Rosie O’Donnell Agrees With NB Headline: She and Helen Thomas are ‘Role Models’
March 4, 2011 No Comment
From the Making Mischief Department, NB reader Thomas Stewart sent in a NB link to Rosie O'Donnell's “Ask Ro” feature on Rosie.com. My headline on a February 27 blog post was “Rosie O'Donnell Offers 'Giant Hug' to Helen Thomas: A Summit of Role Models?” When faced with this link, O'Donnell simply answered “yes that is true”. Some think this could mean she was again complimenting Helen as a “role model,” as she did when they met up at CNN. But the question was whether this was a “summit” of role models, meaning both women were stellar human beings.
Continue reading …Rosie O’Donnell Agrees With NB Headline: She and Helen Thomas are ‘Role Models’
March 4, 2011 No CommentFrom the Making Mischief Department, NB reader Thomas Stewart sent in a NB link to Rosie O'Donnell's “Ask Ro” feature on Rosie.com. My headline on a February 27 blog post was “Rosie O'Donnell Offers 'Giant Hug' to Helen Thomas: A Summit of Role Models?” When faced with this link, O'Donnell simply answered “yes that is true”. Some think this could mean she was again complimenting Helen as a “role model,” as she did when they met up at CNN. But the question was whether this was a “summit” of role models, meaning both women were stellar human beings.
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Click here to view this media Crying Boehner now wants millions of Americans to cry along with him, I guess, because he’s proposing serious cutbacks in the lives of the elderly in America. Don’t you love seeing these rich, fat-cat gasbags demanding cuts in programs for the middle and lower classes while Bush’s tax cuts for the rich rain down on them millions of dollars in fool’s gold? The GOP is waging war to create a two-tiered class system in America based solely on cash: the very wealthy and the poor. Good-bye to the middle class and all that. WSJ: House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that he’s determined to offer a budget this spring that curbs Social Security and Medicare, despite the political risks, and that Republicans will try to persuade voters that sacrifices are needed. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Boehner said House Republicans would offer a budget for the next fiscal year that sets goals for bringing the programs’ costs under control. But he acknowledged that Americans aren’t yet ready to embrace far-reaching changes to Social Security and Medicare because they aren’t aware of the magnitude of the financial problems. “People in Washington assume that Americans understand how big the problem is, but most Americans don’t have a clue,” Mr. Boehner said, speaking in his Capitol office. “I think it’s incumbent on us, if we are serious about dealing with the big challenges, that we go out and help Americans understand how big the problem is that faces us.” Cryin’ Boehner followed that up by saying we should raise the retirement age to 70: House Republican Leader John Boehner said in an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review out today that he would back raising the Social Security retirement age to 70 for those who will not retire for another 20 years. The comment – along with Boehner’s statement that the financial reform compromise reached last Friday creates a bill that amounts to “killing an ant with a nuclear weapon” — has drawn the attention of Democrats eager to cast the GOP as uncaring about the problems of average Americans. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee National Press Secretary Ryan Rudominer told Hotsheet in response to the comment that the Republican “blueprint” is to privatize Social Security and Medicare, citing the budget of Representative Paul Ryan (R – Wis.). (Republicans are quick to note that while Ryan’s “blueprint” for the future has advocated such measures, he has not put them forward as the House Republican budget.) Senator Jeff Merkley comes out fighting against the GOP: Senator Jeff Merkley opens fire on the House GOP plan for budget cuts in some of the harshest terms I’ve heard yet: The GOP budget plan will destroy 700,000 jobs. The last thing our nation can afford right now is further job losses. We need to be creating jobs, not destroying jobs. There are common-sense budget cuts that could reduce our deficits without wrecking the economy or attacking working families. We can start by cutting back on the bonus tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires that Republican leaders insisted on just ten weeks ago. We could end tax subsidies for oil companies and save tens of billions of dollars in the process. Republican House Speaker John Boehner summarized his perspective on the Republican budget as follows: if people might lose their jobs, “so be it.” You might think the House Republican leaders would show some humility after their failed agenda turned record surpluses into massive deficits in 2001, or after their policies reduced the wages of working Americans during the modest expansion in the middle of the decade, or after they burned down the economy with unregulated derivatives and predatory mortgage securities in 2008. Apparently not. Their proposals are exactly the same: give massive tax cuts to the wealthiest, shred the safety net, and eliminate investments that would help restore American economic leadership. Will Democrats heed his call? Don’t hold your breath. Merkley tried to lead the important fight to reform filibuster rules back in January, and he was sold out by Democratic leadership , who made a “handshake” agreement with Republicans to quietly abandon their abuse of the filibuster. Now we have this new obstructionist group of eight Republicans who will block every bill they don’t like in the Senate. So much for handshakes. Filibuster reform would have been nice at this point, but I agree with Digby that gridlock is better than letting them cut the heart out of the American people. This is the Teabag faction, of course, which now includes John McCain (who I always knew was a fanatical right wing scumbag at heart)and John Ensign who is under big time pressure. (I expect Orrin Hatch will be joining this group any day now.) Essentially, they are now running the US Senate and any “deals” that happen will have to get past them. Doesn’t that sound grand? So I’m frankly rooting for gridlock at this point. And if that’s what we have, then it’s necessary to use it wisely. Merkley’s speech is a great starting point.
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The left-wing comedian Jon Stewart is at it again after ripping conservative Republicans for going after public sector collective bargaining. Stewart updated the situation in Wisconsin Thursday night on the “Daily Show,” reporting on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker introducing his new budget proposals. “He has put public sector unions on notice, and particularly teachers, that the gravy train is over – even if the gravy is actually lunchroom cafeteria-grade gravy-like rehydrated soy chips,” Stewart spun, painting the comfortable pensions and benefits of Wisconsin public school teachers as dog food compared with infamous Wall Street bonuses. He also shifted the debate – instead of going after public sector unions, conservatives somehow are anti-teacher, according to Stewart's logic.
Continue reading …WaPo Editorial Board: ‘Mischief’ Drives ‘Incendiary’ Va. Law Regulating Abortion
March 4, 2011 No Comment
The editorially-liberal Washington Post is hardly an enemy of government regulation. Except, of course, when it comes to moves to restrict abortion. In Wednesday's paper, the editorial board lamented “Va.'s abortion end run.” “Mischief, not public health, drives the push for new regulation,” griped the subheader. The online edition headline snarked that “Mischief drives change in Virginia abortion rules.” The Post dismissed as unprincipled and slippery the manner with which pro-life state legislators had pushed through a law that would require the Old Dominion's abortion clinics to be regulated like hospitals: PRINCIPLED OPPONENTS of abortion have options to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, including broadening access to contraception, promoting adoption and pushing abstinence-focused education. But Republicans in the Virginia General Assembly – with the help of two anti-abortion Democratic state senators – have taken a different tack. Through the use of legislative gimmickry – an amendment slipped on to a bill unrelated to abortion – they have pushed through a divisive measure that is unlikely to reduce the number of abortions performed in the commonwealth but which may eventually force some of the state's 21 abortion clinics to close – if it survives court challenges.
Continue reading …New Rasmussen poll of Wisconsin is devasting for Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans
March 4, 2011 No CommentRasmussen polls have been seen for many people as the most unreliable since they tend to favor right wing ideology. Nate Silver raised the question of “bias” on their first poll on Wisconsin in February: Rasmussen Poll on Wisconsin Dispute May Be Biased . I don’t know if they got nervous from all the criticism or what, but their newest poll from March 3 on what’s happening in Wisconsin is pretty devastating to Scott Walker and the Tea Party/conservative crowd. Rasmussen Poll: Majority of Wisconsinites Side With Unions On Collective Bargaining A majority of those polled said they sided with the public employee unions rather than Gov. Walker in the showdown that has deadlocked the state government for more than two weeks. And while a plurality favor a plan to make state employees pay more toward their benefit plans — something the unions have already agreed to do — a majority oppose the most contentious proposal put forward by Walker: the elimination of most collective bargaining rights for state employee unions. Just as damning for Walker, a majority also said they sided with the AWOL Senate Democrats, who fled the state to deny the senate the quorum necessary to advance the budget repair bill. Despite Walker’s efforts to paint Senate Democrats as being in dereliction of duty for fleeing the state to stall the budget bill, 52% of respondents in the poll said they were more supportive of the Democrats than Walker, compared to 44% who were more supportive of Walker. — Another key detail — the poll shows younger voters being generally more supportive of unions and collective bargaining rights than those in older demographics. That’s a reversal of what is often assumed to be the case — younger voters tilting liberal on social issues, while older voters lean liberal on the labor issues. For example, 63% of respondents aged 18-39 opposed weakening collective bargaining rights, while 46% of respondents in both the 40-64 year-old and 65+ demographics said the same. That could be a bad omen for the GOP in future elections, especially if they continue to take aim at organized labor — there are similar labor battles heating up in Ohio, Tennessee, Indiana, and elsewhere. Josh Marshall makes an interesting observation about the change in attitude in young people this poll shows: But when you look at this poll the pro-union / anti-union division turns heavily on age too. The younger votes have a far more progressive views on public employees, unions, collective bargaining and so on. That’s not great news in general for Republicans . But for those of us with somewhat longer political memories this is actually pretty different from the way things used to be in the ’80s and ’90s. Back then it was older voters who tended to have more Democratic views on bread and butter economic issues. And it was younger voters who had more libertarian inclinations. — In any case, we’ve seen enough polls at this point to know that Gov. Walker is really getting crushed in the court of public opinion. But it’s this age division — not only cultural and social issues but on economic ones — that really jumps out to me . These polls have been also a rebuke to the Beltway media elite who have been yammering on ad nauseam at the notion that working Americans should be sharing the sacrifice and that they stop whining about not wanting any cuts in their Social Security benefits. When even Rasmussen can’t cook up poll numbers that come down on your side, then as a Republican you have problems, major problems. We’ve got to keep up the fight against these wingnut Governors, state to state, because they will do everything they can to be “scabs” for corporations and work against working-class families.
Continue reading …New Rasmussen poll of Wisconsin is devasting for Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans
March 4, 2011 No CommentRasmussen polls have been seen for many people as the most unreliable since they tend to favor right wing ideology. Nate Silver raised the question of “bias” on their first poll on Wisconsin in February: Rasmussen Poll on Wisconsin Dispute May Be Biased . I don’t know if they got nervous from all the criticism or what, but their newest poll from March 3 on what’s happening in Wisconsin is pretty devastating to Scott Walker and the Tea Party/conservative crowd. Rasmussen Poll: Majority of Wisconsinites Side With Unions On Collective Bargaining A majority of those polled said they sided with the public employee unions rather than Gov. Walker in the showdown that has deadlocked the state government for more than two weeks. And while a plurality favor a plan to make state employees pay more toward their benefit plans — something the unions have already agreed to do — a majority oppose the most contentious proposal put forward by Walker: the elimination of most collective bargaining rights for state employee unions. Just as damning for Walker, a majority also said they sided with the AWOL Senate Democrats, who fled the state to deny the senate the quorum necessary to advance the budget repair bill. Despite Walker’s efforts to paint Senate Democrats as being in dereliction of duty for fleeing the state to stall the budget bill, 52% of respondents in the poll said they were more supportive of the Democrats than Walker, compared to 44% who were more supportive of Walker. — Another key detail — the poll shows younger voters being generally more supportive of unions and collective bargaining rights than those in older demographics. That’s a reversal of what is often assumed to be the case — younger voters tilting liberal on social issues, while older voters lean liberal on the labor issues. For example, 63% of respondents aged 18-39 opposed weakening collective bargaining rights, while 46% of respondents in both the 40-64 year-old and 65+ demographics said the same. That could be a bad omen for the GOP in future elections, especially if they continue to take aim at organized labor — there are similar labor battles heating up in Ohio, Tennessee, Indiana, and elsewhere. Josh Marshall makes an interesting observation about the change in attitude in young people this poll shows: But when you look at this poll the pro-union / anti-union division turns heavily on age too. The younger votes have a far more progressive views on public employees, unions, collective bargaining and so on. That’s not great news in general for Republicans . But for those of us with somewhat longer political memories this is actually pretty different from the way things used to be in the ’80s and ’90s. Back then it was older voters who tended to have more Democratic views on bread and butter economic issues. And it was younger voters who had more libertarian inclinations. — In any case, we’ve seen enough polls at this point to know that Gov. Walker is really getting crushed in the court of public opinion. But it’s this age division — not only cultural and social issues but on economic ones — that really jumps out to me . These polls have been also a rebuke to the Beltway media elite who have been yammering on ad nauseam at the notion that working Americans should be sharing the sacrifice and that they stop whining about not wanting any cuts in their Social Security benefits. When even Rasmussen can’t cook up poll numbers that come down on your side, then as a Republican you have problems, major problems. We’ve got to keep up the fight against these wingnut Governors, state to state, because they will do everything they can to be “scabs” for corporations and work against working-class families.
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enlarge A judge has ordered Wisconsin protesters out of the Capitol overnight, but reaffirmed their right to be in the building during normal hours: MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin judge ordered the removal Thursday night of pro-union protesters who have camped out in the state Capitol for more than two weeks, but he also ruled that the state had violated the public’s free speech and assembly rights by restricting its access to the building. Dane County Circuit Judge John Albert directed authorities to immediately take actions to remove demonstrators who stayed in the Capitol after its normal 6 p.m. closing time. He also ordered the removal of unauthorized materials, such as sleeping bags, air mattresses and the hundreds – perhaps even thousands – of signs that protesters have taped to the Capitol’s walls. Some protesters voluntarily complied with the order to leave. Others did not immediately do so. The demonstrators are upset with Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to eliminate nearly all collective bargaining rights for public employee unions. At times, tens of thousands of people have congregated on the Capitol grounds during the past couple of weeks. About 100 people ignored a 4 p.m. Sunday deadline to leave the building so it could be cleaned, instead sleeping on the floor and occasionally banging drums and chanting. Since Monday, the Department of Administration has restricted public access to the building, generally allowing in more protesters only when an equal number left. Unions challenged the policy in court, leading to Thursday’s night’s interim order. The lawsuit could continue. The decision was a partial victory for protesters, because Albert determined that the policy restricting public access violated constitutional rights and ordered the state to re-open the Capitol with greater public access by 8 a.m. Monday. Although it was not detailed in his written order, the judge issued an oral order in court allowing the administration to institute permitting procedures that limit the times and locations where rallies can be held in the Capitol.
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enlarge A judge has ordered Wisconsin protesters out of the Capitol overnight, but reaffirmed their right to be in the building during normal hours: MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin judge ordered the removal Thursday night of pro-union protesters who have camped out in the state Capitol for more than two weeks, but he also ruled that the state had violated the public’s free speech and assembly rights by restricting its access to the building. Dane County Circuit Judge John Albert directed authorities to immediately take actions to remove demonstrators who stayed in the Capitol after its normal 6 p.m. closing time. He also ordered the removal of unauthorized materials, such as sleeping bags, air mattresses and the hundreds – perhaps even thousands – of signs that protesters have taped to the Capitol’s walls. Some protesters voluntarily complied with the order to leave. Others did not immediately do so. The demonstrators are upset with Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to eliminate nearly all collective bargaining rights for public employee unions. At times, tens of thousands of people have congregated on the Capitol grounds during the past couple of weeks. About 100 people ignored a 4 p.m. Sunday deadline to leave the building so it could be cleaned, instead sleeping on the floor and occasionally banging drums and chanting. Since Monday, the Department of Administration has restricted public access to the building, generally allowing in more protesters only when an equal number left. Unions challenged the policy in court, leading to Thursday’s night’s interim order. The lawsuit could continue. The decision was a partial victory for protesters, because Albert determined that the policy restricting public access violated constitutional rights and ordered the state to re-open the Capitol with greater public access by 8 a.m. Monday. Although it was not detailed in his written order, the judge issued an oral order in court allowing the administration to institute permitting procedures that limit the times and locations where rallies can be held in the Capitol.
Continue reading …Lori Berenson Terror Whitewash ‘Classic [New York] Times Magazine Story,’ Says New Editor
March 4, 2011 No Comment![Lori Berenson Terror Whitewash ‘Classic [New York] Times Magazine Story,’ Says New Editor](https://newsbreakingonline.com/wp-content/themes/transcript/timthumb.php?src=%3Cimg+src%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fnewsbreakingonline.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F03%2F7e7f0c238andgren.png.png%22+%2F%3E&q=90&w=190&h=100&zc=1 "Lori Berenson Terror Whitewash ‘Classic [New York] Times Magazine Story,’ Says New Editor")
Hugo Lindgren, the new New York Times Magazine editor-in-chief, has already left his mark on the paper’s reputation by choosing an embarrassingly sympathetic portrait of convicted terrorist helper Lori Berenson as the cover story for the relaunch of the Sunday magazine. He compounds the error by hailing writer Jennifer Egan’s embrace of radical chic as “in every way a classic Times Magazine story,” in his self-congratulatory “ Editor’s Letter ” that will also appear in Sunday’s upcoming issue. With even less excuse than Egan (the novelist who penned the 8,300-word cover story love letter to Berenson) Lindgren reveals his own lack of basic understanding of the case, showing the convinted collaborator as engaging in naive, youthful political hijinks, rather than knowingly and deceptively helping murderous left-wing terror group Tupac Amaru (abbreviated in Spanish as M.R.T.A.)
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