ThinkProgress Logo

Election

Republican Congressman Blasts GOP: Party Caters To ‘Extremes,’ Is ‘Incapable Of Governing’

By Judd Legum on Jul 30, 2012 at 9:17 pm

Congressman Richard Hanna (R-NY) is fed up with the GOP.

Hanna singled out Michele Bachmann’s “suggestion that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin be investigated to see if she has ties to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood” as an example of a party that has gone off the rails.

The Syaracuse Post-Standard has the story:

“I have to say that I’m frustrated by how much we — I mean the Republican Party — are willing to give deferential treatment to our extremes in this moment in history,” he told The Post-Standard editorial board.

…“We render ourselves incapable of governing when all we do is take severe sides…” he said. “If all people do is go down there and join a team, and the team is invested in winning and you have something that looks very similar to the shirts and the skins, there’s not a lot of value there.”

…“I would say that the friends I have in the Democratic Party I find … much more congenial — a little less anger,” he said.

BuzzFeed reports that Hanna is not alone and “moderate members of the House GOP conference feel that Boehner, who has struggled with an often raucous and openly defiant right wing, has forced them to go along with conservative demands but has provided them little in return.”

This isn’t the first time that Hanna, who was first elected to Congress in 2010, has been critical of the Republican party. At at women’s rights rally in March he advised the crowd to “contribute your money to people who speak out on your behalf, because the other side — my side — has a lot of it.”

Security

Israeli Leaders Praise Obama’s Commitment To Israel’s Security

By Ben Armbruster on Jul 30, 2012 at 6:38 pm

Mitt Romney’s main theme on his foreign trip to the U.K., Israel and Poland this week is that President Obama isn’t sufficiently friendly to America’s allies, particularly the Jewish State. “The people of Israel deserve better than what they have received from the leader of the free world,” Romney said in a speech just days before he left American soil.

But two senior Israeli leaders have a different view. In recent interviews with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that aired this afternoon, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and President Shimon Peres praised Obama’s commitment to Israel:

BARAK: I should tell you honestly that this administration under President Obama is doing, in regard to our security, more than anything that I can remember in the past. … In terms of the support for our security, the cooperation of our intelligence, the sharing of sorts in a very open way even when there are differences.

PERES: When I look at the record of President Obama concerning the major issues, security, I think it’s a highly satisfactory record, from an Israeli point of view.

Watch the clips:

Praise for Obama’s policies toward Israel is nothing new for Barak and Peres, but the timing of their recent acclaim is significant given Romney’s theme that the president isn’t pro-Israel.

Even Blitzer took notice. “They were extremely complimentary to President Obama, both of them, even as Romney was still basically on the ground in Israel,” Blitzer said today. “I was pretty surprised by the effusive enthusiastic praise they had for President Obama given some of the problems President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu had in their personal relationship.”

Indeed, just last week, Obama signed a measure approving $70 million for Israel’s short-range rocket shield known as “Iron Dome.” “I have made it a top priority for my administration to deepen cooperation with Israel across a whole spectrum of security issues,” Obama said.

NEWS FLASH

Romney Will Allow Wind Tax Credit To Expire, Costing 37,000 Jobs | Mitt Romney has officially endorsed risking thousands of jobs by letting the production tax credit (PTC) for wind expire, the Des Moines Register reports. Until this point, the campaign has evaded exactly when Romney would want to see the PTC end. Romney’s Iowa spokesperson Shawn McCoy clarified: “He will allow the wind credit to expire, end the stimulus boondoggles, and create a level playing field on which all sources of energy can compete on their merits. Wind energy will thrive wherever it is economically competitive, and wherever private sector competitors with far more experience than the president believe the investment will produce results.” The industry could lose up to 37,000 jobs with the tax credit’s expiration at the end of 2012, affecting major wind states like Iowa. Still, Romney isn’t opposed to all tax breaks: He supports increasing them when it comes to the oil industry and richest Americans.

Update

GOP Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA) called on Romney tonight to reconsider his position:

I’m disappointed that the statement by Governor Romney’s spokesperson shows a lack of full understanding of how important the wind energy tax credit is for Iowa and our nation. It’s the wrong decision. Wind energy represents one of the most innovative and exciting sectors of Iowa’s economy.

NEWS FLASH

CHART: Nearly Half Of Complaints To New Consumer Protection Agency Related To Mortgages And Foreclosures | According to a report issued today, 43 percent of consumer complaints to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had to do with mortgages and foreclosures. Of the mortgage complaints fielded by the Bureau, “54% involved borrowers who had problems with their loan modifications, a debt collection or foreclosure,” while 25 percent involved trouble making payments. As Firedoglake’s David dayen noted, “this is a pretty good barometer of whether or not the [mortgage] servicers have cleaned up their operations on foreclosures and loan modifications. And it’s pretty clear they haven’t.”

Justice

Federal Judge Upholds The Nation’s Most Restrictive Abortion Ban

By Tara Culp-Ressler on Jul 30, 2012 at 6:00 pm

Earlier this month, the American Civil Liberties Union — joined by a local ACLU chapter and the Center for Reproductive Rights — sued Arizona over the state’s abortion ban, calling it the nation’s most extreme because it criminalizes almost all abortions after 20 weeks. Today, a federal judge upheld HB 2036, dismissing the ACLU’s request to block the law from going into effect on Thursday.

U.S. District Judge James A. Teilborg ruled that HB 2036, which Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ) signed into law in April, will be allowed to take effect this week. The law criminalizes almost all abortions after just 20 weeks, even though a fetus generally isn’t considered to reach viability until week 23 or 24. There are no exceptions for pregnant women’s health except for immediate medical emergencies.

Nancy Northup, the president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, pointed out in a press release that Teilborg’s ruling contradicts the legal precedent for women’s right to privacy before their fetus reaches viability:

Today’s decision casts aside decades of legal precedent, ignoring constitutional protections for reproductive rights that have been upheld by the United States Supreme Court for nearly 40 years and threatening women’s health and lives. [...] Anyone concerned with the erosion of constitutional rights in the U.S. and the intrusion of government into the lives and private decisions of individual citizens should be profoundly disturbed by today’s decision.

The Guttmacher Institute has designated Arizona as one of the 26 states that are “hostile” to women’s reproductive freedom. Women’s health advocates are currently embroiled in a second lawsuit in Arizona to combat another anti-choice law, HB 2800, that seeks to defund the state’s Planned Parenthood clinics.

Update

Despite the fact that HB 2036 has been upheld, Planned Parenthood Arizona confirms some good news for women in the state: the HB 2800 legislation that would have defunded Planned Parenthood’s health clinics is stalling. Just like Arizona’s abortion ban, HB 2800 would have also gone into effect this Thursday. However, a United States District Court has determined that Arizona needs to hold off on implementing the law at least until after a further ruling that will follow a court hearing scheduled for October.

Security

Clinton Praises Republicans Who Stood Up Against Bachmann’s Islamophobic Allegations

By Ali Gharib on Jul 30, 2012 at 5:35 pm

During a speech today at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace marking the release of a report about religious freedom around the world, Secretary of State HIllary Clinton took a moment to deal with religious freedom a little closer to home. Specifically, she touched obliquely on accusations made about a top staffer in her office by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN).

In a letter to the State Department demanding an investigation into alleged Muslim Brotherhood infiltration, Bachmann suggested Clinton aide Huma Abedin is tied to Muslim Bortherhood and exercising influence on what Bachmann said were “actions recently that have been enormously favorable to the Muslim Brotherhood and its interests.”

In a thinly veiled reference, Clinton lauded those Republicans who stood up to Bachmann’s bogus and Islamophobic allegations:

Leaders have to be active in stepping in and sending messages about protecting the diversity within their countries. … We did see some of that in our own country. We saw Republicans stepping up and standing up against the kind of assaults that really have no place in our politics.

Watch the clip:

Among those Republicans were Sen. John McCain (AZ), Sen. Scott Brown (MA), Sen. Marco Rubio (FL), House Speaker John Boehner (OH) and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (WI). The Republican Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Mike Rogers (MI) went from supporting Bachmann, who sits on his committee, to disavowing her witch-hunt. Sensenbrenner, in particular, called out Bachmann’s Islamophobic allegations as “wrong ” and an affront on religious liberty:

Religion is a personal issue to every one of the people who lives in the United States, whether you practice a faith, how you practice a faith, whether you don’t practice a faith, whether you say you’re a member of a faith but don’t practice it, it’s none of the government’s business. And this is the whole issue of religious freedom.

However, some Republicans have come out and supported Bachmann’s allegations. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) also defended Bachmann’s charges. An adviser to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, John Bolton, voiced support for Bachmann’s allegations on a radio show hosted by the progenitor of her conspiracy theories, notorious Islamophobe Frank Gaffney. Former presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, who also acts a as a surrogate for Romney, defended Bachmann, too, even writing a long Politico opinion piece today.

NEWS FLASH

The Ex-Gay Mother And The Kidnapped Child | This weekend, the New York Times offered a detailed account of Lisa Miller, Janet Jenkins, and their daughter Isabella. Miller had broken off their Vermont civil union, moved across state lines to Virginia, and prevented Jenkins from seeing their daughter. Miller had committed herself to a strict form of Christianity, identifying as ex-gay and teaching Isabella that according to the Bible, she could not have two mothers because they had been living in sin. In 2009, when a Virginia court upheld Vermont’s jurisdiction over their civil union, Miller fled through a covert system of Mennonites, kidnapping Isabella away to Nicaragua, where they presumably remain. (In her absence, Miller’s lawyer, Rena M. Lindevaldsen of Liberty University Law School, has profited off her case through the sale of a tell-all book condemning the homosexual lifestyle.) The New York Times piece is a compelling read about a complicated and tragic story that shows the full extent of how anti-gay teachings can harm children.

Election

Three Teens Collect 170,000 Signatures Asking For A Female Moderator Of A Presidential Debate

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Jul 30, 2012 at 5:17 pm

A woman has not moderated a Presidential debate in 20 years. In fact, only one woman — Carole Simpson of ABC– has filled that position since the Commission on Presidential Debates started hosting the events in 1988.

Three teenagers from New Jersey are looking to change that. Emma Axelrod, 16, Sammi Siegel, 15, and Elena Tsemberis, 16, started a petition to the commission that picks moderators asking them to consider a woman for the post. That quickly grew to over 117,000 signatures, and another petition, directly to the candidates, garnered another 53,000.

The girls are excited about their success, and now they’re taking the petition where it counts –right to the commission that decides on a moderator. ThinkProgress got a chance to speak with Emma, Sammi, and Elena while they were on their way to Washington to drop off their petition and sit down with the commission.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length

What led you guys to start this petition?
SAMMI: It kind of started off in school. It was mentioned to us that there hasn’t been a female debate moderator in 20 years and we just thought it was absolutely ridiculous and we decided to jump on the opportunity and bring this to the public’s attention and write a petition.

Why do you think it’s important to have a woman moderate the debate?
ELENA: I think just seeing a woman on the political stage in a position of power and prominence is important. There is a serious lack of women’s visibility in society and it’s teaching teenage girls to believe that they are not as capable and not as worthy or valuable or intelligent as men and it can be detrimental for many girls growing up in America.

EMMA: Twenty years is four years’ longer than I have been alive. The debates are very important in deciding who is going to be the future leader of America, one of the most powerful nations on earth, and the fact that half of our population has been missing for 20 years that’s longer than a coincidence, that’s a trend.

SAMMI: In a world where these girls and boys are watching as two men run for the highest position of power in our country, there needs to be a woman thrown in the mix to provide as a role model for people who are inspired to be in positions of power in the political realm. Watching a woman asking her own questions in her own voice is really important.

How has the response been from the people signing it?
ELENA: The responses online for the petition have been mixed. A majority are positive but when we appear in articles online, some people comment on them ‘oh women are meant to stay at home and make dinner, what are you guys doing?’ just very gender-stereotypical comments that are discouraging.

EMMA: A lot of people who are supportive of what we’re doing are calling into question why we are starting with something so small, the big problem is there’s never been a woman president. But, this is a very doable thing. And if we achieve our goal it could have a big impact.

It’s not too late to sign Emma, Elena, and Sammi’s petition here.

Alyssa

Iwan Rheon and the Most Important Upcoming Role on ‘Game of Thrones’

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Jul 30, 2012 at 5:07 pm

Word came down over the weekend that Iwan Rheon, who played Simon on the wildly inventive dark British superhero series Misfits, has joined the cast of Game of Thrones. And some folks are speculating that he may play Ramsay Bolton, the illegitimate son of Roose Bolton, the lord sworn to Robb Stark who entered the show last season suggesting it might be a good idea to flay some of the enemy host, loosening their skins as a way to loosen their tongues. I hope that’s the case. Rheon is a fantastically chilly actor, and I think he’d bring something special to a role that I think is one of the most important in the Game of Thrones universe. Folks who haven’t read the books and are averse to spoilerdom might not want to read further.

Ramsay plays a pivotal role in the plot of Game of Thrones going forward. It’s he who takes Winterfell from Theon Greyjoy at the end of the second season. But instead of restoring the Northern alliance from the threat of conquest by the faction of the Greyjoys who want to carve out an addition to their kingdom on the fertile mainland, his possession of the castle turns out to be a dagger in the hopes of Northern consolidation. His family betrays the Starks and Ramsay, at the end of A Dance With Dragons, appears to have lured Stannis Baratheon into what may be a fatal trap, a battle in the midst of a blizzard.

But even more importantly, he’s an example of two themes that are critical to George R.R. Martin’s novels: the dangers of unchecked appetite, and the transmission of sin from generation to generation. While Joffrey Baratheon is one of the most hateful and frightening characters in the early novels and seasons of Game of Thrones, Ramsay Bolton easily eclipses him in A Dance With Dragons. Joffrey may order Sansa beaten, but he asks for her face to be preserved: he continues to see her as human, even if he wants to violently control her. Ramsay, on the other hand, is in the business of turning women into non-persons. He hunts them like game, rapes them, flays them and murders them, the order depending on his mood and the quality of chase they give him. And if they are particularly feisty, Ramsay names his female dogs after his victims. Ramsay doesn’t just want to control women, he wants to obliterate what makes them people, turning them into chunks of meat or animal. He represents appetite unchecked by social norms or conventions. When he does marry, Ramsay has no concern for rumor, locking one wife in a tower to starve to death and subjecting the other to particularly brutal marital rapes. Ramsay’s utter lack of shame or need for approval is one of the most monstrous things Martin presents us with, and this is in a world that includes zombies created by nature and man, dragons of legend, and the routine cruelties of feudal tyrants.

And while Ramsay is an unprecedentedly terrible monster, his monstrousness is not sui generis. As I wrote for my essay in Beyond the Wall:

In A Storm of Swords, Roose admits to Catelyn Stark that Ramsay’s “blood is tainted, that cannot be denied.” While he undoubtedly means that his line has been polluted by having to divert it through an illegitimate son who is half-peasant, Robett Glover provides an alternative explanation in A Dance with Dragons: “The evil is in his blood. He is a bastard born of rape. A Snow, no matter what the boy king says.” While it may be decidedly anti-modern to blame children who are the product of rape for his parents’ sins, there’s something to the idea that unpunished rape is a sin that carries implications far beyond individual victims and perpetrators, a crime that comes back to haunt the society that permits and enables it. This is the one moment in the novels when the characters acknowledge an argument that Martin’s been building for us all along: rape produces damage that lingers beyond a single act, a single victim. It can produce monsters that contribute to the destabilization of entire societies.

Ramsay Bolton isn’t the only child who is the unintended consequences of his parents’ sins. Joffrey Baratheon inherits his father’s entitlement and taste for clumsy sexual violence, Robb Stark his father’s emotional sense of duty, the Sand Snakes their father Oberon’s impatience and strategic wrath. Ramsay’s just the worst example of how violent indifference can flower into murderous sadism, at a cost to nations.

Security

Gingrich Explicitly Defends Bachmann’s Attacks On Clinton Aide Huma Abedin: ‘It’s Totally Legitimate’

By Adam Peck on Jul 30, 2012 at 5:03 pm

Former presidential candidate and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich

At a Romney campaign event in Virginia on Monday, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich took questions over his weekend op-ed defending the practice of questioning prominent Muslims in government jobs over alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and four other Republican lawmakers have been wrapped on the knuckles by prominent members of their own party for requesting an investigation into the supposed infiltration of the Muslim Brotherhood into the U.S. government, and the role of Huma Abedin, a top Hillary Clinton aide, in the organization. And while Gingrich deliberately did not mention Abedin in his Sunday evening op-ed, when asked by ThinkProgress on Monday, he defended Bachmann’s call for an investigation into Abedin’s loyalty:

ADAM PECK: Do you think it was fair for the “National Security 5″ to explicitly name Huma Abedin in this letter?

GINGRICH: I think all they asked for was an investigation. I can’t imagine, given our track record over the last 70 years, that we want to start with the principle that anybody is automatically exempt. And therefore I think it’s not illegitimate to raise the question, it’s not a question I raised in my piece…Who’s offering advice to Secretary Clinton? I think it’s totally legitimate to ask that question.

What Gingrich failed to mention is that the appropriate questions have already been asked of Abedin and every other member of the Obama administration. As the top aide to the Secretary of State, Abedin underwent a thorough background and security check before assuming her position within the State Department. It seems Gingrich has stricter standards than the nation’s top intelligence agencies, which cleared Abedin.

Gingrich also makes the incorrect assumption that simply raising questions is a harmless exercise. In the weeks since Bachmann’s letter became public, Abedin has been subjected to direct threats on her life, and the NYPD has given her a security detail.

Listen to the remarks here:

Older

Switch to Mobile
ThinkProgress Signup Overlay Skip and Continue to ThinkProgress Skip and Continue to ThinkProgress

Sign Up