Any day now the Democrats and the White House are going to stand up, bare their teeth, show some backbone, and put an end to this. Yep. Any day now. Just one more slight... or maybe a few more slights... and Democrats are finally going to have had enough, and they're gonna stand up, walk right up to Republicans, poke their finger in the GOP's collective chest, and politely ask Republicans if they might consider toning down a few of the lies, just a bit, maybe in exchange for turning 40% of the health care bill into tax cuts.Aravosis: Sam Stein: Race-Based Protests Directed At Obama Continue To Rise
This is the way you are treated when you don't just show weakness, but ooze it from your pores.
Benen: SOCIAL SECURITY IS A GOVERNMENT PROGRAM...Race-based attacks and criticism of President Obama have been on the rise during the dog days of August. And they're not just happening at health care town hall protests.What's most disturbing is that these people are no longer the wacky fringe. They're the mainstay, the base, of the GOP. A decade ago Republicans had only the religious right's wackiness to deal with. Now they have conspiracy nuts and outright racists regularly representing them at political events, and Republican members of Congress inciting, and embracing, the violent nuts.
A reader sent over a picture of a group of protesters camped outside Rep. Susan Davis's (D-Calif.). "Neighborhood Day" event this past week, brandishing signs calling the president a Black Supremacist and suggesting he's a Nazi disciple.
What's truly shocking is that Republicans are still comparing our president to Hitler, and no one on the left has yet figured out how to capitalize on this. How many times do you think we'd have gotten away with comparing George Bush to Hitler? In fact, the answer is: Zero. MoveOn was perpetually blamed for comparing Bush to Hitler, when in fact MoveOn did nothing of the kind. The Republicans wanted to scare MoveOn, and more importantly, hurt MoveOn's brand among Democrats. And to some degree it worked. And what do Democrats do when Republicans actually, repeatedly, compare our president to Hitler?
[crickets]
For a while, so many conservative activists were convinced that Medicare isn't a government program that Tim Noah was able to start tracking it as a genuine meme. It was indicative of a discourse gone insane -- confused opponents of health care reform were sincerely, literally arguing, "Keep your government hands off my Medicare."Is Social Security next? Consider this anecdote from Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R) town-hall meeting in Lake Elmo, Minn., last night. (via Matt Corley)
At times tempers flared at the forum, with constituents shouting at one another.
LeRoy Schaffer, a St. Francis city council member, dressed in a tuxedo and top hat for the occasion. Shaffer got visibly emotional asking Bachmann about the future of health care and the role of special interests in Washington.
"I'll be danged if I am going to give up my Social Security because of socialism," Schaffer said, before being booed by the crowd.
Well, at least he was booed.
Update: Looks like the Roll Call report didn't include the relevant context. LeRoy Schaffer is actually a supporter of government safety-net programs. He said before the event, "I'm on Social Security and I've got Medicare. I have socialized medicine. I wouldn't give it up for anything in the world."
I suppose he was booed, then, because he's in favor of Social Security?
DougJ: Notes from the fear chamber
Benen: REPLACING THE IRREPLACEABLE...I don’t know how Steve Benen has the stomach to watch this stuff, but I’m grateful for the summaries:
Yesterday was especially astounding. He argued on the air, for example, that President Obama intends to create a “civilian national security force,” which will be similar to Hitler’s SS and Saddam Hussein. Apparently, this has something to do with AmeriCorps, which Beck initially said has a $500 billion budget. (He corrected himself later in the show, though his guest didn’t blink when he originally made the claim.)
Towards the end of the show, after scrawling on a variety of boards and pieces of paper, Beck summarized his key observation. On a chalkboard, Beck had written the words, “Obama,” “Left Internationalist,” “Graft,” “ACORN Style Organizations,” “Revolution,” and “Hidden Agenda.” If you circle some of the first letters of these important words, Beck says, it spells “OLIGARH.” Beck told his viewers there’s only one letter missing. If you’re thinking that letter is “c,” you’re not medicated enough to understand Beck’s show.
The missing letter is “y,” because the word he hoped to spell is “OLIGARHY.”
I thought it might amuse you to read some of this transcript from Mark Halperin’s appearance on Beck’s old HLN show in 2006:
MARK HALPERIN, AUTHOR, “WAY TO WIN”: Glenn, first of all, mega dittos. Just need you to know, I`m not doing this segment on my meds, so watch out.
[....]
HALPERIN: No. Glenn, you and I are in what we call rare agreement. And I think the important thing, when somebody like Michael J. Fox offers to make an ad or asks to make an ad, or Cindy Sheehan says I want to go down to Crawford, Texas, they better have somebody in there like telling them, “You`re entering the arena. Strap on the armor.” Because our politics is tougher today than it`s ever been. And people have to be challenged on their ideas.
People have to be challenged on their ideas.
Bring on the apocalypse.
On CNN yesterday afternoon, reflecting on Ted Kennedy's legacy as one of the giants of the U.S. Senate, Wolf Blitzer pondered who might someday emerge as a legislative leader with Kennedy's stature and success."A lot of people think it might be someone else who sought the presidency, lost and decided, 'You know what, my life's work will now be a senator' and that is Senator McCain, who has been a very good friend to Senator Kennedy," Blitzer said. "We'll see if that becomes the passion that became the passion of Senator Kennedy after he lost to Jimmy Carter in that Democratic presidential nomination back in 1980."
What's more, as Faiz Shakir noted, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Cynthia Tucker also argued yesterday, "John McCain could be the Senate's new Ted Kennedy." Tucker said McCain, since last year's election, "has bowed to the harsh nihilism that seems to be all that Republicans represent these days," but said "McCain's reputation for a principled bipartisanship was intact" last year.
I guess I was watching a different presidential campaign last year. As I recall, McCain spent the year lying, flip-flopping, running cheap and ugly ads, and choosing a crazy person as his running mate.
But in some ways, that these observations are even being made tells an important story. The political media establishment has long adored McCain. Many wondered, after McCain's offensive conduct on the campaign trail last year, whether that same political media establishment would welcome him back with open arms once the presidential race ended. The answer now seems obvious. McCain hasn't done anything to earn their love, but that apparently doesn't matter.
As for the comparison itself, Kennedy was among the most accomplished lawmakers in the history of the United States Senate. McCain has an impressive personal background, but very few accomplishments to his name. Kennedy was principled, brilliant, and knowledgeable. McCain is inconsistent, easily confused, and has no patience for details. Kennedy was widely admired and respected by those who worked with him. McCain is known for screaming at his colleagues, even Republicans, who dare to disagree with him.
We knew Ted Kennedy. Ted Kennedy was a friend of ours. John McCain is no Ted Kennedy.
Benen says: * Greg Sargent keeps making Stephen Hayes look foolish. Hayes, for reasons I don't understand, keeps coming back for more, and Greg keeps making Hayes look worse.
- Sargent: Dick Cheney’s Stunt Double Does Another Pratfall
Stephen Hayes, dutiful chronicler of Dick Cheney’s greatness, has now twice attacked yours truly for describing the enhanced interrogation techniques as “Bush/Cheney torture policies.”
Hayes asks: “Why call the EITs `Bush/Cheney torture policies’ when they were conceived and executed by senior CIA officals?” Uh, Stephen? Here’s how Cheney described EITs in the statement from him that you posted:
The activities of the CIA in carrying out the policies of the Bush Administration were directly responsible for defeating all efforts by al Qaeda to launch further mass casualty attacks against the United States.
D’oh! Separately, Hayes now thinks he’s caught me in a big screw-up, and he’s stamping his feet for a correction. He points to my post accusing him of cherrypicking a passage in the 2004 CIA I.G. report while omitting that it said “it is difficult to identify why exactly” a key detainee volunteered more info. He says he addressed that in a previous post.
Uh, Stephen? My point was that you cherrypicked from the report in the same post that accused me of cherrypicking. Dude, come on, this is reading comprehension 101. On the substance of this, Hayes is pushing many of his chips onto this passage from the report:
Because of the litany of techniques used by different interrogators over a relatively short period of time, it is difficult to identify why exactly al Nashiri became more willing to provide information. However, following the use of EITs, he provided information about his most current operational planning and [redacted] as opposed to the historical information he provided before the use of EITs.
Hayes claims that this proves EITs were effective. But for God’s sake, the report’s chapter assessing torture’s “effectiveness” just doesn’t explain whether the “litany of techniques used” were only EITs. And it doesn’t say what specific life-saving information was produced specifically by EITs, if any.
I don’t know how to make this clearer. Cheney didn’t merely say torture was vaguely “effective.” He said these reports would put to rest the question of whether torture saved many, many lives. The following sources have now concluded that the reports don’t prove what Cheney claimed: The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC News, Newsweek, former Bush terror adviser Frances Townsend, and…the author of the I.G. report himself!
Is there anything that can persuade Hayes to tilt his lance in the direction of those sources, rather than at this poor, beseiged blog? Please make it stop…
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AP: Obama earns early praise for Katrina efforts
As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama pledged to right the wrongs he said bogged down efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. Seven months into the job, he's earning high praise from some unlikely places.
Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La., says Obama's team has brought a more practical and flexible approach. Many local officials offer similar reviews. Even Doug O'Dell, former President George W. Bush's recovery coordinator, says the Obama administration's "new vision" appears to be turning things around.
Not too long ago, Jindal said in a telephone interview, Louisiana governors didn't have "very many positive things" to say about the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
But Jindal said he had a lot of respect for the current FEMA chief, Craig Fugate, and his team. "There is a sense of momentum and a desire to get things done," the governor said.
Added O'Dell: "I think the results are self-evident."
The retired Marine general served what he calls a frustrating stint as Bush's recovery coordinator last year. "What people have said to me is that for whatever reason, problems that were insurmountable under previous leadership are getting resolved quickly," O'Dell said.
"And I really hate to say that because (the top FEMA leaders) in my time there were good, hardworking, earnest men, but they were also the victims of their own bureaucracy."
It's not that Obama has miraculously mended the Gulf Coast since Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005. The storm killed more than 1,600 people in Louisiana and Mississippi and caused more than $40 billion in property damage. Hurricane Rita followed nearly a month later, with billions of dollars in additional damage and at least 11 more deaths.
On the fourth anniversary of Katrina, many communities remain broken, littered with boarded-up houses and overgrown vacant lots. Hundreds of projects — including critical needs such as sewer lines, fire stations and a hospital — are entangled in the bureaucracy or federal-local disputes over who should pick up the tab.
Like Bush, Obama has critics who say he's not moving aggressively enough.
Chris Kromm, director of the Institute for Southern Studies, an advocacy group, said the coast is "still waiting for Washington to show leadership."
In many areas, such as long-term coastal rehabilitation and rebuilding levees, it's too early to determine whether Obama will live up to the many promises he made.
But on several fronts, there is evidence of progress.
Victor Ukpolo, chancellor of Southern University at New Orleans, said the administration has been able to "move mountains" for his school, virtually wiped out by Katrina and the breached levees.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has visited the campus twice and awarded $32 million to replace four buildings."It's really awesome," Ukpolo said. "There's been so much progress."
Tommy Longo, mayor of Waveland, Miss., said it got so bad toward the end of Bush's tenure that "you almost couldn't get them to return a phone call, and you certainly weren't going to get them to make any big decisions."
"It has been refreshing to be back working with people who are hungry and want to make a difference," said Longo, a Democrat. "Who knows, a few years from now, at the end of Obama's term it may be back to the same ol', same ol', but it is refreshing now."
Obama backed up his pledge to name an experienced FEMA administrator by appointing Fugate, a career emergency management professional from Florida. By contrast, Bush's director was Michael Brown, a lawyer who worked at the International Arabian Horse Association. He resigned after Katrina.
In half a year, Obama's team says it has cleared at least 75 projects that were in dispute, including libraries, schools and university buildings. The administration has relied on a new, independent arbitration panel, and assigned senior advisers to focus on the rebuilding.
The administration recently reversed a FEMA rule that barred communities from building fire stations and other critical projects in vulnerable areas. Local officials said the rule could have effectively killed off some places.
The Bush administration's flat-footed response to Katrina left a lasting stain on Bush's legacy, and the sluggish pace of the long-term recovery has drawn continued criticism.
Local officials and civic leaders long have complained about the changing cast of FEMA representatives who review project worksheets and demand repeated inspections or additional paperwork. In some cases, agency workers have subtracted costs that local officials thought were settled.
Along with battling red tape, community officials say FEMA often stubbornly refused to pay for work that should have qualified for federal aid.
Under Bush, FEMA frequently argued that local governments viewed the storms as a chance to get rundown buildings replaced with federal dollars. Delays also were blamed on disarray at the local and state levels, with some projects stalled until local officials could decide their own priorities or provide documentation to make their case.
Critics countered that some Bush officials seemed more concerned with preventing fraud than getting people back on their feet.
Jindal and Paul Rainwater, the governor's recovery coordinator who once stormed out of a meeting with Bush officials in frustration, said plenty of headaches remain. Overall, Jindal gives the Obama administration an "incomplete" because there is so much still to do. A glaring example is the shuttered, 20-story Charity Hospital, which served New Orleans' poor and uninsured. The state claims it is owed nearly $500 million to replace it.
Despite high-level pleas, FEMA has denied the claim under both administrations, saying Charity wasn't properly guarded against further decay after the storm. The agency has offered $150 million, the most it says it can do. The Obama administration rejected a request to replace the hospital using economic stimulus money.
Jindal and Rainwater said the previous administration often wouldn't recognize new information or acknowledge there were real disputes. Sometimes, Rainwater said, Bush officials seemed blind to the devastation around them and said they had to be good stewards of public money.
"They never recognized the enormity of what we're working through," Rainwater said. "We're not just trying to rebuild buildings here but entire communities."
"That's the difference" under Obama, Rainwater said. "It's the recognition. ... We're all able to sit down around the table."
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32585146/ns/politics-white_house/
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