Jon Stewart on terror-hating Peter King, an 'obvious collaborator with the IRA'

We covered the meat of this story here. But this Jon Stewart take is just too well done (and yes, he really did eat the closest thing to cotton that can be labeled "cheese"):



Let's give King a break. Maybe there are good terrorists after all; like, appropriately hued or something. What'dya think?

GP Read the rest of this post...

BREAKING: WI GOP trying to advance collective bargaining bill without Dems

UPDATE: 9:45PM: My friend on the scene says the police tell him that they've locked all the bathrooms because they don't recognize the Democrats' hearing as "official." That sounds like an unwise move, unless they want people going to bathroom in the hallways. Apparently he's at a women's restroom now, and the cops are only letting 2 women in at a time - the women are reportedly not pleased. The cops are saying something about it being "a security risk," people opening windows (I guess the cops consider the building closed, and if they don't regulate who goes into the bathrooms, anyone could slip in via a window and then walk out of the bathroom as if they were always there). Friend says the police are confused and unsure about what's going on.

UPDATE 9:39PM (all times are Eastern US): More live video from WI shot moments ago - clearly jam packed with protesters, again.



UPDATE from the Wisconsin State Journal: (You might note that we beat the local paper by two minutes in reporting that the Capitol was back open again, but who's counting.) Anyway, you can read their update here.

UPDATE: 9:16PM Dems secure hearing room, Capitol is open, people are streaming in to the building with chants of "Whose house? Our house!" And the crowds are back. Here is a video just shot literally a minute ago by a friend of mine inside. Sorry, he was holding his phone sideways and there isn't much light, but you can tell the Rotunda is full again.



UPDATE: 8:58PM WORT in Wisconsin is reporting that the police aren't letting the press into the building.

UPDATE 8:55 PM: Democrats are reportedly trying to hold some kind of hearing tonight about the current situation, so that the building will be officially "open" and the demonstrators can enter. The GOP is reportedly refusing to open the committee room for the Dems to hold their hearing, and the crowd is getting very upset. The crowds are shouting "let them in!," while the cops have reportedly shoved a few protesters. I wouldn't be surprised if the GOP is trying to force a confrontation, trying to upset the crowd in order to make things turn violent, and thus attempt to turn the public against the protesters. Otherwise, what the GOP is doing is really stupid with tempers this hot.

Please donate to PCCC's campaign to recall the state legislators supporting Governor Walker in his efforts to remove collective bargaining in the state.UPDATE 7:40 PM: An unidentified Democratic legislative aide has just told my friend at the capitol that the bill passed the committee and went right to the Senate where it passed, and the assembly will take it up tomorrow morning. The crowd reacted to the aide's announcement with chants of "general strike" and "recall." Here is a video of the crowd reacting to the news, from a cell phone so necessarily low quality:



A friend of mine just called, he's outside the committee room, the crowd is getting very angry, and the police are looking very unnerved.

I'm not sure I totally understand the math, but here you go, from the Wisconsin State Journal:

In a surprise move late Wednesday, Senate Republicans voted to move forward with the governor's controversial budget repair bill, sending the measure into a conference committee scheduled for later in the day.

Republican leaders would only say the Senate bill differed from the Assembly bill and indicated it was possible lawmakers could strip fiscal elements from the proposal and pass only the measures dealing with collective bargaining.

Such a move would allow Republicans to pass the governor's bill without the 20 Senate members needed to vote on fiscal matters. Currently 14 Democratic senators remain in Illinois, hiding out in an effort to deny the quorum and stall the vote.

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Did WI GOP break the law by ramming through collective bargaining repeal?

As follow up to earlier news that Republicans in Wisconsin are ramming through the repeal of collective bargaining rights for state employees against the will of the majority of the Wisconsin people. Milwaukee BizTimes Daily:

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) protested that he had not had a chance to even see what was in the resolution before the vote was taken.

“I need to know what was removed. I need to know that,” Barca said.

The public, the media and the Democrats were not allowed to see the resolution before the Republicans voted on it.

“This is clearly a violation of the open meetings law,” Barca yelled, as Scott Fitzgerald called for the vote and struck the gavel to adjourn the meeting.

Barca said state law requires at least 24 hours notice before a conference committee hearing can be convened.

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Is Huckabee stil for quarantining AIDS patients?

He tries to deny he ever said it, then says it again. Watch this interview from only three years ago. Read the rest of this post...

Are oil price increases all because of speculators?

It sure sounds like it. Why do we keep giving away everything to Wall Street who keeps screwing everyone? DailyFinance:

But is the current situation such an emergency? No way. After all, as I wrote last month on DailyFinance, Libya represents a mere 0.5% of U.S. oil imports, and Saudi Arabia is increasing its production to make up the difference. There has been no sudden increase in demand for oil, nor has there been a truly significant drop in supply. In fact, refineries -- which convert crude oil into gasoline and other chemicals -- are operating at a relatively low 88.4% of capacity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Institute.

So why are oil prices going up so much? Speculators.

Oil speculators using cheaply borrowed money to bet on rising oil prices and a falling dollar are playing on media-fueled fear to make big profits. The good news is that stopping those speculators would be easy: Regulators should demand higher margin requirements. By cutting off their easy ability to gamble with cheap debt, the regulators could push speculators out of the market and relieve consumers from pain at the pump.

Last time we had a huge run-up in oil prices was 2008 when oil hit $147 a barrel. When the Commodities Futures Trading Commission -- the body that's charged with keeping the trading pits honest -- investigated, it discovered that 81% of the trading volume in oil was being conducted by speculators. Put another way, businesses that actually use the oil, such as airlines, were doing just 19% of the trading. The vast majority was done by hedge funds and investment banks to make a quick buck.

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Gingrich: My patriotism made me cheat on my wives, twice

This is almost beyond belief. Newt Gingrich is now claiming that he cheated on his wives (he's had three) twice because he was just so darned patriotic.

Let's revisit Newt's adultery:

But the most notorious of them all is undoubtedly Gingrich, who ran for Congress in 1978 on the slogan, "Let Our Family Represent Your Family." (He was reportedly cheating on his first wife at the time). In 1995, an alleged mistress from that period, Anne Manning, told Vanity Fair's Gail Sheehy: "We had oral sex. He prefers that modus operandi because then he can say, 'I never slept with her.'" Gingrich obtained his first divorce in 1981, after forcing his wife, who had helped put him through graduate school, to haggle over the terms while in the hospital, as she recovered from uterine cancer surgery. In 1999, he was disgraced again, having been caught in an affair with a 33-year-old congressional aide while spearheading the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton.

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Head of lead 'ex-gay' group admits you can't change your sexual orientation

Why has the media fallen for this the past 12+ years? We've seen these phonies on the cover of Newsweek, all over the networks, and even Oprah's network covered them last night with the provocative title "Pray away the gay?" The answer is: No you can't. And even the head of the lead "ex-gay" group admits that even he couldn't change his sexual orientation.

Then why does the media keep "debating" this topic in the news? Why do the religious right groups keep claiming that you can cure homosexuality? Because it furthers their hateful, bigoted political agenda.

If they simply argued that you can try to be celibate, we'd all agree - yes, you can try to be celibate. And you'd probably be as successful as a Catholic priest. But celibacy isn't exactly a winning issue when you're trying to stop gays from getting their civil rights. The notion that gays can "change," however, and that their gayness is simply a "choice," now that's a home run if you're trying to take away the civil rights of a group of millions of Americans.

I'm just still amazed that these "ex-gay" groups have been admitting, for at least ten years that I've been following them, that they are not "ex-gay," and they can't cure you from being gay. Yet the religious right hate groups continue to lie about it, and the media continues to cover the story like it's not quite yet decided.

When the guy running the lead group on the far right agrees with the gays that you can't change your sexual orientation, then the issue is decided. Enough already.

Speaking of which, then why did Apple just permit the "ex-gays" to have their very own iPhone app, targeted in part at children, to help spread this lie? And Apple put no age restrictions at all on the app - though, let's be honest, Apple won't even permit racist and anti-Semitic apps (nor should they), so it's not as if an "age limit" would really fix the problem here. What's at issue is why Apple has a double standard for its own non-discrimination policies - why their gay protections just aren't as stringent as their protections for other minorities. Read the rest of this post...

Washington Post's David Broder dead at 81

From the Washington Post:

David S. Broder, 81, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post and one of the most respected writers on national politics for four decades, died Wednesday at Capital Hospice in Arlington of complications from diabetes.

Mr. Broder was often called the dean of the Washington press corps - a nickname he earned in his late 30s in part for the clarity of his political analysis and the influence he wielded as a perceptive thinker on political trends in his books, articles and television appearances.

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Maddow: Michigan's governor wants the power to auction off its towns to corporations

Rachel Maddow and Naomi Klein present the Billionaires' Coup in action: Take control of a state, then just auction it off.

Seriously:



The Teabag-enabled plan in Michigan: Use the budget to starve cities and towns, then put in an "emergency town manager" who could (1) kill any contract the town entered into AND (2) dismiss elected officials AND (3) "disincorporate" the town itself. Oh, and the emergency manager can be a corporation. (Imagine the bribing for that contract!)

In other words, this wave of "Teabag" governors (really Movement Conservatives with a Teabag cover story) is enacting before our eyes the entire Conservative cadre-revolution agenda.

Cadre revolution — Take control of an organization at the top. Destroy it from the inside by putting your people in key positions. Then either loot it mafia-style, or remake it for an entirely different purpose. Lenin's cadre of Bolsheviks did not topple the Czar; they toppled the Mensheviks, who toppled the Czar. The Bolsheviks were part of the Menshevik coalition.

This is the Movement Conservative project. It's about the revolutionary take-over of, well, the country. It's been operating since the Lewis Powell memorandum and similar documents (see David Brock's The Republican Noise Machine for all the goods).

You could even argue that that movement's been hijacked, by the plutocrats, the very very rich. Control has certainly been centralized into a few hands — hedge fund managers; CEOs as a class; and maybe a dozen billionaires, maybe less. The Billionaires' Coup, as Frank Rich so aptly calls it.

And now Movement's goals are out in the open. Hybris might sink them yet. Thanks to Maddow and Naomi Klein for this clear presentation.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Georgia GOP raises taxes on Girl Scout cookies while cutting corporate taxes

First off, how is it possible to have a budget problem in Georgia? It's not a big union state and it's been heavily Republican for years. Sounds a lot like Texas. What happened? That issue aside, who slams taxes on the Girl Scouts while handing over tax breaks to corporations? A tax on grandmothers, apple pie and hot dogs can't be far off. More on the story from ThinkProgress. Read the rest of this post...

What part did the NPR guy get wrong? The Tea Party is racist, and too many Americans are uneducated.

The latest hysterical charge from the oppressed far right is about a former NPR exec (though it's not clear he really was) who they tricked into expressing his political beliefs on camera. The right is claiming his comments about the Tea Party, and America at large, are so bad that NPR should be defunded. Really? What exactly is there to disagree with in these comments?

The two actors clearly goad Schiller into making observations, most of which are made after Schiller explicitly takes off his "NPR hat" to give his personal opinion. For example, Schiller says there aren't enough "educated, so-called elite" Americans, adding that public opinion is driven by "this very large uneducated part of the population."

Of tea partyers, he adds: "I mean, basically they ... believe in sort of white, middle-America, gun-toting. I mean, it's scary. They're seriously racist, racist people."

He's right on both counts. Just look at the polls of how many FOX News viewers believe we found WMD in Iraq. I'd call that large and uneducated.

And Google "tea party" and "racism" - then sit back, grab a cup of coffee, and do a lot of reading from a lot of mainstream news outfits about the Tea Party's racism problem.

As for this coming at a bad time for NPR, news flash folks. The GOP is going to call you Socialist and try to defund you regardless of what you do. And if they don't have a seriously redacted video to try to frame you, they'll just make something up. Democrats, and NPR, need to realize that regardless of what they do, the Republicans will attack. It's time to fight back.

PS How much you want to be the unedited video exonerates the NPR guy? Read the rest of this post...

GOP Rep. King and his outspoken support for terrorism problem

Bashing Muslims is quite popular these days in GOP circles so it's hardly a surprise that they have organized a hearing on the supposed radicalization of Muslims in the US. What is more surprising though is that it's Representative Peter King who is leading the charge. King's outspoken support for the terrorist IRA is well documented. Even today he doesn't deny it and has no regrets about supporting the terrorist group. His dismissal of the deadly effects of bombings is certainly unusual for someone who is supposed to be against terrorism. NY Times:

“We must pledge ourselves to support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry,” Mr. King told a pro-I.R.A. rally on Long Island, where he was serving as Nassau County comptroller, in 1982. Three years later he declared, “If civilians are killed in an attack on a military installation, it is certainly regrettable, but I will not morally blame the I.R.A. for it.”

As Mr. King, a Republican, rose as a Long Island politician in the 1980s, benefiting from strong Irish-American support, the I.R.A. was carrying out a bloody campaign of bombing and sniping, targeting the British Army, Protestant paramilitaries and sometimes pubs and other civilian gathering spots. His statements, along with his close ties to key figures in the military and political wings of the I.R.A., drew the attention of British and American authorities.

A judge in Belfast threw him out of an I.R.A. murder trial, calling him an “obvious collaborator,” said Ed Moloney, an Irish journalist and author of “A Secret History of the I.R.A.” In 1984, Mr. King complained that the Secret Service had investigated him as a “security risk,” Mr. Moloney said.

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No-fly over Libya inches closer to reality

The no-fly over Iraq was one of the previous policies that worked well. The neocons would have none of it since it wasn't an invasion and of course, they eventually got their way. There may be a temptation by some for more than a no-fly but the rest has to be left to the Libyan people on the ground. At the moment, it's still in the hands of the UN but preparation has started.

Clinton told Sky News: "We think it's important that the United Nations make this decision, not the United States, and so far the United Nations has not done that.

"I think it's very important that this not be a US-led effort, because this comes from the people of Libya themselves, this doesn't come from the outside, this doesn't come from, you know, some western power, or some Gulf country saying, 'this is what you should do, this is how you should live'."

Nato has launched 24-hour air and sea surveillance of Libya as a possible precursor to a no-fly zone, amid signs of growing Arab support for western military intervention to stop the bombing of civilians.

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$25 million in jewels found in Paris sewer

Unfortunately they're not being given away the way the city gives away sparkling water. The Guardian:

The items were stolen during a 2008 heist from luxury jeweller Harry Winston's boutique in the capital.

Nineteen rings and three sets of earrings, including one pair valued at £14m, were dug up from a drain at a house in the working-class suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, according to police. The house belonged to one of the nine people charged over the robbery. The jewels were hidden in a plastic container set in a cement mould inside the sewer.

The robbery netted the thieves, some of whom were dressed as women, bejewelled watches worth about £61m.

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Report: Yemen police shoot at least 75 pro-democracy protesters

Others are reporting many more, but either way, this is bad. Al Jazeera:

Security forces in Yemen have opened fire on peaceful protesters in the capital Sanaa on Tuesday, wounding at least 75 people demonstrating for an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 32-year rule.

Three of the wounded were in a serious condition, according to medical sources.

Policemen and security agents in civilian clothes opened fire as they tried to prevent people from joining thousands of
protesters who have camped out for weeks in front of Sanaa University, the epicentre of the demonstrations.

Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from the capital Sanaa, said the security forces were "clearly given orders to disperse the crowd."

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