Might Ben Nelson Switch Parties for 2012

You've got to wonder about my Senator, Ben Nelson (D-NE). Although he gets a reprieve for 2010, his 2012 re-election bid will be Nebraska's next Senate race, and as his and his party's approval ratings dip and his race grows closer, he's started to[...]

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Rahm and the Health Care Blame Game: Its On!

One sure sign that the Senate health care bill is dead as a doornail is the inevitable appearance of the anonymously-sourced, finger-pointing articles. And in a novel twist, we have one blaming Rahm for the failure to pass health care reform that appears[...]

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http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/02/09/rahm-and-the-health-care-blame-game-i
ts-on/

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Shelby drops blanket hold, but still blocks Air
Force nominees

Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama has dropped his "blanket hold" on all Obama administration nominees:

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) has dropped all but a handful of the 70-plus holds he placed on President Obama's nominees last week. Shelby's office told TPMDC today that the goal of the blanket holds had succeeded three days after it was reported and roundly attacked by Democrats and the White House.

Shelby's hold had effectively blocked the confirmation of every Obama administration appointee, a move he had hoped would give him leverage in his effort to win an Air Force aerial refueling tanker contract for EADS, the European aerospace giant, which would assemble the tankers in Alabama.

Although Shelby is no longer blocking every single nominee, he's still leaving his hold in place on three Air Force nominees.

Moving forward, Graffeo said Shelby has placed holds on the following nominees: Terry Yonkers, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force; Frank Kendall, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics; and Erin Conaton, Under Secretary of the Air Force. Graffeo said the holds will continue until the Obama administration agrees to reexamine the air refueling tanker contract and improvised explosive device lab that led to Shelby's controversial wider holds.

I guess it's "good" that Shelby was shamed into dropping his blanket hold, but that doesn't mean his current gambit is reasonable or acceptable. Sure, it's patently absurd to block everything under the sun, but why should one Senator have the power to extort a massive federal defense contract from the adminisration by holding any of the administration's nominees?

Shelby is still obstructing the nation's business for parochial concerns, and it should stop. It remains a golden issue for Democrats -- but only if Democrats are willing to give up the practice themselves. Any Democrat who truly wants to clean up the way the Senate works has got to keep up the pressure on Shelby. Letting him off the hook would be saying yes to the corruption of our current system.

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Win-Win Scenario for the Dollar

The debt problems in Dubai threw a wrench in the happy-go-lucky risk trade of last year. And since then, the perception of the state of the global economy has been unraveling.All of the sudden, the world isn’t as safe a place as was thought just months ago: Global stock markets are falling, commodity markets have cracked, and foreign currencies are back in decline.All of this has been good for the U.S. dollar.In fact, the dollar is operating in a win-win environment these days. Heads the dollar…

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Brownbaggers not Teabaggers

Brownbaggers Not Teabaggers
VIGILS AGAINST WAR FUNDING SPREAD ACROSS NATION

Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) organized "brownbag" lunch vigils against war funding at noon on Wednesday, January 20th, at the district offices of 22 members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

On February 17th, PDA will be joined by CODEPINK, AfterDowningStreet, Democrats.com, the California Nurses Assn./National Nurses United, and United for Peace and Justice in holding brownbag vigils outside (or inside) at least 36 congress members' offices.

Brownbaggers are demanding commitments to vote against more money for war. Slogans on their posters include: "Healthcare not Warfare," "Corporations out of Politics," "Bailout Main Street not Wall Street," and "Brownbaggers not Teabaggers".

Vigils have been planned in the following districts: AZ-5, CA-6, CA-9, CA-10, CA-18, CA-22, CA-23, CA-40, CA-42, CA-45, CA-46, CA-48, CA-50, CA-53, FL-9, FL-10, FL-17, ID-01, IN-9, MA-1, MA-2, MA-3, MA-10, MI-9, NY-18, NY-28, OH-13, OH-17, PA-02, PA-7, PA-15, WA-2, WA-3, WA-6, WI-3, WI-7. These are almost all at noon on Wednesday the 17th, but a few are at odd times, so check the details: http://tr.im/NsUa

Get involved here and start a vigil in a new district: http://tinyurl.com/brownbagvigil

What We Want:

Brownbaggers are asking members of the House to publicly commit to voting No on any bills that fund wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Yemen, and to publicly urge their colleagues and the House leadership to make the same commitment. As lesser steps in the same direction, PDA is encouraging congress members to cosponsor HR 2454, calling for an exit strategy from Afghanistan, and HR 3699, prohibiting any increase in the number of U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan. Congress members' commitments are tracked at http://defundwar.org

"We have to choose between jobs and wars," said PDA's national director Tim Carpenter. "The American people are on one side, but our so-called representatives in Congress are on the other. The Supreme Court is busy increasing corporate control of our elected officials. We need to be busy enforcing the people's control before it is too late."

"Without wasteful war and military spending," said PDA's deputy director Laura Bonham, "we could have healthcare, jobs, housing, education, retirement security, environmental sustainability, diplomacy and foreign aid. No longer will we take seriously anyone's claim to support these things while voting to fund more war."

Learn more about Brown Bag Lunch Vigils here: http://tinyurl.com/brownbagvigil

Print useful information:
http://defundwar.org

Print these posters:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/downloads/brownbaggers/bbposter9.png
http://afterdowningstreet.org/downloads/brownbaggers/bbposter10.png
http://afterdowningstreet.org/downloads/brownbaggers/bbposter11.png

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At Tea Bagger Convention, Palin Proves Her
Ineptitude With Comical Crib Notes -- Verse-Case Scenario

This is the person who thinks

She?s ready to lead this land?

The writing isn?t on the wall

But appears to be on her hand.

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Allegations Against Leader Cause Turmoil In CA
GOP

The California Republican Party is being roiled by a controversy stemming from allegations about its chairman's private life.

Last night, the San Diego GOP voted by 44-1 to boot Michael Crimmins from the county's central committee, citing "inappropriate behavior." Crimmins, who was the party's nominee in 2008 against incumbent Democratic congresswoman Susan Davis, had last fall sent an email to state party leaders, raising concerns about the behavior of state party chair Ron Nehring, and San Diego County chair Tony Krvaric.

In his email, Crimmins, who is gearing up for another run for Congress, referenced another email, sent anonymously to party leaders and the media shortly before, which had alleged that Nehring, a protege of Grover Norquist, physically abused Michaelene Mansour, a former resort manager he met on Match.com -- allegations Nehring denies. That email also alleged that Nehring and Krvaric had then pressured Mansour's employer, the Sycuan Resort near San Diego, to fire her. Mansour left her job late last year. Crimmins said those alleged acts by Nehring and Krvaric were "atrociously abusive of their power."

The Sacramento Bee looked at photographs showing bruises on Mansour's body, that she said were caused by Nehring. She said the alleged abuse happened after he became incensed when she quizzed him about suspected infidelities. (The Bee spoke to several woman who said they were involved with Nehring during the period when he was dating Mansour.) She said she considered going to the cops but never followed through, still hoping the relationship could be repaired.

But Nehring denies abusing Mansour. "Truth is always the best defense and there is absolutely no truth to any of this," he said in a statement. "I have never assaulted anyone in my life and I deeply resent these libelous allegations." The Bee found no evidence of charges filed against Nehring in connection with the alleged abuse. And another of Nehring's former girlfriends told the paper: "Ron was 100 percent a gentleman with me."

But Crimmins doesn't seem to be the only person who's using the allegations to go after Nehring. In response to Crimmins's email, an anonymous email sent Thursday to party activists and reporters announced a news conference of San Diego party leaders, who would call for the resignations of Nehring and Krvaric. The email alleged that the two men had harassed Mansour when she considered taking her allegations to legal authorities. It's not clear whether that news conference has occurred.

Nehring already has provoked opposition within the party during his tenure as chairman. He hired as party staffers two men, one from Austria and one from Canada, with immigration problems. He has been accused of overusing his expense account, and fundraising for the party has been anemic lately.

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Palin Backs Off Criticism Of Limbaughs Use Of
Retards -- Verse-Case Scenario

So, her rage at Rahm

Was perhaps misstated

And wasn?t real, just

Politically motivated.

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Inevitable: New Republic Calls Former Editor
Andrew Sullivan An Anti-Semite

I knew that Andrew Sullivan's abandonment of the hard right position on Israel was driving his old buds at the New Republic crazy.

Andrew was once TNR's wunderkind, the youngest editor in its history. Smart, hunky, and a gentile Zionist. (Sullivan himself has written that he was pro-Israel long before he got to TNR).

Sullivan left TNR and its whacked out publisher, Marty Peretz, on good terms although Sullivan must have known that there was one condition for remaining on those good terms: he must never attack Israel's policies.

But, after Gaza, the increasingly liberal Sullivan could not take it anymore. He remains pro-Israel but was, and is, utterly disgusted by Israel's behavior in Gaza. Plus, he can't stand the neocons.

And so the break with TNR had to come. And here it is from Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor and bosom buddy of publisher Peretz.

Here's my summation. "Andrew Sullivan always had theological problems with Jews because they don't get the Trinity. For awhile he laid that aside. But now his virulent hatred of Israel and people like Krauthammer has caused him to revert to who he originally was. He is a Jew-hater."

The title of the piece is "Something Much Darker: Andrew Sullivan Has A Serious Problem."

It's a classic. I know most of you won't read the whole piece. Wieseltier's prose is impenetrable. But try.

I hope Sullivan is not bothered by the Wiesel's diatribe although I suspect he may be. No one likes being called an anti-semite or a racist. But consider the source: the TNR ghetto where every gentile is either a current Jew-hater or a future one.

God, it must drive Peretz and the Wiesel nuts that their once fair-haired (and now no-haired) boy is one of the most influential thinkers in America while they have been relegated to that microspace where Michael Goldfarb, Jonah Goldberg, and John Podhoretz reign supreme.

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Rep. Blackburn touts Social Security
privatization

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), one of the cosponsors to the radical budget proposal authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), went on Fox News yesterday to float one of the budget’s key components. Heralding “personal [Social Security] accounts” for “younger earners,” Blackburn touted Social Security privatization as the only way “you could get some of this under control”:

BLACKBURN: You know, people forget Medicare is a program that individuals have paid into every single year with their Medicare and their Social Security beneifts the federal government has first right of refusal on that paycheck. And this is one of the reasons we need to make sure individuals get the money out that they have placed in. This is one of the reasons we have had the discussion over and over for our younger earners of having accounts that have their Social Security number and their information on that — personal accounts.

VARNEY: You’re right, but it was roundly rejected when President Bush suggested doing just that. Didn’t fly. [...]

BLACKBURN: I was just going to say, and it’s interesting to me the number of people now that are coming to town hall meetings and are saying ‘you know what, if you were to scale back some of this bureaucracy and you began to look at some options for younger workers, you could get some of this under control.’

Watch it:

video details and more

While Varney seemed supportive of the idea of subjecting the retirement safety net to the whims of the stock market, he rightly noted that President Bush’s attempt was “roundly rejected.” Indeed, if Bush were successful at his push to do what Ryan and Blackburn are proposing now, seniors would have lost tens of thousands of dollars in the 2008-2009 market plunge.

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