SAR #12277

We'll always have Paris Afghanistan.

Chickens, Crossing The Road: The three recent earthquakes in Dallas have been linked to the disposal of wastewater from local hydraulic fracturing operations. Methane in two PA water wells "has the chemical fingerprint" of natural gas produced by nearby fracking, according to EPA data. a geophysicist who has studied earthquakes in the region says. The fracking industry has withdrawn funding for a Penn State study because researchers complained of its pro-fracking slant. Defying received wisdom, fracking fluids in Pavillion, WY have moved up through bedrock to contaminate groundwater.

Fall Guys: A US court has ordered Iran, among others, to pay $6 billion in compensation for the 9/11 attacks that were committed by Saudis, funded other Saudis.

Spoil-Sport: Paul Krugman went to Brussels and told the EU leadership that they, like the US, are “nowhere close to ending” the financial crisis. He also warned that German-led austerity measures may lead to a 1930s-style economic depression. “No country will have prosperity until Germany and the ECB have decided that too much pain has been inflicted.” He ended suggesting that “it’s not difficult to see the decades ahead looking like the 1930s.”

Emperor/Clothes: Homeland Security has spent hundreds of millions, perhaps billions – the accounting is a tad vague – on 77 'fusion' intelligence centers nationwide, to little avail. The intent was to create teams of federal, state and local officials collecting and processing information on suspicious activities. What it has produced is “a load of crap,” none of which has made any contribution to detecting or stopping a single terrorist plot – or so says a Senate report. Secretary Napolitano disagrees, claims the centers are “one of the centerpieces” of the department's efforts. Sadly, one suspects this is true.

Pyrrhic Victory: US CO2 emissions have dropped about 9% in the last half-decade. Too bad most of the decrease was due to the recession.

Term Limits: A federal appellate court has ruled that the Constitution does not apply if and when the President wants to throw your ass in a dungeon indefinitely, or forever, whichever comes first. Makes sense, if the President can kill anyone, anywhere, anywhy, then incarceration would be a lesser offense.

Without Comment: Spain provided a record number of organ donations in 2011.

Tough Audience: Even as the big, bailed-out at taxpayer expense banks report skimming $63 billion from the productive economy while producing nothing, making nothing last year, bank executives complain that their profits are not high enough. Note that unemployment has been north of 8% for nearly 4 years.

Datapoint: In all the hoopla about the ADP payroll numbers – 162,000 jobs added – please note that only 4,000 of them were in manufacturing, making things, while 7,000 were on Wall Street, making money.

Motivation: Senate candidate Todd Akin (Republican Nut Job, MO) maintains that abortion doctors tell women they are pregnant when they are not, just to profit from the procedure. Plus doctors like the notoriety and fame and being put on right-to-lifer's hit lists.

Shoemaker's Children: There are far more instances of GOP voter registration fraud this year – possibly half a million in Florida alone - than there are of nationwide voter identification fraud over the last ten or twenty years. Lots more.

Making Sausage: Turns out that “Doctors Call For Repeal Of Obamacare, Say They'll Vote For Romney” is not about health care, but money. The doctors in question wanted the act to address malpractice insurance.

The Parting Shot:

Busy, busy.