Geithner warms EU on protectionist policies

The protectionist game is one that leaves me with very little patience. While it's more open than a few decades ago, protectionism is alive and well and not necessarily always a bad thing. Everyone screams "foul" when the other country or region does it but has a million justifications when they do it themselves. In this case, the EU is indeed promoting protectionist banking plans though they're not entirely wrong to pressure Washington on more regulation for the Wild West gamblers in the US financial industry. (Not that they don't exist in the EU though, because they do.) Better coordination and more unified regulation is in the best interest of most people outside of the banking gamblers. They're making too much money with too little downside to want any change. CNBC:

European Union officials are mulling plans to regulate hedge funds and private equity firms, which Greek officials said bear part of the blame for the country's debt crisis because they speculated on its debt.

Some analysts also said that by placing bets that a country is likely to default, hedge funds destabilize markets.

Geithner sent a letter this month to Michel Barnier, the European Union's commissioner on internal markets, warning of a clash with the US if the Commission goes ahead with a law that Washington fears could be protectionist, the Financial Times wrote on its Web site.

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Obama told immigration advocates today that he's only the president, so there's only so much he can do

How silly of them not to demand a meeting with someone who has actual power.

"We met with the President. He stayed with us for an hour. He started the meeting by saying that he's always been on our side on the subject of comprehensive immigration reform. But the group reacted by telling him they needed more from him, that he get more involved in the problem, and in finding a solution. He defended himself, saying yes, he understands there's a problem, but that he's the President, not the Senate or the Congress."

George Bush wasn't the Senate or the Congress and he seemed to do quite well getting what he wanted. Lots of presidents do. That's because they do more than just give speeches, and then tell everyone how powerless they are to make real change. They actually fight for change. Fight for their promises.

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Mississippi high school cancels prom after girl invites another girl

The girl is now being harassed by her entire school for "ruining their senior year." Please join us in emailing the school board - you can find their contact info on the gay blog. Dan Savage's readers have already sent 1,000 emails. Let's send more. Join the Facebook group too. 20,000 have already joined today! Read the rest of this post...

82% of Americans want tighter regulation of Wall Street

So besides the millions of dollars of lobbyist money from Wall Street, what's stopping this? The Democrats are nuts and will deserve a thrashing in the elections if they blow this one. Of course, they will blow it and they will be thrashed. The Democrats simply don't have the stomach for a fight that everyone outside of Wall Street wants. Why should anyone support a party that fears an issue that is so popular?

An overwhelming majority of Americans wants Wall Street subjected to tougher regulation in the aftermath of the bank bailout and the bonus scandals that have rocked the U.S. financial sector, according to a Harris poll released on Thursday.

The findings suggest that 82 percent of Americans want the government to clamp down more strongly on Wall Street excesses, with a particular emphasis on bonus schemes that have rewarded employees at loss-making companies such as American International Group.

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Our pesky little GOP homophobe is back, but this time he's pretending he's anti-choice

The last time we heard from National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Andy Seré he was busy gay-baiting Democrats while attending rather homo-erotic weekends with rather buff half-naked boys. This time, Washington's favorite hypocrite is needling a Democratic press secretary because her boss got endorsed by NARAL.

It's funny that Seré would have a problem with "choice," what with his reported sexual history. When pictures from Seré's homo-erotic weekend came to light, a friend of his quickly informed the media that Seré "gets more tail than anyone I know in DC." We assume the friend meant "female tail." As I wrote the last time:

How does the NRCC reconcile the family values campaign it has launched in the Tennessee congressional elections with a reportedly non-family-values NRCC spokesman running that very campaign? Does the NRCC think that having promiscuous premarital sex with practically anything that walks is Tennessee family values? And does this mean the NRCC no longer believes in abstinence before marriage? Then there's the condom discussion - another thing the family values right abhors. One hopes condoms were involved in getting all this supposed "tail." Were they? And since the GOP has made clear that it believes condoms are not reliable, then this matter gets all the more serious. Putting aside the sin of knowingly having promiscuous premarital sex when you "know" condoms are "unreliable," has anyone followed up with all of this "tail" to make sure that we're also not talking about having children out of wedlock, or worse, abortion? If condoms are as unreliable as the Republicans claim them to be, and the GOP spokesman supposedly "gets more tail than anyone I know in DC," then pregnancy is a very real danger of such reckless premarital promiscuity.

So, I for one hope that Andy does launch an attack on Boucher because of his record on choice. It would be far too fun to have a public discussion about the reported promiscuity of the press secretary of the NRCC, and his positions on condom use, premarital sex, rampant promiscuity, and abortion.

Here's Andy's email to the Democratic press secretary:

From: Andy Sere [mailto:asere@NRCC.org]
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 4:03 PM
Subject: Do you need any help?

Courtney –

I understand you handle press for Congressman Boucher. If you’re swamped today, I’m happy to do anything I can to promote today’s big endorsement (see below). Let me know if I can be of any help.

Andy

P.S. Congratulations!

“NARAL Pro-Choice America on Thursday endorsed…Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.)…Boucher probably won't be promoting his endorsement; he represents a heavily conservative southwest Virginia district and is facing his toughest challenge in many years.” (Aaron Blake, “NARAL backs Giannoulias, Feingold, three others,” The Hill “Ballot Box,” 3/11/10)

------
Andy Seré
Regional Press Secretary
National Republican Congressional Committee
(202) 479-7070 - ofc
(713) 806-7720 - cell
asere@nrcc.org

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Harry Reid's wife and daughter injured in car accident, wife breaks neck

Doesn't sound good. More from Wash Post:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's wife and daughter were in a serious car accident Thursday afternoon on Interstate 95 in Fairfax County, and police said they are being treated at an area hospital for non-life threatening injuries.

Police said the Reids' van was rear-ended and crushed by a fully loaded tractor-trailer while driving in heavy traffic.

Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said Landra G. Reid, 69, and Lana Reid-Barringer, 48, of McLean, were driving northbound on I-95 at about 1:10 p.m. in a 2005 Honda Odyssey van in stop-and-go traffic when Reid-Barringer began to stop for traffic ahead of her. A tractor-trailer loaded with rolls of plastic behind her did not stop and pushed the van into another car.

That car in turn hit a third car.

Geller said the van was crushed on both ends.

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Immigration activists call out Obama

Imagine Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, standing up to the president like this.

Given all on Obama's political plate, is immigration doable before the Nov. 2 congressional elections? White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said it depends on bipartisan support, and he will gauge the chances of that during his meeting with Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

"The only way we get this through the White House and the House is with bipartisan support," Gibbs said.

Some activists remind Obama that immigration change was one of his campaign promises.

Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, said, "For months, the White House and congressional staff have worked behind the scenes to advance comprehensive immigration reform."

"But what's been missing," he said, "is a clear and public commitment from the president to use his political capital to advance reform this year as promised."

Join the club. The only difference is that immigration advocates, unlike health care reform advocates, gay rights advocates, and pretty much every other progressive advocate in Washington, DC, have the balls to call out the President on his broken promises. And what a surprise, it's working. It got them an hour and a half meeting with the President. When do the rest of us get our meeting with the man we put in office? Read the rest of this post...

Scott Brown's sexual harassment suit

Gawker:

Did you know that Scott Brown—the new star Republican Senator—was accused of harassing a female campaign worker in 1998? We have the documents to prove it. Did the Democrats blow an opportunity to keep their 60th Senate seat

The suit was ultimately dropped. But Gawker raises a good point:

But why did Democrats and members of the national press fail to even bring up the fact that Scott Brown had once been accused of sexual harassment and defamation in the myriad stories about him prior to Massachusetts' special election in January? Google it. The entire incident is conspicuously absent.

Consider the political stakes. Coakley's loss cost Democrats their 60th Senate seat, endangering a long list of President Obama's political objectives such as health care reform. Yet Martha Coakley, the state's Democratic attorney general who ran against Brown, never mentioned the issue on the campaign trail, as far as we can tell. Did the Coakley campaign look into the case and decide Firth's claims were baseless? Did they miss it entirely?

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How insurance companies screw people on the individual market

From the Kaiser Family Foundation:

The analysis shows that people buying health insurance on their own in the individual market from 2004-2007 still paid 52% of their health expenses, on average, out of their own pockets. In other words, people bought insurance and paid premiums and still on average paid for about half of their health costs themselves. This compares with a much lower out-of-pocket share for employer-sponsored coverage of 30%.

This points to what has really been going on in the individual insurance market. There has recently been a great deal of focus on increases in individual insurance premiums such as the proposed Anthem increase in our home state. Such premium increases are eye-popping and greater scrutiny by regulators is appropriate. But there is another phenomenon in the non-group market even more pervasive than large premium hikes; it’s what is known in the industry as "buy-downs." When insurers inform members of large premium hikes, they commonly suggest that the increase can be mitigated (or sometimes even eliminated) by switching to a lower cost policy (which means a policy with higher deductibles and/or greater limits on benefits). Data from ehealthinsurance.com bear this out: The average deductible for family plans in the individual market increased from $2,760 in 2008 to $3,128 in 2009 -- just one year later. After years of these buy-downs, you end up with what we found in our recent analysis; insurance that, on average, pays for only about half of people's health care bills.

I had CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield in DC try this one me a few years back. It was back when they cut off my prescriptions for the year because apparently asthma is just too darn expensive to prevent. So when I called they offered me a plan that was like 1/3 the cost but still seemed to include a lot of what I already had (sounded a tad fishy). I then asked, is there a lifetime benefit cap? Sure, a couple million. Nice. So if I ever really come down with something bad, they'll pay for a while, then they'll stop and let me die - just like the insurers have done to Roger Ebert and lots of other Americans with catastrophic illnesses. Read the rest of this post...

Dobson forced out of Focus on the Family

I had heard a while back that Dobson appeared to be losing his empire, but this appears to be confirmation.

Dobson is - was - THE leader of the religious right. They didn't come any badder than him. I remember a Republican friend telling me, only a few years back, that the GOP tended to think of the religious right as nutballs, other than Dobson. Dobson they feared.

Not any more.

A prominent friend and supporter of James Dobson believes Dobson was pushed aside by the new leadership of Focus on the Family, who want the powerhouse evangelical ministry to project a softer image on issues ranging from abortion to gay marriage to relations with President Obama.

"[T]the board of directors voted privately on Wednesday -- before we got there -- to ask for my resignation, although their request was made with kindness and respect. We can only guess the reason for their decision because frankly I don't fully know," Dobson said. "But it apparently has to do with the desire for closure on my tenure and the beginning of another."

The article goes on to quote our good friend, arch-homophobe Pastor Ken Hutcherson. You might remember Hutcherson from a few years back when we were both sparring over Microsoft's support for gay rights (I won).

This article substantiates everything Joe and I have been writing for the past year. The LEAD religious right group forces out the LEAD religious leader because he's too harsh on abortion and gay rights.

So what are the two issues that Democrats still routinely cave on? Abortion and gay rights. Well, they cave on everything. But there's still a special place in the White House's and Congress' hearts for caving on choice and the civil rights of gays and lesbians.

So what does this tell us? That the White House and the Democrats in Congress are deeply out of touch with the American people. Think about it. Not only have Republicans pretty much refused to make gay rights an issue over the past year (with the sole exception of Kevin Jennings). But we now see the religious right pulling back on those issues. You'd think the Democrats would smell an opportunity, or at the very least would stop being afraid to stand up for those constituencies.

But they don't.

That's because there is something seriously wrong with the thinking in the White House and Congress. A kind of fear seems to paralyze both locales. I have no idea what we can do about it, though it seems pretty clear what they voters are thinking of doing about it. Voting the Democrats out in 2010, and quite possibly doing the same on a larger scale in 2012. Read the rest of this post...

GMAC bailout may be even more expensive

At this point though, does anyone really have a sense of what the billions upon billions means anymore? After a while, the numbers all sound like a blur. Not that it's a good thing, but it's how it is. Also, as bad as this GMAC news may be, somehow they don't inspire the fury that the Wall Street banks do. Again, not to excuse GMAC but they didn't appear to be as arrogant, as overpaid or as destructive to the overall economy. They're still under fire yet the real problems from Wall Street have bounced back with enough money to throw money at Congress and derail reform. Not to excuse GMAC or those who may have failed to properly monitor their situation, but somehow I'm a lot more concerned with Wall Street trashing reform than with GMAC.

In a new report, the Congressional Oversight Panel said it is "deeply concerned" that the Treasury Department has not insisted that GMAC "lay out a clear path to viability or a strategy for fully repaying taxpayers."

To date the government has dished out $17.2 billion for GMAC, giving taxpayers a 56 percent stake in the credit arm of General Motors. The latest infusion of federal funds for GMAC came in late December, shortly before the lender announced a fourth-quarter loss of $5 billion.

While the watchdog acknowledged that the government bailout of GMAC "played a major role in supporting the domestic automotive industry," the Panel cautioned that the bailout "came at great public expense" and may also have obstructed "the growth of a more competitive lending market."

If "more competitive lending market" means the same Wall Street banks who are blocking reform, then I don't care. There's too much concentration with the big banks and spoon feeding them even more business to grow larger is completely uninteresting. Read the rest of this post...

Obama deputy campaign manager worries Dems will get 'slaughtered' in November

Join the club. The thing is, if you watch the video, Steve, like many Democratic supporters of Obama, strikes me as conflicted. Worried, critical, then defensive of the President. It's what we saw with Republican support for Bush, even in the final years of his presidency. They didn't like what he was doing, how he was governing, but they also had a hard time saying it publicly. To paraphrase the old saying: You vote it, you buy it. It's hard to admit that the man you loved isn't what you thought he was.



And one small point. On gay rights, Steve talks about the President signing the Hate Crimes bill. Yes he did. But any Democratic president would have signed it. Did the President spend any political capital to get Hate Crimes passed? No. The bill had already passed the previous congress, and even beaten a GOP filibuster in the Senate. The President certainly gets credit for signing the bill, but that was hardly the difficult part.

The problem is that the White House very often seems to think that their job is to sign things. And to give speeches about how they'd like to sign things. They don't seem to understand that a large part of their job is actually working to get things passed in Congress, not just waiting for Congress to perhaps act, perhaps not. And actually, the problem is even more than that. I'm sure many in the White House believe that they actually DID do a lot to push health care reform. That they have done a lot to follow through on their gay rights promises, and lots of other campaign promises. That's because they confuse speeches with action.

It's as if there's a fundamental misunderstanding of the role, and power, of the presidency. And as much as people like to blame Rahm, it's not like he's holding Barack Obama hostage. In the end, the President decides what kind of presidency he wants. And the current occupant has decided to set his sights rather low. Read the rest of this post...

VT Ind. Senator Bernie Sanders: Obama Has Tragically Lost The Youth, Antagonized Unions

From Sam Stein at Huff Post:

Speaking at a progressive media summit, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) called it a "tragic mistake" that the White House fruitlessly chased Republican votes on health care rather than take advantage of the ripe environment to pass legislation.

"What is very sad is we had hopes that [the] election was transformational in the sense of bringing people into the political process who have never been in it before," Sanders said. "I tried very hard in Vermont to bring young people into the political process. It is very hard to do. Obama did it. But you know where those young people are now? They are not in the political process. They really aren't. We have lost them. We have antagonized trade unionists. We have not done well with seniors. I don't think we have done well with women. And I think that was a tragic mistake."

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More evidence emerges against Sen. John Ensign that 'could deepen his legal and political troubles'

Nevada's Republican Senator, John Ensign, is under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee and the FBI. The NY Times got its hands on some new evidence in the case against Ensign -- and it looks bad. Like really breaking the law bad:

Previously undisclosed e-mail messages turned over to the F.B.I. and Senate ethics investigators provide new evidence about Senator John Ensign’s efforts to steer lobbying work to the embittered husband of his former mistress and could deepen his legal and political troubles.

Mr. Ensign, Republican of Nevada, suggested that a Las Vegas development firm hire the husband, Douglas Hampton, after it had sought the senator’s help on several energy projects in 2008, according to e-mail messages and interviews with company executives.

The messages are the first written records from Mr. Ensign documenting his efforts to find clients for Mr. Hampton, a top aide and close friend, after the senator had an affair with his wife, Cynthia Hampton. They appear to undercut the senator’s assertion that he did not know the work might involve Congressional lobbying, which could violate a federal ban on such activities by staff members for a year after leaving government.

Prediction: Before the end of the year, Ensign will be referred to as "former Senator." It's one thing to be investigated by the Ethics Committee, which rarely takes any action against a fellow member. The FBI is another story.

And, let's not forget: Ensign lived in The Family's infamous C Street house. Yep, he's a real family values kind of guy. Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The President is back from St. Louis and continuing his push to get the votes in House to pass the Senate health care bill. Today, he's got meetings with the Congressional Black Caucus, then members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to "talk" about the legislation. David Dayen's latest whip count finds 191 yes votes and 195 no votes.

People at the White House have indicated they'd like a House vote by March 18th, one week from today. That's when Obama leaves on a trip to Asia. But, Congress doesn't start its Easter recess ("district work period") until the Friday after that (3/26).

Meanwhile, Senators continue to work on financial reform. But, I fear (and expect) their definition of what reform is will be far different than what is needed. People on the Hill are tone deaf to how much people hate the banks, among other things. I was on the Hill yesterday for the progressive media summit. The place is crawling with lobbyists. They travel in packs. Only institutions with lots of money can send packs of lobbyists to the Hill consistently. And, some of those institutions only exist because the taxpayers saved them.

Anyway, let's get threading the news... Read the rest of this post...

EU joins US in support of bluefin tuna ban

There are still some issues to sort out but it's definitely a step in the right direction. Defining "traditional methods" is much too broad but having the EU join the ban is very important if the ban is to be agreed upon at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting next week. Well done by the Obama administration for taking the lead on this and putting pressure on the EU to do the right thing.

Japan raises an excellent point about the EU's failure to properly regulate the stock or to address (rampant) illegal fishing. The EU will have to be proactive moving forward because the illegal fishing trade in the Mediterranean is a substantial problem. That said, when's the last time anyone remembers Japan refusing to purchase illegal fish or doing anything to monitor that trade? BBC:

The bloc has agreed to back a motion for a ban during next week's meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

The US has already given its support, but Japan - where most bluefin is eaten - may opt out of CITES controls.

The EU is backing exemptions for traditional fishers, and deferring the ban for a year.

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Abbas opts out of peace talks

After the announcement this week to build 1,600 new apartments in East Jerusalem, this should not come as a surprise. Why bother when games like that are being played?

The decision to pull out, announced in Cairo by Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League, represents a major setback to months of diplomacy by the US administration and comes after the US vice-president, Joe Biden, delivered an unusually strong rebuke to Israel.

Amr Moussa said he had been told by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, that even this low-key process of so-called "proximity talks" could not start unless Israel stopped expanding its settlements.

"The Palestinian side is not ready to negotiate under the present circumstances," Moussa said.

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Old Jews Telling Jokes

http://oldjewstellingjokes.com

The 10 Best Jokes of 2009 - let it run, each joke will follow the previous one if you let the video keep running. They're good.

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