China blocks Twitter, Flickr and Hotmail ahead of Tiananmen anniversary

I understand they considered sending tanks into Microsoft's and Yahoo's headquarters (kidding, but only kind of). If they can just kill enough Tweets, maybe the world will forget what mass murdering thugs really run communist China. Or not. Read the rest of this post...

AIG wants to use charity endowment to pay exec bonuses

Lovely people.

Insurance giant AIG is trying to seize a $490 million charitable endowment -- and claw back $27 million it already awarded to New York charities -- to pay executive bonuses, The Post has learned.

The endowment, called Starr International Foundation, is run by former AIG chairman Hank Greenberg, and has given millions to the Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, Citymeals and other local groups.

Why isn't that $490 million going to pay back the American people for the tens of billions we spent bailing out AIG? Did the Feds know AIG had this cash cow when we bailed them out? If the money can't be touched because it's for charity, that's one thing. But obviously AIG doesn't think the money can't be touched. Read the rest of this post...

Fired GOP staffer who led fight to stop all filibusters is now leading fight to filibuster Sotomayor

But it's different this time. Uh huh. Read the rest of this post...

Gay leader talks about sitting out next election

Democrats need to start paying attention to the growing anger in the gay community. That anger is focused at the Democratic party, and it's growing. I have no idea if gays would ever sit out an election, but I guarantee that they'd pull their money and make every effort to successfully dominate the news cycle so the story, from now until the election, was gay gay gay 24 hours a day, and not whatever issue Democrats want to focus on in order to win the next election. The Dems in the administration, the DNC, DSCC, and the DCCC need to take note now. Because we have a serious problem brewing with a key constituency, and very few people in Washington are paying any attention.

Here's a recent open letter from my friend Robin Tyler, who cofounded StopDrLaura.com with me, and who is a longtime gay rights advocate.

After 35 years, and 4 Marches later, this time, it needs to be to organize a sit in at the National Mall, and a sit-out of the mid-term elections in 2010, or 2012. Whether we March or not, lets start organizing today, in every congressional district to get our community and allies to sign a pledge, that if the Democrats won't support us and extend all rights, we won't support them. If that is considered 'dreaming' then let the Democrats dream about the day when our community finally divorced the Democratic party. Torie Osborn did say that their March would not be an 'angry' March. A March without anger? Excuse me? We have never been angry enough! If we do not hold any cards, why are we playing at their table? When you keep on getting screwed without your consent, it is called rape. It's time to fight back on every front. I know that many of us who have marched on Washington and thought the Marches accomplished nothing, do not want a March. But it did mobilize us, and energize youth. And I think, after what has happened on the State level all over the country, and the fact that youth has taken to the streets, those who have not experienced a national March want to. We cannot be just a virtual movement or Internet activists. So yes, I would support a March on Washington, if the National Grassroots community wanted one.

But not only do these marches take time to organize, and energy, and money, but for most people, it takes time to save up the money just to go to a March.... And of course, the excuse that I heard from one young person that a March is a really 'hot' idea now, but may not be in a year and a half, or three years. This is not a gay cruise. The radical right says they are in a Holy War with us. We don't do events because they are 'hot' at the time. We are a civil rights movement, and must start acting like one. I know that no civil rights movement has ever lost. Never. So, it is not a matter of if we will win, but when. However, we are going to have to fight like hell for it. The Democrats are not going to give us anything, unless we start playing hardball. Power is never given, it has to be taken. 2009 is not an election year, so I am sure the Democratic party and those who blindly follow them, would love it if we marched then, especially in one that is not angry. Then why don't we just call it 'a stroll through Washington.'

Robin Tyler, a Democrat who has supported Democrats in every election--until now.

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Pending home sales well above forecast

Part of the increase is probably because of the dropping prices but it's still an impressive number. Reuters:

Pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes in April unexpectedly saw their biggest monthly gain in 7-1/2 years, a report from a trade group Tuesday showed, buttressing views the U.S. recession was easing.

The National Association of Realtors said its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in April, rose 6.7 percent in April to 90.3 from 84.6 in March.

It was the biggest monthly increase since October 2001 and it took the index 3.2 percent above its year-ago level in the latest sign the battered U.S. housing sector was stabilizing.

Economists polled by Reuters ahead of the report were expecting pending home sales to rise 0.5 percent.

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Poll: PA voters want a Dem primary

From Greg Sargent:

Pennsylvania Dems, by contrast, are basically giving the Dem establishment the middle finger. For some reason, they don’t seem persuaded that Specter is the best they can do. Maybe it has something to do with Specter’s record and his admission that he only became a Dem to save his political hide. Or something like that.

Read the rest of this post...

Obama's new Army Secretary supports changing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

Well, here's some good news, via Kerry Eleveld at the Advocate.

At today's White House press briefing, Kerry asked Robert Gibbs about the nomination of Rep. John McHugh (R-NY), who Obama picked to be Secretary of the Army today. McHugh has indicated support for changing the DADT policy -- and, for what seems like the first time in a long time, Gibbs gave a solid response about changing that law:

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that President Barack Obama's nominee for Secretary of the Army, Republican Representative John McHugh, agrees with the president that "don't ask, don't tell" should be changed.

"I think it's obvious from those statements and other statements that Congressman McHugh has made that he and the President are in agreement on changing the policy that they both don't think is working for this country right now," Gibbs said in response to a question from The Advocate. "It's a priority of the president's and I think, for any number of reasons, we have a nominee that we hope can be confirmed quickly and will have -- ah, based on his background and experience -- will help to improve the lives of (inaudible).

McHugh is the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee. During last summer's hearings on the military gay ban, McHugh expressed a desire to see a review of the policy and frustration that the Department of Defense and military leadership had not been more open to addressing the issue.

So, we'll have an ally in the Pentagon. A Republican ally. And, "change" better mean "repeal."

Think Progress posted the video:
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Blue Cross' response to the recession? Increase rates 29%

My friend Nick got a little surprise in his mailbox today from Blue Cross Blue Shield. A 29% increase in his health insurance rates.

Just received my " shakedown package " in the mail today from the crooks at Blue Shield of California.

Effective 7-1-09 (2 months before my birthday)

A 29% increase from my current rate!

No claims in 7 years - no chronic conditions - healthy!

A 29% yearly increase during the worst economy in 70 years?!

Their" reasons ":

Why is my rate changing?
Rates are changing due to rising costs across the healthcare industry. Major drivers include hospital upgrades, new technologies, and expensive new drugs. Other factors include an aging population and higher costs for inpatient and out patient care. To learn more....blah, blah, blah

Their option for only a 6% increase is to move to a plan (' Vital Shield Plus 2900 ') with LESS COVERAGE ALMOST ACROSS THE BOARD, a $400 higher yearly deductible, and a $3 million lifetime cap. The deductible is now $2900 in the new plan (which I'll have to go to in order to afford having ongoing coverage).

Until we get Single Payer we are truly and totally fucked!

Yeah, I chuckle when I read Blue Cross complaining about the high cost of expensive new drugs. My coverage under Blue Cross has always provided only $1500 a year in prescription drug benefits, that's it, for 12 years now - no increase in coverage, always $1500 (even though my rates have nearly tripled). It doesn't matter if the drug is $50 a bottle or $50 million a pill. All Blue Cross is going to pay is $1500 a year and then they cut me off. So explain to me how the expensive price of new drugs is "forcing" them to increase the price of their plans when, actually, the money they spend on my prescriptions is going down each year in real dollars (and I have the best self-employed plan Blue Cross offers)?

These people are liars and thieves out to make a fast buck off of our misery. The federal government should be regulating companies like Blue Cross in the same way they're now overseeing GM and Wall Street. Once Blue Cross has to submit its books to the feds and to Congress, then maybe we'd see a little more corporate responsibility from one of the worst insurance companies in the business. Read the rest of this post...

Group friendly to GOP equates Sotomayor with Klan

The Council of Conservative Citizens, a southern group that has been wooed by former GOP Senate leader Trent Lott and current GOP presidential hopeful Haley Barbour, has a doctored photo on its Web site of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor in KKK garb. The CCC also calls Sotomayor "whitey hating."

The ADL says that the CCC is an "extremist group" that is "squarely within Southern racist traditions." The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the CCC "brazenly racist." More from SPLC on the CCC:

[A] hate group that routinely denigrated blacks as "genetically inferior," complained about "Jewish power brokers," called homosexuals "perverted sodomites," accused immigrants of turning America into a "slimy brown mass of glop," and named Lester Maddox, the baseball bat-wielding, arch-segregationist former governor of Georgia, "Patriot of the Century."

The ADL and the SPLC both note that former GOP chairman, and current GOP presidential hopeful, Haley Barbour spoke to a CCC gathering after the scandal that ensued when Trent Lott's associations with the group were revealed (in other words, Barber knew full well what the group was about and he still wooed them). Someone needs to ask Republican party chair Michael Steele, who is himself black, what he thinks of the Council of Conservative Citizens, of Haley Barbour wooing them, and of the CCC comparing Sotomayor to the Klan. Read the rest of this post...

Brazilian Air Force spots debris over Atlantic, may be Air France wreckage

The story just gives me chills. Not only because I tend to fly Air France across the Atlantic, but more generally the whole idea of going down in a plane just strikes me as one of the worst ways to go. The Post has a small update, and an online chat, going on now, for another ten minutes, I believe. Included was this:

Philadelphia, Pa.: Why did it take so long to locate a missing plane? I realize that radar doesn't work below a certain altitude and that it is hard to spot something in the ocean. But, still, in this age of global position tracking, isn't there some faster way to better find missing planes? If not, what is needed to create a faster tracking system?

Doug Feaver: I think the big story to come out of this is exactly on your point. Why are we still following airplanes across the ocean with World War II radio technology? as somebody said on NPR this morning. One would think with satellite technology that airline navigation would use it. We're still using ground-based radar for the U.S. airspace system instead of the GPS that can tell me how to get to my driveway.

Read the rest of this post...

O'Reilly ambushed Tiller twice

No wonder O'Reilly is freaking out. Media Matters reports that O'Reilly's crew ambushed Tiller twice. Here's the video of the 2007 confrontation:

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Clinton actually beat Obama on the gay Senate confirmation front

In his Gay Pride Month proclamation released yesterday, President Obama took credit for the following:

I am proud to be the first President to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of an Administration.

Well, I got an email from a friend who pointed out that in fact Roberta Achtenberg, "that damn lesbian," as Jesse Helms famously called her, was nominated by President Bill Clinton as an Asst. Secretary at HUD in the first weeks of his presidency, and confirmed by the Senate in May of 1993. Now if Obama wants to claim that his openly gay nominee got confirmed before Bill Clinton's, well, that would be true, but not really dispositive. Bill Clinton's nominee had to face a hostile Senate, 16 years ago, when gay nominees weren't as acceptable as they are today. Clinton had to fight tooth and nail to get Roberta confirmed, and he did, and she was. Obama's nominees faced no such hurdle or social sanction. For Obama to do more than Clinton, Obama would have to appoint an openly gay nominee to the Cabinet or to the Supreme Court. He has not.

Regardless, in the 1950s you would rightly earn kudos for hiring an African-American to a professional position in a society where many frowned on treating minorities as equals. And in 1993 you got kudos for appointing someone openly gay to an equally high profile government job. But it's not 1950 or 1993 any more. Though open gays apparently are still not eligible for Cabinet posts or, I guarantee you, Supreme Court nominations - so for some of us, it's still the 1950s. Read the rest of this post...

The Wash. Post found the only person who thought the Supreme Court case went well for Norm Coleman: Coleman's lawyer

By almost all accounts, Norm Coleman had a rough day at the Minnesota Supreme Court yesterday. The Court heard Coleman's last-ditch appeal to overturn the election results.

For some reason, The Fix a.k.a. Chris Cillizza wanted us to know that Norm Coleman's lawyer was very pleased with the Supreme Court arguments yesterday. Big surprise. But, that's how Cillizza led his report. His headline was "Coleman Campaign: 'Very Encouraged' by Supreme Court Hearing." Funny thing. Coleman's lawyer was pretty much the only one who saw it that way. And, Cillizza was pretty much the only observer to lead with that pro-Coleman angle.

In a post titled, Franken poised to win. Again, Markos noted:

Things look so poorly for Coleman, in fact, that the local CBS news affiliate was unable to find a single legal expert who could spin on behalf of the former senator.

Politico's headline is "Court skeptical of Norm Coleman's arguments":

Republican Norm Coleman’s legal team on Monday faced a skeptical audience of five Minnesota Supreme Court justices, who could be his last lifeline to prevent Democrat Al Franken from being seated as the state’s junior senator.

The New York Times headline states Minnesota Judges are Skeptical in Senate Case:

A lawyer for Norm Coleman, the Republican who is fighting a recount battle with Al Franken, a Democrat, for a Senate seat, faced sharply skeptical questioning on Monday from justices of the Minnesota Supreme Court in a crucial hearing on the case.

We'll hopefully get the decision soon. And, based on what most observers seem to think, it should go Franken's way. Read the rest of this post...

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

I don't watch FOX, but keep hearing from people who do that Bill O'Reilly is really freaking out over the attention he's getting after the death of Dr. Tiller. As Salon reported, O'Reilly did 29 segments on Tiller -- and O'Reilly very disturbingly said --on the air -- he wanted to get his hands on Tiller. O'Reilly is trying to re-write history now that someone else got his hands on Tiller.

And, how can a passenger jet just disappear? Read the rest of this post...

The D-Day scandal that wasn't

Many Republicans in the US have jumped on to the false outrage story dragged over from the UK. Reactionaries there have whipped themselves into a frenzy and the American right has bought into it hook, line and sinker. It's the story where the Queen of England - THE QUEEN, FOR GOSH SAKES! - has been ignored for the upcoming D-Day ceremony in Normandy. Yes, the British monarch has been treated like dirt so that Obama can be the center of attention together with Nicholas Sarkozy.

It's been a huge slap in the face to the queen who could not believe the rudeness and egotism of Obama. Sounds pretty terrible for any who give a damn about royalty. The only problem is that it's not really a scandal. The Independent:

Fact one: There was an enormous "international event" to commemorate the 60th anniversary of D-Day five years ago, to which the Queen was invited. There were similar events for the 50th and 40th anniversaries, to which the Queen was invited. There was no sizable, official celebration, except by the veterans themselves, of, say, the 45th or the 55th anniversaries.

Fact two: The "international ceremony" at the American cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach on Saturday is not an "international ceremony" on the same scale as the 60th anniversary celebration. It was something put together in relative haste after President Barack Obama let it be known a few weeks ago that he would like to attend the D-Day commemoration this year. For a young, recently elected President, Omaha was an important box to tick.

President Nicolas Sarkozy let it be known that he would also like to attend. If he had not done so, he would have been accused, rightly, of ignoring the heroism of the young Americans who died on Omaha Beach.

Fact three: The Obama-Sarkozy event is a commemoration in an American military cemetery beside an American invasion beach in France. When the French government said that it was "mainly a Franco-American affair", that is what they meant. British Normandy veterans – if anyone bothers talking to them, rather than just pontificating in their name – have nothing but praise for the help given to them by the French authorities in their June pilgrimages to the three British invasion beaches – this year and every year.

Fact four: There is no British official ceremony to match the event at Omaha Beach because the government is following the practise of successive governments, Labour and Tory. Big military commemorations should be relatively sparing or such events become so banal that public interest fades. Years ending in 10 yes; years ending in five no. There is something to be said for such a policy, if the government had only stuck to it. British D-Day veterans themselves understand the policy and broadly support it.

And of course, the White House fell for the trap. Ugh. Read the rest of this post...

Burger King chains promote "Global Warming is Baloney"

Nice work by the Memphis Flyer which was picked up by The Guardian in the UK. The franchise owner has been promoting his anti-climate change pitch on store signs throughout the Memphis area (possibly elsewhere in the deep south as well) despite counter comments from Burger King. Despite receiving the runaround initially, the Memphis Flyer eventually found the company behind the signs. The company, Mirabile Investment Corp has been afraid to provide a comment.

One imagines that someone at Burger King realised that the "global warming is baloney" line didn't exactly chime with the views of John Chidsey, the company's CEO, who believes that climate change is "an overriding issue of importance for the global community, business community and people in general", as he stated in this short interview conducted at this year's World Economic Forum. (How he squares this concern with his company's drive-thru, meat-munching business model is another matter, though.)

Memphis Flyer readers have been contacting the paper since the story first appeared to say that they have noticed other restaurants across Tennessee displaying the same sign. It appears that they are all owned by a company called the Mirabile Investment Corporation (MIC) that owns more than 40 Burger Kings across Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, as well as a handful of Popeyes and All In One franchises. Some readers have added that the signs are still up at some of the restaurants. Davis says he has requested a response from MIC, but has not yet received one.

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GM and Citigroup no longer on the Dow

This would have been impossible to imagine a few years ago but the management failures have caught up with both. A former division of Citi is moving in taking their spot but GM is being replaced by tech hardware maker Cisco. Reuters:

In a widely anticipated move, Dow Jones & Co said technology bellwether Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO.O) will replace GM, which filed for bankruptcy on Monday morning. Travelers Co (TRV.N), a large home, auto and commercial insurer, will take the place of Citigroup due to the bank's restructuring and the government's "large and ongoing stake."

The changes marked the latest fallout on the financial landscape from the collapse of the U.S. housing market, when home prices plunged after years of running higher as credit markets froze. The turmoil helped drive Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy last September, shaking Wall Street to its core and prompting the U.S. government to create a $700 billion financial rescue fund. The U.S. Treasury plans to use about $30 billion of that bailout money to buy a stake in GM.

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