"Look, I couldn't care less, to tell you the truth.... You want to get married? Knock yourself out. Go to Vegas. Have a good time. If you can get that changed, I'm not going to jump up and down and say I think it's wrong, because I don't."
This was the same interview in which O'Reilly referred to anti-gay religious right activists as "fanatics" and "holy rollers" who were a bit "ridiculous." O'Reilly went on to express his support for laws protecting gays in the workplace and more. Shortly after that, O'Reilly ripped a religious right representative, on camera.
Well, the religious right went nuts. And suddenly, Bill O'Reilly had an epiphany. Suddenly, after being harshly criticized by the "fanatics" for being too tolerant, Bill O'Reilly became very anti-gay again. Imagine that.
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Let's hope Geithner's stress tests took this into consideration along with the credit card defaults and the rapidly increasing housing foreclosure rates. If history is a guide, then all of this was probably negotiated out of the tests because real world problems have consistently been ignored or undervalued during this recession. The next banking meltdown?
Delinquency rates and defaults on office and retail buildings and hotels have more than doubled in just six months. For apartments and industrial buildings, the rates have increased more than 80 percent, according to Reis Inc.
While homeowners are defaulting at almost four times the rate of commercial landlords, the sudden spike in late payments has many industry insiders worried about the collateral threat to the economy and financial system. Nearly $73 billion worth of commercial real estate loans are in some level of financial distress, according to Real Capital Analytics.
The risk to the economy is unknown, but likely underestimated in the government's stress test of 19 major banks. The results released last week projected that should the recession worsen, the losses from commercial real estate loans could hit $53 billion, or 8.5 percent of their overall loan losses over the next two years.
"Likely underestimated." Shocking. In other words the stress tests were part of yet another big lie. Nobody likes being lied to repeatedly. Especially when the lie involves giving a free ride to the overpaid scam artists from Wall Street. Geithner is obviously never going to change from siding with Wall Street over the American public so the Paulson plan will continue as long as he sticks around.
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It increasingly looks likely that consumer spending at the start of the year was an aberration. People are concerned about their jobs, wondering what will happen with their houses and where the economy is going. None of this adds up to confidence for consumers. The days of easy spending thanks to easy credit are over for quite a while.
Retail sales fell for a second straight month in April, a disappointing performance that raised doubts about whether consumers were regaining their desire to shop. A rebound in consumer demand is a necessary ingredient for ending the recession.
The Commerce Department said Wednesday that retail sales fell 0.4 percent last month, much worse than the flat reading economists expected. The April weakness followed a 1.3 percent drop in March that was worse than first estimated.
Forget about the real world, Timmy Geithner continues to live in fantasy land with the usual hype about improving markets. I can understand his desire to stay upbeat but after the last few years a bit of reality isn't such a bad idea either. Expectations are low so for goodness sakes, what about setting proper expectations and then hitting them or over-delivering? More foreclosures will mean more bank problems and more housing woes for everyone. The housing market is indeed showing some promising signs of nearing a bottom but if more houses flood the market we all know what that will do. From the real world:
"Much of this activity is at the initial stages of foreclosure -- the default and auction stages -- while bank repossessions ... were down on a monthly and annual basis to their lowest level since March 2008," Chief Executive James J. Saccacio said in a statement.
"This suggests that many lenders and servicers are beginning foreclosure proceedings on delinquent loans that had been delayed by legislative and industry moratoria."
Bank repossessions are likely to spike in coming months as these loans move through the foreclosure process, he said.
In the midst of a spirited defense of the Bush administration's intentions in developing interrogation techniques, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) dropped a phrase that liberals may seize upon.
The Bush administration, while not committing any crimes, viewed "the law as a nicety we could not afford," the former prosecutor said. That's a view that squares pretty well with liberals' view that the Bush administration circumvented the law to reach conclusions it desired.
President Obama reversed his previous decision to release photos showing possible detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan after growing concerned that the pictures would endanger American troops, press secretary Robert Gibbs said today....
Today, Gibbs said that the President had not seen the photos in April when he made the original decision. Now he has.
"The president believes that the existence of the photos themselves doesn't actually add to the understanding that detainee abuse happened," Gibbs said, adding that the Pentagon is already reviewing interrogation practices for wrongdoing.
The logic is a bit Bushian. The photos don't add anything new to our understanding of the crime, but they're so bad that they'll incite violence against our troops? Uh huh. Yes, because actually witnessing a crime in progress does nothing to shed light on the crime itself. Sure.
Never a dull moment with sleazy Norm Coleman. Norm is in some hot water because his top campaign benefactor, Nasser Kazeminy, was accused of funneling money to Norm's wife. That accusation was reaffirmed in a sworn deposition from Kazeminy's business partner. These lawsuits had nothing to do with politics -- just business.
Now, Norm is asking the FEC to let him use campaign money to pay the legal costs from that lawsuit. Joe Bodell at MN Progressive Project asks a key question:
Is this what donors thought they were funding when they wrote a check to Norm Coleman's campaign for the recount and legal challenge?
And, let's not forget who was out there raising money for Norm's campaign account -- even after it was clear Norm was losing. That would be almost the entire GOP leadership:
So, GOP leaders are raising money that is ostensibly for Norm's recount, but which Norm is using to pay his legal bills. What a racket -- and what a bunch of suckers.
No wonder Norm won't get out of the race. The Republican leaders want him to stay in so he can keep Franken out of the Senate. Norm gets to keep raising money for his personal needs. It's good to be Norm Coleman. He can use other people's money to pay his bills.
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She's the religious right's newest, and top, spokesman. You'd better believe we're going to report on her very public meltdown. One thing the left doesn't do well - doesn't understand, really - is the value in taking the Republicans and their allies down a peg from time to time.
Keith Olbermann has started a new segment, called the "WTF?!? Moment." His first one is about the sad tale of a beauty queen with fake breasts who didn't win the crown and now blames Satan, or something (yes, she's actually now invoking Satan, claiming that he wanted her to say that gay marriage was okay).
Speaking of Satan, my friend Chris wrote me his thoughts about Miss C's latest tearful rant (not that Chris is Satan, though Chris does favor gay marriage... hmm...). Chris raises an excellent point about conservatives and free speech. Their version of free speech means they get to talk and you don't. They get their way, and you don't. They get to cram their beliefs down your throat, and if you object, then you're intolerant. Thus, when Miss California went on stage and was asked a question by a judge - knowing full well that the way a beauty pageant works is you get asked a question and then get judged on your answer - because she's a conservative, we're not permitted to judge her on her answer, we're not permitted to exercise our free speech (or even follow the simple rules of judging a beauty pageant) lest we impinge upon her right to "free speech."
Folks, she's arguing that the judges weren't permitted to vote against her based on her answer - which is the way the entire thing works. This isn't just about some breast-enhanced bimbo in a beauty pageant. Carrie Prejean is the distillation of the conservative victim mentality that's so in vogue on the right today. From the religious right's incessant whining about how Christians no longer have any rights in America, to the teabagging parties fretting that our country is about to end to the RNC's effort to rebrand the Democrats as "socialists," the Republicans lost one election - and it's only been, what, four months? - and suddenly white men and Christians, and democracy, and capitalism itself, are all endangered species in a capitalist country run by white men (okay, and one black man now) and Christians.
I thought I'd share:
I’ve not really been paying a lot of attention, to the pageant that is, because it’s sort of ridiculous.
But I swear if I hear the First Amendment invoked on this one more time, I’m going to scream. LOL.
She says she used her First Amendment rights and was attacked for it. No. She was disagreed with. There’s a difference between the right to say what you think and the right to not be disagreed with. Conservatives are often confused on this point.
Second, the Miss California USA pageant is not a government agency, so the First Amendment doesn’t even apply.
These pageants are, for all intents and purposes, auditions/job interviews to pick a lead spokesbim….uh….spokeswoman for the organization for the next year. She can say whatever she wants; they’re free to hire her or not hire her.
What happened in the national contest was no different from a Member of Congress weeding out a press secretary applicant if it looks like she’s going to go rogue and pursue her own agenda rather than the Member’s. You get to pick the Barb…uh…spokesperson who isn’t going to go off message. And if you want to solicit Perez Hilton’s advice on that point, you’re free to do it. And the applicants are free to turn down the job if it turns out they don’t like the working conditions.
That’s why God created 1st and 2nd runners up, after all.
And when you think about it, if she lost the Miss USA gig because she refused to say what Satan was telling her to say, that means that Satan wanted her to be Miss USA. If he didn’t, I’m sure he wouldn’t have bothered talking to her. He’s pretty busy, from what I understand.
She was the Devil’s candidate. The Manchurian Candidate of beauty pageantry.
Whew, that was close. Satan almost won.
In any event, as the Miss California USA organization pursues its vital mission of working for world peace, and kindness, and the Iraq, and such as, they’re allowed to choose the spokesperson who can best carry their message to U.S. Americans, and not detract from it. So the Donald is perfectly within his rights to stick with the current Miss California. We, however, are free to conclude that he thinks she’s representing him well.
I guess opposition to marriage equality falls under “and such as.”
As believers in a strong two-party system, we support Republican efforts to “rebrand,” “reach out” to the public and develop new ideas.
But political work, such as that being done by the National Council for a New America created by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), should be done with political money and not with resources paid for by taxpayers.
As Roll Call reported on Monday, Cantor staff and GOP ethics attorney Jan Baran have walked a very fine line to comply with House rules in funding, publicizing and staffing the new organization.
But we think that the whole endeavor ought to be paid for out of political contributions....
It may be that the House Ethics Manual needs to be recast to take into account organizations like this that are clearly designed to serve a partisan political purpose but can slip through current rules.
In the meantime, Cantor should reimburse his House account from his campaign account or leadership political action committee for the staff resources that he has used.
Okay, the GOP is getting more outlandish and pathetic by the day. They've got no ideas, no strategy and no future. The GOP truly is the "Party of NO."
Having failed at their own rebranding efforts, the latest new idea from the goposaurs is to rebrand the Democratic Party as the "Democrat Socialist Party." I kid you not. Roger Simon got the scoop:
A member of the Republican National Committee told me Tuesday that when the RNC meets in an extraordinary special session next week, it will approve a resolution rebranding Democrats as the “Democrat Socialist Party.”
When I asked if such a resolution would force RNC Chairman Michael Steele to use that label when talking about Democrats in all his speeches and press releases, the RNC member replied: “Who cares?”
Which pretty much sums up the attitude some members of the RNC have toward their chairman these days.
Steele wrote a memo last month opposing the resolution. Steele said that while he believes Democrats “are indeed marching America toward European-style socialism,” he also said in a (rare) flash of insight that officially referring to them as the Democrat Socialist Party “will accomplish little than to give the media and our opponents the opportunity to mischaracterize Republicans.”
Yes, it will give us all the opportunity to mock and ridicule the Republicans. But, that's not a mischaracterization. That's reality.
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Yesterday, the New York State Assembly passed the same-sex marriage legislation by a margin of 89 - 52. It's the second time the Assembly has passed this bill in 2007. This year, the battle is in the State Senate, which is under Democratic control for the first time in decades. And, it is going to be a battle in the Senate. If you live in New York, start call and email your Senator today. The Empire State Pride Agenda makes it easy here.
We want to congratulate Danny O'Donnell, the Assemblyman who led the effort to pass the bill. Danny was profiled in the New York Times yesterday:
Each week, Mr. O’Donnell delivers color-coded spreadsheets to the Assembly speaker’s senior staff — names in green are yes votes, red are no votes, and purple indicates maybe. He has written personalized letters to all 149 of his Assembly colleagues, sometimes adding lines like “Doesn’t your wife want to come to my wedding?” when he thinks it would be helpful.
For Mr. O’Donnell, the lobbying is intensely personal. When he has been unable to persuade colleagues to vote yes, he has sent his partner, John Banta, director of special events for the Metropolitan Opera, to try instead.
The two men met as freshmen at Catholic University in 1978, began dating two years later and have been together ever since. Mr. O’Donnell frequently brings Mr. Banta along to legislative gatherings, he said, so his colleagues could see what a gay couple looks like.
“That wasn’t accidental,” he explained, adding: “I knew if I wanted my colleagues to treat me and treat my community with equality, they would have to see John and I through the prism of a relationship.”
Not only did Danny oversee passage of the bill yesterday, he and John had their engagement party last night in Albany, too.
UPDATE: Media Matters just released a video compilation of crazy talk about marriage from the right wing crazies. Wow, these people are sick -- and just bizarrely obsessed with this subject: Read More......
Yesterday, Dick Cheney was on FOX, of course, fighting for his legacy -- and firmly establishing himself as one of the top leaders of the new Republican party. Jed watched so we don't have to.
Cheney is everywhere, which is so good for us. Today, he got yet another profile, this one from AP, which included an attempt to understand why he's gone so public -- and why he is so angry:
"This is not the same level of control and discipline Cheney's exercised over the last 40 years," said John Baick, professor of history at Western New England College. "I think it grows out of a deep sense of hurt and betrayal."
Cheney seemed even more exercised after Obama released memos detailing how "enhanced interrogation" became a tactic used during the Bush administration.
Some contend Cheney has gone public because the Obama White House has cast so much blame on the Bush administration for difficulties "inherited" both at home and abroad. That, the theory goes, gave Cheney the right — in his mind — to fight back very publicly.
Cheney just seems like a very angry man. It's our nation that has a deep sense of hurt and betrayal from what Bush and Cheney did to us. But, hey, if Dick Cheney wants to keep that disastrous record front and center, so be it. Keep talking, Dick.
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The President is heading to Arizona State University to deliver his first commencement address as president later today. Before he leaves for Phoenix, he's got a couple meetings with House and Senate leaders. One of those meetings is about the schedule for the Supreme Court nominee. We're getting closer to that announcement.
It is just beyond embarrassing how much attention the traditional media is paying to that beauty queen. Beyond embarrassing.
One last thing: Yes, the hate crimes bill should pass and be signed into law. But, the hate crimes bill already passed the House and Senate. In fact, the bill broke a filibuster in the last Congress when there were 8 (or 9) fewer Democrats -- it was one of the few bills that achieved the magical 60 votes. Passing this bill isn't a stretch. It's been done when we had fewer allies in Congress. We needed a president to sign it. We've got that now. So, yes, it's important. But, no one should think delivering only a hate crimes law this session is enough. It's not.
Geithner's shtick is well past being old. Now it's infuriating, offensive and insulting. As everyone imagined, the NY Fed - where Geithner was President until late January - was informed of the AIG bonuses so the shock that Geithner displayed once he took over Treasury was as false as previously thought. The Geithner approach is the same as the Paulson approach which means let these bums have whatever they want and let taxpayers take all of the downside. In defense of Geithner though, Obama clearly is calling the shots and he too seems comfortable with staying the course with Wall Street. This is a risky gamble to side with Wall Street though maybe he still believes they will play nice if they get everything. The Washington Post:
As American International Group chief executive Edward M. Liddy returns to Washington to face Congress today, new details are emerging about how long federal officials were aware of the company's recent bonus payments to its executives and of how inflammatory the payments could be.
Documents show that senior officials at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York received details about the bonuses more than five months before the firestorm erupted and were deeply engaged with AIG as well as outside lawyers, auditors and public relations firms about the potential controversy. But the New York Fed did not raise the alarm with the Obama administration until the end of February.
Timothy F. Geithner, who became Treasury secretary early this year, was the head of the New York Fed when it became aware of the bonus details. But his name is not among those of senior New York Fed officials mentioned in the summaries of phone calls, correspondence and other documents obtained by The Washington Post.
Whether his name is on the list doesn't even matter. If it was, surprise, he knew what we thought he knew all along. If it wasn't, what the heck was he doing at the NY Fed? Why would they not tell him? That would be very troubling if the president was out of the loop on such a key issue and one would have to wonder about the team that he had in place.
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If you listen closely, you can probably also hear the heavy breathing of Darth Cheney here as well. The special interest energy forces are coming out with everything they have to prevent change. They like wasted energy. They prefer business as usual. They don't want the US or any country to be more efficient because then where would they round up platinum retirement plans. This group loves waste and does not have the best interest of America in mind when they throw millions of dollars around to smear opponents. All they care about are their obscene profits.
America's oil, gas and coal industry has increased its lobbying budget by 50%, with key players spending $44.5m in the first three months of this year in an intense effort to cut off support for Barack Obama's plan to build a clean energy economy.
The spoiler campaign runs to hundreds of millions of dollars and involves industry front groups, lobbying firms, television, print and radio advertising, and donations to pivotal members of Congress. Its intention is to water down or kill off plans by the Democratic leadership to pass "cap and trade" legislation this year, which would place limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
A defeat for the bill would have global consequences. The international community is depending on America, as the world's biggest per capita polluter, to set out a firm plan for getting off dirty fuels in the months before crucial UN negotiations in Copenhagen in December.
It's no Charlie Daniels Band but I guess it will do. The Guardian:
It is a jam, not a slam. President Barack Obama and his cabinet colleagues were today preparing for the first White House poetry party.
Consolidating his reputation for cool after his performance as a stand-up comic on Saturday night, Obama has invited poets and writers, backed by jazz musicians, to perform in the east room tonight.
It was originally billed as a poetry slam but the White House later corrected this, saying that a slam is a competition, which the president's party was not. It was a jam.
Obama promised on the campaign trail that if he was elected, he would throw the White House open to as wide a range of people as possible. Tonight is intended as part of that.
