Breitbart’s ‘Minority-Based Tea Party Event’ Fails To Attract Minorities
The Republican National Committee has postponed a fundraiser with right-wing media tycoon Andrew Breitbat, citing “a scheduling change.” While it’s not entirely clear why the event was delayed, Breitbart has been under heavy fire recently — even from conservatives — for his misleading and racially-tinged campaign to smear former USDA official Shirley Sherrod.
News of the fundraiser’s cancellation came on the same day that Breitbart held a “minority-based Tea Party event” in Philadelphia, which promised to show the inclusiveness of the tea party movement. Since the NAACP condemned “racist elements” within the tea party movement last month, Breitbart and other leaders have been desperately trying to show the supposed diversity of the movement.
Breitbart’s Saturday rally, held outside Independence Hall, failed in this pursuit. Reflecting polling which shows that 89 percent of tea party supporters are white, numerous media outlets reported that the event attracted only a “handful” of minorities. While there were 10 non-white speakers among the 18 total, the crowd was much less diverse, TPM reports:
Among those who did make it, for most of the time the numbers of non-white faces could be counted on two hands, and maybe a foot. [...]
David Webb, an African American top official with Tea Party Federation and the man who shamed Mark Williams and the Tea Party Express for being racist a couple weeks ago, emceed the event and told the tea party crowd that it didn’t matter if only a few minorities joined the cause.
“I didn’t realize that any movement everywhere had a minimum daily requirement of black people to be legitimate,” he said.
Perhaps the event failed to attract many people of color because it failed to attract many people. Organizers boasted that the event’s website had been visited 2 million times, and it was “clear from the large numbers of volunteers and the 1,500 bottles the organizers put on ice that they expected a big crowd to turn out.” In the end, about only 300 people bothered showing up. Organizers blamed traffic.
The highlight of the event was a paranoid screed from Breitbart, in which he warned of a “media cabal,” and accused liberals of being the true racists. Breitbart explained to reporters that their employers were “in cahoots with black politicians and the Democratic Party.” Breitbart also refused to discuss the one thing on everyone’s mind — the Sherrod video. It was Breitbart’s first speech since the controversy, but he “didn’t directly address Sherrod once during Saturday’s three hour rally,” ducking numerous questions from several reporters. Sherrod has said she will sue Breitbart over the incident.
The irony of Breitbart — who continues to insist that his video proves Sherrod is a racist — leading a rally to promote the tea party’s racial sensitivity was not lost on other organizers, it appears. “Many tea-party leaders appeared uncomfortable in the aftermath of Breitbart’s dustup with the NAACP and Sherrod,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Jeffrey Weingarten, the event’s principle organizer, was careful to note that Breitbart “had been invited to speak many months ago, ‘well before any of the recent radical pronouncements of either side.’” “In fact,” Weingarten contined, “I’ll tell you we view radical statements from anyone as extremist and not as partisan, and they should be roundly condemned by all people.”
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Lady Gaga uses Phoenix concert to protest SB-1070: ‘I will yell and I will scream and I will hold you.’
Lady Gaga uses Phoenix concert to protest SB-1070: ‘I will yell and I will scream and I will hold you.’
Since Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed the anti-immigration SB-1070 into law, many high-profile musicians — including Kanye West, Sonic Youth, and Rage Against the Machine — have boycotted the state. In recent weeks, activists had been pressuring Lady Gaga to cancel her July 31 concert in Phoenix, saying, “This is no time for a Poker Face, Lady Gaga!” Gaga, however, went ahead with her concert on Saturday and used it as a venue to speak out:
LADY GAGA: I want you to let go of all of your insecurities. I want you to reject any person, or any thing, or any law that has ever made you feel like you don’t belong. I got a phone call from a couple of really big rock and rollers, big pop stars, big rappers, and they said, “we’d like you to boycott Arizona…because of SB-1070.” And I said, “you really think that us dumb f*cking pop stars are going to collapse the economy of Arizona?”
I’ll tell you what we have to do about SB-1070. We have to be active. We have to actively protest. The nature of the Monster Ball is to actively protest prejudice, and injustice, and that bullsh*t that is put on our society…because you’re a superstar, no matter who you are, no matter where you come from and you were born that way! I will not cancel my show. I will yell and I will scream louder. And I will hold you, and we will hold each other, and we will peaceably protest this state. Because if it wasn’t for all of you immigrants, this country wouldn’t have sh*t. And I mean it. I mean it so deeply in my soul.
Watch it:
Gaga also told a story of a boy she met whose “house was raided because of a parking ticket or something. They took his brother, and now he is in Mexico. … It’s really (unfair), and it’s really disgusting.” She dedicated her song “You and I” to the boy at her concert, which more than 14,000 people attended.
ThinkFast: August 2, 2010
ThinkFast: August 2, 2010
The Financial Times’ Ed Luce documents the “crisis of middle-class America.” Noting the “median wage stagnation” that has afflicted most American families, Luce writes, “the annual incomes of the bottom 90 per cent of US families have been essentially flat since 1973 – having risen by only 10 per cent in real terms over the past 37 years. That means most Americans have been treading water for more than a generation.”
The passage of the Affordable Care Act will save the Medicare program about $8 billion by the end of the year, “and $575 billion over the rest of the decade,” according to the Obama administration. The savings are anticipated to add “12 years of solvency” to Medicare’s trust fund for inpatient care.
Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, said on Meet the Press yesterday that “the slowing economic recovery in the U.S. feels like a ‘quasi-recession.’” He warned that a “double-dip” recession is possible “if home prices go down.”
“Driven by increasing anger at Democratic policies” and enabled by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, “business and conservative groups are preparing a flood of campaign money” for this Fall’s election. While labor unions and allied liberal groups also plan to spend, “the momentum and the new money” are coming from business and its allies.
Gen. David Petraeus, “who in July took over as head of the allied force in Afghanistan,” has issued revised airstrike rules that will ease restrictions on the ability for U.S. troops to call in strikes on suspected insurgents. The new rules make it “clear that troops are allowed to request airstrikes and artillery strikes against insurgents hiding in dilapidated buildings or other abandoned structures.”
Pelosi: The American people ‘are weary of war’ and want to hear about ‘economic security.’
Pelosi: The American people ‘are weary of war’ and want to hear about ‘economic security.’
Today, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) appeared on ABC’s This Week With Christiane Amanpour and fielded a variety of questions about current events. In a portion of the interview that was only posted online, the ABC host asked Pelosi if, given the declining public support for the Afghan war, the President should act to “drum up support” for the conflict. The Speaker responded that the American people are “weary of war” and what they “really want to hear from the president now” is about their “economic security”:
AMANPOUR: When you talk to people around the country, and you see in some areas support slipping. And the president as you say is such a great communicator. Would it help you, would it be a good idea if he went out more to talk about what’s really at stake and drum up support?
PELOSI: What the American people really want to hear from the president now is, because I believe many of them are weary of war, they’re not weary of being protected, but weary of war, they’re worried about their economic security. And that’s what they want to hear from the president, is how do we go, is the president taking us in a forward direction? That’s what the people want to hear about, how we can create jobs in our country, as we reduce the deficit. Our agenda is about making it in America, make products in America, and make it as a person in America. It’s about protecting Social Security, it’s about lowering the deficit.
Watch it:
Indeed, polling finds that the economy and jobs are the foremost concern on the minds of Americans. And the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that only 43 percent of Americans find the war in Afghanistan worth fighting; the latest Gallup poll on the issue finds that 58 percent of Americans support a drawdown of U.S. troops from the country along the President’s proposed July 2011 timeline (although it is unclear what that timeline really entails).
Kyl Dismisses Reports That Crime Is Down In Arizona As A ‘Gross Generalization’
Kyl Dismisses Reports That Crime Is Down In Arizona As A ‘Gross Generalization’
Arizona politicians who support the state’s new immigration law have spent the past few months justifying the passage of SB-1070 by pointing to the high levels of crime that undocumented immigrants have brought to their state. However, over the past few weeks, the media has countered their claims of kidnappings and beheadings with reports that the border is “safer than ever” and “one of America’s safest places.” Today, when pressed by guest anchor Harry Smith on CBS’ Face the Nation, SB-1070 supporter Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) called the reports a “gross generalization”:
SMITH: One of the things that’s come to light over the past last couple weeks is that in some of these border towns that were thought to be susceptible to lawbreaking of illegal immigrants. Crime is actually down. Crime in Phoenix for instance is down significantly over the past couple of years.
KYL: Well, that’s a gross generalization. Property crimes are up, certain violent crimes on certain parts of the citizenry are up. Phoenix is a very large source of kidnapping. It’s called the kidnapping capital of the United States…So there’s a great deal of violence and crime associated with illegal immigrants.
Watch it:
Far from being a “gross generalization,” as undocumented immigration has increased, crime in Arizona has dropped in almost every category — including property crime. FBI statistics show that Arizona’s overall crime rate dropped 12 percent last year and 23 percent between 2004 and 2008. More specifically, Media Matters reports that the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that the per capita property crime rate in Arizona was lower in 2006, 2007, and 2008 than any year since 1968.
And while Kyl has repeatedly claimed that Arizona is the “kidnapping capital of the United States,” adding in the past that “it’s second only in the world to Mexico City,” Politifact recently classified the claim as “false.” According to Politifact, though the number of kidnappings that have occurred in Phoenix since 2008 have been specified, no one has said how many kidnappings were reported in other cities. Neither the FBI nor the U.S. National Central Bureau of Interpol could confirm the claim. Most experts immediately dismissed the claim that Arizona is “second only to Mexico.”
In his interview, Kyl also claimed Judge Susan Bolton’s decision to block the most significant provisions of SB-1070 from taking effect this past week was “wrong,” despite the fact that Bolton was nominated to the bench following his recommendation and praise. Kyl admitted that “tweaking” SB-1070 “won’t work to obviate the concerns of judge.” Instead, Kyl recommends Congress should act to “reaffirm” that its intent is that the law should be enforced.
Boehner Spouts Anti-Intellectualism Screed: ‘I Don’t Need To See GDP Numbers Or Listen To Economists’
Boehner Spouts Anti-Intellectualism Screed: ‘I Don’t Need To See GDP Numbers Or Listen To Economists’
This morning on Fox News Sunday, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), who has waffled on the impact of the stimulus, argued against the need for more stimulus funding. He claimed that he doesn’t need to listen to economists when putting together his policy agenda:
WALLACE: Congressman — a number of top economists say what we need is more economic stimulus.
BOEHNER: Well, I don’t need to see GDP numbers or to listen to economists. All I need to do is listen to the American people, because they’ve been asking the question now for 18 months, “where are the jobs?”
Later, the interview grew a bit more hostile as Wallace tried to press Boehner on the deficit-impact of his call for extending the Bush tax cuts. “Chris, you’ve been in Washington too long because that’s all a bunch of Washington talk,” Boehner said dismissively. “I’m just asking a question, sir,” Wallace persisted, noting the exorbitant cost of extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. “This is the whole Washington mindset, all these CBO numbers,” Boehner responded. Watch it:
Boehner — whose blind political ideology often leads him to oppose anything that Democrats and Obama might be supportive of — is not interested in hearing the facts. The GDP numbers that Boehner doesn’t want to see showed a relatively weak 2.4 percent growth rate in the 2nd quarter, which indicates that the economy is losing momentum:
The consensus from leading experts is that the original stimulus was too small for the magnitude of the crisis. Forty notable economists and historians, including Joseph Stiglitz, Alan Blinder, and Mark Zandi, recently signed their names to statements calling for more government stimulus. “The urgent need is for government to replace the lost purchasing power of the unemployed and their families and to employ other tax-cut and spending programs to boost demand,” they wrote.
Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke — who Boehner has praised in the past — has said that deficit spending is critical in the short-term and that pulling support from the stimulus isn’t the right solution. “At the current moment…the large deficits, as unattractive as they are, are important for supporting economic activity, and they were important also in restoring financial stability,” he said. “And so I think they were justified in that respect, and I would be reluctant to withdraw that support too precipitously in the near term.”
CBO Director Doug Elmendorf — yet another expert that Boehner has praised in the past — has explained that there is “no intrinsic contradiction” between supporting more stimulus now and demanding deficit reduction later. Yale economics professor Robert Schiller writes in today’s New York Times, “We need more stimulus, not less — but we need to focus much more on actually putting people to work. … [U]nless we take new measures, we face the prospect of protracted unemployment.”
Palin Writes Down Cost Of Extending Bush Tax Cuts On Her Hand, But She Still Gets It Wrong
Palin Writes Down Cost Of Extending Bush Tax Cuts On Her Hand, But She Still Gets It Wrong
Since he was on the campaign trail, President Obama has proposed renewing the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts for the lower- and middle-class, while allowing them to expire on schedule at the end of the year for the richest two percent of Americans. Republicans, however, have begun to obfuscate the issue by saying that the end of the year will bring history’s largest tax increase, deliberately leaving out that Democrats have proposed extending most of the cuts.
Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) pulled this rhetorical trick last week, saying “Democrats are poised to allow the largest tax increase in American history to take effect,” and on Fox News Sunday today former half-term governor Sarah Palin went down the same road. Fox’s Chris Wallace rightly pointed out that “the Republicans keep talking about being deficit hawks. This is $678 billion you are not going to pay for.” Palin responded “no, this is going to result in the largest tax increase in U.S. history. Again, it’s idiotic.”
Wallace proceeded to let Palin spend the next minute reading from notes on paper that she had written down. He interrupted her just for a moment to ask if she had anything written down on her hand, to which she responded that she did:
PALIN: My palm isn’t large enough to have written all my notes down on what this tax increase, what it will result in.… Democrats are poised to cause the largest tax increase in U.S. history, it’s a tax increase of $3.8 trillion in the next ten years and it will have an effect on every single American who pays an income tax. Small businesses, especially, will be hit hardest. Small businesses account for roughly 70 percent of our job creation in this country. So raising taxes on these employers is the worst thing that can happen.
WALLACE: Can I ask you, what do you have written on your hand?
PALIN: $3.8 trillion in the next ten years, so I have didn’t say $3.7 trillion and get dinged by the liberals saying I didn’t know what I was talking about.
Watch it:
Despite the preparation of her “cheat sheet,” she still doesn’t know what she is talking about.
For one thing, according to the Pew Economic Policy Group, an extension of all of the Bush tax cuts will cost $3.1 trillion over ten years, once the costs of servicing the debt are factored in. But no one has proposed allowing them all expire, and it’s incredibly disingenuous of Republicans to claim otherwise, especially since it was a budget gimmick by former President George W. Bush to include the ten-year sunset at all.
Extending just the cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans will cost $830 billion over ten years. As Center for American Progress Associate Director for Tax Policy Michael Linden wrote, “to put that figure in perspective, $830 billion is enough to pay for all veterans’ hospitals, doctors, and the rest of the Veteran’s Affairs health system, plus the United States Coast Guard, plus the Food and Drug Administration, plus the operation and maintenance of every single national park for the entire 10-year period — with more than $100 billion left over.”
It was good that Wallace pointed out to Palin that Republicans are being hypocritical by complaining about deficits at the same time they’re calling for renewing huge tax breaks for the wealthy, but he then let her spew irresponsible claims that have no basis in reality.
Self-Styled Budget Hawk Mike Pence Defends Spending $560 Million On Unnecessary Weapons Program
Self-Styled Budget Hawk Mike Pence Defends Spending $560 Million On Unnecessary Weapons Program
Recognizing the need to cut spending in light of record budget deficits, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced major cuts to a number of big-ticket weapons programs last year that the Pentagon concluded it no longer needed. Gates — who was first appointed by President Bush — is so serious about the need to eliminate these programs that he has called on President Obama to veto any defense spending bill that contains funding for further development of these wasteful, unnecessary systems. Chief among the cuts is an extra engine for the F-35 fighter jet, of which Gates has said, “Every dollar additional to the budget that we have to put into the F-35 is a dollar taken from something else that the troops may need.”
One would think that self-styled budget hawks like Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) would herald Gates’ proposed cuts. He has said “if we are going to put our fiscal house in order, everything has to be on the table. We have to be willing to look at domestic spending, we have to be able to look at entitlements, and we have to look at defense.”
But in an interview with Bloomberg’s Al Hunt yesterday, Pence defended spending hundreds of millions more on an extra engine, despite having said moments earlier that one of his top priorities is “to get federal spending under control.” Pence attempts to make a national security argument for the engine, before quickly revealing his true motives:
HUNT: Everybody seems to be for — most people say they’re for fiscal discipline, but it gets hard when it’s in your district. Let me give you one example for you. You went to the House floor to defend money for a second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter … [which would have] a factory in your district. The Pentagon says it doesn’t want it. The other day a Tea Party group — this is a Tea Party group — said of this project, it’s an example of “opportunistic parasite feeding on the expansion of government.” Tough stuff.
PENCE: Well, sure. And everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but — and not entitled to their own facts. The reality is, and the Heritage Foundation produced a very important study on this, is that it is believed that when you were talking about a military defense contract that will span decades of time, it is in the interest of taxpayers in the long run to have more than one source, more than one manufacturer of that engine.
The fact that one of those two engines in part is manufactured in Indiana, we certainly welcome. We’re proud of those jobs. But at the end of the day, I really do believe that it was in the interest of our national defense.
Watch it:
In contradicting the Pentagon by claiming that the extra engine is “in the interest of our national defense,” Pence seems to be claiming that he — a former talk radio host — knows more about national security than the military. Rolls Royce, the company that would produce the extra engine, employes 4,000 people in Pence’s district and has spent millions lobbying for the engine. Development of the engine would cost $560 million for next year alone, but Pence believes in this pork project so much that he went to the House floor in May to defend it.
Pence is hardly the only Republican lawmaker to support the wasteful extra engine, despite bloviating about government spending on a nearly daily basis. For example, 32 members of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) — a group of ultra-conservative House members — signed a “no earmarks” pledge, but 17 of that 32 voted to fund the extra engine anyway. Beyond Pence, who is the third-ranking Republican in the House, supporters of the extra engine include such fiscal conservative leaders as Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), and RSC Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) — almost the entire Republican leadership.
Not to be outdone by the lower house, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) recently gave a radio interview in which he accused President Obama of being “the most anti-military president” in history, explaining that Obama “disarmed America.” His evidence? Cutting the C-17, F-22, and Future Combat System programs — all of which Gates identified as unnecessary and put on the chopping block.
Michigan Oil Spill Damages Wildlife, Forces Residents To Evacuate
Michigan Oil Spill Damages Wildlife, Forces Residents To Evacuate
On Monday, a disastrous leak in one of the world’s largest pipeline systems gushed over 1 million gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River, located in southwest Michigan. Already, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm has declared the area a disaster zone, quickly activating State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) to ensure all state resources are devoted to oil spill response. “From my perspective, the response has been anemic,” Granholm said. Spill workers and volunteers have been hard at work, cleaning the horrifyingly oily water:
This is not the first failure of Enbridge Inc., the Canadian energy company responsible for the spill. Michigan Messenger’s Todd Heywood reports that, “documents from the agency show that Enbridge Energy pipelines have leaked oil on 12 different occasions in Michigan since 2002.” Furthermore, documents obtained by the Detroit Free Press and other news outlets indicate Enbridge Inc. was “notified twice this year of potential problems involving old pipe prone to rupturing and an inadequate system for monitoring internal corrosion.” While this is one of the biggest threats to a pipeline, it is currently unclear whether Enbridge addressed the notices or if “the concerns played any role in the leak.”
Although Michigan’s spill represents only 32 percent of the amount of oil spilled per day in the ongoing BP oil disaster, the environmental implications of the leak are already clear. Not only has wildlife — including geese and muskrats — been coated in oil, but fears also remain high that the oil will contaminate local water supplies. The Calhoun County Health Department has advised residents around the area of the Kalamazoo River oil spill to evacuate, due to “‘higher than acceptable levels of benzene’ in air quality studies.” Benzene, notes the press release from the health department, is a “highly flammable” organic chemical that can lead to a series of symptoms from dizziness to tremors. The long-term effects of benzene exposure, however, are more dire and are linked to excessive bleeding and even cancer in human beings. Enbridge has agreed to reimburse affected families for the cost of hotel stays.
Yesterday, Enbridge spokeswoman Terri Larson said “no fresh oil is leaking from the leak site itself.” Moreover, as the Michigan Messenger reports, “Despite claims by Enbridge CEO Patrick Daniel that the company would reopen the leaking oil pipeline ‘in a matter of days,’ the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has issued a Corrective Action Order directing the company not to reopen the pipeline until a comprehensive safety assessment can be completed.”
Cross-posted on The Wonk Room.
Right-Wing Pundit Phyllis Schlafly Decries Government Assistance For ‘Unmarried Moms’
Right-Wing Pundit Phyllis Schlafly Decries Government Assistance For ‘Unmarried Moms’
Over the past two months, many Republican pundits and members of Congress have been calling for the end of unemployment benefit extensions for the millions of Americans who can’t find work. Meanwhile, GOP Senators held the unemployment insurance (UI) extension bill hostage for weeks as 2.5 million Americans were left without the “desperately needed lifeline” of UI benefits. Even as five workers fight for every one job opening, Republicans are still calling the unemployed “spoiled” and suggesting that blocking benefits is fine because it only affects a “small amount of people.”
Last week at a fundraiser for Michigan GOP congressional candidate Rocky Raczowski, conservative pundit Phyllis Schlafly added her voice to the chorus crying out against government assistance for the poor or unemployed:
One of the things Obama’s been doing is deliberately trying to increase the percentage of our population that is dependent on government for your living. For example, do you know what was the second biggest demographic group that voted for Obama? Obviously the blacks were the biggest demographic, y’all know what was the second biggest? Unmarried women. 70% of unmarried women voted for Obama. And this is because when you kick your husband out, you’ve got to have Big Brother Government to be your provider. And they know that. They’ve admitted it. And they have all kinds of bills to continue to subsidize illegitimacy…
The Obama administration wants to continue to subsidize this group because they know they are Democratic votes.
Listen:
Schlafly’s argument is specious. She talks about “subsidizing illegitimacy,” but not all single women are mothers. Less than 20 percent are mothers to young children. The rest include millions of widows, millions of young never-married women, and plenty in between — some of whom have kids, but most of whom do not.
The fact that programs like UI and food stamps help unmarried women is only a byproduct of the system designed to help everyone in need – men and women alike. In fact, men are receiving more UI benefits than women – the unemployment rate for men is a full 2.2 points higher than it is for women.
That didn’t stop Schlafly from doubling down on her falsehoods in an interview with TPM yesterday. “All welfare goes to unmarried moms,” she claimed. “They are trying to line up their constituency for Obama and Democrats against Republican candidates.”
Of course, government assistance goes to both genders. But moreover, considering that 84 percent of custodial single parents are mothers and a quarter of American children are being raised by unmarried mothers, supporting single women is critical for supporting children. As the Center for American Progress’ Liz Weiss puts it, “When single mothers lose their home, suffer from hunger, or can’t find a job, their children also lose their home, go hungry, or suffer from greatly reduced household resources.”
Cross-posted on The Wonk Room.
Florida Judge Throws Out Anti-Health Care Reform Ballot Measure Because Of ‘Manifestly Misleading’ Language
Florida Judge Throws Out Anti-Health Care Reform Ballot Measure Because Of ‘Manifestly Misleading’ Language
Last month, The Hill reported that Republicans in a number of states across the country were putting anti-health care reform measures on the ballot for the mid-term elections this year in order to bolster conservative voter turnout. “What we’re trying to do is give voters an added reason to show up to the polls,” said one South Carolina GOP official.
The GOP-led legislature in Florida put forward a measure to be included on this year’s ballot that would “prohibit the state from participating in any health insurance exchange that compels people to buy insurance.” But yesterday, Circuit Court Judge James Shelfer (who was appointed to a lower court by GOP Gov. Jeb Bush and elevated by current Gov. Charlie Crist) ordered that the proposed constitutional amendment be removed from the November ballot, calling the wording of the measure “manifestly misleading”:
State law requires ballot summaries to be clear and accurate. Circuit Court Judge James Shelfer said a proposed ballot summary for the amendment contains several phrases that are political and list issues that are not addressed in the proposal.
The first sentence of the summary says the amendment would “ensure access to health care services without waiting lists, protect the doctor-patient relationship, (and) guard against mandates that don’t work.”
Shelfer said the amendment does not guarantee any of those things.
“Someone voting on the amendment, reading those introductory statements would have a false understanding of what they were voting on,” he said in a ruling from the bench.
The plaintiffs in the case argued that the summary language referred to issues not addressed in the bill, including that the amendment “will ensure access to health care services without waiting lists,” and “protect the doctor-patient relationship” as well as “guard against mandates that don’t work.”
Meanwhile, next Tuesday, Missouri voters will vote on a similar measure challenging the health insurance mandate Congress passed with the reform bill last year. The proposal “would prohibit governments from requiring people to have health insurance or from penalizing them for paying health bills entirely with their own money.”
While the Missouri measure has a good chance of passing, health care opponents are increasingly facing an uphill battle. Critics and even supporters note that the ballot measures likely would not affect the national health care law because of the Constitution’s “Supremacy Clause” allowing federal law to trump state law. Moreover, recent public polling suggests Americans are increasingly supporting the health care overhaul.
RNC Wishes Medicare A Happy Birthday By Covering Up Their Party’s Anti-Medicare Record
RNC Wishes Medicare A Happy Birthday By Covering Up Their Party’s Anti-Medicare Record
Today is Medicare’s 45th anniversary, and the Republican National Committee is celebrating the occasion by trying to attack “Obamacare” and by pretending the GOP has been a defender of Medicare. The RNC posted an online research briefing called “Happy 45th Birthday Medicare!” alleging President Obama used the Affordable Care Act to take money out of Medicare: “THANKS TO OBAMACARE,” they write, “DEMOCRATS HAVE SLASHED MEDICARE FUNDING.”
Even though the GOP likes to position itself as a guardian of Medicare, the party virulently opposed its creation at the time, as the Wonk Room’s Igor Volsky outlined in a post last year:
Ronald Reagan: “[I]f you don’t [stop Medicare] and I don’t do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.” [1961]
George H.W. Bush: Described Medicare in 1964 as “socialized medicine.” [1964]
Barry Goldwater: “Having given our pensioners their medical care in kind, why not food baskets, why not public housing accommodations, why not vacation resorts, why not a ration of cigarettes for those who smoke and of beer for those who drink.” [1964]
Bob Dole: In 1996, while running for the Presidency, Dole openly bragged that he was one of 12 House members who voted against creating Medicare in 1965. “I was there, fighting the fight, voting against Medicare . . . because we knew it wouldn’t work in 1965.” [1965]
The Wonk Room documents many more recent instances of Republican opposition to Medicare here.
Instead of hiding the party’s history on the issue, the RNC’s birthday message could have mentioned positive aspects of Medicare. For example, according to Health Affairs, “the health of the elderly population has improved, as measured by both longevity and functional status” since Medicare passed in 1965. In addition, a Commonwealth Fund survey found “elderly Medicare beneficiaries reported greater overall satisfaction with their health coverage, better access to care, and fewer problems paying medical bills than people covered by employer-sponsored plans.”
Threats flood into Arizona judge’s office after SB-1070 ruling.
Threats flood into Arizona judge’s office after SB-1070 ruling.
In a long-awaited decision, federal district court judge Susan Bolton blocked several key provisions of Arizona’s controversial immigration law Wednesday. Since preliminary injunction, reports Arizona’s U.S. Marshal David Gonzales, Bolton has been “inundated” “with hundreds of threats” at her court offices:
“She has been inundated,” said U.S. Marshal David Gonzales, indicating his agents are taking some seriously. “About 99.9 percent of the inappropriate comments are people venting. They are exercising their First Amendment rights and a lot of it is perverted. But it’s that 0.1 percent that goes over the line that we are taking extra seriously.”
Bolton is not the only official facing hostility following Wednesday’s ruling. Yesterday, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) was forced to close his district office in Yuma, AZ, after “finding a window shattered and a bullet inside.” In April, when SB-1070 was signed into law, Grijalva — an outspoken opponent of the legislation — closed two district offices after death threats to his staff.
When Pressed By ThinkProgress, Rep. Frank Wolf Demonstrates Incoherence Of Stimulus Opposition
When Pressed By ThinkProgress, Rep. Frank Wolf Demonstrates Incoherence Of Stimulus Opposition
Earlier this week, two leading economists released a study that “empirically proved” that the government’s response to the Great Recession, including the stimulus bill, prevented the loss of “some 8½ million jobs.” The study’s authors — former McCain economic adviser Mark Zandi and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Blinder — concluded that “there is little doubt that in total, the policy response was highly effective.”
What do those congressmen who opposed the stimulus bill think about the study’s findings? We caught up with Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) yesterday to get his thoughts:
Wolf: I don’t believe that that study is accurate, but it’s hard for me to comment on it until I can see it. But, I think the highest number I ever heard the administration say was 3 million. And of course you remember Bill Buckley said he would rather be governed by the first 500 people in the Boston telephone book than 500 economists from Harvard. So, I don’t know who they are or what they are but I would think those numbers — 8 million — would be highly inflated.
Wolf went on to say he would “favor repealing the money that’s there now and either put it into actual jobs or applying it to the deficit.” When we pressed him on the issue, Wolf hedged:
TP: Do you think companies that have received money already should have to give it back?
Wolf: I don’t know. I’d have to see.
Wolf hosted a job fair yesterday in Leesburg, VA. Many of the employers at the fair were recipients of stimulus funding, including the Orbital Sciences Corporation (one contract for $16 million) and the Fairfax County Public Schools (12 contracts totaling over $95 million). In all, groups at Wolf’s job fair have received over $420 million in stimulus funding.
Given how much stimulus money employers at Wolf’s event have received, we asked the congressmen whether this funding has helped them be able to hire new workers. He struggled to reconcile his opposition to the stimulus bill (and his skepticism of a study proving its effectiveness) with the fact that 65 employers were looking to hire at his job fair:
TP: You had the jobs fair this morning and we went back and took a look and some of the companies there had received a lot of stimulus funding, upwards of about $400 million. Do you feel like it helped them create jobs?
Wolf: I don’t know. You’d have to talk to them.
Watch the interview:
Wolf’s incoherent response about stimulus funding comes as little surprise, given his history as a stimulus hypocrite.
Progressive Media intern Ariel Powell contributed research assistance for this report.
Pastor Hosting ‘International Burn A Quran Day’: ‘We Have Nothing Against Muslims’
Pastor Hosting ‘International Burn A Quran Day’: ‘We Have Nothing Against Muslims’
On September 11, 2010, the extremist evangelical Dove World Church — whose pastor, Terry Jones, has written a book called “Islam Is Of The Devil” — plans to host “International Burn A Quran Day,” when it will burn Muslims’ sacred text and encourage others across the world to do so as well. Churchmember Wayne Sapp has even posted an instructional video that explains how and why to burn the Islamic text.
CNN host Rick Sanchez invited Jones on his show yesterday to ask him about the inflammatory action. When Sanchez pressed Jones about why he would try to anger the world’s Muslims by burning their sacred text, the evangelical pastor replied, “Well, for one thing, to us, the book is not sacred,” provoking laughter from the CNN host.
Jones later went on to explain, “What we are also doing by the burning of the Quran, we’re saying stop, stop to Islam, stop to Islamic law, stop to brutality. We have nothing against Muslims, they are welcome in our country.” When Sanchez asked him how he would feel if Muslims burned the Bible, Jones admitted he wouldn’t like it but emphasized that it was his “right” to burn the Islamic text because “we live in America”:
SANCHEZ: Do you know how many Muslims there are in the world?
JONES: I think there are 1.5 billion.
SANCHEZ: Yeah. I ask you that because that’s a very big number. Why would you want to do this to 1.5 billion people by burning their most sacred book? That’s crazy.
JONES: Well, for one thing, to us, the book is not sacred.
SANCHEZ: But it is to them, it’s sacred to them. [...]
JONES: What we’re also doing by the burning of the Quran on 9/11 is we’re saying stop. Stop to Islam. Stop to Islamic law. Stop to brutality. We have nothing against Muslims, they are welcome in our country. [...]
SANCHEZ: How would you feel if a Muslim said to you, what you just said to them? I have no problem with you Mr. Christian, you’re welcome in my country, but I’m burning your Bible.
JONES: I would not like it. But it’s our right. We live in America!
Watch it:
The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), the nation’s largest body of evangelicals, put out a statement yesterday condemning Dove World’s actions. Quoting Thessalonians, NAE President Leith Anderson invoked the Bible’s teachings that Christians should “always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.”
The Dove World Church has made a name for itself by engaging in a host of attention-seeking tactics to preach their hate. In the past, the congregation compelled children to wear t-shirts that bore the slogan “Islam is of the devil.” Earlier this year, they held an unsuccessful campaign to stop the election of Gainesville’s first openly gay mayor by posting a “No homo mayor” sign. Despite their failure to stop the mayor’s election, they plan to hold a protest on the steps of City Hall in August.
Pakistan’s U.N. ambassador: Afghan war ‘doesn’t seem winnable.’
Pakistan’s U.N. ambassador: Afghan war ‘doesn’t seem winnable.’
Three U.S. service members were killed in Afghanistan yesterday, bringing the death toll for July to at least 63, making it the deadliest month thus far in America’s longest war. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations told CBS News yesterday that the U.S needs to change its strategy in Afghanistan, saying, “the way the war is being fought, it doesn’t seem winnable.” Abdullah Hussain Haroon also suggested that the insurgent attacks in Afghanistan will decrease when U.S. and NATO troops leave:
HAROON: I won’t speak for the government on this issue, because it is a touchy subject. … But in my personal opinion — I have very little hesitation in saying — that the way the war is going, it doesn’t seem winnable.
Watch it (beginning 20:00):
Haroon is careful to say that his statements were merely his “personal opinion,” as they contradict the Pakistani government’s official position. Haroon also denied any substantive links between the Pakistani government and insurgents in Afhanistan, calling the WikiLeaks documents which alleged such a connection “flawed.” In fact, Pakistan needs more help fighting insurgents, he said. Al Qaeda is in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, “why isn’t anyone doing anything about it?” Haroon asked. “They want us to do more. We have limited resources,” he added.
Gingrich Suggests Taking Out The Remaining ‘Axis Of Evil’ Members: ‘We’re One Out Of Three’
Gingrich Suggests Taking Out The Remaining ‘Axis Of Evil’ Members: ‘We’re One Out Of Three’
Yesterday, Newt Gingrich delivered a speech at AEI “drawing on the lessons” of socialist authors Albert Camus and George Orwell to attack the President Obama’s foreign policy and “describe the dangers of a wartime government that uses language and misleading labels to obscure reality.” CAP’s Brian Katulis notes in Politico that “Gingrich weighs in at a moment when the Republican Party is more divided on national security than it has been in decades.” One side advocates a more pragmatic approach to U.S. foreign policy and the other engages in “blustery, pugnacious nationalism that either clobbers other countries in efforts to remake them or walls them off from America.”
Yesterday at AEI, the blustery and pugnacious nationalistic side was on full display. At one point in the hour-long speech comprised of platitudes, attacks on Muslims, and false comparisons to wars past, Gingrich suggested that the U.S. needs to finish what President Bush started when he identified his “Axis of Evil” in January 2002:
GINGRICH: I believe he was right but in fact could not operationalize what he said. That is, there was an Axis of Evil, Iran, Iraq, North Korea. Well we’re one out of three. And people ought to think about that. If Bush was right in January of 2002 — and by the way virtually the entire Congress gave him a standing ovation when he said it — then why is it that the other two parts of the Axis of Evil are still visibly, cheerfully making nuclear weapons? And it’s because we’ve stood at brink, looked over and thought, “Too big a problem.”
“If Franklin Roosevelt had done that in ‘41, either the Japanese or the Germans would have won,” Gingrich said. The U.S. has to “over-match the problem,” he said, adding, “That’s what Americans are all about.” Watch it:
Writing about Gingrich’s recent tirades against Islam and unhinged opposition to a proposal to build a mosque in downtown Manhattan, the Wonk Room’s Matt Duss notes that “Gingrich obviously wants to be president very badly. But he really needs to think hard about the sort of rhetorical tactics he’s embracing, and the sort of sentiments he’s cultivating, and the sort of company he’s joining in order to achieve that.”
ThinkFast: July 30, 2010
ThinkFast: July 30, 2010
Defending his tenure as chief executive of BP, Tony Hayward expressed no regrets. “Would I change fundamentally what BP did and the role I played? No,” Hayward said. “I became a villain for doing the right thing,” he whined, adding, “but I understand that people find it easier to vilify an individual more than a company.” Hayward also said he was “wrong” when he said he wanted his “life back.”
The SEC yesterday charged “Samuel and Charles Wyly, the billionaire brothers from Dallas who are large donors to philanthropies and to conservative causes,” with committing $550 million worth of fraud. The SEC case “centers on charges of securities fraud and insider trading related to the shares of companies founded by the Wyly brothers or where they served as directors or executives.”
“A House ethics committee on Thursday brought 13 charges” against Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), including “failing to report more than $600,000 on his financial disclosure report” and not paying taxes on rental income on a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic. Rangel, who did not attend the committee hearing, angrily claimed in a statement that investigators were trampling on his Constitutional rights.
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor received more than $460,000 in the second quarter from the financial industry, including Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. Public Campaign reports that the sum represents a 32 percent increase from the average of the previous five quarters. HuffPost’s Sam Stein notes that Cantor has been using GOP opposition to Obama’s agenda as a selling point.
Senate Republicans yesterday “rejected a bill to aid small businesses with expanded loan programs and tax breaks” even though several GOP lawmakers helped write it and it had been backed by conservative business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The procedural blockade underscores “how fiercely determined the party’s leaders are to deny Democrats any further legislative accomplishments.”
Hundreds protested Arizona’s new immigration law in downtown Phoenix yesterday as Gov. Jan Brewer (R) filed an appeal of a federal judge’s ruling preventing portions of the law from taking effect. The protesters accused the government of “terrorizing” Hispanics and “blockaded a jail and marched to the offices of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, known for his aggressive stance on illegal immigrants.”
Former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod said yesterday “that she would ‘definitely’ sue conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart over the video that prompted her firing last week.” “At this point, he hasn’t apologized — I don’t want it at this point. And he’ll definitely hear from me,” she said.
Rep. Mike McMahon (D-NY) fired his re-election campaign’s spokesperson last night “after she gave a reporter a breakdown of a Republican rival’s ‘Jewish money’ contributions” in an apparent effort to show the opponent has little support in the district. “There is a lot of Jewish money, a lot of money from people in Florida and Manhattan, retirees,” McMahon’s spokesperson told the New York Observer.
And finally: On Fox and Friends this morning, Robert Gibbs joked that “I want to tell you guys exclusively that I’m leaving the White House briefing room to be a judge on American Idol.” Noting that he has no “discernible musical talent,” Gibbs explained that “there is no better training ground for American Idol” than the White House briefing room.
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Rep. Lamar Smith Says Reducing Racial Disparity In Crack Cocaine Sentencing Hurts Minorities
Rep. Lamar Smith Says Reducing Racial Disparity In Crack Cocaine Sentencing Hurts Minorities
Yesterday, the House passed the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, landmark legislation that “changed a quarter-century old law” mandating hugely disproportionate prison terms for powder cocaine over crack cocaine. Enacted in 1986 as part of “a wave of racially-tinged media hysteria,” the law disproportionately targets minorities and “exacerbates racial disparities in the federal prison system.” The new legislation narrows that disparity between powder and crack cocaine from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1.
The bill, which had already passed the Senate, garnered bipartisan support in the House. In fact, precisely because the bill had “the support of conservative stalwarts such as Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), the Prison Fellowship Ministries and activist Grover Norquist,” it sailed through on a voice vote. However, the lone public dissenter of the bill, Rep. Lamar Smith (TX), took to the House floor to rail against Congress for supporting the bill. Despite his party’s assertion to the contrary, Smith insisted that reducing the crack to powder disparity actually hurts minority communities:
SMITH: Despite the devastating impact crack cocaine has had on American communities, this bill reduces the penalties for crack cocaine. Why would we want to do that? We should not ignore the severity of crack addiction or ignore the differences between crack and powder cocaine trafficking. We should worry more about the victims than about the criminals.
Why would we want to reduce the penalties for crack cocaine trafficking and invite a return to a time when cocaine ravaged our communities, especially minority communities? This bill sends the wrong message to drug dealers and those who traffic in destroying Americans’ lives. It sends the message that Congress takes drug crimes less seriously than they did. The bill before us threatens to return America to the days when crack cocaine corroded the minds and bodies of our children, decimated a generation, and destroyed communities.
Watch it:
Despite his delusions to the contrary, the status quo has ravaged minority communities by leading to disproportionate arrests, charges, and sentences.
As Leadership Conference on Civil Rights President Wade Henderson explained, minorities are inordinately affected by current drug policies, “not because minorities commit more drug crimes or use drugs at a higher rate than white Americans.” Rather, “the effect of the war on drugs on minorities results from” a few key factors: the fact that “more minorities are arrested for drug crimes,” “the severity of drug sentences has increased overall in the past 20 years,” and because “minorities who are arrested are treated more harshly than white drug crime arrestees.”
FLASHBACK: Oil greenwashing campaign scammed Mr. Bill in 2005.
FLASHBACK: Oil greenwashing campaign scammed Mr. Bill in 2005.
America’s Wetland Foundation, a front group of Shell Oil and other major oil companies that are responsible for the Gulf region’s ongoing destruction, has a long record of tricking people like Sandra Bullock into supporting its oil-soaked agenda. In 2005, Walter Williams — the creator of the Saturday Night Live character Mr. Bill and a longtime environmental activist — was commissioned by America’s Wetland to produce a “Mr. Bill Estuarian” series to “warn of what could happen if the wetlands were not shored up and a hurricane hit New Orleans.” After he created the videos, however, they were presented on Shell-branded kiosks all over New Orleans, and Williams pulled his support from the campaign, weeks before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Now, Williams has issued a warning on NewOrleans.com for the supporters of the “Restore the Gulf” BP-disaster greenwashing campaign:
America’s Wetland is an insidious plot by the oil industry to commit Louisiana’s future share of offshore oil revenues to funding the state’s coastal restoration plan “Morganza To The Gulf,” which basically only protects Port Fouchon and the oil infrastructure. They want the American taxpayer to pay for the mess they made that is now endangering their very facilities. They’re trying to stick it, once again, to the ’small people.’
Sandra Bullock and the other celebrities in the BP-sponsored “Restore the Gulf” campaign are not the first environmental heroes to be scammed into supporting the America’s Wetland Foundation front group. With any luck, they’ll be the last.
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