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Yglesias

Anthony Weiner’s Constituents Don’t Want Him To Resign

By Matthew Yglesias on Jun 9, 2011 at 11:06 pm

Seems relevant: “In the poll, 56% of registered voters in Weiner’s NY-9 district think he should remain in office, while only a third (33%) think he should resign.”

As I’ve been saying, there’s no real secret to surviving a sex scandal other than to not freak out and not resign. Weiner, unfortunately for him, has been less than perfectly on the don’t freak out side. But he seems to have himself under control now and he’s grasped the essence of the “don’t quit” message. If someone wants to run against Weiner and persuade his constituents that he’d be a better congressman, then let him throw his hat in the ring and explain why he’d be better. Unfortunately, since it’s now clear that Weiner has few friends in the party, the odds look good that he’ll just be redistricted out of office and we’ll never get a clear sense of whether or not “you may agree with Weiner on the issues, but he has a weirdo sex life so you should vote for the conservative Republican instead” is a winning message.

Economy

Sen. Hatch: Higher Taxes On The Rich Would Make The U.S. ‘A Second Rate Nation’

By Pat Garofalo on Jun 9, 2011 at 8:10 pm

Republicans in Congress have decided to ramp up their campaign to extend the Bush tax cuts already, with House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) claiming last week that the 2013 expiration of the cuts is causing uncertainty in the economy today. President Obama has said that he will not renew the Bush tax cuts for the richest two percent of Americans when they expire in 2013, even though he extended those cuts as part of last December’s tax deal.

Today, in an interview with CBS News, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, got in on the act, saying that allowing the Bush tax cuts for just the richest Americans to expire would turn the U.S. into a “second rate nation“:

The fact of the matter is that you raise those taxes, and see what you’re going to get. You let them go up, like the Democrats [want to] let them go up, and we’ll more quickly become a second rate nation.

Watch it (about 7:15):

Tax revenue in the U.S. is currently the lowest its been in more than half a century. Taxes, including those on the rich, are lower than they were under conservative icon President Reagan. As Zaid Jilani pointed out, “The top 400 taxpayers — who have more wealth than half of all Americans combined — are paying lower taxes than they have in a generation.”

It’s unclear why Hatch thinks that allowing tax rates for the very richest Americans to go back to where they were under the Clinton administration — still far below where they were under Presidents Reagan or Eisenhower — means immediate American decline. In a new Pew poll, 66 percent of Americans favor raising taxes on the richest Americans as a way to reduce the deficit.

Hatch also said, “The Bush tax cuts were proven to be effective in their own way.” In fact, the Bush tax cuts delivered none of their promised results, leading to the weakest economic expansion of the post-war period. Read out full report on the failed legacy of the Bush tax cuts here.

Security

Rep. Ros-Lehtinen Issues Alarmist Statement Calling For Isolating The Muslim Brotherhood In Egypt

By Ali Gharib on Jun 9, 2011 at 8:00 pm

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, reacted quickly to the Egyptian government’s recognition of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party.

In an alarmist statement, she denounced the recognition and called for the U.S. to isolate the Brotherhood:

Given its radical and violent ideology, it is deeply disturbing that the Muslim Brotherhood would be recognized in any way as a legitimate political entity.

The Muslim Brotherhood is committed to violence and extremism. Neither freedom nor justice will be advanced by any political party established by the Muslim Brotherhood.

United States policy must reflect this reality, and the Administration must not engage the Muslim Brotherhood, or allow direct or indirect U.S. assistance to benefit that organization.

This is essentially a call to exclude some 15 percent of Egypt’s population who said, according to a recent Gallup poll, they support the organization. And as former Jordanian foreign minister and current Carnegie Endowment Vice President Marwan Muasher said on Sunday, when talk shows zoomed in on the Brotherhood, excluding the group is a surefire way to make them more popular:

The Muslim Brotherhood has been used for a long time a scare tactic. This is not to say that they don’t have designs. But in closed systems protest votes will only go to the Muslim Brotherhood. But in open, pluralistic systems, the Brotherhood will have to compete against many other alternatives and I think that is the way that all Arab countries should go to.

Of course, as actual experts will tell you, the Muslim Brotherhood is not “committed to violence” (“Since the 1970s, the group has not engaged in violent activity.”); they are not “radical” (“[T]his is a very conservative movement.”); and the U.S. should not be afraid of Brotherhood:

Living with it won’t be easy but it should not be seen as inevitably our enemy. We need not demonize it nor endorse it. In any case, Egyptians now will decide their fate and the role they want the [Muslim Brotherhood] to play in their future.

Climate Progress

Romney alienates conservatives by embracing climate science, Washington Post alienates readers by ignoring science entirely

By Joe Romm on Jun 9, 2011 at 7:27 pm

Another day, another head-exploding he-said/she-said climate piece in the Washington Post, “Romney draws early fire from conservatives over views on climate change.”

Last week, the presumptive front-runner for the GOP nomination said, he accepted the basic findings of climate science.  As the WashPost puts it — carefully avoiding any scientific judgment of its own — “the former Massachusetts governor stuck to the position he has held for many years — that he believes the world is getting warmer and that humans are contributing to that pattern.”

That wouldn’t be political news in 99% of the countries in the world, but here in the United States, them’s fightin’ words for the dominant flat-earth wing of the GOP (see National Journal: “The GOP is stampeding toward an absolutist rejection of climate science that appears unmatched among major political parties around the globe, even conservative ones”).

But the reason you are going to have to put on your head vises is that the WashPost wrote an entire story about how the climate science deniers have gone after Romney –  without ever bothering to explain to their readers that Romney is actually right and the deniers are wrong.

Here is what the Washington Post printed from the hard-core conservative deniers:

Read more

Economy

Homecoming Without A Home: Chase Bank Will Foreclose On Returning Soldier’s Home In 10 Days

By Zaid Jilani on Jun 9, 2011 at 7:05 pm

Aaron and Tim Collette

As ThinkProgress Economics Editor Pat Garofalo noted today, millions of Americans are still living in fear of having their homes foreclosed on as the nation’s housing crisis continues unabated, and federal efforts to stem the flow of foreclosures have thus far been too little and too late.

One particularly shocking foreclosure story revolves around father and son Tim and Aaron Collette. In 2006, in more prosperous times, Tim Collette purchased a new home in his state of Oregon and was able to pay more than $100,000 in a down payment. But when the recession hit, his construction business suffered and he was soon unable to make mortgage payments through no fault of his own.

His mortgage servicer, Chase, refused to work with him to renegotiate the terms of his mortgage to adapt to the hard economic times. While this was occurring, his son Aaron was serving in Iraq. He is soon scheduled to come home for a brief period of leave, but Chase is taking away his family’s home. In ten days — the family has set up a countdown clock to the actual time — the bank is set to foreclose on house, essentially meaning that Aaron is going to be coming home to a home that doesn’t exist.

This afternoon, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) appeared on the floor of the Senate to relay the tale of the Collette family. He read a letter from Tim Collette and concluded that for this family and “countless others, it didn’t need to be this bad”:

MERKELEY: I’d like to share with you today a story, a story about Tim Collette and his son in my state of Oregon. [...] Mr. Collette says, my biggest problem now is my some comes from the military in August, and my home is being foreclosed on in 18 days. He’s been hit by an I.E.D., people shooting at him, and he just wanted to come home and sleep in his room, in his bed, and be safe for 15 days. And I told him I’d make that happen. I don’t know how yet. [...] And for Tim and countless others, it didn’t need to be this bad.

Watch it:

The Collette family is campaigning for legislation in Oregon that would give homeowners more leverage to negotiate with banks to modify their mortagages. If you want to help this father and his military son, you can go here to sign a petition by Economic Fairness Oregon to demand that Chase work with the family rather than foreclose on their home.

Justice

Rand Paul Worried Legal Immigrant Students Will Attack Us

By Marie Diamond on Jun 9, 2011 at 6:49 pm

There’s nothing unusual about Republicans denouncing illegal immigration. But a GOP senator attacking immigrants who come to this country legally to work and study is something new. According to the New York Times, that’s exactly what Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) did today during a Homeland Security Committee hearing. Sen. Paul specifically went after immigrant students, who he called our “would-be attackers”:

“We have 40,000 students coming to this country from all over the world,” he said. “Are they would-be attackers?”

Speaking at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on border patrol corruption, Mr. Paul on Thursday questioned whether the government was adequately screening and then keeping tabs on those who enter the country with student visas or as refugees.[...]

But while Mr. Paul said he worried about legal immigrants, he was not concerned about the potential threat from American citizens.

“We’ve done so many things to think that we’re all terrorists, that universally we have to scrutinize everybody to the Nth degree instead of doing what I just think would be good police work,” Mr. Paul said, adding that it would be less expensive and less intrusive to privacy if the country looked at “the people who did attack us and who continue to attack us, and not really U.S. citizens.”

Paul’s latest attack on immigrants is only the latest example of the so-called libertarian’s disdain for civil liberties. Paul has advocated stripping many Americans of their constitutional right to citizenship, and he once suggested that the U.S. wouldn’t even need laws if all citizens were Christians. As ThinkProgress reported, he recently called for jailing people who attend “radical political speeches.”

The senator’s selective focus on immigrants also betrays his own ignorance about the threats facing this country. At today’s hearing, Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection Alan D. Bersin cautioned Paul against dismissing the threat posed by homegrown terrorists. After all, Bersin pointed out, the man accused of trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square last year was a U.S. citizen. Additionally, attacking refugees who flee persecution in their own countries and jump through countless legal hoops to receive asylum in the United States is a particularly baseless (not to mention heartless) concern.

Alyssa

Closing Credits

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Jun 9, 2011 at 6:32 pm

-Yes, X-Men: First Class is an intentional gay allegory.

-Super 8 may be similar to District 9 in some ways, but I doubt it’ll have the same concerns with justice.

-Getting in HBO’s casting pool is good job insurance.

-Given how State of Play ends, it’s insanely creepy that Ben Affleck asked Anthony Weiner for advice on how to play the title role.

-If you don’t like the Grand Rapids “American Pie” video, you basically have no heart:

LGBT

The Wish List: What More Could Obama Do For The LGBT Community?

By Zack Ford and Igor Volsky on Jun 9, 2011 at 6:28 pm

As President Obama gears up for reelection, his administration has begun actively courting the LGBT vote by touting his accomplishments for the community. And while Obama has started the process of repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, stopped defending the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, and taken important steps to prevent discrimination of LGBT people in the federal government, he has fallen short of full equality. In fact, Obama’s cautious and hesitant political manner has — at times — left LGBT advocates to push him toward advancing important legislative initiatives.

This afternoon, the Washington Blade published “A Pride Wish List For Obama,” in which LGBT leaders spell out what the administration could and should be doing better to support the community. The list includes the following:

- END JOB DISCRIMINATION: The president could issue an executive order prohibiting the federal government from contracting with companies that don’t have LGBT-inclusive non-discrimination policies.

- CERTIFY REPEAL OF DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL: It’s been six months since Obama signed the repeal of DADT became law, but the repeal has not yet been certified.

- SUPPORT MARRIAGE EQUALITY: Though he supported full marriage equality in 1996, the president has been “wrestling” with the issue in recent years. Speaking out in favor of full equality as president would be a big boost of support for the many states still struggling to resist oppression.

- PROTECT BI-NATIONAL COUPLES: A moratorium on deportations of foreign nationals in same-sex marriages would protect those couples from being separated.

- SUPPORT ANTI-BULLYING LEGISLATION: Though the White House has taken steps to support anti-bullying initiatives, Obama has been mum on the Safe Schools Improvement Act and Student Non-Discrimination Act that have been introduced in Congress.

This list is just a small sampling of the many changes the president could make without approval from Congress. Act On Principles documents the New Beginning Initiative Redux, a list of about 90 policy recommendations that the administration could have started enacting on its very first day of office to support the LGBT community. Most of the list remains incomplete.

NEWS FLASH

Florida Tea Party Congressman Calls For More Gulf Drilling A Year After BP Oil Washed Up In His District | Yesterday, Rep. Steve Southerland (R-FL), a Tea Party freshman, staged a media event at a gas station to highlight high fuel prices and to call for more oil drilling. “We have the largest deposits of natural resources than any other country,” said Southerland. According to WJHG News, Southerland called for increased drilling “particularly in the Gulf of Mexico.” Last year, BP’s oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon rig caused tar to wash up on several Florida beaches, including the vacation areas of Destin Beach, an area now represented by Southerland.

By Lee Fang on Jun 9, 2011 at 6:26 pm

NEWS FLASH

FDIC Chair Slams Bankers For Griping About New Regulations: ‘I See A Lot Of Amnesia Setting In’ | Earlier this week, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon publicly questioned the need for new regulations — particularly higher capital requirements — to rein in the nation’s biggest banks in response to the 2008 financial crisis. Today, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chair Sheila Bair, one of the foremost proponents of strong financial regulatory reform, was asked about Dimon’s criticism. “I see a lot of amnesia setting in now,” Bair replied. “On obvious things like higher capital standards, I say full speed ahead and the higher the better.”

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