P.M. Headlines

(TPM): "She has to go"

(New York Times): "U.S. admits for first time drones killed 4 Americans"

(USA Today): "One dead after machete attack near London barracks"

(New York Times): "Moore, Oklahoma, tornado havoc overwhelms, when seen firsthand"

(CNN Justice): "Sources: Man killed by FBI agent confessed to triple murder then grabbed knife"

 (Politico): "Ted Cruz: 'I don't trust Republicans'"

What can Republicans talk about besides scandals?

By Frank Moraes 

After reading John Dean's take on the recent scandals, I noticed that another of my favorite conservatives, Ramesh Ponnuru had waded into these waters with "'Obama Scandals' Could Actually Hurt Republicans." I love those scare quotes in the title. The truth is that these aren't really Obama's scandals, but it would be fair to call them Obama's troubles.

The argument that Ponnuru made is a common one these days on the left: the Republicans might be overreaching on these issues. Coming from liberals, I'm unimpressed. Just like with the talk that the current scandals might turn out to involve Obama, the Republicans might overplay the scandals. The truth is that the Republicans don't exactly need these scandals to overplay their hand. Regardless, this wasn't Ponnuru's main point.

The big comparison for everyone seems to be 1998. That was Bill Clinton's sixth year. Clinton had been involved in a scandal regarding lying about an affair. The standard narrative is that the Republicans overplayed the scandal and ended up doing damage to themselves. It is widely believed that the president's party loses lots of seats in Congress during the president's sixth year in office (this is a myth). So when the Democrats picked up a couple of seats, everyone said it was because the Republicans angered the voters with all their focus on Cigar-Gate.

But Ponnuru showed that this wasn't the case. Only 5% of the voters in 1998 were motivated by the sex scandal and most of them voted against Clinton. The real story was that the voters cared about the economy and education (As usual!) and they were very unhappy with where the Republicans were on these issues. Ponnuru argued that the current crop of Republicans is being equally out of touch. And the scandals are just making it worse on them because it is allowing them to focus on scandals that will likely come to nothing rather than pushing for real policy changes. As he put it, "They’re trying to win news cycles when they need votes."

Read more »

Behind the Ad: Dreaming of a House without Michele Bachmann

By Richard K. Barry

(Another installment in our extensive "Behind the Ad" series.) 

Who: House Majority PAC.

Where: Minnesota.

What's going on: The House Majority PAC is working to help Democrats retake a majority in the House. In a new video, they say that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is "running scared" a day after a new poll shows her slightly behind her Democratic challenger.

The Hill:

The video features news clips outlining a number of investigations into Bachmann's presidential run, including an FBI probe into alleged financial misconduct involving top aides to Bachmann's campaign.

Knocking off an incumbent is never easy but Jim Graves lost by just 4,300 votes in 2012 and he's back for another try in 2014. And he'll have a lot of help from House Majority PAC and other groups just like them.

Defeating crazy Michele would be so sweet for Democrats and they might just be able to do it this time.

(Cross-posted at Phantom Public.)

Church/State

By Mustang Bobby 

The Supreme Court will hear a case deciding whether or not a town council in upstate New York can open its meetings with a prayer:

For more than a decade starting in 1999, the Town Board began its public meetings with a prayer from a "chaplain of the month." Town officials said that members of all faiths, and atheists, were welcome to give the opening prayer.

In practice, the federal appeals court in New York said, almost all of the chaplains were Christian.

"A substantial majority of the prayers in the record contained uniquely Christian language," Judge Guido Calabresi wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel of the court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. "Roughly two-thirds contained references to 'Jesus Christ,' 'Jesus,' 'Your Son' or the 'Holy Spirit.'"

Two town residents sued, saying the prayers ran afoul of the First Amendment's prohibition of the government establishment of religion. The appeals court agreed. "The town's prayer practice must be viewed as an endorsement of a particular religious viewpoint," Judge Calabresi wrote.

Cue up the Chorus of The Poor Persecuted Majority who will tell us that there is no place safe in America for them to impose their faith and practice on the rest of us whether we want it or not.

Solution: put an imam in the rotation as "chaplain of the month" and see how quickly they decide to bag the whole thing.

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia, E.W. Jackson, apparently also running for Worst Republican Ever

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Okay, here's what we know about this crazy guy so far:

-- He thinks President Obama sees the world from "a Muslim perspective" and is anti-Semitic and anti-Israel.

-- He thinks gays are "very sick people psychologically."

-- He thinks Democrats are like slave masters.

-- He thinks Planned Parenthood has been "far more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was." Oh, and that "the Democrat Party and the black civil rights allies are partners in this genocide."

And... well, you can read more here. This is all stuff he's said in the past, before he was a candidate. Who knows what will come during the campaign?

Oh, and here's another thing: 

E.W. Jackson, the Virginia GOP's nominee for lieutenant governor, began his career as a minister and attorney in Boston. While there, he lent his support to a high-profile 1988 fight against a plan to desegregate public housing developments in the neighborhood of South Boston.

Yes, that's right. He was against desegregation. And by the way, the fact that he's black doesn't really make that any better. 

Well done, Virginia Republicans. Your state is turning purple (or, rather, has already turned purple and may now be turning blue) and you respond to that by nominating a guy so out on the right-wing fringe he makes the guy running for governor, Ken Cuccinelli, look like a sensible moderate by comparison. (Well, no, not really. Cuccinelli still hates blow jobs and has a long record of the right-wing crazy.)

The only thing that would make sense would be if Republicans picked Jackson to make Cuccinelli look better. But that's way too Machiavellian -- there was no such conspiracy.

No, they just fucked themselves with Jackson. No wonder they're already panicking.

Just do it!

By Capt. Fogg

Perhaps Fred Phelps Jr. is getting slow, or perhaps he has to type with one hand because he's so exited at God's wrath being inflicted on Moore, Oklahoma.  The very thought of little children being crushed or torn to pieces as they scream in terror must excite him past the point of self control. It took him hours to inform us that this disaster was the result of Oklahoma City Thunder basketball star Kevin Durant’s public support for gay basketball player Jason Collins.  God works in mysterious ways, but there's nothing mysterious about Fred unless you're interested in the chemistry of foul smells.

But there's light at the end of the drain and maybe a suggestion for people like Fred with more demons than synapses in their skulls. Dominique Venner is billed in the press as a right-wing historian, although some may prefer to call him a hate-filled pervert obsessed with other people's sexual preferences,  or an ultra nationalist militiaman because of his past involvement with a paramilitary Secret Army Organisation which fought against France giving up colonial rights in Algeria. A gay hating enemy of human rights and freedom, in short. Mr. Venner walked into Notre Dame de Paris Monday, placed a letter on the altar and then blew his brains out with an illegally owned pistol.

The famous Cathedral has been the site of many demonstrations and protests over the issue of gay marriage which became legal last week. Catholic conservative Venner certainly made his point to the horror of the tour groups present and one has to wonder about the dedication of lesser nobles like Phelps for not martyring himself for his ridiculous cause.  I presume God has to wonder too.

So what about it Fred?  I mean you don't need to go to Paris or even to bloody up someone elses Church, you've got one of your own. Take your dad along, make it a father and son thing, or take the whole flock along, but Just do it!

(Cross posted at Human Voices.)

Behind the Ad: Mitch and Rand go fishing for votes

By Richard K. Barry

(Another installment in our extensive "Behind the Ad" series.) 

Who: The Mitch McConnell Senate campaign.

Where: Kentucky / web ad.

What's going on: Tip O'Neill is famous for having said that all politics is local, and this ad proves the point. In it, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell and his best buddy Senator Rand Paul appear together to tell local fisherman that the Senators will stand up for their right to fish wherever they gosh darn want to fish.

The Hill:

The video features clips of McConnell and Paul talking at a rally for a "Freedom to Fish" measure that protects fishermen's access to portions of the Cumberland River around dams.

The legislation was spearheaded by the two Kentucky senators and a handful of other Republicans and passed last week.

In the video, McConnell and Paul criticize the initial plans to build barriers around the dams, a plan officials said was informed by safety concerns, as "government overreach."

"The nanny state is on full display. Trying to tell us what we can do, where we can do it, how often we can do it, as if they're smarter than everyone," McConnell says in a portion of the video.

We have been hearing a lot about how vulnerable McConnell is going to be in 2014 as multiple polls have him below the magic 50 percent threshold. But Democrats won't beat him if they can't find a candidate, and so far that's been the problem.

Anyway, the ad is a cute bit of anti-Washington/pro-fishing propaganda. How could Kentucky voters not like that? And the music sure is pretty.

(Cross-posted at Phantom Public.)

In wake of tornado tragedy, both of Oklahoma's senators prove once again to be self-serving assholes

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Inhofe and Coburn, Oklahoma's finest.

First it was Tom Coburn, the junior senator, who said that he would "only support relief aid if it's offset by cuts elsewhere." As I wrote, "disaster relief is apparently one of those things you have to negotiate with Republicans. (Okay, we'll help you out a bit, but only if we fuck some other people elsewhere.) Chris Christie understandably went ballistic when Republicans did this in response to Hurricane Sandy. But who will speak for the people of Oklahoma?"

Well, Jim Infofe, but with shameless hypocrisy. The senior senator said that Hurricane Sandy aid, which he opposed, was "totally different" from Oklahoma tornade relief, because the Sandy bill had "things in the Virgin Islands. They were fixing roads there and putting roofs on houses in Washington, D.C." "Everyone was getting in and exploiting the tragedy that took place," he added. "That won't happen in Oklahoma." No? Your buddy Coburn's already gone there.

In any event, Inhofe is full of shit. As the Post's Rachel Weiner and Matt DeLong explain:

The senator appeared to be referring to the fact that some funds from the Sandy package for the Federal Highway Administration could go to the Virgin Islands, as well as $2 million allocated to the Smithsonian for roofs damaged by the storm. We don't yet know what a congressional relief package for Oklahoma would look like, if one is even necessary. As of Tuesday morning, FEMA has $11.6 billion in its Disaster Relief Fund.

So some money could have gone to an American territory through the FHA and there was a need to repair some damage at the Smithsonian, an essential American institution.

Look, Inhofe and other Republicans were just looking for anything to block Sandy relief. This extra spending was what they used to justify their opposition.

Read more »

A.M. Headlines

(Bloomberg): "New L.A. Mayor Garcetti confronts deficits through 2017"

(Politico): "Anthony Weiner announces NYC mayoral run"

(New York Times): "Another chilling leak investigation"

(BuzzFeed): "Sen. Patrick Leahy withdraws amendment to include gay couple in immigration reform bill"

(Politico): "Senate Judiciary panel passes immigration bill"

Texas uses "Merry Christmas Bill" to push theocratic agenda

By Michael J.W. Stickings

What the hell's the matter with Texas? It's not just that it's batshit crazy, or at least in the hands of batshit crazy Republicans, it's that the craziness is deeply anti-American:

Christmas may be seven months away, but Texas is ready for it.

State lawmakers there waged their own battle against the so-called War on Christmas on Friday, passing legislation, House Bill 308, that allows public school teachers to say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanukkah" and display Christmas trees, nativity scenes or menorahs. Winter displays must represent more than one religion or include secular symbols.

But while the legislation specifies that schools may not constitutionally favor one religion over another, the bill is named for only one religion -- Christmas.

And that tells you all you need to know.

They've given themselves some cover by attaching Judaism to Christianity, which fundamentalists do these days, and by requiring that at least one other religion be represented, but come on, we all know what's going on here. (And it's not the war on Christmas, which doesn't exist. That "war" is made up by conservatives using fake victimhood to push their agenda.)

It's right-wing Christians pushing theocracy -- the Constitution, the very idea of America, be damned.

Your daily dose of rage-making capitalism

By Carl 

Inside this rather boring if frightening story about the problems at hedge fund SAC Capital, lies this sentence (bolded):

A legal deadline looms for prosecutors to bring a criminal case against Mr. Cohen related to charges against Mathew Martoma, a former SAC portfolio manager accused of illegally trading in the shares of two drug companies, Elan and Wyeth. The Martoma case is the first time that Mr. Cohen was linked to questionable trades, which occurred in late July 2008. Under the five-year statute of limitations for insider trading crimes, the government must charge Mr. Cohen by July.

Yet the eliciting of Mr. Cohen's grand jury testimony is not entirely bad news for the hedge fund manager, at least as it relates to his criminal exposure, legal experts say. A grand jury subpoena seeking Mr. Cohen's testimony suggests that the government is pursuing a case against SAC, but not Mr. Cohen himself. It is highly unusual for prosecutors to issue a grand jury subpoena to the target of an investigation, indicating that they want to interview Mr. Cohen broadly about his fund's activities.

But bringing criminal charges against SAC would also be an unusual move by the government. Over the last decade, the Justice Department has moved away from indicting companies after the 2002 indictment of Arthur Andersen was widely seen as having put the accounting giant out of business.

Excuse me?

To refresh your memory, the CPA firm of Arthur Andersen voluntarily surrendered its license to practice in the United States after multiple felony convictions in connection with its audits of Enron. Yes, the Supreme Court of the United States later vacated the convictions, but not on the facts: documents relevant to the Enron investigation by the Justice Department were shredded. The case was thrown out for bad jury instructions. The facts were never at issue.

Read more »

P.M. Headlines

(New York Times): "Finding the economic roots of Apple's taxable products"

(Los Angeles Times): "Top IRS official will invoke Fifth Amendment"

(Bloomberg): "'Obama scandals' could actually hurt Republicans"

(Post Politics): "Inhofe: Tornado aid 'totally different' form Hurricane Sandy aid"

(Charlie Cook/National Journal): "Republicans' hatred of Obama blinds them to public disinterest in scandals"

Los Angeles mayoral election is today

By Richard K. Barry

Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti wrapped up their campaigns yesterday in the race to be the next mayor of Los Angeles. As a local newspaper put it, they have been campaigning furiously in an attempt to "avoid the potential lowest turnout for an open mayoral seat in modern history."

Reuters:

Tuesday's vote is a runoff between the two veteran Democrats, who in March were the top vote-getters in a primary election in which Garcetti got 33 percent and Greuel 29 percent. One of them would have had to have won more than 50 percent of the ballots cast to have been elected outright.

The non-partisan campaign has centered on what Greuel and Garcetti agree is a dire financial outlook facing America's second most populous metropolis, and the political clout commanded by the city's public employee unions.

Though turnout might be low, that hasn't stopped the candidates from spending record amounts of cash, which passed the $33 million mark on Sunday:

In the campaign's final days, Garcetti vastly outspent Greuel on the airwaves and other campaign efforts, but Greuel had far more support from the outside groups.

A new poll by the Los Angeles Times and USC has Garcetti with a narrowing lead of 7 points.

Here is Chuck Todd's analysis. 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

(Cross-posted at Phantom Public.)

Karl Marks: Who is the real Jonathan Karl?

By Mustang Bobby

It's a right-wing tactic to attack the messenger, but in the case of Jonathan Karl, he does have a resume that suggests he might be a tad inclined to see things from a right-wing point of view:

Karl came to mainstream journalism via the Collegiate Network, an organization primarily devoted to promoting and supporting right-leaning newspapers on college campuses (Extra!, 9-10/91) -- such as the Rutgers paper launched by the infamous James O'Keefe (Political Correction, 1/27/10). The network, founded in 1979, is one of several projects of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which seeks to strengthen conservative ideology on college campuses. William F. Buckley was the ISI's first president, and the current board chair is American Spectator publisher Alfred Regnery. Several leading right-wing pundits came out of Collegiate-affiliated papers, including Ann Coulter, Dinesh D'Souza, Michelle Malkin, Rich Lowry and Laura Ingraham (Washington Times, 11/28/04).

The Collegiate Network also provides paid internships and fellowships to place its members at corporate media outlets or influential Beltway publications; 2010-11 placements include the Hill, Roll Call, Dallas Morning News and USA Today. The program's highest-profile alum is Karl, who was a Collegiate fellow at the neoliberal New Republic magazine.

After a stint at the New York Post, Karl soon found his way to CNN, but he was still connected to ideological pursuits; he was a board member at the right-leaning youth-oriented Third Millennium group and at the Madison Center for Educational Affairs -- which, like the Collegiate Network, seeks to strengthen young conservative journalism. After moving to ABC in 2003, Karl contributed several pieces to the neo-con Weekly Standard, such as his April 4, 2005 article praising Bush Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as out to "make her mark with the vigorous pursuit of the president's freedom and democracy agenda."

Karl's high profile at ABC demonstrates that conservative messages can find a comfortable home inside the so-called "liberal" media.

Does that mean that he can't be a fair and objective reporter when it comes to doing his job?  Not at all. A lot of journalists work for news organizations that have a political point of view but still are able to do their job without seeming to inject their point of view into their work. (Of course, to hear the right-wingers tell it, all journalists are left-wing shills for Saul Alinsky, Noam Chomsky, and George Soros, but send a kid to college on a scholarship from National Review and he's the soul of objectivity.)

It's not what he thinks but how he acts that matters, and so far Mr. Karl's response (see here) tend to lend credence to the notion that in the case of Benghazi his background and job history do matter.

In his case, you wonder why he's not working as the head of the Washington bureau of Fox News.

(h/t to digby)

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

Behind the Ad: Fun with names in New Jersey

By Richard K. Barry

(Another installment in our extensive "Behind the Ad" series.)

Who: The Barbara Buono campaign for governor.

Where: New Jersey.

What's going on: The ad starts out having fun with the fact that some people have a hard time pronouncing Buono's last name. It's not pronounced like Sonny Bono, or Bono the singer, etc., etc.,

And then, somewhat gratuitously, she introduces the name and picture of popular New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Aaron Blake at The Washington Post says this:

Buono's use of Cuomo is particularly interesting given how close Cuomo has been with Christie — especially given their work on Hurricane Sandy-related issues in recent months. Cuomo also has sometimes endorsed against his party's nominee or withheld his endorsement altogether, so it's no cinch that he will back her candidacy.

Buono's ad doesn't say Cuomo has endorsed her, but it sure suggests that she'd like to be associated with his political brand — which will be quite familiar to voters in the Garden State.

Blake calls this sneaky. I'm not sure. As he admits, she doesn't say Cuomo has endorsed her. And what is so wrong with wanting to be associated with the popular brand of someone in your own party in your own region?

Come on. She's going to get thumped. Give her something. 


(Cross-posted at Phantom Public.)

What IRS scandal?

By Frank Moraes

I hate to find myself in the position of being an apologist for the government. But there is an important issue: by focusing on minor and even meaningless stories, we distract from very real issues. We have yet more news about our government's attempts to keep the public ignorant and intimidate government whistleblowers. But what do we get?More coverage on the Inspector General's report on the IRS: what did the president know and when did he know it?! Truly, the way the media are dealing with these scandals makes me think that the only training they're received was a screening of All the President's Men. 

Think about this IRS scandal. Imagine that you were in charge of deciding which 501(c)(4) applications were approved. In order to be approved, the group must be primarily concerned with social welfare. And one year, you get deluged with applications with "Republican" in the names of the groups. "Republicans for Tax Fairness." And "Republicans Against the Estate Tax." And "Republicans for Barefoot and Pregnant Women." You might think, maybe I should pay a little extra attention to these "Republican" groups. 

As I wrote in "Tea Party Myth," there is no Tea Party. There is just the Republican base that has managed to get the entire media system to accept its branding as though it were something distinct from the Republican Party. Everyone knows that the Democratic Party has a left wing. But no one goes around calling it the "Progressive Party." Because that would be wrong: it isn't the Progressive Party; it is the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Just the same, there is no Tea Party, there is just the Republican Party. (It isn't the conservative wing; the Republican Party is the Tea Party.) 

So until I get far more information on the IRS scandal, I'm assuming there is nothing there. As Norm Scheiber brilliantly noted, "The only real sin the IRS committed in its ostensible targeting of conservatives is the sin of political incorrectness—that is, of not pretending it needed to vet all the new groups that wanted tax-exempt status, even though it mostly just needed to vet right-wing groups." It is certainly possible that these IRS agents were thinking, "Let's get those conservatives!" But it seems unlikely. 

Meanwhile, there is no surveillance scandal. That's because the Democrats and Republicans are on the same side. There are no Republican operatives to funnel Jonathan Karl misinformation against the president. Since both parties want to ship the Constitution down the river, the Fourth Estate will just allow it. After all, pushing back would require real investigation. And all these bozos know about that is what they learned watching Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.
 

Afterword

There is a bit of a paradox. Supposedly, a group with "tea party" in its name isn't necessarily just a conservative political group. If that's the case -- if Tea Party groups really do have Democrats and Republicans -- then they aren't conservative groups. Thus, the IRS wasn't targeting "conservative" groups. On the other hand, if groups with "tea party" in their names are in general conservative political groups, then they shouldn't be applying for 501(c)(4) status. I'm sure the IRS agents must have confronted this paradox. 

(Cross-posted at Frankly Curious.)

A.M. Headlines

(Chicago Tribune): "Oklahoma City tornado: At least 91 feared killed by massive twister"

(TPM): "Oklahoma GOP Sen. Tom Coburn will seek to offset tornado aid"

(Reuters): "Los Angeles mayoral race between two former allies nears climax"

(New York Times): "Massachusetts GOP hopes lightening strikes again in Senate race"

(Politico): "The White House's shifting IRS account"

Tornado tragedy in Moore, Oklahoma

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Surely you've all heard by now, all seen the images coming from the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore:

A giant tornado, a mile wide or more, killed at least 51 people, 20 of them children, as it tore across parts of Oklahoma City and its suburbs Monday afternoon, flattening homes, flinging cars through the air and crushing at least two schools. 

The injured flooded into hospitals, and the authorities said many people remained trapped, even as rescue workers struggled to make their way through debris-clogged streets to the devastated suburb of Moore, where much of the damage occurred.

Amy Elliott, the spokeswoman for the Oklahoma City medical examiner, said at least 51 people had died, including the children, and officials said that toll was likely to climb. Hospitals reported at least 145 people injured, 70 of them children.

Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore was reduced to a pile of twisted metal and toppled walls. Rescue workers were able to pull several children from the rubble, but on Monday evening crews were still struggling to cut through fallen beams and clear debris amid reports that dozens of students were trapped. At Briarwood Elementary School in Oklahoma City, on the border with Moore, cars were thrown through the facade and the roof was torn off. 

It's hard to know what to say at a time like this. It reached a point earlier tonight when I just had to turn away from the news coverage, watching a couple of Seinfeld episodes, then Veep, just to clear my head.

Children... schools... lives lost... so many injured... a community devastated.

One of Oklahoma's senators, Republican Tom Coburn, is already playing politics, appallingly (but not surprisingly) saying he'll only support relief aid if it's offset by cuts elsewhere. Yes, disaster relief is apparently one of those things you have to negotiate with Republicans. (Okay, we'll help you out a bit, but only if we fuck some other people elsewhere.) Chris Christie understandably went ballistic when Republicans did this in response to Hurricane Sandy. But who will speak for the people of Oklahoma?

I hope we all do. I really do.

Fuck your right-wing fiscal agenda, Republicans. People have died, people are hurt, people need food and shelter. They need help, for fuck's sake.

They don't need Republicans -- and a senator from the very state that is suffering! -- using this tragedy to score political points.

Period.

**********

Here are a few images of the devastation from the Times:

Ray Manzarek of the Doors (1939-2013)

By Richard K. Barry

Ray Manzarek was the keyboardist for the The Doors. He was also a founding member of the group. He died earlier this afternoon after a long battle with bile duct cancer. He was 74 years old.

CBC News:

Manzarek founded The Doors after meeting then-poet Jim Morrison in California. The band went on to become one of the most successful rock 'n' roll acts to emerge from the 1960s and continues to resonate with fans decades after Morrison's death brought an effective end to the band.

The Doors were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Manzarek is among the most notable keyboard players in rock history. His lead-instrument work with the band at a time when the guitar often dominated added a distinct end-times flavor that matched Morrison's often out there imagery and persona.

The group is best known for hits like L.A.Woman, Break On Through to the Other Side, The End and Light My Fire — a song particularly coloured by his keyboard work — and came to symbolize the decadence of Los Angeles as the counterculture grew in the U.S.

P.M. Headlines

(Politico): "Clintons to stay out of N.Y.C. race"

(CNN): "CNN Poll: Tea Party gets boost from IRS controversy"

(Politico): "Senior W.H. staff knew of IRS investigation, did not tell Obama"

(New  York Times): "How to legalize pot"

(Reuters): "Monster tornado flattens suburb of Oklahoma City"

Happy Victoria Day!

By Richard K. Barry

Today is Victoria Day in Canada (celebrated on the last Monday before May 25th).  It is also considered the unofficial beginning of Summer and is not dissimilar to Memorial Day in the U.S. in that respect. 

As a transplanted American it has taken me years to get used to these Canadian holidays, but I think I have the hang of it. This day is in honour of Queen Victoria's birthday. There is still a lot of that royal stuff up here, which can be hard on my radical democratic sensibilities, so don't get me started. 

It is also a day away from blogging for the most part. See you tomorrow. 

GIN!

By Carl

Here’s the thing: the best strategy for Republicans is to just let it go:

WASHINGTON — The scandals dogging President Barack Obama are a political gift to Republicans, who could use some good luck after recent election losses. It’s not clear, however, how Republicans can best capitalize on Democrats’ woes, legislatively or politically.

Last November’s election dynamics complicate the picture on both fronts. Republican leaders are urging a bit of restraint in exploiting the White House’s new weaknesses.

Taken together, Republicans say, these three controversies portray a rapaciously political and inept administration. That could be a powerful message in next year’s congressional and gubernatorial elections, and perhaps in the 2016 presidential race.

[…]

[Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla, a close ally of House Speaker John Boehner], however, said Boehner and other party leaders are keenly aware that Republicans can overdo their attacks, and even build sympathy for Obama, if their criticisms appear nakedly political or not supported by facts.

“We’ve actually had a lot of discussions about that,” Cole said.

Since the “scandals,” however factually based one of them actually is, are pretty much made up of spit and chewing gum, there’s not a lot of worry that Republicans, Inc won’t overplay their hands. They will and spectacularly. 

Read more »

Styx: "The Best of Times" (from the great Paradise Theater)

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Okay, let's head back through the mists of time...

Say what you want about Styx, when they were good, like at the height of their powers from 1977 to 1983, they were... really pretty good.

Oh, they're still around, sadly minus Dennis DeYoung, but those were the glory years, culminating in 1983's Kilroy Was Here, which featured "Mr. Roboto" and "Don't Let It End."

The Grand Illusion (1977), with "Don't Sail Away," was fine, as were Pieces of Eight (1978), with "Renegade" (played to much fanfare in the second half of Pittsburgh Steelers home games to rally the defense -- always an amazing thing, as I can attest), and Cornerstone (1979), with "Babe," but to me Styx hit its peak with 1981's Paradise Theater, truly a great album, the band's chemistry shining and each individual songwriter (DeYoung, Tommy Shaw, James Young) contributing his particular voice to the enterprise. It really is quite fantastic, even if it's also very much a product of its time, mature, adult-oriented soft rock of the early '80s.

To me -- and this is one of the first albums I can remember liking, back when I was first becoming a fan of pop music as a pre-teen) -- the best part of the album has always been the end of "Half-Penny, Two-Penny," a potent critique of American capitalism, and "A.D. 1958," the last two songs on the album before the short outro, "State Street Sadie," but there's no denying that the melancholy "The Best of Times," the moving end of Side 1, is among the best songs of the band's long career.

Seriously, go back and listen to this whole album. Discover, or rediscover, what Styx was all about. There's a lot to like.

And watch this, the music video for "The Best of Times," also very much a product of its time, for better and for worse:

Loan Harry Reid your testicles

By Frank Moraes 

(Ed. note: Frank's second open letter to Sen. Boxer is here. -- MJWS)

At The Washington Post, two writers I admire, Greg Sargent and Jonathan Bernstein, are excited about the prospect of filibuster reform. First, Sargent broke the news that Harry Reid plans to go for the "nuclear option" in July if the Republicans filibuster three upcoming nominees: "Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Thomas Perez as secretary of labor; and Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency." And then Bernstein argued that Reid was playing this just right by giving the Republicans a warning and an opportunity to reform themselves.

The problem, of course, is: really?! Are we really supposed to believe that (1) Republicans will respond to what they should rightly assume is an empty threat? And is it at all credible that (2) Reid will in fact do anything this time other than shake hands with Mitch McConnell? However, it is possible that I'm being unfair to the Majority Leader. According to Bernstein, Reid is constrained because (he doesn't put it this way) he is the leader of a bunch of wimps who wouldn't go to the bathroom without asking permission from the Republicans. And there is likely something to that. But if it is the case that Reid doesn't have the support of his caucus, then why is he saying anything at all?

Another problem is that we really don't know what Reid means by his test case of three nominations. The truth is that the Republicans filibuster every nominee. I know that some nominees do get through, but that is only because some Republicans vote for cloture. Let's be really clear here: Senate Republicans require 60 votes for every nominee. Requiring 60 senators before a vote can be cast is a filibuster. If they get the 60 senators, it was an unsuccessful filibuster; but it was still a filibuster.

So the question is, will Harry Reid launch the "nuclear option" if Republicans unsuccessfully filibuster these three nominees? Because they will filibuster them. And even worse, what if only one or two of the nominees are successfully filibustered? We don't know. But I have a hunch: Reid will declare victory and slink away. I would love to be proven wrong.

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Craziest Republican of the Day: E.W. Jackson

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Virginia may be turning blue, but its Republican Party -- the party of Gov. Bob McDonnell and Lt. Gov. Ken Cuccinelli -- is getting redder and redder.

And crazier and crazier, perhaps because it knows deep down that it's losing the state.

You'll recall that McDonnell, among other things, reinstituted state discrimination against gays and lesbians as well as Confederate History Month in Virginia, while Cuccinelli, who is now running for governor, worries about exposed boobs and blow jobs and otherwise pushed an even more extremist agenda.

Well, apparently that's not crazy enough for Virginia Republicans, who yesterday nominated E.W. Jackson, a far-right minister, to be Cuccinelli's successor. And just how crazy is Jackson?

Jackson also maintained a now defunct blog on his site, where he argued in one post that President Obama saw the world "from a Muslim perspective."

Obama clearly has Muslim sensibilities. He sees the world and Israel from a Muslim perspective. His construct of "The Muslim World" is unique in modern diplomacy. It is said that only The Muslim Brotherhood and other radical elements of the religion use that concept. It is a call to unify Muslims around the world...

Those who are paying attention and thinking about these issues do not find it unreasonable to consider that President Obama is influenced by a strain of anti-Semitism picked up from the black community, his leftist friends and colleagues, his Muslim associations and his long period of mentorship under Jeremiah Wright. If this conclusion is accurate, Israel has some dark days ahead. For the first time in her history, she may find the President of the United States siding with her enemies.

Um, what?

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Relentless Republican outrage and the fake scandals that failed to bring down Barack Obama

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Another fake scandal.

It wasn't really such a bad week for President Obama, just a bad week for President Obama according to a Beltway media establishment desperately looking for some excitement and more than willing to go right along with the ongoing Republican assault on everything the president does.

The point is, while it was a week of annoying scandalmongering, and surely incredibly annoying to the White House, what really happened is that the Republicans pushing the scandals along with their media enablers were finally exposed as a bunch of frauds. Consider:

Benghazi: This has long been over, but Republicans won't let it rest. They thought they had a smoking gun in leaked White House e-mails that suggested political interference in post-attack talking points, but the story, after the White House released the full e-mails, is now rightly about how Republicans altered those e-mails and how ABC News was played and/or in on it. End result: Republicans look bad.

IRS: Conservatives freaked out and Republicans ultimately blew their load. The IRS could and should have handled their investigation of Tea Party groups with greater care, but there's no scandal. Obama didn't order any sort of Nixonian investigation of his enemies and the IRS invesigates the tax-exempt claims of groups across the spectrum. End result: Obama found a scapegoat in the IRS commissioner, which is a shame, but it's clear the IRS did nothing fundamentally wrong. Republicans don't look bad as much as they look hypocritical.

AP: The federal government's subpoenaing of the media organization's phone records may be the only real scandal here, and initially the Beltway media were up in arms, but there's no one really driving this one other than Obama's critics on the civil libertarian left (e.g., Glenn Greenwald, and I tend to agree with them). Everyone knows that this sort of thing has gone on for a long time (Patriot Act, anyone?) and everyone knows that Obama has maintained much of the Bush-Cheney national security state. And Republicans have no interest in defending the media from the left. They're not saying anything because they agree with the Justice Department. End result: Obama and Holder deserve criticism, but this one's done.

Oh, but Republicans are as desperate as ever to try to bring down the president (as well as the person they see as their likely nemesis in 2016, Hillary Clinton). Indeed, what this week proved is not that the president is being brought down by scandal (given that these are faux scandals pushed by Republicans and sensationalized by their media enablers) but that Republicans have nothing but obstructionism and outrage to hurl in his direction. His approval numbers are fine, Obamacare is becoming the law of the land, and while they've successfully blocked him in Congress (e.g., voting down the extremly popular Manchin-Toomey background check gun bill) their electoral prospects remain dim. They tried for four years to tear him down. This is just more of the same. It's all they've got.

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Anathema: "A Natural Disaster"

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Back in January, I blogged about the great British post-prog band Anathema, writing that their most recent album, Weather Systems, was one of the very best (if not the best) of 2012.

Here they are performing "A Natural Disaster," the title track off their 2003 album, at the Palladium in Cologne, Germany, on December 4, 2007.

(Yes, Lee Douglas, who sang the lead on this song on the album and has since become a full-fledged member of the band, is awesome.)

Vive la France! Down with Texas!

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Progress is on the march. In countries like Portugal and, of course, France:

France's president has signed into law a controversial bill making the country the ninth in Europe, and 14th globally, to legalise gay marriage.

On Friday, the Constitutional Council rejected a challenge by the right-wing opposition, clearing the way for Francois Hollande to sign the bill.

He said: "I have taken [the decision]; now it is time to respect the law of the Republic."

It wasn't easy:

Mr Hollande and his ruling Socialist Party have made the legislation their flagship social reform since being elected a year ago.

After a tortured debate, the same-sex marriage and adoption bill was adopted by France's Senate and National Assembly last month.

The bill was quickly challenged on constitutional grounds by the main right-wing opposition UMP party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

But the Constitutional Council ruled on Friday that same-sex marriage "did not run contrary to any constitutional principles," and that it did not infringe on "basic rights or liberties or national sovereignty".

Indeed, while France is a generally progressive country (e.g., on health care), the right is still very strong, with conservatives well to the right of Sarkozy, and issues like gay rights and immigration prove to be deeply divisive.

Still, it's done, a victory for liberty and equality (and, for that matter, fraternity), and that's more than you can say about the U.S., which includes retrograde states like Texas:

A Republican Texas Judge has ordered a lesbian couple to live apart or give up custody of their children. According to Think Progress, Judge John Roach of McKinney, Texas has given Page Price 30 days to move out of the home she shares with Carolyn Compton and Compton's two children from a previous marriage because he does not approve of Compton and Price's "lifestyle."

Roach has placed a "morality clause" in Compton's divorce papers, which forbids Compton from having anyone she is not related to "by blood or marriage" in her home past 9:00 p.m. if the children are present. Same sex marriage is illegal in Texas, so by law, Compton cannot live with Price if she wishes to retain custody of her children.

That's not Saudi Arabia, that's Texas. And that's right, this bigot of a judge, reinforcing the bigotry of that state, is denying this woman her liberty and her equality (and, for that matter, her fraternity).

Truly, utterly shameful.