Teabaggers to burn Pelosi in effigy

Wow. Read More......

The new Palin book apparently has some errors, to put it lightly

Surprise! AP does an even bigger fact check of the book - and it isn't pretty. Read More......

So YouTube only shuts down liberals who post FOX News clips

Nice to know that YouTube has only decided to destroy any concept of Fair Use for liberals who post FOX News clips. But conservatives who post them, we now learn, still have their videos up on YouTube, no problem at all.

Then again, YouTube erroneously takes down C-Span clips too, thinking that C-Span has the rights to them when it most certainly does not - at least not in the Congress. Read More......

Dethroned Miss California loses it on Larry King Live set

This is good. It seems being an arch-Christian doesn't include any manners.

She arrived with an entourage of five, (for cable news Green Room context, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., never arrives with a group that large) and barked at a studio operator for touching her hair while setting up her microphone.

After her appearance in which she dubbed King "inappropriate" and attempted to exit the set, Prejean accused the staffer of lying to her, saying King's producers promised no phone calls. She belittled McAusland saying, "Is the intern talking to me? Oh look at the little intern, look at the little intern trying to explain!"

"I've never been treated so poorly in my whole life," McAusland, who recently accepted an executive producer position at Newsie.com of Media Convergence Group, said.

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TIME: Does Focus on the Family fund abortions?

This is really good. Read More......

A Stimulus by another name

Harry Reid did something good today when he said the Senate would be taking up a "Jobs Bill" in the very near future. Let's be clear about this - this is a stimulus bill, so long as they don't try to make it revenue neutral, but it is targeted in a way the original stimulus bill could have been and should have been, but wasn't.

Many of us economistic types complained at the outset that the stimulus was:

1. About half as big as it needed to be; and
2. Spent too much money on tax breaks

It turned out we were right. The original stimulus bill (aided by some more spending in the "normal" budget process) helped pull us back from the brink, but still didnt do enough. It is far, far better to target the money in two ways:

1. To where it will actually get spent right away; and
2. To projects that will increase productivity in the future.

Hiring people to build roads and bridges is a great way to do both of these. While I would also be happy with more state aid and more unemployment extensions as well, I think a jobs bill is the best way to get a second stimulus passed. Relabel it and focus it on something everyone agrees we should have, and which it would be political suicide to vote against.

But for it to be a true stimulus it can't be "revenue neutral." In other words, they can't raise taxes or cut spending elsewhere to pay for it because then you are just redistributing the spending rather than adding to it. My only exception to this would be to repeal those worthless tax breaks given to rich people over the past few years. Those guys aren't going to spend any more or any less if we give or take away some of their money at the margin. So we might as well take it, and spend it on keeping the country afloat by giving people a job.

And just for fun, they could try to tie a state's federal highway monies to a vote in favor of the bill. You want us to add an earmark for your favorite bridge or interchange? Just make a public pledge of support! Read More......

Rep. Nadler: "New York is not afraid of terrorists"

While Republicans, including House Minority Leader John Boehner, are freaking out because the 9/11 plotters are being transferred to New York City for trial, the Congressman who represents Lower Manhattan isn't afraid. Rep. Jerry Nadler issued a statement today that speaks for the toughness of New Yorkers, the need for justice and the debunks the fears of Republicans. Via Nadler's press release:

“I thank the Department of Justice and Attorney General Eric Holder for their diligent efforts to bring to justice those who have committed acts of terrorism against the United States. In particular, I applaud the decision to bring those individuals responsible for the attack on the World Trade Center to New York to face trial in our federal courts. New York is not afraid of terrorists, we want to confront them, we want to bring them to justice, and we want to hold them accountable for their despicable actions.

“It is fitting that they be tried in New York, where the attack took place. On that day almost 3,000 innocent men, women, and children were murdered, and New York has waited far too long for the opportunity to hold these terrorists responsible. We have handled terrorist trials before, and we welcome this opportunity to do so again. Any suggestion that our prosecutors and our law enforcement personnel are not up to the task of safely holding and successfully prosecuting terrorists on American soil is insulting and untrue. I invite any of my colleagues who say that they are afraid to bring detainees into the United States to face trial to come to New York and see how we handle them.

The Bush administration used every scare tactic conceivable to win re-election in 2004. The specter of terror attacks loomed over the campaign. But, George Bush didn't win in the places that actually were attacked: New York City or Washington D.C. and its suburbs. Not even close. Many other parts of the country (Red States) cowered, but New Yorkers didn't. And, they won't now. It's astonishing how weak-kneed Republicans get over this. And, could these GOP members of Congress be more disrespectful to America's law enforcement community. The Republicans are acting like scaredy cats. Read More......

ABC News: Obama adviser splits with President on gay marriage

I have a new phrase that I think aptly describes President Obama's view of gay and lesbian voters: Separate but equal Democrats.

Take the pledge.
Here's why. Read More......

They're just not that into you. Why the Democrats and the White House have abandoned women's rights.

Why does a White House abandon its allies? Because it can.

Kate Michelman and Frances Kissling write in today's NYT:

The Democratic majority has abandoned its platform and subordinated women’s health to short-term political success. In doing so, these so-called friends of women’s rights have arguably done more to undermine reproductive rights than some of abortion’s staunchest foes. That Senate Democrats are poised to allow similar anti-abortion language in their bill simply underscores the degree of the damage that has been done....

This, then, is where we stand as party leaders celebrate passage of the House bill. When it comes to abortion, they seem to think all positions are of equal value so long as the party maintains a majority. But the party will eventually reap what it has sown. If Democrats do not commit themselves to defeating the amendment, then they will face an uncompromising effort by Democratic women to defeat them, regardless of the cost to the party’s precious majority.

In the meantime, the victims of their folly will be the millions of women who once could count on the Democratic Party to protect them from those who would sacrifice their rights for political gains.

We have got to find a way to get the real women's advocates together with the real gay advocates, immigration advocates, civil liberties advocates, etc. and present a united front to this administration and party. We're getting screwed, one by one. And that's the plan. Take us community by community, backtrack on their promises, and then say "tough luck." And unless we organize, they're going to keep doing it on issue after issue until the end of this presidency. Read More......

"It's a dangerous thing when the Catholic Church starts writing and determining the legislation and the laws of the District of Columbia,"

Yesterday, John and I both posted on the Catholic Church's threat to abandon the poor, sick and homeless because of it unrelenting hatred towards gay people. There's a lesson here for supposedly progressive politicians. Unlike Congress and the Obama administration, the D.C. City Council isn't letting the Catholic Church determine policy:

D.C. Council members are hardening their opposition to the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington's efforts to change a proposed same-sex marriage law, setting up a political showdown between the city and one of its largest social service providers.

Several council members said Thursday that Church officials miscalculated by saying this week that their Catholic Charities organization will have to end its contracts with the city if the proposal passes without changes.

"It's a dangerous thing when the Catholic Church starts writing and determining the legislation and the laws of the District of Columbia," said council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), chairman of the Human Services Committee.

Exactly. It's a very, very dangerous thing when the Catholic Church starts writing and determining the legislation and laws of the United States. But, that's what's happening with health care via the Stupak amendment. Democrats abandoned women because of the Catholic Church.

And, you have to love this classy response from the Archbishop's flack:

Susan Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, countered that the city is "the one giving the ultimatum."

"We are not threatening to walk out of the city," Gibbs said. "The city is the one saying, 'If you want to continue partnering with the city, then you cannot follow your faith teachings.' "

The Catholics are threatening D.C.'s elected official because the Council won't let the Catholics ignore anti-discrimination laws. Hate isn't condoned in D.C. It's illegal. The Catholic Church is really trying to establish itself as the leading gay-bashing institution in the country. In D.C., our leaders aren't letting that happen. But, wait til Congress starts debating gay issues (assuming that ever happens.) Democrats threw women under the bus for the Bishops, what will they do to the gays?

When theocrats set policy, all of our rights are endangered. Read More......

OpenLeft says women have been abandoned by DNC/OFA

It's sad. And infuriating. And depressing. In recent days I've heard women's advocates, economics experts, civil libertarians, gay rights advocates, and immigration rights advocates all tell the same story of being let down by the Obama administration. Whatever the constituency, whatever the promise, it's the same damn story of promises made and promises broken.

After Joe and I launched our Don't Ask Don't Give campaign against the DNC, OFA and Obama re-election campaign last Monday, I heard from numerous women, begging me to include women's rights in our campaign. And they're not alone. Each of the constituencies, and probably more that I'm forgetting (don't forget health care reform), have pretty much had it with the White House and the Democratic party, as represented by the DNC. It's as if our communities didn't exist. Or at best were severely embarrassing to the party.

And the groups. The national groups. The liberal advocacy groups. The ones who raise millions to represent us in Washington, to hold the politicians' feet to the fire. Same story all around. All too afraid to speak up (save, perhaps, the ACLU). All too worried about some other deal they have cooking with the administration, with the Congress. As if next time the same players who have abandoned their promises will suddenly keep their word.

I'm not sure what tell you. It's bad. Very bad. It's why many in the gay community have had it with the Democrats. It's really kind of amazing, when you think about it. All of us were so elated last November 4, after we bust our butts to put Barack Obama and a 60-seat majority in the Senate. And President Obama and the DNC have single-handedly turned the biggest Democratic victory in decades into the beginnings of a intra-party civil war.

After the jump, Natasha Chart from OpenLeft explains how women are the latest to be betrayed.

And now, Natasha Chart at OpenLeft reports, it's women being thrown overboard.

Nancy Keenan, head of the national NARAL group (and most obedient of the obedient losers) was apparently personally promised before the health care battle by the Obama administration that they would look after the organization's constituency interests in the health care bill and preserve the status quo. In return, NARAL was asked to stand down its activism.

They did. So with all their colleagues, they got caught with their pants down when a floor vote on the Stupak amendment was imminent.

Today, I got a press release from the DNC, and their Organizing For America project, on their plan to drum up more support for the health care reform bill: targeting Republicans.

It says nothing about women's healthcare. Nothing. Like it isn't even at issue. OFA is still watching NARAL's back, women's backs, as well as they always have.

Didn't see that one coming. Oh wait, yes we did. OFA pulled the same stunt on the gays during the election just one week ago. They asked everyone to help on other issues, but somehow forgot to mention that we were on the ballot too. Oops.

They're picking us off one by one. Rahm and Messina must be laughing their hearts out, watching the gays, the women, the Latinos, those who wanted to see real Wall Street reform, wanted real health care reform, wanted a real stimulus package, all get picked off one by one, with nary a word from the highly-paid advocacy groups representing us.

It's not going to get any better until our national organizations wake up. Until we all figure out how to join together and make the White House and the Democratic party to keep their promises. Read More......

White House Counsel, Greg Craig, resigned

The White House just announced the resignation of White House Counsel Greg Craig:

The White House today announced today that White House Counsel Greg Craig will return to private practice and Bob Bauer will serve as White House Counsel.

Before the announcement, The Washington Post cited Craig's "embattled tenure," mostly over Guantanamo, as a reason for his departure:

The departure comes after months of dissatisfaction over Craig's management of Guantanamo policy and other matters and less than a month after officials said Craig was no longer guiding the effort to close the prison. His departure represents the highest-level White House shake-up to date.

On January 22nd, the President said Guantanamo would be within a year of that date:
Read More......

Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The President is in Japan today. He'll be in China, Singapore and South Korea over the next couple days.

Congress has been in recess, but it's looking like the Senate will start its debate on health insurance reform next week. We'll all have to be very vigilant. There's going to be a lot of pressure to ram through a weak bill. Democrats on the Hill are seeing bad poll numbers. Instead of leading, they'll end up caving, just to get health care done.

Later today, we're going to see video of a top Obama administration official, Melody Barnes, speaking in very human and supportive terms about marriage equality. The White House made this into a big deal by denying Barnes said anything, then delaying the release of the video. Everything about LGBT issues seems complicated for the Obama administration. Obama is on the wrong side of history on marriage equality and I suspect many of his staffers know it.

One of the best things of the week was watching Cartman morph into Glenn Beck:


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