Harry Reid's GOP opponent, Sharron Angle, backs off language about 'taking out' Harry Reid

She's a nut. Though, interestingly, she, like Rand Paul, is beginning to learn that while being a nut is great for your CV in a GOP primary, it's substantially less helpful for the general election. Read the rest of this post...

Woman says vampire caused car crash

How could I not post this? From KDVR Denver:

The woman claims she spotted a vampire in the middle of a dirt road near Fruita, Colo. Sunday night. She told Colorado State Troopers she was startled by the undead being, threw her SUV into reverse, and crashed into a canal.

Read the rest of this post...

EU passes new law that limits bankers to 1/3 of bonus in cash

Something drastic needs to happen to change the current culture within this industry. This may not be enough though it's a decent start. As the world economy starts to falter again, it would be nice to see those in power start thinking more about how to deliver actual change instead of cosmetic change to an industry that continues to cause more problem than benefit. It's about time the bankers thought more about the society that rescued them instead of their precious bonuses that have barely been scratched.

Bankers in Europe will not be allowed to take home more than a third of their bonuses in cash from the start of next year, under planned new rules, a leading EU lawmaker told Reuters on Tuesday.

The new regime, which goes further than American rules agreed on last week, would be the first cap on how bankers are paid and a victory for EU lawmakers who have otherwise become bogged down in efforts to regulate banking.

"The bankers have shown that despite the crisis, they are not able to show self-restraint. This law will do it for them," said Arlene McCarthy, the Labour-party lawmaker who negotiated tougher rules on behalf of parliament with European countries.

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A grueling day for Kagan

Via HuffPost Hill:

Klobuchar: You had an incredibly grueling day yesterday, and did incredibly well, but I guess it means you missed the midnight debut of the third "Twilight" movie last night. We did not miss it in our household, and it culminated in three 15-year-old girls sleeping over at 3 a.m. So I have this urge to ask you about this --

Kagan: I didn't see that.

Klobuchar: I keep wanting to ask you about the famous case of Edward v. Jacob, or The Vampire v. The Werewolf.

Kagan: I wish you wouldn't.

Read the rest of this post...

Wall Street reform passes House 237-192

Just happened. Roll call will be here (not up yet, as of when I posted this). Castle, Jones, and Cao were the three Republicans who voted in favor. Read the rest of this post...

Reid to call another vote on unemployment benefits Thursday night, still short of votes

The Republicans, along with the $500,000 man, Ben Nelson, are still intent on removing food from the mouths of millions of unemployed Americans.

The two GOP senators supporting the measure are Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, their offices confirmed to POLITICO.

But with Byrd's vacancy and Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska telling reporters he will not support the bill, Reid will need to flip the votes of two more Republicans. Sens. Scott Brown of Massachusetts and George Voinovich of Ohio, who both have voted with the Democrats on emergency extensions this year, are likely targets.

Without an extension of the pending benefits, unemployment payments would continue to be phased out for more than 200,000 people per week. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis added that more than 1 million people have already lost benefits.

I suspect the Republicans figure that anyone unemployed must be a Democrat.

They are now. Read the rest of this post...

Obama hits Boehner for calling economic crisis 'an ant'

Bra-vo.

“We’re on the verge of passing the most comprehensive financial reform since the Great Depression—reform that will prevent a crisis like this from happening again. It’s reform that will protect our economy from the recklessness and irresponsibility of a few. Reform that will protect consumers against the unfair practices of credit card companies and mortgage lenders. Reform that ensures taxpayers are never again on the hook for Wall Street’s mistakes.

“But most of our friends in the other party are planning on voting against this reform. In fact, just yesterday, I was stunned to hear the leader of the Republicans in the House say that financial reform was like using a nuclear weapon to target an ant. That’s right. He compared the financial crisis to an ant. The same financial crisis that led to the loss of nearly eight million jobs. The same crisis that cost people their homes and their lives savings.

“Well if the Republican leader is that out of touch with the struggles facing the American people, he should come here to Racine and ask people if they think the financial crisis was an ant. He should ask the men and women who’ve been out of work for months at a time. He should ask the Americans who send me letters every night that talk about how they’re barely hanging on.

“These Americans don’t believe the financial crisis was an ant. They know that it’s what led to the worst recession since the Great Depression. And they expect their leaders in Washington to do whatever it takes to make sure a crisis like this never happens again. The Republican leader might want to maintain a status quo on Wall Street. But we want to move America forward.”

“We already tried the other side’s ideas. We already know where their theories led us. And now we have a choice as a nation. We can return to the failed economic policies of the past, or we can keep building a stronger future. We can go backward, or we can keep moving forward. I don’t know about you, but I want to move forward.”

This is how you win legislative battles - by hitting back, hard. We're seeing a lot more of this from the President lately, in contrast to his earlier efforts to make friends with the Republicans at the expensive of his policy promises. Now he's putting what's best for the country first. It's a bit late, but still, this will help. Read the rest of this post...

Arguments for and against the Wall Street reform bill

Chris Bowers at OpenLeft argues, in detail, why the bill is a good thing. Senator Feingold explains why he's opposed. Read the rest of this post...

FL GOP held male-only events; Crist was there

Funny. Charlie Crist attending men-only events. Who'd have imagined it.

From former party (and Charlie Crist) finance director Meredith O'Rourke: O'Rourke stated that she was aware of Greer having "men only" meetings. As an example, O'Rourke recalled a "Thank You Trip" that Greer planned for the major donors to Governor Crist's "Yes on 1" amendment dealing with property taxes. As a thank you to major donors, Greer took several major donors on a trip to the Bahamas. No female staffers were allowed to go on the trip although Delmar Johnson and Greer's travel aide, Jeremy Collins went on the trip. O'Rourke also recalled speaking to a female lobbyist friend, Beth Kigel who relayed to her of a "men's only" meeting at the Governor's Club in Tallahassee, Florida wherein Greer and Governor Crist were attempting to solicit major donors for the Governor's "Yes on 1" initiative. Kigel informed O'Rourke that she was excluded from the meeting while one of her clients, a male client, was allowed in to the meeting....

Read the rest of this post...

Rand Paul dodges question on how old the earth is

I guess someone has learned his lesson. Read the rest of this post...

CNBC's 'Tea Party' Santelli goes nuts again

If you thought his last insane rant was a spectacle wait until you see this. Unfortunately the part where he yells at the CNBC anchor and tells him to "go back to Russia" but you'll get the point. Santelli flogs his usual Austrian economics story while ignoring what respected economists such as Krugman and Stiglitz say about slashing spending. (There are decades of evidence that shows the end result which is not economic growth, but quite the opposite.) The full horror story at Think Progress. Read the rest of this post...

31% of home sales were on foreclosed homes in first quarter

The good news is that it's only 30 points higher than the pre-recession number.

Foreclosure homes accounted for 31 percent of all residential sales in the first quarter of 2010, with the average sales price of properties that sold while in some stage of foreclosure nearly 27 percent below homes that were not in the process, Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac said.

"In a normal market, only 1 to 2 percent of home sales are foreclosures, so this is certainly a significant level," Rick Sharga, senior vice president at RealtyTrac, said in an interview.

Total U.S. foreclosure sales in 2009 were up more than 1,100 percent from 2006 and more than 2,500 percent from 2005. Foreclosure sales accounted for 29 percent of all sales in 2009, up from 23 percent in 2008 and a mere 6 percent in 2007, the real estate data company said.

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Bachmann blames Obama for trying to force US into a global economy

Is she trying to be like Sarah Palin or is she really that much of an idiot? And to think the GOP gets defensive when the Democrats rightly link current problems to Bush. Bachmann may not like this crazy "new" global economy thingy, but others such as Coca Cola, IBM, Microsoft probably feel differently about it. In fact, quite a few US-based companies have been increasing their profits thanks to business overseas in that "global economy" world that she so fears. Exports from the US into this nutty "global economy" have been one of the bright spots for the US economy. So why does Bachmann want to destroy economic growth? More from Think Progress:

In an interview on Scott Hennen’s radio show today, Bachmann claimed that the purpose of the G-20 was to “bind together the world’s economies.” Neglecting the already interconnected nature of the global economy, Bachman declared that “President Obama is trying to bind the United States into a global economy”:

BACHMANN: What really concerned me was Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said that we don’t want to see one country’s economy doing better than another. What? This is the U.S. Treasury Secretary? We don’t want to see Zimbabwe’s economy do better than the United States? Aren’t we supposed to be about the United States and making sure that our economy can be the greatest in the world. If you look at the G20, what they’re trying to do is bind together the world’s economies. Look how that played out in the European Union when they bound all of those nations economies together and one of the smallest economies, Greece, when they got into trouble, that one little nation is bringing down the entire EU. Well, President Obama is trying to bind the United States into a global economy where all of our nations come together in a global economy. I don’t want the United States to be in a global economy where, where our economic future is bound to that of Zimbabwe. I can’t, we can’t necessarily trust the decisions that are being made financially in other countries.

Read the rest of this post...

Biden says GOP Senators threatened with chairmanships if didn't vote for filibusters

This is probably true. It would explain a lot as to how the Senate Republicans are able to always vote in one bloc. And while Biden is right to criticize it - well, right to take advantage of the disclosure to embarrass the GOP since the public likely won't like hearing about this - I do wish the Democrats would try something like this, rather than keep trying something like this.

"I know at least 7 [GOP] senators, who I will not name, but were made to make a commitment under threat of losing their chairmanships, if they did not support the leadership on every procedural vote," Biden said at a fundraiser Monday night.

"Every single thing we did, from the important to the not so important, required for the first time in modern American history, majority votes required 60 votes. All the sudden a majority became 60 instead of 50," the VP added, according to a pool report of the event.

And for those who argue that this is "dirty politics," and by not doing it, it shows how much better the Democrats are than Republicans, that will be great consolation to the people of the Maldives as their country sinks into the ocean because we just couldn't muster the votes to do the right thing on climate change.

Governing isn't always pretty. And, generally speaking, when someone cares more about "clean government" than "good governance," they're naive and end up a failure. Read the rest of this post...

Democrats fold, remove bank and hedge fund fees

So is it the Democrats' messaging that completely sucks or are they just complete, gutless cowards? You know they are in bad shape when they can't even pass this mild "reform" because they're too afraid to fight the GOP who can't stop supporting Wall Street's bad behavior. Either way, they suck. Why do we vote for these people?

House and Senate negotiators hoped for a vote in the House on Wednesday and to secure the votes of three straying Republicans in the Senate. The Senate vote, however, is not likely until after Congress' weeklong July 4 break.

The death of Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., this week and fresh objections from Republican Sens. Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine had threatened to derail the bill, already a year in the making.

Eager to salvage one of President Barack Obama's legislative priorities, Democrats altered the formula that would have paid for the legislation by eliminating a contentious $19 billion fee on large banks and hedge funds.

Instead, House and Senate negotiators, voting along party lines, agreed to pay for the bill with money generated by ending the unpopular Troubled Asset Relief Program — the $700 billion bank bailout created in the fall of 2008 at the height of the financial scare.

Read the rest of this post...

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The President is heading to Racine, Wisconsin today to talk about the economy. Also, in Wisconsin today, the state's Supreme Court will determine whether the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions should be overturned over a technical issue. (UPDATE: The Court upheld the ban.)

The Senate Judiciary Committee continues its hearing on the confirmation of Elena Kagan today. She'll be taking more questions from Senators today. So far, no real drama. In response to a question from Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, Kagan was unequivocal in her opposition to DADT.

We've been helping the congressional campaign of Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet. He's a gay, married dad challenging incumbent Mary Bono Mack. She recently voted against the DADT repeal compromise. And, this one is personal. Several years ago, during a hearing on Hate Crimes, Bono accused two gay witnesses of lying about being victims of hate crimes. One of those witnesses was our colleague, Tim Beauchamp. He wrote about that experience here. Pougnet can beat her -- and should. We've got an ActBlue page for Pougnet here. Help send a gay, married dad to Congress -- and take out a nasty GOPer along the way.

Should be another busy news day. Read the rest of this post...

Why did Geithner and Paulson so strongly favor the banks during the bailout?

Besides cozy relationships, it's hard to explain why both the Bush and Obama administrations were so friendly to the banks yet so harsh with AIG and Chrysler. Wouldn't it be nice is either of the two administrations were honest with the public about their reasons for favoring the banks that delivered the global recession? The long term love affair hasn't even ended regardless of who is sitting in the White House, unfortunately.

The documents also indicate that regulators ignored recommendations from their own advisers to force the banks to accept losses on their A.I.G. deals and instead paid the banks in full for the contracts. That decision, say critics of the A.I.G. bailout, has cost taxpayers billions of extra dollars in payments to the banks. It also contrasts with the hard line the White House took in 2008 when it forced Chrysler’s lenders to take losses when the government bailed out the auto giant.

As a Congressional commission convenes hearings Wednesday exploring the A.I.G. bailout and Goldman’s relationship with the insurer, analysts say that the documents suggest that regulators were overly punitive toward A.I.G. and overly forgiving of banks during the bailout — signified, they say, by the fact that the legal waiver undermined A.I.G. and its shareholders’ ability to recover damages.

“Even if it turns out that it would be a hard suit to win, just the gesture of requiring A.I.G. to scrap its ability to sue is outrageous,” said David Skeel, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “The defense may be that the banking system was in trouble, and we couldn’t afford to destabilize it anymore, but that just strikes me as really going overboard.”

“This really suggests they had myopia and they were looking at it entirely through the perspective of the banks,” Mr. Skeel said.

Read the rest of this post...

Hurricane shuts down oil skimming in Gulf

Of course, it could be much worse. The hurricane could be heading straight into the spill zone.

Dozens of small skiffs, huge shrimp boats and even a swamp tour boat were tied to docks, winds whipping their flags and waves rocking them even in the sheltered marina.

Most days, the fleet would be skimming oil from the Gulf of Mexico and ferrying workers and supplies. But Hurricane Alex churning in the Gulf turned many people fighting the massive 11-week-old spill into spectators on Tuesday. And they will be for days.

"Yesterday we had redcaps instead of white caps," said Jesse Alling, a marine science technician with the Coast Guard.

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Wacky religious right general no longer testifying at Kagan nomination hearing

We reported yesterday that a controversial religious right general, who claims he speaks with the Holy Spirit, was chosen by the Republicans to testify at Elena Kagan's confirmation hearing. I'm told he's now been pulled.

Oh, deny me three times, general! Read the rest of this post...