Click here to view this media Lawrence O’Donnell took a shot at these great “defenders” of marriage, Glenn Beck and Newt Gingrich for going after the Obama administration for their decision not to defend DOMA. Apparently the two of them have a little trouble telling the difference between enforcing a law and defending that law in court. Here’s Beck via Media Matters — Beck Falsely Claims Obama Won’t Enforce Law On DOMA; Adds, “He Has Made Congress Irrelevent” . And TPM has more on Newt — Gingrich: Obama’s DOMA Move Sounds Impeachable To Me : Newt Gingrich knows a thing or two about presidential impeachments. And after the Obama’s administration’s decision on the Defense of Marriage Act, Gingrich says the smell impeachment is in the air once again. Speaking with Newsmax, the former House Speaker and oft-rumored 2012 presidential contender said that the Obama administration’s decision to no longer defend DOMA in federal court is a “a violation” of President Obama’s “Constitutional oath and clearly it is something which cannot be allowed to stand.” The host asked Gingrich “is what Obama’s doing impeachable in your view?” Gingrich: “I think that’s something you get to much later.” Read on… Kudos to Lawrence O’Donnell for this: enlarge Credit: The Last Word O’DONNELL: To Beck’s point that the president really isn’t a friend of marriage, he could have something there. Barack Obama has only had the one marriage. Glenn Beck has had two. Newt Gingrich has had three. So how much of a friend of marriage can Barack Obama really be if he’s only done the marriage thing once?
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Click here to view this media Cable news is obsessed with the Tea Party. It’s not unique to Fox News, either. Chris Matthews did an hour-long special on them. CNN hires them as commentators, despite their ugly daily behavior online. and now Greta Van Susteren has gotten in on the Tea Party gravy train with an hour-long love song to them last night. There are some revealing moments mixed in with the usual nonsense from the likes of Dick Armey and Sarah Palin about how the tea parties are all organic and populist. Humbug and idiocy, that. But two segments in particular are worth watching, both from Utah Senators. Orrin Hatch looks like a deer caught in the headlights. He’s being squeezed hard by the Tea Party and moves farther right with each passing day, but this interview tells me he isn’t very happy about it. It’s interesting to hear him repeat several times in the beginning, middle and end of this segment how he believes most of them are good people who are ‘just fed up’. Here’s the revealer though: They’re good people. You always have the radicals in any organization , but the vast majority of them are honest, decent people who are sick and tired of what’s happening in our country. That disclaimer about radicals in any organization was an interesting one for him to make. I think Hatch knows he’s a goner in 2012 but will hang on as long as possible in the hopes of moving the Republican party back toward reason because he knows the truth: the majority of them are radicals with a few honest and decent angry folks on the fringe edges. Former Senator Robert Bennett is a very interesting man. There’s no question that he was (and is) very frustrated with how the Tea Party swept through the 2010 primaries in Utah leaving him high and dry. Click here to view this media Bennett is clear about his opinion of the tea party and the 2010 midterm elections. He blames Utah’s weird primary system — a convention of Republicos — for his loss last year . He also points out that the midterms resembled European-style elections where voters don’t really care who the candidate is as much as who the party represents. He points out that it worked well for them in the House races, but says Republicans lost the Senate because of them. One of the best moments is when he mentions Dino Rossi’s loss to Patty Murray, noting that while Rossi wasn’t a pure tea party candidate, he had “that odor around him.” I’m not sure I agree with Bennett entirely, but I do think his analysis holds up about the difference between the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House, he says, is more fluid (and I would add, more populist), with people not necessarily even knowing who their Representative is or what they’ve done. The Senate, on the other hand, with the longer terms and higher statewide profiles, tends to be less of a party choice and more of a people choice. He likens the Tea Party to the difference between John Adams and Sam Adams . In response to where he thinks the Tea Party will be in two years: Well, let’s go back in history just a little and this may be too much of an analogy. But as I’ve tried to think about it, I think you know, this is kind of like Sam Adams and John Adams. Sam Adams — I don’t know that he was there at the first Tea Party but he certainly was their spiritual leader. He was THE patriot in Massachusetts that riled everybody up and let’s just take on the British. But when it came to putting the country together and making things work, that’s when they needed John Adams, not Sam Adams. You needed somebody who knew something about government and he became a leader. Right now you’ve got a bunch of Sam Adams. The question is, in the current House and Senate, are we going to get out of this Tea Party movement some John Adams? I’m betting not. How about you? A couple of the commenters on my Fox News lament yesterday referred to it as pure invention, a 24/7 propaganda machine that invents, promotes, and flogs narratives until they’re woven into the fabric of our politics. I consider the Tea Party to be one of those inventions. It was born from intentional strategies, caught fire because people’s anger was stoked and stroked daily on demand, and continues because of PR specialists and news networks willing to treat this group of unruly characters like a legitimate populist grass-roots movement when there is nothing at all organic about it at all. Finally, allow me one moment of snark: Dick Armey’s tanning salon must make a fortune on him. Whatever he pays, it’s too much.
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Click here to view this media Cable news is obsessed with the Tea Party. It’s not unique to Fox News, either. Chris Matthews did an hour-long special on them. CNN hires them as commentators, despite their ugly daily behavior online. and now Greta Van Susteren has gotten in on the Tea Party gravy train with an hour-long love song to them last night. There are some revealing moments mixed in with the usual nonsense from the likes of Dick Armey and Sarah Palin about how the tea parties are all organic and populist. Humbug and idiocy, that. But two segments in particular are worth watching, both from Utah Senators. Orrin Hatch looks like a deer caught in the headlights. He’s being squeezed hard by the Tea Party and moves farther right with each passing day, but this interview tells me he isn’t very happy about it. It’s interesting to hear him repeat several times in the beginning, middle and end of this segment how he believes most of them are good people who are ‘just fed up’. Here’s the revealer though: They’re good people. You always have the radicals in any organization , but the vast majority of them are honest, decent people who are sick and tired of what’s happening in our country. That disclaimer about radicals in any organization was an interesting one for him to make. I think Hatch knows he’s a goner in 2012 but will hang on as long as possible in the hopes of moving the Republican party back toward reason because he knows the truth: the majority of them are radicals with a few honest and decent angry folks on the fringe edges. Former Senator Robert Bennett is a very interesting man. There’s no question that he was (and is) very frustrated with how the Tea Party swept through the 2010 primaries in Utah leaving him high and dry. Click here to view this media Bennett is clear about his opinion of the tea party and the 2010 midterm elections. He blames Utah’s weird primary system — a convention of Republicos — for his loss last year . He also points out that the midterms resembled European-style elections where voters don’t really care who the candidate is as much as who the party represents. He points out that it worked well for them in the House races, but says Republicans lost the Senate because of them. One of the best moments is when he mentions Dino Rossi’s loss to Patty Murray, noting that while Rossi wasn’t a pure tea party candidate, he had “that odor around him.” I’m not sure I agree with Bennett entirely, but I do think his analysis holds up about the difference between the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House, he says, is more fluid (and I would add, more populist), with people not necessarily even knowing who their Representative is or what they’ve done. The Senate, on the other hand, with the longer terms and higher statewide profiles, tends to be less of a party choice and more of a people choice. He likens the Tea Party to the difference between John Adams and Sam Adams . In response to where he thinks the Tea Party will be in two years: Well, let’s go back in history just a little and this may be too much of an analogy. But as I’ve tried to think about it, I think you know, this is kind of like Sam Adams and John Adams. Sam Adams — I don’t know that he was there at the first Tea Party but he certainly was their spiritual leader. He was THE patriot in Massachusetts that riled everybody up and let’s just take on the British. But when it came to putting the country together and making things work, that’s when they needed John Adams, not Sam Adams. You needed somebody who knew something about government and he became a leader. Right now you’ve got a bunch of Sam Adams. The question is, in the current House and Senate, are we going to get out of this Tea Party movement some John Adams? I’m betting not. How about you? A couple of the commenters on my Fox News lament yesterday referred to it as pure invention, a 24/7 propaganda machine that invents, promotes, and flogs narratives until they’re woven into the fabric of our politics. I consider the Tea Party to be one of those inventions. It was born from intentional strategies, caught fire because people’s anger was stoked and stroked daily on demand, and continues because of PR specialists and news networks willing to treat this group of unruly characters like a legitimate populist grass-roots movement when there is nothing at all organic about it at all. Finally, allow me one moment of snark: Dick Armey’s tanning salon must make a fortune on him. Whatever he pays, it’s too much.
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Click here to view this media Cable news is obsessed with the Tea Party. It’s not unique to Fox News, either. Chris Matthews did an hour-long special on them. CNN hires them as commentators, despite their ugly daily behavior online. and now Greta Van Susteren has gotten in on the Tea Party gravy train with an hour-long love song to them last night. There are some revealing moments mixed in with the usual nonsense from the likes of Dick Armey and Sarah Palin about how the tea parties are all organic and populist. Humbug and idiocy, that. But two segments in particular are worth watching, both from Utah Senators. Orrin Hatch looks like a deer caught in the headlights. He’s being squeezed hard by the Tea Party and moves farther right with each passing day, but this interview tells me he isn’t very happy about it. It’s interesting to hear him repeat several times in the beginning, middle and end of this segment how he believes most of them are good people who are ‘just fed up’. Here’s the revealer though: They’re good people. You always have the radicals in any organization , but the vast majority of them are honest, decent people who are sick and tired of what’s happening in our country. That disclaimer about radicals in any organization was an interesting one for him to make. I think Hatch knows he’s a goner in 2012 but will hang on as long as possible in the hopes of moving the Republican party back toward reason because he knows the truth: the majority of them are radicals with a few honest and decent angry folks on the fringe edges. Former Senator Robert Bennett is a very interesting man. There’s no question that he was (and is) very frustrated with how the Tea Party swept through the 2010 primaries in Utah leaving him high and dry. Click here to view this media Bennett is clear about his opinion of the tea party and the 2010 midterm elections. He blames Utah’s weird primary system — a convention of Republicos — for his loss last year . He also points out that the midterms resembled European-style elections where voters don’t really care who the candidate is as much as who the party represents. He points out that it worked well for them in the House races, but says Republicans lost the Senate because of them. One of the best moments is when he mentions Dino Rossi’s loss to Patty Murray, noting that while Rossi wasn’t a pure tea party candidate, he had “that odor around him.” I’m not sure I agree with Bennett entirely, but I do think his analysis holds up about the difference between the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House, he says, is more fluid (and I would add, more populist), with people not necessarily even knowing who their Representative is or what they’ve done. The Senate, on the other hand, with the longer terms and higher statewide profiles, tends to be less of a party choice and more of a people choice. He likens the Tea Party to the difference between John Adams and Sam Adams . In response to where he thinks the Tea Party will be in two years: Well, let’s go back in history just a little and this may be too much of an analogy. But as I’ve tried to think about it, I think you know, this is kind of like Sam Adams and John Adams. Sam Adams — I don’t know that he was there at the first Tea Party but he certainly was their spiritual leader. He was THE patriot in Massachusetts that riled everybody up and let’s just take on the British. But when it came to putting the country together and making things work, that’s when they needed John Adams, not Sam Adams. You needed somebody who knew something about government and he became a leader. Right now you’ve got a bunch of Sam Adams. The question is, in the current House and Senate, are we going to get out of this Tea Party movement some John Adams? I’m betting not. How about you? A couple of the commenters on my Fox News lament yesterday referred to it as pure invention, a 24/7 propaganda machine that invents, promotes, and flogs narratives until they’re woven into the fabric of our politics. I consider the Tea Party to be one of those inventions. It was born from intentional strategies, caught fire because people’s anger was stoked and stroked daily on demand, and continues because of PR specialists and news networks willing to treat this group of unruly characters like a legitimate populist grass-roots movement when there is nothing at all organic about it at all. Finally, allow me one moment of snark: Dick Armey’s tanning salon must make a fortune on him. Whatever he pays, it’s too much.
Continue reading …WI Police Association Asks Governor Not To Close Capitol To Protesters, Requests Members To Sleep There In Solidarity
February 26, 2011 No CommentI have to say, this is pretty freaking cool . I hope the police win this round of political poker: MADISON—Following action by lawmakers to approve a rule change that clears the way for closing down the State Capitol and ejecting the people protesting Governor Walker’s bill to curtail union activity, the head of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association called on the governor today to keep the capitol building open and allow the peaceful protesters to remain. “The law enforcement officers from across the state that have been working at the Capitol and have been very impressed with how peaceful everyone has been,” said WPPA Executive Director Jim Palmer. “As has been reported in the media, the protesters are cleaning up after themselves and have not caused any problems. The fact of that matter is that Wisconsin’s law enforcement community opposes Governor Walker’s effort to eliminate most union activity in this state, and we implore him to not do anything to increase the risk to officers and the public. The costs of providing security can never outweigh those associated with a conflict.” Palmer also announced that, beginning tonight, the WPPA is formally requesting its members from across the state to come to the Capitol to sleep amongst the throngs of other union supporters. “Law enforcement officers know the difference between right and wrong, and Governor Walker’s attempt to eliminate the collective voice of Wisconsin’s devoted public employees is wrong,” continued Palmer. “That is why we have stood with our fellow employees each day and why we will be sleeping among them tonight.” Nobody seems to listen to Gov. Scott Walker these days. Hell, people don’t even want to eat in the same restaurant with him!
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AZ Republican: If You Foreclose On Something, You Should Tell Them Who Owns The Property
February 26, 2011 No Comment
Michele Reagan, AZ Republican legislator. I was shocked when I read this, but when I found out it was sponsored by a Republican legislator who couldn’t get information about who owned her mortgage, it made a lot more sense. After all, Republicans only care about problems when they affect them directly! Anyway, if passed, this will be a real help to Arizona homeowners in foreclosure: Arizona may become the first state to require lenders to prove they have the right to foreclose by providing a complete list of any previous owners of the mortgage , under a bill passed yesterday by its Senate. The legislation, which is headed to the House after being approved 28-2 in the Republican-dominated Senate, would allow foreclosure sales to be voided if lenders that didn’t originate the loan can’t produce the full chain of title. Arizona permits nonjudicial foreclosures, meaning property can be seized from the homeowner without a court order. Lawmakers in states including New York, Oregon and Virginia also have proposed legislation to address concerns among consumer advocates that lenders or mortgage servicers are using incomplete or false paperwork to repossess properties in default. The attorneys general of all 50 states are jointly investigating how the mortgage-servicing industry operates. “If you foreclose on somebody you should have to tell them who owns the property,” Michele Reagan, who sponsored Senate Bill 1259, said in a telephone interview. “People have the right in this country to face their accusers.” The Republican lawmaker is in litigation with her mortgage servicer, which she said won’t identify the owner of the loan .
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