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I’m no fan of Steny Hoyer and did not want to see him take over leadership for the Dems in the House, but the latest from him is quite encouraging to the upcoming narrative. Greg Sargent: Steny Hoyer, the number two in the House Dem leadership, told Democrats at a caucus meeting this morning that they would get to vote this year on just extending the Bush tax cuts for the middle class, a senior Dem aide tells me, signaling support for a confrontational move towards the GOP that liberals have been pushing. Asked if Democrats would definitely get a chance to hold this vote, the senior aide responded: “Definitely.” Hoyer’s declaration comes as Democrats have been debating the way forward on the Bush tax cuts, and another aide tells me that “more than half” of the Dem caucus supports this course of action. The move indicates that House Dems are growing more resolved to draw a hard line on the Bush tax cuts, forcing Republicans to choose between supporting Obama’s tax plan and opposing a tax cut for the middle class. However, the way forward still remains murky. Even if such a measure were to pass in the House, it’s unclear whether the Senate will agree to such a vote, and the White House has not endorsed the approach. What’s more, the vote could conceivably go down, or alternatively, Republicans might successfully mount a procedural response, known as a “motion to recommit,” that could also force a House vote on the high end cuts. I have not been able to determine how House Dems might respond to such a move. For all these reasons, this House move does not preclude a deal being reached in the end on a temporary extension of all the cuts. And plans could still change: The House Dem leadership has yet to publicly endorse this plan. I expect the Republicans to oppose this and try to say that if the Bush tax cuts do expire like they are supposed to, then it amounts to a tax increase and they will be against it. A deal on these tax cuts could be waged, but this is the kind of response we’ve wanted from Democrats for a long time. Draw a battle line and push. Digby lays odds on how effective the GOP will be able to convince Americans that up is down when it comes to taxes: Michael Steel, a spokesman for John Boehner, emails a response to the news that House Dems are planning to hold a vote just on extending the middle class tax cuts: “The last thing our economy needs right now is a massive tax hike on families and small businesses — and that’s what this plan would mean.” This is classic up-isdownismm, a craft perfected by George W. Bush and one that’s making a big comeback. (I expect to see it put into use on the TeaPartierss as well.) I think Obama should polish up his “hoodwinked and bamboozled” speech and hit this hard before too many people are convinced that the Democrats are voting to raise taxes and all the allegedly liberal gasbags on TV screw it up by blubbering defensively about what constitutes a small business or whether or not someone who makes 250k a year is middle class. (You know they will.) Sadly, I haven’t gotten the idea that Obama particularly wants to have this fight. All polling data has shown that Americans want tax rates to go back to the way they were before Bush took over, so no matter what the GOP response is, they have to fight for messaging. VP Biden is on Morning Joe tomorrow and I hope he’s on board with this message because The Scar will pepper him with the GOP narrative. Don’t wilt now. And I’m no big fan of even having a tax cut argument because it always benefits the conservative frame, but in this case it’s playing the best hand that we have.

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Catching up with the New York Times’s Tea Party beat reporter Kate Zernike at a post-election conference sponsored by the “Bipartisan Policy Center” in New Orleans on November 9, where Zernike claimed she “very consciously tried to come up through the middle” in writing “Boiling Mad,” her book on the Tea Party. Her defense of her own objectivity came nearly an hour into the discussion, aired by C-SPAN .

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Tony Perkins suggests draft will be reinstated if ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is repealed

Click here to view this media The presence of openly serving gays in the military will be so offensive that many Americans will not be willing to serve their country, says one conservative leader who has campaigned against gay rights. The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins predicted Thursday that President Barack Obama will be forced to reinstate the draft if Democrats are successful in repealing the military’s controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy which forces gay, lesbian and trans-gender members to hide their personal lives or face expulsion from the service. “Barack Obama is opposed to the draft as a matter of principle, to be sure,” wrote Perkins in an op-ed for The Daily Caller . “But the president’s drive to repeal the ban on open homosexuality in the military could have this unintended consequence: It could bring back the draft.” Perkins warns service members that if the policy is repealed, “your military family will be confronted again and again with forced acceptance of a lifestyle you regard as immoral.” “Base ‘diversity’ efforts will promote the homosexual lifestyle. Parents of younger children will be hard-pressed to shield their kids from these. Department of Defense Dependent Schools (DoDDS) will be turned into advocacy centers for acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle. We may even see a military ‘czar’ appointed for this purpose,” said Perkins. “All of these undesirable outcomes will cause a sharp reduction in recruitment. We have a top general and admiral who now say, outrageously: If you don’t like it, ‘get out!’ They are asking for an exodus,” he continued. The military is not a red state/blue state institution. It unifies our country. It draws its dedicated members from all regions. Still, it is no secret that the military is a socially conservative institution. It recruits heavily from rural areas in the South, the Midwest, and the Inter-Mountain states. In our larger cities, black and Hispanic recruits are encouraged to consider the military — which has historically been a great ladder of achievement for racial and ethnic minorities. These are the very areas and groups who have been most resistant to the demands of the homosexual lobby. These are the very regions and groups who have rallied to our side whenever we put a defense of marriage initiative on the ballot If these regions and groups do not enlist in our all-volunteer force, President Obama will be driven to the place he does not want to go: the military draft. Like Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Perkins rejects a leaked Pentagon study that says most US troops don’t care whether gays are allowed to serve openly. “[T]his study was directed at how to implement the repeal, not whether the repeal should take place or not,” McCain told NBC’s David Gregory Sunday. “The deeply flawed ‘survey’ of current members of our all-volunteer military should not lull policymakers into a false sense of security. Or, in this instance, a false sense of national security,” Perkins warned. “The survey presumes that homosexuality is like skin color. Well, it’s not. You can easily have a neighbor in military housing of a different race. That presents no problem for your military family. But if the neighbors are a same-sex couple, then your family is affected in a very serious way. You must explain to your children that their beliefs and deeply-held values about marriage, about questions of religious faith, must be suppressed.” As Right Wing Watch points outs , Family Research Council’s own interview with a military recruiter indicates that troops will continue to serve if gays are allowed to serve openly. “I’m sure this thought has come to you and you may have even been asked about it. If someone considering getting into the military were to ask you if this policy changes, what are you going to say to them?” Perkins asked Sergeant First Class Benjamin Ratcliff. “I would tell them to serve anyway,” Ratcliff replied. “If all men of courage and men that had a moral compass were to leave the military, then we wouldn’t have a military. There would be nobody left to serve and protect. So I don’t really — I would serve regardless of what comes out of Washington.”

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Pentagon Calls 2014 Afghanistan Withdrawal ‘Aspirational’

Hamid Karzai and NATO would like Afghan forces to take over the country’s security by 2014, a goal Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell calls “aspirational,” as in “There may very well be the need for forces to remain in-country, albeit, hopefully, at smaller numbers, to assist the Afghans as they assume lead responsibility for the security of their country.” And what about the July, 2011 withdrawal deadline promised by President Obama? Morell explains: I’ve seen some of these stories that have sort of suggested that there is an inherent contradiction between July 2011 and the—and the end of 2014.

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Chasers

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Chasers

By Mike Luckovich Related Entries October 18, 2010 Chris Hedges on ‘The Death of the Liberal Class’ October 6, 2010 White House Categorically Denies Biden-Clinton Swap

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Poultry Pat Down

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Poultry Pat Down

By Mike Luckovich Related Entries October 18, 2010 Chris Hedges on ‘The Death of the Liberal Class’ October 6, 2010 White House Categorically Denies Biden-Clinton Swap

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New York Doesn’t Heart Body Scanners

The backlash against the new mandatory screening regime at airports continues. At least one New York City council member is trying to have body scanners banned from local airports. But does the city have the authority? Says councilman David Greenfield, “if the TSA disagrees with us they can sue us.” Wired: Federal law gives the TSA jurisdiction over airline security, but Greenfield says he believes the city has the authority to prohibit a particular type of screening. “The city owns the airports,” says Greenfield. “They’re operated by the Port Authority…. Hopefully we’ll get the law passed soon, and if the TSA disagrees with us they can sue us.” The TSA had no immediate comment Thursday. Read more Related Entries November 18, 2010 Look Who’s the Decider Now November 18, 2010 GM’s Big Day

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Beyond ‘1984’: New Frontiers of Mass Surveillance

Does the notion of remote-controlled soldiers—the fully human kind—seem only a sci-fi vision or the product of someone’s paranoid imagination? Guess again: There’s a project in the works as the military and big business join forces to make privacy a thing of the past. Related Entries November 18, 2010 GM’s Big Day November 18, 2010 The Warning Cell Phone Makers Keep Hidden

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Look Who’s the Decider Now

By Eugene Robinson Forget the Republicans. It’s the president who sets the agenda, and who ultimately is held accountable for America’s successes and failures. Related Entries November 18, 2010 GM’s Big Day November 18, 2010 The Warning Cell Phone Makers Keep Hidden

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