AP calls NY-9 special election for GOP Bob Turner - Is this an Obama defeat?

AP has called NY-9 for Republican Bob Turner to replace Anthony Weiner.

Dave Weigel notes:

In 2008, Obama carried #NY09 by 10 points. Turner on track to win by around 10 points.

I'd tend to think that voters are more anti-incumbent right now than anti-Obama, anti-D or anti-R (though they're still probably a bit more anti-R in congress than anti-D if you look at the polls). Still, the Christian Science Monitor raises a good point:

The special election to replace disgraced Rep. Anthony Weiner takes place in a district that has a 3-to-1 Democratic advantage and has not been represented by a Republican since 1923.

Fair enough. But that still doesn't disprove the theory that perhaps people are seriously ticked off at all incumbents, D or R. CSM has more:

The reason the election is close is because of concern about the sluggish economy and unhappiness over Democratic policies, political scientists say. A turn to Mr. Turner – in a district that has a 3-to-1 Democratic advantage and has not been represented by a Republican since 1923 – might indicate that voters have become disenchanted with Mr. Obama’s policies.

“This election should send a strong signal to the Democrats and the president,” says Costas Panagopoulos, a political scientist at Fordham University in New York. “If the Democrats can’t win in this district, that suggests big problems for the Democratic Party nationwide.”

Indeed, the vote may be part of an anti-incumbent and anti-professional-politician shift taking place, says pollster Lee Miringoff of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie.

What would be interesting is to see if in any R districts people are also turning against the R incumbents. Then again, I wonder if Rs are as willing to "throw the bums out" as Ds. Still, as weak as the President has been, John Boehner and Eric Cantor have been far crazier, and the public, I think, recognizes that.

I think this is an understandably violent reaction from the public against anything and everything in Washington. And it's totally understandable, given the state of the economy, the way the economy has been ignored by all parties since the passage of the stimulus (hell, the President wouldn't even defend the stimulus itself), and part of the blame goes to the Democrats, and especially the President, for refusing to hang this entire mess on the GOP.

The President's people always like to say that the public knows who the bad guys are, and the President doesn't need to telegraph it any more clearly than he's already doing. It seems the public didn't get the message. Read the rest of this post...

Why the US pays far more than other countries for health care

Here's the gist of the CNBC story:

1. We like to sue doctors.
2. If the government is the sole insurer, there's less paperwork for doctors.
3. Governments in other countries negotiate the price of prescription drugs - this is why in Europe I paid 1/5 to 1/6 of the US price for the same drugs manufactured by the same drug company.
4. Doctors, and particularly specialists, make a LOT of money in the states. less so abroad.
5. Yeah, there's some rationing, but... So you have to wait for a hip replacement in Canada. Whoop de doo. In the US, if you don't have insurance, you won't be able to even afford a hip replacement, and if you do have insurance, you'd better hope that your copay isn't very high, or the surgery isn't very expensive, or you still won't be able to afford it if you're fronting 50% of the cost (or even 20%). Read the rest of this post...

Census: US poverty & uninsurance rates hit new highs

According to the US Census, poverty and uninsurance rates are at all-time highs.

The Census Bureau reports the number of Americans in poverty jumped to 15.1 percent in 2010, a 27-year high.

About 46.2 million people, or nearly 1 in 6, were in poverty. That’s up from 43.6 million, or 14.3 percent, in 2009. It was the highest level since 1993.

The number of people lacking health insurance increased to 49.9 million, a new high after revisions were made to 2009 figures. Losses were due mostly to working-age Americans who lost employer-provided insurance in the weak economy. Main provisions of the health overhaul don’t take effect until 2014.

It's time for political elites to start paying attention to how much pain has already been inflicted on the poor, working, and middle classes of America in this economy. Stop with the deficit hawking, stop pushing austerity and the help American people now. People have felt more than enough pain for one economic downturn. Read the rest of this post...

The Republicans want you dead

From Ari Rabin-Havt at Media Matters' Political Correction:

Republicans want you dead, especially if you are poor. At least that has been the rallying cry of their base during the last two presidential debates.

At the Reagan Presidential Library, the crowd cheered wildly when NBC's Brian Williams began a question to Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) by stating, "Your state has executed 234 death row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times."

Never mind that some of those executed were likely innocent.

Then last night in Tampa, moderator Wolf Blitzer posed a hypothetical situation to Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX): "A healthy 30-year-old young man has a good job, makes a good living, but decides, you know what? I'm not going to spend $200 or $300 a month for health insurance because I'm healthy, I don't need it. But something terrible happens, all of a sudden he needs it. Who's going to pay if he goes into a coma, for example? Who pays for that?"

Blitzer then asked, "But Congressman, are you saying that society should just let him die?"

Audible cries of "yes" could be heard from the audience.

Kombiz has the video and transcript of last night's "Let him die!" GOP Teabagger debate. Read the rest of this post...

Chicago cops sued for allegedly beating man who photographed them abusing other suspect

If this story is true, and it certainly rings true from my experience in dealing with far too much hubris in far too many police departments (local officials genuflect to the police the same way federal officials pander to the Pentagon), those cops should be fired and then some.  From WLS Chicago:

Brad Williams was standing on the front porch of his home when he saw the driver of a Chicago Police car reach his arm out the window and grab a man walking alongside the....

Williams took a photo of the incident and the driver’s partner exited the vehicle and approached, telling him it was illegal to photograph the police and he did not want to be on YouTube, the suit claims....

Both officers then returned to Williams, and verbally and physically assaulted him, the suit said. They handcuffed him and grabbed him by the throat.

Williams’ mother tried to open the door and an officer held it shut, then let go of it, causing her to stumble through the door and fall to the ground, the suit claims.

More from legal expert Jonathan Turley:

The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit became the latest court in a recent decision to rule that police efforts to bar such videotaping is a violation of the First Amendment. That case involved Boston attorney Simon Glik, who was arrested for recording another arrest in public. We discussed the case earlier.

These cases continue to occur because officers are not disciplined for such abuses. Most such threats probably succeed and other cases are simply dropped with no action taken against officers. In the meantime, city council members and state legislators have done little to protect the public from such violations.

Read the rest of this post...

More AGs drawing lines in the sand on bank settlement talks

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson has written a very powerful letter to Iowa AG Tom Miller, NY AG Eric Schneiderman and an associate AG at the Department of Justice stating where she stands on the fifty forty-five state robosigning settlement talks with the nation's five largest banks. In it, she calls for a settlement with "teeth". She goes on:

[T]he banks should not be released from liability for conduct that has not been investigated and is not appropriately remedied in any settlement. For example, a settlement that focuses on mortgage servicing standards should not release the banks or their officers from liability for securities claims or conduct arising out of the securitization of mortgages or liability arising out of the use of the Mortgage Electronic Registry System ("MERS"), where those claims have not been investigated or fairly addressed through the settlement. In addition, I am sure we all agree that the banks and their officers cannot and should not be released from criminal liability in any civil settlement

This is strong stuff. Swanson also supports the FHFA lawsuit against the banks and calls on her colleagues not to do anything to impede it. She writes, "We should fully welcome and support all legitimate efforts to investigate the banks and to hold them accountable for their unlawful activity, which has been enormously destructive to this country and our citizens."

Swanson joins Schneiderman, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Beau Biden of Delaware, and Martha Coakley of Massachusetts as AGs who have stood up for strong settlement demands and their right to investigate. Biden has recently come under criticism by Delaware's Democratic Governor Jack Merkell, who wants Biden to back off the banks and not try to investigate them. Biden's response, fortunately, is strong:

"My job is to protect homeowners, investors and all Delawareans affected by the abuses of the mortgage industry that created this economic crisis. I do not settle matters that have not been investigated, and there remains a lot of work to be done in understanding the scope of the mortgage industry's bad conduct that has hurt so many. Our economy works the best when everyone plays by the rules, and we must hold those who brought our financial system to the brink of collapse to account." [Emphasis added]

There's clear momentum in the direction of holding banks accountable. As more attorneys general come out against a broad settlement on foreclosure and securitization fraud, the less likely any settlement becomes. Kudos to AGs Swanson and Biden for standing up to the banks and for their constituents. Read the rest of this post...

Dem Sen. Kerry stops fundraising while on Super Congress

A rare moment of political integrity emerges from the Super Congress process, thanks to Senator John Kerry:

“I’m not meeting with a lot of lobbyists; I’m meeting with people I choose to meet with, who can inform me, assist in the process of crunching numbers and dealing with consequences, and so forth,” Kerry told the Globe last week in his first extensive interview about his committee membership.
...
“I will not fund-raise; I will raise no money,” the senator told the Globe. “I’m not raising any money while the committee is working.”

Asked why, Kerry said: “Because I don’t want people to think that I’m being leveraged by contributions. I just don’t want want the appearance of money being associated with anything I do on this.”

The Super Committee became a lobbyist free-for-all the moment it was formed, with industries large and small throwing millions of dollars towards getting their views heard by members of the Super Congress. That includes lots of fundraising events and it is every bit as slimy as it sounds. Good for John Kerry.

Of course, we will have to wait and see if the lack of lobbyist meetings and big dollar fundraisers nets a more progressive result from Senator Kerry and the committee as a whole. But at least on paper, this is a positive step. Read the rest of this post...

THIS JUST IN: Taliban launches attack on US embassy in Kabul, simultaneous attacks across city

NYT:

Insurgents launched a complex assault against the American Embassy and the nearby NATO headquarters on Tuesday, pelting the heavily guarded compounds with rockets in an attack that raised new questions about the security of Afghanistan’s capital and the Westerners working there.

At least 10 explosions — apparently from rockets launched by militants — and waves of automatic weapons fire were reported amid the drone of sirens and English-language warnings telling Americans inside the embassy to take cover.

Read the rest of this post...

Greek euro/debt crisis could cause banks to stop lending again

This article in the Washington Post reiterates a post that Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz told Chris and me a few weeks ago during our interview. Wash Post:

Some big European banks are trading at lows not seen since the height of the 2008 financial crisis, with fears growing that bad European government debt could spread through the global financial system in much the same way that bad U.S. subprime mortgages did three years ago. That could lead to another credit crunch.

After the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, “banks stopped lending to each other out of fear,” said Sebastian Dullien, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “Something like that could happen again, and there are signs that the money market is freezing again. If there’s a new problem in the banking sector, we could quickly be where we were three years ago.”

Here's what Stiglitz told us:

ARAVOSIS: And why should we care as Americans what happens, so the euro doesn't do so well?

STIGLITZ: The breakup in the euro, or even turbulence in the euro, is going to mean that the European economies, one of our major trading partners, will be doing badly.

ARAVOSIS: "Badly" meaning what? Growth drops, banks go bankrupt?

STIGLITZ: Those are all possibilities. Growth will clearly drop, and some banks may face real severe problems. Many American banks are exposed to the risks of European banks. We don't know how much because of the lack of transparency in American banking. And that was one of the failures of the banking regulation, to make greater transparency. There is concern that the banks are under-capitalized, and concern about bad accounting in American banks, a lot of the bad real estate mortgages are still on the books and have not been written down. So financial crises in Europe could translate into financial problems in the United States, just like the financial problems in the United States, an economic downturn in the United States, was exported to Europe a few years ago. They may respond in kind.

Read the rest of this post...

Wash Post: Obama health care plan didn’t cut Medicare like Bachmann and Romney claimed

The Washington Post's fact checker, Glenn Kessler, found that both Bachmann and Romney weren't telling the truth during last night's GOP presidential debate when they claimed that the President's health care plan cut Medicare.

“We know that President Obama stole over $500 billion out of Medicare to switch it over to Obamacare.”

— Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.)

“He cut Medicare by $500 billion. This, the Democrat president, the liberal, so to speak, cut Medicare — not Republicans, the Democrat.”

— Romney

Bachmann in particular loves to make this claim, but we have repeatedly explained why it just isn’t correct.

Under Obama’s health-care law, Medicare spending continues to go up year after year. The law tries to identify ways to save money, and so the $500 billion figure comes from the difference over 10 years between anticipated Medicare spending (what is known as “the baseline”) and the changes the law makes to reduce spending.

The savings actually are wrung from health-care providers, not Medicare beneficiaries. These spending reductions presumably would be a good thing, since virtually everyone agrees that Medicare spending is out of control.

In fact, in the House Republican budget this year, lawmakers repealed the Obama health-care law but retained all but $10 billion of the nearly $500 billion in Medicare savings, suggesting the actual policies enacted to achieve these spending reductions were not that objectionable to GOP lawmakers. So it is misleading for Romney to say that Republicans did not make these cuts.

For a more detailed explanation, please see our longer examination of this subject in June, when we gave Bachmann two Pinocchios for making this claim at the first GOP debate.

Read the rest of this post...

Chart shows how 35+ banks became 4 too-big-to-fail monster institutions

Mother Jones has created an amazing historical chart that shows in one clear picture the mergers that turned 35+ banks into just four — Citigroup, JPMorganChase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo.

Click to see; amazing.

All the conglomeration our money-soaked, corrupt political institutions can buy. That's a lot of conglomeration if you have all the money in the world.

GP Read the rest of this post...