Monthly Archives: February 2010

DADT Activist Recalled to Active Duty

In a sign that the Obama Administration is moving steadily and firmly in the direction of repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Dan Choi, a member of the Army National Guard and Arabic translator, has been recalled to active duty.  In 2009, Choi was released from active duty because of the DADT policy.

While it is a bit disappointing that any National Guardsmen are being called to active duty, this is clearly a step forward on the coming freedom of all Americans to serve their country.  Thank you Lt. Choi.

Ho Hum

FYI:  It’s snowing… again.

Really cool time-lapsed video of snow piling up during the last storm!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMhUZAq5IxQ[/youtube]

Tuesday Open Thread

It’s Tuesday, the day before our next winter storm if the forecasters are to be believed. Tomorrow we all may be digging out our cars again and hopefully we’ll all have electricity this time. So let’s get this open thread rolling.

Greg Sargent at Plumline notices that the new media landscape – Fox as a GOP propaganda arm but still somehow considered a media outlet – is making it really easy for politicians to lie. Yes, even easier than before because now on Fox they only interview each other and never challenge.

One interesting consequence of Sarah Palin’s decision to remain part of the national conversation while refusing to undergo any media scrutiny or cross-examination is that her lying is growing increasingly blatant, casual and even effortless.

Case in point: On Fox News yesterday, Palin explained why it’s okay that Rush Limbaugh used the word “retard” even as Rahm Emanuel’s use of the term “retarded” constituted a firing offense:

PALIN: I didn’t hear Rush Limbaugh calling a group of people whom he did not agree with ‘f-ing retards’ and we did know that Rahm Emanuel has been reported, did say that. There’s a big difference there. But again, name-calling, using language that is insensitive, by anyone, male, female, Republican, Democrat, is unnecessary. It’s inappropriate. Let’s all just grow up.

So Palin’s claim is now that Rush didn’t refer to people he disagrees with by using the R-word. But of course, Rush did exactly that:

LIMBAUGH: Our political correct society is acting like some giant insult’s taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards. I mean these people, these liberal activists are kooks. They are looney tunes.

So Limbaugh did call liberal activists “retards,” as it happens. Maybe Palin’s only objection to Rahm’s reported comment is that he used the term “f–king,” and Rush didn’t?

I’m sure you’re shocked to hear that Republicans are afraid to show up to Obama’s bipartisan health care summit. They claim they’ll come if Democrats scrap a years’ worth of work and agree to adopt the Republican plan.

House Republican leaders raised the prospect “that they might refuse to participate in President Obama’s proposed health care summit if the White House chooses not to scrap the existing reform bills and start over,” the Washington Post reports.

New York Times: “It is not clear that Republicans and the White House are willing to negotiate seriously with each other, and Mr. Obama has rejected Republican demands that he start from scratch in developing health care legislation.”

Murtha the Victim of Medical Malpractice

This is potentially huge in its implications.

[Congressman] Murtha was first hospitalized with gallbladder problems in December. He had surgery Jan. 28 at the National Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Md. He went home, but was hospitalized two days later when complications developed. According to a source close to Mr. Murtha — confirming a report in Politico — doctors inadvertently cut Mr. Murtha’s intestine during the laparoscopic surgery, causing an infection.

The GOP, in its opposition to healthcare reform, tells us that healthcare in the U.S. is the best in the world, in terms of quality, and that the real culprit to rising insurance costs are frivilous malpractice lawsuits, and thus the fix to the insurance problem in this country is massive tort reform, where patient’s rights to sue for malpractice will be severely limited if not eliminated while at the same time establishing damages caps.

Now, our doctors in this country are well trained and heroic. But they also make mistakes. Indeed, if a doctor at the BETHESDA NAVAL STATION can make a mistake DURING A SURGERY ON A PREEMIMENT CONGRESSMAN, what are the chances that doctors across the land make mistakes of this magnitude every day on regular people like you and me?

Malpractice suits are a well to enforce accountability upon doctors, nurses and hospitals for their mistakes. Now, we all know that the modern day Republican Party despises accountability and responsibility, but how much will mistakes by doctors increase if doctors were not subject to malpractice suits for the mistakes they make?

Democrats To Force Vote On GOP Budget Plan

Last week, Rep. Paul Ryan presented the alternate Republican budget plan. It included privatization of Social Security and Medicare vouchers and would supposedly close the U.S. debt in 50 years. Republican leaders were fairly ambivalent about the budget since they spent all summer saying “we love Medicare.”

Democratic leaders are introducing a resolution to make the Republicans stand up and say what they really support:

A Democratic leadership source told TPMDC they are considering options for putting the Ryan plan on the floor, forcing Republicans to vote for or against a plan they don’t want to talk about. This appears to be the Ryan bill, with seven GOP co-sponsors.

While conservative groups love the plan – which cuts Social Security and Medicare benefits before effectively privatizing the entitlement programs – and Ryan says he’s willing to lose his job over presenting new policy ideas, GOP leaders are backing away.

We told you Friday the Democrats plan to force a vote on a resolution that “expresses the will of House Democrats to preserve Social Security and reaffirms our commitment to working in a bipartisan way to make common sense adjustments to strengthen the program for generations to come.”

The resolution is a way to expose fissures among House Republicans and the first real indication the Democrats plan to play hardball leading up to the 2010 midterm elections.

Some Republicans have been very enthusiastic about the plan, like GOP thinkers Rep. Marsha Blackburn and Rep. Michele Bachmann. One thing these Budget Peacocks won’t tell you is that preserving benefits for people 55+ while privatizing the rest of the system costs money. A lot of money that blows a whole in the deficit. That’s why it takes 50 years to fix the hole. Meanwhile, lifting the income cap on SS taxes completely covers the current budget hole and ensures that we don’t have to gamble with our retirement on the stock market. The voucher plan for Medicare is also inadequate because the vouchers start at $11,000 in 10 years, which is probably inadequate to buy insurance in our broken system and the indexing is very stingy. It also taxes employer health benefits, so yes, he’s raising taxes on the middle class.

The GOP budget plan is to balance the budget on the backs of the poor and middle class in order to preserve tax breaks for the rich and corporations. And now they’ll have to get up in public and vote on it. I wonder how Mike Castle will vote?

Late Night Video — Rahm Emmanuel Apologizes

The SNL version of Rahm Emmanuel apologies, that is. This is likely NSFW, but strikes me as old school SNL — taking a famous person’s weaknesses, making them funny and using that the comment on a bigger picture. There is likely no chance that they could maintain this sharpness as a regular feature, but I liked this.

“Go back to the tundra, you f*cking gimmick!” was awesome. As was calling her out for that childish Facebook business.

Answering Their Questions in Bullet Time

You know that there was some discussion of President Obama doing another version of Question Time with the Republican Senate Caucus. The response?

“We’re always happy to hear from the president, but I don’t really feel any compelling need to do it [on camera],” Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the Republicans’ chief campaign strategist, told POLITICO.

Wussies. Jon Stewart provides the perspective on what the Senate repubs are working overtime to avoid:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Q & O
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes		 Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Breaking: NJ Fire in Progress/ Fire Over!

This comes to us via an anonymous tip, and seems to be confirmed on Twitter.

Not sure yet of any details, except it looks like people have left the building.

Picture of fire truck at the building.

Picture of ladder on the roof.

Hoping everyone is OK. Updates as we get them.

Well that was fast — Ginger Gibson reports via Twitter that they are back in the building but the press is closed.

Ask Dr. Liberal: Coons is in the Club Edition

Dear Doctor Liberal,

Do you think Chris Coons has the guts to really go after Castle? I view Castle as the incumbent in this race and they say to beat an incumbent you need to make the race a referendum on the person. Can Coons do that?

Sparky

Dear Sparky,

No. Sorry to be the one to break this to you, but Coons does not have the Balzac required to make like a whacked out hippie bongo drummer on Castle’s head. You see Sparky, Coons is in the club. I’m not sure why he is running, but it is not to win a senate seat. As you correctly point out, to win a Senate seat, he would need to try to ruin Mike Castle’s reputation and people in the club don’t go there. Also, I’m pretty sure Yale Divinity students are not trained for that kind of combat.

“But Wait!” sez you, “Coons could ruin Castle’s reputation by simply telling the truth about Castle’s record.” And I reply, “You aren’t one of those liberals who still thinks that the truth has some magical power, are you?” The truth is irrelevant when going against a Republican incumbent in a post-Bush election. The only thing that matters in fighting spirit. It is fighting spirit that gets the base motivated. It is fighting spirit that makes vaguely interested people go for their credit card. It is fighting spirit that sways the undecideds.  Markell had a little more of it than Carney and look how that turned out.

But don’t take my word for it. Listen for the formal announcement. If Coons rolls out some bland horse shit about making life better for Delaware families do yourself a favor and save your money. If he goes after Castle with a pick axe in his formal announcement I promise to revisit this topic.

Ever your faithful servant,

Dr. Liberal

Corrections:
[Editor’s note – Dr. Liberal’s column was submitted last week, but not published until the day after the Super Bowl. Luckily, I made a boatload of money off of his pick.]
My record is still unblemished. But let me state categorically that the Saints will win the Super Bowl, that way there is a 50/50 chance that I may have something to correct next week.

In the meantime, you know you have a question that only the Doctor can help you with. Don’t be shy dear child. Take the red pill. Until then…

The Doctor is out!

The Running of the Hypocrites

Which is really the only name you can give the Federal government’s budget season opened by the release of President Obama’s budget blueprint last Tuesday. The plan calls for letting the BushCo tax cuts expire (except for people making less than $250K), eliminating the tax subsidies for the oil and gas industry, raising taxes on hedge fund managers; and it calls for investments in public education and college, domestic energy production, the beginning of a fund to finance health care for the uninsured. It is a pretty strong plan (I do have some reservations about some of the energy initiatives) that begins to retilt the playing field back towards the middle class.

But this post is about the astonishing hypocrisy that has welcomed this blueprint for spending. For all of the sturm and drang coming from repubs and conservative Dems both about “reining in spending”, apparently we are in for months and months of whining about not cutting *my* spending. Take a look:

Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.), for example, lashed out at Obama for “the same old big government budget that will spend too much, borrow too much, and tax too much.” He said: “I’m feeling a lot like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.”

But at the same time, Bond issued a statement criticizing Obama’s proposed cuts in the military’s C-17 aircraft program — cuts that happen to affect thousands of jobs in Missouri.

Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), called Obama’s budget “another massive budget filled with even more spending than last year’s record totals.”

But in the Lexington Herald-Leader back home, a McConnell spokesman made it clear that the senator opposes Obama’s proposal to slash coal subsidies by $2.3 billion over 10 years as part of his climate change legislation.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) slams Obama, saying that “instead of reigning in this out-of-control spending, the President has proposed a budget that would increase deficit spending by 35 percent over the next five years.”

But like other members of the Texas delegation, Cornyn takes exception to the spending cuts Obama has proposed to the NASA space program, which would affect jobs in Texas.

Or how about these:

While Senator Saxby Chambliss, Republican of Georgia, said he was all for slowing federal spending, he has no appetite for the substantial cuts in farm programs proposed in President Obama’s new budget.

Representative Todd Akin, Republican of Missouri, issued a press release simultaneously lamenting the deficit spending outlined in the new budget and protesting cuts in Pentagon projects important to his state.

And Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a fiscal conservative and a senior Republican on the Budget Committee, vowed to resist reductions in space program spending that would flow back home.

Among them was Senator Blanche Lincoln, an Arkansas Democrat who leads the Agriculture Committee.

“I am standing up for farmers and ranchers and all of rural America once again by opposing cuts that will harm the hardworking men and women who are the backbone of our rural economy,” Ms. Lincoln said in a statement that accused the White House of unfairly focusing on farm communities. “While I, too, believe we must reduce the federal deficit, we must all share in this responsibility.

Sen. Ben Nelson said Wednesday that President Barack Obama’s proposed spending freeze on nonmilitary discretionary spending is a good first step, but that more needs to be done to get the federal budget deficit under control.
[…]But when asked moments later about proposed cuts to farm payments and crop insurance, Nelson defended that spending, saying government belt-tightening must be done in a “responsible fashion.”

“These programs are essential if we want to remain independent when it comes to our own food production so that we’re not in a position where we have to import food because it can be produced cheaper in other locations,” Nelson said.

There’s probably more of where that came from. But the point here is that for all of the performance art around cutting spending, what is certainly true is that none of these legislators will be willing to make the tough decisions to get there. Cutting government spending will always and everywhere hurt some group of people, some community. But I wonder when someone will ask these folks fighting to save NASA programs if they still think that the government doesn’t create any jobs.

There are things about this budget plan that are difficult — and way past due. This country hasn’t needed farm subsidies for a very long time (at least as they are currently built); or coal and gas subsidies; or even some of the DOD programs being fought for. And it gets a little easier to ask people to share the sacrifice if in fact EVERYONE is asked to sacrifice. Besides, if you spend alot of time demagoging the deficit, you need to sell all of the cuts that come up.

Monday Open Thread

It’s post Snowgasm Monday. How many of you are at work? I had to brave the roads today. Well, let’s open this thread. What’s on your mind?

Will NY governor David Paterson be Spitzered? The hot rumor out there is that the New York Times has a very damaging story about David Paterson which they are planning to run that will force Paterson to resign.

Whispers have been building about huge news regarding New York governor David Paterson, who took office after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer. Friday, The Huffington Post noticed the growing media buzz about a forthcoming New York Times scoop, but little other information could be gleaned from the handful of anonymous sources. Now, The Business Insider is reporting exclusively that the news will drop Monday and Governor Paterson’s resignation will follow.

The New York Daily News, meanwhile, is reporting that the news is “a bombshell story about his personal life” that is “far worse than his acknowledged extramarital affair with a former state employee,” as noted by Business Insider.

This story was making the rounds yesterday, and as far as I know, there has been no story about Paterson in today’s NYT.

Embattled Illinois Lt. Gov. candidate Scott Cohen drops out of the race after previously saying that he would not:

Scott Lee Cohen, the Democratic candidate for Illinois lieutenant governor, announced last night that he is leaving the race over allegations of domestic violence and drug use.

Speaking to reporters at a Chicago bar during the Super Bowl, Cohen frequently choked up as he made the announcement.

“For the good of the people of the state of Illinois and for the Democratic Party, I will resign,” he said. The Who’s halftime performance can be heard in the background.

Illinois Democrats breathe a huge sigh of relief. In Illinois, the governor and lt. governor run on the same ticket, so Cohen’s presence would hurt the ticket. Hopefully political parties will learn to check the credentials of candidates, even if they seem unlikely to win. Cohen won by spending $2M of his own fortune in a 6-way race.

When The Punishment Doesn’t Fit The Crime, Or… It’s The Over-Reaction, Stupid

Doodling on a school desk is wrong.  Hauling a 12 year old girl out of school in handcuffs for doodling her name on her desk in erasable marker is worse.