From the wisdom of Twitter

post from AMERICAblog News on 26 April 2010 05:01:38 PM. © AMERICAblog News

RT @pourmecoffee Yankees at White House today, assuming Kyl and McCain don't stop Mariano Rivera and ask to see his papers.

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Boycott the Arizona Diamondbacks and all things
Jerry Colangelo

post from Crooks and Liars on 26 April 2010 05:00:38 PM. © Crooks and Liars

video details and more

I write about sports quite often on C&L and I haven't targeted a team quite like this before, but if the Diamondbacks owners want to engage in this type of hideous politics then it's time to call them out on it.

As the official Arizona Diamondbacks boycott call states, ?In 2010, the National Republican Senatorial Committee?s third highest Contributor was the [executives of the] Arizona Diamondbacks, who gave $121,600; furthermore, they also contributed $129,500, which ranked as the eighteenth highest contribution to the Republican Party Committee.? The team?s big boss, Ken Kendrick, and his family members, E. G. Kendrick Sr. and Randy Kendrick, made contributions to the Republicans totaling a staggering $1,023,527. The Kendricks follow in the footsteps of team founder and former owner Jerry Colangelo. Colangelo, along with other baseball executives and ex-players, launched a group called Battin? 1000: a national campaign that uses baseball memorabilia to raise funds for a Campus for Life, the largest anti-choice student network in the country. Colangelo was also deputy chair of Bush/Cheney 2004 in Arizona, and his deep pockets created what was called the Presidential Prayer Team?a private evangelical group that claims to have signed up more than 1 million people to drop to their knees and pray daily for Bush.
Under Colangelo, John McCain also owned a piece of the team. The former maverick said before the bill?s passage that he ?understood? why it was being passed because ?the drivers of cars with illegals in it [that] are intentionally causing accidents on the freeway.?
This is who the Arizona Diamondback executives are. This is the tradition they stand in.
The Diamondbacks? owners have every right to their politics, and if we policed the political proclivities of every owner?s box there might not be anyone left to root for (except for the Green Bay Packers, who don?t have an owner?s box). But this is different. The law is an open invitation to racial profiling and harassment. The boycott call is coming from inside the state.
If the owners of the Diamondbacks want to underwrite an ugly edge of bigotry, we should raise our collective sporting fists against them. A boycott is also an expression of solidarity with Diamondback players such as Juan Guitterez, Gerardo Parra, and Rodrigo Lopez. They shouldn?t be put in a position where they?re cheered on the playing field and then asked for their papers when the uniform comes off.

The Diamondback people aren't just donating to the Republican Party like most professional sports team owners do---they are helping to create this climate of fear and hate-mongering. It's obscene.

Rep. Grijalva had to close his office because of death threats that he received over this draconian law. How long will it be until Arizona players find themselves caught up in the police state that Colangelo and Kendricks have helped bring to the state of Arizona? And I'm only talking baseball players. What about the rest of their pro teams and college teams as well as all the visiting athletes that come in and play in the state of Arizona? Studies show that about 27% of all MLB players are Latino and almost 40% are players of color.

The total population of Major League players of color (39.6 percent) was comprised of Latino (27percent), African?American (10.2 percent) or Asian (2.4 percent). MLB has been remarkably consistent in terms of the percentage of white players. Between the 1998 and the 2008 seasons, 59?61 percent of the playershave been white in each season with the exception of 2004 which saw 63 percent of the players being white.

There have been numerous studies done about the numbers of African Americans who are playing Major League Baseball, and included in those studies are fascinating results regarding the rise of the Latino player.

Furthermore, a Latino, Arturo Moreno, owns the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Two people of color, GM Ken Williams and manager Ozzie Guillen, guided the White Sox to a World Series title in 2005. Omar Minaya, baseball's only Latino GM, and Willie Randolph, one of two African-American managers, guided the Mets to the NL Championship Series last year. And according to MLB, people of color constitute 33 percent of the managerial positions within the minor leagues.
"Baseball is more diverse than ever," said Jimmie Lee Solomon, executive vice president of baseball operations for MLB.

Being diverse and playing baseball in Arizona has now become a hazardous proposition.

Here's more:

We can support the boycott when the Diamondbacks come to play in our cities across the country, namely where there is a heavy concentration of Latinos and immigrants, namely Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, and New York. For those of you who attend Dodger games, the audience is always roughly 80% folks of color, and we?re sure it is the same elsewhere, so this would have huge ramifications for sales of tickets and merchandise if supported by our communities. You can view when they are coming to a town near you at ... We have compiled the donations from this family to the Republican machine in Arizona, outlined next.

America's Voice has more:

Boycott Arizona. Various media outlets refer to a planned boycott of Arizona to protest its passage of the law. La Opinión (Los Angeles), in an editorial titled ?Say NO to Arizona? (?Diga ?NO? a Arizona?), writes: ?We express our outrage in the face of this abuse of power. We call for a boycott of all goods and services from Arizona and pledge to avoid tourism in the state as well. Let's send a signal of our disgust with an arrogant state government that asserts powers it does not have in order to persecute a minority population.?
El Diario-La Prensa (New York), La Opinión, and Televisa have more.

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The Taliban went up to the Jewish Merchant and
said

post from Taylor Marsh on 26 April 2010 05:00:18 PM. © Taylor Marsh

It took a while for this story to make the rounds. The kerfuffle happened last Wednesday, with the Jewish newspaper The Forward the first to break it last Friday. General Jim Jones got predictably creamed by Anti-Defamation League’s Abe Foxman and[...]

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Phoenix 2012 convention bids coming under boycott
pressure

post from DemConWatch on 26 April 2010 05:00:08 PM. © DemConWatch

As the calls for a economic boycott of Arizona grow, some are turning their focus to Phoenix's bids for the 2012 Republican and Democratic Conventions. From Tuscon:

The purpose of this letter is to officially notify all concerned, with Arizona now moving forward with SB 1070, Hispanic News on Monday will send out its first letter regarding “Boycott Arizona.”

Our first action will be to contact Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele to strongly oppose bringing the 2012 national Republican convention to Phoenix. If the GOP national convention comes to Arizona, it will send a message the GOP condones Arizona becoming a hate state toward Hispanics.

We will not single out Republicans but any Democrat or Republican event in Arizona will not be welcomed.

And from Philadelphia comes the thought that if the GOP does go to Phoenix, it will be Chicago '68 all over again:

In one sense, the notion that some liberals are already talking about boycotting Arizona over its racial-profiling push would probably now make the RNC more likely to go there. But I think progressives should make it clear that -- with an $170 million payday on the line -- that smart politicians would play it safe and take the big show elsewhere. The reality is that if Arizona's backwards law isn't repealed by 2012, Chicago 1968 might look like a Sunday stroll through (post-1968) Grant Park. And the sight of Arizona cops facing off with hordes of non-violent Latinos and their friends could backfire against Republicans, just like the unrest in Chicago almost certainly cost Hubert Humphrey and the Democrats the '68 election.

Which reporter will be the first to get comments from Chairmen Steele and Kaine on Phoenix's bids for their respective conventions?

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The weakness of the Obama coalition, revealed

post from Open Left - Front Page on 26 April 2010 05:00:05 PM. © Open Left - Front Page

In a video message to Organizing for America's 13 million members today, President Obama announced[...]

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World Premiere!

post from Talking Points Memo on 26 April 2010 05:00:00 PM. © Talking Points Memo

We had some hints that comedian Sara Benincasa was preparing a new impersonation of none other than Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). And it turns out it's true. Sara apparently spent a couple weeks immersing herself, perhaps literally, in all things[...]

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RNC Still Sending Out Deceptive 'Census' Mailer

post from Daily Kos on 26 April 2010 04:48:04 PM. © Daily Kos

Earlier this year, after it was revealed that the Republican National Committee was sending out a fundraising letter that came:

... in an envelope starkly printed with the words, "DO NOT DESTROY OFFICIAL DOCUMENT" and describes itself, on the outside of the envelope, as a "census document."

... and after it was denounced by both Democrats and Republicans, Congress passed a law that required:

... mailings marked "census" to state the name and address of the sender and to contain an unambiguous disclaimer that the survey is not affiliated with the federal government.

The Senate approved the bill by unanimous consent and it passed in the House by a vote of 416 - 0.

And today?

The Republican National Committee is continuing to send out a misleading fundraising mailer labeled "Census Document," just weeks after Congress passed a law aimed at banning such mailers. [...]

An RNC mailer obtained by TPMmuckraker bears the words "Census Document" and, in all caps, "DO NOT DESTROY/OFFICIAL DOCUMENT," on the outside of the envelope. In smaller letters, it says: "This is not a U.S. government document." The new law requires, among other things, that such mailers state the name and address of the sender on the outside of the envelope -- something the RNC's missive doesn't appear to do ...

Based on a PDF image, the mailer obtained by TPMmuckraker does not appear to state the sender's name and address on the outside. And the words "DO NOT DESTROY/OFFICIAL DOCUMENT" would appear to make the disclaimer that it's not a government document less than unambiguous.

According to an RNC spokesman, they've decided that the law doesn't apply to their mailer ... apparently because they say so. No word on whether the law and order, family values party came to that conclusion at a bondage-themed, lesbian sex club.

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Trader At Heart Of Goldman Suit: I Sold Shoddy
Mortgage Products To 'Widow And Orphans'

post from TPMMuckraker on 26 April 2010 04:48:00 PM. © TPMMuckraker

It sure sounds like Goldman Sachs bond trader Fabrice Tourre knew exactly what he was doing.

In a series of 2007 emails released over the weekend by Goldman Sachs, Tourre, who was charged earlier this month in the SEC's civil fraud case against Goldman, comes across as a sly dealer of financial products that he seemed to know were ticking time bombs -- bragging about selling them to a "widow and orphans" -- but also as someone ethically conflicted about doing so.

Toure, along with Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, Daniel Sparks, a former head of the mortgages department at Goldman, and a number of other Goldman executives are expected to testify tomorrow before Sen. Carl Levin's (D-MI) Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Blankfein is expected to deny betting against mortgages -- although emails released by Levin over the weekend appear to show that the investment bank knowingly made money betting against the mortgage market -- and mortgage securities that it was selling to investors.

Toure's email record doesn't look all that good either.

In a June 2007 email to his girlfriend, Toure wrote:

Just made it to the country of your favorite clients!!! I'm managed to sell a few abacus bonds to widow and orphans that I ran into at the airport, apparently these Belgians adore synthetic abs cdo2.

Abacus is the name of the mortgage-related security at the heart of the SEC lawsuit. Last December, the New York Times reported that Toure was "aggressive from the start in trying to make the assets in Abacus deals look better than they were."

And it seems that at least at times, Toure didn't have much sympathy for those investing in Abacus. In March, Toure had written this to his girlfriend:

According to Sparks, that business is totally dead, and the poor little subprime borrowers will not last so long!!!

However, in January, Toure seemed to show a somewhat softer side -- or at least a more self-aware one.

Anyway, not feeling too guilty about this, the real purpose of my job is to make capital markets more efficient and ultimately provide the U.S. consumer with more efficient ways to leverage and finance himself, so there is a humble, noble and ethical reason for my job ;) amazing how good I am in convincing myself !!!

It does seem that Toure was aware of the potentially disastrous effects these financial products might have. From a 2007 email to a friend:

It's bizarre I have the sensation of coming each day to work and re-living the same agony - a little like a bad dream that repeats itself. In sum, I'm trading a product which a month ago was worth $100 and which today is only worth $93 and which on average is losing 25 cents a day ...That doesn't seem like a lot but when you take into account that we buy and sell these things that have nominal amounts that are worth billions, well it adds up to a lot of money.

"When I think that I had some input into the creation of this product (which by the way is a product of pure intellectual masturbation, the type of thing which you invent telling yourself: "Well, what if we created a "thing", which has no purpose, which is absolutely conceptual and highly theoretical and which nobody knows how to price?") it sickens the heart to see it shot down in mid-flight... It's a little like Frankenstein turning against his own inventor ;)"

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Mining lobbyist: ‘The president has parked
his tanks on our front lawn.’

Luke Popovich, NMA

This weekend, as President Barack Obama traveled to West Virginia to mourn the deaths of 29 miners in the Massey coal explosion, the mining industry attacked the president with militant right-wing rhetoric. Obama has supported the U.S. coal industry with an agenda of investing “huge subsidies” in the advanced coal technology that he misleadingly calls “clean coal.” His administration has begun to crack down on the industry’s worst safety violators and most egregious practices like mountaintop removal, but has also announced that any limits on carbon pollution would not begin until 2011. The day before Obama praised coal as “the energy that powers our country and powers the world,” National Mining Association spokesman Luke Popovich attacked the president as a military invader of coal country:

You?d be hard pressed to find a president whose actions have been more warlike on coal. There are those who say the president has parked his tanks on our front lawn, and it?s hard to dispute that.

The National Mining Association — whose directors include Massey Energy’s Don Blankenship — joins a right-wing chorus accusing Obama of “invading” and declaring “war” on Americans, including Newt Gingrich, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH), and CNN commentator Erick Erickson. (HT Appalachian Voices)

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