A kitten falls asleep

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Nurse comments on victims of BP dispersants: 'toxified people who have been chemically poisoned'

The leftover impact of BP's irresponsible actions continue. As bad as the Democratic response was to the disaster, it's scary to think how much worse it will be with the Republicans. Less regulation and apologies to destroyers of the environment is what waits ahead.

"The dispersants are being added to the water and are causing chemical compounds to become water soluble, which is then given off into the air, so it is coming down as rain, in addition to being in the water and beaches of these areas of the Gulf," Naman added.

"I’m scared of what I'm finding. These cyclic compounds intermingle with the Corexit [dispersants] and generate other cyclic compounds that aren’t good. Many have double bonds, and many are on the EPA's danger list. This is an unprecedented environmental catastrophe."

Commercial fisherman Donny Matsler also lives in Alabama.

"I was with my friend Albert, and we were both slammed with exposure," Matsler explained of his experience on August 5, referring to toxic chemicals he inhaled that he believes are associated with BP's dispersants. "We both saw the clumps of white bubbles on the surface that we know come from the dispersed oil."

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David Vitter's sins. Great ad.

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Indiana suggests leaving disabled family members at homeless shelters

What is the matter with people who say things like this? Whoever promoted such insanity should be sent packing immediately.

Indiana's budget crunch has become so severe that some state workers have suggested leaving severely disabled people at homeless shelters if they can't be cared for at home, parents and advocates said.

They said workers at Indiana's Bureau of Developmental Disabilities Services have told parents that's one option they have when families can no longer care for children at home and haven't received Medicaid waivers that pay for services that support disabled people living independently.

Marcus Barlow, a spokesman for the Family and Social Services Administration, the umbrella agency that includes the bureau, said suggesting homeless shelters is not the agency's policy and workers who did so would be disciplined.

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104 current Republicans in Congress want to privatize Social Security

How many more will be elected in November? It's terrifying to even imagine how much worse things could have been for Americans with the financial crisis. The Democrats would be doing themselves a big favor by plotting out the ugliness of such a proposal. Wall Street has bounced back nicely with a bang though consumers are still waiting to break even from their losses. It takes a special type of fool to think that privatizing the safety net for retired Americans makes sense. This plan would be little more than a safety net for Wall Street who will find new ways to screw the public. More from ThinkProgress on the insanity:

However, such rhetoric belies their record. A thorough review of the voting records and statements of Republicans in Congress reveals a critical mass of GOPers who have supported privatizing Social Security. In total, 47 percent of House Republicans and 49 percent of Senate Republicans are on record supporting the privatization of Social Security. Some, including Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), want to go even further and “wean everybody” off of Social Security altogether.

As ThinkProgress noted yesterday, Republicans in Congress have long operated by the “majority of the majority” principle, whereby legislation is only advanced by a GOP Speaker if it is supported by a majority of Republicans. With many prominent GOP candidates in favor of privatizing or eliminating Social Security, including Rand Paul, Ken Buck, Dan Coats, Sharron Angle, Dan Benishek, Ben Quayle, Star Parker, and Jesse Kelly, it’s likely that a GOP-controlled Congress would have the necessary votes to revisit the issue.

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Teabagger leader wants Muslim member of Congress to lose because he's Muslim

Washington Post:

The founder of one of the country's most prominent tea party organizations said in an interview Wednesday that he stands by an Internet column in which he urged the defeat of U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, because he is Muslim.

"If you read the Koran, the Koran in no uncertain terms says some wonderful things like, 'Kill the infidels,' " said Judson Phillips, the founder of Nashville-based Tea Party Nation. "It says it on more than one occasion. I happen to be the infidel. I have a real problem with people who want to kill me just because I'm the infidel."

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Obama on Jon Stewart

NBC:

"You ran on very high rhetoric, hope and change, and the Democrats this year seem to be running on, 'Please give me one more chance,'" he said, while later stating that Obama's legislative agenda "felt timid at times."

The president pushed back hard against that notion.

"Jon, I love your show," Obama replied, "but this is something where I have a profound disagreement with you. We stabilized the economy...we got nine months of consecutive job growth...we have passed historic health care reform, historic regulatory reform. We have done things that people don't even know about."

Stewart quipped back, "Are you planning a surprise party for us, filled with jobs and health care?"

Still, "The Daily Show" anchor persisted that perhaps Obama's administration had not been as bold as it wanted to be.

"So you wouldn't say you would run next time as a pragmatist? It wouldn't be 'Yes we can, given certain conditions,'" Stewart said.

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Joe 'I apologize' Barton confident he will lead House Energy Committee

Just another normal day in crazyville for the GOP. There's little question at this point that the Republicans are preparing for more corporate pillaging of America.

U.S. Representative Joe Barton (R-Texas), the congressman who ruffled feathers on Capitol Hill last summer by making a public apology to former BP CEO Tony Hayward, is "confident" he will become the next leader of the House Energy and Commerce Committee if Republicans win the U.S. House in next week's elections.

"If that happens, the Republican Steering Committee—which I'm a member of—would nominate to the full conference and I am confident that I will be nominated. And I am confident, hopefully, that the conference would confirm me to be chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee," Barton said in an interview with CNBC Thursday.

Barton previously served one term as chairman in 2006. Under current rules, he can served two more terms.

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Unemployment claims drop more than expected

This is the type of surprise everyone likes. Well, everyone besides the Republicans who seem thrilled with the economic problems that they created. Again, the numbers remain very bad but the turnaround has to start somewhere.

Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, the second drop in a row and a hopeful sign the job market could be improving.

Still, economists cautioned that the trend would have to continue for several more weeks before a solid conclusion could be drawn that hiring is picking up.

Applications for jobless benefits dropped by 21,000 to a seasonally adjusted 434,000 in the week that ended Oct. 23, the Labor Department said Thursday.

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'Standing Tall for Tyranny'—DOJ follows through on Ashcroft immunity request

As anticipated, the Obama DOJ has indeed requested that the Supreme Court grant John Ashcroft immunity from lawsuit for ostensibly abusing his power to hold people without charges or trial. Scott Horton:

The Department of Justice has persuaded the Supreme Court to take a look at Ashcroft v. Al-Kidd, in which it argues that former attorney general John Ashcroft cannot be sued for the mistreatment of an American citizen held by use of a material witness warrant under false premises. The courts below, heavily dominated by conservative Republican appointees, found that the challenge should go forward; the evidence of serious misconduct by Justice officials was sufficient to get to a trial.

You read that right; the conservative-dominated lower courts say the lawsuit should be allowed. It's expected that Justice Kagan will recuse herself and the eight-member Court will prevent the suit from going forward, thus enshrining Ashcroft's abuses as "the way we roll at the DOJ." Think that new power will get used going forward?

Again, the background: It's 2003 and Ashcroft wants to round up Muslims, and appear to do so. He announces that he will hold Muslims under the "material witness" statute, a clear abuse, since if he does, he won't have to either accuse them or bring them to trial. In other words, indefinite summary detention under a law meant to protect witnesses.

He grabs a former Univ. of Idaho football star–turned–Muslim named Lavni Kidd (now Abdullah al-Kidd) as al-Kidd was boarding a plane to Saudi Arabia:

Justice Department officials claimed that he was needed as a material witness in a case against another University of Idaho student, Sami Omar al-Hussayen, who was charged with visa fraud. It does not appear that Kidd knew anything relevant to the visa fraud case, federal authorities never called him to testify, and the prosecution of Hussayn, which rested on a feeble evidentiary case to start with, failed before an Idaho jury.

Al-Kidd's real crime appears to be his new religion and his opposition to the invasion of Iraq.

The DOJ is arguing that even though lower courts think al-Kidd's suit against Ashcroft has plenty of evidence indicating it should go forward (there's more evidence in the Horton story), Ashcroft should be free from lawsuit "because of the doctrine of prosecutorial immunity, even though Kidd was not being prosecuted and the Justice Department concedes it never had any basis for a prosecution".

Your Holder DOJ at work.

Two points. First, here's what was done to this "material witness" during his confinement:

Kidd was moved to three separate detention facilities in three different states. He was treated brutally, according to procedures that the Justice Department approved for use on terrorism suspects. He was subjected to a withering interrogation by FBI agents who demanded to know why he had converted to Islam. He was stripped naked, subjected to body cavity searches, shackled hand and foot, and incarcerated with violent convicts.

Would you call that abuse of the material witness statute? Simple common sense says Yes.

Second, we need to separate three entities — the Obama administration, AG Eric Holder, and the Bush-embeds in the Justice Dept. In theory, Obama should not be directing the activities of the Attorney General. Though the political arm of the Republicans under Bush II owned the DOJ, this is relatively new. Holder makes a judgment as a lawyer under the Constitution, not as an employee of the political party in charge.

In addition, sadly, it may be true that even if Obama is not personally in charge of the DOJ, Mr. Holder may not be in complete control as well. There are plenty of Republican lifers in that department, doing what they always do. To what degree is Holder reining them in? I wouldn't assume we know that answer.

This stunning case, for example — in which the two-year-long internal criminal probe into the U.S. attorney’s scandal ended in a "whitewash" — has at its core, Nora Dennehy, a serial Republican appointee assigned to the probe by AG Mukasey. The "whitewash" report was issued in 2010, under Holder. Your Bush II–embeds at work.

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Teabaggers doing more harm than good to GOP

Wash Post:

The tea party's volatile influence on this election year appears to be doing more harm than good for Republicans' chances in some of the closest races in the nation, in which little-known candidates who upset the establishment with primary wins are now stumbling in the campaign's final days.

In Kentucky, a volunteer for tea-party-backed Senate candidate Rand Paul was videotaped stepping on the head of a liberal protester. In Delaware and Colorado, Senate hopefuls Christine O'Donnell and Ken Buck, respectively, are under fire for denying that the First Amendment's establishment clause dictates a separation of church and state. In Nevada, GOP Senate nominee Sharron Angle is drawing rebuke for running TV ads that portray Latino immigrants as criminals and gang members.

Perhaps the most dramatic tea party problems are in Alaska, where Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller is suffering another round of unfavorable headlines after it was revealed late Tuesday that he had admitted lying about his misconduct while working as a government lawyer in Fairbanks.

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I worry that the President has internalized the whole 'you need 60 votes' thing

President Obama, during yesterday's Q&A with Joe Sudbay and four other progressive bloggers:

I'm President and not king. And so I've got to get a majority in the House and I've got to get 60 votes in the Senate to move any legislative initiative forward.

Now, during the course -- the 21 months of my presidency so far, I think we had 60 votes in the Senate for seven months, six? I mean, it was after Franken finally got seated and Arlen had flipped, but before Scott Brown won in Massachusetts. So that's a fairly narrow window.

Oy.

George W. Bush never had more than 55 Republican Senators during any time of his eight year presidency, and at one point he had only 50. You never saw him talking publicly about how powerless he was to do anything because he didn't have 60 votes, and because he wasn't "king." He sure acted like he was king. And funny thing, George Bush got a long done during his presidency, including starting two wars, passing the Patriot Act, getting two uber-conservative Supreme Court appointments, and a massive tax cut.

And actually, even though the Democrats weren't filibustering much at all, the Republicans went CRAZY complaining about how Dems were filibustering too many judicial nominees (they weren't).  The Rs played the Ds like a fiddle, did a pretty good job of convincing the public that the Democrats were doing something they weren't, and then when the Republicans came to office, what did they do?  Went filibuster crazy.  For the Republicans, complaining about the filibuster wasn't an excuse for not doing anything.  It was a tactic for scaring the Democrats away from future filibusters, and for turning the public against the Democrats.  When the President complains about the filibuster, it doesn't feel like a tactic.  It generally feels like an excuse.

I simply cannot fathom who told the President that it was a smart talking point to tell people how powerless he is. They've been saying it a lot, over at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and it needs to stop.

And one more thing.  If the filibuster is such a problem, then why did the President refuse to go after Senator Bunning when he was filibustering unemployment benefits for hundreds of thousands of Americans?  And I quote from AMERICAblog this past March:

A few minutes ago on CNN, Ed Henry reported that he'd been tipped off by the White House that Obama was going to take "a jab" at Senator Bunning today when he got off Air Force One today in Georgia. Bunning certainly deserves the jab.

Didn't happen.

According to Henry, the White House informed him that the Bunning line was removed from the President's speech because Obama felt it would be too partisan. And, in any case, the brain trust at the White House doesn't want to involve the President in every minute detail of what the Senate does.

Back in March, the filibuster was just a "minute detail of what the Senate does." Now it's the excuse for why the President doesn't keep many of his promises.

The reason the President doesn't have more power isn't because he's not king - it's because he had the power, and he simply let it slip away. Read More......

Palin, on Entertainment Tonight, says she'll run for President 'If there's nobody else to do it'

There are still five days left til election day, but the 2012 inanity has officially begun.

The star of the upcoming reality show told a TV entertainment reporter that she just might run for President:

Exclusive: ET's Mary Hart visits Sarah Palin at home in Wasilla, Alaska, where the former Republican vice presidential candidate tells ET she'll run for president in 2012 "if there's nobody else to do it."

The former Alaska governor, mom of five, and star of TLC's upcoming series "Sarah Palin's Alaska" says that when it comes to deciding whether to run: "It's going to entail a discussion with my family [and] a real close look at the lay of the land, to consider whether there are those with that common sense, conservative, pro-Constitution passion, whether there are already candidates out there who can do the job … or whether there's nobody willing to do it, to make the tough choices and not care what the critics are going to say about you, just going forward according to what I think the priorities should be."

"If there's nobody else to do it, then of course I would believe that we should do this," Sarah tells Mary, leaving the door wide open for a 2012 run, while also noting that if it turns out there are candidates "who can do the job," they would have her full support.

Just can't wait to see how Palin, who did quit her job as Governor, defines "who can do the job." Given her egomania, I think she tipped her hand on ET last night. Because, seriously, who else can do the job like she would? Read More......

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

No political events on the President's schedule. He's heading out on the road tomorrow for the final swing. Today, he's hosting the Americans who worked on the Chilean mine rescue. I really got sucked into that story. According the Daily Guidance, this is who will be at the White House: "Representatives from NASA and the following companies will attend the meeting and then join the President in the Rose Garden: Schramm, Inc of Chester County, Pennsylvania, Center Rock Inc. from Berlin, Pennsylvania, Layne Christensen Company of Kansas City, Kansas, Geotec Boyles Bros., S.A., a US-Chilean company based in Santiago, Chile and Aramark."

Obama was on the Daily Show last night and said that Larry Summers has done a "heckuva job." I think Summers was like the Brownie of this administration. Supposed to oversee a crisis but didn't do the job.

Biden is attending a fundraiser for Congressman Frank Kratovil (D-MD).

We don't even have that many competitive races in the DC area and local t.v. is deluged with political ads. We're seeing commercials for the Maryland Governor's race and the contest for the 11th C.D. in Virginia. That's a battle between incumbent Democrat Gerry Connolly and GOPer Keith Fimian. Most of them are so, so bad -- especially Fimian's. It's hard to believe that people pay any attention to them. And, it's galling that media consultants make so much money for producing such crap.

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Wells Fargo finally admits it has a paperwork problem

It took them too long to admit the problem existed so why should anyone believe them now when they say it's still not a problem? Who really believes what the banks have to say?

Wells Fargo, the nation's largest U.S. home lender, on Wednesday acknowledged mistakes in the preparation of documents for foreclosures, after denying for weeks that it was affected by the problems that forced other major lenders to temporarily freeze foreclosures.

The company said in a statement that in some cases foreclosure affidavits "did not strictly adhere to the required procedures." It said that it has begun submitting supplemental affidavits for 55,000 foreclosures that are pending in 23 states. Wells Fargo said it expects the process to be completed by mid-November.

"The issues the company has identified do not relate in any way to the quality of the customer and loan data; nor does the company believe that any of these instances led to foreclosures which should not have otherwise occurred," the company said in a statement.

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