George Washington's $300,000 book fine

Who hasn't forgotten a book or two? Oops.

The New York Society Library, the city's only lender of books at the time of Washington's presidency, has revealed that the first American president took out two volumes and pointedly failed to return them.

At today's prices, adjusted for inflation, he would face a late fine of $300,000.

The library's ledgers show that Washington took out the books on 5 October 1789, some five months into his presidency at a time when New York was still the capital. They were an essay on international affairs called Law of Nations and the twelfth volume of a 14-volume collection of debates from the English House of Commons.

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Pope meets with victims of priests in Malta

It's better than nothing though the Vatican needs to start responding with much more action instead of words.

The meeting, announced only after it had finished, was Benedict's first such gesture since a new wave of sexual abuse scandals swept over Roman Catholicism in recent months. He had previously met victims in the United States and Australia.

"He prayed with them and assured them that the Church is doing, and will continue to do, all in its power to investigate allegations, to bring to justice those responsible for abuse and to implement effective measures designed to safeguard young people in the future," a Vatican statement on the meeting said.

It was one of the clearest statements yet from the Vatican that it wants local bishops to cooperate with civil authorities in prosecuting priests who abused children.

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DADT protesters repeatedly interrupt Obama speech at Boxer fundraiser

Protesters with GetEqual repeatedly interrupted President Obama's speech at a fundraiser for Senator Barbara Boxer in Los Angeles, moments ago. The protesters were demanding the President take action on Don't Ask, Don't Tell. These are the same folks who worked with Lt Dan Choi when he handcuffed himself to the White House gates a month ago. Looks like they're serious about holding the President's feet to the fire. More on AMERICAblog Gay. Read the rest of this post...

GOP Senator Corker contradicts McConnell, says Wall Street Reform bill is not 'a bailout'

From ThinkProgress:



Just me, or does Corker sound a lot like Dana Carvey doing George Bush? Read the rest of this post...

The Pat Robertson of Persia blames immodest, promiscuous women for earthquakes

AP via Jack and Jill Politics:

BEIRUT – A senior Iranian cleric says women who wear immodest clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes.

Iran is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, and the cleric’s unusual explanation for why the earth shakes follows a prediction by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that a quake is certain to hit Tehran and that many of its 12 million inhabitants should relocate.

“Many women who do not dress modestly … lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes,” Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media. Sedighi is Tehran’s acting Friday prayer leader.

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The South and the GOP will rise again

Ben Smith notes a disturbing reference from Michigan Rep. Thaddeus McCotter. Why the incessant need by Republicans to pander to racism in the south?

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Photos of the Eyjafjallajökull (Iceland) Volcano

It may be causing severe travel disruptions, but the photos are fantastic. The brief update here is that despite previous reports, Charles de Gaulle is closed again today. Our friend was due to fly on Saturday but today discovered his ticket was canceled. He now flies out to the US on Saturday 24 April if all goes well. Read the rest of this post...

Senate Dems will be taking on McConnell all week, demanding he reveal backroom conversation he had with Wall Street execs

This is very good. From what we understand, Democrats will be taking to the Senate floor all throughout the week, demanding that McConnell reveal what was discussed in his secret backroom meeting with Wall Street execs right before he came out against financial reform. From Reid's office:

Spokesman for Nevada Senator Harry Reid, Jim Manley, released the following statement today calling on Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and NRSC Chair Jon Cornyn to reveal what they discussed with bank executives in secret, backroom meetings related to Wall Street reform:

“Senators McConnell and Cornyn should immediately reveal what they discussed earlier this month during secret, closed-door meeting with Wall Street executives in New York City. Years of greed and excess on Wall Street cost 8 million jobs and trillions in wealth for middle-class families and small businesses. Since Republicans appear to be conducting backroom negotiations with these same people who took our economy to the brink of collapse, the public deserves to know what secret deals and carve-outs Republicans are offering Wall Street executives in exchange for t

heir support.” Read the rest of this post...

Former GOP congressman Tom Tancredo, who is not a racist, tells Teabaggers it's time to send Obama 'back to Kenya'

Seriously, he's not a racist. Just like he's not a draft dodger.



Just me, or did Tancredo's hair walk off the set a millisecond before the rest of him? Read the rest of this post...

Palin rejects notion that God is separate from the state

Steven Benen at Political Animal:

THE THEOCRATIC WING OF THE GOP.... A certain former half-term governor appears to be drifting even further away from the American mainstream. Over the weekend, appearing at evangelical Christian women's conference in Louisville, Sarah Palin rejected the very idea of separation of church and state, a bedrock principle of American democracy.

She asked for the women -- who greeted her with an enthusiastic standing ovation -- to provide a "prayer shield" to strengthen her against what she said was "deception" in the media.

She denounced this week's Wisconsin federal court ruling that government observance of a National Day of Prayer was unconstitutional -- which the crowd joined in booing. She asserted that America needs to get back to its Christian roots and rejected any notion that "God should be separated from the state."

Palin added that she was outraged when President Obama said that "America isn't a Christian nation."

[F]ar less amusing is the fact that Palin and others of her radical ilk reject any notion that "God should be separated from the state." It's the 21st century, for crying out loud. There are some countries that endorse Palin's worldview and intermix God and government -- Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan under Taliban rule come to mind -- but they're generally not countries the United States tries to emulate.

The separation of church and state has long been a concept that all Americans could embrace, and has served as a model for nations around the world to follow. For Palin to publicly denounce this bedrock American principle suggests she might actually be getting worse.

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15 years after the Oklahoma City Bombing

Adapted from an editorial written at the time by the Oklahoman:

MOVING imperceptibly from east to west, the morning sun on April 19, 1995, crossed the 200 block of NW 5. A shadow darted out of harm’s way. Clocks advanced from 9:01 to 9:02, Central Daylight Time.

A moment in time. A moment of eternity.

Lives were brutally stolen in that moment. The lives of hundreds of others were forever changed. A young city aged quickly and visibly, showing lines from worry and despair but also the resilience that the pioneers tapped to survive harsh weather and gutting poverty.

No crop failure or natural disaster, so frequent in these parts, made April 19 a date that will live in infamy. Instead, it was a calculated act of terror arising from one man’s desire for revenge. He spent that moment in time getting away, unwilling to endure or even witness the horror he had wrought.

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Poll: Americans more skeptical of Washington than ever

I'm not surprised. Republicans have been launching withering attacks on the Congress, the White House, and the entire notion of the American system of government, and Democrats haven't been providing an awful lot of defense (or offense, for that matter). So people end up thinking that the government under Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid has somehow illegally taken over all health care, shamefully bailed out their "friends" on Wall Street, and passed a pork-ladened stimulus bill that wasted nearly 1 trillion dollars while not creating one job. All of that is a lie. But it's a lie that becomes truth when it's not fought against nearly enough.

And now the Republicans are claiming that the Democrats' Wall Street Reform legislation is actually a massive bailout for Wall Street. Again, it's a lie. But Democrats are afraid to call it a lie. And so the downward spiral continues.

A desire for smaller government is particularly evident since Barack Obama took office. In four surveys over the past year, about half have consistently said they would rather have a smaller government with fewer services, while about 40% have consistently preferred a bigger government providing more services. In October 2008, shortly before the presidential election, the public was evenly split on this question.

The public is now divided over whether it is a good idea for the government to exert more control over the economy than it has in recent years. Just 40% say this is a good idea, while a 51% majority says it is not. Last March, by 54% to 37%, more people said it was a good idea for the government to exert more control over the economy. The exception here is the undiminished support for the government to more strictly regulate the way major financial companies do business. This is favored by a 61% to 31% margin.

Record discontent with Congress and dim views of elected officials generally have poisoned the well for trust in the federal government. Public opinion about elected officials in Washington is relentlessly negative. Favorable ratings for the Democratic Party have fallen by 21 points—to 38% from 59%—over the past year and now stand at their lowest point in Pew Research surveys. The Republican Party's ratings, which increased to 46% in February from 40% last August, have fallen back to 37%.

Nonetheless, antigovernment sentiment appears to be a more significant driver of possible turnout among Republicans and independents than among Democrats. Perhaps most troubling for Democrats, independent voters who are highly frustrated with government are also highly committed to casting a ballot this year, and they favor the Republican candidates in their districts by an overwhelming 66% to 13% margin.

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100 years ago, this kind of fat got you in the circus

This is Chauncy Morlan. A hundred years or so ago he joined the Barnum & Bailey circus to show off his "freakish" weight. Today he'd be fat, but he wouldn't be that rare.

(H/t Daily Dish) Read the rest of this post...

Glenn Beck predicts country will descend into violence, end of republic

Just me, or does anyone else worry that Beck's prediction of violence, followed by a statement that he "hopes not," actually fans the flames of such violence? The guy is a nut. But he's who conservatives listen to. And just like Limbaugh, if this guy is one of the intellectual fathers of the modern Republican party, and he is, then what he says matters.

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GOP Senate leader McConnell still dodging questions about his secret Wall Street meeting

GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell recently met with two dozen top Wall Street executive to talk about how to block Wall Street reform. Right after, McConnell announced his opposition to such reform. From President Obama's Saturday radio address:

Just the other day, in fact, the leader of the Senate Republicans and the chair of the Republican Senate campaign committee met with two dozen top Wall Street executives to talk about how to block progress on this issue.

"Lo and behold, when he returned to Washington, the Senate Republican Leader came out against the common-sense reforms we've proposed."

During a CNN interview on Sunday, McConnell was asked about the meeting, and was also forced to admit that the Democrats' financial reform package doesn't include any taxpayer bailouts for big business as McConnell is alleging.

When reminded by CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley that the money in the disputed fund would be provided by banks themselves rather than taxpayers, McConnell responded, “Regardless of where the – how the money is produced, it is a bailout fund that sort of guarantees in perpetuity that we’ll be intervening once again to bail out these big firms.”

Sorry, it does matter. When I use my own money to help myself in times of trouble it's not a bail out. It's simply delving into my own piggy bank. McConnell is lying. It's unfortunate that when asked the other day if McConnell was lying, Senator Dodd refused to answer the question and went off on how some Republicans were being fair brokers.

This is how we got death panels. Dems need to learn how to call a lie a lie. Read the rest of this post...

Scott 'Bankers gave me $450k in 6 days' Brown opposes Wall Street reform

Remember how Scott Brown was going to be the darling of the teabaggers? Now, he's a wholly owned subsidiary of Wall Street. And, it didn't cost them too much. First, know this :

In a six-day span just before the US Senate election, Republican Scott Brown collected nearly $450,000 from donors who work at financial companies, a sign the industry is prepared to spend heavily in the upcoming midterm elections to beat back new controls and taxes President Obama wants to impose.

The donations, from hundreds of financial executives, far exceeded what Brown received from doctors and others in the health care industry in the final days of the campaign.

Then, this isn't a surprise:

Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) said Sunday he would filibuster financial regulatory reform legislation in its present form because the “bill is not a good bill, period.”

Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Brown charged that President Barack Obama is politicizing the debate – an “unfortunate” happenstance – and people should get into a room and start solving problems.

On January 19th, Election Day for this Senate race, I was listening to a Boston radio station and tweeted one of the things I heard:

Just heard on Boston's WBZ: "I voted for Scott Brown. I'm a banker. There isn't a banker alive who voted for Martha Coakley"

Now, we know why. The bankers and Wall Street are getting their money's worth from Brown. Read the rest of this post...

Editor of conservative NV paper wants to repeal 19th amendment since women are voting for Harry Reid

In a real newspaper this kind of story would likely be sarcasm. But this is the conservative Las Vegas Review-Journal. I'm told the paper has no women on its editorial board, and that the publication had to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit with a former female editor who was passed over for promotion. All the major decisions at the paper are made by men. And now the men want to repeal women's suffrage. Classy. Read the rest of this post...

SLDN 'disturbed by multiple reports' that Obama admin. is urging congress not to vote on DADT this year, asks Obama to keep his promise

I just posted this at AMERICAblog Gay. Usually, I wouldn't just repost an entire post, but this one is very important. There are now multiple sources saying that the White

Today, via Ben Smith, we learn that Aubrey Sarvis, the Executive Director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) wrote a letter directly to President Obama asking him to get involved in the effort to repeal DADT this year. After all, that was Obama's promise to the nation in the State of the Union on January 27th. Sarvis also noted that he's been hearing that administration officials are urging a delay:

I am very disturbed by multiple reports from Capitol Hill that your Congressional liaison team is urging some Members of Congress to avoid a vote on repeal this year. The upcoming House and Senate votes will be close, and very frankly, Mr. President, we need your help now.

In the letter, Sarvis makes it clear that time is running out to get repeal done this year. The House and Senate Armed Services Committees will soon be marking up the Department of Defense authorization bills, which offers the best hope for repeal.

Last week, John reported that he and I "were just informed that the White House congressional liaison office is telling US House members not to include the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" in the Defense Authorization bill, and not to have a vote on DADT on the House floor, this year." In response, an unnamed "White House official" issued a response denying our report, without stating whether or not the White House did indeed want a vote this year. John deconstructed that response here. After reading the Sarvis letter, it sure sounds like we're not the only people hearing that a delay is being urged. This is a significant development and the White House needs to address it from a named official this time: the Deputy Chief of Staff, Jim Messina, is in charge of the DADT strategy. Someone needs to ask him if the White House wants DADT repealed this year.

Kerry Eleveld talked to Sarvis about this letter. He indicated the roadblock was coming from officials at the Pentagon:

Sarvis told The Advocate that he has gotten reports from Capitol Hill staffers in both the Senate and House that representatives from the Department of Defense have asked them to hold off on taking a vote to end the policy until a report on how to implement repeal is completed. The study, ordered by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in February, is due in early December.

“The administration is saying, ‘Look, the working group has its task, their work is not concluded until the end of the year, and we would prefer that this not be voted on this year,’” Sarvis said.

Asked if the directive came from the officials at the White House or the Defense Department, Sarvis said, “It’s the Pentagon, but the Pentagon is part of the administration.”

That is indeed true. The Pentagon is under the command of Obama. This also comports with what Secretary Gates said last month. He indicated that he didn't want a change in the law until his study was done -- and he indicated that the President was comfortable with that strategy. So, the White House could deny what AMERICAblog reported. Will they deny this charge from Sarvis, too?

From the tone of the letter, it's obvious SLDN sees an urgency. No wonder. SLDN is the organization that represents servicemembers who are being discharged. This isn't about access and party invitations for SLDN. It's about people's live. And, these people are willing to put their lives on the line for the rest of us. The groups representing our gay and lesbian servicemembers speak with moral authority. The White House really should listen to them. Obama needs to get control of this situation. He made the promise to repeal DADT "this year." He needs to make sure his staff is getting it done. If the Democrats suffer serious losses in November, the opportunity to repeal DADT may be lost for years. Repeal has to happen "this year."

Here's the letter to the President from Aubrey Sarvis:
SLDN's Letter to the President Read the rest of this post...

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The President is heading to California later today to attend fundraisers in Los Angeles for the DNC and Los Angeles.

The House isn't in session. The Senate convenes at 2:00 PM. On the docket is a vote to confirm Lael Brainard as the Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs. This week, we can expect the Senate GOPers to continue their efforts to block Wall Street reform. They are, after all, dependent on Wall Street for massive amounts of campaign funding.

Today is Patriots Day, which is actually a holiday in Maine and Massachusetts. It commemorates the first organized resistance to the British in Massachusetts back in 1775. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow captured the events in his poem, "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere."

This is also the 15th anniversary of the worst act of domestic terrorism in the U.S.: The Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing. And, in 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raided the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. This is now a big day for those anti-government, militia types.

Should be an interesting week... Read the rest of this post...

South African youth leader to face disciplinary hearing

South Africa can either move in this direction or sweep racism and hatred under the carpet and become like Zimbabwe. There's no room for such behavior in a modern country so Julius Malema needs to be sent packing. The most ridiculous part of this story is that Malema acts like such a tough guy though he was a baby when the ANC was fighting a life and death struggle. Funny how those leaders - the real leaders - have moved on yet he somehow wants to pretend as though he is a freedom fighter.

The youth leader of South Africa's ruling ANC, Julius Malema, will face a disciplinary hearing for bringing the party into disrepute, reports say.

The reports in South African media say the charges are believed to include promoting racism and intolerance.

Mr Malema recently embarrassed the African National Congress by ejecting a BBC reporter from a news briefing.

He has also defied a party order to stop singing a song inciting hatred against white farmers.

Mr Malema has also ignored ANC policy by publicly supporting Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

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Europe starts to open air for travel

The UK continues to remain closed while other countries such as Austria are opening their skies. France is scheduled to open flights later today for a window. The British tried a "spirit of Dunkirk" mission with small boats to help shuttle stranded British travelers back to the UK though somehow the French authorities blocked it. The UK is now reviewing the possibility of using the Navy to help. A few airlines flew test flights on Sunday and there were no issues reported so far. What's interesting to note is how this is also negatively impacting workers as far away as Africa who rely on trade. BBC:

But Brian Flynn, deputy head of operations for Eurocontrol, told the BBC that while half of the European landmass could be clear of ash cloud, that did not mean half of the flights could go ahead.

The flight bans came amid fears that the ash - a mixture of glass, sand and rock particles - can seriously damage aircraft engines.

The international airports council, ACI, said a total of 313 airports had been paralysed by the restrictions and the global backlog was affecting more than 6.8 million travellers.

In another development, hundreds of thousands of Kenyans working in agriculture, the country's largest export sector, face economic uncertainty because of the flight bans.

Refrigerated stores at Nairobi airport and on farms are now completely full, and a huge amount of fresh flowers and vegetables destined for the European market is in danger of perishing, the BBC's East Africa correspondent, Will Ross, reports.

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