WASHINGTON — A House committee hearing on Tuesday about the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau disintegrated into heated accusations of lying, with the panel’s chairman accusing Elizabeth Warren of giving misleading testimony at a hearing in March and of making up facts about her agreement to testify this week.
Why Pussy Riot Matters
Posted: August 18, 2012 Filed under: Human Rights | Tags: free speech, Freedom of Expression, Human Rights, Pussy Riot 24 Comments
St. Maria, Virgin, Drive away Putin
Drive away! Drive away Putin!
It is interesting to watch the growing amount of support for Pussy Riot. The women have been sentenced to two years in jail for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” for 
using an orthodox cathedral to do a performance piece in protest of the powerful Vladimir Putin. Vlad the Pussy Jailer’s heavy hand was seen in the recently delivered verdict. Outcry over the harsh sentence is coming from all over the world.
Russia on Saturday faced a storm of international criticism after sentencing three members of the Pussy Riot punk band to two years in prison for a political protest in an Orthodox cathedral.
Speculation mounted that the women, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich, could have their sentences cut on appeal after the damaging global reaction, with the Russian public also questioning the sentence.
Judge Marina Syrova said the three young protesters had shown a “clear disrespect toward society” by staging a “Punk Prayer” calling on the Virgin Mary to drive out Vladimir Putin just weeks ahead of his election in March to a third presidential term.
The United States called the sentences “disproportionate”, while Britain, France and the European Union also said the punishment was excessive and questioned Russia’s rights record.
Prominent supporters of the women spoke out to criticise the sentence.
International pressure “may not have secured the outcome many people wanted to see. But we need to keep up the fight,” wrote British member of parliament Kerry McCarthy, who attended the trial, on blog site LabourList.
Newspaper owner Alexander Lebedev, who co-owns Russia’s Novaya Gazeta daily and owns Britain’s Independent daily, called the women “prisoners of conscience” on Twitter.
Yoko Ono, the avant-garde artist and widow of John Lennon, posted a message of support to Samutsevich on Twitter on Saturday, saying: “You have won for all of us women in the world.”
It’s an important reminder of what happens when freedom of expression is not protected. It also puts Russia and Vlad the Pussy Jailer in very bad light.
But international opinion can often have a negative impact in Russia. How the trial and its outcome have affected Russian public opinion may play a much bigger role in coming months, as the anti-Putin protest
movement returns to the streets after a summer hiatusand the political season begins anew.
Public opinion has remained rather staunchly anti-Pussy Riot since the women were arrested in March. The latest poll, released last week by the independent Levada Center in Moscow, shows little change.
According to the survey, 55 percent of Russians did not have their views of the judicial system altered by the trial; 9 percent said it diminished their trust in courts while 5 percent said it increased it, and 12 percent said they have no faith in the courts to begin with. About 36 percent thought the verdict would be based on the facts of the case; 18 percent thought the verdict would be dictated “from the top.” Interestingly, when asked what they thought the punk band’s goal was in staging the protest, about 30 percent of respondents said it was “against the church and its role in politics”; 13 percent thought it was “against Putin” and 36 percent said they could not discern the purpose.
More worrisome, from the Kremlin‘s point of view, is the effect the trial has had on Russia’s more educated and influential social strata. Of course the usual suspects – opposition leaders, artists, liberal intellectuals – have popped up to protest the treatment of the women, who were kept almost six months in pretrial detention and now face more than a year in the harsh conditions of a Russian penal colony.
But unease over a prosecution that carries such obvious political and religious overtones appears to be spreading far beyond Russia’s small liberal and opposition circles.
The fact that we’re seeing this play out in the press suggests some very big changes have been made in the former Soviet Union state since the fall of the Berlin Wall. However, it is also a reminder that the country has not let go of its totalitarian roots. This it what will do the real damage. It will impact Foreign Direct Investment because it shows the Russia Courts can be gamed for political purposes. It will also hurt Russia’s ability to show itself in diplomacy circles as a modern nation. However, I suggest that the lesson is somewhat deeper than that.
The 10 witnesses—security guards, a candle-keeper, and a sacristan—said they suffered “moral damage” and are thus considered victims of the prayer, under the Russian Criminal Code. The lawyers who represent one of the security guards, Vladimir Potan’kin, said that their client was so mentally injured that he now has sleeping problems. Furthermore, in a twist not even worthy of a third-rate paperback, they stated that the Pussy Rioters are connected at the highest level to Satan himself.
The nature of the debate about freedom of speech, religious freedom, and political expression is one that is often misconstrued when that speech is profoundly offensive, crude, vulgar, or even malicious. “Nice” speech seldom requires defense. It is that which causes offense, whether or not it is intended, which must be protected if a society is to remain free. Deny freedom of expression to one and you effectively deny it to all. In those rare instances where restrictions on speech are permissible, they must be relevant, necessary, and pursuant to legitimate democratic aims—usually based on time, place, and manner, not on content. Had the Pussy Riot band interrupted a religious ceremony or had they been making loud noises at 4 a.m. in a neighborhood, there would be grounds for restricting their actions. However, the prosecution of Pussy Riot meets none of these conditions. Parody, irony, and humor are some of the most powerful weapons against established authority, especially the despotic kind. It is why Socrates was sentenced to death; it is why Voltaire’s criticism of the French absolutist monarchy was so disruptive that he was exiled from Paris; it is why Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa, who hypocritically just granted asylum to Julian Assange, sued a journalist and newspaper for $42 million for a column that made fun of him as a tyrant; it is why Hugo Chavez in Venezuela extended the contempt laws to make it a crime to disrespect him, leading to investigations of cartoonists; it is why Manal Al- Sharif fears for her life in Saudi Arabia for driving a car and challenging the ban on female drivers; it is why Ai Weiwei is hit with trumped up tax-evasion charges after mocking China’s dictatorship, and why Aung San Suu Kyi was held under house arrest by the Burmese military junta until just recently. The despotic mind is utterly undone and downright defenseless in the face of creative dissent.
The church, public opinion, and Vlad the Pussy Jailor seem to follow the form of that last line written by Thor Halvorssen for Forbes although now the church’s priests have said they’ve ‘forgiven’ the women. Here’s an article from Truth Out containing the gist of what the church has said about the protest which I find highly disturbing.
But while the case has allowed critics of Mr. Putin to portray his government as squelching free speech and presiding over a rigged judicial system, it has also given the government an opportunity to portray its political opponents as obscene, disrespectful rabble-rousers, liberal urbanites backed by the West in a conspiracy against the Russian state and the Russian church.
The extent of the culture clash was evident this month when Madonna paused during a concert in Moscow to urge the release of the women, who have been jailed since March, and performed in a black bra with “Pussy Riot” stenciled in bold letters on her back. The next day, Dmitry Rogozin, a deputy prime minister, posted a Twitter message calling Madonna a “whore.”
On Friday, the Russian Orthodox Church issued a statement that referred to Nazi aggression and the militant atheism of the Soviet era, and said, “What happened is blasphemy and sacrilege, the conscious and deliberate insult to the sanctuary and a manifestation of hostility to millions of people.”
The fact a church is claiming persecution while using Vlad the Jailor to enforce its own patriarchal agenda is appalling. Free speech does not stop at the steps of a church or the feelings of its believers. This issue,however, is bigger than Russia which brings me to the heavy handed treatment of the Occupy Protestors in the US and to the FBI infiltration of left wing activists with causes like providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians. Exactly how many degrees of separation are they–and we–from the feminist punk rockers? I would argue that we are closer than we’d like to think.
Live Blog: Chen Guangcheng Makes Phone Call to Congressional Hearing to Ask for Hillary’s Help
Posted: May 3, 2012 Filed under: China, Foreign Affairs, Live Blog, U.S. Politics | Tags: Chen Guangcheng, Congress, foreign policy, Hillary Clinton, Human Rights, Mitt Romney, Obama Administration 45 Comments
Chen Guangcheng
A short time ago, activist Chen Guangcheng made a direct call from his hospital room to a Congressional Hearing on China.
Calling in to the Congressional Executive Commission on China, dissident Chen Guangcheng told lawmakers he is concerned for the safety of his family and he wants to thank Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her efforts to help him over the past few days.
“I hope I can get more help from her,” he said over speakerphone to the two Republican lawmakers who were present.
The 40-year-old lawyer became famous last week after had taken refuge in the U.S. embassy after escaping more than a year and a half of house arrest. In a deal between the U.S. and China, Chen was then released to a Chinese hospital and is now under Chinese control. Chen initially said he wanted to stay in China but shortly after leaving the embassy he changed his mind.
“The thing I (am) most concerned (about) right now is the safety of my mother, my brothers, and I really want to know what’s going on with them,” Chen said through a translator at Thursday’s congressional hearing.
Chen said he wanted to come to the United States for some “rest,” because he has not rested for 10 years.
I’ve highlighted the portions of the article that refer to Hillary. It sounds to me as if Chen does trust Hillary. Maybe I’m naive, but I don’t see why he would be specifically asking for her help if he did not.
There is a lot of news breaking on this story, so I thought I’d put it up as a live blog so we could discuss what’s happening in China right now. I haven’t been following the story closely, but it appears to me that some very delicate negotiations are probably going on behind the scenes.
I really don’t think it’s helpful for Mitt Romney and Republican lawmakers who have no way of knowing what is really happening to be attacking the Obama administration in the midst of a human rights crisis. Hasn’t there always been tradition of the other party stepping back in situations like this and waiting for the outcome before attacking? Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.
Here is what Mitt Romney had to say earlier this afternoon.
Romney, in a speech in Portsmouth, accused the administration of seeking to hasten Chen’s departure from the embassy placing economic concerns above Chen’s freedom.
“The reports are, if they are accurate, that our administration, willingly or unwittingly communicated to Chen an implicit threat to his family, and also probably sped up, or may have sped up the process of his decision to leave the embassy because they wanted to move on to a series of discussions that Mr. Geithner and our secretary of state are planning to have with China,” Romney said.
“It’s also apparent according to these reports, if they are accurate, that our embassy failed to put in place the kind of verifiable measures that would ensure the safety of Mr. Chen and his family,” Romney added. “If these reports are true, this is a dark day for freedom. And it’s a day of shame for the Obama administration. We are a place of freedom here and around the world, and we should stand up and defend freedom wherever it is under attack.”
So far, I haven’t been able to find any evidence that Hillary pushed Chen to leave the U.S. Embassy. I’ve read that he wanted to leave because he found out that his wife had been beaten. From the Guardian UK
The activist, who is blind, left the US embassy in Beijing after agreeing to a deal allowing him to stay in China and study law at university, with reassurances from authorities.
But it appears he changed his mind after being reunited with his wife, Yuan Weijing, and their children at the hospital, talking to friends about the risks, and learning from Yuan about apparent threats made by local officials in the eastern province of Shandong, where the family lived under a brutal regime of illegal house arrest for 19 months prior to his escape.
So Chen learned about the threats to his family after he got to the hospital and talked to his wife. He didn’t learn this from U.S. officials while he was in the Embassy. So why is Romney saying that? IMHO, it is totally inappropriate for any politician of any party to be making public statements in the midst of an international crisis. If Republicans have concerns about the situation, they should be working behind the scenes, not attacking the very people who are trying to help Chen.
Later in article the guardian reports that on Wednesday night State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland:
said in a statement that no US official spoke to Chen about physical or legal threats to his family and nor did the Chinese relay any such threats to American diplomats.
She added that Chen had expressed his desire to stay in China throughout talks.
But she confirmed US officials had passed on the Chinese warning that his family would be returned to Shandong if he stayed at the embassy.
“The problem is not that they relayed it to him – as they should have done – but that it should have raised alarm bells. You have to conclude that if the authorities were ready to play these games they were probably not ready to guarantee his safety,” said Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch.
Gary Locke, the US ambassador, told reporters he could say unequivocally that Chen was never pressured to leave the embassy.
Even if the State Department erred, I think it is wrong for Romney to be attacking the administration in the middle of tense and delicate negotiations taking place on the other side of the world.
What do you think? I’m continuing to read about this case and will add more links in the comments.
We Have Choice
Posted: February 8, 2012 Filed under: just because | Tags: contraception, Human Rights, pro choice, religion, women's reproductive rights 36 CommentsWe’ve watched the Republicans flail in all directions, trying to find a message, a mission, an issue to drive them to victory in November. It’s
been tough going for the GOP with less than stellar candidates and the endless circus ride the public has witnessed. Now down to four ‘iffy’ wannabes, attention has focused on flaws, egos, missteps and gaffes. Uncle Newt appeals to the confederate South. Ron Paul is loved by the Ayn Rand aficionados. Reptilian Rick Santorum cheers and warms the cockles of the Religious Right. And Mitt Romney. Poor Mitt is loved by virtually no one.
So, I can only imagine the excitement with the new-but-old controversy boiling over birth control and reproductive freedom. The right to choose. It sticks in the craw of the Republican Party, even as the loudest voices scream about liberty and individual rights. This isn’t a question of abortion at this juncture. We’re talking about the basics: contraception, the freedom to choose how many children we have and when we have them. And privacy. A woman’s right to decide these things herself in the privacy of her own space, heart and mind, with or without a husband, with or without government or religious leaders telling her, demanding she turn one way or the other.
To listen to the likes of Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and the faux religious warriors, one might think that all religion, but particularly Christianity, has been put on the rack, whipped into humiliating submission or fed to the lions for the vile amusement of secular humanists.
Enough with the lying! Enough with the bully pulpit exhortations with the emphasis on ‘bully.’
Demanding equal access to healthcare, expecting reproductive freedom and sexual/gender equality is not a Satanic plot. It’s what reasonable 
people do and think. We are not living in the Middle Ages [though I suspect many fundamentalists think of the era as ‘the good ole days]. If anyone doubts the politicization of women’s healthcare issues, please review the past week’s headlines, the unseemly expose of the Komen Foundation, more concerned about dissing Planned Parenthood than serving lower-income women with breast screenings. Or the manufactured outrage of the Catholic Church hierarchy and their mouthpieces, who [sputter, sputter] decry the Administration’s insistence on equitable healthcare service as a vicious attack on religious freedom.
Really? Twenty-eight states require organizations offering prescription insurance to cover contraception. Ninety-eight percent of Catholic women use birth control and many Catholic institutions offer the benefit to their employees.
Let’s review some recent statistics:
Two-thirds of Catholics, 65 percent, believe that clinics and hospitals that take taxpayer money should not be allowed to refuse procedures or medications based on religious beliefs. A similar number, 63 percent, also believe that health insurance, whether private or government-run, should cover contraception.
A strong majority (78 percent) of Catholic women prefer that their hospital offers emergency contraception for rape victims, while more than half (55 percent) want their hospital to provide it in broader circumstances.
Yet despite these numbers, the Church, the Religious Right and the heat-seeking Republican establishment are foaming at the mouth, waving mummified fists in righteous indignation.
Make no mistake. This is an old war. I wrote about the struggles and absolute determination of Margaret Sanger a few days ago. She fought these battles. The arguments were identical; the accusations the same. She fought the religious establishment, she fought the righteous, small-minded moralists 100 years ago. If anything this should be a wakeup call: the defense of reproductive rights, which are basic human rights, need to be taken seriously, day-in, day-out. Freedoms gained can quickly become freedoms lost. Gender equality, which is a matter of civil rights, should be supported with voices and votes pitched against the ugliness of bigotry and discrimination.
This is a power play wrapped in thin prayer and religious dogma. It’s a desperate attempt by traditional religion to regain ground lost to modernity, a world where the old stories and myths have lost their power, their ability to control by fear, a world in which human dignity applies to all our members, a world where the mysteries of the Universe and our place in it is far grander than our words and imaginations can conjure.
We have choice. We always have. It’s time to put away childish things and become accountable, rational adults if we’re ever to deal with the problems facing us. We can fearfully grasp the old ways, allow ourselves to be drawn into self-limiting dictums. We can argue how many angels dance on the head of a pin with religious fanatics and the politicians who love them.
Or we can say, ‘No!’ We have that choice.
It’s Saturday!
Posted: October 22, 2011 Filed under: #Occupy and We are the 99 percent!, Barack Obama, Congress, Democratic Politics, morning reads, Republican politics, Social Security, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics, unemployment | Tags: Bain Capital, Barack Obama, Black Swan, DNC, Eric Cantor, Human Rights, interest on student loans, Mitt Romney, Muammar Gaddafi, Paul Ryan, Paul Volker, Pell Grants, Regulations, student loans, Volker rule, Wall Street donors, war crimes, Wharton School, World Bank 33 Comments
Happy Saturday Sky Dancers!! It’s a beautiful fall day here in Indiana, but I’m looking forward to getting back to Boston. I’ll be taking off in a couple of days and I hope to be home by Tuesday or Wednesday. My mom is going along for the ride so she can hang out with her youngest grandsons for awhile. It will be fun, because she’ll be there over Halloween. But enough about my boring life–let’s get to the news.
This story is a couple of days old, but still worth reading. Via BDBlue at Corrente, Which GOP candidate do you think has raised the most money from Wall Street?
Despite frosty relations with the titans of Wall Street, President Obama has still managed to raise far more money this year from the financial and banking sector than Mitt Romney or any other Republican presidential candidate, according to new fundraising data.
Obama’s key advantage over the GOP field is the ability to collect bigger checks because he raises money for both his own campaign committee and for the Democratic National Committee, which will aid in his reelection effort.
As a result, Obama has brought in more money from employees of banks, hedge funds and other financial service companies than all of the GOP candidates combined, according to a Washington Post analysis of contribution data. The numbers show that Obama retains a persistent reservoir of support among Democratic financiers who have backed him since he was an underdog presidential candidate four years ago.
And get this–Obama has raised nearly twice as much as Romney from the Mittster’s old firm, Bain Capital! So don’t believe all those stories in the media about the Wall Street titans switching to Mitt.
Here’s another “breaking news” story from Forbes: US Businesses Not Being Strangled By Regulation And Taxation, World Bank Says. Gee, no kidding? But the Republicans say that’s the main cause of our economic problems, don’t they?
The World Bank uses indicators such as time spent to set up a business to getting credit, among other things, in benchmarking the 183 countries it ranks in “Doing Business”. The report measures and tracks changes in the regulations applied to domestic companies in 11 areas in their life cycle–such as investors rights, taxation, cross border transactions, legality and enforcement of contracts and bankruptcy law. A fundamental premise of doing business is that economic activity requires good rules that are transparent and accessible to all, not just big business. Such regulations should be efficient, the World Bank states, striking a balance between safeguarding some important aspects of the business environment and avoiding distortions that impose unreasonable costs on businesses. “Where business regulation is burdensome and competition limited, success depends more on whom you know than on what you can do. But where regulations are relatively easy to comply with and accessible to all who need to use them, anyone with talent and a good idea should be able to start and grow a business (legally),” the World Bank said.
Where does the supposed regulation and taxation crippled U.S. stand in the rankings? It is number four, trailing behind New Zealand (3), Hong Kong (2) and Singapore (1).
What it looks like from the research desks at one of the most powerful and elite multilateral institutions on the planet is a U.S. that does not have the government in its way, but a U.S. whose government is more out of the way than it is in every other major economy on earth, including mainland China.
Wow, I wonder if Congressman Paul Ryan reads Forbes? Naaaah… probably too far left for him. And speaking of Ryan, he appeared at a town hall meeting in Muskego, WI yesterday and made a complete ass of himself as usual. From Think Progress:
During a town hall today, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) was asked by Matthew Lowe, a student, why the GOP wants to cut Pell Grants. Ryan responded by saying that the program is “unsustainable,” before telling Lowe that he should be working three jobs and taking out student loans to pay for college, instead of using Pell Grants:
LOWE: I come from a very middle-class family and under President Obama, I get $5,500 per year to pay for school, which doesn’t come close to covering all of the funding, but it helps ease the burden. Under your plan, you cut it by 15 percent. I was just curious why you would cut a grant that goes directly to the middle- and lower-class people that need it the most.
RYAN: ‘Cause Pell Grants have become unsustainable. It’s all borrowed money…Look, I worked three jobs to pay off my student loans after college. I didn’t get grants, I got loans, and we need to have a system of viable student loans to be able to do this.
That’s funny. I read that Ryan used his father’s Social Security survivor benefits to put himself through college. I’d like to see some documentation on those three jobs he claims he worked while attending classes, writing papers, and studying for exams. Besides, I’ll bet the unemployment rate for college-age kids wasn’t at depression levels back then.
And speaking of paying for college, here’s an interesting piece at Truthout by Ellen Brown: Can the Fed Prevent the Next Crisis by Eliminating Interest on Student Loan Debt?
Among the demands of the Wall Street protesters is student debt forgiveness – a debt “jubilee.” Occupy Philly has a “Student Loan Jubilee Working Group,” and other groups are studying the issue. Commentators say debt forgiveness is impossible. Who would foot the bill? But there is one deep pocket that could pull it off – the Federal Reserve. In its first quantitative easing program (QE1), the Fed removed $1.3 trillion in toxic assets from the books of Wall Street banks. For QE4, it could remove $1 trillion in toxic debt from the backs of millions of students.
The economy would only be the better for it, as was shown by the GI Bill, which provided virtually free higher education for returning veterans, along with low-interest loans for housing and business. The GI Bill had a sevenfold return. It was one of the best investments Congress ever made.
There are arguments against a complete student debt write-off, including that it would reward private universities that are already charging too much and it would unfairly exclude other forms of debt from relief. But the point here is that it could be done and it (or some similar form of consumer “jubilee”) would represent a significant stimulus to the economy.
According to Brown, student loan debt is “the next Black Swan.”
Here’s another stupid Republican story for you. Eric Cantor was scheduled to give a speech yesterday at the elite Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Cantor was to speak on what Republicans plan to do about income inequality. The school was so excited that they opened the talk to the public. In addition, there was to be a protest by several groups, including Occupy Philly.
Guess what Cantor did? He wimped out and cancelled. ROFLOL! From the LA Times:
Cantor was scheduled to speak on income inequity at a lecture hosted by the Wharton business school. The Virginia Republican’s office said he called off the speech after learning that protesters planned to rally outside and attendance would not be limited to students and others affiliated with the school.
Ron Ozio, director of media relations at University of Pennsylvania, said the business school “deeply regrets” that the event was canceled.
“The university community was looking forward to hearing Majority Leader Cantor’s comments on important public issues, and we hope there will be another opportunity for him to speak on campus,” Ozio said in a statement. “The Wharton speaker series is typically open to the general public, and that is how the event with Majority Leader Cantor was billed. We very much regret if there was any misunderstanding with the Majority Leader’s office on the staging of his presentation.”
This is pretty disgusting: Libyans line up to see Gaddafi’s body on display; groups call for probe into death
International human rights groups called Friday for an investigation into the death of former Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi as gory new videos showed him being spat at and punched by revolutionaries and as skepticism mounted about official claims that he was shot in crossfire after being captured.
The new cellphone videos cast a shadow over the revolutionaries even as they were celebrating the end of their eight-month struggle to wrest control of the country. NATO had backed the rebels in the name of shielding pro-democracy civilians from Gaddafi’s brutality.
“The government version certainly does not fit with the reality we have seen on the ground,” said Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch, who has been investigating the capture of Gaddafi in his home town of Sirte. Amnesty International warned that the killing could be a war crime.
Why do I suspect the U.S. Government gave the go-ahead for Gaddafi to be executed, just like Osama bin Laden? You might want to read Joseph Cannon’s take on this one.
Finally, late last night the Volker Rule was number 1 in Google’s top stories. From the NYT:
When Paul Volcker called for new rules in 2009 to curb risk-taking by banks, and thus avoid making taxpayers liable in the future for the kind of reckless speculation that caused the financial crisis and resulting bailout, he outlined his proposal in a three-page letter to the president.
Last year, when the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act went to Congress, the Volcker Rule that it contained took up 10 pages.
Last week, when the proposed regulations for the Volcker Rule finally emerged for public comment, the text had swelled to 298 pages and was accompanied by more than 1,300 questions about 400 topics.
Wall Street firms have spent countless millions of dollars trying to water down the original Volcker proposal and have succeeded in inserting numerous exemptions. Now they’re claiming it’s too complex to understand and too costly to adopt.
Gee, what a surprise. I wonder how many of those millions were taxpayer dollars?
So…what are you reading and blogging about today?
SDB Evening News Reads for 053111: Mitch McConnell, Weiner and a Lepp…all just another word for Dick?
Posted: May 31, 2011 Filed under: abortion rights, Big Pharma, Egypt, fetus fetishists, Foreign Affairs, Health care reform, hunger, SCOTUS, SDB Evening News Reads, Syria, Yemen | Tags: Breibart, Human Rights, Twitter 24 Comments
Goody Goody Restaurant, Tampa, FL. 1925 - 2005
Good late afternoon and evening! We had a break from all the news yesterday and it was very enjoyable! Boston Boomer posted a cool picture of a hamburger joint she used to haunt back in Indiana, so I thought I would post a picture of one of my hometowns legendary dives…
Goody Goody was one of those places where you could get a damn good cheeseburger, with raw onions, pickles and this special chili/ketchup like sauce, some tasty crinkle fries, and then finish it off with a slice of homemade Butterscotch pie. Goody Goody opened back in 1925 and was a regular favorite of my family. My Nana and Nano and great Aunts and Uncles would always talk about going to the drive in and getting some cheeseburgers. When they got to old to drive themselves there we would take them. It was like seeing a bunch of clowns coming out of a little van at the circus. Only instead of clowns, imagine a bunch of old people in wheel chairs and walkers slowly climbing out and making their way to the Goody Goody entrance. Like some sort of old fart parade, their own cheeseburger crusade. The place closed in 2005, but boy was that sauce was amazing…
Okay on to the news. First we’ll start with some things going on here in the US and then move on to World news.
As if the poor people don’t have enough to worry about…Congress Mulls Cuts to Food Stamps Program Amid Record Number of Recipients – The Note
ABC News’ Huma Khan reports: Congress is under pressure to cut the rapidly rising costs of the federal government’s food stamps program at a time when a record number of Americans are relying on it.
The House Appropriations Committee today will review the fiscal year 2012 appropriations bill for the Department of Agriculture that includes $71 billion for the agency’s “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.” That’s $2 billion less than what President Obama requested but a 9 percent increase from 2011, which, critics say, is too large given the sizeable budget deficit.
A record number of Americans — about 14 percent — now rely on the federal government’s food stamps program and its rapid expansion in recent years has become a politically explosive topic.
I got one thing to say about that…DICKS.
This next article seems like it would be a real good thing to do as far as cutting cost with Medicare. Is the GOP Serious Enough about the Debt to Stand Up to PhRMA? | MyFDL
One way to find out is simple: push for Medicare to be able to negotiate drug prices in the same way that the VA already does.
What would that save? According to the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare [pdf, with emphasis added]:
Allowing the Secretary [of HHS] to negotiate drug prices has the potential to save billions of dollars potentially up to $24 billion annually assuming that the mean reduction in drug prices obtained through the limited use of VA’s negotiation techniques could be applied to the Part D program’s overall prescription drug cost of $49 billion. These savings are more than adequate to close the “doughnut hole” coverage gap, estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to cost $42 billion over five years. Savings in excess of $42 billion could be used to improve other Medicare benefits and reducing the deficit.
Up to $24B a year is a nice start if you’re looking to save money in the Medicare program.
It’s a fast legislative fix, because most of the language they would need to craft has already been written. Find the VA authorization language, translate it from Veterans Affairs to HHS, and you’re there. There’s no need for long negotiations or drafting and redrafting the language, because it was already done when the VA got the authority to negotiate its drug prices.
I know that Big Pharma won’t stand for it, but damn…it seems like a good idea to me. What do you think?
Wow, we mentioned the witch hunt of a hearing this past week. I am speaking of Elizabeth Warren and the GOP’s downright fear of her. Well, Mitch McConnell has upped the rhetoric. Mitch McConnell Calls Elizabeth Warren’s Nomination a Potential ‘Serious Threat to Our Financial System’ | Video Cafe That link goes to a video clip at C&L:
Mitch McConnell did his best to carry some water for Wall Street on this weekend’s Meet the Press when he called the potential nomination of Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Agency something that “could be a serious threat to our financial system”. And by “threat” I guess he means Wall Street and the banks not being allowed to screw over consumers at will.
It’s simply astounding to me that Republicans were willing to go far enough to block her potential nomination and force a pro-forma session over the holiday to keep her from being a recess nominee to head the new agency when I think most of the country is well aware of just how badly Wall Street and the banks’ excesses have and are continuing to harm our economy.
Then there is this from Blue Girl…McConnell keeps lying and the media keeps letting him get away with it | Crooks and Liars I guess Mitch was on a roll this past Sunday!
Mitch McConnell is continuing with his gig singing backup on the Paul Ryan Roadmap to Ruin tour, telling Fox news Sunday yesterday that Ryan’s scheme is “very sensible” and will “save Medicare.” He then trotted out the discredited “death panels” BS, saying that the ACA will empower “a board that would ration health care,” before adding “Let’s just stipulate that nobody’s trying to throw grandma off the cliff,” alluding to an ad run by an “independent” interest group against Jane Corwin in the recent New York 26th Congressional Districe special election.
Let’s unpack what McConnell is asserting, shall we?
Click the link to read the entire article. The man is slime. I mean look at him, he looks like a pervert and a crook:
Senator Mitch McConnell
I got one thing to say about this dude…DICK!
Ah, and lest we forget the SCOTUS. When the Weinergate story hit, this bit of news got no attention: Will Clarence Thomas Recuse Himself on Health Care Reform? | Mother Jones Anthony Weiner had been pushing Thomas via Twitter to disclose just how much cash his wife got from her “job” as President and CEO of Liberty Central.
Following a time-honored Washington tradition of dumping required but embarrassing information on a Friday night before a major holiday, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas finally released the details of his wife’s income from her year or so working for the tea party group Liberty Central, which fought President Obama’s health care reform law. His new financial disclosure form indicates that his wife, Virginia, who served as Liberty Central’s president and CEO, received $150,000 in salary from the group and less than $15,000 in payments from an anti-health care lobbying firm she started.
The disclosure was apparently prompted in part by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), who had been needling Thomas (including on Twitter) for months to disclose how much money his wife earned from Liberty Central. That’s because challenges to Obama’s health care reform law are likely to end up before the Supreme Court sooner rather than later, and if Thomas and his wife benefited from her income working against the bill, the justice has an enormous conflict of interest in hearing any legal challenge.
I got one thing to say about this dude in Judicial Robes…DICK!
And speaking of Weinergate. Looks like a Canadian Politician also got hacked this weekend: George Lepp Penis Picture | Politician Penis Picture | Anthony Weiner | Mediaite
Ok, what the heck is going on? Is this some kind of mass-penis-related conspiracy? Is someone trying to redefine the term “flash mob?” While we here in America were spending our holiday weekend trying to figure out if Rep. Anthony Weiner tweeted a picture of his namesake at a college student (what a way for us all to commemorate the troops, right?), George Lepp, a Canadian politician, was embroiled in his own dick-pic scandal. Here’s where it gets crazy. Lepp’s picture, like Weiner’s, was uploaded onto his official Twitter account. It was then, like Weiner’s, quickly removed. Lepp, like Weiner, is claiming that the photo’s subject doesn’t belong to him and is blaming criminal activity (a stolen phone instead of a hacked account). And here’s the best part! The word “Lepp,” like “Weiner,” is a Canadian euphemism for a penis!
That last bit about the word “Lepp” is a joke…but I think that Lepp could definitely become a new Urban Dictionary term for penis, or even the word f*ck…here I will use it in a sentence:
“Hey man, get the Lepp outta here!”
I thought this link was also interesting: Jeffrey Toobin Weinergate | Andrew Breitbart Weinergate | CNN | Mediaite
CNN’s legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin appeared on the air, right after Andrew Breitbart, to discuss the ongoing “Weinergate” story. Yet Toobin was much more agitated by what just happened on CNN than by anything related to Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner’s Twitter ordeal. According to Toobin, the Twitter picture controversy is just a “mild prank,” but Breitbart’s comments about Weiner were truly what was “outrageous.”
Toobin’s reaction to Breitbart’s appearance on CNN:
“What Andrew Breitbart was insinuating about [Weiner] with young girls and stuff is outrageous. And frankly, it’s too bad that he got to say that stuff on CNN.
Check out what Media Matters has to say about it:
Proving once again that there’s no standard by which many mainstream media outlets are willing to hold sloppy propagandist Andrew Breitbart, CNN this afternoon invited the discredited blogger on the air to discuss the Rep. Anthony Weiner (NY- D) Twitter story.
Conveniently setting aside the fact that virtually every attack campaign that Breitbart has launched in recent years has collapsed under the weight of modest scrutiny, CNN presented the fatuous blogger as some sort of expert who could walk people through the Weiner story, which he’s been hyping for days. (The whole right-wing blogosphere launched itself into a creepy tizzy over the holiday weekend regarding the story.)
I got one thing to say about this media muckraking bastard Breibart…DICK!
This next link is going to make y’all mad…Bryan Kemper and LifeNews Thinks Every Tornado Victim Should Get Pregnant | RH Reality Check
Planned Parenthood of Missouri is assisting those families, offering free birth control and condoms to those who have been displaced and who want to avoid an unintended pregnancy at a time when the added burden could exacerbate personal tragedy. But anti-choice zealots never miss an opportunity to try and score political points.
Bryan Kemper, columnist for LifeNews, provides a vivid reminder that anti-choice activists cannot tell the difference between birth control and abortion. Kemper declares that Planned Parenthood is offering “free abortions” in Joplin, rather than the condoms and birth control pills they actually offered to disaster victims. Kemper writes:
In 2001 Planned Parenthood of NYC offered free abortions to women who lost a husband or boyfriend in the attacks on 9/11. What a wonderful sentiment to send to grieving women; (Lost your husband? Let us kill his child for free).
Planned Parenthood of Joplin, MO is following suit and offering their services for free to victims of the Tornado….Yepp, that is what these people need more than food, water, shelter and clothing; they need condoms and the pill. To quote Seth Myers and Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live, “Really”. Really Planned Parenthood? Free birth control and abortion for people who are suffering, hungry, thirsty and traumatized sounds like such a wonderful community service. Killing children is not heath care and it is certainly not disaster relief.
How wrong is Kemper? Even Lifenews backed away from his claim, posting then deleting his article from their own website.
So you probably know… I got one thing to say about this religious PLUB Bryan Kemper…DICK!
On to World News after the jump…
SDB Evening News Reads for 052511
Posted: May 25, 2011 Filed under: Barack Obama, Egypt, Gaza, SDB Evening News Reads, Social Security | Tags: Human Rights, Ireland, medicare, NY-26, Paul Ryan 16 CommentsIt is Wednesday Evening…or late afternoon. Don’t you just love it when so much is going on, your reader is overloaded with RSS items? Let’s do this quick, cause I am making “Breakfast for Supper” and y’all know how satisfying good French Toast can be.
For a few articles on the latest Eddie Munster, sorry Paul Ryan, excuse for the GOP loss in New York…take a look at these:
This link from TPM is a video compilation of Ryan using his new word…Word Of The Day: ‘Demagouging’ | Talking Points Memo
It is a funny video so take a look. Talk about saying the same thing over and over, it just gets obnoxious.
Ryan Rolls Out New Video: ‘Saving Medicare, Visualized’ | TPMDC
A YouTube video from Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), “The Path to Prosperity (Episode 2): Saving Medicare, Visualized”With his push to privatize Medicare increasingly becoming an albatross around the neck of the GOP, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) is continuing his efforts to explain it clearly to the American public.
Ryan has released a new video, posted on the House Budget Committee’s Web site, with no shortage of charts and graphs.
The video is entitled, “The Path to Prosperity (Episode 2): Saving Medicare, Visualized.”
This thing has more graphs and illustrations than a Tea Party coloring book about how a law gets passed. Seriously though, for a go to guide on How To Spin Paul Ryan’s Medicare Plan: A Guide For Fence-Sitting Republicans | TPMDC check this one out. That first rule should give you a clue, read the whole thing…
The Paul Ryan budget is proving a difficult issue for Republicans across the spectrum to discuss. If you back it, you take a barrage of hits from Democrats for its plan to “essentially end Medicare,” a potential death sentence in a tough race or if you have national ambitions. But if you vocally oppose it, a la Newt Gingrich, the base’s wrath comes instantly crashing down on you. Fortunately for fence-sitting politicians there are ways to create some wiggle room without getting trapped in either camp. Here’s a handy guide for how to spin like a pro:
Rule #1: Paul Ryan Is Awesome
…Calling him “courageous” never hurts, either.
I think Sarlin is on to something here:
Paul Ryan For Some, Miniature American Flags For All
Okay, been talking about this Munster show too long…lets move on to another fright fest, this time in the form of Lord Voldemort of Florida: Poll: Rick Scott among the least-liked governor’s in nation – Political Currents – MiamiHerald.com
Gov. Rick Scott is one of the least popular governors in America, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll that shows 57 percent of voters disapprove of his job performance.
Only 29 percent favor the job Scott is doing, the poll of 1,196 registered voters shows.
[…]
“The data on the perceived fairness of the governor’s budget is crucial. When voters by almost 2-1 say his approach is unfair to them, that’s a giant flashing political warning sign for Scott,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a written statement. “When voters don’t think they are being treated fairly, they tend to react negatively.”
No kidding…they usually start to crowd around the Governors Mansion wielding pitchforks and carrying signs of protest, right?
Decorum Breaks Down at House Hearing on Consumer Finance Agency – NYTimes.com
Jonathan Ernst/ReutersElizabeth Warren, who is directing the start of a consumer bureau, at Tuesday’s hearing.
When Congressman McHenry wanted to recess the hearing and then come back for more Warren Bashing,
Ms. Warren objected, saying that she had agreed to be present for only an hour and had no more time. Mr. McHenry disagreed and said that other subcommittee members still had questions for her.
A vigorous back and forth ensued.
“Congressman, you are causing problems,” Ms. Warren said. “We had an agreement.”
“You’re making this up,” Mr. McHenry replied, eliciting gasps from the audience. “This is not the case.”
Gasp…they really don’t want her there do they?
Speaking of unseemly behavior: Ed Schultz Laura Ingraham | Ed Schultz Slut | Laura Ingraham Slut | Mediaite
Here’s his comments:
“And what do the Republicans thinking about? They’re not thinking about their next-door neighbor. They’re just thinking about how much this is going to cost. President Obama is going to be visiting Joplin, Mo., on Sunday but you know what they’re talking about, like this right-wing slut, what’s her name?, Laura Ingraham? Yeah, she’s a talk slut. You see, she was, back in the day, praising President Reagan when he was drinking a beer overseas. But now that Obama’s doing it, they’re working him over.”
I don’t care who is saying it…you don’t call a woman a slut. Period.
Suzie Madrak has this over at C&L Feds Charge Five Oil Speculators With Manipulating Prices | Crooks and Liars Only five people have been named…that’s it?
Looks like Loughner is going to be found unfit for trial: NationalJournal.com – Prosecutors Expect Loughner to Be Found Unfit for Trial – Wednesday, May 25, 2011
If he is found incompetent, he will be remanded to federal custody, and will return to the Bureau of Prisons’ Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo., for further examination and to see if he gains competency.
In World news, Egypt is opening the Gaza border…Egypt ‘to open Rafah border permanently’ – Middle East – Al Jazeera English
Egypt will permanently open its Rafah border crossing starting from Saturday, the country’s official news agency reported, easing the blockade on the Gaza Strip.
The news agency MENA said on Wednesday that Egypt’s new military rulers set the date for the opening of the crossing as part of efforts “to end the status of the Palestinian division and achieve national reconciliation”.
And remember that refugee boat that sunk off the coast of Tunisia? Der Spiegel is asking some tough questions: Death in the Mediterranean: Did European Soldiers Fail to Help Refugees in Distress? – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International
Over 60 African refugees, including women and children, recently died trying to reach Europe when their boat ran adrift for two weeks in the Mediterranean. Western military personnel allegedly saw the boat and did nothing to help. Now the United Nations is investigating the case. SPIEGEL talked to survivors and reconstructed the course of events.
Please read the entire article, there are maps and photos. This link is the first part of a series,
- Part 1: Did European Soldiers Fail to Help Refugees in Distress?
- Part 2: Fighting for an Investigation
- Part 3: Who Is to Blame?
Obama gave a toast to the Queen yesterday, Obama miscues on toast | POLITICO 44
So what does he do when the Great Britain National Anthem, “God save the Queen” begins to play? He keeps on talking.
Tacky…
I’ve got two more articles for you, and both are regarding The Church…
Guardian is reporting that monks are getting their own pole dances (only these are not stripper pole dances, these are Holy Cross pole dances) by none other than a nun who was formerly a lap dancer…
Pope ousts ‘loose living’ monks of Rome’s Santa Croce monastery | World news | The Guardian
It sounds like something out of Father Ted: a renowned monastery in Rome where monks staged concerts featuring a lap-dancer-turned-nun and opened a hotel with a 24-hour limousine service has been shut down by the pope.
[…]
In 2009 Anna Nobili, a nightclub dancer who became a nun, was invited to perform her “holy dance” before an audience including archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Vatican’s cultural department. For her performance Nobili, who says she uses dance as a form of prayer, lies spread-eagled in front of the altar clutching a crucifix or twists and turns as in pole-dancing routines.
You’d think they would be happy that all this “loose” activity did not involve young children?
With the recent report on Human Rights from Amnesty International, I’ve noticed more Human Rights articles being published. I found this one very interesting. The UN is looking into Ireland’s human rights records, and it seems the Irish Church’s Forgotten Victims Take Case to U.N. – NYTimes.com
For years, it was Ireland’s hidden scandal: an estimated 30,000 women were sent to church-run laundries, where they were abused and worked for years with no pay. Their offense, in the eyes of society, was to break the strict sexual rules of Catholic Ireland, having children outside wedlock.
Although it has been over a decade since their story came to light, the women are still waiting for an apology, and possibly compensation.
Now, an advocacy group, Justice for Magdalenes, which has spent the last two years lobbying the Irish government to investigate the history of the laundries, is taking the case to the United Nations, alleging the abuse amounted to human rights violations, and hoping that an official rebuke from the international body will shame the government into action.
“We don’t take any pleasure in embarrassing the government in this way but we have worked the domestic structure as far as we can and still the government has done nothing,” said James Smith of Boston College, a spokesman for Justice for Magdalenes.
If you are not familiar with these laundries:
The Magdalene laundries were a network of profit-making workhouses run by four religious communities — the Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters of Charity, the Good Shepherd Sisters and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity. Named after the Bible’s redeemed prostitute Mary Magdalene, they were initially used to reform prostitutes. By the 1940s, however, most of the residents, or “penitents” as they were called, were young women who had sex outside of marriage (in some cases victims of rape), unmarried mothers, women deemed flirtatious and the mentally disabled.
Magdalene women worked long hours, typically seven days a week, without pay. There have been accounts of the harsh conditions the women endured, including allegations of mental, physical and, in some cases, sexual abuse. Many lived and died behind convent walls until the last laundry closed in 1996. Today’s Magdalene women are in their 70s or 80s.
The article mentions the movie The Magdalene Sisters, watch it if you get a chance…
That’s it for today, I am off to make some French Toast. Hope everyone has a pleasant evening!
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