Changes in poverty in the U.S., 1966–2009

Apropos our latest national discussion, the mashup of tax cuts for the rich and benefit decreases for the elderly, I found this recent data on changes in the poverty rate illuminating. Our friend Rachel Maddow explains:



The coming lame duck session is turning into a festival of opportunity — for Obama if he holds the line on no tax cuts for the +$250,000 crowd, and no benefit cuts for the catfood-eligible elderly.

It's also a festival of opportunity for the Angry Rich. They could get their twin goals in the same month — goodies for the Deserving We, and screwage for the Undeserving Thee.

Can't hardly wait for December.

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Is updating Facebook more important than safe driving?

Count me in on the side of LaHood here. While having internet connectivity for passengers may be fine, there's little good about having such a distraction for drivers.

LaHood, speaking at a conference he convened on distracted driving, said that automakers have supported bans on text messaging and hand-held cellphone use while driving.

But at the same time they have introduced other distractions.

"In recent days and weeks we've seen news stories about carmakers adding technology in vehicles that lets drivers update Facebook, surf the Web or do any number of other things instead of driving safely," he said. "Features that pull drivers' hands, eyes and attention away from the road are distractions."

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When Kerry Eleveld wouldn't let John McCain lie about DADT

Posted earlier at AMERICAblog Gay, but we haven't seen a good meltdown from the man who inflicted Sarah Palin on us.

McCain and his sidekick, Lindsey Graham, held a victory press conference after they won the filibuster vote, which insured no imminent legislative action on DADT repeal. Kerry Eleveld was there -- and she deals in facts. She questioned McCain's flawed interpretation of how DADT works. He was wrong -- and it sure looked like he was was getting ready to explode because someone had the audacity to challenge him.

Igor Volsky just posted this video at Think Progress. The female voice asking McCain the question is Ms. Eleveld:

The male voice at the end asking about Mike Almy belongs to Metro Weekly's Chris Geidner.

Igor adds:

In fact, as Almy explained in testimoney before McCain’s own committee (Senate Armed Services): “In Iraq, during the height of the insurgency, someone in the Air Force ordered a search of my private emails solely to determine if I had violated “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, and to gather whatever evidence could be used against me.” “I was relieved of my duties, leading nearly 200 Airmen, my security clearance was suspended and part of my pay was terminated. Even as my commander was relieving me of my duties, he assured me this was in no way a reflection of my performance or my abilities as an officer,” Almy testified.

Now, if I were Lindsey Graham, I might want to find out what the policy really is. Because, what happened to Mike Almy isn't an isolated case.

Jeremy Hooper, of course, has the best headline: Video: Oh Lindsey, don't act like you're not car-singing 'Alejandro' every chance you get Read More......

Positive election prognostics from Ken Silverstein

Ken Silverstein, Washington editor at Harpers, has some good news for Dems. He's examined the advantages of incumbency — and just maybe, that particular corrupt aspect of our system may work in their favor this year:

The scenario for the midterm elections remains grim for Democrats, but they have two factors working in their favor. First, the pathetic state of the GOP and second, and more importantly, the advantages of incumbency. In American politics, it’s nearly impossible to lose a reelection race ... The main reasons for that are gerrymandered districts and the fundraising edge incumbents enjoy. “There are two parties now, the Ins and the Outs,” a congressional staffer told me. “The Ins can command huge sums of special interest money to finance their re-elections” ...

As to gerrymandering, the same staffer said: “Thanks to increased computer capability and experience in drawing boundary lines, state legislatures and campaign professionals have perfected the art. There’s a whole industry dedicated to drawing district lines so politicians can pick their own voters. If you raise the requisite money to communicate with them and hit them with four weeks of ads before the election, there’s not much a challenger can do. Victory is almost mechanical.”

But just how big of an edge does incumbency offer? Take a look at the numbers (provided to me by Fair Vote)[.]

Click through for the numbers. This may not be such a bad year after all. Or, as Silverstein concludes:

So congratulations, Nancy Pelosi: You’ve headed one of the worst congresses in recent memory (except, in fairness, virtually every one that came before it) but if your colleagues listen to Edwin Edwards the results in November may not be quite as bleak as it looks now.

A ringing endorsement.

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Breaking: NBC reporting Larry Summers will leave 'soon'

Does this mean there will be a change from the conservative economic agenda promoted by Obama? More updates as they become available.

Bloomberg now has the story. If this is correct, we may be in for an even more conservative economic agenda. Should that be the case, there's really even less reason to support this administration.

White House officials expect Lawrence Summers to leave his job as the president’s National Economic Council director after November’s congressional elections, according to three people familiar with the matter.

His departure would leave Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as the only member of President Barack Obama’s original top-tier economic team. Summers, 55, and the president have discussed his future plans, according to one person.

Administration officials are weighing whether to put a prominent corporate executive in the NEC director’s job to counter criticism that the administration is anti-business, one person familiar with White House discussions said. White House aides are also eager to name a woman to serve in a high-level position, two people said. They also are concerned about finding someone with Summers’ experience and stature, one person said.

His "experience and stature?" Really? So another scoundrel with deep ties to Wall Street who represents everything that's wrong with the current system? It better be a hard right turn so he can attract the Teabaggers because this sounds like one kick too many for liberals. Read More......

Right-wing flim-flam (Abortion edition)

I know that readers of this site care about abortion rights, but I don't think most Americans still do.

The fight over abortion has been turned ugly (deliberately in my view) so that reasonable people will walk away from both participants, and it. That leaves the playing field open to the most politically adept — the sex-obsessed abortion-haters.

(By the way, if you don't think all those fetuses-as-meat posters aren't designed to disgust the reasonable, to make them leave the discussion, you don't know how advertisers think — which is probably true, since most people don't know how advertisers think.)

The sad fact is that gay rights weren't the canary in the coal mine after all; abortion rights were. And that fight, like so many others, is in the third quarter with the home team losing. (The good news is that gays are fighting back much more effectively than women were able to; and gay rights are advancing while women's rights recede.)

With this in mind, here's Rachel on the Flim-Flam right (people like the sex-averse sex-focused Handmaiden) and its rebranding. The whole segment is here, about 13 minutes long. I want to focus, however, on just the part that deals with abortion rights.

Rachel begins by discussing the re-marketing of the Religiousy Teabaggy Right as something more palatable, then follows with this:



"The culture war is back." Gen–Xers don't have the leisure to be complacent; nor does Gen Y or Z. Sadly, I think they are just that: complacent.

Side note — One of the real triumphs of the 2008 Yes We Can campaign is that it turned the switch on for a whole generation the way the Kennedy campaign did. And one of the great tragedies of No We Can't governance is that it seems to have turned that generational switch back off.

What a gift to the nation that was, the next generation's engagement. You can engineer the event, the campaign, the sell; but you can't engineer the result. Responses like 2008 are just handed to you, if you're very lucky.

It follows, therefore, that if fears about the current administration are true (I won't say they are until after the lame-duck session), discarding that generational gift may be the admin's greatest legacy. And an inverse one — a crime greater even than enshrining the practice of summary execution. That generation's involvement is probably our last great hope.

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We lost in the Senate, 'The whole thing is a political train wreck'

The vote to end the filibuster of the Defense Authorization bill just failed by a vote of 43 - 56. Arkansas Democratic Senators Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln both voted no, joining every GOPers present -- one was absent. (Reid switched his vote to "NO" for procedural reasons.)

I'll be updating this post.

Here's what Richard Socarides said earlier today, which sums up the vote:

"The whole thing is a political train wreck," said Richard Socarides, a former White House adviser on gay rights during the Clinton administration.

Socarides said President Barack Obama "badly miscalculated" the Pentagon's support for repeal, while Democrats made only a "token effort" to advance the bill.

"If it was a priority for the Democratic leadership, they would get a clean vote on this," he said.

He's right. We just watched a political train wreck that smashed into equality.

Here's the statement from SLDN's Aubrey Sarvis:

Today’s Senate vote was a frustrating blow to repeal this horrible law. We lost because of the political maneuvering dictated by the mid-term elections. Let’s be clear: Opponents to repealing "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" did not have the votes to strike those provisions from the bill. Instead, they had the votes for delay. Time is the enemy here. We now have no choice but to look to the lame duck session where we’ll have a slim shot. The Senate absolutely must schedule a vote in December when cooler heads and common sense are more likely to prevail once midterm elections are behind us. Servicemembers Legal Defense Network will continue to take this fight to the American people, the vast majority of whom support repeal of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell."

Aubrey and his team did everything that was asked of them -- and more.

There's plenty of blame to go around -- and I have every intention of playing the blame game.

UPDATE: Via email from GetEQUAL:

There will undoubtedly be an avalanche of folks out there trying to sell all different kinds of stories to us, yet again, about what went wrong. Democrats will blame Republicans. Republicans will blame Democrats. President Obama will blame Congress. Some of our national organizations and elected representatives will blame the community for "not working hard enough."

But that's not true. Today is a disappointing day for everyone who has engaged in this fight over the years -- for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, Servicemembers United, Outserve, Knights OUT, countless servicemembers who have taken action with us, and the active-duty servicemembers across the globe who are being forced to remain closeted while serving our country. We thank them for their service and we stand steadfast in our commitment to serve them as they have served us.

We are calling on President Obama to show the courage and leadership required of the Commander in Chief to unequivocally state that military discharges must end immediately.

Our elected leaders have demonstrated that they are either unwilling or unable to do the right thing. Now it's time for our "fierce advocate" to step up to the plate for us.

From Servicemembers United:

"Today's vote is a failure of leadership on the part of those who have been duly elected to serve this nation and to put the best interests of the country ahead of partisan politics," said Alexander Nicholson, founder and Executive Director of Servicemembers United. "The Senate could learn a good lesson from those who serve in uniform and who stand to benefit from proceeding to debate on this bill - serving this country means putting politics aside and getting the job done. It is simply inexcusable that this vote failed today."

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Live stream of Senate vote to end filibuster of Defense Authorization

Voting has begun. You can watch here

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Join our live chat with House candidate Steve Pougnet, the married gay dad

It's a busy afternoon. The Senate will be voting to end the filibuster of the Defense bill, which includes the DADT repeal language. We're probably going to lose.

More than ever, it's clear we need solid advocates in Congress. We need an openly gay, married dad: Steve Pougnet. Join OpenLeft, Bilerico, Pam's House Blend, Good As You and AMERICAblog for a chat with Steve. He'll be on our side. His campaign website is here. We've got an ActBlue page here.
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Obama complains about Dem. base, but fails to say a word about DADT repeal

Just posted this at AMERICAblog Gay. The President's silence on DADT repeal has been deafening, but he hasn't hesitated to take swipes at the Democratic base.

A few minutes ago, I tweeted this:

Does @barackobama know that the GOPers are filibustering the Def. Auth. bill? We're in 2 wars, you'd think he'd say something.

Mike Signorile tweeted:

Imagine if Democrats held up a defense bill? Why isn't Obama pointing to the Repubs not supporting the troops in 2 wars? Where is he?

We haven't heard a word. But, last night, Obama was bitching about Democrats who aren't happy with him, via Jake Tapper:

Last night at the Pyramid Club in Philadelphia, President Obama said “when I hear Democrats griping and groaning and saying, ‘Well, you know, the health care plan didn’t have a public option;’ and I don’t know, ‘The financial reform -- there was a provision here that I think we should have gotten better’; or, ‘You know what, yes, you ended the war in Iraq, the combat mission there, but you haven’t completely finished the Afghan war yet’; or this or that or the other -- I say, folks, wake up.”

Continued the president: “This is not some academic exercise."

Actually, we know that. So, while he's out complaining about us -- and last night wasn't the first time, no one has heard a thing from Obama on this upcoming vote. Last night, I reported that the White House wasn't even lobbying for passage of the Defense bill. Yet, Obama is annoyed that we "gripe and groan."

Today, via the Washington Blade, SLDN goes on the record saying the President has been AWOL:

Blame is already being assigned to the White House.

Trevor Thomas, spokesperson for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said his organization hasn’t seen an effort from the White House on the issue in recent days.

“We have not seen any signs that the White House has been whipping this vote in the last 48 hours,” Thomas said.

Thomas said he can’t predict what will happen with the cloture vote and maintained SLDN is “taking nothing for granted.”

Every time this President has had the opportunity to take action for equality, he hasn't. We get nice speeches, but not much more.

It doesn't get any better: Don't Ask, Don't Give. Read More......

GOP filibusters Defense bill as 2010 becomes the 'deadliest year' for troops in Afghanistan

As Republicans filibuster the Defense Authorization bill, we mark a horrific milestone in Afghanistan. This has become the deadliest year for troops in that conflict:

Nine NATO soldiers were killed Tuesday morning in a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan, military officials said, making 2010 the deadliest year for the U.S.-led international force in Afghanistan.

Another NATO service member, an Afghan soldier and an American civilian were wounded in the crash, the military said in a statement.

And, yes, it looks like the GOP filibuster of the Defense Authorization bill is holding. How they can get away with this while our troops are engaged in two wars is beyond me. Maine's Susan Collins just told us that she has to put the interests of her GOP colleagues before equality:
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Big Insurance drops kids from coverage days before new rules

Being in the health insurance industry really is the way to go. You can pay some of the highest executive salaries in the country even during the worst recession in decades, implement double digit rate increases every year, opt out of paying when you don't want to and drop trouble making customers who dare to have pre-existing conditions. Even better, you have one political party that's dedicated to allowing that to continue and a second who is terrified of confronting you. It's good to be da' king.

The new healthcare law forbids insurers from turning down children with pre-existing conditions starting Thursday, one of several reforms Democrats are eager to highlight this week as they try to build support for the law ahead of the mid-term elections. But news of insurers dropping their plans as a result of the new law has thrown a damper on that strategy and prompted fierce push-back from the administration's allies at HCAN.

The announcement could lead to higher costs for some parents who are buying separate coverage for themselves and their children at lower cost than the family coverage that's available to them.

"We’re just days away from a new era when insurance companies must stop denying coverage to kids just because they are sick, and now some of the biggest changed their minds and decided to refuse to sell child-only coverage," HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome said in a statement. "The latest announcement by the insurance companies that they won't cover kids is immoral, and to blame their appalling behavior on the new law is patently dishonest.

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Poll: Households with $250,000+ strongly support tax increase on themselves

Uh oh, there goes another Teabagger talking point.

As Congress and President Obama fight over the Bush tax cuts, a small number of left-leaning rich people have come out in support of paying higher taxes. The most famous are the members of the Responsible Wealth Project, who say they pay too little in taxes and want to address inequality.

They may be an eccentric minority, or (in the view of conservatives) a lunatic fringe. But a Quinnipiac University poll this year showed nearly two-thirds of those with household incomes of more than $250,000 a year support raising their own taxes to reduce the federal deficit.

So not all of the wealthy are angry about tax hikes. But that doesn’t mean they just want bigger government. What they want is better government – and investment in growth.

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DADT repeal: Progress today or a 'massive failure of leadership'

Last night, Keith Olbermann talked about the vote on the Defense Authorization bill and the Lady Gaga rally in Portland, Maine. He was joined by Richard Socarides who explained what's going on with DADT repeal and the forces working against it. The opposition strategy is stall and delay. We'll find out today if they're stalling tactics continue to work. If we don't succeed with DADT repeal, Richard said, "it will be a horrific fraud on the American people and really a massive failure of leadership at the Pentagon, at Congress and even at the White House because they waited too long." Yep. Massive failure.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Oh, the White House did issue statement supporting the Defense bill yesterday. Chris Johnson at the Washington Blade got it:

“The National Defense Authorization Act is a good bill that is important for the overall health and well being of our forces, especially given the ongoing campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world,” White House spokesperson Shin Inouye said in a statement. “This legislation received bipartisan support in the House and in the Senate Armed Services Committee and the President hopes it receives similar bipartisan support in the Senate.”

You might have thought something of this import, you know, the Defense Authorization bill while we're fighting two wars, would warrant a statement from the President. Nope. Shin Inouye (not Gibbs, Axelrod, Jarrett, Burton or any other top staffer) took care of it. Actually, from what I've been able to glean, that statement is pretty much the entire lobbying effort from the White House on the Defense bill and DADT repeal. Massive failure.

In fact, last night, shortly after posted most of this at AMERICAblog Gay, I was informed by someone involved with this process that the White House is not lobbying fence-sitting senators to reach the magic 60 votes. Here's what I was told:

As we all know, without a fierce effort and person-to-person advocacy from Obama himself (or at least his senior-most staff), Senators have little reason to change their minds and support debating the Defense Authorization bill. Never did I think I'd see the day when Lady Gaga would do more to advocate for repeal of DADT than our president who campaigned on equality.

It's stunning really. And, they wonder why the base is depressed. Read More......

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

There's one thing on the schedule today that I care about: The Senate vote to end the GOP filibuster of the Defense Authorization bill. The vote will take place sometime after 2:15 PM Eastern. As of now, the 60 votes aren't there to end the filibuster.

The compromise DADT language is included in the Defense bill. Even if it passes, DADT isn't repealed. Thanks to a compromise concocted by CAP's Winnie Stachelberg (for which she took full credit back in May), a process is set up by which DADT could end at a date in the future if several key conditions are met. I've heard it called future conditional repeal. No one involved in the process could tell us when the DADT discharges would actually end. But, that's the best our fierce advocate in the White House could give us.

And, we're not getting much more. Last night, I learned from a very credible source that the White House isn't lobbying on the Defense Authorization bill. They're not trying to get to 60 votes. The President and Vice President aren't making calls. The White House legislative team isn't working the halls of the Senate. Nothing. People on the Hill are well aware of this. It sends a signal. Has anyone, not just Senators, anyone, heard a word about the Defense bill from Obama?

Think about it: The GOP Senators are filibustering a defense bill, which includes support for the troops, while we're engaged in two wars. Yet, we haven't heard a peep from Obama about that. If the situation were reversed, I don't think a Republican President would sit idly by and miss an opportunity to bash the other side for not supporting the troops. Bush did it every time.

So, the key vote that could set us on a path to ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell will happen today. We've waited a long time for this. A lot of promises were made to the LGBT community, included an end to DADT.

I have to give a lot of credit to Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) and Servicemembers United for getting us this far. They have had to fight every step of the way. In June of 2009, SLDN held a protest in front of the White House, asking Obama to keep his promise on DADT repeal. That didn't endear them to crack political team in the West Wing. Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina stooped so low that he excluded SLDN from a key meeting where DADT was discussed. But, SLDN was undaunted, the group just kept pushing and lobbying. Same for Servicemembers United. This isn't a political game for them. It's about their lives.

So, today, we'll see whether the DADT language moves forward. Keep calling your Senators til the last minute. The Senate switchboard is 202-224-3121. It's not over til it's over. Senators are fickle creatures and, who knows, maybe one of the GOPers will act like a human today.

Clearly, we did not get the support from the White House that we should have expected -- based on the promises made by the President. But, we'll need to remember this next year when Jim Messina is the campaign manager for the Obama reelection and comes asking for our time, our money and our votes.

It's going to be a historic day -- one way or the other. Read More......

The Great Recession officially over

Not that it feels like it for many. Even so, there should be no doubt at all that things would have been much worse if the stimulus wasn't implemented. The GOP can make all of the jokes they like, but the economic hole that they created could have been much, much deeper. Reuters:

The U.S. recession ended in June 2009, making it the longest downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday.

The NBER, considered the arbiter of U.S. recessions, said it chose that month based on examination of data including gross domestic product, employment and personal income.

The group's business cycle dating committee, composed of academic economists, is notorious for taking its time in declaring the start and end of recessions.

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Over 600 Iraqi antiquities discovered in Iraqi PM's office

I wonder what else might be found there. BBC:

More than 600 antiquities have been returned to the Iraqi National Museum after they were found in boxes in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office.

The missing historical artefacts, some dating back thousands of years, had been smuggled out of Iraq at various times and ended up in the US.

They were moved back to Iraq in early 2009 but went missing after that.

Antiquities Minister Qahtan al-Jubouri blamed "inappropriate handover procedures" for their disappearance.

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Christine O'Donnell's long history with the 'Pray Away the Gay' movement

What else would you expect from a seemingly sex-obsessed Handmaiden? Looks like Christine O'Donnell has a long history of activism in the most obsessed of the sex-obsessed right wing — the Pray Away the Gay organizations.

Here's Rachel Maddow on O'Donnell's involvement with this Christian underbelly:



Note Rachel's point about O'Donnell being familiar to Movement insiders (3:30 in the clip). She's is a Movement professional with a 10-year history of activism, a person very much like Monica Goodling in her involvement.

She's committed, a lifer it seems; and one with apparent criminal tendencies (aren't they all). She's both a mirror and an inverse of Carrie Jean Prejean. All this story needs is a sex-tape, and you could bank it as complete.

O'Donnell is also another whom the gods appear to have made mad. That should be our lever if she wins.

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