GOP is gah-gah over Obama autographs

It's all very cute, and also a bit weird. From TIME:

Ever since he began his uphill battle for the Presidency two years ago, Barack Obama has been getting mobbed for photos and autographs, and that enthusiasm and passion has only grown since he entered the Oval Office. But even President Obama must be a little taken aback by the identity of some of his well-wishers on Capitol Hill of late. After his address to Congress last Tuesday, the same House Republicans who had decried his stimulus plan as the work of just another tax-and-spend liberal crowded around him like starstruck tween girls at a Jonas Brothers concert, all just to get his John Hancock on their copy of the speech....

Not that getting Obama's autograph is going to make Rep. John Culberson, a Texas Republican, any more willing to vote for Obama's agenda. "No, it wouldn't have an effect," says Culberson, who got to the chamber at 8:30 in the morning to save an aisle seat in order to be the first in line to get his speech signed, a memento for his 12-year-old daughter. "This is a piece of history like the ones I have from President Bush and Vice President Cheney. And it doesn't hurt to have your constituents see you with the President."

Sure it does. Or it can. If your constituents are liberals, they may not be very happy to see you going gah-gah over George Bush in order to get an autograph. This is something more. It's not an indication that the Republicans will necessarilyy do Obama's bidding, but it is a sign that Obama has star power - dare we say "celebrity"? And as much as John McCain tried to belittle the concept during the campaign, a politician can accomplish a lot when people hold him in high regard. Read More......

Dem party chair: Steele's apology proves Limbaugh is leading force behind GOP

Democratic National Committee chair, Governor Tim Kaine, just released the following statement:

Kaine Statement: Steele Apology to Rush Limbaugh Proves the Point:
Limbaugh is Leading Force behind Republican Party

Washington, DC – On the same day GOP Chairman Michael Steele apologized to conservative talk radio show host Rush Limbaugh for courageously challenging Limbaugh’s role as leader of the Republican Party calling his show “incendiary” and “ugly,” Governor Tim Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, issued the following statement calling on Republicans in Washington to stop following Rush Limbaugh’s lead:

“I was briefly encouraged by the courageous comments made my counterpart in the Republican Party over the weekend challenging Rush Limbaugh as the leader of the Republican Party and referring to his show as ‘incendiary’ and ‘ugly.’ However, Chairman Steele’s reversal this evening and his apology to Limbaugh proves the unfortunate point that Limbaugh is the leading force behind the Republican Party, its politics and its obstruction of President Obama’s agenda in Washington. Just this weekend, Rush Limbaugh repeated his claim that he is rooting for the President to fail. The last time Rush Limbaugh said he wanted the President to fail, virtually every single Republican in Congress followed his lead and voted against the President’s plan to create or save 3.5 million jobs.

“As Congress works to pass the President’s budget, Republicans need to stop following divisive figures like Rush Limbaugh, stop apologizing to him and put aside the failed politics of the past so we can put our economy back on track, reform our health care system, break our dependence on foreign oil, improve our schools, and lay the foundation for long-term growth in the 21st Century.”

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Bill Kristol’s 1993 Memo Calling For GOP To Block Health Care Reform

Greg Sargeant over at The Plum Line has gotten his hands on a memo Bill Kristol wrote to his party in 1993, urging them to oppose Bill Clinton's health care plan because - well - it might work. And then all the newly healthy people might like government and see that it could actually do something good for them. Ben Smith summarizes the long memo:

The memo warns that a successful Clinton plan could badly damage the GOP by improving Americans' relationship with government, and makes the case for total, uncompromising opposition based on what would become the "Harry and Louise" campaign, focused on the damage the changes could do to citizens' relationships with their doctors.

The only way that the plan would improve America's relationship with government would be if it worked. Think about that. The GOP ultimately opposed major legislation that would have benefited every American because the legislation might have actually worked. You don't just see parallels to today's Republican party, they're doing exactly the same thing. The GOP is terrified that Obama agenda, from the stimulus plan to health care reform, might actually work. Then Americans would see that - surprise - government can work for the people. And where would we be then, if our government actually started making a positive difference in our lives? Better to vote Republican and ensure that never happens. Read More......

Steele caves, apologizes to GOP party chair Rush Limbaugh

Well, it's clear who wears the pants in that family. Steele now says that, while he said Rush Limbaugh was "an entertainer," "ugly," and "incendiary," those weren't the words he was thinking. Those words just magically ushered forth from the mouth of the Republican party chair - he was basically speaking to the media while speaking in tongues. Or perhaps he was drugged. Or simply stupid. Whatever the reason, it's a rather amazing admission for the head of the entire Republican party to say that he give interviews and says things that he has no idea how they come out of his mouth.

Of course, we all know the truth. Michael Steele thinks Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot who's hurting the image of his party. Steele's mistake was speaking the truth, something one doesn't do in the GOP and live to tell about it. So, Rush gets his apology, but we all know, and Rush knows, that the de jure head of the Republican party thinks the de facto head is an ugly human being. And he is. But the ugly druggy guy gets the last laugh. He has the entire party on its knees, including the party chair. Read More......

No Apology To Rush Limbaugh From RNC Chair Michael Steele

From Greg Sargeant at the Plum Line. Read More......

Vatican rescinds promotion of priest who said Katrina was God's punishment, but Vatican hasn't done boo about anti-Semitic Holocaust-denying bishop

Make fun of the weather, and Herr Prada rescinds your promotion in a flash. Deny the murder of 6 million Jews? You get 25 chances to make amends, and even when you don't do what the Pope demands, they still do nothing. Apparently the weather means more to the Vatican than genocide. (If only those pedophile priests had criticized the weather, in addition to raping children as young as 4 years of age, maybe then the Vatican would have actually done something about them.) Read More......

Limbaugh blasts GOP party head Steele, questions why any Republican would ever give a dime to the RNC

Apparently, Rush Limbaugh now wants the Republican party to fail too.

The GOP meltdown continues. Earlier today, Joe reported that the head of the Republican party, Michael Steele, called comedian Rush Limbaugh "incendiary" and "ugly." Well, Limbaugh struck back today on his radio show. It looks like Limbaugh called on Republicans to stop donating to the Republican party.

It seems to me that it’s Michael Steele who is off to a shaky start….

Now, Mr. Steele, if it is your position as the chairman of the Republican National Committee that you want a left wing Democrat president and a left wing Democrat Congress to succeed in advancing their agenda, if it’s your position that you want President Obama and Speaker Pelosi and Senate leader Harry Reid to succeed with their massive spending and taxing and nationalization plans, I think you have some explaining to do.

Why are you running the Republican Party? Why do you claim you lead the Republican Party when you seem obsessed with seeing to it that President Obama succeeds? I frankly am stunned that the chairman of the Republican National Committee endorses such an agenda…

I don’t understand why you’re asking Republicans to donate to the Republican National Committee if their money is going to be spent furthering the agenda of Barack Obama? If we don’t want Obama and Reid and Pelosi to fail, then why does the RNC exist, Mr. Steele? Why are you even raising money?…

The first African-American titular head of the Republican party versus the racist bigot who really heads the Republican party. Guess which one is going to win this battle, and which one is going to be canned first?

How long until Rush starts singing racist songs about Steele? Read More......

NY Times Gets It Right on Employee Free Choice: “The bill would take away management’s ability to insist on a secret ballot election.”

A couple weeks ago, I wrote a post about how the corporate media continually misconstrued the intent and purpose of the Employee Free Choice Act. Just last week, Media Matters nailed USA Today and Politico for incorrectly describing the Employee Free Choice Act.

So, I have to give credit where credit is due. Today, Steven Greenhouse at the NY Times, actually got it right:

Labor is pinning its biggest hopes on the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that unions hope will add millions of new members by giving workers the right to union recognition as soon as a majority of employees at a workplace sign pro-union cards. The bill would take away management’s ability to insist on a secret ballot election.

That's the key issue with how people talk about the Employee Free Choice Act. Corporate groups falsely assert that the bill does away with secret ballot elections, which is absolutely not true. The only thing that the Employee Free Choice Act eliminates is "management's ability to insist on a secret ballot election." And, we wonder why corporate lobbyists don’t want people to know that. Just last week, we were told that, "The workplace is much better today" by an executive from the Chamber of Commerce. Sure, if you don't count the layoffs, downsizing, loss of health care benefits....and on and on.

The Republicans and their corporate masters are apoplectic about the Employee Free Choice Act -- and they'll lie to defeat it. That crowd has already done enough damage to America’s workers already. We’re all going to fight their lies every step of the way. Read More......

The time for saying "please" is over

My friend Robin Tyler and her partner Diane were the first gay couple married in LA County after marriage became legal there last year (before the Mormon bigots murdered love):

Some people have said, "Well, you can always put your right to equality back on the ballot in 2010." Excuse me? Since when was it OK for people to vote on a group's rights to basic equality and civil rights? Equality isn't a popularity contest. It's the right of all California citizens.

Nobody's rights should ever be put to a popular vote. That's why we have a court system. And that's why Diane and I are confident the court will show the courage it did when it not only ruled for marriage equality for same-sex couples but also declared that lesbians and gays were a suspect class, a legitimate minority entitled to all rights.

If the court does rule for us, tens of thousands of us will be on the streets that night celebrating a great victory, not just for us but for everyone.

But if we lose and Prop. 8 stands, even if the court rules to uphold existing same-sex marriages, hundreds of thousands of us will be on the streets, angrier than we have ever been.

The time for saying "please" is over.

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GOP leadership smackdown: Michael Steele calls Rush Limbaugh 'incendiary' and 'ugly'

It's pretty clear that Rush "I want Obama to fail" Limbaugh is the leader of the Republican party or as Rahm Emanuel put it on CBS yesterday:

Rush Limbaugh is 'the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party.'

RNC Chair Michael Steele doesn't like that. He wants to be the leader and threw down the gauntlet against Rush this weekend, using words like "incendiary" and "ugly" to describe Rush's style. Think Progress got the video:


How long will Steele last as chair of the RNC now that he's challenged the Supreme Leader?

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Iran gets copy of specs for Obama's helicopter

Weird, from WPXI.com:

Tiversa employees found engineering and communications information about Marine One at an IP address in Tehran, Iran.

”We found a file containing entire blueprints and avionics package for Marine One,which is the president's helicopter," said Bob Boback, CEO of Tiversa.

The company was able to trace the file back to its original source.

"What appears to be a defense contractor in Bethesda, Md., had a file sharing program on one of their systems that also contained highly sensitive blueprints for Marine One," Boback said....

Iran is not the only country that appears to be accessing this type of information through file-sharing programs.

“We've noticed it out of Pakistan, Yemen, Qatar, and China. They are actively searching for information that is disclosed in this fashion because it is a great source of intelligence,” Boback said.

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Changing 30 years of bad policy is hard work, which can't be undermined by Democrats

We're entering a critical phase in the effort to pass Obama's budget and to enact his overall agenda. Most progressive are pretty damn happy with the new direction for our nation. It represents the change our nation desperately needs. But, apparently (and not surprisingly), there are some Democrats on the Hill who are nervous. Pathetic.

Here's a tip for any "senior Democratic aide" who deigns to speak to the press. Don't use GOP talking points. Yesterday's Washington Post had an article about Obama's budget, which quoted a "senior Democratic aide" calling Obama's budget a "tax and spend budget":

"Folks are a little skittish. It's asking a lot," a senior Democratic aide said. "This is a tax-and-spend budget the likes of which we haven't seen in years."

That aide is an idiot. There is so much in that one blurb. Did the RNC write that, because it sounds like it. Real folks in America are beyond "skittish." They're really scared. Obama is using his political capital to save the country. It'd be nice if senior Democratic aides and the people for whom they work on Capitol Hill would do the same thing instead of whining to the Washington Post. People in America are experiencing actual pain. It's not "asking a lot" to fix the crisis. It's expected. That's your job. (Note thay you haven't heard anything about pay cuts or furloughs or losing health benefits or massive layoffs for people who work on the Hill. They're in a recession-proof bubble.)

I've been saying for a long time that the biggest problem Obama is going to have is Democrats. Too many Democratic members, Democratic staffers, Democratic consultants, Democratic-leaning interest groups and lobbyists who are Democrats want to preserve the status quo -- and don't get what's going on in the country. Change is a scary concept.

That's why Jane Hamsher is on to something. When we find out who is blocking the agenda, we have to name names whether they are members, staffers or lobbyists. Jane has a post at Huffington calling out the people undermining the pending mortgage legislation: "Mortgage Write-Downs: Why Does Ellen Tauscher Value Banks Over Constituents? Ask Adam Pase." Tauscher is one of those painful centrist Democrats (who is quite wealthy herself.) She has taken the lead on undoing the legislation to allow judges to reduce mortgage payments, which Chris Bowers explains in more detail here. This is vintage Tauscher and, as Jane explains, Mr. Pase is one of her staffers:

Tauscher's office also said she hasn't met with any bankers or lobbyists on the matter, and that may well be true. She doesn't have to. Adam Pase, the executive director of the New Democrat Coalition which Tauscher chairs, works directly out of her office.

Pase is is a former lobbyist for the Twenty First Century Group, whose client, the Coalition for Fair & Affordable Lending, is an astroturf group, financed by the banking industry, that lobbied on behalf of. . . you guessed it. . . sub-prime lenders.

We're all probably going to have to do a lot of these kinds of posts over the next weeks and months. Naming names may be the only way to shame some of these people into doing the right thing -- that would be what their constituents expect. That is, after all, their job. Read More......

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

We're having a snow storm in D.C. It's not as big as first expected -- only 4 - 6 inches, although it's really coming down now. For D.C. 4 - 6 inches of snow is a major storm. People don't handle this kind of weather so well (as Obama pointed out not too long ago.)

Our local weather people often get things wrong when it comes to predicting snow storms. On that subect, they're a bit out of their league. That's also true for many of the painful pundits from this town. They're usually wrong and often out of their league. But, that doesn't stop them. Being wrong, without any shame, is endemic to the culture of this city. It doesn't stop the pundits. They keep pontificating and hauling in big money for it.

I think Petey is going to love this snow. Read More......

UBS increasing salaries

Modern bankers love the idea of risk/reward when there's nothing but upside but as soon as the reality of their actions brings them back to earth, they suddenly want a change. It's not much different than we saw with CEOs a few years ago who insisted on being rewarded with stock until the stock prices suffered after 9/11 and the tech bubble bursting. The problem remains that many of the previous high fliers are convinced of their value to the system and there are enough people in Washington, London and other financial centers who buy into this baloney. Let them live with the results that they generated and we'll be fine with or without them.

A pay raise may be the last thing a bank is expected to offer these days. But UBS, the Swiss bank, is doing exactly that as it looks for new ways to compensate its investment bankers, two people who have been briefed on the changes said Sunday.

UBS is increasing the base salary of senior investment bankers after reducing many bonuses sharply and to align overall compensation more closely with other financial services jobs, like consulting, said these people, who spoke anonymously because the bank has not decided to publicly disclose the changes.

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AIG ready to sign for another $30 billion

Oh yeah. The American taxpayer is rolling in the cash on this deal just as the Republicans said would happen. Where are all of the profits going to be spent? "Too big to fail" has to start being addressed sometime soon.

The U.S. government threw a new $30 billion lifeline to American International Group Inc Sunday as the embattled insurer prepared to report the biggest quarterly loss in corporate history.

AIG's board approved a new rescue package that also includes more lenient terms on a government investment in its preferred shares and a lower interest rate on a government credit line, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Details will be announced Monday when AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) is expected to report a fourth-quarter loss of about $60 billion -- some $460,000 per minute.

This would be the third time the government has had to step up to save AIG, once the biggest insurer by market value whose global reach may have made it too big to fail.

Allowing the collapse of AIG, which has struggled to sell assets, would have far-reaching consequences for the global financial system as the company guarantees about $300 billion of asset-backed securities and other debt, analysts have said.

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7,000 apply for 500 part-time jobs

Tough odds for temporary work but that's the job market today. CNN:

A two-day job fair to fill some 500 part-time jobs during the baseball season, from stadium security to hawking beer during the games, attracted nearly 7,000 applicants.

While many are no doubt fans of the Dodgers and would enjoy spending summer evenings at the ballpark, all were eager to convert their summer time into cash.

With the team in Glendale, Arizona, for spring training, the stadium became a human resources arena for six hours both Saturday and Sunday during the 2009 Dodgertown Job Fair.

Dodgers officials said they had expected as many as 10,000 applicants to show up during the weekend, based on similar job fairs held by other teams across the country as unemployment climbs and economic conditions worsen for many people.

Despite a lower turnout, this year's crowd was "significantly more" than similar job fairs in previous years, team officials said, although no numbers for previous years were released.

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