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Taylor Marsh has been writing on line since 1996, with the archives provided here a representation of that work.

Archive | March, 2011

The Japan Syndrome

By on 12 March 2011

**UPDATED**

IWAKI, Japan AP (Mar 12, 10:42 PM EST) — A partial meltdown was likely under way at a second nuclear reactor, a top Japanese official said Sunday, as authorities frantically tried to prevent a similar threat from nearby unit following a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami. Some 170,000 people have been ordered to evacuate the area covering a radius of 12 miles (20 kilometers) around the plant in Fukushima near Iwaki.



There are 55 nuclear reactors inside Japan. Reuters reports no repeat of Chernobyl disaster in Japan.

However, under a heading of “red alert,” Stratfor is reporting a nuclear meltdown.

At this point, events in Japan bear many similarities to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Reports indicate that up to 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) of the reactor fuel was exposed. The reactor fuel appears to have at least partially melted, and the subsequent explosion has shattered the walls and roof of the containment vessel — and likely the remaining useful parts of the control and coolant systems.

We simply do not know the full story yet, because it’s still playing out.

I was living in New York City when the Three Mile Island catastrophe occurred. It was harrowing to hear the news reports, which resulted in demonstrations and a public outcry. It’s a good time to remember it now.

Pres. Clinton said that he remains skeptical about nuclear power (at the same time making inappropriate and wrong statements about oil drilling). Plants are expensive to build and also take a long time. Clinton didn’t address the saftey issue, which we’re seeing play out in Japan.

From Tokyo, via the New York Times:

An explosion at a crippled nuclear power plant in northern Japan on Saturday blew the roof off one building and caused a radiation leak of unspecified proportions, escalating the emergency confronting Japan’s government a day after an earthquake and tsunami devastated parts of the country’s northeastern coast.

Japanese television showed a cloud of white-gray smoke from the explosion billowing up from a stricken reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Saturday afternoon, and officials said leaks of radiation from the plant prompted them to expand the evacuation area around the facility to a 12-mile radius.

We still don’t have a solution for nuclear waste either. The Right doesn’t care, with Pres. Obama being too nonchalant about nuclear energy and a friend to that industry for some time. Nevadans came very close to having to live with the unknowns of Yucca Mountain, because ignoramuses in Congress wanted a dumping site. That many were content to have trucks filled with contaminated waste drive through poorer areas to get it to Nevada revealed the bankruptcy of the safety plan, with Yucca itself a disaster waiting to happen, which thankfully didn’t.

The BBC is also reporting a nuclear leak.

There are many aspects to making nuclear power safe, but there is also the argument that in the 21st century renewable energy and environmental sound energy policy is a better way to go, because a nuclear disaster is something from which there is no full recovery.


Graphic from the BBC.

UPDATE (11:25 EST): A site called World Nuclear News has some interesting details what’s happened with Japan’s nuclear facilities that were damaged in the earthquake.

Originally posted at 12 pm EST.

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Progressive Notes: Of Cookies and Cents.

By on 12 March 2011

Texan4Hillary offers his perspective as a movement progressive activist.

I titled this post “Of Cookies and Cents.” Why? Well, let us first talk about some great cookies, Girl Scout Cookies. One of the great American treats sold by one of our greatest organizations for young women is under attack. By whom? The Tea folks, but this time tea and cookies do not mix.

The Georgia G.O.P. controlled statehouse is moving to tax Girl Scout Cookies. Can we say overreach? Look at their unprogressive and immoral tax plan: they want to reimpose taxes on food and lower taxes on corporations. So the head of the Girl Scouts, in the middle of cookie selling season, speaks up on how detrimental this “cookie tax” will be:

Marilyn Midyette, the CEO of Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta, sent an email to supporters warning them that the new tax on their cookies “would take money away from Girl Scout programs“:

This significant financial impact would take money away from Girl Scout programs, camp support, financial aid and proceeds from the sale that support troop activities and community service projects.

…[P]lease contact your State House Representative and State Senator TODAY and express your concern in a courteous, Scout-like manner about our Scouts being taxed. Please reference House Bill 385. Sample letters have been provided on the left to make it easy to copy and paste into your own email. There are sample letters for girls as well as for parents and volunteers. …

As the Right moves to destroy social programs, tax Girl Scout cookies, undo unions, pass anti-abortion laws with fetuses giving testimony, and anything else un-job related we have some Dems speaking cents. I mean sense that is.

Kudos to Senator Schumer for once again presenting a progressive plan for taxes and budgets:

..Schumer noted that the GOP’s plan for spending cuts does almost nothing to reduce the deficit — a fact that runs at cross-purposes to their insistence that the deficit must be reduced.

“Right now a very small, very intense ideological tail is wagging the dog over in the House of Representatives,” Schumer said. “Their fervor for spending cuts is not grounded in deficit reduction at all. Instead the far right wing has deliberately confused two separate issues. They’ve conflated reducing the deficit — which is not their true priority — with cutting government — which is.”

Schumer endorsed the approaches taken by Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, both of whom reduced or eliminated deficits by cutting discretionary spending and addressing entitlements and tax revenues. He identified achievable savings on all three flanks, including cuts to defense spending, agriculture subsidies, and a surtax on millionaires and billionaires.

“I noted with interest last week’s Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, the most popular proposal to reduce the deficit out of 23 options surveyed was a tax — a surtax — on millionaires and billionaires,” Schumer said. “It’s not only a popular thing to do, it’s the right thing to do.”

Schumer left Social Security off the table, noting that it doesn’t run into real actuarial problems for decades, and isn’t a contributor to the deficit.

That is what a sane responsible and moral budget plan sounds like folks. Schumer calls it for what it is with the G.O.P. here. The Right is not concerned about the deficit really. They want to gut New Deal and Great Society programs and undo progress. Schumer is supposed to be in charge of Senate Democratic messaging. Too bad many will ignore him here. Schumer is a Sunday talk favorite so maybe he can do some good here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJSw5NDB1Ww&feature=player_embedded

As for total nonsense Governor Kaisch’s foolhardy budget which slashes Medicaid in half, takes away union bargaining rights, and does not raise new revenue, earned a hail of boos during his state of the state address. Kasich has, like Governor Walker, earned the ire of working class folks like this tearful public servant who spoke out against Kaisch’s assault on blue collar Americans. His budget literally makes no cents. :

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Queer Talk: It’s nothing personal, of course

By on 12 March 2011

Lance Lundsten

With so very much going on the last few weeks, it’s not surprising that the news of Queerdom hasn’t reached daily national news status. It usually doesn’t, unless there’s a story about marriage or the military, with “the traditional is threatened” theme. So I decided to provide a bit of queer round-up. With a salute to that “Traditional,” I’ll start with marriage and go to military, before moving on to other things.

DADT As of the first part of this month, all military branches have moved to “Tier 3 or General Population training,” according to LezGetReal. LGR cites OutServe’s co-director, J.D. Smith, who told them that different branches of the military are handling things in different ways.

Meanwhile and consistent with its usual reporting, World Net Daily (via Equality Matters) “devoted an entire issue of its monthly Whistleblower magazine … arguing that repealing the ban on gay service will spell certain doom for the US military.”

And speaking of certain doom, House Speaker John Boehner issued a statement indicating the House will, as expected, challenge Obama’s decision to no longer enforce Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, DOMA.

In a press release, the Human Rights Campaign said the vote in the Bipartisan Leadership Advisory Group was 3-2, with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) voting against the action. According to HRC, “With at least nine cases challenging the constitutionality of DOMA, spanning three appellate courts and four district courts in six states, today’s vote sets up an expansive and expensive undertaking.”

Via a GetEQUAL press release, and Joe Sudbay, at AmericaBlog: Five Ohio residents, GetEQUAL activists, went to Boehner’s West Chester, OH, office, to deliver a petition demanding tax-payer money not be spent on defense of DOMA. The office personnel wouldn’t take the petition, so the activists sat down and started reading the names of those who signed. They were arrested. Silly homosexual constituents, thinking they should be able to express their concerns to their Elected.

In the meantime, DOMA is, of course, still the law. So, via the Mercury News: “The Justice Department says a lesbian federal employee should still be denied permission to add her wife to her health insurance despite the Obama administration’s refusal to defend a federal law banning recognition of same-sex marriages.”

Marriage was also on the minds of state legislators. In Maryland, before the start of a debate on the “Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Act,” Minority Leader Nancy Jacobs, a Republican leading opposition to a marriage equality bill, expressed, as Timothy Beauchamp at AmericaBlog put it, “a desire for the debate to be civil.” He quotes Jacobs as saying, “We all love our gay friends in the House and the Senate. I hope and pray that this does not get personal and does not get taken personally.”

I wonder if Maryland traditional marriage proponent Karen Wingard meant this “personally”? Via Sudbay: “Marriage is so foundational to society. We don’t just lay eggs and abandon them. Our children need to be raised by a mother and father. We’ve become so very confused in our understanding about sexuality that we can’t see what should be obvious.”

Personally, I can agree with the “confused” part.

Yesterday, March 11, in Maryland, Equality Maryland, via Sudbay:

After lengthy debate and support from thousands of Marylanders from all over the state, the House of Delegates recommitted the Civil Marriage Protection Act to committee. … We celebrate that-for the first time-marriage equality legislation made it through the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, the Senate, the House Judiciary Committee, and was debated in the House of Delegates.

In New Hampshire, via Keen, “the House Judiciary Committee voted March 3 to table a bill that seeks to repeal the state’s existing marriage equality law.” The repeal can’t be considered again until 2012, but opponents say they will seek to put the question on the November 2012 ballot.

Ah yes, another chance to determine equality by popular vote.

Via Equality Matters, the Rhode Island State House Judiciary Committee is considering legislation that would legalize same gender marriage, as the Senate Panel debates its version of the bill.

Bullying is another topic of discussions, with some hopeful steps, and some incidents that make clear why those steps are needed. The Human Rights Campaign and the National Education Association applauded the reintroduction in the Senate of the “Safe Schools Improvement Act Legislation” this past week. From a press release:

According to a 2009 School Climate Survey by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, 8 out of 10 LGBT youth reported being verbally harassed at school because of their sexual orientation; more than 60 percent of LGBT students said they felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation and more than a third of LGBT students felt unsafe because of their gender expression; 40 percent of LGBT students reported being physically harassed in school because of their sexual orientation; and nearly one-third of LGBT students nationwide said they had missed a day of school in the past month because of feeling unsafe.

Also this past week, the White House Conference on Bully Prevention took place. Via Sudbay, Kerry Eleveld, from the conference, tweeted: “Dan Savage finds #whbullyconf ‘distressing.’ Potus mentions LGBTs 2x, but no gay breakout sessions, no talk of antigay relig/parent bullying.” Other reports I read seemed more focused on the possible benefits.

If the School Climate Survey data is a bit dry, three stories to personalize the numbers.

First, from Change.org, a victory. “Corpus Christi, Texas High School Allows Gay-Straight Alliance on Campus.” Student Bianca “Nikki” Peet had requested to start a GSA, was refused, kept working, gained supporters, and school board members reversed the earlier decision.

Timothy Kincaid, at Box Turtle Bulletin, has closely followed a story in Jefferson, Texas.

On Saturday, January 15, 2011, openly gay 18 year-old high school student Lance Lundsten died. Fellow students reported that Lance was openly gay and subjected to bullying at school and expressed their sadness and their wish that some adult had protected him. …

Jefferson High School, where Lance was subjected to homophobic bullying, has no gay-straight alliance, has no inclusive anti-discrimination policy, and no acknowledgment of the existence of students like Lance or any provisions to address their need or concerns. The school superintendent Terry Quist issued a statement that not only refused to consider that bullying could have played a part, but chastised and criticized Lance’s friends for suggesting that Lance’s death may have been at his own hand and due in part to bullying ….

Eventually the school, local paper, community, and apparently Lance’s own father, were forced to rethink things. The toxicology report made it clear that the young man’s death was not, as they were claiming, the unfortunate result of an “enlarged heart.”

Kincaid writes:

Dr. Mark Spanbauer confirmed Monday, March 7, that the teen’s manner of death was ruled suicide. The toxicology report from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and MEDTOX, determined the cause of death to be a mixed drug ingestion….

Finally, a random list of other queer related happenings:

Topeka, Kansas: State Rep. Jan Pauls (D) and Lance Kinzer (R) were successful in keeping the “criminalization of gay and lesbian relationships on the books.”

GetEQUAL provides this from Maryland, “The Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act was introduced in the 2011 Maryland legislative session. … HB 235 … would prohibit discrimination in the areas of employment, housing, and credit.”

Via Bilerico: In Hawaii, Sabrina McKennan, “openly lesbian,” was appointed to the state Supreme Court, She joins three other such “openly gay” justices on state supreme courts, two in Oregon and one in Colorado.

Finally, this from John Aravosis :

Pardon my French, but WTF? Why does Apple require you to click some “yes I’m old enough” button when downloading gay apps on the iPhone, but when downloading “ex-gay” apps – i.e., apps built by hateful anti-gay bigots who falsely tell young impressionable children that they can pray away the gay – Apple has no restrictions at all on that app.

Queer stuff is always happening. And I take a great deal of it quite personally.

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My $0.02/Saturday: Solidarity, Sisterhood

By on 12 March 2011

Good morning, gleaners!

Grab your morning brew, and let’s go!

Wisconsin

  • It’s farmer-labor day today at the WI Capitol building, starting at noon, complete with a “tractorcade.”

Hillaryland

(second link will take you to an AFP report on Hillary’s remarks at Friday’s Women in the World conference in NY. See also her remarks at the 2011 Women of Courage event for more.)

  • This week–on International Women’s day no less–our advocate-in-chief helped to launch a Global Partnership on Maternal and Child Health, bringing a long-neglected development goal further out of the shadows. Brava, Madam Secretary!

(see also Hillary’s 100 Women Initiative. If you don’t know what it is, click and find out.)

— Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, introducing the president of Kyrgyzstan at a State Department event.

Women’s Rights

  • See here for RH Reality Check’s exhaustive coverage of the latest developments from yesterday. Also, Minkoff Minx wrote to her Georgia state representative, Stephen Allison (R-8) and received a letter from Rep. Allison that you might find of interest. Scroll to the end of the post to see it.
  • My $0.02 on Allison’s response: The excuse that the most draconian of these bills will never pass is baloney. The rise of mini-Stupaks in states across the country has built up a momentum in the war against women, and that momentum is helping to get other horrible versions of these bills passed. Furthermore, the preponderance of such nonsense legislation clearly indicates a concerted effort to use women and their civil rights as a tool of division and distraction from the economy, degrading those rights in the process and blocking unfettered access to reproductive healthcare for women–all women. The rich will get their safe abortions on demand one way or another, and we all know it.

Tired of hearing about Charlie Sheen?

Economy

  • Bernie Sanders introduces The Emergency Deficit Reduction Act. Sanders’ press release says the bill would a) create a 5.4% surtax on millionaires, yielding up to $50 billion annually for the US Treasury, and b) end tax breaks for Big Oil, yielding about $3.5 billion a year in new revenue. Thank you, Bernie Sanders!

CLICK TO GO TO ECONOMIX

US Politics: 2012

  • US News & World Report says wedge issues are back just in time for the 2012 electoral cycle. In other news… Water? Yep, wet as ever. (When did wedge issues ever leave?)
  • Here’s a derivative piece if ever there was one… Cameron Lynch says Barack Obama is the “Surprisingly Silent President.” This echoes Ruth Marcus last week suddenly discovering that Obama is the “Where’s Waldo” president. Obama told America who he was from 2004 to 2008. The creative clueless class was too busy chattering away and creating “a different kind of politician” narrative to take note that Obama was telegraphing very clearly that he would make an indifferent kind of president.

Civil Liberties

King hearings

  • Adam Serwer (via the American Prospect) has an important read up that puts it all in perspective… Good Cop, Bad Cop: “On counterterrorism, the only difference between Republicans and Obama is rhetorical.”

Disaster in Japan and Elsewhere

(Also, Crowley confirmed his comments about Manning to The Cable:”What I said was my personal opinion. It does not reflect an official USG policy position. I defer to the Department of Defense regarding the treatment of Bradley Manning.”)

  • See the NYT’s photojournalism blog — Lens — for dramatic shots of the devastation from the 8.9 quake and tsunami in Japan, as well as other harrowing pictures from around the world yesterday, that tell the story of tragedy and strife.

Environment

  • “The way humanity manages or mismanages its nature-based assets, including pollinators, will in part define our collective future in the 21st century. Human beings have fabricated the illusion that in the 21st century they have the technological prowess to be independent of nature. Bees underline the reality that we are more, not less dependent on nature’s services in a world of close to seven billion people.”

–Achim Steiner, the executive director of UN Environment Programme

This Day in History (March 12)

  • First fireside chat: “It is your problem no less than it is mine. Together we cannot fail.” –FDR, 1933 (even FDR sounds like he’s saying Solidarity forever!)

What Kind of Liberal are You?

  • Take the quiz. I’m a “Working Class Warrior.” How about you?
  • I mostly linked to this silly quiz so I could share this priceless bumper sticker quote from the first question: “May the fetus you save be gay.”

Song of Protest for Saturday

Extra verse added to the PPM version: “Show me the famine, show me the frail, eyes with no future that show how we failed, and I’ll show you the children with so many reasons why there but for fortune, go you or I.”

I’m turning the Saturday reads over to you in the comments… Take the quiz and let us know how you score, share a song, link us to what’s on your blogging list this weekend…and have a great day!

[originally posted at Let Them Listen; crossposted at Sky Dancing and Liberal Rapture]

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Another Reason It’s Good Palin’s Man Lost

By on 11 March 2011

Sen. Lisa Murkowski has come out to oppose defunding Planned Parenthood:

… Murkowski wrote in a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Vice Chairman Thad Cochran (R-Miss.). “I ask you to consider these programs going forward to determine if there is room for allowing continued funding.”

[...] “I do believe that Planned Parenthood provides vital services to those in need and disagree with its funding cuts contained in the H.R. 1 package,” she wrote in a Friday e-mail, obtained by POLITICO. “From 2002-2008, Planned Parenthood received $342 million in federal taxpayer money through Title X funding alone. With these funds, Planned Parenthood has provided women throughout the U.S. with important family planning and contraceptive services as well as screening for breast and cervical cancers for low-income women. I believe it is important that Title X organizations continue to receive funding. In Alaska, this includes five centers — two health department clinics, two Planned Parenthood clinics in Sitka and Soldotna and one independent clinic.”

That makes at least one sane person on the Right. It’s not surprising it’s a woman.

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Dual Sides of Anthony Weiner

By on 11 March 2011

The good Anthony Weiner slams Justice Clarence Thomas for his obvious conflict of interest on health care:


The bad Anthony Weiner had the chuzpah last week to say there was “no occupation” in the West Bank.

Rep. Weiner could use this map.

Not sure which Anthony Weiner would show up if he runs for New York City mayor.

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Republicans Make Women Slaves to Dying Fetus

By on 11 March 2011

There really is no way to soften the blow on this story. It’s playing out across the country under the guidance of the Right. I won’t write “religious Right,” because there is nothing remotely “Christian,” spiritual or righteous about the war they’re waging against women.

Think Progress has the harrowing video of a couple who were forced to do just that.

In Nebraska, one law already in existence heaped needless trauma on a mother’s tragedy. Thirty-four-year-old Danielle Deaver was 23 weeks pregnant when she faced a fate “worse than your own death” — her baby would not make it. Her water broke early and, without amniotic fluid, the fetus would not develop lungs to survive outside the womb. Deaver and her husband decided they wanted to let “nature take it’s course” and would not risk harming the child further, so they asked their doctor to help “put an end to this nightmare.”

But because of Nebraska’s law prohibiting any abortion after 20 weeks, the doctor could not assist or he would “face criminal charges, jail time, and lose his medical license.” Her doctors told her “she’d just have to wait.” So she did, in “torture,” and gave birth to Elizabeth at 3pm, watched her gasp for breath, and then watched her die at 3:15pm on December 8, 2010. “The outcome of my pregnancy, that choice was made by God,” said Deaver, but “how to handle the end of my pregnancy, that choice should’ve been mine.”

Oklahoma now bans all abortions after 20 weeks.

Oregon, Minnesota, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Florida, my home state of Missouri, and Ohio just might hop on the bandwagon to force women to deliver fetuses, even when they’re already dying. Thirty-one states and counting…

The Right thinks a fetus “can feel pain.” However, they don’t believe women do.

The Right’s war on women goes on.

This column has been updated.

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Massive 8.9 Earthquake, Tsunami Hit Japan

By on 11 March 2011

[6:09 a.m. ET, 8:09 p.m. Tokyo] Officials fear that waves from a tsunami caused by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Japan could be so high that they wash over entire islands in the Pacific, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Friday. – CNN

The BBC has live coverage.

CNN has live coverage as well, which is updated continually, as does TheLede, which is always great.

From Pres. Obama:

“Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the people of Japan, particularly those who have lost loved ones in the earthquake and tsunamis. The United States stands ready to help the Japanese people in this time of great trial. The friendship and alliance between our two nations is unshakeable, and only strengthens our resolve to stand with the people of Japan as they overcome this tragedy. We will continue to closely monitor tsunamis around Japan and the Pacific going forward and we are asking all our citizens in the affected region to listen to their state and local officials as I have instructed FEMA to be ready to assist Hawaii and the rest of the US states and territories that could be affected.” – Pres. Obama

UPDATE 3: Japan declares emergency at nuclear power plant. For the idiots out there from Obama to Palin who think the U.S. should double down on this “cheap” form of energy.

UPDATE 2: Latest from Stars & Stripes on troop reaction, including full report on impact in region and impacted areas. Amazing picture at the link when tsunami hit.

UPDATE: Hearing north Oregon coast is being evacuated. More on my Tumblr post.





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Sect. Clinton: Aiding Afghan Women/Girls Remain Essential

By on 11 March 2011

“We believe strongly that supporting women and girls is essential to building democracy and security,” she said. – Clinton: U.S. will keep helping Afghan women

The fatigue in this country over Afghanistan runs wide and deep and for good reasons.

News that NATO has inadvertently killed Pres. Karzai’s cousin will undoubtedly cause further uproar inside the country where civilian deaths continue to climb.

On Sunday an Obama administration official, one obviously not as interested in human rights as women’s rights, revealed one side of the boys’ club mentality inside the White House fish bowl, through a Washington Post story that got absolutely no traction whatsoever, except around here. This “senior official” saying the U.S. couldn’t get caught continuing to help women, which was reduced to a ’special interest and pet project… pet rocks in our rucksack’ by the official.

Sect. Clinton responded, while not taking on the new developments in two USAID agencies, which has removed gender-equity provisions in U.S. Agency for International Development programs.

Clinton told a House panel that the U.S. commitment to Afghan women remains undiminished and that the United States is “currently providing more support than at any time in our government’s history” for education, health-care and political empowerment programs.

[...] Clinton spoke in response to a question from Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) about a Washington Post article on Sunday that described how specific requirements aimed at assisting women were stripped from two USAID programs in Afghanistan, one focused on land reform and the other on municipal governance. The article also quoted a senior U.S. government official as saying that “gender issues are going to have to take a back seat to other priorities.”

“This is, quite frankly, unacceptable,” Lowey said. “Any progress we’ve made in Afghanistan with regard to women’s rights will be quickly rolled back by the [Afghan] government and others if we do not continue to emphasize the importance of gender equality.”

Clinton’s fight to continue helping women and girls is a central tenet of her belief in diplomacy’s range, but also that it must be part of the foundation of U.S. foreign policy. On this no one is more committed.

Considering the comment leaked from a “senior official” of the Administration, as well as USAID’s move, there are others with power inside the Obama circle who do not share this belief in a war that’s dragging on and will take us 10 more years out.

It’s also not certain that if the American people were given the choice they’d agree with Clinton.

How long this policy will last if Sect. Clinton decides to leave State, which she has hinted will happen before Obama’s potential second term, is an issue as well.

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Trumka Thanks Walker, Republicans Reeling

By on 10 March 2011

“We probably should have invited him here today to receive the Mobilizer of the Year Award.” – Richard Trumka

Today on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show he admitted Republicans lost the “headline war” in Wisconsin. That’s an understatement.

Greg Sargent writes that a recent poll reveals majorities support two Republican senators, Dan Kapanke and Randy Hopper, being recalled.

Republican overreach and bad faith has also resulted in huge fundraising for the Left, including MoveOn.org, which raised $350,000, which makes the total for recall $850,000. From Politico:

Combined with last night’s take, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America have raised $750,000 since the standoff in Wisconsin began for a television campaign against GOP state senators facing recall elections.

“After what they pulled last night, these Republican senators are toast. The energy on the ground is higher than it’s ever been — and our ads are providing the air cover, making clear to local Wisconsinites that the Republican class warfare on behalf of big corporations against working families has got to end,” said PCCC’s Adam Green. DFA’s Charles Chamberlain said “Republicans have awoken a sleeping giant.”

Last night on Sean Hannity’s fact free Fox show, Ann Coulter had him sputtering to get a word in edge wise as she eviscerated Republicans in Wisconsin, particularly Scott Walker. Coulter said that before Walker got punk’d in the Koch call she’s pegged him for vice presidential material, but not anymore.

Then Coulter practically screamed, If this was Chris Christie he’d be on the air every night! There’s no doubt about it.

I’d like to see a debate between Christie and Trumka. Perhaps we could even get Michael “Let’s get ready to rumble” Buffer to call it to order.

RICHARD TRUMKA: Of course, but you have to have quality employees.

Take John Kasich. He says everybody has to share. When he came in, he gave his senior staff a 30 percent increase in wages, and then he turns around to public employees and says, now, I want to strip you, not only of the pensions you have been promised and the health care that you have been promised, but I want to take away your ability to negotiate for those.

Look, in a modern society, in a global economy, the companies that succeed are the companies that sit down with their employees, and they say, we have a problem. Let’s solve it. The old way of doing things, the Kasich way, the Walker way, is saying, employees, you have nothing to offer. Shut up and sit down and accept what we give you.

And the last point I would make about that, Judy, is that, remember something. Public employees are taxpayers as well.

(via PBS)

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No Longer the People’s House

By on 10 March 2011

**UPDATED**

Ahead of his controversial hearing Thursday on the “radicalization” of American Muslims, Rep. Peter King is revealing that he has been under police protection for months because of an overseas threat against him. The New York Republican has since December had around-the-clock security provided by the New York Police Department and Nassau County police, he confirmed to POLITICO Thursday morning. – Politico

If this country still had leaders of courage, Rep. King would have begun his Muslim McCarthyism today without a single member of the House beside him. In announcing the hearings it’s as if Mr. King got what he wanted, with threats against himself rising, as if to prove his point.

As Rep. Keith Ellison hinted today, this hearing could potentially put America in more danger and inspire more suicide bombers, and in a passionately emotional statement (seen at the end of the video above), Mr. Ellison proved the insanity and prejudice of Mr. King.

Hearings livestreaming here.

Rep. King also denied requests for members to make opening statements, shutting down any discourse that takes his McCarthyism on. Then King allowed a conservative Republican from Virginia to speak instead. As did King, Rep. Frank Wolf was defensive about those Muslims who were law abiding, good Americans, then went on to reveal the fishing expedition King is on, suggesting that people don’t think extremism and “homegrown terrorism” could happen in the U.S.

In his opening statement, Islamic radicalism was intoned just before Rep. Peter King invoked the coming ten-year anniversary of 9/11. However, he never once mentioned that the men involved were from Saudi Arabia, hatching their plot partially in Germany.

McCarthyism in the face of no evidence of a specific Islamist terrorist plot is no virtue.

Speaking second, after King said the trouble wasn’t neo-Nazism or any other group, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi reminded him that a white man was just charged yesterday in the attempted bombing during a parade on Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.



Kevin William Harpham, who reportedly has links to a neo-Nazi group, was arrested by FBI agents and local law enforcement Wednesday morning at his home near Addy, a community of about 1,400 people roughly 55 miles northwest of Spokane. – Seattle Times

Peter King has shamed the House of Representatives and this country.

Would Mr. King look into the radically fanatical Right who hunt doctors providing women with legal reproductive services?

Would he dare investigate militias and the over 1,000 hate groups arming because of some dread of doom dancing in their heads?

It’s also as if the domestic terrorism tragedy of Tucson didn’t happen.

Using the same tactics as McCarthy, with our representatives’ defensiveness revealing their shame, King’s witchhunt reveals the ugly American that lives in fear of their own shadow.

Rep. King’s open history of association with the I.R.A., a terrorist organization, reveals what today is really about. Unconcerned about neo-Nazis or white supremacists, even Christian radicals who hunt doctors and put women in danger, King makes it clear that Christians aren’t the same as Muslims and that we need to be on alert, watching what Muslims do.

As the Middle East discovers freedom, King can only see fear. In the shadows of what is going on in the Mideast, Rep. King’s McCarthyism reveals a horribly paranoid and bigoted turn on to a dangerous path for this country.

That it’s being allowed to happen in what is traditionally called the people’s House reveals what Republican leadership represents today. Rep. King represents the worst of America, but unfortunately has too many people behind him from the Republican Party supporting his Muslim McCarthyism, so that he can preen self-righteous duty in the face of his driving prejudice.

UPDATE 4: Sheila Jackson Lee, who was denied by King to make an opening statement, just eviscerated him and the gratuitous posters, including the one in my column above. She also stated that King’s Muslim McCarthyism is playing into Al Qaeda’s hands, while also insulting soldiers who are Muslim. It was a contentious back and forth, with Lee’s disdain for King obvious.

UPDATE 3: Carl Bernstein nails it by calling King’s hearings a “coliseum-like atmosphere of cultural warfare.” Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks calls King “un-American” and says he rejects the hearing, also stating his family is Muslim.

UPDATE 2: Politico writes today about King’s Muslim McCarthyism is “not first” and “not historic,” but forgets that neither Collins or Harman ever talked against Muslims the way Rep. King has done, which is why his prejudice on parade today, while hiding behind a hearing he pretends has no agenda, is so despicable.

UPDATE: Rep. Lundgren now drawing parallel to Nazism in German and today’s hearing, which reveals more absurdity, as the Nazis had already been proven criminals.

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Wisconsin Republicans Gut Union Power With No Dems Present

By on 09 March 2011

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

This is going to get even uglier now.

In a surprise move, Republicans moved ahead to gut public sector union power while Democrats outside state watch. From JSOnline:

The Senate – without Democrats present – abruptly voted Wednesday to eliminate almost all collective bargaining for most public workers.

The bill, which has sparked unprecedented protests and drawn international attention, now heads to the Assembly, which is to take it up at 11 a.m. Thursday. The Assembly, which like the Senate is controlled by Republicans, passed an almost identical version of the bill Feb. 25.

The new version passed the Senate 18-1 Wednesday night, with Sen. Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center) casting the no vote. There was no debate.

Legal questions abound, including what some legal analysts believe is a violation of Wisconsin’s open meeting laws, which JSOnline covers in a great piece. But for now the Democrats and unions have been neutered through this action, but given the plummeting unpopularity of Gov. Walker they will rise to fight another day.

There is something anti-democratic in what Republicans did tonight, which I believe will come back to haunt them, with recall efforts undoubtedly spiking over this stunt.

As an aside, can you imagine if Democrats had a majority that they would ever act like this to push their ideology against what the people want?

Republicans were elected in Wisconsin, pushing out great Democrats like Russ Feingold, in the midterms, but there are very few people in Wisconsin who voted for this, which includes Republicans, though you can bet the Tea Party crowd is clapping.

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David Broder, Dean of D.C. Insiders, Dies

By on 09 March 2011

Mr. Broder was an icon for the Washington Post in an era when the newspaper distinguished itself in many areas, particularly Watergate, for which Broder won a Pulitzer. The oddest label for him was that he represented the “left” side of the political dial. However, what he did most was smack Democrats, while very rarely take it to Republicans. He was the ultimate gauge of conventional wisdom.

A helpful collection of Broder’s views was compiled by FAIR back in 1994:

Also unlike his conservative counterparts in their treatment of Democrats, Broder doesn’t attack or try to discredit Republican leaders; he leans over backwards to pat them on the back. Thus, Lee Atwater, the organizer of the Willie Horton campaign of 1988 is “tough and effective” (11/25/90); George Bush, ultimately responsible for the Horton ploy, did this despite a “life-long history of tolerance and decency in racial matters” (6/9/91).

Reagan himself was repeatedly lauded for his “presidential” qualities and “national leadership of a high order,” e.g., on Grenada and in pushing through his economic program (11/4/84), and any shortcomings were “overshadowed by the grace with which he functions as chief of state in moments of national tragedy and triumph” (12/22/85).

Broder is more severe on Democrats, except those hard to distinguish from Republicans (so-called “New Democrats”). For Broder (8/14/87), those who attacked the Bork appointment were “quick-lip liberals” who “pop off in opposition.” Jerry Brown, campaigning in 1992, was attacked (2/26/92) as a “loud-voiced protest candidate” offering left-wing populism and “phony salvation.”

With Mr. Broder the Washington Post‘s “left,” it’s no wonder Democrats fared so poorly during Carter and Clinton. More from FAIR:

On issues where Broder is willing to stick his neck out, his differences with the Republicans are largely matters of style. On welfare and “family values,” Broder joined the Republican/New Democrat throng by trumpeting “the centrality of values like family stability, personal responsibility and work” — while downplaying economic conditions and racism (3/24/93). Broder strongly favored NAFTA on the ground that it represented society’s “winners” and would enlarge U.S. markets.

Broder was also extremely kind to the Reagan/Bush court appointees of the past decade, and raised no objection to the resultant ideological restructuring of the courts. Souter, for example, was “a superb choice–both substantively and politically” (7/27/90)–despite “grumbles from the political extremes.”

Except for the low-intensity Nicaraguan and Salvadoran conflicts, Broder got onto the war bandwagons of the Reagan/Bush era with enthusiasm. The Grenada invasion he found entirely justifiable based on our natural imperial rights (11/2/83): “We are old-fashioned enough to think that, even in a nuclear age, there are such things as spheres of influence and geographical areas of vital interest.”

Broder was equally keen on the Panama invasion of 1989. He criticized (1/14/90) an open letter to President Bush that called attention to the invasion’s violations of the U.N. Charter and OAS agreement, signed by “69 left-wing politicians and activists” (including former Sen. J.W. Fulbright). Broder dismissed it as “nonsense” and simply “static on the left.”

During the Gulf War, Broder exceeded himself in patriotic ardor, complaining of the Democrats’ “usual spectacle of disarray” in failing to give Bush immediate authority to fight (1/11/91), and accepting without question the administration’s false claim of an interest in a diplomatic solution to the crisis (8/19/90, 1/18/91, 4/10/91).

David Broder represented commentary that is the worst of insider Washington D.C. thinking and an elitism, a leading member of Sally Quinn’s clan, which meant he was an original member of the Clinton hater club and helped churn the anti-Clinton fervor with gusto.

Sally Quinn’s infamous “In Washington, That Letdown Feeling” captured the insider feelings about the Pres. Clinton after the Lewinsky affair broke:

“He came in here and he trashed the place,” says Washington Post columnist David Broder, “and it’s not his place.”

[...] “The judgment is harsher in Washington,” says The Post’s Broder. “We don’t like being lied to.”

Nothing annoyed the Washington elite more than the hicks from the sticks, Bill and Hillary Clinton. After Ronald Reagan, the Arkansans were see as interlopers. To understand Washington that’s where you have to begin.

Broder turned Pres. Clinton’s moral failings inside out and made it all about them, the D.C. community who considered Washington a small town. That’s true if you consider the gossip and petty political spitefulness of the chroniclers who hid John F. Kennedy’s indiscretions, but thought Clinton should be hung by the Washington Monument.

The passing of a Washington icon like Mr. Broder signals those who held court in the 20th century are now passing away to leave a new generation in charge.

What comes in David Broder’s wake is the curse of access journalism in a new media era where politicians can go around reporters and writers to never answer questions from the press and go straight to the people. Something that was an impossibility in Mr. Broder’s era, when politicians hung on his every word.

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Rep. Peter King Praises Obama on Gitmo Order

By on 09 March 2011

“I commend the Obama Administration for issuing this Executive Order. The bottom line is that it affirms the Bush Administration policy that our government has the right to detain dangerous terrorists until the cessation of hostilities. This is clearly another step in the right direction.” – Rep. Peter King

Pres. Obama and his Administration must be thrilled. Bipartisanship rules, even on anti-American policies. Maybe the Right will finally quit calling Barack Obama a secret Muslim.



Obama Bolsters Gitmo… was TIME magazine’s headline.

ACLU blasts: President Obama Issues Executive Order Institutionalizing Indefinite Detention.

In a statement accompanying the order, Obama said he remained committed to closing the prison, a pledge he made on his first full day in office. That pledge, enshrined in his first executive order, was widely seen as a repudiation of the detention system his predecessor built. But the new order suggests that Obama’s original pledge was more about dismantling a facility than a system. – ProPublica

I don’t play a lawyer when I write, but I do have a highly keen interest in all things surrounding the law, especially where the Executive Branch is involved. Many legal eagles and political writers have weighed in, with opinions varying. The bottom line in Pres. Obama’s Executive Order is that we’ve known this was coming and nothing in it is remotely surprising.

It’s highly embarrassing, as far as I’m concerned, when Democratic apologists pen cover stories for the Administration on the thinly veiled excuse arguing that Obama has not channeled George W. Bush in his Executive Order. Adam Sewer occupies this perch:

The new policies don’t amount to a “reversal” on the issue of whether Gitmo should be closed. Republicans are eager to portray Gitmo staying open as a “vindication” of the prison’s usefulness, but the fact that the indefinite detention order is limited to detainees currently at Gitmo means that the administration won’t be reopening the facility to new detainees, as Bush apologists have suggested doing.

Gitmo isn’t open because the administration doesn’t want to close it, although its efforts in this area are ripe for criticism. It’s still open because Republicans in Congress successfully frightened Democrats in Congress out of giving the administration the necessary funds to close it when they had control of Congress.

Deborah Perlstein over at Balkinization stands on the Sewer side of the argument:

Probably most unfortunate about the reporting so far is that it obscures (in lower paragraphs at best) what has been and remains the single greatest obstacle to the closure, or even amelioration of the situation, at Guantanamo: Congress. In 2008, both presidential candidates and their parties embraced the need to move toward closing the detention facility. In 2008, efforts by Congress even to conduct hearings into detention-related matters were still met with the criticism by some that Congress was interfering in matters properly left to the executive branch. Since then, Congress has become engaged up to its eyeballs in micromanaging the executive’s handling of a handful of detainees, and is otherwise devoting its Guantanamo-related energy to preventing the President from bringing criminal charges in our own courts against men who the President and Congress believe have committed crimes. We are through the looking glass.

Segue to Glenn Greenwald:

President Obama yesterday signed an Executive Order which, as The Washington Post described it, “will create a formal system of indefinite detention for those held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay” and “all but cements Guantanamo Bay’s continuing role in U.S. counterterrorism policy.” The Order — which codifies a system of charge-free indefinite detention and military commissions once ostensibly scorned by Democrats — was captured perfectly by this headline from Time… None of this is the slightest bit unexpected. The new Executive Order has been previewed for months and merely codifies what has long been Obama’s policy: “long” in the sense of “since he’s inaugurated” — not, of course, “when he was a Senator and presidential candidate.” I’m writing about this merely to address the excuse from the White House and its loyalists that the fault for this policy, this inability to “close Guantanamo,” lies with Congress, which forced the President to abandon his oft-stated campaign pledge. That excuse is pure fiction.

It is absolutely pure fiction.

The spirit of Gitmo was never going to be squashed, even if the off shore detention facility was closed. Housing detainees in the United States, something that should have been done a long time ago, wouldn’t have changed Obama’s military commission, indefinite detention, holding people without charging them policy.

It was Barack Obama’s position — not that of Congress — that detainees could and should be denied trials, that our court system was inadequate and inappropriate to try them, and that he possessed the unilateral, unrestrained power under the “laws of war” to order them imprisoned for years, even indefinitely, without bothering to charge them with a crime and without any review by the judiciary, in some cases without even the right of habeas review… – Glenn Greenwald

Once again, Pres. Obama quenches his thirst for bipartisanship, but this time embraces the Bush-Cheney era with both arms.

Rush Limbaugh said gleefully yesterday on his show that with this Executive Order on Gitmo he could no longer tell the difference between Dick Cheney and Pres. Obama. There’s little evidence to argue otherwise, though Obama loyalists and Democratic sycophants will try.

In the short run, and within US politics, there is little choice but to support Obama and the Dems as the lesser evil, at least as regards domestic policy. – from Crooked Timber

We’ve gone from “Change we can believe in” to “Vote Obama-Biden – The Lesser Evil.”

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Outgoing NPR S.V.P. of Fundraising Caught on Tape Telling the Truth about Tea Party

By on 08 March 2011

They shoot, they score.

Leaving aside that Mr. Schiller is an idiot for talking so transparently to people he didn’t know, let’s get serious, shall we?

Anyone looked around the American Right today?

This part of the transcript reveals the reality:

SCHILLER: The current Republican Party, particularly the Tea Party, is fanatically involved in people’s personal lives and very fundamental Christian — and I wouldn’t even call it Christian. It’s this weird evangelical kind of move… it’s been hijacked by this group that…

“MUSLIM”: The radical, racist, Islamophobic, Tea Party people?

SCHILLER: It’s not just Islamophobic, but really xenophobic. Basically, they believe in white, middle America, gun-toting — it’s pretty scary. They’re seriously racist, racist people.

Many are focusing on NPR’s outrage over Schiller via their statement after the sting was publicized. That Schiller agrees NPR should not take federal funding because of independence simply further sets up the Right. It also likely dooms NPR to losing their funding eventually.

“As we continue to identify ways to cut spending and save valuable resources, this disturbing video makes clear that taxpayer dollars should no longer be appropriated to NPR.” – Rep. Eric Cantor, via The Hill

But really, isn’t the fact that right-wing conservatives were posing as “scary” Muslim Brotherhood fundraisers trying to catch NPR taking $5 million from this organization, which they declined, enough evidence of the Right’s underlying philosophy and motive regarding Muslims?

What do you call what Rep. Peter King is doing in his scheduled 21st century McCarthy hearings on “radical Islam” targeting Muslims? It’s not just Islamophobic, when you look at the Right’s anti-immigrant stance it’s really xenophobic.

Rep. Eric Cantor has decided to back King, so there can be little doubt of just how Islamophobic leading conservatives are today, because King is purposely targeting an entire group, because of a few fanatical terrorists.

Where does legislation like “fetal heartbeat” bills targeting women’s freedom come from, not to mention the mandatory sonogram legislation? A very fundamentalist, weird kind of person fanatically involved in people’s personal lives.

What kind of people concoct “justifiable homicide” legislation, which is meant to prevent harm to a fetus, ignoring the right’s of women won in the Supreme Court? The radical Right evangelical agenda that has hijacked the Republican Party.

It’s clear the Republican radical Right is engaged in a war against women. It’s been proven.

This isn’t news or at least shouldn’t be.

Former Sen. Jack Danforth went so far to say that if Sen. Dick Lugar is challenged by the Tea Party it means Republicans “have gone so far overboard that we are beyond redemption.” That this comes from an Episcopalian priest should weigh deeply. In 2006, Danforth even asked “Why do traditional Republicans put up with this?”, referring to the “religious” right-wing that’s trying to take our entire country off the cliff. That the Right began titling their articles against people like Mr. Danforth, “Time for a RINO hunt?”, drives home the scary gun-toting language that aided the atmosphere leading to the Tucson domestic terrorism tragedy.

As for racist, did you see the disgusting pictures of Pres. Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama from Tea Party-backed Carl Paladino?

The stupidity of Mr. Schiller, who previously announced he’s leaving NPR for the Aspen Institute, getting caught on tape by a sting operation featuring fake wingnut Muslims speaks for itself.

The talk about Israel and Zionism, as well as “Palestinian Public Radio,” simply reveals our country is not mature enough for these discussions, let alone acting as an arbiter of peace, in which we’ve failed time and again.

But if you want to know why Al Jazeera is the most feared media network by the Right this little NPR sting episode, complete with fake, meant to be scary, Muslim Brotherhood played by wingnuts, gives you a clue.

As for the anti-intellectualism of the Tea Party Right, see Sarah Palin’s rise to vice president, with John McCain and his team not even vetting her first, because she looked so fine. Or look at the vilification of former V.P. Al Gore, who was a much smarter man than George W. Bush, the hero of the wingnut evangelical Right. And if you look into “Dr.” Rand Paul’s credentials you’ll find nothing there.

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International Women’s Day Question: When Will U.S. Catch Up with Liberia?

By on 08 March 2011



It’s the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.

It’s a good day to ponder when the United States will catch up with countries like Liberia. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected the 24th President of Liberia, but we are still contemplating the all boys’ club on the Left, while the Right ignites with an anti-feminist, anti-women agenda of people like Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin.

The topic wasn’t even hitting the top ranks of Memeorandum or trending on Twitter this morning, though it is now.

Watching the women of the Middle East rise up and get involved directly in the “Arab Spring,” as some have called it, reveals an exciting time across the globe for women who are stepping forward to fight for their country. These femme freedom fighters are exhilarating to watch, even as they’re being greeted by Egyptian men chanting “A woman’s place is her house.” Blake Hounshell’s tweets today are illustrative of what these brave women are up against. Hearing “we don’t want it secular, egypt is in an islamic country” has got to be devastating and harrowing as men raise their shoes to the women trying to march today. It’s the beginning of a long fight for them.

Sect. Clinton celebrating IWD took questions, with the most obvious one asked yet again at a time when we’re preparing for yet another presidential election without a viable female candidate in sight:

After Clinton’s speech, the women asked questions of Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale, Assistant Secretary of Education Ann Stock and Clinton’s chief of staff Cheryl Mills.

One woman from Latin America left the panelists momentarily speechless.

“Do you think now that your country is ready for a woman as a president? I am not sure any of the three of us should answer that,” she said.

Clinton’s chief of staff Cheryl Mills said she does not think the U.S. is quite ready to elect a woman as head of state.

“I certainly think it is the case that our country demonstrated ably in the last election that they are more than willing to support women in a leadership role and more than willing to actually see a woman as their leader,” said Mills. “But I think for getting over that final hurdle, I think we are a little bit away.”

Why does Ms. Mills think we’re “a little bit away” from electing a female president? Part of the problem is that not enough women in the United States think it’s important.

In the last election cycle when Hillary Rodham Clinton took center stage, vast swaths of females simply shrugged, including on the Left and in progressive quarters. Called the “vagina vote,” women insisted, some would say rightly, that issues mattered more and allowing for a woman to make similar mistakes as a man on war and peace. Electing her to make a point and move women forward was not thought worth the fight, especially by the younger generation.

Perhaps that was because Hillary Clinton is perceived as a conservative Democrat, which really only applies to foreign policy, except where women’s rights as human rights are concerned. No man comes close to her active belief in women’s importance in diplomacy and foreign policy, their voices making the difference in a country’s stability. Clinton certainly isn’t as conservative as Pres. Obama on domestic issues, far from it. She also would never have served up women like the first female Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi did on health care, as Pelosi’s male counterpart president emboldened the Right through Executive Order. But on the Middle East there is simply no reason to believe Mrs. Clinton would have gone to Cairo or openly laid down a marker on illegal Israeli settlements. As for Afghanistan, she’d never consider what an Obama official said, when fighting for women’s rights in that country were recently reduced to “special interest and pet project… pet rocks in our rucksack.” Unfortunately, that didn’t bother many readers around here either, because only two people bothered to comment on this revelation, with “Sally” the only one to stay on topic. Even considering this site is largely a readership venue this nonchalance was telling, though as I said in the comments, what is more telling is that this story didn’t get any traction at all.

Looking at 2012, Cheryl Mills is certainly correct.

At least the Right has two females who are considering the presidency. It is interesting to note that on the day of the first Republican debate for 2012, Sarah Palin is booked to attend a “military appreciation” event and fundraiser. File it under she’ll do it her way if she does it at all.

When you look at the Left, there is yet to be a woman rise to take on the Democratic boys’ club. Not even the reality that the Democratic Party is carving away court-won rights of women on health care has inspired a woman to take a stand against the misogyny of the Blue Dog Democrats holding sway over too much congressional turf. Not even Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood gave a damn, her organization only stirred when the Right came after their federal funding. Pres. Obama is also not exactly a paragon of leadership on women’s rights, simply doing what most other males would do in his shoes, while selling off women in health care on the wings of an “accomplishment.”

As the Right comes after our freedoms and personal privacy no heroine on the Left has yet to rise up.

Looking to 2016, even as far away as it is, because I don’t find anything for women worth celebrating as 2012 revs up, it’s evident that it’s still very much a man’s world in the United States.

This column has been updated.

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Can Anyone Help Sarah Palin at this Point?

By on 08 March 2011

The political tuning fork that once guided Sarah Palin’s compass to squeal “death panels” and lead the Right to rise up to take the midterms has gone silent. Maybe it’s the sight and reality that Gov. Chris Christie has made Palin look like yesterday’s discarded news.

Since Palin’s atrocious “blood-libel” cry after the Tucson domestic terrorism tragedy, Sarah Palin has been plummeting to ground almost as fast as she once rose to prominence.

Now she’s hit a new low. Taking on Kathy Griffin is simply the most inane engagement for a woman who wants to be taken seriously, assuming that she still does, which isn’t certain given her latest Fox belch. From Mediate:

You know, Kathy Griffin can do anything to me or say anything about me, because you know, she’s kind of this – she’s a 50-year-old adult bully is really what she is.

She’s kind of a has-been comedian and she can do those things to me. I would just ask for respect of my children. As she had stated on CNN that her New Year’s resolution was to destroy my 16-year-old daughter, that takes it a little too far.

Kathy, pick on me, come up to Alaska and pick on me, but leave my kids alone.

The ageism slap of Palin is the smallest way for anyone to attack an opponent. It’s not like Palin is that far away from that marker herself.

The other issue is that she and Griffin have a lot in common. They both have been through humiliating, possibly career ending moments, but through grit and perseverance, remade themselves into viable characters in the field of their choice. The difference between Griffin and Palin, however, is that Griffin is supposed to be outrageous, while Palin is supposed to be on the playing field of movers and shakers, but is reducing herself to not viable at all.

Few have ever been impressed with Sarah Palin’s breadth of knowledge, because she isn’t interested in that type of prowess, preferring instead to answer all questions through the lens of her right-wing ideology. But since leaving the governorship there is no doubt she understood the political climate she was in and tapped it, being the one most responsible for the gargantuan midterm wins of the Right.

However, something has happened on her way to considering to run for president. The moment was the Loughner domestic terrorism attack in Tucson, when Sarah Palin refused to give any grace and join the responsible adults in condemning rhetoric that should never be used in a political environment.

But picking a fight with Kathy Griffin? It’s the ultimate stupidity.

It makes a joke of her upcoming trip to India, which has always been a foreign policy photo op, but after the Griffin back and forth just looks like a futile effort to remain relevant.

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Walker is the Gift that Keeps Giving to Obama

By on 07 March 2011

Pres. Obama’s first gift looking at 2012 is his pathetic, not yet announced challengers on the Republican side, unless Gov. Chris Christie changes his mind, which at least would be a fight for the Right.

Considering Wisconsin is an important state for Obama to win, it turns out the union story has doomed Walker, while elevating Obama to new heights. From MSNBC’s “First Read”:

A poll out today by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute shows President Obama’s and Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s approval ratings heading in opposite directions.

Obama’s approval rating sits at a comfortable 53%-42%, above the national average, and a nine-point improvement in the poll from November. (In November — after the Democrats’ shellacking in the midterms — the president’s approval in the poll was split at 44%-43%.)

By contrast, Walker’s approval rating is upside down – with 43% approving and 53% disapproving of how he’s handling his job. Walker’s “strongly disapprove” is a sky-high 45%; Obama’s is 26%. Walker’s favorability rating – also 43%-53% — mirrors his approval. His negative rating is up 18 points from November, when his rating was 45%/35%. His “strongly unfavorable” is up to 41% from a “very unfavorable” rating of just 19% in November.

Never underestimate the American public’s ability to be able to judge what’s fair and what isn’t.

Too bad in the Obama era the Democrats leading the party from Washington can’t figure this out. Because even with Pres. Obama looking hard to beat in ’12, Democrats are almost assuredly going to lose the Senate, which will set up Pres. Obama to do many things with his new partners, the first being tinker with Social Security.

The Democrats in Wisconsin are different, even if they’re fighting an ultimately losing battle. A “We Heart Wisconsin” website was set up so you could tell them so.

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Tea Party Queen of 2010 Goes Cold for 2012

By on 07 March 2011

Mitt Romney is still considered the front-runner. MSNBC’s First Read lays out Slick Mitt’s authenticity challenge:

*** … vs. Romney 1.0 and 2.0: This, in short, is Romney 3.0. Romney 1.0 was the socially moderate businessman who won election as Massachusetts governor in 2002. Romney 2.0 was the socially conservative presidential candidate who ran to John McCain’s and Rudy Giuliani’s right on abortion, stem cells, and illegal immigration in 2007-2008. And Romney 3.0 appears to be the repeat presidential candidate who will focus more on the economy and his business record than on social issues.

Via CNN, non-candidate Gov. Christie leads the popularity contest, but he’s got huge unknowns, with 55% of the people not knowing enough to weigh in with an opinion.

As for Sarah Palin, she’s got more trouble than her gravitas quotient on foreign policy. A new Quinnipiac poll temperature rating puts the wannabe presidential candidate at third from the bottom, barely besting Reid and Pelosi:

Pelosi scored the “coolest” temperature of 32.9 degrees, while Reid was at 34.8 degrees and Palin checked in at 38.2.

Palin scored the lowest overall of any possible 2012 Republican candidate for president, a figure especially notable since the other candidates in the field all had much higher unknown levels.

Palin slipping in Iowa is another challenge, but it won’t deter her fans. Her PR blitz continuing with an interview with the BBC.

But the negative press on her potential presidential bid does bring into question one definite Sarah’s always had. The possibility of winning the nomination even if she can’t win the big prize. Her trip to India won’t shake what’s developed for Palin, made worse by her “blood-libel” disaster, which hurt her immeasurably. She also made a very critical error in underestimating the negative narrative building without doing something about it, waiting way too long to get some serious help inside camp Palin.

As important as Sarah Palin was in 2010, she’s becoming a fading memory going into the 2012 competition, with the only person she has to blame herself.

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American-Led No-Fly Zone in Libya is Nuts

By on 07 March 2011

Stephen Hadley wants to use the mujahadeen, Iran-Contra-esque plan to arm the anti-Qaddafi forces with weapons on the sly. The UK Independent floats this premise today, going so far as to say Pres. Obama has already enlisted the Sauds in a “highly classified request.”

Senators John Kerry, John McCain and Mitch McConnell are arguing for a no-fly zone. McCain saying it’s a good idea because Libya’s air defenses “are somewhat antiquated.” Kerry arguing that the U.S. cannot sit on the sidelines, but also stating something positively daft.

“The last thing we want to think about is any kind of military intervention… And I don’t consider the fly zone stepping over that line.” – Sen. Kerry

Is he kidding? This is the kind of thinking that gets us dragged into a situation where we cannot get out, but also where we get blamed for collateral damage that comes with war.

The U.S. leading a bombing of Libya to make way for a no-fly zone is preposterously wrong headed. Working with NATO and the U.N. in an international effort is one thing, but we should not be out front on this.

When is the U.S. going to change out the generation of leaders that have no impulse control on world explosions thinking that we need to be involved in every one. Our foreign policy gray beards have long outlived their usefulness if they’re going to suggest we spend our capital in Libya while simultaneously suggesting taxes and entitlements need to be cut.

American priorities remain dangerously skewed in the wrong direction at a time when we also hear that SecDef Gates has confirmed what I’ve always believed, which is that we’ll have residual forces in Afghanistan past 2014. Meanwhile senior Obama officials state that our goals should exclude women’s rights inside that country as a bridge too far, though you can’t have stability without women involved. The American people just want out, which is even showing in Rasmussen polling:

A majority of voters, for the first time, support an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan or the creation of a timetable to bring them all home within a year.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 31% of Likely U.S. Voters now say all troops should be brought home from Afghanistan immediately, while another 21% say a firm timetable should be established to bring all troops home within a year’s time. The combined total of 52% who want the troops home within a year is a nine-point jump from 43% last September. Just 37% felt that way in September 2009.

Color me a realist on this one, which is not anything like what brought us into Afghanistan after 9/11, but also after Pres. Bush abandoned that country to rubble. We have no vital interests in Libya. It’s a tragic event to watch unfold, but a no-fly zone by any measure is something Pres. Obama should resist.

Where are the Tea Party conservatives? Considering the drivel we’re hearing from Democrats and Republicans, the Right may be the only ones who can help save us from ourselves.

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