaffordable," she said.

Before her plan was canceled, Boonstra was paying a $1,100 monthly premium. That's $13,200 a year, without adding out-of-pocket expenses like co-pays and prescription drugs. But under her new plan, the Blue Cross Premier Gold, Boonstra's premiums are down to $571 a month, and out-of-pocket costs are capped at $5,100. That's a maximum annual expense of $11,952 a year.

According to The Detroit News, Boonstra said it “can’t be true” that her new coverage is cheaper than her old. “I personally do not believe that,” Boonstra said.

Your modern GOP, ladies and gentlemen.

One picture to summarize FoxNews

Tells a thousand words, 307 of them undoubtedly misspelled.

Nothing like first-hand experience to affect one's perception

I can see a future FoxNews or FoxBusiness "pundit" now..."What does Japan know about affects of the atom anyway?"

Just a day before the 3rd anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident, national broadcaster NHK released the results of a survey about nuclear power in Japan. The results show that 80% of the respondents are in favor of scrapping some or all of the existing nuclear reactors in the country.

But then again, why should 80% of the public get what they want, Tokyo Electric & Power says it's universally awesome, like some other nearby guy. Why should a minority of 4/5ths get any say in the matter, they are just people! [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Your public twitter-farts are making it hard for me to stay classy

fuckhead.

Minnesota State Representative Pat Garofalo sent out a tweet today stating that no one would notice a decrease in NBA teams except for the possible exception of an ‘increase in streetcrime.’ Garofalo (R-Framington) tweeted: “Let’s be honest, 70% of teams in NBA could fold tomorrow + nobody would notice a difference w/ possible exception of increase in streetcrime.”

All the craziness is down to science

Another day another bit of bad news that the manufacturers of their own reality can ignore.

...researchers from the University of East Anglia have discovered evidence of four new gases that can destroy ozone and are getting into the atmosphere from as yet unidentified sources. Three of the gases are CFCs and one is a hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC), which can also damage ozone. "Our research has shown four gases that were not around in the atmosphere at all until the 1960s which suggests they are man-made," said lead researcher Dr Johannes Laube.

Naturally, few if any of the participants at this weekends annual Clown Show that David Gregory treats like a seminar, CPAC, but they still manage to convolute something into an outrageous and offensive slur.

Conservative firebrand Ann Coulter and the Daily Caller's Mickey Kaus held a one-sided debate on Saturday that mostly served as a 50-minute screed from Coulter on the "browning of America" due to immigration.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Light blogging

During CPAC.

Because how can I be more ridiculous than that?

Cannot stop kicking a poor person and succumb to good policy

Good luck with dodging that virus.

A new analysis from the Institute for Women's Policy Research, a nonprofit that advocates for pro-family policies, found that in 2012 it was primarily poor, Hispanic workers who were most likely to go without paid sick days. Overall, the organization found that 39 percent of private-sector workers over the age of 18 must choose between getting paid or staying home when they fall ill.

Which means you show up for work if you are sick...and poor.

And if you are poor, you much more likely work at a restaurant.

And if you work at a restaurant, why would you ever be near other people?

So it would make perfect sense to require businesses, especially restaurants, to allow a few paid sick days every year. Well, we cannot have sound policy like that now, can we? 

Meanwhile, 10 states have passed laws prohibiting local governments from establishing sick-leave laws.

Why it is almost as if poor people don't have anyone representing their interests.

Almost?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

I'll be believe it when I see it...

And it still isn't all that revolutionary...but also I so want to see Bill Donahue and Cardinal Dolan's reaction.

Pope Francis has signalled that he could see the Catholic church tolerating some forms of same-sex civil unions -- though not marriage -- when it comes to situations such as medical care and property for gay couples. In an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, the pope said that "matrimony is between a man and a woman," but moves to "regulate diverse situations of cohabitation (are) driven by the need to regulate economic aspects among persons, as for instance to assure medical care," according to a translation by Catholic News Service. "It is necessary to look at the diverse cases and evaluate them in their variety," Francis said.

This should go over well

"Hey Jews, be less and yet more Jewy as I, an insane person, define it!!!!"

Bachmann also skewered the Jewish community in the US for its wide support for Obama. She said that Obama “was helped enormously by the Jewish community,” who she says care more about supporting Obama than Israel

This was after the more predictable yet crazy-on-top-of-crazy logic earlier that had her saying she's an evangelical waiting for the "end times" and that Obama is awful because he's bringing the "end times" about.

Jokes somebody else has probably already made, part infinity

How do they know it was LeBron James that scored 61 points the other night? It could have been any 6'9" guy -- wearing a mask?

The thing about twitter jokes, I can always ignore them, so I do not know I'm the 59,083rd person to make that lame joke.

Because every day is "Opposite Day"

Another stellar day for logic in 'Murica and the world yesterday.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Tuesday sought to link the Russian invasion of Ukraine to ... Benghazi.

So why not just add some more of that?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Barack Obama on Monday that “Israel has been doing its part” to forge peace, but that it’s been met with “incessant Palestinian incitement.”

Netanyahu's part?

Out of diplomatic courtesy, and because the Americans specifically asked it to, the Israeli government postponed announcing plans to build new housing in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem — at least while Secretary of State John F. Kerry was in town last week trying to broker a peace deal. On Friday, it went ahead, announcing that 1,400 more new houses and apartments will be constructed in the contested areas that Palestinians claim as part of their future state.

Nothing to get incited about I guess. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

And at the moment

We are the most intelligent species (here's the pertinent and ironic kicker)...that we know of.

Teen Explains Why He Had Sex With A Hot Pocket

Oh surely, NO EXPLANATION NECESSARY!!!

Please alert Jim Gaffigan.

Nice career move

The Michigan Attorney General's office, continuing to serve the people of the state by reflecting the true tolerance of a far-right political position have been struck by incompetence yet again.

A judge barred an Ivy League law student Monday from testifying at Michigan’s gay marriage trial, saying he might become an expert witness someday but his opinions wouldn’t help sway this case.

It was a blow for the Michigan attorney general’s office, which had offered Sherif Girgis as its first witness in defense of a 2004 constitutional amendment that bars same-sex marriage.

Girgis has written and talked about a historical defense of marriage between a man and a woman going back to ancient philosophers such as Cicero and Plato.

First of all, could have saved some money by calling some high schoolers in the Gross Point AP History class.

Second, unless you are aiming for the FoxNews gravy train becoming the "expert" on old-timey marriage is a bit like becoming an expert on modern Austria-Hungary.

Third, you know what goes back further than Cicero and Plato? Slavery. After all, those two didn't start the institution, they just participated in it. You going to testify about how awesomely sacred that institution is bub?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Oh boy...

It's not like they've got tanker trucks full of WMD or anything! You tell 'em John Kerry!

”You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext,” he said. He went on to repeat the assertion on Meet the Press, keeping a straight face as he told host David Gregory: ”You just don’t invade another country on phony pretext in order to assert your interests.”

Next thing you know Jonah Goldberg will be outraged because Putin just wants to throw a little country against the wall once in a while.

Seventy years of 'the classics'

The irony of post-Second World War America is how consistently immature our politics has been about foreign policy...the arguments never change, we just cut and paste the locations.

In the late 1940s the Republicans blamed the Truman Administration for not adequately pouring in enough tax dollars into the last cause of the hopeless corrupt Chang government.  The fact that there was little to practically do about it was never really considered, or the point.

Seventy years later, a whole litany of wasted lives and wasted dollars that under the best case scenario led to stalemates have come and sadly often not gone.

Naturally, this leads to the only possible reaction to events in the Ukraine.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) accused President Obama on Sunday of being too soft in his dealings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who just received the Russian parliament's permission to move troops into Ukraine.

Yes, because clearly if only Obama had been willing to drop bombs, things would have gone differently. Besides how can last week's Hitler have any chance against this week's Hitler?

Or maybe he should have done this?

"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul."

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Like teacher, like student

Doin' it for hundreds of years.