Leading congressional Democrats immediately recoiled Tuesday from a new proposal to cut $600 billion in Medicare spending over the next decade — in part by raising the eligibility age.
Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) unveiled the proposal as part of a bipartisan effort to produce the kind of savings necessary to achieve the $2 trillion in debt reduction both parties say is needed to convince reticent lawmakers to vote to raise the debt ceiling. It would raise Medicare’s eligibility age from 65 to 67 and assess higher premiums on wealthier seniors.
The proposal echoes Republican demands that entitlement reform — especially deep cuts in Medicare spending — be a part of any agreement to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.
But the swift rejection of the proposal among Democrats reflects the significant obstacles that remain to any agreement to cut the deficit and raise the nation’s legal borrowing limit.
After first making clear her lack of knowledge regarding American history, this would-be president proceeded to double down on the stupid, and defend her version of Paul Revere’s famous ride to Chris Wallace on Fox Network News.
CHRIS WALLACE: I gotta ask you about that real quickly, though. You realize that you messed up about Paul Revere, don’t you?
PALIN: You know what? I didn’t mess up about Paul Revere. Here’s what Paul Revere did. He warned the Americans that “the British were coming, the British were coming.” And they were going to try to take our arms so got to make sure that, uh, we were protecting ourselves and, uhm, shoring up all of our ammunitions and our firearms so that they couldn’t take them.
But remember that the British had already been there — many soldiers — for seven years in that area. And part of Paul Revere’s ride… And it wasn’t just one ride. He was a courier. He was a messenger. Part of his ride was to warn the British that were already there that, “Hey. You’re not going to succeed. You’re not going to take American arms. You are not gonna beat our own well-armed, uh, persons, uh, individual private militia that we have. He did warn the British. And in a shout-out, gotcha type of question that was asked of me, I answered candidly. And I know my American history.
Sigh. I haven’t mentioned Palin in a long while on this blog because I just haven’t seen her as having much relevance since the shootings in Arizona when she made that ridiculous and offensive speech which thankfully seemed to point to ‘the end’ for Sarah politically.
So, anyway, just thought I’d get in a post…or two, just in case, and Palin provided the perfect excuse last night when she ranted about the “lamestream media” on Hannity. My favorite quote - “There’s got to be the preparation on all the candidates’ parts for the gotchas. That’s what the lamestream media’s known for these days… Just have to be prepared for it and overcome it”. Can you even imagine this woman as ‘the president’?
According to CNN, Al Qaeda confirmed bin Laden’s death today via a statement on jihadist forums. The content of the statement, which predictably included a threat against Americans, via CNN:
"We will not deviate from that or change until Allah judges between us and between our enemy with truth. Indeed, He is the best of all judges. Nothing will harm us after that, until we see either victory and success and conquest and empowerment, or we die trying."
It said that Americans "will never enjoy security until our people in Palestine enjoy it."
"The soldiers of Islam, groups and individuals, will continue planning without tiredness or boredom, and without despair or surrender, and without weakness or stagnancy, until they cause the disaster that makes children look like the elderly!"
It urged Pakistanis "to cleanse this shame that has been attached to them by a clique of traitors and thieves" and "from the filth of the Americans who spread corruption in it."
As I mentioned in my last update, we are required to follow the recall rules of Washtenaw County since Gov. Snyder remains in residence there, and does not reside in Lansing, or anywhere else in Ingham County.
Below I’ve listed the actions required, and indicated the timeline. All information was sourced from the Washtenaw Country Recall Timetable (pdf). You can also find additional information on the process here.
The petition language (including the reason for recall) must be submitted afterthe first 6 months, and prior to the last 6 months of the current term being served by the elected official to be recalled. [After typing the las senctence, which is what the information I read indicates, I spoke with someone at the Elections Commission, and he said that we can submit the petition language now.]
Notification of all parties involved is undertaken by the County Clerk within 24 hours of the Clerk's receipt of the petition language.
A "clarity hearing" will be held by the Election Commission within a minimum of 10 days, and a maximum of 20 days after their receipt of the petition language. The commission only rules on clarity. They do not rule on the acceptability of the reason for the recall.
Either the petition sponsor or the elected official whose recall is sought may appeal a clarity hearing decision within 10 days after the decision was reached.
Once a petition has been determined to be of sufficient clarity, it must be filed with the County Clerk within 180 days.
The petition sponsor must request the number of signatures needed (25% of the total votes cast for governor in 2010) in writing from the County Clerk, who will respond within 5 days of the written request.
I did an opinion piece last week on this topic, and had no intention to revisit it, but in view of the wide publicity generated by this incident, felt that it deserved an update.
Arianna Huffington’s response to the legitimate criticism engendered by her decision to give the notorious Andrew Breitbart front page space on her site, was to refuse to ban Breitbart from the Huffington Post. Greg Sargent:
The Huffington Post is coming under mounting pressure from some on the left to stop giving Andrew Breitbart a front-page platform, with some wondering whether the granting of prime real estate to Breitbart signals that HuffPo is trying to broaden its ideological appeal.
But according to a statement sent my way, HuffPo will stand by Breitbart and continue publishing him. HuffPo spokesperson Mario Ruiz emails:
From the beginning, The Huffington Post has welcomed voices from all sides of the political spectrum, including conservatives such as Newt Gingrich, Frank Luntz, Tom Coburn, Laura Ingraham, Bob Barr, George Pataki, David Frum, Byron York, Mary Matalin, and Ken Blackwell. The idea being that dialogue -- from a wide range of perspectives -- is preferable to silence. The fact that Andrew Breitbart’s first post on our site drew over 1,635 comments, conducted in a civil manner, seems to validate the premise and the decision to publish his blog post.
My take? That’s all very well and good, Arianna, but Breitbart has admitted his chicanery in the case of Shirley Sherrod. He is also responsible for the demise of ACORN, in concert with James O’Keefe and Hannah GIles.
I've been hoping that someone else would get a recall effort going, and I believe that there probably are those who are working on it. That said, I haven't heard anything, so I've begun gathering information for a piece on what it takes to mount a recall effort. Although a recall petition online is good for our souls, it will not induce a recall election for Snyder because it isn’t the legally acceptable method.
The good news is that Snyder and his legislative cronies can be recalled as soon as July.
I hope to get the piece up later today, or first thing tomorrow, on Monday, March 21 Wednesday, March 23, so please check back if you’re interested in this.
MAR. 23 UPDATE: Ready to post, currently waiting for a call back from the Ingham County Clerk's office re clarification on a couple of issues. Will update as soon as I receive that info.
MAR. 23 UPDATE 2 6:30PM: Gah. I talked to the person responsible for dealing with recalls in the Ingham County Clerk's office in order to clarify a few issues, and according to her, we have to follow Ingham County recall rules rather than Michigan recall procedure. She told me she would email me the information. I have yet to receive it, and it does not appear to be posted on line. Stay tuned.
MAR. 24 UPDATE 1 2:54 PM: Still trying to get a response from Ingham Co. and the recall rules. Will get it posted as soon as possible.
MAR. 25 UPDATE 1 1:30PM: I just spoke with Janie Lee in the Ingham Co. Clerk's office. She is now saying that we need to file any recall, and abide by the recall rules of Washtenaw County since that is where Gov. Snyder still resides. He has not moved in to the governor's residence in Lansing. I need to take care of some family issues over the next couple of days, so I probably will not contact Washtenaw Co. until Monday morning. If anyone else would care to do so and send me the info, please, I would be grateful. My email addr. is nscATpoliticalruminationsDOTcom.
LAST NIGHT, MAR. 9: As you likely already know, last night Republicans illegally rammed through the portion of Walker’s budget that deals with collective bargaining, enacting, in effect, the end of collective bargaining for public workers in Wisconsin. Congrats, Koch Bastards.
After that happened, the Wisconsin state capitol was closed, and according to a metro bus driver, his bus was commandeered to take Republican legislator – fascists, out of the immediate area.
TODAY, MAR. 10: Today, the capitol was closed to everyone, with the remaining (unresisting) protesters being dragged out of the building, leading to thousands chanting “Let us in!”
The capitol police were replaced today by Wisconsin State Police troopers. The image below, via @ACLUMadison, is of riot gear being unloaded—wonder if the tear gas is even made in America?
Also today, Wisconsin firefighters went in to the Capitol Square/Madison branch of M&I bank as a group, and withdrew $190,000. M&I was the largest of the banks to back Gov. Scott Walker. That branch was closed for the day shortly thereafter Image below via @mariyastrauss
Additionally, there is a boycott of M&I planned if they don’t publicly oppose Walker’s efforts:
Teachers, firefighters and police officers said they would begin a boycott of M&I Bank if the bank does not begin publicly opposing Gov. Scott Walker's efforts to curtail collective bargaining for public workers.
Unions representing those groups said they would start other boycotts of businesses that backed Walker in his campaign.
The letter to M&I President Tom Ellis said the boycott would begin March 17 if the bank hasn't opposed Walker's efforts by then.
Stay tuned. I’ll be updating until sometime tonight.
5:07 PM Update: Wisconsin lawmakers voted to approve the measure to strip collective bargaining rights from public employees.
Police state (Wisconsin capitol building). Via @thinkprogress twitter stream.
5:45 PM Update: About an hour ago, Wisconsin Minority Assembly Minority Leader , Peter Barca (D), addressed the crown in Madison:
We think this vote will not stand. We believe it violates the law.
6:02 PM Update: We just learned that about 5 hours ago, hundreds of students at Madison West High School walked out of school and began marching to the capitol building, with a Madison police escort.
In the capitol building, Wisconsin state troopers deny media access to the Assembly.
8:00 PM Update: A general strike in Wisconsin? Not yet, it seems.
Calls for a general strike are growing among union members and supporters as the state Legislature advanced a law stripping public sector unions of almost all bargaining rights, but it remains unclear whether strikes or pickets will appear soon.
Union leaders say the Republicans' fast-track passage of the bill has fueled strike talk, but for now most are urging legal measures such as recall of Republican legislators as a way to repeal the law.
"A general strike would be playing the trump card, and you don't play the trump right away, you build up to that," said Jim Cavanaugh, president of the 45,000-member South Central Federal of Labor in Madison.
Just a quick reminder re the solidarity rallies being held in all fifty states tomorrow. You can find the schedule here.
Help us save what’s really at stake in Wisconsin and elsewhere, the American dream!!
Adding...you can also sign up to attend, or to volunteer, with MoveOn.org. All organizations promoting these events will be attending the same rally, so you do NOT have to sign up in order to attend any specific rally, just check with MoveOn or DefendWisconsin for the schedule in your state. All rallies are being held in each state's respective statehouse.
> We already know that Walker was union-busting for political reasons, and at the Koch brothers bidding, but here’s what he could have done had he really been trying to deal with the budget: "The state's entire budget shortfall for this year -- the reason that Walker has said he must push through immediate cuts -- would be covered by the governor's relatively uncontroversial proposal to restructure the state's debt. By contrast, the proposals that have kicked up a firestorm, especially his call to curtail the collective-bargaining rights of the state's public-employees, wouldn't save any money this year." H/T Steve Benen
> Jeff Cox, the Deputy Attorney General in Indiana who said he wanted to see “live ammunition” used on the Wisconsin protesters was fired.
>Scott Walker lied about campaigning on the collective bargaining issue: “I campaigned on (the proposals in the budget repair bill for Wisconsin) all throughout the election. Anybody who says they are shocked on this has been asleep for the past two years."
> Calls to boycott Koch Industries (tea party sugar daddy/founder of fake grass roots movements tea party AND Wisconsin union busting ALSO sugar daddy to Justice Clarence Thomas) growing.
The New York Times has a number of documents already online for your viewing, along with several articles on the current batch of releases. One of the articles speaks to consequences for the world [emphasis mine].:
The anticipated disclosure of the cables is already sending shudders through the diplomatic establishment, and could conceivably strain relations with some countries, influencing international affairs in ways that are impossible to predict.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and American ambassadors around the world have been contacting foreign officials in recent days to alert them to the expected disclosures. A statement from the White House on Sunday said: “We condemn in the strongest terms the unauthorized disclosure of classified documents and sensitive national security information.”
Two interesting tweets from Wikileaks. The first suggests that they are about to release more military records, albeit a much larger release than the Iraq documents which was the largest release of military documents in history.
The second tweet suggests something world changing?
And what does Assange mean by “keep us strong”? He is Australian, not American. Interesting.
Stay tuned.
UPDATE:CNN reported 15 minutes ago what we already know/surmised.
(CNN) -- The whistleblower organization WikiLeaks indicated Monday that it is preparing to release a new batch of previously classified U.S. military documents.
UPDATE II [Wed., Nov. 24-2:23PM EST]: via reader X7o, Fresh Horse on the most enigmatic of the wikileaks tweets.
An informed guess as to the content of WL’s next big release would refer to the WIRED chat logs (released here by BoingBoing) which allegedly contain the record of Bradley Manning confessing to the hacker, Adrian Lamo, about his disclosures to Wikileaks. If the logs are not a fabrication, the person alleged to be Manning seemed to believe that the most important material s/he had leaked to WL had not been the SIGACTS that have been the subject of the last two high profile disclosures. Particular reference was made to the video that became Collateral Murder, another as yet unreleased video, and to a quantity of classified State Department cables.
UPDATE III [Wed., Nov. 24-4:23PM EST]: Reuters is reporting that the documents are evidently related to corruption charges.
(Reuters) - Classified U.S. diplomatic cables reporting corruption allegations against foreign governments and leaders are expected in official documents that WikiLeaks plans to release soon, sources said on Wednesday.
Three sources familiar with the State Department cables held by WikiLeaks say the corruption allegations in them are major enough to cause serious embarrassment for foreign governments and politicians named in them.
I'll say one thing for Wikileaks; they sure know how to get a buzz going.
Will be mostly offline again for a few days. More packing, lugging boxes, and calming the cat. A helpful friend, Maxfield, will be putting up some posts while I'm out.
Tim Profitt, you are not only a despicable thug who thinks it makes him more manly to beat on women, but you are a criminal who belongs behind bars.
You are also a moron of the first order if you think that Ms. Valle in any way owes you an apology. On the contrary, your boss, Rand Paul, should step down as the Republican nominee for the Senate because the culture comes from the top down. Losers, all of you. From TPM:
Tim Profitt -- the former Rand Paul volunteer who stomped on the head of a MoveOn activist -- told told local CBS station WKYT that he wants an apology from the woman he stomped and that she started the whole thing.
"I don't think it's that big of a deal," Profitt said. "I would like for her to apologize to me to be honest with you."
Rand Paul fired Profitt after this incident hit the news, and made a half-assed apology. Profitt was a campaign coordinator prior to the firing.
UPDATE 2: Rand Paul's Democratic opponent, Jack Conway, has called on Paul to return all contributions received from Tim Profitt, the Kentucky Stomper.
UPDATE 1 -The man who stomped on Lauren Valle's head and neck is Tim Profitt, a campaign coordinator from the Paul campaign. Mike Pezzano, mentioned in my original post, is the man who held Valle down. From Talking Points Memo:
The Rand Paul campaign has just severed ties with their Bourbon County coordinator -- a man by the name of Tim Profitt -- who has identified himself as the supporter who stomped on the head and neck of a MoveOn activist outside of the Senate debate in Lexington, KY last night, according to Fox News.
UPDATE 2 -Valle has a concussion and a sprained arm. From The Washington Post:
She has told MoveOn officials that she suffered a concussion and sprained shoulder and arm, a MoveOn spokesperson confirms.
The woman, Lauren Valle of MoveOn, had approached Paul and tried to give him an "employee of the month" award from a fake company called Republicorp, when Paul supporters dragged her to the ground and stepped on her head and shoulder.
UPDATE 3 - The Tea Party Republicans who felt the need to tackle and stomp on a woman are pathetically unmanly, and should be sitting in a jail cell.
Our remedy, as a group, is to VOTE. Drag everyone you know to the polls with you, and vote Democratic. Not voting is just another way of casting your ballot, but for a Republican.
On Tuesday, Lauren Valle spoke for the first time since being thrust into the center of an alarming campaign fracas. Valle said that she recognized the Paul supporters who went after her and felt frightened almost immediately after they claimed they were there to do "crowd control." Her treatment, she said, was "premeditated."
“I have been at a bunch of events before, the previous debate, and the Rand Paul campaign knows me and they have expressed their distastes for my work before. What happened last night was that about five minutes before Rand Paul's car arrived they identified me and my partner, Alex, who was with me. They surrounded me. There was five of them. They motioned to each other and got behind me. My partner Alex heard them say 'We are here to do crowd control we might have to take someone out.'”
“When Rand Paul's car arrived a couple of them stepped in front of me so I stepped off the curb to get around them to get back out front. At that point they started grabbing for me and I ran all the way around the car with them in pursuit. The footage is after I've run all the way around the car and I'm in front of the car and that is when they took me down. One or two people twisted my arms behind my back and took me down... It was about two-to-three second after that that another person stomped on my head. And I lay there for 20 seconds or so and my partner Alex came and got me up and that's the point where there is the media clip of me speaking.”
A spokesman for the Lexington Police Department said on Tuesday afternoon that "Mr. Profitt is currently being served with a criminal summons ordering him to appear before a Fayette County District Court Judge."
Look for Breitbart and the boyz to say she "provoked" the crowd by being there and got what she deserved.
Adding.....these creeps also indulged themselves in a little bre@st [the use of the @ is to fool google, which shuts you out of safe search if the word is used] fondling when they were pushing her to the ground. Scum.
The races have tightened, and Nate Silver's forecasts indicate that Democrats can expect a very different Senate in 2011. Tea Party GOP candidates, including extremists Sharron Angle [NV], Joe Miller [AK], Pat Toomey [PA], and Rand Paul [KY], have the potential to move our politics even further right. So far right that these people could never have won prior to this election due to their extremist positions on a wide variety of policies.
Three more states were added to the list of close races; Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Illinois.
The group which garnered national attention when they intervened in the DeFazio race in Oregon, Concerned Taxpayers of America, consists of only two people/entities. From the Washington Post:
Daniel G. Schuster Inc., an Owings Mills, Md., concrete firm, gave two donations to the group totaling $300,000, new disclosure records show. New York hedge fund executive Robert Mercer gave the group $200,000.
And that's the extent of the financial support reported by Concerned Taxpayers, which says it was formed in September "to engage citizens from every walk of life and political affiliation" in the fight against "runaway spending."
The group's rapid creation - and its narrow funding base - illustrates how one or two wealthy donors can have a dramatic impact on political races, particularly in the wake of recent court rulings that have swept away many traditional spending limits. The situation also underscores how the precise motivations and goals of many independent groups can remain stubbornly opaque, even when disclosure is required.
The Concerned Taxpayers, which lists a Capitol Hill townhouse as its address, has spent $450,000 on television advertising targeting just two lawmakers: Reps. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Frank M. Kratovil Jr. (D-Md.).
Are these two donors acting as fronts? We may never know. We desperately need public financing of all elections.
A week ago, Miller announced that he would no longer answer questions from the press. Yesterday, he employed what I would certainly call fascist tactics at a public town hall meeting.
The Anchorage Daily News reports that Tony Hopfinger, who founded and edits "Alaska Dispatch," was arrested by Miller's private guards at an Anchorage school. The senate hopeful was on hand as part of a town hall event…..
Hopfinger had been trying to ask Miller questions when two or three guards told him to leave or risk being charged with trespassing.
When Hopfinger continued to try to ask questions, one of the guards put the reporter in an arm-bar and then handcuffed him.
Hopfinger was released after police arrived.
The reporter was on public property where a public event was being held at the time of the incident.
Anchorage Police freed Alaska Dispatcher editor Tony Hopfinger from Senate candidate Joe Mlller's body guards at Central Middle School early Sunday evening. Sergeant Mark Rein of the Anchorage Police Department said Hopfinger is not in custody or under arrest.
Hopfinger had been trying to ask Miller questions when two or three guards told him to leave or risk being charged with trespassing.
When Hopfinger continued to try to ask questions, one of the guards put the reporter in an arm-bar and then handcuffed him.
Hopfinger was released after police arrived.
The reporter was on public property where a public event was being held at the time of the incident.
Miller has been adamant about his desire to avoid talking to the Alaska media, but no one in the working press in Alaska has ever before seen a candidate go to this length to avoid questions.
UPDATE : Miller's campaign released a statement in which they claim that they didn't know that Hopfinger was a reporter, that he just appeared to be a threat to the candidate.
It is also important to note that the security personnel did not know that the individual they detained was a blogger who reporting on the campaign. To them, the blogger appeared irrational, angry and potentially violent.
But the Alaska Daily News claims otherwise:
While Hopfinger was still in handcuffs, the guards attempted to prevent other reporters from talking to him and threatened them too with arrest for trespass.
This is what you can look forward to if you elect Tea Party candidates such as Joe Miller, Sharon Angle, Rand Paul, et al.
For what it's worth, I'm hearing rumors that Hopfinger is a Conservative, and that the guards were bragging about being ex-Blackwater thugs.
NOTE: I’ll be updating this as I source further information.
There's a new ad on network television attacking the 9th district Democratic incumbent in Michigan, Gary Peters. The $225,000 ad buy was made by Americans For Tax Reform yesterday.
Americans For Tax Reform is an anti-government advocacy group, located in Washington D.C. on 7th Street, and is run by right wing scourge, Grover Norquist. Norquist and Americans For Tax Reform are most well known for laundering money for Jack Abramoff—and they did so at a profit. The Washington Post [2006]:
Newly released documents in the Jack Abramoff investigation shed light on how the lobbyist secretly routed his clients' funds through tax-exempt organizations with the acquiescence of those in charge, including prominent conservative activist Grover Norquist.
The federal probe has brought a string of bribery-related charges and plea deals. The possible misuse of tax-exempt groups is also receiving investigators' attention, sources familiar with the matter said.
Among the organizations used by Abramoff was Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform. According to an investigative report on Abramoff's lobbying released last week by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Americans for Tax Reform served as a "conduit" for funds that flowed from Abramoff's clients to surreptitiously finance grass-roots lobbying campaigns. As the money passed through, Norquist's organization kept a small cut, e-mails show.
Grover Norquist's anti-government, right wing group, Americans for Tax Reform, [also known for having laundered money for Jack Abramoff] made a $225,000 ad buy in Democratic incumbent Gary Peters' [D-MI] 9th Congressional District.
Just saw the ad on tv, and I’ll post it as soon as I can find it on the web. It's nasty and very aggressive.
Bastard right wing pacs.
Also. MoveOn has a new report out, “Buying Democracy” [pdf]. If you have the time, it’s worth a read.
UPDATE: The ad is using the possibility of the impending expiration of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, announcing that we will see a huge increase in taxes in 2011, in an attempt to panic people in to voting Republican. The unscrupulous morons.
They don't mention why that "increase" is occurring, nor the fact that only those earning over $250,000 will be affected. Additionally, the "increase" is not huge at all. It simply returns people to the tax rates in effect under Bill Clinton. For more info, take a look at this article I posted in August.
Joining Karl Rove in his protests, the batshit crazy Bachmann [R-MN], was on Fox Business yesterday where she was all in a fury, railing at Democrats and the White House for asking the Chamber to disclose its donors. Bachmann said that the Chamber only funds candidates out of its political action pac, and that there are no foreign donors.
Bachman:
This is about as low as it goes. It’s more than just disingenious, it’s a flat-out, patent lie. The Chamber of Commerce, who has been accused of taking foreign contributions to spend on elections, is absolutely not doing that. They have a separate political action fund and they use that only from American donors.
Unfortunately for Bachmann, her claim is easily proven false.
The Chamber does indeed have a political action fund. However, its PAC has so far raised $161,000 and spent only $104,000. Yet, the Chamber itself has spent more than $12 million so far this election season (and plans to spend $75 million), largely helping Republican candidates.
See, the PAC is required to disclose donors and funds; thanks to the Citizen’s United ruling, corporations are not required to disclose, nor limited as to dollar amounts of contributions.
Prior to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, the Chamber would have had to run its political ads out of its PAC, contributions to which are disclosed. But the Court’s decision allows large corporations — such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — to spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns without publicizing their donors. [......]
And they are doing so anonymously, and without limit.
Think Progress reminded us yesterday of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s big moment during the State of the Union address in January.
When President Obama warned in last January’s State of the Union address that the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision “will open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our election[s],” right-wing Justice Samuel Alito infamously mouthed the words, “Not True.”
Earlier this week, our Citizen’s United update reported the money flowing from the Chamber, but what we did not know at that time was that foreign entities were contributing to the Chamber’s fund.
Thanks to the investigation conducted by Think Progress, we now know that to be the case.
A ThinkProgress investigation has found that the Chamber funds its political attack campaign out of its general account, which solicits foreign funding. And while the Chamber will likely assert it has internal controls, foreign money is fungible, permitting the Chamber to run its unprecedented attack campaign. According to legal experts consulted by ThinkProgress, the Chamber is likely skirting longstanding campaign finance law that bans the involvement of foreign corporations in American elections.
In recent years, the Chamber has become very aggressive with its fundraising, opening offices abroad and helping to found foreign chapters (known as Business Councils or “AmChams”). While many of these foreign operations include American businesses with interests overseas, the Chamber has also spearheaded an effort to raise money from foreign corporations, including ones controlled by foreign governments. These foreign members of the Chamber send money either directly to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, or the foreign members fund their local Chamber, which in turn, transfers dues payments back to the Chamber’s H Street office in Washington DC. These funds are commingled to the Chamber’s 501(c)(6) account which is the vehicle for the attack ads:
And so, President Obama was right, and Alito has now been proven wrong.
Adding….this is just the first of many years to come that we will be fighting against the aftermath of the Citizen’s United ruling.
With the Court back in session on Monday, the New York Times on the Robert’s Court and the kinds of cases it chooses. Emphasis mine.
The Supreme Court enjoys all but free rein in selecting which cases to review. From the end of one term in the summer until the start of the next, on the first Monday in October, the work of the court is to sift through thousands of petitions from parties that lost in one of the federal appeals courts or highest state courts and are eager for the justices to reverse their fate.
The kinds of petitioners favored say a lot about the court’s interests and biases. The Warren court, eager to champion individual rights, chose a large number of petitions from downtrodden people. The Rehnquist court, looking for opportunities to vindicate states’ rights, favored petitions from the states.
The Roberts court has championed corporations. The cases it has chosen for review this term suggest it will continue that trend. Of the 51 it has so far decided to hear, over 40 percent have a corporation on one side. The most far-reaching example of the Roberts court’s pro-business bias was Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. By a 5-to-4 vote, the conservative justices overturned a century of precedent to give corporations, along with labor unions, an unlimited right to spend money in politics.
A coalition headed by New York City Public Advocate, Bill de Blasio, seeks to convince corporations to voluntarily assist in mitigating the effects of the Citizen’s United ruling. Emphasis mine.
The effort marks the latest response to the Supreme Court's landmark ruling early this year in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allows corporations, unions and nonprofit groups to spend unlimited amounts of money on elections. The ruling has helped fuel a record year for spending by outside interest groups, mostly in favor of Republicans, records show.
A special report by the Center for Public Integrity contains the most damning news regarding the fallout from the Citizen’s United ruling.
Last April, a group of a couple of dozen friends lunched and plotted. The group included Karl Rove, former Republican National Committee chairman, Ed Gillespie, Bill Miller, the political director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, former Sen. Norm Coleman, CEO of the American Action Network, and Steven Law, a former general counsel to the Chamber, and president of American Crossroads. Emphasis mine.
Altogether, the groups represented at the lunch -- and a few others some of whom have attended subsequent sessions -- plan to pour some $300 million into ads and get out the vote efforts to help scores of Republican Congressional candidates win in November, an effort that has been likened to a shadow GOP.
GOP allies have built a huge lead of almost five to one in ad spending compared to their Democratic counterparts, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group. GOP-affiliated groups spent $24.8 million on Senate and House ads from Aug.1 to Sept. 20 while their Democratic rivals spent just $4.9 million in the same period, according to CMAG data.
According to Marcus Owens, a partner at Caplin & Drysdale, as well as a former IRS director of exempt organizations, there is too much money to regulate. Emphasis mine.
“The financial flows into this election cycle are beyond regulation and beyond the existing mechanisms of the Federal Election Commission and the IRS.
It would be worth your time to read the full report.
The amount of money flowing in to secretive groups with undisclosed donors made possible by the Citizen’s United ruling, is not only unprecedented, but is going to Republicans, and donors are largely undisclosed. In fact, Democrats are being outspent 7:1
The $80 million spent so far by groups outside the Democratic and Republican parties dwarfs the $16 million spent at this point for the 2006 midterms. In that election, the vast majority of money – more than 90 percent – was disclosed along with donors’ identities. This year, that figure has fallen to less than half of the total, according to data analyzed by The Washington Post.
A new lead-in is required for Fox and Friends -- "As tasteless as they are ignorant".
Stay classy, Republicans.
It must be pointed out, over and over again, that it is utterly disingenuous of Fox Network to even speak about the community center situation since Fox Network, as part of News Corp, is owned by one of the investors in the center, The Kingdom Foundation, aka Saudi Prince Alwaleed. Yes, the second largest shareholder of News Corp is also an investor in the proposed community center that Fox Network has spent so much time denigrating.
The AP reports a statement from a White House spokesman:
WASHINGTON — A White House spokesman says BP's ruptured oil well is leaking at the top, along with seepage about two miles away.
Robert Gibbs also says officials are monitoring bubbles that can be seen on an underwater camera.
BP claims that the seepage is unrelated to the Macondo well, but is naturally occurring.
BP shares, which had dropped more than 6 percent after engineers detected seepage on the floor of the Gulf after the well was capped on Thursday, recovered in late trade on the news. They were down 3.9 percent in late afternoon trading in New York.
BP spokesman Mark Proegler told Reuters: "Scientists have concluded that the seep was naturally occurring."
Investors had feared that seepage could signal that the April 20 blowout that preceded the leak damaged the wellbore, which could allow oil and gas to leak out the sides and possibly breach the seabed.
Take BP’s statement with a grain of salt. There has not yet been any confirmation of this from Thad Allen.
BP recently sought to hire Gulf scientists @ $250/hour. They were told that they must keep their research confidential for three years.
BP PLC attempted to hire the entire marine sciences department at one Alabama university, according to scientists involved. The university declined because of confidentiality restrictions that the company sought on any research. The Press-Register obtained a copy of a contract offered to scientists by BP. It prohibits the scientists from publishing their research, sharing it with other scientists or speaking about the data that they collect for at least the next three years. …
More than one scientist interviewed by the Press-Register described being offered $250 an hour through BP lawyers. …
Scientists from Louisiana State University, University of Southern Mississippi and Texas A&M have reportedly accepted, according to academic officials. …
Robert Wiygul, an Ocean Springs lawyer who specializes in environmental law, said that he sees ethical questions regarding the use of publicly owned laboratories and research vessels to conduct confidential work on behalf of a private company. … It also buys silence, he said, thanks to confidentiality clauses in the contracts.
“It makes me feel like they were more interested in making sure we couldn’t testify against them than in having us testify for them,” said George Crozier, head of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, who was approached by BP.
Richard Shaw, associate dean of LSU’s School of the Coast and Environment, said… “The first order of business at the research meetings is to get all the disclosures out. Who has a personal connection to BP? We have to know how to deal with that person,” Shaw said. …
“This is not an agreement to do research for BP,” Wiygul said. “This is an agreement to join BP’s legal team. You agree to communicate with BP through their attorneys and to take orders from their attorneys. … The contract requires scientists to agree to withhold data even in the face of a court order if BP decides to fight such an order. It stipulates that scientists will be paid only for research approved in writing by BP.
One thing for certain. BP does not have the interests of the American people at heart, and, there is still much that we do not know.
UPDATE: Admiral Allen stated that the seepage isnaturally occurring.
There had been concern that the seepage spotted over the weekend
could mean oil and gas from the damaged well was flowing into geologic
formations from which they could eventually flow into the Gulf of
Mexico. That would be a much more difficult situation to deal with it.
But BP said Monday that appeared not to be
the case. That view was echoed by Adm. Thad Allen (ret.) at an
afternoon briefing.
According to CNN, Al Qaeda confirmed bin Laden’s death today via a statement on jihadist forums. The content of the statement, which predictably included a threat against Americans, 
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