CNBC looks for return of Rockefeller Republicans

CNBC generally tends to be more focused on sucking up to Wall Street and their apologists in Congress but wow, this is brutal. Are there even any Rockefeller Republicans left? CNBC:

The Republican Party insists that "American values" must be a core part of the platform. Their values of course; and yet values that many of them don't adhere to. There are few crimes greater in America than hypocrisy.

If the Republican party would stick to what matters, fiscal issues, they would do a heck of a lot better at the polls. They wouldn't have to be worried about looking like hypocrites every time one of them has an affair, or when (gasp!) one of their unmarried daughters turns out to be gay or pregnant.

The Republican party platform should be one line long: We will stay out of your pocketbook and out of your private life.

But what did they do for the last eight years under President George Bush? They invaded both.

Putting aside social issues, the Republicans spent money like drunken sailors. With a Republican party like that, who needs Democrats?

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Doing HAARM

There's a new group in town, HAARM (Health Americans Against Reforming Medicine). This group speaks for those who really want to do harm:

Brilliant.

HAARM is on Twitter, too. Read More......

Dell & HP agree to Beijing spying request

What absolutely pathetic, gutless cowards. Isn't Michael Dell supposed to be a George Bush loving Republican who loves freedom? Obviously not too much.

Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Inc. and Taiwan's Acer Inc. — the top three global producers — are asking regulators for details of the order that takes effect July 1 to provide the "Green Dam Youth Escort" software with every laptop and desktop PC sold in China.

China is important to PC suppliers both as a major manufacturing site and a fast-growing market. It accounts for up to 80 percent of world production and sales that state media say rose to 147 billion yuan ($21 billion), up 12.8 percent from 2007.

Washington called on Beijing to revoke the rule as a "serious barrier to trade" and says the software could pose a security risk.

The conflict reflects the clash between the authoritarian government's efforts to control information and China's high-tech ambitions.

The Olympics really changed everything. Beijing has turned that frown upside down! Hooray for spying! Go team, go! Read More......

You have to meet Congressional candidate, Tony Woods, who was discharged under Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Understandably, people in the LGBT community aren't very happy with elected officials these days. The mess in the New York State Senate and the DOMA brief have left a sour taste.

But, if you're disillusioned, meet Tony Woods.

A couple months ago, a friend asked me if I'd have coffee with his buddy who was running for Congress in the seat to be vacated by Ellen Tauscher, California's 10th CD. I had just gotten out of the hospital after my appendicitis, so wasn't inclined. But, when I heard Tony's story -- that he was an African-American West Point grad, Iraq Vet, who got discharged because of Don't Ask, Don't Tell -- I knew I had to meet him. And, I was very, very impressed. Since then, Tony's campaign has really kicked into gear. Here's his website.

Today, Tony was in DC to do several events. He stopped by my place for a quick chat. I really wanted a video interview so people could get the sense of him. I meet a lot of politicians, but this guy is the real deal. Tony has quite a life story -- and lack of health care and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" are not just issues for him. He's lived them.



If you want to help Tony, his ActBlue page is here. This is a special election. It won't be a long campaign. Several of Tony's primary opponents are incumbent California politicians. If you've been following the news, it's clear California is one big mess. Incumbent pols aren't the most popular people out there. So, there's an opening. And, it would be great to have someone in Congress who isn't afraid to be who he is and to stand up for what he believes. In so many ways, Tony is just what Congress needs.

And, very importantly, Petey, who is an excellent judge of character, loved Tony:
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Michael Jackson is dead

TMZ.com reported that Michael Jackson is dead:

We've just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50.

Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him. We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.

A source tells us Jackson was dead when paramedics arrived.

LaToya ran in the hospital sobbing, after Jackson was pronounced dead.

On issues like this, I tend to believe TMZ, but, MSNBC just confirmed via The Los Angeles Times. Read More......

On the DNC's gay fundraiser controversy: It started with that hateful DOMA brief

Since the AP did a piece on the DNC fundraiser, we should, too. After all, AMERICAblog helped get the ball rolling on this issue.

Coincidentally, I got a phone call from the DNC today. I looked at my caller ID, which read "DEM NATL COMM" -- and, thought, that can't be. After the woman started her pitch, I said, stop. I'm not giving to the DNC until the Obama administration shows some real action on gay issues, specifically the repeal of DADT and DOMA. I told the telemarketer to put that in my record so no one else would ask. She told me it had only been less than 200 days (that's the "give it some time" argument, which might have worked a month ago) to which I responded, read the DOMA brief.

That's what really caused the rift. The DOMA brief. The hateful, vicious DOMA brief. I'll never forget reading through that document for the first time, not really believing what I was seeing. And, Robert Gibbs told us that the President stands by that brief. Fine. But, don't ask me for anything til it's fixed.

Meanwhile, a lot of gays want things from the administration -- like jobs. Mike Signorile has been asking people who are going to the DNC fundraiser why they're still going. Funny thing how both Joan Garry and Dixon Osborne have sent resumes to Team Obama at one time or another. I also bet we could find another defender or two -- or many -- who have been looking for administration jobs. I know we could. They should just be honest about their motives.

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) will be protesting at the DNC fundraiser tonight. 265 people have been discharged since Barack Obama became president. That's just wrong. And, how any self-respecting member of the LGBT community can walk right by them tonight is beyond me. But, like I've written before, self-respecting is the operative word.

I really don't think people in DC get the real anger in the LBGT community over this mess. People were already angry that we lost rights in California last November. That really stings and made many of us much more fervent advocates. It's palpable. People in this town insulate themselves from reality -- even on gay issues. Insiders want to blame the furor on a few blogs or agitators. But for the record, this blogger and John supported Barack Obama last year during the primaries, which caused us a lot of grief. On June 3, 2008, the night Barack Obama secured the nomination, John got a text message "shout out" from Deputy Campaign Manager Steve Hildebrand thanking us for all we did. John and I both contributed to the campaign and did everything asked of us (and we were asked to do a lot.) What a difference a year makes.

We had high hopes that a president who was of our generation wouldn't be swayed by the backwards thinking of the Bush and Clinton administrations. But, Obama stocked his West Wing with people who think gays are trouble. So, this is where we are. And, it's not a good place. We tried to warn people. No one listened. But, to get this White House to listen, you have to play hard ball. For the LGBT community, that means shutting down the ATM.

The apologists are going to keep placing blame elsewhere. But, the blame lies within the White House. They created this mess. They have to fix it. And, no one who goes tonight or to the A-list party on Monday is going to change a thing. They're just enabling it.

I hope it's worth it for everyone who gets a picture with Joe Biden tonight. Smile pretty. But heed the words of Richard Socarides, who was quoted in the latest AP article:

"Unless the president on Monday articulates a strong action plan, and is willing to do it with cameras rolling, it is going to go from bad to worse," said Socarides, the Clinton adviser.

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"On gay rights, the country is already in the age of Obama, but he's governing from the Clinton era."

Tough, but accurate, AP article on the ongoing problem between the Obama administration and the LGBT community. It's set against the backdrop of tonight's DNC fundraiser, which many leaders and gay donors are boycotting. Here's how it starts:

President Barack Obama promised gay and lesbian voters he would repeal a law banning their open service in the military, would do away with a federal marriage law and would champion their causes from the White House. In his first five months, he's taken incremental steps that have little real effect and left some people feeling betrayed.

But he's still willing to take money from a reliably Democratic constituency — he was sending Vice President Joe Biden to a Democratic National Committee fundraiser Thursday evening with gay and lesbian donors.

Some gay donors called for a boycott after Obama's Justice Department, in a court filing, compared gay marriages to incest.

"I don't think it's an appropriate time to be raising money. No one is happy now," said Richard Socarides, who advised former President Bill Clinton on gay issues and did not plan to attend the event. "On gay rights, the country is already in the age of Obama, but he's governing from the Clinton era."

Yes, they are willing to take our money. What's sad is that some people are willing to give it.

Read the whole article. Seriously. This is how it ends:

The White House plans an East Room reception on Monday for gay and lesbian advocates to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Greenwich Village demonstrations at the Stonewall Tavern in New York City. The demonstrations are viewed as the start of the modern gay rights movement.

"Unless the president on Monday articulates a strong action plan, and is willing to do it with cameras rolling, it is going to go from bad to worse," said Socarides, the Clinton adviser.

It's up to the President to fix this now. He just has to keep his word. It is bad. It shouldn't get worse. Read More......

Michael Savage issues threat aimed at staff of Media Matters

And, he wonders why Great Britain banned him.

This week, right-wing radio host, Michael Savage threatened Media Matters in a very creepy and disturbing manner:

From a June 24 Examiner.com article:

Right wing talker Michael Savage vowed yesterday during his broadcast that he will retaliate against media watchdog Media Matters for America by posting pictures and "pertinent information" about the organization's staff on his website. He made the comment almost in passing during one of his infamous rants, but did not explain what he expected his followers known as the "Savage Nation" to do with the information.

[...]

Against this backdrop the threat to post pictures and personal information about media watchdogs as a response to criticism can legitimately be perceived as a threat. Michael Savage may be famous for brash talk and incendiary language, but recent history must be taken into account as his "Savage Nation" may take the talker's inflammatory posting as marching orders to take action against his enemies.

Yes, it can legitimately be perceived as a threat. It's sick. Savage knows what kind of messages he's sending to the nuts who follow him. This is what the right wing has come to in America. Savage and his ilk, who aren't too far removed from more traditional right-wingers, resort to threats in an attempt to silence critics.

But, Media Matters isn't going to be silenced: Read More......

Sanford emails to Maria are pretty graphic

Happy Fathers Day! I'm still wondering what in the world Sanford was thinking about having kids in the background for his press conference yesterday when he announced his affair. What kind of bizarre idiot does that? I guess the same kind that uses public email to send spicy emails to his mistress in Argentina.

Later Wednesday, The State newspaper in South Carolina released e-mail exchanges between the governor and the woman, identified only as Maria. Sanford's office Wednesday did not dispute the authenticity of the emails, The State reported. One exchange was dated July 10, 2008 when the governor is reported to have written to her:

"Two, mutual feelings .... You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that so fitting with your beauty. I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night's light - but hey, that would be going into sexual details ..."

Sanford, who in recent months had been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2012, ignored questions at the news conference about whether he would step down as governor.

So he voted for impeaching Clinton but like Vitter and the rest of the Republican hypocrites, he's different. He wants to cling on to power no matter what. Here are the full emails from The State. Read More......

A smart Senate and House leader....

...would immediately bring up for a vote the repeal of DOMA while the Republicans are reeling from their second bimbo eruption in a week. Let the Republicans start talking about the protection of traditional marriage. Just let them. If anything, the DOMA repeal FORCES the entire country to keep talking about the ongoing GOP sex scandals.

Calling Harry and Nancy... Read More......

Farrah Fawcett has died

MSNBC has more. Read More......

New Protections for Transgender Federal Workers

From the NYT:

Lawyers for President Obama are quietly drafting first-of-their kind guidelines barring workplace discrimination against transgender federal employees, officials said Tuesday.

The guidelines will be in an updated federal handbook for managers and supervisors to be distributed and posted online in the next couple of months, and they could also be included in other materials for managers. They will list transgender people — those who identify their gender differently from the information on their birth certificates — as among several groups protected by antidiscrimination laws.

This is a good thing, and an important step for the transgender community. But don't think for a minute that the President would have held that Oval Office signing ceremony if the community hadn't risen up in anger over the anti-gay DOMA brief.

An important point. Obviously the Obama administration is worried about the uproar from the community. And obviously, they are doing things like adding gender identity to the federal non-discrimination regulations, letting married gay couples change their names on their passports, providing some benefits (not health care) to some partners of some federal employees because they're trying to play some catch up. And good. They need to catch up. But one thing is missing. An explanation as to what happened two weeks ago when Barack Obama's Department of Justice compared gay marriage to incest and pedophilia?

Not a word from the White House about that little chestnut. And there's the rub. It's great that the White House suddenly feels the need to act on a number of issues that help the gay community, only after we collectively beat the crap out of them. And they seem intent on finding every non-top-of-the-agenda item they can to "fix" in order to boost their pro-gay bona fides. Today, for example, we learn of the government's apology to Frank Kameny for having fired him 40 years ago for being gay. This is good thing. But again, it is not an explanation for how our president's DOJ could compare us to incest and pedophilia, and for why our president refuses to issue a stop-loss order preventing real governmental discrimination taking place today in 2009, not in 1957. It's almost as if the Obama administration hopes that if it can piece together a big enough list of small items, they can make us go away on our biggest issues, Obama's biggest promises, to repeal DOMA and DADT.

Let's remind the White House once again why we are all here:

Will this president apologize for comparing our community to incest and pedophilia?
Will he explain why the brief gratuitously argued for the dismantlement of the legal underpinning of our civil rights (suggesting that Loving v. Virginia had nothing to do with gay marriage equality)?
Will he explain why our civil rights do not matter his making an exemption - which he is in his rights to do - to the standard, but not exclsuvei, practice of a president defending existing law? Why won't he oppose DOMA in court?

And then there's DADT. Barack Obama is destroying the lives of two patriotic US service members a day. He could issue a stop-loss order, ceasing the discharges, today. He refuses to. Why? Because he claims that repealing DADT is better. Yes it is. But since President Obama is doing nothing, planning nothing, to repeal DADT, then why not stop the discharges now, and then get to the repeal later? Silence. The reason Obama won't repeal DADT now is that this would require him to take the lead. And what we're learning about our president is that when seemingly controversial issues arise, he suddenly becomes the Follower of the Free World, rather than its leader. Read More......

Groups upset about Britney Spears doing Holocaust-related film

I'm covering this because it's a culture story that intersects with politics and history. I personally find it fascinating. In a nutshell, Britney Spears is reviewing the script of a movie that:

...would see her playing a character named Sophia LaMont who travels back in time to fall in love with a Jewish concentration camp prisoner named Eton. In a tricky critique of ongoing anti-Semitism, the script concludes with the lovebirds travelling back to the present day before being killed by Nazis.

And the outrage ensued.

Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, has said she is horrified at the prospect of Britney making a Holocaust film. "In films that deal with the Holocaust, the script should be carefully chosen and the cast picked with care," Knobloch told the German tabloid Bild. "It is reprehensible to combine the issue of the Holocaust with Britney Spears in an attempt to secure financing for the film 'The Yellow Star of Sophia and Eton.' Ethical considerations should have priority."

I'm not sure I get it. Yes, Britney is fluffy, but how does it hurt the memory of the Holocaust to have an entire generation of Britney fans educated to the fact that there was a Holocaust, and that it was a very bad thing?

I'm not Jewish, so I may not have the same sensitivities here. It sounds like it's a love story involving a Jewish victim of the Holocaust. Again, I just don't see why this doesn't help educate a lot of kids about something they need to know about. Am I wrong? Read More......

New rules

Marriage is between a man and a woman and a woman in Argentina. Read More......

Pro gun activist threatens judges

Every country has its problems but I sure don't miss people like this. I hope Fitzgerald throws the book at this guy.

A federal complaint filed in Chicago said that Hal Turner, 47, had posted "outrage" on his Web site over the handgun decision by Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook and Judges Richard Posner and William Bauer of the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

According to the complaint, Turner described the court decision in a June 2 posting and said, "Let me be the first to say this plainly: These judges deserve to be killed."

The postings included photos, contact information and room numbers of the judges along with a picture and map of the building in which they work, the complaint said.

"We take threats to federal judges very seriously. Period," said Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Read More......

More damage to the badly damaged GOP brand

So, while some Democrats in Washington are scrambling to engage Republicans and other Democrats seem to have forgotten they were elected to lead, the Republican Party is crumbling and the GOP brand is being destroyed. No cred. No leaders. No ideas.

The Sanford scandal cuts across many of the GOP's problems:

But Sanford's story is more than personal. For a Republican Party down on its luck, the governor's disappearance and subsequent rambling apology to his wife, his family, his close friends and all the people of South Carolina draw more unwelcome publicity to a party that needs but cannot seem to get any good news.

Coming a week after Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) admitted to an extramarital affair, the scandal will impact the Republicans in several ways. First, it further damages the GOP brand, potentially driving away more voters or at least making it more difficult to win back some of those who abandoned the party in the past two elections. Second, it could disillusion social and religious conservatives -- a critically important part of the Republican coalition -- who may now wonder whether those who share the Republican label truly share their values. Third, the Sanford saga removes one more new-generation GOP leader from the field of prospective 2012 candidates, adding to doubts about the strength of the party's bench.

For Republicans, the long winter continues. "It's bad news," said Peter Wehner, a former Bush White House adviser, of the back-to-back confessions by Sanford and Ensign. "It reflects on them individually, but it reflects on the party. The Democrats are vulnerable on a number of areas, including scandals. They've had their own on a range of issues. But if you accept as I do that the Republican brand is hurt, this does more damage to it."

From the New York Times, we learn that one of the leaders of those "social and religious conservatives" isn't happy. Tony Perkins, the gay-obsessed theocrat who tries to control the GOP, doesn't know who the party is anymore:

“I think there is somewhat of an identity crisis in the Republican Party,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, an evangelical group in Washington. “Are they going to be a party that attracts values voters, and are they going to be the party that lives by those values?”

Someone should tell Tony Perkins that the GOPers just talk about values for others.

Democrats in Washington and their consultants, who are so used to caving in to Republicans, need to catch up. The GOP is increasingly irrelevant, except for the relevance Democrats bestow upon that damaged party. Read More......

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

So, another rabidly homophobic, sanctimonious right-winger is a fraud. What a surprise.

The GOP is imploding before our eyes. No cred. No leaders. No ideas. No power. The surprise, however, is that so many Democrats here in DC still take the Republicans seriously and worry about bipartisanship. But, there are some leaders, some staffers and some high-paid consultants who are still acting like Republicans matter. They're the only ones who empower the GOP.

Tonight is the DNC's gay fundraiser. Be interesting to see just which gay Dems. show up. The gay ATM should be closed. But, no doubt, some will attend. Those who have jobs, want administration jobs or need something from the Obama administration. Wasn't to hard to connect the dots. We'll have more later, of course. If you want to attend the protest, here's the Facebook page organizing the entire thing:

Thursday, June 25, 2009
5:00pm - 11:00pm
Mandarin Oriental Hotel
1330 Maryland Avenue SW
Washington, DC

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

BABs is the talk of the summer

One day, one of our political leaders - preferably a few in a few different countries - is going to develop a spine and bring this industry back to planet earth. Don't count on Congress and Obama looks less likely by the day to create any kind of confrontation. He may already be looking for a new middle ground with them so they can live as comfortably as possible. It's good to be the king.

BAB stands for Bonuses are Back, and its arrival in the lexicon of the Square Mile is evidence that bankers are once again looking forward to bumper payouts, just eight months after the sector faced meltdown and governments worldwide were required to prop them up.

It is universally accepted that the vast rewards available to bankers for taking huge risks were the root cause of the crisis, but nevertheless Goldman Sachs's 28,000 staff – 5,400 of them in London – are now looking forward to the biggest payouts in the bank's 140-year history. Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Barclays Capital, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are also anticipating bumper profits.

Even Royal Bank of Scotland, which is now 70% owned by the UK taxpayer and was supposed to restrict the way it pays bonuses, is back in bonanza mode. In March, a key executive was awarded millions of shares and options, already worth more than £8m. This week it emerged that the new chief executive, Stephen Hester, has a £15m pay package.

Let's face facts here. Big Finance completely owns London and Washington and there's not a damned thing either is willing to do to change this. Nothing at all. London and NY have been global leaders in finance for years so both are terrified to take any action that would push this group out the door, or at least make such threats. Again, their pay is so far ahead of every other industry and for what reason? They blew it on a global scale yet you would never know it these days. Read More......

Arrests continue in Iran, possibly including Mousavi's wife

One of the most interesting aspects of the movement in Iran has been the extensive involvement of women. Repressed for so long, Iranian women have been very active in the protests. Among a very long list of opposition politicians and protesters arrested or believed to have been arrested is Zahra Rahnavard. The Indepedent:

Amnesty International warned yesterday that those arrested risked being tortured and urged the authorities to allow detainees access to their families, lawyers and medical treatment. "Anyone detained solely for their peaceful expressions of their views regarding the outcome of the election should be released immediately and unconditionally," it said.

Those arrested include Fazeh Hashemi, an MP and daughter of the former president Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, along with four relatives. Ebrahim Yazdi, a former foreign minister and aide to the "Father of the Revolution", has also been detained along with Muhammed Travassali, former mayor of Tehran; Behzad Nabavi, a past figure in the revolution who negotiated with the US during the 1979-81 embassy hostage crisis; and Mohammed Ali Abatabi, advisor to the former president Mohammad Khatami.

The exact number in detention remains unclear. The state prosecutor's office puts the figure at about 550, but, according to some officials inside Tehran's main prison, Evin, nearly 1,000 people have been brought in. Those taken to Evin say they have been forced to make filmed confessions and implicate members of political parties.

Some of the detainees initially taken to Evin have been moved to other prisons including Gohardasht, 12 miles west of Tehran; Prison 209, run by VEVAK, the secret service; and Prison 59, under the control of the Revolutionary Guards. It is in the latter two places that there have been the most persistent reports of mistreatment.

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Sarkozy hires Mitterand

The results have been lacking and his campaign talk about affirmative action has disappeared but I still give him some credit for hiring a wide variety of people for his cabinet. After the same old, same old forever he has introduced many cabinet members who never would have been chosen in the old model. It's unfortunate that some of the early choices who represented diversity have been pushed out or aside. Maybe too much change stressed him out. The Guardian:

He's a TV personality with a trademark booming voice, a writer, film-maker and gay activist who is not only an expert on world monarchy but part of the closest thing the French republic has to a royal family: the Mitterrand clan.

Frédéric Mitterrand, the nephew of the late socialist president François Mitterrand, has been appointed France's culture minister in a highly symbolic move by Nicolas Sarkozy.

The unashamedly rightwing French president has a deliberate strategy of poaching high-profile personalities from the left. Sarkozy's "rainbow cabinet" of all political colours, including the leftwing foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, was always intended to wrongfoot his critics and weaken the moribund French left. But Mitterrand's appointment in the mid-term government reshuffle announced tonight was seen as the ultimate prize – it is as close as Sarkozy can get to the respected former socialist president and idol of the left.

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