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Should We Laugh? Cry? Both?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New Republic - By Jonathan Cohn - Nov. 23 (News Analysis) - The ritual is becoming familiar. Health care reform passes a major political hurdle. And progressives don?t know whether to laugh or cry. Last time, the occasion was a vote in the House of Representatives. Health care reform passed by the slimmest of margins, but not before conservative Democrats had extracted a major concession on abortion rights. This time, it was a vote in the Senate--not on whether to pass a bill, but whether to begin debating one. This measure, too, passed by the slimmest of margins, but not before conservative Democrats and one notorious independent made clear they were prepared to shut things down later if legislation includes a public insurance option. It?s no fun to watch this unfold. And yet this is the exactly the sort of drama you should expect for the next few weeks, as the Senate deliberations play out. The bill Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced last week is not everything it could be--not by a long shot. And progressives will try their ...

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GOP Blocks Freeze On Credit Card Interest Rate Hikes

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Ryan Grim - Nov. 18 (News) - Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic effort Wednesday to immediately freeze increases in credit card interest rates, fees and finance charges. Shortly after Democrats passed credit card reform legislation in May, the card companies began jacking up rates in advance of its implementation. Major parts of the act won't take effect until February and August of 2010. Earlier this month, to combat the rate hikes, the House passed legislation to move the effective date up to December 1st. The Senate moves much more slowly

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Six Smart Progressive Complaints About House Health Bill

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Nation - By John Nichols - Nov. 09 (News) - The Affordable Health Care for America Act was approved by the U.S. House Saturday night with ... support from progressive Democrats ... and from a president ... elected with the ... support of progressive voters. But that does not mean that informed and engaged progressives are entirely enthusiastic about the measure.

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Republicans Giving Women 'Back Of The Hand Treatment'

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Tim Taliaferro - Nov. 09 (News Report) - The Republicans who shouted down and continuously interrupted female members of the House testifying in favor of the health care bill on Saturday were giving women what amounted to the "back of the hand treatment," Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.) said Monday. The abortion-rights champion and senior Democrat criticized House Republicans in a conference call with reporters and called the behavior the most disrespectful she has seen during her 17 years in elected office.

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Conservatives Rework Rhetoric After Loss in NY Special

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Independent - By David Weigel - Nov. 05 (News Report) - Jim Kelly walked into the lounge of the Hotel Saranac, his red tie undone and flapping against his shirt. He sighed. He plopped into a chair. “Four thousand votes,” he said. “That couldn’t fill up one side of seats at Shea

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Coburn named as senator holding up vets bill - MarineCorpsTi

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

marinecorpstimes.com - By Rick Maze - Nov. 03 (News) - Thirteen major military and veterans groups have joined forces to try to force one senator — Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma — to release a hold that he has placed on a major veterans benefits bill.

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WH: We're Happy To Exclude Fox, But Didn't Yesterday

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Talking Points Memo - By Christina Bellantoni - Oct. 24 (News Report) - Adding to the Fox News v. White House feud today is a dust-up over an interview with pay czar Ken Feinberg. Feinberg did a pen and pad with reporters to brief them on cutting executive compensation. TV correspondents asked to get the comments on camera; Treasury agreed to one pool camera, giving the list of those who asked. (Fox was not among them)

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Communications arm? Fox & Friends recites misleading GOP press release on stimulus

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - Oct. 23 (News Analysis) - Fox & Friends hosts Brian Kilmeade, Steve Doocy, and Gretchen Carlton parroted a House Republican press release and repeated its claim that the stimulus impact is "6 million jobs shy of what the administration promised us" since the administration stated "that 3.5 million jobs would be created. And, in fact, the United States has lost 2.7 million since the stimulus plan." However, the administration estimated that by 2011 -- not September 2009, when the 2.7 million job losses since February were recorded -- 3.5 million jobs would be created or saved by the stimulus compared to the number of jobs that would have existed at the end of 2010 had the government not passed the legislation.

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Attack on White House criticism of Fox follows years of GOP assaults on media

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - Oct. 23 (News Analysis) - Following White House communications director Anita Dunn's entirely justified criticisms of Fox News as an "arm" of the Republican Party, conservative media figures have attacked both Dunn and the Obama administration. But Media Matters for America has compiled a list of organized attacks that GOP leaders -- often aided by Fox News -- have conducted against media outlets based on groundless complaints of bias; those attacks have included boycotts or threatened boycotts of media outlets, efforts to revoke journalists' credentials or ban them from press planes, and even calls to have journalists prosecuted.

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Ohio Secretary of State shunned by fellow Democrats

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

daytondailynews.com - By Laura A. Bischoff, William Hershey - Oct. 20 (News) - Brunner accused Fisher of pressuring political donors not to give to her campaign. Still, she vowed not to give up. “I’m a bit of an underdog in the Senate race but that’s OK with me,” she said.

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Snowe Voting Yes On Senate Finance Health Care Reform Bill

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Ryan Grim, Jeff Muskus, Sam Stein - Oct. 13 (News Report) - Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said Tuesday that she intends to vote for the Senate Finance Committee's health care reform package. She cautioned that her vote should be seen as a sign of her faith in the process going forward, not as support for the final package that will arrive on the Senate floor. "Is this bill all that I would want? Far from it," said Snowe. "Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls, and I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress to take every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issues of our time." Snowe's statement came several hours before a scheduled committee vote. "My vote today is my vote today. It doesn't forecast what my vote will be tomorrow," she said. It does keep her at the negotiating table and at the center of the debate; Snowe risked marginalizing herself if she voted no. Snowe is well aware of the math. Her vote, she said, comes with knowledge that Democrats don't need Republicans to pass the landmark legislation.

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Unintended Consequences in Nuclear Pakistan

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthDig - By Fred Branfman - Oct. 09 (News Report) - If U.S. military leaders are right that they cannot prevail in Afghanistan without escalating into Pakistan, this is the strongest possible argument for withdrawing from Afghanistan. For nothing, not even Taliban rule in Kabul, could justify allowing the tiny Afghan tail to wag a giant, nuclear-armed Pakistani dog whose stability is clearly America’s very top priority in the region. Further instability in Pakistan would only benefit al-Qaida, which has already made deep inroads into Pakistan and is unlikely to return to Afghanistan even if the U.S. withdraws from there. Former N.Y. Times correspondent Stephen Kinzer is right: “It should be engraved on the minds of every American diplomat: Do nothing that will further destabilize Pakistan” (from the “Rethink Afghanistan” video).

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"Don't Get Sick": The Truth About GOP Health Plans?

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Art Levine - Oct. 06 (News Analysis) - Republicans reacted wtih outrage last week after Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) offered a blistering attack on the nearly-invisible Republican healthcare proposals: "The Republican health care plan is this: Don't get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly." A close look at the GOP's so-called "principles" shows that they would break-up employer-based coverage, endanger the coverage of Americans with pre-existing conditions, and drive-up health care spending.

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Tea Party Patrons Point New Recruits Toward 2010

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By David Weigel - Oct. 05 (News Report) - For months, liberal researchers from the Center for American Progress to Firedoglake to the Rachel Maddow Show have pored over the financial records of libertarian tycoon David Koch to see just how deep his influence ran within the Tea Party movement.

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Sam Stein Discusses Cheney 2012, Condoleeza Rice's Afghanistan Comments On Rachel Maddow Show (VIDEO)

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Huff TV - Sep. 23 (News Analysis) - Huffington Post political reporter Sam Stein weighed in on Condoleeza Rice's comments on Afghanistan during his appearance Tuesday evening on The Rachel Maddow Show.

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Conservatives Turn Their Sights On Health Care Reform's Most Obvious Provision

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Sam Stein Sam Stein Sam Stein - Sep. 22 (News Report) - Democrats are bracing themselves for a new line of conservative attack against a provision in the health care legislation once considered so non-controversial that it was endorsed by several major Republican officials. Earlier in the week, the

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9/12 Protest: Here's What Fox News Didn't Broadcast

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Max Blumenthal - Sep. 16 (News Report) - While Fox News cameras covering the so-called 9.12 Project on the National Mall lurched away from signs morphing President Barack Obama's face into Adolph Hitler's, I zoomed in. Histrionics and manufactured paranoia were hard to avoid at the massive September 12 anti-Obama rally orchestrated by Fox News host Glenn Beck and former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey's corporate lobbying front group, Freedom Works.

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Joe Wilson Voted to Provide Taxpayer Money for Illegal Immigrants' Healthcare

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

opencongress.org - By Donny Shaw - Sep. 12 (Investigative Report) - However, in 2003, Wilson voted to provide federal funds for illegal immigrants’ healthcare. The vote came on the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, which contained Sec. 1011 authorizing $250,000 annually between 2003 and 2008 for government reimbursements to hospitals who provide treatment for uninsured illegal immigrants.

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Yosi Sergant, Administration Aide, Asked To Resign: Glenn Beck Strikes Again

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Sep. 10 (News) - Yosi Sergant, who recently popped up on Beck's radar for his involvement in a conference call on national service, has been asked to resign as communications director by the National Endowment for the Arts, sources familiar with the move tell the Huffington Post. At issue was an August conference call in which the NEA encouraged select artists to participate in an administration project dubbed "United We Serve" and led by the first lady.

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Health Care Bill To Cover Undocumented Immigrants? False.

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jason Linkins - Sep. 10 (News Analysis) - Instead, too many in the press treat the exchange as a he said/he said. i.e. Obama claimed illegal immigrants won't be covered, and Wilson called him a liar. What are the facts? Which man was telling the truth? The press won't say.

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10 of the Most Obscenely Stupid Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories and Attacks Against the President

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Tana Ganeva - Sep. 08 (Special Report) - thanks to the right-wing saviors of America's youth, a bunch of kids have been shielded from the president's dangerous message that learning things is good. Could this be the stupidest, most irrational way conservatives have tried to tear down Obama? Is it even possible to answer that question?

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Rep. Mike Pence, Who Led Witch Hunt Against Van Jones, Took $1,000s From Extremist Erik Prince

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Jeremy Scahill - Sep. 08 (News Report) - Rep. Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican whose name has been mentioned as a potential GOP presidential candidate (and who is not sure if he believes in evolution), led the witch-hunt to force the resignation of White House Green Jobs advisor, Van Jones, over comments Jones made years ago and a 9/11 "truth" petition Jones signed which he said he did not read in its entirety. Jones apologized for some of his comments, which were made before he took his job with the Obama administration and said the petition "certainly does not reflect my views now or ever."

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Caught On Tape: Legislator Brags About Kinky Sex With Energy Lobbyists

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Sep. 08 (News) - DUVALL RESIGNS OVER SEX BLAB FLAP Michael Duvall has resigned from the California State Assembly after a local TV news station reported his remarks about sexual escapades with two lobbyists. Duvall was unaware that a live mic was picking up his hanky-spanky talk.

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Party Is Such Sweet Sorrow

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - By Jonathan Cohn - Sep. 04 (News Analysis) - During the past year, Republicans have frequently said they want to work with Democrats. But the real story of the last few months is how unserious those pledges turned out to be. Although you wouldn’t know it from their rhetoric or the media coverage, there are not one but two ostensibly bipartisan proposals out there right now. Either of them could be the template for successful reform if even a few Republicans started pushing them seriously. But, even the ostensibly reasonable Republican senators whom Democrats have tried to engage--Mike Enzi, Charles Grassley, and Hatch--just aren’t interested. And it appears they haven’t been for a while.

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Van Jones seeks a ‘healing for our politics’

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Brad Johnson - Sep. 04 (News Analysis) - Jones’s true record is one of turning away from anger and finding hope, abandoning division and seeking consensus. Speaking at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas this August, Van Jones argued that “for all of the battleground politics that’s going on,” energy policy should be “the one place that should be a safe harbor for all of us.” Van Jones praised the “bipartisanship” of Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, who as a representative from Los Angeles succeeded in getting “the first president ever to sign into law a green jobs act, President George W. Bush.” He recognized that the summit participants came to find a “healing for our politics” in a “common ground agenda”:

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