New Zealand to support Japan's whale hunt

Why are so many willing to compromise when they're getting nothing in return? Are they part of the Obama administration or something? It's hard to see how this compromise helps address the problem that he already has with the existing model.

New Zealand says it is going to compromise with Japan at international whaling talks and agree to some whales being hunted.

New Zealand whaling commissioner Sir Geoffrey Palmer says he will put the proposal forward at the next meeting of the International Whaling Commission in June because allowing some whales to be killed is the best way to control the large number being hunted by the Japanese.

"The problem here is that there is no effective international control over the number of whales that are being killed," he said.

"If that could be secured that would be very good.

"An emotional attachment to a moratorium that isn't working is not, in my view, realistic."

Read the rest of this post...

Dear Tim Geithner: Please stop telling us you had to bailout Wall Street

Most sane people understand that it was ugly, but had to be done. We get it. Really, we do. The problem all along has been the implementation of the process. Not the process itself. Geithner repeats the same line whenever he's questioned about the bailout yet as unpopular as the bailout may have been (and remains) the issue has consistently been that Wall Street hardly missed a beat with enriching itself. That is what infuriates America. Wall Street is important but in no way did they or do they deserve to rise above this recession ahead of the Americans who were victims of Wall Street's games. Deal with that and you'll get a lot more support. Keep telling us about how it had to be done and you only annoy everyone outside of your closest family.

Everyone expected former Goldman CEO Hank Paulson to help out his old friends on Wall Street but most assumed there would be some changes from the administration that campaigned on "change." Staying the course is not change.

But in a nationally broadcast interview, Geithner also argued that President Barack Obama had no choice when facing a financial crisis but to support then-President George W. Bush's "unpopular" bailout plan.

Geithner said the other option was to "stand back" and do nothing, "and that would have been calamitous for the American economy."

Geithner was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York at the peak of the crisis. The New York Fed managed bailouts including the $182 billion rescue of insurance giant American International Group Inc.

In September 2008, the government embarked on a program of assisting the threatened financial institutions, eventually creating the sweeping, $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) used to rescue teetering banks.

Read the rest of this post...

GOP lied about IRS hiring more agents to handle health care reform

From FactCheck.org:

Q: Will the IRS hire 16,500 new agents to enforce the health care law?

A: No. The law requires the IRS mostly to hand out tax credits, not collect penalties. The claim of 16,500 new agents stems from a partisan analysis based on guesswork and false assumptions, and compounded by outright misrepresentation.

I'm shocked. Simply shocked. Read the rest of this post...

Video: Another crazy day in Republican-land

Read the rest of this post...

Judge: Bush overstepped wiretapping authority

It'd be nice to think that this will amount to something in the end, but I just don't really think it will. Sadly.

A federal judge has rejected the Bush administration's justification for warrantless wiretapping of suspected terrorists and ruled that federal agents had eavesdropped illegally on a U.S.-based Islamic charity.

The ruling Wednesday by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker of San Francisco focused on the surveillance of a single organization, the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation - the only plaintiff in dozens of wiretapping lawsuits around the nation that had evidence its calls were intercepted.

But Walker's reasoning struck at the heart of the program President George W. Bush authorized after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, allowing agents to intercept phone calls and e-mails between Americans and suspected foreign terrorists without a warrant.

Read the rest of this post...

Cynthia Tucker is not a fan of offshore drilling

Cynthia Tucker:

Conservatives scoff at the notion that President Obama is pragmatic, centrist or bi-partisan, but nothing else explains his decision to open up limited off-shore drilling. With the addition of drilling, Obama now endorses the same balanced plan for the nation’s energy independence that his GOP opponent, John McCain, did. Obama has already announced government support for building nuclear power plants in Georgia.

But has this balanced plan helped the president politically? Not so much.

Though Republicans like Lindsay Graham have been talking about compromise on energy legislation, I don’t expect to see any Senate Republicans actually vote for an energy bill that Obama supports. So much for bi-partisanship.

Read the rest of this post...

The religious right is boycotting the RNC over Michael Steele's lesbian bondage scandal

I'm sorry, I'm just having too much fun with this. From CNN:

The head of an influential social conservative organization urged members and supporters Wednesday to stop donating to the Republican National Committee and instead contribute to its own coffers or to candidates with like-minded goals.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, made the plea in his "Washington Update" column posted on the organization's Web site following the revelation that the RNC paid for a night out at a risque Hollywood nightclub.

"I've hinted at this before, but now I am saying it -- don't give money to the RNC," Perkins said in his column. "If you want to put money into the political process, and I encourage you to do so, give directly to candidates who you know reflect your values.

"Better yet, become a member of FRC Action and learn about the benefits it offers, including participating in the FRC Action PAC which can support candidates who will advance faith, family and freedom," he said.

Perkins is the latest social conservative leader to openly criticize RNC Chairman Michael Steele for allowing the controversial expenditure to happen under his watch.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pennsylvania, and Penny Nance, the head of Conservative Women for America, both publicly questioned Steele's leadership this week.

What a surprise - when there's bondage up pops Santorum. Read the rest of this post...

DNC selling health care reform BFD t-shirts

More from Jake Tapper at ABC. Read the rest of this post...

RNC 'Census' mailer offers phone sex number

Census, huh? The GOP wants to know how big your "family" is:

The Republican National Committee sent a fundraising mail piece earlier this month with a return number that leads to a phone sex line offering "live, one-on-one talk with a nasty girl who will do anything you want for just $2.99 per minute."

At the bottom of a piece designed to resemble a census form, a toll-free number is listed next to the national party's address.

A voter in Minnesota received the mailer and called the number intending to complain about the attempt to raise money with a form that looks like a government document.

But the Minnesotan was instead directed to a second toll-free number that greets callers as "sexy guy" before offering them the chance to talk with "real local students, housewives and working girls from all over the country."

Read the rest of this post...

I guess Palin isn't into simulated lesbian bondage

She's funny that way.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has asked the Republican National Committee to remove her name from a fundraiser the committee is planning piggybacking off of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, POLITICO has learned.

Palin’s staff has twice told the RNC to remove her name from an invitation sent to donors, obtained by POLITICO on Wednesday, showing her as an “invited” speaker to the four-day fundraiser in New Orleans, timed to coincide with the SRLC event in Louisiana.

Read the rest of this post...

As Catholic scandal continues to grow in Europe, US Bishops have 'quietly reinstated' abusive priests

The Pope is playing the victim card. He's the one being tested:

Pope Benedict XVI sees the priestly sex scandal as a "test for him and the church," his spokesman says, as bishops around Europe used Holy Week's solemn call for penitence to pledge transparency in dealing with the abuse of children.

But amid such signs of humility, a senior cleric also mounted a sharp counterattack to the allegations now swirling around the papacy. In an article, the official accused The New York Times of faulting the pope unfairly for his treatment of past abuse allegations.

Oh, yes, the poor, poor Pope. But, this isn't new. Church leaders have known about this problem for over 50 years.

Before anyone starts feeling sorry for the Pope (not that I think any AMERICAblog readers will), check out this report from NPR. American bishops are sending priests accused of abuse back to work. The report notes the case of Rev. Eric Swearingen, who was accused of abuse in a case that was settled by the Diocese. Now, with the support of his Bishop, Swearingen "serves as priest at Holy Spirit parish in Fresno, where he also oversees the youth ministry." :

Swearingen's case is not an isolated one, says Anne Barrett Doyle, who works with the watchdog group BishopAccountability.org. She says that recently, bishops have started quietly returning to ministry priests who previously have been accused of abuse.

"I think they feel that the crisis has died down in the public mind," she says. "Therefore, they have some confidence that if they go ahead and reinstate these priests, that they'll get very little backlash."

Doyle and others have identified about a dozen clergy who have been accused, arrested or sued for abuse and returned to ministry. She says the process for investigating priests is secret, and often the diocese says nothing about the charges against a priest when it returns him to ministry.

Nothing has changed. The Catholic Bishops are doing what they've done for decades. Decades. I get that there are fewer and fewer priests around, but that the Catholic Bishops are allowing this undermines any remaining shred of their credibility.

These Catholic leaders have no moral authority. None. Read the rest of this post...

Corporate America ignoring Obama's hint on executive pay

Who ever would have guessed? But oh, we wouldn't want to be too forceful because then the teabaggers will scream "socialist." Oh right, they already do and will continue to do so no matter what. Ignore them. Why is it OK to change the tax law to encourage poor executive behavior and pay yet when anyone asks to move it in the other direction because the results were bad, it's suddenly socialism? So what did they call it when it was first being established in the tax code? Asking the corporate world to behave or proposing the silly "say on pay but your vote doesn't count" is a waste of time and does not work.

Quit fearing the teabaggers and get some spine, for goodness sakes. Does anyone in the administration know how to frame an issue instead of letting the nutty right do it? There is no evidence that suggests benefits for society when executives cram every penny they can find into their pockets at the expense of the rest of the company. It's great for a few people but besides that, the rest do not prosper.

The Treasury Department said it is not looking to limit the total pay executives receive. Kenneth R. Feinberg, President Obama's special master for compensation, wants to change pay incentives, giving executives a greater stake in the long-term performance of their firms. That would mean, for example, smaller up-front cash salaries and fewer perks, more compensation in the form of company stock and a longer wait to receive it.

"I see no indication whatsoever that the business community is paying any attention to the administration's suggestions," said Nell Minow, co-founder of the Corporate Library, an independent corporate governance research firm. "On the contrary, I think pay is worse this year than it's ever been."

American Express, for example, shifted much of chief executive Kenneth I. Chenault's compensation to cash. Even though his overall pay for 2009 dropped from the year before, Chenault received $11 million, or two-thirds of it, in cash. By contrast, more than two-thirds of his compensation in 2008 was in stock and stock options. His cash payout was $7 million.

The list of poor behavior goes on and on. Once again they prosper while the rest of the country stagnates, at best. Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The President is in Portland, Maine today. He's going to talk about the new health care bill. This begs the question of why the President never went to Maine during the debate on health insurance reform. The two Senators from Maine, Snowe and Collins, talk like moderates in Maine, but stick with Mitch McConnell (and the insurance companies) in DC. Obama could have really pressured them by appearing in Maine. He probably didn't want to pressure them, for fear of not being bipartisan. We now know that that was a mistake.

On NPR this morning, I heard a report on the President's plan to drill off the coast of Virginia. The people who are trying to protect the Chesapeake Bay have grave concerns about the impact on the bay (around this area, the health of the bay is always a topic of concern.) I didn't realize until I read the post below from Chris that this drilling off Virginia, which could negatively impact the bay, is about six days worth of oil. Wow.

It's Holy Thursday. Big day for the Catholic Church -- and other Christian faiths. But, it provides another opportunity for the Catholic Church's leaders to defend their indefensible behavior. I think they think they're all infallible and beyond the law. They're not.

What's the news? Read the rest of this post...

Obama wants to open drilling off the coast of Virginia for six days worth of oil?

Yes, six days of oil. It would be a lot easier to understand if Sarah Palin was making the argument in favor of drilling there, but Obama? What is he thinking? The White House continues to make it difficult to want to support them when they throw out junk like this time after time. As I said yesterday, the GOP won't bend on anything and won't like this so why bother infuriating Democrats like this? Big Oil is delighted though, so I guess he can count on their votes, right?

Mike Ward, executive director of the Virginia Petroleum Council, part of a national group that represents 400 companies, said several companies have expressed interest in working off Virginia's coast.

"All you have to do is look at how much interest is in the Gulf of Mexico," Ward said. "This is a new frontier."

The last study of the Atlantic Ocean by the federal government, conducted two decades ago, estimates that at least 130 million barrels of oil and at least 1.14 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could be off Virginia's coast. That's equal to the amount of oil used in six days and the amount of gas used in less than a month in the United States.

Read the rest of this post...

London police officer cleared of assault during G20 protest

It's hard to imagine what someone has to do to be charged if this isn't enough. It was a very unpleasant scene and remember, people were protesting against the police violence in the Ian Tomlinson case. The protester who was struck was out of order but the police were definitely equally aggressive with the protesters. Again, the context included the death of someone by the police who made the mistake of simply walking through the area. Ian Tomlinson had nothing to do with the protests. If the police can behave in this way and get away with it, it's hard to have much trust in either them or the courts for that matter. Read the rest of this post...