The Hollywood Liberal

Steele Considered Buying Private Plane
Two knowledgeable sources tell the Daily Caller that RNC chairman Michael Steele “once raised the possibility of using party money to buy a private jet for his travel.”

“While Steele has not purchased a plane, he continues to charter them. According to federal disclosure records, the RNC spent $17,514 on private aircraft in the month of February alone (as well as $12,691 on limousines during the same period). There are no readily identifiable private plane expenses for Democratic National Committee chairman Tim Kaine in the DNC’s last three months of filings.”

Democrats Stable After Health Care Push
“After steering the landmark health-care reform bill through Congress, the Democratic Party’s leaders have emerged mostly unscathed,” according to a new Washington Post poll, “but they have not received a notable boost in approval ratings.”

“Shifts among core constituencies suggest that President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) may have reaped some benefit from the legislation’s passage, but the public’s take on the Democratic Party has not budged, and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-NV)) appears to be losing popularity. None of the central players in passing health-care reform appears to be winning favor with the bill’s opponents.”

Raise Someone Else’s Taxes
A new Quinnipiac poll finds that although 84% of Americans say the middle class will have to make financial sacrifices to reduce the federal budget deficit, more than three quarters of them oppose raising income taxes on the middle class or limiting the growth of Social Security and Medicare.

Did Iraq Just Elect a Mass-Murderer?
The charge that Ayad Allawi committed a heinous crime was widely reported outside the United States, but our media killed it.

The charge that Ayad Allawi committed a heinous crime was widely reported outside the United States, but our media killed it.

The Growing Movement for Publicly Owned Banks
We the people have given away our sovereign money-creating power to private, for-profit lending institutions Some states are moving to take that power back.

We the people have given away our sovereign money-creating power to private, for-profit lending institutions Some states are moving to take that power back.

How Liberalism Almost Killed the Chance for Real, Progressive Change
Without progressivism, liberalism turns the Treasury into an unlimited gift card for whichever private interests are being sponsored.

Without progressivism, liberalism turns the Treasury into an unlimited gift card for whichever private interests are being sponsored.

Obama Packs Debt Commission with Social Security Looters
Obama has filled his new ‘debt commission’ with Wall Street insiders determined to gut Social Security.

Obama has filled his new 'debt commission' with Wall Street insiders determined to gut Social Security.

Do Republicans Really Have a Shot at Crippling Obama’s Health Care Reform with a Constitutional Challenge?
Fourteen state attorney generals are suing the federal government, charging it with a power-grabbing violation of the 10th Amendment. Can it possibly work?

Fourteen state attorney generals are suing the federal government, charging it with a power-grabbing violation of the 10th Amendment. Can it possibly work?

Fox University
Thomas Jefferson stated an essential truth of democracy when he said, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” So what are we to think…


Thomas Jefferson - United States - Democracy - Glenn Beck - Tea Party

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U.S. Green Dreams Pricked By Tough International Realities
I don’t know the figure myself but someone should compute how much of every federal $ committed to non-agricultural, non-nuclear renewable energy sticks inside the U.S. vs. how much leaks out to Germany, China, India, and Scandinavia. The Washington Post’s…


United States - China - Washington Post - Renewable energy - Germany

Rubio Admits Repealing Health Care Isn?t Realistic, But Says GOP Should Campaign On It Anyway
The extreme right-wing of the Republican Party, supported by the Tea Party movement, is pushing to repeal the entire Affordable Care Act. “We are putting the marker down now,” Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) told Tea Party activists last week. “We are going to continue to fight to repeal this thing and we’re filing it tomorrow.” Marco […]

The extreme right-wing of the Republican Party, supported by the Tea Party movement, is pushing to repeal the entire Affordable Care Act. “We are putting the marker down now,” Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) told Tea Party activists last week. “We are going to continue to fight to repeal this thing and we’re filing it tomorrow.”

Marco Rubio, who is running against Gov. Charlie Crist in the Republican primary for Florida’s U.S. Senate seat, has also said that he supports repeal. Last week, he launched a petition on his site, saying that he pledges “to undo this legislation and start over with common sense health care reforms.” He even has a whole page devoted to “Repeal It” on his campaign site.

Today in a debate on Fox News Sunday with Crist, Rubio, however, admitted that the repeal campaign isn’t realistic until Republicans “win a few elections”:

WALLACE: Mr. Rubio, now that the health care reform bill is law, would you, if you go to Washington, work to repeal it? How would you do it given the fact that Barack Obama will still be president and could veto a repeal? […]

RUBIO: I think the first step is to repeal it. We need to win a few elections before we can get there. But we certainly need to start campaigning and talking about it.

Watch it:

Other Republicans have also come out and acknowledged that the repeal movement is little more than political gamesmanship:

– Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ): “Our view is that we should repeal and replace the bill with the solutions that we think actually work. Obviously, the president will not sign a repeal bill that the Congress passes, so that’s more of a symbol. … Barack Obama is president. He would never sign a repeal law. We don’t have the votes to get it passed right now. We’re not going to waste our time on that.”

– Newt Gingrich: “What you have to do is be politically honest. If the Republicans win a majority in the House and Senate next year, they will not be able to repeal the bill. The president would veto it.”

Repealing the entire Affordable Care Act would mean re-instituting denials of coverage based on preexisting conditions and rescinding coverage for millions. Even some Republicans like Rep. Phil Gingrey (GA) have said that they do not want to repeal everything in the bill. Rubio, however, signed a pledge to repeal health care reform before it even became law. “There are no shortage of statements made by Marco stressing his belief that the plan should have been scrapped months ago, and now that it has become law, should be repealed,” said his campaign last week. More on the GOP repeal campaign in The Progress Report.

Transcript:

WALLACE: Mr. Rubio, now that the health care reform bill is law, would you, if you go to Washington, work to repeal it? How would you do it given the fact that Barack Obama will still be president and could veto a repeal? And I want to ask you about an article you wrote last December. Let’s put it up on the screen: “Any solution should ultimately seek to promote a vibrant private market where individuals can buy health insurance the way we buy auto insurance — independent of our employer, with the kind of flexibility and coverage we need, and at affordable prices.

Mr. Rubio, would you move away from an employer-based health insurer system?

RUBIO: Well, it’s not moving away, it’s about providing an alternative to it. Let me first tell you about the bill. There are so many things wrong with the bill, we don’t have enough time —

WALLACE: Talking about the –

RUBIO: In the health care bill. We don’t have enough time to talk about it, whether it’s tricky accounting or other. But here’s the main thing: We can’t afford it. The bill, when the true numbers are applied to it, add to the debt and bring us closer to insolvency as a nation. We have to move away from it.

The solutions are like those outlined in the article you pointed to a moment ago. It’s about allowing individuals to have the same tax benefits that the employers get when they try to buy insurance from the marketplace. It’s about allowing small businesses to pool together to buy insurance coverage, and to do so across state lines. It’s about tort reform. It’s about lawsuit abuse reform to help lower the cost of health insurance. These are the reforms we should be working on.

I think the first step is to repeal it. We need to win a few elections before we can get there. But we certainly need to start campaigning and talking about it.

Afghan corruption: How to follow the money?
Hamed Wardak, the soft-spoken Georgetown University-educated son of an Afghan cabinet minister, has a Defense Department contract worth up to $360 million to transport U.S. military goods through some of the most insecure territory in Afghanistan. But his company has no trucks.

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Health-care overhaul leaves Democrats in stable condition
After steering the landmark health-care reform bill through Congress, the Democratic Party’s leaders have emerged mostly unscathed, according to a new Washington Post poll, but they have not received a notable boost in approval ratings.

Congressman finds political vitriol follows him home to Ohio
Rep. Steve Driehaus spent the first Sunday of his two-week break from Washington this way: He made breakfast for his wife and kids, took his son to his mother’s house and bought the boy a bicycle while his wife and daughters went shopping.

Time for a Nun to Become Pope
Maureen Dowd, New York Times
WASHINGTON Maureen Dowd Yup, we need a Nope. A nun who is pope. The Catholic Church can never recover as long as its Holy Shepherd is seen as a black sheep in the ever-darkening sex abuse scandal. Now we learn the sickening news that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, nicknamed “God’s Rottweiler” when he was the church’s enforcer on matters of faith and sin, ignored repeated warnings and looked away in the case of the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy, a Wisconsin priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys. The church has been tone deaf and dumb on the scandal for so…

Please Don’t Call it ‘State Socialism’
Vin Suprynowicz, LV Review-Journal
The modern Prussian police state was built by Bismarck and others in the 19th century on a Spartan model, giving the central government vastly greater control over the individual than had ever been considered possible before.Bismarck's program centered squarely on insurance programs designed to increase support for the ever larger and more powerful government. The program included health insurance, workman's compensation, disability insurance and old-age retirement pensions, all innovations at the time.Starting with the model of Prussian compulsary schooling, American…

New York is Broke & Broken
Michael Goodwin, New York Post
Last Updated: 6:30 AM, March 28, 2010 Posted: 3:50 AM, March 28, 2010 A decade ago, New York City faced a dramatic rise of children placed in fos ter care. Even more alarming was the kind of family breakdowns that got them there. Nearly 85 percent of children were put in protective homes because their parents, or usually parent, were drug addicts, alcoholics, convicts, or guilty of abuse. The traditional causes, poverty and neglect, accounted for only 15 percent of cases. The findings struck me as a metaphor for our times. We live in an age of unprecedented…

I Can No Longer Stay in the Church
India Knight, Times of London
Vote for your Favourite Beauty ProductsIndia KnightWhere am I?My daughter was baptised into the Roman Catholic faith when she was two months old. She is now six, and should really be gearing up for her first communion. The fact that she isn’t is down to one factor: the parish priest at the local church was suspended, pending investigations into allegations of child abuse.He was eventually cleared of all charges, which was nice for him but didn’t really work for me because I don’t want any of my children left alone with adult men in any context where the words…

Becker Appointment is Reckless

Sunday Talking Heads: March 28, 2010
Health care, Republicans vs Democrats, Roundtables.

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13…  Pop the video open into its own window to better enjoy it (h/t Mano).  The beauty of numbers.

And behold the bobbleheads:

Washington Journal: 7:45am – Frm. Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), Republican Main Street Partnership, President & CEO and Fmr. Rep. Martin Frost (D-TX), Fmr. House Democratic Caucus Chairman.  8:45am – Fmr. Democratic Nat’l Cmte. Chairman Howard Dean (2005-09) & Democracy for America, Founder.  9:20am – Matt Kibbe, FreedomWorks, President & CEO.

ABC’s This Week: Jake Tapper hosts.  Valerie Jarrett.  Then, Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MI) and Gov. Ed Rendell.  Roundtable: George Will, Donna Brazile, Peggy Noonan, Paul Krugman.

Amanpour.

CBS’ Face The Nation: Tim Kaine, DNC Chairman; Sen. Jim DeMint ( R-SC); Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN).

Chris Matthews: Howard Fineman Newsweek; Kelly O’Donnell NBC News; Gloria Borger CNN; Andrew Sullivan The Atlantic.  Topics: Real Health Care Push: Will It Be A Winning Issue for Dems or Republicans?  Elephants in the Room: Are Tea Partiers The Real Republicans Or Party Spoilers?

CNN’s State of the Union: White House adviser David Axelrod.  Then, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD).

Fareed Zakaria – GPS: President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, on the violent drug war wracking that country, sparking civilian death rates that rival Iraq and Afghanistan.  Then, health care with Paul Krugman of Princeton and the New York Times and Robert Samuelson of Newsweek and the Washington Post.

Fox News Sunday: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist v former Florida Speaker of the House Marco Rubio.

NBC’s Meet The Press: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Roundtable: Doris Kearns Goodwin; Jon Meacham; Mike Murphy; Bob Shrum.

Newsmakers: Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate describes how the agency has changed since Hurricane Katrina. He also discusses the function, budget and oversight of FEMA. In 2003 the agency was absorbed into the Dept. of Homeland Security.

Q & A: David Martin, National Security Correspondent for CBS News. He covers the State Department and Pentagon. His stories appear on the CBS Evening News, 60 Minutes, and 48 Hours.

Religion & Ethics: Pilgrimage Through Holy Week.  Catholic Sexual Abuse Scandals.  Juarez Drug Wars. Immigrant Rights Freedom Seder.  Pamela Greenberg, a poet on the Psalms.

60 Minutes: The Case Against Nada Prouty – Former FBI and CIA terrorism fighter Nada Prouty was herself accused of aiding terrorism, but in her first interview, she denies she was anything other than a patriot.  The Russian Is Coming – Mikhail Prokhorov, perhaps Russia’s richest man, discusses his planned purchase of the N.J. Nets basketball team, his vast wealth and the surprisingly unusual way he made most of his money in his first American television interview.  The Sharkman – Anderson Cooper dives unprotected with great white sharks and the South African who’s spent more time up close with the ocean’s most feared predator than anyone else.

To The Contrary: Topics:  1- Women, sexism, and Newsweek 40 years later; 2- The rise in male-on-male sexual harassment charges.  Panelists: Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC); Linda Chavez; Karen Czarnecki; Melinda Henneberger.  Web Exclusive: Taking On Immigration…Again
There’s a new plan in Congress to tackle the immigration issue.

Univision’s Al Punto: Lou Dobbs, Former CNN anchor; Dr. Elmer Huerta, Public Health Expert, Dr. Jane Delgado, president and chief executive officer of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health; Mario Kreutzberger aka Don Francisco, Host of “Sábado Gigante” (Giant Saturday).

Virtually Speaking: James Fallows and Bruce Schneier.

C-SPAN’s Book TV.

FDL Book Salon: Notes from the Cracked Ceiling: Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and What It Will Take for a Woman to Win. “In a probing analysis sure to ignite controversy, acclaimed White House correspondent Anne Kornblut argues that the optimists are blind to formidable obstacles that still stand in the way of any woman who aims for America’s highest political offices.”  Chat with Anne Kornblut and host Nona Willis Aronowitz, 5pm ET.

FDL Movie Night Monday: Yoga, Inc. “Today the spiritual practice of yoga is a competitive, commercialized, mega-industry. Can yoga survive with its good karma intact?”  Watch it online, then chat with Producer/Director/Writer John Philp and host Lisa Derrick, 8pm ET.

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Late Late Night FDL: Springtime For Pluto
Springtime For Pluto. This Walt Disney Studios cartoon was released on June 23, 1944.

Springtime For Pluto.  This Walt Disney Studios cartoon was released on June 23, 1944.

Directed by Charles Nichols.  Animation by George Nicholas, Norman Tate, Marvin Woodward, and Sandy Strother.  Story by Nick George and Eric Gurney.  Layout by Charles Philippi.  Backgrounds by Lenard Kester.  Music by Oliver Wallace.

What’s on your mind?

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Time’s Up for ‘24’
Friday marked a sad day for American exceptionalism. Jack Bauer, the heart-throbby, knows-no-rules lead character in “24,” will no longer appear on TV. Fox announced its decision to cancel the series at the end of its current, eighth season. But fear not, torture fans: Producers are looking to turn “24” into a feature film. —JCL Reuters: The Fox TV network on Friday stopped the clock on its action adventure series “24,” ending one of its most successful dramas as ratings began to slip in its current, eighth season. The final, two-hour program will air on May 24, and in the countdown to that last show, the network will air 11 hours of uninterrupted episodes on Monday nights. “This has been the role of a lifetime, and I will never be able to fully express my appreciation to everyone who made it possible,” the show’s star, Kiefer Sutherland, said in a statement. “Looking ahead to the future, (executive producer) Howard Gordon and I are excited about the opportunity to create the feature film version of ‘24’,” Sutherland added. Read more

Friday marked a sad day for American exceptionalism. Jack Bauer, the heart-throbby, knows-no-rules lead character in “24,” will no longer appear on TV. Fox announced its decision to cancel the series at the end of its current, eighth season. But fear not, torture fans: Producers are looking to turn “24” into a feature film. —JCL

Reuters:

The Fox TV network on Friday stopped the clock on its action adventure series “24,” ending one of its most successful dramas as ratings began to slip in its current, eighth season.

The final, two-hour program will air on May 24, and in the countdown to that last show, the network will air 11 hours of uninterrupted episodes on Monday nights.

“This has been the role of a lifetime, and I will never be able to fully express my appreciation to everyone who made it possible,” the show’s star, Kiefer Sutherland, said in a statement.

“Looking ahead to the future, (executive producer) Howard Gordon and I are excited about the opportunity to create the feature film version of ‘24’,” Sutherland added.

Read more

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