Did you hear the news? FOX is GOP propaganda organ

From Salon:

A few months ago, a typical Washington mini-scandal erupted after Fox News reported that the White House was sending e-mail to people who never signed up to receive it. Now it looks like a conservative Republican could soon be doing the same thing. Just how long will it take Fox to get around to noticing?

On Rep. Michele Bachmann's Web site, there's a link to sign up for "Bachmann Bulletin," her newsletter. The Minnesota Republican put a link on Twitter Wednesday asking people to go there or text "MN6" to 467468 in order to subscribe.

That had some Democrats wondering if Bachmann wasn't effectively going to be spamming people soon. All you have to do to sign up is put in an e-mail address and a name; there's no requirement that you confirm the subscription before receiving messages. I signed up Salon's Alex Koppelman and our editor Mark Schone before adding myself to the list, as well. No message of any kind seems to have shown up to any of us alerting us that we were subscribed.

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AIDS treatment "breakthrough" not effective

Damn. There was initially a great deal of hope that this was a serious breakthrough in treatment. We will have to wait a bit longer and keep our fingers crossed for the next development.

The full results, presented at the Aids vaccine conference in Paris and published immediately online by the New England Journal of Medicine reveal that:

• The vaccine did not protect those at high risk of HIV infection, such as sex workers and intravenous drug users.

• The protective effect was greatest in the first 12 months and then seemed to diminish.

• When those who did not get all six vaccine shots were taken out of the analysis, the positive result was statistically insignificant.

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FOX's Glenn Beck supported Bush White House attacks on NBC

As Jed Lewison at Daily Kos notes:

Hey, you know how Glenn Beck thinks Barack Obama is some evil Kenyan Communist dictator because his senior aides have dared point out the obvious fact that Fox isn't really a news network?

Funny thing is that when the Bush White House was busy attacking NBC News for "blurring the lines" between commentary and news, Beck was right there with them, cheering on his good buddy Ed Gillespie, who was W's Counselor to the President.

Jed, of course, has the tape of Beck supporting the Bush White House's criticism of NBC. Read More......

Obama ignoring Volcker's calls to reform banks

For now, Obama continues to side with the Wall Street-friendly Summers and Geithner. With bank profits and bonuses likely to remain high thanks to the same old risky strategies, this issue is not going to sit well with voters next year. Siding with what Wall Street wants (and promotes with lobbyist cash) is as risky as their investments. The bailout of the banks has never been popular with voters and even now the TARP watchdog is warning on the failure to properly oversee the process and explain it to the public. Without a radical departure from the present policies, Democrats will likely pay dearly at the polls. Looking at how much stomach Obama has for radical change, it's easy to see where this is all going. It's hard to argue against Volcker's logic.

Mr. Volcker’s proposal would roll back the nation’s commercial banks to an earlier era, when they were restricted to commercial banking and prohibited from engaging in risky Wall Street activities.

The Obama team, in contrast, would let the giants survive, but would regulate them extensively, so they could not get themselves and the nation into trouble again. While the administration’s proposal languishes, giants like Goldman Sachs have re-engaged in old trading practices, once again earning big profits and planning big bonuses.

Mr. Volcker argues that regulation by itself will not work. Sooner or later, the giants, in pursuit of profits, will get into trouble. The administration should accept this and shield commercial banking from Wall Street’s wild ways.

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Rape is now a pre-existing condition

Seriously.

Turner had let the men buy her drinks at a bar in Fort Lauderdale. The next thing she knew, she said, she was lying on a roadside with cuts and bruises that indicated she had been raped. She never developed an HIV infection. But months later, when she lost her health insurance and sought new coverage, she ran into a problem.

Turner, 45, who used to be a health insurance underwriter herself, said the insurance companies examined her health records. Even after she explained the assault, the insurers would not sell her a policy because the HIV medication raised too many health questions. They told her they might reconsider in three or more years if she could prove that she was still AIDS-free.

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Alan Grayson's next move: NamesoftheDead.com

Brilliant, and gutsy too:

The congressman who said GOP health care plans were for people to "die quickly" is ready to name names. Of dead people.

In a speech on the House floor this afternoon, Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., announced a new Website --www.namesofthedead.com -- for people to share stories of loved ones who died because of inadequate health insurance.

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Limbaugh tells NYT reporter to kill himself

Yet somehow the NFL found him controversial.

It's no wonder the Secret Service is overwhelmed by death threats against the President. Just look at the hate that's been coming out of conservatives over the past year, via Media Matters:

- Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS) said, "We hunt liberal, tree-hugging Democrats, although it's a waste of good ammunition."
- During a GOP event at a gun range, South Florida Republican Robert Lowry fired at a target with the initials of his opponent, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, written on it.
- Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) would "bludgeon" blue dogs "to death" to get their votes for health care reform.
- A columnist for Newsmax, which has rented its email list to the Republican National Committee, promoted the possibility of a military coup against President Obama.
- Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) told supporters, "We're almost reaching a revolution in this country."
- After a man brought an assault rifle to an Obama event, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) said people "should" bring guns to public meetings.
- Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) joked about Democratic members who "almost got lynched" at town hall meetings.
- At an anti-health care reform event, protestors hung an effigy of Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD)
- Rep. Michele Bachmann said conservatives need to "slit our wrists, become blood brothers" to make sure health care reform doesn't pass.
- Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's (R-TX) former press secretary wrote a column favorably comparing the Tea Parties to "Project Mayhem" -- a fictional terrorist organization in the movie Fight Club that blew up banks.
- Rep. Michele Bachmann said she wanted the American people "armed and dangerous" to fight cap-and-trade legislation.

And let's not forget that Glenn Beck talked about poisoning Speaker Pelosi, Sarah Palin had her followers so worked up during the election that one yelled "Kill him!" (and Palin did nothing in response), or the sign at the Teabagger march in DC talking about how "next time we bring our guns." Read More......

Seminal: Did the White House make a secret deal to kill the public option?

Scarecrow at the Seminal echoes the point I made earlier this morning - we're missing something, in terms of why the White House is being so wishy-washy on the public option, even after the latest polls are wildly in favor of the public option, even though a robust public option actually saves money. Something doesn't make sense here, something else is going on that we're not privvy too, and it can't be good:

The question many health reform advocates have been asking about the public option debate is “what’s the problem”??? Why isn’t the President demanding it, pushing it, selling it? Well, maybe he doesn’t want it....

It is hard to avoid the fear that this White House has now become a principal obstacle to getting meaningful health care reform. It claims it wants major cost reductions in Medicare, via a semi-autonomous cost-cutting commission. But the White House has already bargained away the savings it can achieve from most of the major providers: PhRMa ($80 billion), hospitals ($155 billion) so they can give it back to the doctors (for whom AMA is demanding $240+ billion more over ten years in relief from automatic Medicare reductions).

Why should we not also believe that the White House has a deal to shield insurers from competition by preventing the creation of a public option in exchange for the insurers agreeing to reforms on guaranteed issue and limited community ratings (with the flexibility Baucus provided) and to support this framework with tv ads? (Read Ignagni’s WaPo op-ed today; while defending the PwC study, she says they made a deal, but Baucus broke it; she didn’t say the deal’s off.)

The White House isn’t taking up most of the chairs in Harry’s Reid’s meetings just to watch him make decisions on his own. They’re there to make sure Harry Reid doesn’t undo the White House deals and wander off the reservation.

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Wash Post's Plum Line: Vitter still refuses to directly criticize judge who won't marry blacks to whites

Okay, this is going from weird to downright creepy. What is wrong with GOP Senator David Vitter that he can't just come out and say he thinks it's wrong to bar blacks from marrying whites.It's not the 1960s, and we're not living in the south - though apparently some of us are awfully worried about losing the votes of southern racists.

We showed you a video earlier of Vitter visibly uncomfortable when asked to criticize a racist Louisiana justice of the peace who refuses to conduct inter-racial marriages. Now, Greg Sargent at the Washington Post's Plum Line asked Vitter's office to comment on the racist judge, and rather than specifically criticize the judge, or criticize the notion that inter-racial marriage is wrong, Vitter's office gave a weird sort of general statement about how "judges should follow the law."

Oh, so you mean, if it were the law in Louisiana that blacks shouldn't marry whites, Vitter would be okay with that?

This story is just getting more and more outrageous by the hour. We have a Republican Senator who thinks it's politically dangerous to oppose racism. That should tell you volumes about where the GOP is today. It also doesn't speak well of the state of Louisiana.

PS But a least Vitter is okay with inter-racial prostitution, right? Read More......

FOX Flashback: Greta Van Susteren shouldn't be casting stones

I'm thinking of starting a new feature called "FOX Flashback," where we remember the outrageously unprofessional things FOX News and its hosts, both opinion and "news" hosts, have done over the years to prove that they're nothing more than the propaganda organ of the Teabagging wing of the Republican party.

In today's segment, we remember FOX's own Great Van Susteren, and her massive conflict of interest with then VP-candidate Sarah Palin, who just happened to be... what? A teabagging Republican!

So not only is a Scientologist reportedly one of Sarah Palin's top advisers, but the man is the husband of FOX News' Greta Van Susteren. And ThinkProgress says that not only did Van Susteren never reveal that her husband was a top Palin adviser, while Van Susteren was interviewing Palin on FOX during the campaign, but TP says that Van Sustern even did stories about her husband's work, without revealing her husband's involvement in it.

WWJJD, Greta (what would Jesus journalist do?) Van Susteren made the unfortunate comment last night that the White House's criticism of FOX's faux journalism didn't apply to her. Oh Greta... Read More......

Southern GOP Senator David Vitter refuses to comment on justice of the peace who won't marry inter-racial couples

This is simply a stunning new video.



Republican Senator David Vitter (R-La) visibly squirms when asked to comment on the recent case of a justice of the peace in his state of Louisiana who refuses to marry blacks to whites. We criticize Republicans a lot, but this is simply stunning. He's refusing to comment on obvious, blatant, outrageous racism. And the only reason one could imagine is that he doesn't want to upset his own racist supporters in his state. Is Louisiana really still that racist that a Republican Senator can't speak out in favor of blacks marring whites, and against those who would suggest that such marriages are wrong? What other possible reason could a Republican senator from the south have for squirming, and going silent, when asked his opinion about an official in his own state who refuses to conduct interracial marriages. Is Louisiana really that racist and that backward? Is Vitter?

Perhaps we need a phone in to various Republican offices to find out where they stand on inter-racial marriage. Feel free to call Vitter's office and ask what the Senator's position is on inter-racial marriage: (202) 224-4623 Read More......

Bush spokesman says Obama spokesmen shouldn't criticize media after Bush spokesman criticized media

Of course, FOX isn't media, and the Bush White House still hasn't caught on that their lies no longer work.

Here's Dana Perino saying, now, that the White House shouldn't attack critics. And here's Dana Perino, in the Bush White House, attacking "critics" (h/t Jed Lewison at DailyKos).

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Two dudes and a Web cam & the Washington Post

Andy Cobb and company go off on the Washington Post over the paper's new contest where you too can write for the Post for a whopping $2600 a year.

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Secret Service overwhelmed by death threats against Obama

Fueled by the fact that the President is black, but also fueled, I would argue, by conservative hate on the TV, radio and in Congres. (Hat tip, JoeMyGod) Read More......

The president is back to lecturing us about health care reform

From ABC's Jake Tapper:

As he did earlier in the night at a separate DNC fundraiser, the president pointed a finger to Democrats and Republicans for their role in health care reform. He called on Democrats to be united as they “keep their eye on the prize” in health care reform, and that when they get a bill they have to do "everything they can” to support it.

“Sometimes Democrats can be their own worst enemies. Democrats are an opinionated bunch. You know the other side, they just kind of do what they’re told. Democrats, ya’ll thinkin’ for yourselves. I like that in you, but it’s time for us to make sure that we finish the job here, we are this close and we’ve got to be unified.”

There's something funny going on here. We've got the polls on our side, we've finally got momentum on our side after the Teabagger mess in August, and the president himself supported the public option during the campaign, and claims to still support it as the best solution to our health care mess. Then why isn't the White House pushing for a public option?

We're missing something here. A political friend at dinner last night suggested that maybe the White House promised to kill the public option as part of its secret deal with Big Pharma last spring. I have no idea if that's true, but something is wrong here, some piece of the puzzle is missing. It's becoming increasingly clear that the President has no intention of including a real public option for everyone in the final bill. If he did, he would publicly push for it. He's refused. His staff has refused. In politics, as in life, if you tell your opponent that you're not terribly wedded to your proposal, then your proposal is toast.

There's something the President is not telling us. And it's rather annoying for him to be lecturing us about coming together when, frankly, we are together. Unified around a campaign promise he is so blithely blowing off. We have the best chance at reform in a generation, and this White House is trying awfully hard to get the bare minimum with the least possible effort. We deserve to know why. Read More......

Chamber of Commerce spent nearly $35 million to block reform

And that amount is only for the previous quarter. Why does the US Chamber of Commerce hate capitalism and progress? Why do they hate America?

However, on one broad issue considered critical to the Obama administration's success the Chamber's anti-regulatory postures created a rift. On the question of how to address climate change, the Chamber has seen a growing number of companies defect. They say the self-proclaimed "voice of business" doesn't speak for them when it denies global warming and lobbies against climate change legislation.

Early and high-profile departures included Apple Inc., Exelon Corp., Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and the Public Service Company of New Mexico. On Tuesday, Mohawk Fine Paper, a privately-held paper manufacturer based in Cohoes, N.Y., joined them.

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Obama has a meeting with Senator John Kerry this morning. Kerry just returned from Afghanistan where he played a pivotal role in getting President Karzai to agree to the run-off election. This afternoon, the president is flying up to New Jersey to do a campaign event for Governor Corzine's campaign.

It's been a roller coaster, but, today, things seem to be looking up for the public option on Capitol Hill. There's been a renewed push for that key provision. No doubt, the new polling showing increased support for the public option doesn't hurt. The American people get it -- even if some Senators still don't. The White House needs to start driving this train or at least get on board for real.

Let's get threading... Read More......

Bank of England Governor blasts bonus payouts

Of course he's right, but why the constant big talk from those in power without backing it up? Whether in the US or UK, politicians and others in power have had a steady stream of blistering remarks but to date, there has been so little action. All of this has been in view for quite a while but they hope against hope that it's simply going to work itself out. It won't. People are expecting leaders to lead. They don't. There's no argument out there about how shameless the bankers have been but some day, someone with political clout is going to have to actually do something. It's only going to get worse.

The Governor of the Bank of England launched a stinging attack on the behaviour of the banking industry last night, just hours before a leading economic think-tank prepared to publish figures showing the total bonus payouts to City workers in January will soar to £6bn.

Mervyn King described the £1 trillion of support given to banks by the taxpayer as "breathtaking" and "unsustainable". He said: "To paraphrase a great wartime leader, never in the field of financial endeavour has so much money been owed by so few to so many. And, one might add, so far with little real reform." Mr King argued that banks took huge risks because they knew they would be bailed out and because they were seen as "too big to fail". He called for sweeping reforms to the way they are supervised.

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US pressures UK Conservatives over far right connections

They're right to do so, but shouldn't the US administration cut its own ties to far right extremists in the US as well? The Guardian:

There is growing unease in the White House that David Cameron's Euroscepticism could undermine the ability of a Conservative government to influence events in the EU, threatening to weaken Britain in the eyes of the US. Clinton, while anxious not be seen to be interfering in a domestic election, has discussed the issue informally in Europe.

Influential Jewish groups in the US urged Clinton to raise with Hague the Conservatives' decision to enter a European parliament coalition with a Latvian party, some of whose members participate in an annual service commemorating Latvian units of Hitler's Waffen-SS, and a Polish politician who has questioned the need to apologise for an anti-Jewish pogrom during the second world war.

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Somehow the latest IOC scandal is all too believable

The IOC was, is and probably will always be a mess. Their credibility has been absent for years and whether it was their decision to choose Beijing, patting themselves on their own back for the "success" of Beijing despite violent responses to protests or the decision to choose one of the most dangerous cities in the world for the 2016 games, they don't get it. And, they don't care that they don't get it.

Chinese sports officials struck a deal to bring the Olympics to Beijing, promising to support Jacques Rogge's bid to head the International Olympic Committee in return for European backing for Beijing's bid, according to a recently released memoir.

Retired sports minister and president of the Chinese Olympic Committee, Yuan Weimin, describes in his book the alleged arrangements surrounding Beijing's Olympic bid in 2001: European members of the IOC verbally agreed to support Beijing for the 2008 Games in exchange for Chinese support for Rogge.

The IOC denied the accusation made in the book "Yuan Weimin and the Sports World."

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