GOP already criticizing House Dems for doing what GOP already did four years ago

Classic. The GOP is criticizing Speaker for Pelosi for using one of their procedural tactics to pass Reconciliation and the Senate health care reform bill. Call it the Dreier Maneuver. That would be the same GOP Rep. David Dreier who just criticized the maneuver AND who used it himself in 2006. Who knew Dreier went both ways? Daily Kos walks you through it. Read the rest of this post...

Internet grew 20% more hateful in 2009

And that doesn't even count Glenn Beck's and Rush Limbaugh's tweets.

The report [by the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Tolerance], based on some 11,500 problematic Web sites, social networks , chat forums, twitter posts, other Internet postings, found that hate-filled language is increasingly filling social networks. In compiling it, researchers for the Wiesenthal center found such disturbing online content as video footage showing bomb-making instructions and hate games — including one about bombing Haitian earthquake victims.

The report found a 20% increase to 11,500 in hate-filled social networks, Web sites, forums, blogs, Twitter feeds, and so on (up from 10,000 last year). It notes that beyond its role in our social lives, the Internet often acts as the incubator and validator of dangerous conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11 and organ theft.

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Barney Frank calls on White House to publicly state their support for repealing DADT this year

Barney Frank is now calling on the White House to publicly state their support for the legislative repeal of DADT this year."

Or as my friend David just said to me, "Barney to White House: Grow a pair." Read the rest of this post...

Pelosi discusses new option for passing HCR in House and get Reconciliation fix too

One of the concerns that House Democrats have is that if they vote for the Senate health care reform bill, what assurances do they have that the Reconciliation fix (which would improve the conservative Senate bill, to some extent) will even come up in the House for a vote. One possible solution was explained to us this morning in our blogger meeting with House Speaker Pelosi. It's a bit confusing, but in a nutshell, the House could in essence pass the Reconciliation bill and the Senate health care bill simultaneously. This doesn't get around the problem of how you ensure that the Senate passes the Reconciliation fix, but it's a smart way to at least address the House's problem.

Oh, and not surprisingly, the Republicans are simply apoplectic that the Democrats have yet again found a legal way to pass health care reform.

You can listen to Pelosi discuss this in the audio to the upper left (there's no video, audio only). Read the rest of this post...

Why should any Democrat believe a Republican on health care reform?

In the bizarro world we live in, the Republicans are running around warning Democrats that it would be very bad for them politically if they vote for the Senate health care reform bill and/or the fixes being included in Reconciliation. It's a weird strategy, since per se any advice the GOP gives a Dem, the Dems out to do the opposite. Still, I'd imagine that there are Democrats who fall for the GOP warnings, just as they fell for the Teabagger protests last summer, and they fell for the fake GOP-hatched protests during Bush v. Gore back in 2000. I suspect that the GOP is simply playing the media, hoping they'll cover the warnings, and thus get the American people wondering if the Democrats are in fact trying to some risky move, since the GOP said so and the media reported on it.

Having said all of that, Lindsey Graham's comments about kamikazes and getting "liquored up" are downright bizarre.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Monday used language that compared House Democrats' efforts to pass healthcare reform legislation to a Japanese kamikaze mission.

"Nancy Pelosi, I think, has got them all liquored up on sake and you know, they're making a suicide run here," Graham said on the Keven Cohen Show on WVOC radio in Columbia, S.C.

I wonder what Lindsey Graham makes a run for when he's all liquored up. Read the rest of this post...

GOP to meet Dodd's reform 'at least half way'

And by "half way" they mean they will gladly accept the Democrats folding and buying into the GOP plan to have the Federal Reserve be in charge of consumer protection. Yes, the same Federal Reserve who was asleep at the wheel during the building crisis. What a swift kick in the gut. Why bother supporting Democrats if this is the best they can do? This is a poor excuse for reform and yet another reason why voters have limited faith in the Democrats.

Hours before Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd is to release draft legislation for sweeping financial reform, the panel's ranking Republican member said his party would meet Democrats "at least half way."

Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama told CNBC that though he hadn't seen Dodd's bill—scheduled to be released at 2 p.m. ET Monday—he and his GOP colleagues agreed with "85 to 90 percent of it."

Sources familiar with the Dodd's draft say it would consolidate banking regulators and create a systemic risk council. It would also create a new consumer watchdog agency within the Federal Reserve.

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Bombshell from Barney Frank: White House doesn't want 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' repealed this year

This is a 180 degree flip-flop on the President's own promise in the State of the Union. More on AMERICAblog Gay.

UPDATE: Barney Frank is trying to back off of his earlier quote, but his now quote is just as damning of the White House. Read the rest of this post...

A number of us just met with Speaker Pelosi to talk Health Care Reform

I was invited along with a small group of bloggers to meet with US House Speaker Pelosi this morning in the US Capital building to talk about health care reform. I'll be adding my observations in a moment, but here's what Greg Sargent is reporting:

In her most expansive case yet for health reform, Nancy Pelosi argued in a small roundtable with bloggers today that passing it into law would set the stage for a great, long-term debate with the GOP over the proper role of government in our lives — and predicted that it would “take the country in a new direction.”

Pelosi argued that passing reform would give Dems a tool for drawing a sharp ideological contrast with Republicans and conservatives over time.

“Give them credit for being true to their convictions,” Pelosi said. “They don’t believe in health care for all Americans with any public role in it. That’s by and large what the Republican Party believes.”

Pelosi said passing the bill would allow Dems to undertake a “debate” with Republicans over “what is the balanced role that government should have.”

“We have to take it to the American people, to say, this is the choice that you have,” she said. “This is the vision that they have for your health and well being, and this is the vision that we have.”

Here's what Brian Beutler of TPM reported:

Pelosi avoided delving deeply into postmortems--Why didn't the public option survive? What should have been done differently?--but she did suggest, at a couple different points, that the White House was not a perfect ally in this fight.

"There will be plenty of time for whatever--in the executive and the legislative branch--as to how [the public option] evolved to what it is now," Pelosi said, suggesting that some fault lies with the White House.

Equally vexing for her have been elements in the White House who urged her to revert to a strategy of passing a small--rather than comprehensive--health care bill. "Those who are trying to say 'just do a small bill,'" Pelosi said gesturing out the window of her office, westward toward the White House. "In our midst there's the small bill crowd. Here and there. And that empowered [the insurance companies]."

And that's to say nothing about the White House/PhRMA deal."If you're asking me were we unhappy about the pharmaceutical thing?" Pelosi asked rhetorically. "Yes. Very. But apart from that, I don't know what else they've done with industry....We just thought, Wait a minute, the Senate and the White House and PhRMA made a deal, and we have to honor that?"

Read the rest of this post...

Is Obama populist enough?

Is it a problem or an asset that the President often comes off as more cerebral than populist? Some say they want to see more fire. Others say that it's about time we had someone in the presidency with half a brain.

Ten days ago, Obama confronted health insurance CEOs during a White House meeting with a letter from a woman whose premiums went up 40 percent.

It had the makings of a signature moment in the health care fight — the president standing up for average Americans — yet just before Obama arrived, reporters were escorted out of the room. So there was no footage of the exchange and no record of the insurance executives’ reaction.

The White House simply released a photograph of the president reading the letter, and press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters, “I’ll let the insurance executives speak for themselves.”

“The president has always thought of himself, when he was in the state Senate and the U.S. Senate, as somebody who could take on big issues by bringing different viewpoints together to make progress,” Gibbs said. “And sometimes if you’re on either extreme of this, I think you tend to be less involved in the solutions, because you’re simply out there just driving your own point.

“The times require — and I think, quite frankly, people want — more than somebody who will sympathize with their frustration,” he added. They want “somebody who can sympathize with your anger by visibly showing their anger will only get you so far.”

Of the meeting with insurers, Gibbs said that opening the event was unnecessary and would have run counter to Obama’s preferred approach, which is to foster “honest discussions” with stakeholders without them worrying “that each and every meeting is about a press event.”

Read the rest of this post...

AIG to withhold $21 million but still pay $46 million in bonuses

Better but hardly great considering everything. I'd still go with the "elegant form of theft" description. If anything, this looks like an attempt to deflect attention from the $195 million in bonuses that they are due to pay around now. Oh sure, they've managed to trim that number by $20 million but how pathetic is that? Why reward failure and bad behavior?

AIG is paying out $46 million to about 70 people, most of whom are former employees of the unit that was behind its near-collapse in September 2008, the source said on Sunday.

The cuts may help AIG exceed a $45 million giveback target that was set after a public outcry over payouts to the unit's employees, the source said, declining to be identified because these payments are not public.

AIG, which is nearly 80 percent owned by the U.S. government after a $182.3 billion taxpayer-funded bailout, had already recovered about $40 million of the giveback target that was set after it paid out $165 million last year to employees.

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Poll: Good number of those who 'oppose' health care reform want a stronger, more liberal plan

From Obama's lead pollster, writing in the Washington Post this weekend:

Let's take the CNN poll from early January -- the most negative independent poll on health care and one that predated President Obama's proposal. Only 40 percent supported the bills passed by Congress, while 57 percent opposed them. But in a crucial follow-up question, a net of 10 percent of all Americans opposed the bill because it was "not liberal enough." If one makes the reasonable assumption that these people are far more likely to side with supporters of the president's plan than with Republicans who are obstructing it, the results would show that 50 percent favor the plan or want a broader one, while only 45 percent oppose the plan.

Similarly, a more recent poll by Ipsos showed that among the 47 percent who initially said they "opposed health care," more than a third of opponents said they "favor" reform overall but think the current plan doesn't go "far enough." Shifting these people to the group in "favor of reform" would reduce opposition to current reforms to under 40 percent.

Read the rest of this post...

If I owe you a million dollars I'm in trouble

If I owe you a million dollars I'm in trouble. But if I owe you a trillion dollars then YOU are in trouble.

This old banker's cliche is an accurate description of the US/China relationship right now, and is entirely in line with Paul Krugman's op ed today in the New York Times. Krugman recommends US action in response to China's exchange rate manipulation, which is designed to promote their exports to us. Much angst has resulted from fears that the Chinese would dump US assets, or as some put it, "call in their loan to us." In this case, the "loan" is in reality a huge stockpile of US Treasury bonds, accumulated as the Chinese have steadily sold their own currency in exchange for dollars in order to keep the renminbi's (their current) value low, and China's exports more competitive. Chinese central bankers have invested these dollars in interest bearing assets like Treasury bonds, and could sell them if they chose, which would result in a lower dollar and higher US interest rates.

To all of those with such fears: Calm yourself! If the Chinese were to do this, it would be a 180 degree reversal of their current policy - which they are defending fiercely, and show no signs whatever of even moderating much less reversing. In addition, while there are some parallels between personal loans and international debt, the more extreme fears of a Chinese selloff of US bonds are clearly groundless. First, if your mortgage banker calls your loan, you never see a devaluation of the currency you are required to pay back. Second, the banker doesn't have so much invested in you, the homeowner or car loan consumer, that he or she would have problems with net worth if you went belly up.

While I might take issue with Krugman's opinion that nothing important would happen to long term US interest rates if China were to dump US assets, he is certainly correct that the main effect would be a devaluation of the US dollar vis-a-vis the renminbi and other currencies. And it is almost impossible to imagine any resolution of our current trade and international payments imbalances without a lower value for the dollar, since this is the main tool we have at our disposal to shift the economy from producing things that can only be sold to ourselves (e.g. houses), versus things that can be sold internationally and so have a positive effect on our trade balance. In short, a devaluation is coming sooner or later. We can choose to do it now or we can have it forced on us later - but it is coming.

And it isn't even something to get all that upset over. Some equate a strong currency with motherhood, apple pie, George Washington and a strong defense. There is no question that it is pleasant to be able to buy imports cheaply and visit Paris on half the money it takes nowadays. But everyone who works for an export industry, or one that competes with imports, would benefit from a lower dollar, and that is a boost the economy sorely needs right now.

Dean Baker has proposed simply fixing the dollar/renminbi exchange rate at a level that WE like, instead of allowing the Chinese to fix it at a level THEY like. There is nothing to prevent this - countries can set exchange rates however they like, but it is important to note that competitive devaluations were one of the prime causes of the collapse of trade in the Great Depressions and the main rationale for the formation of the International Monetary Fund in the 1940's.

But currency manipulation is a slippery slope - and not an easy one to play on, given the huge sums involved in Chinese/US trade and financial relations. So Krugman's suggestion of a 25% tariff on goods imported from China is a good one - It would have the same direct effect as a unilateral exchange rate peg in the short run and would be easier to remove if the Chinese start behaving more responsibly. Personally, I would rather see the tariff phased in, say at 5% every couple of months until the Chinese stop manipulating their currency. But it is no longer possible (and hasn't been for a long time) to pretend that the Chinese are not manipulating their currency for competitive advantage - failing to do something about it will only make the eventual resolution of the problem that much harder.

A side benefit is that the politics of sticking it to the Chinese are unambiguously good - an external foe would unite everyone behind the President - and unlike the last President, who picked a fight with Iraq and needed a trumped up reason to get belligerent, China really is doing something which is truly dangerous (at least in economic terms).

And it wouldn't require the Marines to deal with it. Read the rest of this post...

Defense official created 'off-the-books spy operation' with private contractors

This is a really fascinating article from the NY Times about a guy at the Department of Defense who started his army of spies and assassins with private contractors. It's like something out of a spy novel. Unclear who authorized it. And, it probably wasn't legal:

Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering program, a Defense Department official set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants, according to military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States.

The official, Michael D. Furlong, hired contractors from private security companies that employed former C.I.A. and Special Forces operatives. The contractors, in turn, gathered intelligence on the whereabouts of suspected militants and the location of insurgent camps, and the information was then sent to military units and intelligence officials for possible lethal action in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the officials said.

While it has been widely reported that the C.I.A. and the military are attacking operatives of Al Qaeda and others through unmanned, remote-controlled drone strikes, some American officials say they became troubled that Mr. Furlong seemed to be running an off-the-books spy operation. The officials say they are not sure who condoned and supervised his work.

It is generally considered illegal for the military to hire contractors to act as covert spies. Officials said Mr. Furlong’s secret network might have been improperly financed by diverting money from a program designed to merely gather information about the region.

Read the rest of this post...

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

It's going to be an intense week on Capitol Hill. The Speaker has promised a vote on the health care bill by the end of the week. The President delayed his trip to Asia from this Thursday until next Sunday. The latest FDL whip count shows 191 yes votes and 203 no votes. Democrats need to get to 216 -- and they're not there yet. The lobbying focus seems to have shifted from policy to politics. It's apparently about Obama's presidency now.

Today, Senator Dodd will introduce his financial reform bill. It's only about a year late. Buy, hey, why would the Democrats ever think to crack down on the most reviled institutions in America? That could be good policy and excellent politics, but still might make the bankers mad. And, the bankers have friends in high places, own the GOP Senators (and more than a few Democratic Senators) -- and have lots of lobbyists.

Later this week, there will be another Senate hearing on the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. This one will include testimony from two Iraq/Afghanistan vets who were kicked out under the policy.

Busy week. Should be fun...and by fun, I mean annoying... Read the rest of this post...

Center-left dominates in French regional elections

The Socialist and Green party have been doing very well in recent elections where Socialists control 20 out of 22 regions in France. Nothing suggests they can win at a national level any time soon but they're alive and doing well elsewhere. Fallout from the global economic crisis has not been as bad in France as other EU countries so I'd be curious to see what happens to the right if unemployment was at Spanish levels. (A big reason for lesser impact has to due with the high number of public service workers.) Final elections are next weekend. The Independent:

Near-complete official results showed Socialist and other leftist candidates dominating Sunday's first round vote to choose governments of France's 26 regions. The decisive runoff is March 21.

The far right National Front party had a stronger-than-expected showing after years in decline, buoyed by voters worried anew about immigration and France's growing Muslim population.

With more than 96 percent of votes counted, candidates from the Socialist and other parties on the left won 53.6 percent of the overall vote, according to the Interior Ministry. Sarkozy's conservative UMP party and others on the right won 39.8 percent.

Read the rest of this post...

Brits arrested in Dubai for public kissing

It's such a modern place where the possibilities are endless. For all of the bankers making threats to leave the US or UK to make their riches in Dubai, go for it. The Guardian:

Two Britons accused of kissing in public in Dubai face up to a month in prison after a mother complained her child had seen them.

Ayman Najafi, 24, from Palmers Green, and a female friend named by the Sun as tourist Charlotte Lewis, 25, launched an appeal in a Dubai court today but will have to wait three weeks to find out if they have been successful.

Najafi, who has lived in Dubai for the past 18 months, and Lewis were arrested last November and accused of kissing, touching each other intimately and consuming alcohol.

The pair, currently free on bail, were also fined 1,000 dirhams (£178) for illegal consumption of alcohol, the lawyer said. They had their passports confiscated and were to be deported after the completion of their jail sentence.

Read the rest of this post...