Progressive News And Podcast

Miss Piggy Attacks Fox News

2012-01-30T16:39:00.000-05:00

Late last year, Fox Business personality Eric Bolling accused The Muppets of being communists, because the villain in their family-friendly holiday movie was an oil tycoon. Well, The Muppets are finally returning fire. In London to promote the film's international release, Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog responded to Bolling's accusation. Kermit answered the question politically, saying that The Muppets are not in fact anti-oil, while Piggy let loose some harsh words: "It... read more>>

CurrentTV Takes Out Full Page New York Times Ad

2012-01-30T16:28:00.000-05:00

There's a full page ad for CurrentTV on B5 of the Business section of today's New York Times. It's what's missing that interesting. While the ad features pictures of hosts Cenk Uygur and Jennifer Granholm, there's no image of Keith Olbermann, whose show "Countdown" is the network's longest-running -- since June -- and most-watched live talk show since the network reinvented itself last year. Olbermann's name, however, is at the top of...
read more>>

Senate kills measure to stop President Obama from raising debt limit

2012-01-26T13:09:00.000-05:00

The Senate on Thursday killed a measure to stop the president from adding another $1.2 trillion to the total.

After just over two hours of debate, the Senate voted 44-52 to block a motion to disapprove the debt-limit increase, which the House passed overwhelmingly last week. Four Senate Republicans missed the vote.
The $1.2 trillion debt increase is expected to cover the nation’s borrowing requirements until after the November election.
Read the story here.

Florida Could Give Each Candidate Fits

2012-01-23T20:36:00.003-05:00

HuffPost's Sam Stein reports:

Florida is a complicated state for any one candidate to traverse. And in the wake of Saturday night's results, it appeared each was going to try his hand.
There is the traditionally southern political culture up north and the more northern-like political culture down south. There are cities and suburbs, the business communities, the computer technology community, and the space industry communities. There are numerous media markets and the influential I-4 corridor. And while it will be a closed primary, meaning only registered Republicans can vote in it, there is a wide swath of minorities who will be involved.
Whereas in South Carolina, the Jewish vote accounted for zero percent of Republican primary voters, according to exit poll data, that number will be considerably higher in Florida. And while the issue of immigration was cited by just three percent of South Carolinians as the one they viewed as most important, Floridians will view the matter differently. The Florida primary will be the first to take place in a state with a significant percentage of Hispanic voters.
The vote will occur a week from Tuesday, but the fireworks should start immediately. On Monday night all four candidates are confirmed to appear at a debate sponsored by NBC,National Journal and the Tampa Bay Times.

Click here to read more.

REPUBLICANS DOMINATING SUNDAY MORNING TELEVISION

2012-01-23T18:55:00.000-05:00

In Roll Call tonight: "Republicans appear to have owned the news cycle in 2011. If you were watching the major Sunday morning talk shows last year, your odds of seeing a Republican Member of Congress in the guest chair were far greater than seeing a Democratic Member of Congress. GOP lawmakers appeared on the Sunday shows nearly twice as often as Democratic lawmakers in 2011, a dominance far greater than the prior two years, according to a Roll Call database of Members' television appearances. Roll Call's 'Face Time' feature has for many years tracked appearances of Members of Congress on five major Sunday talk shows: Face the Nation on CBS; NBC's Meet the Press; ABC's This Week; CNN's State of the Union; and Fox News Sunday."

Barack Obama Will Take Questions From YouTube, "Hangout" On Google+

2012-01-23T18:43:00.000-05:00

President Barack Obama will answer questions from the public on Jan. 30 during a Google+ Hangout, YouTube announced yesterday. Read more

Rep. Giffords to step down from Congress

2012-01-22T15:26:00.002-05:00

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) is stepping down from Congress to focus full-time on her recovery, her office announced Sunday.
"I have more work to do on my recovery so to do what is best for Arizona, I will step down this week," Giffords announced in a video message posted on her website. "I am getting better."
Giffords's announcement comes a year after the Jan. 8 shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona where six people died and thirteen, including Giffords, were injured.
Read the story here.

More People applied For Food Stamps Under George Bush

2012-01-22T07:13:00.000-05:00

Newt Gingrich claims that “more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history.” He’s wrong. More were added under Bush than under Obama, according to the most recent figures.

But Gingrich goes too far to say Obama has put more on the rolls than other presidents. We asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition service for month-by-month figures going back to January 2001. And they show that under President George W. Bush the number of recipients rose by nearly 14.7 million. Nothing before comes close to that.

And under Obama, the increase so far has been 14.2 million. To be exact, the program has so far grown by 444,574 fewer recipients during Obama’s time in office than during Bush’s.

It’s possible that when the figures for January 2012 are available they will show that the gain under Obama has matched or exceeded the gain under Bush. But not if the short-term trend continues. The number getting food stamps declined by 43,528 in October. And the economy has improved since then.

Obama’s Responsibility

Gingrich often cites the number of persons on food stamps to support his view that the U.S. is becoming an “entitlement society,” increasingly dependent on government aid. And he has a point. One out of seven Americans is currently getting food stamps.

But Gingrich strains the facts when he accuses Obama of being responsible. The rise started long before Obama took office, and accelerated as the nation was plunging into the worst economic recession since the Great Depression.

The economic downturn began in December 2007. In the 12 months before Obama was sworn in, 4.4 million were added to the rolls, triple the 1.4 million added in 2007.

To be sure, Obama is responsible for some portion of the increase since then. The stimulus bill he signed in 2009 increased benefit levels, making the program more attractive. A family of four saw an increase of $80 per month, for example. That increase remains in effect and is not set to expire until late next year, according to USDA spokeswoman Jean Daniel.

The stimulus also made more people eligible. Able-bodied jobless adults without dependents could get benefits for longer than three months. That special easing of eligibility also expired on Sept. 30, 2010. Spokeswoman Daniel told us that 46 states have been able to continue the longer benefit period under special waivers granted because of high unemployment. Previously, able-bodied adults without dependents could collect food stamps for only three months out of any three-year period.

Otherwise, current eligibility standards are unchanged from what they were before Obama took office, USDA officials say. Generally, those with incomes at or below 130 percent of the official poverty level, and savings of $2,000 or less, may receive aid. The income level is currently just over $29,000 a year for a family of four.

That leaves the economic downturn that began in 2007 — and the agonizingly slow recovery that followed — as the principal factors making more Americans eligible for food stamps. Officials say that another factor is that Americans today are less reluctant to accept aid than before.

Of those whose income was low enough to qualify, only 54 percent actually signed up in 2002, but that rose steadily to 72 percent by fiscal 2009, the latest USDA figures show (See Table 2).

USDA researchers said the jump in the participation rate happened because of actions by state governments. In a report released in August 2011, the Office of Research and Analysis said:

USDA: States have increased outreach to low-income households, implemented program simplifications, and streamlined application processes to make it easier for eligible individuals to apply for and receive SNAP [food stamp] benefits. Most States also have reduced the amount of information that recipients must report during their certification period to maintain their eligibility and benefit levels, making it easier for low-income households to participate.
Another reason may be that “food stamps” no longer exist as paper coupons. Instead, beneficiaries now receive plastic debit cards, known as “Electronic Benefit Transfer” or EBT cards, which look pretty much like an ordinary credit card when used in a supermarket checkout line.
EBT cards have been used in all states since 2004, according to the USDA website. The change to plastic cards was done both to reduce the possibility of fraud, and also to reduce the stigmafelt by beneficiaries, and may account for some of the increase in participation.
In fact, the program is no longer officially called the “food stamp” program. Since 2008, it has been the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP for short.
Who Gets Food Stamps?
The most recent Department of Agriculture report on the general characteristics of the SNAP program’s beneficiaries says that in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2010:
47 percent of beneficiaries were children under age 18.
8 percent were age 60 or older.
41 percent lived in a household with earnings from a job — the so-called “working poor.”
The average household received a monthly benefit of $287.
36 percent were white (non-Hispanic), 22 percent were African American (non-Hispanic) and 10 percent were Hispanic (Table A.21).
We don’t argue that the program is either too large (as Gingrich does) or too small. It has certainly reached a historically high level, and may or may not grow even larger in the months to come. But the plain fact is that the growth started long before Obama took office, and participation grew more under Bush.
Kevin Concannon, the USDA’s undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, told theWall Street Journal: “I realize Mr. Gingrich is a historian, but I’m not sure he’d get very high marks on that paper.”
– Brooks Jackson
Footnote: There was an earlier easing of eligibility standards buried in a 2008 farm bill that Congress enacted over Bush’s veto. Obama voiced support for the measure while campaigning, but was not present for either the Senate vote to pass the bill or the vote to override.
Both votes enjoyed strong bipartisan majorities. Only 12 Republicans and two Democrats voted to sustain Bush’s veto, for example. Bush didn’t mention the food stamp provisions when he vetoed the bill, but instead cited what he called excessive subsidies to farmers.

Message From Common Cause: Only People Are People

2012-01-21T11:25:00.000-05:00

It was two years ago today that the Supreme Court issued its disastrous Citizens Uniteddecision, ruling that corporations have the same rights as people and can spend as much as they want to influence our elections.

But you and I know that corporations aren't people -- only people are people. Only people can hold hands. Only people can drive cars. Only people can vote.

And only people can take back our democracy from the grip of the wealthy corporations and special interests.

Will you be one of those people?

Please make a gift today to help us reverse Citizens United and work for a constitutional amendment.

You might have seen the video that came out this week with Robert Reich announcing the launch of Amend2012 and explaining why we need a constitutional amendment. (If you missed it, it's worth the 2 minutes and 12 seconds.)

He shows how Citizens United gave rise to the SuperPACs and free rein to corporations that are flooding our political system with corrupting cash, and drowning out the voices of ordinary people.

And even though it seems like our politics are more broken than ever, we can fix it if we work together.

Please join the movement to reverse Citizens United by making a gift today!

Thanks for all you do.

Sincerely,

Bob Edgar
and the rest of the team at Common Cause

P.S. Want to know even more about Amend2012 and what Common Cause is fighting for?Check out this clip from Countdown on Current TV.

Obama sings Al Green’s ‘Let’s Stay Together’

2012-01-21T07:44:00.000-05:00

If President Barack Obama ever quits his day job, he could have a bright future as a soul singer.

The president opened his speech at Harlem’s Apollo Theater Thursday night by channeling Al Green’s 1971 classic tune, Let’s Stay Together.

“To know that the Rev. Al Green was here,” Obama said, pausing.

Cantor: Republicans Should 'Coalesce Around' A Candidate ASAP

2012-01-21T07:02:00.000-05:00

“With the issues that need to be decided by this election, I think it behooves us all as a country to have sort of the choice laid out as early as possible so we can begin in earnest a discussion about the issues,“ Cantor said during a speech in Baltimore today.

The remarks come on the day that Bob McDonnell, the Republican governor of Cantor’s home state of Virginia, threw his support behind Mitt Romney. Cantor has yet to endorse a candidate in the race.

Obama responds to the Koch Brothers Billions of Dollars attacks

2012-01-20T12:53:00.000-05:00

President Obama’s re-election campaign is releasing its first 2012 broadcast advertisement as his team seeks to counter attacks and get a jump on Republicans while they battle over selecting their nominee to challenge him.

The ad, called “Unprecedented,” highlights Obama’s record on clean energy and responds to “secretive oil billionaires” making inaccurate charges against him. It began running Thursday in Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin, according to a campaign official.

Supreme Court rejects Texas redistricting map

2012-01-20T11:42:00.000-05:00

  The Supreme Court on Friday ordered a Texas court to take a renewed look at the redistricting maps drawn by the state legislature, saying the court had gone too far in enacting its own plan.  
Read the story here.

Dems Finely waking up to PIPA internet killer

2012-01-20T10:05:00.000-05:00

Reid postpones Senate vote on Internet piracy bill

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has postponed Tuesday's scheduled vote on a controversial online piracy bill "in light of recent events," he announced Friday.

“There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved," Reid said in a statement. "Counterfeiting and piracy cost the American economy billions of dollars and thousands of jobs each year, with the movie industry alone supporting over 2.2 million jobs. We must take action to stop these illegal practices."
Reid said he is "optimistic" the Senate can reach a compromise on the anti-piracy legislation, known as the Protect IP Act, in the coming weeks.
Read the story here.

Romney Lost in Iowa and Rick Perry Is Dropping Out

2012-01-19T10:16:00.003-05:00

How is it, that. Romney knew days before that he did not win?

"The narrative for a long time has been that Mitt Romney was 2-0," Spokesman Hogan Gidley told CNN on Thursday. "And if these results are true and Rick is ahead by 34 votes, then that's not the narrative anymore. There have been two states, two different victors."

Rick Perry is dropping out of the GOP race and Rick Santorum looks like he actually won Iowa - not Mitt Romney.

Perry's exit from the race, which he intends to announce during an 11 a.m. ET press conference at a hotel in North Charleston, S.C., gives his rivals a golden opportunity - particularly Newt Gingrich, who has been enjoying something of a mini-surge in the South Carolina in recent days and who Perry plans to endorse.
South Carolina seems to want to have it both ways: On the one side is South Carolina's role as "King maker." Republicans here take pride in the fact that since 1980 every candidate who has won the primary here has gone on to win the nomination. Their mantra is, "We pick presidents."

Mitt Romney Polling at 35 Percent Approval for General Election

2012-01-19T06:28:00.000-05:00

Mitt Romney may be on the verge of securing the nomination, but his campaign is still struggling with a pretty basic problem as it looks towards the general election: people just don’t like him very much.

Romney’s never been the kind of candidate to draw legions of screaming fans, but new polling over the last week show a troubling trend for him — his personal favorability numbers are taking a hit. On Tuesday Public Policy Polling (D) showed Romney with a favorability split well into the negative, with 35 percent of general election voters seeing him positively and 53 unfavorably. On Wednesday, the Pew Research center released similar numbers: a 33 - 47 split nationally.

While Republican voters are starting to come around to his candidacy, the rest of the country doesn’t seem too pleased with what they see. Romney’s lost six points on favorability among independent voters since Pew’s last poll in November, leading to a 13 point gap on the metric, 33 - 45. The TPM Poll Average of Romney’s national favorability now shows a 5.8 deficit, and his unfavorability has risen ten points during the last two and half months in our numbers.

Jerry Springer on Fox News: 'Every single morning you guys are slamming Obama'

2012-01-18T19:07:00.000-05:00

TV host Jerry Springer wore out his welcome a few minutes into his segment on Fox News this morning. Springer was part of a political panel on "Fox & Friends" discussing, among other things, this week's controversial Newsweek cover. An essay by Andrew Sullivan asks "Why are Obama's Critics So Dumb?" Springer, who said he's politically to the left of Obama, used the discussion to make a point about his...

Obama administration will reject Keystone pipeline

2012-01-18T12:39:00.000-05:00

The Obama administration will reject the Keystone XL pipeline Wednesday afternoon, according to a source closely following the issue.

The State Department is expected to make an announcement at 3 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. While the administration is expected to reject TransCanada Corp.’s permit application, it will allow the company to reapply, according to the source.
Read the story here.

Mitt Romney's predatory style of capitalism doesn't feel presidential

2012-01-17T07:00:00.002-05:00

Will Bain become Romney's bane?

With Florida's Republican primary just weeks away, frontrunner Mitt Romney's taking plenty of heat from competing GOP candidates and others over acquiring a personal fortune while at Bain, a private equity firm he co-founded.

The flap's not just about his reaping hundreds of millions of dollars — extreme sums many might find offensive — derived from Bain's mercenary corporate formula. By buying fatigued businesses (usually with borrowed money), stripping away their costs (including cutting jobs) and repackaging them for future sale, Bain has hit the leveraged buyout lottery for many years.

But while Bain profits, some of the anointed companies end up in bankruptcy.

Bain naysayers argue that's neither capitalism nor a tradition of building jobs for the future.

Column here.

Gingrich: Obama the food stamp president

2012-01-17T06:27:00.000-05:00

Gingrich criticized Obama for the growth in food stamps, calling him "the best food stamp president in American history." He later said that "the fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history." POLITIFACT.ORG has rated that Half True because the number was headed upward before Obama became president.

Obviously, the rise in food stamps is a direct consequence of the serious recession that began in December 2007 -- more than a year before Obama took office. It’s hard to determine how much blame Obama deserves compared to his predecessor, President George W. Bush, but the experts we spoke to, conservative and liberal, agree that Obama inherited a serious economic situation.

Obama Leads in South Carolina and Florida

2012-01-16T15:10:00.008-05:00

UPDATE- 01-21-12 10AM EST.

PPP is out with its final numbers going into tomorrow's South Carolina primary. It's 37% Gingrich, 28% Romney, 16% Santorum, 14% Paul. That's polling of 1540 voters over the last three days. In the calls they made tonight, Newt was up 40% to 26% over Romney. One night, especially a Friday night, is not much to go on. But it's in line with the trend since Monday which has shown Gingrich rocketing into the lead.

Anything can happen. Polls can be wrong. But polls seldom give us such clear guidance on what to expect.

UPDATE -01-19-12 10:00 AM EST.

Since Santorum officially won Iowa, and with a Gingrich victory increasingly likely in South Carolina, what is the Romney camp to do with a 1 in 3 record in these early primaries? And if this is the beginning of the march toward a brokered convention, how long till we start to see either Romney or Gingrich flirt heavily with the Ron Paul faction of their party? Finally, what about the evangelical base that has thrown its support behind Santorum? Can establishment Republicans get them to swallow a Gingrich candidacy?

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/morning-mix-newts-surge-and-romneys-fizzle.html#ixzz1jzzdk3zP

PPP: Gingrich Jumps To Six Point Lead In SC

New numbers from Public Policy Polling (D) show former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with a six point lead in a survey conducted over the last two days, after an impressive debate performance on Monday night. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is second with 29 percent after leading the state for the last ten days, and has fallen to second in our TPM Poll Average.

PPP will continue polling on Friday, which will provide some insight on how South Carolina GOP voters saw the final debate in the state on Thursday night.

***********************************

There were hints and drabs of information yesterday suggesting that Gingrich was making a big move in South Carolina. And now three new polls this morning confirm it................................

InsiderAdvantage snap poll conducted Wednesday showed Gingrich actually leading by three over Romney, 32 – 29, so the numbers are definitely tightening as the candidates cross the finish line.Our TPM Poll Average now shows Romney’s lead a little over one percent after starting the week with a more than ten point advantage.

*******************************************************************************************

New polls of South Carolina and Florida hint that the GOP’s chances of taking the White House are evaporating as Barack Obama leads both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in each state.

The biggest surprise is in the new NBC/Marist poll of South Carolina, where Obama’s approval rating is a not too upside down for a reliable red state 44%/48%. The big shock is that President Obama has small leads over both Newt Gingrich (46%-42%), and Mitt Romney (45%-42%). Both of Obama’s narrow leads are outside the poll’s 2.1% margin of error. A new Winthrop poll has also found that President Obama is more popular than Republican South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. The Winthrop Poll gives Obama nearly identical to NBC 44.8% approval rating, and only 34.6% approve of Gov. Haley.

Gingrich is absolutely destroying Romney in South Carolina among likely primary voters 42%-23%. Newt Gingrich leads Mitt Romney 51%-20% among tea partiers. Romney’s biggest problem in the state is that Republicans are more interested in a candidate who shares their values (29%), and is close to them on the issues (26%) than one that can beat Obama (20%). By a margin of 61%-53% Republicans found Gingrich more acceptable than Romney, and 44% of Republicans believed that Romney was acceptable with reservations or not acceptable at all. Only 26% of likely primary voters considered Romney a conservative.

In Florida, Obama has seen his approval rating jump five points since October. It is within the margin of error, but more voters now approve of Obama than disapprove (46%-45%). Obama now leads Romney by seven points, (48%-41%), and Gingrich by 12 points in the Sunshine State, (51%-39%). Newt Gingrich is blowing out Romney in Florida for the same reasons that he is trouncing him in South Carolina. Florida Republicans said that it was more important to them that a candidate shared their values (26%) and is close to them on the issues (28%) than can beat Obama (23%).

Gingrich also holds a commanding lead over Romney among tea partiers, (57%-22%). Among likely GOP primary voters, 58% found Mitt Romney to be an acceptable candidate, but 28% felt that he was acceptable with reservations 10% felt that he was not acceptable at all. Sixty five percent of likely GOP primary voters found Newt Gingrich acceptable. Only 20% felt that he was acceptable with reservations and 11% believed that he was not acceptable.

Within the Republican Party what is happening is a repeat of the 2010 election. GOP primary voters in South Carolina and Florida are more concerned with shared values and positions than they are with electability. Mitt Romney’s entire campaign is built around the theme of being able to defeat Obama, but Republican voters would rather lose with someone who they feel shares their values than potentially win with Mitt Romney. The difference between Gingrich and Romney is that Newt knows how to woo the base. In two separate presidential campaigns, Romney has not been able to ease doubts about his conservative cred. It is a pretty safe bet that those doubts are never going to go away.

Obama’s popularity is improving even in places like South Carolina because of his focus on creating jobs and the economy. While the Republican nomination has turned into an ideological spitting contest over who can cut the most taxes and be the most extreme conservative, Obama has been talking about the economy and creating jobs every single day for months now.

The jobs message is powerful, and Republicans have turned the issue over to Obama by promising to create jobs by following the same failed policies of George W. Bush. In a bad economy, a platform of tax cuts for the rich and more trickle down is not what voters want to hear. They want the government to do something, and Obama is the only candidate who has offered any real solutions.

It would be a miracle if Obama won South Carolina, but the combination of bad candidates and even worse message has made President Obama the favorite as we head into 2012. As long as Obama keeps hammering the jobs message and the economy keeps improving his polling and approval ratings will go up, and Republicans will see their dream of making Barack Obama a one term president shattered.

Winning Our Future, the super-PAC supporting Newt Gingrich, has now posted its 28-minute video attacking Mitt Romney’s business and jobs record, “King of Bain.”

2012-01-12T06:34:00.002-05:00

Pro-Newt Super-PAC Officially Launches Video Feature Attacking Romney And Bain

Winning Our Future, the super-PAC supporting Newt Gingrich, has now posted its 28-minute video attacking Mitt Romney’s business and jobs record, “King of Bain.”

To watch the video, click here.

The Bain Of Mitt Romney's Existence

2012-01-09T19:07:00.001-05:00

Of all the bizarre aspects of the Republican presidential race—and they have been gloriously plentiful—nothing has been odder than the kid-glove treatment accorded the likeliest nominee. While every other pretender, from Donald Trump to Rick Santorum, has had his record and rhetoric parsed and pilloried, Mitt Romney has sailed through months (heck, years) of campaigning and oodles of debates without so much as a nick or scratch. Until now. Sunday’s New Hampshire debate featured memorable smackdowns by Jon Huntsman and Newt Gingrich. But far more ominous for the former Massachusetts governor is the sudden dam-burst of criticism of the central rationale for his campaign: Romney’s job-creating business experience at Bain Capital, which the candidate argues makes him uniquely qualified to be America’s recession-era CEO. Among the revelations,The Wall Street Journal reported today on the high rate of bankruptcies and closures among the companies Bain invested in during Romney’s tenure. Ezra Klein dug into Romney’s job-creation claim at Saturday night’s debate—more than 100,000 net jobs—and found it “untrue.”

And while Romney maintains a wide lead in New Hampshire polls and a smaller edge in South Carolina, his opponents are—very belatedly—howling about Bain’s takeover tactics. The attacks will soon ramp up when the Gingrich campaign airs “When Mitt Romney Came to Town,” a 27-minute ad, in South Carolina; the trailer calls Romney a “corporate raider.” While Romney’s previous placid march to the nomination might not be halted, we’re surely—finally—glimpsing a preview of what a general-election campaign will produce.

source

CORPORATIONS ARE JOB CREMATORS

2012-01-09T09:48:00.000-05:00

CORPORATIONS AREN'T JOB CREATORS

After largely ignoring Mitt Romney during Saturday's debate in New Hampshire, the Republican candidates have started attacking the frontrunner where it hurts most: his economic résumé. A new 28-minute television advertisement focusing on Romney's time at Bain Capital has the most potential to hurt the candidate given that the former governor touts his experience there as indicative of his ability to fix the U.S. economy. Newt Gingrich-supporting Super PAC "Winning Our Future" produced the film. The advertisement strikes back at Romney's $3.7 million-worth of negative, anti-Gingrich advertising in Iowa, which effectively ruined the former speaker's end-of-the-year momentum.

A report today from The Wall Street Journal lends even more ammunition to Gingrich's last-minute attacks on Romney's credentials: 22 percent of the companies Bain invested in while Romney was in charge filed for bankruptcy less than eight years later, and eight percent more lost all the money Bain invested. Of the ten companies reaping the most profit for Bain, four ended up in bankruptcy court. The attacks may be too late to stop Mitt Romney from winning the nomination, but they will severely weaken him in a general-election race.

TWO Expresses Revulsion Over Extremist Anti-Gay Positions Expressed By GOP Candidates at Debate

2012-01-08T04:55:00.002-05:00

Truth Wins Out expressed its revulsion over the unrestrained anti-gay bigotry expressed by Republican candidates in tonight's ABC News debate. The contenders bent over backwards to slap loving gay couples in their faces and hid behind phony religious liberty arguments to mask their anti-gay animus, says TWO.

"We are completely disgusted by virtually the entire GOP field which panders to prejudice and bows to anti-gay bigotry," said Truth Wins Out's Executive Director Wayne Besen. "The unabashed extremism witnessed in this debate is a disgrace and an embarrassment to both the Republican Party and to this nation."

The most outrageous view expressed this evening came from former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum who said that he would support a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying, as well as breaking up gay couples who are already legally married. "If the Constitution says marriage is between a man and a woman, then marriage is between a man and a woman," Santorum said. "Those who are not men and women and are married would not be married."

"I think the radical idea of destroying families and invalidating their marriages is so preposterous that it will cost Rick Santorum any chance of ever becoming President of the United States," said TWO's Besen, who married his partner of five years, Jamie Brundage, last month in Burlington, Vermont. "Santorum is just too extreme and the cruel position he took on this issue will lead to the unraveling of his campaign."

Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum defended their anti-gay positions by falsely claiming that marriage equality conflicted with religious liberty. Perry actually claimed that allowing LGBT couples to marry is a "a war against religion."

"The red meat may work to some degree in the primaries," said TWO's Besen, "But homophobia will haunt the eventual nominee in the general election."

The most laughable moment of the evening came when Newt Gingrich expressed his opposition to marriage equality and invoked "the sacrament of marriage." He did so with a straight face as his third wife, Callista, sat in the audience and applauded.

CLASS WARFARE, ROMNEY-STYLE

2012-01-06T19:08:00.000-05:00

Nothing gets Mitt Romney more animated on the campaign trail than inveighing against President Obama’s penchant for wealth-redistribution. The president wants to “substitute envy for ambition and poison the American spirit by pitting one American against another and engaging in class warfare,” as Romney put it earlier this week in Des Moines. But as the non-partisan Tax Policy Center reported yesterday, the former Massachusetts governor is waging his own brand of class warfare. Romney’s plan would save a middle-income American about $1,400 a year—and lighten a 1 percenter's tax load by $171,000. It would also add $600 billion to the deficit in 2015. (Among those benefiting from Romneynomics would, of course, be Romney; his net worth is estimated at $250 million, making him one of the 3,140 richest people in America—part of the 0.001 percent.) The Economist calls Romney’s plan “very progressive, by 15th-century standards.” But if you ask a lot of conservatives, Romney’s plans are the next worst thing to Obama’s. Ex-Reagan official Peter Ferrara writes in Forbes that with Romney proposing tax cuts for middle-income Americans, he’s engaging in “Obama neo-socialist class rhetoric.” In The Wall Street Journal, columnist Kimberley Strassel takes Romney to task today for merely saying that he opposes “tax cuts for the rich.” No matter his actual proposal to cut rich people’s, she says, Romney is “playing the class game.”

Oh Yea

“What about three men? Reason says that if you think it’s OK for two, then you have to differentiate with me as to why it’s not OK for three.”

—Rick Santorum, answering questions in New Hampshire about his opposition to same-sex marriage

Romney Promises Everyone a Job, a Pony and a Narwhal!

2012-01-05T20:22:00.000-05:00

Mitt Romney has promised if he’s elected president: all college graduates will have a job and Iran won’t get a nuke. Michelle Bachmann promised $2 a gallon gas if she were elected. Politicians are making outlandish claims. What’s next? Ponies and narwhals for everyone?

Iowa Caucus By The Numbers

2012-01-04T19:38:00.000-05:00

The most important number on Tuesday night in Iowa wasn't eight—the miniscule margin by which Mitt Romney edged out Rick Santorum for first place. It was 3,255—the negligible estimated increase in turnout over the 2008 GOP caucuses. Given the sizable number of independents—23 percent of the total—who showed up to (mostly) vote for third-place finisher Ron Paul, it looks like fewer Iowa Republicans actually voted this year.

To say the least, this complicates one of the most popular story lines about 2012—that Republicans are simply wild to unseat President Barack Obama and that the Democrats are facing a serious “enthusiasm gap” against their fired-up foes. (In fact, a Gallup poll in December already began to puncture this myth.)

In 2008, the Democratic caucuses in Iowa attracted 239,000 voters, almost twice the number as in 2004—a portent of the rising tide that would lift Obama to the White House ten months later. Of course, the Democrats had three candidates that year (Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards) who attracted fervent support. What this year’s caucuses showed, more than anything else, was that while Republicans might dearly love the idea of toppling the president, they remain lukewarm about their potential champions. And that might be the real enthusiasm gap that matters in 2012.

Oh Yea!

“Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that’s okay, contraception is okay. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”

—Rick Santorum, October 2011

Richard Cordray to Lead America’s Consumer Watchdog

2012-01-04T16:42:00.003-05:00

The President used his Constitutional authority today to recess-appoint former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Product Bureau – America’s first-ever consumer watchdog created by the President’s Wall Street reform. ·

This is the latest in a series of “We Can’t Wait” executive actions the President has taken to move the country forward in the face of Congressional inaction and to strengthen the economy. ·

As America’s consumer watchdog, Richard Cordray will have one job – looking out for the best interests of consumers. His job will be to protect families from the abuses of the financial industry, and make sure you’ve got all the information you need to make important financial decisions. ·

Right away, he’ll start working to make sure millions of Americans are treated fairly by mortgage brokers, payday lenders and debt collectors. ·

Just this week, the CFPB is launching a simple phone number – 1 (855) 411-CFPB – you can call to make sure you’re getting a fair deal on your mortgage, and hold banks and brokers accountable if you’re not. ·

If you’re a veteran, the Bureau will help make sure you aren’t taken advantage of when you come home from serving our country. If you’re a senior, they’ll keep you from losing your home or your retirement because someone saw you as an easy target. ·

The President is taking this executive action because Republicans have refused to confirm Richard Cordray, who the President nominated last summer. By refusing to confirm Richard Cordray, Congressional Republicans stopped the consumer watchdog bureau from doing its job. Until a director is in place, the consumer watchdog cannot stand up to payday lenders, debt collectors, credit-reporting agencies and private student lenders. ·

Despite having strong bipartisan support across the country and a record of protecting consumers from dishonest lending practices and recovering billions of dollars in things like pension funds on behalf of retirees, Republicans in the Senate won’t give him an up or down vote. It’s not because they don’t support Cordray – it’s because they don’t believe America needs a consumer watchdog at all. ·

The President disagrees. He believes that everyone should play by the same rules so that hard work pays off and responsibility – not recklessness – is rewarded. Today’s announcement means the end to the era of two rulebooks: one for big banks on Wall Street and another for businesses on Main Street. ·

Wall Street’s recklessness affected nearly every American – those of us with credit cards, student loans, mortgages and home-equity lines, as well as those of us saving for emergencies, a down payment, college and retirement. For too long, there was no place where families or small business could turn when fine print changed the terms of their loans, or when they were hit with hidden charges, new fees, or penalties on their credit cards or debit cards. ·

The American people work hard and are fighting to reclaim the security they lost in the financial collapse. They simply demand that Wall Street and the big financial institutions follow the rules, live up to their agreements, and are held accountable. That’s what Richard Cordray will do every day as America’s consumer watchdog.

The top 10 most ridiculous GOP moments of 2011

2011-12-30T19:24:00.000-05:00

The top 10 most ridiculous GOP moments of 2011.

Some may be fresh in your memory, like Mitt's now infamous $10k bet at a debate, while others, like when Ron Paul claimed that the government wrongly infringes on liberty by making heroin illegal, may have slipped your mind.

The REAL Crazy Ron Paul

2011-12-28T20:58:00.000-05:00

Paul’s Iowa chair wants to execute gays.
He talked to John Birchers about one-world religion and U.N. dictatorship.
He fears gay toilets.
He’s down with the North American Union conspiracists.
He speaks truth about the drug war.

Victim Of Romney's Job Creating Speak Out!

2011-12-28T10:08:00.000-05:00

Rudy Johnson, a labor organizer who was laid off in 1992 by Ampad, a company run by Bain Capital under Mitt Romney, took to the press this week to condemn Romney’s business record. In an interview with ABC News, Johnson recounted the horror of downsizing at his Marion, Indiana factory.

“It was really one of the worst things I think I’ve had to deal with, because people … were at my desk crying, ‘What do I do? I don’t have a good college education… I just wanted to get to retirement,’” Johnson said. “Families were devastated. In some cases, the husband and the wife both worked there. They lost all their income. It doesn’t get much worse than that.”

Johnson also told his story during Romney’s 1994 Senate campaign against Ted Kennedy, which Romney ended up losing. Expect to see plenty of tales like his come general election season.

Newt Gingrich Schtupped His High School Teacher And Then Married Her When He Was 19

2011-12-27T15:31:00.003-05:00

June 14, 1962: Gingrich married Jackie Battley, when he was 19 and she was 26. She was also his then-former high school geometry teacher. Gingrich’s second wife, Marianne Ginther Gingrich,told Esquire last year that, despite what Battley and Gingrich told their families at the time, the two had been involved while Gingrich was still in high school. They had two children, and several former aides, friends and neighbors told Vanity Fair in the 1990s that Gingrich was profligately unfaithful throughout the 1970s.

Who are these Job-Creators?

2011-12-27T13:39:00.000-05:00

Been wondering, just who are these mighty "job-creators" that Republicans keep referencing in their never-ending quest to fatten the incomes of millionaires? Rick Newman has a pretty good primer on the term -- and its abuse, "What 'Job Creators' Really Want" at U.S. News Politics.

Read on...

Obama Soaring In The Polls

2011-12-27T12:23:00.000-05:00

Gallup’s tracking poll released Monday shows something not seen since July of this year: President Barack Obama’s approval rating in positive territory. The national survey that interviews 500 American adults per night showed 47 percent of those polled approve of the President’s job performance, versus 45 percent who disapprove. The Gallup poll uses a three day average of their nightly interviews, for a total of 1,500 responses over that time.

The last positive score Obama received in Gallup’s numbers was a 46 – 45 split over surveys done from July seventh to the ninth. The TPM Poll Average of the metric still shows a little over a four point difference, but the numbers are evening since this summer’s debt ceiling fight.

Pleas also, keep in mind Gallup is a right wing biased polling company, which probably means Obama's numbers are more like 53 percent.

O Lucky Mitt

2011-12-27T11:29:00.001-05:00

In an interview with New York magazine, a senior Romney strategist expressed supreme confidence that Mitt would be the nominee: “The dynamics couldn’t be better for us,” the strategist said. “I don’t see any scenario where we’re not the nominee.”

Read The Article
O Lucky Mitt

Wall Street’s Big Lie

2011-12-26T11:59:00.000-05:00

The Occupy protests have made us aware of a sinister process by which wealth has systematically been funneled into fewer and fewer hands. In Newsweek, Michael Thomas says public anger will finally force the big banks to pay up in 2012.

Read it at Newsweek

Happy Holidays from the Obama Family

2011-12-24T15:46:00.002-05:00

Happy Holidays from the Obama Family

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama recorded a special video to wish the American people a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Check it out:

The holidays are the perfect time to give thanks to our men and women in uniform and the families who support them. You can join the President and First Lady in thanking our troops, military families and veterans for their service and sacrifice by visiting JoiningForces.gov.

Happy Holidays!

Is Ron Paul Still A Racist Homophobic Bigot?

2011-12-23T08:56:00.002-05:00

Time for Ron Paul to Answer the Charges

The 2012 contender—who recently surged ahead in the polls—has disavowed racist statements made in his newsletter two decades ago, but the issue won’t die—and it’s only gotten worse since Paul walked out of a CNN interview. He can lay the matter to rest by saying who wrote the comments and giving a speech outlining his actual racial views, writes The Daily Beast’s Michael Tomasky.

Read it at The Daily Beast

Republicans should fold in payroll tax cut standoff

2011-12-21T21:21:00.000-05:00

Former Bush adviser Karl Rove said he agreed with the Wall Street Journal’s blistering assessment on the failure of House Republican leadership in the payroll-tax debate, and conceded that Republicans have “lost the optics” and should fold on the issue.

“I think the Wall Street Journal editorial hit it right on the nail, the question now is how do Republicans get out of it,” Rove told Fox News on Wednesday.

In a scathing editorial on Wednesday, the conservative newspaper said House GOP leadership had “thoroughly botched” the payroll tax cut fight, and in doing so put President Obama in a “stronger reelection position” that opens the door to Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate.

Read the story here.

Ron Paul Gets A Closer Look

2011-12-21T10:45:00.002-05:00

With High Polling Numbers Comes Great Scrutiny For Paul
Now that Ron Paul leads the pack in Iowa, according to the latest polls, he is taking more heat from his fellow candidates. Rick Perry has hit his rival for earmarks, saying “Dr. Paul is still birthing earmarks as we speak.” As in last week’s debate, Michele Bachmann continues to hammer Paul for his isolationist foreign policy.

Read More....

House approves rules setting up payroll tax votes

2011-12-20T12:32:00.002-05:00

The House on Tuesday morning approved a rule that sets up three hours of debate and votes on three measures, including a controversial motion to disagree with the Senate's two-month payroll tax extension and seek a conference with the Senate.

The rule was approved in a 231-187 vote. All but one Republican voted for the rule, and every Democrat voted against it.

The vote came after more bitter partisan debate over the way House Republicans have set up votes on the Senate bill.

Read the story here.

House GOP cancels plan to vote on Senate tax bill

2011-12-19T21:20:00.000-05:00

House GOP leaders have decided to delay a vote on the Senate payroll tax bill until midday Tuesday, abandoning tentative plans to hold votes as late as 3 a.m. Tuesday morning.

House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) told reporters that the delay was caused by a GOP conference meeting running two hours into overtime Monday evening. He said the House would convene at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

Read the story here.

Barney Frank Makes the Argument for Tax Increases

2011-12-19T14:49:00.003-05:00

Barney Frank Makes the Argument for Tax Increases (And Bigger Government)

This is just the intro:

AMANPOUR: Congressman Ryan, thank you very much. And Congressman Barney Frank, your opening minute and a half.
FRANK: Yes, we have too much government, and yes, we have too little government. There is this mistaken view that says, you know, we have a fight between the people's money and the government's money. It's all the people's money. The question is, as people, intelligently, we have two sets of needs. We have needs that we best pursue individually, with money for ourselves and our families. And we can make personal choices. But then there are things that we have to do together. Read more

Supreme Court schedules 3 days of arguments over healthcare law

2011-12-19T12:14:00.000-05:00

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on President Obama's healthcare law over a three-day span in late March.

The schedule further confirms the universal expectation that the court will issue a ruling on the healthcare law next June, at the height of the 2012 campaign.

Read the story here.

Paul Ryan's Bipartisan Sham

2011-12-17T19:16:00.002-05:00

polling showing Paul Ryan is in the danger zone could not have come at a better time.

Paul Ryan just announced he is taking a second swing at Medicare! His "new" plan is devastating to Medicare as we know it, but the big difference is that he found one Democrat to help him!

Here is what has been happening- Paul Ryan has introduced a new plan to start the privatization of Medicare. He convinced a "Democrat," Ron Wyden, to join in this effort. Ron Wyden, like Paul Ryan, has raked in an alarming amount of lobbyist money from the health insurance industry.

Make no mistake- this is no bipartisan effort! Almost all Democrats, including President Obama, are strongly opposed to this plan.

Here is what the White House Communications Director had to say: [this scheme could] "cause the traditional Medicare program to "wither on the vine" because it would raise premiums, forcing many seniors to leave traditional Medicare and join private plans. It would shift costs from the government to seniors. At the end of the day, this plan would end Medicare as we know if for millions of seniors." You can read the rest here.

It is clear what this plan is designed to do. Both Paul Ryan and Wyden admit that it will likely not save anyone any money! The only upside is a big giveaway to private insurance companies at the expense of our seniors. This is sham bipartisanship and we are not fooled!

The OCCUPIED Amendment

2011-12-17T17:35:00.000-05:00

The OCCUPIED Amendment

The petition in support of Rep. Ted Deutch's OCCUPIED Amendment
www.theoccupiedamendment.org
This amendment bans corporate money in our elections, ends corporate personhood, and returns our democracy to the people. Join the movement at theoccupiedamendment.org.

THE FOX NEWS PRIMARY

2011-12-16T22:30:00.000-05:00

The ethical nightmare surrounding Fox's coverage of the 2012 election goes far beyond Bill Sammon. When the year began, Fox was actually employing five potential Republican candidates, providing them not only with salaries but also with millions of dollars' worth of free airtime.

And Fox's journalists have their own financial relationships with the candidates. Jim Pinkerton, for example, has used his position as a regular contributor to Fox's media ethics show to discuss Michele Bachmann, the other Republican contenders, and President Obama. But what he chose not to disclose -- until Politico reported it -- was the fact that he had been paid to "partner" with Bachmann on her recently released book. Pinkerton told Media Matters that he kept the financial relationship secret at the request of "the publisher, the candidate, the campaign." Amazingly, though, Pinkerton said that he didinform his supervisors at Fox, and they approved of the arrangement.

Then there is Dick Morris, who has received money this year from the campaigns of at least threeRepublican presidential contenders -- a fact he chose not to reveal (until he was questioned about it by the AP) while speaking positively of each of them on Fox and attacking their critics.

So why does Rupert Murdoch put up with these conflicts of interest?

Probably because it would be hypocritical not to. In April, Fox Business Network spent three days promoting a controversial oil shale venture being undertaken in Israel by a company called Genie Energy. Then in July, Fox News broadcast two reportsdiscussing a Genie oil shale project in Colorado. In none of the reports did Fox bother to mention that Murdoch serves on Genie's "strategic advisory board" and holds an equity stake in the projects.

It's that corrupt approach to journalism that has earned Murdoch and News Corp. the 2011 Misinformer of the Year award.

source: http://mediamatters.org/blog/201112150002?frontpage

Talking Points Memo

2011-12-16T06:13:00.000-05:00

Impact of the American Jobs Act on Education

First, the Department of Education released two interactive maps that display the American Jobs Act’s estimated impact on every state and school district in the nation. These maps and the downloadable dataset behind them can be found at http://data.ed.gov/american-jobs-act.

To view the full report, which includes a state-by-state appendix that integrates state- and school district-level data detailing the education investments of the American Jobs Act, please visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/aja_ed_state_by_state_report_final.pdf.

In addition, the Vice President paid a visit to Jacksonville this week to discuss the importance of making college affordable: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/12/09/vice-president-talks-college-affordability-florida

The End of the War in Iraq

This week, the US ended the war in Iraq and the President traveled to Fort Bragg to welcome the troops home. His speech is well worth your time. You can check it out here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/12/14/president-obama-fort-bragg-welcome-home

Health Care Reform

Also this week, a study shows that the Affordable Care Act has led to 2.5 million young adults now receiving health care. Check it out here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/12/14/new-data-thanks-health-reform-25-million-more-young-adults-have-health-insurance

Payroll Tax Cut

The President continues to push Congress to extend and expand his payroll tax cut, which will save the average American family some $1,500 in 2012. You can find a ton of information about the payroll tax cut as well as a calculator to see how much you can save here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/economy/jobs/we-cant-wait

Monkey Butt

2011-12-13T21:56:00.000-05:00

In one of the more vivid illustrations of the political landscape in some time David Axelrod had this to say about Newt Gingrich today. "Just remember, the higher a monkey climbs on a pole, the more you can see his butt," Axelrod said, citing a piece of political wisdom he said he learned from a Chicago alderman. "So, the speaker is very high on the pole right now and we'll see how people like the view."
READ MORE.....

Tell Sen. Harry Reid to Grow A Pair

2011-12-09T09:07:00.000-05:00

Tell Sen Harry Reid to Grow A Pair and Recess the Senate this break, even if it is just one

day, so Obama can make recess appointments.

Washington DC

522 Hart Senate Office Bldg

Washington, DC 20510

Phone: 202-224-3542

Fax: 202-224-7327

Phone: 775-882-REID (7343)

email: http://1.usa.gov/ufF0Ma

Deutch Amendment to Ban Corporate Spending in Elections Introduced in U.S. Senate

2011-12-08T11:46:00.000-05:00

Deutch Amendment to Ban Corporate
Spending in Elections Introduced in U.S. Senate
by Senator Bernie Sanders

Saving American Democracy Amendment Filed in Senate as Companion to OCCUPIED Amendment in House

Congressman Ted Deutch’s (D-FL) constitutional amendment to ban all corporate spending in elections and make clear that corporations are not people with constitutionally protected rights will be introduced in the United States Senate by Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT). TheSaving American Democracy Amendment is companion legislation to Congressman Deutch’s H.J. Res 90, the Outlawing Corporate Cash Undermining the Public Interest in our Elections and Democracy (OCCUPIED) Amendment.

Though several amendments aimed at overturning Citizens United have been introduced in recent weeks, the Sanders-Deutch amendment is the only proposal that:

Makes clear that free speech and other constitutionally protected rights are those of natural persons and not corporations or entities formed to promote their business interests.
Reaffirms that corporations are formed in accordance with laws written by the people and are thus subject to laws enacted to protect the environment, ensure public health, and other safeguards for the people.
Overturns Citizens United by ending corporations’ ability to spend unlimited amounts of their general treasury funds in elections.
Empowers Congress and the States to crack down on spending by third party front groups using anonymous cash from corporations and their CEOs and authorizes the setting of caps, limits, and disclosure requirements on all forms of political expenditures and contributions.

To read a fact sheet on the amendment, click here.

"I am thrilled that Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced the Saving American Democracy Amendment, a companion bill to H.J. Res 90, my legislation in the House,” said Congressman Deutch. “The dominance of corporations in Washington has imperiled the economic security of the American people and left our citizens profoundly disenchanted with our democracy. I look forward to working with Senator Sanders to save American democracy by banning all corporate spending in our elections and cracking down on secret front groups using anonymous corporate cash to undermine the public interest."

“There comes a time when an issue is so important that the only way to address it is by a constitutional amendment,” Sanders said of the effort to override the court decision that he labeled “a complete undermining of democracy.” TheSaving American Democracy Amendment is the first constitutional amendment ever proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders during his two decades in office.

To read the Senate version, click here.

To read the House version, click here.

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Former Congressman Robert Wexler Respond to Republican Jewish Coalition Presidential Forum

2011-12-07T19:30:00.003-05:00

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Former Congressman Robert Wexler Respond to Republican Jewish Coalition Presidential Forum

Washington, DC— This afternoon on a conference call, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Former Congressman Robert Wexler responded to the Republican Jewish Coalition Presidential Forum in Washington, DC.

To listen to audio of the call, please click on the following link: http://my.democrats.org/page/-/audio/calls/DWSWexler430ConfCall120711.mp3
On the call, Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said:
The Jewish community has always stood strong to care for the elderly and the sick, to fiercely defend equality and civil rights, and invest in education to give our children the brightest possible future. When we look at what President Obama is doing on these domestic policy issues, there is no question where he stands on the values that matter most to the Jewish community. And there is nothing, I mean nothing in the Republicans’ right wing social agenda that speaks to our community’s values, especially when it comes to protecting a woman’s right to choose, the separation of church and state, and investing in our children’s future.

The President’s unwavering commitment speaks for itself: Because of his leadership, we have raised U.S. military assistance to unprecedented levels, sending Israel the largest-ever security assistance funding in 2010, and raising that to $3 billion for 2011. Contrast that with what Mitt Romney and other leading Presidential candidates said less than a month ago when they advocated starting Israel’s foreign aid budget at zero.
On the call, Robert Wexler said:
What has occurred at the RJC is nothing less than the theater of the absurd. Absurd because Mr. Romney and others use allegations such as timid and weak in the context of President Obama and in the context of our relationship with Israel and the world, and nothing could be further from the truth. President Obama of course made an extraordinarily bold and courageous decision in terms of our ultimate elimination of Osama bin Laden.

The objective fact is that the security, cooperation, and security relationship between the United States and Israel has never been better. This President, President Barack Obama has ushered in an era of extraordinary strategic and military cooperation.

"I Can Hardly Remember a Better Period of American Support and Cooperation..." --Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak

"Ehud Barak Interview.” FoxNews, (Axelrod, David, Campaign 2012, as cited in “Democratic Voter,” IV, October 20, 2011, 1).

Barak on Barack - Asked on Fox News whether he thought Israelis were "disenchanted" with President Obama, Barak said:

"No. Our countries are good friends. And I'm the minister of defense. I can tell you that I can hardly remember...a better period of support, American support and cooperation and similar strategic understanding of events around us than what we have right now.

"The President didn't say that Israel should go back to the borders of '67. He made it very clear that he thinks that Palestinians deserve a state of their own. We also believe in two states...[a] secure Israel side by side with a emilitarized Palestinian state that will basically have the same area that the West Bank and Gaza Strip had before '67 with certain swaps, with understanding of the transformation on the ground."

[Over the next 15 months, Republicans will do their best to distort the President's record -- particularly on Israel. We've already seen them mischaracterizing the vision he's laid out for a new era of peace in the Middle East. It's up to supporters like us to set the record straight.

Health Care Consumers Won One Today

2011-12-04T11:47:00.001-05:00

That would be the provision of the new health law, called the medical loss ratio, that requires health insurance companies to spend 80% of the consumers’ premium dollars they collect—85% for large group insurers—on actual medical care rather than overhead, marketing expenses and profit. Failure on the part of insurers to meet this requirement will result in the insurers having to send their customers a rebate check representing the amount in which they underspend on actual medical care.

This is the true ‘Consumer Advantage ’ contained in Obamacare and the one item that will have more impact on the future of how medical care is paid for in this country than anything we’ve seen in quite some time. This law will end the "For Profit on Death and Dying" that has plagued the consumers in this country for over 100 years.

Today, that bomb goes off.

PROTECT THE VOTE - DNC LAUNCHES MICROSITE

2011-12-01T10:30:00.002-05:00

The Democratic National Committee will announce a new effort today to push back on restrictive voter ID laws, building it around a site called protectingthevote.org. They're putting out a report called "A Reversal in Progress: Restricting Voting Rights for Electoral Gain". DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz will hold a press conference call with reporters at 10:30 a.m. to discuss it. "Democrats will not sit idly by while the Republican Party attempts to infringe on the rights of American voters," DNC Counsel and Director of Voter Protection Will Crossley writes in an op-ed:http://politi.co/uSw2Lv . The new web site: http://bit.ly/txHCQK.

Message From: Markos Moulitsas, Daily Kos

2011-11-29T19:46:00.000-05:00

Protect IP is legislation that would -- no exaggeration -- destroy the social web as we know it. In short, this proposed law would allow corporate copyright holders the ability to cut off funding and compel the government to shut down websites they deem infringing, without the need of a court order. (See here for more information on this devastating bill.)

This poorly conceived piece of legislation has been rushed through Congress without proper debate, with only Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon standing between it and the president's desk. Pro-censorship forces have spent over $90 million to get this bill passed, we have, well, social media to fight back.

If you value Daily Kos, or Facebook, or Twitter, or any website which invites your participation, please take a moment to contact your senator.

Thanks,

Markos Moulitsas
Publisher, Daily Kos

Dems plan to move $1 trillion omnibus in December

2011-11-28T16:53:00.002-05:00

Senate Dems plan to move $1 trillion omnibus in December

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday he plans to move a massive omnibus spending bill in December, a move that will fire up opposition from Tea Party conservatives.

Reid says he wants to avoid the prospect of the federal government running for another year on stopgap spending measures.

Democratic aides argue that Reid, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and President Obama have already agreed to set the level of federal discretionary spending at $1.043 trillion for fiscal year 2012 so there’s no need for further drama.

Reid said he will encourage meetings between appropriators in the Senate and House to iron out differences over specific programs and policy riders and combine the remaining spending bills in one large package.

Read the complete story here.

Barney Frank Offers Several Reasons For Retiring

2011-11-28T13:25:00.002-05:00

Barney Frank Offers Several Reasons For Retiring

In his live press conference, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) offered a laundry list of reasons for retirement, among them: the fact he would be campaigning in a new district, meaning it would be a tough re-election; the fact that he doesn’t like raising money; and the desire to spend his next few years focusing on academic writing.

The Boston Globe reports that Frank’s decision was spurred in large part by redistricting, with him having lost some key strongholds and gained some relatively more conservative areas. On the other hand, Dem sources point out that the redrawn district is still heavily Democratic, having voted 61% for Barack Obama in 2008. A Dem source in Massachusetts says that a potential candidate is Brookline Selectwoman Jesse Mermell, who is said to have been putting her name around in case of a possible Frank retirement.

Frank will perhaps be best remembered on Capitol Hill for his quick wit and pugilistic attitude in political debates, combining both a serious approach to the issues and a certain lightheartedness about himself. From a 1996 interview with the New York Times:

Rep. Barney Frank won't run for reelection

2011-11-28T10:20:00.000-05:00

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) will announced Monday that he is not seeking re-election, a spokesman said Monday morning.

Frank is scheduled to hold a press conference at 1 p.m.

Read the complete story here.

Solyndra Hearings Pit Republicans Against Defense Dept.

2011-11-28T09:26:00.002-05:00

If House Republicans expected the Solyndra investigation to focus public attention on their opposition to President Obama's energy policies, by any measure they have succeeded. However, in gunning after the Department of Energy and its solar power loan program they have fallen prey to the law of unintended consequences, and are now heading on a collision course with the Department of Defense. Read More →

Schecter: Reagan and the Right made Iran what it is today

2011-11-27T09:44:00.000-05:00

RT America is the U.S. bureau of RT, formerly Russia Today. From its Washington, DC studio comes this clip of Peter Levelle’s show “Crosstalk” in which disgraced Tea Party Express leader Mark Williams goes head-to-head against The Real McCain author Cliff Schecter.

Sparks fly as Williams criticizes President Obama on his handling of foreign policy, including his relationship with Israel and the killing of Osama bib Laden. Schecter fires back, shooting down each of Williams’s talking points in turn. Williams falls back on the conservative complaint that Obama “bowed down” to Saudi King Abdullah, which Schecter counters by reminding Williams of the famous image of President Bush holding hands with Abdullah from 2005.

When Williams says Obama is soft on Iran, Schecter reminds him of the Iran Contra scandal, which broke 25 years ago on November 25 of 1986 as well as bringing up the Bloomberg reportthat prominent tea party backers the Koch brothers have been using European subsidiaries to do business with Iran in spite of the U.S. embargo. “Frankly,” he says, “Maybe if the Right would stop doing business with Iran, maybe they wouldn’t be as strong as they are right now.”

You can watch the video, embedded via Mediaite, below:

Why is the corporate media pushing war with Iran?

2011-11-24T13:00:00.000-05:00

.
	‘They Found Nothing. Nothing.’ The IAEA, Iran And ‘Fantasy Land’ Earlier this month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released its much-trailed report ‘presenting new evidence’, said the BBC, ‘suggesting that Iran is secretly working to obtain a nuclear weapon.’ Relying on ‘evidence provided by more than 10 member states as well as its own information’, the IAEA said Iran had carried out activities ‘relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device’. Having looked deeply into the claims, veteran journalist Seymour Hersh commented this week in an interview with Democracy Now!: ‘But you mentioned Iraq. It’s just this — almost the same sort of — I don’t know if you want to call it a "psychosis," but it’s some sort of a fantasy land being built up here, as it was with Iraq, the same sort of — no lessons learned, obviously.’ Indeed, informed scepticism in the corporate media has been muted or non-existent - the image of Iran as a ‘nuclear threat’ has yet again been imposed on the public mind. Any reasonable news reader and viewer would find it extremely difficult to question the emphatic declarations offered right across the media ‘spectrum’. Thus, a Guardian editorial asserted: ‘It really is time to drop the pretence that Iran can be deflected from its nuclear path.’ Two days earlier, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Julian Borger, anticipated the report’s publication on his ‘Global Security Blog’ with a piece titled ‘Iran “on threshold of nuclear weapon”’. The accompanying photograph helpfully depicted a giant mushroom cloud during a 1954 nuclear test over Bikini Atoll. His article was linked prominently from the home page of the Guardian website. In a later article, Borger gave prominence to a quote from an unnamed ‘source close to the IAEA’: ‘What is striking is the totality and breadth of the information [in the IAEA report]. Virtually every component of warhead research has been pursued by Iran.’ Presumably all-too-aware of increased public scepticism in the wake of Iraq, the anonymous source continued in the Guardian: ‘The agency has very, very, high confidence in its analysis. It did not want to make a mistake, and it was aware it had a very high threshold of credibility to meet. So it would not be published unless they had that high level of confidence.’ In similar vein, a New York Times report opened with: ‘United Nations weapons inspectors have amassed a trove of new evidence that they say makes a “credible” case that “Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear device,” and that the project may still be under way.’ The Daily Telegraph declared its version of the truth unequivocally in a leader titled ‘Iran’s nuclear menace’. It noted that the IAEA report ‘has for the first time acknowledged that Tehran is conducting secret experiments whose sole purpose is the development of weapons.’ Presumably drawing on clairvoyant powers, the editors added: ‘Indeed, the IAEA has known for years that Tehran was building an atomic weapon, but has been reluctant to say so.’ The title of an editorial (November 10, 2011) in The Times was similarly categorical and damning: ‘Deadly Deceit; Iran's bellicose duplicity is definitively exposed by an IAEA report’: ‘Tehran's decade-long nuclear programme is obviously not intended purely for generating electricity. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed this week that it has credible evidence that Iran has worked on the development of nuclear weapons.’ The editorial stamped this with the required emphasis: ‘This will sound, and is, a statement of such banality that it ought not to need saying.’ And then continued without a shred of uncertainty: ‘The IAEA report is extensive and understated. Founded on intelligence sources from ten countries, it explains in detail how Iran has established a programme to develop the technologies for a nuclear weapon. Its findings are entirely consistent with all that has been known and exposed before. Indeed, the IAEA is late in stating them.’ For anyone relying solely on corporate news media coverage, the case against Iran was closed. All that remained was to decide the necessary course of international action: ramped-up ’diplomacy’, international sanctions and perhaps – the threat was left ‘lying on the table’ – war. What is so breathtaking is that the apparent consensus on Iran, like the case against Iraq, is a fraud. Burying The Cable – WikiLeaks And IAEA Chief Yukiya Amano One of the stunning omissions in corporate media coverage of the IAEA report are the WikiLeaks disclosures concerning IAEA chief, Yukiya Amano. According to a US Embassy cable from a US diplomat in Vienna, where the IAEA is based, Amano described himself as ‘solidly in the U.S. court on every key strategic decision, from high-level personnel appointments to the handling of Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program.’ Amano’s predecessor as IAEA chief was Mohammed ElBaradei who had refused to bow before US war-mongering, and who was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. As ElBaradei came to the end of his term in 2009, the Americans sensed an opportunity to work with someone more compliant. They lobbied successfully on Amano’s behalf. Following his election as IAEA chief, a US cable reported on a meeting with him: ‘This meeting, Amano's first bilateral review since his election, illustrates the very high degree of convergence between his priorities and our own agenda at the IAEA. The coming transition period provides a further window for us to shape Amano's thinking before his agenda collides with the IAEA Secretariat bureaucracy.’ This ‘very high degree of convergence’ would presumably be useful in hyping the alleged ‘nuclear threat’ of Iran. A US mission cable from Vienna commented that Amano was ‘DG [Director-General] of all states, but in agreement with us.’ The Guardian reported the Amano cable in a blog back in November 2010, but not in the paper itself. Our newspaper database search revealed that not a single UK national newspaper has mentioned the WikiLeaks cable revealing that Amano is ‘solidly in the U.S. court’ in coverage of the latest IAEA report. The sole exception we could find anywhere in the UK print media was an article in the New Statesman by Mehdi Hasan. Rather than report this vital evidence from WikiLeaks, the British media have either tried to silence or vilify its founder, Julian Assange. This is a truly damning indictment of the ‘free press’. By contrast, Seymour Hersh is a rare voice of rationality exposing this latest propaganda hype. On Democracy Now!,Hersh commented of former US Vice-President Dick Cheney: ‘Cheney kept on having the Joint Special Operations Force Command, JSOC — they would send teams inside Iran. They would work with various dissident groups — the Azeris, the Kurds, even Jundallah, which is a very fanatic Sunni opposition group — and they would do everything they could to try and find evidence of an undeclared underground facility. We monitored everything. We have incredible surveillance. In those days, what we did then, we can even do better now. And some of the stuff is very technical, very classified, but I can tell you, there's not much you can do in Iran right now without us finding out something about it. They found nothing. Nothing. No evidence of any weaponization. In other words, no evidence of a facility to build the bomb. They have facilities to enrich, but not separate facilities for building a bomb. This is simply a fact. We haven’t found it, if it does exist. It’s still a fantasy.’ Hersh said that Iran did look ‘at the idea of getting a bomb or getting to the point where maybe they could make one. They did do that, but they stopped in ’03. That’s still the American consensus. The Israelis will tell you privately, “Yes, we agree.”’ He described the new IAEA report as ‘not a scientific report, it’s a political document’, noting that ‘Amano has pledged his fealty to America.’ Amano had been ‘a marginal candidate’ for the position of IAEA chief but the US wanted him in place: ‘We supported him very much. Six ballots. He was considered weak by everybody, but we pushed to get him in. We did get him in. He responded by thanking us and saying he shares our views. He shares our views on Iran... it was just an expression of love. He’s going to do what we wanted.’ In a blog on The New Yorker website, Hersh added that one of the classified US Embassy cables from Vienna described Amano as being ‘ready for prime time.’ The cable also noted that Amano’s ‘willingness to speak candidly with U.S. interlocutors on his strategy … bodes well for our future relationship.’ In his Democracy Now! interview, Hersh pointed out that his blog piece was thoroughly researched and checked by The New Yorker, and that it included expert testimony shunned by the major newspapers: ‘These are different voices than you’re seeing in the papers. I sometimes get offended by the same voices we see in the New York Times and Washington Post. We don’t see people with different points of view… And I get emails, like crazy, from people on the inside saying, “Way to go.” I’m talking about inside the IAEA. It’s an organization that doesn’t deal with the press, but internally, they’re very bothered by the direction Amano is taking them.’ Hersh cited Robert Kelley, a retired IAEA director and nuclear engineer who previously spent more than thirty years with the US Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapons programme: ‘He noted that hundreds of pages of material appears to come from a single source: a laptop computer, allegedly supplied to the I.A.E.A. by a Western intelligence agency, whose provenance could not be established. Those materials, and others, “were old news,” Kelley said, and known to many journalists. “I wonder why this same stuff is now considered ‘new information’ by the same reporters.” ’ An assessment of the IAEA report was published by the Arms Control Association (ACA), a non-profit organisation campaigning for effective arms control. Greg Thielmann, a former US State Department and Senate Intelligence Committee analyst who was one of the authors of the ACA assessment, told Hersh: ‘There is troubling evidence suggesting that studies are still going on, but there is nothing that indicates that Iran is really building a bomb. Those who want to drum up support for a bombing attack on Iran sort of aggressively misrepresented the report.’ The BBC ‘Notes’ Privately That There Are Dissenting Views On November 9, 2011, a BBC news piece carried a side bar ‘analysis’ by James Reynolds, the BBC’s Iran correspondent. We wrote to him the same day: I hope you’re safe and well there. In your analysis which is included in the BBC News article ‘UN nuclear agency IAEA: Iran “studying nuclear weapons”’, you note that: ‘The agency stresses that the evidence it presents in its report is credible and well-sourced.’ You then add: ‘Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed the IAEA as puppet of the United States. His government has already declared that its findings are baseless and inauthentic.’ You attribute such views to Iran, an officially-declared enemy of the West. A more balanced approach might be to report that a US Embassy Cable published last year revealed that Yukiya Amano, the IAEA director general, is ‘solidly in the U.S. court on every key strategic decision’. And according to a recent New York Times report: ‘the Obama administration, acutely aware of how what happened in Iraq undercut American credibility, is deliberately taking a back seat, eager to make the conclusions entirely the I.A.E.A.’s, even as it continues to press for more international sanctions against Iran.’ Shouldn’t these crucial facts be noted in your analysis? The NYT report continues: ‘When the director of the agency, Yukiya Amano, came to the White House 11 days ago to meet top officials of the National Security Council about the coming report, the administration declined to even confirm he had ever walked into the building.’ Isn’t all this relevant in assessing the context, realpolitik and implications of the IAEA report? Can you not find critical commentators outside the Iranian government whom you can quote? Given the stakes involved, would you perhaps consider addressing the above points in your analysis in future, please? Many thanks. Rather than address any of the above points, Reynolds emailed back: ‘thanks for your message. I appreciate your comments and insight.’ (Email, November 9, 2011) Just over a week later, a new BBC piece appeared in which the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany claimed to have ‘deep and increasing concern’ over Iran's nuclear programme. We emailed Reynolds again (November 18, 2011): Have you considered interviewing sceptical and informed commentators? For example, you could approach the experienced investigative journalist Gareth Porter. He says that the recent IAEA report’s ‘dubious intelligence [is being] used as pretext for tougher sanctions’: Porter’s analysis is backed up by Robert Kelley, a nuclear engineer who has carried out IAEA inspections. Kelley believes that ‘the report misleads and manipulates facts in [an] attempt to prove a forgone conclusion.’ He also says that the IAEA report ‘recycles old intelligence and is meant to bolster hard liners.’ Shouldn’t you also be including such important and informed views in your reporting for BBC News? Not hearing from him, we nudged Reynolds on November 21 when he again avoided addressing the points made: ‘I received your message - thanks. I shall reflect on the points you raise. ‘It is always important for me to hear from licence-fee payers - the lifeblood of the BBC.’ (James Reynolds, email, November 21, 2011) We tried once more to elicit a response from the BBC’s Iran correspondent that actually addressed the points put to him: I appreciate your reply. But with the resources of the BBC at your disposal, you surely cannot be unaware of the informed commentators and important points presented to you [in the previous emails]. It is notable that you do not appear to have included them in any of your BBC reports to date. Why not? Nor have you reported - although I may have missed it - that IAEA chief Yukiya Amano is regarded by the US,according to a WikiLeaks cable, as 'solidly in the U.S. court on every key strategic decision, from high-level personnel appointments to the handling of Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program.' Why remain silent about this astonishing fact? Isn't this crucially relevant for public understanding of what is happening over Iran? Perhaps there are editorial reasons that are making it difficult for you to properly report these vital issues? (Email, November 22, 2011) To no avail: the response was even more terse this time: ‘points noted.’ (James Reynolds, email, November 22, 1011) Curiously, ‘the lifeblood of the BBC’ deserves no better than this. Can journalists really have forgotten the propaganda offensive that predated the March 19, 2003 invasion of Iraq – a tsunami of disinformation in which they were accomplices? Have they really learned nothing? What gives them the right to absolve themselves and to start with a clean slate now that Iran is the next hyped ‘threat’? Surely now more than ever - as the spectre of yet another war in the Middle East looms, perhaps the greatest conflagration yet - it is vital that journalists should be wary of repeating propaganda claims over Iran. SUGGESTED ACTION The goal of Media Lens is to promote rationality, compassion and respect for others. If you do write to journalists, we strongly urge you to maintain a polite, non-aggressive and non-abusive tone. Please write to: Julian Borger, diplomatic editor of the Guardian Email: julian.borger@guardian.co.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/julianborger James Reynolds, BBC Iran correspondent Email: james.reynolds@bbc.co.uk Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East editor Email: jeremy.bowen@bbc.co.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/jfjbowen Please blind-copy us in on any exchanges or forward them to us later at: editor@medialens.org
		......

Dem strategist accuses Romney of invoking Rev. Wright in new ad

2011-11-23T09:36:00.002-05:00

Dem strategist accuses Romney of invoking Rev. Wright in new ad
By Justin Sink

Democratic strategist Tad Devine, an adviser to Al Gore and John Kerry's presidential campaigns, accused Mitt Romney's campaign of invoking controversial pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright in a recent ad.

Devine said Wednesday that he was "shocked" to see what he believed to be imagery of an African American church in an ad released Tuesday by Romney's presidential team and airing in New Hampshire. The ad, Romney's first of the campaign, is "clearly an attempt to bring back Rev. Wright and race," Devine tweeted.

In the ad, a series of images including those of a foreclosed home and empty businesses flash by as text criticizes President Obama's economic record. But at two points, the imagery cuts to well-dressed African-American women walking down a large hallway, and pans over a predominantly black audience.

Devine believes that these images were selected intentionally to invoke the Jeremiah Wright controversy.

"I was really surprised and even shocked to see a "flash" scene in the new Romney ad that depicts an African American church congregation (eerily reminiscent of Rev Wright)," Devine said in a post to his Facebook page early Wednesday. "They are obviously trying to raise the race issue through the backdoor. Maybe they are worried about how poorly Romney is doing in South Carolina."

The Romney campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the complete story here.

Read Obama's Race Speech Here

Another Poll Proving Fox News Viewers Are The Least Informed

2011-11-23T09:05:00.000-05:00

Fox News viewers are less informed than people who don't watch any news, according to a new poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

The poll surveyed New Jersey residents about the uprisings in Egypt and the Middle East, and where they get their news sources. The study, which controlled for demographic factors like education and partisanship, found that "people who watch Fox News are 18-points less likely to know that Egyptians overthrew their government" and "6-points less likely to know that Syrians have not yet overthrown their government" compared to those who watch no news.

Overall, 53% of all respondents knew that Egyptians successfully overthrew Hosni Mubarak and 48% knew that Syrians have yet to overthrow their government.

By contrast, some media sources have a positive effect on political knowledge. For

example, people who report reading a national newspaper like The New York Times or

USA Today are 12-points more likely to know that Egyptians have overthrown their

government than those who have not looked at any news source. And those who listen

to the non-profit NPR radio network are 11-points more likely to know the outcome of

the revolt against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. However, the best informed

respondents are those that watched Sunday morning news programs: leading to a 16-

point increase in the likelihood of knowing what happened in Egypt and an 8-point

increase in the likelihood of knowing what happened in Syria.

"Sunday morning news shows tend to spend a lot more time on a single issue than other

news broadcasts, and they are less likely to degenerate into people shouting at each

other," said Cassino. "Viewers pick up more information from this sort of calm discussion

than from other formats. Unfortunately, these shows have a much smaller audience than

the shouters."

READ THE POLL

UC Davis Chancellor's Chilling Walk of Shame

2011-11-21T20:39:00.000-05:00

The Twilight Zone-like video above, shot and posted by Lee Fang, was taped this evening as UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi walked to her car while students lined the sidewalk and roadway, sitting and locking arms in complete silence. Their demonstration came on the heels of Katehi's support of the hyper-militarized UC Davis Police Department's outrageous and brutal use of pepper spray on dozens of compliant, peaceful Occupy demonstrators who were sitting in a circle, locking arms, on the campus quad yesterday.
We covered the shocking pepper spray incident, including the remarkable photographs and videos of the event, along with the calls for Katehi's resignation,earlier today here.
Fang's describes what happened leading to the haunting moment seen in the video above this way:

A pretty remarkable thing just happened. A press conference, scheduled for 2:00pm between the UC Davis Chancellor and police on campus, did not end at 2:30. Instead, a mass of Occupy Davis students and sympathizers mobilized outside, demanding to have their voice heard. After some initial confusion, UC Chancellor Linda Katehi refused to leave the building, attempting to give the media the impression that the students were somehow holding her hostage.
A group of highly organized students formed large gap for the chancellor to leave. They chanted “we are peaceful” and “just walk home,” but nothing changed for several hours. Eventually student representatives convinced the chancellor to leave after telling their fellow students to sit down and lock arms.

The blatant torture of peaceful demonstrators on the UC Davis campus yesterday was just the latest in a string of similarly appalling incidents of violence orchestrated by highly militarized "law enforcement" officials over the last several weeks across the nation in response to the growing Occupy Wall Street movement. We detailed a number of the most disturbing recent incidents, many of them caught on video tape and photographs, in this report yesterday.

* * *posted at bradsblog

Rape Victim of Jerry Sandusky, bullied out of of High School

2011-11-21T18:13:00.001-05:00

The boy who first came forward to accuse former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky of sexual assault recently left high school in the middle of his senior year because of intense harassment. Former head coach Joe Paterno’s attorney told Good Morning America that the coach strongly condemns bullying. That might be little comfort for the victim—his mother told ABC that students are blaming her son for the firing of Paterno

video platform video management video solutions video player

Rep. Ted Deutch Unveils OCCUPIED Constitutional Amendment

2011-11-18T12:11:00.000-05:00

Bans Corporate Money in Elections and Declares Corporations Are Not People

Congressman Ted Deutch (FL-19), a Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, introduced the Outlawing Corporate Cash Undermining the Public Interest in our Elections and Democracy (OCCUPIED) Constitutional Amendment. The OCCUPIED Amendment both overturns the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that wrongly awarded the Constitutionally-protected free speech rights of people to corporations and totally bans corporate money from America’s electoral process.

“No matter how long protesters camp out across America, big banks will continue to pour money into shadow groups promoting candidates more likely to slash Medicaid for poor children than help families facing foreclosure,” said Rep. Deutch. “No matter how strongly Ohio families fight for basic fairness for workers, the Koch Brothers will continue to pour millions into campaigns aimed at protecting the wealthiest 1%. No matter how fed up seniors in South Florida are with an agenda that puts oil subsidies ahead of Social Security and Medicare, corporations will continue to fund massive publicity campaigns and malicious attack ads against the public interest. Americans of all stripes agree that for far too long, corporations have occupied Washington and drowned out the voices of the people. I introduced the OCCUPIED Amendment because the days of corporate control of our democracy. It is time to return the nation’s capital and our democracy to the people.”

Though several amendments aimed at overturning Citizens United have been introduced in recent weeks, Rep. Deutch’s OCCUPIED Amendment is the only proposal that:

Makes clear that free speech and other constitutionally protected rights are those of natural persons and not corporations or entities formed to promote their business interests.
Reaffirms that corporations are formed under the laws of Congress and the States and are thus subject to laws enacted to protect the environment, ensure public health, and other safeguards for the people.
Overturns Citizens United by ending corporations’ ability to spend unlimited amounts of their general treasury funds in elections.
Sets the stage for real campaign finance reform by reasserting the authority of Congress to regulate all election contributions and expenditures, including those of individuals and groups funneling money anonymously to influence elections.

The introduction of Congressman Deutch’s amendment was applauded by several public interest leaders dedicated to stopping corporations from buying elections to pad their profits:

“Public Citizen enthusiastically applauds and endorses Representative Ted Deutch’s proposed constitutional amendment, which would comprehensively repair the damage done to our democracy by Citizens United,” said Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen. “It would clarify that constitutional rights are intended for real, live, breathing human beings. It would end corporate spending on elections. And it would give Congress authority to adopt a sensible campaign finance system. It would make American stronger, more democratic and more just.”

“We join Americans across the nation in applauding Congressman Ted Deutch for affirming fundamental truths self-evident to almost everyone except five guys on the Supreme Court: For-profit corporations are not people and thus are not entitled to the same constitutional rights as people,” said Lisa Graves, Executive Director of the Center for Media Democracy, publisher of PRWatch.org and ALECexposed.org, and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General. “No other congressional effort has so directly confronted the twin problems created by judges who have arrogantly granted rights to corporations, without democratic consent, and overturned bipartisan laws that limited the corrupting influence of money in our elections.”

“The problems caused by the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizen’s United must be addressed – and we’re delighted to see Representative Deutch offer a comprehensive solution to stop the flood of corporate money in our electoral system,” said Marge Baker, Executive Vice President of Policy and Programs for People for the American Way. “Our democracy belongs to all of the people, not just the wealthy, and not to large and powerful corporate interests. Amending the constitution is the best tool we have to protect that democracy for the American people. Rep. Deutch’s amendment is a positive step toward ensuring that our elected officials remain accountable to the people they are in office to serve.”
Click here to read the OCCUPIED amendment.
Click here for a backgrounder on the amendment.

Ruling on standing in the Prop 8 case

2011-11-17T13:15:00.000-05:00

At 1 p.m. EST, the California Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling on standing in the Prop 8 case. Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights and chairman of Faith in America's board of directors will have an analysis of the decision at the Prop8 Tracker web site. Minter led the legal team for the In re Marriage Cases decision before the California Supreme Court in 2008, among others. Look for the analysis at theProp 8 web site.

#Occupy Plans Massive New Protest

2011-11-17T09:00:00.000-05:00

The freshly evicted Occupy Wall Street protesters may not have a home, but they’re booked solid Thursday. Tens of thousands of 99 percenters are planning a citywide event that will begin Thursday morning on the two-month anniversary of the movement. The march will start in the financial district, with the goal of interfering with the workday. By midday, protesters will target public transportation hubs, while students are urged to stage walkouts. The demonstrators will converge on lower Manhattan's Foley Square where a rally will take place—backed by the city’s unions and reportedly supported by a permit.

Read it at The Wall Street Journal

SAMPLE OF BILLS HOUSE DEMS PASSED, GOP SENATE BLOCKED LAST SESSION!

2011-11-14T07:04:00.000-05:00

n addition to the constant trashing of Obama's actual record with lies and distortions, I'm also sick to death of claims that Democrats "had no spines" and couldn't pass anything. Republicans held Congress from 1994-2006 and rigged the filibuster rules. If you'll remember, they pretended to try to kill the filibuster, and in the process, ended up simplifying the rules, making it easier for a single senator to hold up a bill anonymously, and require 60 votes for cloture, to to release that hold.

Put simply, the SOLUTION to the problem in 2010 would have been to keep the House, and reduce the number of Republicans in the Senate. Instead, we had the Right Wing crying "Democrats can't get anything done!" and the Left Wing crying, "Democrats can't get anything done!" THAT is why Democrats lost so badly last year; instead of ofering up an alternate viewpoint, we basically echoed theirs. That's what drove turnout down, and gave the GOP one of the biggest wins in their history.

Read these and tell me Democrats weren't trying really hard to make things better. Again; these are bills that were PASSED by the Democratic House, and BLOCKED by 40-41 solid votes in the Senate. Compare these to the complete SHIT the current Republican-led House is producing, and then tell us again how there's no difference between the two parties.

We really have to stop self-destructing. Democrats ARE much better than Republicans, the previous Democratic House, led by Nancy Pelosi, DID try like hell to make this country better.

Again; this is a partial list?

HR 12 – Paycheck Fairness Act – While the Lily Ledbetter Act was a good start, this bill would have mandated pay fairness and prohibited pay discrimination based on sex. In other words, while Lily’s Bill made it easier for women to sue, this would have created fair workplace system with regard to pay. In other words, Republicans voted in favor of paying women less money for the same job.

H.R. 20 -- Melanie Blocker Stokes Mom’s Opportunity to Access Health, Education, Research, and Support for Postpartum Depression Act – This bill would have provided for research into women’s health issues, specifically regarding post-partum health. That kind of reinforces the overall impression Republicans give, that they care a whole lot about the fetus, but couldn’t care less once the baby is born, and they don’t care about women at all.

H.R. 320 -- CJ’s Home Protection Act – This bill would have provided for changes in building standards to require manufactured homes to come equipped with a weather alert radio and an alarm during certain weather conditions, like tornadoes. The bill allowed for possible exemptions based on geography on a limited basis, so it wouldn't "force" anyone to install them where they weren't needed. In case you think this type of thing is just silly, think again. NOAA weather radio was created in the wake of a “super outbreak” of tornados in April 1974. Within a 16-hour period, 148 tornados touched down, killing 330 people and injuring more than 5,000. Tornado warnings were beuing issued so fast, local radio and television stations couldn’t keep up. As most of us know by now, manufactured housing is more vulnerable during weather related events. Now, NOAA’s weather radio warning system covers 98% of the country, and the installation of what amounts to $20-50 worth of electronic equipment in manufactured homes could end up saving hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. Basically, for the sake of political expediency, Republicans said no to saving lives during bad weather.

H.R. 448 -- Elder Abuse Victims Act – This bill would address legal issues regarding the elderly, and establish policies and procedures designed to minimize the negative effects of elder abuse, neglect and exploitation. Is there a segment of the population Republicans DO care about? They don’t care for women, they don’t care for the elderly, and their feigned care for fetuses ends at the birth canal. Perhaps they care about the troops…

H.R. 466 – Wounded Veteran Job Security Act – This bill would actually provide job security for veterans who are receiving medical treatment for injuries suffered while fighting in defense of their country. It would prohibit employers from terminating employees who miss work while receiving treatment for a service-related disability. Guess that answers that question; they don’t care about the troops, either. This isn't the only bill they have blocked having to do with the troops, either.

H.R. 515 – Radioactive Import Deterrence Act – This one has to make you scratch your head. Basically, this bill would prohibit the issuance of licenses to import of low-level nuclear material and waste to this country. It specifically exempts nuclear waste belonging to the United States, and it allows the president to make exceptions where necessary. Is this an industry Republicans are anxious to establish in this country? Do we really want to become a repository of the entire world’s nuclear waste? How safe would you feel if they opened a nuclear dump right next to the elementary school?

H.R. 549 -- National Bombing Prevention Act – Yes, this bill would do exactly what you think it would do, and Republicans have blocked it. This is the language used by the CRS to describe the bill: “Amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish within the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Protective Security Coordination Division of the Office of Infrastructure Protection an Office for Bombing Prevention to enhance and coordinate U.S. efforts to deter, detect, prevent, protect against, and respond to terrorist explosive attacks in the United States.” I don’t know about you, but taking whatever measures are necessary to prevent terrorist bombings would seem to me to be pretty important. Their blockage of this bill certainly indicates that they simply don’t really care about this country’s security. (By the way, they have also blocked H.R. 553 – Reducing Over-Classification Act, which is designed to make the Department of Homeland Security more efficient and responsive, which would save taxpayers a lot of money and make us safer over the long haul. Again; why do Republicans not want us to be safer? Next time someone suggests that Republicans want us to be attacked again, you simply have to think twice before dismissing the argument as paranoid delusion, don't you?

H.R. 577 – Vision Care for Kids Act – Of course, this would provide eyesight screening for children who do not have insurance that covers this, and help provide them with glasses. Seriously, this is, at most, about $250-300 per year , at most, for the children with bad eyesight; how cheap are Republicans? And why do they pretend to care so passionately about the fetus, but have no regard for them once they're born?

H.R. 626 – Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act – This puts the lie to the concept that Republicans are all about the family. It also demonstrates just how much Republicans want to stick it to Democrats, because to stop this bill is completely irrational. This bill would allow federal employees to substitute any available paid leave for any unpaid leave for “either the: (1) birth of a child; or (2) placement of a child with the employee for either adoption or foster care. Makes available (subject to specified requirements) for any of the 12 weeks of leave an employee is entitled to for such purposes: (1) four administrative weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth or placement involved; and (2) any accumulated annual or sick leave.” In other words, folks, it allows federal money to take money they are already entitled to sooner than perhaps they originally planned. The actual net cost to the federal government would essentially be zero dollars above what they would already pay these employees. Does this sound like a political party that gives a damn about the average American or families? The answer, of course, is no.

H.R. 780 – Student Internet Safety Act – For a political party that's always railing about the disgusting content available to kids on the Internet, blocking this bill is especially hypocritical. This bill would provide money so that schools to teach children how to protect themselves against online predators, cyberbullying, or unwanted exposure to inappropriate material, as well as to promote parents’ involvement in their child’s Internet usage. Once again, Republicans demonstrate an unwillingness to protect our children. So far, they have denied kids basic vision care, denied their parents their right to take a proper parental leave without going broke, and now, they don’t care to protect them on the Internet.

H.R. 911 -- Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act – This bill would actually improve oversight and prevent child abuse in group homes. Once again, they demonstrate their complete disregard for children once they’re out of the womb.

H.R. 985 -- Free Flow of Information Act – This bill would provide for a federal shield law for journalists who actually do investigative journalism. So, here’s the question; are Republicans -- who are always on about being "strict constructionists" -- now against protecting the free press? As a shield law, it doesn’t even provide unqualified immunity, as federal judges could declare certain news stories as having a public interest based confidential sources. Perhaps they don’t care about this law, since it’s unlikely anyone from Fox News will ever come under it.

H.R. 1029 – Alien Smuggling and Terrorism Prevention Act – Yes, another bill that does what its title says it will do, and Republicans blocked it. With all of their phony “tough talk” regarding immigration, this should come as a surprise to pretty much everyone, regardless of your level of racism. The intent of this bill is to crack down on alien smuggling and provide for better border enforcement and stiffer penalties for violators. In other words, it does many of the things Jan Brewer is pissed off about in Arizona. So, what IS the Republican stance on immigration? They’re against going after employers who hire illegal immigrants, and apparently, they’re against stricter laws against those who smuggle people into this country. They’re apparently against anything that might actually work. If you're in favor of immigration reform and you're planning to vote Republican, think again.

H.R. 1110 – PHONE Act and H.R. 1258 – The Truth in Caller ID Act – These consumer protection bills would make it a crime for anyone to “spoof” their caller ID record when engaging in any sort of commercial transaction, or in any case in which the intent is to defraud the person on the other end of the line. Two common sense bills that prevent consumers from being ripped off, and Republicans have blocked both of them.

H.R. 1168 -- Veterans Retraining Act – This bill would provide for assistance to help veterans who are currently unemployed with their expenses while retraining for the current job market. So, what do Republicans have against the unemployed, and why do they hate the troops?

H.R. 1171 – Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program Reauthorization – Once again, you have to wonder; what do Republicans have against those who have served our country? This bill would reauthorize programs in support of homeless veterans, to assist them with job training, counseling, and placement services through the Department of Veterans Affairs through 2014. Perhaps they think of “troops” the same way they think of “fetuses”; we should “honor” them while they’re fighting unnecessary wars, but forget them the minute they leave the service? They have also blocked H.R. 1172 -- Requiring List on VA Website of Organizations Providing Scholarships for Veterans which does nothing more than direct the Department of Veterans Affairs to include information about scholarships for veterans. Why do Republicans hate the troops once they come home?

H.R. 1262, Water Quality Investment Act – This bill would not only invest needed funds into improving water quality in areas where it’s needed, but it would also create jobs for those who work in that industry, so this is a double whammy. Apparently, Republicans don’t care if some folks have to drink contaminated water, and they certainly don’t want your tax money going to make your life better, do they?

H.R. 1293 -- Disabled Veterans Home Improvement and Structural Alteration Grant Increase Act of 2009 – Here’sanother bill in support of those who have fought for their country, passed by House Democrats and blocked from becoming law by Republicans. Clearly, Republicans hate the troops, because there is no other reason to be against this bill. This would increase the amount paid by the VA to disabled veterans for necessary home structural improvements from $4,100 to $6,800 for those who are more than 50% disabled, and from $1,200 to $2,000 who are less than 50%, disabled. This means, if a veteran lost the use of his legs in service of his country, the country will pay for the wheelchair ramp so that he can live at home. Yet, Republicans, who have been admonishing everyone to love the troops without question, are denying them the ability to do so. By the way, the last time this ceiling was lifted was in 1992. If Republican presidents are going to start unnecessary wars, is it too much to ask to support those who actually put their bodies on the line? There isn't even a fiscal reason for being against this bill, as the total cost of this bill, according to CBO estimates, would be a “whopping” $20 million. That's about a quarter (25 cents) per family of four.

H.R. 1319 – Informed P2P User Act – This is an interesting bill for a couple of reasons. First of all, the bill itself is yet another consumer protection measure, designed to protect Internet users from malware that comes from installation of any peer-to-peer program. Frankly, this bill isn’t as crucial as many of the others shown here, in that it doesn’t directly adversely affect the lives of ordinary people. But it does demonstrate that Republicans are filibustering pretty much anything the House throws to them, because this bill was originally written and sponsored by Mary Bono Mack, a Republican.

H.R. 1380 -- Josh Miller HEARTS Act – This is another one that should make one wonder, just what are these people for? This bill would provide matching grants to assist local school districts in purchasing defibrillators to have on hand to save lives, should a student, teacher, staffer or visitor have a heart attack. The school district would have to apply, and provide at least 25% of the cost. Why would anyone block something like this? It makes money for the manufacturers of the defibrillators, it creates a few jobs, and in the end, it saves lives. As someone who once watched a kid fall over and die during a PF class when I was in high school, I can tell you, this is a very real issue. And Republicans are playing politics with it.

H.R. 1429, Stop AIDS in Prison Act – Who in their right mind would be against this? This bill would provide testing of all prisoners during intake, provide for annual testing of inmates, testing of pregnant inmates, and provide for AIDS education for inmates. It would also direct prisons to develop policies for dealing with HIV. See, here’s the problem that Republicans never seem able to grasp when it comes to anything to do with crime and prisons; the vast majority of prisoners will one day be released. This should be a no-brainer; we have custody of these people, let’s do our best to make sure they’re less of a danger to everyone else when they get out.

H.R. 1469 – Child Protection Improvements Act – The Republicans once again demonstrate how little they care about children once they’re out of the womb. This is a no-brainer bill designed to enhance and streamline the processes for doing background checks, including identifying criminal histories for those people who are looking for jobs that put them in close proximity to children. In what universe is this not an important bill? Republicans are actually preventing us from putting in place better protections for our children, and to keep pedophiles and child molesters far away from them.

H.R. 1511 – Torture Victims Relief Reauthorization Act – This bill designates appropriations for fiscal years 2010-2011 to assist domestic treatment centers for torture victims, including training of health care providers. Once again, what do Republicans have against helping those who need it.? This is about making sure people who come here as torture victims have a shot at the American Dream, just like the rest of us. That’s the problem with these Republicans; they talk a great game when it comes to claims of providing opportunity, but they simply do not want to do what is necessary to make it happen.

H.R. 1514 – Juvenile Accountability Block Grants Program Reauthorization Act – This bill does exactly what it says. It provides block grants to states to help them pay for juvenile justice. Those Republicans – tough on crime, but not so tough on criminals.

H.R. 1580 – Electronic Waste Research and Development Act – This bill would actually create research programs and grants to develop ways to make electronics more recyclable, to make them from materials that are more environmentally friendly and to create a better system of disposal of electronic equipment. In other words, folks, Republicans are blocking a bill that would make the creation and disposal of electronics, like cell phones, iPods and laptops more environmentally friendly, so that our children might not grow up to a poisonous planet. And lest you think they were simply trying to be “fiscally responsible,” the total cost of this bill would be $84 million (that’s an “m,” not a “b”) over 5 years. It’ll cost your family of four another quarter a year; think you can handle it?

H.R. 1585 -- FIT Kids Act – This would develop programs targeted to making our kids healthy, by teaching them healthy eating habits, monitor physical education programs and providing local school systems with grants to help them improve children’s health-related programs. Once again; what do Republicans have against children who are born?

H.R. 1617 – Department of Homeland Security Component Privacy Officer Act – So, this bill would change little to nothing about the Department of Homeland Security, except to create Privacy Officer positions in several areas of the Department, whose duty would be to protect the balance between our need for national security and our right to privacy. In other words, someone would provide oversight to make sure that someone in the government didn’t decide that, say, tapping everyone’s phone and violating their right to privacy was absolutely necessary to keep everyone safe. Do they get that, when we allow our rights to be compromised in order to fight terrorism, the terrorists win. Republicans seem to want the terrorists to win.

H.R. 1622 – Research and Development Programs for Natural Gas Vehicles – This is one that has to make you shake your head, you know? This bill would make yet another alternative fuel more viable, and save us some money, so Republicans have to be against it. It won’t cost a lot of money; about $25 million a year over 6 years. There’s another quarter a year to your family of four, so that we can use our domestic supply of natural gas to wean ourselves from that “foreign oil” Republicans have been whining about for years. Of course, we all know their whines have been a joke, haven’t we?

H.R. 1675 – Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2009 – This bill would strengthen programs that allow the poorest people in society, with serious long-term disabilities to live independently by providing affordable rental housing, as well as adequate voluntary services and support. Currently, there is a chronic shortage of such housing in many areas, and this legislation would create more. In other words, it would create more opportunities for the disabled to be more self-sufficient, which is something Republicans have always claimed they were in favor of.

H.R. 1709 – STEM Education Coordination Act – The acronym STEM refers to Science-Technology-Engineering-Math, and this bill would create a committee under the National Sciences and Technology Council, to create and coordinate education programs and activities designed to enhance those areas of study, and make the United States competitive again. Imagine a country in which we were training our own scientists and engineers, instead of training scientists and engineers for other countries, so that they can kick our asses on the world economic stage? Dare we dream? This type of program is small in scope, but it’s a very good investment, because we need people who are versed in science and math, in order to compete in the world economy. This really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone, since Republicans have largely been anti-science for at least a decade. Oh – and once more, for those who think there’s a “fiscally responsible” purpose behind blocking this, this measure would cost $2 million per year – or about 2 cents per year for your family of four. They are also blocking H.R. 1736 – The International Science and Technology Cooperation Act, which would establish a committee under the NSTC that would coordinate with international science and technology efforts, with a goal of strengthening “US science and technology enterprise, improve economic and national security, and support US foreign policy goals.” If you need any more proof that Republicans hate science and fear the future, there you go.

H.R. 1722 --Telework Improvements Act – This is another bill that just makes sense, if you have ever experienced traffic in DC. The highways are jammed, the Metro is packed like sardines, and if you want to park at an outlying Metro lot and take the subway into town, you’d better get there about 5 AM, or there will be no parking available. And it all happens between about 7-9 AM and about 5-7 PM. This bill would create a framework whereby government employees could telecommute about 20% of the time during each two-week period, without adversely affecting their productivity. And in this case, government could lead by example; most of us could do a large portion of our jobs at home right now; imagine if you only had to go into the office 2-3 days per week instead of five. Better yet, imagine you’re a business and you could stagger your employees in-office days so that you needed fewer offices? And with 20% less traffic on the road some days… Republicans are against progress, folks; remember that.

H.R. 1727 -- Managing Arson Through Criminal History (MATCH) Act – Here is another bill from Republican Mary Bono Mack, which would create a national database of known convicted arsonists and bombers, that police agencies from all over the country could access, and possibly prevent major tragedies from occurring. This is another measure that just seems to make sense. If a known arsonist is in town, police should know it. Yet, Senate Republicans sit on it and prevent it from becoming law. So, when did the Republican Party become “soft on crime”?

H.R. 1741 -- Witness Security and Protection Grant Program Act – In yet another example of how soft Republicans really are on crime, this bill would serve to strengthen protections for witnesses for homicides and serious felonies, such as rape. Essentially, it would provide block grants to states and local law enforcement agencies to help them get up to speed regarding best practices to prevent witness intimidation or tampering. This is yet another bill that costs a whopping $20 million per year, so they can’t even hang the “fiscal responsibility” tag on it. Put simply, Democrats want to spend a quarter per year per family of four to increase the likelihood that murderers and rapists get put away in prison, and Republicans are working against that.

H.R. 1796 – Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Prevention Act – This bill would establish mandatory consumer product safety standards for carbon monoxide detectors, provide grants to states to provide CO detectors for homes with low-income families, as well as buildings housing the elderly or children, and to create a public outreach program to educate people on the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning. Given that carbon monoxide is an invisible gas that causes brain damage and death, and given that CO results in nearly 15,000 emergency room visits and nearly 500 deaths every year, this bill would save lives and health care dollars every year. The total cost of this program is about $13 million over five years, or which means it would cost a family of four less than a nickel per year. Compare that to the cost of a typical emergency room visit, or losing a close friend or relative from something so preventable. .

H.R. 1803 -- Veterans Business Center Act – Here’s another head scratcher, to be sure. What would you say to a bill that helps veterans start their own business? It’s about perfect, right? If you don’t think so, I have two words for you; GI Bill. This bill would set up a Veterans Business Center program within the Small Business Administration, which would specialize in such programs as grants for service-disabled veterans, help them develop business plans and secure business opportunities. In other words, folks, it would create jobs and offer opportunities those who have fought in defense of our country. And the Republicans are working against it. You have to wonder; do they hate the troops more, or the unemployed?

That’s only the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to Democrats helping small businesses, and Republicans blocking them. About the time they were passing the very effective stimulus plan, Democrats in the House were passing a huge number of measures designed to help folks start or maintain small businesses. Check out all of these, and remind your small business owning friends that DEMOCRATS passed these bills, and REPUBLICANS are blocking votes on them.

In addition to the measure above, there was also H.R. 1807 – Educating Entrepreneurs through Today’s Technology Act – This bill would direct the Small Business Administration to contract with tech vendors to provide assistance to small businesses to get them up to speed with regard to technology. Essentially, it would help small businesses become stronger by providing free or inexpensive technical assistance to help them compete in the current economy. Republicans working against small businesses; imagine that…

Republicans are also blocking H.R. 1834 – Native American Business Development Enhancement Act, which would create an Office of Native American Affairs within the SBA, which would assist Native Americans in starting small businesses. As a point of reference, unemployment on some Indian reservations is currently running twice the rate as elsewhere.

Republicans are also blocking H.R. 1838 – Amending Small Business Act to modify certain provisions regarding women’s business centers, which would, as it reads, make the SBA more responsive to small businesses that apply for loans and grants at women’s business centers. They are blocking H.R. 1839 – To amend the Small Business Act to improve SCORE, which is the Service Corps of Retired Executives, which provides expertise to small businesses, to make them less likely to fail, and more likely to grow and create jobs. H.R. 1842 – Expanding Entrepreneurship Act is also being held hostage by Senate Republicans. This bill would create and expand small business entrepreneurial development programs, with the specific goal of using them as a catalyst for job creation. And they are blocking H.R. 1845 -- Small Business Development Centers Modernization Act, which would give a boost to SBDCs, providing business assistance that is often relied upon by small business owners to expand revenues and create jobs.

Seriously, folks; how many small businesses are hurting right now, and how many of them know that help would be on the way, if not for their Republican buddies holding it up? Once again, folks; ALL of the above bills were pushed through by DEMOCRATS in the House, and BLOCKED by REPUBLICANS in the Senate. I know I’m writing this a lot, but sometimes you have to repeat it to make it stick.

H.R. 1824 -- Best Buddies Empowerment for People with Intellectual Disabilities Act – I’m including this one because it’s flat out mean. This bill would increase grant funding for a well-established non-profit called Best Buddies International, an organization with chapters in high schools and college campuses all over the country, that pairs volunteers with intellectually disabled individuals, to increase their ability to function independently. The more intellectually disabled individuals can take care of themselves, and pay their own way in life, the better for all of us, in a variety of ways. In other words, it’s an investment; in the long run, creating more taxpayers means the rest of us pay less. Yet, Republicans are against this.

H.R. 1875 -- End the Trade Deficit Act – This bill would establish the Emergency Trade Deficit Commission, which would look at what is causing the enormous trade deficit that is turning our economy to dust, and to consider ways to address it and fix it. Why would Republicans be against fixing the trade deficit? They’re always whining about the federal budget deficit (at least when they’re not in charge); do they not realize that the trade deficit is probably the number one cause of the budget deficit? Buy American, right?

H.R. 1879 -- National Guard Employment Protection Act – This bill would grant greater employment and reemployment rights to individuals ordered to full-time National Guard duty by the Department of Defense. Currently, these rights are limited to the first five years only, and as we all now know, sometimes Republican presidents start wars and order National Guard troops to serve beyond their contract. Guess Republican Senators are more keen on protecting such presidents than the actual troops.

H.R. 1933 – A Child Is Missing Alert and Recovery Center Act – This bill would provide coordination and guidance for law enforcement agencies, and pool their resources in order to find missing children more quickly. Once again; if this was for missing fetuses, one would have to think Republicans would be all over it. But it’s children, and they clearly do not care about them.

H.R. 2020 -- Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act of 2009 (I suppose it would have to be “of 2011” by now, huh?)– Why does it feel as if Republicans absolutely fear science and technology? This bill would make sure this country keeps up with the rest of the world when it comes to computers and information technology. That’s all. It provides for extensive coordination of research and development in areas having “the potential for significant contributions to national economic competitiveness and for other societal benefits.” I hate to break it to you folks, but other nations are way ahead of us in many technological areas, and we can’t even figure out what to do about the concept of net neutrality. Think our cell phones are nifty? Go to Japan or Finland. If you think we’re way ahead on web development, it’s because you can only speak English. For eight years, our government sat back and tried to push us back into the dark ages. We either catch up to the rest of the world, or we falter, and fall even farther down the economic ladder. And Republicans are blocking that progress.

H.R. 2093 – Clean Coastal Environment and Public Health Act – This bill would strengthen the Clean Water Act by directing the EPA to develop better standards for monitoring and assessment of coastal waterways. It would provide for better source identification and tracking of pollution sources, and it would increase testing for pathogens. In other words, it would take better care to insure that our beaches and recreational areas are safe for our kids to play in. It would also create a “rapid-testing” method to test for contamination in the case of spills. This bill doesn’t have a lot to do with the BP oil spill, but in the wake of that disaster, one would think that monitoring the health and safety of our waterways would be a little more important. But Republicans don’t care if you and your family are healthy, do they? By the cost of this program? A whopping $40 million, or 50 cents for every family of four in the country.

H.R. 2134, -- Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission Act – This bill would create a Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission, which would evaluate our policies regarding illegal drug supply reduction and interdiction. The commission would emphasize international drug policies and programs directed at countries in the Western Hemisphere. They would essentially report on the condition of the “drug war,” and tell us what’s working, what’s not working, and what needs serious improvement. When it’s finished with its report, the commission goes away within 60 days, so it’s not like it creates another layer to the bureaucracy. The drug war is failing, and failing badly. Apparently, Republicans just don’t care about that, either.

H.R. 2142 – Government Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Performance Improvement Act – Yeah, I know; with all of the bitching they’re always doing about how bad government is, and how incompetent government is, one would think they’d be ecstatic to see a bill designed to make the government more efficient, increase its effectiveness and monitor and improve its performance. The purpose of this bill is to direct agencies to develop long-term strategies and goals, and to come up with plans to meet performance objectives. And every bit of information would be readily available on the Internet and elsewhere, for every citizen to look at and evaluate for themselves. In other words, this bill would make the government more responsive and accountable to everyone. But Republicans are against it. And lest you think they’re against it because they’re worried about the deficit, the total cost of implementing these programs at 17 different agencies would be a total of $150 million over five years, or about 35 cents per year per family of four, according to the CBO.

H.R. 2187 – 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act – The next time a Republican or Independent voter tells you the GOP got a bad rap for their non-response to Katrina, show them their blockage of this bill. The purpose of this bill is twofold; it would create a program of grants to renovate schools to make them more energy efficient, and to save taxpayers money. The jobs created would help to alleviate economic problems in a number of hard-hit geographical areas. Which brings up the second part of this bill, which would provide a little extra help in rebuilding and modernizing schools in the Gulf Coast region, which is still reeling from the effects of Katrina. (The Democratic House passage of this bill pre-dates the BP oil spill.) Such a bill would create thousands of jobs and make substantial infrastructure improvements to educational institutions all over the country, and will result in significant cost savings over the long haul. But Republicans won’t let it happen.

H.R. 2200 – Transportation Security Administration Authorization Act – So how tough are Republicans on terrorism, reallyy? This bill would not only fully fund the TSA, but it would implement a program to screen baggage for explosives, as well as a program to verify the identity and status of law enforcement officers who fly armed. And Republicans are blocking it.

H.R. 2221 – Data Accountability and Trust Act – This bill would actually create a regulatory structure that would require any business using personal information to establish security policies and procedures to protect that data. It would require information brokers and others to submit those policies and procedures to the FTC for approval, and it would prohibit such businesses from obtaining or disclosing, or soliciting to obtain, personal information by false pretenses. In other words, another step to make sure that eCommerce is safe, which would protect consumers and businesses in every transaction, and create a level playing field for everyone. But Republicans are blocking it.

H.R. 2352 – Job Creation Through Entrepreneurship Act – This bill essentially combines a number of other bills that Republicans had blocked in the Senate previously, and adds a few elements. The bill would again establish a Veterans Business Center Program; it would encourage and enhance Native American entrepreneurship; it would strengthen the Women's Business Center Program (the bill’s description uses the term “broadening,” which seems unfortunate); it would improve the SCORE programs; it would recommend major enhancements to the SBA’s entrepreneurial development programs; it would modernize and expand the Small Business Development Center Program; it would improve technology to create better distance learning and other educational programs for budding entrepreneurs; it would create a Microenterprise Training Center Program, to encourage and train low-income and unemployed folks to enter the market with a small business; it would establish a Military Entrepreneurs Program; and it would establish a Rural Entrepreneurship Advisory Council. In other words, this bill would encourage just about anyone with an idea to start a small business and hire people, and give them the knowledge they need to do so successfully. If small business is the backbone of the American economy, then why do Republicans object to strengthening the backbone?

H.R. 2454 – American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 – This bill sets up a regulatory framework that would greatly improve our energy situation, which is probably our greatest national security concern for the future – or it should be, anyway. It would improve energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and enable the overall transition to a clean energy economy, including provisions for agriculture and forestry related offsets. The provisions include: (1) creating a combined energy efficiency and renewable electricity standard and requiring retail electricity suppliers to meet 20% of their demand through renewable electricity and electricity savings by 2020; (2) setting a goal of, and requiring a strategic plan for, improving overall U.S. energy productivity by at least 2.5% per year by 2012 and maintaining that improvement rate through 2030; and (3) establishing a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and setting goals for reducing such emissions from covered sources by 83% of 2005 levels by 2050. Oh, now I get it – it’s that damn “cap-and-tax” that gets them! Does anyone actually care about the future of this country? The beauty of cap-and-trade is that the tax would constantly go down over time, as people use less and less energy. If only all taxes worked that way, huh?

H.R. 2510 – Absentee Ballot Track, Receive and Confirm Act – This bill would amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to direct the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to reimburse states for costs incurred in establishing an absentee ballot tracking program for federal elections. Couple that with H.R. 2499 – Puerto Rico Democracy Act, which would allow Puerto Ricans to hold a plebiscite to either confirm their current status as a commonwealth or approve a change in political status, as well as to hold another plebiscite every eight years after that, and you can see that Republicans aren’t big on democracy. Oh, wait; these are all bills they won’t allow to be voted on; I guess that’s apparent, huh?

H.R. 2529 – Neighborhood Preservation Act – This act would authorize any bank to offer a lease/purchase agreement for up to five years to anyone for any property it came into ownership of through foreclosure. This exception to the law would only be allowed for two years, while the current housing mess shakes itself out. Such a move would do a couple of things; it would keep homes occupied, and mitigate the negative effect on home values of having too many empty homes in a neighborhood, and it would create home purchase opportunities that would otherwise not be available. This type of program would do wonders for stabilizing home values, which is key to fixing the housing market once and for all. And your Republican Party won’t even allow a vote on it. Look at the empty homes in your neighborhoods, and put the blame where it belongs; Vote Democratic.

H.R. 2554 – National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers Reform Act – Remember that economic meltdown we had a few years back? I know you do. Well, apparently, Republicans would like you to forget about it. This bill would reinstate a key component of Glass-Steagall that was removed when Republicans rammed through Gramm-Leach-Bliley and made it possible for pretty much anyone in the world to call himself a “broker,” and sell any “financial instrument” he or she wanted to sell, without oversight. This bill would reestablish the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers (NARAB) as a nonprofit corporation to oversee licensing and insurance producer qualification requirements and conditions, although states would retain authority with regard to licensing, supervision, disciplining, and setting of fees, as well as insurance-related consumer protection and unfair trade practices. It also requires anyone applying for a license to undergo a thorough criminal background check, and all members will be required to continue their education as they work. It restores sanity to the insurance and financial services industry, and Republicans are blocking it.

H.R. 2611 – Authorizing the Securing the Cities Initiative of the Department of Homeland Security – Exactly what it says. You know, if Republicans really don’t want another terrorist attack, they sure have a funny way of showing it…

H.R. 2664 – Promoting Transparency in Financial Reporting Act – Again, Republicans would like us to forget the financial meltdown, which was largely the result of massive investment in a number of “financial instruments” that even experts had a difficult time understanding. This bill would work to create standards whereby disclosures for bonds and other instruments have to at least make sense and are written in “plain English.” The bill also includes a reassessment of outdated or arcane accounting standards in favor of principles-based accounting standards (you know, in which $2 + $2 = $4, instead of $6, including sleight of hand) in which everyone up and down the line deals with real, not hypothetical money, and encouraging the use of interactive data. The reason Republicans are against this is because they don’t believe in real investment with real money. Think about it; Every period in which they’ve bragged about the “booming” economy has featured phony money – money that doesn’t actually exist, but which they can put onto paper, as if it was actually real.

H.R. 2693 – Oil Pollution Research and Development Program Reauthorization Act – Once again, this bill was introduced and passed by the Democrats in Congress BEFORE BP’s deep water rig blew up and ruined a large swath of the Gulf of Mexico. But even nearly six months after that, this bill sits and waits to be voted on in the Senate. It would authorize a “comprehensive federal oil spill research program, complete a research assessment on the status of oil spill prevention and response capabilities, and develop a federal oil spill research plan. Directs the Committee to: (1) establish a program for conducting oil pollution research, development, and demonstration; (2) submit to Congress an assessment of the status of oil spill prevention and response capabilities; and (3) establish the priorities for federal oil spill research and development.” Gosh, I can’t think of any reason why we’d need something like that, can you?

H.R. 2749 -- Food Safety Enhancement Act – Among other things, this bill would require that all food processing plants not already under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture be registered with the department, and any plant that produces contaminated food loses its registration. In other words, it would make our food supply safer. And Republicans are against it.

H.R. 2868 – Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act of 2009, Drinking Water System Security Act of 2009 and Wastewater Treatment Works Security Act of 2009 – This bill would enhance security at chemical plants, wastewater treatment plants and drinking water facilities, to guard against terrorism. What do Republicans have against national security? I mean, one might get a sense that they actually want an attack while Democrats are in charge.

GOP Candidates Threaten Iran

2011-11-13T10:03:00.002-05:00

Iran got an earful from Republican presidential candidates last night, with Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich both saying that they’d be open to using military force against Ahmadinejad’s nation if all else failed. Recent reports have pegged Iran as pursuing nuclear weapons. Herman Cain, for one, said he “would not entertain” military force in Iran. On Afghanistan, Romney attacked Obama’s troop withdrawal as overtly political, while Jon Huntsman said he supported an immediate pullout.

Read it at The Washington Pos

Perry’s Dangerous Israel Gaffe

2011-11-13T09:59:00.000-05:00

Oops? Instead of recovering from his awkward brain freeze at the last GOP debate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry may have stepped in it again at the foreign-policy rematch. Perry proposed starting each nation’s foreign aid at zero every year before allocating new funds—even, he said, with special allies such as Israel. The Daily Beast’s Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer, explains why this is a terrible idea that could leave Israel vulnerable—and could ultimately benefit Iran. Plus,Michelle Goldberg, Jacob Heilbrunn, and more Daily Beast contributors grade the debate.

CAMPAIGN ALERT FROM Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

2011-11-11T09:54:00.000-05:00

CAMPAIGN ALERT: We just got news that Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS group has launched $1.8 million in vicious, lie-filled ads attacking five of our Democratic Senate candidates, including Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts.

Why Warren? Because she is a true fighter against corporate power and is a serious threat to beat Scott Brown and take back that seat in Massachusetts.

Election Day is one year away. Campaign outcomes are being decided NOW. We’re still $50,000 short of our Year Out Project goal, and we need to respond to Rove’s attacks with a show of strength by midnight. Every dollar we fall short is a dollar Karl Rove can spend attacking our candidates without challenge. With 23 seats to defend, we can’t afford that. We would lose the Senate, and the new leadership would have Rove on speed dial.

Can you give $5 or more to forcefully push back against Rove? If we raise $50,000 by midnight, we’ll be in good shape to continue the fight for the next few weeks.

Karl Rove’s attacking us in Massachusetts. Virginia. Montana. Missouri. Nebraska. And we know more attacks are coming. I’ll let you know when more news breaks.

Guy Cecil

Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s Statement Recognizing Veterans Day

2011-11-11T07:54:00.000-05:00

“Today, in communities across the country, we honor the courage and sacrifice of the many brave servicemen and women who have given so much to their country and fought to ensure that America continues to enjoy the freedoms and opportunities that make our nation great. We owe each and every one of America’s veterans our eternal gratitude for their bravery and dedication.

“On this day of reflection, we must also recommit ourselves to the critical work of providing for the needs of all of America’s service members – whether they are still serving our country or have returned to civilian life. Under the President’s leadership, we have made important progress for our veterans and military families: providing improved medical care for the wounded and enhanced mental health services, tackling the issue of homelessness among our veterans, repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy so that all Americans can serve their country openly, and implementing the Post-9/11 GI Bill to ensure that 300,000 veterans and family members have the support they need to earn a college degree. And the President has followed through on his commitment to bring our service members home from Iraq.

“But our work is far from over. President Obama is fighting to get Congress to pass the American Jobs Act, which offers tax credits to businesses that hire veterans, and he has taken action at the executive level to help our nation’s veterans find work now. America’s service members have offered their lives to protect our country, and they deserve our full support. To all of our nation’s veterans, we salute you, we thank you for your service, and we will continue to stand with you now and in the future.”

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s Statement on Senate Passage of President’s Plan to Put Veterans Back to Work

2011-11-10T19:14:00.000-05:00

“Today, Republicans in the Senate finally agreed to work with the President and helped pass two components of the President’s jobs plan that will put America’s veterans back to work. Republicans have voted repeatedly in recent weeks to block part or all of the Americans Jobs Act. I hope that today’s passage of the Returning Heroes and Wounded Warrior Tax Credits is a signal that Republicans realize they can no longer plug their ears to the voice of the American people, who are tired of waiting and demand action now to create jobs and restore our economic security.

“On the eve of Veterans Day, today’s vote is a fitting tribute to the millions of American veterans who have offered their lives to protect our country, and who deserve our full support for all the sacrifices they have made. It builds on the efforts of President Obama to take action at the executive level to provide support to our veterans and help them make the transition back to civilian life. I encourage Republicans in Congress to continue working with the President to put Americans back to work and grow our economy by passing the rest of the American Jobs Act.”

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