What happened to Ronald Reagan?

Tom Ridge via Cillizza:

"My view has always been whether you're from the right or the left, liberal or conservative that we don't demonize each other because of what they believe," said Ridge this afternoon. "And for us as a party to grow back into a majority party, we need to understand that."

Ridge, who is pro-choice, went on to oppose the idea of any "litmus test" for membership into the Republican party.

Said Ridge:

"There have been two Republican presidents who have fundamentally altered my life. One was when I got a draft notice from Richard Nixon and I went to Vietnam. The other was a phone call from George Bush and I went to Homeland Security. On neither occasion did they run any litmus test by me."

Read the rest of this post...

Farrah Fawcett is critically ill

It's not politics. Sometimes we need a break. Though this article is hardly a break. It's incredibly sad. I had no idea she was ill.

For my generation, Farrah Fawcett was such a big deal. That poster. That hair. It's increasingly disturbing watching pieces of your childhood drift away.

Read the rest of this post...

Cheney: No need for GOP to moderate

From Sam Stein at Huff Post:

"I think it would be a mistake for us to moderate. This is about fundamental beliefs and values and ideas...what the role of government should be in our society, and our commitment to the Constitution and constitutional principles," he said. "You know, when you add all those things up the idea that we ought to moderate basically means we ought to fundamentally change our philosophy. I for one am not prepared to do that, and I think most us aren't."

Most of you remaining, you mean. Not to mention, your commitment to the Constitution? That's choice. Read the rest of this post...

Drew Peterson arrested for murdering his wife

Game over. Read the rest of this post...

Spitzer: "a breakdown of capitalism"

Eliot Spitzer made some bad decisions in his personal life but he's been on the money for a while when it comes to Wall Street. The interview on CNBC is as blistering as I've ever heard him. He slams Wall Street greed, Greenspan, regulatory failures and also asks hard questions about Goldman Sachs. (Why the heck is Goldman not on the troubled bank list today and how did they receive almost $13 billion via AIG without question?) When I listen to him on CNBC it infuriates me that he made so many poor personal decisions because this was someone who really understand what was going on and how costly the failures would be for the country. The interview is inside the link and definitely worth the investment of 10 minutes. If only we had a few more hardball types out there today who could make a difference.

We won’t know if these bank stress tests are real until we see how the government measures them, said Eliot Spitzer, former governor of New York.

"What we have seen is a breakdown of capitalism," Spitzer said in a live interview on CNBC. "We have seen a libertarianism driven by Alan Greenspan's worldview that was absolutely destructive to the life-savings of middle-class Americans. The Fed has been sliding [money] into these banks through hidden mechanisms, lowering interest rates, this notion of converting the common stock…It is the same scam continuing—and this should not continue."

Spitzer criticized the bank stress tests and said the middle class will suffer the most as a result. He said that without any change in bank behaviors, the banking crisis would only continue to persist and grow.

A trillion dollars and counting yet no changes in corporate leadership or business practices. How does that work? The most troubling is Spitzer's comment at the end when he responded that he does not believe we've learned anything from this crisis. I'd like to be wrong on this but I would agree. Read the rest of this post...

Top religious right group has no problem with a gay Supreme Court justice

They're lying. But this is still huge.

In a move that will surprise gay activists and liberals, a spokesperson for Focus on the Family, a top religious right groups, tells me that his organization has no problem with GOP Senator Jeff Sessions’ claim today that he’s open to a Supreme Court nominee with “gay tendencies.”

The spokesperson confirms the group won’t oppose a gay SCOTUS nominee over sexual orientation.

“We agree with Senator Sessions,” Bruce Hausknecht, a spokesperson for Focus on the Family, which is headed by James Dobson, told me a few minutes ago. “The issue is not their sexual orientation. It’s whether they are a good judge or not.”

Their sexual orientation “should never come up,” he continued. “It’s not even pertinent to the equation.”

Yeah right. This from the group whose leader said only six months ago that gays have a "disorder." Now we're fit to be on the Supreme Court?

This is a huge sign of the times, when the lead religious right group - this is James Dobson's group - is afraid to be openly homophobic. And earlier today, I noted how Tony Perkins over at the Family Research Council left gays out of his demand that the "new" GOP focus on social issues. The religious right may actually be - at least publicly - backing away from its over hostility to gays.

Now, do they still hate us in their heart of hearts? Absolutely. Will they do everything in their power to hurt us, and take away our civil rights? You betcha. But now they're afraid to say it. And that's a huge indication of how far we've come, and how low the GOP has sunk. They know it's no longer acceptable to be anti-gay, but now they actually care. That's because they know they're in trouble. America has turned on them. So they're chucking their beliefs overboard in an effort to win back the middle.

Funny as hell.

But hey, we're happy to take Jeff Sessions and the religious right at their word, that they have no problem with a gay Supreme Court nominee. We'll be holding them to that promise. Read the rest of this post...

GOP Senator Sessions: Supreme Court nominee with "gay tendencies" might not be a problem

Gay tendencies? What the hell does that mean?

"I don't think a person who acknowledges that they have gay tendencies is disqualified per se for the job,” Sessions tells Mark Halperin on Morning Joe.

So a few sex acts are okay, but there's some point at which conservative GOP Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama, of course) draws the line. Is it the type of sex act, or just the frequency or overall tally? Or maybe he means he won't oppose a nominee who matches his socks and his ties.

Seriously, though, it's another sign that the GOP is running scared. When a conservative family values southern Republican with a racially-tinged past like Jeff Sessions is suddenly open to a nominee with gay tendencies, whatever the hell that means, it's progress. Sessions doesn't mean it, of course. He'd most certainly torpedo a gay nominee. But still, he doesn't think it's acceptable to admit it. And that is progress. Read the rest of this post...

GOP chair Michael Steele still can't get anyone to work for him

Maybe he should talk more about banning all abortions and jailing gays, at least Miss California and some Mormons would be willing to work for him. From Roll Call:

“What it says is that people are very wary about joining the organization because of all the bad publicity it’s generating on itself,” one Republican strategist said.

The RNC has also yet to find a finance chairman. Although the position is not paid, as least one other Republican operative found it surprising that the RNC was having trouble finding people to fill these jobs — especially with so many Republicans looking for work in Washington, D.C., this cycle.

“How bad is it when you’re unemployed with no job prospects in sight and you’re offered at job at the RNC and you have to turn it down?” the operative said.

Read the rest of this post...

2nd racy photo of Miss California appears after she promised there were no more

Yes, schadenfreude. But more importantly, the hypocrisy of the religious right, and all extreme moralists, is once against being exposed (no pun intended). From David Vitter paying hookers while signing onto legislation to "protect marriage," to Larry Craig being anti-gay while tapping his feet in men's rooms, to evangelical preachers who visit male masseurs with slippery fingers. And let's not even get started on anti-gay religious right leaders who set off gaydar ten miles away. It's not just that all of these people are moral hypocrites. It's looking as though their moral hypocrisy might even be the cause of their personal moral crusades. Are they so ashamed of themselves that they strike out at others?

Regardless, Miss California is not long for this crown. Though by continuing to use her as their spokesperson, the religious right does take a big step towards legitimizing soft porn, so it's not all bad. Read the rest of this post...

Is Orrin Hatch suggesting that Obama has a liberal mandate?

I was reading the Republicans' canned criticism of Obama's Supreme Court nominee, even though Obama has yet to even announce a nominee. And I came upon this little gem from GOP Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah.

"There's no doubt in my eyes that [Obama's] going to nominate somebody who is far to the left of where I am. And I mean -- he was elected as probably the most liberal president in history, and there are all kinds of expectations by him on the far left."

Well, if Obama was elected as "probably the most liberal president in history," then the American people took that into account when they gave Obama his massive electoral landslide last November over a candidate representing Orrin Hatch's views of the world. Read the rest of this post...

Tony Perkins forgets to mention the gays

This is rather fascinating. Tony Perkins, the head of the religious right's Family Research Council, is bemoaning the fact that the GOP, in an effort to rebrand itself as kinder and gentler, is ignoring far-right social issues. The thing? Perkins himself ignores a far-right social issue in his complaint. He doesn't mention gays once.

Sure, Perkins mentions abortion. And he throws in the perfunctory claim that the Republicans lost the last two elections because they weren't conservative enough. (Whatever.) But the one thing Perkins doesn't throw in is any mention of gay rights. This, on the heels of a virtual tidal wave of gay marriage victories in the states - an issue that Perkins, and his brethren, claimed would bring the end of times. Now, not so much.

The irony of course is that Perkins ends up proving the GOP's point. Namely, that some social issues are better left by the wayside if the Republicans want any chance of coming back to power, or even having more than 20% of the population on their side, any time soon. Read the rest of this post...

Troubled banks deeply involved with subprime lending

Surprise, surprise. The response to this new report by the banking lobbyist is laughable and predictable. See, the banks who are now inhaling billions to stay afloat and live the high life are really victims. The poor little lambs are as surprised as anyone that their shady business practices could crumble so quickly and be so costly. I mean, gosh, who could ever imagine besides maybe the crackpot Roubini? He has an accent and is a professor at some fancy pants college so this probably means he's untrustworthy and maybe even a communist. Washingtonpost.com:

While many portrayed themselves as unwitting victims of the subprime mortgage meltdown, the banks also enabled that kind of lending because it was lucrative, according to the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative reporting group funded largely by charitable foundations. The group analyzed federal data on 7.2 million mortgages made from 2005 through 2007, a period that covers the peak and collapse of subprime lending.

The report oversimplifies the problem and ignores the complexities of the market, said Scott Talbott, chief lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable, which represents some of the nation's largest lenders. "To say we are victims is understating, and to say we are enablers is overstating," he said.

Banks that received federal bailout money financed at least 21 of the top 25 subprime lenders, the investigation found. They owned these lenders, extended credit to them, or bought their loans and then sold them as securities.

Of course the report "oversimplifies the problem" as the lobbyist (paid for by taxpayer bailout money) says. It's better if everyone gets lost in deep financial detail instead of seeing the obvious self-inflicted problems. Life was so much easier before the bubble burst and we could have media programs worshiping the brilliant corporate leadership who were making so much money. Those were the days. Read the rest of this post...

The President of the Senate met with the Democrat's 60th Senator

V.P. Joe Biden had a meeting yesterday with the Democrat's newest Senator (to-be), Al Franken. Biden said:

While Senator Amy Klobuchar is one of the hardest working members of the United States Senate, Minnesotans deserve their full representation.

Once the Minnesota Supreme Court has issued its final ruling in this case, the President and I look forward to working with Mr. Franken on building an economy for the 21st century.

Yes, the Minnesota Supreme Court, not the U.S Supreme Court, should be the final arbiter (although the Republicans know Coleman has lost. If the guy had an ounce of class, he'd concede.)

Someone needs to get this photo to Arlen Specter to remind him whose side he is on now:


(White House Photo) Read the rest of this post...

The Rush purge of the GOP continues: Tells Colin Powell to get out

I've said before that Rush Limbaugh is like a cross between North Korea's creepy and ruthless dictator, Kim Jong-il, and that big fat Wizard of Oz head. His authoritarian side is showing these days as he continues the purge of the GOP:

"What Colin Powell needs to do is close the loop and become a Democrat instead of claiming to be a Republican interested in reforming the Republican Party," Limbaugh said on his radio show Wednesday.

Limbaugh also took aim at Powell's decision to endorse President Obama over John McCain during the presidential election, repeating his earlier sentiment that Powell's move was "solely based on race."

"He's just mad at me because I'm the one person in the country who had the guts to explain his endorsement of Obama," Limbaugh said. "It was purely and solely based on race."

During a speech on Monday, Powell said the "the Republican Party is in deep trouble" and said the GOP would be better off without Limbaugh, according to a report by the National Journal.

"I think what Rush does as an entertainer diminishes the party and intrudes or inserts into our public life a kind of nastiness that we would be better to do without," Powell said.

Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Your president has a meeting today with Newt Gingrich, Mayor Bloomberg and Al Sharpton -- quite a trio. They'll be talking education.

Yesterday was quite a day for Mainers. As The Boston Globe (which isn't shutting down for now anyway) noted:

Governor John E. Baldacci of Maine became the first governor in the country to sign a gay marriage bill into law without being spurred to action by a court decision.

As Maine goes, so goes the nation...and the right wingers know that. Things haven't been going so well for that crowd lately. The GOP is tanking before our eyes. And, the extreme groups that drive the Republican agenda look more and more out of touch every day.

Let's get it started... Read the rest of this post...

Roubini: stress tests not stressful enough

On the positive side, Roubini is seeing some positive signs out there, though he is targeting 2010 as opposed to 2009 for working out of the recession. On the banking front, Roubini continues to see difficulties and thinks the weaker banks are not going to be able to raise private capital in this market so let's move forward with taking them over and cleaning them up so they can become productive and privatized again. The video is inside the CNBC link:

"(But) if you assume the results have been leaked are true, you're going to find out that a large number of financial institutions have significant capital needs," Roubini told CNBC.

He also warns the government's plan to make banks covert more preferred shares to common stocks could lead to a creeping nationalization of the banks.

"Weaker institutions are going to find it very hard to raise money in the private sector because they're going to be further diluted by the government converting preferred into common shares. So eventually we may go into a creeping process of partial nationalization of some financial institutions," Roubini added.

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Rupert Murdoch to charge for website access

It's understandable that News Corp wants to generate a better revenue model for their media outlets but this is going to be a tough sell. They cite the Wall Street Journal (a site that already charged when News Corp purchased it) as the model but there's a big difference between one specialized site versus all of them. There's too much competition today in the industry and not enough single source, original information online. Of course, part of Murdoch's strategy has always been to wipe out competition. Look at the state of the media in Australia where News Corp owns the market.

The sites that charge (like the WSJ and the FT) are easily passed by and the information can be found quickly enough. Again, I get the need to generate revenue - News Corp has been hammered along with the media in general - but this doesn't sound like the future. This sounds more in line with the old days when a few outlets tried forcing users to pay for subscriptions. It's possible it will work in the near term but over time, maybe not. I guess I'll just have to try and live without the high quality available on News Corp sites around the world.

Rupert ­Murdoch expects to start charging for access to News Corporation's newspaper websites within a year as he strives to fix a ­"malfunctioning" business model.

Encouraged by booming online subscription revenues at the Wall Street Journal, the billionaire media mogul last night said that papers were going through an "epochal" debate over whether to charge. "That it is possible to charge for content on the web is obvious from the Wall Street Journal's experience," he said.

Asked whether he envisaged fees at his British papers such as the Times, the Sunday Times, the Sun and the News of the World, he replied: "We're absolutely looking at that." Taking questions on a conference call with reporters and analysts, he said that moves could begin "within the next 12 months‚" adding: "The current days of the internet will soon be over."

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China moving on climate change

It's amazing what a change in government can do. The Bush administration's refusal to get serious about the environment was obvious to everyone, including China. Now the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases are at the table and ready to work out a plan. The Guardian:

China's official negotiating position is unchanged, but the government is understood to be preparing a set of targets up to and beyond 2020 to lower the country's "carbon intensity". This translates to cutting the emissions needed to produce each unit of economic growth.

Miliband said Barack Obama's pledge to reduce US emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 has unblocked the international negotiating process.

"China used to think the developed world is not serious. That's what they were saying [at UN talks] in December," he said. "But now they know the US is on the pitch and ready to engage with them. It has made a real difference to what China is saying."

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The bulldozer bubble?

In the big picture it may make sense but wow, what a strange story. Who knows how many of the millions of empty homes will meet the same ending. CNBC:

So this is what it has come to.

A bank in Texas is bulldozing four brand new homes and twelve nearly finished homes in Victorville city, California, about 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Guaranty Bank of Austin acquired the homes in foreclosure and is destroying them, reportedly, to provide a "safe environment" for the neighbors.

Check out a local guy who posted the amazing video. He says the builder was being fined daily for the homes, but if they were already in foreclosure, then the builder should be out of the picture. Anyway, check it out.

Video inside the CNBC story is click here. Read the rest of this post...

Tales of bad bosses

Perhaps we see more of these stories now that we're in recession but that's probably only because we have fewer job options today. There are always going to be nasty bosses who somehow manage to rise through the ranks. One of my worst experiences was a boss who loved having a long line of people sitting outside of his office. (Oh the productivity of such long waits.) After picking apart whatever anyone had to say, he saved the worst for that brief moment when you were leaving and the next person was entering the office. Even though you knew it was coming - he was consistent after all - it was infuriating to be ripped in front of others. The only consolation was that that person was about to be ripped in front of the next person.

The upside was that he ran away everyone good so he had to settle for the classic desperation hires. He ended up bringing in a tag team who drove the company into the ground and lined their pockets along the way with business that never existed. They were pretty nasty themselves including infamous screaming tirades. The kind where faces turn red and you see the veins pop out. Oh the memories. So anyone have any tales of especially good or especially bad bosses? Read the rest of this post...