It's all out war on Fords in gay-land

This time it's Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN):

Rep. Harold Ford Jr. on his way to San Francisco's political ATM machine -- he got mugged.

Ford, who is running for the hotly contested U.S. Senate seat expected to be vacated next year by Republican leader Bill Frist, was the latest in a parade of Democrats from around the country looking to mine donor-rich San Francisco for contributions.

But when word got out that Ford was among a minority of House Democrats who voted last year for a proposed constitutional amendment that would have prohibited same-sex marriages, local gay activists saw a chance to make hay....

Read the rest, it'll make you proud. I don't think, however, that the House voted on the amendment. Though they did vote on other anti-gay legislation concerning marriage. I suspect Ford voted the wrong way and that's why they got him. Good.

UPDATE from Joe: The House did vote on Marilyn Musgrave's anti-gay marriage amendment on September 30, 2004 -- just in time for the elections. Harold Ford voted with Musgrave. Read the rest of this post...

Jobs report showed some growth

It's not the 250,000 new jobs that many were predicting but instead it pretty much fell in line with the consensus 215,000, or about 65,000 more than the average number of new entrants into the market each month. That's not exactly great, but it could have been worse. The GOP and some on Wall Street keep trying to tell Americans that the economy couldn't be any better, that everything is fine but maybe they ought to look at the Clinton years if they want to see serious growth numbers in jobs. These numbers are a drop in the bucket compared to what Bill churned out.

Despite all if the corporate welfare or perhaps because of it and because of the GOP tax policies, all we are seeing is more growth at the very top of the pile with the middle class and below simply getting piled on. No wonder the screaming so loudly as they tell us how great the economy is going because if they didn't say it that way nobody would know that there's growth. The middle class is funding this war of choice, funding the tax cuts for the Cheney's of America, high oil prices and more corporate welfare. Gosh, tell us again why we should be thrilled with the new economic figures? Read the rest of this post...

Media Matters re-launches Web site

It's quite good. Check it out. Feel free to post your impressions of the new site, comments, helpful suggestions, etc. Media Matters will be checking my comments for any good feedback you can provide.

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Open thread

Slow day Read the rest of this post...

Video of my CNN segment this morning

Video courtesy of the Political Teen. Read the rest of this post...

Why does the GOP hate the middle class so much?

Since they've busted the budget the GOP has so few options left to find money to pay the bills and still follow through with their countless promises on tax cuts. If there was anyone still doubting who the GOP likes and who can rot in hell, take a look at what they're promoting now.

The Tax Policy Center calculated that 51.3 percent of the House bill's tax package would flow to the top 1 percent of filers, people with average annual incomes of $1.1 million. Put another way: half the entire tax cut would go to about 1.4 million households.

Gosh, sounds pretty fair and well worth all of the time and money for Congress to write tax policy for 1% of the public. How democratic and free. And to think the world doesn't want to model themselves after the US. Read the rest of this post...

Back from CNN

Just got back from CNN. As always, the Green Room (the room you wait in before you go on) was more interesting than the segment itself. Got to chat for a while with Mark Mazetti, the LA Times reporter who actually broke the Iraq propaganda story. Interesting guy, young too (I think). It's annoying getting to that age where you're meeting people younger than you doing cool things :-) When we walked in there were a number of Secret Service guys standing guard, which of course meant someone interesting was there. As Joe mentioned, it was Bush's National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley getting his make-up done.

The segment went fine, though I was tired, and looked it. Howie was fair, I thought, and even gave me the softball question about whether this was like the Armstrong Williams scandal. Afterwards, when we got back to the Green Roome, Senator Lugar was there (R-IN). I love that men. I'd traveled with him a lot when I worked in the Senate in the early 90s. He's just a very smart, VERY smart, decent fellow. I know, I doubt he votes the right way on gay issues (or other key liberal issues), but he really is a decent man (I also suspect he'd be winnable on gay issues if people would just work him - why? because he's a decent guy) - it's just unfortunate that the Republican leadership won't let him have REAL oversight over our foreign policy, AND that he won't stand up to them and demand it. Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

I'm over at CNN with John...hanging in the "Green Room." Steven Hadley was just next door chatting with Wolf....and they just brought out the food. Read the rest of this post...

I'm gonna be on CNN this morning, 10:30ish

I totally forgot to tell you guys. I'm gonna be on Howie Kurtz's show, Reliable Sources, on CNN this morning. The show is on from 10 to 11AM Eastern. Our segment should be in the second half hour, they told me, close to 10:30. Be there or be square. Read the rest of this post...

Gee, anti-gay bigoted Ford Motor Company now wants us to bail them out with billions

Isn't that special.

Too bad Ford, which just went anti-gay, is about to have the worst public relations week of its existence. Well, that's not really true. Ford had a pretty bad century after it's founder, Henry Ford, became a devotee of Hitler. But I've been plotting all weekend with friends, and starting tomorrow, things are gonna get fun for Ford.

My copy of Henry Ford's book "The International Jew, the World's Foremost Problem" should arrive Monday or Tuesday (I'm not kidding).

We'll be running excerpts on AMERICAblog all week. But that's only the beginning.

At Ford, inequality is job one. Read the rest of this post...

Sunday Morning Open Thread

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

Note to US Auto industry executives - quit asking for welfare bonuses from the middle class

Despite years of protectionist policies, corporate welfare handouts/bailouts, plants closings and shipping jobs overseas so the top layer can rake in profits and bonuses, the failures who have driven the industry into the ground due to their own management failures, now they want to be bailed out bailed out by the US taxpayers. For what? So they can close even more factories and give even more bonuses to the top management? The problem here is decades of pathetic management in the US auto industry who despite having the best and brightest, they have driven the industry into the ground and failed to prepare the industry to compete. Looking at how previous industry bailouts have gone I see no reason why the US taxpayers should be asked to step up and pay the price. If the US is supposed to be a free market democracy, how about Big Auto and the rest of corporate America starts acting like it?

A lot more Americans work in small business these days and they have to manage without these bailouts and in fact, with the GOP bankruptcy bill the middle class is even more screwed than before. There should be no doubt that Detroit is on a path of cutting wages of workers to a level that will drop them out of the middle class and will outsource every possible piece overseas and just line their pockets with this money much like we witnessed at US Air and others in the airline industry after their bailout.

Detroit is pitching (and the politicians are repeating it) that there is some sort of structural change in the auto industry and that needs to be address. Excuse me? That happened in the late 1970s so why are they crying now? The whole lot of them are acting as though it's a war against the Japanese auto industry circa 1980. I suggest Big Auto spends more time on making cars instead of hiring costly consultants to deliver PR pitches for politicians to repeat. This discussion is being masked with "save the middle class dream" but that is the most dishonest load of garbage I have heard in a while. The reality of Big Auto is that they want nothing to do with the middle class. If Congress gave a damn they would not have rammed through the bankruptcy bill. At the same time, corporate America increasingly is turned to bankruptcy and government bailouts. Who's sucking up the welfare now?

Government bailouts are expensive and there are few, if any success stories. It only delays the inevitable and puts costly corporate bonuses on the backs of average Americans. Somebody please tell Detroit to go to hell and learn how to compete just like everyone else out there. Read the rest of this post...

Katrina memos released online by Blanco

100,000 pages of notes from Governor Blanco's office were put online Friday just as the GOP is forgetting about their responsibilities and promises to NOLA. It's always the same story with Bush regardless of the subject. There are always so many promises and then a complete failure to follow up on anything unless it's a juicy handout to his friends. Poor people just don't contribute enough to the GOP coffers I suppose. I guess this is what the GOP calls compassion conservatism.

"We need everything you've got," Blanco is quoted in a memo as telling President Bush on Aug. 29, the day Katrina made landfall. But despite assurances from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that 500 buses were "standing by," Blanco's aides were compelled to take action when the FEMA buses failed to materialize, documents show. "We need buses," Andy Kopplin, chief of staff to Blanco, said in an e-mail to Blanco staffers late on Aug. 30, the day after the storm hit. "Find buses that can go to NO [New Orleans] ASAP."

Two days later, on Sept. 2, Blanco complained to the White House that FEMA had still failed to fulfill its promises of aid. While cloaked in customary political courtesies, Blanco noted that she had already requested 40,000 more troops; ice, water and food; buses, base camps, staging areas, amphibious vehicles, mobile morgues, rescue teams, housing, airlift and communications systems, according to a press office e-mail of the text of her letter to Bush.

He added that Bush's "entire effort on behalf of the federal government has been reflected in his and his people's nonchalant attitude to the people of LA. You may give him this to read."

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