It Looks Like the IRS Crackdown on Foreign Banks is Creating Real Results

The number of rich expat Americans who are renouncing their citizenship has increased as a result of new banking regulations:

Rich Americans renouncing U.S. citizenship rose sevenfold since UBS AG whistle-blower Bradley Birkenfeld triggered a crackdown on tax evasion four years ago.

About 1,780 expatriates gave up their nationality at U.S. embassies last year, up from 235 in 2008, according to Andy Sundberg, secretary of Geneva’s Overseas American Academy, citing figures from the government’s Federal Register. The embassy in Bern, the Swiss capital, redeployed staff to clear a backlog as Americans queued to relinquish their passports.

The U.S., the only nation in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that taxes citizens wherever they reside, is searching for tax cheats in offshore centers, including Switzerland, as the government tries to curb the budget deficit. Shunned by Swiss and German banks and facing tougher asset-disclosure rules under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, more of the estimated 6 million Americans living overseas are weighing the cost of holding a U.S. passport.

Good.

If they renounce their citizenship, they cannot make political contributions to buy legislators.

Jon Stewart Nails It

In reviewing the Republican faux outrage over Obama noting that he whacked Osama bin Laden, Stewart shows us what Rove would have put out if Bush had managed to do so.

Brutal.

I'm Not the Only One Who Thinks Google's Upgrades Suck

John Aravosis of Americablog has seen the new blogger update, and it has him planning to move the whole blog to Wordpress:

Welcome to my own personal hell. Welcome to the new Blogger content management system, created by Google, that is incompatible with iPhones or iPads, and whose iphone app is a complete and utter disaster.

They've gotten similar responses about their changes to Gmail (here's a hint, go with the high contrast theme to make it bearable)

I'm beginning to wonder if they are intentionally screwing the pooch.

Nicolas "Petain" Sarkozy

So, Nicolas Sarkozy is going thoroughly right wing and anti-Muslim:

Nicolas Sarkozy has stepped up his appeal to France's far-right by lauding national identity, borders and French Christian heritage at a vast open-air rally in the shadow of the Eiffel tower.

………

Sarkozy's alternative May day Labour rally, which he initially said was a defiant celebration of "real" work versus the traditional trade union marches, had caused a political slanging match in France.

A Communist newspaper and various commentators likened the president to Marshal Pétain, the leader of France's Nazi collaborationist Vichy regime in the 1940s, for trying to appropriate the "values of work" for the right. His party slammed the parallels as shameful and disgusting.

(emphasis mine)

You have to understand: The French Republics (all of them) have had a tradition of militantly secular, as in, "If you get married in a church, it doesn't count, do it again at the town hall."

He doesn't get why National Front Leader Marine Le Pen got so many votes.  While part of it is the fact that she puts a softer and more sophisticated edge on the right wing xenophobic message, the rest is because both Sarkozy and Hollande were perceived as being too EU friendly, and in particular, they are not fond of German hegemony in the EU.

Sorkozy does not get it:  He won't get their votes in sufficient quality because he is Merkel's toady, and Merkel's frantic attempts to bolster his reelection efforts just makes it more obvious.

Shareholders Revolts Against Executive Compensation is Getting More Common

This time it's Barklays, and once again it failed:

Shareholders have demonstrated their mounting anger over runaway boardroom pay, delivering a huge protest against Barclays pay policies – including the £17m package for chief executive Bob Diamond.

Nearly a third of shareholders failed to back the remuneration report at a sometimes hostile annual meeting in the Royal Festival Hall, London, where one shareholder warned of the damage to the bank's reputation because of its pay deals.

Shareholders also handed a severe rebuke to Alison Carnwath, the non-executive director who sanctioned the pay deals. More than one in five investors failed to support the re-election of Carnwath, a veteran of many boardroom battles, to the board – a huge protest given that directors usually expect near-unanimous support for their positions.

You used to hear about this once a decade.

We've had 3 in the past 6 weeks.

Even if they lose, it's a step in the right direction.

What a Crybaby

David Prosser is now claiming that the judicial investigation of his choking of a fellow justice is an infringement of his speech rights:

State Supreme Court Justice David Prosser said Monday that the Wisconsin Judicial Commission's investigation into his alleged ethical violations is itself a violation of his constitutional rights, according to a court filing.

Prosser, the subject of an ethics complaint filed in March with the Supreme Court, said in his response to the complaint Monday that the commission "may not investigate or prosecute protected speech, advocacy and etiquette of Wisconsin Supreme Court justices when they are deliberating in confidential closed conferences."

The three alleged ethics violations stem from a June 13 incident in which Prosser acknowledges putting his hands around the neck of Justice Ann Walsh Bradley "to protect himself" and a February 2010 incident in which he admits calling Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson "a total bitch."

First, it wasn't a closed conference, it was a discussion in Bradley's office, and he was asked to leave, and he is alleged to have assaulted her.

Beating up on a woman is not, "deliberating in confidential closed conferences."

As an aside, anyone want to bet that this isn't the first time that he's been "alleged" to have assaulted a woman?

E.L. Docterow Nails it on American Exceptionalism

It's game over.

• SCOTUS corruptly throwing the election to Bush in 2000.
• An assault on out civil liberties.
• Cops can bust us for anything, and strip search us.
• Indefinite detention.
• Extra-judicial killings on the say so of the President.
• Military show trials commissions.
• Dayenu!

Go read the rest.