The Lakers forward is known for his antics —such as showing up to a talk show in his underwear—but he’s becoming famous for talking about an issue that is often concealed: mental health. Artest is funding therapy and mental health awareness through the sale of his championship ring and possibly the donation of his entire $6.79 million 2011-2012 salary. The NBA champion has already raised enough with his ring raffle —nearly half-a-million dollars—to hire eight school therapists, he says. He will reveal July 1 what percentage of next year’s paycheck he plans to donate. He says he might give away the whole thing.
Continue reading …Harry Reid just went to the floor of the Senate and called the Republicans’ bluff with regard to blocking all Senate action until their tax deal was done. It came as a total surprise to Susan Collins, who was still negotiating for amendments and time to debate them. Susan Collins was the only Republican to vote for cloture. All others including Scott Brown, Lisa Murkowski, Olympia Snowe — all of whom have stated that they will vote for DADT repeal (conditionally) — voted no. Joining them was West Virginia’s junior Senator, Joe Manchin. Reid’s reasoning for bringing it to the floor: “I have already tried to bring the bill to the floor twice this year. In fact I offered to bring it up this summer with no restrictions. But Republicans refused this request. “Because my friends on the other side of the aisle blocked both of these attempts, we are now trying to get this bill done in a lame duck session, when everybody knows we still have much to do and that we do not have time for unlimited debate. “But I have tried my best to find a way forward that would ensure a fair and reasonable opportunity for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to offer and vote on amendments. “Over the last twenty years, we’ve had roll call votes on an average of 12 amendments during consideration of the Defense Authorization bill. “So, in an effort to be as fair as possible, I made clear to my colleagues that I am willing to vote on 15 relevant amendments of their choosing, with 10 from the Republican side, and 5 from the Democratic side, with ample time for debate on each amendment. “Now my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are demanding even more time. The time that they know isn’t available. There are not enough days in this calendar year to do what the minority is asking, and they know this. “They want the tax and the spending bills done before they will allow us to move to the Defense bill. “At the same time they say we need to wait, they say they need as much time as possible to consider this bill. It isn’t possible to do both. “It’s quite clear they are trying to run out the clock and just don’t want to get this bill done. ” Joe Sudbay has more : Also, thanks for nothing Scott Brown, Richard Lugar, Olympia Snowe and Lisa Murkowski. You voted for Senate process over equality — again. Here’s a concept: You can’t say you support ending DADT if you won’t vote for the legislation that could do it. Manchin voted with the Republicans. But, this is also a failure of Democratic leadership on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. There is plenty of blame to go around. Let’s start with Barack Obama. The President’s cracker jack team of political experts put together this DADT repeal strategy. It’s been a mess from the beginning. The White House never fought hard enough and waited way too long. VetVoice reacts : “By voting to filibuster the Defense Authorization Act, today, a minority of Senators have betrayed our troops. Leaving aside ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ this bill is crucial to our military readiness, and funding our troops in harm’s way. The minority of Senators can talk all they want about a tax bill needing consideration, but there is absolutely no reason why the Senate couldn’t pass this and then a tax bill before leaving for recess. In fact, that has been the plan. “The only thing we can surmise is that the Senate minority puts politics above our national defense. They just had a chance to vote for a tax cut, and voted no, instead demanding a tax bill that gives additional tax breaks to the wealthiest in America. Now, they are holding the men and women in uniform hostage, to get that bill for the ultra-rich. It’s wrong, and it’s disgusting. ” Yes, it is disgusting. It’s really disgusting that civil and human rights are held hostage to this ridiculous thing called a filibuster which is nothing more than a loaded gun held to the head of every single American. More on why Reid called the vote from Greg Sargent : Reid concluded that even if Collins was sincere in her promise to vote for repeal if given the four days of debate, there was no way to prevent the proceedings from taking longer, the aide says. Reid decided that the cloture vote, the 30 hours of required post-cloture debate, and procedural tricks mounted by conservative Senators who adamantly oppose repeal would have dragged the process on far longer. ” It would have been much more than four days,” the aide says. “Her suggestions were flat out unworkable given how the Senate really operates. You can talk about four days until the cows come home. That has very little meaning for Coburn and DeMint and others have become very skilled at grinding this place to a halt.” After spending several hours thinking it over today and consulting with other members of the Dem caucus, Reid decided to push forward with the vote today, the aide says.
Continue reading …Sloppy ABC Misleads on Estate Tax Being ‘Slashed’; It Will Actually Increase 35 Percent
December 9, 2010 No Comment
Good Morning America's Jon Karl on Thursday offered misleading, sloppy reporting on a congressional tax deal, bizarrely suggesting that the proposal “slashes” the estate tax. In a follow-up piece, news anchor Juju Chang asserted that many Democrats “are still opposed, especially to the estate tax cut .” In reality, the so-called death tax is currently at zero . Under the deal, it will increase to 35 percent. Karl mangled, ” Even Democratic leaders are fuming, especially unhappy with the provision that slashes the tax on inheritances. ” On the CBS Early Show, news anchor Jeff Glor spun, “One of [the Democrats'] major objections, that proposal to lower estate taxes. ” Again, an increase from zero to 35 percent is not “lowering.” (If no action had been taken the rate would have returned to 55 percent for individuals worth more than $1 million.)
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Although the timing of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s arrest and extradition to Sweden seemed a tad conspicuous, what with the site’s recent big release that angered and embarrassed several powers that be around the globe, Sweden is denying that political pressure played a part in his apprehension. One Jonas Björk, correspondent for TV4, echoed the sentiment expressed by Sweden’s justice department: “I believe the politicians when they say they haven’t had any pressure from abroad,” he said Thursday.
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Previewing yesterday's vote on the DREAM Act, which passed the House 216 to 198, NBC News correspondent George Lewis empathized with supporters of the measure on the December 8 “Nightly News.” Lewis acknowledged the bill's dim prospects for passing the Senate, but stood in awe at the apparent surge in support for the bill: “By the thousands, young people, who as children were brought here illegally by their parents, have been going public in support of the DREAM Act.” The network reporter used interviews with young supporters of the bill to pull on the viewer's heartstrings. “It would be a waste if they graduated from high school and they're not able to pursue higher education because of their legal status,” lamented William Perez, a developmental psychologist at Claremont Graduate University. “We want to contribute back to a society, a society that has been my own,” implored Maria Duque, an illegal immigrant attending Fullerton Community College. read more
Continue reading …Fox News’ Washington managing editor has been caught red-handed. As the health care debate was reaching a high point last year, a leaked e-mail shows Bill Sammon asked his news department to refer to the public option as the “government run option.” Later that evening, Fox News flagship news program, Special Report with Bret Baier , used the very phrase Sammon had requested. The e-mail, obtained by the liberal watchdog Media Matters , indicates that Sammon sent the request after Republican pollster Frank Luntz said that polls show the “government option” was opposed by the public. According to the report at Media Matters, in August of 2009 after Fox News’ Sean Hannity used the term “public option,” Luntz encouraged him to say “government option” instead. “If you call it a ‘public option,’ the American people are split,” Luntz said. “If you call it the ‘government option,’ the public is overwhelmingly against it.” “It’s a great point, and from now on, I’m going to call it the government option,” Hannity replied. Luntz also claimed that the “government option” would be “sponsored by the government.” In fact, the proposed public option bills would have funded the program with the fees paid by those who enrolled in it. Only a day before Sammon sent the e-mail, Brett Baier had referred to the “public option” as well as the “government-run option.” An e-mail titled “friendly reminder: let’s not slip back into calling it the ‘public option’” was sent to Baier and other Fox News reporters the next morning. “Please use the term ‘government-run health insurance’ or, when brevity is a concern, ‘government option,’ whenever possible,” Sammon wrote. “When it is necessary to use the term ‘public option” (which is, after all, firmly ensconced in the nation’s lexicon), use the qualifier ‘so-called,’ as in ‘the so-called public option,’” he continued. “Here’s another way to phrase it: ‘The public option, which is the government-run plan,’” Sammon said. That night, Baier and Fox News reporter Jim Angle followed Sammon’s script. Baier referred to the public option as “government-run health insurance” and “government-run health insurance option.” Angle called the proposed program “a government insurance plan, the so-called public option” and “a government insurance option.” Fox News has repeatedly said that Special Report with Bret Baier is an objective news program. “Fox argues that its news hours — 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. on weekdays — are objective,” The New York Times reported . Other hours of the day feature opinion shows like Glenn Beck and Hannity . “The average consumer certainly knows the difference between the A section of the newspaper and the editorial page,” Michael Clemente, the channel’s senior vice president for news, was quoted as saying. The Daily Beast ‘s Howard Kurtz asked Sammon to comment on the leaked e-mail. “Sammon said in an interview that the term ‘public option’ ‘is a vague, bland, undescriptive phrase,’ and that after all, ‘who would be against a public park?’” Kurtz wrote. “The phrase ‘government-run plan,’ he said, is ‘a more neutral term,’ and was used just last week by a New York Times columnist.” “I have no idea what the Republicans were pushing or not. It’s simply an accurate, fair, objective term,” Sammon said. Prior to becoming Fox News’ Washington managing editor, Sammon was the White House correspondent for The Washington Times where he was often thought of as President George W. Bush’s favorite reporter. “Six-foot-seven inch Bill Sammon–nicknamed ‘Superstretch’ by President Bush–enjoys more access to the commander-in-chief than any other journalist,” Sammon’s bio bragged . “Sammon has spent hours with Bush in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One–even in the President’s sprawling Texas ranch. As Senior White House Correspondent for the Washington Examiner, Bill Sammon travels with Bush wherever he goes and was with him on September 11, when his presidency was utterly transformed by the terrorist attacks.” In October, sources told Media Matters that since joining Fox News, Sammon’s pressure to “distort” and “slant news” had made some in the newsroom uncomfortable. “Since Bill Sammon assumed the role of Washington managing editor and vice president of news at the beginning of the Obama Administration, pressure from Fox management to produce stories that lean toward a conservative agenda, and distort news in some cases, has found its way into coverage, the sources said.” Text of Sammon’s leaked e-mail follows: From: Sammon, Bill Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 8:23 AM To: 054 -FNSunday; 169 -SPECIAL REPORT; 069 -Politics; 030 -Root (FoxNews.Com); 036 -FOX.WHU; 050 -Senior Producers; 051 -Producers Subject: friendly reminder: let’s not slip back into calling it the “public option” 1) Please use the term “government-run health insurance” or, when brevity is a concern, “government option,” whenever possible. 2) When it is necessary to use the term “public option” (which is, after all, firmly ensconced in the nation’s lexicon), use the qualifier “so-called,” as in “the so-called public option.” 3) Here’s another way to phrase it: “The public option, which is the government-run plan.” 4) When newsmakers and sources use the term “public option” in our stories, there’s not a lot we can do about it, since quotes are of course sacrosanct.
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Sorry, Barry, but you may have to amend your GOP-appeasing ways—at least if House Democrats have anything to do with it. President Barack Obama’s tax cut plan raised cries of dismay earlier this week, and on Thursday, House Dems shot it down in a vote. Now, time for round two. —KA ABC News: House Democrats voted Thursday to reject President Barack Obama’s tax deal with Republicans in its current form, but it was unclear how significantly the package might need to be changed. By voice vote in a closed caucus meeting, Democrats passed a resolution saying the tax package should not come to the House floor for consideration as written, even though no formal House bill has been drafted. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., introduced the resolution. Said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas: “If it’s take it or leave it, we’ll leave it.” The vote will at least temporarily stall what had seemed to be a grudging Democratic movement toward the tax package. Read more Related Entries December 9, 2010 Angry House Dems Reject Bush-Obama Tax Cuts December 9, 2010 Every Man His Own Historian
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enlarge Guess what’s waiting in the wings, no matter what? Neither the Obama administration nor the Democrats are doing an honest job of representing us . They’re about to blow up the deficit, and then they’ll rush in next year with an “austerity” plan — you know, the same Catfood Commission plan that couldn’t even get 18 panelists to back it. Shades of the Shock Doctrine — we’re all Irish now! While Vice President Biden and House Democrats met into the evening, White House budget director Jacob Lew and senior Treasury adviser Gene Sperling held an afternoon session to field questions from Senate Democrats, who were more accepting of the package than they were a day earlier in a meeting with Biden, participants said. “Members are more open today as they read the analyses of this package,” said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat. Citing prominent liberals such as John Podesta, head of the Center for American Progress, and Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, who endorsed the White House plan, Durbin said, “These are people that progressives respect and go to, and they’ve said positive things.” Durbin added that “I just loathe” parts of the deal, such as the estate tax. But, he said, “I understand the predicament that we’re in.” Biden faced a far tougher crowd in the House, where a fractious caucus dominated by angry liberals is emerging as the bigger legislative obstacle to the tax plan. During a two-hour meeting, dozens of lawmakers lined up to interrogate the vice president about the deal – almost all of them speaking in opposition, participants said. “There remain very serious reservations on the House side. I think that there’s still a very serious question whether this package can pass in the form it’s in now,” Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) said afterward. Van Hollen represented House Democrats in bipartisan talks about the tax cuts that were rendered moot when the White House began dealing directly with Republican leaders, a slight that rankled nearly as much as Obama’s decision to abandon the long-held Democratic position of opposing tax breaks for the wealthy. Many Democrats, including Rep. James E. Clyburn (S.C.), the third-ranking House leader, emerged from the meeting saying they could not support the package unless major elements were changed, particularly the estate-tax provision. Most Democrats would prefer to renew the tax, which lapsed last year, with a 45 percent rate on estates worth more than $3.5 million for individuals and $7 million for couples. The Obama-GOP deal would impose a 35 percent tax on estates larger that $5 million for individuals and $10 million for couples for the next two years. If that change were made permanent, it would add $100 billion to deficits over the next decade, Democrats said. In a forceful presentation, however, Biden made clear that big changes are not in the cards. “The vice president said, ‘This is the deal. Take it or leave it,’ ” an irritated Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) said, paraphrasing the vice president. Meanwhile, the White House embarked on an aggressive campaign to advance the tax package, issuing a series of announcements touting Democratic endorsements of the legislation. The list included Detroit Major Dave Bing; Michael B. Coleman, the mayor of Columbus, Ohio; Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm; Rep. Chet Edwards (Tex.) and Sens. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and Blanche Lincoln (Ark.). In the Senate, lawmakers said they were warming to the package as they pored over the details of its provisions and reflected on the consequences of inaction: tax increases for virtually every American worker, beginning Jan. 1. One of the first Democrats to sign on to the deal was Sen. James Webb (Va.), who is among 23 Senate Democrats facing reelection in 2012. “The proposal is the ultimate stimulus plan,” Webb said in a statement. “It will put more money directly into the pockets of people and small businesses, allowing that money to be quickly recycled as the economy expands.” Lawmakers in both parties said they would seek to change the package through the amendment process. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said some conservatives are pushing a plan that would cover the cost of another year of jobless benefits – about $56 billion – by cutting spending elsewhere. Meanwhile, a bloc of Democrats was circulating a proposal to add provisions that would trigger a broad deficit-reduction plan next year if the economy improved. You know, I was just thinking that what we needed was the Catfood Commission! Great minds think alike, eh? “There’s a legitimate case to be made for short-term stimulus,” said Sen. Mark Warner (Va.). “But if you don’t create a path to long-term deficit-reduction, you’re just borrowing $900 billion.” But he added that Congress must reach a compromise on the expiring tax cuts before adjourning for Christmas.
Continue reading …Name That Party, Confuse-the-Reader Division: AP Refers to ‘Also a Democrat,’ Never Having ID’d One
December 9, 2010 No Comment
In a 12:35 p.m. story at the Associated Press's main site (pictured here , here , and here for future reference, fair use, and discussion purposes), reporter Jim Fitzgerald covers the conviction of White Plains Mayor Adam Bradley (“Suburban NY mayor convicted of attempted assault”). At Paragraph 12, Fitzgerald writes: Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore, also a Democrat, praised Fumiko Bradley's “courage and credibility.” She said Adam Bradley's position as mayor “demonstrates that we will support victims of domestic violence no matter who the abuser may be.” There's only one problem. No one has been specifically identified as a Democrat in the story up to that point, and it's not at all clear who may or may not be a Democrat: read more
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They’ve successfully targeted MasterCard’s and Visa’s websites, but the coalition of hack-savvy cyber-protesters taking the name Anonymous apparently missed their mark when it came to tripping up monster e-retailer Amazon on Thursday.
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