"Like a Tupperware party"

Except Tupperware never delivered 50,000 volts or was connected to any deaths. Are they serious?

Every Saturday afternoon in Scottsdale, Ariz., women gather at Dana Shafman's house to watch demonstrations of her sleek new wares, which come in such enticing colors as "metallic pink" and "electric blue." It's like a Tupperware party … only not. Shafman is peddling Tasers....

Looking for the perfect Christmas gift for that special someone who wants to pack heat but doesn't want to mess with bullets? At $299 to $349, the C2 Personal Protection System may be the ticket. Taser International thinks its compact new device will be a Christmas hit with women like Shafman, who's loath to carry a gun but never felt safe enough with the knives or baseball bats she kept by her bed to ward off potential intruders. "We have customers who don't want to look like Dirty Harry," says Tom Smith, chairman and cofounder of Scottsdale-based Taser International, which owns the Taser brand name and is the biggest producer of the "electronic-control weapons." In ads on its Web site, the company features a C2-loving Santa, as well as a self-assured businesswoman on a Manhattan street and the tag line "I will control my own destiny."

Read the rest of this post...

Dodd's victory on FISA

I must say, I'm extremely impressed with Senator Dodd and his staff today. Dodd fought an uphill battle all the way on this, slowly but surely gaining ground, and today he won, and on a hugely important issue. He demonstrated leadership, rather than simply talking about how he might lead in the future, and really did something good for the nation.

From AP:

The Senate late Monday delayed its consideration of a vote on a new government eavesdropping bill until January.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid delayed the bill because there were more than a dozen amendments planned, and not enough time left on the legislative calendar to manage them.

Matt Browner-Hamlin at the Dodd campaign website has more, including this statement from the Senator: "Today we have scored a victory for American civil liberties and sent a message to President Bush that we will not tolerate his abuse of power and veil of secrecy."

If you approve of this kind of leadership, maybe think about saying so with a donation. It's not so much the amount, but the message -- that we care and we're paying attention and that doing the right thing matters. Read the rest of this post...

Bob Kerrey falsely tells CNN today that Obama attended a "madrassa"

UPDATE: Our friends at ThinkProgress have the video.

Not only did Obama never attend a "madrassa" - which is code for "Islamic terrorist training camp" - we've got former Senator Bob Kerrey, a Clinton campaign surrogate, again spreading anti-Muslim slurs against Obama after doing the same thing right after appearing with Mrs. Clinton yesterday in Iowa.

Here is some of what Kerrey had to say today on CNN's Situation Room:

BOB KERREY: "There is a smear campaign going on, and people acting as if he's a "Islamic Manchurian candidate" and I feel it's actually a substantial strength. He is a Christian, both he and his family, are Christians, they've chosen Christianity, but that connection to Indonesia and a billion Muslims on this earth I think is a real stergnth

CNN's John King: "But you have to know when you're about to say something like that that some will twist it, especially in this age of the Internet and the blogs..."

BOB KERREY: "It's something by the way I have told Barack Obama when I've met with him. It something that I’ve spoken about before. So this is not something that just sort of came out of the head birth out there in Iowa. I've thought about it a great deal. I’ve watched the blogs try to say that you can't trust him because he spent a little bit of time in a secular madrassa. I feel quite the opposite. I feel it’s a tremendous strength whether he is in the United States Senate or whether he’s in the White House, I think it's a tremendous asset for him."

(My reaction, after the jump.) Kerrey isn't just trying to slur Obama and make Americans wonder whether Obama has terrorist ties - I mean, using the phrase "Islamic Manchurian Candidate"? - but it's also incredibly racist. Kerrey is race-baiting Muslims, American-Muslims, implying that Obama is one of them, and we all know that no one good wants to be one of them, nudge nudge wink wink.

It was bad enough when Kerrey did this yesterday, but the fact that he's doing it again, after he already caused a stink with his earlier comments, means that he's either race-baiting Obama on purpose, or he's a blithering idiot who can't be trusted (and Bob Kerrey is no idiot). On this blog we've taken our shots at Obama in the past when he's deserved it (and he has), and we've intentionally not staked out a position in favor of any of the Dem candidates until after the primaries (and in fact, AMERICAblog has been accused by a lot of people of being a closet Hillary supporter), but we're not going to sit by while Obama is being race-baited by anyone, let alone another Democratic campaign.

And one more point, Kerrey says that Obama and his family "have chosen Christianity"? I'm a Christian, I didn't "choose" Christianity. That implies that I was something before I was a Christian - oh, I don't know, say, Muslim? - and then decided to "choose" Christianity instead.

Kerrey is doing the dirty work of the Clinton campaign, or he's a rogue agent spreading racism in their name. Either way, the Clinton campaign needs to stop this, now. Read the rest of this post...

A very "Larry Christmas" to all

From an email that's been flying around the Internet. Read the rest of this post...

Only ten Democrats supported filibuster on telecom immunity/domestic spying bill

Now there's a profile in courage you don't get every day. Ten folks. Ten. A pathetic ten supported trying to stop this travesty of justice.

These are the only good guys, out of the entire 100-person Senate. You can see the rest of the vote count here, and read more about this from Reuters.

Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Dodd (D-CT)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Wyden (D-OR)

There are a few other opportunities to filibuster, but it's clear that few if any Democrats have the backbone to do it. Very sad. Read the rest of this post...

Morgan Stanley: US heading into recession, will drag down global economy

Stephen Roach, Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, is absolutely correct. To minimize the severe impact of a US recession is foolish. Global economies are all connected so to think that any country or region can afford a recession by the US is just nuts. As an American who lives overseas but still directly depends on the US economy, I find this period of mismanagement frustrating, if not infuriating.

(After the jump, Roach on why the US recession will negatively impact the global economy.)

Roach, who is chairman of the investment bank and trading firm's Asian arm, said it was wrong to think that the rapidly developing economies of China and India could fully compensate for a US recession.

"What is interesting, and potentially disturbing, is that the rest of the world just doesn't think this is a big deal any more," he said of the potential of a US recession.

"There is a view that the world is somehow decoupled from the American growth engine.

"I think that view will turn out to be dead wrong, and this is a global event with consequences for Asia and Australia."

Roach, in Australia for a business roundtable, said economies outside of the US needed to determine how their internal consumer demand compared with demand from American consumers in terms of keeping their economies booming.

"My conclusion is: not nearly as much as you would like," Roach said.

Growth in Asia was export led, with the American consumer often the "end game" of the Asian growth machine, he said.

"The US is a 9.5 trillion US dollar consumer. China is a 1.0 trillion US dollar consumer. India's a 650 billion US dollar consumer," he said.

"Mathematically, it is almost impossible for the young dynamic consumers of China and India to fill the void that would be left by what is likely to be a significant shortfall of US consumer demand."

Read the rest of this post...

Huckabee invokes Christ in new TV ad

Yeah, it's the season and all, but invoking Christ in a TV ad feels awfully creepy and opportunistic. It's also yet another not-so-subtle reminder that unlike some Mormon GOP presidential candidates, Huckabee is a "real" Christian. But please don't ask Huckabee about his Christian faith, a faith he's peddling like a cheap souvenir at the zoo, because that would be offensive. Read the rest of this post...

Fed proposing new plans for abusive lending

A few years too late, but fine. It has to be addressed and with Congress breathing down the backs of the Fed, there is suddenly great interest. On the flip side, just what do you think Wall Street is thinking now that they are being assisted with a bailout plan? So the lesson learn by Wall Street is to get while the gettin' is good and then Uncle Sam will bail everyone out? Same goes for the buyers who jumped on to the bad loans and are now asking for a bailout.

The Fed needs to quit propping up every bad business idea that comes out of Wall Street and start thinking about consumers. Congress is going to have to promote the issue of responsibility as well because bail outs are only showing support for failures to accept personal actions. There should be no doubt that plenty of people were tricked into bad loans, but there were also plenty of people who did not make the jump into the market because they had reservations.

Should those people and the people who acted responsibly be punished? We needed a voice when this problem was unfolding, both on the issue of Wall Street greed and buyers blissful ignorance that defied traditional logic. It is getting there, slowly, but we need to quit doling out bailouts like this unless we want to create more trouble later. If Congress wants to give free money to everyone, fine, but that's not what they are doing. They are rewarding both rich and poor who gambled and lost. Read the rest of this post...

A tale of two posts

Things aren't going very well of late in Democrat-land, and I think these two sequential posts from Daily Kos are a good illustration of the problem.

First, there's the Dodd filibuster of the telecom immunity bill. As Joe wrote earler today, the Democrats are planning to give Bush and the Republicans a huge victory this week by granting companies like AT&T; and Verizon retroactive immunity for having helped the Bush administration illegally spy on innocent American citizens.

As I wrote the other day, in terms of why the Dems are caving (again), there's more than enough blame to go around. I like Harry Reid (and Nancy Pelosi), but he's our leader. And the same rule we apply to Bush applies to Reid (and Pelosi on other issues): At some point the leader has to take responsibility for our failures. Then there are the Dems in Congress overall. I like them a lot less than I like Reid and Pelosi. Far too many of them are scared of their own shadows and/or closet Republicans (or in the case of Joe Lieberman, out-of-the-closet Republicans).

Then there's the Democratic consulting class. As Joe and I are both members of that class, neither of us thinks they're all bad. Some of our best friends are Democratic consultants. But, someone is giving the Democrats bad advice (though it's entirely possible that the Dems are getting good advice and not listening). And finally there's the non-profit class in town. Our multi-million dollar advocacy groups. Where are they? Where have they been? And what do they have to show for their efforts other than the dismantling of most of our rights and most of what we stand for as a party, a movement, and a country over the past 7 years?

There's a reason that Harry Reid, once beloved by the blogosphere, is at a 4% approval rating in the Netroots. People are fed up with losing, and fed up with excuses from our leaders, our members of Congress, and our non-profit advocates. We all give a lot of time and money to these people. If all we're going to do is lose, we can do that for free without lifting a finger. Read the rest of this post...

Clinton ally repeats "Muslim" slur about Obama, uses his middle name "Hussein"

Former Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey should be fired from the Clinton campaign after his comments in Iowa yesterday. In a passive-aggressive performance worthy of an Oscar, Kerrey told reporters:

"I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim," Kerrey is quoted as saying. "There's a billion people on the planet that are Muslims, and I think that experience is a big deal."

Get it? Kerrey isn't repeating slurs that have been used, non-stop, by GOP operatives (and Hillary's own staff) knocking Obama for having the middle name of one of the most hated men in America and for having family members who are Muslim. Oh no. Kerrey is complimenting Obama, and is simply repeating racist anti-Muslim slurs against Obama in an effort to praise him. Kerrey comes not to bury Obama, but to praise him. (After the jump: What if Obama were to repeat the current rumors about Hillary and Bill (and there are new rumors) - in order to praise them, of course?)

It would be like an Obama surrogate repeating all the slurs against Hillary, repeating the current crop of rumors about her and about her husband, and saying that those are positive things because they make Hillary more human and more empathetic to the voters. Perhaps, but were I to repeat those rumors I'd actually be hurting Hillary by in fact spreading the anti-Hillary slurs (and that's why I won't even repeat the details of the rumors themselves in my example for you today).

Now keep in mind, this isn't the first time that Hillary's supporters have stooped this low. There was the chair of her campaign in New Hampshire who was recently fired for making passive-aggressive slurs about Obama. Then there were the three Clinton campaign staffers who involved in forwarding those anti-Obama, Republican-talking-point emails about him allegedly being a Muslim (he's not):

A third volunteer for Hillary Clinton's campaign was aware of a propaganda e-mail alleging that Barack Obama is a Muslim who plans on "destroying the U.S. from the inside out."

"Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected presidential Candidacy," the email reads. "Please forward to everyone you know. The Muslims have said they Plan on destroying the U.S. from the inside out, what better way to start than at The highest level."

Two Clinton volunteers, Linda Olson and Judy Rose, have already been asked to resign from the campaign for their roles in forwarding the e-mail. The AP reported yesterday that Olson, a volunteer coordinator in Iowa County, sent a version of the e-mail to 11 people, including Ben Young, a regional field director for Chris Dodd's campaign. Young passed it on to the AP.

And Bob Kerrey, who is no idiot, repeats the biggest slurs about Obama out there (that he isn't just black (which Kerrey also noted yesterday, by the way, in case anyone forgot), he's brown too), and we're to believe that it was innocuous at best and a simple misunderstanding at worst. Yeah right.

It should be noted that Obama has himself referred to the fact that some of his family members are Muslim.

Referring to the time he spent in Indonesia, Obama said: “I have lived in the most populous Muslim country in the world, had relatives who practiced Islam. I am a Christian, but I can say I understand your worldview, although I may not agree with how Islam has evolved. I can speak forcefully about the need for Muslim countries to reconcile themselves to modernity in ways they have failed to do.”

But, I suspect that Obama is talking about this simply because he was forced to, in order to respond to the GOP slurs that are already out there about his childhood in Indonesia. So rather than Obama making the issue fair game, Obama is simply responding to the slurs others started (it would be like publishing a slur about Hillary, Hillary responding to the slur, then saying "look, she started it"). Second, there's also the "your momma/my momma" question. I can make my fun of my mom, you can't. When Obama talks about his family's Muslim ties, he's obviously not slurring himself, slurring Muslims, or using them as an epithet. When Bob Kerrey talks about Obama's family being Muslim and - and here's the key point - mentions that Obama's middle name is "Hussein," it strains credibility to believe that he wasn't trying to scare the bejeesus out of the voters.

Some in the comments to this post are saying that it's good that this all come out now. The Republicans are going to be using these slurs, non-stop, if Obama gets the nomination, so why not get them out there, and put them to rest, now? It's not a bad argument, and yes, Obama needs to figure out how to stop these rumors in their tracks. But that doesn't excuse Hillary's people for pushing these slurs out there.

Others in the comments are saying that this is politics, it's hardball, get used to it. Look, I get that politics is hardball. And trust me, I want people like Hillary and her team working on behalf of the Democratic candidate because they're the only people in the party who know how to fight like Republicans. They're the only people who know how to fight back against the very tactics they're using. But still, something about this being used against a fellow Democratc doesn't feel like hardball politics. It feels slimy. Am I wrong about this? Read the rest of this post...

Edwards dares to talk about the middle class

I'm definitely listening and looking forward to hearing more. Edwards is spot on when he says that others are crazy to think we can just have a friendly chat with the special interests and find a workable solution for average Americans. When was the last time anyone saw Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Insurance, etc. negotiate with any moderation? I can't think of such a time either though I can easily think of the increasing costs to consumers along with the jumbo compensation plans across these industries. I can also think of the weakening benefits to average Americans during the same time as executive benefits have moved into the stratosphere. Discrepancies like this used to be limited to the US in 1900 or today in the developing world, but oh how times have changed.

Pumping more corporate welfare to Big Oil, as the GOP just did last week, is not helping average Americans. While it's great for Lee Raymond and Dick Cheney (who sees no problem with the ongoing high gas prices) the benefits to everyone else are nowhere to be seen.
More after the jump...
Moving away from old energy sources are critical to America's future, not to mention our national security. If the US can somehow round up $1.5 trillion for war in Iraq, how is it possible that we can't locate money to promote alternative energies? Which option is better for normal Americans over the next few decades?

Much more needs to be discussed but at least Edwards is talking about the middle class. It would be nice if the other candidates could reach out and join the debate about what their plans are for the rest of us. Hillary and Obama are both in the Senate who just voted overwhelmingly to help out people caught up in the subprime fiasco. They also are in the same Senate that cowered in fear of Big Oil and did not manage to tax that free-loading bunch last week. It's great that they are focused on change for 2008, but what about now? Isn't that why they are sitting in the Senate today?

OK, since those handouts were so easy, what's in it for the middle class who received nothing other than an indirect request to fund others? That's what the Senate just did last week, regardless of how they spin it. If Hillary and Obama have any issues with either of those handouts, let's hear about it. If there are no issues, great, tell me what's in it for everyone else? Keep the gravy train rolling and give us all a big present. If neither Democrats or Republicans can show any financial responsibility, break the bank and give us more. It's not as though they're counting anyway. Read the rest of this post...

"The Senate appears poised to hand the White House another victory"

The thing speaks for itself:

The Senate appears poised to hand the White House another victory with a measure that would make permanent an expansion of government spy powers and shield phone companies from liability for assisting government eavesdropping.

With floor consideration scheduled to start today, Democrats are split on how to cut back on the administration's surveillance powers. The only option that appears to have sufficient backing is a bipartisan measure the White House has blessed. Opponents of the White House-backed bill are increasingly predicting a White House win.

Read the rest of this post...

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

One observation before I have my coffee: It's fascinating how campaigns that purport not to care what the press thinks -- and are even dismissive of the media, then make a huge deal out of newspaper endorsements. Aren't newspapers part of the press?

Okay, let's get it started. Read the rest of this post...

Bush backs off Bali agreement hours after signing

No surprises here except to the rest of the world that actually thought Bush was being sincere when he agreed to nothing and pushed this out for the next president. Same old, same old. Even a signed document with this administration isn't worth the paper it is written on and Congress is too afraid to ever call him out.

Between the Democrats in Congress and the Europeans, I'm not sure who is more gullible. Bush gets a headline, appearing to meet in the middle and no sooner is the ink dry, he's right back to where he was the day before. If anyone out there thinks that Bush will ever stop protecting his wealthy special interests, they're crazy.

(After the jump, the laundry list of excuses why Bali was worthless, according to Perino.)

In a statement, Perino said that aspects the U.S. particularly welcomes include a recognition of the importance of technology in the solution and the role of industry agreements.

But, she said, "the United States does have serious concerns" because the U.N.-sponsored talks have "not yet fully given effect to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities."

Specifically, commitments for emissions cuts cannot be required from developed countries alone, as that would be insufficient to reduce global warming and would be unfair. "Major developing economies must likewise act," Perino said.

Also, requirements of developing countries must be set to reflect factors such as the size of a nation's economy or its emissions level, she said.

Read the rest of this post...

Mr Bubble contradicts himself, again

Um, if you pump more money into the subprime crisis, you are artificially inflating prices for everyone else. That would be meddling. That is part of the current problem, so why drag out the misery any longer? It's no wonder this guy became the all time bubble king.

Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, suggested Sunday that a tax break or other government financial help for homeowners facing the mortgage crunch would be the best political fix for the economy.

He cautioned against meddling with home prices or interest rates to address the housing problem.

Greenspan did not specifically call for a tax cut. Instead, he called for the government to apply money to the severe housing market slump. Such a cash infusion would typically come through a tax break or a new government spending program.

Read the rest of this post...