Open thread

I really want an indictment tomorrow. Read the rest of this post...

Nepal parliament reduces power of monarch

So-called King Gyanendra has been brought back down to earth and will essentially become a figurehead, for whatever that is worth. Besides having his political power trimmed, he has lost power over the military and will now have to pay taxes like everyone else in Nepal. His sponging days and episodes of brutality are apparently over. Read the rest of this post...

FDA panel endorses cervical cancer vaccine

UPDATE: Folks asked for more info on how the religious right was trying to undercut the drug. Here you go.

This is the vaccine that the religious right Republicans are trying to stop because they prefer to see women die. Seriously. They think if more women die, then it will be a greater "prevention" message to stop other women from having sex. Seriously. And of course they think that if we actually vaccinate women to prevent the disease then that will make women more promiscuous - again, better to risk death as a means of birth control. Read the rest of this post...

Mary Cheney strikes again: GOP afraid to hold anti-gay marriage amendment mark-up in light of day

Well, for a party that claims to be so proud of its religious right base, the Republicans sure don't act like it.

In the same week that Laura Bush comes out and criticizes Republicans who, like the religious right, would use legislative gay-bashing as an election issue, the Senate Republicans show signs that they aren't too happy with the religious right either.

Republicans held a committee meeting today on their effort to amend the US Constitution in order to make gays second-class citizens. But you wouldn't have known it if you were on the Hill. At the last minute, the Republicans moved the meeting to a much smaller room that was so hidden away and so small that there was barely enough room for the Senators themselves, let alone the public or the media.

So basically the Republicans are trying to have their cake and eat it too. Hold their gay-bashing meetings to appease the fringe extremists who now control their party, while at the same time hiding their efforts from the media and the public since so they're so damn embarrassed by the actual agenda the religious right is forcing them to push.

Mary strikes again.

While Mary Cheney still needs to get a clue or two about what it means to be gay in America for people who don't have a Cheney at the end of their name, her open-lesbianism has had one positive impact. It's chastened the Republicans so they're now that much more embarrassed to bash gays publicly. We saw that impact earlier this week on Laura Bush, and now we're seeing it in Republican members of the Senate.

No one wants to be seen publicly pushing the Bash Mary Amendment to the constitution, so they do it behind closed doors. And this is hardly the first time the GOP has tried to hide their crazy Christian aunt in the attic. At some point, you'd think the religious right would get fed up with being treated like lepers. Not that they aren't lepers, they most certainly are and deserve to be treated as such. But that doesn't mean they gotta like it.

Man it's fun watching the Republican party melt down. Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

Okay, spill. What do you know? Read the rest of this post...

Nice map of America

Froomkin linked to this today and it's nice to look at as I finish my day. Read the rest of this post...

Gay-obsessed GOP holds anti-gay hearing in Capitol closet

The GOP has a gay obsession...they can't stop talking about gays and lesbians. Imagine if they channeled their obsession in to something that Americans really cared about, like, gas prices.

It's weirdly fitting that the Senate Judiciary Committee held what amounts to a closeted hearing on the anti-gay constitutional amendment today:

Democrats complained that bringing up the amendment is a purely political move designed to appeal to the GOP's conservative base in this year of midterm elections. Under the domed ceiling of the ornate and historic President's Room off the Senate floor, senators voted 10-8 to send the measure forward.

Among Feingold's objections was Specter's decision to hold the vote in the President's Room, where access by the general public is restricted, instead of in the panel's usual home in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Feingold blasted Specter today at the hearing. And, Specter deserved it. He's not our friend.

Bill Frist can't wait to talk about gays on the Senate floor. It's for either political or prurient reasons. Probably both. Read the rest of this post...

AMERICAblog reader Melissa, you made the New York Times

NYT

...news of the [NSA] program, particularly in this fiercely polarized political climate, has turned a beleaguered regional phone company with a somewhat lackluster customer service record into a gleaming political touchstone and beacon of consumer protection.... At Americablog.com, Melissa said: "I just switched to Qwest. It took two minutes."

And you got republished in the International Herald Tribune all over the world. You're a star, baby. Not bad for leaving a comment on a blog. Read the rest of this post...

If you make under $40,000, you don't pay taxes says GOP House Speaker Hastert

This is probably going to be news to those Americans earning $40,000, but the top Republican in the House says you don't pay taxes. The words of Speaker Dennis Hastert:

"Well, folks, if you earn $40,000 a year and have a family of two, you don't pay any taxes. So you probably, if you don't pay any taxes, you are not going to get a big tax cut."

Maybe the Republicans don't know anyone who makes under $40,000. Or maybe they just don't care.

Be interesting if the GOPers heard just how much in taxes people making $40k and under actually pay.

UPDATE: Think Progress has the video of the Speaker making this outrageous claim. Read the rest of this post...

Phone companies deny involvement in NSA spy program at the same time we hear there's a secret Bush memo directing them to lie about their involvement

I'd read yesterday on another blog (can't find the link now), and just had it confirmed by a second source today, that's there's a memo out there from the Bush administration, an "Executive Memorandum" dated May 5th of this year, that grants the phone companies participating in the NSA domestic spying scandal the right to publicly deny their involvement.

All I have to say about that is, isn't it interesting that it took BellSouth and Verizon days and days and days to finally put out a "denial" of their involvement in this program (and AT&T; has YET to deny their involvement)? Why wouldn't you deny it immediately if it weren't true? Not to mention, all three companies were contacted by USA Today BEFORE the story ran, and they refused to deny their involvement even then. That means it's been quite a long time that they knew about this story, but only now they're claiming they weren't involved.

If a phone company were innocent, and a reporter accused them of massively violating the privacy of their customers - a charge worthy of brand-death in corporate land - you'd think any company so wrongly charged would immediately tell the reporter "that is flat out wrong, we did no such thing!"

Didn't happen.

And now, far too late that we find out some of the companies are apparently claiming they weren't involved (though their claims are with very precise technical legal language that makes one wonder if they're not debating the definition of "is"), we also hear from multiple sources that there's a presidential memo giving the phone companies permission to lie about their reported involvement.

Very interesting.

If there were a privacy group worth their salt out there, they'd have launched a massive campaign against AT&T;, Verizon and BellSouth - yesterday. Read the rest of this post...

Crooks and Liars will be up shortly

Computer screw up, not hacked, up shortly. Read the rest of this post...

Latest on the Hayden hearings?

CNN is saying it sounds like the administration COULD have gotten a warrant for some of the operations had they gone to the FISA court, so why didn't they? Read the rest of this post...

Pat Robertson: God told me he may send a tsunami to America

These are the people who George Bush and the Republican party are beholdened to. These are the people who have set the entire agenda for this congress. These are the people who the Republicans think represent "real" Americans, and "true" Christians.

Any questions? Read the rest of this post...

Hayden Hearings Thread

CNN is covering Hayden confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. CSPAN is going to cover as much of the hearing as they can.

Thoughts and analysis please....

UPDATE: Carl Levin is the ranking Democrat on the Committee because Rockefeller had surgery. I'd rather have Levin. He's tough and smart. Levin is one of those Democrats who stands for what he believes in on a range of issues. And, he wins in Michigan -- a tough swing state -- by huge margins every time he runs. Read the rest of this post...

Tex Sensenbrenner is mad at W

Someone's a little cranky. Well, Sensenbrenner is always cranky, he's crankier than usual. Seems "Tex" was misled by the White House. Join the club. Now, Sensenbrenner doesn't think Bush is bashing immigrants enough:

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, who has pushed a tough border security bill through the House, accused President Bush on Wednesday of abandoning the legislation after asking for many of its provisions.

"He basically turned his back on provisions of the House-passed bill, a lot of which we were requested to put in the bill by the White House," Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., angrily told reporters in a conference call. "That was last fall when we were drafting the bill, and now the president appears not to be interested in it at all."

Love these intra-GOP battles. Read the rest of this post...

CPI jumps again

That is now two months in a row. The rising energy costs are delivering a hit to the economy, raising fears of inflation. Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Here we go. Should be an interesting day.... Read the rest of this post...

Hayden hearings today

So will we learn anything new about the Democrats? I'm not expecting Hayden to reveal much but this ought to be an opportunity for the Democrats to ask some tough questions. Will he make it through the day and be voted in next week? I would like to be optimistic about our chances of learning more and seeing something of substance from the Democrats but I won't hold my breath. Read the rest of this post...

Anti-immigrant hysteria tied to death of woman in UK

Sadly, the anti-immigrant movement seems to be all the rage in Europe as well as the US. In France, the subject is receiving a lot of hype from the right with threats of deportation. Pick just about any country in western Europe and you will hear hot debates about foreigners invading their country, much like we hear in the US. Interestingly enough, each country seems to think that they are the prime target by immigrants from Eastern Europe and Africa, offering a quality of life to immigrants that is far superior than any other of their neighbors.

Last year in the UK when the anti-immigrant hysteria was taking off, they passed a new law which was supposed to stop foreigners from invading the UK and taking advantage of the NHS. (Strange because I don't know many in the UK who are wild about the quality of the NHS and elsewhere in Europe, NHS is often used as the model of how not to nationalize healthcare.) The end result was a young mother was left to die while fighting a deportation battle.

Ms Alabi was denied the chance of a heart transplant simply on the grounds of her nationality and died in hospital on Monday night at the age of 29, leaving three-month-old twin boys and a two-year-old son. Desperate attempts to get a High Court judge to overturn the rules were delayed as Ms Alabi was forced to fight a deportation battle even as she lay dying in hospital.

Read the rest of this post...

Oh my. George Will eviscerates the religious right. Read this.

Oh, they are going to blow a gasket. I haven't enjoyed George Will this much in 20 years (literally).

An aggressively annoying new phrase in America's political lexicon is "values voters." It is used proudly by social conservatives, and carelessly by the media to denote such conservatives.

This phrase diminishes our understanding of politics. It also is arrogant on the part of social conservatives and insulting to everyone else because it implies that only social conservatives vote to advance their values....

The phrase "values voters," which has become ubiquitous, subtracts from social comity by suggesting that one group has cornered the market on moral seriousness...

Read the rest of this post...

New research says we may be descended from a chain of animal-human hybrids

Oh my God, Bush was right in his State of the Union, animal-human hybrids threaten us all. I have seen the chimera, and it is us. Read the rest of this post...