Sun-Times reporter berates little girls for giving away free lemonade at their stand

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Terry Savage is one seriously f'd up human being. Yes, the little girls, who decided to set up a lemonade stand in the record heat and give the drink away for free, are a sign of what's wrong with America. Uh huh. Maybe they should have poured oil all over their lemonade stand and demanded the Republicans give them a tax break.

PS What is it with Republicans and their penchant for picking on kids? Read the rest of this post...

Obama & the Embeds (J. Christian Adams edition)

I've written before about the problem of Movement Conservative embeds in the Executive branch — and not just political types, but career types as well, loyal to Bush goals and Movement Conservative dreams.

In a classic nipping at the pantlegs that out-of-power Movement Conservatism is famous for — and really good at — one of the lawyers Bradley Schlozman hired to muck up (er, fix) the Justice department's Civil Rights Division has emerged bearing tales of . . . well, you guess. HINT: It's a right-wing mash-up of very tall blacks (oh-oh), 60s radicals (oh no!), and voter fraud (of course). From Media Matters:

[Fox News host] Megyn Kelly and GOP activist J. Christian Adams deceptively cited Justice Department official Thomas Perez's testimony to accuse the DOJ of racially motivated corruption in its handling of a voter-intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party.

Media Matters goes on to identify the obvious deceptions (click through for the sordid detail). If you watch the embedded vid, note that at about the 3:50 mark, Kelly asks Adams if he thinks the case raises questions about the upcoming midterm and presidential elections. Adams: "There's no question about it. I saw first hand the laws we enforce, the laws we should enforce, and the laws we won't enforce." Breaking news, they called it.

This is really pantleg stuff — death by a thousand hangnails — and it works when relentlessly applied. Classic Movement Conservative playbook material.

So who is J. Christian Adams? (Man, what a great name — John Quincy Adams with a apocalyptic modernist twist.) Media Matters again (their emphasis for a change):

Adams is a longtime conservative activist reportedly hired by Bush appointee who politicized the Justice Department. A December 2, 2009, article on the legal news website Main Justice reported that Adams "was hired in 2005 by then-Civil Rights Division political appointee Bradley Schlozman, according to a person familiar with the situation" and that "Schlozman was found in this joint investigation [PDF] of the Justice Department's Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility to have violated civil service rules by improperly taking political and ideological affiliations into account when making career attorney hires." The article also reported that Adams volunteered with a Republican group that "trains lawyers to fight on the front lines of often racially tinged battles over voting rights."

In the bunker days of the Bush administration, 2006–2008, Schlozman news was everywhere. Here's a sample. Adams is Schlozman's man. What was Schlozman's specialty at the Bush DOJ Civil Rights voting section? Pervert civil rights enforcement so that only whites can be victims, of black injustice. Like I said, Movement operatives, and good ones.

My point? It's not about this hangnail. Adams, having done a fine small job, will be rewarded and fade. It's about what happens when you leave Republican insurgents to operate in a "Democratic" administration. Adams worked at the DOJ until the middle of this year. Think about that — 18 months in Obama's voting rights enforcement division.

Digby wonders how many more like him there are. I wonder why Obama didn't clean house the day he walked in the door. There are people like Adams (and McChrystal) all through his administration.

I mean that seriously — why didn't he clean house? We shouldn't be stopping at the question. We need to be finding the answer.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Governor of Hawaii vetoed civil unions bill

Governor Linda Lingle (R) just insured that her legacy is one of intolerance and hate: She just vetoed the civil unions bill.

More at AMERICAblog Gay. Read the rest of this post...

Would you give your dying mother a toy seal to keep her company?

Weird article in the NYT about nursing homes using an electronic seal to keep the elderly company. If it works, more power to them, I guess. But it seems a bit odd, giving a lonely person a fake animal to literally keep them company. We're not talking a stuffed animal to hold, we're talking an electronic seal that responds to how you treat it.

Neat idea, or a nasty sign of the times that we're relegated to giving fake pets to the elderly. Read the rest of this post...

Ryan Grim: 'Mayberry Machiavellis: Obama Political Team Handcuffing Recovery'

Ryan Grim at the Huffington Post argues what a lot of us have been saying: The White House's decision to embrace deficit reduction over economic stimulus is wrong-headed politically and economically. And I know they're going to claim that they haven't embraced one over the other, but here's the rub: Even President Obama, expert as he is at embracing all sides of a conflict, can't square increased spending and cutting it back at the same time. That message might fool the people, but it doesn't fool the economy.

Under the leadership of President George W. Bush, science, empirical evidence and expert advice struggled to be heard above the din of politics. It's one thing to prioritize politics over good policy; it's quite another to let bad politics drive the agenda. But that's what the Bush administration did during its Terry Schiavo era and his congressional majorities paid the price.

Today, a new band of Mayberry Machiavellis has gained control, counseling President Obama to ignore the advice of his economic team and press forward with deficit reduction ahead of job creation.

Academics Benjamin Page and Lawrence Jacobs, in the recent paper, "Understanding Public Opinion on Deficits and Social Security," have identified an additional reason that the deficit continues to rank high in polls as a prominent concern. "The 'most important problem' question responds heavily to whatever is being emphasized in the media, apparently because many respondents interpret it as asking what other people consider important," they write. "They look to the media for evidence. So a well-organized and well-funded campaign against deficits (like the one led by Peter Peterson) can grab the attention of pundits and politicians, win coverage in the media, and produce a temporary spike in responses that deficits constitute our 'most important problem.'"

The more that the president highlights deficit concerns, the more concerned the public gets, and the more his advisers warn him that the public is concerned.

The Obama political team's focus on the deficit raises the question: Just who is this hypothetical midterm voter who was leading to the GOP because of deficit concerns, but will vote Democratic if only Congress trims a spending bill from, say, $250 billion down to $80 billion? Most voters -- and most reporters, for that matter -- can't guess within a few hundred billion what the budget deficit is, and would struggle to put a dollar figure on the latest jobs-bill proposal. So how is it, then, that a voter would cheer saving a few billion dollars by cutting off COBRA subsidies?

Despite all of that spending, unemployment has hovered around ten percent, leading voters to assume and leaving Republicans to argue that the stimulus didn't work. The reality is that it did save or create hundreds of thousands of jobs, if not millions, but was too small -- as economists warned at the time -- to fill the economic hole left by the housing collapse and financial crisis.

Read the rest of this post...

Wall Street cutting its donations to Dems

Which just goes to show you: No matter what Democrats do on financial reform, they will tick off Wall Street. They might as well go for broke, since they're going to suffer the consequences regardless of what they do. Wash Post:

This fundraising free fall from the New York area has left Democrats with diminished resources to defend their House and Senate majorities in November's midterm elections. Although the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have seen just a 16 percent drop in overall donations compared with this stage of the 2008 campaign, party leaders are concerned about the loss of big-dollar donors. The two congressional committees have raised $49.5 million this election cycle from people giving $1,000 or more at a time, compared with $81.3 million at this point in the last election.

Almost half of that decline in large-dollar fundraising can be attributed to New York, according to a Washington Post analysis of records filed with the Federal Election Commission.

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Economist: China's real estate bubble bursting, will hit banks

If this analysis turns out to be accurate - and there is every reason to believe that bubble, like others, will burst - China is going to be facing one of it's most significant challenges in decades. There has been regular political dissent and protests but with a growing economy there was always plenty of money to throw around at the problems. This time it may not be as easy. What makes any analysis complicated is that China is so secretive about the details inside the banking system. Some still believe that there is limited credit bubble risk but that assumes the government story about real estate being paid in cash is accurate. Bubbles eventually always burst.

China's property market is beginning a collapse that will hit the banking system, Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University told Bloomberg Television.

Property transactions have dropped and prices are stagnating in the wake of steps in recent months by the central government to cool the market.

Xu Shaoshi, minister of land and resources, said at the weekend that he expected prices to start falling within a few months.

"You're starting to see that collapse in property and it's going to hit the banking system," Rogoff, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, told the agency.

Read the rest of this post...

Reid's GOP opponent sends him cease and desist, for reposting her own Web site

I'm sensing a few things here. One, Harry Reid's opponent Sharron Angle is a bit dumb. Two, she's a bit strong-headed, as someone on staff must have told her that the last thing she needs to do is help Reid publicize her wacky earlier statements - which is exactly what she's doing, by sending Reid a cease-and-desist. From The Hill:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Republican nominee Sharon Angle traded jabs over the weekend after Angle's campaign took legal action to prevent her opponent from re-posting an old version of her campaign website on the Internet.

Reid's campaign still mocked the letter as a "threat of a frivolous lawsuit" and took a parting shot of its own.

“These are Sharron Angle’s positions in Sharron’s own words from Sharron’s own website. What was good enough for Nevada voters to read during the primary should be good enough for them now,” said Reid campaign spokesman Jon Summers.

You can find the site here: http://www.sharronsundergroundbunker.com/ Read the rest of this post...

Roy Blunt's has a new TV ad, which omits the key fact that he's been in Congress for 14 years

GOP Congressman Roy Blunt, who is running for Senate in Missouri, has a new t.v. ad out this week. But, there's a glaring omission:

What Blunt doesn't say in his first statewide commercial: He is a member of Congress, and more -- for part of the time when Republicans had control, he was majority leader.

Why? Why would a GOPer not mention that he's served in Congress -- and as a leader for part of that time? Because Blunt is facing a real right-winger in the August 3rd GOP primary. Clearly, that's a cause for concern:

While the ad is directed at Democratic-controlled Washington, Republican insiders in the Show-Me State say the campaign's decision to go on the air this early is an effort to improve Blunt's soft GOP primary numbers against the underfunded and first-time statewide candidate Chuck Purgason.

Purgason, a state senator known in Jefferson City for his trademark bolo tie, publicized the endorsement of Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher last week and snagged 18 percent against Blunt in March, according to a Public Policy Polling survey.

Purgason is not considered a serious threat, but top GOP-ers say the Blunt campaign wants to make certain the congressman nets more than 65 percent on Aug. 3.

Sharron Angle wasn't considered a serious threat, either.

There's more at play here. See, Roy has "gone DC." Big time. In fact, Purgason's radio ad portrays Blunt as a "Washington insider." That's like the kiss of death to teabaggers. But, there are facts to back it up. Blunt dumped his wife to marry a lobbyist. He's got close ties to Wall Street. Teabaggers are supposedly all about the debt and deficit, but, as a GOP leader, Roy helped take the U.S. from a surplus to a $1.2 trillion deficit. Plus, he considers swanky Georgetown, not Missouri, his home now.

Blunt's poll numbers have to be pretty "soft" for him to go on t.v. now. If "Joe the Plumber" is on board with Purgason, can Sarah Palin be far behind? Just wondering. Blunt symbolizes many of the things Palin purports to eschew. One thing is clear: Roy Blunt's got problems with his GOP base. And, Blunt must think the people of Missouri are really dumb if he thinks he can hide the fact that he's been in Congress for 14 years. Read the rest of this post...

GOP party chair Steele expected to be gone after fall elections

From Cillizza at the Post:

But once the midterm election is over, multiple Republican sources told the Fix there is a widespread recognition that Steele's tenure is over -- no matter what happens at the ballot box.

"Most members have already come to the conclusion that they can't have Steele as chairman in a presidential cycle," said one high-level GOP operative. "If you think his gaffes are a distraction now, imagine them in the heat of a presidential campaign."

Read the rest of this post...

Some senior Republicans haven't signed on to HCR repeal bill

The Hill:

Although they’ve called repeatedly for repeal of the Democrats’ new health reform law, some senior Senate Republicans have not endorsed a bill that would actually do it.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), GOP Conference Chair Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) and Conference Vice Chair Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) have all argued that the reforms — passed in March without Republican support — will hike costs and erode services, and therefore should be scrapped. Yet they haven’t signed on to their party’s repeal proposal.

That McConnell, Alexander and Murkowski haven’t done the same, some experts say, could erode the Republicans’ election-year message that the Democrats’ health reforms will do more harm than good.

Read the rest of this post...

Barney Frank and Ron Paul on the need to 'make substantial cuts' in Pentagon spending

Voices from opposite ends of the political spectrum agree on something -- the need to cut defense spending:

As members of opposing political parties, we disagree on a number of important issues. But we must not allow honest disagreement over some issues interfere with our ability to work together when we do agree.

By far the single most important of these is our current initiative to include substantial reductions in the projected level of American military spending as part of future deficit reduction efforts. For decades, the subject of military expenditures has been glaringly absent from public debate. Yet the Pentagon budget for 2010 is $693 billion -- more than all other discretionary spending programs combined. Even subtracting the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, military spending still amounts to over 42% of total spending.

It is irrefutably clear to us that if we do not make substantial cuts in the projected levels of Pentagon spending, we will do substantial damage to our economy and dramatically reduce our quality of life.

Read the rest of this post...

BP clean-up falling short of promises

Of course, it's a familiar trend that we're all painfully aware of with BP.

In the 77 days since oil from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon began to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, BP has skimmed or burned about 60 percent of the amount it promised regulators it could remove in a single day.

The disparity between what BP promised in its March 24 filing with federal regulators and the amount of oil recovered since the April 20 explosion underscores what some officials and environmental groups call a misleading numbers game that has led to widespread confusion about the extent of the spill and the progress of the recovery.

"It's clear they overreached," said John F. Young Jr., council chairman in Louisiana's Jefferson Parish. "I think the federal government should have at the very least picked up a phone and started asking some questions and challenged them about the accuracy of that number and tested the veracity of that claim."

Read the rest of this post...

Krugman on the latest economic thinking from WH: 'It's garbage, of course'

Paul Krugman is worried about the thinking at the White House. Really worried. And, you can tell as much by the title of his post: Confidence Fairies Have Infiltrated The White House.

On ABC's "Good Morning America" earlier today, George Stephanopoulos told Krugman about a conversation he had with an Obama administration official "who asserted that what we need to get businesses investing is for business to know that the government has stopped — presumably, that means no new spending, no new regulation, whatever." Now, we all know that George has many friends in the Obama administration. He used to work with some of them.

Krugman's response is pretty powerful and hard-hitting:

And it’s shocking — not that people are saying this, but that someone inside the administration is saying it.

It’s garbage, of course: businesses are refusing to invest because they don’t see enough demand for their products. And administration economists know that it’s garbage. But obviously some people in the WS — I’m guessing a political person, but who knows — have bought the right-wing line hook, line, and sinker.

We’ll never know what might have happened if Obama and co. had actually had the courage of their convictions; what we do know is that they have undermined their own message at every turn.

Ouch.

Putting politics first could seriously undermine our economic future. People expected more from Obama. Read the rest of this post...

Deepwater Horizon tar balls reach Texas

It's important that they verify the specific oil well there because you never know what is going to be washing up in Galveston, Texas.

The spill, gushing as much as 60,000 barrels of oil a day, is about 50 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River. Sosnowski said the system would probably become a tropical storm at the least and had the possibility of creating squalls that could disrupt the oil containment and cleanup efforts.

In Texas, officials confirmed Monday that they found a small number of tar balls on beaches in Galveston and nearby Bolivar Peninsula. They were tested and found to be from the Deepwater Horizon spill.

"I think altogether they filled up a couple of buckets full of them; it was not a huge impact," said Jim Suydam, a spokesman for the Texas General Land Office. "We think we'll be able to contain any impact from Deepwater to tar ball pickup on the beach."

Read the rest of this post...

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The President is spending a good chunk of his day with Israel's Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. They're having a meeting in the morning, a press availability (which, unlike last time Bibi was at the White House, means a photo) and lunch. I think these two leaders have a lot to talk about.

Members of Congress are back in their districts and states this week. Lots of campaigning underway. The President gets on the trail later this week with stops in Missouri and Nevada. Apparently, Wall Street donors are really mad at the Democrats and not contributing as much this year. Yes, the very same people who helped destroy the economy are now mad at the leaders who had to come in to fix the problem. Classic. No wonder GOP House Leader John Boehner called the financial crisis an "ant." He's sucking up to Wall Street money.

Just got back from taking Petey for a walk It's already really hot in DC -- later today, the temperature will hit 103 and we have a "heat advisory." That kind of heat can be really dangerous for people and pets. This heat wave extends up the East Coast. It's going to hit 100 in NYC today, too.

Okay, what's on the agenda... Read the rest of this post...

Another warning on British economy falling back into recession

The Tories bet the farm on chopping spending, as if that would somehow help trigger recovery. The current recovery is much too delicate for such harsh actions so it's more likely to force the economy backwards in the near term. The political debate continues over the issue of austerity though based on global economic history, there is no debate. At this point an "L" shaped recovery is the best case for the UK. The Independent:

"The recovery is likely to be characterised by a weak upward gradient, with a 'ratchet' effect and quarters of acceleration, deceleration and even decline," the IoD says.

The June survey of the service sector – comprising 70 per cent of the economy – by the Chartered institute of Purchasing and Supply (Cips) indicates that growth may have been stronger than expected in recent months, but future prospects may be dimmer than were previously hoped for.

Speculation about public spending cuts and the reality of the toughest Budget since the Second World War, delivered by the Chancellor on 22 June, has had a marked impact on consumer and business confidence.

The fall in the headline business activity index, from 55.4 to 54.4, was the third monthly drop since February's recent peak, leaving the balance at its lowest level since August. While still in positive territory – any reading above 50 indicates expansion – the trend is down. The Cips survey is regarded as a reliable leading indicator for the real economy, with about a six to nine-month lag.

Read the rest of this post...

Thailand extends state of emergency for most of country

It's debatable whether this is required or if it will cause more severe problems later because they are pushing the opposition deeper underground. BBC:

The Thai government has extended a state of emergency in 19 provinces, including the capital Bangkok, because of fears of renewed violence.

The emergency decree was revoked in five other provinces, after a three-month deadline expired.

The law was imposed during mass anti-government protests earlier this year in which 90 people were killed.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told the BBC on Monday that there would be a gradual lifting of emergency law.

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Krugman on how screwed up it is not to pass new unemployment benefits

Interestingly, as Krugman notes, unemployment benefits are a form of stimulus.

Paul Krugman:

When the economy is booming, and lack of sufficient willing workers is limiting growth, generous unemployment benefits may keep employment lower than it would have been otherwise. But as you may have noticed, right now the economy isn’t booming — again, there are five unemployed workers for every job opening. Cutting off benefits to the unemployed will make them even more desperate for work — but they can’t take jobs that aren’t there.

Wait: there’s more. One main reason there aren’t enough jobs right now is weak consumer demand. Helping the unemployed, by putting money in the pockets of people who badly need it, helps support consumer spending. That’s why the Congressional Budget Office rates aid to the unemployed as a highly cost-effective form of economic stimulus. And unlike, say, large infrastructure projects, aid to the unemployed creates jobs quickly — while allowing that aid to lapse, which is what is happening right now, is a recipe for even weaker job growth, not in the distant future but over the next few months.

But won’t extending unemployment benefits worsen the budget deficit? Yes, slightly — but as I and others have been arguing at length, penny-pinching in the midst of a severely depressed economy is no way to deal with our long-run budget problems. And penny-pinching at the expense of the unemployed is cruel as well as misguided.

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