Despite massive layoffs and budget woes, Focus On The Family plans on spending $4 million on Super Bowl ads.
Despite massive layoffs and budget woes, Focus On The Family plans on spending $4 million on Super Bowl ads.
Firedoglake reports that Focus On the Family, an ultra-right Christian group, is poised to drop $4 million on a Super Bowl commercial aimed at promoting its anti-choice propaganda. According to sources:
A source says the new head of Focus, Jim Daly, spoke at an evangelical conference a few months ago and unveiled the Super Bowl ad plan. Then he begged for donations from like-minded organizations. According to the source, Daly was given about $3 million, and Focus dipped into its general fund for the other $1 million.
However, Daly doesn’t really seem to have a whole lot of money to spare these days. Apparently, since 2005, his organization has been forced to layoff chunks of its staff every year. This past September, Focus On the Family let go of 8% of its staff — nearly 500 people. As Lisa Derrick of Firedoglake points out, “isn’t keeping families employed the best way to help them thrive?” In the past, neither anti-abortion nor pro-choice ads have been able to pass the television network and NFL approval process.
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Fox News Host Promotes Newt’s Call For Profiling: ‘Profile Them! What’s Wrong With That?’
Fox News Host Promotes Newt’s Call For Profiling: ‘Profile Them! What’s Wrong With That?’
Yesterday, Newt Gingrich joined the right wing’s hysteric attacks on President Obama regarding Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s failed attempted to blow up a U.S. airliner over Detroit, calling for more “profiling” and “discrimination” and saying that the Obama administration is more interested in “protecting the rights of terrorists” than “protecting the lives of Americans.”
This morning on Fox News, Gingrich tried to clarify his comments. “We have to be prepared to profile based on behavior, not ethnic profiling, not racial profiling but look at people’s behavior,” he said. Later, host Alisyn Camerota signed on to and promoted Gingrich’s plan:
CAMEROTA: I haven’t heard a single person talking about any kind of racial profiling. It doesn’t say “Muslim” on a passport. [...] But anybody who travels all the time recognizes how ludicrous it is to frisk your grandmother. She’s not the risk. But somebody who’s let say been in Yemen in the past year. I’d say profile them. Profile them! What’s wrong with that?
Co-host Dave Briggs asked, “Should we body scan everyone at the airports?” “I’d say yes,” he said answering his own question, adding, “If it keeps me and my family safe, go ahead an invade their privacy.” Watch it:
Yesterday on NPR, even former Bush Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said profiling is a bad idea, calling it foolish, particularly in Abdulmutallab’s case:
CHERTOFF: I’m going to argue that this case illustrates the danger and the foolishness of profiling because people’s conception of what a potential terrorist looks like often doesn’t match reality. In this case we had a Nigerian, for example, not a person from the Middle East or from South Asia. If you look at the airline plot of 2006, two of the plotters were a married couple that were going to get on a plane with a young baby. The terrorists understand that the more they vary the kind of operative they use, the more likely they’re going to be able to exploit prejudices if we allow those prejudices to guide the way we conduct our investigation.
“I think it’s not only problematic from civil rights’ standpoint, but frankly,” Chertoff said, “I think it winds up not being terribly effective.”
Argentina hosts Latin America’s first gay marriage.
Argentina hosts Latin America’s first gay marriage.
Earlier this week, two Argentinian men wed and became Latin America’s first legally recognized same-sex married couple. Jose Maria Di Bello and Alex Freyre’s wedding was initially thwarted by a national judge who overturned a city court decision to issue them a marriage license in Buenos Aires. However, Governor of Tierra del Fuego, Fabiana Rios, issued a special decree allowing the two to marry in Argentina’s southern province. Freyre told the Associated Foreign Press:
Now we’ll be able to share Social Security, we’ll have all the rights as other couples — because we’re worth it…It’s a personal celebration, but also a public and political one. We have to sacrifice our intimacy so the world can see that Latin America and Argentina is opening up to judicial equality.
The milestone marriage took place the same year that Colombia’s Constitutional Court ruled that gay couples must be afforded full equal rights and a week after Mexico City became the first Latin American capital to pass a law legalizing gay marriage. An Argentinian Supreme Court justice indicated that the high court would likely rule on issues of same-sex marriage sometime in 2010 as a bill that would legalize gay marriage has been stalled in Argentina’s Congress since October.
Meanwhile, starting in 2010, gay and lesbian couples will be able to wed in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and New Hampshire, and the District of Columbia. While reporter David Knowles points out that gay marriage opponents have far from accepted defeat in the U.S., recent data which shows that younger Americans are much more supportive of gay marriage than older people suggests these opponents will be facing an uphill battle in the years to come.
Limbaugh Rushed To Honolulu Hospital That Gave Rise To ‘Birther’ Conspiracy
Limbaugh Rushed To Honolulu Hospital That Gave Rise To ‘Birther’ Conspiracy
Conservative radio shock jock Rush Limbaugh was rushed to a Honolulu hospital yesterday with chest pains. After paramedics arrived and treated him at the Kahala Hotel and Resort, Limbaugh was transferred to Queen’s Medical Center where he reportedly arrived in “serious condition.” KHON2 reports:
Sources say the 58 year old [Limbaugh] was suffering chest pains before an ambulance arrived at the hotel.
Honolulu’s Emergency Services Department confirmed a male fitting Limbaugh’s description was taken from the hotel in serious condition.
As an avid golfer Limbaugh travels to Hawaii just about every year and earlier this week was seen in Kona on the Big Island and at the Waialae Country Club on Oahu.
While unfortunate, Limbaugh’s hospital visit is rife with irony. The ailing radio show host was sent to the same medical center that a United Press International reporter misidentified in an article published in 2008 as the facility in which President Obama was born. Though the error was corrected to accurately indicate that Obama was born in the Kapi’olani Medical Center, the mistake fueled “birther” conspiracy theories that Limbaugh then dedicated significant airtime to promoting. Since then, Limbaugh has gone as far to state that Hawaii “morphed into Kenya one day in 1961 [the year Obama was born] and reverted back to Hawaii the next day.”
Meanwhile, some of Limbaugh’s right-wing colleagues have spent the past week slamming Obama for vacationing in Hawaii over the holidays, which “to many Americans seems like a foreign place.” Last month, Limbaugh was voted the nation’s “most influential conservative voice.”
Gingrich: Obama cares more about ‘protecting the rights of terrorists’ than the ‘lives of Americans.’
Gingrich: Obama cares more about ‘protecting the rights of terrorists’ than the ‘lives of Americans.’
The right wing’s response to the failed underwear bomber has been all too predictable — accusing liberals of being anti-patriotic and calling for greater ethnic profiling of Muslims, while ignoring the Bush administration’s failure to prevent terrorist attacks, catch Osama bin Laden, or distinguish real threats from imagined ones. Newt Gingrich, one of the media’s favorite conservatives, has been calling for “profiling” and “discrimination” on Twitter. Now he is also directly accusing President Obama and “the elites” of caring more about the “rights of terrorists” than the “lives of Americans”:
In the Obama Administration, protecting the rights of terrorists has been more important than protecting the lives of Americans. That must now change decisively. It is time to know more about would-be terrorists, to profile for terrorists and to actively discriminate based on suspicious terrorist information.
Gingrich calls for the firing of Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, the renewed use of torture (”a policy of effective interrogation”), and the end of any civilian trials for suspected terrorists, even if they are American citizens. If the underpants bomber is justification for all this, one wonders what Gingrich would recommend we do to fight his other great threat: the “gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us.”
Obama declares that ‘no information may remain classified indefinitely.’
Obama declares that ‘no information may remain classified indefinitely.’
Yesterday, President Obama issued an executive order on classified national security information that declared that “No information may remain classified indefinitely.” The order is “part of a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch’s system for protecting classified national security information,” which includes overturning a rule put in place by Obama’s predecessor, President George W. Bush, that made it easier for documents to remain classified:
Moreover, Mr. Obama eliminated a rule put in place by former President George W. Bush in 2003 that allowed the leader of the intelligence community to veto decisions by an interagency panel to declassify information. Instead, spy agencies who object to such a decision will have to appeal to the president.
Steven Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, was cautiously optimistic about Obama’s move, saying that while it depended on the implementation, “there are some real innovations here” that represent “a major step forward” towards rolling back government secrecy. Obama’s establishment of new National Declassification Center at the National Archives is expected to speed the declassification of “more than 400 million pages of Cold War-era documents” that are currently backlogged.
Madden defends GOP’s hypocritical attacks: Obama’s in Hawaii, which ’seems like a foreign place.’
Madden defends GOP’s hypocritical attacks: Obama’s in Hawaii, which ’seems like a foreign place.’
On CNN this morning, host John Roberts asked former Romney spokesman Kevin Madden about the hypocritical “heat for this president from the Republicans” regarding the Obama administration’s response to the attempted Christmas day terrorist attack. Madden claimed that the two reasons Republicans were launching attacks were that Obama “has very little political capital” on terrorism and that he is “on vacation in Hawaii” at the moment. Madden added that “Hawaii to many Americans seems like a foreign place“:
MADDEN: President Obama right now has suffered very greatly in the last few months because of the fight over health care, and he has very little political capital right now. So Republicans feel it is in vogue to criticize this president.
And then lastly, you have to also remember the fact that the president being on vacation in Hawaii, it’s much different than being in Texas. Hawaii to many Americans seems like a foreign place. And I think those images, the optics, hurt President Obama very badly.
Madden backtracked in his criticism when both Roberts and guest James Carville ridiculed his comment by pointing out that Hawaii is not only a state, but Obama’s home state. “I absolutely agree he’s entitled to a vacation,” said Madden. “But to many Americans, Hawaii seems like this very tropical place, and the optics of many of these reporters reporting about the president’s response with surfers behind them is much different.” Watch it:
Cheney Joins Hypocritical Attacks On Obama’s ‘Low Key Response’ To Failed Terrorist Attack
Cheney Joins Hypocritical Attacks On Obama’s ‘Low Key Response’ To Failed Terrorist Attack
For the past few days, Republicans such as Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and former Bush adviser Karl Rove have been aggressively criticizing the Obama administration’s response to the failed terrorist attack on Christmas Day. “I’m disappointed it’s taken the president 72 hours to even address this issue,” said King on Monday. As ThinkProgress and others have noted, such attacks are supremely hypocritical considering that no Republicans complained when it took President Bush six days to comment on the similarly failed shoe bomber attack. But according to Politico, King and Hoekstra won’t concede that they’re holding Obama to a double standard:
The Democrats’ counterattack is aimed largely at two Republican congressmen who have been particularly critical of Obama, Reps. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) and Peter King (R-N.Y.). But neither GOP lawmaker will concede applying a double standard to Obama. [...]
Asked Tuesday about how Obama’s response differed from Bush’s, King said it was his “recollection” that senior Bush Administration officials such as Attorney General John Ashcroft did speak out about Reid’s case soon after he was arrested. However, POLITICO could not locate any public comment from Ashcroft before he held a press conference when Reid was indicted nearly a month later.
“My point was there was no word coming from anyone except a press handout,” King told POLITICO Tuesday. “It didn’t have to be the president. I’d have been fine if it were Eric Holder or for that matter [Homeland Security Secretary Janet] Napolitano….There should be a face for the administration. For the first 48 hours, nobody said a word.”
Though he pointed out Hoekstra and King’s hypocrisy, Politico’s Josh Gerstein claimed that “former Bush aides and advisers have sidestepped the issue or endorsed Obama’s approach.” But in a statement given to a different Politico reporter, former Vice President Dick Cheney harshly criticized Obama’s “low key response“:
As I’ve watched the events of the last few days it is clear once again that President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war. He seems to think if he has a low key response to an attempt to blow up an airliner and kill hundreds of people, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if he gives terrorists the rights of Americans, lets them lawyer up and reads them their Miranda rights, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if we bring the mastermind of 9/11 to New York, give him a lawyer and trial in civilian court, we won’t be at war.
Cheney’s claim that the Obama administration’s response to the attempted airline bombing is “trying to pretend we are not at war” is especially hypocritical because one of the Bush administration’s first public comments on the 2001 attempted shoe bombing specifically called it a “law enforcement” issue. At a press conference five days after the incident, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld brushed off questions about Richard Reid’s failed bombing by saying, “That’s a matter that’s in the hands of the law enforcement people and not the Department of Defense.” “And I don’t have anything I would want to add,” said Rumsfeld.
Rove Attacks Obama Response To Failed Terrorist Plot, Despite Bush’s Delayed Response In 2001
Rove Attacks Obama Response To Failed Terrorist Plot, Despite Bush’s Delayed Response In 2001
Yesterday on Hannity, former Bush White House adviser Karl Rove sharply criticized President Obama’s response to the failed terrorist attack on Christmas Day. In particular, Rove went after the fact that Obama issued his first public statement on the matter 72 hours after the event:
CARLSON: This President was not notified until three hours after this incident became known. Is that a long time? It seems like a long time.
ROVE: Look, they woke him up immediately to tell him he won the Nobel Prize but couldn’t bother to interrupt his vacation for three hours to tell him a terrorist tried to bring down a plane on Christmas Day. And the President waits 72 hours before we hear from him, and it’s over 72 hours from the time of the incident to the time that the President spoke today, and then the President said some things that are simply not true.
Watch it:
Rove made similar comments this morning again on Fox News, pointing out that it took Obama “72 hours after the event” to issue a statement from Hawaii, where the President is vacationing. This criticism rings hollow coming from Rove, a former top official in the Bush administration — which waited even longer to comment on a failed airline plot in 2001. As the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein notes:
On December 22, 2001, Richard Reid — known more infamously as the shoe bomber — failed in his attempt to blow up a Miami-bound jet using explosives hidden in his shoe. Coming less than four months after September 11, there already were deep concerns about a potential attack during the upcoming holiday break. Nevertheless, President Bush did not directly address the foiled plot for six days, according to an extensive review of newspaper records from that time period. And when he did, it was only in passing.
Two days after the incident on Dec. 24, the Boston Globe noted Bush’s silence: “White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said that President Bush continued to monitor the situation and receive updates at Camp David. Bush has not issued any statements about the incident.”
Conservatives have also been hammering the Obama administration for treating the Christmas Day plot as a law enforcement issue and for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s remarks that the “system, once the incident occurred, the system worked.” However, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also brushed aside questions about the shoe bomber by saying the matter was “in the hands of the law enforcement people,” and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft made comments similar to those of Napolitano.
Since the Christmas Day events, Obama has been consulting with his top advisers and administration officials have been actively speaking with press, including appearing on the Sunday public affairs shows. Today, Obama again made public comments on the incident while in Hawaii, stating, “But what already is apparent is that there was a mix of human and systemic failures that contributed to this potential catastrophic breach of security. We need to learn from this episode and act quickly to fix the flaws in our system, because our security is at stake and lives are at stake.”
Governor Of Katrina-Ravaged Louisiana Tries To Block Climate Change Regulation
Governor Of Katrina-Ravaged Louisiana Tries To Block Climate Change Regulation
Even as the Senate argues whether to pass clean-energy legislation, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finally moving to regulate global warming pollution. One of the leading opponents to the EPA’s proposed regulations, slated to go into effect in March, 2010, is Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal (R-LA). On Monday, Jindal “and the secretaries of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources and Louisiana Economic Development filed objections with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson,” claiming the Supreme-Court-mandated standards “will certainly have profound negative economic impacts“:
There is no doubt this change will certainly have profound negative economic impacts on the state of Louisiana, as well as the entire country.
In reality, regulations to limit greenhouse gases would reward business investment in labor instead of pollution, in new technology and development instead of reliance on 19th-century fuel sources. An analysis by the Center for American Progress and the Political Economy Research Institute found that strong regulation and standards would create billions in revenue and tens of thousands of new jobs:
Louisiana could see a net increase of about $2.2 billion in investment revenue and 29,000 jobs based on its share of a total of $150 billion in clean-energy investments annually across the country. This is even after assuming a reduction in fossil fuel spending equivalent to the increase in clean-energy investments.
Whereas regulation of pollution will likely benefit Louisiana’s economy, there is actually “no doubt” that unmitigated climate change “will certainly have profound negative economic impacts” on the state of Louisiana. “The letters say nothing about the cost of inaction,” the New Orleans Times-Picayune notes, “as Louisiana’s coastline is ravaged by rising sea levels, jeopardizing business investment in the state’s most populated areas”:
In 2005, the global-warming-fueled Hurricane Katrina devastated Jindal’s state, costing this nation $80 billion, killing thousands, and displacing a million people. Katrina and Rita caused $1.6 billion in agriculture damage in Louisiana alone.
In 2008, Hurricane Gustav “was the largest agricultural disaster in Louisiana history,” according to Jindal, as he announced the distribution of $54.8 million in federal taxpayer aid this month.
In 2009, this summer’s “record-setting heat wave and simultaneous dry spell,” followed by extreme “late-season rains,” buckled roads and further damaged crops, driving even more farmers into bankruptcy.
According to a recent analysis published in Nature, “an additional 2 degrees of global warming could commit the planet to 6 to 9 meters (20 to 30 feet) of long-term sea level rise,” which would “permanently submerge New Orleans and other parts of southern Louisiana.”
Hoekstra tries to raise money off failed terrorist attack.
Hoekstra tries to raise money off failed terrorist attack.
Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), the ranking member on the House intelligence committee and a candidate for governor of Michigan, is continuing his efforts to score political points off the attempted Christmas day airline bombing. In a fundraising letter acquired by the Grand Rapids Press, Hoekstra writes, “Barack Obama’s policies may impress the ‘Blame America First’ crowd at home and his thousands of fans overseas, but they sure don’t do anything to protect our families in Michigan or the rest of America.” To justify this attack of treasonous presidential behavior, Hoekstra claimed Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano said “the system worked”:
They just don’t get it. The system didn’t “work” here. Far from it! It is insulting that The Obama administration would make such a claim, but then again, these are the same weak-kneed liberals who have recently tried to bring Guantanamo Bay terrorists right here to Michigan!
In fact, Napolitano said that “the system” worked “once the incident occurred” — referring only to the post-incident response — a comment similar to ones made by the Bush administration. She has since made clear that the system of preventing such attacks “did not work.” “If you agree that we need a Governor who will stand up the Obama/Pelosi efforts to weaken our security,” Hoekstra writes, “please make a most generous contribution of $25, $50, $100 or even $250 to my campaign.”
Hey congressman! The guy who tried to blow up Northwest Flight 253? He is in prison — right there in Michigan! He has been! For days! Has Michigan exploded yet? No?
Most frequent ‘Meet the Press’ guest in 2009: Newt Gingrich.
Most frequent ‘Meet the Press’ guest in 2009: Newt Gingrich.
On Sunday, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich was on NBC’s “Meet the Press” where he said he suspected that “every Republican running in ‘10 and again in ‘12 will run on an absolute pledge to repeal” the health care reform legislation. The Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen points out that Gingrich has been the show’s most frequent guest in the past year:
[Sunday]was Gingrich’s fifth appearance on “MTP” just this year. In fact, Newt Gingrich, despite not having held any position in government for over a decade, was the single most frequent guest on “Meet the Press” in 2009 of any political figure in the United States. Literally.
From March to December, Gingrich appeared on “MTP,” on average, every other month. No one else in American politics was on the show this often. [...]
Keep in mind, “Meet the Press” didn’t have the actual Speaker of the House on at all this year. It also featured zero appearances from all of the other living former House Speakers (Hastert, Wright, Foley) combined.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has also appeared on more than a dozen Sunday talk shows this year even though he “is not president, he chairs no Senate committees, he represents two percent of the U.S. population, he lacks a strong constituency even among his own party.”
Health Care Industry Coordinating Effort To Opt States Out Of Health Care Reform
Health Care Industry Coordinating Effort To Opt States Out Of Health Care Reform
As Congress prepares to pass the final health care reform legislation early next year, health care lobbyists are mobilizing legislatures in approximately 14 states to ratify constitutional amendments that would repeal all or parts of the new measure. “The states where the amendment has been introduced are also places where the health care industry has spent heavily on political contributions,” the New York Times notes:
Over the last six years, health care interests have spent $394 million on contributions in states around the country; about $73 million of that went to those 14 states. Of that, health insurance companies spent $18.2 million.
Overall, at least 21 states have indicated a desire to opt out of federal health care reform or block fundamental features of the reform bill, including mandatory health coverage. While Arizona, is the only state legislature to place an opt-out measure on the 2010 ballot, a significant number of gubernatorial and state legislature candidates across the country have also said that they are strongly “leaning towards” opting out of reform.
Lawmakers in Wyoming, New Mexico, Montana, Kansas, Texas, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Arizona, Alabama, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, West Virginia, Louisiana, Alaska, Minnesota, North Dakota, Georgia Illinois and Florida have introduced ballot measures to protect their states from reform legislation or promised to spearhead such efforts if reform is enacted.
While it’s unlikely that conservatives and their health care industry allies could repeal health care reform, (they are more likely to water-down certain elements of reform), a successful challenge would devastate the populations suffering from the most pronounced health care crisis. A back-of-the envelope analysis conducted by ThinkProgress suggests that on average, the repealing states have experienced very substantial premium increases, high rates of uninsurance and annual percent growth in health care expenditures and higher insurance market concentration:
- 42% (9 of 21): have an uninsurance rate higher than the national average of 15.4%.
- 62% (13 of 21): have an average annual percent growth in health care expenditures that his higher than the national average of 6.7%.- 62% (13 of 21): experienced premium increases of more than 75% between 2000 and 2007.
- 90% (19 of 21): are dominated by two insurers that control more than 50% of the health insurance market.
The effort to repeal health care reform “began at the conservative Goldwater Institute in Arizona” and was latter “picked up by the American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC], a business-friendly conservative group that coordinates activity among statehouses.” As the New York Times points out, “five of the 24 members of its ‘free enterprise board’ are executives of drug companies and its health care ‘task force’ is overseen in part by a four-member panel composed of government-relations officials for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association of insurers, the medical company Johnson & Johnson and the drug makers Bayer and Hoffmann-La Roche.”
Earlier this month, Lee Fang reported that Joan Gardner, executive director of state services with the BCBS Association’s Office of Policy and Representation and a member of ALEC’s ‘task force’ “played a pivotal role in crafting this anti-health reform states’ rights initiative.”
Gingrich: ‘It is time to go to profiling of dangerous people.’
Gingrich: ‘It is time to go to profiling of dangerous people.’
Yesterday on Twitter, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich called for more profiling in light of the failed terrorist attack on Christmas Day:
Gingrich then added another tweet, writing, “We need a new policy of systematically going after terrorists that involves explicit profiling and explicit discrimination for behavior.” He also promised more details on an “aggressive strategy” in his next newsletter. As ThinkProgress reported this week, the right wing has used the failed airline bombing to renew its call for ethnic profiling — even though it’s been proven to be ineffective. Radio host Mike Gallagher recently said, “There should be a separate line to scrutinize anybody with the name Abdul or Ahmed or Mohammed,” and Rep. Peter King (R-NY) raised the idea of profiling people based on their religions.
Continuing his war on labor, DeMint blocks nominated TSA chief.
Continuing his war on labor, DeMint blocks nominated TSA chief.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC); Erroll Southers
In the aftermath of the attempted Christmas airplane bombing, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) is unrepentant about his hold on President Obama’s nomination for the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the division of the Department of Homeland Security that handles airport security. Obama nominated Erroll Southers — a former FBI special agent, the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department assistant chief for homeland security and intelligence, and the associate director of the University of Southern California’s Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events — to run TSA in September. Southers’ nomination was approved by two Senate committees, but DeMint has placed a hold on Southers “in an effort to prevent TSA workers from joining a labor union“:
Instead, the post remains vacant because Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has held up President Obama’s nominee in an effort to prevent TSA workers from joining a labor union. DeMint, in a statement, said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s alleged attempted attack in Detroit “is a perfect example of why the Obama administration should not unionize the TSA.”
DeMint claims unionization of TSA workers would give “union bosses” the power “to veto or delay future security improvements at our airports.”
Officials actually concerned with passenger safety disagree with DeMint’s hold. “Friday’s terrorist attack on U.S. aviation makes it all the more imperative,” Marshall McClain, the president of the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Association, said, “that there be no further delays in filling this crucial position.”
Obama’s message to Iranian protesters: History is on your side.
Obama’s message to Iranian protesters: History is on your side.
Over the past week, tens of thousands of Iranians in cities all over the country have been demonstrating against their government in favor of democracy. Protests erupted last week at funeral services for the dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali al-Montazeri, who died December 19, and continued to gather force into the sacred month of Muharram, during which Shia Muslims mourn the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. The Iranian government has responded to these demonstrations with increasing violence — even on the holy day of Ashura, the culmination of the Muharram observances. The demonstrators have refused to be cowed, and the protests have continued to grow into what Iran expert Meir Javedanfar has called “an Iranian intifada.” Speaking from Hawaii earlier today, President Obama offered the following comments in support of Iran’s protesters:
The United States joins with the international community in strongly condemning the violent and unjust suppression of innocent Iranian citizens, which has apparently resulted in tensions, injuries and even death. For months, the Iranian people have sought nothing more than to exercise their universal rights. Each time they have done so, they have been met with iron fist of brutality, even on solemn occasions and holy days. And each time that has happened, the world has watched with deep admiration for the courage and the conviction of the Iranian people, who are part of Iran’s great and enduring civilization.
What’s taking place in Iran is not about the United States or any other country. It’s about the Iranian people and their aspirations for justice, and a better life for themselves. And the decision of Iran’s leaders to govern through fear and tyranny will not succeed in making those aspirations go away. As I said in Oslo, it’s telling when governments fear the aspirations of their own people more than the power of any other nation. Along with all free nations, the United States stands with those who seek their universal rights. We call upon the Iranian government to abide by the international obligations that it has to respect the rights of its own people. We call for the immediate release of all who have been unjustly detained within Iran. We will continue to bear witness to the extraordinary events that are taking place there. And I am confident that history will be on the side of those who seek justice.
There were scattered reports of police officers surrendering, or refusing to fight. Several videos posted online show officers holding up their helmets and walking away from the melee, as protesters pat them on the back in appreciation. In one photograph, a police officer can be seen holding his arms up and wearing a bright green headband, the signature color of the opposition movement.
Gingrich: Republicans ‘Will Run On An Absolute Pledge To Repeal This Bill’
Gingrich: Republicans ‘Will Run On An Absolute Pledge To Repeal This Bill’
Yesterday, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refused to acknowledge that Republicans would campaign in future elections on a platform of repealing health reform, but former House Speaker Newt Gingrich predicted that Republicans would exploit the bill’s late implementation date to “run on an absolute pledge to repeal the bill“:
I suspect every Republican running in ‘10 and again in ‘12 will run on an absolute pledge to repeal this bill. The bill–most of the bill does not go into effect until ‘13 or ‘14, except on the tax increase side; and therefore, I think there won’t be any great constituency for it. And I think it’ll be a major campaign theme.
Watch it:
While the exchanges don’t go into effect until 2014, the Senate health care bill spends approximately $10 billion between 2011 and 2014 on interim benefits. The bill immediately prohibits insurers from rescinding coverage, imposing life-time or annual limits or denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. Applicants who are unable to find insurance in the individual market, can purchase catastrophic coverage and young adults can stay on their parents’ policies until their 27th birthday. Small businesses that provide health coverage will also be eligible for tax credits beginning in 2010.
The bill requires health insurers to spend 80 to 85 percent of all premium dollars on medical care and reduces the size of the coverage gap in Medicare Part D “by $500 in the first year.” The bill also guarantees “50 percent price discounts on brand-name drugs and biologics purchased by low and middle-income beneficiaries in the coverage gap.”
These benefits could also improve as the Senate bill moves into conference. Several House progressives have pledged to push the conference committee to move up the implementation date of the exchanges in the final bill and front load more benefits into the interim period of the final legislation.
Republicans Who Opposed The Stimulus Continue To Pan It As A ‘Failure,’ While Also Taking Credit For Its Success
Republicans Who Opposed The Stimulus Continue To Pan It As A ‘Failure,’ While Also Taking Credit For Its Success
Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY)
In the past month, several more GOP lawmakers went home to their district to praise and claim credit for successful stimulus programs:
– Earlier this month, Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) called the stimulus a “large-scale failure,” but last week hailed a stimulus program in Frankford, Missouri as “critical.” Referring to a $330,000 loan and $313,900 grant authorized by the stimulus, Luetkemeyer said, “Clearly, the 328 residents of Frankford will benefit from this grant and I appreciate the USDA’s willingness to help this community.” In September, Luetkemeyer requested $100 million from the stimulus for a road project in Missouri.
– On his campaign website, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) features his opposition to the “pork-filled” stimulus. However, on his congressional website, McCaul features a story from earlier this month about a largely stimulus-funded project to expand Highway 36 in Texas. In the story, he is thanked for “taking this project to the next phase of reality.” Noting its importance, McCaul says the highway expansion will “cut down on fatal crashes and ensure commerce can continue to move efficiently through Austin County and the rest of this important region.”
– On December 16th, Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY) sent out a press release hailing $1,044,140 in stimulus money Carroll County school system, while crediting himself for securing the money. “I am pleased that our office was able to assist them in obtaining these funds,” noted Davis in the release. On the same day, Davis blasted a separate release claiming that the stimulus had “failed.”
Of course, Luetkemeyer, McCaul, and Davis voted against the stimulus. Congressional Republican leadership, who helped corral partisan opposition to the Recovery Act, are also shamelessly attacking the stimulus while requesting stimulus money. As ThinkProgress has reported, House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) recently hosted a job fair filled with jobs fueled by the stimulus, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been taking credit for stimulus projects in his home state.
Right Wing Renews Calls For Profiling: ‘There Should Be A Separate Line To Scrutinize Anybody With The Name Abdul’
Right Wing Renews Calls For Profiling: ‘There Should Be A Separate Line To Scrutinize Anybody With The Name Abdul’
The right wing’s predictable policy prescription in the aftermath of any terror incident is to impose greater ethnic profiling of Muslims. For instance, following the Ft. Hood shooting, Sarah Palin said, “profile away.” After six imams were removed from a plane in Minnesota in 2006, Ann Coulter justified profiling Muslims by arguing that it’s just like “profiling the Klan.” That same year, after British authorities revealed a terrorist plot to blow up planes headed to the U.S., right-wing radio host Mike Gallagher said, “It’s time to have a Muslims check-point line” at airports.
They’re at it again. In the wake of the failed terrorist attempt aboard a Northwest airlines flight on Christmas Day, the right wing is renewing its pleas for more profiling of Muslims:
Radio host Mike Gallagher: “There should be a separate line to scrutinize anybody with the name Abdul or Ahmed or Mohammed.” (Note: Those are some of the most common names in the world.)
Rep. Peter King (R-NY): “100 percent of the Islamic terrorists are Muslim, and that is our main enemy today. So why we should not be profiling people because of their religion?”
Terrorism pundit Steven Emerson: “Remember, there have been so many complaints about quote, profiling, by the quote, Islamic civil rights groups, that they stopped basically profiling. And that basically led to not putting this guy onto the terrorist watch list.“
Unsurprisingly, Fox News has served as the platform for right-wing voices calling for more profiling. Watch a compilation:
Broad-based ethnic profiling is counterproductive for a host of reasons. It creates a false sense of security and causes law enforcement resources to be wasted in chasing the wrong targets. Terrorists come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. John Walker Lindh was white, while Richard Reid was Jamaican and British. As the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights has reported:
Terrorism profiling is a crude substitute for behavior-based enforcement. It violates core American values, including the constitutional guarantee of equal protection. It also hinders anti-terrorism efforts because it alienates people and communities that are critical to the success of the anti-terrorism effort.
Non-specific profiling of certain religions or races amounts to a witch-hunt against a class of people, creating the perception among the larger society that those individuals containing certain suspect features (skin color, foreign-sounding names, foreign-language skills, etc) are to be feared.
Yesterday, two Middle Eastern men were pulled off a flight heading to Phoenix because passengers reported they were engaging in suspicious behavior. The men were speaking in a Middle Eastern language. And on a Detroit-bound flight yesterday, a Nigerian businessman was taken off an airplane because passengers became suspicious that he was lingering in the bathroom for too long. The FBI confirmed that the individual’s behavior was due to a legitimate illness.
Asked if GOP should campaign on repealing health reform, Mitch McConnell refuses to answer.
Asked if GOP should campaign on repealing health reform, Mitch McConnell refuses to answer.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has marshaled his party to not only oppose health reform in the Senate, but also to obstruct the legislative process all along the way in an attempt to kill the bill. Senate Republicans have delayed legislative proceedings, politicized and filibustered the Defense appropriations bill, and have lied consistently about health reform legislation. But this morning on ABC’s This Week, McConnell was asked repeatedly if he would campaign in future elections on a platform of repealing health reform, and place repealing the legislation at the top of his agenda. McConnell refused to answer, instead saying that he would merely attack the legislation:
TAPPER: Do you think that Republicans running for Senate in 2010 should run on a platform of vowing to repeal the healthcare reform bill should it become law and will that be one of your first items should you regain control of the Senate, repealing what you guys call Obamacare?
MCCONNELL: Well certainly it’s a big problem for them. [...]
TAPPER: Respectfully sir, you didn’t answer my question which is, will Republicans campaign on a platform of repealing the health care reform measure and will that be one of the first items in your agenda should you become the new Senate Majority Leader after the 2010 elections?
MCCONNELL: Well, I’m sorry I thought I did answer your question. It’s no question that this bill, if it were to become law, and frankly even if it doesn’t become law, will be a big, if not central issue, not only in the 2010 elections, but in the 2012 elections.
TAPPER: Alright, well I’ll take that as a yes they should campaign on repealing Obamacare.
Watch it:
Later in the program, during the round table, host Jake Tapper noted that he “couldnt really get McConnell to say Republicans should campaign on repealing Obamacare.” While McConnell feels confident lying about the legislation to scare the public into voting in more Republicans, he won’t commit to repealing it. His refusal illustrates the insincerity of his attacks, including the unfounded smear that health reform “may cost you your life.”
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