Sarah Palin actually told her kids that her campaign bus tour was a vacation?

Washington Post:

“Thanks for ruining our vacation.”

— Piper Palin, 10, to a Time photographer, part of the media scrum following Sarah Palin’s is-it-an-exploratory-campaign-or-what PAC-financed bus tour along the East Coast.

Someone needs to explain to the Palin kids that they come in a distant second to mommy's ego (even when they're hours away from being born). Read the rest of this post...

Obama says won’t agree to extend tax cuts for rich; gets testy when asked to fight more

While this is nice, it's what he's said before.  And then he caved.  I just don't believe him.  Yes, I believe he means what he's saying.  I just don't believe he'll keep his word.  Partly because he won't fight, sufficiently or early enough.  Which leads us to his back and forth with Dem. Congressman Waxman.  HuffPost reports:

"He was a little testy with the Waxman question. Essentially, Mr. Waxman was urging him to fight more," one legislator said. "The president reminded folks that he's the president sitting in that chair and he knows how to negotiate."

Obama also told the assembled Democrats not to count on more fiery rhetoric from the Oval Office.

"He said, 'There's a difference between me and a member of Congress,'" another lawmaker said, paraphrasing the president as saying: "When I say something the markets react, all of society reacts, other countries react. I've got to be careful with what I say. I can't just say it for brinkmanship. I've got to say it in a way so that I get what I want said, but I don't upset markets and so on."

Please. It's not like he's the first president to ever hold an opinion on something. Lots of presidents in the past have forcefully fought for their beliefs without bringing down the markets. The argument is a red herring. Candidate Obama didn't fight nearly hard enough against John McCain either, and there was a rather large blow up about it, involving the Netroots, major Obama donors, and the campaign that summer before the 2008 election. And there was no fear of hurting markets then.  And do we really think the markets would have crashed had the President actually fought for the public option?  This sounds like an attempt to justify a pre-existing behavior.  And it's not a good sign that he still doesn't get it.

Oh, the President also said he'll stand by Medicare (not clear what that means).  Again, the words are nice.  For what that's worth. Read the rest of this post...

Another gay servicemember discharged under DADT

Happy Pride! Read the rest of this post...

Largest US businesses made $170 billion and paid no taxes

Obviously taxes are only for the little people. Forbes:

Today, and not a moment too soon, the non-profit Citizens For Tax Justice (CTJ) has put out their findings revealing that twelve of the nations largest Fortune 500 companies, while making $170 billion in profits during the period of The Great Recession, paid an effective tax rate of negative 1.5%.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Not only have these twelve companies paid zero in taxes for the years 2008-2010, they actually received tax subsidies that added $62.4 billion to their bottom lines.

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Sy Hersh: No evidence of nuclear program in Iran, despite Obama administration assertions

Seymour Hersh, longtime and well regarded investigative journalist, has a new piece in The New Yorker about Iran. From the online teaser Abstract (subscription or print edition required for full article; my emphasis, elision, and paragraphing):

Iran and the Bomb
How real is the nuclear threat?

ABSTRACT: ... Is Iran actively trying to develop nuclear weapons? Members of the Obama Administration often talk as if this were a foregone conclusion, as did their predecessors under George W. Bush.

There’s a large body of evidence, however, including some of America’s most highly classified intelligence assessments, suggesting that the U.S. could be in danger of repeating a mistake similar to the one made with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq eight years ago—allowing anxieties about the policies of a tyrannical regime to distort our estimates of the state’s military capacities and intentions.

The two most recent National Intelligence Estimates (N.I.E.s) on Iranian nuclear progress have stated that there is no conclusive evidence that Iran has made any effort to build the bomb since 2003. ...

Obama has been prudent in his public warnings about the consequences of an Iranian bomb, but he and others in his Administration have often overstated the available intelligence about Iranian intentions. ...

Israel views Iran as an existential threat. Nevertheless, most Israeli experts on nonproliferation agree that Iran does not now have a nuclear weapon. ... In his recent interview, [Mohamed ElBaradei, a recent director-general of the I.A.E.A.] said, “I don’t believe Iran is a clear and present danger. All I see is the hype about the threat posed by Iran.”

I've seen reporting like this for years, going back to Cheney's Bush II second-term push to drive us to war against them — the push for bombing, the appeal to manly posturing, which papers over all lack of evidence that Iran even has a program, much less a bomb. Cheney almost got us there, in my view; he did get Fallon fired.

In the face of this lack of evidence, the hawks have (1) insisted that their critics prove a negative, (2) tried to dominate the press with their single-minded point of view, and (3) tarred its opponents as unmanly, loony, or (in ElBaradei's case) pro-Muslim. Evidence to the contrary can grab its hat and go home. On the press front (2 and 3 above) I think the hawks have succeeded.

This really matters. It would change the world. If we get this one wrong, we'll be at war with someone who can bring the war back to us, to our Midwestern towns and suburban malls. The population of Iran is more than double that of Iraq (Iran is the 17th most populous nation on Earth). It has four times the GDP of Iraq. It's not peopled by tribesmen and sheepherders alone, but contains a great many urbanized professionals.

Iran is a society that, if pushed to war against the West, will go. The secret services in Iran include groups like the Revolutionary Guard and the paramilitary Basij. The last two groups alone are more than 200,000 strong. Ugly as they are in that spy-vs-spy way (are we more pretty?), they could easily bring the global war to our cities as a regular feature. Imagine Omaha or Moline getting the Tel Aviv treatment. There are lots of Molines. Is that a world you'd choose to live in?

Imagine the oil shocks after sabotage bombings in the Persian Gulf. Imagine oil priced in euros on an Iranian bourse. Imagine security checkpoints in every mall in America after the first couple of bombings. Imagine the eager, muscular overreaction of our national security protectors. Imagine the budget for war on steroids.

And please, let's not imagine that if the Israelis bomb Iran for us, we won't be blamed. If you were Iran, would you not strike at the source first, and the client after? We struck at Al Qaeda by taking down Kabul.

So what is Obama's response to the article? A campaign in Politico sourced to "senior Administration officials" who say, in effect, "We think he's wrong, and you can't use our names. Just type it as we say it." The article's lead sentence announces (h/t Glenn Greenwald):

[T]he Obama administration is pushing back strongly, with one senior official saying the article garnered “a collective eye roll” from the White House.

They're giving Sy Hersh the Noam Chomsky treatment. Loony.

The Politico person assigned to this task is a staff writer named Jennifer Epstein, a 2008 graduate of Princeton. She's recently been writing about pro-profit colleges (which we cover here). Epstein needs to be careful — she could end up with a reputation as a stenographer.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Delta's nasty anti-union practices could be exposed by process GOPers will try to undermine

We know Delta has been flying anti-union lobbyists to DC earlier this year. The airline is really burnishing its anti-labor cred. But, some of its employees are fighting back. From the WSJ (it's a sub. req. article)

The National Mediation Board said Wednesday it will conduct a full-blown investigation into allegations by a flight attendants union that Delta Air Lines Inc. interfered in last year's fractious organizing drive at the world's second-largest airline by traffic.

The investigation is expected to shine a spotlight on labor relations at the Atlanta-based carrier, which has denied interfering with the hotly contested union votes in which its workers rejected union representation.

Delta is the only major U.S. carrier to remain largely nonunion.

The probe could heighten political scrutiny of the NMB, amid allegations by Republicans on Capitol Hill that the federal agency has a pro-union bias.

Delta is like the Scott Walker of airlines. It wants to be known as anti-worker. And, of course, the GOPers in Congress are great allies in that quest. They'll join together to fight this investigation and undermine NMB.

Turns out that Delta is the main carrier to Minneapolis, which is the site of this year's Netroots Nation. I'm not flying Delta to get there. I'll take a stopover over spending my money on an anti-worker company. Read the rest of this post...

Anatomy of a right-wing smear (aided by Scripps Howard)

AMERICAblog Reader John T wrote me yesterday about an email going around that claims Obama brought a ridiculous number of staff with him to the G-20 summit in London. The article didn't smell right to me, so I googled it and found out that it's actually an article from two years ago. But still, something didn't seem right.

It was written by Dale McFeatters with Scripps Howard News Service, but the article never mentioned how many staff George Bush, for example, traveled abroad with, which I found odd. I mean, wouldn't an article criticizing Obama for having a larger entourage than the Queen at least look at how much of an entourage George Bush took with him?

So I did a little more googling, and guess what? George Bush actually took more people with him abroad than Obama took to London two years ago. Funny that Mr. McFeatters didn't bother mentioning that little fact in his screed.  And even funnier that Scripps Howard let him get away with that piece of yellow journalism.

Compare:

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Romney to claim that America only inches away from no longer being a free market

Seriously? He's going to embrace the "Obama is a socialist" lie? What, the birther thing got a tad too hot to touch?

Mind you, this is the Mitt Romney who two years ago opposed the auto bailout, only to claim a week ago that he was for it.  So, give the man a moment, and a new poll, and he may/will change his mind. From Mother Jones:

It's Mitt Romney's big day. In New Hampshire, he will officially announce his second presidential run—which unofficially began the moment John McCain lost to Barack Obama. And he's launching his campaign with a whopper.

According to the advance text of his speech—which his aides handed out to various media outfits to boost interest in Romney's unsurprising declaration—Romney will proclaim that President Obama has "failed America." He will blast Obama for expanding the size and reach of government. He will somberly state, "We are only inches away from ceasing to be a free market economy."

Inches away? Is he kidding? Did Sarah Palin write this line for Romney?

Read the rest of this post...

Catholic Charities abandons needy kids in order to take another swipe at gays. Kick them out of CHN.

Candy Hill, bigot

Someone needs to start a movement to kick Catholic Charities out of every progressive coalition they're in. For example, what is a bigoted organization, an organization that would let poor children suffer, doing on the board of director of the Coalition on Human Needs, a liberal advocacy group that includes some of the biggest progressive organizations in Washington?  Yet there she is, Candy Hill of Catholic Charities, on the board of CHN.

I wonder if the Coalition on Human Needs would permit a racist organization to be a board member. Or is anti-gay animus somehow less offensive to the Coalition on Human Needs?

Catholic Charities is now stopping its foster care/adoption services in Illinois because the state passed a law permitting civil unions in the state.  Rather than run the risk of having to let a disgusting, perverted inter-racial gay couple adopt, Catholic Charities will simply abandon all children at risk in Rockville, IL, just like they did in Washington, DC.

Mind you, Catholic Charities had no problem taking $30 million from the state of Illinois and from Illinois taxpayers to runs its programs.  That's okay.  But when the state passes civil rights laws, telling Catholic Charities to treat all of the state's citizens equally - treat everyone who is paying Catholic Charities' salaries equally - suddenly Catholic Charities hates gays so much it has to cut off poor children.

How can any organization that calls itself progressive have an avowed bigot, an enemy of civil rights, remain as a board member of the Coalition on Human Needs?

Candy Hill should do the honorable thing and resign from her post as a board member of the Coalition on Human Needs, and then she should resign from CHN all together.

I'm sure the Family Research Council, or the Klan, would welcome her with open arms. Read the rest of this post...

Pelosi: Dems. "very good chance of winning" House in 2012, aided by GOP’s agenda

Yesterday, I attended a blogger/progressive media event on the Hill with House Democrats. It was the day Kathy Hochul was being sworn in and, despite their minority status, many of the members to whom I spoke seemed upbeat. During recent town hall meetings, many found their constituents, particularly seniors, are enraged about the GOP plan to destroy Medicare. The Minority Leader spoke to ABC News -- and thinks Democrats can take back the House in 2012:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told ABC News in an exclusive interview that Democrats "have a very good chance of winning the House" majority in the 2012 elections, pointing to Medicare as the key issue that could propel her party back into control of the lower chamber of Congress.

"We just take it, as I say to the members, one day, one good day, one good week, one good month, one good quarter at a time," said Pelosi, D-Calif., in an interview for ABC News' Subway Series with Jonathan Karl.

Pelosi, who is an astute politico, was spot on about the GOPers:

"I wish we could change minds of Republicans on abolishing Medicare," she said. "The public is going to have to help us do that either before the election or at the time of the election.

"If the Republicans are convinced of that over the next 18 months, that they will change their mind on it, then that is less of an issue in the campaign," she said. "We'd rather solve the problem than have the issue. But we are determined to fight for the issue."

She said that while Republicans are focusing their message on reducing the deficit, voters should be mindful of the causes that led to the looming debt crisis.

"To reduce the deficit, you have to promote growth through jobs, you have to make cuts where you can, and make them wisely, and you have to put revenue on the table. That's how you are going to reduce the deficit," Pelosi said. "People don't want to hear about how we got here, but we got here because of the policies of President Bush and we don't want to repeat them. And so we want to have something different. We want to have investment in jobs. We want to have revenue on the table so that we can reduce the deficit, and we have to make cuts."

Now, the key thing here is what the White House does. It would have helped if the Obama administration had blamed the economic crisis on Bush and the GOP (but that would have been mean and too political.) You may recall that last week, after Hochul won, just about everybody credited her victory to Medicare and the GOP's budget that would destroy it. The one glaring exception was the President.

There's still a long way to go until November of 2012. But, the GOPers have put themselves on a path to destruction. They're alienating seniors. They've already gone after women and gays. They've got some really ugly anti-immigration legislation in the hopper that will further enrage Latinos, the nation's fastest growing voting demographic. The question is whether Democrats can capitalize on this. As we've seen, that's not exactly a strength of Obama and his crack team of political geniuses. Read the rest of this post...

Gov. Christie refuses to reimburse state for private helicopter ride

If the financial problems in New Jersey are as serious as he says they are, there should be no question about paying back the state for using the helicopter. If he is in a rush to see his kid play baseball and then has to rush back home to meet with people to discuss his plans for running for the White House, that should be on his own dime. It doesn't look like there's a serious financial crisis if he thinks joy riding is a normal expense for the state.

Facing broad criticism for flying by helicopter to watch his son’s high school baseball game in Bergen County, Gov. Chris Christie refused today to refund the state for Tuesday’s $2,500-an-hour flight.

"The governor does not reimburse for security and travel," a spokesman for the governor, Kevin Roberts, said in an e-mail message. "The use of air travel has been extremely limited and appropriate."

The State Police said the flight taken by Christie and his wife, Mary Pat, had presented "no additional cost to taxpayers."

Read the rest of this post...

Human Rights Watch: Crimes against humanity in Syria

Maybe the UN can get on board as well sometime soon as well. The news yesterday about the alleged torture and mutilation of a young body has made the protesters even more angry about Assad's dictatorship. Al Jazeera:

In a statement released on Wednesday, the New York-based rights body said interviews with victims and witnesses indicate "systematic killings, beatings, torture using electroshock devices, and detention of people seeking medical care".

It said abuses by Syrian authorities "strongly suggest that these qualify as crimes against humanity".

More than 1,000 civilians have been killed by security forces and 10,000 detained since demonstrations first erupted in mid-March, according to human rights groups.

"For more than two months now, Syrian security forces have been killing and torturing their own people with complete impunity," Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's Middle East director, said in the statement.

Read the rest of this post...

Questions being asked after Pakistani journalist killed

Did he ask too many questions related to bin Laden and the rumored ISI connections in Pakistan? CNN:

Many Pakistani journalists believe he was killed by elements within the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, because of his frequent reporting about co-operation and contacts between Pakistani security officials and extremist groups. He is known to have received several warnings about his reporting from the ISI. But it is equally possible that his reporting had gone too far for the likes of one of the many militant groups he was in touch with.

Shahzad had recently turned several controversial pieces about the attack by militants on the Pakistani naval base in Karachi.

One of them began in a way that would not have gone done well at ISI headquarters, describing the attack as "the violent beginning of an internal ideological struggle between Islamist elements in the Pakistani armed forces and their secular and liberal top brass."

He also cited (as he often did) unnamed sources in the ISI, Pakistan's military intelligence service, quoting one as saying: "It was shown several months ago that the Pakistan navy is vulnerable to Islamists when a marine commando unit official was arrested.....Now, they (intelligence) realize how the organization (navy) is riddled and vulnerable to the influence of militant organizations."

Read the rest of this post...

Gmail hacked again, China likely culprit

Since this allegedly happened to senior politicians, does this mean the US is prepared to bomb China in retaliation as the government suggested recently? Or was that just some random nut job talk that we've come to expect from Washington? Reuters:

Suspected Chinese hackers tried to steal the passwords of hundreds of Google email account holders, including those of senior U.S. government officials, Chinese activists and journalists, the Internet company said.

The perpetrators appeared to originate from Jinan, the capital of China's eastern Shandong province, Google said. Jinan is home to one of six technical reconnaissance bureaus belonging to the People's Liberation Army and a technical college that U.S. investigators last year linked to a previous attack on Google.

Washington said it was investigating Google's claims while the FBI said it was working with Google following the attacks -- the latest computer-based invasions directed at multinational companies that have raised global alarm about Internet security.

Read the rest of this post...