Obama takes lead in Superdelegates

I’m happy to see my progressive Congressman, Peter DeFazio jump in to endorse Obama. I wonder if he’ll be on hand later today.As Obama has more strength in the West than he does in the South, I’ve touted our former Governor Kitzhaber as a solid VP candidate. He has a proven record of reaching across [...]

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ates/

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Photo Caption Contest Friday

Happy Friday... go wild



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Why Did Obama Vote for a Bad Tort Reform Bill

When some people think of tort reform, they think it's about lawyers' fees. It's about much more than that, including maintaining an injured person's access to the courts.

Barack Obama told Chris Wallace on Fox News last Sunday:

I would point out, though, for example, that when I voted for a tort reform measure that was fiercely opposed by the trial lawyers, I got attacked pretty hard from the left.

In 2005, Barack Obama voted for CAFA, the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005. Who voted against it? Hillary Clinton, Dick Durbin, Ted Kennedy, Pat Leahy, Joe Biden, Barbara Boxer and other progressive Democrats. Even Harry Reid. Who voted with Obama? Republicans, from Trent Lott to Lindsay Graham to Jeff Sessions and Democrats Joe Lieberman and Diane Feinstein (big surprise.)

What CAFA was about:

The Class Action Fairness Act would move most class action lawsuits, including civil rights, worker protection, product liability, and consumer fraud cases from state courts into the federal court system.

More...

Many mass tort cases – lawsuits which combine the cases of number of victims suffering similar physical damage from the same defective product or negligent practice – would also be moved to federal court. The bill also sets up a number of procedural rules for class action cases, restricting settlements in which a member of the class of people filing the suit must pay his or her lawyer more than the class member received under the settlement and banning settlements that would provide more money to some class members based on their geographic proximity to the court would also be banned. Finally, the Act calls for judicial scrutiny of so-called “coupon settlements,” in which plaintiffs receive only low-value coupons in compensation for their injuries.

Why CAFA was a bad bill:

While moving lawsuits from state to federal courts may seem harmless enough, in effect it will prevent many middle-class Americans injured by defective products, manipulated by deceptive marketing, or discriminated against by unfair employment practices from ever being able to hold corporate wrongdoers accountable. As a result, the threat of lawsuits will be less of a deterrent to corporations that engage in deceptive or discriminatory practices or seek to cut corners by skimping on product safety. Moving state cases to the federal courts is particularly harmful because it is state judges, not the federal judiciary, that are most familiar with the state consumer protection laws under which wrongdoers are sued. As a result, federal judges usually won’t certify cases based on state law, which effectively prevents even the most legitimate cases from ever being heard if they are forced into federal court.

That means ordinary citizens have lost an important means of getting recourse to the laws their democratically-elected state legislators passed. To make matters worse, the federal courts are increasingly stacked with judges hostile to consumer and workers’ rights. What’s more, the federal courts are already overburdened, struggling to cope in a timely manner with the caseload already before them. Further clogging the federal system with state cases may slow down everyone’s access to justice.

Here's what a group of State Attorney Generals had to say about it (AGs from California, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Vermont and West Virginia):

Equal access to the American system of justice is a foundation of our democracy. S.5 would effect a sweeping reordering of our nation’s system of justice that will disenfranchise
individual citizens from obtaining redress for harm, and thereby impede efforts against egregious corporate wrongdoing.”

The National Conference of State Legislatures didn't like it either. Here's Why:

“S. 5 undermines our system of federalism, disrespects our state court system, and clearly preempts carefully crafted state judicial processes which have been in place for decades regarding the treatment of class action lawsuits… State laws in the areas of consumer protection and antitrust which were passed to protect the citizens of a particular state against fraudulent or illegal activities will almost never be heard in state courts. Ironically, state courts, whose sole purpose is to interpret state laws, will be bypassed and the federal judiciary will be asked to render judgment in these cases.”

What should be done instead of this bill:

The American system of civil justice provides a crucial means for ordinary middle-class citizens to hold powerful corporations and government agencies responsible for their actions. Congress should work to strengthen and preserve this system of accountability rather than seeking to limit corporate liability, restrict victims’ compensation, and obstruct access to the courthouse, as this bill and other legislation pending in 2006 seeks to do.

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OMG

UPDATE: Apparently there's a debate going on in the comments about whether I should even be mentioning this video. You mean, it's wrong to mention that the video exists, and that it's a bad sign for Hillary that public opinion is starting to head into the extremes? Hmmm... not sure about that. What do you think? Join in the comments.
________


This is very wrong (and probably NSFW). We're still a couple centuries away from being able to make Hitler jokes, if ever. But it's an example of the kind of thing that Hillary will face, more and more, as she starts to look more and more ridiculous. The thing has 60,000 views on YouTube and is climbing. She's becoming a farce, in the extreme. This is not good for her legacy, to become a laughing stock. Seriously, her reputation is in danger.

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NIXONLAND

Here comes my shortest post ever.

I've been reading Rick Perlstein's book about the shaping of American politics by Richard Nixon over a 50 year period. Sound boring? It is anything but. Every page is a revelation.

And here's the best part, and the saddest part. It tells the story of the Democratic primary campaign over the past few months better than anything I have seen anywhere. I read a chapter last night and then read this morning's Washington Post and New York Times. Perlstein is way ahead of the papers. He simply nails it.

I don't know Perlstein. I never even heard of him until I saw an ad for the book. So I have stake in this. Just read it....and weep.

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Countdown: The Pulpit Bullies

While others in the media have played snippets of Rev. Wright’s sermons over and over to call into question Barack Obama for his association with his pastor, they’ve remained conspicuously silent on the statements of conservative Christian leaders John Hagee, Jerry Falwell and Rod Parsley.  As I’ve blogged many times before, the snippets of Wright’s [...]

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http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/09/countdown-the-pulpit-bullies/

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Is John McCain Losing His Marbles

Marbles, NO; Bearings, YES, according to Barack Obama

I was just watching FoxNews (Yeah, I know) and they’re all up in arms over the counterpunch Barack “Barry” Obama just gave to the Panamanian-born U.S. Senator from Arizona, “The Sheriff”, John McCain. They were suggesting his comment in an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN was a “low blow” personal attack on Senõr McCain and his possible bout with alzheimers disease and the other possibility the man is standing on a banana peel with one foot with his other foot in the grave.

Were that the actual case, it would be quite an offensive suggestion; one you would fully expect to read here at The GTL? but not one you would expect to hear from “Gentleman Barry”. What did “Gentleman Barry” actually say to torque off all of the (Draft-dodging) Rush Limbaugh, his Dittoheads and FoxNews? Let us take a peek, shall we?

From CNN’s Political Ticker:

Obama: McCain is ‘losing his bearings’

WASHINGTON (CNN) ? Barack Obama chastised John McCain Thursday for engaging in ?smear? politics, and defended himself from critics who question whether he is capable of being commander-in-chief, during a wide-ranging interview with CNN?s Wolf Blitzer ? his first sit-down since the Indiana and North Carolina primaries.

?This is offensive, and I think it’s disappointing,? Obama told Blitzer, when asked his thoughts about McCain?s comments that the terrorist organization Hamas wants Obama to be president. ?Because John McCain always says ?I am not going to run that kind of politics,? and to engage in that kind of smear is unfortunate, particularly because my policy toward Hamas has been no different than his.

?I?ve said it?s a terrorist organization and we should not negotiate with them unless they recognize Israel, renounce violence, and unless they are willing to abide by previous accords between the Palestinians and the Israelis. So for him to toss out comments like that I think is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination. We don?t need name calling in this debate.? …

Now, I don’t know which part of the country you hail from, but down here in my Red State of Alabama, “losing one’s bearings” refers to either a failure to properly maintain one’s automobile, as in loose ball bearings, or losing one’s guts. In either case, the Obama comment makes little sense. After all, we all know Senõr McCain has demonstrated extraordinary “guts” in his honorable service to this country as a prisoner of war back in the early days of this Great Democratic Republic and I’m fairly positive his stretch limousine is on a preventative maintenence plan.

Just WHAT was “Barry” Obama thinking anyway?

***

H/T goes to MemeOrandum on this one — Great blogger roundup available there, too…

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New Blog Under Construction

The Pennsylvania Progressive is going to continue in a new incarnation at a new host, SoapBlox.  It took about a week to set up the new account and now the new blog is being developed.  It's going to take several weeks, at a minimum, due to my[...]

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TIME Magazine Cover: And the Winner is...

Bookmark/Search this post with: buzzflash | delicious | digg | technorati Technorati Tags: Images Obama Winner TIME

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Black History: Secession of West Virginia

West Virginia was formed and added to the Union as a direct result of the American Civil War. In[...]

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