27 Reasons To Give Thanks
27 Reasons To Give Thanks
We’re thankful President Obama is thinking long and hard about committing more troops and money to Afghanistan.
We’re thankful President Bush feels liberated now.
We’re (not) thankful Dick Cheney has elected to move from his undisclosed location to the media spotlight.
We’re thankful Al Franken has gone from playing self-help guru Stuart Smalley on Saturday Night Live to helping rape victims receive justice from their employers.
We’re thankful for the healing power of beer.
We’re thankful there are some on the right who think Glenn Beck is “incoherent,” “mindless,” “erratic,” “bizarre,” and “harmful to the conservative movement.”
We’re thankful for long hikes on the Appalachian Trail.
We’re thankful Michael Steele understands that he can’t “do policy” and that no one has any reason to trust his “words or actions.”
We’re (not) thankful for “birthers,” “deathers,” “tenthers,” or “tea baggers.”
We’re (not) thankful conservatives believe they love America so much that they can root for our President to fail and for our nation to lose out on hosting the Olympics.
We’re thankful NFL players refused to “bend over and grab the ankles” for Rush Limbaugh.
We’re thankful six companies have resigned from the Chamber of Commerce due to its denial of climate change science.
We’re thankful Falcon “Balloon boy” Heene wasn’t actually in the balloon.
We’re thankful Lt. Dan Choi and Lt. Col Victor Fehrenbach bravely spoke out against Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
We’re thankful Shep Smith doesn’t always drink the Fox News kool-aid.
We’re thankful more than 80 companies refused to lend their sponsorship to Glenn Beck’s hateful rants.
We’re thankful there are progressive organizations in D.C. lobbying for a two-state solution in the Middle East.
We’re (not) thankful for the filibuster.
We’re thankful that more than 20,000 of you stood up to Bill O’Reilly’s harassment machine and called for impeachment hearings against torture advocate Jay Bybee.
We’re thankful that Iran’s authoritarian rulers live in fear of their own population.
We’re thankful we’ll no longer have to listen to nativist rhetoric on CNN and global warming skepticism on ABC News.
We’re (not) thankful for bailed out CEOs who think they’re doing “God’s work” by doling out billions in bonuses.
We’re thankful for the legacy of the Liberal Lion.
We’re thankful Bill O’Reilly won’t be following us home for Thanksgiving.
We’e thankful a “wise Latina” sits on the Supreme Court.
We’re thankful our boss helped rescue imprisoned American journalists in North Korea.
We’re also very thankful to have the support of readers like you! What are you thankful for? Let us know in the comments section.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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ThinkFast: November 25, 2009
ThinkFast: November 25, 2009
The latest USA Today/Gallup poll has found that public confidence in President Obama’s handling of the war in Afghanistan has plummeted. The poll finds that 55% disapprove of the way he is handling Afghanistan, and only 35% approve, a sharp reversal from his 56% approval rating four months ago.
The USA Today/Gallup poll also finds 42% of Americans are opposed to the passage of a health reform bill this year, while only 35% support it. Similarly, a recent CBS News poll reports only 40% approve of the proposed health care plans, while 45% disapprove.
“The percentage of Americans who believe global warming is happening has dipped from 80 to 72 percent in the past year,” but “a majority still support a national cap on greenhouse gas emissions.” The increase in climate skepticism “is driven largely by a shift within the GOP.”
Senior Fed officials “expect the unemployment rate to remain in the 6.8 to 7.5 percent range at the end of 2012 and said it could take ‘about five or six years’ from now for economic activity to return to normal.”
Phillip Carter, the Defense Department official in charge of closing the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, “has resigned after only seven months in the job.” Carter resigned last Friday for “personal reasons.”
ThinkFast: November 24, 2009
ThinkFast: November 24, 2009
In an address to the nation next Tuesday, President Barack Obama will reportedly announce a decision he has already made on the future of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. McClatchy reports he has finalized a plan to dispatch some 34,000 additional U.S. troops over the next year.
Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag attended the war council meeting in the Situation Room last night, the ninth such meeting held by President Obama to discuss his strategy in Afghanistan. Asked by Politico why Orszag was at the meeting, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, “Cost is a concern.”
Gen. Stanley McChrystal and Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, the top U.S. general and the top U.S. diplomat in Afghanistan, have been instructed to prepare to testify before Congress as early as next week. The two are expected to “offer details and support for the president’s strategy for how to proceed with the eight-year-old war.”
In a new survey released today, the nonpartisan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that while Americans are split on whether potential changes to the health care system “will be for good or ill,” they still “seem to want lawmakers to tackle health care.” “Seventy-nine percent say it is important for President Barack Obama to include health care reform in addressing the nation’s economic crisis.”
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) has said that under no circumstances will he vote for a health care reform bill that contains any form of a public option. “I’m going to be stubborn on this,” he said. When asked if any version of public option will compel him to vote against bringing the bill to a final vote, Lieberman replied, “Correct.”
Gun Lobby Mobilizes Against Health Reform By Claiming Obama Administration Will Issue ‘No Guns’ Decree
Gun Lobby Mobilizes Against Health Reform By Claiming Obama Administration Will Issue ‘No Guns’ Decree
On Friday, Gun Owners of America sent out an action alert to its 300,000 members warning that the Senate health care bill “would mandate that doctors provide ‘gun-related health data’ to ‘a government database,’ including information on mental-health issues detected in patients, which could jeopardize their ability to obtain a firearms license.” The alert also warned its membership that the “wellness and prevention” provisions in the health care bill would allow the Obama administration to issue a “no guns” decree:
Finally, as we have mentioned several times in the past, the mandates in the legislation will most likely dump your gun-related health data into a government database that was created in section 13001 of the stimulus bill. This includes any firearms-related information your doctor has gleaned…or any determination of PTSD, or something similar, that can preclude you from owning firearms.
And, the special “wellness and prevention” programs (inserted by Section 1001 of the bill as part of a new Section 2717 in the Public Health Services Act) would allow the government to offer lower premiums to employers who bribe their employees to live healthier lifestyles — and nothing within the bill would prohibit rabidly anti-gun HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius from decreeing that “no guns” is somehow healthier.
The so-called “gun-related health data” is actually anonymous statistical information to help researchers develop health programs and initiatives that serve specific population groups or further the study of various conditions and medical needs. Section 2705 of the Senate health bill permits employers to vary insurance premiums by as much as 30 percent for employee participation in certain health promotion and disease prevention programs, but stipulates that the employer wellness program must be “based on an individual satisfying a standard that is related to a health status factor.” Gun ownership does not fall into this category.
This fear-mongering should be seen as the continuation of a multimillion dollar effort launched by the gun lobby to portray Obama as “a threat to the Second Amendment rights.” Prior to the election, the NRA claimed of Obama, “[N]ever in NRA’s history have we faced a presidential candidate…with such a deep-rooted hatred of firearm freedoms.” Since the election, the NRA and other gun groups continue to misinform voters about Obama’s gun policy proposals, claiming that unrelated policies — like the economic stimulus — are part of a broader campaign to strip gun rights.
“I’m not going to take away your guns,’’ Obama has repeatedly said. Nevertheless, sensing an opportunity to gain more members and fuel gun sales, the gun lobby has preyed on people’s fears by making up false claims.
ThinkFast: November 23, 2009
ThinkFast: November 23, 2009
The federal government faces “a trifecta of headaches: a mountain of new debt, a balloon of short-term borrowings that come due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are sure to climb back to normal as soon as the Federal Reserve decides that the emergency has passed.” Still, the NYT’s Paul Krugman warns that a phantom debt menace could hinder our nation’s economic recovery.
The New York Post reports that JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon is being rumored as a potential replacement for Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. People familiar with Dimon’s thinking said he “would love to serve his country,” and in recent weeks Dimon has had a noticeably higher profile in Washington.
“A deal to house Guantanamo Bay detainees” at a prison in Thomson, IL “could bring nearly 3,000 jobs to the area,” according to White House analysis. “There are too many people out of work,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). “They need paychecks.”
The Afghan government and the U.S. military “have begun a fledgling drive to lure Taliban foot soldiers away from the battlefield by offering them job opportunities and protection.” The program “is conceived as a bottom-up, grass-roots effort” similar to “the Awakening” in Iraq.
Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the press over the weekend that “an additional income tax to the upper brackets” could be used to fund a troop surge in Afghanistan. House Appropriations Chairman Rep. David Obey (D-WI) also warned that without a war surtax, “there ain’t going to be no money for nothing.”
ThinkFast: November 20, 2009
ThinkFast: November 20, 2009
“The tea party movement has become so rife with internal feuding over philosophy, strategy and money that some supporters fear it will disintegrate before realizing its full potential,” Politico reports. “Some of these groups may burn out, but this is part of this entrepreneurial process and the competition is good,” said Adam Brandon, vice president of communications for FreedomWorks.
“The Obama administration won’t announce its new comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan until after Thanksgiving,” a White House official confirmed to Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin. “Observers and experts close to the discussions see it as the White House’s attempt to stage a full and controlled rollout over the week beginning November 30.”
A new survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association finds that nearly 1 in 10 homeowners with mortgages was at least one payment behind in the third quarter of the year. The delinquency rate is the highest since the association started keeping records in 1972.
The U.S. military says the vast majority of the 700 detainees at the prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan “could eventually be released because they’re fighting more for money than ideology.” Brig. Gen. Mark Martins said that 10 to 20 percent of the inmates at Bagram are considered hard-core or “irreconcilable” Taliban fighters.
“The U.S. Army will allow the media limited coverage of Sarah Palin’s appearance at Fort Bragg, but will bar reporters from interviewing her or her supporters on the post,” reports the AP. “A Fort Bragg spokesman initially said the Army would ban the media from Palin’s book signing next week, fearing it would turn into political grandstanding against President Barack Obama.”
ThinkFast: November 19, 2009
ThinkFast: November 19, 2009
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) unveiled the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act last night, a health care reform bill that combines elements from legislation that passed two Senate committees. According to Reid, the CBO says the bill will cost $848 billion over 10 years while reducing the deficit by $130 billion over a decade and extending coverage to 31 million uninsured Americans.
“In a ruling that could leave the government open to billions of dollars in claims from Hurricane Katrina victims,” a federal judge said yesterday “that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had displayed ‘gross negligence’ in failing to maintain a navigation channel — resulting in levee breaches that flooded large swaths of greater New Orleans.”
Afghan President Hamid Karzai was inaugurated today for a second term. With “around 800 Afghan and foreign dignitaries” in attendance — including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — Karzai said, “We want our security within five years to be entirely within the hands of the Afghan government and led by Afghans.”
President Obama has nominated Dana Perino, President Bush’s former press secretary, to a seat on the Broadcasting Board of Governors. He also nominated Susan McCue, former chief of staff to Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV). Bush had previously nominated McCue, but “Senate Republicans refused to move her nomination.”
1 million: Number of people who “could lose unemployment benefits in January if Congress doesn’t extend federal aid,” according to a new report by the National Employment Law Project. Around 9 million people currently rely on jobless benefits, with unemployment at a 26-year high of 10.2 percent.
ThinkFast: November 18, 2009
ThinkFast: November 18, 2009
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Afghanistan today “for a surprise visit on the eve of the inauguration of President Hamid Karzai.” Clinton, who is making her first visit to Afghanistan as secretary of state, “will attend Karzai’s Thursday inauguration to a second term, showing U.S. support for his government, after an election which was tainted by fraudulent balloting.”
President Obama told CBS News that leaks about his administration’s Afghanistan deliberations are “absolutely” a “firing offense.” “I think I am angrier than Bob Gates about it, partly because we have these deliberations in the Situation Room for a reason,” said Obama. “Because we are making decisions that are life-and-death, that affect how our troops will be able to operate in a theater of war.”
Former Bush adviser Karl Rove’s memoir will be released on March 9, 2010, and be titled “Courage and Consequence.” In a new statement, Rove said that the book will be “a frank account of what I witnessed and my often-controversial role.” Last year, Rove said that he was planning to “name names” of the people who never “accepted” Bush as a “legitimate president.”
The House “may pass a new economic stimulus bill by December 18 in a bid to combat sky-high US unemployment.” “I would certainly want to see us move something on jobs before that, and we are working on it now,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said, adding, “I wouldn’t characterize it as a second stimulus. I don’t want to be as broad as that, I want to be very targeted on jobs.”
President Obama “directly acknowledged for the first time” today that the prison at Guantanamo Bay will not close by the January 2010 deadline he set. Saying he was “not disappointed,” Obama “said he hoped to still achieve that goal sometime next year.”
A retraction, and an apology to Mark Shields.
A retraction, and an apology to Mark Shields.
Yesterday, ThinkProgress reported that syndicated columnist Mark Shields said this weekend on Inside Washington, referring to Obama’s Afghanistan war decision, that he is “nostalgic” for the days when the U.S. “had a manly man in the White House who could say, ‘Let’s kick some tail and ask questions afterwards.’” Shields contacted ThinkProgress this morning and kindly informed us that his comments were intended to be sarcastic. We regret our error in misinterpreting his comments and for questioning his motives. Shields told us that his comments were meant to disparage those who consistently argue that more war will solve America’s problems and that his statement was directed at co-panelist and right-wing neoconservative Charles Krauthammer, who, according to Shields, was displeased with the remark. With a deeper appreciation for his wit, we extend our sincere apologies to Mr. Shields.
ThinkFast: November 17, 2009
ThinkFast: November 17, 2009
With the federal deficit at “a record $1.4 trillion,” a plan for reducing long-term deficits will be “a key component” of President Obama’s State of the Union address. “It is foremost on his mind and the mind of the economic team,” White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said yesterday.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York — then led by current Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner — “gave up much of its power” and overpaid AIG’s banking clients to “tear up their contracts” during last fall’s bailout, according to a new report from the special inspector general for the TARP. The report faults the NY Fed for failing to secure a good deal for taxpayers.
Though a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that Americans are “deeply divided” over President Obama’s health care reform proposal, “Americans continue to support key elements of the legislation, including a mandate that employers provide health insurance to their workers and access to a government-sponsored insurance plan for those people without insurance.”
For its cover photo on Sarah Palin, Newsweek elected to recycle a picture taken by Runner’s World depicting the former governor in her jogging outfit. Palin has released a statement blasting the photo. “The out-of-context Newsweek approach is sexist and oh-so-expected by now,” she said.
After gaining access to the once secret underground nuclear enrichment plant in Qom, IAEA inspectors “voiced strong suspicions” that Iran is concealing other nuclear facilities. The IAEA report appeared “highly skeptical” that Iran did not construct other facilities in case its main centers of fuel production were bombed.
ThinkFast: November 16, 2009
ThinkFast: November 16, 2009
In Singapore this weekend, President Obama “was forced to acknowledge that a comprehensive climate deal was beyond reach this year,” dashing his desire for the United States to “lead the way toward a global agreement in Copenhagen next month to address the warming planet.” Instead, Obama expressed support on Sunday for a plan “to pursue a two-step process at the Copenhagen conference.”
During his first public appearance in China, President Obama pressed for greater “universal rights” — “freedoms of expression and worship, of access to information and political participation.” Speaking to 500 “carefully screened” students in Shanghai, Obama’s “most provocative” statement was a call for greater Internet freedom.
In his first interview since the Fort Hood rampage, Yemeni American cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi “said that he neither ordered nor pressured Maj. Nidal M. Hasan to harm Americans, but that he considered himself a confidant of the Army psychiatrist.” Aulaqi said he may have played a role in transforming Hasan into a devout Muslim and “the two developed an e-mail correspondence over the past year.”
“Despite a solid Democratic majority in the Senate, Obama is on pace to set a record for the fewest judges confirmed during a president’s first year in the White House.” So far, only six of Obama’s nominees to the lower federal courts have won approval, while President George W. Bush had 28 judges confirmed and President Clinton had 27 confirmed in their respective first years in office.
Iraqi doctors in war-ravaged Fallujah are reporting a huge rise in birth defects among infants. “Before 2003 [the start of the war] I was seeing sporadic numbers of deformities in babies. Now the frequency of deformities has increased dramatically,” said Fallujah general hospital’s director Dr. Ayman Qais.
McCain urges town hall attendees to cut up their AARP membership cards.
McCain urges town hall attendees to cut up their AARP membership cards.
Last week, the AARP, a nonpartisan organization that advocates on behalf of those aged 50 and over, endorsed the House health care bill. “We can say with confidence that it meets our priorities for protecting Medicare, providing more affordable health insurance for 50- to 64-year-olds and reforming our health care system,” AARP vice president Nancy Leamond said. At a town hall meeting in Arizona on Friday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) vowed to “fight with every fiber of my body” to oppose a similar health care reform bill in the Senate. He then claimed that Medicare will actually be “cut” and reportedly urged the town hall attendees to tear up their AARP membership cards:
The 2,000-page bill would mean more regulation and mandates, he said. People wouldn’t be able to keep the coverage they had. It would also increase taxes and the cost of Medicare, he said.
The bill claims to save $500 billion in waste from Medicare, he said.
“I don’t think so,” McCain said. “I think it’s going to cut it.”
He encouraged audience members to cut up their AARP cards and send them back.
ThinkFast: November 13, 2009
ThinkFast: November 13, 2009
Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to announce that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others accused of involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks will be put on criminal trial in New York. The move is “the first set of decisions before a Monday deadline on how to deal with the more than 200 prisoners remaining” at Gitmo.
White House Counsel Greg Craig is expected to announce his resignation “as early as Friday,” ending an “embattled tenure in which he struggled to lead the closure” of the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Craig will be replaced by Bob Bauer, “a prominent Democratic lawyer who is Obama’s personal attorney.”
“President Barack Obama plans to announce in next year’s State of the Union address that he wants to focus extensively on cutting the federal deficit in 2010 — and will downplay other new domestic spending beyond jobs programs.” The administration plans to look for “ways to cut spending, reduce the growth in costs in other areas besides health care, and find ways to get Republicans to share the risk.”
The Treasury Department reported yesterday that the federal deficit for October hit a record $176.4 billion, “even higher than the $150 billion imbalance that economists expected.” The deficit for FY2009, which ended on Sept. 30, “set an all-time record in dollar terms of $1.42 trillion.”
A Goldman Sachs study conducted last month concluded that the passage of any health reform legislation would restrain health insurance company profits. HuffPost’s Sam Stein writes, “Simply put: health care reform is going to hurt their bottom line. No less a prestigious voice than Goldman Sachs is telling them so.”
ThinkFast: November 12, 2009
ThinkFast: November 12, 2009
President Obama will not accept any of the options given to him by Gen. Stanley McChrystal on the future of U.S. involvement in the Afghanistan war. Obama “believes the U.S. needs to make clear to the Afghan government that America’s commitment to the country isn’t open ended,” an official said in a statement.
Karl W. Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador in Kabul, has sent two cables to Washington in the past week expressing his opposition to a troop surge in Afghanistan. Eikenberry instead favors a focus on improving governance and anti-corruption measures in the country.
A new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll has found that 56 percent of Americans oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan and just 40 percent support the war there, where as 58 percent oppose the conflict.
A repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will “likely be included as part of next year’s Department of Defense authorization bill in both chambers of Congress,” according to Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA). Congress would vote on the legislation next spring, and it will go into effect Oct. 1, 2010.
In a speech at Southern Methodist University today, President Bush will initiate his new public policy institute “as a forum for study and advocacy in four main areas: education, global health, human freedom and economic growth.” Bush “will announce the appointment of the first five of two dozen scholars to be affiliated” with the George W. Bush Institute. Laura Bush will also give a speech.
ThinkFast: November 10, 2009
ThinkFast: November 10, 2009
President Obama will be at Fort Hood today, speaking at a memorial service for the men and women who died in last week’s shooting. Around “3,000 spectators, as well as the families of the 12 soldiers and one civilian killed, are expected to attend.” Vice President Biden will be at Fort Lewis, WA to “speak at the memorial ceremony for seven Stryker brigade soldiers” who were killed in Afghanistan two weeks ago.
Ft. Hood shooter Maj. Nidal M. Hasan gave a presentation on Islam in 2007 to mental health staff members, in which he said “it’s getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims.” Hasan also reportedly corresponded with a radical cleric in Yemen.
President Obama said yesterday that “Congress needs to change abortion-related language in the health care bill passed by the House.” “I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill,” Obama told ABC News. “And we’re not looking to change what is the principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions.”
In a recent interview, RNC Chairman Michael Steele said that white Republicans are afraid of him. “I mean I’ve been in the room and they’ve been scared of me,” he said, “I’m like, ‘I’m on your side.’” Steele has previously claimed he would reach out to black voters by offering them fried chicken and potato salad.
In a 13-page strategy memo circulated to his colleagues, House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-IN) says Republicans need to hammer “Pelosi Health Care” over the upcoming recess. Pence instructs his members how to talk about “Speaker Pelosi’s 1,990 page bill.”
ThinkFast: November 9, 2009
ThinkFast: November 9, 2009
The historic health care legislation passed by the House over the weekend included an amendment that sharply restricts “the availability of coverage for abortions.” Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) said she has collected “more than 40 signatures from House Democrats vowing to oppose any final bill that includes the amendment — enough to block passage.”
As chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) will lead an investigation into the Fort Hood shootings to look for “signs of ‘Islamic extremism.’” Lieberman said on Fox News Sunday that the shootings may be “the most destructive terrorist act to be committed on American soil since 9/11.”
Former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev said that President Obama should begin a withdrawal from Afghanistan. “I think that what’s needed is not additional forces,” he said, “this is something that we discussed, too, years ago but we decided not to do it. And I think our experience deserves attention.”
President Obama is reportedly nearing a decision to send up to 34,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. “This is not going to be an easy sell [to the American public],” one administration official told McClatchy.
The three biggest banks to exit the government’s TARP program — Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s investment bank — “are set to pay record bonuses this year,” totaling $29.7 billion. “It doesn’t seem as if even political threat, disastrous PR, envy, rising unemployment rates and home repossessions is enough to get any of these people to refuse the bonuses they have ‘earned,’” said Paul Hodgson of Corporate Library.
GOP Gone Wild: Unruly Republicans Silence Women Lawmakers With Screams, Shouts, And Delay Tactics
GOP Gone Wild: Unruly Republicans Silence Women Lawmakers With Screams, Shouts, And Delay Tactics
This morning, the House began consideration of the rule for debate of the House health care bill. As the Democratic Women’s Caucus took to the microphone on the House floor to offer their arguments for how the bill would benefit women, House Republicans — led by Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) — repeatedly talked over, screamed, and shouted objections. “I object, I object, I object, I object, I object,” Price interjected as Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) tried to hold the floor.
In an effort to delay and derail the proceedings, the Republicans continually talked over the Democratic women for half an hour. They sought to prevent the debate by calling for unnecessary “parliamentary inquiries” and requests for “expanding the debate” by an hour.
After being repeatedly interrupted by Republican shouts, Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH) observed:
Do I not have the right to be able to continue my sentence without objections that are trying to censor my remarks here on the floor that I have a right to make as a member of this House?
Watch a compilation:
The presiding chair of the House, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), tried to assuage the Republican ruckus, without much success. The debate must be conducted with “a measure of comity and grace and decency,” Dingell urged. “There’s no advantage to be achieved by making all this fuss,” he told the Republicans.
Jewish Organizations Condemn GOP For Standing By As Tea Party Protesters Waved ‘Vile’ Anti-Semitic Signs
Jewish Organizations Condemn GOP For Standing By As Tea Party Protesters Waved ‘Vile’ Anti-Semitic Signs
One of the most disturbing images from yesterday’s Tea Party rally against health care reform on Capitol Hill was a protester’s gruesome sign showing a pile of dead Holocaust victims. The banner — captured by ThinkProgress here — read: “National Socialist Health Care: Dachau, Germany – 1945.” Another sign said that “Obama takes his orders from the Rothchilds [sic],” a reference to the famous Jewish banking family often implicated in conspiracy theories. Today, Nobel Prize winner and Holoacaust survivor Elie Wiesel strongly condemned the signs, calling them “indecent and disgusting.” From his foundation’s Twitter page:
The National Jewish Democratic Council also criticized the “vile invocations of Nazi and Holocaust rhetoric” and called out GOP leaders who stood in plain view of the signs but ignored them. The Simon Wiesenthal Center demanded that the rally organizers “publicly repudiate the use of Nazi and Holocaust imagery.” Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) made similar comments in a video he posted on YouTube, singling out the rally’s organizer, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN):
I can’t believe that Congresswoman Bachmann would stand where she stood, and see those images, and not have the common decency to say, “I disagree with the use of those images.” I think that she owes the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust an apology. She owes us all an apology. And I’m waiting. We’re all waiting.
Watch it:
When Politico asked House Minority Leader John Boehner’s (R-OH) spokesman for comment on these signs, he simply replied, “Leader Boehner did not see any such sign. Obviously, it would be grossly inappropriate.” Today, Rep. Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) spokesman called the photograph “inappropriate.”
ThinkFast: November 6, 2009
ThinkFast: November 6, 2009
A new labor report this morning indicates 190,000 jobs were lost last month. Unemployment rose to 10.2 percent in October, the highest rate since April 1983 and “much higher than analysts expected.”
Nidal M. Hasan’s name “appears on radical Internet postings,” including “posts that equated suicide bombers to soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save the lives of their comrades.” A fellow officer says Hasan “argued with soldiers who supported U.S. wars,” and while an intern at Walter Reed, Hasan reportedly had some “difficulties” that required counseling and extra supervision.
President Obama will make his first visit as president to Walter Reed Army Medical Center this afternoon. The White House says the visit was scheduled before the fatal shootings at Fort Hood yesterday. Obama is also pushing back a planned trip to Capitol Hill “aimed at discussing the proposed health care overhaul with lawmakers” from today to Saturday.
House Democratic leaders are trying to secure 218 votes to pass a health care reform bill this weekend. Of the 258 House Democrats, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) — while “confident of victory” — is “working to limit defections to the roughly 25 Democrats viewed as ‘hard no’ votes.”
The editorial boards of both the New York Times and the Washington Post today sharply criticized Congress’s plans to expand a home buyer’s tax credit as stimulus. “This costly giveaway to the real estate and mortgage industry will spend far more in taxpayers’ dollars than it can ever deliver in economic benefit,” writes the NYT. The Post called the extension “a bad idea.”
Republicans wouldn’t find coverage under their own health plan.
Republicans wouldn’t find coverage under their own health plan.
The Congressional Budget Office has concluded that the overwhelming majority of Americans would remain uninsured and continue paying higher premiums under the Republicans’ health care alternative. In fact, it’s unlikely that any of the members of the Republican House Leadership would be able to find affordable insurance under their own proposal, should they chose to give up their government-sponsored plans. The six men and one woman in the Republican House leadership have an average age of 52 and, as a group, are more susceptible to cardiovascular disease, different cancers, high blood pressure, and a host of other chronic diseases. The Republican health alternative would allow insurers to discriminate against these conditions and price the Republican leaders out of the market. Igor Volsky explains why Republicans wouldn’t find coverage under their own health plan.
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