9th Circuit again tells Obama administration to stop discharging gays

The President promised ago that he would certify the end of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy "in weeks, not months."  The court seems to be telling them that the gig is up.  Just do it. Read the rest of this post...

Bachmann quits church that calls the Pope the "anti-Christ," after attending for 10 years

Mind you, she was a member of the church for ten years but only quit once she wanted to run for President. Not that it's at all unusual for conservatives to think that Catholics worship the anti-Christ, it's a common belief among Southern Baptists, aka evangelical Christians. It just isn't talked about much, until you want to run for President and America's Catholics find out that you think they worship Satan.

And Bachmann thought her fey husband would be a drag (queen) on her campaign. Read the rest of this post...

Obama singles out drug makers for cost savings

Considering you can buy the same drugs in Europe, made and sold by the same drug companies, for one-fifth the price (and more), you'd better believe there are more drug savings to be had. If Americans knew how much drug companies are gouging us, while charging Europeans 1/5th as much, they'd be livid.

Bloomberg:

“The drug companies, for example, are still doing very well through the Medicare program,” Obama said today at a news conference. “Although we have made drugs more available at a cheaper price to seniors who are in Medicare through the Affordable Care Act, there’s more work to potentially be done there,” he said in referring to the 2010 health-care overhaul.

Read the rest of this post...

Larry Summers in 2009: Obama will launch "a plan to reform Social Security and Medicare"

Credit A Tiny Revolution for this great find. Larry Summers profiled and quoted in a January 2009 (hmm, what was happening around that time?) article in Time magazine titled "Can Larry Summers Save the Economy?" The key graf, safety net–wise (clearly my emphasis):

And then, perhaps as early as March, they'll launch their biggest lift with the beginnings of a plan to reform Social Security and Medicare, the two entitlement programs that, even before the economy collapsed, were threatening the Treasury with bankruptcy. By any standard, it is a massive three-month agenda fraught with political risk. The key to getting it all done, Summers says, is entering into a "compact" with the country "that this isn't just government as usual throwing money at things." When Obama unveils his annual budget in late February or March, Summers promises that the President "is going to describe the kinds of approaches he wants to take to the entitlement problems that have been ignored for a long time." Some options might include delaying retirement, stretching benefits and lifting the cap on taxable earnings. Could one of these prevail? "Remains to be seen," Summers says.

There are other obscenities in the article. Feel free to browse. (I found the promise to "stabilize the housing market" especially quaint and amusing.)

Count on it, the evidence points to Obama rejecting the "clean bill." The latest from Greg Sargent (h/t Digby):

If I’m reading this right, what this means is that in order to make the McConnell proposal more palatable to conservatives, there would be a mandated bipartisan review of entitlements next year. The source tells me that if a majority of the committee can agree on recommendations for entitlement reform, the proposal would also mandate a Congressional vote on those recommendations.

It’s unclear how Dems will respond to this. Democrats are already cool to the McConnell proposal because it includes spending cuts but no new revenues, but they may be willing to accept it because it spares entitlements. But now the proposal looks as if it will also force a review — and a vote on — entitlement reform. ...

UPDATE: Another source close to the talks confirms that Harry Reid is in fact discussing this idea with McConnell, so it’s a real possibility.

How about a nice 11-dimensional game of Thermonuclear War? That would wipe out the Democratic party in one shot.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Chair of Dow Jones, close Murdoch ally, quit today. And, it’s crisis PR time.

A major development in the Murdoch empire's phone hacking scandal today:

Les Hinton, the chairman of Dow Jones, announced his resignation on Friday, joining Rebekah Brooks, the embattled chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper operations, in the exodus of top officials from Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

Mr. Hinton, a long-time confidant of Mr. Murdoch, ran News International, the British publishing subsidiary of Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation from 1997 to 2005, during the time when the phone hacking that touched off the scandal took place.

Hinton has worked with Murdoch for 52 years. And, this means the scandal is impacting Murdoch's U.S. based operations. Let's see where the FBI investigation leads.

And, even the mighty need help. Apparently, a crisis public relations firm has been hired:

The public apologies seemed to follow News Corporation’s acknowledgment that it had hired the public relations firm Edelman to handle the crisis. It appeared to reflect a strategy to tamp down a scandal that has already forced the closure closing of The News of the World, a tabloid, and the collapse of a $12 billion bid to assume full control of Britain’s biggest satellite broadcaster.

The head of crisis management at the firm, Mike Seymour, declined to comment on any work for Mr. Murdoch’s company, saying “I’m sure you understand.”

Can't wait for the next shoe to drop. Pretty soon, there's not going to be any top execs left to fire except Murdochs. Read the rest of this post...

Obama confirms Social Security and Medicare are on the table. Senate has them there, too.

Most of us aren't sophisticated enough to understand, but it's for our own good.

The key question came from Jake Tapper:

Q: You’ve said that reducing the deficit will require shared sacrifice. We know -- we have an idea of the taxes that you would like to see raised on corporations and on Americans in the top two tax brackets, but we don’t yet know what you specifically are willing to do when it comes to entitlement spending. In the interest of transparency, leadership, and also showing the American people that you have been negotiating in good faith, can you tell us one structural reform that you are willing to make to one of these entitlement programs that would have a major impact on the deficit? Would you be willing to raise the retirement age? Would you be willing to means test Social Security or Medicare?

THE PRESIDENT: We’ve said that we are willing to look at all those approaches. I’ve laid out some criteria in terms of what would be acceptable. So, for example, I’ve said very clearly that we should make sure that current beneficiaries as much as possible are not affected. But we should look at what can we do in the out-years, so that over time some of these programs are more sustainable.

I’ve said that means testing on Medicare, meaning people like myself, if -- I’m going to be turning 50 in a week. So I’m starting to think a little bit more about Medicare eligibility. (Laughter.) Yes, I’m going to get my AARP card soon -- and the discounts.

But you can envision a situation where for somebody in my position, me having to pay a little bit more on premiums or co-pays or things like that would be appropriate. And, again, that could make a difference. So we’ve been very clear about where we’re willing to go.

Yes, Obama has become very clear about where he is willing to go -- and it's not a good direction. As Stephanie Taylor from PCCC notes:

Today, for the first time, President Obama made clear that he's considering benefit cuts even for Americans who currently depend on Social Security and Medicare. This is something Paul Ryan didn't even embrace publicly.

Earlier today, PCCC delivered a message to the Obama campaign from over 200,000 signed pledges who had either volunteered or donated to Obama in 2012. The message is: we cannot support Obama in 2012 if he supports cuts Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Yes, the Obama campaign had a good first quarter for fundraising. But, that was the low hanging fruit. Jim Messina and the other political geniuses who set the direction for the Obama presidency don't seem to think the base matters, but it does. Maybe Messina's (and Bill Daley's) buddies at Third Way, which supports cutting Social Security and Medicare, will make up for those 200,000+ disgruntled Obama supporters (except Third Way has no real constituency.)

It's not just Obama. At DailyKos, Joan McCarter has a post titled, McConnell-Reid proposal puts target on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid:

Greg Sargent has some key developments in the Reid-McConnell proposal that make it even worse. That commission it sets up? It's designed specifically to "reform" Social Security and Medicare.

Joan notes:

The semi-good news is that it puts the onus on members of Congress to actually vote to cut Social Security and Medicare, which they hate to do. It's unclear right now whether congressional Democrats would line up with this. It could potentially mean putting off any cuts to Social Security and Medicare in this package, putting that vote off to later, when the commission comes up with its recommendations. But that's not entirely clear yet.

What is clear is that Democrats have shown a dangerous willingness to sacrifice core Democratic values. Read the rest of this post...

Krugman: The GOP took decades "getting to crazy" — and pundits are responsible

Paul Krugman on the darkly funny prospect of some people's sudden wake-up call (my emphases):

[T]here has been, I have to admit, an element of comic relief — of the black-humor variety — in the spectacle of so many people who have been in denial suddenly waking up and smelling the crazy.

Glad to see that Krugman's in a "willing to point the finger" mood these days:

And may I say to those suddenly agonizing over the mental health of one of our two major parties: People like you bear some responsibility for that party’s current state.

He's referring to pundits now wringing their hands, whose hands went un-wrung for years. (We call those people "operatives," but that's a quibble.)

Krugman then takes a side-trip into "how crazy are they?" land, with statements like this:

If a Republican president had managed to extract the kind of concessions on Medicare and Social Security that Mr. Obama is offering, it would have been considered a conservative triumph. But when those concessions come attached to minor increases in revenue, and more important, when they come from a Democratic president, the proposals become unacceptable plans to tax the life out of the U.S. economy.

If this were a post about Obama, that quote alone would be a scandal.

But let's press on; this is a post about pundit responsibility:

Which brings me to the culpability of those who are only now facing up ... Mr. Bush squandered the surplus of the late Clinton years, yet prominent pundits pretend that the two parties share equal blame for our debt problems. ... [T]here has been no pressure on the G.O.P. to show any kind of responsibility, or even rationality — and sure enough, it has gone off the deep end. If you’re surprised, that means that you were part of the problem.

Very close, sir. In the article, you point the finger (at one point) at "those within the G.O.P." But the last bolded statement above applies to many (if not most) in the media.

Maybe it's time to take that next step, sir, and call out the rest of them from high atop those valued column inches at the New York Times? After all, as you've pointed out many times, this isn't just academic (heh) — there's a whole lot at stake.

Mes petits sous, of course.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Eric Cantor has a drug problem

A (federal) drug spending problem that is.

You see, Eric Cantor, who claims to be Mr. Deficit Reduction, just loves loves loves spending as much federal government money as possible, so long as it goes to companies who donate $160,000 to his election campaign.

As for spending it on America's seniors?  Not so much. Read the rest of this post...

President Obama’s latest debt ceiling press conference

The White House livestream is here.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Read the rest of this post...

Disgraced News Corp editor, Rebekah Brooks, resigns

Rupert Murdoch is now planning an apology tour, years after the fact and his beloved Rebekah Brooks has just resigned. Only days ago she was his primary concern so one has to wonder what happened between then and now. Did she receive a handsome payout to "resign" or was there some other backroom deal? Did she know too much? Considering the details of this scandal the public deserves to know much more about this deal. CNN:

"As chief executive of the company, I feel a deep sense of responsibility for the people we have hurt and I want to reiterate how sorry I am for what we now know to have taken place," Brooks said in a statement through News International.

"I have believed that the right and responsible action has been to lead us through the heat of the crisis. However my desire to remain on the bridge has made me a focal point of the debate."

She said the focus on her is "detracting attention" from endeavors to fix the problems, and her resignation gives her more time to fight the allegations against her.

"As you can imagine, recent times have been tough. I now need to concentrate on correcting the distortions and rebutting the allegations about my record as a journalist, an editor and executive," she said.

Yes, please do explain why it was necessary to phone Gordon Brown to inform him that the News of the World was about to print a story about Brown's child. Please explain the alleged bribes of police officers and hacking into the phones of murdered little girls and London 7/7 bombing victims. And then explain any financial deals with News Corp that may have occurred when resigning. Read the rest of this post...

Obama to GOPers: "It’s decision time"

The next 24 hours will be apparently be pivotal as the nation approaches the August 2nd debt ceiling. Deal or no deal? The specter of financial chaos is looming. The President put Social Security and Medicare on the table. And, it's unclear if even that's enough to get movement from the GOP:

President Obama prepared Thursday to bring bipartisan talks over the debt to a close, as Senate leaders worked across party lines to craft an alternative strategy to raise the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit and avert a government default.

“It’s decision time,” Obama told congressional leaders after meeting at the White House for a fifth straight day. Obama gave Republicans until early Saturday to tell him whether any of three options for trimming the federal budget would win GOP support.

“We need concrete plans to move this forward,” he said.

A breakthrough in the White House talks looked unlikely, however, leaving the Senate framework as the chief option for raising the debt limit before Aug. 2, when the Treasury will be unable to pay its bills without additional borrowing authority.

Still no guarantee that House GOPers, now clearly led by Eric Cantor, will go along. I think it's unwise for anyone to assume that rationality will prevail among Cantor's caucus. We're not dealing with rational characters among those House GOPers. Seriously irrational is more like it.

So, Obama's says, "It's decision time." Does that matter?

And, I'm still not sure what the White House strategy is or has been. But, then again, I haven't understood the White House strategy on many issues for the past two and a half years. Read the rest of this post...

Murdoch launches defense in WSJ

The News Corp tabloid The Sun has clarified it's source for publishing the story about Gordon Brown's son who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, though it hardly excuses the newspaper for an extreme violation of private information. Just because they did not hack his medical records hardly excuses the inexcusable publishing of the story. It was nobodies business other than the Brown family. Just as the infamous Clinton-Lewinski affair that Fox used extensively, it is of no concern to anyone outside of those people involved.

If people like Murdoch want to flog stories like that to titillate for a fast buck then they should expect the same treatment now that they are the center of the story. Murdoch doesn't appear to be showing much remorse for the disgusting and possibly illegal behavior of his media empire. If he had an ounce of decency he would have cleaned house in the executive offices and apologized for the stories that have been published. The Guardian:

In his first interview about the crisis that has engulfed his media empire, Murdoch said some MPs' comments on the scandal were "total lies" and singled out Brown for criticism over the former prime minister's accusation that News International was guilty of "law-breaking on an industrial scale".

The media baron said Brown "got it entirely wrong" when he alleged that Murdoch's British papers had used "known criminals" to get access to his personal information when Labour was in power.

"The Browns were always friends of ours" until the Sun withdrew its support for Labour before the last general election, he told the Wall Street Journal, his flagship US paper.

Read the rest of this post...

CIA's fake vaccination program under fire

Nobody is arguing that catching bin Laden wasn't a good thing, but the CIA may be endangering others now that the story has emerged. Real vaccination programs may be blocked and viewed as CIA programs which is not good news.

Médecins Sans Frontières has lashed out at the CIA for using a fake vaccination programme as a cover to spy on Osama bin Ladenon Thursday, saying it threatened life-saving immunisation work around the world.

The international medical aid charity said the ploy used by US intelligence, revealed this week in the Guardian, was a "grave manipulation of the medical act".

The CIA recruited a Pakistani doctor and health visitors before the operation in May that killed Bin Laden in Abbottabad in northern Pakistan, to try to ascertain whether the al-Qaida leader was living in the compound. The doctor, Shakil Afridi, set up a vaccination drive for Hepatitis B in the town in order to try to gain entry to the Bin Laden compound and obtain DNA samples from those living there.

Read the rest of this post...

EU bank stress tests to show problems in Germany and Spain

The German government likes to pile on criticism of every other EU nation so this could get interesting. A dose of reality just may bring the German government back to reality. Their arrogance has been annoying and not very constructive. What is the most shocking about the ongoing crisis in Europe is that the euro has mostly stayed high against the dollar. It shows you just how bad things are in the US with the money printing by the Fed and the ongoing expenses of the war machine. CNBC:

The results of the banking stress tests, due on Friday after the close of European markets, will be worst for German and Spanish banks, analyst Ralph Silva of SRN told CNBC Friday.

“The German banks are going to suffer the most because they’re not in a great place right now,” he said.

“There are just too many banks in Spain, and the big banks are doing fine, but the smaller ones are fighting for market share,” Silva added.

Read the rest of this post...

Fox News host doesn’t remember any terrorist attacks between 2000-2008

Media Matters on the other times when the wingnuts conveniently forgot about that particular event on 9/11. Read the rest of this post...