Drudge Retort: DRJIMMIES's blog

Driver Pulled Over, Fires AR-15 at Cop

DRJIMMIES — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:59:56 -0400

After his car was pulled over early Wednesday morning for driving without headlights, a Longmont, Colo., man allegedly got out and fired an AR-15 at a Longmont police officer. The officer returned fire and shot 28-year-old Jonathan Shank at least three times and he has been hospitalized in critical condition. Shank, who has two driving offenses on his record but no felonies, used a Bushmaster AR-15 with optics, police said. They discovered multiple guns and boxes of ammunition in a search of his home.

Republicans Altered Benghazi Emails

DRJIMMIES — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:03:25 -0400

One day after the White House released 100 pages of Benghazi emails, a report has surfaced alleging that Republicans released a set with altered text. CBS News reported Thursday that leaked versions sent out by the GOP last Friday had visible differences than Wednesday's official batch. Two correspondences that were singled out in the report came from National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes and State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. The GOP version of Rhodes' comment, according to CBS News: "We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don't want to undermine the FBI investigation." The White House email: "We need to resolve this in a way that respects all of the relevant equities, particularly the investigation."

Krugman: Austerity Theory Implodes

DRJIMMIES — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 09:31:32 -0400

Paul Krugman: Economic debates rarely end with a T.K.O. But the great policy debate of recent years between Keynesians, who advocate sustaining and, indeed, increasing government spending in a depression, and austerians, who demand immediate spending cuts, comes close -- at least in the world of ideas. At this point, the austerian position has imploded; not only have its predictions about the real world failed completely, but the academic research invoked to support that position has turned out to be riddled with errors, omissions and dubious statistics.

DHS Explains Big Ammo Purchase

DRJIMMIES — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:32:01 -0400

The Homeland Security Department wants to buy more than 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition in the next four or five years. It says it needs them -- roughly the equivalent of five bullets for every person in the United States -- for law enforcement agents in training and on duty. Published federal notices about the ammo buy have agitated conspiracy theorists since the fall, Huffington Post reports. Federal solicitations to buy the bullets are known as "strategic sourcing contracts," which help the government get a low price for a big purchase, says Peggy Dixon, spokeswoman for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Ga.

Study At Core Of Austerity Drive Debunked

DRJIMMIES — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:42:52 -0400

Influential research by U.S. economists Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff, touted by policymakers pushing government austerity in the United States and Europe, is riddled with errors, a bombshell new academic study claims.

The findings may not have much impact on the debate over government debt, and it probably won't cause those who have spent the past several decades panicking over government debt to stop their panicking. But it seriously erodes the intellectual underpinnings of the pro-austerity argument -- and makes the damage done by austerity in Europe and the U.S. in recent years all the more poignant.

Another Triumph For Privatization: Test Lab Scams FDA

DRJIMMIES — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:29:38 -0400

On the morning of May 3, 2010, three agents of the Food and Drug Administration descended upon the Houston office of Cetero Research, a firm that conducted research for drug companies worldwide.

Lead agent Patrick Stone, now retired from the FDA, had visited the Houston lab many times over the previous decade for routine inspections. This time was different. His team was there to investigate a former employee's allegation that the company had tampered with records and manipulated test data.

Man Shoots Chihuahua, Claims Self Defense

DRJIMMIES — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 13:33:33 -0400

A 14-year-old Detroit girl said that a neighbor shot and killed JoJo, her 1-year-old Chihuahua, because he wasn't on a leash and was making too much noise. The man told police that he gunned down the tiny dog because it was threatening him. "When he saw my dog running out of the bushes, [he said], 'I'm going to handle him myself,' and then I guess my dog had run back up on him again, and he just shot him," the teen said. "His life couldn't have felt threatened at all by this little Chihuahua."

Krugman: Mellonism Holding Economy Back

DRJIMMIES — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:31:58 -0400

Paul Krugman: When the Great Depression struck, many influential people argued that the government shouldn't even try to limit the damage. According to Herbert Hoover, Andrew Mellon, his Treasury secretary, urged him to "Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers. ... It will purge the rottenness out of the system." Don't try to hasten recovery, warned the famous economist Joseph Schumpeter, because "artificial stimulus leaves part of the work of depressions undone." Like many economists, I used to quote these past luminaries with a certain smugness. After all, modern macroeconomics had shown how wrong they were, and we wouldn't repeat the mistakes of the 1930s, would we?

America Beware: Another Chinese Researcher Caught Spying

DRJIMMIES — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:49:41 -0400

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- A Medical College of Wisconsin researcher has been charged with economic espionage after he stole samples of a cancer-fighting compound and credited himself with its discovery in a grant application to study in China, prosecutors said.

Hua Jun Zhao, 42, stole three vials of the C-25 powder compound from the office of Marshall Anderson, a professor at the college in suburban Milwaukee, with the intention of providing it to Zhejiang University in China, according to a federal criminal complaint.

Zhao was a member Anderson's team researching whether the compound could help to kill cancer cells without damaging healthy ones, school spokeswoman Maureen Mack said.

Krugman: Right Wrong About California

DRJIMMIES — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 14:34:09 -0400

Paul Krugman: Modern movement conservatism, which transformed the G.O.P. from the moderate party of Dwight Eisenhower into the radical right-wing organization we see today, was largely born in California. ... In the decades since, the state has grown ever more liberal, thanks in large part to an ever-growing nonwhite share of the electorate. As a result, the reign of the Governator aside, California has been solidly Democratic since the late 1990s. And ever since the political balance shifted, conservatives have declared the state doomed. Their specifics keep changing, but the moral is always the same: liberal do-gooders are bringing California to its knees.

$37B Navy Ship Lacks Firepower

DRJIMMIES — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 19:31:26 -0400

The Navy's troubled Littoral Combat Ship, a vessel intended to be small and speedy for use in shallow waters close to shore, lacks the firepower it needs, a top Navy commander said in a classified memo. Vice Admiral Tom Copeman, the commander of naval surface forces, called on the Navy to consider a ship with more offensive capability after the first 24 vessels are built, Bloomberg reports. Copeman's memo indicates the Navy may be starting to re-examine the $37 billion program. Derided as the Little Crappy Ship by critics inside the Navy, the ship has been beset by troubles, including cracks and corrosion, and its price has doubled since 2005 to $440 million per vessel.

Road Rager Fires Gun After Fight

DRJIMMIES — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 19:00:22 -0400

A North Carolina man and his wife are facing charges after a road rage incident caught on video in which he fought with two men from another car and then fired his gun. Bradley Turner of La Grange got into an altercation with the men this weekend before his wife, Christy, retrieved a gun from their vehicle and handed it to him. The video captures the moments r

Washington's Debt Scolds Driven By Rich's Priorities

DRJIMMIES — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 09:56:10 -0400

The wealthiest Americans in the country have disproportionate influence over our nation's leaders. That wouldn't be such a big problem, if only they were a little more like you and me.

Yes, America's super-rich are both more likely to be politically active and have access to lawmakers, a recent study from Benjamin Page and Jason Seawright, professors at Northwestern University, and Larry Bartels, a professor at Vanderbilt University. But those wealthy Americans tend to have political priorities more in line with those found on cable news networks than in Americans homes, the study found.

Starbucks CEO Smacks Down Shareholder

DRJIMMIES — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 08:30:04 -0400

At Starbucks' annual shareholders meeting in Seattle, Wash., on Wednesday, CEO Howard Schultz told off an investor who tried to argue that the company's support for gay marriage is bad for business. After shareholder Tom Strobhar called the company's sales and earnings "a bit disappointing" in the first full quarter after the support was announced, Schultz said it wasn't about making money, but about the principle of diversity. He then said, "If you feel, respectfully, that you can get a higher return than the 38 percent you got last year, it's a free country. You can sell your shares of Starbucks and buy shares in another company. Thank you very much," Schultz said, to applause from the audience.

Responsible Gun Owner Disagrees with Lawmaker

DRJIMMIES — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 07:32:34 -0400

A man claiming to be a trained Marine sniper threatened to assassinate a California lawmaker if he supported an assault weapons ban, newly unsealed court documents obtained by the San Jose Mercury News reveal. Everett Fred Basham, 45, was arrested in February after sending a threatening email to Democratic state Sen. Leland Yee. Police uncovered several homemade bombs and firearms, including a .416 Barrett sniper rifle, at his Santa Clara home. "I have 39 confirmed kills in afganistan [sic]," Basham wrote in his email to Yee. "Don't make me get to 40."