No One Wants Joe Lieberman at Their Party

post from Firedoglake on 31 July 2012 01:10:22 PM. © Firedoglake

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) has played an outsize role at national conventions for both parties for years. He was Al Gore's VP pick for Democrats in 2000, and he spoke at the Republican convention in 2008 in support of John McCain over Barack Obama. This[...]

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No One Wants Joe Lieberman At Their Party

post from Firedoglake on 31 July 2012 01:10:22 PM. © Firedoglake

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Washington Blade: DNC platform to support
same-sex marriage

post from Crooks and Liars on 31 July 2012 01:00:52 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Uniformed military members marching in last week's San Diego Pride parade. The times, they are a-changing!

This ought to inspire the progressive base. It'll also make the Republican fundie base extremely motivated, but so what? The Democratic party ought to do the right thing more often - preferably without checking to see which way the wind is blowing:

A plank supporting same-sex marriage will be included as part of the Democratic National Committee?s (DNC) platform, according to an exclusive report at the Washington Blade, which notes it was a unanimous decision.
Also included is language supporting ENDA and rejecting DOMA. Retiring Congressman Barney Frank ?who sits on the committee, told the Washington Blade on Monday that the 15-member panel unanimously backed the inclusion of a marriage equality plank after a national hearing over the weekend in Minneapolis, in which several witnesses testified in favor of such language,? Chris Johnson, writing at the Blade, reported today:
?I was part of a unanimous decision to include it,? Frank said. ?There was a unanimous decision in the drafting committee to include it in the platform, which I supported, but everybody was for it.?
Frank emphasized that support for marriage equality is a position that has been established for the Democratic Party, from the president, who endorsed marriage equality in May, to House Democratic lawmakers who voted to reject an amendment reaffirming the Defense of Marriage Act earlier this month.
A DNC staffer, who is familiar with the process and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the language in the platform approved on Sunday not only backs marriage equality, but also rejects DOMA and has positive language with regard to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The exact wording of the language wasn?t immediately available.

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http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/washington-blade-dnc-platform-support

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I Did Not Say What I Said

post from Talking Points Memo on 31 July 2012 01:00:44 PM. © Talking Points Memo

Romney's tries to clarify his remarks -- widely condemned -- about the Palestinian economy. [...]

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U.S. Men’s Gymnastic Team Chokes in London

post from TaylorMarsh.com on 31 July 2012 01:00:34 PM. © TaylorMarsh.com

IT HAPPENS, even when you can least afford it.

There’s not another way to write or review it honestly. The men’s gymnastic team psyched themselves out.

Danell Leyva, the gymnast who led the entire world in the all-around in the qualifications and nearly made the pommel horse final, looked frazzled as he mounted this event today in the second rotation. He slipped from the horse and put up a dismal score in the low 13?s ? nearly two full points lower than what he is capable of. Despite a redemptive effort from Mikulak on the same event, disaster loomed for this American team. Anchor John Orozco, typically world class on this event as well, self-destructed under the pressure and suffered a fall of his own. After failing to regain his composure and typically smooth swing, the reigning U.S. national champion and Team USA swallowed a score in the 12?s. – U.S. men’s gymnasts fly off course in team finals

There’s no way I can relate to the pressure of the Olympics.

But I do know the pressure of performance, going back to their age. It’s a mental game. See Tiger Woods in golf when he first started out. There is nothing that can replace the steel mind zen of a performer in that zone, which is the only way you can perform at peak levels when it’s required.

And sometimes it fails you. I’ve been there on the performance field, though again, performing on Broadway or other high profile events, including my own one-woman show, doesn’t compare.

It was a heartbreaking loss for the men expected to win gold, as was watching Jordyn Wieber fail to make the all-around gymnastics final.

It’s the ecstasy and the agony of competition, performance and playing in the big leagues, no matter the field of play.

Graphic above is one of the many Google doodles that have been posted during the Olympics.

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Baby-Boomers Are Glum

post from Ratbang Diary on 31 July 2012 01:00:26 PM. © Ratbang Diary

That?sthe overall Google/Internet/Wikipedia take on things.
ThisBoomer generation that was spawned because potential dads were going off to war andpotential moms were hopping in the sack out of sheer biological panic, has nowbeen through its own good times, bad times, drugged-out times, baby times,supposed maturing times, running the world times and is now on the brink ofgetting old. The boomers are pissed off.
It?s nogood to say ?You were supposed to fix things, so suck it up.?
One canonly note: Now that you Boomers have empowered the medical and pharmaceuticalbusinesses to run the world, how are things working out for us?
Theworld has cancer. Not only figuratively speaking about the shitty state ourplanet is in, but speaking healthwise, a significant portion of the world isbeing treated medically for cancer.
How hasthat come about? Well, all the A-bomb tests, A-bombs and nuclear power plants theBoomers? moms and dads unleashed on this world has caused problems to ourhealth--from our autoimmune defenses being knocked awry, to actual cancersbeing given a leg up.
Butalso, how much blame can be directed at pharmaceuticals that actually cause cancer? How much blame can be directed at doctors who prescribe ill-tested and/or dangerous drugs because doctors get kick-backs? Howmuch blame can be directed at doctors who prescribe radiation and chemo for cancersthat will never grow or become significant? How much blame can be directed atthe greedy medical community for promoting the existence of cancer rather thanfinding a cure?
If Boomersare glum about their prospects for a benign future, can any generation nowfix the harm the Boomers have inflicted on themselves and the rest of us by decidingeveryone?s life and fate should be in the hands of pharmaceutical companies andthe AMA?
The AMA,drug companies and hospitals not only determine whether we get well or die.They now determine whether we get sick in the first place.

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Blue America Welcomes Sue Thorn (D-WV)

post from DownWithTyranny! on 31 July 2012 01:00:15 PM. © DownWithTyranny!

Blue America is proud to be officially endorsing Sue Thorn today. Sue is a grassroots community activist whose ideas about the role of government hearken back to a time when West Virginians very much saw government as a way of balancing the inordinate power of corporations and the wealthy arraigned against ordinary working families. She'll be joining us for a live blogging session at 2pm (EST) at Crooks and Liars. Her opponent is freshman David McKinley, or, as folks in northern West Virginia like to call him, Moneybags McKinley. He's a millionaire member of the top 1% and Blue America wants to help Sue Thorn send him packing. Before coming to Congress, McKinely was already a career politician, working the system to please his dirty-dealing campaign contributors, sleazy coal CEOs and shady special interest groups, at the expense of or the ordinary working families. After a slim victory against his DCCC-backed Blue Dog opponent in 2010, McKinley joined the Tea Party caucus. Now that he?s facing Sue Thorn, a real populist Democrat with widespread grassroots support, he?s proved he?ll say or do anything to get re-elected. Anything? You betcha!

? McKinley ran for office railing against taxpayer-funded mass mailings, or franked mailings, during election years, calling them an ?abuse? of taxpayer funds. Now, he ranks as one of the top spenders in the House, spending hundreds of thousands of tax dollars mailing constituents campaign propaganda, full of conservative talking points.

? He campaigned with Tea Party rhetoric against big banks and bailouts, then accepted thousands in donations from the banking industry and supported legislation that turns regulatory power over to the bankers.

? McKinley says he is a ?Friend of Coal? and claims to support coal miners, but refuses to sponsor coal mine safety legislation along with the rest of the WV Congressional delegation. Mining deaths and rates of black lung disease are on the rise in WV, but McKinley has proved to be a puppet for the profit-hungry coal industry, working in back-room deals to dismantle the EPA, weaken the Mine Safety and Health Administration, and push through anti-regulation bills that would pollute WV communities and poison the water supply.

Sue Thorn was asked to run for Congress because the people of West Virginia's first CD were sick of representation by conservative Democrats who vote with the Republicans and DC insiders who vote to slash safety net programs that benefit working families. Sue is not a career politician. She?s worked in economic development and community organizing and she aims to bring people together, not divide them. When we first spoke with her, we asked why she had decided to run.

?I?m running for Congress because I?m sick of the rich getting richer and the rest of us getting left behind. The extreme conservative Republicans currently controlling the House of Representatives don?t have the middle class in mind. They?re focused on passing bogus legislation that will keep campaign donations coming in from Big Oil, super PACs, corrupt CEOs and greedy special interest groups. At a time when the gap between the rich and the poor in this country is at its highest since the great depression, the House Republicans are recklessly voting for tax break for millionaires. I?m running for Congress because we need to rebuild the middle class.?

This is a winnable race, but Sue won?t be doing it with the help of the DCCC. They?re sitting this one out, after wasting a fortune trying to elect a Blue Dog Democrat in 2010 that the people of WV-01 didn?t want. Sue?s running in a traditionally Democratic district, previously represented by Democrats for over 40 years. She even pulled in 13,000 more votes than McKinley in the primary. But she also has to contend with McKinley?s campaign coffer of $1.4 million. Please consider helping her with a contribution here on our Blue America page.

We need to send the crazy conservative freshmen in Congress back where they came. Let?s start with David McKinley by helping to elect a true champion for regular people, Sue Thorn.

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Members Of Congress Call On Governors To Support
Medicaid Expansion

post from ThinkProgress on 31 July 2012 01:00:05 PM. © ThinkProgress

Forty-three members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus sent letters to state governors imploring them to support the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion in their states. An estimated 17 million Americans who can’t afford health insurance will benefit from the expansion, but some Republican governors have already pledged to reject the expansion. “We ask that you refuse to play politics with people?s health and publicly support expanding health care access to the thousands of people in your state who need it today,” the members wrote in their letter.

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ernors-to-support-medicaid-expansion/

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Meet Mitt Romney’s Economic Advisers

Steven Perlberg contributed to this report.

In April, a Republican National Committee spokesperson said the Republican Party’s 2012 platform would focus on the same policies pushed by former President George W. Bush, “just updated.” In case anyone needs a reminder, Bush’s policies included massive tax cuts that led to exploding deficits and debt and a weak decade of job growth, the attempted privatization of Social Security, and deregulation of the financial industry that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis.

Despite that record, the party’s nominee seems to be chasing an agenda that truly is “Bush updated.” Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s economic advisers include two former chairmen of Bush’s Council on Economic Advisers and a veteran of Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign. The policies favored by those advisers include even bigger tax cuts, more deregulation, and support for dismantling Social Security. ThinkProgress compiled a look at each of Romney’s five economic advisers and the policies they have supported in the past, as well as those they hope to implement in the future.

Glenn Hubbard

Glenn Hubbard was the chairman of President George W. Bush’s Council on Economic Advisers from 2001 to 2003, during which time both pieces of Bush’s massive package of tax cuts became law. And while Hubbard now claims tax reform should target the wealthy, the ideas he has helped craft for Romney fail to do so. Hubbard is one of the major designers of Romney’s tax plan, which is four times larger than the Bush tax cuts and would explode the federal debt while giving the rich another huge break. Hubbard is also a fierce advocate of financial deregulation and, like Romney, supports dismantling the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In June, Hubbard criticized Obama on the editorial pages of a German newspaper and called for increasing Europe’s reliance on failed austerity policies. Hubbard reportedly takes the ideas of a Romney donor who supports more income inequality “seriously,” and he also supports the privatization of Social Security, a plan that would have decimated the retirement funds of millions of Americans in the latest financial crisis. But it’s not all bad: Hubbard has pushed a plan to offer mass mortgage refinancing to millions of America’s struggling homeowners, and he has slammed anti-tax activist Grover Norquist for his blanket refusal to consider revenue increases, which Hubbard supported as part of the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan.

Gregory Mankiw

Greg Mankiw succeeded Hubbard as the chairman of Bush’s Council on Economic Advisers, during which time he was an advocate of Social Security privatization. He is a staunch defender of the Bush tax cuts and wrote an editorial in 2010 stating that, though he could afford higher tax rates, they would “make me work less.” The editorial was rife with problems and inconsistencies, as Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum and the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein noted at the time. Mankiw, who teaches at Harvard, also believes that income inequality is largely attributable to the fact that “some people care more about having a high income than others,” and uses that justification as a reason to oppose redistributive policies. Mankiw came under fire during his time in the Bush administration for making comments suggesting that outsourcing was good for the American economy; he later backed off those claims. Mankiw, however, has broken with conservative orthodoxy in key areas: he supported the Simpson-Bowles plan, which included revenue increases, and he is a proponent of instituting a nationwide carbon tax to fight climate change. He has also argued for higher inflation rates and he supported Federal Reserve action to bolster the economic recovery.

Vin Weber

Weber served in Congress from 1983 to 1993 and later served as a regional chairman on Bush’s 2004 presidential campaign. Aside from being known as an architect of the 1994 “Republican Revolution” that led to a damaging government shutdown a year later, Weber is one of Washington’s biggest names in lobbying. He was named the city’s fifth most powerful lobbyist by Washingtonian Magazine in 2007, and he and the firm he co-founded have lobbied extensively for federal housing giant Freddie Mac (in the GOP primary, Romney criticized Newt Gingrich for lobbying on behalf of Freddie Mac). Weber drew fire this year for lobbying on behalf of the controversial Ukrainian government. Weber is also a proponent of cutting corporate taxes and loosening regulation, but he has distanced himself from traditional Republican orthodoxy at times. Like Hubbard, he supported the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan that included revenue increases, and he supports the Export-Import Bank, a new conservative target.

Jim Talent

Former Missouri Senator Jim Talent has been acting as a Romney surrogate and adviser for months. Talent is now a co-chairman at Mercury Public Affairs, a lobbying and public strategy firms staffed by former members of Congress. As Salon reported, Talent lobbies on behalf of Mercury clients but he is not registered as a lobbyist, thus avoiding legal disclosure requirements about who he works for. Talent is featured in Romney’s jobs plan writing about the importance of coal mining while Peabody Energy — one of the largest coal producers in the world — pays Talent’s firm $125,000 a year. As a member of Congress, Talent co-sponsored legislation to move a percentage of all workers’ Social Security contribution to private accounts, but he walked back his privatization stance in 2006. A distinguished fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, Talent also tiptoed around his strong ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, refunding thousands of dollars in campaign donations.

Kevin Hassett

American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Kevin Hassett was Senator John McCain’s chief economic adviser during his 2000 presidential run, and also served as an economic adviser to George W. Bush in 2004 and to McCain again in 2008. A National Review columnist, Hassett has argued in favor of privatizing Social Security, whined over Democratic attempts to have hedge fund managers pay a larger tax on carried interest, and called Warren Buffett an “ignorant rube” for proposing a higher tax on the top 1 percent. Hassett has argued that the financial crisis was caused by the Democrats’ defense of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac alone, eschewing the notion that bank malpractice had anything to do with the meltdown. In 2001 when the idea suited a Republican administration, Hassett actually argued in favor of Keynesian fiscal policy during a recession, but of course he changed his tune when it came to Obama’s 2009 stimulus. And in perhaps his most notable move, Hassett penned a book titled “Dow 36,000″ in 2000, explaining that the stock market would soon rise to more than 36,000 points. Just eight years later, the market collapsed, ultimately falling below 6,500 points in March 2009.

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GOP Report Finds No Connection Between White
House And ‘Fast And Furious’

Despite insistence from GOP leadership that the White House was behind the so-called “Fast and Furious” gunwalking program, a report from House Republicans released Tuesday names five officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms as culprits in the misguided effort. All five were reassigned before the release of the report — the first of three. The indictments in the report contradict House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) insistence that the President invoked executive privilege over the Justice Department’s information on ongoing investigations to protect his personal interests. The indication, however, is that the upcoming reports will try to tie the President to the program. It will “address the unprecedented obstruction of the investigation by the highest levels of the Justice Department, including the attorney general himself,” according to the Republicans who wrote the report.

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http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/07/31/614491/fast-furious-report-white-hous
e/

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