Joe Conason, who has had more access to former Pres. Bill Clinton over the years than most, begins his new website launch The National Memo with a blockbuster on the debt ceiling debate.
Former President Bill Clinton says that he would invoke the so-called constitutional option to raise the nation’s debt ceiling “without hesitation, and force the courts to stop me” in order to prevent a default, should Congress and the President fail to achieve agreement before the August 2 deadline.
Sharply criticizing Congressional Republicans in an exclusive Monday evening interview with The National Memo, Clinton said, “I think the Constitution is clear and I think this idea that the Congress gets to vote twice on whether to pay for [expenditures] it has appropriated is crazy.”
Lifting the debt ceiling “is necessary to pay for appropriations already made,” he added, “so you can’t say, ‘Well, we won the last election and we didn’t vote for some of that stuff, so we’re going to throw the whole country’s credit into arrears.”
You may be tired of me writing this, but I’ve never understood all the drama and whining out of the White House over the Aug. 2 date or the involvement of Pres. Obama to such a degree in a situation that has revealed his paltry negotiating skills once again.
It’s the job of Congress to raise the debt ceiling, which certainly does not have to be done on the wings of a deficit deal.
So, sit back, wait, then invoke the 14th Amendment if you need, while making it clear that raising the debt limit is up to Speaker Boehner and his Tea Party rabble. If they dare not to do it show them out.
Love him or hate him, Pres. Bill Clinton knows a lot about playing chicken with lesser politicians who don’t have the country on their side.
As the CBS poll showed yesterday, as much as people detest the Republican insanity, with so much on his side, Pres. Obama’s disapproval is higher than his approval ratings on his handling of the debt ceiling “crisis.” That’s because his message has been absolute mush, revealing he’s scared of his opponents. That’s right, scared. Choosing to negotiate from a place of weakness was Obama’s biggest mistake, because he always had a stronger option. But that would take courage to stand alone and pull the trigger himself, something he’s never been willing to do on anything.
Prime Minister David Cameron cut short a state visit to Africa and bowed to demands for Parliament to delay its summer recess on Monday, as he confronted a growing scandal over his cozy ties with Rupert Murdoch’s top lieutenants in Britain and the opposition posed a fresh challenge to the survival of his year-old government. – Tabloid Scandal a Fresh Threat to Cameron’s Survival
At 9:15 a.m. EST, Rupert Murdoch appears before the British Parliament. Keith Olbermann will be doing live coverage on CurrentTV, testimony which I’ll be following along with the entire world.
The last time the liberal press demanded a media prosecutor, it was to probe the late conservative columnist Robert Novak in pursuit of White House aide Scooter Libby. But the effort soon engulfed a reporter for the New York Times, which had led the posse to hang Novak and his sources. Do our media brethren really want to invite Congress and prosecutors to regulate how journalists gather the news?
That’s the best they’ve got? Invoking Scooter Libby and the late Bob Novak is hardly a laudatory defense for Rupert Murdoch’s alleged criminal gang that felt it wise to listen in on private phone calls to get a story, while possibly violating all sorts of criminal statutes in the process.
If the case regarding Jude Law turns out to be true Mr. Murdoch will have plenty of fresh hell for the WSJ to rant about in the near future.
But that pales in comparison to the trouble coming PM Cameron’s way if Murdoch’s Parliament performance isn’t pitch perfect.
Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour opposition, delivered a broadside against Mr. Cameron on Monday that sought to tap into the public outrage over the scandal by linking it to a series of crises in recent years — the role of the banks in the financial crisis that hit in 2008, the furor over lawmakers’ expense abuses in 2009 and now the tabloid scandal. Commentators said his goal was to weaken Mr. Cameron’s coalition government if the scandal continues to escalate, and to cast himself as a credible alternate prime minister should Mr. Cameron fall. …
[...] In Parliament there were cries from the opposition for Mr. Cameron to quit, with one left-wing gadfly, Dennis Skinner, shouting, “When is dodgy Dave going to do the decent thing and resign?” – John F. Burns
“I’ve been working 14 hours a day on trying to stand this…agency up, really for more than a year now,” she said. “When I go home, I’ll do more thinking then. But I need to do that thinking not from Washington.” – The Hill
Andrea Mitchell got the scoop. Elizabeth Warren isn’t ruling out a Senate bid.
Ms. Warren was on Andrea Mitchell’s show today and the inevitable question about Warren running for Senate against Scott Brown came up. She was obviously worn out and ready to go home. But not before she also mentioned her husband was from a 13 generation family from Massachusetts, while also getting a plug in he’s a huge Sox fan. Nothing signals politics like invoking the national pastime in a state where it’s an obsession.
Matt Stoller has written a piece on the differences between Warren’s clear stance on democratic policy prescriptions versus Obama’s incomprehensible lightness of leadership.
Contrast this with Barack Obama, a person who never fails to wrap his true agenda in gauzy opaque process jargon. Obama won’t back his own NLRB or Boeing workers, or even Boeing itself; he thinks that neither side should waste time in court. He won’t announce Social Security or Medicare cuts, he wants it to be part of a Grand Bargain for whom no one has to take responsibility. He demands an end to earmarks, or something, but we need an infrastructure bank or something. As a result, the Democratic Party is enmeshed right now in a guessing game about the true goals of their leader, paralyzed and unable to govern. When Warren is present, by contrast, the Republicans are able to argue strongly that they do not believe in government as an agent of good, while Democrats are able to articulate the opposite. It’s a real, open, honest debate. There’s no sliding around with 11 dimensional chess nonsense, it’s straight up democracy.
Of course, we need more progressive women in the Senate, but Elizabeth Warren would be crazy to even want the job in an institution that is dysfunctional by design. But natural leaders tend to prefer the fray.
But guess what? Pres. Obama has more people disapproving of what he’s done on the debt ceiling negotiations than approving. That’s quite a feat in the face of such Republican fecklessness.
[...] For Republicans, this plan is something close to the best of all possible worlds (sorry, but I do not consider a world in which “Cut, Cap, and Balance” passes to be a possible one): It’s all spending cuts and no revenues. It’s a little plan that denies the Obama administration the political and substantive benefits of a big plan. It’s a multi-part plan — which is more important than people realize — that forces Democrats to take three hard votes between now and the election, and almost ensures that deficit reduction will be an issue in 2013 and beyond. It’s a plan that smartly pockets more than a trillion dollars in spending cuts Democrats can sort-of accept and only then begins a grand bargain process, ensuring that if there’s a grand bargain later, it will cut far deeper into the bone of Democratic priorities. If it passes, Republicans will have escaped these negotiations without making any significant political or policy concessions. – Ezra Klein
So, if you want to know just how badly Pres. Obama has played the debt ceiling talks this is illustrative. Obama fairs much better than Republicans, but more people still disapprove of his handling of the crisis than approve, 48% to 43%. The Republicans look like idiots, while the public thinks their insistence on not raising taxes is a disaster. Meanwhile, in the midst of this scathing review, Pres. Obama serves up entitlements and ignores the leverage he has, which is seen clearly through the public’s wide disapproval of Republican stonewalling.
Americans are unimpressed with their political leaders’ handling of the debt ceiling crisis, with a new CBS News poll showing a majority disapprove of all the involved parties’ conduct, but Republicans in Congress fare the worst, with just 21 percent backing their resistance to raising taxes.
President Obama earned the most generous approval ratings for his handling of the weeks-old negotiations, but still more people said they disapproved (48 percent) than approved (43 percent) of what he has done and said.
[...] Approval drops to 31 percent for the Democrats in Congress, and only 21 percent of the people surveyed said they approved of Republicans’ handling of the negotiations, while 71 percent disapprove.
Even half of the Republican respondents (51 percent) voiced disapproval of how members of their own party in Congress are handling the talks.
While seniors and the less fortunate, including women, pay for Pres. Obama’s compromising capitulation for nothing in return, Republicans are plummeting in their handling of the debt ceiling crisis.
It takes real talent to get the American people to disapprove of what you’re doing more than approve in the face of such Republican ineptitude, but that’s exactly what Pres. Obama has accomplished.
David Plouffe pulled out a video from a lecture Pres. Obama gave to students in March, as the debt ceiling talks head into the final stretch. It revolves around the notion that “compromise isn’t a dirty word.” In the Obama era, invoking Democratic principles, ones candidate Obama pledged he’d protect, is.
But don’t take “Morning Joe” as an example. With Harold Ford, Jr. and Ed Rendell trying to cover for Pres. Obama’s Democratic collapse, it’s an embarrassment of bloviating we get from Democratic talking heads. Even Lawrence O’Donnell, not a Democrat but attempting to help the President, has embarrassed himself by saying Pres. Obama doesn’t really believe in cuts to entitlements, while he turns himself in knots in political analysis that belies the facts.
Candidate Barack Obama in May 2007, a quote I reference often, though when he made it I was one of the only ones to do so:
I think that I have the capacity to get people to recognize themselves in each other. I think that I have the ability to make people get beyond some of the divisions that plague our society and to focus on common sense and reason and that’s been in short supply over the last several years. I’m not an ideologue, never have been. Even during my younger days when I was tempted by, you know, sort of more radical or left wing politics, there was a part of me that always was a little bit conservative in that sense; that believes that you make progress by sitting down listening to people, recognizing everybody’s concerns, seeing other people’s points of views and then making decisions.” – Barack Obama (on ABC’s “This Week”)
There remains no reason for any Democrat to compromise using the McConnell plan, which is turning in to the diabolically devious plan I said it was when it came out. Having Obama lifting the debt ceiling over the next year and one-half, during the election cycle, with the debt continually the focus, instead of jobs and the economy, while he gets no tax revenue or increases for his caving, plays right into the ideological wingnuttery of Republicans, simultaneously disavowing Democratic principles and progressive economics.
There remains no reason for any Democrat to support Pres. Obama deciding to serve up Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as a gift to Republicans to raise the debt ceiling.
When push comes to shove, the debt ceiling will be raised and it should be raised on clean debt ceiling legislation without compromising on Democratic ideals, which Pres. Obama did while getting nothing in return.
This is a difficult process, and it means Republicans and Democrats need to step outside their political comfort zone and find some common ground — the President is willing to make tough cuts with real impacts, not easy decisions. – David Plouffe
David Plouffe talks about “tough cuts with real impacts” as a laudatory move, while forgetting that Pres. Obama is asking Democrats to burden the least who can handle it.
Pres. Obama’s compromise was to serve up entitlements as “sacred cows” without the Republicans offering any compromise or sacrifice on taxes and revenues. That’s not smart leadership that’s caving on Democratic ideals for the sake of a deal that hurts Americans you pledged you’d protect.
But the most embarrassing part of this outreach from the White House is the self-serving, self-defensive, self-indulgent nature of Pres. Obama’s patter.
It’s not about compromise.
Compromise means both sides give in equally on things that matter to them. That’s not what’s happening in the debt ceiling negotiations. Not even close.
Multiply 680,000 by $69 and you get about $46.9 million. Messina’s appears to want things both ways–a record-breaking money haul AND the appearance of being a campaign “owned” by ordinary people. That may be the case to the extent that you think maxing-out donors from Wall Street, Silicon Valley and Hollywood are “ordinary people.”- Micah L. Sifry
The New York Times runs a piece today, which was actually broken last week by Micah L. Sifry at Tech President after Obama reelect’s fundraising numbers leaked.
Interestingly, it also tells us something else–of the approximately 3 million individual donors who gave to Obama for his 2008 run, so far less than 10 percent have re-upped. You can spin that two ways: either it’s a reminder that many 2008 Obama supporters have lost their enthusiasm for him (and the PCCC has garnered the names of nearly 200,000 former Obama supporters who donated $17 million and gave 2 million volunteer hours in 2008 who have pledged not one iota if he makes cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid), or it’s a big fat juicy target pool for the president’s campaign team to mine for the months ahead. Undoubtedly it is both.
But if you want to know why there’s not a primary challenge to Obama or why an Independent bid for president is impossible, Sifry notes, after Joe Raspars responded to Jim Messina’s latest fundraising announcement, which was indeed huge, the reality: Both sides have Super PACs that will be exploiting the latest loopholes in the law to raise and spend hundreds of millions of dollars, and the bulk of that money is going to come from rich people, corporations and labor unions, not small individual donors.
That’s the truth about “hope and change” 2.0 and how the U.S. presidency is bought.
“It’s embarrassing, and it’s tragic,” said a retired Scotland Yard veteran. “This has badly damaged the reputation of a really good investigative organization. And there is a major crisis now in the leadership of the Yard.” – Stain From Tabloids Rubs Off on a Cozy Scotland Yard
The piece by Don Van Natta, Jr. on how Scotland Yard allowed itself to be disgraced comes as news of Murdoch’s favorite corporate minion gets arrested. The bright side for Ms. Brooks is she’ll likely escape her date with Parliament.
A spokesman for Brooks said she did not know she was going to be arrested when she handed in her resignation.
Brooks was taken into custody at midday on Sunday, after agreeing to attend a London police station for questioning. Her spokesman, Bell Pottinger chairman David Wilson, said she did not know she was to meet with police until late on Friday, and that she did not know the appointment would result in her arrest.
[...] “She was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to Section1(1) Criminal Law Act 1977 and on suspicion of corruption allegations contrary to Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906.
Not sure if her cluelessness about the legal peril she was in and the potential of being arrested is elitist hubris or attorney malpractice, but it reads as stupidity either way.
“In the News” is now its own blog, since our upgrade. You can tweet or FB any post there, too.
Anyone can post or cross-post from his or her blog. It’s getting quite a lot of reader traffic. Give it a try! Post a news blurb about anything, including items non-political.
I was pretty surprised when nothing about Casey Anthony showed up. Paul’s editorial cartoon above was so fantastic, I just had to post it today and remind everyone that whatever you’re reading and find interesting or outrageous, important or silly, to talk about even beyond politics is always welcome.
Spincitysd has quite a few, including a head’s up on Pakistan, as the U.S. withholds funding. Though his penchant for pointing out missed news continues to provide hilarity.
Thanks for those posting “In the News.” I just love reading (and tweeting) what’s posted.
~This week Jeremy Scahill of the Nation did a fine bit of investigative journalism and revealed that the CIA is running secret prisons in Somalia, which if true, means that we still basically have a rendition program. And how did the fawning corporate media respond to the revelation? Well, two ways- 1. they largely ignored it and 2. when they didn’t, they dutifully jotted down administration talking points denying the allegations in the article. Naturally, they gave administration officials total anonymity to do this, lest said officials be held accountable at some future date. You know, for lying. Glenn Greenwald wrote a must-read article about how the administration uses the MSM to attack real investigative journalism that it finds inconvenient. For my part, I stalked followed David Gregory around Twitter on Friday asking him repeatedly if he would cover the story on MTP today. Naturally, that wasn’t on his agenda. Because foreign policy is hard.
~Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s maiden voyage to Iraq and Afghanistan was, shall we say, less than spectacular. Les Gelb has more here. Just what the White House needs, another wishy-washy consensus-builder.
~Sobering statistics: The Minimum number of people killed by CIA drone attacks in Pakistan last year was 607. Number of those who appeared on a U.S. list of most-wanted terrorists- 2. Hearts and minds people, hearts and minds…
~Did Obama lie about his dying mother’s battle with health insurance coverage? It appears he did. Does it matter? Probably. Why do politicians always do this and think that they can get away with it? As someone who did have a mother who was denied insurance coverage for potentially life-saving cancer treatment, I find his “misstatements” crass, politically expedient and insensitive.
~The GOP plan for the economy? Blow it up and blame it on Obama. This Red State article has been boomeranging all over the right-wing blogosphere and was apparently passed around at the House GOP caucus meeting. The fact that the Democrats, and the WH in particular, can’t use this to their advantage shows that after almost three years, their political messaging still sucks.
~Rupert Murdoch is very sorry that his media empire is an unethical, corrupt wasteland.
~The White House and State Department deflected questions all last week about whether President Obama or Secretary Clinton would meet with the Dalai Lama, who has been in Washington for over a week. Then, Friday evening, the WH released a statement saying Obama would meet with him- on Saturday (yesterday), and no photographers or press would be present. In response, China said that Obama’s meeting with him harmed Sino-U.S. relations and get this…”hurt the feelings of the Chinese people…”
~Good God, Michelle Obama eats a burger and fries for lunch while attending the opening of a eatery called “Shake Shack” and the self-righteous food nazis go nuts!
~Michelle Bachmann left her controversial Church not long before announcing her Presidential run. Coincidence? Does it matter?
Cats crash Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s interview in Istanbul:
~Thank goodness the GOP is keeping track of the important issues, like ensuring that the energy-draining incandescent light bulb sticks around for a while longer.
~Think Progress interviews the former head of the American Jewish Congress about the Mideast peace process and the Palestinians’ UN bid for statehood. He says the U.S.-sponsored peace process is a fraud and one of the main obstacles to peace is actually the United States itself. It’s a great interview, check it out here.
~Doctors Without Borders has formally spoken out against the CIA’s use of a fake vaccination program for children in Afghanistan, which they used to obtain information on Osama Bin Laden. DWB says it harms public health efforts undertaken by NGO’s in the region. Our MSM is not covering this issue at all.
~Meet the pay for play conservative nonprofit that writes a LOT of pro-energy industry laws around the country- The American Legislative Exchange Council. Democracy for the highest bidder.
~Remember the people who sold us all the lies about Iraq’s WMD’s? They are like bad pennies, they keep turning up. Only in Washington could such losers keep failing upward. Doug Feith, the man who Gen. Franks referred to as the “stupidest guy on the face of the earth” is now a foreign policy adviser to Rick Perry.
Art offers his perspective as a movement progressive activist.
Here is the latest ad up from National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. It is running in the DC area to influence our pols:
Progressive groups have descended upon this administration like mad over all the talk of cutting SS, Medicare and Medicaid. One of import is MoveOn.org:
“Our members … worked incredibly hard to elect this president and were shocked that he would endorse cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits,” said Justin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn.org.
His group released a poll of its members that showed 76 percent of respondents would be less likely to donate to or volunteer for Obama’s campaign if he cut Social Security. And the Progressive Change Campaign Committee on Friday will deliver a petition with more than 180,000 signatures to the Obama campaign headquarters in Chicago warning the president that if he cuts entitlements, “don’t ask for a penny of my money or an hour of my time in 2012.”
MoveOn has 5 million members and most threaten to sit out 2012 if Obama cuts away.
The American Association of People with Disabilities (AADP) has launched a campaign in DC to convince our pols to not make cuts on the already stricken Medicaid program:
Organizations representing the disabled brought families that would be affected by Medicaid cuts to the White House and to Capitol Hill this week.
“Medicaid has not until very, very recently had a voice at the table,” said Michael Hill, senior vice president for communications for United Cerebral Palsy. The group is working with the American Association of People with Disabilities on a campaign to bring “that human face to the discussion of the debt ceiling, particularly around Medicaid,” AAPD President and CEO Mark Periello said.
AAPD is working to put a face on those on Medicaid whose lives will be destroyed if these cuts go through. Some of those very disabled Americans met with Whitehouse officials on July 12th. Read about the meeting and who went here .
Two mothers met one on one with Obama advisor Valarie Jarrett this week to show how vital Medicaid is to millions:
When Shannon Saunders Eaton was born, doctors told her mother that she’d never walk or talk.
Twelve years later, she stood in front of a key White House aide and demonstrated how wrong her doctors had been.
Without Medicaid, Shannon told White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, “I wouldn’t be able to stand here today…”
It looks like the Whitehouse is getting an earful from the very people DC feels it can hurt:
Roxanne Eaton said Medicaid has been a lifeline for her and her daughter. When Shannon was born, Roxanne was forced to be a full-time caregiver because of her daughter’s disabilities. Medicaid helped Roxanne pay for her daughter’s three surgeries and physical therapy.
Now, her daughter is a firecracker of a 12-year-old who uses a wheelchair but can stand and wisecrack with the best of them. Roxanne, meanwhile, has been able to return to work, now at Easter Seals.
“Shannon has come so far,” her mother said. “Medicaid has, basically, been how Shannon got to be who she is.”
One hour after the Eatons visited the White House, Sue and Micah Hetrick of Dublin followed suit, making their own pitch to save Medicaid. Micah, 22, has Down syndrome. Medicaid has allowed him to get help from an aide during the day; that has allowed his mother to work, and allowed Micah a level of independence.
This is a cruel, unimaginable situation for these families. Let us pray these mothers are heard and heeded. Check out AADP’s and United Cerebal Palsy’s campaign to save Medicaid here.
The National Governor’s Association is protesting any further federal cuts in Medicaid funding. Comprised of all 50 governors they sent this letter to congress and POTUS . Dem and GOP governors have united against potential new cuts.
Why have so many united against Medicaid cuts? Families USA shows us why. Economics. A 5pct cut from the federal government in Medicaid spending would cost these 10 states alone billions and thousands of jobs:
…New York ($3.8 billion), California ($3.7 billion), Texas ($2.1 billion), Pennsylvania ($1.5 billion), Florida ($1.2 billion), Ohio ($1.2 billion), Illinois ($1.2 billion), Massachusetts ($1.0 billion), North Carolina ($942.1 million), and Michigan ($861.9 million).
And JOBS: …New York (28,830), California (28,440), Texas (18,160), Pennsylvania (12,230), Florida (11,320), Ohio (11,270), Illinois (9,280), North Carolina (8,890), Michigan (7,670), and Massachusetts (7,600).
Senator McCaskill (D-Mo) will prove key in the Medicaid fight, as she is up for re-election and her state has a 1 in 5 ratio of folks on the program. This week she spoke to constituents about the program. Let’s hope she stands firm on this:
Jobs with Justice and many, many allies have been strongly urging Missouri’s Congressional delegation to protect Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security during the federal budget fight.
Success! Senator Claire McCaskill came to a rally in support of Medicaid on Tuesday hosted by dozens of groups, including Missouri’s GRO-Grassroots Organizing and CCO-Communities Creating Opportunities.
Sen. McCaskill spoke more passionately about protecting Medicaid than any of the other Senators who spoke. “The notion that cutting Medicaid will save tax dollars is mind boggling,” said Senator McCaskill. She added that her faith tells her that “we take care of people when they are sick.”
One last Medicaid note. AFSCME is pushing key moderate Dem senators to not back major cuts to the program. They are mounting an intense campaign in home states of moderate Dem senators with high Medicaid recipient populations: Virginia, Colorado, North Carolina, California, Arkansas and Missouri. More here .
PCCC delivered 200,000 signatures from progressives all over America to Obama’s campaign headquarters in Chicago. The petitioners ask for the cuts to be dropped or Obama wouldn’t get their support in 2012. I found this woman’s remark of note:
Protester Mary Ellen Croteau, 61, of Chicago said she’s even ready to find someone else to support if Obama cuts Medicare and Social Security.
“I don’t know who I’m going to vote for yet because there doesn’t seem to be too many people on the horizon, but I will vote for someone whether it’s a Green candidate, whether it’s a communist, I don’t care. Somebody who’s going to stand up for people,” Croteau said.
On the voter rights side we have some good news: low income voter registration has increased over the past two years:
A newly released review of a June 27 report by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) shows that voter registration application rates at state public assistance agencies have risen sharply following National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) enforcement actions by advocacy groups Demos, Project Vote, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and others. ..
The new data underscore the effectiveness of enforcement in giving low income Americans a voice in the democratic process,” said Lisa Danetz, Senior Counsel at Demos and co-lead counsel in a settled lawsuit against Ohio. “For example, Ohio topped the EAC list for voter registration at public assistance offices. As a result of our lawsuit, the state institutionalized procedures to offer voter registration. Those procedures will ensure that voter registration does not fall off the radar screen.”
Ohio and Missouri topped the rankings in reported voter registration applications submitted at public assistance offices. Both states have settled lawsuits regarding lack of National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) compliance, brought by Demos, Project Vote, the Lawyers’ Committee, and others….
Section 7 of the NVRA requires state public assistance agencies to offer their clients the opportunity to register to vote, but too many states have been neglecting or ignoring this mandate since the law was implemented in 1995. Demos, Project Vote, and the Lawyers’ Committee – with state and national partners – have worked to ensure stronger oversight and enforcement of Section 7 through cooperative negotiations and litigation when necessary.
Progressives in Ohio are moving to get the 200k signatures needed to place on the ballot a repeal of the GOP’s new voter restrictions. And former Ohio Sec. of State Brunner is leading the effort. The new law is a :
…sweeping measure that shortens the state’s early voting period, bans in-person early voting on Sundays and prohibits boards of election from mailing absentee ballot requests to voters. Former Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, said those provisions place barriers on voters and should be repealed.
“It’s an accumulation of small procedural changes that add up to be the potential for long lines, dissatisfied voters and less certainty on election results,” she said in a telephone interview.
If they get enough signatures by late September the law faces repeal on the ballot likely in 2012. Governor Kaisch has once again angered voters and faces now another citizen effort to undo his anti-democratic agenda.
Here again is handy contact info for POTUS and congress. Keep bugging them AGAINST CUTTING SS, MEDICARE AND MEDICAID:
White House White House Comments Line: 202-456-1111
Joyce L. Arnold: Liberal, lesbian, Independent, equality activist, writer.
To abandon the President who has delivered on the overwhelming majority of his commitment to gays and lesbians to end discrimination, especially when the alternative is virtually guaranteed to be a President who will rapidly turn back the clock on gay and lesbian progress, would be a political mistake which would haunt gays and lesbians for decades.
So wrote Brian Bond, former executive director of the Democratic National Committee’s Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council. It was in a memorandum to the DNC and WH. In January 1996. As Andrew Harmon writes in an Advocate article, “A Clinton-era memo invites comparison: How should President Barack Obama’s stance on marriage be weighed against his administration’s accomplishments?”
Looking at Queerdom within the current moment of perpetual election recycling is one way to look at our Two Party Front for the Oligarchy (TPFO), Obama edition. As long as we stay stuck in the system as it exists, we stay vulnerable to Electeds and the Elite they serve.
The LGBT communities, and allies, are not monolithic. Yes, there is significantly more support for the Democratic party than the Republican party. But even within the “progressive” side of Queerdom, this moment in the TPFO reveals significant disagreements. In particular, of course, these differences appear around Obama and his “fierce, fierce advocate” claims regarding LGBT equality. Two of the most visible, and contentious: marriage equality and DADT.
About the latter, Thursday’s DOJ decision – telling the court it intends to continue to defend DADT, and seeking reinstatement of the law by the next day – received scathing comments from Left and Right Queerdom. (in all quotes below, my emphasis)
A tweet from Dan Choi: “Many hated me for criticizing Obama, screaming ‘GOP will revive #DADT’ so today proves it: “Obama only sees #LGBT as EA$Y MONEY.”
Today it was learned that the Justice Department is going to be pushing the case Log Cabin Republicans vs. United States into an appeal. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently reinstated the ban on discharging anyone under (DADT). This move comes at a time when the service secretaries, service chiefs, and combatant commanders have delivered their assessments on DADT’s repeal to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen.
This makes the decision by the Justice Department to appeal this ruling baffling in the extreme. (Executive Director Aubrey) Sarvis reacted very negatively about it saying ‘At SLDN, we are frustrated by this last-minute filing, which could well add more delay and confusion for service members.’
Via Chris Geidner at Metro Weekly, R. Clarke Cooper, executive director of Log Cabin, called the DOJ move “shameful.”
Aravosis at AmericaBlogGay quotes Cooper: “This latest maneuver by the President continues a pattern of doublespeak that all Americans should find troubling.”
Also via Geidner:
One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Servicemembers United executive director Alex Nicholson, said in a statement provided to Metro Weekly,‘The Administration’s response to this latest development in the Log Cabin Republicans lawsuit is unfathomable and confusing.(DADT)should be completely dead by now.
On Friday, the Ninth Circuit issued a response. From Nicholson:
The Ninth Circuit did the right thing today in rejecting the core of the Obama Administration’s request to put (DADT) back into place.The situation with finally ending this outdated and discriminatory federal policy has become absolutely ridiculous. … The executive branch has been exceptionally unreasonable in the amount of time it has now let the legislative certification process drag out.
This is just the latest round from Queerdom in the Obama Version of the Oligarchy. Note the headlines to other recent stories:
Equality Matters, June 24, Kerry Eleveld: “Can Obama Bridge The Enthusiasm Gap?”
Metro Weekly, June 27, Chris Geidner: “Stunted Growth: Months after Obama announced he was ‘evolving’ on marriage equality, the process has stalled”
Washington Post, June 29, Editorial: “Time for President Obama to stand up for gay marriage.”
Dissenting Justice, June 29, Darren Hutchinson: “Why Do LGBT Activists Want Obama to Say He Supports Same-Sex Marriage?”
The Advocate, June 30, Andrew Harmon: “Obama: The Good Enough President?”
Equality Matters, July 1, Kerry Eleveld: “Why Obama Keeps Winning Gay Battles But Losing The War.”
Equality Matters, July 8, Kerry Eleveld: “Obama’s Second Chance At An LGBT Advisor.”
Log Cabin Republicans, July 11, Press Release: “Servicemembers Deserve Clarity from Obama on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’”
The stories attached to the headlines above are primarily from the Left, and critical of Obama. I did include one from Darren Hutchinson (and there are others who agree with him), that Obama is basically doing exactly what his words indicated he’d do, related to marriage. And of course the critique from the Log Cabin Republicans represents a conservative perspective. Taken together, and along with the latest DADT stupidity, it provides a snapshot of Queerdom in the Obama era of the TPFO.
A big part of the problem is the restrictions of the two party “you have nowhere else to go” structure. That means lots of finger pointing, and “my side’s better than your side” arguing – how horrible George W. Bush was; how horrible Barack Obama is. Get rid of the “other side’s” person, and then things will be different. That’s complicated by the conundrum of “what to do when ‘your’ president isn’t doing what you want.” Several problems with this, but mostly they come down to this: maintaining the structural status quo insures restricted choices. Or to put it another way, when party loyalty trumps good policy, we lose.
Among the words used in the DADT related quotes above: shameful, baffling, frustrated, doublespeak, unfathomable and confusing, outdated, discriminatory, ridiculous and unreasonable. You can add many others from the unhappy-with- Obama part of Queerdom, including Joe Sudbay’s “evolve already.” And “the gAyTM is closed,” which probably has the best chance of being heard by the Two Party Front for the Oligarchy, Obama era or otherwise.
(To listen to an interview with Log Cabin Republican Executive Director R. Clarke Cooper, recorded on July 14, visit Queer Talk Radio.)
CLICK FOR TRANSCRIPT/VIDEO (...at one point Hillary gets asked to comment on the passing of Betty Ford.)
Morning, news junkies… I’m really exhausted, so this is going to be a pretty basic rundown of links and snippets, nothing fancy or earth-shattering in the way of two cents from me.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Catherine Ashton hold a press conference at bilateral meetings at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on July 11, 2011. [STATE DEPT. PHOTO/PUBLIC DOMAIN.]
The Chicago Sun Times’ Lynn Sweet has got another photo worth catching if you missed it this week:
Also from a Grand Rapids press report: The Westboro creeps “didn’t show as threatened, but members of a group promoting tolerance came just in case with intentions of shielding the funeral from members of the Kansas-based hate group.”
Women Leaders as Agents of Change: Caribbean Regional Colloquium. (“In a personal video message, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sent her greetings and congratulations to participants and organizers. Participants received the video enthusiastically, commenting that they felt encouraged and inspired by the Secretary’s interest and support.”)
MeetRickPerry.com (TDP is still in the building stages of this site right now, so the homepage is a fundraising push at this point… but I still thought this was amusing and wanted to share.)
Via Jodi Jacobson at RH Reality Check…
NYT: The Courts Stand Up for Access to Reproductive Health Care. (“While these rulings are preliminary,” states the editorial, “each is a determination that enforcing the law would cause irreparable harm and that the plaintiffs are likely to prevail at trial.”)
Bloomberg article on Indian women in finance (h/t Dakinikat):
Top Women at India Banks Prove ICICI CEO Factory Gender Neutral. (“I never thought the banking industry was male dominated because I could see Chanda Kochhar lead such a big bank,” Mistry says in the sunlit classroom. “Chanda is my inspiration because I want to join banking.”)
In the same vein, when a politician asserts that Social Security is going bankrupt and that there will not be anything left for her children or grandchildren, serious reporters would ridicule her for being ignorant of the Social Security trustees projections. These projections show that even if nothing is ever done to change the program, future beneficiaries will always be able to collect a higher benefit than current retirees. The “nothing there for our children” would be treated as a serious gaffe, sort of like then-Senator Obama’s comment before the Pennsylvania primary about working class people being bitter and clinging to guns and religion. The difference is that the Social Security comment has direct relevance for policies that affect people’s lives. [...] If economic and political reporters applied the same sort of investigative zeal to economic and budget reporting as they did to Representative Anthony Weiner tweeting pictures of underwear, we would have a much better informed public. Not only would the news stories that we see and hear be much more informative, but politicians would be less likely to make things up to advance their political agenda.
This Day in Women’s History (July 16)
Emily Stowe... click to read bio.
1880: Emily Stowe becomes the first female physician licensed to practice medicine in Canada. From the link:
Inspired by a woman’s meeting she attended in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1876 Emily Stowe founded the Toronto Women’s Literary Club (in 1883 reorganized as the Canadian Women’s Suffrage Association). Members prepared papers on women’s professional achievements, education, and the vote. The Literary Club campaigned successfully to improve women’s working conditions. Stowe lectured on “Women’s Sphere” and “Women in the Professions.” She said that a woman “ought to understand the laws governing her own being.” Because of pressure by the Literary Club, some higher education in Toronto was made available to women—though Stowe protested that the medical course first planned for women was substandard. Stowe campaigned for better medical education for women and influenced several eminent physicians. In 1883 a public meeting of the Toronto Women’s Suffrage Association led to the creation of the Ontario Medical College for Women.
Art offers his perspective as a movement progressive activist.
As President Obama and Congressman Cantor hash out trillions in cuts, which no economist says we can afford , our POTUS has tossed in cutting Social Security benefits among other programs. Let us be clear: these SS cuts will destroy lives in ways no Republican has been able to accomplish.
By ending COLA, which uses inflation to raise your benefit payments, most Americans would see by the year their SS checks get smaller. This is immoral and cruel. And as usual which group would pay the most of a price? Women. And among women black women will pay the worst fate.
African American women are most likely to be impoverished in this country. If COLA is abolished poverty will rise sharply, especially among black women. Strengthen Social Security, the progressive org fighting to save the program, is shouting from the rooftops against cuts:
According to the National Women’s Law Center’s analysis of Current Population Survey data, in their report on how the chained CPI would affect women, the median annual Social Security benefit for a 65-year-old single African American woman is $10,680. (By contrast, the median benefit for all single senior women is $13,200.)
That puts the median benefit for African American woman seniors just above the 2010 poverty line for individual seniors, which is an obscenely low $10,458.
So right now a black single woman on average gets just above poverty levels of SS. And what happens to black women if COLA is cut?
…by age 70–after just five years of collecting Social Security benefits–the median benefit for African American single women seniors would dip below the poverty line, and continue on a downward spiral as those women age, cutting nearly $1,000 by the time they reach age 95. …
…the median benefit would go below the poverty level for non-married African American women, and that a near-majority of non-married elderly African Americans rely on Social Security for all of their income–lead to the conclusion that the chained CPI would lead to an increase in poverty among elderly African Americans.
What is more, the fact that the chained CPI’s cuts increase as beneficiaries age will be especially harmful to African American women, who live longer than African American men. Life expectancy for African American women at age 65 is 83, compared with 79 for African American men.
So if these pols get their way black women face an even harder life in America. They live longer than black men and if COLA is scrapped more will face hellish poverty.
National Women’s Law Center has done a incredible report against ending COLA. In their report they highlight, for all women, the price that would be paid if cuts are made. I urge everyone to read their report here .
A graph from Strengthen SS starkly shows that many more seniors would face many hungry days with these cuts in place:
As someone on SSI the thought of anyone getting cuts in SS pay by the year is just sickening- literally.
I do not think the public is well educated on what is being hurriedly hashed in DC despite efforts by AARP and others running ad campaigns alerting folks to cuts. So it’s our job to spread the word as much as possible on facebook, by phone, and email (use the tools email feature on this page under this post). Hound your member of congress on this issue right now. Contact list:
White House White House Comments Line: 202-456-1111
Media Matters proves once again the cable hackery of Fox News Channel.
One note to add, Keith Olbermann on Current TV has covered the Murdoch scandal every single night as their lead story.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has confirmed the F.B.I. is also investigating what connection there might be to what’s happened in the U.K. and allegations in the U.S.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., asked FBI Director Robert Mueller to investigate.
News Corp. said on Thursday that it had no comment on the FBI investigation or the possibility of congressional hearings, but the 80-year-old Murdoch said on Friday that he plans to runs advertisements to apologize.
“We are sorry for the serious wrongdoing that occurred,” the ads will read, according to CNN. “We are deeply sorry for the hurt suffered by the individuals affected.”
Listen up, sisters! Deficit hawks will eat your lunch, your kids, your jobs and your retirement. An economy without a deficit is like a fish without water. Reducing the U.S. federal deficit will make unemployment and poverty worse–way worse. And that means that women’s economic condition will deteriorate even further. – Susan F. Feiner
Are you feeling set up? Or is it snubbed? The incomprehensible motion of the shrug that Democrats are no longer interested? Greg Sargent explains why. Republicans never have been, with their new class of female political wannabes callous to the numbers, picking ideology over people, over women. Now Pres. Obama has done the same thing. Willingly, almost triumphantly, all on the wings of a “balanced approach.” Where women are concerned it’s anything but.
So, to review where women have been in the Democratic debt ceiling debacle. Pres. Obama’s debt ceiling meeting started with not one single woman in the room.
At Blair House, the old boys club meeting has consisted of Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), U.S. Senators John Kyl (R-AZ), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Max Baucus (D-MT), Reps. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who have convened for the budget negotiations with Vice President Biden, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Budget Director Jack Lew, and economic adviser Gene Sperling. Where are the women? – National Council of Women’s Organization
This received zero national attention by the media.
It’s a miracle that minority leader Nancy Pelosi pushed her way inside the meeting, but by then everything was set in concrete, which is why Pres. Obama didn’t see it as important that she was in the room in the first place.
But here’s the reality. No single group relies on the U.S. social safety net more deeply than women as we age. COLA is important to women living on a fixed income with no other way through but poverty.
A “feminist economist” Susan F. Feiner weighs in on what we’re losing, as Pres. Obama carelessly invokes words like “reality show” to describe who is prevailing in this fight, saying no one cares. To women, who is “winning” is the Washington game that impacts our lives, especially when we lose, as we have done with Pres. Obama.
Listen up, sisters! Deficit hawks will eat your lunch, your kids, your jobs and your retirement. [...] Today’s deficit hawks (and way too many Democrats are flying with this flock), fundamentally and deliberately misinform by insisting on a fictional symmetry between private sector (household and corporate) bookkeeping and the U.S. federal debt.
… Here are the facts: U.S. government borrowing creates interest-bearing assets. The bonds are bought with dollars, the interest on them is paid in dollars and, at maturity, the bonds are paid off in dollars. Since the U.S. government is both sovereign in its own currency and the sole issuer of dollars, it can never run out of them. How could it?
Don’t think printing presses here: Federal debts are paid off by Treasury clerks making a few clicks on computer keyboards—keyboards identical to the one I’m typing on now.
In contrast, families and businesses have to earn income or sell assets to get dollars to pay off debts. The federal government does not face any such constraint. It can spend as much as it likes and borrow as much as it likes. With so many people out of work—nearly 30 million and counting–and so many firms operating well below capacity, there is no danger of inflation. So, right now, government borrowing and government spending will do one thing and one thing only: It will pump up aggregate demand, call jobs into being and reduce economic pain. Our children will be better off.
Meanwhile, the ceiling limiting the federal debt is an arbitrary constraint.
[...] Fiscal austerity—aka, reducing the deficit—endangers our lives. Deficit spending lies behind virtually all the social services, public amenities, and consumer safety standards that distinguish the U.S. from Rwanda, Bangladesh or Guyana. The Chicago Tribune recently reported that Congress is “moving to eliminate the only national program that regularly screens U.S. fruits and vegetables for the type of E. coli that recently caused a deadly outbreak in Germany.” Clearly, this $4.5 million program is too expensive. (Note to reader: $4.5 million is just over half the median pay for top executives at the nation’s 200 largest firms, according to The New York Times. Executive pay is up 23 percent over 2009. What if each of these guys chipped in a measly $22,500 so the rest of us could eat untainted food?)
Pres. Obama has been the conductor revving the engine on what is now a runaway train on entitlement “reform,” using the disingenuous selling point that by everyone eating his or her peas it will come out balanced.
It’s a lie. Women will find this out the hard way.
But Pres. Obama won’t have to worry. He’ll be long gone after his disastrous Republican economic schemes have reduced the strength of the safety net elderly women need to stay out of poverty.
No big deal. Women have spouses, right? What else could they possibly need?
Research from IWPR has shown the current Social Security program is a mainstay for women, and these findings have been supported by research from other organizations. Adult women are 51 percent (27 million) of all beneficiaries, including retirees, the disabled, and the survivors of deceased workers (52.5 million). Women are more likely to rely on Social Security because they have fewer alternative sources of income, often outlive their husbands, and are more likely to be left to rear children when their husbands die or become permanently disabled. Moreover, due to the recession many women have lost home equity and savings to failing markets. Older women—and older low income populations in general—have become more economically vulnerable and dependent on Social Security benefits. – IWPR
Pres. Obama made news at the top of his news conference, while a commission on entitlements is definitely in the works, as Larry Kudlow hinted late yesterday. Greg Sargent linked to this before the news conference.
The key part of the new McConnell package is a joint committee to review entitlements in a massive deficit-reduction package. Unlike the Bowles-Simpson commission, this committee will be mandated to have a legislative outcome — an actual vote — that will occur early next year. No White House members. Evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. No outsiders. This will be the first time such a study would have an expedited procedure mandated with no amendments permitted. Also, tax reform could be air-dropped into this committee’s report. – McConnell’s Uber-Clever Debt-Deal Stratagem, by Larry Kudlow
This means that Pres. Obama has successfully launched an entitlement review as the 2012 election gears up, which would take the issue to the public, in one sense. In another sense it’s over for entitlements as we’ve known them. He also said doesn’t want to affect current beneficiaries “as much as possible,” but with those words in means some will be impacted.
As for Pres. Obama saying things didn’t get ugly, it’s laugh out loud ridiculous to expect anyone to believe this nonsense.
p.s. – In case you want to play the “reality game” and keep score on who prevailed, like I said earlier this week, Sen. McConnell’s diabolically devious plan is the winner, anyone depending on entitlements loses. More on this part later.
In an interview with The Huffington Post, former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland (D) aired his concern that the fiscal “belt-tightening” President Obama and many Democrats have pursued has effectively diminished the party’s brand. Democrats, he argued, have “allowed the center of the political debate to be shifted so far to the right that we find ourselves debating on their territory and using Republican language. It’s very troubling,” he said. – Sam Stein
It’s weird reading my own analysis repeated back to me so many months after I first wrote it.
Here’s my problem with the entire debt ceiling tango.
Now everyone is pointing fingers at majority leader Rep. Eric Cantor for being “childish” and not negotiating. It only makes him smile wider. He isn’t operating under normal rules, which surely people get by now. He deeply, honestly, truly does not care if the debt ceiling is raised and every time anyone in the establishment starts attacking him the people who support his political philosophy and economic extremism applaud wildly from the wings.
The inability for Democrats to see this coming a mile away is pretty staggering to me.
Sen. Corker wondering if the debt ceiling was the wrong place to “pick a fight” has for a bookend Pres. Obama’s proffer of cutting entitlements, which certainly has backfired, too.
Then there is the Tea Party faction who rose up and caused hell on health care, so why wouldn’t they do even worse on the debt, which is the bottom line target in their political thinking? This is in play regardless of what happens elsewhere.
No one can blame Pres. Obama for getting involved and you cannot second guess what happened once he did. But he should have known that he wouldn’t be able to make Cantor budge. So, he might as well have ignored the whole thing for all the good it’s done him or the debt ceiling talks. House Republicans will come to the same conclusion regardless of Obama’s involvement, which was set in concrete long ago.
The rest is a simple game of chicken and discipline for Pres. Obama.
Felix Salmon thinks the Republican caucus is “such an inchoate mess,” but to their thinking they’re acting on principle, which doesn’t compute given the gravity of the consequences.
All the noise surrounding what’s going on is because no one believed House Republicans following Cantor meant what they said.
I don’t know where anyone got that idea, because if you’ve looked at what’s happened since the 2010 midterms in states across this county the austerity party is going on full blast, including on women’s rights, so there’s no reason to doubt that Mr. Cantor and his followers aren’t headed in that direction too.
The debt ceiling will get passed, because it has to. Until it does Pres. Obama would have been just as well off touring factories and talking about jobs. If some brave reporter had shouted a question in his direction about the debt ceiling talks he could have simply said “that’s Congress’ job,” because that’s exactly who’s responsible for raising the debt ceiling, always has been.
It’s been like watching bad dinner theater with third tier understudies at Broadway ticket prices.
… And remember the general idea on Wall Street right now is that there will be a deal because there’s always a deal. But Wall Street works off of expectations. So if the market realizes they got this wrong, the reaction could be larger than expected. – The Tea Party and the debt ceiling, by Ezra Klein (h/t sunlight)
Bartlett said the political demise of George H.W. Bush convinced GOP leaders that tax hikes are political suicide. “And I don’t know that they’re necessarily wrong,” Bartlett said. “At some point the American public is going to have to shift their attitudes (about tax hikes), but the (Obama) administration has done nothing to bring them along.” – Debt limit stalemate forces new look at tax hike debate
This is a very sad story about a president who cherry picked his political history and like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and the Republican Right, has used his infatuation with the image of Ronald Reagan, without knowing the practical applications of the man’s politics, which never met a line he wouldn’t cross.
The short-sided stupidity of Pres. Obama’s austerity craze, which started with Simpson-Bowles, has now become a never ending, long-term, self-destructive nightmare for us all.
Capitalism Out of the Closet **UPDATED** Would we be any worse off with Stephen Colbert as president? I doubt it. Politifact has watched the video [...]
Not Disappointed in Pres. Obama **Postscript added** President Obama is now neck and neck with a generic Republican challenger in the latest Real Clear Politics [...]
Fan Politics Despite rising public concern about the federal budget deficit, Americans favor keeping Social Security and Medicare benefits as they are [...]
Good morning and welcome to Sunday!
