Where The Rubber Meets The Road (2/6/09)

As reported in last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress were recorded on major roll-call votes last week (and I also posted over here)...

House

$816 billion stimulus. Voting 244-188, the House approved an $816 billion package consisting of $541 billion in new spending and $275 billion in tax relief, with most of the stimulus injected into the economy by the end of 2010, starting almost immediately with personal tax cuts in the form of credits or reduced payroll withholding - for middle-class households. The bill (HR 1) was backed by all but 11 of Democrats who voted and opposed by all 177 Republicans who voted.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: John Adler (D., N.J.), Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), and Joe Sestak (D., Pa.).

Voting no: Michael N. Castle (R., Del.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

Even though this passed the House, we should all heed the words of Paul Krugman here who tells us the following (God willing, our Senators will pull out their collective thumbs and pass this, at which point it will probably come back for a House/Senate committee before it goes to Obama)…

It’s hard to exaggerate how much economic trouble we’re in. The crisis began with housing, but the implosion of the Bush-era housing bubble has set economic dominoes falling not just in the United States, but around the world.

…

So what should Mr. Obama do? Count me among those who think that the president made a big mistake in his initial approach, that his attempts to transcend partisanship ended up empowering politicians who take their marching orders from Rush Limbaugh. What matters now, however, is what he does next.

It’s time for Mr. Obama to go on the offensive. Above all, he must not shy away from pointing out that those who stand in the way of his plan, in the name of a discredited economic philosophy, are putting the nation’s future at risk. The American economy is on the edge of catastrophe, and much of the Republican Party is trying to push it over that edge.

And in case anyone was wondering where our corporate media was lining up on this (why should you have a question?), this is food for thought (h/t Eschaton).

Republican stimulus plan. Voting 170-266, the House defeated a Republican alternative to HR 1 (above) that proposed a stimulus comprised almost totally of personal tax cuts for all brackets, wide-ranging business tax cuts, and extended jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed. The amendment sought to strip the bill of most of its spending programs other than unemployment benefits.

A yes vote backed the GOP substitute.

Voting yes: Dent, Gerlach and Pitts.

Voting no: Adler, Andrews, Brady, Castle, Fattah, Holden, LoBiondo, Murphy, Schwartz, Sestak and Smith.

As long as Castle, LoBiondo and Smith voted against the stimulus, you would think they’d have the guts to at least go on record in support of the GOP’s idiotic non-alternative.

Amtrak funding. Members refused, 116-320, to strip HR 1 (above) of $800 million for capital improvements at Amtrak, the federally subsidized rail passenger service.

A yes vote backed the amendment.

Voting yes: Pitts.

Voting no: Adler, Andrews, Brady, Castle, Dent, Fattah, Gerlach, Holden, LoBiondo, Murphy, Schwartz, Sestak and Smith.

I guess as far as “Pancake Joe” is concerned, the "choo choo" doesn’t pass through PA-16.

Lilly Ledbetter Act. Voting 250-177, the House gave final congressional approval to a bill (S 181) making it easier for plaintiffs to file pay-discrimination suits under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act then became the first bill that President Obama signed into law, The bill would permit claims to be filed within 180 days of the latest incident of pay discrimination, nullifying a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which required claims to be filed within 180 days of the first infraction.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Adler, Andrews, Brady, Fattah, Holden, Murphy, Schwartz, Sestak, and Smith.

Voting no: Castle, Dent, Gerlach, LoBiondo and Pitts.

Lots of good stuff about this which I alluded to last week here (and if you want to give yourself a headache for some reason, conservative quota hire Christine Flowers of the Philadelphia Daily News took her typical cheap shots at it today).

Digital TV delay. Voting 258-168, the House failed to reach the two-thirds majority needed to pass a bill (S 328) that would delay from Feb. 17 to June 12 the national deadline for converting over-the-air U.S. television signals from analog to digital. An estimated 6.5 million households still have not installed converter boxes on their sets. Already passed by the Senate, the bill is likely to be considered again under rules requiring a simple majority for passage.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Andrews, Brady, Fattah, LoBiondo, Murphy, Schwartz, Sestak, and Smith.

Voting no: Castle, Dent, Gerlach, Holden and Pitts.

The deadline was eventually pushed back by a vote a couple of days ago, as noted here (interesting vote by “Democrat” Tim Holden, by the way).

Senate

Secretary of Treasury Geithner. Voting 60-34, the Senate confirmed Timothy F. Geithner, 47, the head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, as the nation's 75th Treasury secretary. Geithner drew opposition mainly over his admitted failure to pay $42,702 in back taxes and interest until after President Obama selected him for the post.

A yes vote was to confirm Geithner.

Voting yes: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey Jr. (D., Pa.), Ted Kaufman (D., Del.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), and Robert Menendez (D., N.J.).

Voting no: Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).

And by the way (as noted here), Specter flip-flopped on the vote, first saying he would support Geithner before opposing him; usually at this point I say “Screw you, Arlen” for a vote like this, but I’ll be honest with you – I have to admit that I’m concerned about Geithner a bit, based on this (another h/t Eschaton…simply put, the message is to do what TARP was originally supposed to do, and that is to round up the bad assets, get them off the books of these institutions, and then have we taxpayers foot the bill for fair value, and I’m not at all sure that that’s what Geithner has in mind).

Children's health insurance. Voting 66-32 against, the Senate sent to conference with the House a bill (HR 2) expanding State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) coverage from 6.6 million children to about 11 million children. The bill would renew SCHIP for five years at a cost of $60 billion, up nearly $35 billion from current levels, and raise federal tobacco taxes from 39 cents per pack to $1 per pack to pay the added costs.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Carper, Casey, Kaufman, Lautenberg, Menendez and Specter.

Roe v. Wade. Senators rejected, 39-59, an amendment to HR 2 (above) to write into law a Bush administration regulation for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that defines life as beginning at inception. Under Roe v. Wade, a fetus does not gain viability until approximately the third trimester of pregnancy. Backers called the amendment necessary to protect life, while foes noted that SCHIP already covers pregnant women.

A yes vote backed the amendment.

Voting yes: Casey.

Voting no: Carper, Kaufman, Lautenberg, Menendez, and Specter.

I communicated with Casey and asked him to support the Freedom of Choice Act, and he said he would not. I recognize that this is a good-faith difference of opinion, though, and I would be inclined to support this as part of being “pro-life” if I trusted the anti-choicers to NOT use it to chip away at Roe v. Wade with the ultimate goal of criminalizing women and healthcare providers for seeking and/or performing abortions. And of course, I don’t.

Update 2/7/09: And by the way, speaking of Casey, kudos to him and Byron Dorgan for this (to be fair, though, KBR has profited from Democrats also, notably Lyndon Johnson years ago).

This week, the House debated $400 billion in fiscal 2009 appropriations, while the Senate took up the nearly $900 billion economic stimulus package.

Thursday Stuff

K.O. takes down "Deadeye Dick" in a "Special Comment" tonight (Cheney is a delusional old man and nothing more - glad MSNBC appears to have fixed their videos)...



...Thirty Seconds To Mars ("The Kill").

These Are The Stakes

This is what leadership looks like.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Wednesday Stuff

(Another questionable posting day tomorrow, by the way...)

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont was dead-on right again in proposing capping executive pay at $400G last year, as Rachel Maddow notes, with Obama now on board with a figure closer to $500G (both are still way too damn much money IMHO, but as Sanders says, it's better than nothing).



(Oh, and Sanders has a first-rate idea about investigating all of the bad actors involved here, and while I'm sure Elizabeth Warren is quite good, this is a job where we need all the expertise we can get.

So...let's not forget that this guy, baggage and all, has some time on his hands these days, OK?)...

...and you MUST see this; Dem U.S. House Rep Gary Ackerman of New York of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises (that's a mouthful!) absolutely lays into some SEC reps over the Bernie Madoff meltdown (and Ackerman is referencing the testimony of Harry Markopolos, an independent financial fraud investigator for institutional investors and others seeking forensic accounting expertise, by the way, as noted here)...



...Architecture in Helsinki ("That Beep"; I think someone ought to tie Richard Fuld, John Thain, Madoff et al to chairs and make them watch this video for about 20 hours straight; I'd like to see the result)...



...and as a tribute to Hank Crawford, here's "Don't Cry Baby" on "Night Music" with David Sanborn....



...and one more thing; Amadou Diallo died ten years ago today.

More Wednesday Stimulus Wingnuttery

Yep, our local Bucks County Courier Times was really in full-on umbrage mode over the stimulus today, as noted here (I can’t recall the exact wording of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s quote that the paper rather sloppily failed to copy to its web version of the editorial, but I have a feeling it has something to do with this - and I also posted here).

And the paper listed six items in particular from Obama’s stimulus to which it took offense, and I’ll do my best to respond accordingly here.

1) $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts to assist struggling museums and galleries.

Here’s a NY Times story about the budgeting proposal, and here are some excerpts from the comments…

Arts infrastructure comprises those things which foster the arts, including funding, physical assets, programmes, groups, organisations and suppliers.

If you have the time, please join in signing the ‘Secretary of the Arts’ (or “Secretary of Culture”) petition here (two hundred fifteen thousand signees so far, and counting…)

...

Arts infrastructure is places like Lincoln Center. Look at New York’s upper west side 30 and 40 years out from the creation of Lincoln Center. Lincoln Center is now surrounded by skyscrapers filled with business and households. It was all born from that. This is only one example of many. Look outside the USA at the “arts infrastructure” at the Guggenheim Bilbao. It put Bilbao on the map. The Guggenheim Bilbao turned everything up for that city in Spain. Arts infrastructure is basic. It’s a no brainer.

...

In major cities like Los Angeles funding for the arts keeps kids off the streets, out of gangs and helps bring beauty to the concrete jungle in the form of public art murals. (Many of which were painted years ago on freeway walls by talented artists.)

The last administration took away as much funding for the arts as they could without public outcry. The murals in Los Angeles are demoralizing a reminder of this travesty everyday- defaced with graffiti by kids frustrated with the system that let them fall through the cracks.

Let art rise up and our cities shine with the vision of our children’s creativity. Art is urbane, Art is dignity.

And as noted from here…

To get the United States out of the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt launched various stimulus programs to get people to back to work, most importantly, from 1935 to 1943, the Works Progress Administration (WPA). As part of the WPA, the Federal Arts Project (FAP) created work for 5,000 of America's best artists who painted murals and posters, sculpted and created more than 225,000 works of art, mainly in state and local government buildings. (Contrast that 225,000 number over eight years with the just 119,000 grants by the NEA over 38 years, and you can get an idea of the scope.)

Here is another item that earned the wrath of the Courier Times...

2) $650 million for additional digital TV conversion coupons.

As noted in this article...

Congress mandated the February 17 switch to digital television, which will affect some 20 million consumers who do not already use the technology. Owners of older television sets receiving over-the-air signals must buy converter boxes, replace their TVs with digital models, or subscribe to satellite or digital cable service.

But the government has said it had run out of $40 discount coupons for consumers to help pay for converter boxes needed to keep their sets from going blank, leading to calls for delaying the analog switch-off and for more money in the economic stimulus package for the program.

And by the way, if you have access to the New York Times and want to read more about what a fiasco the digital conversion became under the 109th Repug Congress in 2005, Gail Collins wrote a great column about that here (the conversion has now been delayed, as noted here).

Continuing...

3) $87 million for expanded family planning services.

Uh, Courier Times Editorial Board? You might want to read this.

Continuing...

4) $400 million for global warming research.

(This request also is noted here.)

Yeah, well, this is partly to undo the damage done by that idiot Michael Griffin; as noted here...

During the tenure of Michael Griffin as Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, cost overruns and delays in the human space flight program and the shifting of NASA’s priorities to satisfy President Bush’s emphasis on planning to send astronauts to Mars went hand in hand with the deterioration of NASA’s program to study Planet Earth—cuts in the agency’s Earth Science budget, the degradation of the satellite-based climate observing system, and even the deletion from NASA’s official mission statement of the idea of protecting our home planet.

Continuing...

5) $600 million to buy new cars for government workers.

Uh, yeah, Courier Times, this is pretty stoo-pid too, isn’t it?

Let’s see, we're building new hybrid vehicles for government workers, right? Well then, let's give the contract to one of the big three and ensure assembly line jobs for awhile (solving one problem), building vehicles with less of a “carbon footprint” (solving another problem). A real “waste,” huh?

Also (from here)…

On the roads, Obama promises one million hybrid cars by 2015. Half of all government vehicles will be hybrids or all electric by 2012 and consumers will be rewarded for buying “advanced vehicles” with 7000 dollars in tax credits. To encourage the carmakers, federal aid to help pay their enormous healthcare obligations will be linked to investment in fuel-efficient vehicles.

Meanwhile, Obama’s National Low Carbon Fuel Standard would cut carbon emissions from vehicle fuels by 10 percent by 2020 and require all new cars to have flex-fuel capacity so they can run on a mixture of gasoline and biofuels.

And funding for new government vehicles is part of that.

Finally…

6) $300 million for increased teacher salaries.

(A note to some of the uninitiated concerning Courier Times editorial content: their favorite targets are Planned Parenthood, teachers unions, and the “Democrat” Party in general, particularly Patrick Murphy over disclosed congressional earmarks. It had been at least four or five days since they’ve written anything bad about teachers, so they were due here.)

This story tells us that, “Obama also wants to create at least 15,000 new teacher and teaching assistant jobs” through stimulus spending. The money for those jobs has to come from somewhere.

See, in addition to helping to put people to work, the stimulus bill is meant to prepare this country for the challenges of competing in a 21st-century economy. I seem to recall Obama coming back to that point over and over again during his campaign, and as long as we have this crisis we need to resolve, why not use it as an opportunity to address a need we would have had to face anyway?

(The editorial also wonders why the stimulus contains funding for Medicaid; the states need help given depleted revenues, people can't work if they're sick and have no coverage...this is a recording.)

I know it’s hard for the Courier Times to understand, but after eight years of profligate waste and fraud from President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History and his pals, the adults are back in charge trying to clean everything up, even if it means “thinking outside the box” as far as the paper's august editorial board is concerned.

And I realize it is incumbent on me to make that case every chance I get. I only wish more members of the current majority political party in this country would do the same thing once in a while.

Tuesday Stuff

Norah O'Donnell is a bubblehead; I'm not featuring this clip to give undue attention to her or Andrea Mitchell, but to set up some other stuff.

Yes, this is the New York Times editorial noted in the report. Yes, Daschle majorly screwed up on his taxes, but he made amends, as did Tim Geithner. Can someone explain to me what "the rules" are in situations like this so we'll know the next time they're abused by a Repug?

Oh, and O'Donnell conveniently mentions Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood as the most recent individuals who've had to bow out of cabinet positions for some sort of impropriety, during those supposedly terrible Clinton years, of course. Which is only right, because this stuff only happens to Dems...sure it does.

Finally, if anyone out there has an urge to criticize Obama over this, read every word of this terrific post by DarkSyde at The Daily Kos before you do...



...also, I must tell you that this post today from eRobin (h/t Avedon Carol at Eschaton) has been much on my mind; the last time I saw our corporate media cousins slinging this much BS over the stimulus was in the aftermath of the "bitter, guns, clinging" nonsense, and they can generate it faster than we can throw it back at them (this fine post from Arianna Huffington notwithstanding).

Most of us know people who are suffering. Many of us are worried we might be next. And still more of us think that it's time more of our elected representatives started acting like Barney Frank and less like Jim DeMint.

And with all of this in mind, I heard this song on my way home tonight and thought it was appropriate ("Right Now," by Van Halen; I think Sammy Hagar did a good job, though of course David Lee Roth cast a long shadow - and please disregard the last :48).

Journos Behaving Badly

The New York Times tells us today about members of the fourth estate transitioning over to the Obama Administration (here – and you guessed it; I also posted over here)…

WASHINGTON — Republicans have long accused mainstream journalists of being on the payroll of President Obama and the Democratic Party, a common refrain of favoritism especially from those on the losing end of an election (see Bush vs. Gore, Clinton vs. Bush and Bush vs. Dukakis).

But this year the accusation has a new twist: In some notable cases it has become true, with several prominent journalists now on the payrolls of Mr. Obama and the Democratic Congressional leadership.

An unusual number of journalists from prominent, mainstream organizations started new government jobs in January, providing new kindling to the debate over whether Mr. Obama is receiving unusually favorable treatment in the news media.

These are not opinionated talkers in the vein of Chris Matthews, the MSNBC host who last year flirted with a run for the Democratic nomination for the Senate — and who more recently said he would do “everything I can to make this thing work” for Mr. Obama.

Yep, Matthews said that (here) – a laudable sentiment, even if it is inappropriate for someone purporting to comment on the news.

In the story, Times reporter Jim Rutenberg points out that former Time correspondent Jay Carney accepted a position as communications director for Vice President Joe Biden, CNN correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in the running for surgeon general (currently taking heat from House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, as noted here – losing both Gupta AND Tom Daschle would definitely be a blow to Obama’s health care initiative, though he has plenty of good people to fall back on) and Douglas Frantz, former managing editor of the LA Times, has gone to work for Sen. John Kerry.

The story continues…

The changes also give fodder to conservatives who have long complained that mainstream journalists are sympathetic to the views of Democrats.

“It is, I think, indicative of a certain affinity,” said Richard Lowry, the editor of National Review. “You would not have seen so many people from mainstream outfits going to work for John McCain.”

Mr. Lowry did not dispute, however, that a McCain administration could have been a job destination for mainstream journalists if he had won in 2000, when he began to refer to reporters as his “base,” a label that fell away in the 2008 campaign.

And as noted here, Rich Lowry is a paragon of media integrity (please).

I don’t think Rutenberg is necessarily “painting with a broad brush” here in an attempt to malign his fellow press mates. A bit of healthy skepticism towards the press when it seems to be favoring one candidate over another in its coverage is a good thing.

However, until the Obama people decide to grant access to a supposed “reporter” who is in fact a political flunky (pictured above) or pay off a member of the punditocracy who is allegedly “fair and balanced” to report his spin as fact (here), I won’t consider the media relations with Obama and his people to be much of an issue.

Monday Stuff

Posting is questionable for tomorrow; I just don't know at the moment.

In the meantime, the audio for this could be better, but THANK GOD Barney Frank "named the 900-pound Gorilla" here (h/t The Daily Kos).

And by the way, I don't know who is stupider: Jim DeMint...



...or Glenn Beck (here - love and kisses to you too, Neil)...



...oh, and say hello to Michael ("No Government Has Created A Job, Ever") Steele, the new head of the RNC (yep, he's a 'head, all right - actually, I think fellow Repug Ken "Let's Disenfranchise Ohio Democrats in 2004" Blackwell's comments were a lot closer to what the Repugs are really all about on this here)...



...and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of "The Day The Music Died," here's Buddy Holly and the Crickets performing "Peggy Sue" on the Arthur Murray Dance Party on 12/29/57 (Wow, that sure looked like a swingin' time, didn't it? And by the way, I think the biopic with Gary Busey in the '70s was the best on Holly and the band).

("Rock n' Roll specialists"...too funny.)

Today's Stimulus Bill Nonsense

(And I also posted here on an unrelated local matter.)

So Senator John McCain tells the Democrats here that they need to “seriously negotiate” on the stimulus bill, huh (with “seriously negotiate” being Republican-ese for “larding up the bill with tax cuts as opposed to legitimate infrastructure spending”).

That’s way too damn funny coming from the guy who said he would suspend his presidential campaign last year “to focus on the economy,” as noted here (and we know how THAT turned out - I promised I wouldn’t call him John W. McBush any more after the election, but if he keeps this up, I may go back on that).

(Oh, and by the way, sorry about your home-state team’s Super Bowl loss yesterday, Senator, though they put up a fight, I must admit.)

And after Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao “mov(ed) the goalposts,” as noted here by TPM (i.e., he said a month ago that an “omnibus appropriations bill” would take the place of the stimulus bill currently being proposed, which is an act of political gamesmanship given what we currently face), he now states that, basically, he would filibuster the current stimulus bill (here).

(And isn't THIS precious...what a joke!)

Also, Our Man Arlen Specter said today on a local radio talk show that he, in so many words, would oppose the stimulus bill because he wanted funding for light rail from Scranton to New York City, which apparently isn’t included (yes, but the funding for that laudable project has already been approved, as noted here).

Venturing intro Crazyland, this tells us that Tennessee House Repug Zach Wamp and Dem (!) Lincoln Davis want stimulus funding to “ease the burden of Tennessee Valley Authority ratepayers for the $1 million-a-day cost of cleaning up more than 1 billion gallons of sludge and ash that spilled from a containment pond at the agency's Kingston plant in late December” (makes sense to me, though that state’s Repug Senator Bob “Let’s Kill The UAW” Corker opposes it, even though the project puts people to work cleaning up the site).

And over in South Carolina, Repug Senator Jim DeMint proposes a “plan” here blessed by the Heritage Foundation that could generate 1.3 million jobs, which is exactly half of what we lost in this country last year alone – it isn’t even close to a “break-even” proposition!

And hardly to be outdone, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma says here that the stimulus bill is “generational theft,” which is particularly funny given that the infamous 109th Congress (of which Coburn was most definitely a part) helped ensure the largest unified budget deficits in our history as of 2005, as noted here (the blue bar chart speaks volumes about which president was fiscally prudent and which one lavished budget-busting tax cuts for his “base”).

And how are the Repug governors handling this? Well, as William Yardley of the New York Times told us here yesterday (in a column including excerpts from 12 “State of the State” gubernatorial addresses), Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue said…

Political mantras aside, cutting more than 10 percent from a budget cannot be achieved by simply cutting waste. While we have worked for six years to do more with less, at some point, in business or in government, it becomes less with less.

The job of budgeting is hard right now, but it’s not because the directions are complicated. Like families sitting around their kitchen tables all over Georgia, we are doing what is necessary to balance our checkbook. As I look within, I find something within the human constitution that bounces back, something within this collective American spirit that rebuilds.

Nice sounding words, but not a hint of bipartisanship in them of course; maybe Perdue could pray for a balanced budget, as he did here when his state suffered a drought brought on by his own bad planning.

And as far as Repug Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana is concerned, he used his address to beat up the states of Ohio and Illinois (nice guy - yeah, we all know about Blago, but give me a break!)…

As recently as 2007, an essayist wrote: “More than any state I know of, Indiana suffers from a crippling inferiority complex. Hoosiers struggle desperately to prove to themselves and the world that they have a higher function than simply filling up the space between Cincinnati and Chicago.”

That’s Cincinnati, as in Ohio, with its $7 billion deficit and downgraded credit rating, begging Washington for a massive handout. That’s Chicago, as in Illinois, a perennial ethical embarrassment where the government is floating billions in suspect paper just to pay its back bills.

Across America tonight, there are dozens of states that would gladly change places with Indiana. We are fiscally steady; they are crawling to Congress for bailouts.

Yeah, well, Mitch didn’t do such a hot job when he ran Dubya’s OMB; as Wikipedia tells us here…

In 2002, Daniels helped discredit a report by Assistant to the President on Economic Policy Lawrence B. Lindsey estimating the cost of the Iraq War at between $100-$200 billion. Daniels called this estimate "very, very high" and stated that the costs would be between $50-$60 billion.[9] As of 2007, the cost of the invasion and occupation of Iraq has exceeded $400 billion, and the Congressional Budget Office in August 2007 estimated that appropriations would eventually reach $1 trillion or more.[10]

Oh, and let’s not forget Just Plain Folks Sarah Palin who, according to her speech, said that…

…when challenges may seem as high as Mount McKinley, and change as constant as the mighty Yukon flows, and political events send shockwaves through our foundation like the ’64 quake — what do Alaskans do? We climb Denali, we forge the river, we rebuild a stronger foundation on higher ground. When it matters most, lesser differences fall away. Just like family, Alaskans unite.

And they also band together to lobby for their share of the stimulus, apparently, based on this story, even though they’re awash in oil-related revenue, dontcha know.

(The Yardley story also quotes South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who of course laments on and on about his state’s debt, saying “I told you so,” which really doesn’t do much good at this point – I got into Sanford’s own brand of money mismanagement here.)

As Frank Rich noted here yesterday in the New York Times, “The (Repug) party’s sole consistent ambition is to play petty politics to gum up the works.”

Were our economy not sinking like the proverbial stone, this would be funny. But more fool them for not realizing that this is no time for gamesmanship.

Friday Stuff

"Worst Persons" time (the volume is a little off), with K.O. telling us that Flush Limbore bloviated recently about ACORN supposedly getting $4.19 billion from the stimulus bill, which is typically wrong - the money is for "non-profit housing developers to help purchase, rehab, and resell foreclosed properties" (of course, as Keith notes, Limbore could actually bid for some of it if he weren't so busy lying about it); Bill Orally blames Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan for telling NATO to curtail its bombing activities because it's killing too many Afghan civilians - of course, SecDef Bob Gates thinks Karzai is right, and Billo is typically wrong as well (Keith forgot his Billo voice here); the winner (?), though, is Bernard Goldberg, formerly of CBS News, who, as K.O. notes, doctored a transcript of Tom Brokaw talking to Charlie Rose, putting words into Brokaw's mouth from a wholly other question in that interview - nice - even though Goldberg claims that the media "jumped the shark" on Obama (superb takedown by K.O. on this cretin who truly deserves it)...



...and as a tribute to keyboardist Billy Powell of Lynyrd Skynyrd, here's "That Smell," performed with what I guess would be the band's most recent incarnation at Rockpalast in 1996 (the original band with Ronnie Van Zant is featured in a video from here, performing "Gimme Three Steps").

Where The Rubber Meets The Road (1/30/09)

As reported in last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress were recorded on major roll-call votes last week (and I also posted over here - a little late due to technical difficulties).

House

Tighter bailout rules. Voting 260-166, the House passed a bill (HR 384) setting stricter rules for the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). The Senate will not take up the bill, relying instead on Obama administration pledges to tighten up the program.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: John Adler (D., N.J.), Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Michael N. Castle (R., Del.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), and Joe Sestak (D., Pa.).

Voting no: Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

Typical partisan, party-line BS, and here’s more (and I have to tell you that I’m not entirely sure of the reason for the disconnect here between the House and the Senate; if Harry Reid and company are looking for both efficiency and expediency on this, they may end up with neither).

Senate

Secretary of State Clinton. Voting 94-2, the Senate confirmed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D., N.Y.) as the 67th U.S. secretary of state.

A yes vote was to confirm Clinton.

Voting yes: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Ted Kaufman (D., Del.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), and Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).

(And by the way, allow me to welcome Ted Kaufman of Delaware to the festivities, taking over for Joe Biden while Biden’s son Beau serves in Iraq and then, in all probability, prepares to run for his dad’s seat when he returns, God willing.)

Oh, and the two numbskulls who voted against HRC’s confirmation were Diaper Dave Vitter and Jim DeMint, as noted here (the latter has truly been “covering himself in glory” lately).

Pay-bias suits. Voting 61-36, the Senate passed a bill (S 181) giving plaintiffs greater standing to file suits alleging pay discrimination. The bill would permit claims to be filed within 180 days of the latest infraction. This would nullify a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which requires pay-bias suits to be filed within 180 days of the first infraction. This vote sent the bill back to the House.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Carper, Casey, Kaufman, Lautenberg, Menendez and Specter.

And thus closes yet another horrendous chapter in the annals of Hangin’ Judge J.R.’s Supreme Court (and the bill is now law, as noted here).

GOP pay-bias plan. Voting 40-55, the Senate defeated a bid by Republicans to narrow the statute of limitations in S 181 (above) for filing pay-bias claims. The GOP sought to require claims to be filed within 180 days of the time the plaintiff first knew or should have known of the alleged discrimination.

A yes vote backed the amendment.

Voting yes: Specter.

Voting no: Carper, Casey, Kaufman, Lautenberg and Menendez.

Some “plan”; all that would have done was to validate the original bogus ruling by the Roberts court that generated the response leading to the Ledbetter law.

As always, screw you, Arlen (if you really opposed Ledbetter, then do so honestly and vote No to S181 for the record as long as you support the watered-down "alternative").

Right-to-work laws. Voting 66-31, senators tabled (killed) a proposal to add a federal right-to-work law to S 181 (above). Twenty-two states now have right-to-work laws, which make it illegal to require union membership or the paying of union dues as a condition of employment.

A yes vote opposed the amendment.

Voting yes: Carper, Casey, Kaufman, Lautenberg, Menendez and Specter.

Not much to think about here, people; so-called “right to work” laws are nothing but attacks on unions, couched in typical Republican-ese.

This week, the House took up an $850 billion economic-stimulus package, while the Senate debated expansion of children's health insurance and voted on Obama administration appointees.

Thursday Stuff

Bye Blago; can't say I'll miss ya' (wonder if Bobby Rush will have any luck trying to suck up to the new "guv"?)...



...and what a shame that Chip Saltsman has apparently dropped out of the running for the RNC chairmanship; I mean, he represents them perfectly, as kos notes here (including this little gem)...



...I haven't checked in with K.O. for a little while now; here's "Worst Persons" from Monday (former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich slams Flush Limbore, Sean Inanity AND Michelle Malkin - haven't come up with a parody nickname for her yet; Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit tries to buy a luxury corporate jet with our bailout money - hmmm, doesn't his name rhyme with "bandit"...just wondering; and former Lehman Brothers Chairman Richard S. Fuld, Jr. hides assets from creditors by transferring them to his wife, gratis of course - real nice)...



...Seether ("Breakdown"; awesome song and a really cool vid).

“Post Partisanship” From Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao

Even though his wife is now out of a job, that doesn’t mean that the Senate’s Minority Leader isn't still obstructing away, of course (heckuva job to send him back last year, Kentucky voters – you gonna extend the same privilege to Senator “I Hear Voices” too next year?).

With this in mind, I give you this story, featuring Mitch McConnell supposedly believing that the GOP must “change” (and if you believe that, I’ve got a book of updated safety workplace regulations from Dubya’s Department of Labor to sell to you…and speaking of Former Commander Clueless, I also posted over here.)…

However, this doesn’t sound like “change” in any way, shape, or form (from here)…

Top Senate Republicans are raising doubts about the Senate version of the (recently passed by the House with zero Repug votes stimulus) package, which is approaching $900 billion. "In a time of trillion-dollar deficits, we cannot afford Washington business-as-usual," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said Thursday. "Are these projects really necessary? Will they stimulate the economy? Should we ask the American people to foot the bill?"

Actually, this story tells us that the American people have already been asked…

A national poll released today shows that 94 percent of Americans support a national effort to build up the country's infrastructure. Meanwhile, 81 percent of Americans say they are prepared to pay 1 percent more in federal taxes to support infrastructure projects. (Separately, a new Gallup Poll finds that a slim majority of Americans, 53 percent, support a $775 million stimulus package of the type Barack Obama described in a speech (on January 8th).)

And by the way, speaking of the stimulus, the king of the “Roadblock Republicans” said here that “he didn’t think [the stimulus is] going to have any problem getting over 60 votes,” even though (as you can plainly see from the headline) McConnell’s Repug colleague, the even-more-clueless Jim DeMint of South Carolina, predicted the stimulus package would get “zero” votes, adding to the illustrious legacy he’s helped to build here and here (where he said there would be riots in Detroit if the automaker loans were approved; I don’t call that a bailout since the funding was already agreed upon for retooling, but will be used to insure GM and Chrysler’s solvency instead).

And returning to the matter of McConnell and his beloved Graying Obstructionist Party in the AP story (really “ruled” by these characters, let’s not forget), we read this…

McConnell called for the GOP to embrace its conservative tenants – and resist diluting its message – to bring people back and attract new rank-and-file, saying: "Our principles are universal. They apply to everyone."

If he wants to believe that, fine. However, this Daily Kos post from last April (citing a Pew Research study that really doesn’t leave room for doubt on which way younger voters are going in this country) features the following from Ezra Klein…

Political scientists argue that the more often someone votes for a party, the more that preference gets locked in. Each vote marginally increases your personal identification with the party you pulled the lever for. Three election cycles, and you're probably a partisan for life, or something near to it. Which means an advantage like this (for the Dems), though potentially temporary, also opens the door to a more enduring electoral edge with this generation.

And as long as McConnell and his beloved Repugs keep fighting the stimulus, to say nothing of squabbling with Obama and the Dems on the Iraq war, Afghanistan, and a whole host of other issues, that trend will never change.

Wednesday Stuff

Wow, is this silly; kudos to John Coleman for saying he'd do it again...



...and even more ridiculous is the fact that the stimulus bill passed the House without a single Repug voting for it (sorry to besmirch Groucho by associating him with these cretins, but this tune sure does fit - somebody tell me when this "post-partisanship" phase starts, because I apparently didn't get the memo)...



...and I'm so glad Bill Orally doesn't report rumors, aren't you (h/t Crooks and Liars)...

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

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...and this story tells us that the former Cat Stevens will perform "The Day The World Gets Round" by George Harrison to benefit the children of Gaza shelled by the Israelis; here's a clip of the original tune by "the quiet Beatle" with a video tribute.

Amnesia At Our Peril

I have to admit that I was stunned to read this “Point/Counterpoint” feature in the LA Times yesterday between Susan Estrich and Hugh Hewitt on the subject of investigating Dubya and his pals for “break(ing) the law in fighting terrorism,” not because I expected anything but utter wankery from Hugh Hewitt, but because I expected Estrich to amount at least a token defense, given that she’s the “liberal” here (silly me - and I also posted here).

Here she is…

I don't approve of torture, detaining people without charges or warrantless wiretapping without some form of judicial review or approval. I don't believe that the Constitution grants the executive virtually unlimited powers even in the pursuit of the horrors of terrorism. I'm actually sentimental enough to get shivers up my spine when I hear the stories of the acting U.S. attorney general and the FBI director racing to the hospital bed of the seriously ill then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft in 2004 to warn him not to sign the directive the White House chief of staff was bringing over. That directive was a reauthorization of a blatantly unconstitutional assault on individual liberties and freedom in the name of fighting terrorism.

But the punch line, as we both know, is that Ashcroft didn't sign off on the White House's secret surveillance program. The president, reportedly having been kept in the dark by folks in his own administration and facing mass resignations from lawyers who belong to a different political party than I do but swear allegiance to the same Constitution, revised the program. The good guys won. The Constitution lives.

Glenn Greenwald, in another typically thorough post, gives us all the particulars of how former Bushco AG Abu Gonzales did his best to keep Deputy AG James Comey from testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee and thus keep hidden the story of Comey’s visit, along with FBI Director Robert Mueller, to the hospital room where then-AG John Ashcroft was recovering from a gall bladder condition on March 10, 2004. The point of Comey/Mueller’s visit, of course, was to help Ashcroft resist pressure from then-Bush White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Gonzales from approving the warrantless wiretapping program.

However, according to TPM Muckraker here…

When Comey went in on that Friday, March 12th to give the White House its customary morning briefing, Comey said that the president pulled him aside. They had a 15 minute private meeting, the content of which Comey would not divulge. But Comey did suggest at the conclusion of that conversation that the president speak with FBI Director Mueller. And so that meeting followed. Following that meeting, Comey said that Mueller brought word that the Justice Department was to do whatever was "necessary" to make the program into one that the Justice Department could sign off on.

Comey said that it took two to three weeks for the Justice Department to do the analysis necessary to have the program approved. During that time, the program went on without Justice Department approval. But following the Justice Department's suggested changes, the Justice Department (either Ashcroft or Comey) did sign off on the program.

And of course, as we know, the 110th Congress codified the lawbreaking of the happily-now-departed Bushco cabal here by passing its utter sham of a FISA bill (here).

So I guess, to Estrich’s thinking, the Constitution “lives” indeed – without the Fourth Amendment, that is.

She also tells us this…

That's how the story should end. I don't need their heads. I don't believe John Yoo and his colleagues deserve to be in prison. That isn't what criminal law is about. That isn't how the system we all swear allegiance to is supposed to work.

For those who don't know, Yoo was the White House lawyer whose job it was to come up with fancy legal justifications for blatantly unconstitutional programs, which were then promoted by others. He and those who worked with him and followed his advice are guilty of twisting the Constitution -- abusing it, even. Our founding fathers -- who, unlike us, actually lived under tyranny -- took some care to prohibit it. If Yoo and company had had their way, the founding fathers' efforts would have been for naught.

All the more reason to haul Yoo’s ass in front of a war crimes tribunal, IMHO, along with Dubya, Rummy, and “Deadeye Dick,” for starters, particularly when you consider the following (from here, in Jack Goldsmith, former Office of Legal Counsel lawyer in Bushco’s “Justice” Department, describes how he finally came to part ways with his employer)…

Yoo was a ''godsend'' to a White House nervous about war-crimes prosecutions, Goldsmith writes in his book, because his opinions reassured the White House that no official who relied on them could be prosecuted after the fact. But Yoo's direct access to Gonzales angered his boss, Attorney General John Ashcroft, according to Goldsmith. (Neither Ashcroft nor Gonzales responded to requests for interviews for this article.) Ashcroft, Goldsmith says, felt that Gonzales and the war council (Gonzales, Cheney Chief Of Staff David Addington, Defense Department General Counsel William J. Haynes II and Yoo) were usurping legal-policy decisions that were properly entrusted to the attorney general, such as the creation of military commissions, which Gonzales supported and Ashcroft never liked.

…

Several hours after Goldsmith was sworn in, on Oct. 6, 2003, he recalls that he received a phone call from Gonzales: the White House needed to know as soon as possible whether the Fourth Geneva Convention, which describes protections that explicitly cover civilians in war zones like Iraq, also covered insurgents and terrorists. After several days of study, Goldsmith agreed with lawyers in several other federal agencies, who had concluded that the convention applied to all Iraqi civilians, including terrorists and insurgents. In a meeting with Ashcroft, Goldsmith explained his analysis, which Ashcroft accepted. Later, Goldsmith drove from the Justice Department to the White House for a meeting with Gonzales and Addington. Goldsmith remembers his deputy Patrick Philbin turning to him in the car and saying: ''They're going to be really mad. They're not going to understand our decision. They've never been told no.'' (Philbin declined to discuss the conversation.)

In his book, Goldsmith describes Addington as the ''biggest presence in the room -- a large man with large glasses and an imposing salt-and-pepper beard'' who was ''known throughout the bureaucracy as the best-informed, savviest and most conservative lawyer in the administration, someone who spoke for and acted with the full backing of the powerful vice president, and someone who crushed bureaucratic opponents.'' When Goldsmith presented his analysis of the Geneva Conventions at the White House, Addington, according to Goldsmith, became livid. ''The president has already decided that terrorists do not receive Geneva Convention protections,'' Addington replied angrily, according to Goldsmith. ''You cannot question his decision.'' (Addington declined to comment on this and other details concerning him in this article.)

Goldsmith then explained that he agreed with the president's determination that detainees from Al Qaeda and the Taliban weren't protected under the Third Geneva Convention, which concerns the treatment of prisoners of war, but that different protections were at issue with the Fourth Geneva Convention, which concerns civilians. Addington, Goldsmith says, was not persuaded. (Goldsmith told me that he has checked his recollections of this and other meetings with at least one other participant or with someone to whom he described the meetings soon after.)

Months later, when Goldsmith tried to question another presidential decision, Addington expressed his views even more pointedly. ''If you rule that way,'' Addington exclaimed in disgust, Goldsmith recalls, ''the blood of the hundred thousand people who die in the next attack will be on your hands.''

Oh, and in the same post, Addington cheerily exclaims that “we’re one bomb away from getting rid of that obnoxious [FISA] court” (what a creep).

And in case anyone was wondering about the alleged legal basis for denying habeas corpus rights to prisoners at Guantanamo, another Yoo “innovation,” this reminds us that Yoo decided to do that on the shaky-at-best legal reasoning of the WWII-era Supreme Court ruling in Ex Parte Quirin, in which German spies were executed (Quirin was at issue in the Boumediene v. Bush ruling, which was the third setback handed to our then-ruling cabal by the Supremes)…

How was this possible? The Court had a simple answer: haberdashery. Writing an unseemly eight months after the saboteurs had been executed, the Court held that the Germans, having shed the uniform of their nation, had likewise shed the protections of the laws of war. Thus they were, in the phrase Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone coined, "unlawful combatants."

I don’t know if exposure to the light of day of all of these abuses of our constitution and the rule of law would result in convictions, but at the very least, it would show to the world that the abuses of the prior regime will not be tolerated and never serve as a precedent for future presidential administrations.

I’m hardly some fancy law professor like Estrich, but even I know that.

And I don’t think she’s much of a “liberal,” for refusing to acknowledge that (actually, I don’t think she’s much of an American, period).

Update 1/29/08: Though Estrich thinks we should "move on," of course (in a manner of speaking), this is another reason why we should do the exact opposite.

Tuesday Stuff

Sweet Mother Of Abraham Lincoln! What a difference between Robert Gibbs and Dana Perino, Tony Snow, Scott McClellan, Ari Fleischer, etc.; Gibbs sounds more like an adviser than a press secretary here (Maybe, in a way, he is? And I'm fine with that based on this, by the way.)...



...Mike Papantonio gives Flush Limbore the spirited takedown he deserves for claiming on-air that he hopes Obama "fails"...



...and sticking with Pap, he tells us here that Blackwater is expanding its foul reach domestically (charming)...



...Red Jumpsuit Apparatus ("Your Guardian Angel").

Benny’s Bonzo Obama-Rama Slam

Time again for me to criticize the leader of my faith (the penance will come later - and I also posted over here).

As noted here…

President Obama is probably not itching for a fight over abortion. But he might get one. With unusual speed, the Vatican has condemned Obama's Jan. 23 repeal of the ban on U.S. funding for foreign family planning aid groups who offer abortion services.

The repeal fulfils a campaign promise Obama made to pro-choice supporters. But if the late Friday afternoon signing was an attempt to get the change in under the radar, it didn't work. Top Vatican officials, usually hesitant to respond directly to Washington's domestic policy decisions, pounced quickly. By Saturday afternoon, the Holy See was emailing reporters the Sunday edition of its official daily, L'Osservatore Romano, which features a front page headline describing Obama's decision as "very disappointing."

“With unusual speed” is an understatement; I mean, Obama was just sworn in last week!

(And by the way, please do not forget that we’re talking about a man who said that Orthodox churches were “defective” because they didn’t recognize the primacy of the pope, called for a return to the Tridentine Latin rite mass which advocates the conversion of Jews to Catholicism, dismissed the Vatican’s chief astronomer for correctly pointing out that “intelligent design” isn’t science, issued a “Ten Commandments for Drivers” – “thou shalt not text while signaling for a left turn”?? – and once called Bob Dylan a “false prophet,” all of which is noted here.)

I would also note the directness of Benedict’s remarks, criticizing Obama by name, whereas any criticisms of Dubya (re., Iraq, capital punishment) were couched in less explicit terms, not even mentioning President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History personally (and I think we should also recall the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s association with Neil Bush in a “management trust” that could have “masquerade(ed) as a religious charity (that) would be an excellent place to launder money or park assets away from the taxman's prying eyes,” according to writer Chris Floyd here).

Oh, and I forgot to note that Benny is, at heart, a climate change denier based on this. And did I also forget to mention that His Holiness also lifted the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop here?

I know we’re talking about a “grab bag” of different public incidents here, and it’s hard to find an equivalency between any of them. The common thread to all of them, though, is the “vicar of Christ,” a man flawed as we all are, though perhaps more so than he would like us to believe.

Update 2/4/09: God, Benny, are you a chump (here).

Monday Stuff

With each passing day, I'm more and more glad that this assclown (c-b-lo) decided not to run against Specter (here - and please, Patrick, stay out of this, particularly because of this).

I mean, of course we're not supposed to help the states and low-income working women reduce their health care costs. Why should we help defer that ever-growing expense in any way? And "government-run" health care? What are you anyway, a damned socialist??!!

As Dubya would say, "jes' tell 'er to pop out the kid and get back to work!"

Besides, we're talking about a "female problem," and sex is icky. Any Repug will tell you that.

Update 1/28/09: I don't care how "powerful" Drudge is supposed to be; he's still an idiot (here).

I posted earlier today about Baby Newton Leroy's Contract On America, and that was in part a response to Clinton's extremely sensible initial budget that ended up giving us about ten years of prosperity. However, the rantings by the corporate media loons like Matthews over the government paying for "midnight basketball" back then is similar to the Luntz-esque demagoguery we're hearing now about this ("OMIGOD!! OUR GOVERNMENT IS PAYING FOR CONDOMS!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!").

Even though we've elected an extremely intelligent president, the stupidity quotient in this country continues to rise unabated by the minute (and cause, meet effect).



...and I almost can't find the words to describe how sweet this would be, based on this development...



...I have to admit that this is a nice story (doing a "180" here); Jonathan Rosenberg, owner of Tabby's Place, talks to Richard Schlesinger of CBS News about why he decided to leave his successful dot com career to care for unwanted cats, and introduces us to a few of his tenants....


Watch CBS Videos Online

...Delta Spirit ("Trashcan").

Farewell To "Kristol Mess Monday"

(By the way, Greg Mitchell of E&P gives Irving’s boy a going-away present of sorts here; would that Kristol and his attacks on common sense would “go away” for real, of course, but we’ll take what we can get.)

Not with a bang or even a whimper, a sad chapter in the annals of the fourth estate comes to a close with this, including the following (and I also posted here)…

Conservatives have been right more often than not — and more often than liberals — about most of the important issues of the day: about Communism and jihadism, crime and welfare, education and the family. Conservative policies have on the whole worked — insofar as any set of policies can be said to “work” in the real world. Conservatives of the Reagan-Bush-Gingrich-Bush years have a fair amount to be proud of.

I’m not quite sure how any American – to say nothing of any conservative – can be “proud” of the intervention by the Reagan Administration in the ‘80s in Afghanistan that ultimately led to the rise of Osama bin Laden, as noted in this Democracy Now! interview with Steve Coll, author of a notable book on the subject; if you’re going to spend a fortune arming these people against the Soviets, why not spend a relative pittance after the fact in helping them build schools and hospitals to help put their lives back together after we’ve helped them to blow their enemies and themselves to bits (the whole “winning hearts and minds” thing)?

And though this doesn’t fit into Kristol’s grab bag of conservative “success stories” under the guise of crime, welfare, education or the family (maybe more of the last category, unintentionally?), this excerpt from a 1995 Mother Jones analysis of Baby Newton Leroy’s “Contract On America” is nonetheless applicable (with Kristol and Gingrich being two peas in a foul pod)…

In the name of fiscal responsibility, Republicans will press for deep cuts in programs many Americans have come to rely upon for their health and overall well-being. Everything from poultry inspections and federal park maintenance to health research and public broadcasting is likely to suffer.

...

Obviously, cutting federal benefits to the poor, blind, and disabled is not what most Americans had in mind when they turned over control of Congress to the GOP. But that is what the Republicans have in store. All of the above programs would have to be radically reduced just to give the Republicans a chance of living up to their promises to cut taxes, increase defense spending, and balance the budget.

Oh, and as long as we’re revisiting bad Repug history, remember this gem in the “contract” from Former Senator Wide Stance?...

(Repug Idaho Sen. Larry) Craig will push a point embedded deep within the contract that will require the federal government to compensate private landholders and businesses when the cost of complying with federal regulations exceeds 10 percent of the property value. Craig and other private property proponents contend that the current system--which requires landholders and corporations to pay the costs of environmental cleanup and endangered species preservation--violates the Fifth Amendment, which states "nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation." Recently, judges have sided with landholders and businesses when the cost of complying with regulations equals or exceeds 100 percent of the land value.

The 10 percent threshold proposed by the Republicans would add billions of dollars to the government's cost of protecting endangered species and removing dangerous substances from the air, water, and workplace--costs that Republicans are not interested in financing. Environmentalists have said, for example, the government would never have been able to ban DDT in 1972 under the Republican proposal, because of the costs associated with compensating the farmers who used the toxic insecticide.

Oh, and here’s another obscured item from the “Contract”…

Civil Rights Laws: The Contract erodes the enforcement of civil rights, worker's rights, (and) employment discrimination…under the guise of a "cost/benefit" analysis on all new and existing regulations. Agencies must justify the costs of those regulations to the states and to businesses and then must lower the costs each year to be less than the proceeding year. The Republicans do not weigh in the balance the benefits civil rights and non-discrimination laws have for individuals and the society at large; these laws are basic constitutional rights guaranteed to everyone.

However, perhaps realizing that his time taking up space on the Times Op-Ed page is indeed running out and he’s seeking to be diplomatic somehow, Kristol leaves us with this…

That exhortation (from Tom Paine, including the phrase "These are the times that try men’s souls"; he’s opining about Obama’s inauguration speech) was appropriate for World War II. Today, the dangers are less stark, and the conflicts less hard. Still, there will be trying times during Obama’s presidency, and liberty will need staunch defenders. Can Obama reshape liberalism to be, as it was under F.D.R., a fighting faith, unapologetically patriotic and strong in the defense of liberty?

(I’d like to see Kristol Mess actually file for unemployment or visit a homeless shelter or a VA health care center so he can tell those in need of services that “the dangers are less stark, and the conflicts less hard” than World War II, by the way.)

And the Times’ conservative quota hire concludes his column today (after the paragraph I just highlighted) with “That would be a service to our country,” followed by the Times Op-Ed note that “This is William Kristol’s last column.”

Sounds like somebody ought to flip those two sentences around, if you ask me.

Update 1/27/09: The Times reports today that Kristol is going to the WaPo; the ideological inbreeding of our corporate media cousins continues.

Saturday Stuff

Cenk Uygur comments on Keith Olbermann's interview with the NSA's Russell Tice from earlier this week about the extent of the NSA spying (yes, this is too important to be "swept under the rug")...



...Flight Of The Conchords ("Business Time"; I probably should have put this up on Wednesday - awww, yeah).

Friday Stuff

(A brief "meta" note - I was able to post more than I thought this week, but I don't think my luck will hold out next week; I'll keep you informed when I know anything.)

Rachel Maddow conducted a great interview tonight with Dem U.S. Rep. Pete DeFazio of Oregon about the stimulus bill; the whole thing is worth watching (I'll keep looking), but this excerpt is terrific (gee, ya' think DeFazio has a low opinion of Obama econ advisor Larry Summers?)...



...and even though Obama has ordered that GITMO be closed within a year, he is of course receiving the inevitable right-wing push back, as noted here; this is more background on the following video...K.O., in his "Bushed" scandals segment tonight, explained pretty well how we may have ended up radicalizing Said Ali al-Shihri - I'd embed the video if I could (heckuva job, MSNBC)...



...and I had to emded this if, for no other reason, because of the "Planet Blago" weirdness at the end (and the more I think about it - particularly after reading Clyde Haberman's Paterson take-down in the Times today - the more I think the "guv" "screwed the pooch" on the Gillibrand nod; Margaret Carlson, on "Countdown" tonight, more or less assured an Andrew Cuomo primary contest against Paterson when it's election time for "the big chair" in Albany)...



...Daughtry ("What About Now").

Where The Rubber Meets The Road (1/23/09)

As reported in last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress were recorded on major roll-call votes last week (and I also posted over here).

House

Children's health insurance. Voting 289-139, the House sent the Senate a bill (HR 3963) expanding State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) coverage from 6.6 million children to about 11 million children.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: John Adler (D., N.J.), Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Michael N. Castle (R., Del.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), Joe Sestak (D., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

Voting no: Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.).

For those keeping score at home, by the way, this is the FIFTH time that Pancake Joe has voted against funding SCHIP (the other four times are noted here).

Pathetic…

Bailout oversight. Voting 151-274, the House defeated a bid to block federal access to the boardrooms of firms receiving taxpayer bailouts under the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). This amendment, which was proposed to a bill (HR 384) tightening federal control of TARP expenditures, sought to delete a proposal giving the Treasury authority to send observers to the board meetings of certain companies. The bill remained in debate.

A yes vote backed the amendment.

Voting yes: Castle, LoBiondo, Pitts and Smith.

Voting no: Adler, Andrews, Brady, Dent, Fattah, Gerlach, Holden, Murphy and Schwartz.

So just remember that Castle, LoBiondo, Pitts and Chris Smith (and I promise not to treat Smith with kid gloves as I have in the past, as noted here) all oppose overseeing the actions of financial services companies benefitting from TARP funds, so that misconduct such as this would be utterly invisible if they had their way.

And speaking of TARP, I meant to note earlier that Patrick Murphy sponsored an amendment that seeks to “disclose more information about four firms that will administer a key portion of the government's bailout plan,” as noted here; the amendment passed unanimously.

Senate

$700 billion bailout. Voting 42-52, the Senate refused to block the release of $350 billion not yet disbursed from the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program that Congress and President Bush enacted in October to rescue the economy. This vote on SJ Res 5 cleared the way for the Obama administration to spend the $350 billion for what it says will be purposes such as further shoring up financial institutions, averting home foreclosures, and aiding small businesses.

A yes vote opposed release of the $350 billion.

Voting yes: Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).

Voting no: Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D., Del.), Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), and Robert Menendez (D., N.J.).

As always, screw you, Arlen – have fun playing games with the Eric Holder AG nomination.

Update 1/27/09: And by the way, don’t think this doesn’t have anything to do with this, which, after all, is just a part of this.

Pay-bias suits. Voting 72-23, senators opened debate on a bill (S 181) giving plaintiffs greater standing to file suits alleging pay discrimination. The bill would permit claims to be filed within 180 days of the latest infraction. This would nullify a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., that requires pay-bias suits to be filed within 180 days of the first infraction.

A yes vote was to advance the bill.

Voting yes: Biden, Carper, Casey, Lautenberg, Menendez and Specter.

And for the record, as noted here, here are the 23 idiot Repugs (redundant?) who voted against bringing this to the Senate floor for debate (it eventually passed).

Barrasso, John [R]
Brownback, Samuel [R]
Chambliss, C. [R]
Coburn, Thomas [R]
Cochran, Thad [R]
Cornyn, John [R]
Crapo, Michael [R]
DeMint, Jim [R]
Ensign, John [R]
Enzi, Michael [R]
Graham, Lindsey [R]
Hatch, Orrin [R]
Inhofe, James [R]
Isakson, John [R]
Johanns, Mike [R]
Kyl, Jon [R]
Lugar, Richard [R] – he should know better
Risch, James [R]
Roberts, Pat [R]
Sessions, Jefferson [R]
Shelby, Richard [R]
Thune, John [R]
Vitter, David [R] - Spitzer, Edwards and Craig gone, but he remains

This week, the House considered tighter controls on the continuing $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program bailout. The Senate debated bills on children's health coverage and pay bias, and began confirmation voting on Obama administration appointees.

Thursday Stuff

I give Caroline Kennedy credit for knowing when to "bow out" here; I just think she was trying to make it to "the show" without putting in her time building up her bio first (and no, I don't see any similarity between her situation and Hillary Clinton's - paging Andrew Cuomo)...


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...though, apparently, the choice of New York Senator to replace HRC will be Kirsten Gillibrand based on this...



...and saying you're going to close GITMO during the presidential campaign is one thing, but kudos to Obama for following through here (this video is a follow-up to this post)...



...and as a tribute to David "Fathead" Newman, here's "One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)."