Michele Bachmann accuses the media of treason, but means no disrespect

That's okay. We've long accused Bachmann of being several fries short of a Happy Meal, and we mean no disrespect to Happy Meals. Read More......

Malkin, Limbaugh, Beck attack 11 year old over health care. 11 year old unfazed.

Jed Lewison points us to a report on the latest anti-health care offensive from the right wing noise machine: Malkin, Limbaugh and Beck are attacking an 11 year old kid whose mother died:

McClatchy's Les Blumenthal reports on the latest line of attack against health care reform coming from right-wing media:

State of the health care debate: Talk radio attacks an 11-year old

WASHINGTON — Conservative talk show hosts and columnists have ridiculed an 11-year-old Washington state boy's account of his mother's death as a "sob story" exploited by the White House and congressional Democrats like a "kiddie shield" to defend their health care legislation.

Marcelas Owens, whose mother got sick, lost her job, lost her health insurance and died, said Thursday he's taking the attacks from Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin in stride.

"My mother always taught me they can have their own opinion but that doesn't mean they are right," Owens, who lives in Seattle, said in an interview.

There's this from Malkin:

I would say this to Marcelas Owens: 'Well, your mom would still have died, because Obamacare doesn't kick in until 2014.'

Classy, huh? Or as Jed put it:

That's pretty nasty stuff...and to target it at an eleven-year-old child? These guys -- Limbaugh, Beck, and Malkin -- truly do take the 'c' and the 'l' out of "class." They really are running on empty.

Read More......

Where is Lt. Dan Choi?

If I were working at the White House, I would be doing whatever I could to make this go away. Because this is getting very strange. Read More......

Sad loss for music lovers - Alex Chilton died

Everyone knows and loves this classic from his days in the Box Tops. Read More......

Subpoenas issued to NRSC in case of Senator John Ensign

It's a mystery why John Ensign is still serving in the Senate.

He's the GOP's problem. And, today, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the political arm of Mitch McConnell's GOP caucus, got subpoenaed in the Ensign case:

A federal grand jury has issued subpoenas to a Republican campaign committee and companies in Nevada in a probe of Sen. John Ensign, who has been under scrutiny for his efforts to find lobbying work for the husband of his former mistress.

One subpoena went to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which was formerly chaired by Ensign, a Nevada Republican, committee spokesman Brian Walsh said Thursday.

Sean Cairncross, general counsel for the group that is the campaign committee for Republican Senate candidates, said the committee has responded appropriately to questions concerning matters related to the timeframe of the 2008 election campaign.

Glad to see Ensign has implicated all of his GOP Senate colleagues in this tawdry scandal involving an extramarital affair with a staffer, payoffs to said staffer of $96,000 from his parents and the possibility of broken ethics laws. Read More......

Photos: Lt. Dan Choi handcuffs self to White House fence to protest DADT

UPDATE @ 3:51 PM: Just posted video of CNN's coverage at AMERICAblog Gay. Rick Sanchez said, "it's a difficult story to watch and certainly a very emotional one."



Lt Dan Choi and Capt James Pietrangelo lead marchers from DC's Freedom Plaza to White House, where Dan and James will handcuff themselves to the White House fence and stay there for almost a good hour.

I was there, chronicled Dan from this morning's preparation to his unexpected speech at the HRC rally (Joe Solmonese told him he couldn't speak, Dan got Kathy Griffin to invite him on stage), to his march to the White House fence where he and Capt. James Pietrangelo (who was kicked out in 2004 for being gay) handcuffed themselves to the White House gate with hundreds of supporters chanting. It was an amazing scene. Griffin told Choi she'd march with him the White House, then she refused to go when he found her after rally. Solmonese reportedly gave Choi the thumbs up when Choi asked him if he'd march to the White House - Solmonese too was nowhere to be scene, and refused to go when Choi approached him after the HRC rally.



Robin McGeehee, cofounder of GetEqual.org and co-organizer of the gay march on Washington last fall, organized today's event along with Dan Choi and James and others. In this photo Robin is being arrested in front of the White House - Dan and James have already handcuffed themselves to the White House fence behind her. This is part of a coordinated series of civil disobedience taking place today on DADT and ENDA (more on ENDA to happen momentarily), and at the same time the blogs are having a blogswarm about ENDA too.



Dan speaks to the crowd while handcuffed.



Dan speaks shortly before the handcuffing.



A large crowded watched from across the street - we were moved back - while Dan and James continue to be handcuffed to the fence for a long time.



And finally, Dan Choi watches Kathy Griffin talk before inviting him on stage. Read More......

BREAKING: DADT activists handcuff themselves to fence at White House

John and I are both on the scene at the White House.

Lt. Dan Choi and Capt. Jim Pietrangelo have handcuffed themselves to the fence in front of the White House to protest Obama's failure to act on the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

I'll be updating at AMERICAblog Gay.
Read More......

Even government regulators received millions in bonus money before crash

Apparently ignoring risky behavior and turning a blind eye to problems was worth $19 million from the Bush administration. Sheesh. It's no wonder the Republicans don't want to reform Wall Street. They wanted lax regulation and got it thanks to bonuses for everyone who let Wall Street do whatever Wall Street wanted to do. Tell me again why the Democrats are too weak to take on this fight? Besides Wall Street and the teabaggers, who is against reform? Unbelievable.

Banks weren't the only ones giving big bonuses in the boom years before the worst financial crisis in generations. The government also was handing out millions of dollars to bank regulators, rewarding "superior" work even as an avalanche of risky mortgages helped create the meltdown.

The payments, detailed in payroll data released to The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, are the latest evidence of the government's false sense of security during the go-go days of the financial boom. Just as bank executives got bonuses despite taking on dangerous amounts of risk, regulators got taxpayer-funded bonuses despite missing or ignoring signs that the system was on the verge of a meltdown.

The bonuses were part of a reward program little known outside the government. Some government regulators got tens of thousands of dollars in perks, boosting their salaries by almost 25 percent. Often, though, rewards amounted to just a few hundred dollars for employees who came up with good ideas.

Read More......

Join the blog swarm for ENDA today: Call Speaker Pelosi

Today, AMERICAblog joined a blog swarm for ENDA along with Towleroad, Pam's House Blend, Joe My God, Michelangelo Signorile, David Mixner, GoodAsYou.org, Daily Kos, Open Left, Daily Gotham, Culture Kitchen,Taylor Marsh, PageOneQ, Dan Savage, and others.

A full explanation and the details, which were explained in great detail by Jillian Wise at Bilerico, are at AMERICAblog Gay.

Here's the action we need today:

Please call Speaker Nancy Pelosi at 202-225-4965. Ask that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, HR 3017, move to a vote.

Please be polite, but firm.

After you call, please tell us how the call went by clicking here. If you get a busy signal or hang up, let us know that too.

This is a fight for equality. And, we have to fight for it.

Help us out. Call the Speaker. Then, don't forget to let us know how the call went by clicking here.

We'll have an update later today. Read More......

Initial report is that health care bill will cut deficit by $100 billion

We'll be hearing more about this as the day goes on, but the early report on the CBO numbers shows a decline in the deficit:

U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Thursday that proposed final healthcare legislation would cut the U.S. deficit by more than $100 billion over the first 10 years.

Hoyer told reporters that the Congressional Budget Office said the sweeping healthcare overhaul would cut the deficit by more than $1 trillion over the subsequent decade. The CBO is expected to release its official estimate of the cost of the Democratic-written legislation on Thursday.

Read More......

It's 'not fun' for poor Bart Stupak these days. People are being mean.

Poor Bart Stupak. He put himself into the middle of one of the biggest legislative battles in a long time. He chose to do the bidding of the Catholic Bishops on health care. And, it's really, really been rough on him:

Leading a revolt against President Barack Obama’s healthcare legislation over abortion has been a “living hell” for Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.).

The telephone lines in his Washington and district offices have been “jammed” and he’s gotten more than 1,500 faxes and countless e-mails — most of which he says don’t come from his constituents.

The fight has taken a toll on his wife, who has disconnected the phone in their home to avoid harassment.

“All the phones are unplugged at our house — tired of the obscene calls and threats. She won’t watch TV,” Stupak said during an hourlong interview with The Hill in his Rayburn office. “People saying they’re going to spit on you and all this. That’s just not fun.”

Poor Bart. Not fun? People are being mean? He's taking rights away from women and didn't expect outrage?

I guess his pals at the Catholic Bishops Conference are of little use these days. They're a little preoccupied these days with all the attention on the Pope's involvement in child sex abuse scandal.

I love when politicians whine about people contacting them. They've got such rough lives. Many members of Congress really do get annoyed when people weigh in. They'd really rather just deal with lobbyists.

And, I always get a kick out of politicians who say they only want to hear from constituents -- except when fundraising is involved. Read More......

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Looks like the CBO will release the score of the health care bill this morning. That's what everyone is waiting for. The Speaker has promised that there would be 72 hours for the American people to review what's in the legislation meaning the House vote won't happen until Sunday at the earliest. The President leaves for Asia on Sunday. The final outcome is still uncertain as indicated by David Dayen's latest whip count.

The Senate Armed Services Committee is holding another hearing on Don't Ask, Don't Tell at 9:45 a.m. Today, the Committee will hear from two witnesses who were discharged because of DADT: Michael D. Almy, who served in the Air Force and Jenny L. Kopfstein who served in the Navy. They are both veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The opposition witness, John Sheehan, retired from U.S. Marine Corps 13 years ago. As I wrote last week:

13 years ago was a lifetime ago on the issue of DADT and most other LGBT-related issues. There's clearly a generational divide. And, my guess is that most of this next generation could care less. But, the old guys are still out there making noise.

I'm sure some other things will pop up today...something always does.... Read More......

Ireland, Germany call for Catholic Church sexual abuse inquiries

The Vatican isn't what it was a few centuries ago or even fifty years ago. The sexual abuse problem has been hidden for years including the bombshell that Cardinal Brady in Ireland attended meetings where 10 year old boys were forced to sign a vow of silence about abuse. Now that the Pope himself is directly linked to a scandal it's going to be difficult to avoid taking this problem seriously. To date though, the Catholic officials tied to the scandals have resisted all attempts to be forced out. This has to change.

The crisis gripping the Catholic church deepened today, with calls for national inquiries to be held in Germany and Ireland to fully disclose the detail and extent of sexual abuse by priests.

With hundreds of allegations surfacing in Europe since the start of the year, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said the scandal of abuse in the country's churches and schools posed a "major challenge" that could be resolved only through a full and frank inquiry into all cases.

In Ireland, which has already seen far-reaching investigations into the abuse, the Archbishop of Dublin said a national inquiry into historic claims may be the only way to fully restore confidence in the church.

Read More......

Cultural attack or brutal honesty?

Supporting the family of any president is going to be expensive but in this case, the number is considerably higher than in the past. The new South African president has three wives and twenty children. The estimated budget for supporting the family of the new president is over $2 million which is almost three times the budget of the last family. Most costs are going to be much less in South Africa where the average household income is around $10,000 so these costs are noticeably high. Surely the issue is also an attempt by others to highlight the issue of polygamy as well as his tribe (Zulu) which accepts polygamy.

There was some friction a few weeks ago when Zuma visited the UK and he fought back against the UK press who repeatedly attacked his culture, in his opinion. At the time, I had noticed that even the normal press on left had one article about Zuma that somehow included a photo of him in tribal clothing though the article was about his visit to the UK. Seemed like a stretch and a silly attempt to diminish his position. I take issue with Zuma's history, his recent support for Mugabe and polygamy but am tiring of the cultural attacks. Does a large family really encourage corruption? That hasn't stopped individuals or leaders with smaller families, has it?

Is it fair to criticize such expenses or is it just another cheap shot against a different culture? The Guardian:

A bitter row has erupted in South Africa after it emerged that taxpayers are spending more than 15.5m rand (£1.3m) a year to support President Jacob Zuma's three wives and some of his 20 children.

The figure, almost double the presidential spousal budget a year ago, was condemned as "exorbitant" by the opposition leader, Helen Zille, who claimed the size of Zuma's family "makes corruption almost inevitable".

This prompted a sharp riposte from the governing African National Congress, which accused Zille, who is white, of "cultural intolerance". Zuma, 68, is a member of the Zulu tribe, in which polygamy is a traditional practice.

Read More......