Marco Rubio ‘doesn’t support changes’ to the 14th amendment.
As the debate over whether the 14th amendment should be changed to deny the American-born children of undocumented immigrants citizenship has dragged on over the past few weeks, Florida senatorial candidate and tea party darling, Marco Rubio (R), has remained curiously silent — until today. Mike Thomas of the Orlando Sentinel reports that he received an email from Rubio’s campaign aide, Alex Burgos, confirming Rubio’s opposition to changing the 14th amendment:
I noted that this is putting Senate candidate Marco Rubio in a pickle. The crusade against illegal immigration is interpreted by many Hispanics as a crusade against Hispanics. It has resulted in a shift of Hispanic voters to the Democratic Party. Here is a story about the impact in Florida. The press has been pressing Rubio to come out with a position since last week, particularly since Charlie Crist came out strongly against tinkering with the amendment. I wrote that Rubio’s failure to come out against changes could let Crist outflank him with Hispanic voters.
Rubio’s campaign aide, Alex Burgos, has sent me an e-mail saying Rubio also does not favor altering the amendment. But there is no press release or official statement. So it’s not like Rubio is shouting it from the rooftops. “He simply doesn’t support changes and believes we should focus on securing the border and enforcing existing laws,” Burgo said.
As Thomas notes, Rubio — the son of Cuban immigrants — hasn’t exactly taken a strong position against the GOP’s attack on the 14th amendment. His opponents, however, have. According to Florida senatorial candidate Jeff Greene (D), “if you’re born here, you’re a citizen.” Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek similarly stated, “Yes, you could definitely say I’m opposed” to changing the 14th amendment. Rubio’s biggest foe, current Gov. Charlie Crist (I), has been firm in his opposition, stating “That would be unconscionable to me. [...] The 14th Amendment ought to stay the way it is. If someone is born in the United States of America, you are an American. That is a tradition of our country. That’s the way it should always be, that’s the way it’s always been. And that’s what America is all about.”
- Comments
- 3
REPORT: Whitman’s Economic Plan Blows A Hole In California’s Budget, Reduces Jobs And Services
REPORT: Whitman’s Economic Plan Blows A Hole In California’s Budget, Reduces Jobs And Services
In an interview yesterday, California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman (R) said “what I want to convince voters of is I am the very best person to fix the economy in California.” “I am not actually a politician. I am a businessperson. I have created jobs, I have met budgets, I have done, figured out how to do more with less, and that is actually a really important thing for the state right now,” she said.
However, according to a new Center for American Progress Action Fund analysis by Michael Reich, an Economics Professor at The University of California at Berkeley, Whitman’s economic plan — outlined in Meg 2010, Building a New California — is “likely to have negative effects on jobs and economic growth and to deepen the state’s budget crisis.”
“She claims to have a plan that’s very detailed and based on careful research. But it really isn’t careful at all, and it’s misguided,” Reich said. “It has a lot of incorrect assumptions. A lot of studies she draws on are useless or kind of misleading and don’t agree with well-accepted economic research.” Whitman’s plan consists of:
– Tax cuts for wealthy people and businesses — including eliminating the state’s capital gains tax — which would “reduce the state’s economic growth while exacerbating the state’s budget deficit problem.”
– Eliminating climate change regulations, which “could bring positive harm to the environment, would sharply reduce clean-tech venture capital spending in the state, and would reduce employment.”
– Spending cuts that “would have negative consequences on employment.”
Whitman likes to make a big show of her determination to cut spending, stating that “I have identified $15 billion worth of spending cuts that we can go after over a couple of years.” However, the California budget deficit for the coming fiscal year alone stands at $20 billion, and it’s only going to grow if her tax cut plan is implemented.
According to Reich, the state will lose $6-$10 billion in revenue depending on how Whitman implements her tax plan. And her spending plan “does not specify” where most of her proposed budget cuts will fall. But since most of California’s general fund spending is in education, health and human services, and prisons, it stands to reason that those areas would see the most severe budget cutbacks.
A group of 20 California economists signed a letter today stating that “the evidence and theory that Whitman uses to diagnose California’s problems are unscientific and an unsound basis for policy. As a result, her diagnosis and her proposed economic policies are both deeply flawed…If implemented, Whitman’s program would worsen California’s budget malaise and its economic performance.”
Cross-posted on The Wonk Room.
Rand Paul Denies ‘Kidnapping’ Anyone, But Won’t Deny He Forced A Woman To Bow To Aqua Buddha
Rand Paul Denies ‘Kidnapping’ Anyone, But Won’t Deny He Forced A Woman To Bow To Aqua Buddha
Yesterday, GQ published a story about Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul’s (R) college years at Baylor, which included this now-infamous story that happened in the early 80s:
According to this woman, who requested anonymity because of her current job as a clinical psychologist, “He and Randy came to my house, they knocked on my door, and then they blindfolded me, tied me up, and put me in their car. They took me to their apartment and tried to force me to take bong hits. They’d been smoking pot.” After the woman refused to smoke with them, Paul and his friend put her back in their car and drove to the countryside outside of Waco, where they stopped near a creek. “They told me their god was ‘Aqua Buddha’ and that I needed to bow down and worship him,” the woman recalls. “They blindfolded me and made me bow down to ‘Aqua Buddha’ in the creek. I had to say, ‘I worship you Aqua Buddha, I worship you.’ At Baylor, there were people actively going around trying to save you and we had to go to chapel, so worshiping idols was a big no-no.”
Nearly 30 years later, the woman — now a clinical psychologist — is still trying to make sense of that afternoon. “They never hurt me, they never did anything wrong, but the whole thing was kind of sadistic. They were messing with my mind. It was some kind of joke.”
In his first national interview since the story came out, Paul went on Neil Cavuto’s Fox News show this afternoon, where he was questioned about the incident. Paul repeatedly denied “kidnapping” anyone (even though the GQ article never actually uses that word) and said he was “never involved with forcibly drugging people.” However, when Cavuto asked him about making someone bow down to Aqua Buddha, Paul became visibly uncomfortable and avoided answering the question:
CAVUTO: What do you make of this story? [...]
PAUL: No, I never was involved in kidnapping. No, I was never involved with forcibly drugging people. [...]
CAVUTO: So, they’re characterizing it as a kidnapping type of deal. It might have just been just playful fun? Is that what you’re saying? You might have had incidents like this, but it wasn’t deliberate kidnapping?
PAUL: Well, I — I think I would remember if I kidnapped something — kidnapped someone — and I don’t remember, and I absolutely deny kidnapping anyone ever.
CAVUTO: Apparently she said, they blindfolded me and made me bow down to Aqua Buddha. That might have been just a college prank, but you don’t even remember that, right?
PAUL: Well, I’m not really going to try to go back 27 years and remember everything that happened in college.
Watch it:
New York City Transit Authority Gives The Green Light To Anti-Islam Ads Graphically Depicting 9/11 Attacks
New York City Transit Authority Gives The Green Light To Anti-Islam Ads Graphically Depicting 9/11 Attacks
Self-described “anti-jihadist” and conservative blogger Pamela Geller has purchased advertising space on New York City buses for an ad that graphically depicts a plane about to crash into the World Trade Center. Geller is leading a crusade against the Ground Zero mosque, calling it “insensitive to the families and to America that was attacked on 9/11.” The ad campaign features a phony sketch of the planned Ground Zero mosque, which appears to be as big as the Twin Towers and is labeled the “WTC Mega Mosque.”
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority initially rejected the ad, telling Geller that images of the September 11 attacks were not allowed, according to her account of their conversations. Geller re-submitted the ad without any smoke near the towers, and a plane flying in the distance, not approaching the towers. When that was also rejected, Geller filed a lawsuit over the denial.
Today, the MTA changed its position and accepted the most graphic version of the advertisement. Kevin Ortiz, an MTA spokesman, issued a brief statement Monday:
While the MTA does not endorse the views expressed in this or other ads that appear on the transit system, the advertisement purchased by a group opposing a planned mosque near the World Trade Center was accepted today after its review under MTA’s advertising guidelines and governing legal standards.
The MTA’s reversal is curious, considering that earlier this year it rejected advertisements from the Working Families Party that criticized Mayor Michael Bloomberg and cuts to New York bus and subway service. The ads resembled MTA posters, but substituted acronyms like “WTF” instead of subway lines.
At the time, the MTA said the ads implied obscene language, and that ads that were “offensive, improper or in bad taste” could not be run. Apparently images of the Twin Towers being destroyed are not considered improper.
Fox analyst slams Republicans for forgetting their ‘oath to uphold the Constitution.’
Today, Fox News analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano slammed Republicans trying to change the 14th amendment to end birthright citizenship. When asked about the effort to change the amendment, Napolitano derided it as “nothing but political chatter.” He then went on to castigate the Republicans who are advocating for ending birthright citizenship, saying, “These people took an oath to uphold the Constitution whether they agree with it or not! All of it not part of it!”:
NAPOLITANO: The law has been upheld uniformly since 1868 and without exception. And we start with a couple of basics. The Congress cannot change the constitution of the 14th amendment on its own. It takes 2/3 of each house of Congress and 3/4 of the states to change the amendment. […] so this is nothing but political chatter by those who are concerned understandably by problems at the border. [...] I can’t imagine that there’d be a consensus to change the 14th amendment. [...]
HEMMER: But if the [Birthright Citizenship Act] were carried out, you had 100 co-sponsors about a year ago, it would require at least one parent to be a US citizen for a baby to become an american citizen at birth. If you were to enact the BCA as some refer to it, is that a way to get around the 14th amendment, and get done what people like John Cornyn, and John Kyl and John Mccain, and we heard John Boehner are trying to do.
NAPOLITANO: No! That would not be a a way around it. There is no way to get around the 14th amendment. These people took an oath to uphold the Constitution whether they agree with it or not! All of it not part of it! The Supreme Court has said you cannot take privileges or benefits away from a child because of a crime committed by the parent. Therefore everybody born here is an American citizen, no matter what their parents’ status was at their birth.
Watch it:
Not all Republicans have endorsed the extreme cause of altering the 14th amendment. Cesar Conda, who was a domestic policy adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney, called the drive to change the amendment “offensive.” “The 14th Amendment is a great legacy of the Republican party. It is a shame and an embarrassment that the GOP now wants to amend it for starkly political reasons,” former Bush media advisor Mark McKinnon told the press.
When Asked How GOP Will Save Teacher Jobs, Pence Responds, ‘I Love Teachers!’
Moments ago, by a vote of 247-161, the House passed a bill to provide emergency funding for teachers and increased Medicaid payments to states that will also help prevent public sector layoffs. Even though the $26 billion bill is fully funded, most Republicans voted no. “Where do the bailouts end?” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said.
Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) picked up on that theme today on ABC’s Top Line, calling it a “massive state bailout.” When host Z. Byron Wolf asked what the GOP plan would be to help teachers who are about to lose their jobs — particularly the 3,600 in Indiana, Pence didn’t have much to offer:
PENCE: Well, look I’m married to a school teacher. My wife spent more than a decade in a public school classroom. So I love teachers! Teachers, firefighters, policemen are all Americans and they all know that the economic policies of bailouts and handouts have failed to create jobs.
Watch it:
Pence’s shallow response to teachers losing their jobs indicates just how bereft of ideas the GOP is. Republicans are regularly asked how they would address the challenges facing the country and time and again, they can’t think of anything. Pence himself was in this position last week when he was asked to differentiate today’s GOP from President Bush. His answer? We are “pro-growth.” Also, the Indiana congressman couldn’t identify any GOP agenda items for this year’s mid-term elections. “You just wait and see,” he said.
During the Top Line segment, Pence attacked the aid bill, saying, “I don’t think there been nearly enough conversation about the fact that they’re raising taxes…to pay for temporary spending in one more bailout.” So who is Pence defending here? Big multinational corporations. In order to finance the state aid, the bill will close corporate tax loopholes that allow multinationals to claim domestic tax credits. Moreover, the CBO said the bill will decrease the deficit by $1.3 billion over 10 years.
Pence seems to recognize that he and his Party has nothing to offer other than outright obstruction. “Some folks like to call us the ‘Party of No.’ Well, I say ‘no’ is way underrated in Washington, D.C. Sometimes ‘no’ is just what this town needs to hear,” Pence said in February.
IA-5 Candidate Matt Campbell: If U.S. Troops Can Stand In Harm’s Way, Steve King Should Stand And Debate Me
IA-5 Candidate Matt Campbell: If U.S. Troops Can Stand In Harm’s Way, Steve King Should Stand And Debate Me
Since taking office in 2003, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has never formally debated a Democratic opponent. He has claimed that a candidate has to run “a legitimate campaign” to earn a debate. Matt Campbell, King’s current Democratic opponent, issued a challenge to King on July 8, urging the congressman to debate him:
Campbell issued a formal debate prospectus to the King campaign earlier today and requested a response date of August 10th so that negotiations for the debates and venues can be determined.
“It’s long overdue for King to respect the American democratic process,” Campbell says.
Campbell has called for three debates as appropriate for the Congressional race and has proposed televised debates in Sioux City and Council Bluffs and for a third to be held elsewhere in the district. Campbell has suggested various moderators such as the VFW, the League of Women Voters and the Iowa Farm Bureau among others.
This morning, ThinkProgress interviewed Campbell, who said that King had still not responded to his request:
Q: So do you think there’s some other reason that he’s avoiding debating you?
CAMPBELL: I think it’s strategy. For him, he’s been in office for a long while, and he feels like it’s an easy way for him to stay in the limelight. I think it’s deliberate — personally I feel like his refusal to do so is a grave disrespect to the process. I think it serves the public interest to have a public debate. Our country certainly faces very serious issues going forward, regardless of an election outcome, it merits public discussion on the issues.
Frankly, I think Steve King’s one of those politicians who doesn’t like the a-word — the “accountability” word — and I frankly think he’s cowardly for not wanting to stand up in a room with his challenger, publicly. I had said before, I think it’s quite disrespectful to the process. What I would say to him personally, if I have the opportunity, is that we’ve got men and women standing in harm’s way in Afghanistan and Iraq, facing bullets and land mines, and he certainly can stand in a room and answer questions and discuss the issues.
We then called King’s campaign office. The person with whom we spoke said that he was not sure whether King would be taking up Campbell’s offer. Campbell told us that his office would be following up with King later today. In June, when asked about the challenge, King’s spokesperson said that the campaign needed to “get to know” Campbell more before deciding to debate. “We’ve been observing his campaign, so we can find out what his positions on the issues are,” she said. “Obviously, he won in a convincing fashion, so we will look at the strengths he offered.”
According to Fox News President CEO, “The candidates that can’t face Fox, can’t face Al Qaeda.” Is the same true if you can’t face your opponent?
Top West Point cadet resigns over DADT: ‘I have lied to my classmates and compromised my integrity.’
Top West Point cadet resigns over DADT: ‘I have lied to my classmates and compromised my integrity.’
West Point Cadet Katherine Miller
Yesterday, West Point Cadet Katherine Miller, a junior ranked 9th in her class, came out to her superiors and offered her resignation, explaining that she could no longer comply with the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy:
Specifically, I have created a heterosexual dating history to recite to fellow cadets when they inquire. I have endured sexual harassment for fear of being accused as a lesbian by rejecting or reporting these events. I have been coerced into ignoring derogatory comments towards homosexuals for fear of being alienated for my viewpoint. In short, I have lied to my classmates and compromised my integrity and my identity by adhering to existing military policy.
While at the academy, I have made a deliberate effort to develop myself academically, physically, and militarily, but in terms of holistic personal growth I have reached a plateau. I am unwilling to suppress an entire portion of my identity any longer because it has taken a significant personal, mental, and social toll on me and detrimentally affected my professional development. I have experienced a relentless cognitive dissonance by attempting to adhere to §654 and retain my integrity, and I am retrospectively convinced that I am unable to live up to the Army Values as long as the policy remains in place.
Interestingly, Miller was active around DADT issues throughout her time at the academy. She conducted “a study of the cadet attitudes on the ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’” policy and worked with the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) — an LGBT focused organization. Blogging under the pseudonym Private Second Class Citizen for the velvet park, Miller reported on the “underground” lesbian culture in the Academy and the harassment she underwent to remain in the closet. The Wonk Room excerpts Miller’s experiences, which only highlight the failures of DADT.
EXCLUSIVE: Coal Barons At Industry Retreat Plot To Indoctrinate Children About Wonders Of Coal
EXCLUSIVE: Coal Barons At Industry Retreat Plot To Indoctrinate Children About Wonders Of Coal
This past weekend, coal company executives convened for the annual West Virginia Coal Association meeting in White Sulphur Springs, WV. The event, which was closed to the public, was held at the lavish Greenbrier Resort, where an overnight stay can cost upwards of $6,000 (plus tax). One panelist at the meeting, state Senate Finance Chairman Walt Helmick, pointed out the exclusivity of the resort hotel: “I used to drive by the Greenbrier often when I was young, but I never had the money to come in because I’m a former coal miner.”
During the event, over 100 attendees collaborated on issues from hiring industry lobbyists to fighting federal regulations. However, one of the biggest concerns on the minds of coal executives was how to ensure children would be taught an industry-friendly approach to coal issues in the classroom.
During a membership meeting attended by ThinkProgress, attendees took the opportunity to vent about their poor public perception and accused teachers of turning children against them. One coal executive, Jim Bunn, summed up the general sentiment:
BUNN: There’s so much negativity in the classroom, and I really don’t understand that. I can tell you that every industry has negatives throughout. I don’t care what it is. The education system has negatives. We need to get them to understand that we are not Darth Vader, we are good people. We’re just like you in that we come to work every morning.
West Virginia Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin concurred, saying, “I agree with you that those kind of programs could be expanded” because West Virginia children are being unduly influenced by “what they hear on the national news…on how bad coal is.” Coal executives and state legislators continued their mutual admiration for changing the state curriculum to be more pro-industry. A coal executive named Joe proposed the idea of a statewide “Coal Day”:
JOE: There’s a West Virginia labor day recognized in public schools. I think something like that could work in the coal context as well. Pick a day of the year that West Virginia public schools would discuss mining, its concept, its history, its contribution to the state of West Virginia. Food for thought.
STATE SENATE ENERGY, INDUSTRY & MINING CHAIRMAN MIKE GREEN: I remember in the 8th grade getting a lot of information about coal, about the history of coal. Is that still being done?
UNIDENTIFIED AUDIENCE MEMBER: Actually, it’s just the opposite. They get taught how bad coal is in our schools.
Some at the meeting weren’t satisfied with just a single day devoted to coal. A coal executive named Michael went further, proposing an entire week of coal-friendly lessons for kids:
MICHAEL: Is there a way for the legislature to have a course ‘natural resource week,’ where coal, natural gas, other topics can be taught? We have national history week in this country, everybody creates a national week of something. Is there a way to create a standards of learning that the legislature would passed that the activists could not keep out of the schools so we could get that education across?”
GREEN: I think we should. I think that’s a great idea. I think we need to check with our colleagues in Virginia and see if we can get that done. I don’t think my colleagues disagree with that, do you? [All shook their heads in agreement.]
The coal industry has indeed made headway in altering West Virginia’s classrooms. In October 2009, the Raleigh County school board approved “a pro-coal curriculum designed by retired teachers and the Friends of Coal Ladies Auxiliary.” As part of the curriculum, fourth-graders at Stratton Elementary were taken on a field trip to the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine where each student was given “a coloring book, compliments of the auxiliary, illustrating how coal is mined and how it is burned for energy.”
One of the groups that has made significant progress enacting a pro-coal curriculum is Friends of Coal, the coal industry group that sponsored the Greenbrier retreat. Its education affiliate, CEDAR (Coal Education Development and Resource of Southern West Virginia, Inc.), is a “partnership between the coal industry, business community and educators.” Its stated mission is “to facilitate the increase of knowledge and understanding of the many benefits the coal industry provides in daily lives by providing financial resources and coal education materials to implement its study in the school curriculum.”
With coal industry executives united in this effort, and state legislators working on their behalf to implement such changes, West Virginia’s revisionist education curriculum may soon put even Texas to shame.
Gingrich Reconciles Cheating On His Wife While Harping On Family Values: ‘It Doesn’t Matter What I Do’
Gingrich Reconciles Cheating On His Wife While Harping On Family Values: ‘It Doesn’t Matter What I Do’
In his recently published book and in speaking engagements, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich repeatedly warns that President Obama’s “secular, socialist machine” is threatening to destroy America by undermining the Judeo-Christian “values” upon which the country was built. But while Gingrich chastises the supposed erosion of values on the left, his past is tainted by his own contemptible value judgments, including numerous extra-marital affairs, and pressuring a divorce from his first wife while she lay stricken with cancer in a hospital bed.
In a new Esquire profile, Gingrich’s second wife Marianne — whom he cheated on with his current wife, Callista — breaks her twelve year silence on her relationship with Gingrich to reveal a portrait of man who understood the deep hypocrisy of his actions, but simply didn’t care:
He asked her to just tolerate the affair, an offer she refused.
He’d just returned from Erie, Pennsylvania, where he’d given a speech full of high sentiments about compassion and family values.
The next night, they sat talking out on their back patio in Georgia. She said, “How do you give that speech and do what you’re doing?”
“It doesn’t matter what I do,” he answered. “People need to hear what I have to say. There’s no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn’t matter what I live.“
Marianne, who was Gingrich’s “closest advisor” during his reign in the 1990s, went on to say that Gingrich “believes that what he says in public and how he lives don’t have to be connected.” But of course, as Gingrich himself demanded when he led a crusade to impeach President Clinton for personal infidelity, politicians’ private lives are inevitably connected to their public ones. Nonetheless, Gingrich has himself admitted to continuing his illicit affair with Callista — 23 years his junior — while simultaneously prosecuting Clinton’s adultery.
Perhaps Gingrich has no qualms about committing the sins he rails against because he doesn’t really believe in what he preaches. Esquire’s John Richardson notes that despite Gingrich’s apocalyptic rhetoric, when encountering radical conservative activists, Gingrich “over and over again…takes the long view and becomes the very soul of probity.” “I wouldn’t be able to describe what his real principles are,” former Republican Rep. Mickey Edwards said of the former speaker. “I never felt that he had any sort of a real compass about what he believed except for the pursuit of power.”
Lame Duck Hypocrisy: GOP Leaders Blast 2010 Lame Duck Session Despite Supporting Previous Sessions
Lame Duck Hypocrisy: GOP Leaders Blast 2010 Lame Duck Session Despite Supporting Previous Sessions
Capitalizing on the GOP and conservative punditry’s “new rallying cry,” House Republican Study Commission Chairman Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) will introduce a resolution today to prohibit Democrats from calling the House to assemble in a lame duck session of Congress following the November elections. Insisting that Democrats view the post-election period as “their last chance” to “enact the remaining items on the liberal wish list,” Price is pushing the resolution to force Democrats “to show if they support the use of a lame duck session to override the will of the American people.” HuffPo’s Sam Stein notes the resolution will amount to little more than “Kabuki theater.”
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and other Republican leaders were quick to jump on Price’s bandwagon. Like Price, Boehner asked constituents “to challenge” Democrats “to pledge right now that they won’t use a lame-duck session.” However, like former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, these GOP leaders are suffering from selective amnesia about their own support of the 2006 lame duck session:
TOM PRICE: After losing 31 House seats in the 2006 elections, Price expressed his committment to accomplishing the GOP agenda by “stay[ing] in as long as we need to get done as much as we can do realistically.” “If that’s a week, fine. If that’s four weeks, fine,” he added.
JOHN BOEHNER: In 2006, Boehner was also “intent on finishing all [legislative] action,” including action on nine FY07 appropriations bills. When pushed on the length of the session, he was “unwilling to predict a possible closing date” until the agenda was accomplished.
MITCH MCCONNELL: After the ouster of six Senate Republicans in 2006, McConnell supported incoming Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-NV) lame duck agenda, saying “if we can accomplish” the agenda “it would be a very productive lame duck and I like his attitude about it.”
President George W. Bush surprised Democrats with an unannounced, last-minute move to nominate John Bolton as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during that session. Despite the controversial and unpopular nomination, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) pushed his colleagues to bring the nomination to the Senate floor for a vote. And in 1998, despite a consistent lack of public support for the effort, both McConnell and Boehner supported the impeachment of President Bill Clinton during a lame duck session.
Ignoring this prior history, Price insisted on C-Span today that the previous lame duck sessions were all “custodial” in nature, and claimed that the Democrats would use this session to push “fundamental issues.” When a couple of callers asked if Price would commit to not taking a salary during the lame duck session since he doesn’t want to work, the Georgia congressman skirted the issue, saying he’s “open” to discussing it. Watch it:
Some Democrats have assured Republicans that there is “no secret or overt plan.” Republicans, however, have decided to mount a politically-motivated campaign to try to take climate change legislation — and other pieces of the Democratic agenda — off the table.
Not only do Democrats not have the votes to pass hot-button legislation, but many Democrats facing reelection in 2012 don’t “have any more appetite to take a difficult vote.” Even McConnell and Republican aides, despite GOP bluster, recognize this, confirming to Slate’s Dave Wiegel that the lame duck session is “likely to be bland” and “noncontroversial.”
Callers on Bachmann’s tele-townhall go unchallenged when they claim Pelosi has a drinking problem.
Callers on Bachmann’s tele-townhall go unchallenged when they claim Pelosi has a drinking problem.
Yesterday, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) hosted a “National Tele-Townhall,” which she billed as the “largest” such event “ever.” Her office said that one million people had signed up to participate in the call, which was marketed toward Tea Party activists. On the call, there were a significant number of attacks on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), with Bachmann saying she “is spending your money and essentially laundering it as cash for a Democratic reelection program.” Several callers threw out lies smearing Democrats, but as the Minneapolis Star Tribune pointed out, neither Bachmann nor the other Republicans on the call corrected them:
But with the somewhat unpredictable town hall format, several questions went beyond comments on policy — to say the least — as one caller claimed Pelosi had a drinking problem, and another said he didn’t understand “how a Muslim can become president when his home is in Kenya.”
None of the seven Republicans attending corrected the callers, though they ignored rather than entertained the false statements.
Bachmann has a habit of looking the other way at the extreme rhetoric and actions of her supporters at events she organizes. In November, Bachmann organized a rally on Capitol Hill, where one attendee held up a sign tying health care reform to the Holocaust. After significant criticism, Bachmann called the display “inappropriate” but refused to apologize.
BACHMANN: As you might know, speaker Pelosi is taking the unprecedented step of calling all 435 House members back to Washington, DC today for the purpose of spending $26 billion that we don't have. The members were out on a six week hiatus, scattered to the four corners of the earth, and I think the reason Speaker Pelosi is bringing us all back into here today is because her members are in political trouble and she knows they will need the financial support of the public employee unions. This $26 billion represents a circle that looks like this: take $26 billion out of the productive private sector, deposit it in the US treasury. Then Speaker Pelosi and the Democrat majority will vote to send this money from the Treasury to politicians all across the country. Then state and local politicians will give this money to employees of public employee unions. The public employee unions will skim their share off the workers' checks first, in the form of union dues. And part of the dues will be funneled into the unions' political action committees, which in turn will be spent on political TV, radio, and print ads, as well as union boots on the ground. Tonight we're calling 1 million people. we're telling them what the speaker is doing and asking for their opinion on this cash for Democrat re-election program.
I appreciate your sharing your thoughts and concerns about the issues facing America and the positive energy you bring to the challenges we face in reclaiming our government this fall. I’m counting on you to make sure I win re-election on November 2nd and that candidates across the country who share our constitutional conservative values do as well. Based on your past support and your enthusiasm last night, I have every confidence that together we will succeed in bringing our constitutional conservative values back to Washington.
ThinkFast: August 10, 2010
ThinkFast: August 10, 2010
“The Taliban’s increasing use of homemade bombs and political assassinations has been responsible for a 31% increase in the number of civilians who have been killed or injured in fighting in Afghanistan this year,” reports the U.N. Child casualties have risen 55 percent, while “rules on the use of airpower by NATO troops ha[ve] led to a 30% drop in the number of deaths and injuries caused by foreign forces.”
Yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced he would close a military command, cutback on outside contracts, and reduce the armed forces personnel in an effort to rein in Pentagon spending. While Gates “did not place a dollar figure” on the proposals, they are the “most concrete proposals to cut current spending” and “reflect his strategy of first trying to squeeze money out of the vast Pentagon bureaucracy.”
Yesterday, Google and Verizon dealt a blow to the fight for net neutrality by announcing that “rules ensuring equal access to the Internet shouldn’t apply to mobile phones.” The Washington Post called it “a shift in direction for Google, which has been the corporate evangelist for open network practices.” Open Internet advocates quickly criticized the news, calling on Google to “stand by its ‘don’t be evil’ motto.”
In recent days, former aides to both Vice President Cheney and President Bush, “who pushed for comprehensive immigration reform, have condemned the calls by top Republicans to end birthright citizenship.” A Cheney adviser called the effort “offensive,” while a Bush campaign aide warned the GOP not to “demagogue” the issue.
The Commerce Department released new data Monday that reports, among the 52 metro areas with a population above one million, “personal incomes fell across the U.S. last year except in areas with a high concentration of federal government and military jobs.” The data offer “the most detailed, ground-level look at the impact of federal government employment and spending last year.”
CO GOP candidate worries bike-share program ‘may not be compatible with our state constitution.’
CO GOP candidate worries bike-share program ‘may not be compatible with our state constitution.’
Dan Maes, the Tea Party-supported candidate in the Colorado governor’s race, has argued that a popular Denver bike-share program is a “very well-disguised” part of a plan by Denver mayor (and Democratic gubernatorial candidate) John Hickenlooper for “converting Denver into a United Nations community.” Last week, Maes told the press that Denver’s membership in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) “could threaten our personal freedoms” because environmental initiatives like the cycling program are “very specific strategies that are dictated to us by this United Nations program that mayors have signed on to.” This afternoon, Maes appeared on MSNBC to explain his conspiracy theory. Although the “bike program in and of itself is fine,” he said, what worries him is “what’s behind it all“:
We’re trying to differentiate myself from the mayor. If I win the primary and when I win the primary tomorrow, people are going to say what the difference is. We’re both business people. When a mayor signs onto a program sponsored by the United Nations, that should bring concern to people as to how the program may or may not be compatible with our state constitution.
Watch it:
Despite Maes’s dark fears, Denver’s participation in ICLEI carries no legal obligations and raises no constitutional issues, but does allow city planners to share information and ideas with other urban communities throughout the world. Maes has not yet commented on Colorado State University’s support for the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the suspiciously named Denver International Airport, the University of Colorado Model United Nations Club, or Denver’s international sister cities, like Brest, France, Chennai, India, and Kunming, China.
Cross-posted on The Wonk Room.
Transcript: More »
McCain endorses cutting middle class tax breaks by using unspent stimulus funds.
McCain endorses cutting middle class tax breaks by using unspent stimulus funds.
Despite spending the past year talking about the need to cut spending and reduce the deficit, Republican leaders have proven time and again that they have few real ideas about how to accomplish that. Instead, they turn to gimmicks, like eliminating the Affordable Care Act — the repeal of which would actually increase the deficit — and using unspent stimulus funds. When right-wing CNBC host Larry Kudlow asked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) Friday whether he would support using unspent stimulus funds as a “down payment” for a future budget, McCain said he “would absolutely advocate that” and perhaps make it a part of the GOP agenda:
KUDLOW: There’s a couple of hundred billion dollars of unspent stimulus money. Now, can that be stopped? Can that be canceled? Can that save the spending baseline? Would that be the down payment on longterm budget plan?
MCCAIN: I would absolutely advocate that. And maybe if they haven’t spent that all by January, that should be in our agenda as well.
Watch it:
The problem with McCain’s plan is that represents a tax hike for middle class Americans. Despite conservative attempts to smear it, the stimulus package actually cut taxes for 95 percent of working families, providing middle class Americans with valuable tax breaks and credits. There is still $55 billion in unspent stimulus funds dedicated to tax benefits. Meanwhile, other Republicans have gone a step further than McCain, calling for raiding the middle class tax benefits in the stimulus in order to pay for extending the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy.
Ellison Responds To Pawlenty: He’s So Desperate To Be President That He’s Willing To Dishonor The Constitution
Ellison Responds To Pawlenty: He’s So Desperate To Be President That He’s Willing To Dishonor The Constitution
In an interview with Real Clear Politics last week, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) broke his silence about the Islamic community center set to be built near Ground Zero in New York City. “I’m strongly opposed to the idea of putting a mosque anywhere near Ground Zero — I think it’s inappropriate,” he said. “[I]t’s hallowed ground, it’s sacred ground, and we should respect that. We shouldn’t have images or activities that degrade or disrespect that in any way.”
On Friday, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison (D), the first Muslim member of Congress, shot back:
“I know he wants to be president really bad, and I know he’s trying to appeal to the most extreme elements of his party to do that, but I hope he doesn’t want to be president so bad that he’s willing to dishonor the First Amendment and our heritage of religious tolerance,” Ellison told the Star Tribune. [...]
Ellison said that Pawlenty displayed “a profound lack of understanding” about religious tolerance, and he should apologize for his remarks.
“It’s very unseemly that a Midwestern politician would try to divide New Yorkers and Americans on the basis of religion,” the Minnesota Democrat said. … “His ambition is blinding him right now.”
The Star Tribune reports that a dozen Muslim groups in Minnesota sent a letter to Pawlenty calling on him to apologize for his remarks:
The groups, who sent a letter to Pawlenty’s office Monday, wrote that the Minnesota governor should respect freedom of religion, and asked that he meet with local Muslim leaders to “understand how his comments have negatively impacted the Minnesota Muslim community.”
“Our governor has engaged in collective guilt by saying that all Muslim activities and images anywhere near Ground Zero are degrading and disrespectful,” Taneeza Islam, civil rights director for Minnesota’s chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a statement.
However, it doesn’t appear as if Pawlenty will be issuing any apology. “The governor’s message is clear: New York is a big place. Find a different location for the mosque,” his spokesperson said.
Right Wing Smears Michelle Obama As A Modern ‘Marie Antoinette,’ Pushes Lies About Cost Of The Trip
Right Wing Smears Michelle Obama As A Modern ‘Marie Antoinette,’ Pushes Lies About Cost Of The Trip
In recent days, right-wing commentators have launched a series of attacks on First Lady Michelle Obama for going on vacation in Spain with her daughter Sasha and a small number of family friends. Some of the most vicious attacks:
– New York Daily News columnist Andrea Tantaros wrote that the “material girl” Michelle Obama is a “modern-day Marie Antoinette,” and that the Obamas “seem to fancy themselves more along the lines of international celebrities than actual leaders.”
– CNN’s Erick Erickson also wondered “How long before the Marie Antoinette comparisons start?”
– American Thinker’s Ralph Alter claimed that the “pampered” Michelle Obama has taken “maximum advantage” of her “unlimited expense account as first lady.”
– In a post titled “Michelle Obama Kicks It Euro-Style,” the blog Newsbusters called Michelle a “petty, selfish woman.”
– Mickey Kaus even speculated the trip could be the result of trouble in the Obama’s marriage.
Most of the attacks are based on the premise that the First Lady’s trip is costing American taxpayers money. Glenn Bleck told listeners that the trip “is costing you $75,000 a day,” and Tarantos claimed that Michelle Obama was bringing along “40 of her ‘closest friends.’”
Because the right wing has propagated so much misinformation about the size and cost of the First Lady’s trip, the Chicago Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet published an article setting the record straight today. First, Michelle Obama brought only Sasha (Malia is at summer camp) along with two close friends, each of whom also brought their daughters. Second, the entire group paid for their own lodging and personal expenses. The New York Times reported that Michelle even reimbursed the government for the equivalent of two first-class commercial tickets for the flight on Air Force Two. (Her friends flew separately, on commercial flights). Finally, most of the rooms booked at her hotel in Spain belonged to Secret Service agents, and as Sweet wrote, “No matter where she goes — domestic or international — any first lady gets protection and she does not decide how many agents are needed.”
These right-wing commentators were curiously silent when the Bush family took vacations. The New York Times noted that Laura Bush took a vacation every year of her husband’s presidency, with Secret Service agents and a government plane. Also, Media Matters calculated the cost of President Bush’s frequent trips to his ranch in Crawford, TX, Camp David, and the family compound in Kennebunkport — he took more vacation time than any president — and put the tab at $20 million for air travel only.
These facts have not stopped the right-wing commentators from going into overdrive on this story, however. Perhaps they need a vacation.
Markey: Greenland Iceberg Has Created Space ‘For Global Warming Deniers To Start Their Own Country’
Markey: Greenland Iceberg Has Created Space ‘For Global Warming Deniers To Start Their Own Country’
University of Delaware climate researcher Andreas Muenchow said in a statement last week that, according to NASA satellite data, a massive ice shelf four times the size of Manhattan has broken off from north-western Greenland. Within hours, the Canadian Ice Service confirmed the report. “The new ice island has an area of at least 100 square miles and a thickness up to half the height of the Empire State Building,” Muenchow said.
The Hill reports that on Saturday, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), who has been leading the legislative effort to confront climate change, used the occasion to chastise his obstructionist colleagues:
“An iceberg four times the size of Manhattan has broken off Greenland, creating plenty of room for global warming deniers to start their own country,” Markey said in a statement. “So far, 2010 has been the hottest year on record, and scientists agree arctic ice is a canary in a coal mine that provides clear warnings on climate.” [...]
He said it was “unclear how many giant blocks of ice it will take to break the block of Republican climate deniers in the US Senate who continue hold this critical clean energy and climate legislation hostage.”
Indeed, the giant ice island highlights the need for Congress to act. An expert report on Arctic temperatures published in Science magazine last year found evidence “that the most recent 10-year interval (1999–2008) was the warmest of the past 200 decades”:
During the late 20th century, our proxy-inferred summer temperatures were the warmest of the past two millennia, with four of the five warmest decades of our 2000-year-long reconstruction occurring between 1950 and 2000. In recent years, the magnitude of the warming seems to have emerged above the natural variability, consistent with the sharp reduction in summer sea-ice cover.
According to a recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report, 2010 Arctic sea ice extent was the lowest on record for the month of June:
Arctic sea ice continued its annual decline, typically reaching a September minimum. Similar to May 2010, the Arctic sea ice continued to decline at a record rapid rate. … June 2010 Arctic sea ice extent was 10.9 million square kilometers (10.6 percent or 1.29 million square kilometers below the 1979–2000 average), resulting in the lowest June sea ice extent since records began in 1979—the previous June record low was set in 2006.
And he National Snow and Ice Center said last week that “Arctic sea ice extent averaged for July was the second lowest in the satellite record, after 2007″ and the trend is continuing downward.
Why are Arctic ice levels decreasing so rapidly? Numerous climate studies based on expert analysis have concluded that the trend in Arctic ice decline is a direct result of human activity.
FL GOP candidate McCollum: ‘I really do not think that we should have homosexuals guiding our children.’
FL GOP candidate McCollum: ‘I really do not think that we should have homosexuals guiding our children.’
Fresh off his George Rekers scandal, Florida Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum is telling Florida Baptist News that he wants to expand Florida’s discriminatory adoption laws to prohibit gay people from serving as foster parents:
MCCOLLUM: I don’t believe in gay adoption. I don’t believe in involving the government in enforcing or encouraging the lifestyle of gays and homosexuals. I just don’t believe that. [...]
Q: Florida permits homosexuals to serve as foster parents. That has been used as an argument to undermine the ban on adoptions. Should homosexuals be permitted to serve as foster parents in Florida?
MCCOLLUM: Well, I personally don’t think so, but that is the law.
Q: Should the law be changed?
MCCOLLUM: I think that it would be advisable. I really do not think that we should have homosexuals guiding our children. I think that it’s a lifestyle that I don’t agree with. I realize a lot of people do. It’s my personal faith, religious faith, that I don’t believe that the people who do this should be raising our children. It’s not a natural thing. You need a mother and a father. You need a man and a woman. That’s what God intended.
The Wonk Room counters McCollum’s bigotry with actual facts. With its dubious distinction of being the only state to ban same-sex partners from adopting children, Florida has been noted as being one of the least gay-friendly states in the nation.
Bush Treasury Secretary on allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire: ‘That’s okay.’
Bush Treasury Secretary on allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire: ‘That’s okay.’
Last month, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan — who was instrumental in advancing the Bush tax cuts — called for allowing the entire package of cuts to expire, saying “they should follow the law and let them lapse.” Yesterday, Paul O’Neill, who was Treasury Secretary when the Bush tax cuts were enacted, seemed to follow suit. On CNN’s GPS with Fareed Zakaria, O’Neill pointed out that “I was strongly opposed to the Bush tax cut that was enacted in 2003. It was one of the reasons I got fired.” He explained that he opposed the cuts because they were unaffordable, given the looming war with Iraq. When pushed by Zakaria about whether or not the cuts should expire, O’Neill said a full expiration is “okay,” while making the case that broader tax reform is really the issue:
I say let them — I don’t care, I honestly don’t care — but I do care whether the President takes the lead in saying ‘this is not the right issue, it’s off the table, they’re expired. You know, everybody is going to pay more in taxes.’ That’s okay…I don’t mind paying taxes.
Watch it:
O’Neill, however, came out against more stimulus funding — despite unemployment hovering at 9.5 percent and the economy creating a sluggish number of jobs — saying that an overhaul of the tax code would suffice to boost demand. As The Wonk Room explains, O’Neill’s stance contrasts starkly with that of Congressional Republicans, who seem to have no concern over the effect extending the cuts has on the deficit.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll