The Hollywood Liberal

162,000 New Jobs Added in March
The Labor Department said Wednesday the jobless rate dropped in 69 percent of metro areas last month from February. The report follows other recent encouraging news about jobs. Employers added 162,000 jobs in March, the government said earlier this month, the most significant gain in three years.

There’s a reason you ignore them
The more simplistic the GOP slogan, the faster you should avoid it.

It’s certainly true that in the last week and a half, the Obama Administration has found itself in a Bush-like situation of having a bad policy decision become a precursor to an actual disaster.

The GOP plays the “long-game” when it comes to disastrous policy positions (or doesn’t depending on your sarcastic perspective), something a Democrat should always keep in mind. From pretending there isn’t global warming to pissing off the nation’s fastest growing ethnic groups you have to add this characteristic to your political calculus.

So how fitting that Republicans at their last convention sent out noted expert on everything Rudy Giuliani to discuss 9-11 offshore drilling. How fitting they adopt noted expert on everything Sarah Palin’s slogans. How fitting that they continue to send out noted expert on everything Newt Gingrich to demand it while a certain off-shore oil platform breaks Joseph Hazelwood’s record for oil spills.

There are reasons, Mr. President, we shouldn’t listen to most Republican talking points.

?

Late Late Night FDL: Something He Can Feel
Aretha Franklin — Something He Can Feel.

Aretha Franklin — Something He Can Feel.

What’s on your mind?

?

Hava Nagila Edition
Noam Chomsky on “the evil scourge of terrorism,” Glenn Greenwald on White House reporters being afraid of the White House, plus: why you can’t be a cop in Papua, Indonesia if you’ve had your penis enlarged. On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies. The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top. David Hockney meets the iPad… David Hockney was in the Boy Scouts (motto: “Be Prepared”), so he points out that in tailoring terms he was ready for the advent of the iPad. Police barred from penis enlargement Forget about getting a job as a police officer in Indonesia’s Papua if you have had your penis enlarged. You won’t get it, according to local media reports citing the Papua police chief. The hidden damage of psychiatric drugs An award-winning science reporter looks at the history of mental illness in America—with disturbing results. The abuse scandals won’t kill the Catholic Church—but it will make it look a whole lot different These are obviously dark days for the Roman Catholic Church. For over a decade, the U.S. church has been assailed by abuse charges and devastated by the resulting litigation. … Will Goldman Sachs prove greed is God? The investment bank’s cult of self-interest is on trial against the whole idea of civilisation – the collective decision by all of us not to screw each other over even if we can. Hava Nagila! White House reporters afraid to criticize the White House I can’t recall reading any sentence quite as illustrative as this one from Politico stating (without any irony) that White House reporters insisted upon anonymity because they’re afraid of angering the White House with their public statements. An Agenda for Graduate Education The prime position of American graduate education is increasingly at risk, and both universities and the government need to renew their commitments to helping students earn advanced degrees, says a report being released today. Libel Case, Prompted by an Academic Book Review, Has Scholars Worried If you’re an author confronted with a negative book review, you have several options. You can write an angry letter to the editor.  … “The Evil Scourge Of Terrorism” The president could not have been more justified when he condemned “the evil scourge of terrorism.” I am quoting Ronald Reagan, who came into office in 1981 declaring that a focus of his foreign policy would be state-directed international terrorism, “the plague of the modern age” and “a return to barbarism in our time,” to sample some of the rhetoric of his administration. …

Noam Chomsky on “the evil scourge of terrorism,” Glenn Greenwald on White House reporters being afraid of the White House, plus: why you can’t be a cop in Papua, Indonesia if you’ve had your penis enlarged.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top.

David Hockney meets the iPad…
David Hockney was in the Boy Scouts (motto: “Be Prepared”), so he points out that in tailoring terms he was ready for the advent of the iPad.

Police barred from penis enlargement
Forget about getting a job as a police officer in Indonesia’s Papua if you have had your penis enlarged. You won’t get it, according to local media reports citing the Papua police chief.

The hidden damage of psychiatric drugs
An award-winning science reporter looks at the history of mental illness in America—with disturbing results.

The abuse scandals won’t kill the Catholic Church—but it will make it look a whole lot different
These are obviously dark days for the Roman Catholic Church. For over a decade, the U.S. church has been assailed by abuse charges and devastated by the resulting litigation. …

Will Goldman Sachs prove greed is God?
The investment bank’s cult of self-interest is on trial against the whole idea of civilisation – the collective decision by all of us not to screw each other over even if we can.

Hava Nagila!

White House reporters afraid to criticize the White House
I can’t recall reading any sentence quite as illustrative as this one from Politico stating (without any irony) that White House reporters insisted upon anonymity because they’re afraid of angering the White House with their public statements.

An Agenda for Graduate Education
The prime position of American graduate education is increasingly at risk, and both universities and the government need to renew their commitments to helping students earn advanced degrees, says a report being released today.

Libel Case, Prompted by an Academic Book Review, Has Scholars Worried
If you’re an author confronted with a negative book review, you have several options. You can write an angry letter to the editor.? …

“The Evil Scourge Of Terrorism”
The president could not have been more justified when he condemned “the evil scourge of terrorism.” I am quoting Ronald Reagan, who came into office in 1981 declaring that a focus of his foreign policy would be state-directed international terrorism, “the plague of the modern age” and “a return to barbarism in our time,” to sample some of the rhetoric of his administration. …

Related Entries

• April 29, 2010 Crist Breaks With the GOP
• April 29, 2010 Hotel Calls Bush ‘Poisoning’ a Stunt

Palin Email Trial: Jury Deliberation Heads To Fourth Day
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Before deliberating a fourth day at the trial of a man charged with hacking Sarah Palin’s e-mail, a federal jury in Knoxville…

BP Oil Spill: Company Loses $25 Billion In Market Value
NEW YORK — BP shares tumbled more than 8 percent Thursday, and the company has lost roughly $25 billion in market value since an offshore…

Hawaii Civil Union Bill Passes Legislature
HONOLULU — Hawaii is a step closer to joining a small group of other states in allowing same-sex civil unions. In a move that still…

Sandy Goodman: Warning to Washington: Hands Off Our Oil Spill
I’ve always been a Democrat. But, faced with the threat of the world’s worst oil spill ever, I’m turning conservative, becoming a small government man….

Quick Fact: Hannity falsely claims former Obama nominee “sees similarities between pregnancy and slavery”

On his April 29 show, Sean Hannity twice falsely claimed that Dawn Johnsen, President Obama’s former nominee to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel before withdrawing her nomination, “sees similarities between pregnancy and slavery.” In fact, in the brief to which Hannity refers, Johnsen compared “forced pregnancy” to involuntary servitude.

Hannity: Johnsen “seems the similarities between pregnancy and slavery.”

During a discussion of Obama’s judicial nominees on the April 29 edition of Fox News’ Hannity, Hannity article:

The Republicans are referring to a 1989 brief in Webster vs. Reproductive Health Services, a case that tested whether states could prohibit abortions in public health institutions. Johnsen was then legal director of the National Abortion Rights Action League, one of 77 organizations to sign the brief.

Footnote 23, part of the brief that Johnsen said in a Senate hearing that she wrote, said the following: “While a woman might choose to bear children gladly and voluntarily, statutes that curtail her abortion choice are disturbingly suggestive of involuntary servitude, prohibited by the Thirteenth Amendment, in that forced pregnancy requires a woman to provide continuous physical service to the fetus in order to further the state’s asserted interest. Indeed, the actual process of delivery demands work of the most intense and physical kind: labor of 12 or more grueling hours of contractions is not uncommon.”

So Johnsen compared “forced pregnancy” — not motherhood — to involuntary servitude.

After we asked the Republican Conference about the claim, staffer Ericka Andersen acknowledged it was wrong. “You are correct that the post was written inaccurately,” she told us in an e-mail. She corrected the post to say Johnsen “equated forced pregnancy with ‘involuntary servitude.’”

Kudos to the conference for acknowledging the error. But we still find the original claim False.

AZ Immigration Bill Writer’s Resume: GOP Activist, Ashcroft Aide, Arpaio Ally
The controversial Arizona immigration bill signed into law last week was written in part by a conservative immigration law expert and Republican activist who’s a former top aide to John Ashcroft, was recently hired by Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and is running for statewide office.

House Passes New Bill Banning RNC ‘Census’ Mailer Once And For All
Moments ago, the House passed a new bill that seeks to ban misleading Census mailers once and for all.

McCain’s Enemy Belligerent Detention Act: Is SCOTUS keeping Richard Fine in jail for a reason?
Well, the U.S. Supreme Court just reviewed attorney Richard Fine’s habeas corpus case and gave it a pass. Poor sweet attorney Fine has been held in the slammer on a bogus contempt-of-court charge for over a year now. Further, he’s being held in the Los Angeles County Central Men’s Jail, one of the violent and […]

Billionaire Jumps Into Florida Senate Race
“Just in case Florida’s Senate race wasn’t interesting enough, Palm Beach billionaire Jeff Greene plans to file papers this morning to enter the contest as a Democrat,” the Palm Beach Post reports.

Adam Smith: “His colorful profile — Mike Tyson was best man at his 2008 wedding, ex-Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss lived in his guest house after prison, and he made many of his millions betting on the housing collapse that killed Florida’s economy — normally would make a candidate like Greene a long shot. But in a race where Democratic frontrunner Kendrick Meek is little known to most voters and Crist non-partisan candidacy means it will be a three-way race, Greene’s ability to saturate Florida TV with commercials could make him a major contender.”