Where have we heard this before? Shades of "atomic veterans," Agent Orange, Gulf War Syndrome? The Pentagon says there's no problem regarding the effects of toxins encountered in the course of their work by U.S. troops overseas—not to mention the local inhabitants. Nothing to see here, move along.

Terry J. Allen pulls back the covers a smidge:

“Open-air burn pits have operated widely at military sites in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the Department of Veterans Affairs notes on its website. On hundreds of camps and bases across the two countries, the U.S. military and its contractors incinerated toxic waste, including unexploded ordnance, plastics and Styrofoam, asbestos, formaldehyde, arsenic, pesticides and neurotoxins, medical waste (even amputated limbs), heavy metals and what the military refers to as “radioactive commodities.” The burns have released mutagens and carcinogens, including uranium and other isotopes, volatile organic compounds, hexachlorobenzene, and, that old favorite, dioxin (aka Agent Orange).

The military pooh-poohs the problem, despite a 2009 Pentagon document noting “an estimated 11 million pounds [5,000 tonnes] of hazardous waste” produced by American troops, the Times of London reported. In any case, it says, the waste isn’t all that toxic, and there is no hard evidence troops were harmed. Of course, one reason for that lack of evidence, reports the Institute of Medicine (which found 53 toxins in the air above the Balad air base alone), is that the Pentagon won’t or can’t document what it burned and buried, or where it did so. [...]

[S]ick and dying vets, this time from Iraq and Afghanistan, are trying to trace their cancers and respiratory problems to the toxins of war. Again, the military refuses to release complete data, and claims the data show no harmful effects. Again, the assumption of culpability, and the clean-up efforts will come too little, too late.

A July article in the New England Journal of Medicine studied 80 soldiers disabled with constrictive bronchiolitis, “a very rare finding” in otherwise healthy, young non-smokers. Almost all the cases were traced to “inhalational exposures during service in Iraq and Afghanistan.” The journal lamented : “This group causes particular concern, since their potential toxic exposures are shared by most personnel who were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.”

And, oh, yes, by those left to endure the predictable consequences of expedient poisoning. You’re welcome, Iraq. 

Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2004:

We Must Never Forget: February 5, 2003.

Colin Powell went to the UN and engaged in one the most infamous acts of Propaganda in World history.  We must never forget.

 Additionally, Powell violated his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, his fraternity and fidelity to the men in uniform he served with, and his  so-called Powell Doctrine, that he helped create in the mid 1980s.  He destroyed not only his reputation, but everything he stood for.  Moreover, he tuned his back on Duty, Honor, Country, all in slavish obedience to the temporary occupant of the White House.

Today, we find ourselves in a Quagmire, where 500 G.I.s will die per year, where 10,000 casualties will occur per year, where $50 to 100 Billion will be wasted per year - now and for the foreseeable future - all because Powell and company abdicated the Principle of Exit Strategy.

Today, Karl Rove sent out CIA Director George Tenent (the man sitting behind Powell at the UN) to feed the media machine, so as to distract their recollection of this date.  But we, the true patriots of this country, must never forget.

Tweet of the Day:

In town for the Nevada caucuses.

High Impact Posts are here. Top Comments are here.

spablab: Listening to old Did & Somnambulist tracks. Miss writing, randomly, whenever, all the time.

Things that appear certain, based on polling:

• Mitt Romney is on his way to a relatively easy win in tomorrow's caucuses in Nevada.
• Romney is also in pretty decent shape in the two late February primaries in Arizona and Michigan, two states that (on paper) set up pretty well for him.
• Gingrich's national standing, at least in the Gallup tracking polls, has taken a mighty dive.

What is quite a bit less clear, however, is if this really does portend the beginning of the end for the Republican presidential horse race. More on that after the jump. For now, the numbers from two days of polling (yesterday's Wrap having been sabotaged by a computer virus beating up my laptop):

NATIONAL (Gallup Tracking): Romney 33, Gingrich 25, Santorum 16, Paul 11

NATIONAL (YouGov): Romney 29, Gingrich 23, Santorum 20, Paul 14

ARIZONA (Rasmussen): Romney 48, Gingrich 24, Santorum 13, Paul 6

GEORGIA (SurveyUSA): Gingrich 45, Romney 32, Santorum 9, Paul 8

MICHIGAN (Rasmussen): Romney 38, Gingrich 23, Santorum 17, Paul 14

NEVADA (PPP): Romney 50, Gingrich 25, Paul 15, Santorum 8

NEVADA (UNLV): Romney 45, Gingrich 25, Santorum 11, Paul 9

And ... as always ... the general election nums, as well:

NATIONAL (Rasmussen Tracking): Obama tied with Romney (45-45); Obama d. Santorum (46-44); Obama d. Paul (45-42); Obama d. Gingrich (49-41)

NATIONAL (YouGov): Obama d. Paul (48-40); Obama d. Romney (49-40); Obama d. Santorum (50-40); Obama d. Gingrich (52-37)

GEORGIA (SurveyUSA): Romney d. Obama (51-43); Gingrich d. Obama (50-44)

MISSOURI (PPP): Obama tied with Romney (45-45); Obama d. Paul (45-43); Obama d. Santorum (47-44); Obama d. Gingrich (49-42)

Some thoughts as we head into the weekend, right after the jump.

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…

Late Night Snarksters Document Teh Crazy:

"I don't know whether Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich won [in Florida], but we do know one thing for certain: tomorrow both of them can go back to ignoring Latinos."
---Stephen Colbert
-
“Newt may be toast already. The Republican establishment have the knives out for him. Tom DeLay said Newt Gingrich was the most despicable human being he has seen since shaving this morning.”
---Bill Maher
-
“Mitt Romney is getting some heat today for something he said on CNN. He said he's not concerned about the very poor. ... Romney said the quote was taken out of context and that he absolutely cares about the poor. In fact, his campaign bus runs on the tears of the poor."
---Jimmy Kimmel
-
"Rick Santorum says Newt Gingrich is too hot, Mitt Romney is too cold, but he's the 'Goldilocks candidate.' Yes, nothing gets voters excited like comparing yourself to tepid porridge."
---Craig Ferguson
-
"A new website just came out that’s designed to calculate how long it takes Mitt Romney to earn your salary. So from now on, whenever Mitt Romney is running late, he can call there and say, 'I'll be there in five teachers.'"
---Conan O'Brien

Lots more at Dan Kurtzman's place. Oh, and something I heard this week on The Daily Show that you should know about:

Jon Stewart: Your opponent, Scott Brown, has said the media doesn’t give you tough questions, so I'm going to start you off with one that I think is very difficult and somewhat complex. You're running for Senate in Massachusetts, [but] you're in New York right now. Who's the better quarterback, Tom Brady or Eli Manning?

Elizabeth Warren: I hate to tell you this, but Tom Brady. The Pats are gonna spank the Giants. We're gonna git'cha! I'm sorry, it's just reality.

We have nothing further to add.

Your west coast-friendly edition of  Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

Ari Fleischer, official spokesman
for clusterfucks everywhere
 

Oh, for the love of:

Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for George W. Bush and prominent right-wing pundit, secretly helped guide Komen Foundation’s disastrous strategy regarding Planned Parenthood. Fleischer personally interviewed candidates for the position of “Senior Vice President for Communications and External Relations” at Komen last December. According to a source with first-hand knowledge, Fleischer drilled prospective candidates during their interviews on how they would handle the controversy about Komen’s relationship with Planned Parenthood.

Well, consider me properly chastened. I should have known right off the bat that, when some group manages to botch up a situation beyond all hope of credible recovery, there was going to be a connection to the George Bush crowd.

Donate to Planned Parenthood Well, from this we know several new things. First, that the Planned Parenthood "issue" was in the fore of Nancy Brinker's mind during the search for a new VP of Communications (the article cites her as being "at her wits end about how to proceed"). And second, that the Planned Parenthood "issue" was a major selection criteria for the position. One can presume, from recent events and from the rigidly conservative stance of Fleischer himself, that they were looking for a particular ideological answer.

So the Komen Foundation was, in December, looking for someone to help them roll out a strategy for properly caving to the right. And the guy they put in charge of the search? Ari Fleischer. That Ari Fleischer, proud face of such great Bush initiatives as shut up, Iraq will be a cakewalk, nobody here mentioned Valerie Plame and these new tax cuts will be great for the economy.

Yeah, I can't imagine how putting a Bush guy in charge of that process could possibly have ended up as a gargantuan public clusterfuck.

Indiana rose as high as No. 7 in the country on the heels of a 15-1 start that included wins over teams ranked No. 1 and No. 2. In the four weeks since that poll, the Hoosiers have done little to demonstrate they're worthy of consideration as one of the nation's top teams. The 20th-ranked Hoosiers would likely fall out of the rankings altogether if they can't snap their longest losing...

The Susan G. Komen Foundation's problem didn't just start this week;
criticisms have been growing for some time.
  Well, that didn't take long. For years there has been a coordinated campaign among the right to defund Planned Parenthood, to subject it to as many spurious new "requirements" and "investigations" as it possibly can, and to attack any group that associated itself with it, even in the most marginal ways. This included the Susan G. Komen Foundation, which gave Planned Parenthood money and was therefore deemed unclean.

But it took only about two days for those very same conservative figures to declare that the blistering public outrage against the Komen Foundation for caving in to those demands (mind you, there was precious little pressure involved with the "cave," as the shift appears to be mostly due to the group's own ideological stances) was itself "gangsterism" and the like. In other words, and as usual, it's conservatives who are the real victims here.

A multi-year concerted effort to shut down a nonprofit for ideological reasons, one even pursued in the halls of Congress: not just fine, but applauded. A pushback against said partisan efforts? Tyranny! Villainy! Oppression!

It's not a made-up sentiment: I'm quite convinced they genuinely feel that way. Their larger premise is, after all, that all non-conservative positions are inherently invalid, therefore any actions you might take to sabotage something non-conservative are inherently legitimate. Merely criticizing those conservative moves, however, are not. It's entirely directional, you see.

More below the fold.

Click to donate As Kaili Joy Gray pointed out earlier here today, the Komen Foundation hasn't reversed its decision not to fund grants for Planned Parenthood. It's made one of those phony apologies designed to deflect criticism rather than renounce its previous stance and its public leadership is still pretending that its move was not political. So all those folks, including some Congresspeople, who uncorked the Champagne to toast the defeat of the pink giant are celebrating prematurely.

What is worth celebrating, however, is the instantaneous and spontaneous and powerful reaction of the blogosphere and social media that first spotlighted Komen's decision, splattered it from coast to coast, drove a hugely successful fund-raising effort for Planned Parenthood and—assisted by Komen's incompetent management of the crisis it had created—permanently damaged the foundation's brand, bringing to light information that few Americans have previously heard. That is a victory. And it shouldn't be nay-said.

But while quaffing the bubbly, that victory should be recognized for what it is: self-defense. Together, those of us who believe in ensuring that women without means can get basic and preventive health care as well as exercise their reproductive rights, fought what amounted to a rearguard action, struggling to hang onto ground gained long ago. It's not unlike other struggles in other arenas, like those we engage in these days to hang onto the gains of the New Deal and Great Society while right-wing forces do their damnedest to dismantle them. But what we need is both self-defense and offense.

What we've witnessed and participated in during the past two days has been a skirmish in an on-going war with relentless, ruthless foes. This was not an isolated event but a line item on the agenda of a right wing movement determined to return us to the way things were. For the record, those weren't the good old days.

(Continue reading below the fold.)

Editor's note: Today it is my sincere privilege and honor to introduce our newest cartoon contributor, an artist destined to be the maraschino cherry atop the hot fudge and whipped cream sundae that is the Daily Kos Comics page -- Ruben Bolling.  I have known Ruben since at least 1995, and admired the inventive wit and keen intelligence of his weekly strip, Tom the Dancing Bug, for longer than that.  And I'm hardly alone in recognizing his talent -- he won the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2011, and has received the AAN award more times than anyone can count.   There's even a live-action motion picture in development based on one of his recurrent characters.  So please join me in welcoming Ruben (if that is his real name) into the clutches of the Great Orange Satan, where he'll be a regular in the TGIF/happy hour slot each week.  -- Tom Tomorrow

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has hired two lawyers in advance of a meeting with the Milwaukee County district attorney, whose office is conducting investigation into members of Walker's staff.

Charges have already been made against four Walker staffers and appointees as part of this investigation. Two former aides were charged with using public resources for Republican political campaigns, while the others are accused of, as Giles goat Boy put it:

A Walker appointee, a Walker campaign aide, and a child molester embezzled money that was intended for disabled veterans.

Walker claims the upcoming meeting with prosecutors is voluntary. He better hope these chitchats stay that way.

Sen. John Thune urges his colleagues to maybe give some thought to jobs, economy
(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Suspend your disbelief for a moment, and imagine that Republicans in Congress actually have any interest in governing, or in making smart policy that makes the country work. It's a tall order to imagine, yes, given their performance in recent years, but just pretend.

That's what Politico does in this story about Republicans in the Senate. Some of them, it suggests, think that they actually should come up with some policy ideas. They are butting heads, the article says, with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose explicit and only goal has been making Barack Obama a one-term president. Apparently, there are some other Republican senators who think they should at least make it look like they mean to do ... something.

The divide within the party is sharp. McConnell and other influential senators believe the party should avoid putting out a detailed platform and focus squarely on Obama’s record, while a range of junior senators—and some veterans like Sen. John McCain—think the conference should lay out a Contract with America-type agenda [...]

But the strategies all carry great risk. If the GOP rolls out an agenda, it will be picked apart and take the focus off Obama. If the party doesn’t bother, it risks giving the president more opportunities to slap the “do-nothing” label on Congress.

Actually, that needs to be clarified a little: If the GOP rolls out an agenda, it risks becoming even more unpopular with the American public. But here's something sure to tickle your funny bone:

At a closed-door lunch meeting on Tuesday, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota tried to put a finer point on the GOP’s strategy. [...]

“We need to call out the Obama-Schumer machine when they change the topic from a record they can’t defend,” said Thune’s presentation, referring to New York Sen. Chuck Schumer. “After we call them out, get back on offense! Pivot back to what matters—jobs and the economy.”

Back? Yes, if anything, the Senate GOP caucus has just been doing a bang-up job of focusing on jobs and the economy. More of that!!

As if anything the Senate Republicans do matters in this election. The House GOP is hellbent for crazy. No amount of positive spin from the Senate will cover that up. Seriously, not when they're dealing with people like Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, former chairman of the House Republican campaign committee, saying things like: "It's a very political year. The big thing for us is to not be part of the conversation instead of trying to inject ourselves into it."

Cancer survivors stick together on an issue this critical. Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor, champion cyclist and LIVESTRONG founder and chairman, issued the following statement:

“For 15 years, the Lance Armstrong Foundation has served people and families affected by cancer, especially those in underserved communities. We join Mayor Bloomberg and our partners in the philanthropic community today in their efforts to preserve access to cancer screening for women throughout the U.S. The Lance Armstrong Foundation will add an additional $100,000 to Mayor Bloomberg’s matching challenge for Planned Parenthood’s cancer services fund.

In addition to that $250,000 pledged by Mayor Bloomberg, the Amy and Lee Fikes’ Foundation provided $250,000 in seed funding, and Credo, a phone company, pledged $200,000.

You can make sure those matching pledges are paid up by donating whatever you can to Planned Parenthood. Your small donation will be doubled, and Planned Parenthood will continue to be able to provide vital health care services to women who otherwise wouldn't be able to get them.

Sen. John Cornyn (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) Despite the well-reasoned and comprehensive consideration by the Office of Legal Counsel of the White House that President Obama's recess appointments last month were constitutional, 39 Senate Republicans have decided to join in challenges against them in an as-of-yet to be determined court, or case. The senators said in a letter Friday that they will file a friend-of-the-court brief to support legal action arguing that Obama overstepped constitutional boundaries when he tapped Richard Cordray to lead the consumer agency and appointed three members to join the NLRB.

“American democracy was born out of a rejection of the monarchies of Western Europe, anchored by limited government and separation of powers,” Texas Sen. John Cornyn said in a statement. “We refuse to stand by as this president arrogantly casts aside our Constitution and defies the will of the American people under the election-year guise of defending them.”

While they don't specify which actual case they'll be joining, they just wanted the world to know that, yeah, they're still pissed about it and mean to do something, the specifics of which are to be determined. The National Federation of Independent Businesses and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation have filed one case against the NLRB appointments, which provides a potential case for them to join.

(Hotel Workers Rising) The Super Bowl comes to Indiana just days after the passage of an anti-union law in the state. With the NFL Players Association having vocally opposed that law, it's an opportunity to draw attention to labor issues in the state. At the same time, you don't want to be the assholes who actually disrupted the Super Bowl, so there's a line to walk here. Indiana AFL-CIO President Nancy Guyott issued a statement saying that "the Indiana State AFL-CIO does not plan nor condone any attempts to disrupt the Super Bowl," including a reminder that "the Super Bowl in Indianapolis is made possible because of the very working men and women our movement represents and that our state legislature has attacked."

At the same time, unions are highlighting not just the recent anti-union vote but ongoing labor struggles in the state. Think Progress reports that:

The AFL-CIO will have a “constant presence” at Super Bowl events, [Indiana AFL-CIO Communications and Outreach Coordinator Jeff] Harris said, but its actions will be informative rather than disruptive. The union, which encouraged workers to meet with their state representatives in the days before the law passed and organized rallies outside the statehouse Wednesday, will pass out leaflets and pamphlets around Super Bowl village and Lucas Oil Stadium, the site of the game, Harris said.

Unite Here has planned a Friday afternoon rally at the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis, where 20 workers may lose their jobs as Hyatt switches from one low-wage subcontractor to another; the original subcontractor was recently sued for wage theft. DeMaurice Smith, the executive director of the NFL Players Association, is slated to participate in that rally.

• Today's comic by Matt Bors is Gingrich gets desperate:
• What's coming up on Sunday Kos ...
  • For evidence of a war on workers, look no farther than the rise of the lockout, by Laura Clawson.
  • The controversy  and conversations sparked by the “UnFair” anti-racism campaign in Duluth, Minn., by Denise Oliver Velez.
  • Why Obama? An Argument to Reluctant Progressives for Supporting the President's Reelection, by Armando.
  • Making new friends, while keeping the old, by Scott Wooledge.
  • Susan G. Komen for the Cure's curious relationship with the science of cancer prevention, by Laurence Lewis.
  • Komen's hypocrisy: Let us count the ways, by Georgia Logothetis.
  • The curious relationship of the Republican Party to the very poor, by Dante Atkins.
• Quit arguing, Joe, and start negotiating, or you'll see us in court. That's the message the Department of Justice has sent the racist sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz., Joe Arpaio. He continues to dispute the findings of a scathing DOJ Civil Rights Division investigation that found his office has "promoted a culture of bias" against people of color. Officials from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and the DOJ were supposed to meet on Feb. 6, but Deputy Assistant Attorney General Roy Austin stated in a letter to Arpaio’s lawyer Thursday, if the MCSO plan for the meeting “is solely for you to tell us in person that you do not agree with our findings, there is no reason for us to meet.”
• Anne Mulcahy says, “We’re long past having to defend or explain why women should be on boards, given all the data that shows how companies with female as well as male directors perform better.” Yeah, you'd think so, but apparently there needs to be some 'splainin' at Facebook. On the eve of what the company hopes is a $5 billion initial public stock offering, seven of the seven directors on the Facebook board are of the male persuasion. According to a 2010 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 58 percent of Facebook users are women.
• No joke? Green Party presidential aspirant Roseanne Barr says not.
• Repeated bouts of foot-in-mouth could hurt Republicans' chances for winning the presidency? Really? Ya think?
• Afghan villages told to volunteer, or else: “I feel like the Taliban,” Sergeant First Class Herring says. It’s late January in Marzak, a village in remote northeastern Paktika province, near the border with Pakistan. Herring, a 38-year-old U.S. Army Military Policeman with a nasally Mississippi twang, is leading a patrol of U.S. and Afghan soldiers and Afghan police on a mission that makes the Americans decidedly uncomfortable.

  Their job: to assist the Afghan troops in doing whatever it takes to get the elders of Marzak, a once pro-Taliban village that lies astride a key extremist supply route, to “volunteer” another 25 young men to staff a new Afghan Local Police force that the International Security Assistance Force hopes will permanently secure the town and the supply route.

  When carrots don't work—including $225 a month, weapons and other supplies—sticks are used, including the same kind of threats the Taliban used to recruit fighters.

• Does patriotism demand that you buy a gas-guzzling SUV? Fuel-efficient cars are bad news for America's highways. That's because repairs and upgrades to those roads are paid for from a per gallon federal excise tax that hasn't been raised since 1993.
• In the wake of President Obama's State of the Union address, renewable energy backers have ramped up their push for quick action on President Obama's solar-energy plan: The national solar plan, unveiled by the Obama administration more than a year ago, would open 20 million acres of federal lands in six Western states to large-scale solar plants. The most essential part of the plan is to remove permitting roadblocks that have strangled renewable energy growth on public lands blessed with abundant sunshine and other green resources. Another part is to build transmission corridors to carry the sun-powered electricity to surrounding communities.

  Concerns have grown that the program could linger in bureaucratic purgatory, while government officials, conservationists, solar firms and power companies hash out complex rules for speeding up the process for getting giant solar plants built without harming environmentally fragile areas. The Department of Interior has garnered more than 100,000 comments from stakeholders eager to shape the program.

• Lawyers in 9/11 conspiracy lawsuit based on a "cynical delusion and fantasy" have been sanctioned by a federal court and ordered to pay $15,000 plus double what it cost the government to defend the case until a judge threw it out in 2010. The 2008 lawsuit accused then-Vice President Dick Cheney and then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld of causing the attacks that killed 3000 people in Manhattan, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa.

The documentary Pink Ribbons, Inc., based on the highly regarded book of the same name, is coming out at exactly the right time to help reframe our understanding of just what the Susan G. Komen Foundation exists to do. It's not just that they're right-wing in the anti-Planned Parenthood sense. They also represent a deeply corporate approach to breast cancer that is just not the right way to combat the disease. As emptywheel writes, in the same vein: But now that everyone has become aware of Komen’s sleaziness, it’s time to look at what they–and the cancer industry–do more generally. They fund efforts to diagnose and find a cure but–as this excellent diary describes–they work against things like prevention. They also tend to push back against research that shows we’ve been over-diagnosing and over-treating breast cancer. (I know such studies are controversial, but as someone who learned only after my treatment that European countries would have treated my case very differently, for a fraction of the cost and invasiveness, but with statistically equivalent outcomes, I take them seriously.)

Corporate sponsorship brings a lot of money to breast cancer research—but funding from pharmaceutical companies isn't going to steer us away from thinking the answer to breast cancer lies in expensive pharmaceuticals. Funding from make-up and food companies isn't going to address the use of carcinogens in everyday products. And regardless of their stance toward Planned Parenthood, that's exactly the approach Komen takes.

Donate to Planned Parenthood so they can continue providing actual care to women who need it.

Komen Foundation's 'new' position:
Stop criticizing us and buy our pink crap! Earlier today, the news broke that the Komen Foundation had issued an apology for its decision to stop funding cancer screen and prevention at Planned Parenthood. The apology was nothing more than an attempt to control the damage done to the Komen brand, but the traditional media nonetheless did the work for the foundation by reporting it as a reversal of the Komen Foundation's decision.

But it's not.

Greg Sargent reports:

I just got off the phone with a Komen board member, and he confirmed that the announcement does not mean that Planned Parenthood is guaranteed future grants — a demand he said would be “unfair” to impose on Komen. He also said the job of the group’s controversial director, Nancy Brinker, is safe, as far as the board is concerned.

Right. So in other words, the foundation's announcement isn't reversing anything at all.

Further:

Pushed on whether this means the new announcement wasn’t really a reversal, [Komen board member John] Raffelli pushed back, arguing that Komen, in response to all the criticism, had removed politics from the grant-making process. “Is it really unclear that we’re changing the policy to address criticism?” he said.

Yes, it really is unclear. The Komen Foundation needs to state unequivocally that it will continue its long practice of working with Planned Parenthood; otherwise, this looks like nothing more than an attempt to try to change the narrative and the non-stop negative headlines about the foundation's politicizing of breast cancer prevention.

Oh, and one more thing:

Asked if Brinker’s job was safe, Rafelli said: “Yes.” He added that the board “unequivocally” stood behind her.

That would be Nancy Brinker, founder and CEO of the foundation, who has spent the last 24 hours chastising critics for criticizing Komen.

So, traditional media, are you still going to keep doing the bidding of the Komen Foundation by pretending it has changed its position? Or are you going to report the truth?

If you want to support an organization that really does care about women's health, click to donate to Planned Parenthood.

This announcement from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman indicates that there's still some hope that foreclosure fraud prosecutions could occur.

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today filed a lawsuit against several of the nation’s largest banks charging that the creation and use of a private national mortgage electronic registry system known as MERS has resulted in a wide range of deceptive and fraudulent foreclosure filings in New York state and federal courts, harming homeowners and undermining the integrity of the judicial foreclosure process. The lawsuit asserts that employees and agents of Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo, acting as "MERS certifying officers," have repeatedly submitted court documents containing false and misleading information that made it appear that the foreclosing party had the authority to bring a case when in fact it may not have. The lawsuit names JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Bank of America, N.A., Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., as well as Virginia-based MERSCORP, Inc. and its subsidiary, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.

A couple of important things: This is an action in Schneiderman's capacity of AG for New York—it is completely separate from his task force work with the new commission created by President Obama. That group is limited to pre-housing bubble conduct, this is targeted at ongoing and current fraud. It's also another potential blow to the settlement negotiations between the states and the feds, and an indication that Schneiderman is no closer to an agreement there than he's ever been. That settlement would release the banks of liability in foreclosure fraud, and Schneiderman clearly doesn't want them off the hook.

But most importantly, it specifically targets MERS as a creation of the banks "to allow financial institutions to evade local county recording fees, avoid the hassle and paperwork of publicly recording mortgage transfers, and facilitate the rapid sale and securitization of mortgages." It goes on, "MERS’ indiscriminate use of non-employee ‘certifying officers’ to execute vital legal documents has confused, misled, and deceived homeowners and the courts and made it difficult to ascertain whether a party actually has the right to foreclose."

The suit seeks injunctive relief as well as damages for the thousands of New York homeowners harmed by MERS. It's as strong a shot across the bow of continuing fraudulent foreclosures by big banks as you could hope for.

Karen Handel showing her Christian compassion for poor women on Twitter And I really didn't need to know this to consider Komen Senior VP Karen Handel a thoroughly loathsome human being (the retweet said volumes in just a few characters) but John Aravosis has dug up Handel's bigoted, Christian fundamentalist views on LGBT people from less than two years ago, though they read as though they are from the 1960s.

First, I want to say though I anticipate never having to confront the dilemma of an unwanted pregnancy myself, I unequivocally stand by a woman's right to make her own reproductive choices, and against this insane environment that is demonizing Planned Parenthood.

In fact, the first night I heard about it I was so enraged I, like so many others, burned up my Twitter feed yelling at @komenforthecure and retweeting anyone who, like me, was equally outraged at this outrageously stupid decision.

I was so enraged—and I am not making this up—a New York Times reporter contacted me to talk about grassroots pushback. Who knows? I might get quoted. I think I pointed him to more newsworthy subjects though.

More below the fold.

Sen. Scott Brown, fake independent voice

Just over two short years ago, Scott Brown was campaigning with tea party groups and conservative talk radio in Massachusetts and beyond, selling himself as "the 41st vote" against health care reform in the Senate. Now, facing Elizabeth Warren's strong challenge and presidential election-year turnout, he's changed his tune somewhat. Oh, he's still railing against "Obamacare" to partisan crowds, but he's also playing up his "independent voice," trying to find that delicate balance of tying himself to President Obama enough to give independent voters something to like without alienating Republicans.

The AP rounds up some examples, like Brown's statement supporting Obama's recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and his touting of a three-sentence conversation with Obama on their shared support for banning insider trading by members of Congress.

There are two issues here. One is that Scott Brown is running scared from Elizabeth Warren. This is not how it was supposed to play out for Senator 41, the hot new Republican celebrity of the big Republican year of 2010. Massachusetts Democrats were not supposed to be able to find a candidate with a compelling biography, a strong voice on economic issues, exceptional media skills and enormous fundraising ability (which you can contribute to via Orange to Blue). But then Elizabeth Warren emerged, and Scott Brown had to start fighting for his political future—and if that means cozying up to Obama, he'll do it.

The other issue, though, is that this article is a preview of just how complicit the traditional media will be in Brown's attempts to portray himself as independent, not really that conservative, actually the perfect Beltway moderate. We are going to hear, ad infinitum, about the handful of votes he's taken against his party, and not about the avalanche of votes he's taken with them. We're going to hear that he voted for financial reform and not that the price of his vote was a provision that saved the big banks $19 billion. We're going to hear that he voted to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, but not that he's sticking to every other anti-gay position. Scott Brown's going to keep taking the most conservative position he thinks he can take while still surviving in Massachusetts. That doesn't make him an independent, no matter what the AP claims.