Senate Passes Financial Reform

Today, the Senate passed H.R. 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 by a 59 to 39 vote.

The bill, as amended: "calls for new ways to watch for risks in the financial system and makes it easier to liquidate large failing financial firms. It also writes new rules for complex securities blamed for helping precipitate the 2008 economic crisis, and it creates a new consumer protection agency."

The House passed its version of the bill on December 11, 2009, by a 223-202 vote.

The Senate bill will now have to be merged with the House version before going on to the President's desk for signing into law.

Republican Clown Car Fail

When Republicans try to pull off stunts and fall out of the clown car, they might end up getting run over:

Coburn/Vitter plan goes awry

Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and David Vitter (R-La.) no doubt thought they were being clever. They crafted an amendment that would force members of Congress to get their coverage through a public insurance plan, if the public option were included as part of health care reform. If it's good enough for American consumers, it should be good enough for their elected representatives, right?

They had no idea how much Democrats agreed with the sentiment.

As we talked about this morning, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) not only loved the idea, he wanted to join the right-wing senators as a co-sponsor on their amendment. When they refused -- this was supposed to be a conservative stunt, not a real idea -- Brown used procedural tactics to make himself a co-sponsor of the Coburn/Vitter measure, whether they like it or not.

Then, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said she, too, wanted to join. Soon after, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) endorsed the Coburn/Vitter amendment and also asked to be a co-sponsor. [...]

The fun part of this is that it's a stunt gone awry. Coburn and Vitter were probably whispering to themselves, "We'll show them." It didn't occur to them that Democrats would call their bluff.

Heh.

Challenging Joe

Well, now. Just who is the big liar, huh?

H.R.3200:

America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009

SEC. 246. NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS.

Can it be any plainer?

So much for the lying liars, especially people like Joe Wilson (R-SC) that choose to ignore facts and act like they are at a town hall instead of an address to Congress.

Democrat Rob Miller, a retired Marine and an Iraq veteran, is running against Rep. Joe Wilson.

Shortly after Joe Wilson's outburst during President Obama's address last night, the ActBlue page listed Rob Miller's donations at almost $68,000. Then, things started happening. Bless those Kossacks who created their own page and all those others who are also repulsed by the lack of integrity and decency expressed by Mr. Wilson. Click the links and go see for yourself.

And know that Rob Miller appreciates that support:

I am proud to have received the support of thousands more hardworking people who believe we need to change the way things are done in Washington DC. The outpouring of support has truly been humbling. I look forward to working to bring back common-sense leadership and fighting for the hardworking families of South Carolina.

If you can, toss a few dollars Rob's way, too.

Congress Passes Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights Act

On May 19, 2009 the Senate passed the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights Act of 2009:

H.R.627:

Title: To amend the Truth in Lending Act to establish fair and transparent practices relating to the extension of credit under an open end consumer credit plan, and for other purposes.

Roll Call 194:

YEAs 90 — NAYs 5 — Not Voting 4

Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights On Way to President

This afternoon, the House passed the final version of the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights (H.R. 627) by a vote of 361-64 – leveling the playing field between card issuers and cardholders by applying common-sense regulations that would ban retroactive interest rate hikes on existing balances, double-cycle billing, and due-date gimmicks.

Shiny Object, Bubble Bauble; Torture Distraction, Babble

Bubbling

More and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when we were looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of Iraq.

Congress’s Torture Bubble

JUST four members of Congress were notified in 2002 when the Central Intelligence Agency’s “enhanced interrogation techniques” program was first approved and carried out, according to documents released by the agency last week. They were Senators Bob Graham and Richard Shelby and Representatives Porter Goss and Nancy Pelosi, then the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate and House intelligence committees — the so-called “Gang of Four.” Each was briefed orally and it was understood that they were not to speak about the program with anyone, including their colleagues on the committees.

It’s logical to ask, so what if it was only four members? If they objected to the program, why didn’t they take steps to change it or stop it? Maybe they should have tried. But as a practical matter, there was very little, if anything, the Gang of Four could have done to affect the Bush administration’s decision on the enhanced interrogation techniques program. To stop it, they needed the whole Congress.

Sheldon Whitehouse: Iraq Justification Raises the Prospect of Criminal Prosecution for Torture

Sheldon Whitehouse while being asked about the torture bombshell that Lawrence Wilkerson dropped on Dick Cheney says that if what Wilkerson asserts is true and the Bush administration went outside of the OLC's legal justification for the torture, it raises the prospect for criminal prosecutions.

Whitehouse Judiciary Committee Hearing Round-up

"There's so many points here that it's hard to pick them all apart. There's the point that it's wrong. There's the point that it's ineffective. There's the point that it's illegal. There's the point that in order to get there they had to disrupt and wreck a lot of American democratic process in order to get there. And then there's the final part which is . . . my focus on the lying, which is that there is a huge sales and spin campaign going on to misrepresent what took place....

"We accomplished three things today. We showed that the factual predicates in the OLC memos about what had happened were false. We showed that administration lawyers who got a look at the OLC opinions were horrified and tried to push back, and instead of engaging in a debate to see if they were right or wrong they were just squelched and shut down. And we showed that by the standards against which attorneys should be judged for malfeasance experts agree that the OLC opinions don't cut the mustard and that they qualify for sanction."

One more important point on the briefing process.

In this exchange between Dick Durbin and Philip Zelikow, Zelikow makes clear how the briefing process is supposed to work. [...]

Now, when Durbin asks Zelikow directly whether Congress got that before the fact briefing in this case, Zelikow claims ignorance.

Human Experimentation is a War Crime!

Let's set aside for a moment the issue of torture. For in his testimony, FBI Agent Soufan has raised the issue of experimentation on a prisoner.

Now let's look at a list of requirements for experimentation on prisoners, taken from:

THE NUREMBERG CODE [from Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10. Nuremberg, October 1946-April 1949. Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O, 1949-1953.]

Cheney's Role Deepens

Former NBC News investigative producer Robert Windrem reports that the vice president’s office suggested waterboarding an Iraqi prisoner who was suspected of knowing about a relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam.

Here's an actual news story: Cheney used torture to prove non-existent Al Qaeda/Iraq link

Dick Cheney wanted to go to war against Iraq. He lied about it. Bush lied about it. But, we're supposed to believe that they never lied to Congress about torture. Right. That may work with D.C.'s traditional media, but not anyone who actually remembers 2002.

There is an even more disturbing aspect to this story. It may be too much for the traditional media to handle. We're learning that Cheney used torture to "prove" the links between al Qaeda and Iraq -- because nothing else was finding the information he wanted.

Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff Larry Wilkerson explained his findings at The Washington Note.

Because it works, that's why

It has been a mind-bending task to suss out the Busheviks' rules for Justifying Torture. As a nation, we are dizzy to the point of distraction from the effort. But a few principles seem clear.

1. We didn’t do it - Because it would be wrong ...
   
   
2. Whatever we might have done, —and we’re not saying we did--was legal ...
   
   
3. It wasn’t torture. We had these outlines, see, and we were always inside them, because they were drawn to include where we were. We call the area out there beyond where we were, torture. We can’t tell you exactly, what lies in those outer areas except to say if we did tell you, then we would have a standard independent of what we did, which would threaten principle #2, above. Besides, then our enemies would know, too, and then it wouldn’t be effective, which brings us to:
   
   
4. We did it because it worked. It was effective. What, you’d rather be dead? You think if you were dead you’d have any moral scruples? We’d do anything that works.
   
   
5. If it worked, it was right. And if it was right, how it be torture? Therefore, (since the contrapositive of a true if/then statement is always true) if it was not right, it wouldn’t have worked. So we didn’t torture. Because we only did things that worked.
   
   
   
6. Look! Nancy Pelosi!

Pelosi, Graham and the CIA's Lies

All of the briefing materials should be declassified and released so that we can finally put to rest the game of what Democrat knew what when. Pelosi's, Graham's, and Rockefeller's stories remain consistent--remarkably so considering that they were never briefed at the same time. The Democrats in Congress were not responsible for conceiving of or implementing the Bush torture regime.

Graham: CIA was 'loose with the facts' about interrogation briefings

"We established that three out of four of these alleged briefings never took place," he said.

Florida's Graham Backs Pelosi On CIA Briefings

"Several weeks ago, when this issue started to bubble up, I called the CIA and asked for the dates in which I had been briefed," Graham tells Robert Siegel. "They gave me four: two in April of '02, two in September."

Graham says he consulted his logs "and determined that on three of the four dates there was no briefing held."

He adds: "On one date, Sept. 27, '02, there was a briefing held and, according to my notes, it was on the topic of detainee interrogation."

Graham says the CIA was initially reticent when he told the agency what he had found in his notes.

"They said, 'We will check and call back,'" Graham recalled. "When they finally did a few days later, they indicated that I was correct. Their information was in error. There was no briefing on the first three of four dates."

CIA Admits That Info About Torture Briefings For Dems May Not Be Accurate


The CIA vs. Sen. Bob Graham: how to keep score at home

More relevant in this case, Graham also has a specific reputation for keeping detailed daily records of people he met and things they said. He's sometimes been mocked for this compulsive practice, but he's never been doubted about the completeness or accuracy of what he compiles. (In the fine print of those records would be an indication that I had interviewed him about Iraq war policy while he was in the Senate and recently spent time with him when he was on this side of the world.)

So if he says he never got the briefing, he didn't. And if the CIA or anyone acting on its behalf challenges him, they are stupid and incompetent as well as being untrustworthy. This doesn't prove that the accounts of briefing Pelosi are also inaccurate. But it shifts the burden of proof.

Jane Harman's letter to the CIA counsel

Jane Harman's letter to the CIA counsel was about the CIA telling Congress they were going to destroy the Zubaydeh video tapes.

She wrote a letter to the CIA, warning them NOT to destroy the tapes.

They destroyed the tapes.

How's that for a cold-water splash-in-the-face?

Prisoner Abuse Photos Emerge Despite Obama's Bid to Block Them

The inevitable result of trying to suppress information is that the truth will out, regardless. In this case, an Australian network that obtained images of prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan has published them.

On the Photos

I briefly had myself convinced that this is a complicated issue, but it really isn’t. There ought to be an overwhelming presumption that the American people have the right to see the facts about what our government is doing in our name, with our money. There has to be some secrecy in the name of national security—it’s good that we don’t publish our nuclear codes or the details of the presidential security detail—but the notion that vague invocations of national interest or policy expediency should be permitted to sweep things under the rug is repugnant.

Today is the day the MSM picks up the torture-Iraq War link.

The MSM is now talking about Dick Cheney using torture to establish fabricated links between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's Iraq in order to justify a war against Iraq to the American people. Right before Hardball started today, David Shuster primed the subject...

Chris Matthews was in a relatively no-bullshit mode today and raised the question with Representative Clyburn...

Later in the program he has Michael Isikoff and Robert Windrem on. And they establish the link between Cheney's torture and justifying the war in Iraq...

David Waldman On The Iraq-Torture Link

Congress Matter’s David Waldman [aka Kagro X], also a Daily Kos contributing editor, discusses the Iraq-torture link on CNN.com. View the full segment here.

Journamalism: Iraq, Torture, and Pelosi

Here's the juiciest investigative story you can imagine, if you were actually into important, juicy investigative stories.

What's the traditional media so predictably and depressingly decided to focus with laserlike misdirection upon? The distraction the CIA dangled in front of them.

Let’s briefly recap. Three senior Democrats — Pelosi, Bob Graham, and Jay Rockefeller — have all publicly claimed that the CIA didn’t brief them about the use of torture in the manner the agency has claimed. Meanwhile, the CIA itself has conceded that its own accounting may not be accurate. [snip]

This is not only about Pelosi. It is a dispute. One side is claiming one thing, and the other is claiming the opposite. Simple fairness demands that equal levels of skepticism are applied to people on both sides of this argument. And that isn’t happening. There’s no way around it.

And they are all conveniently missing yet another point, or as Josh says, are gettin' played by the CIA:

The whole point of this storm about Pelosi is that her critics want her to be embarrassed and stop supporting a Truth Commission or any sort of examination of what happened. But she's not. She still says there should be an investigation. Her critics still want the book closed. That says it all. She'll have to stand or fall with the results of an actual investigation. Her opponents on this are simply risible hypocrites.

That says it all. Pelosi says get the truth out there. So let's start trying to figure out what the truth is. And that means not following the CIA's breadcrumb trail off into the weeds about who was told what when. It means asking whether the Dick Cheney ordered torture so he could get the lies to take us into Iraq.

Now that's a story.

Torture and the "shiny object"

The Bush administration authorized torture in order to extract false confessions linking Iraq to al Qaeda and create a pretext to invade a sovereign nation that neither had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks, nor was an "imminent threat".

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Pelosi is the latest shiny object distraction – how she is "under fire" and is disagreeing with the CIA about what she may or may not have been briefed about. And in time, the truth must come out about this.

However, nothing – absolutely NOTHING – should divert the direction and main point of the conversation. Torture is not a partisan issue. Torture is not something that can be debated. Torture is illegal. And torturing people in order to get a false confession and invade another country (especially when very many other excuses were given for such invasion) is more than illegal.

And this was all done by the Bush administration with the knowledge and approval by Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and (according to Cheney), Bush himself.

This is finally starting to get out there as a story – not just that torture occurred, not just that it occurred with the knowledge and intent of the upper echelon of the Bush administration, but that it was done in order to create support for a bogus war for which no justification existed, and to take advantage of a scared American public who was just attacked.

THIS is the story. THIS is where the focus needs to be. And when it starts to stray, it MUST be brought back to this one simple, powerful and disgusting point.

Everything else is a shiny object distraction meant to blur the lines, meant to create doubt and meant to shift the blame.

House And Senate Approve Budget

Late Thursday evening, the House and the Senate approved versions of the budget. The budget plans do not require Obama's signature, but the House and Senate will have to reconcile the two versions before they can move onto the next phase of the presidential agenda.

This evening, the House passed the FY 2010 Budget Resolution (H.Con.Res. 85) by a vote of 233-196. The 2010 Budget Resolution incorporates the four key priorities of the President’s budget. It makes strategic investments in education, health care reform, and energy independence that are necessary to restore our crumbling economy and put the country in a position to remain globally competitive. It also takes the needed steps to restore fiscal sustainability by cutting the deficit by nearly two-thirds by 2013. The budget provides the fiscal blueprint that will allow Congress to debate and adopt legislation that will reach these goals, but, by its nature, the Budget Resolution does not dictate the specifics of the legislation.

- - - - -

Senate Roll Call 00154 02-Apr S.Con.Res. 13 On the Concurrent Resolution

Agreed to S. Con. Res. 13 as Amended; An original concurrent resolution setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2010, revising the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal year 2009, and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2011 through 2014.

Obama Addresses Congress

Full text and video available at Huffington Post

What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more.

Now, if we're honest with ourselves, we'll admit that for too long, we have not always met these responsibilities - as a government or as a people. I say this not to lay blame or look backwards, but because it is only by understanding how we arrived at this moment that we'll be able to lift ourselves out of this predicament.
. . .
So the recovery plan we passed is the first step in getting our economy back on track. But it is just the first step. Because even if we manage this plan flawlessly, there will be no real recovery unless we clean up the credit crisis that has severely weakened our financial system.
. . .
And to respond to an economic crisis that is global in scope, we are working with the nations of the G-20 to restore confidence in our financial system, avoid the possibility of escalating protectionism, and spur demand for American goods in markets across the globe. For the world depends on us to have a strong economy, just as our economy depends on the strength of the world's.

As we stand at this crossroads of history, the eyes of all people in all nations are once again upon us - watching to see what we do with this moment; waiting for us to lead.

Stimulus Bill Will Be Signed Today

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

The House:

On February 13th, Congress passed the Conference Report of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, H.R. 1, to save and create jobs, get our economy moving again, and transform it for long-term growth and stability. The bill now goes to the President. This landmark legislation is the first dramatic new investment in the future since the creation of the interstate highway system a half century ago. On January 28, the House passed the initial American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, H.R. 1, working from priorities shared with President Obama.

The Senate:

U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 111th Congress - 1st Session

as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate

Vote Summary

Question: On the Conference Report (Conference Report )

Vote Number: 64 Vote Date: February 13, 2009, 05:29 PM

Required For Majority: 3/5 Vote Result: Conference Report Agreed to

Measure Number: H.R. 1 (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 )

Measure Title: A bill making supplemental appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy efficiency and science, assistance to the unemployed, and State and local fiscal stabilization, for fiscal year ending September 30, 2009, and for other purposes.

Vote Counts: YEAs 60 NAYs 38 Not Voting 1

OpenCongress Summary:

This is the economic stimulus package that was passed by Congress on Feb. 13, 2009. The final version is estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to cost $787 billion over the 2009-2019 period.

The two portions of the final agreed-upon bill text can be downloaded here in .pdf form (Div. A - appropriations and Div. B - tax provisions).

Countdown: Limbaugh excels at complaining

(At reading a .pdf, not so much.)

Feb. 16: Worst Persons: With the many items Republicans are complaining about regarding the stimulus bill, Rush Limbaugh has added the computer format to his list of belly aches. Watch in Countdown’s Worst Person in the World.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

3:34

The Audacity Of Nope:

Rep. George Miller summed up disgust at Minority Leader Boehner (R-PermaTan) and the GOP strategy of just saying "no":

Today when this country cries out to help this economy, to help America's families who are unemployed, who are losing income, losing jobs, President Obama stepped forth with the American Recovery Act. The Republicans step forth with saying 'no.' It was reflective when Minority Leader John Boehner's instructions to his colleagues to oppose the bill, even as President Obama was traveling the Hill to meet with them and discuss this bill with them, they decided in advance of that meeting they would say 'no.' Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia has said that 'no' is going to be the Republican strategy on this economic crises. 'No' is going to be their strategy, he said. The Republican national spokesman of late, radio host Rush Limbaugh, added that 'no is the strategy by asserting on the air he wants President Obama to fail. Does he understand if President Obama fails, that the American families lose income, they lose their jobs, and the crises continues? And here we see the repeating of 'no'.

Good to know that the GOP is against any progress, any solutions...anything at all that might get us out of the mess we're in. Can you say disingenuous?

Limbaugh's remarks expose him for what he is:

It's all about politics.

Just more of the usual Washington struggle for power and glory.

Only it isn't. When you look at the state of the world economy, indeed in how much we have lost in just four months, the fact is we can't afford to wait four years to fix things. [...]

So whether he realizes it or not, when Limbaugh says he hopes Obama fails, he is hoping for an economic disaster of near-apocalyptic proportions.

In my book, that makes him a traitor to the American people, at least those who aren't in the top 1 percent.

Economic Stimulus: That WAS The Whole Point

Lesson To Be Learned From the Stimulus Wrangling: The GOP Will Be Known By That Which They Destroy.

Clearly, it's hard for Republicans to change. All those GOP Congresspeople watched the election returns, and they also heard Barack Obama's inaugural speech. That's when he pointed out to them, "the ground has shifted." He explained that Americans "have chosen ... unity of purpose over conflict and discord [and] ... the time has come to set aside childish things." President Obama offered to "extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." (Well, that line ostensibly was directed at foreign leaders. But many fists are still clenched in Washington.)

What Does The ‘Gang Of Moderates’ Gain By Slashing Education Funding In The Stimulus?:

This compromise entails making devastating cuts to the proposed education funding in the bill, a significant portion of which is aimed at low-income, disadvantaged students. A draft of their proposed cuts includes:

- 50 percent of Title I funding, which goes to disadvantaged students ($6.5 billion)

- 50 percent of Head Start funding, which goes to low-income families ($1 billion)

- 50 percent of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act funding ($6.75 billion)

- 100 percent of state education stabilization funding ($24 billion)

Update: The Nelson and Collins gang is also proposing cuts in funding for Food Stamps, firefighter and police hiring, and child nutrition.

New ‘Gang of Moderates’ cuts target women and children again:

Eliminations:

Head Start, Education for the Disadvantaged, School improvement, Child Nutrition, Firefighters, Transportation Security Administration, Coast Guard, Prisons, COPS Hiring, Violence Against Women, NASA, NSF, Western Area Power Administration, CDC, Food Stamps

Senate Dems Compromise Away Best Parts of Recovery Plan:

In order to get the votes of two Republican (Maine's Susan Collins and Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter) and perhaps another (Mainer Olympia Snowe) that were needed to undermine the threat of a GOP filibuster, Reid surrendered $86 billion in proposed stimulus spending. In doing so, the Democrats agreed to cut not just fat but bone, and to warp the focus and intent of the legislation.

The Senate plan is dramatically more weighted than the House bill toward tax cuts (which account for more than 40 percent of the overall cost of the package). This is despite the fact that there is a growing consensus -- among even conservative economists and policy makers -- that tax cuts will do little or nothing to stimulate job creation in a country that lost almost 600,000 positions in January alone. [...]

The Senate's increased emphasis on tax cuts comes at the expense of the aggressive spending in key areas that might actually get a stalled economy moving.

Spending for school construction that would actually have put people to work -- while at the same time investing in the future -- has been slashed. (Almost $20 billion slated for school construction is gone.)

Money for Superfund cleanup, Head Start and Early Start child care, energy efficiency initiatives and historic preservation projects -- all of which create or maintain existing jobs -- has been cut.

Supplemental transportation funding has been hacked.

The House's proposal to help unemployed Americans maintain their health benefits has been chopped down.

Axed, as well, has been $90 million that was to have been allocated to plan for and manage a potential flu pandemic that economists and public health experts worry could shutter remaining businesses, bring the economy to a complete standstill and throw the country into a deep depression.

The bottom line is that, under the Senate plan:

* States will get less aid.

* Schools will get less help.

* Job creation programs will be less well funded.

* Preparations to combat potential public health disasters -- which could put the final nail in the economy's coffin -- will not be made.

In every sense, the Senate plan moves in the wrong direction.

At a time when smart economists are saying that a bigger, bolder stimulus plan is needed, Senate Democrats and a few moderate Republicans have agreed to a smaller, weaker initiative.

Senate centrists’ plan = 600,000 fewer jobs:

The Senate “centrists,” led by Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Susan Collins (R-NE), are cheering the fact that they’ve cut $86 billion in spending from the economy recovery package. “Spending for the states and education took the biggest hit, compared with the House bill. State fiscal stabilization funding was cut back $40 billion, school construction dropped $16 billion, and a proposed $3.5 billion line for higher education construction was zeroed out.”

Here's a list of what got cut by the Senate centrists.

The Nelson-Collins War On Green Jobs


Merrill Lynch Economist: Real Unemployment Rate is 13.9%:

When that amount of slack in employment is taken into account, Mr. Rosenberg found that the ‘real’ unemployment rate has actually climbed to 13.9%, an all-time high for the period he studied, and up from 13.5% in December and 11.2% a year ago.

Supporters Of $1.3 Trillion Bush Tax Cuts In 2001 Now Call $900 Billion Recovery Plan Billion ‘Too Much’:

Such objections are indeed ironic coming from some of the greatest advocates for President Bush’s $1.35 trillion tax cut package in 2001.

Unspinning the Right: the Rich Don't Really Bear Most of the Tax Burden:

Based on the cold facts of statistics and percentages, the poor are paying a greater share of their incomes.

Plunder and Blunder; How the 'Financial Experts' Keep Screwing You


John Cole: I really don’t understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane.

Yup. It's literally impossible to be meaningfully and productively bipartisan with a party of crazies (Tom Coburn, Jim Inhofe, Jim DeMint, Jim Bunning--what's with all the crazy Jim's?), liars (Graham, Grassley, Thune, Chamblis), egomaniacs (McCain, Hatch, Kyl, Sessions) and idiots (pick 'em).

Worst of Politicians: Same Old GOP Obstructionism

Dead Rattlesnakes Do Bite

Captain Jessie, BuzzFlash:

Well the republicans have gotten out front on Obama's stimulus plan and it appears the Senate will not be passing the bill. So what else is new?

When I was a kid, adult men told us that a dead rattlesnake could kill us if its fangs somehow scratched our skin. That scenario fits republicans to a tee. They may be dead, but they continue to be potent in obscure ways.

They are getting on camera as often as possible claiming that there is pork in the stimulus plan. Have the democrats pushed in front of news cameras to tell Americans that only 1% of all of the stimulus money is geared toward improvements that are not absolutely vital to the economy right now? No! They just let the obstructionists romp all over them. Now there is talk of the republicans adding an amendment to the bill to strike that 1%. Democrats with backbones need to beat the obstructionists to the punch and offer the amendment first.

Naked Republicans Display Their True Colors

George Gerber, Buzzflash:

It would be nice to look into the window of politics and see Democrats and Republicans walking the halls with their clothes on. However, since Barack Obama has taken office it appears the Republicans can be seen walking the halls naked. It is not a particularly pretty sight but it does make it easy to see their true colors once stripped of their clothing woven of lies and liars.

Why the GOP's Tax Gimmick for Homebuyers Won't Help One Bit

Let's apply a bit of common sense.

Joshua Holland, AlterNet:

And the GOP's approach is based on the theory that a "rising tide will lift all boats." A simple question: how's that theory been workin' out for ya?

Let's set aside the fact that those who are in a position to shop for a house right now are probably not the people who are suffering the most pain from the economic downturn. And let's set aside for a moment the fact that a tax credit passed now wouldn't have any impact on people's ability to buy a home in the short-term because they wouldn't see a dime until they filed their 2009 returns in 2010.

OK. Theoretically, if you could reinflate the bubble to some extent by increasing the number of people looking to buy, it'd help distressed homeowners, who would be able to refinance at lower rates or for longer terms, and it'd help lenders, who would have fewer "nonperforming" loans on their books. And it would help the financial industry unwind all those complex "toxic" mortgage-backed securities. In theory.

But nothing in that equation would change the fact that home prices were out of line with the fundamentals of the economy. It also wouldn't change the crucially important underlying issue: that American families are maxed out in terms of debt, have no savings, and all but the top ten percent haven't seen their real wages increase in 35 years. For these reasons (and I'm simplifying here), this approach: A) won't work, and B) even if it were to work, it would only kick the problem down the road a bit. After all, that which is unsustainable shall not be sustained. [...]

Again, common sense: trying to reinflate an artificially inflated bubble is a fool's errand. Or a Republican's errand -- same thing when it comes to economic policy.

'Are these folks serious?' Obama rips into stimulus-plan critics

David Neiwert, C and L (with video and transcript):

We can't delay, and we can't go back to the same, worn-out ideas that led us here in the first place. In the last few days we've seen proposals arise from some in Congress that you may not have read, but you'd be very familiar with, because you've been hearing them the last ten years -- maybe longer. They're rooted in the idea that tax cuts alone can solve all our problems, that government doesn't have a role to play, that half-measures and tinkering are somehow enough. That we can afford to ignore our most fundamental economic challenges -- the crushing cost of health care, the inadequate state of so many of our schools, our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.

So let me be clear: Those ideas have been tested, and they have failed. They have taken us from surpluses to an annual deficit of over a trillion dollars. And they have brought our economy to a halt. And that's precisely what the election we just had was all about. The American people have rendered their judgment. And now it is time to move forward, not back. Now is the time for action.

Obama Asks: ‘Are These Folks Serious?’

Brad Johnson, Think Progress (with video):

In a speech at the Department of Energy today, President Obama announced he was signing a memorandum to direct the department to issue new energy efficiency standards for common household appliances — something Secretary Steven Chu has highlighted in the past as a top priority. He also responded to critics who “ridiculed our notion that we should use part of the money to modernize the entire fleet of federal vehicles,” asking, “Are these folks serious?”

Obama pens stimulus op-ed in The Washington Post

Silent Patriot, C and L:

President Obama took to the pages of The Washington Post this morning to continue to make the case for his economic stimulus package.

WaPo:

By now, it's clear to everyone that we have inherited an economic crisis as deep and dire as any since the days of the Great Depression. Millions of jobs that Americans relied on just a year ago are gone; millions more of the nest eggs families worked so hard to build have vanished. People everywhere are worried about what tomorrow will bring.

What Americans expect from Washington is action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives -- action that's swift, bold and wise enough for us to climb out of this crisis.

Because each day we wait to begin the work of turning our economy around, more people lose their jobs, their savings and their homes. And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse.

President Obama finally sells the stimulus: "I reject the failed economic theories that got us to this point"

Silent Patriot, C and L:

Whitehouse.gov:

Now, in the past few days I've heard criticisms that this plan is somehow wanting, and these criticisms echo the very same failed economic theories that led us into this crisis in the first place -- the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can ignore fundamental challenges like energy independence and the high cost of health care; that we can somehow deal with this in a piecemeal fashion and still expect our economy and our country to thrive.

I reject those theories. And so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change. So I urge members of Congress to act without delay. No plan is perfect, and we should work to make it stronger.

Michael Steele: The new king of the GOP hypocrites

BuzzFlash, Honors:

It may seem like a cheap shot for BuzzFlash to name the new leader of the Republican party as our GOP hypocrite after only his first week in office, but Michael Steele's first speech as RNC chair was duplicitous enough that we couldn't help but call him out.

Last week, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Steele was elected the first black chairman of the Republican National Committee. For a party in crisis, it was again time to embrace the terminology of change. Without, of course, actually changing anything. [...]

In his acceptance speech, Steele spoke to the values of political innovation. He said that his ascendance shows that "the Republican party gets it."

"It's time for something completely different. And we're going to bring it to you," he promised.

Well, turns out that when Steele says "completely different," he means "absolutely the same."

Senate Republicans and the Stimulus: Playing Politics When the Economy Burns

Robert Reich, TPM:

Tomorrow's job report is likely to be awful. January's job losses could easily top half a million. We're deep into the most vicious of economic cycles: Consumers are slashing their spending because they're perilously in debt and worried about keeping their jobs. But as a result, businesses are facing shrinking sales of goods and services, so they're slashing payrolls, which of course makes consumers even more anxious and further reduces their spending power. Meanwhile, businesses are cutting way back on new investments in equipment, which hurts upstream suppliers, who are now slashing their payrolls. And so it goes, downward. The gap between what the economy could produce if it were running near full capacity and what it's now producing continues to widen. The shortfall is projected to be over a trillion dollars this year.

How do we get out of this downward plunge? [...]

When government spends to repair a highway or build a school or help pay for medical services, the money and the jobs stay here in America.

Finally, those who say cutting taxes on businesses is the best way to create or preserve jobs forget about the demand side. Even with a tax cut, businesses won't hire workers unless there are customers to buy what those workers produce. A government stimulus that creates jobs is a necessary precondition.

This isn't a matter of more or less government, however much Republicans and conservatives would like to wedge it in that old ideological box. The issue is how to revive the economy. When consumers and businesses can't or won't spend enough to keep the economy going, government has to be the spender of last resort. Period.

GOP Political Games Are Not Okay

Republicans Clearly Are Willing to Let This Country Collapse if They Think it Will Win Them Elections

Doug Kreeger, AlterNet:

It is abundantly clear that the Republican leaders are going to do everything to prevent Obama and the Dems from doing anything constructive.

Grasping for relevance, out-of-touch lawmakers crafting stimulus just remembered we have a housing crisis

Meg White. BuzzFlash:

Republicans say tax cuts are key to getting people to buy houses. It's hard to tell the origination of this idea, however. The GOP plan for the stimulus package has been more tax cuts all along. Fearing looking antiquated, uncompassionate, greedy or all three, they've decided to inject some relevance.

Basically, they've changed their talking point from "It's tax cuts that stimulate the economy, not government spending!" to "We want to fix the root of the problem: housing. Democrats just want to spend money on pet projects!" But they're still selling the same magic solution.

Democrats are almost as politically-driven as the GOP in their recalculation. Hallucinating that the conservative talking points about pork-barrel spending were actually working on the American people, Dems decided to come to the rescue of the ailing housing market, too. Their plan intends to save current homeowners from the brink of foreclosure, something the Obama Administration planned to take on in a separate action.

This move is even less surprising, but perhaps also less callous than the Republicans'. [...]

It's less callous because it has less to do with partisan desires like the ones driving the tax cut cries from Republicans. People actually need assistance with their mortgages, and tax cuts won't stop foreclosure.

Denial As Political Strategy

Josh Marshall, TPM:

Behind all the back and forth over the Stimulus Bill is a simple fact: the debate in Washington is rapidly moving away from any recognition that the US economy -- and the global economy, for that matter -- is in free-fall. The range of outcomes stretches from severe recession to something closer to a replay of the Great Depression, though that label is perhaps better seen as a placeholder for 'catastrophic economic collapse' since the underlying place of the US economy in the world economy is very different from what it was in 1929. This reality was palpable in the political debate until as recently as a few weeks ago. But Republicans are using a strategy of conscious denial to push it off the stage.

It's the Stupid, Stupid

Josh Marshall, TPM:

I've been hollering for days about this or that Republican's picayune complaints about the Stimulus Bill -- either line items for minuscule dollar amounts or bogus complaints about spending items that demonstrably will create lots of jobs and improve the economy over the long term. [...]

Those jobs are needed in the short-term to prevent unemployment from getting out of hand and in the longer term to reshape the economy so that we're not dependent on recurrent bubbles to keep the economy afloat. This is an emergency jobs bill. And it costs a lot of money because we're in a deep crisis. But this basic point has disappeared almost entirely from the public debate.

ThinkProgress has admirably demonstrated that the cable networks continue to tip the scales in favor of Republicans by booking like twice or even three times as many Republicans as Democrats to discuss the Stimulus Bill. But that only tells us what we already know, which is that the Washington press establishment is still wired for Republicans. But there is a Democratic president. And he does have the bully pulpit. And he needs to make this argument, which he's not. Absent that, we can't be surprised and the Democrats are not in much of a position to complain if the vacuum is filled by a bunch of Republicans making statements that are either demonstrable nonsense or just lies.

Look at what people are talking about and you wouldn't get the sense that we're actually in the midst of a major economic crisis that will likely send unemployment well into double digits if nothing is done quickly -- and a crisis that is in large measure the result of the economic policies that the Boehners and Cantors and McConnells are telling us, all the evidence to the contrary, will now save us. Everyone who's taking this situation seriously realizes that spending is the pivotal part of what the government needs to do to stabilize the economy in the face of this crisis.

Message to D.C.: It's the Jobs, Stupid. Not Tinkering with Taxes.

Christine Bowman, BuzzFlash:

It's time we workers told everyone in Washington that the way to bail out America is to save and create more jobs. Period.

Washington, listen to this. Convince us workers that we will be getting a paycheck if you want us to be good consumers and help the American economy come back. You can also tell us how we can help. Convince us that Uncle Sam will have a plausible safety net for us -- most importantly, access to health care, Social Security benefits, new job training programs, educational help -- and we won't hold on to every discretionary penny we still have. We might even be ready to "buy American." [...]

While you're at it, you also could partner with unions that are willing to provide job training. Give grants to schools and colleges willing to prepare students to succeed in the globalized economy. Pay Americans today to build up America for tomorrow.

Or, you Washington "leaders" can tinker with tax rules and argue your ideological talkling points as the country sinks lower than a Mississippi swamp day by day and minute by minute.

Today the outrageous news is that GOP senators have decided to fight Obama on the nation's recovery bill. Although Keynesian economic theory says go big and fast, or you've lost the stimulus battle before the first shot is fired, the GOP seeks to reduce the package. They want to tinker with housing. That horse has long since left the barn. How would that get money flowing?

Michael Steele Continues Republican Lies: Not in the History of Mankind Has the Government Ever Created a Job

Heather, C and L (with video):

Michael Steele is completely clueless. Hey Steele, weren't you drawing a government pay check at one time? Maybe that didn't qualify as a job. I think the people working for the Post Office, Parks Department, IRS....etc., etc., etc. might disagree with you.

Joe the Plumber: ‘I don’t know if the American public deserve me.’

Amanda Terkel, Think Progress:

Yesterday, the ubiquitous Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher — aka “Joe the Plumber” and “Joe the War Correspondent” — became “Joe the Economist” when he went and spoke to a House GOP breakfast on the economic recovery package.

One thing that needs to be done, he said, is killing this stimulus package, because it’s just another example of “American government” — Republicans and Democrats — “kicking our butts left and right.” He also called it welfare.

Joe the Plumber now advising the GOP

SilentPatriot, C and L:

Sooo.... I guess the Republicans actually want to stay in the minority?

Painfully Stupid

Josh Marshall, TPM (with video):

Sen. Thune (R-SD) explains Republican thinking about the economic crisis ...

Country's on the precipice. And idiots like this are holding the floor.

D.L. Hughley: A Man Can Take Us To War and Lie and We Won't Do a Damn Thing About That

John Amato. C and L:

I had to tune out the Blago stuff after a while, but check out D.L. Hughley's take.

If This Were an M. Night Shyamalan Movie I'd Walk Out

LithiumCola, Daily Kos:

So, the idea seems to be that Washington Republicans are engaging in purely ideological shadowplay for the benefit, not of their constituents, but their party bosses. And the effect of this shadowplay will be to wipe out programs that have little appreciable effect on the cost of the stimulus, and that no one but Republican bosses would have bothered to complain about, except for the theatrical bellyaching. [...]

Now, I don't know about you, but I am confused. Why is anyone in their right mind considering sacrificing programs that no one really opposes, in order to get votes that aren't needed anyway, to please no one but the bosses of a regional party, who neither have nor want any reasonable arguments for sacrificing those programs in the first place?

It's Not Going to Be OK

Chris Hedges, Truthdig:

The economic crisis could plunge the U.S. into a long period of social instability. Our democracy is in peril; the threat of totalitarianism is real.

Bailout Signed Into law

This afternoon, President Bush signed into law the $700 billion bailout bill. The legislation (HR.1424) was approved Friday by the House in a 263-171 vote.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.):

Only two things are certain: the bill will provide hundreds of billions of dollars to investors who made bad decisions and Wall Street executives; and our children and grandchildren will now face a national debt that is hundreds of billions of dollars higher.

Related NBF posts can be found here and here.

Around the Blogosphere

I Don't Remember:

Boehner forgets his golfing vacation, says he was at GOP drilling protest ‘each and every day.’

Last month, House conservatives engaged in a political stunt in the Capitol, demanding a vote on oil drilling while Congress was adjourned for recess. Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), however, was absent for part of the protest, squeezing in a couple of rounds of golf in Ohio while his colleagues were in Washington. Speaking today on the floor, Boehner claimed he was there “each and every day”:

Watch it: [ 4:01 ]

Spigot Hissy Spit:

House GOP Threatens Shutdown Over Drilling

Drill Now BS: Actual Domestic Oil Facts

Drill here, drill now is ridiculous and should be called out for what it is - a moronic, dangerous policy idea with absolutely no logical foundation.

More Bush Government Incompetence:

Veterans Groups Attack Bush Administration Plan To Outsource GI Bill Benefits

In June — after months of finally signed a war supplemental spending bill that included a doubling of GI Bill college benefits for veterans.

Bush’s Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), however, doesn’t seem too happy about the increased work these new benefits will create and plans to outsource it all.

Braindead Media:

Hannity: No One At Fox News Has Ever Accused Obama Of Being A Muslim [Fake Spews BS]

Media Embrace McCain’s ‘Maverick’ Re-Branding Effort [With Video]

On Fox News yesterday, the Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes observed that this re-branding effort is something that “the media has bought.” Barnes is right. Since the convention last week, the media appear to be more than happy to comply with McCain’s effort to put the “maverick” brand back into his campaign — hook, line and sinker...

In fact, there is nothing about any of McCain’s policy proposals that could in any way justify calling him a “maverick.” His economic, energy, health care and national security policies are all either in line with President Bush’s or in some cases further to the right.

Paul Begala rips MSM, Republican operative for flat-out lying about Palin’s record [With video and transcript]

Paul Begala goes to town on GOP media consultant Alex Castellanos for peddling blatant falsehoods about Sarah Palin’s “reformer” record, specifically her phantom opposition to the “Bridge to Nowhere,” which she not only supported, but for which hired a Abramoff crony to secure the earmark.

Alternate Realities:

Meghan McCain: ‘No one knows what war is like other than my family. Period.’


Also Needing A Reality Check:

McCain Campaign Piles Up New Falsehoods On Bridge To Nowhere

McCain and his advisers are now conceding that, yes, Sarah Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it -- but they're casting this as more proof of her reform credentials.

In so doing, the McCain camp is piling new falsehoods atop the old ones.

Surveillance And Secrecy:

Government secrecy on the rise.

A new “secrecy report card” by OpenTheGovernment.org finds that by almost every measure, government secrecy is rising. Some of the report’s indicators: PDF

* The government spent $195 maintaining the secrets already on the books for every one dollar the government spent declassifying documents

* 18 percent of the requested Department of Defense (DOD) acquisition funding is for classified, or ‘black,’ programs...

* “Federal surveillance activity under the jurisdiction of the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has risen for the 9th consecutive year...”

Screwing The People For Fun And More Profit:

Freddie & Fannie execs to walk away with millions

Under the terms of his employment contract, Daniel H. Mudd, the departing head of Fannie Mae, stands to collect $9.3 million in severance pay, retirement benefits and deferred compensation, provided his dismissal is deemed to be “without cause,” according to an analysis by the consulting firm James F. Reda & Associates. Mr. Mudd has already taken home $12.4 million in cash compensation and stock option gains since becoming chief executive in 2004, according to an analysis by Equilar, an executive pay research firm.

Richard F. Syron, the departing chief executive of Freddie Mac, could receive an exit package of at least $14.1 million, largely because of a clause added to his employment contract in mid-July as his company’s troubles deepened. He has taken home $17.1 million in pay and stock option gains since becoming chief executive in 2003.

More Bushenomics: Why McCain's Plans Would Only Add to Americans' Economic Pain

Somewhere between box-office hit and policy wonk mentality is the real world. Here, "Country First" should represent more than military prowess; it should mean economic stability. A country can't be strong if the personal economies of its citizens are weak. Yet, under McCain's economic strategy, individual financial security is under attack.

Grandiose notions of combat don't pay for adjustable mortgages, sneaky credit card fees and rate hikes, health care premiums, tuition, gas or food. They don't regulate a banking system gone mad that has already commandeered billions of dollars of bailouts (from Bear Stearns to the cost of "effectively privatizing" Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).

McCain's main economic promises are cutting taxes, creating jobs and balancing the budget (aka removing pork). All commendable, except when you consider the details. His policies would result in a higher deficit, a lower dollar, more jobs leaving the country, and a reduction in Social Security, Medicare, education and other entitlement programs.

Calling Them On It:

Obama on Countdown: McCain/Palin “stretching the bounds of spin” [Video and transcript]

Fixing Elections:

Ten ways the McCain/Palin GOP is now stealing the Ohio vote

Nearly 600,000 Subject to Possible Caging in Ohio ... Updated

Virginia county issues “chilling” voter registration report

Officials in charge of voter registration in Virginia seem to be asking for Federal investigation… According to this press release from this extremely important battleground state, students are being told that they risk losing their scholarship and tax dependency status if they register to vote in their college, as opposed to home, state. And surprise, it appears all these warnings are bogus and have one impact and one impact only: to suppress voter turnout among college-aged people, who are overwhelmingly supporting Obama this year. Memo to Virginia: that’s illegal.

TPMTV Video:

Palin a Reformer? Simply Laughable

Clueville:

Pointing out the obvious: Self Correcting Conservatives

I’ve been saying that this is the time America was finally ready to turn away from the phony notion that being a conservative is a good thing—go left and reject conservatism completely. I mean, it’s been an utter failure and John McCain has been a big part of that failure. I’ve been calling on the Obama campaign to attack the ideals that conservatism apply. Not to be used like a wedge issue since he has been running on a platform of bipartisanship, (I disapprove of that also) but to point out the obvious. If a party hates government then they will prove how bad government is. And what we get are people left stranded in NOLA with no water for a week as an example of how dangerous it is.

Well, all summer we had a chance to point that out to America, but unfortunately that did not happen and now we’re left watching John McCain try to remake the image of his party while he gets sucked into the conservative Borg organism in the process. And the media rejoices. He’s a Maverick they say! What a guy. And if you believe the polls, the public is buying it to so far.

I’ve also thought that this would come down to the debates because Americans just don’t know Obama all that well and when he’s side by side with McSame, America will truly see the difference. It’s tough to wait it out till then, but that’s going to be the defining moments I think in this election unless some really bad news or crazy gaffes take place.

Digby has a great post up called: Self Correcting Conservatives.

WWJD?

William K. Wolfrum Chronicles: Jesus quits Christianity after viewing the GOP platform

“There’s a new breed of Christian out there that seems to think I represent free-for-all capitalism and slaying my enemies,” said Christ, munching on an arugula quiche. “I mean, they made Isaiah into a Cold War-era strategist, for Dad’s sake. Did they even read the New Testament?”

- - - - -

A thoughtful Christ said he had yet to decide what would be next for him, but expressed pride in his philosophy and accomplishments.

“We had a good run,” said Christ. “It really far exceeded anything I had hoped for, but humanity was supposed to become more evolved over time, not less.

“It’s just time to pull the plug.”

- - - - -

But Christ did allow for one tidbit to be released - what the “H” stood for in “Jesus H. Christ.”

“Hector,” said Christ, walking out the door.

Alaskan Road To Ruin

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens has been indicted on seven counts of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts and has resigned from two committees, stepping down as ranking member of both the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. Now, Ted Stevens' Senate seat is in serious jeopardy. His indictment might not only hurt his chances of being re-elected, but also squash the GOP hopes for a gaining back a majority in the Senate.

How did Ted Stevens get from the Bridge to Nowhere to the Road to Ruin? Let Kate Klonick give you a guided tour:

The Ted Stevens' Road to Ruin

We've had a lot of coverage today at TPMmuckraker on the freshly indicted Sen. Ted Stevens (R), but we've actually been following Uncle Ted and his son, Ben, here at TPMm for more than a year.

So for the benefit of our readers we thought we'd wrap it up into one neat little package so you can see how an 84 year-old U.S. Senator can go from free gas grills to federal indictment.

Ladies and gentleman, we present:

The Ted Stevens' Road to Ruin, the ultimate in Ted Stevens' timelines.

FISA Vote Postponed

Mark Fiore: The Spies Who Love You

Feingold wins delay on surveillance bill

Post-Crescent, WI:

Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold and other opponents of a compromise electronic surveillance bill left town today with a victory: They delayed action on the legislation until Congress returns from a Fourth of July break.

"I hope that over the July 4th holiday, senators will take a closer look at this deeply flawed legislation and understand how it threatens the civil liberties of the American people," Feingold said in a statement. "It is possible to defend this country from terrorists while also protecting the rights and freedoms that define our nation.”

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said he will likely take up the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act on July 8.

Senate Delays Vote on Immunity

Electronic Frontier Foundation:

It's official: Thanks to overwhelming grassroots action, and the heroic efforts of Senators Dodd and Feingold, the Senate's vote on whether to grant phone companies immunity from the law for assisting in the President's illegal wiretapping program has been delayed until after July 4th Recess!

This is an unexpected reprieve for civil liberties and the rule of law. As recently as last night, the mainstream press was reporting that the immunity bill would see swift and uncontested approval. Senate Leaders emphasized that passing an immunity bill this week was one of their highest priorities. And yet, in the end, the bill simply wasn't as uncontested and noncontroversial as the pundits and politicans thought it was. [snip]

EFF would like to extend its sincere thanks to everyone who's taken up this cause as their own. Whether you've contacted your Congressperson, blogged or written your thoughts on the issue, or just talked it over with friends, your action has made a difference today.

Keep calling and/or writing your senators and remind them of our rights of natural law as guaranteed by the Constitution, the highest law of this country, which they took an oath to support and defend:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

Back from vacation

A lot has happened since I went on vacation a couple of weeks ago. So here is a brief wrap-up of what's been going on.

1. I was disappointed that Congress gave in on letting telecom companies have immunity for breaking the law in the FISA bill and also on Iraq war funding. Giving in on important issues like this in exchange for more pork is NOT a compromise. For a lame-duck President I'm disappointed that Congress is still letting him lead them around by the nose on crucial issues involving Iraq and warrantless surveillance. It's no accident that Congress' approval rating, which was rising for a couple of months into 2007, started tanking to the day that they first knuckled under to the Bush administration on Iraq war funding.

2. I'm encouraged by how quickly the party is coming back together. It's been eighteen days since Hillary suspended her campaign, and it's safe to say that while there is still work that needs to be done, the rate that Clinton supporters have been uniting with the Obama campaign is faster than the rate at which conservatives were rallying to McCain after he in effect decided the issue on Super Tuesday, or even after he clinched the GOP nod a month later.

3. In 1977, Jimmy Carter proposed (and Congress for the most part passed) a plan to make us energy independent by 2000. Unfortunately, virtually all of it (except for the original Alaska pipeline, which was only a small part of the whole) was dismantled during the 1980's. Also last year Congress finally passed increased CAFE standards for the first time since the Carter administration-- and it was a combination of Republicans and oil or auto-state Democrats who had scuttled it for thirty years. Keep in mind that a model-T Ford got 25 mpg, and that was a hundred years ago. If the GOP wants to make energy an issue, then bring it on. And yes, while in California I did have to pay $4.679 a gallon for a tank of gas.

4. I was encouraged by some state polls out the last couple of weeks. A survey USA poll out today shows Obama slightly ahead though statistically tied with John McCain in Indiana. The Hoosier state politically has always been a staunch Republican bastion that the GOP could pretty much count on to avoid getting shut out in the Rust Belt even in years when the rest of the region went to the Democrats. That may not be true this year. And a poll in Alaska the other day showed Obama within four. Alaska has also been a solidly Republican state, but then again-- maybe not this year. Obama has said he intends to send paid staff to all fifty states, which he will have the funds to do and McCain won't be able to counter him everywhere.

5. That leads into this observation-- Yes, Obama's decision to pass on Presidential matching funds was a flip-flop and a crass political decision. So what? He's trying to win, and does anyone honestly believe that if McCain had a way to raise $200-$300 million for the general he wouldn't do the same thing? Obama's learned quickly how to play the game, and having a 3-to-1 or 4-to-1 money advantage (McCain will be limited to $84 million) in the fall will allow him to do exactly what Republicans have done in the past to Democrats (when they had the big money advantage.) The real root of the problem is that campaigns are getting more expensive and fewer Americans are dedicating that $3 of their taxes to go to the Presidential campaign. One reform that I would suggest Congress may want to pass sometime would be that when one of two major party candidates opts out of the system then the funds that would have gone to that candidate go to his or her opponent.

6. This observation-- when we went to Disneyland (we were lucky to be able to go this year ourselves, but we had promised the kids and we never break promises to them, plus they themselves worked harder and raised more for going to the Cinderella finals than they needed to this year) it was a lot less crowded than it was the last time we went-- on the same days and the same time of year-- in 2004.) Granted we were only there for two days, but either Disney raised prices too fast or less people can afford to go this year. Likely a bit of both.

7. The state legislature, after shutting everyone out (especially members of the Democratic minority) for months has two budgets out-- the house Republican budget that makes deep cuts (and looks great for political grandstanding), and the Senate budget, more or less supported by the Governor, that is more reasonable given the current fiscal pressures facing the state. They will then resolve the differences by negotiating a budget that is likely to be closer to the Senate version. This is the same thing as happens every year. Here is an idea to save the state money-- since we know how this will turn out anyway, why not come out with the budgets in February and have the process wrapped up by March. Just think how much money this would save--especially by not having to pay legislators per diem pay for another three or four months. Well, read that last line again and you'll know why they give us this show every year. Incidentally, I want Obama to win, but if he does I'm well aware that it will hurt us in Arizona because Governor Napolitano would likely get a cabinet post, which would mean that Jan Brewer would move into the Governor's office-- and she'd likely sign the nutty stuff that comes out of the legislature. Plus, a cabinet call for Napolitano would likely deprive us in the Arizona Democratic party of our top candidate for McCain's Senate seat in 2010. Ah, well-- sometimes you are called on to sacrifice for your country and an Obama win would benefit all fifty states.

8. Apparently Senate Banking Committee Chairman and former Presidential candidate Chris Dodd got special treatment on his home loan from Countrywide (though he denies knowing he was getting anything better than anyone else.) He is now sponsoring a bill (actually a bi-partisan bill with Senator Shelby) to help bail out lenders, most notably Countrywide. It's a good thing Dodd isn't the nominee, otherwise this story would be broadcast wall to wall and would be called the biggest banking scandal since Credit Mobilier. In fact, it shows questionable judgement but no wrongdoing and will probably be gone within a week. But the fact that it will shows how much of a higher standard Presidential nominees are held to than also-rans.

9. I admit to being wrong about something. I picked the Lakers in five. What they really need is five. Five guys. Five guys playing defense. They are lucky they play in the western conference because the way they don't play defense I doubt if they would have even beaten Detroit or Cleveland to get to the finals if they were in the east. In fact, I'm wondering whether Tim Donaghy is right-- because the Lakers that showed up in the NBA finals weren't even good enough to have really beaten the Spurs.

10. It's good to be back.

Boehner has trouble finding a slogan for change that isn't change

Republicans in the house, still reeling over their defeat in a special election in a deep-red Mississippi congressional district (the third such special election loss this year) that clipped the size of their house delegation to a psychologically demoralizing 199 members, want to adopt a message of change.

Of course there would in reality be no 'change' about it, just the same old, worn-out and failed mantra of 'tax cut, trickle down, deregulate... tax cut, trickle down, deregulate' that has led us to the mess we are now in. But what they want is to put it in a new package, and let the new packaging say, "change."

So, as House Republican leader John Boehner was casting about for a slogan for a Republican 'change' agenda he considered a slogan in which Republicans pledged to give voters "the change they deserve."

Only he can't do that, because the slogan is almost identical to the slogan that pharmaceutical manufacture Wyeth uses to market an anti-depressant called Effexor.

Well, maybe they should take a hint. Republicans in Congress may need an anti-depressant.