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Republicans' Nefarious Election Ploy by John Avlon, thedailybeast.com | January 28, 2013
In the wake of their decisive 2012 election defeat, Republicans aren’t digging the demographic changes making once safe states like Virginia go for Obama the last two presidential elections. Their response, as Michael Tomasky detailed yesterday, is to try and change the rules to allow electoral votes to be split up by congressional districts, compounding their advantage created by the rigged system of redistricting. In many of the states – Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Ohio – this is at the level of legislative discussion rather than action.This is an inversion of the basic principle of democracy: that elections are won by the candidate who gets the most votes. To add insult to the intended injury, Virginia humorist and political blogger Paul Bibeau pointed out that the bill would have the effect of making Obama voters count as three-fifths of a person. read more »Voters to the GOP: It's Not You—It's Your Ideas by Jamelle Bouie, prospect.org | January 28, 2013
That 400,000 votes separated Romney from the presidency is a quirk of our electoral system, and Republicans will mislead themselves if they focus on that number. Mitt Romney didn’t just lose to Obama in the 2012 presidential election: He underperformed. Exit polls provide a few clues about why voters rejected the Republican Party at all levels. If you weren’t well-off—if you were struggling—you didn’t vote for Romney; the GOP had nothing to offer you. Romney might disparage politicians who give “gifts” to the public, but the fact of the matter is that voters support leaders who provide—or can promise—tangible benefits. At most, Republicans promised greater “growth” from cutting taxes, slashing spending, and reducing regulations. Americans didn’t bite, because those policies don’t work (they remember the previous administration) and because they don’t trust Republicans to govern (they remember the previous administration). read more »Republicans Puzzled as to Why They Didn't Slay Hillary Clinton by Paul Waldman, prospect.org | January 24, 2013
Republicans are wondering why they didn't manage to make Hillary Clinton fall whimpering into a fetal position of the floor of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing room, then get up and admit that the Obama administration had engaged in a massive cover-up of their terrible crimes in Benghazi. Senator Ron Johnson, one of the most intellectually challenged members of that august body, with whom Clinton had an exchange that ran on all the news programs, triumphally told a reporter he had got "under her skin." John McCain, on the other hand, blamed an "adoring media" for not helping the Republicans stick it to Clinton. Could be. Or it could be that when you trump up some inane faux outrage over something, and then the person at whom you're directing said outrage actually has a chance to respond directly and decides to call bullshit on you, you don't end up looking too good. read more »Finally, the Republicans Are Afraid by Robert Parry, consortiumnews.com | January 24, 2013
For anyone who has lived through the past several decades of Republican bullying – from Richard Nixon’s anything-goes politics through Karl Rove’s dreams of a “permanent Republican majority” – it had to be startling to hear House Speaker John Boehner complaining that President Barack Obama’s goal was “to annihilate” the GOP. During a private luncheon of the Republican Ripon Society on Tuesday, Boehner cited Obama’s progressive agenda as outlined in his Second Inaugural Address as representing an existential threat to the GOP. The Ohio Republican also claimed that it was Obama’s goal “to just shove us into the dustbin of history.” Of course, Boehner may be wildly exaggerating the Republican plight to shock the party out of its funk, raise more money, and get right-wing activists back to the barricades. Still, his comments marked a remarkable reversal of fortune, like the playground bully getting his nose bloodied and running to the teacher in tears. read more »Republicans Are Asking The Wrong Questions by Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post | January 24, 2013
Republicans wanted nothing more than to summon Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Capitol Hill and grill her about the tragic fiasco in Benghazi. Sadly for them, they got their wish. Clinton’s smooth and confident performance at Wednesday’s Senate and House committee hearings was fun to watch. When her would-be inquisitors asked serious questions, she gave serious answers. But when Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), full of bombast and faux outrage, accused the administration of initially misstating the nature of the Benghazi attack, she responded with table-pounding thunder: “What difference, at this point, does it make?” And when Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said that he would have fired her had he been president, she answered with an icy cut of her eyes that said: Fat chance. read more »GOP Attracting Minorities? by Michael Tomasky, thedailybeast.com | January 24, 2013
What with everything going on these days, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Reince Priebus hasn’t been foremost in your mind lately. Well, this is your opportunity to correct that error, because I deliver tidings that the Republican National Committee is holding its winter meeting right now, starting yesterday, in Charlotte. A-Number-One on Chairman Priebus’s list, say advance reports, is figuring ways the GOP can attract more support among minorities. Well, they could. But they’d have to do things that would make them not the Republican Party anymore, and their base would never permit it. read more »Deficits: The End of an Obsession by Robert Kuttner, prospect.org | January 24, 2013
The consensus around debt reduction is beginning to crumble. Some straws in the wind are more careful attention to the actual numbers, as well as public conversions by such key players as Larry Summers and Peter Orszag, two former top aides to President Obama, who only yesterday were key members of the deflate-your-way-to-recovery club. President Obama, in his second inaugural address, had little to say about deficit-reduction as some kind of panacea and more about broadly-shared recovery. Given the continuing obsession with the Republicans and the Fix-the-Debt lobby with deficit cuts, it would be good if President Obama were even stronger on the point that we’ve had all the deficit cutting that we need and that the economy can stand, and that health reform is whole other story. But at least the fiscal debate is starting to move in the right direction, the deficit-hawk echo chamber in the media is no longer mindlessly repeating the Peterson mantra, and that’s good news indeed. read more »The New GOP Ploy Is Way More Radical by Michael Tomasky, thedailybeast.com | January 23, 2013
It's clever from a pr point of view, I'll give them that. Pushing back the debt limit deadline until May makes them seem less nutso. And this "no budget, no pay" wrinkle is bound to be popular. You can read all about it here if you're unfamiliar with the details. But here's the rub. Paul Ryan is going to draft a new budget that will eliminate the deficit in 10 years. Remember his previous two budgets, the ones that ended up being pretty big political liabilities in the election because of their impact on Medicare and on domestic programs, the ones many middle-ground Americans thought were extreme? Well, they balanced the budget in 30 years. And now he's going to balance it in 10. How is he going to get there? Good question. Far deeper cuts to domestic programs and Medicare--exactly the problems with his prior budgets, now concentrated. read more »The GOP’s Biggest Cave Yet by Steve Kornacki, salon.com | January 23, 2013
It wouldn’t exactly be unprecedented for John Boehner’s latest maneuver to blow up in his face, but all indications are that House Republicans will vote today for a plan that would essentially pretend the debt ceiling doesn’t exist for the next four months. The idea is both a recognition of the untenability of using the looming debt ceiling expiration as a bargaining chip to extract spending cut concessions from the White House and the fear of most House Republicans of going on record voting “yes” to a debt limit hike. Hence Boehner’s solution, which would “suspend” the debt ceiling through the middle of May. Given what until about two weeks ago had been the GOP’s Obama-era orthodoxy on the debt ceiling — it can never be raised until an equal level of budget cuts are agreed to! — this represents a huge retreat. read more »12 Ways Obama Smacked Down the Tea Party and the Right in Inauguration Speech by Adele M. Stan, alternet.org | January 22, 2013
With its elegant rendering of the liberal agenda before the eyes of the American people, President Barack Obama's second inaugural address was music to the ears of many a progressive. But to the ears of Tea Partiers and the Republican right, this inauguration speech, as well as the ceremony that surrounded it, was war -- not just a war of words, but a war of prayer, a war of poetry and even, perhaps, a war of song. Driving the message home were the hands of the Fates, who conspired to see the second inauguration of the nation’s first African American president fall on Martin Luther King Day, the national holiday whose very creation was opposed by so many who still today comprise the Republican Party’s right wing. Here we recount a dozen ways in which the president brought his fight to the right, in no uncertain terms, at his second inauguration. read more »
The Latest
Recession Fueling Right-Wing Extremism, Reuters | April 14, 2009
Right-wing extremists in the United States are gaining new recruits by exploiting fears about the economy and the election of the first black U.S. president, the Department of Homeland Security warned in a report to law enforcement officials. read more »
Chinese Drywall Poses Risks, MSNBC News | April 12, 2009
At the height of the U.S. housing boom, when building materials were in short supply, American construction companies used millions of pounds of Chinese-made drywall because it was abundant and cheap. read more »
Citizens Held As Immigrants, MSNBC News | April 12, 2009
In a drive to crack down on illegal immigrants, the United States has locked up or thrown out dozens, probably many more, of its own citizens over the past eight years. An investigation has documented 55 such cases. These citizens are detained for anything from a day to five years. It is illegal to deport U.S. citizens or detain them for immigration violations. read more »
U.S. Food Safety No Longer Improving, The New York Times | April 10, 2009
After decades of steady progress, the safety of the nation’s food supply has not improved over the past three years, the government reported. And, it said, in the case of salmonella, the dangerous bacteria recently found in peanuts and pistachios, infections may be creeping upward. read more »
Pistachios Tested Positive For Salmonella For Months, USA Today | April 3, 2009
The company that recalled 2 million pounds of pistachios had been receiving positive salmonella tests for as long as five months, federal officials say. Salmonella in nuts from Setton Pistachio was detected by one of the company's food-manufacturing customers. read more »
FDA Issues Another Nut Warning, The Washington Post | March 31, 2009
Federal food safety officials warned that consumers should stop eating all foods containing pistachios while they figure out the source of a possible salmonella contamination. read more »
G20 Leaders Target Tax Havens, Christian Science Monitor | March 31, 2009
For more than a decade, governments have applied moral pressure on Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Singapore, Monaco, and a host of countries that allow the well-heeled to park their money out of the sight of tax authorities at home. Now, they are threatening to replace the tough talk with strict sanctions on those countries that continue to shelter tax evaders with bank secrecy rules. read more »
Poor Records Slow Food Probes, Reuters | March 27, 2009
Many U.S. food handlers do not maintain proper records to track products such as milk and oatmeal, making it hard to identify the source of a food-borne outbreak, a government investigator said. The U.S. food supply system has come under scrutiny in the wake of high-profile recalls. read more »
Regulators Ramp up Fraud Training After Madoff, Reuters | March 24, 2009
Burned by their failure to uncover the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, U.S. securities regulators are ramping up training of staff on how to spot the warning signs of market swindles. The Securities and Exchange Commission's inspection unit is offering 90-minute classes for employees. read more »
China Fires Eight Regulators Over Milk Scandal, The New York Times | March 22, 2009
China said that eight senior regulators were fired last week for “slack supervision” in a tainted milk scandal that killed at least six children and sickened over 300,000 last year. The government said high-ranking regulators in the country’s major food supervisory agencies were stripped of their positions and their membership in the Communist Party. read more »
