"Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in. When you stumble, keep faith. When you're knocked down, get right back up. And NEVER listen to anyone who says you can't or shouldn't go on." - Hillary Clinton -
To commemorate International Women's Day, Ann Lewis - advisor to the Clintons and the founder of No Limits - has teamed up with a former Republican Congresswoman - Susan Molinari - to pen an article for Politico on the connection between national security and education for girls and women. They start by posing an intriguing question...
What do women fishing, school building and better farming skills have to do with U.S. national security?
Before we get to the answers, I thought we'd hear from Hillary on this subject...
Another dose of schadenfreunde - after all the "we don't need another Clinton in the White House renting out the Lincoln bedroom" crap we had to listen to in the primaries from the self-righteous crowd over at the orange menace, guess what just happened. Obama just replaced his outgoing social secretary with his main campaign fundraiser. You see, the fatcat Democratic donors were complaining about how they didn't have the access they enjoyed during the Clinton years - so Obama obliged them.
...allies and defenders alike see Smoot as a return to a kind of business as usual.
"The appointment reminds us all that this is a position basically created to make sure that big-money people have access to decision makers," said Josh Israel, a staffer at the Center for Public Integrity, which first raised questions about the Lincoln Bedroom sleepovers. "She'll probably be good at it."
The social secretary job combines a variety of roles - party planner, political operative and, in an earlier era, lady-in-waiting to the first lady. In replacing Desiree Rogers with Smoot, Obama traded a close personal friend with an impressive business résumé for a low-profile staffer with long experience at the core function of fundraising: doling out access to political figures in exchange for money.
I'll bet the rent money that the same people who were screaming about those corrupt triangulating Clintons back in the 2008 campaign won't raise a peep about this. The orange menace won't have a single diary about this tacit but nevertheless bald-faced admission that Obama's up to the usual pay-to-play political tricks as everyone else was.
Tell me again, why did people support Obama in the primary? What was the rationale? Hypocrites, every one of them.
You probably know by now about the mass firings of 93 educators at the Central Falls High School of Central Falls Rhode Island. When an agreement between the teachers union and the district superintendent could not be reached regarding longer days and compensation, the educators were all fired. Doesn't that seem like a useful tool for the superintendent. The negotiations were not going her way so off with their heads.
Remember when the big blogs claimed they were not covering single payer because it wasn't on the table, well, why are they still debating a public option that landed in the disposal?
Ok, so daily kos starts out with posting the White House health care "reform" talking points. Fine, it's their blog.
But the post that really jumps the shark is the front page item that drags the public option out of it's cold, deep grave because Kent Conrad didn't completely obliterate it in his recent television appearance on MSNBC's Countdown.
The news out today isn't good - the Patriot Act, complete with unauthorized wiretapping and surveillance provisions, telecom immunity, etc., got renewed for another year when Barack Obama signed it Sunday, the day it was set to expire. Part of the blame is Congress', of course - the 59-member Senate majority is so scared of the filibuster they're afraid to do the right thing. But more importantly, they've learned that they have no White House support for standing up for the Constitution.
I think I'll enjoy a little schadenfreude with my coffee today - let's review the history. Hillary got ripped during the campaign for her 2001 vote when she voted to authorize the Patriot Act, along with everyone else except Russ Feingold. Obama and Edwards, of course, had the luxury of not being in the Senate at the time, so they could say whatever they wanted, and they did. Obama gave a speech on the Senate floor in 2005 highly critical of the core provisions, and threatened a filibuster:
"But soon after the Patriot Act passed, a few years before I ever arrived in the Senate, I began hearing concerns from people of every background and political leaning that this law - the very purpose of which was to protect us - was also threatening to violate our rights and freedoms as Americans. That it didn't just provide law enforcement the powers it needed to keep us safe, but powers it didn't need to invade our privacy without cause or suspicion."
...and then he quietly voted to renew it with minimal changes. Hillary called him on this in a January 2008 debate, and she (and we) got the usual Orange Menace beatdown for daring to question the consistency of The One™. The fig leaf was that he made a great speech before he rolled over and voted to reauthorize it.
Fast forward to 2010, and now that he's president, Obama thinks government wiretapping and surveillance is just dandy. His Justice Department has been working behind the scenes for months to retain all the unconstitutional provisions.
In a September letter to Leahy, assistant attorney general Ronald Weich recommended reauthorization of all three provisions (roving wiretaps, sneak and peek, and the 'lone wolf' provision) on behalf of the Obama administration. Roving wiretaps helps authorities track targets who take measures to thwart FISA surveillance, he stated.
"It has proven an important intelligence-gathering tool in a small but significant subset of FISA electronic surveillance orders," Weich wrote.
Leahy and Feingold and everyone else who have been trying to strike the police state provisions are being told they're on their own, that the fix is in. Kid, it's just not your night. Not only will the extraconstitutional activities continue, but there won't be any oversight of them. Lovely stuff, that.
Firedoglake isn't amused, but I am that Jane farmed this out to someone else to write. Sorry, Jane, but you had your chance. Neither is the ACLU. I guess this is another area, like public option health care, where Obama 2005 and Obama 2010 are completely different models.
Well it looks like Ron Paul (R-TX) - who's been in office for about 10 terms and recently won the straw poll at that gathering of neo con neanderthals (CPAC), is falling prey to the tea bagger movement he helped spawn.
Newt claims the Hill staffers are arrogant, wet behind the ears prats who've never held a "real job" in their lives. Meanwhile, Alegre (now a hill staffer who's worked in the legal profession for over 20 years) is still trying to support her family on one paycheck while her husband continues to look for work in the trades.
And Sen. Bunning (R-KY) has decided to fillibuster the 1 month extension of the unemployment and COBRA benefits granted by last year's stimulus package.
Those benefits run out today and millions of unemployed workers will start to fall off the cliff without this safety net.
If I were a Rethugs, I wouldn't be talking about jobs right now.
Feckin' assholes.
So this is an open thread - what's on your mind this morning?
I was reading along in the New Yorker Magazine bio piece on our favorite economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, and I ran across some revealing information regarding his treatment in the primaries. As you remember, Paul supported Edwards until he dropped out, and then supported Hillary. In his usual painfully honest style, he had some criticisms of Obama's proposals, and The One™ reacted poorly, even putting up a Paul Krugman hit page on his official campaign website. Apparently, the Nobel Prize committee didn't read it, but the Obama campaign was intent on discrediting Paul at the time.
Here's Paul's editor and wife, Robin Wells, talking about the tensions in the primary:
"Paul was getting attacked by people we thought of as on our side," Wells says. "I thought to myself, Well, I knew things were going to change, but this is quick and hard enough to give you whiplash. One of our friends said, 'You'd better be careful, because Obama supporters might put rattlesnakes in your mailbox.' People said, 'Oh, Paul's son works in Hillary's campaign.' " (Krugman has no children.) "People were so upset and angry after Bush, they had taken leave of their senses. They wanted to give themselves over, and they resented people like Paul who said, 'No, don't give yourselves over, think about what's going on.' They wanted to feel that they were being redeemed, and this is what Obama was offering, but he doesn't have the right or the ability to redeem people; that's not appropriate."
I think Ms. Wells nailed it. People wanted to be redeemed. In that political environment, blind obedience was the normative behavior, and critical thinking like Paul Krugman's wasn't welcome.
The question is: what will they do now that Obama turns out not to be the Messiah after all? Paul's getting his groove back; most comments on his blog now are positive when he criticizes The One™.
One other point on the public option: This has been a complete and utter failure of White House leadership. They need to give this effort their support, or they need to kill it by publicly stating their opposition. But they can't simply wait for someone else to make the decision for them, which has been their strategy until now.
* just to be clear, my definition of "going PUMA," is leveling self-evident criticism similar to, or stronger than what the prematurely right 18,000,000 did two years ago. The point, of course, is that new media opinion makers are late to the mainstream, just like corporate media was on FL 2000, conventional terrorism, WMD, OH 2004, 2008 bias....
And just like in corporate media, the Ezras are only taken seriously if they're wrong on the major issues.
Democratic Senators are lining up behind the idea of using the Reconcilliation process to get health care reform through. McConnell says this morning he doesn't think he can block it if Reid grows a spine and goes for it.
Meanwhile the New York Times is telling us the long term unemployed are "the new poor". Folks who lost their jobs a year or two ago have little or no chance of finding work for another couple years. Unemployment benefits will run out soon and Congress is talking about a one-month fix. The jobs bill is being blocked by the Republicans.
Jobless recovery doesn't even begin to describe this economy. Good luck if you're over 45, don't have a college education, or have chronic health problems.
Anyone watching the Sunday morning talkers?
This is an open thread - what's on your mind today?
As a young immigrant who came to the U.S. in the early sixties, I witnessed and heard your voice during the 2008 election that enveloped my whole being with great opportunities to participate in our democratic process.
I heard your much softer voice during your husband's presidency, and now your voice has hit a deeper chord, filled with courage, compassion and humility. The knowledge and experience in your voice resonate, getting stronger as you trek in many villages across many continents and in this great land of ours, assuring the people with real hope and promise.
I am inspired by your resiliency to the many barriers you cross, to the many obstacles from those who have their own agenda; despite the many cultural and religious divide, you remain strong and embraced by those you touch. I hope that you will continue to fight for us, for those who need to hear your voice of wisdom, for those who need your touch of compassion, and for the young people who need to be assured of a better generation.
Be strong, remain standing. The cracked ceiling that you left in 2008, only you can ably break. Do not despair for the hundreds of your nurtured friends and long time colleagues who lost their way. Be happy with the 18 million people and millions more, who are your loyal allies forever, who believe that you are the leader that this country needs.
Today, I am reminded by one of your dearest friend's heartfelt poem in 2008: "You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may tread me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise." --Maya Angelou
Thank you for what you have done in awakening the millions of citizens who came to express that you are the REAL HOPE AND PROMISE FOR AMERICA. Keep going, we eagerly await your return in 2012. Indeed you must rise for us!
God bless you, Chelsea and President Clinton and your lovely mom, Ms. Dorothy.
Loving thoughts,
Normita Fenn, a proud hillaryvillager
San Ramon, CA
This Yahoo article makes clear why Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) is about to retire; he is tired of the partisanship, gridlock, and pointless politicking going on at the expense of the American people.
Bayh blamed the current atmosphere of intense partisanship on the need for Senators to constantly campaign to be reelected to another six-year term. Citing his father, a popular liberal Senator in the '60s and '70s, he noted that "back in the day they used to have the saying: 'You campaign for 2 years and you legislate for 4.' Now you campaign for 6!" He noted that the need for constant fundraising made it nearly impossible to focus on passing legislation.
Great news - after a dismal 2008 partially due to stock losses, the health insurance industry is back to normal. New profitability has been realized by dumping people into Medicaid when they lose their jobs.
Health Insurers Post Record Profits Insurance Firms Rake in Profits as They Cut Patients, Advocacy Group Says
In the midst of a deep economic recession, America's health insurance companies increased their profits by 56 percent in 2009, a year that saw 2.7 million people lose their private coverage.
The nation's five largest for-profit insurers closed 2009 with a combined profit of $12.2 billion, according to a report by the advocacy group Health Care for American Now (HCAN)...
A spokesman for the nation's health insurers said their profits are reasonable and represent only a small part overall increase in health insurance costs.
The HCAN report attributed this year's profits largely to insurers' dropping coverage of 2.7 million people, who then moved onto public insurance plans such as Medicaid.
I have slim hope of anything coming out of the Obama fiasco, except another decade like the one following the 1994 failure. The insurance companies will continue to cherry-pick and maximize profits, and the poor will increasingly be without coverage. And prices of health care will continue to rise 10% a year.
Remember how cautious Hillary was on health care reform - putting the individual mandate up front, and saying it would only be possible in her second term? That's because she wanted it to actually succeed. Without that constraint, proposing a health care reform plan is easy.
