Raul Grijalva’s office: "We categorically oppose any benefit or eligibility cuts" to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid

In response to our previous post that progressives in Congress are looking a little "wobbly," Adam Sarvana, Communications Director for Rep. Raul Grijalva, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, states the following by email:

We categorically oppose any benefit or eligibility cuts to any of those programs. Each Member has to speak for him- or herself, but as for [Rep. Grijalva] -- and this is his understanding for those others signing the letter -- he will not vote for any plan that includes any such cuts.

In clarification, Mr. Sarvana said that "we" in the first sentence meant the dozen [CORR: actually two dozen] caucus "signers of the letter" to Obama, the strongly worded one referred to in our first post.

This seems unequivocal to me, at least from Rep. Grijalva. Thanks to him for that.

Let's hope the entire caucus follows his lead. We need a firm stand from each of them, one that will not be bargained away. We've been "bargained" enough, thank you very much.

GP Read the rest of this post...

First double leg transplant surgery

Absolutely amazing.

Spanish surgeons on Monday carried out the world's first-ever double leg transplant, authorities in the eastern city of Valencia said.

The operation lasted all night and was completed on Monday morning in the city's La Fe hospital, the regional health authority said in a statement.

"It is the first time in the world that such a transplant has been carried out," it said.

And to think such progress can occur in a so-called socialist health care country. And here I thought that such programs would destroy innovation, like the wingnuts like to suggest. Imagine that. Read the rest of this post...

GOP Senator Olympia Snowe says no-deal on including cuts to Social Security and Medicare in debt talks

Via ThinkProgress:

Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME) said she will not support any debt deal that includes cuts to the two social safety net programs, citing “strong bipartisan support.” “There are solvency problems with both programs. They have to be addressed but not as part of the debt reduction talks,” Snowe told the Bangor Daily News. It’s unclear how she would square that position with her support for a balanced budget amendment. But Snowe added, “There are a lot of tax credits that are not needed and should be repealed” — a position with which Maine’s other Republican senator, Susan Collins, agreed. “We spend billions of dollars a year in subsidies that go to some very wealthy corporate farmers,” Collins said. [emphasis added]

That's a point I noted the other day, that it's hard to say you're not cutting Medicare and Social Security for all the wrong reasons, and are instead "strengthening it," when it's part of a deficit reduction negotiation. The entire purpose of the negotiation is to cut stuff. Now, that's not to say you can't make programs more efficient and save money, but come on. As the President said today, it's about "trimming benefits."

How about we trim those wars? Read the rest of this post...

Shareholders sue Murdoch’s News Corp following hacking scandal

Rupert may be seeing quite a few lawsuits coming in the near future. Shareholders may be the least of his legal troubles. Many politicians have been afraid to take on Murdoch but if they are smart, they will get over those fears right about now. If the tables were turned, Murdoch would be going for the jugular.

A group of News Corp. shareholders have sued the media conglomerate over a phone-hacking scandal at its now-closed News of the World tabloid in London.

The lawsuit accuses News Corp. of large-scale governance failures surrounding the British hacking case. News of the World employees have been accused of hacking into the phone of a missing 13-year-old girl, who was later found murdered, as well as those of other crime victims.

Read the rest of this post...

Bachmann issues correction: Life under Obama isn’t worse than slavery, it’s just like slavery

Glad she cleared that one up. Read the rest of this post...

Sam Stein: "Obama offered to raise Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 as part of the grand debt bargain"

The headline quotes the news from the Twitter. Here's from Sam Stein's Huffington Post article (my emphasis throughout):

In his press conference on Monday morning, President Barack Obama repeatedly insisted that he was willing to tackle some sacred cows as part of a larger package to raise the debt ceiling. Just how sacred, however, may surprise political observers.

According to five separate sources with knowledge of negotiations -- including both Republicans and Democrats -- the president offered an increase in the eligibility age for Medicare, from 65 to 67, in exchange for Republican movement on increasing tax revenues.

The proposal, as discussed, would not go into effect immediately, but rather would be implemented down the road (likely in 2013).

It's getting ugly out there, even though there's a touch of nuance in Stein's report. For example:

Sources offered varied accounts regarding the seriousness with which the president had discussed raising the Medicare eligibility age. ... "That is one of the things they put on the table as part of a big solution," said one senior Republican Hill aide. ... Obama's willingness to embrace the idea, however, was seen as a major bargaining chip that could help win concessions from Republicans on revenues.

Stein adds:

A proposal to raise the eligibility age for Medicare -- which was part of a budget plan put forth by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) -- would face steep opposition from within the Democratic Party. The amount of money it would save is also relatively small[.]

About the first: In a perfect world, yes. We're in the inverse-perfect world.

About the second, well ... why would that stop Mr. Hope and Change from achieving his dream, becoming our century's inverse–Franklin Roosevelt?

Is the offer still on the table? What else went on that table that we haven't heard about yet?

(And thanks to Sam Stein for his excellent digging!)

GP Read the rest of this post...

Dems afraid Obama is giving away their electoral advantage on Medicare

Top Senate and House Democrats are worried that the President is giving away their first big electoral issue advantage in years, preserving Medicare (and Social Security):

Senators Murray and Schumer, along with other Dems like Debbie Stabenow and Mark Begich, have warned against deep cuts in recent leadership meetings, a source familiar with the meetings says, another sign of the unrest that the possibility of serious entitlements cuts is creating among Congressional Democrats.

“We shouldn’t be giving away our advantage on Medicare,” said a source familiar with Murray’s thinking, in characterizing her objections in private meetings. “We should be very careful about giving away the biggest advantage we've had as Democrats in some time.”

“For the first time in the past two and a half years we have an unmitigated advantage on a single issue where our entire caucus is united,” the source continues. “This is a case where the whole morale of our party was lifted by the fact that we were taking the fight to Republicans.”

The President has always been a fan of bashing Democrats to his own policy and electoral advantage. Well, that would be mainstream Democrats in Congress and his base. The President doesn't bash conservative Democrats because they're an awful lot like Republicans, and he very much wants all of them to like him, so there's very little bashing. But for the rest of Democrats, it's bashapalooza.

Sometimes the bashing is overt ("professional left" comes to mind), and sometimes more subtle, such as when the President today equated Democratic concern about cutting Social Security and Medicaid to the pressure the Teabaggers are putting on Boehner (the President didn't name any of them, he simply stated that both sides face pressure from people who don't want change - thus creating his usual false equivalence in which he casts Democrats, and their constituents, as being just as bad as Teabaggers).

But consistent throughout the Obama campaign and administration has been the ease with which they cast friends and allies aside with nary a thought.  They expect you to be there for them, but they're not big fans of being there for you - and will even demean you, and cast you aside, if it's to their own perceived advantage.

Folks on the Hill seem to finally be waking up to the fact that the President's electoral coattails aren't meant to be ridden on, they're meant to slap you in the face as he whizzes by to victory. Read the rest of this post...

Multiple Murdoch news entities allegedly broke law - it’s fair to ask whether Fox News was involved as well

We now know that it wasn't just News of the World, but three of Rupert Murdoch's "news" organizations that allegedly broke the law in order to gather information on the British Prime Minister, the Queen, 9/11 victims, and more. Since this problem was not just isolated to one paper, but rather to the Murdoch empire, it's fair to ask whether other properties in the Murdoch media empire also were in any way involved with this alleged behavior. Did anyone at Fox News, for instance, know about this? Did anyone at Fox ever engage in similar behavior?

In other words, what did Fox News know and when did they know it?

An investigation by the Guardian has found that:

• Scotland Yard has discovered references to both Brown and his wife, Sarah, in paperwork seized from Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who specialised in phone hacking for the News of the World;

• Abbey National bank found evidence suggesting that a "blagger" acting for the Sunday Times on six occasions posed as Brown and gained details from his account;

• London lawyers, Allen & Overy, were tricked into handing over details from his file by a conman working for the Sunday Times;

• Details from his infant son's medical records were obtained by the Sun, who published a story about the child's serious illness.

Read the rest of this post...

Murdoch paper allegedly hacked phone of former British Prime Minister, bought private info on Queen herself

The News of the World scandal just grows and grows. It turns out Gordon Brown was "targeted for a period of more than 10 years," according to The Independent:

Journalists from across News International repeatedly targeted the former prime minister Gordon Brown, attempting to access his voicemail and obtaining information from his bank account, his legal file as well as his family's medical records.

There is also evidence that a private investigator used a serving police officer to trawl the police national computer for information about him.

That investigator also targeted another Labour MP who was the subject of hostile inquiries by the News of the World, but it has not confirmed whether News International was specifically involved in trawling police computers for information on Brown.

Separately, Brown's tax paperwork was taken from his accountant's office apparently by hacking into the firm's computer. This was passed to another newspaper.

As the article also states, it's not just News of the World involved in the spying; Murdoch's flagship publication The Times is also implicated.

Then there's Murdoch's alleged efforts to spy on the Queen herself:

Rupert Murdoch's now defunct News of the World tabloid allegedly paid British royal protection officers for details about Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the royal family, reports said Monday.

An internal inquiry at News International, the British newspaper arm of Murdoch's empire, found emails that included requests by a reporter for money to pay police in the royal protection branch, the BBC and other media said.

Note: This story is being positioned as a "competitive advantage" situation; they did it to get juicy scoops. But spying on politicians is best used for leverage, generally speaking. So what are the implications of something like this?

Senior Labour figures also strongly suspect that a news organisation broke the law to obtain the emails that led to the resignation in April 2009 of Brown's close aide Damian McBride. The emails, which disclosed a scheme to smear Tory MPs, had been exchanged between McBride and a Labour party activist, Derek Draper. The Labour figures believe that the emails were hacked from Draper's computer and that their contents were then sent to the political blogger Guido Fawkes, whose stories were then followed by Fleet Street.

It doesn't prove the kind of wrong-doing I mentioned, but it sure suggests that there are possibilities that should be explored.

GP

NOTE FROM JOHN: If a Democrat who owned one of the top TV "news" networks in the states pulled something like this, there would be congressional hearings like you've never seen before.  After all, how do we know he didn't try the same thing to our politicians here in the states? Read the rest of this post...

Livestream: President Obama's press conference on debt limit and grand bargain

UPDATE: The president just noted that people on both sides of the aisle are trying to block this deal. Nice. The Democrats are just as bad as the Republicans. Nice. Also, the President just admitted that he's looking a "trimming benefits."

Sorry, we had originally embedded the White House's video stream of the President's press conference, but for reasons unexplainable to man, the White House insists on having their videos be "auto-on" - meaning, every time you visit our site you get the pleasure of listening to the President the second the page loads, whether you wish to or not. That's a bib no-no in Internet terms. So I've pulled the video and am linking to it instead. Read the rest of this post...

British press asks if Murdoch’s newspaper hacked phones of 9/11 victims

Unfortunately the British tabloid press is not the most reliable, but at this point nothing will be too shocking or too low for Murdoch's empire. The Mirror:

Now working as a private ­investigator, the ex-officer claimed reporters wanted the victim’s phone numbers and details of the calls they had made and received in the days leading up to the atrocity.

A source said: “This investigator is used by a lot of journalists in America and he recently told me that he was asked to hack into the 9/11 victims’ private phone data. He said that the journalists asked him to access records showing the calls that had been made to and from the mobile phones belonging to the victims and their ­relatives.

“His presumption was that they wanted the information so they could hack into the ­relevant voicemails, just like it has been shown they have done in the UK. The PI said he had to turn the job down. He knew how insensitive such research would be, and how bad it would look.

Read the rest of this post...

Obama continues push for "grand bargain" with press conference, more meetings

In the wake of the news that Boehner bagged the $4 trillion "grand bargain," John wrote "we are all being played here." Well, the playing continues today.

Last night, Congressional leaders met with the President to continue "negotiations" over the debt limit. Nothing happened. They're all going to meet again today. Before that meeting, however, the President will hold a press conference in the White House press briefing room. This is all part of the White House campaign for a grand bargain (or to prove the GOPers don't want one.) From The Hill:

Obama and leaders from both parties agreed to meet again Monday at the White House at a time to be determined.

The White House announced Obama would hold an 11 a.m. press conference Monday on the debt talks as Democrats appeared ready for a a public push to pressure Republicans to accept a grand bargain in the hopes that the GOP will be blamed if a large accord is not struck.

Not sure if anyone knows where this will lead. Although, we've seen in the past that Republicans seem to get more by not negotiating.

The debt limit has to be increased by August 2nd. And, one way or another, that will happen, according to Mitch McConnell:

“Nobody is talking about not raising the debt ceiling; I haven’t heard that discussed by anybody,” the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said on “Fox News Sunday,” adding that he had an unspecified “contingency plan” to raise the ceiling if the talks fell apart.

Obama is going to keep pushing for a big deal -- and who knows what else will end up in that mix. The GOPers sure aren't budging. I think we've moved up another dimension in the game of chess. None of us mere mortals are savvy enough to fully understand what's going on here.

Meanwhile, no one seems focused on creating jobs. That's what Obama should be seeking a grand bargain on. Krugman:

The truth is that creating jobs in a depressed economy is something government could and should be doing. Yes, there are huge political obstacles to action — notably, the fact that the House is controlled by a party that benefits from the economy’s weakness. But political gridlock should not be conflated with economic reality.

Our failure to create jobs is a choice, not a necessity — a choice rationalized by an ever-shifting set of excuses.

GOPers do benefit from "the economy's weakness." And, the debate they're having with Obama right now does nothing to improve the economy. Read the rest of this post...

Rupert Murdoch stands by disgraced newspaper executive

In Rupert Murdoch's world, it must be OK to hack into the phones of dead girls and the families of military killed in action. Why are so many supporting this repulsive man?

Mr Murdoch jetted in from the United States amid growing pressure to scrap his company's controversial bid to take over BSkyB, with Labour leader Ed Miliband threatening to force a Commons vote on Wednesday blocking News Corp's move to take control of the UK's biggest broadcaster.

However, Mr Murdoch gave the clearest sign yet that he was fully behind Ms Brooks, as the pair emerged from his luxury apartment in Mayfair beaming. Asked what his first priority was, Mr Murdoch pointed at Ms Brooks and said "this one".

Ms Brooks had arrived in a chauffeur-driven car at Mr Murdoch's home for crisis talks as the scandal deepened, amid allegations that former News of the World editor Andy Coulson had authorised payments to police officers as long ago as 2007 in exchange for information. But Mr Murdoch later left his home with his arm around his embattled chief executive.

Read the rest of this post...

US cuts aid to Pakistan

There is no way the relationship could continue as it did in recent years. The blank check had to stop. Now if only the blank check to the US military can be stopped. Al Jazeera:

The US is withholding some $800 million in aid to Pakistan, almost a third of the $2.7bn in security assistance it provides each year to the South Asian nation, Barack Obama's chief of staff has confirmed.

Relations between the key allies, always tricky, have drastically deteriorated since US commandos shot and killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on May 2 in a Pakistani garrison town, sowing distrust on both sides.

Last month, Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, warned that the US would slow down military aid to Pakistan unless it took unspecified steps to help the US.

Now, it appears, it has, as William Daley, the president's chief of staff, confirmed a New York Times report that the administration was suspending and, in certain cases, cancelling some $800m of military aid.

Read the rest of this post...

Australian carbon tax to hit top 500 polluters

The right wing in Australia is going nuts but why should polluters get a free pass? Who is going to pay for the environmental damage plus the associated health care costs of polluters? The Guardian:

The Australian government has unveiled one of the world's most ambitious schemes to tackle climate change, a plan to tax carbon emissions from the country's worst polluters.

After a bruising political battle to win support for the measure, the prime minister, Julia Gillard, said on Sunday that from July next year, 500 companies would pay $23 (£15) a tonne for their carbon emissions in the largest emissions trading scheme outside Europe.

The government predicts that by 2029 the plan will lead to a reduction in emissions equivalent to taking 45m cars off the road. The government will fix the tax for three years, before moving to a market-set price in 2015.

Read the rest of this post...