Tony Perkins claims to be a heterosexual

Tony Perkins, the rather fey head of the religious right's Family Research Council mouthed off recently about Obama "claiming" he's a Christian.  Then again, Perkins claims to be a heterosexual.

Earlier this week, Tony Perkins, CEO of the Family Research Council, a highly influential Christian right organization, questioned President Obama’s faith. Perkins furthered the myth that Obama is a Muslim by saying that Obama “claims to be a Christian,” but is actually “advancing the idea of the Islamic religion.”

TP: But at the same time, Tony Perkins just said a couple of days ago, he doesn’t think Obama’s a Christian, he questions his faith, said he’s “advancing the Muslim religion.” How do we change that because obviously there are a lot of strong, respectful Christian groups, but with Family Research Council leading the evangelical community, how do you change that dynamic when they’re spreading these fears?

INGLIS: Well I think what we should do is stick to the Ten Commandments and especially the Ninth Commandment here, which is thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

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'Hope' poster artist losing hope

National Journal:

"There's a lot of stuff completely out of Obama's control or any of the Democrats' control," Fairey allowed. "But I think there's something a little deeper in terms of the optimism of the younger voter that's happening. They wanted somebody who was going to fight against the status quo, and I don't think that Obama has done that."

To be sure, Fairey still supports Obama, and he says he would use his talents to assist the president's re-election efforts in 2012. But he said that he couldn't design the same Hope poster today, because the spirit of the Obama campaign hasn't carried over to the Obama presidency.

"To say I feel disappointment is within the context that I know he's very intelligent, very capable, very compassionate," Fairey said. "I think he has the tools, and he does not trust his instincts in how to apply them."

I think Fairey describes the predicament many find ourselves in. The man we voted for was hyper-qualified, in many ways. The man we have in office seems almost mediocre, and awfully unsure of himself. Some of our readers think this is all part of Obama's grand plan to be middle of the road. I, like Fairey, disagree. I think we're seeing - I'm certainly sensing - a weakness that for whatever reason impedes the President from pushing fully for what he promised. Read the rest of this post...

US bank failures reaches 127 for the year

The largest banks in the US are doing fine thanks to TARP bailouts but the rest continue to struggle. If the pace continues, 2010 will be even worse than 2009 for bank failures.

Regulators shut lenders in Florida and Washington amid losses on real-estate loans, pushing the number of U.S. bank failures to 127 for the year.

Haven Trust Bank Florida of Ponte Vedra Beach and Arlington, Washington-based North County Bank were closed, according to statements on the website of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which was named receiver. The failures cost the agency’s deposit-insurance fund $104.7 million.

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Kurtz: Huffington snags NYT econ writer

Very interesting - Arianna is building up. First Fineman, and now this. This may all be geared towards a strategy of eventually selling HuffPo, or it may simply be part of a plan to become "the" biggest news portal online. Either way, so long as it's a financially viable move, it seems to be quite a smart one.

"For me it's a chance to write with a point of view," Goodman says in an interview. "It's sort of the age of the columnist. With the dysfunctional political system, old conventional notions of fairness make it hard to tell readers directly what's going on. This is a chance for me to explore solutions in my economic reporting."

Goodman, who spent a decade at The Washington Post before his three years at the Times, says he will still rely on facts and not engage in "ranting." And while he was happy at the newspaper, he says, he found he was engaged in "almost a process of laundering my own views, through the tried-and-true technique of dinging someone at some think tank to say what you want to tell the reader."

Goodman's hiring is a coup for Arianna Huffington, who earlier this week hired Howard Fineman from Newsweek, which The Washington Post Co. is in the process of selling to businessman Sidney Harman. The Web site's editorial staff is now nearing 100.

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Hotline: Poll shows Independents dropping Dems over economy

Independents are dropping the Democrats.

I want to say it was Krugman who wrote last year that the Dems should have either done a bigger stimulus, or a second one, because come the election the most important thing on people's minds would be the economy. Either the economy would be much improved, ad they wouldn't give a damn about the deficit, or the economy wouldn't be improved, then they wouldn't give a damn about Democrats.

Falling for the "deficit trap" that Republicans laid - in essence, forcing Democrats to foreclose the possibility of a future stimulus for fear of the growing deficit - helped insure that the economy wouldn't be sufficiently back on its feet by the November 2010 elections. Sure the GOP ended up crippling the economy as a result, but they crippled the Democrats just as much, and that was their only goal - to get back in power at all costs.

Had the President recognized this from the beginning, had he been willing to call the Republicans on it from the beginning, there's a chance the economy and the Democrats would have been doing better. But the President doesn't do mean, at least not towards people out to destroy him. And as a result, here we are.

We continue to hold the President accountable on this blog because so many of the individual decisions (and mistakes) that he makes have grand consequences in the future for our party and our country. Things are only going to get worse unless and until someone in the White House figures out that they're the only people in town who think they're doing a good job. Read the rest of this post...

AP Poll: Americans support more health care coverage

So why aren't the Democrats talking about health care during the election cycle? Could it be that they know they settled for much less than most wanted? Despite the loud Teabaggers, more people support more coverage than are against it. Salon:

"I was disappointed that it didn't provide universal coverage," said Bronwyn Bleakley, 35, a biology professor from Easton, Mass.

More than 30 million people would gain coverage in 2019 when the law is fully phased in, but another 20 million or so would remain uninsured. Bleakley, who was uninsured early in her career, views the overhaul as a work in progress.

The poll found that about four in 10 adults think the new law did not go far enough to change the health care system, regardless of whether they support the law, oppose it or remain neutral. On the other side, about one in five say they oppose the law because they think the federal government should not be involved in health care at all.

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Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Good morning.

The talk shows are featuring lots of Republicans today. A few Democrats get some face time.

On CBS, we've "Face the Nation, Teabagger edition" with GOP/Teabaggers Marco Rubio (FL) and Ken Buck (CO).

ABC is hosting David Axelrod, GOP leader Mitch McConnell (fresh off his filibuster victory over DADT) and Jordan's Queen Rania. (Although, when I first looked at the article, my eyes played tricks on me and I thought it read "Queen McConnell.")

"Meet the Press is all about education.

CNN has Lieberman and a couple other GOPers. Oh, and Dick Durbin.

But, the best Sunday show will be playing out at a mega-church in Lithonia, Georgia. Bishop Eddie Long will be speaking to his flock about the lawsuits filed against him by four young men. Yes, in case you haven't been following, Eddie Long is apparently another right-wing, viciously homophobic church leader who was having sex with men on the side. Tim Beauchamp has posts on Long here and here. Long's story is also on the front page of today's New York Times and some prime coverage in the Washington Post.

The full lineup for the talk shows is here. Read the rest of this post...

Hank Williams - Jambalaya

I didn't grow up listening to the old country classics but started to listen to them after Elvis Costello's Almost Blue. (A great album, by the way.) I still don't care for modern country music but Hank Williams was a classic.

Looking over the results of the college football games yesterday, wow. How about UCLA? I like Mack Brown and his Texas team but it sounds like they weren't thinking much about the visiting Bruins. Lots of good games though including an impressive finish by 'Bama. How can anyone beat them this year? Read the rest of this post...

British Labour Party chooses new leader

The battle was between Ed and David Miliband, with the younger brother winning. As you might imagine, the legacy of Tony Blair was part of the debate with Labour going with the brother who appeared to have more distance from Blair decisions. Who would actually want more Blairism?

As the younger son of the Marxist writer Ralph Miliband, Ed has finally broken free of his brother's shadow, having followed a similar path to the heart of the Labour Party and the top of government. Former teachers at Haverstock School in north London more easily recall the elder Miliband, to whom Ed was always compared.

At work, both were policy-wonks who moved seamlessly from the back-rooms of government to safe Labour seats and into the Cabinet itself – all of this under the tutelage of a prime minister. For David, Tony Blair was his tutor. For Ed, Gordon Brown. Perversely, it was the elder brother's association with the more successful Labour leader that attracted the most negative attention.

During the four-month leadership contest, Ed, who became an MP only in 2005, was criticised for distancing himself from Labour's record, notably on the Iraq war, tuition fees and a third runway at Heathrow. He stood up to the criticism of Lord Mandelson while firing his own shots at Tony Blair's record.

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