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A sleepy Friday out here, hope it’s good in your neck of the woods.
• Elena Kagan’s going to get confirmed, but beyond her, there really is a vacancy crisis in the lower courts. Republican obstructionism and a slow Presidential appointment process can share the blame.
• Everyone’s talking about Anthony Weiner’s outburst against Republicans for hiding behind procedure to vote against health care for 9/11 workers. I support calling them out for that, but then also taking this bill through the Rules Committee and passing it through the normal process, which requires only a majority vote (they tried to pass it under suspension of the rules, which needed 2/3).
• The House also passed a pretty good anti-lobbying bill this week. If only we had a unicameral legislature!
• House Dems are today trying to pass a couple oil spill response bills, but face resistance in their own caucus to the lifting of the oil spill liability cap.
• The House Ethics Committee is only recommending a reprimand for Charlie Rangel, rather than expulsion from the House or censure, for his ethics violations. It’s hard to frame this as Democrats protecting their own, since it’s a fully bipartisan committee.
• The Daily Beast profiles Pete Peterson, finds him to be a kinder, gentler budget hawk, interested in a carbon tax and Clinton-level marginal tax rates in addition to slashing Social Security and Medicare.
• I agree with Matt Yglesias that the filibuster undermines democratic accountability – that’s the best possible reason for getting rid of it. But he should also explain that issues like foreign policy, civil liberties and even domestic issues like the HAMP foreclosure mitigation program really can be tied directly to Obama, and the accountability laid right at his feet.
• Republicans are freaking out by the suggestion from the Obama Administration that they could “go it alone” and act through executive order on immigration reform, but other than streamlining current law in the legal immigration system it sounds like all talk.
• An errant attack on civilians by US forces in Kabul has led to riots.
• The majority of Pakistanis don’t know that Predator drone planes exist, but those who do oppose them dramatically.
• The US government actually enforces a free trade agreement! In this case, they’re taking Guatemala to court under CAFTA because the country is violating collective-bargaining standards.
• Is the CBO lowballing long-term economic growth to make the deficit look bigger than expected?
• John Dingell goes to work for Big Telecom, tries to shiv net neutrality.
• Maybe if the President was less preoccupied with overhauling education policy through “reform” and more focused on saving teacher jobs by the hundreds of thousands, Congress wouldn’t be so piqued and they wouldn’t cut back Race to the Top funding in the next fiscal year.
• Lucky for Nevada GOP candidate Brian Sandoval, his kids don’t look Hispanic. Otherwise they’d be in real trouble for harrassment!
• BP’s Tony Hayward, so very misunderstood.
• I’m quoted in this Politico piece about Beth Krom winning the DFA Grassroots All-Star competition. Basically, DFA is very strong in her home base of Orange County. But Krom, the former mayor of Irvine, actually does have a chance to win a fairly conservative district (though one that voted for Obama) against birther-curious John Campbell.
• Adam Serwer makes a good point about the disclosure of Afghan informants in the Wikileaks release: where were the media outlets who received this information and combed through it for weeks before making it public? Don’t they bear responsibility too?
• Steven Pearlstein tears the Chamber of Commerce a new one.
• Nate Silver has a new, competing metric with the Cook Partisan Voting Index to judge Congressional districts, taking into account the district’s socioeconomic status.
• Did Jose Canseco travel with a steroids lab and make everyone on teams he joined better power hitters? Some data points to yes.
• More unadulterated genius from Alvin Greene: “When asked whether he believes Palestinians should have a separate state, he looked confused, then snapped, ‘For what?’”
…I forgot this one, it’s hilarious: Dan Lungren (R-CA) is on some right-wing radio show. A couple minutes in, he gets pulled over for speeding. There’s audio of it, including the cop telling him to put the phone down. Link.
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You know David, it’s pretty wearying to keep trying to clarify the dialogue re ‘filibuster’.
If the Senate actually DID filibuster-meaning taking to the floor to argue/debate legislation- then this discussion wouldn’t be taking place.
But it is ‘cloture’ which cuts off debate/argument, a bastardized form of ‘filibustering’, NOT ‘true’ filibustering.
Powwow has written extensively on this topic and we see today the results of seeking to avoid debate-amendments- by the House rejecting health coverage to first responders and others who were involved in the 9/11 cleanup.
And when Feinstein’s ludicrous legislation about marijuana edibles can pass with out any debate or roll call, yes, the system is broken but calling for and end to debate is not the fix that is needed.
Pew Survey of Pakistan – Drones are in the news there almost every day, so what it shows is that two-thirds of the country are so poor and isolated that they have no idea what’s going on around them. The really bad news is the finding that Pakistan is the most anti-American country right now. And around 90% of Pakistanis agree with sharia law.
Beth Krom – It would be a great pick up. Krom has support in the 48th district from her days fighting the El Toro airport. Campbell may be weakened by the anti-incumbent mood.
Why, that simply demonstrates what the 100 worst Senators consider matters of paramount importance! Can’t be having any of that pursuit of happiness BS taking place among the hoi polloi, you know. Rather remarkable how they can quickly unite when required, isn’t it? Israel or the good of the Proletariat it seems causes them to coalesce like oil upon water…
Democrats are a corporatist party just like the Republicans.
All long term multi-year projections are a crock. We could very well have a depression next year so the CBO’s estimates may prove high. This isn’t to say they aren’t playing political games, just that their projections are almost certainly off if they project any growth at all.
This is a standard propaganda tactic. Think of the line about Bush being the kind of guy you could have a beer with. It’s just meant to portray a controversial figure as more reasonable than they really are. So that if Peterson is a reasonable guy than maybe so are the ideas that everyone finds so objectionable.
If they don’t want to raise the liability cap or get rid of it altogether then BP should walk away and let those reps explain their vote in the coming election and how the voters will have to pay the bill. That’ll teach the idiots.
What’s with all the deaths in Afghanistan? Can Gen. Petraeus be in charge WITHOUT deaths hugely increasing? Does the man not understand the concept of keeping our troops safe so they can do the job of killing al Qaeda or Taliban? He needs to emphasize safety first until the death-rate comes down to levels which are unavoidable for soldiers in war.
Why would anybody, even an Australian, release the Afghanistan war records without ensuring people’s safety. That guy ought to go to jail for a long time if anyone dies as a result of his stupidity.
Alvin Greene is going to give Sarah Palin and the other Repub dummies a run for their money. Not everybody can come up with statements like that. “For what?” Priceless.
What isn’t amusing about the Dan Lungren recording is that he got out of two violations: speeding and talking on a cell phone. Congressmen aren’t supposed to have immunity from traffic laws outside of D.C. but this is rarely adhered to.
Not only are corporations not hiring, they are reaping record profits, they intend to continue to do so–and just imagine how handy those profits are going to be come election time. From Bob Herbert:
“Worker productivity has increased dramatically, but the workers themselves have seen no gains from their increased production. It has all gone to corporate profits. This is unprecedented in the postwar years, and it is wrong.
“Having taken everything for themselves, the corporations are so awash in cash they don’t know what to do with it all. Citing a recent article from Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Professor Sum noted that in July cash at the nation’s nonfinancial corporations stood at $1.84 trillion, a 27 percent increase over early 2007. Moody’s has pointed out that as a percent of total company assets, cash has reached a level not seen in the past half-century.
“Executives are delighted with this ill-gotten bonanza. Charles D. McLane Jr. is the chief financial officer of Alcoa, which recently experienced a turnaround in profits and a 22 percent increase in revenue. As The Times reported this week, Mr. McLane assured investors that his company was in no hurry to bring back 37,000 workers who were let go since 2008. The plan is to minimize rehires wherever possible, he said, adding, “We’re not only holding head-count levels, but are also driving restructuring this quarter that will result in further reductions.”’
LINK.
From what I have researched Lungren is an R yet you have this: “Dan Lungren (D-CA)”
[MODNOTE - fixed, thank you.]