Litigious Lesbians

Are the worst kind. Read the rest of this post...

Public more concerned about McCain's ties to Bush, and Hillary's political opportunism, than Obama and Wright

From Markos:

43 percent of respondents are concerned about the 71-year-old John McCain's close ties to George Bush.

36 percent have concerns about Clinton's political opportunism, and 27 percent are concerned about Bill Clinton being back in the White House.

34 percent have problems with Obama's "bitter" remarks and 32 percent give a damn about Jeremiah Wright.

Read the rest of this post...

Who isn't worried about gun-free national parks?

Thankfully the GOP is there to help bring weapons into the national parks, answering that worry that so many Americans talk about every day. "What do we possibly have to do to bring loaded weapons into Yellowstone National Park?" is dinner table conversation throughout the land. Sounds like a great idea for every family and surely nothing could ever go wrong, right? Besides, think of those doggone bison and gray wolf populations that were just starting to recover. Clearly we need to kill nature in order to save it.

U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne says it's time to take a "fresh look" at the long-held ban against bringing loaded weapons into national parks and wildlife areas.

Kempthorne will soon issue new rules, subject to public comment, that could loosen those restrictions to more closely resemble the gun laws of the states where the federal sites are located.

Gun advocates, including the National Rifle Association, and 51 U.S. senators urged the review, including Republican Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina. The current rules "infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners," the senators said in a letter to Kempthorne in December.

Read the rest of this post...

Happy Birthday dear Adolph....

I know Joe wrote about this last week, but you have to love the picture of the Republican congressional candidate in Indiana attending Hitler's birthday party. Why? Because he was invited. That's his excuse. I'm particularly fond of the kid-style "Happy Birthday" bunting. (H/T Ben-o.)



And, what has John McCain had to say about his fellow Republican cavorting with the Nazis? Read the rest of this post...

John Kerry blasts the media

And Jason Linkins has the video. It's great. More people who show up on cable news need to do this. Read the rest of this post...

It's Hillary vs. the coffee machine

Got a tip from a reader (one of our friends, Paddy who writes at Cliff Schechter's blog) that after Hillary's fake visit to the gas station, the woman-of-the-people (who as AP noted "hasn't driven a car or pumped gas in many years") decided to get herself a cup of Joe (except we hear it was a cappuccino -- she wanted the fancy stuff.) That's typically hypocritical when one of her own supporters slammed latte drinkers today while praising Hillary's "testicular fortitude."

Except, one small problem: Hillary's been in her bubble for so long, she didn't know how to work the machine. Just watch the video as Hillary tries to figure out the buttons. It's going to be a classic - watch the video here.

That's called flubbing the photo op. Read the rest of this post...

Murdoch broke 'the letter and the spirit' of WSJ agreement

Oh I am shocked. 1000000% shocked and then some. Just ask an Aussie about how great the media is now that he owns almost all of it down there. Lots of open exchanges of ideas on both sides...the right and the far right. For all of the theater that the Bancroft family delivered before selling they now look either like frauds of just plain stupid. Either works fine.

Four months after buying the Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch has been accused by a special independent committee of breaking "the letter and the spirit" of an agreement to protect editorial integrity.

A five-strong committee established as a condition of the Bancroft family's $5bn (£2.5bn) sale of the paper's Dow Jones parent company to Murdoch has complained that it was kept in the dark over the resignation of the Journal's top editor.

Committee members say they were not told until after the event about the controversial resignation last week of the managing editor, Marcus Brauchli, which has prompted fevered rumours of a rift over the direction of the paper.

Read the rest of this post...

DKos: "Hillary's serious gay problem"

DavidKC over at DailyKos takes an extensive look at Hillary's "gay problem":

In Hillary Clinton's disturbing attempt to rebrand herself as a Bible-totin', gun-slinging Annie Oakley, complete with right-wing talking points, I guess it's not surprising that gays would end up with the short end of the stick in Camp Clinton these days. Hillary has given lip service to supporting GLBT rights, but her actions over the past few months - not to mention the past few decades - have shown that Hillary is not only trying to distance herself from the gay community and GLBT issues but has done her best to use anti-gay sentiment to her advantage. There's a disturbing pattern at work here, folks, that should outrage any true Democrat who cares about equality....

Hillary's divisive race-baiting tactics alone were enough to ensure that I would never vote for her for anything, not even dog-catcher. And her gay-baiting tactics have now put her right up there with George W. Bush on the list of politicians that I can't even stand to look at. And this coming from a true blue Democrat. Nice going Hillary.

Read the rest of this post...

AP calls Clinton on fake visit to gas station

When you care enough to fake your compassion. From the Associated Press:

Hillary Rodham Clinton, a former first lady who hasn't driven a car or pumped gas in many years because of Secret Service restrictions, joined a blue-collar worker at a filling station Wednesday to illustrate how the high price of gasoline is squeezing consumers.

The Democratic presidential candidate and sheet metal worker Jason Wilfing, 33, pulled into the station in a large white Ford 250 pickup truck, Clinton riding shotgun. Never mind that it wasn't even Wilfing's truck — he had borrowed his boss's larger vehicle to accommodate Clinton's security agent and personal assistant, who rode in the back.

Trailing Wilfing and Clinton was a Secret Service motorcade consisting of six gas-guzzling Suburbans, two squad cars and a green SUV bearing photographers and TV cameras. Several other reporters and cameramen stood shivering in unseasonably cold temperatures, ready to capture the multi-vehicle arrival.

Read the rest of this post...

Eyes on the Prize

While right-wing pundits furiously try to spin Rev. Wright's comments as speaking for anyone other than Rev. Wright, it's vital that progressive observers and commentators remember that their machine will do anything -- anything -- to confuse people and divert attention from the failures of conservative governance. On the economy, on values, on social policy, and, perhaps most of all given the current situation in Iraq, on foreign affairs.

Our policies in Iraq -- not to mention places like Pakistan, Indonesia, Somalia, Iran, North Korea -- make America and the world a more dangerous place. Expert upon expert and report after report say so, and they're correct. The right wing wants to tie this common-sense argument to controversial figures so they can marginalize ideas along with individuals, and it's a smear tactic that can be devastating if people don't stand up and identify it for what it is. They're not making substantive critiques, they're using the politics of destruction and distraction.

After five years of war in Iraq, with constant reports coming out about letting terrorists escape in Afghanistan, failing to support non-proliferation in Pakistan, and neglecting the peace process while simultaneously inflaming countries in the Middle East, America will not be fooled by conservative claims that the US is doing just fine in foreign policy. Obviously our mistakes, historical and recent, do not justify the unacceptable and unforgivable targeting of civilians by terrorist actions, and people understand that -- so when right-wing talking heads try to paint a position shared by the majority of Americans as soft on terror, or self-hating, or some other such slander, they do so because they have no ideas about how to improve our country's security other than to lash out (preferably at the wrong people and places, it seems). Wanting to improve our foreign policy -- and our nation more generally -- isn't a lack of patriotism, but rather its highest form.

I don't believe it's in the American character to bully, and I mean that in terms of macro policies as well as in the micro political sense. But there will always be bullies, and they won't fight fair. We preserve our dignity and our ideology by pushing back strongly and honestly, and we can't sell out our ideas simply because they are sometimes adopted and warped by individuals who occasionally find themselves with a megaphone. The media won't help us, of course; nothing gets the media giddy like a lefty who doesn't "properly" self-censor. But we can't be distracted, we can't accept the right when it frames mainstream ideas through controversial individuals, and we must constantly remind Americans -- as well as ourselves -- that the country is moving steadily in our direction, even (perhaps especially) on difficult, personal, emotional issues. And in that evolving discussion and political movement, we must not let others tell us what we believe. We're right on foreign policy, on education, on health care, on jobs, on individual rights, on the environment, and more. We shouldn't let anyone turn those ideas into caricature, and we damn sure shouldn't caricature ourselves in response to smears and lies. Read the rest of this post...

Progressive DC group, with some ties to Clintons, behind robo-calls that are "potentially disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters" in NC

Yesterday, I wrote a post about what I called "a big story developing in North Carolina." Progressive South, in a recommended diary at DailyKos, reported that African-American households were receiving deceptive phone calls about voting -- and that similar calls had taken place in several other states.

There's more today. I am really trying to get my head around this latest bombshell from Chris Kromm from Facing South in another recommended post at Daily Kos exposing who is behind the calls in North Carolina:

Who's behind the mysterious "robo-calls" that have spread misleading voter information and sown confusion and frustration among North Carolina residents over the last week?

Facing South has confirmed the source of the calls, and the mastermind is Women's Voices Women Vote, a D.C.-based nonprofit which aims to boost voting among "unmarried women voters."

What's more, Facing South has learned that the firestorm Women's Voices has ignited in North Carolina isn't the group's first brush with controversy. Women's Voices' questionable tactics have spawned thousands of voter complaints in at least 11 states and brought harsh condemnation from some election officials for their secrecy, misleading nature and likely violations of election law.

This is, to put it simply, stunning. I have to include a major segment of the post from Facing South to give context to this story:

In correspondence with North Carolina election officials, Women's Voices founder and President Page Gardner merely said that the disruptive timing was an "unfortunate coincidence" -- a strange alibi for a group with their level of resources and sophistication.

There are other questions about Women's Voices' outreach efforts. Although the group purports to be targeting "unmarried women," their calls and mailings don't fit the profile. Kevin Farmer in Durham, who first recorded the call, is a white male. Many of the recipients are African-American; Rev. Nelson Johnson, who is a married, male and African-American, reported that his house was called four times by the mysterious "Lamont Williams."

And as Farmer asks, "Why are they using a guy for the calls if the target audience is single women?"

Some have also questioned the ties between Women's Voices operatives and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton. Gardner, for example, contributed $2,500 to Clinton's HILLPAC on May 4, 2006, and in March 2005 she donated a total of $4,200 to Clinton, according to The Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org. She has not contributed to the Obama campaign, according to the database.

Women's Voices Executive Director Joe Goode worked for Bill Clinton's election campaign in 1992 as a pollster; the group's website says he was intimately involved in "development and implementation of all polling and focus groups done for the presidential primary and general election campaigns" for Clinton.

Women's Voices board member John Podesta, former Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton, donated $2,300 to Hillary Clinton on April 19, 2007, according to OpenSecrets.org. Podesta also donated $1,000 to Barack Obama in July 2004, but that was well before Obama announced his candidacy for president.

"The reports from other states are very disturbing, especially the pattern of mass confusion among targeted voters on the eve of a state's primary," Democracy North Carolina's Bob Hall tells Facing South. "These are highly skilled political operatives -- something doesn't add up. Maybe it's all well-intended and explainable. At this moment, our first priority is to stop the robo-calls and prevent the chaos and potential disenfranchisement caused by this group sending 276,000 packets of registration forms into North Carolina a few days before a heated primary election. We need their immediate cooperation."

While Hall says his group has "begged" the group to stop the mailings, Women's Voices has refused to do so -- even though the mail-in voter registration deadline for the primaries passed April 11.

State election officials say they are bracing for the deluge of confused phone calls and complaints that are sure to follow.

Wow. This isn't what anyone would have expected from Women's Voices Women Vote. It is an organization with a very specific mission of finding and engaging unmarried women in the electoral process. Something appears to have gone very wrong. I am quite sure this is not the last we hear of this.

At the start of his post, Kromm includes this note:

Please note: Women's Voices Women Vote appears to be a legitimate organization; people we respect support their work. However, we believe that the tactics revealed in our story, as well as the effect they are having on confusing and potentially disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters -- especially right before critical primaries -- are cause for deep concern and raise critical questions about ethical election practices. -- Chris

In matters like these, I defer to the people on the ground in the states who see and experience the real world impact of what DC groups do (Facing South thinks the calls are likely illegal). Why would a progressive group want to sow confusion and bear the responsibility of disenfranchising voters -- after they've been warned? Smart, savvy organizations know better than to distribute any information that will potentially confuse voters. This is very disturbing -- and it doesn't make sense.

Atrios put it best: Uh...this is pretty bad. Read the rest of this post...

FOX accepts "100 year in Iraq" McCain ad

You may have heard about the TV ad that has the Republicans flipping out. It's an ad that shows John McCain saying he's fine with us staying in Iraq another 100 years. (In fact, McCain said it was okay if we stayed in Iraq for 10,000 years). Anyway, the Republican National Committee is demanding, simply demanding, that TV stations not air the ad because they say it's not true. Of course, it is true, it just hurts. Kind of sucks that the Republicans' own in-house propaganda network has said the ad is okay. This makes it impossible for other networks to say the ad isn't fair to the Republicans, now that it has FOX's seal of approval. Here's the ad. Enjoy it again for the first time.

Read the rest of this post...

McClatchy: Clinton blasts Bush for not stopping a project her husband approved

My husband is a bad man. That's why he's now running my campaign. Read the rest of this post...

Oil heading to $125, possibly $150 per barrel

The important point that jumps out in this video exchange is that the fundamentals are there to support a steady increase in the price of oil. The world has not yet hit a price high enough to have enough of an impact on pressuring consumption. CNBC flashes a chart showing per capita oil consumption and the US numbers are not even close to anywhere else.

The Republicans and Bill Clinton made it easy for Detroit to promote gas guzzlers and energy conservation efforts were pushed to the side and labeled as kooky. The other interesting comment is when Boone Pickens - a billionaire oil trader and not a failed businessman like Bush - says "there are plenty of refineries around the world." This is from a Bush supporter and a very conservative Republican, contradicting what the GOP rolls out almost every day when giving their newest excuse for high oil prices. Bush is correct that there are no easy fixes for the problem, though blaming everyone else for problems the GOP created is just the usual "I didn't do it" spin that we've seen since the beginning. Read the rest of this post...

LA Times on Hillary and the "pansy" comment

As we wrote yesterday, North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley introduced Hillary yesterday and said that she was no "pansy." Well, the pansies weren't amused. The LA Times reports that the story made its way to the Smoking Gun and to the Drudge Report, and now the professional gays are getting involved:

We checked with the Washington headquarters of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's premier group promoting gay rights, and it already had a statement in the works.

Trevor Thomas, the group's deputy communications director, sent out this e-mail a few minutes later: "We certainly wish the governor would have chosen his words better and have expressed our disappointment to his staff.”

We've asked the Clinton campaign for a comment but, as of now, nothing has been issued.

Read the rest of this post...

Obama did the right thing. It's time for McCain to stop the race-baiting

Just read this editorial in my NY Times. It says what a lot of people are thinking. The responsibility to repudiate racism falls on all the candidates, including John McCain:

It is an injustice, a legacy of the racist threads of this nation’s history, but prominent African-Americans are regularly called upon to explain or repudiate what other black Americans have to say, while white public figures are rarely, if ever, handed that burden.

Senator John McCain has continued to embrace a prominent white supporter, Pastor John Hagee, whose bigotry matches that of Mr. Wright. Mr. McCain has not tried hard enough to stop a race-baiting commercial — complete with video of Mr. Wright — that is being run against Mr. Obama in North Carolina.

If Mr. Obama is the Democratic presidential nominee, we fear that there will be many more such commercials. And Mr. Obama will have to repudiate Mr. Wright’s outbursts many more times.

This country needs a healthy and open discussion of race. Mr. Obama’s repudiation of Mr. Wright is part of that. His opponents also have a responsibility — to repudiate the race-baiting and make sure it stops.

And, while we're at it, Hillary Clinton needs to repudiate the anti-gay slur of her top surrogate in North Carolina, which she not only witnessed, she laughed at. Or is winning the homophobe vote more important? Read the rest of this post...

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning everyone.

Six days til North Carolina and Indiana. I do have serious qualms about how long this process is taking. And, the kitchen sink thing has gone way too far. But, it is great that Democrats in almost all the states have been able to participate -- and really get to know the candidates. It'll make it all that harder for the GOP to define our eventual nominee (except when Clinton does it for them.)

So, heard any good pansy jokes lately? Read the rest of this post...

Banks increasingly stuck with their problems

This is a really interesting bit of information pulled out of the home foreclosure report that came out on Tuesday. Just another sign of how excessive the real estate market was and is even today. This suggests much more room to fall before prices even come close to stabilizing.

The numbers were pretty nasty nationwide, as expected, with activity up 23 percent quarter to quarter and 112 percent year over year.

When you break down the sub-categories, however, you find that the number of bank-owned properties is rising faster than ever before. “Typically you’ll see about 20 percent of the foreclosure filings being bank-owned,” RealtyTrac’s Rick Sharga told me in an interview this morning. “We’re getting to a point now where it’s well over 1/3 and aiming at 40 percent, so that just suggests that a lot of these homes can’t even be sold to investors at auctions – because there’s just no equity in the properties.”

Read the rest of this post...

America selling grandma's dishes to pay for gas & debt

One could definitely argue that Americans collect much too much compared to people in other wealthy countries but still, this is yet another troubling sign. Again, when are the damned Democrats going to join forces with the overwhelming majority of Americans and kick Wall Street's ass for the bailout? It may have been something exceptional but any time you change the terms, well, you change the damned terms. Wall Street received their bailout, so let's tell Wall Street how their financial free-for-all is going to change. You are Congress so start acting like it.

"This is not about downsizing. It's about needing gas money," said Nancy Baughman, founder of eBizAuctions, an online auction service she runs out of her garage in Raleigh, N.C. One former affluent customer is now unemployed and had to unload Hermes leather jackets and Versace jeans and silk shirts.

At Craigslist, which has become a kind of online flea market for the world, the number of for-sale listings has soared 70 percent since last July. In March, the number of listings more than doubled to almost 15 million from the year-ago period.

Craigslist CEO Jeff Buckmaster acknowledged the increasing popularity of selling all sort of items on the Web, but said the rate of growth is "moving above the usual trend line." He said he was amazed at the desperate tone in some ads.

Read the rest of this post...