One person's plea for sanity and the continuation of the human race in an insane world.
posted by rich at 5:18 PM
Coulter attacks Obama over Afghanistan: Putting more troops there is ‘insane.’During her speech at CPAC today, right-wing loon Ann Coulter said we owe “a thank you to George Bush for keeping us so safe.” That comment earned a rousing ovation from the audience of conservative activists. Coulter then proceeded to claim Obama is continuing Bush’s national security policies, before attacking him over Afghanistan:
The one real problem with Obama on national security is… he’s putting more troops into Afghanistan, which is insane. This has been the focus of the terrorists — they’re all streaming across into Iraq, where we can win. Now it’s gonna be in Afghanistan, which could well be another Vietnam.
So for politically correct reasons, we’re moving the focus of the war on terrorism to a very bad place for us. The Russians couldn’t win there. Peter the Great couldn’t win there. Oh, but maybe the messiah can win there, ok.
(Think Progress)
posted by rich at 5:16 PM
Obama challenges lobbyists to legislative duelWASHINGTON – President Barack Obama challenged the nation's vested interests to a legislative duel Saturday, saying he will fight to change health care, energy and education in dramatic ways that will upset the status quo.
"The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long," Obama said in his weekly radio and video address. "But I don't. I work for the American people."
He said the ambitious budget plan he presented Thursday will help millions of people, but only if Congress overcomes resistance from deep-pocket lobbies.
"I know these steps won't sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they're gearing up for a fight," Obama said, using tough-guy language reminiscent of his predecessor, George W. Bush. "My message to them is this: So am I."
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Today, the Obama administration plans to rescind the controversial “conscience rule,” which “allows healthcare workers to deny abortion counseling or other family planning services if doing so would violate their moral beliefs.”(Think Progress)
posted by rich at 6:29 PM
Obama’s budget includes family planning funding protested by Republicans during stimulus debate.To congressional Republicans, one of the most objectionable parts of an early version of the House’s economic recovery package was funding for family planning services. Conservatives cried that spending “hundreds of millions on contraceptives” wouldn’t stimulate the economy. (Even though it would.) President Obama agreed to drop the provision from the recovery package. However, he has reinserted it into his FY 2010 budget. On p. 127, there is a provision to “[e]xpand availability of family planning services under Medicaid,” which is estimated to save the government $190 million over 10 years. Here are statements from Planned Parenthood and NFPRHA.
(Think Progress)
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Colorado state senator says HIV testing for pregnant women rewards ‘sexual promiscuity.’Today, Colorado State Sen. Dave Schultheis (R) caused outrage by announcing that he would vote against a bill requiring HIV tests for pregnant women because the disease “stems from sexual promiscuity” and he doesn’t think the government should reward “unacceptable behavior.” Schultheis explained his motives before casting the lone vote against the bill:
We do things continually to remove the negative consequences that take place from poor behavior and unacceptable behavior, quite frankly, and I don’t think that’s the role of this body.
As a result of that I finally came to the conclusion I would have to be a no vote on this because this stems from sexual promiscuity for the most part, and I just can’t vote on this bill and I wanted to explain to this body why I was going to be a no vote on this.
(Think Progress)
posted by rich at 6:18 PM
GOP at risk of becoming party in the no
Another day, another no vote.
After near-unanimous Republican congressional opposition to President Barack Obama’s stimulus package and a week dominated by headlines of GOP governors poised to reject stimulus funding, House Republicans followed up with another resounding “no” on the $410 billion omnibus spending package Wednesday.
This time, though, 16 members broke from the party line on a vote Minority Whip Eric Cantor had urged his colleagues to reject. And the cracks in the facade appear to be the first public signal of Republican rank-and-file squeamishness with a remarkably high-risk strategy that promises an uncertain return.
For Republicans, a central question looms: Is saying no to Obama’s agenda the way to get voters to say yes to an already beleaguered GOP brand?
posted by rich at 8:34 AM
Colorado state senator compares being gay to committing murder.
On the floor of the Colorado state senate on Monday, Republican Sen. Scott Renfroe equated “homosexuality as a sin with murder” during a debate on a bill that would allow same-sex partners of state employees to be covered by health care benefits. “I’m not saying this (homosexuality) is the only sin that’s out there,” said Renfroe. “We have murder. We have all sorts of sin. We have adultery. And we don’t make laws making those legal, and we would never think to make murder legal.”
posted by rich at 12:00 PM
posted by rich at 11:57 AM
Jindal: Disaster Preparedness Is Only Worth Funding If It Will Help My State
While delivering the GOP response to President Obama’s address last night, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) attempted to discredit the recently signed economic recovery package by highlighting provisions that he said don’t “make sense.” Jindal complained about a provision providing funding for the federal government to purchase energy efficient automobiles, as well as a provision (that doesn’t actually exist) providing funding for a rail line “from Las Vegas to Disney Land.” But most ironic was Jindal’s attempt to mock the inclusion of funding allowing for, in Jindal’s words, “something called ‘volcano monitoring’”:
JINDAL: While some of the projects in the bill make sense, their legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes $300 million to buy new cars for the government. $8 billion for high speed rail projects such as magnetic levitation line from Las Vegas to Disney Land. And $140 million for something called ‘volcano monitoring.’
Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, DC.
The provision that Jindal is referring to provides $140 million to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for, among other things, “equipment replacement and upgrades including stream gauges, and seismic and volcano monitoring systems.”
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As Scientific American notes, the USGS is tasked with reducing the “‘vulnerability of the people and areas most at risk from natural hazards,’ including volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis and wildfires.” Given that Jindal lived through Hurricane Katrina and witnessed first hand President Bush’s utterly unprepared response, Jindal should be hesitant to mock disaster preparedness funding.Conservatives often bristle at public sector solutions to problems that they believe would be better addressed by the private sector. But, as Paul Krugman notes, both Republicans and Democrats have traditionally agreed that supplying public goods like disaster preparedness is “the sort of activity that should be undertaken by government.” Not any more, apparently. Krugman concludes, “Basically, the political philosophy of the GOP right now seems to consist of snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny.”
posted by rich at 11:53 AM
Log Cabin Republicans slam Steele’s comments on civil unions.
As ThinkProgress first reported, GOP Chairman Michael Steele was asked on a radio show Monday whether the party should “consider” civil unions. “No, no no. What would we do that for? What are you, crazy?” he replied. The Log Cabin Republicans condemned Steele’s comments in a press release put out yesterday:
“The politics of the past were clearly rejected in the November election. We hope Chairman Steele will work to build a more inclusive Republican Party that can win elections,” said Log Cabin Republicans National Chairman Terry Hamilton. Hamilton continued, “Such comments marginalize gay and lesbian Americans, and further alienate the mainstream, moderate, and independent-minded voters that left the Republican Party in the November election.”
We need an inclusive GOP to reach out to new constituencies and to attract younger voters, women, Latinos, African Americans, and others who share our view of limited government and low taxes. The Log Cabin Republicans remain committed to working with other mainstream GOP groups and fair-minded Republicans to rebuild the Party.
Just last month, the Log Cabin Republicans had enthusiastically cheered Steele’s election to the chairmanship.
“It’s a great day for our Party. Steele is an inclusive leader who will bring a new energy and a new vision to the GOP at a critical time,” president Patrick Sammon said. Steele has been invited to speak at LCR’s convention in April but has not yet said whether he’ll attend.
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Obama chooses Gary Locke for commerce secretary
WASHINGTON – Hoping the third time will be the charm, President Barack Obama named former Washington Gov. Gary Locke as his nominee for Commerce secretary Wednesday.
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A Democrat, Locke was the nation's first Chinese-American governor, serving two terms from 1997 to 2005.If confirmed by the Senate, he would assume control of a large agency with a broad portfolio that includes overseeing the 2010 national head count, oceans policy and many aspects of international trade.
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Locke, 59, works for the Seattle-based law firm Davis Wright Tremaine on issues involving China, energy and governmental relations.He still must get through Senate confirmation hearings to assume the post, and there are a number of issues over which he may face questions.
Locke was briefly linked to the scandal over foreign contributions to President Bill Clinton's 1996 campaign. In July 1998, he gave a deposition to the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight about his relationships with questioned Clinton donors. But the committee later said the deposition produced no evidence that Locke knowingly accepted illegal campaign donations.
Locke denied any wrongdoing, and he subsequently returned some checks tied to people implicated in the fundraising scandal, including $750 from John Huang. The former Commerce Department official was the Democratic Party's chief fundraiser for the Asian-American population in the 1996 elections, and he became one of the central figures in the national Democratic Party fundraising scandal.
In December 1997, Locke's political committee was fined a maximum $2,500 by state regulators after it admitted breaking campaign finance laws during two out-of-state fundraisers in 1996.
And in March 1998, state investigators cleared Locke of wrongdoing following complaints that he unlawfully took $10,000 in campaign contributions from members of a Buddhist church.
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Of course, even though he was cleared of any wrong-doing, the repugs will raise a big stink about this nominee, as well.
It would be nice if Obama could find some nominees without issues, though!
More from Crooks and Liars:
Obama names Gary Locke his new pick for Commerce Secretary
So President Obama went with a safe pick in naming Gary Locke his choice as commerce secretary.
I've known Locke since he was a King County Executive in the 1990s. He was probably the best Exec that King County has ever had -- exceedingly competent. However, Locke was less impressive as a governor; he lacked a lot of the leadership skills we needed on critical issues like the environment and infrastructure.
Still, he's a highly competent bureaucrat, and a capable spokesman for international trade -- which will probably make him an ideal pick for a position like Commerce.
The best thing, from a blogospheric perspective, about the Locke pick: It's going to drive Michelle Malkin crazy. She had what we in the journalistic biz call "a hard-on" for Locke when she was a columnist for the Seattle Times. It got to be a joke, because Locke has always been a squeaky clean guy.
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Sounds like the "scandals" might be much ado about nothing...
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Stocks jump after Bernanke says recession may end
NEW YORK – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has given Wall Street a double dose of reassurance. Now it's President Barack Obama's turn. Bernanke told Congress on Tuesday the recession might end this year, and that regulators aren't planning to nationalize banks.
The news alleviated some of investors' worries about the economy and the banking industry, and lifted the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index off their lowest levels since 1997.
And investors are hopeful that Tuesday night, President Barack Obama will provide specifics about how he plans to stabilize the financial system and further stimulate the economy. Anticipation of his remarks helped drive beaten-down financial shares up sharply.
"There's growing optimism that Obama can deliver the details that the market is so desperately looking for in his speech," said Ryan Larson, senior equity trader at Voyageur Asset Management. If it gets those details, he added, the market's upward momentum could continue.
posted by rich at 2:03 PM
Officials: US troops to leave Iraq by August 2010
WASHINGTON – The United States plans to withdraw most of its troops from Iraq by August 2010, 19 months after President Barack Obama's inauguration, according to administration officials. The withdrawal plan would fulfill one of Obama's central campaign pledges, albeit a little more slowly than he promised. He said he would withdraw troops within 16 months, roughly one brigade a month from the time of his inauguration.
The officials said they expect Obama to make the announcement this week. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been made public.
The U.S. military will leave behind a residual force, between 30,000 and 50,000 troops, to continue advising and training Iraqi security forces, the two officials said. Also staying beyond the 19 months will be intelligence and surveillance specialists and their equipment, including unmanned aircraft, they said.
A further withdrawal will take place before December 2011, the period by which the U.S. agreed with Iraq to remove all American troops.
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Pawlenty Says Minnesota’s Lone Representation In The Senate Is Hurting The State
As Norm Coleman’s legal challenges to Al Franken’s recount victory for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seat drag on, his friends in Congress have begun helping him foot the bill. Earlier this month, prominent Republicans held a “ritzy fundraiser” for Coleman with many “max[ing] out to Coleman’s effort” (some giving as much as $10,000 in PAC money) while others pleaded with supporters in a YouTube message to contribute to his legal fight.
If Franken ultimately wins, the Senate Democratic caucus will grow to 59 members, close to a filibuster proof majority. But as evidence mounts that Coleman stands little
chance of winning, speculation has emerged that Republicans in Congress are simply trying to keep Minnesota’s seat empty as long as possible to avoid making it easier for the Democrats to pass their agenda.But the longer the seat remains vacant, the longer the citizens of Minnesota remain underrepresented. Indeed, today on C-SPAN, Minnesota’s Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) said that the lone representation in the senate is hurting the state:
HOST: [H]as it hurt the state not having a senator, a second senator available? […]
PAWLENTY: Yes, it has put Minnesota at a disadvantage when there’s only 100 senators total and you are missing one and it is one of two from your state, that puts you at a disadvantage. When you have big legislation being decided and you are trying to fight for your perspective, or your influence on a piece of legislation it puts our state at a disadvantage.
Pawlenty later added that the Coleman/Franken race “is going to be decided through the courts, unfortunately” and that a decision will be made “in the next month or two.” “If one side or the other then appeals to the federal court it could really drag on well beyond,” he said, adding, “So we’re kind of just stuck pending the court process.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said being Minnesota’s only representative in the senate has been a “challenge.” She added that “her home-state office has been flooded with phone calls and said her staff has seen its casework double in size.”
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Palin: Media sought to seek, destroy
Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) believes that the media deliberately tried to bring her down during her vice presidential run.
As part of an interview with conservative filmmaker John Ziegler for his new film out this week, Palin said she believes the media made a decision that “we’re going to seek and we’re going to destroy this candidacy of Sarah Palin’s because of what it is that she represents.”
“Obviously something big took place in the media,” she added. It is “very frightening, I think, what the media was able to get away with, this go around.”
Palin suggested that unbalanced media coverage posed a threat to democracy.
“This is for the sake of our democracy that there is fairness in this other branch of government, if you will, called the media,” she said. “It is foreign to me the way some in the mainstream media are thinking.”
“There have been lies told, there have been reputations trashed, there have been children that have been harmed,” she continued.
Looking back on her interview with ABC News’ Charles Gibson, in which Palin seemed unsure of how to define the Bush doctrine, the Alaska governor said she was disrespected in a way that another candidate would not have been.
“I’d have to say there would be much more respect shown to the subject, yes,” she said.
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Obama Hits GOP Governors Rejecting Stimulus Funds: There’ll Be ‘Ample Time For Campaigns Down The Road’
This morning, President Obama addressed members of the National Governors Association, focusing his remarks on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. During the speech, Obama specifically took aim at the GOP governors who have said that they will reject some of the package’s funding, hinting at the fact that many of them seem to have put their political ambitions over the needs of their states:
OBAMA: I just want us to not lose perspective of the fact that most of the things that have been the topic of argument over the last several days amount to a fraction of the overall stimulus package. This sometimes gets lost in the cable chatter. […]
And so, if we agree on 90 percent of this stuff, and we’re spending all our time on television arguing about 1, 2, 3 percent of the spending in this thing, and somehow it’s being characterized in broad brush as wasteful spending, that starts sounding more like politics. And that’s what right now we don’t have time to do. […]
What I don’t want us to do, though, is to just get caught up in the same old stuff that inhibits us from acting effectively and in concert. There’s going to be ample time for campaigns down the road.
Obama also went after criticisms about funding for unemployment insurance. Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA), for example, turned away nearly $100 million in federal aid for his state’s unemployed residents. The Emergency Unemployment Compensation alone would have benefited 24,981 Louisiana residents. Jindal justified his decision by claiming that expanding unemployment benefits would result in tax increases for businesses. From Obama’s remarks:
For example, I think there are some very legitimate concerns on the part of some about the sustainability of expanding unemployment insurance. What hasn’t been noted is is that that is $7 billion of a $787 billion program. And it’s not even the majority of the expansion of unemployment insurance.
So it is possible for those who are concerned about sustaining a change that increases eligibility for part-time workers to still see the benefit of $30 billion-plus that is going — even if you don’t make the change.
The White House pool report noted that during his comments about the “cable chatter,” Obama looked directly “towards Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford, who were to his right.” Other Republican governors who have said they may turn down some recovery funds: Butch Otter (ID), Sarah Palin (AK), Sonny Perdue (GA), Rick Perry (TX), and Bob Riley (AL).
posted by rich at 1:28 PM
Rove ignores House Judiciary Committee subpoena.
Pursuant to a subpoena issued earlier this month, Karl Rove was due to appear for a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee today. But as CongressMatters reports, despite being “expected” to appear this time, Rove was a no show. Contacted by ThinkProgress, the House Judiciary Committee confirmed the report of Rove’s absence. Days before leaving office, “Bush’s White House counsel, Fred Fielding, sent letters to Rove, Miers, and Bolten, instructing them to continue to ignore congressional demands for information about anything they did while at the While House.”
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Obama will not immediately repeal Bush tax cuts.
The New York Times reports today that President Obama plans to “set a goal this week to cut the annual deficit at least in half by the end of his term,” in large part through withdrawing from Iraq and raising taxes on the wealthy. Obama, however, will not immediately repeal the Bush tax cuts, instead letting them expire on their own in 2010:
Mr. Obama will also call for letting the Bush tax cuts on income, dividends and capital gains lapse after 2010 for individuals who make more than $250,000 a year. But while the top rate for income would rise to 39.6 percent, the top rate for capital gains and dividends would be 20 percent.
As a candidate, Mr. Obama called for immediately repealing those tax cuts. He decided instead to keep them in place through 2010, as scheduled, reflecting the widespread belief that raising taxes further depresses economic activity.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said in January that she was “urging” Obama to immediately repeal the Bush tax cuts, which she said were “the biggest contributor to the budget deficit.”
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Taguba backs commission to investigate Bush-era abuses.
Last summer, former Abu Ghraib investigator ret. Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba said that the Bush administration had “committed war crimes” and needed to be “held to account.” Yesterday, 18 human rights organizations, former State Department officials, and former law enforcement and military leaders — including Taguba — signed onto a letter asking the President to create a non-partisan commission to investigate the Bush administration’s torture policies. In a new interview with Salon, he explains why:I feel we have to come to terms with policies that have gained such notoriety and have been debated about whether they were in the best interest of our national security, and whether those who created these policies were pressured by their senior leadership. […]
[I support] a structured commission with some form of authority with clear objectives and a follow-on action plan. I’m not looking for anything that is prosecutorial in nature, unless a suspected violation of relevant laws occurred, which should be referred to the Dept of Justice.
(Think Progress)
posted by rich at 11:24 AM
Fleischer: On Iraq, ‘Saddam was the big liar.’In an interview set to air over the weekend on CNN’s D. L. Hughley Breaks the News, Ari Fleischer admits that the Bush administration was wrong to claim that Saddam Hussein had WMD in the lead up to the Iraq war, but still insists that Saddam was at fault for the war. “Saddam was the big liar here,” Fleischer concludes:
FLEISCHER: We were wrong about weapons of mass destruction being in Iraq. […]
HUGHLEY: When you found out that you were wrong, how did that make you feel?
FLEISCHER: You just scratch your head and say, “How could we be wrong?” It wasn’t just us that thought he had weapons of mass destruction. The Egyptians thought it, the French thought it, the Germans thought it the United Nations thought it, Bill Clinton’s CIA though it. We all thought it. Saddam was the big liar here.
(Think Progress)
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NY Post issues qualified apology for its chimp cartoon.
(Think Progress)Yesterday, the New York Post published a cartoon by Sean Delonas showing two police officers shooting a chimpanzee and saying, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” Many people immediately questioned whether the chimp was meant to be President Obama. Hundreds of people protested outside the offices of the Rupert-Murdoch owned NY Post today, calling for the paper to be shut down. This evening, the Post put up an editorial apologizing to some people who were “offended by the image.” At the same time, however, editors said they were disgusted by “opportunists seek to make it something else“:
It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill.
Period.
But it has been taken as something else - as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism.
This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.
However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past - and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback.
To them, no apology is due.
Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon - even as the opportunists seek to make it something else.
Update - Wayne A. Schneider over at The Zoo has more on why this isn't really an apology.
posted by rich at 10:03 AM
Now Issa cares about taking extra measures to preserve White House e-mails.
In a letter to White House Counsel Gregory Craig today, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee, “called on President Obama to put in place a system that ensures all White House emails be preserved even if official business was done through private e- mail accounts.” This newfound interest in the use of outside e-mail accounts at the White House is ironic, considering his dismissal of such concerns when Democrats investigated the Bush administration’s use of RNC e-mail accounts:
Republicans accused the Democrats of pursuing the investigation simply to dig up dirt on Rove and waste hundreds of thousands of dollars of money that the RNC could be using to shore up its candidates’ campaigns.
“Are we simply going on a fishing expedition at $40,000 to $50,000 a month?” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) asked National Archives and White House officials at the hearing. “Do any of you know of a single document, because this committee doesn’t, that should’ve been in the archives but in fact was done at the RNC?”
In 2007, the House Oversight Committee discovered that at least 88 Bush White House officials, including former adviser Karl Rove and former chief of staff Andrew Card, had RNC e-mail accounts. Additionally, the RNC has preserved no e-mails for 51 officials and had major gaps in the e-mail records of the 37 White House officials for whom the RNC did preserve e-mails.
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Happy One Month Anniversary, Mr. President!While there have been some disappointments, there's no denying that Barack Obama has accomplished an amazing amount in his first thirty days in office. Considering the absolute clusterf&%k he inherited from his predecessor and how many roadblocks and petty games have been placed in his way, let's give the man some props for getting the job done.
Rachel Maddow lists Obama's presidential accomplishments:
Announced strict new rules for lobbyists
Paycaps for WH staff
Hillary Clinton confirmed Secretary of State
Signed an Executive Order closing Gitmo and secret CIA prisons overseas
Named George Mitchell and Richard Holbrooke Special Envoys to Middle East
Made first agency visit to the State Dept, symbolically reviving diplomacy
Appeared on Arab TV network,
Signed Lily Ledbetter Act,
Eric Holder confirmed;
Signed S-ChIP legislation;
Canceled 77 land leases around Arches National Park;
Signed the Stimulus Bill;
Announced his home foreclosure prevention plan;
Took first foreign trip to Canada;
Banned budget gimmicks, like emergency funding for Iraq;
Met with mayors;
Signed Executive Order for Office of Gulf Coast Recovery.
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posted by rich at 9:56 AM
Harley relaxing as only he can, knowing that at last, the grown ups are in charge again.
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posted by rich at 11:26 AM
Pelosi foresees prosecution of senior Bush administration officials.
Last month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said she is open to pursuing investigations of abuses by the Bush Justice Department. “I want to see the truth come forth,” she said. But in a new interview with Rolling Stone, Pelosi went a step further, saying that she believes some senior Bush officials — such as Harriet Miers, Josh Bolten, and Karl Rove — will be prosecuted:
RS: Do you foresee a scenario in which senior members of the Bush administration are actually prosecuted?
PELOSI: I think so. The American people deserve answers. Where we are now, in terms of prosecution of White House staff, is that we have charged them with contempt of Congress. We’re talking about Harriet Miers, Josh Bolten and Karl Rove. The natural course of events from here is that the speaker will determine what charge we’re going to pursue, because there are more than one. Under Bush, the Justice Department told the U.S. attorney not to prosecute the case. So the beat goes on — it just gets worse. We don’t know what will happen, because they’ve delayed it a long time.
Pelosi later said that “we should have a full examination” of the Bush administration’s alleged crimes, adding that what Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) “is putting forward, in terms of a truth-and-reconciliation committee, has always been helpful. It was helpful in South Africa, [and] it was helpful in Rwanda.”
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Holder: US a nation of cowards on racial matters
WASHINGTON – Eric Holder, the nation's first black attorney general, said Wednesday the United States was "a nation of cowards" on matters of race, with most Americans avoiding candid discussions of racial issues. In a speech to Justice Department employees marking Black History Month, Holder said the workplace is largely integrated but Americans still self-segregate on the weekends and in their private lives."Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards," Holder said.
Race issues continue to be a topic of political discussion, but "we, as average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race."
Holder's speech echoed President Barack Obama's landmark address last year on race relations during the hotly contested Democratic primaries, when the then-candidate urged the nation to break "a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years" and bemoaned the "chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races." Obama delivered the speech to try to distance himself from the angry rhetoric of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Holder cited that speech by Obama as part of the motivation for his words Wednesday, saying Americans need to overcome an ingrained inhibition against talking about race.
"If we're going to ever make progress, we're going to have to have the guts, we have to have the determination, to be honest with each other. It also means we have to be able to accept criticism where that is justified," Holder told reporters after the speech.
In the speech, Holder urged people of all races to use Black History Month as a chance for honest discussion of racial matters, including issues of health care, education and economic disparities.
Race, Holder said, "is an issue we have never been at ease with and, given our nation's history, this is in some ways understandable... If we are to make progress in this area, we must feel comfortable enough with one another and tolerant enough of each other to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us."
In a country founded by slave owners, race has bedeviled the nation throughout its history, with blacks denied the right to vote just a few decades ago. Obama's triumph last November as well as the nomination of Holder stand as historic achievements of two black Americans.
Holder told hundreds of Justice Department employees gathered for the event that they have a special responsibility to advance racial understanding.
Even when people mix at the workplace or afterwork social events, Holder argued, many Americans in their free time are still segregated inside what he called "race-protected cocoons."
"Saturdays and Sundays, America in the year 2009 does not in some ways differ significantly from the country that existed almost 50 years ago. This is truly sad," said Holder.
Matt Miller, a spokesman for Holder, said later the attorney general used "provocative words to be clear that Americans of all races should stop avoiding the difficult issues of race."
Andrew Grant-Thomas, Deputy Director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, praised Holder's general message but said the wording of the speech may alienate some.
"He's right on the substance, but that's probably not the most politic way of saying it. I'm certain there are people who will hear him and say, 'That's obnoxious,'" he said, adding that what was missing from Holder's speech were specific examples of what painful subjects need to be addressed.
Hilary Shelton, vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, called the speech "constructively provocative."
"Nobody wants to be considered a coward. We've learned to get along by exclusion and silence. We need to talk about it. People need to feel comfortable saying the wrong things," said Shelton.
Holder is headed to Guantanamo Bay early next week to inspect the terrorist detention facility there. Obama has assigned Holder to lead a special task force aimed at closing the site within a year.
Holder's Justice Department will have to decide which suspects to bring to U.S. courts for trial, which to prosecute through the military justice system, and which to send back to their home countries.
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The Environmental Protection Agency “will reopen the possibility of regulating carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants, tossing aside a December Bush administration memorandum that declared that the agency would not limit the emissions. The decision could mark the first step toward placing limits on greenhouse gases emitted by coal plants.”
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posted by rich at 10:40 AM
---NY Post cartoon seems to link Obama to dead chimp
NEW YORK – The New York Post is standing behind a cartoon that some have interpreted as comparing President Barack Obama to a violent chimpanzee gunned down by police.The cartoon in Wednesday's Post by Sean Delonas shows two police officers standing over the body of a bullet-riddled chimp. One of the officers says the other, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."
Civil rights activist Al Sharpton called the cartoon "troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys."
But Sharpton said the Post should clarify the point it was trying to make with the cartoon, which was playing off Monday's rampage by a pet chimpanzee in Stamford, Conn., that left a woman severely mauled. Police ended up killing the chimp.
In a statement, Post Editor-in-Chief Col Allan said: "The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist."
A story about the cartoon on the liberal-leaning Huffington Post Web site drew hundreds of reader responses, many calling the cartoon racist and insensitive.
Sam Stein, a columnist for the site, wrote that "at its most benign, the cartoon suggests that the stimulus bill was so bad, monkeys may as well have written it. Most provocatively, it compares the president to a rabid chimp. Either way, the incorporation of violence and (on a darker level) race into politics is bound to be controversial."
posted by rich at 10:29 AM
---Court reverses ruling bringing 17 detainees to US
WASHINGTON – A U.S. appeals court reversed a ruling Wednesday that would have transferred 17 Guantanamo Bay detainees, none of whom are labeled enemy combatants, to the United States.The ruling casts further uncertainty on the fate of the Turkic-speaking Muslims from western China. Because there is no evidence they plotted or fought against the United States, the government has no authority to hold them at Guantanamo Bay, but deciding what to do with the men has been a diplomatic problem for years.
The military says the men have ties to a militant group that demands separation from China. The United States will not release the Uighurs to their home for fear they will be tortured.
Earlier this month, Beijing warned other countries not to accept the men, creating a diplomatic roadblock to President Barack Obama's plan to close the facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a year.
U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina ruled in October that, since they are not enemy combatants, the Uighurs must be released to the United States. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned that ruling.
Only the executive branch, not the courts, can make decisions about immigration, the appeals court said. That fact doesn't change, the court said, simply because the United States has held the men for years without charge.
"Such sentiments, however high-minded, do not represent a legal basis for upsetting settled law and overriding the prerogatives of the political branches," Judge A. Raymond Randolph wrote.
The decision has ramifications beyond the Uighurs. The Supreme Court has held that Guantanamo Bay detainees can go to court to challenge their imprisonment. The ruling, however, says a judge can hear the case but has no authority to actually free the detainees.
In ordering the Uighurs released last year, Urbina strongly rebuked the Bush administration for holding men who were not enemy combatants indefinitely, without charge.
"I think the moment has arrived for the court to shine the light of constitutionality on the reasons for the detention," he said. "There is a pressing need to have these people, who have been incarcerated for seven years, to have those conditions changed."
The appeals court ruled that Urbina lacked the authority to right that wrong.
"The government has represented that it is continuing diplomatic attempts to find an appropriate country willing to admit petitioners, and we have no reason to doubt that it is doing so," Randolph wrote. "Nor do we have the power to require anything more."
The court, made up of one Democratic and two Republican appointees, unanimously overturned Urbina's decision. But Judge Judith Rogers, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, wrote a separate opinion saying Urbina had the authority to release the men but only after hearing from U.S. immigration officials.
The U.S. released four Uighurs from Guantanamo Bay in 2006, sending them to Albania because it was the only country that would take them. A Swedish immigration court granted asylum to one of those men on Wednesday. Adil Hakimjan applied for asylum in Sweden because his sister lives there.
posted by rich at 10:09 AM
posted by rich at 8:58 AM
posted by rich at 8:49 AM
Afghanistan: A Yes-We-Can War?
Afghanistan became President Obama's war on Tuesday, when he ordered two more U.S. combat brigades into the fight. He will send 17,000 combat troops to join the 36,000-strong U.S. force already in the theater. The fact that the units now ordered to Afghanistan had originally been slated for Iraq underscores the new Administration's shift in priorities.
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The White House announcement took subtle shots at the priorities of the Bush Administration, stressing that the request from U.S. commanders in Afghanistan for the additional troops was "months old". President Obama's written statement explained, "This increase is necessary to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires."
posted by rich at 8:46 AM
posted by rich at 11:26 AM
Roll Call claims Republicans have put their culture war ‘knives away,’ but they haven’t.
In an article titled “GOP Puts Away Knives in Culture Wars,” Roll Call reports this morning that “social issues have taken a back seat to economic concerns as the GOP struggles to find its way.” Acknowledging that prominent Republicans have pushed culture war attacks against President Obama and congressional Democrats, the paper still argues that Republicans have a “lack of interest” in “reigniting the culture wars“:
Congressional Republicans said the lack of focus on social matters is simply a result of being the minority party during one of the nation’s worst economic slumps.
The general lack of interest among Republicans in reigniting the culture wars is particularly visible in the Senate, where leadership has actively sought to keep the Conference’s message on the economy and away from divisive social issues.
“I can’t imagine how out of touch people would think we are if we weren’t focused on the economy,” one GOP leadership aide said.
But the fact is, many of the conservative attacks on President Obama’s economic recovery plan have been based in the culture wars. During the stimulus debate, congressional conservatives attacked family planning provisions and STD prevention
provisions. Some, such as Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), even falsely claimed that the bill was “an attack on people of faith.” Clearly, the GOP’s culture war “knives” are still out.
posted by rich at 11:23 AM
posted by rich at 11:20 AM
posted by rich at 11:41 AM
President Obama's sweeping victoryFDR did have a bunch of naysayers in the media and in Congress, but with cable TV blaring Republican talking points day in and day out the passage of the stimulus bill is getting lost in the shuffle because republicans didn't join in the bipartisan dog and pony show.
The Political Animal:But the Washington Post has a good piece today that adds some perspective to what's transpired in recent weeks. It's a reminder that while the trees have been frustrating at times, the forest looks pretty impressive.
Twenty-four days into his presidency, Barack Obama recorded last night a legislative achievement of the sort that few of his predecessors achieved at any point in their tenure.
In size and scope, there is almost nothing in history to rival the economic stimulus legislation that Obama shepherded through Congress in just over three weeks. And the result -- produced largely without Republican participation -- was remarkably similar to the terms Obama's team outlined even before he was inaugurated: a package of tax cuts and spending totaling about $775 billion. [...]
[E]ven before the plan passed the Senate last night, the president's top advisers were crowing. "We've been in office, what, 2 1/2 , three weeks? We've passed the most major sweeping comprehensive legislation as relates to economic activity ever in a three-week period of time," White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Thursday evening in the West Wing.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) credited Obama's leadership on the legislation yesterday, saying, "The American people know, and historians are judging, that this is one remarkable president."
For historical parallels, the Post piece noted that we haven't seen a legislative win for a president on this magnitude since FDR's banking system overhaul in 1933, "which cleared Congress within days of his inauguration."
We heard a lot of talk after the election from the president and his team about hitting the ground running. I guess they meant it.
As Steve notes, the White House did let messaging get away from them. I agree and one reason is because they were a bit blind to the fact that the media isn't interested in a real debate on economics. That would be no fun at all. They'd rather have crying Boehner throwing papers around on that endless loop. But what President Obama achieved very quickly is a historic moment indeed.
(Crooks and Liars)
posted by rich at 11:27 AM
posted by rich at 11:22 AM
Having It Both Ways: Republicans Take Credit for 'Pork' - In Stimulus Bill They OpposedOf course, no one's really surprised, right? I just wonder if the Democratic communications staffers will kick into gear and capitalize on this kind of story:
WASHINGTON — Rep. John Mica was gushing after the House of Representatives voted Friday to pass the big stimulus plan.
"I applaud President Obama's recognition that high-speed rail should be part of America's future," the Florida Republican beamed in a press release.
Yet Mica had just joined every other GOP House member in voting against the $787.2 billion economic recovery plan.
Republicans echoed their party line over and over during the debate: "This bill is loaded with wasteful deficit spending on the majority's favorite government programs," as Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., put it.
But Mica wasn't alone in touting what he saw as the bill's virtues. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, also had nice things to say in a press release.
Young boasted that he "won a victory for the Alaska Native contracting program and other Alaska small business owners last night in H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act."
One provision would have made it harder for minority businesses to win contracts, and Young explained that he "worked with members on the other side of the aisle to make the case for these programs, and was able to get the provision pulled from the bill."
Yet later in the day Young — who recently told McClatchy that he would've included earmarks, or local projects, in the bill if it had been permitted — issued another statement blasting the overall measure.
"This bill was not a stimulus bill. It was a vehicle for pet projects, and that's wrong," he protested.
posted by rich at 11:17 AM
posted by rich at 10:53 AM
Democrats May Be Headed to Showdown With Obama Over Bush ProbesFeb. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Some Democrats in Congress don’t want to let George W. Bush leave town.
They want to continue investigating alleged wrongdoing by former administration officials like Karl Rove just as President Barack Obama is urging them to turn the page.
House Judiciary Committee Democrats have a long bill of particulars. They want to force Bush-era officials to testify about the firing of nine U.S. attorneys and alleged politicization of law enforcement. They want to press inquiries into Bush’s program of warrantless wiretaps and into allegations that suspected terrorists were tortured in U.S. custody or turned over to other countries for such mistreatment.
Senator Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who leads the Judiciary Committee, has called for a “truth and reconciliation commission” to investigate such Bush administration tactics.
So far, Obama hasn’t endorsed the probes.
“I’m more interested in looking forward than I am in looking backwards,” the president said, in telling reporters Feb. 9 that he would examine Leahy’s proposal. “My general orientation is to say, ‘Let’s get it right moving forward.’”
The first opportunity for an intraparty clash among Democrats may be over a subpoena of Rove, the man who helped guide Bush’s political fortunes. The House Judiciary Committee wants to ask Rove his possible role in firing U.S. attorneys.
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Obama's heart is in the right place but, as he now understands that bi-partisanship only works if both parties are willing, he also has to understand that Americans have finally realized how illegal the bush administration was and wants justice.
posted by rich at 10:20 AM
