VIDEO: When kittens discover turntables, mayhem ensues

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Obama supports Respect for Marriage Act. Boehner won't answer DOMA questions

Tomorrow, the Senate will hold the first ever hearing on DOMA repeal at 10 AM ET. The hearing, "S.598, The Respect for Marriage Act: Assessing the Impact of DOMA on American Families" begins at 10 AM ET. S. 598, sponsored by Senator Feinstein has 27 cosponsors. The House version of the bill, H.R. 1116, is sponsored by Rep. Jerry Nadler and currently has 118 cosponsors.

There were two major developments today on DOMA, both of which we covered at AMERICAblog Gay.

On the legislative front, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney announced that the President supports the Respect for Marriage Act.

On the legal front, John Boehner and his legal team, led by Paul Clement, won't answer basic questions in the DOMA case brought by 81 year old Edie Windsor. Roberta Kaplan, Edie's lawyer, is asking the Judge for "an order compelling" Boehner and his legal team to comply with discovery. See, Boehner decided to defend DOMA. He is using our tax dollars to pay Paul Clement. But, apparently, they don't want to follow the Rules of Civil Procedure. I've posted excerpts from Kaplan's letter. And, I've said many times, Boehner and Clement are no match for Windsor and Kaplan. Read the rest of this post...

Live chat @ 8:30pm Eastern w/ Fred "God hates f-gs" Phelps’s son Nate

We'll be chatting at 830pm Eastern with Nate Phelps, the estranged son of outrageous religious right preacher Fred Phelps. Fred Phelps, you'll recall, is famous for protesting the funeral of US soldiers, and more generally carrying around signs saying "God hates fags." Nate will be talking to us about a new initiative he's working on to bring a play about homophobia to the steps of his father's anti-gay church. More on Fred Phelps here.

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Is Pawlenty trying to smear Bachmann as unstable and on meds?

It's starting to look that way.

And to add to the fun, Bachmann's security guards roughed up ABC investigative reporter Brian Ross when he tried to ask her about it. From TIME:

That’s when things got interesting. Ross dashed after Bachmann, repeatedly asking whether she had ever missed a House vote due to a migraine. She ignored him. Ross pursued her into a parking area behind the stage. Her aides grew alarmed. When Ross made a beeline for the white SUV waiting to carry Bachmann away, two Bachmann men pounced on him, grabbing and pushing him multiple times with what looked to me like unusual force. In fact, I have never seen a reporter treated so roughly at a campaign event, especially not a presidential one. Ross was finally able to break away and lob his question at Bachmann one more time, but she continued to ignore him.

Afterward, I asked Ross — a hard-nosed pro who nevertheless seemed slightly shaken — whether he had ever been treated so roughly. “A few times,” he told me. “Mostly by Mafia people.”

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Borders liquidating, shutting 399 stores

Marketwatch (h/t Amanda Marcotte Daily; my emphasis and paragraphing):

After a failed attempt to find a buyer, bankrupt bookstore operator Borders Group Inc. (BGPIQ -32.96%) said late Monday it will sell its store assets to liquidation firms Hilco and Gordon Brothers and submit a liquidation plan for bankruptcy-court approval.

The bookstore operator, the U.S.'s second largest after Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS 0.35%), operates 399 stores and employs about 10,700. Liquidation is expected to begin for some stores and facilities as soon as Friday, with a phased rollout of the program to conclude by the end of September, the company said in a statement.

"Following the best efforts of all parties, we are saddened by this development," said Borders Group President Mike Edwards. "The headwinds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, eReader revolution, and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now."

That's definitely going to leave a mark on the next jobs report. But hey, shrinkage is growth (in some quarters).

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Birth control proposed for all health care plans

This is a result of health care reform:

Virtually all health insurance plans could soon be required to offer female patients free coverage of prescription birth control, breast-pump rentals, counseling for domestic violence, and annual wellness exams and HIV tests as a result of recommendations released Tuesday by an independent advisory panel of health experts.

It would be nice to hear more details, more frequently, about what exactly health care reform is going to be doing to benefit any of us. This is a good start. But it's also an island of detail in an ocean of silence. Read the rest of this post...

New bipartisan budget deal emerging

Details here. I'm still trying to get my head around it. The actual plan is here.

A few immediate questions that need to be answered - how much of a hit will our economy take, in terms of increased unemployment and decreased (or slowed) GDP growth as a result of the "immediate" budget cuts in the plan?

And what exactly doe this mean?

• Prevent Congress from exceeding the caps by requiring a stand-alone resolution subject to
a 67-vote threshold, in order to isolate that vote to increase the deficit from any other policy
items

What happens if the economy tanks again and we need to increase spending in the face of decreasing revenues? We need 67 votes in the Senate or we all die?

One good thing about all of this is that a bunch of Republicans just came out in favor of tax increases. Read the rest of this post...

Man throws pie at Murdoch during hearing

A man (who appears to be a British comedian) ran up to Rupert Murdoch at today's hearing and tried to throw a pie in his face (or a plate of foam). Here's the screen capture - it's less clear in the video, below:

Murdoch's son testifying.

Son hears there's a disturbance.

Son realizes some man is running up to his dad.

Man in grey plaid shirt holding a white plate in front of Rupert Murdoch's head.

Woman in grey appears to be blocking man in plaid near Rupert Murdoch's head (left).

Woman in pink jumps in.

Here's an enlargement of the attack - the man is holding what appears to be a white plate:

There's a much clearer photo here.  Video:

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First Wisconsin recall general election today

Amanda Terkel at the Huff Post:

The Wisconsin recall fight kicks into full gear on Tuesday, with Green Bay voters heading to the polls in the first general recall election of the season. The outcome will determine whether incumbent Democrat Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) gets to keep his seat.

Six Republican and three Democratic state senators are facing recall elections this summer, with most of the elections taking place in August. The efforts to change the make-up of the state Senate came after Republicans passed Gov. Scott Walker's (R) controversial measure stripping public employees of their collective bargaining rights. Senate Democrats left the state for 21 days in order to delay their colleagues from pushing through the bill.

Hansen's Senate District 30 challenger is David VanderLeest, whose legal and personal troubles have been a focus of the intense campaign. He has $25,000 in unpaid property taxes and a history of domestic abuse.

David VanderLeest is the fun fellow who inspired this great Dem ad. (Our Wisconsin link is above — thanks to all contributors!)

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Cliff Schecter: For most congressional Democrats, "not standing up for Social Security & Medicare is a death knell"

Cliff Schecter and Sam Seder had a fascinating and enlightening discussion on their most recent Friday news-in-review segment on Majority.fm. I want to focus on the discussion of Obama and the debt ceiling deal.

The first clip below is the first ten minutes of the segment, and contains an analysis of where we stand up to the point of Obama's press conference (since which, nothing has changed).



Notable:

■ Schecter's analysis of the players in this four-handed game starts at 2:20 in the clip. Note that he too says McConnell offered Obama a "clean vote."

■ Seder's discussion (5:30) of the "adult" left-leaning mainstream media types is really instructive. He mentions Ezra Klein as an example, then says (0araphrasing): They are, to a person, amazed that Obama got McConnell into a position where he [McConnell] was throwing in the towel, and yet Obama didn't accept this, and is still pursuing cuts. ... Obama really believes in austerity as a way to grow the economy.

■ Sam (at 9:15; paraphrasing again): The McConnell deal would have gotten Obama off the hook.

Schecter: He doesn't want to be off the hook.

In the long version of the segment, there are two telling exchanges — one at 14:55, where they discuss to what extent most DC Democrats (with some exceptions, like Grijalva, Grayson, Nadler, and indies like Sanders) are driven by Wall Street.

But at 17:00, Seder asks Schecter, a political consultant, what he would advise a Democratic congressperson to do if the McConnell plan passes — in other words, how he would suggest that person campaign, given that the natural line ("I protected Social Security and Medicare") means that you are also protecting it from your own party's president.

Here's the segment in full; let it download, then jump to the relevant times.



I want to quote verbatim the exchange at 18:15 (my emphasis):

Sam: If you were advising a congressperson running, how would you advise them to handle this [the idea that you're protecting the safety net from your own president]?

Cliff: I would advise them to oppose it, all efforts. ... For virtually any Democrat at this point, not standing up for Social Security, not standing up for Medicare, is a death knell. ... I don't know how I could advise them not to stand up to their own president, as painful and dangerous as that is in some ways.

And that's just from a political standpoint. From a moral standpoint I really don't know — how do you look at what's going on right now, how do you look at people making $500 million a year and cut Social Security?

This discussion captures the situation — and the problem today — perfectly. Either Lawrence O'Donnell is right and Obama will take McConnell's clean bill deal; or he's oh-so-very wrong (and embarrassingly lectury in being so).

If O'Donnell's wrong, Obama and Reid are "helping" McConnell "fix" his deal so Obama (and all other neo-liberal Dems, as near as I can tell) can ram through a forced vote in Congress on massive spending cuts and reductions to Social Security and Medicare.

We'll know very soon, won't we. The final bill will be clean or it won't. DC Dems will support it or they won't. Commentariat types will "grudgingly" like it or not. Everyone gets called out; no one gets to hide.

Me? I want to thank those involved in this fiasco for taking a muddy analog situation and making it totally digital — just in time for the billion dollar ad campaign in 2012.

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Rupert and James Murdoch testifying before Parliament, face "uncertain future"

UPDATE @ 10:15 AM ET: In case you are wondering, Rupert Murdoch is not repsonsible for this mess. He just said so. The question from MP Jim Sheridan was: "Mr. Murdoch, do you accept that ultimately you are responsible for this whole fiasco?" The answer from Murdoch was "No."
____________________
Big day in London. Rupert Murdoch just started testifying before Parliament in the News Corp. phone hacking scandal. He's there with his son, James. Testimony is being heard before The Commons culture, media and sport committee.

The Guardian is liveblogging the hearings in Parliament. CNN and MSNBC will provide live coverage of Murdoch's testimony. Watch MSNBC here. Looks like even FOX viewers will be seeing it. No doubt, that gang will be in overdrive to defend their master.

Meanwhile, a headline at the Washington Post informs us, Scandal creates uncertain future for Murdochs:

As revelations have tumbled forth, British newspapers and American commentators have speculated that James could be the next News Corp. executive to be forced out.

“My personal estimation is that the end result of this is that someone not named Murdoch will become CEO of News Corp.,” Michael Wolff, Rupert Murdoch’s biographer, said in an interview.

The inquiry revolves around the classic scandal questions: What did James and his father know, and when did they know it? As the chairman of News Corp.’s British media operations, James may have a role more direct and germane than that of his 80-year-old father. He took over an operation that was already beset by allegations of widespread phone hacking and has said that the problem was the work of a single, misbehaving reporter.

This just keeps getting better.

We'll keep track of what happens at the hearing. No doubt, Rupert, James and Rebekah will be very well rehearsed as they express faux contrition. Read the rest of this post...

As deadline looms, debt ceiling drama continues in DC

In today's episode of DC's debt limit drama, we'll see several of the more extreme House GOPers having a hissy fit in front of the White House. As we all know, if they were really serious about their cause, they wouldn't be having their little fit. They'd handcuff themselves to the fence. There will be more theatrics in the House when GOPers hold a vote on the so-called "Cut, Cap and Balance" bill. Here's a brief descriptor from Karina at Leader Pelosi's blog:

The Republican bill (the so-called “Cut, Cap, and Balance Act”) is really a bill to Cut, Cap, and End Medicare. Not only does their legislation end Medicare while extending tax breaks to big oil, it also holds the debt limit increase hostage to passing a ‘Balanced Budget’ amendment to the Constitution

End Medicare. Hold hostages. That's the GOP agenda.

This is all a backdrop to the deal being developed in the Senate to prevent the Us from defaulting. And, time is running out:

Senate aides say a fallback plan to give President Obama authority to raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit will soon become “plan A” for averting a national default.

Publicly, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) have made votes on the Cut, Cap and Balance Act and a balanced-budget amendment their priority this week.

But GOP aides say the leaders are already looking past those votes to a potential deal with Democrats to raise the debt limit before an Aug. 2 deadline and spare Republican lawmakers from a political backlash.

“McConnell is going to let cut, cap and balance have its vote and then immediately move to plan B,” said a GOP aide in reference to the fallback debt plan McConnell is negotiating with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

So, Senator are trying to move ahead. But, the House GOPers aren't showing any signs of going along.

We're all going to feel the financial pain if this doesn't happen. Read the rest of this post...

Americans saving money again

The good news is that more people are saving cash again. The bad news is that the Federal Reserve is printing money to save Wall Street so the value of it is going down. Thanks again for helping, Ben.

Twice as many Americans are saving more money today than they did before the recession, according to a survey conducted by America's Research Group for CNBC.com.

While Americans were divided sharply between savers and non-savers, the majority of Americans are now saving.

According to the poll, 49.8 percent of those surveyed said they are saving more today, while 44.9 percent said they were not. The rest said they didn't know.

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Verizon refuses to provide itemized bill until forced by judge

So besides outrageously expensive services that are years behind other countries around the world, they're also a bunch of jerks. But we knew that already. It's thanks to their deep connections in Congress that they can get away with such behavior.

A woman, who called Verizon to try to find out about the $4.19 she was being charged for six local calls, was told by Verizon reps that the only way it would provide her an itemized bill was to get a lawyer and have the lawyer get a subpoena to force Verizon to disclose the information.

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On the ground in China’s ghost cities

The ghost cities gained notice late last year but the views were from satellites. This gives an interesting view from the ground. Read the rest of this post...