Jobless claims drop to lowest since March 2008

The soft economy is far from over, but this is another good sign. This news also presents problems for the GOP who have been talking about damaging Obama has been. Meanwhile, we can look overseas at the countries who have forced austerity, such as the UK. They're heading in the opposite direction, which is precisely where the GOP wants to take the US. Bloomberg:

Applications for unemployment insurance decreased 2,000 in the week ended Feb. 25 to 351,000, Labor Department figures showed today. Economists forecast 355,000 claims, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. The number of people on unemployment benefit rolls fell, while those getting extended payments also declined. Firing is on a downward trend as employers gain confidence in the outlook for economic growth. A smaller number of job reductions also puts those companies in place to hire additional employees as demand picks up. “Firing is not holding back the labor market,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania, who forecast 350,000 claims. “Businesses recognize that they don’t need to lay off any more people. Down the road, they’re going to realize they need to hire more people.”

Looking forward though, unemployment remains high and manufacturing has some issues. Read the rest of this post...

"Ohio Manufacturers for Romney" received stimulus money

Give it time and Mitt will flip flop on this one too. Maybe Mitt bashed the stimulus a little too early? Think Progress:

Lincoln Electric of Cleveland received a sub-award of $1,125,00 on April 7, 2010 from the Ohio Department of Communications Development for an energy-related project in Euclid, Ohio. RPM International of Medina received two sub-awards in 2010, totaling $458,758 for two U.S. Army projects.

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Video: The 3 Little Pigs, a Fractured Fairy Tale

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Another arrest at Murdoch's UK newspaper

Maybe Murdoch can get a group discount on legal fees. Then again, you need to know the quantity before you can negotiation a group discount and there are probably many more to be arrested. The Independent:

The defence editor of The Sun newspaper was arrested today on suspicion of paying public officials for information. Virginia Wheeler, 32, appeared at a south London police station by appointment to answer questions related to evidence sent by News Corporation's management standards committee to Scotland Yard.

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Limbaugh calls woman who testified at Dem contraceptive hearing a "sl-t"

In fact she's a Georgetown Law Student by the name of Sandra Fluke, and she was testifying as to why contraceptives are important to women. Here's some of her testimony, via ThinkProgress:

A friend of mine, for example, has polycystic ovarian syndrom and has to take prescription birth control to stop cysts from growing on her ovaries. [...] After months of paying over $100 out of pocket, she just couldn’t afford her medication anymore and had to stop taking it. [...] Without taking the birth control, a massive cyst had grown on her ovary. She had to have surgery to remove her entire ovary. [...]

Since last year’s surgery, she’s been experiencing night sweats, weight gain, and other symptoms of early menopause as a result of the removal of her ovary. She’s 32 years old. As she put it: “If my body is indeed in early menopause, no fertility specialist in the world will be able to help me have my own children.”

Here's what Limbaugh said, via Digby.

LIMBAUGH: What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke [sic] who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex. What does that make her? It makes her a sl-t, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.

Here's more Limbaugh, via Media Matters:

"So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex. We want something for it. We want you post the videos online so we can all watch."

"She's having so much sex it's amazing she can still walk."

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25 people who think Obama murdered Breitbart

Another two-fer post. You've probably heard by now that Andrew Breitbart died "unexpectedly" — not scare quotes, just quotes; we have no update on that yet.

Let the memes begin.

Meme 1 — Breitbart was murdered by Obama because Breitbart had "his college films." Over at Buzzfeed, Matt Stopera has been collecting right-wing tweets on this one. Samples:

@DedraRussell tweets: "@mzagorski:Did Obama kill Breitbart?-"I Have Obama College Films" Andrew Breitbart:youtu.be/-fRQ2lIQ3Lg The Obama gay lover,coke habit ones

@docpotter tweets: Andrew Brietbart said he has secret college photos of Obama - now dead at 43!!! http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/conservative-activist-andrew-breitbart-dies-at-43-20120301

Lots more here.

I predict this will never die, just like the "Clinton body count". Martyrdom assured.

Meme 2 — Liberals should be ashamed of themselves for not honoring the dead. That's your classic right-wing fog job. Breitbart had his way with Ted Kennedy's still-warm corpse, but no one on the right shamed him. So why shame us?

That's not a rhetorical question. There's an answer. The goal in shaming us is to get us to shame each other. They win if we do (and they know it). And any one on the left who falls into that trap needs to be unconfused, quickly.

People get to feel however they want when anyone dies. And it's not my job (or yours, or theirs) to shape someone else's reaction to this beast having passed. Anyone on the left who shames others on the left is doing the work of the Right; it's just that simple.

It's a Fog Job, sowing confusion, like the fog job they did on the American flag. It was turned into a hate symbol by the Right during the Vietnam War, and then they pretend that not to wear it is "just" a lack of patriotism. I'm more patriotic than most, but I don't wear the flag. Then again, I'm not afraid to say the flag is used as a hate symbol and I don't wear hate symbols. Fog job.

About those "Obama college films" by the way, here's the Breitbart speech that inspires that first meme.



Notice how much of what he says about us is exactly right about himself and his movement. Your 180 Tell in action, folks.

Oh, and if you really want to honor a man, no better way than to follow his example. Not my way, of course — death at 43 gives me the willies — but others may find it appropriate.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Momentum in North Carolina to defeat anti-gay Amendment One on May 8

We posted this on AMERICAblog Gay, but wanted to share here, too.

The campaign to defeat Amendment One is kicking into high gear with just over nine weeks until the May 8th election. Today, Protect All NC Families released a new video titled, Momentum:

And, the campaign set up a new site with great tools for the campaign here.

They've also shared some key details about their momentum:

117 partners have joined the coalition — including the NAACP, Southerners on New Ground, the Libertarian Party of North Carolina, and numerous faith congregations.

We have 30 staff and seven field offices across the state.

We have raised more than $600,000 — more than $150,000 of that has come in online, with more than $80,000 of that number coming in the last three weeks.

We have more than 2,000 donors who have given $92 on average — the grassroots donors are with this campaign. We have raised our money in $10, 100, 250 and 1,000 chunks and we are ahead of schedule with what we have raised from that category.

We have more than 15,000 volunteers at this point and we are making 20,000 voter calls per week.

Important validators such as Senator Kay Hagan, Lt. Governor Walter Dalton, the conservative Carolina Review, libertarian thinker Michael Munger, Myers Park Baptist and others have come out in opposition to the amendment in recent weeks.

RACE to the Ballot has held conversations in towns, large and small, across the state (http://www.racetotheballot.com) which has generated positive news coverage, and momentum, around the state.

Of course, the campaign needs more money. So far, many of the major gay donors haven't chipped in. They should. And, so far, the DNC hasn't chipped in -- despite indications that there would be help. We can win this one, as PPP's Tom Jensen, who is based in NC, noted here and here.

As we wrote about on Monday, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius talked about the defeating the amendment during a speech in Charlotte over the weekend. The Obama campaign could be very helpful here, if they choose to be. Obama for America is building a massive operation in this critical swing state.

Michelle Obama will be in North Carolina tomorrow and Saturday. Surely she can say the words: Vote No on Amendment One.

Winning in North Carolina will be a great way to keep up the momentum that we're seeing across the country. Maggie and her fellow haters want nothing more than to stop us. We can't let that happen. Read the rest of this post...

Sen. Collins calls for new, independent health study for TSA porno-scanners

Life has been pretty easy at the TSA so far. Despite easy ways to beat the scanners, leaving creepy notes in luggage of a woman traveling with a sex toy and turning the porno-scanners into a peep show, nobody in Washington has bothered to call out the TSA much. Give credit to Senator Collins for calling their bluff this time. She requested a new health study and the TSA responded with an old study. ProPublica:

A new report from the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security is likely to fan rather than extinguish the debate over the safety of X-ray body scanners deployed at airports across the country.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and other lawmakers have called on the Transportation Security Administration to conduct a new, independent health study. No such tests were carried out for the report, which instead relied on previous radiation tests, most of which have been available on TSA’s website.

But the 28-page report also notes that not all TSA screeners have completed required radiation safety training. Inspectors found inconsistencies in how the machines are calibrated to ensure radiation safety and image quality. And the TSA made more than 3,500 maintenance calls in the first year the scanners were deployed, meaning that, on average, each machine needed service more than once a month.

Once again, everyone wants travelers to be safe, but that also includes safety from technology that has reportedly had issues. The training and maintenance of the porno-scanners has been inconsistent, so getting it right is not bad for anyone. Read the rest of this post...

Andrew Breitbart on Ted Kennedy’s passing

With the death this morning of conservative activist Andrew Breitbart, and the inevitable debate over whether it's ever appropriate to speak ill of the dead, this quote of Breitbart's, about Senator Ted Kennedy's death, comes to mind.  From Michael Calderone at Politico:

Andrew Breitbart, a Washington Times columnist who oversees Breitbart.com and BigHollywood.com, tapped into the anti-Kennedy vein in the hours after the senator’s death was announced, posting a series of Twitter messages in which he called Kennedy a “villain,” a “duplicitous bastard” and a “prick.”

"I'm more than willing to go off decorum to ensure THIS MAN is not beatified,” Breitbart wrote. “Sorry, he destroyed lives. And he knew it."

No comment.

In a related note, concern is growing among some sectors of the right that President Obama killed Breitbart.  Seriously. Read the rest of this post...

Video: The man and woman who were Rocky and Bullwinkle

Oh my God, this is great. They also did Sherman and Peabody, and Boris & Natasha, which I had a fun time explaining to some Russians once on a trip over there (they didn't find it terribly funny).

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GOP congressional candidate in IL says the Holocaust never happened

From the Oak Lawn Patch:

Arthur Jones, 64, a Lyons, IL, insurance salesman who organizes family-friendly, neo-Nazi events around Adolf Hitler’s birthday, hopes to be the Republican candidate chosen to run against Democratic Congressman Dan Lipinski in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District.

“As far as I’m concerned, the Holocaust is nothing more than an international extortion racket by the Jews,” Jones said. “It’s the blackest lie in history. Millions of dollars are being made by Jews telling this tale of woe and misfortune in books, movies, plays and TV.

"The more survivors, the more lies that are told."

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Andrew Breitbart is dead at 43

Breaking news this morning. One of the loudest and most aggressive voices from the right wing is dead:

Andrew Breitbart, the noted Internet publisher and author, has died, according to a source at Big Journalism. He was 43.

A statement posted on his website said that Breitbart died "unexpectedly from natural causes" this morning.

The Los Angeles Coroner's Office confirmed to ABC News Radio that Breitbart died shortly after midnight at UCLA Medical Center.

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Progressive Statement Caucus issues statement—"Fannie and Freddie, ignore the banks, writedown mortgages"

I get a lot of mail. Some of the mail I get comes from our "inside game" — self-described "progressives" in government.

Did you know there's an actual "Progressive Caucus" in Congress? It has House members and Senate members (well, one Senate member). It's led by Raul Grijalva and Keith Ellison. They actually carry the name "progressive" and they actually espouse progressive policies:

According to its website, the CPC advocates "universal access to affordable, high quality healthcare," fair trade agreements, living wage laws, the right of all workers to organize into labor unions and engage in collective bargaining, the abolition of significant portions of the USA PATRIOT Act, the legalization of same-sex marriage, US participation in international treaties such as the climate change related Kyoto Accords, strict campaign finance reform laws, a complete pullout from the war in Iraq, a crackdown on corporate welfare and influence, an increase in income tax rates on upper-middle and upper class households, tax cuts for the poor, and an increase in welfare spending by the federal government.

That's a lot of progressive values. I love progressive values, so I'm really glad we have our own progressive caucus.

Our own progressive caucus does things.

One thing our caucus does is issue statements, calling on people to do things. Here's one, from just this week (my emphases everywhere):

Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva and Keith Ellison, the co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), today joined advocates in New York, Washington, D.C., and Southern California in calling on Edward DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to write down mortgage principal amounts for struggling homeowners.

“Twelve million Americans owe more money than their home is worth,” Grijalva and Ellison said. “The American people have been duped, lied to, and kicked out of their homes, and now it’s time for Mr. DeMarco to stand up and do right by them.”

Combined, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae own or guarantee more than half of all mortgages in the country. DeMarco has faced calls for his resignation for refusing principal reduction, sometimes called “debt forgiveness,” for Freddie and Fannie mortgage holders.

I hope it works. I would be a happy man if it works. I would also be a very surprised man if this progressive "action" — if "calling on" Obama's mortgage chief to reduce the net worth of every mortgage-holding bank in the nation, in an election year no less — actually works.

On the odds-of-effectiveness meter, I eyeball "calling on" at about Zero. But hey, you never know until you ask.

So that's one thing our own Congressional Progressive Caucus does — they make statements calling on other people to do things.

Our Progressive Caucus also issues statements about what they will do.

For example:

July 31, 2009
Dear Madame Speaker, Chairman Waxman, Chairman Rangel, and Chairman Miller:

We write to voice our opposition to the negotiated health care reform agreement under consideration in the Energy and Commerce Committee.

We regard the agreement reached by Chairman Waxman and several Blue Dog members of the Committee as fundamentally unacceptable. ... Any bill that does not provide, at a minimum, for a public option with reimbursement rates based on Medicare rates - not negotiated rates - is unacceptable. ... In short, this agreement will result in the public, both as insurance purchasers and as taxpayers, paying ever higher rates to insurance companies. We simply cannot vote for such a proposal.

Sincerely,

Raul Grijalva, Co-Chair, Congressional Progressive Caucus
Lynn Woolsey, Co-Chair, Congressional Progressive Caucus

[and 58 others listed here]

Oh good. A threat that attempted to achieve an outcome. My effectiveness meter reading just went positive.

So I took that list of 60 threateners, then I brought up this great interactive chart on the HCR House vote, sorted the names alphabetically, then went down the list of courageous progressive letter writers, looking for their vote on the non-public-option HCR bill.

I stopped at Number 16 on the letter list. I couldn't find one No vote in the first 16 names (out of 60). The names I checked included such luminaries as:

        Lynn Woolsey
        Raul Grijalva
        Jerry Nadler
        Keith Ellison
        Earl Blumenauer
        Donna Edwards
        Dennis Kucinich
        Maxine Waters
        John Conyers

Pelosi needed 216 votes, and got 219. That means just four people could have stopped the bill that they swore needed a public option to secure their vote. With this kind of muscle, this much leverage, getting a "public option" should have been a piece of cake. Heck, if they swung it right, they might even have gotten "Medicare+5%", an even-more-popular (but only among the people) single-payer option.

Instead, we failed. And by "we" I mean "they," our statement-making "progressive caucus."

It not that I think this caucus, as a caucus, is insincere. It's that they're almost entirely ineffective. It's that when they have the power, they refuse to use it. (David Swanson has a similar letter from 2007 about Iraq war funding. Lots of the same names. Wonder how that one went...)

Our caucus is not totally ineffective, however. They do statement-making very well — just like I showed you at the start of this post. I'm proud of their statements, and I'm very glad they make them. But I think they have a name problem.

So I'm going to rename them — The Progressive Statement Caucus.

There. And I entirely support their ... statements.

(I told you I'd be writing about effective progressive coalitions. This is just a start. Do you think the phrase "party loyalist" is going to turn up? And not in a good way?)

GP Read the rest of this post...

Newt’s billionaire backer cashed in during Obama years

That doggone socialist Obama is making life so difficult that Newt Gingrich's top campaign contributor has made most of his fortune during the Obama years. Forbes writes about the many others who have become multi-billionaires since Obama arrived in the White House. This isn't your father's socialist state.  From Forbes:

Sheldon Adelson has made more money during the Obama administration than any other American. Worth about $25 billion by FORBES’ calculation, the CEO of casino giant Las Vegas Sands has minted $21.6 billion over the last three years–more than Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Larry Ellison–as his casino empire battled back from the brink of default.

Not that Adelson’s giving Obama any credit for the massive gains–far from it. He wants Obama fired. Adelson has made headlines for keeping Newt Gingrich’s presidential race alive with a $11 million donation to his super PAC, Winning Our Future, (an additional $10 million is rumored to be on it’s way).

Yeah, most Americans are terrified of this kind of radical socialism where billionaires are popping up. Read the rest of this post...

James Murdoch steps down from News Corp International

As one person tweeted, this is really a demotion more than anything else. He is stepping down from his position in the UK office and transferring to the New York office. More than anything, this is PR spin by News Corp. since the investigations into News Corp businesses in the UK is going so poorly for News Corp. This is how the 1% handles discipline when you lie to Parliament about illegal behavior in your company. Rupert is a real "law and order" kind of guy, isn't he? BBC News:

James Murdoch has stepped down as executive chairman of News International, the UK newspaper business that owns the Sun and the Times titles. The newspaper publisher has been tainted by phone-hacking allegations. The scandal led the company to close its former News of the World title in July last year. Mr Murdoch will remain as deputy chief operating officer of parent group News Corporation.

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Fed president: Top 5 banks should be broken up

This is no way for Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher to help get himself a high paying job in Big Finance. He should be finding excuses for why the largest US banks should get a free pass (and a free ride) on regulation that would protect the American taxpayer like most involved in the process. That way he can be just like former Obama economist Peter Orszag or perhaps the the soon-departing Tim Geithner, who will probably go to Wall Street when he steps down. The revolving door between Washington and Wall Street is the path to riches for those who love the fleecing of America, so Fisher needs to catch up on how the game is played. Someone needs to step in and help Fisher with his career killing words.

The financial crisis has left the five biggest banks even more powerful than before, he told an event in Mexico City. "After the crisis, the five largest banks had a higher concentration of deposits than they did before the crisis," he said. "I am of the belief personally that the power of the five largest banks is too concentrated."

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