Extreme anonymity

It appears a Washington Post reporter went to town with the anonymous sources, and got caught. Read More......

Nebraska Dems Officially Endorse the Public Option

From McJoan at DKos:

The Nebraska Democratic Party put the state's senior senator, Ben Nelson, in an awkward spot on Saturday by passing a resolution making support for a government-run insurance option a central aspect of its platform.

In a nearly unanimous vote at a committee meeting in Fort Omaha Metro Community College, about 70 attendees approved language that urges members of Congress "to vote for such health care reform proposals that contain a robust public option at all stages of the legislative process including conference and reconciliation, and encourage legislators to pass such reform."

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White House's Axelrod meets with FOX News chair

Not convinced any good can come of this. But perhaps the White House laid down the law. Read More......

Obama approval rating moves up

This is a good sign. Though it's not entirely clear what's motivating the improving spirits. Meaning, what exactly did Obama do to make people happier in the past month? Possibly his speech to Congress (which showed leadership) mixed with lots of Republicans-gone-wild news. You'll note that, to the best of my recollection, Obama didn't cave on any promises in the past month, yet his approval ratings went up. People aren't won't over by ideas as much as they're won over by strength. They want their presidents to lead. And for whatever reason, I suspect they felt they finally got some of that in the past month. Read More......

Congressional GOP Fundraising Committee On Pelosi: It’s Time To ‘Put Her In Her Place’

Everyone knows a Speaker's place is in the kitchen. Read More......

Conservative publication talks of "fumigating" government over Jewish Obama nominee, Chai Feldblum

She's gay, in addition to being a Jew. Which lead WorldNetDaily to ask whether Obama is finding its appointees on the Web site "perverts.gov." This would be the second time a lead conservative voice used the word pervert to describe gay Obama appointees, making it clear that homophobia and bigotry is what is driving the opposition.

Though the notion of responding to a Jewish nominee with the word "fumigation" is potentially a new low, even for these folks. Last week we had a top conservative publication discussing whether it might be wise to have a military coup against President Obama. And this week they're talking about using poison gas to purify the government of Jewish nominees.

I wonder what kind of database Obama uses to locate people like this? Is it Monster.com? That would be appropriate. Or is it FreaksUnlimited.com? Maybe Obamanations.com? No, it's got to be Perverts.gov.

I'm telling you, the entire federal government is going to have to be fumigated some day when these deviants and degenerates are finally sent packing.

And the GOP wonders why its numbers keep dropping in the polls. Read More......

News on GOP Senate candidates in Delaware, Florida and Missouri

Delaware's sole Congressman, Mike Castle, who also served as the state's governor, is planning to run for the Senate seat vacated by Joe Biden. The current Senator, Ted Kaufman, doesn't plan to run. Biden's son, Beau, the Attorney General of Delaware, is probably going to jump in on the Democratic side. Castle has, in the past, been something of a moderate voice in the House (as moderate as House Republicans can be. He has been a regular NO vote this year.) That may play well in Delaware, but won't help him with the right-wingers who run the GOP.

But, for those hard-core right-wingers, there is some good news. In Florida, Marco Rubio, who is running in the GOP Senate primary against Charlie Crist raised over $1 million in the last quarter. That's an impressive sum, which shows Rubio is a legitimate candidate. A lot of the "real" Republicans think Crist is too squishy.

In Missouri, there's a GOP Senate primary. But, the front-runner, Rep. Roy Blunt, is trying to ignore his opponent, State Senator Chuck Purgason. But, Purgason is trying to get Blunt's attention by attacking him:

Today, Purgason, a fiscal conservative from Caulfield, Mo., issued a statement noting that Blunt has gotten national political attention because he has "taken more money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac PACs" than any other member of Congress.

Blunt was a leader in his party, so has lots of ties to lobbyists and PACS. In fact, Blunt dumped his first wife to marry a lobbyist. So, Purgason's attacks, while focused on the financial sector, actually have a double meaning:

Said Purgason: "Congress looked at higher standards but many of those efforts have been stymied by sustained and high-powered lobbying campaigns that have taken real teeth out of many much needed reforms. In order to protect additional taxpayer liability and future stability of the housing financial markets, Congress must work to make meaningful reforms in the near future."

There's going to be lots of intra-GOP drama over the next year or so. And, I say, have at it. Read More......

Mr. President, they're never going to play nice

If anyone in the White House had doubts about what to do about the Kevin Jennings "controversy" that FOX News and the religious right have falsely drummed up, check out the following from conservative writer Byron York:

Whatever happens in the latest [Kevin Jennings] fight, it seems certain there will be more battles in the personnel war. Does anyone believe that Jones, Sergant and Jennings are the only Obama officials about whom truly serious questions can be raised? While Obama's other wars will someday end, this one might last the entire administration.

Read those sentences again closely. It's never going to get better. They will continue to hound you as they hounded Bill Clinton. Caving won't help. Placating them won't help. Being nice to them won't help. You might as well stick to your principles, defend your staff, and at least show the American people that you have some. They bad guys are never going to leave you alone. Read More......

More on economic Mission Accomplished

From Bob Herbert:

The big question on the domestic front right now is whether President Obama understands the gravity of the employment crisis facing the country. Does he get it? The signals coming out of the White House have not been encouraging.

The Beltway crowd and the Einsteins of high finance who never saw this economic collapse coming are now telling us with their usual breezy arrogance that the Great Recession is probably over....

We seem to be waiting for some mythical rebound to come rolling in, magically equipped with robust job creation, a long-term bull market and paradise regained for consumers.

It ain’t happening.

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Obama aides proposed to Obama smaller stimulus than their own math said we needed

What? From Krugman, quoting Lizza:

[Council of Economic Advisers chair Christina] Romer’s analysis, deeply informed by her work on the Depression, suggested that the package should probably be more than $1.2 trillion. The memo to Obama, however, detailed only two packages: a five-hundred-and-fifty-billion-dollar stimulus and an eight-hundred-and-ninety-billion-dollar stimulus. Summers did not include Romer’s $1.2-trillion projection. The memo argued that the stimulus should not be used to fill the entire output gap; rather, it was “an insurance package against catastrophic failure.” At the meeting, according to one participant, “there was no serious discussion to going above a trillion dollars.”

Why wouldn't it be an option? Why wouldn't it even be discussed? If in fact, the chair of the council of economic advisers had said that $1.2 trillion was what was needed? Even as a straw man, why not propose the actual amount that was needed? Read More......

GOP circles the wagons, seeks to block net neutrality

Predictable. Because we haven't had enough of their excessive policies that screw consumers.

Republican opposition is mounting as federal regulators prepare to vote this month on so-called "network neutrality" rules, which would prohibit broadband providers from favoring or discriminating against certain types of Internet traffic flowing over their lines.

Twenty House Republicans — including most of the Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee — sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski on Monday urging him to delay the Oct. 22 vote on his net neutrality plan.

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Pressure builds to undo Rahm's sweetheart deal with the drug industry

NOTE FROM JOHN: Remember, you're paying 3x to 5x as much for the same drug, sold by the same company, as people in Europe, Canada, and pretty much the rest of the world. Why? Because our govt. doesn't protect you from the drug companies like every other govt does. Because of bs like Joe is reporting below.

The Hill takes a look at the deal Rahm Emanuel cut with the drug industry. It's one of the most controversial aspects of the reform bill moving through Congress:

In the deal crafted by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and approved by Emanuel, drug companies agreed not to oppose healthcare reform and even help pay for it. The industry agreed to cut the cost of brand-name prescription drugs for seniors by $80 billion over 10 years, covering about half of those seniors who fall into the Medicare prescription drug “donut hole.”

In return, Baucus and White House officials said they would support a reform package that would not include the drug importation measure nor the measure to allow the government to negotiate drug prices on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries, according to a report in The New York Times.

A number of Senate Democrats, led by Byron Dorgan (ND), are trying to fix this mess. They know this deal undermined Democratic policy. But, you know a deal for a big business is a bad deal when a Republican member of Congress is ready to trash it:

When the House defied a veto threat from President George W. Bush and passed the re-importation bill in 2003, Emanuel and other proponents of the legislation congratulated each other on the House floor.

Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), who was among those who worked with Emanuel on that bill, said she does not understand why her former colleague agreed to the deal.

“PhRMA got off easy,” she said.

Yes, Pharma got off very easy. Rahm got rolled. He's supposed to be so tough and smart and savvy. But, he only seems to use his vaunted powers against liberal groups trying to get real reform. Rahm's powers are apparently useless against everybody else. Read More......

NJ Governor's race now a "dead heat"

Over the summer, incumbent Democratic Governor, Jon Corzine, was down by double digits in his race for re-election. Not anymore. The latest independent poll, the first following last week's debate with the candidates, has Corzine up by one point:

A month before Election Day, New Jersey’s Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine is now in a virtual tie with his Republican challenger, according to a new poll out Tuesday.

Forty-four percent of likely New Jersey voters support Corzine while 43 percent support Republican Chris Christie. Four percent say they will vote for independent candidate Chris Daggett, and five percent are undecided.

“With the start of an advertising blitz and the raw exposure of the debate [last week], the race has tightened to a dead heat,” said Peter Woolley, director of the Fairleigh Dickinson University Public Mind poll released Tuesday.

Corzine's GOP opponent, Chris Christie, has been hit hard over his ethics hypocrisy. Also, in a state on the verge of passing marriage equality legislation, Christie also burnished his anti-gay credentials at last week's debate.
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Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Today, your president is holding a meeting to discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan with Congressional leaders from both chambers and both parties. George Bush launched that war eight years ago this week. Then, he pretty much forgot about it.

Also, tonight at approximately 9:00 PM, Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-PA), the House sponsor of the bill to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," is hosting an hour of "special orders" on the House floor. Basically, there will be an hour of speeches from members of Congress who want to end DADT. You can watch on C-SPAN. Murphy's bill, HR 1283, has 176 cosponsors. This is a good move and shows Murphy is really working all the angles on his legislation.

Let's start threading the news... Read More......

Hopefully this is not in our future

The UK left and right are competing with each other to see who can cut more. It may be necessary to avoid even worse financial problems (along with much higher taxes) but it's ugly. The left is promoting a freeze on pay for government workers while the right wants to raise the age of retirement. Meanwhile, the bankers are still doing just fine. What a fair system. For the US, it's going to be very difficult not to start having the same discussions sooner or later, though higher taxes surely will be kicked around soon enough. Well, definitely sooner than asking Wall Street to pay its fair share. Read More......

German magazine to publish "normal" women

It's about time. Is it really healthy to show models that represent what nobody ever sees in real life? Over in France there's talk about forcing the press to add a note whenever photos have been Photoshopped. (One of the more infamous examples was the friendly media removing Sarkozy's love handles, making him look more fit than he is.)

Germany's most popular women's magazine is banning professional models from its pages and replacing them with images of "real life" women instead.

In what is seen as the latest attempt to stamp out the "size zero" model, the editors of Brigitte said it would in future only use women with "normal figures".

"From 2010 we will not work with professional models any more," said Andreas Lebert, editor-in-chief, adding that he was "fed up" with having to retouch pictures of underweight models who bore no resemblance to ordinary women.

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Is Obama following the Bush policy of appeasement with China?

Is it asking too much to tell Beijing to go Cheney themselves? Whether or not you like the Dalai Lama, it's none of China's business whether or not a US president meets with him. They're the first country to go ballistic when anyone drops a hint about their internal policy so it would be nice is someone forcefully shoved back when they attempt to dictate who the US meets. Heck, it would be nice to see Obama push back against anyone other than the "left of the left" who brought him to Washington. This will be the first time since 1991 that a US president has failed to meet the Dalai Lama while he visited Washington.

In an attempt to gain favor with China, the United States pressured Tibetan representatives to postpone a meeting between the Dalai Lama and President Obama until after Obama's summit with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, scheduled for next month, according to diplomats, government officials and other sources familiar with the talks.

So Bush started the appeasement process by traveling to Beijing for the Olympics and Obama continues. Following Bush policies - whether with Wall Street or now with China - is now starting to look like a trend. Read More......