Blackwell is so positioning himself to take
Steele's job

post from AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth on 12 March 2009 05:45:00 PM. © AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth

And at first blush, it's the best solution for the GOP - kick out the first black chairman, and install the second black chairman. Only problem is that such a decision would mean there's a quota for black chairmen at the GOP, that they're giving Blackwell the job because he's black. And the GOP claims they don't do quotas. In fact, they criticize Democrats for exactly that kind of decision-making, ensuring that a particular job will go to a particular minority. It's not clear how the GOP will reconcile giving the job to Blackwell, but I think that if Steele were fired today, Blackwell would be the new chair.

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Americablog/~3/375omv3oolU/blackwell-is-so-positio
ning-himself-to.html

Digg this

O'Reilly's claim about Stewart's motives
undermined by Stewart's criticism of Cramer a year ago

post from Media Matters for America on 12 March 2009 05:44:22 PM. © Media Matters for America

On the March 11 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, discussing Comedy Central host Jon Stewart's recent segments on CNBC host Jim Cramer's coverage of the current financial crisis, host Bill O'Reilly claimed, "So, when Mr. Cramer began criticizing Barack Obama, Mr. Stewart -- an ardent Obama supporter -- let him have it." O'Reilly later added, "So here we have the melding of politics -- because if Cramer didn't attack Obama, Stewart would not be on his case." However, on the March 17,[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200903120021

Digg this

C Bomb Exports Permanently Banned!

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 12 March 2009 05:39:18 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

I received this yesterday, on the 11th, from the Friends Committee on National Legislation and was going to post it around but couldn't get the links to load, they're fine now, So Please Use Them! A live, U.S-made M77 cluster submunition in a citrus[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Docudharma/~3/OrPkr80tpZE/showDiary.do

Digg this

The difference between Limbaugh and Carville
Limbaugh is still saying he wants Obama to fail

post from Media Matters for America on 12 March 2009 05:38:51 PM. © Media Matters for America

On March 11, Rush Limbaugh purported to favorably contrast his repeated statements that he wants President Obama to "fail" with a statement Democratic strategist James Carville made before learning of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- that "I hope [President Bush] doesn't succeed." Limbaugh argued that his own statement was "purely uttered for the sake of my country" but that Carville's statement is evidence that "it is standard operating procedure for the Democrat Party to not do[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200903120020

Digg this

One difference between Limbaugh and Carville
Limbaugh is still saying he wants Obama to fail

post from Media Matters for America on 12 March 2009 05:38:51 PM. © Media Matters for America

On March 11, Rush Limbaugh purported to favorably contrast his repeated statements that he wants President Obama to "fail" with a statement Democratic strategist James Carville made before learning of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- that "I hope [President Bush] doesn't succeed." Limbaugh argued that his own statement was "purely uttered for the sake of my country" but that Carville's statement is evidence that "it is standard operating procedure for the Democrat Party to not do[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200903120020

Digg this

Rep. Ryan (R-WI): So What If Steele is Pro-Choice

post from Talking Points Memo on 12 March 2009 05:38:00 PM. © Talking Points Memo

Pretty sure this isn't the help Michael Steele is looking for:As of this morning, Steele was continuing to insist he's pro-life.[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/6tmq0_BYS5Y/rep_ryan_r-wi_s
o_what_if_steele_is_pro-choice.php

Digg this

Another Guilty Plea In Alaska Corruption Probe

post from TPMMuckraker on 12 March 2009 05:38:00 PM. © TPMMuckraker

Oe of our favorite wide-ranging probes, the one into corruption in Alaska state government, grinds relentlessly on.

The Justice Department just announced that Beverly Masek, a former member of the state House of Representatives, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit bribery, in connection with cash payments she received from oil-services contractor Bil Allen, in exchange for using her position to take actions that benefited Allen's company.

Masek faces a maximum of five years in prison, and is due to be sentenced in May.

The wide-ranging probe, of course, has already netted Ted Stevens -- the Republican former U.S. senator, who was convicted last fall of making false statement on his Senate disclosure forms in connection to gifts he received from Allen. -- as well as several Alaska state lawmakers in addition to Masek.

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TPMmuckraker/~3/XnnXw-NF5kg/another_guilty_plea_in
_alaska_corruption_probe.php

Digg this

Talking Economic Accountability With David Cay
Johnston

Please welcome Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Cay Johnston back to FDL. He's joining us in the comments -- jh David Cay Johnston wrote the book Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense [and Stick You with[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://firedoglake.com/2009/03/12/talking-economic-accountability-with-david-cay-
johnston/

Digg this

Abbreviated Pundit Round-Up

Your one stop, late today, pundit shop.

E.J. Dionne wants President Obama to ditch pragmatism and talk principles:

Deregulating the financial markets, we were told, would do wonders for growth, as would slashing the income taxes of the wealthy and levies on capital gains and dividends. We were urged to trust the Wall Street wizards ...

Conservatives know that if the narrative I just offered takes hold, they and their ideas will be forced into the wilderness for a generation or more. So they are shrewdly changing the story line, trying to pretend that the past eight or even the past 30 years don't matter. They are trying to blame everything on Obama policies that have been operational for just a few weeks. And they are playing for keeps.

David Broder calls the withdrawal of Charles Freeman's name to be the chairman of the National Intelligence Council an "embarrassing defeat at the hands of the lobbyists" for the Obama administration.

Sonni Efron calls world hunger the crisis within the economic crisis:

The economic crisis has now spread from Wall Street to Main Street to the places where there are no streets. [...]

This is a disaster for the bottom billion, the one out of six humans living on less than $2 a day. But as always, the poor have a problem getting our attention -- especially when the rich have lost half their wealth.

Karl Rove, is today's unlikely voice parroting the GOP talking points on Rush Limbaugh. And for just fun, let me do some light editing of his column:

Team ~~Obama~~ Bush -- aided by ~~Clintonistas~~ Bushites ~~Paul Begala, James Carville and Stanley Greenberg~~ Dick Cheney and Bob Novak -- decided to attack ~~Rush Limbaugh~~ Joe Wilson after poring over ~~opinion research~~ Wilson's report on Niger. White House senior adviser ~~David Axelrod~~ Karl Rove explicitly authorized the assault. Chief of Staff ~~Rahm Emanuel~~ Scooter Libby assigned a White House official to coordinate the push. And Press Secretary ~~Robert Gibbs~~ Ari Fleischer gleefully punched the launch button at his podium, suckering the White House press corps into dropping what they were doing to get ~~Mr. Limbaugh~~ Joe Wilson.

Daniel Henninger proves that Barack Obama is a socialist with just one little chart.

Frank Gaffney explains that President Obama's "distancing" of Great Britain is just another way of:

... effectively acquiescing to Islamists' demands to establish here as in the U.K. their own, "parallel" society observing Shariah rules, not the laws of the land.

Huh?

Ruben Naverrette describes:

... a funny, and yet terribly perceptive, term to describe the sort of racial holding pattern in which America's largest minority finds itself. "Latinos have been in this limbo between white and nonwhite — or what I call 'off-white' — for more than 165 years," Gomez told me.

Off-white works for me.

Dr. Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, a member of Iran's Parliament from 2000 to 2004, says that Iran-US talks over Iran's nuclear development need to start soon.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/AAZexddhLpk/707733

Digg this

Got To Do What We Got to Do

Obama directly confronts the "Obama-too-busy" meme (as chronicled by our Matt Cooper) in his speech this afternoon to the Business Roundtable:[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/I0BiIK-9uZQ/got_to_do_what_
we_got_to_do.php

Digg this