'He does it because he wants to'

Whatever you think about the Kagan pick, I think Kevin Drum makes one of the most obvious (and overlooked) points:

But I still don't get it [...] why compromise on presidential nominees? Why Ben Bernanke? Why Elena Kagan? He doesn't have to do this. Unfortunately, the most likely answer is: he does it because he wants to.

(My emphasis; thanks to Glenn Greenwald for finding this.)

However l'affaire Kagan turns out, however all this is judged, please understand — it's insulting to someone as smart as Mr. Obama to impute, in the absence of evidence, any other motive than this. He does it because he wants to.

Mes petits sous,

GP

Sidenote: For a cautious analysis of the Kagan nomination, I suggest this, from Scott Horton: The Kagan Nomination.

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Doris E. Travis, Last of the Ziegfeld Girls, Dies at 106

Not politics, but what a slice of Americana this woman's life was.

Mrs. Travis may have been the youngest Ziegfeld Girl ever, having lied about her age to begin dancing at 14. She was part of a celebrated family of American stage performers known as “the seven little Eatons.” George Gershwin played on her family’s piano, and Charles Lindbergh dropped by for “tea,” Prohibition cocktails.

After three years with the Ziegfeld troupe, Mrs. Travis went on to perform in stage productions and silent films. In 1938, in Detroit, she opened the first Arthur Murray dance studio outside New York. She eventually owned 18 Murray studios in Michigan.

Mrs. Travis never stopped performing. In 2008, at age 104, she danced at the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS annual Easter benefit, something she started doing in 1998. But no spotlight was as bright as the one she basked in as an ingénue.

Doris was introduced to the Follies in 1918 by her sister Pearl, who by then was a dance director for the troupe. Arriving for a rehearsal, Doris ended up being hired for the summer tour, starting the day she finished eighth grade. Besides inflating her age, she used pseudonyms to avoid problems with child-labor laws.

Doris began as a chorus girl and understudy to the show’s star. In 1919, she wore a red costume and played the paprika part in the salad dance. In 1920, she had a solo, a jazzy tap dance.

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Maine GOPers trashed Portland school

By now, everyone has heard that the teabaggers took over the Maine Republican Party last weekend at the state convention, adopting a far right-wing, extreme platform.

In addition, Maine GOPers spent the weekend trashing one of Portland's schools:

The Republican State Convention was held at the Portland Exposition Building, which is on Park Avenue, near the middle school. Party members from Knox County caucused in a classroom used by eighth-grade social studies teacher Paul Clifford.

When Clifford returned to school on Monday, he found that a favorite poster about the U.S. labor movement had been taken and replaced with a bumper sticker that read, "Working People Vote Republican."

Later, Clifford learned that his classroom had been searched. Republicans who had attended the convention called Principal Mike McCarthy to complain about "anti-American" things they saw there, including a closed box containing copies of the U.S. Constitution that were published by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Maine Republican Party leaders have issued a written apology to King students and teachers.

These GOP/teabaggers are out-of-control.

Portland is my hometown and while I don't know Paul Clifford, I do know people who do. I'm told that he's a great guy. And, sounds it.

For the record, I did not go to King Middle School. I went to Jack. Read More......

How Beyond Petroleum was BP?

Pre-spill, BP spent a fortune, hundreds and hundreds of millions, touting itself as the Beyond Petroleum company. How accurate was that claim?

BP's revenue in 2008 was north of $360 billion (remember $4 gas?). In 2009, better than $240 billion. For the 12 months ending March 31, 2010, $272 billion.

Explore more BP Data at Wikinvest

Total BP spending on alternative energy in 2009? Think Progress:

Indeed, although BP ads depict green flowers and spinning windmills, BP only invested a tiny fraction of their profits into alternative energy last year. Their actual investments in alternative energies — $1.3 billion in 2009 — are dwarfed by their profits. In fact, the last two years their budgeted alternative energy investments were around seven percent compared to profits. According to Driessen of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, BP spent the same amount on this advertising over two years (the campaign was launched in 2000) as they did on hydrogen, wind, and solar energy over a six-year period (my emphasis)

Think Progress likes to compare the green spending to profit. But spending is also an offset to revenue. So let's see, $1.3 billion / $240 billion is . . . 0.5%. One half of one percent beyond petroleum.

By the way, that WikiInvest page linked above has a couple of nice play-with charts. Here's another, total revenue by all major oil companies.

Explore more BP Data at Wikinvest

If you think BP and ExxonMobil are doing well, check out SNP (the big China company) for the 1st and 4th quarters of 2009. Click around. Do these guys own the world, or what?

GP Read More......

Cuomo investigating bank details provided to ratings agencies

Somehow it would not come as a surprise if the entire lot of them were failing to tell the truth. I trust the rating agencies about as much as I trust the large accounting firms. And the banks? It's hard to have even less trust but they're obviously even less trustworthy. Until the government decides to make any of these organizations pay a price for lying one has to assume that they're all lying.

The New York attorney general has started an investigation of eight banks to determine whether they provided misleading information to rating agencies in order to inflate the grades of certain mortgage securities, according to two people with knowledge of the investigation.

The investigation parallels federal inquiries into the business practices of a broad range of financial companies in the years before the collapse of the housing market.

Where those investigations have focused on interactions between the banks and their clients who bought mortgage securities, this one expands the scope of scrutiny to the interplay between banks and the agencies that rate their securities.

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Transocean files in court to limit liability in Gulf disaster

If this clears, we have a serious problem. If they don't like to accept their responsibilities, then get out of the business.

Transocean Ltd., the owner and operator of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that burned and sank last month, unleashing a massive oil leak into the Gulf of Mexico, will Thursday file in federal court a petition to limit its liability to just under $27 million, according to a person familiar with the company's plans and a copy of the filing seen by Dow Jones Newswires.

The world's biggest offshore driller is filing the request in the U.S. District Court in Houston under a century-and-a-half-old law originally aimed at helping U.S. ship owners compete with foreign-flagged vessels. While the company may not succeed in limiting its financial liability, the filing could give Transocean an edge in what could be a lengthy, multipronged legal battle against claims for damages from the accident that killed 11 workers.

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LA to boycott Arizona

Good. You, our readers, should call your local city council members, and mayors, and ask them to do the same. Read More......

93% of blacks who were registered, voted in 2008 elections

NYT:

Ninety-three percent of blacks who were registered voted in the 2008 presidential election, a greater proportion than any other racial or ethnic group measured by the Census Bureau, according to an analysis released Wednesday.

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Gray whale saved off southern California - first time in a decade

A pretty cool story about a great day for marine biologists and a 35 year old whale. What's also nice to see are the photos of the crowd who come around to watch this success story. Not so nice is the photo of the tangled mess of fishing nets that trapped the old whale. Click through all of the photos here.

It took about four hours for a team of marine animal rescue workers to remove the mesh rope knotted around the whale's head and tail, said Tim Sullivan of the Ocean Institute in Dana Point.

Rescue workers freed the whale from a snarl of fishing nets, and it swam back into the Pacific. The whale was docile and calm throughout the rescue operation, rescuers said.

It was a happy ending to a tense, two-day episode that involved some of the nation's top marine biologists and drew hundreds of spectators to the shore. And it was first time in more than a decade that a whale has been successfully freed from nets in Southern California.

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GOP attacking Kagan for ROTC being kicked out of Harvard

Kagan seems to be distancing herself from the ROTC issue (ROTC's had been kicked out of many college campuses in recent years because of the military's ban on gay service members). I'm not entirely sure I like seeing her do this - it comes off a bit as running away from "the gay," nor am I sure that her recent explanation of her position is entirely factual.

From ThinkProgress:

As part of the confirmation process for solicitor general, Kagan explained in response to a question by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that she had no input on Harvard’s ROTC policy:

• As dean of Harvard Law School, your decision to restrict military recruiters’ access to students was limited to career services. Does your personal opposition to the Solomon Amendment mean that you also support barring the ROTC from college campuses?

• As dean of the law school, did you ever express objection to the exclusion of the ROTC from Harvard?

Answer: As dean of Harvard Law School, I felt a responsibility to apply and defend the School’s longstanding nondiscrimination policy, which prohibits our Office of Career Services from assisting any organization (not just the military) that discriminates in employment. At the same time, I worked to ensure that military recruiters in fact had available an alternative and effective method of access to our students. My statements and actions defending the Law School’s general nondiscrimination policy did not sweep more broadly. The position I took does not entail a view on the exclusion of ROTC from college campuses, and I never expressed a position on the exclusion of ROTC from Harvard.

And here is the Washington Post from a month ago:

Four months after becoming dean of Harvard Law School, Elena Kagan sent an e-mail to students and faculty lamenting that military recruiters had arrived on campus, once again, in violation of the school's anti-discrimination policy. But under government rules, she wrote, the entire university would jeopardize its federal aid unless the law school helped the recruiters, despite the armed forces' ban on openly gay members.

"This action causes me deep distress," Kagan wrote that morning in October 2003. "I abhor the military's discriminatory recruitment policy." It is, she said, "a profound wrong -- a moral injustice of the first order."

That sounds like a position to me. Why not just defend it? Read More......

Religious right leader resigns after paying rent-boy to travel with him to Europe to 'lift his luggage'

We've been having quite a bit of fun with this story over on AMERICAblog Gay. Read More......

OFA/DNC phonebanking against Sestak and for Specter

Organizing for America, the arm of the DNC that morphed from the Obama campaign, is phonebanking into Pennsylvania over the next couple days. This email was sent to New York OFA members:

There is an important election in Pennsylvania next week, and we need your help reminding voters to get out to the polls.

The stakes of this election are high: Ensuring that allies of the President are elected in the House and Senate, to fight for change.

So starting this weekend, through Tuesday's election, OFA volunteers are organizing phone banks across New York. We'll call into Pennsylvania and encourage voters to support leaders who will fight for President Obama's vision for change.

Obviously, the big battle in Pennsylvania is the Democratic Senate primary between incumbent Arlen Specter and Congressman Joe Sestak. The Muhlenberg College/Morning Call tracking poll shows a dead heat with both candidates 1t 44% and 12% undecided.

The President is featured in an ad for Specter, which Greg Sargent reported is being funded by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. So, we know that national Democrats are spending heavily on behalf of Specter.

So, here's the question: Is the DNC actually asking people to make calls for Specter and against Sestak? Yep. I checked the OFA website for events in the Allentown and Philadelphia areas. OFA is doing phonebanks for Specter. Here's how the phonebanks are described. This one is at OFA HQ in Philadelphia:

For years, Arlen Specter has delivered for the people of Pennsylvania, and now we can deliver for him, help us get out the vote for Senator Spector by singing up for a shift in the most crucial days before the primary.

President Obama wants Senator Specter to continue working on his behalf, can you sign up to volunteer today?

For years, Specter was a Republican. Sestak is a real Democrat. Doesn't OFA have better things to do?

If Specter wins, and I really hope he doesn't, I wonder how all of these loyal Democrats are going to feel when Specter isn't worried about Democratic primary voters anymore. Arlen Specter worries about one person: Arlen Specter. He's as craven as politicians get. So, win or lose next week, Specter will dump Obama and the Democrats if that's in his best interest. Everyone knows Obama can't count on Specter to "continue working on his behalf." Because Specter works on behalf of Specter.

I guess this is how hard-core GOPers felt in 2004 when Bush and the national Republicans jumped in to help Specter against Pat Toomey. Look how that ended up. Read More......

76% of Americans still believe recession is ongoing

Turning this impression around is not going to be easy and is going to take time. The Democrats still need to do a much better job of showing voters whose side they are on in this economic fight. They also need to make the GOP pay more of a price for supporting the bankers, who caused the recession. CNBC:

The survey shows that 76 percent of Americans believe that the US economy remains in recession; an even larger 81 percent describe themselves as dissatisfied with the economy.

That's a major reason why 56 percent of Americans say the country is still on the wrong track, notwithstanding recent positive economic news. Obama's own job approval rating rose slightly, to 50 percent, since the March survey.

That dissatisfaction has erased the edge in Congressional races that Democrats enjoyed a year ago. Now, voters split evenly on whether Democrats or Republicans should control Congress after this fall's mid-term elections. More encouraging for Republicans, their party enjoys a wide edge in enthusiasm about the election.

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Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The Senate is still working its way through the Wall Street Reform legislation. That should be completed some time next week. GOP amendments to weaken the bill continue to fail.

Obama is heading to Buffalo today. He has a couple of events, including a meeting with families who lost relatives in that Continental commuter plane crash on February 12, 2009. Then, he's heading to a manufacturing services company to give a speech on the economy. He'll also answer questions from the audience at a Town Hall meeting. Tonight, Obama will be in NYC at a fundraiser for the DCCC.

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is continuing her rounds of the Senate today. She's going to meet with Senators Kerry, Specter, Schumer, Cardin, Klobuchar, Collins, and Scott Brown.

Over the next two weeks, the Senate and House Armed Services Committee will be "marking up" the 2011 Department of Defense Authorization legislation. This bill represents the best vehicle to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell this year. At mark up, Committee members finalize legislation, including adding amendments, before it's passed out of Committee and sent on to the full House and Senate. On April 30th, Secretary Gates, who does work for President Obama, wrote that "strongly worded" letter to the Chair of the House Armed Services Committee stating that he doesn't want any legislation to repeal DADT passed until the Pentagon's study of DADT is complete. That has had a problematic impact on Capitol Hill. The White House has not rebutted Gates, which means some members of Congress believe this delay is the policy of the President. Time is running out to fix it. We're very close to having the votes to attach repeal language in the Senate Committee. But, the President needs to weigh in. He did promise a repeal this year. Yet, Obama's team on DADT, led by Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina, don't seem to get it. They better figure it out soon.

Let's get it started.. Read More......

Germany prepares to slash spending

There's a lot more of this to come both in Europe and the US. Though in many cases it has to be done, but whoever does it is going to be extremely unpopular with voters. The Guardian:

The nation is to be forced to make savings more extensive than at any time since the end of the second world war, with education and family welfare expected to take the largest hits.

The sobering figures emerged just after Germany's cabinet gave the go-ahead for Germany to put up €123bn (£105bn) towards the rescue package to stabilise the eurozone. That figure could rise to almost €150bn if needed.

Germans now face several years of belt-tightening, with Roland Koch, the deputy leader of chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party and the minister-president of the state of Hesse, saying that no areas "can be considered taboo".

Tax cuts that were promised by Merkel's government when it came into office in October have now been scrapped, the chancellor announced this week. Instead, policymakers are now talking of raising taxes to fill a €10bn fiscal gap.

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Thai army surrounding protesters

It doesn't sound like this situation is going to end well. BBC:

The Thai military says security forces plan to surround a protest encampment in Bangkok with armoured vehicles.

A spokesman said that routes into the sprawling encampment would be closed at 1800 (1100 GMT). Protesters would be free to leave but not enter, he said.

The move comes a day after the government announced and then cancelled a plan to cut off water and power supplies to the protesters.

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