March 21, 2014

Exclusive: Bowles-Simpson icon begrudgingly admits his predictions were wrong

Alan Simpson also tells Salon Type 2 diabetes is "mostly self-induced" -- and insists debt disaster is still ahead

JOSH EIDELSON

In 2010, President Obama elevated ex-Sen. Alan Simpson to center stage in Washington’s budget battles, appointing the Wyoming Republican to co-chair (with Morgan Stanley board member and former Clinton chief of staff Erskine Bowles) his National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Simpson and Bowles’ budget proposal received the support of a majority of the commission, and a passel of pundit plaudits, but failed to secure the supermajority of the commission required to formally advance to Congress.

“It was damn good,” Simpson told Salon, this week, “because it effectively pissed off everyone in America …”

While the Bowles-Simpson plan was embraced by some congressional liberals including Nancy Pelosi (and Obama issued subsequent deficit proposals Ezra Klein called “in almost every category, to the right of Simpson-Bowles”), it was panned by a battery of progressive pundits and economists. Paul Krugman called the plan “tax cuts for the wealthy, tax increases for the middle class,” and charged that it was “basically saying that janitors should be forced to work longer because these days corporate lawyers live to a ripe old age.” Dean Baker slammed the pair for “ignorance of basic economics” and “xenophobic fear-mongering” about China, writing that “the current deficit is a support for the economy, rather than a drain on the economy,” and “the transfer of wealth to China depends entirely on our trade deficit, which is determined by the value of the dollar, not the budget deficit.”

In an interview this week, Salon asked Simpson – now co-chair of the Pete Peterson-backed Fix the Debt — about his past predictions of a supposedly imminent debt crisis, whether it’s fair for the retirement age to go up faster than many Americans’ life expectancy, and why his deficit commission plan would have capped federal revenue. The ex-senator told Salon that the current healthcare system “can’t possibly work,” citing, among other culprits, ”people with diabetes Type 2 — that’s mostly self-induced.” (According to the National Institutes of Health, “Family history and genes play a role in type 2 diabetes,” as well as weight, diet and activity level.) A condensed version of our conversation follows.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/03/21/exclusive_bowles_simpson_icon_begrudgingly_admits_his_predictions_were_wrong/

March 21, 2014

Bye, Fred Phelps! Thanks for everything!

Some are celebrating the Westboro Baptist Church leader's death, but most are showing a kindness that he never did

TRACY CLARK-FLORY

When a man like Fred Phelps dies, you expect some grave-dancing.

Indeed, it began even before the 84-year-old, famed for public protests with signs reading, “God hates fags,” passed away. Upon news of his rapid decline, Brandi Lynn Wallberg, a stay-at-home mom from Wisconsin, started the Facebook page, “Fred Phelps Death Watch,” which as of this writing has more than 3,000 likes. The page is filled with lolcat images featuring the likes of Hitler and what I can only interpret as jokes about his being anally raped in Hell.

In the hours following the announcement of his death, the tone did not soften any. The page displayed an image of Phelps with the all-caps epitaph, “REST IN PISS.” There were photos of a dead Wicked Witch of the West and a Photoshopped image of Phelps being flushed down a toilet. “I’m a little sad,” read a status update. “I hardly think he suffered enough.”

The Satanic Temple has announced that it will attempt a “post-mortem homosexual conversion” on Phelps. Some tweeters were quick to enthusiastically ring the death knell. Auragasmic wrote, “Anyone have an appropriate gifset for celebrating the death of Fred Phelps? I’ve waited so long for this and I’m UNPREPARED.” Another suggested that Phelps “enjoy the continental breakfast” in Hell, followed my a fire emoji.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/03/21/bye_fred_phelps_thanks_for_everything/

March 21, 2014

Men Have Deep Ties To GOP Women's Group Attacking Wendy Davis

DANIEL STRAUSS – MARCH 21, 2014, 10:45 AM EDT

Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis is under attack from a Republican women's advocacy group — with two men with deep ties to the organization.

The men linked to RedState Women, the group that came under fire for attacking equal pay, are former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) chief of staff Mike Toomey and Dave Carney, who the Dallas Morning News describes as a Texas "political guru." Toomey also previously ran Perry's presidential super PAC in 2012.

The two aren't on the board of the group but they have strong ties to the organization. RedState Women's president, Lara Laneri Keel, is a partner at the Texas Lobby Group, where Toomey is the biggest name.

The Dallas Morning News also notes that the biggest beneficiary of RedState Women's work is Attorney General Greg Abbott, the Republican nominee in the gubernatorial race, whose consultant happens to be Dave Carney. The Texas Observer noted that the group has declined to disclose its financial backers, and said that "information wouldn’t be available before this summer’s round of financial reports, some four months away."

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/men-red-state-women-wendy-davis

March 21, 2014

Obama Warns Democrats 'Get Clobbered' In Midterms

CATHERINE THOMPSON – MARCH 21, 2014, 7:03 AM EDT

President Barack Obama sounded the alarm on midterm elections again Thursday, warning that the party's candidates will get "clobbered" in November unless they encourage their constituencies to get out the vote.

“The challenge is that our politics in Washington have become so toxic that people just lose faith,” Obama told Democratic donors at the home of former Miami Heat star Alonzo Mourning, according to a transcript of his remarks. “They say, ‘Y’know what, it doesn’t matter, I’m not that interested, I’m not gonna vote.’ And that’s especially true during the midterms.”

The President said women, blacks and Hispanics are more likely to vote in presidential elections, with positive results for Democrats.

"But in midterms we get clobbered -- either because we don’t think it’s important or we’ve become so discouraged about what’s happening in Washington that we think it’s not worth our while," he said, according to the transcript.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-democrats-clobbered-midterms

March 21, 2014

1 per centers religious fraud: Why Ken Langone is an enemy of the Church

What it really means when Home Depot's co-founder, a self-described Catholic, slams the pope's ministry to the poor

ELIZABETH STOKER

You might remember Ken Langone, billionaire and co-founder of Home Depot, as the remarkably unflinching character who threatened to withdraw donations from the Catholic Church back in 2013 because he was ruffled by Pope Francis’ ministry to the poor. “You get more with honey than with vinegar,” Langone reportedly informed Cardinal Timothy Dolan (meaning “crumbs of my immense fortune” by “more,” “distortions of Christ’s message” by “honey,” and “faithful witness to Scripture” by “vinegar”). Third- and fourth-century heretics lived and died without ever coming up with such a dazzlingly warped view of Christianity, and Langone is at it again, unabashed as ever.

Speaking of populist political appeals to the downtrodden, Langone told Politico this week: “I hope it’s not working. Because if you go back to 1933, with different words, this is what Hitler was saying in Germany. You don’t survive as a society if you encourage and thrive on envy or jealousy.”

Langone is right that political efforts to support the poor resemble Hitler’s regime “with different words” insofar as the words used by the Nazis in support of their reign of terror are not even remotely similar to those used to campaign for minimum wage hikes and universal healthcare. In that regard all political regimes are virtually identical but with “different words.” While it’s always a magical moment when diminishment of Jewish suffering aligns in a perfect storm of ignorance with anti-poor Christianist whining, the quickest way to slice through the nonsense is to have a quick peek at what the persecuted Catholics executed by Hitler’s brutal regime had to say about the support of the poor.

Take, for instance, Alfred Delp, a Jesuit priest and resistance member who was executed by the Nazis in 1945 for his work against Nazi tyranny. Writing in prison, Delp outlined the necessary establishments needed for human flourishing, arguing that “an ‘existence minimum’ consisting of sufficient living space, stable law and order and adequate nourishment, is indispensable. The “socialism of the minimum” is not the last word on the subject but the essential first word, the start. No faith, no education, no government, no science, no art, no wisdom will help humankind if the unfailing certainty of the minimum is lacking …”

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http://www.salon.com/2014/03/21/1_percenters_religious_fraud_why_ken_langone_is_an_enemy_of_the_church/

March 21, 2014

Hillary Woos the Jews

This article is posted in the Hillary Clinton Group

David Freedlander

At a lifetime achievement ceremony, Obama’s former secretary of state defended his policy toward Israel but went also gave verbal support to the Jewish State many have complained her old boss did not.

Dinner at the American Jewish Congress gala at Cipriani in midtown Manhattan was a thick slick of brisket covered in gravy. The cut was nearly as thick as the encomiums delivered from the dais to Hillary Clinton, the recipient of the evening’s lifetime achievement award.

“You have impacted the lives of people on every continent, in every nation,” wrote Leonard Blavatnik, a wealthy Ukrainian industrialist and another honoreem in letter read from the nostrum.

“Thank you Hillary, for reminding me to step forward,” said another honoree, Iranian-born socialite Nazee Moinian.

“Secretary Clinton has been a hero of mine for decades, and I thought how on earth could I do her justice in just a few introductory remarks,” said the actress Julianna Margulies, who, in her introductory remarks, traced Clinton’s lineage to her grandmother and great-aunt, the first two women to graduate from New York University law school.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/20/hillary-woos-the-jews.html

March 21, 2014

The secret to defeating GOP’s restrictive voting laws: Debunk “voter fraud” - By Joe Conason

GOP has discouraged minorities and the poor from voting. Can Bill Clinton's new initiative expose their grift?

JOE CONASON

Growing up in Jim Crow Arkansas, Bill Clinton saw how the state’s dominant political and racial elite maintained power by suppressing the rights of minority voters who threatened its authority — and as a young activist, worked to bring down that illegitimate power structure. So when Clinton says, “There is no greater assault on our core values than the rampant efforts to restrict the right to vote” — as he does in a new video released by the Democratic National Committee — the former president knows of what he speaks.

In the segregationist South of Clinton’s youth, the enemies of the universal franchise were Democrats, but times have changed. Not just below the Mason-Dixon Line but across the country, it is Republicans who have sought to limit ballot access and discourage participation by minorities, the poor, the young and anyone else who might vote for a Democratic candidate.

No doubt this is why, at long last, the Democratic Party has launched a national organizing project, spearheaded by Clinton, to educate voters, demand reforms, and push back against restrictive laws. Returning to his role as the nation’s “explainer-in-chief,” Clinton may be able to draw public attention to the travesty of voter ID requirements and all the other tactics of suppression used by Republicans to shrink the electorate.

His first task is to debunk the claims of “voter fraud,” fabricated by Republican legislators and right-wing media outlets, as the rationale for restrictive laws. Lent a spurious credibility by the legendary abuses of old-time political machines, those claims make voter suppression seem respectable and even virtuous.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/03/20/the_secret_to_defeating_gops_restrictive_voting_laws_debunk_voter_fraud_partner/

March 21, 2014

Anita Hill: Biden Did 'Terrible Job' Running Clarence Thomas Hearings

CAITLIN MACNEAL – MARCH 20, 2014, 6:08 PM EDT

Anita Hill, the woman who accused Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, on Thursday said that as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President Joe Biden did a "terrible job" overseeing Thomas' confirmation hearings in 1991.

Hill said on HuffPost Live that Biden failed to call witnesses and experts to testify who could have shed light on the sexual harassment claims made about Thomas.

“I think he did two things that were a disservice to me, that were a disservice more importantly to the public," Hill said. "There were three women who were ready and waiting and and subpoenaed to be giving testimony about similar behavior that they had experienced or witnessed. He failed to call them."

Watch the interview via HuffPost Live:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/anita-hill-clarence-thomas-biden-hearing

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March 21, 2014

Koch Group Yet Again Fails Fact Check On Obamacare Horror Story

Source: TPM

SAHIL KAPUR – MARCH 20, 2014, 6:00 PM EDT

Americans For Prosperity is struggling to find a way to attack Obamacare that fits the facts.

The Koch-funded conservative activist group is spending millions of dollars on TV ads aimed at undermining the Affordable Care Act and unseating Democratic senators who voted for it in their 2014 reelection fights.

But the ads keep falling flat upon examination of their claims.

One ad features a horror story from Julie Boonstra, a 49-year-old cancer patient who says her plan was canceled by Obamacare and that her new one was too expensive. "If I do not receive my medication, I will die," she says. But as TPM and others reported, it turns out Boonstra would actually save money under Obamacare, although she wouldn't admit it.

-snip-

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/koch-obamacare-ad-politifact-false

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March 21, 2014

Hobby Lobby Wants to Stop Doctors From Talking to Its Employees About Contraception

By Amanda Marcotte

Arguments in front of the Supreme Court start next week in the Hobby Lobby case. Hobby Lobby is suing for a religious exemption from the Department of Health and Human Services mandate requiring that employer-provided health insurance cover contraception. Most of the coverage of the case has focused on Hobby Lobby's objection to the contraception itself and how, if the business prevails, its employees will have to pay out of pocket for things like birth control pills or IUDs. But, as Tara Culp-Ressler at ThinkProgress explained on Wednesday, Hobby Lobby and their co-plaintiff, Conestoga Wood Specialties, are also objecting to insurance plans covering "related education and counseling" for contraception. In other words, these for-profit businesses aren't just asking their female employees to pay for their own contraception, even though they are already paying for their own contraception by paying for their insurance coverage. These companies want to elbow their way into doctor's offices and call the shots on what doctors can and cannot say to Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood employees.

"Essentially, if Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood are successful, they’ll win the right to refuse to extend coverage for doctor’s visits that include discussion about certain forms of contraception, like IUDs or the morning after pill," Culp-Ressler writes. That would probably be something insurance companies could deal with if there was such thing as a specialized doctor's appointment to only discuss contraception. In the real world, however, most women receive their contraception counseling at general gynecological appointments or annual checkups. You go in, get your blood taken, get a Pap smear, get your breasts squeezed, and then your doctor asks what you use for contraception, and you walk out with a prescription in hand. If Hobby Lobby has its way, by merely acknowledging the birth control pill during that appointment, your doctor would render your entire visit ineligible for coverage by your health care plan.

"This isn't something that generally is billed separately from a health care visit," Adam Sonfield, a senior public policy associate for the Guttmacher Institute, explained to me over the phone. "As far as we can tell, the only way to implement this objection would be to say that if your visit is going to be reimbursed by your health care plan, then your doctor can't talk to you about certain topics your employer objects to."

It's unclear if the plaintiffs just haven't considered how unworkable their ask is, or if marginalizing contraception consultation by making it too fraught to be discussed during a standard doctor's appointment is the intention here. Either way, it demonstrates how radically intrusive the demands of these companies are. This isn't just a matter of wanting to "opt out" of paying for a standard service that insurance plans usually cover. This is about giving your employer broad powers to butt into your private business, including micromanaging what you can and cannot discuss with your doctor.

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/03/20/_hobby_lobby_doesn_t_just_want_to_avoid_covering_contraception_it_wants.html?