GOP tries to deflect attention from bondage-themed, lesbian sex story

As Barb at DKos reports, it's not working. Read More......

WH spokesman Gibbs refuses to commit to repealing DADT this year, after Prez promised in SOTU

Regardless of your position on repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell this year, imagine how you'd feel if you were promised repeatedly that the discriminatory law would be repealed, then you were specifically promised in the State of the Union that it would be done this year. Then, when a reporter goes to the White House spokesman and asks, repeatedly, over the period of a few weeks, would you support the law's repeal this year, the spokesman chokes up.

In many ways, it's very much the public option all over again. Strong initial support for a position popular in the polls, then when the detail work begins, the White House backs off and starts to send mixed signals. It's a strange and rather inexplicable pattern, one that we've all been trying to get our heads around. But whatever the justification, it's a poor way to manage relations with any Democratic constituency months before a crucial midterm election. (And we mean you, Mr. Messina.) Read More......

Maureen Dowd also asked: Should There Be an Inquisition for the Pope?

Joe wrote a post linking to Maureen Dowd's column in the NYT. But, since Bill Donohue has become the leading defender of the child rapists, I had to point out this section:

Demonize gays, as Karl Rove did in 2004.

In an ad in The Times on Tuesday, Bill Donohue, the Catholic League president, offered this illumination: “The Times continues to editorialize about the ‘pedophilia crisis,’ when all along it’s been a homosexual crisis. Eighty percent of the victims of priestly sexual abuse are male and most of them are post-pubescent. While homosexuality does not cause predatory behavior, and most gay priests are not molesters, most of the molesters have been gay.”

Donohue is still talking about the problem as an indiscretion rather than a crime. If it mostly involves men and boys, that’s partly because priests for many years had unquestioned access to boys.

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Ezra Klein on offshore drilling

Ezra Klein at the Washington Post:

"I think the term 'cap and trade' is not in the lexicon anymore," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on CNBC this morning. Oh, and he said it while announcing that the Obama administration was opening new areas up to offshore oil drilling. This follows the decision to massively expand loan guarantees for nuclear plants. As far as anyone can tell, these concessions to conservative ideas on energy have not attracted Republican allies for the administration's preferences on energy, and in fact, the center of this issue seems to be moving rapidly to the right.

There may be some brilliant strategy underlying all this, but no one in the administration has seen fit to explain what it is. I'd guess it's that they can say, and show, they're reaching out on the issue, but making these moves when the public isn't paying attention to energy policy seems of questionable relevance to perceptions of partisanship when the debate eventually takes off.

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RNC stripper stimulus

Headlines we love.

So maybe they're not so against stimulus after all. In fact, the Republican National Committee has been giving a little stimulus of their own to an overlooked demographic group: strippers.

That's right, according to last year's financial filings, the RNC spent nearly $2000 at Voyeur West Hollywood last year. Scoping out the post Schwarzenegger candidate field? Well, maybe, but how open minded! Voyeur West's "a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex."

Of course, we're sure the RNC staffers racking up the bills weren't stimulating anything other than the economy. And the RNC's already stated that chairman Michael Steele was never at Voyeur -- and had no knowledge of the expenditure. I guess that's the fiscal conservativism you've heard so much about. Conserving deniability.

But distributing the wealth, expanding the tent? That is what the RNC brought Steele in for after the slap-down of the '08 elections, and who better to consult than some ladies who know a thing or two about spankings?

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Teabonic: The Teabaggers command of the English language is... unique

Lots more. Read More......

Greenpeace uncovers massive anti-climate change payouts to right wing think tanks

Surprise, surprise. This obscure company, Koch Industries, has spent over $73 million to help fund the deniers. As always, follow the money.

Greenpeace says that Koch Industries donated nearly $48m (£31.8m) to climate opposition groups between 1997-2008. From 2005-2008, it donated $25m to groups opposed to climate change, nearly three times as much as higher-profile funders that time such as oil company ExxonMobil. Koch also spent $5.7m on political campaigns and $37m on direct lobbying to support fossil fuels.

In a hard-hitting report, which appears to confirm environmentalists' suspicions that there is a well-funded opposition to the science of climate change, Greenpeace accuses the funded groups of "spreading inaccurate and misleading information" about climate science and clean energy companies.

"The company's network of lobbyists, former executives and organisations has created a forceful stream of misinformation that Koch-funded entities produce and disseminate. The propaganda is then replicated, repackaged and echoed many times throughout the Koch-funded web of political front groups and thinktanks," said Greenpeace.

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Initial reactions to the President's new offshore oil drilling proposal

Hat tip Josh Nelson for pulling these together.

Morgan Goodwin — Our Generation Screwed Over by Obama’s Offshore Drilling Plan :

Obama inspired our generation to turn out to the polls, and he can do it again if he moves to actually inspire us. But youth across the South East have longer memories than this short-sighted political thinking. Under this proposal the first lease sales for drilling would be held in 2012, a year that Obama will be hoping to connect with us and convince us he stands for our interests. If young people don’t believe him, they aren’t going to be inspired to vote. That’s not change we can believe in.

MSNBC’s First Read:

The announcement is stunning for those of us who paid close attention to the presidential race. And it will be yet another test for Obama’s Democratic base — in this case, environmentalists.

Matthew Yglesias — Drill, Baby, Drill:

I don’t understand this at all. Increased coastal drilling would be a small price to pay in exchange for actual congressional votes for an overall energy package that shifts us to a low-carbon economy over time. But any price is too high a price to pay in exchange for nothing at all. This isn’t the greatest environmental crime in human history, but it sure does seem like poor legislative strategy.

Duncan Black — Drill, Baby, Drill:

Who’d we elect again?

Natasha Chart — Morning No: Different Priorities:

How’s that hopey changey stuff working out? I don’t know about for me, but I think there are going to be some drill happy Alaskans who feel better about it.

Greg Sargent — The Morning Plum:

Just about every news org, reporting on the news that Obama will approve significant offshore drilling, used the headline: “Drill, baby drill.” Time to check you-know-who’s Facebook page…

Steve Benen — In Exchange for What?:

Obama has already effectively given Republicans what they wanted on energy. What is he getting in return?

Kevin Drum — Obama Opens Up the Coast:

When it comes to energy, conservatives are crazy about two things: nuclear power and offshore drilling. Now Obama has agreed to both. But does he seriously think this will “help win political support for comprehensive energy and climate legislation”? Wouldn’t he be better off holding this stuff in reserve and negotiating it away in return for actual support, not just hoped-for support? What am I missing here?

Mark Thoma — Obama to Open Offshore Areas to Oil Drilling:

Increasing the risks to the environment in an attempt to save the environment seems like a less than optimal strategy.

Aaron Weiner — Obama to Open Atlantic Coast to Offshore Drilling:

If Obama’s goal here is to win support for a climate bill, wouldn’t he have waited to use this leverage until negotiations in the Senate had actually begun in earnest?

But hey, at least it will make Republicans happy, right? Not just yet: Boehner Rebukes Obama Offshore Drilling Plan.

Update — Greenpeace has released the following statement via email:

Is this President Obama’s clean energy plan or Palin’s drill baby drill campaign? While China and Germany are winning the clean energy race, this act furthers America’s addiction to oil. Expanding offshore drilling in areas that have been protected for decades threatens our oceans and the coastal communities that depend on them with devastating oil spills, more pollution and climate change.

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President compares environmentalists to 'big business', says both are 'tired,' wrong

From Greg Sargent:

Obama also notes that some in the business community and on the right wil say he didn’t go far enough. And he makes his now-familiar argument that his decision represents a pragmatic middle ground between opposing sides that are imprisoned by ideology:

Ultimately, we need to move beyond the tired debates between right and left, between business leaders and environmentalists, between those who would claim drilling is a cure all and those who would claim it has no place. Because this issue is just too important to allow our progress to languish while we fight the same old battles over and over again.

The substance of Obama’s decision aside, drawing this equivalence between right and left on climate change issues risks antagonizing environmentalists.

The dilemma for the White House is two-fold. First off, the President, not even two years ago, was one of those who claimed that offshore oil drilling had no place. For him to today take the moral high ground, and label those who opposed drilling as "tired," and part of the problem, rings a bit odd.

Remember when, the during the campaign, then candidate Obama said that you could save as much from simply inflating your car tires as you could from offshore drilling?



The second problem is that the White House is in the process of antagonizing yet another key Democratic constituency. It's not entirely clear how, in effect, demonizing environmentalists helps to inspire a new generation of young people, most of whom seem themselves as environmentalists. If the President had been for offshore drilling during the campaign, then his current position, while misguided, would be understandable. But, as in the health care debate, gay rights, and other issues, the President stakes out one position, then later goes back on it, and the people simply asking the President to keep his promise are demonized as unrealistic or extreme.

Democrats are not extreme for simply expecting the President to stay true to his word. Read More......

Palin left Alaska with highest debt-to-GDP in the US

You betcha. Well, they do say everything is bigger in Alaska, so I guess that also means accounting games and debt. Bigger than Texas, again. How can someone who quit their job after leaving the state with its debt equal to 70% of its GDP lecture anyone? The people who believe her are even bigger fools, but yes, we knew that already.

New Hampshire and Colorado attempted to use program-specific pots of state money to plug holes in their general treasuries; Connecticut wrote its own accounting rules; Hawaii reduced the length of its school week; and California made its businesses pay their 2010 taxes earlier to make the budget appear more balanced than it is. But one thing every state is doing, including Alaska, is camouflaging its debts by not releasing how much its state employee pension funds will owe — or how far behind it is on its contributions to said pension funds.

Less than a year after then-Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) quit the government to pursue other projects, Alaska leads the way in its debt-to-GDP ratio when its unfunded pension obligations are taken into account, followed by Rhode Island, New Mexico, Ohio and Mississippi. And although Alaska’s ratio is far lower than Greece’s, it does give the state a debt-to-GDP ratio similar to that of Jordan and Palin’s favorite health care resource, Canada, and a higher ratio than Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, India, the Philippines or Uruguay.

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Vatican in p.r. frenzy, 'spending Holy Week practicing the unholy art of spin'

Via the Washington Post, the Vatican is on the defense, trying to protect the reputation of the Pope in the wake of the latest child rape scandals:

The defense of the pope, outlined in an interview Tuesday by the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican's official spokesman, came as the church hierarchy is launching a public relations blitz in the United States and Europe to ease Catholic anger and bolster the pope's image in sermons and interviews ahead of Easter Sunday.

No sense of responsibility. These people are shameless.

In the New York Times, Maureen Dowd eviscerates the leadership of the Catholic Church. This one is a classic:

It doesn’t seem right that the Catholic Church is spending Holy Week practicing the unholy art of spin.

Complete with crown-of-thorns imagery, the church has started an Easter public relations blitz defending a pope who went along with the perverse culture of protecting molesters and the church’s reputation rather than abused — and sometimes disabled and disadvantaged — children.

The church gave up its credibility for Lent. Holy Thursday and Good Friday are now becoming Cover-Up Thursday and Blame-Others Friday.

This week of special confessions and penance services is unfolding as the pope resists pressure from Catholics around the globe for his own confession and penance about the cascade of child sexual abuse cases that were ignored, even by a German diocese and Vatican office he ran.

Definitely worth a read. Dowd was raised Catholic and went to Catholic schools. Today's column is written by someone who knows the beast. It's appropriately vicious. Read More......

Obama to expand offshore drilling for gas and oil

Here we go again. Do people in the White House still think anyone from the "party of no" will support any Democratic proposal just because they cave in on Republican issues? They don't even like this awful proposal and are already complaining about it. How many times do we need to see this story play out before someone wakes up?

But while Mr. Obama has staked out middle ground on other environmental matters — supporting nuclear power, for example — the sheer breadth of the offshore drilling decision will take some of his supporters aback. And it is no sure thing that it will win support for a climate bill from undecided senators close to the oil industry, like Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, or Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana.

The Senate is expected to take up a climate bill in the next few weeks — the last chance to enact such legislation before midterm election concerns take over. Mr. Obama and his allies in the Senate have already made significant concessions on coal and nuclear power to try to win votes from Republicans and moderate Democrats. The new plan now grants one of the biggest items on the oil industry’s wish list — access to vast areas of the Outer Continental Shelf for drilling.

But even as Mr. Obama curries favors with pro-drilling interests, he risks a backlash from some coastal governors, senators and environmental advocates, who say that the relatively small amounts of oil to be gained in the offshore areas are not worth the environmental risks.

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Today is Cesar Chavez Day. The President is going to make it official later this afternoon when he signs a proclamation to honor Chavez on his birthday. He's also doing an event on "energy security" at Andrews Air Force base.

Tomorrow, the President is heading to my hometown of Portland, Maine for an event on health insurance reform. Now, I think this trip to Maine is about a year late. Keep in mind, for several months last year, Rahm Emanuel basically ceded the presidency to Maine Senator Olympia Snowe. And, despite the serious problems Mainers have with health insurance (there's no competition so they get gouged), Snowe and Collins both stuck with Mitch McConnell and opposed reform.

President Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, caused a stir yesterday when they stopped at Ben's Chili Bowl, a local institution, for lunch. That's pretty much the opposite end of the food spectrum from what one expects from the leader of France. Good move.

It's finally stopped raining so Petey will venture out without looking at me like I'm torturing him. He really hates the rain.

What's the buzz this morning? Read More......

Credit crisis cost up to $10.5 trillion in UK alone

It would be interesting to see the full cost to the US as well. And remember, the GOP is tripping over themselves to support Wall Street who brought on these losses. The Republicans are keen to block any financial reform that is proposed instead of supporting the American public or even the mild reform that the Democrats are supporting. More on the Bank of England report:

Andrew Haldane, the Bank's executive director for financial stability, said that taking into account the permanent damage done to the productive potential of nations across the world, as well as the immediate costs of supporting the banks and the recession, there is an output loss equivalent to between $60trn and $200trn for the world economy and between £1.8trn and £7.4trn for the UK.

He put the hidden cost to the taxpayer of the implicit support offered to the big UK banks at more than £50bn.

Mr Haldane advocated new structural controls on the banks, a policy at odds with the current views of Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, and the Treasury.

Mr Haldane drew a contrast between the "taxation" solution – making risky banking more expensive by raising capital requirements, an idea favoured by the FSA and the Government – and the "prohibition solution", backed by the Bank and the Obama administration in the US. Prohibition means the separation of bank activities across business lines.

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Serbia apologizes for Srebrenica massacre

While they should have called it a genocide, this is a start. They're probably a generation away from facing the full reality of that horrible period of history. The Guardian:

A document put forward by Belgrade's ruling coalition of democrats and socialists condemning "the crime" and apologising that "not all was done to prevent this tragedy" was narrowly carried as Serbia continued its bid to become a member of the EU and attract business investors.

"We are taking a civilised step of politically responsible people, based on political conviction, for the war crime that happened in Srebrenica", said Branko Ruzic, whose Socialist party was led by Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s. Milosevic died while on trial for war crimes at the UN tribunal in The Hague in 2006.

A coalition deputy Jelena Trivan said: "We will clear the face of the nation with this declaration" but opponents rejected the move as "shameful" and "unjust".

They denied western accusations of mass executions and one, Slobodan Samardzic, warned: "Serbia will sign its own guilt with this declaration." Another, Velimir Ilic, said that in Srebrenica, "the crime was no greater than in other places", citing Croatian moves against Serbs.

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