70 years ago today

WWII started in Poland.

Officials from across the Europe and the U.S. gathered in northern Poland on Tuesday to mark the outbreak of World War II 70 years ago, in a ceremony bringing together former foes and friends to pay tribute to the tens of millions killed in the conflict.

Ahead of the international commemoration, Polish leaders came together at dawn on Gdansk's Westerplatte peninsula for a ceremony marking the exact time the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein shelled a tiny Polish military outpost where the Polish navy's arsenal was housed in the war's opening salvo.

Red and white Polish flags fluttered in the breeze as the officials at 4:45 a.m. (0245GMT) placed wreaths at the foot of the monument to the defenders of Westerplatte as an honor guard looked on.

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Finally. A White House realization that Republicans weren't really trying for bipartisanship

Following up on John's post that Obama will finally unveil his own health care plan next week, there's evidence that the Team Obama may have realized the Republicans were playing them:

Axelrod condemned recent comments by two chief Senate Republican negotiators - Charles Grassley of Iowa and Mike Enzi of Wyoming - who have sharply criticized key elements of Democrats' health care plans even as they insisted that a workable bipartisan plan was possible.

Their remarks, Axelrod said, "were not exactly consistent with good-faith negotiations."

Um, yeah. Some of us have been telling you that for months. But, the White House brain trust, led by Rahm Emanuel and Jim Messina (who are way, way smarter than everyone else) played along with Max Baucus and his futile bipartisan efforts. Well, look where that got Obama. Those dropping poll numbers speak for themselves.

We just want Obama to be a leader, to be the leader he told us he'd be. That's all we're asking. It's why Obama won and that's what will get those poll numbers back up. Read the rest of this post...

More good housing data

Like the stock market there is a long way to go before the numbers are back to their peak but positive news is still positive news.

Pending U.S. home sales rose more than expected in July to the highest level in more than two years as first-time buyers rushed to take advantage of a tax credit that expires this fall.

The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday its seasonally adjusted index of sales contracts signed in July for previously occupied homes rose 3.2 percent to 97.6. It was the sixth straight increase and 12 percent above the same month last year.

Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the index would edge up to 96.5.

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Glenn Beck: Obama is a Marxist who is overseeing a "coup" in America

This guy is one of FOX News' most popular shock hosts. And he's not only certifiable, but it's difficult to imagine how this kind of language does not spur someone to violence. Hat tip to Jed at DailyKos.

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Obama's 'pay czar' still reviewing Citi energy trader pay

It was the Obama team who argued that energy traders played a large role in the oil price increases last year but now it appears likely that an energy trader will get his $100 million. Besides adding thrashing to the market, it still remains a mystery how the traders are adding any real value to the overall market. The trades are great for the traders as they play games with prices but since few investors have managed to replenish their retirement accounts, why would anyone reward this behavior under these circumstances? Obama needs to decide if he wants to continue rewarding gambling traders or the millions of Americans who have been clobbered thanks to irresponsible traders who add no value beyond their plump bonses. And yes, this is Obama making the decision, not the 'pay czar' or any other czar. Reuters:

"There have been some tough disagreements, but everyone is trying to get to an end place in compensation that makes sense in a post-TARP world," Feinberg said.

He said Citigroup, in particular, has concerns about pay restrictions causing its top employees to leave.

Andrew Hall, a Citigroup energy trader on pace to make about $100 million this year, has recently become a target for accusations of excessive pay at bailed-out companies.

Feinberg told Reuters that Citigroup included Hall's contract when it submitted its pay plans earlier this month.

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CNN: Majority of independents disapprove of job Obama is doing

And the problem isn't that Obama hasn't been bipartisan enough on health care reform. He's having problems on lots of issues.

Is the fight over health care responsible for the downturn in Obama's numbers?

"Yes, in part, but his standing on some other issues has taken an even bigger tumble," adds Holland. "Among all Americans, his rating on health care has dropped 13 points since March. Compare that to his 16 point drop on the deficit and 17 point dip on taxes and it looks like there is growing discontent with Obama's overall domestic agenda — not just his health care policy."

According to the poll, Obama's approval rating on how he is handling the war in Afghanistan also fell 18 points since March.

This suggests, to me at least, that Obama is having an overall perception problem that's not going to be fixed by fine tuning the details of any particular policy. Obama's approval numbers were high months ago because during the campaign, after a slight stumble in August, he was able to exude confidence and leadership. Now he exudes caution. Read the rest of this post...

Republicans mob boos Ted Kennedy at health care town hall meeting

Democrats need to shut these people down, or this is going to continue, and get worse I fear. (Hat tip, Think Progress.)

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Obama to unveil his own health care plan next week

Americans want to hear two things:

1. I'm going to pay less.
2. I'm going to have better coverage.

That's it. Any more detail is going to flummox people. I think people want to hear that this plan will benefit them, period. That's it's not a trillion dollar welfare bill. That's it's not a lot of money spent, with few results. What we need is a health care calculator, like those tax cut calculators the Republicans always like to use. Let me plug in what I'm paying now for premiums, and tell me that I'm going to be paying less. Let me tell you what insurance I have now, and tell me I'm going to have even more coverage.

We don't need ten point plans. We need to be told that this plan will benefit all of us and it will be better than what we have now. Read the rest of this post...

Olbermann takes on FOX's Glenn Beck

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"I hope that God strikes Barack Obama with brain cancer so he can die like Ted Kennedy"

A Baptist preacher in Arizona doing his part for the GOP hate fest:

A Phoenix-area pastor has started to draw protesters to his congregation after he delivered a sermon titled, "Why I Hate Barack Obama," and told his parishioners that he prays for President Obama's death.

Pastor Steven Anderson stood by his sermon in an interview with MyFOXPhoenix, which reports that the pastor continues to encourage his parishioners to join him in praying for the president's death.

"I hope that God strikes Barack Obama with brain cancer so he can die like Ted Kennedy and I hope it happens today," he told MyFOXPhoenix on Sunday. He called his message "spiritual warfare" and said he does not condone killing.

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Best video caption ever: "The monkey urinated on President Rupiah Banda in June"

BBC:

Zambia's president has taken revenge after a monkey urinated on him during a press conference, by evicting a group of some 200 primates from State House.

Perhaps the monkeys were pissed that the president kept breaking his promises :-)

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Is the GOP riding a teabagging tiger?

This Reuters story tries to suggest they are. I think the answer is a bit more zen than that. They are only riding a tiger if we define them as riding a tiger. Meaning, unless and until Democrats successful spin the Republican party as beholden to a wacko base, it won't matter what that base does, nor how much the GOP coddles them. Politics is very often about perceptions, not reality. Or rather, reality is irrelevant (sorry, just speaking the truth here, not saying I like it). Republicans have successfully branded the word "liberal" a taboo not because liberals are nuts, but rather because Republicans painted them as nuts, over and over again. Earlier this year, Democrats finally were able to damage Republicans by tying them to Rush Limbaugh, even though he's been a jerk for years, and they've been genuflecting to him for years. The teabaggers will only bring down the GOP if we effectively brand them. And that has yet to happen. Read the rest of this post...

VA's GOP candidate for Governor tries to distance himself from himself

The reaction to the news about the theocratic thesis written not too long ago by Bob McDonnell, the GOP's candidate for Governor in Virginia, has been intense. On Sunday, the Washington Post reported on the thesis, which showed McDonnell's core beliefs. I posted the first two paragraphs of that article yesterday and will again because every thinking voter in Virginia should know this info. about McDonnell:

At age 34, two years before his first election and two decades before he would run for governor of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell submitted a master's thesis to the evangelical school he was attending in Virginia Beach in which he described working women and feminists as "detrimental" to the family. He said government policy should favor married couples over "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators." He described as "illogical" a 1972 Supreme Court decision legalizing the use of contraception by unmarried couples.

The 93-page document, which is publicly available at the Regent University library, culminates with a 15-point action plan that McDonnell said the Republican Party should follow to protect American families -- a vision that he started to put into action soon after he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.

These revelations put McDonnell on the defensive and into damage control mode yesterday. He did a call with reporters yesterday to argue against his own thesis. The headline in The Note reads, "Virginia Republican Bob McDonnell Distances Himself from Grad School Thesis." Politico's headline states "Bob McDonnell defends thesis, blames Creigh Deeds."

Actually, McDonnell is trying to distance himself from himself -- and he's only got himself to blame. The thesis was the real McDonnell. He's a theocratic mole, trying to present himself as mainstream until he gets to the seat of power. But, McDonnell has been exposed -- by his own words. And, let's not forget, we spent the last eight years fighting against the hard-core right wing leaders who shared McDonnell's views on women, gays and contraception.

The Democratic candidate for Governor is Creigh Deeds. Read the rest of this post...

White House fears liberal pressure to get out of Afghanistan

The White House is reportedly concerned that liberals may increasingly, and publicly, push for the US to withdraw from Afghanistan. The problem is that the White House doesn't have that good of a relationship with liberals because it has never seemed to want such a relationship in the past.

The White House makes no bones about wooing conservative Democrats and Republicans on issues ranging from the stimulus package to health care, but when it comes to wooing liberals, we're more likely to hear a senior administration official utter a slur, such as calling Democrats concerned about where health care reform is heading "the left of the left." And even during the campaign, rather than truly work with the blogs and liberal groups, Obama chose to create his own blogosphere on mybarackobama.com, and his own liberal group, Obama for America. It is simply not clear whether the White House, or the President himself, actually "likes" liberals, or considers them a legitimate part of the Democratic party.

The problem is now coming home to roost on Afghan policy, but it's really not limited to that. On health care reform, it's liberals who first called into question the President's fortitude in handling tough issues, and that doubt has now seeped into the public at large. And we've seen how "liberal" gays are able to repeatedly steal the news cycle when the candidate and now the White House forsakes that particular Democratic constituency.

Joe and I have argued for a while that "liberals" are not just a legitimate part of the Democratic party, but quite a powerful constituency as well. We've long believed that candidate, and now president, Obama made a tactical mistake in shunning the Democratic party's base, simply because the base is not just large, it's powerful, and has the ability to help on issues, but also to fight back mightily, publicly, and painfully when scorned. Obama's mistake was ignoring and antagonizing the left, rather than befriending it, when times were good. That decision now seems to be coming home to roost on an increasingly diverse number of issues. Read the rest of this post...

George Will: "Time to Get Out of Afghanistan"

Afghanistan was the "good" war. But it too, now, is sapping people's patience. George Will's voice matters because he's a leading conservative voice. And conservatives tend to be bigger on the "war thing" than are liberals. So if someone like Will is starting to say we should call it quits, that could be a bellwether of further dissension on the right and left. George Will:

U.S. forces are being increased by 21,000, to 68,000, bringing the coalition total to 110,000. About 9,000 are from Britain, where support for the war is waning. Counterinsurgency theory concerning the time and the ratio of forces required to protect the population indicates that, nationwide, Afghanistan would need hundreds of thousands of coalition troops, perhaps for a decade or more. That is inconceivable.

So, instead, forces should be substantially reduced to serve a comprehensively revised policy: America should do only what can be done from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, airstrikes and small, potent Special Forces units, concentrating on the porous 1,500-mile border with Pakistan, a nation that actually matters.

Genius, said de Gaulle, recalling Bismarck's decision to halt German forces short of Paris in 1870, sometimes consists of knowing when to stop.

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How do you think Obama is handling health care reform?

I'm opening the floor to your guys. I want comments, and/or emails, telling me your thoughts on how Obama is handling health care reform. My thoughts have already been expressed on the blog, but I'm interested in what others think, including those who think the President is handling the issue correctly. Either post your opinion in the comments, or send me an email - I may, or may not, post the best ones on all sides in a future post. Thanks.

In that vein, here's an oped by Norm Ornstein, arguing that Obama has been quite savvy in how he's handled health care reform. I won't comment, you can read for yourself and post your thoughts in the comments:

[H]aving watched the lawmaking process in all its glory (and messiness) for 40 years, as well as having watched the meltdown of the Clinton health plan up close, I am seeing from the administration signs of savvy, not weakness. While health reform is far from a done deal -- and could still be derailed by the lack of a vote to replace that of Sen. Ted Kennedy, an economic double dip or an international crisis -- the issue is actually on a fairly predictable path that fits both the realities of public opinion and politics in an age of sharp partisan and ideological conflict.

The Obama strategy since his election has been based on a gimlet-eyed and pragmatic assessment of the prospects and limits afforded by public opinion and the political process. A naive president would have assumed that, after a landslide victory, huge coattails, swollen partisan majorities and a high approval rating, he could have it all -- and pushed hard and early for a far-reaching, soup-to-nuts upheaval of the health-care system. Obama and his strategists understood that would not work.

On the public front, it was clear that there was no groundswell for broad change....

Do you agree, do you disagree, are Obama's critics being too harsh, are his defenders being too naive? I want your thoughts on this. Thanks. Read the rest of this post...

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The situation in Afghanistan has been getting worse. The number of U.S. deaths continues to rise. And, our senior commander over there is asking for more troops and more money. It's been almost eight years. This failure belongs to George Bush and Dick Cheney. But, it's got the potential to damage Obama. I think the American people are going to start getting really restless about that war.

On the domestic front, can we be clear about something? The U.S. Senate is not the House of Lords. There is no such thing as a "family" Senate seat. It's odd how many pundits and politicos think otherwise -- many in the Senate seem to think so, too. The Senate seat in Massachusetts belongs to the people of Massachusetts. I do hope that Massachusetts law is changed to allow an interim replacement for Senator Kennedy for the next few months. But, the voters will pick the next Senator. Election dates have been set: There's a primary on December 8th and a general election on January 19, 2010.

Let's get started. Read the rest of this post...

UK to promote global policy for bankers pay

The G20 ought to have a few interesting discussions now that both Gordon Brown and Nicholas Sarkozy are talking about coordinating pay policies for bankers. Then again, how often does anything actually get accomplished at these summits? There's never a shortage of talk but the follow through is rarely there. Too bad though, because something desperately needs to change. Without a unified approach by the G20, forget any real change. Even a unilateral change by the US - something which remains highly doubtful - would not be enough.

Gordon Brown declares today that Britain will push for tough global action to crack down on excessive bonuses for bankers.

In an interview to mark the start of the political season, the prime minister calls for a "clawback system" to confiscate bonuses based on failed speculative deals. "Remuneration has got to be based on long-term success, not short-term speculative deals," Brown tells today's Financial Times. "There's got to be a clawback system in remuneration itself … if things are not working in year two."

The prime minister warns that Britain can not introduce any changes unilaterally, and pledges to work with international partners at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh later this month. He emphasises a joint approach by rejecting a French proposal to introduce a mandatory cap on bankers' bonuses.

Brown spoke to the FT to signal that the economy remains his main priority and that he hopes to take further action to promote global growth at the G20 summit.

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US to crack down on child sex-tourism

It's about time. A few years ago this problem became high profile in the UK after the arrest of British singer Gary Glitter was arrested and sent to prison in Vietnam for this offense. Whether the local police in poor countries are willing to actively shut down this activity remains in doubt (courtesy of bribes) but it's good to see the US and Europe working with human rights groups. Until now, Westerners could often rely on weak legal systems and bribery to stay out of trouble in these countries but now these people can be pursued at home. This is a very important step.

Three Americans accused of traveling to Cambodia to have sex with children are expected to be charged in federal court here, officials said Monday, marking the first prosecutions under a new international initiative intended to combat child-sex tourism.

The initiative, Operation Twisted Traveler, targets Americans who exploit children for sex in Cambodia, which experts describe as a top destination for child predators. U.S. and Cambodian authorities, as well as nongovernmental organizations, were involved in the effort.

"This level of cooperation is unprecedented," said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which coordinated the initiative with the Justice Department.

Before arriving in Los Angeles on Monday, the suspects -- Ronald Boyajian, 49, Erik Peeters, 41, and Jack Sporich, 75 -- were arrested by Cambodian authorities on charges related to child sexual exploitation. They are expected to make their initial appearances in federal court Tuesday afternoon.

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Aspirin every day may do more harm than good

That's according to the British Heart Foundation. Then again, they're all socialists and we all know socialist health care systems have never done any good.

The warning has been issued following publication of medical research into the benefits of the drug and the dangers of internal bleeding.

Millions of Britons are thought to be taking low doses of aspirin every day in the belief that the tablets will protect them against heart attacks and strokes by lowering the risk of blood clots.

"We know that patients with symptoms of artery disease, such as angina, heart attack or stroke, can reduce their risk of further problems by taking a small dose of aspirin each day," said Professor Peter Weissberg, the foundation's medical director.

"The findings of this study agree with our current advice that people who do not have symptomatic or diagnosed artery or heart disease should not take aspirin, because the risks of bleeding may outweigh the benefits."

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Gay marriages start in Vermont today

And the locusts did not swarm, and the seas did not turn to blood. Andy Towle has the details. Read the rest of this post...