Year: 2011

Rupert Murdoch Craps His Pants

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H/t Calculated Risk for the vid which puts everything in context nicely

In response to revalations that his one of Newscorp’s paper, News of the World, had hacked voice mails of dead soldiers’ families and a missing girl (later found to be murdered), Rupert Murdoch has decided to shutter the 168 year old tabloid:

Beset by a widening phone-hacking scandal, media mogul Rupert Murdoch pulled the plug Thursday on his News of the World, Britain’s best-selling weekly tabloid newspaper, which will shut down after publishing Sunday’s issue.

In a surprise announcement to the paper’s staff, James Murdoch, a top executive of the tabloid’s parent company and son of Rupert Murdoch, said the July 10 paper “will be the last issue of the News of the World.”

The feisty, hugely profitable paper, which has been continuously published for 168 years, “has a proud history of fighting crime, exposing wrong-doing and regularly setting the news agenda for the nation,” James Murdoch said. But those attributes “have been sullied by behavior that was wrong,” he said. “Indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our company. The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed when it came to itself.”

Referring to the phone-hacking scandal, the younger Murdoch, deputy chief operating officer of his father’s News Corp., said the newspaper “failed to get to the bottom of repeated wrongdoing that occurred without conscience or legitimate purpose.” He added, “Wrongdoers turned a good newsroom bad and this was not fully understood or adequately pursued.” He pledged that “those who acted wrongly will have to face the consequences.”

BTW, it’s not just 1 dead girl, it appears that they hacked the phones of parents of some other missing girls.

People have already been arrested, specifically Andy Coulson, former editor in chief of News of the World, and former communications director for British Prime Minister David Cameron, as well as Clive Goodman, their former royal editor, who has been arrested on this matter before.

Additionally, it appears that this scandal has queered the deal that Murdoch had to buy satellite TV provider BSkyB, for the near term at least.


Pass the Popcorn

That being said I don’t think that it’s the business repercussions that have Murdoch running scared, it’s the possibility that he finds it likely that he, son James, could shortly be working in the prison laundry next to Conrad Black.

Heh.

Appellate Court Reinstates Injunction Against “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”

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This is a good thing, since it appears that the Obama, in another example of moral cowardice, is slow walking this process.  What I like is the fact that they use the Obama DoJ’s words against them:

The government must stop enforcing the law that prohibits openly gay men, lesbians and bisexuals from serving in the military, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday.

A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a two-page order against the policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell” in a case brought by the group Log Cabin Republicans.

…

Judges Alex Kozinski, Kim McLane Wardlaw and Richard A. Paez stated in their order that “circumstances and balance of hardships had changed” since their initial ruling: the Obama administration had informed the court that repeal of the policy was “well under way,” and in a filing in another case on July 1, the Department of Justice took the position that discrimination based on sexual orientation should be subjected to tough scrutiny. The government, the judges wrote, “can no longer satisfy the demanding standard for issuance of a stay.”

The fact that the most conflicted Republicans in the nation are more proactive in pushing basic civil rights than the Obama administration.

When Ron Paul Sounds Sane…..

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We are living in strange times, and he just suggested that the Federal Reserve destroy the $1.6 trillion in Treasury notes that it bought as a part of quantitative easing program:

Representative Ron Paul has hit upon a remarkably creative way to deal with the impasse over the debt ceiling: have the Federal Reserve Board destroy the $1.6 trillion in government bonds it now holds. While at first blush this idea may seem crazy, on more careful thought it is actually a very reasonable way to deal with the crisis. Furthermore, it provides a way to have lasting savings to the budget.

The basic story is that the Fed has bought roughly $1.6 trillion in government bonds through its various quantitative easing programs over the last two and a half years. This money is part of the $14.3 trillion debt that is subject to the debt ceiling. However, the Fed is an agency of the government. Its assets are in fact assets of the government. Each year, the Fed refunds the interest earned on its assets in excess of the money needed to cover its operating expenses. Last year the Fed refunded almost $80 billion to the Treasury. In this sense, the bonds held by the Fed are literally money that the government owes to itself.

Unlike the debt held by Social Security, the debt held by the Fed is not tied to any specific obligations. The bonds held by the Fed are assets of the Fed. It has no obligations that it must use these assets to meet. There is no one who loses their retirement income if the Fed doesn’t have its bonds. In fact, there is no direct loss of income to anyone associated with the Fed’s destruction of its bonds. This means that if Congress told the Fed to burn the bonds, it would in effect just be destroying a liability that the government had to itself, but it would still reduce the debt subject to the debt ceiling by $1.6 trillion. This would buy the country considerable breathing room before the debt ceiling had to be raised again. President Obama and the Republican congressional leadership could have close to two years to talk about potential spending cuts or tax increases. Maybe they could even talk a little about jobs.

In addition, there’s a second reason why Representative Paul’s plan is such a good idea. As it stands now, the Fed plans to sell off its bond holdings over the next few years. This means that the interest paid on these bonds would go to banks, corporations, pension funds, and individual investors who purchase them from the Fed. In this case, the interest payments would be a burden to the Treasury since the Fed would no longer be collecting (and refunding) the interest.

This would be a change in plan for the Fed, the intent was to sell those bonds at a later date to soak up currency, but the same thing can be done by raising reserve requirements.

Needless to say, this won’t happen. It makes too much sense.

H/t Naked Capitalism.

He Doesn’t Care About Policy, He Wants a “Legacy”

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And he knows that “only Nixon could go to China,” so Obama wants to be the President who gut social security:

President Obama is pressing congressional leaders to consider a far-reaching debt-reduction plan that would force Democrats to accept major changes to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for Republican support for fresh tax revenue.

At a meeting with top House and Senate leaders set for Thursday morning, Obama plans to argue that a rare consensus has emerged about the size and scope of the nation’s budget problems and that policymakers should seize the moment to take dramatic action.

As part of his pitch, Obama is proposing significant reductions in Medicare spending and for the first time is offering to tackle the rising cost of Social Security, according to people in both parties with knowledge of the proposal. The move marks a major shift for the White House and could present a direct challenge to Democratic lawmakers who have vowed to protect health and retirement benefits from the assault on government spending.

“Obviously, there will be some Democrats who don’t believe we need to do entitlement reform. But there seems to be some hunger to do something of some significance,” said a Democratic official familiar with the administration’s thinking. “These moments come along at most once a decade. And it would be a real mistake if we let it pass us by.”

(Emphasis mine)

Barack Obama is the Manchurian Democrat.

There is no formulation of right or wrong, there is no formulation of good policy, there is simply a “to do” list, where what is actually done does not matter.

Steny Hoyer tells Boehner to Go Cheney Himself

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Hoyer just said that Boehner won’t get the votes for raising the debt limit from his teabagger freshman, so he needs Democratic votes, and he won’t get any without a tax increase:

“I’ve told Mr. Boehner that I will help,” Hoyer said. “Now I’m not going to help on some draconian do it my way or the highway vote, but we Democrats are prepared to co-operate in order to assure that the creditworthiness of the United States is not put at risk and to move towards a fiscally responsible path…everything needs to be on the table, and when I say everything I mean everything…. Revenues need to be a significant part of it.”

…………

The Democrats’ vote-counter in the House of Representatives says the GOP will need his help to raise the national debt limit — but they won’t get it if they don’t put everything on the table, including tax revenues.

“Speaker Boehner needed Democratic votes to pass keeping government running, even at minimal levels,” Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told reporters at his weekly Capitol briefing, in response to a question from TPM. “So my presumption is [Senator] Schumer is right.”

That’s more balls than I expected from Hoyer, who seems to spend most of his time sabotaging the efforts of real Democrats.

The Clown Show that Keeps on Giving…

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Pass the Popcorn

The Republican Presidential Primaries.

Case in point, David Duke, former Klansman and Nazi, is looking at throwing his hat in the ring:

Add to the growing list of candidates considering a bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012 America’s most famous white-power advocate: David Duke.

A former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, member of the Louisiana House of Representatives and Republican executive-committee chairman in his district until 2000, Duke has a significant following online. His videos go viral. This month, he’s launching a tour of 25 states to explore how much support he can garner for a potential presidential bid. He hasn’t considered running for serious office since the early ’90s, when he won nearly 40 percent of the vote in his bid for Louisiana governor. But like many “white civil rights advocates,” as he describes himself to The Daily Beast, 2012 is already shaping up to be a pivotal year.

I have no idea what Jon Stewart will do with this, but his writing staff has to be high-fiving each other, because David Duke just covered a dozen of their boat payments.

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Even though Geithner has denied the rumors that he would be leaving, this hasn’t stopped unnamed sources for floating the names of potential replacements , and this scares the hell out of me:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner would like to leave the Obama administration this fall if economic conditions are stronger and the debt ceiling debate is resolved in a timely manner, according to a person familiar with his thinking.

Possible replacements to be President Barack Obama’s top economic adviser, according to a senior administration official, include Erskine Bowles, White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, and Roger Altman, a prominent investment banker and former deputy Treasury secretary.

So, the front runners are two investment bankers, one of whom co-chaired the cat food commission and launched a full frontal assault on social security, with the hope of delivering that pot of money to Wall Street.

But if you think that the front runners are scary, just look at the B-team:

Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, is considered a strong dark-horse candidate.Dimon has said he is not interested in public office but many on Wall Street believe he would accept the job if asked by Obama. But the White House will have to decide whether Dimon, who leads the most successful bank in the U.S., is too closely aligned with Wall Street.

Jamie F%$#ing Diamond.  The man who whines because he doesn’t think that overpaid, incompetent, corrupt, immoral, and very very rich rat f%$#s are having their asses kissed enough?

Is there any limit to the extremes to which Barack Obama and His Clueless Minions™ will go to put their tongues up the anuses of the banksters who have wrecked our economy?

It appears not.

Shoot me now!

A Shanda Before the Goyim*

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A prominent Orthodox rabbi has endorsed self-mutilation as a means to modesty:

What should a girl do if she wishes to dress modestly but her parents won’t let her? According to Rabbi Yitzchok Zilberstein she can injure herself in order to use it as an excuse for dressing modestly.

Three weeks ago, Rabbi Zilberstein, the the son-in-law of prominent Rabbi Yosef Elyashiv, received an inquiry from a women’s religious seminary (Midrasha) about a student who is growing increasingly religious. The student said she wanted to dress modestly but her parents were preventing her from doing so, because they were not religious.

…………

“The young woman thought that if she inflicted wounds on her legs she could tell her parents that she is wearing a long skirt to cover the wounds,” the letter said.

Rabbi Zilberstein’s reply came shortly after, with an unequivocal answer: “She is allowed to inflict wounds on her legs in order to dress modestly and evade sin.”

In his reply, the rabbi commended the student’s initiative, saying “the blood from the self-inflicted wound will atone for the people of Israel,” adding that the coordinator [of the woman’s seminary] should allow the student to commit the act.

This “Rabbi” is suggesting that self mutilation akin animal sacrifices last presented at the Temple more than 2000 years ago.

There is a word for people who believe that self inflicted injury is somehow holy, and that word is “nut-case.”

Additionally, he, and the seminary coordinator, are being played as fools.  This girl is not being forced by her parents to dress in hot pants, but rather she is profoundly troubled, and looking for a “get out of jail free card” for cutting herself, a pathological behavior rather common among adolescent girls.

Un-dirtyword-believable.

H/t Failed Messiah dot Com.

*An embarrassment before the rest of the world.

Finally, a Lawsuit

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Two Michigan counties have filed lawsuits against many the GSEs accusing them of defrauding them of title transfer fees:

Two Michigan counties, Oakland and Ingham, are suing some of the biggest players in the mortgage industry for what one official called a “fraudulent conspiracy” to avoid paying state and county property transfer taxes.

Oakland County Treasurer Andy Meisner is suing mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in the nation’s first federal lawsuit seeking to recoup tax payments never paid on properties that were transferred several times during the height of and during the foreclosure crisis that has gripped the nation over the last few years,

“I do think it’s fraudulent and I do think there is strong evidence to suggest there has been fraud. I do think it is a fraudulent conspiracy,” Meisner said. “We are identfying the people involved and we are systematically working to hold them accountable.”

While Ingham County Register of Deeds Curtis Hertel Jr. would not go so far as to allege a “fraudulent conspiracy” he says that the aim of his lawsuit is to find out just how deep the malfeasance went.

“This is about getting to the truth,” Hertel said Wednesday, standing in front of one of the many foreclosed and empty houses in the city of Lansing. “I believe the crisis has been further exacerbated by a systematic attempt to avoid state transfer taxes in my office.”

Gee, you think?

Not that this lawsuit is only against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and does not reference the fraudulent (at least on a transfer tax basis) conveyances that were done through MERS, which should be at the top of the list, because, as Willie Sutton said, “It’s where the money is.”

In the case of Fannie and Freddie, they are claiming that they are exempt because they are government agencies (they are not), and because there is statute exempting them (I cannot find one).

H/t Naked Capitalism.

Not The Onion…

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But this is satire:

In bid for attention, nation’s unemployed to launch failing investment bank

District of Columbia – In an effort to gain the support of political leaders, a coalition of unemployed Americans have filed paperwork to declare themselves the nation’s largest investment bank. Supporters of the planned financial institution hope the move will quickly curry Congressional favor, leading to a large-scale federal bailout of unemployed and underemployed workers.

…………

Read the rest, it is prize.

Think of it as Evolution in Action

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In Onondaga, NY, a man died after falling from his motorcycle while not wearing a helmet.

He was protesting against helmet laws at the time of his accident:

Police say a motorcyclist participating in a protest ride against helmet laws in upstate New York died after he flipped over the bike’s handlebars and hit his head on the pavement.

The accident happened Saturday afternoon in the town of Onondaga, in central New York near Syracuse.

State troopers tell The Post-Standard of Syracuse that 55-year-old Philip A. Contos of Parish, N.Y., was driving a 1983 Harley Davidson with a group of bikers who were protesting helmet laws by not wearing helmets.

Troopers say Contos hit his brakes and the motorcycle fishtailed. The bike spun out of control, and Contos toppled over the handlebars. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Troopers say Contos would have likely survived if he had been wearing a helmet.

(emphasis mine)

On a meta note, I have decided to add an “irony” tag. This story inspired me.

And the Wisconsin Supreme Court Gets Weirder and Weirder………

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This is technically assault

Now it appears that Republicans on the court wanted to proceed with an official photograph session before reporting anything to the capitol police:

In the wake of a physical altercation between two state Supreme Court justices, several of the judges discussed whether a planned photo session for the court should take priority over a meeting with the Capitol police chief.

The email exchange among all the justices came late in the afternoon on June 14, one day after the incident between Justices Ann Walsh Bradley and David Prosser. The emails were released to the Journal Sentinel first by Prosser and then by Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson after a request was made to each justice under the open records law.
The response to the request for Abrahamson’s emails also suggests that she had considered putting out a public statement in response to the incident but did not release it.
Bradley told the Journal Sentinel that in the June 13 incident Prosser put his hands around her neck in what she called a “chokehold.” Prosser has said other accounts quoting anonymous sources would be proved false, but he has not directly responded to Bradley’s description of the incident.

So, one side says that Prosser put her in a choke hold, and the other says that she attacked his hands with her throat. (Which one sounds more credible to you, particularly since Prosser called the Chief Justice a “bitch” whom he would “destroy”)

It gets weirder, because Prosser assaulted a reporter asking him about the matter, by grabbing a microphone out of his hands (yes, it is assault). (See vid)

Prosser is not presenting the image of a person who is in control of his behavior.

H/t TPM (also here) .

Well, the DoJ is Saying that it Might Investigate Torturing People to Death

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Of the 101 cases that special prosecutor John Durham investigated, he referred just 2 to be considered for further investigation.

Both of them were murder by torture, out of the dozens of cases of murder by torture, and the hundreds (probably thousands) of cases of torture without a death being involved.

As Glenn Greenwald observes, it doesn’t matter, because the Obama administration has ruled out prosecuting anyone who authorized torture but did not actually physically conduct it themselves:

In August, 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder — under continuous, aggressive prodding by the Obama White House — announced that three categories of individuals responsible for Bush-era torture crimes would be fully immunized from any form of criminal investigation and prosecution: (1) Bush officials who ordered the torture (Bush, Cheney, Rice, Powell, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld); (2) Bush lawyers who legally approved it (Yoo, Bybee, Levin), and (3) those in the CIA and the military who tortured within the confines of the permission slips they were given by those officials and lawyers (i.e., “good-faith” torturers). The one exception to this sweeping immunity was that low-level CIA agents and servicemembers who went so far beyond the torture permission slips as to basically commit brutal, unauthorized murder would be subject to a “preliminary review” to determine if a full investigation was warranted — in other words, the Abu Ghraib model of justice was being applied, where only low-ranking scapegoats would be subject to possible punishment while high-level officials would be protected.

Adam Serwer makes the obvious conclusion, that absent prosecution of those who authorized torture, it will happen again.

In the matter of crimes against humanity, of which torture is one, the cover-up is a crime as well, and it is ongoing, and so not (yet) subject to the statute of limitations, so I hope that some future Justice Department will take the time to criminally investigate the Obama administration on this.  (Unfortunately, this would almost certainly involve a Republican President)

Otherwise, torture is the law of the land right now.

Remember, the Banksters Own Our Asses

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That’s why the Federal Reserve almost doubled the interchange fees that banks can charge on debit card swipes, despite the fact that the initial proposal was much higher than what is charged in other industrialized nations:

Responding to an outcry from financial institutions, federal regulators on Wednesday significantly increased a new limit on fees that large banks can charge to merchants for processing debit card purchases, and they delayed the implementation of the cap until October.

The Federal Reserve voted 4-1 to set the limit for so-called swipe fees at 21 cents per transaction, an increase from the 12-cent fee it proposed in December. That fee would have gone into effect next month for large banks with more than $10 billion in assets.

In addition, the Fed on Wednesday allowed debit card issuers to add a fee of .05% of each purchase to cover a portion of fraud losses. That would add 2 cents to a $40 purchase. And debit card issuers could add a 1-cent-per-transaction fee if they undertook tougher fraud prevention policies and procedures.

The Fed said the new fee for an average transaction would be 24 cents. That’s still a big decrease from the current average swipe fee of 44 cents.

BTW, that “outcry from financial institutions,” they refuse to happens every time someone tries to reduce the ability of the banksters to rob the general public, and the “Responding to”, means that the Fed really has no interest inhelping consumers, they just had to determine the least that they could do to avoid a sh%$ storm.

Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve can bite my shiny metal………

Things are About to Get Interesting in Lebanon

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The UN Tribunal investigating the assassination of Rafik Hariri in 2005 has indicted 4 people, including 2 senior Hezbollah members:

A United Nations-backed tribunal investigating the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister delivered indictments to prosecutors here on Thursday, naming four men, including two suspected members of Hezbollah, in a six-year-old case that remade the country’s politics and unleashed years of discord.

The naming of members of Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim movement that is the most powerful actor here, was expected for months. But the indictments marked the beginning of a judicial process that could bring unprecedented pressure on the group and its ally Syria, which faces growing isolation over its crackdown on a nearly four-month uprising.

Although the statements of Lebanese leaders were restrained, details of the indictment could prove inflammatory in a country still deeply divided between Hezbollah and its allies, on the one hand, and a disparate group of its critics and opponents. Only the names were leaked; the details of the indictment, so far, remain secret.

“It’s the beginning of something big, not small,” said Paul Salem, the director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. But, he added: “Names without a story doesn’t have much impact. If the public comes to see there’s massive evidence of a terrible story, that will have a big public impact by itself, but that hasn’t happened yet.”

According to legal experts, Lebanon has 30 days to serve the arrest warrants. If the suspects are not arrested in that time, the tribunal will make the indictments public and summon the suspects to court.

The facts of the case are no surprise, Hezbollah, and Syria’s, finger prints are all over this, but the formal indictment certainly complicates things.

Busy Day

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We got a call from Natalie’s sleep away camp, she was experiencing headaches, tremors, and trouble swallowing.

We took her to the ER, and it appears just to be a minor virus, juxtaposed with not eating anything that day (from the virus), and the fact that she was up until 2 in the morning.

Still, there is nothing like an ER visit to F%$# up your day.

She’s back at camp, and so are we overnight, just in case.

How the Russians Develop Weapons

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The Russians have now successfully test-launched their Bulava missile:

Russia successfully tested on Tuesday its new Bulava intercontinental missile which Moscow aims to make the cornerstone of its nuclear arsenal over the next decade.

The Defense Ministry said the 12-meter long Bulava, or Mace, fired from a submarine near Russia’s border with Finland, successfully hit its target some 6,000 km (3,370 miles) away on the peninsula of Kamchatka in Russia’s far east.

“The launch was successful in all respects. The Bulava missile delivered its warhead to the target area in the Kura testing site in the Kamchatka Peninsula region,” spokesman Colonel Igor Konashenkov told Interfax.

The Bulava, which will face four more trials this year before being introduced into service this year or next, had failed half of its previous fourteen trials, calling into question the expensive missile program.

The program was never in serious question.

The Russians do missile testing: test, fix, test, fix.

Americans just do tests to validate their analysis, we operate under the assumption that our missiles will, after a few decades of simulation and systems analysis will work perfectly out of the box.

One of these methods is faster and cheaper, but it is not ours, and catches serious problems early enough that when you do catch a stinker, you don’t have so much invested in your techno whiz bang that you cannot abandon it.

I’m Calling a Political Hit By Sarko

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As you may have heard, Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been released on his own recognizance for the rape charges against him:

The sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn is on the verge of collapse as investigators have uncovered major holes in the credibility of the housekeeper who charged that he attacked her in his Manhattan hotel suite in May, according to two well-placed law enforcement officials.

Although forensic tests found unambiguous evidence of a sexual encounter between Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a French politician, and the woman, prosecutors now do not believe much of what the accuser has told them about the circumstances or about herself.

Since her initial allegation on May 14, the accuser has repeatedly lied, one of the law enforcement officials said.

Senior prosecutors met with lawyers for Mr. Strauss-Kahn on Thursday and provided details about their findings, and the parties are discussing whether to dismiss the felony charges. Among the discoveries, one of the officials said, are issues involving the asylum application of the 32-year-old housekeeper, who is Guinean, and possible links to people involved in criminal activities, including drug dealing and money laundering.

What prosecutors have discovered is that:

  • She had a phone conversation with a friend, who is in prison pending drug dealing charges, discussing the financial benefits of pursuing the case.
  • She appears to have lied about a gang rape on her asylum application.
  • She appears to have been used in, or participated in, some manner to launder cash and cell phones for her fiance’s operations. 

Seeing as how DSK was the leading Socialist candidate for the French presidency, and Nicolas Sarkosy is as about as popular as a case of the clap, I’m wondering if this wasn’t some sort of setup arranged by Sarkosy or his allies.

I don’t think that Sarko can make himself popular, but he could create a situation in which a contested primary by the Socialists could create disarray in the party* which could be used to his electoral advantage.

Google™ Analytics™ says that I do have an occasional reader from France, and I would love to hear their take on this.

*In fact, one could consider disarray to be the natural state of the Socialist party.

Judge Enjoins Kansas Defacto Abortion Ban

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Maddow has been on this like white on rice

Kansas just passed a series of regulations that closed down the 3 abortion clinics in the state.

Following the adoption of the regulations, which included things like the size of janitors closets (!), the clinics had about a week to comply:

After deliberating about an hour, U.S District Judge Carlos Murguia issued an order late this afternoon blocking new Kansas licensing regulations for abortion clinics.

The temporary restraining order was sought by two Kansas City area abortion clinics that had been denied licenses under rules that took effect today. It will be in effect until a later court decision on the issue.

…

They contend that the licensing process was an organized and deliberate attempt by Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration to shut down abortion clinics in Kansas.

…

Brownback, a staunch abortion opponent, signed the new licensing requirements into law along with three other new abortion restrictions approved by the Legislature this year.

Providers said the state didn’t send out the rules until after the close of business June 17, less than two weeks before the new licensing was scheduled to start. They said they didn’t receive the new regulations until the following Monday, June 20.

The compressed licensing process, coupled with the strict requirements, made it impossible to meet the law, they argued in their legal filings.

Six days after Aid for Women applied for a license, the state said it wouldn’t grant one based on its application alone, the clinic’s complaint said. At no point, the clinic contends, did regulators discuss why they denied the license or what corrective measures might be undertaken.

The clinic argued that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment had no factual basis for the denial because it hadn’t even inspected the clinic.

One of the things that the above article does not mention, and Rachel Maddow does, (at about 5:30 in the video) is that, in addition to banning abortion clinics, the new regulations allow Kansas authorities do have access to people’s medical records without a warrant.

So they take the records, and they will use those records to harass the patients.

We really need to understand that those who would criminalize abortion folks with a minor political difference whose feelings we should try to accommodate.

These are people who offer open and enthusiastic support to assassination and other forms of terrorism, and if we are to use material support statutes against Islamists, we should use them against them as well.