More evidence that the recession is easing

Good news, but as Krugman notes, unless we turn unemployment around, and it's not turning around, we ain't going anywhere fast. Read the rest of this post...

AP: GOP Hints Dems Would Deny Republicans Health Care

Any day now the Democrats and the White House are going to stand up, bare their teeth, show some backbone, and put an end to this. Yep. Any day now. Just one more slight... or maybe a few more slights... and Democrats are finally going to have had enough, and they're gonna stand up, walk right up to Republicans, poke their finger in the GOP's collective chest, and politely ask Republicans if they might consider toning down a few of the lies, just a bit, maybe in exchange for turning 40% of the health care bill into tax cuts.

This is the way you are treated when you don't just show weakness, but ooze it from your pores. Read the rest of this post...

Obama to keep creepy laptop border inspection policy

Yes, it stopped a potential terrorist. So would wiretapping all of our phones without search warrants. Oh yeah, they tried that. The point is that simply because a policy yields results does not make it ethical or wise. The whole notion of scanning people's laptops at the border is terribly creepy. If there's a suspicion, they should pull you aside and ask your permission, and if you say no, then they can go to a magistrate of some kind. But in today's day and age, a laptop computer is no longer just a book you happen to be carrying in electronic form. It's your entire business, postal correspondence, personal finances, and sex life life all rolled into one. We simply should not be treating it as though it's simply another book you happen to be carrying with you. Read the rest of this post...

New York arrests nude model

How dare a nude model pose next to nude statues. That would be obscene.

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is full of nudes in marble and oil on canvas. But the idea of a real, naked human body is, it seems, just too much for the authorities.

Kathleen "KC" Neill, 26, was arrested yesterday and charged with public lewdness after posing naked in the museum for photographer Zach Hyman as part of a series of nudes in New York's public spaces.

"It's just ridiculous," Hyman, 22, said of the charge. "There are sculptures of nude men and women in there. There are paintings of nude men and women in there. They're talking about children in there and seeing this happen and how awful it is. Then don't bring your kids to the Met."

Yesterday afternoon, Hyman, who has shot nudes in Times Square, in the subway, in a church and other public spaces without complaint, entered the museum with Neill and his support team. At what Hyman thought was the appropriate moment, Neill shed her dress and the photographer got to work. Seconds later Neill donned her clothes and Hyman handed the film to an aide.

Read the rest of this post...

Sam Stein: Race-Based Protests Directed At Obama Continue To Rise

From Sam Stein at Huff Post:

Race-based attacks and criticism of President Obama have been on the rise during the dog days of August. And they're not just happening at health care town hall protests.

A reader sent over a picture of a group of protesters camped outside Rep. Susan Davis's (D-Calif.). "Neighborhood Day" event this past week, brandishing signs calling the president a Black Supremacist and suggesting he's a Nazi disciple.

What's most disturbing is that these people are no longer the wacky fringe. They're the mainstay, the base, of the GOP. A decade ago Republicans had only the religious right's wackiness to deal with. Now they have conspiracy nuts and outright racists regularly representing them at political events, and Republican members of Congress inciting, and embracing, the violent nuts.

What's truly shocking is that Republicans are still comparing our president to Hitler, and no one on the left has yet figured out how to capitalize on this. How many times do you think we'd have gotten away with comparing George Bush to Hitler? In fact, the answer is: Zero. MoveOn was perpetually blamed for comparing Bush to Hitler, when in fact MoveOn did nothing of the kind. The Republicans wanted to scare MoveOn, and more importantly, hurt MoveOn's brand among Democrats. And to some degree it worked. And what do Democrats do when Republicans actually, repeatedly, compare our president to Hitler?

[crickets] Read the rest of this post...

'Too big to fail' now even larger problem

Obviously not too many lessons have been learned during this recession. The soft touch approach towards the banking industry (something you never see when the tables are turned) has been great for the remaining banks though for consumers it only gets worse. Fewer choices are available and the problem of banks that were too big to fail has become worse. Business as usual is a puzzling response to this crisis.

The crisis may be turning out very well for many of the behemoths that dominate U.S. finance. A series of federally arranged mergers safely landed troubled banks on the decks of more stable firms. And it allowed the survivors to emerge from the turmoil with strengthened market positions, giving them even greater control over consumer lending and more potential to profit.

J.P. Morgan Chase, an amalgam of some of Wall Street's most storied institutions, now holds more than $1 of every $10 on deposit in this country. So does Bank of America, scarred by its acquisition of Merrill Lynch and partly government-owned as a result of the crisis, as does Wells Fargo, the biggest West Coast bank. Those three banks, plus government-rescued and -owned Citigroup, now issue one of every two mortgages and about two of every three credit cards, federal data show.

A year after the near-collapse of the financial system last September, the federal response has redefined how Americans get mortgages, student loans and other kinds of credit and has made a national spectacle of executive pay. But no consequence of the crisis alarms top regulators more than having banks that were already too big to fail grow even larger and more interconnected.

Read the rest of this post...

How FOX News, Hannity, Beck, Goldberg, O'Reilly and the rest brought lying to a new level

This new video by Media Matters illustrates the difference between Democrats and Republicans. They have an ability to lie that is simply unparalleled. You won't find any of the top liberal pundits who are willing to look at a camera and lie as blatantly as the faces in this video. It would be like Markos and me going on TV and arguing that the Republican health care alternative is to legalize pedophilia. Not only would we not do it for ethical reasons, we wouldn't get away with it - the media would correct us, as would our readers. We always knew that conservatives, as a whole, had a problem with intolerance and anger. Now it's becoming clear that the detritus that is the Republican party also has a serious problem with the truth.

Read the rest of this post...

GOP health care protesters heckle woman in wheel chair

Fascinating video from a reporter with the Star-Ledger in New Jersey who attended a health care rally hosted by Congressman Frank Pallone, and got to witness first-hand how ugly the Republicans are who are attending these forums. But true to form, the reporter felt the need to make an equivalence between people who called him a communist, as he put it, and people who "dismissed him" because he thought tort reform should be included.

Let me repeat: Dismissing him is the same as calling him a communist and heckling a disabled woman in a wheelchair. One pro-Obama guy in the audience of hundreds was loud, the reporter says, versus pretty much every person on the GOP side who was loud, and for this reporter it's clear that there's no room for reason on either side of this debate.

No, there's no room for reason on the right and they keep yelling everyone else down.

I appreciate that this guy did a good video, and clearly has thought this through, but in the end he felt the need far too many reporters do to try to make the news equal, make both sides look just as bad, rather than just reporting the facts. And the facts in this story are that one Obama supporter out of 100s was unruly, versus practically every single Republican in the crowd, and they were downright hateful.

Read the rest of this post...

Anti-marriage campaign in Maine hiring actors for its ads

Last week, organizations supporting marriage equality in Maine launched a t.v. ad with a series of Mainers talking about their support for equality. The ad is here and it's good. Maine's a small enough state that a lot of people will know the real people in those ads.

That brings us to Stand for Marriage, the campaign trying to repeal the state's same-sex marriage law via referendum in November. They don't have real Mainers in their ads. They need actors. That campaign sent out a casting call to find actors to appear in its anti-equality ads. $500/day. I'm not kidding:

Casting Director James Stiles is putting out the word that he’s looking for two “real Maine” women to appear in a television ad produced by supporters of traditional marriage.

Stiles is looking for a “teacher type” and a “working waitress type,” both in the 35-45 age range. If you want to try out, he’s holding auditions from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday (Sept. 2) at the Howard Johnson in South Portland.

If you’re hired, it’s a three day gig that pays $500 a day.

Actors, they're the next best thing to real people. But, if they're paid actors, they're not "real Mainers."

Combine this with the fact that Stand for Maine is using stock images from a company called "Monkey Business" on its website. Stand for Maine will have plenty of money to run its anti-marriage effort. (Those two actors advertised for above cost $3,000 @ $500/day for three days each.) They need it some of it just to get people to be in their ads and on their website.

We're raising money for No on 1/Protect Maine Equality via ActBlue. Our side doesn't need to pay people to be in our ads. But, we'll need money to counter the other side's war chest. In Maine, every dollar matters and early money really helps. Voting in Maine starts in early October. Read the rest of this post...

Crist picks former top aide as new Senator from Florida

Florida Governor Charlie Crist named the successor to Mel Martinez. George LeMiuex, who was Crist's chief of staff, will serve the remainder of Martinez's term. The Miami Herald reports that LeMieux is Crist's "political shadow." And, Charlie Crist is already running for this seat in next year's election. Turns out LeMieux is already quite controversial within GOP circles, according to the Herald:

While LeMieux has steadily avoided discussing the clients he represented at Gunster Yoakley, he had to disclose on a Senate questionnaire last week that he had a consulting business, MTC Strategies, named after each initial of his three boys. Federal election records show he earned $150,000 in consulting fees in the past 13 months from the Republican Party of Florida.

LeMieux wouldn't discuss what he did to earn that money.

LeMieux said he's representing the Florida Department of Transportation in negotiations with Florida East Coast railroad and he's negotiating the Seminole Tribe of Florida gambling agreement on Crist's behalf for free.

But Republican operative Roger Stone, who has campaigned publicly against the choice of LeMieux for the Senate, questioned whether LeMieux was really working pro bono. Stone pointed to a Herald/Times blog report showing that 71 percent of the $912,000 the Seminoles directly gave to the Republican Party since 1996 was donated since Crist took over party fundraising after he won the 2006 Republican governor's race primary.

"The pattern of giving and the flow of money to LeMieux are deeply concerning," said Stone, who has done political work for South Florida pari-mutuels opposed to the Seminole compact. "I don't see how you can be an objective negotiator with the tribe when it appears as if he was paid by the Seminoles using RPOF as a pass through."

It's a little shady when a prominent party activist/consultant won't disclose what he does for pay. But, it's very, very shady when a U.S. Senator won't disclose it. Read the rest of this post...

There are death panels: The insurance industry runs them

A woman talks about the runaround she got from United Healthcare when her husband was diagnosed with liver cancer. I think it's time that Democrats, and our advocacy groups, launch a campaign for every Republican who talks about "socialism" to give up their current, or future, access to Medicare for themselves and their family. They can a sign a "socialism free" promise. This is the kind of nasty campaigning the Democrats shouldn't have done from the beginning - such as, demanding that Congressmen give up their cushy federally subsidized health insurance, since it too is socialism. But they didn't. There's still time for everyone to show a little backbone. Read the rest of this post...

ADN: SarahPAC taken to task by feds for illegal contributions

Palin: The software made me do it.

We still need to find the reason that Palin so abruptly resigned, late on a Friday, before a holiday weekend, without preparing a well-conceived statement. It was far too quick a decision to have been done for benign personal reasons. Read the rest of this post...

Limbaugh, Hannity and Bauer urge Democrats not to let Kennedy's death rejuvenate push for health care reform

An addict, a pretty boy past his prime, and an effeminate heterosupremacist think Ted Kennedy is best remembered by not passing the health care reform bill that he said he wanted right before he died.

That's all you need to know. If Limbaugh, Hannity and Bauer are preemptively agitating against Kennedy's memory motivating Democrats to pass a good bill, then that means that Kennedy's memory is quite a dangerous thing in their minds.

Democrats need to take care. Republicans will absolutely try to cheapen Kennedy's memorial and memory, just as they did Wellstone's. But the lesson here is not to ignore Kennedy's dying wishes, it's to defend them at all costs. We lose when we don't prepare for battle, and when we don't fight back. We don't lose simply because we tried to fight. In fact, fighting back is the only chance we have at ever winning. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

August is winding down and what a month it's been. The craziness at the Town Hall meetings from the GOP base was outdone only by the insanity of Republican leaders. In Idaho this week, a GOP candidate for Governor joked about hunting Obama, comparing it to hunting wolves. That may have been the worst episode. Senator Tom Coburn's refusal to reject threats of violence against the government, because he thinks the government has earned those threats, is a pretty close second. Those weren't just isolated incidents of crazy talk from Republican leaders over the past few weeks. There were more, including just about everything Rep. Michelle Bachmann said. This is the modern day GOP -- and there's no hope of any bipartisanship coming from this crowd. None.

Let's get it started.. Read the rest of this post...

British Conservatives piloting "budget airline" approach to government

So the US had its first "CEO President" with George Bush and now the Thatcherite Conservatives want to confuse business and government. There's a reason why nobody talks about the "CEO President" these days because it was a failure. Government is government. Business is business. They're not the same nor are the goals the same.

Delivering minimal services and asking constituents to pay a premium for anything more is only fair if you have deep pockets. It's bad enough that big business maintains too much control over government but in the minds of the Thatcherites, regular people ought to be pushed aside even more. It sounds a lot like "compassionate conservatism" which was anything but compassionate. How could anyone possibly think this is a good idea?

A leading Conservative council is using the business model of budget airlines, Ryanair and easyJet, to inspire a radical reform of public service provision which is being seen as a blueprint for Tory government.

The practices of the no-frills airlines, who charge customers extra for services which were once considered part of the standard fare, are being emulated by the London borough of Barnet as it embarks on "a relentless drive for efficiency". A spokesman for the council has unofficially dubbed the project "EasyCouncil".

Barnet wants householders to pay extra to jump the queue for planning consents, in the way budget airlines charge extra for priority boarding. And as budget airline passengers choose to spend their budget on either flying at peaktime or having an in-flight meal, recipients of adult social care in Barnet will choose to spend a limited budget on whether to have a cleaner or a respite carer or even a holiday to Eastbourne. Other examples of proposed reforms include reducing the size of waste bins to minimise the cost of council rubbish collections.

The proposals are being seen as an example of "new Conservatism" which is spreading among Tory-controlled boroughs. Observers believe "radical outriders" such as Barnet offer a glimpse of how a David Cameron government could overhaul public service provision in an era of heavy spending cuts.

Read the rest of this post...

French Socialist party looks at open primary

Something definitely has to change following repeated losses in national elections. Their recent success has been limited to being a reaction against the right but rarely have they produced exciting new ideas. The left remains splintered and the leadership continues to be a closed group that somehow always produces the same candidates with the same backgrounds. Even the right wing Sarkozy managed to be the first to create a multi-cultural cabinet rather than the same old group of white men who graduated from l'ENA. (He has since backed off from that in favor of same old, same old.)

The change would remove the party elite/insiders from complete control of new candidates and instead, create a primary system much like we have in the US where regular voters have a say. The party machine will still remain powerful but new candidates could stand a better chance of emerging. Will the old guard give up their power and influence to control choices? Maybe they are finally ready. Stay tuned.

An American-style primary election open to all French voters will be organised by the Parti Socialiste (PS), the main opposition party, to pick the man or woman who will challenge President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012.

The principle of an "open primary" was embraced yesterday by the socialist leader, Martine Aubry, in an attempt to bind together a party which has looked to be on the point of disintegration in recent months.

"To reinvent democracy we must make profound changes to the habits and political rules of our own party," she wrote in Le Monde newspaper.

Several poisonous issues in her party remain unresolved, however, and will enliven – or embitter – public and private debate at the PS annual congress, or "summer university", which starts today in at La Rochelle.

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UN: war in Darfur is over

For now, at least. Not everyone is as convinced though.

The six-year war in Darfur is effectively over, according to the United Nations military commander in the region. The conflict that has cost 300,000 lives, according to UN estimates, and displaced up to 2.7 million people has ended, General Martin Luther Agwai said yesterday.

"As of today, I would not say there is a war going on in Darfur," the outgoing head of the joint UN-African Union mission told reporters in the Sudanese capital Khartoum. "Militarily there is not much. What you have is security issues more now. Banditry, localised issues, people trying to resolve issues over water and land at a local level. But real war as such, I think we are over that."

However, the Nigerian general's comments drew an angry response from Western campaigners and some Sudan observers. One regional analyst, Gill Lusk, said the remarks were unhelpful because they could lead people to believe that Darfur's problems had been solved. "There has been a large decline in fighting in Darfur, and that is undoubtedly a good thing for the people," she told the BBC. "But it is the government that turns the tap on and off – they can restart the violence whenever they want."

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Obama and Congress to strengthen school lunch nutrition

A great idea and long overdue. It's quite a contrast from Reagan and the GOP classifying ketchup as a vegetable back in the '80s. Compassionate people, weren't they?

President Obama has proposed a $1-billion annual increase for Child Nutrition Act programs, which currently cost about $15 billion a year. The act covers the government's reimbursements to school districts for meals; summer and after-school food programs; food served at many day-care facilities for children and adults; and the Special Supplemental Nutrition program for Women, Infants and Children, which provided food to more than 8 million people in 2007.

Some reforms seem likely. Woolsey's bill has more than 150 cosponsors and industry and school groups' support.

"The huge increase in obesity got attention," said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center in Washington.

The National School Lunch Program, which feeds 30 million children a day, and the School Breakfast Program, which feeds a third that many, are getting much of the attention. Expanding the breakfast program is a priority for many. Starting the day hungry, experts say, affects children's ability to behave and learn.

Read the rest of this post...

GOP Sen. Inhofe on health care reform: "I don't have to read it, or know what's in it. I'm going to oppose it anyways."

Never the smartest teabagger in the pot. Read the rest of this post...

FDIC loosens rules for private equity

Getting fresh buyers into the banking system and moving away from the same old Wall Street crowd. "Too big to fail" has only become worse since the recession started. That said, easing regulations for an industry known for taking too many risks is not the most comforting news.

Squeezed by rising bank failures, regulators made it easier Wednesday for private investors to buy failed institutions.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s board voted 4-1 to reduce the cash that private equity funds must maintain in banks they acquire.

Private equity funds tend to buy distressed companies, slash costs and then resell them a few years later. They have been criticized for excessive risk-taking. But the depth of the banking crisis has softened the FDIC’s resistance to them.

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